Starting on Sept. 16, the animated series will go by “South America,” marking the show’s first rebrand in 29 years, according to a press statement. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said they were “inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google,” which recently renamed Lake Ontario on the U.S.-Canada border as Lake America on their maps, following .

The move is obviously in jest, but it sets the stage for its upcoming 29th season and alludes to where the plot might go next. The show, started in 1997, traditionally follows four foul-mouthed boys on their adventures across Colorado, where Parker and Stone grew up. In recent decades, it’s become a mirror hilariously reflecting American pop culture — and that includes politics.

“South Park” last aired in 2025 and drew its as it satirically riffed on current events involving the Trump Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Communications Commission.

Resounding praise not only came from viewers. Over the weekend, the season 28 premiere, entitled “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” won “South Park” the during the first ceremonies of the 78th annual awards. (The rest of the Emmys will be awarded during a broadcast on NBC next Monday.) That episode, which ends with an AI-generated video of a naked Trump wandering through the desert, also drew a response from the White House at the time it aired.

Trump’s recent executive order renaming Lake Ontario came amid an escalating trade war with Canada. While companies like Apple and Google were quick to update the name on their maps, the old-school favorite MapQuest declined to, . (Yes, apparently MapQuest still exists.)

Will this cartographic drama play out in cartoon form? Tune in to “South Park,” nay “South America,” on Sept. 16 to find out. Episodes air Wednesdays on Comedy Central and are available to stream the following day on Paramount+. Additional new episodes are scheduled for release on Sept. 30, Oct. 14, Oct. 28, Nov. 11, and Nov. 25.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation aiming to establish an against President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

New subpoenas being issued to former government officials represent an escalation in the year-long investigation as the Justice Department pursues a loosely defined theory that members of the intelligence community who scrutinized Trump over the last decade, including over , conspired against him and violated his rights.

Investigators in recent days contacted some defense lawyers for witnesses advising them of forthcoming grand jury subpoenas. It was not clear how many, as of Tuesday, had received a subpoena or were still waiting to receive one, and the identities of the witnesses receiving subpoenas were also not immediately clear. The people who confirmed the subpoenas spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secretive grand jury investigation.

The investigation has focused in large part on the Trump-Russia probe

The contours of the conspiracy investigation aren’t fully known, but agents and prosecutors over the last several months have focused intensely on one of Trump’s chief grievances: the U.S. government response to Russian interference in 2016 and an intelligence community assessment that Moscow meddled on Trump’s behalf at the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who spent much of his first term shadowed by an investigation into whether his campaign the outcome of the election, has for years lashed out at the intelligence community finding and cast it as a “deep state” conspiracy to undermine the legitimacy of his win.

Investigators searching for potential crimes in connection with the intelligence community response have conducted numerous voluntary interviews, but the subpoenas prepared for witnesses in recent days represent an apparent effort to lock down sworn testimony before a grand jury.

It remains unclear whether anyone will be charged or for what offense, though lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan have said they have been as investigators examine whether he falsely testified to Congress — something he has repeatedly denied. The Justice Department last spring subpoenaed witnesses before a Washington grand jury as part of an investigation into Brennan, but swiftly withdrew the subpoenas in favor of voluntary interviews.

The investigation is being run out of Florida, with the Justice Department in April bringing back into government service a top prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to serve as a counselor to the attorney general and help lead a team of agents and prosecutors.

diGenova, who had previously asked then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to appoint him to the job and has openly and repeatedly claimed Trump was the victim of an intelligence community conspiracy, declined to comment Wednesday when reached by The Associated Press.

In an indication of the wide-ranging nature of the investigation, that diGenova’s team has sought interviews with law enforcement officials involved in the 2022 FBI search of in Palm Beach, Florida, which recovered a trove of classified documents.

Concerns from defense lawyers about a ‘favored’ judge

Investigators have set up shop in Fort Pierce, Florida, the home court of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed jurist who repeatedly appeared skeptical of the classified documents case against him and after concluding that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed.

Lawyers for Brennan last year asked the chief judge of the federal court in Florida to prevent the investigation from being steered to Cannon, whom they described as a “favored” Trump judge. They have since sued the Trump administration, demanding a court order requiring prosecutors to preserve records from the investigation so that Brennan could challenge any potential prosecution of him as vindictive.

Trump came to office in 2017 under scrutiny from the intelligence and law enforcement community about whether his successful campaign had colluded with Russia, which stole politically damaging Democratic emails and orchestrated their release through WikiLeaks as part of a wide-ranging interference scheme.

The FBI and Justice Department investigated but found insufficient evidence to prove a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, though it did find the campaign eagerly hoped to benefit from Moscow’s help.

Subsequent investigations by an inspector general and Justice Department prosecutors identified errors by agents who conducted the Russia probe but found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by senior law enforcement officials nor an anti-Trump conspiracy like what prosecutors are now hoping to prove.

Deeply frustrated by those outcomes, Trump has amplified his demands for retribution, which the Justice Department heeded last year by directing that prosecutors utilize a grand jury. Last year, Bondi directed prosecutors to put evidence before a grand jury following aimed at calling into question the legitimacy of the Trump-Russia inquiry.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President is embracing his inner cowboy, seeking to gallop into this week’s and save the for his party just in the nick of time.

As first-of-their-kind festivities open Wednesday, Trump wants to stoke his core supporters’ enthusiasm by making Election Day on Nov. 3 all about himself — a referendum on his record at an event he conceived to help his party, even if he’s not actually on the ballot.

The question is whether he’ll do more to fire up Republicans or Democrats at a moment when his popularity has reached historic lows.

The president is planning to take the stage both nights of the convention, giving a keynote address Wednesday and then closing remarks after Vice President gives his own speech the following night.

That means effectively staging a two-day Trump show with a supporting cast that includes some of the party’s most vulnerable lawmakers.

“If Trump is in the orbit then everything gets swallowed up into a black hole. It����ap just unavoidable,” said Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist and a critic of the president.

The Republican Party is so enamored with the prospect that it is selling $16 beer cozies online depicting the president as the Marlboro Man. They feature the 80-year-old on horseback, with a white Stetson and the word “Dallas” under the trademark red-and-white triangle peak logo where the cigarette maker’s name would normally be.

House Speaker , who will address the convention, noted that the gathering and should be “very instructive, very exciting.”

“We’ll parade our stars across the stage,” he said, making it sound like a political version of the beauty pageants Trump once helped organize.

Trump conceived and planned nearly the entire convention

Republicans familiar with the process said the president was involved in the event����ap every detail. His control over the program was such, in fact, that anyone pressing for information in recent weeks was told it wasn’t yet known because Trump was still making choices.

Despite all the cowboy imagery, it����ap unclear if the cavalry is coming, however.

MAGA Inc., the president����ap political organization with a , announced it is on television and digital advertisements in the Texas Senate race. But that����ap the first time it has tapped its vast resources in a serious way, even as Republicans are hoping for big help to win many tight races around the country.

A separate group, Securing American Greatness, has begun running ads touting the president����ap record heading into the midterms. But its gauzy videos mostly promote Trump and barely mention Congress.

The major broadcast networks haven’t committed to televising most of the convention on each night, and the proceedings will be competing with the — including games likely going on during both of Trump’s speeches.

The president wants to pretend he’s running

Rep. Suzan DelBene, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was skeptical the GOP would get a convention boost.

“I’m not sure what they’re doing,” said the Washington Democrat. “They don’t have a message, they have nothing to say. So, I think that will be even more clear.”

Trump, meanwhile, has long believed that the best way to win elections is to have himself as a candidate. He made that explicit during a recent South Carolina rally, the crowd, “Pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.”

The president is trying to counter that see the party in power usually suffer losses during midterm elections — including during Trump’s first term when Democrats flipped the House.

His midterm message has consisted mostly of promoting his record, including his administration , passing that reduced taxes for workers earning tips and overtime and on seniors’ Social Security benefits, and working to .

Still, Trump hasn’t made clear how keeping Republicans in control of Congress would address concerns about and an economy many Americans see as , not to mention a war in Iran with no end in sight and Trump’s own .

Trump has sought to go on the political offensive

The president decries Democrats as , arguing that progressive candidates who notched some key primary wins are too far to the left for the general election.

“Communism is an INHUMAN ideology that has led to DEATH and DESTRUCTION around the World!” Trump posted on his social media site recently.

But Tyler said rallies — and generalized rallying cries slamming Democrats — aren’t likely what Republicans need ahead of the midterms. Instead, he said, they need a clear message and major efforts to mobilize voters.

“Trump can turn out two bases, his base and the Democratic base,” Tyler said. “The problem for him is, when he’s not on the ballot, his base never shows up and they’re unlikely to again.”

Trump has endorsed some Republican candidates who won their primaries but races than the more establishment choices he shunned.

Nowhere is that clearer than in Texas’ Senate race, which now could be close despite Democrats not winning statewide office in Texas since 1994 — the nation’s longest losing streak.

Democrat is looking for an upset after Trump backed Texas Attorney General despite years of scandals. He propelled Paxton to a primary win over incumbent Republican Sen. , who had stronger name recognition and years of experience in Washington.

Having the convention in Dallas “definitely sends a signal that they’re scared about Texas,” said Abel Prado, campaign manager for Democratic congressional candidate and Tejano singer Bobby Pulido, who is running against Republican Rep. Monica de la Cruz in the Rio Grande Valley on Texas’ border with Mexico.

Trump garnered from some South Texas Hispanic voters in 2024. But Prado said that has largely fallen away, pointing chiefly to frequent immigration raids he said have hurt the district����ap economy — including slowing a once-booming homebuilding industry, given construction crews’ fears about being targeted.

“We’re seeing a very real sense of buyer’s remorse,” Prado said. “Trump always projected this, ‘I am the image of the American Dream.’ But people are starting to realize he only cares about himself.”

Some top Republicans are skipping Dallas

There are Republican incumbents, as well as candidates in key House swing districts, who won’t be at the convention, believing that campaigning back home is a better use of their time. That includes Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, whose battleground district includes the state capital of Lansing.

Many others, though, plan to use Dallas to share Trump’s spotlight.

“Obviously, you’re out of the district, but it����ap a really good opportunity to get in front of people,” said Matt Beynon, spokesperson for Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, who is in a fast-growing district in the central part of the state that����ap being targeted by Democrats.

The list of scheduled speakers includes Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and the president����ap son, Donald Trump Jr. Also set to address the crowd are Paxton and Mike Rogers, the Senate nominee in Michigan, where the race is also expected to be close.

Organizers have also built events around everyday Americans, including people who benefited from tax cuts.

“It����ap going to be very important,” Trump told the Lt. Dan Podcast with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

“And I did it,” Trump added. “I just came up with the idea.”

Associated Press writers Steven Sloan, Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, Jill Colvin in New York and Mark Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada struck back at U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday with tariffs on about $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, in response to the latest round of tariffs on Canada.

The outcome could resonate far beyond Canada, showing other governments whether a smaller U.S. ally can withstand Trump’s economic pressure.

Canadian says U.S. demands could hollow out key Canadian industries and limit the country’s independence, while Trump’s threats to Canadian sovereignty have rallied the public behind him.

“Carney and Canada have become symbolic of resistance to him,” Canadian historian Robert Bothwell said. “And what he’ll want to do is make an example of Carney and Canada and theoretically terrify everybody else while in fact showing them that they need to remove themselves even further from the United States.”

of American products, including steel, aluminum, cheese, appliances, clothing, cosmetics and farm equipment, at rates of 15%, 25% or 50%.

Here’s what to know.

Canada retaliates with tariffs on hundreds of US products

Canada says its tariffs match Washington’s dollar for dollar and rate for rate. They take effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday under an executive action known as an order in council and cover about $20 billion in American goods, roughly 6% of the $333.6 billion the United States exported to Canada last year.

RBC Economics, the research arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, said the measures were unlikely to dent U.S. growth overall but could hit some businesses hard.

Canada has already gone beyond tariffs in other ways. Eight of its 10 provinces continue to restrict or ban sales of U.S. alcohol. The Distilled Spirits Council says U.S. spirits exports to Canada fell more than 70% year over year after those restrictions took effect.

Trump threatens to punish Canada even further

Since Canada-U.S. , Trump and his administration have unleashed a barrage of tariffs, threats and personal attacks portraying Canada as weak and dependent.

On Monday, Trump threatened to ban the sale of aircraft from Canada’s Bombardier, unless they manufacture planes in the United States.

“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump on Truth Social. “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank.’”

Flavio Volpe, president of APMA Canada, a manufacturing trade group, that Bombardier uses U.S.-made GE and Honeywell jet engines and employs about 3,000 U.S. workers.

Trump previously warned that Canada’s economy could collapse if Carney continued treating him as “the enemy” and threatened consequences “worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian Politician.”

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has threatened that Washington could ban some Canadian goods outright in response.

Trump even renamed Lake Ontario “Lake America,” a change ignored and . Google and Apple bent to Trump’s pressure and changed their maps for U.S. users. On Monday, he published a map of North America covered in the U.S. flag on social media.

“After renaming a gulf and a lake, maybe the next step for him is to rename a river?” said Daniel Béland, a political scientist at McGill University.

Trump’s pressure is hardening resistance in Canada

Trump’s trade war and repeated talk of making Canada the 51st state have fueled anger and rallied support for Carney. Canadians have to the United States and boycotted U.S. goods.

The current trade war began after Trump returned to office and imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian goods despite having negotiated and repeatedly praised the North American trade agreement during his first term. Many of those tariffs violate the pact.

The rupture is especially striking because the countries have long shared one of , with deeply integrated economies, close defense and security cooperation, vast cultural ties and, before relations deteriorated, about 400,000 people crossing the border each day.

Carney has said talks can resume when the Americans “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough” and become serious.

So far, Trump’s pressure has backfired in Canada, strengthening support for Carney rather than forcing concessions.

Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said Trump’s 2024 reelection deepened Canadians’ distrust of the United States — not just its government, but the judgment of Americans.

“Canada-U.S. relations, even without confrontation, will never be what they were before Trump,” he said.

Carney is becoming a global voice for standing up to Trump

At the in January, Carney warned that great powers are using economic integration to coerce smaller countries. The speech helped establish him as the leading voice among countries looking for ways to resist Trump.

Trump responded a day later by saying Canada “lives because of the United States” and warning: “Mark, remember that next time you make your statements.”

Carney will next week, giving him another major stage.

“The Canadian public is behind the Carney government and the world is watching what will happen next,” said Béland, the McGill political scientist. If Canada’s defiant approach succeeds, he said, it “could be used as a template” for resisting the Trump administration’s trade policies.

The fight is also about whether Canada keeps its factories

Trump has also threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian vehicles, auto parts and steel next year if Canada does not “fall in line,” a potentially devastating escalation for industries built around deeply integrated North American supply chains.

“We want the cars to be made in Detroit and in South Carolina and in Tennessee and in all of our places where we make cars. We don’t want them to be made in Canada,” Trump said.

A 50% auto tariff could hammer Canadian plants and raise vehicle prices across North America because parts and finished vehicles cross the border repeatedly during production.

Carney says Washington’s terms could leave Canadian industries “gradually wound down in Canada and wiped out.”

Could Canada actually win?

Canada starts at a disadvantage: The U.S. economy is roughly 13 times larger, and Canada sends more than 70% of its exports south of the border.

But Béland said this is not a normal trade fight. He pointed to Trump’s domestic unpopularity, the approaching midterms and court challenges that could undo more U.S. tariffs.

“Under normal conditions, this would be a very long shot for Canada,” he said.

But Washington has vulnerabilities too. U.S. refineries of oil a day from Canada, and American farmers depend heavily on Canadian potash fertilizer. So far, however, Canadian leaders have ruled out using some of that leverage by taxing or restricting critical exports.

Canada entered this round with some economic momentum. Its economy grew at a 3.2% annualized rate in the second quarter, more than twice the 1.5% pace in the United States.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly put the government����ap ambition plainly:

“I’m convinced that we will be able to show the world that Canada will win this trade war.”

Re: “Prepare now for the possibility that your ballot won’t arrive,” August 30 editorial

Call to duty!

The rapidly approaching Midterm election may be the most important election in this country’s short history. We always discuss our right to vote. It����ap time we understood it����ap not just our right; it����ap our duty. Every qualified voter must take this seriously.

It seems the results of every recent election have been attacked as rigged or stolen by one side or the other. It����ap time to eliminate that doubt. The way to do that is to produce results so overwhelming there can be no question as to what the American people want. If you’re angry, this is your chance to vent that anger. If you’re satisfied with the status quo, you can express that too.

Congress and the courts may be cowardly and slacking in their duty, but the American voter can’t be. Our ballots are going to be mailed soon. I, for one, plan to complete my ballot immediately and drop it in the closest ballot drop box. I have no choice but to trust the Postal Service to deliver it to me, but I won’t trust the Post Office to deliver my completed ballot.

I’m doing my best not to express my desires for the outcome. Regardless of how the elections turn out, it must be decisive. There can be no room for me to be concerned that the other side of the issues stole the election from me.

Do your duty and vote!

Robert Johnson, Denver, CO

How is it that President Donald Trump is doing everything within and beyond his power as president to deny the validity of mail-in ballots when he has used them to vote on multiple occasions? His claims that thousands, if not millions, of votes have been and will be cast illegally defy reason.

He will not admit or permit defeat in any area. It’s heads I win, tails you lose in any contest: voting, tariffs, war, crowd size, whatever. During the past two years, he has incarcerated, deported and terrified thousands of undocumented individuals and visa overstayers. Who does he think all these so-called “cheaters” will be? Underage teenagers?

I’m over 80 and have voted in every election since I was eligible. I’ve served as a poll watcher and an election judge, and I’ve always been impressed by the care taken in protecting the voting process. The president is crying wolf over a territory where he is the only “wolf” in sight.

Jeannie Dunham, Denver

If the USPS fails us, I’ll deliver ballots in my county. We could set up bipartisan teams, as we do with election judges. I bet we could cover the whole state.

Julie Leonard, Boulder

After reading this column, I came away thinking this is a solution in search of a problem. The only people who believe Donald Trump won the 2020 election are members of his cabinet. There is a very simple reason for that. If you don’t believe that fact, you are not in his cabinet; you also believe vandals destroyed his reflecting pool, and Jan. 6 was just people taking a stroll around the Capitol.

My point is 2020 was one of the most secure elections in modern history. In fact, all our elections are probably the most secure elections in the world. The fact that we even have to prepare in case our mail-in ballot doesn’t arrive borders on insanity.

Karl Rove once said that when fewer people vote, Republicans win. Even Karl Rove now thinks Trump is crazy. Trump and his dwindling MAGA followers still would rather not have mail-in ballots because then it is harder for everyone who is eligible to actually get the chance to vote.

Let����ap stop the insanity and stand up to Donald Trump.

David Shaw, Highlands Ranch

Jena Griswold will stand up to Trump and Allen won’t

Re: “Jena Griswold’s latest scandal should get voters to look seriously at her opponent,” August 23 column

Krista Kafer (R), wrote an article in The Denver Post criticizing Jena Griswold and recommending that people vote for Michael Allen (R) instead of Griswold. In a different time, say pre-2016, that might seem like normal politics. However, Republicans nowadays kowtow to whatever President Trump wants, regardless of the legality or logic of the situation. That is what Republicans in all 50 states are doing since Trump became president. We have no reason to assume that Allen will be any different.

On the other hand, Jena Griswold stood up against Trump in the Tina Peters case. She refused to let Peters go unpunished for the crime that she was convicted of at great personal risk. Griswold has been the recipient of more than 4500 death or harm threats.

We are left to assume that a Republican would have done whatever Trump wanted. This year, vote for a proven fighter who won’t do Trump’s bidding, Jena Griswold.

Byron Bergman, Denver

We don’t need Coco

Re: “Sales tax to fund rail set for ballot,” August 29 news story.

I am getting up there in age, so I still remember the promises of Front Range rail service when we voted for increased sales taxes in the 70’s and again in the early 2000s. (.5%, then raised to 1%). Those trains never materialized. The projected costs were too low, and the revenue proved insufficient due to incorrect or dishonest math.

What was built has run at a massive loss ever since. A lot of money has run down that bureaucratic drain. Most recently, RTD has been cutting services to “make ends meet.”

Now you report a new ballot measure for another one-third of a percent.

I am a diehard rail fan. As much as I would love to see trains to Boulder and the Springs, my vote will be a “No!” this time around.

Twice bitten, thrice shy!

Jonathan Williams, Denver

Re: “Yes, really – a passenger rail is coming to Boulder,” August 29 guest commentary.

In regard to the guest commentary by Aaron Brockett and John Putnum in support of the Colorado Connector (CoCo) rail project, I ask a simple question: Why are we even considering this? I am a loyal RTD rider. I live in Centennial and have commuted downtown daily for over 20 years, using a combination of bus and light rail. Now that I’m retired, I have used RTD to go downtown and to the airport, and I especially enjoy the winter service to Eldora to go skiing. As a senior, I get an all-day pass for $2.70. The bus from Union Station to Boulder runs every 15 minutes, so there isn’t a problem if I miss a bus.

This isn’t the case for CoCo’s three daily round-trip train rides. In summary, bus service is cost-effective and already exists. I would use RTD more; unfortunately, it is no longer as reliable as it used to be. CoCo just seems an unnecessarily expensive boondoggle. The money would be much better spent upgrading RTD’s reliability and working to reverse its deteriorating ridership.

Brian Rothkopf, Centennial

A responsible decision made on roads measure

Re: “After deal, measure on road funds to pull back,” August 28 news story.

Thanks to the Colorado Contractors for negotiating and pulling their transportation proposal, which was scheduled for this November’s ballot. I agree that highways need more funding; I believe we have some of the most deteriorating roads in the country. Having driven cross-country recently, I can agree with that estimate.

The first problem with the initiative was the funding source, and the second was making it constitutional. There are other solutions. The gas tax has not been increased since 1992; shame on us. Secondly, do electric cars pay their share? Electric, I would assume, does more damage as they are heavier. Just my thoughts, but there are many solutions.

Thanks again to the contractors.

Norma Anderson, Lakewood

Cameras are a useful crime prevention tool

Re: “Sheriff’s Office pauses use of Flock cameras after meeting,” August 28 news story.

The pause and/or ban on the use of Flock license plate readers flagging offenders is another law enforcement tool not available in opposing county and city locales like Summit County and now Steamboat Springs. The current anti-government, anti-data, and anti-police paranoia has now infected and disabled a useful crime prevention tool.

As stated by many law enforcement agencies, Flock readers are a valuable tool in their limited arsenal to prevent crime and apprehend offenders. I can understand offenders and criminals being opposed to this useful law enforcement tool. What I don’t understand is that now law-abiding citizens who are in the majority, with no criminal activity to hide, are being subjected to the whims of a loud, outspoken anti-law-enforcement minority. Seems like much to gain and very little to lose.

So, with that in mind, offenders wanting to avoid detection can just head to Summit County and Steamboat Springs where offenders can cruise undetected by law enforcement and go on their merry way without concern. Sound good?

Henry Ferne, Walsenburg

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The widow of an airman in the Middle East said it took a viral social media post to get resolution from the Pentagon on issues related to her husband’s benefits and basic pay months after his death.

, 33, was one of six crew members of a KC-135 refueling aircraft that in March while supporting operations against Iran. He’s one of 18 U.S. service members killed, along with 790 wounded, since .

The Air Force reached out to his widow, Libby Klinner, this week to clarify that his final paycheck would include hazard pay and combat-related tax breaks. This occurred after she voiced frustration on social media at being told by a military officer assigned to support her after her husband’s death that he was ineligible for those benefits because “we were not at war.”

“My husband lost his life because we’re in a war, and then I was told that because it����ap not technically a war, we lose out on something,” Klinner told The Associated Press. “It all comes down to principle.”

Trump administration is rejecting the ‘war’ label for current Iran operations

Her post, made over the weekend, gained national attention. Vice President JD Vance promised to look into her case after being asked about it during a White House briefing on Thursday.

“We want to be as helpful as we can and ensure she gets everything that she is entitled to,” Vance said. “My message to her would be, ‘We love ya, we’re grateful for the sacrifice and we very much take very seriously our commitment to get you what you need to get.’”

In response to a separate question, Vance to characterize U.S. fighting in Iran, saying that “there is no active shooting.” The military has twice this week, and Iran has retaliated by .

On Friday, President Donald Trump called U.S. strikes “intermittent” and defended Vance’s comments.

“I call it a military conflict because it����ap small potatoes for us,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

In late July, the Trump administration in the Pentagon’s casualty count system for those killed and wounded in renewed U.S.-Iran fighting. Pentagon officials said the change was necessary because “Operation Epic Fury,” the original name for combat operations against Tehran, had ended. Since July 7, all U.S. casualties in the Middle East have been tallied under “Overseas Operations.”

Widow says the Air Force has clarified the issues about her husband’s pay

Libby Klinner said Air Force officials contacted her this week to say they were initiating a review of her husband’s pay. The Air Force acknowledged to her Thursday that it had initially provided inaccurate information and clarified that she was receiving the full pay and benefits her husband was owed, she said.

She said she was told that her husband’s paycheck had already included but incorrectly itemized the combat-related hazard pay and tax breaks.

The pay incentives commonly known as “combat pay” are $225 per month and are not conditioned on a formal war declaration but just that the service member be in an area where there is “grave danger of physical injury” or be “killed, injured, or wounded by a hostile fire event,” .

Alex Klinner’s final paycheck would have included half that amount since troops are paid twice per month. It is difficult to calculate how much in federal tax breaks Klinner would have been receiving without more information.

Klinner declined to specify the amount of money she was initially told her husband, an eight-year Air Force veteran from Birmingham, Alabama, would be ineligible to receive.

The Air Force says it����ap committed to offering information and support

The Air Force said officials spoke with Klinner this week to “ensure all her questions are fully addressed” and confirmed that “all eligible combat theater benefits were included” in her husband’s pay.

“We remain committed to providing clear information and continued support to Mrs. Klinner, as well as all the families of the Airmen who died in the KC-135 crash,” the Air Force added.

Broadly, errors in pay in the military are very common because service members can often gain or lose eligibility for a variety of payments depending on their deployment status, duty location or even family factors. As a result, unlike their civilian counterparts, some troops can see their paychecks change many times a year depending on many factors — something that also increases the likelihood of errors.

A GoFundMe for Libby Klinner and her three young children, launched in the days after her husband’s death, has raised more than $1.5 million.

Klinner said she hoped that by speaking out, other grieving families receive clear information from the outset.

“I am very fortunate to have a significant support system around us and a platform to advocate for myself and for my kids. Other families may not have those resources,” she said. “If I can do anything to make this awful situation a little bit easier for someone else to navigate, then I am more than willing to do so.”

Brook reported from New Orleans. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

The federal aid will help Custer, Dolores, Ouray and Pueblo counties cover the costs of debris removal and repairs to public infrastructure, including roads, water systems and electric grids, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday.

“Coloradans hit by the Aspen Acres and Gold Mountain fires have shown incredible strength, but recovering from big disasters requires federal help,” Polis said in a statement. “Removing debris from homes and buildings destroyed is the most important step to begin rebuilding, and now that work can occur promptly and at no cost to homeowners, just as it did after the Marshall Fire.”

Dolores County in western Colorado is included in the disaster declaration because it was affected by the , which burned nearly 65,000 acres and damaged public power infrastructure there, Eric Maruyama, a Polis spokesman, said. The Ferris fire is not named explicitly in the declaration.

Polis made the formal request for federal aid to the White House on Aug. 23, after state and local officials worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to document and validate eligible damage. The state’s requests for two other types of disaster assistance are still under review.

“Our work is not finished. Families lost homes and livelihoods in these fires, and individual assistance and hazard mitigation funding remain under review,” U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd said in a statement. “I will continue working with the administration and our state and local partners to get those requests across the finish line and make sure western and southern Colorado have the resources they need to recover.”

In a break from previous disasters, the approved support wasn’t certain. Trump had previously denied disaster aid for 2025’s Elk and Lee fires and flooding in western Colorado later that year. The administration has come under repeated criticism for appearing to play politics with disaster relief money, with Trump often of candidates and denying claims to Democratic-led states than Republican ones.

In a statement, Sen. Michael Bennet welcomed the relief — but noted that more can be done for Coloradans recovering from the disasters.

“Following an outpouring of local support for disaster relief, I am glad to see the approval of the State’s request for a major disaster declaration and public assistance,” Bennet said in the statement.

He added: “The President must now approve the Governor’s request for individual assistance and hazard mitigation funding as well as the overdue federal assistance for the Lee and Elk Fires and extreme flooding in Southwest Colorado that occurred last year.”

The Aspen Acres fire has burned more than 100,000 acres, or roughly 159 square miles, mostly in southwest Pueblo County. It is the seventh-largest wildfire in Colorado history. The Gold Mountain fire has burned nearly 40,000 acres, or 62 square miles, mostly in Ouray County.

KUHESTAK, Iran (AP) — Women with their children were gathered in the house and yard, waiting for the bride and groom to arrive to kick off a wedding celebration in this small town in southern Iran. Then an explosion turned the scene to carnage.

The town of Kuhestak is still reeling from ���ٳ󲹳��� during an American bombardment of southern Iran on Tuesday evening. Lampposts at the entrance to the town displayed large posters of four of the dead — a 4-year-old boy, a 16-year-old and two women. Another woman, one of more than 60 people wounded in the blasts, died Thursday at a hospital.

On Friday, an Associated Press team made a rare visit to the town on the coast overlooking . Within a densely built neighborhood of houses and unpaved alleys stood the compound of the Mallahi family, which was struck as relatives celebrated their daughter’s wedding.

A U.S. weapons expert who reviewed images from the scene said the evidence suggests the strikes were carried out with American guided bombs.

Blast left a gaping hole in the roof

Ali Mallahi, a cousin of the bride, pointed to a gaping hole in the roof of a room that took a direct hit in one of the compound’s four houses. Big cracks ran through walls decorated with floral designs. Windows were shattered, and twisted sections of roofing and metal framework lay across the courtyard, among carpets and household appliances that the family had pulled out of other damaged rooms.

�վ������� aired in Iranian media showed colorful decorations and palm fronds strewn across the ground.

Weddings in the area are traditionally segregated by gender, and on Tuesday evening, roughly 150 women were gathered in the house, while the men held a separate celebration in another building about 50 meters (yards) away, Mallahi said.

A strike hit the room where the women were due to be served dinner, but at the time, celebrations were only just getting started, Mallahi said. The bride and groom had not yet arrived.

“Thank God, the casualties were not higher,” he said. The father of the bride, his uncle, is also named Ali Mallahi.

Sasan Zarei, a neighbor, said she rushed to the Mallahis’ home and helped people out of the rubble. “Most of the injured were kids. The scenes were very heartbreaking.”

Vance says US is investigating

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that he was briefed on the wedding attack. “We’re investigating it very fully,” he said. He said the U.S. never targets civilians in combat but added, “Sometimes things happen.”

Residents described to the AP how a series of heavy explosions shook Kuhestak, lighting up the night sky. The blasts came amid  of American bombardment in southern Iran that the U.S. military said targeted air defenses, radar systems and maritime assets.

Also hit was a communications tower by Kuhestak’s port, just over 100 meters (yards) from the Mallahi’s home. AP footage showed the tower toppled and heavy damage to the neighboring building that houses the town’s telecommunications department.

Hassan Sayadi, a technician with the department, said the tower had provided telephone and internet connections across the area. The Hormozgan provincial telecommunications department said Wednesday that U.S. attacks had disrupted landlines and mobile phone service in multiple locations, including Kuhestak, and that it was working to restore services. On Friday, mobile phones and data services were operating.

Town is not far from site where US hit a primary school

Kuhestak is about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the town of Minab, where  in an American missile strike that hit a primary school on Feb. 28, the opening day of the war launched by the U.S. and Israel.

Following Tuesday’s strikes, residents and Iranian media showed fragments of munitions found at the scene, including a thermal battery unit, a segment of a control fin and part of the exterior body of the munition.

Weapons experts told the AP that they believe imagery of fragments found at the site points to an American guided munition. Trevor Ball, a former U.S. Army explosive ordnance disposal technician and an analyst at Armament Research Services, said the imagery shows remnants of both a JSOW and GBU-39, which are types of guided, air-delivered glide bombs.

The images were “being evaluated to determine if one of these munitions, or another model, was responsible,” he said.

Videos released by U.S. Central Command of its operations that night in Iran show aircraft heading on missions, including an F/A-18E loaded with a JSOW.

The AP could not immediately determine where the remnants were collected or whether they all came from the wedding venue or also from the communication tower.

Associated Press reporters Mohsen Ganji in Kuhestak, Iran, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut and Lee Keath in Cairo contributed to this report.

The Trump administration this week quietly released an update to a major survey on  that was scrubbed of all data related to nonbinary students or bullying based on gender identity.

The numbers come from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection, a federal survey of nearly every public school in the nation. The release this week covers the 2023-2024 school year, when the survey included “nonbinary” as a gender category alongside male and female.

However, an Associated Press analysis shows that in every column for information related to gender identity, the numbers were replaced with a code indicating “Suppressed in Compliance with Executive Order.” That refers to an  that President Donald Trump signed on his inauguration day calling for the federal government to define sex as only male or female.

The government also suppressed the number of allegations of harassment or bullying on the basis of gender identity in schools, information about whether the districts had written policies prohibiting such harassment, and any links to those policies.

Those questions in the data collection are designed to capture the experiences of transgender and nonbinary students — whether they experience harassment, participate in sports or face overly harsh discipline, said Seth Galanter, a senior fellow at the Edley Center on Law and Democracy and a former attorney with the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights under the Biden and Obama administrations.

Only school districts that already collected data on trans and nonbinary students were required to report it to the federal government, Galanter said, and roughly 1,800 out of the more than 13,000 U.S. school districts reported data in the last collection.

“We’re losing the granular experience of those kids,” Galanter said. “They exist in the world, their schools acknowledge their existence, but we now no longer have any way to have any kind of local, state or national picture about these kids and what their school experience is like.”

In a written statement, the Education Department said the Office for Civil Rights would be releasing more data in coming weeks. It also said the Trump administration is “realigning the functions of OCR to align with its statutory mandate.”

The White House has targeted efforts to accommodate trans students

The data suppression reflects the Trump administration’s wider efforts to target protections for  in schools. The White House has repeatedly clashed with schools and colleges over accommodations for transgender students, with the Justice Department this week announcing a  against the school system in Kansas City, Kansas, over its policies on transgender students.

It’s also one of many instances in which the administration has  related to gender from government resources.

The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ law and policy research center based at the UCLA School of Law, has identified around 360 cases where the Trump administration removed information related to sexual orientation or gender identity from federal data collections, ranging from Medicare surveys that asked about discrimination in doctors’ offices to data on homeless youth.

The author of the Williams Institute’s report, Lauren Bouton, said the Office for Civil Rights could have used the data to identify schools that have a problem with bullying of nonbinary students and then require them to follow an action plan to improve. “No one’s being held accountable to these kids,” Bouton said.

The Civil Rights Data Collection is one of the country’s most important and comprehensive sources of data related to educational opportunity in public schools. As required by federal law, the Office for Civil Rights collects information from every school in the country on topics like discipline, corporal punishment, bullying and harassment, and access to advanced coursework.

The lack of transparency around the most recent update could erode public trust the government has worked to build for its civil rights data, said Ivy Morgan, director of research and data at EdTrust, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that advocates for educational equity.

“The way this data was released is part of a long-standing pattern that we have observed for the last two years,” Morgan said. “This administration just does not care about data, doesn’t care about research, doesn’t care about evidence. And it particularly doesn’t care about that information when it is helping us understand the experiences of students and people who are marginalized in our society.”

The survey went to schools shortly before Trump took office

Preparations for the latest data collection began under President Joe Biden’s administration, and Morgan said the attempt to gather data on nonbinary and trans students was one of the most comprehensive efforts to date from the federal government. The survey went out to schools a month before Trump was inaugurated.

While Trump had previously announced his administration would remove questions related to gender identity, it was unclear whether that would affect the 2024 data or only future surveys.

The last time that the data collection was updated, under the Biden administration, it came with a detailed report on trends in educational equity and opportunity, including findings that Black and Latino students were far more likely than white students to attend schools where the majority of teachers were not certified and were far less likely to have access to advanced math courses in high school.

This year, the new data came out with no accompanying report. There was no official announcement from the Education Department that new data had arrived. The only indication of the change was a single row added to the department����ap list of data tables. As of Friday, the homepage of the data collection website listed 2021-2022 data under the heading “What����ap New?”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Wisconsin’s candidates for governor want to limit them, while Pennsylvania’s say they support a ban. A Michigan congressional candidate called them “un-American.” A Florida Senate candidate is selling merch opposing them.

Across the country and up and down ballots, candidates from both parties are increasingly on the attack over Flock cameras, the AI-powered nationwide that record license plates and other characteristics of all passing vehicles, allowing law enforcement agencies to search and share that data. Although police say the cameras are an invaluable crime-fighting tool, some critics say their pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance.

The cameras sold by Atlanta-based Flock Safety, which the company has said are running in 6,000 communities in every state but Alaska, have become a new campaign issue that candidates and strategists see as part of a backlash against powerful technology companies, connected to broader debates over the future of artificial intelligence and the .

“We’ve seen candidates running on banning them, cutting off funding, or requiring warrants. That����ap a credit to activists across the country who have raised concerns about their use,” Michael Soyfer, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm litigating over the technology, said in a statement.

In response to questions about the cameras as a campaign theme, a Flock spokeswoman emphasized the company’s claims about the power of its technology, saying it helped “solve approximately one million crimes and helped reunite roughly 10,000 missing people with their families.”

“We ask anyone weighing in on this issue to engage with the facts and the record: the crimes solved, the families reunited, the safeguards already in place, and what our technology actually does,” said MoMo Zhou, the company’s vice president of communications. “We ask them to work with the communities using this technology to decide what rules should govern it and not to spread misinformation or ban a critical public safety tool outright that is helping to make communities safer.”

Flock opponents cite privacy concerns

License plate reader technology is decades old, and Flock was founded in 2017. But the company has — one that����ap crescendoed in recent weeks. It has come as awareness has grown about the sweeping reach of Flock’s network, litigation has unfolded over constitutional questions related to the use of the cameras, and news media have documented cases of officers misusing the technology to stalk personal connections.

James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas, recently “Flock cameras have no place in Texas.” His Republican opponent Ken Paxton’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Josh Shapiro, the Democratic Pennsylvania governor seeking reelection and considered a potential contender for the White House in 2028, said this week he would support a statewide ban. His Republican opponent, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, said in a statement, “Flock cameras are an intrusive invasion of privacy and they should be banned.”

In Wisconsin, the issue dominated the governor’s race this week.

Democratic nominee David Crowley, who is his past comments in support of making Wisconsin a global AI and data hub, highlighted that he had issued an order limiting the use of Flock cameras in Milwaukee County, where he serves as county executive. He said that as governor he would “implement strict transparency and accountability laws that ensure Wisconsinites are not spied on.”

His Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, said in a statement that he would pause state funding for Flock cameras and create a task force to establish stronger privacy protections, penalties for misuse, limits on data retention and sharing and “safeguards against Communist China and foreign adversaries.”

The Wisconsin Democratic Party responded by posting a in April saying in response to a question about Flock cameras that he didn’t know what they were. Then the state Republican Party hit back, saying “Big Brother Crowley” had a long record of previously supporting police surveillance technologies.

The issue has also infiltrated Rhode Island’s gubernatorial race, where Democratic Gov. Dan McKee paused the installation of new cameras just weeks before the state’s Sept. 9 primary, citing privacy and transparency concerns. His primary opponent, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, has questioned McKee’s motives for stopping the rollout so close to the election but agreed a review of how the data is being used was needed.

In Michigan, self-described democratic socialist William Lawrence, a Democratic nominee for the U.S. House, recently addressed the cameras by calling them “the most un-American thing I can imagine.” A spokesman for his opponent, incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett, noted that Barrett is a co-sponsor of legislation intended to ban federal agencies from using Flock cameras or other surveillance technology and to prevent state and local governments from using federal funds to buy them.

In Florida, where outgoing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration this week ordered the removal of automated license plate readers from state highway rights-of-way, Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon’s campaign is selling a T-shirt that reads, “FLORIDA NEEDS TO GET THE FLOCK OUT.”

Law enforcement groups support the technology

While calls for bans or restrictions have mounted, other candidates have expressed more supportive or nuanced views, and policing groups have reiterated their strong backing for the company and its tech.

Mitchell Davis III, chief of police in Hazel Crest, Illinois, and the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said in an interview that technology like Flock’s is “invaluable” and that the conversations around it have become “disturbing.”

“The disturbing thing for me right now is I’m seeing these communities that are telling their police departments that we’re no longer using these (automated license plate readers) in our communities, and that, I believe, that����ap a huge mistake. Talk about the proverbial throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said. “Instead of focusing on eliminating the cameras, make sure that there’s proper guidelines and proper accountability for misuse of the cameras.”

President Donald Trump said recently at an Oval Office event that his administration was studying the issue and would have more to say soon.

Cayce Myers, an attorney who teaches courses that touch on public relations, political communications and privacy issues at Virginia Tech University, said Americans are increasingly living in a world where they are interfacing with new technologies like Flock cameras whether they want to or not.

“I think there’s a real synergy between the camera systems that we’re talking about and also this greater societal discomfort with AI and technology in general,” he said, adding that it seems obvious that new surveillance technologies will continue to become a major political issue.

For Josh Chavez, Flock cameras are one of his concerns about the intersection of emerging technologies and civil liberties in his stretch of West Texas where data center projects are proliferating. Chavez, an HVAC installer, is outspoken enough on data centers that he was invited to participate in a recent roundtable on the subject with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, who is also a Flock critic.

“This is the government seeking more power, right?” Chavez said of the cameras. “In a partnership with Big Tech, who is seeking more money, all at the expense of us.”

Associated Press reporters Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.