SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Fans of the Grateful Dead are pouring into San Francisco for three days of concerts and festivities marking the 60th anniversary of the scruffy jam band that came to embody a city where people wore flowers in their hair and made love, not war.

Dead & Company, featuring original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, will play Golden Gate Park’s Polo Field starting Friday with an estimated 60,000 attendees each day. The last time the band played that part of the park was in 1991 — a free show following the death of concert promoter and longtime Deadhead Bill Graham.

Certainly, times have changed.

A general admissions ticket for all three days is $635 — a shock for many longtime fans who remember when a joint cost more than a Dead concert ticket.

But Deadhead David Aberdeen is thrilled anyway.

“This is the spiritual home of the Grateful Dead,” said Aberdeen, who works at Amoeba Music in the bohemian, flower-powered Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. “It seems very right to me that they celebrate it in this way.”

Formed in 1965, the Grateful Dead is synonymous with San Francisco and its counterculture. Members lived in a dirt-cheap Victorian in the Haight and later became a significant part of 1967’s Summer of Love.

That summer eventually soured into bad acid trips and police raids, and prompted the band’s move to Marin County on the other end of the Golden Gate Bridge. But new Deadheads kept cropping up — even after iconic guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia ’s 1995 death — aided by cover bands and offshoots like Dead & Company.

“There are 18-year-olds who were obviously not even a twinkle in somebody’s eyes when Jerry died, and these 18-year-olds get the values of Deadheads,” said former Grateful Dead publicist and author Dennis McNally.

Fitting in, feeling at home

Deadheads can reel off why and how, and the moment they fell in love with the music. Fans love that no two shows are the same; the band plays different songs each time. They also embrace the community that comes with a Dead show.

Sunshine Powers didn’t have friends until age 13, when she stepped off a city bus and into the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.

“I, all of a sudden, felt like I fit in. Or like I didn’t have to fit in,” says Powers, now 45 and the owner of tie-dye emporium Love on Haight. “I don’t know which one it was, but I know it was like, OK.”

Similarly, her friend Taylor Swope, 47, survived a tough freshman year at a new school with the help of a Grateful Dead mixtape. The owner of the Little Hippie gift shop is driving from Brooklyn, New York, to sell merchandise, reconnect with friends and see the shows.

“The sense of, ‘I found my people, I didn’t fit in anywhere else and then I found this, and I felt at home.’ So that’s a big part of it,” she said of the allure.

Magical live shows

Sometimes, becoming a Deadhead is a process.

Thor Cromer, 60, had attended several Dead shows, but was ambivalent about the hippies. That changed on March 15, 1990, in Landover, Maryland.

“That show, whatever it was, whatever magic hit,” he said, “it was injected right into my brain.”

Cromer, who worked for the U.S. Senate then, eventually took time off to follow the band on tour and saw an estimated 400 shows from spring 1990 until Garcia’s death.

Cromer now works in technology and is flying in from Boston to join scores of fellow “rail riders” who dance in the rows closest to the stage.

Aberdeen, 62, saw his first Dead show in 1984. As the only person in his college group with a driver’s license, he was tapped to drive a crowded VW Bug from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to Syracuse, New York.

“I thought it was pretty weird,” he said. “But I liked it.”

He fell in love the following summer, when the Dead played a venue near his college.

Aberdeen remembers rain pouring down in the middle of the show and a giant rainbow appearing over the band when they returned for their second act. They played “Comes a Time,” a rarely played Garcia ballad.

“There is a lot of excitement, and there will be a lot of people here,” Aberdeen said. “Who knows when we’ll have an opportunity to get together like this again?”

Fans were able to see Dead & Company in Las Vegas earlier this year, but no new dates have been announced. Guitarist Bob Weir is 77, and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann are 81 and 79, respectively. Besides Garcia, founding members Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on keyboards died in 1973 and bassist Phil Lesh died last year at age 84.

Multiple events planned for Dead’s 60th

Mayor Daniel Lurie, who is not a Deadhead but counts “Sugar Magnolia” as his favorite Dead song, is overjoyed at the economic boost as San Francisco recovers from pandemic-related hits to its tech and tourism sectors.

“They are the reason why so many people know and love San Francisco,” he said.

The weekend features parties, shows and celebrations throughout the city. Grahame Lesh & Friends will perform three nights starting Thursday. Lesh is the son of Phil Lesh.

On Friday, which would have been Garcia’s 83rd birthday, officials will rename a street after the San Francisco native. On Saturday, visitors can celebrate the city’s annual Jerry Day at the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater located in a park near Garcia’s childhood home.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to headline the latest iteration of an event previously billed as the largest annual gathering of Republicans in South Carolina, a state traditionally key to picking the GOP’s presidential nominees, and one in which she already has deep relationships.

Rep. Sheri Biggs of South Carolina’s 3rd District told The Associated Press that Sanders would be the featured speaker at her Salute to Liberty, slated to take place Aug. 18 in Anderson. In an interview last week, Biggs said she felt the governor “represents what the people in the 3rd District believe in, our morals, just down-to-earth hardworking people that love the Lord and want to live in peace with their families and uphold our conservative values.”

Historically a catalyst for Republican White House hopefuls, the South Carolina venue provides Sanders a chance to introduce herself to a large number — typically around 2,000 — of party activists. It’s also a crowd with which President Donald Trump — whom she served as press secretary during his first administration — remains popular.

Sanders, whose name comes up among potential 2028 presidential contenders, has been making trips to South Carolina since her father, former Arkansas governor and current U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, sought the 2008 GOP nomination. She’s recently been in other early-voting states herself, including a speech earlier this month at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, an annual event held by a conservative Christian group.

For years, the South Carolina occasion was billed as Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Faith & Freedom BBQ, a fundraiser benefiting his reelection campaign. In a conservative-rich area, it became a showcase for future White House contenders, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, Sens. Ted Cruz, Tim Scott and Marco Rubio, and former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The barbecue was upended just weeks after the 2023 event, when Duncan’s wife filed for divorce, saying the congressman left her, was having a sexual relationship with a lobbyist and had been unfaithful before during their 35-year marriage. Last year, Duncan opted not to seek reelection to an eighth term, following the 2023 diminishment of his reputation for conservative family values.

In her first political run, Biggs — a nurse practitioner and Air National Guard officer — defeated a Trump-backed primary opponent last year. Mark Burns, a Black pastor who has been by Trump’s side for nearly a decade, had unsuccessfully run for Congress twice before.

Biggs easily won the general election in the district, which has been in GOP hands since Republican Lindsey Graham, who is now seeking his fifth U.S. Senate term, won it in 1994. Six months into her first term, Biggs said that she knew she wanted a district-unifying event of her own, as well as one that could continue to act as a showcase for potential GOP presidential candidates seeking to get to know its voters.

“I do want people to know that I’m here to serve this district, and that means making myself available and being out front and accessible to our voters, and hearing their needs,” she said. “I’m here to serve the district, and that doesn’t just mean everybody who voted for me.”

In some ways, Biggs’ event will be familiar. It’s being held in the same venue as Duncan’s barbecue, a civics center in Anderson, and there will still be $1 tickets for law enforcement officers and first responders. As for the menu, Biggs said she’ll be shifting away from the buffet line of barbecue, baked beans and rolls, with a catered, “more of a sit-down type of dinner.”

“It’s not so much that I don’t think the barbecue was great, I just want my own identity,” Biggs said. “I want people to realize that it’s a new ballgame, and I want to move forward on my own accord.”

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Kinnard can be reached at

NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators are piecing together more details about how a former high school football player who blamed the game for his mental health problems carried out a deadly attack on an office building that is home to the NFL.

Shane Tamura killed four people on Monday before killing himself, spraying the skyscraper’s lobby with bullets and then continuing his rampage on the 33rd floor, authorities said.

Inside his wallet, a handwritten note claimed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, and accused the NFL of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports, investigators said.

Detectives were still working to unravel more details about the 27-year-old’s background and motivations.

They planned to question a man who supplied gun parts for the AR-15-style rifle used in the attack, including the weapon’s lower receiver, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a video statement.

Among the dead were a police officer, a security guard and two people who worked at companies in the building. An NFL employee was badly wounded but survived.

Tamura, a Las Vegas casino security worker, had intended to target the NFL’s headquarters in the building but took the wrong elevator, officials said.

It’s unclear whether he showed symptoms of CTE, which can be diagnosed only by examining a brain after death.

Tamura, who played high school football in California a decade ago but never played in the NFL, had a history of mental illness, police said without giving details. In the three-page note found on his body, he accused the NFL of concealing the dangers to players’ brains for profit. The degenerative brain disease has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports such as football.

At a Tuesday night vigil for those killed in the shooting, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and other faith leaders delivered prayers at a park about a dozen blocks from where the shooting took place.

Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul spoke of the need for stronger gun laws.

“We cannot respond to senseless gun laws through vigils,” Adams said.

NFL boss calls shooting ‘unspeakable’

Tamura’s note repeatedly said he was sorry and asked that his brain be studied for CTE.

The NFL long denied the link between football and CTE, but it acknowledged the connection in 2016 testimony before Congress and has paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who works out of the offices, called the shooting “an unspeakable act of violence.”

The shooting happened at a skyscraper on Park Avenue, one of the nation’s most recognized streets, just blocks from Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center. It is less than a 15-minute walk from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed last December by a man who prosecutors say was angry over what he saw as corporate greed.

Video shows the gunman stroll into the building

Tamura drove across the country in the days before the attack and into New York City, Tisch said. Surveillance video showed him exit his BMW outside the building at about 6:30 p.m. Monday wearing a button-down shirt and jacket with the rifle at his side.

Once inside the lobby, he opened fire and killed Islam and Wesley LePatner, a real estate executive at the investment firm Blackstone, which occupies much of the building. Tamura then made his way toward the elevator bank, shooting the NFL employee and an unarmed security guard, Aland Etienne, who helped control access to the upper floors.

Tamura waited for the next elevator to arrive in the lobby, let a woman walk safely out of the elevator, then rode it up to the 33rd-floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Management. He killed a worker for that company before killing himself, officials said.

Friends and family mourn killed officer

Officer Didarul Islam, 36, who was guarding the building on a paid security job when he was killed, had served as a police officer in New York City for over three years. He was an immigrant from Bangladesh and was working a department-approved building security job when he was shot.

Islam leaves a pregnant wife and two children. Friends and family stopped by their Bronx home on Tuesday to drop off food and pay their respects.

“He was a very friendly guy and a hardworking guy,” said Tanjim Talukdar, who knew him best from Friday prayers. “Whenever I see him or he sees me, he says, ’How are you, my brother?’”

___

Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo, Philip Marcelo and Julie Walker in New York; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Rob Maaddi in Tampa, Florida; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

HONOLULU (AP) — A powerful earthquake that struck off the coast of Russia generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a broad section of the Pacific, including Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

The quake registered a magnitude of 8.8 and was centered off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor struck early Wednesday local time, which was still Tuesday in the U.S.

Here’s what to know about tsunamis and their warnings:

What is a tsunami?

Tsunamis are waves triggered by earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions and submarine landslides. After an underwater earthquake, the seafloor rises and drops, which lifts water up and down. The energy from this pushes sea water that transfers to waves.

Many people think of tsunamis as one wave. But they are typically multiple waves that rush ashore like a fast-rising tide.

Some tsunamis are small and don’t cause damage. Others can cause massive destruction. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, causing waves that leveled remote villages, ports and tourist resorts along the Indian Ocean across Southeast and South Asia. Some 230,000 people died.

How do people find out if there’s a tsunami warning?

In Hawaii, emergency authorities blast alerts to people’s cellphones, on TV and radio and sound a network of sirens.

In Alaska, some communities have sirens and information is also available on weather radio or public radio broadcasts. Official accounts on social media and cellphone push alerts spread the word. In some places, local officials have relayed warnings door to door.

Earlier this month, after another earthquake off Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, 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.

What should I do if I get a tsunami alert?

Authorities urge people to move to higher ground when they have indications a tsunami will arrive.

In Hawaii, the state’s emergency management agency directs people to check maps and to evacuate if they are in a tsunami hazard zone. It also tells people to stay at least 100 feet (30 meters) away from inland waterways and marinas connected to the ocean due to the possibility of wave surges and flooding.

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.

In the U.S., the National Weather Service has :

— A warning means a tsunami that may cause widespread flooding is expected or occurring. Evacuation is recommend and people should move to high ground or inland.

— An advisory means a tsunami with potential for strong currents or dangerous waves is expected or occurring and people should stay out of the water and away from beaches and waterways.

— A watch means that a tsunami is possible and to be prepared.

How long does it take for tsunamis to arrive?

It depends on how far the epicenter of the earthquake is from a coastal area. It could take just minutes for waves to hit land next to the site of a major quake. It could take hours for tsunamis to cross the Pacific Ocean.

The speed of tsunami waves also depends on ocean depth. They travel faster over deep water and slow down in shallow water.

What effects have been noticed so far?

The Japan Meteorological Agency said a tsunami measuring 1.3 feet (40 centimeters) was detected in Tokachi, on the southern coast of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the country’s main islands.

In Alaska, the National Tsunami Warning Center estimated wave heights could reach 3 feet to 5.6 feet (91 centimeters to 1.7 meters) at Shemya and up to 2.5 feet (76 centimeters) at Adak, which has about 70 people and is the southern-most community in Alaska. Some waves have likely already hit Alaska’s remote far western islands but weren’t expected to reach Cold Bay until 8 p.m. local time.

A tsunami warning was issued for Hawaii, with the first waves expected to arrive after 7 p.m. local time.

Much of the Pacific coast of North America spanning from British Columbia in Canada to down the U.S. West Coast and into Mexico was under a tsunami advisory.

The Oregon Department of Emergency Management that small tsunami waves were expected to reach parts of the state’s coastline starting around 11:40 p.m. local time, with wave heights between 1 to 3 feet (30 to 91 centimeters).

It urged people to stay away from beaches, harbors and marinas and to remain in a safe location away from the coast until the advisory was lifted.

“This is not a major tsunami, but dangerous currents and strong waves may pose a risk to those near the water,” the department said.

Waves up to 5.7 feet (1.7 meters) were also possible in Crescent City, California, with smaller waves — many expected to be less than 1 foot— in other communities along the West Coast.

Mexico’s navy warned that waves between 1 to 3.3 feet (30 to 100 centimeters) were possible on its coast.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The man who stormed a Manhattan office tower with a gun, killing four people before killing himself, worked in the surveillance department of a Las Vegas casino, part of an industry built on watching for threats before they unfold.

Shane Tamura, 27, didn’t show up to work his usual shift Sunday at the Horseshoe Las Vegas. Instead, authorities say, he got in his car and drove across the country to carry out a mass shooting inside the skyscraper that houses the National Football League’s headquarters. A fifth person, an NFL employee, was wounded in the Monday attack.

As investigators work to uncover a motive, questions are being raised about how a man with a documented history of mental health problems — and a recent arrest for erratic behavior at another casino — ended up working in one of the most security-sensitive jobs in Las Vegas.

Caesars Entertainment, which owns the Horseshoe, confirmed Tamura’s employment but has yet to disclose the nature of his role or whether he was authorized to carry a weapon. A spokesperson didn’t respond to emails asking whether Tamura’s job required him to hold a valid work card from the state Private Investigator’s Licensing Board, which is needed to work as a private security officer in Nevada.

State licensing records show Tamura previously held a state-issued license as a private security officer, though it had expired in December.

While he held that license, Tamura was arrested at a casino in suburban Las Vegas. A report on the September 2023 arrest says he was asked to leave after he became agitated with casino security and employees who asked him for his ID, and he was arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. Prosecutors later dismissed the case.

Tamura left a note saying he had CTE

Tamura had a history of mental illness, police said without giving details. Authorities have not provided more specific information about Tamura’s psychiatric history but are investigating claims he included in a handwritten note he left behind, in which he said he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

Officials said he had intended to target the offices of the NFL, which he accused of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports, but he took the wrong elevator.

Tamura’s family members did not respond to messages seeking comment. No one answered a knock at the door of his family’s Las Vegas home on Monday.

Tamura didn’t play professional football but was a standout running back during his high school years in southern California, where he was born, according to local news accounts at the time, including one that described his abilities as “lightning in a bottle.”

One of his former coaches, Walter Roby, said he did not remember Tamura sustaining any head injuries in his playing days. He recalled an ankle injury, “but that was the extent of it.”

“He was a quiet dude, soft spoken, humble and led by his work ethic more than anything else,” Roby told The Associated Press. “His actions on the field were dynamic.”

Former classmates and neighbors say he didn’t stand out

Some of Tamura’s former classmates seemed stunned by the shooting, and several said they had lost contact with him.

But numerous others who say they were in Tamura’s grade at Golden Valley, which has over 2,000 students, weren’t familiar with him. Some of Tamura’s neighbors in Las Vegas also said they didn’t recognize him after seeing his photo shared in news reports about the shooting.

“They were so unremarkable, or maybe they were never home when I was home,” neighbor Wendy Malnak said about Tamura and his family.

Malnak, whose house is diagonal across from Tamura’s, has lived in the neighborhood since 2022. She said many of the residents on what she described as a quiet street keep in touch regularly and look out for each other, and yet none of them seemed to notice Tamura or his family before police officers showed up Monday night and surrounded their house.

Authorities work to piece together Tamura’s steps

Las Vegas police said Tuesday they were “supporting the NYPD with their investigation” but have not released details about the police activity Monday at Tamura’s home. Two groups of New York City detectives were on their way to Las Vegas to conduct interviews and search the home, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Authorities said they were also questioning an associate of Tamura who bought a component of the AR-15-style assault rifle used in the attack. Tisch said Tamura had “assembled” the weapon and used his concealed carry permit to purchase another firearm, a revolver, last month.

“This is part of a larger effort to trace Mr. Tamura’s steps from Las Vegas to New York City,” she said.

___

Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Safiyah Riddle contributed from Montgomery, Alabama.

HONOLULU (AP) — A judge dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday brought by the widow of an unarmed Black man shot by Honolulu police in 2021.

The killing of Lindani Myeni on April 14, 2021, drew international attention, including from civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Myeni, 29, was a South African national who had recently moved to Hawaii, where his wife grew up.

Authorities have said Myeni was acting strangely and entered a home uninvited, and a frightened tourist staying there called 911. Myeni punched responding officers, leaving one with facial fractures and a concussion, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said previously.

Police tried other deterrence methods, including deploying a stun gun that was not effective on Myeni, before an officer fired a volley of three shots, Alm said in finding that the officers’ use of force was justified. Myeni continued punching an officer even after he was shot once in the chest, Alm said.

Honolulu attorneys had recommended paying $1.5 million to settle the lawsuit last year, but it never went to a vote before the full city council and the case went to trial.

Trial started July 14 and testimony included Myeni’s widow, Lindsay Myeni, taking the stand, according to her lawyers. Plaintiffs rested their case Friday.

The city filed a motion for dismissal that same day, arguing that no evidence was presented showing that the officers acted with malice and are immune from liability.

Judge Karin Holma granted the motion Tuesday, according to court records.

Her ruling came after seven days of testimony including video of the incident showing an officer “hiding behind a flashlight and refusing to say he was a police officer,” according to a statement from lawyers representing Myeni’s widow.

“While we wish the jury could have decided this, at least the appellate court can now review the record,” attorney James Bickerton said in the statement.

A mistrial would have also been possible in the case because three jurors were sick with Covid, said another Myeni attorney, Bridget Morgan-Bickerton.

According to an addendum to Myeni’s autopsy report, which was obtained by The Associated Press in 2023, Myeni was a former professional rugby player who suffered from a degenerative brain disease often found in football players and other athletes subjected to repeated head trauma.

Brain tissue was sent to the Boston University CTE Center, which found Myeni suffered from stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Commonly known as CTE, the disease can only be diagnosed posthumously.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man charged with ordering the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to dismiss his murder charges.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis filed an appeal with the court Tuesday after a lower court judge upheld his charges.

Davis, the only man ever to be charged in Shakur’s killing, was arrested in September 2023. Other conspirators in the drive-by shooting have since died.

The 62-year-old has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he provided the gun used in the shooting.

His attorney, Carl Arnold, said Davis’ constitutional rights were being violated.

“Mr. Davis cooperated with law enforcement over the course of more than a decade, relying on repeated assurances that his statements would not be used against him — yet those very statements now form the core of the State’s case,” Arnold said in a statement.

Arnold first filed a motion to dismiss the case in January of this year, alleging constitutional violations because of a 27-year delay in prosecution. He also said Davis had immunity agreements granted to him by federal and local authorities.

A district court judge upheld his charges, saying he was not protected from prosecution because he had not provided proof of those immunity deals and that the decades-long delay was not intentional.

According to the appeal, Davis was interviewed in 1998 and 1999 by federal prosecutors under the agreement that his statements would not be used to prosecute him. At the time, he denied knowing who was involved in Shakur’s killing.

He was interviewed again in 2008 and 2009 under the same conditions that he would not be prosecuted with his statements, according to the appeal. It was then that he described his “alleged involvement in the murder and identified the alleged shooter,” the appeal said.

Arnold said prosecutors had not presented any evidence connecting Davis to the slaying other than his own statements, which is not enough for a trial. He asked the Nevada Supreme Court to grant their motion to dismiss the case, or recognize that he was granted immunity from prosecution for the statements he made during law enforcement interviews.

Davis remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. His trial is scheduled to begin in early February 2026.

Shakur’s death at 25 came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with about 5 million copies sold. Nominated Shakur is still largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.

PHOENIX (AP) — Historically dry conditions have combined with gusty winds to make it harder for crews to get a handle on a wildfire burning along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, causing containment figures to plummet as the blaze nearly tripled in size in just a few days.

Crews had managed to contain about 26% of the Dragon Bravo Fire last week, but that dropped into single digits as unfavorable conditions helped the flames to spread across more than 110 square miles (about 285 kilometers) by Tuesday.

The fire made one of its biggest runs on Monday as it raced across 25 square miles of terrain.

The periods when the fire is most active is spanning longer durations of the day, leaving less time for firefighters to make up ground, fire spokesperson Lisa Jennings said.

“These record dry air masses are just the tip of the iceberg on what has created this fire weather, because it’s also been a dry season here and we haven’t got any of the monsoon moisture that usually comes in early July,” Jennings said.

She added that type of fuels — towering mixed conifers and ponderosa pines — along with the topography of the rim are contributing to the fire’s spread.

Crews on Tuesday continued work to reinforce protections near the Kaibab Lodge, which is surrounded by national forest land. Managers also were keeping an eye on a refuge for the state’s fish — the Apache trout — in the North Canyon and a bison herd in the House Rock Valley.

The fire was sparked by lightning on July 4 and initially was managed to clear out vegetation to improve forest conditions. It wasn’t until a week later that dry and windy conditions helped to fan the flames, prompting evacuations of visitors and employees at Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of cabins were destroyed. The rim remains closed for the season.

A bipartisan slate of Arizona’s elected officials has questioned the handling of the fire, suggesting more could have been done early on. Following an aerial tour of the damage, Gov. Katie Hobbs met with federal officials and said U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum committed to an independent review.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare public outburst on the Senate floor Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took his Democratic colleagues to task, declaring his party “needs a wake-up call!”

Angrily screaming at two of his shocked Democratic colleagues, his words all but reverberating off the chamber walls, Booker blocked the passage of several bipartisan bills that would fund police programs, arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration has been withholding law enforcement money from Democratic-leaning states.

“This is the problem with Democrats in America right now,” Booker bellowed. “Is we’re willing to be complicit with Donald Trump!”

The surprise Senate spat over bills that have broad bipartisan support — mental health resources and other help for police officers — strikes at the heart of the beleaguered Democratic party’s dilemma in the second Trump era as they try to find a way back to power, and also their frustration as Republicans have pushed through legislation and nominations that they vehemently disagree with. Do they cooperate where they can, or do they fight everything, and shut down governance in the process?

“A lot of us in this caucus want to f—— fight,” Booker said with an expletive as he left the Senate floor after the exchange.

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the two Democrats on the floor who tried to pass the law enforcement bills that raised Booker’s ire, said she had a different view.

“We can do both,” she said afterward. “Support our communities, keep them safe, and take on Donald Trump and his bad policies.”

Booker’s tirade began Tuesday afternoon when Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bipartisan bills by unanimous consent. But Booker objected to five of the seven bills, which would have directed resources to law enforcement agencies, arguing that the Trump administration is “weaponizing” public safety grants by canceling them in many Democratic-leaning states like New Jersey.

“Why would we do something today that’s playing into the president’s politics and is going to hurt the officers in states like mine?” Booker asked.

Things escalated from there, with Cortez Masto and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saying that Booker should have objected when the bill was passed unanimously out of committee. “This is not the way to go about it,” Cortez Masto said.

Klobuchar said to Booker: “You can’t just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object and let these bills go through and then say another a few weeks later on the floor.”

“I like to show up at the markups and I like to make my case,” Klobuchar said.

Booker responded with a booming tirade. “The Democratic party needs a wake up call!” he yelled, walking away from his desk and out into the aisle. “I see law firms bending the knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles,” he said, along with “universities that should be bastions of free speech.”

He added: “You want to come at me that way, you will have to take it on with me because there’s too much on the line.”

The arguments points to the tensions below the surface of the Democratic caucus as they head into important moments — both this week, as Republicans push to quickly confirm dozens of Trump administration nominees before the August recess, and this fall when Congress will have to pass bipartisan spending bills to avoid a government shutdown.

Democrats suffered a swift backlash from their base in the spring when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill that kept the government open instead of forcing a shutdown. Schumer argued that shutting the government down would have been worse, and that they were both “terrible” options. It is unclear whether Schumer and Democrats will want to force a shutdown in the fall if Republicans don’t include some of their priorities in spending legislation.

Booker did not have specific advice for his colleagues beyond the need to fight harder. But other senators say they will have to find a balance.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he hears both things at home — “why can’t you all get along” and “thank you for fighting.”

“Both are absolutely necessary at this moment in history,” Blumenthal said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taiwanese government has called off a plan for its president to transit through the United States on his way to Latin America, The Associated Press has learned — a decision leading to conflicting accounts of the reason for the cancellation.

Amid speculation that the Trump administration had opposed a proposed stopover by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in New York, Taipei said Lai had no overseas travel plans due to domestic issues, including natural disasters and tariff negotiations with the United States. The other proposed stop on Lai’s itinerary was Dallas, Texas.

Whatever the reason, the cancellation is certain to hand a major diplomatic victory to Beijing and has drawn concerns from experts that the White House is setting a bad precedent for U.S.-China relations.

Details about the administration’s decision were scant, but one person with knowledge of the discussions told AP that the U.S. “had asked Taipei to rearrange the transit — not go through New York.”

Another person with knowledge of the discussions said Beijing had sensed that it could ask President Donald Trump not to allow Lai to transit through the U.S. because of the perceived “desperation” by Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they are in current sensitive discussions with administration officials. The White House said it had nothing to say on this matter. Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the State Department, said it was a “hypothetical” issue because Taiwan had not announced any travel plans for Lai.

“There are a lot of questions and a lot of suppositions that have happened,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “But I can say that it is a hypothetical at this point. There have been no plans.”

Discussions unfolded late last week

By the end of last week it was clear that the Trump administration was discussing the likely transit by Lai, though it was unclear if the administration had moved to block it, according to one of the people. It was also unclear if the Trump administration would be open to allowing Lai to transit through a city other than New York.

The United States is obligated by its own laws to give military support to Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 during a civil war. Beijing claims the island off its southeastern coast as sovereign territory and has vowed to seize it, by force if necessary.

Jason Hsu, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, said Taiwan always consults with the United States on transit and called it “abnormal” for Washington not to agree when such stopovers are permitted under the Taiwan Relations Act. Bruce said transits by high-level Taiwanese officials, including presidents, “are fully consistent with our longstanding policy and policy.”

In Taipei, Karen Kuo, spokesperson for the presidential office, said there was no immediate plan for Lai to travel.

“Considering the recent typhoon disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the U.S.-Taiwan reciprocal tariff measures and regional developments, the president currently has no plans for overseas visits in the near future,” Kuo said.

Routine practice that draws routine protests from Beijing

The Chinese Embassy did not respond to an AP request for comment. Beijing, however, has routinely protested any transit through the U.S. by Taiwanese leaders.

Lai was elected president of Taiwan in 2024. On his first overseas trip last November he made stops in Hawaii and Guam, where he was received by U.S. politicians. While such transits had been routine by previous Taiwanese presidents and under previous U.S. administrations, the person familiar with the discussions said Beijing considers Lai an exception because it views him as being more aggressive in seeking Taiwan independence.

Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said that while recent U.S. administrations have not allowed Taiwan to be used in negotiations with Beijing, “this decision raises questions about whether the Trump administration is reconsidering that approach.”

And Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a former legislator from Taiwan’s KMT party, said that in preventing Lai’s stopover “the Trump administration appears to be accommodating China’s red lines.”

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Tuesday that Trump is folding to Beijing. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, who is the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, called it “another example of the Trump Administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.”

“Presidents of both parties have allowed Taiwan officials to transit through the U.S. in the past, and now should be no different,” he said in a statement.

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man was sentenced Tuesday to 26 months in prison for attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon and trying to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight.

Francisco Severo Torres, of Leominster, pleaded guilty in May to one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon in the March 2023 disturbance on United Airlines Flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston.

U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris sentenced Torres to time served, which was just over 2 years. He also will be on supervised release for five years, during which he is prohibited from flying on a commercial aircraft.

According to prosecutor and witness accounts, Torres went on a midair rant and tried to stab a crew member with a modified metal spoon.

The plane was about 45 minutes from Boston when the crew received an alarm that a side door on the aircraft was disarmed, according to court documents. One flight attendant noticed the door’s locking handle had been moved. Another saw Torres near the door and believed he had moved the handle. Cabin pressure during flight prevents airplane doors from opening.

Torres started loudly rambling that his father was Dracula, that he wanted to be shot so he could be reincarnated and that he would kill everyone on board, one passenger said. He punched a male flight attendant, who felt the metal spoon in Torres’ hand hit him on his shirt collar and tie three times, according to court documents. No one was injured.

Torres was eventually subdued and restrained by other passengers. He was arrested when the flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.

A lawyer for Torres could not be reached for comment.

Torres has spent time in mental health facilities, according to court records. The police chief in his hometown said officers have dealt with him several times since 2014, mostly over family issues and mental health episodes.

During one court appearance after his arrest, a federal judge ruled that Torres was not competent to stand trial and that he needed additional treatment. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein based her decision on a mental health evaluation of Torres and her own observations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Five people have been charged in a bloody, late-night brawl in downtown Cincinnati over the weekend that involved dozens of people and raised concerns about crime in the Ohio city.

A video of the fight early Saturday shows a crowd milling about before several people start throwing punches. One man falls to the ground and was repeatedly punched and kicked by a bystanders. Another woman is punched in the face and falls to the ground, lying motionless before another woman helps her. She can be seeing bleeding from the mouth.

“I am outraged by the vicious fight that occurred downtown,” Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said in a statement. “It is horrifying to watch, and this is unacceptable and disgusting behavior is intolerable in any part of our community.”

Three days after the brawl, the city has released little information about it other than to say it was not related to a Cincinnati Reds game, a basketball tournament or a jazz festival that attracted over 150,000 people to the city. It said five people have been charged in the brawl but only two had been arrested as of Tuesday.

Police Chief Teresa Theetge said more people would be charged, warning that anyone who “put their hands on another individual during this incident in an attempt to cause harm will face consequences.” She also suggested some bar owners may be culpable for over-serving participants in the confrontation, which occurred about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Theetge appeared on the defensive during the news conference, complaining the brawl was getting all the attention and “undoing all the good stuff that happened this weekend.” She also complained that bystanders took many videos but that only one person called 911. Police responded to the scene after the fight was over, about six minutes after the call.

“For us to get one phone call about this incident is unacceptable in this city,” she said.

The video of the brawl quickly turned political. Vice President JD Vance ’s half brother Cory Bowman, who is running to be Cincinnati’s mayor, flagged the fight on social media on Saturday and blamed city leadership for creating an unsafe environment.

“For many, these images sparked shock and disbelief,” he said in a statement. “For residents within our city limits, they serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing crime and lawlessness we’ve had to endure this summer.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at U.S. Justice Department, posted on X above an image of the video that “EVERY American ���� is entitled to the equal protection of our laws. Federal law enforcement is on it and we will ensure that justice is done.”

The videos also became a flashpoint among conservatives online, despite a lack of available details about the incident. Political influencers pointed to it as an example of apparent Black-on-white violence and criticized media coverage of the fight.

“Why zero stories?” billionaire X owner Elon Musk wrote on his social platform on Sunday. Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, fanned the flames, claiming in an X post the same day that the “media blackout” of the story was “telling.”

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Swenson reported from New York.

The University of California, Los Angeles, reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor whose suit against the university argued it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.

The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.

UCLA had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to areas. The university also worked with law enforcement to thwart attempts to set up new protest camps.

But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi disagreed and ordered UCLA to create a plan to protect Jewish students on campus. The University of California, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, has since created system-wide campus guidelines on protests.

How the university handled dispersing the encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. One night, counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

Trump administration joins lawsuit filed by Jewish students

In March, the Trump administration joined the lawsuit filed by the Jewish students and Jewish professor as it opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; Northwestern University and Portland State University.

Last week, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation for future agreements.

Government finds UCLA violated civil rights of Jewish students

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

“UCLA failed to take timely and appropriate action in response to credible claims of harm and hostility on its campus,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The university has said that it’s committed to campus safety and will continue to implement recommendations. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement or the DOJ announcement Tuesday.

UCLA agrees to granting students equal access

As part of the settlement agreement, UCLA must ensure Jewish students, faculty and staff are not excluded from anything on-campus.

The $6.13 million settlement will pay the plaintiffs’ damages and legal fees and go toward eight Jewish organizations.

Pro-Palestinian protesters also sue university

A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists also has filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging the university failed to protect those who participated in the demonstrations.

During the 2014 protests, at least 15 pro-Palestinian protesters were injured and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.