NEW YORK (AP) — Police officials said they were reviewing whether to restrict access to a public park outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial after a man set himself on fire there Friday.

“We may have to shut this area down,” New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said at a news conference outside the courthouse, adding that officials would discuss the security plan soon.

Collect Pond Park has been a gathering spot for protesters, journalists and gawkers throughout Trump’s trial, which began with jury selection Monday.

Crowds there have been small and largely orderly, but around 1:30 p.m. Friday a man there took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said.

A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed to the man’s aid. He was hospitalized in critical condition Friday afternoon.

The man, who police said had traveled from Florida to New York in the last few days, hadn’t breached any security checkpoints to get into the park. Through Friday, the streets and sidewalks in the area around the courthouse were generally wide open, though the side street where Trump enters and leaves the building is off limits.

People accessing the floor of the large courthouse where the trial is taking place have to pass through a pair of metal detectors.

Authorities said they were also reviewing the security protocols outside the courthouse.

“We are very concerned. Of course we are going to review our security protocols,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.

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DENVER (AP) — Federal transportation officials are investigating an unauthorized inflight cockpit visit by a coach for the Colorado Rockies baseball team during a United Airlines charter flight last week from Denver to Toronto.

Video surfaced this week that appears to show Rockies hitting coach Hensley Meulens sitting in a pilot’s seat while the April 10 flight was at cruising altitude. It is against federal regulations for unauthorized people to be on the flight deck.

He can be seen and heard on the video joking with other people in the cockpit — including a person in a pilot’s uniform and at least one other person who does not appear to be an airline employee — and says the plane is at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters).

“Flying the plane, here to Toronto,” Meulens says as he gestures toward the person in uniform sitting next to him.

“I’m going to land the plane tonight. So relax,” he says. He then reaches toward the flight controls and pretends to take hold, saying, ”I just press this button … and it goes down.”

Meulens posted the video on social media and later deleted it, but it had already gone viral and was reposted, The Denver Post reported. He could not be immediately reached for comment through the Rockies’ administrative offices.

United has suffered a series of problems in recent weeks including a piece of aluminum skin falling off a plane, a tire dropping off another during takeoff, and an engine fire. The Federal Aviation Administration has stepped up its oversight of the carrier, and the airline’s CEO has sought to reassure travelers the airline is safe.

A United spokesperson said the airline was conducting its own investigation of the April 10 flight. The airline said the cockpit visit was “a clear violation of our safety and operational policies” and was reported to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We’re deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged,” United spokesperson Russell Carlton said.

The pilots on the flight have been withheld from service while the airline investigates, Carlton said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson Chris Mullooly said the agency was investigating but provided no further details because it’s an open investigation.

“Federal regulations restrict flight deck access to specific individuals,” he said.

The cockpit visit was earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Rockies representatives did not immediately respond to emails and telephone messages seeking comment. Major League Baseball said it was aware and monitoring the Federal Aviation Administration probe.

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Wells Fargo was accused of sex discrimination in a lawsuit by a bond saleswoman who said the fourth-largest U.S. bank denied pay and promotions available to men and tolerated an “unapologetically sexist” workplace.

The complaint filed on Friday in federal court in Chicago by Michal Leavitt is the latest in a long line of lawsuits accusing big U.S. banks of bias against women.

Leavitt said Wells Fargo’s practice of steering larger accounts toward men in its financial institutions group cost her up to one-third of her potential pay, and forced her to wait nine years for a promotion to director from vice president.

She said she expressed frustration at missing out on large accounts, but was told her mostly male group thought of her as a mere “second income” for her husband.

Leavitt also said male managers routinely had inappropriate sexual relations with female subordinates, and men often made degrading jokes about women, including over their appearances and how their wives were only “spending their husbands’ money.”

“The financial institutions group is a self-acknowledged ‘boys club’ where locker room talk on the sales floor is de rigueur,” creating an “unapologetically sexist working environment,” Leavitt said.

Wells Fargo had no immediate comment.

Leavitt joined the San Francisco-based bank in 2013 from Bear Stearns. The Illinois resident is seeking unspecified damages and changes in how Wells Fargo assigns accounts.

Last November, Citigroup was sued by managing director Ardith Lindsey, who said the third-largest U.S. bank tolerated a “notoriously hostile” work culture where a former top equities banker subjected her to sexual harassment and death threats.

And last May, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $215 million to settle a class action alleging widespread bias against women in pay and promotions.

Wells Fargo has separately spent years trying to rebound from a series of scandals for mistreating customers.

These scandals led to billions of dollars in fines, the toppling of two chief executives, and a still-existing Federal Reserve cap on assets that limits the bank’s growth.

The case is Leavitt v Wells Fargo Securities LLC, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 24-03140.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Air National Guard has delayed its plan to downgrade the status of about 80 members of its Alaska unit, a move that would have threatened national security and civilian rescues in the nation’s most remote state.

The Alaska Air National Guard confirmed the delay in an email to The Associated Press on Friday.

Efforts by the state’s politicians and Alaskans “have been instrumental in getting this delay which will allow everyone involved the time to conduct more thorough research and analysis,” wrote Alan Brown, an Alaska guard spokesperson.

The Air National Guard headquarters in Virginia did not respond to emails from the AP seeking comment.

The changes to balance top-earning positions among the other 53 state and territorial units will still be completed by Oct. 1.

Alaska was slated to convert 80 of the highly paid Active Guard and Reserve members — who are essentially the equivalent of full-time active-duty military — to dual status tech positions, a classification with lower wages, less appealing benefits and different duties.

Many say they will quit rather than accept the changes, which could include seeing their pay cut by more than 50%.

Local guard leaders argued Alaska needed the personnel in the higher classification to fulfill its requirements to conduct national security missions that other units don’t have, such as monitoring for ballistic missile launches from nations such as Russia, North Korea and China.

The Alaska guard also said its ability to fly refueling tankers to accompany U.S. and Canadian fighter jets when they intercept Russian bombers that come close to Alaska or Canada would be greatly curtailed.

The guard also plays a vital role in conducting civilian search-and-rescue missions in Alaska, sending military helicopters and cargo planes through violent storms to rescue people from small Alaska Native villages when weather prevents air ambulances from flying.

Last year, the guard conducted 159 such missions, including flying to an Alaska island just 2 miles from a Russian island to pick up a pregnant woman with abdominal pains. In one recent rescue, two paramedics parachuted into an Alaska Native village because that was the fastest way to reach a critically ill woman with internal bleeding. Another involved flying to a western Alaska village to pick up a pregnant woman who began bleeding when her water broke and delivering her to a hospital in Anchorage, more than 400 miles (644 kilometers) away.

If the staff conversions went through, the guard estimated the number of rescues would drop to about 50 a year.

The downgrades in Alaska have been delayed until Sept. 30, 2025, giving the service more time to study how the changes would affect its Alaska operations and if the changes should be made at all, according to a joint statement from the state’s congressional delegation.

“The strain this uncertainty put on Alaska Air National Guard members –- who Alaskans depend on in the most dire of emergencies –- for them to worry about their jobs, their benefits, their ability to provide for their families, is unacceptable,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said in the statement.

“Delaying the implementation of the misguided directives is a win -– but it should never have come to this,” she said.

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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Three Northern California law enforcement officers have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a man who was pinned facedown during a 2021 incident that drew comparisons to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The charges against James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinley were announced Thursday by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.

The charges were filed just before the statute of limitations were to expire and marked a reversal of a decision by a previous district attorney who cleared the officers of wrongdoing.

Mario Gonzalez, 26, died in the city of Alameda on April 19, 2021. McKinley, Fisher and Leahy were all Alameda police officers at the time. McKinley and Leahy are still with that department but Fisher is now a Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy.

The officers confronted Gonzalez after receiving 911 calls that said he appeared disoriented or drunk. According to police video, he resisted being handcuffed and they pinned him to the ground for several minutes before he became unconscious.

The county coroner’s autopsy report listed the cause of death as “toxic effects of methamphetamine” with the contributing factors of “physiologic stress of altercation and restraint,” morbid obesity and alcoholism. Then-District Attorney Nancy O’Malley subsequently found that the officers’ actions were reasonable.

A second, independent autopsy done at the request of Gonzalez family lawyers found that he died of “restraint asphyxiation.” The district attorney’s office noted the second autopsy in announcing the involuntary manslaughter charges.

Defense attorneys denounced the charges as politically motivated, noting that an effort to oust Price has gathered enough signatures to force a recall election this year.

Fisher’s attorney, Michael Rains, said the charges are a “desperate effort to shore up her chances of remaining in office,” Bay Area News Group reported.

The district attorney waited “until the 11th hour” before the statute of limitations was set to expire and just days after it was confirmed she would face a recall, attorney Alison Berry Wilkinson, who represented the three officers in previous investigations and now represents Leahy, said in an email to The Associated Press.

“There is no new evidence,” Berry Wilkinson wrote. “This is a blatantly political prosecution.”

Berry Wilkinson said the officers’ actions were reasonable, necessary and lawful, and the death was due to drug toxicity.

“We are confident a jury will see through this charade and exonerate the officers, just as the two prior independent investigations did,” the attorney said.

An attorney for McKinley was not immediately available for comment Friday.

Price said she was “walled off” from the case review, which was conducted by her office’s Public Accountability Unit.

Last year, Alameda settled two lawsuits over Gonzalez’s death. The city agreed to pay $11 million to his young son and $350,000 to his mother.

“A wrong has been righted,” Adante Pointer, the attorney for Gonzalez’s mother, told the news group.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring down a decision so consequential it could alter the course of history — but also end his own career — House Speaker Mike Johnson prayed for guidance.

A conservative Christian, the speaker wrestled over whether to lead the House in approving $95 billion in desperately needed war-time aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, which many in his own Republican majority opposed — some so strongly they would try to boot him from office.

Or, he could do nothing, halting the flow of U.S. aid and potentially saving his own job but ensuring his place as the House speaker who led America’s retreat from the global stage and left Ukraine to fend for itself as it loses ground against the Russian invasion.

As Johnson met with colleagues late into the night this week at the speaker’s office, they prayed on it.

“And then he told me the next day: I want to be on the right side of history,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Not quite six months on the job, Johnson’s leadership will help determine if the U.S. is able to hold its standing as what the speaker has called a “beacon of light” for the world, or if the military and humanitarian aid is left to crumble at a pivotal moment for the country, its allies and the speaker’s own livelihood. Voting is expected this weekend.

“He’s learning,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker.

Gingrich praised Johnson for not being cowed by the hard-right Republicans seeking to remove him from office, and instead reaching into his own deep well of beliefs as a Ronald Reagan-era Republican with an expansive view of the role of U.S., its allies and his own speakership to make a decision.

“This is the U.S. House. This is not a political playground,” Gingrich said. “We’re talking about real history, we’re talking about whether Russia potentially occupies Ukraine.”

Johnson tumbled into the speaker’s office last fall, a relative unknown who emerged only after a chaotic internal party search to replace Kevin McCarthy, who was the first speaker in U.S. history to he booted from office.

Almost an accidental speaker, Johnson had no training and little time to prepare. One of his main accomplishments was helping to lead Donald Trump’s failed legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election loss to Joe Biden in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

From the start, the question hanging over the fourth-term Louisiana lawmaker was apparent: Would Johnson become a speaker with a firm grasp of the gavel, utilizing the power of the office that is second in the line of succession to the president?

Or would the House speaker, who portrays himself as a “servant leader” in the Christian tradition, be beholden to the unruly, essentially ungovernable Republican majority, many aligned with former President Trump.

“This is a Churchill or Chamberlain moment,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, referring to British leaders from the World War II era.

After months of dithering delays over the Ukraine aid, Johnson appeared this week determined to move past the populist far-right flank, and rely on Democrats to push the package forward, highly unusual in the deeply polarized House.

He had met recently with Trump, who objects to much overseas aid and has invited Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” in Ukraine, presenting his plan and avoiding public criticism from the former president.

Trump also gave Johnson a needed nod of support by panning the effort from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the presidential hopeful’s strongest allies in Congress, to evict the speaker.

In return, Johnson told Trump he could be the “most consequential president yet” if he is returned to the White House.

At the same time, Johnson has been speaking privately with President Biden, who gave Johnson a boost by quickly endorsing his foreign aid plan.

Still, what used to be considered the way Congress worked, the shared commitment to bipartisan compromise, has become such a political liability that more Republicans, including Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona, said they would join Greene’s effort to oust Johnson. Some others said he should simply resign.

“I don’t think he’s being courageous. I think he’s fallen right in line with the swamp,” said Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., a hardliner who voted to oust McCarthy and is considering the same for Johnson.

During his short term as speaker, Johnson has made a practice of convening lawmakers behind closed doors at his Capitol office for what are often long meetings. What some view as maddening sessions of endless arguing, shrinking the power of the speakership, others appreciate as him listening to lawmakers.

As crowds of spring tourists ushered past his office this week, Johnson holed up with lawmakers. One meeting dragged until midnight. The next day he displayed an unusual resolve.

“History judges us for what we do,” Johnson said during an impromptu press conference in Statuary Hall.

“I could make a selfish decision and do something that’s different, but I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing,” he said.

Johnson disclosed that his son is headed to the Naval Academy this fall.

“To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” he said.

“This is a live-fire exercise for me, as it is so many American families. This is not a game. This is not a joke.”

With the threat of his removal intensifying, Johnson said he would “let the chips fall where they may” on his own job.

On Friday, an overwhelming majority of the House, more than 300 lawmakers, more Democrats than Republicans, voted to push the package toward passage.

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said of Johnson: “I, for one, am just very proud of what we would all refer to as a profile in courage in the face of these kinds of threats.”

But Democrats said they were baffled and saddened it took Johnson so long to do what they see as the right thing.

“This is a profile in delay,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

Some Democrats are saying that, unlike their refusal to help McCarthy stay in office, they would vote to save Johnson’s job — if he wants it.

A growing list of Republican House speakers, starting with Gingrich, were chased from office or, like John Boehner and Paul Ryan, simply exited early.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an ally of Israel’s far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence, the latest actions aimed against those Washington blames for an escalation of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The sanctions, in addition to those already imposed on five settlers and two unauthorized outposts already this year, are the latest sign of growing U.S. frustration with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The moves on Friday, which freeze any U.S. assets held by those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them, hit two organizations that launched fundraising campaigns to support settlers accused of violence and targeted by previous sanctions, the Department of the Treasury said in a statement.

The Biden administration’s moves against Israeli settlers have upset right-wing members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition who support the expansion of Jewish settlements and ultimately the annexation of the West Bank, where Palestinians envisage a future state.

They come as the complex relationship between Washington and its ally Israel is tested by the war in Gaza and as the Biden administration urges Israel to show restraint in responding to retaliatory strikes by Iran.

Washington sanctioned Ben-Zion Gopstein, founder and leader of the right-wing group Lehava, which opposes Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and agitates against Arabs in the name of religion and national security. Gopstein has said Lehava has 5,000 members.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said members of the group had engaged in “destabilizing violence affecting the West Bank.”

“Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas,” Miller said in a statement, warning of additional steps if Israel does not take measures to prevent extremist attacks amid an escalation of violence in the West Bank in recent days.

The European Union also said on Friday it had agreed to take sanctions against Lehava and other groups linked to violent settlers.

A spokesperson for Israel’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gopstein, the most prominent Israeli figure targeted by U.S. sanctions, is a close associate of and has family ties to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.

Ben-Gvir, like Gopstein, was a disciple of the late Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist rabbi whose Kach movement was listed by Washington as a specially designated global terrorist organization.

Ben-Gvir on Friday slammed what he called harassment against Lehava and “our dear settlers who have never engaged in terrorism or hurt anyone,” labeling the allegations against them a “blood libel” by Palestinian groups and anarchists.

“I call on Western countries to stop cooperating with these antisemites and end this campaign of persecution against the pioneering Zionist settlers,” Ben-Gvir said in a statement released by his office.

CROWDFUNDING

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.

The Biden administration in February said settlements were inconsistent with international law, signaling a return to long-standing U.S. policy on the issue that had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.

One entity targeted on Friday, Mount Hebron Fund, launched an online fundraising campaign that raised $140,000 for settler Yinon Levi, the Treasury said, after he was sanctioned on Feb. 1 for leading a group of settlers that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burned their fields and destroyed their property.

It said the second entity, Shlom Asiraich, raised $31,000 on a crowdfunding website for David Chai Chasdai, who the United States sanctioned for initiating and leading a riot that included setting vehicles and buildings on fire and causing damage to property in the Palestinian town of Huwara, resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

“These types of enforcement actions against entities helping violent settlers evade U.S. sanctions are what give sanctions teeth,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now, a human rights group that has highlighted efforts by supporters to evade sanctions against settlers.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Henriette Chacar and David Ljunggren, editing by Susan Heavey, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Bangkok -based plastics firm has agreed to pay $20 million to settle with the U.S. over 467 “egregious” violations of Iran sanctions, the U.S. Treasury announced on Friday.

SCG Plastics Co. used U.S. banks to process $291 million in sales of Iranian high-density polyethylene resin from 2017 to 2018, according to the signed settlement agreement between the firm and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The resin, used for product bottles and industrial items, was manufactured by an Iranian joint venture owned in part, by SCG Plastics’ parent company, SCG Chemicals and the National Petrochemical Company of Iran, which is a government entity.

The settlement states that SCG Plastics used “shipping and documentation practices that obfuscated the product’s Iranian origin and Iranian parties’ involvement,” which caused banks to unknowingly process transfers in violation of OFAC’s sanctions on Iran.

“As a result of these transactions, significant economic benefits were conferred to Iran’s petrochemical sector, a major source of revenue generation for the Iranian regime,” Treasury says. OFAC determined that the 467 violations of Iran sanctions were “egregious” and fined the company $20 million, which is to be paid within 90 days.

While SCG Plastics is no longer in operation, a signed agreement between OFAC and the firm releases SGC Plastics from any liability related to the sanctions violations.

The fines come as U.S. administration officials have announced plans to impose more sanctions on Iran after Tehran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that could fuel a wider war in the Middle East.

On Thursday, the U.S. and U.K. imposed a new round of sanctions on Iranian people and firms associated with drone production.

“We will continue to deploy our sanctions authority to counter Iran with further actions in the days and weeks ahead,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

“We have also vigorously enforced our sanctions, including by levying historic fines and exposing sanctions evasion schemes and networks. Our actions make it harder and costlier at every turn for Iran to continue its destabilizing behavior.”

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state lawmakers are on the verge of passing a $237 billion budget that includes sweeping plans to build housing, shutter unlicensed cannabis storefronts and help manage the city’s migrant crisis.

The raft of proposals is expected to pass through the Legislature late Friday and into the weekend, almost three weeks after the budget was due.

The governor and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly weighed countless political and business demands during their negotiations behind doors. They also contended with a cyberattack that temporarily shut down the statehouse’s bill-drafting office just as legislation started to flow.

The housing agreement, the budgetary crown jewel for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, was the most contentious issue of the spending plan.

The goal is to tackle one of the state’s most pressing problems: a housing crisis in New York City, where supply is ever shrinking and prices are astronomical. To do so, Hochul turned to a familiar idea: a tax break for developers who agree to include below-market-rate apartments in new buildings.

New York first offered a tax incentive for developers to build in the 1970s, when the city was in dire financial shape, then more recently required buildings to offer some discounted apartments in order to qualify for the program, known as 421-a.

The incentive has always been controversial. Critics bash it as a giveaway for developers, who in turn respond that the cost of building in the city makes doing so unprofitable. Opponents also point out that it costs the city a lot of money: about $1.8 billion in one of its final fiscal years.

As for its effectiveness, a report from the Furman Center, a housing and urban policy research group at New York University, found 68% percent of the more than 117,000 housing units built between 2010 and 2020 benefited from the program.

State lawmakers let the 421-a tax break expire in 2022, with lawmakers in the state Legislature thwarting an effort from Hochul to adjust the program.

This year, the plan was to resurrect the tax incentive but also weave in the interests of labor unions fighting for wage standards and progressives who have long wanted stronger protections for tenants against unreasonable rent increases and evictions.

The end product is something called 485-x. And though the formal budget language has not yet been released, officials have said it includes a tax break for developers if they rent a percentage of their apartments for below market rate, a wage deal for construction workers and a package of protections for tenants.

The state will also offer tax incentives to turn vacant office space into apartments and will set aside a pot of money to build apartments on state-owned land, as part of the larger strategy to jump-start the housing supply.

“This is a great deal for New Yorkers,” Hochul said in an interview this week on Spectrum News NY1.

Hochul has presented the agreement as a big legislative victory on a pressing problem, especially after her prior plans to drive construction in the state have failed in the statehouse. It also marked an important moment of compromise with progressive Democrats at a critical time for her party.

In a few months, New York is set to be a congressional battleground where races in New York City’s suburban districts could decide which party controls the House. Hochul, who has taken a more prominent role in her party’s messaging strategy, has appeared eager to carry Democratic political wins into the campaign season, and has already begun to tout her budget wins in public.

The governor also pushed to legislate other headline-grabbing issues, including how to handle the large number of international migrants who have overwhelmed New York City’s homeless shelters. Others include retail theft concerns that have resulted in cumbersome security measures at many stores, and unlicensed cannabis storefronts that have become ubiquitous in the city.

Over the objections of progressives, Hochul pushed through a measure to enhance criminal penalties for assaulting retail workers, though at the bargaining table she agreed to make the crime a Class E felony rather than the more stringent felony classification she had first proposed.

The budget also includes $40 million to establish law enforcement teams dedicated to organized retail theft and a $5 million tax credit for small businesses to install security measures.

On the bootleg marijuana shops, the budget is set to have a measure allowing local law enforcement to more easily shut down unlicensed stores. The move is intended to solve bureaucratic problems that have embarrassingly stymied government efforts to close thousands of bootleg retailers, which operate in glitzy storefronts on seemingly every street corner in New York City.

The state will also spend $2.4 billion to provide migrants shelter services, legal aid and health care, among other things, another proposal from the governor’s office.

The budget, composed of several dense pieces of legislation, has been slowly introduced in incremental steps this week and is expected to be finalized in a set of votes late Friday night and into the weekend.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Opening statements in Donald Trump’s hush money case are set to begin next week after a jury of 12 people and six alternates was seated Friday. The seating of the jury sets the stage for weeks of testimony in a case charging Trump with falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life emerging in the final days of the 2016 election.

A failed last-minute bid in appeals court by the former president’s lawyers to stay the trial, as well as a hearing to decide whether prosecutors would be allowed to question Trump about his recent civil court losses capped Friday’s proceedings.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said he would reserve judgment on the latter and would issue a decision in the coming days.

Shortly after the jury was seated Friday, emergency crews responded to a park across the street from the courthouse, where a person was on fire. The man was taken to a hospital where he was in critical condition in the burn unit, police said at a news conference.

The hush money case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial and is the first criminal trial against a former U.S. commander-in-chief.

At the heart of the allegations is a $130,000 payment made to porn actor Stormy Daniels by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the final days of the 2016 race.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of such payments in internal business documents. Trump has said none of the alleged sexual encounters occurred. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Currently:

— The hush money case is just one of Trump’s legal cases. See the others here

— Judge in Trump case orders media not to report where potential jurors work

— Social media searches play central role in jury selection for Trump’s trial

— Only 1 in 3 US adults think Trump acted illegally in New York hush money case, AP-NORC poll shows

Here’s the latest:

Donald Trump returned to the cameras Friday afternoon to deliver a brief closing message following his first week as a criminal defendant.

“This is really a concerted witch hunt, very simple,” Trump charged to reporters.

The presumptive GOP nominee complained of his treatment in New York, calling out Arthur Engoron and Lewis Kaplan, the judges who heard his earlier New York civil fraud trial and defamation case.

“What’s happening here with the judicial system is an outrage,” he said, before casting the case, yet again, as an effort to damage his candidacy.

“This is the only way they think they can win but it’s not going to work,” he said.

An appeals court judge has once again denied a request by Donald Trump’s attorneys to halt his criminal hush money trial as they seek to have the case moved outside of Manhattan.

Justice Marsha Michael issued the ruling on Friday just minutes after a brief hearing. The arguments in the midlevel appeals court came only hours after the jury selection process concluded in Trump’s criminal trial, which is currently taking place roughly 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) south.

The ruling allows opening statements to take place as soon as Monday in Trump’s criminal trial.

As a taxing week of jury selection and legal arguments neared an end with yet more back-and-forth over legal particulars, Judge Juan M. Merchan told Trump’s lawyers to stop importuning him to revisit his litany of pretrial rulings in the hush money case.

“I’ve entertained your arguments in good faith, I’ve handed down decisions, but at some point, you need to accept the court’s rulings,” Merchan said during a Friday hearing.

“There’s nothing else to clarify. There’s nothing else to reargue. We’re going to have opening statements on Monday morning. This trial is starting.”

Merchan also refused again to give Trump’s lawyers a blanket ruling excluding certain evidence from his time in the White House on presidential immunity grounds.

Rather, the judge said, Trump’s lawyers can argue for immunity on a piece-by-piece basis during the trial.

The defense has argued that three of Trump’s 2018 tweets about Michael Cohen and his 2018 financial disclosure report — all of which are publicly available — are official acts and therefore fall under presidential immunity. They also contend any testimony about official acts Trump took as president, such as the accounts of former White House staff, should be excluded.

Donald Trump’s lawyers are fighting to keep prosecutors in his hush money case from questioning him, if he testifies, about the outcome of his recent civil fraud trial as well as a separate defamation case.

In the fraud trial, state Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump, his company and key executives deceived bankers and insurers for years by grossly padding his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and coverage.

In the second case, a jury found that Trump defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault years earlier.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove argued those allegations, dating to the 1990s, are “too attenuated, too far back in time to call into question President Trump’s credibility at this trial.”

Trump has said he wants to testify at the hush money trial, but he is not required to and can always change his mind.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said he would reserve judgment on whether prosecutors can ask Trump about his past legal setbacks if he chooses to testify.

Merchan said he would issue a decision in the coming days.

An attorney for Donald Trump argued Friday in an appeals court for an interim stay of the former president’s hush money trial, say that jury selection was rushed and prevented the seating of a fair and impartial jury.

“The way that such a large cross section of people were immediately disqualified because of the biases they mentioned to the court is proof positive … to the predispositions of these people,” Clifford Robert said.

Robert argued for an interim stay of the trial pending a motion to have the trial venue moved outside of Manhattan.

In a brief response, Steven Wu, the appellate chief for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, accused Trump’s attorneys of mischaracterizing the jury selection process, which he described as “unusually detailed and careful.”

He added that Trump had “amplified and stoked the very press coverage” that had caused some jurors to reconsider if they could serve impartially.

“We have 18 ordinary New Yorkers ready to serve on Monday morning when this trial should begin,” Wu added. “It would be unfair to them and it would be unfair to the public for this trial to be delayed further.”

A decision on the appeal is expected this afternoon.

Donald Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors in his hush money case are sparring over the prosecution’s request to seal four pieces of evidence.

This includes phone records and approximately 39,000 contacts stored in Michael Cohen’s cellphone.

Prosecutors had sought to keep that evidence out of public view because it pertained to third parties not involved in the case. Judge Juan M. Merchan agreed over the objections of Trump’s lawyers, who argued prosecutors were trying to make an end run around transparency and trampling Trump’s right to a public trial.

Court has resumed in Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

With jury selection complete, the former president and lawyers in the case have returned to court for a hearing on prosecutors’ desire to question the former president — if he testifies — about his recent civil court losses.

Trump raised his fist before returning to the courtroom.

The man who set himself on fire across the street from the courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place is in critical condition in a burn unit, police said Friday.

The man first walked into the park around 1:30 p.m., took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories and spread them around the park before he doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials said.

Officials believe the man had traveled from Florida to New York in the past few days.

Authorities said they were reviewing the security protocols outside the courthouse.

“We are very concerned. Of course we are going to review our security protocols,” Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.

Donald Trump’s legal team has asked the New York state appellate court to intervene in his hush money trial, filing another application with a midlevel appeals court on Friday.

A hearing was scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

The documents weren’t immediately publicly available, but Trump’s lawyers have gone to the appeals court before trying to get the trial delayed or moved out of Manhattan. They have argued that Trump can’t get a fair trial there because of intense publicity.

The trial judge had rejected that request.

New York police are expected to hold a news conference at 2:45 p.m. Friday after a man set himself on fire in the park across the street from the courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is taking place.

Passersby rushed to douse the flames and the man was rushed away on a stretcher by emergency crews.

Judge Juan M. Merchan, seemingly unaware of what was unfolding outside the courthouse on Friday afternoon, told newly selected jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial that opening statements are set for Monday at 9:30 a.m.

Merchan is expected to hold a hearing Friday at 3:15 p.m. on the prosecution’s desire to question the former president, should he testify, regarding his recent civil court losses.

Emergency crews rushed away a person on a stretcher after fire was extinguished outside the Manhattan courthouse where jury selection was taking place Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal case.

No other details were immediately available from police.

A full jury of 12 people and six alternates had been seated in Trump’s hush money case just minutes earlier, drawing the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president a step closer to opening statements.

A jury of 12 people and six alternates was seated on Friday in former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial.

The completion of the jury selection process tees up the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president for opening statements and weeks of testimony in a case charging Trump with falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life emerging in the final days of the 2016 election.

The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers.

Two more alternates in Donald Trump’s hush money case have been selected, leaving just two more alternate juror slots to be filled.

A second alternate juror has been selected in Donald Trump’s hush money case. The individual joins the other 12 jurors and the first alternate who were sworn in during jury selection proceedings on Thursday. Four more alternates are still needed.

An alternate juror listens to the testimony, just like all the other jurors, but doesn’t join in the deliberations unless one of the main jurors needs to drop out or is removed.

Another individual was dismissed from jury selection in Donald Trump’s criminal trial Friday after blurting out that she felt anxious during a separate panelist’s questioning.

“With this line of questioning, I’m getting the same anxiety and self-doubt” that other excused jurors were raising, the woman said.

Her comment came as Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked a different jury candidate several questions about her ability to fairly evaluate the credibility of a witness like ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who went to prison for lying to Congress and other crimes.

At least a half-dozen potential jurors have been excused from consideration during the fourth day of jury selection, with several citing anxiety and nervousness brought on by potentially being connected to the high-profile trial.

Over the past few days, more than a couple of prospective jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial have highlighted the stress and anxiety they have felt during the selection process.

One woman was being questioned Friday by a prosecutor about her ability to decide the case based only on courtroom evidence when she began to cry.

“I feel so nervous and anxious right now,” the woman said through tears. “I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t want someone who feels like this to judge my case either. I don’t want to waste the court’s time. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.”

After conferring briefly with the prosecution and defense, Judge Juan M. Merchan dismissed the woman from consideration.

The outsized media attention and public interest in the case isn’t the only thing driving some would-be jurors to their breaking points, though. Those called into the courtroom are also answering a lengthy list of personal questions, revealing details about their family life and brushes with the law that have stirred other emotional responses.

A section of the questionnaire asking would-be jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial what they like to do in their spare time has revealed an eclectic array of hobbies and passions.

During the week, the court has been introduced to Manhattanites who enjoy metalworking, scuba diving and seeing the New York Philharmonic. There were also several yogis, hikers and one man who said he cleans his local dog park as “meditation.”

One woman said she takes her kids to Rubik’s Cube competitions and another said she used to be an amateur boxer, though noted that “black eyes were frowned upon” in her profession. Earlier in the week, a different prospective juror joked that he had no spare time, adding later, “I guess my hobby is my family.”

New York is the most populous city in the U.S., but Donald Trump’s hush money trial has shown that it can also feel a lot like a small town.

One prospective juror said she had connections to not one but two people who’ve been in Trump’s orbit: the former president’s ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who backed Trump in 2020 but later ran against him.

The woman disclosed that she works at the same company as a Cohen relative — though they’ve never crossed paths — and that someone in her family is friends with Christie. Despite that, she assured the court that she could be fair and impartial.

The latest questionnaire round in jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money trial began Friday with a prospective juror saying she has anxiety and isn’t sure she can serve. She said that she takes medication for the condition and that as more days pass, “I don’t think I will be able to be completely fair” and focused on the trial.

Judge Juan M. Merchan excused her.

Because 22 prospective jurors are being questioned, Merchan granted a prosecutor’s request for five extra minutes of questioning. Instead of 20 minutes, prosecutors will have 25 questions to inquire of the group.

Another potential juror, a woman with adult children, said she doesn’t believe in watching the news. She added that her husband sends her news that seems important and that she has no strong opinions on Trump.

As potential jurors ran through the questionnaire, Trump appeared to lean over at the defense table, scribbling on some papers and occasionally exchanging notes with his lawyers.

But when another potential juror mentioned that he follows the White House Instagram account, including when Trump was in office, the former president looked up and toward the jury box.

Donald Trump shuffled through papers at the defense table Friday morning after walking into Manhattan court for the fourth day of jury selection in his hush money trial.

He turned stoic and stern as news photographers came in to snap pictures of him, as is the daily custom before court resumes.

Twenty-two possible jurors are being brought in as jury selection is set to resume. As many as five alternate jurors must be selected before jury selection is over. One alternate was already sworn in at the end of the day Thursday.

Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers’ request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while a separate criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out.

The lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 seek civil damages for harm they say they suffered during the attack, which aimed to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory.

Speaking to reporters inside the lower Manhattan courthouse, former President Donald Trump once again railed against his hush money trial, demanding Judge Juan M. Merchan lift a gag order limiting what he can say publicly about witnesses.

“The gag order has to come off. People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order,” he said.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office are currently looking to fine Trump over violating his gag order after disparaging witnesses in the case on social media. A hearing is set for next week.

Donald Trump raised his right fist as he headed to his motorcade while leaving Trump Tower on Friday.

Soon afterward, the former president arrived at the court in Manhattan where more potential jurors will be questioned in his hush money case.

A third panel of potential jurors will be questioned Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing jury selection a step closer to completion.

After a jury of 12 New Yorkers was seated Thursday, lawyers were expected to turn their attention to picking remaining alternates who can vow to set aside their personal views and impartially judge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has suggested that opening statements in the criminal trial could begin as early as Monday.

Trump has pleaded not guilty.

The trial will place Trump in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks, forcing him to juggle his dual role as criminal defendant and political candidate against the backdrop of his hotly contested race against President Joe Biden.

Jury selection in Donald Trump’s hush money case proceeded at a plodding pace Thursday when two of the initial seven seated jurors were dismissed.

But late in the day, lawyers settled on the remaining seven in quick succession, along with one alternate. Judge Juan M. Merchan has said his goal is to have five additional alternates.

Even with the roster of 12 jurors set, it’s still possible that the lineup may change as proceedings continue Friday.

Judge Juan M. Merchan was expected to hold a hearing Friday to consider a request from prosecutors to bring up Donald Trump’s prior legal entanglements if he takes the stand in the hush money case.

Manhattan prosecutors have said they want to question Trump about his recent civil fraud trial that resulted in a $454 million judgment after a judge found Trump had lied about his wealth for years. He is appealing that verdict.

Trump says he did nothing wrong and has cast himself as the victim of a politically motivated justice system bent on keeping him out of the White House. He has lashed out on social media about the judge, prosecutors and potential witnesses, prompting the district attorneys to seek sanctions for possible violations of a gag order in the criminal case.

After Thursday’s court proceedings, Trump complained to reporters that he should have been out campaigning but was in court instead for what he said was a “very unfair trial.”

“Everybody’s outraged by it,” he said. “You know the whole world’s watching this New York scam.”

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