When Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his presidential campaign in May, he proudly told the nation that Florida’s crime rate in 2021 had reached a 50-year low.

But really, DeSantis couldn’t say for sure.

That’s because fewer than 1 in 10 law enforcement agencies in his state had reported their crime statistics to the FBI. In fact, more than 40% of the Sunshine State’s population was unaccounted for in the data used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in its 2021 statewide crime report.

In Wichita, Kansas, Democratic Mayor Brandon Whipple claimed in May that violent crime had decreased by half during his term. But Whipple’s source, the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, missed half the violent crimes recorded by the Wichita Police Department, possibly because the agency couldn’t mesh its system with the FBI’s recently revamped system.

Across the country, law enforcement agencies’ inability — or refusal — to send their annual crime data to the FBI has resulted in a distorted picture of the United States’ crime trends, according to a new Stateline analysis of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program participation data.

“We have policymakers making policy based on completely incomplete data. We have political elections being determined based on vibes rather than actual data. It’s a mess,” said Jeff Asher, a data analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics, a data consulting firm.

Experts warn that some policymakers, knowingly or unknowingly, use those flawed statistics to tout promising crime trends — misleading voters. The inaccurate data also can affect efforts to improve public safety and criminal justice, potentially leading policymakers to miss the mark in addressing real community issues.

“The problem for voters is that they don’t have very good information about what levels of safety actually are,” said Anna Harvey, a politics, data science and law professor at New York University. Harvey also is the director of the university’s Public Safety Lab and the president of the Social Science Research Council.

“They’re a little bit vulnerable to politicians who are kind of throwing around allegations and claims about crime that may or may not be accurate,” she told Stateline.

DeSantis faced criticism for repeating the incomplete numbers, and NBC News this summer reported that law enforcement rank-and-file had warned that the statistics weren’t correct.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement defended the numbers to NBC News, saying, in part, that “criticism about FDLE’s robust data collection methods is unfounded.”

FBI’s switch to a new system

A year ago, when the FBI initially released its 2021 national crime data, there wasn’t enough information to tell whether crime went up, went down or stayed the same. The FBI had estimated results for areas that declined to submit data or were unable to do so.

That’s partly because the FBI had rolled out a new reporting system. The data collection system, called the National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, gathered more detail on individual incidents but also required training and tech upgrades by state and local policing agencies.

For the first time in two decades, the national law enforcement reporting rate fell below 70% in 2021, primarily due to the FBI’s transition. In 2022, many law enforcement agencies across the country were not NIBRS-certified in time to submit their 2021 crime data, which contributed to lower reporting rates.

Even before the new system launched, there was a gap in reporting nationwide. Prior to 2021, 23% of U.S. law enforcement agencies on average did not report any crime data to the FBI. In 2020, 24% of agencies did not report, and in 2021, it surged to 40%.

Inconsistent reporting not only hampers the ability to draw comparisons over time and across state lines, but also injects uncertainty into discussions about crime, said Ames Grawert, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s justice program. The Brennan Center is a left-leaning law and policy group.

“Issues like that are invariably going to lead to some people having a misunderstanding of crime data — makes it harder to talk about crime in some states, especially given the low participation rate in Florida, for example,” Grawert said in an interview with Stateline.

The FBI’s latest crime report, released earlier this month, offers a glimmer of progress toward transparency: Seventy-one percent of law enforcement agencies nationwide submitted data through NIBRS or the FBI’s previous reporting system, up 11 percentage points from last year. About 60% of participating law enforcement agencies submitted their data exclusively through NIBRS this year. The FBI accepted data through both NIBRS and the older system this year, a change from last year’s NIBRS-only approach.

According to the incomplete numbers, violent crime in the U.S. dropped last year, returning to pre-pandemic levels, while property crimes saw a significant increase.

While crime data reporting to the FBI is optional, some states, such as Illinois and Minnesota, have laws requiring their local law enforcement agencies to report crime data to their state law enforcement agencies. State law enforcement agencies often serve as clearinghouses for local crime data, and in some states, they are responsible for sharing this data with the feds. Some local agencies also may send their data directly to the FBI.

But some states lag.

Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and West Virginia, for example, all remain below the 50% reporting mark, which means less than half of the police departments in their states submitted 2022 crime data to the FBI. Despite these reporting rates, the data shows that greater shares of these state’s populations were represented in last year’s data than in 2021.

Florida has had the lowest reporting rate two years in a row — 6% in 2021 and 44% in 2022 — partly because of the state’s ongoing transition to NIBRS. For 2021, the FBI did not accept Florida’s data through the previous data collection system, which would have represented about 58% of the state’s population, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Public Information Office.

“It’s a problem in both red and blue states, it’s also a local issue,” Kylie Murdock, a policy adviser with Third Way, a left-leaning national think tank, said in an interview with Stateline.

“When people use this data to back up tough-on-crime approaches, and say, ‘Our approach in this state is working’ — when in reality, that’s not necessarily the truth because you don’t know the full scope of the problem,” said Murdock.

Roughly a quarter of the U.S. population was not represented in the 2022 federal crime data, according to a Stateline analysis. More than 6,000 of 22,116 law enforcement agencies did not submit data.

Major police departments, including those in big cities such as Los Angeles and New York, did not submit any data in 2021. NYPD said it couldn’t submit summary statistics in 2021 as it had previously because of the FBI’s change in requirements, but was NIBRS-certified this year. Both cities’ departments did submit summary data to the FBI in 2022 through the old reporting system.

The FBI’s 2021 agency participation data shows that the 10 states with the lowest reporting rates included a balanced mix of both blue and red states, while last year’s data shows more red states among the 10 states with the lowest reporting rates.

Political and social consequences

The gaps in the FBI’s crime data create significant challenges for researchers and policymakers attempting to make sense of crime trends. As elections draw near and crime has reclaimed the spotlight, these challenges become increasingly pressing.

During last year’s congressional elections, 61% of registered voters said violent crime would be very important when making their decision about whom to vote for, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

While the overall violent crime rate has steadily declined on average over the past 20 years, the Pew Research Center suggested that voters might be reacting to specific types of violent crime, such as homicide, which saw a 30% increase between 2019 and 2020 — one of the largest year-over-year increases on record.

A lack of accurate, real-time crime data leaves voters vulnerable to political manipulation, said Harvey, the New York University professor.

“Voters tend to not have that kind of access. Politicians then try to play on voters’ concerns about crime, but without giving voters the information that will actually be useful for them,” Harvey said.

Experts expect that the challenge of incomplete national crime data — and the incomplete picture it presents — will persist for years because many law enforcement agencies still are working to adopt the new reporting system.

That could affect how policymakers allocate money for law enforcement, crime prevention programs and other public safety initiatives. With crime data, it’s important to know what types of crimes are included and to avoid narrow timeframes when describing trends, said Ernesto Lopez, a research specialist for the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan research think tank.

“Oftentimes relying on the FBI data, which tends to be outdated, really allows politicians to sensationalize a few news stories. Without having more up-to-date data, it may not be accurate,” Lopez told Stateline.

“Politician or otherwise, when we talk about crime, it’s really important to have a larger context.”

Federal assistance

Law enforcement agencies nationwide have received over$180 million in federal funding to help with the transition since the FBI’s switch to its new NIBRS reporting system was announced in 2015. Many law enforcement agencies are still working to fully transition to the new system.

For example, in Louisiana, the agencies serving some of the state’s most populous cities, including Lafayette, New Orleans and Shreveport, did not report any data to the FBI last year because they were implementing new records management systems, according to Jim Craft, the executive director of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement.

Louisiana’s low reporting rate may be due to smaller law enforcement agencies reporting crime statistics through their local sheriff’s office, which makes it look like fewer agencies are reporting, Craft wrote in an email.

In Hawaii, the police departments serving Maui and Hawaii counties were not certified in time to submit data through NIBRS to the FBI last year, according to Paul Perrone, the director of the Hawaii Uniform Crime Reporting program. Last month, Hawaii became one of the few states where all law enforcement agencies are NIBRS-certified, Perrone wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, even as more law enforcement agencies submit data in coming years, experts warn that the FBI’s database accounts only for crimes reported to the police. And according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 50% of violent crimes and about 70% of property crimes are never reported.

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

©2023 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The return of federal student loan payments in October threatens to derail prospects for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a cohort already facing steep economic disadvantages.

Aid makes college possible for many HBCU students: 85% of their graduates in 2020 used federal loans, versus 59% of non-HBCU students, according to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, with HBCU graduates and their parents on average holding almost $21,000 more in federal loan debt.

The nation’s more than 100 HBCUs, including Spelman College in Atlanta and Howard University in Washington, D.C., serve more low-income and first-generation students than traditional schools and aim to help close the wealth gap between Black households and their white counterparts.

Parents of HBCU students are also more likely to take on loans to support their kids, on average. With payments resuming amid high prices and mortgage rates, entire families are forced to cut back.

Jasmine Payne, a 2015 graduate of Spelman who took on $36,000 in federal undergraduate debt, said the pause allowed her to pay off her car. Now, she faces a $342 student loan bill each month — a burden she said has forced her to delay plans to buy a new car and house and rethink traveling.

Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said the pause allowed Black borrowers like Payne to both invest in and save for their futures.

“When students have to repay these loans, it also throttles our ability to own homes, to purchase cars, to start businesses,” Perry said. “We’re also going to see those issues come about.”

Underfunded

From 2019 to 2022, the wealth of Black families grew faster than that of white families, according to the Federal Reserve, but that was thanks to temporary, pandemic-era government aid and lower interest rates. And while that helped narrow the ratio of Black wealth to white wealth, Black household wealth still lags far behind that of their white counterparts.

Helene Gayle, the president of Spelman, said that nearly half the school’s students in any given year are eligible for a Pell Grant, a need-based aid reward — meaning half the student body has high financial needs.

Despite all this, HBCUs do not receive the same levels of government aid and endowments that other institutions do. These funds would enable them to provide scholarships and grants. “We have to continue to do more with less,” Gayle said.

In one vivid example, non-HBCU land-grant schools have received $12 billion more in government aid than HBCU land-grant schools, according to letters sent by the Education Department to 16 governors that urged them to address the issue.

Despite the funding shortfall, HBCUs continue facilitating upward economic mobility for the Black community. HBCUs support more low-income students in earning their way into higher income categories later in life than the national average for colleges, according to a 2021 United Negro College Fund report.

“Even with all of those factors that work against us,” Gayle said, “we still are able to provide students with an economic foothold that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

‘No extra money’

To help pay for her daughter’s tuition, Payne’s mother, a preschool teacher, took out about $15,000 in Parent PLUS loans, federal loans issued to parents of dependent undergraduate students.

The downside is these loans come with higher interest rates and origination fees than loans issued directly to the student. They’re also ineligible for repayment plans based on the size of one’s income, such as the Biden administration’s new SAVE plan.

Deanna Folefac, a graduate of Bowie State University, said she is focused on paying back the $8,000 Parent PLUS loan her mother took out before turning to her own $25,000 in loan debt.

While some 13% of all 2020 college graduate families took out Parent PLUS loans, HBCU graduates make up 42% of those borrowers. Of Spelman graduates who used these loans, the median size of the loan to fund their undergraduate career is almost $106,000 — among the highest in the nation, according to the Education Department.

Due to a lack of financial aid, Dyonne Diggs, a 2017 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an HBCU, went on a two-year leave from her education. Ultimately, she took on $58,000 in debt. Her stepfather also took out an additional $3,000 in Parent PLUS loans.

She said she will utilize the Biden administration’s 12-month payment on-ramp and hold off on paying her $400 monthly student loan bill. “I’m an educator so there’s literally no extra money,” Diggs said.

‘We’re used’

In June, the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel as much as $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower for those making under $125,000 a year.

Though Biden will reportedly unveil a new forgiveness plan next year, his options to help student borrowers — and HBCU students, in particular — remain limited.

He could broaden his SAVE plan to help lower payments and make Parent PLUS loans eligible for this plan, Perry said, but the Supreme Court’s ruling likely spoils any further broad-based forgiveness.

Diggs said she voted for Biden in 2020 after he promised to forgive some student loan debt, but plans to sit out in 2024.

“Every four years, we’re used as a scapegoat,” she said. “We’re used as, you know, ‘vote for your lives and all of these things are going to happen.’ And they don’t happen.”

___

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged Wednesday for a second straight time but left the door open to further rate hikes if inflation pressures should accelerate in the months ahead.

The Fed said in a statement after its latest meeting that it would keep its benchmark rate at about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years. Since launching the most aggressive series of rate hikes in four decades in March 2022 to fight inflation, the Fed has pulled back and has now raised rates only once since May.

The central bank’s latest statement noted that the economy “expanded at a strong pace” in the July-September quarter and that job gains “remain strong.” And it reiterated that future rate hikes, if the Fed finds them necessary, remain under consideration.

But it also acknowledged that recent tumult in the financial markets has sent interest rates on 10-year Treasury notes to near 16-year highs and contributed to higher loan rates across the economy — a trend that helps serve the Fed’s goal of cooling the economy and inflation pressures.

At a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the Fed was edging closer to the end of its rate-hiking campaign. He noted that the sharply higher longer-term rates could help lower inflation without necessarily requiring further rate hikes from the Fed. And he highlighted a steady decline in pay increases, which tends to ease inflation because companies may find it less necessary to offset their labor costs by raising prices.

The Fed chair expressed confidence that inflation, despite some signs of persistence in the most recent monthly data, is still heading lower even as the economy is still growing.

“The good news,” Powell said, “is we’re making progress. The progress is going to come in lumps and be bumpy, but we are making progress.”

The Fed chair said the central bank’s policymakers recognize that the effects of their rate hikes have yet to be fully felt in the economy and that they want to take time to assess the impact, another reason why the Fed may not feel compelled to raise rates anytime soon.

“Slowing down” the rate increases, Powell said, “is giving us a better sense of how much more we need to do, if we need to do more.”

Stock prices rose and bond yields fell as the Fed chair spoke to reporters, as investors interpreted his remarks to mean that the Fed may be done hiking rates.

“The (stock) market is convinced that the Fed is done,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “That may in fact be true, but they haven’t said that yet.”

Arone noted that hiring remains robust, that inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target and that the economy is still expanding at a healthy clip.

In his remarks, Powell cautioned that the central bank isn’t yet confident that its own key rate is high enough to reduce growth over time.

“The Fed,” Arone said, “continues to give themselves plenty of wiggle room in terms of what they’re going to do next.”

Powell himself suggested that Fed officials remain unsure about whether further rate increases might still be needed to defeat inflation. That stance marks a shift from earlier this year, when the policymakers had made clear that they leaned toward pushing rates higher.

“That’s the question we’re asking: Should we hike again?” Powell said.

Long-term Treasury yields have soared since July, the last time the Fed raised rates, swelling the costs of auto loans, credit card borrowing and many forms of business loans. Nationally, the average long-term fixed mortgage rate is nearing 8%, its highest level in 23 years.

Economists at Wall Street banks have estimated that recent losses in the stock market and higher bond yields could have a depressive effect on the economy equal to the impact of three or four quarter-point rate hikes by the Fed.

Those tighter credit conditions, though, have yet to cool the economy or slow hiring as much as the Fed had expected. Growth soared at a 4.9% annual pace in the July-September quarter, powered by robust consumer spending, and hiring in September was strong.

Consumer inflation has dropped from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.7% last month. But recent data suggests that inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target.

Market analysts say an array of factors have combined to force up long-term Treasury yields and couple with the Fed’s short-term rate hikes to make borrowing costlier for consumers and businesses. For one thing, the government is expected to sell potentially trillions of dollars more in bonds in the coming years to finance huge budget deficits even as the Fed is shrinking its holdings of bonds. As a result, higher Treasury rates may be needed to attract more buyers.

And with the future path of rates murkier than usual, investors are demanding higher yields in return for the greater risk of holding longer-term bonds.

What’s important for the Fed is that the yield on the 10-year Treasury has continued to zoom higher even without rate hikes by the central bank. That suggests that Treasury yields may stay high even if the Fed keeps its own benchmark rate on hold, helping keep a lid on economic growth and inflation.

Other major central banks have also been dialing back their rates hikes with their inflation measures having appeared to improve. The European Central Bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged last week, and last month inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro fell to 2.9%, its lowest level in more than two years.

The Bank of England also kept its key rate unchanged in September. The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, is inching toward higher borrowing costs, as it loosens control on longer-term rates.

Maine State Police documents released Tuesday shed light on why a delusional U.S. Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston may have targeted those locations.

Robert Card, 40, was found dead Friday, two days after a rampage that also wounded 13 people and shut down multiple communities during a massive search on land and water.

Three hours after the shooting began, state police interviewed a woman who said Card believed the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, Schemengees Bar and Grille and several other businesses were “broadcasting online that Robert was a pedophile.”

The woman said Card had been delusional since February after a break-up, had been hospitalized for mental illness and prescribed medication that he stopped taking, according to a police affidavit filed in support of an arrest warrant request.

Police also spoke to Robert’s brother, who said Card had been in relationship with someone he met at a cornhole competition at the bar. Another man said the same thing to a different officer, according to an affidavit filed in a request to access Card’s cell phone records.

That man told police he had been to both the bowling alley and bar with Card, and that Card knew people at both locations. He said Card’s girlfriend had two daughters that he would take out to eat at Schemengees, “and that is where the pedophile thing in Robert’s head came from as Robert was there with (his girfriend’s) two daughters on occasions and felt that people were looking at him.”

The man said Card also mentioned bar manager Joey Walker was one of the people who Card thought had disparaged him. Walker was among those killed.

Card’s son also told police that paranoia about strangers calling him a pedophile had become a recurring theme for his father since last winter.

He also accused fellow members of his Army reserve unit of calling him a pedophile in an incident in July that prompted Army officials to have him undergo a mental health evaluation. He then spent two weeks at a private psychiatric hospital in New York.

Cambridge Police on Monday arrested Eliza Sathler, 26, of Revere; Pearl Delaney Moore, 29, of Boston; Calla M. Walsh, 19, of Cambridge; Sophie Ross, 22, of Housatonic; Vera Van De Seyp, 30, of Somerville; Michael Eden, 27, of Cambridge; Evan Aldred Fournier-Swire, 19, of Bristol, R.I.; Willow Ross Carretero Chavez, 21, of Somerville; and Molly Wexler-Romig, 33, of Boston.

They were each arraigned Tuesday morning in Cambridge District Court. All had charges of disorderly conduct, but some were also charged with vandalizing property and resisting arrest. Moore and Sathler were also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, with Sathler also charged with possessing and throwing an incendiary device.

“Starting at 10 am, Cambridge Police officers were monitoring a protest outside Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, whose office has been the site of numerous protests and acts of vandalism and property destruction in recent weeks,” a Cambridge Police spokesman wrote in a Monday evening statement.

Those alleged acts of vandalism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war include police-documented instances of spray painting the sidewalk, locking themselves to the front of the building, breaking off a communications box on the exterior of the building and, according to the police report filed in this most recent incident, the spraying of insulation into exterior doors “in an attempt to prevent them from opening.”

The Monday protest began around 10 a.m., according to the report, when roughly 200 participants gathered at the corner of Bishop Allen Drive and Prospect Street — a major artery that police say the protestors completely blocked. While police say it was “initially peaceful,” they said they soon found cartons of eggs, glass bottles and more paint that they wrote were likely instruments of planned vandalism.

The confiscations did not go well, as reports from multiple officers at the scene state many in the crowd, starting at around 11:15 a.m., “breached metal barricades” and “began throwing eggs at Elbit’s office building.” As officers moved in, they report the crowd “became increasingly hostile and violent — they threw eggs, smoke bombs, and other projectiles at officers.” So the cops called in backup.

“Officers provided ample space and opportunities for the protesters to engage in freedom of speech, however, officers were forced to intervene when the group’s conduct became violent and felonious,” Sgt. Michael Levecque wrote in his report.

Elbit Elbit Systems Ltd., based in Haifa, Israel, describes itself as an “international high technology company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world, primarily in the defense and homeland security arena.”

Its wholly owned American subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, is headquartered in Texas and opened its Cambridge Innovation Center in December of last year to host 60 software, mechanical and electrical engineers, the company wrote in a press release then, to take advantage of the “the region’s vibrant Life Sciences Corridor” and proximity to MIT and Harvard.

Former President Donald Trump is still the dominant force in conservative politics and it shows in national polling, where he continuously demonstrates majority support among Republican voters. Haley, however, has been steadily gaining ground on her ex-boss where others are flagging.

“With Nikki Haley in second place in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, the presidential race is now a two-person race between one man and one woman,” her campaign said Tuesday morning.

In most national surveys, Trump leads the full field of Republicans by 46 points while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis still holds second place. Haley has occasionally tied the Sunshine State’s governor in those polls, but averages under 9% to DeSantis’ about 12.5%.

However when you boil it down to the states which will first hold their primaries — and where the majority of media attention will shift for a few short weeks — voters pick the former South Carolina Governor over DeSantis, if still not as often as Trump.

In Iowa, where the first caucusing will occur, Trump’s polling average stands at just 48% — less than a majority — with Haley in second at 17.3% and DeSantis at 11.5%. That’s an improvement for both Trump and Haley since the start of summer, when she polled just over 5% and he just over 40%, but a huge loss for DeSantis, who is down from 28%.

New Hampshire will hold the first official Republican Primary and Trump’s polling majority again slips away when surveys are limited to just Granite Staters. Voters in New Hampshire, on average, would choose him 46.5% of the time to Haley’s almost 15%. DeSantis polls under 11% in New Hampshire, losing half his support since the summer.

Haley has been endorsed by former New Hampshire Governor and U.S. Senator Judd Gregg.

South Carolina, which Democrats tried to push to the front of the primary schedule, will hold their primary after New Hampshire. Trump has a near majority of support among Republicans in the Palmetto State, polling at an average of 49%. Haley, who spent six years as the state’s governor, polls behind him at just under 19%. DeSantis again draws less than 11%, down from about 20% to start the summer.

DeSantis said the cause of his decline is spending on the part of other candidates.

“Donald Trump is spending a million dollars attacking me in Iowa. Haley’s Super PAC is spending big money to attack me in Iowa. You don’t do that unless you view me as the threat, so I think it’s fine,” he said during a recent radio interview.

MAY:

On May 3, Card’s 18-year-old son and ex-wife told a school resource officer in Topsham, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southeast of Lewiston, that they were growing concerned about his deteriorating mental health.

A Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputy met with the son and ex-wife that day and the son said that around last January, his father started claiming that people around him were saying derogatory things about him. He said his father had become angry and paranoid, and described an incident several weeks earlier in which he accused the son of saying things about him behind his back.

Card’s ex-wife told the deputy that Card had recently picked up 10-15 guns from his brother’s home, and she was worried about their son spending time with him.

A sheriff’s deputy spoke to a sergeant from Card’s Army Reserve unit, who assured him that he and others would “figure out options to get Robert help.”

JULY:

Card and other members of the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Unit were in New York for training on July 15 when he accused several of them of calling him a pedophile, shoved one of them and locked himself in his motel room. The next morning, he told another soldier that he wanted people to stop talking about him.

“I told him no one was talking about him and everyone here was his friend. Card told me to leave him alone and tried to slam the door in my face,” the soldier later told Maine authorities, according to documents released by the sheriff’s office.

New York State Police responded and took Card to a hospital at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point for an evaluation.

“During the four hours I was with Card, he never spoke, just stared through me without blinking,” an unidentified soldier in the unit wrote in a letter to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.

Card spent 14 days at the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York, which is a few miles (kilometers) from West Point.

AUGUST:

Card returned home on Aug. 3, according to the Army. At that time, the Army directed that while on duty, he shouldn’t be allowed to have a weapon, handle ammunition or participate in live-fire activity. It also declared him to be non-deployable.

On Aug. 5, Card went to Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, next to Lewiston, to pick up a gun suppressor, or silencer, that he had ordered online, according to the shop’s owner, Rick LaChapelle.

LaChapelle said to that point, federal authorities had approved the sale of the device, which is used to quiet gunshots. But he said the shop halted the sale after Card filled out a form and answered “yes” to the question: “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?”

Card was polite when notified of the denial, mentioned something about the military and said he would “come right back” after consulting his lawyer, LaChapelle said.

SEPTEMBER:

On Sept. 15, a deputy was sent to visit Card’s home in Bowdoin, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Lewiston, for a wellness check. Card’s unit requested it after a soldier said he was afraid Card was “going to snap and commit a mass shooting” because he was hearing voices again, according to documents released by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy went to Card’s trailer but couldn’t find him.

The sheriff’s office then sent out a statewide alert seeking help locating Card. It included a warning that he was known to be “armed and dangerous” and that officers should use extreme caution.

The same deputy and another one returned to Card’s trailer on Sept. 16. Card’s car was there and the deputy said he could hear him moving around the trailer, but no one answered the door, according to the deputy’s report.

The report included a letter written by an unidentified member of Card’s Reserve unit who described the July incidents as well as getting a call the “night before last” from another soldier about Card. The timing isn’t clear, but according to the letter, the soldier said he and Card were returning from a casino when Card punched him and said he planned to shoot up places, including an Army Reserve drill center in Saco, Maine.

“He also said I was the reason he can’t buy guns anymore because of the commitment,” the soldier wrote.

A deputy reached out to the Reserve unit commander, who assured him the Army was trying to get treatment for Card. The commander also said he thought “it best to let Card have time to himself for a bit.”

On Sept. 17, the deputy reached out to Card’s brother, who said he had put Card’s firearms in a gun safe at the family farm and would work with their father to move the guns elsewhere and make sure Card couldn’t get other guns.

Card didn’t report to weekend Army reserve training activities in September or October, telling his unit that he had work conflicts and was unable to attend, the Army said.

OCTOBER 2023:

On Oct. 18, the sheriff’s office canceled its statewide alert seeking help locating Card.

One week later, shortly before 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, authorities began receiving 911 calls about a gunman at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston. Four local police officers who were in plain clothes at a nearby gun range arrived at the shooting scene a minute and a half after the first 911 call, but the gunman had already left. Other Lewiston officers arrived at the scene within four minutes of the first call.

Twelve minutes after the first 911 call and as the first state troopers began arriving at the bowling alley, authorities began getting calls about a gunman at Schemengees Bar and Grille about 4 miles away. Officers arrived at the bar five minutes later, but again, the attacker had already left.

Seven people were killed at the bowling, eight were killed at the bar and three others died at the hospital, authorities said.

Video surveillance footage from the bar showed a white male armed with a rifle getting out of a car and entering the building, according to Maine State Police documents released Tuesday. Another portion showed a man “walk through the bar while seeking out and shooting at patrons.”

Authorities released a photo of Card an hour after the shootings and his family members were the first to identify him. Residents were urged to stay inside with their doors locked while hundreds of officers searched for the gunman.

Later on the night of the attack, Card’s car was found near a boat launch in Lisbon, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from Lewiston. During a massive search over the next two days, authorities focused on property his family owns in Bowdoin.

Card was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot Friday night at a recycling center where he used to work.

Business is the backbone of our democracy, and neglecting the engine that drives our freedom is irresponsible. Every warning light is blinking, governor, so erase your calendar, roll up your sleeves, and get out your toolbox.

The Tax Foundation ranks Massachusetts as the 5th worst state in its Business Tax Climate Index. New Jersey, New York, California, and Connecticut rank lower — but New Hampshire is in the Top 10. That alone should worry Gov. Healey. Last time when drove north it was a quick trip.

The sad part is Healey doesn’t seem to care. Neither does Speaker Ron Mariano and state Senate President Karen Spilka. Our Democratic-run government is more adept at knocking down entrepreneurs than helping them out.

This Tax Foundation report — showing the Bay State dropping 12 spots in just the past year — should be a wake-up call. Businesses and citizens vote with their feet, and we risk losing both if the status quo remains.

A driver behind the state’s nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax, called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the Legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney added.

Why should you care?

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, told the Herald this weekend that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

His organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state so it’s not wise to ignore his comment.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th-best state for individual taxes to the sixth-worst.

Hurst said high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, need to be fixed.

The Healey administration and Beacon Hill lawmakers can not be allowed to go unchallenged. It’s embarrassing to be near last on any list. It’s unacceptable and reflects how out of touch our lawmakers have become.

Clocks should go back an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5. Cell phones and other smart devices update automatically, but analog and digital clocks not connected to the internet will have to be set back an hour manually.

When did Daylight Saving Time start?

Daylight Saving Time was established by Congress with the passage of the Uniform Time Act in 1966, according to the Baltimore Sun. The law standardized the length of daylight saving time from March to November in an effort to save energy.

What states observe Daylight Saving Time?

Most of the U.S. observes Daylight Saving Time, with the exception of Arizona and Hawaii — those states observe permanent standard time. Americans of all persuasions, however, revile the biannual practice of changing clocks, prompting several states to pass legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. Similar legislation has been introduced at the federal level, but no action has been taken on those bills.

How can I prepare for Daylight Saving Time?

The end of Daylight Saving Time means residents in the states that observe it will have more morning light — but feel as if the days get darker much earlier. At this time of year, the time change – or fall back – is more welcome because it gives people a perceived extra hour of sleep when Daylight Saving Time ends. When it’s time to spring forward, sleep experts recommend gradually adjusting sleep times in advance to prepare for the change, particularly for young children.

The biggest adjustment to “falling back” will be the earlier sunsets, which gives way to longer nights. The longer nights can trigger seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a type of depression, according to the Mayo Clinic. The easiest ways to treat seasonal affective disorder include light therapy and exposure to sunlight — which is in abundance during the mornings after the end of Daylight Saving Time.

Before signing the order Monday, Biden said AI is driving change at “warp speed” and carries tremendous potential as well as perils.

“AI is all around us,” Biden said. “To realize the promise of AI and avoid the risk, we need to govern this technology.”

The order is an initial step that is meant to ensure that AI is trustworthy and helpful, rather than deceptive and destructive. The order — which will likely need to be augmented by congressional action — seeks to steer how AI is developed so that companies can profit without putting public safety in jeopardy.

Using the Defense Production Act, the order requires leading AI developers to share safety test results and other information with the government. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is to create standards to ensure AI tools are safe and secure before public release.

The Commerce Department is to issue guidance to label and watermark AI-generated content to help differentiate between authentic interactions and those generated by software. The extensive order touches on matters of privacy, civil rights, consumer protections, scientific research and worker rights.

White House chief of staff Jeff Zients recalled Biden giving his staff a directive when formulating the order to move with urgency.

“We can’t move at a normal government pace,” Zients said the Democratic president told him. “We have to move as fast, if not faster, than the technology itself.”

In Biden’s view, the government was late to address the risks of social media and now U.S. youth are grappling with related mental health issues. AI has the positive ability to accelerate cancer research, model the impacts of climate change, boost economic output and improve government services among other benefits. But it could also warp basic notions of truth with false images, deepen racial and social inequalities and provide a tool to scammers and criminals.

With the European Union nearing final passage of a sweeping law to rein in AI harms and Congress still in the early stages of debating safeguards, the Biden administration is “stepping up to use the levers it can control,” said digital rights advocate Alexandra Reeve Givens, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “That’s issuing guidance and standards to shape private sector behavior and leading by example in the federal government’s own use of AI.”

The order builds on voluntary commitments already made by technology companies. It’s part of a broader strategy that administration officials say also includes congressional legislation and international diplomacy, a sign of the disruptions already caused by the introduction of new AI tools such as ChatGPT that can generate text, images and sounds.

The guidance within the order is to be implemented and fulfilled over the range of 90 days to 365 days.

Hundreds of locals, carrying heavy hearts, gathered at churches throughout the community on Sunday to grieve and process the “biggest challenge” it has faced.

As residents shed tears and shared hugs, community members vowed Lewiston will not be defined by last Wednesday’s shooting at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley and Schemengees Bar and Grille that killed 18 and injured 13.

“In the days to come, as the world moves on, as the national media shifts its focus to the next crisis, we will stay together,” Lewiston native Tom Caron told a massive turnout of people, from near and far, at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul Sunday evening.

“We will support each other through the tears, the shock, and the grief in this tight knit city of big hearts. … We can never allow Lewiston to be remembered for violence,” he said.

Caron, a leading voice of Red Sox baseball on NESN, reminded those who gathered, filling the pews and flowing outside, there is love and beauty in the community, one in which he learned the value of hard work.

That sense of love was seen throughout the city Sunday, as memorials grew outside the local pub and bowling alley.

A traffic display board up the road from Schemengees reads: “Thank you to all involved in helping our great city.”  Another read: “Lewiston Strong.”

The victims’ names are written on posters and carved into pumpkins. One pumpkin was attached with a picture of Joey Walker, the manager of Schemengees who confronted the gunman with a butcher knife.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” a message on the picture reads.

Down the road, at the Lewiston Mall, residents participated in a Halloween celebration, with dozens of parents and children dressed in costumes waiting to receive candy – a sign that life is starting to come back after Maine’s “dark day.”

An hour-long prayer service earlier in the day at Holy Family Church served as the first formal gathering to grieve for those lost and pray for the community to remain a unified front in the days to come.

Maine State Police on Friday found the dead body of alleged gunman Robert Card inside a box trailer parked in an overflow lot across the street from the Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon, an area that had not been checked when law enforcement previously searched the site two times.

Portraits of the victims who died stood on the steps up to the altar inside Holy Family Church as well as the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Husband and wife Chris and Nancy Pierce, who live outside of Lewiston but have a “history and relationship” with the city and surrounding area, took part in the prayer service at Holy Family.

Chris Pierce said he felt compelled to turn out because he knew Andy Violette, the son of Bob and Lucille Violette, both of whom died at the bowling alley. “We wanted to come for him and all of the others who were taken so suddenly and so unjustly,” he said.

His wife Nancy called the tragedy a “terrible shock to us, Mainers.” She hopes the events of the past week will not change her and her husband as well as the entire community.

“We have faith that the deceased are in a good place, and I hope it doesn’t make us fearful,” she said. “This is all pretty raw.”

Jeffries, who left Abercrombie in 2014, converted the chain from an struggling retailer of hunting apparel to a seller of must-have teen clothing. But he faced criticism for the company’s sexualized marketing, including billboards and beefy models that alienated potential customers who didn’t fit into its image.

The lawsuit comes after a BBC report earlier this month raised similar allegations against Jeffries and his partner Matthew Smith.

The lawsuit, filed by David Bradberry in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges Jeffries had modeling scouts scouring the internet and elsewhere to identify attractive young men seeking to be the next face of Abercrombie. Often these prospective models became sex-trafficking victims, sent to New York and abroad and abused by Jeffries and other men, all under the guise that they were being recruited to become the next Abercrombie model, the lawsuit contends.

“Jeffries was so important to the profitability of the brand that he was given complete autonomy to perform his role as CEO however he saw fit, including through the use of blatant international sex-trafficking and abuse of prospective Abercrombie models,” the suit alleges.

The lawsuit names Jeffries, Smith, and the Jeffries Family Office LLC. It seeks class-action status and estimates that over a hundred young models, in addition to Bradberry, were victims.

A&F, based in New Albany, Ohio, declined to comment Friday. Earlier this month, the retailer said that it had hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the issues raised by the BBC. It said the company’s current leaders and board of directors were not aware of the allegations of Jeffries’ sexual misconduct.

Jeffries’ attorney, Brian Bieber, said in a statement that Jeffries “will not comment in the press on this new lawsuit, as he has likewise chosen not to regarding litigation in the past. ”

“The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter,” Bieber added.

The escalated walkout began Saturday evening at a Spring Hill, Tennessee plant, GM’s largest in North America, just hours after the Stellantic deal was reached. Its nearly 4,000 workers join about 18,000 already striking at GM factories in Texas, Michigan and Missouri and Tennessee.

The UAW did not immediately explain what prompted the new action after 44 days of targeted strikes. The added pressure on GM is substantial as Spring Hill makes engines for other plants in addition to big-ticket vehicles including the electric Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Acadia and Cadillac crossover SUVs.

“The Spring Hill walkout affects so much of GM’s production that the company is likely to settle quickly or close down most production,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor. The union wants to wrap negotiations with all three automakers so “Ford and Stellantis workers don’t vote down (their) tentative agreements because they want to see what GM workers get.”

The Stellantis deal mirrors one reached last week with Ford, and saves jobs at a factory in Belvidere, Illinois, that Stellantis had planned to close, the UAW said.

GM said it was disappointed with the additional strike at the Spring Hill plant, which has 11 million square feet of building space, “in light of the progress we have made.” It said in a statement that it has bargained in good faith and wants a deal as soon as possible.

In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain lamented what he called “GM’s unnecessary and irresponsible refusal to come to a fair agreement.”

“Everybody’s really fired up and excited,” Spring Hill assembly line worker Larry Montgomery said by phone on Sunday. He said workers were taken by surprise by the strike call. “We thought it was going to happen earlier.”

UAW Local 1853 President John Rutherford in Spring Hill didn’t immediately return a telephone message.

Fain said in a video appearance Saturday night that 43,000 members at Stellantis would have to vote on the deal — just as Ford workers must. About 14,000 UAW workers had been on strike at two Stellantis assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio, and several parts distribution centers across the country. The company makes Jeep and Ram vehicles.

The pact includes 25% in general wage increases over the next 4 1/2 years for top assembly plant workers, with 11% coming once the deal is ratified. Workers also will get cost-of-living pay that would bring the raises to a compounded 33%, with top assembly plant workers making more than $42 per hour. At Stellantis, top-scale workers now make around $31 per hour.

Like the Ford contract, the Stellantis deal would run through April 30, 2028.

Under the deal, the union said it saved jobs in Belvidere as well at an engine plant in Trenton, Michigan, and a machining factory in Toledo, Ohio.

“We have reopened an assembly plant that was closed,” Fain said. The deal includes a commitment by Stellantis to build a new midsize combustion-engine truck at the Belvidere factory that was slated to be closed. About 1,200 workers will be hired back, plus another 1,000 workers will be added for a new electric vehicle battery plant, the union said.

Vice President Rich Boyer, who led the Stellantis talks, said the workforce will be doubled at the Toledo, Ohio, machining plant. The union, he said, won $19 billion worth of investment across the U.S.

Fain said Stellantis had proposed cutting 5,000 U.S. jobs, but the union’s strike changed that to adding 5,000 jobs by the end of the contract.

Gordon, the University of Michigan professor, said the Stellantis deal “shows that the car companies feel they are at the mercy of the UAW, that the UAW is not going to give any mercy, and that companies will be co-governed by their boards and the UAW.”

He said competing companies with non-unionized workforces, which include Toyota and Tesla,  “couldn’t have gotten a better year-end gift.”

Under the Stellantis contract, a top-scale assembly plant worker’s base wage will exceed all increases in the past 22 years. Starting wages for new hires will rise 67% including cost-of-living adjustments to over $30 per hour, it said in a statement. Temporary workers will get raises of more than 165%, while workers at parts centers will get an immediate 76% increase if the contract is ratified.

Like the Ford agreement, it will take just three years for new workers to get to the top of the assembly pay scale, the union said.

The union also won the right to strike over plant closures at Stellantis, and can strike if the company doesn’t meet product and investment commitments, Fain said.

Bruce Baumhower, president of the local union at a large Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, that has been on strike since September, said he expects workers will vote to approve the deal because of the pay raises above 30% and a large 11% raise immediately. “It’s a historic agreement as far as I’m concerned.”

Some union members had complained that Fain promised 40% raises to match what he said was given to company CEOs, but Baumhower said that was merely an opening bid.

“Ultimately, the numbers they did come to agree with is what the UAW wanted,” said Jermaine Antwine, a 48-year-old Stellantis worker who had been picketing the automaker’s Sterling Heights, Michigan, plant Saturday. A team leader in materials at the plant, the Pontiac, Michigan man has has 24 years with the automaker.

Negotiations between the UAW and Stellantis had intensified Thursday, the day after the Ford deal was announced.

The union began targeted strikes against all three automakers on Sept. 15 after its contracts with the companies expired. At the peak, about 46,000 workers were on strike against all three companies,about one-third of the union’s 146,000 members at the Detroit three.

With the Ford deal, which set a template for the other two companies, workers with pensions will see small increases when they retire, and those hired after 2007 with 401(k) plans will get large increases.

Other union leaders who followed aggressive bargaining strategies in recent months have also secured pay hikes and other benefits for their members. Last month, the union representing Hollywood writers called off a nearly five-month strike after scoring some wins in compensation, length of employment and other areas.

Massachusetts had the steepest fall from last year in the nation, dropping 12 spots to 46th for overall taxation in the 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index, a ranking published by the Tax Foundation that compares state tax systems.

“That means we are overtaxing our employers and our residents, both,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “To be in the bottom five states, it’s not a good sign to either our tax-paying families or to employers, current or prospective. We’ve got to work on this.”

A driver behind the nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

The crumbling tax system should not be a surprise, said Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax. He called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney said in a statement.

Hurst, whose organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state, told the Herald on Friday that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

Massachusetts is the fourth worst state in the country when it comes to out-migration, behind only California, New York and Illinois, according to data gathered earlier this year by Pioneer Institute, an economic policy think tank.

The Millionaire’s Tax has exacerbated the years-long problem, and former Celtics player Grant Williams used it as motivation to sign a four-year, $54-million contract with the Dallas Mavericks over the summer. If he stayed in Boston, the surtax would’ve reduced that amount to $48 million over the four years, he told The Athletic.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th best state for individual taxes to the sixth worst.

Two glaring challenges facing small businesses across the Bay State, Hurst said, are its high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.

Hurst is calling on state lawmakers to create more flexibility for small businesses on health insurance instead of imposing mandates and restrictions so they can be competitive with “big, self-insured businesses.”

Gov. Maura Healey signed a $1 billion-a-year tax relief bill earlier this month that Hurst believes will only go so far.

The package cuts the short-term capital gains tax from 12% to 8.5%, a business-backed move that has riled progressives who argue it gives a break to the wealthy. The compromise will cost the state $561 million in fiscal year 2023 and $1 billion a year starting in fiscal year 2027.

It also includes boosts to the rental deduction cap, a tax credit for a dependent child, disabled adult, or senior, and the statewide cap for a housing production program. The bill excludes estates valued up to $2 million from the estate tax by allowing for a uniform credit of $99,600.

“It’s going to help,” Hurst said, “but frankly, I think it’s a down payment on more action that has to come to make Massachusetts welcoming to investment, welcoming to entrepreneurs and to make sure that small businesses and consumers alike can be prosperous in the Commonwealth.”

Tufts SJP was one of the student chapters that posted in support of the terrorists, who killed Israelis and took hostages earlier this month.

After many SJP student groups did the same in backing Hamas, the Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center recently wrote a letter to the presidents of nearly 200 colleges and universities. The Jewish groups are urging the colleges and universities to investigate the activities of their SJP chapters — including for possibly violating the ban against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

The Boston-area colleges and universities that received the letter include: Tufts University, Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University and UMass Boston.

“SJP is a network of student groups across the U.S., which disseminate anti-Israel propaganda often laced with inflammatory and combative rhetoric,” ADL and the Brandeis Center wrote to the presidents. “In recent weeks, their rhetoric and activity has escalated significantly.

“Many of the organization’s campus chapters have explicitly endorsed the actions of Hamas and their armed attacks on Israeli civilians, voicing an increasingly radical call for confronting and ‘dismantling’ Zionism on U.S. college campuses,” they added. “Some SJP chapters have issued pro-Hamas messaging and/or promoted violent anti-Israel messaging channels. SJP chapters are not advocating for Palestinian rights; they are celebrating terrorism.”

Tufts SJP came under fire for their “obscene” comments in support of Hamas’ terrorist attacks. Tufts SJP’s remarks for Hamas came after dozens of Harvard student groups blamed Israel for Hamas’ terrorist attacks.

The Jewish groups are calling on the university leaders to investigate their campus SJP chapters regarding whether they have: improper funding sources, violated the school code of conduct, violated state or federal laws, and/or are providing material support to Hamas — a foreign terrorist organization designated by the U.S.

“If universities do not check the activities of their SJP chapters, they may be violating their Jewish students’ legal rights to be free of harassment and discrimination on campus,” ADL and the Brandeis Center wrote.

“We fully recognize and support students’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, even odious speech,” they added. “We remain committed, however, to calling out and speaking out against antisemitism and anti-Israel bias. And we certainly cannot sit idly by as a student organization provides vocal and potentially material support to Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

The task force is supporting students who have experienced “doxxing, harassment, and online security issues” following the widespread backlash they’ve encountered after signing the letter, according to campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

A student reporter accessed an email that Dean of Students Thomas Dunne sent Tuesday to “doxxed students,” outlining the purpose of the task force and how it will be in operation until at least Nov. 3.

“We are truly grateful for all the tremendous work that students have put forth in supporting each other through this most difficult time,” Dunne wrote, “and we appreciate the collaborative spirit in which students, faculty, and staff have come together to repel this repugnant assault on our community.”

The task force will serve as a single point of contact and communicate frequently with students to make sure they have resources and services to help them through their concerns, the article states.

Harvard students who blamed Israel after Hamas’ terrorist attacks say they’ve been afraid for their safety, as a truck revealing the names and faces of those who signed the letter had circled around the Cambridge campus, the Herald has reported.

On Wednesday, the “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites” truck went off campus and parked outside the homes of some student leaders who signed the letter, the New York Post first reported.

Accuracy in Media deployed the truck because, “in addition to educating their colleagues and neighbors on campus, everyone in their community should learn who the antisemites are among them,” group President Adam Guillemette told the Post.

Columbia University is the the next campus Accuracy in Media is bringing the truck to, the group posted on X, the former Twitter platform, Thursday.

Harvard police has stepped up its security presence on campus and continues to monitor online activity for the potential of any threat to the campus community or individuals on campus, according to university officials.

The fallout from the letter, and the response by Harvard’s President Claudine Gay that critics are saying was weak, continues to reverberate on the Cambridge campus, making it more divided than in recent memory.

The actor was found dead at his Los Angeles home, according to coroner’s records. An investigation into how Perry died is ongoing, and it may take weeks before his cause of death is determined.

Perry’s body was found in a hot tub at his home, according to unnamed sources cited by the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. LAPD Officer Drake Madison told The Associated Press on Saturday that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

“This truly is The One Where Our Hearts Are Broken, ”Friends” co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and executive producer Kevin Bright, said in a statement. “We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment – not just to his work, but in life as well. He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart.”

Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the show’s hijinks, he could be counted on to chime in with a line like “Could this BE any more awkward?” or another well-timed quip.

Perry was open about his long and public struggle with addiction, writing at the beginning of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

“Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, winning one best comedy series Emmy Award in 2002. The cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each.

Some of his “Friends” guest stars paid tribute on social media, posting photos, GIFS and bloopers from their favorite episodes.

“What a loss,” actress Maggie Wheeler, who played Perry’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Janice, wrote on Instagram. “The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on.”

Actress Morgan Fairchild, who played Perry’s mother on the show, said the loss of a “brilliant young actor” was a shock.

“I’m heartbroken about the untimely death of my ‘son,’” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

By the “Friends” finale, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers trying to figure their lives out to several of them married and starting families.

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life — and found surprising popularity with younger fans — in recent years on streaming services.

Perry described reading the “Friends” script for the first time in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life. One character in particular stood out to me: it wasn’t that I thought I could ‘play’ Chandler. I ‘was’ Chandler.”

On Sunday, Perry’s book was ranked No. 1 on Amazon, supplanting Britney Spears’ memoir.

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.

“’Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that. I loved the script. I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,” he wrote in his memoir. “I had a secret and no one could know.”

“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.”

He recalled in his memoir that Aniston confronted him about being inebriated while filming.

“I know you’re drinking,” he remembered her telling him once. “We can smell it,” she said, in what Perry called a “kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer.”

In the foreword to Perry’s memoir, Lisa Kudrow described him as “whip smart, charming, sweet, sensitive, very reasonable, and rational.” She added, “That guy, with everything he was battling, was still there.”

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing.”

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”

He worked consistently after “Friends,” though never in a role that brought him as much attention or acclaim.

In 2015, he played Oscar for a CBS reboot of “The Odd Couple” that aired for two seasons. He told the AP that playing Oscar Madison, the character originally made famous by Walter Matthau in the 1968 movie, was a “dream role.” He also said he was surprised how much he enjoyed being filmed again in front of a live audience.

“I didn’t realize I missed it really until it actually happened, til we actually shot the pilot and there was a studio audience there and I realized, ‘Wow, I really like this. This is nice,’” he said. “You kind of ham up for the people in the audience. My performance never got better than when there was an audience there.”

Perry was born Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father is actor John Bennett Perry and his mother, Suzanne, served as press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and is married to “Dateline” correspondent Keith Morrison.

___

Associated Press writers Alicia Rancilio, Janie Har, Hillel Italie, Lindsey Bahr, Ryan Pearson and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting tonight Perry was found at his LA home in a hot tub. Perry was 54.

The LA Police told the Herald Saturday night any official word of a death would need to come from the coroner’s office. But they did tell the Associated Press that officers had gone to Perry’s home “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”

The Associated Press is posting photos of Perry under the headline “Matthew Perry Has Passed Away” and is now also saying he died.

Perry was born on Aug. 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Mass., to his mother, Canadian journalist Suzanne Marie Morrison, and father, actor and former model John Bennett Perry.

Perry is best know for his character “Chandler” on the hit TV show “Friends” that premiered on NBC in 1994. The show and its young cast — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc — all became marquee names.

“There’s nothing better than a world where everybody’s just trying to make each other laugh,” Perry was once quoted as saying.

The show ran for 10 years and Perry’s character, somewhat unhinged, fit in with the theme of the show where young New Yorkers shared love and life as they coped with the big city.

TMZ, People, the New York Post, and Variety — to name just a few — are all also reporting Perry’s death tonight.

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing,” the AP reported.

Perry, the AP added, also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the rom-com “Fools Rush In” and opposite Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.”

Hundreds of law enforcement officials spent roughly two days searching the region for Robert Card, who was found dead Friday evening from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to authorities.

From the first 911 calls at 6:56 p.m. Wednesday to when Card was found dead at 7:45 p.m. Friday, here is a timeline of events related to the mass shooting in Maine.

Wednesday, Oct. 25

6:56 p.m. – The Auburn Communications Center receives a 911 call reporting a male shooting a firearm at Just-In-Time Recreation at 24 Mollison Way. Plainclothes officers who were shooting at a range down the street arrive at the bowling alley just a minute after the call came in, officials said.

7 p.m. – Officials said the first police cruiser arrives at Just-In-Time Recreation.

7:08 p.m. – The Auburn Communications Center receives multiple 911 calls for an active shooter inside the Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant at 551 Lincoln St.

7:13 p.m. – The first Lewiston police officer arrives at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant. The response became “exponential after that,” said Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck.

7:24 p.m. – Central Maine Medical Center, an area hospital, receives its first patients and over the next 45 minutes the hospital receives 14 more. Eight were admitted to the hospital, three died, two were discharged home, and one was transferred to Maine Medical Center.

8:09 p.m. – Maine State Police advise residents via social media that there is an active shooter situation in Lewiston. Law enforcement told residents to shelter in place with doors locked and call 911 if they see any suspicious activity.

Around 11:30 p.m. – Maine authorities, including Sauschuck, hold a televised briefing to provide the first details of the mass shooting and identify Robert Card, born April 4, 1983, of Bowdoin, as a person of interest in the shooting. Police said Card is considered “armed and dangerous.” The shelter-in-place order in Lewiston remains and is expanded to the nearby town of Lisbon.

Over the evening – A reunification center is established at Auburn Middle School and families start arriving to find or check the status of loved ones. 

Also during the evening – Police find a “vehicle of interest” in Lisbon that would later be tied to Card and said to be located at the Paper Mills Trail and Miller Park Boat Launch on Frost Hill Avenue. A long rifle is found in the car.

Thursday, Oct. 26

10:15 a.m. – Massachusetts State Police said they are aware of no link between Card and Massachusetts after “unsubstantiated” reports said the man had possibly crossed state lines.

10:45 a.m. – Authorities hold another briefing with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who says it is “a dark day for Maine” and “no words can truly or fully measure the grief of Maine people today.” The shelter-in-place order extends to Bowdoin and police said they issued an arrest warrant for Card for eight counts of murder.

During the day – A cascading series of closures and lockdowns spread across Southern Maine, with schools keeping students home, shops shuttering their doors, and businesses largely keeping doors locked for the day. Law enforcement continue their hunt for Card.

During the afternoon – Mainers in Lewiston publicly mourn the dead, with one local artist pinning heart-shaped posters to trees and light posts in the downtown area.

6 p.m. – U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Lewiston Democrat, said he is reversing his position on banning assault weapons, saying a horrific mass shooting in his hometown led him to believe the firearms should be prohibited.

During the evening – Law enforcement descend on a home in Bowdoin, the town where Card’s last known residence is located. Police at the scene order those inside the house to come out with their hands up. A Maine State Police spokesperson would later say law enforcement were there “as part of the investigation into the Lewiston shootings and the search for Robert Card.”

Friday, Oct. 27

During the morning – Residents in Lewiston, Auburn, Bowdoin, Monmouth, and Lisbon wake up still under lockdown as law enforcement make clear they are settling into an expansive evidence-gathering and manhunt operation.

During the day – Law enforcement divers are dispatched to the Androscoggin River to search for clues related to the mass shooting. Officials use sonars, remote-operated equipment, and aerial vehicles like planes or helicopters. A power company that operates two dams in the area planned to adjust the flow of water to help divers see more clearly.

Throughout the day – Investigators, including FBI agents, continue to collect and process evidence at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant.

5 p.m. – Thousands of Mainers in Lewiston, Auburn, Bowdoin, Monmouth, and Lisbon are cleared from a shelter-in-place order, a decision officials said was taken after considering the negative impacts it had on locals.

Also at 5 p.m. – Maine officials identify all 18 victims of the mass shooting and the ages of the dead range from 14 to 76, and include multiple people who were related to each other.

7:45 p.m. – Card is found dead inside a box trailer parked in an overflow lot across from the Maine Recycling Corporation.

Around 10 p.m. – At a press conference, Mills informs the public that Card was found dead. “I stand here tonight to simply report that the Maine State Police have located the body of Robert Card in Lisbon. He is dead. I called President Biden to inform him about this news,” she said.

Saturday, Oct. 28

10 a.m. – State officials provide more details about the circumstances around the discovery of Card’s body, including that the location was previously searched twice before by police. Authorities said Card left a note in his residence to a loved one and was struggling with mental health issues.

“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual gathering in Las Vegas. “So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence went on to tell the friendly audience, which reacted with audible surprise to the announcement and gave him multiple standing ovations.

Pence is the first major candidate to leave a race that has been dominated by his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump, and his struggles underscore just how much Trump has transformed the party. A former vice president would typically be seen as a formidable challenger in any primary, but Pence has struggled to find a base of support.

Pence did not immediately endorse any of his rivals, but continued to echo language he has used to criticize Trump.

“I urge all my fellow Republicans here, give our country a Republican standard-bearer that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature, and not only lead us to victory, but lead our nation with civility,” he said.

Pence’s decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he had staked his campaign on, saves him from accumulating additional debt, as well as the embarrassment of potentially failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, on Nov. 8 in Miami.

But his withdrawal is a huge blow for a politician who spent years biding his time as Trump’s most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office when Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office — a power Pence did not possess.

While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury, as well as the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters, who still believed his lies about the election and see Pence as a traitor.

Among Trump critics, meanwhile, Pence was seen as an enabler who defended the former president at every turn and refused to criticize even Trump’s most indefensible actions time and again.

As a result, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from August found that the majority of U.S. adults, 57%, viewed Pence negatively, with only 28% having a positive view.

Throughout his campaign, the former Indiana governor and congressman had insisted that while he was well-known by voters, he was not “known well” and set out to change that with an aggressive schedule that included numerous stops at diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants.

Pence had been betting on Iowa, a state with a large white Evangelical population that has a long history of elevating religious and socially conservative candidates such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum.

Pence often campaigned with his wife, Karen, a Christian school teacher, and emphasized his hard-line views on issues such as abortion, which he opposes even in cases when a pregnancy is unviable. He repeatedly called on his fellow candidates to support a minimum 15-week national ban and he pushed to ban drugs used as alternatives to surgical procedures.

He tried to confront head-on his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, explaining to voters over and over that he had done his constitutional duty that day, knowing full well the political consequences. It was a strategy that aides believed would help defuse the issue and earn Pence the respect of a majority of Republicans, whom they were were convinced did not agree with Trump’s actions.

But even in Iowa, Pence struggled to gain traction.

He had an equally uphill climb raising money, despite yearslong relationships with donors. Pence ended September with just $1.18 million in the bank and $621,000 in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. That debt had grown in the weeks since and adding to it would have taken Pence, who is not independently wealthy, years pay off.

The Associated Press first reported earlier this month that people close to Pence had begun to feel that remaining a candidate risked diminishing his long-term standing in the party, given Trump’s dominating lead in the race for the 2024 nomination. While they said Pence could stick it out until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses if he wanted — campaigning on a shoestring budget and accumulating debt — he would have to consider how that might affect his ability to remain a leading voice in the conservative movement, as he hopes.

Some said that Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which pushed foreign policy to the forefront of the campaign, had given Pence a renewed sense of purpose given his warnings throughout the campaign against the growing tide of isolationism in the Republican Party.

Pence had argued that he was the race’s most experienced candidate and decried “voices of appeasement” among Republican, arguing they had emboldened groups such as Hamas.

But ultimately, Pence concluded that he could continue to speak out on the issue without continuing the campaign. He chose the Las Vegas event to announce his decision, in part, so he could address the topic one last time before formally leaving the race.

He is expected to remain engaged, in part through Advancing American Freedom, the conservative think tank he founded after leaving the vice presidency and that he envisions it as an alternative to the The Heritage Foundation.

Pence’s group is expected to continued to advocate for policies that he supported in his run, including pushing for more U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion and proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare to rein in the debt. Such ideas were once the bread-and-butter of Republican establishment orthodoxy but have fallen out of a favor as the party has embraced Trump’s isolationist and populist views.

“This has been a tragic two days – not just for Lewiston, Maine, but for our entire country.

Once again, an American community and American families have been devastated by gun violence. In all, at least eighteen souls brutally slain, more injured, some critically, and scores of family and friends praying and experiencing trauma no one ever wants to imagine.

Numerous brave law enforcement officers have worked around the clock to find this suspect and prevent the loss of more innocent life – all while risking their own. They are the best of us.

Tonight we’re grateful that Lewiston and surrounding communities are safe after spending excruciating days hiding in their homes. I thank Governor Janet Mills for her steady leadership during this time of crisis, and continue to direct my administration to provide everything that is needed to support the people of Maine.

Americans should not have to live like this. I once again call on Republicans in Congress to fulfill their obligation to keep the American people safe. Until that day comes, I will continue to do everything in my power to end this gun violence epidemic. The Lewiston community – and all Americans – deserve nothing less.”

So Diane, who declined to give her last name, decided to head to downtown Lewiston and open up the Paris Adult Bookstore and Head Shop, a 40-year-old business on Lisbon Street.

“I mean, we have to run a business. We have to make money … we can’t stay closed forever,” she told the Herald while sitting in the store as the shelter-in-place order persisted in the city and surrounding communities.

Lewiston residents appeared to start cautiously venturing out from their homes Friday, the second full day of a shelter-in-place order in the city that also saw law enforcement settle into a massive evidence-gathering and search operation.

The shelter-in-place order was lifted later in the afternoon after most businesses that were open had closed for the day. Officials said they understood the disruptive nature of the order but defended its use as a way to keep residents safe during a dangerous situation.

Authorities are still looking for Robert Card, a 40-year-old man they allege killed 18 people and injured 13 others at two shooting sites in Lewiston, a town of several thousand in Northern Maine that is roughly 140 miles away from Boston.

During the day, fast food restaurants in the city were open, though some with only drive-through windows serving customers. Noticeably more cars were driving up and down main roads compared to Thursday and locals were sitting outside buildings downtown and walking into some shops.

Diane said she was at the bookstore — just blocks away from the local police station — Wednesday when she heard sirens “just going off” around 7 p.m.  Diane said she usually closes the bookstore at 7:30 p.m. but decided to leave early after hearing the commotion.

“I stopped at the gas station down here to get cigarettes on my way home and that’s (when) they told me what was going on,” she said. “And I live on Pond Road and trying to get home was like crazy. You either had five cop cars behind you or five cars coming down this way.”

When Diane finally made it home, she stayed there until Friday morning.

“I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said, adding she spent Thursday tending to yardwork.

A handful of other businesses like Diane’s also decided to open up, with workers and owners telling the Herald they were tired of sitting idle.

Ryan Richards runs Sinsemilla, a cannabis dispensary with one retail location on Middle Street in downtown Lewiston. He said he closed the Lewiston store Thursday but opened it back up around 2 p.m. Friday to help customers who rely on cannabis as a medication.

“The only reason we did it is we keep hearing rumblings in the community like we have no place to go,” he said. “So as a business owner … I’m comfortable with the situation. So I was like, alright, we’ll go in there and stand there for the people to see what happens.”

Richards said employees in his roughly 100-person company have been personally affected by the mass shooting, with some losing people close to them in the killings.

“This is a small community,” he said. “Everybody knows somebody who got affected.”

A few streets over from Richards’ dispensary, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline was moving a box from one building to the next. He told the Herald before the shelter-in-place order was lifted that it was “important that people stay home.”

“I understand that people are having urgent needs, like parents who need baby formula and people who need medication,” he said. “I realize that people want to get back to normal as quickly as possible but the manhunt is still ongoing, and we need to, as much as possible, observe the shelter-in-place order so that way law enforcement can do their work.”

Even with the warnings in place at the time, some people were carrying out their business in the city. One man was washing his car just after noon at a self service car wash as other vehicles started to pack local roads.

But only a few miles away, police were scouring the Androscoggin River with dive teams and helicopters for clues related to the mass shooting.

A flock of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were gathering just across the street from the river at the St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. Down the road, law enforcement were crowding the bank of a small offshoot of the Androscoggin River.

Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck told reporters earlier in the day law enforcement planned to have a team of divers working in the river.

“We certainly don’t want to wait too long because the river is a big piece of this, the car was located there, evidence is located in the vehicle or right there along the shores of the Androscoggin River,” he said.

The president’s campaign has made a calculated risk that Granite State voters will forget Biden’s snub of refusing to put his name on the primary ballot.

Chances are they won’t forget. New Hampshire has four electoral votes and in a close election losing them could be a major blow to Democrats’ hopes of holding on to the White House.

But Biden has chosen South Carolina over New Hampshire and Iowa by endorsing the Palmetto State primary first in line – rewarding the place that rescued his 2020 campaign.

South Carolina is now the leadoff voting state in the selection process under Democratic National Committee rules, but New Hampshire is ignoring that DNC list, vowing to hold its primary first under its own state law. Iowa Democrats are also working to preserve their early January caucus.

“While the president wishes to participate in the primary, he is obligated as a Democratic candidate for president to comply with the Delegate Selection Rules for the 2024 Democratic National Convention promulgated by the Democratic National Committee,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a letter advising New Hampshire officials he won’t be on the ballot.

Baloney. Biden is picking South Carolina over New Hampshire for strictly political reasons and for payback for embarrassing him four years ago.

Biden finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary and wants to punish the state that kicked his butt.

His campaign is likely instead to mount a write-in campaign and finish first that way – the same strategy President Lyndon Johnson used in 1968.

“The reality is that Joe Biden will win the NH FITN (first-in-the-nation) primary in January, win renomination in Chicago and will be re-elected in November. NH voters know and trust Joe Biden that’s why he is leading Trump in NH by double digits,” NH Democratic chair Ray Buckley said in a blustery statement.

The only problem is Johnson dropped out of the race after Democrat Eugene McCarthy finished a closer-than-expected second. So, if Biden doesn’t earn a resounding write-in victory, it could be viewed as a loss.

The move by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to abandon the Democratic race and run for president as an independent makes it easier for Biden to slide by. But the president could now face Democratic opposition from U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, who decided Friday to launch a primary challenge. The moderate Minnesota Democrat has argued that Biden is too old to run again and filed papers on Friday to get on the ballot in New Hampshire.

Phillips’s surprise decision could complicate Biden’s plan for a write-in win in the Granite State.

“I think it’s a mistake that he’s not putting his name on the ballot,” New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said.

Consider that a warning.

Heavy hearts: Mainers come together and look forward after Lewiston mass shooting

Here’s how the horrific mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine unfolded

Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card found at recycling center, left note to loved one

Full text: President Biden on Lewiston, Maine, shooting

Maine mass murder suspect found dead; region ‘breathing a sigh of relief’

Maine officials identify 18 killed in Lewiston mass shooting as search continues for suspect

Patriots coach Bill Belichick sends message to Maine residents after mass shooting

Thousands of Mainers still under lockdown order as hunt continues for Robert Card, Maine mass shooting suspect

Lewiston Democrat Jared Golden says he’s switching his position on banning assault weapons

Maine’s gun laws and consequences, explained

Maine mass shooting: ‘Why do people do this?’

Stephen King sounds off on Maine mass shooting: ‘Stop electing apologists for murder’

Biden, state lawmakers respond to mass shooting in Maine

Maine mourns as it shelters-in-place from Lewiston to Lisbon

Who is Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card?

Father of manager shot to death at Schemengees Bar calls son a ‘hero’ for confronting the Maine gunman

Massachusetts State Police detail efforts working with Maine on manhunt for mass shooting suspect Robert Card

Police descend on Bowdoin home as manhunt continues for Robert Card, suspect in Maine mass shooting

Shooter’s carnage unleashes terror in Maine, manhunt continues

Sirens, then eerily quiet: Scenes from the night of Maine’s worst mass shooting

Fearful Maine residents stay home amid massive search for suspect in killing of 18 people

Maine Gov. Janet Mills confirmed to reporters inside City Hall late Friday night that Robert Card was found dead and Maine Public Safety Department Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said the man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Card is accused of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bowling alley and pub in the city.

“I stand here tonight to simply report that the Maine State Police have located the body of Robert Card in Lisbon. He is dead. I called President Biden to inform him about this news,” Mills said. “But this discovery is entirely thanks to the hundreds of local, county, state and federal law enforcement members from all over and people from other states as well.”

Mills said she was “breathing a sigh of relief” that Card was no longer a threat to anyone.

Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said the people of his city can “breathe a sigh of relief.”

“I know I speak for the entire city when I say that the men and women of Lewiston Police Department, Maine State Police, and the many other law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation have our profound gratitude,” he said in a statement to the Herald. “Now, it’s time to take a breath, begin to mourn our dead, and try to heal.”

Sauschuck said Card was found at around 7:45 p.m. along the Androscoggin River in Lisbon Falls but did not confirm the exact location of the man’s body.

“I can confirm that it’s an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” he said.

The announcement comes after thousands of Mainers were cleared just hours before from a shelter-in-place order as law enforcement continued their search for Card.

Lockdowns were lifted in Lewiston, Auburn, Bowdoin, Monmouth, and Lisbon as officials said they were gearing up for an expansive evidence-gathering and manhunt operation that included hundreds of law enforcement personnel nationwide.

Authorities issued this week an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder for Card, the man they said allegedly entered Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant Wednesday and opened fire.

Sauschuck said the decision to rescind the shelter-in-place order came after an internal discussion where officials weighed the pros and cons of communities having to put their lives on pause.

“Are we doing more harm than good by keeping people away from these clinics and their doctors and in schools?” Sauschuck at City Hall. “And while this is still absolutely a dangerous situation without question, we’ve got to make recommendations and ask the people that we serve as the people who we protect, to be vigilant.”

But as the orders were lifted, Sauschuck said law enforcement had not seen Card in the last two days, telling reporters at the time that his whereabouts were unknown.

More than 500 tips and leads had already come in to police as of early Friday, he said.

“But again, in the stack of that 500-plus, you may have somebody that says ‘hey, we see somebody that looks like that.’ So we have not,” he said at an afternoon briefing with reporters.

Divers searched the Androscoggin River and law enforcement used sonars, remote-operated equipment, and aerial vehicles like planes or helicopters. A power company that operates two dams in the area planned to adjust the flow of water to help divers see more clearly, Sauschuck said.

“We certainly don’t want to wait too long because the river is a big piece of this, the car was located there, evidence is located in the vehicle or right there along the shores of the Androscoggin River,” Sauschuck said. “So that’s stuff that we want to make sure that we’re checking and we’re using the resources that we have available.”

Heavily armed law enforcement personnel were also seen in Durham, Maine, which Sauschuck said was a result of several “911 hang-up calls”

“Hang-up calls happen on a regular basis. Depending on where they are, you may go ‘Okay, wait a second.’ And then we had a second call. And then there was a sheriff’s deputy that responded to the scene and then ultimately did not answer their radio,” he said. “Officers did respond, make sure that he was safe, the scene was safe, and they moved on.”

The shelter-in-place orders disrupted life for the roughly 48 hours they were in place, largely keeping restaurants, shops, convenience stores, and other businesses closed as police kept up their search for Card.

Sauschuck said he understood that shelter-in-place orders could have a negative impact on residents.

“We had very pointed threats early on (in) reference to these locations, and nothing specific since then,” he said.

Sauschuck said investigators found a note at one of the residences they searched but declined to offer more details about its contents.

“I’m not prepared to really talk about what that included. And I think that’s probably, again, a common sense answer because that does involve is there a mindset here, is there motive, what did that entail? So we’ll definitely continue to work on that and when we can release it, we certainly will,” he said.

The two shooting incidents Wednesday took place only minutes apart and FBI investigators initially interviewed around 70 witnesses that night, Sauschuck said.

Police said they first received a 911 call at 6:56 p.m. for a male shooting a firearm at Just-In-Time Recreation. Only minutes later, at 7:08 p.m., police received multiple 911 calls for an active shooter inside Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant.

Sauschuck said police were on both scenes within minutes of the calls. Plainclothes officers who were shooting at a range down the street from Just-In-Time Recreation arrived at the bowling alley just a minute after the call came in, he said.

“They don’t have radios, they weren’t in uniform, they hear it as they’re at the range, they respond to the address immediately, and then they address the threat and clear the building,” he said.

Seven people were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation, one female and six males, from gunshot wounds, Maine State Police Col. William Ross said Thursday. Seven males were killed inside Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant and one male outside the establishment was also killed, Ross said.

The arrest warrant for Card could later include more murder counts, Ross said Thursday.

Sauschuck said Friday that prosecutors with Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office were trying to complete the rest of the murder warrants “in a timely fashion now that those individuals had been identified and the families notified.”

A spokesperson for Frey’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“I’ll have that answer for you tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock, for sure,” Sauschuck said, referencing a briefing scheduled for Saturday morning.

Golden was one of four Democrats who voted in July 2022 against federal legislation that sought to ban certain types of semi-automatic weapons. But speaking to reporters inside Lewiston City Hall, Golden said after moments like the Wednesday mass shooting, “a leader is forced to grapple with things that are far greater than his or herself.”

It’s too soon to tell if his switch will spark a movement, but he said he must try.

“I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war, like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime,” he said. “The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles, like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine.”

Golden said he would work with any colleagues to “get this done in the time that I have left in Congress.”

“To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the second district, to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings,” he said.

Golden’s reversal came at nearly the same moment Maine State Police said they were descending upon a home as they continued a massive manhunt for Robert Card, a 40-year-old man identified as a suspect in a mass shooting here that left 18 people dead and 13 wounded.

The shooting shattered lives in Lewiston, surrounding communities, and Maine, parents without children and people mourning the loss of their loved ones. Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins echoed sentiments Gov. Janet Mills expressed earlier Thursday, calling it a “dark day for the state of Maine.”

“This heinous attempt, which has robbed the lives of at least 18 Mainers and injured so many more, is the worst mass shooting that the state of Maine has ever experienced and could ever imagine,” Collins said.

Collins did not say whether she would support banning assault rifles, instead arguing federal lawmakers should outlaw high-capacity magazines.

“I think that would have more input and more effectiveness.”

Maine does not have a “red flag” law which may have prevented a mass shooter in Lewiston from accessing the gun he used to kill more than a dozen, according to gun control advocacy groups, as early reporting indicates the shooter made specific threats of violence.

“The state does not have an Extreme Risk law, also known as a ‘red flag’ law, to empower families and law enforcement to prevent tragedies before they happen,” Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control lobbying group, writes of the state.

A “yellow flag” system used in the state, that would have required the intervention of a medical professional and sworn testimony from a law enforcement official in order to remove the guns used in Wednesday’s shooting from the alleged killer’s possession, may have been helpful if implemented.

“Though Maine has taken some steps to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them, state leaders must do more to prevent gun violence,” Everytown writes.

Since 2015 Maine has been among the more than half of U.S. states that allows adults over the age of 21 to carry concealed handguns without a permit. Reporting indicates the shooter was armed with a long gun.

Gun sellers are not required to perform background checks for sales beyond those performed to comply with federal laws, which check mostly for criminal findings, and there is no waiting period required to take possession of a new gun.

There are no restrictions on the possession of popular shooting platforms like the AR-15 or magazine size.

Despite these apparently lax laws, according to data provided by the CDC, Maine also ranks fairly well when held against other states when it comes to gun violence. At a rate of 11.2 per 100,000, Maine’s yearly gun deaths are well below that 38 other states. Of 163 people shot and killed there annually, almost 90% die by their own hand.

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” the president has declared flags should be “flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government.”

Biden’s order stands until Oct. 30.

The proclamation came Thursday morning, as the country began another, now all too familiar, collective mourning period after 18 were slaughtered and 13 more injured by an eruption of gunfire, this time in a quiet corner of Maine.

As of this writing the hunt for a lone shooter continues, with agents from the FBI, ATF, TSA assisting the Maine State Police and local law enforcement with the search.

According to the White House, the president spoke with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in the hours after the shooting, offering the federal government’s full support in the investigation.

Gov. Maura Healey said she has also spoken with Mills and local hospitals are assisting victims with medical care.

“Our hospitals are treating patients transferred to Massachusetts. New England is a close-knit community, and we are coming together to support our neighbors during this heartbreaking time,” Healey said.

The governor also ordered flags on state properties lowered “to express our deep sadness and sympathy for the victims, their families, and all those impacted by the mass shooting in Maine.”

Legislative leaders, who are considering changes to Bay State gun laws, reacted with sadness at the violence, but expressed resolve to take steps to prevent a similar incident in Massachusetts.

“On behalf of the MA House, I want to offer my sincerest condolences to everyone in Lewiston, ME who lost loved ones during yesterday’s horrific mass shooting. I know we join folks from across the country in grieving the lives lost to yet another tragic act of gun violence,” House Speaker Ron Mariano offered on Twitter.

“I am absolutely sickened to know that yet more innocent lives have been lost to gun violence, which has touched too many of us. I’m heartbroken for the victims in Lewiston and their families, friends and loved ones who now know firsthand the raw pain of having their lives devastated by a mass shooting. Today my heart is with each of them, and all our neighbors to the north,” Senate Pres. Karen Spilka said in a statement.

Spilka went on to say that the senate is “firm in our resolve to pass a comprehensive gun safety and violence prevention bill this session.” The House passed such a bill just this month.

The Gun Owners Action League, a Massachusetts-based Second Amendment advocacy group, lamented that the shooting was entirely preventable.

“Since the Newtown massacre in 2012, GOAL has adamantly fought to get our government officials, and the general public, to acknowledge the number one common denominator involved in these tragically preventable events – Severe Mental Health Issues,” the group wrote on their website.

“According to reports, the killer may have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility and released even after admitting that he wanted to cause serious harm. This automatically made him a prohibited person from possessing a gun. The fact that he was released is simply unconscionable,” they continued.

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that some of Georgia’s congressional, state Senate and state House districts were drawn in a racially discriminatory manner, ordering the state to draw an additional Black-majority congressional district.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, in a 516-page order, also ordered the state to draw two new Black-majority districts in Georgia’s 56-member state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its 180-member state House.

Jones ordered Georgia’s Republican majority General Assembly and governor to fix the maps by Dec. 8, saying he would redraw districts if lawmakers did not. Hours after the ruling, Gov. Brian Kemp issued a call for a special session to begin Nov. 29 to redraw congressional and legislative districts, although a spokesperson for the governor said that is a scheduling decision and doesn’t mean the Republican opposes an appeal.

Jones’ ruling follows an eight-day September trial in which the plaintiffs argued that Black voters are still fighting opposition from white voters and need federal help to get a fair shot, while the state argued court intervention on behalf of Black voters wasn’t needed.

“Georgia has made great strides since 1965 toward equality in voting,” Jones wrote. “However, the evidence before this court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.”

The Georgia case is part of a wave of litigation after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year stood behind its interpretation of the Voting Rights Act, rejecting a challenge to the law by Alabama.

Courts in Alabama and Florida ruled recently that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting power of Black residents. Legal challenges to congressional districts are also ongoing in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Jones wrote that he would not allow the 2024 elections to be conducted using districts he has found to be “unlawful.” That would require a special session, as lawmakers aren’t scheduled to meet again until January.

Jones’ order explicitly anticipates an appeal by the state, and such an appeal could slow down that schedule, and maybe even let the maps be used again next year. The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that judges shouldn’t require changes to districts too close to an election.

A spokesperson for Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office defended the plans in court, declined comment, saying lawyers were still reading the ruling. Other Republicans want to keep fighting.

“The majority party went to great lengths to draw maps that were legal, fair, compact, and kept communities of interest together,” state Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Steve Gooch of Dahlonega said in a statement. “Obviously we strongly disagree with the ruling and expect that all legal options will be explored to maintain the maps as passed by the legislature.”

A new map could shift one of Georgia’s 14 congressional seats from Republican to Democratic control. GOP lawmakers redrew the congressional map from an 8-6 Republican majority to a 9-5 Republican majority in 2021. Jones ruled that lawmakers could not eliminate minority opportunity districts elsewhere when they redraw maps.

“I applaud the district court’s decision ordering Georgia to draw maps compliant with the Voting Rights Act,” said state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat. “We are eager to help pass fairer maps that comply with federal law.”

Orders to draw new legislative districts could narrow Republican majorities in the state House, where the GOP has a 102-78 edge, and in the state Senate, with a 33-23 edge. But on their own, those changes are unlikely to lead to a Democratic takeover.

Jones wrote that he conducted a “thorough and sifting review” of the evidence in the case before concluding that Georgia violated the Voting Rights Act in enacting the current congressional and legislative maps.

The judge wrote that despite the fact that all of the state’s population increase between 2010 and 2020 was attributable to growth among non-white populations, the number of congressional and state Senate districts with a Black majority remained the same.

That echoed a key contention of the plaintiffs, as one of their lawyers noted after the ruling.

“In 2021, the General Assembly ignored Georgia’s diversification over the last decade and enacted a state legislative map that demonstrably diluted the voting strength of Black voters,” Rahul Garabadu, an American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia attorney, said in a statement. “Today’s decision charts a path to correct that grave injustice before the 2024 election cycle.

Jones wrote in a footnote that his order “in no way states or implies that the General Assembly or Georgia Republicans are racist.” The Voting Rights Act does not require him to find that the challenged maps were passed to discriminate against Black voters or that the Legislature is racist, he wrote. “Nothing in this order should be construed to indicate otherwise.”