After more mystery objects shot down, classified China briefing called

WASHINGTON – Three unidentified flying objects shot down from North American airspace could turn out to be balloons used for research or commercial purposes that posed no direct threat to the U.S., a White House spokesman said Tuesday.

“Given what we've been able to ascertain thus far, the intelligence community is considering as a leading explanation that these could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose,” said spokesman John Kirby.

No one has come forward to claim responsibility. And there are still a number of unanswered questions.

But Kirby said the U.S. hasn’t seen any indication that points directly to the objects being part of China’s spy balloon program, even though they were shot down about a week after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast. He said the Pentagon has ruled out the possibility that the objects were from the U.S. government.

Complicating the search for more details, the U.S. has not yet retrieved debris from the objects shot down over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory and in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron because each is in remote areas with difficult conditions and two are in bodies of water.

"We’ll get them eventually but it’s going to take some time," Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Tuesday in Brussels.

Some remnants of the Chinese spy balloon have been retrieved from about 50 feet of ocean off the coast of South Carolina. The object shot down Sunday over Lake Huron is in hundreds of feet of water, he said.

One missile fired at that object missed its mark and landed harmlessly, according to Milley.

Senators briefed on the incidents Tuesday said the threat level from the unidentified objects is low.

But Republicans say the American people need to hear that from President Joe Biden.

"I mean, my phone is ringing off the wall, and we've got a president of the United States that's not saying anything," Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said after the briefing. "Get out there and tell the people we're in good shape, we know what's going on, and let's go on with life."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Biden administration is being "very careful and very thoughtful." Some of the information can't be made public because it is classified or "on the edge of classified, and it's difficult," he said.

Multiple senators and Kirby confirmed Tuesday that officials haven't been able to retrieve data from the last three objects that were shot down.

Idaho Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said at least one of the three objects had a payload.

More:How many spy balloons have been spotted? Questions mount after flying objects shot down

What senators are saying about the spy balloons

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley said they didn't learn much in the briefing.

"I get the feeling they don't really know what in the world is going on," Hawley said.

Biden should be addressing the nation and "laying out what they know," said Hawley, who expressed frustration that nobody from White House administration was in the briefing.

Schumer said some of his Republican colleagues are being "premature" and "very political" in their views.

Other Republicans, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had a measured tone Tuesday.

Murkowski said she was "angry" last week about an incursion in American airspace, especially because her home state is the first line of defense to foreign adversaries China and Russia.

On Tuesday morning, she said she still has questions, but some may not be answered until data is retrieved.

"It's pretty tough conditions up north right now, and they're looking for a needle in a haystack – but it's probably worse. It's about 50 below up there right now," she said of the temperature in Alaska and over the border in the Canadian Yukon.

When asked if he approved of the Biden administration's decisions, Tillis said, "I think so" and expressed confidence that data retrieval from the spy balloon shot down over South Carolina would produce "very valuable information."

"I think they've done a good job of getting our situational awareness to where it is today and we had no situational awareness a month ago," he said after the briefing.

Congress has called for swift action from Biden, including fellow Democrats saying they want transparency and consequences for spying. Biden, meanwhile, is threading a delicate balance of trying to show strong leadership and strong diplomacy with a foreign adversary.

Kirby said Monday the administration is being "as transparent as we can be." He said Biden has directed his team to properly consult and brief members of Congress and state leaders. "We're also doing what we can in the public sphere."

How many spy balloons have been spotted and shot down?

At least one spy balloon and three unidentified flying objects have been detected and shot down:

A suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon was shot down six miles off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4.

A flying object was shot down Friday near Deadhorse, Alaska.

Another flying object was shot down Saturday in Canada's Yukon.

A fourth flying object was shot down Sunday about 15 nautical miles off shore in Lake Huron, likely landing in Canadian waters.

Why weren't the spy balloons spotted sooner?

Senators – and House members – have questioned why suspected Chinese spy balloons were in U.S. airspace during the Trump administration but weren't spotted until the Biden administration was in office.

U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, did not identify at least four Chinese balloons that entered U.S. airspace through Florida, Hawaii and Texas.

VanHerck, the NORAD commander, said not detecting those threats is "a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out."

Some Republican senators said Tuesday morning that gap is unacceptable.

"This has been going on for years," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. "We don't really know what they are. We don't even know if we'd caught all of them."

Senators will get another classified briefing Wednesday afternoon on overall threats from China.

Contributing: Maureen Groppe and Joey Garrison

Candy Woodall is a Congress reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at cwoodall@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.

Fact check: 20 false and misleading claims Trump made in his ...

Washington CNN —

Former President Donald Trump began his 2024 presidential campaign just as he ended his presidency in 2021: with a whole lot of inaccuracy.

Like many of Trump’s speeches as president, his announcement speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Tuesday was filled with false claims about a variety of topics – from his record in office to his Democratic opponents to the economy, the environment and foreign policy.

Here is a fact check of 20 false or misleading things he said. This is not a comprehensive list.

Afghanistan withdrawal

Trump claimed Tuesday evening that the US left $85 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan upon its military withdrawal in 2021.

“Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country, where we lost lives, left Americans behind and surrendered $85 billion worth of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world,” Trump said.

Facts First: Trump’s figure is false. While a significant quantity of military equipment that had been provided by the US to Afghan government forces was indeed abandoned to the Taliban upon the US withdrawal, the Defense Department has estimated that this equipment had been worth about $7.1 billion — a chunk of about $18.6 billion worth of equipment provided to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021. And some of the equipment left behind was rendered inoperable before US forces withdrew.

There is not any basis for Trump’s claim that $85 billion worth of equipment was left behind. As other fact-checkers have previously explained, that was a rounded-up figure (it’s closer to $83 billion) for the total amount of money Congress has appropriated during the war to a fund supporting the Afghan security forces. Only part of this funding was for equipment.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Trump claimed his administration “filled up” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but it has now been “virtually drained” by the Biden administration.

Facts First: Both parts of Trump’s claim are false. He didn’t fill up the reserve, and the reserve is not “virtually drained.”

Though Trump has repeatedly boasted of supposedly having filled up the reserve, it actually contained fewer barrels of crude when he left office in early 2021 than when he took office in 2017. That’s not all because of him – the law requires some mandatory sales from the reserve for budget reasons, and Democrats in Congress blocked the funding needed to execute Trump’s 2020 directive to buy tens of millions more barrels and fill the reserve to its maximum capacity – but nonetheless, it didn’t get filled.

As CNN’s Matt Egan and Phil Mattingly reported in mid-October, the US reserve remains the largest in the world even though it was at a 38-year low after President Joe Biden released a major chunk of it to help keep oil prices down in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and, coincidentally or not, prior to the midterm elections). The reserve had more than 396 million barrels of crude oil as of the week ending November 4.

Tariffs on China

Trump also boasted about his tariffs on China, claiming that “no president had ever sought or received $1 for our country from China until I came along.”

Facts First: As we have written repeatedly, it’s not true that no president before Trump had generated any revenue through tariffs on goods from China. In reality, the US has had tariffs on China for more than two centuries, and FactCheck.org reported in 2019 that the US generated an “average of $12.3 billion in custom duties a year from 2007 to 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission DataWeb.”

Also, American importers, not Chinese exporters, make the actual tariff payments – and study after study during Trump’s presidency found that Americans were bearing the cost of the tariffs.

Sea level rise

Trump claimed that unnamed people aren’t talking about the threat of nuclear weapons because they are obsessed with environmental issues, which he said, “they say may affect us in 300 years.” He added, “They say the ocean will rise 1/8 of an inch over the next 200 to 300 years. But don’t worry about nuclear weapons that can take out entire countries with one shot.”

Facts First: Trump’s claims are false – even if you ignore the absurd contention that people aren’t paying attention to nuclear threats because they’re focused on the environment. Sea levels are expected to rise much faster than Trump said. The US government’s National Ocean Service said on its website that “sea level along the U.S. coastline is projected to rise, on average, 10 - 12 inches (0.25 - 0.30 meters) in the next 30 years (2020 - 2050), which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years (1920 - 2020).”

And though Trump didn’t use the words “climate change” in this claim, he strongly suggested that people say climate change may only affect us in 300 years. That is grossly inaccurate; it is affecting the US today. The Department of Defense said in a 2021 report: “Increasing temperatures; changing precipitation patterns; and more frequent, intense, and unpredictable extreme weather conditions caused by climate change are exacerbating existing risks and creating new security challenges for U.S. interests.”

Drug use and punishment in China

Trump claimed that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had told him that China has no “drug problem” at all because of its harsh treatment of drug traffickers. Trump then repeated the claim himself, saying, “if you get caught dealing drugs in China you have an immediate and quick trial, and by the end of the day, you are executed. That’s a terrible thing, but they have no drug problem.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim is not true, just as it was when he made similar claims as president. Joe Amon, director of global health at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health, said that “yes, China has a drug problem” and that “China, like the US, has a large number of people who use (a wide range of) drugs.” The Chinese government has itself reported that “there were 1.49 million registered drug users nationwide” as of the end of 2021; in the past, officials in China have acknowledged that the number of registered drug users are a significant undercount of actual drug use there.

And while Trump solely credits harsh punishments for what he claims is China’s success in handling drugs, the Chinese government also touts its rehabilitation, education and anti-poverty efforts.

Presidential records

Complaining about how he is under criminal investigation for taking presidential documents to his Florida home and resort, Trump repeated a debunked claim about former President Barack Obama’s handling of presidential documents.

“Obama took a lot of things with him,” Trump said.

Facts First: This is false – as the National Archives and Records Administration pointed out in August when Trump previously made this claim. Though Trump claimed that Obama had taken millions of records to Chicago, NARA explained in a public statement that it had itself taken these records to a NARA-managed facility in the Chicago area – which is near where Obama’s presidential library will be located. It said that, as per federal law, “former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”

NARA has also debunked Trump’s recent claims about various other presidents having supposedly taken documents to their own home states; in those cases, too, it was NARA that moved the documents, not the former presidents. It is standard for NARA to set up temporary facilities near where former presidents’ permanent libraries will eventually be located.

Gas prices

As he has on other occasions during Biden’s tenure, Trump used misleading figures when discussing the price of gas. He said: “We were $1.87 a gallon for gasoline, and now it’s sitting five, six, seven and even eight dollars, and it’s gonna go really bad.”

Facts First: This is so misleading that we’re classifying it as inaccurate. While the price of a gallon of regular gas did briefly fall to $1.87 (and lower) during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the national average for regular gas on Trump’s last day in office, January 20, 2021, was much higher than that – $2.393 per gallon, according to data provided to CNN by the American Automobile Association. And while there are some remote gas stations where prices are always much higher than the national average, the national average Tuesday is $3.759, per AAA data, not $5, $6, $7 or $8. California, the state with the highest prices as usual, has an average of $5.423.

Deportations under Obama

Trump claimed Tuesday evening that his administration, unlike Obama’s administration, had convinced countries like Guatemala and Honduras to take back their gang members that had come to America.

“The worst gangs are MS-13. And under the Barack Hussein Obama administration, they were unable to take them out. Because their countries where they came from wouldn’t take them,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago.

Facts First: It’s not true that, as a rule, Guatemala and Honduras wouldn’t take back their citizens during Obama’s administration, though there were some individual exceptions.

In 2016, just prior to Trump’s presidency, neither Guatemala nor Honduras was on the list of countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) considered “recalcitrant,” or uncooperative, in accepting the return of their nationals.

For the 2016 fiscal year, Obama’s last full fiscal year in office, ICE reported Guatemala and Honduras ranked second and third, behind only Mexico, in terms of the country of citizenship of people being removed from the US. You can read a longer fact check, from 2019, here.

Missile landing in Poland

Trump claimed Tuesday that a missile that was “sent in probably by Russia” landed 50 miles into Poland. “People are going absolutely wild and crazy and they’re not happy,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago.

Facts First: This claim is false. While Poland said a Russian-made missile did land in their territory Tuesday, killing two Polish citizens, the explosion happened about four miles west from the Ukrainian border.

Additionally, it remains unclear where the missile was fired from, and why it fell in Poland.

Finishing the border wall

Trump made a false claim about one of his signature policies, a wall at the border with Mexico.

“We built the wall, and now we will add to it. Now, we built the wall – we completed the wall – and then we said let’s do more, and we did a lot more. And we did a lot more. And as we were doing it, we had an election that came up. And when they came in, they had three more weeks to complete the additions to the wall, which would’ve been great, and they said no, no, we’re not going to do that,” he said.

Facts First: It’s not even close to true that Trump “completed” the border wall.

According to an official “Border Wall Status” report written by US Customs and Border Protection two days after Trump left office, about 458 miles of wall had been completed under Trump – but about 280 more miles that had been identified for wall construction had not completed. The report, provided to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, said that, of those 280, about 74 miles of barriers were “in the pre-construction phase and have not yet been awarded, in locations where no barriers currently exist,” and that 206 miles were “currently under contract, in place of dilapidated and outdated designs and in locations where no barriers previously existed.”

Democratic leaders and the National Guard

Trump claimed that Democratic governors and mayors refused to ask for “help” even during “a total breakdown of law and order,” and “don’t want to ever ask to do anything,” so “we sent in the National Guard in Minneapolis and in other places.”

Facts First: This is a false claim Trump liked to make during his presidency. It’s not true that Trump sent in the National Guard to Minneapolis and that Democratic leaders there refused to ask; it was actually Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, not Trump, was the one who deployed the Minnesota National Guard amid unrest in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, first activated the Guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself.

When Trump made this false claim in 2020, Walz’s office told CNN that the governor activated the Guard in response to requests from officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul – cities also run by Democrats.

Biden’s acuity

Mocking Biden’s mental acuity, Trump said, “There are a lot of bad things, like going to Idaho and saying ‘Welcome to the state of Florida, I really love it.’”

Facts First: This never happened. Biden, like Trump, has made occasional gaffes in referring to places, but this one is fiction. At a rally earlier this month, Trump claimed that Biden had gone to Iowa and wrongly claimed to be in Idaho; that false claim was published by a satirical website in 2020.

Illegal immigration

Lamenting illegal immigration, Trump said, “I believe it’s 10 million people coming in, not three or four million people. They’re pouring into our country.”

Facts First: False. “There is no empirical basis at all for the idea that 10 million undocumented people have entered under President Biden,” Emily Ryo, a professor of law and sociology at the University of Southern California’s law school, who studies immigration, said in a Monday email when CNN asked her about Trump making this claim earlier in November. Julia Gelatt, an expert at the Migration Policy Institute think tank, concurred: “Based on the data available, it is not possible that 10 million unauthorized immigrants have come across the border to the U.S. under President Biden. In fact, the reality is a fraction of that.”

Mark Morgan, who served as acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under Trump (and head of the Border Patrol under Obama), told The Arizona Republic in an early-November article that the “worst case scenario” for the number of illegal border crossings under Biden through October “could be 6.2 million.” Trump’s estimate was not close even to that estimate.

And there are a bunch of important nuances here. Customs and Border Protection has recorded more than 4.3 million total nationwide border “encounters” under Biden, but that number includes people who presented themselves to the authorities to begin the process of seeking humanitarian protection. And while Trump used the word “people,” Ryo emphasized that the number of “encounters” is not the same as the number of separate individuals who have crossed the border. Because many people encountered at the border are rapidly expelled under the Title 42 policy – including more than half of those encountered in the 2021 fiscal year – lots of the same people quickly come back to the border and try again. In the 2021 fiscal year, the recidivism rate was 27%, according to official data.

Inflation in turkey prices

Trump claimed, “Good luck getting a turkey for Thanksgiving. Number one, you won’t get it and if you do, you’re gonna pay three to four times more than you paid last year.”

Facts First: This isn’t even close to true. Turkey prices have increased since last Thanksgiving season, but they haven’t come close to tripling or quadrupling. The weighted average advertised supermarket price of a whole frozen hen is 97 cents per pound as of the most recent US Department of Agriculture report – up about 10% from the same time last year. The price of a whole frozen tom was up by about 7%.

And though Trump made these comments while criticizing the Biden administration over inflation, it’s worth noting that the turkey market in particular has been significantly impacted by avian flu.

Trump and wars

Trump said that his critics claimed during the 2016 presidential campaign that there would be a war within weeks if Trump was elected – “and yet I’ve gone decades, decades without a war. The first president to do it for that long a period.”

Facts First: This is nonsense. Trump was president for four years, so he could not possibly have gone “decades, decades” without a war. Also, Trump presided over the US involvement in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, though he obviously didn’t start any of these wars and withdrew some troops from all three countries. And he was commander-in-chief for dozens of US airstrikes, including drone strikes, in Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Pakistan, plus a drone strike in Iraq that killed Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, that prompted Iranian retaliation against US service members.

Trump and ISIS

Trump gave himself credit for the liberation of ISIS’s “caliphate” in Syria, saying “the vicious ISIS caliphate, which no president was able to conquer, was decimated by me and our great warriors in less than three weeks.”

Facts First: This is a major exaggeration. The ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into Trump’s presidency, in 2019, not “less than three weeks” into his presidency in 2017; it’s not entirely clear what Trump meant by “decimated,” but the fight continued long after Trump’s first weeks in office. And Trump gave himself far too much credit for the defeat of the caliphate, as he has in the past. There was major progress against the caliphate under Obama in 2015 and 2016 – and Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting.

IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing the size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015. “The Islamic State suffered unprecedented territorial losses in 2016, including key areas vital for the group’s governance project,” an analyst there said in a statement at the time.

Terrorism under Trump

Trump claimed: “We had practically, just about, not that I can think of, no Islamic attacks, terrorist attacks, during the Trump administration.”

Facts First: Trump did qualify the claim by saying “practically, just about, not that I can think of,” but it’s not true that there were no terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic extremists during his presidency. Trump’s own Justice Department alleged that a terror attack in New York City in 2017, which killed eight people and injured others, was an act of Islamic extremism carried out in support of ISIS. In fact, Trump repeatedly lamented this attack during his presidency. And Trump’s Justice Department alleged that a 2019 attack by an extremist member of Saudi Arabia’s military, which killed three US servicemembers and injured others at a military base in Florida, “was motivated by jihadist ideology” and was carried out by a longtime “associate” of al Qaeda.

The military’s use of old bombers

Boasting of how he supposedly rebuilt the military, Trump said, “When I got there, we had jet fighters that were 48 years old. We had bombers that were 60 years old, we had bombers where their grandfathers flew them when they were new. And now the grandchild is flying the bomber – but not anymore.”

Facts First: It’s not true that Trump ended the use of 60-year-old bombers. The military continues to use B-52 bombers that old; they are now being outfitted with new Rolls-Royce engines to prolong their life even further. (And the B-52 isn’t the only decades-old plane still in use.)

Trump’s popularity along the border

After boasting of how he is viewed by Latinos, Trump claimed that “along the border in Texas, won every single community – I won – every single community.” He said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told him that he had “won every single area along the border, the longest since Reconstruction.”

Facts First: We don’t know what Abbott told Trump, but it’s not true that Trump won every single area along the border with Mexico. Trump lost border states in both of his previous races – California and New Mexico in both 2016 and 2020, Arizona in 2020 – and also lost numerous border communities in Texas and elsewhere both times, as you can see in these New York Times maps here and here.

Trump did make major gains with some Texas border counties between 2016 and 2020, becoming the first Republican in decades to win some of them, but his claim was about how he supposedly won them all. That’s inaccurate.

Inflation

Trump claimed about inflation: “As we speak, inflation is the highest in over 50 years.”

Facts First: This is not true; Trump exaggerated a statistic that would have worked in his favor even if he had recited it accurately. October’s year-over-year inflation rate of 7.7% is the highest since 1982, if you don’t count previous months this year when it was higher. So, ignoring those other Biden-era months, it is the highest in 40 years, not the highest in “over 50 years.”

We might let this go if Trump did not have a years-long pattern of exaggerating numbers to suit his purposes.

Daniel Dale Paul Leblanc
Daniel Dale
Paul Leblanc

The exorcisms of Latoya Ammons

This article was originally published on Jan. 25, 2014.

A woman and three children who claimed to be possessed by demons. A 9-year-old boy walking backward up a wall in the presence of a family case manager and hospital nurse.

Gary police Capt. Charles Austin said it was the strangest story he had ever heard.

Austin, a 36-year veteran of the Gary Police Department, said he initially thought Indianapolis resident Latoya Ammons and her family concocted an elaborate tale as a way to make money. But after several visits to their home and interviews with witnesses, Austin said simply, "I am a believer."

Not everyone involved with the family was inclined to believe its incredible story. And many readers will find Ammons' supernatural claims impossible to accept.

But, whatever the cause of the creepy occurrences that befell the family — whether they were seized by a systematic delusion or demonic possession — it led to one of the most unusual cases ever handled by the Department of Child Services. Many of the events are detailed in nearly 800 pages of official records obtained by The Indianapolis Star and recounted in more than a dozen interviews with police, DCS personnel, psychologists, family members and a Catholic priest.

Ammons, who swears by her story, has been unusually open. While she spoke on condition her children not be interviewed or named, she signed releases letting The Star review medical, psychological and official records that are not open to the public — and not always flattering.

Furthermore, the family's story is made only more bizarre because it involves a DCS intervention, a string of psychological evaluations, a police investigation and, ultimately, a series of exorcisms.

It's a tale, they say, that started with flies.

'This is not normal'

In November 2011, Ammons' family moved into a rental house on Carolina Street in Gary, a quiet lane lined with small one-story homes. Big black flies suddenly swarmed their screened-in porch in December, despite the winter chill.

"This is not normal," Ammons' mother, Rosa Campbell, remembers thinking. "We killed them and killed them and killed them, but they kept coming back."

There were other strange happenings, too.

After midnight, Campbell and Ammons both said, they occasionally heard the steady clump of footsteps climbing the basement stairs and the creak of the door opening between the basement and kitchen. No one was there.

Even after they locked the door, the noise continued.

Campbell said she awoke one night and saw a shadowy figure of a man pacing her living room. She leaped out of bed to investigate, and found large, wet bootprints.

On March 10, 2012, Campbell said, the family's unease turned to fear.

12-year-old levitates

It was about 2 a.m. Normally, Campbell, Ammons and her children would have been asleep, but they were mourning the death of a loved one with a group of friends.

Ammons, who was in Campbell's bedroom, startled everyone by screaming, "Mama! Mama!"

Campbell said she ran into her bedroom, where her then-12-year-old granddaughter and a friend were staying.

Ammons and Campbell said the 12-year-old was levitating above the bed, unconscious.

According to their account of events, Ammons and several others surrounded the girl, praying. Campbell said she remembers being terrified.

"I thought, 'What's going on?' " Campbell said. " 'Why is this happening?' "

Eventually, Campbell said, her granddaughter descended onto the bed. The girl woke up with no memory of what happened, Campbell said.

Campbell and Ammons said the people who were visiting that night refused to return.

Possessed by demons

Campbell says she remembers telling her daughter, "We need help. We need to talk to someone who knows how to deal with it."

Campbell and Ammons said they didn't know exactly what "it" was, but they believed it was something supernatural.

They called local churches, but most refused to listen.

Eventually, after listening to Campbell and Ammons talk about the house and visiting it, officials at one church told them the Carolina Street house had spirits in it. They recommended the family clean the home with bleach and ammonia, then use oil to draw crosses on every door and window.

At the church's suggestion, Ammons said she poured olive oil on her three children's hands and feet, then smeared oil in the shape of crosses on their foreheads.

Campbell and Ammons also told The Star they reached out to two clairvoyants, who said the family's home was besieged by more than 200 demons. Their explanation made sense to Campbell and Ammons, they say, because it meshed with their Christian faith.

The best thing you can do is move, Ammons remembers the clairvoyants telling her. But moving wasn't an option for the cash-strapped family.

Instead, Ammons said she took a clairvoyant's advice and made an altar in the basement.

Ammons covered an end table with a white sheet, then placed a white candle and statue of Mary, Joseph and Jesus on it. She opened a Bible to Psalm 91.

She said she and another person donned white T-shirts and wound white scarves around their heads.

Also on a clairvoyant's advice, they burned sage and sulfur throughout the house, starting upstairs and working their way down. The smoke was so thick they could hardly breathe.

Ammons drew a cross with the smoke.

The person she was with read Psalm 91 aloud as they moved through the house:

"You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday."

Ammons said nothing odd happened for three days. Then, things got worse.

The family said demons possessed Ammons and her children, then ages 7, 9 and 12. The kids' eyes bulged, evil smiles crossed their faces, and their voices deepened every time it happened, Campbell and Ammons said.

Campbell said the demons didn't affect her because she was born with protection from evil. She said she, and others like her, have a guardian who protects them.

Ammons said she felt weak, lightheaded and warm when she was possessed. Her body shook, and she said she felt out-of-control.

"You can tell it's different, something supernatural."

The youngest boy, then 7, sat in a closet talking to a boy that no one else could see. The other boy was describing what it felt like to be killed.

Campbell said the 7-year-old once flew out of the bathroom as if he'd been thrown, and a headboard once smacked into Ammons' daughter, causing a wound that needed stitches.

The 12-year-old would later tell mental health professionals that she sometimes felt as if she were being choked and held down so she couldn't speak or move. She said she heard a voice say she'd never see her family again and wouldn't live another 20 minutes.

Some nights were so bad the family slept at a hotel.

Finally, in desperation, they went to their family physician, Dr. Geoffrey Onyeukwu, on April 19, 2012. Ammons said she told him what they were going through, hoping he might understand.

Onyeukwu told The Star it was "bizarre."

"Twenty years, and I've never heard anything like that in my life," he said. "I was scared myself when I walked into the room."

He said he would not speak in more detail unless Ammons had "psychiatric clearance" for the waiver of confidentiality she had signed.

In his medical notes about the visit, Onyeukwu wrote "delusions of ghost in home" and "hallucinations." He also wrote "history of ghost at home" and "delusional."

What Ammons and Campbell say happened next also was detailed in a DCS report of a family case manager's interviews with medical staff.

Chaos erupted.

'He walked up the wall, flipped over her and stood there'

Campbell said Ammons' sons cursed Onyeukwu in demonic voices, raging at him. Medical staff said the youngest boy was "lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him," according to a DCS report.

The boys abruptly passed out and wouldn't come to, Campbell added. She cradled one boy in her arms; Ammons held the other.

Someone from the doctor's office called 911. Onyeukwu said seven or eight police officers and multiple ambulances showed up.

"Everybody was ... they couldn't figure out exactly what was happening," he recalled.

Police and emergency personnel took the boys to Methodist Hospital's campus in Gary.

Ammons said hospital personnel laughed at her desire to anoint her sons in olive oil.

"I couldn't talk to them," she said, "so I talked to God."

The boys woke up in the hospital. The older boy, then 9, acted rationally, but the youngest screamed and thrashed, Campbell said.

She said it took five men to hold him down.

Meanwhile, someone called DCS and asked the agency to investigate Ammons for possible child abuse or neglect. The caller, who is not named in the DCS report, speculated that Ammons might have a mental illness. The person believed the children were performing for Ammons, and she was encouraging their behavior.

DCS family case manager Valerie Washington was asked to handle the initial investigation. She gave the following account to police and in her intake officer's report:

Hospital personnel examined Ammons and her children and found them to be healthy and free of marks or bruises. A hospital psychiatrist evaluated Ammons and determined she was of "sound mind."

Washington interviewed the family in the hospital.

While she spoke with Ammons, the 7-year-old boy started growling with his teeth showing. His eyes rolled back in his head.

The boy locked his hands around his older brother's throat and refused to let go until adults pried his hands open.

Later that evening, Washington and registered nurse Willie Lee Walker brought the two boys into a small exam room for an interview. Campbell joined them.

The 7-year-old stared into his brother's eyes and began to growl again.

"It's time to die," the boy said in a deep, unnatural voice. "I will kill you."

While the youngest boy spoke, the older brother started head-butting Campbell in the stomach.

Campbell grabbed her grandson's hands and started praying.

What happened next would rattle the witnesses, and to some it would offer not only evidence but proof of paranormal activity.

According to Washington's original DCS report — an account corroborated by Walker, the nurse — the 9-year-old had a "weird grin" and walked backward up a wall to the ceiling. He then flipped over Campbell, landing on his feet. He never let go of his grandmother's hand.

"He walked up the wall, flipped over her and stood there," Walker told The Star. "There's no way he could've done that."

Later, police asked Washington whether the boy had run up the wall, as though performing an acrobatic trick.

No, Washington told them. She said the boy "glided backward on the floor, wall and ceiling," according to a police report.

Washington did not respond to The Star's requests for comment.

But she told police she was scared when it happened and ran out of the room. As for Walker, Washington said, "he ran out of the room with me."

"We didn't know what was going on," Walker told The Star. "That was crazy. I was like, 'Everybody gotta go.' "

According to Washington's report, they told a doctor what happened. The doctor, who did not believe them, asked the boy to walk up the wall again.

Walker said he told the doctor he doubted the boy could repeat the feat. "This kid was not himself when he did that," Walker said.

The boy said he didn't remember what happened and couldn't do it, according to Washington's report.

Walker, who said he previously believed in demons and spirits, thought the boy's behavior had "some demonic spirit to it" but also was the result of a mental illness.

A police report quoted Washington saying she believed there could be an "evil influence" affecting the family.

Separated

Ammons said she spent the night at the hospital with her 7-year-old son while Campbell took Ammons' daughter and older son to a relative's home in Gary.

The next day was Ammons' youngest son's eighth birthday. Ammons said DCS officials asked Campbell to bring the older children back to the hospital, presumably to talk more about what happened.

The family celebrated the boy's birthday by singing and eating a miniature cake. Then, Ammons said Washington told them the children wouldn't be going home.

DCS took the emergency step of taking custody of the children without a court order.

"All of the children were expericing (sic) spiritual and emotional distress," Washington wrote in the DCS form.

Ammons told The Star she and her children cried because they didn't want to be separated.

"We'd already been through so much and fought so hard for our lives," she recalled. "It was obvious we were a team, and we were beating it — whatever we were fighting. We made it through together as a team, and they separated us."

'It must be scared of me'

The Rev. Michael Maginot was leading Bible study in his living room the morning of April 20, 2012, when he received a call from a hospital chaplain.

Maginot had been the priest at St. Stephen, Martyr Parish, in Merrillville for more than 10 years but had never received a request like this one — the chaplain asked him to perform an exorcism on Ammons' 9-year-old son.

Maginot agreed to interview the family after Sunday Mass a few days later.

The first step, Maginot said, was ruling out natural causes for what Ammons and her family said they were experiencing.

He visited Ammons and Campbell in the Carolina Street home April 22, 2012. For two hours, Ammons and Campbell detailed the phenomena for him. Then, Campbell interrupted the interview to point out a flickering bathroom light.

The flickering stopped each time Maginot walked over to investigate — which he attributed to a demonic presence.

"It must be scared of me," he later told The Star he had thought.

The interview was interrupted again when Campbell pointed out Venetian blinds in the kitchen swinging even though there was no air current. Maginot said he also saw wet footprints throughout the living room.

Ammons complained about having a headache. Maginot said she convulsed when he placed a crucifix against her head.

After a four-hour interview, Maginot said he was convinced the family was being tormented by demons. He said he also believed there were ghosts in the house.

Maginot blessed the house before he left — praying, reading from the Bible and sprinkling holy water in each room.

He told Ammons and Campbell to leave because it wasn't safe. They temporarily moved in with a relative.

Gary police captain starts to believe

But less than a week later, the two women were back on Carolina Street to let Washington, the DCS family case manager, check the condition of the home. Washington asked a Lake County police officer to come with her.

Two other officers, one each from Gary and Hammond police departments, asked to join them out of "professional curiosity."

Ammons refused to go inside, but Campbell agreed to accompany the group. Ammons' kids still were in DCS custody.

The main floor had three bedrooms, a living room, one bathroom, hardwood floors and a small, open-style kitchen. A door in the kitchen led to a basement with concrete floors.

Directly under the stairs was a dirt floor. The concrete around it was jagged, as though it had been broken.

The makeshift altar Ammons had created was still in place, along with rings of salt she had poured against the basement walls to "dissuade the demons," according to a Hammond Police Department report.

Campbell told officers that demons seemed to emanate from beneath the stairs.

Austin, the Gary police captain, was one of those officers. He later told The Star he believed in ghosts and the supernatural but said he didn't believe in demons.

Austin said he changed his mind after visiting the Carolina Street house.

During the interview with Campbell, one of the officer's audio recorders malfunctioned, according to Austin and Hammond police records. The power light flashed to indicate the batteries were dying, even though the officer had placed fresh batteries in the recorder earlier that day.

Another officer recorded audio and, when he played it back later, heard an unknown voice whisper "hey," according to Lake County police records.

That officer also took photos of the house. In one photo of the basement stairs, there was a cloudy white image in the upper right-hand corner. When an officer enlarged the photo, that cloud appeared to resemble a face, Lake County police records state. The enlargement also revealed a second, green image that police say looked like a female.

Austin said photos he snapped with his iPhone also seemed to have strange silhouettes in them. The radio in his police-issued Ford malfunctioned on the way home.

Later, Austin said the garage at his Gary home refused to open, even though the power was on everywhere else.

Austin said the driver's seat in his personal 2005 Infiniti also started moving backward and forward on its own.

He said he had the car checked at a dealership, and the mechanic told him the motor on the driver's seat was broken, which the mechanic said could have caused a distraction leading to an accident.

Austin said he found himself starting to believe Ammons' claims of paranormal activity. But the mental health professionals evaluating Ammons and her children remained skeptical.

DCS outlines case plan

In April 2012, DCS petitioned Lake Juvenile Court for temporary wardship of the three children. The request was granted.

DCS found that Ammons neglected her children's education by not having them in school regularly. The agency made the same finding in 2009, its records show.

Ammons told Washington there were times she could not send the kids to school because "the spirits would make them sick, or they would be up all night without sleep."

DCS temporarily placed her daughter and older son at St. Joseph's Carmelite Home in East Chicago. Ammons' youngest son was sent to Christian Haven in Wheatfield for a psychiatric evaluation.

Clinical psychologist Stacy Wright, who evaluated Ammons' youngest son, said the boy tended to act possessed when he was challenged, redirected or asked questions he didn't want to answer. In her evaluation, Wright wrote that he seemed coherent and logical except when he talked about demons.

It was then that the 8-year-old's stories became "bizarre, fragmented and illogical," Wright said. His stories changed each time he told them.

He also changed the subject, quizzing Wright on math problems and asking her about outer space.

"Can you die if you go to space?" he asked. "How do you get to space? Do you have to wear a helmet and suit?"

Wright believed the 8-year-old did not suffer from a true psychotic disorder.

"This appears to be an unfortunate and sad case of a child who has been induced into a delusional system perpetuated by his mother and potentially reinforced" by other relatives, she wrote in her psychological evaluation.

Clinical psychologist Joel Schwartz, who evaluated Ammons' daughter and older son, came to a similar conclusion.

"There also appears to be a need to assess the extent to which (Ammons' daughter) may have been unduly influenced by her mother's concerns that the family was exposed to paranormal experiences," Schwartz wrote.

Ammons' daughter told Schwartz that she saw shadowy figures in the Carolina Street home. She also said she twice went into trances. Ammons' older son told Schwartz that "doors would slam and stuff started moving around."

Ammons also was examined several times by psychologists, who said she was "guarded," but did not seem to be "experiencing symptoms of psychosis or thought disorder." One psychologist recommended Ammons be assessed to "determine whether her religiosity may be masking underlying delusional ideations or perceptual disturbances."

Ammons — and all three kids — continued to insist they were possessed by demons.

DCS set goals for the family. One of them stipulated that the children "not discuss demons and being possessed and ... take responsibility for their actions." They also needed to participate in therapy to address past behavior.

While DCS officials credited Ammons for sharing a "close bond" with her children, the agency also said she needed to use "alternate forms of discipline not directly related to religion and demon possession," according to DCS' case plan. Appropriate discipline included encouragement, rules and withholding privileges. She could work on those goals during supervised visits with the children.

Ammons also had to find a job and appropriate housing "due to the paranormal activity" at the house on Carolina Street.

While Ammons worked on meeting those objectives, police and DCS officials continued to investigate strange happenings in the house.

A demonic presence

The group was a bit larger this time.

Campbell, Ammons, Austin and the two other police officers from the initial visit went back to the Carolina Street home on the afternoon of May 10, 2012. The police officers visited after work hours.

They were joined by Maginot, two Lake County officers with a police dog and DCS family case manager Samantha Ilic.

Ilic, who was there in an official capacity, told The Star she volunteered to go in Washington's place because Washington didn't want to go back to the house.

A county officer took his police dog around the home, but the dog didn't show interest in any particular area, according to Lake County police records. Everyone else headed into the basement.

Ilic touched some strange liquid she saw dripping in the basement, and said it felt slippery yet sticky between her fingers.

Maginot told police he wanted to check the dirt under the stairs for a pentagram or personal objects that might have been cursed. He said a pentagram might indicate a demonic presence and possible portal to hell, according to a Lake County police report.

Or if someone had died in the house and was buried under the stairs, it could explain paranormal activity, Maginot added.

One of the police officers dug a 4-foot by 3-foot hole beneath the stairs, unearthing a pink press-on fingernail, a white pair of panties, a political shirt pin, a lid for a small cooking pan, socks with the bottoms cut off below the ankles, candy wrappers and a heavy metal object that looked like a weight for a drapery cord, police records state.

Finding nothing else, the officer replaced the dirt and raked over it.

Maginot blessed some salt, which he said is a barrier to evil, and spread it under the stairs and throughout the basement.

Ilic said she was later standing in the living room with the rest of the group when her left pinky finger started to tingle and whiten. She complained it felt broken.

Less than 10 minutes later, Ilic said she felt as if she was having a panic attack. She couldn't breathe, so she walked outside to wait for the group.

When the priest started questioning Ammons inside the house, she complained of a headache and shoulder pain, according to police records. She joined Ilic outside.

Austin said he left the house at nightfall. Austin — who has been shot at and has investigated murders, rapes and armed robberies during his more than three decades on the force — said he wasn't staying in the house past dark.

The other officers continued to walk through the home. On the main floor, they noticed an oil-like substance dripping from venetian blinds in a bedroom but couldn't figure out where it was coming from, police records state.

To make sure Campbell or Ammons hadn't poured oil on the blinds, two of the officers used paper towels to clean it off. The officers sealed the room for 25 minutes and stood nearby so no one could walk in.

When they went back in, the oil had reappeared, according to police records.

Maginot told police the liquid was a manifestation of a paranormal or demonic presence.

He wrote a report detailing his findings and asked Bishop Dale Melczek's permission to perform an exorcism on Ammons.

An exorcism

Maginot said Melczek had never authorized an exorcism in 21 years as bishop of the Diocese of Gary.

Debbie Bosak, director of communications for the diocese, said she cannot comment on whether Melczek has ever approved an exorcism for confidentiality reasons. In general, she said, such an action would require a bishop's approval.

Melczek initially denied Maginot's request to do a church-sanctioned exorcism, Maginot said. The bishop told Maginot to contact other priests who have performed exorcisms.

Maginot said he needed other priests to give him the ritual for a minor exorcism, which does not require church approval. The priests he consulted told him to look it up on the Internet.

He said he did an "intense blessing" on the Carolina Street home to expel bad spirits.

That same day, Maginot performed a minor exorcism on Ammons. The ritual consisted of prayers, statements and appeals to cast out demons.

Two police officers and Ilic, the DCS family case manager, attended the ritual.

Ilic said she left believing that something was going on, although she wouldn't go as far as saying it was demonic. She said she got chills during the nearly two-hour rite.

"We felt like someone was in the room with you, someone breathing down your neck."

Ilic said she had a string of medical problems after visiting the home. A week after she visited the house for the last time, Ilic said she got third-degree burns from a motorcycle. Within 30 days, she also broke three ribs Jet Skiing, broke a hand when she hit a table, then broke an ankle running in flip-flops.

"I had friends who wouldn't talk to me because they believed that something had attached itself to me," Ilic said. Her joking response: "I'm already evil. They try to find something that's not evil and corrupt it. They wouldn't waste their time on me."

I cast you out, unclean spirit

After the minor ritual, Maginot told Ammons to look up the names of demons that were tormenting her. Each demon has a name and personality, Maginot said.

A name has power, the priest added, and he planned to use those names to fight the demons during the exorcisms.

Ammons said she and a friend looked up the demons' names online by searching for demons that represented the problems the family had been having. The computer kept shutting down. She said she felt sick, lightheaded.

But she said they found names that fit.

One such name was Beelzebub, lord of the flies, Ammons said. She said they also found names of demons that torture and hurt kids, which she felt explained what happened in the Carolina Street house.

Ammons said other high-ranking demons also were assigned to her, including lieutenants and sergeants.

After the minor rite, Maginot said Bishop Melczek gave him permission to exorcise Ammons. The ritual is the same as the minor exorcism but more powerful because it has the backing of the Catholic Church, Maginot said.

Maginot ultimately performed three major exorcisms on Ammons – two in English, and the last one in Latin – in June 2012 at his Merrillville church.

During each, Maginot said, he praised God and condemned the devil.

He pressed a crucifix against Ammons' head as he spoke.

I cast you out, unclean spirit,

along with every Satanic power of the enemy,

every spectre from hell,

and all your fell companions;

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Maginot said his voice continued to get louder and more forceful until the demon weakened. He said he could tell how strong the demon was by how much Ammons convulsed.

Two police officers, who had kept in touch with Maginot since the home investigation, stood nearby in case Ammons needed to be restrained.

Ammons said she prayed with Maginot until it became too painful.

She said she felt as if something inside her was trying to hold on and inflict pain at the same time. She said it was different from a natural pain but felt as intense as giving birth.

"I was hurting all over from the inside out," she remembered. "I'm trying to do my best and be strong."

Eventually, Maginot said, Ammons fell asleep. She said that was the demon's way of lessening the ritual's effect.

No more nightmares

In between the second and third exorcisms, Maginot said he went on a retreat. A woman who assisted Maginot with some of the exorcisms helped set up a backup plan in case Ammons had problems while Maginot was gone.

The woman wrote a long demon name — Maginot said he can't remember which one it was — on a piece of paper and tucked it in an envelope, then she surrounded it with blessed salt.

If Ammons had problems, the woman would burn the envelope, Maginot said.

By this time, Ammons and her mother had moved to Indianapolis, but they drove back for the exorcisms and court hearings, as her children were still in DCS' care.

Maginot said he blessed the family's new home to prevent more problems.

But Ammons called while Maginot was on his retreat, complaining of bad dreams, so the woman burned the envelope. She saved the ashes to burn later in a church bonfire.

After that, Ammons said, her nightmares ended.

Reunited: 'I hadn't been that happy in God knows how long'

In the final exorcism at the end of June 2012, Maginot said he prayed and berated the demons in Latin, rather than English.

Police officers did not attend, so Maginot said his brother stood guard. Maginot said Ammons convulsed while he condemned the demons but did not convulse during prayer.

When she fell asleep, he said words of thanksgiving.

It would be the last time Ammons saw Maginot. She and her mother drove back to Indianapolis, where they say they now live without fear.

Ammons' old home on Carolina Street became an object of local curiosity — so much so that the owner and landlord, Charles Reed, called the Gary Police Department to ask officers to stop driving by the house because it was scaring his new tenant.

He said there were no problems in the home before or after Ammons and her family lived there.

"I thought I heard it all," said Reed, who's been a landlord for 33 years. "This was a new one to me. My belief system has a hard time jumping over that bridge."

When told of the Catholic Church's involvement in the situation, however, Reed said that made him "less skeptical."

Ammons regained custody of her three children in November 2012, about six months after they'd been removed. DCS continued to check in on the children and make sure they were going to school until the case was closed last February.

Ammons called her children's return the happiest day of her life.

She said they screamed and jumped up and down when she picked them up from the DCS office in Gary.

"It was just awesome," Ammons said. "I hadn't been that happy in God knows how long."

The children said they felt safe after they left the house on Carolina Street, the family said. The three left their demonic voices and complaints behind them.

"No demonic presences or spirits in the home," DCS family case manager Christina Olejnik wrote in team meeting notes dated Jan. 10, 2013. She did not return calls from The Star seeking comment.

"The family is no longer fixated solely on religion to explain or cope with the children's behavior issues," Olejnik and her supervisor wrote in a request for dismissal of wardship dated Jan. 24, 2013.

For her part, Ammons said it was not the psychologists who resolved her problems but God.

"When you hear something like this," she said, "don't assume it's not real because I've lived it. I know it's real."

Call Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at 317-444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.

Florida's red flag law, championed by Republicans, is taking guns ...

Tampa, Florida CNN —

Twice a week from her courtroom, Florida 13th Circuit Court Judge Denise Pomponio decides who in Hillsborough County can no longer be trusted with a gun.

In just the last two months, she has taken away the firearm privileges of dozens of people, including a dad accused of threatening to “shoot everyone” at his son’s school, a woman who police say attempted suicide and then accidentally shot her boyfriend during a struggle for her revolver, a husband who allegedly fired multiple rounds in the street to “blow off steam” after losing a family member, a bullied 13-year-old witnesses overheard saying, “If all of 8th grade is missing tomorrow you will know why,” and a mother arrested for brandishing a handgun at another mom after a school bus incident between their daughters.

This is Florida’s “red flag” law in action. Passed in the wake of the horrific 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland high school, the state law provides police a path to ask a judge to temporarily bar dangerous individuals from possessing or purchasing a firearm. Since its creation, Florida judges have acted more than 8,000 times to keep guns out of the hands of people authorities deemed a risk to themselves or others, according to data maintained by the Office of the State Courts Administrator.

On Tuesday, Pomponio added another one to the list: A man accused of pointing two guns at his stepfather.

“He was enjoying the whole thing,” the stepfather told the courtroom. His stepson’s wife even filmed the encounter, he said. “He said he wanted to eff me up.” One of the guns was later found in the bed of the stepson’s 11-year-old brother, a sheriff’s deputy told the courtroom.

In the aftermath of recent massacres in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, those looking to change the country’s gun laws see in Florida a blueprint to move forward – not only because leaders moved to restrict firearms, but because it emerged out of a Republican stronghold unofficially known as the “Gunshine State.”

“The Florida law is a good law, and it’s a signal of what’s possible,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, one of the most vocal advocates in Congress for gun control, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

In Florida, a red flag policy, also known as risk protection orders, was one piece of a sprawling gun reform package that then-Gov. Rick Scott signed into law just three weeks after a teenage gunman killed 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It included $400 million in new spending for priorities like school security and mental health resources, and allowed trained school staff to carry firearms for the first time. Republican lawmakers also agreed to raise the age to own a gun to 21 and implemented a three-day waiting period to purchase most rifles.

“I knew the time for thoughts and prayers, although necessary, was not enough,” said Bill Galvano, a Republican and the former state senator who sponsored the legislation.

Galvano told CNN he began drafting the bill at his kitchen table after a tour of the carnage in Parkland. He incorporated ideas he had picked up from interviewing teachers and staff at the school. He was intent on including some gun safety reforms and focused on what he thought could pass. He was still learning how red flag laws worked when it was added to the draft.

Looking at the data on the people who had guns taken away in Florida, Galvano says, “You have to believe that makes a difference.”

Research suggests red flags have made a difference where they’ve been implemented. One analysis of Connecticut’s red flag law, in place since 1999, found that for every 10 to 20 guns removed by a risk protection order led to one averted suicide. Another study found intimate partner homicides dropped in states where authorities can prohibit people convicted of “nonspecific violent misdemeanors” from possessing firearms.

The National Rifle Association and its Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, fiercely opposed the 2018 gun safety legislation. The organization’s influential scorecards loomed over the head of most Republican lawmakers. Hammer, a towering figure in Florida politics for decades, called GOP supporters “turncoat Republicans” and the organization urged its members to pressure lawmakers into abandoning the legislation. Galvano acknowledged that some of his colleagues were concerned the NRA would mount primary challenges against them in the coming elections.

Former state Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas, recounted the headwinds they faced with Republicans in power and the NRA throwing arounds its weight.

“Yet, we rolled the NRA,” Moskowitz said, adding: “Not one Republican who voted for that bill in Florida has paid a political price for protecting kids and doing the right thing.”

The NRA responded by docking the scorecards of anyone who voted for the bill, and it knocked Scott from an A+ to a C. The organization also filed a lawsuit against the state over the new legislation. The case remains in court under appeal.

Hammer did not respond to an email for comment.

Still, the law has survived as the legislature has grown more conservative and through the first term of Gov. Ron DeSantis. As a candidate in 2018, DeSantis said he opposed the gun restrictions in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act, telling one Florida newspaper he would have vetoed it.

DeSantis has not publicly commented on the shooting in Uvalde and his office did not respond when asked if the governor supports Florida’s red flag law. He recently promised Florida would join other states that no longer require training or a permit to carry a firearm in public, like Texas.

Republicans lukewarm

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell previously told CNN he has encouraged Texas Sen. John Cornyn to work with Murphy on a middle-ground solution in response to the massacre inside the Uvalde elementary school.

However, support for adopting risk protection orders like Florida’s appeared tepid as senators headed into the Memorial Day recess.

Even Scott, who once called Florida’s response to the Parkland massacre “an example to the entire country that government can and must move fast,” now seems uncertain about a national risk protection policy. Scott, elected in 2018 to the US Senate, told The Washington Post: “It ought to be done at the state level.”

Meanwhile, opponents of red flag laws have grown increasingly vocal as gun reform advocates hone in on the proposal.

“What you’re essentially trying to do with the red flag law is enforce the law before the law has been broken. And it’s a really difficult thing to do, it’s difficult to assess whether somebody is a threat,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas. “Now if they are such a threat that they’re threatening somebody with a weapon already, well, then they’ve already broken the law. So why do you need this other law?”

In an interview with CNN, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd defended Florida’s red flag law against Crenshaw’s characterization. Polk is a conservative county between Tampa and Orlando that former President Donald Trump won in 2020 by 14 points, and it is also the county that has issued more risk protection orders than any other in the state.

“Let me tell Rep. Crenshaw, if that were so, then Florida, which is dominated by conservatives, the Republicans wouldn’t have passed (risk protection orders),” Judd said.

Judd – who simultaneously describes himself as a law-and-order sheriff and a “Second Amendment guy” – defined a risk protection order as a “cooling off period” for people who have displayed dangerous behaviors. Some are experiencing a mental health episode or expressed a desire to hurt themselves. Others have made threats that may not rise to an arrest, or they are charged with a crime that won’t result in a loss of gun charges. The risk protection orders, he said, allows law enforcement to focus on prevention instead of reacting to an active shooter when “it’s too late.”

In a Polk courtroom last week, a young woman described her boyfriend putting a loaded gun to his head in front of her and his mother. In another case, a prosecutor told the judge that a woman named Carol “threatened to burn down her house and shoot any responders that would get there.” In both instances, the judge took away their ability to have a firearm.

David Carmichael, an attorney who represents local police departments in Polk County in these cases, says in his experience, about half of the people facing risk protection orders willingly give up their right to a weapon without having to go through a hearing.

“They don’t have an objection,” he said. “They say, ‘I’m in a bad place. I fully understand it’s a good idea.’ I expected more people to aggressively defend themselves.”

Risk protection orders

In Florida, orders last for one year, and can be extended for another 12 months. At the time of the shooting in Uvalde, there were 2,845 people under risk protection orders in Florida, according to the state Department of Law Enforcement.

Judges may require someone to undergo a mental health or substance abuse treatment before the order is lifted. However, unless convicted of a felony, most people are likely to get their firearms returned after a year.

Tampa city attorney Michael Schmid described an individual under the influence of a drug who was acting strange in public and making people uncomfortable. Police confronted him and found guns in every part of his car. They later searched his home and found an arsenal of 100 guns “if not more,” Schmid said, with some hidden in stuffed animals and a cat scratch post. A sign in the house said, “If they ever come in my house, I’m not going easy.”

“I hope he accomplished something during the cooling off period and having him evaluated helped,” Schmid said. “But at the end of the day, he will get his guns back.”

As it is, some activists don’t see red flag laws as going far enough to curb gun violence. Many Democrats unsuccessfully pushed for the 2018 legislation to include a ban on the AR-15, the weapon used in the vast majority of mass shootings, and other semiautomatic long guns.

In a news conference with Florida Democrats in response to the Uvalde tragedy, state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando noted some states allow loved ones and family members to petition the courts for a risk protection order. Those are the people “who know the person best,” he said. Florida limits petitions to law enforcement.

“That’s why it’s important in Florida that we expand on the good move we made in enacting the red flag law in the first place, to make sure we can continue to prevent these instances of gun violence,” Smith said.

Moskowitz, now running to represent Parkland in the US House of Representatives, said moving the ball 20 yards is still a victory. “And you come back and you move the ball another 20 yards.”

Galvano said Florida was able to act because the legislation “had aspects that both parties wanted and liked and aspects that both parties did not support.”

“Look at the politics and understand we are a conservative state,” Galvano said. “We’re red by all accounts. And we were still able to make some reforms that were not traditional.”

‘It doesn’t have to be highly effective to have an effect’

Tony Montalto’s daughter Gina was killed inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. Within days of the massacre, he and other Parkland parents became a unified force in pressuring Florida lawmakers to take meaningful action.

Montalto, as president of Stand with Parkland, has spent the last four years urging more states to follow Florida’s lead in hopes no parents would have to experience his pain. There are 19 states plus the District of Columbia with red flag laws, and 14 were passed after Parkland.

It’s a legacy that makes Montalto proud, but makes it all the more difficult to watch a similar tragedy unfold in Texas.

“They would’ve been a lot safer had they taken advantage of simple things, such as red flags that we passed in Florida. This is simple stuff that keeps the majority of people safe,” Montalto said. “We heard extremists say this was a gun grab and all these bad things would happen. But the sky has not fallen. People still own guns. People still hunt. People still protect themselves. And yet, thousands of people in Florida have had their guns taken away to protect the majority of people.”

“We had President Trump support red flag laws. We’ve seen President Biden support red flag laws. How come Congress has not acted?”

Shannon Frattaroli, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, is reviewing risk protection cases in six states, including Florida. Her research has found hundreds of examples of police using red flag laws to remove weapons from people who have threatened mass violence.

“If even 1% of the orders that are issued in response to a threat of mass violence makes a difference, that’s pretty powerful,” Frattaroli said. “It doesn’t have to be highly effective to have an effect.”

Steve Contorno Leyla Santiago Denise Royal

The 10 Senate seats most likely to flip in 2022 | CNN Politics

CNN —

The month of May brought the first Senate primaries of the year. Ohio voted first, followed by a near weekly stream of contests that are shaping the midterm campaign for control of the chamber. At the close of the month, the general election matchups in almost half of this year’s most competitive races are nearly set, with the exception of Pennsylvania, where the Republican primary has gone to a recount.

Republicans only need a net gain of one seat this fall to win the Senate, and much of the intrigue about primaries has so far been on the GOP side. Former President Donald Trump endorsed in all four Senate contests that were on the ballot in May that are expected to be competitive in the fall – Ohio, where his chosen candidate won on May 3; North Carolina, where his chosen candidate won on May 17; Georgia, where his chosen candidate won on May 24, and in Pennsylvania, where his chosen candidate leads by roughly 900 votes. Those primaries cemented his hold on the party because of the way so many GOP candidates, even those without his endorsement, tried to appeal to him – in some cases, twisting themselves into almost unrecognizable versions of their former selves.

Trump’s support played differently in each state. In Ohio, it helped “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance win the primary, likely blunting the biggest attack attack on him – the candidate’s past criticism of Trump.

The former President’s backing of Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania did not have as clear of an immediate impact, especially considering voters might have already associated the two celebrity Republicans together. Near the end of the race, the millions of dollars spent attacking Oz and former hedge fund executive David McCormick seemed to open a lane for conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, but she’s in a distant third place behind Oz and McCormick.

Trump weighed in on the North Carolina primary nearly a year ago, but his backing of US Rep. Ted Budd didn’t clear the GOP field immediately. In Georgia, however, his commitment to Herschel Walker likely kept other top-name Republicans out of the race, leaving the former NFL star gliding to the GOP nomination.

Democrats argue that messy and expensive GOP primaries will leave Republican nominees bruised heading into the general election. (Democrats also had a crowded primary in Pennsylvania, but it didn’t attract anywhere near the level of spending or vitriol as the GOP contest.)

After watching Republican candidates run to the right to try to win their party nods, Democrats are hoping to make general election matchups a contrast in candidates. But that gets harder to do if the national environment continues to work against the party. President Joe Biden’s approval rating was at 41%, with 59% disapproving, according to a CNN poll, conducted by SSRS from April 28-May 1. Democrats know Republicans will tie them to him, which is one reason why a number of them broke with the White House on lifting Title 42, a Trump-era public health authority that allows border authorities to turn migrants back to Mexico or their home countries.

Senate contests are increasingly becoming nationalized affairs, so while candidate quality does matter (see No. 10 on this list), Democrats face a tough challenge in holding their razor-thin Senate majority, regardless of which Republicans they’re facing.

CNN’s ranking of the Senate seats most likely to flip saw a few changes in May, all in Republicans’ favor. But the states that held May primaries remain in the same positions for now, with uncertainty still reigning in Pennsylvania. The ranking, which will be updated in June, is based on CNN’s reporting and fundraising and advertising data, as well as historical data about how states and candidates have performed.

1. Pennsylvania

Incumbent: Republican Pat Toomey (retiring)

Sarah Silbiger/Pool/Getty Images

Pennsylvania – a state Biden won in 2020 – has long been the seat most likely to flip, but the May 17 GOP primary hasn’t yet given us an answer to what the general election matchup to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey will look like in November. Celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz, who has Trump’s backing, and former hedge fund executive David McCormick finished in a near tie – with a margin close enough to trigger the state’s automatic recount process.

Counties need to finish recounting – which they must do using a different device than the one used in the initial tabulation – by noon on June 7 and submit their results by noon on June 8. CNN has not made a projection in the race.

The winner will face Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who easily won the Democratic nomination on May 17.

Oz has declared himself the “presumptive” nominee, following the lead of Trump, who urged him to declare victory while counting was still underway. While Oz had tried to capitalize on the former President’s support after receiving his endorsement in early April, McCormick and his allies argued that McCormick is the real conservative. “I like Trump … but not his Senate pick,” voters said in one McCormick ad ahead of the primary.

Political commentator Kathy Barnette emerged as a late electoral threat to both men, with the political arm of the Club for Growth announcing a nearly $2 million investment to boost her candidacy, as well as the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List and CatholicVote backing her. That late surge wasn’t enough, though. Barnette trailing Oz and McCormick.

The lingering question in the Keystone State is whether Trump’s backing of Oz will have made a difference if he holds on to his narrow lead after the recount – and what that means for the general election. Oz’s negatives were notably high compared with his opponents in a Fox poll ahead of the primary. Forty-six percent had an unfavorable view of Oz, while 27% and 12% had unfavorable views of McCormick and Barnette, respectively.

Fetterman already debuted a general election message in one of his ads ahead of the primary, in which he vowed to “take on Washington,” coming across as a progressive trying to run as a populist outsider. His primary opponents had trained their attacks on him in debates, especially over a 2013 incident in which he brought along his shotgun to confront someone who later turned out to be an unarmed Black jogger. And the primary had been rocked in the final days by news that Fetterman had suffered a stroke, leaving him in the hospital on election night.

The former Braddock mayor finished with about 59% of the vote to 26% for US Rep. Conor Lamb, who’s also from western Pennsylvania, but ran as more of a moderate and highlighted his success defeating “Trump Republicans” in his Pittsburgh-area House seat.

2. Georgia

Incumbent: Democrat Raphael Warnock

Megan Varner/Getty Images

Despite enduring attacks from GOP opponents, former NFL player Herschel Walker, who has the backing of both Trump and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, easily won the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Having won a special election runoff in January 2021, Warnock is now seeking a full six-year term. He raised an astounding $13.6 million in the first three months of the year, which follows impressive earlier quarterly hauls, and is running direct-to-camera ads on issues with bipartisan appeal such as jobs, infrastructure and health care. Meanwhile, Democrats hope that Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will generate the base turnout they desperately need in a midterm year.

But Warnock is in serious jeopardy, even against a wildcard candidate like Walker, who faces a myriad of questions about his business background and allegations of threats he made against women. Much of the GOP establishment viewed Walker as a liability at the beginning of the cycle but have, publicly at least, come around, while his team has worked to keep him relatively on script. Democrats’ road to Senate control ran through Georgia last cycle, but it’s still challenging political terrain for them, especially in a midterm year with an unpopular Democratic President.

One unknown wrinkle, however, is how the loss of Trump’s endorsed candidates for other statewide offices in the Peach State’s GOP primaries could shape turnout in the fall. Georgia proved that Republican voters, even committed Trump supporters, won’t necessarily follow his lead at the ballot box. They chose to stick with GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, for example, despite the former President railing against him for refusing to help him overturn the 2020 election. But some GOP strategists are still afraid of a repeat of the January 2021 Senate runoffs, when Trump’s outspoken criticism of the election system may have kept some of his voters home, allowing Democrats to pick up both of the state’s Senate seats.

3. Nevada

Incumbent: Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto

CNN

The Silver State moved up two slots in May’s ranking. Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto faces a tough race in a transient state that Biden won by 2 points in 2020. The President’s approval rating has sunk since then, and Nevada has some of the highest gas prices in the nation, which could play into the GOP messaging that’s trying to pin steep daily living costs on the party in power. Even if Cortez Masto manages to differentiate herself from generic Democrats, that effort could be overtaken by a bad national environment, especially if Republicans are able to make more inroads with Latino voters. It doesn’t help that the state Democratic Party is fractured.

Cortez Masto, the former chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, outraised likely GOP nominee Adam Laxalt in the first quarter of the year – $4.4 million to $1.6 million. But money isn’t expected to be an issue for Laxalt, a former state attorney general – he succeeded Cortez Masto in that role – and grandson of a former senator and governor, who will benefit from GOP outside spending. Democrats argue that Laxalt, who co-chaired Trump’s 2020 campaign in the state, has gone too far down the election conspiracy road and that his anti-abortion positions will alienate voters. But that may not matter as much if voters decide it’s time for a change in Washington.

Laxalt first faces a primary on June 14. Club for Growth Action, which is backing him, is on the air attacking Army veteran Sam Brown, who’s proven to be a competitive fundraiser. Laxalt is touting Trump’s backing in his own recent spot.

4. Arizona

Incumbent: Democrat Mark Kelly

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Holding steady in fourth position is Arizona, where Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly is running for a full six-year term after winning a special election in 2020. He’s one of the best-positioned Democratic incumbents when it comes to his personal story and campaign coffers. But the former astronaut has a voting record now and is running in a purple border state that only narrowly backed Biden. Kelly is trying to stake out differences from the White House – such as his opposition to lifting Title 42. But regardless of any real separation between him and Biden, messaging those nuances is an arguably tougher job than it is for Republicans to blanketly tie him to an unpopular President.

Luckily for Kelly, the messy Republican primary field won’t be sorted until August. So while he’s facing attacks from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he doesn’t yet have a well-defined opponent. Trump has teased that an endorsement is coming. It’s unlikely to be for state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who’s been a target of the former President’s wrath for not doing more to investigate the 2020 election. Venture capitalist Blake Masters is backed by Peter Thiel, who was also behind Trump’s chosen candidate in Ohio. But Masters also has the endorsement of the Club for Growth, which may not sit well with Trump given his differences with the group over the Ohio Senate primary.

5. Wisconsin

Incumbent: Republican Ron Johnson

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GOP Sen. Ron Johnson finally stepped up his fundraising – he brought in about $6 million in the first three months of the year after announcing in January that he was breaking his pledge to only serve two terms. He’s been running positive spots, featuring families who say their terminally ill loved ones benefited from Johnson’s support for so-called Right to Try legislation.

That’s not why Wisconsin slides down two spots on this list. The senator remains unpopular – 36% of registered voters viewed Johnson favorably while 46% viewed him unfavorably, according to a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday. (In February, the same poll found him underwater by a slightly worse 12 points.) Half of voters in the April Marquette survey said the phrase “cares about people like me” did not describe Johnson. That explains why Democrats continue to believe this seat is a better pickup opportunity with Johnson running than had it been an open seat.

But Biden is also unpopular in Wisconsin. After winning the state with about 49% in 2020, his approval rating has hovered at about 43%, with some 53% disapproving, since last fall. The winner of the Democratic primary in August will likely be tied to Biden, especially with inflation emerging as a top concern, according to the Marquette poll, and worries over the coronavirus (about which Johnson has said plenty of controversial things) reaching a new low.

The Democratic field is still uncertain. Support for Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who has been seen as the front-runner, declined slightly among likely primary voters in the Marquette poll, while support for Milwaukee Bucks basketball team executive Alex Lasry ticked up. State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski and Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson remained in the single digits. Nearly half of those likely primary voters, however, said they hadn’t picked a candidate. Lasry and Godlewski are pouring their own resources into the race to go up on TV. Barnes, who raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of the year, went up with his first TV ad in mid-May. But none of the candidates has emerged as a fundraising powerhouse the way other Democrats challenging unpopular Republicans (think Sens. Ted Cruz or Lindsey Graham) have in cycles past.

6. New Hampshire

Incumbent: Democrat Maggie Hassan

Erin Scott/Getty Images

New Hampshire remains at No. 6 as the Republican field – upended late last year by Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision not to seek the nomination – develops. Republicans looking to challenge Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan include state Senate President Chuck Morse, former Londonderry town manager Kevin Smith and retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who unsuccessfully sought the nomination for the state’s other Senate seat in 2020. And other Republicans have been throwing their hats in the ring ahead of New Hampshire’s late primary in September.

Hassan, a former two-term governor, is seeking a second Senate term in a state that, on paper, should be more favorable to Democrats than any other state on this list. Biden carried New Hampshire by 7 points in 2020. An unfavorable national environment, however, could hurt her reelection chances, even without an opponent of Sununu’s caliber. Hassan has come out against the Biden administration’s plan to lift Title 42, making her own trip to the border last month that angered several Latino leaders back home.

7. North Carolina

Incumbent: Republican Richard Burr (retiring)

Demetrius Freeman/Pool/Getty Images

One of Trump’s earliest Senate primary endorsements – for US Rep. Ted Budd last June – resulted in victory here on May 17, with Budd easily dispatching former Gov. Pat McCrory and former US Rep. Mark Walker for the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Burr.

The Trump endorsement didn’t clear the field for Budd, but heavy spending from the conservative Club for Growth Action helped boost him. One spot ahead of the primary featured Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson praising Budd and knocking McCrory. “Pat’s a nice guy, but he’s no conservative,” Robinson says, admitting that he’d voted for McCrory in the past “but not this time.” McCrory and his allies touted his record on immigration and argued that Budd is “weak” on a host of issues.

On the Democratic side, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who won 81% of the vote in the primary, had essentially already cleared the primary field and pivoted to the general election. “Looking at Washington, I think both parties are doing the job wrong,” she said in an ad ahead of the primary. Beasley had outraised all the Republicans in the first quarter of this year, but money won’t be enough in a state Trump won twice, especially in a midterm year, when Democratic turnout has often waned. Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP super PAC aligned with McConnell, made ad reservations in the state ahead of the primary to help the GOP nominee. The Democratic equivalent, Senate Majority PAC, announced an ad buy defending Beasley after the primary, despite leaving North Carolina off its list of initial reservations earlier this spring.

8. Florida

Incumbent: Republican Marco Rubio

DREW ANGERER/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

Democratic Rep. Val Demings, a former Orlando police chief with a compelling story, continues to outraise Republican incumbent Marco Rubio, bringing in more than $10 million during the first three months of the year to Rubio’s $5.8 million. Her campaign recently announced a Hispanic outreach effort and a $3 million investment in a state bilingual coordinated campaign.

But while money is important in this expensive state, it won’t be enough to flip the seat. And none of the major outside groups have made ad reservations here, signaling that they view the race as less competitive. Demings already started at a disadvantage in a state where Trump expanded on his victory margin in 2020 from four years earlier, but her job would be even harder if the national mood continues to sour on Democrats this fall. She and Rubio have traded barbs on gas prices and immigration. Rubio’s campaign has tried to tie Demings to Biden’s decision to rescind Title 42. Demings’ team recently said she does not support lifting the measure “until there is a plan to put more boots on the ground and support our law enforcement officers at the border.”

9. Ohio

Incumbent: Republican Rob Portman (retiring)

TING SHEN/AFP/POOL/Getty Images

The first major test of Trump’s endorsement in a Senate primary this year was a success for the former President. “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, who received Trump’s backing in mid-April, won the nomination on May 3 with about 32% of the vote, finishing ahead of former state treasurer Josh Mandel (24%) and state Sen. Matt Dolan (23%).

Vance’s public criticism of Trump from 2016 had been a treasure trove for his primary opponents and their ad-makers. The former President, though, was willing to look past that. And it paid off for Vance, who saw his support double in a Fox poll ahead of the primary. It was a topsy-turvy race, but it’s likely that Vance landed on top at just the right moment for it to matter.

Still, missing out on Trump’s endorsement didn’t stop the jockeying among some other candidates (and their allies) to tie themselves most closely to him. Club for Growth Action, for example, which had backed Mandel and is in an open spat with Trump, ran more clips of Vance’s past criticism of Trump. Another Club ad featured people, some of whom said “they love Trump,” questioning the former President’s judgment on endorsements past and present.

Only Dolan ran truly outside the Trump election conspiracy lane in the GOP primary. Interestingly, his stock had risen in polling right before the election, presaging his third-place finish ahead of candidates who had tried to tie themselves more closely to Trump, including former state party chair Jane Timken, who had the backing of retiring Sen. Rob Portman, and businessman Mike Gibbons.

Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan easily won his party’s nomination but starts at a disadvantage in this reddening state.

10. Missouri

Incumbent: Republican Roy Blunt (retiring)

Saul Loeb/Pool/Getty Images

It’s still all about Eric Greitens in Missouri – does the former governor, who resigned in disgrace in 2018, stay in the Republican race? Does he score Trump’s endorsement? And does he win the GOP nod in August? Those are the series of questions that will determine whether Missouri – a red state that shouldn’t otherwise be competitive – remains on this list.

Concerns about Greitens deepened in March after court documents revealed that his former wife had alleged he was physically abusive toward her and his children, which he denies. Greitens is no stranger to controversy, having resigned as governor amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Many of his primary opponents have called on him to drop out. Anxious Republicans would like to see their primary field thin, fearing that such a crowded pool of candidates could end up splitting the anti-Greitens vote and handing him a victory.

Some Democrats smell opportunity. Trudy Busch Valentine, a nurse and Anheuser-Busch beer heiress, jumped into the race this spring. She hasn’t said how much she’ll invest in her campaign, but should this race become competitive, Democrats may benefit from having a candidate with her own money to spend. But Valentine first has a primary to win – while one Democrat dropped out of the race and endorsed her, the top fundraiser, Marine veteran Lucas Kunce, doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.

This story has been updated with additional details in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.

A timeline of the killings of four University of Idaho students

CNN —

A suspect was taken into custody in connection with the investigation into the killing of four University of Idaho students in November in an off-campus home in Moscow, two federal law enforcement sources confirmed to CNN on Friday.

During a news conference on Friday, Moscow Police Chief James Fry confirmed the arrest of 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, on a warrant for the murders of the four students.

He said the suspect resides in Pullman, Washington, and is a graduate student.

The name of the suspect was confirmed to CNN earlier on Friday by a federal law enforcement source as well as a court source in Pennsylvania, where records show Kohberger was arrested and arraigned Friday morning. The arraignment was in Monroe County, in the Pocono Mountains, a state official said.

Police have been tight-lipped over the course of nearly seven weeks since the killings, which prompted investigations by the FBI, state police and Moscow police.

Fry acknowledged frustrations from the victims’ family members and Idaho residents who were anxious for more updates during the course of the investigation.

“This was a complex and extensive case. We developed a clear picture over time …and be assured that the work was not, the work is not done,” Fry said.

Authorities have provided some information on the killings during the course of the investigation, and a preliminary timeline reveals how those killed spent some of their final hours, as well as the investigative response.

Saturday, November 12

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were students at the University of Idaho who lived at a nearby off-campus residence in Moscow, a college town of about 25,000 people.

They had two other roommates in the three-floor, six-bedroom apartment.

Goncalves posted a series of photos on her Instagram at some point with the caption, “one lucky girl to be surrounded by these ppl everyday.” One of the photos shows Mogen sitting on Goncalves’ shoulders, with Chapin and Kernodle standing next to them.

Clockwise from bottom left: Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle From Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram

That night, Chapin and Kernodle went to a party on campus, and Mogen and Goncalves went to a downtown bar, police said.

Sunday, November 13

Mogen and Goncalves ordered at a late-night food truck at about 1:41 a.m., the food truck’s live Twitch stream shows.

They ordered $10 worth of carbonara from the Grub Truckers and waited for about 10 minutes for their food. As they waited, they could be seen chatting with each other and with other people standing by the truck.

The two students did not seem to be in distress or in danger in any way, said Joseph Woodall, 26, who manages the truck.

Video Ad Feedback Video shows two University of Idaho victims at food truck on night of killings 01:00 - Source: CNN

Chapin and Kernodle are believed to have returned home around 1:45 a.m., and Goncalves and Mogen used a private party for a ride home at about 1:56 a.m., according to police.

One of the surviving roommates, identified in court paperwork as “D.M.,” told investigators she “heard crying” in the house the morning of the murders and heard a voice say “it’s ok, I’m going to help you.”

She then saw a “figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” the affidavit said.

“D.M. described the figure as 5’10” or taller, male, not very muscular, but athletically built with bushy eyebrows. The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase,’” court documents reveal.

“The male walked towards the back sliding glass door. D.M. locked herself in her room after seeing the male,” the document says, adding the roommate did not recognize the male.

Statements by “the surviving witness and other evidence leads investigators to believe the homicides occurred between 4:00 a.m. and 4:25 a.m.,” according to court documents.

The two roommates at the home who were not injured woke up later in the morning and summoned friends to the home because they believed one of the victims had passed out and was not waking up. A call to 911 was made just before noon about an unconscious person at the residence, police said.

Arriving officers found the door to the residence open and discovered the bodies of four fatally stabbed students.

“It was a pretty traumatic scene to find four dead college students in a residence,” Latah County Coroner Cathy Mabbutt later told CNN affiliate KXLY.

There was no sign of forced entry or damage, police said.

Officers investigate a homicide at an apartment complex south of the University of Idaho campus on November 13. Zach Wilkinson/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News/AP

Phone records indicate Kohberger’s phone was near the quadruple murder scene between 9:12 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. – hours after Kohberger allegedly killed the university students, court documents say.

Moscow Police issued a statement saying four people were found dead in a home off campus. University of Idaho President Scott Green announced the four victims were students and canceled classes Monday.

Monday, November 14

Moscow Police issued a statement identifying the four homicide victims as Chapin, Goncalves, Kernodle and Mogen.

Police said details were limited and no one was in custody. They added Moscow police did “not believe there is an ongoing community risk based on information gathered during the preliminary investigation.”

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge released a statement calling the deaths “senseless acts of violence.” Bettge said only limited information could be shared without “jeopardizing the integrity of the investigation.”

Green issued a statement offering condolences to the victims’ families and the community.

“Moscow police do not believe there is an ongoing community risk based on information gathered during the preliminary investigation, however, we ask our employees to be empathetic, flexible and to work with our students who desire to return home to spend time with their families,” he said.

Tuesday, November 15

Moscow Police issued a statement saying an “edged weapon such as a knife” was used in the killings. No suspects were in custody and no murder weapon had been found, police said.

“Also, based on information from the preliminary investigation, investigators believe this was an isolated, targeted attack and there is no imminent threat to the community at large,” police said.

Later in the day, police released another statement, attempting to calm fears of a killer on the loose.

“We hear you, and we understand your fears,” police said. “We determined early in the investigation that we do not believe there is an ongoing threat for community members. Evidence indicates that this was a targeted attack.”

Wednesday, November 16

Moscow Police Department Chief James Fry speaks November 16 during a news conference in Moscow, Idaho. City of Moscow

Police Chief Fry held a news conference – the department’s first in the case – and reiterated there was no suspect. He also backtracked on the assurances of no one at risk.

“We cannot say there’s no threat to the community,” Fry said. “And as we have stated, please stay vigilant, report any suspicious activity and be aware of your surroundings at all times.”

Two other roommates were home at the time of the attack and were not injured, Fry said.

“There was other people home at that time, but we’re not just focusing just on them, we’re focusing on everybody that may be coming and going from that residence,” he said.

Friday, November 18

Five days after the murders, Kohberger received a new license plate for his white Hyundai Elantra, court documents citing licensing documents Washington State licensing records reveal.

The Washington State Department of licensing provided CNN a redacted copy of a vehicle record which included a license plate number matching what is described as the new license plate in the court documents.

Detectives by then had conducted 38 interviews with people “who may have information” about the killings and had taken the contents of three dumpsters near the house in case they held evidence, they said.

Investigators also asked local businesses if there had been any recent purchases of a “fixed-blade knife,” according to the police update.

Investigators released a map depicting the movements of four University of Idaho students the night they were murdered. Moscow Police Department

Hoping for tips from the community, investigators released a map and timeline of the victims’ movements. The map shows the four students spent most of the night separated in pairs.

The victims were “likely asleep” before they were attacked, police said.

“Most definitely someone somewhere has a tidbit of information that will help break this case open and we believe the public around here will have that information for us,” Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell said.

The victims were found on the second and third floors of their home, Snell told CNN.

Mabbutt, the coroner, told CNN she saw “lots of blood on the wall” when she arrived at the scene. She confirmed there were multiple stab wounds on each body – likely from the same weapon – but would not disclose how many wounds nor where most were located.

Saturday, November 19

Authorities spent about two hours at the crime scene as a part of the investigation.

“We’re trying to expedite everything that might possibly lead to a suspect,” said Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson, who was there.

“I wish we had more answers, and they’re still asking questions,” Thompson said.

Sunday, November 20

One week after the bodies of the four students were discovered, authorities still had no suspect or weapon, Moscow Police Capt. Roger Lanier said.

Police had fielded 646 tips and conducted more than 90 interviews, Police Chief Fry said at a news conference.

Fry declined to identify who placed the 911 call from the home where the students were slain, saying only the call came from the phone of one of the surviving roommates. He wouldn’t confirm which one placed the call.

There were other “friends that had arrived at the location,” Fry said, adding the person who called 911 is not a suspect.

Tuesday, November 22

Moscow Police said they have looked extensively into information suggesting Goncalves had a stalker, but they have not been able to verify or identify one.

Friday, November 29

A Washington State University officer located a 2015 white Hyundai Elantra registered to Kohberger in an apartment complex parking lot, and officials were able to zero in on Kohberger because his driver’s license information and photograph were consistent with the roommate’s description.

Wednesday, November 30

Moscow Police release a list of people who they believe are not involved in the crime, including the two surviving roommates, a man in the Grub Truck surveillance video, the private party driver who took Goncalves and Mogen home, the man Goncalves and Mogen called numerous times the night they were killed and any person at the home when 911 was called.

A series of comments from law enforcement officials added further confusion to the investigation.

Thompson, the Latah County prosecutor, said at least one of the victims was “undoubtedly targeted” in the attack.

Soon after, Moscow Police said they spoke with Thompson and affirmed his comments were a miscommunication. “Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted but continue to investigate,” police said, appearing to backtrack on earlier statements.

Police then had to further clarify they believe the attack was indeed “targeted,” but investigators have not concluded if the target was the residence or its occupants.

Monday, December 5

Regarding Goncalves’ possibly having a stalker, police said investigators identified an incident in October in which two men were seen at a business and one man appeared to follow Goncalves inside and as she exited to her car. The man did not make contact with her.

Investigators contacted both men and learned they were trying to meet women at this business. Detectives said they believe this was an isolated incident and not a pattern of stalking and said there was no evidence to suggest the men were involved in the killings.

Wednesday, December 7

Police said this white Hyundai Elantra was spotted near the crime scene early morning of November 13. Moscow Police/Stock Photo

Investigators said they are interested in speaking with the occupant or occupants of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra spotted near the crime scene around the time of the killings.

“Investigators believe the occupant(s) of this vehicle may have critical information to share regarding this case,” the police statement said, noting it had an unknown license plate.

Moscow police began returning some of the personal belongings of the four victims to the their families, officials said.

“It’s time for us to give those things back that really mean something to those families and hopefully to help with some of their healing,” Police Chief Fry said in a brief video statement.

“I’m a dad, I understand the meaning behind some of those things,” Fry said. The items being removed are “no longer needed for the investigation,” the police department said.

Friday, December 9

Moscow police said they have received an overwhelming number of tips related to their search for a white sedan seen near the crime scene around the time of the killings.

Investigators were working through more than 6,000 tips they have received over the course of the investigation, Idaho State Police spokesperson Aaron Snell told CNN.

Due to the number of tips received, calls were being directed to an FBI call center to help sort leads received, police said.

Monday, December 12

“We are still 100% committed to solving this crime,” Moscow Police Capt. Lanier said in a video update on the investigation.

“We’re not releasing specific details because we do not want to compromise this investigation. It’s what we must do. We owe that to the families, and we owe that to the victims. We want more than just an arrest, we want a conviction,” Lanier said.

Lanier’s remarks came as hundreds of University of Idaho students were taking final exams the week before the fall semester ends.

“Our analysts have spent hours sorting through and trying to come up with the most relevant tips first for the investigators to follow up on. They have reinterviewed some of the folks we’ve interviewed earlier in this investigation to clarify information,” Lanier said.

Everyone in Moscow should be aware of their surroundings, avoid walking in dark places and walk in groups when possible, Lanier said.

“This is not an indication of a specific elevated risk, but something that we should be vigilant with just in our daily lives,” he added.

Thursday, December 15

Kristi Goncalves, the mother of 21-year-old victim Kaylee Goncalves, expressed frustration over police communications on the status of the investigation into the killings in an interview aired on NBC’s “Today” show.

“It’s sleepless nights. It’s feeling sick to your stomach. It’s just being left in the dark,” Goncalves said in the interview.

Goncalves also recounted the day she learned something had happened to her daughter.

“We’re running around for hours just not knowing what was going on, what happened,” she said. “… We found out by people calling us. And the sheriff showed up about three hours later.”

Goncalves described learning about the police interest in a white Hyundai sedan seen in the area around the time of the murders not from investigators, but from reading about it in a news release sent to her by someone else.

“My first thought just started being like, how long have they had this information? Where do they get this information? Was it on a camera?” Goncalves said.

Tuesday, December 27

Trash recovered from the Kohberger family residence by Pennsylvania law enforcement and sent to the Idaho State Lab for DNA testing was used to help investigators narrow down Bryan Kohberger as the suspect in the Idaho murders, according to court documents released on January 5.

The next day “the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash” matched a tan leather knife sheath found “laying on the bed” of one of the victims, according to the documents.

“On December 28, 2022, the Idaho State Lab reported that a DNA profile obtained from the trash and the DNA profile obtained from the sheath, identified a male as not being excluded as the biological father of Suspect Profile,” the document says.

“At least 99.9998% of the male population would be expected to be excluded from the possibility of being the suspect’s biological father.”

Thursday, December 29

Police said they have received about 20,000 tips through more than 9,025 emails, 4,575 phone calls, and 6,050 digital media submissions, while having conducted over 300 interviews in the case of the four students slain in an off-campus home.

The home where the killings took place will be cleaned up but remain an active crime scene under police control, authorities said Thursday.

Moscow police said they have worked with a property management services company to remove “potential biohazards and other harmful substances used to collect evidence,” the update said. The home will be turned over to the property management company.

Friday, December 30

A suspect was taken into custody in connection with the investigation into the murders of the four students, two federal law enforcement sources confirmed to CNN on Friday.

The arrest in the fatal stabbing case was made by Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI in northeastern Pennsylvania, the law enforcement sources told CNN.

Later that afternoon, Moscow Police Chief Fry in a news conference confirmed the arrest in Pennsylvania on a warrant for the murders of the four students. Kohberger resides in Pullman, Washington, and is a graduate student, Fry said.

A criminal complaint was filed on Thursday charging Kohberger with four counts of first-degree murder and felony burglary, Latah County Prosecutor Thompson said during the news conference.

Kohberger’s DNA has also been matched to genetic material recovered at the off-campus house where the students were stabbed to death, sources told CNN.

Thompson told members of the public that investigators are not done building their case against the suspect and that officials still need help gathering more information.

Fry said police will aim to prove as much information they can about the extradition to Idaho and the criminal process, but due to Idaho state law they are limited in the information they can share until the suspect has his initial appearance in an Idaho court.

Tuesday, January 3

In an extradition hearing in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Kohberger agreed to be extradited to Idaho. The judge ordered that he must be handed over to the custody of Latah County District Attorney’s Office in Idaho within 10 days.

Thursday, January 5

Kohberger made his initial appearance in court at the Latah County Courthouse in Moscow, Idaho on January 5.

Kohberger smiled at his public defender when he walked into the courtroom and did not appear to made eye contact with anyone else throughout the entire proceeding, including family members of victims who were crying in the first row.

Bryan Kohberger, right, who is accused of killing four University of Idaho students in November 2022, is escorted into a courtroom for a hearing in Latah County District Court, Thursday, January 5, 2023, in Moscow, Idaho. Ted S. Warren/Pool/AP

Steve Goncalves, whose daughter Kaylee Goncalves was one of the murdered victims, was with his wife and other relatives in the front row, a CNN team in the courtroom reported, adding family members were seen staring at Kohberger throughout the hearing.

A no contact order for the murdered victims’ family members and the surviving roommates for two years was requested by the prosecutor and upheld by the judge.

After Kohberger’s court appointed attorney Anne Chere Taylor requested a review of bail and prosecutor Bill Thompson argued no bail should be upheld, the magistrate judge presiding over the case upheld no bail for the alleged murderer.

A status hearing ahead of Kohberger’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 12 at 10 a.m.

Alaa Elassar Eric Levenson Emma Tucker
Alaa Elassar
Eric Levenson
Emma Tucker

Superstorm art, Key West Fantasy Fest: News from around our 50 ...

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Birmingham: Work is beginning on a business park that promoters say could mean about 1,200 jobs east of downtown. Officials held a groundbreaking Thursday for Grand River Technology Park, which will be located off Interstate 20 beside Barber Motorsports Park near Leeds. The project is planned as a regional site for research, development and light manufacturing. It’s also being billed for tourism, as the race track is nearby, and the Southern Museum of Flight plans to relocate there. Al.com reports the park is being funded in part by a $6 million grant from an Alabama Labor Department program to use abandoned mine sites. The park will reclaim about 105 acres of undeveloped land surrounding several old coal mining areas in eastern Jefferson County.

Alaska

Anchorage: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has extended its deadline to review numerous comments submitted for a draft environmental review of the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. Assistant Secretary of the Army R.D. James extended Thursday’s deadline to Feb. 28 to consider comments, including those from the Environmental Protection Agency, and to draft a preliminary final environmental impact statement. In a letter to the EPA, James says the Corps, the EPA and others will meet soon to resolve outstanding issues related to the proposed gold and copper mine. The new deadline reflects EPA’s 30-day request to review the draft statements and to consult with the Corps as they develop final versions.

Arizona

Scottsdale: A woman who teaches third graders from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is the first Native American to be named the Arizona Education Foundation’s teacher of the year. Lynette Stant teaches at Salt River Elementary, a Bureau of Indian Education school located in the community near Scottsdale. Stant’s recognition as Arizona’s top teacher was announced Thursday. A member of the Navajo Nation, she’s the first Native American to receive the recognition in the award’s 37-year history. The teacher says she attended a small reservation school in New Mexico during her primary years. Stant has been teaching at the Salt River school for 16 years. It has 19 teachers and about 330 students.

Arkansas

Yellville: Officials say a hunter died after he was attacked by a deer that he’d shot and believed to be dead. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens says 66-year-old Thomas Alexander shot a buck with a muzzleloader while hunting Tuesday near Yellville, an area in the Ozark Mountains about 105 miles north of Little Rock. Stephens tells Springfield, Missouri, television station KY3 the buck attacked Alexander when the hunter approached the animal to see if it was dead. He says Alexander, who suffered multiple puncture wounds, later died at a hospital. Stephens says it’s not clear how long Alexander waited before checking on the deer, but that the agency recommends waiting at least 30 minutes before approaching.

California

Westminster: The remains of 81 South Vietnamese soldiers shot down over Vietnam in 1965 have been interred at Southern California’s Westminster Memorial Park. Richard Spencer, secretary of the U.S. Navy, joined local officials for a procession and ceremony Saturday just outside Little Saigon in Orange County. The airborne soldiers of the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam were shot down in a remote area along with four American service members. The remains, which were commingled, were recovered in 1974 and eventually shipped to the U.S. The Americans were identified thanks to DNA technology. Efforts to return the other remains to Vietnam failed, so officials decided to give the unknown South Vietnamese soldiers a final resting place in the U.S. Orange County is home to the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside Vietnam.

Colorado

Denver: A doctor fired by a Christian hospital company after trying to help a terminally ill man obtain drugs to hasten his death has a new job with a community health center. The Denver Post reports Dr. Barbara Morris, a geriatrician, has accepted a job with Stride Community Health Center in Lakewood. Stride officials say she will start in February. Morris was fired from St. Anthony Hospital in August after she and a patient filed a legal case challenging Centura Health’s policy against physician aid-in-dying. Centura was formed by Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist health care ministries. Colorado voters legalized physician aid-in-dying in 2016. The law forbids limiting a physican’s medical judgment on the issue, but the hospitals argue Colorado law can’t interfere with a religious organization carrying out its mission.

Connecticut

Hartford: The city is considering turning five residential streets into what it’s calling “bicycle boulevards.” The Hartford Courant reports the city will hold public meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss repurposing the roads for use mostly by bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Vehicle traffic would not be blocked on the streets but would be discouraged through signage. Similar streets have been set up in more than 10 states across the country and are sometimes referred to as “neighborways” or “neighborhood greenways.” The “bike boulevards” would be paid for with a $100,000, private Made to Move grant, an initiative between Degree Deodorant and Blue Zones LLC, founded by author Dan Buettner.

Delaware

Wilmington: The City Council violated state law when it barred a man from speaking at one of its public meetings last month, the Delaware Department of Justice announced Friday in an opinion. Dion Wilson was banned from speaking at the Sept. 19 meeting after being accused by City Council President Hanifa Shabazz of disrupting two meetings by yelling after she prevented him from speaking during the public comment portion, noting the use of profanity. Shabazz said she will ensure that City Council meetings comply with all regulations. The Justice Department’s decision did not touch on Wilson’s Oct. 2 arrest, in which he was charged with harassment and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

District of Columbia

Washington: President Donald Trump’s company is exploring the sale of its Pennsylvania Avenue hotel, which has been at the center of three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency. The Trump Organization said in a statement Friday that it will consider offers to buy it out of a 60-year lease of the building partly because “people are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel.” The Trump International Hotel has been a magnet for lobbyists and diplomats looking to curry favor with the Trump administration. In Trump’s latest financial disclosure, the opulent hotel built from the Old Post Office building just steps from the White House generated nearly $41 million, up less than half a million from last year.

Florida

Key West: The often-decadent Fantasy Fest wrapped up over the weekend, bringing flair to this island town. At Wednesday evening’s family friendly Pet Masquerade, entrants included costumed dogs, cats and a tortoise carrying a plush rabbit themed “The Tortoise and the Hare,” drawing inspiration from the fable of the same name. The overall winner was Diana Benton of Titusville, Florida, who dressed her two cats as country artists Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, subscribing to the festival’s musical theme of “In Tune But ... Off Key.” Other highlights included Friday afternoon’s masquerade march and a parade with floats and flamboyantly costumed marching groups. Saturday night’s parade was expected to draw some 60,000 revelers. The 10-day festival ended Sunday after a children’s carnival and an afternoon dance party.

Georgia

Atlanta: Overall grades for the state’s schools fell in the 2018-2019 school year, with two state leaders repeating their call to overhaul grading methods. The typical school statewide scored 75.9 points on a 100-point scale, down from 76.6 points last year. Performance rose in high schools but fell slightly in elementary schools and more broadly in middle schools. Georgia’s system seeks to grade schools on student content mastery, academic progress and readiness, whether underperforming groups are closing gaps, and whether high school students graduate on time. State officials say scores fell because of lower scores on progress and closing gaps. State Superintendent Richard Woods and Gov. Brian Kemp say they want changes, with Woods calling for less reliance on standardized test scores.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A judge says a 93-year-old Native Hawaiian heiress doesn’t need a guardian to take care of her but is ordering a hearing to determine whether she needs a conservator to manage her $215 million trust. Abigail Kawananakoa’s wealth has been tied up in a legal battle since her 2017 stroke. She’s considered a princess because she’s a descendant of the family that ruled Hawaii before the kingdom’s 1893 overthrow. Board members of her foundation and ex-employees say her wife is manipulating her. Lawyers for the couple dispute that. Native Hawaiians have been watching the case because they’re concerned about the fate of the foundation she set up to benefit Hawaiians. The couple’s lawyers said Friday that Kawananakoa should be able to do what she wants with her money.

Idaho

Challis: Officials say they plan to use a helicopter to capture 365 wild horses in central Idaho in early November to reduce the number of horses to about 185. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management in a news release Friday says the roundup in the Challis Herd Management Area near the town of Challis will begin on or about Nov. 5 and take up to nine days. The agency says balancing herd size with what the 260-square-mile management area can support will help protect habitat for wildlife species such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, mule deer and elk. The agency says mares released back into the management area will be treated with fertility control. About 240 horses not released back into the wild will be transported to the Bruneau Wild Horse Off-Range Corral facility southeast of Boise for adoption.

Illinois

Springfield: The Illinois State Museum has returned 42 culturally significant items to representatives of two Aboriginal communities in Australia. A University of Chicago anthropologist who worked in Australia to record indigenous languages collected the items between 1929 and 1931. They were transferred to the museum in 1942. The State Journal-Register reports that an Australian delegation received the artifacts Wednesday during a ceremony at the Illinois State Museum’s Research and Collections Center in Springfield. Brooke Morgan, the museum’s curator of anthropology, said the items returned include secret, sacred, secular and ceremonial objects. They will be returned to Aranda and Bardi Jawi communities in Australia. Morgan said the items will be used in Australia to “revitalize cultural practices” to teach young generations how to make these traditional artifacts.

Indiana

Elkhart: A northern Indiana airport’s parking ramp for aircraft will undergo a half-million-dollar repaving job after two jets sank into the asphalt over the summer. City attorney Lawrence Meteiver says the ramp was installed at the Elkhart Municipal Airport last year by the city at a cost of about $50,000. Indiana Flight Center President Brett Zierle says a 30,000-pound Bombardier Challenger and a 15,500-pound Cessna Citation XLS sank into the asphalt ramp in June on days when the temperature reached only into the 70s. He says the asphalt is soft and not capable of supporting the weight of those aircraft. The Elkhart Truth reports that Meteiver says an asphalt mix recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration will be installed after this winter at a cost of about $565,000.

Iowa

Knoxville: A woman has died after an explosion at a gender reveal party created debris that hit her. The Marion County Sheriff’s office says the explosion happened at a home in central Iowa about 4 p.m. Saturday during a party to announce the gender of a baby a couple is expecting. Deputies arrived at the home in Knoxville, about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines, to find a 56-year-old woman dead. Investigators determined an explosion during the gender reveal announcement caused the woman’s death. No other details about the explosion were available.

Kansas

Topeka: State legislators went too far by criminalizing violent language not backed up by an intent to act, the state’s highest court ruled Friday in striking down part of a law that it says violates free speech rights. The Kansas Supreme Court kept in place portions of the 2010 law banning “true threats” but struck down the provision making it a felony for someone to be “reckless” in using threatening language that makes others afraid, even if the person making the comments doesn’t intend violence. The justices said that part of the law is so broad that it might apply to the speech of political protesters, violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The court said the state still can prosecute people who intentionally threaten of violence.

Kentucky

Burgin: The Federal Aviation Administration says a mysterious object that seemingly dropped from the sky and damaged a man’s mobile home didn’t come from an airplane. Tommy Woosley says a heavy, nearly footlong canister-type object hit his home in Burgin, about 75 miles southeast of Louisville, two weeks ago. But the FAA and Norfolk Southern Railway say their transportation units have nothing to do with the object that lodged into the siding of his home. The National Guard and nearby Fort Campbell military base have also denied responsibility. Authorities initially believed the canister may have fallen from a plane, but an FAA spokeswoman says their investigation ruled it out. She says the agency is turning the object over to the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office for further investigation.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Former Mayor Mitch Landrieu is tackling the race issue, starting with a report called “Divided by Design.” The report released Friday is based on surveys and interviews with people in in 28 communities in 13 Southern states. It touts efforts to bridge racial gaps. But it also says segregation and inequality remain major barriers to advancement for many. And it notes widespread, conflicting views on racism among African Americans, Latinos and whites. When Landrieu was mayor, he removed four Jim Crow-era monuments from the New Orleans landscape, including statues of three Confederate icons. This report is the first project of the E Pluribus Unum Fund, which Landrieu launched after leaving office in May 2018. It calls for cultivating courageous leaders who can build common ground.

Maine

West Gardiner: Democratic Gov. Janet Mills says a new, fast-charging station for electric cars and incentives for more of them will help break fossil fuel companies’ “stranglehold” over Mainers’ wallets. Mills on Friday unveiled the new charging station at the Maine Turnpike plaza in West Gardiner, saying it was funded through federal Volkswagen settlement money awarded to the state’s Department of Transportation. Mills also says 23 municipalities will receive incentives to install 47 new charging stations across the state for public use. It’s part of a larger effort to boost the charging infrastructure for electric cars. Mills says charging stations make electric cars a reality for more people, help people save money on fuel and protect the environment. She calls it a “hat-trick for Maine.”

Maryland

Berlin: A 14-year-old girl has adopted all 75 ponies from the Maryland herd of Assateague Island ponies. Zoe Newman this month became the first person ever to foster every horse in the herd. The adoptions, which have cost Zoe and her mother more than $3,000 so far, are symbolic and provide the Assateague Island National Seashore with education and herd management funds. Zoe and her mother, Sam Newman, often get up at 4 a.m. to make the three-hour drive from their Lexington Park home to get to the park by sunrise. They’ve visited about 30 times over the past few years. Zoe first adopted an Assateague pony when she was 10 years old and used her savings on a chestnut pinto named Annie Laurie.

Massachusetts

Boston: A new study is recommending state officials address gambling addiction in Asian American communities. Researchers with the University of Massachusetts-Boston presented to the state’s Gaming Commission last week the results of a state-funded study in Boston’s Chinatown. The study found Chinatown residents who frequently visited casinos in the region did so to relieve stress from their low-wage jobs or in the hopes of escaping poverty. Researchers also found study participants were drawn to casinos because of gambling coupons, meal deals, bus rides and other casino promotions targeting Asian communities. The researchers recommend the state develop “culturally tailored” public health campaigns and gambling counseling services. They also recommend launching a broader study encompassing Vietnamese, Cambodian and Chinese communities in Quincy, Lowell, Malden and Worcester.

Michigan

Lansing: A study has found few of the state’s residents are taking advantage of a legal option that allows people to erase their criminal convictions, even though an expungement can open doors to housing, student loans and employment. A University of Michigan law school study estimates just 6.5% of people who meet the requirements end up having their convictions set aside within five years of becoming eligible. Attorneys and law students volunteered their time last week at a free clinic in Lansing to educate more than 100 people on how to clear their records. The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is using a $20,000 grant from the Michigan State Bar Foundation to host a series of free clinics around the state.

Minnesota

Duluth: A homeless man who pleaded guilty to starting a fire that destroyed a 117-year-old synagogue has been sentenced to three months in jail and 192 hours of community service. KTTC-TV reports 36-year-old Matthew Amiot was sentenced Friday. He pleaded guilty last month to negligent fire charges. Amiot received credit for the 36 days he has already served in jail. The fire destroyed the Adas Israel Synagogue in Duluth on Sept. 9. Authorities say Amiot used a lighter to ignite combustible materials outside the main building, near a separate religious structure called a sukkah. Amiot told police he tried to spit on the fire to put it out and walked away when that didn’t work. Police don’t believe the fire was a hate crime.

Mississippi

Taylor: The site of an elementary school that served black children during segregation is set to become a park. The Oxford Eagle reports the plans for the park at the site of Weems Elementary were approved last week by the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors. The supervisors approved demolition of the school in May 2018 after a fire damaged most of the structure. A $1-per-year lease was approved with the newly formed nonprofit group Taylor Park Recreation, which will raise money for park construction. Throughout the 1960s, Weems taught black students between first and eighth grades. The state’s public schools were officially integrated in 1970, leading many such schools to shutter.

Missouri

Sparta: The mayor of this tiny town says its hand-activated tornado warning siren needs to be retired. Mayor Jenni Davis is the only person in the town of 1,900 residents authorized to activate the tornado siren. The problem with the odd and antiquated system became evident early Monday when a twister was approaching town. Davis wanted to get downtown to flip the switch activating the siren, but a tree blocked her path. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Some towns are turning away from tornado warning sirens because cellphone apps and other technology that alert to approaching storms are increasingly common. But some experts say outdoor sirens still serve a purpose. Davis would like to replace the old siren, but the cost of up to $50,000 is more than the city can afford. A congressman’s office is seeking grant money to help.

Montana

West Glacier: Crews have completed the two-year, nearly $9 million effort of reconstructing the historic Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park after it was gutted by a wildfire. Project Manager Travis Neil of Dick Anderson Construction tells the Hungry Horse News that the crews will return next year to finish some minor tasks to help the National Park Service to get the chalet opened for next summer. The 105-year-old wood and stone dormitory located in a remote area of the park burned when embers from a wildfire rained down on it Aug. 31, 2017. All that remained was the building’s stone shell. Kevin Warrington of Belton Chalets, which operates the chalet, said Sperry Chalet will take reservations on Jan. 13, 2020, for the summer season.

Nebraska

Lincoln: A career military man and former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy was chosen Friday as the top candidate to become the next president of the University of Nebraska system. The university Board of Regents voted unanimously to nominate Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. as their priority candidate. Carter is a retired Navy vice admiral and served as superintendent of his alma mater, the U.S. Naval Academy, from 2014 until this year. “Ted’s character and integrity are second to none,” said University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen, of Columbus, who led the search. “He has a proven focus on the success and well-being of students, faculty and staff. He has a deep appreciation for the role and mission of higher education. And is a public servant in every sense of the word.”

Nevada

Las Vegas: Police say a woman who was angered when she was kicked out of an area casino intentionally drove her motorhome into the building, injuring a custodian. North Las Vegas Police spokesman Eric Leavitt says the 50-year-old woman was ejected from the Cannery casino Friday morning and drove her Winnebago into the building. Leavitt says the woman hit a 66-year-old custodial worker outside the building. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the worker was critically injured but is expected to survive. Leavitt told KVVU-TV the woman kept hitting the gas, and her vehicle was stuck in the building’s entrance. Employees had to remove the woman to get her to stop. Leavitt says police who were already at the casino arrested the woman. Her identity was not immediately released.

New Hampshire

Hampstead: Parents and other visitors to schools in the town are no longer allowed to bring guns onto school property. The Eagle Tribune reports the School Board unanimously approved a policy prohibiting anyone other than law enforcement and school resource officers from bringing guns on campus during school hours and during school-sponsored activities. The district already had rules against students and staff carrying firearms. School board member Karen Yasenka said the policy protects students and staff without infringing on anyone’s rights. The Legislature passed a bill this year that would have banned most guns from school grounds statewide, but Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed it.

New Jersey

West Long Branch: The personal stories of people who survived Superstorm Sandy are an integral part of a new art exhibit remembering the deadly storm and the devastation it caused seven years ago. The Monmouth University exhibit also includes an obelisk made from slices from trees that fell during the storm, with each inch representing 2,703 lost housing units. There are hanging posters resembling beach towels that present Sandy-related data in easy-to-grasp visual terms. A “climate shelter,” for which all the trappings of a home that would normally be on the inside are on the outside, symbolizes the huge mounds of sodden possessions that became garbage.

New Mexico

Along the Burnt Mesa Trail: Conservationists and forestry experts are scouring the American Southwest, hoping to gather as many ponderosa pine cones as possible to give nature a hand in restoring fire-scarred landscapes. The goal: 1 million seeds. It might sound lofty, but those helping with the project are looking to take advantage of a rare bumper crop this fall that has resulted from back-to-back summer and winter seasons of much-needed rain and snow. It takes time to find the patches of trees that will yield the most seeds. One spot is a mesa in northern New Mexico that overlooks vast expanses of rugged terrain that has seen its share of fire over the last two decades. With drought and the severity of wildfires on the rise, scientists say seed collection and reforestation are becoming more important across the West.

New York

New York: New Yorkers are flocking to greet a new arrival to the city – Wegmans grocery store. The popular regional chain officially opened its first New York City outpost Sunday, a 74,000-square-foot store at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with more than 500 employees. Despite the rain, crowds turned out Sunday to take a look at a selection the company says includes almost 50,000 items. Aside from groceries, the store offers a range of food options, including sushi, pizza and buffet bars, and has a bar serving alcohol in the cafe. The new Brooklyn outpost is the 101st store for Wegmans, which was founded over a century ago in Rochester, New York, and is still family-owned.

North Carolina

Rodanthe: Researchers say they’re seeing a growing number of great white sharks off the coast of the state’s Outer Banks. The Raleigh News & Observer reports that four sharks with tracking devices have “pinged” in recent days. The sharks are being tracked by researchers with the organization Ocearch, which said on Twitter that a shark named Ironbound was among the sharks that were traveling near the Outer Banks community of Corolla and moving down the coast toward Rodanthe. Ironbound is a 12-foot, 4-inch male great white who weighs about 1,000 pounds. The organization is tracking three other male great white sharks between 10 and 12 feet in length. Great white sharks are known to swim off the southeastern United States coast in the winter.

North Dakota

Bismarck: Democrats in the state Senate have joined the call for a senator to resign his leadership position in the wake of his Facebook posts targeting a Muslim U.S. congresswoman from Minnesota. The Bismarck Tribune reports Democratic senators wrote a letter Thursday to Sen. Oley Larsen, a Minot Republican, asking that he relinquish his position as president pro tempore. Their letter came a day after Larsen sent an email to his fellow senators, asking to “gauge each of your stance” on his leadership role. Last week Larsen posted a long-debunked photo that purports to show Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., holding a weapon at an al-Qaida training camp. The image actually shows a female Somali army recruit at a Mogadishu military training campus in 1978, four years before Omar was born in 1982.

Ohio

Columbus: Thousands of acres in eastern Ohio that the state says it’s buying to promote recreation and conservation may be drilled for oil and natural gas. The Columbus Dispatch reports a draft purchase agreement obtained by the newspaper shows American Electric Power will retain subsurface rights to more than 31,000 acres it’s selling to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for $47 million. The document states AEP will have the continuing right to drill. AEP spokesman Scott Blake says no active fracking is underway on the land. He says the power company will work with the state to coordinate that activity if the situation changes. Natural Resources Department spokeswoman Sarah Wickham says the state is “reasonably certain” the property includes active wells.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: A second police officer has testified that an unarmed man wasn’t a threat when a fellow officer fatally shot him after the victim called 911 threatening suicide. Keith Sweeney is charged with murder in the 2017 killing of 29-year-old Dustin Pigeon, who was apparently trying to set himself on fire with lighter fluid when police arrived. The Oklahoman reports that Officer Troy Nitzky testified Friday that he didn’t see Pigeon as a threat. Sgt. Erik Howell testified Thursday that Pigeon didn’t have a gun or a knife and that he didn’t “observe any threatening acts.” Defense attorney Gary James has said that Sweeney didn’t know Pigeon was unarmed because the other officers didn’t notify him by radio and that Sweeney made the proper decision “based on the information he was given.”

Oregon

Portland: The state’s LGBTQ community has updated rights to equal treatment under an executive order signed by Gov. Kate Brown. America’s first openly bisexual governor said a 1987 executive order needed to be updated to reflect current law and understandings about sexual orientation and gender identity. The executive order, signed Friday, prohibits state agencies from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It directs state agencies to treat everyone consistent with their gender identity and to modify forms to add a third option – “nonbinary/other” – in addition to “male” and “female.” A state agency must also adopt statewide policies to expand access to appropriate restrooms and to accommodate state employees and the public who are transgender, nonbinary or gender nonconforming.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: An internal review of the state’s parole system spurred by five parolees getting charged in quick succession with homicide is, in theory, acknowledging a long-standing complaint of parole agents. It asks lawmakers to update a 2012 law and add a trigger for an automatic six-month to one-year jail sentence for a parolee who continually ignores parole conditions, such as going to treatment or counseling. The 2012 law already has five such triggers, including threatening behavior or possession of a weapon. Law enforcement groups largely welcomed the acknowledgement from the state Department of Corrections. The county district attorneys association calls it a “significant recognition.” Parole agents, however, were skeptical it’ll change a system they say has stripped them of discretion to pull a potentially dangerous parolee off the street.

Rhode Island

Exeter: A memorial was dedicated over the weekend for 97 firefighters who have died in the line of duty in the state since the 1800s. North Kingstown Fire Chief Scott Kettelle says firefighters raised more than $300,000 for the memorial dedicated Saturday at the state Fire Training Academy. Construction has taken about a year. The Providence Journal reports firefighters who have died since recordkeeping began in the 1800s are being commemorated for their sacrifice. Kettelle says he and other organizers hope the event can become an annual tradition. The fire department plans to continue adding more names with fundraising through the sale of engraved paving bricks. The memorial is open to the public.

South Carolina

Columbia: The state is again requiring all sex offenders to stay inside with their outside lights off and not give out trick-or-treat candy on Halloween. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services spokesman Pete O’Boyle said the requirement to stay inside runs from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. statewide Oct. 31. O’Boyle says some counties will require all sex offenders to go to a central location to be supervised for several hours on Halloween. O’Boyle said in a statement that agents will be checking on offenders in all 46 South Carolina counties. Last year, agents checked more than 350 homes and made more than 150 phone calls.

South Dakota

Pierre: The state Transportation Commission has passed rules for truck platooning. The practice links two or more trucks in a convoy, using connected technology and automated driving support systems. Drivers are still behind the wheel of the trucks, but when synced, the vehicles behind the leader adapt to changes in movement with little or no action from the drivers. KELO-TV reports truck companies need special permits from the Department of Public Safety to platoon. The commission is allowing the practice only on South Dakota’s interstates, except in certain weather conditions and during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The Legislature’s Rules Review Committee will consider the rules Nov. 4. Twenty-nine states now allow truck platooning, including all of South Dakota’s neighbors.

Tennessee

Erwin: The town is preparing to auction off a herd of brightly painted elephant statues that recall a dark day in local history. The Johnson City Press reports the auction is part of a community initiative called the Erwin Elephant Revival. It honors a circus elephant named Mary who was hanged from a derrick in Erwin’s railyard in 1916 after she killed her trainer. The Elephant Revival lets residents reflect on the past while raising money for the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald. The statues are getting added attention this year after local high school students won a National Public Radio competition for their podcast on the initiative. The silent auction takes place Monday through Friday at Erwin Town Hall. More information is available online.

Texas

College Station: A charity that trains service dogs for disabled veterans has commissioned a statue of the late George H.W. Bush’s service dog for the 41st president’s library. America’s VetDogs has commissioned sculptor Susan Bahary to create the bronze statue of Sully for placement in the east wing of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University. VetDogs President John Miller says the statue will depict Sully sitting with his leash in his mouth, the “retrieve” task VetDogs trains its dogs to perform. It will show Sully wearing his America’s VetDogs vest with the Great Seal of the United States on its back. The yellow Labrador golden retriever assisted the former president for the last six months of his life before Bush’s death last November at age 94.

Utah

Salt Lake City: A rule that would have allowed ATVs on certain roads in the five national parks in the state has been rescinded by the National Park Service. The agency said in a news release Friday that it changed its mind after further consultation with Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt, whose agency includes the National Park Service. The agency didn’t provide reasons for the reversal. The rule would have gone into effect Nov. 1 to conform to a state law that allows any “street-legal” vehicle on state and county roads. Instead, a long-standing ban on ATVs in parks will remain. Ashley Korenblat, an advocate for preserving public lands and CEO of Western Spirit Cycling in Moab, Utah, applauded a move she said will ensure ATVs aren’t crammed into already congested national parks.

Vermont

Norwich: The town lost almost $250,000 in an email scam. A report released by Norwich details how town Finance Director Donna Flies ignored instructions to stop unauthorized payments from municipal accounts. Town Treasurer Cheryl Lindberg says she confronted Flies, telling her that payments from Norwich accounts require select board approval. Authorities say Flies assumed emails requesting large sums of money were from her boss, Town Manager Herb Durfee. Flies told investigators the only thing she did wrong was to make “stupid mistakes.” Valley News reports the report blames both Flies for failing to detect the scam and town officials for failing to confront her. No one’s been charged with a crime. Officials say $79,765 was returned by Comerica Bank.

Virginia

Lynchburg: A poet and civil rights activist from the city will be honored in the U.S. Postal Service’s 2020 Forever stamp series. Anne Spencer, who died in 1975, is included in the recently unveiled “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance” series. In a news release, the USPS says the set of 20 stamps pays homage to “one of the great artistic and literary movements in American history.” The News & Advance reports that Spencer enrolled at what’s now the Virginia University of Lynchburg at 11 years old when she was barely literate and graduated six years later as valedictorian. She went on to become a poet, librarian, and contemporary of African-American artists and political leaders. Spencer also helped found the Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP in 1918.

Washington

Seattle: Sound Transit board members have abandoned ideas for a $450 million tunnel into the city’s historic central Ballard, a $200 million bored tunnel through West Seattle’s Pigeon Point neighborhood, and a fully elevated trackway in Sodo that would have blocked light-rail travel during construction. The Seattle Times reports cheaper options that serve the same number of passengers and will still cost hundreds of millions of dollars will now gain momentum during environmental studies. Politicians on the 18-member board have entertained dozens of alignment concepts since 2016, when voters passed the $54 billion ST3 tax measure to expand regional rail and bus services. The agency promised West Seattle stations in 2030 and stations from south downtown to Seattle Center and Ballard by 2035.

West Virginia

Charleston: Inmates in state prisons now have access to specially designed tablet computers. The Register-Herald reports the tablets are provided at no cost to taxpayers by Global Tel Link through its inmate banking services contract with the prison system. The tablets give the prisoners access to email, video visitation, electronic books, music, games and movies. They lack a normal internet browser but do allow access to select websites, including educational and career sites. All apps and websites are approved by the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The devices will soon help inmates submit requests, file grievances and order from the facility commissary. West Virginia’s tablet program began as a pilot at the Saint Mary’s Correctional Center last year. Then-Superintendent Patrick Mirandy said he saw the tablets improve facility safety.

Wisconsin

Madison: University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross is retiring. The 71-year-old Cross said Friday that he plans to retire once a new president is selected. Cross has served as UW’s president since February 2014. He previously served three years as chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension and has spent more than four decades in higher education, previously working in Minnesota and Michigan. He served three years in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Cross says serving as UW president has been the most rewarding work of his life. UW Board of Regents President Andrew Petersen says in a statement that Cross has been tireless in leading the system with vision and integrity. He says Cross stabilized the system at a time of legislative skepticism and financial challenges.

Wyoming

Jackson: The Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation reports 28 moose were killed on roads in Teton County from May 2018 through April 2019. It’s the highest moose toll since 33 were killed from May 2010 through April 2011. Eight were killed along Moose-Wilson Road. The foundation’s executive director, Jon Mobeck, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide on Friday that the overall wildlife toll of 267 animals reported hit was the fifth-highest since the foundation started keeping tabs in 1990. Elk collisions totaled 34 in the most recent report, down from the 40s in the previous two years. The foundation’s report does not include animals found dead and reported hit in Grand Teton National Park, where elk and moose collisions increased from 2017 to 2018.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

How the freight rail workers strike could affect you and the US ...

New York CNN Business —

The US economy can keep running without freight trains — but not for long.

That is why the risk of the first national railroad strike in 30 years is so worrying to economists and businesses. A brief work stoppage — some previous rail strikes have lasted only hours — likely won’t cause much economic disruption.

But a prolonged walkout of a week or more will cripple the nation’s still struggling supply chain, cause widespread shutdowns and shortages, and likely further drive up prices even as inflation remains near a 40-year high.

“At a week, you see real damage in the US economy,” said economist Patrick Anderson of Anderson Economic Group, which conducts impact estimates on work stoppages.

If it lasts a week, a strike will mean reduced gas production, spoiled crops, a choked off supply of new cars and empty shelves at stores over the holidays. Your commute may be snarled. And for factory workers, there could be temporary layoffs in the near future.

America’s railroads remain crucial for keeping the US economy running smoothly. They carry nearly 30% of the nation’s freight, measured by the distance traveled and the weight of the cargo, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And there really isn’t an alternative if the trains stop running.

“Idling all 7,000 long distance daily freight trains in the US would require more than 460,000 additional long-haul trucks every day, which is not possible based on equipment availability and an existing shortage of 80,000 drivers,” said Chris Spear, CEO of the American Trucking Associations in a letter to members of Congress asking that they act to prevent a strike. “As such, any rail service disruption will create havoc in the supply chain and fuel inflationary pressures across the board.”

Anderson said it is impossible to come up with a dollar estimate for the impact on the economy at this point, but he said the costs will grow geometrically the longer the strike lasts, starting out at tens of millions of dollars and growing rapidly each day.

“It might only be millions, but that’s a lot if it’s your job that’s one that is being lost,” he said. “If we reach a week-long strike, we’re in uncharted territory,” he said.

Gasoline

The price of gas has been falling steadily for three months. But a rail strike could send prices shooting higher again due to limited supplies.

Refineries get most of their crude oil via pipelines and ship out most of the products they produce, such as gas, diesel and jet fuel, via pipelines as well. But railroad tank cars are a key part of the process to make the gas that ends up in your tank.

Just about all ethanol that goes into gasoline moves by rail. Without ethanol, gasoline wouldn’t be compliant with some environmental regulations. But even if those regulations could be waived, the lack of ethanol could increase the cost of a gallon of gas by about 16 cents due to the loss of tax breaks, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for OPIS.

Although pipelines carry most crude oil to refineries, about 300,000 barrels move by rail each day, a volume that could supply about two mid-size refineries, according to data from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the refineries’ trade group. Numerous chemicals used in the refining process also arrive via rail, and some lower-grade products and waste materials need to be shipped out by rail.

“If rail cars aren’t coming in regularly to pick up facility products, including the sulfur that refiners remove from crude oil, production will have to curtail,” the refineries’ trade group said.

Food

The strike would be hitting at a particularly bad time for the nation’s agricultural industry. Bureau of Transportation Statistics data show that trains account for 27% of the distance grains travel when measured by weight.

“A rail stoppage on September 16 would hit right as the fall harvest accelerates in many parts of the United States,” said Mike Seyfert, CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association. “The economic damages across the food and agricultural supply chain would be swift and severe.”

The railroads started refusing to take new shipments of grain as of Wednesday in preparation for the possible strike. If the work stoppage happens, grain operators will load what they can onto rail containers sitting in their yards. But they won’t be able to move them out or accept additional grain from farmers, who will then have limited options to sell their crops.

In recent months there have been improvements to farmers’ supply chain issues suffered during the pandemic.

“The gains we’ve made in the last seven to eight months will be reversed largely if this strike happens,” said Terri Moore, spokesperson for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

In addition, farmers preparing to plant for the fall season could see shortages of the fertilizer they need, since the railroads have already stopped accepting shipments because they are classified as hazardous materials in many cases. That could hurt future supplies of crops.

“There definitely would be at least some price increase for consumers,” said Max Fisher, chief economist at the National Grain and Feed Association. “If our processing plants are not running, the food manufacturers that buy these ingredients won’t have access to them for an extended period of time. Depending on how long it would go on, we worry about scarcity — being able to actually get the food.”

Beyond domestic food prices, the strike could affect global food markets, since the US is a major grain exporter. With the war in Ukraine cutting off much the grain from that country, a disruption in US supply will only make a bad situation worse.

Cars and trucks

Car and truck production has already been hampered by a shortage of numerous essential parts, most notably computer chips. That has created a dearth of vehicles available for sale on dealer lots, which in turn has resulted in record high car prices.

But that’s nothing compared to what would happen with a prolonged rail strike. About 75% of cars built in US factories or imported here move by rail. There are nowhere near enough trucks to carry that many vehicles.

In addition, many of those parts move between suppliers and car assembly plants by rail. Production will quickly halt if those rail links are severed.

Eventually production would resume, but it would take some time to make up for lost output. Which means more upward pressure on car prices.

Consumer goods

The snarl of container ships coming into West Coast ports is finally easing after years of backlogs and delays. And although things have gotten better, they are by no means “normal” yet.

As of Tuesday the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest, said it had 27,000 shipping containers waiting to be loaded onto trains. That’s roughly three times as many as under normal conditions. Two thirds of the current inventory of containers have been there nine or more days, when none should have been there that long.

“Efficient rail operations are critical to the Port of Los Angeles,” said Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director. “With two-thirds of our cargo leaving California by rail, the supply chain and the US economy need all of us working at maximum effort.”

The peak season for imported goods heading to retailers ahead of the holiday shopping period is now. The National Retail Federation said last week it is concerned about shortages later this year if there is a rail strike.

“We are in the middle of the peak import season,” said the trade group. “Any rail network disruptions this month could have long-lasting negative effects on this important selling season. Product delays and shortages are correlated with inflation.”

Manufacturing

Most factories aim to have parts and raw materials delivered just before they are used in assembly lines — a process known as “just-in-time” deliveries. And many factories depend on rail to get those parts and supplies, as well as to ship them out.

“For years now, America’s manufacturing workers have endured the effects of rapidly rising material costs and severe supply chain disruptions,” said a statement from the National Association of Manufacturers. A rail strike would “devastate the movement of manufactured products that families depend on.”

The rail strike could result in temporary plant closures, as happened across the global auto industry due to the shortage of parts and computer chips brought on by the pandemic.

Commuting

Although only the nation’s freight rail lines face a pending strike, many of the nation’s commuter trains travel on tracks maintained and operated by the freight railroads. As a result, many passenger railroads expect to shut down operations once the freight strike starts.

Amtrak already has cut service on many of its long distance trains. The company owns roughly 700 miles of track, mostly between Boston and Washington, DC, but about 97% of its 22,000 mile system runs on freight lines.

Many commuter railroads also are preparing to shut much of their operations for the same reason.

That could mean more commuters driving to work, and more traffic and congestion even for those who don’t normally take a train.

Chris Isidore Vanessa Yurkevich
Chris Isidore
Vanessa Yurkevich

The Man Who Reinvented Meth

Thomas Gounley

News-Leader

John Cornille had been with the Drug Enforcement Administration for seven years. Yet he couldn't wrap his head around what his informant was describing.

It was November 1992, and the man was talking about a visit to a home in Reeds Spring, Missouri. He said he'd been forced at gunpoint to use methamphetamine manufactured there. But something was off. The informant didn't mention beakers, flasks, Bunsen burners — none of the complex glassware Cornille was taught were part of meth labs.

Instead, the informant reported an unusual scene: Black trash bags stuffed with empty boxes of cold medicine. A mason jar full of kerosene, with something resembling a hockey puck settled at the bottom. Starter fluid. And a cookie sheet in the oven, with a yellowish cake on it.

Cornille, like other DEA agents, had made meth himself, under controlled circumstances, as part of his official duties. It was standard practice; the agency knew it meant he'd have more credibility when he asked a court for a search warrant or filled out a probable cause statement recommending criminal charges. It was important that prosecutors see him and other agents as experts on the manufacturing of illegal drugs.

As Cornille sat down to request a warrant for the Reeds Spring home, he couldn't be that authoritative. He needed another source, someone who could credibly link common household items with the production of meth, a highly-addictive substance known for its energy boost. He called a chemist working for the DEA in Chicago.

“I still remember what he said, because I wrote it down word for word," Cornille recalled in a recent interview. "He said, ‘There’s a basis for such a formula in literature, but it’s not been seen in the United States."

It's been nearly 25 years since the investigation, but that's not the only comment that remains lodged in Cornille's memory.

At some point, as the informant was describing the unusual lab in Reeds Spring, Cornille asked him if the meth was any good. If the answer was no, he figured, the situation might not be that big a deal. Low-quality stuff was unlikely to spread.

The informant, however, had five words for him:

"Best dope I ever had."

Three months later, in Springfield, Cornille sat across from a recently-arrested 49-year-old man.

With a voice recorder rolling, Cornille introduced himself for the record, then moved on to his guest.

“With me today is Mr. Bob Paillet,” Cornille said, according to a transcript. “Mr. Paillet has agreed to talk to me and explain to me different methods of manufacturing methamphetamine. One using the sodium metal and anhydrous ammonia and then a couple others.”

Cornille told Paillet — pronounced “Pie-ay” — that he wanted "just to sit down and talk to you about those different methods."

"How you discovered them, and so forth,” Cornille said.

Paillet began by saying he'd always been interested in chemistry and physics and that he'd "just played around with my chemistry set." Then he got detailed. He talked about molecules, replacement reactions and acetic acid, about catalysts, synthesis and hydroxyl groups. Scientific terms flowed with minimal prompting.

About halfway through the conversation, Paillet made a remark that fell somewhere between a suggestion and a prediction.

“You’re gonna have to send all your agents back to school and learn chemistry … There’s people out there that are going to great lengths to avoid getting caught,” he said.

Cornille responded. “Well, see I went to school to learn how to manufacture methamphetamine and to …”

Paillet cut him off.

“All the old ways,” he said.

Cornille joined the DEA in 1985 after serving on the local police force in Washington D.C. He spent the remainder of the decade in the nation's capital, fighting the crack epidemic. In 1990, he was transferred to southwest Missouri. At that point, Cornille recalls now, meth ranked about third on the agency's local priority list. Cocaine and marijuana were much more prevalent.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, however, the number of meth labs seized by the authorities drastically increased, first in Missouri, and gradually in other communities around the country. Before the decade was out, as the public and the media sought answers as to how the drug shifted from a problem to a crisis — how it grew powerful enough to ravage entire communities — law enforcement would point to Paillet by name.

"He brought it to life for this area," Springfield police Cpl. Dan Schrader told the News-Leader in 1998.

Paillet essentially converted the process of producing meth from a complex formula — one that required the so-called "cook" to have a chemistry background — to a simple recipe that could be followed by the masses. DEA and court records indicate Paillet taught his method to others, who in turn taught it within their own respective circles. The man behind the unusual meth lab in Reeds Spring learned the method from one of Paillet's friends, Cornille said.

Paillet wasn't a drug lord; he didn't control a network of associates. In fact, he did the opposite, spawning a generation of cooks by unintentionally democratizing an illegal industry. One textbook released in 2014 called Paillet "arguably the Johnny Appleseed for the spread of local meth production throughout the Midwest." Journalist Frank Owen, in his own book released in 2007, wrote that Paillet “effectively decentralized the local meth trade … broadening the appeal of the drug."

In other words, Bob Paillet reinvented meth.

How did he do it? The story he told law enforcement revolves around the Springfield campus of Missouri State University, which at the time was known as Southwest Missouri State.

“Bob claims he went to SMS’ library, and in a research manual he found this method of converting pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine using sodium metal as one of the catalysts," Cornille said. "He claimed that at the top of the page was a swastika.”

Thus the moniker: The new process was the "Nazi method." The new stuff, "Nazi dope."

“I really believe that his method, here in Springfield, was the bounce to get meth spread throughout the rest of Missouri and the United States," said Nick Console, who ran the DEA's Springfield office from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s.

Despite Paillet's pioneering role in an American drug epidemic, relatively little has been known about him. In the later years of his life, he appears to have avoided public scrutiny, as well as further trouble with the law. He died in Texas, age 72, on Jan. 1, 2016.

Paillet's death and the passage of time have obscured some details. Other key elements — like his recipe's alleged connection to the Third Reich — have taken on the characteristics of urban legend.

Court documents obtained by the News-Leader shed light on his arrest and the early spread of the Nazi method. Interviews with family members and a key associate, none of whom have previously spoken publicly, paint a picture of a man with an obsession who left public officials scrambling to respond for years.

The probable cause statement used to charge Paillet, written by Cornille, traces his arrival on law enforcement's radar to Jan. 24, 1993 — just over a week before he was arrested.

That day, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested two Springfield residents, Christopher Fricks and Kimberly Lee Duncan, for possession of a controlled substance and possession of a short-barreled shotgun.

It's not clear from court documents how or why Paillet's name came up as the two were taken into custody. What is clear is that they told deputies of two places where Paillet stored materials he used to make meth.

The first was a room in a house Fricks was renting in Joplin. Authorities searched it on Jan. 28. The second was a property near the small town of Morrisville, where Paillet previously lived. One of his ex-wives allowed law enforcement on the property on Feb. 1. Both tips were substantiated.

Then, on Feb. 2, a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper and Polk County deputies headed to Paillet's apartment on West 3rd Street in Battlefield. Paillet wasn't home, but his current wife was, and she began speaking to the men. She mentioned her husband would sometimes disappear for up to three weeks at a time, telling her he was working in Kansas City.

Midway through the conversation, Paillet drove up in a tan 1983 Chevy Cavalier. He walked inside, and set an unzipped black duffel bag on the floor. The grip of a pistol stuck out from the top, and the trooper quickly moved to secure the gun. It was loaded: Nineteen rounds, one in the chamber. Paillet said he'd traded for it.

The trooper and the deputies asked Paillet to talk outside. He said sure.

They walked out and the officers read Paillet his Miranda rights. According to court documents, Paillet “stated he was glad to see them and glad that it was over.”

Then he began to talk.

Standing outside his Battlefield, Missouri, home with a state trooper and several sheriff's deputies, Bob Paillet gave the men consent to search his vehicle.

He knew why they were there. Before they could open the door of his Chevy Cavalier, he told them what they'd find: methamphetamine, inside a small white pill bottle in the trunk. Once the drugs were retrieved, Paillet led the officers back inside and pointed out the two sawed-off shotguns under a bed.

The same day — Feb. 2, 1993 — the trooper and the Polk County deputies drove Paillet to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's regional headquarters on Kearney Street. There they were joined by John Cornille, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in Springfield.

Authorities found a note in Paillet's pocket, with a chemical formula written out. They also found two receipts, from trips to Walmart.

Shortly before dusk, after speaking with investigators, Paillet led the men to Room 431 of the American Inn Hotel in northeast Springfield, where he showed them the meth-making materials he had stashed there. Then they all drove across town to a storage facility in Battlefield, where he kept a second stash.

The News-Leader reported the bust two days later, with the headline "Police nail 'Nazi Dope' laboratory in Battlefield." The authorities said chemical disposal workers wearing special suits and protective gloves spent about three hours clearing the storage unit. They estimated disposing of the chemicals would cost the federal government $35,000.

The story noted that, nationwide, the number of meth lab busts had declined in recent years. But it also quoted the head of a local drug task force, with a premonition that would turn out to be spot on.

“This Nazi dope is definitely new to this area, and it could be the first in the U.S.,” said Steve Whitney, also the sheriff in nearby Christian County. “I still think we may see this more and more.”

Although credited with pioneering the so-called "Nazi method" of producing meth — and opening the door to an era of amateur meth labs across the Midwest — Paillet himself has remained something of a mystery.

News stories and a handful of books published in the decades since his 1993 arrest have presented scant detail: He moved from California to Missouri in the 1980s and, upon finding meth was more expensive than he was used to out west, set out to make it himself. He researched chemistry at the library at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. He was arrested. He moved to Texas.

That narrative covers just a portion of his life.

Born on March 4, 1943, Robert Paillet was 72 when he died Jan. 1, 2016.

He left behind two daughters. In an email to the News-Leader, the oldest offered a theme for his biography:

"My father is a classic case of what PTSD does to a brilliant mind."

Speed. Crank. Dope. Ice. Zip. The poor man's cocaine.

Whatever you call it, meth is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system.

It's odorless, typically white and can be found in powder and crystal forms. In the United States, it has for decades been a schedule II substance, which means it has some very limited accepted medical uses — for conditions like attention deficit disorder and obesity, under the trade name Desoxyn — but also a high potential for abuse, as well as psychological or physical dependence.

One of the things that sets meth apart from other illegal substances is its means of production.

"Unlike other major drugs of abuse, methamphetamine is a synthetic drug, and as such, is manufactured in a laboratory," the DEA wrote in a 2016 report. "Methamphetamine does not rely on a plant as its main source and is not affected by drought, flooding, growth cycles, or other natural elements that affect production. Instead, methamphetamine production relies on the ability of traffickers to obtain precursors and other essential chemicals."

Meth is most commonly smoked, snorted or injected. Its use causes an increase in energy and alertness and a decrease in appetite. Meth also produces an intense euphoric rush, and can make users hypersexual. Cornille said the high from crack cocaine lasts for a matter for minutes. With meth, the high lasts for hours.

Meth can cause increased heart rate and blood pressure, tremors and convulsions and — particularly with repeated use — depression and motor and cognitive failure. Users also tend to not sleep for extended periods, which leads to additional detrimental effects.

Bob Paillet's death certificate lists his birthplace as San Diego. His oldest daughter, now 48, said her father was actually born on Canada's Vancouver Island, although his parents had previously lived in California.

Lisa Paillet — who spoke to the News-Leader on the condition that her real first name not be used — said Bob's father, Francis "Fred" Paillet, was a Vermont native and worked as a carpenter and master gardener. His mother, Quebec native Louise Marie Paillet, was a maid and cook.

The family moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, when Bob was in junior high, then to the small town of Exeter, Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of Springfield, several years later. After graduating from Exeter High School in 1961, Bob enlisted in the Navy and was sent to California's Bay Area. He was taking forestry classes at the University of California-Berkeley when, in 1964, he was deployed to Vietnam on the aircraft carrier USS Ranger.

Lisa said her father returned to the United States with "debilitating migraines and a jaundiced view of the world," after a commanding officer "rode one of his crew members so hard" that he committed suicide. She believes Bob had post-traumatic stress disorder, although he was never formally diagnosed. For the most part, Lisa said, her father avoided talking about his time at war.

Upon his return home in 1965, Bob Paillet married Lisa’s mother, whom he met in Berkeley prior to his deployment. They briefly lived in Oakland before embarking on a year-long trip around the United States, ultimately ending in Kansas City. Over the next five years, Bob and his wife bounced back and forth between there and the Bay Area. Bob never returned to college.

Lisa was born in California in 1968. She said her father had an assortment of jobs over the years. Sometimes he flipped houses, or built new ones. He liked to purchase and restore antique cars, a lifelong passion of his, for resale. He wasn't always self-employed, however. When Lisa was born, he worked as a lineman for the phone company.

Around 1970, the family of three was living in Kansas City, where Bob worked for a fiberglass company. One day, he saw a friend and co-worker get electrocuted. It's a moment that "damaged" her father, Lisa said.

The family moved back to California, where Bob reconnected with a friend who was using meth. At some point, Lisa said, the friend got hold of a bad batch and became sick.

"So my father went to the Berkeley public library and the university library and started researching chemistry books," Lisa said.

Why chemistry books? Bob "wanted him to have clean drugs."

"That’s my father’s logic," she said. "Not get him off the drugs — but make them better.”

Within a few years, Lisa said, Bob became "really flaky and moody." Around 1973, at Bob's request, Lisa's mother gave her husband a year to travel and find himself. He took two. When Bob came back, the couple divorced.

"After that, I saw him off and on for camping trips, hiking, or things like roller skating," Lisa said. "It was a good compromise. I got to see him when he was in the mood to play. If he was not, he was not around. This basic relationship carried us through life."

The extent to which Bob used or produced meth in the ensuing years is unclear. Sometime during the two-year break, Lisa said, Bob met the woman who would become his second wife. His youngest daughter, Gena Paillet, was born in the Springfield area in 1978.

"I can remember I grew up terrified of him, because he would be one happy person one minute and literally in a second go to this terrifying person," Gena said.

By the time he was arrested with methamphetamine in the trunk of his car in 1993, Bob Paillet was on his third marriage.

He had fathered two children, born 10 years apart, in different states, to different women. The lives of his daughters, to this day, have had relatively little overlap.

Both women, however, have memories of living with their father on a plot of rural land along Highway JJ, not far from Morrisville, Missouri. The town of about 400 is 25 miles north of Springfield.

The remote venue in the anonymous rolling hills of the Ozarks appears to have been one place where Paillet refined the work that would later turn the meth trade on its head.

Gena Paillet, Bob's youngest daughter, lived there in the mid-1980s. She and her father had recently moved back to Missouri from California. Her mother, Bob's second wife, stayed behind in the Golden State for a year to work. Gena and her father lived in a modified school bus while Bob began building a house.

It was a simple setting. The bathroom for a time was an outhouse. But the property gave Gena, who says she grew up fearing her father, what she calls "some of the best memories of my life." There were dense woods to explore, and the property abutted the Little Sac River.

“We’d go swimming in that all the time and catch crawdads, things like that," Gena said. "I’ve thought about going back to that property."

Within a couple years, however, Bob and his second wife separated. Gena said her father was unfaithful and verbally abusive. She and her mother went to live in Morrisville.

Not long after, in 1987, Bob's oldest daughter, a product of his first marriage, arrived at the property.

Lisa Paillet — the first name is a pseudonym — grew up in California, where she was born in 1968. She saw her father only occasionally, but at times felt his presence even when he wasn't around. In high school, Lisa said, adults would sometimes show up and "imply that they knew my father and were supposed to watch out for me.”

Lisa came to live with her father as she prepared to attend Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. He was footing the bill.

Three decades later, Lisa remembers the property as a place where her father experimented. Bob never said exactly what he was doing, and Lisa sensed it might be best if she didn't exactly know. She recalls helping her father hook together motors and going on shopping trips to Walmart to buy cold medicine.

"He would buy tons of that stuff, and he said it was easy for him to break down to get the chemicals he wanted," Lisa said.

Bob coached Lisa not to give her name to people. If somebody came looking for her father, she was supposed to deny that she knew him. Instead of guard dogs, the property near Morrisville had guard geese. The animals tend to raise a racket when they're disturbed.

"If you heard the geese and it was dark outside, you hit the lights and you hit the floor,” Lisa said.

There is some overlap in Lisa and Gena's memories. Both recall a room on the property where they weren't supposed to go. Gena distinctly remembers hiding behind a tree one day, on a weekend visit sometime after her parents separated, and watching her father go inside.

"I just remember seeing this one huge table ... with beakers and pots and things smoking and, you know, tubes going from one to the other," she said. "I didn’t know what it was, but I knew he was up to something. And by his behavior becoming much more erratic, we knew something was wrong. We just didn’t know what.”

By the 1980s, the U.S. meth trade — both manufacturing and distribution — was largely run by outlaw motorcycle gangs. In some places, it was the Hell's Angels. In Texas, it was the Bandidos.

Nick Console, a Louisiana native now living in Ash Grove, joined the DEA in 1983, and was soon working out of the agency's Houston office.

In an interview, Console said that meth labs back then were primarily located in out-of-the-way, rural areas, so the rotten egg smell produced during a cook wouldn't give the operation away. They were full of glassware, not unlike a scene from the hit TV series "Breaking Bad." The labs churned out batches of the drug measured in pounds.

Busts by the authorities would sometimes lead to shoot-outs. At times, cleaning up a lab consisted of dumping the chemicals in the nearest ditch, Console said. The Environmental Protection Agency had yet to sound the alarm. Nobody thought to wear a respirator.

“These labs, they were out in west Texas, they might be out in the boonies in an old mobile home, but everything in that mobile home was a lab," Console said.

Meth was big business for the bikers, and it required a specialized workforce, he said. The gangs employed their own chemists, who generally used what is known as the P2P method, in reference to its incorporation of phenylacetone, a chemical often used for industrial cleaning or photo processing purposes.

Back then, Console said, “you had to be a chemist to make meth.”

The meth trade's biker era bled into southwest Missouri. In 1987, Glennon Paul Sweet, a local member of the Hell's Angels-affiliated Galloping Goose motorcycle club, gunned down Highway Patrol Trooper Russell Harper during a routine traffic stop just outside Springfield. It was later determined Sweet, who was ultimately put to death, was transporting meth.

The wooded hollows of southern Missouri once attracted moonshiners. By the late 1980s, the region's rural nature and sparse law enforcement presence were seen as ideal for making meth. DEA officials reported that manufacturers were buying or leasing farmhouses and converting them into P2P labs. Still, they were few and far between; Cornille said agents typically came across a couple of labs per year.

After being transferred from Houston, Console worked for the DEA overseas in Turkey, then in San Francisco. In the fall of 1994, about a year and a half after Paillet's arrest, he arrived in Springfield as the DEA's new resident agent in charge.

“When I got here, it was the beginning of the spike in meth labs," he said.

Lisa Paillet doesn't believe her father was ever in a motorcycle gang. But Bob definitely associated with some shady types.

"I know that when I was in circles of people that I would consider very bad people, he was known in California,” she said.

Lisa also said her father "would have hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash sometimes, and then he would have nothing."

Either way, Paillet had no prior criminal record when, in January 1993, he became a person of interest to law enforcement agencies in southwest Missouri. The authorities had encountered a new type of meth lab — using what became known as the "Nazi method" — in the town of Reeds Spring just a couple months earlier.

In DEA records reviewed by the News-Leader, Paillet said he was the one who discovered the new process, but never specifically stated when that happened. Evidence suggests, however, that it was years before his arrest.

The Reeds Spring lab wasn't the first of its kind. A Nazi method-style lab was found in 1988 in a trailer park in Vacaville, California, according to a 1990 article in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Authorities later came to believe Paillet was behind the lab — a conclusion that appears supported by his numerous connections to the state.

The Nazi method starts with the compound pseudoephedrine, which, chemically speaking, is one oxygen atom removed from methamphetamine. Pseudoephedrine is the active ingredient in cold medicines sold under brand names such as Sudafed.

Here’s how a former DEA chemist described the ensuing process:

To make meth, the manufacturer pulverizes the pseudoephedrine pills in a coffee grinder, creating a fine powder that is placed in a coffee filter. Methyl alcohol, in the form of something like windshield washer fluid, is poured over it, and then evaporated out.

The cook then adds ether, anhydrous ammonia - a compound commonly used by farmers as fertilizer – and sodium metal or lithium metal, which can be stripped from commercial batteries. That produces a liquid called meth oil.

More ether is added, and the solution is put through another coffee filter. A bubbler is then used to convert rock salt and other material to hydrogen chloride gas, which converts the meth oil into a white powder. Meth.

The Nazi method is also sometimes referred to as the Birch method because it builds upon the Birch reduction, a reaction first reported in 1944 by the Australian chemist Arthur Birch.

The significance of the Nazi method was how simple it was. When DEA agent John Cornille gave talks to community members, he'd compare it to baking a cake.

“Bob made meth a recipe anyone could follow,” he said.

The Nazi method produced small amounts of the drug, not the big batches typically cooked up in rural "superlabs." But unlike previous manufacturing methods, Nazi dope didn't require an open heat source. It involved fewer steps, and took less time.

"From start to finish, you could probably do it in an hour," Cornille said.

Additionally, the chemicals involved were legal, and often easy to obtain. It takes hundreds of pseudoephedrine pills to make a half ounce of meth. But purchasing cold medicine in vast quantities didn't raise eyebrows in the early 1990s.

"At that time, if someone came in and bought 10 boxes of pseudoephedrine, Walgreens was happy," Cornille said.

Bob Paillet ordered a pecan waffle with extra butter and a glass of milk, then settled into the booth at a north Springfield Waffle House. He was wearing a wire.

After being arrested on Feb. 2, 1993, the Springfield-area resident told the authorities that he'd taught his new recipe for methamphetamine — the so-called "Nazi method" — to a friend. Now, less than 24 hours later, Paillet, 49, was killing time reading the newspaper, waiting for that man to arrive. Drug Enforcement Administration agent John Cornille and a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper were listening from a van parked nearby.

"Hey, late as usual," Paillet said as Mike Poplawski, 34, arrived.

A transcript of the conversation that took place over breakfast — obtained from the DEA under the Freedom of Information Act — is heavily redacted, with Poplawski's comments completely blacked out.

By the time they parted ways, however, Poplawski had given Paillet 279 milligrams of meth, according to court documents. The wire caught everything.

The next day, Cornille and the trooper showed up at Poplawski's home on South Newton Street.

Poplawski was cooperative. He invited the officers in, and, when told there was an ongoing investigation that involved him, admitted that he cooked meth, according to court documents. He showed the trooper a baggie of the drug inside his wallet, and then took them to another apartment where he stored lab equipment and precursor chemicals.

Later, at the DEA office, Poplawski confirmed he'd been taught by Paillet how to make meth using the Nazi method.

In a recent interview, Poplawski, now 59, said he first met Paillet in 1979.

Rollerskating was the thing to do back then, and "we were both hotdoggers," Poplawski said, using a term for those fond of showing off. The pair — 35 and 21 years old — met at a north Springfield rink. Poplawski said they were among the first in the city to purchase jogger skates, basically tennis shoes with big, brightly-colored wheels.

Poplawski said he believes Paillet might've smoked a little pot back then, and he drank, but he didn't do anything harder. Then Paillet left for California. When he returned, he was into meth. And Poplawski was, too.

He attempted to describe his relationship with Paillet back then.

"Friend?" he said. "No. Associate. Close associate."

It's unclear from court records when Paillet taught Poplawski the Nazi method. Poplawski declined to clarify the timeline.

Poplawski did state that, sometime in 1992, there'd been what might be called a misunderstanding between the pair. Paillet asked Poplawski to stop giving meth to a mutual friend of theirs. Poplawski complied. The friend complained to Paillet, who by that point had forgotten his earlier directive and became angry at Poplawski. The two stopped talking.

Then six or eight months later, there was a phone call. And a request to meet at the Waffle House along North Kansas Expressway. From Poplawski's perspective, it seemed an effort to repair the rift.

Sitting in the living room of his east Springfield home, Poplawski briefly looked over the redacted transcript of the conversation that day. Some of it was small talk, he said. Mostly, Paillet was "crying about hurting, wanting some speed."

It's been nearly a quarter century since the conversation, and Poplawski doesn't have a single positive thing to say about Paillet.

The man was chauvinistic, he said. A shorter guy with "a big man's want for power," someone who walked around "like a bantam rooster." A guy who "hit on every woman that he come across, no matter what." And a man whose defining obsession — all speeders have one, Poplawski said — was "his process," the way he made his dope.

"He experimented on people," Poplawski said. "He’d change the formula a little bit and then give it to junkies he knew’d take it and ask no questions, and then watch their reactions. This is the guy that DEA worked with."

As Poplawski looked at the transcript, he wouldn't even agree with Paillet's remark that he showed up to the Waffle House late.

“I’m more on time than anybody I know,” he said.

The authorities didn't stop with Poplawski.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on July 26, 1993, Cornille and three other law enforcement officers parked their vehicles in rural Webster County, with a barn in sight. They were investigating the latest appearance of Nazi dope. Cornille remembers hearing coyotes howl.

"Having moved from D.C. to here, it was a bit of a change for me," he said.

Earlier in the day, an informant told a Springfield police detective that a man named Frank Wright was planning to cook meth at the barn, which was owned by an associate, Gary Davis. The men would start once the sun went down, the informant said, to take advantage of lower humidity levels. The informant indicated Wright drove a green Dodge van. It was parked by the barn.

Investigators would later learn that, earlier that afternoon, Davis heard that a friend with a similar vehicle was stopped by the DEA. Davis became nervous and told Wright to "burn the barn" if agents showed up.

Around 10 p.m., the van started up. It drove off the property, headed west. Cornille and the others followed and initiated a traffic stop.

Wright agreed to a search. The van was clean. But the officers found a cigarette pack with a small amount of meth on Wright himself. They read him his rights.

Wright admitted to the authorities that he was planning to cook meth, and said he was placing supplies inside the barn. It was to have been something of a trade, court documents indicate. Davis, in exchange for providing the setting for the cook, was to receive two "eight balls" — the term for an eighth of an ounce — and be allowed to assist in production, so as to learn the new method himself.

Wright was arrested. The barn, by all accounts, escaped unharmed.

Davis contacted the DEA a week later. He admitted to knowing about plans for the cook and said he'd participated in an earlier one.

Wright, in turn, contacted the DEA in mid-August. He said he'd been introduced to meth about 18 months prior when he was at Poplawski's home. Paillet showed up to deliver the drug. Wright said he started doing work on Paillet's vehicle, and his involvement gradually grew, until he was loading and unloading chemicals and driving Paillet around while he distributed meth.

Wright told the DEA that Poplawski taught him to make meth. He described it as a somewhat formal process that entailed assisting with three cooks. (Poplawski, in a recent interview, denied ever teaching anyone the Nazi method).

The hardest ingredient to obtain was sodium metal, Wright told the DEA, so he figured out a way to manufacture it himself, using lye, an electric stove, jumper cables and a 12-volt car battery.

How did Wright come up with the workaround? Perhaps his time with Paillet influenced him.

"In late June, 1993, or early July, 1993, Wright did research into the manufacture of sodium metal at Southwest Missouri State University," court documents say.

Paillet, Poplawski, Wright and Davis were indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 8. 1993, along with two others, Kenneth and Sybil Allen. Court documents say Poplawski sold meth to, and purchased meth from, the couple. The charge against Sybil Allen was later dropped.

None of them were rich, at least as far as the court knew. Financial affidavits indicate that Poplawski was the only one employed in a traditional sense, bringing home $280 a week. Paillet and the others were listed as self-employed or unemployed, with minimal assets.

Three of the men had a record. Poplawski had been convicted in 1978 of felony robbery in Phelps County. Two others had stealing and drug offenses.

The men all initially pleaded not guilty and bonded out of jail. Dates were set for jury trials. Behind the scenes, however, negotiations were being made for plea agreements.

Between mid-December and early January 1994, all five pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture and distribute meth. In exchange, additional charges against some of them, for physically manufacturing or possessing the drug, were dropped.

With Paillet and his co-conspirators rounded up, the authorities could have been excused for thinking they'd nipped the nascent meth-making boom in the bud. But they were soon disappointed. The recipe for Nazi dope was no longer a secret.

The inaugural class of those involved with "Nazi dope" was sentenced in Springfield in the spring of 1994.

There was Bob Paillet, who told authorities he was the pioneer behind the new meth labs popping up in southwest Missouri; Mike Poplawski, to whom Paillet taught his new method; Frank Wright, who said he learned it from Poplawski; Gary Davis, who arranged to learn it from Wright; and Kenneth Allen, who bought meth from, and sold meth to, Poplawski.

Allen, who tested positive for using drugs while on bond, was sentenced to three years probation.

Davis also used meth while on bond and traveled without permission out of the state. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Poplawski was sentenced to nearly six years in prison.

If the sentencing guidelines at the time were followed, Wright would've faced something similar — between six to seven years behind bars. Prosecutors, however, told the judge he provided "substantial assistance" in the prosecution of Poplawski. So he was sentenced to about three years in prison, followed by a similar amount of probation.

Then there was Paillet, who received the best deal of them all.

Using the sentencing guidelines, prosecutors calculated Paillet's "total offense level" to be 31. That would correspond with nine to 11 years behind bars. The prosecutors, however, wrote that "defendant agreed to fully cooperate with the government." He was credited with assisting in obtaining the guilty pleas of the others: Poplawski, Allen, Wright and Davis.

Additionally, the prosecutors wrote that Paillet "provided significant information concerning the origin of this particular method of making methamphetamine."

"Defendant fully admitted that he first devised this method of making methamphetamine, and it was through him that the method was related to other 'cooks' in the southwest Missouri area," they wrote.

Paillet was sentenced to five years of probation. He also attended a drug treatment program. While there, he received a letter from his oldest daughter, living in California.

"Surprise, Surprise," she wrote. "If I would have known you could do things like that I would have asked for help with my chemistry homework."

Nearly a quarter century later, Poplawski doesn't understand how Paillet didn't spend a day in prison.

“This was the man that experimented on people, and the DEA worked with him," Poplawski said. "I’m a little burnt about that, still. It still rises my anger a bunch. Not that I was interested in working with them myself, don’t get me wrong, and not that I wasn’t involved, don’t get me wrong there. But I was not the man on top. I was not the man to hit for the heavy sentence.”

Poplawski was implicated when Paillet wore a wire to their meeting at a north Springfield Waffle House. Poplawski told the News-Leader the pair never spoke after that day, except for one comment when they found themselves in the same courtroom.

"No hard feelings," Paillet told the man who had once been his friend. Poplawski, flabbergasted, didn't respond.

"If I could’ve shot lightning out of my eyes, he’d have been a pile of flesh, a pile of ash, in a heartbeat," Poplawski said. "He just cost me five years. He cost me five years.”

There's something about calling a drug recipe the "Nazi method" that attracts attention.

A few days after Paillet was arrested in February 1993, the News-Leader wrote about the bust. A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration was quoted saying that "people give their drugs all kind of names."

"Just because it was made by German soldiers during World War II and now is called 'Nazi drugs' has no meaning to us," the spokeswoman said. "It's a nothingness. It only means that the producers don't have to use the usual ingredients, that they can make it without the regular methods. It's dangerous, no matter what you call it or how you make it."

There's a problem with the spokeswoman's response — one that's been replicated in many subsequent discussions of the Nazi method. It implied there's a direct link between Paillet's recipe and the Third Reich. But is there? After reviewing the available evidence, the News-Leader found the connection, while compelling, is tenuous.

Researchers have delved into German use of meth during World War II. Temmler, a Berlin-based pharmaceutical company, introduced meth in pill form under the brand name Pervitin in 1938, according to a 2005 report in the news magazine Der Spiegel. By 1940, millions of pills were being shipped to the front lines, resulting "in a Blitzkrieg fueled by speed."

Germany wasn't alone in exploiting new substances with minimal consideration for side effects. The United States and British supplied service members with tablets of Benzedrine, an amphetamine, during the same period. Both were viewed as particularly valuable for pilots, who needed to remain alert on long bombing raids.

The large-scale manufacture of Pervitin pills in German factories, however, stands in stark contrast to Paillet's method, which resulted in small amounts of a powdered version of the drug. Which raises the question: If the method wasn't the same, how did meth produced in southwest Missouri end up referencing a fascist state?

In an interview, DEA agent John Cornille said that Paillet told him he learned the Nazi method by researching in the library at what was then Southwest Missouri State University. Cornille said Paillet indicated he came across a book or a document with a swastika on it.

Those two particular claims aren't found in the hundreds of pages of federal court and DEA records reviewed for this story. The DEA records, which were heavily redacted, do include one conversation in which Cornille asked Paillet if he looked "this stuff up in a book or something." The response, however, contradicts the notion that there was one all-important document.

"OK, I have a lot of books," Paillet said. "I have gone through the library, many libraries and read lots of books, hundreds of 'em. Ah, involving many phrases of chemistry."

Cornille asked what books "originally kinda gave you this idea that maybe this thing could work."

"I can’t say that it was any one in particular," Paillet responded.

Cornille told the News-Leader he believes most of the backstory Paillet gave regarding his discovery. However, he said the DEA tried to determine the exact book that contributed to Paillet's breakthrough, but came up empty-handed.

“I believe he found it in a book at SMS," Cornille said. "But the swastika thing — they looked far and wide.”

The man who did the searching says it's a little more complicated than that.

Terry Dal Cason retired from a 40-year-career as a forensic chemist with the DEA in 2011. He told the News-Leader that, back in the mid-1990s, his colleagues in the world of meth lab analysis didn't talk vaguely about a cook in southwest Missouri coming across a book or document with a swastika on it, as Cornille does now.

Instead, Dal Cason said, they specifically mentioned a "Nazi patent." Some of his colleagues stated as fact that the cook came across a patent that contained the exact recipe for Nazi dope. But Dal Cason wanted proof.

"People kept talking about this patent, and I was trying to get a copy of it," he said.

Dal Cason ended up with two theories. In 1997, he laid them out in an article for a little-known DEA publication called Microgram.

Theory one:

Dal Cason wrote that "one of the earliest groups" to make Nazi dope compiled packets of documents that included instructions for the method, and hid them away from their lab sites. If the lab was busted, the hidden packets insured they'd still have a written copy of the recipe somewhere, Dal Cason wrote.

What does that have to do with the name? "The top page of the synthesis 'packets' was a photocopy of a drawing from the cover of a video cassette case of the Third Reich propaganda film, 'Triumph des Willens,'" Dal Cason wrote.

"Triumph of the Will," the English translation of the title, was commissioned by Hitler. The drawing Dal Cason referred to shows an eagle clutching a wreath containing a swastika.

Dal Cason wrote in 1997 that "it is relatively easy to postulate how the seizure of these packets could present an opportunity to misinterpret a relationship between the most recognizable of NAZI symbols and the Li (or Na)/NH3 reduction procedure contained in the packets."

"From this point it is easy to imagine a 'word of mouth' genesis of the 'Nazi patent' myth," he wrote.

The documents and court records reviewed by the News-Leader do note materials seized in connection with the investigation of Paillet and his associates, but don't mention the German propaganda film. Dal Cason told the News-Leader he didn't recall the specific individuals who apparently hid the packets. The footnotes of his Microgram article reference cases filed in federal court in 1996, years after Paillet was arrested and the Nazi dope moniker was first used.

Theory two:

Dal Cason also asked a colleague in the United Kingdom to search German patents. Those published from 1932 to 1945 were topped with the "Imperial Eagle," a coat of arms depicting an eagle perched on wreath containing a swastika (similar, but not identical, to imagery on Triumph Des Willens).

Leslie King, head of the Forensic Science Service's Drugs Intelligence Laboratory, wrote Dal Cason in October 1996, and said he failed to find a patent for the technique Paillet used.

There were, however, patents that were somewhat related. Dal Cason said the packets mentioned in his first theory contained not just a recipe for the Nazi method, but also instructions for another process using methcathinone.

Dal Cason said King found a German patent from 1936 which provided techniques for synthesizing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine using methcathinone.

"The chemical names 'Ephedrinen' and 'Pseudoephedrine' are easily recognized among the German wording of the patent," Dal Cason wrote. "Misinterpretation of the patent's content, combined with a clandestine laboratory having chemicals appropriate for the Li(Na)/NH3 method, might easily lead to the assumption that this process was described in the patent."

To be clear, however, the patent wasn't describing the method Paillet used. And to Dal Cason's knowledge, no one ever found a copy of the German patent in connection with a lab bust — it's something for which Dal Cason had to search.

The audience for Microgram, where Dal Cason's article appeared, was largely limited to law enforcement. An editor's note attached to the piece read: "If anyone has hard evidence that a 'NAZI' patent does exist, please contact the Microgram editor." Dal Cason never heard from anyone.

Poplawski, for his part, offered a third theory.

In an interview, he said Paillet "wasn't smart enough to invent" the method, and that he must have gotten the recipe from someone else. Poplawski also said he never heard Paillet or any of his associates use the phrases 'Nazi method" or "Nazi dope."

“The first time we heard it the DEA threw it out there, and we had no idea what they were talking about,” he said.

Why does all this matter? Words stir emotion. Dan Viets — a defense attorney based in Columbia, Missouri — told the News-Leader that, by the late 1990s, prosecutors were brandishing the Nazi method moniker "as a weapon" in front of juries, taking advantage of the average person's extreme dislike of Nazis.

Viets considers the term "obviously prejudicial," particularly given the the lack of an established connection between Paillet's method and actual Nazis.

"The cops liked to say that as many times as they could in a courtroom," he said.

The sentencing of Paillet and his associates didn't stop use of the Nazi method.

Instead, the opposite occurred. The small-scale labs began to proliferate.

At first, most state and local officials, such as the average rural county sheriff's office, didn't have the training to safely deal with meth labs. Instead, they'd call the DEA. As the 1990s progressed, Cornille says he began feeling like a firefighter, rushing from small blaze to small blaze without time to investigate their causes. Instead of fires, of course, it was meth labs — although the explosions the labs sometimes prompted could end up blurring the distinction.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol, contacted by the News-Leader this fall, could only find records regarding the number of meth lab incidents in the state annually dating back to 1996. That year, according to the patrol, there were 121 labs found.

That figure increased to 319 in 1997. Then 480 in 1998. Then 615 in 1999.

"Once everything got rolling, it spread like wildfire," said Nick Console, who led the DEA's Springfield office for about a decade starting in 1994.

(A meth lab doesn't have to be operational when it is discovered to be counted in state or federal tallies of "meth lab incidents." Those tallies generally also count situations when authorities seize materials used to make meth, or find sites where lab waste material has been discarded.)

Cornille said he recalls Paillet telling him that he taught five people his method for Nazi dope.

“My initial thought was if we could get those five, we could make an impact," Cornille said. "But it didn’t work. Maybe we didn’t get one or we didn’t get to them fast enough.”

Console said he spent the mid-to-late 1990s trying to warn DEA leadership in Washington D.C. that what was happening in southwest Missouri was a serious situation, one that could get worse if unchecked. He says the leaders didn't feel a sense of urgency.

"We’re trying to tell them — it’s not heroin, it’s not cocaine," Console said. "It’s not a major organization, like a biker gang, that’s producing large amounts of methamphetamine. It’s Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith down here, and the Johnsons over here, making a half ounce. In their eyes, that wasn’t a problem. That was a local problem. It wasn’t a national problem."

The spread of the Nazi method meant that a drug once manufactured in large quantities by "superlabs" situated away from populated areas was now being produced on a small scale within towns and cities.

Console said he can tell stories all day about unusual busts.

There was the time agents executed a search warrant and noticed bullet holes in the ceiling of a bedroom. When they asked the home's resident why, the man said he knew the agents were monitoring him from his attic, so he shot at them while he laid in bed. The agents hadn't been to the house previously.

“Think about being up without sleep for seven days," Console says. "Think about it. Where would your mind be, where would your body be? So they’d become very paranoid.”

There was the man in Joplin whose lab exploded, the force of it enough to embed sodium metal in his skin. Sodium metal reacts when it comes in contact with water. When someone went to clean the man's body with a saline solution at the hospital, the sodium metal exploded — the "pops" sounding like a miniature fireworks display.

Then there were the deformed chickens. Agents responded to a farm in Christian County where large tanks of anhydrous ammonia were buried in the barn. The stuff wasn't being used as fertilizer.

"He had chickens with double beaks, he had chickens that were a foot growing out of another foot," Console said. "All the chemicals they were using — they were making meth there for a long time — were being dumped all over the area where the chickens were being raised.

In 1998, the man credited with pioneering the so-called "Nazi method" of methamphetamine production was contacted by a News-Leader reporter.

Bob Paillet had moved to Texas from southwest Missouri several years prior, not long after being sentenced for conspiring to manufacture and distribute the drug. He was still on probation.

It appears to be Paillet's only published interview. He expressed regret to reporter Laura Bauer.

"I never thought it would spread like this," he said. " ... I don't travel in those circles anymore."

In the years after his arrest, Paillet also wrote several letters to — and once spoke on the phone with — John Cornille, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent who investigated him.

"I can remember him expressing remorse that he had started 'this mess,' as he referred to it," Cornille said.

By the turn of the new millennium, Nazi dope was no longer a Missouri-specific phenomenon.

In north Texas, the commander of an 11-county narcotics task force told a magazine in 2001 that the unit came across its first Nazi lab three years prior. By the following summer, the task force was busting one every week.

"It has exploded on the scene so quick, it's so easy to do, and there are so many people involved in manufacturing it, that it has completely overtaxed our capabilities," the commander said.

In Illinois, a state police representative said in November 2000 that meth labs were "getting to the epidemic stage." He cited the fact that the state was on track to have 400 lab busts by the end of the year. Within four years, Illinois would be logging more than 1,500 labs annually.

In California, the Modesto Bee reported in 2000 that officials in the Central Valley had encountered eight labs using the Nazi method, and that "five of them were traced to a man from Missouri who had moved into a trailer park near Fresno and was teaching this method."

Officials in numerous other communities around the country reported a version of the same thing.

Nick Console, the former head of Springfield's DEA office, said top agency officials did little to respond to the growth in small-scale labs in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, he said, that began to change, as politicians representing affected communities began putting pressure on the agency.

“It took ‘em a good eight to 10 years," Console said. "And the damage was already done, it’d already spread.”

The Nazi method didn't just spread cook to cook. Its rise coincided with the early days of the modern internet and anonymous forums like The Hive, where users traded information about illegal substances.

"There were a number of really good dope sites," said Terry Dal Cason, a retired DEA forensic chemist who investigated the origins of the Nazi method moniker.

Since 2002, the DEA has published an annual report called the "National Drug Threat Assessment," which details the prevalence of illegal drugs in the United States.

Each year, the agency asks various state and local law enforcement agencies what they consider the "greatest drug threat" in their community. In 2003, 33.1 percent of agencies selected cocaine. Methamphetamine was second, with 31 percent.

The report stated that meth was widely available in the western and central United States and gradually becoming more available in the eastern United States. It concluded, however, that “despite the rising threat, methamphetamine is not likely to surpass the overall threat posed to the United States by powder cocaine and crack in the near term.”

Two years later, it did.

The 2005 report read: "According to state and local law enforcement agencies, the threat associated with methamphetamine trafficking and abuse has increased sharply since 2002 and now exceeds that of any other drug."

To be clear, the Nazi method wasn't the only way meth consumed in America was produced. In its annual reports, the DEA largely focused on other sources.

First, there was the foreign supply; meth was smuggled into the United States from Mexico and, to a much lesser extent, southeast Asia.

Then there were the domestic "superlabs" — those capable of producing 10 pounds of meth in a single day. In 2001, federal authorities seized 303 of them, two-thirds of which were located in California. The California labs alone likely produced more meth than all other domestic laboratories combined, the DEA wrote.

There was regional variation, however. In 2002, the agency wrote that "local independents account for as much as 80 percent of retail methamphetamine distribution in some areas of the country,” specifically the central United States. The Nazi method was a key process used, but there were also other recipes, like the "Red-P" method named for the required red phosphorous.

The DEA struggled to accurately detail the problem. In 2004, the agency wrote that meth use and distribution in the Midwest was "very high" in rural and suburban areas, but "less so in metropolitan areas, where most drug consequence data are collected."

"Therefore, available drug consequence data for methamphetamine use in the Central States likely under-represents the problem, perhaps significantly," the agency wrote.

Small labs accounted for much of the drug's impact on communities, which was felt in burn units and mental health clinics, courtrooms and cemeteries. While the Nazi method simplified meth production, it didn't make it foolproof. The more labs, and the more cooks, the more opportunities for something to go wrong, and the greater the cost of cleanup.

In 2003, there were 361 reported fires and explosions at meth lab sites, and 255 law enforcement officers were injured responding, according to the DEA. The agency spent $16.3 million on laboratory cleanup that fiscal year, eight times more than it spent less than a decade earlier.

That same year, the DEA reported that 893 children were present when meth labs were seized. About two-thirds tested positive for toxic levels of chemicals in their bodies. The agency said "child neglect and abuse are common within families whose parents or caregivers produce or use methamphetamine."

“The devastation and the damage to kids … I understand why Bob had regret," Cornille said.

Nationwide, meth lab busts peaked in 2004, when there were nearly 24,000 seizures.

Almost 3,000 of them were in Missouri. Two years earlier, the number of meth lab busts in the state passed those in California — the birthplace of the methamphetamine industry — for the first time. Since then, Missouri has led the nation most years, never dropping below third in annual busts. In some parts of the country, the area code for southwest Missouri, 417, is said to be slang for meth, or a particular type.

Cornille and Console both acknowledge that if Paillet hadn't introduced the Nazi method, someone else might have done so a short time later. Just like any legal industry, there is a steady pace of innovation in the world of illegal drugs, typically in response to some government crackdown.

To combat meth in the early 2000s, laws were implemented requiring medications containing pseudoephedrine to be sold from behind the counter. In 2007, fewer than 7,000 meth labs were seized across the country.

But makers and users adjusted, developing what became known as "one-pot" or "shake-and-bake" meth production, in which just a couple of pseudoephedrine pills are mixed in a 2-liter soda bottle for smaller batches. The new method led to another spike — 15,000 national meth lab busts in 2010.

Console said he views these newer methods as just continued innovation. The Nazi method was the truly critical shift, he said — the one that turned meth consumers into producers.

After they were sentenced for conspiring to manufacture and distribute meth, those indicted alongside Paillet struggled to stay on the right side of the law.

Kenneth Allen, who was given three years probation, ended up behind bars after he repeatedly tested positive for meth; he was also arrested for driving with a revoked license and failing to support his dependents.

Michael Poplawski, sentenced to nearly six years in prison, later completed community service for patronizing a prostitute in the early 2000s, according to online court records. He pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana, with intent to distribute, in 2012.

Gary Davis, sentenced to five years in prison, briefly escaped in August 1994 from the Kansas facility where he was incarcerated. His sentence was later reduced for aiding in the prosecution of two others, but he ultimately ended up back behind bars. Davis is currently serving time in a federal penitentiary in Texas for, among other things, stealing explosive materials and conspiring to use them to rob a bank, according to a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Court records indicate that Paillet never violated parole. There is no evidence he got in trouble with the law during the rest of his life.

Paillet found work after he moved to Texas in the mid-1990s. His youngest daughter said he was a CNC programmer, developing the programs that run automated machining equipment. His oldest daughter, however, said Paillet did sales and technical installations for a company.

By the end of the decade, health problems prompted him to go on disability, and he talked about having dystonia, a neurological disorder characterized by uncontrollable and sometimes painful muscle spasms.

Court records indicate Paillet divorced his third wife in 2008. He spent the final years of his life living with another woman in a trailer park in Sherman, a city of about 40,000 an hour north of Dallas.

In 2014, Stephanie Denton, 37, moved into the unit next to Paillet. Within a few months, she and Paillet — now in his early 70s — were drinking coffee together every morning.

Denton was having issues in her relationship, and her son was having legal troubles; Paillet encouraged her to be more positive, she said. From what Denton could tell, her neighbor didn't really have close friends.

Paillet didn't talk about his past very much, Denton said. She knew he was a Vietnam vet — Paillet talked about the war being pointless — and that he'd been involved with drugs to a degree. She said he claimed he'd sold drugs to raise money for a school for disabled kids.

Paillet was more inclined to talk about the government, with a bent more paranoid than partisan. Denton said he repeated a well-known conspiracy theory that claims the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to imprison citizens in camps after the imposition of martial law. Paillet's minimal online presence included posts about a group advocating for the secession of the state of Texas.

Paillet also had an extensive rock collection and talked and posted online about searching for gold on a claim in Colorado. He appears to have become obsessed with the process, not unlike his days of manufacturing meth.

“He first really started talking about gold mining after he was arrested," his oldest daughter Lisa Paillet said. "One of the things that he was really very interested in doing was separating gold from rock, so not mining in the river, but using chemistry to remove gold from rock without requiring massive amounts of water."

Lisa said her father's health issues worsened during the final years of his life, and that he appeared to be struggling with dementia at times. In what would end up being her last conversation with her father, he talked about his will.

Bob Paillet didn't leave a suicide note.

Early in the afternoon of Jan. 1, 2016, the 72-year-old drove his red Dodge truck from the mobile home park where he lived in Sherman, Texas, to a nearby hospital. It was a little over a mile. Then, he took a gun — "he had a lot of guns," said his daughter Gena — walked to the front of the vehicle, and shot himself in the head. He died minutes later in the emergency room.

Paillet's family held a memorial service after his death. To the outside world, however, the only acknowledgement of his passing can be found on the website of a Denison, Texas, funeral home. It's not really an obituary, just a name and a pair of dates.

There's a guest book option on the site. One person — Paillet's second wife, Gena's mother — has left a message: "We had a lot of happy years together. You will be missed. Your pain is over, ours now begins."

Otherwise, there was nothing in the public record acknowledging that the man credited with reinventing methamphetamine production in the U.S. was dead. All in all, it probably turned out about how Paillet would have wanted it.

In 1998, he spoke briefly with a News-Leader reporter, the only time he was ever quoted in the media. At the time, meth lab busts were drastically increasing across the central United States. Authorities were blaming the phenomenon on the ease of the "Nazi method," and said Paillet pioneered it while living in the Springfield area.

In that interview, Paillet expressed regret, as well as a wish regarding his future.

"I hope my name is forgotten or it's put in the back of people's minds," he said.

Perhaps Paillet found some measure of peace. In an interview, Gena said that, while growing up, she was not allowed to talk or ask about the concept of a God around her father. In his later years, however, Bob Paillet softened on that view.

In 2008, he wrote on online message boards that "I was an atheist, then agnostic, and now I believe that there is a God." He also said that he believed in evolution, and expressed a degree of incredulity that there are individuals who do not.

"He was still a scientific man, but he found his version of God,” Gena said.

Gena, 38, came of age in a world that her father helped create.

Growing up in Morrisville, she "never really fit in," she said, and started drinking at an early age. When Gena and her mother moved to Springfield, she "immediately just fell in with the wrong crowd." She graduated from Springfield's Parkview High School in 1996.

"A lot of people believe that addiction is genetic," Gena said. "I am my father's daughter, not just in that way, but every way that there is."

Gena said she used meth for the first time at age 15. Two years later, she met Steven Joseph Brown, the man who would become her husband.

"He used needles, and he shot me up for the first time with heroin, and it was pretty much over from there," she said. "It was always either that or meth. There was like a two-year period where I probably never slept. It’s been a struggle for me ever since."

Brown — who died in February 2016 — was 16 years older than Gena. Prior to meeting her, he gave Gena's father precursor chemicals in exchange for meth, she said. At one point, he was even arrested by John Cornille, the Drug Enforcement Administration agent who investigated Bob.

“My husband kind of ended up learning my dad’s recipe," Gena said. "Not anywhere near as good as my dad.”

Gena, who said she grew up fearing her father, first got in trouble for drugs when she was 17. She thought her father was going to kill her. Instead, she said, he "became my best friend ever, because we understood each other."

"My mom — I love my mom — she’s never done a drug in her life," Gena said. "She’s had maybe one speeding ticket, and I think she even got that dismissed. Really this connection grew between him and me that was just amazing. I could really do no wrong in his eyes.”

Gena said that between her late teens and late 2015, she was only "clean" for extended periods twice, when she became pregnant. "But I always went pretty much right back."

In late December 2015, Gena said, she overdosed on heroin. Gena's mother, who she lived with at the time, kicked her out of her house. Gena called her father, who paid for a motel room for a week, and indicated she should come live with him in Texas.

"He said, 'I want you to go to your parole officer and start getting everything transferred down here and I want you to come back here,' and he said, 'I will get you through this,'" Gena said.

Two days later, she got the call that her father was dead.

Gena said she traveled to Texas to attend her father's memorial service, but got in a dispute with the woman Bob was living with at the time of his death, and ended up leaving beforehand (Lisa Paillet described her half-sister as "high as a kite" at the time). Gena expressed regret that she didn't receive something her father wanted her to have — "this metal container thing that his very first successful batch of stuff was made in.”

In August, Gena said she put herself through treatment after returning from Bob's memorial service. She said she had been clean since Jan. 25.

"It really hurts me that my dad never got to see me get my life together," she said.

By November, however, Gena was back in a three-week rehab program. She attributed the relapse to her depression, and said she "wasn’t managing it with medication like I should have been." In early May, she said she had stayed clean since completing the program.

"It’s still hard a lot of days," Gena said. "And it’s hard to stay away from the people that kind of want to push it on you.”

Lisa Paillet, who asked that her first name be changed for this story, graduated in 1991 from then-Southwest Missouri State University with a degree in theater — which she said her father "paid for, I’m pretty sure, with drug money."

She returned to California, where she grew up, and gradually drifted away from theater-related work. When her father, then on probation in Texas, found a job that made machining equipment, he paid for her to go to school to get a machinist's certification. She was hired by a company she described as being in the military aerospace research sector, which paid for her to get a bachelor's degree in engineering.

“That’s when our conversations about science really took off, and we would talk for long periods of time,” she said of her father.

Regarding her sister, she said Gena's "world is very, very different from mine.”

“He and Gena had a very, very different relationship than he and I had ... I think he treated her far more like a child than he ever treated me," Lisa said. "And because he didn’t really raise me, he didn’t have rules for me … I think even though I went down his road a little bit when I was very young, I think my upbringing with my mother definitely was not the same.”

Lisa said her father's decision to take his own life wasn't entirely unexpected. Suicide was something he mentioned casually over the years, she said.

"He knew he was going to commit suicide if he ever got too sick, and I knew it a long time ago," Lisa said.

Bob Paillet's parents died in the 1980s. They are buried in a cemetery in Exeter, Missouri, where they lived and where Bob spent his high school years.

Lisa said her father, who became obsessed with gold mining in the later years of his life, requested his ashes be scattered at his gold claim. However, she's has been unable to find it. When Lisa called Colorado, she was told he didn't have a claim in the state.

Though Paillet appears to have avoided run-ins with the law late in life, the process he pioneered continued to occupy authorities.

Some states responded to the rise in small-scale meth labs by requiring prescriptions for purchase of products containing pseudoephedrine.

Missouri didn't, but over time dozens of communities within the state instituted their own prescription laws. City leaders in Springfield debated doing the same in 2013, but the effort wasn't without controversy.

That fall, Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky — a former prosecutor who supported the measure — asked Springfield's police chief to provide monthly reports detailing meth lab activity in the city. She pitched it as a way for council to stay informed on the issue. Councilman Doug Burlison, a libertarian who opposed the prescription requirement, described it as "an attempt to educate us to have different opinions."

Then a funny thing happened. The police chief's monthly reports consistently described fewer and fewer meth labs being found in the city. In July 2014, the prescription bill was tabled indefinitely.

The situation wasn't unique to Springfield. The number of small meth labs seized in the United States has declined in recent years, from about 15,000 in 2010 to about 4,500 in 2016.

It's not that the drug has lost its presence in the United States. Last year, when state and local law enforcement agencies were asked to name the greatest drug threat in their area, heroin received the most votes. The agencies that selected it, however, were strongly concentrated in the Great Lakes and northeast regions of the United States. In the western part of the country, more agencies chose meth.

Most of that meth is produced in Mexico and smuggled across the border.

In a 2016 report, the DEA attributed the decline in domestic labs to the wide availability of high-purity, high-potency meth from Mexico, as well as the passage of the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act, a federal law enacted in 2006 which placed restrictions on the meth precursors ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine.

Nick Console, who spent about a decade as the top DEA official in Springfield, said Paillet's Nazi method may have prompted the cartels to become more involved with production of meth.

"Why? Because you had a huge addiction problem here in the United States to methamphetamine," he said. "Supply and demand.”

Console retired to a farm in Ash Grove. John Cornille, the DEA agent most involved with investigating Paillet, still works for the agency.

Mike Poplawski — who was taught the Nazi method by Paillet himself — has served his prison sentence. He understands how the statute of limitations works, double jeopardy and all that.

Ask him about the early days of Nazi dope, however, and he chooses his words carefully. He's convinced that saying certain things could get the DEA interested in him again. He says he's been at the same job for 15 years, together with his wife for 25 years.

"I’ve got grandkids that love me, step-kids that love me, extended family that love me," he said. "You look from the other side — the law enforcement side — I’m a bad man.”

In an interview in his Springfield home, Poplawski, 59, said the people he considers meth's Nazi dope generation are "all in jail or dead," and that those currently involved with the drug aren't self-starters. He voiced frustration at seeing "bangers shooting each other, shooting up neighborhoods, doing dope and falling asleep in their cars with the kids in the cars and s---- like that."

"I want to go around with a .22 starter pistol and start capping people," he said. "I can still find the houses. They’re not the same houses. But a speeder can always recognize another speeder."

Asked about his own actions, Poplawski said "if I knew then what I knew now, I would’ve done things different."

"I like to think that I had the ability to make a change," he said.

At the same time, he said, "there's always going to be an addiction."

"The hole’s always there," Poplawski said. "And once it got filled by meth, we had the meth crisis ... Now you’ve got [a] prescription drug crisis and you’ve got [a] heroin crisis hard. Meth’s bad. I don’t think heroin’s an improvement."

Reached at a federal prison in Texas, Gary Davis — the only other individual indicted alongside Paillet still living — declined to be interviewed without compensation. In a brief email, he did include one comment.

"Meth is a scourge on society," Davis wrote. "I wish I would have never messed with it."

Paillet expressed similar sentiments years before his death.

"I wish I never started it," he told a News-Leader reporter in 1998. "I would never do it again."

"I caused a lot of trouble with a lot of people."

How we reported this story

Reporter Thomas Gounley began working on this story in the wake of Bob Paillet’s death in January 2016.

The events leading to the arrest of Paillet and his co-conspirators are detailed in federal court records. Additional information regarding Paillet was obtained from the Drug Enforcement Administration through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Interviews with Paillet’s family members and one-time associates, along with current and retired law enforcement personnel, were conducted between August 2016 and May 2017. One of Paillet’s daughters, citing concerns regarding how this story could affect future job prospects, agreed to be interviewed on the condition that her first name be replaced with a pseudonym. Editors agreed to that request.

The photos of Bob Paillet in this story were provided by his daughters. Booking photos of those indicted alongside Paillet were obtained from the Greene County Archives and Records Center. Center staff said they did not have a booking photo of Paillet himself.

Detroit 67: Police raid ignites 5 days of rioting

Bill McGraw

Detroit Free Press special writer

Editor's note:This is the second installment in a three-part series exploring the 1967 riot. Here we look at the five days of violence that tore apart the city beginning 50 years ago today, on July 23, 1967. Last Sunday, we explored the tensions leading to the riot. Next Sunday, we'll examine the aftermath of the riot and its long-term effects on Detroit. You can read our complete coverage online at freep.com/detroit67.

The red emergency phone rang in Detroit Police Commissioner Ray Girardin’s Lafayette Park bedroom at 5:20 a.m. on that Sunday 50 years ago today.

He awoke to a shock. It was Police Superintendent Eugene Reuter.

“I think we’ve got trouble on 12th Street,” Reuter said. He told Girardin that a police raid on a an after-hours drinking spot had turned violent. He was calling officers back to duty.

Girardin telephoned his boss, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, considered the most progressive mayor in big-city America, an Irish-Catholic New Deal Democrat who had made improving race relations a key part of his agenda.

Their nightmare scenario was unfolding on 12th Street: People were breaking windows, and the crowd was growing. Things seemed to be surging out of control, deteriorating by the minute. Cavanagh and his top aides gathered with Girardin and police officials at 1300 Beaubien, Detroit Police headquarters.

Complete coverage:1967 riot: Rebellion and unrest

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Detroit '67: 'The shotguns were loaded,' rookie cop recalls

Their first task was to get more officers on the streets, on a day that is normally low-crime and the lightest deployment of the week. Girardin was also worried that the 12th Street ruckus might be a diversion for a planned attack on the east side — the big Detroit Edison power plant and city water works on the river, the Belle Isle police dispatch center and many Chrysler facilities.

“Our strategy was to use the forces we had to contain the situation in a small area until outside assistance arrived,” Girardin said afterward, referring to the Michigan State Police and the National Guard.

Among the looters was then-18-year-old LeeRoy Johnson, who recently recalled the atmosphere: “We saw people running in and out of stores. They were wild on 12th Street.

“People were coming out of businesses, the pawn shops, everything, with all kind of items, they had just go in there and take it, the police standing there don’t even try to stop ’em,” Johnson said in an interview with the Detroit Historical Museum Oral History Project. “So we started looting. We continued to loot up and down 12th all the way to Davison.”

The blind pig

The disturbance began with a police raid on a blind pig — an illegal bar — at 9125 12th St., at the corner of Clairmount, on Detroit’s near west side. It was an entirely routine procedure carried out by a vice-squad cleanup crew, whose duty was to bust illegal drinking, gambling or prostitution operations. Police had conducted several other raids that week with no incidents, and they'd busted 9125 12th St. before without a problem.

At the club, a plainclothes officer bought a beer, and uniformed cops broke in through a locked door. To their surprise, they saw 85 customers and staff, about six times more than they expected. Loading them into paddy wagons and and transporting them to the 10th (Livernois) Precinct took more than an hour. But even at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, people gathered on busy, rowdy 12th Street, which in the blocks south of Clairmount was a well-known sin strip where gambling, prostitution and illegal clubs flourished.

Bystanders joked at first with the bar patrons in custody, but the banter turned angry, and the crowd got rowdy. Crowd members targeted the mostly white cops, who were despised in the black community after decades of abuse.

One agitator on 12th Street, later identified as Michael Lewis, an autoworker, stood out with his green outfit and puffy sleeves, not an unusual ensemble in Detroit in 1967. Cops called him Greensleeves.

“Why do they come down there and do this in our neighborhood?” Lewis shouted to the crowd.

Another rabble-rouser, by his own account, was Bill Scott III, the son of William Scott II, principal owner of the blind pig. The elder Scott and his daughter, Wilma Scott, a waitress, were arrested the night of the raid. In 1970, Bill Scott — then a University of Michigan student — self-published a memoir of his activities in July 1967. He hated the Detroit police and stood outside the blind pig that night, watching and taunting.

“Are we going to let these peckerwood (expletive) — come down here any time they want and mess us around?” he shouted.

“Hell, no!” people yelled back.

Scott claims he threw the first bottle. It shattered on the sidewalk. A line of police moved toward the crowd, then backed away. As the cars drove off, bottles, bricks and sticks flew through the air, smashing the windows of departing police cars.

“For the first time in our lives, we felt free,” Scott wrote. “Most important, we were right in what we did to the law.”

The rebellion was under way.

Windows started breaking on 12th Street. Scott said he threw a litter basket through the window of Hardy’s Drug Store, a black-owned establishment.

"Why would Negroes want to tear up their own business places?” the owner later asked a Michigan Chronicle reporter, a question that would be repeated often in the coming days and is even heard today.

As dawn approached on a hot and sticky night, burglar alarms began clanging, adding to the bedlam of sirens, shouting and shattering glass. People were running in every direction.

A festival atmosphere

Girardin ordered cops to seal off Belle Isle, where the 1943 race riot had begun. That two-day riot, which included hand-to-hand combat between blacks and whites, left 34 people dead.

But Girardin and Cavanagh took a controversial approach in those early hours in 1967.

Even as more police personnel reported for duty — 1,122 officers were on the job by midmorning — police did little to stop the pandemonium on 12th Street. They were following what they believed were directions from superiors, and ultimately, Cavanagh, to use restraint. Badly outnumbered, officers conducted a sweep of the street, but the maneuver did nothing to control the crowd. Then they tried to isolate the area by erecting a perimeter. That also failed to work, and by 1 p.m., the crowd had swelled to about 10,000. Many were looting as police stood by.

Felton Rogers Jr., a 26-year-old rookie cop, was among those sent to 12th Street on a bus. He said officers were issued riot gear and loaded shotguns, but told not to shoot the looters.

"As we approached, we could hear the burglar alarms going off constantly," Rogers recalled. "We pulled up and it was a scene that you just couldn’t imagine. Windows were shattered and glass was out in the street. Merchandise from people looting was everywhere. There were tons of people just milling around.’’

A festival-like feeling took hold along 12th Street. People carried stolen goods through the broken doors and shattered display windows of the street’s many stores.

In the first several hours after daylight, police did not shoot anyone, made few arrests and did not use tear gas. Meanwhile, the crowds grew, rowdiness continued and looting spread, the stolen goods ranging in size from from shoes to sofas. Lots of liquor was taken.

Barbara Perryman, a college student in 1967, drove with her boyfriend to 12th Street from her Detroit home to see what was happening.

“Just standing around watching people,” she told an interviewer. “They're breaking windows out and all — and I couldn't get over this — and then milling around.

“So I turned around and looked in the grocery store. I said, ‘God, look at all those cookies on that shelf. Sure would like to take some cookies back to school.’ Next thing I know, some guy I did not know came up to me. ‘Here are your cookies!’ "

Conrad Mallett Jr., the future chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court whose father, Conrad Mallett Sr., was a top Cavanagh aide, was a 13-year-old Free Press paperboy on 12th Street that Sunday morning, pulling a wagon and walking Hamlet, his Airedale terrier.

“I saw a guy come out of a clothing store with 10 hats on his head, literally in a stack,” Mallett said.

Many establishment black leaders fanned out through the neighborhood, pleading for calm. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who was then 38 and in his second term in Congress, climbed onto a car on 12th Street before noon Sunday with a bullhorn, asking the crowd to “stay cool.” Crowd members shouted him down, and someone threw a rock, which hit a cop. Conyers and his driver, civil right activist Arthur Johnson, were forced to flee.

“You try to talk to those people and they’ll knock you into the middle of next year,” Conyers said later.

The first fire broke out in a 12th Street shoe store at 8:24 a.m., and fire crews battled it with no harassment.

By early afternoon, blazes raged out of control up and down 12th Street, spreading to Grand River Avenue, and it felt like someone was squeezing a bellows on the city — temperatures were in the high 80s, and 15-m.p.h. winds whipped the flames and spread the embers. The city smelled like smoke for miles, even in areas where no fires raged. Charred paper scattered in the wind and fell on distant neighborhoods.

“I could hear the people screaming. Sirens filled the air,” John Lee Hooker, the late legendary blues singer who lived in Detroit, sang in “The Motor City Is Burning,” his post-riot song.

At some fire scenes, residents helped firefighters stretch hoses. At other places, members of the crowd pelted fire personnel with rocks and bottles and stole hoses off the trucks. At one point, the fire department radio dispatcher relayed a command from the chief to all crews operating without police protection:

“Orders are to withdraw. Do not try to put out the fires. I repeat…”

“A spirit of carefree nihilism was taking hold,” said the post-riot report from the government’s bipartisan Kerner Commission, which conducted an extensive investigation into Detroit’s tumult. “It appeared to one observer that the young people were dancing amid the flames.”

Looting spread to nearby Linwood and Dexter avenues, crowded with stores like 12th Street.

A media blackout and rumors

By early afternoon, with mayhem under way for about eight hours, Detroiters still had no official word that an extremely serious civil emergency was unfolding. Cavanagh and other leaders made no announcements, and they asked radio and television executives to sit on the story, arguing a media blackout would help them gain an upper hand.

Until late afternoon, when CKLW-TV in Windsor broke the embargo, rumors raced among Detroit’s 1.5 million residents as thick columns of black smoke rose over the west side. Many of the 34,623 fans at Tiger Stadium for the Tigers-Yankees doubleheader could see the smoke in the distance above left field.

Broadcaster Ray Lane told historian Tim Kiska that Tigers General Manager Jim Campbell phoned with one instruction: “You are not, I repeat not, under any circumstances, to refer to the smoke over the left-field fence." Late in the second game, an announcement inside the stadium told fans to avoid certain streets, but did not provide an explanation.

By late afternoon, news of the riot was all over TV and radio. Most notably, WJLB-AM, one of Detroit’s black-oriented radio stations, on which Martha Jean (the Queen) Steinberg, ministers and officials spent hours pleading for calm.

In the vacuum of official information, people in well-off neighborhoods — from Detroit’s Boston-Edison district to the Grosse Pointes, which share a long border with the city — passed along stories that rampaging African Americans were heading to burn down their homes. Blacks in the riot area heard that a young man had been bayoneted and left on the street to bleed to death, which was never confirmed.

The disturbance generated fear all over: Normal life across Detroit came to a halt. Residents in besieged areas turned off their lights and got onto the floors of their homes, to stay below windows and out of reach of errant bullets. Black and white homeowners across the city and nearby suburbs moved their cars up their driveways and got their guns. Police in Dearborn and Grosse Pointe Park stood guard at their city’s borders with Detroit.

Donald Lobsinger, a well-known anti-communist zealot who led a pugnacious group called Breakthrough, gathered gun-wielding acolytes at his home near Chandler Park, fearing Detroit’s many leftists would use the chaos as a cover to attack him. None of his adversaries appeared.

At the Fox Theatre on Sunday afternoon, Martha and the Vandellas was the headline act of a “Swinging Time Review” hosted by CKLW-TV’s Robin Seymour. Theater officials interrupted the Vandellas’ set and halted the show once they learned how dangerous Detroit’s streets had become. Martha Reeves explained the situation to fans, and they left the theater calmly.

Political tests

The growing unrest tested Cavanagh, an ambitious Democrat, and Republican Gov. George Romney like nothing had before.

Romney — who was planning to run for the Republican Party nomination for president in 1968 — and the mayor dithered in calling in the National Guard and Michigan State Police, partly because they feared being damaged politically if the public perceived they had lost control of Detroit.

But as the day wore on, it became increasingly apparent that Detroit was out of control, and the disturbance was growing by the hour. At 2:05 p.m., Girardin finally requested help from Michigan State Police. At 4:10 p.m., Romney called in the National Guard after he had received Cavanagh’s official request.

The disorder was rapidly spreading far beyond the near west side. By 4:30 p.m., firefighters had abandoned a 100-block area along 12th Street, waiting for state police or national guard protection. On Linwood Avenue on Sunday afternoon, the 68-year-old owner of a shoe repair store, Krikor Messerlian, who was barely 5 feet tall, grabbed a saber and attempted to defend a neighboring dry cleaners from a group of looting youths. After he cut one of the looters, another member of the gang beat Messerlian with a 30-inch piece of wood. Messerlian died four days later.

Late Sunday afternoon, Cavanagh and other officials met at the 10th Precinct with black community leaders and neighborhood activists. Asked why it took so long to call in the guard and state cops, Cavanagh said: “Because they’re all white. We’re leery about that.”

The mayor added: “We don’t want another Newark here,” referring to the recently concluded disturbance in the New Jersey city in which 26 people died.

At the meeting, some Detroit residents and black officials complained about the restraint shown by police in the early hours, arguing a stronger reaction could have ended it. Cavanagh defended the city, saying there simply were not enough officers available to make a difference.

Cavanagh declared a 9 p.m.-5:30 a.m. curfew, and ordered the closing of bars and gas stations. The tunnel and bridge to Canada were shut down.

Trying to get a handle on the size of the problem, Romney flew over Detroit between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. and gazed down into the hazy, wet heat in horror.

“It looked like the city had been bombed on the west side,” he said. “Entire blocks in flames.”

At 9:07 p.m., the first sniper fire was reported. Then people started dying.

‘A riot of police against blacks’

The first reported death came just seconds after midnight Monday, heralding a day of escalating violence and confusion. Hamid Audish Yacoub, cruising around the neighborhood of Fourth and Temple in a 1965 burgundy Mustang, spotted Walter Grzanka, 45, coming through the broken window of Yacoub’s looted market. Yacoub fired a shot through the open car window and hit Graznka, who died 25 minutes later. In his pockets, Graznka had seven cigars, four packs of pipe tobacco and nine packets of shoelaces.

Sheren George, a 23-year-old mother of two and pregnant with her third child, was riding in the center of the front seat of a car with her husband and two brothers when a bullet ripped into her chest. The shot, from an unknown gunman, came from outside the car, at Woodward and Melbourne, about 11:30 p.m. Sunday. She was rushed to a hospital, where she died a couple of hours later. George was white; she and family members had just dropped off two black friends at Woodward and Grand Boulevard and were returning home.

“Since there was this trouble, we thought Woodward would be safest,” said her brother, Paul Dimitrie.

At 3:30 a.m. Monday, John Ashby, a 24-year-old Detroit firefighter, was severely burned by a high-voltage wire. He died Aug. 3.

Before dawn on Monday, 800 state police officers and 1,200 Guardsmen had arrived in the city. Several thousand more members of the National Guard were on their way. The looting had now spread to 7 Mile and Livernois on the north and to Kercheval and Van Dyke on the east.

Nine people died of gunshots during daylight Monday, and many were wounded as bullets flew wildly in many neighborhoods.

At 4:30 p.m., at Baldwin and Harper, a red and white Oldsmobile 98 roared into an alley. Out jumped a 24-year-old white man, Richard Paul Shugar, armed with a shotgun. While Shugar owned no store, he accused a black man, Nathaniel Edmonds, 23, of looting and fired a shot, killing Edmonds. Shugar was later charged with murder.

Detroit police, exhausted after working dangerous, 12-hour shifts and frustrated after being ordered to hold back Sunday, went on the offensive Monday. Officers shot 19 looting suspects, killing seven black men, and making more than 2,000 arrests that day alone.

In Detroit, as in some 150 other cities that experienced violence in 1967, “what had begun, to some degree, as a riots against police, became, in some degree, ‘a riot of police against blacks,’” wrote University of Michigan history professor Sidney Fine.

With the National Guard and police having little effect on the trouble, Republican Gov. Romney reached out to Vice President Hubert Humphrey in Washington at about 2:15 a.m. Monday to discuss using federal troops. Aides to Romney and Democratic President Lyndon Johnson — hamstrung by the political ambitions of their bosses — worked on the details of a deployment for several hours. Late Monday, Johnson ordered 4,700 crack paratroopers into Detroit as guardsmen and police battled snipers across the city.

It is so extraordinary to send in the U.S. Army for a local law-enforcement matter that the president went on national TV at midnight Monday to explain.

“The fact of the matter is law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan,” Johnson said.

“The city is an asylum,” wrote Jimmy Breslin, the famous New York Daily News columnist, who had traveled to Detroit to cover the story.

Near the epicenter, on Taylor near 12th, Katie Thomas lived in fear.

“It was like the whole world was on fire,” she said. “Twelfth Street was burning. Guns were going off and electricity was popping. I couldn’t sleep. I just laid there and cried.”

Federal troops arrive

Federal troops began taking back the streets of the lower east side in large numbers about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, some 10 hours after they arrived at Selfridge Air Base and 46 hours since the unrest had begun. Upon their arrival, their commanders, Lt. General John Throckmortin and Col. A.R. Bolling, observed “a city saturated with fear,” according to the Kerner Commission report.

“The National Guardsmen were afraid, the residents were afraid, and the police were afraid. Numerous persons, the majority of them Negroes, were being injured by gunshots of undetermined origin. The general and his staff felt that the major task of the troops was to reduce fear and restore an air of normalcy,” the report said.

Shirley Davis, who was 19 in 1967, felt that horror when she saw tanks roll into her street as her southwest Detroit neighborhood became a battlefield.

“Tanks! I had never seen a tank before in my life. I thought they came to shoot us, or to blow our houses up,” she told a Detroit Historical Museum interviewer. “I mean actual tanks. Big giant guns. And you’re sitting there and your heart is beating and you don’t know if you’re gonna live or die.”

About 40% of the paratroopers were Vietnam veterans and nearly 25% were African Americans. The troops’ diversity, skill, no-nonsense demeanor, knack for public relations and strict discipline separated them from the trigger-happy weekend warriors in the old, ill-fitting National Guard uniforms. The Army quickly subdued Kercheval, Van Dyke, Vernor, Charlevoix, East Grand Boulevard, Mack and other east-side streets. But not every neighborhood east of Woodward was calm.

During the night hours early Tuesday and Wednesday, snipers seemed ubiquitous on both the east and west sides. At Lawton and Carter, a vicious battle between snipers and law enforcement unfolded around the darkened home of Lloyd Stone, a 49-year-old autoworker, who crawled across his living room floor as gunfire banged up and down his street.

“Get in the house! Get back!” shouted a police officer over a loudspeaker, warning residents to seek cover.

“They’re crazy,” Stone told a reporter. “That’s the only word for it. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Army.”

While hidden assassins were one of the lethal dangers during the week, analysis during and after the riot concluded many of the gunshots that police and the National Guard took for sniper fire were rounds fired by their colleagues blocks away. Detroit police and guard troops often fired first and asked questions later; the Kerner Commission report cited buildings placed under siege by authorities “on the sketchiest reports of sniping.”

Julius Dorsey was a 55-year-old security guard at a fruit market near his home by the Belle Isle Bridge. Two men and a woman approached him after midnight on Monday and ordered him to let them loot the market. Dorsey refused, and a standoff ensued.

Dorsey fired his gun three times into the air, scattering the looters, and they broke into a nearby store. Neighbors, thinking the looters were armed, called police. When police and Guardsmen arrived, they chased the looters northward, firing their guns. The looters escaped, but the bullets hit Dorsey, and he died.

On Tuesday night came a horrific example of misguided shooting during the assault on a building at 12th and Euclid. National Guard troops were on alert because they believed their 2½ ton tank had come under sniper fire. One Guardsman saw the flash of what he thought was a weapon in a second-floor apartment window, so he responded with the tank’s .50-caliber machine gun. Bullets slammed into the chest of 4-year-old Tonia Blanding, killing her and nearly severing the arm of her aunt. The flash the guardsman saw in the darkened apartment likely was Tonia’s uncle striking a match to light a cigarette.

“They shot all through the building,” a young, unidentified black man told WXYZ-TV the next day. “They even ran through the building and shot up through the floors. After they took us out and put us on the street, they talked about how they should kill all of us.”

On Wednesday, in an attempt to flush out suspected snipers, Detroit police and National Guard members fired more than 80 rounds into the Harlan House Motel, on the John Lodge Service Drive near West Grand Boulevard. One guest, Helen Hall, a 50-year-old businesswoman from Connecticut, stood at a fourth-floor window, telling her companions to come look at the tanks. A slug hit her in the heart and killed her instantly.

The Algiers Motel

Also Wednesday, sniper fire was reported around the Algiers Motel, a ramshackle establishment at Woodward and Virginia Park with a reputation for drugs and prostitution. Detroit cops, state police, National Guard soldiers and a security guard stormed the motel.

No weapon was ever found, nor evidence that any snipers had been hiding in the motel — though one of the guests might have fired a starter’s pistol during horseplay. By the time law enforcement personnel departed, three young black men — Carl Cooper, 17; Fred Temple, 18, and Auburey Pollard, 19 — were dead. Several of their friends, plus two white women from Ohio, had been assaulted during a chaotic and brutal lobby interrogation.

The killings became the most infamous episode of the week, a symbol of the uprising’s ruthlessness, especially after it was determined that two of the victims had been shotgunned at close range.

John Hersey, an internationally famous author in that era, described the killings in his 1968 book, “The Algiers Motel Incident.” Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar Award-winning director, uses the Algiers as the focus of her film, “Detroit,” scheduled to have its world premiere at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday and open nationally Aug. 4. Danielle McGuire, a critically acclaimed author and former Wayne State University history professor, is writing a book on what happened at the Algiers.

The police “really freaked out,” in the motel, McGuire said: “By the end of the chaos…all evidence pointed to an execution, rather than some kind of shootout between snipers and the police.”

A regional trauma

The violence subsided gradually. Sniping continued to bedevil police and National Guard troops on the west side, especially in the 12th Street area, but the 505 riot-related incidents from 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesday were about half the number of Monday night, 984. The east side, patrolled by paratroopers, was relatively quiet.

“I think we have the city under control,” Throckmorton, the paratrooper commander, said Wednesday.

One outbreak of gunshots from snipers that took place about 4 p.m. Wednesday around 12th and Clairmount momentarily trapped an unlikely sightseer — Orville Hubbard, the longtime mayor of Dearborn, who was known for his strident segregationist views. Hubbard, in a two-car convoy, was making a tour of the riot areas, accompanied by a Dearborn police inspector with a Thompson submachine gun and a reporter from the Dearborn Press, among others.

As the shooting continued, the Hubbard party sped away. Looking at a young black man walking down a street, minding his own business, Hubbard was quoted as saying, “Look at that guy over there. I think he’d shoot you for two cents. You can tell they just hate whites.”

Earlier, at a news conference, Hubbard had pledged that Dearborn police would “shoot on sight” any rioters who happened to cross the city’s long border with Detroit.

“When you have mad dogs running loose, you’ve got to bring them under control with brute force,” he said.

In Detroit, police shot a white looter Wednesday who was stealing from an auto parts store north of Hamtramck. On the west side, Albert Robinson, a 38-year-old factory worker, died when police and guardsmen said snipers were shooting from Robinson’s apartment building. Authorities claimed Robinson was a sniper, but witnesses disagreed. No weapons were found in the building. Rumors spread that a Guardsman had bayoneted Robinson as he lay wounded on the ground, but an autopsy showed no such wounds.

By Thursday, much of the city was calm for the first time in five days. Many Detroiters and suburbanites were exhausted, sad, scared, confused and angry. And they also were curious about what had happened. Such large crowds and cars jammed 12th Street and other battered neighborhoods Thursday that Romney felt forced to reinstate the 9 p.m.- 5:30 a.m. curfew to control traffic and allow cleanup crews access.

The sights of soldiers, tanks, streets glittering with glass and smoking piles of rubble where busy businesses once stood were so much more harsh in person than on TV, and the images left many people feeling disoriented and ill.

The stats startled the world: 43 dead (33 African Americans and 10 whites); 1,189 injured; 7,231 arrests, of which 14% were white; 2,509 stores looted or burned; and 3,034 calls for fire department service. Of all structure fires, perhaps as many as 27% took place in black-owned businesses, according to historian Sidney Fine.

“The catastrophe which has struck Detroit is a disaster by any reasonable definition of that term,” Romney said.

On Thursday, Cavanagh assembled at city hall 500 Detroiters, from Henry Ford II, UAW President Walter Reuther, department store chief J.L. Hudson Jr. to numerous community and neighborhood leaders. The mayor would appoint Hudson, then 35, to lead a city rebuilding committee, which would become New Detroit Inc.

“We had to have something like this to wake us up to the fact that we have a revolution going on,” said Anthony Locricchio, an antipoverty activist. “We knew this would be bad, but we didn’t know it would be this bad.”

Reuther, one of the era’s most liberal and influential labor leaders, had counseled presidents Johnson and John F. Kennedy and directed UAW funds to help finance the civil rights movement in the South. He delivered a passionate speech at the city hall meeting, summoning the hope that many Detroiters were searching for.

“What are we trying to do with this thing we call the American Dream?” Reuther asked the crowd. “We are trying to build a society in which we can harmonize the diversity — the many splendored diversity — of the human family, of all kinds of people, and to weld them into a sense of unity and solidarity.

“This has never been done before. There are no blueprints that we can lift out of the history books, because no other people have ever had the challenge, or the opportunity. There is little we can do about yesterday. But there is much that we can about tomorrow.”