SHANGHAI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened his first full day of meetings in China on Thursday by talking with local government officials in Shanghai.

Blinken discussed local and regional issues with Chen Jining, the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai. He also planned to speak to students and business leaders before heading to Beijing by train for what are expected to be contentious talks with national officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Blinken arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday shortly before President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package that has several elements likely to anger the Chinese, including $8 billion to counter China’s growing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea. It also seeks to force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform.

China has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan, the self-governing island that it regards as a renegade province, and immediately condemned the move as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok’s sale.

Still, the fact that Blinken made the trip — shortly after a conversation between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a similar visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a call between the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs — is a sign the two sides are at least willing to discuss their differences.

“I think it’s important to underscore the value — in fact, the necessity — of direct engagement, of speaking to each other, laying out our differences, which are real, seeking to work through them,” Blinken told Chen.

“We have an obligation for our people, indeed an obligation to the world, to manage the relationship between our two countries responsibly,” he said. “That is the obligation we have, and one that we take very seriously.”

Chen agreed with that sentiment and said the recent Biden-Xi call had helped the “stable and healthy development of our two countries’ relationship.”

“Whether we choose cooperation or confrontation affects the well-being of both peoples, both countries, and the future of humanity” he said.

Chen added that he hoped Blinken was able to get a “deep impression and understanding” of Shanghai.

Shortly after arriving, Blinken attended a Chinese basketball playoff game between the local Shanghai Sharks and the Zhejiang Golden Bulls, with the home team losing in the last seconds in 121-120 nailbiter.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nearly all inmates have been transferred out of a troubled women’s prison set to be shut down in California, and U.S. senators on Wednesday demanded an accounting of the rapid closure plan for the facility where sexual abuse by guards was rampant.

As of Tuesday only “a small group” of women were still being held at FCI Dublin, with the majority of its 605 inmates having been sent this week to other federal facilities, said Donald Murphy, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons, or BOP. The unspecified number who remained at the minimum security prison near Oakland were pending release or transfer to halfway houses, he said.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the BOP expressing concern over claims of a chaotic transfer process during which inmates on buses and planes didn’t receive proper medical care and were reportedly subjected to “mistreatment, harassment, neglect, and abuse while in transit.”

Susan Beaty, a lawyer for inmates who blew the whistle on the conditions at the prison, said there were reports that during transport guards made abusive comments to the women, “labeling them as snitches, referring to the closure of Dublin.” In addition, the inmates were shackled at their wrists and ankles for the entirety of their long journeys, despite their minimum-security classification, and in some cases were denied water and trips to the bathroom, Beaty said.

The BOP didn’t immediately respond to the senators’ letter, but Murphy said the bureau was addressing all the inmates’ needs with “compassion and respect” during the transfer process.

“The process involved careful planning and coordination to ensure the safe transfer of women to other facilities, with special attention given to their unique programming, medical, and mental health requirements,” he wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “We remain committed to helping each individual adjust to their new environment with the necessary care and support.”

A 2021 Associated Press investigation exposed a “rape club” culture at the prison where a pattern of abuse and mismanagement went back decades. The Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promised to improve the culture and environment — but the decision to shutter the facility represented an extraordinary acknowledgment that reform efforts failed.

Following the sudden announcement April 15 that FCI Dublin would be shut down, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered a case-by-case review of each inmate’s specific needs before the transfers began.

In response, the bureau filed court papers questioning the authority of the special master appointed by the judge on April 5 to oversee the prison, who was tasked with reviewing each woman’s status. Inmate advocates hoped the judge’s decision would slow the shutdown. But the bureau proceeded with the process anyway, saying in a court filing that “extensive resources and employee hours have already been invested in the move.”

Five Senate judiciary committee members on Wednesday asked Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters to provide information on preparations to close the facility and guidance given “for the safe and humane release from custody or transfer of individuals to other BOP facilities.”

“Individuals in custody at FCI Dublin have long endured a toxic carceral culture marked by sexual assault, harassment, and medical neglect at the hands of BOP staff. And now, while subjected to the deprivations and indignities of a flawed and rushed closure and transfer protocol, women in custody are reporting hostility and retaliation from BOP employees who blame them for the facility’s closure. This is unacceptable,” said the letter signed by Democratic senators Cory Booker of New Jersey; Richard Durbin of Illinois; Jon Osoff of Georgia; and Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler of California.

Beaty said some of her clients have reportedly been sent to facilities in Texas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia.

“These are women who’d been able to see their kids and their parents and loved ones with some regularity. Now they’re distraught because they’ve been ripped apart,” Beaty said.

Advocates had called for most inmates to be freed — not transferred — from FCI Dublin, which they said was not only plagued by sexual abuse but also has hazardous mold, asbestos and inadequate health care. They also worry that some of the safety concerns could persist at other women’s prisons.

Last August, eight FCI Dublin inmates sued the Bureau of Prisons, alleging the agency had failed to root out sexual abuse at the facility. Their lawyers have said the civil litigation will continue.

HARTFORD (AP) — The Connecticut Senate pressed ahead Wednesday with one of the first major legislative proposals in the U.S. to rein in bias in artificial intelligence decision-making and protect people from harm, including manufactured videos or deepfakes.

The vote was held despite concerns the bill might stifle innovation, become a burden for small businesses and make the state an outlier.

The bill passed 24-12 after a lengthy debate. It is the result of two years of task force meetings in Connecticut and a year’s worth of collaboration among a bipartisan group of legislators from other states who are trying to prevent a patchwork of laws across the country because Congress has yet to act.

“I think that this is a very important bill for the state of Connecticut. It’s very important I think also for the country as a first step to get a bill like this,” said Democratic Sen. James Maroney, the key author of the bill. “Even if it were not to come and get passed into law this year, we worked together as states.”

Lawmakers from Connecticut, Colorado, Texas, Alaska, Georgia and Virginia who have been working together on the issue have found themselves in the middle of a national debate between civil rights-oriented groups and the industry over the core components of the legislation. Several of the legislators, including Maroney, participated in a news conference last week to emphasize the need for legislation and highlight how they have worked with industry, academia and advocates to create proposed regulations for safe and trustworthy AI.

But Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding said he felt like Connecticut senators were being rushed to vote on the most complicated piece of legislation of the session, which is scheduled to adjourn May 8. The Republican said he feared the bill was “full of unintended consequences” that could prove detrimental to businesses and residents in the state.

“I think our constituents are owed more thought, more consideration to this before we push that button and say this is now going to become law,” he said.

Besides pushback from Republican legislators, some key Democrats in Connecticut, including Gov. Ned Lamont, have voiced concern the bill may negatively impact an emerging industry. Lamont, a former cable TV entrepreneur, “remains concerned that this is a fast-moving space, and that we need to make sure we do this right and don’t stymie innovation,” his spokesperson Julia Bergman said in a statement.

Among other things, the bill includes protections for consumers, tenants and employees by attempting to target risks of AI discrimination based on race, age, religion, disability and other protected classes. Besides making it a crime to spread so-called deepfake pornography and deceptive AI-generated media in political campaigns, the bill requires digital watermarks on AI-generated images for transparency.

Additionally, certain AI users will be required to develop policies and programs to eliminate risks of AI discrimination.

The legislation also creates a new online AI Academy where Connecticut residents can take classes in AI and ensures AI training is part of state workforce development initiatives and other state training programs. There are some concerns the bill doesn’t go far enough, with calls by advocates to restore a requirement that companies must disclose more information to consumers before they can use AI to make decisions about them.

The bill now awaits action in the House of Representatives.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A woman who sued Mississippi’s capital city over the death of her brother has decided to reject a settlement after officials publicly disclosed how much the city would pay his survivors, her attorney said Wednesday.

George Robinson, 62, died in January 2019, days after three Jackson police officers pulled him from a car while searching for a murder suspect.

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday approved the payment of $17,786 to settle the lawsuit that relatives of Robinson filed in state court in October 2019, WLBT-TV reported. City documents said the settlement was not an admission of liability by the city or the three officers named in the lawsuit. Robinson was Black, as are the three officers.

The payment to the relatives — including Robinson’s sister, Bettersten Wade — was approved on a unanimous vote. Wade’s attorney, Dennis Sweet III, released a letter Wednesday saying that the city of Jackson violated a confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement. Sweet said that because of the public disclosure and because the city “appears to claim or infer some sort of perceived victory,” Wade intends to continue suing the city.

Sweet said Robinson’s family reached a separate “substantial settlement” with an ambulance company.

Councilman Kenneth Stokes said he thought the city settlement was too small, although he voted for it.

“I’m saying it just sends the wrong message about human life, especially Black people’s lives,” Stokes said. “I think a step in the right direction would’ve been to pay the family a little bit more.”

The lawsuit alleged that the three officers “brutally, viciously and mercilessly beat Mr. Robinson by striking and kicking him.”

“Mr. Robinson had not committed any crime, was not the subject of any active warrant, and was not a threat to himself or any person in the area,” the lawsuit said.

Robinson had been hospitalized for a stroke days before the police encounter and was on medication, Wade has said. He had a seizure hours after he was beaten, and he died two days later from bleeding on his brain.

Second-degree murder charges against two of the officers were dropped in the case. In August 2022, a Hinds County jury convicted former detective Anthony Fox of culpable negligence manslaughter — and then in January of this year, the Mississippi Court of Appeals overturned Fox’s conviction. A majority of the appeals court wrote that prosecutors failed to prove Fox “acted in a grossly negligent manner” or that Robinson’s death “was reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.”

Wade is the mother of Dexter Wade, who was run over by an off-duty Jackson Police Department officer in March 2023.

Dexter Wade was buried at the Hinds County Pauper’s Cemetery. But it was October before his mother was told about the burial.

His body was exhumed Nov. 13, and an independent autopsy was conducted. A wallet found in the pocket of his jeans contained his state identification card with his home address, credit card and a health insurance card, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wade’s family.

On Nov. 20, Dexter Wade’s family held a funeral for him, and he was buried in another cemetery.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican legislative leaders in Ohio say they are negotiating with Democrats to assure President Joe Biden appears on the state’s November ballot, but the exact shape of the solution remains murky.

GOP Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman told reporters Wednesday that productive discussions are under way between both legislative chambers and both political parties about how to fix the fact that the Democratic National Convention, where Biden is to be formally nominated, falls after Ohio’s ballot deadline of Aug. 7. The convention will be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

“Certainly, it’s something that’s going to happen. We need to take care of it,” Huffman said, seeming to adjust his earlier stance that it was “a Democratic problem” that was up to the General Assembly’s minority party to work out. He said the answer may be added to an existing bill or it could be contained in a stand-alone measure.

On Tuesday, Republican House Speaker Jason Stephens expressed support for doing something to fix the problem with Ohio’s deadline not just for this election cycle, but on a longer term basis.

Since Ohio changed its certification deadline from 60 to 90 days ahead of its general election, state lawmakers have had to adjust the requirement twice, in 2012 and 2020, to accommodate candidates of both parties. Each change was only temporary.

Huffman said he also favors a more permanent solution.

Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio continued to express confidence Wednesday that Biden will make Ohio’s ballot, saying that “all options are being explored.”

“The discussion is there, and it will become reality when we see it,” she said. Antonio said a proxy war between Huffman and Stephens for next session’s speakership is “the elephant in the room” that may be causing delays.

As Ohio nears the May 9 cutoff set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, legislation meant to ensure Biden will appear on fall ballots in Alabama cleared the state’s Senate Tuesday. The Alabama bill offers accommodations to the president like those made four years ago for then-President Donald Trump.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies in California will be limited to annual price increases of 3% starting in 2029 under a new rule state regulators approved Wednesday in the latest attempt to corral the ever-increasing costs of medical care in the United States.

The money Californians spent on health care went up about 5.4% each year for the past two decades. Democrats who control California’s government say that’s too much, especially since most people’s income increased just 3% each year over that same time period.

The 3% cap, approved Wednesday by the Health Care Affordability Board, would be phased in over five years, starting with 3.5% in 2025. Board members said the cap likely won’t be enforced until the end of the decade.

A new state agency, the Office of Health Care Affordability, will gather data to enforce the rule. Providers who don’t comply could face fines.

“We want to be aggressive,” board chair Dr. Mark Ghaly said, while acknowledging that the cap “really translates into a major challenge” for the health care industry.

The vote is just the start of the process. Regulators will later decide how the cost target will be applied across the state’s various health care sectors. And enforcement will be progressive, with several chances for providers to avoid fines.

California’s health care industry has supported the idea of a statewide cost target but argued a 3% cap is too low and will be nearly impossible to meet. In December, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the cost to practice medicine in the United States would increase 4.6% this year alone.

The board based the target on the average annual change in median household income in California between 2002 and 2022, which was 3%. Dr. Tanya W. Spirtos, president of the California Medical Association that represents doctors, wrote a letter to the board noting that number is “artificially low” because it includes the years of the Great Recession, when income dropped dramatically. She said a better gauge would be looking at the past 10 years, when median household income increased an average of 4.1% per year.

Hospitals argue much of what they charge is outside of their control. More than half of hospitals’ expenses are salaries for workers, and many of those are set through collective bargaining agreements with labor unions. Plus, a new state law that takes effect this year will gradually increase the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 per hour.

More than half of California’s 425 hospitals are losing money, and many rural facilities are in danger of closing — prompting the state Legislature last year to approve an emergency loan program.

Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, said when it comes to hospital finances, “the fat is already gone.” She said hospitals regularly perform complex procedures that save lives, including quadruple bypass surgeries.

“We’re fooling ourselves if we think that’s cheap or can be done less expensively,” she said.

Health care spending in the United States has more than doubled in the past two decades, reaching $4.5 trillion in 2022, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Eight other states have set statewide cost targets for their health care industries. What makes California’s cap different, experts say, is both the staggering size of the state’s health care industry and its plan to enforce the limit with fines.

Health providers could exceed the cap if they have a good reason, including giving raises to health care workers. Those issues have yet to be worked out and will be considered on a case by case basis.

California has greatly expanded access to health insurance in recent years, including using taxpayer money to provide deep discounts for some middle-income earners and offering free coverage to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status. State lawmakers have resisted more ambitious actions, including a single-payer system.

“Making quality health care affordable is a top priority for our administration,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement released by his office. “This action is a crucial first step forward in our efforts to reign in outrageous heath care costs and make health care more affordable.”

Wednesday’s vote was the state’s first foray into tackling health care spending in California, which reached $405 billion in 2020, or $10,299 per person — the 22nd highest in the nation. Still, costs have increased greatly for people who get health insurance through their job. In 2006, just 6% of California workers who had deductibles of $1,000 or more. By 2020, it was 54%.

“We have a system right now that the incentives are not about getting the most cost efficient service,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California who advised the board on the new cost limit. “This is an attempt to try to have that incentive into a market that is more about getting bigger than about getting better.”

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump ‘s chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 16 others for their efforts to use so-called fake electors to try to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

The indictment released Wednesday names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona in 2020, including the former state party chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. They’re charged with nine counts each of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. The identities of seven other defendants, including Giuliani and Meadows, were not immediately released because they had not yet been served with the charges.

Trump, who is described in the indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator, has argued that he can’t be prosecuted for acts he committed while serving as president. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will hear arguments on his bid to avoid federal prosecution over his efforts to reverse his loss.

With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election. Heading into a likely November rematch with Biden, Trump continues to spread lies about the last election that are echoed by many of his supporters.

“I will not allow American democracy to be undermined,” Democratic state Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a video released by her office. “It’s too important.”

The Associated Press was able to determine the identities of the unnamed defendants based on their descriptions in the document.

One is an attorney “who was often identified as the Mayor” and spread false allegations of election fraud, which clearly describes Giuliani. Another is Trump’s “ chief of staff in 2020,” which describes Meadows.

Descriptions of other unnamed defendants point to Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations; John Eastman, a lawyer who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election; and Christina Bobb, a lawyer who worked with Giuliani. Eastman and Bobb did not respond to text messages seeking comment, nor did a lawyer who is representing Roman in a case in Georgia.

George Terwilliger, a lawyer representing Meadows, said he had not yet seen the indictment but if Meadows is named, “it is a blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.” Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman, decried what he called “the continued weaponization of our justice system.”

The 11 people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes. Of the eight lawsuits that unsuccessfully challenged Biden’s victory in the state, one was filed by the 11 Republicans who would later sign the certificate declaring Trump as the winner.

Their lawsuit asked a judge to de-certify the results that gave Biden his victory in Arizona and block the state from sending them to the Electoral College. In dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa said the Republicans lacked legal standing, waited too long to bring their case and “failed to provide the court with factual support for their extraordinary claims.”

Days after that lawsuit was dismissed, the 11 Republicans participated in the certificate signing.

The Arizona charges come after a string of indictments against fake electors in other states.

In December, a Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans on felony charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument in connection with false election certificates. They have pleaded not guilty.

Michigan’s Attorney General in July filed felony charges that included forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery against 16 Republican fake electors. One had charges dropped after reaching a cooperation deal, and the 15 remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Three fake electors also have been charged in Georgia alongside Trump and others in a sweeping indictment accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the results. They have pleaded not guilty.

In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans who posed as electors settled a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. There is no known criminal investigation in Wisconsin.

Trump also was indicted in August in federal court over the fake electors scheme. The indictment states that when Trump was unable to persuade state officials to illegally swing the election, he and his Republican allies began recruiting a slate of fake electors in battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — to sign certificates falsely stating he, not Biden, had won their states.

In early January, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that state’s five Republican electors cannot be prosecuted under the current law. In New Mexico and Pennsylvania, fake electors added a caveat saying the election certificate was submitted in case they were later recognized as duly elected, qualified electors. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania.

In Arizona, Mayes’ predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, conducted an investigation of the 2020 election, but the fake elector allegations were not part of that examination, according to Mayes’ office.

In another election-related case brought by Mayes’ office, two Republican officials in a rural Arizona county who delayed canvassing the 2022 general election results face felony charges. A grand jury indicted Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby in November on one count each of conspiracy and interference with an election officer. Both pleaded not guilty.

The Republicans facing charges are Kelli Ward, the state GOP’s chair from 2019 until early 2023; state Sen. Jake Hoffman; Tyler Bowyer, an executive of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA who serves on the Republican National Committee; state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was photographed in restricted areas outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack and is now a candidate in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District; Greg Safsten, a former executive director of the Arizona Republican Party; energy industry executive James Lamon, who lost a 2022 Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat; Robert Montgomery, chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee in 2020; Samuel Moorhead, a Republican precinct committee member in Gila County; Nancy Cottle, who in 2020 was the first vice president of the Arizona Federation of Republican Women; Loraine Pellegrino, past president of the Ahwatukee Republican Women; and Michael Ward, an osteopathic physician who is married to Kelli Ward.

In a statement, Hoffman accused Mayes of weaponizing the attorney general’s office in bringing the case but didn’t directly comment on the indictment’s allegations.

“Let me be unequivocal, I am innocent of any crime, I will vigorously defend myself, and I look forward to the day when I am vindicated of this naked political persecution by the judicial process,” Hoffman said.

None of the others responded to either phone, email or social media messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

___

Associated Press writers Gabe Stern and Scott Sonner in Las Vegas, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — County commissioners in rural New Mexico extended authorization for a migrant detention facility Wednesday in cooperation with federal authorities over objections by advocates for immigrant rights who allege inhumane conditions and due process violations at the privately operated Torrance County Detention Facility.

The 3-0 vote by the Torrance County commission clears the way for a four-month extension through September of an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the detention of migrants at the facility.

At a public meeting, advocates renewed criticism that the the facility has inadequate living conditions and provides limited access to legal counsel for asylum-seekers who cycle through. Critics of the detention center have urged federal immigration authorities to end their contract with a private detention operator, while unsuccessfully calling on state lawmakers to ban local government contracts for migrant detention.

The ACLU announced Tuesday that it had uncovered documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that show a 23-year-old Brazilian migrant didn’t receive adequate mental health care prior to his suicide in August 2022 at the Torrance County Detention Facility after being denied asylum. Contacted by email Wednesday, ICE representatives had no immediate response to the allegations by the ACLU.

The ACLU urged federal authorities reconsider its contract the Torrance County facility based on a “mortality review” by ICE’s health services corps of circumstances leading up to the death of Kelsey Vial during the migrant’s monthlong detention. The document describes Vial’s symptoms and treatment for depression while awaiting removal to Brazil and concludes that detention center staff “did not provide Mr. Vial’s health care within the safe limits of practice.”

County Commissioner Sam Schropp said events described by the ACLU took place nearly two years ago and don’t reflect current conditions at the facility that he has witnessed during his own unannounced visits. He described numerous accounts of desperation among migrants related to food, water and health care access within the facility as “hearsay.”

“The accounts which you attribute to the federal government will not be changed by closing of (the Torrance County Detention Facility). Those detainees will be moved to another facility and there will be no one like me appearing,” Schropp said.

The ACLU’s Mike Zamore petitioned a top ICE official to conduct a new review of the detention center before extending the contract beyond May.

“While this review continues, ICE should let the contract for Torrance expire,” wrote Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs for the ACLU. “From a good governance perspective, it makes no sense to renew a contract for operations that have repeatedly resulted in dangerous conditions and chronic violation of federal standards.”

The detention center at Estancia can accommodate at least 505 adult male migrants at any time, though actual populations fluctuate.

Torrance County Manager Janice Barela said federal authorities proposed terms of the four-month extension of the services agreement for immigrant detention. County government separately contracts for jail space unrelated to immigration at the detention center, which is the county’s largest payer of property taxes.

CHICAGO (AP) — The “rat hole” is gone.

A Chicago sidewalk landmark some residents affectionately called the “rat hole” was removed Wednesday after city officials determined the section bearing the imprint of an animal was damaged and needed to be replaced, officials said.

The imprint has been a quirk of a residential block in Chicago’s North Side neighborhood of Roscoe Village for years, but it found fresh fame in January after a Chicago comedian shared a photo on the social platform X.

The attention, however, quickly grew old for neighbors who complained about visitors at all hours, sometimes leaving coins and other items scattered across the sidewalk. Plus, many in the neighborhood argue that the imprint was actually caused by a squirrel.

Erica Schroeder, a spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Transportation, said the square of sidewalk “containing the famous ‘Chicago rat hole’” is now in temporary storage.

She said that where the slab of sidewalk, which has an impression resembling the outline of a rat — claws, tail and all — will eventually end up is expected to be a “collaborative decision between the city departments and the mayor’s office.”

Schroeder said the rat hole section, as well as other portions of sidewalk along Roscoe Street, were removed by Department of Transportation crews Wednesday morning after the agency inspected them and determined they needed to be replaced because of damage.

Georgina Ulrich, a neighbor, shot video of crews using a concrete saw, a forklift and finally a truck to remove the slab and drive it away.

“All this for a rat imprint,” Ulrich said in one of the clips.

New concrete was poured later Wednesday, Schroeder said.

“The alderman’s office has definitely received complaints from neighbors about people gathering and people placing a bunch of different objects in the public way there,” she told The Associated Press.

Alderman Scott Waguespack’s office had been receiving complaints for several months, both about that portion of sidewalk being uneven and people congregating there to look at and photograph the rat hole, Paul Sajovec, Waguespack’s chief of staff, said Wednesday.

“It was just a combination of the fact that the sidewalk was uneven and also that people would show up at various times of the day and night and make a lot of noise and create other issues and problems,” he said.

In January, someone filled in the rat hole with a material resembling white plaster, although the impression was quickly dug out by fans, the Chicago Tribune reported at the time.

Chicago resident Winslow Dumaine told the newspaper that people living nearby said the imprint had been there for nearly two decades.

___

Callahan reported from Indianapolis.

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up on an increasing number of college campuses following last week’s arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University.

Protests Wednesday on the campuses of at least two universities involved clashes with police, while another university shut down its campus for the rest of the week.

The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself.

Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they’re inspired by peers at other universities.

A look at protests on campuses in recent days:

Pro-Palestinian student protesters set up a tent encampment at the Ivy League university in New York last week. Police first tried to clear the encampment on Thursday, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. But the move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.

University officials said early Wednesday that they were extending a deadline for protesters to clear out. They said the demonstrators had committed to removing a significant number of tents and agreed that only students would remain at the encampment. They also said they would make the encampment more welcoming by banning any discriminatory language or harassing messages. The encampment on the upper Manhattan campus appeared calm and a little smaller on Wednesday morning.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Columbia on Wednesday to meet with Jewish students over concerns about antisemitism on college campuses. Johnson said Israel and Jewish students on campus will not stand alone. Protesters nearby said they couldn’t hear him and he responded, “Enjoy your free speech.”

Dozens of police officers and state troopers, including some on horseback and holding batons, forcefully arrested more than two dozen students protesters and a local news photographer at the University of Texas at Austin Wednesday after university officials and the governor called authorities.

Protesters said they had planned a walkout and march to the main campus lawn, where students would occupy the space and host events throughout the afternoon. But the university said in a statement that it would “not tolerate disruptions” like those at other campuses.

As of Wednesday night, 34 people had been arrested related to the protest, according to a post on the social platform X by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Agency spokesperson Sheridan Nolen said troopers had responded at the request of university officials and Gov. Greg Abbott.

Abbott said on X that the protesters belong in jail, and that any student who joins what he called hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in the state should be expelled.

A photographer covering the demonstration for local Fox affiliate, Fox 7 Austin, was among those arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students. The station confirmed the arrest in its online story. Another journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and was seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff, who bandaged his head.

In a statement, University President Jay Hartzell said that peaceful protests within the university’s rules are acceptable but that breaking the rules and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed.

“Our rules matter, and they will be enforced,” his statement said. “Our University will not be occupied.”

Los Angeles police began arresting protesters Wednesday evening at the University of Southern California in an effort to clear the center of the university’s main campus. The university posted on X that it had closed campus and that police would arrest people who did not leave.

Earlier in the day police removed several tents, then got into a back-and-forth tent tugging match with protesters before falling back. At one point, USC police detained a man and put him in a vehicle. A crowd surrounded the car and chanted “Let him go!” and the officers eventually did so. The man waved at demonstrators to indicate they should return to the park.

Two pro-Palestinian students participating in a protest on campus were arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal trespassing, after “repeated warnings to be quiet,” said university spokesperson Ben Johnson.

About 50 protesters had gathered at a campus amphitheater to share stories about their connections to the Palestinian people before marching. While stopping at a building on the university’s medical campus, two individuals became “disruptive,” Johnson said. Per university policy, the students who were arrested will be referred to the student conduct office.

Trying to stay ahead of protests, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, locked most gates into its famous Harvard Yard ahead of classes Monday and limited access to those with school identification. The school also posted signs warning against setting up tents or tables on campus without permission. Those efforts didn’t stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday, which came after a rally against the university’s suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Students at the university used furniture, tents, chains and zip ties to block entrances to an academic and administrative building on Monday. Protesters chanted, “We are not afraid of you!” before officers in riot gear pushed into them at the building’s entrance, video shows. University officials closed the campus through this weekend, saying instruction would continue to be remote. They said in a statement Tuesday that students had occupied a second building and three students had been arrested. On Wednesday officials said some unidentified people who are not students were also inside one of the occupied buildings. Humboldt is located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north of San Francisco.

About 80 students and other supporters at Emerson College occupied a busy courtyard on the downtown Boston campus Tuesday. College officials on Wednesday warned the students that some of the protesters were in violation of city ordinances, including by blocking a right-of-way and fire hydrants, and violating noise laws. The school said the alley where some protesters have set up tents is owned by the city, and Boston police have warned of imminent law enforcement action. The college said in a statement that campus police were offering escort services for students after officials received credible reports of some protesters engaging in “targeted harassment and intimidation of Jewish supporters of Israel.”

At New York University, an encampment set up by students swelled to hundreds of protesters earlier this week. Police on Wednesday said that 133 protesters had been taken into custody. They said all were released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges.

An encampment at the center of the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor had grown to about 40 tents on Tuesday. Almost every student there wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered. Student protesters declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution by the university. One student stood near the encampment passing out small flags of Israel, saying he didn’t want Jewish students walking through campus to only see the protesters.

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar attended a protest at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, hours after nine demonstrators were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. Hundreds had rallied to demand their release. Omar’s daughter was among the protesters arrested at Columbia last week.

On Wednesday, more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter calling on the University of Minnesota’s president to drop any charges, lift any ban on the arrestees’ presence on campus and to allow future encampments.

Police arrested 48 protesters, including four who were not students, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of Yale University’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut, on Monday.

Protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, had set up about 30 tents as of Tuesday.