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Harvey spins deeper inland; full scope of damage
is unknown
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- Harvey spun deeper into Texas and unloaded extraordinary amounts of rain Saturday after the once-fearsome hurricane crashed into vulnerable homes and businesses along the coastline in a blow that killed at least one person and injured up to 14.
Throughout the region between Corpus Christi and Houston, many people feared that toll was only the beginning. They did not know the full scope of damage already done, and they dreaded the destruction that was yet to come from a storm that could linger for days and unload more than 40 inches of rain on cities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation's fourth-largest.
Long after the system came ashore, weather conditions prevented emergency crews from getting into many of the hardest-hit places.
In the island community of Port Aransas, population 3,800, officials were unable to fully survey the town because of "massive" damage. Police and heavy equipment had only made it into the northernmost street. Mayor Charles Bujan had few other details.
"I can tell you I have a very bad feeling and that's about it," he said.
Hurricane Harvey closes key oil, gas operations in Texas
DALLAS (AP) -- Key oil and gas facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast have temporarily shut down as Harvey pounds the region with torrential rain and high winds, virtually assuring gasoline prices will rise in the storm's aftermath.
Even before the Harvey made landfall late Friday, dozens of oil and gas platforms had been evacuated, at least three refineries had closed and at least two petrochemical plants had suspended operations.
How soon they reopen depends on the severity of flooding and the resumption of power to the areas. Experts say it's still too early to say, with the storm still moving through the region Saturday evening. But they believe gas prices will increase 5 cents to 25 cents per gallon.
Harvey also continued to take a toll on U.S. air travel Saturday, with more than 1,000 flight cancellations as of the early evening, according to FlightAware. Nearly 850 of the canceled flights were scheduled to either depart from or land at Houston's two airports.
The shipping industry also is expected to be disrupted by the worst hurricane to hit the refinery-rich Texas coast in more than 50 years.
US man killed
in South Sudan; army says 'caught in fighting'
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) -- An American has been killed in civil war-torn South Sudan, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday, while South Sudan's army and opposition said the journalist was caught in the fighting between the two sides.
The embassy confirmed the death of Christopher Allen and said his family had been notified. His body was taken to the military hospital in South Sudan's capital, Juba.
South Sudan army spokesman Col. Domic Chol Santo told The Associated Press that the man was killed Saturday morning when opposition rebels attacked the town of Kaya near the borders with Uganda and Congo.
He was "caught in the fighting" that also left 15 rebels dead, the army spokesman said.
Opposition spokesman William Gatjiath Deng said Allen and two other journalists had spent two weeks with rebel forces in Bazi, near Kaya, and were in the barracks there when South Sudanese troops attacked.
Critics: Trump
pardon his latest affront against
judiciary
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio shows a lack of regard for an independent judiciary, say critics who note Trump's past criticism of federal judges, including the chief justice of the United States. Supporters counter that the veteran law enforcement officer deserved America's gratitude, "not the injustice of a political witch hunt."
"I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!," Trump tweeted late Friday after the White House announced that he had used his pardon power for the first time, sparing a political ally the prospect of jail time for defying court orders to halt police patrols that focused on Latinos.
The announcement came as Trump hunkered down at the Camp David presidential retreat while millions along the Texas coast braced themselves for Hurricane Harvey's impact. Trump's decision also followed the uproar that ensued after he said "both sides" were responsible for deadly violence during race-fueled clashes this month in Charlottesville, Virginia.
There is no legal dispute over Trump's ability to pardon in a contempt of court case, as was Arpaio's. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1925 that a presidential pardon for a criminal contempt of court sentence was within the powers of the executive, and Trump had telegraphed his move for days. But the pardon was unusual given that Arpaio was awaiting sentencing. It also had not gone through the normal pardon process, which includes lengthy reviews by the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office.
Reaction to the decision was sharp and swift, including among some fellow Republicans with whom Trump has been feuding openly.
As Trump struggles, some Republicans talking 2020
challenge
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mark Cuban isn't ready to launch a formal campaign to challenge President Donald Trump.
Yet Cuban, an outspoken Texas billionaire who describes himself as "fiercely independent" politically, sees an opportunity for someone to take down the Republican president, who is increasingly viewed as divisive and incompetent even within his own party.
"His base won't turn on him, but if there is someone they can connect to and feel confident in, they might turn away from him," Cuban told The Associated Press. "The door is wide open. It's just a question of who can pull it off."
Indeed, just seven months into the Trump presidency, Republicans and right-leaning independents have begun to contemplate the possibility of an organized bid to take down the sitting president in 2020. It is a herculean task, some say a fantasy: No president in the modern era has been defeated by a member of his own party, and significant political and practical barriers stand in the way.
The Republican National Committee, now run by Trump loyalists, owns the rulebook for nominating the party's standard-bearer and is working with the White House to ensure a process favorable to the president.
Statue of rights leader rises
as other icons
fall in South
ATLANTA (AP) -- The sculpted clay was dry and the bronze would soon be cast, but artist Martin Dawe still found himself waking with a start before dawn, worried that he didn't get the details of the famous man's face exactly right.
On Monday, Dawe will find out if he succeeded when officials unveil his statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on the Georgia state Capitol's grounds for the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington.
Getting to this point was a three-year struggle over multiple hurdles. Officials had to negotiate with King's family for the right to use his image. Then an artist was selected for the project, only to be killed in a motorcycle accident. After a lengthy screening, Dawe was chosen to replace him.
Then came the artistic challenge.
"It's the most difficult portrait I've ever done in my whole career," Dawe said this month at his Atlanta studio. "He has very elusive features. He has a very distinct profile but no over strong characteristic like some historical figures."
NRA's video
message to 'elites': 'We're coming
for you'
ATLANTA (AP) -- The election of President Donald Trump and Republican control of Congress meant the National Rifle Association could probably rest easy that gun laws wouldn't change for at least four years. But the NRA has begun a campaign not against pending legislation but what it sees as liberal forces bent on undoing the progress it's made -- and the political powerhouse is resorting to language that some believe could incite violence.
Using the hashtags #counterresistance and #clenchedfistoftruth, the NRA has put out a series of videos that announce a "shot across the bow," and say the gun-rights group is "coming for you" and that "elites … threaten our very survival," terms that suggest opponents are enemy combatants.
"The times are burning and the media elites have been caught holding the match," NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch says in one video aired on NRATV, the gun lobby's web video site, as it shows footage of people fighting police, breaking storefront glass and burning the American flag.
Later, she specifically calls out The New York Times: "We've had it with your narratives, your propaganda, your fake news. We've had it with your constant protection of your Democrat overlords, your refusal to acknowledge any truth that upsets the fragile construct that you believe is real life. And we've had it with your tone-deaf assertion that you are in any way truth or fact-based journalism," Loesch says. "Consider this the shot across your proverbial bow. … In short? We're coming for you."
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the tone and language is "overwrought rhetoric" that, viewed by the wrong person, could lead to violence. The kicker on one of the videos -- "We're coming for you" -- is straight out of the movies, she said, and "that phrase means that violence is imminent and we will perpetrate it."
On ships far
from the McCain crash, a renewed safety focus
ABOARD THE USS NIMITZ (AP) -- The deaths of sailors aboard the USS John S. McCain have had an impact around the American fleet, and commanders want to make sure such an accident doesn't happen again.
Ten sailors aboard the McCain were declared missing after their ship crashed into an oil tanker in coastal waters off Singapore. In June, seven sailors died when another destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, hit a container ship off Japan.
The top U.S. Navy officer, Adm. John Richardson, has ordered that ships around the world stop and retrain, relearn and focus on proper procedures and safety precautions to prevent more collisions or mishaps.
For the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, a pause is not simple. But its executive officer, Cdr. Dave Kurtz, says it's important to do it.
Trump directive sparks criticism among transgender troops
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Active-duty transgender troops say a policy change that puts them at risk of being removed and indefinitely bars transgender people from enlisting in the military is a step backward for civil rights that will promote inequality in the armed forces.
President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Pentagon to extend a ban on transgender individuals joining the military but gave the Pentagon the authority to decide the future of openly transgender people already serving. Trump appeared to leave open the possibility of allowing some transgender people who already are in uniform.
The guidance from the White House contradicts Trump's words, Army Capt. Jennifer Sims said, pointing out that he just praised the military for its tolerance when he told veterans in Nevada on Wednesday that those in uniform come from all walks of life and are united by shared values and a shared sense of duty. Sims spoke to The Associated Press on her own behalf and not on behalf of the Army.
Days earlier, Trump, speaking to thousands of soldiers at the Army's Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, in Arlington, Virginia, denounced prejudice, bigotry and hate in the wake of violence that erupted at a rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"It's going to create this situation where there is a complete inequality in how transgender troops are treated," said Sims, 28, who is based in Germany and is taking pills to prepare for her transition surgery.
Vandalism at county GOP
office in Kentucky denounced
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- The Republican Party of Kentucky is denouncing vandalism scrawled on a county GOP office.
WLEX-TV reports that someone scrawled "Nazi Scum" and "Die Nazi!" on the storefront of the Republican Party of Fayette County.
State GOP spokesman Tres Watson says the graffiti is the work of "hate-filled vandals whose only goal is to further divide" people. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray tweet that the city has no tolerance for vandalism. The Kentucky Democratic Party says in a statement that it denounces hate and racism, but they cannot expect to eradicate it through violent or destructive behavior.
Ohio city trying to catch man flashing people on bicycle
DELAWARE, Ohio (AP) -- Police in a city outside Columbus are searching for a man who has exposed himself to women four times in recent weeks while on a bicycle. The Columbus Dispatch reports a police captain in the city of Delaware says the bicyclist has been exposing himself since mid-July in parking lots and along a bike path.
Capt. Adam Moore calls the incidents "an assault."
The first reported flashing occurred July 13 when the man exposed himself to a shopkeeper in the city's downtown. Three incidents have been reported since then, including one Wednesday by a 23-year-old woman running along a bike path.
The man has been described as in his 20s or early 30s, slender, with blond or red hair, and possibly riding a mountain bike.
Teen male found shot to death in Ohio police cruiser
AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities say a 17-year-old male has been found fatally shot in the back seat of a police cruiser in the northeast Ohio city of Akron.
Akron police said in a statement a gun was found Friday night next to the teen, whose name hasn't been made public. Police haven't said whether the teen shot himself or how the gun ended up inside the cruiser.
The shooting occurred after the teen and two 18-year-old men were arrested as suspects in an earlier armed robbery and were placed in separate cruisers around 11 p.m.
Police Capt. Daniel Zampelli said a gunshot was heard while officers were investigating and the teen was found dead. Akron detectives, the department's Office of Professional Standards and the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office are investigating.