Category: National News Feed

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature.

“We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented.

No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats’ push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

“No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Inside the cuts to foreign aid

Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations.

Democrats argued that the Republican administration’s animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America’s standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill.

“This is not an America first bill. It’s a China first bill because of the void that’s being created all across the world,” Jeffries said.

The White House argued that many of the cuts would incentivize other nations to step up and do more to respond to humanitarian crises and that the rescissions best served the American taxpayer.

“The money that we’re clawing back in this rescissions package is the people’s money. We ought not to forget that,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee.

After objections from several Republicans, Senate GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under Republican President George W. Bush.

Looking ahead to future spending fights

Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation’s priorities.

Triggered by the official rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needed a simple majority vote to advance in the Senate instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines.

Two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process.

“Let’s not make a habit of this,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn’t providing enough information on what exactly will be cut.

Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows “enthusiasm” for getting the nation’s fiscal situation under control.

“We’re happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,” he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts — $9 billion — Vought said that was because “I knew it would be hard” to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is ’likely to come soon.”

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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are in merger talks to create the largest railroad in North America that would connect the East and West Coasts.

The merger discussions began during the first quarter of this year, according to a person familiar with the talks who isn’t authorized to discuss them publicly. It would combine the largest and smallest of the country’s six major freight railroads.

Both railroads declined to comment.

Within the industry there is widespread debate over whether such a merger would be approved by the Surface Transportation Board even though those regulators approved the deal that created CPKC railroad two years ago with the Canadian Pacific’s $31 billion acquisition of Kansas City Southern railroad.

That merger combined the two smallest major railroads in North America and left only six major freight railroads. But it was the first major rail merger approved in more than two decades.

The bar for railroad mergers in the U.S. was raised substantially at the start of the century after a disastrous combination of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific in 1996 that snarled rail traffic for an extended period, followed by the 1999 split of Conrail between Norfolk Southern and CSX, which created backups in the East.

To be approved, any major rail merger must show it will enhance competition and serve the public interest under the 2001 rules. The CPKC merger was not judged under those rules because Kansas City Southern had an exemption from them as the smallest major freight railroad at the time.

Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena talked earlier this year about the potential benefits of such a merger because it would streamline deliveries all across the country by eliminating the delays that come along with one railroad handing shipments over to another. Plus it would simplify shipping for the companies that rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products.

But in the past, some shippers have raised concerns about the consequences of being left with even fewer options to ship their goods because the major railroads are already so powerful.

Some investors have long argued that the industry should eventually consolidate down to two East-West railroads crossing the United States alongside the two railroads that already cross Canada. But regulators have been skeptical and taken a cautious approach. Any proposed deal would face a lengthy STB review. That board is currently evenly split between two Republicans and two Democrats with one seat open.

Citi Research analyst Ariel Rosa said in a research note that a major transcontinental railroad merger “would likely prove costly and time consuming, risking a years-long distraction to management, while facing significant pushback from regulators, politicians, employee unions, competitors, customers, and other stakeholders.”

Union Pacific, which is based in Omaha, Nebraska, generated $24.3 billion revenue last year as its more than 30.000 employees delivered freight all across the western United States. Norfolk Southern reported $12.1 billion revenue and has roughly 20,000 employees and its headquarters is in Atlanta.

Norfolk Southern stock gained 3.7% during the day Thursday and rose another 4.7% to hit $282.50 in after-market trading following the Journal’s story.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said late Thursday that the central bank should cut its key interest rate later this month, carving out a different view than that of Chair Jerome Powell, who has been harshly criticized by the White House for delaying rate cuts.

Christopher Waller, a member of the Fed’s governing board, said in a speech in New York City that the economy is showing signs of weakening, with consumer spending slowing and job gains cooling. The Fed should reduce borrowing costs to shore up spending and growth before the job market weakens further, Waller said.

“The economy is still growing, but its momentum has slowed significantly,” he said, adding that the slowdown threatens the Fed’s goal of maximum employment.

At the same time, President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are likely to only lift inflation temporarily and aren’t a reason to postpone rate cuts, Waller said.

“Tariffs have boosted, and will continue to boost, inflation a bit above the (Fed’s) 2% objective this year,” Waller said, but policymakers should “look through tariff effects and focus on underlying inflation,” which he said is nearing the 2% goal.

Waller has been mentioned as a potential replacement for Powell when the current chair’s term expires in May 2026, or perhaps earlier if Trump takes the unprecedented step of firing Powell. Trump has threatened to fire Powell this year but on Wednesday said it was “highly unlikely” he would take such a step.

For his part, Powell has said the Fed wants to see the impact of the duties on prices and the economy before making any moves.

Waller, a Trump appointee, has previously said that he would support a rate cut in July. Michelle Bowman, also a Trump appointee, has also spoken in favor of a cut.

Minutes to the Fed’s June 17-18 meeting said that only “a couple” of the 19 members of the central bank’s interest-rate setting committee supported a cut in July.

Other participants — the minutes didn’t say how many — said that the Fed should keep rates unchanged this year, since inflation remains above 2%. Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year ago, the fastest pace in four months.

Other potential replacements for Powell have also publicly expressed support for cutting rates soon, including Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Fed’s board who stepped down in 2011. Warsh, currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” earlier this week that he supported rate cuts.

“The president’s right to be frustrated with Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve,” Warsh said.

The removal of 21 children from the custody of a Los Angeles-area couple has put a spotlight on the practice of using surrogates to build a family. Surrogacy has no federal regulation, leaving it up to states to set the rules if they choose to allow it.

The kids — 15 at the couple’s mansion and six more living elsewhere — were taken by an LA County child welfare agency in May after the parents were accused of failing to intervene in the abuse of a baby by a nanny, police in Arcadia said.

The children range in age from 2 months to 13 years, with most between 1 and 3, police said. The FBI won’t comment but agents are investigating. Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65, have not responded to emails seeking comment.

Police believe Zhang gave birth to one or two of the children while the rest were born by surrogate. Some women who were paid surrogates for the couple now say they were unaware that the couple was accumulating a supersize family, raising questions about their intentions.

“What were they going to do with these children?” said Deborah Wald, a lawyer in San Francisco whose expertise includes surrogacy law.

What is surrogacy?

Surrogacy is an agreement between parties to have a woman become pregnant, typically through an embryo transfer, and deliver a baby. The intended parent or parents might struggle with infertility. They also could be same-sex couples.

There’s no limit on how many children someone can have through surrogates or any other method, said Wald, who is not involved in the Arcadia case.

She acknowledged that California is considered a “surrogacy-friendly state” because it has clear laws around the process.

Both sides are required to have lawyers, and there must be a written, notarized contract before an embryo transfer, Wald said.

“The legitimate surrogacy community in California is very distressed when things like this happen,” Wald said of surrogates feeling deceived. ”We’ve worked very hard on legal and ethical standards. It hurts everyone when something like this happens.”

Matchmaker role

There are businesses that act as matchmakers, connecting surrogates to people who want to have children. State business records show a company called Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC had been registered at the Arcadia address of Zhang and Xuan.

It’s not clear if Zhang and Xuan set up the business solely to find surrogates for themselves. State records show the company terminated its business license in June.

Wald said there are no special licensing requirements in California for businesses that match surrogates with intended parents.

Many questions remain

Wald said there should have been plenty of checks and balances in the process, noting the role of fertility clinics in handling embryos.

“The first place typically is the matching program that matches the surrogate with an intended parent. But in this situation the intended parents were the matching program,” Wald said. “I am not familiar with any other prior case where that was true.”

Arcadia police said the six children who were not at the couple’s home were found with family friends. The couple’s house was “set up for a school environment,” Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said.

Zhang and Xuan were accused of neglect and arrested in May. Charges were not formally pursued at that time in order for an abuse investigation to continue, and detectives now believe there were other instances of abuse, Cieadlo said.

A 2-month-old infant with a traumatic head injury, allegedly at the hands of a nanny, remains in a hospital in stable condition, he said.

Keeping the family together

California law requires child welfare agencies to prioritize placing children who cannot safely be with their parents in homes with extended family, and requires siblings to be kept together unless it would endanger the child to do so, said Leslie Heimov, the executive director of the Children’s Law Center of California.

The Children’s Law Center has worked with some families with 10 to 12 children, Heimov said. A family with 20 children or more is “unusual,” she added.

It’s more complicated to find foster homes for larger families that can accommodate all the children’s needs, especially for infants, Heimov said.

In addition to expenses and limited space, it’s hard to give infants the proper stimulation and care they need if they are in a home with many other children, she said.

In cases involving many children, the state will sometimes get creative to make sure that siblings can maintain relationships with each other, like placing them in the same neighborhood, or placing them in different but related households, Heimov said.

A case involving over 20 children conceived through surrogacy would “present some legal questions,” said Heimov. “But it would not change our advocacy — we want every child we represent to be in a loving, safe home.”

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White reported from Detroit and Riddle from Montgomery, Alabama.

NEW YORK (AP) — When limits on liquids were introduced at TSA checkpoints across the country in 2006, bins overflowed with bottled water, toothpaste, shaving cream and so much more. Nearly two decades later, travelers are much more accustomed to the “3-1-1” regulations” governing the size of the liquids they’re flying with, but scenes of passengers guzzling a beverage before putting their bags through the screening machines are still common.

That’s why Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent ripples through the traveling public when she said earlier this week that changes might be afoot when it comes to the TSA’s current liquid limits.

“The liquids, I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement, is what size your liquids need to be,” Noem told a conference in Washington.

Will travelers be able to carry bigger bottles? Multiple 1-quart bags of liquids? Those details haven’t been rolled out. But coming on top of her announcement earlier this month that travelers could keep their shoes on at TSA checkpoints, it seems a much different security experience for American air travelers might be emerging.

9/11 and its aftermath changed much

Airline travel changed dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Before that, airlines were responsible for security and would often contract it out to private firms, said Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. Travelers often didn’t need to show their ID at security checkpoints — and people without boarding passes, such as family members or friends, could go to the gate in some locations.

“It was much more casual. And clearly it was ineffective, because 9/11 occurred,” Hartevelt said.

That’s when the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration were born, with the mandate of preventing more terrorist attacks.

The liquid limits, however, didn’t kick in until 2006, after authorities foiled a plot that used liquid explosives smuggled aboard carry-on luggage. The TSA then very briefly banned all liquids in carry-on luggage. That ban lasted about six weeks, but strained airlines’ baggage systems as more and more travelers turned to checked bags to pack toiletries.

At the time the 3.4-ounce limit was implemented, the FBI and other laboratories had found that tiny amounts of substances small enough to fit into a quart-size bag couldn’t blow up an airliner.

When the ban was eventually lifted in September 2006, consumers and businesses alike had to learn how to adapt to the 3-1-1 rule — leading to more demand for smaller, travel size bottles of anything from shampoo to toothpaste, as well as clear, “TSA approved” toiletry bags that are still seen on store shelves today.

The rule was also adopted in many countries around the world starting later that year.

Keith Jeffries, a former TSA director at Los Angeles International Airport and now vice president of K2 Security Screening Group, says whatever comes next needs to be clear for passengers. And he knows whereof he speaks.

Jeffries was working for TSA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when the liquids rules came down overnight. Signage had to be changed to let passengers know of the new regulations. Barrels overflowing with toothpaste, shaving cream and shampoo had to be emptied every half hour. Jeffries remembers seeing a pair of shoes sitting in one of the barrels.

When he asked why, a TSA staffer said there was gel in the soles. “I said, ‘Please tell me I don’t have a passenger back there walking in the sterile area barefoot. And he says, ‘No, sir, they still have their socks on,’” he said. “That’s how chaotic it was.”

It’s about more than convenience

Any move to simplify the screening process and cut down on the time it takes for passengers to navigate checkpoints would be a welcome change for everyone, Harteveldt says. Because it isn’t just about convenience; those lines before the security checkpoints are the most at risk to a potential threat.

The fact that the TSA felt confident enough to change its shoe policy earlier this month may not save too much time from an individual traveler’s perspective, Harteveldt notes — but marks a “big step forward” toward cutting down the average length of the security process when you think about the number of people going through U.S. airports each day. Relaxing current liquid restrictions could aid that effort.

Still, questions remain. “What we don’t know is what the secretary is going to announce about liquids,” Harteveldt said. “Will they remove the liquid ban altogether — and can we go back to bringing full-sized of toiletries and other items with us? Will they allow people to bring more than one bag of toiletries and liquids? And importantly, will they relax the limit on (the) quart-size bag itself?’”

It’s also possible that the changes the TSA makes, whatever they are, only start at a handful of airports that have the technology to do so. Over the years, airports worldwide have adopted some aspects of security screenings faster or differently than others.

But travelers could be confused if they’re able to bring a full-size bottle of shampoo or lotion when flying out of one airport, for example, but not on their return trip home.

“The devil is going to be in the details,” Harteveldt said. “That’s why the rollout plan will be absolutely critical.”

Harveldt says a more streamlined process could make travelers less stressed, but others — including flight attendants and pilots who are in the skies more frequently — may object and question whether airport security is being compromised. Still, Harveldt says he doesn’t believe the TSA would make this change if the agency “didn’t feel it was authentically, truly safe.”

What of expedited security lines?

If shoe regulations disappear and liquid restrictions are eased, the effects could ripple into the TSA PreCheck program, in which passengers submit information like their fingerprints and the agency prescreens them for any red flags. By giving the agency this information, the traveler then gets some benefits not available to other travelers — a special line to go through and the ability to keep their computers in their bags and their shoes on, for example.

But if those benefits become more widely available to all passengers, will fewer people sign up for PreCheck?

“What is the impact on now both shoes and liquids going to have on TSA PreCheck enrollment? That is the million-dollar question,” Jeffries said. “And if I was still with TSA, I would be watching that closely over the next 12 to 18 months.”

While the prospect of increasing the current liquid limit could be a welcome change for many U.S. travelers, some experts say that the tech isn’t available in enough airports yet. Current X-ray machines used at most airports today have a difficult time distinguishing between different types of liquids, says Jeffrey Price, a professor of aviation at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

That’s key, he explains, in determining whether something is harmless or potentially explosive.

While newer computed tomography scanners are better and have begun making their way to airports, Price said in commentary published last week that it could take “another decade or more” before the newer machines are deployed at all U.S. airports.

“This is an issue that needs to be studied much more carefully than the policy to leave your shoes on,” he said in an email Thursday.

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Associated Press editor Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday said the agency’s renovation of two of its buildings is in compliance with plans approved by a local commission, disputing a White House suggestion that they may have violated the law by deviating from those plans.

The letter is the lastest salvo in an escalating battle between the Federal Reserve, an independent agency charged with fighting inflation and seeking maximum employment, and the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has for months criticized Powell and the Fed for not lowering its key interest rate, which the president says would boost borrowing and accelerate the economy.

Powell has said he wants to see how the economy responds to Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which could raise inflation and slow growth, before making any moves.

Trump has even threatened to fire Powell, though he has since backed away and said Wednesday it was “highly unlikely” that he would take the unprecedented step of doing so. Firing the Fed chair could cause chaos in the financial markets. Several executives of Wall Street banks have said this week that the Fed’s independence from day-to-day politics is crucial.

Still, the Trump administration has seized on ballooning costs for the Fed’s renovation of two century-old buildings to argue that Powell has mismanaged the project. The president can’t fire the Fed chair because of a policy disagreement, but he could do so “for cause,” which is widely seen as some kind of malfeasance or neglect.

Last week, the president’s top budget adviser, Russell Vought, wrote Powell a letter that said Trump is “extremely troubled” by Powell’s management of the project, which has risen in cost to about $2.5 billion, up from the Fed’s initial estimate of $1.9 billion.

Vought’s letter also noted that Powell, in testimony before the Senate last month, said that the Fed removed some amenities that critics called ostentatious from its plans. Those plans had been approved by the National Capital Planning Commission in 2021.

Vought said in his letter that if the renovation plans had changed, they were no longer “in compliance with the approved plan” and may violate the National Capital Planning Act.

Powell responded Thursday that since the Fed’s plans were approved by the NCPC in September 2021, it has made only “a small number of design changes to scale back or eliminate certain elements” and added that the changes weren’t significant enough to “warrant… further review.”

“The project is proceeding in accordance with the plan that the NCPC approved,” Powell wrote.

The changes were intended “to simplify construction and reduce the likelihood of further delays and cost increases,” Powell said in his letter.

Powell also defended the cost of the renovation: “Both buildings were in need of significant structural repairs,” including “the removal of asbestos and lead contamination,” as well as the “complete replacement of antiquated systems such as electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as fire detection and suppression systems,” he wrote.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Wednesday’s magnitude 7.3 earthquake off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain struck in a region that has experienced a handful of powerful quakes within the last five years — including one that shook communities almost exactly two years earlier.

Officials said Thursday they had received no reports of injuries or major damage from the latest event, which triggered a tsunami warning that lasted about an hour before being downgraded and prompted communities along a 700-mile (1,127-km) stretch of Alaska’s southern coast to urge people to move to higher ground. The official maximum wave height at Sand Point, a community 55 miles (88 kilometers) north of the epicenter, was about 3.9 inches (10 centimeters), said Kara Sterling, a lead duty scientist at the National Tsunami Warning Center. It occurred at low tide.

Earthquake sparked tsunami warnings

The earthquake struck at 12:37 p.m. local time, prompting the center’s tsunami warning.

There are a number of ways people in warning areas can receive notifications, including the sounding of sirens in communities that have them, listening to weather radio or public radio broadcasts, following official accounts on social media, or via push alerts on cellphones. In some places, local officials have relayed warnings door to door, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson with the state’s emergency management division.

Public safety departments in King Cove and Unalaska sent alerts urging those in coastal areas or those that could see inundation to seek higher ground.

The warning issued by the center was downgraded to an advisory before being canceled around 2:45 p.m.

Alaska is one of world’s most seismically active regions

Alaska is the most earthquake-prone state in the U.S. and one of the most seismically active regions in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The state experiences a magnitude 7 earthquake almost annually, and the second-largest earthquake ever recorded was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Anchorage, the agency said. That 1964 magnitude 9.2 earthquake — and the tsunami it triggered — killed about 130 people.

The Aleutian arc is no stranger to earthquakes, but the activity in the region where Wednesday’s earthquake struck has gotten scientists’ attention. The area, within a few hundred miles of the earthquake, has “lit up” since 2020, with Wednesday’s earthquake marking the fifth exceeding magnitude 7.0 since 2020, said state seismologist Michael West.

“I would not call this an isolated earthquake. It appears to be part of a larger sequence spanning the last several years,” he said. But West added: “There’s no reason to be alarmist about this.”

People should continue to heed warnings, officials say

Some communities have buildings designated on higher ground as meetup points during tsunami warnings, such as a school, while others might simply urge residents to retreat up a hillside, Zidek said.

“That area of Alaska, most areas of Alaska, it gets steep real quick,” he said.

Sometimes, the only warning one might have is the shaking ground, Zidek said. “If it shakes violently for 20 seconds or more, that is your warning sign, and you should head to higher ground if you’re in a coastal area,” he said.

Zidek and West said people should continue to heed warnings. West said he worries about a “burnout effect” among residents in the region, some of whom have evacuated numerous times since 2018 in response to larger earthquakes that have not caused significant damage.

West said he is reminded of a magnitude 8.6 earthquake in 1946 — west of the location of Wednesday’s quake — that generated a deadly tsunami and led to the creation of a U.S. tsunami warning system. The death toll included more than 150 people in Hawaii, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“This area is capable of trans-Pacific tsunamis, and I feel like maybe the best way to stay vigilant … is maybe to look into our deeper history beyond just the last five years,” he said.

Bands behaving badly? It’s only rock ’n’ roll.

Members of alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction filed dueling lawsuits Wednesday over singer Perry Farrell’s onstage scuffle with guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert last year, a fracas that prompted the cancellation of the rest of their reunion tour and a planned album.

They join a long and storied tradition of bandmates suing one another, taking interpersonal and legal troubles from the recording studio to the courtroom. Here’s a look at a few very famous cases.

Jane’s Addiction

WHAT HAPPENED: Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery sued Farrell in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking at least $10 million, alleging that Farrell’s behavior on their recent tour had ranged from erratic to out of control, culminating in an assault where Farrell punched Navarro both onstage and backstage.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: It hasn’t been; it’s just getting started. Farrell and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, sued the three bandmates in the same court Wednesday, blaming them for the conflict and the violence.

The Beach Boys

WHAT HAPPENED: How much time do you have? The late, great Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ leader, feuded with his cousin and bandmate Mike Love over songwriting credits dating back decades. Love had sued Wilson several times, beginning in the 1990s.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: Wilson often wasn’t the victor — except in 2007, when U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins threw out one of Love’s lawsuits against Wilson. In it, Love alleged that a free, 2004 promotional CD of re-recorded Beach Boys songs cost him millions of dollars and violated Love and Wilson’s partnership.

Oasis

WHAT HAPPENED: The sibling rivalry between Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher is well established. Their brawls not only led to the band’s dissolution in 2009, before their 2025 reunion, but also a legal upset. In 2011, Liam sued Noel for saying Liam’s hangover caused the cancellation of a 2009 festival performance. He said in a statement that the lawsuit was not about money, but that he wanted an apology and for Oasis fans “to know the truth” — that laryngitis prevented him from performing.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The lawsuit was dropped.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

WHAT HAPPENED: The post-breakup decades of Creedence Clearwater Revival were marked by so much legal and personal infighting that you might think CCR stands for Conflict, Clash, Repeat. In 1996, singer-songwriter-guitarist John Fogerty sued ex-bandmates Doug Clifford and Stu Cook for performing under the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited. That case settled in 2001, but the bandmates sued Fogerty in 2014, alleging he was violating the settlement by continuing to publicly slag off the Revisited name. And they said Fogerty himself was now illegally using Creedence Clearwater Revival in concert advertising. Fogerty sued back in 2015, saying Cook and Clifford weren’t paying him proper songwriting royalties for their performances.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: A federal court merged the two cases, and the resulting hybrid was settled under confidential terms in 2017.

Fleetwood Mac

WHAT HAPPENED: Fleetwood Mac and feuds are practically synonymous. Breakups and divorces between members are essential to some of their best songs. The conflict resumed in the 2010s when the band kicked lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham off their 2018 tour, and he sued. Buckingham claimed he was told five days after the group appeared at Radio City Music Hall that January that the band would tour without him. He says he would have been paid at least $12 million for his share of the proceeds.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: Later that year, Buckingham said they had settled the lawsuit.

Journey

WHAT HAPPENED: At some point, two key members of Journey stopped believin’ in each other. And all over an Amex. Longtime guitarist Neal Schon sued longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain in 2022, saying Cain was refusing to let him use the band’s American Express card. A counterclaim came from Cain, who said that Schon was running up enormous personal charges on the band’s account.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: A judge in 2024 appointed a custodian over the band’s financial decisions, specifically empowered to settle disagreements between Schon and Cain.

Hall & Oates

WHAT HAPPENED: In 2023, Daryl Hall sued his longtime music partner John Oates, arguing that Oates’ plan to sell off his share of a joint venture would violate the terms of a business agreement the Hall & Oates duo had forged long before. The move quickly prompted a judge to temporarily block the sale.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The lawsuit and arbitration are ongoing.

The Beatles

WHAT HAPPENED: Their artistic partnership had been over for months, but the Beatles had to break out the barristers to break up their business. Paul McCartney went to London’s High Court of Justice in 1970 to dissolve the Fab Four’s 1967 contractual partnership, which included the Apple record label. McCartney above all wanted to get rid of manager Allen Klein, whom John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr wanted to keep as overseer of their business. “The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple,” McCartney told British GQ in 2020, “was to sue the band.”

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The court ruled in McCartney’s favor and appointed a receiver to oversee their ventures in 1971. But negotiations and wrangling continued until a long-term solution that would become known as “The Beatles Agreement” was signed by all four members in 1974.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police in Maine said Thursday they have arrested a 17-year-old state resident in connection with the killing of a paddleboarder who went missing on a rural pond.

The body of Sunshine Stewart, 48, of Tenants Harbor, was found this month on Crawford Pond in Union, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Portland. The killing shocked and scared the community, where trips to the pond and nearby campground are a summertime staple.

Maine State Police said a teenager was taken into custody without incident in Union on Wednesday night. Police did not say why he was arrested or if he was charged, and they declined to release any other information about him as the investigation is ongoing.

The state attorney general’s office declined to comment about possible charges.

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta determined Stewart’s cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, police said.

Police said the investigation is still active. They have asked for information from anyone who may have seen Stewart paddleboarding on July 2 between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. near 100 Acre Island on Crawford Pond, or who has any other information related to the case.

Stewart lived about 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the pond, which is a popular summer destination about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the scenic coastal areas of the state’s midcoast region. A person reached by phone who identified herself as Stewart’s sister declined to comment.

Friends of Stewart have posted online testimonials remembering her as fiercely independent and always up for a challenge, including outdoor adventures and building projects. Over the years, she worked in many roles, including as a fisherman and bartender, friends said.

She renovated her own home in Tenants Harbor, a neighborhood in St. George, said Bruce Twyon, a friend who knew Stewart from her time living in the Virgin Islands. That spoke to her self-motivation and spirit of “getting things done and enjoying life every day,” he said.

“She was such a sweet person and very strong and independent, and took care of a lot of people,” Twyon said.

The pond, in the 2,400-resident town of Union, is approximately 600 acres (243 hectares) and does not have public access. It is available for a variety of uses, including boating and fishing. The 100 Acre Island preserve in the center of the pond is a wooded island reachable by canoe, kayak or paddleboard from a nearby campground.

The pond has numerous nooks and narrow areas, so it’s possible there were other boaters on the water at the time of the killing who were unaware someone was in danger. Police asked residents to remain aware of their surroundings and report suspicious behavior. They said in a statement the arrest was the “result of relentless investigative work” and that the teen who was arrested was transported to Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.

Loved ones of Stewart — who was known as “Sunny” by her friends — launched a GoFundMe page in her honor that had raised more than $33,000 by Thursday to help celebrate her life. The page said memorial service dates were being determined.

Attorneys representing migrant children who were abused, neglected or abandoned by a parent asked a federal court on Thursday to restore their deportation protections after the Trump administration ended them.

The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of New York, was filed on behalf of nine young people and their legal advocates who want a judge to keep the protections for up to nearly 150,000 beneficiaries.

“These young people have survived abuse, abandonment, and neglect only to be retraumatized now by the constant threat of detention and deportation from the same agencies that vowed to keep them safe,” said Rachel Davidson, plaintiff attorney with the National Immigration Project.

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were both named in the lawsuit. USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said, “As a matter of practice, USCIS does not comment on pending litigation.” DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Migrant children who suffered parental abuse, neglect or abandonment are designated through state courts and the federal government with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which was created by Congress in 1990 with bipartisan support.

SIJS, as it is known, does not grant legal status. But it lets qualifying young people apply for a visa to become legal permanent residents and obtain a work permit. It can take years for a visa to become available due to annual caps. In 2022, the Biden administration allowed children to be shielded from deportation while waiting for a visa.

In June, the Trump administration ended deportation protection for SIJS beneficiaries. Without it, they can still wait in the U.S. for a visa but cannot receive work authorization. And if they are deported while they are waiting, they will no longer be eligible to become legal permanent residents.

Though overshadowed by higher-profile moves to end birthright citizenship and halt asylum at the border, the policy shift is part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration system overhaul intended to make it more difficult for people to legally remain in the U.S.

A Guatemalan teen who is living in New York and living with her older brother is one of the plaintiffs. She said through attorneys, who omit using the names of minors, that her dreams of becoming an astronaut one day may be cut short if she’s unable to continue high school for fear of deportation.

“I felt that I was finally in a safe environment, but if I had to return to (Guatemala), I would be very afraid of the violence and abuse from my mother and father,” she said in a statement shared by the attorneys without her name.

The policy shift may shut down a legal pathway to possible citizenship for nearly 150,000 migrants who attorneys estimate have received this classification and are stuck in the visa backlog.

It could keep them from obtaining Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, medical treatment, health insurance, higher education, bank accounts, and, for older youth, legal and safe employment opportunities.