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Ohio Republicans' statewide bus tour rolls as Ramaswamy ad with Acton's mother divides the party

POWELL, Ohio (AP) -- Biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy embarked on a statewide bus tour across Ohio with fellow Republicans on Friday, even as his gubernatorial campaign's ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton was sowing growing divisions within his party as they fight to maintain political control of the state.

With the backing of Vice President JD Vance and at President Donald Trump's urging, Ramaswamy has continued a $4 million campaign to air the ad on streaming platforms and TV. During stops on the tour Friday, he defended it against criticism that he characterized as concocted by Democrats and the news media.

"The irony is they're lying about an ad that is about lying," he told a crowd in suburban Cleveland Friday morning. "They're changing the subject because they don't want to answer for their own failures."

The 60-second spot features Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter "a liar" who "needs help" due to a "a serious problem" being honest about her past. But Arthur hasn't seen her daughter in nearly 50 years. She lost custody of her children after her husband, the children's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12. Acton, Ohio's former state health director, says she hasn't seen her mother since 1978.

By Friday, every living full-term governor of Ohio -- two Democrats and three Republicans -- had spoken out against the ad. GOP former Gov. Bob Taft told Marion radio show host Scott Spears that his great-grandfather, President William Howard Taft, "is probably rolling over in his grave" at the negativity of this year's elections.

He urged Ramaswamy to cease airing the ad, as another fellow Republican, Gov. Mike DeWine, had done a day earlier. "It really exceeds the bounds of human decency," he said.

U.S. Sen. Jon Husted -- who, like Ramaswamy, is locked in an unexpectedly tight race against his Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Brown -- shared a stage with Vance on Wednesday without mentioning the controversial ad, and then issued a statement shortly afterward saying he would not have run it. Other statewide candidates have drawn the same careful line, without raising the issue when on the same stage with Ramaswamy.

Husted, whose name is emblazoned on the side of the bus along with all the other statewide candidates, did not participate in the first two stops of the tour Friday.

2 ex-FBI officials charged with lying about involvement in investigation into Hunter Biden's laptop

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two former FBI officials were charged Friday with lying to Congress about their involvement in investigating Hunter Biden's laptop in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the latest in a series of splashy and politically charged actions the Justice Department has undertaken ahead of next month's midterm contests.

Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, former leaders of a since-disbanded task force set up to counter foreign election interference, appeared in federal court in Washington, where their lawyers pressed for a speedy hearing to contest allegations their clients lied to lawmakers by saying that they did not participate in FBI investigations of Biden.

The prosecution, a rare Department of Justice criminal case against a former employee, revisits a tangled and peculiar saga that roiled the final weeks of the 2020 race. It also comes amid a broader, backward-looking effort by FBI Director Kash Patel, who before taking over the nation's premier law enforcement agency was a harsh critic of it, to scrutinize high-profile episodes from the bureau's recent past that for years have animated President Donald Trump's conservative base.

Floris' attorneys called her "a patriot" and said she has "served our nation as a dedicated FBI intelligence officer for nearly 20 years."

"Yet today, the DOJ has accused her falsely of a crime on the say-so of politicians, not on the facts," her attorneys said in a statement. "It's no coincidence the government is filing these nonsense charges now, years later, on the eve of an election."

Attorneys for Benavides accused the government of bringing "baseless criminal charges against him in a transparently political complaint."

"This is another sad day for the Department of Justice," his lawyers said in an emailed statement. "But now we are in court, and the truth will come out: Brad Benavides is a true patriot who devoted his career to protecting this country and its people. These charges are a disgrace."

Defense attorneys in Charlie Kirk's killing say they need years to prepare for trial

Defense attorneys for the man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk are suggesting a 2029 trial date because they say it could take them that long to prepare their case.

Attorneys for Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, said Thursday that the defense's proposed schedule was "absurd" and defendant Tyler Robinson was simply trying to delay.

Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf has scheduled a Friday hearing to set a trial date.

Robinson pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder in last year's killing of Kirk while the ally of President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of several thousand people at Utah Valley University. The 23-year-old defendant turned himself in a day after the shooting, and his lawyers have not offered alternative theories for Kirk's death. He could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

Utah County prosecutors allege Robinson targeted Kirk for his political beliefs. They say a bullet found in the rifle used to kill Kirk was engraved with "Hey Facist! CATCH!" and that Robinson wrote in a text message about Kirk: "I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out."

Trump weighed in on the trial date in a social media post prior to the hearing. He said the case should be tried "within a month" and accused the judge of "taking forever to ask questions that people already know the answer to."

Prosecutors said in court filings they anticipated a 17-week trial and said they would be ready by October 2027. But rather than hold the proceedings during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, they proposed the trial begin Jan. 31, 2028.

Erika Kirk's attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, said the trial should start next October, the earliest date identified by prosecutors.

"Under the Defendants' proposed schedule, Mr. Kirk's two children, who were one and three at the time he was murdered, will be six and eight years old by the time the trial concludes," Neiman wrote. "They will face the uncertainty of this criminal proceeding longer than they had their father in their lives."

Toledo, Ohio, mayor says employee error caused chemical leak, lifts remaining evacuation orders

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Officials in northeast Ohio said Friday that a chemical tank leak earlier in the week was caused by a chemical reaction resulting from an employee error and lifted all remaining evacuation orders.

Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said during a news conference that the venting of the tank that ruptured at MC Tank Terminal on Tuesday was finally completed late Thursday night, allowing a hazmat team to enter the site and test safety levels.

"At this time, we do feel confident that the site is safe," Toledo Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Blake Molnar said.

The rupture happened late Tuesday night. MC Tank Transport, the owner of the site, said the tank contained glycidyl methacrylate, which it described as "an industrial chemical used to make certain plastics, paints and coatings perform better." Hundreds of people were initially forced from their homes.

Dr. Brian Kaminski, vice president of medical affairs for ProMedica hospitals, said about 60 patients arrived at hospitals for treatment, most suffering relatively minor symptoms. A small number of patients who had underlying health conditions were admitted, and all patients were expected to recover, he said.

The chemical leak happened when an employee of the company "introduced a temperature level to the tank in the process of trying to transfer the liquid" that caused a chemical reaction, the mayor said. The company has "accepted responsibility" for what happened, the mayor said.

"There was no fire, there was no explosion. There was a very serious chemical reaction, which now happily has run its course, and we're now finally able to return to some level of normalcy here in our community," he said.

Based on data that officials have seen so far, the amount of the chemical in the air didn't reach levels high enough to have "a long-term meaningful impact on human health," the mayor said.

There are questions that remain unanswered, and the investigation is ongoing, he said.

NASA adopting Apollo's urgency to build a moon base and land astronauts within two years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years.

Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday that the space agency is still on track to launch Artemis III next summer on a docking exercise with Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos' lunar landers. The two-week mission featuring four astronauts will be confined to orbit around Earth -- no moon trip this time.

The all-important Artemis IV -- NASA's first moon landing by astronauts since Apollo -- remains scheduled for 2028, Isaacman said. His update came six months after the successful Artemis II flight around the moon by four astronauts, humanity's first lunar trip in more than half a century.

NASA will keep its options open as long as possible before choosing between SpaceX and Blue Origin for the Artemis IV lunar lander, according to officials.

Isaacman said the "new space race" to land astronauts on the moon -- racing against China now versus the Soviet Union during the Apollo era -- will be "much closer than it ever needed to be" because of slow going in past years.

But the space agency is now accelerating its pace, he noted, eliminating endless meetings and bureaucratic inertia, as SpaceX, Blue Origin and other companies scramble around the clock to meet the deadlines and NASA bolsters its workforce.

Adopting Apollo's urgent and intense approach from 1968 through 1972, a period which saw 24 astronauts fly to the moon and 12 land on it, is not "tech industry pixie dust or some new management philosophy," Isaacman said.

"It's about our own history. It's a playbook this agency knows really well, the same playbook that went from Apollo 7 splashdown to Apollo 11 in just nine months," he said during a news conference at Kennedy Space Center.

Both landers will be launched next summer for docking practice by the three NASA astronauts and one Italian who will blast into orbit aboard NASA's Orion capsule. The mission will require three launches in quick succession from Cape Canaveral. Orion will dock first with Blue Origin's Blue Ghost about 270 miles above Earth, then with SpaceX's Starship in a slightly lower orbit.

"As a rocket nerd, it's going to be pretty awesome," said Amit Kshatriya, NASA's associate administrator.

NASA's planned moon base near the moon's south pole -- nowhere near Apollo's more equatorial locales -- should see its first launch by year's end. The Pittsburgh company whose first lunar landing mission fizzled in 2024 will attempt a "take two," this time aiming for the moon's south polar region with a rover and other experiments. More landers, rovers and orbiters will follow, so many that by the time the first Artemis moonwalkers arrive, their moon car will already be there waiting for them, according to officials.

Police officer who shot and killed 1-year-old boy in Mississippi has resigned, Senatobia mayor says

The police officer who shot and killed a 1-year-old boy in Mississippi when he fired into a moving vehicle while responding to a shoplifting call has resigned, the Senatobia mayor told The Associated Press Friday.

Sgt. Hunter Foster, 33, had been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Mississippi Attorney General's office earlier this week after its monthslong probe concluded his use of force had been justified.

On Thursday, the state released videos of the fatal shooting of Kohen Wiley, including Foster's body-worn camera footage of the June 14 encounter in a Walmart parking lot in Senatobia, about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.

Senatobia Mayor Greg Graves confirmed Foster's resignation Friday.

Foster's attorney Martin Zummach declined to comment when reached Friday. Zummach has said Foster had 'no choice' but to fire his weapon at the vehicle because it was moving at him.

Kohen's mother, Vellesiya Wiley, has disputed that her friend, who was driving, headed toward the officers.

Ben Crump, an attorney for Kohen's family, said the footage shows the fatal shot came from the side of the car, disputing that Foster was in imminent danger. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family concluded the same. An image of the vehicle shows its shattered right front passenger window. The family's legal team called for the federal government to investigate the shooting.

"Officer Foster's resignation is hardly a step toward accountability, and it is certainly not justice," Crump said in a statement. "Turning in a badge does not erase responsibility for taking a life, and it will not end our fight for justice for Kohen and his family."

The family's legal team has called for Foster to be decertified as a police officer so that he cannot be hired by another law enforcement agency.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesperson Alex Gibert said Friday that Foster remained certified as a police officer.

Kohen would have celebrated his second birthday in early November.

The group of officers were at the Walmart store in response to an unrelated incident, according to a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation report. A Walmart employee then alerted them of two women running from the store.