By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Their chances of becoming the next mayor of New York City may have dimmed. Their mission now? Stopping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo from getting to City Hall.

In the final day of campaigning before the city’s Democratic primary, candidates who are seen as long shots to win the nomination were urging voters to leave Cuomo off their ballots in the city’s ranked choice election in a last-ditch effort to block the former governor’s comeback from a sexual harassment scandal.

“Let’s make sure Andrew Cuomo gets nowhere near City Hall,” candidate and city Comptroller Brad Lander said Monday on WNYC radio, which interviewed the major candidates ahead of the election.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, another candidate, similarly asked voters to not vote for Cuomo, telling the station, “We need fresh leadership, we need to turn the page and we need bold solutions at this moment.”

The pitches came as Cuomo, who has been considered the frontrunner for months, has also been trying to fend off a charge from Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, would be the city’s first Muslim and first Indian-American mayor if elected. A democratic socialist who got elected to the Legislature in 2020, Mamdani started the campaign as a relative unknown but has won support with a energetic campaign centered on improving the cost of living.

The assault on Cuomo from fellow members of the Democratic field comes as he has continued to rack up establishment endorsements. Former President Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo on Sunday, saying voters should not “underestimate the complexity” for the challenges faced by a mayor. The New York Times didn’t issue an endorsement this year, but wrote an editorial praising Lander and saying Cuomo would be a better choice than Mamdani, who it said was unworthy of being on people’s ballots.

Cuomo and Mamdani have ratcheted up attacks on each other in the campaign’s final days.

“He’s about public relations,” Cuomo said of Mamdani, dismissing his opponent as too focused on looking great on social media, and not skilled enough as an executive to run the city.

Mamdani, meanwhile, exuded confidence, telling WNYC he is “one day from toppling a political dynasty.”

“New Yorkers are done with the cynical politics of the past. They want a future they can afford,” said Mamdani, who was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

In a way, Mamdani and Cuomo represent the Democratic Party’s ideological divides, with Cuomo as an older moderate and Mamdani a younger progressive.

Their reactions to the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on Sunday offered more evidence of the party’s internal split.

Cuomo, in a statement, criticized “the way Trump went about this without consulting Congress, without consulting the normal congressional officials” but stressed that “Iran cannot have nuclear capability.”

Mamdani released a statement that slammed Trump but quickly shifted focus back to his key issues, saying “these actions are the result of a political establishment that would rather spend trillions of dollars on weapons than lift millions out of poverty, launch endless wars while silencing calls for peace, and fearmonger about outsiders while billionaires hollow out our democracy from within.”

Cuomo, who won three terms as governor, resigned in 2021 after a report from the state attorney general concluded that he sexually harassed 11 women. He has denied wrongdoing.

New York City is using ranked choice voting in its Democratic mayoral primary election Tuesday, a system that allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. If one candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters, that person wins the race outright. If nobody hits that threshold, the votes are then tabulated in multiple rounds. After each round, the candidate in last place is eliminated. Votes cast for that person are then redistributed to the candidates ranked next on the voter’s ballot.

That continues until one candidate gets a majority.

Cuomo’s opponents have urged voters not to rank him at all and therefore deprive him of support in later rounds of counting.

“You do not have to go back to the name of Andrew Cuomo,” said Michael Blake, a former state lawmaker running in the primary. He told voters on WNYC that it was time to move on from the former governor.

Eleven candidates are on the ballot in the Democratic mayoral primary. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams isn’t one of them. He’s a Democrat but is running as an independent. The Republican Party has already picked its nominee, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

By JOSEPH KRAUSS and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As President Donald Trump floats the idea of “regime change” in Tehran, previous U.S. attempts to remake the Middle East by force over the decades offer stark warnings about the possibility of a deepening involvement in the Iran-Israeli conflict.

“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on his social media site over the weekend. The came after the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear sites but before that country retaliated by firing its own missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday insisted that Trump, who spent years railing against “forever wars” and pushing an “America first” world view, had not committed a political about-face.

“The president’s posture and our military posture has not changed,” she said, suggesting that a more aggressive approach might be necessary if Iran ”refuses to give up their nuclear program or engage in talks.”

Leavitt also suggested that a new government in Iran could come about after its people stage a revolt — not necessarily requiring direct U.S. intervention.

“If they refuse to engage in diplomacy moving forward, why shouldn’t the Iranian people rise up,” she asked.

That’s a perilous path that other U.S. administrations have taken. And it’s a long way from Trump’s past dismissal of “stupid, endless wars,” and his scoffing at the idea of nation-building championed by his Republican predecessors — including in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the U.S. helped overthrow governments.

Some lessons learned from previous conflicts:

Initial success is often fleeting

U.S. special forces and Afghan allies drove the Taliban from power and chased Osama bin Laden into Pakistan within months of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. American tanks rolled into Baghdad weeks after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

But then, both wars went on for years.

The Taliban waged a tenacious, two-decade insurgency and swept back into power as the U.S. beat a chaotic retreat in 2021. The overthrow of Saddam plunged Iraq into chaos, with Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias battling each other and U.S. forces.

Israel has so far largely succeeded in taking out Iran’s air defenses and ballistic missiles and the U.S. strikes on three sites with missiles and 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bunker-buster bombs has wrecked its nuclear program, Trump says. But that still potentially leaves hundreds of thousands in the military, the Revolutionary Guard and forces known as the Basij, who played a key role in quashing waves of anti-government protests in recent years.

Ground forces are key — but don’t guarantee success

Airstrikes have never been enough on their own.

Take, for example, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. His forces withstood a seven-month NATO air campaign in 2011 before rebels fighting city by city eventually cornered and killed him.

There are currently no insurgent groups in Iran capable of taking on the Revolutionary Guard, and it’s hard to imagine Israeli or U.S. forces launching a ground invasion of a mountainous country of some 80 million people that is about four times as big as Iraq.

A split in Iran’s own security forces would furnish a ready-made insurgency, but it would also likely tip the country into civil war.

There’s also the question of how ordinary Iranians would respond.

Protests in recent years show that many Iranians believe their government is corrupt and repressive, and would welcome its demise. But the last time a foreign power attacked Iran — the Iraqi invasion of 1980 — people rallied around the flag.

At the moment, many appear to be lying low or leaving the capital.

Be wary of exiled opposition groups

Some of the biggest cheerleaders for the U.S. invasion of Iraq were exiled opposition figures, many of whom had left the country decades before. When they returned, essentially on the back of U.S. tanks, they were marginalized by local armed groups more loyal to Iran.

There are several large Iranian opposition groups based abroad. But they are not united and it’s unclear how much support any of them has inside the country.

The closest thing to a unifying opposition figure is Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought the theocracy to power. But many Iranians have bitter memories of repression under the shah, and others might reject Pahlavi over his outreach to Israel, especially if he tries to ride to power on the back of a foreign invasion.

Chaos is practically guaranteed

In Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — and in Syria and Yemen after their 2011 uprisings — a familiar pattern emerged when governments were overthrown or seriously weakened.

Armed groups emerged with competing agendas. Neighboring countries backed local proxies. Weapons flowed in and large numbers of civilians fled. The fighting in some places boiled over into full-blown civil war, and ever more violent extremist groups sprouted from the chaos.

When it was all over, Saddam had been replaced by a corrupt and often dysfunctional government at least as friendly to Iran as it was to the United States. Gadhafi was replaced by myriad militias, many allied with foreign powers. The Taliban were replaced by the Taliban.

Weissert reported from Washington.

Holly High School students put their child development program skills to use for a creative interactive lesson with kindergarten students at Rose Pioneer Elementary.

Miranda Barth, the high school’s child development teacher, teamed up with Rose Pioneer teachers Kristie Brown and Tonya Edwards for a lesson during which students colored pictures of monsters they imagined after reading the book “I Need My Monster,” by Amanda Noll.

Kindergartners answered prompts to describe their monster’s personality, then the pictures were then sent to Barth’s child development students, who created stuffed animals based on the drawings.

The high school students visited the kindergarteners in May to deliver the stuffed animal monsters and read to them. The teachers provided copies of “I Need My Monster” for each student to take home.

“It was truly inspiring to witness my students put what they learned in class into practice interacting with the younger students,” said Barth. “This fun and engaging activity provided my students insights into child development careers and our Broncho kindergarteners a chance to see their budding imaginations brought to life.”

“I’d like to congratulate Miranda, Kristie and Tonya for organizing this innovative activity for our students to put what they learn in school into real-world action,” said Superintendent Scott Roper. “We look forward to providing more unique opportunities that help prepare our Bronchos for success and careers while still in our hallways.”

Oakland County announced the winners of its first Juneteenth Art and Essay Contest, recognizing student creativity and reflection on the theme, “Juneteenth: What does Freedom and Equality mean to me?”

The contest commemorates the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery in the United States.

Community leaders, residents and students joined together for a festival featuring live music, food trucks, speakers, games and the raising of the Juneteenth flag under the theme “Stronger Together: Celebrating Freedom and Community.”

“This celebration reflects Oakland County’s deep commitment to inclusion, belonging and a future where every resident is valued and welcome,” said Dave Coulter, Oakland County’s executive. “The insight and heart in these student essays and artworks are powerful and inspiring.”

The 2025 winners include:

ARTWORK

Grades K–3: Derek Flores – Blanche Sims Elementary School in Lake Orion
Grades 4–7: Sangamitra Sivachandran Narmadha – Martell Elementary School in Troy
Grades 8–12: Zuri Earth – Cass Technical High School in Detroit and Oakland County resident
Post-Secondary Vocational: Taylor A. Buens – Jardon Vocational School in Ferndale

ESSAYS

Grades K–3: Shiv Lohia – Brookfield Academy in Troy, who compared fairness to cookie-sharing and equality to an egg experiment in school. He wrote, “If there is freedom and equality everywhere, there’ll be no more wars. Everyone will be happy and that’s the kind of world that will be beautiful and peaceful.”

Grades 4–7: Kairav Joshi – West Bloomfield Middle School, who highlighted the power of young voices in building a more inclusive and respectful society. “Freedom lets me be myself… Equality makes sure no one is left behind,” he wrote.

Grades 8–12: Ella Bunao – Athens High School in Troy, who explored the significance of Juneteenth and how freedom and equality must be actively pursued. She wrote, “Freedom means being able to live your life without fear, to speak your mind, and to make your own choices. Equality means that everyone, no matter their skin color, background, or beliefs, should be treated with the same respect and given the same opportunities.

Winners received a $150 gift card.

The case against a Detroit felon accused of fatally shooting two men over a dice game in Pontiac last fall has advanced to Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial.

At the conclusion of a preliminary exam Monday in 50th District Court, the judge ruled there was probable cause for the charges against Davonte Demetri Franklin to proceed to the higher court.

Franklin, 33, is held without bond in the Oakland County Jail, charged with two counts of first-degree homicide for the deaths of Sidney Ward III, 20, of Highland Park, and Tyrone Davis Glenn Jr., 24, of Pontiac.

The fatal shootings happened Oct. 8, 2024 in an apartment on North Sanford Street near Fiddis Avenue, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Evidence from the scene indicated Franklin used a potato in an attempt to muffle the sounds of the gunshots, but witnesses reported hearing the shootings, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators allege Franklin shot the two because he was angry from losing $80 in a dice game.

Franklin is also charged with felon in possession of a firearm and three counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Arraignment is scheduled for June 30 before Judge Kwame Rowe.

Waterford man dead after being hit by van driven by 81 year old

Police: Birmingham man stabbed, kicked home’s front door in attempted break-in

By Robbie Sequeira, Stateline.org

The Trump administration is pushing to reshape the federal housing safety net by slashing spending and shifting the burden of housing millions of people to states, which may be ill-equipped to handle the mission.

President Donald Trump’s recent budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2026, a preliminary plan released in early May and known as “skinny” because a more robust ask will follow, outlines a 44% cut to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, including a 43% reduction in rental assistance programs that support more than 9 million Americans.

Trump also wants to consolidate federal housing aid, which includes programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers and public housing, into block grants — or finite amounts of money that states would administer. The proposal also would cap eligibility for many aid recipients at two years, and significantly limit federal oversight over how states dole out housing aid to low-income, disabled and older renters.

The approach tracks suggestions outlined in the Heritage Foundation playbook known as Project 2025, in which first-term Trump advisers and other conservatives detailed how a second Trump term might look. The chapter on HUD recommends limiting a person’s time on federal assistance and “devolving many HUD functions to states and localities.”

To that end, Trump’s new housing aid budget request would put states in charge, urging them to create new systems and removing federal regulatory certainty that residents, landlords and developers rely on for low-income housing.

Trump’s request also proposes new rules, such as a two-year time limit on the receipt of Housing Choice Vouchers, formerly known as Section 8 vouchers, for households that do not include persons with disabilities or older adults. The vouchers, federal money paid directly to landlords, help eligible families afford rent in the private market.

Trump’s allies call the changes responsible, while detractors worry about rising homelessness among those who now receive aid.

Among the nearly 4.6 million households receiving HUD housing assistance in the 2020 census, the average household was made up of two people, and the average annual income was just under $18,000, according to a department report last year.

In testimony to Congress this month about the proposed fiscal 2026 budget, HUD Secretary Scott Turner said that HUD rental assistance is meant to be temporary, “the same way a treadway facilitates the crossing of an obstacle.”

“The block grant process will empower states to be more thoughtful and precise in their distribution and spending of taxpayer dollars,” Turner said.

The current budget reconciliation package, the tax-and-spending bill named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, doesn’t address individual Housing Choice Vouchers or send federal housing aid back to states. However, it would offer tax credits to developers of affordable housing and expand areas that could qualify for additional favorable tax cuts. That bill passed the House and is now undergoing consideration in the Senate.

Trump’s hopes for next year

The president’s fiscal year 2026 budget request serves as an outline of the administration’s vision for next year’s federal spending.

Congress — specifically the House and Senate Appropriations committees — must draft, negotiate and pass appropriations bills, which ultimately decide how much funding programs like rental assistance will receive.

Trump’s budget request provides sparse details on how much housing aid the federal government would give to each state, and how it would oversee spending. Housing advocates and state agencies are concerned.

“A big piece of the proposal is essentially re-creating rental assistance as we know it, and turning it into a state rental assistance block grant program,” said Kim Johnson, senior director of policy director at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Experts say any resulting aid cuts would disproportionately affect families with children, older adults and individuals with disabilities, many of whom rely on rental subsidies and support to remain stably housed in high-rent markets.

“It would completely change how households might be able to receive rental assistance of any kind,” said Sonya Acosta, a senior policy analyst with the center. “It combines five of these programs that millions of people rely on, cuts the funding almost in half, and then leaves it completely to states to decide how to use that funding.”

That’s a shift most states can’t afford, say housing advocates.

A state-by-state analysis by the National Alliance to End Homelessness shows the highest rates of housing assistance are in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, along with a few blue states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.

“There’s no way to cut 43% of funding for rental assistance without people losing that assistance or their housing security,” said Johnson, of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

And it’s not just urban centers that would be hit; rural areas of Mississippi and Louisiana also have high rates of federal housing aid.

“A rural community who solely relies on federal funding would be even more impacted,” Johnson added.

While state housing finance agencies proved during the pandemic that they can rapidly deploy federal funding, Lisa Bowman, director of marketing and communications at the National Council of State Housing Agencies, warned that the budget’s shift to block grants would require sufficient funding, a clear transition plan and strong oversight to ensure success.

Housing authorities are requesting further guidance from the feds and members of Congress, and more detail is needed on how any block-grant process would work, Bowman wrote in an emailed statement to Stateline.

“There is still a risk of overregulation and micromanagement with a block grant,” she wrote. “That said, for any type of new block grant to the states to work, there would need to be a transition period both to ensure states can build the necessary infrastructure and oversight and to test and train new systems with the private sector, local government, and nonprofit organizations that would interact with it.”

In New York City, which operates the nation’s largest housing voucher program, officials didn’t outline what steps they would take if Trump’s proposed cuts become reality, but a spokesperson said the plans would hurt residents.

Howard Husock, a senior fellow in domestic policy studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, believes the most innovative aspect of the Trump proposal is the introduction of time limits on housing assistance, a mechanism not currently used in HUD’s rental programs.

But he cautioned that a blanket two-year time limit — especially if applied to existing tenants — would be “a recipe for chaos,” particularly in high-need areas such as New York City. Instead, he supports a phased approach focusing on new, non-disabled, non-elderly tenants.

“Block grants would allow states to move away from one-size-fits-all and apply rules based on their own housing needs,” Husock said to Stateline in an interview.

Affordable housing advocates disagree.

“If passed, the president’s proposed budget would be devastating for all federally assisted tenants,” said Michael Horgan, press secretary for the New York City Housing Authority in a statement to Stateline. “Block grants, program funding cuts, and time limits will only worsen the current housing crisis.”

A recent analysis of 100 metro areas by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that households using housing vouchers are more likely to live in higher income areas than those with other federal rental assistance.

“There is a high share of these households using (other) federal rental assistance in higher-poverty areas,” Gartland, the center’s researcher, explained, noting that programs such as the Housing Choice Vouchers are a rare but essential tool for expanding housing mobility.

“If you’re cutting the programming by 40%, you’re just putting additional strain on that program and just limiting that potential.”

For housing providers, uncertainty is growing

For property owners and landlords, the proposed shift in federal assistance and housing aid to the states isn’t just a policy question, it’s a business risk.

Alexandra Alvarado, director of education at the American Apartment Owners Association, said many smaller landlords are closely following proposed changes to the voucher program.

“Section 8 is a stabilizing force, especially for mom-and-pop landlords,” she said. “Many have had loyal tenants for years and rely on that steady income.”

According to Alvarado, landlords — especially small operators — have come to view housing vouchers not just as a public good, but also as a reliable business model where rent is often on time and predictable.

But with the proposed changes placing administration in the hands of state governments, landlords fear a breakdown in consistency.

“If the administration is serious about shifting responsibility to states, landlords will need a lot more clarity, and fast,” Alvarado said. “These programs are supposed to offer certainty. If states run them inconsistently or inefficiently, landlords may exit the market altogether.”

The transition itself, she added, may be destabilizing.

“You’re turning an ecosystem upside down. Change too many parts of the system at once, and you risk unintended domino effects.”

While developers may benefit from new tax incentives in the budget, Alvarado said that doesn’t offset the instability small landlords fear.

“Most mom-and-pop landlords don’t want to evict or raise rent, especially during hard times,” she said. “They just want to provide stable housing and be treated fairly.”

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Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

With help from a $2.5 million from Oakland County’s housing trust fund, a new 72-unit multifamily housing development has opened in Pontiac.

Westwood South Apartments, 837 Golf Drive in Pontiac, have two complete buildings already at capacity and a third under construction.

Frank Bell, a U.S. Navy veteran and Pontiac native, lived in Lincoln Park until he had the opportunity to rent a Westwood apartment with help from the federal Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. He uses a wheelchair after losing his legs to disease. He praised the developers for their humanistic treatment.

Humane treatment, he said, “is about peace, quiet and tranquility that’s what I have here.”

At Monday’s ribbon cutting, County Executive Dave Coulter said good quality, safe housing is essential for Oakland County residents of all income brackets, adding “healthy communities start with good neighborhoods.”

The county commission created the county’s housing trust fund with $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Coulter said that sounds like a lot of money, but it has all been committed. County officials are now working on ways to keep the fund going.

Coulter said grants made to developers will be repaid over time. Deputy County Executive Madiha Tariq said the commission has committed $2 million annually but she is also looking for donations to create a robust revolving fund.

The trust fund helps existing developers by providing funding with a requirement to include affordable housing units.

Bill Chalmers, Westwood Apartment Communities’ managing partner, said the county’s $2.5 grant was essential to finishing the contract, because inflation has increased costs.

He said 60% of people renting Westwood units work for United Wholesale Mortgage, less than three miles away. Three residents are from India – in one case a man came to the U.S. to work at Trinity Health and was thrilled to find a home close to work, he said.

The one- and two-bedroom units range from 660 square feet to 1,025 square feet with one or two bathrooms. The units have washer-dryer hook-ups, air conditioning, a dishwasher and microwave. Rent ranges from $1,150 to $1,450 with federal housing vouchers for up to six units in each of the three buildings.

Chalmers described Westwood as diverse in every possible way: Income, age, race, gender and sexual orientation.

The apartments are just south of the Links at Crystal Lake, a golf course on the edge of the lake, and less than two miles from Bowens senior center and across a parking lot from a Montessori school.

It is across the parking lot from the office for Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, a Medicare and Medicaid program that serves Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

Chalmers said construction included adding 12 overnight beds for PACE.

Chalmers praised Vern Gustafsson, Pontiac’s former planning manager and now the project director and planner at the Pontiac Housing Commission, for shepherding the project through the city’s planning and zoning process.

Deborah Younger, the city’s economic development manager, told Chalmers about the county’s grant program and Councilwoman Melanie Rutherford was “a big champion” of the project even before she was elected to the city council, Chalmers said.

“One apartment, one home at a time,” said Rutherford, who is on the housing commission’s board of directors. “I’m so proud to be a part of this.”

The apartments are on the abandoned site of a former Baptist College. The project included gutting and renovating what had been dorm rooms for the college students, Chalmers said.

The first two buildings have reached capacity, he said. He expects a third building will fill up quickly after it is finished in September.

A 37-year-old Birmingham man accused of trying to break into a home by stabbing and kicking its front door is facing a charge of attempted home invasion.

According to the Bloomfield Township Police Department, officers arrested Peter Chan-Woong Chung on the porch of the home near Quarton and Lahser roads shortly before 2 a.m on June 21. A resident had called 911 to report a man dressed all in black was trying to break into the front door and was stabbing the door with a knife and trying to kick it in, police said.

Chung was under the influence of alcohol at the time, police said, and it doesn’t appear that he knows the residents.

The knife Chung allegedly used was found on a window ledge near the front door, police said. Damage to the door exceeded $1,000, police said.

At Chung’s arraignment, bond was set at $25,000 with a 10% provision — which allowed him to be released from custody after posting $2,500. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 3.

Waterford man dead after being hit by van driven by 81 year old

 

 

By MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty-five years ago, a little girl with a bob haircut appeared on our TVs, speaking a mix of English and Spanish, with a spunky, can-do spirit. She had an adventure planned, a backpack, a monkey friend and upbeat songs.

“Hi, I’m Dora. What’s your name?” she asked.

This was, of course, “Dora the Explorer,” the first Latina to lead a major cartoon series and the girl who helped spearhead the rise of multicultural children’s programming in the U.S. on her way to becoming a cultural phenomenon.

“The show allowed Latinos to be depicted on TV as educators, teaching viewers how to speak our language, and yet at the same time, just teaching ordinary things that children need to learn,” said Brenda Victoria Castillo, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Nickelodeon is celebrating Dora’s 25th anniversary with the feature-length live-action movie “Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,” a third season of the rebooted animated series “Dora,” the podcast Dora’s Mermaid Adventures, an album of songs and plenty of toys and apparel.

“The great thing about Dora is that, yes, she celebrates Latin culture through every aspect — language, food, dress and music,” says Ramsey Naito, president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon. “But she also empowers everybody to be their true self and to be brave. She’s not exclusive. She’s inclusive.”

The original voice

Kathleen Herles had a special vantage point to see Dora’s influence: She was the original voice of the pint-size heroine, cast in the role when she was 7 and staying until she was 18 and off to college.

“It has been the longest journey and the greatest adventure of my life — no pun intended,” said Herles, who grew up in New York City to parents of Peruvian descent.

On the convention circuit, Herles would see firsthand the power of Dora. “I remember I would make kids cry, not intentionally,” she says. “Their mind goes to a memory, to a moment, it’s just incredible. It’s so special, it’s magical.”

Herles has lately been the voice actor for Dora’s mom on “Dora,” the reboot that started in 2024. It’s a full-circle moment for the actor and singer: “It changed my life forever, twice.”

“Dora the Explorer” led to what Herles laughingly calls the “Dora-verse” — the spinoff series “Go, Diego, Go!,” a sequel series “Dora and Friends: Into the City!” and the 2019 live-action feature film “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” starring Isabela Merced, Eva Longoria and Michael Peña.

“Dora” co-creator Chris Gifford has watched his creation age up and down and take human form. “She has been older and she has been younger and she has a hair clip now,” he says. “Her essence, her positive spirit, her I-can-do-anything-with-your-help attitude has stuck through.”

Dora is firmly part of the culture, as big as her Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. There’s a reference to her in “Inside Out 2,” she’s been mocked on “Saturday Night Live” and if you look carefully at the PBS show “Alma’s Way,” you can see a Dora doll in that heroine’s bedroom. TikTok users have embraced the “Backpack Song.”

“Those kids coming of age now — the ones who 25 years ago were just watching it as little preschoolers — they’re out there and they’re remembering,” says Valerie Walsh Valdes, co-creator of the original series and an executive producer on the new series and movie.

Creating a problem solver

Valdes and Gifford originally had the idea for a show about a little girl who was a problem solver. Like “Blue’s Clues,” it would reward kids for figuring out answers posed by the host.

“Preschoolers are the least powerful people in our world,” says Gifford. “They’re not able to button their sweater and not able to tie their shoes, but if they’re able to help Dora get to the City of Lost Toys and really feel like they helped, that’s something special.”

Nickelodeon suggested the girl be Latina and the creators ran with it, making her pan-Latina so no one would feel excluded. Latin representation on TV — then and now — has been a struggle.

The Latino Donor Collaborative’s 2024 Latinos in Media report found that Latino actors made up 9.8% of the main cast in lead, co-lead and ensemble roles in scripted shows. In non-scripted television, Latino hosts made up only 5% of host roles. That’s despite Latin people making up nearly 20% of the country.

“There were few programs at the time that featured Latina protagonists with Dora’s skin tone or features, so from that perspective, the representation is valuable,” says Erynn Masi de Casanova, head of the sociology department at the University of Cincinnati.

Dora was put in an animated world inside a computer, and the creators asked kids to help make the show better. They hired education consultants to tease out the skills Dora teaches, like spatial understanding and interpersonal. They brought in language and culture experts.

“We did it!” became her signature song.

Bilingual heroine

The series is seen in more than 150 countries and territories and translated in 32 languages on Nickelodeon channels and Paramount+. In English-speaking countries such as the United States and Australia, Dora teaches Spanish; in other markets — including the Hispanic U.S. markets — she teaches English.

Samantha Lorraine, 18, who grew up in Miami of Cuban heritage, had the Dora T-shirts and backpack. She laughs that she once even had the Dora bob.

In July, she’s starring as Dora in “Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,” which was filmed in Colombia. “I’ve been doing my audition since day one,” she says.

“It’s an honor to be stepping into Dora’s shoes. It’s such a huge legacy,” she adds. “It’s really nice to be able to be a part of representation where it counts. And Dora is the epitome of that.”

Castillo, of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, puts Dora up there with Mickey Mouse in terms of an instantly recognized cultural character and says she’s relevant more than ever.

“We need more Doras,” she says. “If people were just open to being educated in other people’s languages and cultures and beliefs and not see it as a threat, we wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in this country and the world.”

By MARIA SHERMAN

NEW YORK (AP) — A pit bull puppy peeing off a balcony. Mounted antlers in the kitchen on a crooked nail. Pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine. For its dedicated audience, the North Carolina alt-country-meets-indie rock band Wednesday is an exemplar in evocative songwriting, where whole worlds are found in short lyrical lines.

And that says nothing of what they sound like. The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock is informed by Drive-By Truckers and Pavement in equal measure, a distinctive sonic fabric of lap steel, guitar fuzz, folksy and jagged vocals.

On Sept. 19, they will release their sixth and most ambitious full-length, “Bleeds.”

“My songwriting is just better on this album,” Wednesday’s singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman explains. “Things are said more succinctly … the immediacy of these songs was the main growth.”

Wednesday began as Hartzman’s solo project, evidenced in 2018’s sweet-sounding “yep definitely.” They became a full band on 2020’s “I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone,” a dive into guitar distortions, and 2021’s “Twin Plagues,” a further refinement of their “creek rock” sound. The lineup consists of Hartzman, bassist Ethan Baechtold, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, guitarist Jake Lenderman and drummer Alan Miller. Some also tour with Lenderman’s solo project, MJ Lenderman. (Hartzman and Lenderman previously dated.)

Wednesday’s last album, the narrative “Rat Saw God,” was named one of the best albums of 2023 by The Associated Press partially for its uncanny ability to dive into the particularities and complications of Southern identity. “Bleeds” sharpens those tools.

On “Bleeds,” a band evolves

“Originally, I was going to call it ‘Carolina Girl’ but my bandmates did not like that,’” Hartzman jokes.

“Bleeds” comes from the explosive opening track, “Reality TV Argument Bleeds.”

She likes how the band name and album title sound together — “’Wednesday Bleeds,’ which I feel like I do, when I play music … I’m almost, in a way, bloodletting and exorcising a demon.”

Lyrically, “Bleeds” features some of Wednesday’s best work — even in the revisiting of an older song, “Phish Pepsi,” that hilariously references both the jam band and the most disturbing movie released in 2010 — a kind of specificity born from Hartzman’s writing practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lenderman “wrote 20 lines of writing each day,” a practice adopted from Silver Jews’ David Berman. She’s also a documentarian of memory: She takes notes of things her friends say and images that are affecting, to later collage them together in songs.

“The well never runs dry,” Hartzman says. “Because I’ve admitted not everything can come from inside. I need to look outward outside of myself for inspiration.”

Remembering, she says, “is the goal for most of the (expletive) I do. … I care. I want stories to persist.”

Storytelling through song

“Bleeds” manages cohesion across a variance of sound. “Wasp” is hard-core catharsis; lead single “Elderberry Wine” drops guitar noise for shimmery, fermented country. “Wound Up Here (By Holding On),” which references the Appalachian poet Evan Gray, is a pretty indie rock track about a hometown hero who drowns.

The quietest moment on the album, the plucked “The Way Love Goes,” was written as “a love song for Jake when we were still together. ‘Elderberry Wine’ as well.’” Hartzman explains. “‘Elderberry Wine’ is kind of talking about me noticing slight changes in a relationship.”

These are not breakup songs; they exist right before the point of dissolution. “Sweet song is a long con / I drove ya to the airport with the E-brake on,” she sings on the latter.

Later: “Sometimes in my head I give up and / Flip the board completely.”

“I’m understanding how sound creates emotion. That’s what I’m learning over time,” Hartzman says of her musical growth. “I’m also listening to more music with every year that passes. So, my understanding of what’s possible, or what I can be inspired by, shifts.”

A number of the songs pull from childhood memory, as they always have across Wednesday’s discography. “I think about growing up a lot,” she says. “When I think of trying to tell … a story that’s vivid and intense, that’s just the easiest time in my life, where everything felt vivid and intense.”

Longtime fans of the band will find recurring themes and characters from past songs. For example, “Gary’s” from their 2021 album returns as the “Bleeds” closer in “Gary’s II,” where he gets into a bar fight.

“In a way, I’m writing the same songs over and over, but I’m just trying to make them better,” she says.

There is always more humanity to excavate. And often, those emotions, “they aren’t done with you,” she adds. “They’re not letting you go.”

So, let the bloodletting begin.

A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Margo Schulz as Wednesday’s bassist. Ethan Baechtold is the current bassist. Schulz parted ways with the group before the release of the 2023 album “Rat Saw God.”

Today is Monday, June 23, the 174th day of 2025. There are 191 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Education Amendments of 1972, including Title IX, which barred discrimination on the basis of sex for “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Also on this date:

In 1888, abolitionist Frederick Douglass received one vote from the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, making him the first Black candidate to have his name placed in nomination for U.S. president.

In 1931, aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York on an around-the-world flight that lasted eight days and 15 hours.

In 1947, the Senate joined the House in overriding President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, designed to limit the power of organized labor.

In 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

In 1969, Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States by his predecessor, Earl Warren.

In 1985, all 329 people on an Air India Boeing 747 were killed when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland after a bomb planted by Sikh separatists exploded onboard.

In 1992, mob boss John Gotti was sentenced to life after being found guilty of murder, racketeering and other charges. (Gotti would die in prison in 2002.)

In 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign, toppling Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the drive to remain in the bloc.

In 2020, the Louisville police department fired an officer involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor more than three months earlier, saying Brett Hankison showed “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he fired 10 rounds into her apartment.

In 2022, in a major expansion of gun rights, the Supreme Court said Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Author Richard Bach is 89.
• Computer scientist Vint Cerf is 82.
• Actor Bryan Brown is 78.
• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is 77.
• Musician Glenn Danzig is 70.
• Former “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson is 69.
• Actor Frances McDormand is 68.
• Golf Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie is 62.
• Actor Selma Blair is 53.
• French soccer manager and former player Zinedine Zidane is 53.
• Actor Joel Edgerton is 51.
• Singer-songwriter Jason Mraz is 48.
• Rapper Memphis Bleek is 47.
• Football Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson is 46.
• Actor Melissa Rauch (“The Big Bang Theory”) is 45.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander walked off the court for the final time this season, collapsed into the arms of coach Mark Daigneault and finally smiled.

It was over.

The climb is complete. The rebuild is done. The Oklahoma City Thunder are champions.

The best team all season was the best team at the end, bringing the NBA title to Oklahoma City for the first time. Gilgeous-Alexander finished off his MVP season with 29 points and 12 assists, and the Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers — who lost Tyrese Haliburton to a serious leg injury in the opening minutes — 103-91 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, the Finals MVP. “So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of belief. It’s crazy to know that we’re all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours and we deserve this.”

Jalen Williams scored 20 points and Chet Holmgren had 18 for the Thunder, who finished off a season for the ages. Oklahoma City won 84 games between the regular season and the playoffs, tying the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls for third most in any season.

Only Golden State (88 in 2016-17) and the Bulls (87 in 2015-16) won more.

It’s the second championship for the franchise. The Seattle SuperSonics won the NBA title in 1979; the team was moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. There’s nothing in the rafters in Oklahoma City to commemorate that title.

In October, a championship banner is finally coming. A Thunder banner.

The Pacers led 48-47 at the half even after losing Haliburton to what his father said was an Achilles tendon injury about seven minutes into the game. But they were outscored 34-20 in the third quarter as the Thunder built a 13-point lead and began to run away.

Bennedict Mathurin had 24 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana, which still is waiting for its first NBA title. The Pacers — who were 10-15 after 25 games and were bidding to be the first team in NBA history to turn that bad of a start into a championship — had leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, but they simply didn’t have enough in the end.

Home teams improved to 16-4 in NBA Finals Game 7s. And the Thunder became the seventh champion in the last seven seasons, a run of parity like none other in NBA history.

Pacers forward Pascal Siakam was part of the Toronto team that won in 2019, Thunder guard Alex Caruso was part of the Los Angeles Lakers team that won in the pandemic “bubble” in 2020, Milwaukee won in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Pacers forward Thomas Bryant and Denver prevailed in 2023, and Boston won last year’s title.

And now, the Thunder get their turn. The youngest team to win a title in nearly a half-century has reached the NBA mountaintop.

The Thunder are the ninth franchise to win a title in NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s 12 seasons. His predecessor, David Stern, saw eight franchises win titles in his 30 seasons as commissioner.

“They behave like champions. They compete like champions,” Daigneault said. “They root for each other’s success, which is rare in professional sports. I’ve said it many times and now I’m going to say it one more time. They are an uncommon team and now they’re champions.”

— By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Basketball Writer

EAST LANSING – Lake Orion’s Connor Fox picked up where he left off last year and had the lead through the first day of the 47th Michigan Junior State Amateur Championship presented by Imperial Headwear.

The defending champion shot rounds of 4-under 67 and 2-under 69 for a two-round 136 total Sunday at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers West Course. It earned him medalist honors for the stroke play competition in the championship, and he will start match play Monday as the No. 1 seed.

The 16-18 age players in the overall division played 36 holes on Sunday to determine the field for a 32-golfer bracket for match play. The golfers playing in the 15-and-under division will play 18 holes on Monday to fill out an 8-golfer bracket. Match play rounds follow on Tuesday and the semifinal and championship matches for both age divisions are on Wednesday.

Like the weather, Fox warmed up and built a lead. He said being the medalist wasn’t really on his mind, though.

“Once you get to match play the seeds don’t really mean anything, so I wasn’t really thinking about being medalist, but it’s still pretty cool to be medalist,” he said.

He said the weather was anything but cool and made it tough to play.

“It was really hot,” he said. “It was tough. I think towards the end I was feeling it, but I just tried to keep my hands dry.”

Cody Rowe of Pleasant Lake shot 68 and 71 for 139, finishing second by three shots.

Adam Thanaporn of Ann Arbor shot 69 and 73 for 142, Sutton Schroeder of Gowen, who shot rounds of 70 and 72 for 142, and John Cassidy of Grand Rapids, who shot a pair of 71s for 142, tied for third.

Fox, who will join the Michigan State golf program this fall, played well in last week’s Michigan Amateur Championship at Belvedere Golf Club in Charlevoix. He was among the top 25 in stroke play and won a first-round match before being knocked out in the round of 32.

“I just had some little things to clean up that I didn’t do well in the Amateur, and I cleaned them up and scored well and played really well today,” he said.

His plan for match play is simple.

“I want to keep doing the same things I’m doing,” he said. “I don’t want to go in like I’m trying to control the match and just make par,” he said. “I want to just keep thinking about making as many birdies as I can.”

TAMPA, Fla. — You don’t accept excuses, but facts are facts, as they say.

And the fact is, this has been an arduous week for the Tigers.

They played their 12th game in 14 games Sunday, including a long, split doubleheader at Comerica Park on Thursday, a flight that got to Tampa at 3 a.m. Friday, night game Friday, noon games Saturday and Sunday — in dense 90-plus-degree heat and against the hottest team in baseball.

“It’s brutal,” manager AJ Hinch said before the game Sunday. “Guys are banged up and tired and frustrated with a couple of the losses. … It’s part of it. It’s not been great. We’re not playing our best through it.

“But we’re going to keep working, keep trying to deal with the circumstances. But yeah, not good.”

At least the flight home was a happy one.

Wenceel Perez lined an opposite-field, two-run homer, on an 0-2 fastball from lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger, breaking a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning and helping the Tigers snap a three-game losing streak and salvage the finale with a 9-3 win against the Rays at Steinbrenner Field.

“It’s huge,” said Riley Greene, whose fingerprints, glove prints, were all over this victory. “We lost the first couple of games, had a couple of rough days with delays and a doubleheader. But at the end of the day, we still have to win a baseball game and that was a good one to win.”

The Tigers, at 49-30, still have the best record in baseball and a healthy nine-game lead in the Central Division. Even after a 20-game stretch where they played .500 baseball.

“Our reset button has been pretty good,” Hinch said. “But we’re not trying after win totals in June and we’re not after any recognition. We just reset and play the next series. I love this team for a lot of reasons but one of the main reasons is that we come to play every day.”

The Tigers blew the game open with a six-run ninth against reliever Forrest Whitley, keyed by a three-run blast by Parker Meadows. Spencer Torkelson sliced an RBI double. Perez also singled in a run. And, in keeping with the theme of the week, the game was delayed 18 minutes by a sudden shower before the Tigers even made an out in the top of the ninth.

From the outside looking in, it felt like a badly-needed win, if only to steady a brief wobble. But that’s not the view from the inside.

“We’re not going to take the mentality of every time we win, we’re great, and every time we lose, we suck,” Hinch said. “That’s not how you get through this type of schedule, and it’s not how you get through this type of season.

“We will be fine.”

They expect Casey Mize to be fine, too, though he left the game with the trainer one batter into the sixth inning. The heat index Sunday was over 100 degrees and that absolutely was a factor.

“Just started cramping in my right leg,” said Mize, who pitched a solid five innings, allowing only a solo home run to Junior Caminero, who has hit 19 of them this season. “And it continued when I got (to the clubhouse) in other body parts. It was a really hot day.”

Mize grimaced after throwing a 92-mph fastball to Caminero. Mize had been firing it between 94 and 97 mph before that.

Immediately, Hinch and trainer Kelly Rhoades came to the mound.

“We were worried (about cramping) beforehand because he’s had that before,” Hinch said. “He wanted some more time and was really hoping I would give him some warm-up pitches. But not in this heat, at this time in the season, where he was (80 pitches) and where he was in their lineup (middle).

“He had a short leash in that inning, anyway. I just took him out, very prematurely, because of the cramp.”

Mize the competitor wanted to keep pitching, especially in what was a 1-1 game. But Mize, the teammate, understood it was the right move.

“I felt like I could’ve continued but I think it turned out great,” he said with a smile. “In retrospect, it looks like the right call. I wish I could’ve pitched through the inning but I understand why, it was smart to get me out of there.”

In a lot of ways, this turned into the Riley Greene Show this weekend. He homered twice on Friday, and on Sunday he doubled twice and scored twice.

He also did his level best to keep Mize’s track clean with three outstanding defensive plays in left field in the first four innings.

“He made some great plays out there for me, for sure,” Mize said. “Like he always does for everybody. He can change the game with his bat.”

And his glove.

With a runner on and no outs in the second inning, Greene ran a long way toward the left-field line, laid out and caught a slicing bloop off the bat of Jake Mangum. With a runner on third and two outs in the third, he tracked a slicing foul ball to the side wall, leaped up and nearly went all the way over the wall to make the catch.

In the fourth, he tracked a laser into the left-field gap and took extra bases away from Jonathan Aranda.

“We’ve got to play 27 outs,” Greene said. “You can’t give them anything, especially in this ballpark. Anything can happen. We’ve already seen that here.”

Later, with the Tigers protecting the two-run lead in the eighth, Greene made another sliding catch after a long run, taking a hit from Caminero. Brandon Lowe was on first base with no outs, so it was another critical catch.

“Their offense has been pretty relentless on the other side, especially this last month,” Hinch said. “You have to record as many outs as you can when you can. They put balls in play, they run the bases and this is a big outfield. As small as right field is, left field is big. Riley came up huge.”

The Tigers bullpen, which got a much-needed break Saturday because starter Sawyer Gipson-Long ate 6.1 innings in bulk relief, locked down the final 12 outs, though the last three took a bit.

Tyler Holton and Chase Lee got five outs. Tommy Kahnle got four big outs before the Tigers blew it open. Lefty Brant Hurter, who threw 31 pitches Saturday as the opener, started the ninth, but couldn’t find the plate.

He threw 18 pitches, just seven strikes, loading the bases with a pair of walks and a hit-batsman.

Brenan Hanifee was summoned and got through the ninth, allowing a two-run single by Taylor Walls.

“I know you’re trying to get me to make a bigger deal out of this (win),” Hinch said. “But honestly, we just come to play every day. Obviously it’s an important win before an off day. We want to salvage a game here and it’s been a rough go. But it is what it is.

“It doesn’t help us or hurt us on Tuesday.”

Reset and move forward.

A 44-year-old Detroit man was shot and killed and three others wounded during a party at a Royal Oak Township park early Sunday morning, according to Michigan State Police.

Troopers from the Metro Detroit Post said the shooting was reported at 1:45 a.m., Sunday, June 22.

In a post on the social media platform X, state police said no arrests have been made and no motives have been determined. Detectives were gathering evidence and conducting interviews on Sunday.

State police were alerted to the shooting from an open 911 call during which the dispatcher could hear banging sounds and screaming in the background. Additional 911 calls were received about a shooting at the park

When troopers arrived, they found the 44-year-old with a gunshot would to his head. They administered first aid and the victim was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

There was a large crowd in the park from a party. Initially, they were not cooperative in leaving the crime scene, police said.

During the investigation, police learned of three additional victims being treated for gunshot wounds at three different local hospitals. They have been identified as a 33-year-old male from Detroit, a 15-year-old from Macomb and a 19-year-old from Detroit. The gender of the teens was not provided by police.

According to its website, there are three parks in the township: Civic Center Park, located between Ithaca and Majestic avenues; Mack-Rowe Park, located between Reimanville Avenue and Bethlawn Boulevard, and Grant Park, located off Cloverdale Avenue between Garden Lane and Westview Avenue. It’s not clear from the X post in which park the shooting occurred.

Troopers from Metro North, Metro South, and officers from Oak Park arrived and assisted with securing the scene.

TAMPA, Fla. — The question was put to Tigers’ manager AJ Hinch before the game Sunday: Has your faith in the opener strategy waned?

The last three games in which an opener was used to start the game ended in lopsided losses, including Saturday when opener Brant Hurter was charged with four unearned runs in the first inning.

Even though the strategy hasn’t been the direct cause-and-effect in every loss, it’s been a far less reliable play over the last month since injuries to starting pitchers Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe dinged the rotation.

Seemed like a good time to check on Hinch’s commitment to the strategy. Has it lessened?

“No,” he said. “The strategy is sound. I think the opener part is a little bit misconstrued as, it’s good when it works and bad when it doesn’t. It impacts things you don’t necessarily see all the time.”

It impacts the opponent’s lineup construction, Hinch said. It impacts how they space their hitters (right-handed and left-handed), which can impact decisions later in the game. And most importantly, when it works, it allows Hinch to dictate when to insert the bulk-innings pitcher.

“It’s a good strategy because the top of the lineup, which are generally their best hitters, don’t see the same pitchers all the time,” Hinch said.

Like in Game 3 of the ALDS last October when the Tigers used the strategy and blanked the Guardians, 3-0, and Jose Ramirez went hitless and faced a different pitcher in each of his four plate appearances.

That’s the gold-star example of the benefits of the strategy. It hasn’t worked quite as cleanly this season.

“When it doesn’t work, you feel like the other way would’ve worked out,” Hinch said. “It’s like football when you go for it on fourth down, or basketball when you run a fast-paced offense. When it doesn’t work, it sucks. And when it does work, it’s awesome.

“But that’s a hard way to live when you are trying to strategize against an opponent.”

The Tigers fell into a 4-0, first-inning hole on both Friday and Saturday. They used a traditional starter on Friday (Jack Flaherty) and the opener on Saturday.

“Like, I get the questions and I get the frustration,” Hinch said. “But I get frustrated when our starter gives up runs in the first inning, too. It’s not because of a certain strategy.”

The reason Hinch used the lefty Hurter on Saturday was to combat the lefties at the top of the Rays lineup. Hurter ended up yielding a double to lefty Jonathan Aranda and walking lefty Josh Lowe. He also struck out lefty Brandon Lowe, but Lowe reached on a passed ball by catcher Jake Rogers.

All of which torpedoed the inning, and the strategy.

“After 24 hours, you think about yesterday’s game,” Hinch said. “If we get through that first inning, three up and three down, is a good strategy or a bad strategy? Good strategy. But that’s the best part of sports. We have these reactions and these emotions that the other way would’ve been better.

“We don’t like it when something doesn’t work out. But it doesn’t make the strategy poor.”

It’s not a personnel issue, either. The Tigers’ bullpen, although it’s been heavily taxed over the last three weeks or longer, is still built to handle any type of strategy, be it an opener or even straight bullpen games.

“There are times when maybe the strategy needs to be questioned,” Hinch said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach with us or with any team. But if you ask managers around the league whether they care or not if they have to face an opener strategy, most guys don’t like to compete against it.

“It’s a pretty solid strategy when the opponent doesn’t like it. It’s not an exact science and it’s not perfect. But it’s a strategy and it’s been effective for a while now and there’s no reason to abandon it.”

Around the horn

The Tigers have been charged with 11 unearned runs in the last six games.

… Reliever Alex Lange (lat repair) made his second rehab outing at West Michigan on Saturday. He allowed a run and two hits with two strikeouts, throwing 20 pitches and 15 strikes. “I watched it,” Hinch said. “Looked like he came through it well. But with him right now, we’re in live BP, first day of spring mode.”

… Matt Vierling (shoulder) had been in an 0-for-10 rut in his rehab assignment with Toledo, but he broke out with three hits Saturday. He’s still only being used as the designated hitter. He is expected to start playing the field soon.

… Andy Ibáñez, who was optioned to Toledo on June 6, is 9 for 42 (.214) this month, with a .327 on-base percentage and .565 OPS.

By Owen McCarthy, The Detroit News

Geopolitics haven’t historically complicated annual fireworks shows, including the marquee extravaganza over the Detroit River scheduled for Monday — but that could be changing.

Many of the show’s viewers watch from the Detroit River’s south bank in Canada, a country where many have been offended by President Donald Trump’s musings about making it the 51st U.S. state. And nearly all fireworks in the United States are imported from China, Trump’s biggest adversary in his global trade war.

The trans-Pacific tension appears to be affecting the festivities already: Zambelli, the Pennsylvania-based company that supplies and sets up the Ford Fireworks display, said it ate higher production costs this year rather than pass them on to the Detroit-based Parade Company, which hosts the event, and Ford Motor Co., the event’s lead sponsor.

And Zambelli is warning that tariff “volatility” — a concern voiced by many economists and business leaders — could threaten the fireworks industry’s ability to meet the high demand it is likely to face for Fourth of July 2026, marking the United States’ 250th anniversary.

Whether Trump’s rhetoric around Canada will have much impact on the event — which, in past years, was billed as a celebration of the countries’ close ties — is still unclear. But Windsor restaurant manager Brad Dunlop of Jose’s Bar and Grill said he thinks a tariff-induced slowdown in manufacturing there might actually free up more Canadians than in past years to watch the fireworks.

And like any other year, the company putting on Monday night’s show said the national anthem, “O Canada,” will be sung, and the nation’s maple leaf flag will be flown from a helicopter.

“It’s not our position to make political statements and things like that,” said Tony Michaels, the president and CEO of the Parade Company, adding: “I hope our neighbors enjoy the show.”

Impact on costs, supply

Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, said that costs for this year’s Fourth of July celebrations will be virtually the same as last year’s because fireworks companies can still rely on inventory they had shipped from China before Trump’s tariffs went into effect. That bodes well for upcoming fireworks displays across Metro Detroit.

It’s next year — when communities will want to go all out with their fireworks for the nation’s 250th birthday — that worries Heckman. That’s a central reason her association is calling on the Trump administration to grant a tariff exemption for fireworks similar to the one it approved in 2019.

“We support America First policies,” Heckman said. “Our base probably supported the current president. It’s not political for us, we’re just trying to make the case for ‘you understand our unique reliance on China, and we should be exempt again.'”

According to the APA, 99% of the world’s consumer fireworks and 90% of its professional display fireworks come from China.

Zambelli, which supplies pyrotechnics for Ford Fireworks and is a member of the APA, said that it has already seen cost challenges this year, and is also hoping for a tariff exemption: “Unlike other industries, we cannot shift sourcing quickly or renegotiate pricing within our tight seasonal windows,” the company said in a statement to The Detroit News. “Looking ahead to 2026 and the nation’s 250th anniversary, stability in trade policy will be essential.”

Zambelli President Michael Hartman said in a separate statement that this year his company absorbed higher production costs for the Ford Fireworks display rather than pass them on to Parade Company. He said that to produce the same quality of show in 2026 as it’s putting on this year, Zambelli would need to see increased contributions for the fireworks display from the “good people” at the Parade Company and its sponsors.

Michaels, the president and CEO of the Parade Company, said that while his company negotiated with Zambelli to pay the same for the fireworks display this year as it did last, the firm would consider paying more next year if necessary.

“We at the Parade Company, like every other company, negotiates their price. It’s good business” Michaels said. “So absolutely, if (Zambelli’s) price goes up next year, we will take a look at it, see where it’s at, and then we make decisions from there, just like any other well-run business.”

Trump’s frequently fluctuating tariff policies have hampered the fireworks industry’s ability to plan business decisions for the future and have already strained supply, according to the APA and Zambelli. Those concerns closely mirror those expressed by industries across the economy amid on-again, off-again tariffs.

Trump’s 125% tariff on Chinese imports in early April took effect during peak shipping season for the fireworks industry, Heckman said. That led large sectors of the industry to cancel orders, figuring that they had enough inventory for the Fourth of July and couldn’t afford the tariffed shipments anyway.

Michigan Fireworks Co. in South Lyon was one such company: “We could not take something that was 50 bucks and sell it to someone for $125,” said Eric Konopka, the store’s owner. “Good conscience wouldn’t let us do that. It wasn’t worth it.”

Canceled shipments were then left in Chinese factories, which Heckman said had a compounding effect. Fireworks production facilities have to be extra cautious not to overcrowd their space, given the explosiveness of what they’re producing, so most factories halted their production at that point: “We lost a couple months of critical manufacturing time.”

That will mean limited fireworks supplies, which will compound once more with the 30% tariff currently on Chinese imports — a trend Heckman called “unsustainable.” And that’s not to mention the possibility that the rate will revert back to triple-digits when Trump’s 90-day pause on higher Chinese tariffs expires in early July.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty right now, which is making it very difficult for these small, multi-generational family businesses, including Zambelli, to make business decisions,” she said, referencing the Pennsylvania-based company that supplies and sets up the annual pyrotechnics in Detroit.

Konopka, the owner of the fireworks store in South Lyon, said prices for the “bigger stuff” in his shop are largely the same as last year because he’s relying on inventory ordered last July and shipped to the United States in January, before tariffs went into effect.

Still, Konopka said he recently “allowed one container to come in for some little stuff,” gesturing toward a rack of sparklers and small fireworks, when the tariff rate was at 30%. Prices on those goods have risen by about $1, he said.

“If you’re in our store from this year to last year, 95% of the stuff is exactly the same price,” he said.

However, Konopka said the fireworks “tents,” commonly set up outside of grocery stores, and other fireworks retailers that weren’t able to stock up before tariffs went into effect will inevitably be hurt as they look toward New Year’s and next summer.

“You will see significant firework shortages at the end of this year,” he said.

Konopka, who works as a financial adviser, owns the fireworks store as a “hobby” with his wife Jessica, a nurse. Though Trump’s tariffs will make his job in the fireworks industry “difficult,” he said tariffs are a necessary tool to motivate countries to strike more balanced trade agreements with the United States.

Feet away sat a box of “Make America Great Again” fireworks, with an AI-rendered Trump celebrating in front of the White House, red and yellow fireworks lighting up the skies.

New questions over U.S.-Canada relations

In times past, the fireworks over the Detroit River have been expressly billed as a celebration of neighborly appreciation between the United States and Canada. Established in 1959, the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival ran for decades as a days-long celebration in late June and early July, according to the Detroit Historical Society. They commemorated both Canada Day on July 1, and Independence Day on July 4.

Then in 2007, the festivities were separated into two autonomously operated events. But the fireworks display — which has been sponsored by American companies Hudson’s, Target Corp. and now Ford Motor Co. — has maintained its Canadian appreciation. A helicopter flies a Canadian flag overhead, and the event kicks off with both countries’ national anthems.

This year’s Ford Fireworks, though, come at a time of unprecedented tension between the United States and Canada. Trump’s tariffs have hurt the country’s economy, and his flirtations with annexation have angered many of the famously friendly Canadians, with some even booing the U.S. national anthem at NHL games.

That presidential static is slowing Canadians’ travel to the United States this summer, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The number of people crossing into Michigan from Canada fell 13% in April and 16% in May.

Nevertheless, Brad Dunlop, the manager of Jose’s Bar and Grill in Windsor, said he thinks Windsorites will have no problem staying in Canada and “spending the money in our own country” to watch the fireworks, where the view is better anyway.

“We have the bigger waterfront,” he said.

Dunlop said the “Trump ordeal” has frustrated plenty of Canadians and caused them not to travel to the United States, but that he thinks attendance in Windsor for the fireworks will be the same as always, if not even higher this year. He attributes that to the tariff-induced slowdown in manufacturing in Windsor, which he said could free up more people’s schedules.

And, given the cost-effectiveness of watching fireworks amid Canada’s economic woes, Dunlop said he thinks people in Windsor will be especially motivated to attend the festivities.

“With the economy the way it is, especially in Windsor with manufacturing — it’s a free show,” he said. “I think you’re going to see families go down because it’s something you can do for free.”

The Houston Rockets are acquiring 15-time All-Star and four-time Olympic gold medalist Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in a blockbuster deal struck Sunday, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press.

The Rockets are giving up Dillon Brooks, Jalen Green and six future picks — including the No. 10 selection in Wednesday’s opening round of this year’s draft — according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was still pending NBA approval.

It ends weeks of speculation about where Durant would end up. Many teams were involved at various times, including Miami and Minnesota, but in the end Phoenix accepted the Rockets’ offer.

ESPN first reported the trade.

Fans learned of the news while Durant was on stage in New York at Fanatics Fest NYC, and when they began reacting, Durant started smiling broadly.

“We’re gonna see, man,” Durant said from the stage. “We’re gonna see.”

Boardroom, the ever-growing media company that Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, co-founded in 2019, teams up with Fanatics on a number of projects. The panel that Durant was set to appear on there Sunday was called “Global Game Changers.”

He certainly figures to change the game for the Rockets.

Houston finished No. 2 in the Western Conference in the regular season, albeit 16 games behind No. 1 Oklahoma City. It now adds a two-time champion to its young core as it looks to make another jump next season.

Durant averaged 26.6 points this season, his 17th in the NBA — not counting one year missed because of injury. For his career, the 6-foot-11 forward is averaging 27.2 points and seven rebounds per game.

The move brings Durant back to the state of Texas, where he played his one year of college basketball for the Longhorns and was the college player of the year before going as the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft by Seattle.

Houston will become his fifth franchise, joining the SuperSonics (who then became the Oklahoma City Thunder), Golden State, Brooklyn and Phoenix. Durant won his two titles with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, and last summer in Paris he became the highest-scoring player in U.S. Olympic basketball history and the first men’s player to be part of four gold-medal teams.

Durant is a four-time scoring champion, a two-time Finals MVP and one of eight players in NBA history with more than 30,000 career points, joining the club on Feb. 11.

Durant is under contract next season for roughly $50 million before becoming a free agent in 2026.

His departure from the Suns was expected and ends a disappointing 2 1/2 years in the desert. Durant never enjoyed consistent team success despite being part of a trio that included star guards Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

Durant was acquired by the Suns from the Brooklyn Nets in a four-team trade-deadline deal in 2023, just days after new owner Mat Ishbia bought the team for roughly $4 billion. Phoenix gave up a lot to acquire the then-34-year-old, sending young standouts Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, along with four future first-round picks, to Brooklyn.

___

— By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Basketball Writer

AP Sports Writer David Brandt in Phoenix contributed to this report.

DETROIT ― There are few bigger boosters for Detroit on the national scene than NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico, who was at Detroit Golf Club this month to preview the seventh playing of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic.

The News caught up briefly with Tirico, 58, the network’s lead host for golf coverage who lives in southeast Michigan, to talk about the success of the Rocket and the future of the tournament, which is under contract through 2026 with Rocket holding an option for 2027.

Here are the highlights of that interview, which has been edited lightly for length and clarity:

Question: What have you seen from the Rocket since it debuted in 2019?

Answer: Events take a while to figure it out, right? And this event had it figured out a lot better than most from the start. I keep leaning back on 2020, the COVID year, to be able to pull the event off, that was a very Detroit-centric moment for this event, ‘We’re going to make it through here.’ And it has stayed true to its creation, and stayed very true to the people of Detroit, which is really cool. And along the way, the best part to me, Tour players have come here and loved it. The guys who come here love being here. They love playing here. You get a lot of repeat customers. That says a lot about how this event is run. I can’t give enough credit to Dan (Gilbert) and all the Rocket folks. I mean, what they have put into this is more than most sponsors put in, and Detroit, again, has benefited from their efforts.

Q: You’ve been around the country (and the world), seen a lot of events. What do you make of how this event puts its city on display, as compared to other events?

A: Look, you have and you will again go to the suburbs when Oakland Hills hosts the U.S. Open (in 2034 and 2051) and all these USGA championships. … This has a different feel because it’s in the city limits. This has a different feel because there’s a city vibe. When you look at the gallery here, it looks different from the gallery that you see at most PGA Tour events. It’s just a fact. And I think that texture to this event makes it really unique and really cool. If you had the same event 35 weeks in a row, the (PGA) Tour would be monotonous and boring. I think the … ability to have that kind of feel to it really adds to this. And I love the fact it’s Detroit, and it’s stayed uniquely Detroit.

Q: It remains a weird time in golf, with the PGA Tour and LIV. They’re still trying to figure things out, and the Rocket still doesn’t have an extension. What kind of void would it be if the tournament went away?

A: I think it’d be a void for the Tour. I really do. I think the fact that so many events look alike, and this one has something special to it. It’s what the Tour needs. They need more events like this, more (than just) non-signature events that are the same 50 guys playing against each other. This allows brand-building, great stories, to develop guys who change the course of their careers (for example, inaugural Rocket Classic winner Nate Lashley). In addition to getting big names here, you look at it, there’s no tournament in Chicago. You have no tournament in Cleveland. A lot of the big cities in the Midwest don’t have the PGA Tour on a regular basis. I think being here is something that should be a priority for the Tour, and (something) they should put a little more attention on. And I think if it wasn’t here, it would be a shame. And I hope we don’t have to talk about that day.

 

Rocket Classic

When: June 26-29

Where: Detroit Golf Club

TV: Thursday-Friday: Golf Channel, 3-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday: Golf Channel, 1-3 p.m., CBS, 3-6 p.m.

Defending champion: Cam Davis

Tickets: Starting at $73; details at RocketClassic.com