NOVI — Towards the end of last season, Novi head coach Chris Housey told his team after a loss to Canton, “We still control our own destiny.”

While this year’s record looks a lot different sitting at 6-15 after Monday night’s 48-42 defeat to Plymouth, the message is eerily similar.

“I just told them that next week everybody is 0-0,” Housey said. “We have to get ready to go. Playoffs are a new birth, a new beginning for everybody. We have to learn from the mistakes we made but not dwell on them and get ready to go next Monday.”

It has been a difficult year for the Novi Wildcats coming off a 19-5 record, a KLAA West title, and a KLAA Championship by way of a victory over Wayne Memorial in the league championship last winter. While they are still a senior dominated team, only two of the seven played significant time last season. The losses by way of graduation have been tough to overcome.

Novi made it a challenge when it was the visitor of the two Wildcats a couple weeks ago, forcing overtime before losing in Plymouth, 50-42, but there was no bonus basketball in the rematch despite a few closely contested quarters.

The first quarter saw Plymouth come out strong and quickly build a 12-8 lead by its conclusion. As the game went on, Novi began to come together and managed to pull within a single point of Plymouth headed into halftime at 20-19.

After intermission, Novi continued to push Plymouth (8-13, 6-8 KLAA West), trading the lead back and forth before eventually knotting things up 36-36 at the end of the third quarter on a breakaway dunk. But that was as close as it would get the rest of the night as Plymouth took the lead at the start of the fourth quarter and never looked back.

“The last few minutes we made some mistakes, had some turnovers,” Housey said. “We had some good looks all night that we missed that would have changed momentum. We can’t dwell on that, and we have to keep fighting, go back down and play defense.”

In regards to how Monday’s loss is reflective of others this year, Housey explained, “We have to keep going, keep fighting, and we are almost there. We’ve just got to now focus in and lock up, fix those little things. I feel like 80 to 90% of it has gotten better, and as you know with anything, it is that last 10 to 20% that is often the toughest.”

Photos of Novi vs. Plymouth in a KLAA West boys basketball contest

“I think one of the disappointing things for us tonight, when we did put ourselves in great positions to make shots, we couldn’t make them. You miss four or five layups in a game that you lose by six, that makes the difference.”

Novi’s attack on the night was incredibly balanced with nine out of the 10 players who saw action getting into the scoring column. The hosts, 3-11 in the league, were led by Drelen Lillard, who finished with nine points, and sophomore Bladen White, who picked up seven.

The majority of Plymouth's scoring came from Chayse Calvin, who recorded 13 points and Isaiah Hooks, who dropped in nine.

In addition to the seniors who have that championship experience from last year, Housey has some talented underclassmen that he is working into the mix. “We have two sophomores up, one of them started tonight, Trent McGowan," he said. "He played really well tonight, probably his best game of the year. It has been a balance, though.”

When asked about how he balances staying true to his seniors and getting the underclassmen the work they need, Housey replied, “Sometimes we play those guys together (the four underclassmen), sometimes we mix them with the seniors, but they are going at each other in practice every day, learning and getting better. I am proud of them and proud of the work they have put in and they are getting better as the year is going on.”

Both teams finish the regular season on Thursday night as Livonia Churchill will travel to Novi and Westland John Glenn will visit Plymouth in the KLAA crossover games.

For the playoffs, Novi’s draw will be Northville, who the Wildcats have played twice and split those games with, the most recent being a 60-36 loss on February 13. Despite that lopsided score line, Novi won the initial meeting with the Mustangs in OT, 54-45.

“We started off relatively inexperienced," Housey said. "At the beginning of the year, it was gaining that experience of being varsity basketball players, learning what it takes to do all the stuff that is required to win at this level and in this league, and that is really tough. Now, as the season grinds on, we have gotten better. Our record may not show it, but we have gotten a lot better as a group, and we are starting to come together.”

Novi fell just short in a 48-42 loss to Plymouth on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026 in Novi.

By Ryan Zuke, Tribune News Service

Tyrone Wheatley is headed back to the Big Ten.

The former Michigan star running back was named Illinois’ running back coach on Monday – six days after he resigned as Wayne State’s head football coach.

Wheatley, 54, last coached in the Big Ten from 2015-16, when he served as the Wolverines’ running backs coach under Jim Harbaugh. The 1992 Big Ten Player of the Year has had limited success as a college head coach but has extensive experience as a running backs coach at the NFL and Power Four levels.

Wheatley went 5-28 over three seasons at Wayne State, including an 0-11 mark in 2025. As head coach at Morgan State from 2019-21, he finished with a 5-18 record. The former star athlete at Dearborn Heights Robichaud has had stints as running backs coach with the Denver Broncos (2022), Jacksonville Jaguars (2017-18), Michigan, Buffalo Bills (2013-14), Syracuse (2010-12) and Eastern Michigan (2009).

“Coach Wheatley is an accomplished coach with proven success in both the NFL and college football,” Illinois coach Bret Bielema said in a statement. “Our program will benefit immediately from his experience as a running backs coach and head coach. He has been an outstanding player and coach in the Big Ten and has developed some of the top running backs in football. We are excited to welcome Coach Wheatley to Champaign.”

Wheatley helped mentor several high-profile running backs such as Leonard Fournette (Jaguars), Latavius Murray (Broncos), Melvin Gordon (Broncos), C.J. Spiller (Bills), and Fred Jackson (Bills).

In 2016 at Michigan, the Wolverines led the Big Ten in rushing touchdowns with 41 and ranked second in the conference with 212.9 rushing yards per game.

“I want to sincerely thank Coach Bielema for his trust, belief, and invitation to join his staff,” Wheatley said in a statement. “Coach Bielema has built a culture defined by toughness, discipline, and accountability. To coach under a leader with his experience, vision, and championship pedigree is an absolute honor. To the Illini community, alumni, players, and fans, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I look forward to getting to work.”

As a player for Michigan, he totaled 4,187 rushing yards, 510 receiving yards and 53 touchdowns during his career and was named to three consecutive all-Big Ten teams. Illinois is slated to play Michigan in 2027.

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The fifth weekly statewide Michigan Sports Writers (formerly Associated Press) prep girls basketball rankings, as compiled from the votes of various media members from around the Mitten for the week of Feb. 16, 2026.

The top 10 teams in the Michigan high school basketball poll, with records in parentheses. Totals are based on 10 points for a first-place vote, nine for second, etc.:

 

DIVISION 1

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. Belleville (19-0) (5) 50

2 (tie). Rockford (16-1) 42

2 (tie). Wayne Memorial (15-2) 42

4. Detroit Renaissance (15-2) 31

5. Howell (19-1) 29

6. Muskegon (14-2) 25

7. Grand Haven (15-2) 24

8. South Lyon East (18-0) 11

9. Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (15-3) 9

10. Saginaw Heritage (14-5) 6

Others receiving votes: 11. Utica Eisenhower 3; 12. Livonia Stevenson 2; 13. Midland 1.

DIVISION 2

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. Grand Rapids South Christian (18-0) (4) 40

2. Goodrich (19-0) 36

3. Tecumseh (17-2) 32

4. Grand Rapids Covenant Christian (17-0) 23

5. Flint Powers (17-2) 21

6. Grand Rapids West Catholic (14-4) 19

7. Haslett (15-2) 17

8. Grand Rapids Catholic Central (16-2) 14

9. Otsego (14-1) 9

10. Negaunee (17-1) 8

Others receiving votes: None

 

DIVISION 3

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. McBain (2) (17-0) 45

2. Jackson Lumen Christi (2) (15-2) 44

3. Niles Brandywine (1) (17-1) 42

4. Blissfield (15-2) 29

5. Pewamo-Westphalia (14-2) 27

6. Grass Lake (16-1) 24

7. Hemlock (17-1) 12

8. Kalamazoo Hackett (14-3) 9

9 (tie). Harbor Springs (17-1) 8

9 (tie). Cass City (12-4) 8

Others receiving votes: 11. Kalamazoo Christian 6; 11 (tie) Shelby 6; 13. Beaverton 5; 14. Sandusky 4; 15. Caro 3; 16. Saugatuck 2; 17. New Lothrop 1.

 

DIVISION 4

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. Concord (17-1) (2) 45

2. Morenci (17-1) (1) 43

3. Mio (14-4) 31

4. Kingston (18-0) (1) 28

5. Gaylord St. Mary (17-1) 28

6. Ewen-Trout Creek (15-2) (1) 27

7. Ishpeming (15-2) 27

8. Au Gres-Sims (16-2) 20

9. L’Anse (15-2) 9

10. Indian River Inland Lakes (16-2) 5

10. Frankfort (11-5) 5

Others receiving votes: 12. Munising 3; 13. Adrian Lenawee Christian 3; 14. Baraga 1.

The sixth weekly statewide Michigan Sports Writers (formerly Associated Press) prep boys basketball rankings, as compiled from the votes of various media members from around the Mitten for the week of Feb. 16, 2026.

The top 10 teams in the Michigan high school basketball poll, with records in parentheses. Totals are based on 10 points for a first-place vote, nine for second, etc.:

 

DIVISION 1

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. East Lansing (19-1) (5) 50

2. East Kentwood (17-2) 45

3. Rockford (17-3) 38

4. Auburn Hills Avondale (20-1) 32

5. Grand Blanc (17-3) 23

6. Muskegon (16-2) 22

7. Grand Rapids Northview (16-4) 16

8 (tie). Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice (15-5) 12

8 (tie). Kalamazoo Central (16-2) 12

10. Detroit Martin Luther King (17-4) 11

Others receiving votes: 11. Wayne Memorial 7; 12. Rochester 4; 13. Hudsonville 2; 14. Saginaw Heritage 1.

DIVISION 2

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. Romulus Summit North (21-1) (4) 40

2. Lansing Sexton (19-2) 35

3. Freeland (17-3) 29

4. Frankenmuth (18-1) 27

5. Hudsonville Unity Christian (17-3) 26

6. Grand Rapids South Christian (17-2) 23

7. Dearborn Divine Child (18-2) 15

8. Ludington (19-1) 11

9. Gladwin (19-1) 4

10. (tie) Grant (20-0) 3

10. (tie) Benton Harbor 3

Others receiving votes: 12. Fruitport 2; 13. South Haven 1; 13. Chelsea 1.

 

DIVISION 3

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. McBain (3) (17-1) 38

2. Menominee (16-4) 35

3 (tie). Beal City (17-2) 34

3 (tie). Pewamo-Westphalia (17-2) 34

3 (tie). Niles Brandywine (2) (15-4) 34

6. Ishpeming-Westwood (19-1) 25

7. Harbor Beach (17-2) 22

7 (tie). Detroit Loyola (17-4) 22

9. North Muskegon (21-1) 14

10. Onsted (18-2) 11

Others receiving votes: 11. Arts & Tech Academy of Pontiac 5; 12. Springport 1.

 

DIVISION 4

Rank, School (Record) Points

1. Fowler (18-2) (2) 47

2. Pickford (20-0) 38

3. Wyoming Tri-Unity Christian (17-1) (2) 35

4. Traverse City Christian (20-0) (1) 34

5. Crystal Falls Forest Park (16-3) 30

6. Allen Park Inter-City Baptist (18-3) 28

7. Concord (16-4) 18

8. Dollar Bay (17-2) 15

9. Hillsdale Academy (18-2) 11

10. Genesee Christian (16-4) 5

Others receiving votes: 11. Harbor Springs Harbor Light Christian (15-4) 4; 12. Felch North Dickinson (16-3) 4; 13. Mendon 3; 14. Southfield Christian (16-5) 2.

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM

An exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia after President Donald Trump’s administration took it down last month, a federal judge ruled on Presidents Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington’s legacy.

The city of Philadelphia sued in January after the National Park Service removed the explanatory panels from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.

The removal came in response to a Trump executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. It directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that all materials must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal’s legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that explain the history differently.

Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written order with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and compared the Trump administration to the book’s totalitarian regime called the Ministry of Truth, which revised historical records to align with its own narrative.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”

She had warned Justice Department lawyers during a January hearing that they were making “dangerous” and “horrifying” statements when they said Trump officials can choose which parts of U.S. history to display at National Park Service sites.

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, which came while government offices were closed for the federal holiday.

The judge did not provide a timeline for when the exhibit must be restored. Federal officials can appeal the ruling.

The historical site is among several where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans.

Signage that has disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park said settlers pushed Native American tribes “off their land” for the park to be established and “exploited” the landscape for mining and grazing.

Last week, a rainbow flag was taken down at the Stonewall National Monument, where bar patrons rebelled against a police raid and catalyzed the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The administration has also removed references to transgender people from its webpage about the monument, despite several trans women of color being key figures in the uprising.

The Philadelphia exhibit, created two decades ago in a partnership between the city and federal officials, included biographical details about each of the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home, including two who escaped.

Among them was Oney Judge, who was born into slavery at the family’s plantation in Mount Vernon, Virginia, and later escaped from their Philadelphia house in 1796. Judge fled north to New Hampshire, a free state, while Washington had her declared a fugitive and published advertisements seeking her return.

Because Judge had escaped from the Philadelphia house, the park service in 2022 supported the site’s inclusion in a national network of Underground Railroad sites where they would teach about abolitionists and escaped slaves. Rufe noted that materials about Judge were among those removed, which she said “conceals crucial information linking the site to the Network to Freedom.”

Only the names of Judge and the other eight enslaved people — Austin, Paris, Hercules, Richmond, Giles, Moll and Joe, who each had a single name, and Christopher Sheels — remained engraved in a cement wall after park service employees took a crowbar to the plaques on Jan. 22.

Hercules also escaped in 1797 after he was brought to Mount Vernon, where the Washingtons had many other slaves. He reached New York City despite being declared a fugitive slave and lived under the name Hercules Posey.

Several local politicians and Black community leaders celebrated the ruling, which came while many were out rallying at the site for its restoration.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat, said the community prevailed against an attempt by the Trump administration to “whitewash our history.”

“Philadelphians fought back, and I could not be more proud of how we stood together,” he said.

By JULIA FRANKEL

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The curling drama at the Winter Olympics sent the sport’s governing body scrambling to address a growing controversy and curb conflicting accounts of rule-breaking. The backpedaling came less than 24 hours later.

A day after World Curling ramped up monitoring of the matches, it pulled the plug, saying umpires would retreat and be available on request but not by default.

The move came after a quick meeting between national curling federations and World Curling on Sunday in which curlers expressed dissatisfaction with the increased surveillance. Athletes wanted less monitoring, not more.

Why would Olympic curlers, playing a sport where mere centimeters can make the difference between a winning and losing stone, choose to send the umps away? The answer may have to do with the longstanding spirit of the game, which some athletes are clinging to even as it grows more popular — and professional.

“I think there’s a lot of pride in trying to be a sport that kind of officiates ourselves a little bit, so to speak,” said Nolan Thiessen, CEO of Curling Canada, whose teams have been at the heart of the uproar over the past several days. “I think it was just everybody taking a deep breath and going, OK, let’s just finish this Olympics the way we know our sport is to be played.”

World Curling rethinks officiating

The saga began Friday, when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy’s expletive-laden outburst drew widespread attention, as did the sport, which tends to fall off the radar outside the Olympics.

World Curling decided it needed to double down on game surveillance, even though it was already midway through the Olympic men’s and women’s round-robin competition.

From then on, the federation said, two umpires would step out from behind the courtside table and watch the “hog line” — the point at which curlers must release the granite stone down the sheet of ice — from close proximity. That way, they’d be able to more closely check for illegal double-touches.

In just a day, officials called two double-touch infractions, by Rachel Homan of Canada and Bobby Lammie of Britain, removing their stones from play.

It is rare for stones to be removed from competition so frequently.

By Sunday afternoon, players and coaches were fed up, and World Curling changed its policy after the meeting.

“When the players started complaining, it puts them in a tough position because they want to do their jobs and listen to the players that think that there’s a problem out there,” said Emma Miskew of Canada. “I’m happy with how the discussion went and what the ruling came to.”

Olympic curlers say the double-touch is not a big deal

Several Olympic curlers said that double-touching did not necessarily reveal a nefarious desire to cheat, and that penalizing a quick and accidental graze of the granite could be over the top.

“If you get a hog line violation, it’s not cheating,” Homan said Monday.

Miskew added that it was rare to hear the accusation, at least in women’s curling, while Alina Paetz of Switzerland agreed with Homan that it is a minor infraction.

“If you do it, it’s not allowed, but I think they blew it up a little bit, so it’s a bigger thing than it actually is,” Paetz said. “It’s the Olympics, there’s emotion in it. I don’t think it is actually that big of a deal.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

MILAN (AP) — Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots for her third shutout of the Olympic women’s hockey tournament and the favored United States advanced to the gold-medal game by defeating Sweden 5-0 at the Milan Cortina Games on Monday.

Abbey Murphy, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Hayley Scamurra scored on consecutive shots over a 2:47 late in the second period to blow the game open and put the Americans up 5-0. Cayla Barnes opened the scoring and Taylor Heise also scored.

The Americans continued their roll through the tournament by improving to 6-0, and outscoring their opponents by a combined 31-1. The U.S. has yet to trail or be tied after 0-0, and in position to become the third women’s team to do so over the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010.

The U.S. also extended its shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, going back to Czechia’s Barbora Jurickova beating Frankel on a breakaway in the second period of a tournament-opening 5-1 win.

The win over Sweden sets up what could well be a seventh gold-medal showdown against Canada on Thursday. The defending Olympic champion Canadians play Switzerland in the day’s other semifinal game.

The U.S. already beat Canada 5-0 in a preliminary round game last week. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, with Canada winning the other five tournaments.

Sweden will play for bronze on Thursday in an effort to medal for the third time in team history, and first since winning silver at the 2006 Turin Games after upsetting the U.S. in the semifinals.

Ebba Svensson Traff stopped 19 of 23 shots before she was pulled after Coyne Schofield tipped in Laila Edwards’ shot from the blue line with 3:50 left in the second period.

Emma Soderberg took over in goal, and was beaten by Scamurra, who tapped in Britta Curl-Salemme’s centering pass 1:49 later. Soderberg finished with 10 saves.

Among those in attendance was former NFL center Jason Kelce, who was shown on the scoreboard applauding the goal initially credited to Edwards. Kelce is from Edwards’ hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and he and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, contributed to a GoFundMe drive to help pay for Edwards’ family to attend the Milan Cortina Games.

Sweden enjoyed a break-through this year with a young, talented group that features seven players competing in the U.S. college ranks. Sweden went 4-0 to win Group B, and then upset Czechia 2-0 in the in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the game close through 35 minutes, the Americans eventually wore them down.

And the U.S certainly didn’t resemble a team that didn’t want to play Sweden, as coach Ulf Lundberg suggested after the Swedes beat Czechia in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the U.S. mostly to the perimeter in the opening period, they were still outshot 13-2.

Barnes scored with a snap shot from the top of the right circle and beat Svensson Traff high on the short side. Barnes’ goal was her first point of the tournament, leaving seventh defender Rory Guilday as the lone American skater to not yet register a point through six games.

Heise made it 2-0 at the 9:08 mark of the second period by one-timing in Hannah Bilka’s backhand pass through the middle. Svensson Traff got her glove on the shot, but the puck deflected across her body and into the net off the inside of her stick.

— By JOHN WAWROW, Associated Press

Michigan State’s 142-year-old baseball program is known more for producing individual talents like Steve Garvey, Kirk Gibson and Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts than for winning a lot of games. So the Spartans had reason to celebrate the opening weekend of the season, even though it didn’t end the way they would have liked.

They won two of three on the road against a Louisville team ranked as high as No. 8 in the preseason, making it the highest-ranked series win under 18th-year coach Jake Boss Jr.

The Spartans opened with a 4-3 win Friday on Randy Seymour’s tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning. Parker Picot (Rochester Adams) hit a grand slam and three-run homer in a 14-3 victory Saturday. Louisville won Sunday’s finale 9-1.

The Spartans’ big weekend came against one of the winningest programs over the past two decades. The Cardinals went 2-2 in the College World Series last year.

MSU was 28-27 last season and finished 12th in the Big Ten Conference. The Spartans haven’t been above .500 in conference play since 2016, and the most recent of their five NCAA Tournament appearances was in 2012.

Their challenging start to the season continues Friday with the first of three games at a top-10 Texas.

In the polls

The top three teams in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America polls remained the same Monday.

UCLA (2-1) and LSU (3-0) are the top two in both polls, with Texas (3-0) third by D1Baseball and Mississippi State (3-0) third by Baseball America.

Slam man

Things quieted down considerably for Baylor’s Tyce Armstrong after he became the second player in NCAA history, and first in 50 years, to hit three grand slams in a game, doing so Friday.

The Bears completed a three-game sweep of New Mexico State with wins of 5-2 Saturday and 7-3 Sunday. Armstrong was a combined 0 for 6 with two RBIs in those games.

Armstrong was the story of opening day, launching all three of his slams to left field in a 15-2 victory. His 12 RBIs were a school record.

The only other player to hit three grand slams in a game was Louisville’s Jim LaFountain, who did it against Western Kentucky on March 24, 1976.

Tigers off and running

Defending national champion LSU opened with a three-game sweep of Milwaukee. Jake Brown highlighted Sunday’s 21-7 win with a grand slam, solo homer and a career-best six RBIs. Brown was 6 of 12 with eight RBIs in the series.

“Jake is the leader of this team, there’s no question about that,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “I’m very thankful that he is a Tiger, and I think he’s got a chance to be one of the best players in the country this year.”

Cleanup spot

Aidan King, who pitched six shutout innings, and Hawaii transfer Cooper Walls, who allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings, turned in strong starts in Florida’s 11-0, 6-1 sweep of UAB on Saturday. Gators pitchers allowed one run, walked one and struck out 13 across 16 innings. … Florida Gulf Coast’s Evan Dempsey, Preston Rogers and Ashton Pocol combined to strike out a program record-tying 19 in a 2-1, 10-inning victory over North Dakota State on Friday. … Coastal Carolina, the 2025 national runner-up, swept three games from Fairfield. Chanticleers pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts in a 5-0 win in the finale, the most in a nonconference game in five years. … Southern California’s Grant Govel and Cameron Fausset combined to hold Pepperdine hitless in a seven-inning 11-0 run-rule win Saturday. Govel went a career-long six innings, walked one, hit a batter and struck out 10.

— By ERIC OLSON, Associated Press

By Danielle Paquette
The Washington Post

CROAKER, Va. – George Washington’s chin is crumbling. His cheeks are streaked with sooty grime. His blackened nose is peeling, an apparent victim of frostbite and sunburn. Still, America’s first leader looks nicer than usual. In the winter months, wasps aren’t nesting in his eyes.

“Just beautiful,” observed Cesia Rodriguez, a 32-year-old massage therapist gazing up at the Founding Father – or what remained of him.

She’d pulled on rain boots, driven about an hour and trudged through the mud of what her tour guide called “an industrial dump” early Saturday with dozens of other tourists to see “The Presidents Heads,” a private collection of every ex-POTUS’s sculpted likeness from Washington to George W. Bush. They’re arranged in haphazard rows, with Andrew Jackson occupying a prime front spot simply because the owner likes his hair. The vibe is Stonehenge-meets-“The Walking Dead.”

Before they started sinking into the ground, the busts fashioned from concrete, plaster and rebar – was that Styrofoam poking through some cranial holes? – stood about twice the height of a basketball hoop. They each weighed at least five tons. Time has not been kind. Chester A. Arthur’s entire jaw is missing. Ulysses S. Grant has lost a chunk of his right eyebrow. And Franklin D. Roosevelt was “scalped” in transit, the tour guide noted, by a Route 199 overpass.

These commanders in chief weren’t supposed to spoil. They were carved with patriotic love by a Texas sculptor who studied in Paris under a French modern master. They were the polished centerpieces of a $10 million park that in 2010 went bankrupt after six years. Not enough admirers wanted to see them back when they were pristine.

Now the wait list stretches into the hundreds. Demand didn’t spike, their owner said, until the heads were rotting. Not that their misfortune attracted haters. Quite the opposite. In the wreckage, guests said they could see their country and themselves with more tenderness than judgment. “That one’s me,” a 20-something chirped at jawless Arthur.

Rodriguez didn’t mull the symbolism when she learned about the spectacle on Facebook. Seeing spooky historical art, she figured, was a fun way to spend Presidents’ Day weekend. Up close, though, the oddities stirred something familiar.

She thought of the America she loved: her clients, who came from everywhere with stiff necks and bad backs. The nurses, teachers, soldiers and everyone else on her massage table, resting up to go at it again.

“It’s the imperfections, for me,” she said.

The late sculptor, David Adickes, was an Army veteran who’d wanted his stony visages to gleam. On an early-aughts trip to Mount Rushmore, he’d contemplated the granite mugs of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln and thought: Why stop at four?

Adickes, who died last year at 98, hoped the 42 statues he chiseled at his Houston studio would land in the nation’s capital, he said on a 2022 podcast, but real estate was too costly. So in 2004, he and a business partner settled on a plot near Colonial Williamsburg, aiming to draw history buffs and stroller-pushing families. The Great Recession, overpriced tickets and poor marketing dashed that vision.

After the busts went bust, a rental car company purchased Presidents Park and hired local builder Howard Hankins to help flatten it into a parking lot.

“I just couldn’t see crushin’ ’em,” Hankins recalled.

Instead, he loaded the abandoned dignitaries onto a fleet of flatbed trucks and escorted them (minus their pedestals) to his farm-slash-industrial dump. Storing them in a muddy field was meant to be temporary, he insisted. A presidential fanatic, Hankins envisioned building a new museum. But the 11-mile move alone cost him $50,000, he said. A decade and a half later, the idea exists only on drawings.

By 2019, Virginia photographer John Plashal caught wind of what was disintegrating on Hankins’ out-of-the-way acres. He pitched himself as a tour guide to the introverted contractor, and the two hatched a fresh back-road attraction. A few times per year, guests can pay $28.35 to marvel at what the website deems “neglect and decay.” As word spread on social media, Ozzy Osbourne stopped by. So did producers of a certain hit zombie series (though they filmed nothing on-site). And the heads just kept deteriorating.

“Now they look like they’ve got leprosy,” Plashal told the Saturday crowd. “In the summer, they all have an active wasp nest in their eyeballs.”

Yet the place, he continued, has only grown more popular. Nearly 600 people showed up over the weekend, coming from as far as Germany and the Dominican Republic.

So what, he asked the group, is the rationale for rolling in now?

Up shot the arm of 10-year-old Evelyn Price.

“Because they are falling apart,” the Norfolk fourth-grader offered, “but, um, life is kinda like that.”

Mess is part of our heritage, her mother added, so wading through muck to engage with the past felt right.

“America is really, really good at getting things very, very wrong,” mused 41-year-old Treloar Price, a clinical psychologist, “and then working hard to try to fix it.”

The behemoth noggins reflected the transience of American power to Doug Tempest, a 46-year-old Navy veteran from Richmond.

Dictators overseas have clung to power for decades, but here, so far – though our current leader has riffed about a third term – no president has defied the Constitution or the will of voters to stay in the White House. Every four years, a new victor can shake things up, while the old Oval Office occupant’s influence tends to fade.

“One of the superpowers that our country has is we can change direction,” Tempest said.

For Caren Bueshi, a 62-year-old retired teacher from Naples, Florida, witnessing the sculptures sag into the dirt conjured what she feared the nation was losing. Constitutional literacy, for one. Recent reports of federal agents detaining immigrants with the right papers and clean criminal records disturbed her.

“We’re forgetting the foundation,” she said, wandering past Jackson’s splintering mane. “It’s a challenging time.”

“It always is,” interjected her mother, 91-year-old Pat Duke, clutching her arm. “From the beginning.”

Mom leaned right. Daughter leaned left. But they didn’t want to get into politics. The nonagenarian looked at the presidents and saw men. She saw mortality.

“My life is getting short now,” she said, “so I’m just enjoying it.”

A few heads over, Andrea Cote, a 44-year-old consultant, tried to turn the eerie scene into a history lesson for her 9-year-old daughter, June.

“This is Chester A. Arthur missing his jaw,” she said, pausing in front of the gaping mouth. The rebar inside looked like rusted braces without teeth.

“Scary,” June said.

“And Thomas Jefferson was the one who didn’t like to publicly speak,” Cote deadpanned.

Jokes aside, the derelict skulls touched her. So many families braved the chill that day, she noticed, for a glimpse at American history, no matter what shape it was in. They were interested. They cared. They were coming together.

So Cote smiled when a fellow tourist with a fancy camera approached.

“If you squat right here,” he told her kid, “you can get a picture of the sun coming right through his mouth.”

June grabbed her mom’s phone and aimed it just so.

“Whoa!” she squealed.

“See,” he said, “now there’s something positive.”

By Miriam Fauzia, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — While Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love, for the 250 million roses and other floral bouquets produced for the holiday, it means a slow death.

That countdown is driven in part by ethylene, a natural plant hormone that speeds up aging in cut flowers. Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington are testing new ways to blunt ethylene’s effects, with the goal of helping bouquets and fresh produce last longer. Here’s what to know.

What is ethylene?

Plants produce ethylene — an odorless, colorless gas — as they age, when damaged and in response to shifts in temperature, sunlight and other environmental stressors.

“Ethylene plays a vital role in nature, from fruit ripening to leaf drop to seed germination,” Rasika Dias, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UT Arlington leading the research, said in a news release. “For instance, fruits such as bananas, avocados and pears ripen because of ethylene. This ripening process transforms starch into sugars, which explains why ripe fruit tastes sweet.”

Because ethylene can drift through the air, it can affect nearby plants, which is why a ripe banana can speed the ripening of other fruit. Depending on how much ethylene is circulating, the gas can visibly age a plant, triggering the yellowing and dropping of leaves, and shortening how long a bouquet can last, according to the American Floral Endowment.

Shipping and storage can amplify those aging effects. Stress and mechanical damage can spur plants to release more ethylene, hastening deterioration unless growers and distributors intervene with anti-ethylene treatments.

Switching off ethylene

To slow ethylene’s effects, floral and produce industries often use 1-methylcyclopropene, or 1-MCP, a chemical discovered in the mid-1990s. It works like an ethylene decoy, attaching to the same places in plant cells that ethylene normally would. But unlike the gas, 1-MCP doesn’t trigger ripening or aging. Instead, it blocks ethylene’s signal from getting through, slowing a plant’s wilting or a fruit’s ripening.

But using 1-MCP has drawbacks. The chemical is highly reactive, can be tricky to handle and typically must be applied in sealed or enclosed spaces to work effectively, according to the American Floral Endowment. And because its effects can last for an extended period, 1-MCP may prevent some fruits from ripening.

With support from the American Floral Endowment and the United States Department of Agriculture, Dias and his lab at UT Arlington are testing alternatives to 1-MCP that aren’t volatile. Some of the most promising candidates include compounds built around metals such as copper. To see whether they slow the wilting process, the researchers take about 30 freshly cut flowers and divide them into three groups: untreated, treated with existing commercial products and treated with the new compounds.

“You monitor how long each group lasts — how fast petals drop, how quickly they wilt,” Dias said in the news release. “If the treated flowers last significantly longer than the untreated ones, that compound shows promise.”

In addition to helping with flowers, Dias hopes the research will reduce food waste. In 2019, 66.2 million tons of wasted food were generated in the food retail, food service and residential sectors, with about 60% ending up in landfills; another 40.1 million tons came from food and beverage manufacturing and processing, according to a 2019 report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Fruits and vegetables are thrown away when they over-ripen — bananas turn brown, tomatoes become too soft and people won’t buy them,” Dias said. “This is a major issue during shipping, since most food travels long distances. Without treatment, much of it deteriorates before reaching stores. That’s a huge economic and food-security problem.”

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2026 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Liquidity as affection and trash as a symbol of enduring love. From bouquets fashioned from dollar bills to heart-shaped gifts forged from recycled scrap metal, romance in Zimbabwe is taking strikingly inventive forms, reflecting life in an economy where cash reigns supreme and sustainability gains new social value.

You can’t buy love, the saying goes. But from florists in traditional markets to social media sellers angling for attention on TikTok, dollar bills rolled and pinned together to resemble a floral bouquet are increasingly rivaling fresh flowers as Valentine Day’s most coveted tokens of appreciation in the southern African country.

“Please God, make my lover see this,” commented one TikTok user under a video advertising glittering cash-and-flower arrangements. “May this bouquet locate me in Jesus name, amen,” wrote another.

Cash as courtship

At a decades-old flower market in the capital, Harare, Tongai Mufandaedza, a florist, patiently assembled one such “money bouquet.” Using adhesive and bamboo sticks, he folded crisp $50 notes into decorative cone shapes, weaving them with stems of white roses.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, he expects business to surge.

“The market has improved because of the money bouquets,” said Mufandaedza, who has worked at the country’s biggest flower market for three decades.

“On Valentine’s Day, we are going to have more, more, more customers, because this is something which is trending. Everyone wants to impress,” he said, then patched the arrangement in bright red wrapping and ribbons.

Among those browsing the market was Kimberleigh Kawadza. Her preference was clear.

“The person who came up with the trend, I just need to give them a hands up. They did a good job,” said the 23-year-old. “It’s a way of appreciating my partner, it’s a 100 for me, it’s a 100.”

Practical romance

While Generation Z is driving the craze, Mufandaedza said demand is spreading across generations. Some parents, he added, are even buying money bouquets for their daughters “so that they don’t fall into peer pressure and get tempted to go for sugar daddies who can lure them with such gifts.”

Prices vary widely. Smaller bouquets may contain as little as $10, while larger arrangements can run into the thousands. In some cases, they are even cheaper than traditional floral gifts.

A bouquet of dollar notes with a value of $10 costs $25, while a bouquet of 10 good-grade red roses costs between $35 and $40, he said. Many ask “where is the money?” if Mufandaedza delivers a bouquet of flowers without a cash design, he said.

Unlike traditional floral gifts, the appeal of money bouquets is as practical as it is romantic for Zimbabwe’s economic realities, where liquidity often carries more immediate value than luxury.

“People still love flowers, but when they see the notes on top, the love feels hotter and the gesture even more meaningful. Survival matters more in these difficult times and money plays a bigger role,” he said.

The U.S. dollar has dominated transactions since hyperinflation forced authorities to abandon the local currency in 2009. Although Zimbabwe has since reintroduced its own currency, the dollar remains legal and dominant.

With crisp notes scarce, worn and tattered U.S. bills, sometimes jokingly referred to as “war veterans,” are hardly suitable for decorative bouquets, spawning spin-off businesses of enterprising traders who supply clean replacement notes at a commission.

Zimbabwe isn’t alone in flirting with the fusion of cash and courtship. Money bouquets have also surged in popularity elsewhere in Africa, including Kenya, one of the world’s largest flower exporters.

Before Valentine’s Day, Kenya’s central bank warned of stiff penalties of up to seven years in prison for folding, stapling or gluing banknotes into bouquets, arguing that damaged currency disrupts cash-handling systems and violates laws against defacing money. The directive sparked lively debate online, with critics accusing regulators of overreach.

Love from scrap

Back in Zimbabwe, no such restrictions exist. But for some, love is finding expression not just through cash, but through trash recycled into keepsakes.

At an upscale shopping center in Harare, aluminium heart-shaped key rings, necklaces, platters and wine holders crafted from reclaimed scrap were lined up next to chocolates and gift boxes in Simpli Simbi, a decor and gift shop. “Simbi” means metal in the local Shona language.

“We are taking something that was unloved before, polishing it up and making it beautiful again towards a gift to someone that they can treasure forever,” said Stephanie Charlton, founder of the shop.

Charlton said that her customer base, once dominated by tourists and diaspora Zimbabweans, is increasingly local because of rising environmental awareness.

In an industrial area nearby, her foundry was stacked with discarded car radiators, rims and scrap metal collected from roadsides and landfills, before being melted in an open furnace and transformed into handmade gifts.

“Women love chocolates and flowers, but they are here today, gone tomorrow,” said Charlton, a former horticulture exporter who now employs 20 people.

“This is something that we have collected that would be filling up a landfill. But we have made it into something beautiful that you can give to (your valentine), show them that you treasure them. There is a meaning behind it, there is a story to be told with each piece.”

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Associated Press writer Evelyne Musambi contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The 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.

By Tanda Gmiter, Tribune News Service

MENOMINEE – Authorities say the body of a 24-year-old woman who had been missing for a week has been found in a wooded area near the Wisconsin border with the Upper Peninsula.

The body of Gabriella Alexis Cartagena was found on Tuesday in the area of Birch Creek Road in Menominee County, investigators announced today, according to WLUC. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death.

In a press conference today, authorities said they believe they found a possible crime scene in Red Arrow Park in nearby Marinette, Wisconsin. Cartagena, who was described by police as an involuntary missing person, was believed to be in the area of that park on Feb. 4 with her boyfriend when she was last in contact with her family.

Relatives told police they were on the phone with her when they heard Cartagena saying, “Please don’t shoot me, I’m sorry,” WLUC reported.

Witnesses have described hearing a couple arguing at that time.

Cartagena’s vehicle, a red Toyota Prius with a Wisconsin license plate, was seen between 9:25 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. the day she went missing. It was traveling along Highway 41 in the city of Menominee and Menominee Township, on the Michigan side of the border. The Menominee County Sheriff’s Office had asked residents and businesses in that area to check their cameras for the vehicle.

Michigan authorities had been assisting in the search, Marinette police said.

Cartagena’s boyfriend was arrested in Minnesota on Feb. 5 for allegedly fleeing a police officer during a police chase that reached speeds of 100 mph, WISN reported. An AR-15 rifle was found in his vehicle. He remains in custody and has not been charged with any crime linked to Cartagena at this time.

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STEPHEN GROVES and MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of U.S. lawmakers were trying to make their way this weekend to the Munich Security Conference to assure allies of America’s reliability, but burdened with political crises at home, their entrance to the annual gathering of international leaders was more of a limp than a stride.

Some didn’t make the trip at all. House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled an official delegation of roughly two dozen House members who had planned to attend the event, leaving those lawmakers either to find their own way to Germany or send their regrets.

While two bipartisan delegations from the Senate still made the trip, they departed amid bitter fights over how U.S. immigration agents are carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdowns on illegal immigration, which have included fatal shootings of two people protesting the raids, as well as the Trump administration’s recent failed effort to indict six Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging U.S. military members not to obey “illegal orders.”

“It is a little bit, you know, depressing to be here with what we have to deal with at home,” Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who was among those investigated by the Department of Justice, said in a live interview with Politico in Munich.

For over six decades, the annual conference has gathered world leaders in pursuit of cooperation for shared security, with the United State often playing a leading role. But Trump has upended his nation’s posture toward the rest of the world, especially Europe. And while many lawmakers who attended tried to assure European counterparts that the U.S. still wants a seat at the table, it was clear they were still grappling with the rapidly changing political environment at home.

“I expect to have a number of challenging conversations with friends and allies about their concern and alarm about what they’ve seen federal law enforcement under this administration do in Minneapolis and the attempt to indict six of my colleagues and other steps that frankly have more of the hallmarks of authoritarian societies than democracies,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senate’s bipartisan traditions are slipping

The security forum in recent years has been a reinforcing event for the coalition of nations backing Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion — a cause that once enjoyed strong support from Republicans. But several GOP senators who have participated in years past and hold spots on committees overseeing the U.S. military and foreign affairs decided this year to stay home. The delegations that did attend included significantly more Democrats.

As lawmakers exited Washington on Thursday, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri ripped Democrats for heading to Munich while the Department of Homeland Security faced a shutdown during an impasse in Congress over funding the agency that oversees immigration enforcement.

“How do you justify getting on a plane and going to Europe when you’re shutting down DHS?” Schmitt told reporters. “They’re making a decision that their travel to Munich to cozy up with the Euros is way more important than funding DHS.”

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz responded on social media, noting that he and Schmitt had both gone to Munich the year prior and that it “continues to be an important bipartisan trip.”

Still, Schatz also said this year is different in light of the Department of Justice attempting to indict two senators.

“Spare me the high-minded panel discussions and bilats and press availabilities about the United States as the indispensable nation, when we are dispensing with our most sacred constitutional obligations,” he said in a floor speech this week.

Republicans articulate Trump policy

Some Republicans who attended the Munich gathering came not to offer reassurances, but to herald the changing world under under Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby were among the top Trump administration officials participating.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is close to Trump, led one of the delegations of senators. He presented a bullish argument that European security is better off with Trump’s willingness to break up the traditional roles of Western allies. He argued the U.S. needs to keep up pressure on Iran with the goal of toppling the regime, as well as build pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a peace deal.

“We’re here at a crucial moment, folks. If we don’t follow through with what we promised the people of Iran, it will destroy America’s credibility for years to come, it will make this world less safe,” he said.

A new voice from the US

Graham has been a mainstay at Munich and other like conferences for years, yet there was also a new voice from the American side.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive from New York, made her first trip to the conference to discuss the rise of populism and the shifting role of American power in the world. Her attendance at the conference, she said, was meant to show support for international liberal values.

“We are ready for the next chapter, not to have the world turned to isolation, but to deepen our partnership on greater and increased commitment to integrity to our values,” she said at a roundtable.

Ocasio-Cortez said she identified with voters who had defected from traditional left-of-center parties in Europe and the United States for populist hard-right parties. She said her frustrations with a Democratic Party “that championed special interests, the elite” is what had pushed her to run for office.

“Domestically and globally, there have been many leaders who’ve said ‘We will go back’. And I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a time,” she said, adding “That does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order and that we’re ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy.”

Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this story.

For some, there’s nothing more romantic than cozying up with a book on Valentine’s Day. Or maybe you’re going out and need something to read while you and your date wait for your table to open up when out for a fabulous dinner to celebrate the holiday. (It’s not unprecedented: Some of us always carry a book.)

So read on for romance.

“After Hours at Dooryard Books” by Cat Sebastian

In this novel set in a radical Greenwich Village bookstore during the tumult of the late-’60s, Patrick, a bookseller, takes in Nathaniel, a mysterious stranger who seems to fit in with the shop’s anti-establishment regulars.

“As Many Souls as Stars” by Natasha Siegel

A historical fantasy romance about the struggle between light and dark, this novel tells the story of two women entwined by a terrible bargain binding them across the passing centuries.

SEE ALSO: Southern California romance bookstores do not want AI for Valentine’s Day

“Carnival Fantástico” by Angela Montoya

A fortune-teller in a traveling carnival troupe teams up with a handsome military deserter – plus, he’s her ex! – investigating his family’s corruption in hopes that together they can solve their problems in this magical romantasy.

“Daddy Issues” by Kate Goldbeck

A debt-ridden, twentysomething PhD hopeful is living with her mother and working a dead-end job, hoping to find a way out, when a single father moves in next door with his 9-year-old daughter.

“The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow,

Harrow, known for “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” and “The Once and Future Witches,” delivers the goods again with a novel involving time travel, a formidable female knight and a soldier turned historian with a mission.

“Just for the Cameras” by Meghan Quinn

In this novel set in the Bay Area, a professional football player and a sexy zookeeper agree to engage in a fake public romance – there are reasons! – but what happens when the feelings start to seem real?

“Julia Song is Undateable” by Susan Lee

The title character is a success as the CEO of a cosmetics company, but a disaster at romance. So in an effort to appease her Korean grandmother, who just wants her to be happy (and married!), Julia Song hires a dating coach and …

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

“The Re-Do List” by Denise Williams

In the wake of a painful breakup, a young woman agrees to dog-sit for her brother during his military deployment; she gets help from her brother’s handsome friend, who’s been given one order: Stay away from my little sister!

“Son of the Morning” by Akwaeke Emezi

In this paranormal romance set in the South, a young woman raised by a group of powerful Black women encounters what may be a literal boyfriend from hell in a tale of secrets, artifacts and powerful clashes between heaven, earth and beyond.

Authorities are investigating eerie new footage from the days leading up to the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy.

The roughly 20-second Ring camera footage, from the early morning hours of Jan. 23, was published Friday by TMZ, which says the video was recorded roughly 6.5 miles from 84-year-old Guthrie’s home in Tucson, Ariz.

The clip shows a dark-haired man whose face is blurred, though a goatee is somewhat visible. His back is toward the camera as he leans over, holding what appears to be a towel, then moves his hands over the camera.

The homeowner, who initially posted the video on Ring’s Neighbors app, said the man in the video rang their doorbell at around 5 a.m. but ran off at the sound of the their dogs barking, according to TMZ.

Both the FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s Department know of the video’s existence and are treating it as a lead, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the outlet.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen at her home on the evening of Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day, with authorities quickly treating the case as an abduction. The FBI on Thursday doubled their reward to up to $100,000 for information leading to Guthrie’s recovery or the conviction of her captor.

The agency’s Phoenix bureau has also released additional details about the male suspect, believed to stand between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10. He was wearing a 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Backpack, according to forensic analysis of doorbell camera footage taken from Guthrie’s home.

Earlier this week, the FBI released photos and video of Guthrie’s potential kidnapper. He can be seen outside her home in the early morning hours of Feb. 1, wearing a ski mask with a goatee visible underneath.

That footage was a “huge, huge break” in the case, as retired Phoenix Homicide Sergeant Troy Hillman told Us Weekly.

Neighbors within a 2-mile radius of Guthrie’s home have been asked to scour last month’s security camera footage and report anything out of the ordinary to authorities.

The PCSD on Friday said there no press briefing scheduled for the day but said they’d alert the public of “any significant developments” in the case.

By DAVID A. LIEB

Virginia voters will get to cast ballots on a congressional redistricting plan benefiting Democrats while a court battle plays out over the legality of the effort.

The Virginia Supreme Court said Friday that a statewide referendum can be held April 21 on whether to authorize mid-decade redistricting, and the court will decide sometime later whether the plan is legal.

Democrats celebrated the green light for the election. But the court’s schedule raises the possibility that it could all be for naught, if the Supreme Court ultimately upholds a lower court ruling that the mid-decade redistricting amendment is invalid.

Virginia Democrats hold six of the state’s 11 U.S. House seats, but they are backing a revised map that could help them win up to 10 seats in this year’s midterm elections. The new districts are a key part of Democrats’ national strategy to try to offset potential Republican gains in several other states that redrew their districts last year at the urging of President Donald Trump.

The Republican president is trying to preserve a narrow GOP majority in the House against political headwinds that typically blow against the party in power in midterm elections.

Before Virginia Democrats can implement new congressional districts, they need voter approval to temporarily set aside a constitutional provision that places redistricting authority with a bipartisan commission and instead grant that power to the General Assembly. Lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election in order for an amendment to be placed on the ballot.

But Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. last month struck down the General Assembly’s actions on three grounds. The judge ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

Hurley also ruled that the General Assembly’s initial vote for the amendment failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. And he ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result of those issues, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.

Democrats appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, which agreed on Friday to consider the case while stating that a narrowly tailored injunction by the lower court doesn’t prevent the April referendum. The court directed initial briefs to be filed by March 23, with the last round of court filings due April 23. Any oral arguments would be scheduled for later, the court said.

Nationwide, the redistricting battle has resulted so far in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats have hoped to make up that three-seat margin in Virginia, though the lower court ruling raised a hurdle to their plans. It’s unclear whether the redistricting efforts in various states ultimately will make any difference in determining control of Congress in the November election.

By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Soaring arias. Wrenching tragedy. Joyful triumphs. Exotic backdrops. Climaxes often designed to produce tears, sad or otherwise.

Perhaps more than anything, the operas that Italians began creating 400 years ago are designed to make you feel. To have the rest of the world melt away as you get lost in a story sung in a language you might not understand, but whose stakes are unmistakable.

No wonder the country that invented the art form where music and poetry merge, and these Winter Olympics seem to be such a perfect fit.

The quadrennial spectacle that began its stay in Northern Italy with a gala hosted by the International Olympic Committee at the iconic La Scala opera house in Milan spent its first full week reflecting the host country’s signature art form onto itself.

The magic the Games so often provide, no matter where they may go, seemingly a little bolder, a little louder, a little more deeply felt.

Tearful exits

The initial gasp that gave way to eerie silence after American skiing star Lindsey Vonn’s right arm clipped a gate just 13 seconds into the women’s downhill on Sunday, leading to a spectacular and brutal crash that broke her left leg and ended her unlikely Olympic return at 41.

Crashes happen. It’s a part of the sport. The “only at the Games” flourish came afterward, when Vonn’s long, slow helicopter ride down the mountain to safety veered gently to the left, flying over the grandstand where the throngs who came out to watch her bid for history waved a tearful goodbye instead.

The tears for Vonn were borne out of concern and what might have been. The tears from IOC president Kirsty Coventry after telling Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych he was disqualified for refusing to replace a helmet adorned with images of over 20 coaches and athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion began were of anguish and regret.

“No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging,” Coventry said. “The messaging is a powerful message.”

One so compelling and so important to Heraskevych that the 27-year-old sacrificed his dreams of Olympic glory to make it. Even if the attention he received for his stand caught him off guard.

“I never expected it to be such a big scandal,” he said on Friday after an appeal hearing.

Four years into a war that drags on with an end still not quite in sight, Heraskevych’s stand dragged a conflict that in some areas of the world has retreated to the shadows and thrust it back into the international spotlight unique to the Games. His selfless decision elevated the discussion about his homeland to the public writ large in a way that no gold-medal-winning run ever could.

Heraskevych’s act was intended for a global audience. Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid was speaking to an audience of one after earning bronze in the men’s 20-kilometer race. His startling confession of infidelity to a former partner after what was supposed to serve as one of the highlights of his career upstaging the gold won in the same race by countryman Johan-Olav Botn.

Love both lost and won

Being lovesick in Italy is hardly new. There’s a reason seemingly every high school literature class makes “Romeo and Juliet” required reading. The Shakespearean tragedy is set in Verona, about 3 hours southwest of where Laegreid made his stunning plea, sounding very much like a teenager in the throes of heartache. His vow of contrition created a viral moment that passes for social currency, the fallout be damned.

“I can understand what he wants to have happen with his girlfriend,” retired German athlete Erik Lesser told The Associated Press. “But I just want to think about sport, want to see sport, want to talk about sport.”

Yet the Olympics have never really been just about sport. How can they be when the lines between sports, politics and culture seem to be growing more blurry by the day? The only thing perfect about the Games may be the five intertwined rings that have long served as its logo.

That’s what makes it so enthralling. A few days after Laegreid achieved a small piece of infamy, Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson retreated into the arms of boyfriend Connor Watkins after crashing in the Super-G.

While Johnson’s dreams of leaving Cortina with multiple golds were gone, another was realized anyway when Watkins dropped to a knee and recited Taylor Swift lyrics while producing a blue and white sapphire ring.

Johnson giddily accepted before jumping into his arms, the physical pain and emotional disappointment of what happened up on the mountain only minutes earlier replaced by a memory and a promise that will stick with her forever.

“I think most people want to peak at the Olympics,” Johnson said. “I just extra peaked.”

Favorites upstaged

Not everyone does at a festival where unpredictability often outduels inevitability for top billing.

For every breakthrough like the one American figure skater Ilia Malinin is providing one electrifying backflip and quadruple jump at a time, there are bold-faced champions somewhat surprisingly ceding the stage they’ve so often commanded.

Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Cortina as the winningest ski racer in the history of the sport. Eager to put an 0 for 6 run four years ago in Beijing behind her, she instead began her fourth Olympics with her worst showing in a slalom that she started and finished since 2012, costing Shiffrin and Johnson a gold in women’s combined and opening the door for teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim the first Olympic medals of their long careers.

American snowboarding icon Chloe Kim’s bid for an unprecedented third gold in the halfpipe ended late Thursday when a teenager who grew up idolizing her — Gaon Choi of South Korea — pulled off an upset in snowy Livigno.

“I’m a winner because I was able to persevere and fight through,” said Kim, who competed just a month removed from a dislocated shoulder.

And perhaps more than anything at the Olympics, it’s the fight that matters.

For the thousands of athletes scattered across northern Italy, the road to this moment in their lives is rooted in a passion found long ago. The flames may have flickered for many along the way. How could they not? The drudgery of practice. The financial burden. The inevitable physical toll. The hidden mental strain has only recently graduated from hushed whispers to a full-fledged conversation.

It’s a lot to carry. No wonder it’s such fertile ground for drama.

Italy’s moment

And no one has leaned into it more than the hosts who have surged to the top of the medal table.

Yet a country known for big gestures and even bigger emotions is also one that can revel in the quiet and before the catharsis.

Ten months ago, Italian skier Federica Brignone shredded her left leg in a crash that required multiple surgeries, a handful of screws to keep things in place and months of rehab. The 35-year-old never stopped pointing toward Cortina. On Thursday, in front of a crowd that included Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Brignone ignored the lingering pain to throw down a sublime Super-G run in tricky conditions to earn her first Olympic gold.

After the medal ceremony, the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic unit thundered overhead, leaving a trail of the country’s familiar combination of green, white and red in its wake.

The slopes in Cortina shook. The flags waved. Brignone wept, thinking not so much of glory, but the winding path she took to get here.

“One of those films that you don’t believe in because it’s not possible for it to end that well,” Brignone said.

Maybe that’s the best part.

It’s not the end. We’re only halfway there. Who knows?

Milan Cortina’s second act could be even better than the first.

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AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf, Graham Dunbar, Dave Skretta, Tim Reynolds and AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By SUSAN HAIGH

NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.

The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries in late fall, informing them they were no longer authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program as of Friday.

“We still get calls daily seeking that service,” said Cathleen Special, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, where passport services were offered for 18 years but ceased in November after receiving the letter. “Our community was so used to us offering this.”

A State Department spokesperson said the order was given because federal law and regulations “clearly prohibit non-governmental organizations” from collecting and retaining fees for a passport application. Government-run libraries are not impacted.

The spokesperson did not respond to questions as to why it has become an issue now and exactly how many libraries are impacted by the cease and desist order. In a statement, they said, “passport services has over 7,500 acceptance facilities nationwide and the number of libraries found ineligible makes up less than one percent of our total network.”

The American Library Association estimates about 1,400 mostly non-profit public libraries nationwide could potentially be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries, depending on how many offer passport services.

Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing back, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month asking him to extend the existing program until Congress finds a permanent solution.

“In a time when demand for passports is surging, libraries are among the most accessible passport acceptance facilities, particularly for working families and rural residents,” the members wrote.

The lawmakers’ letter said people will have to travel long distances, take unpaid time off from work or forgo getting a passport when demand is surging due to Real ID requirements. If Republicans in Congress impose strict new voting rules, citizens could need their passport or birth certificate to register. People fearing immigration agents are also increasingly carrying passports to confirm their citizenship.

They said the change is particularly disruptive to their states, where many public libraries are structured as nonprofit entities. They predicted some libraries, which benefit financially from passport processing fees, will have to lay off staff, cut programs or close their doors if not allowed to continue providing passport services.

Public libraries are organized differently in each state. In Pennsylvania 85% of public libraries are non-profit organizations, versus being a department of a local municipal government. In Maine, it’s 56%; Rhode Island, 54%, New York, 47% and Connecticut, 46%, according to the American Library Association.

Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, and John Joyce, a Republican, have proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow 501(c)(3) non-profit public libraries to continue to serve as passport acceptance facilities by amending the Passport Act of 1920. A similar companion bill is pending in the Senate.

Dean, who first learned about the policy change from a library in her district that has provided passport services for 20 years, called the State Department’s interpretation of the law “nonsense.”

In Joyce’s rural, south-central Pennsylvania district, the Marysville-Rye Library is one of only two passport facilities serving the 556-square-mile Perry County, according to the letter to Rubio. Now the county courthouse will be the only remaining option.

The State Department noted that 99% of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of a designated passport processing location, such as a post office, county clerk’s office or government-run library authorized to accept in-person passport applications.

“Should the removal of an ineligible facility affect passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the impacted area,” the agency spokesperson said.

But Special said the Norwich post office had often referred people to her library for passports when someone needed service outside regular hours or had children who needed to be watched and entertained while their parent filled out the paperwork. Library staff also assisted applicants with language barriers.

“And now the burden falls on them to do all of it and that’s tough on them,” she said of the post office down the street. “I don’t know how they’re keeping up, to be honest, because it was such a popular service with us.”