Category: National News Feed

NEW YORK (AP) — A second person has died in connection with an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York, the New York City Health Department announced Saturday.

The outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has infected 72 people, according to health officials. Two people have died. The first death was announced Friday, and the second was announced Saturday.

“We are heartbroken to learn that another New Yorker has lost their life to Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side. Our deepest condolences are with their loved ones as they grieve,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said in a statement.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of severe pneumonia caused by a type of bacteria that thrives in warm, stagnant water. Health officials have focused on testing cooling towers that are part of air conditioning systems for large buildings. Property owners have been ordered to drain and disinfect towers where there has been a positive test result.

Health officials did not pinpoint a source for the current outbreak but said there has been a sustained decline in new cases. They said that indicates the source of exposure to Legionella bacteria has likely been eliminated.

Legionnaires’ disease is treatable but 10% of people will die due to complications from the illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last year, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during an outbreak in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press surveyed more than 1,000 Jewish adults in the U.S. to better understand their views on Israel’s military actions in Gaza, their opinions of the political parties and their experiences with prejudice in the United States.

The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — offers a rare detailed accounting of a key demographic that sits at the very center of some of the nation’s most divisive political debates.

Here are five takeaways from the AP-NORC survey:

Jewish adults have complicated views about Israel and the war in Gaza

Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical.

About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways.

While about 8 in 10 of those with a religious affiliation say Israel’s immediate military response to Hamas’ attack on October 7 was “justified,” only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. Among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation, only about half saw Israel’s immediate response as justifiable. Now, only about 2 in 10 say the ongoing military operations are acceptable.

About one-quarter of Jewish adults with a religious association believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some major human rights organizations and a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations. That accusation has been vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. Roughly 4 in 10 Jewish adults without a religious affiliation say Israel has committed genocide.

Many Jewish adults feel unsafe in the United States

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

About one-third of Jewish adults in the survey say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. today, while about one-third feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe.

A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

The survey points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States’ close alliance with Israel and the war in Gaza. The poll found that Jewish adults who feel a close emotional tie to Israel are particularly likely to feel unsafe in the country today.

Most American Jews don’t feel politicians are supporting Jewish people

Few Jewish adults believe that President Donald Trump — or the Democratic or Republican parties — are doing a good job supporting Jewish people in the U.S.

Only about 2 in 10 Jewish adults say Trump supports Jewish people in this country “extremely” or “very” well. That’s similar to the slight share who find the Republican Party and the Democratic Party highly supportive, but Jewish adults are more likely to say the Democratic Party is at least “somewhat” supportive.

Americans overall are more likely than Jewish adults to see Trump as “extremely” or “very” supportive of Jewish people in the United States. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump is highly supportive of Jewish people, compared to about 2 in 10 Jewish adults.

The poll also found most Jewish adults have negative views of Trump. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to about 3 in 10 who have a favorable view.

Jewish adults are divided over whether protesting Israel is a form of antisemitism

Protests around events conducted in support of Israel became more common following the backlash over Israel’s military action in Gaza.

The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel responded with a yearslong counterattack that killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the territory’s Hamas-run government. Its casualty figures are viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations but don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.

The poll found that about half of Jewish adults say protesting an event that is supportive of Israel is not a form of antisemitism, but roughly 4 in 10 say it is. About 1 in 10 are uncertain.

Jewish adults are more unified in deeming some actions as definitively antisemitic. The overwhelming majority say vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses because of Israel’s actions is antisemitism. The same goes for denying the reality or scope of the Holocaust, putting responsibility for Israel’s actions on Jewish people in the United States or saying Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.

Support for Israel is less of a priority for younger Jewish adults

Support for Israel is a key component of the religious identity of many older Jewish adults in the United States, but younger Jewish adults appear less likely to prioritize it.

About half of older religious Jewish adults — those 45 and older — say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jewish adults emphasize support for Israel.

Younger Jewish adults are more likely to prioritize other forms of connection, like celebrating Jewish holidays. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults under 45 say celebrating Jewish holidays is at least “very” important to their Jewish identity, compared to about half of older Jewish adults.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has filed a first-ever petition to a secretive and dormant court created 30 years ago to consider government requests to deport so-called “alien terrorists” from the United States.

The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this past Wednesday, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking the removal of an individual whose name is withheld from the single-page document posted on the court’s website.

The chief judge of the five-member court, Joan Ericksen, said in a written response to the petition that a hearing was held on Thursday during which the court had “questions about the nexus that the government alleges between the actions of the respondent and the specific sections and subsections it invokes with respect to those actions.

“The answers persuaded the Court that the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration,” wrote Ericksen, a federal judge in Minnesota.

She directed the Justice Department to provide more information by Wednesday.

The court’s authorities emerged from the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which permits the attorney general to file under seal applications for the deportation of a suspected “alien terrorist.” If an application is granted, the court must hold a public hearing at which the government has the burden to prove that the individual satisfies that definition. Applications must be approved by the attorney general or deputy attorney general.

Federal law says that an individual could quality as an “alien terrorist” by, among other factors, having “engaged in a terrorist activity,” endorsing or espousing terrorist activities and by belonging to a political or social group that encourages terrorist activity.

The court has been dormant since its creation, having received — until last week — no applications and conducting no hearings, according to a summary posted on the Federal Judicial Center website. It is comprised of five judges selected by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Trump administration has moved aggressively over the last year to carry out deportations, including invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to remove Venezuelan migrants who officials accuse of being part of a terrorist gang. During a hearing in that case last year, the Washington judge presiding over it, James Boasberg, indicated that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be the natural forum to consider a request for deportation on national security grounds.

“In fact, Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,” he said. “So if there’s a national security concern with having these hearings…you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”

The petition was first reported by Court Watch, an independent news site.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The eerie glow of an orange sun through thick wildfire smoke might be unnerving, but the biggest risk from the haze is something much harder to see.

Tiny particles in the air can cause a range of short-term and chronic health issues, experts say.

Wildfire smoke can settle over cities for days — like the recent blanket over parts of the U.S. from burning fires in Canada, which has created hazardous air for millions of people across multiple states.

Health officials advise people to stay indoors — and to take steps to keep the air in your home clean.

How to safely run your AC

If you have central air conditioning, it should clean the air in your home.

Make sure filters are replaced on schedule and are of the highest level of filtration your system can handle. Filters rated MERV 13 or higher are ideal. Set the air to recirculate and close any vents that pull air from outside if you can. The University of Oregon’s Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice recommends running the system’s fan through the entire smoke event, not just when cooling.

If you buy a portable air filter, look for a HEPA air filter or one that says it traps small particles of pollution. Ensure it does not generate ozone, another harmful air pollutant.

If you can only afford one portable air filter, use it to create a “clean room” in your house where you can spend most of your time.

“The basic message is that something is better than nothing,” said Amy Kalkbrenner, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The science behind DIY air filters

There’s good evidence that DIY filters made by duct-taping furnace air filters to a box fan work.

They’re simple, relatively affordable and scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency have found they are just as good at removing fine particles of pollution from the air as a small commercial air purifier.

“The good news is they really work,” said Kalkbrenner.

All you need to have to make one is: four 20-by-20-inch (50.8-by-50.8-centimeters) furnace air filters rated MERV 13 or higher, a box fan, cardboard and duct tape. The EPA’s website shows how you can modify the design to only use one or two filters. The fan should blow out, and the arrows on the filters should point in. Make sure everything is taped up air-tight.

Using your window AC and cooling your air safely

Many window air conditioners, mini-split heat exchangers and portable air conditioners don’t have the filters needed to remove fine pollution particles. But heat can also be dangerous.

“When smoke and heat occur together, the impacts on your health are even greater than when they occur by themselves,” said Jess Downey, a researcher at the University of Oregon’s Center for Wildfire Smoke Research and Practice

Downey said the ideal scenario is running the AC unit and using an air purifier or a DIY box fan filter to clean the air. Make sure your AC is well-sealed in your window frame, she added.

Make sure the window units are set to recirculate air. Portable units with a single hose should be used sparingly, according to the University of Oregon wildfire smoke center.

If you don’t have AC, any reprieve from hot, smoky air is important. Head to the library, shopping mall or other space with clean, cool air.

Ways to seal up a home to keep hazardous air out

Whether it’s a towel, some tape, or something else — plug areas where air could enter from outside.

“Being from Chicago, I think you can liken it to trying to keep the cold air out,” said Dr. Khalilah Gates, a lung doctor with Northwestern Medicine. “Any areas in which air can come in, consider sealing up those areas to reduce the amount that’s coming into the home.”

When smoke levels are high, experts recommend avoiding anything that burns — candles, fireplaces, even gas stoves — so plan ahead with some meal prep.

How wildfire smoke affects the body

Exposure to wildfire smoke can lead to shortness of breath, chest tightness, headaches, and a burning sensation in the nose and eyes.

“When you ever start to feel those symptoms and they’re not severe, it’s important to acknowledge, ‘Oh, my body is responding to this. I need to move away from it. I need to move inside,’” Gates said.

If you’re wheezing, can’t catch your breath or are in distress, get to the emergency room immediately, she said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires that engulfed the Northeast in haze is expected to mostly clear from the New Jersey area just in time for the World Cup final on Sunday thanks to thunderstorms passing through, meteorologists said.

Still, warnings of unhealthy air remained in effect Saturday across a wide swath of the United States, and President Donald Trump continued to lay blame on Canada for the smoke crossing the border.

Trump, who planned to attend the cup final, threatened to impose tariffs in response, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized that as unacceptable and shortsighted.

At MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup final is scheduled to take place, the sky was the same thick, soupy gray it has been for days, even after a drenching thunderstorm prompted warnings of flash flooding and forced the Spanish national team to suspend its last outdoor training session ahead of the clash with Argentina.

After the rain cleared, Netherlands tourists Joost Timpers and his two sons were among fans taking photos outside the open-air venue, which has been renamed the New York/New Jersey Stadium for the matches.

They did not have tickets to the final but biked more than an hour from their hotel just to see the arena up close. Timpers said he was certain players and fans will fare just fine even if conditions do not improve.

“We’re not experts in air quality, of course, but we are experiencing the quality now,” he said. “I didn’t experience anything different from cycling in the Netherlands or anywhere else.”

Storms will help clear the air

Saturday’s storm front will largely move the smoke out of the Northeast before the final between Spain and Argentina, said Tyler Roys, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.

“There could be some lingering smoke that would make things hazy, but very faint,” Roys said. “In terms of the thickest smoke, the smoke that has really been eye-popping and leads to poor air quality, that is not expected across New York City or much of the Northeast.”

WFLA-TV Chief Meteorologist and Climate Specialist Jeff Berardelli, in Tampa, Florida, echoed Roys, saying the storm front would “sweep the atmosphere clean,” leaving only a thin smoke that World Cup spectators may still smell in the air.

The air quality index shows an improvement from unhealthy air for sensitive groups on Saturday to “moderate” air quality Sunday in East Rutherford, which means little to no health risk for the general public.

“It won’t be dangerous anymore,” Berardelli said. “It’s going to be dramatically better.”

The smoke could still cause issues for people who are sensitive to particulate matter, and they should check the air quality index particularly in the morning, said Rob Shackelford, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel app and weather.com.

Air quality at the field is measured every 10 minutes, said David Lu, CEO and co-founder of Clarity Movement, an environmental technology company providing air quality monitoring services. In the past two days, the readings have swung between the level where the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups and the level where it’s very unhealthy, Lu said. He said Saturday afternoon he expects to see improvement in the readings within hours because of the rain.

Temperatures are forecast to be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), with light breezes and low humidity for the start of the final.

“You couldn’t have asked for much better weather for the World Cup,” Berardelli added.

Both Roys and Berardelli expect the heavier smoke Sunday to be concentrated closer to the fires, hanging over parts of the Midwest and the Great Lakes region.

Trump talks of new tariffs on Canada

The president made no mention of the World Cup final but said on his social media platform, “We are holding Canada responsible.” He added that the U.S. “is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the topic of U.S. officials complaining about smoke from during a news conference Thursday. Carney said climate change is the responsibility of everyone, including the United States.

Ford said Canada has contributed to fighting fires in the U.S. and offered assistance when Georgia was hit by a hurricane in 2024 because “that’s what neighbors do.” Ford called the rhetoric “absolutely unacceptable” when Canada is “trying to get through this.”

There are hundreds of active fires in Canada

Wildfires have been igniting across Canada and northern Minnesota this month. Berardelli said they are burning longer and faster because of climate change. The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System showed hundreds of active fires Saturday. Environment Canada issued air quality warnings across the country and into the Northwest Territories.

The fires prompted evacuations, including in Nova Scotia where there’s a large fire that local and provincial crews have been fighting since Wednesday, and in northwestern Ontario, where ​some of the most intense fires are burning.

In Ontario, nearly 200 wildfires have already scorched more land than all of last year’s fires. In Thunder Bay, Ontario, Fire Chief Dave Tarini said this fire season is unprecedented in his more than 35 years as a firefighter.

In British Columbia, about 100 fires are burning, a huge jump from the 20 firefighters were facing Wednesday. The BC Wildfire Service says the fires are largely the result of 4,000 lightning strikes that hit the province Friday.

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McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press writer Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in New York contributed.

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

BEIJING (AP) — A former president of the China Development Bank was put under investigation on suspicion of serious violations of party discipline and the law, the country’s top anti-graft watchdog announced on Sunday.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a one-line statement that Ouyang Weimin was being investigated by it and the National Commission of Supervision, without offering more details.

According to state media China Daily, Ouyang began his career and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1986. He spent much of his earlier career at the People’s Bank of China, it said.

Ouyang served as the vice-governor of Guangdong, an economic powerhouse near Hong Kong, and was appointed as the president and deputy party secretary of the China Development Bank in 2019, China Daily reported. He stepped down as president in 2023, it added.

The China Development Bank, founded in 1994, is a state-funded and state-owned development finance institution. According to its website, it is directly overseen by the State Council and its work aims to support China’s economic development in key industries and underdeveloped sectors.

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule, China has run an anti-corruption campaign that also saw officials and military generals being targeted. Critics say the drive has been used partly to remove Xi’s political rivals.

Taylor Farms has expanded a voluntary recall of its iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico because of a potential link to the multistate cyclospora outbreak that has sickened people across the U.S.

Products with the potential to be contaminated with the diarrhea-causing parasite were shipped to 27 states including Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New Jersey, the California-based company said in a statement Friday.

“We are actively removing the implicated products,” the statement said, adding that the company has stopped sourcing lettuce from an implicated lot in central Mexico.

U.S. health officials earlier this week identified lettuce from a supplier in Mexico as a source of cyclospora contamination in food served at Taco Bell restaurants in five Midwestern states.

The Taylor Farms recall announcement listed 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. Taylor Farms did not respond to an emailed request for the full names of those brands or retailers. The recalled products were shipped as recently as Thursday and have “best by” dates as late as Aug. 3.

Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, has halted distribution of all Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce products sourced from Mexico and instructed customers to destroy them.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that infects food that has come into contact with human feces, most commonly when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. When ingested, the parasite causes intestinal illness marked by “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

In 2026, cyclospora has sickened at least 1,645 people in the U.S. and hospitalized 141, according to the CDC, which is investigating more than 5,000 additional illnesses that may be linked to the parasite. This time last year, only 249 cases had been reported.

The CDC initially warned consumers to avoid eating shredded lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia.

“Taco Bell worked swiftly to voluntarily remove the product from restaurants and the affected ingredient has been removed from our supply chain nationwide,” the company said in a statement Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) — America’s first billionaire president may soon be profiting from a new line of business tied to his office: charging access for a first peek at certain posts on his Truth Social platform.

Donald Trump’s struggling media company plans to sell Wall Street traders the chance to see posts from “highest-ranking” accounts — including possibly his own — milliseconds before others.

That could mean big money for them, and Trump.

Trump’s posts are often important enough to rattle financial markets, sending prices soaring and plunging within seconds. Until this moment, presidential policy announcements were considered sort of public property that should be free and available to all at the same time.

The president has the most followers on Truth Social — 12.9 million — so presumably will be included in the mix of high-ranking accounts.

Truth Social’s public parent, Trump Media & Technology, did not respond to emailed questions, including whether Trump’s posts will be excluded from the offering, but the planned service is attracting plenty of attention — and not just from traders.

“It’s odious, selling access to highest bidders on Wall Street,” said Dylan Hedler-Gaudette, an expert on federal ethic rules at watchdog Project on Government Oversight. “Everything he says has market implications.”

How the new business hopes to make money

Called Truth PSI, the service announced in a short press release Thursday would allow Wall Street trading firms and institutions to see certain posts earlier than other users so they could profit off subsequent moves in stocks, bonds and interest rates.

The Trump Media release did not give any sense of the size of the new business but quotes CEO Kevin McGurn as saying he expects it to become a “meaningful” source of revenue as part of a strategy to “monetize proprietary assets.” The company added that it expects to launch the service next month.

The customers that Truth Social is targeting are high frequency traders who jump ahead of others in reacting to news to buy and sell bonds and other financial instruments. And a few thousands of a second often spells the difference between profits and losses.

Trump posts are big news, and big money makers

When Trump announced his sweeping tariffs on April 2 last year, it was major political and financial news —- and many found out first on Truth Social.

“It’s Liberation Day in America,” Trump posted hours before a formal Rose Garden announcement, sending stocks plunging nearly 5% over the next few hours. Safe haven investments like gold and Treasury bonds soared.

A few days later, Trump reversed course by suspending the tariffs for 90 days with an announcement again on Truth Social, writing, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

Stocks soared 9.5% that day, adding $4 trillion to investor wealth as measured by the S&P 500 index.

“It’s yet more brazen corruption,” said Kathleen Clark of Washington University School of Law and an expert in government ethics rules. “Trump can line his pockets by selling access.”

His Iran war posts are must reading for oil traders, too

Trump has announced major decisions and musings about other topics, including staff changes, immigration crackdowns, and matters of war and peace in Ukraine and Iran.

“THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!,” he posted on June 24 last year about a short-lived Iran deal, sending oil prices plunging instantly.

No other social media platform has such access to the president, and presumably banks and traders will have to pay up for it.

Trump Media did not state in its release how much it plans to charge but said it has already signed up customers.

The law doesn’t bar Trump from doing this

The service is similar to others at rival social media firms but with a key difference: It’s the president posting. But there appears to be nothing to stop Trump from doing this, at least legally.

Conflict of interest laws would bar U.S. government officials from owning a company that profits off their office by selling access to their decisions through public posts, says Washington University’s Clark. But the president and vice president, she notes, are excluded from the provision.

Despite that, all presidents since the law was passed decades ago have acted as if it applied — selling individual stocks, dumping business holdings or putting their financial assets in a blind trust so they wouldn’t know what was being bought and sold on their behalf while they wielded power — but Trump has refused.

No response from the White House, or his businesses

The White House referred questions, including those about the president profiting off its office, to the company that owns Truth Social. Several messages sent to that company, Trump Media & Technology, have not been returned. And Trump’s own family company, the Trump Organization, declined to comment.

Trump himself has repeatedly denied that there any conflicts between his obligation to act in the public interest and the opportunity to make money off the presidency.

The White House has previously said Trump only does what is good for the country and is not involved in his family business.

Trump Media needs the help

The new service is the latest in a series of moves to try to revive the fortunes of Trump Media whose stock has plunged more than 70% since the president took office last year

The company has been diversifying into various businesses — crypto, financial services and nuclear fusion — but all to no avail.

It recently replaced its longtime CEO, former Congressman Devin Nunes, with McGurn — but the stock kept sinking anyway.

The stock rose 0.6% on the news Thursday, and up by half that amount the next day at $9.66. Before Trump took office last year, it closed at $40.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Clara Ester, an activist who as a 20-year-old college student rushed to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s side when he was shot, has died.

Ester, who died on July 9 at the age of 78, was among a few remaining witnesses to King’s assassination and its immediate aftermath in Memphis. With the passing of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. in February and Ester this month, King aide and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young is believed to be the last surviving eyewitness to the shooting.

Ester Grew up in Memphis attending Centenary United Methodist Church, where her pastor was civil rights leader the Rev. James Lawson.

“We used to joke about colored water being Kool-Aid and the white water just being water, and so that satisfied us as children,” Ester told The Associated Press in 2018, around the 50th anniversary of King’s death. “But until you see the racism, until you see what has been withheld from you because of your color — is what started to really truly anger me. And I knew if there was a movement that could help change any of that, I had to be in it.”

Civil rights issues were often discussed from the pulpit of her church, Ester said. Lawson was very involved in the sanitation workers’ strike, so it was natural for her to become involved too.

“I got to the point that I didn’t miss a mass meeting,” she said. “I picketed every day that the picket lines were up.”

Even 50 years later, she clearly remembered the impact of hearing King’s speech at the Mason Temple the night before he was assassinated and how it seemed to foreshadow his death the next day.

“He had seen the mountaintop,” Ester said. “It was evident on the balcony — how calm.”

Ester had gone to the Lorraine Motel for dinner on April 4, 1968, when she saw King chatting on the balcony with people below. Then she heard a shot.

“He was speaking calmly and pleasantly to a crowd,” she said. “And so he was happy at that moment. But to lay there with his eyes open, looking toward heaven. He had seen the promised land, and he may not get there with us, but he promised that we as a people will see the promised land.”

Ester said she ran to King and saw he was struggling for air. She tried to loosen his belt and asked someone to bring towels to try to staunch the bleeding. After King was taken away by ambulance, she had to stay at the hotel, where she was questioned by police.

When she was finally allowed to go home, her parents asked if she was OK.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not OK. There’s something wrong with this.’ And it was many months later that I guess at some point, I just broke down,” Ester said.

She left Memphis to work elsewhere that summer, and as soon as she finished school, she left for good.

“It’s just too much to … it hurt me that it happened, but it hurt me that it happened in my hometown, that that’s the legacy for this city,” she said.

Ester moved to Mobile, Alabama, where she found work as a neighborhood organizer at the Dumas Wesley Community Center, a Christian service program supporting children, seniors and people experiencing homelessness, according to her obituary. She later was named the executive director of the center, serving in that role until she retired in 2006.

In 1986, she was commissioned as a deaconess in the United Methodist Church, a type of lay minister . She remained active in the church throughout her life and held leadership roles that included serving as the national vice president of United Methodist Women.

Methodist Bishop David Graves met Ester when he was assigned to the Alabama-West Florida Conference in 2016. He wrote in a remembrance that Ester did not take to him at first, but gradually they came to love each other.

“Thank you, Clara Ester, for a life well lived and for loving me. It changed me,” he wrote. “Clara will be missed immensely, but what a day of rejoicing is going on in heaven. For love will always find a way for those who trust in Jesus and seek to love even in our differences.”

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Former Associated Press reporter Adrian Sainz contributed from Memphis.

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This story corrects the age of Ester when King was killed.