By JESSICA DAMIANO

I hate to break it to you, but just like your calendar can’t tell you the best time to harvest, it won’t provide you the perfect date to attack the pests waging war on your plants.

Timing effective pest control is all about understanding how the weather affects insect life cycles.

We know that most plants and insects emerge in spring, advance through summer, and, in cold regions, go dormant over winter. But beyond those general seasonal cycles, there’s no way to predict precisely when, for example, seeds will sprout, garlic will be ready for harvest or pests will be at their most vulnerable.

Those developmental stages vary from year to year because they’re dependent on the weather.

That’s where growing degree days come in.

GDD is a cumulative system used to determine exactly when plants and insects will reach certain stages of maturity. And with so much variability — with different pests having different life stages that are vulnerable (or resistant) to different control methods at different times — it’s a helpful tool for gardeners.

The system, introduced by the French entomologist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur in 1735, is a measurement of heat accumulation that accurately predicts when seeds will germinate, crops will mature and specific pest populations will hatch and reach advancing stages of maturity.

The progression of an insect’s life cycle, like much of the natural world’s biological activity, is dictated by environmental factors like temperature. And because not every life stage will succumb to treatment, weather is the only thing that can truly accurately inform the timing of many control methods.

Here’s how it works

The average daily temperature is typically recorded on March 1, and for each degree over 50 degrees Fahrenheit, one point is assigned. Then, every day throughout the remainder of the season, the number of degrees over 50 is added to a running tally. If the temperature is exactly at or below 50 degrees, the day is assigned a score of zero.

Let’s say the temperature was 53 degrees on March 1; the GDD on that day would be 3. If it was 60 on March 2, the GDD would be 3 plus 10, or 13. If the temperature was 49 on March 3, that would add nothing, and the accumulated growing degree days would remain at 13. The tally continues to grow through a regionally specific date in the fall.

Seems complicated? The good news is you don’t have to crunch the numbers yourself.

Your local cooperative extension office likely tailors and tracks this information for your region, and many post the GDD, as well as pest- and plant-specific GDD guidelines, on their websites. In addition, the agricultural company Syngenta offers a handy tool among its GreenCast online resources that quickly generates the GDD for your zip code.

What does this mean for your garden?

As an example, Colorado potato beetle eggs and pupae are not susceptible to pesticides, so attempting control during those stages would be pointless. But their larvae are vulnerable to the natural biological control Bt from the time they emerge until they reach ¼ inch in length. Rather than heading out into the garden with a ruler — or spraying every day and hoping for the best — you can time the application for between 65 and 185 GDD.

Similarly, the first generation of euonymus scale insects are most vulnerable to Neem oil and horticultural oil treatments between 400 and 575 GDD.

And for pre-emergent crabgrass controls, like corn gluten meal, to be effective, they should be applied just before 200 GDD. That’s why I recommend a treatment window that coincides with the time between when the first forsythia blooms and the last of the lilacs fade: It’s a visual cue tied to nature’s reaction to temperature.

Depending on the variety, most tomatoes, which love the heat, are ripe for the picking between 1,000 and 2,000 GDD. But, for the record, my tomatoes always let me know when they’re ready.

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 RACHEL S. HUNT

How much has social media changed the way we talk and behave?

That’s the question linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic sets out to answer in his debut book “Algospeak.”

If you already know what words like “yeet,” “rizz,” “brainrot” or “blackpilled” mean, some of this information might not come as a surprise to you. Still, Aleksic’s analysis reaffirms how this language came about and why it continues to proliferate. For those unfamiliar, it acts as an accessible entry point into social media slang and its evolution.

“Algospeak” touches on a wide array of topics, including in-groups and out-groups, censorship, language appropriation, extremism online, microtrends, clickbait and generational divides. The chapters build on each other with a textbook-level attention to vocabulary.

This book serves as a sobering reality check on how social media is affecting not just our speech, but our entire identities.

“Social media creates new identities in order to commodify them,” Aleksic writes in a chapter about microtrends and micro-labels. “Your decisions are now curated for you under the guise of personalization, while in reality they’re engineered to make platforms as much money as possible.”

As a self-proclaimed “etymology nerd,” Aleksic leans heavily into his experience as a content creator, providing a crash course into social media history and how to game the ever-changing and opaque “algorithm.” His tone is academic, yet approachable, and he’s bold but pragmatic in his assertions, exploring counterarguments sufficiently.

He identifies the transient nature of language and the algorithm immediately, since the cultural references in “Algospeak” risk expiring quickly as trends change and social media platforms shift — but that’s the point.

“‘The algorithm’ is here to stay. This is why I think it’s absolutely worth talking about even the most fleeting words,” Aleksic writes.

Aleksic’s writing feels personable and knowledgeable as he translates his online presence offline, and in doing so, demonstrates his own claims about parasocial relationships and owning one’s audience. Keeping up with the algorithmic cycle is portrayed as exhausting, but as a necessary evil for influencers supporting their livelihoods through social media.

“Algospeak” is a fascinating blend of etymology, psychology, cultural analysis and first-person perspective. The book acts as both a snapshot of our current, social media-imbued society and as an intellectual foundation for language developments to come.

Aleksic leaves his reader with questions about the threats and opportunities that stem from social media developments, but undeniably one principle is true: social media has breached containment and is influencing not only the way we talk, but the way we live.

“Algorithms are the culprits, influencers are the accomplices, language is the weapon, and you, dear reader, are the victim,” he writes.

By TRACEE M. HERBAUGH

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Romance novels have always spiced up quiet nights. Now, a genre that has sometimes been dismissed as a guilty pleasure is bringing readers and writers together through social media, book clubs and a growing number of romance-specific bookstores.

At a recent launch party for Nora Dahlia’s enemies-to-friends romance “Pick-Up” at Lovestruck Books, a romance-dedicated store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a crowd of women sipped cocktails from the bar-café as they browsed the shelves.

After Dahlia’s reading, patrons stuck around to mingle, swap contact info and trade author recommendations.

It was a particularly social event for a book talk. But the communal atmosphere is typical of events for romance fans.

Dahlia likened romance readers to “Comic-Con folks,” referring to the deep-rooted passion that defines comic-book fandom.

“They’re educated on the genre in a real way,” Dahlia said. “Many of them started reading romance — Danielle Steel, V.C. Andrews, Jude Deveraux — as teenagers.”

At The Ripped Bodice bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, manager Katherine Zofrea said romance fans who have connected online frequently come into the store to meet in person. Along with author events, the store hosts three different book clubs and a romance comedy night.

“We’ve had a couple proposals here, we’ve had a wedding here which was really fun,” Zofrea said.

She said customers range “from teenagers who are starting to really get into the romance genres to older folks who have been romance readers for their entire lives and remember way back when they were reading the Harlequins and romance wasn’t as widely accepted.

“Now they’re loving seeing how widely accepted romance has become.”

A boom in romance bookstores

Bookstores like Lovestruck and The Ripped Bodice (which has a flagship store in Los Angeles) have begun popping up all over the U.S., from Wichita, Kansas, to Wilmington, North Carolina, to Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Of the 157 romance-dedicated bookstores in the American Booksellers Association, more than half opened within the last two years, said Allison Hill, CEO of the trade group for independent sellers.

“Romance books have been one of the fastest growing book sales categories in recent years, driven by a number of factors including the need for escape reading and BookTok,” Hill said.

And the genre has evolved. “The romance genre is more diverse in every way including character identity and plot,” she said.

Lovestruck’s owner, Rachel Kanter, called the boom “incredible — and honestly, overdue. Romance has always been one of the most commercially successful genres, but for a long time it didn’t get the respect or space it deserved in the literary world.”

Romance-specific bookstores, she says, “are places where readers can feel joy, comfort, and connection — and where love is taken seriously as a literary theme.”

A lifeline during COVID

As with many hobbies, romance fandom solidified and expanded after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic had pushed so many people toward reading for escape and comfort, and romance became a lifeline for a lot of folks,” said Kanter.

“At the same time, there was a wider cultural shift happening — people were rethinking what mattered, craving joy and softness, and looking to support indie businesses that reflected their values. Romance, with all its hope and heart, met that moment beautifully,” she said.

Reimagining the romantic bond

Romance has countless subgenres — hockey romance, Western romance, LGBTQ romance, even romance set on prison planets. But a common theme is their “inherently hopeful storylines,” says Elizabeth Michaelson Monaghan, a 52-year-old freelance writer and editor in New York who said she’s read “hundreds” of romance novels.

“Romance must have a happily-ever-after — or at least a happily-for-now. Romance writers and readers are very clear on this,” she said.

Romantic fiction that doesn’t end that way? That’s just a love story.

Traits of the romance genre also include strong character descriptions, attraction, conflict, and a satisfying resolution and emotional growth. Expect plenty of steam — some authors deploy it explicitly, others are more tame.

There’s a long-standing culture of (mostly) women reading and sharing these books across generations.

“It is pleasurable to reimagine courtship or the romantic bond,” said Jayashree Kamble, professor of English at LaGuardia Community College and president of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. “There is limited risk involved.”

Kamble has been a voracious romance reader since her teenage years in India, where she devoured Harlequin romances.

Romance novels, she said, are “a lovely reminder that individualism and companionship can go together. These are basic bonds.”

Community: online and in real life

Podcasts, too, have become a source for discovering what’s trending. Andrea Martucci, creator and host of the romance-focused “Shelf Love” podcast, said romance bookstores have become places of connection akin, in some ways, to churches — for the romantically devoted.

“I can go to a bookstore and not just find people who love books,” she said, “but find people who love the very same books I love.”

As Annabel Monaghan, author of several love stories including “Nora Goes Off Script,” puts it, “People who read romance want to feel good. And when you gather a bunch of people who want to feel good, it’s magic.”

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, AP Business Writer

Pop Mart has struck it rich. The Chinese company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers said this week that it expects profit for the first six months of this year to jump by at least 350% compared with the prior-year period, largely because of its smash hit plush toy, the Labubu. Pop Mart joins a small list of companies that have tapped into the zeitgeist, drawing in millions of buyers who, for one reason or another, simply must get their hands on a toy or gadget of the moment.

But what makes the Labubu a must-have, or any toy for that matter, is a decades-old question that toy makers have yet to figure out.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular toys over the years.

Cabbage Patch Kids

Cabbage Patch Kids began as chubby-faced dolls with yarn hair that came with adoption papers. During the 1980s the dolls were so popular that parents waited in long lines at stores trying to get a hold of them. More than 90 million Cabbage Patch Kids were sold worldwide during their heyday.

Cabbage Patch Kids, which were created by Xavier Roberts and initially sold by Coleco, were relaunched in 2004, looking to take part in the successful return of other popular 1980s toys including Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A Cabbage Patch Kid museum named BabyLand General Hospital still exists in Cleveland, Georgia. The dolls entered the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2023.

Beanie Baby

Beanie Babies captivated consumers in the mid-1990s. The cuddly $5 toys were under-stuffed for maximum hug-ability, stamped with cute names on their Ty Inc. tags, and given limited edition runs.

Many people collected, traded and sold the toys with the hopes that their value would just keep going up at the dawn of the e-commerce age. It made some people money, and the founder, Ty Warner, a billionaire in three years.

In 2014 Warner learned that he would not go to prison for hiding at least $25 million from U.S. tax authorities and instead received two years’ probation. Warner, one of the highest profile figures snared in a federal investigation of Americans using Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. taxes, had pleaded guilty to a single count of tax evasion.

Tamagotchi

Looking for a pet without the real-life responsibilities? Well then the Tamagotchi electronic pet from Bandai was for you. Consumers were hooked on the egg-shaped plastic toy that first launched in Japan in 1996 and became a craze worldwide in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Users were tasked with taking care of their virtual pet by pressing buttons that simulate feeding, disciplining and playing with the critter on screen. If a Tamagotchi is neglected, it dies.

In 2013 Tamagotchi was reborn as a mobile app, duplicating the experience of the plastic handheld toy. The toy was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in May.

Fidget Spinner

Fidget spinners — the 3-inch twirling gadgets that took over classrooms and cubicles — were all the rage in 2017. The toy was considered somewhat of an outlier at the time, given that it wasn’t made by a major company, timed for the holiday season, or promoted in TV commercials. Fidget spinners were more easily found at gas stations or 7-Eleven than at big toy chains.

Fidget spinners had been around for years, mostly used by kids with autism or attention disorders to help them concentrate, but they became more popular after being featured on social media.

While hot toys are often made by one company, fidget spinners were made by numerous manufacturers, mostly in China. The toys were marketed as a concentration aid but became so popular among children that many schools started banning them, saying that they were a distraction.

Labubu

The Labubu, by artist and illustrator Kasing Lung, first appeared as monsters with pointed ears and pointy teeth in three picture books inspired by Nordic mythology in 2015.

In 2019 Lung struck a deal with Pop Mart, a company that caters to toy connoisseurs and influencers, to sell Labubu figurines. But it wasn’t until Pop Mart started selling Labubu plush toys on key rings in 2023 that the toothy monsters suddenly seemed to be everywhere, including in the hands of Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and NBA star Dillon Brooks. K-pop singer Lisa of Blackpink began posting images of hers for her more than 100 million followers on Instagram and on TikTok, where Labubu pandemonium has broken out.

Labubu has been a bonanza for Pop Mart. Its revenue more than doubled in 2024 to 13.04 billion yuan ($1.81 billion), thanks in part to its elvish monster. Revenue from Pop Mart’s plush toys soared more than 1,200% in 2024, nearly 22% of its overall revenue, according to the company’s annual report.

Today is Saturday, July 19, the 200th day of 2025. There are 165 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 19, 1848, the first “Convention to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of Woman” convened at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Also on this date:

In 1812, during the War of 1812, the First Battle of Sackets Harbor in Lake Ontario resulted in an American victory as U.S. naval forces repelled a British attack.

In 1969, Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.

In 1975, the Apollo and Soyuz space capsules that were linked in orbit for two days separated.

In 1979, the Nicaraguan capital of Managua fell to Sandinista guerrillas, two days after President Anastasio Somoza fled the country.

In 1980, the Moscow Summer Olympics began, minus dozens of nations that were boycotting the games because of Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.

In 1989, 111 people were killed when United Air Lines Flight 232, a DC-10 which sustained the uncontained failure of its tail engine and the loss of hydraulic systems, crashed while making an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa; 185 other people survived.

In 1990, baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, was sentenced in Cincinnati to five months in prison for tax evasion.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced a policy allowing gays to serve in the military under a compromise dubbed “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue.”

In 2006, prosecutors reported that Chicago police beat, kicked, shocked or otherwise tortured scores of Black suspects from the 1970s to the early 1990s to try to extract confessions from them.

In 2005, President George W. Bush announced his choice of federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts Jr. to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. (Roberts ended up succeeding Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in Sept. 2005; Samuel Alito followed O’Connor.)

In 2013, in a rare and public reflection on race, President Barack Obama called on the nation to do some soul searching over the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, George Zimmerman, saying the slain Black teenager “could have been me 35 years ago.”

In 2018, a duck boat packed with tourists capsized and sank in high winds on a lake in the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, killing 17 people.

In 2021, Paul Allard Hodgkins, a Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, carrying a Trump campaign flag, received an eight-month prison term in the first resolution of a felony case arising from the U.S. Capitol insurrection. (In 2025, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the riot.)

In 2022, Britain shattered its record for the highest temperature ever registered amid a heat wave that seared swaths of Europe.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Civil rights activist and educator Rachel Robinson, widow of baseball’s Jackie Robinson, is 103.
• Blues singer-musician Little Freddie King is 85.
• Singer-musician Alan Gorrie (Average White Band) is 79.
• International Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase is 79.
• Rock musician Brian May (Queen) is 78.
• Rock musician Bernie Leadon is 78.
• Movie director Abel Ferrara is 74.
• Movie director Atom Egoyan is 65.
• Actor Campbell Scott is 64.
• Actor Anthony Edwards is 63.
• Ukrainian politician and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko is 54.
• Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 49.
• TV chef Marcela Valladolid is 47.
• Actor Trai Byers (TV: “Empire”) is 42.

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The University of Michigan is under federal scrutiny after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States.

Today is Tuesday, July 15, the 196th day of 2024. There are 169 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

Also on this date:

In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN’-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced by a state court to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (The previous month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.)

In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Patrick Wayne is 86.
• R&B singer Millie Jackson is 81.
• Singer Linda Ronstadt is 79.
• Author Richard Russo is 76.
• Musician Trevon Horn is 76.
• Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 75.
• Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is 74.
• Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV: “Lost”) is 73.
• Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 73.
• Rock musician Joe Satriani is 69.
• Model Kim Alexis is 65.
• Actor Willie Aames is 65.
• Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 64.
• Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 62.
• Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 59.
• TV personality Adam Savage (TV” “MythBusters”) is 58.
• Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 57.
• Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: “Community”) is 53.
• Actor Scott Foley is 53.
• Actor Brian Austin Green is 52.
• Singer Buju Banton is 52.
• Actor Diane Kruger is 49.
• Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH’-nuh pa-REE’-uh) is 48.
• Actor Travis Fimmel is 46.
• Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 36.
• Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 17.

MIAMI (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said he has been suspended from coaching his former high school team in Miami because he provided players with financial benefits that he says he’d reported to the school.

The 32-year-old Bridgewater publicized action taken against him by Miami Northwestern High School in a social media post in which he also reaffirmed his desire to continuing coaching the team for which he once played.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Bridgewater’s social media post said. “And if it comes down to it, I will volunteer from the bleachers like I used to in 2018 and 2019 when no one had a problem.”

A message left for school administrators on Monday was not returned.

Last fall was Bridgewater’s first season coaching his former school, which he led to a Class 3A state championship before signing with Detroit in late December to serve as a backup for the playoff-bound Lions.

He wound up seeing his only action in the postseason, completing his only pass for 3 yards in a divisional-round loss to Washington.

Bridgewater had written in an earlier social media post that he paid for rides, meals and treatment for players last season. This year, he solicited donations to help cover those costs.

He said in his more recent post that he reported those payments to the school.

Drafted 32nd overall out of Louisville by Minnesota in 2014, Bridgewater appeared in 79 regular-season NFL games during 10 seasons split among the Vikings, New Orleans, Carolina, Miami, Denver and Detroit.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessee’s attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trump’s first term confirmed 234 federal judges.

The two presidents each worked to reshape the judiciary, with Trump taking advantage of a high number of judicial vacancies at the end of President Barack Obama’s term and Democrats working to beat Trump’s number after he had the opportunity to nominate three Supreme Court justices.

So far in his second term, Trump has fewer vacancies to fill. While he inherited more than 100 vacancies from Obama, who was stymied by a Republican Senate in his final two years, Trump now has 49 vacancies to fill out of almost 900 federal judgeships.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week that the Senate would work to quickly confirm Trump’s judicial nominees, even though “we’re not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress we did during Trump’s first term.”

Hermandorfer, who was confirmed 46-42 along party lines, has defended many of Trump’s policies as director of strategic litigation for Tennessee’s attorney general, including his bid to end birthright citizenship. Democrats and liberal judicial advocacy groups criticized her as extreme on that issue and others, also citing her office’s defense of the state’s strict abortion ban.

Before working for the Tennessee Attorney General, she clerked for three Supreme Court justices. But at her confirmation hearing last month, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware criticized what he called a “striking brevity” of court experience since Hermandorfer graduated from law school a decade ago.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on “a nominee’s perceived loyalty to him and his agenda — and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration.”

The Judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on additional judges this week, including top Justice Department official Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump who is nominated for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove’s nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands. Bove has pushed back against suggestions from Democrats that the whistleblower’s claims make him unfit for the federal bench.

Bove has also accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.

By JULIE WATSON, AMY TAXIN and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

Federal authorities now say they arrested more than 360 people at two Southern California marijuana farms last week, characterizing the raids as one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January.

One farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof during the chaotic raids on Thursday after the Department of Homeland Security executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, northwest of Los Angeles.

The raids came more than a month into an extended crackdown across Southern California that was originally centered on Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.

What happened?

During the raid on the Camarillo site, crowds gathered seeking information about their relatives and to protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.

Glass House Brands is a major cannabis company in California that started a decade ago with a greenhouse in the Santa Barbara County community of Carpinteria.

The company said it later expanded, buying another facility in the Ventura County community of Camarillo that included six tomato and cucumber-growing greenhouses. Glass House converted two of them to grow cannabis, according to the company’s website.

Relatives of workers at the Camarillo site said tomatoes are still grown at the location in addition to cannabis.

Arrest numbers keep rising

The federal government initially reported that some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally were arrested.

Then on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 319 people were arrested and said on X it was “quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office.”

A day later, the arrest numbers, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were up to 361 from the two locations.

The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping.

One death reported from the raids

A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during the raid at the farm in Camarillo died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known fatality during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

She posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

He called his wife in Mexico and told her he was hiding from federal agents during the raid Thursday. A doctor told his relatives that the ambulance crew who took him to a hospital said he fell about 30 feet, Duran said.

Why was the business raided?

The government says it is investigating potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuse. Initially, DHS said 10 immigrant children were on the property. They later increased that number to 14.

Authorities declined to share the warrant for the operation. The administration has released no additional information about the children, including their ages and what they were doing on the property when authorities arrived. DHS has not provided details to back up its claim of possible trafficking or other abuse, and the company has not been charged with anything.

It was unclear if any of the minors were the children of farm workers at the sites or if they came to the U.S. without an adult.

Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In California, children as young as 12 can work on farms outside of school hours, while those as young as 16 can work during school hours if they are not required to attend school, the agency said on its website.

No one under the age of 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.

The California Department of Cannabis Control conducted a site visit in May 2025 and observed no minors on the premises, a spokesperson said. After receiving a subsequent complaint, the state opened an investigation to ensure full compliance with state law.

U.S. citizens were among those arrested

Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the raids for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

Among those arrested was California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X.

Essayli said Caravello was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement and was to appear in court Tuesday.

The California Faculty Association said Caravello was taken away by agents who did not identify themselves nor inform him of why he was being arrested. The association said he was then held without being able to contact his family.

Caravello was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister that was stuck underneath someone’s wheelchair, witnesses told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Caravello to be released on $15,000 bond. He’s scheduled to be arraigned August 1.

Separately, the federal Bureau of Prisons said George Retes, 25, was in their custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Sunday.

Retes’ family told KABC-TV on Sunday that he is a U.S. citizen, works as a security guard at the farm in Camarillo and is a disabled U.S. Army veteran. They said Retes was trying to drive away during the clashes between protesters and agents when an officer stopped him, broke his car window and shot pepper spray before dragging him out of his car and arresting him.

Retes’ sister, Destinee Magaña, told the television station on Sunday that the family had been trying to get in touch with her brother.

Federal agents “thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn’t, he was trying to reverse his car,” Magaña said.

Neither Retes nor Magaña responded to emails Monday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The region prepares for more raids

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is now proposing to provide cash assistance to residents too scared to leave their homes to go to work.

The plan comes as part of a sweeping executive order the mayor signed on Friday that instructs Los Angeles officials “to bolster their protocols and training to prepare for federal immigration activity occurring on city property.”

The order also establishes a police department working group for immigrants and expands access to resources for impacted families. In addition, it seeks records from the federal government on what the city deems unlawful raids from federal agencies.

The monetary relief will not come from city funds but from philanthropic partners, officials said. Immigrant rights groups will distribute cash cards similar to those used to provide financial assistance to Angelenos struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t immediately clear how people will qualify to receive the cards.

The goal is to help people who have been deterred “from attending school and church, seeking city services, accessing health care, and going to work,” the order states.

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

The U.S. government said Monday it is placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking U.S. tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the U.S. is also grown there. Mexico currently supplies around 70% of the U.S. tomato market, up from 30% two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

But opponents, including U.S. companies that grow tomatoes in Mexico, said the tariff will make fresh tomatoes more expensive for U.S. buyers.

Tim Richards, a professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness at Arizona State University, said U.S. retail prices for tomatoes will likely rise around 8.5% with a 17% duty.

The duty stems from a longstanding U.S. complaint about Mexico’s tomato exports and is separate from the 30% base tariff on products made in Mexico and the European Union that President Donald Trump announced on Saturday.

The Commerce Department said in late April that it was withdrawing from a deal it first reached with Mexico in 2019 to settle allegations the country was exporting tomatoes to the U.S. at artificially low prices, a practice known as dumping.

As part of the deal, Mexico had to sell its tomatoes at a minimum price and abide by other rules. Since then, the agreement has been subject to periodic reviews, but the two sides always reached an agreement that avoided duties.

In announcing its withdrawal from the Tomato Suspension Agreement, the Commerce Department said it had been “flooded with comments” from U.S. tomato growers who wanted better protection from Mexican goods.

But others, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, had called on the Commerce Department to reach an agreement with Mexico.

In a letter sent last week to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Chamber of Commerce and 30 other business groups said U.S. companies employ 50,000 workers and generate $8.3 billion in economic benefits moving tomatoes from Mexico into communities across the country.

“We are concerned that withdrawing from the agreement – at a time when the business community is already navigating significant trade uncertainty – could lead to retaliatory actions by our trading partners against other commodities and crops that could create further hardship for U.S. businesses and consumers,” the letter said.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday took another step to make it harder to find major, legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people.

Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do.

But on Monday, NASA announced that it aborted those plans.

“The USGCRP (the government agency that oversees and used to host the report) met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov’s data,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. That means no data from the assessment or the government science office that coordinated the work will be on NASA, she said.

On July 3, NASA put out a statement that said: “All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting.”

“This document was written for the American people, paid for by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselves safe in a changing climate, as the disasters that continue to mount demonstrate so tragically and clearly,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. She is chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and co-author of several past national climate assessments.

Copies of past reports are still squirreled away in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s library and the latest report and its interactive atlas can be seen here.

Former Obama White House science adviser and climate scientist John Holdren accused the administration of outright lying and long intended to censor or bury the reports.

“The new stance is classic Trump administration misdirection,” Holdren said. “In this instance, the administration offers a modest consolation to quell initial outrage over the closure of the globalchange.gov site and the disappearance of the National Climate Assessments. Then, two weeks later, they snatch away the consolation with no apology.”

“They simply don’t want the public to see the meticulously assembled and scientifically validated information about what climate change is already doing to our farms, forests, and fisheries, as well as to storms, floods, wildfires, and coast property — and about how all those damages will grow in the absence of concerted remedial action,” Holdren said in an email.

That’s why it’s important that state and local governments and every day people see these reports, Holdren said. He said they are written in a way that is “useful to people who need to understand what climate change is doing and will do to THEM, their loved ones, their property and their environment.”

“Trump doesn’t want people to know,” Holdren wrote.

The most recent report, issued in 2023, found that climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority communities, particularly Native Americans, often disproportionately at risk.

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Jorge Polanco and Cole Young hit back-to-back home runs in a four-run ninth inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 8-4 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.

Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena and Mitch Garver also hit solo home runs for the Mariners, who humbled the major league-leading Tigers with 12-3 and 15-7 wins in the first two games of the series.

Seattle's 35 runs is the most they have scored in a three-game series since 2002.

The Tigers are taking a season-high four-game losing streak into the All-Star break.

After Polanco broke a 4-all tie in the ninth and Young created a two-run cushion, the Mariners scored two more runs.

Matt Brash (1-0) struck out two in the eighth to earn the win.

Tommy Kahnle (1-2) gave up three runs on two hits and a walk without getting an out in the pivotal ninth.

Detroit scored two unearned runs off Logan Gilbert in the first inning, taking advantage of Luke Raley's throwing error, and went ahead again in the seventh on Riley Greene's 24th homer of the season.

Seattle's Cal Raleigh went 0 for 2 with three walks, leaving him with an AL-record 38 homers before the All-Star Game one shy of Barry Bonds 2001 major league record for homers before the break. Raleigh stole a base, joining Babe Ruth (1921), Reggie Jackson (1969) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1998) as players with at least 38 homers and 10 stolen bases in their team's first 96 games.

Key moment

Polanco was a pinch-hitter to lead off the ninth and hit a 401-foot homer to right.

Key stat

Raleigh is the first catcher to lead the majors outright in homers at the All-Star break since Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1972.

Up next

The Tigers have a franchise-record six All-Stars in Atlanta, including starting pitcher Tarik Skubal. Seattle is sending five All-Stars to the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 2003.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions, whose actions triggered an NCAA investigation into sign-stealing, says he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

Stalions shared those details Saturday on social media, responding to TCU coach Sonny Dykes telling On3 that his team changed some signs in advance of its win over the Wolverines in the 2022 College Football semifinals.

“We got some favorable matchups because of that and, yeah, there was some big plays in the game,” Dykes said in the On3 report.

Stalions bristled at the latest attempt to suggest Michigan won or lost games because of his sign-stealing role with the team.

“There were 7 games in my time at Michigan where I knew almost every signal the whole game: 2021 MSU, 2022 MSU, 2022 PSU, 2022 OSU, 2022 TCU, 2021 Georgia, and 2021 Wisconsin,” Stalions wrote in his post. “We lost 3 of those games because we didn’t tackle well, and Georgia was historically good. We won the four other games because we dominated the line of scrimmage & tackled well. Blocking, ball security, tackling, run fits & coverage tools.

“That’s football. This is not rocket science.”

Nearly a year ago, the NCAA alleged in a notice relating to Michigan’s sign-stealing investigation that current coach Sherrone Moore violated rules as an assistant under former coach Jim Harbaugh, who served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its own investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court.

Moore also was accused of deleting text messages with Stalions, before they were recovered and provided to the NCAA. Moore has said he has and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation.

Michigan is prepared to suspend Moore for two games during the coming season. The NCAA will decide if that self-imposed sanction is enough to address allegations that Moore failed to cooperate in an investigation that rocked college football during the 2023 championship season with Harbaugh on the sideline.

The school had a hearing with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions last month. The governing body takes three months on average for contested cases to make a final decision.

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then go to Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

The NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but it does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of future opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals. Records from other Big Ten schools showed that Stalions bought tickets to games involving future opponents, sending people to digitally record teams when they signaled plays.

Stalions initially was placed on leave by Michigan and later resigned. He did not participate in the NCAA investigation.

The NCAA previously put Michigan on three years of probation, fined the school and implemented recruiting limits after reaching a negotiated resolution in a recruiting case and banned Harbaugh from coaching college football for four years.

Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes will start his second straight All-Star Game for the National League and Detroit's Tarik Skubal will open for the American League on Tuesday night at Truist Park.

Major League Baseball made the announcement Saturday night.

Skenes will become the first pitcher to start consecutive All-Star Games since Washington's Max Scherzer and Boston's Chris Sale in 2017 and '18. Sale started three in a row beginning in 2016.

Skenes and Skubal are 1-2 in average four-seam fastball velocity among those with 1,500 or more pitches this season, Skenes at 98.2 mph and Skubal at 97.6 mph, according to MLB Statcast.

Skenes worked around Juan Soto's walk in a scoreless first at Arlington, Texas, last year, throwing at up to 100.1 mph. He made the start after just 11 major league appearances, the fewest for an All-Star.

Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski, with five appearances, could take over that mark Tuesday if he pitches.

Skubal pitched a perfect second inning in his first All-Star appearance last year, following Baltimore's Corbin Burnes to the mound.

A 23-year-old right-hander, Skenes is 4-8 despite a major league-best 2.01 ERA for the Pirates, who are last in the NL Central. The 2024 NL Rookie of the Year has 131 strikeouts and 30 walks in 131 innings.

Skubal, a 28-year-old left-hander, is the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. He is 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA, striking out 153 and walking 16 in 121 innings.

Watch our recent interview with Tarik Skubal INTERVIEW: Tarik Skubal talks Tigers success, relentless work, and enjoying a kids gameTarik Skubal is living out his dream, and is relentless in his work to be great on the mound. The 2024 American League Cy Young winner recently talked with WXYZ about the team's strong start to the 2025 season, the fun they have, and the fan support at Comerica Park and beyond. Skubal grinned with relief that young Tigers fans want to be like him, mimicking his backpedal off the mound and not some other words I might say. Watch the interview in the video player

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