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.

Which Puma shoes are best for men?

Puma is one of the top brands around whether you’re looking for high-performance athletic shoes or classic casual sneakers. Pumas provides soccer cleats to champions, basketball shoes to legends and innovative styles to trendsetters. If you have room in your sneaker collection for a new pair of kicks or you need a great gift for a family member or friend, a pair of Pumas can fill your needs nicely.

What to know before you buy Puma shoes for men

Running and training

Since its inception, Puma has been making some of the best running and training shoes on the market. Puma won its first gold medal at the 1952 Olympics thanks to sprinter Josy Barthel of Luxembourg. The brand was on the winner’s block during one of the most iconic moments in sports history, when Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos won gold and bronze, respectively, in the 200-meter race. They were wearing Pumas, the same shoes they held as they raised their fists in support of Black Americans and human rights. Today, runners everywhere swear by Puma’s comfort, speed and running tech to help them reach the finish line.

Team sports

Puma is rooted in soccer shoes. Today, the brand has partnerships with the City Football Group to supply shoes for all of its clubs, and Brazilian superstar Neymar recently signed a long-term deal with Puma.

In 2018, the brand relaunched its line of basketball shoes, which originated in the 1960s with Clyde Frazier’s signature sneakers and quickly made big moves onto the court. A collaboration with musician and now international basketball star J. Cole caught everyone’s attention. Now, rising stars like LaMelo Ball, RJ Barrett and others have sponsorships with the wildcat.

Motorsports

Puma also offers popular shoes for more niche sporting aficionados, like Formula 1 fanatics. The brand features stylish collaborations with Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, Red Bull Racing, BMW Motorsport and Porsche Design and provides gear for several of its race teams. Puma may make quality shoes for running and other active sports, but that doesn’t mean drivers can’t put the pedal to the metal with style.

Casual and lifestyle

Puma has excelled over the last few decades in casual and lifestyle shoes with the Suede Classic line. The company has recently begun to appeal to serious sneakerheads and collectors with its RS-X line and design collaborations. Puma even offers well-cushioned and highly-crafted skate shoes through its outlets with the Bari slip-on.

Features of Puma shoes

History

In its 75 year history, Puma has been a consistent player in shoe technology innovation, first with its running spikes and introduction of Velcro in a performance shoe, later with its RS-Computer performance tracking technology and most recently with its proprietary LQD Cell energy-returning sole tech. On top of its history of innovation, Puma has a legacy of superstar support that includes sponsorships of legendary athletes like Pelé, Isiah Thomas, Diego Maradona, Clyde Frazier, Joe Namath, Usain Bolt and Tommie Smith. Up-and-coming stars also rock Pumas, including Deandre Ayton, Lexi Thompson and Michael Porter Jr.

Sustainability

Puma manufactures its products using as many sustainable materials and ethical sourcing as possible. With its 10FOR25 initiative, the company has 10 sustainability targets it aims to hit by 2025, including biodiversity, climate, plastics and oceans, fair income and human rights, with an ultimate goal of creating a circular business model.

Visual appeal and variety

One factor that has helped Puma regain popularity in the last few years is its unique silhouettes, colorways and designs. Puma continuously expands its offerings with original visual elements and new creative visions from serious culture makers. It counts two of the biggest cultural icons of the 21st century as creative directors, multi-Grammy-winner Rihanna and rapper-turned-mogul Jay-Z. Recently, the company hit gold with its collaboration with hitmaker J. Cole, who is also bringing his Puma basketball brand to the Basketball Africa League as a player for a limited run. Pumas RS-Dreamer collection, designed in part by Cole, is among the hottest line in basketball today.

How much you can expect to spend on Puma shoes for men

More casual Pumas are pretty inexpensive, running between $50-$80, while higher-end performance shoes start at $80 and usually top off around $150.

Puma shoes for men FAQ

Do Pumas fit to size?

A. Yes, Pumas fit according to the standard sizing chart, but some silhouettes, like the Roma, run a bit narrow and may require sizing up. Also, the Roma and other similar models require a bit of breaking-in of the upper heel and may be prone to blistering the Achilles’ heel area.

How do I maintain my Pumas?

A. Sneaker maintenance is the key to keeping your footwear investment in great shape. Although the process is generally the same for most shoes, there are specific treatments for different materials. Suede is the most common delicate material used in Pumas, and cleaning it requires a special brush and totally dry conditions. You should clean them immediately after use for all shoes, but never wash them in a machine.

What are the best Puma shoes for men?

Top Puma shoes for men

Puma Suede Classic XXI

What you need to know: For everyday wear, the Puma Suede Classics are an excellent pair for almost anyone’s taste or style with their combination of simple design and gorgeous combinations of colors.

What you’ll love: This option uses suede that looks classy. It’s great for casual and semiformal occasions. There’s something for everyone, and the fit runs true to size.

What you should consider: They need some breaking in, especially the heel.

Top Puma shoes for men for the money

Puma Men’s Roma Sneaker

What you need to know: This is another low-profile casual sneaker with a classic look that translates to both function and fashion. There are also enough colorways to match anyone’s style. They get even more comfortable as the leather wears in.

What you’ll love: They have a cool retro appearance at a great price.

What you should consider: The fit runs small and narrow.

Worth checking out

Puma Future Rider Sneaker

What you need to know: Undoubtedly one of Puma’s most attractive shoes, the Future Rider is available in a growing number of vivid colorways that make it stand out in any crowd.

What you’ll love: It’s comfortable, has a great fit that’s true to size and is available in many colorways.

What you should consider: These shows run a bit narrow.

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

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Which skillet is best?

If you spend any time in the kitchen, chances are you rely on a skillet for cooking many types of food. Occasional cooks and skilled chefs alike appreciate the versatility of this useful tool when it comes to stovetop cooking.

When you find the right size, material and price tag, your new skillet will likely become your go-to cookware essential, whether you’re frying up a quick lunch for one or preparing a dish for the family. Our top pick, the All-Clad Fry Pan, can survive high oven temperatures and is dishwasher safe.

What to know before you buy a skillet

Frequency of use

Budget-priced pans are okay for occasional use, but durable, high-quality skillets will withstand frequent cooking.

Lid vs. no lid

Not all skillets have lids, but models that do are worth it for cooking dishes that need to be covered while on the stove.

Size

Skillets come in different sizes, and some of the most common are 8, 10 and 12 inches.

Location

It’s no surprise that skillets are made for cooking on a stovetop, but some are made of materials such as stainless steel or cast iron that you can use in the oven. However, keep in mind that some skillet handles are not oven-proof.

What to look for in a quality skillet

Materials

Aluminum: These pans are affordable and lightweight, but some have longevity concerns. Leaching of the metal is also an issue, especially if the skillet isn’t anodized.

Stainless steel: Stainless steel skillets are strong and made to last. Some can even be used in the oven, provided the handles aren’t coated in plastic. Although food sticking to the surface is a concern, some modern skillets have finishes designed to prevent this.

Copper: These skillets are pricey, but they look as good as they cook. However, they aren’t quite as durable as pans made of other materials.

Nonstick

Although nonstick surfaces are prone to scratches, they’re popular because they’re easy to cook with and clean. Many nonstick pans are also quite affordable.

How much you can expect to spend on a skillet

Regardless of the material you choose, you can find a quality skillet for $20-$50, with some higher-end models falling in the $80-$120 range. The exception is copper, which is typically priced at $50 and up.

Skillets FAQ

Is there a skillet that can easily go from stovetop to grill grate?

A. Not all skillets can handle the intense direct heat of a grill, but one made of cast iron can. In fact, these pots and pans have been used to cook over open flames for centuries because they can withstand temperatures well over 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

What are some tips for maintaining a skillet with a nonstick surface?

A. To extend the longevity of your nonstick skillet, you can use only utensils made of nylon, silicone or wood to stir and serve food. In addition, washing your skillet by hand with a soft sponge and mild dish detergent will help protect the finish.

What’s the best skillet to buy?

Top skillet

All-Clad Fry Pan

What you need to know: This well-made, versatile skillet has a lid and a justifiably higher price tag, considering its features.

What you’ll love: It is crafted of durable stainless steel and aluminum with a surface that resists sticking. It can handle high oven temperatures and be cleaned in the dishwasher. It includes a limited lifetime warranty.

What you should consider: Frequent overheating can discolor the pan.

Top skillet for the money

T-fal Nonstick Fry Pan

What you need to know: This is the best pick if you need a decent pan at a price that won’t break the bank.

What you’ll love: This is a practical skillet at the lower end of the price scale. Most foods easily slide off the nonstick surface.

What you should consider: The curved surface isn’t ideal for all foods, and the nonstick coating can scratch.

Worth checking out

Lodge Skillet

What you need to know: With proper cooking steps and care, this quality cast-iron skillet won’t disappoint.

What you’ll love: The cast iron is pre-seasoned and manufactured by a company known for quality cookware. It is built to last, even when cooking at high temperatures.

What you should consider: Using it takes a little trial and error if you aren’t used to cooking with cast iron. Food can burn or stick fairly easily.

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

Check out our Daily Deals for the best products at the best prices and sign up here to receive the BestReviews weekly newsletter full of shopping inspo and sales.

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

Representatives for Sheetz, a national chain of 24-hour restaurant, convenience store and gas station outlets, will appear before the Farmington Hills Planning Commission again on Thursday, Sept. 19.

Sheetz is proposing a new location at 12 Mile and Middlebelt roads, on the site of the former Ginopolis restaurant. The popular eatery closed in 2019.

The commission voted unanimously in June to allow Sheetz to locate there; Thursday night’s meeting is to consider the company’s planned unit development, a more detailed look at the project. The commission will likely set a date for a public hearing on the matter.

The public may comment on the proposal. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Farmington Hills City Hall, 31555 W. 11 Mile Road.

The matter may also come before the City Council at a later date.

When Sheetz appeared before the commission in June, it proposed six pumps, creating 12 fueling stations; and a 6,100-square-foot convenience store and restaurant that would include drive-through service. Like all Sheetz locations, it would be open 24 hours.

Planning commissioners and nearby residents raised concerns about lighting and noise in the late-night hours, but company officials assured them that drive-through service is a small part of their business.

Company officials said in June that the former Ginopolis site is falling into disrepair and that Sheetz prides itself on quality building developments.

 

Sheetz recently opened its first Michigan location in Romulus. About 500 people came to a grand opening celebration.

Sheetz plans to open 50-60 locations in the Detroit area in the next five to six years, but its proposed developments in some cities have been put on hold. Other cities have rejected Sheetz outlets.

Bob Sheetz opened the first location in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s. The company is still family owned and now operates more than 700 locations in several states.

“Moulin Rouge!” offers mind-blowing fun at Detroit Opera House

Harvest Moon Celebration on tap in Farmington

Macomb County jury mulls fate of brother who shot sister in Sterling Heights

Blue tongues and an exposed brain: How ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ visual effects went back to basics

Case advances against West Bloomfield woman accused of robbing stores at gunpoint 

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan K. Barnett was honored with the Michigan Municipal League’s Michael A. Guido Leadership and Public Service Award.

Mayor Barnett received the award at the Michigan Municipal League’s (MML) annual convention on Mackinac Island last week.

The award is given annually to a chief elected official who displays professionalism and leadership, is an active MML member, and who advocates for their community’s behalf in Lansing and Washington, D.C., according to a news release.

 

 

Barnett has served as mayor of Rochester Hills since 2006, and was re-elected to a fifth term in 2023. He served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors, 2019-2020.

For more information, visit https://mml.org.

The Moulin Rouge, emcee and owner Harold Zidler tells us, is “more than a nightclub. The Moulin Rouge is a state of mind.”

And “Moulin Rouge!,” the musical — opening Broadway in Detroit’s new season at the Detroit Opera House through Oct. 6 — is certainly a place where your mind can be blown. In a good way.

The Tony Award-winning adaptation of Baz Luhrman’s Academy Award-winning 2001 film, set in and around Paris’ Montmartre Quarter at the start of the 20th century, does deal with some serious themes, including classicism, misogyny and the eternal arguments of art vs. commerce. But “Moulin Rouge!,” like its real-life namesake, is really about entertainment, and it delivers that from start to finish, even in its most solemn segments.

Luhrman always conceived “Moulin Rouge!” as a musical, and as over-the-top as its film was, on stage it explodes into a glittering phantasmagoria of Busby Berkeley-style delight — robust, joyful, playfully hedonistic and unapologetically campy from even before the house lights go down, as members of the cast begin prowling the stage about 10 minutes before showtime, culminating in a duel sword-swallowing act by two of the dancers.

Clearly we’re not in “Cats” country this time out.

“Moulin Rouge’s” defining element is its dizzying song medley/mash-ups, which build Luhrman’s film concept into full-blown, in-the-flesh mixtapes, with equally exuberant choreography. (Think a continental “Rock of Ages.”) The opening “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge!” starts with Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade” and, over the course of about 12 minutes, winds through hits from Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Motown’s Barrett Strong (“Money (That’s What I Want),),” Talking Heads, Nelly, Beck, David Bowie and more. Throughout the show there are references to “The Sound of Music” and “Seven Nation Army,” the Police (who’s Sting was playing nearby at the Fillmore Detroit on Wednesday, Sept. 18’s opening night) and James Bond, Madonna and Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, U2 and Elvis Presley…the list goes on. And on. (And we can get hind any production that finds a way to get T. Rex’s “Children of the Revolution” into the mix, between Lorde’s “Royals” and fun.’s “We Are Young.”

So while the story — primarily about the complicated love affair between aspiring American writer Christian and prostitute-turned-performer Satine — is easy to follow to its tragic but redemptive conclusion, Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance” may be the best advice for those in the seats.

“Moulin Rouge!” wouldn’t be nearly as much fun, however, if its cast wasn’t up to the musical’s exuberant demands — which this touring company certainly is. There will be a cast change for the final two weeks of the run, starting Sept. 24, but the initial troupe is all on point, with a genial chemistry that helps to knit together the sometimes too-rapid relationship and plot developments in John Logan’s script. Robert Petkoff as Zidler is best when breaking the fourth wall and projecting to the audience, while Danny Burgos gives Santiago a broad, comedic impact — especially pairing with AK Naderer’s Nini in the Act II opening “Backstage Romance” — and Nick Rasha Burroughs deftly balances the Bohemian idealism of Toulouse-Lautrec.

The romantic leads — Gabrielle McClinton as Satine and Christian Douglas as, well, Christian — are fine singers who nail their big moments, including duets on Elton John’s “Your Song,” Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and the “Moulin Rouge!” love theme “Come What May,” her powerhouse delivery of Katy Perry’s “Firework” and his angsty rendition of the Police’s “Roxanne.” Andrew Brewer as the villainous Duke of Monroth has big pipes, too, even if his portrayal isn’t quite as sinister as the script makes him out to be.

With all that going for it, “Moulin Rouge’s” final result is — like another pop hit — “Nothin’ But a Good Time,” and well worth associating with the “gorgeous collection of reprobates and rascals, artistes and arrivistes, soubrettes and sodomites” that populate its environs.

“Moulin Rouge!” runs through Oct. 6 at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St., Detroit. 313-237-7464 or broadwayindetroit.com.

Ferndale will indeed be funky this weekend, with two of the city’s annual autumn festivals taking place on either side of Woodward Avenue.

To the east, between Nine Mile Road and Troy Street, the 16th DIY Street Fair features three days of music, food, drink and more than 150 art and crafts vendors.

Of particular note this year is a reunion of longtime Detroit favorites the Howling Diablos, playing at 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, and a homecoming for the John Speck Group at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22. In all, 17 acts will perform during the weekend, including the Beggars, Myron Elkins, Deastro and the Polish Muslims.

More details and schedules can be found at ferndalediy.com.

West of Woodward on Nine Mile Road and thereabouts, the Funky Ferndale Art Fair, also running Friday through Sunday, Sept. 20-22. The event will host more than 140 juried artists and authors, as well as a Make Art Zone in conjunction with the Detroit Institute of Arts and music and dance performances on the corner of Nine Mile and Allen Street.

Funky Ferndale details and schedules can be found at funkyferndaleartfair.com.

Cancellations

• Jane’s Addiction, Love and Rockets: Canceled, previously scheduled for Sept. 20, Meadow Brook Amphitheatre. Tickets can be refunded at point of purchase. Tickets purchased by phone or online will be automatically refunded.

On sale 10 a.m. Sept. 20

• Night of Knockouts XXXII: Dec. 27, Sound Board at MotorCity Casino, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

• “Six, The Musical”: Jan. 7-12, The Fisher Theatre, Detroit, BroadwayInDetroit.com, ticket prices vary.

• “The Big Show”: Jan. 19, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, featuring Glorilla, Sexyy Red, BossMan Dlow, Rob 49, Tee Grizzley, Big Boogie, Tay B and Snap Dogg, lineup subject to change,  ticket prices vary.

• Bret Michaels: Feb. 27, Sound Board, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

• Sebastian Maniscalco: March 22, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

• Deftones, The Mars Volta, Fleshwater: April 1, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

• Thomas Rhett: Aug. 8, 2025, Pine Knob Music Theatre, Independence Twp., ticket prices vary.

On sale noon Sept. 20

• Stevie Wonder: Oct. 22, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

On sale 10 a.m. Sept. 26

• Luenell, Finesse Mitchell: April 11, Sound Board, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

Note: Events are subject to change; check with venues for updates. Tickets on sale at 313Presents.com, LiveNation.com, Ticketmaster.com or the XFINITY Box Office at Little Caesars Arena.

Beats

• Clutch, Rival Sons, Fu Manchu: 7 p.m. Sept. 20, Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, Sterling Heights, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• New Wave Nation tribute: 7-10 p.m. Sept. 20, tribute to 80’s New Wave Music, Wildwood Amphitheater, 2700 Joslyn Ct., Orion Twp., https://orion.events, bring lawn chairs or blanket, no outside food or beverage, $20+.

• Flowers-a tribute to Earth, Wind, & Fire: 8 p.m. Sept. 20, Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit, hosted By Mike Bonner,  doors at 7:30 p.m., https://jazzcafedetroit.com, $25+.

• Megadeth, Mudvayne and All That Remains: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21, Pine Knob Music Theatre, Independence Twp., 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Conan Gray, Maisie Peters: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21, Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, Sterling Heights, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Lalah Hathaway: 8 p.m. Sept. 21, Sound Board at MotorCity Casino, Detroit, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• December ’63-music of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts- Main Stage, 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Twp., www.macombcenter.com, 586-286-2222, $39-$69+.

• Shovels & Rope: 7 p.m. Sept. 21, The Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, www.themagicbag.com, all ages, $30+ adv.

• “A Standard Affair-Supper & Song”: Sept. 21 at Andiamo Bloomfield, 6676 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Twp. and Sept. 28 at Andiamo Riverfront, 400 Renaissance Center A-03, Detroit, featuring Aaron Caruso and The Cliff Monear Trio, dinner at 6:30  p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $120+, includes a four-course meal. Alcohol is not included, www.andiamoitalia.com.

• Daniel Champagne: 6 p.m. Sept. 21, with Vinnie Paolizzi, Gabe Lee and Jack Mckeon, at 20 Front Street, Lake Orion, 248-783-7105, www.20frontstreet.com, doors at 5:30 p.m. all ages, $25+.

• Stone Sound Collective Peace Day Concert: 8 p.m. Sept. 21, led by Oakland University Professor Mark Stone, at Varner Recital Hall, 371 Varner Drive, Rochester Hills, in celebration of the International Day of Peace, free admission.

• Leonid & Friends: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21, Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W 4th St. Royal Oak, www.royaloakmusictheatre.com, 248-399-3065, ticket prices vary.

• Vampire Weekend, Cults: 7 p.m. Sept. 23, Meadow Brook Amphitheater, Rochester Hills,  313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• The National, The War On Drugs, Lucius: 6:45 p.m. Sept. 25, Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, Sterling Heights, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Big Daddy Kane: 8 p.m. Sept. 25, Sound Board at MotorCity Casino, Detroit, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Amenra: 7 p.m. Sept. 25, The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac, all ages, https://thecrofoot.com/events, $30+.

Festivals

• Funky Ferndale Art Fair: Sept. 20-22, (Friday 4-7:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Sunday 11a.m.-6 p.m.), more than 140 juried artists and authors, west of Woodward  on Nine Mile. It is joined by the DIY Street Fair, which is on the east side of Woodward, www.funkyferndaleartfair.com, free admission. Parking at any of the downtown lots or in the DOT parking structure on Troy Street west of Woodward.

• Oktoberfest: 3-10 p.m. Sept. 21, Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, 2225 E. 14 Mile Road in Birmingham, with live music from 6-10 p.m. by Michigan’s premier German band, Die Dorfmusikanten, the Redeemer Brass from 3-6 p.m., dancing, German foods, German beer and wine to purchase, 248-646-6100, www.oslcoktoberfest.com, free admission.

• Annual Art in the Village: Sept. 21-22, (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday), Depot Park, west of Main St. (M-15), Clarkston, juried art show, vintage market, food trucks, children’s crafts, music, presented by Clarkston Community Historical Society, free admission, www.clarkstonhistorical.org. (Paid parking in city lots 11 a.m.-9 p.m., on Saturdays, free parking in city lots on Sunday, PassportParking.com).

• Michigan Antique Festival: Sept. 21-22, Midland County Fairgrounds, 6905 Eastman Ave., Midland,  vintage market, classic car show, admission is $10 per person for a weekend pass and children 11 and under admitted free, www.miantiquefestival.com.

• Milford Historical Society’s Annual Antique Tractor Show: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 22, in the parking lot of Huron Valley State Bank, 130 S. Milford Road, Milford, featuring a display of vintage tractors, raffle of prizes donated by local businesses to raise funds for the Oakland County 4H club. All tractor registrants will receive a free lunch. Admission to the Antique Tractor Show is free, and raffle tickets are $5.

• 60th Bloomfield Charity Antiques and Collectibles Show: Sept. 27-28 (10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday), Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 1100 Lone Pine Road (at Telegraph Road), Bloomfield Hills, proceeds to benefit Gifts For All God’s Children, www.giftsforallgodschildren.org.

• North Gratiot Cruise & Craft Fair: Sept. 28, parking lot of Value City Furniture/Kohl’s, 50400 Gratiot Ave., New Baltimore, www.cruisegratiot.com. Chesterfield 5K, presented by New Baltimore Lions Club, newbaltimorelions.com.

• Haven Hill Festival: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 28, at Edsel and Eleanor Fords’ former Haven Hill Estate, Highland State Recreation Area, 5200 Highland Road (M-59), White Lake Twp. The event features vintage Ford cars, vintage baseball game, brass band, history exhibits, self-guided tours of the Haven Hill Lodge grounds, and food, www.fohravolunteers.org, free admission with state park passport.

• Common Ground’s Birmingham Street Art Fair: Sept. 28-29, (10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday), Shain Park, 270 W Merrill St., Birmingham, produced by The Guild of Artists and Artisans, 100 artists, silent art auction to benefit Common Ground, art activities for kids and adults, live music, and food, www.theguild.org/fair/common-ground-art-fair.

• Renaissance Festival: 9 a.m.-7 p.m. themed weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, through Sept. 29, (also Sept. 27), at 12600 Dixie Hwy., Holly, entertainment, jousting, vendors, www.michrenfest.com, 248-634-5552, parking pass required, ticket prices vary.

•  Taste of Clarkston: Noon-6 p.m. Sept. 29, Main Street in downtown Clarkston, free admission, live music, entertainment, purchase tickets at event for food from local restaurants and food vendors, (10 tickets for $10). Parking and shuttle buses available at Clarkston High School, Clarkston Junior High, and Renaissance High School, https://business.clarkston.org/events/details/26th-annual-taste-of-clarkston-1799.

Theater

• “The Yellow Boat”: Sept. 19-22, (7:30 p.m. Sept. 19-21 and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 22), Rochester Christian University, 800 W. Avon Road, Rochester Hills, $5 for students and $18 for adults, www.rcu.edu/rcu-theatre-music.

• “The Best Laid Plans”: Sept. 20-Oct. 5, Farmington Players Barn, 32332 W 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, $26 for adults and $24 for seniors and students, www.farmingtonplayers.org.

• “The Book Club Play” by Karen Zacarías: Sept. 20-Oct. 6 (8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays), The Inspired Acting Company, 1124 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 248-863-9953, www.InspiredActing.org, $35 and $30 (under 30/over 65).

• “Memphis the Musical”: Through Sept 22, Birmingham Village Players, 34660 Woodward Ave, Birmingham, https://birminghamvillageplayers.com, $30.

• “Grand Horizons”: Sept. 25-Oct. 20, Tipping Point Theatre, 361 E Cady St., Northville, www.tippingpointtheatre.com, ticket prices vary.

• “Fat Ham”: Sept. 26-Nov. 3, Detroit Public Theatre, 3960 Third St., Detroit, 313-974-7918, www.detroitpublictheatre.org, $49+.

• Grosse Pointe Theatre’s Take Ten: Playwriting workshop series beginning Sept. 28, for anyone interested in learning the art of writing a ten-minute play. Space is limited. Register at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35435/production/1212021.

Art

• Drop In Workshop: Doodle Art is 6-8:30 p.m. Sept. 20, Detroit Institute of Arts, Art-Making Studio, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, www.dia.org.

• Design Day: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 21, at Cranbrook Art Museum, presented in partnership with Detroit Month of Design. Activities include hands-on art-making for all ages, curator-led tours of the exhibition, “A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design” and a panel discussion on graphic design, 248-645-3323 https://cranbrookartmuseum.org.

• “The Art of Dining-Food Culture in the Islamic World”: Exhibit opens Sept. 22, Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, dia.org.

• “A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design”: Through Sept. 22, Cranbrook Art Museum, Art Lab, 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, cranbrookartmuseum.org, general admission-$10.

• Watercolor Painting for Everyone: 12:30-3 p.m. Sept. 24-Nov. 26, Waterford Recreation Center, 5640 Williams Lake Road, Waterford Twp.,  www.waterfordmi.gov/parks, 248-674-5441, $100+ residents, $105+ non-residents.

• Art in Autumn: Opening reception is 5-7 p.m. Sept. 27, exhibits through Oct. 31, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, 1516 S. Cranbrook Road, Birmingham, Michigan Ceramics 2024, (Michigan Ceramic Art Association’s biennial showcase and competition); Bernadine Rais-Souvenirs; and BBAC Ceramic and Metal Students group exhibit, BBArtCenter.org, free admission.

• Farmington Area Arts Awards: Sept. 28, public reception is at 6:30 p.m. and ceremony at 7 p.m. at The Hawk Theatre Blackbox, 29995 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills. Winners of the 2024-2025 Farmington Area Arts Awards include: Debbie Lim, Craig Nowak, Peter Brandal and Richard Adam. Tickets are free to reserve at TheHawkTheatre.com.

• “Florilegium & Fairy Tales”-Lori Zurvalec: Through Nov. 1, Color | Ink Studio, 20919 John R Road, Hazel Park, open 1 to 5 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday, and at other times by appointment, and at ColorInkStudio.com, 248-398-6119. Artist Talk is 2-3 p.m. Oct. 13.

• “Constructing Futures”: Exhibit through September, 1001 Woodward Avenue, Detroit. Constructing Futures AI is supported by: College of Architecture and Design, Lawrence Technological University, https://constructingfutures.design.

• Tiff Massey-“7 Mile + Livernois”: Exhibit through May 11, 2025, Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, dia.org.

• Thursdays at the Museum: 1 p.m. Thursdays, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, self-guided visit of our collections for adults 55 and older. Groups of 25 or more in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties can receive free bus transportation, www.dia.org/events/thursdays.

• The Hawk Makerspace: The Hawk – Farmington Hills Community Center, featuring craft space, specialized equipment including a laser cutter, 3D printer, and sewing lab. Makerspace users may purchase passes to use the equipment during Open Studio hours. Classes are also offered, fhgov.com/play,-explore-learn/the-hawk/amenities/makerspace.

• Drop-in Design: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, self-guided art-making activities in the Cranbrook Art Museum, Art Lab, 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, cranbrookartmuseum.org, general admission-$10.

• University of Michigan Museum of Art, 525 South State St., Ann Arbor, 734-764-0395, umma.umich.edu, ticket prices vary.

• DIA Inside|Out: High-quality reproductions of artworks from the DIA’s collection are at outdoor venues throughout Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties, through October, https://dia.org/events/insideout-2024. The city of Rochester is participating, for locations visit www.downtownrochestermi.com/dia-insideout.

• Cranbrook on the Green: Artist-designed mini-golf is open during regular museum hours, weekends in September. One round of mini-golf is $15 adult non-members, includes admission to Cranbrook Art galleries, $8 for ages 12 and younger, Cranbrook Academy of Art, 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, register for a time slot at https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/mini-golf.

Beats, continued

• Trippie Redd: 7 p.m. Sept. 26, The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave, Detroit,  www.thefillmoredetroit.com, ticket prices vary.

• Sabrina Carpenter, Amaarae: 7 p.m. Sept. 26, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Kaytranada, Channel Tres and Lou Phelps: 7 p.m. Sept. 26, Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, Sterling Heights, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Korn, Gojira and Spiritbox: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 27, Pine Knob Music Theatre, Independence Twp., 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• The Ultimate Queen Celebration: Sept. 27, Flagstar Strand Theatre, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac, 248-309-6445, www.flagstarstrand.com, ticket prices vary.

• The Airborne Toxic Event: 7 p.m. Sept. 27, Saint Andrews Hall, Detroit, livenation.com, ticket prices vary.

• Garth Tribute: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Twp., www.macombcenter.com, 586-286-2222, $39-$69+.

• Pretoria,The Doozers: Sept. 27, The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale, 248-820-5596, thelovingtouchferndale.com, all ages, doors at 7 p.m., $15+.

• (hed)PE: 7 p.m. Sept. 28, Diesel Concert Lounge, 33151 23 Mile Road, Chesterfield, www.dieselconcerts.com, ticket prices vary.

• Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters: 7 p.m. Sept. 29, at The Roxy, 401 Walnut Blvd., Rochester, 248-453-5285, www.theroxyrochester.com, doors at 6 p.m., ages 21+, ticket prices vary.

• Aaron Berofsky & Christopher Harding: 3 p.m. Sept. 29, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 620 Romeo St., Rochester, Harmony in the Hills presents Aaron Berofsky, violin, and Christopher Harding, piano, $20 for adults and $10 younger than 18, https://stpaulsrochester.org.

• Matt Watroba: 2-3 p.m. Sept. 29, Music @ Main, West Bloomfield Twp. Public Library, 4600 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp., doors at 1:30 p.m., https://wblib.org, free.

• Gatecreeper: 7 p.m. Oct. 1, El Club Detroit, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., https://elclubdetroit.com, $36.03.

• Blood, Sweat & Tears: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Twp., www.macombcenter.com, 586-286-2222, $50-$69+.

• Air Supply: 8 p.m. Oct. 4, Music Hall Center, 350 Madison St., Detroit, www.musichall.org, ticket prices vary.

• Tokyo Police Club: 7 p.m. Oct. 9, Saint Andrews Hall, Detroit, livenation.com, ticket prices vary.

• Little River Band: 8 p.m. Oct. 11, at Music Hall Center, 350 Madison St., Detroit, www.musichall.org, ticket prices vary.

Books

• Picture Book Launch Party!: 1:35 – 3:30 p.m. Sept. 21, at The Detroit Shoppe, Somerset Collection, Troy, https://setsailpress.eventbrite.com.

• Nicholas Sparks book signing: 6 p.m. Sept. 25, The J-Detroit, 6600 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield Twp. Nicholas Sparks will be in conversation with Neal Rubin and sign copies of “Counting Miracles,” www.schulerbooks.com/event/counting-miracles-nicholas-sparks, tickets required, $32+.

Choruses

• Rochester Community Chorus seeks new members: New singers welcome for fall/winter 2024 season. Rehearsals are held at 7:45 p.m. Mondays starting Sept. 9, in the sanctuary of St. Mary of the Hills Catholic Church, Rochester Hills, rochestercommunitychorus.org.

• Troy Community Chorus seeks new members: Registration will take place in the choir room at Troy Athens High School, 4333 John R. Road, Troy, from 6:30-7:30 on Sept. 17, followed by rehearsals from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Rehearsals are held 7:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesdays through the season. Cost is $45/individual or $80/couple. Interested singers should enter through the East entrance on John R Road, www.troycommunitychorus.com.

• Dearborn Community Chorus fall season: 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays beginning Sept. 10, Henry Ford College MacKenzie Fine Arts Center, room F-113, www.dearbornchorus.com, register at www.dearborntheater.com/events.

• 313 Presents seeks local choirs for holiday shows: Registration is open now for local choirs and glee clubs to perform at select holiday performances of the 2024-25 Fox Theatre Series. To participate, call 313 Presents Group Sales at 313-471-3099.

Classical/Orchestra

• DSO-The Music of Queen: Sept. 20-21, Orchestra Hall, 3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit, dso.org, $20-$77+. Conductor Brent Havens, Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a full rock band.

• European Salon Recital: 3-4 p.m. Sept. 22, “Beautiful Music by Women Composers” Cranbrook House: 380 Lone Pine Road, Bloomfield Hills, https://housegardens.cranbrook.edu/events/2024-09/european-salon-recital-beautiful-music-women-composers, ticket prices vary.

• Zuill Bailey, cello and Awadagin Pratt, piano: 7:30-9 p.m. Sept. 21, Seligman Performing Arts Center, 22305 West 13 Mile Road, Beverly Hills, www.chambermusicdetroit.org/2024-25/bailey-pratt, tickets are $30-$75+. Senior and student discounts available.

• Balourdet Quartet with Astrid Schween: 7:30-9 p.m. Oct. 5, Seligman Performing Arts Center, 22305 West 13 Mile Road, Beverly Hills, www.chambermusicdetroit.org, $30-$75+. senior and student discounts available.

Comedy

• One Night Stans: Billy Ray Bauer-Sept. 19-21; Billy Gladwell-Sept. 26-28; at 4761 Highland Road, Waterford Twp., www.onenightstans.club, 248-249-1321, ages 18+, ticket prices vary.

• Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle: Phil Hanley-Sept. 19-21; Kevin Lepine, hypnotist-Sept. 24; Cam Bertrand-Sept. 26-28; at 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak, www.comedycastle.com, 248-542-9900, ages 18+, ticket prices vary.

JB Smoove: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22, Sound Board at MotorCity Casino, Detroit, ticket prices vary.

• “No Balls” Comedy Ball: 12:30-5 p.m. Sept. 29, Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle, 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak, comedy event to raise funds for two local charities, $125 tickets include comedy show and buffet dinner, https://nbcb.weebly.com, for questions, call 586-914-1623.

Concerts in the Park

• Thursday Night Concerts in the Park: 7-9 p.m. Thursdays through Sept. 26, LaFontaine Family Amphitheater, 195 N Main St, Milford, www.meetmeinmilford.com, food to purchase, no pets allowed.

• Music is Main & Center concert series: 7-9 p.m. Saturdays, through Sept. 28, downtown Northville Town Square, www.downtownnorthville.com.

• Family Fun Zone Movies and Concerts: 7 p.m. Thursdays through Oct. 10, Wildwood Amphitheater, 2700 Joslyn Court, Orion Twp., www.Orion.events, bring lawn chairs or blankets, free admission.

• Live music: 5-9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays through Sept. 26; and 1-7 p.m. Sept. 21; Festival Park at The Village of Rochester Hills, 104 N. Adams Road, Rochester Hills, bring lawn chairs and blankets, TheVORH.com.

Dance

• Disney On Ice-”Mickey’s Search Party”: Sept. 19-22, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, 313Presents.com, ticket prices vary.

• Flamenco: 2 p.m. Sept. 28, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts- Main Stage, 44575 Garfield Road, Clinton Twp., www.macombcenter.com, 586-286-2222, presented by Compañeros de Flamenco, learn and participate in the rhythms of Roma culture, free, but tickets required.

Film

“Close Your Eyes”: Sept. 20-22, Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, dia.org, ticket prices vary.

• Batman Day Package: Sept. 21, National Batman Day, at Emagine Canton, Emagine Novi, Emagine Rochester Hills, Emagine Birch Run, The Riviera Powered by Emagine, $25 includes tickets to each of the films, “Batman Begins”, “Dark Knight,” and “Dark Knight Rises,” an 85 oz. popcorn tub and small drink that can be refilled. www.Emagine-Entertainment.com.

• Manhattan Short Film Festival 2024: 6-9 p.m. Sept. 27, after-hours at the Northville District Library, 212 West Cady St, Northville, www.northvillelibrary.org, 248-349-3020, register at https://northvillelibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/msff-manhattan-short-film-festival.

• Manhattan Short Film Festival 2024: 2-5 p.m. Sept. 28, at the Northville District Library, 212 W Cady St, Northville, www.northvillelibrary.org, register at https://northvillelibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/msff-manhattan-short-film-festival-2.

• Sensory-friendly film screenings: Sunday and Wednesday afternoons throughout September, at select Emagine Theatres, Emagine-Entertainment.com, ticket prices vary.

• Farmington Civic Theater, 33332 Grand River Ave., Farmington, www.theFCT.com.

• Milford Independent Cinema: 945 E Summit St., Milford, milfordcinema.org/tickets, $5+.

• Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Road, Detroit, redfordtheatre.com, ticket prices vary.

Fundraisers

• Crafts on the Clinton Fundraiser: 6:30-9:30 p.m. Sept. 20, Farmers Market Pavilion, Dodge Park, 40400 Utica Road, Sterling Heights, art and food vendors, live music, local breweries and wineries along the banks of the Clinton River. Proceeds support Clinton River Watershed Council, www.crwc.org/crafts. Early bird tickets are $45 and include samples of beer or wine, food, Designated driver tickets are $15. Attendees must be 21+. Clinton River Watershed Council  fall rain barrel sale is through Sept. 16 and can be ordered at www.crwc.org/rain-barrel-sale, and picked up at Crafts on Clinton.

• “Shaken, Not Stirred” fundraising event is from 6:30-10 p.m. Sept. 26, at M1 Concourse, in Pontiac (https://m1concourse.com). James Bond themed event with cars from the James Bond film series, valet parking, culinary delights, drawing, one drink ticket, fundraiser to benefit Team Guts, to help provide fitness programs and summer camps to those with special needs and disabilities. Register at https://teamguts.betterworld.org/events/shaken-not-stirred, VIP ticket $175+.

• National Council of Jewish Women, Michigan will host its annual Women of Vision fundraising event on Sept. 26 at Adat Shalom Synagogue (29901 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills, featuring keynote speaker Rebekah Gregory, a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing. For tickets, visit ncjwmi.org/women-of-vision.

• Shades Of Pink Foundation Annual Comedy Event: 5:30-8 p.m. Oct. 1, The Community House in Birmingham, www.shadesofpinkfoundation.org/events-2-1/2024-annual-comedy-event, comedy show, dinner, fundraiser.

• Boo Bash Halloween FUNdraiser: 6-10 p.m. Oct. 6, at Elektricity, 15 S Saginaw St., Pontiac, with a mission to save the historic Roosevelt building, a local landmark, presented by Save Roosevelt! Community Action Group, featuring DJ Skylar of Tingling Productions, costume contest, desserts and candy, silent auction, cash bar, www.elektricitymusic.com, advance tickets are $43/$50 at the door.  Free for children 12 and younger. Reserve a booth at vip@elektricitymusic.com.

• “Dueling Pianos” fundraiser: 6-10 p.m. Oct. 18, at Fraternal Order of Police #124, 11304 14 Mile Road in Warren, tickets are $65 per person or $100 per couple and includes live entertainment, silent auction, raffles, appetizers and guest speakers. Purchase tickets at Thebutterflycollective.org, presented by The Butterfly Collective, a nonprofit organization that helps domestic violence survivors.

Halloween activities

• Haunted Attractions– Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Sept. 20-Oct. 31 at Blake’s Big Apple, Zombie Paintball, a Haunted Barn, Spookyland, 3D Maze and a Haunted Hayride, www.blakefarms.com, ticket prices vary.

• Immersive & Illuminated Forest Experience: Sept. 20-Nov. 3, Glenlore Trails, 3860 Newtown Road, Commerce Twp., “Enchanted” themed outdoor event, all-ages, tickets at GlenloreTrails.com, ticket prices vary.

Lectures

• Oakland Town Hall 2024-2025 lecture series: The series includes four lecturers including Andrew Och presenting “First Ladies- Influence and Image,” on Oct. 9, and Robert Wittman presenting “Art Crime and the FBI: How Masterpieces are Stolen and Recovered,” Nov.13, at the Iroquois Club, 43248 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills. For registration information, call Chairman Nancy Holan at 248-673-5984 or President Diane Midgley 248-615-1232.

Misc.

• Harvest Moon Celebration: 6-11 p.m. Sept. 19-20, and 6-11:30 p.m. Sept. 21, at Riley Park, 33113 Grand River Ave., Farmington, www.downtownfarmington.org, harvest food pairings, craft beers and ciders, wines and live music, ages 21+, $8 in advance at local businesses, $10 online or at the door.

• Adriana Hoyos Collection opening: 4-8 p.m. Sept. 26, Gorman’s Home Furnishings & Interior Design showroom, 29145 Telegraph Road, Southfield, Gormans.com. Event features meet-and-greet reception with Adriana Hoyos, internationally acclaimed designer behind the prestigious furniture and lifestyle brand, and light hors d’oeuvres, sparkling wine and refreshments.

• Farmington Bicentennial Light Show: Sept. 27, GLP Financial, 33335 Grand River Ave., Farmington, light shows at 8:30 and 9:20 p.m.; History Talk at 8:50 p.m., https://funinfarmington.com.

• Caregiver Connections-Learn, Link, and Lunch: 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Oct. 5, at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, hosted by AgeWays Nonprofit Senior Services. The event features TV personality Christy McDonald, who will speak about her experience caring for her late husband and Attorney Jason Tower who will speak about legal documents caregivers should have. The event includes lunch, exhibitors, raffles and giveaways, $10 entrance fee to support the agency’s Holiday Meals on Wheels program. To register, visit YouAreACaregiver.org.

• Michigan Women’s Expo: Sept. 27-29, Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, shopping, health and wellness tips, www.KohlerExpo.com.

• Calvin Johnson Meet & Greet is 5-7 p.m. Sept. 20, at Moses Roses Recreational Cannabis, 5806 Dixie Hwy., Waterford Twp., 248-886-4686.

• Laila Lockhart Kraner Meet & Greet: Sept. 21-22, Gardner White to host free meet & greet events with Laila Lockhart Kraner, star of Hit TV Show “Gabby’s Dollhouse,” family-friendly event to include children’s activities, music and more. Events are 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 21 at Gardner White, Shelby Township (Hall Road); 3-5 p.m. Sept. 21, at Gardner White Auburn Hills and 1-3 p.m. Sept. 22, Gardner White, Canton. To RSVP to a “Gabby” meet & greet, visit Gardnerwhite.com.

• Summer Eco Sessions Pop-Up Series: 6-10 p.m. Sept. 27, Beacon Park, 1901 Grand River Ave, Detroit, www.facebook.com/beaconparkdetroit, RSVP for music events, yoga and cooking demos.

• Summer Sundays with Beacon Park and Boll Family YMCA: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 29, Beacon Park, 1901 Grand River Ave, Detroit, https://empoweringmichigan.com/event/summer-sundays-with-beacon-park-and-boll-family-ymca. Each class runs for 30 minutes, starting at 11:30 a.m., followed by 12:15 p.m.,with a final class at 1 p.m.

Museums

• The Zekelman Holocaust Center: 28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, www.holocaustcenter.org, 248-553-2400. “Auschwitz. In Front of Your Eyes,” a set of virtual tours to view in-person, 10 a.m.-noon, Sept. 22. Admission is $10 each, registration at www.holocaustcenter.org/Auschwitz.

• Waterford Historical Society Historic Village: Open for the season, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesdays through Sept. 25, at Fish Hatchery Park, 4490 Hatchery Road, Waterford Twp. Historic Village, Log Cabin, Hatchery House and Fire Station, 248-683-2697.

• Motown Museum, 2648 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, motownmuseum.org, 313-875-2264. Motown Mile outdoor, walkable art installation, “Pushin’ Culture Forward,” open through early fall, along the Detroit Riverwalk, free admission.

• The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village: 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn, Ford Rouge Factory Tours Monday-Saturday, purchase tickets online, prices vary, thehenryford.org.

• Ford Piquette Plant Museum: 461 Piquette Ave, Detroit. Open Wednesdays through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $10-$18. Optional guided tours take place daily at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., www.fordpiquetteplant.org, 313-872-8759.

• Ford House: Historic estate of Edsel and Eleanor Ford, 1100 Lake Shore Road, Grosse Pointe Shores, fordhouse.org/events, 313-884-4222, admission is $7 per adult and $5 per child, ages 6+, free for 5 and younger.

• Dossin Great Lakes Museum: 100 Strand Drive, Belle Isle, Detroit, detroithistorical.org.

• Detroit Arsenal of Democracy Museum: Seeks volunteer groups from veteran and military groups to assist with restoration. The museum is also seeking building materials and equipment to support the ongoing restoration of its vintage industrial space at 19144 Glendale Ave., Detroit, including floor grinders, clear epoxy and Thinset products for floor repairs, www.detroitarsenalofdemocracy.org.

• Pontiac Transportation Museum: 250 W. Pike St., Pontiac. Admission to the museum is $10, $8 for seniors and veterans, $6 for children ages 6-12, free for children ages 5 and younger. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, www.pontiactransportationmuseum.org.

• Detroit Historical Museum: 5401 Woodward Ave. (NW corner of Kirby) in Midtown Detroit, detroithistorical.org. Permanent exhibits include the famous Streets of Old Detroit, the Allesee Gallery of Culture, Doorway to Freedom: Detroit and the Underground Railroad, Detroit: The “Arsenal of Democracy,” the Gallery of Innovation, Frontiers to Factories, America’s Motor City and The Glancy Trains, regular museum general admission is $10.  Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. “Detroit Lions: Gridiron Heroes,” exhibition featuring the history of the Detroit Lions, detroithistorical.org.

• Cranbrook Institute of Science: 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, https://science.cranbrook.edu, $14 general admission, $10.50 for ages 2-12 and seniors 65+, free for children under age 2.

• Michigan Science Center (Mi-Sci):  5020 John R St, Detroit, 313-577-8400, www.mi-sci.org. Regular museum gen. adm. is $18+. Standard Mi-Sci films are available as a $6 add-on to general admission tickets. Mi-Sci is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday and until 8 p.m. the first Friday of each month.

• Rochester Hills Museum at Van Hoosen Farm: Drop in tours on Fridays and Saturdays from noon-3 p.m., at 1005 Van Hoosen Road, Rochester Hills, with a guided tour of the Van Hoosen Farmhouse at 1 p.m., www.rochesterhills.org/musprograms, museum members-free, non-members-$5/adults, $3/seniors and students, no registration needed.

• Blue Star Museums: Museums offer free admission to U.S. active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, through Labor Day. A list of participating museums nationwide is at arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

• The Wright: The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit, 313-494-5800, open Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and open until 7 p.m. on Thursday, closed on Mondays, reserve timed tickets at thewright.org, $30+ gen adm., $20 for seniors 62+, $15 for youth, ages 5-17, free for under 5.

• Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society: Open 1st/2nd/4th/5th Sundays of the month and 3rd Fridays, 1-4 pm, (holidays excluded) with exhibits including “Four Communities” exhibit at The Orchard Lake Museum, 3951 Orchard Lake Road, Orchard Lake. Admission is free, donations are welcome, www.gwbhs.org, 248-757-2451.

• Meadow Brook Hall offers Guided House Tours and Self-Guided Tours, check available times and purchase tickets at meadowbrookhall.org/tours, ticket prices vary. Meadow Brook Hall, 350 Estate Drive, Rochester, on the campus of Oakland University.

Submit events online at https://bit.ly/40a2iAm.

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Sarah Tuthill has a pretty straightforward philosophy to assemble a food board for parties: Keep things simple, but also make your spread memorable by arranging the food and drinks thoughtfully.

The made-to-order cheese and charcuterie boards crafted at her tiny storefront and commercial kitchen, EZPZ Gatherings in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, are a case in point.

Not only are the cured meats, seasonal fruits, homemade spreads and various cheeses drool worthy, but they’re also artfully designed to make a table look pretty.

Richly layered and vibrant, they boast a contrasting mix of colors and textures. Some are traditionally arranged on wooden boards, but depending on the theme or season, Tuhill also might add a touch of whimsy by using woven harvest baskets or wooden bowls. Or she might opt for modern and minimalistic by placing pieces on acrylic or melamine boards.

As she details in her recently released how-to book, “Gathering Boards: Seasonal Cheese and Charcuterie Spreads” (Rowman & Littlefield, $27.95), the Aspinwall native and Penn State University grad also has been known to line up crackers on the vintage shirt-sleeve ironing board she found in an antique store. Big on repurposing, she also likes to tuck candles, jars of olives or flowers into a primitive wooden tool caddy.

“A lot of it comes down to social media,” Tuthill says of her distinctive displays. “Everyone is posting these beautiful pictures, and the bar is raised. You can’t just slap things on a [plain] board.”

Though she has always been a foodie and has dabbled in floral and interior design, Tuthill didn’t set out to be a food entrepreneur after graduating from college with a degree in advertising. Most of her career has been in communications, including many years as a freelance writer.

She only started toying with the idea of EZPZ Gatherings around 2018 because she longed to write a book and wanted to do something to “get my hands dirty” by doing it professionally.

“I love writing, but was drawn to doing something more hands-on, creating something tangible, but still creative,” she says.

While she has always loved to entertain and was known among family and friends for making beautiful hors d’oeuvres and other spreads, Tuthill knew she didn’t want to be a full-service caterer.

“So I zeroed in on appetizers,” she says, officially opening EZPZ Gathering in December 2019, just before the charcuterie craze took off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initially, Tuthill worked out of the food incubator kitchen her friend, Josephine Caminos Oria, opened in 2013. Then the pandemic hit “and I was done before I even started,” she says with a rueful laugh.

Back to the drawing board

No one would have blamed her if she threw in the towel. But Tuthill dug in, using the downtime to continue honing her packaging skills and further educate herself about cheese varieties, flavors, textures and production methods.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” she says.

Because so many were stuck at home and in search of hobbies, it also allowed her to start teaching online classes. “So many Zoom book clubs wanted cute snacks,” she remembers. “People wanted to learn and experience something rather than just sitting around.”

The public’s desire to create beautiful gathering boards at home only grew once pandemic restrictions were lifted and the charcuterie board craze exploded.

Today, the one-room storefront Tuthill took over in 2022 — one of the first local niche businesses focused on creating boards for dinner parties, graduation parties and other celebrations — now doubles as a “boarding school” in which fellow Pittsburghers can take workshops to learn the art of cheese and charcuterie styling.

As she notes in her book, “The truth is, you don’t have to be a culinary genius to throw a good party. In fact, you don’t have to know how to cook at all. By merely presenting food and drinks in an inventive, beautiful or whimsical way, you can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.”

Many of her ingredients are sourced locally at specialty shops (Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. is a favorite haunt) but she also fills her boards with items from chain grocery stores like Trader Joe’s. “It’s a little bit of everything, depending on the season.”

Tuthill was approached to write her book on boards in 2022 in the most Pittsburgh manner. A woman saw a story about Tuthill’s shop and her background as a writer in a local paper. “And lo and behold, she cut it out like grandmas do and sent it to her son,” who works for Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. And the rest, she says, “is history.”

She closed her shop at the beginning of 2023 to focus on the project, and did most of the writing last summer. The tome hit bookshelves on May 13, and can be found on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble.

Meant as a “how-to-do-it” for people who like to entertain, the book — beautifully photographed by Kari Hilton and sprinkled throughout with family stories — includes specific suggestions for each season, along with styling tips. The section on summer gathering boards, for instance, includes “Picnic in the Park” and “Lakeside Snackle Box” boards while fall features a “Game Day Tailgate Box” and a Halloween-inspired “CharBOOterie.”

Along with a handful of recipes for go-to dips and sides, Tuthill offers tips on serving temperatures, knife selection and serving sizes. She also includes suggestions for wine pairings and decor, along with tips on glassware, lighting, party flow and post-party clean-up.

For an end-of-summer picnic, Tuthill recommends focusing on foods that are easy to pack and eat, and can withstand some heat, such as the skewers and Chautauqua Salad featured below.

“And of course a [pre-made] cocktail or fancy drink is always fun,” she says. She suggests using mason jars for a summer sangria because they’re super cute and close tightly.

“You just pour ice and vodka over the top,” she says, “and it’s all self contained.”

Summer on a Stick

Serves 6, PG tested

Skewers make for stress-free (and mess-free) picnicking, and take the guesswork out of what goes with what. This summer spin on Caprese salad swaps out the tomato for slices of juicy peach.

6 slices chilled prosciutto (slightly thicker slices work best)

1 ripe peach, sliced

6 small mozzarella balls (cherry-sized)

6 fresh basil leaves

Skewers or toothpicks

1. Fold prosciutto into ribbons: Fold a single slice in half longways, then gently fold it back and forth like an accordion. Pinch the bottom while fanning out the folds.
2. Thread a piece of peach onto a toothpick, followed by mozzarella ball, basil leaf (folded in half or into quarters if large). Finish with a prosciutto ribbon, then place onto a serving platter. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

— Sarah Tuthill

Mason Jar Sangria

Serves 2, PG tested

Mason jars make the perfect vessel for individual cocktails-to-go and can be found in just about any supermarket or craft store.

1 ripe peaches, sliced

1 ripe plumb, sliced

1/2 cup berries

3 ounces vodka

6 ounces dry white wine

6 ounces lemonade

1 12-ounce can sparkling water or club soda

1. Fill 2 half pint jars with seasonal fruit (You can use the same ones you’re serving for your picnic!)
2. Top each with a shot of vodka and 2 shots of white wine. (I prefer a dry white like sauvignon blanc in the summertime.) Add a couple ounces of something sweet like lemonade or lemonade concentrate.
3. Screw on the lids, give them a shake and let the jars sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.
4. Pack them up and when you’re ready to enjoy, top off with chilled soda water and add a festive straw.

— Sarah Tuthill

Chautauqua Salad

Serves 2-4, PG tested

“This salad is a key component of our family’s favorite summer meal” in Chautauqua, N.Y., writes Tuthill.

There, it’s almost always served alongside nothing more than corn on the cob and a crusty loaf of bread on nights when it’s too hot for the oven or grill. But it’s also a refreshing salad that’s perfect for a picnic.

3/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup virgin olive oil

1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly

2 large tomatoes, sliced

1. Prepare dressing: In a shallow bowl, dissolve sugar in the red wine vinegar. Whisk in the oil.
2. Gently fold in tomatoes and cucumbers and allow to sit, at room temp, for at least 20 minutes.

— Sarah Tuthill

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©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Aaron Bolton, MTPR and KFF Health News

Missoula is one of Montana’s largest cities but is surrounded by rural mountain communities where cattle ranching is king. Despite the latitude and altitude, in recent years this region has experienced punishing summer heat waves.

It has been difficult for residents to adapt to the warming climate and new seasonal swings. Many don’t have air conditioning and are unprepared for the new pattern of daytime temperatures hovering in the 90s — for days or even weeks on end. Dehydration, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and abnormalities in heart rate and blood pressure are among the many health complications that can develop from excessive exposure to high temperatures.

It can happen anywhere and to anyone, said Missoula firefighter Andrew Drobeck. He remembers a recent 911 call. The temperature that day had risen to over 90 degrees and a worker at a local dollar store had fainted. “She’s sensitive to the heat. Their AC wasn’t working super good,” Drobeck said. “I guess they only get a 15-minute break.”

Drobeck said many of the heat calls his department receives are from seniors who struggle to stay cool inside their older homes. Montana’s population is among the oldest in the country. About 1 in 4 residents are over 60. Those over 65 are especially vulnerable to heat-related illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As people age, their bodies don’t acclimate to heat as well as they did when they were younger, including not producing as much sweat.

In July, a heat dome that settled over much of the western U.S. baked the region and shattered two types of temperature records: daily highs, and number of consecutive days over 90 degrees. Although the Northwest, including western Montana, is typically cooler, the region experienced record-breaking heat this summer.

Emergency responders like Drobeck have noticed. Drobeck says 911 calls during heat waves have ticked up over the last few summers. But Missoula County officials wanted to know more: They wanted better data on the residents who were calling and the communities that had been hardest hit by the heat. So the county teamed up with researchers at the University of Montana to comb through the data and create a map of 911 calls during heat waves.

The team paired call data from 2020 with census data to see who lived in the areas generating high rates of emergency calls when it was hot. The analysis found that for every 1 degree Celsius increase in the average daily temperature, 911 calls increased by 1%, according to researcher Christina Barsky, who co-authored the study.

Though that may sound like a small increase, Barsky explained that a 5-degree jump in the daily average temperature can prompt hundreds of additional calls to 911 over the course of a month. Those call loads can be taxing on ambulance crews and local hospitals.

The Missoula study also found that some of the highest rates of emergency calls during extreme heat events came from rural areas, outside Missoula’s urban core. That shows that rural communities are struggling with heat, even if they get less media attention, Barsky said. “What about those people, right? What about those places that are experiencing heat at a rate that we’ve never been prepared for?” she said.

Barsky’s work showed that communities with more residents over 65 tend to generate more 911 calls during heat waves. That could be one reason so many 911 calls are coming from rural residents in Missoula County: Barsky said people living in Montana’s countryside and its small towns tend to be older and more vulnerable to serious heat-related illness.

And aging in rural communities can pose extra problems during heat waves. Even if it cools off at night, an older person living without air conditioning might not be able to cope with hours of high temperatures inside their home during the day. It’s not uncommon for rural residents to have to drive an hour or more to reach a library that might have air conditioning, a community center with a cooling-off room, or medical care. Such isolation and scattered resources are not unique to Montana. “I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” Barsky said. “There are no air-conditioned spaces in at least 50 miles. The hospital is 100 miles away.”

Heat research like the Missoula study has focused mostly on large cities, which are often hotter than outlying areas, due to the “heat island” effect. This phenomenon explains why cities tend to get hotter during the day and cool off less at night: It’s because pavement, buildings, and other structures absorb and retain heat. Urban residents may experience higher temperatures during the day and get less relief at night.

By contrast, researchers are only just beginning to investigate and understand the impacts of heat waves in rural areas. The impacts of extreme heat on rural communities have largely been ignored, said Elizabeth Doran, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Vermont. Doran is leading an ongoing study in Vermont that is revealing that towns as small as 5,000 people can stay hotter at night than surrounding rural areas due to heat radiating off hot pavement. “If we as a society are only focused on large urban centers, we’re missing a huge portion of the population and our strategies are going to be limiting in how effective they can be,” Doran said.

Brock Slabach, with the National Rural Health Association, agrees that rural residents desperately need help adapting to extreme heat. They need support installing air conditioning or getting to air-conditioned places to cool off during the day. Many rural residents have mobility issues or don’t drive much due to age or disability. And because they often have to travel farther to access health care services, extra delays in care during a heat-related emergency could lead to more severe health outcomes. “It’s not unreasonable at all to suggest that people will be harmed from not having access to those kinds of services,” he said.

Helping rural populations adapt will be a challenge. People in rural places need help where they live, inside their homes, said Adriane Beck, director of Missoula County’s Office of Emergency Management. Starting a cooling center in a small community may help people living in town, but it’s unrealistic to expect people to drive an hour or more to cool off. Beck said the Missoula County Disaster and Emergency Services Department plans to use data from the 911 study to better understand why people are calling in the first place.

In the coming years, the department plans to talk directly with people living in rural communities about what they need to adapt to rising temperatures. “It might be as simple as knocking on their door and saying, ‘Would you benefit from an air conditioner? How can we connect you with resources to make that happen?’” Beck said.

But that won’t be possible for every rural household because there simply isn’t enough money at the county and state level to pay for that many air-conditioning units, Missoula County officials said. That’s why the county wants to plan ahead for heat waves and have specific protocols for contacting and assisting vulnerable rural residents.

“Ideally we’d be in a situation where maybe we have community paramedics that can be deployed into those areas when we know that these events are going to happen so they can check on them and avoid that hospital admission,” Beck explained. She added that preventing heat-related hospitalizations among rural residents can ultimately save lives.

This article is from a partnership that includes MTPR, NPR, and KFF Health News.

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KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Shalina Chatlani, Stateline.org

Mercedes Dodge was raised by first-generation immigrant parents from Peru in a modest home in a rural part of southeastern Texas, where there weren’t many health care providers. Sometimes they had to travel to Houston, over an hour and a half away, to get basic health care.

Partly because of that experience, Dodge became a physician assistant. Since 2008, she has provided psychiatric and primary care services to adults and children, many of whom come from communities like hers.

Dodge, who now lives in Austin, Texas, has built up a loyal base of patients, including many who are part of military families. But when any of them move out of Texas, she has to stop treating them, even via telehealth, unless she gets a license to practice in that state.

“I do my best and collaborate with them, but they already feel alone,” Dodge told Stateline. “I wonder, ‘Why can’t I be the glue? Why can’t I step over state lines and provide the care that they deserve?’”

Physician assistants, commonly known as PAs, are licensed clinicians who have a master’s degree and can practice in a range of specialties. Their three years of training typically includes 3,000 hours of direct patient care, and they are an increasingly critical part of the health care workforce, which in many states isn’t keeping pace with a growing and aging population.

By 2028, the nation as a whole will be short some 100,000 critical health care workers — doctors, nurses and home health aides — according to a new report from Mercer, a management consulting firm.

The looming shortage is one reason why 13 states have joined the PA Licensure Compact, a multistate agreement that allows PAs to practice in any participating state, without having to get an additional license.

Delaware, Utah, and Wisconsin enacted the legislation in 2023.

Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia followed suit this year. Ohio became the latest state to enact it in July.

The PA compact is one of several that have emerged over the past several years, especially since the expansion of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are similar compacts for doctors, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers.

One challenge has been completing the background checks required for providers who want to practice under the compacts. For example, Pennsylvania’s participation in the nursing and medical licensure compacts was delayed as the FBI denied the state access to its fingerprint database. They later reached an agreement on how to move forward.

The PA compact grants a “privilege to practice,” allowing PAs to practice in participating states without getting an additional license. The nursing compact gives nurses a multistate license, while the physician licensure compact just expedites the licensing process.

Some large states, such as California and New York, don’t participate in compacts for doctors, nurses, social workers or PAs. Some state lawmakers in those states say joining interstate compacts would reduce the quality of their states’ health care workforces, because other states require lower standards of education and training.

“We are proud that New York’s high standards have resulted in our state being an international destination in health care,” New York Democratic Assemblymember Deborah Glick wrote in an op-ed last year for the Times Union newspaper in Albany. “While it’s possible that it may make sense at some point for New York to join a licensure compact, we should pause before we allow a quick fix to lower New York’s standards.”

In other states, such as Texas, doctors who have succeeded in limiting the “scope of practice” of Texas PAs oppose the compact because they believe it might allow out-of-state PAs to go beyond those limits for their patients who reside in Texas. The American Medical Association and its state affiliates argue that allowing PAs to provide care traditionally provided by physicians puts patients at risk.

Dr. G. Ray Callas, president of the Texas Medical Association, said he values the role that physician assistants play in the health care system, but that his organization objects to any measure that might “give PAs authority to do more in health care than they are trained to do.”

“TMA is not opposed to appropriate, expedited licensure, but we do oppose these compacts when they expand scope of practice and create a patient safety issue, lowering the standard of care in Texas,” Callas said in a statement.

Supporters of the compact say that fear is unfounded, and that the agreement has no effect on state scope of practice rules. The model legislation for the compact specifies that PAs who treat patients in another state can only do so “under the Remote State’s laws and regulations.”

Last year, the Texas legislature considered legislation to join the PA compact, but it died in the state Senate.

Monica Ward, president of the Texas Academy of Physician Assistants, said her group will keep pushing for the bill.

“In the rural areas of Texas, there is absolutely a need and a shortage of health care providers,” Ward said. “We’re surrounded by multiple states, so it’s nice to be able to reduce those administrative burdens, paperwork and possibly fees for those that are looking to work in Texas.”

It will take 18 to 24 months for the compact to become fully operational and for PAs to apply for the privilege to practice in other areas. The compact commission also needs to create a data system to keep track of licenses.

This model of licensure may not have worked even five years ago, said Tennessee Republican state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who sponsored his state’s compact legislation.

“It would have had major pushback and people would have asked, ‘What are you trying to do? We like to control what we’re doing in our state,’” said Faison. “But because we live in a global society and people move around so much more than ever before, I think the average person has embraced this.”

Faison told Stateline that for states such as Tennessee, which borders eight states, joining the compact makes economic sense because it will encourage people to move to the state.

Financial stability was 32-year-old Aneil Prasad’s motivation for getting a compact nursing license. He moved from New Orleans to Asheville, North Carolina, last year.

“It allows people to seek out better-paying jobs and move themselves ahead, buy houses and have better health and education and all that,” Prasad said. “And then the less competitive places are forced to raise their wages in order to attract people.”

After moving from Louisiana to North Carolina with his multistate license, Prasad said his wage increased from $21 an hour to $36 an hour. He notes that while the multistate license for nurses costs a bit more than a regular license, it would be much more expensive for him to apply for a new license in every state.

Since Texas hasn’t joined the PA compact, Dodge maintains active licenses in her home state as well as Alaska, California, Florida, New Mexico and Washington. She said the process to get them was expensive and time-consuming. Licenses can cost upward of $500 and can take three to nine months to obtain. Dodge said it’s been worth the trouble to help her patients, but she would appreciate an easier pathway.

“I got all these state licenses to follow my patients,” she said. “So when the PA compact license gets enacted in Texas, I hope it’s going to help me continue following my patients and I’ll be the glue that they need.”

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Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Sarah Foster, Bankrate.com

For 13 years, the 3% annual salary boost that Ricardo M. could count on every October felt like a beacon of stability and a nod that his loyalty as a plumbing supply salesman was being rewarded.

But in the aftermath of a post-pandemic inflation surge, those raises have since lost their luster. His grocery bills have doubled. The cost of filling up his Toyota 4Runner has jumped to $70 a week, and he’s had to dip into his savings to avoid taking on credit card debt. All the while, his pay increases have stayed the same.

“Inflation has taken it all,” says Ricardo, a California resident who requested that his last name be abbreviated, so he could speak freely about his employment situation. “I know costs are going up everywhere, and I understand that a business has to make money and stay profitable. But at the same time, don’t forget about the people who are bringing you business. I don’t make enough for the sales that I generate.”

Economists have celebrated inflation’s rapid dissent, and perhaps even more, the relatively little pain it’s caused the U.S. job market. For over a year now, wages have been rising faster than inflation as prices slow and the job market holds up, giving Americans an opportunity to recover the buying power that they lost after ultralow interest rates, supply shortages and a stimulus check-fueled spending boom combined to form the worst inflation crisis in 40 years.

But the race isn’t over yet. The past 16 months of “real” wage growth — as economists have called it — haven’t been enough to offset the 25 months where prices were rising disproportionately faster than Americans’ paychecks, according to a new analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data from Bankrate.

Bankrate’s 2024 Wage To Inflation Index

Since the beginning of the post-pandemic inflation surge in Jan. 1, 2021, prices have risen 20.0%, compared with a 17.4% increase in wages over the same period, Bankrate’s second-annual Wage To Inflation Index found.

Inflation feels akin to taking a pay cut, helping explain why Americans have been so downtrodden about the U.S. economy. Despite a half-century low unemployment rate at the time, the majority (59%) of Americans said in a Bankrate poll from December 2023 that they felt like the U.S. economy was in a recession.

Americans could even take these frustrations to the voting booth come November. Most adults (89%) say the economy will be an important factor in determining their vote, with two-thirds (62%) calling it very important, according to Bankrate’s Biden and Americans’ Personal Finances Survey from November 2023.

To be sure, some ground has already been recovered. Thanks to over a year of “real” wage growth, the current gap between wage growth and inflation (2.6 percentage points) marks major improvement from when it was at its widest in the summer of 2022 (3.9 points).

Yet, wages have recently lost some momentum. In Bankrate’s 2023 index, Americans’ paychecks were on track to fully recover from post-pandemic inflation by the fourth quarter of this year. Now, Americans’ paychecks are on pace to bounce back by the end of the second quarter of 2025, updates to Bankrate’s index for 2024 found.

The job market has cooled more than expected this year

Wages are taking longer to recover amid a faster-than-expected cooldown in the job market, which has already stripped workers of some of their bargaining power to ask for higher pay.

Between the second quarter of 2023 and 2024, prices rose 3.194%, nearly matching the 3.187% expected increase from last year’s index. Wages, however, rose 4.03% over the same period, after previously being on pace to grow 4.6%.

The labor market functions much like any other open market, economists say. Wage growth is often a reflection of who has the upper hand: the employer or the employee.

When there are too many job openings and not enough workers, employers compete for talent by lifting pay or offering big bonuses. But too few jobs for the number of people seeking work might make Americans hesitant to leave their current positions, wary about how greener other pastures might actually be in a more competitive job market.

If they’ve been on the hunt for a while, they might be inclined to settle for a job that pays less. And if they’re so inclined to negotiate for higher pay, they might not ask for as much.

“We’re seeing wage growth cool because demand is falling,” says Sam Kuhn, labor economist at Appcast, a recruiting platform. “In 2022, there were serious labor shortages. As that gap has closed, there’s just less incentive to give out higher wages or yearly raises.”

Illustrating the shift, there’s now just one job opening per every unemployed worker, the smallest ratio since April 2018, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. Employers have created an average 96,000 jobs in the private sector over the past three months, a massive slowdown from a three-month moving average of 203,000 in March. The hiring rate, meanwhile, has plunged to levels that are even lower than they were before the pandemic. Unemployment is now the highest since before the pandemic.

ADP’s Chief Economist Nela Richardson has watched wage growth for job changers dip from a high of 16.4% in June 2022 to the most recent level of 7.3%, according to data that her firm collects. Americans who’ve stayed at their current positions, meanwhile, saw their pay increase 4.8% for the second month in a row, ADP data also shows. In the leisure and hospitality sector, Richardson says she’s starting to notice that workers are accepting new positions for less pay than they were making previously — echoing trends from before the pandemic and painting a picture of a slowing labor market.

“There’s a lot of reasons workers switch jobs that aren’t tied primarily to compensation,” she adds. “It could be a better shift, a better team, a better location.”

What happens next for the U.S. job market can have grave implications for Americans’ prospects of catching up. In June, economists projected that job growth over the next year would average 115,000 jobs a month, Bankrate’s quarterly Economic Indicator Survey found. That would represent an even sharper slowdown in labor demand, with job growth currently averaging 197,000 over the past 12 months.

A cooling economy means less inflation, but slower wage growth, too, setting Americans back in their game of catch up. Richardson says a valid concern is whether their wages will recover at all.

“Will workers make up the ground lost when real wages weren’t growing with inflation? From what I see in key sectors, the answer is not likely,” Richardson says. “It’s really about can the wage level remain above current inflation, to get a better picture for workers.”

Not all workers have lost ground to inflation

Some workers are even further ahead — or behind — in their race against inflation, depending on the specific industry in which they work.

Bankrate’s analysis found that pay has risen faster than inflation in two industries: leisure and hospitality (23.7%) and accommodation and food services (23.3%), compared with a 20% rise in prices from the start of 2021 to the end of June. Paychecks are furthest behind in education (13.6%), construction (14.1%) and financial activities (14.3%) during that same timeframe.

Meanwhile, after increasing at a faster rate than inflation in Bankrate’s 2023 Wage to Inflation Index, pay in the retail sector (up 19.4% since the beginning of 2021) has since fallen behind.

The industries where wage growth has boomed correspond with where labor demand was the strongest. At one point, a record 11.1% of jobs within the accommodation and food services sector and 10.9% of positions within leisure and hospitality were vacant, the most of any other industry. On the flip side, job opening rates in the industries with the slowest wage growth peaked at much lower levels, with construction at 5.4% and education hitting 4%, according to Bankrate’s analysis.

That’s not to say Americans in inflation-beating industries are feeling particularly better off. The average hourly earnings of workers in the financial activities sector ($45.73), for example, are more than two times as high as those in leisure and hospitality ($22.18).

The more money workers make, the better positioned they are to absorb higher prices in their budgets. Low-income households tend to spend more money on essentials that they can’t cut back on, whereas upper-income Americans have more options to free up cash, such as trimming discretionary spending or their savings contributions.

Workers making less than $50,000 a year (at 43%) were nearly twice as likely as those who earn $100,000 or more a year (24%) to feel that they’re living paycheck to paycheck, according to a Bankrate survey from July.

Americans working jobs in retail, leisure and hospitality and food services were also more likely to have lost their jobs during the pandemic, making it hard to say whether they’re truly better off today, says Elise Gould, senior economist at the independent Economic Policy Institute.

“Even if their wages have risen, it has been very hard for people to make ends meet on the kinds of wages that our labor market has been delivering over the last 50 years,” Gould says. “But the fact that people are struggling doesn’t mean that they didn’t experience real wage growth. Both things can be true.”

‘I don’t know if it’ll get as good as it was’

Robert Santy, a psychotherapist based in Connecticut, has taken on 20 extra clients in the four years since the pandemic. He says the decision was equal parts personal necessity and societal urgency.

For starters, every corner of Santy’s budget has grown more expensive. Car insurance for his family of five is costing him $10,000 a year. His monthly electric bills often range between $600-$800. His cell phone bill jumped by $40 a month, and even his grocery costs can easily reach $1,000 a week. He’s taken on longer hours simply to replace some of his lost income.

“It’s nickel and dime, nickel and dime, and everyone wants a piece of the pie,” he says. “My pie keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller.”

But whether it’s lingering stress from the pandemic or financial anxieties surrounding inflation and recession fears, Santy says he’s been in no need for clientele over the past four years, either. He often takes calls from patients after hours and goes to his office on weekends to catch up on paperwork. He estimates that he gets about four cold calls a week from new, inquiring clients, whom he has to turn away because he doesn’t have enough room for them in his schedule.

“People are highly stressed, highly anxious, struggling financially. That leads to family squabbles, relationship issues,” he says. “You get the cable company, the electric company, the cell phone company, your mortgage goes up, your taxes go up. Any one thing might be manageable, but when it’s death by a thousand needles, that just wears on people over time.”

Contributing to his rising expenditures, his two youngest children are in college, while his oldest daughter is living at home on an extended job hunt after graduating two years ago. Him and his wife are now earning nearly $300,000 a year as a household, but they feel like they had an easier time getting by when they were in their early 20s, earning just $22,000 a year. Still feeling surprised by bills or unexpected expenses, he’s had to temporarily halt his retirement contributions.

“I’m certainly in better shape financially than I’ve ever been in my life, but I’m not where I thought I was going to be or where I think I should be,” Santy says. “It’ll get better, but I don’t know if it’ll get as good as it was. I realize everything goes up and up and up, but did it have to go up so much so quickly when I didn’t have time to adjust? It felt like it just happened overnight.”

Even if wages recover, inflation may have already damaged the American psyche

Americans look at inflation differently than economists. Analysts track annual rates of change in inflation to determine whether the U.S. economy is overheating, while the typical American consumer focuses on how much the items they see everyday have risen in cost.

Just 6% of the nearly 400 items the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks are cheaper today than before the pandemic, a Bankrate analysis of inflation data shows. Key essentials that consumers regularly buy — like gasoline, groceries, utilities, rent and more — have risen at a faster rate than overall inflation. Car insurance, meanwhile, is up almost 50% since February 2020.

Inflation can have a profound effect on consumer psychology. Nearly half of adults (47%) say money has a negative impact on their mental health at least occasionally, Bankrate’s Money and Mental Health Survey from May 2024 found. Almost two-thirds of them (65%) cited rising prices as a reason.

“It will require that workers continue to enjoy some restoration of buying power through real wage gains,” Hamrick says, referring to when Americans could start to feel better. “To the extent we see falling prices for goods within a fairly normal, not recessionary, economic environment, that would be helpful.”

Ricardo is already gearing up for his annual review next month. He’s preparing to make a case for why he deserves a bigger raise than usual, citing his sales numbers and translating how it adds to his company’s bottom line. He hopes to use the money to visit his five grandchildren, who live across the country in both Florida and Seattle.

But even if he doesn’t get the money he’s hoping for, he says he’s unlikely to quit. He hopes to retire within the next few years and is afraid of taking a pay cut by starting over somewhere else.

“I’m waiting for them to one day tell me, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.’ That’s what you want to hear after 16 years,” he says. “Hopefully, I don’t get disappointed with what I’m going to hear.”

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Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Eddie Muller, alias the “Czar of Noir” and the host of “Noir Alley” on TCM, will host the 7th annual Noir City Detroit Film Festival — one of the most popular film noir events — at the Redford Theatre in Detroit this weekend, Sept. 20-22.

Muller will present eight crime noir films over three days. All shows are double features and are as follows:

On Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m.:

• 1951’s “Victims of Sin”
• 1946’s “Night Editor”

On Saturday, Sept. 21, at 1 p.m.:

• 1944’s “Laura”
• 1947’s “Framed”

On Saturday, Sept. 21, at 8 p.m.:

• 1947’s “Brute Force”
• 1954’s “Black Tuesday”

On Sunday, Sept. 22, at 1 p.m.:

• 1952’s “Never Open That Door”
• 1949’s “The Window”

All double features are $15 each. The All-Access Pass costs $55, which includes admission to all eight films, a commemorative poster and an early admission meet-and-greet with Muller on Friday, Sept. 20, at 5:30 p.m., who will sign his books, including “Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir.”

It also includes a private reception with Muller in the Redford lobby on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. Refreshments will include coffee and dessert. There will be special cocktails from “Noir Bar” for sale, as well as beer and wine.

The Redford is located at 17360 Lahser Road, Detroit.

Tickets can be purchased online at redfordtheatre.com or at the box office.

For questions or more information, contact the Redford at 313-537-2560.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was charged Tuesday in Manhattan federal court with sex trafficking and racketeering following indictment by a grand jury late Monday.

Combs was taken into custody Monday night and charged Tuesday morning on three counts: racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The 14-page document alleges Combs coerced or forced victims to participate in sex parties called “freak offs” that were often recorded.

The unsealed indictment reveals an investigation into Combs’ activity spanning as far back as 2008 and alleges he and his associates engaged in criminal activities including interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution and sex trafficking. They are also accused in the complaint of committing narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.

Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said Tuesday the rap mogul would plead not guilty and that he expects a “long battle with a good result” for his client.

Noah Haggerty | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — A mind-bending hypothesis is gaining traction among scientists: The universe may be teeming with microscopic black holes the size of an atom, but with the mass of a city-sized asteroid.

Created just a split second after the Big Bang, these hypothetical black holes would whip quietly through the solar system roughly once every few years, traveling over a hundred times faster than a bullet.

Some have even argued that an immense explosion that flattened a Siberian forest in 1908 could have been the result of one of these micro black holes impacting Earth.

Now, researchers say they’ve figured out a way to test whether these cosmic bullets truly exist.

In a study published Tuesday in the journal Physical Review D, physicists at MIT say the presence of a tiny black hole speeding through the solar system could be identified by the gentle gravitational nudge it exerted on the Earth and other planets, which would alter their orbital paths by no more than a few feet.

The possibility of proving the existence of micro black holes is generating excitement among some astrophysicists because it could help them to explain a mystery that has taunted them for almost a century: the nature and composition of dark matter.

In the 1930s, astronomers started noticing anomalies in the way galaxies were moving. Lurking in the dark and empty expanse of intergalactic space, something was generating tremendous amounts of gravity to tug on the galaxies — yet it seemingly refused to interact with light or any other force.

Scientists found this mysterious gravitational tugging everywhere. In order to account for it, they hypothesized that it was being caused by invisible mass, or dark matter, that made up roughly 85% of all matter in the universe.

Some physicists have suggested dark matter may be made up of exotic undiscovered particles. Others, such as the MIT researchers, think dark matter probably is just regular matter that is extremely hard to detect. And black holes, the researchers say, are a prime example of the properties of dark matter.

“It’s just fantastic that the most conceptually conservative response is to say, ‘It’s just super tiny black holes that were made a split second after the Big Bang,’” said David Kaiser, a physics professor at MIT and an author on the study.

“It’s not inventing new forms of matter that have not yet been detected. It’s not changing the laws of gravity,” he said.

Still, black holes are not the sole potential culprit and there remains a lot of debate in the field.

Physicists have, in their quest to find dark matter, searched for new exotic particles, as well as regular matter that may have been overlooked — such as black holes of varying sizes. So far, they have come up empty-handed.

Until now, astronomers have been unsure how to search for black holes of a particularly pesky size — those that are too small for their gravity to bend star light.

The MIT researchers determined, through modeling, that these tiny black holes may have formed from pockets of dense matter that collapsed on themselves immediately following the Big Bang.

The researchers simulated what might happen if one of these primordial black holes made a flyby within the orbit of Jupiter. They found that the orbits of Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury could veer off their original course by up to 3 feet over a decade.

The researchers said they would expect to detect a black hole nudge somewhere between once a year to once every century — depending on the abundance and masses of the black holes.

To put their own minds at ease, the researchers also calculated the likelihood that one of these tiny black holes would strike Earth and found it would only happen roughly once in a billion years.

Even then, the black hole wouldn’t lead to an apocalypse.

Instead, it would pass straight through the Earth, leaving the planet relatively unbothered.

Scientists in the 1970s even showed that a black hole impact would look strikingly similar to an streaking light and explosion over Russia 116 years ago that scientists believe was caused by a small asteroid or comet. (Although, a black hole would also leave an “exit wound.”)

Detecting the existence of mini black holes will require extremely precise measurements of where planets are and models of where they’re supposed to be. Fortunately, scientists have the tools to accomplish this.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, for example, has created a detailed model of the solar system that uses Albert Einstein’s general relativity theory of gravity to calculate the expected orbits of the planets and account for hundreds of asteroids in excruciating detail. (They even calculated how the Earth’s ocean tides affect the moon’s orbit.)

NASA scientists also have developed an extremely precise means of determining the distance between the Earth and Mars. By measuring the time it takes radio signals to travel from Earth to spacecraft orbiting Mars, or to rovers on its surface, scientists can calculate the red planet’s distance from Earth within two feet.

“It’s really only a few decades where we’ve had that level of accuracy,” Kaiser said. “From a series of space program missions, we can worry about if Mars is 50 centimeters off from where we expect it to be.”

To convince the skeptics, the scientists also would have to show that the nudge wasn’t caused by a passing asteroid.

The researchers say that the speed of the black holes — which would be traveling more than two times faster than anything else in our solar system — would create an unmistakably unique wobble in the planets’ orbits.

And astronomers are pretty good at spotting objects with a mass similar to that of the hypothetical black holes. In 2017, researchers identified the first object from another star to enter our solar system, which had far less mass than a microscopic black hole would.

Whether or not they detect a passing black hole, the scientists say it will push forward humanity’s understanding of dark matter.

“Of course I’d love to discover dark matter in the solar system,” said Benjamin Lehmann, a postdoctoral student at MIT and an author of the study. However, “if this kind of observation is what helps us to close this window and say dark matter is not in the form of these primordial black holes, that’s really important information.”

By proposing a method for simply testing this possibility, “they’ve done … exactly what we should be doing in dark matter searches,” said Vera Gluscevic, a cosmology professor at USC who was not involved with the study. “We should not leave any stone unturned.”

Although the scientists plan to keep refining planetary motion models and dig through historical observations from the last few decades for signs of the black holes, the main test will be to simply watch and wait.

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©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Tim Henderson | Stateline.org (TNS)

At 43, Sharon Reese is a housing market refugee — forced to return to her Ohio hometown after 18 years in Las Vegas, despite a successful career training dancers for nightclub acts.

“If you don’t have between $600,000 and $800,000, you’re not buying a house out there,” Reese said. “Las Vegas has a lot of opportunity, and it was affordable in 2006, but it’s become unaffordable. We quit our jobs and moved across the country. We’re hoping this is the right decision for us.”

Reese and her family are unpacking at her parents’ Youngstown home, a temporary stop until she and her husband, who was a casino worker in Las Vegas, can find jobs and a house of their own with their young daughter. Youngstown is one of the last two metro areas in the country where a household with nearly any income should be able to find a single-family home they can afford to buy, according to an analysis of April data by the National Association of Realtors.

Before the pandemic, there were 20 states that were considered affordable as a whole under the group’s definition, including the presidential election swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. As of this year, there is none. Even the states with the closest match between income and home prices — Iowa, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan — didn’t make the cut.

Since the pandemic, two states, Montana and Idaho, have surpassed California as the most unaffordable states for local homebuyers, according to the analysis. Hawaii and Oregon round out the list of the five least affordable states.

The Realtors’ analysis assigns affordability scores to states and large metro areas on a scale of 0 to 2. A score of 0 means that no household can afford any home on the market.

A score of 1 means that homes on the market are affordable to households in proportion to their position on the income ladder — in other words, 100% of families can afford at least some homes on the market. And a score of 2 would mean that all households can afford all homes on the market, but no state or metropolitan area even reached a 1.

The least affordable metro area was Los Angeles, which scored only 0.3, while the metro areas of Youngstown (0.97) and Akron (0.95) in Ohio were rated most affordable.

According to the latest estimates from July by real estate company Redfin, median single-family home sale prices were $175,000 in Youngstown and $239,500 in Akron. That compared with $487,000 in Las Vegas, $490,000 in Boise and $1 million in the Los Angeles area.

The Las Vegas area, where the Reese family had lived for 18 years, had a score of 0.5 on the Realtors’ scale. No state earned an overall score of 1, though Iowa, West Virginia and Ohio came close, at nearly 0.9. The least affordable states, Montana, Idaho, California, Hawaii and Oregon, all had scores around 0.4.

Nationwide, home affordability has evaporated over the past three years as interest rates have gone up, according to a monitoring index maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. It measures affordability more simply than the Realtors’ analysis, focusing solely on the ability of a homebuyer with the median household income to buy the median-priced house.

By that measure, the national affordability percentage was above 100% between January 2019 and April 2021. But it fell as low as 67% last year and remained below 70% in June, meaning a homebuyer with the median income had only two-thirds of the earnings needed to buy the median-priced house.

Home prices have increased by 47% nationwide just since 2020, according to a June report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A major factor is that there aren’t many homes for sale: Many current homeowners are reluctant to sell because they’re locked into historically low interest rates. Meanwhile, investors have gobbled up single-family starter homes, reducing the supply.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said there are signs of more houses coming up for sale. For example, there was a 20% increase in houses and condos for sale in July compared with July 2023, according to the association.

“We are still short on inventory, but I think the worst is over,” Yun said. “We have seen mortgage rates begin to decline, so it’s less of a big financial penalty to move and give up a low interest rate. And the second factor is just the passage of time — life-changing events always occur, a death, a divorce, a new child or just job relocation, and that means changing residence.”

Along with high prices and interest rates, home buyers are getting slammed by higher property taxes and insurance costs, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Home prices in northeast Ohio might be lower because the area has a stable population, curbing competition and bidding wars, said Alison Goebel, executive director of the Greater Ohio Policy Center, a Columbus nonprofit aimed at revitalizing Ohio cities.

“Our population numbers have remained fairly steady in the last several decades, so we don’t have egregious demand and supply issues like you see on the West Coast and other rapidly growing areas,” Goebel said.

Montana and Idaho are the least affordable states: Housing prices are exploding in both, as deep-pocketed newcomers — many of them white-collar employees working in high-wage jobs based out of state — have driven up prices beyond what longtime residents can afford.

The city of Boise scored 0.4 on the Realtors’ affordability scale, on par with the New York City area. Like Montana, Idaho has natural beauty that is attracting people who are cashing out of more expensive areas, said Nicki Hellenkamp, Boise’s director of housing and homelessness policy.

“It’s one of the Zoom boom towns, where it’s beautiful but the wages are low, and the cost of living is low. If you sell your house in Los Angeles and buy two houses here, as my uncle did, then you can have a very different standard of living,” Hellenkamp said.

It’s not just home prices — rents are up 40% in Boise since the pandemic began, she added.

“Obviously wages didn’t go up 40%, so some people have been displaced,” Hellenkamp said.

The city is working on modest proposals to help with down payments and to create more affordable apartments, she said, but building more affordable housing will mean state and federal cooperation to help solve labor shortages and soaring material costs.

“We can’t do this alone as a city. This issue is a big one,” Hellenkamp said.

A state housing task force in Montana made recommendations in June to streamline construction of houses and apartments statewide and create incentives for cities to loosen zoning and allow denser housing.

A member of the task force, Kendall Cotton, said he personally found it impossible to buy a house in Montana, but was happy to recently purchase half a duplex for his growing family.

“We were thrilled to have that as an option, just to get our foot in the door and start on our journey to homeownership,” Cotton said. “Montana is an in-demand place. We’ve been kind of discovered in the last couple of years.”

Republicans and Democrats have come together to support fighting restrictive zoning, said Cotton, director of the Frontier Institute, a nonprofit policy and educational organization.

“We’re a free-market organization that tends to lead from right of center, but when I was at the governor’s press conference to support these issues, I was standing shoulder to shoulder with a Democratic socialist city council member and we were all united on this,” Cotton said.

Shallon Lester, a YouTube influencer who moved from New York to Montana and paid $1 million for a five-bedroom house in Bozeman in 2022, said she likes both the lower cost of living and the lifestyle there. Locals tend to think she’s an outsider “invading” the area, she said, but “people like me take nothing from this economy — we only give. We spend and spend.”

“People who are remote workers are sick of the cost of living in cities,” Lester added. “There’s a mass return to the concept of the simple life.”

Even in the Youngstown metro area, which includes a slice of Pennsylvania, housing can be a challenge for residents with low incomes. A forthcoming regional housing study has found a 4,000-unit shortage for households making less than $25,000 a year; 7,500 people are on a waiting list for subsidized housing. Black and Hispanic residents are more likely to struggle with housing costs, as are older people, young singles and families with young children, according to preliminary conclusions discussed in April.

But for many, Youngstown is a rare island of affordability. Jim Johnston, 40, a digital account executive at media company Nexstar in Youngstown, said many of his high school classmates from the area, who now live in places such as Montana, Illinois and Maryland, envy his decision to stay there and buy a $250,000 house in 2022 when interest rates were lower.

“One of them has a mortgage payment three times mine for the same size house, and a child care bill that’s bigger than my mortgage,” said Johnston. “They could put an extra $50,000 or $60,000 a year in their pockets. Remote work has opened up new possibilities for them, and they’re considering this very seriously.”

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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.

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