Cowboys QB Dak Prescott out at least 1 game as team evaluates hamstring injury

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott will miss at least one game with a hamstring injury that the team said Monday is still being evaluated.

Coach Mike McCarthy ruled out Prescott for Sunday’s game at home against Philadelphia. Prescott was injured in the second half of a 27-21 loss at Atlanta.

Multiple reports citing anonymous sources said Prescott was expected to miss multiple games. McCarthy said putting his 31-year-old QB on injured reserve was a possibility. That move would sideline Prescott at least four games.

“Obviously a lot of conversation,” McCarthy said. “I think once the doctors and really once he figures out exactly where he’s at, those are conversations that will probably happen here over the course of this week.”

Any lengthy absence for Prescott would be another setback in a season full of them for the Cowboys (3-5), who are on their first three-game losing streak since 2020. Dallas played the last 11 games of that 6-10 season without Prescott after he broke an ankle.

Prescott said after the Atlanta game that he noticed something might be wrong with the hamstring on a scramble, then felt something he hadn’t before on a throw. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter.

Cooper Rush replaced Prescott against the Falcons. Rush was 4-1 as the starter filling in for Prescott two years ago after Prescott broke a thumb in a loss to Tampa Bay in the opener. Dallas went on to the second of three consecutive 12-win playoff seasons.

“It really doesn’t change anything with us,” McCarthy said. “This is about the quarterback room. We’ve always invested all the time and energy into the quarterback, Dak, that has the football. So now it’s Cooper’s turn, and Dak will be part of that process.”

The Cowboys are already three games behind Washington and Philadelphia in the loss column in the NFC East. The defending division champs host the Eagles (6-2) on Sunday, and Rush figures to get the call.

Trey Lance, the No. 3 overall pick by San Francisco in 2021, will be Rush’s backup. The 49ers traded Lance to the Cowboys last year after he lost a battle for the backup job.

Lance played extensively in the preseason as the 24-year-old finishes out his four-year rookie contract. McCarthy indicated there were no immediate plans to get a glimpse of what the future with Lance might be.

Rush led the Cowboys on an 86-yard drive capped by his 4-yard pass to Jalen Tolbert in the final two minutes to cut the Falcons’ lead to six points. Atlanta recovered an onside kick to seal the victory.

“I think if you just look at the way we played the last game, we just really want to improve on the things we did well but also we’ve got to clean up the pre-snap penalties,” McCarthy said. Our focus is really to go into this and have a game plan to beat the Eagles defense, and we have great confidence in Cooper.”

In Prescott’s first eight seasons, Dallas missed the playoffs twice when he wasn’t healthy from start to finish.

The 2017 season was marred by running back Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension over domestic violence allegations. A quick start in 2019 faded to an 8-8 finish, and then-coach Jason Garrett’s contract wasn’t renewed. McCarthy, Garrett’s replacement, is in the final year of his contract.

“It’s definitely hard,” McCarthy said. “I just think this is the path that’s been cut out for us. We’re going through adversity and it’s a phenomenal opportunity for us as a team.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Kelce apologizes for cellphone incident at Ohio State-Penn State before Bucs-Chiefs game

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Retired Eagles center Jason Kelce apologized during ESPN’s pregame show Monday night after grabbing the phone of an unruly fan and spiking it to the ground before the Ohio State-Penn State game last weekend.

“In a heated moment, I decided to greet hate with hate,” Kelce said before ESPN’s broadcast of the Buccaneers-Chiefs game featuring his brother, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce. “I fell short this week.”

Jason Kelce was attending the Big Ten matchup between the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions in State College, Pennsylvania, when the incident occurred. Video on social media showed him walking through a crowd near Beaver Stadium and fans asking for photos and fist bumps when one fan began to heckle him.

At that point, Kelce grabbed the fan’s phone and threw it to the ground, then turned to confront the man dressed in Penn State attire. Another fan appeared to step between them before the altercation could escalate.

“I think everybody has seen on social media what happened this week,” Kelce said on the ESPN broadcast. “Listen, I’m not happy with anything that took place. I’m not proud of it. In a heated moment I chose to greet hate with hate and I just don’t think that’s a productive thing, I really don’t. I don’t think it leads to discourse and it’s the right way to go about things. In that moment I fell down to a level that I shouldn’t have.

“The bottom line is, I try to live my life by the golden rule, that’s what I’ve always been taught,” he said. “I try to treat people with common decency and respect, and I’m going to keep doing that moving forward.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

UCF opens season with court-storming 64-61 win over No. 13 Texas A&M

Orlando, Fla. (AP) — Darius Johnson scored 24 points and assisted on a go-ahead slam dunk with less than a minute remaining to lead UCF to a 64-61 win over No. 13 Texas A&M on Monday night.

Johnson had five assists, including the pass to Benny Williams that helped put the Knights ahead 62-61 with 45.5 seconds left. The Aggies didn’t score in the final 2:13.

UCF fans stormed the court after Texas A&M missed back-to-back 3-pointers to end the game.

Jordan Ivy-Curry added 16 points for UCF. Keyshawn Hall scored 10.

Pharrel Payne led the Aggies with 15 points and had six rebounds. Wade Taylor IV had 13 points and seven assists but made only 4 of his 15 shots.
Takeaways

Texas A&M: Locked up the interior for most of the game, but foul trouble prevented the Aggies from pulling away. They committed 17 fouls in the second half, allowing the Knights to shoot 22 for 31 from the free-throw line in the game.

UCF: Struggled to shoot most of the night but stayed in the game thanks to some timely 3-point shooting and, most importantly, defense. The Knights blocked 10 shots, including seven in the second half.
Key moment

Williams’ slam put the Knights ahead for good on a night they struggled shooting on the interior. They finished with just 14 points in the paint.
Key stat

The Knights relied heavily on their 3-point shooting, making 8 for 26 in the game. Johnson made five 3-pointers. Texas A&M shot 7 for 23 from beyond the arc.
Up next

Texas A&M begins a four-game homestand on Friday against Texas A&M University-Commerce.

UCF continues its four-game season-opening homestand against Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday.

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Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sidelined indefinitely with undisclosed illness

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Mitch Johnson is stressing a business as usual approach for the San Antonio Spurs while coach Gregg Popovich is out indefinitely while recovering from an illness.

“Just stay consistent with the messaging that we have had,” Johnson said Monday night before the Spurs’ game against the Los Angeles Clippers. “Pop does so much empowerment and delegation when he is here that in a weird way, it doesn’t feel like I have to do something super outlandish.

“Obviously there are big shoes to fill and we’re going to do it as a group. The guys have been great and the players have stepped up as well in that regard.”

San Antonio announced Monday morning that Popovich did not travel with the team on its current road trip. The Spurs are at Houston on Wednesday before hosting Portland on Thursday.

Johnson said he talked to Popovich on Sunday night and that the 75-year-old coach is in good spirits. There isn’t a timeline, though, on when Popovich might be back.

This is the third time Johnson has served as interim coach in Popovich’s absence. It is his ninth year in the Spurs organization. He started as an assistant for the Spurs G League team in Austin before becoming one of Popovich’s assistants in 2019.

“This has happened a few times,” Johnson said. “I’ve coached Summer League before. I’ve been behind the bench. I’ve been in the G League. All those things helped the organization, so I think this is just another opportunity in a different role to hopefully help the team win.”

Johnson was informed about 2 1/2 hours prior to Saturday’s tipoff against the Minnesota Timberwolves that Popovich was unavailable because of an undisclosed illness. The Spurs won that game 113-103 to improve to 3-3.

Johnson thinks Popovich’s absence could be a motivating factor.

Victor Wembanyama, the top pick in the 2023 draft, is averaging 18 points and 9.8 rebounds, while veteran additions Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes are both averaging 11.7 points.

Early on, the biggest improvements have been on defense. San Antonio is allowing 104.7 points compared to 118.6 last season. Opponents are shooting 42.7% from the field. Last season it was 48.7%.

“It’s really hard to play defense in this league. It’s a credit to Chris and Harrison, the veterans on the team that have come in. I think you set a tone about some of those same things, about how hard it is to win and the attention to detail and being professional,” Johnson said. “Victor is a huge part of that as well. He’s a year older and he has grown tremendously. It’s something we can hope to continue to build upon.”

Former assistant coaches Tim Duncan and Becky Hammon have also served as Spurs head coach because of an illness or medical procedure for Popovich in the past five seasons.

Popovich is the NBA’s career leader with 1,390 victories and another 170 postseason wins while winning five NBA titles. He is in his 29th season, all with San Antonio.

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Raul Dominguez in San Antonio contributed to this story.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Yanks ace Gerrit Cole gives up right to opt out, stays with New York

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Gerrit Cole gave up his opt-out right on Monday and will remain with the New York Yankees under a contract that runs through 2028 rather than become a free agent.

New York’s ace initially exercised his right to terminate the $324 million, nine-year deal, which has $144 million and four years remaining. That decision triggered a two-day window for the Yankees to add a $36 million salary for 2029, which would void the opt out.

Given the short time frame after the team’s World Series-ending loss Wednesday night, both sides extended the bargaining period until 5 p.m. EST Monday, the deadline for option decisions in the collective bargaining agreement. As the deadline approached, both sides agreed to rescind their rights and worked out the language with Major League Baseball and the players’ association.

“Maybe the grass isn’t always greener,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “I think he’s happy where he’s at. I think he likes our setup. I think he likes playing for who he’s playing for and working for. And I think he likes his teammates. And I think he thinks we have a legitimate chance to win.”

Cashman said the talks included himself, Cole, agent Scott Boras, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and team president Randy Levine.

“Gerrit and Hal have built a close relationship, and remaining a Yankee was important to both,” Boras said in an email to The Associated Press. “All understood further time was needed to advance discussions.”

Cashman said Cole’s “career hopefully will finish with the Yankees. Whether that’s at the end of this contract or anything in the future, we can still talk through that. But the most important thing is, the biggest first step is we have our ace back and we’re excited about that.”

A 34-year-old right-hander, Cole won the 2023 AL Cy Young Award. His 2024 season didn’t start until June 19 because of nerve irritation and edema in his right elbow. The six-time All-Star went 8-5 with a 3.41 ERA in 17 starts, and then was 1-0 with a 2.17 ERA in five postseason starts.

Cashman said Cole didn’t need any medical procedures and New York hopes he is healthy.

“But how many pitchers are, right?” Cashman said. “I’ll go through the free agent meetings and I’ll go through all the players in the marketplace that are over a certain age and they’re all going to have their warts and some pitch with them and some can’t pitch with them. But he’s obviously made us feel really good about how he came back.”

Cole’s decision gives the Yankees six potential rotation returnees, a group that includes Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Luis Gil, Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman.

In addition, the Yankees made a $21.05 million qualifying offer to outfielder Juan Soto, who is certain to reject it, but did not make one to second baseman Gleyber Torres. New York would not get draft-pick compensation if Torres signs elsewhere.

Cashman said the club is not averse to including deferred compensation in contracts. Yankees deals have generally not included that.

“We’re open to deferrals,” he said. “A lot of times players are less open to doing deferrals for us than they are for maybe other markets. But if we can do stuff that benefits us, of course we will.”

Cashman spoke to reporters for the first time since the Yankees wasted a five-run, fifth-inning lead against the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, when center fielder Aaron Judge and Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe made errors and Cole didn’t cover first base on a pivotal play.

“This team obviously wasn’t the best defensive team that we’ve had, clearly. And this team also had obviously made some baserunning mistakes, but obviously the Game 5 situation was involving players that ultimately are really, really good,” Cashman said. “Aaron Judge catches a flyball a billion times out of a billion.

“The Dodgers won the World Series and I congratulate them,” he added. “I wish we gave them our best shot but you only have a small window to do that. We earned the right to get there but we didn’t play our best baseball while there and we got sent home.”

Also on Monday, the Yankees traded outfielder Taylor Trammell to Houston for cash. The 27-year-old was 1 for 1 with a walk in five games with New York this year and 0 for 6 in five games with the Dodgers. The Yankees claimed him off waivers in mid-April and he hit .256 with 18 homers, 63 RBIs and 20 stolen bases for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. New York also assigned outfielder Duke Ellis outright to the RailRiders.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Here’s how presidential election recounts work in the battleground states

Adrienne Bresnahan via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) -- As Election Day arrives, polling still shows razor-thin margins between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in battleground states.

If the actual vote margin remains that thin in some states, it is possible that automatic recounts could be triggered or that a campaign could request a recount, depending on that state's rules.

A recent analysis of statewide recounts in general elections from 2000-2023 by the advocacy group FairVote found that statewide recounts in general elections are very rare and usually have not changed much of the vote count. Recounts have almost never changed the state's winner of a presidential election, although in 1960, a recount in Hawaii changed the winner of the state's Electoral College votes from Richard Nixon to John F. Kennedy.

More recent presidential recounts have not impacted the winner in the states they were held in, including the attempted 2000 recount in Florida meant to deal with a razor-thin margin between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which the Supreme Court halted. (If Florida's results had flipped, Al Gore would have won that election.)

In 2020, Donald Trump's campaign requested recounts in Georgia (after the secretary of state had already undertaken a recount) and some Wisconsin counties. In 2016, the campaign of Green Party candidate Jill Stein requested a recount that was fully undertaken in Wisconsin, and requested one in Michigan (which was halted) and Pennsylvania (which was denied).

Here's what to know about the rules that govern if and how presidential race recounts are conducted in each of the seven battleground states.

The "canvass of the vote" discussed below refers to the county and/or state procedures that compile, confirm, and validate every vote cast. Recount rules may vary for other races, such as congressional or mayoral races. An "automatic recount" means a recount that is mandated by state law because of the results; the term does not reflect how votes are recounted.

Arizona

A recount is automatically triggered in Arizona if the margin between the two candidates who received the most votes is equal or less than half a percent of the total votes cast, according to Arizona law. The recount must be completed five days after the canvass of the vote is completed, which is Nov. 30.

It is not possible for a candidate, party or voters to request a recount in Arizona. (A Republican-aligned review of election results in Arizona's Maricopa County in 2021 was not a state-run recount and found no evidence that changed the results in the county.)

Georgia

According to Georgia law, a candidate can ask for a recount within two days of results being certified if the margin between the candidates is less than half a percentage point of the vote. Election officials can also request recounts if they think there is an issue with the results, while the secretary of state can ask for a recount if a candidate petitions them about a suspected issue. There is no explicit deadline for a recount to be completed.

There are no automatic recounts in Georgia.

Michigan

According to Michigan law, an automatic recount is triggered in statewide races if the margin between the top two candidates is 2,000 votes or less.

A candidate can petition for a recount if a few requirements are met, including "a good-faith belief that but for fraud or mistake, the candidate would have had a reasonable chance of winning the election," according to Michigan law. The petition needs to be filed within 48 hours of the canvass of votes being completed.

Recounts must be completed within 30 days of the end of the period that candidates are allowed to file petitions challenging results, or within 30 days of when recounts are allowed to begin.

(New laws changing how recounts can be done in Michigan were signed into law this year, but will not be in effect for the 2024 election.)

Nevada

A candidate for presidential elector -- specifically an Electoral College elector, not the candidate -- can request a recount in Nevada up to the 13th day following the election, according to Nevada statutes. The requester needs to deposit the estimated cost of the recount with the secretary of state, but gets the deposit refunded if the recount results in a change in the winner.

The recount needs to be started within a day after being requested and finished within 5 days.

There is a more general statute in Nevada law that allows statewide candidates to request recounts, but this does not apply to presidential races, according to Nevada-based attorney and election law expert Bradley Schrager. Rather, the specific and more recent statute overrides the more general one, so the recount request would have to come from the presidential elector.

"In practice, that's not really significant, however, because any elector candidate would follow the direction of his or her presidential candidate," Schrager said.

There are no automatic recounts in Nevada.

North Carolina

A presidential candidate can request a recount in North Carolina if the margin between the candidates is less than half a percentage point or 10,000 votes, whichever is less, according to state law. (The North Carolina State Board of Elections told ABC News that the threshold this year will likely be 10,000 votes.)

The candidate needs to ask for a recount by noon on the second day after the county canvassing of the vote. (In 2024, that day is Tuesday, Nov. 19.)

There are cases where a requested recount would trigger an automatic recount as well, but the election results themselves do not trigger automatic recounts in North Carolina.

Pennsylvania

An automatic recount is triggered in Pennsylvania if the margin between the candidates is within half a percentage of the vote.

The recount must begin "no later than" the third Wednesday after Election Day and be done by noon on the next Tuesday, according to guidance published by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Candidates themselves cannot request recounts in Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin

In a presidential race, any presidential candidate can request a recount if the margin between the candidates that got the most votes is one percent or less of the total votes cast, according to Wisconsin state statutes. The candidate must request it within the first day after the canvass of the vote is completed.

The state itself pays if the margin is 0.25% of the vote or less; if it is larger, then the candidate who requested the recount must pay. (They receive a refund if the election result changes due to the recount.)

The recount must be completed within 13 days of being ordered.

There are no automatic recounts in Wisconsin.

ABC News' Quinn Scanlan and Mitch Alva contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Why the winner of the 2024 presidential race might not be called on election night

Olivier Touron via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) -- A historic election that saw an incumbent president drop his campaign, a woman rise to the top of the Democratic ticket and multiple assassination attempts against the Republican candidate will come to an end on Nov. 5.

But the outcome may not be known on election night.

It took four days for the race to be called for President Joe Biden in 2020 as mail-in voting expansions, and other changes made to help Americans participate during a global pandemic, delayed counting in several key states.

"It can take a few days and sometimes more," said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An especially tight race, as expected this year, can make it even more difficult to call a winner in the hours after polls close, experts told ABC News. Polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck heading into Election Day.

Each state has its own rules to administer elections, including different ways to process mail ballots and deadlines for curing signatures or other issues, which means some may take longer than others to tabulate results.

538 has compiled a complete guide to poll closing times, vote counting and when to expect results in every state.

"There are a variety of things that have to be done because there are these safeguards in place to try and minimize the possibility of fraud," said Mitchell Brown, a professor of political science at Auburn University. "And so in states that have those rules, it takes a while in order to process all the ballots."

Trump, in 2020, prematurely declared victory before all votes were counted. Misinformation spread online about the integrity of the election as the country awaited a final result and Trump or his allies later challenged the outcome by baselessly claiming widespread fraud, particularly with mail ballots.

"Not knowing the result on election night is not an indication of election malfeasance ever," Brown emphasized.

All eyes will be on the seven swing states that will likely determine whether Harris or Trump win the Electoral College: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In two of those states -- Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- mail or absentee ballots cannot even begin to be processed until the morning of Election Day. That includes opening envelopes, verifying voter information and preparing them to be scanned before they can be counted, which can lead to delays.

In 2020, Wisconsin wasn't called for either candidate until the day after Election Day and Pennsylvania was called the Saturday after Election Day.

In other key battleground states, mail or absentee ballots may be processed but cannot be counted until Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That includes Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.

In Arizona, a state that votes heavily by mail, mail or absentee ballots received before Election Day can be processed and counted upon receipt. But a sizable portion of those ballots get placed in drop boxes on Election Day, and those results may not be collected or counted until polls close, which may hold up a clear result depending on how close the race is.

In Nevada, another state where the presidential race wasn't called until the Saturday after Election Day in 2020, some changes were made to help speed up vote counting -- including allowing mail or absentee ballots to start being counted 15 days before Election Day.

"It's really a product of the laws and depending where the Electoral College spotlight is in any given year, it can mean a faster count or a slower one," Burden said.

While news organizations often call a winner based on analysis of the vote count as its reported, results are not official until states certify them. States have their own certification deadlines, some of which extend into December, according to the Election Assistance Commission.

Recounts and legal challenges, especially litigation related to certification, could arise between a race being called by media networks and the results being certified.

On Dec. 17, electors will meet in the states to vote for president and vice president.

Election officials in some key states are already warning that results may not come in on election night, and that it is normal.

"We will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency," Michigan's Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson recently said on CBS, estimating her state will be able to have a result by end of day on Nov. 6. "Understanding how much people will want those results, we're still going to make sure the process is secure and accurate before we put anything out to the public."

"We want to make sure we have an accurate count, and like we did in 2020, have a free and fair, safe and secure election," said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on ABC's "This Week."

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick making ‘Family Movie’ with kids Travis, Sosie Bacon

Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have set the comedy horror feature Family Movie as their next project and, true to its title, the film will be a family affair.

The Hollywood couple are set to direct the movie, in which they will star alongside their real-life kids, Travis and Sosie Bacon, according to Variety.

Family Movie follows "an eclectic but tight-knit family of filmmakers" who wind up in the middle of a real-life horror movie when a body turns up on the set of their latest low-budget slasher film, per the outlet. They soon realize the only way to keep the production afloat is by covering up the murder at any cost.

Sedgwick's previous directing credits include the 2022 feature film Space Oddity and the 2017 TV movie Story of a Girl. As an actress, she's best known for her role in TV's The Closer, as well as the films Singles, Something to Talk About, Edge of Seventeen and Born on the Fourth of July.

Kevin Bacon's film credits include Footloose, Apollo 13, Mystic RiverX-Men First Class and Tremors.

Sosie Bacon is best known for her roles in HBO’s Mare of Easttown, Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and HBO’s Here and Now. She recently made her directing debut on the 2024 comedy What We Got Wrong.

Travis Bacon is a writer, producer and actor.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Man punches election judge in the face while waiting in line to vote

Facebook / Orland Park Police Department

(ORLAND PARK, IL) -- A 24-year-old Illinois man has been arrested after allegedly causing a disturbance in a voting line before punching an election judge in the face, police said.

The incident occurred on Sunday at approximately 11 a.m. when Orland Park police officers were dispatched to the Orland Park Township Office in Illinois due to a man -- later identified as 24-year-old Daniel Schmidt -- “causing a disturbance in the voting line,” police said.

“Officers on scene learned that Schmidt entered the township building and walked past numerous other voters waiting in line to enter the voting area,” the Orland Park Police Department said in a press release detailing the incident. “An election judge posted at the entrance told Schmidt to go to the back of the line and wait his turn, which Schmidt refused.”

Police said that another election judge was called at that point to help assist in the disturbance and Schmidt was once again instructed to go to the back of the line, which Schmidt declined to do.

“Schmidt attempted to push past that election judge and was prevented from entering by that judge and several other employees,” authorities said. “Schmidt began to yell profanities and punched the election judge in the face, knocking their glasses off.”

Several other patrons jumped in and managed to restrain Schmidt until officers arrived and found him inside the Township office where he tried to resist arrest, police said.

“At Orland Park Police Headquarters, the Cook County States Attorney’s Office was contacted and approved (2) counts of Aggravated Battery to a victim over 60 (Class 3 Felony), (2) counts of Aggravated Battery in a public place (Class 3 Felony), (5) misdemeanor counts of Resisting Arrest and one misdemeanor count of Disorderly Conduct,” said the Orland Park Police Department.

Schmidt was held overnight and transported to Bridgeview Courthouse for a detention hearing and the investigation is currently ongoing.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Woman arrested after police find meth, mushrooms in vehicle

Woman arrested after police find meth, mushrooms in vehicleWINNSBORO — According to our news partner KETK, a traffic stop led to the arrest of a Winnsboro woman after officers found and seized methamphetamine, mushrooms and cannabis concentrate. The Winnsboro Police Department said officers conducted a traffic stop for speeding in the 900 block of Gilmer Road. The officer reportedly smelled marijuana coming from the car and the driver, Jamie Abbott, allegedly admitted to having narcotics inside the vehicle.

“Officer Hanner was able to recover over 20 grams of methamphetamine from the vehicle as well as psilocybin mushrooms, multiple controlled substance medications, THC wax and drug paraphernalia,” the police department said. Abbott was then arrested for possession of a controlled substance and taken to the Wood County Jail where she’s being held on a $25,000 bond.

Voters in battleground Arizona to decide if local agencies can police illegal immigration

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters are set to decide whether to let local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico, an authority that would encroach on the federal government’s power over immigration enforcement but would not take effect immediately, if ever.

If Arizona voters approve Proposition 314, the state would become the latest to test the limits of what local authorities can do to curb illegal immigration. Within the past year, GOP lawmakers in Texas, Iowa and Oklahoma have passed immigration laws. In each case, federal courts have halted the states’ efforts to enforce them.

The only presidential battleground state that borders Mexico, Arizona is no stranger to a bitter divide on the politics of immigration. Since the early 2000s, frustration over federal enforcement of Arizona’s border with Mexico has inspired a movement to draw local police departments, which had traditionally left border duties to the federal government, into immigration enforcement.

The state Legislature approved an immigrant smuggling ban in 2005 that let then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio conduct immigration crackdowns, a 2007 prohibition on employers knowingly hiring people in the country illegally, and a landmark 2010 immigration law that required police, while enforcing other laws, to question the legal status of people suspected of being in the country without authorization.

Arizona voters have been asked to decide matters related to immigration before. They approved a 2004 law denying some government benefits to people in the country illegally and a 2006 law declaring English to be Arizona’s official language. They also rejected a 2008 proposal that would have made business-friendly revisions to the state law barring employers from hiring people who are in the country without authorization.

Arizona GOP lawmakers say the proposal is necessary to help secure the border, as they blame the Biden administration for an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration. Record levels of illegal crossings have plummeted in recent months, following moves by the White House to tighten asylum restrictions.

Opponents of Proposition 314 argue it would harm Arizona’s economy and reputation, as well as lead to the racial profiling of Latinos. They cite the profiling Latinos endured when Arpaio led the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. In 2013, a federal judge ruled Latinos had been racially profiled in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, leading to a court-ordered overhaul of the agency that’s expected to cost taxpayers $314 million in legal and compliance costs by mid-summer 2025.

Kelli Hykes, who works in health policy and volunteers for Greg Whitten, the Democratic nominee in the race for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, said she thought carefully about how to vote on the immigration measure but declined to share her choice.

“It’s so polarizing, and there are folks in my family that are going to be voting one way and I’m voting another,” Hykes said.

Proposition 314 would make it a state crime for people to illegally enter Arizona from Mexico outside official ports of entry, permitting local and state law enforcement officers to arrest them and state judges to order their deportations. Those who enforce the law would be shielded from civil lawsuits.

These provisions, however, wouldn’t be enforceable immediately. A violator couldn’t be prosecuted until a similar law in Texas or another state has been in effect for 60 consecutive days.

The Arizona GOP lawmakers who voted to put the measure on the ballot were referring to Texas Senate Bill 4. The bill, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December, was supposed to allow local and state law enforcement to arrest people accused of entering Texas illegally from Mexico.

A federal appeals court put it on hold in March. The following month, a panel of federal judges heard from a Texas attorney defending the law and Justice Department attorneys arguing it encroached on the federal government’s authority over enforcing immigration law. The panel has yet to release its decision.

Other provisions of Proposition 314 aren’t contingent upon similar laws outside Arizona. If voters approve the measure, it would immediately make selling fentanyl that results in a person’s death a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a crime for noncitizens to submit false documentation when applying for employment or attempting to receive benefits from local, state and federal programs.

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Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

State oil regulator requests $100 million to tackle West Texas well blowouts

Unable to keep up with the growing number of leaking and erupting wells in the state’s oil fields, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, has asked lawmakers for an additional $100 million in emergency funding — which would be equal to about 44% of the agency’s entire two-year budget.

Danny Sorrell, the agency’s executive director, sent the letter two months after the commission filed its annual budget request in August, according to the Houston Chronicle. He said the agency’s $226 million budget request did not include enough money “to protect the groundwater and the environment” from increasingly common well blowouts.

The agency follows a rating system to determine which wells it needs to plug first, according to Texas law. Priority 1 wells are leaking wells that pose environmental, safety, or economic risks. An uncontrolled flow of water occurring at a well constitutes an emergency, said R.J. DeSilva, a spokesperson for the agency. In an emergency, agency staff “respond immediately to plug it,” he said.

The agency said that it addresses actively leaking wells regardless of whether it has enough money in the designated budget for well remediation, a practice that Sorrell said has become unsustainable and caused the agency to plug fewer non-emergency wells each year.

“These high-priority wells need to be taken care of before they themselves become emergency wells,” he said.

There are approximately 140,000 so-called orphaned wells in the U.S. and more than 9,000 of them are in Texas, according to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. These are abandoned wells that have been inactive for at least 12 months and have no clear ownership.

When left unattended, orphaned wells are prone to blowouts that spew contaminated water onto the surrounding land. Experts said the routine industry practice of injecting fracking wastewater — called produced water — into underground rock formations, contributes to the problem.

At least eight wells have leaked and burst since last October, Sarah Stogner, an oil and gas attorney, told the Texas Tribune earlier this month. Stogner has tracked such wells for years.

In December 2023, an abandoned well that blew out in Imperial, southwest of Odessa, took more than two months to plug. That well alone cost regulators $2.5 million to cap and clean up.

In October, another well in Toyah burst and released a torrent of water that took weeks to contain. Kinder Morgan, the energy firm that assumed responsibility for the well, did not say how much it cost to seal.

The briney water is laden with chemicals it collects underground, including hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and deadly gas.

Congress approved $4.7 billion to plug orphan wells on public and private lands as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021. Texas received $25 million of that money in 2022 and another $80 million in January.

The Railroad Commission used that money to plug 737 wells — 10% of the estimated orphaned wells in Texas. It also plugged 1,754 wells through an initiative funded by $63 million in state money.

The efforts have not been enough.

Sorrell’s letter to Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan said that regulators need the money to staff a team of inspectors who can investigate the cause of the blowouts, which they associate with produced water injections. Sorrells said the agency’s ability “to assess, characterize and evaluate these events is limited by the currently available resources.”

Sorrells said the cost to plug wells, which includes labor and materials like cement and rigs, has increased by 36% since 2022.

Both oil and gas industry leaders and environmental advocates in Texas applauded the commission’s request.

“We have long supported increases in funding for the Commission in this and other areas,” said Ben Sheppard, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. “We would support the Legislature going above and beyond the Commission’s request for plugging and remediation funding. The industry generates billions of dollars every year, and it seems appropriate that more of these dollars could be utilized for this important purpose.”

Julie Range, a policy manager for Commission Shift, an oil and gas watchdog group, commended the agency’s request.

“We hope the investigation team will prompt the Railroad Commission to scrutinize their approval process and deny more injection wells that pressurize underground aquifers and cause many of these wells to reach emergency status,” she said.

For years, a growing chorus of experts and ranchers have warned the commission about the rising threat the wells pose to the environment and the region’s vulnerable groundwater resources.

In August, researchers at Southern Methodist University found a link between the common practice of injecting wastewater from fracking underground and the blowouts occurring across the oil-rich Permian Basin — a 75,000-square-mile region straddling West Texas and New Mexico.

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Some Republican-led states refuse to let Justice Department monitors into polling places

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Republican-led states say they will block the Justice Department’s election monitors from going inside polling places on Election Day, pushing back on federal authorities’ decades-long practice of watching for violations of federal voting laws.

Officials in Florida and Texas have said they won’t allow federal election monitors into polling sites on Tuesday. And on Monday, Missouri filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to block federal officials from observing inside polling places. Texas followed with a similar lawsuit seeking to permanently bar federal monitoring of elections in the state.

The Justice Department announced last week that it’s deploying election monitors in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states on Election Day. The Justice Department declined to comment on the moves by the Republican-led states, but filed court papers urging the judge to deny Missouri’s request.

The race between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump is a dead heat, and both sides are bracing for potential legal challenges to vote tallies. The Justice Department’s election monitoring effort, a long practice under both Democratic and Republican administrations, is meant to ensure that federal voting rights are being followed.

Here’s a look at election monitors and the states’ actions:

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Who are the election monitors?

Election monitors are lawyers who work for the Justice Department, including in the civil rights division and U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. They are not law enforcement officers or federal agents.

For decades, the Justice Department’s civil rights division has sent attorneys and staff members to monitor polling places across the country in both federal and non-federal elections. The monitors are tasked with ensuring compliance with federal voting rights laws.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division enforces a number of statutes protecting the right to vote. That includes the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits intimidation and threats against those who are casting ballots or counting votes. And it includes the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that election officials ensure people with disabilities have the full and equal opportunity to vote.

“The Department of Justice has a nearly 60-year history of addressing Election Day issues to safeguard the voting rights of Black citizens and other communities of color,” said Edward Casper, acting co-chief counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “While some recent efforts to interfere in this process may appear more bark than bite, they still pose a real threat to civil rights enforcement,” he said.
Where are election monitors being sent?

The 86 jurisdictions that the Justice Department will send monitors to on Tuesday include Maricopa County, Arizona and Fulton County, Georgia, which in 2020 became the center of election conspiracy theories spread by Trump and other Republicans. Another place on the list is Portage County, Ohio, where a sheriff came under fire for a social media post in which he said people with Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidency.

Other areas where federal monitors will be sent include Detroit; Queens, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Jackson County, South Dakota; Salem, Massachusetts; Milwaukee; Manassas, Virginia; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. The Justice Department’s monitors will be in St. Louis, four jurisdictions in Florida and eight jurisdictions in Texas.
What’s happening in Missouri?

In filing the lawsuit Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said state law “clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places.” He also accused the federal government of “attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”

The lawsuit states that Missouri law “permits only certain categories of persons to be present in voting locations, including voters, minor children accompanying voters, poll workers, election judges, etc.” and not federal officials.

The Justice Department also sought to monitor polling places in Missouri in 2022. The agency planned to have officials at Cole County, which includes Jefferson City, the state capital. County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer said he wouldn’t let them in if they show up.

The federal agency backed down after Ashcroft showed Justice Department officials the state law, Ashcroft said. He says the Justice Department is now “trying to go through the back door” by contacting local election officials for access.

Messages were left Monday with the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.

In court papers filed late Monday, the Justice Department said it has authority to conduct monitoring there under a settlement agreement with the St. Louis Board aimed at ensuring people with mobility and vision impairments can access polling places. The settlement was reached in 2021 under Trump’s Justice Department after federal officials found problems, such as ramps that were too steep and inaccessible parking, according to the court papers. The settlement, which expires next year, says the board must “cooperate fully” with Justice Department’s efforts to monitor compliance, “including but not limited to providing the United States with timely access to polling places (including on Election Day).”

The Justice Department said an attorney and investigator from its Disability Rights Section are in St. Louis to inspect for accessibility issues Tuesday. The department has carried out such inspections under the settlement agreement on “multiple occasions,” including in the April local elections, government lawyers said in court documents.
What are the other states saying?

In a letter to the Justice Department on Friday, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said wrote, “Texas law is clear: Justice Department monitors are not permitted inside polling places where ballots are being cast or a central counting station where ballots are being counted.”

“Texas has a robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote.

In a similar letter Friday, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd told the Justice Department that Florida law lists who is allowed inside the state’s polling places and Justice Department officials are not included. Byrd said Florida is sending its own monitors to the four jurisdictions the Justice Department plans to send staff to and they will “ensure there is no interference with the voting process.”

__ Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed reporting, Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.

Colin Allred, Ted Cruz reach end of Senate race that again tests GOP dominance in Texas

FORT WORTH (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, sought to fend off an underdog challenge Tuesday from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred in one of the year’s most expensive races, which is testing shifts in America’s biggest red state and could factor into the fight for U.S. Senate control.

Allred, a three-term congressman from Dallas, was in an uphill battle against Cruz, who has urged Republicans to take the race seriously after only narrowly winning his last reelection in 2018. No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas in 30 years, the longest political losing streak of its kind in the U.S.

But shifting demographics in Texas — driven by a booming Hispanic population — and shrinking margins of victory for GOP candidates have sustained Democrats’ belief that victories are in reach. Those hopes left Democrats seeing Texas as one of their few pickup opportunities in a year when they were defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans nationally.

Both candidates raised more than $160 million combined in the race.

Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator, has powered his upset bid by presenting himself as a moderate choice while mostly keeping political distance from Vice President Kamala Harris. That has not deterred Cruz from casting his opponent as politically likeminded with Harris, whose presidential campaign has not made an aggressive play to flip Texas.

Allred, 41, is a former NFL linebacker and civil rights attorney who has made abortion rights one of his top issues in a state that has one of the nation’s most-restrictive bans. He campaigned with Texas women who were hospitalized with serious pregnancy complications after the Texas ban took effect and has vowed to help restore the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a woman’s constitutional right to abortion.

Cruz, who is seeking a third six-year term, has largely avoided the topic on the campaign trail while hammering Allred on the issues of immigration and policies that support transgender rights. He has called Allred out of touch with Texas, where Democrats control the state’s big cities but have been shut out of power statewide and at the Texas Capitol, where the GOP holds commanding majorities.

Allred hopes to take advantage of Texas’ shifting demographics, which along with the booming Hispanic population also includes an increase in the number of Black residents and people relocating from other states. He also has experience defeating a high-profile Republican incumbent, having entered Congress with a victory over Rep. Pete Sessions, who later successfully ran in a different district.

In the late stages of the race, Allred sought to tap into some of the Democratic enthusiasm around Harris at the top of the ticket, including appearing at a packed Houston rally with the vice president and superstar Beyoncé. Cruz spent the final week of the race rallying supporters in solidly GOP rural and suburban counties that have been key firewalls to Democratic gains in Texas.

Texas border districts are again in the thick of the fight for House control

AUSTIN (AP) — Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas faced his first election Tuesday since his indictment on bribery charges, one of three closely watched races along the U.S.-Mexico border where Republicans are trying to widen inroads in the predominately Hispanic region.

The election is another test for Democrats in a region that has historically been a stronghold and is a recurring backdrop in the national debate over immigration.

Cuellar and his wife have pleaded not guilty to charges related to the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Republicans mounted an aggressive campaign in 2022 to oust Cuellar, one of his party’s most outspoken moderates, but lost by double digits and pulled back in the district this year despite the indictment.

The border House districts are a competitive outlier in Texas, where Republicans have full control of the Legislature and a Democrat has not occupied a statewide office for more than 30 years.
Congressman running under indictment

Cuellar is running against Republican Jay Furman, a political newcomer and Navy veteran who is the incumbent’s first challenger since being indicted on bribery charges in May.

Cuellar and his wife are accused of accepting nearly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-controlled energy company and a bank in Mexico. The charges have given Furman room to make his case in the 28th Congressional District, where Cuellar first took office in 2005.

However, the seat has drawn less attention this cycle from the GOP than in 2022, when a multimillion-dollar challenge still ended in a decisive Cuellar victory.
A rematch in a new Texas district

Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz is again trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Michelle Vallejo after winning by 8 percentage points in 2022.

De La Cruz was the first Republican to win a congressional race in South Texas. The 15th Congressional District was one of two new seats awarded to Texas following the 2020 census, driven by the state’s booming Hispanic population, and was drawn by Republican mapmakers to give them an edge.

Vallejo’s campaign has leaned into protecting Social Security and Medicare, which are popular programs among her primarily Latino and working-class base. De La Cruz has touted her support of tougher border security policies, including those backed by former President Donald Trump.
Republicans hone in on the Rio Grande Valley

Republicans are zeroing in on Democratic Rep Vicente Gonzalez in a rematch with former Rep. Mayra Flores, who Republicans see as a rising star on the southern border.

Of the three border races in Texas, Republicans have thrown most of their muster behind their campaign to unseat Gonzalez, a moderate Democrat who defeated Flores by more than 8 percentage points in 2022.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has campaigned for Flores, who was the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress and has outraised Gonzalez in a race that is one of the GOP’s biggest targets nationally. Flores previously held the seat after winning a special election earlier in 2022, under a map that was more favorable to Republicans.
Shifts in South Texas

Counties along the Texas-Mexico border made significant swings in 2020 toward Trump. The rightward shift represents a changing political landscape along the U.S.-Mexico border where border security has become a key issue for voters. President Biden won Hidalgo County, a reliably blue district, by less than half the margin that Hillary Clinton did in 2016. In rural Zapata County, Trump flipped the county altogether after Clinton won it by 33 percentage points four years prior.

The gains have led to Republicans to invest millions of dollars into what were once considered deep blue districts.

Democrats did, however, close the gap statewide in 2020 where Trump won Texas by less than 6 percentage points. It was the closest margin of victory for a GOP presidential nominee in Texas in decades.