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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials are investigating an incident in which a Southwest Airlines jet flew as low as 150 feet (45 meters) over water while it was still about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from its intended landing spot at the airport in Tampa, Florida.

The pilots skipped over the Tampa airport and landed instead at Fort Lauderdale, 200 miles (320 kilometers) away.

The July 14 flight followed a similar incident last month in Oklahoma City in which a Southwest jet flew at an unusually low altitude while still miles from the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it is investigating the incident.

Southwest flight 425, which took off from Columbus, Ohio, reached its low point as it flew over Old Tampa Bay near the Courtney Campbell Causeway, according to Flightradar24. Three previous Southwest flights to Tampa passed the same point at about 1,225 feet (375 meters) in altitude, the flight-tracking service said.

“Southwest Flight 425 safely diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 14 after the crew discontinued their planned approach into Tampa International Airport,” the airline said in a statement.

Dallas-based Southwest said it is in contact with the FAA “to understand and address any irregularities. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”

The FAA is still investigating a June 18 flight in which a Southwest jet triggered a low-altitude alert at about 525 feet (160 meters) above ground and 9 miles (14 kilometers) from the Oklahoma City airport. An air traffic controller reached out to that crew after getting an automated warning in the control tower. The plane circled the airport – a “go-around” – before making an uneventful landing.

In April, a Southwest flight went into a dive off the coast of Hawaii and came within 400 feet (120 meters) of the ocean before the plane began to climb. The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating a Southwest jet that did an unusual “Dutch roll” and was discovered to have damage to its tail after a flight from Phoenix to Oakland, California. Investigators say the plane had been parked outside during a severe storm.

HOUSTON – Lisa Diane Cox stumbled out of her sweltering Meyerland apartment and told neighbors that “she was on fire, she said she was dying,” days after Hurricane Beryl knocked out the CenterPoint Energy lines that powered their homes. The next morning Cox lay limp beside her twin sister, her body ice cold. Alton Ambush, who lived next door, raced to perform CPR as the ambulance came. That night, rattled neighbors gathered on their front porches to escape their own ovenlike apartments. Article continues below this ad “We just lost a neighbor to the heat,” Stephanie Blaylock said, nodding toward a nearby porch strewn with colorful rag rugs, an empty water bottle and a half-drank red Gatorade. Hurricane Beryl claimed at least 22 lives in the Houston area. Recent additions to the list include 11 people who died from hyperthermia, or overheating, after sitting without power for days in homes pummeled by a feverish Texas summer. At the height of the outages, CenterPoint, Houston’s main power distributor, had over 2.26 million customers with no electricity. When Cox died three days after the storm hit, over a million were still waiting on a fix.

Beryl’s official death toll will likely continue to climb, but experts said the final number is expected to have major gaps, especially among those found dead in powerless buildings with triple-digit temperatures. “The count of people dying from heat-related illness is underestimated,” said Dr. Sadeer Al-Kindi, a cardiologist at Houston Methodist who has researched environmental health. “Especially when people pass away at home. Even if you do an autopsy, there are no specific characteristics that you would find on an autopsy that would link to heat,” he said. Instead, high temperatures cause victims’ organs to fail faster, and medical examiners often list a person’s cause of death as the liver failure, kidney failure or heart attack they can see, rather than the hyperthermia they cannot. Though Houston officials have kept tabs on Beryl losses, any “natural deaths” not filed as heat-triggered remain uncounted. This seemed to be the case for Dorothy Mullan, a Museum District resident who was found dead July 16. She lived less than a five-minute drive from Houston’s world-class Texas Medical Center, whose electrical supply never faltered after the storm, but died in her sweltering apartment.

NASHVILLE – In under 48 hours, the head of the staunchly conservative public-policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention rankled fellow Baptists by applauding President Joe Biden’s “selfless act” of withdrawing his candidacy for re-election. Then, his agency reported he was fired — and now they have reaffirmed his leadership.

The head-spinning series of events started Sunday, but by Tuesday morning, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission announced that no, leader Brent Leatherwood wasn’t fired. Rather, he has the full support of his top board members — though its chairman resigned amid the agency’s retraction.

On Monday, the commission issued a statement that the ERLC’s executive committee had removed Leatherwood in accordance with its bylaws.

But on Tuesday, it said, “There was not an authorized meeting, vote, or action taken by the Executive Committee. Kevin Smith has resigned as Chair of the Executive Committee.”

Leatherwood “has our support moving forward,” the executive committee statement said.

Leatherwood posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday morning: “I deeply appreciate everyone who has reached out, especially our trustees who were absolutely bewildered at what took place yesterday and jumped in to set the record straight.”

Leatherwood had led the embattled agency through three years as the policy spokesman for the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, but he had not joined in the increasingly public support among many Southern Baptists for former President Donald Trump.

After Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would not seek re-election, Leatherwood called it a “selfless act.”

“We should all express our appreciation that President Biden has put the needs of the nation above his personal ambition,” Leatherwood said.

Leatherwood’s statement prompted fierce blowback on social media from some within the denomination who had already targeted his agency for criticism amid a larger battle to pull the already-conservative denomination even further to the right.

Clint Pressley, the newly elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, joined in the criticism of the idea that Biden acted on principle.

“Sounds right,” Pressley posted on X in response to a post by a Southern Baptist professor. That professor, Andrew Walker, said Biden’s withdrawal was not an “act of valor” but rather a case of “ultra-powerful” Democrats forcing him out.

Leatherwood came to his job three years ago with conservative credentials. He was a former executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party. He was also a director of communications and policy strategy in the Tennessee General Assembly and worked for several years on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Leatherwood is the father of three children who were at the Covenant School in Nashville, last year when it was attacked by a gun-wielding assailant who killed three adults and three other children. Leatherwood joined some other Covenant parents in an unsuccessful effort to advocate for legislation that would keep firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others.

Leatherwood also denounced the publication in some news media of documents attributed to the killer, saying that it only worsened the trauma to families of the schoolchildren. He was also the driving force behind a group of Covenant parents who went to court to keep the shooter’s writings from being released to media and other groups that had filed public records requests. A judge recently blocked the release of the writings.

Leatherwood and his agency had advocated staunchly conservative stances in areas such as opposing abortion, in keeping with official Southern Baptist stances, though he resisted calls by some to advocate legal penalties for women who seek abortions.

At this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, hundreds attended an unofficial event featuring a video-recorded address by Trump.

But Leatherwood hosted a separate event, also attended by hundreds, in which he interviewed former Vice President Mike Pence, another staunch conservative who received the wrath of Trump and many of the former president’s followers after he refused to use his role to block certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – After months of classes on counseling, Veron Blue got her chance to put what she has learned all year, to work.

Across from her, was fellow trainee Deborah Johnson, who, as part of a lesson, assumed the role of a hypothetical client, who had come to Blue for help dealing with depression.

Remembering to focus first on the encounter’s positives, Blue, pastor at San Antonio’s Family Life International Ministries, began, addressing Johnson directly: “I am so proud of you for coming to this meeting.”

By the end of the encounter taking place this month inside a local clinic, her fellow trainees and instructors broke into applause as Blue sighed in relief.

“Having this knowledge with what we already know as pastors is powerful,” Blue told the group.

Blue and Johnson, a member of, are among 10 people from eight different Christian churches in San Antonio who have spent the year participating in a Harvard Medical School program called EMPOWER, a unique program to bring basic counseling skills to places of worship.

The training is designed to help clergy, and its members become part of the mental health workforce, offering brief counseling sessions to community members. This program is not meant to handle severe mental illness beyond depression, and trainees are taught to refer cases beyond their scope to a clinical provider.

“We know the people we are talking to in church, and there is already a built-up trust and dialogue,” said Minister Greg Carter from Vertical Church in San Antonio. “It makes sense for us to use this program.”

The free 12-month program is being sponsored by The Congregational Collective, a nonprofit organization founded by H.E. Butt Foundation in 2023 to help San Antonio faith communities support mental wellness.

The organization’s executive director, Rebecca Brune, said the EMPOWER program draws on 25 years of research in India, which showed how community health workers and non-clinical providers could deliver mental health assistance as effectively, if not more effectively, than clinical providers.

By the end of the year, this initial group of 10 clergy and church members will move on to an internship where they will do nine skills-building sessions at San Antonio’s New Opportunities for Wellness (NOW) clinic and three to five test cases under supervision. By November or December, they will be able to deliver services independently. Once they finish training, this first group will be tasked with helping train the next cohort of religious leaders.

“With the workforce shortage struggle, we needed to figure out how to distribute mental health treatment from an equity perspective,” Brune said. “What better place to go to than faith communities, where Latinos and African-Americans already have trust in.”

How the program works

When the Rev. David Murillo, lead pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in San Antonio for the past ten years, was approached by The Congregational Collective about participating in the EMPOWER program, he knew it was his calling to say yes.

“This church has been intentional about outreach for centuries,” Murillo said. “I view this as the current iteration of the church serving the community.”

Roxanna Johnson of St. Paul Lutheran Church, said their church has always looked to help those with mental illness, but they didn’t have the tools to address it until now. She said she had already seen the benefits of the training program when a couple from Honduras who were in America for asylum came into their church looking for help.

“They had a hard time coming here. They told all kinds of stories. I assessed the woman using the training I had received, got her some help, and found her a program to get into,” said Roxanna Johnson, who is now the church’s Congregational Collective coordinator. “I am sure we are doing the right thing now.”

EMPOWER teaches people how to treat depression using positive emotions. This is the same training mental health providers receive to treat some depression.

“We have learned that people may need to see a mental health clinician, but they are less likely to speak to someone in a white coat than somebody in the church,” Rev. Murillo said. “This means the church needs to step up. If not us, then who?”

This is the first time this training program has been used in the United States, but it has been implemented in countries such as India and various places in sub-Saharan Africa. Harvard Medical School’s Mental Health For All Lab has recently translated the program from Hindi to English and Spanish, and San Antonio is the first stop.

“Leveraging faith leaders has been done all over the world,” said John Naslund, an instructor in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard, helping implement the EMPOWER program in San Antonio. “America is actually behind in this regard.”

Naslund believes the program fits perfectly with Texas due to its size and desperate need for more mental health providers.

“San Antonio was perfect because there was already interest in collaboration between churches and clinical partners,” he said. “Also, there is a huge need in Texas, so there is a motivation to make it work.”

The partnership with the New Opportunities for Wellness clinic in San Antonio provides the EMPOWER program with ongoing clinical supervision and referrals, which Brune believes adds a layer of efficiency and integrity to their effort.

“That is the exciting part. We will be able to measure it and track the referrals and the monetary value of this work,” Brune said.

Father Jaime Paniagua of St. Dominic Church in San Antonio, another EMPOWER trainee, said when he referred people in the past, it might have taken weeks or months before they got help, and many people turned to their pastor before their mental health provider.

“There are two reasons I believe this, and one is because we are a place of trust, and the second is that we don’t charge $200 an hour,” Paniagua said. “I never deny a call, and everybody who wants to call me can. We serve right away here, and people know they will be served.”

He also said now is a perfect time for the EMPOWER training because a new generation is starting to return to religion.

“God created us as good spiritual beings, and we are constantly pursuing things to make us feel spiritually good, but not many places provide it,” Paniagua said. “Sometimes, as a church, we mess up, but we need to give the people what they seek because deep inside, we all want to be happy.”

Still, there are some concerns and questions about making the church a general provider of mental health services.

“I think the biggest challenge is not to get emotional,” said Deborah Johnson. “You have to understand that we know these people personally, and when you hear about those challenges, you want to help immediately.”

David Roberts, a psychologist at the NOW clinic who is helping to supervise the program, said one of the biggest challenges for this pilot program is figuring out where the pastor’s role ends and the mental health provider begins.

“It can be tough to be emotionally detached from people you personally care about, but you can use those emotions to affirm your client’s feelings,” Roberts told the classroom of religious leaders.

Religious leaders hear all kinds of problems from their congregation, whether it be rent, divorce, spiritual conflict, and more. Their natural reaction is to help their congregation immediately, but this training program focuses on not only helping the physical but also the mental.

“You have to set boundaries. You can say right now is the behavioral activation session; outside of this, I will call you as a spiritual leader, but be honest about when you switch directions,” said Megan Fredrick, director of programs at the Now Clinic.

Another concern brought up by the group of trainees is what to do when someone is suicidal, and Fredrick quickly told them to refer those kinds of cases to mental health professionals.

“You are going to meet people who you can’t help, but you can give them actionable items to find that help,” Frederick said.

Naslund stressed that this program does not replace proper clinical counseling because the participants aren’t trained to diagnose or prescribe medication, and it’s primarily used to treat depression.

“The current mental health care system isn’t working,” he said. “We had to find a different way. This is meant just to add additional help.”

The relationship between mental health providers and the church can be viewed as mutually beneficial. Churches can use this program as a method of outreach during a time of declining membership, and providers can use regular people to address low-tier mental illness, freeing up time and space.

“The church gets to help and serve people. The clinics can connect with clients they might have had difficulty getting a hold of. And the school can do their study,” Murillo said. “Everybody wins.”

Six places in the South and West will host practice runs four years prior to the 2030 U.S. census, a nationwide head count that helps determine political power and the distribution of federal funds.

Residents of western Texas; tribal lands in Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; western North Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Huntsville, Alabama, will be encouraged to fill out practice census questionnaires starting in the spring of 2026, U.S. Census Bureau officials said Monday.

The officials said they are unsure at this point how many people live in the areas that have been tapped for the test runs.

The statistical agency hopes the practice counts will help it learn how to better tally populations that were undercounted in the 2020 census; improve methods that will be utilized in 2030; test its messaging, and appraise its ability to process data as it is being gathered, Census Bureau officials said.

“Our focus on hard-to-count and historically undercounted populations was a driver in the site selection,” said Tasha Boone, assistant director of decennial census programs at the Census Bureau.

At the same time, the Census Bureau will send out practice census questionnaires across the U.S. to examine self-response rates among different regions of the country.

The six test sites were picked for a variety of reasons, including a desire to include rural areas where some residents don’t receive mail or have little or no internet service; tribal areas; dorms, care facilities or military barracks; fast-growing locations with new construction; and places with varying unemployment rates.

Ahead of the last census in 2020, the only start-to-finish test of the head count was held in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2018. Plans for other tests were canceled because of a lack of funding from Congress.

The Black population in the 2020 census had a net undercount of 3.3%, while it was almost 5% for Hispanics and 5.6% for American Indians and Native Alaskans living on reservations. The non-Hispanic white population had a net overcount of 1.6%, and Asians had a net overcount of 2.6%, according to the 2020 census results.

The once-a-decade head count determines how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets. It also guides the distribution of $2.8 trillion in annual federal spending.

 

SPRING (AP) — As the temperature soared in the Houston-area home Janet Jarrett shared with her sister after losing electricity in Hurricane Beryl, she did everything she could to keep her 64-year-old sibling cool.

But on their fourth day without power, she awoke to hear Pamela Jarrett, who used a wheelchair and relied on a feeding tube, gasping for breath. Paramedics were called but she was pronounced dead at the hospital, with the medical examiner saying her death was caused by the heat.

“It’s so hard to know that she’s gone right now because this wasn’t supposed to happen to her,” Janet Jarrett said.

Almost two weeks after Beryl hit, heat-related deaths during the prolonged power outages have pushed the number of storm-related fatalities to at least 23 in Texas.

The combination of searing summer heat and residents unable to power up air conditioning in the days after the Category 1 storm made landfall on July 8 resulted in increasingly dangerous conditions for some in America’s fourth-largest city.

Beryl knocked out electricity to nearly 3 million homes and businesses at the height of the outages, which lasted days or much longer, and hospitals reported a spike in heat-related illnesses.

Power finally was restored to most by last week, after over a week of widespread outages. The slow pace in the Houston area put the region’s electric provider, CenterPoint Energy, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared.

While it may be weeks or even years before the full human toll of the storm in Texas is known, understanding that number helps plan for the future, experts say.
What is known about the deaths so far?

Just after the storm hit, bringing high winds and flooding, the deaths included people killed by falling trees and people who drowned when their vehicles became submerged in floodwaters. In the days after the storm passed, deaths included people who fell while cutting limbs on damaged trees and heat-related deaths.

Half of the deaths attributed to the storm in Harris County, where Houston is located, were heat related, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.

Jarrett, who has cared for her sister since she was injured in an attack six years ago, said her “sassy” sister had done everything from owning a vintage shop in Harlem, New York, to working as an artist.

“She had a big personality,” Jarrett said, adding that her sister had been in good health before they lost electricity at their Spring home.
When will a complete death toll be known?

With power outages and cleanup efforts still ongoing, the death toll likely will continue to climb.

Officials are still working to determine if some deaths that have already occurred should be considered storm related. But even when those numbers come in, getting a clear picture of the storm’s toll could take much more time.

Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which uses death certificate data to identify storm-related deaths, estimated that it may not be until the end of July before they have even a preliminary count.

In the state’s vital statistics system, there is a prompt to indicate if the death was storm related and medical certifiers are asked to send additional information on how the death was related to the storm, Anton said.

Experts say that while a count of storm-related fatalities compiled from death certificates is useful, an analysis of excess deaths that occurred during and after the storm can give a more complete picture of the toll. For that, researchers compare the number of people who died in that period to how many would have been expected to die under normal conditions.

The excess death analysis helps count deaths that might have been overlooked, said Dr. Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
What do different toll numbers tell us?

Both the approach of counting the death certificates and calculating the excess deaths have their own benefits when it comes to storms, said Gregory Wellenius, director of the Boston University School of Public Health’s Center for Climate and Health.

The excess death analysis gives a better estimate of the total number of people killed, so it’s useful for public health and emergency management planning in addition to assessing the impact of climate change, he said.

But it “doesn’t tell you who,” he said, and understanding the individual circumstances of storm deaths is important in helping to show what puts individual people at risk.

“If I just tell you 200 people died, it doesn’t tell you that story of what went wrong for these people, which teaches us something about what hopefully can we do better to prepare or help people prepare in the future,” Wellenius said. ___

Stengle reported from Dallas. Sean Murphy contributed to this report from Oklahoma City.

AUSTIN – Reuters reports that State Democratic party chairs on Sunday threw their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s new presidential nominee to run against Republican nominee and former president, . The chairs held a conference call after President Joe Biden announced he was stepping aside as the party’s candidate. “Following President Biden’s announcement, our members immediately assembled to unite behind the candidate who has a track record of winning tough elections, and who is a proven leader on the issues that matter to Americans: reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention, climate protection, justice reform, and rebuilding the economy,” said Ken Martin, president of the Association of State Democratic Committees, in a statement.