# Fresh off reelection in Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Beshear presents budget plan in televised speech
By **BRUCE SCHREINER**
December 18, 2023. 9:19 PM EST

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**FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP)** - Looking to build on his resounding reelection victory, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took his budget directly to the voters in a televised speech Monday night as he pressed for a massive boost in education funding, child care support and continued investments in infrastructure.

The holiday message - coming about two weeks before the Republican-dominated legislature reconvenes - represents the Democratic governor's effort to turn political capital into more of a mandate for his top policy priorities, especially in public education.

Beshear also proposed pay raises for state workers and increased funding for public universities, economic development and foster care. He proposed hiring more state troopers and social workers, building more juvenile detention centers and investing more in regional airports.

Beshear said the state can afford that and more, without tapping into its vast budget reserves. Tax collections have surged in Kentucky even as its individual income tax rate has been lowered.

"This budget aims to meet our families where they are, to address the concerns they worry most about," Beshear said in his address, less than a week after being sworn in for a second term. "Look, Kentuckians don't wake up every morning thinking about Democrat or Republican, and neither does this budget."

Public education - including higher teacher pay and access to universal pre-K - ranked atop his wish list, as Beshear presented his blueprint for the state's next two-year budget in a statewide speech on Kentucky Educational Television.

Beshear's November reelection win in GOP-leaning Kentucky sets him up to be on the national radar in coming years when the country looks for a new generation of leaders.

The speech's timing reflected the friction of divided government in Kentucky. Governors traditionally reveal their budget plans in a televised speech when the legislature is in session. This time, the governor opted for a pre-session speech after House Republicans preempted him in early 2022 by unveiling their budget plan before the governor presented his blueprint.

In his new two-year proposal, Beshear called for pumping more than $2.5 billion of additional funding into preschool through high school education. Topping his requests is an 11% pay raise for teachers and all other public school employees. He also recommended an 11% increase in the minimum teacher salary.

"It's simple, you cannot give a child every opportunity if they don't have a teacher in every classroom," Beshear said. "We won't have enough bus drivers unless we pay a better wage. And we cannot remain competitive with other states if we don't pay our teachers and other employees what they're worth."

The investments would lift Kentucky to the middle of the pack nationally in average teacher starting pay and average teacher pay. The state now ranks near the bottom in both categories, he said.

Another Beshear priority is providing preschool for every 4-year-old in Kentucky. The governor's budget plan includes $172 million each year of the two-year budget to accomplish that. Similar proposals previously made no headway with lawmakers.

The program would extend preschool education to an estimated 34,000 additional 4-year-olds, he said.

"This will be an unprecedented investment for Kentucky's children," Beshear said. "Imagine the difference it'll make when every single Kentucky child enters kindergarten prepared to learn."

The governor's plan also would increase per-pupil funding under the state's main funding formula. It would fully fund teacher pensions and student transportation.

Another key Beshear proposal calls for spending about $141 million over two years for child care assistance, in part to help cushion child care programs from the loss of pandemic-era federal subsidies.

Meanwhile, his budget calls for a nearly 8% increase in the base budgets of public universities, which endured state budget cuts for several years.

For the state's workforce, Beshear proposed awarding a 6% across-the-board pay raise effective next July 1, followed by a 4% raise the next year.

He proposed using $500 million in state funds for water and wastewater projects statewide and $300 million for major transportation projects - with an eye toward widening the Mountain Parkway in eastern Kentucky and building an Ohio River bridge between western Kentucky and Indiana.

To build on the state's record pace of economic development, the governor proposed allocating another $200 million to help land new employers. Half the amount would go to prepare mega-development projects and the rest would aid county and regional site development.

Beshear proposed building two female-only juvenile detention centers and to retrofit other detention centers.

As with any governor's proposal, the legislature will have final say on the budget - the state's main policy document. Republican House Speaker David Osborne said lawmakers have been preparing for the next budget since finishing their last one. Now they can delve into details of Beshear's rendition.

"While we are not aware of any of the governor's requests, we welcome his early submission and are hopeful that it includes information that we have asked for over the past several months," Osborne said.

The state's next two-year budget period starts next July 1.


# Mississippi local officials say human error and poor training led to election-day chaos
By **MICHAEL GOLDBERG**
December 18, 2023. 8:28 PM EST

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**JACKSON, Miss. (AP)** - The county election officials under whose watch ballot shortages hampered voting in Mississippi's largest county said technical mishaps and insufficient training were to blame for election day chaos in November.

At a meeting with representatives from a coalition of statewide and national civil rights organizations, Hinds County election commissioners said Monday that their mishaps caused several polling locations in Hinds County to run out of ballots. They admitted to sharing the wrong voter data with the company they contracted to print ballots, which directly led to the ballot shortages.

"Complete human error. I hate that the citizens of Hinds County had to experience that," said Commissioner RaToya Gilmer McGee.

But the commissioners, all Democrats, also pointed to what they said was inadequate guidance from Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican. The commissioners said they had to rely on a training manual written for election officials across the state.

"If there are 82 counties in the state of Mississippi, there are 82 ways to do things. And so there is no streamlining, there are no checks and balances, there are no policies and procedures," Gilmer McGee said.

In Mississippi's Nov. 7 general election, up to nine voting precincts in Hinds County ran out of ballots. People waited up to two hours to vote as election officials made frantic trips to office supply stores so they could print ballots and deliver them to polling places. Voting groups and political parties filed legal papers that aimed to keep polls open later or prevent them from staying open.

Hinds County is majority Black and a Democratic stronghold. It's unclear how many people left without voting and the political affiliations of the most affected voters.

When Hinds County resident Monica Taylor got to the polls, someone told her there were no ballots. She asked when there would be ballots, but nobody knew.

"My grandfather is in the civil rights museum. This is what he fought for. So I'm not a person you can tell 'we don't have any ballots' and think I'm going to walk away," Taylor said at a public meeting last week. "I'm not going to walk away."

With the 2024 election less than a year away, the situation in Hinds County has drawn the attention of the congressional committee with direct oversight over federal elections and civil rights leaders.

Derrick Johnson, the national president of the NAACP who attended college in Jackson, said he hoped the episode wouldn't depress voter turnout in future elections.

"Voting is the tool to ensure one's voice is heard in this country. It is our currency in this democracy," Johnson said in an interview. "You don't quit, you continue to move forward to make sure this democracy works."

The commissioners said they didn't receive enough specific guidance on how to print the right number of ballots for the populous county's "split precincts," polling locations where voters use different ballots based on their residential address.

In a statement after the meeting, Secretary of State Michael Watson said his office was open to providing more training, but that Hinds County was unique in its election management troubles.

"We are always happy to answer questions and will gladly spend time training those who need additional help. Heading into the 2023 election, all 82 counties received the same training and resources from our office," Watson told The Associated Press. "No other county experienced the issues we saw in Hinds County."

The five-member Commission agreed to Monday's meeting after the civil rights coalition said they had failed to provide enough information about what went wrong on election day.

After the meeting, Leah Wong, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said she hoped the Commission would agree to future meetings ahead of the 2024 election.

"Clearly, there are a lot more things to troubleshoot to be better for 2024. We are looking forward to working with them," Wong said.

Harya Tarekegn, policy director for the non-profit legal group Mississippi Center for Justice, said Hinds County could have smoother elections with the right policy changes.

"That's what people fought for during the Civil Rights Movement, that's what people continue to fight for," Tarekegn said. "Our ancestors fought for it, we continue to fight for it, and there will be a day when Mississippi runs the best elections. When Hinds County runs the best elections."


# Colorado releases first 5 wolves in reintroduction plan approved by voters to chagrin of ranchers
By **JESSE BEDAYN**
December 18, 2023. 10:35 PM EST

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GRAND COUNTY, Colorado (AP) - Somewhere on a remote mountainside in Colorado's Rockies, a latch flipped on a crate and a wolf bounded out, heading toward the tree line. Then it stopped short.

For a moment, the young female looked back at it's audience of roughly 45 people who stared on in reverential silence. Then she disappeared into the forest.

She was one of five gray wolves Wildlife officials released in a remote part of Colorado's Rocky Mountains on Monday to kick off a voter-approved reintroduction program that was embraced in the state's mostly Democratic urban corridor but staunchly opposed in conservative rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock.

The wolves were set free from crates in a Grand County location that state officials kept undisclosed to protect the predators.

It marked the start of the most ambitious wolf reintroduction effort in the U.S. in almost three decades and a sharp departure from aggressive efforts by Republican-led states to cull wolf packs. A judge on Friday night had denied a request from the state's cattle industry for a temporary delay to the release.

The group watched as the first two wolves - 1-year-old male and female siblings with gray fur - were set free. The male bolted up the golden grass, running partially sideways to keep an eye on everyone behind, then turning left into the trees.

The crowd watched in silence, then some hugged each other and low murmurs started up.

When the latch on the second crate flipped, the wolf didn't budge. Everyone waited as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis peeked into the cage.

After roughly 30 seconds, those around the crates stepped back, giving the wolf space. The female slowly rose then bounded up a snowy divot in the dirt road, looking back before disappearing into an aspen grove.

Wolves "have larger-than-life places in human imagination, in the stories we all grew up with and tell each other," said Polis. "To see them in their natural habitat, and turn around look curiously at us ... is really, really a special moment that I will treasure for my entire life."

The other three wolves released were another pair of 1-year-old male and female siblings, as well a 2-year-old male. The wolves were all caught in Oregon on Sunday.

When the final crate opened, the 2-year-old male with a black coat immediately darted out, making a sharp right past onlookers and dashing into the trees. He didn't look back once.

When it all ended, a small round of applause broke out.

Colorado officials anticipate releasing 30 to 50 wolves within the next five years in hopes the program starts to fill in one of the last remaining major gaps in the western U.S. for the species. Gray wolves historically ranged from northern Canada to the desert southwest.

The carnivores' planned release in Colorado, voted for in a 2020 ballot measure, has sharpened divides between rural and urban residents. City and suburb dwellers largely voted to reintroduce the apex predators into the rural areas where prey can include livestock that help drive local economies and big game such as elk that are prized by hunters.

The reintroduction, starting with the release of up to 10 wolves in coming months, emerged as a political wedge issue when GOP-dominated Wyoming, Idaho and Montana refused to share their wolves for the effort. Colorado officials ultimately turned to another Democratic state - Oregon - to secure wolves.

Excited wildlife advocates have started a wolf-naming contest, but ranchers in the Rocky Mountains where the releases will occur are anxious. They've seen glimpses of what the future could hold as a handful of wolves that wandered down from Wyoming over the past two years killed livestock.

The fear is such attacks will worsen, adding to a spate of perceived assaults on western Colorado's rural communities as the state's liberal leaders embrace clean energy and tourism, eclipsing economic mainstays such as fossil fuel extraction and agriculture.

To allay livestock industry fears, ranchers who lose livestock or herding and guard animals to wolf attacks will be paid fair market value, up to $15,000 per animal.

Hunting groups also have raised concerns that wolves will reduce the size of elk herds and other big game animals that the predators eat.

Meanwhile, Colorado residents who backed the reintroduction are going to have to get used to wildlife agents killing wolves that prey on livestock.

Some wolves were already killed when they crossed from Colorado into Wyoming, which has a "predatory" zone for wolves covering most of the state in which they can be shot on sight.

Joanna Lambert, professor of wildlife ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said she lost her breath when she saw the wolves gallop into the woods on Monday.

For years, Lambert and wolf advocates have been working to get wolf "paws on the ground" and "all the sudden, it happened."

"This is a moment of rewilding," Lambert said, "of doing something to stave off the biodiversity extinction crisis we are living in."


# Court date set in Hunter Biden's California tax case
December 18, 2023. 7:07 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Hunter Biden is set to appear in a California courtroom next month on nine tax counts, the latest fallout from a special counsel investigation into his business affairs.

President Joe Biden's son is scheduled for an initial appearance at an arraignment in Los Angeles on Jan. 11, according to a federal court calendar posted Monday.

He is facing three felony and six misdemeanor counts, including filing a false return, tax evasion, failure to file and failure to pay. Prosecutors say he spent millions on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.

His defense attorney has said that prosecutors bowed to political pressure in bringing the case and Hunter Biden was targeted because of his father's political position.

The cases come after the implosion of a plea deal involving tax and gun counts that would have spared him jail time. Instead, Hunter Biden is now also charged with federal firearms courts in Delaware alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018.

The cases are now on track to possible trial as his father campaigns for reelection.


# Biggest solar flare in years temporarily disrupts radio signals on Earth
By **MARCIA DUNN**
December 15, 2023. 3:00 PM EST

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**CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)** - A NASA telescope has captured the biggest solar flare in years, which temporarily knocked out radio communication on Earth.

The sun spit out the huge flare along with a massive radio burst on Thursday, causing two hours of radio interference in parts of the U.S. and other sunlit parts of the world. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was the biggest flare since 2017, and the radio burst was extensive, affecting even the higher frequencies.

The combination resulted in one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded, Shawn Dahl of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday.

Multiple pilots reported communication disruptions, with the impact felt across the country, according to the space weather forecasting center. Scientists are now monitoring this sunspot region and analyzing for a possible outburst of plasma from the sun, also known as a coronal mass ejection, that might be directed at Earth. This could result in a geomagnetic storm, Dahl said, which in turn could disrupt high-frequency radio signals at the higher latitudes and trigger northern lights, or auroras, in the coming days.

The eruption occurred in the far northwest section of the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the action in extreme ultraviolet light, recording the powerful surge of energy as a huge, bright flash. Launched in 2010, the spacecraft is in an extremely high orbit around Earth, where it constantly monitors the sun.

The sun is nearing the peak of its 11-year or so solar cycle. Maximum sunspot activity is predicted for 2025.


# Geminids meteor shower peaks this week under dark skies
By **MARCIA DUNN**
December 13, 2023. 2:38 PM EST

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**CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)** - The year's best meteor shower, the Geminids, peaks this week. Skygazers may see as many as one or even two a minute streaking across dark skies.

The meteors will reach their frenzy Thursday. But Wednesday night should provide a cosmic spectacle as well.

This week's new moon will make for prime viewing anywhere in the world where skies are clear and in spots without light pollution.

NASA urged observers to look everywhere in the sky since meteors don't come from any particular direction. Between 60 and 120 meteors are expected every hour at peak time, weather permitting.

NASA meteoroid expert Bill Cooke said he loves that the Geminids have a greenish hue as they speed across the sky and burn up. Most meteors appear to be colorless or white depending on their chemical makeup. Green usually comes from oxygen, magnesium and nickel.

Most meteor showers originate from comets. But the Geminids come from the sun-orbiting asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Either way, when Earth passes through these leftover bits of comets or asteroids, the fragments encounter Earth's atmosphere and put on quite the show.


# Asteroid will pass in front of bright star Betelgeuse to produce a rare eclipse visible to millions
By **MARCIA DUNN**
December 8, 2023. 3:00 AM EST

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - One of the biggest and brightest stars in the night sky will momentarily vanish as an asteroid passes in front of it to produce a one-of-a-kind eclipse.

The rare and fleeting spectacle, late Monday into early Tuesday, should be visible to millions of people along a narrow path stretching from central Asia's Tajikistan and Armenia, across Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, to Miami and the Florida Keys and finally, to parts of Mexico.

The star is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation Orion. The asteroid is Leona, a slowly rotating, oblong space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Astronomers hope to learn more about Betelgeuse and Leona through the eclipse, which is expected to last no more than 15 seconds. By observing an eclipse of a much dimmer star by Leona in September, a Spanish-led team recently estimated the asteroid to be about 34 miles wide and 50 miles long (55 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers long).

There are lingering uncertainties over those predictions as well as the size of the star and its expansive atmosphere. It's unclear if the asteroid will obscure the entire star, producing a total eclipse. Rather, the result could be a "ring of fire" eclipse with a miniscule blazing border around the star. If it's a total eclipse, astronomers aren't sure how many seconds the star will disappear completely, perhaps up to 10 seconds.

"Which scenario we will see is uncertain, making the event even more intriguing," said astronomer Gianluca Masa, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, which will provide a live webcast from Italy.

An estimated 700 light-years away, Betelgeuse is visible with the naked eye. Binoculars and small telescopes will enhance the view. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

Betelgeuse is thousands of times brighter than our sun and some 700 times bigger. It's so huge that if it replaced our sun, it would stretch beyond Jupiter, according to NASA.

At just 10 million years old, Betelgeuse is considerably younger than the 4.6 billion-year-old sun. Scientists expect Betelgeuse to be short-lived, given its mass and the speed at which it's burning through its material.

After countless centuries of varying brightness, Betelgeuse dimmed dramatically in 2019 when a huge bunch of surface material was ejected into space. The resulting dust cloud temporarily blocked the starlight, NASA said, and within a half year, Betelgeuse was as bright as before.

Scientists expect Betelgeuse to go supernova in a violent explosion within 100,000 years.


# Penguin parents sleep for just a few seconds at a time to guard newborns, study shows
By **CHRISTINA LARSON**
November 30, 2023. 2:09 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - It's a challenge for all new parents: Getting enough sleep while keeping a close eye on their newborns. For some penguins, it means thousands of mini-catnaps a day, researchers discovered.

Chinstrap penguins in Antarctica need to guard their eggs and chicks around-the-clock in crowded, noisy colonies. So they nod off thousands of times each day - but only for about four seconds at a time - to stay vigilant, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.

These short "microsleeps," totaling around 11 hours per day, appear to be enough to keep the parents going for weeks.

"These penguins look like drowsy drivers, blinking their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time," said Niels Rattenborg, a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany and co-author of the new study.

"What's surprising is that they're able to function OK and successfully raise their young," he said.

Chinstrap penguins, named for the thin line of black facial feathers resembling a chinstrap, usually lay their eggs in pebble nests in November. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting duties. One parent tends to the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.

While the adults don't face many natural predators in the breeding season, large birds called brown skuas prey on eggs and small fuzzy gray chicks. Other adults may also try to steal pebbles from nests. So the devoted parents must be always on guard.

For the first time, the scientists tracked the sleeping behavior of chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic breeding colony by attaching sensors that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.

The idea for the study was hatched when Won Young Lee, a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute, noticed breeding penguins frequently blinking their eyes and apparently nodding off during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm they were sleeping.

"For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions - if not, they could not endure," he said.

The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the breeding season, but they hypothesize that the penguins may sleep in longer intervals at other times of the year.

"We don't know yet if the benefits of microsleep are the same as for long consolidated sleep," said Paul-Antoine Libourel, a co-author and sleep researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France. They also don't know if other penguin species sleep in a similar fragmented fashion.

Scientists have documented a few other animals with special sleeping adaptions. While flying, frigatebirds can sleep one half of their brain at a time, and northern elephant seals can nap for 10 or 15 minutes at a time during deep dives, for example.

But chinstrap penguin microsleeps appear to be a new extreme, researchers say.

"Penguins live in a high-stress environment. They breed in crowded colonies, and all their predators are there at the same time," said Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart, who studies penguins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and was not involved in the study.

Microsleeping is "an amazing adaptation" to enable near constant vigilance, he said.


# After years of decline, the Biden administration says environmental enforcement is on the upswing
By **MATTHEW DALY** and **MICHAEL PHILLIS**
December 18, 2023. 6:30 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Environmental Protection Agency conducted more on-site inspections of polluting industrial sites this year than any time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said Monday as it seeks to reinvigorate its enforcement program after more than a decade of budget cuts.

EPA opened nearly 200 criminal investigations this year, a 70% increase over 2022, the agency said in a report. It completed nearly 1,800 civil settlements, a 9% increase over 2022. More than half the inspections and settlements involved poor and disadvantaged communities long scarred by pollution, the agency said, reflecting the Biden administration's emphasis on environmental justice issues.

But some parts of EPA's enforcement efforts still lag. In 2023, for example, it charged 102 defendants criminally. The Trump administration charged more every year, although most years only marginally. Nearly 200 defendants were charged in the latter years of the Obama administration. There is, however, an uptick in the number of criminal cases they've opened recently.

EPA said its enforcement and compliance work have resulted in the reduction, treatment, elimination or minimization of 1.84 billion pounds of pollutants, and required violators to pay over $704 million in penalties, fines, and restitution. The dollar amount is a 57% increase over 2022.

The increase comes as EPA's enforcement staff remains far below its peak of more than a decade ago, even as officials move to add about 300 positions. EPA eliminated approximately 950 enforcement positions following budget cuts imposed since 2011.

The 2011 budget and debt deal, which included automatic spending cuts, "hit all agencies hard, but hit EPA especially hard," said David Uhlmann, EPA's assistant administrator for enforcement. Enforcement efforts were further hampered by an inability to complete many on-site inspections during the pandemic, which began nearly four years ago, and a series of actions by former President Donald Trump to roll back environmental regulations.

"While our work is not complete, EPA's revitalized enforcement program is making a positive difference in communities across America, particularly for people living in underserved and overburdened communities that for too long have borne the brunt of pollution," Uhlmann said in a statement.

Uhlmann, who was confirmed as EPA's enforcement chief in July after a two-year delay, said in an interview that enforcement efforts are "still a struggle" at the environmental agency.

"We can't replace a decade of staff cuts in one year, but I feel good that enforcement levels are back up to where they were prior to the pandemic," he said.

"EPA has increased enforcement activities across the nation," he said. "Polluters who broke the law are being brought to justice."

EPA sued Norfolk Southern railway over a train derailment in eastern Ohio that spilled hazardous chemicals and forced thousands of people to evacuate. Federal officials want to ensure the company pays for the cleanup.

The agency also sued Denka Performance Elastomer LLC, arguing that its petrochemical operations in southern Louisiana posed an unacceptable cancer risk to the mostly-Black community nearby. The EPA has demanded that the company reduce toxic emissions from its plant that makes synthetic rubber.

The Biden administration also went to court to try to help the troubled Jackson, Mississippi, water system, which suffered a near-total collapse in 2022 after a heavy rainstorm.

In May, the EPA reached a deal with a BP subsidiary that required the company to reduce harmful pollution from its refinery in Indiana. The company also agreed to pay a $40 million penalty under the Clean Air Act.

The agency has set climate change and environmental justice as top priorities for enforcement, along with dangerous chemicals known as PFAS that are linked to a broad range of health issues, coal ash contamination, safe drinking water, prevention of toxic air pollution and chemical accident prevention, Uhlmann said.

Uhlmann, a longtime environmental law professor at the University of Michigan Law School, declined to give a letter grade to the agency's overall efforts. But given budget constraints and other issues, his staff was "hitting it out of the park" over the past year, he said.

Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and former head of the EPA's Office of Civil Enforcement, said he'd give the administration a "B" grade. They've increased enforcement and made some real improvements, but more is needed, he said.

"I have not seen a breakthrough in terms of the enforcement actions. You are talking about a pretty low bar when you start with Trump as a point of comparison," he said.

Democrats and environmental groups blasted the Trump administration's enforcement efforts, especially during COVID-19, with one senator saying a "pandemic of pollution" had been released.

The EPA under Trump weakened regulations dealing with fuel efficiency and mercury emissions and waived enforcement on a range of public health and environmental mandates, saying industries could have trouble complying with them during the pandemic. The rollbacks were among dozens of actions by the EPA to ease requirements on industry to monitor, report and reduce toxic pollutants, heavy metals and climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions.

Despite complaints from the oil and gas industry about a suite of rules aimed at methane and other greenhouse gases, Uhlmann said EPA was "committed to fair and robust enforcement of the law. We're not looking to put anybody out of business."

EPA said it has obtained approximately $1.1 billion from so-called Superfund cleanup and cost recovery settlement agreements. This brings the total value of Superfund enforcement actions to $50 billion since the program began in 1980. More than 3,900 Superfund sites have been identified across the country.


# Book Review: 'Reading Jane: A Daughter's Memoir,' by Susannah Kennedy
By **ANITA SNOW**
September 5th, 2023. 12:53 PM GMT-4

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"Reading Jane: A Daughter's Memoir," by Susannah Kennedy (Sibylline Press)

When her mother Jane, a healthy 75-year-old, shockingly decides to take her own life, Susannah Kennedy is left reeling with innumerable questions. There are also 45 years worth of diaries that contain some answers and ultimately reveal some surprising secrets.

This elegantly written memoir by Kennedy, a former newspaper reporter-turned-anthropologist, opens a window into the complicated relationships that can exist between mothers and daughters, especially when the mother is a narcissistic single parent.

Jane is a charismatic woman who had a successful post-divorce career teaching in the inner city. She is widely liked and admired but has a fraught relationship with her daughter, Susannah, especially after the girl reaches puberty and becomes a rival for male attention.

One of the constants in the pair's lives are Jane's diaries, each one marked by the year it was filled with her remarks about every day over four and a half decades.

The notebooks aroused the young daughter's curiosity, but Jane never shared their contents, in the same way she kept many of her feelings under lock and key.

"Mommy, can I read your diaries?" the daughter sometimes asked.

"Someday," the mother replied. Then, "Maybe." Then, "Probably never."

Kennedy never knows for sure if her mother intended for her to read the journals, to be Jane's confessor or interpreter. But they were all there stuffed into an Asian chest of intricately carved wood in her mother's San Francisco apartment after the suicide.

So after returning to the U.S. in the wake of her mother's death with her German husband and three children, Kennedy reads all of the volumes over a year. She learns more about her late father, a violent alcoholic who often beat her mother.

Kennedy also learns more about her mother's younger disabled sister, Helen, who died at age 4, shaping forever Jane's feelings about life and dying.

"No wonder I take such comfort in the idea of death," her mother wrote in one diary entry on March 4, 2008. "But with Helen, long years in a vegetative state awaited us, coloring my childhood irreversibly and irrevocably informing my old age."

Kennedy also gets a look at her mother's intense loneliness through her entries about a longstanding affair with a married man and her refusal to let him leave his wife.

There are stunning revelations about the death of Jane's mother, who had been undergoing radiation for lymphoma.

And there was the surprising envy Jane demonstrated for her teenage daughter's blossoming beauty during their glamorous summer vacations in Italy. Later, there was harsh criticism as her daughter became a mother herself, no longer the svelte blonde who turned every head in the room.

"As I read the diaries, I find entry after entry complaining about me, almost as if she were obsessed. Why was she so concerned with how I looked? So invasive in her judgements?" the daughter writes.

Jane's obsession with death was well known to those who loved her, but they nevertheless thought she would live well into her nineties.

"We figured she would nag on about suicide as a safety net from illness because it made her feel better to imagine control over the ending," Kennedy writes. "We didn't think she would actually do it. "

But her mother did, choosing a San Francisco motel for her last moments and leaving her papers in order, down to the self-written obituary.

Reading Jane's diaries afterward brings Kennedy closer to her mother, more sympathetic to her circumstances so many years before, and more cognizant that our parents will always be with us.

We don't ever "get over" them, she learns. We absorb them and move on.


# Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 600 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
By **SAM METZ** and **MOSA'AB ELSHAMY**
September 9th, 2023. 3:44 AM GMT-4

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**RABAT, Morocco (AP)** - A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday night, killing hundreds of people and damaging buildings from villages in the Atlas Mountains to the historic city of Marrakech.

Morocco's Interior Ministry said Saturday morning that at least 632 people had died, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the quake's epicenter. Another 329 people were injured. Casualty figures were expected to rise more as the search continues and as rescuers reach remote areas.

Moroccan television showed scenes from the aftermath, as many stayed outside fearing aftershocks.

Anxious families stood in streets or huddled on the pavement, some carrying children, blankets or other belongings.

Emergency workers looked for survivors in the rubble of buildings, their reflective yellow vests illuminating the nighttime landscape. The quake ripped a gaping hole in a home, and a car was nearly buried by the chunks of a collapsed building.

Baskets, buckets and clothing could be seen amid scattered stones in the remains of one building.

Moroccan media reported that the 12th century Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, one of the city's most famed landmarks, suffered damage, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 69-meter (226-foot) minaret is known as the "roof of Marrakech."

Moroccans also posted videos showing damage to parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakech, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The head of a town near the earthquake's epicenter told Moroccan news site 2M that several homes in nearby towns had partly or totally collapsed, and electricity and roads were cut off in some places.

Abderrahim Ait Daoud, head of the town of Talat N'Yaaqoub, said authorities are working to clear roads in Al Haouz Province to allow passage for ambulances and aid to populations affected, but said large distances between mountain villages mean it will take time to learn the extent of the damage.

Local media reported that roads leading to the mountain region around the epicenter were jammed with vehicles and blocked with collapsed rocks, slowing rescue efforts.

Al Haouz is known for scenic High Atlas landscapes and Amazigh villages built into mountainsides.

Messages of support began to roll in from around the world on Saturday. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted condolences on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently hosting the Group of 20 summit of the world's largest economies, wrote that "India is ready to offer all possible assistance to Morocco in this difficult time."

A U.N. spokesperson said that "the United Nations is ready to assist the government of Morocco in its efforts to assist the impacted population."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. (2211 GMT), with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude-4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.

The epicenter of Friday's tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) south of Marrakech.

The USGS said the epicenter was 18 kilometers (11 miles) below the Earth's surface, while Morocco's seismic agency put it at 11 kilometers (7 miles) down. Such shallow quakes are more dangerous.

Initial reports suggest damages and deaths were severe throughout the Marrakech-Safi region, which is made up of a mixture of cities, small towns and open land and 4,520,569 call home, according to state figures.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the mountain region.

In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths.

The Agadir quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.

In 2004, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.

Friday's quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria's Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.


# Phoenix is on the cusp of a new heat record after a 53rd day reaching at least 110 degrees this year
September 8th, 2023. 7:29 PM GMT-4

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**PHOENIX (AP)** - Phoenix is on the cusp of yet another heat record this summer after an additional day of 110-degree weather.

The National Weather Service said the desert city on Friday saw 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) for the 53rd day this year, tying it with the record set in 2020. If Phoenix reaches 110 degrees or more as expected Saturday, it would mark a record 54 days in one year.

An extreme heat warning is in effect for the entire weekend, with temperatures forecast as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 Celsius) on Saturday and 111 degrees Fahrenheit (43.8 Celsius) on Sunday. A high of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.7 Celsius) is forecast for Monday.

In July, Phoenix set a record with a 31-day streak of highs at or above 110 degrees. The previous record was 18 straight days, set in 1974.

It was part of a historic heat wave that stretched from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California's desert.

Phoenix has now seen over 100 days with 100-degree Fahrenheit-plus (37.7 C-plus) temperatures this year as of Wednesday. That's in line with the average of 111 days hitting triple digits every year between 1991 and 2020.

Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the most populous county in Arizona, also appears headed toward an annual record for heat-associated deaths.

County public health officials said Wednesday that there have been 194 heat-associated deaths confirmed for this year as of Sept. 2. An additional 351 are under investigation.

Maricopa County confirmed 425 heat-related deaths in 2022.


# Appeals court scales back order squelching Biden administration contact with social media platforms
By **KEVIN McGILL**
September 8th, 2023. 8:19 PM GMT-4

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**NEW ORLEANS (AP)** - A federal appeals court Friday significantly whittled down a lower court's order curbing Biden administration communications with social media companies over controversial content about COVID-19 and other issues.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Friday said the White House, the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI cannot "coerce" social media platforms to take down posts the government doesn't like.

But the court threw out broader language in an order that a Louisiana-based federal judge issued on July 4 that effectively blocked multiple government agencies from contacting platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to urge that content be taken down.

Even the appeals court's softened order doesn't take effect immediately. The administration has 10 days to seek a Supreme Court review.

Friday evening's ruling came in a lawsuit filed in northeast Louisiana that accused administration officials of coercing platforms to take down content under the threat of possible antitrust actions or changes to federal law shielding them from lawsuits over their users' posts.

COVID-19 vaccines, the FBI's handling of a laptop that belonged to President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and election fraud allegations were among the topics spotlighted in the lawsuit, which accused the administration of using threats of regulatory action to squelch conservative points of view.

The states of Missouri and Louisiana filed the lawsuit, along with a conservative website owner and four people opposed to the administration's COVID-19 policy.

In a posting on X, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called Friday's ruling "a major win against censorship."

In an unsigned 75-page opinion, three 5th Circuit judges agreed with the plaintiffs that the administration "ran afoul of the First Amendment" by at times threatening social media platforms with antitrust action or changes to law protecting them from liability.

But the court excised much of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty's broad July 4 ruling, saying mere encouragement to take down content doesn't always cross a constitutional line.

"As an initial matter, it is axiomatic that an injunction is overbroad if it enjoins a defendant from engaging in legal conduct. Nine of the preliminary injunction's ten prohibitions risk doing just that. Moreover, many of the provisions are duplicative of each other and thus unnecessary," Friday's ruling said.

The ruling also removed some agencies from the order: the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the State Department.

The case was heard by judges Jennifer Walker Elrod and Edith Brown Clement, nominated to the court by former President George W. Bush; and Don Willett, nominated by former President Donald Trump. Doughty was nominated to the federal bench by Trump.


# Powerful quake in Morocco kills more than 2,000 people and damages historic buildings in Marrakech
By **SAM METZ** and **MOSA'AB ELSHAMY**
September 9th, 2023. 6:03 PM GMT-4

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**MARRAKECH, Morocco (AP)** - A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing from their beds into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force. More than 2,000 people were killed, and the toll was expected to rise as rescuers struggled Saturday to reach hard-hit remote areas.

The magnitude 6.8 quake, the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years, sent people fleeing their homes in terror and disbelief late Friday. One man said dishes and wall hangings began raining down, and people were knocked off their feet. The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry, covering whole communities with rubble.

The devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas' steep and winding switchbacks in similar ways: homes folding in on themselves and mothers and fathers crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.

Remote villages like those in the drought-stricken Ouargane Valley were largely cut off from the world when they lost electricity and cellphone service. By midday, people were outside mourning neighbors, surveying the damage on their camera phones and telling one another "May God save us."

Hamid Idsalah, a 72-year-old mountain guide, said he and many others remained alive but had little future to look forward to. That was true in the short-term - with remnants of his kitchen reduced to dust - and in the long-term - where he and many others lack the financial means to rebound.

"I can't reconstruct my home. I don't know what I'll do. Still, I'm alive, so I'll wait," he said as he walked through the desert oasis town overlooking red rock hills, packs of goats and a glistening salt lake. "I feel heartsick."

In historic Marrakech, people could be seen on state TV clustering in the streets , afraid to go back inside buildings that might still be unstable. The city's famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, was damaged, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 69-meter (226-foot) minaret is known as the "roof of Marrakech." Moroccans also posted videos showing damage to parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

At least 2,012 people died in the quake, mostly in Marrakech and five provinces near the epicenter, Morocco's Interior Ministry reported Saturday night. At least 2,059 more people were injured - 1,404 critically - the ministry said.

"The problem is that where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse, resulting in high casualties," said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London.

In a sign of the huge scale of the disaster, Morocco's King Mohammed VI ordered the armed forces to mobilize specialized search and rescue teams and a surgical field hospital, according to a statement from the military.

The king said he would visit the hardest hit area Saturday, but despite an outpouring of offers of help from around the world, the Moroccan government had not formally asked for assistance, a step required before outside rescue crews could deploy.

The epicenter of Friday's tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, roughly 70 kilometers (44 miles) south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.

Police, emergency vehicles and people fleeing in shared taxis spent hours traversing unpaved roads through the High Atlas in stop-and-go traffic, often exiting their cars to help clear giant boulders from routes known to be rugged and difficult long before Friday's earthquake. In Ijjoukak, a village in the area surrounding Toubkal, North Africa's tallest peak, residents estimated nearly 200 buildings had been leveled.

Couch cushions, electric cords and grapes were strewn in giant piles of rubble alongside dead sheep, houseplants and doors wedged between boulders. Relatives from the town and those who had driven from major cities cried while they wondered who to call as they reckoned with the aftermath and a lack of food and water.

"It felt like a bomb went off," 34-year-old Mohamed Messi said.

Morocco will observe three days of national mourning with flags at half-staff on all public facilities, the official news agency MAP reported.

World leaders offered to send in aid or rescue crews as condolences poured in from countries in Europe, the Middle East and the Group of 20 summit in India. The president of Turkey, which lost tens of thousands of people in a massive earthquake earlier this year, was among those proposing assistance. France and Germany, with large populations of people of Moroccan origin, also offered to help, and the leaders of both Ukraine and Russia expressed support for Moroccans.

In an exceptional move, neighboring rival Algeria offered to open its airspace to allow eventual humanitarian aid or medical evacuation flights to travel to and from Morocco. Algeria closed the airspace when its government severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 over a series of issues. The countries have a decadeslong dispute involving the territory of Western Sahara.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. (22:11 GMT), with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at a relatively shallow depth, which makes a quake more dangerous.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in the region.

In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths. That quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.

In 2004, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake near the Mediterranean coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.

Friday's quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria's Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.


# Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologize for 'pain' their letters on behalf of Danny Masterson caused
September 9th, 2023. 7:14 PM GMT-4.

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologized Saturday for character letters the celebrity couple wrote on behalf of fellow "That '70s Show" actor Danny Masterson before he was sentenced for rape this week.

A judge in Los Angeles on Thursday sentenced Masterson to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women in 2003.

In a video posted on Instagram, Kutcher and Kunis said they were sorry for the pain they may have caused with the letters, which were made public Friday.

Kutcher said the letters that asked for leniency "were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or retraumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that and we're sorry if that has taken place."

Kutcher said Masterson's family approached them after the actor was convicted in the rapes in May and asked them to write character letters describing "the person that we knew for 25 years." The letters were posted online by The Hollywood Reporter and other digital publications.

Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in "That '70s Show" from 1998 until 2006.

He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy "The Ranch," but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to Masterson, 47, after hearing statements from the women, and pleas for fairness from defense attorneys.

Kutcher described Masterson as a man who treated people "with decency, equality, and generosity," he wrote in his letter dated July 27, 2023.

Kunis in her letter to Olmedo called Masterson "an outstanding role model and friend" and an "exceptional older brother figure."

Both rapes took place in Masterson's Hollywood-area home in 2003 when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom "That '70s Show." The victims testified that Masterson drugged them before violently raping them.

Kunis said in the apology video that their letters did not mean to undermine the testimony of victims.

"Our heart goes out to every single person who's ever been a victim of sexual assault, sexual abuse, or rape," she said.


# 'That '70s Show' actor Danny Masterson gets 30 years to life in prison for rapes of 2 women
By **ANDREW DALTON**
September 7th, 2023. 10:01 PM GMT-4

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - A judge sentenced "That '70s Show" show star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison Thursday for raping two women, giving them some relief after they spoke in court about the decades of damage he inflicted.

"When you raped me, you stole from me," said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. "That's what rape is, a theft of the spirit."

"You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent," she said. "The world is better off with you in prison."

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to the 47-year-old Masterson after hearing statements from the women, and pleas for fairness from defense attorneys.

The actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in court wearing a suit. Masterson watched the women without visible reaction as they spoke. He maintains his innocence and his attorneys plan to appeal.

The other woman Masterson was found guilty of raping said he "has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused." She told the judge, "I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I'm so upset. I wish I'd reported him sooner to the police."

After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts earlier this year.

Masterson waived his right to speak before he was sentenced and had no visible reaction after the judge's decision, nor did the many family members sitting beside him. His wife, actor Bijou Phillips, was tearful earlier in the hearing.

At his second trial, a jury found Masterson guilty of two of three rape counts on May 31. Both attacks took place in Masterson's Hollywood-area home in 2003, when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom "That '70s Show."

They could not reach a verdict on the third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.

The judge sentenced the actor after rejecting a defense motion for a new trial that was argued earlier Thursday. The sentence was the maximum allowed by law. It means Masterson will be eligible for parole after serving 25 1/2 years, but can be held in prison for life.

"I know that you're sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence, and thus no doubt feeling victimized by a justice system that has failed you," Olmedo told Masterson before handing down the sentence. "But Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person's voice, and choice. One way or another you will have to come to terms with your prior actions, and their consequences."

The defense sought to have sentences for the two convictions run simultaneously, and asked for a sentence of 15 years to life. The prosecution asked for the full 30 years to life sentence Masterson was eligible for.

"It's his life that will be impacted by what you decide today," Masterson's lawyer Shawn Holley told the judge before the sentencing. "And the life of his 9-year-old daughter, who means the world to him, and to whom he means the world."

After the hearing, Holley said in a statement that "Mr. Masterson did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted." She said a team of appellate lawyers has identified "a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues" with his convictions, which they are confident will be overturned.

Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology - where all three women were also members at the time - to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks, and the women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to police about Masterson.

At the sentencing hearing, one of the women, who like Masterson was born into the church, said she was shunned and ostracized for going to authorities in 2004.

"I lost everything. I lost my religion. I lost my ability to contact anyone I'd known or loved my entire life," she said. "I didn't exist outside the Scientology world. I had to start my life all over at 29. It seemed the world I knew didn't want me to live."

The church said in a statement after the trial that it has "no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone - Scientologists or not - to law enforcement." It has also denied ever harassing any of the women.

No charges came from the woman's 2004 police report, but she returned to authorities when she learned they were investigating Masterson again in 2016. The other two women had waited more than 15 years before reporting him to anyone other than church officials.

The women testified at both trials that in 2003, they were at Masterson's home when he drugged them before violently raping them.

They said Thursday that the trauma plagued them for the decades that followed, hurting their relationships and filling their lives with fear. But they said his sentencing gave them some relief.

"I don't have to carry your shame around with me anymore," the first woman who spoke said. "Now you have to hold that shame. You have to sit in a cell and hold it."

Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in "That '70s Show" from 1998 until 2006.

He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy "The Ranch," but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.

While that investigation began before a wave of women shook Hollywood with stories about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the conviction and sentencing of Masterson still represents a major #MeToo era success for Los Angeles prosecutors, along with the conviction of Weinstein himself last year.


# Updated COVID shots are coming. They're part of a trio of vaccines to block fall viruses
By **LAURAN NEERGAARD**
September 9th, 2023. 10:48 AM GMT-4

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Updated COVID-19 vaccines are coming soon, just in time to pair them with flu shots. And this fall, the first vaccines for another scary virus called RSV are rolling out to older adults and pregnant women.

Doctors hope enough people get vaccinated to help avert another "tripledemic" like last year when hospitals were overwhelmed with an early flu season, an onslaught of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, and yet another winter coronavirus surge.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have been steadily increasing since late summer, although not nearly as much as this time last year, and RSV already is on the rise in parts of the Southeast.

Approval of updated COVID-19 shots is expected within days. They are among the tools the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says will help put the U.S. in "our strongest position yet" to avoid another chaotic respiratory season.

"There will be a lot of virus this winter. That's why we want to get ahead of it," CDC chief Dr. Mandy Cohen said.

Here is what you need to know about fall vaccinations:

## WHY MORE COVID-19 SHOTS?
The ever-evolving coronavirus isn't going away. Similar to how flu shots are updated each year, the Food and Drug Administration gave COVID-19 vaccine makers a new recipe for this fall.

The updated shots have a single target, an omicron descendant named XBB.1.5. It's a big change. The COVID-19 vaccines offered since last year are combination shots targeting the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version, making them very outdated.

Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax all have brewed new supplies.

The FDA will soon decide if each company has met safety, effectiveness and quality standards. Then the CDC must sign off before vaccinations begin. A CDC advisory panel is set to meet Tuesday to make recommendations on how best to use the latest shots.

Earlier this month, European regulators authorized Pfizer's updated vaccine for this fall, for adults and children as young as 6 months.

## WILL THEY BE EFFECTIVE ENOUGH?
Health officials are optimistic, barring a new mutant.

As expected, XBB.1.5 has faded away in the months it took to tweak the vaccine. Today, there is a soup of different coronavirus variants causing illness and the most common ones are fairly close relatives. Recent lab testing from vaccine makers and other research groups suggest the updated shots will offer crossover protection.

Earlier vaccinations or infections have continued to help prevent severe disease and death but protection wanes over time, especially against milder infections as the virus continually evolves. While the FDA did allow seniors and others at high risk to get an extra booster dose last spring, most Americans haven't had a vaccination in about a year.

"The best thing people can do to maintain a normal way of life is to continue to get their booster shots," said Duke University vaccine expert David Montefiori.

## WHO ALSO NEEDS A FLU VACCINE?
The CDC urges a yearly flu shot for pretty much everyone ages 6 months and up. The best time is by the end of October.

Like with COVID-19, influenza can be especially dangerous to certain groups including the very young, older people and those with weak immune systems and lung or heart disease.

There are multiple kinds of flu vaccines to choose from, including a nasal spray version for certain younger people. More important, there are three shots specifically recommended for seniors to choose from because they are proven to do a better job revving up an older adult's immune system.

## CAN I GET A FLU SHOT AND COVID-19 SHOT AT THE SAME TIME?
Yes.

The CDC says there is no difference in effectiveness or side effects if people get those vaccines simultaneously, although one in each arm might be more comfortable.

## WHAT IS THIS NEW RSV VACCINE?
RSV is a cold-like nuisance for most people, and not as well-known as the flu. But RSV packs hospitals every winter and can be deadly for children under 5, the elderly and people with certain high-risk health problems. Most notorious for inflaming babies' tiny airways, leaving them wheezing, it's also a common cause of pneumonia in seniors.

RSV vaccines from GSK and Pfizer are approved for adults 60 and older. The CDC is advising seniors to ask their doctor if they should get the one-dose shot.

The FDA also has approved Pfizer's RSV vaccine to be given late in pregnancy so moms-to-be pass the protection to their newborns. CDC recommendations on that use are expected later this month.

Also still to come: advice on whether RSV vaccines should be given together with flu and COVID-19 shots.

## WHAT ABOUT BABIES AND RSV?
There is one more new shot parents may hear about this fall: an injection of lab-made antibodies to guard babies from RSV.

That is different than a vaccine, which teaches the body to make its own infection-fighting antibodies, but is similarly protective.

The FDA recently approved Beyfortus, from Sanofi and AstraZeneca. The one-dose drug is recommended for all infants younger than 8 months before their first RSV season.


# Morocco earthquake: A look at the deadliest quakes over the past 25 years
By **The Associated Press**
September 9th, 2023. 5:47 PM GMT-4

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The earthquake that struck Morocco late Friday has killed more than 2,000 people, with the death toll expected to increase as rescuers struggle to reach some areas. Here's a look at the deadliest earthquakes over the past 25 years:

- Sept. 8, 2023: In Morocco, a magnitude 6.8 temblor kills more than 2,000 people.

- Feb. 6, 2023: In Turkey and Syria, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake kills more than 21,600 people.

- April 25, 2015: In Nepal, more than 8,800 people are killed by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

- March 11, 2011: A magnitude 9.0 quake off the northeast coast of Japan triggers a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.

- March 11, 2011: A magnitude 9.0 quake off the northeast coast of Japan triggers a tsunami, killing more than 18,400 people.

- May 12, 2008: A magnitude 7.9 quake strikes eastern Sichuan in China, resulting in over 87,500 deaths.

- May 27, 2006: More than 5,700 people die when a magnitude 6.3 quake hits Indonesia's Java island.

- Oct. 8, 2005: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake kills over 80,000 people in Pakistan's Kashmir region.

- Dec. 26, 2004: A magnitude 9.1 quake in Indonesia triggers an Indian Ocean tsunami, killing about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

- Dec. 26, 2003: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits southeastern Iran, causing more than 20,000 deaths.

- Jan. 26, 2001: A magnitude 7.6 quake strikes Gujarat in India, killing as many as 20,000 people.

- Aug. 17, 1999: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake hits Izmit, Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.


# Morocco's African Cup qualifier postponed in wake of deadly earthquake
September 9th, 2023. 11:45 AM GMT-4

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**AGADIR, Morocco (AP)** - Morocco's qualifying game for the African Cup of Nations was postponed on Saturday in the wake of the earthquake that struck the country, killing more than 1,000 people.

Morocco had been scheduled to play Liberia in Agadir on the country's western coast, but the Moroccan soccer federation said the game had been postponed indefinitely after an agreement with the Confederation of African Football.

The earthquake that struck late Friday night also damaged buildings from villages in the Atlas Mountains to the historic city of Marrakech.

Agadir is roughly 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of the epicenter of Friday's tremor near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province.

The Gambian national team was in Marrakech during the earthquake ahead of a decisive qualifying game against Congo on Sunday. Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet told BBC World Service that he initially thought an airplane had crashed into the team's hotel.

"It seems it was only 30 seconds but it felt endless. It was really scary," Saintfiet said. "The walls were really shaking and things were falling down from the ceiling and the walls. I never in my life saw a building moving like that. When it stopped, I started running and checking if my team members were also out of their rooms."

No team members were reported injured.

Marrakech was hosting the game because of stadium problems in Gambia. CAF did not immediately respond to an email about the status of Sunday's match.

Morocco star player Achraf Hakimi took to social media to offer his condolences to victims of the earthquake.

"It is time to help each other to save as many lives as possible. My condolences to all who lost a loved one," Hakimi wrote on Instagram.

The magnitude-6.8 quake was the biggest to hit the North African country in 120 years.

On Friday morning, the Morocco team arrived in Agadir and then trained at Adrar Stadium in the afternoon.

The Atlas Lions made a historic run at last year's World Cup in Qatar, becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals, where they lost to France.

Morocco has already qualified for the 24-team African tournament, which begins in January in Ivory Coast.

The team was also scheduled to play a friendly match in France against Burkina Faso on Tuesday.


# Coco Gauff wins the US Open for her first Grand Slam title at age 19 by defeating Aryna Sabalenka
By **HOWARD FENDRICH**
September 9th, 2023. 7:06 PM GMT-4

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - This was what so many folks figured Coco Gauff would do at some point. Didn't matter how young she was. Didn't matter whether there were setbacks along the way. Those outsized expectations did not make the task of becoming a Grand Slam champion as a teenager any easier - especially when that chorus was accompanied by voices of others who doubted her.

She did it, though. At age 19. At the U.S. Open, where she used to come as a kid with her parents to watch her idols, Serena and Venus Williams, compete.

Gauff set aside a so-so start and surged to her first major championship by coming back to defeat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the U.S. Open final on Saturday to the delight of a raucous crowd that was loud from start to finish.

When it was over, when she had shed tears of joy, when she had hugged Mom and Dad as they cried, too, Gauff first thanked them, and her grandparents, and her brothers, one of whom failed to answer a FaceTime call from her right after the match. And then Gauff took the microphone during the ceremony to address anyone who might have questioned if this day would arrive.

"Thank you to the people who didn't believe in me. Like a month ago, I won a (tour) title and people said I would stop at that. Two weeks ago I won a (tour) title and people were saying that was the biggest it was going to get. So three weeks later, I'm here with this trophy right now," said Gauff, who is on a career-best 12-match winning streak. "Tried my best to carry this with grace, and I've been doing my best, so honestly, to those who thought they were putting water in my fire: You were really adding gas to it and now it's really burning so bright right now."

Gauff, who is from Florida, is the first American teenager to win the country's major tennis tournament since Serena Williams in 1999. If last year's U.S. Open was all about saying goodbye to Williams as she competed for the final time, this year's two weeks in New York turned into a "Welcome to the big time!" moment for Gauff.

She burst onto the scene at 15 by becoming the youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history and making it to the fourth round in her Grand Slam debut in 2019. She reached her initial major final at last year's French Open, finishing as the runner-up. What appeared to be a step back came this July at the All England Club, where she exited in the first round.

Since then, she's won 18 of 19 contests while working with a new coaching pair of Brad Gilbert and Pere Riba.

The No. 6-seeded Gauff did it Saturday by withstanding the power displayed by Sabalenka on nearly every swing of her racket, eventually getting accustomed to it and managing to get back shot after shot. Gauff broke to begin the third set on one such point, tracking down every ball hit her way until eventually smacking a putaway volley that she punctuated with a fist pump and a scream of "Come on!"

Soon it was 4-0 in that set for Gauff. At 4-1, Sabalenka took a medical timeout while her left leg was massaged. Gauff stayed sharp during the break - it lasted a handful of minutes, not the 50 during a climate protest in the semifinals - by practicing some serves.

When they resumed, Sabalenka broke to get within 4-2. But Gauff broke right back, and soon was serving out the victory, then dropping onto her back on the court. She soon climbed into the stands to find her parents.

"You did it!" Gauff's mom told her, both in tears.

Sabalenka came into the day with a 23-2 record at major tournaments in 2023, including her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January. The 25-year-old from Belarus already was assured of rising from No. 2 to No. 1 in the WTA rankings for the first time next week.

But she was reduced to the role of foil by the fans. As often happens when an American plays in America, Gauff was the recipient of by far the most support from the seats in 23,000-capacity Arthur Ashe Stadium. Her pre-match TV interview, shown on the video screens in the arena, was drowned out by the sound of applause and cheers reverberating off the closed retractable roof.

Even in the early stages, winners by Gauff were celebrated as if the match were over. So were Sabalenka's miscues. Her faults and, especially, double-faults - and there were six in all, three in her first two service games alone, plus another to hand over a break in the second set -- and assorted other mistakes, including one over-the-shoulder backhand volley into the net and what appeared to be a much simpler forehand volley.

By the end, Sabalenka had made 46 unforced errors, far more than double Gauff's total of 19.

Here's another way to view it: Gauff only needed to deliver 13 winners to accumulate 83 points Saturday.

When Sabalenka has everything calibrated just right, it's difficult for any foe to handle it - even someone as speedy, smart and instinctive as Gauff, whose get-to-every-ball court coverage managed to keep her in points few other players would be able to extend.

Somehow, Gauff began doing that again and again. And Sabalenka began to miss again and again, frequently slapping her thigh, muttering or shaking her head afterward.

They traded early breaks to 2-all, before Sabalenka grabbed the next four games to take that set. During that stretch, there was a thrilling point that had the audience making noise before it was over. Gauff scrambled to keep getting Sabalenka's strokes back over the net, including somehow deflecting a booming overhead on the run, before a second, unreachable overhead bounced off the ground and into the stands.

Sabalenka raised her left hand and wagged her fingers, telling the folks in the stands to give her some love.

But soon, Gauff was playing better, Sabalenka was off-target more, and the love was being showered only on one of them, the sport's newest Grand Slam champion.


# Trump, DeSantis and other 2024 GOP prospects vie for attention at the Iowa-Iowa State football game
By **THOMAS BEAUMONT** and **HANNAH FINGERHUT**
September 9th, 2023. 5:23 PM GMT-4

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**AMES, Iowa (AP)** - Donald Trump crossed paths with several Republican rivals Saturday as he attended Iowa's in-state college football grudge match, one of the former president's few visits so far to the state that holds the first nominating caucus next year.

Trump waded into one of the state's largest sports crowds at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, where Iowa State was hosting Iowa. Also at the game were Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and several other candidates, putting in face time with Iowa's elected officials and football fans.

With the race entering its traditional ramp-up after Labor Day, Trump has largely skipped holding town halls or participating in many of the state's cherished campaign traditions, but has not paid a price so far. Trump remains far ahead of DeSantis and other rivals in Iowa and nationally.

Trump has made a habit of visiting Iowa on the same day as DeSantis, whom Trump treats as his main threat. Both were in and around the stadium before kickoff, reminiscent of the scene last month when Trump drew huge crowds to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines while DeSantis addressed smaller audiences and hit the midway rides with his family.

Trump on Saturday emerged from the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, an agricultural house in the middle of Iowa State's fraternity and sorority neighborhood, where he met privately with students first, to the cheers of hundreds pressing to get photos with the former president outside the red-brick house.

Trump basked in the adoration, pumping his fists to the chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" and "U.S.A, U.S.A." before strolling to a grill and raising a spatula holding a hamburger.

He stopped to autograph photos and about a dozen footballs, which he tossed, both underhand and overhand, into the crowd of cheering students before departing for the game.

During the fraternity scrum, Trump approached a reporter with the Republican-leaning Right Side Broadcasting Network, who asked what he thought of the scene.

"I guess the youth likes Trump," Trump said, straining to be heard above the din of the crowd.

Trump endured some targeted hits during the day. As Trump's motorcade rolled on to the college campus before game time, some football fans walking the streets of Ames to the game made profane gestures as it passed. A prop plane flew over the stadium carrying a banner that read, "Where's Melania?" And hired performers wearing inflatable costumes, one posing as Trump and the other infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, held hands as they roamed the parking lot in face masks.

Meanwhile, DeSantis met fans of both schools at tailgates and said he would be attending the game with Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has not endorsed a candidate but often has appeared with DeSantis and his wife, Casey.

"We're having a good time," DeSantis said to reporters. "It's quite an atmosphere, probably a little bit more civilized than the Florida-Georgia game."

As he wandered from one tailgate to another, DeSantis was flanked by fans cheering and waving campaign signs from a booth hosted by the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down super PAC. Volunteers with Iowans for Trump similarly set up several booths around the parking lots, with both teams working to get fans to sign caucus pledge cards.

Also appearing before the game were candidates Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, and Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor, who greeted each other at a tailgate honoring veterans, where Sen. Joni Ernst camped out for most of the afternoon.

Asked who he was rooting for, DeSantis said he wasn't going to "do anything to upset" Reynolds, who is an Iowa State graduate. Hutchinson said he was rooting for the "underdog because I'm an underdog in this race and I want underdogs to win," and Burgum noted his North Dakota State Bison were playing today, though he didn't risk showing up in Ames wearing his gear.

While fans Saturday showed up for football, not for politics, voters have had the chance to see most candidates who regularly appear at Iowa cattle calls and meet-and-greets. DeSantis is increasingly focused on winning or placing high in Iowa and says he's visited more than half of the state's 99 counties already.

Trump, meanwhile, has made only five visits to Iowa this year.

At the game, Trump was sitting in a stadium suite with Iowa casino powerhouse Gary Kirke, an influential Republican donor.

Instead of large-scale rallies, Trump is relying on state party events that offer large, friendly audiences at no cost to his campaign, while his political organization pays millions of dollars in legal expenses as he faces four criminal indictments. He was in neighboring South Dakota on Friday night appearing at a state party fundraiser with Gov. Kristi Noem, who endorsed him.

Trump's campaign has also used digital outreach. Last week, Trump held a conference call with tens of thousands of Iowans. He has done some in-person events with voters. In June, he handed out Dairy Queen "Blizzards" while also confessing aloud that he did not know what the soft-serve treats were.

There is no comparable example in Iowa political history to a former president running to reclaim his old office while also under indictment for more than 90 felony counts. But other high-profile candidates and strong front-runners have done the town halls and retail campaigning for which Iowa and other early primary states are well-known.

In 2007, then-Sen. Hillary Clinton entered the race for the 2008 Democratic nomination as a national celebrity and the party's heavy favorite in national polling. Drawing larger crowds, Clinton sought to meet the demand by holding smaller meetings with local activists before speaking to packed gyms and halls.

Clinton also attended party events with her lesser-known rivals to demonstrate her willingness to undergo the rigor that Iowans typically demand. Ultimately, she lost the 2008 caucus to then-Sen. Barack Obama, who eventually won the nomination and the White House.

Trump has foregone all but one such event in Iowa this year. The exception was the Iowa Republican Party Lincoln Dinner in July, a marquee event that helps to finance the caucus.


# Police announce 2 more confirmed sightings of escaped murderer on the run in Pennsylvania
September 9th, 2023. 3:32 PM GMT-4

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**WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP)** - Police on Saturday reported two more confirmed sightings of an escaped murderer on the run for more than a week in southeast Pennsylvania amid a search by hundreds of law enforcement officers.

Danelo Souza Cavalcante, 34, escaped from the Chester County Prison while awaiting transfer to state prison on Aug. 31 after being sentenced to life for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in 2021. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop her from telling police that he's wanted in a killing in his home country of Brazil.

Authorities, who have described Cavalcante as extremely dangerous, didn't release details about the sightings but said they occurred Friday within the search area focused around the now-closed Longwood Gardens botanical garden in East Marlborough Township, where the fugitive inmate has been spotted several times.

Authorities believe Cavalcante, spotted almost a dozen times since his escape, has managed to obtain clothing and other supplies. Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said Friday that about 400 personnel were taking part in the search of the southeastern Philadelphia suburbs, farmland and the vast botanical garden, including tactical teams in full combat gear, tracking dogs, and officers on horseback as well as aircraft.

Longwood Gardens, closed indefinitely after the sightings, sprawls across nearly 200 acres (80 hectares), with paths winding through gardens, an outdoor theater, ponds, fountains and meadows, and structures including indoor gardens, treehouses and a restaurant.

Officials in Kennett Square, about 6.5 miles (10 kilometers) away from the county prison, said the annual mushroom festival would go on as scheduled this weekend despite the ongoing search, assuring visitors that "all necessary precautions and protocols" were in place. They said they felt it was important to go ahead with the festival because "bringing our community together is essential, especially during these challenging times."

Officials on Friday announced the firing of the prison tower guard on duty when Cavalcante scaled a wall by crab-walking up from the recreation yard, climbed over razor wire, ran across a roof and jumped to the ground. His escape went undetected for more than an hour until guards took a headcount. The guard, a corrections officer for 18 years who was put on administrative leave after the escape, also had his personal cellphone on him at the time, a violation of jail protocol, county spokesperson Michelle Bjork said.

There's now a $20,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Cavalcante, whose escape has attracted international attention and became big news in Brazil. The main newspaper in Rio de Janeiro ran a lengthy story Wednesday with the headline "Dangerous hide-and-seek."

Prosecutors in Tocantins state have confirmed that a criminal case attributes "the crime of double qualified homicide to the defendant Danilo Souza Cavalcante." Authorities allege that Válter Júnior Moreira dos Reis was killed in 2017 in Figueirópolis over a debt the victim owed Cavalcante in connection with repair of a vehicle. The case is being handled by a court specialized in combating violence against women and crimes against life.


# Terrorism suspect who escaped from London prison is captured while riding a bike
By **BRIAN MELLEY**
September 9th, 2023. 12:43 PM GMT-4

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**LONDON (AP)** - A former British soldier facing terrorism charges who snuck out of a London prison on a food delivery truck was captured Saturday, police said.

Daniel Abed Khalife was nabbed while riding a bicycle along a canal path west of London after a four-day manhunt.

Khalife escaped from the Wandsworth Prison kitchen Wednesday and got outside the gates by strapping himself to the bottom of a catering truck.

Khalife, 21, was awaiting trial on charges of violating Britain's Official Secrets Act by gathering information "that could be useful to an enemy" and planting fake bombs at a military base. He was discharged from the British army after his arrest earlier this year and denied the allegations. His trial is set for November.

The breakout ignited a storm of criticism as political opponents linked the escape to years of financial austerity by the United Kingdom's governing Conservative Party. The government said an independent investigation would determine how Khalife escaped the medium-security prison that opened in 1851 during the reign of Queen Victoria.

"We need answers about how on earth a prisoner charged with terror & national security offences could have escaped in this way," Yvette Cooper, a member of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, wrote on social media Saturday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak thanked the police and public and said the inquiry would get to the bottom of how Khalife got away.

The escape prompted extra security checks at major transport hubs, particularly in and around the Port of Dover, the main boat crossing from England to France, and led to the shutdown of a major highway at one point.

London counter-terror police had offered a 20,000 pound ($25,000) reward for information leading to his arrest. It was not immediately clear if anyone was in line for the reward.

Police on Friday had announced a breakthrough in the search after a witness reported seeing Khalife at a busy intersection near the prison shortly after the escape.

Metropolitan Police's counterterrorism commander Dominic Murphy wouldn't say if the sighting was confirmed by surveillance cameras, but London has one of the most robust security camera networks in the world and any footage could have helped track his whereabouts.

"In terms of the investigation, it really gathered momentum yesterday afternoon, with a number of calls from the public, but really took a different course last night, when we did an intelligence-led search in the Richmond area in the early hours of this morning," Murphy said. "Whilst we didn't find him at that search, while we were at that search, we had a number of calls from the public over the next hour or two, giving us various sightings of him."

Police had received reports he was seen in the Chiswick area of west London and they descended there on Saturday morning, with police cars and vans swarming the area and helicopters hovering overhead.

Paul Wade said he opened his curtains to find five police officers outside his home.

"They said 'I expect you know why we are here,'" he said. "They were checking everybody's gardens."

But Khalife was nowhere near there when a plainclothes officer ultimately made the collar in the late morning, Murphy said.

Khalife was pulled off a bicycle along the canal near the community of Northolt, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from where he escaped.

Murphy said he was cooperative when arrested. He now faces additional charges of being unlawfully at-large and being an escaped prisoner.


# New Mexico governor issues order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque
By **MORGAN LEE**
September 9th, 2023. 12:05 AM GMT-4

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**SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)** - New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days in response to a spate of gun violence.

The Democratic governor said she expects legal challenges but was compelled to act because of recent shootings, including the death of an 11-year-old boy outside a minor league baseball stadium this week.

Lujan Grisham said state police would be responsible for enforcing what amount to civil violations. Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina said he won't enforce it, and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said he's uneasy about it because it raises too many questions about constitutional rights.

The firearms suspension, classified as an emergency public health order, applies to open and concealed carry in most public places, from city sidewalks to urban recreational parks. The restriction is tied to a threshold for violent crime rates currently only met by the metropolitan Albuquerque. Police and licensed security guards are exempt from the temporary ban.

Violators could face civil penalties and a fine of up to $5,000, gubernatorial spokeswoman Caroline Sweeney said. Under the order, residents still can transport guns to some private locations, such as a gun range or gun store, provided the firearm has a trigger lock or some other container or mechanism making it impossible to discharge.

Lujan Grisham acknowledged not all law enforcement officials were on board with her decision.

"I welcome the debate and fight about how to make New Mexicans safer," she said at a news conference, flanked by law enforcement officials, including the district attorney for the Albuquerque area.

John Allen said in a statement late Friday that he has reservations about the order but is ready to cooperate to tackle gun violence.

"While I understand and appreciate the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundation of our constitution, which I swore an oath to uphold," Allen said. "I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts, as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense."

Enforcing the governor's order also could put Albuquerque police in a difficult position with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding a police reform settlement, said police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.

"All of those are unsettled questions," he said late Friday.

Lujan Grisham referenced several recent shootings in Albuquerque in issuing the order. Among them was a suspected road rage shooting Wednesday outside a minor league baseball stadium that killed 11-year-old Froyland Villegas and critically wounded a woman as their vehicle was peppered with bullets while people left the game.

Last month, 5-year-old Galilea Samaniego was fatally shot while asleep in a motor home. Four teens entered the mobile home community in two stolen vehicles early on Aug. 13 and opened fire on the trailer, according to police. The girl was struck in the head and later died at a hospital.

The governor also cited an August shooting death in Taos County of 13-year-old Amber Archuleta. A 14-year-old boy shot and killed the girl with his father's gun while they were at his home, authorities said.

"When New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game - when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn - something is very wrong," Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

The top-ranked Republican in the state Senate swiftly denounced the governor's actions Friday to restrict guns as a way to stem violent crime.

"A child is murdered, the perpetrator is still on the loose, and what does the governor do? She ... targets law-abiding citizens with an unconstitutional gun order," Sen. Greg Baca of Belen said.

Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, applauded the governor's order as a courageous and necessary step to curbing gun violence, even if the measure's legal fate is uncertain.

"If it saves one life, then it's worth doing," Viscoli said.

Since 2019, Lujan Grisham has signed a raft of legislation restricting access to guns, including a 2020 "red flag" law allowing police or sheriff's deputies to ask a court to temporarily remove guns from people who might hurt themselves or others, an extension of background-check requirements to nearly all private gun sales.

She also signed a ban on firearms possession for people under permanent protective orders for domestic violence.

Friday's order directs state regulators to conduct monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide to ensure compliance with gun laws.

The state Department of Health will compile a report on gunshot victims at New Mexico hospitals that includes age, race, gender and ethnicity, along with the brand and caliber of firearm involved and other general circumstances.


# Parenting advice YouTuber Ruby Franke and business partner to remain jailed on child abuse charges
By **AMY BETH HANSON**
September 8th, 2023. 6:46 PM GMT-4

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A Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice via a once-popular YouTube channel called "8 Passengers" made her initial court appearance Friday on charges that she and the owner of a relationship counseling business abused and starved her two young children.

The proceedings were delayed by about 45 minutes due to technical difficulties after more than 1,300 people sought to log in to watch the virtual hearing, said Tania Mashburn, spokesperson for the Utah State Courts.

Ruby Franke, 41, and Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, were charged with six felony counts of aggravated child abuse after their arrests on Aug. 30 at Hildebrandt's house in the southern Utah city of Ivins.

Both appeared before Judge Eric Gentry via video from jail wearing orange striped uniforms and spoke little. Their attorneys waived reading of the charges and the women did not enter pleas.

Gentry ordered them to remain jailed without bail and scheduled their next hearings for Sept. 21. Their attorneys - Lamar Winward for Franke and Douglas Terry for Hildebrandt - said they were going to ask for bail hearings.

Due to the strong interest in the case - which also included people calling in to listen to the hearing - officials allowed about 50 people in the courtroom as well, Mashburn said.

The charges were filed after Franke's 12-year-old son escaped Hildebrandt's house and asked a neighbor to call police, according to the 911 call released by the St. George Police Department.

The boy was emaciated and had duct tape around his ankles and wrists, but wouldn't say why, the caller reported.

"I think he's been ... he's been detained," the caller said, his voice breaking up. "He's obviously covered in wounds."

As the dispatcher was asking questions, the boy said he didn't know where his mom was and that his dad was not in the area. The boy said two siblings, ages 10 and 14, were still at Hildebrandt's house.

"He says everything's fine with them," the caller told the dispatcher. "He says what's happened to him is his fault."

While waiting for police and paramedics, the caller expressed concern that Hildebrandt may come looking for the boy.

Prosecutors allege the women either caused or allowed someone to torture Franke's son and injure her 10-year-old daughter. Both children were starved and harmed emotionally, court records said. It's unclear why the children were at Hildebrandt's home.

The 12- and 10-year-old were taken to the hospital, police said. They along with two other of Franke's children were taken into the custody of child protective services.

Franke was known for sharing her family's life on their video blog.

Among the 1,300 attendees on the virtual hearing were people livestreaming on TikTok and providing real-time commentary, an illustration of the fascination with the case in online communities where Franke was already a divisive figure before her arrest.

The Franke family was criticized for their parenting decisions, including banning their oldest son from his bedroom for seven months for pranking his younger brother. In one video, Ruby Franke talked about refusing to take lunch to a kindergartener who forgot it at home. Another showed her threatening to cut the head off a young girl's stuffed toy to punish her for cutting things in the house.

In one video, Franke said she and her husband told their two youngest children that they would not be getting presents from Santa Claus because they had been selfish and weren't responding to punishment like being kept home from school and cleaning the floorboards.

"It's because they're so numb, and the more numb your child is, the bigger the outcome they need to wake them up," Franke said in a video.

Some critics started an online petition asking child protective services to get involved. The Franke's oldest daughter, Sherri Franke, cut ties with her parents, she has said in social media posts. The YouTube channel, which was started in 2015, ended after seven years.

Police records from Springville, Utah - where the Franke family lived - show Sherri Franke called police on Sept. 18, 2022, to report her brothers and sisters had been left home alone for days. Police also spoke with neighbors, but were unable to contact the children. A report was made to Child and Family Services, according to the police report.

Records show officers stopped by the house four more times from Sept. 22 through Oct. 3.

Hildebrandt owns a counseling business called ConneXions. The business' website said Franke provides content for social media and podcasts. ConneXions videos featuring Hildebrandt and Franke were removed from YouTube after the women were charged.

The state of Utah began efforts to try to "take appropriate action" on Hildebrandt's clinical mental health counseling license after her arrest, said Melanie Hall, spokesperson for the Department of Commerce, which includes the state's Professional Licensing Division. If someone facing professional discipline declines to surrender their license, they are given an opportunity to respond and a hearing can be held, she said.

The agency is working with the Attorney General's Office about possibly holding an emergency hearing of the licensing board in Hildebrandt's case, Hall said.