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DALLAS (AP) — As people gather across the U.S. to celebrate Juneteenth, former President Barack Obama’s presidential center opened its doors Friday to the general public for the first time.

Located on a sprawling campus on Chicago’s South Side, the center honoring the nation’s first Black president has been designed to inspire people to make the change they want to see in their own communities. It’s the kind of contemplation that also comes as Americans gather for Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.

The holiday marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas at the end of the Civil War with an order declaring the state’s enslaved people to be free with “absolute equality.” By then, 2 1/2 years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of enslaved people in the South.

“Juneteenth represents not just a commemoration of the end of slavery but it’s also part of the ongoing struggle for absolute equality and that ideal in American life,” said W. Caleb McDaniel, a Rice University professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Sweet Taste of Liberty.”
Obama’s presidential center in Chicago

The grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center includes days of events following Thursday’s star-studded dedication ceremony.

The center’s public opening arrives as a symbolic convergence of legacy and liberation. The nation is deeply divided politically and grappling with renewed questions about the arc of racial progress as the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act, endangering Black political representation in Congress.

The nearly 20-acre (8-hectare) campus includes a museum featuring a life-sized replica of the Oval Office, a garden designed by former first lady Michelle Obama complete with lettuce and strawberry plants, a professional-grade basketball court, a picnic area with grills and a new branch of the Chicago Public Library. Visitors can experience high-tech and hands-on exhibits spanning the campaigns, key moments of Obama’s presidency and life at the White House.

The spaces are designed to bring people together on a campus expected to draw as many as 1 million visitors annually, but the center also aims to encourage personal reflection. Louise Bernard, the museum’s director, has said they’re “inviting people to bring change home, however change may be defined, both small or large.”
The history of Juneteenth

This is the fifth year since Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday by former President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president. But the celebrations, which began in Texas and then spread across the country, have a rich and long history in Black America, with the day often spent gathering for picnics and cookouts.

The holiday — a combination of “June” and “nineteenth” — marks the day when U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and his troops arrived in the Texas port city with the declaration of freedom in General Order No. 3.

As the third year of the Civil War neared, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring the freedom of “all persons held as slaves” in the still rebellious states of the Confederacy. Though, for many, it did not mean immediate freedom but a promise of liberation, to be secured with a Union victory.

“It really required the force of arms and the success of U.S. armies to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation,” McDaniel said.

About six months after Granger’s arrival in Galveston, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide was ratified.
Celebrations across the nation this year

Juneteenth’s birthplace is celebrating with a daylong gathering at a Galveston park with music and fireworks, a parade and a worship service in a historic Black church. Nearby Houston lined up of musical artists and a domino tournament at Emancipation Park, established in 1872 by a group of formerly enslaved men.

Hundreds of other cities across the U.S. announced events over the long weekend, including a parade in Atlanta, a bike ride in Los Angeles and a festival on Martha’s Vineyard.

Several cities across the U.S. will host walks named for Opal Lee, the Texas woman who pushed for years to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Participants will walk 2 1/2 miles to symbolize the 2 1/2 years it took for the Emancipation Proclamation to be enforced in Texas. Lee, known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” turns 100 this year.
Reflecting on a continuing struggle

Black Texans embraced the date of Granger’s arrival as one to celebrate, even as the Ku Klux Klan was established in Texas by 1868. By the 1880s, “it was difficult to find a significant community in Texas where it wasn’t being marked by African Americans,” McDaniel said.

“They made it a community celebration, they made it a celebration of not only freedom but also a demonstration of community empowerment and institution-building,” he added.

Corey D.B. Walker, dean of Wake Forest University’s divinity school, said the holiday offers a way to recognize the nation’s “complex history” and what it means to be a U.S. citizen, especially amid efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to undermine the retelling of Black history.

“I think it really reminds people the importance of understanding a fuller, more robust portrait of our nation’s history and the many contributions of many individuals who have contributed to America’s experiment with democracy,” Walker said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Bina Ramroop broke down in tears when she realized she wasn’t going to get the World Cup tickets she had bought for her grandson’s 13th birthday.

As thousands poured into Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday to see Spain face Cape Verde in what turned out to be a remarkable scoreless draw, Ramroop stood outside, increasingly stressed as she went back and forth for hours between StubHub representatives on the phone and FIFA representatives in the ticket booth. Each blamed the other.

No one could figure out why the tickets Ramroop bought months ago on StubHub for $485 apiece couldn’t be transferred from the original seller to the FIFA ticketing app. StubHub offered her a refund and, as Ramroop heard the crowd roar for the start of the match, she knew she had no choice but to give up and take the offer.

“I didn’t want a refund, I didn’t want my money back,” Ramroop said. “I wanted to go to the game.”

The World Cup has delivered thrills on the pitch, but fans have flooded social media with complaints about tickets that never arrived, orders that were canceled at the last minute and hours they spent trying to sort out problems between FIFA’s ticketing system and outside resale platforms. The vast majority seem to be about industry titan StubHub, but people who bought through competitors such as SeatGeek and Vivid Seats have also reported issues. Interviews with fans and industry experts show that some cases stem from technical glitches in the transfer process, while others could involve sellers who never had tickets to deliver in the first place, though StubHub denies such sales happen on its platform.

A grandmother’s disappointment

FIFA has urged fans to buy resale tickets through its own marketplace, where it slaps a 30% surcharge on every resold ticket — 15% each from the buyer and seller. But many fans bought through other resale sites, either out of habit or because those sites have lower prices or are easier to navigate.

Ramroop didn’t realize she was taking a risk when she bought through StubHub, which she had used in the past without issues.

As she and her grandson Elijah Gomes took the long, lonely train ride back to the Atlanta suburbs, Elijah followed the score on his phone. The match had ended scoreless, and he tried to cheer up his devastated grandmother by telling her they hadn’t missed much after all (Cape Verdeans would beg to differ ).

“He’s telling me, ‘Grandma, it’s OK, Grandma.’ And he’s trying to console me,” Ramroop said the next day.

She was hardly alone. An Associated Press journalist witnessed more than a dozen frustrated fans at the match who said they were stuck in similar situations.

StubHub blamed FIFA for the transfer problems that buyers like Ramroop have experienced. In a statement, it said FIFA has “poor technology infrastructure,” enacted last-minute transfer restrictions and didn’t launch its new ticketing app until a few weeks before the tournament. The company also called out organizers that “take anti-competitive actions” that limit where fans can buy and sell tickets.

Asked about the technical issues, FIFA on Wednesday reiterated that sales through its official site are guaranteed to go through.
An industry’s longstanding problem

Industry observers say the problems appear to stem from more than one cause. For some, it may indeed be technical glitches — an issue that StubHub says is “very, very rare” and one that it is hard at work to solve. For others, they say it’s likely a more longstanding scourge: speculative sellers.

Scott Friedman, an industry veteran and co-founder of a consultancy called the Ticket Talk Network, said some sellers list tickets before they actually have them, betting that prices will fall closer to the event so they can buy the tickets at a better price later. But because World Cup ticket prices have surged since the tournament began, those sellers have been forced to either buy expensive tickets to fulfill their orders or cancel and accept penalties from resale platforms. StubHub’s penalties are typically 200% of the ticket price, Friedman said.

“This is not new at all,” said Friedman, pointing to other high-profile events where frustrated fans were left empty-handed, including Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. “This has been going on, but it’s making global news because it’s the World Cup.”

StubHub says it requires sellers to prove they have tickets before they list them.

But regardless of the reason for the canceled sales, Friedman said “StubHub should fill every single order to make sure fans get in the biggest global sporting event that happens every four years.”

That’s what many fans say they expected when they purchased through StubHub.

StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee promises replacement tickets or a refund if tickets fail to arrive. But the policy repeatedly says those remedies are provided at StubHub’s “sole discretion,” meaning the company can choose a refund instead of securing replacement seats.

“That is pretty explicit language,” said Michael McCann, a sports law expert at the University of New Hampshire. McCann noted that a buyer could try to challenge the language under state consumer protection laws, but it would be an uphill battle.

A father’s regrets

Pape Ndaw is crestfallen that the high school graduation gift he got for his son — tickets for them to see the Netherlands and Japan near their home city of Dallas — never arrived.

He bought the tickets for about $550 apiece in December. Then, two days before the June 14 match, he received an email from StubHub telling him, “The seller can’t deliver your original tickets.”

Ndaw accepted store credit rather than a refund, thinking he would use the funds to quickly get replacements, only to then realize that the cheapest last-minute tickets were going for more than $1,500 each. Not only were they not going to get to go to the game, but Ndaw said StubHub rejected his belated request for a refund instead of store credit.

Breaking the news to his soccer-obsessed son was brutal, Ndaw said.

“It was a disastrous thing,” he said. “He had told all his friends that he was going to that game. He literally cried. I mean, he is a 17-year-old kid, but he cried.”

A family’s attempt to make the best of it

Others fared somewhat better.

Patrick O’Neil of Pittsboro, North Carolina, traveled to Atlanta with his wife, son and relatives after purchasing five tickets through StubHub for the Spain-Cape Verde match. Two tickets transferred successfully, but three never arrived.

O’Neil’s 15-year-old son and his uncle ended up using the two tickets, while O’Neil, his wife and another relative watched from a nearby bar.

After local media caught wind of their ordeal, O’Neil said StubHub contacted the family and offered tickets to another game. Since the family had already bought tickets to one, though, he and his wife asked the company to instead give the seats to local nonprofit Soccer in the Streets so they could go to people who otherwise might not be able to attend a match.

“StubHub is not evil, but they’re part of the whole system that makes it really hard for just normal kids and people who might want to see a match get to go,” O’Neil said.

On Thursday, a StubHub representative confirmed to the AP that the company would honor the O’Neils’ request and send tickets to the nonprofit.

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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators John Cornyn, and Alex Padilla (D-CA) today introduced legislation that would reauthorize Preventing Outages With Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act. The law will help weatherize electric grids across the nation, according to Sen. Cornyn.

“Texas is no stranger to extreme weather events, and it’s imperative that we have the infrastructure capable of withstanding the gamut of everything from freezing cold temperatures to sweltering heat waves, flooding, and devastating wildfires,” said Sen. Cornyn. “This bipartisan legislation would reauthorize the grid resilience program Senator Padilla and I created, which is essential to preventing outages and ensuring Texans can depend on the power they need to weather any storm.”

“As we continue to grapple with threats to the electric grid from extreme weather, investing in projects to improve the flexibility and resiliency of the power system is crucial,” said Sen. Padilla. “The GRIP program is a major success, driving improvements and innovation to make the electric grid more secure and efficient. Our bipartisan effort will continue to help us keep the lights on and keep costs down for future generations.”

Background:

In February 2021, record amounts of snow, ice, and prolonged sub-zero temperatures overwhelmed the Texas power grid and forced the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to shut off electricity for more than four million Texans, leaving them without heat for days on end. More than 200 lives were lost. This disaster laid bare the vulnerabilities of our electric grid infrastructure and the need for electricity providers and suppliers to protect against future extreme weather events. Insufficient grid resiliency increases the likelihood of blackout events, which threaten lives and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.

Following Winter Storm Uri, Senator Cornyn introduced the Preventing Outages with Enhanced Resilience and Operations Nationwide (POWER ON) Act, now law, which established the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to provide critical resources to help states weatherize electric grids.

This legislation would reauthorize the grid resilience grant program at the DOE to prevent a lapse in federal funding that is essential to protecting energy facilities and energy infrastructure against future extreme weather events.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided Thursday with a Texas marijuana user who wants to legally own a gun, the latest in a line of firearm cases from a court that has expanded gun rights.

In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled in favor of Ali Danial Hemani, who argued that a law barring guns from anyone who uses drugs illegally violates the Second Amendment. Hemani wasn’t charged with any other crimes or accused of using the weapon under the influence.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion, saying the ruling limits but doesn’t end the government’s power to take guns from drug users.

The decision is a loss for President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, which had defended the 1968 law despite arguing against other gun restrictions. The measure was also used in a case against Hunter Biden, who was convicted in Wilmington, Delaware, of buying a gun while addicted to cocaine in 2018. He was later pardoned by his father, then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Someone addicted to a drug could still be prosecuted after Thursday’s decision, Gorsuch wrote. “We do not address efforts to ban addicts, or those presently intoxicated, from possessing a firearm,” he wrote. Prosecutors could potentially still charge a marijuana user, if they had evidence the person was dangerous.

It’s the latest in a series of firearm cases to reach the Supreme Court since a landmark ruling expanding gun rights in 2022 led to a wave of challenges around the country.

Since then, the high court has upheld a law aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence and strict regulations on ghost gun kits but has struck down a ban on bump stocks, an accessory that enables rapid fire. The justices are also considering a second firearm case this term over strict regulations on carrying guns in Hawaii.

The Texas case comes after significant shifts in the legality and use of cannabis. More than half of U.S. states have now legalized it broadly, and it’s gained widespread use for health purposes.

“Whatever one thinks of these developments, the federal government has not just tolerated them; it helped fuel them,” Gorsuch wrote. “All of which leaves it awkwardly positioned to suggest that the millions of Americans who now regularly use marijuana are categorically and unusually dangerous.”

Recreational use remains illegal on a federal level even after the Trump administration reclassified medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug in April.

It’s rare to see standalone criminal charges filed against people accused solely of owning guns and using drugs. The charge is more often filed against people also accused of other crimes.

The case made for some unusual political alliances. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Rifle Association both supported Hemani’s case, as did cannabis legalization groups like NORML. On the other side were gun safety groups like Everytown that usually oppose the Trump administration on Second Amendment issues.

The man who died when a small jet crashed on a Texas highway was an entrepreneur well-known in the state for being at the center of Austin’s turbocharged evolution as a technology hub.

Joshua Baer, 50, described himself as an “Austinpreneur,” a reference to the state capital and his enthusiasm for getting people into business. He founded Capital Factory, which has grown into an important Austin-based venture capital firm supporting a range of technology startup companies, from robots to autonomous ships.

Baer’s LinkedIn page shows him wearing a black T-shirt and pointing at the message: “I help people quit jobs.” His email had a similar handle. Capital Factory’s downtown headquarters is among the offices of tech giants like Google.

“Whether you’re in technology or not, there’s a hole in the heart of Austin today,” Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, which promotes the local tech industry, said of Baer’s death.

Baer listed his life strategy as, “Plant lots of seeds. Water everyone’s. Repeat.” And people noticed: The Austin mayor in 2023 gave him a key to the city, a symbol of civic honor.

Bryan Chambers, co-founder and president of Capital Factory, said his business partner was a “true super connector.”

Baer was aboard a business jet that crashed Tuesday on a highway in Laredo, Texas, after the pilots reported mechanical problems and requested to make an emergency landing at an airport. His LinkedIn profile said he had a wife and three children. It wasn’t known whether three young people who survived the crash were family members.

After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he created an email marketing business, Baer moved to Austin in 1996 to work as a software developer at Trilogy Inc. He started Capital Factory in 2009 and regularly held business chats with people at a coffee shop.

“My hobby is startups,” Baer told the Austin American-Statesman in 2012. “I don’t watch sports or anything like that. So this is what I do. … I want to be an investor in every great tech company that comes out of Austin. That’s probably unrealistic, but I’m going to try anyway.”

Baer often spoke to high school students and had the title of “entrepreneur in residence” at the University of Texas.

“He was passionate that technology could change the world and make people’s lives efficient and better,” Singer said. “And if entrepreneurs did it right, they could make money and help their communities. He believed in those two things.”

Texas U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn said they were saddened by Baer’s death. Cornyn wrote on X that Baer was an “innovative & creative leader in Austin’s entrepreneurial culture.”

COVINGTON, La. (AP) — Tropical Storm Arthur was downgraded to a low pressure area along the upper Texas coast Wednesday night but forecasters expected its remnants to bring life-threatening flooding and days of heavy rains to parts of the southeastern United States, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin and it’s expected to keep weakening as it moves inland over southeastern Texas and western Louisiana, then cross the southeast Thursday through Friday. Maximum sustained winds were around 35 mph (55 kph).

All coastal watches and warnings were discontinued Wednesday night, but flooding was likely through Friday over parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, the hurricane center said.

In Louisiana and Mississippi, some communities had set up locations for residents to collect sandbags and cleared debris from drainage systems.

“The main threat from Arthur is going to be a prolonged, multiday, heavy rainfall event that could produce dangerous to life-threatening flash flooding,” National Hurricane Center director Michael Brennan said.

The storm spun off the Texas coast on the same day a World Cup match took place in Houston but did not disrupt the contest, which was played indoors. Heavy storms in the Houston area earlier in the week had canceled outdoor watch parties and fan events.

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno said police were preparing boats and setting up barricades in known flood areas. Collection points for residents to fill sandbags also sprung up around the state.

“We both decided we got so much rain yesterday at our house that it was probably a good idea just to pick up a few bags,” said Luke Barwick, who filled sandbags at a collection center in Covington, Louisiana.

After being inundated with heavy rain earlier this week, parts of central and south Mississippi braced for a second wave of potential flooding.

Officials in Picayune, Mississippi, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of New Orleans, declared a state of emergency Tuesday after downpours brought nearly 7 inches of rain in six hours. On Wednesday, city officials gave out thousands of sandbags and put emergency responders on standby.

Arthur is expected to produce rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters), with isolated higher totals near 20 inches (50 centimeters).

Swells generated by Arthur are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip-current conditions along the northwestern Gulf Coast for the next couple of days, forecasters said. Tornadoes were possible through Thursday.

Arthur formed as some areas along the Texas coast had already been drenched by bands of heavy storms that caused flooding and high waters. Near Houston, a 15-year-old drowned Tuesday after entering the water of a retention pond while playing near a construction zone, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. ___ Fischer reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Sophia Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.

The business jet barreled cockeyed down the dark highway, knocking down one light pole after another, an orange glow of sparks trailing it.

From a distance, Ivan Franco thought it must be a car. But as he approached in his tow truck, he saw it was a plane — broken in half, its fuselage resting on its side, bright fire beginning to rise above. He stopped and rifled through the rescue kit his company keeps in the truck, grabbing a sledgehammer as well as three fire extinguishers, which he handed off to police officers.

“At that moment, you don’t think much about what to do, because I knew the plane could explode since it was on fire,” Franco told The Associated Press in Spanish. “My idea was to try to break the windows because the pilots hadn’t come out yet.”

Franco was one of several motorists who happened across the crash in Laredo, Texas, late Tuesday night and rushed to help — putting their own lives in danger to help those on board escape as smoke filled the cabin.

Passersby helped save lives

Police were also on the scene quickly, and their teamwork with the good Samaritans undoubtedly saved lives, officials said.

“The officers and the good Samaritans that went to the scene, our firefighters that responded — I do also want to commend each and every one of them,” Laredo Police Chief Mike Rodriguez said during a news conference Wednesday. He said he asked his staff to track down all the civilians who helped.

The Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet departed Tuesday evening from the Mexican resort city of San José del Cabo and was bound for Austin, Texas, the FAA said in a statement. The plane was operated by NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that lets people buy part ownership in private jets. NetJets said in a statement that it was cooperating with authorities.

The crash occurred after its pilots reported mechanical problems while requesting an emergency landing at a nearby airport. The fuselage came to rest across a concrete barrier, while its tail broke off and fell to a lower section of roadway.

One person was killed: Joshua Baer, a leader in Texas’ technology and startup sectors. Three teenage passengers and two pilots survived, as did a person in a truck struck by the plane as it crashed. Authorities have not released more detail about the passengers’ connections to one another.

Investigators combed through wreckage Wednesday for clues to the cause.

It was the third significant aviation accident in as many days in the U.S. A B-52 crashed Monday during a test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California and killed all eight people aboard, while on Sunday, 12 people were killed when a plane on a skydiving outing in Missouri crashed.

‘It looked like part of a movie’

Among the motorists who stopped in Laredo was Zayra Garza, an esthetician who was driving her co-workers home when she saw the wreckage. She recorded video as her husband ran to help.

“It looked like part of a movie. I was in shock,” Garza said. Most worrisome was the fire: “I was concerned that it could have just exploded at any time.”

Garza saw people leave their cars to try to smash the cockpit glass. Her video shows the aircraft’s door popping open slightly from inside as a voice cries “Help! Help! Help!” The rescuers strain to lift the door farther open as the three teenagers dart out, followed quickly by one pilot and then by another.

Franco, a 23-year-old from Laredo, frantically swung the sledgehammer through heavy smoke. Others struck at the window with a shovel and tools from their own vehicles.
Cockpit windows are designed not to shatter

They accomplished little more than spiderwebbing the cockpit window with small cracks: Airplane windshields have multiple layers of glass and are designed to remain structurally sound even if the outer layer shatters. The windows must be able to withstand a bird strike at cruising speed and hold up to extreme pressure differences at high altitudes.

“They are basically bulletproof,” said retired airline pilot John Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating Systems.

Police officers tried to remove the final person inside — Baer — as the smoke grew thicker. Officers doubled over coughing after turning away from the smoke.

Eventually firefighters with oxygen masks were able to get inside.

Firefighters also removed a dog from the plane that was suffering from smoke inhalation. The dog was turned over to animal control and was expected to survive, said Jose Baeza, an investigator with the Laredo Police Department.

Five officers were treated for smoke inhalation; the five people who survived the crash were also released from a hospital.

As the plane crashed on the northbound lanes of the highway, its wing hit a truck traveling southbound. The driver of that vehicle also survived, Baeza said.

There has been an outpouring of support on social media for those who stopped to help, heralding their bravery and selflessness.

Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño called it “nothing short of a miracle that this tragedy did not become a mass fatality event,” thanks in part to the late hour when the crash occurred and the quick action of first responders.

Franco said that as he tried to help, all he could think of was getting people out of the plane. But to do it, he had to conquer another feeling.

“You’re in constant fear,” he said. “You don’t know what situation you’re in.”

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Johnson and Golden reported from Seattle. Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California. AP journalists Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.