Rescuers fetched two men struck by lightning from a Colorado peak in what they believe were the highest helicopter rescues on record in this mountainous state.

One man remained hospitalized in fair condition Friday while the other was treated at a hospital and released.

The rescues happened late Thursday near the summit of Torreys Peak, a 14,300-foot (4,360-meter) mountain about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Denver. Torreys Peak is ranked variously as the 11th or 12th highest summit in Colorado and is less than 200 feet (60 meters) shorter than the state’s highest mountain, Mount Elbert.

The men from New York state, whose identities weren’t released, had decided to summit the mountain during a road trip, Alpine Rescue Team public information officer Jake Smith said.

They first called for help around 5 p.m. after getting off course on their way up a technical route. A different route doesn’t require climbing gear or expertise.

“It doesn’t sound like they had a ton of prior experience. I think it was probably just a lack of awareness,” said Smith, who was among the rescuers on the ground.

Rescue officials guided the men back on course, and they made it to the summit. Minutes later, one of them called back to report they had been struck by lightning.

About 30 rescuers went up the mountain while another team used a Colorado National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to get the more seriously injured man, who was nonresponsive and in critical condition, off the peak using a hoist at 14,200 feet (4,330 meters).

He was flown down to an ambulance and taken to a local hospital, then to a Denver hospital with a burn unit, Smith said.

The helicopter made another trip around midnight to fetch the less seriously hurt man by partially touching down on the mountain.

The rescuers believe Colorado’s previous record for a helicopter rescue was 13,700 feet (4,175 meters). Such rescues are challenging because thin air causes helicopters to lose lifting ability the higher they fly; the Blackhawk has an altitude limit of about 19,000 feet (5,800 meters).

Hikers and climbers often prefer to ascend during the morning and avoid the Rocky Mountain high country on summer afternoons. Thunderstorms are common and can develop suddenly with dangerous lightning, hail and plummeting temperatures.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Police in South Carolina engaged in a not-so-hot pursuit as they chased a tractor excavator down a main highway for more than an hour at the speed an average adult walks.

The chase reached speeds of 3 mph (4.8 kph) early Sunday morning in North Charleston, police said.

Officers on a different call saw the big piece of construction equipment with treads and a shovel in front go across U.S. Highway 78 around 3:30 a.m., North Charleston Police wrote in their report.

A few minutes later, they got a burglary call from a business that was heavily damaged and saw the excavator slowly heading away, police said.

Several cars immediately joined in the very slow speed pursuit. The excavator was going so slow that the cruisers would have to briefly stop several times a minute to not pass the construction equipment.

They had their blue lights and sirens on and told the excavator driver over their loudspeakers that he was under arrest and needed to stop. Other cruisers blocked traffic.

The chase went on for an hour and 12 minutes before the excavator drove on to the Charleston County Fairgrounds property, where it got stuck. The driver tried to run, but was followed by a drone until a police dog and handler caught up, authorities said.

The 53-year-old driver of the excavator was charged with failure to stop for a blue light and two counts of malicious injury to real property and remained in the Charleston County jail on a $22,000 bond, according to jail records.

NEW YORK (AP) — The leaders of a sex-focused women’s wellness company that promoted “orgasmic meditation” have been convicted of federal forced labor charges.

A Brooklyn jury on Monday found Nicole Daedone, founder of OneTaste Inc., and Rachel Cherwitz, the California-based company’s former sales director, guilty of forced labor conspiracy after deliberating for less than two days following a roughly monthlong trial.

Daedone’s defense team had cast her as a “ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur” who created a unique business around women’s sexuality and empowerment.

But prosecutors argued the two women ran a yearslong scheme that groomed adherents — many of them victims of sexual trauma — to do their bidding.

They said Daedone and Cherwitz used economic, sexual and psychological abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive, such as having sex with prospective investors or clients.

The two told followers the questionable acts were necessary in order to obtain “freedom” and “enlightenment” and demonstrate their commitment to the organization’s principles.

Prosecutors said OneTaste leaders also didn’t pay promised earnings to the members-turned-workers and even forced some of them to take out new credit cards to continue taking the company’s courses.

Lawyers for the two women didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment Monday.

OneTaste started in San Francisco around 2005 as a sort of self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection.

A centerpiece was “orgasmic meditation,” carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group setting.

The company quickly opened outposts from Los Angeles to London following glowing media coverage in the 2010s. At the time, OneTaste was portrayed as a cutting-edge enterprise that prioritized women’s sexual pleasure.

But Daedone sold her stake in 2017 — a year before OneTaste’s marketing and labor practices came under scrutiny.

The company’s current owners, who have rebranded it the Institute of OM Foundation, have said its work has been misconstrued and the charges against its former executives were unjustified.

They maintain sexual consent has always been a cornerstone of the organization. The company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — A runaway pet zebra that was on the loose for more than a week in Tennessee and became an internet sensation in the process was captured Sunday, authorities said.

Ed the Zebra was captured safely after being located in a pasture near a subdivision in the Christiana community in central Tennessee, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. The sheriff’s office said aviation crews captured the zebra.

“Ed was airlifted and flown by helicopter back to a waiting animal trailer,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Video posted by the sheriff’s office shows Ed wrapped in a net with his head sticking out as he is carried by the helicopter to the trailer.

Ed arrived in Christiana on May 30, the sheriff’s office said. His owner reported him missing the next day.

The zebra was spotted and filmed running along Interstate 24, forcing deputies to shut the roadway. But Ed escaped into a wooded area.

There were several sightings posted to social media. Ed was filmed trotting through a neighborhood.

The zebra quickly became the subject of internet memes. One fake posting showed Ed dining at a Waffle House, a southern staple. Others had him visiting other Tennessee cities or panhandling on the side of the road.

The pursuit of Ed came a month after a runway kangaroo shut down a section of Alabama interstate.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Residents will gather Saturday in a scenic Minneapolis neighborhood for an annual ritual — the sharpening of a gigantic No. 2 pencil.

The 20-foot-tall (6-meter-tall) pencil was sculpted out of a mammoth oak tree at the home of John and Amy Higgins. The beloved tree was damaged in a storm a few years ago when fierce winds twisted the crown off. Neighbors mourned. A couple even wept. But the Higginses saw it not so much as a loss, but as a chance to give the tree new life.

The sharpening ceremony on their front lawn has evolved into a community spectacle that draws hundreds of people to the leafy neighborhood on Lake of the Isles, complete with music and pageantry. Some people dress as pencils or erasers. Two Swiss alphorn players will provide part of this year’s entertainment. The hosts will commemorate a Minneapolis icon, the late music superstar Prince, by handing out purple pencils on what would have been his 67th birthday.

In the wake of the storm, the Higginses knew they wanted to create a sculpture out of their tree. They envisioned a whimsical piece of pop art that people could recognize, but not a stereotypical chainsaw-carved, north-woods bear. Given the shape and circumference of the log, they came up with the idea of an oversized pencil standing tall in their yard.

“Why a pencil? Everybody uses a pencil,” Amy Higgins said. “Everybody knows a pencil. You see it in school, you see it in people’s work, or drawings, everything. So, it’s just so accessible to everybody, I think, and can easily mean something, and everyone can make what they want of it.”

So they enlisted wood sculptor Curtis Ingvoldstad to transform it into a replica of a classic Trusty brand No. 2 pencil.

“People interpret this however they want to. They should. They should come to this and find whatever they want out of it,” Ingvoldstad said. That’s true even if their reaction is negative, he added. “Whatever you want to bring, you know, it’s you at the end of the day. And it’s a good place. It’s good to have pieces that do that for people.”

John Higgins said they wanted the celebration to pull the community together.

“We tell a story about the dull tip, and we’re gonna get sharp,” he said. “There’s a renewal. We can write a new love letter, a thank you note. We can write a math problem, a to-do list. And that chance for renewal, that promise, people really seem to buy into and understand.”

To keep the point pointy, they haul a giant, custom-made pencil sharpener up the scaffolding that’s erected for the event.

Like a real pencil, this one is ephemeral. Every year they sharpen it, it gets a bit shorter. They’ve taken anywhere from 3 to 10 inches (8 to 25 centimeters) off a year. They haven’t decided how much to shave off this year. They’re OK knowing that they could reduce it to a stub one day. The artist said they’ll let time and life dictate its form — that’s part of the magic.

“Like any ritual, you’ve got to sacrifice something,” Ingvoldstad said. “So we’re sacrificing part of the monumentality of the pencil, so that we can give that to the audience that comes, and say, ‘This is our offering to you, and in goodwill to all the things that you’ve done this year.’”

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — As the owner of a marina, Kate Gervais is used to seeing boats in the water. But for the last couple of days, she’s been seeing them in the air.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources this week used one of its firefighting helicopters to haul abandoned boats off an uninhabited island in the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound, where the vessels had come to rest after drifting with the currents, and fly them to the mainland to be deconstructed later.

With 14 vessels removed, it was the agency’s largest operation of its kind, officials said.

“It was a very, very weird sight,” said Gervais, who owns Boston Harbor Marina, just north of Olympia. “The sail boat with the mast was the weirdest one to see.”

A boat removal by helicopter is typically done by a private pilot, but for this operation, which was funded by a federal grant, the DNR opted to use one of its firefighting helicopters. It was cheaper and helped stretch the $1 million NOAA grant, said Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove.

The state agency opts to airlift boats when towing them would disrupt the marine bed or surrounding environment too much. The aquatic lands where the boats land often include kelp beds, which are critical for supporting the forage fish that salmon rely on.

Vessels for this operation where found in hard-to-reach coves, at the tree line or in mud that rendered an airlift a better option, agency staff said.

Since the boat removal program began in 2002, the department has hauled out more than 1,200 derelict vessels. There are at least 300 more out there, with more found all the time, Upthegrove said.

“It’s a real challenge impacting the Puget Sound when people essentially dump their old boats into the water because they don’t want to deal with disposing of them,” he said. “That burden then falls on all of us.”

The federal grant allowed the state to clean up boats on Squaxin Island, an uninhabited island that is of particular cultural importance to the Squaxin Island Tribe. The tribe’s people once shared vast lands in western Washington state, but following the 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek, the island — 4.5 miles (7.2 kilometers) long and half a mile (800 meters) wide — was the main area reserved for them, according to .

Eventually, the tribe’s members moved off the island, but they continue to use it for fishing, hunting, shellfish gathering and camping.

“The Squaxin Island Tribe is very enthusiastic about this opportunity to work with DNR to clean-up derelict vessels on tribal lands,” said Daniel Kuntz, the tribe’s policy and program manager. “Maintaining clean beaches and water are essential to the Squaxin Island culture to ensure gathering access for future generations.”

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Lawrence Welk didn’t have a flush toilet where he grew up, but visitors to his childhood home in rural North Dakota now do.

The bandleader’s childhood family home marks the latest step in the State Historical Society of North Dakota’s nearly completed goal of installing flush toilets at its dozen most popular, staffed sites. The most recent success, with the final three planned to be completed soon, came before the unveiling of a statue of Welk at a site that draws fans who recall “The Lawrence Welk Show,” which ran on TV for decades starting in the 1950s.

The North Dakota group’s goal of replacing pit toilets with flush units may seem like a humble aspiration to some, but it’s an important milestone, said Chris Dorfschmidt, a historic sites manager.

“A lot of our sites are kind of in the middle of nowhere. As I like to put it, history didn’t happen where it’s convenient,” he said. “Because of that, if you’ve driven all the way out there, and that’s the best we can do to kind of accommodate you, it’s not the most pleasant experience.”

North Dakota has 60 state historic sites — everything from museums and an underground nuclear launch facility to plaques mounted on boulders in fields.

“All of our sites, they really do help share a story of us as a state,” Dorfschmidt said.

Two other facilities are slated to be finished by June 30: at Whitestone Hill, the site of a deadly 1863 attack by U.S. troops against Native Americans; and Fort Buford, a military fort near the Missouri-Yellowstone river confluence.

The Historical Society also is eyeing the Chateau de Mores for flush toilets. The wealthy Marquis de Mores built the 26-room home in 1883 near Medora, a present-day tourist town in the state’s scenic Badlands where a young President Theodore Roosevelt once roamed.

Less-visited sites that aren’t staffed likely won’t receive a restroom upgrade, which costs about $150,000 each.

At the Welk Homestead, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Bismarck, workers matched the color scheme of the restroom to the house and farm buildings, including interior colors.

“We made it to fit into the site and harmonize with the site and just be a pleasant part of the experience,” Historic Sites Manager Rob Hanna said.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — There was a buzz in the air Friday in northwestern Washington state as about 250 million honeybees escaped a commercial truck that overturned.

The truck hauling an estimated 70,000 pounds (31,751 kilograms) of honeybee hives rolled over around 4 a.m. close to the Canadian border near Lynden, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said in social media posts.

Deputies, county public works employees and several bee experts responded to the scene. The box hives later came off the truck, and local beekeepers swarmed to help recover, restore and reset the hives, according to the sheriff’s office.

The plan is to allow the bees to return to their hives and find their queen bee in the next day or two, according to the sheriff’s office. The goal is to save as many of the bees as possible.

“Thank you to the wonderful community of beekeepers: over two dozen showed up to help ensure the rescue of millions of pollinating honey bees would be as successful as possible,” the sheriff’s office post said.

The public was advised to avoid the area on Friday, and sheriff’s deputies dove into in their squad cars at times to avoid being stung.

Officials didn’t say whether the truck driver was hurt or why the truck rolled.

Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating over 100 crops including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons. Bees and other pollinators have been declining for years, and experts blame insecticides, parasites, disease, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply.

In 2018, the U.N. General Assembly sponsored the first “World Bee Day” on May 20 to bring attention to the bees’ plight.

Beekeepers often transport millions of bees from one location to another because leaving them in one location for too long can deplete resources for other pollinators, .

Alan Woods, president of the Washington State Beekeepers Association, told the newspaper the state should have a standardized “emergency bee response” for bee vehicle crashes. In 2015, a truck north of Seattle on Interstate 5 and started stinging people, the newspaper reported at the time.

CINCINNATI (AP) — Another cicada invasion is here. The large Brood XIV, which emerges every 17 years, is making for a spectacular natural event as billions of periodical cicadas emerge across parts of the Eastern U.S., including in Georgia, southern Ohio, Kentucky, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York.

When spring warms the soil to 64 degrees Fahrenheit (about 18 degrees Celsius), these cicada nymphs dig their way up to the surface after their long development period.

On the right night, usually after a warm spring rain, near trees showing cicada pilot holes and chimneys, they will emerge — so many that they can be heard crunching through the grass to climb up trees, plants, people or any vertical surface. There is a forceful quality about it.

Once they find footing, they begin the molting process. They shed their nymphal skin, emerging soft, vulnerable and pale yellow. They have two large red eyes on the sides of the head, three small, jewellike eyes called ocelli in the center, and gossamer wings. In a few hours, their bodies harden and darken, and they fly up to the treetops.

Then the screaming begins — the loud buzzing, screaming sound males make when they are looking for a mate. It leaves ears ringing.

Throughout this process, cicadas serve as a source of protein for both wildlife and humans. They survive by sheer numbers.

After mating, females lay eggs in tree branches and die shortly after. The hatched tiny nymphs fall and burrow into the ground, and the cycle begins again.

Cicadas are part of the magic of spring when the yellow and purple irises are blooming, and the green is new and vivid. The cicada show takes place in every light of the day and the dark of night. The pull is the power and beauty of nature and time.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man who was pinned facedown in an icy creek by a 700-pound (318-kilogram) boulder for three hours survived the ordeal with only minor injuries, thanks in part to his wife’s quick thinking and lots of luck.

Kell Morris’ wife held his head above water to prevent him from drowning while waiting for rescuers to arrive after Morris was pinned by the boulder, which crashed onto him during a hike near a remote glacier south of Anchorage.

His second stroke of luck came when a sled dog tourism company that operates on the glacier overheard the 911 dispatch and offered up its helicopter to ferry rescuers to the scene, which was inaccessible to all-terrain vehicles.

Once rescuers arrived, it took seven men and inflatable air bags to lift the boulder off as he drifted in and out of consciousness.

Morris, 61, said he realizes he is probably the luckiest man alive. “And luckier that I have such a great wife,” he said Thursday.

His wife, Jo Roop, is a retired Alaska State Trooper. They moved to Seward, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of Anchorage, from Idaho last fall when she took a job with the local police department.

Last Saturday, they wanted to avoid the big crowds that converge on the Kenai Peninsula community during holidays and decided to hike near Godwin Glacier on an isolated and undeveloped trail behind a state prison, Seward Fire Chief Clinton Crites said.

Their trail was actually a rocky creek bed lined with large boulders deposited by the glacier.

Morris said he noticed dangerous boulders, some weighing up to 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms), along the banks of the creek and avoided them the best he could, until he ran into an area he couldn’t pass.

“I was coming back and everything, the whole side slid out from under me,” he said.

He said things became a blur as he tumbled down the embankment about 20 feet (6 meters), landing face down in the water.

Then he immediately felt the boulder hit his back in what Crites described as “basically an avalanche of boulders.”

The way Morris landed, there were rocks under him, in between his legs and around him that caught the weight of the boulder, preventing him from being crushed, Crites said. But the massive rock still had him pinned, and Morris felt intense pain in his left leg and waited for his femur to snap.

“When it first happened, I was doubtful that there was going to be a good outcome,” Morris said.

His wife tried to free him for about 30 minutes, putting rocks under the boulder and trying to roll it off him, before she left to find a cell signal.

Amazingly, she only had to walk about 300 yards (274 meters) to connect with 911 and relied on her law enforcement experience to send exact GPS coordinates to dispatch.

A volunteer at the neighboring Bear Creek Fire Department heard the call while working at the sled dog tourism operation and diverted the helicopter used to ferry tourists to the scene. Ultimately, firefighters who couldn’t navigate their all-terrain vehicles over the boulder field jumped out of the helicopter.

By this time, Morris was hypothermic from the cold water running off the glacier, Crites said, and his wife was holding his head out of the water.

“I think if we hadn’t had that private helicopter assist us, it would have taken us at least another 45 minutes to get to him, and I’m not sure he had that much time,” Crites said.

The firefighters used two air bags normally reserved to extract people from wrecked vehicles to slightly lift the boulder.

“But then it just became an all-hands brute force of ‘one, two, three, push,’ ” Crites said. “And seven guys were able to lift it enough to pull the victim out.”

An Alaska National Guard helicopter lifted them out of the creek bed with a rescue basket.

Morris spent two nights at the local hospital for observation but walked away unscathed.

“I fully anticipated a body recovery, not him walking away without a scratch on him,” Crites said.

Morris, who is now reflecting on his ordeal at home, acknowledged it might have been a little wake-up call to stop doing things like this at his age.

“I was very lucky. God was looking out for me,” he said.

When he and his wife go hiking this weekend, they are going to stick to established trails.

“We’re going to stop the trailblazing,” he said.

CHARLES CITY, Va. (AP) — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the last living grandson of U.S. President John Tyler born 83 years after his grandfather left the White House in 1845, died. He was 96.

The cause of Tyler’s death on Sunday was not immediately released. John Tyler was 63 years old when Harrison Tyler’s father, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr., was born. And Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 when that father was 75 years old and the presidential grandfather had been dead for more than 60 years.

The grandson was known for preserving his grandfather’s plantation and nearby Civil War fort. In a statement, Annique Dunning, the executive director of Sherwood Forest, a national landmark of President Tyler’s residence, said the president’s grandson, whose brother died in 2020, was a “beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him.”

“He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him,” Dunning said.

Over the course of his life, Tyler preserved Sherwood Forest, his grandfather’s plantation that enslaved dozens of people, including 43 people in 1860, just before the Civil War began. The grandson also helped restore and maintain Fort Pocahontas, a Union fort during the Civil War.

Tyler’s grandfather was a Democrat nicknamed the “Accidental President” after unexpectedly assuming the presidency when President William Henry Harrison died in office. President Tyler was the first vice president to gain control of the White House in the wake of a death.

The University of Virginia’s Miller Center as “the last gasp of the Old Virginia aristocracy in the White House.” He had married twice and had 15 children, including Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr.

The time between the president’s birth and his grandson’s death spans 235 years.

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Rudveep Randhawa’s three kids competed in eight consecutive Scripps National Spelling Bees from 2016 to 2024, with four appearances by daughter Aisha and two each by daughter Lara and son Avi. Yet when Avi’s spelling journey concluded in last year’s semifinals, Randhawa, a pediatric endocrinologist who goes by “Dr. Happy,” was decidedly grumpy.

His gripe? At unexpected and critical moments, the spelling bee transforms into a geography bee.

Scripps has begun relying on obscure geographical terms to winnow down the field of spellers in the later rounds. While the words are included in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary, they often don’t follow familiar roots or language patterns, denying accomplished spellers of the tools they use to figure out which letters form the sounds of words they’ve never seen before.

Along with SAT-style, multiple-choice vocabulary questions, geographical terms have altered the way spellers prepare for the bee, which began Tuesday and concludes Thursday at a convention center outside Washington. Mastering them can require an out-of-fashion skill: rote memorization.

“Geographical words can be super hard sometimes because there’s no roots to break it down or sometimes you don’t get a language of origin. It will say ‘unknown origin’ or the dictionary doesn’t say,” said Avinav Prem Anand, a 14-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, who’s competing this year for the fourth and final time. “Basically, you have to memorize them because that’s the only thing you can do.”

Avinav put his preparation to use in Tuesday’s preliminary rounds when he breezed through Sapporo, the capital of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Others were not so fortunate: of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, heard the dreaded bell because he was unfamiliar with Terre Haute, the western Indiana city. He went with “terrahote.”

Last year, the Randhawa family of Corona, California, saw its decade-long spelling journey end when Avi misspelled Abitibi, the name of a shallow lake in northeastern Ontario and western Quebec.

“It’s beyond the pale of what anybody would consider a reasonable geographical word, a small lake in Canada that not even my Canadian friends had heard of. Not even a top-50 size lake in Canada,” Rudveep Randhawa said. “It’s just bizarre. In all the years with geographical words, we had seen words of some significance, they may be capitals of smaller countries, or they may be some port city that had significance, things of that nature.”

Yet for those who might find geographical terms unfair, Scripps has a message: Study harder.

“Per our contest rules, all words listed in Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, except those that are labeled ‘archaic’ or ‘obsolete,’ are fair,” said Molly Becker, the editorial director at Cincinnati-based Scripps and a member of the panel that selects words for the competition.

Scripps considers encouraging intellectual curiosity as part of the bee’s mission, and if kids with designs on the trophy have to learn more geography in order to prepare, that’s arguably a good thing.

“You never know what word will stand out to a speller and spark a lifelong interest or introduce them to a new concept,” Becker said.

Longtime spelling coach Grace Walters, a graduate student in linguistics at the University of Kentucky, cringed at the memory of Abitibi.

“Geo is definitely something that is feared by spellers,” Walters said, calling it “a daunting task to study.”

“But if geo is unfair because it doesn’t have patterns, that would mean other categories like trademarks and personal eponyms and words of unknown origin would also be unfair,” she said.

Some spellers embrace the challenge. Faizan Zaki, last year’s runner-up who’s competing again this year, was thrilled to hear Abitibi and Hoofddorp — a town in the Netherlands — in 2024 because he had seen those words before.

“There’s actually a section in Merriam-Webster that is dedicated to just geographical words, so sometimes when I’m tired from studying normal words, I take a break and I browse through that list of geographical words that they have,” said Faizan, a 13-year-old from Allen, Texas.

You heard that right: When Faizan gets tired of studying, he “takes a break” by studying more.

“Pretty much, that’s my life,” he said. “But yeah, it’s definitely enjoyable. I don’t hate it or anything.”

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Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

NEW YORK (AP) — Twice a year, New Yorkers and visitors are treated to a phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the setting sun aligns with the Manhattan street grid and sinks below the horizon framed in a canyon of skyscrapers.

The event is a favorite of photographers and often brings people out onto sidewalks on spring and summer evenings to watch this unique sunset.

The first Manhattanhenge of the year takes place Wednesday at 8:13 p.m., with a slight variation happening again Thursday at 8:12 p.m. It will occur again on July 11 and 12.

Some background on the phenomenon:

Where does the name Manhattanhenge come from?

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the term in a 1997 article in the magazine Natural History. Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, said he was inspired by a visit to Stonehenge as a teenager.

The future host of TV shows such as PBS’ “Nova ScienceNow” was part of an expedition led by Gerald Hawkins, the scientist who first theorized that Stonehenge’s mysterious megaliths were an ancient astronomical observatory.

It struck Tyson, a native New Yorker, that the setting sun framed by Manhattan’s high-rises could be compared to the sun’s rays striking the center of the Stonehenge circle on the solstice.

Unlike the Neolithic Stonehenge builders, the planners who laid out Manhattan did not mean to channel the sun. It just worked out that way.

When is Manhattanhenge?

Manhattanhenge does not take place on the summer solstice itself, which is June 20 this year. Instead, it happens about three weeks before and after the solstice. That’s when the sun aligns itself perfectly with the Manhattan grid’s east-west streets.

Viewers get two different versions of the phenomenon to choose from.

On May 28 and July 12, half the sun will be above the horizon and half below it at the moment of alignment with Manhattan’s streets, according to the .

On May 29 and July 11, the whole sun will appear to hover between buildings just before sinking into the New Jersey horizon across the Hudson River.

Where can you see Manhattanhenge?

The traditional viewing spots are along the city’s broad east-west thoroughfares: 14th Street, 23rd Street, 34th Street, 42nd Street and 57th Street.

The farther east you go, the more dramatic the vista as the sun’s rays hit building facades on either side. It is also possible to see Manhattanhenge across the East River in the Long Island City section of Queens.

Is Manhattanhenge an organized event?

Manhattanhenge viewing parties are not unknown, but it is mostly a DIY affair. People gather on east-west streets a half-hour or so before sunset and snap photo after photo as dusk approaches. That’s if the weather is fine. There’s no visible Manhattanhenge on rainy or cloudy days, and both are unfortunately in the forecast this week.

Do other cities have ‘henges’?

Similar effects occur in other cities with uniform street grids. Chicagohenge and Baltimorehenge happen when the setting sun lines up with the grid systems in those cities in March and September, around the spring and fall equinoxes. Torontohenge occurs in February and October.

But Manhattanhenge is particularly striking because of the height of the buildings and the unobstructed path to the Hudson.

HONOLULU (AP) — An Oregon man who quit his job at a tire company and liquidated his retirement savings to set sail for Hawaii with his cat, Phoenix, reached his destination Saturday, welcomed by cheering fans at the end of a weekslong journey that he documented for his mass of followers on social media.

Oliver Widger, who also was greeted by Hawaii Gov. Josh Green at the Waikiki Yacht Club on Oahu, acknowledged he was nervous facing the crowd, which included reporters. Widger said he was feeling “really weird” — not seasick, but, “I just feel like I have to, like, hold on to things to not fall over.”

He became an online sensation with his story, which followed a diagnosis four years ago with a syndrome that carried a risk of paralysis and made him realize he disliked his managerial job. He quit his job with “no money, no plan” and $10,000 of debt — and the goal of buying a sailboat and sailing around the world.

He taught himself to sail mostly via YouTube and moved from Portland to the Oregon coast. He spent months refitting the $50,000 boat he bought.

He set sail for Hawaii with Phoenix in late April, documenting their experiences for his more than 1 million followers on TikTok and 1.7 million followers on Instagram. He said he thinks his story, which made national news, resonated with people.

“I think a lot of people are, you know, you’re grinding at your job all day long and it doesn’t really matter how much money you make at this point, everybody’s just trying to do enough to get by and that just wears you out,” he said. “It’s just the world’s in a weird place, and I think people have seen that it’s possible to break out.”

Green presented Widger with a proclamation. Fans swarmed Widger after the news conference, many holding cameras and seeking selfies.

The scariest point of the trip came when a rudder failed, Widger said. Highlights included seeing dolphins and whales and periods of calm Pacific waters. “Being in the middle of the ocean when it was completely glass in every direction was an absurd feeling,” he said.

Widger, 29, said he never truly felt alone, since he was communicating with friends by means including video conference. But he also lamented not experiencing the open waters in a way that other sailors — who didn’t have access to tools like Starlink internet satellites — have in years before.

He said he may travel next to French Polynesia. But he said he had been focused on getting to Hawaii and not on what he’d do after that. He said he also needs to make repairs to his boat.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Local news co-anchor Olivia Jaquith went ahead with a three-hour morning newscast even after her labor contractions began and her water broke, keeping viewers updated about the coming birth of her first baby.

“We do have some breaking news this morning — literally,” co-anchor Julia Dunn said at the top of the Wednesday morning. “Olivia’s water has broke, and she is anchoring the news now in active labor.”

“Early labor, early labor,” replied Jaquith, who was two days past her due date.

Jaquith stayed on air as Dunn kept recording on Facebook Live.

“I’m happy to be here, and I’ll stay on the desk for as long as I possibly can,” Jaquith said. “But if I disappear, that’s what’s going on.”

Jaquith had the option of going home, but she told that she decided to pass the time at her job rather than “nervously waiting around at the hospital.”

“Having the entire morning team alongside me cracking jokes helped me get through contractions much easier,” she said in a text to the newspaper.

The birth of her baby boy, Quincy, was announced Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted a woman who sneaked onto a flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass by slipping past security and airline gate agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport last year.

The short trial of Svetlana Dali concluded with a guilty finding on a stowaway charge by jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. Jury selection and opening statements were both held on Tuesday.

The judge did not set a sentencing date.

Dali faces up to six months in prison, according to her sentencing guidelines. To date, she has been in custody for more than five months. Dali’s lawyer did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Surveillance video shows Dali, a 57-year-old Russian citizen with U.S. residency, glomming onto a group of ticketed passengers as they pass two Delta Air Lines staffers who were checking tickets and didn’t appear to notice Dali. She then strolls with the group onto an air bridge to a plane bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

Dali had initially been turned away from a security checkpoint at JFK by a Transportation Security Administration official after she was unable to show a boarding pass, court documents say. But she was able to sneak into a special security lane for airline employees and, masked by a large Air Europa flight crew, made it to an area where she was screened and patted down. Then she went to the Delta gate.

On the plane, she hid in a bathroom for several hours and wasn’t discovered by Delta crew members until the plane was nearing Paris, court documents say. Crew members notified French authorities, who detained her before she entered customs at the Paris airport, according to court documents.

She was eventually flown back to New York and admitted to authorities that she got on the plane without a ticket and that she intentionally evaded security and Delta employees so she could avoid buying a ticket, court records said.

During two hours of questioning by an FBI agent, Dali said she flew to France because she had to the leave the U.S., where she said police refused to protect her from people who were poisoning her, according to court documents.

Dali was initially released after her arrest with electric monitoring but then was arrested again in Buffalo, New York, after she cut off the monitor and tried to enter Canada.

Prosecutors said Dali evaded security measures at two other airports before the JFK incident, and they believe she may have stowed away on another flight.

Two days before she sneaked on the Paris flight, she was able to get through TSA, identification and boarding pass checkpoints at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, by hiding among other passengers. Authorities said she unsuccessfully tried to get on a plane and then left the airport.

In February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered Dali hiding in a bathroom at Miami International Airport, prosecutors said. Dali, who was found in a secured area in the international arrivals zone, was fingerprinted, her baggage was checked and she was escorted out of the airport, after the agents couldn’t confirm her story that she had just arrived on an Air France flight and was waiting for her husband, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said federal agents did not make any findings that Dali had illegally traveled as a stowaway to Miami, but her statements to law enforcement after her arrest in Paris appeared to indicate that she had flown into Miami illegally. Dali told authorities that she returned to the U.S. in February 2024 after spending time in Europe, but there were no records of her being admitted to the U.S. within the past five years.

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager has admitted his role in the theft and sale of human body parts — including hands, feet and heads.

Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Pennsylvania to interstate transport of stolen human remains, federal prosecutors said. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

The thefts from the morgue in Boston occurred from 2018 through at least March 2020, prosecutors said. Authorities have said Lodge, his wife and others were part of a nationwide network of people who bought and sold human remains stolen from Harvard and a mortuary in Arkansas.

Denise Lodge and several other defendants have pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from the scheme. Prosecutors have said she negotiated online sales of several items, including two dozen hands, two feet, nine spines, portions of skulls, five dissected human faces and two dissected heads.

Authorities have said the dissected portions of cadavers donated to the school were taken without the school’s knowledge or permission.

Bodies donated to Harvard Medical School are used for education, teaching or research purposes. Once they are no longer needed, the cadavers are usually cremated and the ashes are returned to the donor’s family or buried in a cemetery.

NEW YORK (AP) — The recommended reading list contained some works of fiction. It also contained some works that were, in fact, actually fictional.

The content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained books that didn’t exist.

The list appeared in “Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer,” a special section distributed in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer last week.

More than half of the books listed were fake, according to the piece’s author, Marco Buscaglia, who admitted to using AI for help in his research but didn’t double-check what it produced. “A really stupid error on my part,” Buscaglia wrote on his Facebook page.

It’s the latest instance of an AI shortcut backfiring and embarrassing news organizations. Sports Illustrated was caught in 2023 listing nonexistent authors for product reviews carried on its website. The Gannett news service had to pause an experiment using AI for sports stories after errors were discovered.

“The Heat Index summer supplement was created by a freelance contract creator who used AI in its story development without disclosing the use of AI,” the syndicators King Features said in a statement, noting it has a strict policy against using AI to create material. Only the Sun-Times and Inquirer have used the supplement, the organization said.

Among the summer reading suggestions was “The Last Algorithm” by Andy Weir, described as “a science-driven thriller following a programmer who discovers an AI system has developed consciousness” and been secretly influencing world events. “Nightshade Market,” by Min Jin Lee, was said to be a “riveting tale set in Seoul’s underground economy.”

Both authors are real, but the books aren’t. “I have not written and will not be writing a novel called ‘Nightshade Market,’” Lee posted on X.

The Sun-Times said it was investigating whether any other inaccurate information was included in the “Heat Index” supplement, and reviewing its relationships with other content partners.

“We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges,” the newspaper said. “This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it.”

Both the Sun-Times and Inquirer said they have removed the supplement from its digital editions. The Inquirer special section was published on May 15.

The Inquirer has used King Features for comics, puzzles and other material for more than 40 years, said Lisa Hughes, its publisher and CEO. “The Inquirer newsroom is not involved in the production of these syndicated features, nor was it involved in creating Heat Index,” she said.

The blunder was first reported by the tech publication 404 Media.

It was not clear who at King Features had responsibility for editing Bascaglia’s material. The Chicago-based writer said on Facebook that “I am completely at fault here — just an awful oversight and a horrible mistake.”

“I’m not really sure I bounce back from this situation career-wise,” he said. “I have a lot of stories left in me but I am fully accountable for what happened and will have to endure the effects, whatever they may be.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at and .

Chasing a loose kangaroo is getting to be part of the job for police in a southwestern Colorado town.

Irwin, the pet kangaroo, wasn’t difficult to nab when he got loose last fall in Durango, Colorado. Still quite young at the time, he leapt into a bag similar to a mother kangaroo’s pouch.

On Monday, Irwin got loose again. A police caller was worried he might get hit by a car.

This time, Irwin had grown too big for a bag.

“That technique wasn’t going to work. The officers were debating whether they needed to lasso it or what the plan was,” police Cmdr. Nick Stasi said Tuesday.

Officer Shane Garrison — described by Stasi as a “farm boy” with animal-handling experience — figured it out after following Irwin down an alley and into a backyard.

Irwin was still small enough, about as big as a medium-sized dog, for Garrison to corner him near a house, sneak up close and grab him. He carried the kangaroo to a police truck’s back seat and shut the door, as seen in a different officer’s body camera video.

Kangaroos are among the unusual but legal animals to keep in Colorado.

Irwin was taken home to his family in downtown Durango, a tourism hub of 20,000 residents that is known for mountain tours on a narrow-gauge train.

Stasi wasn’t sure how Irwin got out, but this 2-year-old pet will get only harder to catch.

By age 4 or 5, kangaroos can grow taller than most men and weigh 200 pounds (90 kilograms). They can hop much faster than a person runs and deliver a powerful kick.

“We want all pet owners to be responsible with their pet, how they keep it and keep it safe,” said Stasi.

CAMDEN, Delaware (AP) — A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered.

Involved parties are still awaiting answers as to how 12,000 chicks were abandoned within a Delaware mail distribution center. The United States Postal Service said in an email that it was aware of a process breakdown and was actively investigating what occurred.

Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for their weekly distribution to clients across the country, said a spokesperson for the company. Due to biosecurity concerns, the hatchery cannot take the chicks back.

The spokesperson said it would have been best if USPS, after discovering the chicks, had completed delivery as the recipients would have been adequately equipped to handle the birds — even malnourished ones.

For more than two weeks, the surviving chicks have been nursed and cared for at First State Animal Center and SPCA, said John Parana, executive director.

Last Tuesday, the shelter began offering the birds for adoption, but only a few hundred out of thousands have been picked up. There is no complete count of the chicks, as the shelter has no feasible way to do so, but Parana estimates there to be more than two thousand available.

Some have inquired about buying the birds for meat, but, as a no-kill shelter and SPCA, those were refused.

The strain has turned the animal care center into a 24/7 operation and necessitated a staffing increase, Parana said. Money remains the biggest concern for the donation-reliant nonprofit. Some employees have begun spending their money to support the operations, he added.

Among the birds were young turkeys, geese and quail, but the vast majority were Freedom Ranger chicks. One concern for the shelter, Parana explained, was the increasing demand for space and feed over time, as Freedom Rangers take about ten weeks to reach maturity.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture, after a call from USPS, directed the animals to the shelter, which shares a memorandum of understanding with the animal center as a state vendor. The department said it is responsible for assisting the shelter with funds — for chickens, the rate was $5 each per day.

The department’s chief of planning, Jimmy Kroon, said negotiations were ongoing, but Parana claims that the department communicated that they had no funds to allocate for the chicks. Both acknowledged the original rate would be unreasonable in the current circumstances.

“They said that they’re gonna try to go after the post office to get recoupment,” Parana said. “That doesn’t help us in the meantime.”