FILE – Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom presents his revised state budget during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,File)

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling President Donald Trump’s military intervention at protests over federal immigration policy in Los Angeles an assault on democracy and has sued to try to stop it. Meanwhile, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is putting the National Guard on standby in areas in his state where demonstrations are planned.

The divergent approaches illustrate the ways the two parties are trying to navigate national politics and the role of executive power in enforcing immigration policies.

In his live TV address this week, Newsom said that Trump’s move escalated the situation — and for political gain.

All 22 other Democratic governors signed a statement sent by the Democratic Governors Association on Sunday backing Newsom, calling the Guard deployment and threats to send in Marines “an alarming abuse of power” that “undermines the mission of our service members, erodes public trust, and shows the Trump administration does not trust local law enforcement.”

The protests in Los Angeles have mostly been contained to five blocks in a small section of downtown; nearly 200 people were detained on Tuesday and at least seven police officers have been injured.

In Republican-controlled states, governors have not said when or how they’re planning to deploy military troops for protests.

Since Trump’s return to office, Democratic governors have been calculating about when to criticize him, when to emphasize common ground and when to bite their tongues.

The governors’ responses are guided partly by a series of political considerations, said Kristoffer Shields, director of the Eagleton Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University: How would criticizing Trump play with Democrats, Republicans and independent voters in their states? And for those with presidential ambitions, how does that message resonate nationally?

Democratic governors are weighing a number of considerations.

“There probably is some concern about retributions — what the reaction of the administration could be for a governor who takes a strong stance,” Shields said.

And in this case, polling indicates about half of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, though that polling was conducted before the recent military deployment.

On other issues, Democratic governors have taken a variety of approaches with Trump.

At a White House meeting in February, Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills told Trump, “ we’ll see you in court ” over his push to cut off funding to the state because it allowed transgender athletes in girls’ school sports. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, publicly sparred with Trump during his first term but this time around, has met with him privately to find common ground.

Initially, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green referred to Trump as a “straight-up dictator,” but the next month he told a local outlet that he was treading carefully, saying: “I’m not going to criticize him directly much at all.”

Democratic governors speaking out — but some cautiously

Apart from their joint statement, some of the highest-profile Democratic governors have not talked publicly about the situation in California. When asked, on Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office pointed to a Sunday social media post about the joint statement. Whitmer didn’t respond.

The office of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is set to testify before Congress on Thursday about his state laws protecting people who are in the country without legal status, reiterated in a statement that he stands with Newsom. The office said “local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in an interview Wednesday in The Washington Post, said Trump should not send troops to a weekend protest scheduled in Philadelphia.

“He’s injected chaos into the world order, he’s injected it into our economy, he is trying to inject chaos into our streets by doing what he did with the Guard in California,” Shapiro said.

As state attorney general during Trump’s first term, Shapiro routinely boasted that he sued Trump over 40 times and won each time. As governor he has often treaded more carefully, by bashing Trump’s tariffs, but not necessarily targeting Trump himself.

GOP governors weighing in

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has often clashed with Newsom, a fellow term-limited governor with national ambitions.

Newsom’s office said DeSantis offered to send Florida State Guard troops to California.

“Given the guard were not needed in the first place, we declined Governor DeSantis attempt to inflame an already chaotic situation made worse by his Party’s leader,” Newsom spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo said in an email to The Associated Press.

Speaking on Fox News on Tuesday, DeSantis said the gesture was a typical offer of mutual aid during a crisis — and was dismissive of the reasons it was turned down.

“The way to put the fire out is to make sure you have law and order,” he said.

States are preparing for more protests this weekend

Protests against immigration enforcement raids have sprung up in other cities — and a series of “No Kings” demonstrations are planned for the weekend — with governors preparing to respond.

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said he has spoken with his public safety commissioner to make sure state and local police work together.

“I don’t want to give the president any pretext to think he can come into Connecticut and militarize the situation. That just makes the situation worse,” said Lamont, who called Trump “a little eager to send federal troops and militarize the situation in Los Angeles.”

It is unclear how many Texas National Guard members will be deployed or how many cities asked for assistance. In Austin, where police used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred protesters on Monday, the mayor’s office said the National Guard was not requested.

San Antonio officials also said they didn’t request the Guard.

Florida’s DeSantis said law enforcement in his state is preparing “The minute you cross into attacking law enforcement, any type of rioting, any type of vandalism, looting, just be prepared to have the law come down on you,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “And we will make an example of you, you can guarantee it.”

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Associated Press reporters Nadia Lathan and Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago; contributed.

(AP File Photo)

(File phot of Commissioners meeting at Beaver County Courthouse.) 

Story by Beaver County Radio Staff.  June 11, 2025 

(Beaver, Pa.) The Beaver County Commissioners met for their weekly work session on Wednesday morning at the Beaver County Courthouse. During the meeting Katie DeFelice from Recreation and Tourism updated the commissioners about this weekend’s Jenny Lee Triathlon at Brady’s Run that will include road closures in the Park both Saturday and Sunday: (Press Play)

In other business  Beaver County Solicitor Garen Fedeles went over the current appeals for property tax that are still in litigation noting that there are a total of 46 properties still not resolved. He noted that this year’s appeal period will be from July 1^st through September 1^st.

Fedeles also provided an update on the construction of an additional pole building on the site of the HAZMAT building in Brady’s run Park, stating that Patterson Township approved of the zoning at their last meeting and that the project is moving forward with planning through Widmer Engineering.

He also stated that the county’s insurance is facing an $87,000 increase this year over previous years and that a new contractor will be taking over janitorial services at the courthouse next Monday.

Finally Beaver County Treasurer Sandie Egley asked about the planned rally at the courthouse on Saturday and if they were planning on an extra police presence due to the nature of the rally. Fedeles answered that a third party has applied and was approved for the rally and they have had meetings internally and with the Beaver Police. No other information was given about the meetings or the county’s plan.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published June 11, 2024 8:24 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, Pa) The board approved motions concerning procedures to follow with Hopewell and Independence Township Police Departments  when incidents occur in Hopewell Township and Independence Township whether  on school property or transportation.

(Monaca, Pa)  Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) has entered a nationwide memorandum of understanding with AOPA Foundation, Inc. to grant up to 10 credits to students who complete the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM Curriculum. The agreement allows high school students to jumpstart their college and professional careers within aviation.

“Not unlike our own Aviation High School Academy, the AOPA Foundation High School Aviation STEM program has experienced explosive student growth over the last several years. CCBC is excited to enter into this agreement to advance and support the Foundation’s goal of unlocking pathways to aviation careers for teens,” said Dr. John Higgs, dean of the James M. Johnson School of Aviation Sciences.

“As a result, we are ensuring that high school students can economically leverage CCBC’s expertise in aviation education and accelerate towards successful careers as pilots, air traffic controllers, or other industry professionals.”

Students must earn a B or better in AOPA Foundation Curriculum classes and matriculate to CCBC the semester after graduation to earn these credits. In addition, piloting students must provide documentation that they passed the FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Exam.

Students will earn credit for AVIP120-Foundations and Development of Aviation for the 9th grade course and credit for AVIP160- Private Pilot Flight Theory and AVIC160-Flight Theory Fundamentals 1 for the 10th and 11th grade courses.

“The AOPA Foundation is thrilled to have signed our first national agreement with CCBC. The agreement opens doors for students from more than 1,400 high schools nationwide to matriculate to CCBC or its satellite locations to become air traffic controllers or professional pilots.

The AOPA Foundation and CCBC share the vision of keeping the skies free and available to anyone who dreams of a career in
aviation and aerospace, and this relationship is an example of how to turn that vision into reality,” stated Dan Justman, Vice-President, You Can Fly, a STEM.org Accredited Educational Program.

CCBC continues to be a premier leader in aviation education, with a graduate in every tower in the U.S. and in the cockpit of every major airline.

Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Connection
Photo: Pennsylvania would need to lift 198,000 children out of poverty to rank first in the nation for the lowest child poverty rate. (luckybusiness/Adobe Stock)

Pennsylvania ranks 20th in the nation for overall child well-being, in the new 2025 Kids Count Data Book.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation report ranks states on how kids are doing in terms of economic well-being, education, health and more.

Kari King, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said despite the state’s rank of 20th for children’s health, it still has about 147,000 kids who are uninsured. King stressed the importance of Medicaid and warned proposals in Congress to reduce federal Medicaid spending by about $800 billion could jeopardize children’s access to health care.

“We are making sure that we’re lifting up in Pennsylvania: 1.2 million kids receive their health insurance through Medicaid and it’s providing health insurance to individuals in the state,” King explained. “It’s so important for kids, to make sure that they’re growing and developing in a healthy way.”

The report ranked Pennsylvania 22nd in the nation for kids economic well-being. It said in 2023, about 16% of children in the state lived in poverty. That’s roughly 404,000 kids with household incomes below $30,000 a year for a family of four.

King pointed out many children benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would also face major cuts in the big budget bill passed by the U.S. House and now awaiting a vote in the Senate.

“The bill proposes $300 million in cuts to the SNAP program, which again, is very concerning,” King emphasized. “In Pennsylvania, 24% of kids and young adults — so, those under the age of 21 — receive a SNAP benefit. That’s about 760,000 young Pennsylvanians.”

Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, said the nation cannot lose sight of the racial disparities seen in the indicators, particularly among Black, Latino and Native American children.

“For example, the child well-being outcomes on 15 out of 16 indicators, for Native kids, are lower than the national average,” Boissiere pointed out. “If you look at Black kids, it’s 8 out of 16 indicators, where Black kids’ outcomes are lower than the national average.”

Boissiere noted investing in today’s kids is investing in the nation and in a strong economy because they are tomorrow’s workforce.

FILE – The logos for streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Sling TV are pictured on a remote control on Aug. 13, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Disney will pay Comcast’s NBCUniversal nearly $439 million for its stake in Hulu, taking full control of the streaming service.

The move closes out an appraisal process that’s dragged on for a few years. Disney said in November 2023 that it was acquiring a 33% stake in Hulu from Comcast for at least $8.6 billion. That amount reflected Hulu’s guaranteed floor value of $27.5 billion, according to a regulatory filing.

Disney has run Hulu since 2019, when Comcast ceded its authority to Disney and effectively became a silent partner.

Hulu began in 2007 and quickly evolved into as a service backed by entertainment conglomerates who hoped to stave off the internet with an online platform for their own TV shows. Disney joined in 2009, planning to offer shows from ABC, ESPN and the Disney Channel. A decade later, Disney gained majority control of the business when it acquired 21st Century Fox.

Disney said in a regulatory filing on Monday that its appraiser arrived at a valuation below the guaranteed floor value during the initial phase of the appraisal process, while NBCUniversal’s appraiser arrived at a valuation substantially in excess of the guaranteed floor value.

A third appraiser was brought in and concluded that The Walt Disney Co. will pay $438.7 million for the Hulu stake.

“We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu’s general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers.”

The transaction is anticipated to close by July 24. It’s not expected to impact Disney’s fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings forecast.

Shares of Disney rose slightly in morning trading on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Elon Musk stepped back from his explosive feud with U.S. President Donald Trump, writing on X that he regrets some of his posts about his onetime ally and that they went “too far.”

Early Wednesday morning, he posted “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”

Musk’s break with a president whom he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect appeared to put an end to his influence in the White House and prompted concerns about effects on his companies. As a major government contractor, Musk’s businesses could be particularly vulnerable to retribution, and Trump has already threatened to cut Musk’s contracts.

Musk earlier deleted a post in which he claimed without evidence that the government was concealing information about the president’s association with infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Meanwhile, other posts that irritated Trump, including ones in which Musk called the spending bill an “abomination” and claimed credit for Trump’s election victory, remained live.

On Sunday, Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he has no desire to repair their relationship and warned that Musk could face “ serious consequences ” if he tries to help Democrats in upcoming elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made no secret of his willingness to exert a maximalist approach to enforcing immigration laws and keeping order as he campaigned to return to the White House. The fulfillment of that pledge is now on full display in Los Angeles.

The president has put hundreds of National Guard troops on the streets to quell protests over his administration’s immigration raids, a deployment that state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions. Trump called up the California National Guard over the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the first time in 60 years a president has done so — and is deploying active-duty troops to support the guard.

By overriding Newsom, Trump is already going beyond what he did to respond to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, when he warned he could send troops to contain demonstrations that turned violent if governors in the states did not act to do so themselves. Trump said in September of that year that he “can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by a governor” and that “we have to go by the laws.”

But now, the past and current president is moving swiftly, with little internal restraint to test the bounds of his executive authority in order to deliver on his promise of mass deportations. What remains to be seen is whether Americans will stand by him once it’s operationalized nationwide, as Trump looks to secure billions from Congress to dramatically expand the country’s detention and deportation operations.

For now, Trump is betting that they will.

“If we didn’t do the job, that place would be burning down,” Trump told reporters Monday, speaking about California. “I feel we had no choice. … I don’t want to see what happened so many times in this country.”

‘A crisis of Trump’s own making’

The protests began to unfold Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the sprawling city, including in the fashion district of Los Angeles and at a Home Depot. The anger over the administration’s actions quickly spread, with protests in Chicago and Boston as demonstrations in the southern California city also continued Monday.

But Trump and other administration officials remained unbowed, capitalizing on the images of burning cars, graffiti and Mexican flags — which, while not dominant, started to become the defining images of the unrest — to bolster their law-and-order cause.

Leaders in the country’s most populous state were similarly defiant.

California officials sued the Trump administration Monday, with the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, arguing that the deployment of troops “trampled” on the state’s sovereignty and pushing for a restraining order. The initial deployment of 300 National Guard troops was expected to quickly expand to the full 4,000 that has been authorized by Trump.

The state’s senior Democratic senator, Alex Padilla, said in an interview that “this is absolutely a crisis of Trump’s own making.”

“There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of National Guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation,” Padilla told The Associated Press. “It’s exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.”

Padilla slammed the deployment as “counterproductive” and said the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department was not advised ahead of the federalization of the National Guard. His office has also pushed the Pentagon for a justification on the deployment, and “as far as we’re told, the Department of Defense isn’t sure what the mission is here,” Padilla added.

Candidate Trump previewed immigration strategy during campaign

Much of this was predictable.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump pledged to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in American history to expel millions of immigrants in the country without legal status. He often praised President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military-style immigration raids, and the candidate and his advisers suggested they would have broad power to deploy troops domestically to enact Trump’s far-reaching immigration and public safety goals.

Trump’s speedy deployment in California of troops against those whom the president has alluded to as “insurrectionists” on social media is a sharp contrast to his decision to issue no order or formal request for National Guard troops during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, despite his repeated and false assertions that he had made such an offer.

Trump is now surrounded by officials who have no interest in constraining his power. In 2020, Trump’s then-Pentagon chief publicly rebuked Trump’s threat to send in troops using the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers the president to use the military within the U.S. and against American citizens.

Current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled support on his personal X account for deploying troops to California, writing, “The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The Defense Department said Monday it is deploying about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to support National Guard troops already on the ground to respond to the protests.

White House responds to an ‘incompetent’ governor

Protesters over the weekend blocked off a major freeway and burned self-driving cars as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in clashes that encompassed several downtown blocks in Los Angeles and led to several dozen arrests. Much of the city saw no violence.

But the protests prompted Trump to issue the directive Saturday mobilizing the California National Guard over Newsom’s objections. The president and his top immigration aides accused the governor of mismanaging the protests, with border czar Tom Homan asserting in a Fox News interview Monday that Newsom stoked anti-ICE sentiments and waited two days to declare unlawful assembly in the city.

Trump told Newsom in a phone call Friday evening to get the situation in Los Angeles under control, a White House official said. It was only when the administration felt Newsom was not restoring order in the city — and after Trump watched the situation escalate for 24 hours and White House officials saw imagery of federal law enforcement officers with lacerations and other injuries — that the president moved to deploy the Guard, according to the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

“He’s an incompetent governor,” Trump said Monday. “Look at the job he’s doing in California. He’s destroying one of our great states.”

Local law enforcement officials said Los Angeles police responded as quickly as they could once the protests erupted, and Newsom repeatedly asserted that state and city authorities had the situation under control.

“Los Angeles is no stranger to demonstrations and protests and rallies and marches,” Padilla said. “Local law enforcement knows how to handle this and has a rapport with the community and community leaders to be able to allow for that.”

The aggressive moves prompted blowback from some of Trump’s erstwhile allies. Ileana Garcia, a Florida state senator who in 2016 founded the group Latinas for Trump and was hired to direct Latino outreach, called the recent escalation “unacceptable and inhumane.”

“I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings — in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims — all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal,” said Garcia, referring to Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and key architect of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The tactics could be just a preview to what more could come from the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. GOP lawmakers are working to pass a massive tax-and-border package that includes billions to hire thousands of new officers for Border Patrol and for ICE. The goal, under the Trump-backed plan, is to remove 1 million immigrants without status annually and house 100,000 people in immigration detention centers.

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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

HARRISBURG, PA –Today, State Senators Jay Costa and Camera Bartolotta reintroduced legislation to prevent Electric Shock Drowning (ESD) in Pennsylvania’s docks and marinas.

ESD has become the catch-all phrase to encompass all in-water shock casualties and fatalities. ESD is usually the result of the passage of a low-level AC current through the body with sufficient force to cause skeletal-muscular paralysis. Such a current can render a swimmer unable to move, swim, or attempt to stay afloat while immersed in fresh water, eventually causing the person to drown.

This legislation will require all boat docks and marina operations comply with the following:

1. Provide appropriate main overcurrent protective devices or ground fault protection
2. Provide an initial electrical inspection and then every five years thereafter.
3. Install permanent safety signage notifying the public of electric shock hazards in water around boats, docks and marinas.

This legislation has been championed by the family and friends of James DeAngelo, a McMurray hockey player who died of electric shock drowning on July 4, 2021, at the age of 23. John Hilzendeger started The James DeAngelo Foundation to promote electric shock drowning awareness and prevention.

“I cannot imagine losing a child to such a terrible travesty as Electric Shock Drowning, and it’s a solemn honor to be doing my part to prevent this from happening to anyone else,” said Senator Costa. “This commonsense legislation will go a long way in ensuring that spending time in Pennsylvania’s beautiful bodies of water does not end in a preventable catastrophe. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and House to address this issue and deliver on safer recreation boating opportunities.”

So far, a bipartisan group of sixteen State Senators have joined as cosponsors to the legislation in addition to Senator Jay Costa and Senator Camera Bartolotta as prime sponsors. Those legislators include Senator Art Haywood, Senator Nick Miller, Senator Judy Schwank, Senator Doug Mastriano, Senator Elder Vogel, Jr., Senator Tina Tartaglione, Senator Carolyn Comitta, Senator Dave Argall, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Wayne Fontana, Senator Tim Kearney, Senator Nick Pisciottano, Senator Nikil Saval, Senator Amanda Cappelletti, Senator Lindsey Williams, and Senator James Malone.

“After the heartbreaking loss of a young boy to drowning in Washington County, I’ve made water safety one of my top priorities,” Senator Bartolotta said. “Pennsylvania’s many lakes, rivers, and streams offer incredible outdoor experiences, but they also demand that we take responsible steps to protect lives. This bill will empower people with the knowledge they need to make safe, informed choices while enjoying the outdoors.”