Biden and Trump notch more wins Tuesday as primary voters urge them to keep up the fight

TEMPE, Arizona (AP) — As Joe Biden and Donald Trump moved closer to a November rematch, primary voters around the country on Tuesday urged their favored candidate to keep up the fight and worried about what might happen if their side loses this fall.

There was little suspense about Tuesday's results as both candidates are already their parties' presumptive nominees. Trump easily won Republican primaries in Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio. Biden did the same except in Florida, where Democrats had canceled their primary and opted to award all 224 of their delegates to Biden. They were expected to sweep Arizona's primaries as well.

Instead, the primaries and key downballot races became a reflection of the national political mood. With many Americans unenthusiastic about 2024’s choice for the White House, both Biden and Trump’s campaigns are working to fire up their bases by tearing into each other and warning of the perils of the opponent.

Those who did turn out to vote Tuesday seemed to hear that.

Pat Shackleford, an 84-year-old caregiver in Mesa, Arizona, said she voted for Trump in Arizona's primary to send the former president a message.

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Trump favorites Moreno, Merrin win GOP primaries to face two vulnerable Ohio Democrats this fall

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Things went former President Donald Trump’s way on Tuesday in a pair of high-profile elections in Ohio that could determine Republicans' chances of picking up critical seats this fall and expanding their power in Washington.

In the bruising and expensive primary to face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown this fall, voters chose Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno over state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. In northwest Ohio, state Rep. Derek Merrin prevailed over former state Rep. Craig Riedel a day after Trump endorsed him. Merrin will face longtime U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in November’s general election.

Both Brown and Kaptur are considered among the year’s most vulnerable Democrats, amid Ohio’s tack to the political right in recent years. With Democrats holding a narrow voting majority in the Senate and Republicans maintaining a thin margin in the U.S. House, both races have already drawn outsized attention from national party leaders.

Moreno used his acceptance speech in Cleveland to shower praise on Trump, as well as to commend Dolan and LaRose on campaigns well run. He called on the party to unify to defeat Brown.

“We have an opportunity now to retire the old commie, and send him to a retirement home and save this country, because that’s what we’re going to do,” Moreno told a cheering crowd.

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Anticipation and anger on Texas border after Supreme Court lets strict immigration law take effect

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A Supreme Court decision that lets Texas arrest and deport migrants - at least for now - on charges of illegally entering the country could have a dramatic impact on the U.S.-Mexico border but its immediate effect was muted.

Sheriffs and police chiefs who will put the law into effect were largely circumspect about when, where and how migrants may be arrested. Before a divided court on Tuesday let the state law take effect while a legal challenge plays out, some sheriffs were ready to relish an unprecedented state expansion into border enforcement, while others were reluctant.

Texas was silent in the hours after the ruling on whether and when state troopers or Texas National Guard soldiers — who have the most interaction with migrants —- would begin enforcement.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary said in a sharply worded statement that it would refuse to take anyone back who is ordered to leave the country under the state law and that it “categorically rejects” any state or local government enforcement of immigration laws.

“Mexico reiterates the legitimate right to protect the rights of its nationals in the United States and to determine its own policies regarding entry into its territory,” the government said.

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How Texas' plans to arrest migrants for illegal entry will work

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Texas to start arresting migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border and ordering them to leave, while the legal battle over Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's latest immigration move plays out.

The court issued a divided decision Tuesday that allows Texas to enforce its immigration law for now. The high court declined to intervene on an administrative stay placed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Justice Department is challenging the law, saying Texas is overstepping the federal government's immigration authority. Texas argues it has a right to take action over what Abbott has described as an “invasion” of migrants on the border.

The 5th Circuit is set to hear arguments in April. A federal judge in Texas issued a sweeping rejection of the law last month, calling it a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Here's what to know:

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Key questions as Trump hurtles toward deadline to pay $454 million fraud penalty

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is hurtling toward a critical deadline in his most costly legal battle to date. If the former president doesn’t come up with a financial guarantee by Monday, New York’s attorney general can start the process of collecting on the more than $454 million Trump owes the state in a civil fraud lawsuit.

Trump’s lawyers are trying to stop that from happening. They have asked a court to put collection efforts on hold while he appeals the verdict.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tried getting a bond for the full amount, which would have stopped the clock on collection during his appeal and ensured the state got its money if he were to lose.

But more than 30 underwriters said no, Trump’s lawyers told the court. They said getting a bond for such a large sum is “a practical impossibility.”

That’s raised the possibility that New York Attorney General Letitia James could start trying to enforce the judgment as soon as Monday.

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Polygamous sect member pleads guilty in scheme to orchestrate sexual acts involving children

PHOENIX (AP) — A businessman pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with the leader of an offshoot polygamous sect near the Arizona-Utah border to transport underage girls across state lines, making him the first man to be convicted in what authorities say was a scheme to orchestrate sexual acts involving children.

Moroni Johnson, who faces 10 years to life in prison, acknowledged that he participated in a scheme to transport four girls under the age of 18 for sexual activity. Authorities say the conspiracy between the 53-year-old Johnson and the sect’s leader, self-proclaimed prophet Samuel Bateman, occurred over a three-year period ending in September 2022.

Authorities say Bateman had created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. He and his followers practice polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.

The FBI said Bateman had taken more than 20 wives, including 10 girls under the age of 18. Bateman is accused of giving wives as gifts to his male followers and claiming to do so on orders from the “Heavenly Father.” Investigators say Bateman traveled extensively between Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska and had sex with minor girls on a regular basis. Some of the sexual activity involving Bateman was recorded and transmitted across state lines via electronic devices.

The FBI said Bateman demanded that his followers confess publicly for any indiscretions and shared those confessions widely. He claimed the punishments, which ranged from a time out to public shaming and sexual activity, came from the Lord, the federal law enforcement agency said. Authorities said Johnson was pressured by Bateman to give up three of his wives as atonement because Johnson wasn’t treating Bateman as a prophet.

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Top former US generals say failures of Biden administration in planning drove chaotic fall of Kabul

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation of Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 blamed the Biden administration for the chaotic departure, telling lawmakers Tuesday that it inadequately planned for the evacuation and did not order it in time.

The rare testimony by the two retired generals publicly exposed for the first time the strain and differences the military leaders had with the Biden administration in the final days of the war. Two of those key differences included that the military had advised that the U.S. keep at least 2,500 service members in Afghanistan to maintain stability and a concern that the State Department was not moving fast enough to get an evacuation started.

The remarks also contrasted with an internal White House review of the administration’s decisions which found that President Joe Biden’s decisions had been “severely constrained” by previous withdrawal agreements negotiated by former President Donald Trump and blamed the military, saying top commanders said they had enough resources to handle the evacuation.

Thirteen U.S. service members were killed by a suicide bomber at the Kabul airport's Abbey Gate in the final days of the war, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

Thousands of panicked Afghans and U.S. citizens desperately tried to get on U.S. military flights that were airlifting people out. In the end the military was able to rescue more than 130,000 civilians before the final U.S. military aircraft departed.

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North Korea claims progress in development of hypersonic missile designed to strike Guam

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile, state media reported Wednesday, claiming a progress in efforts to develop a more powerful, agile missile designed to strike faraway U.S. targets in the region.

A hypersonic missile is among an array of high-tech weapons systems that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly vowed to introduce in 2021 to cope with what he called deepening U.S. hostility. Outside experts say Kim wants a modernized weapons arsenal to wrest U.S. concessions like sanctions relief when diplomacy resumes.

On Tuesday, Kim guided the ground jet test of multi-stage solid-fuel engine for the hypersonic missile at the North’s northwestern rocket launch facility, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

It cited Kim as saying the strategic value of the new missile with an intermediate-range is as important as intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the U.S. mainland and that “enemies know better about it.” It said that a timetable for completing the development of the new weapons system was “set through the great success in the important test.”

Intermediate-range missiles possessed or pursued by North Korea are the weapons systems primarily aimed at attacking the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, home to U.S. military bases. With a range adjustment, missiles can be used to strike closer targets like U.S. military installations in Japan’s Okinawa island, experts say.

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Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ deputies get yearslong sentences for racist torture of 2 Black men

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker sat on the front row of a packed courtroom Tuesday and watched as a federal judge handed down yearslong sentences to two of the white former Mississippi law enforcement officers who tortured the two Black men last year in a brutal attack that began on the basis of race.

After a neighbor complained about them staying in a white woman’s home, the Black men were tortured by people who had sworn an oath to serve and protect them.

Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to about 20 years in prison, while Jeffrey Middleton, the 46-year-old leader of the so-called “Goon Squad” that abused the men, was given a 17.5-year prison sentence. Four other former law enforcement officers who admitted to torturing Jenkins and Parker are set to be sentenced later this week — two on Wednesday and two on Thursday.

Before sentencing Elward and Middleton separately, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the former deputies’ actions “egregious and despicable” and said a “sentence at the top of the guidelines range" was justified.

The terror began on Jan. 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence when a white person phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a white woman in Braxton. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of white deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”

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California tribe that lost 90% of land during Gold Rush to get site to serve as gateway to redwoods

California's Yurok Tribe, which had 90% of its territory taken from it during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, will be getting a slice of its land back to serve as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Parks visited by 1 million people a year.

The Yurok will be the first Native people to manage tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed Tuesday by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League.

The agreement “starts the process of changing the narrative about how, by whom and for whom we steward natural lands,” Sam Hodder, president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League, said in a statement.

The tribe will take ownership in 2026 of 125 acres (50 hectares) near the tiny Northern California community of Orick in Humboldt County after restoration of a local tributary, Prairie Creek, is complete under the deal. The site will introduce visitors to Yurok customs, culture and history, the tribe said.

The area is home to the world’s tallest trees — some reaching more than 350 feet (105 meters). It's about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Pacific coast and adjacent to the Redwood National and State Parks, which includes one national park and three California state parks totaling nearly 132,000 acres (53,400 hectares).

News from © The Associated Press, 2024