ACROSS THE NATION
Trending
At 91, Dale ‘Grey Beard’ Sanders reclaims record as oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail
MILLINOCKET, Maine (AP) -- More than 14 million older adults fall every year in the U.S., perhaps none so often as 91-year-old Dale Sanders.
By his count, Sanders fell 71 times while reclaiming his record as the oldest hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. Six were what he calls hard falls, including one that led to a brief hospitalization and another just 200 yards from the finish. But none were enough to permanently divert him from the 2,193-mile (3,530-kilometer) trail that runs between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy defines a thru-hike as completing all of the trail’s sections in any order within a year, allowing for pauses. Sanders started Sept. 6 in West Virginia, hopscotched around with some brief breaks and finished Monday atop Maine’s highest peak, where he paused to pray at the sign marking the summit.
“I had to thank God, and I had to thank my support team and everybody that got me here,” he said.
Sanders, whose trail name is Grey Beard, first set the Appalachian Trail record in 2017 at age 82. Four years later, his 83-year-old friend M.J. Eberhart, aka Nimblewill Nomad, took the title. But within months, Sanders announced his comeback plan.
While Sanders’ first journey was easier than he expected, the latest was considerably harder. Despite six months of training, he said he wasn’t in the best condition when he returned to the trail.
“And even today, I feel that I should probably be in better shape than I am,” he said last month. “But I just have to always go back and say, ‘But I am 91, so I’m blazing new ground hiking long distances like this.'”
In June, Sanders was descending Killington Mountain in central Vermont when he fell forward in a boulder field, scraping his legs, arms and hands.
“Thank God nothing got broken, but I was banged up,” he said. “I didn’t rub the blood off, I just kept hiking.”
Weeks later, his left arm went numb and he ended up at a Maine hospital. What doctors initially feared was a stroke turned out to be a pinched nerve, but though he was soon cleared to resume hiking, he considered giving up.
He returned home to Tennessee in early August to be with his wife, whose mother had just died, and she convinced him to press on.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job, White House says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is stepping down after 18 months on the job, the White House said Monday, in the latest departure of a top military leader during the Trump administration.
No reason was given for the departure of Driscoll, who is a friend of Vice President JD Vance, but tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported. It marks the latest in a series of shakeups of the military leadership, with the Army especially seeing major upheaval.
"Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump's agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army by providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and more," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
"The United States Army is more powerful than ever thanks to his work alongside the Commander-in-Chief and Secretary of War," she added.
A U.S. Army official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Driscoll spoke with President Donald Trump on the current state of the Army and submitted his resignation. The official did not provide additional details. The Pentagon referred questions to the Army. Driscoll's resignation was reported earlier Monday by The Wall Street Journal.
Hegseth suddenly ousted the service's top uniformed leader, Gen. Randy George, in April, while the Army's commander in Europe and Africa, Gen. Christopher Donahue, unexpectedly stepped down in June.
US military has no plans to send troops to the polls in November, top general says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November's midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement in a letter to Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who recently asked Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to confirm they won't send troops to the polls.
"The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections," Caine said in the letter to Slotkin, which was obtained Monday by The Associated Press. "Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material."
Caine, who advises Hegseth and President Donald Trump on military matters, also wrote: "I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections."
Anxiety among Democrats that the Trump administration could try to meddle in the midterm elections has grown, particularly after the president deployed federal agents in Democratic-led states over the objections of local leaders.
Slotkin told the AP earlier in August that Trump has been laying the groundwork to claim the elections were stolen. She noted that Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines after his loss in 2020 and has deployed the National Guard to cities against the wishes of Democratic leaders. He also deployed active duty Marines to Los Angeles during his immigration crackdown in 2025.
Federal law prohibits the deployment of armed federal forces to election locations unless "necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States." If any element of the military were to get involved, it would likely be the National Guard under state control.
Supreme Court lets White House continue construction on Trump's $400 million ballroom
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed the White House to continue construction on a $400 million ballroom project as lawsuits play out, a win for President Donald Trump as he flexes unprecedented executive power and remakes the capital in his image.
The apparent 5-4 decision replaces a temporary order issued earlier this month, shortly before a court-ordered halt would have gone into effect.
That temporary order was signed by Chief Justice John Roberts, assigned to handle appeals from the capital. But he publicly disagreed with the latest decision, writing a strong dissent that said the project is likely unlawful because it hasn't been approved by Congress.
"Today's decision is no victory for the separation of powers," Roberts wrote. The court's three liberal-leaning justices agreed.
The majority, on the other hand, found the National Trust for Historic Preservation likely did not have the legal right to challenge the project.
The unsigned order pointed to government arguments that the ballroom would address national security concerns by shielding a planned underground military installation and offering a more secure structure for large events than the tents currently used.
By contrast, "the only harm the Trust claims is the offense one of its members will suffer from having to view a structure of the 'scale,' 'height,' and 'massing' the government intends," it states.
Trump applauded the decision, writing in a social media post, "I am pleased to report that the United States Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of the Ballroom/Military Complex being built without any further contingency, doubt, or threat."
The majority's order did not directly decide the legality of the project, and the suit will return to lower courts. Documents filed in the case, though, say that key portions of the project could be complete within months -- a quick timeline compared with a typical legal case.
The trust's president and CEO, Brent Leggs, said the group was disappointed with the decision but pleased with Roberts' dissent. "This is not the final decision on the merits of our case and does not resolve our fundamental argument -- that each President is a temporary steward of the People's House and does not have the unilateral authority to demolish and redesign it without the approval of Congress," he said in a statement.
The Trump administration asked the justices to intervene after federal courts found the project must halt because it didn't have congressional approval.
DEA tactic that let fentanyl flood the streets is being investigated by House Republicans
MIAMI (AP) -- A controversial policing tactic that permitted staggering amounts of deadly fentanyl to reach the streets as federal authorities sought to build bigger drug cases is now under investigation by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.
The committee's chairman, Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting records related to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's controversial strategy of monitoring -- yet not seizing -- major fentanyl shipments.
The request echoes concerns raised by officials in New Mexico, the epicenter of the fentanyl crisis, where DEA whistleblowers recently reported being ordered to stand down rather than seize hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills in possible violation of Justice Department rules intended to safeguard communities. Last week, the state's attorney general, Raúl Torrez, sued the Justice Department seeking to force it to turn over some of the same records being sought by Republicans on Comer's committee.
"While DEA agents may not have the resources to intercept every single known shipment, a policy directing them not to intercept significant shipments is unconscionable and undoubtedly resulted in considerable harm and lives lost," Comer wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The DEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit and congressional inquiry come two months after an AP investigation found DEA agents repeatedly monitored major fentanyl shipments in New Mexico between 2023 and 2025 that were allowed to hit the streets as federal authorities built out criminal cases.
The fentanyl went unseized amid the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history and even as DEA led a public awareness campaign -- "One Pill Can Kill" -- emphasizing that even a few milligrams of the substance can be lethal. Last year, the White House designated the synthetic opioid a "weapon of mass destruction."
DA says a teen who recorded San Diego mosque shooting livestream has been charged with murder
A 17-year-old North Carolina girl who recorded a livestream of a shooting that killed three people at a San Diego mosque and then disseminated the attackers' white-supremacist writings has been charged with murder by aiding and abetting, a district attorney said Monday.
Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill said at a news conference in Winston-Salem that the girl, identified in court records as Sarah L. Santiago, was arrested last week. A grand jury indicted her on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy Monday.
"At this time I can confirm that my client is innocent of all these charges," Santiago's attorney, Alan Doorasamy Sr., wrote in an email to The Associated Press. He said he had not received evidence from law enforcement and did not elaborate on any connection between Santiago and the attackers.
Under North Carolina law, the aiding-and-abetting charges carry the same penalties as if the girl had committed the attack herself, O'Neill said. She is charged as an adult and was being held without bond.
According to the indictment, Santiago agreed prior to the attack that she would record the livestream as the gunmen filmed it, distribute the recording, and release a document written by the attackers. She carried out those tasks, it said. She's also accused of purchasing a patch bearing a white-supremacist symbol and sending it to one of the gunmen to wear during the attack.
In all, three people watched the initial livestream, O'Neill said. It was not immediately clear if investigators had identified the others, and the indictment did not specify on which platforms the livestream was recorded or shared.
"The individual here, locally, was the person who was recording the livestream," O'Neill said. "She disseminated that information and she published their manifesto."
Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, stormed the Islamic Center on May 18 before being driven back outside by a security guard who exchanged gunfire with them as he initiated a lockdown, helping to protect 140 children who were just steps away.
The pair killed the guard, Amin Abdullah, and two other men before taking their own lives in a vehicle nearby. They left behind rambling writings full of vitriol against a wide range of people, and cited the shooter who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, as one of the models for their violence.
Clark and Vazquez also planned subsequent attacks on two other targets: a Jewish temple and a predominantly Black high school, O'Neill said. He credited the guard and other victims at the mosque with having saved countless lives.
The attackers' writings cited a range of far-right ideological inspirations, including the notion that white people are being replaced by other populations, and detailed their motives and goals. They included hateful rhetoric toward Jewish people, Muslims and Islam, as well as the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, women, and the political left and right.
They indicated they were trying to accelerate the collapse of society. Vazquez wrote of having "some mental health issues" and being rejected by women.
In a written statement, the Vazquez family said Caleb Vazquez was on the autism spectrum and had grown to resent parts of his identity. The family said they believed that, combined with exposure to hateful rhetoric online, contributed to his radicalization.
Tazheen Nizam, executive director of the San Diego office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, said it is essential to hold everyone involved in such attacks accountable.
"We as a community need to invest in dismantling anti-Muslim hate," Nizam said.
Santiago's arrest came just days before classes were to begin for the new school year, O'Neill said.
"The thought of her going back to school … we didn't know what she was capable of," he said.