By MARCO DI MARCO and DAVID KEYTON

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

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

Most of the previous eruptions have subsided within days.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keyton reported from Berlin.

By JIM SALTER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kott joined the Warren Police Department in 2011.

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

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

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

By PHILIP MARCELO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Haas is the first known defendant to seek such relief.

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

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

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

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press

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

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

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

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

President-elect Donald Trump

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

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

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

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

Pete Hegseth, nominee for secretary of defense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linda McMahon, nominee for secretary of education

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brevetti confirmed Linda and Vince McMahon are separated.

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

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

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

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

SpaceX didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

rkogan@chicagotribune.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But that might be a good thing, he said.

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

The proposed plans

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

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

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

Here’s how the four major proposals differ:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s next?

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

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

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

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

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

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

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

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

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

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

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

By BRIAN SLODYSKO, JOSHUA GOODMAN and ALAN SUDERMAN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wiles’ job won’t be easy

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

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

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

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

Wiles represented a Venezuelan TV network

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

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

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

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

Gorrín worked to help Venezuelan leaders

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

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

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

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

Wiles is described as a ‘straight shooter’

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

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

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

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

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

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

Foreign clients

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

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

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

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

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

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

Goodman reported from Miami and Suderman from Richmond, Virginia.

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By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

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

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

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

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

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

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

The debates have been ignited or fueled by three developments:

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

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

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

Fluoride is a public health success story but opposition persists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

U.S. towns wrestle with what to do

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

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

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

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

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

“It’s like a total 180,” he said.

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

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

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

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

Debates have become heated

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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By ISABELLA VOLMERT, Associated Press

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

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

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

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

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

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

States that gained women in legislatures

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

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

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

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

States that lost women in legislatures

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why it matters

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

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

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

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

By MARTHA MENDOZA, BRIAN SLODYSKO and JULIET LINDERMAN, Associated Press

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public late Wednesday.

Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be defense secretary, told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said.

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

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

Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said.

The 22-page police report was released in response to a public records request and offers the first detailed account of what the woman alleged to have transpired — one that is at odds with Hegseth’s version of events. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth.

The woman’s name was not released, and The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

A spokeswoman for the Trump transition said early Thursday that the “report corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”

The report does not say that police found the allegations were false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Investigators were first alerted to the alleged assault, the report said, by a nurse who called them after a patient requested a sexual assault exam. The patient told medical personnel she believed she was assaulted five days earlier but couldn’t remember much about what had happened. She reported something may have been slipped into her drink before ending up in the hotel room where she said the assault occurred.

Police collected the unwashed dress and underwear she had worn that night, the report said.

The woman’s partner, who was staying at the hotel with her, told police that he was worried about her that night after she didn’t come back to their room. At 2 a.m., he went to the hotel bar, but she wasn’t there. She made it back a few hours later, apologizing that she “must have fallen asleep.” A few days later, she told him she had been sexually assaulted.

The woman, who helped organize the California Federation of Republican Women gathering at which Hegseth spoke, told police that she had witnessed the TV anchor acting inappropriately throughout the night and saw him stroking multiple women’s thighs. She texted a friend that Hegseth was giving off a “creeper” vibe, according to the report.

After the event, the woman and others attended an after-party in a hotel suite where she said she confronted Hegseth, telling him that she “did not appreciate how he treated women,” the report states.

A group of people, including Hegseth and the woman, decamped for the hotel’s bar. That’s when “things got fuzzy,” the woman told police.

She remembered having a drink at the bar with Hegseth and others, the police report states. She also told police that she argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool, an account that is supported by a hotel staffer who was sent to handle the disturbance and spoke to police, according to the report.

Soon, she told police, she was inside a hotel room with Hegseth, who took her phone and blocked the door with his body so that she could not leave, according to the report. She also told police she remembered “saying ‘no’ a lot,” the report said.

Her next memory was of lying on a couch or bed with a bare-chested Hegseth hovering over her, his dog tags dangling, the report states. Hegseth served in the National Guard, rising to the rank of major.

After Hegseth finished, she recalled he threw a towel at her and asked if she was “OK,” the report states. She told police she did not recall how she got back to her own hotel room and had since suffered from nightmares and memory loss.

At the time of the alleged assault, Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his third wife, according to court records and social media posts by Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after infidelity by Hegseth, according to court records.

Hegseth, who joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014 before becoming co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” left the network after Trump announced his intention to nominate him.

Hegseth said he attended an after party and drank beer but did not consume liquor, and acknowledged being “buzzed” but not drunk.

He said he met the woman at the hotel bar, and she led him by the arm back to his hotel room, which surprised him because he initially had no intention of having sex with her, the report said.

Hegseth told investigators that the sexual encounter that followed was consensual, adding that he explicitly asked more than once if she was comfortable. Hegseth said in the morning the woman “showed early signs of regret,” and he assured her that he wouldn’t tell anyone about the encounter.

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

Slodysko reported from Washington and Linderman from Baltimore.

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Officials confirmed no one was killed in an explosion at a condominium complex Tuesday night in Lake Orion, and the two people injured remain hospitalized but their conditions were improving as of late Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s an absolute miracle, an absolute miracle — if you’ve seen this scene — (that) currently we’re talking about no fatalities,” Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon from Orion Township Hall.

Fire Chief Ryan Allen said an investigation continues into the cause and origin of the explosion at the Keatington New Town Association and is expected to take “a little over a week.” The explosion destroyed 18 units, displacing multiple residents, and caused damage to about a dozen more, Allen said.

First responders were dispatched to the two-story building on Pine Ridge Court between Joslyn and Baldwin roads after the explosion occurred around 6:30 p.m., officials said.

Little information has been released yet on the two people injured, but Allen said one was in non-critical, stable condition and the other in guarded condition which “is between serious and stable condition.”

According to Consumers Energy Vice President Christopher Fultz, crews found no abnormalities in the system from the gas main to the meter which is the extent of the utility company’s responsibility. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said a resident reported she had detected the smell of gas just before the explosion and is part of the investigation.

Allen reminds residents that if they ever have concerns about a possible gas leak to exit the home and contact the fire department by calling either the emergency or non-emergency number.

Barnett noted that there’s been “an incredible show of support” from the community in response to what he described as “a horrific incident.” And it’s what can be expected, he said.

“I’d put our community against any community when it comes to things like this. We step up,” he said. “It’s horrible what happened, but if ever (something like this) happens, you’re lucky if it happens in Orion Township.”

Victims in need of immediate support are encouraged to call the American Red Cross at 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or Orion Township offices at 248-391-0304 ext. 2009.

Those interested in helping can provide monetary donations through Love INC of Northern Oakland County by calling 248-693-4357 or online at https://loveincofnoc.org/.

Clothing and food donations can be dropped off at Woodside Bible Church, located in Canterbury Village, 2500 Joslyn Road. Those in need of food can visit Woodside’s Village Food Pantry, also located in Canterbury Village, at 2325 Joslyn Court. Reach the pantry by calling 248–391-1900.

Bouchard cautions residents that it’s likely there will be scammers attempting to profit through false charities, so only donate to organizations listed above and any others listed on social media pages for Orion Township or the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Tribune News Service contributed to this report.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge who was nominated by Donald Trump says it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing” if the president-elect hands out mass pardons to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election, a rare instance of judicial commentary on a politically divisive subject.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was appointed to the bench in June 2019, expressed his criticism during a hearing Tuesday at which he agreed to postpone a Capitol riot defendant’s trial until after Trump returns to the White House in January.

During his campaign for a second term as president, Trump repeatedly referred to Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages” and “patriots” and said he “absolutely” would pardon rioters who assaulted police “if they’re innocent.” Trump has suggested he would consider pardoning former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison after a jury convicted him of orchestrating a violent plot to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.

“Blanket pardons for all January 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing, but that’s not my call,” Nichols said, according to a transcript. “And the possibility of some pardons, at least, is a very real thing.”

Nichols is one of over 20 judges who have presided over more than 1,500 cases against people charged in a mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many Capitol riot defendants have asked for post-election delays in their cases, but judges largely have denied their requests and forged ahead with sentencings, guilty pleas and other hearings.

Steve Baker, a writer for a conservative media outlet, pleaded guilty last Tuesday to Capitol riot-related misdemeanors after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper refused to pause the case until after Trump takes office. However, Cooper acknowledged that the case may never reach the punishment stage given the possibility of pardons.

Nichols commented on pardons during a hearing for Jacob Lang, a Capitol riot defendant who is jailed while awaiting a trial in Washington. Within hours of Trump’s victory this month, Lang posted on social media that he and other Jan. 6 “political prisoners” were “finally coming home.”

“There will be no bitterness in my heart as I walk out of these doors in 75 days on inauguration day,” wrote Lang, who was charged several days after the riot with repeatedly attacking police officers.

Nichols, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before working for the Justice Department, said he hasn’t delayed any trial solely on the basis of possible pardons. He noted that his decision to delay Lang’s trial was based in part on matters that they privately discussed under seal.

“I agree very much with the government that there are costs to not proceeding here, both to the trial team, to the witnesses and to the victims, as well as to the public, which has an interest in a determination of guilt or innocence in a case that has been pending as long as this one,” Nichols said.

Several days after the election, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras postponed a Jan. 6 trial that had been scheduled to start on Dec. 2. The defendant, William Pope, argued that his trial would be a waste of the court’s time and resources “because there will never be a sentencing, and I will be free.”

Contreras said he didn’t want to bring in dozens of prospective jurors for a two-week trial “just to have it go for naught.”

“Of course, it’s speculative, but there is a real possibility of that happening,” the judge added, according to a transcript.

A prosecutor objected to the delay, saying that “the speculative nature of what Mr. Pope hopes will be a pardon is not a sufficient reason to continue this trial.”

Judges have largely echoed that argument. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton refused to delay a Nov. 8 sentencing hearing for Anna Lichnowski, a Florida woman who believes she would be a good candidate for a pardon. Walton, who sentenced Lichnowski to 45 days in jail, wrote that the possibility of pardons is “irrelevant to the Court’s obligation to carry out the legal responsibilities of the Judicial Branch.”