MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Three people, including the suspected gunman, are dead after a shooting Thursday at a Minneapolis apartment complex, police said.

Two police officers were injured in the shooting in the south Minneapolis neighborhood of Whittier.

No other details were immediately released. Police planned a late evening news conference to address the shooting.

An earlier statement from police had indicated there were four civilians injured along with two officers.

Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had responded to “an active shooting situation,” said Ashlee Sherrill, a spokeswoman for the local field division.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The divided U.N. Security Council voted Thursday to extend an arms embargo on South Sudan despite appeals from the world’s newest nation, the African Union and half a dozen countries including Russia and China to lift or at least ease the restrictive measure.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution got the minimum nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council, with six countries abstaining – Russia, China, Mozambique, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Guyana.

The resolution also extends travel bans and asset freezes on South Sudanese on the U.N. sanctions blacklist until May 31, 2025.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood welcomed the resolution’s adoption saying extending the U.N. arms embargo “remains necessary to stem the unfettered flow of weapons into a region awash with guns.”

But Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Anna Evstigneeva accused the United States of ignoring all the positive achievements in South Sudan and focusing on sanctions “which they present as a sort of panacea for all of the country’s problems.”

She called the sanctions “burdensome,” noted calls for their lifting from South Sudan and the African Union, and said: “It is clear that at this stage, many of the Council sanctions regimes including South Sudan’s are outdated and need to be reviewed.”

South Sudan’s U.N. ambassador Cecilia Adeng told the council that sanctions “impede our progress” and reiterated the country’s call for the measures to be lifted. Eliminating the arms embargo “will enable us to build robust security institutions necessary for maintaining peace and protecting our citizens,” she said.

There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into a civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to the current president, Salva Kiir, battled those loyal to the current vice president, Riek Machar.

The war, which left nearly 400,000 people dead and more than 4 million displaced, ended with the 2018 peace agreement, bringing Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity.

Under the agreement, elections were supposed to be held in February 2023, but they were postponed until December 2024. In early April, South Sudan’s president warned lawmakers “not to cling to power just weeks after Machar proposed a further postponement of elections.

A report two weeks ago by experts monitoring sanctions against South Sudan said the elections would be “a significant milestone” and warned that the country’s leaders are running short of time “to ensure divergent expectations do not fuel further tensions and strife.”

South Sudan’s Adeng told the council her country is committed to ensuring the upcoming elections are conducted peacefully, “with full participation of all stakeholders.”

“South Sudan remains dedicated to working with the international community and our regional partners to achieve a peaceful and prosperous future for all South Sudanese,” she said. “We appeal to the Security Council to support our efforts by adopting measures that facilitate rather than hinder our progress.”

Boeing firefighters ratified a new contract with major pay increases and expect to return to work this weekend after a lockout that has lasted more than three weeks, their union said Thursday.

The deal covers about 125 fire and emergency-service workers in the Seattle area, who were locked out by Boeing when their previous contract expired May 4.

The vote was 86-24 to ratify a tentative agreement, according to Local I-66 of the International Association of Fire Fighters union.

The union said the agreement will guarantee four hours of overtime pay for each 24-hour shift, boosting pay on average by about $21,000 per year. Employees will get annual raises of 2% to 3% through 2027. They will reach the top pay scale in 10 years instead of the current 14 years or the 19 years that Boeing proposed, the union said.

“This is a win for us,” said Casey Yeager, president of the union local.

Boeing, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, did not immediately comment.

The workers are present when planes are fueled and flown and respond to fires and medical emergencies at the company’s facilities. A few days into the lockout, President Joe Biden posted on X that both sides should reach “a deal that benefits Boeing and gets these firefighters the pay and benefits they deserve.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts marks the end of the former president’s historic hush money trial, but the fight over the case is far from over.

Now comes the sentencing and the potential for a prison sentence. A lengthy appellate process. And all the while, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee still has to deal with three more criminal cases and a campaign that could see him return to the White House.

After more than nine hours of deliberations over two days, the Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in the case stemming from a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump angrily denounced the trial as a “disgrace,” telling reporters he’s an “innocent man.”

Some key takeaways from the jury’s decision:

PRISON TIME?

The big question now is whether Trump could go to prison. The answer is uncertain. Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before Republicans are formally set to nominate Trump for president.

The charge of falsifying business records is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest tier of felony charges in the state. It is punishable by up to four years in prison, though the punishment would ultimately be up to the judge, and there’s no guarantee he would give Trump time behind bars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.

It’s unclear to what extent the judge may factor in the political and logistical complexities of jailing a former president who is running to reclaim the White House. Other punishments could include a fine or probation. And it’s possible the judge would allow Trump to avoid serving any punishment until after he exhausts his appeals.

Trump faces the threat of more serious prison time in the three other cases he’s facing, but those cases have gotten bogged down by appeals and other legal fights, so it remains unclear whether any of them will go to trial before the November election.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE ELECTION

The conviction doesn’t bar Trump from continuing his campaign or becoming president. And he can still vote for himself in his home state of Florida as long as he stays out of prison in New York state.

Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who serves as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said in a Fox News Channel interview on Thursday that Trump would do virtual rallies and campaign events if he’s convicted and sentenced to home confinement.

In a deeply divided America, it’s unclear whether Trump’s once-unimaginable criminal conviction will have any impact at all on the election.

Leading strategists in both parties believe that Trump still remains well-positioned to defeat President Joe Biden, even as the Republican now faces the prospect of a prison sentence and three separate criminal cases still outstanding.

In the short term, at least, there were immediate signs that the guilty verdict was helping to unify the Republican Party’s disparate factions as GOP officials across the political spectrum rallied behind their embattled presumptive presidential nominee and his campaign reported a flood of fundraising dollars within hours of the verdict.

There has been some polling conducted on the prospect of a guilty verdict, although such hypothetical scenarios are notoriously difficult to predict. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that only 4% of Trump’s supporters said they would withdraw their backing if he’s convicted of a felony, though another 16% said they would reconsider it.

AVENUES FOR APPEAL

After Trump is sentenced, he can challenge his conviction in a New York appellate court and possibly the state’s highest court. Trump’s lawyers have already been laying the groundwork for appeals with objections to the charges and rulings at trial.

The defense has accused the judge of bias, citing his daughter’s work heading a firm whose clients have included Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. The judge refused the defense’s request to remove himself from the case, saying he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”

Trump’s lawyers may also raise on appeal the judge’s ruling limiting the testimony of a potential defense expert witness. The defense wanted to call Bradley Smith, who served on the Federal Election Commission, to rebut the prosecution’s contention that the hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations.

But the defense ended up not having him testify after the judge ruled he could give general background on the FEC but couldn’t interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump’s case or opine on whether Trump’s alleged actions violate those laws. There are often guardrails around expert testimony on legal matters, on the basis that it’s up to a judge — not an expert hired by one side or the other — to instruct jurors on applicable laws.

The defense may also argue that jurors were improperly allowed to hear sometimes graphic testimony from Daniels about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies ever happened. The defense unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial over the tawdry details prosecutors elicited from Daniels. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued Daniels’ description of a power imbalance with the older, taller Trump, was a “dog whistle for rape,” irrelevant to the charges at hand, and “the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from.”

A DEFENSE THAT CENTERED ON CREDIBILITY

The verdict shows the jury wasn’t persuaded by Trump’s defense, which hinged on assailing the credibility of some key witnesses — especially Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney-turned-adversary who directly implicated Trump in the hush money scheme.

As in many criminal cases, Trump’s lawyers tried to make a lot of their points while questioning prosecution witnesses. The defense called just two witnesses of its own, including Robert Costello, a defense attorney who had sought to represent Cohen after the latter came under federal investigation due to his work for Trump.

The move may have backfired because it opened the door for prosecutors to question Costello about a purported pressure campaign aimed at keeping Cohen loyal to Trump after the FBI raided Cohen’s property in April 2018.

Costello buoyed the defense by testifying that Cohen denied to him that Trump knew anything about the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.

But prosecutors portrayed Costello as a “double agent” whose agenda was really to keep Cohen from turning on Trump and confronted him with emails he sent to Cohen in which he repeatedly dangled his close ties to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. In one email, Costello told Cohen: “Sleep well tonight. you have friends in high places” and relayed that there were “some very positive comments about you from the White House.”

The pugnacious Costello annoyed the judge — at times in view of the jury — by continuing to speak after objections and rolling his eyes. At one point, after sending the jury out of the room, the judge became enraged when he said Costello was staring him down. Merchan then briefly cleared the courtroom of reporters and scolded Costello, warning that if he acted out again, he’d be removed from the courtroom.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A LOSS

While projecting confidence, Trump and his campaign also spent weeks trying to undermine the case ahead of a potential conviction. He repeatedly called the whole system “rigged” — a term he also used in false descriptions of the election he lost to Biden in 2020.

“Mother Teresa could not beat these charge,” Trump said Wednesday, invoking the Catholic nun and saint.

Trump has lambasted the judge and complained about members of the prosecution team as he tried to paint the case as nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt brought by Bragg, a Democrat.

He has also complained about a gag order that restricted him from speaking about some people involved in the case. Instead of testifying in the case — and subjecting himself to cross-examination — Trump has focused on the court of public opinion and the voters who will ultimately decide his fate.

_____

Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Steve Peoples and Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his criminal hush money trial.

It was the first time a former U.S. president was ever tried or convicted in a criminal case, and was the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial.

Prosecutors accused Trump of falsifying internal business records to cover up hush money payments tied to an alleged scheme to bury stories that might torpedo his 2016 White House bid.

At the heart of the charges were reimbursements paid to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

Prosecutors said the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.

The charges Trump faces are punishable by up to four years in prison. He has denied any wrongdoing and had pleaded not guilty.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has set Trump’s sentencing for July 11.

Currently:

— How Trump’s conviction affects the 2024 presidential race

— What to know about the guilty verdict in Trump’s hush money trial

— Inside the courtroom as Trump learned he’d been convicted

— Republican lawmakers come to Trump’s defense after his conviction

— Shares in Trump Media slump after former president’s conviction

— Trump hush money case: A timeline of key events

— Trump investigations: The status of the cases brought against him

Here’s the latest:

TRUMP’S LAWYER ON WHY HE DIDN’T TESTIFY

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche told CNN Thursday evening that Donald Trump wanted to testify in the trial, but “he listened to us and he relied on our counsel and he reached a decision that he thought was right.”

“Of course he wanted to testify. And I don’t say that because that’s what he has said,” Blanche said. “He wanted to get his story out.”

Blanche pointed to Judge Juan M. Merchan’s rulings about what could be asked of Trump if he took the stand, saying “some of those questions were really complicated to answer because there’s still appeals going on.”

“I don’t think there was a conviction because he did not take the stand,” Blanche added.

Asked why the defense didn’t call as witnesses former Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and former Trump company finance chief Allen Weisselberg — whose names came up repeatedly during testimony — Blanche responded: “Because we happen to live in America and we don’t have the burden of proof.” He said the question should be why the prosecution didn’t call them.

EXONERATED ‘CENTRAL PARK FIVE’ MEMBER SAYS HE TAKES ‘NO PLEASURE’
IN CONVICTION

Exonerated “Central Park Five” member and current New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam said he didn’t take pleasure in the former president’s guilty verdict “even though Donald Trump wanted me executed even when it was proven that I was innocent.”

Salaam won a seat on the City Council last year decades after being wrongly imprisoned for rape in a notorious case that roiled racial tensions in New York City in the late 1980s. At the time, Trump took out large newspaper advertisements calling for New York to reinstate the death penalty. Salaam, along with four other Black and Latino men, eventually had their convictions vacated in 2002.

“We should be proud that today the system worked. But we should be somber that we Americans have an ex-President who has been found guilty on 34 separate felony charges,” Salaam wrote in a post on the social media platform X.

“We have to do better than this. Because we are better than this,” Salaam said.

FORMER MANHATTAN DA PRAISES TRIAL, DOUBTS TRUMP WILL GO TO PRISON

Former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance offered his congratulations Thursday to his successor, Alvin Bragg, on “conducting a nearly flawless trial in a very difficult situation.”

“I think it’s an important case that really helps define what the rule of law is supposed to mean,” Vance told The Associated Press.

The DA’s office investigated Trump while Vance had the top job, but did not bring any charges before the Democrat retired at the end of 2021 and Bragg took over.

Responding to claims from a former prosecutor that some in his office had called it a “zombie” case, Vance said he didn’t think he had ever referred to it that way. He said he wouldn’t go into the conversations he had with his staff about the case.

Vance said he doesn’t think it’s likely Trump will be sentenced to prison time in the Manhattan case, both because “the crimes don’t require it” and because it would be more trouble than it’s worth given Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

“The idea of having him in custody is really hard to imagine, I think, given his role in the political theater of the country for the next six months,” Vance said.

POLITICAL STRATEGISTS PREDICT LITTLE FALLOUT FOR TRUMP POST-CONVICTION

Trump campaign advisers argued the case would help them motivate their core supporters. So many donations came into WinRed, the platform the campaign uses for fundraising, that it crashed. Aides quickly worked to set up a backup platform to collect money pouring in.

His two most senior campaign advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, were not with him in New York, but in Palm Beach, Florida, where the campaign is headquartered.

And while it may take days or weeks to know for sure, Trump’s critics in both parties generally agreed that there may not be much political fallout, although some were hopeful that the convictions would have at least a marginal impact in what will likely be a close election.

TRUMP LAWYER SAYS HE PLANS TO APPEAL JUDGE’S CHOICE NOT TO RECUSE HIMSELF

Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s lawyer in his hush money trial, said in an interview after the verdict that he expects to appeal the trial judge’s decision not to recuse himself.

Asked on Fox News on Thursday night if he thought Trump got a fair trial, Blanche responded: “No, I don’t think so.”

Trump and his lawyers repeatedly argued Judge Juan M. Merchan should not have presided over the case, suggesting he had shown signs of bias.

TRUMP HEADS TO FUNDRAISER

Donald Trump left Trump Tower shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday night to attend a fundraiser at a private residence in New York City, according to a person familiar with his plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The fundraiser, held at a private residence in Manhattan, had been scheduled by his campaign before it was known that a verdict would be coming Thursday.

Trump’s in-person event came as the campaign’s online fundraising platform briefly crashed shortly after the verdict came down. It was back up and running Thursday night.

____

Associated Press writer Michelle Price contributed to this story from New York.

COULD TRUMP SEE PRISON TIME?

The big question now is whether Donald Trump could go to prison. The answer is uncertain.

Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before Republicans are set to formally nominate him for president.

The charge of falsifying business records is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest tier of felony charges in the state. It is punishable by up to four years in prison, though the punishment would ultimately be up to the judge and there’s no guarantee he would give Trump time bars.

TRUMP HAS SEVERAL AVENUES FOR AN APPEAL

After Donald Trump is sentenced, he can challenge his conviction in an appellate division of New York state’s trial court and possibly, the state’s highest court. His lawyers have already been laying the groundwork for appeals with objections to the charges and rulings at trial.

The defense has accused the judge in the trial of bias, citing his daughter’s work heading a firm whose clients have included President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. The judge refused the defense’s request to remove himself from the case, saying he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial.”

Trump’s lawyers may also raise on appeal the judge’s ruling limiting the testimony of a potential defense expert witness. The defense wanted to call Bradley Smith, a Republican law professor who served on the Federal Election Commission, to rebut the prosecution’s contention that the hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations.

But the defense ended up not having him testify after the judge ruled he could give general background on the FEC but couldn’t interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump’s case or opine on whether Trump’s alleged actions violate those laws.

There are often guardrails around expert testimony on legal matters, on the basis that it’s up to a judge — not an expert hired by one side or the other — to instruct jurors on applicable laws.

The defense may also argue that jurors were improperly allowed to hear sometimes graphic testimony from porn actor Stormy Daniels about her alleged sexual encounter with him in 2006. The defense unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial over the tawdry details prosecutors elicited from Daniels.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued Daniels’ description of a power imbalance with the older, taller Trump, was a “dog whistle for rape,” irrelevant to the charges at hand, and “the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from.”

‘PUT HIM AWAY WHERE HE BELONGS,’ TOURIST SAYS

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Following Thursday’s guilty verdict in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, public reaction varied. Some criticized the trial and the jury’s verdict while others felt it was the right outcome.

“Put him away where he belongs,” said Roy Chilton, 76, a tourist from South Africa who was visiting Oklahoma City’s Bricktown entertainment district with his wife, Celia Chilton.

Both said they were concerned about the impact that a Trump presidency would have on their home country’s trade with the U.S.

Celia Chilton said the guilty verdict confirms that in the U.S., no one is above the law.

“We feel that the U.S. justice system is better than ours,” she said.

‘I BELIEVE IN ACCOUNTABILITY’

MADISON, Wis. — Sharon Radbil Cooper, a 67-year-old retired special education teacher from Madison, Wisconsin, said her phone had been blowing up with messages after the verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal trial was announced.

She said she was afraid jurors wouldn’t see how serious Trump’s offenses were but they made the right decision in convicting him, proving the criminal justice system can still “respond intelligently.”

“I believe in accountability,” Radbil Cooper said. “People need to be held accountable for what they’ve done.” She said there’s no good label for her political leanings but she has always planned to vote for President Joe Biden because she feels that he’s honest. But she’s afraid the conviction won’t be enough to keep people from voting for Trump.

“My hope is the bloc of voters who are not informed will move in the direction of not voting for him,” she said.

US REP SLOTKIN: PRESIDENTS ‘SHOULD BE RESPECTABLE, SERIOUS PEOPLE’

Michigan’s top congressional and statewide leaders were gathered on Mackinac Island for a policy conference as news of the guilty verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal trial broke.

The situation created a surreal scene of many politicians reacting in real time next to journalists, island visitors and lawmakers from across the aisle.

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the leading Democratic candidate for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat, said she first heard the news while looking at a garden on the island with other people around, describing the situation as a “weird experience.” She said felt sad because presidents “should be respectable, serious people that kids can look up to.”

“I’m glad that no matter who you are, the justice system can work even when you’re under significant pressure, which I’m sure they felt,” Slotkin told The Associated Press.

Slotkin at one point passed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, hugging her while joking, “Be careful, we have a reporter here with us.” Whitmer, the campaign co-chair for President Joe Biden’s campaign, walked away without providing a response to the verdict.

A VIEW FROM THE BORDER

MCALLEN, Texas — Voters along the border like Justin Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, say the verdict in Donald Trump’s hush money trial might challenge their perception of the former president but still fall short of swaying votes come November.

“He’s a lot of things, but I never personally thought of him as a liar. I guess this would change my perception of him,” Gonzalez said after learning that Trump continues to cling to his innocence.

Gonzalez is excited about participating in his first national election but given the choice between President Joe Biden and Trump, he feels issues including immigration matter more.

“Out of all the other issues, this is still bad but it’s not enough to sway me to vote for Biden,” he explained.

RNC CHAIRMAN CALLS THE VERDICT PART OF AN ATTACK ON TRUMP

Donald Trump’s handpicked Republican Party chairman echoed the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s assessment of his felony conviction.

The verdict is part of a “campaign to weaponize the judicial system to attack President Trump,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement.

Whatley added a word-for-word echo of what Trump himself said outside the courtroom earlier Thursday after the jury rendered its guilty verdicts on 34 felony counts.

“The real verdict,” Whatley said, “will take place on November 5.”

Trump’s sentencing has been set just days before Whatley and his fellow Republicans convene in Milwaukee, to formally nominate Trump as their presidential nominee.

MANHATTAN DA SAYS JURORS MADE DECISION ON ‘EVIDENCE AND THE LAW’

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, standing in front of the trial prosecutors, told reporters: “The 12 everyday jurors vowed to make a decision based on the evidence and the law, and the evidence and the law alone.”

“Their deliberations led them to a unanimous conclusion beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant Donald J. Trump is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election,” he continued. “And while this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor.”

FLORIDA SUPPORTER: ‘I WOULD VOTE FOR HIM 20 TIMES’

MIAMI — A few Trump supporters in Miami arrived at the iconic Cuban restaurant Versailles, where Donald Trump made a stop a year ago after pleading not guilty in the classified documents case in Florida.

Supporters were waving Trump flags, while others were just stopping by or honking as they drove by to signal support for the former president and presumptive GOP nominee.

“This is so wrong. All of us Cubans stand with Donald Trump. This is so wrong,” said Michael Perez Ruiz, 47, who had arrived at the restaurant to order food. Perez said he still plans to support him in November. “I would vote for him 20 times,” he said.

Maria C. Gonzalez, a retired nurse, 67, said she wanted to show up to support Trump, who she thought made the country better.

“It was all arranged. It was not a fair trial,” she said. “I was not surprised. They don’t want him as president” she said referring to Democrats.

At one point two Trump supporters chased away an older man who confronted them saying he hoped Trump would be jailed soon. The three of them were arguing loudly on the street.

CHEERS AT ATLANTA BAR UPON READING OF THE VERDICT

ATLANTA — Reaction around the country to Donald Trump’s conviction largely seemed to track with partisan responses among political leaders in Washington.

At Atlanta’s Manuel’s Tavern, a popular liberal hangout near Jimmy Carter’s presidential library and the Carter Center, a small gathering of customers huddled at the bar to hear the verdicts.

They looked up at a television mounted next to a vintage portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a news anchor relayed the verdicts, they cheered. Upon the 34th guilty verdict, one bartender rang the “tip bell” behind the bar.

One patron yelled profanity while calling Trump an “idiot.”

Soon, though, conversation turned to the fact that Trump has appeal options and still will be formally nominated by Republicans as their presidential nominee in July as he pursues them.

Outside the bar, Joan Marks, a 58-year-old Democrat, hailed the verdict but offered a firm prediction: “Get ready for a felonious president.”

HEAD OF NAACP CALLS VERDICT A ‘STEP TOWARD JUSTICE’

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, called the verdict against Donald Trump “a monumental step toward justice for the American people.”

“Whether it’s an attempt to steal an election or overthrow our government, one thing has long been apparent — Donald Trump is unfit to represent American democracy,” Johnson said after the verdict was heard on Thursday.

Johnson, who leads the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, said the crimes that Trump has been convicted of ought to disqualify him as a candidate for the Oval Office.

“As Black Americans have been denied basic human rights due to less offensive crimes, any attempt to advance Donald Trump’s nomination for the presidency would be a gross advancement of white supremacist policy,” he said.

ARKANSAS’ CURRENT AND FORMER GOVERNORS HAD VERY DIFFERENT REACTIONS TO VERDICT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as Donald Trump’s White House press secretary and has been considered a potential contender to be his running mate, shortly after the verdict called his hush money trial a “politically-motivated sham trial.”

“The American people decide our elections,” Sanders posted on the social platform X. “Donald Trump will be our next president.”

Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination before dropping out earlier this year, later cautioned that the jury’s verdict should be respected.

“It is not easy to see a former President and the presumptive GOP nominee convicted of felony crimes; but the jury verdict should be respected,” Hutchinson posted on X. “An appeal is in order but let’s not diminish the significance of this verdict.”

TRUMP’S DJT STOCK DIPS

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of the social networking site Truth Social, slumped after Donald Trump’s guilty verdict was announced.

The shares, which trade under the symbol “DJT,” fell about 8% in after-hours trading Thursday as news of the verdict in his hush money case emerged. They have been extraordinarily volatile since the company’s debut in late March, frequently making double-digit percentage moves either higher or lower on a single day.

The shares peaked at nearly $80 in intraday trading on March 26. They closed regular trading Thursday at $51.84 before the verdict was announced.

MICHAEL COHEN REACTS

In a statement sent by text message on Thursday, Michael Cohen said: “Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law. While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters.”

He thanked his attorneys “for their invaluable guidance and support.”

UNLESS HE’S SENT TO PRISON, TRUMP CAN STILL VOTE

Donald Trump may have been convicted of a felony and reside in Florida, a state notorious for restricting the voting rights of felons, but he can still vote as long as he stays out of prison in New York state.

That’s because Florida defers to other states’ disenfranchisement rules for residents convicted of out-of-state felonies. In Trump’s case, New York law only removes their right to vote when incarcerated. Once they’re out of prison, their rights are automatically restored — even if they’re on parole, per a 2021 law passed by the state’s Democratic legislature.

“If a Floridian’s voting rights are restored in the state of conviction, they are restored under Florida law,” Blair Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center wrote in a post explaining the state of law, noting that people without Trump’s legal resources are often confused by Florida’s complex rules.

IN OVERFLOW ROOM AS THE VERDICT WAS READ

It was very quiet in the courtroom and an overflow room right before the verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal trial was read.

Due to the anonymous jury, monitors in the overflow room were off while the verdict was read, so members of the media and members of the public who were there to observe could not see Trump’s face as the first “guilty” was read aloud.

A court officer had warned the overflow crowd not to make any outbursts, but a hushed gasp could be heard in the room. The video feed resumed after the last charge was read aloud, showing Trump sitting with an expressionless stare as history was made.

OUTSIDE CROWDS REACT TO TRUMP’S GUILTY VERDICT

A group of around 100 Trump supporters who have gathered daily near the courthouse in lower Manhattan to watch the former president’s motorcade pass murmured in disbelief as news of the verdict in his hush money trial appeared on their phones.

A few shouted in anger. At a park across the street where small groups of people have been gathering daily to protest, Trump’s opponents let out cheers.

The cheering from the street could be heard all the way up on the 15th floor of the courthouse, in the hallway, as the decision was being read.

TRUMP ADDRESSES REPORTERS OUTSIDE COURTROOM

Donald Trump addressed reporters outside the courtroom following the reading of the guilty verdict in his hush money trial.

The former president called the verdict a “disgrace” and said the trial was rigged. He said he’s “an innocent man.”

“We’ll keep fighting,” Trump said. “We’ll fight to the end and we’ll win.”

BIDEN’S COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR REACTS TO VERDICT

President Joe Biden’s campaign sought to keep the focus on the November election even as it said Thursday that former President Donald Trump’s criminal conviction showed that “that no one is above the law.”

Communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement: “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”

Biden himself has yet to weigh in on the verdict. He is spending the night at his family’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, after marking the anniversary of his son Beau’s death earlier Thursday at church in Wilmington.

Biden’s campaign has tried for months to remind Americans of what it sees as the peril of another Trump term in office, rather than the personal jeopardy faced by the former president in court.

“A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence — and the American people will reject it this November,” Tyler said.

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS SWIFTLY CONDEMN VERDICT

Trump allies released a flurry of statements just minutes after the jury’s decision in Donald Trump’s hush money case was announced.

“The verdict in New York is a complete travesty that makes a mockery of our system of justice,” Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is a potential vice president pick, posted on the social platform X.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican who is second in line to the presidency, in a statement called the trial “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.” Johnson added: “President Trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict—and he WILL WIN!”

Ahead of the jury announcing a verdict, one Republican urged people to respect the legal process.

Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland who is now running for the Senate, wrote on X that “all leaders—regardless of party—must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”

SENTENCING SCHEDULED FOR JULY

Judge Juan M. Merchan has scheduled Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case for July 11, just days before Republicans are set to select him as the 2024 presidential nominee.

JUDGE DENIES DEFENSE’S POST-VERDICT REQUEST TO ACQUIT TRUMP

Defense lawyers in Donald Trump’s hush money trial moved for an acquittal of the former president after the jury had delivered its verdict.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche told Judge Juan M. Merchan: “We move for a judgment of acquittal.”

“There’s no basis and no way this jury could have reached a verdict without accepting the testimony of Michael Cohen,” Blanche said.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass rebutted the assertion, saying “We, of course, disagree with Mr. Blanche’s characterization of Michael Cohen’s testimony.”

Merchan denied the motion.

JURY FINDS TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has found him guilty on all of the charges against him.

A LAST-MINUTE CHANGE OF PLANS

The “hurry up and wait” beat of jury deliberations in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has given way to anticipatory tension — and some surprise. The jury transmitted the news that it reached a verdict by note to Judge Juan M. Merchan at 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, just few minutes after he’d announced to the courtroom — minus the jury — that court would adjourn at 4:30 p.m. barring a verdict.

Merchan said his plan was to allow jurors to keep working until that time and then send them home to start fresh on Friday.

Moments later, that plan went out the window. The verdict will be read in court soon.

JURY REACHE
S A VERDICT AND REQUESTS EXTRA TIME TO FINALIZE FORMS

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money case has reached a verdict. It asked for and additional 30 minutes to fill out the form.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire safety officials on Thursday upheld the license suspension of a commercial truck driver who was acquitted in the 2019 deaths of seven motorcyclists but said another hearing will be held to determine how long the suspension will last.

A jury in 2022 found Volodymyr Zhukovskyy not guilty of multiple manslaughter and negligent homicide counts stemming from the June 21, 2019, collision in Randolph that killed seven members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, an organization of Marine Corps veterans and their spouses in New England.

Zhukovskyy’s Massachusetts license was automatically suspended in New Hampshire after his arrest following the crash, but he sought to get it reinstated at a hearing earlier this month.

In an order Thursday, an administrative law judge for the Department of Safety said Zhukovskyy is subject to a state law that allows his license to be suspended for up to seven years and that a dispositional hearing will be scheduled later.

“The evidence clearly supports a finding that the respondent operated his truck and trailer in a negligent matter which was unlawful and caused or materially contributed to the accident,” wrote Ryan McFarland.

At his trial, prosecutors argued that Zhukovskyy — who had taken heroin, fentanyl and cocaine the day of the crash — repeatedly swerved back and forth before the collision and told police he caused it. But a judge dismissed eight impairment charges and his attorneys said the lead biker was drunk and not looking where he was going when he lost control of his motorcycle and slid in front of Zhukovskyy’s truck, which was pulling an empty flatbed trailer.

Zhukovskyy’s trial lawyers also said there was no evidence he was impaired at the time of the crash and that police did not make any observations in the hours afterward suggesting he was.

At the time, Zhukovskyy’s license should have been revoked because he had been arrested in Connecticut on a drunken driving charge in May 2019. Connecticut officials alerted the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, but Zhukovskyy’s license wasn’t suspended due to a backlog of out-of-state notifications about driving offenses. The Connecticut case is pending.

Zhukovskyy, who came to the U.S. as a child from Ukraine and had permanent residency status, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the 2022 verdict. A judge ordered his deportation last year, but the U.S. has paused repatriation flights to Ukraine due to the war with Russia and authorized Temporary Protected Status for qualified Ukrainians.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho jury has convicted Chad Daybell of murder in the deaths of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children.

The verdict marks the end of a years-long investigation that included bizarre claims of zombie children, apocalyptic prophesies and illicit affairs. Now the jury will be tasked with deciding if Daybell should be sentenced to death for the crimes.

Prosecutors charged Daybell and his newest wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, with multiple counts of murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of Vallow Daybell’s two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, in September 2019.

Prosecutors also charged the couple in connection with the October 2019 death of Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell.

Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Daybell was convicted.

Daybell’s defense attorney argued there was not enough evidence to tie Daybell to the killings, and suggested Vallow Daybell’s older brother, Alex Cox, was the culprit.

Vallow Daybell was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The verdict capped a complex trial that spanned nearly two months.

The trial now enters the penalty phase, with prosecutors attempting to show that the crimes merit a death sentence because they were especially depraved, heinous or cruel or that they meet one of the other “aggravating factors” detailed in state law. Daybell’s defense, meanwhile, will try to provide the jury with mitigating circumstances that could show the panel a lighter sentence is more appropriate.

The case began in September 2019, when extended family members reported the two children missing and law enforcement officials launched a search that spanned several states. The subsequent investigation took several unexpected turns.

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell were having an affair when both of their spouses died unexpectedly, investigators said. Vallow Daybell’s husband was shot to death by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona in July 2019; the brother told police it was in self-defense. He was not charged.

Vallow Daybell, her kids JJ and Tylee, and Cox subsequently moved to eastern Idaho to be closer to Daybell, a self-published writer of doomsday-focused fiction loosely based on Mormon teachings.

In October 2019, Tammy Daybell died. Chad Daybell initially told police she was battling an illness and died in her sleep, but an autopsy later determined that she died of asphyxiation. Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell married just two weeks after Tammy Daybell died, surprising family members.

Nearly a year after the children went missing, their remains were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in eastern Idaho. Investigators later determined both children died in September 2019. Prosecutors say Cox conspired with Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell in all three deaths, but Cox died of natural causes during the investigation and was never charged.

Prosecutors called dozens of witnesses to bolster their claims that Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell conspired to kill the two children and Tammy Daybell because they wanted to get rid of any obstacles to their relationship and to obtain money from survivor benefits and life insurance. Prosecutors say the couple justified the killings by creating an apocalyptic belief system that people could be possessed by evil spirits and turned into “zombies,” and that the only way to save a possessed person’s soul was for the possessed body to die.

Fremont County prosecutor Lindsay Blake said Daybell, 55, styled himself a leader of what he called “The Church of the Firstborn” and told Vallow Daybell and others that he could determine if someone had become a “zombie.” Daybell also claimed to be able to determine how close a person was to death by reading what he called their “death percentage,” Blake said.

With these elements, Daybell followed a pattern for each of those who were killed, Blake said.

“They would be labeled as ‘dark’ by Chad Daybell. Their ‘death percentage’ would drop. Then they would have to die,” she said in her closing argument.

Blake also said Daybell manipulated Vallow Daybell and her brother, Cox, into helping with the plan, at times bestowing ‘spiritual blessings’ on Cox and warning Vallow Daybell that the angels were angry because she was at times ignoring him.

Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, rejected the prosecution’s descriptions of Daybell’s beliefs. He described Daybell as a traditional member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a deeply religious man who talked about his spiritual beliefs every chance he could get.

Prior said police looked only for things they could use against Daybell rather than the actual facts of the case — and he claimed that the children’s late uncle, Cox, committed the crimes. He noted that Cox had previously killed JJ Vallow’s father in Arizona and that the two children were the only witnesses to that shooting. He also said Cox tried to frame Daybell by burying the slain children in Daybell’s yard in eastern Idaho.

Witnesses for both sides agreed that Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell were having an affair that began well before Tammy Daybell died.

Defense witnesses included Dr. Kathy Raven, a forensic pathologist who reviewed reports from Tammy Daybell’s autopsy and said she believed the cause of death should have been classified as “undetermined.”

Chad Daybell’s son, Garth Daybell, told jurors he was home the night his mother died and that he heard no disturbance. He said he later felt like police officers and prosecutors were trying to pressure him to change his story, even threatening him with perjury charges at one point.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A St. Paul police officer was justified when he fatally shot a man who shot him first, Minnesota prosecutors announced Thursday.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said it concluded that the use of deadly force by Officer Michael Tschida against Brandon DaleShaun Keys, 28, of Maplewood, on Dec. 7 complied with state law and that the officer should not face charges.

According to a report by two of the office’s top prosecutors, Tschida responded to a 911 call that day from the mother of Keys’ child. She told a dispatcher she had a restraining order against Keys and was trying to get away while he rammed her van with his car repeatedly and shattered her windshield. She also said he had a gun.

The vehicles were stopped near the intersection of Cretin and Marshall avenues when Tschida arrived. He ordered Keys to the ground, but Keys popped up from behind his car and, from about 10 feet (3 meters) away, fired three shots at Tschida, who was trying to take cover. One bullet struck Tschida in the leg before he returned fire, the report says. Keys was struck in the head and died the next day.

Tschida told investigators from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that he had no doubt that Keys was trying to to kill him and possibly others, and that he needed to shoot to save himself and others.

According to the report, toxicology tests showed the presence of amphetamines, opiates and a cocaine metabolite in Keys’ blood. The mother of his child told investigators that he had struggled with addiction, it says.

“The truth is that all too often police officers are called to dangerous situations having to place their lives on the line to protect those who call upon them and our community. We should appreciate this act of public service while also recognizing the deep loss that is felt by the family and friends of Mr. Keys,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi wrote in response to the report.

NEW YORK (AP) — A man was stabbed in both legs with a machete at New York’s Times Square on Thursday afternoon, police said.

A spokeswoman for the New York Police Department said three people have been arrested in connection with the stabbing, which happened around 1 p.m. at the busy tourism hub.

The victim was hospitalized and listed in stable condition.

Police did not immediately release additional details.

An Oklahoma man pleaded guilty on Thursday to assaulting a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, where he also allegedly pushed an Associated Press photographer over a wall.

Benjamen Scott Burlew, 44, of Miami, Oklahoma, disappeared for several months after missing court appearances in Washington, D.C., last year. He was re-arrested on May 13 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and remained jailed until his guilty plea.

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss is scheduled to sentence Burlew on Sept. 20. The estimated sentencing guidelines for Burlew’s case recommend a prison term ranging from 30 to 37 months, according to his plea agreement. The judge isn’t bound by that recommendation.

Defense attorney Robert Jenkins said Burlew and his family are “looking forward to putting this entire episode behind them.”

“Today, he accepted responsibility for (his) conduct, acknowledging it was criminal in nature,” Jenkins said after the hearing.

Burlew pleaded guilty to an assault charge, agreeing that he approached a police line behind metal barricades, grabbed a Metropolitan Police Department officer and tried to pull him into the crowd of rioters.

Burlew also was charged with assaulting the AP photographer by grabbing, dragging and ultimately pushing him over a low stone wall outside the Capitol. Other rioters have been charged with assaulting the same photographer, who was documenting the attack by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.

The photographer was wearing a lanyard identifying him as an AP journalist. One of his assailants grabbed the lanyard and used it to drag him down stairs.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the riot. Over 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 800 of them have pleaded guilty. Approximately 200 others have been convicted by a judge or jury after trials.

NORTHFIELD, Vt. (AP) — More than 40 years after some Vermont children waiting for a school bus discovered a dead baby off the side of the road, state police have announced that they found the infant’s parents and no charges will be filed.

The deceased infant was found in Northfield on April 1, 1982, state police said Wednesday. Investigators determined that the deceased baby was a recently born boy but his identify was unknown. An autopsy was unable to determine the cause of death or if the baby died of existing medical conditions, police said.

The initial investigation did not turn up any information to help identify the infant or his parents, police said. Evidentiary DNA testing was not available at the time and the case remained unresolved, police said.

In 2020, state police worked with a DNA technology company to do genealogy analysis with the work funded by donations. In 2021, the company provided possible names of the baby’s biological mother and father, who had ties to the Northfield area in 1982.

Vermont State Police said they contacted the individuals at their home in Maine and obtained DNA from them, which confirmed they were the parents. The father told police he left Vermont for an extended period in 1982 and did not know about the pregnancy or disposal of the deceased baby. The mother admitted she unlawfully disposed of the deceased infant. She said she did not know she was pregnant, and did not have any symptoms until she began to feel abdominal pain. She labored alone for several hours and lost consciousness, she told police. She said when she came to, she realized she had delivered a baby but the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he did not survive, according to police.

She said she planned to find a spot in the woods to bury him but while walking in the woods she thought she heard voices and got scared. She slipped and the baby fell from her arms and she ran, police said.

State police met with the county prosecutor about the case, who determined that charges of murder are unwarranted, police said. Charges related to the unauthorized disposal of a dead body are beyond the statute of limitations, police said.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana could soon become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom — in another expansion of religion into day-to-day life by a Republican-dominated legislature.

The legislation, which received final approval from the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature earlier this week and heads to the desk of conservative Gov. Jeff Landry. It mandates that a a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.

Similar bills have been proposed in other statehouses — including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state has had success in the bills becoming law. If signed into law in Louisiana, legal challenges are expected to follow.

Legal battles over the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new, but have spanned decades.

In 1980, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and in violation of the establishment clause of the US Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose, but rather served a plainly religious purpose.

In the reliably red state of Louisiana proponents of the bill argue the constitutionality of the measure on historical grounds.

GOP state Sen. Jay Morris said Tuesday that “the purpose is not solely religious to have the Ten Commandments displayed in our schools, but rather its historical significance.”

Morris went on to say the Ten Commandments is “simply one of many documents that display the history of our country and the foundation for our legal system.”

The law also “authorizes” — but does not require — the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.

Opponents continue to question the bill’s constitutionality saying that the state is sure to face lawsuits.

Democratic state Sen. Royce Duplessis argued that while supporters of the legislation say the intent of the bill is for historical significance, it does not give the state “constitutional cover” and has serious problems.

The lawmaker also questioned why the Legislature was focusing on the display of the Ten Commandments, saying there are many more “documents that are historical in nature.”

“I was raised Catholic and I still am a practicing Catholic, but I didn’t have to learn the Ten Commandments in school,” Duplessis said on Tuesday. “It is why we have church. If you want your kids to learn about the Ten Commandments take them to church.”

The author of the bill, GOP state Rep. Dodie Horton, claimed earlier this session that the Ten Commandments do not solely have to do with one religion.

“I beg to differ that this is just Christian. But I have no qualms if it was,” Horton said during a committee hearing in April. “This is not preaching a Christian religion. It’s not preaching any religion. It’s teaching a moral code.”

Last year, Horton sponsored another law that requires all schools to display the national motto “In God We Trust″ in public classrooms.

But as lawmakers have spent hours arguing over the Ten Commandments requirement, many opponents have said that there are other more pressing issues plaguing the state.

“We really need to be teaching our kids how to become literate, to be able to actually read the Ten Commandments that we’re talking about posting. I think that should be the focus and not this big what I would consider a divisive bill.” Duplessis said.

Louisiana routinely reports poor national education rankings. According to the State Department of Education in the fall of 2022 only half of K-3 students in the state were reading at their grade level.

CINCINNATI (AP) — A suspect with a gun and a bystander inside a grocery store near Cincinnati were shot and injured during a shootout with officers, police said.

Officers in Colerain Township responded to a call about shots fired at a Kroger store Wednesday, and when they arrived the suspect pointed a gun at police outside the store, said Colerain Township Police Chief Ed Cordie said.

After exchanging shots, the suspect retreated into the store and they continued the gunfight inside the store, he said.

Both the suspect and bystander who were shot were taken to a hospital and are expected to survive, Cordie added. Police did not say who shot the bystander.

Latashia Sawyer, who was inside the store with her daughter, told WCPO-TV that she heard shots and that an employee told them to “run for your life.”

“People just started scattering and going about everywhere,” she said. “Then we heard more gunshots — I counted at least 20.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Medical supply company Medline Industries is recalling some 1.5 million portable adult bed rails across the U.S. and Canada, following two reports of entrapment deaths associated with the products.

The recall impacts two models of Medline’s “Bed Assist Bars.” According to a Thursday announcement from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, users of these bed rails can become entrapped within the bed rail itself or between the product and the side of a mattress when it’s attached to a bed.

This poses “a serious entrapment hazard and risk of death by asphyxiation,” the CPSC notes.

To date, the Commission added, Medline has received two reports of entrapment deaths associated with the recalled Bed Assist Bars in the U.S — involving a 76-year-old woman who died in an Iowa senior nursing facility in 2019 and a 87-year-old woman who died at a South Carolina residential care facility in 2023.

One additional injury in the U.S. has also been reported, according to Health Canada’s Thursday announcement. No injuries or incidents in Canada were reported to Medline as of Monday, Health Canada noted.

Medline sold about 1.5 million of the now-recalled Bed Assist Bars from July 2009 through March 2024 in the U.S. — through its own websites and major retailers online, including Amazon and Walmart. They cost between $32 and $64. More than 5,500 were additionally sold in Canada between February 2013 and March 2024.

The recalled bed rails, which were manufactured in China, can be identified by two model numbers: MDS6800BA and MDS6800BAH.

The CPSC and Health Canada urges consumers in possession of these products to stop using them immediately — and contact Medline to request a refund.

The Associated Press reached out to Northfield, Illinois-based Medline for statement Thursday.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota man pushed a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and was among those who shoved a large metal “Trump” sign into a police line, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

William George Knight, 37, of Rapid City, was arrested by the FBI on May 26. He was charged with two felonies: obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder; and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers. He also was charged with five misdemeanors. The Justice Department announced the arrest and charges on Wednesday.

Knight was released to home detention following a brief court hearing on Wednesday. Knight’s attorney, federal public defender Jennifer Albertson, declined comment on Thursday.

The Justice Department alleges in a court document that Knight was among the first rioters to breach a restricted area near the Capitol. After police set up a barrier using bike racks, Knight grabbed one of the racks and pulled it away so hard that he fell backward, the Justice Department alleged.

Later, Knight and others pushed a large metal-framed sign that read “Trump” toward the police line, and Knight shoved a police officer before grabbing one of the protective bike racks away from the police line, the court document states.

Knight and other rioters pushed against the line of officers, causing the line to collapse, the Justice Department said. Knight then went into the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, where he stayed for at least two hours, the agency said.

All told, more than 1,400 people have been charged in connection with the riot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Federal regulators have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday.

In a blog post posted on its website, Seattle-based Amazon said that the Federal Aviation Administration has given its Prime Air delivery service the OK to operate drones “beyond visual line of sight,” removing a barrier that has prevented its drones from traveling longer distances. With the approval, Amazon pilots can now operate drones remotely without seeing it with their own eyes.

Amazon, which has sought this permission for years, said it received permission from regulators after developing a strategy that ensures its drones could “detect and avoid obstacles in the air.”

Furthermore, the company said it submitted other engineering information to the FAA and conducted flight demonstrations in front of federal inspectors. Those demonstrations were also done “in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each of them,” Amazon said.

The FAA’s approval marks a key step for the company, which has had ambitions to deliver online orders through drones for more than a decade. During a TV interview in 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said drones would be flying to customer’s homes within five years. However, the company’s progress was delayed amid regulatory setbacks.

In 2022, Amazon started performing a limited number of drone deliveries to customers in College Station, Texas and Lockeford, California. Last month, it said it would close its drone delivery site in Lockeford and open another one late this year in Tolleson, Arizona, a city located west of Phoenix.

Businesses have wanted simpler rules that could open neighborhood’s skies to new commercial applications of drones, but privacy advocates and some airplane and balloon pilots remain wary.

With the new authorization, Amazon says it will “immediately” scale its operations in College Station in an effort to reach customers in more densely populated areas. By the end of the decade, the company has a goal of delivering 500 million packages by drone every year.

A cut natural gas line was found in a basement area of an Ohio building which was severely damaged by a massive explosion this week, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Thursday, but it’s not yet known if that played a role in the blast.

The line was not supposed to have gas in it, NTSB board member Tom Chapman said during a news conference, but it was found to be pressurized. He said the line came off the main service line and led to the building in downtown Youngstown but did not service the structure.

Chapman said investigators would try to determine whether third-party work to clear out old infrastructure in the basement may have led to the line cut and explosion and why it was pressurized. Chapman said he did not believe there was anything suspicious about the cut line.

The explosion Tuesday afternoon blew out much of the ground floor of Realty Tower, killing a bank employee and injuring several other people. It collapsed part of the ground floor into its basement and sent the façade across a street where both sides had been blocked off by orange construction barriers. Bricks, glass and other debris littered the sidewalk outside the 13-story building, which had a Chase Bank branch at street level and apartments in upper floors

The NTSB said pipeline and hazardous materials investigators were at the scene in Youngstown on Thursday to see the damage, which Chapman described as “devastating — really stunning.” He said the team would remain on the scene for about a week and likely issue a preliminary report within 30 days.

The NTSB is leading the investigation because pipelines are considered a mode of transportation.

First responders were on the scene of the explosion within minutes, and some of the initial search and rescue was recorded by a Mahoning County deputy’s bodycam video.

“We’ve got civilians over here screaming for help,” the deputy yells into his radio as he runs up to the building. “Be advised, there are people trapped.”

Moments later, the deputy is seen helping firefighters lower a ladder into a gaping hole where parts of the ground floor fell into the basement, and then helps a firefighter carry a woman to safety.

Before the partial video released by the sheriff ends, the deputy can be heard warning other responders that natural gas was leaking from an area near the front of the building.

The bank employee, 27-year-old Akil Drake, had been seen inside the building right before the blast, police said Wednesday. Firefighters rescued others as they cleared the building.

Seven injured people were taken to Mercy Health Hospital in Youngstown. One woman remained hospitalized Thursday in critical condition, but her name and further details on her injuries have not been disclosed. Three others were in stable condition, and the other three were released.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Larry Hicks, a federal judge in Nevada for more than 20 years, died after being struck by a vehicle near the courthouse in Reno, authorities and his family said. He was 80.

Hicks was a pedestrian struck at an intersection Wednesday afternoon, taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, Reno police said in a news release. The driver cooperated with authorities, and impairment didn’t appear to be a factor.

Hicks was the father of current Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks, whose office released a statement on behalf of the Hicks family.

“Judge Larry Hicks was a deeply admired lawyer and judge, a devoted friend, mentor, and a committed servant to the administration of justice,” the statement said. “To us, he was first and foremost, a man who put nothing before family. He was a hero in all manners, a loving husband of nearly 59 years, a doting dad, an adoring Papa, and brother. His loss is beyond comprehension.”

Hicks was nominated to the U.S. District Court for Nevada in 2001 by Republican President George W. Bush and was sworn in shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. He continued to hear cases after assuming senior judge status in 2012.

Hicks was born in Evanston, Illinois; graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of Colorado School of Law; and became a prosecutor in Reno in 1968. He was elected as Washoe County district attorney in 1975 and served until 1979, when he joined a prominent Nevada law firm, according to the State Bar of Nevada. He was awarded the association’s Presidential Award in 2020.

Flags will be flown at half-staff over Nevada’s federal courthouses, the U.S. District Court said.

___

This version has been corrected to show that Hicks assumed senior status in 2012, not 2013, and was elected Washoe County district attorney in 1975 and served until 1979, instead of serving from 1974-78.

DETROIT (AP) — Police broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment at a Detroit university and arrested at least 12 people Thursday while more than 100 graduates walked out of commencement at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the East Coast, the latest campus stress related to the Israel-Hamas war.

Police in riot gear removed fencing and broke down tents erected last week on green space near the undergraduate library at Wayne State University.

President Kimberly Andrews Espy cited health and safety concerns and disruptions to campus operations. Staff were encouraged to work remotely this week, and in-person summer classes were suspended.

“No individual or group is permitted to claim campus property for their own use and deny others access to that property,” Espy said.

The camp, she added, “created an environment of exclusion — one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life.”

An outdoor commencement ceremony at MIT in Cambridge, near Boston, was disrupted for 10 to 15 minutes when some graduates walked out. Wearing keffiyehs, the checkered scarves that represent Palestinian solidarity, over their caps and gowns, they chanted “free, free Palestine” and held signs that said, “All eyes on Rafah.”

“There is going to be no business as usual as long as MIT holds research projects with the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” said David Berkinsky, 27, who earned a doctorate degree in chemistry and walked out. “There are no graduates in Gaza. There are no universities left in Gaza left because Israeli has bombed every single one.”

Eesha Banerjee, a 20-year-old from Birmingham, Alabama, who received her bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering and physics and walked out, said she wants to pressure MIT to become a better place.

“It wouldn’t feel right taking the degree without making clear to the administration and corporation that we still want the demands to be met. We are still watching what the administration does,” she said. “We want to send the message that this movement will continue. Students are still standing for those ties to be dropped.”

Banerjee said she never questioned her decision to leave commencement.

“While I’m still here, I want to use every chance I can to push this institute to be better,” she said. “I want MIT to be the institution that it can be, and it can’t be that until it drops its ties, drops its complicity.”

Some people at the event were upset by the disruption, swore at the protesters and yelled, “Good riddance to Hamas terror fans.” A pro-Palestinian encampment at MIT was cleared by the school on May 10.

Protest camps sprang up across the U.S. and in Europe as students demanded their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that they say support its war in Gaza. Organizers seek to amplify calls to end Israel’s war with Hamas, which they describe as a genocide against the Palestinians.

In Detroit, as the Wayne State camp was cleared, at least 12 people were arrested for trespassing or other offenses, including one for assaulting a police officer, spokesperson Matt Lockwood said.

The protesters chanted to police, “There’s no riot here, why are you in riot gear?”

The protesters have demanded that the school divest from weapons manufacturers supplying Israel, provide a full disclosure of investments and cease delegation trips to Israel.

Wayne State this week posted video of its efforts to invite protesters to private meetings with Espy and other officials if they would dismantle the camp. Lockwood said all of the university’s efforts were rejected.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, visited the encampment site after it was broken up to offer support to the protesters.

Ali Hassan, who represents WSU Students for Justice in Palestine, told WXYZ-TV this week that he believed the university’s shift to remote learning means the administration is taking notice of the student protests.

“The reason that they went remote is because we have put pressure on them,” he said.

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on May 21 broke up a similar encampment after 30 days.

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Associated Press writers Michael Casey and Steve LeBlanc in Cambridge, Massachusetts, contributed to this story.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — If you use Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a new character pop up answering search queries or eagerly offering tidbits of information in your feeds, with varying degrees of accuracy.

It’s Meta AI, and it’s here to help, at least according to Meta Platforms’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who calls it “the most intelligent AI assistant that you can freely use.”

The chatbot can recommend local restaurants, offer more information on something you see in a Facebook post, search for airline flights or generate images in the blink of an eye. If you’re chatting with friends to plan a night out, you can invite it into your group conversation by typing @MetaAI, then ask it to recommend, say, cocktail bars.

Meta’s AI tool has been integrated into chat boxes and search bars throughout the tech giant’s platforms. The assistant appears, for example, at the top of your chat list on Messenger. Ask it questions about anything or to “imagine” something and it will generate a picture or animation.

As with any new technology, there are, of course, hiccups, including bizarre exchanges when the chatbots first started engaging with real people. One joined a Facebook moms’ group to talk about its gifted child. Another tried to give away nonexistent items to confused members of a Buy Nothing forum.

Meta AI hasn’t been universally welcomed. Here are some tips if you want to avoid using it:

CAN I TURN IT OFF?

Some Facebook users don’t like the chatbot, complaining in online forums that they’re tired of having AI foisted on them all the time or that they just want to stick with what they know. So what if you don’t want Meta AI butting in every time you search for something or scroll through your social feeds? Well, you might need a time machine. Meta and other tech companies are in an AI arms race, churning out new language models and persuading — some might say pressuring — the public to use them.

The bad news is there’s no one button to turn off Meta AI on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp. However, if you want to limit it, there are some (imperfect) workarounds.

MUTE…SORT OF

On the Facebook mobile app, tap the “search” button. You may get a prompt to “Ask Meta AI anything.” Tap the blue triangle on the right, then the blue circle with an “i” inside it. Here, you’ll see a “mute” button, with options to silence the chatbot for 15 minutes or longer, or “Until I change it.” You can do the same on Instagram.

Nonetheless, muting doesn’t get rid of Meta AI completely. Meta AI’s circle logo might still appear where the search magnifying glass used to be — and tapping on it will take you to the Meta AI field. This is now the new way to search in Meta, and just as with Google’s AI summaries, the responses will be generated by AI.

I asked the chatbot about searching Facebook without Meta AI results.

“Meta AI aims to be a helpful assistant and is in the search bar to assist with your questions,” it responded. Then it added, “You can’t disable it from this experience, but you can tap the search button after writing your query and search how you normally would.”

Then I asked a (human) Meta spokesperson.

“You can search how you normally would and choose to engage with a variety of results — ones from Meta AI or others that appear as you type,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “And when interacting with Meta AI, you have access to real-time information without having to leave the app you’re using thanks to our search partnerships.”

Like an over-eager personal assistant, Meta AI also pops up under posts on your Facebook news feed, offering more information about what’s discussed in the post — such as the subject of a news article. It’s not possible to disable this feature, so you’ll just have to ignore it.

USE OLD SCHOOL FACEBOOK

Tech websites have noted that one surefire way to avoid Facebook’s AI assistant is to use the social network’s stripped-down mobile site, mbasic.facebook.com. It’s aimed at people in developing countries using older phones on slower internet connections. The basic site has a retro feel that looks crude compared to the current version, and it looks even worse on desktop browsers, but it still works on a rudimentary level and without AI.

OTHER COUNTRIES

Meta AI is so far only available in the United States and 13 other countries including Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. So if you don’t live in any of those places, you don’t have to worry about the chatbot because you don’t get to use it. At least not yet.