Americans paid more for their groceries last month, but high gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war were only one of the reasons why.

Prices for food eaten at home rose 2.9% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, according to government figures released Tuesday. That was the highest year-over-year inflation rate for the category since August 2023.

Prices at restaurants, fast-food chains and other places to get prepared meals also increased, putting overall food prices up 3.2% in the last year, the Labor Department’s consumer price index showed.

Fuel prices have soared while the Iran war prevents cargo ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global oil supplies. Diesel fuel powers fishing boats, tractors and the trucks that ship 83% of U.S. agricultural products. As of Tuesday, the average price per gallon was up 61% from a year ago, according to AAA.

The meat, produce and dry goods vendors that supply Sparrow Market, a small independent grocer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, all added fuel surcharges to their deliveries in recent weeks, owner Raymond Campise, said. . Wholesale prices for meat, produce and some other products also have gone up, he said.

“For independent markets operating on narrow margins, even small increases can have a major impact,” Campise said.

The full impact of rising energy costs on food likely has not hit retail grocery prices yet in the U.S., according to Purdue University economists Ken Foster and Bernhard Dalheimer. Higher costs to produce, process, store and transport food can take three to six months to show up on supermarket shelves, where prices typically fall slowly once increased, they said.

“Most of what we’re seeing now in the food price chain probably predates the conflict,” Foster, a professor of agricultural economics, said. “We’re cautiously waiting to see what the June numbers and the May numbers might show as they come out in terms of … the extent to which energy shocks in the Strait of Hormuz and shipping blockades and so forth are going to impact food prices.”

The consumer price index measures changes in what people in U.S. cities paid at retail stores for meat, bread, milk, produce and other grocery staples. Over the last 20 years, grocery prices increased an average of 2.6%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Prices for perishable and refrigerated products tend to increase faster than prices for packaged goods when energy is an issue. Consumers paid 6.5% more for fresh fruit and vegetables in U.S. cities last month than they did in April 2025, and 8.8% percent more for meat, the Labor Department reported.

But U.S. trade policies and extreme weather also have weighed on U.S. food prices in the last year. In July 2025, the Trump administration imposed a 17% duty on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico; consumer prices rose 40% in the 12 months before April.

Dry weather in the western U.S. has been one of many factors pushing up beef prices, which in April were 15% higher year-over-year. Coffee prices were up 18.5%, partly due to drought and other weather conditions that have hurt global coffee production in recent years.

“Today’s CPI showed that food prices have been rising 3.2 percent in the past year, but the story behind that number is more complicated than just an energy shock,” said Dalheimer, an assistant professor of macroeconomics and trade in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics.

Prices for some foods remained more or less flat or declined over 12 months. Milk and chicken dipped slightly. Butter cost 5.8% less in April than it did a year earlier. Egg prices fell 39% as farmers rebuilt flocks that were decimated by an ongoing bird flu outbreak.

Food prices and broader inflation are likely to feature prominently in November’s midterm elections.During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump often cited the prices of bacon, cereal, crackers and other groceries as reasons why voters should return him to the White House.

Some food producers say they’re struggling now because of higher fuel costs. The Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents shrimpers in eight states, said some boats haven’t left the dock this spring because they can’t catch enough shrimp to compensate for the cost of diesel.

Fuel typically makes up 30% to 50% of the costs for U.S. shrimpers, but because they supply only 6% of the shrimp that Americans consume, they have limited ability to raise prices or add surcharges for fuel, the organization said.

Higher fuel prices may also be impacting food costs in other ways. Part of April’s 5% annual increase in prices for nonalcoholic beverages may be due to the petroleum derivative that goes into making plastic bottles, Foster said.

“It’s possible some of that’s starting to seep down the supply chain and get into those prices,” he said.

Over the next year or more, Americans could also see higher food prices due to spiking fertilizer costs, since around 30% of the world’s fertilizer travels through the Strait of Hormuz.

Fertilizer costs are less of an issue for U.S. farmers this year, since many already had fertilizer supplies in place before the war began, according to Foster. But the effects could become more noticeable next yearm if the war drags on, he said.

“I expect the Iran conflict to impact the coming years’ food prices through a couple of channels. One, the energy costs and transportation handling. The other would be through packaging costs,” Foster said. “If the conflict were to last longer, then we might see more coming online as fertilizer prices start to impact longer-term planting decisions and cropping decisions.”

Director Eugene Yi has always been interested in the term Asian American and Pacific Islander and which ethnicities it includes.

“When we’re talking about Asian Americans or Asian people in the U.S., oftentimes it’s people who might look like you and me, and maybe not people who look like (New York City Mayor) Zohran Mamdani,” Yi told The Associated Press. “Why is that when this term is supposed to be so capacious and so inclusive?”

So Yi, who is Korean American, was beyond excited when approached to helm a new HBO documentary dedicated to AAPI identity and community.

Timed for release during AAPI Heritage Month, “The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas” drops Wednesday on HBO Max. It’s the latest in “The List Series” created by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. The franchise has previously produced documentaries on prominent Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ Americans.

In the documentary, Yi captures no-frills, intimate interviews conducted by journalist Jada Yuan with 15 people of AAPI heritage across industries. They include TV broadcaster Connie Chung, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth and “Basement Bhangra” creator DJ Rekha. Actors Sandra Oh, Kumail Nanjiani and Bowen Yang — who are sometimes more associated with comical roles — also shared their thoughts about identity and belonging.

“When talking to people who are professionally funny, oftentimes they’re really comfortable not being funny,” in unscripted conversation, Yi said. “I appreciated that chance to get a little bit deeper into some of their stories.”

Yia Vang, chef and owner of Vinai, a popular Hmong restaurant in Minneapolis, filmed his “A List” interview three years ago. Since then he’s been featured in various cooking and lifestyle shows. Vang, who was born in a Thai refugee camp until his family settled in Wisconsin when he was 4, likened the experience of being interviewed on camera to a confessional.

Vang tearfully recounts to viewers how his desire to not be “the weird kid” drove him to throw out school lunches of sticky rice and fermented vegetables packed by his mother. He did not expect to get emotional but the memory sparked a core life lesson.

“I will never, ever try to be ‘cool,’” Vang said. “That’s why I guess I get so intense about like how we do our food here. Not because I’m chasing perfection or some kind of award, but I just want to make sure I stay true to the integrity that they (my parents) laid before me.”

In what Vang calls “full-circle redemption,” those dishes he used to throw out are now on his restaurant’s menu.

Last month, Vang got a taste of reactions to the documentary back home at a Milwaukee Film Festival screening. He definitely was not seen as the weird guy.

“The audience really connected because I’m a Wisconsin boy,” Vang said. A few approached him just to say “It’s so awesome to see a Midwest kid in there.”

Asian Americans make up one of the fastest growing U.S. populations. Still, adults in the U.S. have a harder time recognizing the influence of AAPI people than people from other racial groups, according to a new survey by The Asian American Foundation.

The annual Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the United States, or STAATUS, Index, done in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, found 4 in 10 U.S. adults cannot think of a single, famous Asian American; Jackie Chan, who is not American, was among the most frequently named. About half were unable to name examples of famous Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

“It’s an indication of just how for most of America — and our data shows this as well — people get most of their information about Asian Americans not so much from direct contacts, but from the media,” said Norman Chen, CEO of The Asian American Foundation.

Chen recently attended a screening of “The A List.” He applauded the breadth of personal stories Yi and his team curated. It’s a film he’s not sure would have gotten made a decade ago. So, it was gratifying to see how moved the audience was by stories recounted by celebrities and everyday people.

“Even people that we don’t know have such powerful stories to show you the depth and richness of our community and the struggles that we’ve had to go through in multiple generations,” Chen said.

When Yi and the crew started working on the documentary, Vice President Kamala Harris was running against Donald Trump for president. Now under a Republican Trump administration that vehemently opposes diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Yi acknowledges how the documentary might come off as inherently political.

“What I’ve certainly seen during the stretch of time — just speaking for myself — is just how quickly things can backslide and how quickly people can be erased,” Yi said. “We literally have people being disappeared on the streets and we literally have histories being erased.”

He is especially gratified that some of the documentary’s older participants related to historical events such as a story told by activist Kathy Masaoka, whose mother was held in Japanese American incarceration camps. Yi hopes people recognize the struggles AAPI people have endured in the past and present while building community.

“We can really move forward from this moment in terms of rebuilding and reclaiming and taking up space with confidence and hope again,” Yi said.

CHAMBLEE, Ga. (AP) — Being as well known as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger would be a dream for many ambitious politicians.

“I think most people by now know who I am,” the Republican candidate for governor joked Tuesday as someone put up signs with his name before a speech in the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee.

But that fame may wound Raffensperger in next Tuesday’s primary because it stems from opposing Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory in 2020. He was one of a few Georgia leaders who earned Trump’s scorn by rejecting his falsehoods, and even though Raffesperger won reelection in 2022, many Republicans still view him as a traitor.

Now the 70-year-old is spending millions of his own money trying to reintroduce himself as the person he was before that moment in the spotlight.

“I really think I need to let people know that I’m actually a conservative Christian businessman,” Raffensperger told reporters recently. “If you don’t realize, that’s where I cut my teeth.”

It’s unclear whether Republican voters are willing to forgive Raffensperger’s political heresy in a party that remains in thrall to Trump. He’s faced threats over the years, and spokesperson Ryan Mahoney said Raffensperger was informed of a credible one Monday as he began flying around the state on a campaign swing.

A sheriff’s office in Mississippi received a four-page document including a picture of Raffensperger with the word “boom” written across his forehead, Mahoney said. Law enforcement agencies did not immediately acknowledge an investigation.

When authorities swept the Macon airport ahead of Raffensperger’s arrival Tuesday, a police dog found a suspicious object that prompted an evacuation. It was not a bomb, and Raffensperger gave his speech on the tarmac.

Raffensperger is trying to offer himself as an alternative to Georgia voters who may be recoiling from an expensive and ugly primary featuring Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson, who are spending huge sums attacking each other.

One Raffensperger television advertisement portrays Jones and Jackson firing guns wildly into the air while Raffensperger takes careful aim at targets one by one. Another depicts “creepy Rick Jackson” and “big baby Burt Jones” throwing mud at each other in a barnyard.

“All they have been talking about is each other and running each other down,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “No one’s talking about the most important person. And that’s our fellow Georgian.”

Raffensperger likely has a narrow shot at the nomination. Even if he qualifies for a June 16 runoff, the campaign could quickly turn into a brawl over which candidate is the most conservative, an environment in which Raffensperger would face even more severe attacks over disloyalty to Trump.

Because he’s directly responsible for election administration as secretary of state, Raffensperger has been a punching bag for many Republicans, even some who aren’t notable Trump loyalists. His relations have been particularly bad with Jones, one of 16 Georgia Republicans who declared themselves “duly elected and qualified” electors for Trump in 2020 even though Biden won the state.

Georgia Republican Party delegates voted in June to ban Raffensperger from running under the party’s banner, saying he’s hostile to Trump, but the party qualified him anyway. A judge last month dismissed an effort by two voters to throw him off the primary ballot.

Raffensperger’s campaign estimates that a fifth of the state’s Republican electorate would never vote for him, a cadre they describe as “never-Raffensperger.”

Sabrina Mao, a Cobb County resident who attended a Jones campaign appearance Tuesday in Smyrna, said, “Everybody knows there is fraud in voting.”

“I don’t think he was doing anything good,” Mao said of Raffensperger. “He’s just a follower. I don’t think he’s a leader.”

Raffensperger is definitely a throwback to an older Republican Party. While other campaigns deploy blaring country music and barbecue, Raffensperger’s go-to move is a speech to a Rotary Club.

He sold his concrete reinforcement company, Tendon Systems, for an undisclosed amount in 2023. Through last week, Raffensperger had loaned his campaign $6 million and spent or committed at least $4.2 million on ads. That pales next to Jackson and Jones, who are self-funding their campaigns at unprecedented levels. Jones has loaned his campaign $17 million, while Jackson has dumped a staggering $83 million into his electoral bid.

Besides Jones and Jackson, Raffensperger is also running against Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, who appeals to many of the same voters as Raffensperger.

On the Democratic side, top candidates include former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves and former state Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond.

Geoff Duncan, a former Republican lieutenant governor who also spurned Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, is running as a Democrat as well.

Raffensperger stands behind how Georgia’s elections are run, but quickly pivots to preferred themes of creating high-paying jobs, cutting property taxes, enhancing school safety and supporting Trump’s efforts to increase manufacturing jobs.

“If you can create and, build great paying jobs for people, you can change their lives,” Raffensperger said last month when answering a reporter’s question about Georgia’s voting system.

He frequently portrays himself as standing up against Democrat Stacey Abrams, a frequent critic of Republican election administration, hoping to unite Republicans who despise Abrams.

“Brad Raffensperger secures Georgia’s elections like Joe Biden secures the border — and no amount of false advertising can erase that record,” Jones campaign manager Kendyl Parker wrote to television stations Tuesday, demanding that they take down Raffensperger’s mudslinging ad, which also mentions Abrams and Biden.

Among the supporters Raffensperger needs most are the suburban voters who have backed conservatives but have been leery of Trump. For example, in 2022, many cast ballots for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp but voted for Democrat Raphael Warnock for Senate because they were turned off by GOP candidate Herschel Walker.

Katherine Weber of suburban Sandy Springs, for example, described herself as “Republican, but not pro-Trump” after she cast her ballot last month.

“I voted for Brad Raffensperger,” Weber said. “I feel like he is a man of integrity and not swayed by politics. He doesn’t do whatever Trump says.”

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband and was later found guilty of killing him finds out Wednesday how long she will spend in prison.

Kouri Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing her husband’s cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022.

Prosecutors said Richins, a 35-year-old real estate agent with a house-flipping business, was millions in debt and planning a future with another man. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband Eric Richins without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.

Jurors in Park City also found Richins guilty of four other felonies, including attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich.

Her case captivated true-crime enthusiasts when she was arrested in 2023 while promoting her children’s book “Are You with Me?” about a boy coping with the death of his father.

Richins faces several decades to life in prison at her sentencing hearing Wednesday, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44. Her lawyers declined to comment before the hearing.

Eric Richins’ sister, Amy Richins, said after the verdict that she was “just very happy that we got justice for my brother” and could now focus solely on supporting his sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died.

In a memo filed by prosecutors ahead of the hearing, the sons told the judge they would feel unsafe if their mother was ever released from prison.

“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” said the oldest boy, who is now 13. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”

The middle child, now 11, said he is sad that his dad won’t be present for major milestones. With his mother behind bars, he said he can “live a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love.”

The youngest said he would be ”so scared” if his mother was released.

Judges in Utah typically impose sentences as a broad range rather than a fixed number of years.

The most serious charge, aggravated murder, is punishable by 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.

Prison time for the attempted aggravated murder charge depends on the severity of the bodily injury that occurred. After taking a bite of the sandwich his wife left for him, Eric Richins broke out in hives, injected himself with his son’s EpiPen, drank a bottle of Benadryl and passed out, prosecutors said. Depending on the judge’s assessment, Kouri Richins could face 15 years to life, 6 years to life or 5 years to life for that charge.

Two counts of insurance fraud, second-degree felonies, each carry a 1-15 year sentence, and a third-degree felony forgery charge is punishable by 0-5 years in prison.

Judge Richard Mrazik has discretion to decide whether Richins’ prison sentences for each count will overlap or stack up. Prosecutors have asked for no overlap and urged the judge to give her life without parole.

Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.

The trial was scheduled for five weeks but ended early when Richins waived her right to testify, and her legal team rested its case without calling any witnesses. Her attorneys said they were confident that prosecutors had not produced enough evidence to convict her of murder.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours before finding her guilty of all counts.

Throughout the trial, prosecutors portrayed the mother of three as a money-hungry killer. They showed the jury text messages between Richins and her lover in which she fantasized about leaving her husband and gaining millions in a divorce. Prosecutors also displayed the internet search history from Richins’ phone, which included queries about the lethal dose of fentanyl, luxury prisons and how poisoning is marked on a death certificate.

The defense argued that Eric Richins was addicted to painkillers. Prosecutors countered by showing police body camera footage from the night of his death in which Kouri Richins tells an officer that her husband had no history of illicit drug use.

Defense attorneys also argued that the prosecution’s star witness, a housekeeper who claimed to have sold Kouri Richins fentanyl on multiple occasions, was motivated to lie for legal protection. The housekeeper was granted immunity for her cooperation in the case.

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and blasts music from her playlist. Her sixth graders dance together as a “pre-celebration” to boost their confidence, then take their exam.

Lately, there’s been a lot to celebrate in elementary schools in Modesto, California. Both reading and math scores have increased consistently over the past several years.

But across the country, results are gloomier. Researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide predating the pandemic’s disruptions in schooling.

Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing comparisons across school districts and states in a national Education Scorecard.

What they found was sobering: Only five states plus the District of Columbia had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. Nationally, students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores and only slightly better in math.

While schools have focused on catching kids up since the COVID-19 pandemic upended education, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and 2015 for fourth graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement,” said Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor who helped create the Education Scorecard.

Still, some states and school districts are making progress — largely by shifting toward phonics-based instruction and providing extra support for struggling readers.

The picture is also brighter in math.

Almost every state in the analysis saw improvements in math test scores from 2022 to 2025. Student absenteeism also declined in most states. In over 400 U.S. school districts, including Modesto, reading or math growth outpaced demographically similar districts in the same state.

Researchers are still debating the reading recession’s causes.

One possible factor, researchers say, is the rise of social media on smartphones and corresponding declines in kids’ recreational reading. States have also backed off on strict consequences for schools whose students fail to make progress on standardized tests, Kane said.

But the states that improved reading scores — notably Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana — all had one thing in common: They ordered schools to teach with a phonics-based approach known as the “ science of reading.”

For years, schools taught reading using approaches that de-emphasized phonics and encouraged strategies such as guessing words based on context clues. As reading scores tumbled over the past decade, parents, scholars and literacy advocates pushed for teaching methods that align with decades of research about how kids learn to read — largely by sounding out words.

Along with reforming teaching methods, states have also required schools to screen for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hire coaches to help teachers improve their reading instruction.

That said, “science of reading” reforms did not guarantee success. Some states, including Florida, Arizona and Nebraska, changed parts of their reading instruction but still saw test scores fall.

In Modesto, reading instruction was revamped during the pandemic, and math a couple years earlier. The district created a new department to help students who are still learning English. Schools also ramped up teacher training, paying educators $5,000 to complete an extensive “science of reading” program called LETRS, or Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling.

Modesto’s test scores grew enough to represent an extra 18 weeks of learning in math and 13 weeks in reading. Nevertheless, the district still has a way to go: Overall scores remain far below grade level.

A focus on reading has also improved scores in Detroit — but so have efforts to get kids in school more consistently. For years, the large urban district struggled with deplorable school conditions, leading to a 2016 lawsuit in which students argued they’d been denied the “right to read.”

The lawsuit ended in a settlement of over $94 million, money that helped move the needle. While the district is still far below the national average, student test scores have grown faster than in similar urban districts in Michigan.

“It took a lot to rebuild systems, and now kids are learning at higher levels, but I’m still not satisfied. And I think that’s the next challenge: continuing to motivate, inspire and change things,” said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

The money has helped Munger Elementary-Middle School, located in a largely Latino neighborhood in Detroit, to employ 18 educators who give kids extra support in small groups. An attendance agent also makes calls to the homes of absent students, even showing up at their doors.

Just a few years ago, says first grade teacher Samantha Ciaffone, it was normal for about seven or eight kids to be absent from her class every day. Now it’s usually only one or two.

“It allows us to be better educators to see kids consistently in the seat instead of once or twice a week,” said Ciaffone. “It makes such a difference.”

For the last decade, the South has stood out as a region leading the way on education reforms — bucking an established trend of landing at the bottom of education rankings. Southern states were quick to change to research-based teaching methods, and states have paid to train and coach teachers.

It’s paid off. Louisiana and Alabama were the only states where math scores were higher in 2025 than pre-pandemic. Louisiana is also the only state that beat its pre-pandemic average in reading, with 87% of traditional public school students attending a district where scores are higher than in 2019.

Alabama had standout gains in reading following the pandemic, driven by a state law requiring every school to use phonics-based instruction. The Legislature modeled math reforms in 2022 off Alabama’s reading successes. The state’s Numeracy Act standardized math instruction, required regular testing and mandated intervention for kids who lacked adequate math skills.

Oxmoor Valley Elementary in Birmingham hired a full-time math specialist this year to help struggling kids. The school, which made the state’s “failing” list in 2016, has steadily improved math and reading scores, although a majority of kids still test below proficient in both subjects.

“We can provide all of these supports, but at the same time, hold kids to high expectations,” Birmingham Superintendent Mark Sullivan said.

Researchers stress such progress is possible across the U.S., because it’s been done before. Starting in the 1990s, the country saw decades of growth in test scores and graduation rates, while racial disparities declined. That progress continued until the mid-2010s.

“We made enormous progress as a country in terms of educational success from over a 30-year period. Test scores went up dramatically,” said Stanford professor Sean Reardon. “And so I think that says, as a country, we can improve education and educational opportunity.”

At Modesto’s Fairview Elementary, where Barajas teaches, students now practice their reading speed and fluency every day. After a dance break, the class reads a one-page text together in unison for one minute, then students split into pairs to read again. Students learning English are paired with native English speakers, and each child gets a turn reading with Barajas.

“Eventually, you get through the word like it’s water,” one boy said. “You just say it smooth.”

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On the reality television show “The Hills,” Spencer Pratt played something of a villain, blamed for spreading a salacious rumor and driving a wedge between his girlfriend and her best friend.

Pratt is casting himself as a hero in his latest venture, a bid to be mayor of Los Angeles, in which he’s promising to rid the nation’s second most populous city of disorder and dysfunction.

Originally greeted with bemusement, Pratt is now upending the race with early voting underway ahead of the June 2 election. The Republican is riding a wave of buzz fueled by viral videos taking aim at incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, Gov. Gavin Newsom and others.

Pratt’s goal is to turn the chatter into a ticket to a November runoff against Bass, a Democrat who is struggling to recover from a widely panned response to devastating wildfires last year.

He would face long odds in a city that last elected a Republican mayor in 1997. But during last week’s debate, Pratt was one of only three candidates onstage, alongside Bass and progressive City Council member Nithya Raman.

“As crazy as this will sound, I’m the adult in the room,” Pratt said.

Pratt and his supporters are making a populist appeal to voters, emphasizing day-to-day concerns about life in Los Angeles and leaning on visceral imagery of drug use and homeless encampments from the grittier corners of the city of nearly 4 million.

He blames the city’s Democratic leaders and pledges to “stop these corrupt politicians from destroying our city.” He advocates a hard line against homelessness, pledging to eliminate encampments and pursue criminal investigations of nonprofit organizations that serve people living on the streets.

“These people do not want a bed,” he said in last week’s debate. “They want fentanyl or meth.”

Pratt announced his campaign in January at an event marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly Palisades Fire, which destroyed his home and thousands of others.

In an ad released late last month, Pratt stands in cozy neighborhoods where Bass and Raman live. He contrasts them with an Airstream trailer parked on a flattened lot, where he says he’s living after his house was destroyed.

“They let my home burn down,” Pratt says in the ad. “I know what the consequences of failed leadership are.”

Over the past week, a series of viral videos created with artificial intelligence have portrayed Pratt as the city’s savior from hapless Democrats and violent socialists.

In one, Pratt is portrayed as Batman saving a dystopian Los Angeles from Bass, portrayed as a villainous Joker.

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and onetime Republican presidential candidate, called it “maybe the best political ad of the year” in a post on X.

That video and others were shared on social media by filmmaker Charles Curran, and Pratt has reposted them from his own accounts. Curran did not respond to an email and direct messages on X.

“He’s playing on the most powerful emotion, which is anger, and LA voters are angry right now,” said Matt Klink, a Republican strategist based in Los Angeles.

Pratt, 43, is well-versed in the art of generating buzz and entertainment.

He first rose to prominence in 2007 as Heidi Montag’s boyfriend on “The Hills,” a hit reality series built around the lives of young women as they navigated young adulthood in Southern California. He was portrayed as driving a wedge between Montag and her roommate, Lauren Conrad, leading to the disintegration of their friendship.

He went on to marry Montag, and they have two children together. They have appeared on a variety of other scripted and reality television series since “The Hills” ended in 2010, and each has more than 1 million followers in their social media accounts.

Pratt points to a 2013 political science degree from the University of Southern California as evidence of his readiness to lead a massive city.

His campaign did not respond to interview requests.

Bass, the first Black woman to lead Los Angeles, is a wounded incumbent continuing to deal with fallout from the wildfires and general frustration with City Hall.

She was in Ghana on a diplomatic mission when the fires began tearing through her city, prompting a fierce backlash, and her administration was accused of watering down an after-action report by the fire department, which she denies.

Still, Bass has much of the Democratic establishment firmly behind her, including most of the city’s powerful labor movement. A group of unions is funding an advertising campaign attacking Pratt in terms that seem calibrated to increase his appeal to Republicans and help lift him ahead of Bass’s progressive challengers, a potential bet that he might be easier to defeat in November.

The rising attention on Pratt shakes up a race that, until recently, was shaping up to pit Bass against a rival to her left rather than her right.

“I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades, and I think that’s reprehensible. That’s the main thing. And I think he is about his own celebrity. He’s famous now again,” Bass told Fox News last week.

Pratt has run a fun and imaginative campaign that has effectively parlayed his celebrity into attention, the lifeblood of politics, just as Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger did before him, said Michael Trujillo, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist. He said that has put him in a strong position to get through the first round of voting and face Bass one-on-one in the runoff.

But eventually, Pratt will have to face a stark reality as a Republican — Los Angeles is an overwhelmingly Democratic city.

“Not to diminish the creativity and imagination that they’re putting into their campaign, but they’re going to run into a big math problem,” Trujillo said.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana officials have agreed to a tentative $4.8 million settlement with the family of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who died during a violent 2019 roadside arrest carried out by five white officers, two people with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press.

The settlement would end a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Greene, whose death drew national attention after the AP in 2021 obtained footage showing Louisiana State Police officers punching, kicking and using stun guns outside the city of Monroe.

The settlement is subject to approval by the Louisiana Legislature, said two people with direct knowledge of the lawsuit who were not authorized to publicly discuss the agreement.

Louisiana State Police spokesperson Capt. Russell Graham said the agency could not comment on the terms of the settlement because the process “has not yet been finalized.”

Mona Hardin, Greene’s mother, did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Last year, federal prosecutors declined to bring charges against the troopers involved in Greene’s fatal arrest.

For two years after Greene’s death, the circumstances of the traffic stop following a high-speed chase remained shrouded in secrecy. State police refused to release footage of the arrest, initially claiming Greene, 49, died after crashing into a tree during the pursuit.

Video later obtained by AP showed that troopers had used stun guns on the unarmed Greene as he apologized for leading them on the chase. Troopers wrestled Greene to the ground, placed him in a chokehold and punched him. They dragged him facedown on the ground while his hands were cuffed and his legs were shackled then left him lying on the ground without providing aid.

Troopers had initially sought to pull Greene over for an unspecified traffic violation.

In the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration in January 2025, the Justice Department found that Louisiana State Police engaged in a statewide pattern of excessive force during arrests and vehicle pursuits. Several months later, the DOJ under President Donald Trump rescinded these findings.

The investigation was launched in 2022 after an investigation by the AP exposed a series of brutal beatings by troopers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — From the moment President Donald Trump lands in Beijing on Wednesday, all eyes will be on how much of a spectacle the Chinese government rolls out, such as who lines up to greet him, what music is played and whether Chinese and American children wave flowers and flags.

In China’s rigidly hierarchical world of diplomacy, protocol and ceremony carry weight. The reception of Trump is shaping up to be warm and designed to flatter him, indicative of Beijing’s tactical approach to a U.S. leader known for his love for pomp, but it is unlikely to top the “state visit plus” extravaganza President Xi Jinping extended to Trump in 2017.

“That reflects greater Chinese confidence in their position, greater skepticism of Trump, and the awkwardness of the current relationship,” said Rush Doshi, C.V. Starr senior fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and an assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University.

In the past nine years, the China-U.S. relationship has shifted from engagement to competition and has dipped to a low point during the COVID-19 pandemic and trade wars.

Experts say China’s economic clout and its ability to leverage its dominance in the global supply chain have allowed the Chinese leadership to negotiate from a position of strength and led to a more pragmatic China policy by the Trump administration. And now the war with Iran, which has left the Strait of Hormuz blocked and rattled the global economy, has given Xi an upper hand coming into the summit.

The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, delayed Trump’s visit, initially scheduled for the end of March. Now, Trump is going to Beijing for a shorter stay than in 2017, and without first lady Melania Trump.

“The context for this visit is wholly different,” said Danny Russel, a former senior U.S. diplomat, who does not expect Beijing to outdo itself this time in receiving Trump. “The schedule has been compressed to basically one day and stripped down to the basics.”

But the U.S. holds a special place in China’s foreign relations, and China will shower Trump with plenty of ceremonial pomp because Beijing sees it as a diplomatic tool, Russel said.

If the 2017 trip is any indication, Trump can expect to walk down from Air Force One along a red-carpet stairway with golden edging and be greeted by a warm crowd.

At a formal welcome ceremony the next day, he will be greeted by Xi and other Chinese officials, whose rank could be telling. Trump is then expected to inspect military honor guards, lined up precisely by height, their eyes closely tracking him and Xi as the two leaders walk down the red carpet. And he will likely receive a 21-gun salute.

“It’s no secret to any government that President Trump responds positively to flattery and spectacle,” Russel said. “The pomp and pageantry is designed both to flatter Trump and to pacify him, making him more amenable to Chinese asks and reducing the risk of an embarrassing public confrontation.”

Xi also will offer something extra, as he did during past visits by American presidents. In 2014, it was an evening stroll with former President Barack Obama in the leadership compound of Zhongnanhai. In 2017, he hosted a private dinner for Trump at the Palace Museum, on the grounds of the former imperial palace.

This time, the special relationship between the Chinese and American leaders will play out at the Temple of Heaven, a former imperial site, in front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, an iconic, blue-tiled building known for its circular design and a triple-gabled roof. The White House says Xi will accompany Trump on a tour of the World Heritage site, where Chinese emperors once prayed for bumper harvests.

The entire park is closed on Wednesday and Thursday, while the main attractions, including the hall and the Echo Wall, were closed on Tuesday for “the maintenance of ancient architecture,” park management said.

This is unusual. The park was not closed for the prime ministers of Britain or Spain when they visited the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace in Beijing, respectively, earlier this year. And Xi didn’t accompany them.

Beijing declared Trump’s first presidential trip to China to be a “state visit plus,” and it is the only one China has held for any foreign leader. The trip was full of unprecedented arrangements.

Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, gave Trump and the first lady a tour of the Palace Museum, where they chatted over afternoon tea and watched a traditional opera performance at a royal theater that had not seen a show for a century. They also dined there — a first for any foreign leader.

During the formal welcome ceremony the next day, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” was played as the presidents inspected Chinese military guards, an unusual choice intended to impress Trump.

Trump, who often boasts of his good relationship with Xi, still harkens back to that visit nearly nine years ago.

“You know, last time I went to China, President Xi, he treated me so well, he gave me a display,” Trump said in February. “I never saw so many soldiers, all the same height, exactly the same height within a quarter of an inch.”

How China treats Trump this time will offer clues about the dynamics of the relationship, said Doshi, who served on former President Joe Biden’s National Security Council and helped plan his summits with Xi in 2022 and 2023.

“China uses diplomatic protocol as a method of signaling favor or disfavor. That is why we should pay close attention to how President Trump is received,” Doshi said.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The young sons of Utah children’s author Kouri Richins said ahead of her sentencing hearing Wednesday that they would feel unsafe if she was ever released from prison after she was found guilty in March of killing their father.

Richins, 35, faces several decades to life in prison on five felony convictions, including aggravated murder.

Prosecutors said she laced her husband Eric Richins’ cocktail with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl in 2022 at their home near the ski town of Park City. She then published a children’s book about a boy coping with the death of his father shortly before her arrest in 2023.

Richins’ attorneys declined to comment Tuesday before her sentencing hearing, which falls on the day her husband would have turned 44.

The statements from their sons, who were ages 9, 7 and 5 when their father died, came in a memo from prosecutors urging Judge Richard Mrazik to sentence Richins to life without parole.

The oldest child, now 13, said he wants the court to know that he does not miss his mom.

“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family,” he said. “I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us.”

Prosecutors allege that the boy suffered emotional and physical abuse from his mother, which they say is supported by findings from the Utah Division of Child and Family Services that are contained in a sealed court document. Agency officials could not comment on the allegations, as most records concerning minors are heavily protected, spokesperson Josh Loftin said.

Richins was a real estate agent with a house-flipping business who was millions in debt and planning a future with another man, prosecutors said. She had opened numerous life insurance policies on her husband without his knowledge and falsely believed she would inherit his estate worth more than $4 million after he died.

Her aggravated murder conviction alone is punishable either by a range of 25 years to life in prison, or a life sentence without parole. Prosecutors did not push for the death penalty.

Jurors also found Richins guilty of other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him black out.

The Richins’ middle child, now 11, refuted his mother’s claim that she slept in his bedroom with him on the night of his father’s death. He recalled unusual circumstances from that night, like being put to bed early without a bath, his parents’ bedroom being locked and the television blaring from inside. The boy said his mother yelled at him to go away after he used a broom to try to reach a key to their bedroom, where Richins later told a 911 operator she found her husband cold to the touch.

The 11-year-old told the judge he is sad that his dad can no longer take him camping and fishing, coach him in sports or be present for major milestones. Like his older brother, he said he would feel unsafe if his mom wasn’t behind bars.

“With (her) in jail, I will be able to continue to feel safe and live a happy and successful life without fear of (her) hurting me or anyone I love,” his statement read.

The youngest son said he feels “hateful and ashamed” when people talk about his mom because “she took away my dad.” He said he would be ”so scared” if his mother got out of prison.

“Once she is gone I will feel happy and I will feel safer and relaxed and trust people more,” said the boy, whose current age was not included in the memo.

Richins also faces more than two dozen money-related criminal charges in a separate case that has not yet gone to trial.

The city of Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused of the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, a case that initially sent one of the men to death row and another to life in prison, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday.

Robert Springsteen, Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn and Maurice Pierce had all insisted they were innocent of one of the city’s most notorious crimes. They were finally declared innocent by a judge in February after investigators determined the crime was committed by a suspect who died in 1999.

The settlement must still be approved by the city council at a later date. Details of the payments to the men and their families were not released.

“This settlement closes the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin’s history,” Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said in a statement. “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with those who were wrongly accused and wrongly convicted in this case and hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event.”

Scott and his attorney Tony Diaz said in a joint statement they are hopeful the settlement will help improve investigation practices and safeguards against wrongful convictions.

“Discussions and negotiations are ongoing regarding police reforms that would help ensure that nothing like what occurred in this case ever happens again,” they said.

Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 17; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store where two of them worked. The building was set on fire.

Investigators chased thousands of leads and several false confessions before the four men, who were teenagers when the girls were killed, were arrested in late 1999.

Springsteen and Scott were convicted based largely on confessions they insisted were coerced by police. Both convictions were overturned in the mid-2000s.

Welborn was charged but never tried after two grand juries refused to indict him. Pierce spent three years in jail before the charges were dismissed. He died in 2010 in a confrontation with police after a traffic stop.

Prosecutors wanted to try Springsteen and Scott again, but a judge ordered the charges dismissed in 2009 when new DNA tests that were unavailable in 1991 and the previous trials revealed another male suspect.

Investigators determined in 2025 that new DNA science and reviews of old ballistics evidence pointed to Robert Eugene Brashers as the sole killer.

Since 2018, authorities had used advanced DNA evidence to link Brashers to the strangulation death of a South Carolina woman in 1990, the 1997 rape of a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee and the shooting of a mother and daughter in Missouri in 1998.

The link to the Austin case came when a DNA sample taken from under Ayers’ fingernail came back as a match to Brashers from the 1990 killing.

Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during an hourslong standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.