Fla. Gov. DeSantis refuses to commit to serving full term

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A defiant Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to commit to serving a full four-year term if reelected when pressed by his Democratic rival, Charlie Crist, at their only gubernatorial debate on Monday.

Crist, a former congressman and one-term governor, accused DeSantis, a rising Republican star considered a likely 2024 presidential contender, of being too distracted by his national political ambitions to lead properly. DeSantis skirted several attempts by Crist to get him to say he'd serve a full second term.

“I know that Charlie is interested in talking about 2024 and Joe Biden, but I just want to make things very, very clear: The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist,” DeSantis said of his 66-year-old opponent.

Later, Crist slapped back, “You won’t even say if you want to be the governor of Florida after this election."

There were several heated clashes during a raucous debate that covered the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion, crime, education and President Joe Biden. The meeting came on the first day of early voting across the state; already, more than 1.1 million votes have been cast, the most in the nation.

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Ukraine cites success in downing drones, fixes energy sites

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities tried to dampen public fears over Russia's use of Iranian drones by claiming increasing success Monday in shooting them down, while the Kremlin's talk of a possible “dirty bomb” attack added another worrying dimension as the war enters its ninth month.

Ukrainians are bracing for less electric power this winter following a sustained Russian barrage on their infrastructure in recent weeks. Citizens in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv lined up for water and essential supplies Monday as Ukrainian forces advanced on the nearby Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

Ukraine's forces have shot down more than two-thirds of the approximately 330 Shahed drones that Russia has fired through Saturday, the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said Monday. Budanov said Russia's military had ordered about 1,700 drones of different types and is rolling out a second batch of about 300 Shaheds.

“Terror with the use of ‘Shaheds' can actually last for a long time,” he was quoted as saying in the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, adding: “Air defense is basically coping, 70% are shot down."

Both Russia and Iran deny that Iranian-built drones have been used but the triangle-shaped Shahed-136s have rained down on civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere.

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New US prisons chief pledges truth, reform for ailing system

WASHINGTON (AP) — The outsider brought in to reform the ailing federal Bureau of Prisons pledged Monday to hold accountable any employees who sexually assault inmates, reform archaic hiring practices and bring new transparency to an agency that has long been a haven of secrecy and coverups.

Colette Peters detailed her vision in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, her first since becoming director nearly three months ago.

She said she wants to reorient the agency's recruiting and hiring practices to find candidates who want to “change hearts and minds” and end systemic abuse and corruption. She would not rule out closing problematic prisons, though there are no current plans to do so.

As Oregon's prison director, Peters developed the “Oregon Way” of running prisons, which aims to transform “environments inside correctional facilities to be more normal and humane," according to the state prisons' website. She oversaw sharp drops in Oregon's inmate population.

Skeptics within the federal prison system’s rank and file have derided her approach as “hug a thug.” Peters didn’t mind that but offered a different term: “chocolate hearts.”

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2 killed in shooting at St. Louis high school; gunman dead

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An armed former student broke into a St. Louis high school Monday morning warning, “You are all going to die!” before fatally shooting a teacher and a teenage girl, and wounding seven others before police killed him in an exchange of gunfire.

The attack just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety. One terrorized girl said she was eye-to-eye with the shooter before his gun apparently jammed and she was able to run out.

Speaking at a news conference Monday afternoon, police Chief Michael Sack identified the shooter as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, who graduated from the school last year.

Sack said the motive was still under investigation but “there's suspicions that there may be some mental illness that he's experiencing.” Investigators later searched Harris' home, Sack said.

Authorities didn't name the victims, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified the dead teacher as Jean Kuczka. Her daughter said her mother was killed when the gunman burst into her classroom and she moved between him and her students.

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Arizona sheriff steps up security around ballot drop boxes

PHOENIX (AP) — The sheriff in metropolitan Phoenix said Monday he's stepped up security around ballot drop boxes after a series of incidents involving people keeping watch on the boxes and taking video of voters after they were apparently inspired by lies about the 2020 election.

On Friday, deputies responded when two masked people carrying guns and wearing bulletproof vests showed up at a drop box in Mesa, a Phoenix suburb. The secretary of state said her office has received six cases of potential voter intimidation to the state attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a threatening email sent to the state elections director.

People watching the boxes and voters showing up to vote have covered their license plates, according to photos shared on social media.

“Every day I’m dedicating a considerable amount of resources just to give people confidence that they can cast a vote safely, and that is absurd,” Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said during a news conference. Penzone said his office has referred two incidents to county prosecutors for potential criminal charges.

Fueled by former President Donald Trump's false claims of fraud in 2020 and the debunked film “2,000 Mules,” drop boxes have become a hotbed for conspiracy theories alleging without evidence that people illegally collected and deposited ballots in them.

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Biden targets Nicaragua's gold in new move against Ortega

MIAMI (AP) — The Biden administration is ratcheting up pressure on President Daniel Ortega’s authoritarian rule in Nicaragua, threatening a ban on Americans from doing business in the nation’s gold industry, raising the possibility of trade restrictions and stripping the U.S. visas of some 500 government insiders.

The actions, stemming from an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Monday, are the latest and perhaps most aggressive attempt by the U.S. to hold the former Sandinista guerrilla leader accountable for his continued attacks on human rights and democracy in the Central American country as well his continued security cooperation with Russia.

Previous rounds of sanctions have focused on Ortega, his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, and members of their family and inner circle. But none of those moves have managed to loosen Ortega’s grip on power The latest target by Ortega's government: the Roman Catholic Church. In August, security raided the residence of a bishop, detaining him and several other clergy.

The new executive order greatly expands a Trump-era decree declaring Ortega’s hijacking of democratic norms, undermining of the rule of law and use of political violence against opponents a threat to the U.S.' national security.

Together with the Treasury Department's simultaneous sanctioning of Nicaragua's General Directorate of Mines, the order all but makes it illegal for Americans to do business with Nicaragua's gold industry. It's the first time the U.S. has identified a specific sector of the economy as potentially off-limits and can be expanded in the future to include other industries believed to fill the government's coffers.

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Leslie Jordan, versatile Emmy-winning actor, dies at 67

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leslie Jordan, the actor whose wry Southern drawl and versatility made him a comedy and drama standout on TV series including “Will & Grace” and “American Horror Story,” has died. The Emmy-winner, whose videos turned him into a social media star during the pandemic, was 67.

“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement Monday.

The native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who won an outstanding guest actor Emmy in 2005 for his part as Beverly Leslie in “Will & Grace,” had a recurring role on the Mayim Bialik comedy “Call Me Kat" and starred on the sitcom “The Cool Kids.”

Jordan’s other eclectic credits include “Hearts Afire,” “Boston Legal,” “Fantasy Island” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” He played various roles on the “American Horror Story” series.

Production on Fox's “Call Me Kat” was suspended following Jordan's death. He had completed work on nine episodes.

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Prosecutor: Women's stories show Weinstein's predatory power

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A prosecutor at Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial told jurors Tuesday that the accusers who will testify will tell uncannily similar stories of themselves as young aspiring women who were cornered in hotel rooms by a man who at the time was the definition of Hollywood power.

“Each of these women came forward independent of each other, and none of them knew one another,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said during his opening statement at Weinstein's Los Angeles trial.

The 70-year-old former movie mogul, already serving a 23-year sentence in New York, is charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault in California.

The defense countered in its opening statement that the incidents either did not happen or were consensual sex that the women redefined in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein, prosecutor Thompson said, lorded his status as “the most powerful man in Hollywood” over them, talking about the female A-list actors whose careers he had made before growing aggressive.

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Japan steps up push to get public buy-in to digital IDs

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has stepped up its push to catch up on digitization by telling a reluctant public they have to sign up for digital IDs or possibly lose access to their public health insurance.

As the naming implies, the initiative is about assigning numbers to people, similar to Social Security numbers in the U.S. Many Japanese worry the information might be misused or that their personal information might be stolen. Some view the My Number effort as a violation of their right to privacy.

So the system that kicked off in 2016 has never fully caught on. Fax machines are still commonplace, and many Japanese conduct much of their business in person, with cash. Some bureaucratic procedures can be done online, but many Japanese offices still require “inkan,” or seals for stamping, for identification, and insist on people bringing paper forms to offices.

Now the government is asking people to apply for plastic My Number cards equipped with microchips and photos, to be linked to drivers licenses and the public health insurance plans. Health insurance cards now in use, which lack photos, will be discontinued in late 2024. People will be required to use My Number cards instead.

That has drawn a backlash, with an online petition demanding a continuation of the current health cards drawing more than 100,000 signatures in a few days.

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1 plea, 1 alternate approach avert trial over Floyd's death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Another long and painful trial over the killing of George Floyd was averted on Monday after one former Minneapolis police officer pleaded guilty to manslaughter and another agreed to take a more uncommon approach and let a judge decide his fate based on the evidence in the case.

J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao had been set to stand trial Monday on charges of aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, who died after another officer kneeled on the Black man’s neck, sparking worldwide protests as part of a broader reckoning over racial injustice.

Instead, Kueng pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in exchange for the murder count being dismissed. And Thao, who previously told the judge that it “would be lying” to plead guilty, agreed to what's called a stipulated evidence trial on the aiding and abetting manslaughter count. The two sides will work out agreed-upon evidence in his case, file written closing arguments and let Judge Peter Cahill decide guilt or innocence.

If Thao is convicted, the murder count — which carries a presumptive sentence of 12 1/2 years in prison — will be dropped.

The day's developments pushed the long process of prosecuting the officers involved in Floyd's death nearer an end. Derek Chauvin, the white officer who pinned Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes as Floyd said he couldn't breathe and eventually grew still, was convicted in state court in spring 2021 and later pleaded guilty to federal charges. A fourth officer, Thomas Lane, was convicted of federal charges in February and pleaded guilty to state charges in May.

News from © The Associated Press, 2022