By MARC LEVY, Associated Press

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — Democrats and their allied groups are pouring in more money, cutting a fresh television ad with Gov. Josh Shapiro and sending in the national party chairman in the final week of campaigning for a Pennsylvania Supreme Court election, possible signs of concern for a race that could reshape the highest court in the largest presidential battleground.

Spending in the race is on track to exceed $15 million — far surpassing previous spending in what’s called a retention election — as Democrats try to blunt a late-emerging Republican campaign to oust three Democratic justices.

The outcome will have consequences for next year’s midterm election, the 2028 presidential race and the next decade’s congressional redistricting. The nation’s most populous swing state has a politically divided government that has left disputes over election laws and other major issues to the courts in recent years.

At issue in Tuesday’s election is whether the three justices will each serve another term, up to 10 years. They don’t face opponents and are not listed by party affiliation. The ballot merely asks voters to cast a yes-or-no vote.

Retention elections are supposed to be nonpartisan, but Christine Donohue, one of the justices running to remain the bench, said she’s “shocked at the partisan nature” of the election.

“This is extraordinarily unusual,” Donohue said in an interview on Wednesday. “I suppose that’s a sign of the times, though.”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has a 5-2 Democratic majority, so an across-the-board loss for Democrats in Tuesday’s election could produce a 2-2 ideological split for two years. Political stalemate could likely prevent their seats from being filled until the next judicial election in 2027, potentially leaving the court unable to decide voting or election-related cases through next year’s midterm elections.

“It could lead to chaos,” Donohue said.

While the spending is far below the more than $100 million spent on a state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin earlier this year, it highlights how important these races have become for both parties because of the role state courts play in deciding redistricting disputes, lawsuits over voting and elections, and setting policy on hot-button issues such as abortion.

Donohue and the other justices up for retention, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht, were spending their final days of the campaign attending Democratic Party rallies and get-out-the-vote efforts. Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chairman, traveled across Pennsylvania to headline events on Wednesday and Thursday.

At a Lancaster County Democratic Party meeting Wednesday evening, Martin told a couple hundred people that Republicans were trying to steal power by buying court seats so they can enact right-wing policy through the courts.

“This isn’t just about Pennsylvania,” Martin told the crowd. “Because if they win here, you can bet your bottom dollar they bring this in every single state around the country. … This is about our democracy.”

Democrats and their allies were on course to outspend Republicans by a ratio of as much as 4-to-1 after a blitz of TV ads in the final weeks to counter a wave of Republican flyers and commercials.

The TV ads supporting the justices portray them as defenders of abortion rights, union rights and voting rights. Backing them are labor unions, trial lawyers and Planned Parenthood’s political arm.

While not all spending or financial sources have been disclosed publicly, groups linked to a network that typically spends campaign contributions from Pennsylvania’s richest man, securities billionaire Jeffrey Yass, so far has spent about $2 million, according to figures from AdImpact, which tracks advertising.

Democrats and their allies reported spending more than $7 million in October. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood are among left-leaning groups that have increased their spending late in the race as Democrats seek to counter a wave of Republican-aligned TV ads and flyers that launched in September, just before voters began casting mail ballots.

The blitz concerned Democrats. Lancaster County Democratic Party Chairman Tom O’Brien said party members were in “panic mode” as they worried about how the party would respond.

Particularly worrisome to Democrats was Republican messaging urging Democratic voters to “term limit” the justices by voting no. It was packaged with wording meant to convey sentiments typically expressed by Democrats, including “no kings” and “defend democracy.”

Democrats also realized that a major task was educating voters about what a retention election is. O’Brien and others said they are feeling better as canvassers have helped educate voters, and Democratic-aligned flyers and TV ads have flooded the state.

In an October TV ad running in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Shapiro told viewers that the justices “have proven that we can count on them to protect a woman’s access to abortion and birth control, and stand up for all our freedoms.”

Democrats say they are satisfied with their voting-by-mail turnout in the weeks leading up to the final day of voting, but they are continuing their campaign push. On Saturday, Philadelphia labor leaders and Mayor Cherelle Parker will lead a half-day motorcade through the city to promote the justices’ campaigns.

Republicans’ most potent voice, President Donald Trump, has not waded into the election, although his name has occasionally been invoked. A Republican-aligned TV ad says, “On Nov. 4, you can help President Trump to term limit three woke Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices.”

State Republican Party Chairman Greg Rothman suggested that a “no” campaign is only natural.

“Retention shouldn’t be automatic,” he said. “Otherwise, why even have it?”

Rothman said he didn’t know whether the Republican effort would succeed but said voters already cynical about government could be motivated to vote “no.” A state government budget stalemate approaching its fifth month and the federal government shutdown could put voters in a mood to vote against any incumbent.

“Based on the Democratic Party response, and Shapiro cutting ads and all the money that trial lawyers and the national DNC is bringing in, that they must think we’re onto something,” Rothman said.

Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter

By STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a resolution Thursday that would undo many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs around the globe, the latest note of displeasure at his trade tactics in Washington that came just as the president celebrated his negotiations with China as a success.

After a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, Trump said he would cut tariffs on the Asian economic giant and China would, in turn, purchase 25 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans annually for the next three years. The Republican president claimed his trade negotiations would secure “prosperity and security to millions of Americans.”

But back in Washington, senators — several from Trump’s Republican Party — have demonstrated their dissent with Trump’s tariff tactics by passing a series of resolutions this week that would nullify the national emergencies that Trump has declared to justify the import taxes. Already this week, the Senate approved resolutions to end tariffs imposed on Brazil and Canada. While the legislative efforts are ultimately doomed, they exposed fault lines in the GOP.

The latest resolution, which would effectively end most of Trump’s tariff policies, passed on a 51-47 vote, with four Republicans joining with all Democrats.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who backed Democrats on the resolutions, credited Trump for decreasing the tariffs on China, but said the result is “still much higher than we’ve had.”

“It still will lead to increased prices,” he said.

The votes were orchestrated by Democrats using a decades-old law that allows Congress to nullify a presidential emergency. But House Republicans have instituted a new rule that allows the leadership to prevent such resolutions from coming up for a vote. Plus, Trump would surely veto legislation that inhibits his power over trade policy, meaning the legislation won’t ultimately take effect.

Democrats can force a vote but not a result

But Democrats have still been able to force the Senate to take up an uncomfortable topic for their Republican colleagues.

“American families are being squeezed by prices going up and up and up,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, in a floor speech. He added that “in many ways, red states in rural areas are being hit the hardest,” and pointed to economic strain being put on farmers and manufacturers.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that Americans shouldn’t be fooled by Trump’s announcement.

“Donald Trump has folded, leaving American families and farmers and small businesses to deal with the wreckage from his blunders, from his erratic on again off again tariff policies,” said the New York Democrat.

How Republicans see Trump’s trade policy

Overall, there has been little movement among Republicans to oppose Trump’s import taxes publicly. A nearly identical resolution failed in April on a tied vote after Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was absent. On Thursday, McConnell and Paul, as well as Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted along with all Democrats to pass the resolution.

Those four Republicans helped advance similar resolutions this week to end the tariffs on Brazil and Canada. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, also voted in favor of the resolution applying to Brazil, but otherwise, GOP senators have held the line this week behind the president.

“I agree with my colleagues that tariffs should be more targeted to avoid harm to Americans,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, in a floor speech. Yet, he added that Trump’s negotiations “are bearing fruit” and praised his announcement that Beijing would allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans again.

Republicans representing farm states were especially enthused by the announcement that China would be purchasing 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually, starting with 10 million metric tons for the rest of this year.

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, said the deal with China “absolutely” justifies Trump’s use of tariff threats to negotiate trade policy with other nations. He called the announcement “huge news” for Kansas farmers, but also acknowledged that they would still probably need financial help as they deal with the strain of losing their biggest customer for soybeans and sorghum.

“It’s not like you can snap your finger and send over $15 billion worth of sorghum and soybeans together overnight,” he said.

China had been the largest purchaser of U.S. soybeans until this year. It purchased almost 27 million metric tons in 2024, so Trump’s negotiated deal only guarantees to return soybean exports to China to less than their previous level.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, called the purchase agreement a “start.”

Asked whether he agreed with Trump’s assessment that his meeting with Xi had been a runaway success, Cramer smiled and said the president “is nothing if not optimistic.”

As Volkswagen continues its efforts to grow market share in the SUV segment, it has made some updates to the 2025 edition of the smallest member of the family — the Volkswagen Taos.

This little SUV isn’t going to sit idly by while others in the segment make upgrades. WIth the 2025 Taos, Volkswagen has decided to add additional horsepower to the engine, as well as some style updates to both the exterior and interior of the vehicle, plus a larger infotainment screen.

I recently tested a 2025 Volkswagen Taos SE Black model, and I’m back with a full report on how the vehicle holds up vs. other compact SUVs — including offerings from Chevy (Trax), Mazda (CX-30), Buick (Envista) and Subaru (Crosstrek).

LOOKS

Starting on the exterior, the 2025 Volkswagen Taos gets a solid redesign, include some unique color options such at the Cornflower Blue paint on my test vehicle, or the Bright Moss Green Metallic option.

My test vehicle’s trim level featured black exterior elements, including rear spoiler, roof rails and side mirror caps.

A new lighting design is in place with integrated LED light bar designs in front and back. If you’re familiar with the look of VW’s larger Atlas SUV, much of that style is replicated here at a smaller size. It’s an attractive overall look, one of the best in the segment.

Small but not too tiny, the Taos is a strong option for city dwellers and commuters who also want to be able to transport their family and friends around in comfort. You can also move up one size level to VW’s Tiguan SUV if you need more space.

My test vehicle featured 18-inch black painted alloy wheels with all-season tires. Wheel size options range from 17 to 19 inches on the Taos.

The adaptive front lighting system also features dynamic cornering lights, which swivel for better illumination while turning.

Other exterior features include:

• Heated, foldable, power adjustable side mirrors

• Rain-sensing, variable intermittent front wipers with heated washer nozzles

• Power tilting and sliding panoramic sunroof

Moving inside the Taos, you’ll find a respectable amount of cargo space, strong leg room for back seat passengers, and leatherette or leather seating materials offered. It’s one of the biggest and most comfortable little SUVs you can find.

The cargo capacity maxes out at 66 cubic feet with the back row down, and 28 cubic feet with those seats upright — solid numbers for the compact SUV segment.

Updates were also made to the dashboard and tech setup, and features like ambient lighting, multi-zone climate control, and heated/ventilated seats are also included.

While not the most upscale vehicle in the segment, nothing in the vehicle feels cheap.

Other interior features include:

• Leatherette-wrapped steering wheel

• Center armrest in 2nd row

• USB ports in both rows

• Illuminated and carpeted cargo area

HOW’S THE RIDE?

There is one engine offered on the 2025 Volkswagen Taos — a 1.5-liter, turbocharged, four-cylinder power plant that is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission and delivers 174 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. The horsepower number sees a solid boost from the previous version of the Taos.

The Taos comes standard with front-wheel drive, with all-wheel drive available as an option.

The overall driving experience in the Taos is smooth and handles corners well, but not noticeably fast. That being said, it’s delivering enough oomph to make it a memorable experience for most families, just don’t go in expecting a speed demon.

Looking at the 0-to-60 times on the Taos, it comes in at the mid 7-second range, which is solid for the segment. Drive modes offered include Normal, Eco, Sport and a custom option.

As long as you recognize you’re driving a family hauler and not a hot rod, you should be able to enjoy your time behind the wheel.

TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY

Tech is somewhat of a mixed bag on the 2025 Taos.

On the positive side, an 8-inch touch screen in the center console responds well to touch-screen controls and has controls that are easy to master. It’s worth noting though that some rival SUVs offer larger screen sizes.

But on the weaker side, the voice commands on the Taos are not as reliable as rival systems. Beyond that, the slider-style controls for climate (which VW seems to have embraced across the lineup) will prove divisive. I got used to them quickly, but some people prefer physical buttons.

Overall the system is not flashy but is quite functional, and is compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Navigation is offered, along with Bluetooth, wireless phone charging and satellite radio, and several charging ports.

Moving on to safety, the Taos delivers nearly perfect government ratings.

The backup camera is very helpful, as are the sensors all around the vehicle. And the Travel Assist feature (offering semi-autonomous driving assistance) can come in handy on longer trips.

Other safety features include six airbags, Automatic Post-Collision Braking System, LATCH system for child seats, Tire Pressure Monitoring System, Forward-collision warning and automated emergency braking.

Other safety features on the Taos include::

• Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop & Go

• Lane Assist (Lane Keeping System)

• Emergency Assist (semi-automated vehicle assistance in a medical emergency)

• Forward Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Monitoring

• Active Blind Spot Monitor

• Rear Traffic Alert

MPG

The FWD Taos that I tested had official fuel mileage numbers listed at 28 city/36 highway/31 combined. The AWD version is listed at 25 city/33 highway/28 combined.

During my time in the Toas, I averaged 25 mpg, which was pretty low compared to the numbers listed, even accounting for mostly driving in the city. I’m sure I could have improved that number some if I had focused on maximizing fuel economy, but fuel mileage is one area that may give pause to some potential buyers.

PRICE

The 2025 Taos that I tested was priced just over $32K, and its base price starts about $26K.

Trim levels include the base S model, SE, SE Black and SEL.

If you want to upgrade from the base, you can opt for the SE trim, you can stay under the $30K mark, and still get a solid vehicle with lots of solid features.

In terms of pricing, the Taos falls around the middle of the pack among compact SUVs. Some rivals come in much lower in the $20K range, while others start out even higher and push close to the $30K mark even on base models. All in all, the Taos offers a happy medium.

You’re paying a bit more than some rivals, but you’ll get more room plus better design and more features.

Warranties are solid on the Taos, including:

• New Vehicle Warranty: 4 years/50,000 miles

• Powertrain Warranty: 4 years/50,000 miles

• Scheduled maintenance covered at 1 year/10,000 miles and 2 years/20,000 miles

• 24-hour roadside assistance for 3 years/36,000 miles

BOTTOM LINE

Small but stylish, roomy inside for the segment, and offering decent power, the 2025 Volkswagen Taos is a solid overall compact SUV offering that competes well in this very busy segment.

It’s a vehicle you’ll want to include on your list of test drives if a mini-ute is what you want to bring home.

Matt Myftiu’s past reviews can all be seen online at autotechreviews.com. Follow AutoTechReviews on Instagram at @Autotechreviews or on TikTok at @AutoTechReviews.

FYI

• Vehicle: 2025 Volkswagen Taos

• Price as tested: $32,025 (starts around $26K)

• Best feature: Roomy for a compact SUV

• Rating: 4 out of five stars

• Who will want this vehicle?: Drivers seeking a compact SUV that’s big enough for a family, offers a respectable drive quality, and solid cargo space

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — Mike Tirico, Maria Taylor, Ahmed Fareed and Noah Eagle will work multiple events in February as NBC broadcasts the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Super Bowl 60 and the NBA All-Star Game.

On Feb. 8, Tirico will handle play-by-play in a Super Bowl for the first time after being the pregame host in 2022. After the Super Bowl postgame, he will host “Primetime in Milan” from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Tirico, who will be hosting NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage for the fifth time, will begin hosting from Italy on Feb. 10 until the conclusion of the games on Feb. 22.

Tirico will also be part of NBC’s debut of “Sunday Night Basketball” on Feb. 1 when he calls the Los Angeles Lakers-New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.

Taylor will be the lead host of the Super Bowl pregame for the first time. On Feb. 7, she will be the primetime host of Olympics coverage and then will be the late-night host from Italy beginning on Feb. 10. This will be the fourth Olympics assignment for Taylor, who joined NBC in 2021.

Taylor will also host the debut of “Basketball Night in America” on Feb. 1.

Fareed will anchor the NBA All-Star Weekend coverage from Inglewood, California, Feb. 13-15 as well as being the daytime host of Olympics coverage on Feb. 7.

Eagle will call his first NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15 as well as All-Star Saturday. He will also be part of the Super Bowl pregame and has NBA games on Feb. 1 (Oklahoma City at Denver) and Feb. 22 (Boston at Los Angeles Lakers).

Today show co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin will also be part of Olympics coverage. Guthrie will host the Opening Ceremony with Terry Gannon Feb. 6 and then “Primetime in Milan” on Feb. 9. Melvin has the Late Night show from Feb. 7-9.

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum Floyd Rogers Myers Jr., who appeared on the hit show as a child, has died. He was 42.

The “Jacksons: An American Dream” actor suffered a heart attack at his Maryland home early Wednesday, his mother, Renee Trice, confirmed to TMZ.

This was the fourth in a string of heart attacks over the past three years, according to Trice.

Myers’ screen career was short but notable, as the younger version of Will Smith in a 1992 “Fresh Prince” episode, “Will Gets Committed.”

The Daily News has reached out to Smith for comment.

Later that year, Myers appeared as Marlon Jackson, ages 7 to 9, in Parts I and II of “The Jacksons: An American Dream.” The Emmy-winning miniseries about the Jackson family also starred Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as patriarch Joe Jackson, Angela Bassett as matriarch Katherine Jackson as well as Holly Robinson Peete, Terrence Howard, Billy Dee Williams and Vanessa Williams.

Myers’ last screen appearance was in 2000, when he was credited as a student in “Young Americans,” which aired for one season and starred Kate Bosworth and Ian Somerhalder.

By Kara Berg, MediaNews Group

The widow of a man killed in 2010 in Farmington Hills and her attorney say the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office is neglecting its duties in the retrial of the man convicted of killing her husband.

Genniver Jameel, the widow of Saif Jameel, said she is frustrated about what she sees as corruption in the prosecutor’s office and courtroom maneuvers strip away the justice her family got in 2011 when Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of her husband. Bacall is in the process of being retried for Saif Jameel’s murder after the Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in April.

“We are living through hell every single day — grieving Saif while fighting a system that seems determined to silence us,” Jameel told The Detroit News in a statement. “Instead of finding support and accountability through the court system, we have faced betrayal and corruption that has only deepened our suffering.”

Hayes Bacall was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2011 for the July 2010 murder of his nephew Saif Jameel. Prosecutors say Bacall walked into the gas station Jameel owned and shot him 12 times, then later told police he killed Jameel because Jameel owed him $400,000.

The Oakland County Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed the case in 2022 and determined that prosecutorial misconduct related to lies the prosecutor told during closing arguments, as well as witnesses recanting their testimony, resulted in a weak conviction.

Prosecutors and Bacall’s attorneys agreed to move forward with a second-degree murder charge instead of the original first-degree murder charge in 2023, but new evidence has again come up, pausing justice for Saif Jameel again.

Prosecutors obtained recordings in May and July of two phone calls that one of the recanting witnesses, Samir Bacall, Saif’s younger brother, had with his aunt. In the calls, Samir implies he lied during his recantation and was truthful in his original testimony. He expresses a desire for revenge on Genniver Jameel because she allegedly owes him money.

Though prosecutors transcribed translations of the calls in time to include them in their response to Hayes Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge, prosecutors did not mention them in public court filings until days after Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan granted Hayes Bacall’s motion Oct. 15 and dismissed the first-degree murder charge. Assistant Prosecutor David Williams said Brennan knew about the filings from off-the-record conversations, but they were not introduced to influence her decision on the first-degree murder charge.

The first mention of Samir’s statements came in a motion for reconsideration of Brennan’s decision filed after 5 p.m. Oct. 20, the day before Bacall was set to plead guilty to second-degree murder. The recordings call into question the validity of Samir’s recantation and his motives for his original trial testimony, Assistant Prosecutor Shelbee Sanborn wrote in the motion for reconsideration.

Brennan said the late filing was “stunning” and said “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Sanborn during a hearing Oct. 21 told Brennan she had to work “very quickly” to get this motion filed and did it as soon as she could, but did not say why the information was not included in her response to Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge. Prosecutors filed the motion after The News inquired Oct. 16 about the recordings and why they weren’t brought up.

Sanborn wrote in her motion that she did not have a chance to tell Brennan about the new evidence, including the recordings and another witness who could testify to premeditation, on Oct. 15 when Brennan ruled on the motion. Sanborn is asking Brennan to reconsider her ruling dismissing the first-degree murder charge for Bacall.

“The existence of the phone calls was never a secret. They were disclosed to the defense and we made the court aware of their existence,” said Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams. “We didn’t believe that the phone calls were relevant to the motion to dismiss, which is why we didn’t attach them to our response.”

Genniver Jameel’s attorney, Pam Szydlak, said the prosecutor’s office’s conduct is “nothing short of alarming.”

Jameel and Szydlak said Sanborn told them she would be fighting for the first-degree charge to remain in place, and would be mentioning the recordings in her response and at the hearing on Bacall’s motion to dismiss the first-degree murder charge. Sanborn did not mention it, however, and argued only that prosecutors were not barred from proceeding with the first-degree case in her written response.

“The People were given a full and fair opportunity to defend against this motion, yet they failed to do so in any meaningful or competent way — all the while pretending they were fighting it,” Szydlak said. “Rather than engage with real legal issues and the transcripts of Samir Bacall saying he lied in his recantation, they instead offered vague assertions, unsupported rhetoric, and outright neglect of its duty to the court and the interests of justice.”

Williams said no one has denied Hayes Bacall shot and killed Saif Jameel, and the prosecutor’s office has continued to fight to hold him accountable for his actions. Prosecutors are now seeking to have Bacall tried again for first-degree murder.

“Those recordings are attached to our motion for reconsideration, and the Judge has agreed to consider them,” Williams said in a statement. “The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office has fully pursued a transparent and thorough review of the case against Hayes Bacall for the death of Saif Jameel.”

Samir Bacall, Saif’s younger brother, originally testified that Hayes Bacall had called him multiple times in the months before the shooting, saying he was going to kill Saif because of the money he owed him. Samir and Jameel’s close friend Slieman Bashi said in 2022 that they lied during the trial about these statements, which was part of why prosecutors decided to reopen the case and seek to overturn Bacall’s conviction.

In the recorded conversation, Samir told his aunt “she harmed me,” speaking of Genniver.

“Yes, but you don’t go to seek your revenge on her by going and changing your testimony,” the aunt said, according to a translated transcript of the phone call.

Samir talks mostly about seeking revenge on Genniver, because he says she sought revenge on him and took his money, but also said “I did not testify falsely, no, I didn’t lie … Geniver Geniver (sic) is the one who testified falsely, not I.”

Bacall’s attorney, Mark Krieger, said during a hearing Oct. 21 that he didn’t think the recording changes anything and that Brennan should not change her ruling about the first-degree murder charge. He said Bacall was prepared that day to plead guilty to second-degree murder. Krieger did not respond for comment.

Brennan will issue a written ruling on Sanborn’s motion for reconsideration. Bacall’s next court date is Dec. 4.

By Michael Smith, Alicia A. Caldwell, Myles Miller, Bloomberg News

The federal government is supercharging its use of local cops to hunt down immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally as part of an unprecedented effort to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to deport millions of people.

Some 10,500 local police, county sheriffs, state troopers, university law enforcement and even lottery investigators have been signed up to stop, arrest and detain undocumented immigrants. Nationwide data reviewed by Bloomberg show these officers, across 40 states, nabbed almost 3,000 people since Trump took office through the end of July. Florida keeps its own tally under the same program, and its deputized cops have arrested another 2,500 people since then.

Combined, that’s a small fraction of the total number of immigration arrests this year, but almost double the amount that deputized cops made in 2024 under President Joe Biden’s watch.

Local law enforcement usually doesn’t have the authority to enforce immigration rules, but a nearly 30-year-old program called 287(g) allows the federal government to grant immigration arrest power to agencies that sign on. Trump has overseen a dramatic expansion at the start of his second term, with the number of accords surging seven-fold to almost 1,100 by September.

It’s “a force multiplier,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said in an interview.

But among the local law-enforcement agencies, some have been much more enthusiastic participants than others. About three-fourths of the 330 participating police forces in Florida, by far the largest ICE partner after Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through a law requiring them to sign up, have made zero arrests months into their partnerships, the state’s data show. Officials frequently say that it isn’t a priority for officers focused on fighting violent crime, thwarting robberies and improving community relations.

In greater Miami, which has one of the largest concentrations of Latino immigrants in America, police and sheriff’s departments have made about two dozen immigration arrests since August.

“We have other priorities in this community that I’m focused on, and immigration is not one of them,” Gregory Tony, the Democratic sheriff of Broward County, north of Miami, said at a county budget committee meeting in June. “It’s not within our purview, it’s not within our responsibility, and I won’t participate in it.”

Tony’s comments led Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to threaten to remove the sheriff from office, citing the state law that requires police to use “best efforts to support” federal immigration agents. As of Oct. 27, Tony’s deputies had made zero immigration arrests. Uthmeier declined to comment.

Over the decades, just a handful of local law-enforcement agencies cut 287(g) deals with ICE, according to the American Immigration Council. But Trump has hugely expanded these agreements to supplement roughly 65,000 ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents with additional forces.

St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick, who polices a 40-mile stretch of I-95 around St. Augustine, Florida, says his officers now routinely question people’s immigration status when they get pulled over someone for speeding or other infraction. He already has 66 of his sheriff’s officers trained and deputized by ICE, and is adding another 45.

This year his deputies have arrested about 700 people on immigration charges, mainly during vehicle stops, expanding a years-long practice of running a check for federal immigration violations when they suspected someone may be undocumented, he said.

“So to take this enforcement on as a sheriff when our new president took office was easy because we were kind of already doing it, holding people accountable,” Hardwick said in an interview. But now, he says, there’s much more support from the federal government.

It’s part of the president’s growing toolkit for his immigration crackdown. Even amid court challenges, Trump has deployed thousands of active duty military troops, along with combat vehicles and more than 100 Coast Guard boats, to the border, where crossings have plummeted. He’s also sought to deploy National Guard troops in major cities — including Los Angeles — though many of those efforts have been legally blocked or scaled back.

In the interior of the country, ICE recorded more than 196,000 arrests between Jan. 20 and Sept. 20, according to data posted by the agency. During that same time, ICE has deported about 180,000 people.

Police chiefs and sheriffs who have criticized the 287(g) agreements often point to the complexities of immigration law, limited training for their officers and the legal liabilities they could create.

Allegations of racial profiling have dogged previous iterations of the program. A Justice Department report in 2011 concluded sheriff’s officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, had engaged in profiling to target and arrest Latino residents.

Florida’s push for immigration arrests may have led to mistakes, according to court records and interviews with immigration lawyers.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 21-year-old U.S. citizen, was headed from his home in Georgia to a carpet installation job in Tallahassee with two co-workers on April 16. Soon after crossing into Florida, a state trooper pulled over their vehicle for speeding and questioned their immigration status.

“I told him I was born here, showed them my license, my Social Security card, but he didn’t believe me,” Lopez-Gomez said in an interview in Spanish. The trooper handcuffed and arrested Lopez-Gomez for allegedly violating a Florida law against entering the state as an illegal alien, records show. It was the same law a federal judge had blocked as unconstitutional two weeks before.

A county judge threw out the case after Lopez-Gomez’s mother showed up with his birth certificate, but said only ICE could get him out of jail, Lopez-Gomez said. He spent 38 hours locked up before an ICE agent reviewed his documents and let him go. He says he is considering filing a lawsuit for unlawful arrest.

“I still don’t understand why they did that to me,” Lopez-Gomez said from his home in Cairo, Georgia. “Every day I leave the house scared they will try to deport me again – the anxiety gets the best of me.”

The Florida Highway Patrol declined to comment.

DeSantis has aggressively gone after towns and sheriffs perceived as resisting working with ICE.

Fort Myers, a town on the Gulf Coast, backed down from refusing to sign a deal with ICE after Uthmeier threatened to remove city commissioners from office for violating state law.

A few miles west of downtown Miami in Doral, a heavily Latino city where Trump owns a golf course, Police Chief Edwin Lopez has no plans to order his officers to hunt for undocumented immigrants even though the department plans to sign a 287(g) agreement.

“I do a lot of educating the community and let them know that the police department is here to protect and serve,” Lopez, the son of Cuban immigrants, said in an interview. “We’re not necessarily arbitrarily requesting or asking questions in terms of immigration status.”

Among the state agencies that has made immigration arrests is the Florida Lottery’s security division. The force of roughly a dozen officers is charged with securing lottery drawings, investigating fake tickets and running background checks on retailers. But on April 24, it signed a 287(g) agreement, and it has since made 10 immigration arrests. A spokesperson for the agency declined to comment.

One major incentive for law-enforcement agencies to sign the 287(g) agreements is the promise of a cash infusion. ICE is now offering to fully reimburse salary and benefits and part of the overtime for each trained 287(g) officer, and to pay quarterly bonuses of as much as $1,000 if certain arrest targets are met.

The money hasn’t always worked.

Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux turned down a request from ICE to join the 287(g) program that came with a promise of $25 million in reimbursements for salaries and operational costs.

“Our officers are focused on serving our city by answering 911 calls and aggressively fighting violent crime,” Comeaux said in a statement. “Federal authorities have a different mission with the same importance.”

In Loudoun County, Virginia, one of the nation’s wealthiest suburbs, Sheriff Mike Chapman has an agreement to hold inmates flagged by ICE until federal officers can take custody.

But he isn’t going to order his deputies to become immigration agents. He wants them to focus on local safety and community engagement.

“People may not like what we’re doing, but they trust us,” he said in an interview. “They realize it’s important to keep them safe, and that’s what we’re about.”

Some cops just don’t know what to do with their partnership with ICE, like Sheriff K. Zane Hopkins in Nebraska’s Banner County. His desolate 745-square-mile rectangle in the southwest part of the state has fewer than 700 residents, making it home to “more cows than people.”

Hopkins, a Republican elected in 2023, signed a 287(g) agreement in part because Banner somehow ended up on the Department of Homeland Security’s list of so-called “sanctuary” counties, which restrict local police from assisting federal immigration agents. Signing up with ICE was an effort to help clear up any misconceptions. But a traffic stop that involves an immigration issue, he said, can keep him or his sole deputy occupied for an hour or more.

Hopkins recalls two traffic stops since 2023 that involved a driver suspected of being in violation of federal immigration laws, and both times ICE agents opted not to respond. The county is a nearly seven-hour drive from Nebraska’s lone ICE office in Omaha.

“We are not actively going out and looking for people.” Hopkins said of immigration enforcement. “If we do it, we do it as part of our daily duties. I’m not super worried about trying to enforce it and I’m not going to chase reimbursement.”

—With assistance from Fabiola Zerpa and Phil Kuntz.

©2025 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STEVE PEOPLES, AP National Political Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger is more eager to talk about struggling soybean farmers than President Donald Trump’s attack on American institutions. She plays down the historic nature of her campaign for Virginia governor and avoids making big, bold promises about what she will accomplish if elected.

Yet some believe the moderate approach — others call it boring — that the former congresswoman and CIA case officer has taken heading into Tuesday’s election holds the key to the Democratic Party’s national revival.

“Don’t promise things you know you can’t deliver,” Spanberger said aboard her bus campaigning this week to be the state’s first female governor. It was a sober warning to Democratic leaders across the country — New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and former President Joe Biden among them.

It may be an underwhelming message for the millions of angry voters who have flocked to anti-Donald Trump protests in recent weeks demanding that Democratic leaders take bold action to fight the Republican’s norm-busting presidency. But as the Democratic Party searches for an effective message and messengers in the wake of last fall’s Election Day drubbing, Spanberger is offering a pragmatic focus on economic concerns and a toned-down pledge to address Trump’s most damaging policies, when possible.

That tack is in line with a growing group of Democratic governors, top party operatives and Mikie Sherrill, the New Jersey congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot who is the only other Democratic gubernatorial hopeful on the ballot next week. They are betting big that a centrist message aimed at voters’ economic concerns will deliver victory where an intense focus on stopping Trump from unraveling American democracy failed in 2024.

The Republican nominees in Virginia and New Jersey, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Trump-endorsed former business owner and state legislator Jack Ciattarelli, have tried to paint their Democratic opponents as out-of-touch liberals more concerned about transgender rights and immigrants who are in the United States illegally than they are about the safety of school children.

That playbook worked for Trump in the last presidential election. But given the national security backgrounds of Spanberger and Sherrill, it is unclear whether that will work Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has campaigned alongside Spanberger and Sherrill over the past week, noted that both candidates have focused on rising costs while offering a clear contrast to the chaos that has consumed Trump’s Washington. It’s largely the same approach that Shapiro has taken as he gears up for a 2026 reelection campaign in the swing state before a possible 2028 presidential bid.

“The lesson is winning,” Shapiro said when asked about whether the approach reflects lessons learned from Democrats’ struggles in 2024.

Democratic divisions loom

The Democratic Party is far from united on how to move forward.

Just as Spanberger and Sherrill embrace moderation, progressive leaders such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have lined up behind Mamdani, who is also on the ballot Tuesday. The self-described democratic socialist has called for government-run grocery stores, free public transit and rent freezes, among other policies that may be difficult to enact if he wins.

Mamdani is in an increasingly caustic race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.

“The socialists want to take over the Democratic Party,” Cuomo said in a weekend radio interview. “He wins, book airline tickets for Florida now.”

But some Democratic voters, even some who came out to hear Spanberger’s message in Virginia this week, say they are excited about Mamdani.

Mikal Blount, a 31-year-old commercial window cleaner, joined dozens of voters at a Norfolk restaurant on Sunday to see Spanberger. He said he is impressed by her bipartisan approach and experience in law enforcement, but he also hopes Mamdani wins and emerges as a national star.

“It’s OK to have moderates create common ground and progressives who are down to fight,” he said, expressing frustration with his party’s leaders in Washington. “I’m like what are we doing? We’re not hitting back. MAGA Republicans aren’t holding back, so why are we?” — referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Spanberger was less enthusiastic about Mamdani’s emergence.

In an interview, Spanberger said she fears his approach could push people away from the party, but not necessarily because of his most controversial policies, even those she disagrees with. She sees it as a matter of telling the truth.

“We should always, always, always, dream big. It’s not a focus on, just do little things,” she said. “But if he’s making promises that he can’t keep to people who are struggling to put food on the table for their kids or to pay their bus fare to get to their second job of the day, then what’s the long term impact on the people who put their faith in somebody?”

Spanberger offered a similar criticism of Biden’s campaign promises to cancel student debt.

“We wonder why people are like, ‘Oh, I’m tired of voting for the Democrats.’” she said. “If you were to talk to people about canceling debt, a number of people will express some level of, ‘He didn’t do what he said he was going to do.’ Well, he was never going to be able to do that, right?”

A move to the middle

A collection of Democratic operatives released a report this week, “Deciding to Win: Toward a Common Sense Renewal of the Democratic Party,” that effectively endorses Spanberger’s approach.

The report features input from top advisers to Biden, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris. It calls on Democratic candidates to reject progressive purity tests and talk less about democracy, climate change and far-left cultural priorities and more about health care, the cost of living and public safety.

Veteran Democratic operative Jesse Ferguson, who provided input, said Spanberger is doing well because she’s “able to connect the pain from Washington to the pockets in Virginia.”

“Trump’s authoritarianism will fail — not because we convince people it’s authoritarian, but because we show them it’s expensive,” Ferguson said.

Spanberger has not attended any of the “No Kings” protests that have featured millions of anti-Trump voters concerned with the threat he poses to U.S. democracy. She rarely said his name on a statewide bus tour this week that took her from Virginia’s affluent suburbs in the north to its military base communities on the Eastern Shore and the Appalachian hills in the rural southwest.

“I feel like if I say it too much, it’s like Beetlejuice. He’s gonna show up,” Spanberger joked.

This election, she said, is more about the struggles of everyday voters than Trump’s attack on democracy.

“When we win, it’s repudiation of the policies that are harming Virginia, whether it’s the shutdown, DOGE, or tariffs,” Spanberger said. “Like one guy like is single-handedly crushing Virginia soybean farmers, like one guy is single-handedly raising input costs for fertilizer and for farm equipment.”

Another topic Spanberger does not mention much: the possibility of becoming the first woman elected governor in Virginia.

“I’m delighted that we will have a woman governor. I’m delighted by the fact that when the next generation of candidates step forward, it’s not, ‘Oh, do you think a woman can win?’” she said. “It’s very significant to other people. But I don’t want to ever make the race about me.”

Stage musical adaptations of movies and TV shows are buyer-beware propositions.

It’s, over the years, proven not easy to capture such productions in the flesh, with songs added. The ratios of success to failure largely tilts in the latter direction, with a fair number of attempts also follow under the category of “meh.”

So “Back to the Future: the Musical?” As Doc Brown would say, “Great Scott!”

With an emphasis on the great.

At the Detroit Opera House through Nov. 9, the treatment of the hit 1985 sci-fi comedy — which premiered days before the pandemic shutdown during 2020 in England and on Broadway in 2023 — ticks off all the boxes that make for a winning musical of any kind, regardless of its source material. The songs — by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, save for those couple of Huey Lewis & the News hits from the film. The acting is on a high level, the choreography energetic. And, as an adaptation, it makes tweaks to the plot that are clever enough to make it work on stage but without losing any of the original, joyous and tongue-in-cheeky spirit of the movie.

It adds to that, in fact. Musical numbers such as “It’s Only a Matter of Time,” “Got No Future,” “It’s Only a Matter of Time,” “Future Boy” and “For the Dreamers” dig into the existential struggles Marty McFly (Lukas Hallauer) and Doc Brown (David Josefsberg) are experiencing in their quests to make some sort of mark on the world. That’s added emotional content that brings welcome dimension to the goings-on in Hill Valley, both in 1985 and 1955, where Marty unwittingly travels back to in the infamous DeLorean.

And the car, Flux Capicitor and all, is front and center in “Back to the Future’s” most striking visual moments, as the production uses scrims, screens and video projections to simulate the time travel experience in a seamless fashion that will impress “BTTF” die-hards — including those who dress up in character for the show — and casual theater fans.

Key lines from the film, meanwhile, pop up with applause-generating regularity, and the Under the Sea school dance sequence is recreated in all of its Chuck Berry-predicting glory. The new or changed aspects of the script work so well that they belie any complaints about what might be missing — and even at times make the story that much more enjoyable.

It is, in the end, a great deal of fun — right down to the video screen messages pre-show and during the intermission — which is exactly what it should be.

The performances are strong from top to bottom. Hallauer channels plenty of Michael J. Fox into his Marty, even looking the part — and, like Josefsberg, has the gift of opening his mouth wide enough that his moments of comic angst can be seen and felt in the top row of the balcony. Josefsberg, meanwhile, plays Doc a bit more like Beetlejuice than Christopher Lloyd but injects a bit more of a human touch into his film counterpart’s zany eccentricity.

A perhaps unexpected standout is Cartreze Tucker as future mayor Goldie Wilson, a character that’s given more real estate in the musical and nearly steals the show with his gospel-flavored “Gotta Start Somewhere.” Mike Bindeman nails Crispin Glover’s demeanor from the film but brings more physical comedy to the role, as did Jenny Dalrymple (an understudy for the show’s media night) as Marty’s future mom/seductress Lorraine Banes.

And Central Michigan University grad Nathaniel Hackmann brings the right amount of comedy to Biff Tannen — a role he created for the Broadway production — particularly in the slapstick of “The Hill Valley School Fight Song” and “Something About That Boy.”

All of that makes for a wholly enjoyable and even timeless kind of trip back, and forth, in time. And if you are a fan of those Huey Lewis tunes (“The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”), don’t leave during the bows; there’s no moment of this party that should be missed.

“Back to the Future” runs through Nov. 9 at the Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway St. (313)237-7454 or broadwayindetroit.com.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has stripped references to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack from court papers and punished two federal prosecutors who filed the document seeking prison time at sentencing Thursday for a man arrested with guns and ammunition near former President Barack Obama’s home.

The prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia were locked out of their government devices and told they were being put on leave Wednesday morning shortly after they filed a sentencing memorandum describing the crowd of President Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.

Later Wednesday, the Justice Department replaced the court filing with an updated version that stripped references to the Jan. 6 riot. The new filing also no longer included a reference to the fact that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was Obama’s address on the same day that the defendant, Taylor Taranto, was arrested in the former president’s neighborhood.

It’s the latest move by the Justice Department to discipline attorneys tied to the massive Jan. 6 prosecution and represents an extraordinary effort by the government to erase the history of the riot that left more than 100 police officers injured.

Trump himself for years has worked to downplay the violence and paint as victims the rioters who stormed the Capitol and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory. Since Trump’s sweeping Jan. 6 pardons in January, his administration has fired or demoted numerous attorneys involved in the largest investigation in Justice Department history.

The Justice Department declined to comment on Thursday.

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said her office would not comment on personnel decisions, but added: “We have and will continue to vigorously pursue justice against those who commit or threaten violence without regard to the political party of the offender or the target.”

Prosecutors are seeking more than two years in prison for Taranto when he is sentenced Thursday in federal court in Washington. He was convicted in May for illegally possessing two guns and roughly 500 rounds of ammunition in Obama’s neighborhood in June 2023. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, also convicted Taranto of recording himself making a hoax threat to bomb a government building in Maryland.

The defense argued at trial that the video showed Taranto was merely joking in an “avant-garde” manner, and that he believes he is a “journalist and, to some extent, a comedian.”

Taranto, a Navy veteran from Pasco, Washington, was separately charged with four misdemeanors related to the Capitol attack before Trump’s sweeping clemency order erased his case. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby in the House around the time that a rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was fatally shot by an officer as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.

The prosecutors overseeing Taranto’s case were not told why they were being put on leave, the person familiar with the matter said. Two new prosecutors, including the head of the criminal division for the office, entered the case and submitted the new brief on Wednesday. ABC News first reported that the prosecutors, Samuel White and Carlos Valdivia, had been placed on leave.

Trump’s pardons in January released from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. Those pardoned include more than 250 people who were convicted of assault charges, some having attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch.

In January, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firings of about two dozen prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases, but were moved into permanent roles after Trump’s presidential win in November.

And in June, the department fired two attorneys who worked as supervisors overseeing the Jan. 6 prosecutions in the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia, as well as a line attorney who prosecuted cases stemming from the Capitol attack.

CHICAGO (AP) — A Democratic congressional candidate in Illinois has been indicted along with five others over blocking vehicles during protests outside a federal immigration enforcement building in suburban Chicago, according to court documents.

The indictment, filed last week by a special grand jury, accuses Kat Abughazaleh of blocking a federal agent outside the detention center.

“This is a political prosecution and a gross attempt to silence dissent, a right protected under the First Amendment. This case is a major push by the Trump administration to criminalize protest and punish anyone who speaks out against them,” Abughazaleh said in a video posted to BlueSky.

By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s decision to shift the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier to South America in his campaign against drug cartels is pulling the ship out of the Mediterranean Sea at a time when a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been threatened by new strikes in Gaza.

The U.S. is set to be in the fairly unusual position of having only a single aircraft carrier deployed and none in the waters off both Europe and the Middle East. The change is especially stark after the U.S. joined Israeli strikes on Iran in June and has engaged in some of the most intense combat operations since World War II against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

Aircraft carriers, with their thousands of sailors and dozens of warplanes, have long been recognized as one of the ultimate signifiers of U.S. military might and the nation’s foreign policy priorities. There have been five carrier deployments to the Middle East since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including two carriers in the region at multiple points this year and last.

The new orders for the USS Gerald R. Ford illustrate the Trump administration’s increasing focus on the Western Hemisphere and mark a major escalation of firepower as the U.S. military ramps up fatal strikes on alleged drug boats. With a buildup of warships, aircraft and troops already in the region, Trump himself has signaled what could be next.

Speaking from another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, in its home port of Japan, Trump noted the U.S. attacks at sea and reiterated that “now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land.”

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine colonel, questioned how long the Ford would be able to remain in South America, when only three of the 11 U.S. aircraft carriers are typically out to sea.

“It’s such a powerful and scarce resource, there will be a lot of pressure to do something or send it elsewhere,” Cancian said. “You can imagine the peace negotiations breaking down in the eastern Mediterranean or something happening with Iran.”

The USS Nimitz also is deployed but is heading home from the South China Sea to the West Coast before being decommissioned. It recently lost two aircraft — a fighter jet and a helicopter — in separate crashes that are under investigation. A third carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, is not deployed but is conducting exercises off the coast of San Diego.

The shift is happening just as violence has flared up again in Gaza despite a ceasefire that Trump helped broker after two years of war. The Israeli army launched a barrage of attacks Tuesday as tensions with Hamas grew two weeks into the fragile ceasefire.

Carrier’s move adds pressure on Venezuela

Meanwhile, the U.S. military’s growing presence near Venezuela and its 13 fatal strikes on alleged drug boats have stoked fears that Trump could try to topple authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

In response to questions about the speculation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted Saturday that the U.S. is taking part in a counterdrug operation. And he again accused Maduro’s government of participating in the shipment of narcotics.

“This is a very serious problem for the hemisphere, and a very destabilizing one,” Rubio said. “And that has to be addressed.”

Maduro said in a recent national broadcast that the Trump administration is manufacturing a war against him.

“They are fabricating an extravagant narrative, a vulgar, criminal and totally fake one,” Maduro added. “Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaves.”

Experts say the U.S. forces in the region aren’t large enough for an invasion. But they could help push out Maduro — and possibly plunge the nation into chaos.

“There’s a really high potential for violence and instability,” according to Geoff Ramsey, an expert on U.S. policy toward Venezuela who is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. If Maduro loses power, he said Venezuela could “devolve into a Libya-style meltdown that could last years.”

Land strikes are ‘a real possibility’

The Ford strike group, which includes five destroyers, will add to an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the waters off Venezuela. The Navy already has eight warships in the region — three destroyers, three amphibious assault ships, a cruiser and a smaller littoral combat ship that’s designed for coastal waters. It was not clear if all five of the destroyers in the Ford strike group would make the journey.

A U.S. Navy submarine also is operating in the broader area of South America and is capable of launching cruise missiles. The U.S. military also sent a squadron of F-35B Lightning II fighter jets to an airstrip in Puerto Rico and recently flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela.

The administration says the military has killed at least 57 people in the strikes against vessels accused of transporting drugs. Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants because of narcotics flowing into the country and said the U.S. is in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.

Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed concerns about Trump’s lack of congressional approval and unwillingness to provide details about the attacks. Others, such as Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, believe the president has all the authority he needs.

The South Carolina Republican said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that land strikes in Venezuela are “a real possibility.”

“We’re not going to sit on the sidelines and watch boats full of drugs come to our country,” Graham said. “We’re going to blow them up and kill the people that want to poison America, and we’re now going to expand operations, I think, to the land.”

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday welcomed Japan’s determination to accelerate its ongoing military buildup and defense spending.

During a visit to Japan, Hegseth said he hopes to see those pledges implemented as soon as possible, noting China’s increasingly assertive military activity.

“The threats we face are real, and they are urgent. China’s unprecedented military buildup and its aggressive military actions speak for themselves,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, our alliance is critical to deterring Chinese military aggression, to responding to regional contingencies, and keeping our countries safe.”

Hegseth said he was “glad” to see Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi — speaking alongside U.S. President Donald Trump this week — make a commitment to increase Japan’s defense spending, calling it “wonderful.”

He said the U.S. government had not demanded Japan’s spending increase.

His comment comes a day after Takaichi, who became prime minister only last week, explained to Trump during their first summit that her government will raise Japan’s defense spending to 2% of its gross national product by March, two years ahead of initially planned. Japan also plans to revise its ongoing national security strategy several years ahead of schedule.

“It’s an important step forward, and one that we hope would be implemented and believe will be as soon as possible,” Hegseth told a joint news conference after holding talks with Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. “The result, through our shared strength, will deter threats.”

“We’re going to invest now and invest quickly while we still have time,” Hegseth said.

Koizumi welcomed the agreement between the two governments to move up deliveries of U.S.-made Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, though he did not give further details.

Japan is seeking to create a more self-sufficient military as a deterrence against China’s increasingly assertive military activity in the region, and has concentrated on defense buildup on its southwestern islands. Japan also has concerns about the rising tensions caused by North Korea and Russia.

Japan has already moved up a planned deployment of its medium and long-range missiles such as Tomahawk and Japanese-made Tupe-12 anti-ship missiles.

These efforts mark a historic shift from Japan’s longstanding policy of limiting use of force to self-defense only under a pacifist Constitution written after World War II.

It made a major break from that policy under the 2022 security strategy that calls for more offensive roles for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and easing restrictions on arms exports. The Takaichi government is also seeking to further relax weapons transfers.

Aircraft owners at the Oakland County International Airport will get a smoother ride thanks to a $6 million grant from the state.

Work to replace  nearly 8,000 feet of pavement will begin next spring, said airport manager Cheryl Bush.

A $6 million grant managed by Michigan’s Department of Transportation will help renovate Oakland County International Airport. This grant money comes from the Federal Aviation Agency but is managed by MDOT. It will pay to reconstruct and improve lighting for Taxilanes D, F and Y and renovate the airport apron.

The county will add just over $151,000 to the state Department of Transportation’s funds.

Bush told commissioners on the county commission’s Economic Development and Infrastructure committee that the work is a year overdue.

“The pavement has been pretty rough. We’ve had some complaints about it,” she told the committee last week, adding that the work couldn’t happen without the support of federal grants.

The work will begin next spring on the airport’s north side and will be done in phases over four months so the nearly 400 airplanes kept at the airport will remain accessible to their owners, Bush told commissioners.

The committee also advised the commission to approve a separate, nearly $2.2 million MDOT grant to reimburse the airport for purchased snow-removal equipment and land to add to a protection zone for Runway 27L and renovate the pavement for Taxilane M.

The airport is in Waterford Township and is the second-busiest in Michigan.

The commissioners’ general business meeting is 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30 in the auditorium at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac. The full agenda and packet are online at https://oaklandcomi.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1302/files/agenda/11994.

By MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — When he was elected the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee in June, Rep. Robert Garcia at once gained a powerful perch and a pressing problem.

Colleagues elected Garcia with a mandate to hold President Donald Trump’s administration to account. He’d pitched himself as an energetic personality who cared about good governance and accountability. But with Democrats locked out of power, he had few tools available to carry out his mission besides strongly worded letters to federal agencies and speeches during committee hearings.

Then came a renewed burst of public attention to the case of Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s vow to release documents related to the late sex trafficker. As Republicans faced mounting public pressure from conservative activists and voters after Trump backtracked on that promise, Garcia saw an opening.

“If he can betray the American public about this, he can betray and lie to the public about anything,” Garcia said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It all goes together. The Epstein files case shines a light on how Donald Trump is only out for himself.”

How Democrats staged an ambush on Epstein issue

Garcia in July coordinated Oversight Democrats to force a surprise vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein — and it worked. Republicans narrowly backed the subpoenas at a subcommittee hearing. Democrats similarly pushed Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., in August to subpoena the executors of the Epstein estate for documents.

Garcia dismissed the first tranche of more than 33,000 documents from the Justice Department in September as inadequate, mostly public information that lacked a “client list” of Epstein’s purported associates.

The Epstein estate, meanwhile, provided a book of messages compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. That book contained a poem and alleged signature from Trump with a sexually suggestive drawing. Democrats immediately published the page online and pointed to it as reason to investigate Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s activities. The estate has shared more information since, including Epstein’s flight logs, personal schedules and financial ledgers.

The burst of attention gave Democrats, still grappling with their party’s failure in last year’s election and divided on a path forward, a jolt of energy and potential blueprint for navigating Trump’s second term.

“I think you’re going to see us take that kind of aggressive approach in the work that we have ahead,” Garcia said.

Commanding the spotlight

The Oversight Committee, led by Comer, is one of the most powerful in Congress, with broad leeway to investigate nearly anything. Lawmakers have long used the panel’s clout to command attention and investigate scandals inside and outside the government.

Garcia has sought to use his position as the committee’s ranking Democrat to weave his party’s disparate stances on Trump, affordability, corruption and democracy into a single message. Oversight Democrats have also sought information on the treatment of U.S. citizens by the Department of Homeland Security, gifts and payments to administration officials and the administration’s response to natural disasters.

“I continue to think this is the most corrupt administration in American history, and we have a huge responsibility to investigate that corruption and to also try to make government work better for working people,” Garcia said.

Garcia has also been a critic of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to delay the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, a Democratic congresswoman-elect from Arizona. Johnson says Grijalva can’t be sworn in until the government shutdown ends and legislative work resumes in the House. But Garcia and other Democrats say Johnson’s real aim is to delay a vote on legislation that would broaden the subpoena for the Epstein files.

As Democrats revamp their media strategy, Garcia has encouraged Oversight Democrats to engage in new digital media to boost the party’s message. He’s also been meeting with government reform groups to craft legislation around transparency that they hope to put in front of voters next year.

“I think on oversight we have a responsibility to gather the information and then to put it out to the court of public opinion, especially in front of Trump’s voters,” he said.

A fraught relationship with the Republican majority

Oversight hearings have devolved into shouting matches repeatedly during this Congress, reflecting the near-total breakdown of bipartisan relations on the committee.

Comer, the Republican chair, said it was “appalling” for Democrats to release the Birthday Book sketch and accused them of engaging in “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information” to imply without evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s actions.

Comer has largely directed the Republican majority to investigate issues that dovetail with the Trump administration’s priorities, like the state of crime in cities and states across the country, former President Joe Biden’s age and alleged misconduct by nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Garcia has opted to focus on the Trump family and Democrats’ priorities rather than respond to GOP investigations.

“If we’re going to actually save this democracy and restore the American public’s trust and move forward post-Trump’s presidency, we have to take on the current grift that this man is doing on the country,” Garcia said.

After Democrats made another attempt at a surprise committee vote — this time to subpoena the head of the Federal Communications Commission for comments about the suspension of late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel — Comer and Garcia brokered a bipartisan invitation for FCC Chair Brendan Carr to testify on a range of issues.

But Comer, a close Trump ally, also called Garcia “a real big drama queen,” after which Garcia accused him of being homophobic.

Garcia says his identity as a gay immigrant and naturalized citizen has influenced his leadership style and outlook on the country, especially as the Trump administration pursues its hardline immigration agenda.

“I always say that immigrants who are naturalized are some of the most patriotic people we have in this country, because we all have to fight for those rights that many folks are born with,” said Garcia, who became a U.S. citizen in his 20s. “It built a drive to try and make this country better and that drives me in my oversight work.”

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After waiting more than four decades to clear his name in a friend’s 1980 killing, Subramanyam Vedam was set to walk free from a Pennsylvania prison this month.

Vedam and Thomas Kinser were the 19-year-old children of Penn State University faculty. Vedam was the last person seen with Kinser and was twice convicted of killing him, despite a lack of witnesses or motive.

In August, a judge threw out the conviction after Vedam’s lawyers found new ballistics evidence that prosecutors had never disclosed.

As his sister prepared to bring him home on Oct. 3, the thin, white-haired Vedam was instead taken into federal custody over a 1999 deportation order. The 64-year-old, who legally came to the U.S. from India when he was 9 months old, now faces another daunting legal fight.

Amid the Trump Administration’s focus on mass deportations, Vedam’s lawyers must persuade an immigration court that a 1980s drug conviction should be outweighed by the years he wrongly spent in prison. For a time, immigration law allowed people who had reformed their lives to seek such waivers. Vedam never pursued it then because of the murder conviction.

“He was someone who’s suffered a profound injustice,” said immigration lawyer Ava Benach. “(And) those 43 years aren’t a blank slate. He lived a remarkable experience in prison.”

Vedam earned several degrees behind bars, tutored hundreds of fellow inmates and went nearly half a century with just a single infraction, involving rice brought in from the outside.

His lawyers hope immigration judges will consider the totality of his case. The administration, in a brief filed Friday, opposes the effort. So Vedam remains at an 1,800-bed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in central Pennsylvania.

“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email about the case.

‘Mr. Vedam, where were you born?’

After his initial conviction was thrown out, Vedam faced an unusual set of questions at his 1988 retrial.

“Mr. Vedam, where were you born?” Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar asked. “How frequently would you go back to India?

“During your teenage years, did you ever get into meditation?”

Gopal Balachandran, the Penn State law professor who won the reversal, believes the questions were designed to alienate him from the all-white jury, which returned a second guilty verdict.

The Vedams were among the first Indian families in the area known as “Happy Valley,” where his father had come as a postdoctoral fellow in 1956. An older daughter was born in State College, but “Subu,” as he was known, was born when the family was back in India in 1961.

They returned to State College for good before his first birthday, and became the family that welcomed new members of the Indian diaspora to town.

“They were fully engaged. My father loved the university. My mother was a librarian, and she helped start the library,” said the sister, Saraswathi Vedam, 68, a midwifery professor in Vancouver, British Columbia.

While she left for college in Massachusetts, Subu became swept up in the counterculture of the late 1970s, growing his hair long and dabbling in drugs while taking classes at Penn State.

One day in December 1980, Vedem asked Kinser for a ride to nearby Lewisburg to buy drugs. Kinser was never seen again, although his van was found outside his apartment. Nine months later, hikers found his body in a wooded area miles away.

Vedam was detained on drug charges while police investigated, and was ultimately charged with murder. He was convicted in 1983 and sentenced to life without parole. To resolve the drug case, he pleaded no contest to four counts of selling LSD and a theft charge. The 1988 retrial offered no reprieve from his situation.

Although the defense long questioned the ballistics evidence in the case, the jury, which heard that Vedam had bought a .25-caliber gun from someone, never heard that an FBI report suggested the bullet wound was too small to have been fired from that gun. Balachandran only found that report as he dug into the case in 2023.

After hearings on the issue, a Centre County judge threw out the conviction and the district attorney decided this month not to retry the case.

Trump officials oppose the petition

Benach, the immigration lawyer, often represents clients trying to stay in the U.S. despite an earlier infraction. Still, she finds the Vedam case “truly extraordinary” given the constitutional violations involved.

“Forty-three years of wrongful imprisonment more than makes up for the possession with intent to distribute LSD when he was 20 years old,” she said.

Vedam could spend several more months in custody before the Board of Immigration Appeals decides whether to reopen the case. ICE officials, in a brief Friday, said the clock ran out years ago.

“He has provided no evidence nor argument to show he has been diligent in pursuing his rights as it pertains to his immigration status,” Katherine B. Frisch, an assistant chief counsel, wrote.

Saraswathi Vedam is saddened by the latest delay, but said her brother remains patient.

“He, more than anybody else, knows that sometimes things don’t make sense,” she said. “You have to just stay the course and keep hoping that truth and justice and compassion and kindness will win.”

Oakland ISD administrator Dwight Levens Jr. has been awarded the 2025 Exemplary Service and Innovation for Technological Advancement Award.

This national award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and innovation in advancing educational technology.

Levens, Jr. is the chief technology and information officer for Oakland Schools, which serves over 175,000 students and 40,000 educators across 28 public school districts.

Levens’ team is responsible for instructional technology coaching and infrastructure modernization to cybersecurity and statewide application support.

The department’s initiatives include the AI Collective, which explores artificial intelligence applications in education in all 28 districts.
“Dwight’s leadership has fostered a culture where operational excellence meets educational innovation,” said Oakland Schools Superintendent Kenneth Gutman. “Oakland Schools Technology Services exemplifies the very mission of an educational service agency: to deliver visionary leadership and equitable access to high-quality services that improve outcomes for all learners.”

By Summer Ballentine, MediaNews Group

About 1,200 workers at General Motors Co.’s Detroit-area all-electric plant will be laid off as the company downsizes to a single shift in response to the slowing U.S. electric vehicle market.

The company also will cut 550 jobs at its joint-venture Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Ohio, with another 850 slated for temporary layoff. The Ultium Cells’ Tennessee plant will temporarily lay off 700 workers.

The layoffs reflect a rapid pullback in EV production as GM adjusts to a U.S. EV market no longer bolstered by $7,500 tax credits for buyers and lessees that expired last month. Automakers also expect to soon be free of expensive government fines for greenhouse gas emissions that pushed EV manufacturing ahead of market demand. Both policy changes were pushed by President Donald Trump.

“In response to slower near-term EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity,” according to a company statement. “Despite these changes, GM remains committed to our U.S. manufacturing footprint, and we believe our investments and dedication to flexible operations will make GM more resilient and capable of leading through change. Impacted employees may be eligible for SUB pay and benefits in accordance with the National GM-UAW Agreement.”

GM on Wednesday said its all-electric Factory Zero Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, which went offline this week, will remain shut down until Nov. 24 when it will run two shifts until the holiday break. It will only operate one shift when it reopens Jan. 5 after the holidays.

About 2,000 employees will stay on at Factory Zero, spokesperson Kevin Kelly said. Cuts will be based on seniority.

The plant has repeatedly cut shifts and slowed production this year, including axing a shift each for the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Escalade IQ.

Ultium Cells plants in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Warren, Ohio, will pause operations starting Jan. 5 and continuing through at least May, Kelly said.

“During the temporary pause Ultium Cells plans to make upgrades to both facilities to provide greater flexibility,” according to a GM statement. “Ultium Cells will continue to evaluate and adapt production plans based on evolving market needs.”

Kelly said more layoffs are coming at two other sites. GM’s Pontiac Metal Center, a Metro Detroit stamping plant that supplies parts for Factory Zero, will temporarily lay off 45 workers and New York’s Rochester Operations, which makes electric vehicle battery cooling lines supplied to Factory Zero, will temporarily idle 74 employees. Both actions will take effect Nov. 17.

The moves come as battery manufacturers ― including the Detroit Three ― scale back plans for EV battery production, citing tepid demand and a sharply changing regulatory environment under the Trump administration.

Ford Motor Co. has delayed production plans at major battery plants it has a stake in, while a Stellantis NV partnership isn’t moving forward with major parts of its originally-planned battery factory footprint. Numerous battery projects have been scrapped, delayed or mothballed.

Automakers are in many cases rethinking their entire game plan for EVs under Trump, pivoting more to hybrids and big-engine trucks, pausing EV assembly lines, and in some instances ― including with GM ― altogether stripping EV-related production equipment out of factories.

Aidan Hutchinson, the homegrown heart and soul of the Detroit Lions’ defense, has agreed to a four-year contract extension with the team, his agent announced via social media Wednesday morning.

Financial terms have not been released.

Hutchinson, still just 25 years old, was the No. 2 pick out of Michigan in the 2022 NFL Draft and becomes the first member of general manager Brad Holmes’ second draft class to receive a significant contract extension.

Over his first two seasons, Hutchinson appeared in all 37 games (including playoffs) for Detroit and averaged 10½ sacks during the regular season, finishing as the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2022 and making his first Pro Bowl in 2023 after an 11.5-sack, 121-pressure campaign.

To begin the 2024 season, Hutchinson cemented himself as one of the NFL’s best pass rushers. At the time of his injury, which occurred after the Lions’ Week 5 bye, Hutchinson led the NFL in pressures (45) and sacks (7½). He remained the NFL’s pressure leader until Week 8, when his total was surpassed by Nick Bosa (San Francisco 49ers).

“Every time you watch him, he gets better and better and I was pretty blown away last night,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said after Hutchinson recorded a career-high 4.5 sacks in a Week 2 loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season.

“He’s a force. He’s a force. … He’s just relentless, he’s powerful, he’s explosive.”

Despite the severity of his injury, which required immediate surgery at a Dallas-area hospital, Hutchinson remained adamant he would be able to return for the Super Bowl, if the Lions had been able to make it that far. Campbell repeatedly warned against such optimism, but noted, “If anybody can come back from this, it would be Aidan.” The point ultimately became moot as the Lions fell to the Washington Commanders, 45-31, in the NFC’s divisional round.

Still, as highlighted by Campbell’s comments, Hutchinson’s dedicated work ethic is the shining example of what the Lions want their players to be.

Shortly before Detroit’s 2024 opener, former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said of Hutchinson, “Hutch has had a tremendous offseason. He had a tremendous training camp, and now he’s at the point that he needs to set his sights at being, if not the best player defensively in this league, to one of the best players — which he is, but now it’s time to look at himself as the best player.”

Since graduating from Dearborn Divine Child High School, Hutchinson has been at the forefront of reviving two local programs. In Hutchinson’s senior year at Michigan (2021), the Wolverines snapped an eight-game losing streak against rival Ohio State — a 42-27 victory at Michigan Stadium in which Hutchinson sacked Buckeyes quarterback C.J. Stroud three times — and a 17-year drought as Big Ten champions, reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history.

With his multi-sack performance against Ohio State, Hutchinson set Michigan’s single-season sack record (14), a distinction previously owned by his father, Chris. He was named a unanimous All-American and finished as runner-up for the Heisman Trophy.

Two years later, Hutchinson helped propel Detroit to its first division title in 30 years as the Lions won two playoff games — doubling their total (one) from 1957-2022 — en route to an NFC Championship appearance, where the Lions came up short by way of a furious second-half comeback by the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium.

Though Hutchinson didn’t necessarily grow up donning the Honolulu blue — “My dad’s from Texas, so he was never a big Lions fan,” he said last year — he acknowledged the surreal nature of the team’s turnaround ahead of the NFC title game.

“Growing up here, you grow up with a lot of the ‘Same Old Lions’ stuff, and a lot of the tragedy and whatever you want to call it,” Hutchinson said. “I see videos of little kids (excited about the Lions), and just like, seeing that generation growing up with this Lions team and the Lions teams to come, it’s just cool to have two different perspectives on it and to see kind of both sides of the coin.”

Entering the 2022 draft, Hutchinson was long believed to be the obvious No. 1 pick before Jacksonville ultimately chose to select Georgia pass rusher Travon Walker. Though Walker has steadily improved into a really good player, he has yet to exhibit the sky-high potential of Hutchinson. And he probably won’t be getting paid like him either.