By MARCO DI MARCO and DAVID KEYTON

GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano in southwestern Iceland that has roared back to life after eight centuries of silence has erupted for the seventh time since December, sending molten lava flowing towards the Blue Lagoon spa, a major tourist attraction.

The eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula started with little warning at 11:14 p.m. (2314 GMT) Wednesday and created a fissure around 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) long. The activity is estimated to be considerably smaller than the previous eruption in August, according to Iceland’s meteorological office that monitors seismic activity.

Most of the previous eruptions have subsided within days.

“In the big picture, this is a bit smaller than the last eruption, and the eruption that occurred in May,” Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor of geophysics who flew over the scene with the Civil Protection agency to monitor the event, told national broadcaster RUV.

While the eruption poses no threat to air travel, authorities warned of gas emissions across parts of the peninsula, including the nearby town of Grindavík, which was largely evacuated a year ago when the volcano came to life after lying dormant for 800 years.

Around 50 houses were evacuated after the Civil Protection agency issued the alert, along with guests at the Blue Lagoon By Thursday afternoon lava had spread across parking lot of the geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, consuming a service building.

Lava also reached the pipeline that supplies the peninsula with hot water for heating, the meteorological office said, though the pipes were built to withstand lava flow.

The repeated volcanic eruptions close to Grindavík, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, and had a population before the eruptions of 3,800, have damaged infrastructure and property, forcing many residents to relocate to guarantee their safety.

“Grindavík is not in danger as it looks and it is unlikely that this crack will get any longer, although nothing can be ruled out,” Magnús Tumi said.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.

Keyton reported from Berlin.

More women will be able to compete at the highest level of competitive surfing, with the World Surf League announcing recently that the field for 2026 will be bumped up to 24 surfers.

The change increases the number from the current top 18 who make the cut for the World Tour, which is considered the major leagues of the sport.

It’s the latest move by the Santa Monica-based World Surf League, the governing body of pro surfing, to create an equal playing field for women.

Two years ago, the WSL changed the women’s tour to match the same locations where the men compete at and in 2019 made prize money equal, becoming the first professional sport in the United States to have the same winnings across the both genders.

“The women are really pushing high-performance surfing to new levels, and we’re seeing unprecedented levels of engagement and excitement,” said Ryan Crosby, WSL CEO, in an e-mail.  “Expanding the field is a step that allows us to meet that momentum and bring more opportunities for women to compete at the highest level.”

The men’s field starts the competitive year with 36 men.

Women’s surfing in recent years has seen a surge in popularity and a new crop of young competitors are pushing boundaries, drawing in viewers eager to see the female progression unfold during competitions.

“Today’s incredible progression is a tribute to the dedication of every generation, and changes like this continue that work,” said Jessi Miley-Dyer, WSL commissioner. “Visibility matters, and it’s exciting.”

Under the new format, the 2026 women’s field will include the top 14 surfers from the World Tour and the top seven qualifiers from the Challenger Series, which is the pathway to the elite-level tour. There will also be two WSL season wildcards, and one event wildcard.

“I’m stoked to see the numbers grow,” Oceanside’s Caitlin Simmers, who won the world title in September at Lower Trestles, said in a statement. “Women’s surfing is so special. I want to see more of it and I think a lot of other people do too.

“I’m really looking forward to having more of my friends on tour,” she added. “I think the world deserves to see how epic their surfing is and how hard they charge. I’m really happy that they’ll get more opportunities to go for it.”

Eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore called the WSL’s decision a “sign of the times,” a reflection of the depth of talent within female surfing.

“I’m constantly amazed at the progression and the growing number of women participating in surfing around the world. The future is bright,” she said.

Prior to the 2019 change for equal prize money, women would earn half, sometimes even less, for winning events.

In 2009, for example, Santa Ana surfer Courtney Conlogue won $10,000 for winning the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, while the men’s winner, Brett Simpson, earned a $100,000 check.

It was in 2022 that the WSL implemented a combined schedule for contest events. Prior to that, women had fewer events and most years were not included in some of the heavier, big-wave spots such as Hawaii’s Pipeline or Teahupo’o in Tahiti.

The tides started changing just as San Clemente surfer Caroline Marks joined the World Tour in 2019.

“I’m really excited to hear that more women will be able to be on the (the tour),” Marks said in a statement. “It’s cool too to think that, just as I was able to pursue my career without having to worry about equal prize money, future groms will have a much better chance of being able to join the tour and live their dream knowing that there’s a place for them.”

The  2025 season kicks off on Jan. 27 at the Banzai Pipeline on Oahu’s North Shore.

By RONALD BLUM

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball will test robot umpires as part of a challenge system during spring training at 13 ballparks hosting 19 teams, which could lead to regular-season use in 2026.

MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 but is still working on the shape of the strike zone.

An agreement for big league use would have to be reached with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, whose collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.

“I would be interested in having it in ‘26,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday after an owners’ meeting. “We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well.”

Manfred said the spring training experiment will have to be evaluated before MLB determines how to move forward.

“There’s two sides to that test,” he said. “It’s what the clubs think about it and also what do the players think about it? And we’re going to have to sort through both of those.”

Triple-A ballparks used ABS this year for the second straight season, but there is little desire to call the strike zone as the cube defined in the rule book and MLB has experimented with modifications during minor league testing.

The ABS currently calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone was increased to 53.5% of batter height this year from 51%, and the bottom remained at 27%.

After splitting having the robot alone for the first three games of each series and a human with a challenge system in the final three during the first 2 1/2 months of the Triple-A season, MLB on June 25 switched to an all-challenge system in which a human umpire makes nearly all decisions.

During the second half of the season, each team had three challenges in the Pacific Coast League and two in the International League. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews.

“I think we will have a spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all major league players to see what the challenge system will look like,” Manfred said. “It won’t be in every single ballpark but we actually have a plan where every team will get meaningful exposure.”

By JIM SALTER

ST. LOUIS (AP) — What is now St. Louis was once home to more than 100 mounds constructed by Native Americans — so many that St. Louis was once known as “Mound City.” Settlers tore most of them down, and just one remains.

Now, that last remaining earthen structure, Sugarloaf Mound, is closer to being back in the hands of the Osage Nation.

The city of St. Louis, the Osage Nation and the nonprofit Counterpublic announced on Thursday that an 86-year-old woman who owns a home that sits atop Sugarloaf Mound has agreed to sell it and eventually transfer the property to the tribe.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen plans to pass a resolution in January recognizing the Osage Nation’s sovereignty, Alderman Cara Spencer said. Eventually, the goal is to develop a cultural and interpretive center at the site that overlooks the Mississippi River a few miles south of downtown.

“One step for our tribal sovereignty is reclaiming the lands that we inhabited for hundreds of years,” said Andrea Hunter, director of the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. “And to be able to at least salvage one mound in St. Louis, on the west side of the Mississippi River — it means a lot to us, to regain our heritage.”

But a sticking point remains. A pharmaceutical fraternity owns the only other house on the mound, and it remains unclear if it is willing to give up the property.

Native Americans built thousands of mounds across the U.S. in the centuries prior to colonization. All were sacred ceremonial sites, but some also were used for housing or commerce. Many were burial sites. Tribal elites sometimes lived on them, Hunter said.

The mounds in the St. Louis area are believed to have been built from roughly 800 to 1450. Even today, many mounds remain in nearby Cahokia, Illinois. Experts believe that at one time centuries ago, Cahokia was home to up to 20,000 people.

Sugarloaf Mound and Big Mound were among the most prominent of the human-made structures in what is now St. Louis, said James McAnally, executive director of Counterpublic, a St. Louis nonprofit that works to affect change through art-based projects and helped facilitate the new land acquisition.

“They were built on the river specifically to be signal mounds,” McAnally said. Native Americans on the western side of the Mississippi could send smoke signals visible to those in Cahokia to let them know if people were seen coming down the waterway, Hunter said.

Mounds still stood prominently in St. Louis at its founding in 1764. Visitors — even members of European royalty — made the trip to the fledgling city just to see them, said Patricia Cleary, a U.S. history professor at California State University, Long Beach, and author of the book “Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis.”

Eventually, removal treaties forced Native Americans away from St. Louis. Settlers had little use for the mounds.

“They used them to build up the bank of the Mississippi River and used them as fill for roads and railroads with total disregard for our ancestors’ graves that were in many of those,” Hunter said. “There are even accounts that as they were taking Big Mound down, they were simply throwing the bones into the Mississippi River.”

Today, St. Louis landmarks dot locations where mounds once stood, including several places in Forest Park, where mounds were demolished to make way for the World’s Fair in 1904. By the early 20th century, only Sugarloaf Mound remained.

In 2009, the Osage Nation purchased the first section of the mound, dismantled a home and began work to stabilize it. But two homes remained in private hands.

One of those homeowners, 86-year-old Joan Heckenberg, has agreed to transfer ownership to the Osage Nation once she either moves or dies.

Heckenberg has lived in the house 81 years, since her grandfather bought it and convinced his skeptical wife to move the family there.

“But they fell in love with it,” Heckenberg said of her grandparents.

The agreement with Heckenberg leaves just one other private house on the mound, a building owned by Kappa Psi, a national pharmaceutical fraternity. Heckenberg said students haven’t lived there for years, and homeless people sometimes stay there.

A spokeswoman for the fraternity said a limited liability company manages the house and that selling it would be up to the LLC. She didn’t have the name or contact information for the LLC. McAnally said the fraternity has been approached about selling the home, but “so far they haven’t taken any action.”

Spencer said the mounds are an important and overlooked part of St. Louis, and preserving Sugarloaf is vital.

“This is a really special place to the Osage history and to our Native American heritage in this country, which has largely been erased,” Spencer said.

Every first responder knows that life can change in an instant.

Warren police officer Nick Kott was off duty, hunting with his dad on their property in Gladwin on the afternoon of Nov. 16 when he slipped and fell out of a tree blind. When he did not return to his cabin at the expected time, his father walked to the area his son said he would be and found him conscious and motionless on the ground where he had been for more than an hour.

He was rushed to Midland Hospital, then airlifted to University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor where he is currently in critical condition in Neuro-ICU.

According to his wife, Holli, who spoke to the media during a press conference Thursday, Kott suffered a serious neck injury and is on a ventilator and has no feeling from his neck down. The doctors have told her it is too early to determine if he will regain movement of his limbs.

“He was able to mouth some words to me today which is the first time we’ve been able to communicate,” Holli said. “I’m asking for prayers and I’m asking specifically for prayers for Nick to regain use of his hands and arms so he can play with his son who is his best friend.

“I know this is going to be a very, very, very long road.”

Holli said she and her husband met when they were neighbors and their dogs took a liking to each other and liked to play together. They still live in that same Waterford Township neighborhood in a two-story house Holli said will need major renovations in order for her husband to be able to come home.

“My number one thing I want Nick to be able to do,” Holli said through tears, “is to tuck his best friend in at night and we have a two-story house.

“If we could just get Jack up the stairs to tuck in his baby boy, our 7-year-old son Jack, I need your help and support to do that.”

Holli praised the Gladwin firefighters and police who transported her husband to Midland Hospital, doctors and nurses at both Midland and University of Michigan hospitals, and Warren police for their help during this time of crisis.

“This has been an absolute nightmare that I can’t wake up out of,” said Holli. “I’m only getting through this because of the love and support from the Warren Police Department and the surrounding police departments.”

Holli said one police officer came and fixed a broken backyard swing for Jack while others are coming to clean gutters and do the fall cleanup tasks that Nick usually handles.

Kott joined the Warren Police Department in 2011.

“This department has been his life; they are his brothers and his sisters and they have proved that this week,” Holli said.

Kott’s family will need help paying for medical bills and making home renovations to accommodate Nick when he gets home. A GoFundMe has raised $29,585 toward a $40,000 goal. Donations can be made at gofund.me/6fa96708.

“As police officers, we are good at responding to other people’s emergencies, but it’s a gut check when it is one of your own,” said Warren Lt. John Gajewski.

By PHILIP MARCELO

NEW YORK (AP) — The brooding waltz was carefully composed on a sheet of music roughly the size of an index card. The brief, moody number also bore an intriguing name, written at the top in cursive: “Chopin.”

A previously unknown work of music penned by the European master Frederic Chopin appears to have been found at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

The untitled and unsigned piece is on display this month at the opulently appointed institution, which had once been the private library of financier J. P. Morgan.

Robinson McClellan, the museum curator who uncovered the manuscript, said it’s the first new work associated with the Romantic era composer to be discovered in nearly a century.

But McClellan concedes that it may never be known whether it is an original Chopin work or merely one written in his hand.

The piece, set in the key of A minor, stands out for its “very stormy, brooding opening section” before transitioning to a melancholy melody more characteristic of Chopin, McClellan explained.

“This is his style. This is his essence,” he said during a recent visit to the museum. “It really feels like him.”

McClellan said he came across the work in May as he was going through a collection from the late Arthur Satz, a former president of the New York School of Interior Design. Satz had acquired it from A. Sherrill Whiton Jr., an avid autograph collector who had been director of the school.

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

The paper was found to be consistent with what Chopin favored for manuscripts, and the ink matched a kind typical in the early 19th century when Chopin lived, according to the museum. But a handwriting analysis determined the name “Chopin” written at the top of the sheet was penned by someone else.

Born in Poland, Chopin was considered a musical genius from an early age. He lived in Warsaw and Vienna before settling in Paris, where he died in 1849 at the age of 39, likely of tuberculosis.

He’s buried among a pantheon of artists at the city’s famed Père Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart, pickled in a jar of alcohol, is housed in a church in Warsaw, in keeping with his deathbed wish for the organ to return to his homeland.

Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, the Polish capital city where the composer grew up, agreed that the document is consistent with the kinds of ink and paper Chopin used during his early years in Paris.

Musically, the piece evokes the “brilliant style” that made Chopin a luminary in his time, but it also has features unusual for his compositions, Szklener said.

“First of all, it is not a complete work, but rather a certain musical gesture, a theme laced with rather simple piano tricks alluding to a virtuoso style,” Szklener explained in a lengthy statement released after the document was revealed last month.

He and other experts conjecture the piece could have been a work in progress. It may have also been a copy of another’s work, or even co-written with someone else, perhaps a student for a musical exercise.

Jeffrey Kallberg, a University of Pennsylvania music professor and Chopin expert who helped authenticate the document, called the piece a “little gem” that Chopin likely intended as a gift for a friend or wealthy acquaintance.

“Many of the pieces that he gave as gifts were short – kind of like ‘appetizers’ to a full-blown work,” Kallberg said in an email. “And we don’t know for sure whether he intended the piece to see the light of day because he often wrote out the same waltz more than once as a gift.”

David Ludwig, dean of music at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory in Manhattan, agreed the piece has many of the hallmarks of the composer’s style.

“It has the Chopin character of something very lyrical and it has a little bit of darkness as well,” said Ludwig, who was not involved in authenticating the document.

But Ludwig noted that, if it’s authentic, the tightly composed score would be one of Chopin’s shortest known pieces. The waltz clocks in at under a minute long when played on piano, as many of Chopin’s works were intended.

“In terms of the authenticity of it, in a way it doesn’t matter because it sparks our imaginations,” Ludwig said. “A discovery like this highlights the fact that classical music is very much a living art form.”

The Chopin reveal comes after the Leipzig Municipal Libraries in Germany announced in September that it had uncovered a previously unknown piece likely composed by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its collections.

Associated Press video journalist John Minchillo in New York contributed to this story.

SAN DIEGO — Leonard Glenn Francis, the Malaysian contractor known as “Fat Leonard” at the center of the U.S. Navy’s worst-ever bribery and corruption scandal, will appeal the 15-year prison sentence that a San Diego federal judge imposed earlier this month, according to documents filed by his attorney.

The prison term imposed by U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino at the Nov. 5 sentencing hearing was more than three years longer than what prosecutors recommended for Francis, who bilked the Navy out of at least $35 million but also provided what prosecutors called “unprecedented” cooperation in identifying corrupt Navy officers who accepted his bribes. Sammartino also ordered Francis to pay $20 million in restitution to the Navy.

As part of his plea agreements in three cases, Francis gave up his rights to appeal his convictions but had 14 days to appeal his sentence. On Tuesday, two weeks since his sentencing hearing, defense attorney Douglas Sprague filed notices of appeal in each of Francis’ cases.

The notices are simple, one-page documents that provide no details about the arguments he’ll make.

Francis, 60, remains jailed in San Diego, according to online records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, though Sammartino recommended he serve his remaining time in custody at a medical prison facility. When accounting for credit he’ll receive from time he has already been held in custody, Francis has about 8½ more years in prison, pending the outcome of his appeal.

Francis, who was known as “Fat Leonard” because of his enormous size, spent decades bribing a rotating cast of officers from the Navy’s 7th Fleet in the Western Pacific who in turn steered ships to the Southeast Asian ports controlled by Francis and his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. Francis then charged the U.S. government heavily inflated prices for routine services.

Francis was arrested in 2013 in the first of what became a series of bribery, fraud and corruption cases related to GDMA. He pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States and quickly became the government’s key witness, providing what prosecutors described as “unparalleled” cooperation that led authorities to investigate some 1,000 Navy personnel.

At his sentencing hearing this month, Francis also pleaded guilty to a charge related to his 2022 escape from house arrest. For all of his crimes, the federal sentencing guidelines recommended a prison term between 17½ and nearly 22 years. But in large part because of the cooperation Francis provided, prosecutors recommended a sentence just shy of 12 years.

Sammartino, who has presided over almost all of the cases related to Francis and the Navy corruption scandal, said she took into account Francis’ cooperation but called his corruption scheme “insidious” and said the 15-year term was more appropriate.

In a related case, an attorney for retired Navy Capt. David Haas, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes from Francis and recently spent two years in prison, filed a motion on Tuesday indicating Haas will seek to have his felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor. The request stems from prosecutorial misconduct that has resulted in nine other defendants having felony convictions reduced or dismissed.

Earlier this year, prosecutors promised in a court filing to review the cases related to the Navy corruption scandal to determine if any defendants who already pleaded guilty and were sentenced should have their charges reduced or dismissed because of the prosecution issues.

Haas is the first known defendant to seek such relief.

Chuck La Bella, who is representing Haas, sent an email to prosecutors last month asking them to reduce Haas’ felony conviction to a misdemeanor, according to the email exchange contained in a court exhibit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Ko responded in part: “I respectfully do not see a genuine legal concern requiring … relief in his case. For that reason, we cannot agree or consent to a … motion vacating Mr. Haas’s conviction.”

In the document filed Tuesday, La Bella wrote that Haas will instead file a habeas corpus petition — essentially asking the court to review the validity of his conviction and sentence — that’s based on the prosecutorial misconduct.

©2024 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — While Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from the nomination process for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has picked several other people for his Cabinet and key staff positions who have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct.

Trump himself has long been accused of abusing or mistreating women and once was caught bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. He was found liable by a New York City jury for sexual abuse and defamation and eventually ordered to pay the woman, E. Jean Carroll, $83 million in damages.

Taken together, there are a striking number of incidents in which potential high-ranking government officials in Trump’s second administration face allegations of sexual abuse. Trump and all of his picks for government have denied the claims against them, with some of the people accused arguing the cases are driven by politics.

Here’s a look at what’s known about the cases:

President-elect Donald Trump

Jurors in New York last year found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, an advice columnist, in 1996.

The verdict was split: Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped, finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. Jurors also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll over her allegations. Trump did not attend the civil trial and was absent when the verdict was read.

Carroll was one of more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment. She went public in a 2019 memoir with her allegation that the Republican raped her in the dressing room of a posh Manhattan department store.

Trump denied it, saying he never encountered Carroll at the store and did not know her. He has called her a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to sell a memoir. He has similarly denied claims by other women.

Pete Hegseth, nominee for secretary of defense

A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public this week.

Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.

News of the allegations surfaced last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he had spoken at a Republican women’s event in Monterey.

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said in a statement that the police report confirms “what I have said all along that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.”

Parlatore said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement a few years after the police investigation because Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News, where he was a popular host. Parlatore would not reveal the amount of the payment.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for secretary of health and human services

A woman who babysat for Kennedy and his second wife told Vanity Fair magazine that he groped her in the late 1990s, when she was 23. Kennedy did not deny the allegation, telling a podcast: “I had a very, very rambunctious youth.” He texted the woman an apology after the story was published.

According to an interview the woman gave this week with USA Today, she said she was babysitting for his children at Kennedy’s home in Mount Kisco, New York. She said that the assault happened soon after she began working there. During a kitchen table meeting with Kennedy and another person, she said she felt him rubbing her leg under the table.

She told the newspaper that another time, Kennedy, then 46, asked her to rub lotion on him when he was shirtless and she obliged because she wanted to get it over with. And he grabbed her in a kitchen pantry and groped her, blocking her exit. She stayed on the job for a few more months before leaving.

Linda McMahon, nominee for secretary of education

A lawsuit filed last month alleges that McMahon knowingly enabled sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment employee as early as the 1980s. She denies the allegations.

The suit was filed in October in Maryland, where a recent law change eliminated the state’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims, opening the doors for victims to sue regardless of their age or how much time has passed.

The complaint alleges that Melvin Phillips, who died in 2012, would target young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and hire them as “ring boys” to help with the preparations for wrestling matches. Phillips would then assault them in his dressing room, hotels and even in the wrestlers’ locker room, according to the complaint, which was filed on behalf of five men.

The abuse detailed in the lawsuit occurred over several years during Phillips’ long tenure with the organization spanning from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Because of his death, Phillips is not among the named defendants.

Instead, the complaint targets WWE founders Linda McMahon and her husband Vince, who grew the organization into the powerhouse it is today. The couple was well aware of Phillips’ brazen misconduct but did little to stop him, according to the complaint.

“This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” said Laura Brevetti, Linda McMahon’s lawyer, in a statement. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation. Ms. McMahon will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.”

Brevetti confirmed Linda and Vince McMahon are separated.

Elon Musk, Trump’s choice to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency

Tesla and SpaceXCEO Elon Musk was accused of sexual misconduct by a flight attendant contracted by SpaceX who worked on his private jet in 2016. He denied the claim.

A 2022 report by Business Insider said SpaceX paid the woman $250,000 in severance in 2018 in exchange for her agreeing not to file a lawsuit over her claim.

The Business Insider report was based on an account by the flight attendant’s friend, who said the flight attendant told her about the incident shortly after it happened. The report also said the flight attendant was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits her from discussing the payment or anything else about Musk and SpaceX.

SpaceX didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

Musk responded to the allegations on Twitter, which he was in the process of buying at the time they surfaced.

“And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue,” he wrote in response to one user who tweeted in support of him.

He replied to another: “In my 30 year career, including the entire MeToo era, there’s nothing to report, but, as soon as I say I intend to restore free speech to Twitter & vote Republican, suddenly there is …”

Matt Gaetz, who withdrew as Trump’s choice for attorney general

The former Florida congressman was embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he had been tapped to lead. He also was under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over allegations including sexual misconduct — until he resigned from Congress this week. He then withdrew his name for consideration.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.

Federal investigators scrutinized a trip that Gaetz took to the Bahamas with a group of women and a doctor who donated to his campaign, and whether the women were paid or received gifts to have sex with the men, according to people familiar with the matter who were not allowed to publicly discuss the investigation.

Two women House investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex and one of the women testified she saw him having sex with a 17-year-old, according to an attorney for the women.

The committee began its review of Gaetz in April 2021, deferred its work in response to a Justice Department request, and renewed its work shortly after Gaetz announced that the Justice Department had ended a sex trafficking investigation.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

CHICAGO — Of the many people whose lives still cast shadows on our history, one of them is that of a little boy, a 14-year-old named Emmett Till who left Chicago full of playful life and returned, as his mother, Mamie, said in 1955, “in a pine box, so horribly battered and waterlogged that someone needed to tell you this sickening sight is your son.”

I hope you know at least some of the details of that boy’s life. I have written about him before, many have, but there are good reasons to do so again, for it is now possible to meet him and learn his sad story in two powerful ways.

On Nov. 23, the Chicago History Museum is opening a new exhibition, “Injustice: The Trial for the Murder of Emmett Till.” It will feature photographs of the youngster’s life in Chicago, his funeral and original courtroom sketches of the trial.

That trial was a sham. Two men — Roy Bryant, owner of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market and the husband of the woman at whom Till supposedly aimed his whistle, and his half-brother, a hulking, 235-pound World War II veteran named J.W. Milam — were first charged with kidnapping. That became murder after the teenager’s dead body was found.

Neither Bryant nor Milam testified during a trial that lasted five days. In closing arguments, defense attorney Sidney Carlton told the jurors that if they did not acquit Bryant and Milam, “Your ancestors will turn over in their grave.”

The all-white, all-male jury (nine farmers, two carpenters and an insurance agent) deliberated for only 67 minutes. Reporters said they heard laughter inside the jury room. The verdict? Not guilty. One juror later told reporters, “We wouldn’t have taken so long if we hadn’t stopped to drink pop.”

The outrage at the verdict was expressed in headlines across the globe, in part because more than 100 reporters were there, from Chicago, across the country and from Europe. One of them was future Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam, who covered the story for a small Mississippi paper. He would come to believe that the murder/trial were “the first great media events of the civil rights movement,” and “at last (could galvanize) the national press corps, and eventually, the nation.”

It should be noted that before the year was out, Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, this compelled a young pastor named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to call for a boycott of the city-owned bus company.

Another person in the courtroom during the trial was Chicago’s Franklin McMahon, who documented the proceedings in drawings that appeared in Life magazine. His stunning art is among the highlights of the museum show.

Know too that there is a new book that devotes some of its nearly 300 pages to Till but also to the larger sham of American racism. Its title says a great deal, “Ghosts of Segregation: American Racism, Hidden in Plain Sight” (Celadon Books). It is the work of former Chicagoan Richard Frishman, who traveled more than 35,000 miles across America over five years capturing with his camera such things as once-segregated bathrooms, beaches, churches, hospitals, graves and hotels.

In Chicago, he photographed the Dan Ryan Expressway; the Sunset Café, a prominent “Black and Tan” jazz club; as well as the site of the outbreak of the 1919 race riot. He also photographed Bryant’s Grocery, where Emmett’s story began, and the Black Bayou Bridge across the Tallahatchie River, where his dead body was found.

Frishman’s photos are captivating and thought-provoking. The book is beautiful in a haunting way and that was one of Frishman’s aims. In the book, he writes, “Look carefully. These photographs are evidence that structures of segregation and racist ideology are still standing in contemporary America. Our tribal instincts continue to build barriers to protect ourselves from people perceived as ‘other’ while overlooking our shared humanity.”

Critic Hilton Als has praised the book, writing, “Throughout (the book) the heart and mind are full to bursting with depth of feeling and depth of thought. I can’t imagine a more beautiful creation.”

When Emmett Till’s body was returned to Chicago, to the A.A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home, with services held at the Roberts Temple Church of God, his mother made the brave decision to allow Jet magazine to publish a photo of the mutilated corpse and also decided to have a open casket, and so tens of thousands saw Emmett’s battered body. Some people prayed, some fainted and all, men, women and children, wept.

Now nearly 70 years later, Frishman tells me, “I am on a mission to open peoples’ eyes to the hidden and living legacies that surround us. History does not repeat itself; we repeat history.”

rkogan@chicagotribune.com

Federal officials released a range of scenarios Wednesday that could be used to manage the overallocated and shrinking Colorado River as time for the seven basin states to reach an agreement grows short.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s four proposed plans are not set in stone, but for the first time offer insight into how federal leaders are planning for the future of a river that is depended upon by 40 million people across the Southwest. A new long-term operating plan must be created before the expiration of current management guidelines at the end of 2026.

“These alternatives represent a responsible range from which to build the best and most robust path forward for the basin,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a statement. “I have confidence in our partners and the Reclamation team in continuing this work to meet the needs of the river for the future.”

The Colorado River provides water for 40 million people, irrigates millions of acres of agricultural land that feeds the country, generates electric power, fuels recreation-based economies and provides important habitat for thousands of species. But the amount of water in the river — overestimated from the beginning of a multi-state agreement — is shrinking because of drought and aridification intensified by climate change.

The federal proposals come as negotiations over future river management between the seven states have stalled. The Lower Basin states — California, Arizona and Nevada — published a plan for post-2026 operations of the river’s two major reservoirs as have the Upper Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah. Both basins presented their separate plans in the spring and negotiators from the two basins have not made any public indication that the sides are close to an agreement.

Federal officials have repeatedly said that a consensus plan from the states would be preferred to the Bureau of Reclamation enacting a plan unilaterally. Such federal action could prompt litigation that would tie up river operations for years.

“These proposed alternatives underscore how serious a situation we’re facing on the Colorado River,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, said in a statement. “The only path forward is a collaborative, seven-state plan to solve the Colorado River crisis without taking this to court. Otherwise, we’ll watch the river run dry while we sue each other.”

The proposals presented Wednesday could stir further negotiation between the states as well as the 30 tribal nations with rights to the river’s water, said Rhett Larson, a water law professor at Arizona State University.

“It seems likely to me that instead of making everyone happy, they’ll make everyone mad,” Larson said of the proposals.

But that might be a good thing, he said.

“If it’s something that’s distasteful to both basins, it might unite both basins,” he added.

The proposed plans

The four alternatives range from doing nothing to major changes to how the river’s two major reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — are operated.

The alternatives present different variations of who should take water cuts, how those water cuts are decided and what factors should determine releases from Mead and Powell. The Upper Basin states send water downstream to fill the reservoirs, which the Lower Basin states rely on for their water supply.

The option to do nothing is also presented in the proposal as a formality, since that is required by federal law.

Here’s how the four major proposals differ:

• Alternative 1 would be similar to the most recent management plan, though smaller federally managed reservoirs on the Colorado River — like Colorado’s Blue Mesa Reservoir — could be forced to send water downstream should water levels at Lake Powell fall too low. The amount of water released from Lake Powell would depend on the reservoir’s water levels and Lower Basin states could absorb up to 3.5 million acre feet of cuts if the combined water levels at Powell and Mead fall too low.
• Alternative 2 was created by combining federal agencies’ and tribal nations’ input. It states that releases from Powell would depend on water levels at Mead and Powell, average hydrology from the past 10 years, and how much water is being used in the Lower Basin. Both the Upper and Lower basins would be expected to conserve water and cuts would be determined by the amount of water stored in the seven federally managed reservoirs in the basin.
• Alternative 3 is derived from plans submitted by conservation organizations.  Under this plan, the amount of  water released from Powell would be determined by how much water is stored in the Upper Basin and recent hydrology. The Lower Basin would take up to 4 million acre-feet of cuts and both the Upper and Lower basins would voluntarily reduce water use.
• Alternative 4 is a combination of the two proposals submitted by the Lower and Upper basins and also includes input from tribes. It states releases from Powell would be determined by water levels in the reservoir as well as sometimes incorporating water levels at Mead. Cuts would be determined by the combined water stored across the seven federally managed reservoirs in the basin and both the Upper and Lower basins would be required to conserve water.

Several of the plans call for mandatory conservation in the Upper Basin, which negotiators from those states have opposed.

The proposal to determine releases based on water storage in all seven federally managed reservoirs in the basin would be one of the major changes if enacted, Larson said. But it is difficult to judge exactly how the alternatives would work from the short summaries presented by the bureau on Wednesday, he said.

Upper Basin states, including Colorado, have opposed the idea of incorporating the other reservoirs into operation guidelines. Mead and Powell, combined, make up 90% of the system’s storage. The Upper Basin states have also opposed being forced to cut water usage, arguing they use less than the amount they are obligated. Already, negotiators said, the Upper Basin must cut water usage based on how much water is available because there are no massive reservoirs upstream to prop up water use in dry times.

Becky Mitchell, who is negotiating the future operation of the river for Colorado, said in a statement that she could not speak to the Bureau of Reclamation’s alternatives at this time.

“Colorado continues to stand firmly behind the Upper Division States’ Alternative, which performs best according to Reclamation’s own modeling and directly meets the purpose and need of this federal action,” she said. “The Upper Division States’ Alternative is supply-driven and is designed to help rebuild storage at our nation’s two largest reservoirs.”

She said she remained committed to working with the other Colorado River states, the federal government and tribal nations to find consensus.

What’s next?

The proposals released Wednesday are the beginning of a federal process that must be completed by August 2026.

Federal authorities will now analyze the potential impact to environmental and human health as well as create projects of how each plan could impact reservoir elevations and water cuts. They will take more input on the proposals before publishing those analyses in a document called a draft environmental impact statement.

The Bureau of Reclamation will seek public comment on the draft environmental impact statement before releasing a final environmental impact statement and making a decision on future operations in 2026.

Time is running out for the basin states to present a unified plan to federal officials, Larson said. Representatives from all of the states will attend the Colorado River Water Users Association’s annual conference in December, he said, which could provide an opportunity for the states to come to an agreement.

“The next month is going to be very telling,” he said.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Matt Gaetz withdrew Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general following continued scrutiny over a federal sex trafficking investigation that cast doubt on the former congressman’s ability to be confirmed as the nation’s chief federal law enforcement officer.

The Florida Republican’s announcement came one day after meeting with senators in an effort to win their support for his confirmation to lead the Justice Department.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz said in a statement announcing his decision. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

Gaetz’s withdrawal is a blow to Trump’s push to install steadfast loyalists in his incoming administration and the first sign that Trump could face resistance from members of his own party.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Which playpen is best?

Every parent knows about the dreaded silence that falls when children get into things they shouldn’t be while you aren’t looking. You can avoid this by using a playpen. Playpens can also help keep toys from being scattered everywhere by containing everything to a designated play area in addition to occasionally doubling as barriers and fences to make an entire room a playpen.

The best playpen for many occasions and needs is the Baby Care Funzone Play Pen. This highly durable and incredibly safe playpen has an effortless setup and takedown. It’s pretty expensive but well worth it.

What to know before you buy a playpen

Types of playpens

• Standard: Standard playpens have no floor and generally come in adjustable sizes, with four to 14 individual panels. They typically include gates for easy entrance and exit and are often secured to the floor using suction cups or balanced on feet.
• Portable: Portable playpens are meant for when you’re on the go. They have a floor to protect your child from the uncomfortable ground and are typically collapsible or at the very least have a carrying case to store panels and the floor.

Playpen materials

• Plastic: Plastic playpens are generally thick, though lightweight. They’re durable, easy to clean and often come in a wide range of bright colors. They’re less likely to scratch hardwood flooring, and they sometimes come with activity panels to help entertain your child. They don’t last very long in the sun as sunlight will bleach out the color and weaken the plastic.
• Wood: Wood playpens are thinner than plastic but also heavier. They generally don’t have any activity panels and last even shorter outside, thanks to absorbing moisture. This also means they don’t hold up to chewing. They sometimes have feet to add to stability and limit scratching of hardwood floors. They tend to have a more refined look over plastic.

Panel quantity

Where you plan on using your playpen and how often affect how many panels you typically need. You might want extras in case of damage or to adjust the play space as required. Certain configurations of panels are also sturdier.

What to look for in a quality playpen

Safety

Playpens generally have a Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association certification label, which shows compliance with all safety standards set by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. If your prospective playpen doesn’t have this, look for a different playpen.

Height

Playpens are generally 20 inches tall at a minimum, so children can’t climb out, but many playpens are taller than this. If you want your playpen to last as long as possible, choose one that has a lot of extra height so your child won’t be able to grow and escape for a long time.

Gate

Some playpens include a gate for easy entrance and exit. These are often usable with one hand to make using the gate and holding your child easy. A playpen without a gate means you’ll have to lift your child in and out when in use.

How much you can expect to spend on a playpen

Playpens can be quite expensive with higher quality and a larger play area space. You can find most average playpens for $100 or a bit less, but some can be well over $150.

Playpen FAQ

Can you buy extra panels if you need to without buying an entire extra playpen?

A. Many playpen manufacturers sell extra panels in extension packs. If you think you’ll need more later, check if extension packs are available before purchasing. Otherwise, you might find yourself needing to repurchase the full playpen.

Do standard playpen types fold up for storage?

A. No, standard playpens don’t fold up for storage. The panels can be taken apart and stacked out of the way to take up less space when not needed, but if easy storage is high on your list of what to look for, purchase a portable playpen.

What’s the best playpen to buy?

Top playpen

Baby Care Funzone Play Pen

What you need to know: Although this playpen is expensive, the easy setup and takedown and large play area make this the top pick.

What you’ll love: Rounded edges and durable construction make this an incredibly safe playpen for children inside and outside.

What you should consider: There are some reports of rare instances of the door not closing or opening easily, plus it isn’t very portable.

Top playpen for the money

Graco Pack ‘n Play On The Go Playard, Kaden

What you need to know: This versatile playpen can act both as a bassinet for younger babies and a playpen or crib for older babies.

What you’ll love: It has a foldable bassinet insert you can put on the top for younger babies. It’s affordable and easy to open and close with just one button. It’s also easy to take on the go and comes with a travel bag. It has a fun toy bar for babies to play with, too.

What you should consider: You can only use the bassinet insert when your baby is small.

Worth checking out

Dreambaby Brooklyn Converta Playpen

What you need to know: This dual-purpose mesh playpen can function as a fence or barrier.

What you’ll love: The mesh provides excellent visibility and folds down very easily for maximum storage capability.

What you should consider: It has a smaller play area and corners that seem weak, which doesn’t match up to the slightly high cost.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers. BestReviews and its newspaper partners may earn a commission if you purchase a product through one of our links.

By BRIAN SLODYSKO, JOSHUA GOODMAN and ALAN SUDERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — As incoming White House chief of staff, one of Susie Wiles ’ vexing challenges will be policing the buffet line of powerful interests who want something from Donald Trump.

It’s a world she knows well. During Trump’s first presidency, she lobbied for many of them.

Trump was first elected on a pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But his transactional approach to the presidency instead ushered in a lobbying boom that showered allies, including Wiles, with lucrative contracts, empowered wealthy business associates and stymied his agenda after his administration was ensnared in a series of influence-peddling scandals.

Now, as Trump prepares to return to power, his victory is likely to embolden those who think they can get his ear, raising the prospect that his second administration could face many of the same perils as his first. That will test the ability of Wiles to manage a growing number of high-powered figures — including Trump’s children, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and billionaires like Elon Musk — who will not be dependent on her for access to him.

The appointment of a former lobbyist to such an important job “bodes very poorly for what we are about to see from the next Trump administration,” said Craig Holman, himself a registered lobbyist for the government watchdog group Public Citizen. “This time around, Trump didn’t even mention ‘draining the swamp.’ … He’s not even pretending.”

In a statement, Brian Hughes, a spokesman from the Trump transition effort, rejected any suggestion that Wiles’ past as a lobbyist would make her susceptible to pressure.

“Susie Wiles has an undeniable reputation of the highest integrity and steadfast commitment to service both inside and outside government,” Hughes said. “She will bring this same integrity and commitment as she serves President Trump in the White House, and that is exactly why she was selected.”

Wiles’ job won’t be easy

Wiles’ selection as chief of staff was Trump’s first announced hire after his win. Wiles co-led the former president’s campaign and was widely credited with having run an operation that was far more disciplined than his two previous efforts. Even so, she will have her work cut out for her. Though the job has traditionally entailed policing who has access to the president, Trump chafed at such efforts during his first presidency as he churned through four chiefs of staff.

During his recent victory speech, Trump called Wiles an “Ice Maiden” while praising her as a consummate behind-the-scenes player. She will be the first woman to hold the position.

What is also clear is that Wiles, 67, has successfully managed headstrong men across a lengthy career in politics, government and lobbying. The daughter of NFL player and sportscaster Pat Summerall, Wiles worked for U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp, a conservative icon, in the 1970s, followed by stints on Ronald Reagan’s campaign and as a scheduler in his White House.

She later headed to Florida, where she advised two Jacksonville mayors and is credited with helping businessman Rick Scott, now a U.S. senator, win the governor’s office. After briefly managing Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign, she oversaw Trump’s 2016 campaign in Florida, when his win in the state helped him clinch the White House.

Wiles represented a Venezuelan TV network

Wiles was a partner at Ballard Partners, a regional firm that lobbied for Trump’s companies in Florida. Shortly after Trump’s election, Ballard set up shop in Washington and quickly became a dominant player, pulling in more than $70 million in lobbying fees during Trump’s presidency, representing a who’s who of corporate America, lobbying disclosures show.

Many of Wiles’ clients were plain vanilla entities with obvious aims — General Motors, a trade group for children’s hospitals, homebuilders, and the City of Jacksonville.

One in particular stood out that speaks to the ways, subtle or otherwise, that foreign interests seek to influence U.S. policy. In 2017, Wiles registered as a lobbyist for Globovisión, a Venezuelan TV network owned by Raúl Gorrín, a businessman charged in Miami with money laundering.

Gorrín bought the broadcast company in 2013 and immediately softened its anti-government coverage. He hired Ballard to advise on “general government policies and regulations,” lobbying disclosures show. But rather than working with the agencies that oversee telecommunications, Ballard’s lobbying was trained on the White House, which would have little say in regulating a foreign broadcaster in the U.S. Globovisión paid Ballard $800,000 for a year of work.

Gorrín worked to help Venezuelan leaders

Brian Ballard, president of the firm, said that it’s clear to him that Gorrín’s aims weren’t limited to the media business. Gorrín, who owns several luxury properties in Miami, had long positioned himself as a bridge between Venezuela’s socialist government and U.S. officials.

By the time Wiles and a team of Ballard lobbyists represented Globovisión, Gorrín was leading a quiet charm offensive for Nicolás Maduro’s government that sought closer ties with Trump at a time when the country was facing food shortages, violent crime and hyperinflation. It started before Trump took office when Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, kicked in a $500,000 donation for Trump’s inauguration.

“He was a fraud and as soon as we learned he was a fraud, we fired him,” said Ballard. “He would ask us to set up a lot of things, in LA and D.C., and then nothing would happen. It was all a fantasy. He just wanted to use our firm.”

A few days after Ballard dropped Gorrín in 2018, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against the businessman for allegedly using the U.S. finance system to supply Venezuelan officials with private jets, a yacht and champion show-jumping horses as part of a fake loan scheme perpetrated by insiders to pilfer the state’s coffers. Last month, he was charged a second time, also out of Miami, in another scheme to siphon $1 billion from the state oil company, PDVSA.

Wiles is described as a ‘straight shooter’

Ballard said Wiles had almost no role in managing the relationship with Gorrín or several other clients for which she is listed as a lobbyist. But he praised her as someone who is a highly organized “straight shooter” and “tough as nails” despite her soft demeanor.

“She’s the type of person who you want in a foxhole,” he said. “She will serve the president well.”

During Trump’s first term, Maduro engaged in a peacemaking offensive that included attempts to hire at least two other lobbyists. It fizzled out, however. In 2019, the White House slapped crushing oil sanctions on the OPEC nation, closed the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and recognized the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly as the country’s legitimate ruler. Maduro was then indicted in 2020 by the U.S. Justice Department on federal drug trafficking charges out of New York.

Gorrín has long denied any wrongdoing and remains a fugitive. In a brief interview with The Associated Press, he called Wiles a “lady” and said she always acted professionally and humanely.

Ballard called the firm’s work for Gorrín a “big mistake.” Going forward, Ballard expects access to the White House to be more tightly controlled just as his firm, after a steep learning curve during the first Trump administration, will do a better job vetting potential clients to make sure their interests align with the president’s agenda.

“We learned a lot,” he says, “and so did the president.”

Foreign clients

Globovisión wasn’t Wiles’ only client with foreign ties.

In early 2019, she registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent working for one of Nigeria’s main political parties for two months. Another client was an auto dealership owned by Shafik Gabr, a wealthy businessman who was in a financial dispute related to selling cars in Egypt with a subsidiary of the German automaker Volkswagen.

Wiles was also a registered lobbyist for the subsidiaries of a multinational gaming company and a Canadian company looking to build a massive copper and gold mine near Alaska’s salmon-rich Bristol Bay.

Wiles was hardly an outlier in Trump’s Washington, where his eponymously named hotel served as a hub for lobbyists, business leaders and foreign governments looking to rub shoulders with Trump World figures as they sought the president’s favor.

Though much of it was part of the normal course of business in Washington, a number of Trump allies and advisers were investigated and charged with crimes linked to their work on behalf of foreign countries and entities.

After becoming Trump’s de facto campaign manager in 2022, Wiles kept on lobbying, this time for Mercury, a multinational public affairs and lobbying firm. Most recently she was representing the maker of Swisher Sweets cigars.

Goodman reported from Miami and Suderman from Richmond, Virginia.

Which desk organizer is best?

Office desks should be productive workspaces, but if they’re cluttered, it can be hard to concentrate and get work done. Desk organizers will help you maintain a tidy desk so you can be as professional as possible and stay on track with your workflow.

Desk organizers store small office supplies in compartments, shelves or drawers. If you’re looking for a design with visual appeal, the Victor Desktop Organizer is a top choice for its fine wood craftsmanship.

What to know before you buy a desk organizer

Do I need a desk organizer?

Desk organizers, also called desk caddies, come in handy if your desk and drawers lack organization and storage options. These caddies keep essential office supplies literally within arm’s reach, which is extremely convenient on busier days. They’re also popular investments for home offices and remote learning spaces.

However, a larger desk organizer may not be ideal if you’re pressed for space. Smaller desks may be overwhelmed by some desk organizers, and in some situations, they can obstruct access to devices or other office supplies. Desk organizers may be distracting to some individuals, in which case drawer organizers may better serve them.

What can I store inside a desk organizer?

To some extent, desk organizers are considered quick-access stations that store frequently-used essentials to save on frequent trips to the supply closet. Desk organizers typically store small office essentials, such as pens, notebooks and sticky notes. However, many people also keep personal items inside them, like hand sanitizer, lotion or snacks.

Desk organizer sizes

Because desk organizers come in a variety of sizes, it’s easy to find one that suits your setup. Smaller designs are ideal for compact computer desks. If you have a sprawling desk with room to spare, there are plenty of medium and large options that provide a higher level of organization.

What to look for in a quality desk organizer

Wooden desk organizer

One of the most important features to compare in desk organizers is their material. Wooden desk organizers are well-received for their fine craftsmanship. They complement most offices, especially when matching the wooden finish of your desk organizer to the room or desk itself. However, wood desk organizers are usually the most expensive option.

Mesh desk organizer

Mesh desk organizers tick a lot of boxes. They’re affordable, easy to clean and have contemporary visual appeal. They’re made with metal that is often covered with stain- or corrosion-resistant coatings. Depending on usage, some mesh organizers aren’t as durable as other options.

Plastic and acrylic desk organizers

Plastic or acrylic desk organizers are both simple and versatile. Some of these organizers have stacking or modular designs, so you can customize your organization setup. Make sure to clean these with gentle cleansers as more abrasive cleaners can leave plastic and acrylic with a dull or cloudy appearance.

Types of compartments

At the very least, desk organizers have compartments for pens and paper clips. Some have dedicated drawers or trays for sticky notes, while others have longer shelves or slots to accommodate paper, notebooks or files. Newer desk organizers may have built-in cable management for devices.

Nonslip bases on desk organizers

Several desk organizers, including many wood and mesh designs, have nonslip bases or feet with silicone or rubber pads. These bases do more than prevent desk organizers from sliding across desks. They also prevent the bottom of the organizer from scratching or damaging desks and other surfaces.

How much you can expect to spend on desk organizers

Smaller desk organizers with limited organization cost $20 and below. Those with more storage options, including built-in filing systems, run between $25-$50. High-end desk organizers with fine craftsmanship range from $50-$100.

Desk organizer FAQ

Ink leaked in my desk organizer. How do I clean it?

A. There are a few ways to handle this. You should always begin by wiping away any wet ink before deep cleaning. Next, dilute a towel with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer and wipe the unit down. If the ink doesn’t come off, use a heavy-duty cleaner.

Is it worth getting a desk organizer with drawers?

A. Some people gravitate toward desk organizers with drawers because they’re effective at keeping office supplies dust-free. Others feel drawers get in the way, including smaller ones that don’t slide out easily.

What’s the best desk organizer to buy?

Top desk organizer

Victor Desktop Organizer

What you need to know: Appreciated for its sleek design, this organizer has four shelves and a drawer to hold paperwork and small office supplies.

What you’ll love: The boxy design, available in five finishes, integrates seamlessly with most desk setups. The sprawling shelves are long enough to hold standard-size paper and notebooks. It also has nonslip feet to protect the desk from scuffs.

What you should consider: Because the shelves are narrow, it’s somewhat challenging to clean or dust inside them.

Top desk organizer for the money

DecoBros Desk Supplies Organizer Caddy

What you need to know: A budget-friendly option, this mesh caddy has five large and two mini compartments.

What you’ll love: The caddy has a small notched drawer that holds standard-sized sticky notes. Because it has a mesh design, it’s easy to clean either with alcohol wipes or compressed air and is available in black or silver.

What you should consider: There are occasional reports that the caddy arrived with damage.

Worth checking out

Simple Houseware Mesh Desk Organizer with Sliding Drawer

What you need to know: This space-savvy desk organizer has an all-in-one design that holds stationery, notebooks and small office supplies.

What you’ll love: It has five vertical sections that can hold papers easily and keep them organized and two horizontal sections for smaller things. The included sliding drawer is divided into nine smaller compartments for easy organization.

What you should consider: Some people thought it wasn’t very sturdy.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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Which mattresses are best for cold sleepers?

With so much of our lives spent in bed, we all must get a restful night’s sleep so we’re ready to start the day energized. While our bodies naturally cool down as we wind down, some sleep much colder than others. The right mattress can help cold sleepers stay warm and cozy throughout the night.

Most mattresses target your sleep position and not your temperature, which makes shopping around tricky. This guide can help you understand what makes the right mattress for cold sleepers and everything you need to know to sleep well. Our top pick, the DreamCloud Premier Rest 16-inch Mattress,  is designed to regulate temperature for a comfortable sleep.

What to know before buying a mattress for cold sleepers

Type

Cold sleepers should look to any mattress containing foam or latex, as these two materials trap heat more than other options, particularly breathable innerspring mattresses. While trapping in heat is a turnoff for some sleepers, those who are cold embrace the warmth kept within.

Hybrid mattresses are increasingly popular. They feature a combination of foam or latex and innerspring layers to provide a balance of comfort and support. The foam or latex layers are typically the uppermost layers and help regulate temperature.

Firmness

How soft or firm the right mattress is for you is influenced mainly by your sleep position and size. Those who sleep on their stomach should avoid a soft mattress so that they don’t sink into the bed and strain their spine, but they should also avoid an extra-firm mattress that doesn’t support their hips and shoulders. Side sleepers should be cradled by a softer mattress with a bit of resistance for their shoulders and head. Back sleepers find firmer options most comfortable.

Heavier individuals should avoid softer mattresses as they can sink in and not receive the proper support. Conversely, slighter persons may enjoy less firm mattresses since they can cradle them.

What to look for in a quality mattress for cold sleepers

Gel foam

For some people, gel foam is a much-desired feature; however, cold sleepers should avoid foam or hybrid mattresses incorporating gel foam. This is because the gel helps offset the heat trappings of foam by adding cooling technology, making the mattress a good choice for those who sleep warm, not cold.

Motion transfer

Most mattresses that include foam or latex are adept at lessening motion transfer, meaning that one person’s rustling or movement won’t disturb the other person in bed. What’s more, foam and latex options tend to be quiet.

How much you can expect to spend on a mattress for cold sleepers

Foam, latex, and hybrid mattresses are pricier, especially those with multiple layers. Cold sleepers can expect to pay between $600 and $1,200 for a queen-size mattress.

Mattress for cold sleepers FAQ

How do I take care of my mattress?

A. Investing in a mattress protector is wise, especially for a densely made mattress that traps heat. A mattress protector prevents dust, mites, and, in some cases, liquids from penetrating the mattress, which can cause an odor and lead to slow deterioration. Rotate your mattress every few months so it’s used evenly, especially if you have foam layers that may conform to your body.

Does mattress size or thickness influence heat?

A. Size and thickness don’t necessarily influence a mattress’s heat retention. Mattresses for cold sleepers come in all standard sizes. That choice should be made based on your size, available space and whether you sleep with a partner. Thickness ranges from around 6 to 14 inches.

What’s the best mattress for cold sleepers to buy?

Top mattress for cold sleepers

DreamCloud Premier Rest 16-inch Mattress – Luxury Hybrid Memory Foam

What you need to know: This high-quality, thick hybrid mattress has foam layers on top for a warm, cozy night’s sleep.

What you’ll love: The innerspring base supports all sleep positions while foam layers hold in warmth. There’s no motion transfer or noise when moving.

What you should consider: It may be too firm for petite individuals.

Top mattress for cold sleepers for the money

ZINUS 12 Inch Green Tea Cooling Gel Memory Foam Mattress

What you need to know: This mattress offers both comfort and support at a reasonable price.

What you’ll love: It includes layers of low-toxin foam that help maintain the temperature as you sleep. It’s also infused with green tea extract, which helps to fight against unwelcome odors.

What you should consider: While it does say it includes cooling gel, it’s still too hot for some people.

Worth checking out

GhostBed 3D Matrix Mattress

What you need to know: This adaptable mattress adjusts to your shape and temperature to create the most comfortable sleeping experience.

What you’ll love: It’s a hybrid mattress that cradles the body while still supporting the shoulders and hips and lacks motion transfer. The top layers provide warmth and comfort.

What you should consider: It may be too soft for heavier individuals.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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As it did just three and half months ago at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, Creed brought the fire to Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday night, Nov. 20.

And it had some brimstone to go with it this time.

The Grammy Award-winning hard rock group has been on the road much of this year, breaking a 12-year hiatus with a sea cruise, an amphitheater tour during the summer and now an arena run to close the year. It’s been wildly successful, reminding fans both new and old of just how major a player Creed was during the late 90s and early 2000s thanks to chart-topping hits such as “Higher,” “With Arms Wide Open” and “My Sacrifice” — all of which weigh in as relevant today as when they were released.

So the group, including Detroit-born guitarist Mark Tremonti, sounded not surprisingly confident before about 13,000 at Little Caesars, accenting its 100-minute, 16-song set with abundant effects — primarily fire, and a pyrotechnic shower during “What’s This Life For?” — and a combination of prepared and live video on a five-panel screen behind the stage.

For frontman Scott Stapp, meanwhile, it was also an opportunity to reclaim a kind of rock ‘n’ roll pulpit during much of the show, and in a more explicit manner than he did during Creed’s July 31 stop at Pine Knob.

The spiritual grounding of Stapp’s lyrics have never been a secret, and his outspoken fervor was partly responsible for Creed’s initial breakup back in 2004. On Wednesday, Stapp — whose black tank top revealed a torso that’s spent many an hour in the weight room — was clearly comfortable stepping back into that role, promising “a journey in music through the human condition” and invoking praise and other religious affirmations during lengthy introductions to songs such as “Say I,” “Unforgiven” and “Don’t Stop Dancing.” Recalling that the former was inspired by the concept of Original Sin, Stapp explained that “you have to know the absence of God to know the presence of God.”

He offered a call for unity before Creed played “One” from its 1997 debut album “My Own Prison,” but in response to crowd chants of “USA!” afterwards Stapp stepped into post-election political terrain by declaring, “We’ve got to rediscover what that means, because we’ve lost our way…And we’re going to.”

That ministry, undeniably sincere but unquestionably didactic, went over well with the crowd, and if Stapp’s bandmates were bothered by them it was not noticeable. The frontman and Tremonti were particularly warm with each other throughout the concert, introducing each other and embracing on a couple of occasions. And Tremonti was a proud homeboy, noting that he was “born 30 minutes from here” and adding that, “if you come from Detroit, you’re proud of Detroit, and I love this city.”

And when it was playing, Creed gave its Little Caesars audience — a cross-generational gathering from old school fans to their younger siblings and children — every reason to love the band again.

Following solid opening sets from Mammoth WVH and 3 Doors Down — whose frontman Brad Arnold offered his own religious commentary and prayer at one point — Creed came out literally smoking with “Bullets,” bolstering its subsequent parade of brawny, arena-sized anthems bolstered by second guitarist Eric Friedman from Tremonti’s solo band. The set list came from the first three of Creed’s four studio albums (nothing from 2009’s “Full Circle”), swapping in three different songs from the Pine Knob show and happily digging into deeper selections such as “Freedom Fighter,” “What If” and “Never Die.” “Don’t Stop Dancing” was added to the set just this week for the first time since 2002, while “Unforgiven,” also from the “My Own Prison” album, made its tour debut on Wednesday night.

The group also brought a young fan named Noah on stage to receive one of Tremonti’s signature guitars as a reward for being the “hardest rocking” member of the crowd.

Whether, and how, Creed continues with its current reunion is up in the air, though Tremonti has said the band plans to play shows during 2025. And after drawing 28.000 to its pair of fairly close-together metro area shows, it’s clear Creed will always find a welcome and receptive crowd in its guitarist’s home town.

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — For about 50 years, adding cavity-preventing fluoride to drinking water was a popular public health measure in Yorktown, a leafy town north of New York City.

But in September, the town’s supervisor used his emergency powers to stop the practice.

The reason? A recent federal judge’s decision that ordered U.S. regulators to consider the risk that fluoride in water could cause lower IQ in kids.

“It’s too dangerous to look at and just say ‘Ah, screw it. We’ll keep going on,’” said the town supervisor, Ed Lachterman.

Yorktown isn’t alone. The decision to add fluoride to drinking water rests with state and local officials, and fights are cropping up nationwide.

Communities in Florida, Texas, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and elsewhere have debated the idea in recent months — the total number is in the dozens, with several deciding to stop adding it to drinking water, according to Fluoride Action Network, an advocacy organization against water fluoridation. In Arkansas, legislators this week filed a bill to repeal the state’s fluoridation program.

The debates have been ignited or fueled by three developments:

• In August, a federal agency reported “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between high levels of fluoride exposure — more than twice the recommended limit — and lower IQ in kids.
• In September, the federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.
• This month, just days before the election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day as president. Trump later picked Kennedy to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

In Durango, Colorado, there was an unsuccessful attempt to stop fluoridating the water during Trump’s first term in office. A new push came this year, as Trump saw a surge of political support.

“It’s just kind of the ebb and flow of politics on the national level that ultimately affects us down here,” said city spokesman Tom Sluis.

Fluoride is a public health success story but opposition persists

Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and the addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century.

Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data.

There is a recommended fluoridation level, but many communities exceed that, sometimes because fluoride occurs naturally at higher levels in certain water sources.

Opposition is nothing new, though for decades it was considered a fringe opinion. Adherents included conspiracy theorists who claimed fluoridation was a plot to make people submissive to government power.

Health officials could point to studies that showed that cavities were less common in communities with fluoridated water, and that dental health worsened in communities without it.

But fluoride isn’t just in water. Through the years it became common in toothpaste, mouthwash and other products. And data began to emerge that there could be too much of a good thing: In 2011, officials reported that 2 out of 5 U.S. adolescents had at least mild tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride.

In 2015, the CDC recommended that communities revisit how much they were putting in the water. Beginning in 1962, the government recommended a range of 0.7 milligrams per liter for warmer climates where people drink more water to 1.2 milligrams in cooler areas. The new standard became 0.7 everywhere.

Over time, more studies pointed to a different problem: a link between higher levels of fluoride and brain development. The August report by the federal government’s National Toxicology Program — summarizing studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico — concluded that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter was associated with lower IQs in kids.

“There’s no question that fluoride prevents cavities,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, who was director of the CDC when the agency changed the recommended fluoride levels. “There’s also no question we’re getting more fluoride than we were 50 years ago, through toothpaste and other things.”

Frieden said “a legitimate question” has been raised about whether fluoride affects brain development, and studies making that link “need to be looked at carefully.”

U.S. towns wrestle with what to do

Many people in health care strongly embrace water fluoridation. The American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed their endorsement of current CDC recommendations in the wake of the federal report and the judge’s ruling.

Colorado’s health department, which weighed in during a Nov. 5 Durango city council meeting, said in a statement that it “seeks to align its public health recommendations with the latest scientific research. The facts of this court ruling are not sufficient” to revise current fluoridation levels.

Durango officials are waiting to see what the EPA does in reaction to the recent court decision, said Sluis, the city spokesman.

“We follow the science,” he said. “It wouldn’t be in the best interest of the city to stop fluoridation based on one judge’s interpretation.”

In Yorktown, Lachterman concluded the judge’s decision was enough to halt fluoridation. He recalled a community discussion several years ago in which most people in the room clearly favored fluoridation, but recently it seems public comment has reversed.

“It’s like a total 180,” he said.

But not all public pressure these days is against the idea.

In September, Buffalo, New York, announced it would resume water fluoridation after not having it for nearly a decade. News reports had described an increase in tooth decay and families sued, seeking damages for dental costs.

The Buffalo Sewer Authority’s general manager, Oluwole McFoy declined to discuss the decision with The Associated Press, citing the litigation.

For its part, the EPA “is in the process of reviewing the district court’s decision,” spokesman Jeff Landis said this week.

Debates have become heated

In Monroe, Wisconsin, fluoridation “has become a very hot issue,” said its mayor, Donna Douglas.

The small city, near Madison, started fluoridating its drinking water in the early 1960s. But in the late summer, some residents began calling and emailing Douglas, saying she needed to do something about what they saw as a public health danger. The first call “was more like a threat,” she recalled.

Douglas said she did not take a position on whether to stop, but decided to raise it to the city council for discussion. The discussions were unusually emotional.

Few people tend to speak during public comment sessions at council meetings, said Douglas. But more than two dozen people spoke at a city council meeting last month, most of them in favor of fluoridation. At a subsequent meeting, about a dozen more people — all opposed to fluoridation — came out to speak.

“This is the first time we’ve had any debates at all” like this, Douglas said. “I didn’t realize it would be such a heated discussion.”

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AP video journalist Brittany Peterson and AP reporter Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FARMINGTON HILLS – Elayna Bowser tried professional golf after her stellar amateur career, which included winning the 2019 Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship and being a standout golfer for Loyola University Chicago.

“I gave it a good go for four years,” she said. “I can sit here and say I gave it my all and it led me to why I decided to switch back to amateur golf. I didn’t want to continue the route I was going and end up hating the game.”

She returned to the amateur ranks in 2024 and quickly made an impact by winning the GAM Women’s Mid-Amateur championship, and later in the summer reaching the round of 32 in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.

Those accomplishments combined with what she called one of her most consistent years of golf competition put her at the top of the Golf Association of Michigan Points List, and she has been named the 2024 GAM Women’s Player of the Year, Ken Hartmann, senior director of competitions and USGA services, announced today.

Player of the Year point totals can be found on a pull down from the PLAY tab at GAM.org Carl’s Golfland is the presenting sponsor of the points lists.

Earlier this week, McCoy Biagioli of White Lake was named the GAM Men’s Player of the Year, and over the next few weeks the GAM will announce more Players of the Year in gender and age categories.

Bowser, 27 and a real-estate agent, earned 652.5 points to top the points list. Bridget Boczar of Canton, a Baylor University golfer and the winner of the GAM Women’s Championship for a second consecutive year, had 550 points.

Shannon Kennedy of Beverly Hills, a Michigan State University golfer and this year’s Michigan Women’s Amateur Champion, was third with 490 points. Kimberly Dinh of Midland, the 2023 Women’s Player of the Year, who had 445 points, and Laura Bavaird of Trenton, who had 355 points, rounded out the top five.

Bowser said she previously considered 2019 as her best year in golf because of her Michigan Women’s Amateur win and her success as a college player.

“I would have thought that would be my best shot at player of the year awards, but I realize that summer wasn’t so much about consistency as it was winning the big tournaments,” she said. “I’m surprised how consistently I competed this year because I can’t devote the time to golf that I could before. I won my first tournament back as an amateur though and played well the rest of the summer.”

She said a great support system has helped her. Michael Phillips, her superior at Keller-Williams Legacy in Dearborn, has played a key role in supporting her transition from being a discouraged golf professional into a real-estate salesperson who maintains a competitive golf game. In addition, the continued support by her father, Brett, and her brother, Evan, who is now a PGA professional in Florida, meant she could never just quit the game.

“Professional golf was a struggle, mentally, physically, emotionally but my dad and Evan are always there for me,” she said. “We’re a golf family. We’re all “golfaholics.” They are going to enjoy me being player of the year as much or more than I enjoy it.”

The summer of 2024 started with Bowser supporting her brother and serving as his caddie in the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville last May. He had qualified as a top finisher among other club professionals in the PGA Professional Championship.

“It was so great to see Evan competing in a major championship against the best players in the world, and thriving in that moment,” she said. “I soaked everything in. I learned so much from watching him compete and how he handled things and watching all the other players. I think that experience maybe helped me more than anything with how I think about golf and how I played.”

Hartmann said he was pleased to see Bowser return to amateur golf.

“I didn’t know why she didn’t want to be a professional any longer, but I know how much golf means to that family,” he said. “We lose a lot of women players that age for several reasons. It was great to see her out there, and I wasn’t surprised she played well. Golf and a competitive spirit run through that family.”

By ISABELLA VOLMERT, Associated Press

Women will for the first time make up a majority of state legislators in Colorado and New Mexico next year, but at least 13 states saw losses in female representation after the November election, according to a count released Thursday by the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics.

While women will fill a record number of state legislative seats in 2025, the overall uptick will be slight, filling just over third of legislative seats. Races in some states are still being called.

“We certainly would like to see a faster rate of change and more significant increases in each election cycle to get us to a place where parity in state legislatures is less novel and more normal,” said Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the CAWP, which is a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

As of Wednesday, at least 2,451 women will serve in state legislatures, representing 33.2% of the seats nationwide. The previous record was set in 2024 with 2,431 women, according to the CAWP.

The number of Republican women, at least 852, will break the previous record of 815 state lawmakers set in 2024.

“But still, Republican women are very underrepresented compared to Democratic women,” Debbie Walsh, director of the CAWP, said.

States that gained women in legislatures

By the most recent count, 19 states will have increased the number of women in their state legislatures, according to the CAWP. The most notable increases were in New Mexico and Colorado where women will for the first time make up a majority of lawmakers.

In New Mexico, voters sent an 11 additional women to the chambers. Colorado had previously attained gender parity in 2023 and is set to tip over to a slight female majority in the upcoming year.

The states follow Nevada, which was the first in the country to see a female majority in the legislature following elections in 2018. Next year, women will make up almost 62% of state lawmakers in Nevada, far exceeding parity.

Women in California’s Senate will make up the chamber’s majority for the first time in 2025 as well. Women also made notable gains in South Dakota, increasing its total number by at least nine.

States that lost women in legislatures

At least thirteen states emerged from the election with fewer female lawmakers than before, with the most significant loss occurring in South Carolina.

Earlier this year, the only three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate lost their primaries after they stopped a total abortion ban from passing. Next year, only two women, who are Democrats, will be in the 46-member Senate.

No other state in the country will have fewer women in its upper chamber, according to the CAWP. Women make up 55% of the state’s registered voters.

Half the members in the GOP dominated state were elected in 2012 or before, so it will likely be the 2040s before any Republican woman elected in the future can rise to leadership or a committee chairmanship in the chamber, which doles out leadership positions based on seniority.

A net loss of five women in the legislature means they will make up only about 13% of South Carolina’s lawmakers, making the state the second lowest in the country for female representation. Only West Virginia has a smaller proportion of women in the legislature.

West Virginia stands to lose one more women from its legislative ranks, furthering its representation problem in the legislature where women will make up just 11% of lawmakers.

Why it matters

Many women, lawmakers and experts say that women’s voices are needed in discussions on policy especially at a time when state government is at its most powerful in decades.

Walsh, director of the CAWP, said the new changes expected from the Trump administration will turn even more policy and regulation to the states. The experiences and perspectives women offer will be increasingly needed, she said, especially on topics related to reproductive rights, healthcare, education and childcare.

“The states may have to pick up where the federal government may, in fact, be walking away,” Walsh said. “And so who serves in those institutions is more important now than ever.”

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.