PONTIAC – Orchard Lake St. Mary’s got seven stellar innings out of its starter on Saturday afternoon, and a few good at-bats, too.

Junior Luke Crighton pitched a complete game shutout and was also responsible for two of his team’s runs as the Eaglets defeated Notre Dame Prep 3-0 for a D2 district title.

“He’s the definition of a complete player,” Eaglets head coach Nick Di Ponio said. We needed him to step up in that game and he did so. That’s a really, really good team that we played, and especially in that last inning, we didn’t want to get back to the top of their lineup. Those guys can swing it. We know them well, they did a great job, and it was a really good game all-around.”

Crighton and St. Mary’s (23-12) cruised through the seventh other than a leadoff single to Jack Fallon, but it was the sixth that looked like the one where the Irish might finally chase the Indiana commit.

Notre Dame Prep led off that inning with back-to-back singles by juniors Tomassino Offer and Derek Roa, then had the bases loaded with one out when Owen Fulsher walked. But Crighton induced a grounder to third for a force out at home, then a strikeout swinging to keep the shutout intact.

“About the fifth inning I said to our pitching coach that this was his game,” Di Ponio said. “He was around the zone with all his pitches and give us the best chance, and with that team, we wanted him out there as long as we could have him. He did a really good job being efficient.”

The final line for Crighton included six hits, two walks and seven strikeouts. “My fastball, I was throwing it whatever I wanted; inside-out, I like to do that a lot,” he said. “Then I was just working the curveball and slider off of that.”

There were several other frames where the Irish, who came into the final having won 21 of their last 22 had runners in scoring position — seniors Michael Wiebelhaus and Ethan Janssen each had doubles — but the clutch hits never materialized.

“Going into it, we legitimately knew we had to score three or four runs to win the game,” Irish head coach Jason Gendreau said. “That was the talk before the game.”

He continued, “There were three goals, and the first, the only one we didn’t meet, was that we had to figure out how to get to (that many) runs. The second goal was to not let (Andrew) Tribul or (Hudson) Brzustewicz beat us, and we didn’t allow that to happen. And the last goal was, could we be within three runs in the seventh if we don’t have the lead? They did that. We had some opportunities offensively, but when you’re facing a kid that’s throwing 89, 90 (mph), a Division 1 athlete, it’s going to be hard at times, and you really have to buckle down and execute in those situations. Credit Orchard Lake for cashing in on their opportunities a little bit more than we did.”

St. Mary’s broke the scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the third when Crighton’s ball hit to left field scored Preston Duff. Crighton doubled off the fence in deep center to score Anthony Elezaj in the fifth, making it 2-0, then Nate Bauman followed it up with a knock into right that fell just fair of the first-base line and scored Crighton.

Junior Henry Ewles pitched well enough to give the Irish a chance, going all six innings of the defeat. ND Prep also had it working on the mound in its district semifinal earlier in the day, an 8-1 victory over Lamphere. Fulsher threw six innings of four-hit ball — two of those hits were by Aidan Grzeskowski — then Roa came in to seal the deal.

Janssen had three hits in the win over the Rams, while Offer went 4-for-4 and scored three times.

“Fulsher did what he’s been doing all year,” Gendreau said. “He finished 8-0 on the season. Henry ends up finishing 7-4, but he also threw against the majority of the big dogs. I have a lot of respect for both of the young men. They had outstanding years. And give a lot of credit to Owen (today) for throwing almost 80 pitches, then going back and catching a great game.”

Photos from Orchard Lake St. Mary’s vs. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep in a D2 baseball district final

The 29 wins this season marked a program-best for Notre Dame Prep.

"It beat the 2018 team's record, and we just came up one short of 30," Gendreau said.

Cade Wilhelmi and Kyler Marvin both drove in a pair of runs for Country Day in the other semifinal, but the Yellowjackets' sixth inning in which they scored all their runs was sandwiched by a pair of four-run frames at the plate by the Eaglets, who beat Country Day 12-5.

Gendreau's aforementioned goal of slowing two of St. Mary's top hitters was something Country Day couldn't hold to. Tribul had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs, while Brzustewicz hit a grand slam in the seventh that effectively sealed the Eaglets' place in the final.

The championship marked just another victory over a top program by the Eaglets this season. They came in ranked sixth in D2, two spots ahead of ND Prep, and started the year 10-8, but had a pair of wins each against Rochester Adams (No. 3 in D1) and Brother Rice (ranked 10th in D1) in the month of May.

"Within our league, we know we're going to see top-level competition every single time," Di Ponio. "There was a point in early April (against De La Salle), I think an umpire looked and me and said it kind of felt like a playoff game. So our team has been accustomed to these situations all year and knew that this was going to be another one. We feel like we're prepared for anything."

The Eaglets will now prepare for Dearborn Divine Child, ranked No. 11 in D2, in a regional semifinal that will also be played at Notre Dame Prep.

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s defeated Notre Dame Prep 3-0 for a Division 2 baseball district championship Saturday, May 31, 2025 in Pontiac. The Eaglets will remain at ND Prep to play Dearborn Divine Child in the regional semifinals on June 4.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Michael Wacha said he had plenty left if needed.

Wacha had the fourth-longest no-hit bid of his career Saturday before yielding a one-out hit to Colt Keith in the seventh inning of the Kansas City Royals’ 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Wacha did not factor in the decision, but he had his best outing of his two seasons with the Royals.

When asked if he would have given Wacha a chance to complete the game if the no-hitter was intact, Quatraro said, “I was hoping he would do it. He had six days off between his last outing and this one. He’s got some extra rest before the next one, if everything stays the way it is. So I was hoping we’d get to go for it.”

Before Keith’s hit, Wacha allowed only one baserunner on a fourth-inning walk to Gleyber Torres. He did not allow a runner to reach second base in seven innings.

“Obviously, I knew what was going on,” Wacha said of his no-hit bid. “I was just continuing to try to keep taking it to another level and keep making my pitches, and keep executing like I had been pretty much all day. I was just try to push it to the back of my mind and keep making quality pitches.”

Quatraro said he allowed himself to enjoy the effort of both pitchers, in spite of the scoreless game.

“You can appreciate the game, right?” he said. “I mean, you’ve got two really good pitchers out there, two good teams, and that’s a fun game. Sure, I would have rather been up 7-0 and not had to worry about it, but I did appreciate what was going on.”

Vinnie Pasquantino’s eighth-inning single drove in Nick Loftin from second for the game’s only run, as Wacha and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal both spun gems.

Loftin one-hopped the wall with what he originally thought was a homer.

“I just probably one of my better balls that I’ve hit here,” said Loftin, who had two of Kansas City’s four hits. “Quite frankly, I didn’t realize how big that ballpark was.”

Wacha has never thrown a no-hitter in his professional career, but he was ready to give it a try if he still had a chance.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I would not want to leave a game like that for sure. But unfortunately, I gave up a hit. That made it a little easier for Q.”

— By DAVID SMALE, Associated Press

COMMERCE TWP. — Like the prep softball version of the Hatfields and McCoys, the rivals from the Battle of Bogie Lake Road, Lakeland and Walled Lake Northern, have ‘gotten’ each other so many times over the years, that’s hard to determine what exactly you might be getting ‘revenge’ for.

So neither coach really wanted to bring up what had happened last year, when Lakeland took out Northern, en route to a quarterfinal appearance.

The junior pitcher had a home run — her third on the day — and an RBI double, and struck out 10, as the Knights beat Lakeland, 6-3, to claim a Division 1 district title on their home field Saturday, their seventh since the 2015-16 season.

“We kind of put it in the past, and we just said ‘New game.’ We beat them in preseason and in the LVC, and we just tried to not let it affect us really, even though we beat them,” Turmell said. “But we just wanted to come out new game, 0-0.”

The Knights (30-6) — who will advance to regionals at Grand Blanc next weekend, facing Lake Orion — did beat Lakeland (25-11) twice back in mid-April, in a high-scoring doubleheader where the two teams accounted for 41 runs.

“It’s always hard to beat a team, a good team, especially a good team like Lakeland, three times,” Northern coach Kristen Woodard admitted. “But no, I didn’t really want to put that (last year’s loss) in their heads at all. I just knew we’d have to come and bring our best, because I know Lakeland would — they always do.”

In the last decade, the two programs have met in the postseason six of the nine times it was held (no season in 2020), with one team or the other winning a district title every single time. In 2017, they both won a district, and met for the regional title.

“They’re a good team. They force you to do things like that (make mistakes) sometimes. And you know, our team, we played really well. I mean, earlier in the year, they beat us up pretty good,” said Lakeland coach Mike Cleary, noting that his team never talked about those April losses again after they happened. “And to go into this game tied in the (sixth) we were in pretty good shape, I thought. But you know what? You know, we did this to them last year. They do it to us this year. It’s tough when both of us are in the same district, because we always have good teams, and it’s seems one of us has to get (knocked) out early, which is, unfortunately, this year it’s us.”

The Eagles were in good shape early, jumping out to a first-inning lead with a solo home run by Brynn Taliercio. But Turmell answered in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot of her own to tie it up at 1-1.

Turmell’s RBI double to the right-center gap in the fourth put the Knights ahead, and they’d add a second run on an error to lead 3-1.

Both teams would pitch around the other’s No. 3 hitter the rest of the way, and that benefitted the Eagles in the sixth, when an unintentional-intentional walk to Taliercio put the tying run on, and Emily Searle’s two-run double tied it at 3-3.

“We just talked about, you know, what we get behind, and we’ve come back with other teams. We were down big against Hartland in the tournament. We came back and beat them, then other teams, we were down, and we battled back,” Cleary said. “So I said, you know, if they get ahead of us, we’re not out of it. And, you know, we came back, we’re down and came back and tied it up again. So that was kind of the team. They didn’t give up.”

Woodard made a trip to the circle to calm Turmell down during the rally, calming her down, making her laugh.

“Sometimes, I do lighten the mood, but there I just wanted her to get dialed in and just, you know, give her a little extra confidence,” Woodard said. “I just wanted to make sure that she wasdoing all right, because she was getting a little wild there. …And just remind her that they have to hit her best pitch, and just to pitch with that in mind.”

“She told me that, basically, to just throw my game and they have to be scared to hit off of me. And same with hitting too. So they had to throw to me and I had to throw to them,” Turmell said.

Makenna Kresbaugh led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo home run to put the Knights back up, 4-3, then after they loaded the bases, tacked on two more runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Olivia Frelick and Kendall Morris to make it 6-3.

It wouldn’t be a Lakeland-Northern matchup without a little controversy, and that came at the end of that inning, when Northern’s ninth hitter to come to the plate was initially called safe, then was called out when the home plate umpire overruled the initial decision.

The was more in the top of the seventh, as the Eagles — down to their final strike — had their own runner called safe on a bang-bang play, but Turmell got the next batter to line out to close it out.

Photo gallery from the D1 softball district final between Lakeland and WL Northern

Walled Lake Northern 8, Walled Lake Central 2

The second semifinal of the morning was another close one initially for the Knights, tied at 2-2 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Knights put a pair of runs on the board, then added four more in the sixth.

Sam Gillick was 4-for-4 with two stolen bases and three runs scored, while Turmell — who struck out 14 in the circle — homered twice and drove in three runs. Makenna Kresbaugh said a pair of doubles and drove in four runs.

Lakeland 17, West Bloomfield 2 (3 innings)

The Eagles made short work of the Lakers in the first semifinal of the morning, as four batters — Piper Huff, Aubrey VanGoethem, Emilee Dostal and Zoie Gagnon — drove in multiple runs. Gagnon homered and drove in three total.

Melina Wing got the win in the circle scattering six hits and striking out four.

An 11-win team heading into Saturday, the Eisenhower Eagles had to go through 23-win Romeo and 21-win Stoney Creek to win a district championship.

They did.

With a 9-3 victory in the semifinals over the Bulldogs, Ike went on to score five runs in the first two innings of their eventual 5-1 victory over the Cougars to win their first district title in eight years, and just the second in program history.

That last district crown came during Bob Hall’s first stint with Ike. After a hiatus, he’s back with the Eagles, but hasn’t coached for most of the year after a birth defect in his heart caused a stroke.

But he was there on Saturday, and acting head coach Karlene Kilburn – also on the 2017 staff – couldn’t help but hold back tears.

“Eisenhower only has one other district title in school history, and it’s a little emotional because the last time it was coach Bob and I together,” Kilburn said. “So it’s nice that he’s able to come back and we could finish what we wanted to start.”

The Eagles struck first when Addison Viviano cracked a single to score Rease Buza, who walked, in the first inning.

Vivano was given another chance in the second, and again, she didn’t disappoint – with the bases loaded and two outs, the freshman scorched a line drive into center field that got past a diving D Bryant, clearing the bases.

She came around to score herself on a Liz Petrella double right after.

“We feel so excited,” Viviano said. “We’ve been working for this all season, practicing hard every practice. I mean, it feels great.”

Viviano is just one of several young contributors for the Eagles. Their starting pitcher, Anna Bellomo, is just a sophomore – the only run she allowed in the complete game was an unearned one, and she also struck out six Cougars with three hits allowed. She walked four. Rease Buza, who pitched in the win over Romeo, is also a sophomore.

“Both her (Bellomo) and Rease as pitchers bring a leadership that is really helpful in our defense,” Kilburn said. “And so having that pairing has been phenomenal; that when one is down, the other one is pitching well.

“And Anna is a competitor, and she likes a little bit of pressure, and putting her in that situation just makes her throw better. Today was probably the best I’ve seen her pitch all year.”

Out of all five teams in the district – including Rochester, Romeo, Rochester Adams and Stoney Creek – Eisenhower had the fewest wins and worst regular season win percentage going in.

That was then.

“I told them all that, if they put into games what we do in practice, if they just execute that, there’s not a team out there that can beat us,” Kilburn said.

Stoney Creek struggled to find their groove early after winning an 11-10 marathon over Rochester Adams in the game before. Ella Fugate allowed four baserunners while getting just two outs, and Sara Kruczek was tagged for three runs in 0.2 innings.

It wasn’t until Allie Ray finally settled in that they were able to stabilize, but strong pitching by Bellomo and solid defense behind her made it difficult for Stoney Creek to overcome the early deficit.

“The culture of this team has been for the last four years, and as you’ve seen with the first game against Adams, is we never give up,” said Stoney Creek head coach Rick Troy. “It’s a ‘never give up’ attitude. It’s a culture. It’s just how this team has been built and continues to be built. There’s no excuse for the loss, but there is a reality that we’re a very young team.”

The Cougars graduate senior Kate Stephens, a Maryland softball commit, whom Troy dubbed as the best player to ever come out of Stoney Creek.

Photos from Eisenhower’s 5-1 district title win over Stoney Creek on Saturday

“We’ve been blessed to have her leadership and her gamesmanship, her skill sets,” Troy said. “She’s the entire package, and that’s why she’s going DI.”

Stoney Creek finishes the year 21-14.

Eisenhower has earned themselves another week, with their next game set to be against Port Huron Northern, who beat Dakota in eight innings on Friday to win their district. Start time is 10 a.m. from Royal Oak High School, with the winner playing either Ford or Royal Oak.

The Eagles are a-ok with having more time to practice, having had one as recently as the night before their 10 a.m. start time against Romeo.

“This feels amazing,” Viviano said. “It’s my freshman year. I can’t wait for the next three years.”

ROCHESTER HILLS – The Utica Eisenhower Eagles claimed their first district title since 2017 with a 3-1 win over the defending Division 1 champion Rochester Adams Highlanders on Saturday afternoon.

“It feels really, really good. We’ve been working very hard all season to win the district, and it means a lot to us because this is our first time, at least for the freshmen class that came in with me,” captain Sonja Peterson said. “So we’re really looking forward to hopefully making an even deeper run in the state.”

Eisenhower dominated the first half, creating most of the best chances even as it battled into the wind. The Eagles got on the board first when Lily Pantaleo scored on a breakaway with 28:21 still to play before intermission.

Later in the half, it was Pantaleo’s turn to play the through ball. Gabby Riggio ran onto the slotted ball and used the outside of her foot to flick a ball inside the near post, doubling the Eagles’ advantage. Eisenhower had a couple of chances to stretch the lead even further, but Adams senior goalie Brooklyn Harding came up with some key saves to keep the Highlanders hanging around.

The Highlanders fought to try and shave the deficit. Adams was especially dangerous after halftime and created a handful of high quality chances, but struggled to finish any of them off. The Highlanders did hit the crossbar twice – once in the final minute of the first half and again early in the second half – and had the ball bouncing around the Eisenhower penalty area on a few different occasions, but the Eagles always seemed to win those battles and eventually cleared the ball or pressured Adams into missing the net.

When Devyn Raymond blasted a ball that went in off the post with 4:26 remaining to make it 3-0 Eagles, any drama left in the game was put to rest. Still, Adams kept in it to the end and spoiled the shoutout with 24 seconds remaining when Riley Walsh set up Sadie Rogers for a 20-yard rip that capped the scoring at 3-1 Eisenhower.

“The story of it is they finished and we didn’t,” Adams head coach Josh Hickey said.. “But I’m proud of the girls for the way they played. They gave a good effort, but that’s a good team, so you can’t make mistakes against those types of teams.”

The win is the first district title for Eisenhower in eight years as they have consistently been drawn into one of the tougher districts in the state.

It was also Eisenhower head coach Merhdad Nekoogar’s 300th career win with the Eagles.

“Honestly, I never thought about. I really didn’t. I’m just happy that I was able to stay with a very, very good school, a school that I’m so proud of. I’m proud to be part of this program, and I’m just happy that I was able to help a little,” he said.

Photo gallery of Rochester Adams vs. Utica Eisenhower in a D1 girls soccer district championship

Eisenhower now advances to the regional semifinals on Tuesday when it will face Troy Athens, who defeated rival Troy for its district title.

“I’m just so happy for them. They worked very hard,” Nekoogar said. “This is the toughest district. Now after districts, Athens another very, very good team, but we will take one at a time. We’re just happy that we accomplished this part of it."

Added Peterson, “I think it’s definitely just the team’s chemistry this year. It’s been unmatched with years before when I’ve been on the team. Everyone cares about each other so, so very much, and we just connect really well. We also have a very talented group of players all working together, and I think all of us together wanting to win and wanting to go as far as possible is what is going to keep us going and what has kept us going."

Rochester Adams finishes the year 13-5-1. The Highlanders will graduate eight seniors from this year’s team.

“We’re happy. I thought we had one of the toughest schedules in the state, bar none, and it definitely got us ready for this. But having 13 wins against that type of schedule is always big,” Hickey said. “I love the seniors. We had girls come for the first time and be able to play high school, which is cool to see. Then I had a few four-year players. Those players are always special to us. And we’re going to miss them.”

Utica Eisenhower scored twice before halftime, then added another goal unanswered after intermission to defeat Rochester Adams 3-1 for a D1 district championship Saturday, May 31, 2025 in Rochester Hills.

No. 6-ranked Walled Lake Northern beat Bogie Lake Road rival Lakeland, 6-3, in a Division 1 district final at Northern on Saturday, May 31, 2025, as the Knights won their seventh district title in the last decade.

When Yuvi Agarwal began playing keyboard for a room full of dogs at the Denver Animal Shelter on Thursday, the music was hard to distinguish between the barks and yelps of his audience.

But as the seconds turned into minutes and the 12-year-old from Houston continued to play, the canine cacophony began to calm as the dogs settled down.

“It’s very satisfying when the dogs calm down, and it is also really heartwarming,” Yuvi said, grinning.

It’s been more than two years since Yuvi started the nonprofit Wild Tunes to connect volunteer musicians and animal shelters. After establishing programs at seven shelters in Texas and one in New Jersey, Yuvi and his mom, executive director Priyanka Agarwal, are celebrating the launch of a new program starting in Denver in June.

Yuvi came up with the idea in December 2022 when he participated in a program to read books to animals, and he thought about how his golden doodle, Bozo, would lay down and listen whenever Yuvi started playing music at home.

“I realized that music would have a much stronger effect on the shelter animals than reading,” he said.

His realization was confirmed by studies that show classical music reduces stress in shelter dogs, and Yuvi thinks it also helps them rebuild bridges with humans and get adopted faster, he said.

The idea to bring Wild Tunes to Denver began when one of the group’s Houston volunteers moved to the city and wanted to continue playing music for pups. The group reached out to Denver Animal Shelter staff with an introduction from the director of the Houston Animal Shelter, and it was a clear fit.

“We thought it was such a fun and different way to engage our community and a great opportunity for people and animals,” said Lauren Rolfe, volunteer program administrator at the shelter. “It just gives you chills and brings a smile to your face.”

The first time shelter staff sent out a teaser about the new program, they heard from 65 people who wanted to get involved, Rolfe said. Volunteers will be playing music for the shelter’s dogs and cats seven days a week.

It’s not clear where Yuvi’s deep love for animals came from, Priyanka Agarwal said. The family liked animals before Yuvi was born, but it grew exponentially as their son rescued baby birds and refused to let them use pest control on uninvited animal guests.

“He’s really a change maker,” she said. “He’s always teaching people how to be kind, how to be compassionate, and it’s an overwhelming feeling to be his mom.”

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In a stunning announcement Wednesday, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission issued a public complainant detailing 10 counts of infractions against Taylor Judge Joseph Slaven of the 23rd District Court.

Slaven has been on the bench since Jan. 1, 2015.

The counts are:

• False statement regarding recorded conversations

• Use of judicial position to help a candidate

• Inappropriate demeanor and disrespect

• Disrespectful emails

• Disregard of the law with respect to wearing a rob

• Concealing face of Zoom

• Disrespectful behavior regarding security camera

• Interference with Zoom staff

• Knowing driving with expired and obliterated license plate

• False statements to the commission

The following is a brief synopsis of some of the individual counts.

False statements

Slaven had numerous conversations in 2021 and early 2022 with the new chief Judge Victoria Shackelford after she was appointed to the bench. When they met, the complaint said Slaven did not tell her that he was recording their conversation.

When she directly asked if she was being recorded, he told her no — knowing the statement was false, the complaint said.

Helping a candidate

According to the complaint, in 2022 Slaven used his judicial position on numerous occasions to promote Michael Tinney, a candidate for 23rd District Court judge.

During a Law Day celebration at the courthouse, Slaven displayed a vertical sign that spelled Tinney in an acrostic-style display.

The following year when Tinney was considering another run at the seat, during a livestreamed Zoom court session Slaven took the opportunity to talk about his friend, calling him a “really good guy” and thanking him for his outlook on the law and saying he looks forward to doing more community service with him and community activism.

On a separate occasion, Slaven is accused of using courthouse resources to print 160 copies of a document called, “Mike Tinney is a Man of the People” to assist his campaign.

Disrespect

Slaven posted on his Facebook page about a Law Day event in 2022 in which supporters of Shackelford attended. He addressed the event in part by posting, “they are simple minded buffoons!! BC, MG, DW, MF, RH, GT…..smh and shame on them.”

He allegedly said the people with those initials “Iie and twist things.”

The initials were those of all Shackelford’s supporters in attendance at Law Day.

On another occasion during a livestream Zoom hearing, Slaven discovered some show cause hearings had been added to his docket without his permission.

He then stated that the court administrator “thinks she can make my docket better than I can. Good luck with that. She can’t even do her ***damn job.”

On Nov. 20, 2023, during a livestream Zoom hearing, Slaven, referring to Chief Judge Shackelford, reportedly said: “I’m sorry that you can’t handle your docket. I’m sorry you don’t know the law. I’m sorry the court rules seem to be somewhat of a foreign language. The public needs to know that people who are in certain positions are not competent.”

Disrespectful on camera

In April 2024 new security cameras were placed throughout the courthouse. Shortly thereafter, on nine occasions, Slaven allegedly raised his middle finger to make an obscene gesture toward the camera as he walked by it or sometimes used his middle finger to ostentatiously push up his glasses as he walked by the camera.

In a January 16, 2024 Zoom hearing, Slaven said the following in reference to Shackelford during a live Zoom feed between hearings: “We’re going to have a bonfire and taking everything with her name on it and she’s —-ing voted out, gone…I will bring burn barrels.”

Wearing a rob

It is required that a judge wear a black robe when acting in an official capacity in the courtroom.

Slaven was reminded numerous times of the requirement, but continuously did otherwise.

On dates in 2022 that included April 27 and Sept. 12 and 13, Slaven wore a polo shirt with no visible robe during court proceedings on Zoom, the commission alleges.

The Macomb County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a body was found Thursday afternoon in the Clinton River near Shadyside Park in Mount Clemens.

Investigators were not able to provide much information as the corpse was decomposed. It was not immediately known if the remains were a male or female, or if foul play was suspected, deputies said.

Someone called 911 to report the body in the river under the Southbound Gratiot Avenue bridge around 2:25 p.m. The caller said two feet were visible in the middle of the river.

“He also stated there was a lot of debris in the water,” deputies said in a news release.

According to the release, deputies responded and confirmed a body was located underwater. The Sheriff’s Marine Division arrived to assist and remove the remains from the water.

Investigators said the body will be transported to the Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

The investigation is ongoing, and further updates will be provided as they become available.

Security beefed up for Center Line Independence Festival

Police: Golf cart driver who struck boy at parade had not been drinking

By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s chief of staff.

A White House official confirmed the investigation Friday and said the White House takes cybersecurity of its staff seriously. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that senators, governors, business leaders and others began receiving text messages and phone calls from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles number, the newspaper reported.

Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles that may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the report. Some received text messages that they initially thought were official White House requests but some people reported the messages did not sound like Wiles.

The FBI warned in a public service announcement this month of a “malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which unidentified “malicious actors” have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials.

The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.

“Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement Friday.

It is unclear how someone gained access to Wiles’ phone, but the intrusion is the latest security breach for Trump staffers. Last year, Iran hacked into Trump’s campaign and sensitive internal documents were stolen and distributed, including a dossier on Vice President JD Vance, created before he was selected as Trump’s running mate.

Wiles, who served as a co-manager of Trump’s campaign before taking on the lynchpin role in his new administration, has amassed a powerful network of contacts.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

By JESSICA DAMIANO

What’s the deal with the Chelsea Chop? Are you gardeners familiar with it?

After hearing about it recently, I did a bit of research. The earliest reference I could find dates back to the early 2000s, so it might appear I’m late to the party, but I’m not — and you might not be, either.

After all, the pruning method, named for the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, which is held every May in the U.K., is one I’ve been practicing and advocating for all along, without the garden show tie-in. But things with catchy names tend to take on a life of their own, as the Chelsea Chop has on social media.

And that’s a good thing because it popularizes a useful technique.

What’s involved in the chop

The method involves pruning certain perennials — those with clumping roots, like coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), goldenrod (Solidago), sneezeweed (Helenium), Salvia and yarrow (Achillea) — by cutting each stem back by one-third to one-half its height in spring. Cuts should be made on the diagonal, just above a leaf node.

The “chop” forces plants to produce bushier growth, resulting in sturdier, tighter and fuller plants that aren’t as likely to grow leggy, require staking or flop over by the end of the season. It also delays blooming, which can benefit the late-summer garden.

You might get creative and prune only alternate stems so that some bloom earlier and others later — or prune only half of your plants — to extend the blooming season.

Do not attempt this with one-time bloomers, single-stemmed plants or those with woody stems; the amputations would be homicidal to the current season’s flowers.

When should you chop?

Gardeners should consider their climate and prune when their plants have grown to half their expected seasonal height, whenever that may be. (The Chelsea Chop is done at different times in different places, depending on plant emergence and growth.)

A variation for late-summer and fall bloomers

To take things a step further, some late-summer and fall bloomers, like Joe Pye weed, chrysanthemum and aster, would benefit from three annual chops.

In my zone 7, suburban New York garden, that means cutting them back by one-third each in the beginning of June, middle of June and middle of July. Customize the schedule for your garden by shifting one or two weeks earlier per warmer zone and later per cooler zone, taking the season’s growth and size of your plants into account. Make the first cuts when plants reach half their expected size, the second two weeks later and the third about a month after that.

I’d like this fall-plant pruning tip to catch on as well as the Chelsea Chop has. Maybe I should call it the Damiano Downsize and see what happens.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By TERRY TANG

Chef Phila Lorn was not necessarily aiming for “quote-unquote authentic” Cambodian food when he opened Mawn in his native Philadelphia two years ago. So when he approached some Cambodian teen patrons, he braced himself for questioning.

“Someone’s going to say something like, ‘That’s not how my mom makes her oxtail soup,’” Lorn said. “So I walk up to the table. I’m like, ‘How is everything?’ And the kid looks up to me and he goes, ‘It doesn’t even matter, dude. So glad you’re here.’”

It was at that moment that Lorn realized Mawn — the phonetic spelling of the Khmer word for “chicken” — was more than a noodle shop. It meant representation.

In June, he will be representing his dual cultures — Cambodian and Philly — at his first James Beard Awards, as a nominee for Best Emerging Chef. In the food world, it’s akin to getting nominated for the Academy Awards.

Cambodian restaurants may not be as commonplace in the U.S. as Chinese takeout or sushi spots. And Cambodian food is often lazily lumped in with the food of its Southeast Asian neighbors, despite its own distinctness. But in recent years, enterprising Cambodian American chefs have come into their own, introducing traditional dishes or putting their own twist on them.

Many of them were raised in families who fled the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror, which began 50 years ago and killed about 1.7 million people. Since then, the Cambodian community in the U.S. has grown and set down roots.

Through food, these chefs are putting the attention back on Cambodian heritage and culture, rather than that traumatic history.

Dr. Leakhena Nou, a sociology professor at California State University, Long Beach who has studied social anxiety among post-Khmer Rouge generations, says the Cambodian diaspora is often seen by others too narrowly through the lens of victimhood. In 2022, she publicly opposed California legislation that focused only on genocide for a K-12 curriculum on Cambodian culture.

“It’s a part of their history so they shouldn’t run away from it but at the same time they should force others to understand that that’s not the only part of their heritage, their historical identity,” she said.

What is Cambodian cuisine?

Cambodian food has sometimes been hastily labeled as a mild mix of Thai and Vietnamese with some Chinese and Indian influence. But, it has its own native spices and flavors that have been used throughout Southeast Asia. Khmer food emphasizes seafood and meats, vegetables, noodles, rice and fermentation. Salty and sour are prevalent tastes, Nou says.

“It’s actually a very healthy diet for the most part in terms of fresh vegetables. Cambodians love to eat fresh vegetables dipped with some sauce,” Nou said.

Signature dishes include amok, a fish curry; lok lak, stir-fried marinated beef; and samlar koko, a soup made using seasonal produce. Nou recalls her father making it with pork bone broth, fish, fresh coconut milk, lemongrass, vegetables and even wildflowers.

Cambodian migration to the U.S.

It was a half-century ago, on April 15, 1975, that the communist Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. For the next four years, an estimated one-quarter of the population was wiped out due to starvation, execution and illness.

Refugees came in waves to the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. Most took on low-level entry jobs with few language barriers, Nou said. These included manufacturing, meatpacking and agricultural labor. Many worked in Chinese restaurants and doughnut shops.

The U.S. Cambodian population has jumped 50% in the last 20 years to an estimated 360,000 people, according to the Census 2023 American Community Survey.

Cooking Cambodian American

Lorn’s family settled in Philadelphia in 1985. The only child born in the U.S., he was named after the city (but pronounced pee-LAH’). Like a lot of Asian American kids, Lorn was “the smelly kid” teased for not-American food in his lunch. But, he said, defending his lunchbox made him stronger. And he got the last laugh.

“It’s cool now to be 38 and have that same lunchbox (food) but on plates and we’re selling it for $50 a plate,” said Lorn, who opened Mawn with wife Rachel after they both had worked at other restaurants.

Indeed, besides popular noodle soups, Mawn has plates like the $60 steak and prohok, a 20-ounce ribeye with Cambodian chimichurri. Prohok is Cambodian fermented fish paste. Lorn’s version has lime juice, kulantro, Thai eggplants and roasted mudfish.

It sounds unappetizing, Lorn admits, “but everyone who takes a piece of rare steak, dips and eats it is just like, ‘OK, so let me know more about this food.’”

May, which is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and when Cambodia conducts a Day of Remembrance, is also when Long Beach has Cambodian Restaurant Week. The city is home to the largest concentration of Cambodians outside of Cambodia.

Chad Phuong, operator of Battambong BBQ pop-up, was a participant.

Phuong came to Long Beach as a child after fleeing the Khmer Rouge, which murdered his father. After high school, he worked at a Texas slaughterhouse and learned about cutting meats and barbecue. In 2020, he pivoted from working in the medical field to grilling.

Known as “Cambodian Cowboy,” he has been profiled locally and nationally for brisket, ribs and other meats using a dry rub with Cambodian Kampot pepper, “one of the most expensive black peppers in the world.” There’s also sausage with fermented rice and sides like coconut corn.

The pitmaster recently started mentoring younger vendors. Contributing to the community feels like building a legacy.

“It just gives me a lot of courage to present my food,” Phuong said. “We don’t need to talk about the past or the trauma. Yes, it happened, but we’re moving on. We want something better.”

More Cambodian-run establishments have flourished. In 2023, Lowell, Massachusetts, mayor Sokhary Chau, the country’s first Cambodian American mayor, awarded a citation to Red Rose restaurant for being a Beard semifinalist. This year, Koffeteria bakery in Houston, Sophon restaurant in Seattle and chef Nite Yun of San Francisco’s Lunette Cambodia earned semifinalist nods.

Lorn, an admirer of San Francisco’s Yun, says he still feels imposter syndrome.

“I feel like I’m more Ray Liotta than Nite Yun,” said Lorn. “Whether we win or not, to me, honestly, I won already.”

Meanwhile, he is preparing to open a Southeast Asian oyster bar called Sao. It’s not intended to be Cambodian, just a reflection of him.

“I don’t want to be pigeonholed,” Lorn said. “And it’s not me turning from my people. It’s just me keeping it real for my people.”

By Kate Wells, Michigan Public, KFF Health News

On the last day of patient care at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Marquette, Michigan, a port town on the shore of Lake Superior, dozens of people crowded into the parking lot and alley, holding pink homemade signs that read “Thank You!” and “Forever Grateful.”

“Oh my God,” physician assistant Anna Rink gasped, as she and three other Planned Parenthood employees finally walked outside. The crowd whooped and cheered. Then Rink addressed the gathering.

“Thank you for trusting us with your care,” Rink called out, her voice quavering. “And I’m not stopping here. I’m only going to make it better. I promise. I’m going to find a way.”

“We’re not done!” someone called out. “We’re not giving up!”

But Planned Parenthood of Michigan is giving up on four of its health centers in the state, citing financial challenges. That includes Marquette, the only clinic that provided abortion in the vast, sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. For the roughly 1,100 patients who visit the clinic each year for anything from cancer screenings to contraceptive implants, the next-closest Planned Parenthood will now be a nearly five-hour drive south.

It’s part of a growing trend: At least 17 clinics closed last year in states where abortion remains legal, and another 17 have closed in just the first five months of this year, according to data gathered by ineedana.com. That includes states that have become abortion destinations, like Illinois, and those where voters have enshrined broad reproductive rights into the state constitution, like Michigan.

Experts say the closures indicate that financial and operational challenges, rather than future legal bans, may be the biggest threats to abortion access in states whose laws still protect it.

“These states that we have touted as being really the best kind of versions of our vision for reproductive justice, they too struggle with problems,” said Erin Grant, a co-executive director of the Abortion Care Network, a national membership organization for independent clinics.

“It’s gotten more expensive to provide care, it’s gotten more dangerous to provide care, and it’s just gotten, frankly, harder to provide care, when you’re expected to be in the clinic and then on the statehouse steps, and also speaking to your representatives and trying to find somebody who will fix your roof or paint your walls who’s not going to insert their opinion about health care rights.”

But some abortion rights supporters question whether leaders are prioritizing patient care for the most vulnerable populations. Planned Parenthood of Michigan isn’t cutting executive pay, even as it reduces staff by 10% and shuts down brick-and-mortar clinics in areas already facing health care shortages.

“I wish I had been in the room so I could have fought for us, and I could have fought for our community,” said Viktoria Koskenoja, an emergency medicine physician in the Upper Peninsula, who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette. “I just have to hope that they did the math of trying to hurt as few people as possible, and that’s how they made their decision. And we just weren’t part of the group that was going to be saved.”

Why Now?

If a clinic could survive the fall of Roe v. Wade, “you would think that resilience could carry you forward,” said Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation.

But clinic operators say they face new financial strain, including rising costs, limited reimbursement rates, and growing demand for telehealth services. They’re also bracing for the Trump administration to again exclude them from Title X, the federal funding for low- and no-cost family planning services, as the previous Trump administration did in 2019.

PPMI says the cuts are painful but necessary for the organization’s long-term sustainability. The clinics being closed are “our smallest health centers,” said Sarah Wallett, PPMI’s chief medical operating officer. And while the thousands of patients those clinics served each year are important, she said, the clinics’ small size made them “the most difficult to operate.” The clinics being closed offered medication abortion, which is available in Michigan up until 11 weeks of pregnancy, but not procedural abortion.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois (a state that’s become a post-Roe v. Wade abortion destination) shuttered four clinics in March, pointing to a “financial shortfall.” Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is now selling its only Manhattan clinic, after closing four clinics last summer due to “compounding financial and political challenges.” And Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, where courts have blocked a near-total abortion ban and abortion is currently legal until 18 weeks of pregnancy, announced it closed two centers as of May 2.

Earlier this spring, the Trump administration began temporarily freezing funds to many clinics, including all Title X providers in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Utah, according to a KFF analysis.

While the current Title X freeze doesn’t yet include Planned Parenthood of Michigan, PPMI’s chief advocacy officer, Ashlea Phenicie, said it would amount to a loss of about $5.4 million annually, or 16% of its budget.

But Planned Parenthood of Michigan didn’t close clinics the last time the Trump administration froze its Title X funding. Its leader said that’s because the funding was stopped for only about two years, from 2019 until 2021, when the Biden administration restored it. “Now we’re faced with a longer period of time that we will be forced out of Title X, as opposed to the first administration,” said PPMI president and CEO Paula Thornton Greear.

And at the same time, the rise of telehealth abortion has put “new pressures in the older-school brick-and-mortar facilities,” said Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor who maps brick-and-mortar clinics across the U.S. that provide abortion.

Until a few years ago, doctors could prescribe abortion pills only in person. Those restrictions were lifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was the Dobbs decision in 2022 that really “accelerated expansions in telehealth,” Myers said, “because it drew all this attention to models of providing abortion services.”

Suddenly, new online providers entered the field, advertising virtual consultations and pills shipped directly to your home. And plenty of patients who still have access to a brick-and-mortar clinic prefer that option. “Put more simply, it’s gotta change their business model,” she said.

Balancing Cost and Care

Historically, about 28% of PPMI’s patients receive Medicaid benefits, according to Phenicie. And, like many states, Michigan’s Medicaid program doesn’t cover abortion, leaving those patients to either pay out-of-pocket or rely on help from abortion funds, several of which have also been struggling financially.

“When patients can’t afford care, that means that they might not be showing up to clinics,” said Fonteno of the National Abortion Federation, which had to cut its monthly budget nearly in half last year, from covering up to 50% of an eligible patient’s costs to 30%. “So seeing a sort of decline in patient volume, and then associated revenue, is definitely something that we’ve seen.”

Meanwhile, more clinics and abortion funds say patients have delayed care because of those rising costs. According to a small November-December 2024 survey of providers and funds conducted by ineedana.com, “85% of clinics reported seeing an increase of clients delaying care due to lack of funding.” One abortion fund said the number of patients who had to delay care until their second trimester had “grown by over 60%.”

Even when non-abortion services like birth control and cervical cancer screenings are covered by insurance, clinics aren’t always reimbursed for the full cost, Thornton Greear said.

“The reality is that insurance reimbursement rates across the board are low,” she said. “It’s been that way for a while. When you start looking at the costs to run a health care organization, from supply costs, etc., when you layer on these funding impacts, it creates a chasm that’s impossible to fill.”

Yet, unlike some independent clinics that have had to close, Planned Parenthood’s national federation brings in hundreds of millions of dollars a year, the majority of which is spent on policy and legal efforts rather than state-level medical services. The organization and some of its state affiliates have also battled allegations of mismanagement, as well as complaints about staffing and patient care problems. Planned Parenthood of Michigan staffers in five clinics unionized last year, with some citing management problems and workplace and patient care conditions.

Asked whether Planned Parenthood’s national funding structure needs to change, PPMI CEO Thornton Greear said: “I think that it needs to be looked at, and what they’re able to do. And I know that that is actively happening.”

The Gaps That Telehealth Can’t Fill

When the Marquette clinic’s closure was announced, dozens of patients voiced their concerns in Google reviews, with several saying the clinic had “saved my life,” and describing how they’d been helped after an assault, or been able to get low-cost care when they couldn’t afford other options.

Planned Parenthood of Michigan responded to most comments with the same statement and pointed patients to telehealth in the clinic’s absence:

“Please know that closing health centers wasn’t a choice that was made lightly, but one forced upon us by the escalating attacks against sexual and reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood. We are doing everything we can to protect as much access to care as possible. We know you’re sad and angry — we are, too.

“We know that telehealth cannot bridge every gap; however, the majority of the services PPMI provides will remain available via the Virtual Health Center and PP Direct, including medication abortion, birth control, HIV services, UTI treatment, emergency contraception, gender-affirming care, and yeast infection treatment. Learn more at ppmi.org/telehealth.”

PPMI’s virtual health center is already its most popular clinic, according to the organization, serving more than 10,000 patients a year. And PPMI plans to expand virtual appointments by 40%, including weekend and evening hours.

“For some rural communities, having access to telehealth has made significant changes in their health,” said Wallett, PPMI’s chief medical operating officer. “In telehealth, I can have an appointment in my car during lunch. I don’t have to take extra time off. I don’t have to drive there. I don’t have to find child care.”

Yet even as the number of clinics has dropped nationally, about 80% of clinician-provided abortions are still done by brick-and-mortar clinics, according to the most recent #WeCount report, which looked at 2024 data from April to June.

And Hannah Harriman, a Marquette County Health Department nurse who previously spent 12 years working for Planned Parenthood of Marquette, is skeptical of any suggestion that telehealth can replace a rural brick-and-mortar clinic. “I say that those people have never spent any time in the U.P.,” she said, referring to the Upper Peninsula.

Some areas are “dark zones” for cell coverage, she said. And some residents “have to drive to McDonald’s to use their Wi-Fi. There are places here that don’t even have internet coverage. I mean, you can’t get it.”

Telehealth has its advantages, said Koskenoja, the emergency medicine physician who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette, “but for a lot of health problems, it’s just not a safe or realistic way to take care of people.”

She recently had a patient in the emergency room who was having a complication from a gynecological surgery. “She needed to see a gynecologist, and I called the local OB office,” Koskenoja said. “They told me they have 30 or 40 new referrals a month,” and simply don’t have enough clinicians to see all those patients. “So adding in the burden of all the patients that were being seen at Planned Parenthood is going to be impossible.”

Koskenoja, Harriman, and other local health care providers have been strategizing privately to figure out what to do next to help people access everything from Pap smears to IUDs. The local health department can provide Title X family planning services 1½ days a week, but that won’t be enough, Harriman said. And there are a few private “providers in town that offer medication abortion to their patients only — very, very quietly,” she said. But that won’t help patients who don’t have good insurance or are stuck on waitlists.

“It’s going to be a patchwork of trying to fill in those gaps,” Koskenoja said. “But we lost a very functional system for delivering this care to patients. And now, we’re just having to make it up as we go.”

This article is from a partnership with Michigan Public and NPR .

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Reddit user recently asked for advice on ways to stop thinking about money nonstop.

It’s hard, the user explained, to avoid fixating on personal finances. Comparing yourself to others can be tempting, even though doing so doesn’t feel good or productive.

Other users jumped in to offer tips, such as talking to a therapist, finding a new hobby, scaling back on social media and saving enough for a sufficient safety net.

Financial experts say focusing on your own financial plan is the best way to avoid thinking too much about what other people might be doing.

Make a plan

“Something about having a plan in place takes a lot of the stress off,” says Dwayne Reinike, a certified financial planner and founder of Valiant Financial Planning in Kirkland, Washington.

Similar to how writing down everything on your to-do list can make it easier to sleep at night, he says creating a basic financial plan allows you to relax. That plan can include a budget, retirement goals and other savings targets.

You might hear that the markets are down or concerns about a coming recession, “but it’s OK, because you have a plan,” Reinike says.

Pick one goal to focus on

Picking one goal to focus on — such as saving up for a house or setting limits for spending — can give you a greater sense of control over your financial life, says Stephanie Loeffel, a CFP and founder of Ascend Financial in the Boston area.

If you don’t have a goal to guide you, she says, then it’s easy to bounce between different ideas based on the day’s news. If interest rates fall, you might wonder if you should buy a house. If the stock market fluctuates, you may question whether it’s time to shift your retirement investments.

She recommends zeroing in on what you can control: your own spending, saving and other financial habits.

“You take the emotion out of the equation and it’s easier to not obsess about the noise around you,” Loeffel says.

Designate a specific time to focus on money

Setting aside time at least once a year to map your financial plans can ease your mind the rest of the time.

Use that time to think about what you want to achieve with your money. You can also set short-term and long-term goals, says Reinike.

“If you have your emergency fund set up and on auto-deposit, then you can go a year or so without thinking about it,” he says. (You may want to conduct quick check-ins throughout the year to check for any errors.)

Similarly, a retirement savings account with automatic deposits from your paycheck doesn’t need to be constantly monitored.

If unexpected events pop up, such as a new baby or a job loss, then you can revisit those plans and adjust. Otherwise, you can maintain your current course.

“People tend to make changes when they’re really happy or really upset, and that’s not the time to make changes. It’s the time to stick with the plan you already established,” Reinike says.

Build up savings and pay off debt

Another way to gain more control over your finances is to double down on saving money and paying off debt, Loeffel says. Many of her clients are surprised about their expenses once they start tracking them.

Monitoring your cash flow for six months is a good place to start. Then, make adjustments to eventually achieve a goal of putting around 10% into savings. That can help build up an emergency fund.

“Once you have an emergency fund, you’re not as vulnerable,” Loeffel says.

That makes it easier to worry less about negative events that can hurt your finances.

“It takes away that emotional vulnerability because you have a cushion and you have control,” she says.

Similarly, paying off debt is something you can control. You can make a plan for paying off debt — perhaps using the avalanche or snowball method — then watch your progress as the weeks tick by, Loeffel says.

The avalanche method involves paying the debt with the highest interest rate first. The snowball method refers to building momentum by paying off the smallest debt balances first.

Avoid comparisons to others

“Compare yourself to the you of yesterday, not everyone else,” suggests Reinike.

Just as in sports, you should strive for a personal best — not necessarily doing better than others.

You really can’t compare your financial situation to others based on social media. Posts don’t tell the whole story or how people are funding their lifestyle, Reinikehe adds.

“Everyone’s journey is individualized.”

Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like saving and budgeting, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article Asked on Reddit: How to Stop Obsessing About Money originally appeared on NerdWallet.

By Jennifer Gerson for The 19th

The number of Latinas serving in state legislatures this year marks a new record for Latinas in this level of government. In all, 214 Latinas hold seats in state legislatures nationwide, up from 192 in 2024, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP).

Latinas weren’t the only ones to set records in last year’s elections, though. Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander women, as well as women of Native backgrounds, also broke new ground in state legislative elections.

“Across the board, we actually did see a net gain in women’s representation at the state legislative level, which was notable because we did not see that at the congressional level or at the statewide executive level,” Kelly Dittmar, the director of research at CAWP, told The 19th. “When we’re seeing these gains, they’re coming among racially and ethnically diverse women.”

Only White women hold fewer legislative seats this year in 2025 than they did in 2024.

The rise in the number of Latinas serving in state houses, in particular, follows an important political trend in the United States: Latinx voters accounted for nearly half of newly eligible voters in 2024 and Latinas vote at higher rates than Latinx voters overall.

Dittmar noted that early data on the 2024 electorate indicates that the Latinx voting population went up 12 percent last year—mirroring the rate of gains Latinas made in state legislatures.

“The more Latinos we have who are politically both eligible and engaged, the more likely it is that we’re going to see greater representation,” Dittmar said.

Of the 214 Latinas serving in a state house, 182 are Democrats, 31 are Republicans and one identifies as nonpartisan. Latinas now hold 2.9 percent of state legislative seats nationwide and make up 9.6 percent of the population.

The gains by Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in state legislatures this year were largely for Democratic women legislators. Latinas, on the other hand, saw gains among Democrats and Republicans.

“When you think about opportunities, especially in a year where Republican women actually did fare better, if you look at the net gains among state legislators who are women, Republican women really account for most of the net gain,” Dittmar explained—something particularly pronounced among newly elected Latinas at this level of government. “Among Latinas, we’re seeing at least slightly more partisan diversity. That allows for them to see success in this overall racial and ethnic group, inclusive of both parties doing well.”

Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian women also saw a significant increase in their numbers in state legislatures, according to CAWP.

Forty-four women of Native backgrounds currently hold seats in state legislatures, up from 36 in 2023, when they set their record. That amounts to 0.6 percent of state legislative seats; Native women comprise 1.1 percent of the U.S. population.

There are now 107 AAPI women serving in these roles; the previous record, from 2023, was 100.

Black women, who have made the largest gains in politics among women from historically marginalized groups, amount to 399 members in state legislatures, 13 more than last year.

“We’re seeing more and more diversity in terms of race and ethnicity and, in my mind, that is a good thing—it brings more perspectives and lived experiences to the table,” Dittmar said. “It means we’re just moving closer to the representativeness of these bodies that is supposedly promised in a representative democracy.”

This story was produced by The 19th and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate a details-to-come deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel, which he says will keep the iconic American steelmaker under U.S.-control.

Though Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese steelmaker’s bid to buy Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, he changed course and announced an agreement last week for what he described as “partial ownership” by Nippon. It’s not clear, though, if the deal his administration helped broker has been finalized or how ownership would be structured.

Trump stressed the deal would maintain American control of the storied company, which is seen as both a political symbol and an important matter for the country’s supply chain, industries like auto manufacturing and national security.

Trump, who has been eager to strike deals and announce new investments in the U.S. since retaking the White House, is also trying to satisfy voters, including blue-collar workers, who elected him as he called to protect U.S. manufacturing.

U.S. Steel has not publicly communicated any details of a revamped deal to investors. Nippon Steel issued a statement approving of the proposed “partnership” but also has not disclosed terms of the arrangement.

State and federal lawmakers who have been briefed on the matter describe a deal in which Nippon will buy U.S. Steel and spend billions on U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Minnesota. The company would be overseen by an executive suite and board made up mostly of Americans and protected by the U.S. government’s veto power in the form of a “golden share.”

In the absence of clear details or affirmation from the companies involved, the United Steelworkers union, which has long opposed the deal, this week questioned whether the new arrangement makes “any meaningful change” from the initial proposal.

“Nippon has maintained consistently that it would only invest in U.S. Steel’s facilities if it owned the company outright,” the union said in a statement. “We’ve seen nothing in the reporting over the past few days suggesting that Nippon has walked back from this position.”

The White House did not offer any new details Thursday. U.S. Steel did not respond to messages seeking information. Nippon Steel also declined to comment.

No matter the terms, the issue has outsized importance for Trump, who last year repeatedly said he would block the deal and foreign ownership of U.S. Steel, as did former President Joe Biden.

Trump promised during the campaign to make the revitalization of American manufacturing a priority of his second term in office. And the fate of U.S. Steel, once the world’s largest corporation, could become a political liability in the midterm elections for his Republican Party in the swing state of Pennsylvania and other battleground states dependent on industrial manufacturing.

Trump said Sunday he wouldn’t approve the deal if U.S. Steel did not remain under U.S. control and said it will keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh.

In an interview on Fox News Channel on Wednesday, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Dan Meuser called the arrangement “strictly an investment, a strategic partnership where it’s American-owned, American run and remains in America.”

However, Meuser said he hadn’t seen the deal and added that “it’s still being structured.”

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. David McCormick came out in favor of the plan, calling it “great” for the domestic steel industry, Pennsylvania, national security and U.S. Steel’s employees. A bipartisan group of senators, joined by then-Senate candidate McCormick, had opposed Nippon Steel’s initial proposed purchase of U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion after it was announced in late 2023.

In recent days, Trump and other American officials began touting Nippon Steel’s new commitment to invest $14 billion on top of its $14.9 billion bid, including building a new electric arc furnace steel mill somewhere in the U.S.

Pennsylvania’s other senator, Democrat John Fetterman — who lives across the street from U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works blast furnace — didn’t explicitly endorse the new proposal. But he said he had helped jam up Nippon Steel’s original bid until “Nippon coughed up an extra $14B.”

The planned “golden share” for the U.S. amounts to three board members approved by the U.S. government, which will essentially ensure that U.S. Steel can only make decisions that’ll be in the best interests of the United States, McCormick said Tuesday on Fox News.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is seen as a potential presidential candidate, had largely refrained from publicly endorsing a deal but said at a news conference this week that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the arrangement.

In an interview published Thursday in the conservative Washington Examiner, Shapiro said: “The deal has gotten better. The prospects for the future of steelmaking have gotten better.”

Chris Kelly, the mayor of West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel’s Irvin finishing plant is located, said he was “ecstatic” about the deal, though he acknowledged some details were unknown. He said it will save thousands of jobs for his community.

“It’s like a reprieve from taking steel out of Pittsburgh,” he said.

Price reported from Washington. AP writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s top public health agency posted new recommendations that say healthy children may get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing language that said kids should get the shots.

The change comes days after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.

But the updated guidance on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website does not appear to end recommendations for vaccination of pregnant women, a change that was heavily criticized by medical and public health experts.

CDC and HHS officials did not immediately respond to questions about the new guidance.

Kennedy announced the coming changes in a 58-second video posted on the social media site X on Tuesday. No one from the CDC was in the video, and CDC officials referred questions about the announcement to Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

On Thursday, the CDC updated its website. The agency said that shots may be given to children ages 6 months to 17 years who do not have moderate or severe problems with their immune systems. Instead of recommending the shots, the CDC page now says parents may decide to get their children vaccinated in consultation with a doctor.

That kind of recommendation, known as shared decision-making, still means health insurers must pay for the vaccinations, according to the CDC. However, experts say vaccination rates tend to be lower when health authorities use that language and doctors are less emphatic with patients about getting shots.

Childhood vaccination rates for COVID-19 are already low — just 13% of children and 23% of adults have received the 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, according to CDC data.

Talk of changing the recommendations has been brewing. As the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, experts have discussed the possibility of focusing vaccination efforts on people 65 and older — who are among those most as risk for death and hospitalization.

A CDC advisory panel is set to meet in June to make recommendations about the fall shots. Among its options are suggesting shots for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice to get vaccinated. A committee work group has endorsed the idea.

But Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine advocate before becoming health secretary, decided not to wait for the scientific panel’s review.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.