KTBB News, Weather, Talk

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — It was the hottest September in more than a century in parts of South Florida, and Dwayne Wilson could hear his 81-year-old fellow inmate gasping for breath and crying out for help at the Dade Correctional Institution, 45 miles southwest of Miami on the edge of the Florida Everglades.

The elderly man was confined to a wheelchair and for weeks had been complaining of severe chest pain and difficulty breathing in the unventilated dorm where he was serving his sentence, according to a federal class action lawsuit filed this week on behalf of Wilson and two other inmates at the prison.

Early on the morning of Sept. 24, the wheelchair-bound inmate, who is identified in the lawsuit as J.B., was heard once again begging for help, according to the lawsuit. A prisoner wheeled him to the infirmary, where within 15 minutes medical staff ordered him to return to his cell, according to legal filings.

Soon after, J.B. was found unresponsive, his mouth gaping open, the lawsuit says.

Attorneys said that on the day the 81-year-old died, the exhaust fans in his dorm weren’t working and the heat index had climbed to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). Living in the prison’s unairconditioned cells could feel like “being locked in a sardine can with no air to breathe,” an inmate identified in the lawsuit as G.M. said, and the heat had taken a toll.

The lawsuit filed this week by the prison reform advocacy group Florida Justice Institute says that heat at the facility has contributed to the deaths of four people there and that prison officials have failed to take “meaningful action” to mitigate the risk posed to the elderly and disabled inmates in their care.

The lawsuit, which names the Florida Department of Corrections, the secretary of the department and the warden of DCI as defendants, argues that the conditions violate the protections of the Eighth Amendment, which bar cruel and unusual punishment, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

“We had to file this lawsuit because they’ve thus far ignored the concerns of incarcerated people and their advocates. And so it appears they need a court to order them to do what they should have done on their own,” said Andrew Udelsman, an attorney with the Florida Justice Institute.

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation and stated that the agency has no record of being served the lawsuit.

Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to the World Health Organization. While deadly heat is not new, scientists say it has been amplified in scale, frequency and duration with climate change. Last year, the United States had its most recorded heat deaths in more than 80 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Yet the majority of incarcerated individuals in sweltering Florida are serving their sentences in cells that don’t have air conditioning, even as the state’s rising temperatures continue to break records. The risk is even greater for the elderly and those with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to heat-related illness.

According to testimony that Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon gave to state lawmakers last year, 75% of the state’s prison housing units are not air-conditioned. Bills filed last year that would have mandated the department install air conditioning in state prisons died in the Republican-controlled legislature.

“When you are in the facility and you visit a dorm that does not have air conditioning, you look at the guards who are tasked with maintaining security in those spaces, it is absolutely oppressive,” Republican State Sen. Jennifer Bradley said at a hearing last October.

“There are things we can do in our system to mitigate the heat. Or Florida will find itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit,” she warned. “And it will be a lot more expensive.”

Florida is not alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Cases have also been filed in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. One filed in Georgia in July alleged a 27-year-old inmate died after he was left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.

Udelsman said he hopes the Florida lawsuit will help compel the courts to set consistent safety standards for incarcerated individuals at risk of deadly heat exposure, at a time when climate change is compounding the threat for the country’s increasingly aging and invalid prison population.

“Courts are increasingly confirming that these kind of conditions are not constitutional,” Udelsman said. “We hope this lawsuit will be another in that line … that these dominoes will continue to fall.”

___ Kate Payne 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.

Abortion and reproductive rights have been central to the races for president and governor in North Carolina, a battleground state that has more moderate abortion restrictions than its Southern neighbors.

That’s been even truer in the fight for a seat on the state Supreme Court that abortion rights supporters say will play an important role in determining whether Republicans can enact even more restrictions. Registered Republicans currently hold five of seven seats and could expand that majority even further in Tuesday’s election.

Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat who is running for reelection, is focusing heavily on the issue and touts her support for reproductive rights. Her first television ad featured images of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, who prefers to restrict abortions earlier than the current 12 weeks. She says her GOP rival for the court could be a deciding vote on the bench for such restrictions.

“This is an issue that is landing in front of state Supreme Courts, and it is one that is very salient to voters now,” Riggs said in an interview.

Her Republican opponent, Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin, said Riggs is saying too much about an issue that could come before the court.

“I think it’s an inappropriate manner, a clear violation of our judicial standards, our code of conduct,” he said.

The North Carolina race emphasizes how much abortion is fueling expensive campaigns for Supreme Courts in several states this year. Groups on the right and left are spending heavily to reshape courts that could play deciding roles in legal fights over abortion, reproductive rights, voting rights, redistricting and other hot-button issues for years to come.

Experts say the campaigns show how the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning constitutional abortion protections that had been in place for half a century has transformed races for state high courts.

“What Dobbs did was made clear to both political stakeholders and the public that these state courts that hadn’t got a lot of attention are actually going to be really important and they’re going to be deciding some of the biggest cases that people might have expected to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Douglas Keith, senior counsel in the judiciary program at the Brennan Center, which has tracked spending on state court races.

Thirty-three states are holding elections for 82 Supreme Court seats this year. The 2024 election cycle follows record-breaking spending for judicial races in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania last year.

Groups on the left have ramped up their spending on state courts considerably this year. The American Civil Liberties Union has spent $5.4 million on court races in Montana, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. Planned Parenthood and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee earlier this year announced they were collectively spending $5 million, focusing on court races in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.

“We have never invested this heavily in state Supreme Courts before,” said Katie Rodihan, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes. “This is really a groundbreaking move for us, and I expect this will be the norm for us moving forward.”

The targets include Ohio, where Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the court. Democrats are defending two seats on the court, while a third is open, and Democratic victories in all three races are considered a longshot in the Republican-leaning state.

Control of the court could be key if the state appeals a judge’s ruling that struck down the most far-reaching of the state’s abortion restrictions. The ruling said the law banning most abortions once cardiac activity is detected — as early as six weeks into pregnancy and before many women know they’re pregnant — violated a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year that protected reproductive rights.

Two seats are up for election on Michigan’s court, where Democratic-backed justices hold a 4-3 majority. Court races are technically nonpartisan, but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Republicans would need to win both seats to flip the court in their favor.

Justice Kyra Harris Bolden is defending the seat she was appointed to two years ago by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Bolden was the first Black woman to sit on Michigan’s bench. She faces Republican-backed circuit court Judge Patrick O’Grady for the remaining four years of the eight-year term.

Republican state Rep. Andrew Fink is competing against University of Michigan law professor Kimberly Anne Thomas, who was nominated by Democrats, for the other open seat that is being vacated by a Republican-backed justice.

Groups backing Bolden and Thomas are framing the races as crucial to defending abortion rights, with one group’s ad warning that “the Michigan state Supreme Court can still take abortion rights away.”

The most heated races are for two seats on the Montana Supreme Court, which has come under fire from GOP lawmakers over rulings against laws that would have restricted abortion access or made it more difficult to vote.

Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Lynch is running against county attorney Cory Swanson for chief justice, while state judge Katherine Bidegaray is running against state judge Dan Wilson for another open seat on the court.

Progressive groups have been backing Lynch and Bidegaray. Both said in an ACLU questionnaire that they agreed with the reasoning and holding of a 1999 state Supreme Court ruling that the constitutional right to privacy includes the right to obtain a pre-viability abortion.

Groups on the right have been painting them both as too liberal and echoing national Republicans’ rhetoric, with text messages invoking the debate over transgender athletes on women’s sports teams.

The Republican State Leadership Committee, a longtime player in state court races, said its Judicial Fairness Initiative planned to spend seven figures in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.

The group’s ads are focusing on issues other than abortion. In one touting three Republicans running for Ohio’s court, the group shows images of President Donald Trump along with images related to immigration.

A super PAC backed by conservative donor and shipping executive Richard Uihlein also has given to groups involved in state Supreme Court races in Montana and Ohio.

Progressive groups are even focusing attention on longshot states such as Texas, where Republicans hold all the seats on the Supreme Court. They’re trying to unseat three GOP justices who were part of unanimous rulings rejecting challenges to the state’s abortion ban.

One group, Find Out PAC, has been running digital ads in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston criticizing justices Jimmy Blacklock, John Devine and Jane Bland. In its ad, the group accuses the three of “playing doctor from the bench.”

In North Carolina, Riggs’ campaigning on abortion rights has prompted complaints from Republicans who say she’s stepping outside the bounds of judicial ethics. But Riggs said she’s not saying how she would rule in any case and is merely sharing her values with voters.

“I’m going to keep talking about my values because, at the core, our democracy works best when people cast informed votes,” she said.

__

DeMillo reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, and Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.

HOUSTON (AP) — A helicopter pilot was speaking with an air traffic controller in Houston when the aircraft crashed into a radio tower, killing all four people on board, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Pilot Samantha Grandbouche had contacted the controller after taking off on Oct. 20 for a sightseeing tour of the area and was told minutes later to maintain visual separation from another helicopter in the area, according to the report.

“The pilot was reading the instructions when the radio transmission abruptly ended,” the report said. “No further communications from the accident helicopter were received.”

The helicopter crashed into a 1,003-foot-tall (306-meter-tall) radio tower about 100 feet (30 meters) from its top and exploded as both the helicopter and tower fell to the ground with portions of the helicopter, including the fuselage, embedded in the tower, the report said.

Grandbouche died in the crash along with passengers Marie Alonso, her former husband Julio “Cesar” Lerma and their elementary-school-aged son Dylon Lerma.

Two of the tower’s three light beacons could be seen flashing on surveillance video, while the third beacon was not visible, according to the report.

The owner of the tower, SBA Communications, told investigators there were no outages to the tower.

The company did not immediately return a message for comment Friday to The Associated Press.

SBA Communications previously said it is cooperating with investigators and a Notice to Air Missions, which informs pilots of potential flight hazards, had been filed, but declined further comment citing the ongoing investigation.

The NTSB report said the notice was filed Oct. 16 after the company acquired the tower in September.

The preliminary report does not provide a probable cause of the crash, which would come in the final report that is expected in 18 to 24 months.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Billions of dollars in advertising are raining down on voters across the Rust Belt, Rocky Mountains and American southwest as the two major political parties portray their opponent’s candidates as extreme in a struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.

In three races alone — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana — more than $1 billion is projected to be spent by Nov. 5.

The race in Ohio could break the spending record for Senate races. The race in Montana will go down as the most expensive Senate race ever on a per-vote basis. And, late in the game, Democrats are sending millions more dollars to Texas, a GOP stronghold where the party has new hopes of knocking off two-term conservative stalwart Sen. Ted Cruz, an upset that could help them protect their majority.

Republicans need to pick up two seats to capture a surefire majority, and one of those — West Virginia — is all but in the bag for the GOP.

Other races are more volatile and less predictable.

For Democrats, the brutal math of this year’s election cycle is forcing them to defend eight seats in tough states. Losses by established incumbents could amount to an extinction-level event for Democrats who represent reliably Republican states.

The election also will test the down-ballot strength of both parties in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the premier presidential battleground states known as the Blue Wall for their relatively reliable Democratic voting history. Wins there by Republicans would dramatically alter the Senate playing field.

All told, data from political ad tracking firm AdImpact projects that more than $2.5 billion will be spent on advertising in Senate races in this two-year campaign cycle, slightly more than the 2022 total.

That includes a half-billion dollars in Ohio alone, another $340 million in Pennsylvania and $280 million in Montana, population 1.1 million, or less than one-tenth of the population of either Ohio or Pennsylvania. The most expensive Senate race ever was Democrat John Ossoff ‘s victory in a Georgia contest that went to a runoff in 2021 and decided Senate control, according to data from the campaign finance-tracking organization Open Secrets.

Generally, campaign strategists say Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is polling ahead of his party’s Senate candidates in Senate battleground states, while Democratic candidates in those states are polling ahead of their presidential nominee, Kamala Harris.

That means there is a slice of voters who could vote for Trump but not back Republicans in Senate races — or who could split their tickets with Democratic Senate candidates.

Such splits have been rare. In Maine, in 2020 voters backed Democrat Joe Biden for president and re-elected Republican Sen. Susan Collins, for instance.

Republican strategists said they expect the party’s major super PACs to spend until election day in seven states where Democrats are defending Senate seats: Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where polls show competitive races, but also Nevada and Arizona, where Republicans are encouraged by strong early voting numbers.

Republicans are most confident about flipping the seat in deep-red Montana, where Republican Tim Sheehy is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. They are also optimistic about reliably red Ohio, where Republican Bernie Moreno is challenging third-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for a pair of Republican-aligned super PACs, said one — American Crossroads — is pulling $2.8 million out of Montana, while the pair are plunging several million more into Pennsylvania.

There, Republican David McCormick is trying to knock off three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in a presidential battleground undercard that both sides say is close.

McCormick, a former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, has hammered the message in two debates that Casey is a “sure thing” to back the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda.

In recent days, Casey began running an ad in conservative areas that touts his “greedflation” legislation to pursue price-gouging. The ad says “Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking” and “sided with Trump” on trade and tariffs.

Republicans say Casey’s ad showing Trump is similar to a TV ad that Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is airing and speaks to both Democrats’ need to protect themselves against Harris’ vulnerability in their states.

“They’re hoping to peel off enough Trump voters to win,” Sinclair said.

Still, Casey ran a similar ad in 2018’s midterm election when he won easily — even though that ad didn’t mention Trump — while Casey’s campaign notes that he has long split with Democrats by opposing free trade agreements and supporting fossil fuel-power projects.

Democrats, conversely, say they are forcing competitive contests late in the campaign in two red states, Texas and Nebraska. Ousting incumbent Republicans from one or both of those seats could help Democrats to at least a 50-50 split in the Senate should Democrats lose in Montana or Ohio.

In Texas, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a former professional football player, has proven adept at raising small-dollar donations in his challenge to incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred has outraised every Senate candidate nationally, except Tester and Brown.

The ad spending advantage for Allred has been 3-to-2, according to AdImpact, with the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC touting a new seven-figure digital ad buy and a separate $5 million TV ad buy attacking Cruz on a key issue for Democrats, abortion rights.

On top of that, Democrats hope Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday with Allred and Beyoncé can help Allred by boosting Black voter turnout.

In Nebraska, independent Dan Osborn — a tattooed former labor leader who supports abortion rights — appears to have consolidated Democratic and independent voters while making some inroads with Republicans, Democratic strategists say.

While Osborn is running as an independent and hasn’t said which party he’d caucus with, he’s getting support from a liberal super PAC that has helped him amass a significant spending advantage over Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.

In both states, Republicans acknowledge that they’ve had to spend money unexpectedly to shore up their incumbents’ prospects, but they also say they expect to win comfortably.

In Ohio, Brown has tried to personalize his appeal by appearing in most of his own ads and speaking directly into the camera.

“I’m Sherrod Brown and I have a question,” Brown says, looking into the camera and leaning his elbow on what might be a wood-working shop table. “Have you ever heard Bernie Moreno talk about what he’s going to do for Ohio?”

Brown also makes a personal appeal to potential swing voters, saying he has spent his career fighting for workers and veterans and working with law enforcement and “presidents of both parties to do what’s best for our state.”

Elsewhere, strategists expect first-term Florida Sen. Rick Scott will fend off a challenge from Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and that Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in deep-blue Maryland will beat former Gov. Larry Hogan to fill a seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.

___

Associated Press reporter Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter.

FORT WORTH (AP) — A Texas jury ordered Bell Helicopter Textron to pay $16 million to a California company that claims Bell gave proprietary information that the companies developed to a rival supplier of cockpit display systems.

The jury in state court in Fort Worth this week decided that Bell engaged in unfair competition, but it rejected Rogerson Aircraft Corp.’s claim that Bell stole trade secrets.

Bell, a Fort Worth-based unit of Textron Inc., did not respond to requests for comment.

According to its lawsuit, Rogerson made avionics and display systems for Bell helicopters for more than 25 years. It sued in 2017, seeking more than $100 million in damages. It claimed that Bell gave designs the two companies produced together to a third firm, which developed a replacement for Rogerson’s equipment.

Rogerson claimed that Bell was trying to avoid the need to get regulatory approval for new systems by labeling them replacements.

AUSTIN (AP) – Texas hospitals must ask patients starting Friday whether they are in the U.S. legally and track the cost of treating people without legal status following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that expands the state’s clash with the Biden administration over immigration.

Critics fear the change could scare people away from hospitals in Texas, even though patients are not required to answer the questions to receive medical care. The mandate is similar to a policy that debuted last year in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is also a frequent critic of the federal government’s handling of illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas hospitals have spent months preparing for the change and have sought to reassure patients that it won’t affect their level of care.

Here’s what to know:
Required to ask, not required to answer

Under the executive order announced by Abbott in August, hospitals must ask patients if they are citizens in the U.S. and whether they are lawfully present in the country.

Patients have the right to withhold the information and hospital workers must tell them their responses will not affect their care, as required by federal law.
Tracking hospital costs and patient data

Hospitals are not required to begin submitting reports to the state until March. An early draft of a spreadsheet made by state health officials to track data does not include fields to submit patient names or personal information.

Providers will fill out a breakdown of visits by inpatient and emergency care patients and document whether they are lawfully present in the country, citizens or not lawfully present in the U.S.

The reports will also add up costs for those covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP; and the cost for patients without it.

“Texans should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants,” Abbott said when he announced the policy.
Texas is following Florida’s lead

Florida enacted a similar law last year. Health care advocates contend the law has made immigrants who need of emergency medical care fearful and led to fewer people seeking help, even from facilities not subject to the law.

Florida’s early data is — by the state’s own admission — limited. The data is self-reported. Anyone can decline to answer, an option chosen by nearly 8% of people admitted to the hospital and about 7% of people who went to the emergency room from June to December 2023, according to Florida’s state report. Fewer than 1% of people who went to the emergency room or were admitted to the hospital reported being in the U.S. “illegally.”
Texas hospitals have been preparing

Immigrant and health care advocates have sought to educate the Texas public about their rights. In Florida, groups used text messages, posters and emails to get the word out. But advocates there have said they didn’t see fears subside for about a year.

Health care providers received directives from the state and guidance from the Texas Hospital Association.

“The bottom line for patients is that this doesn’t change hospital care. Texas hospitals continue to be a safe place for needed care,” said Carrie Williams, spokesperson for the hospital association.