By CURTIS YEE and TIFFANY STANLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Rev. Lee Scott publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president during the Evangelicals for Harris Zoom call on Aug. 14, the Presbyterian pastor and farmer said he was taking a risk.

“The easy thing for us to do this year would be to keep our heads down, go to the ballot box, keep our vote secret and go about our business,” Scott told the group, which garnered roughly 3,200 viewers according to organizers. “But at this time, I just can’t do that.”

Scott lives in Butler, Pennsylvania, the same town where a would-be assassin shot former President Donald Trump in July. Scott told The Associated Press that the attack and its impact on his community pushed him to speak out against Trump and the “vitriol” and “acceptable violence” he normalized in politics.

Trump has maintained strong support among white evangelical voters. According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 white evangelical voters cast a ballot for him in 2020. But a small and diverse coalition of evangelicals is looking to pull their fellow believers away from the former president’s fold, offering not only an alternate candidate to support but an alternate vision for their faith altogether.

“I am tired of watching meanness, bigotry and recreational cruelty be the worldly witness of our faith,” Scott said on the call. “I want transformation, and transformation is risky business.”

Exploiting cracks in Trump’s evangelical base

Trump has heavily courted white conservative evangelicals since his arrival on the political scene almost a decade ago. Now he is selling Trump-themed Bibles, touting the overturning of Roe v. Wade and imploring Christians to get out the vote for him.

But some evangelicals have used perceived cracks in his political fidelity to further distance themselves from the former president, especially as Trump and his surrogates have waffled over whether he would sign a federal abortion ban  should he become president.

The Rev. Dwight McKissic, a Baptist pastor from Texas who spoke on the Evangelicals for Harris call, said he saw no “moral superiority of one party over the other,” citing the GOP’s decision to “abandon a commitment to ban abortion with a constitutional amendment” and to soften its stance against same-sex marriage in its party platform.

Though he has historically voted Republican, McKissic said he would vote for Harris, whom he said has stronger character and qualifications.

“I certainly don’t agree with her on all matters of policy,” said Scott, who identifies as evangelical and is ordained in the mainline Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “I am pro-life. I am against abortion. But at the same time, she has a pro-family platform,” citing Harris’ education policies and promise to expand the child tax credit.

Grassroots groups like Evangelicals for Harris are hoping they can convince evangelicals who feel similarly to support Harris instead of voting for Trump or sitting out the election altogether.

With modest funding in 2020, the group, formerly known as Evangelicals for Biden, targeted evangelical voters in swing states. This election, the Rev. Jim Ball, the organization’s president, said they’re expanding the operation and looking to spend a million dollars on targeted advertisements.

While white evangelicals vote strongly Republican, not all evangelicals are a lock for the GOP, and in a tight race, every vote counts.

In 2020, Biden won about 2 in 10 white evangelical voters, but performed better with evangelicals overall, according to AP VoteCast, winning about one-third of this group. A September AP-NORC poll found that around 6 in 10 Americans who identify as “born-again” or “evangelical” have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Harris, but around one-third have a favorable opinion of her. The majority — around 8 in 10 — of white evangelicals have a negative view of Harris.

Vote Common Good, a similar group run by progressive evangelical pastor Doug Pagitt, has a simple message: Political identity and religious identity are not a package deal.

″There’s a whole group who have become very uncomfortable voting for Trump,” Pagitt said. “We’re not trying to get them to change their mind. We’re trying to work with them once their minds have changed to act on that change.”

Working with the campaign

In August, Harris’ campaign hired the Rev. Jen Butler, a Presbyterian (U.S.A.) minister and experienced faith-based organizer, to lead its religious outreach.

Butler told the AP she has been in touch with Evangelicals for Harris. With less than two months until Election Day, she wants to harness the power of grassroots groups to quickly engage even more faith voters.

“We want to turn out our base, and we think we have some real potential here to reach folks who have voted Republican in the past,” Butler said.

They are focusing on Black Protestants and Latino evangelicals, especially in key swing states. They are reaching out to Catholics and mainline Protestants across the Rust Belt and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona and Nevada. Butler’s colleagues are working with Jewish and Muslim constituencies.

Catholics for Harris and Interfaith for Harris groups are launching. Mainline Protestant groups like Black Church PAC and Christians for Kamala are also campaigning on behalf of the vice president.

Butler, who grew up evangelical in Georgia, said the Harris campaign can find common ground with evangelicals, particularly suburban evangelical women.

“There’s a whole range of issues that they care about,” she said, citing compassionate approaches to immigration and abortion. “They know that the way to address any pro-life concerns is really to support women.”

A tough sell

Even for evangelicals who dislike Trump, it can be difficult to support a Democrat.

Russell Jeung, a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and speaker on the Evangelicals for Harris call, told AP that the group doesn’t “agree with everything that Harris stands for” and that evangelicals can “hold the party accountable by being involved.”

Others on the call noted they would use their vote to pressure Harris on issues where they disagreed, with Latina evangelical activist Sandra Maria Van Opstal saying she’d push the potential Harris administration “to do better on Palestine-Israel and do better on immigration.”

Soong-Chan Rah, a professor of evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, describes himself as a nonpartisan progressive evangelical and a “prophet speaking to broken systems.” Though he’s never endorsed a candidate before, he said the stakes of this election are so high that he wanted to throw his public support behind Harris.

“Not only do I find this candidate, Trump, repugnant and repulsive,” Rah said, “it is to such an extreme that I want to endorse his opposition.”

But the chorus of evangelicals who find voting for a Democrat unconscionable remains loud.

Trump-supporting evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht ridiculed the existence of Evangelicals for Harris on X: “HERETICS FOR HARRIS rings so much truer!”

The Rev. Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump supporter, took issue with one of the group’s ads and its use of footage of his late father, the Rev. Billy Graham. “The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris,” he wrote on his public Facebook page, which has 10 million followers.

Imagining a new evangelical identity

But the project of shoring up Democratic evangelical voters goes beyond partisan politics. It gets at the core of what evangelicalism means.

The term evangelical itself is fraught and has become synonymous with the Republican Party, argues Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

“More people are probably evangelical theologically,” said Burge, “but they’re not going to grab that word because they don’t vote for Trump or they’re moderate or liberal.”

Evangelicalism has historically referenced Christians who hold conservative theological beliefs regarding issues like the importance of the Bible and being born again. But that’s changed as the term has grown more connected with Republican voters.

For many, evangelicalism has largely been defined along racial and socio-political lines and in endorsing Harris, Rah hopes to “show that there are other voices in the church aside from the religious right and Trump evangelicals.”

Latasha Morrison, a speaker on the Evangelicals for Harris Zoom, told the AP that as a Black woman, “I never associated myself with the word ‘evangelical’ until I started attending predominantly white churches.”

For years her anti-abortion views led her to vote Republican, but now the Christian author and diversity trainer says, “I feel like women and children have a better opportunity under the Harris administration than the Trump administration.”

For Ball, the Evangelicals for Harris organizer, he’s not looking to “tell people if they are an evangelical” or not.

“Diversity is a strength for us. We’re not we’re not looking for total unanimity. We’re looking for unity,” Ball said. “We can be united while we still have differences.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration  with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By STEVE PEOPLES

FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The FBI is investigating suspicious packages sent to elections officials in more than a dozen states. State police have begun sweeps of schools in an Ohio community where conspiracy theories have fueled bomb threats. Violent rhetoric is rippling across social media.

And for the second time in nine weeks, a gunman apparently sought to assassinate Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

This year’s campaign for the White House was always going to be fraught, the first presidential election to play out in the wake of an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an act of political violence steeped in the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

But the series of unnerving developments has crystalized the volatility coursing through the country in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign. A political system long lauded for its resilience and durability is being tested, with law enforcement, political leaders and voters navigating complex and unfamiliar terrain.

In Flint, the Michigan city where a contaminated water crisis became a symbol of government ineptitude nearly a decade ago, some who gathered for a Trump event this week seemed almost resigned to a new and dangerous normal.

“I think it’ll probably happen one more time,” John Trahan, 62, from Grand Blanc, Michigan, said of the prospect of another assassination attempt.

The US has faced challenges before

America has confronted searing challenges before, from the Civil War to a presidential election decided by the Supreme Court. There were two assassinations and a wave of deadly riots before the 1968 presidential election.

But presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University said this moment is notable because it fuses widespread distrust of government with the proliferation of online conspiracy theories. Before a gunman camped outside a Florida golf course where Trump was playing on Sunday, the Republican’s campaign was pressing a debunked rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets.

“There’s a kind of uncertainty across the land,” Brinkley said, and the incident in West Palm Beach “takes an already tense election when democracy’s on the line and pours gasoline on the situation.”

The internet is providing much of that fuel. The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire posted on social media early Sunday that “anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.” The group deleted the message without fully condemning political violence.

“We are not ‘non-violent,’” the group wrote in a post Monday. “It is morally correct to use violence to stop aggression.”

Elon Musk, the owner of X, shared a false report on Wednesday that explosives had been found near a Trump rally. Hours earlier, Musk posted, “Unless Trump is elected, America will fall to tyranny.” Earlier in the week, he wrote that “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”

Musk later deleted the tweet about the assassination and implied he was joking, but not before tens of millions of people had viewed the post.

The campaign moves forward

Despite it all, the presidential campaign moves forward and Election Day, Nov. 5, nears.

Harris quickly condemned the Florida incident and called Trump to offer her support. Democrats in Washington are joining with Republicans to push for stronger security around the former president.

But Harris’ team is not toning down its warning that a second Trump presidency represents a threat to democracy. During an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, Harris noted that Trump is not alone in worrying about safety.

“There are far too many people in our country right now who are not feeling safe,” Harris said. “Not everybody has Secret Service.”

“Members of the LGBTQ community don’t feel safe right now, immigrants or people with an immigrant background don’t feel safe right now,” she continued. “Women don’t feel safe right now.”

Trump and some of his allies, meanwhile, continue to sow divisions — a marked shift from his brief calls for unity in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally in July.

Fox News Digital published comments in which Trump, without evidence, blamed Democratic President Joe Biden and Harris for the weekend incident at his golf course and suggested their criticism of him had driven the alleged gunman. Then Trump posted on X that Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a communist and “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.”

“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” Trump warned.

Harris denounced the thwarted attack against Trump and had a brief phone conversation with him on Tuesday in which she expressed gratitude that he was safe and she condemned political violence. Trump described the call as “very nice.”

With early voting already unfolding in some states, more potential challenges are ahead. The FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday that Iranian hackers sought to interest Biden’s campaign in information stolen from Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people connected to the president before he abandoned his campaign in July.

There is no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, but the development nonetheless raises the prospect of foreign interference in the election.

Harris’ campaign said it has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails. But Trump’s campaign responded by pressing Harris and Biden to “come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump.”

On the ground in Michigan, Trump’s loyalists have embraced his anger. In some cases, they are afraid.

Kathy Hutchons, 68, of Waterford, Michigan, said the looming threat of further violence against Trump was “kind of scary.”

Her friends in line for Trump’s town hall in Flint said they were scanning trees for signs of threats. They looked with suspicion at the drone overhead, although security officials later confirmed it was one of their safety measures.

“My husband said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to let you go to this today,’” Hutchons said. “I said, ‘You don’t have a choice.’”

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Michelle L. Price in New York and AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Both major presidential candidates are making appearances Thursday meant to fire up their core supporters, with Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a livestream with Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump attending an event with prominent Jewish donors before addressing a gathering of the Israeli-American Council.

Winfrey, who has endorsed Harris and spoke at the Democratic convention in August, is set to host a two-hour “Unite for America” nighttime streaming session in Michigan with Harris that organizers say aims to highlight dozens of grassroots groups backing the vice president.

Trump will be in Washington to address a “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America” evening event with Miriam Adelson, a co-owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and widow of billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who founded the Las Vegas Sands casino and was one of the Republican Party’s largest donors.

Trump will also speak before the Israeli-American Council, a nonprofit long backed by Sheldon Adelson as well as Haim Saban, a major donor to President Joe Biden and Democratic causes. The council is holding its national convention in the weeks before the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

On Friday, Harris has campaign stops planned in swing states Wisconsin and Georgia as she calls attention to the case of a young mother who died after waiting 20 hours for a hospital to treat her complications from an abortion pill. Harris contends that outcome shows the consequences of Trump’s actions.

Amber Thurman’s death, first reported Monday by ProPublica, came two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban was enacted in 2022 after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion rights. Trump nominated three of the justices who made that decision.

Trump has a Saturday rally set in battleground North Carolina.

Thursday’s campaign stops follow the Federal Reserve cutting its benchmark interest rate by an unusually large half-point. That marked a dramatic shift after more than two years of high rates that helped tame inflation but also made borrowing painfully expensive for American consumers.

With the presidential election less than seven weeks away, the move has the potential to scramble the economic landscape just as Americans prepare to vote. Campaigning in New York on Wednesday, Trump said, “I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics.”

Asked about potential political influence of a rate cut so close to Election Day, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration has been “very clear about this and very respectful of the independence of the Federal Reserve.”

“Unlike other administrations, we’ve been, I think, pretty steadfast about that, and have been continuous in making that clear,” she added, without naming Trump and his past public criticism of the Fed or his suggestions during the campaign that presidents should have more authority over the central bank.

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By DAN MERICA Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit political campaigns and outside political groups from using artificial intelligence to misrepresent the views of their rivals by pretending to be them.

The introduction of the bill comes as Congress has failed to regulate the fast-evolving technology and experts warn that it threatens to overwhelm voters with misinformation. Those experts have expressed particular concern over the dangers posed by “deepfakes,” AI-generated videos and memes that can look lifelike and cause voters to question what is real and what is fake.

Lawmakers said the bill would give the Federal Election Commission the power to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in elections in the same way it has regulated other political misrepresentation for decades. The FEC has started to consider such regulations.

“Right now, the FEC does not have the teeth, the regulatory authority, to protect the election,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who co-sponsored the legislation. Other sponsors include Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat; Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Washington Democrat; and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican.

Fitzpatrick and Schiff said the odds were against the bill passing this year. Nevertheless, they said they don’t expect the measure to face much opposition and could be attached to a must-pass measure in the waning days the congressional session.

Schiff described the bill as a modest first step in addressing the threat posed by deepfakes and other false AI-generated content, arguing the legislation’s simplicity was an asset.

“This is really probably the lowest hanging fruit there is” in terms of addressing the misuse of AI in politics, Schiff said. “There’s so much more we’re going to need to do, though, to try to attack the avalanche of misinformation and disinformation.”

Congress has been paralyzed on countless issues in recent years, and regulating AI is no exception.

“This is another illustration of congressional dysfunction,” Schiff said.

Schiff and Fitzpatrick are not alone in believing artificial intelligence legislation is needed and can become law. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat, and Rep. María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, introduced legislation earlier this month that aims to curb the spread of unauthorized AI-generated deepfakes. A bipartisan group of senators proposed companion legislation in the Senate.

Opposition to such legislation has primarily focused on not stifling a burgeoning technology sector or making it easier for another country to become the hub for the AI industry.

Congress doesn’t “want to put a rock on top of innovation either and not allow it to flourish under the right circumstances,” Rep. French Hill, an Arkansas Republican, said in August at a reception hosted by the Center for AI Safety. “It’s a balancing act.”

The Federal Election Commission in August took its first step toward regulating AI-generated deepfakes in political advertising when it took a procedural vote after being asked to regulate ads that use artificial intelligence to misrepresent political opponents as saying or doing something they didn’t.

The commission is expected to further discuss the matter on Thursday.

The commission’s efforts followed a request from Public Citizen, a progressive consumer rights organization, that the agency clarify whether a 1970s-era law that bans “fraudulent misrepresentation” in campaign communications also applies to AI-generated deepfakes. While the election commission has been criticized in recent years for being ineffective, it does have the ability to take action against campaigns or groups that violate these laws, often through fines.

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen who helped the lawmakers write the bill being introduced Tuesday, said he was concerned that fraudulent misrepresentation law only applies to candidates and not parties, outside groups and super PACs.

The bill introduced Tuesday would expand FEC’s jurisdiction to explicitly account for the rapid rise of generative AI’s use in political communications.

Holman noted that some states have passed laws to regulate deepfakes but said federal legislation was necessary to give the Federal Election Commission the clear authority.

This story is part of an Associated Press series, “The AI Campaign,” exploring the influence of artificial intelligence in the 2024 election cycle.

The Associated Press receives financial assistance from the Omidyar Network to support coverage of artificial intelligence and its impact on society. 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 CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — The election director in Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb where votes will be fiercely contested in this year’s presidential race, recently organized a five-hour training session. The focus wasn’t solely on the nuts-and-bolts of running this year’s election. Instead, it brought together election staff and law enforcement to strategize on how to keep workers safe and the process of voting and ballot-counting secure.

Having a local sheriff’s deputy at early voting locations and panic buttons that connect poll managers to a local 911 dispatcher are among the added security steps the office is taking this year.

Tate Fall, Cobb County’s election director, said she was motivated to act after hearing one of her poll workers describe being confronted during the state’s presidential primary in March by an agitated voter who the worker noticed was carrying a gun. The situation ended peacefully, but the poll worker was shaken.

“That made it really real for me — that it’s so easy for something to go sideways in life, period, let alone the environment of Georgia and elections,” Fall said. “I just can’t have someone being harmed on my conscience.”

Across the country, local election directors are beefing up their security in advance of Election Day on Nov. 5 to keep their workers and polling places safe while also ensuring that ballots and voting procedures won’t be tampered with. Their concern isn’t just theoretical. Election offices and those who run them have been targets of harassment and even death threats since the 2020 presidential election, primarily by people acting on former President Donald Trump’s lies that the election was stolen from him through widespread fraud or rigged voting machines.

The focus on security comes as threats of political violence have been on the rise. Trump was the target of a potential assassination attempt over the weekend, just nine weeks after another threat on his life. Federal agents last year fatally shot a Trump supporter who threatened to assassinate President Joe Biden, and the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was severely injured in a hammer attack by a man promoting right-wing conspiracy theories.

In just the last year, a gun was fired at a window of the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, election office, several election offices in five states were sent letters filled with a white powder that in some cases tested positive for the powerful opioid fentanyl, and bogus 911 calls were made to the homes of top state election officials in Georgia, Maine, Michigan and Missouri in a potentially dangerous situation known as swatting.

“This is one of the things that I have to say is just crazy, outrageous to me — the election threats to workers of both parties and their families, the bullying, the harassment,” Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said during a recent agency-sponsored online event. “These folks, they are not doing it for pay. They’re not doing it for glory. They’re doing it because they believe it’s the right thing to do to defend our democracy.”

Her agency has completed more than 1,000 voluntary physical security assessments for election offices since the start of 2023. Election officials have been using that help to identify gaps and request money from their local governments to make upgrades.

They also have been aided by a U.S. Election Assistance Commission decision in 2022 that allowed certain federal money to go toward security features such as badge readers, cameras and protective fencing.

California’s Los Angeles County and Durham County, North Carolina, will have new offices with significant security upgrades for this year’s election. They include bulletproof glass, security cameras and doors that open only with badges. Election workers across the country also will have new procedures for handling mail, including kits of Narcan, the nasal spray used for accidental overdoses.

In Durham County, a central feature of the new office will be a mail processing room with a separate exhaust system to contain potentially hazardous substances sent in the mail.

“We have countless reasons why this investment was critical,” said the county’s election director, Derek Bowens, pointing to threats against election officials in Michigan and Arizona and the suspicious letters sent to offices in Oregon, Washington, California and Georgia.

Bowens and others who have worked in elections for years said their jobs have changed significantly. Threats and harassment are one reason why some election officials across the country have been leaving. In some places, election workers are being trained in de-escalation techniques and how to respond to an active shooter.

“Security to this extent wasn’t on the list before. Now it is,” said Cari-Ann Burgess, the chief election official in Washoe County, Nevada. “We have drills that we work through, we have emergency plans that we have prepared. We are a lot more cautious now than we ever have been.”

In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, about a four-hour drive from where Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in July, election officials estimate they now spend about 40% of their time on security and working with local law enforcement and emergency managers on election plans. This involves regular trainings to prepare for anything that might interfere with voting or counting ballots.

“It’s very volatile, and Luzerne County reflects what is going on across the country” said County Manager Romilda Crocamo, who oversees the election office staff. “It seems that people are very emotional, and sometimes that emotion escalates.”

Crocamo is considering purchasing panic buttons for poll managers who will be at some 130 voting locations throughout the county on Election Day. State law in Pennsylvania prohibits law enforcement from being inside polling locations, but Crocamo and her team are speaking with local officials about having emergency responders with their radios at the sites should something happen.

Many local officials said they have increased the law enforcement presence at election offices, including on election night when poll workers are bringing in ballots and other material from voting locations. Added law enforcement also is planned in the weeks after Election Day, during the canvass of the votes and certifying the results.

In Los Angeles, law enforcement canine teams will be helping scan incoming mail ballots for suspicious substances. It’s part of an updated approach that includes a new $29 million election office that consolidates operations that previously had been spread across the county.

Dean Logan, who oversees elections for Los Angeles County, said security remains a top concern. He pointed to social media posts suggesting ways to damage ballot drop boxes and hamper mail voting. He said the letters with white powder were designed to disrupt election operations, and it’s the responsibility of election officials to ensure that doesn’t happen.

The office will have round-the-clock security and additional staffing from the county sheriff’s department for the November election.

“It’s important to me that we can tell voters they don’t have to be worried about the security of their ballots,” he said. “We’ve taken steps to keep them safe.”

Election officials say security is a balancing act, ensuring safety while making sure polling places are welcoming spaces for voters and providing enough access to election offices so the public can trust the process.

In Michigan four years ago, a large crowd of Trump supporters created a tense and chaotic scene when they gathered outside Detroit’s ballot counting operation the day after the election, chanting “Stop the count!” as they banged on the windows and demanded access.

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey said her office is much better prepared this time, with more cameras, armed security and bulletproof glass. Observers will now be checked in and screened by security outside a large room used for counting ballots at the city’s convention center.

“My biggest concern was to protect the staff and the process,” Winfrey said. “And in doing so, our building — it may look the same, but it’s not the same.”

Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded near simultaneously across Lebanon and in parts of Syria on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including members of the militant group Hezbollah and a girl, and wounding the Iranian ambassador, government and Hezbollah officials said.

Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack that wounded more than 2,700 people at a time of rising tensions across the Lebanon border. The Israeli military declined to comment.

A Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the new brand of handheld pagers used by the group first heated up, then exploded, killing at least two of its members and wounding others.

Lebanons health minister, Firas Abiad, said at least eight people were killed and 2,750 wounded 200 of them critically.

Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the countrys ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.

Photos and videos from Beiruts southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the groups members not to carry cellphones, saying that they could be used by Israel to track their movements and to carry out targeted strikes.

Lebanons Health Ministry called on all hospitals to be on alert to take in emergency patients and for people who own pagers to get away from them. It also asked health workers to avoid using wireless devices.

AP photographers at area hospitals said the emergency rooms were overloaded with patients, many of them with injuries to their limbs, some in serious condition.

The state-run National News Agency said hospitals in southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and Beiruts southern suburbs all areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence had called on people to donate blood of all types.

The news agency reported that in Beiruts southern suburbs and other areas the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported.

The Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the explosions were the result of a security operation that targeted the devices.

The enemy (Israel) stands behind this security incident, the official said, without elaborating. He added that the new pagers that Hezbollah members were carrying had lithium batteries that apparently exploded.

Lithium batteries, when overheated, can smoke, melt and even catch on fire. Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590 C (1,100 F).

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.

The clashes have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border. On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollahs attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal.

Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby trapped cellphones and its widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Irans nuclear program in 2010.

___

Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Josef Federman, in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.

The man suspected in the incident, Ryan Wesley Routh, camped outside the golf courses in West Palm Beach with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours, according to court documents

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Today is Monday, Sept. 16, the 260th day of 2024. There are 106 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 16, 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former U.S. Navy reservist, went on a shooting rampage inside the Washington Navy Yard, killing 12 people before being fatally shot police.

Also on this date:

In 1810, Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called on his parishioners to join him in a rebellion against Spanish rule, marking the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence.

In 1893, the largest land run in U.S. history occurred as more than 100,000 white settlers rushed to claim over more than 6 million acres of land in what is now northern Oklahoma.

In 1908, General Motors was founded in Flint, Michigan, by William C. Durant.

In 1940, Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was first elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; he would hold the post for a record 17 years, spanning three separate terms.

In 1966, the Metropolitan Opera officially opened its new opera house at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

In 1974, President Gerald R. Ford signed a proclamation announcing a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam war deserters and draft evaders.

In 1982, the massacre of more than 1,300 Palestinian men, women and children at the hands of Israeli-allied Christian Phalange militiamen began in west Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in the alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas. (Simpson was later convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery and sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison; he was released in 2017.)

In 2018, at least 17 people were confirmed dead from Hurricane Florence as catastrophic flooding spread across the Carolinas.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor George Chakiris is 92.
• Actor Ed Begley Jr. is 75.
• Author-historian-filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is 74.
• Country singer David Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 74.
• Actor Mickey Rourke is 72.
• Jazz musician Earl Klugh is 71.
• TV personality Mark McEwen is 70.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount is 69.
• Magician David Copperfield is 68.
• Actor Jennifer Tilly is 66.
• Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser is 66.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Tim Raines is 65.
• Singer Richard Marx is 61.
• Comedian Molly Shannon is 60.
• Singer Marc Anthony is 56.
• News anchor/talk show host Tamron Hall is 54.
• Comedian-actor Amy Poehler is 53.
• Singer-songwriter Musiq Soulchild is 47.
• Rapper Flo Rida is 45.
• Actor Alexis Bledel is 43.
• Actor Madeline Zima is 39.
• Actor Max Minghella is 39.
• Rock singer-musician Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers) is 32.
• Actor Chase Stokes is 32.
• Golfer Bryson Dechambeau is 31.

DETROIT (AP) — Dan Campbell has never been the kind of coach who points fingers at his staff or players.

On Sunday, he took full responsibility for a second-quarter disaster that cost the Lions in a 20-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“I asked our team to improve from last week and we did improve,” Campbell said. “And then their coach costs them with a critical error. That’s 100 percent on me, and I told them that.”

With 18 seconds left in the first half and the Lions out of timeouts, Jared Goff completed an 8-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown in the middle of the field. St. Brown was tackled at the Tampa Bay 9 and the clock kept running.

As Goff signaled for the offense to get lined up for a spike, Detroit’s field-goal unit raced onto the field, only to stop, start again and then race back to the sidelines.

By that point, Goff had taken the snap and spiked the ball with four seconds left, but flags immediately flew for what referee Clay Martin kindly called “12 men on the field at the snap” — it had been at least 20. Since the clock was running in the last two minutes of the half, the Lions were assessed a 5-yard penalty and a 10-second runoff, ending the second quarter.

If the Lions had kicked a field goal, they would have been down by four points at halftime instead of seven. If the second half had played out the same way, they might have been down 20-19 in the last minute with a chance to kick a winning field goal.

Instead, needing a touchdown, they turned the ball over on downs with 53 seconds left. The defense held, but a second drive ended when Goff threw three straight incomplete passes from the Buccaneers 26.

Mayfield runs for a TD and throws a TD pass, lifting Bucs to 20-16 win over Lions in playoff rematch

On fourth-and-10 with six seconds left, Goff bounced a short pass to Tom Kennedy, ending Detroit’s hopes of a hook-and-lateral play with time expiring.

“We had something set up for that play,” Goff said. “I just made a crap throw.”

Goff didn’t think the play at the end of the first half caused the loss, but he appreciated Campbell’s gesture.

“He’s at the top of the pyramid here, and when the guy at the top takes accountability — like he’s done throughout his career — it makes it easier for everyone else to do it,” Goff said. “But we had plenty of opportunities to overcome that and win the game.

Takeaways from Lions’ 20-16 loss: Buccaneers spoil Aidan Hutchinson’s heroic day

“We know he’s going to be hard on himself, but we, as players. have to be better.”

Goff was 34 for 55 for 307 yards with two interceptions. He only averaged 9.0 yards per completion, as opposed to Baker Mayfield’s 15.4, and many of those short completions came as the Lions went 1 for 7 in the red zone.

“I thought we were moving the ball really well, but they got really stingy in the red zone,” Goff said. “If we get a couple touchdowns down there, we probably win the game.”

— DAVE HOGG, Associated Press

Photo gallery from Lions’ 20-16 home loss to Tampa Bay

Suspect in custody; former president is safe after second attempt on his life in recent weeks.

The Lions had a five-game home winning streak snapped with a 20-16 loss at Ford Field to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, despite a decided statistical advantage, falling to 1-1 on the season.

Here are the sights from Sunday’s game:

Takeaways from Lions’ 20-16 loss: Buccaneers spoil Aidan Hutchinson’s heroic day

DETROIT (AP) — Riley Greene homered twice and drove in three runs, and the Detroit Tigers beat Baltimore 4-2 on Sunday to take two of three from the Orioles.

Greene hit a two-run homer with two outs in the third off Cade Povich (2-9) and a solo drive in the eighth against Gregory Soto. Greene leads the Tigers with 23 homers. He hit both homers off left-handers after entering the day batting .203 with four homers against lefties.

Detroit (77-73), which began the day 2 1/2 games behind Minnesota for the last AL wild card, has won six of eight.

Baltimore (84-64) dropped its second straight series and scored just six runs in the three games. The Orioles, who have lost six of eight, started the day two games back of the AL East-leading Yankees but in position for the top AL wild card.

Keider Montero (6-6) gave up five hits in five innings and Jason Foley got four straight outs for his 23rd save in 26 chances.

Povich allowed two runs, two hits and two walks in five innings while striking out eight.

Colt Keith boosted the lead to 3-0 with an RBI single in the sixth against right-hander Jacob Webb.

Adley Rutschman hit a two-run homer in the eighth against Will Vest, Rutschman’s 19th homer this season but first since Aug. 18.

Soto has allowed 30 home runs in his big league career but Greene’s was just the fifth by a left-handed batter.

Baltimore outfielder Heston Kjerstad was activated from the 10-day injured list after recovering from a concussion and went 0 for 2 and Webb was reinstated from the 15-day IL following a bout of right elbow inflammation. Left-hander Cole Irvin and infielder Nick Maton were designated for assignment.

UP NEXT

Orioles: RHP Albert Suárez (8-5, 3.39 ERA) will start the opener of a three-game home series against San Francisco on Tuesday night.

Tigers: RHP Seth Lugo (16-8, 2.94) starts for Kansas City on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series against visiting Detroit.

— By DANA GAURUDER, Associated Press

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, COLLEEN LONG, MICHAEL BALSAMO and ZEKE MILLER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Donald Trump was the target of “what appears to be an attempted assassination” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, just nine weeks after the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life. The former president said he was safe and well.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the U.S. Secret Service agents fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope as Trump was on the course. Bradshaw said the gunman also had two backpacks hanging on a fence and a GoPro camera, and that he was about 400 yards to 500 yards away from Trump and hiding in shrubbery while the former president played golf on a nearby hole. The person dropped the weapon and fled in an SUV, and was later taken into custody in a neighboring county.

The man who authorities say pointed the rifle and was arrested is Ryan Wesley Routh, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The officials identified the suspect to the AP but spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. Authorities are working to determine a motive.

The incident was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. It occurred roughly two months after Trump was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. Only a week later, President Joe Biden withdrew from the race.

In an email to supporters, Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!”

“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!” he said.

The golf course was partially shut down for Trump as he played, and agents were a few holes ahead of him when they noticed the person with the firearm, Bradshaw said. There are several areas around the perimeter of the property where golfers are visible from the fence line. Secret Service agents and officers in golf carts and on ATVs generally secure the area several holes ahead and behind Trump when he golfs. Agents also usually bring an armored vehicle onto the course to quickly shelter Trump should a threat arise.

Trump had returned to Florida this weekend from a West Coast swing that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a Utah fundraiser. His campaign had not advised Trump’s plans for Sunday. He often spends the morning playing golf, before having lunch at the club, one of three he owns in the state.

He has had a stepped-up security footprint since the assassination attempt in July. When he has been at Trump Tower in New York, a lineup of dump trucks have parked in a wall outside the building. And at outdoor rallies, he now speaks from behind an enclosure of bulletproof glass.

Trump was returned Sunday to his private Mar-a-Lago club, where he resides in neighboring Palm Beach, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had both been briefed and would be kept updated on the investigation. The White House added they were “relieved” to know Trump is safe.

Harris, in a statement said she was “glad” Trump was safe, adding that “violence has no place in America.”

In an X post, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, one of Trump’s top congressional allies, said he had spoken with Trump after the incident and that Trump was in “good spirits” and was “one of the strongest people I’ve ever known.”

Martin County Sheriff William D. Snyder said the suspect was apprehended within minutes of the FBI, Secret Service and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office putting out a “very urgent BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” alert” detailing the specific vehicle sought, license plate number and occupant description.

Snyder said his deputies “immediately flooded” northbound I-95, deploying to every exit between the Palm Beach County line to the south and St. Lucie County line o the north.

“One of my road patrol units saw the vehicle, matched the tag and we set up on the vehicle,” Snyder said, “We pinched in on the car, got it safely stopped and got the driver in custody.”

Snyder told WPTV that the suspect “was not armed when we took him out of the car.”

The man had a calm, flat demeanor and showed little emotion when he was stopped by police, Snyder said, saying the suspect did not question why he was being pulled over.

“He never asked, ‘what is this about?’ Obviously, law enforcement with long rifles, blue lights, a lot going on. He never questioned it,” Snyder said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has been briefed on the situation and is receiving regular updates about it, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.

The post by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office indicated the suspect was apprehended near Palm City, Florida, about a 45-mile drive north of Trump’s golf course. Northbound lanes of I-95 were shut down, the sheriff’s office said.

A message sent to campaign officials seeking information on the security status and location of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, was not immediately returned.

Max Egusquiza, of Palm Beach, described the emergency response outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.

“From what I saw 5 black unmarked SUVs blocked in a grey Mercedes in front of the golf course. There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” he said.

Trump is supposed to speak about cryptocurrency live Monday night on the social media site X for the launch of his sons’ crypto platform. He’s expected to do that from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The former president is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan with his former press secretary, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, followed by a campaign rally in New York on Long Island on Wednesday.

At the end of the week, he’s scheduled to attend and address the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington, D.C. and on Saturday hold a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michael R. Sisak in New York, Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Texas is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll for the first time in 16 years, replacing Georgia on Sunday after the Bulldogs struggled to remain unbeaten.

The Longhorns moved up a spot from No. 2 and received 35 first-place votes and 1,540 points. The Bulldogs, who have been No. 1 since the preseason poll, received 23 first-place votes and 1,518 points.

Ohio State received five first-place votes and stayed at No. 3 during an off week. No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Mississippi held their places and Tennessee moved up a spot to No. 6, flip-flopping with Southeastern Conference rival Missouri.

The last time the Longhorns were No. 1 was the middle of the 2008 season, when they spent three weeks at the top of the polls before losing a memorable game at Texas Tech in early November. The Longhorns are likely to settle into the top spot for at least another week with a home game against Louisiana-Monroe up next, possibly with Arch Manning as the starting quarterback.

Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning, stepped in Saturday night against UTSA when Quinn Ewers went out with an abdomen injury that coach Steve Sarkisian said was not serious.

“There’s nothing like being in the game. Playing in front of 105,000 people is not the easiest thing to do. I’m really proud of Arch,” Sarkisian said.

A week after the SEC became the first conference to hold six of the first seven spots, the league repeated the feat.

There was some shuffling at the back of the top 10, with No. 8 Oregon and No. 9 Miami each moving up a spot and Penn State slipping back to No. 10.

POLL POINTS

Winning and dropping from No. 1 is not unusual. This is the 94th time it has happened since the poll started in 1936, and first time since Georgia and Alabama swapped No. 1 back and forth for a few weeks in 2022.

The Bulldogs needed a second-half rally to squeak by 13-12 at Kentucky — the same Kentucky team that was buried at home a week earlier by South Carolina. That was the fewest points scored by a No. 1 team in a victory since Alabama beat LSU 10-0 in 2016.

“I don’t know much about this team, but I found out more tonight than I’ve known to this point,” coach Kirby Smart told reporters after the game.

Georgia has dominated the top spot in the AP poll since 2021, with 39 appearances.

In its first season as a member of the SEC, Texas keeps No. 1 in the conference where it has resided for 50 of the last 52 polls, dating to the start of the 2021 season. Only Michigan of the Big Ten in the final two polls of last season has interrupted the streak of No. 1 rankings by the SEC, which includes 10 appearances by Alabama.

Looking ahead, both the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are off next week to prepare for a likely top-five matchup in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Sept. 28 that should have voters thinking about who’s No. 1 again.

IN AND OUT

Boston College joined fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member Georgia Tech in the brief-stay-after-a-long-drought club. The Eagles lost at Missouri and fell out of the rankings after moving in last week for the first time since 2018.

Arizona is also out for the first time this season after getting thumped by Kansas State.

Moving in for the first time this season was Illinois at No. 24. Texas A&M jumped back into the rankings at No. 25.

CONFERENCE CALL

The 18-team Big Ten matched a conference record (reached 11 times previously) with seven ranked teams.

SEC — 9 (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 15, 16, 25).

Big Ten — 7 (Nos. 3, 9, 10, 11, 18, 22, 24).

Big 12 — 4 (Nos. 12, 13, 14, 20).

ACC — 3 (Nos. 8, 19, 21).

MAC — 1 (No. 23).

Independent — 1 (No. 17).

RANKED VS. RANKED

No. 24 Illinois at No. 22 Nebraska, Friday. The last time the Cornhuskers hosted a game with both teams ranked was 2013 when No. 16 UCLA beat No. 23 Nebraska 41-21.

No. 6 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma, Saturday. The Volunteers welcome the Sooners to the SEC.

No. 11 USC at No. 18 Michigan, Saturday. The Trojans’ first Big Ten game is exactly what the executives at Fox hoped for.

No. 12 Utah at No. 14 Oklahoma State, Saturday. The first big game between Big 12 teams that actually counts in the conference standings.

— By RALPH D. RUSSO, Associated Press

Today is Sunday, Sept. 15, the 259th day of 2024. There are 107 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 15, 1963, four Black girls were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. (Three Ku Klux Klansmen were eventually convicted for their roles in the blast.)

Also on this date:

In 1835, Charles Darwin reached the Galápagos Islands aboard the HMS Beagle.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted in Nazi Germany, depriving German Jews of their citizenship.

In 1940, the tide turned in the Battle of Britain in World War II, as the Royal Air Force inflicted heavy losses upon the Luftwaffe.

In 1958, a commuter train headed for New York City plunged into Newark Bay after missing a stop signal and sliding off the open Newark Bay lift bridge, killing 48 people.

In 1959, Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States as he arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

In 1978, Muhammad Ali became the first boxer to capture the heavyweight title three times, winning by unanimous decision in his rematch with Leon Spinks.

In 2008, as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Writer-director Ron Shelton is 79.
• Actor Tommy Lee Jones is 78.
• Film director Oliver Stone is 78.
• Football coach Pete Carroll is 73.
• TV personality Lisa Vanderpump is 64.
• Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino is 63.
• Actor Josh Charles is 53.
• Olympic gold medal swimmer Tom Dolan is 49.
• Actor Tom Hardy is 47.
• Actor Amy Davidson is 45.
• Actor Dave Annable is 45.
• Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is 40.
• TV personality Heidi Montag is 38.