In this image taken from body camera video released by Illinois State Police on Monday, July 22, 2024, former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, left, points his gun at Sonya Massey, who called 911 for help, before shooting and killing her inside her home in Springfield, Ill., July 6, 2024. (Illinois State Police via AP)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Sonya Massey ducked and apologized to an Illinois sheriff’s deputy seconds before he shot the Black woman three times in her home, with one fatal blow to the head, as seen in body camera video released Monday.

An Illinois grand jury indicted former Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson, 30, who is white, last week. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct.

The video confirmed prosecutors’ earlier account of the tense moment when Grayson yelled from across a counter at Massey to set down a pot of hot water. He then threatened to shoot her, Massey ducked, briefly rose, and Grayson fired his pistol at her.

Authorities said Massey, 36, had called 911 earlier to report a suspected prowler. The video shows the two deputies responded just before 1 a.m. on July 6 at her home in Springfield, 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. They first walked around the house and found a black SUV with broken windows in the driveway.

It took Massey three minutes to open the door after the deputies knocked, and she immediately said, “Don’t hurt me.”

She seemed confused as they spoke at the door, and she repeated that she needed help, referenced God and told them she didn’t know who owned the car.

Inside the house, deputies seemed exasperated as she sat on her couch and went through her purse as they asked for identification to complete a report before leaving. Then Grayson pointed out a pot sitting on a flame on the stove.

“We don’t need a fire while we’re here,” he said.

Massey immediately got up and went to the stove, moving the pot near a sink. She and Grayson seemed to share a laugh over her pan of “steaming hot water” before she unexpectedly said, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

“You better (expletive) not or I swear to God I’ll (expletive) shoot you in your (expletive) face.” He then pulled his 9mm pistol and demanded she drop the pot.

Massey said, “OK, I’m sorry.” In Grayson’s body camera footage, he pointed his weapon at her. She ducked and raised her hands.

Grayson was still in the living room, facing Massey and separated by a counter dividing the living room and kitchen. Prosecutors have said the separation allowed Grayson both “distance and relative cover” from Massey and the pot of hot water.

After Grayson shot her, Grayson discouraged his partner from grabbing a medical kit to save her.

“You can go get it, but that’s a headshot,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do, man.”

He added: “What else do we do? I’m not taking hot (expletive) boiling water to the (expletive) face”

Noting that Massey was still breathing, he relented and said he would get his kit, too. The other deputy said, “We can at least try to stop the bleeding.”

Grayson told responding police, “She had boiling water and came at me, with boiling water. She said she was going to rebuke me in the name of Jesus and came at me with boiling water.”

During a Monday afternoon news conference, the family’s lawyer, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, called Grayson’s “revisionist” justification “disingenuous.”

“She needed a helping hand. She did not need a bullet to her face,” Crump said of Massey.

Asked why Massey told Grayson, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” Crump said she had undergone treatment for mental health issues. He noted that she invoked God’s name from the beginning of the encounter and asked for her Bible after the deputies stepped inside.

During Massey’s funeral on Friday, Crump said the video, which he and the family had already viewed, would “shock the conscience of America.”

Massey’s father, James Wilburn, demanded the county court system be completely open with its investigation and prosecution and transparent with the public.

“The only time I will see my baby again is when I leave this world,” Wilburn said. “And I don’t ever want anybody else in the United States to join this league.”

Grayson, who was fired last week, is being held in the Sangamon County Jail without bond. If convicted, he faces prison sentences of 45 years to life for murder, 6 to 30 years for battery and 2 to 5 years for misconduct.

His lawyer, Daniel Fultz, declined to comment Monday.

In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for Massey’s family “as they face this unthinkable and senseless loss.”

“When we call for help, all of us as Americans – regardless of who we are or where we live – should be able to do so without fearing for our lives,” Biden said. “Sonya’s death at the hands of a responding officer reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not.”

Massey’s death is the latest example of Black people killed in recent years by police in their homes.

In May, a Hispanic Florida sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Roger Fortson, when the Air Force senior airman opened the door of his home in Fort Walton Beach armed with a handgun pointed down. The deputy, Eddie Duran, was fired.

In 2019, a white Fort Worth, Texas, officer fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home after responding to a nonemergency call reporting that Jefferson’s front door was open. Aaron Dean, the former officer, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.

In 2018, a white Dallas police officer fatally shot Botham Jean, who was unarmed, after mistaking his apartment for her own. Amber Guyger, the former officer, was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Crump has represented families in each case as part of his effort to force accountability for the killings of Black people at the hands of police. Crump also has represented relatives of Earl Moore, a Springfield man who died after he was strapped face down on a stretcher in December 2022. Two emergency medical professionals face murder charges in that case.

___

AP writer Sophia Tareen contributed from Chicago.

A Delta Air Lines jet leaves the gate, Friday, July 19, 2024, at Logan International Airport in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Delta Air Lines struggled for a fourth straight day to recover from a worldwide technology outage caused by a faulty software update, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and drawing unwanted attention from the federal government.

The airline’s chief executive said it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” Delta’s chief information officer said Monday that the airline was still trying to fix a vital crew-scheduling program.

Other carriers were returning to nearly normal levels of service disruptions, intensifying the glare on Delta’s relatively weaker response to the outage that hit airlines, hospitals and businesses around the world.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke to Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday about the airline’s high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg said his agency had received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta, and he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight.

“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said. He vowed to help Delta passengers by enforcing air-travel consumer-protection rules.

Bastian said in a video for employees that he told Buttigieg, “You do not need to remind me. I know, because we do our very best, particularly in tough times, taking care of our customers.”

Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since the outage started early Friday morning, including at least 700 flights canceled on Monday, according to aviation-data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancellations worldwide Monday, including nearly all the ones in the United States.

United Airlines was the next-worst performer since the onset of the outage, canceling nearly 1,500 flights. United canceled only 17 Monday flights by late morning, however.

Other airlines that were caught up in the first round of groundings also returned mostly to normal operations by Monday. That included American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air.

Bastian, the Delta CEO, said in a message to customers Sunday that the airline was continuing to restore operations that were disrupted. One of the tools Delta uses to track crews was affected and could not process the high number of changes triggered by the outage.

“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. Loads are the percentage of sold seats on each flight.

Airlines have large, layered technology systems, and crew-tracking programs are often among the oldest systems. When the outage began Friday, it also affected systems used to check in passengers and make pre-flight calculations about aircraft weight and balance, airlines reported. United and American reported intermittent problems communicating with crews in the air, contributing to their decisions to briefly ground all flights.

Some airlines, including Southwest and Alaska, do not use CrowdStrike, the provider of cybersecurity software whose faulty upgrade to Microsoft Windows triggered the outages. Those carriers saw relatively few cancellations.

Delta, however, said that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based. The airline said the outage forced IT employees to manually repair and reboot each affected system and synchronize applications so they start working together.

“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that … the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”

On the same video, Delta Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant said two applications were particularly difficult to restart on Friday: One that manages traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s biggest hub, and another that assigns pilots and flight attendants to flights.

Technicians had gotten the crew-scheduling program running, “but we have a catch-up to do,” and new issues keep arising, Samant said.

Atlanta-based Delta said it is offering waivers to make it easier for customers to reschedule trips.

That was of little help to Jason Helmes, a fitness coach who was trying to get home to Detroit from Denver. His flight on Sunday was delayed three times before it was canceled; by the time the plane finally pushed back from the gate, the pilots were at the end of their legally allowed shift.

“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes said. “They said, ‘Go down to the luggage carousel, your luggage should be there.’ There were thousands of bags down there. I found my luggage — I got lucky.”

Helmes said Delta offered to rebook him on Wednesday, but he worried that flight would also be canceled. He booked a Tuesday flight home on Frontier Airlines — one of the carriers that has largely recovered. He is saving his receipts, including a hotel room, in hopes that Delta will reimburse him.

“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” he said. “This has me double-thinking about that.”

Delta’s meltdown is reminiscent of the December 2022 debacle that caused Southwest Airlines to cancel nearly 17,000 flights over a 15-day stretch. After a federal investigation of Southwest’s compliance with consumer-protection rules, the airline agreed to pay a $35 million fine as part of a $140 million settlement with the Transportation Department.

Southwest’s breakdown started during a winter storm, but the airline’s recovery took unusually long because of problems with a crew-scheduling system — a striking similarity to Delta’s current mess.

The airline industry might be the most visible victim of the worldwide tech problems caused by the faulty software update from Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Microsoft said the glitch affected 8.5 million machines. CrowdStrike says it has deployed a fix, but experts say it could take days or even weeks to repair every affected computer.

[July 22, 2024] — The American Red Cross urges donors to give blood or platelets now to reinforce the blood supply as much as possible before the summer winds down. Type O blood donors and those giving platelets are especially needed to help keep hospital shelves stocked through August. 

 

Donors remain critically needed to support the Red Cross delivery of vital blood products, which are in demand around-the-clock as hospitals work to save lives this summer. When fewer people answer the call to donate, the blood supply can quickly shrink. Help safeguard necessary care for patients − book a time to give blood or platelets by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or by using the Red Cross Blood Donor App.  

 

In thanks, those who come to give Aug. 1-31, 2024, will get a $20 Amazon.com Gift Card by email. See RedCrossBlood.org/Help for details. 

 

How to donate blood

Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enable the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

 

Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass® to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.

 

Amplify your impact − volunteer!  

Another way to support the lifesaving mission of the Red Cross is to become a volunteer blood donor ambassador at Red Cross blood drives. Blood donor ambassadors help greet, check in and thank blood donors to ensure they have a positive donation experience.  

FILE – Emissions rise from the smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant as the suns sets, near Emmett, Kan., Sept. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Cleveland-Cliffs announced Monday it will produce electrical transformers in a $150 million investment at a West Virginia facility that closed earlier this year.

The company hopes to reopen the Weirton facility in early 2026 and “address the critical shortage of distribution transformers that is stifling economic growth across the United States,” it said in a statement.

As many as 600 union workers who were laid off from the Weirton tin production plant will have the chance to work at the new facility. The tin plant shut down in February and 900 workers were idled after the International Trade Commission voted against imposing tariffs on tin imports.

The state of West Virginia is providing a $50 million forgivable loan as part of the company’s investment.

“We were never going to sit on the sidelines and watch these jobs disappear,” West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said in a statement.

The Cleveland-based company, which employs 28,000 workers in the United States and Canada, expects the facility will generate additional demand for specialty steel made at its mill in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In a statement, Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ president, chairman and CEO, said distribution transformers, currently in short supply, “are critical to the maintenance, expansion, and decarbonization of America’s electric grid.”

The tin facility was once a nearly 800-acre property operated by Weirton Steel, which employed 6,100 workers in 1994 and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003. International Steel Group bought Weirton Steel in federal bankruptcy court in 2003. The property changed hands again a few years later, ultimately ending up a part of Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, which sold its U.S. holdings to Cleveland-Cliffs in 2020.

Weirton is a city of 19,000 residents along the Ohio River about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Pittsburgh.

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) announced $396 million in new competitive grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help Pennsylvania manufacturers lead the way in clean manufacturing. The program will create good jobs, benefit historically disadvantaged communities, and ensure that Pennsylvania manufacturing continues to create in-demand goods for the American and global markets. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funding comes from the IRA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program, which supports industrial decarbonization projects.

“Nobody is more equipped to lead the next generation of industry and manufacturing than Pennsylvanians. This grant is a game-changing investment that will support greenhouse gas-reducing projects, create good jobs, and bolster economies across the Commonwealth,” said Senator Casey. “I will keep fighting for investments that secure the Commonwealth as our Nation’s industrial backbone.”

The CPRG grant funding will go towards the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA) initiative. RISE PA supports industrial and manufacturing projects that reduce carbon emissions and benefit the health, safety, and economies of surrounding communities.

Senator Casey has long fought to ensure that the Commonwealth remains an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse. After learning that RISE PA could reduce 9,176,810 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050 and infuse tens of billions of dollars into Pennsylvania economies, Senator Casey urged EPA Administrator Michael Regan to fund the initiative. RISE PA will support industrial decarbonization projects on a tiered basis, allowing for a diverse array of projects to be eligible for funding. These projects, including low-emission steel production, will not only bolster Pennsylvania’s historically robust industrial economy, but will cement the Commonwealth’s role as a clean industrial manufacturing leader worldwide.

Senator Casey has fought relentlessly to ensure that Pennsylvania can benefit from investments in American industrial and manufacturing initiatives. Casey fought to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which included tax credits for individuals and companies manufacturing or deploying clean energy technologies to help lower costs and secure our energy independence. The landmark legislation created clean industrial jobs, apprenticeships, and opportunities for economies across the Nation to benefit from clean industrial and manufacturing initiatives.

Gas prices are two cents lower in Western Pennsylvania this week at $3.758 per gallon, according to AAA East Central’s Gas Price Report.

This week’s average prices: Western Pennsylvania Average                         $3.758
Average price during the week of July 15, 2024                                               $3.773
Average price during the week of July 24, 2023                                               $3.734

The average price of unleaded self-serve gasoline in various areas:      

$3.651      Altoona
$3.840      Beaver
$3.899      Bradford
$3.574      Brookville
$3.665      Butler
$3.685      Clarion
$3.702      DuBois
$3.693      Erie
$3.762      Greensburg
$3.790      Indiana
$3.771      Jeannette
$3.852      Kittanning
$3.825      Latrobe
$3.748      Meadville
$3.924      Mercer
$3.711      New Castle
$3.606      New Kensington
$3.838      Oil City
$3.755      Pittsburgh
$3.698      Sharon
$3.807      Uniontown
$3.896      Warren
$3.736      Washington

Trend Analysis:
The national average for a gallon of gas fell two cents to $3.50 since last week. Lower oil costs and lower demand are helping to decrease gas prices. Today’s national average is still five cents more than a month ago but nine cents lower than a year ago.

According to new data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), gas demand plummeted from 9.39 million barrels per day to 8.78 last week. Meanwhile, total domestic gasoline stocks fell from 231.7 to 229.7 million barrels.  Gasoline production took a slight hit, likely from Hurricane Beryl, dropping from an average of 10.3 million barrels daily to 9.5.

At the close of Wednesday’s formal trading session, West Texas Intermediate rose $2.09 to settle at $82.85 a barrel. The EIA reports that crude oil inventories decreased by 4.9 million barrels from the previous week. At 440.2 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 5% below the five-year average for this time of year.

In the Keystone State, Oct. 21 is the last day to register to vote before the Nov. 5 election. (vesperstock/Adobe Stock)
Danielle Smith – Keystone State News Service

In a weekend turn of events that some saw as shocking, President Joe Biden told the nation he’s dropping out of the presidential race rather than seeking re-election.

Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Civil rights activist Alveda King, Ph.D. – who chairs the America First Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization – said it’s time for Americans to unite and pray for all candidates running for office.

And she said she thinks Biden made the right call.

“I pray for every person of authority who’s running for Congress, who’s running for president, the state,” said King. “We pray for those who are in authority. He’s under a lot of pressure, I understand that. I don’t feel as though he is able to run the nation.”

President Biden said in a letter posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

King said she has been a civil rights organizer since the 1970s.

She added that her uncle – the late Martin Luther King Jr. – and other family members fought for civil and voting rights.

She added the main reason she votes is because people have died for her right to cast a ballot.

“We should never apply our interests towards the personality of a candidate – whether we like them or don’t like them, or things like that,” said King. “We should examine the platform, and to vote for any platform that is as close to what we happen to believe. For me, that’s human dignity.”

Reacting to the news on Sunday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called President Biden “a patriot, and one of the most impactful leaders in recent American history.”

Shapiro highlighted Biden’s accomplishments, noting his “substantial contributions to national progress and his efforts to uphold democratic principles.”

FILE – San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris poses for a portrait in San Francisco, June 18, 2004. She’s already broken barriers, and now Vice President Harris could soon become the first Black woman to head a major party’s presidential ticket after President Joe Biden’s ended his reelection bid. The 59-year-old Harris was endorsed by Biden on Sunday, July 21, after he stepped aside amid widespread concerns about the viability of his candidacy. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president opens the door for other contenders to become the Democratic nominee in November. The president has thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, and other prominent Democrats moved quickly to rally around her candidacy, but it’s unclear just how smooth her path to the party’s nomination is. Here are some of the leading contenders for a spot on the Democratic ticket:

Kamala Harris

Born in Oakland, California, Vice President Kamala Harris calls Thurgood Marshall an inspiration and talks often about growing up with parents deeply involved in the civil rights movement.

Her economist father and cancer specialist mother met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, where Harris recalled they spent ample time “marching and shouting about this thing called justice.”

In choosing Harris as his running mate in 2020, Biden called her a “fearless fighter for the little guy.” She has not wavered as his vice-presidential nominee and has become more visible campaigning for the Biden-Harris ticket in recent weeks.

Harris, who is Black and also of South Asian descent, is the nation’s first female vice president and the first person of color to hold that office. A graduate of Howard University, she also is the first person from a historically Black college or university to hold the office of either president or vice president.

Harris won her seat in the U.S. Senate in 2016 after twice being elected California attorney general. As a Senate candidate, she stressed her fights with big banks during the mortgage crisis, for-profit colleges that were financially exploiting students and environmental wrongdoers.

She’s talked for years about recidivism and criminal justice reform, and pushed for a different approach to non-violent crimes that emphasizes rehabilitation instead of severe, one-size-fits-all punishment. She calls it smart on crime.

As vice president, Harris has been asked by Biden to take on some of the most challenging tasks his administration has faced, including securing the nation’s borders. As the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, she has cast a record number of tie-breaking votes on legislation promoted by Democrats, who are defending a razor-thin majority in both houses of Congress in this year’s elections.

Harris, 59, is married to Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff.

— By Christopher Weber

J.B. Pritzker

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the richest politician holding office in the U.S., is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, a former private equity investor and philanthropist. His net worth of $3.4 billion puts him at No. 250 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.

The 59-year-old Pritzker won the nomination for governor in 2018, besting a crowded Democratic field. He beat one-term incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and inherited mountains of state debt, unpaid bills and ratings by Wall Street credit houses just above junk status because of Rauner’s two-year feud with legislative Democrats that resulted in the state going without a budget plan.

Working with Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, Pritzker has boasted balanced budgets and paid down billions of dollars in debt, prompting multiple credit upgrades. He also has overseen increased education funding, the centralization of early childhood services, and new laws to make health insurance more comprehensive, accessible and affordable.

After receiving generally high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he defeated a Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican with 55% of the vote, becoming the first Illinois governor to be elected to a second term in 16 years. He then promptly delivered a victory speech that sounded like it came from a national candidate, denouncing Trump and asking, “Are you ready to fight?”

Even before his reelection, when there was speculation Biden might not seek a second term, Pritzker was criticized for saying he was happy being governor while traveling to the early primary state of New Hampshire and campaigning for or funding Democratic candidates nationally. And he’s continued to boost his coast-to-coast profile by bankrolling a political organization called “Think Big America” that aims to protect abortion rights and has supported state constitutional amendments to strengthen those protections in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada.

— By John O’Connor

Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has rapidly risen in prominence within the Democratic Party since first winning the 2018 gubernatorial election after serving for a decade and a half in the state Legislature.

Her national profile grew significantly during the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency when she emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most effective voices opposing the then-president. She delivered the Democratic response to Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address and frequently clashed with him over how the federal government handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Near the end of 2020, the FBI uncovered a plot to kidnap Whitmer, which led to nine men either being convicted by jury or pleading guilty.

In her 2022 reelection campaign, Whitmer focused on reproductive rights, resulting in a double-digit victory and passage of a voter-approved measure codifying abortion rights in the state. Her party also flipped both chambers of the state Legislature, securing a Democratic trifecta for the first time in nearly four decades.

The massive Democratic victories in a swing state that Trump won in the 2016 presidential election positioned Whitmer as a leading advocate for reproductive freedom and a strong contender for a future presidential nomination.

Whitmer — who was one of the top surrogates for Biden’s reelection campaign — has long deflected questions about whether she has interest in higher office, telling The Associated Press earlier this month that she would not step in as a candidate this year if Biden were to step aside.

But the 52-year-old Democrat has been working to boost her national profile. She met with Biden in 2020 as he considered who to select as a running mate and she is currently on a national press tour for her new memoir. Whitmer has also set up a national political action committee that has raised millions this election cycle.

— By Joey Cappelletti

Gavin Newsom

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a native of San Francisco who got involved in politics by volunteering for Willie Brown’s 1995 campaign for mayor. Two years later, Mayor Brown appointed Newsom to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he was later elected and reelected.

Newsom then became mayor himself and received national attention in 2004 when he directed the San Francisco clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

He was elected lieutenant governor in 2010 and unapologetically pushed a progressive agenda when he successfully ran for governor eight years later. Now in his second term, he says he is “standing up for California values — from civil rights, to immigration, environmental protection, access to quality schools at all levels, and justice,” according to his official bio.

Newsom, 56, has maintained a high national profile this year, challenging Republican presidential candidates in public appearances despite not being a candidate himself. He has been one of Biden’s staunchest defenders even as criticism mounted following the president’s faltering debate performance. During an early July stop in New Hampshire on behalf of the president, Newsom said of Biden: “He’s going to be our nominee.”

The governor was a baseball star at Santa Clara University. After graduating, he worked briefly in sales before starting a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, which includes restaurants, resorts and vineyards throughout California.

He is married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. They have four children.

— By Christopher Weber

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, long seen as a rising political star in Pennsylvania, is halfway through his second year as governor after easily winning his last election by trouncing a far-right, Donald Trump-endorsed candidate in the premier presidential battleground.

Shapiro, 51, has been a surrogate for Biden, backing the president in appearances on cable networks, and has years of experience making former President Trump the focus of his attacks, first as state attorney general and now as governor.

If he joins a Democratic ticket, Shapiro would become the first presidential nominee of Jewish heritage or the second vice presidential nominee of that background, after former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2000.

Shapiro has won three statewide races — two as attorney general, one as governor — with a tightly scripted, disciplined campaign style, offering voters something of a lower-key alternative to the state’s brash political star, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.

As governor, Shapiro has begun to shed a buttoned-down public demeanor and become more confident and plain-spoken. In one recent MSNBC appearance, he said Trump should “quit whining” and stop “sh— talking America.”

Shapiro has aggressively confronted what he viewed as antisemitism cropping up from pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and has professed solidarity with Israel in its drive to eliminate Hamas.

He is a staunch proponent of abortion rights in Pennsylvania and routinely touts his victories in court against Trump, including beating back challenges to the 2020 election results.

He also has positioned himself as a moderate on energy issues in the nation’s No. 2 natural gas state and plays up the need for bipartisanship in the politically divided state government.

— By Marc Levy

Roy Cooper

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has won six statewide general elections over two decades in a state where Republicans routinely prevail in similar federal races and also control the legislature.

Cooper, 67, has received strong job-approval ratings as governor, benefitting from a booming state economy, for which his administration and lawmakers takes credit. He also portrays himself as a fighter for public education and abortion rights. While Cooper finally persuaded GOP legislators last year to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, other efforts have been thwarted by a General Assembly with veto-proof majorities that has eroded his formal powers.

A native of small-town Nash County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Raleigh, Cooper was his high school quarterback and head of the Young Democrats at the University of North Carolina, where he obtained both his undergraduate and law degrees. “Coop,” as he was known to friends, came home and worked at his father’s law firm.

Cooper upset the Democratic incumbent in a 1986 state House primary race and was elected to the General Assembly. He served 14 years there and later became the Senate majority leader.

Cooper was elected attorney general in 2000, a position he held for 16 years. In that post, he’s likely best known nationally for declaring three former Duke University lacrosse players innocent after they were wrongly accused of sexual assault by an escort service dancer.

Cooper unseated another incumbent in 2016, this time Republican Gov. Pat McCrory by roughly 10,000 votes. A top campaign issue was the “bathroom bill” that McCrory signed requiring transgender people to use public restrooms that corresponded with the sex on their birth certificates. As governor, Cooper quickly reached an agreement with legislators to partially repeal the law.

His time as governor also was marked by restricting business and school activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. He won reelection in 2020 by 4.5 percentage points, even as Donald Trump won the state’s electoral votes.

Cooper and his wife, Kristin, have three grown daughters.

— By Gary Robertson

Andy Beshear

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear secured his reputation as a rising Democratic star by beating Trump-endorsed Republicans in his bright red state.

He displayed a disciplined, tenacious style in winning reelection last year, defeating then-Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The governor has urged Democrats to follow his winning formula by focusing on the everyday concerns of Americans, from good-paying jobs to quality education and health care.

Beshear supports abortion rights, but in Kentucky has tailored his message to push back against what he calls an extreme ban that lacks exceptions for rape and incest victims.

The governor won widespread praise for his empathy and attention to detail in guiding the Bluegrass State through the COVID-19 pandemic and leading the response to tornadoes and flooding that caused massive damage. He honed his speaking skills by holding regular news conferences that often last an hour or so.

Beshear has presided over record-setting economic growth in Kentucky, and he typically begins his briefings by touting the state’s latest economic wins. He frequently mentions his Christian faith and how it guides his policymaking.

An attorney by trade, Beshear won election as state attorney general in 2015. He then unseated Trump-backed Republican incumbent Matt Bevin to first win the governorship in 2019.

Beshear entered politics with a strong pedigree as the son of former two-term Gov. Steve Beshear, but the son has faced tougher political obstacles. Andy Beshear, unlike his dad, has dealt with an entirely GOP-controlled Legislature and Republican lawmakers have stymied some of his priorities. One of them is state-funded preschool for every Kentucky 4-year-old.

— By Bruce Schreiner

Mark Kelly

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona leveraged his career as an astronaut to build a brand as a moderate in a state that long supported Republicans.

In his two campaigns — the first in 2020 to finish the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s last term, and the second two years later for a full term — Kelly has earned more votes than any other Democrat on the ballot. He outpolled Biden, who narrowly won Arizona, by 2 percentage points in 2020.

Kelly’s first turn in the national political spotlight came through tragedy. His wife, then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head while meeting with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, a shooting that left six people dead and spawned an early reckoning with political violence and partisan rancor.

Giffords’ improbable survival made her a national inspiration but snuffed out a promising political career of her own. She and Kelly went on to found a gun-control advocacy group, and Giffords has been a powerful surrogate as Kelly has taken her place in politics.

In the Senate, Kelly has focused on national security and the military as well as the drought plaguing the U.S. West. He was instrumental in crafting the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill signed by Biden to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing.

Kelly was a Navy test pilot and flew 39 combat missions during the Gulf War before joining NASA, where he flew three missions on the space shuttle.

Originally from New Jersey, he settled with Giffords in Tucson after retiring from NASA and the Navy.

Unlike Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was elected as a Democrat two years before Kelly but later left the party to become an independent, Kelly has managed to retain the support of the party’s grassroots base without alienating independent voters. —By Jonathan J. Cooper

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Weber reported from Los Angeles, California; O’Connor from Springfield, Illinois; Cappelletti from Lansing, Michigan; Levy from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Schreiner from Frankfort, Kentucky; Robertson from Raleigh, North Carolina; and Cooper from Phoenix.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt on him at a recent rally.

In the immediate aftermath of the July 13 attack, the law enforcement agency had denied rejecting such requests. But the Secret Service acknowledged late Saturday, a week after the attempt on Trump’s life, that it had turned back some requests to increase security around the former president.

The reversal is likely to be a key focus of a congressional hearing Monday where Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to appear before lawmakers who have been expressing anger over security lapses that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to climb atop the roof of a nearby building at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire his weapon.

Trump was wounded in the right ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured. Secret Service gunmen killed the shooter.

The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.

“The Secret Service has a vast, dynamic, and intricate mission. Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other challenging environments,” the agency’s chief spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a statement released late Saturday to The Washington Post. The newspaper was first to report on the agency’s reversal, which it said was based on detailed questions submitted to the agency.

“We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs,” Guglielmi said.

He said the agency will rely on state and local law enforcement departments in some cases where specialized Secret Service units are unavailable.

“In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee,” Gugliemi said. “This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee.”

After the assassination attempt, as reports began to circulate that the agency had denied the Trump campaign’s requests, Guglielmi issued a denial.

There is “an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed,” Gugliemi said in a social media post. “This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.

But the agency’s acknowledgement that it had denied some of the campaign’s requests sparked fresh condemnation on Sunday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on CNN’s “State of the Union, that the reversal “is just beyond the pale” and that Cheatle’s “got a lot to answer for.”

Johnson said lawmakers on Monday would release details about a bipartisan congressional task force that will investigate the Secret Service.

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which has subpoenaed Cheatle to appear at a hearing on Monday, said the Secret Service has a more than $3 billion annual budget that “is more than enough” to provide adequate protection.

“We want to know who’s at fault for what happened,” the Kentucky Republican said.

Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said Cheatle should resign in “absolute disgrace.”

“The fact that she is still in her job is beyond,” he said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,”

Biden has ordered an independent investigation. The Homeland Security Department and congressional committee are also investigating.

Trump says he was given no indication that law enforcement had identified a suspicious person when the former president took the stage in Pennsylvania. Some rallygoers said in interviews after the attempted assassination that they saw the gunman on the roof before Trump walked out onto the stage and had alerted law enforcement authorities on site.

In an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters set to air Monday, Trump said, “No, nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem” before he took the stage and a gunman opened fire. “They could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something.’ Nobody said. I think that was a mistake.”

Trump also questioned the security lapses and how the gunman was able to access the roof of the building.

“How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn’t he reported? Because people saw that he was on the roof,” Trump said. “So you would’ve thought someone would’ve done something about it.”

Local law enforcement officers had seen the man and deemed him suspicious enough to circulate his photo and witnesses reported seeing him scaling the building.

Trump’s campaign and the White House did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Jesse Watters last name is Watters, not Waters

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan speaks to employees in Washington, Thursday, June 27, 2024. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $4.3 billion in grants to fund projects in 30 states to reduce climate pollution. The money will go to 25 projects targeting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electric power, commercial and residential buildings, industry, agriculture and waste and materials management.

The grants are paid for by the 2022 climate law approved by congressional Democrats. The law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, includes nearly $400 billion in spending and tax credits to accelerate the expansion of clean energy such as wind and solar power, speeding the nation’s transition away from the oil, coal and natural gas that largely cause climate change.

The latest round of grants includes $396 million to Pennsylvania to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions from cement, asphalt and other material. EPA Administrator Michael Regan will join Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pittsburgh on Monday to announce grant recipients in his state, a political battleground in the 2024 election, and across the nation.

Senior EPA leaders also will join Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California on Monday to announce nearly $500 million for transportation and freight decarbonization at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The grants will provide incentives for electric charging equipment, zero-emission freight vehicles and conversion of cargo handling equipment to lower emissions.

“President Biden understands that America needs a strong EPA,” Regan told reporters Friday, noting the Democratic administration “has made the largest climate investment in history, providing billions of dollars to state, local and tribal governments to tackle climate change with the urgency it demands.”

The funds, to be delivered this fall, “will help implement community-driven solutions that reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice and help accelerate America’s clean energy transition,” Regan said.

Shapiro, a Democrat who has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick now that Biden has stepped down from the presidential race, said his administration has taken action to address climate change while continuing to create energy jobs and expand the economy.

The grant being announced Monday “is one of the largest federal grants Pennsylvania has ever received,” Shapiro said in a statement ahead of Monday’s announcement. The state will work with RISE PA, a new initiative aimed at reducing industrial sector emissions in Pennsylvania.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy will receive $307 million to boost “climate-smart” agriculture and reduce agricultural waste from livestock, officials said. The grant also will fund projects to improve energy efficiency in commercial and industrial facilities and low-income households, as well as deploy solar panels and electrify irrigation wells.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird of Lincoln, Nebraska, said the grant will enhance energy efficiency of homes and commercial buildings in her city. A city analysis indicates that investing in energy efficiency and electrification could reduce Lincoln’s emissions by 77% by 2050, Baird said on a White House call Friday.

The grant also will ensure Lincoln residents have “equitable access to the clean energy transition” by providing assistance to low-income residents, she said.

Other grants include nearly $250 million to boost electric vehicle infrastructure along Interstate 95 from Maryland to Connecticut. The project will provide charging infrastructure for commercial zero-emission vehicles and provide technical assistance for workforce development along the I-95 corridor, one of the most heavily traveled in the nation.

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine will get a total of $450 million to accelerate adoption of cold-climate heat pumps and water heaters.

Michigan will get $129 million to accelerate the siting, zoning and permitting of renewable energy. The grants will help Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another potential vice presidential choice, achieve a goal of 60% renewable energy by 2035.