The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a body was found Thursday afternoon in the Clinton River near Shadyside Park in Mount Clemens.
Investigators were not able to provide much information as the corpse was decomposed. It was not immediately known if the remains were a male or female, or if foul play was suspected, deputies said.
Someone called 911 to report the body in the river under the Southbound Gratiot Avenue bridge around 2:25 p.m. The caller said two feet were visible in the middle of the river.
“He also stated there was a lot of debris in the water,” deputies said in a news release.
According to the release, deputies responded and confirmed a body was located underwater. The Sheriff’s Marine Division arrived to assist and remove the remains from the water.
Investigators said the body will be transported to the Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The investigation is ongoing, and further updates will be provided as they become available.
The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a body that was found in the Clinton River under the Southbound Gratiot bridge in Mount Clemens Thursday afternoon.
(MACOMB DAILY FILE PHOTO)
You might want to pass on the breakfast cereals. A new study found that ready-to-eat cereals marketed to children had concerning increases in fat, sodium, and sugar.
The study looked at more than 1,000 cereals released between 2010 and 2023. It also found decreases in protein and fiber. Ready-to-eat cereals are the top breakfast choice for U.S. children, making these findings particularly important for the overall nutritional impact on children and public health.'
The cereals were specifically marketed for children ages 5-12, the study notes.
The study notes that a single serving of cereals now contains 45% of the daily recommended limit of added sugar.
"These trends suggest a potential prioritization of taste over nutritional quality in product development, contributing to childhood obesity and long-term cardiovascular health risks," researchers said.
The study was conducted by researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Kentucky, and Louisiana State University.
A former personal assistant to Sean "Diddy" Combs said she has such severe PTSD from working for him for a year that a question as simple as "where are you?" was triggering to her.
She's testifying under the pseudonym "Mia" in Combs' ongoing federal criminal trial. He has been charged with sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering and has pleaded not guilty.
It's the second day Mia has been on the witness stand in Combs' trial, which is closing out its third week. For more of her 2-day testimony, Mia has kept her head down, making it also impossible to view her face.
During her testimony on Thursday, Mia detailed several times in which she alleged Combs sexually assaulted and physically attacked her. She also spoke about violence she witnessed firsthand from Combs towards his then-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura Fine, known as "Cassie."
Cassie testified about the alleged assaults she endured throughout their decade-long relationship during the first week of trial.
But Mia is painting a picture of the abuse she claims she experienced as one of Combs' employees, with the jury seeing a series of texts from Combs during her 8-year employment in which he threatened her. She said she hasn't been able to work since leaving her job with Combs because she suffers from severe PTSD.
Mia said her employment, which involved a "dream" role working for Combs' now-shuttered production company Revolt Films, was a roller coaster of feeling grateful for the opportunities to work with the prominent music mogul while having to "tiptoe" around his appetite for violence and control.
The woman said she grew close with Cassie, with whom she is still in contact, during her time working for Combs, but it ultimately became a catalyst in what she described as an abusive and hectic environment.
Mia said there were times when she was caught in the middle of their relationship, with Combs often threatening her when he couldn't get a hold of Cassie or the two women running and hiding from him during a period of rage.
Mia said she never reported the sexual assaults or other violent incidents to authorities because she feared for her career and her life. She also said she thought that Combs was more powerful than the police at the time.
Mia said, He would have destroyed my reputation. I was scared of him.
After she left the job in 2017, Mia hired employment attorneys to help her negotiate severance and said Combs' chief of staff at the time told her he felt like she had stabbed him in the back.
The next time Mia spoke with Combs after they reached a settlement was when she reached out after the mother of three of his children, Kim Porter, died suddenly in 2018.
However, Mia said Combs tried to get in touch with her on multiple occasions after Cassie filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2023.
She claimed Combs' longtime security guard, known as D-Roc, contacted her for the first after not speaking for two years and that he brought up the lawsuit, stating he thought it was "crazy" and that Combs and Cassie "would just fight like a normal couple."
Mia said that when Combs tried to call her, she threw her phone as far away as she could because it was so triggering.
D-Roc would repeatedly call her or text her over the next couple of months, saying Combs wanted to speak with her. Mia said she believed he was trying to make sure she wasn't a threat.
At one point, D-Roc asked for her address, which she said she declined to give him.
The jury was shown messages Combs sent to Mia last year, which she didn't respond to. In the messages, he said he "just needed to talk."
Defense attorneys question Mia's positivity on social media
Combs' defense attorneys began cross-examining Mia on Friday and pointed out multiple photos and comments she posted on her Instagram in which she praised Combs or seemed thankful for him.
Mia claimed Combs fans followed her on social media, and she didnt want her family to know what she was going through, referring to the alleged abuse.
In one post shown by the defense, Combs was wishing her a happy birthday and said "ps sorry I was acting crazy last night" in the caption. Mia said, "He had threatened my life on the phone the night before and I guess this was his apology."
Mia told the defense that there were times when things were going so good with Combs, she would almost forget the abuse.
The defense asked Mia why she didn't reach out to her friends outside of her job to seek help. She said the job was demanding that she didn't have time and even had to ask permission to attend her grandmother's funeral.
This is a developing story that will continue to be updated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.
A White House official confirmed the investigation Friday and said the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number, the newspaper reported.
Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles that may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles.
The FBI warned in a public service announcement this month of a “malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which unidentified “malicious actors” have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials.
The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.
“Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Friday.
It is unclear how someone gained access to Wiles’ phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate.
Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump’s campaign before taking on the lynchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts.
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
FILE – White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens during a cabinet meeting at the White House, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
What’s the deal with the Chelsea Chop? Are you gardeners familiar with it?
After hearing about it recently, I did a bit of research. The earliest reference I could find dates back to the early 2000s, so it might appear I’m late to the party, but I’m not — and you might not be, either.
After all, the pruning method, named for the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, which is held every May in the U.K., is one I’ve been practicing and advocating for all along, without the garden show tie-in. But things with catchy names tend to take on a life of their own, as the Chelsea Chop has on social media.
And that’s a good thing because it popularizes a useful technique.
This Aug. 7, 2021, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows Joe Pye weed at the center of a garden bed surrounded by black-eyes Susans and purple coneflowers on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
This June 3, 2023, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows yarrow in bloom on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
This Sept. 9, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows asters in bloom on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
This June 3, 2023, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows salvia in bloom on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
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This Aug. 7, 2021, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows Joe Pye weed at the center of a garden bed surrounded by black-eyes Susans and purple coneflowers on Long Island, N.Y. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
The method involves pruning certain perennials — those with clumping roots, like coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), goldenrod (Solidago), sneezeweed (Helenium), Salvia and yarrow (Achillea) — by cutting each stem back by one-third to one-half its height in spring. Cuts should be made on the diagonal, just above a leaf node.
The “chop” forces plants to produce bushier growth, resulting in sturdier, tighter and fuller plants that aren’t as likely to grow leggy, require staking or flop over by the end of the season. It also delays blooming, which can benefit the late-summer garden.
You might get creative and prune only alternate stems so that some bloom earlier and others later — or prune only half of your plants — to extend the blooming season.
Do not attempt this with one-time bloomers, single-stemmed plants or those with woody stems; the amputations would be homicidal to the current season’s flowers.
When should you chop?
Gardeners should consider their climate and prune when their plants have grown to half their expected seasonal height, whenever that may be. (The Chelsea Chop is done at different times in different places, depending on plant emergence and growth.)
A variation for late-summer and fall bloomers
To take things a step further, some late-summer and fall bloomers, like Joe Pye weed, chrysanthemum and aster, would benefit from three annual chops.
In my zone 7, suburban New York garden, that means cutting them back by one-third each in the beginning of June, middle of June and middle of July. Customize the schedule for your garden by shifting one or two weeks earlier per warmer zone and later per cooler zone, taking the season’s growth and size of your plants into account. Make the first cuts when plants reach half their expected size, the second two weeks later and the third about a month after that.
I’d like this fall-plant pruning tip to catch on as well as the Chelsea Chop has. Maybe I should call it the Damiano Downsize and see what happens.
Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.
This May 20, 2025, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows the pruning of the top third of a chrysanthemum plant. Three such carefully timed prunings each year will result in fuller, sturdier plants. (Jessica Damiano via AP)
Chef Phila Lorn was not necessarily aiming for “quote-unquote authentic” Cambodian food when he opened Mawn in his native Philadelphia two years ago. So when he approached some Cambodian teen patrons, he braced himself for questioning.
“Someone’s going to say something like, ‘That’s not how my mom makes her oxtail soup,’” Lorn said. “So I walk up to the table. I’m like, ‘How is everything?’ And the kid looks up to me and he goes, ‘It doesn’t even matter, dude. So glad you’re here.’”
It was at that moment that Lorn realized Mawn — the phonetic spelling of the Khmer word for “chicken” — was more than a noodle shop. It meant representation.
In June, he will be representing his dual cultures — Cambodian and Philly — at his first James Beard Awards, as a nominee for Best Emerging Chef. In the food world, it’s akin to getting nominated for the Academy Awards.
Cambodian restaurants may not be as commonplace in the U.S. as Chinese takeout or sushi spots. And Cambodian food is often lazily lumped in with the food of its Southeast Asian neighbors, despite its own distinctness. But in recent years, enterprising Cambodian American chefs have come into their own, introducing traditional dishes or putting their own twist on them.
Many of them were raised in families who fled the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, which began 50 years ago and killed about 1.7 million people. Since then, the Cambodian community in the U.S. has grown and set down roots.
Through food, these chefs are putting the attention back on Cambodian heritage and culture, rather than that traumatic history.
Dr. Leakhena Nou, a sociology professor at California State University, Long Beach who has studied social anxiety among post-Khmer Rouge generations, says the Cambodian diaspora is often seen by others too narrowly through the lens of victimhood. In 2022, she publicly opposed California legislation that focused only on genocide for a K-12 curriculum on Cambodian culture.
“It’s a part of their history so they shouldn’t run away from it but at the same time they should force others to understand that that’s not the only part of their heritage, their historical identity,” she said.
What is Cambodian cuisine?
Cambodian food has sometimes been hastily labeled as a mild mix of Thai and Vietnamese with some Chinese and Indian influence. But, it has its own native spices and flavors that have been used throughout Southeast Asia. Khmer food emphasizes seafood and meats, vegetables, noodles, rice and fermentation. Salty and sour are prevalent tastes, Nou says.
Chef Phila Lorn holds a bowl of the The Mawn Noodle soup at his restaurant, Mawn, in Philadelphia, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
“It’s actually a very healthy diet for the most part in terms of fresh vegetables. Cambodians love to eat fresh vegetables dipped with some sauce,” Nou said.
Signature dishes include amok, a fish curry; lok lak, stir-fried marinated beef; and samlar koko, a soup made using seasonal produce. Nou recalls her father making it with pork bone broth, fish, fresh coconut milk, lemongrass, vegetables and even wildflowers.
Cambodian migration to the U.S.
It was a half-century ago, on April 15, 1975, that the communist Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. For the next four years, an estimated one-quarter of the population was wiped out due to starvation, execution and illness.
Refugees came in waves to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. Most took on low-level entry jobs with few language barriers, Nou said. These included manufacturing, meatpacking and agricultural labor. Many worked in Chinese restaurants and doughnut shops.
The U.S. Cambodian population has jumped 50% in the last 20 years to an estimated 360,000 people, according to the Census 2023 American Community Survey.
Cooking Cambodian American
Lorn’s family settled in Philadelphia in 1985. The only child born in the U.S., he was named after the city (but pronounced pee-LAH’). Like a lot of Asian American kids, Lorn was “the smelly kid” teased for not-American food in his lunch. But, he said, defending his lunchbox made him stronger. And he got the last laugh.
“It’s cool now to be 38 and have that same lunchbox (food) but on plates and we’re selling it for $50 a plate,” said Lorn, who opened Mawn with wife Rachel after they both had worked at other restaurants.
Customers wait in line for the Mawn restaurant to open for lunch in Philadelphia, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Indeed, besides popular noodle soups, Mawn has plates like the $60 steak and prohok, a 20-ounce ribeye with Cambodian chimichurri. Prohok is Cambodian fermented fish paste. Lorn’s version has lime juice, kulantro, Thai eggplants and roasted mudfish.
It sounds unappetizing, Lorn admits, “but everyone who takes a piece of rare steak, dips and eats it is just like, ‘OK, so let me know more about this food.’”
May, which is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and when Cambodia conducts a Day of Remembrance, is also when Long Beach has Cambodian Restaurant Week. The city is home to the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Cambodia.
Chad Phuong, operator of Battambong BBQ pop-up, was a participant.
Phuong came to Long Beach as a child after fleeing the Khmer Rouge, which murdered his father. After high school, he worked at a Texas slaughterhouse and learned about cutting meats and barbecue. In 2020, he pivoted from working in the medical field to grilling.
Known as “Cambodian Cowboy,” he has been profiled locally and nationally for brisket, ribs and other meats using a dry rub with Cambodian Kampot pepper, “one of the most expensive black peppers in the world.” There’s also sausage with fermented rice and sides like coconut corn.
The pitmaster recently started mentoring younger vendors. Contributing to the community feels like building a legacy.
“It just gives me a lot of courage to present my food,” Phuong said. “We don’t need to talk about the past or the trauma. Yes, it happened, but we’re moving on. We want something better.”
More Cambodian-run establishments have flourished. In 2023, Lowell, Massachusetts, mayor Sokhary Chau, the country’s first Cambodian American mayor, awarded a citation to Red Rose restaurant for being a Beard semifinalist. This year, Koffeteria bakery in Houston, Sophon restaurant in Seattle and chef Nite Yun of San Francisco’s Lunette Cambodia earned semifinalist nods.
Chef Phila Lorn walks through his restaurant, Mawn, after opening for the day in Philadelphia, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Lorn, an admirer of San Francisco’s Yun, says he still feels imposter syndrome.
“I feel like I’m more Ray Liotta than Nite Yun,” said Lorn. “Whether we win or not, to me, honestly, I won already.”
Meanwhile, he is preparing to open a Southeast Asian oyster bar called Sao. It’s not intended to be Cambodian, just a reflection of him.
“I don’t want to be pigeonholed,” Lorn said. “And it’s not me turning from my people. It’s just me keeping it real for my people.”
Chef Phila Lorn speaks during an interview at his restaurant, Mawn, in Philadelphia, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
On the last day of patient care at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Marquette, Michigan, a port town on the shore of Lake Superior, dozens of people crowded into the parking lot and alley, holding pink homemade signs that read “Thank You!” and “Forever Grateful.”
“Oh my God,” physician assistant Anna Rink gasped, as she and three other Planned Parenthood employees finally walked outside. The crowd whooped and cheered. Then Rink addressed the gathering.
“Thank you for trusting us with your care,” Rink called out, her voice quavering. “And I’m not stopping here. I’m only going to make it better. I promise. I’m going to find a way.”
“We’re not done!” someone called out. “We’re not giving up!”
But Planned Parenthood of Michigan is giving up on four of its health centers in the state, citing financial challenges. That includes Marquette, the only clinic that provided abortion in the vast, sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. For the roughly 1,100 patients who visit the clinic each year for anything from cancer screenings to contraceptive implants, the next-closest Planned Parenthood will now be a nearly five-hour drive south.
It’s part of a growing trend: At least 17 clinics closed last year in states where abortion remains legal, and another 17 have closed in just the first five months of this year, according to data gathered by ineedana.com. That includes states that have become abortion destinations, like Illinois, and those where voters have enshrined broad reproductive rights into the state constitution, like Michigan.
Experts say the closures indicate that financial and operational challenges, rather than future legal bans, may be the biggest threats to abortion access in states whose laws still protect it.
“These states that we have touted as being really the best kind of versions of our vision for reproductive justice, they too struggle with problems,” said Erin Grant, a co-executive director of the Abortion Care Network, a national membership organization for independent clinics.
“It’s gotten more expensive to provide care, it’s gotten more dangerous to provide care, and it’s just gotten, frankly, harder to provide care, when you’re expected to be in the clinic and then on the statehouse steps, and also speaking to your representatives and trying to find somebody who will fix your roof or paint your walls who’s not going to insert their opinion about health care rights.”
Now, patients will need to drive nearly five hours to the next-closest Planned Parenthood clinic. ((Victoria Tullila for KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS)
But some abortion rights supporters question whether leaders are prioritizing patient care for the most vulnerable populations. Planned Parenthood of Michigan isn’t cutting executive pay, even as it reduces staff by 10% and shuts down brick-and-mortar clinics in areas already facing health care shortages.
“I wish I had been in the room so I could have fought for us, and I could have fought for our community,” said Viktoria Koskenoja, an emergency medicine physician in the Upper Peninsula, who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette. “I just have to hope that they did the math of trying to hurt as few people as possible, and that’s how they made their decision. And we just weren’t part of the group that was going to be saved.”
Why Now?
If a clinic could survive the fall of Roe v. Wade, “you would think that resilience could carry you forward,” said Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation.
But clinic operators say they face new financial strain, including rising costs, limited reimbursement rates, and growing demand for telehealth services. They’re also bracing for the Trump administration to again exclude them from Title X, the federal funding for low- and no-cost family planning services, as the previous Trump administration did in 2019.
PPMI says the cuts are painful but necessary for the organization’s long-term sustainability. The clinics being closed are “our smallest health centers,” said Sarah Wallett, PPMI’s chief medical operating officer. And while the thousands of patients those clinics served each year are important, she said, the clinics’ small size made them “the most difficult to operate.” The clinics being closed offered medication abortion, which is available in Michigan up until 11 weeks of pregnancy, but not procedural abortion.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (a state that’s become a post-Roe v. Wade abortion destination) shuttered four clinics in March, pointing to a “financial shortfall.” Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is now selling its only Manhattan clinic, after closing four clinics last summer due to “compounding financial and political challenges.” And Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, where courts have blocked a near-total abortion ban and abortion is currently legal until 18 weeks of pregnancy, announced it closed two centers as of May 2.
Earlier this spring, the Trump administration began temporarily freezing funds to many clinics, including all Title X providers in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Utah, according to a KFF analysis.
While the current Title X freeze doesn’t yet include Planned Parenthood of Michigan, PPMI’s chief advocacy officer, Ashlea Phenicie, said it would amount to a loss of about $5.4 million annually, or 16% of its budget.
But Planned Parenthood of Michigan didn’t close clinics the last time the Trump administration froze its Title X funding. Its leader said that’s because the funding was stopped for only about two years, from 2019 until 2021, when the Biden administration restored it. “Now we’re faced with a longer period of time that we will be forced out of Title X, as opposed to the first administration,” said PPMI president and CEO Paula Thornton Greear.
And at the same time, the rise of telehealth abortion has put “new pressures in the older-school brick-and-mortar facilities,” said Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor who maps brick-and-mortar clinics across the U.S. that provide abortion.
Until a few years ago, doctors could prescribe abortion pills only in person. Those restrictions were lifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was the Dobbs decision in 2022 that really “accelerated expansions in telehealth,” Myers said, “because it drew all this attention to models of providing abortion services.”
Suddenly, new online providers entered the field, advertising virtual consultations and pills shipped directly to your home. And plenty of patients who still have access to a brick-and-mortar clinic prefer that option. “Put more simply, it’s gotta change their business model,” she said.
Balancing Cost and Care
Historically, about 28% of PPMI’s patients receive Medicaid benefits, according to Phenicie. And, like many states, Michigan’s Medicaid program doesn’t cover abortion, leaving those patients to either pay out-of-pocket or rely on help from abortion funds, several of which have also been struggling financially.
“When patients can’t afford care, that means that they might not be showing up to clinics,” said Fonteno of the National Abortion Federation, which had to cut its monthly budget nearly in half last year, from covering up to 50% of an eligible patient’s costs to 30%. “So seeing a sort of decline in patient volume, and then associated revenue, is definitely something that we’ve seen.”
Meanwhile, more clinics and abortion funds say patients have delayed care because of those rising costs. According to a small November-December 2024 survey of providers and funds conducted by ineedana.com, “85% of clinics reported seeing an increase of clients delaying care due to lack of funding.” One abortion fund said the number of patients who had to delay care until their second trimester had “grown by over 60%.”
Even when non-abortion services like birth control and cervical cancer screenings are covered by insurance, clinics aren’t always reimbursed for the full cost, Thornton Greear said.
“The reality is that insurance reimbursement rates across the board are low,” she said. “It’s been that way for a while. When you start looking at the costs to run a health care organization, from supply costs, etc., when you layer on these funding impacts, it creates a chasm that’s impossible to fill.”
Asked whether Planned Parenthood’s national funding structure needs to change, PPMI CEO Thornton Greear said: “I think that it needs to be looked at, and what they’re able to do. And I know that that is actively happening.”
The Gaps That Telehealth Can’t Fill
When the Marquette clinic’s closure was announced, dozens of patients voiced their concerns in Google reviews, with several saying the clinic had “saved my life,” and describing how they’d been helped after an assault, or been able to get low-cost care when they couldn’t afford other options.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan responded to most comments with the same statement and pointed patients to telehealth in the clinic’s absence:
“Please know that closing health centers wasn’t a choice that was made lightly, but one forced upon us by the escalating attacks against sexual and reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood. We are doing everything we can to protect as much access to care as possible. We know you’re sad and angry — we are, too.
“We know that telehealth cannot bridge every gap; however, the majority of the services PPMI provides will remain available via the Virtual Health Center and PP Direct, including medication abortion, birth control, HIV services, UTI treatment, emergency contraception, gender-affirming care, and yeast infection treatment. Learn more at ppmi.org/telehealth.”
PPMI’s virtual health center is already its most popular clinic, according to the organization, serving more than 10,000 patients a year. And PPMI plans to expand virtual appointments by 40%, including weekend and evening hours.
“For some rural communities, having access to telehealth has made significant changes in their health,” said Wallett, PPMI’s chief medical operating officer. “In telehealth, I can have an appointment in my car during lunch. I don’t have to take extra time off. I don’t have to drive there. I don’t have to find child care.”
Yet even as the number of clinics has dropped nationally, about 80% of clinician-provided abortions are still done by brick-and-mortar clinics, according to the most recent #WeCount report, which looked at 2024 data from April to June.
Hannah Harriman, a nurse with the Marquette County Health Department, previously worked for Planned Parenthood of Marquette for 12 years. ((Victoria Tullila for KFF Health News)/KFF Health News/TNS)
And Hannah Harriman, a Marquette County Health Department nurse who previously spent 12 years working for Planned Parenthood of Marquette, is skeptical of any suggestion that telehealth can replace a rural brick-and-mortar clinic. “I say that those people have never spent any time in the U.P.,” she said, referring to the Upper Peninsula.
Some areas are “dark zones” for cell coverage, she said. And some residents “have to drive to McDonald’s to use their Wi-Fi. There are places here that don’t even have internet coverage. I mean, you can’t get it.”
Telehealth has its advantages, said Koskenoja, the emergency medicine physician who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette, “but for a lot of health problems, it’s just not a safe or realistic way to take care of people.”
She recently had a patient in the emergency room who was having a complication from a gynecological surgery. “She needed to see a gynecologist, and I called the local OB office,” Koskenoja said. “They told me they have 30 or 40 new referrals a month,” and simply don’t have enough clinicians to see all those patients. “So adding in the burden of all the patients that were being seen at Planned Parenthood is going to be impossible.”
Koskenoja, Harriman, and other local health care providers have been strategizing privately to figure out what to do next to help people access everything from Pap smears to IUDs. The local health department can provide Title X family planning services 1½ days a week, but that won’t be enough, Harriman said. And there are a few private “providers in town that offer medication abortion to their patients only — very, very quietly,” she said. But that won’t help patients who don’t have good insurance or are stuck on waitlists.
“It’s going to be a patchwork of trying to fill in those gaps,” Koskenoja said. “But we lost a very functional system for delivering this care to patients. And now, we’re just having to make it up as we go.”
Members of the Marquette, Michigan, community gathered to thank Planned Parenthood staffers on April 23, 2025, as they finished their last day providing services. ((Bobby Anttila)/KFF Health News/TNS)
A Reddit user recently asked for advice on ways to stop thinking about money nonstop.
It’s hard, the user explained, to avoid fixating on personal finances. Comparing yourself to others can be tempting, even though doing so doesn’t feel good or productive.
Other users jumped in to offer tips, such as talking to a therapist, finding a new hobby, scaling back on social media and saving enough for a sufficient safety net.
Financial experts say focusing on your own financial plan is the best way to avoid thinking too much about what other people might be doing.
Make a plan
“Something about having a plan in place takes a lot of the stress off,” says Dwayne Reinike, a certified financial planner and founder of Valiant Financial Planning in Kirkland, Washington.
Similar to how writing down everything on your to-do list can make it easier to sleep at night, he says creating a basic financial plan allows you to relax. That plan can include a budget, retirement goals and other savings targets.
You might hear that the markets are down or concerns about a coming recession, “but it’s OK, because you have a plan,” Reinike says.
Pick one goal to focus on
Picking one goal to focus on — such as saving up for a house or setting limits for spending — can give you a greater sense of control over your financial life, says Stephanie Loeffel, a CFP and founder of Ascend Financial in the Boston area.
If you don’t have a goal to guide you, she says, then it’s easy to bounce between different ideas based on the day’s news. If interest rates fall, you might wonder if you should buy a house. If the stock market fluctuates, you may question whether it’s time to shift your retirement investments.
She recommends zeroing in on what you can control: your own spending, saving and other financial habits.
“You take the emotion out of the equation and it’s easier to not obsess about the noise around you,” Loeffel says.
Designate a specific time to focus on money
Setting aside time at least once a year to map your financial plans can ease your mind the rest of the time.
Use that time to think about what you want to achieve with your money. You can also set short-term and long-term goals, says Reinike.
“If you have your emergency fund set up and on auto-deposit, then you can go a year or so without thinking about it,” he says. (You may want to conduct quick check-ins throughout the year to check for any errors.)
Similarly, a retirement savings account with automatic deposits from your paycheck doesn’t need to be constantly monitored.
If unexpected events pop up, such as a new baby or a job loss, then you can revisit those plans and adjust. Otherwise, you can maintain your current course.
“People tend to make changes when they’re really happy or really upset, and that’s not the time to make changes. It’s the time to stick with the plan you already established,” Reinike says.
Build up savings and pay off debt
Another way to gain more control over your finances is to double down on saving money and paying off debt, Loeffel says. Many of her clients are surprised about their expenses once they start tracking them.
Monitoring your cash flow for six months is a good place to start. Then, make adjustments to eventually achieve a goal of putting around 10% into savings. That can help build up an emergency fund.
“Once you have an emergency fund, you’re not as vulnerable,” Loeffel says.
That makes it easier to worry less about negative events that can hurt your finances.
“It takes away that emotional vulnerability because you have a cushion and you have control,” she says.
Similarly, paying off debt is something you can control. You can make a plan for paying off debt — perhaps using the avalanche or snowball method — then watch your progress as the weeks tick by, Loeffel says.
The avalanche method involves paying the debt with the highest interest rate first. The snowball method refers to building momentum by paying off the smallest debt balances first.
Avoid comparisons to others
“Compare yourself to the you of yesterday, not everyone else,” suggests Reinike.
Just as in sports, you should strive for a personal best — not necessarily doing better than others.
You really can’t compare your financial situation to others based on social media. Posts don’t tell the whole story or how people are funding their lifestyle, Reinikehe adds.
“Everyone’s journey is individualized.”
Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like saving and budgeting, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.
Todd Chrisley says hes planning a return to television after receiving a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
We're blessed to be coming back to television, because we have a much bigger story to tell now than we ever have, Chrisley said Friday during a press conference in Nashville.
Chrisley and his wife, Julie, were convicted of scheming to obtain more than $30 million in fraudulent loans from Atlanta-area banks by submitting falsified financial documents.
At the press conference, Chrisley spoke about his time in prison.
I had nothing to do other than read and work out, he said. So I worked out every morning at 10:45 until noon with my buddies. My walk with Christ became deeper. I talked to my daughter every day, to Chase, to Grayson, and I was able to email with Julie every day.
Despite Julie Chrisley apologizing in court for her role in the scheme, Todd maintained his innocence and suggested her apology was not sincere.
You're placed in a position as a defendant to either bow down and kiss the ass of the Department of Justice and accept responsibility for things you did not do in order to avoid a harsher sentence, he said. The corruption that went on in our case is going to continue to unfold.
Chrisley said hes walking away from the experience with no shame and wants to advocate for others he believes were treated unfairly by the justice system.
I will continue to expose the injustices that go on there and throughout the Bureau of Prisons, he said.
Julie Chrisley did not attend the press conference. Todd said she was at home spending time with family.
The Chrisleys rose to fame through their reality show "Chrisley Knows Best," which aired on USA Network for nearly a decade and showcased the family's lavish lifestyle in suburban Atlanta.
The number of Latinas serving in state legislatures this year marks a new record for Latinas in this level of government. In all, 214 Latinas hold seats in state legislatures nationwide, up from 192 in 2024, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).
Latinas weren’t the only ones to set records in last year’s elections, though. Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander women, as well as women of Native backgrounds, also broke new ground in state legislative elections.
“Across the board, we actually did see a net gain in women’s representation at the state legislative level, which was notable because we did not see that at the congressional level or at the statewide executive level,” Kelly Dittmar, the director of research at CAWP, told The 19th. “When we’re seeing these gains, they’re coming among racially and ethnically diverse women.”
Only White women hold fewer legislative seats this year in 2025 than they did in 2024.
The rise in the number of Latinas serving in state houses, in particular, follows an important political trend in the United States: Latinx voters accounted for nearly half of newly eligible voters in 2024 and Latinas vote at higher rates than Latinx voters overall.
Dittmar noted that early data on the 2024 electorate indicates that the Latinx voting population went up 12 percent last year—mirroring the rate of gains Latinas made in state legislatures.
“The more Latinos we have who are politically both eligible and engaged, the more likely it is that we’re going to see greater representation,” Dittmar said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., arrives to speak during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour event at Arizona State University, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Of the 214 Latinas serving in a state house, 182 are Democrats, 31 are Republicans and one identifies as nonpartisan. Latinas now hold 2.9 percent of state legislative seats nationwide and make up 9.6 percent of the population.
The gains by Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in state legislatures this year were largely for Democratic women legislators. Latinas, on the other hand, saw gains among Democrats and Republicans.
“When you think about opportunities, especially in a year where Republican women actually did fare better, if you look at the net gains among state legislators who are women, Republican women really account for most of the net gain,” Dittmar explained—something particularly pronounced among newly elected Latinas at this level of government. “Among Latinas, we’re seeing at least slightly more partisan diversity. That allows for them to see success in this overall racial and ethnic group, inclusive of both parties doing well.”
Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women also saw a significant increase in their numbers in state legislatures, according to CAWP.
Forty-four women of Native backgrounds currently hold seats in state legislatures, up from 36 in 2023, when they set their record. That amounts to 0.6 percent of state legislative seats; Native women comprise 1.1 percent of the U.S. population.
There are now 107 AAPI women serving in these roles; the previous record, from 2023, was 100.
Black women, who have made the largest gains in politics among women from historically marginalized groups, amount to 399 members in state legislatures, 13 more than last year.
“We’re seeing more and more diversity in terms of race and ethnicity and, in my mind, that is a good thing—it brings more perspectives and lived experiences to the table,” Dittmar said. “It means we’re just moving closer to the representativeness of these bodies that is supposedly promised in a representative democracy.”
From left, Rep. Nelida Avila Pou, D-N.J., Rep.-elect Luz Maria Rivas, D-Calif., Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., and Rep.-elect Emily Elissa Randall, D- Wash., listen during a news conference to introduce newly-elected members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Capitol Hill, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate a details-to-come deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel, which he says will keep the iconic American steelmaker under U.S.-control.
Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as “partial ownership” by Nippon. It’s not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalized or how ownership would be structured.
Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the country’s supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security.
Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect U.S. manufacturing.
U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed “partnership” but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement.
State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. government’s veto power in the form of a “golden share.”
In the absence of clear details or affirmation from the companies involved, the United Steelworkers union, which has long opposed the deal, this week questioned whether the new arrangement makes “any meaningful change” from the initial proposal.
FILE – A person walks past a Nippon Steel Corporation sign at the company headquarters on Jan. 7, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
“Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel’s facilities if it owned the company outright,” the union said in a statement. “We’ve seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.”
The White House did not offer any new details Thursday. U.S. Steel did not respond to messages seeking information. Nippon Steel also declined to comment.
No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of U.S. Steel, as did former President Joe Biden.
Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalization of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of U.S. Steel, once the world’s largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing.
Trump said Sunday he wouldn’t approve the deal if U.S. Steel did not remain under U.S. control and said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh.
In an interview on Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Dan Meuser called the arrangement “strictly an investment, a strategic partnership where it’s American-owned, American run and remains in America.”
However, Meuser said he hadn’t seen the deal and added that “it’s still being structured.”
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. David McCormick came out in favor of the plan, calling it “great” for the domestic steel industry, Pennsylvania, national security and U.S. Steel’s employees. A bipartisan group of senators, joined by then-Senate candidate McCormick, had opposed Nippon Steel’s initial proposed purchase of U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion after it was announced in late 2023.
In recent days, Trump and other American officials began touting Nippon Steel’s new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S.
Pennsylvania’s other senator, Democrat John Fetterman — who lives across the street from U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works blast furnace — didn’t explicitly endorse the new proposal. But he said he had helped jam up Nippon Steel’s original bid until “Nippon coughed up an extra $14B.”
The planned “golden share” for the U.S. amounts to three board members approved by the U.S. government, which will essentially ensure that U.S. Steel can only make decisions that’ll be in the best interests of the United States, McCormick said Tuesday on Fox News.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is seen as a potential presidential candidate, had largely refrained from publicly endorsing a deal but said at a news conference this week that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the arrangement.
Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel’s Irvin finishing plant is located, said he was “ecstatic” about the deal, though he acknowledged some details were unknown. He said it will save thousands of jobs for his community.
“It’s like a reprieve from taking steel out of Pittsburgh,” he said.
Price reported from Washington. AP writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
FILE – The United States Steel logo is pictured outside the headquarters building in downtown Pittsburgh, April 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Pop star Taylor Swift announced on her website Friday that she now owns the rights to all the music she has produced throughout her career after a lengthy battle with Scooter Braun and later Shamrock Capital.
Swift now owns all the music videos, concert films, lyrics, and recordings from her first six albums. She has re-recorded four of those albums in recent years, adding the tagline "Taylor's Version" to each.
"All I ever wanted was the opportunity to own my work," she said in a letter on Friday. "To own the life I poured my heart into. To be able to stand on the stage at 34 and say 'I own it' is the most satisfying experience of my career. And to have it happen now, while Im writing new music, is a memory Ill hold onto forever. Its a miracle."
The re-release of these four albums generated significant buzz as she embarked on her recent tour.
"For 20 years Ive been tirelessly trying to buy my masters back," Swift said. "I was denied that chance, and it made me realize that claiming ownership of my work was about a lot more than just my past. It was and is about my future too. Every artists dream is to own their work, and I am beyond elated to announce that my re-recorded albums and the ones I have released since 2019 I now own."
Swift also addressed rumors that she would re-release her "Reputation" album.
"What about Rep TV? Full transparency, Ive been so in the zone for making new music that Ive just been having fun with it," she said. "Ive been working on Tortured Poets since right after Midnights and Ive kept writing all the way through the U.S. tour, and now, between legs of the Eras Tour, were putting the finishing touches on it. Ive said it before and Ill say it again, I never want to stop making music. Im so lucky to call this my job."
Building an underground tunnel for an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that stretches across a Great Lakes channel could destroy wetlands and harm bat habitats but would eliminate the chances of a boat anchor rupturing the line and causing a catastrophic spill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday in a long-awaited draft analysis of the proposed project's environmental impacts.
The analysis moves the corps a step closer to approving the tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac. The tunnel was proposed in 2018 at a cost of $500 million but has been bogged down by legal challenges. The corps fast-tracked the project in April after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies in January to identify energy projects for expedited emergency permitting.
A final environmental assessment is expected by autumn, with a permitting decision to follow later this year. The agency initially planned to issue a permitting decision in early 2026.
With that permit in hand, Enbridge would only need permission from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy before it could begin constructing the tunnel. That's far from a given, though.
Environmentalists have been pressuring the state to deny the permit. Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are trying to win court rulings that would force Enbridge to remove the existing pipeline from the straits for good.
Construction could have major short-term, long-term impacts
The analysis notes that the tunnel would eliminate the risk of a boat anchor rupturing the pipeline and causing a spill in the straits, a key concern for environmentalists. But the construction would have sweeping effects on everything from recreation to wildlife.
Many of the impacts, such as noise, vistas marred by 400-foot (121-meter) cranes, construction lights degrading star-gazing opportunities at Headlands International Dark Sky Park and vibrations that would disturb aquatic wildlife would end when the work is completed, the report found.
Other impacts would last longer, including the loss of wetlands and vegetation on both sides of the strait that connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, and the loss of nearly 300 trees that the northern long-eared bat and tricolored bat use to roost. Grading and excavation also could disturb or destroy archaeological sites.
The tunnel-boring machine could cause vibrations that could shift the area's geology. Soil in the construction area could become contaminated and nearly 200 truck trips daily during the six-year construction period would degrade area roads, the analysis found. Gas mixing with water seeping into the tunnel could result in an explosion, but the analysis notes that Enbridge plans to install fans to properly ventilate the tunnel during excavation.
Our goal is to have the smallest possible environmental footprint, Enbridge officials said in a statement.
The Sierra Club issued a statement Friday saying the tunnel remains an existential threat.
Chances of an oil spill in the Great Lakes our most valuable freshwater resource skyrockets if this tunnel is built in the Straits, the group said. We can't drink oil. We can't fish or swim in oil.
Tunnel would protect portion of Line 5 running through straits
Enbridge has been using the Line 5 pipeline to transport crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953. Roughly 4 miles (6 kilometers) of the pipeline runs along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.
Concerns about the aging pipeline rupturing and causing a potentially disastrous spill in the straits have been building over the last decade. Those fears intensified in 2018 when an anchor damaged the line.
Enbridge contends that the line remains structurally sound, but it struck a deal with then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration in 2018 that calls for the company to replace the straits portion of the line with a new section that would be encased in a protective underground tunnel.
Enbridge and environmentalists spar in court battles
Environmentalists, Native American tribes and Democrats have been fighting in court for years to stop the tunnel and force Enbridge to remove the existing pipeline from the straits. They've had little success so far.
A Michigan appellate court in February validated the state Public Service Commission's permits for the tunnel. Nessel sued in 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Line 5 to run through the straits. That case is still pending. Whitmer revoked the easement in 2020, but Enbridge challenged that decision and a federal appellate court in April ruled that the case can proceed.
Another legal fight over Line 5 in Wisconsin
About 12 miles (19 kilometers) of Line 5 runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewas reservation in northern Wisconsin. That tribe sued in 2019 to force Enbridge to remove the line from the reservation, arguing its prone to spilling and that easements allowing it to operate on the reservation expired in 2013.
Enbridge has proposed a 41-mile (66-kilometer) reroute around the reservation. The tribe has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state construction permits for the project and has joined several other groups in challenging the permits through the state's contested case process.
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s top public health agency posted new recommendations that say healthy children may get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing language that said kids should get the shots.
The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.
But the updated guidance on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website does not appear to end recommendations for vaccination of pregnant women, a change that was heavily criticized by medical and public health experts.
CDC and HHS officials did not immediately respond to questions about the new guidance.
Kennedy announced the coming changes in a 58-second video posted on the social media site X on Tuesday. No one from the CDC was in the video, and CDC officials referred questions about the announcement to Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
On Thursday, the CDC updated its website. The agency said that shots may be given to children ages 6 months to 17 years who do not have moderate or severe problems with their immune systems. Instead of recommending the shots, the CDC page now says parents may decide to get their children vaccinated in consultation with a doctor.
That kind of recommendation, known as shared decision-making, still means health insurers must pay for the vaccinations, according to the CDC. However, experts say vaccination rates tend to be lower when health authorities use that language and doctors are less emphatic with patients about getting shots.
Childhood vaccination rates for COVID-19 are already low — just 13% of children and 23% of adults have received the 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data.
Talk of changing the recommendations has been brewing. As the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, experts have discussed the possibility of focusing vaccination efforts on people 65 and older — who are among those most as risk for death and hospitalization.
A CDC advisory panel is set to meet in June to make recommendations about the fall shots. Among its options are suggesting shots for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice to get vaccinated. A committee work group has endorsed the idea.
But Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine advocate before becoming health secretary, decided not to wait for the scientific panel’s review.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE – A sign marks the entrance to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, on Oct. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
TROY – Troy Athens goalkeeper Ashley Miller both stopped a shot in the penalty shootout and scored the winning kick as the Red Hawks outlasted their crosstown rivals, the Troy Colts, to claim a D1 district title Thursday evening.
Miller made a save in Round 2, and then stepped up in the fifth round to take a penalty kick, faking out the opposing goalie and scoring into the right side to seal the win from a match that was tied 2-2 after regulation and remained the same after overtime.
“It literally did not feel real. I’m still in shock. It feels like a dream,” Miller said. “It feels so good. For many years, we’ve been trying to get them (Troy). But this year we all worked hard together, and it just feels amazing.”
The Colts had dominated the early part of the game, running at the Red Hawks’ defense time and again. It nearly paid off just three minutes in, but the Athens back line cleared a shot off the line. Instead, Troy got on the board with 14:01 to play in the half when Sabrina Gaul’s shot from 25 yards out eluded the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper and snuck inside the far post.
Troy’s goal seemed to energize Athens, however. The Red Hawks became much more attack-minded after that and needed only five minutes to tie the game on a shot from Charlotte Cotta, who picked the top-left corner from the right wing with 9:08 to play in the opening half.
Troy's Sabrina Gaul (7) clears the ball from Troy Athens' Abby Waldron (11) during the D1 district title match played at Athens on Thursday night. Gaul had both the Colts' goals in regulation, but Troy lost in penalty kicks to the Red Hawks. (KEN SWART - For MediaNews Group)
The second half was more of the same. Troy dominated early and had the better of possession and the stat sheet.
“We played really well. We pinged the ball around. It was really good, really good soccer,” Troy head coach Dan Troccoli said.
But it didn’t do Troy any good in regards to the advantage on the board as the teams traded goals midway through the second half of regulation. Athens scored off a corner kick with 25:53 on the clock when Cotta got on the end of it and fired a ball back across the front of goal that hit a defender and went in the far side, giving the Red Hawks a 2-1 lead.
It would last all of 88 seconds before Gaul got her second goal. Olivia Jasniewicz slotted a through ball behind the defense and Gaul simply outran everyone to the ball and one-timed it in, retying the game.
Each team also came close once or twice in overtime, but neither side could find a goal in the extra sessions, and the game had to be settled by a shootout.
With the win, Troy Athens improves to 16-2-2 and claims the district title, avenging a 4-1 loss to the Colts in last year’s district finals.
Thursday marked the first time that the rivals had gone to a playoff shootout since the Colts beat Athens for a district championship in penalties back in 2013 en route to the Colts winning a D1 state title.
“Whenever it’s a rivalry game, we know that it’s one you’ve got to show up for. You’ve got to try your best, and it comes down to heart. And today we played with a lot of heart, so I think that’s what eventually got us the win,” Red Hawks senior captain Lauren DeJonckheere said. “I’m just really proud of our team. We backed each other up the whole game, no matter what. Whenever we got down, we were there to support one another and it paid off in the long run."
The Red Hawks advance to Tuesday’s regional semifinals where they will face the winner of Saturday’s match between Rochester Adams and Utica Eisenhower.
“We had to earn it there. But it was a fantastic game for both sides,” Red Hawks head coach Jason Clark said. “For the girls to come back after being down one in a district final, it takes a lot of mental toughness for that. And we’re so proud of them for not putting their heads down, not writing it off and just riding the wave and weathering the storm when we could and then coming back and taking our chances.”
Troy, meanwhile, finishes the year with a record of 10-6-2.
“I’d say we played really good soccer and PKs are PKs. Who knows with PKs?,” Troccoli said.
Senior Emily Mendrick (7) and her Troy Athens teammates celebrate their shootout victory over Troy to win the Red Hawks a D1 district championship Thursday night at Athens. (KEN SWART - For MediaNews Group)
As Michigan officials try to negotiate a long-term road funding deal, the Trump administration is threatening to withhold roads money — including more than $2 billion from Michigan — if states fail to comply with immigration orders or if they maintain any diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The two escapees who are still on the run are Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves, according to the Louisiana State Police. The other eight inmates who escaped the jail on May 16 have been located and taken back into custody.
The group of 10 men was able to leave their jail cells due to faulty locks, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. They escaped from the building by going through a hole in the wall behind a toilet in the housing unit and then exiting through a loading dock door.
A 33-year-old maintenance worker at the jail has been accused of aiding in their escape after he turned off the water to the cell where the toilet was located. He's been charged with 10 counts of principle to simple escape and malfeasance in office.
Three women have been charged for individually assisting some of the men after they escaped, including allegedly providing them food, money and transportation.
To submit an anonymous tip about the escapees, you can call the Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans at (504) 822-1111, FBI New Orleans at 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Louisiana State Police Fusion Center at (225) 925-4192.
Meanwhile, the jail that the inmates escaped from is dealing with ongoing flooding and infrastructure issues, the sheriff's office said in a statement posted to social media on Wednesday.
Plumbing issues are causing water to accumulate in parts of the facility despite emergency repairs.
"This is not just a facilities problem. It's a public safety issue, a staffing issue, and, most of all, a human dignity issue," said Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, adding that these issues need to be urgently addressed before the upcoming hurricane season in order to prevent a crisis.