News - Friday, September 5, 2025

Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die! – Isaiah 22:13

In the kitchen of her Highland Park home, Jessica Weiner twists thick strands of dough laced with ribbons of butter, sugar and cinnamon into a glistening loaf. Soon she’ll top it with more of the same before sliding it into her oven.

On Friday, Sept. 12, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee will host a special event to celebrate Constitution Day with a public reading of the United States Constitution. The ceremony will take place on the steps of the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building in Chattanooga from 11:30 a.m. to approximately 12:45 p.m.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall will resonate with the music of one of jazz’s finest storytellers.

Grammy Award-winning pianist, arranger and composer Alan Broadbent will perform a solo piano concert at 7:30 p.m., with proceeds benefiting WUTC-FM 88.1.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Center for Economic Education reported significant achievements during the 2024-2025 academic year, including new scholarship opportunities, expanded programming and major public events, according to Claudia Williamson Kramer, the Scott L. Probasco, Jr. Distinguished Chair of Free Enterprise, professor of economics and the center’s executive director.

Officials from the Trust for Public Land, Walker County, the city of Chickamauga and other partners broke ground on the Battlefield Connector Trail during a Aug. 27 ceremony at the Walker County Schools Advancing Education Center.

The 2.2-mile, multiuse trail will link Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park to downtown Chickamauga, offering pedestrians and cyclists a safe and scenic route while promoting healthy lifestyles, preserving history and boosting the local economy.

Chattanooga State Community College has selected Tiffanie Robinson, managing partner and CEO of Aslan Holdings, as the 2025 honoree for its Dinner of Firsts celebration, recognizing her leadership, community impact and journey as a first-generation college graduate. 

Paddle for PanCAN will host its annual race Saturdat 10 a.m.-noon at the Suck Creek Boat Launch in Chattanooga. The 3.1-mile event welcomes paddlers of all skill levels to navigate upstream toward Williams Island and back, with proceeds benefiting the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN). Over the past five years, the event has raised more than $36,000 to support pancreatic cancer research and awareness. Participants can race in adult male, adult female or tandem kayak divisions, with prizes for winners and raffles for all. A team fundraising challenge will spotlight top fundraisers on the official event T-shirt. Registration is $40, with an optional post-race lunch at River Drifters. Register

Last week, many of us took a moment to celebrate National Dog Day, a time to recognize the joy, companionship and loyalty our pets bring into our lives. But beyond the cuddles and tail wags, pets also are playing a growing role in one of life’s biggest decisions: buying a home.

Chattanooga’s lake real estate market is carving out a bigger slice of Tennessee’s booming waterfront economy.

The Fall 2025 Lake Real Estate Market Report from Lake Homes Realty finds the statewide market for lakefront homes and land has climbed to an estimated $3.8 billion, a gain of $400 million since summer.

Heather Colley and her two children moved four times over five years as they fled high rents in East Tennessee, which, like much of rural America, hasn’t been spared from soaring housing costs.

A family gift in 2021 of a small plot of land offered a shot at homeownership, but building a house was beyond reach for the 45-year-old single mother and manicurist making $18.50 an hour.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month and the perfect time to consider whether you have adequate coverage to protect your loved ones. While no one likes to think about what would happen if they weren’t around, doing so is an act of love.

Another Tennessee Titans draft class is all but gone following the finalization of the 2025 roster.

Titans fans would love to forget the failures of Jon Robinson’s final few years – 2020-22 – with only Roger McCreary and Chig Okonkwo left on the roster to show for three seasons and 23 total draft choices.

After months of waiting, the Tennessee Titans open their season with No. 1 draft pick Cam Ward at quarterback. The Titans drew a tough opponent to open, traveling to Denver to face the Broncos. Here are the four keys for the Titans:

First down

Keep Cam Ward upright. No matter the outcome of the game, the biggest thing for the Titans this season is to see quarterback Cam Ward grow and develop into what they hope will be a franchise quarterback. The first step in that is keeping him safe in the pocket and giving him time to throw, something that won’t be easy against the Broncos’ tough front seven.

Buying a new car has never been more financially daunting. A 2025 analysis from Edmunds found that a record 19.3% of consumers who financed a new vehicle in the second quarter of 2025 committed to a monthly payment of $1,000 or more. That’s nearly one in five buyers taking on what was once considered an extreme car payment – driven by high interest rates and rising vehicle prices.

Building a team through the draft is a consistent mantra from almost every NFL team because getting cost-controlled young players in a salary-capped league is crucial to success.

Pulling that off isn't as easy with the draft often looking like a crapshoot, with some widely heralded prospects taken in the first round flaming out each year and the league filled with later-round gems who were overlooked coming out of college.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal magistrate judge on Thursday angrily accused Justice Department prosecutors of trampling on the civil rights of people arrested during President Donald Trump's law-enforcement surge in the nation's capital.

Judge Zia Faruqui, a former federal prosecutor, said leaders of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office have tarnished its reputation with how they are handling the deluge of cases. He said Pirro's office is routinely bringing cases that don't belong in federal court and needlessly keeping people in jail for days while they evaluate charges.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal jury has ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for improperly snooping on people's smartphones during a nearly decade-long period of intrusions.

The verdict reached Wednesday in San Francisco federal court followed a more than two-week trial in a class-action case covering about 98 million smartphones operating in the United States between July 1, 2016, through Sept. 23, 2024. That means the total damages awarded in the five-year-old case works out to about $4 per device.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia on Thursday challenged President Donald Trump's use of the National Guard in Washington, asking a federal court to intervene even as he plans to send troops to other cities in the name of driving down crime.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., facing pointed bipartisan questioning at a rancorous three-hour Senate committee hearing on Thursday, tried to defend his efforts to pull back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and explain the turmoil he has created at federal health agencies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans say kids should be vaccinated to attend school. But as Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate childhood vaccine mandates, U.S. adults are also less likely to think these immunizations are important than they were several decades ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has begun examining mortgage fraud allegations against Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor who is challenging a Trump administration effort to remove her from her job in a move she says is designed to erode the central bank's independence.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stephen Miran, President Donald Trump's pick to join the Federal Reserve board, said Thursday that he would remain a White House employee even if the Senate confirms him to fill an unexpired term at the central bank.

Miran, who was nominated to fill a gubernatorial term set to expire in January, made the disclosure at a hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to boast about how much money the U.S. Treasury is raking in from the massive taxes – tariffs -- he's slapped this year on imports from almost every country in the world.

"We have trillions of dollars coming into our country," Trump said Wednesday. "If we didn't have tariffs, we would be a very poor nation and we would be taken advantage of by every other nation in the world, friend and foe."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI seized phones, computer equipment and typed documents from the home of John Bolton as part of an investigation into whether President Donald Trump's first-term national security adviser mishandled government secrets, according to court records unsealed Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will host a high-powered list of tech CEOs for a dinner at the White House on Thursday night.

The guest list is set to include Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a dozen other executives from the biggest artificial intelligence and tech firms, according to the White House.

TIPTONVILLE (AP) — Data from a cellphone used by a Tennessee man accused of killing four members of the same family and kidnapping a baby showed he was in the vicinity of a wooded area where the bodies were found with gunshot wounds and covered by tarpaulins, an FBI agent said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to let the president fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of emergency appeals over the president's removal power.

President Donald Trump moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but lower courts ordered her reinstated because the law only allows commissioners to be removed for problems like misconduct or neglect of duty.

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — Deep in Earth's past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, an effort he has credited with saving tens of millions of lives. During a Cabinet meeting last week, he likened it to "one of the greatest achievements ever."

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made myriad false and misleading claims on Thursday as he fielded questions examining his seven-month tenure leading the nation's health agencies at a contentious three-hour hearing.

Kennedy ignored government data, twisted legislation and pointed to unsubstantiated treatments while addressing topics such as COVID-19 vaccines, rural hospitals and school shootings.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Some 475 people were detained during an immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles, according to a Homeland Security official.

Steven Schrank, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, said at a news briefing Friday that the majority of the people detained were from South Korea.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Friday expressed "concern and regret" over a major U.S. immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as "large" though he did not provide an exact figure.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they had built. As they flashed a purple card in front of a light sensor, nothing happened.

The teacher at the Dallas-area school had emphasized that in the building process, there is no such thing as mistakes. Only iterations. So the girls dug back into the box of blocks and pulled out an orange card. They held it over the sensor and the machine kicked into motion.

NEW YORK (AP) — Twice recently, the people who run Fox News were reminded of their biggest nightmare.

The conservative network Newsmax's $67 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over false claims after the 2020 election recalled Fox's own $787.5 million deal with the same company more than two years ago. New legal papers filed last month by a second company suing Fox, Smartmatic, also put an episode they would like to forget back in the news.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal's government said Thursday it is blocking most social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with regulations that required them to register with the government.

Nepal's Minister for Communication and Information Prithvi Subba Gurung said about two dozen social network platforms that are widely used in Nepal were repeatedly given notices to come forward and register their companies officially in the country. The platforms would be blocked immediately, he said.

JAIPUR, India (AP) — On the edge of Jaipur, an Indian city known for its colorful bazaars and palaces, a bustling industrial complex is the epicenter of the country's push to compete with China in making components for solar technology.

India, the world's most populous nation, is jockeying for market share against the global leader in solar in part by selling to its own citizens, which helps the country with its other goal: meeting growing domestic demand for electricity.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, his latest effort to project an image of toughness for America's military.

The Republican president can't formally change the name without legislation, which his administration would request from Congress. In the meantime, Trump will authorize the Pentagon to use "secondary titles" so the department can go by its original name.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs last month as the labor market continued to cool due to uncertainty over President Donald Trump's economic policies.

Hiring decelerated from 79,000 in July, the Labor Department said Friday, and came in below the roughly 80,000 economists had expected for August. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, also worse than expected and the highest level since 2021.

RIO FRIO, Portugal (AP) — U.S. winemakers have something to celebrate: the corks they're popping aren't subject to tariffs.

Cork comes from the spongy bark of the cork oak tree, which is primarily grown and harvested in the Mediterranean basin. The framework trade agreement between the United States and the European Union singled out the material as an "unavailable natural product."

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's signing of an order to implement lower tariffs on automobiles and other Japanese imports as a step that addressed uncertainty for key industries.

The reduction to 15% from the previous 25% was agreed between the two sides on July 22.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Demolition to build President Donald Trump's new ballroom off the East Wing of the White House can begin without approval of the commission tasked with vetting construction of federal buildings, the Trump-appointed head of the panel said Thursday.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Trump administration is taking its immigration crackdown to the health care safety net, launching Medicaid spending probes in at least six Democratic-led states that provide comprehensive health coverage to poor and disabled immigrants living in the U.S. without permanent legal status.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over a recent two-year period, the Pentagon funded hundreds of projects done in collaboration with universities in China and institutes linked to that nation's defense industry, including many blacklisted by the U.S. government for working with the Chinese military, a congressional investigation has found.

The NCAA's FBS Oversight Committee has recommended eliminating the spring transfer window and having just a 10-day window starting on Jan. 2.

The committee is also proposing that December be a recruiting dead period. Coaches would still be able to call, write, text or email prospects, but visits on or off campus, would not be allowed.

KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee fourth-year guard Ruby Whitehorn on Friday pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in exchange for judicial diversion after an altercation last month that earned her a suspension from the team.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday ruled against the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of San Francisco for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire Sept. 10 have status to stay and work in the United States.

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators on Friday hit Google with a 2.95 billion euro ($3.5 billion) fine for breaching the bloc's competition rules by favoring its own digital advertising services, marking the fourth such antitrust penalty for the company.

Michelle Newmark has tried — and failed — a couple times to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine.

First, she was told she needed a prescription. Then she learned that her local CVS drugstore won't have shots for a couple more weeks. The Reston, Virginia, resident was considering a drive to Maryland to get vaccinated before a friend told her of a closer CVS that was booking appointments.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — As generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have become increasingly prevalent in academic settings, faculty and students have been forced to adapt.

The debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022 spread uncertainty across the higher education landscape. Many educators scrambled to create new guidelines to prevent academic dishonesty from becoming the norm in academia, while some emphasized the strengths of AI as a learning aid.

The attorneys general of California and Delaware on Friday warned OpenAI they have "serious concerns" about the safety of its flagship chatbot, ChatGPT, especially for children and teens.

The two state officials, who have unique powers to regulate nonprofits such as OpenAI, sent the letter to the company after a meeting with its legal team earlier this week in Wilmington, Delaware.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Some 475 people were detained during an immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles, according to a Homeland Security official.

Steven Schrank, Special Agent in Charge, Homeland Security Investigations, said at a news briefing Friday that the majority of the people detained were from South Korea.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to issue an executive order on Friday renaming the Department of Defense as the Department of War — a long-telegraphed move aimed at projecting America's military around the globe.

It comes as some of Trump's closest supporters on Capitol Hill proposed legislation that would codify the new name into law, with Congress having the sole power to establish, shutter and rename federal departments. Absent a change in law, Trump will authorize the Pentagon to use secondary titles.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks wobbled lower as Wall Street questioned whether the U.S. job market has slowed by just enough to get the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to help the economy, or by so much that a downturn may be on the way. After rising to an early gain Friday, the S&P 500 erased it and fell 0.3% from the all-time high set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite was nearly flat. Still, more stocks rose than fell. The action was more decisive in the bond market, where yields tumbled following discouraging data on the job market.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is drawing swift condemnation from gun rights groups and LGBTQ advocates alike after floating that it was considering restricting transgender people from owning guns — a move that would all but certainly face immediate constitutional challenges if ever implemented.

DENVER (AP) — After spending quite a bit of time on the ground, Cam Ward had a firm grasp on where he wanted to go next.

"The only way is up," he said.

It was a hit-filled, pressure-applied debut for the Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback in a 20-12 loss to Denver on Sunday. He was sacked six times by a relentless Broncos defense as his offense managed just seven first downs.

DENVER (AP) — Denver's ferocious defense has no bigger fan than Bo Nix.

"It's the best feeling when you've got a great defense," the second-year quarterback said Sunday after the defense bailed him out and spoiled top overall draft pick Cam Ward's debut in a 20-12 victory over the Tennessee Titans.

Ohio State, Penn State and LSU remained the top three teams in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday, Oregon is back in the top five and South Florida is ranked for the first time in seven years.

There was some movement inside the top 10, but the biggest changes came from Nos. 11 to 25.

The Big Ten would claim three of the top four seeds in the College Football Playoff based on Sunday's Associated Press Top 25 poll while Miami, Georgia, Texas and Notre Dame would host first-round games.

Ohio State and Penn State remain the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds on the projected bracket and conference mate Oregon would be No. 4. LSU would be the No. 3 seed. The top four receive first-round byes.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Mark Volman, a founding member of the 1960's pop group The Turtles, whose hits include "Happy Together" and "Elenore," died in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday after a brief, unexpected illness, according to his publicist, Ame Van Iden. He was 78.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for federal agents to conduct sweeping immigration operations in Los Angeles, the latest victory for President Donald Trump's administration at the high court.

The conservative majority lifted a restraining order from a judge who found that "roving patrols" were conducting indiscriminate arrests in LA. The order had barred agents from stopping people solely based on their race, language, job or location.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a civil jury's finding that President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks against the longtime advice columnist after she accused him of sexual assault.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission on Monday, the latest in string of high-profile firings allowed for now at the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen.

The crux of the legal fight is over nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved aid that President Donald Trump last month said he would not spend, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says "violence or threats of violence" against judges shouldn't be the cost of public service.

But in an interview at the court with The Associated Press about her new book, "Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution," Barrett was not willing to join other judges who have called on President Donald Trump to tone down rhetoric demonizing judges.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For decades, Doug Wilson was a relatively unknown pastor in Idaho, relegated to the fringe of evangelicalism for his radical teachings.

Now he's an influential voice in the Christian right. That shift in clout was apparent this past week as he took a victory lap through Washington, sharing a stage with Trump administration officials and preaching at his denomination's new church.

NEW YORK (AP) — PNC Financial said Monday that it plans to buy Colorado-based FirstBank for $4.1 billion, giving PNC a substantial presence in the Colorado banking market as well as Arizona.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Skyrocketing housing values and a shortage of homes on the market gave homeowners the upper hand for years when it came time to sell. That's no longer a given.

Across the country, it's getting tougher for sellers to drive a hard bargain. A dearth of home shoppers who can afford to buy and uncertainty about the outlook for the economy, jobs and mortgage rates is putting pressure on sellers to give ground at the negotiating table.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A self-described science nerd is the latest American to get an experimental pig kidney transplant, at a crucial point in the quest to prove if animals organs really might save human lives.

The 54-year-old New Hampshire man is faring well after his June 14 operation, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital announced Monday.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's foreign minister departed for the U.S. on Monday to finalize steps for the return of several hundred South Korean workers detained last week in a massive immigration raid in Georgia, as the incident caused confusion, shock and a sense of betrayal among many in the U.S.-allied nation.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — On a recent sunny morning in a channel at the Port of Los Angeles, seven blue steel structures that look like small boats are lowered into the ocean one by one. Attached to an unused wharf on a site that once housed oil tanks, they gently bob up and down with the waves to generate renewable power. Nearby, a sea lion peeks from the water and pelicans and sea gulls soar overhead.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's top prosecutor said Sunday the government planned to order the arrests of "many more" people — including potentially government officials — involved in fuel theft networks between Mexico and the United States.

On Saturday, the Mexican government announced the arrest of a senior Mexican navy officer, who is related to the former head of Mexico's navy. He was arrested along with 13 others officials and businesses leader connected with a massive fuel seizure in northern Mexico.

NEW YORK (AP) — Armen Kirakosian remembers the frustrations of his first job as a call center agent nearly 10 years ago: the aggravated customers, the constant searching through menus for information and the notes he had to physically write for each call he handled.

BEIJING (AP) — China's exports grew last month but at a slower pace than in recent months, the country's customs agency said Monday.

Exports reached $321.8 billion in August, a 4.4% increase compared to the same month last year. That was down from a 7.2% jump in July. Meanwhile, imports totaled $219.5 billion, a 1.8% rise.

LONDON (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday she doesn't think the detention of hundreds of South Koreans in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia will deter investment in the United States because such tough actions mean there is no uncertainty about the Trump administration's policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he's ready to change the chamber's rules to allow quick confirmations of dozens of President Donald Trump's executive branch nominees, moving this week to speed up votes after months of Democratic delays.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump celebrated news on Monday that an alumni group from West Point canceled an award ceremony set to honor Tom Hanks, with the president calling the famous actor "destructive" and "WOKE."

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, Republicans have disparaged their political rivals by describing them as socialists. But that may not be the insult it once was for rank-and-file Democrats, who have warmed to socialism and increasingly see "capitalism" as a barb.

WASHINGTON (AP) — National Guard troops patrolling the streets of U.S. cities. Weapons of war deployed against international gangs suspected of drug trafficking. Military bases and resources redirected to mass immigration enforcement operations.

CHICAGO (AP) — As President Donald Trump threatens to expand immigration raids and deploy the National Guard, Chicago has become the latest flashpoint in a broader national struggle over how far the federal government can push local authorities to cooperate with its immigration agenda.

The third week of the AP Top 25 college football poll showed Ohio State, Penn State and LSU retaining their slots as the top three teams as Oregon slid into No. 4 and No. 18 South Florida ranked for the first time in seven years.

The Bulls, who were eight spots out of the Top 25 last week, became the biggest upward mover thanks to their 18-16 win over then-No. 13 Florida. That came after a home win over then-No. 25 Boise State.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ella Langley, Megan Moroney and Lainey Wilson lead the nominations for the 2025 Country Music Association Awards, with six nods each.

Joining Wilson in competing for the night's highest honor — CMA entertainer of the year — will be Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen, last year's winner in the category.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge has begun reviewing a landmark class-action settlement agreement between the artificial intelligence company Anthropic and book authors who say the company took pirated copies of their works to train its chatbot.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming in the United States is amping up the country's sweet tooth, a new study found.

When the temperature rises, Americans — especially those with less money and education — drink lots more sugary beverages and a bit more frozen desserts. That amounts to more than 100 million pounds of added sugar (358 million kilograms) consumed in the nation a year, compared to 15 years earlier, according to a team of researchers in the U.S. and United Kingdom.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's foreign minister departed for the U.S. on Monday to finalize steps for the return of several hundred South Korean workers detained in a massive immigration raid in Georgia, a spectacle that has caused confusion, shock and a sense of betrayal among many in the U.S.-allied nation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard detects and detains scores of drug-running vessels in the Caribbean every year in its role as the world's drug police on the high seas.

Now, that anti-narcotics mission may look vastly different after a U.S. military strike on a vessel off Venezuela. Trump administration officials asserted last week that gang members were smuggling drugs bound for America.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Monday a sexually suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein purportedly signed by President Donald Trump, which he has denied.

DENVER (AP) — Brian Callahan stands corrected — unlike the call he failed to challenge.

The Titans' second-year coach acknowledged Monday that he didn't know the NFL catch rule Sunday when he didn't throw his red challenge flag in Tennessee's 20-12 loss at Denver after his rookie receiver made an acrobatic catch but was ruled to have come down out of bounds.

NASHVILLE (AP) — A quarterback making his NFL debut means a team has to expect rookie mistakes.

The Tennessee Titans didn't help Cam Ward nearly enough, and that includes coach Brian Callahan costing the chance at stealing a big win on the road in their season opener.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge dismissed criminal charges Tuesday against a group of people who were accused of attempting to falsely certifying President Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 election in the battleground state, a major blow to prosecutors as similar cases in four other states have been muddied with setbacks.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday skewered a $1.5 billion settlement between artificial intelligence company Anthropic and authors who allege nearly half a million books had been illegally pirated to train chatbots, raising the specter that the case could still end up going to trial.

PHOENIX (AP) — Two former executives for the now-shuttered classified site Backpage.com are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in Phoenix for conspiring to facilitate prostitution by selling sex ads.

A prosecutor has recommended five years of probation and restitution payments for former CEO Carl Ferrer and sales director Dan Hyer, both of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2018. The prosecutor said both men acknowledged their crimes and cooperated with authorities by testifying against a company founder during the 2023 trial.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most U.S. adults think personal choices are a major driver of poverty and homelessness, according to a new poll, while fewer blame a lack of government support.

However, just over half also think the government spends too little on those in need, the new poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A decade-long slide in high schoolers' reading and math performance persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 12th graders' scores dropping to their lowest level in more than 20 years, according to results released Tuesday from an exam known as the nation's report card.

NEW YORK (AP) — Coping with a sudden loss in federal funding, PBS affiliate KSPS in Spokane, Washington, faced a surprise extra hurdle. Many of its contributing members — at one point almost half — lived in Canada, and they were withdrawing support out of anger at President Donald Trump's desire to make the country the 51st member of the United States.

Nepal's crackdown on social media companies, which led to protests and police killing at least 19 people, is part of a yearslong decline of internet freedoms around the world as even democracies seek to curtail online speech.

The Himalayan country's government said last week it was blocking several social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with a requirement that they register with the government. The ban was lifted Tuesday a day after the deadly protests.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship likely cut cables in the Red Sea that disrupted internet access in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, experts said Tuesday, showing the lines' vulnerability over a year after another incident severed them.

The International Cable Protection Committee told The Associated Press that 15 submarine cables pass through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern mouth of the Red Sea that separates East Africa from the Arabian Peninsula.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — At a Home Depot parking lot, a man patrols on a bicycle for federal immigration agents, toting a megaphone on his hip so he can blast a warning to day laborers waiting to land a landscaping or construction job.

The workers from Mexico, El Salvador and elsewhere carry whistles to also sound the alarm, while activists swap details over two-way radios about whether cars whizzing by could be unmarked vehicles carrying officers preparing for a raid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The income for the typical U.S. household barely rose last year and essentially matched its 2019 peak, the Census Bureau said Tuesday, as stubbornly high inflation offset wage gains.

The report also showed that the highest-earning households received healthy inflation-adjusted income increases, while middle- and lower-income households saw little gain.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market was much weaker in 2024 and early this year than originally reported, adding to concerns about the health of the nation's economy.

Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March 2025, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

Cracker Barrel said Tuesday it's suspending remodels of its restaurants after criticism from many longtime fans.

The announcement came two weeks after Cracker Barrel backtracked on a separate plan to modernize and simplify its logo. Fans of the chain had also loudly criticized that move.

BEIJING (AP) — The body camera hung from the top of the IV drip, recording the slightest twitch made by Yang Guoliang as he lay bloody and paralyzed in a hospital bed after a police beating with bricks.

By then, surveillance was nothing new for the Yang family in rural China, snared in an intricate network based on U.S. technology that spies on them and predicts what they'll do.

LONDON (AP) — A Palestinian beer managed to find its way to British store shelves this week from the Israeli-occupied West Bank despite onerous border checks, a distance of some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) and a raging war in the region.

TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) — As an ominous storm approached Buddy Anthony's new home, he took shelter in his Ford F-250 pickup parked under a nearby carport.

Seconds later, a tornado tore apart the one-story brick house and damaged the truck while lifting it partly in the air. Anthony emerged unhurt. But he had to replace his vehicle with a used truck that became his home while waiting for President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration allowing federal money to flow to individuals reeling from loss. That took weeks.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia's lackluster offense in a win over Austin Peay failed to generate momentum for quarterback Gunner Stockton as he now prepares for his first true road game in the No. 6 Bulldogs' visit to No. 15 Tennessee on Saturday.

Stockton appeared tentative on some throws as Georgia led by only 11 points at halftime in its 28-6 win over the FCS team. The Bulldogs (2-0) fell two spots in the AP Top 25 following the sluggish effort in their final warmup for their Southeastern Conference opener against the Volunteers.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are at the halfway point of building their new Nissan Stadium, and they're even further along at making sure the building is filled up for the 2027 season.

Burke Nihill, the Titans president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday that 70% of the building has been sold thanks to 70% of season ticket holders carrying over commitments from the current stadium. Premium seating sold out quickly, and now remaining tickets are on sale mostly in the 400 level.

NASHVILLE (AP) — A 24-year-old man with ties to white nationalist groups pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he attempted to use a drone to bomb a Nashville electricity substation, according to prosecutors.

Skyler Philippi, of Columbia, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee said in a statement. He faces up to life in prison at his Jan. 8 sentencing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily kept in place the Trump administration's decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call "Cop City."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is imploring the nation's public health agencies to prioritize investigations of vaccine injuries, prescription drug use and the cause of autism in a new "Make America Healthy Again" report focused on children released Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News has a new ombudsman assigned to look into public complaints, but the job being assumed by Kenneth Weinstein bears little resemblance to how this watchdog role has traditionally operated in journalism.

Weinstein, appointed Monday by CBS' parent company Paramount, has little background in journalism and his duties include no public role. He's the former head of a conservative think tank and has made several donations to Republican causes, including President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Tuesday rolled out its next generation of iPhones that includes a new ultra-thin model and a slight price hike for one of its high-end models, while the company feels the squeeze of a global trade war.

The iPhone 17 line-up includes a new slimmed-down model that will adopt the "Air" name that Apple already uses for its sleekest iPads and Mac computers. In what has become an annual rite for Apple, all four new iPhone 17 models will feature better cameras and longer-lasting batteries than last year's line-up. The iPhone 17 will all boast at least 256 gigabytes of storage, doubling the minimum amount from the last generation.

CAMP SPRINGS, Maryland (AP) — A new rule allowing a U.S. immigration agency to scrutinize a person's "anti-American" views when applying for a green card or other benefits isn't designed to target political beliefs, but to identify support for terrorist activity, the organization's director told The Associated Press.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Steel will stop processing steel slabs at its Granite City Works plant in Illinois, three months after Nippon Steel sealed a deal with President Donald Trump to buy the iconic American steelmaker by giving the government a say over decisions that affect domestic steel production.