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Asylum seekers caught in political battle in NYC, Washington
NEW YORK (AP) — Weary of Venezuela's autocratic government and the pittance he earned in the military, Dario Maldonado deserted and fled with his family to neighboring Colombia.
But life remained hard — money was tight and expenses mounted. So he set off for the United States, an odyssey that required him to travel by foot through Central American jungle infested with venomous snakes and gun-toting bandits, sometimes sidestepping the corpses of people who died on the same journey.
Now Maldonado and thousands of other asylum seekers from across Latin America and the Caribbean are caught in the political battle over U.S. immigration policy after two Republican governors started sending busloads of migrants to New York City and Washington.
Border cities such as San Diego have long wrestled with influxes of asylum-seekers and created well-oiled machines to respond, but the nation's largest city and its capital were caught flat-footed. That created an opening for Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona to exploit what they consider failed Democratic leadership.
Nearly 8,000 migrants have arrived on the state-sponsored bus trips, straining the resources and humanitarian services of both cities, which have also sought assistance from the federal government.
Trump seeks special master to review Mar-a-Lago documents
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge Monday to halt the FBI's review of documents recovered from his Florida estate earlier this month until a neutral special master can be appointed to inspect the records.
The request was included in a federal lawsuit, the first filing by Trump's legal team in the two weeks since the search, that takes broad aim at the FBI investigation into the discovery of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that foreshadows arguments his lawyers are expected to make as the probe proceeds.
It comes as The New York Times reported that the government has recovered more than 300 documents marked classified from Mar-a-Lago since Trump left office, including more than 150 retrieved by the National Archives in January — a number that helped trigger the criminal investigation.
The lawsuit casts the Aug. 8 search, in which the FBI said it recovered 11 sets of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, as a “shockingly aggressive move." It also attacks the warrant as overly broad, contends that Trump is entitled to a more detailed description of the records seized from the home and argues that the FBI and Justice Department has long treated him “unfairly.”
"Law enforcement is a shield that protects America. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes," the lawyers wrote Monday. “Therefore, we seek judicial assistance in the aftermath of an unprecedented and unnecessary raid” at Mar-a-Lago.
Fauci to step down after decades as top US infection expert
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert who became a household name — and the subject of partisan attacks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Monday he will leave the federal government in December after more than five decades.
Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and also leads a lab studying the immune system.
While the COVID-19 pandemic introduced him to millions of Americans, he's given straight-talk to the nation about numerous outbreaks including HIV/AIDS, SARS, pandemic flu, Ebola and the 2001 anthrax attacks.
“I’ve gone into this campus and into the labs and into the hospital every day, including most weekends, for 54 years. The idea of walking away from it obviously is bittersweet,” Fauci told The Associated Press.
In announcing his departure, the 81-year-old Fauci called his roles “the honor of a lifetime” but said it was time “to pursue the next chapter of my career.”
Board: SD Gov. Kristi Noem may have 'engaged in misconduct’
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, and it referred a separate complaint over her state airplane use to the state's attorney general for investigation.
The three retired judges on the Government Accountability Board determined that “appropriate action” could be taken against Noem for her role in her daughter's appraiser licensure, though it didn't specify the action.
The board’s moves potentially escalate the ramifications of investigations into Noem. The Republican governor faces reelection this year and has also positioned herself as an aspirant to the White House in 2024. She is under scrutiny from the board after Jason Ravnsborg, the state’s former Republican attorney general, filed complaints that stemmed from media reports on Noem’s actions in office. She has denied any wrongdoing.
After meeting in a closed-door session for one hour Monday, the board voted unanimously to invoke procedures that allow for a contested case hearing to give Noem a chance to publicly defend herself against allegations of “misconduct” related to “conflicts of interest” and “malfeasance.” The board also dismissed Ravnsborg's allegations that Noem misused state funds in the episode.
However, the retired judges left it unclear how they will proceed. Lori Wilbur, the board chair, said the complaint was “partially dismissed and partially closed,” but added that the complaint could be reopened. She declined to discuss what would cause the board to reopen the complaint.
3 Arkansas officers suspended after video captures beating
MULBERRY, Ark. (AP) — Federal authorities said Monday they have started a civil rights investigation following the suspension of three Arkansas law enforcement officers after a video posted on social media showed two of them beating a man while a third officer held him on the ground.
The officers were responding to a report of a man making threats outside a convenience store Sunday in the small town of Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, near the border with Oklahoma, authorities said.
Arkansas State Police said the agency would investigate the use of force. State police identified the suspect as Randal Worcester, 27, of Goose Creek, South Carolina.
The video shows one officer punching the suspect with a clenched fist, while another can be seen hitting the man with his knee. The third officer holds him against the pavement.
In video recorded from a car nearby, someone yells at officers to stop hitting the man in the head. Two of the officers appear to look up and say something back to the person who yelled. The officers' comments could not be heard clearly on the video.
Ukraine soccer league defies Russian war to begin season
Under threat of Russian attacks in a war that stopped all soccer in Ukraine in February, a new league season starts Tuesday in Kyiv with the goal of restoring some sense of normal life.
The elegant Olympic Stadium has staged the biggest European soccer games in the past decade though none as poignant as the opening-day meeting of Shakhtar Donetsk and Metalist 1925 from Kharkiv — teams from eastern cities that are fighting for their very existence.
No fans will be allowed in the 65,000-capacity downtown stadium for the 1 p.m. local time kickoff and the players must be rushed to bomb shelters if air-raid sirens sound.
“We have rules in case of an alarm and we should go to be underground,” Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko said Monday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “But I think the teams, the players will be proud of this event.”
“We are ready, we are strong and I think we will show to all the world Ukrainian life and will to win,” the national-team veteran said.
EXPLAINER: Pregnancy complications under abortion spotlight
Serious pregnancy complications are rare in the United States but they still affect thousands of women each year.
They may endanger the health of the mother, fetus or both. Many are more common in Black patients and contribute to their disproportionately high maternal mortality rate.
Severe cases may force patients and their physicians to consider abortions, but laws enacted or proposed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June have limited that option.
At least 19 states with abortion restrictions allow exemptions if the mother develops a condition with severe or life-threatening health consequences, but determining whether either situation exists can be a challenging judgment call. Physicians have said they feel new abortion limits are forcing them to let patients with complications deteriorate.
Here’s a look at some of the most common pregnancy complications that could lead a doctor to recommend an abortion:
Family sues Georgia sheriff over drug raid that killed woman
WOODBINE, Ga. (AP) — The family of a woman killed by gunfire last year as Georgia sheriff's deputies with a drug warrant raided her cousin's home announced a federal lawsuit Monday against the sheriff and others.
Attorneys for the family of 37-year-old Latoya James have argued her death echoes the fatal shooting in 2020 of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Both cases involved Black women killed in shootouts after law officers forced their way into darkened homes with little to no warning.
The civil lawsuit claims the deadly raid violated the slain woman’s civil rights. It was filed Sunday after the district attorney for coastal Camden County decided in April not to bring criminal charges against deputies in James' death after concluding they were justified in using deadly force.
“I can never get her back,” the slain woman's mother, Betty James, said through tears at a news conference Monday. "I got to hear her tell me `I love you, mommy’ for the last time the night before they took her life. And I can never hear that again. My family wants justice. We deserve justice.”
The lawsuit names Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor as a defendant as well as several deputies who took part in the fatal raid May 4, 2021. Filed on behalf of James' 9-year-old daughter, the lawsuit seeks at least $25 million in damages. It argues deputies violated James' rights by forcing entry without giving the home's occupants time to answer their knock.
Election staff abruptly quits, upending rural Texas county
FREDERICKSBURG , Texas (AP) — Part of why Terry Hamilton says he abruptly left his job running elections deep in Texas wine country is by now a familiar story in America: He became fed up with the harassment that followed the 2020 election.
But this was no ordinary exit.
On the brink of November’s midterm elections, it was not just Hamilton who up and quit this month but also the only other full-time election worker in rural Gillespie County. The sudden emptying of an entire local elections department came less than 70 days before voters start casting ballots.
By the middle of last week, no one was left at the darkened and locked elections office in a metal building annex off the main road in Fredericksburg. A “Your Vote Counts” poster hung in a window by the door.
A scramble is now underway to train replacements and ground them in layers of new Texas voting laws that are among the strictest in the U.S. That includes assistance from the Texas Secretary of State, whose spokesperson could not recall a similar instance in which an elections office was racing to start over with a completely new staff. But the headaches don't stop there.
Arizona levee breached, hiker missing after floods hit West
A levee was breached Monday in a small town near the Arizona-New Mexico state line, forcing the evacuations of 60 people after a weekend of flash floods across the American Southwest that also swept away one woman who is still missing in Utah’s Zion National Park.
In Duncan, a rural Arizona town located about 180 miles (290 kilometers) from Phoenix, weekend rains overwhelmed a dirt-barrier levee built more than a century ago to contain the Gila River, putting the town under inches of water. As many as 60 residents have evacuated, Fire Chief Hayden Boyd said. Water had already begun to recede, but more needed to before the town is safe to return to, Boyd added.
The flooding incident was among several to recently wreak havoc on a drought-stricken region that spans from Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas, Nevada — stranding tourists, closing highways and funneling trees and rocks toward downtowns. Heavy rains pummeled the Dallas-Fort Worth area, causing streets to flood and submerging vehicles as officials warned motorists to stay off the roads.
And rescue teams in southern Utah expanded their search for a lost hiker who found herself stranded amid torrential flooding. The episode illustrated how deteriorating weather conditions can transform the region's striking landscapes enjoyed by millions — including its striking canyons made of red rock and limestone — from picture-worthy paradises into life-threatening nightmares.
Rangers said their area that teams were searching for Jetal Agnihotri, a 29-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, now includes parts of the Virgin River that flow out from the southern border of Zion National Park, where the Virgin River flows the southward toward the town of Hurricane. Agnihotri was among a group of hikers who were swept away by floodwaters rushing through a popular hiking location in one of the park’s many slot canyons. Both the National Weather Service and Washington County, Utah, had issued flood warnings for the area that day.
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Positive Cases Among Kern Residents: 278,574
Recovered and Presumed Recovered Residents: 268,746
Percentage of all cases that are unvaccinated: 72.28
Percentage of all hospitalizations that are unvaccinated: 83.32
Source: Kern County Public Health Services Department
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