OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The flurry of contract agreements announced early this fall — including two more Wednesday — offer evidence that major railroads and their unions are working to avoid the standoffs that led them to a brink of a national strike two years ago.

Both sides are also now keenly aware that President-elect Donald Trump — who has a track record of supporting big businesses — would be the one ultimately appointing the people who would help resolve the contract dispute this time if they can’t work something out themselves.

“I think overall it may lead the unions and employers to want to bargain more intensively and come to agreements sooner,” said Todd Vachon, who teaches in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

But it still won’t be easy to satisfy all the workers who remain concerned about the widespread job cuts and have seen much bigger raises in other labor disputes.

Current contracts don’t expire until July but the National Carriers Conference Committee group that negotiates on behalf of the railroads said in its statement at the start of the talks on Nov. 1 that it was hoping for an early resolution. And just Wednesday, the railroads announced two new tentative agreements with the Transportation Communications Union and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen.

The railroads play such a crucial role in the economy that the president and Congress have the power to intervene because so many businesses rely on them to deliver their raw materials and finished goods. The Railway Labor Act that governs railroad contract talks dictates that if the two sides can’t reach an agreement, the dispute could wind up in the hands of a special board of arbitrators the president appoints that would hear from both sides and recommend a deal. That happened in 2022 — though the industry still reached the brink of a strike.

The two unions that inked deals Wednesday and several others among the 12 rail unions had already reached some agreements with CSX, Norfolk Southern and BNSF railroads even before the formal talks began between the unions and a coalition of railroads that includes Norfolk Southern, BNSF and Canadian National. The other major railroads — CSX, Union Pacific and CPKC — have decided to bargain individually with their unions.

“I think we all saw the perils of going through that again,” Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George said about the yearslong battle the industry engaged in last time that created “a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the labor force.”

The industry has also made strides over the past two years toward addressing some of the quality-of-life concerns that nearly led to a strike in 2022 before Congress and President Joe Biden intervened. In the two years since the nation’s freight railroads nearly ground to a halt, the industry has offered paid sick time to 90% of them — at the urging of the Biden administration and other officials — and most railroads have promised to improve the unpredictable schedules of train crews who were generally on call 24-7 without any idea when their next day off might come.

As a result, the relationships between the major freight railroads and the dozen different unions that represent their workers have generally improved, though they remain strained at times.

The president of the largest rail union that represents conductors — SMART-TD — Jeremy Ferguson said, “We’ve come a long way in two years.” But many workers still feel overworked and underappreciated by the railroads after the job cuts made in the name of efficiency in recent years.

CSX’s CEO Joe Hinrichs, who has led the industry with the first sick-time deals and other efforts to show employees they are appreciated, said he’s optimistic about the prospects for deals.

“We’re in a dramatically different place than we were two years ago, that’s for sure,” Hinrichs said. “I think what’s gotten us there is just everyone stepping back at CSX and at the unions and saying, OK, no one was satisfied what happened last time. What are we going to do differently this time?”

A bunch of those early deals were ratified this fall, not long after the first ones were announced in the midst of the labor dispute that brought Canadian National and CPKC railroads to a halt for a few days in Canada. But more recently, deals that offer 18.8% raises and improved vacation and health benefits over five years have been getting voted down after workers at Boeing and the East Coast ports secured deals with much larger raises following their strikes.

Josh Hartford with the Machinist Union’s District 19 rail division said that with a deal with CSX already out for a vote when the longshoreman secured their big raises, there wasn’t enough time to explain why this contract — coming on the heels of the 24% raises rail workers received in their last contract — might be considered a good deal. The port workers had gone longer without a new deal before this one that includes 62% raises.

But Hartford said “the morale is still poor” on most railroads after all the cuts and there is a strong feeling among some workers that maybe they could get more if they fight longer, so the Machinists rejected that deal. Conductors have also voted down all but one small deal on part of BNSF they have considered so far, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union has been unwilling to sign onto any of these early deals. Plus, the third largest union that represents track workers split on the deals it voted on so far.

So getting all the unions to agree won’t be easy. Consider that BLET is locked into a lawsuit with Union Pacific trying to get that railroad to deliver the schedule improvements it promised, and SMART-TD is headed into arbitration on scheduling issues at UP and crew size details at BNSF.

BLET union president Eddie Hall said his organization that represents engineers “wasn’t going to rush into deals that didn’t deliver.”

“Some of the deals that were reached early by other unions were hurried and failed to meet the needs of those railroaders who operate trains,” said Hall, who cited concerns about the expanding use of remote-control trains, the ever-increasing length of trains and the impact of all the job cuts.

But the pressure will be on the unions to settle because the Biden administration won’t be there anymore to lean on the railroads, said Virginia Commonwealth University professor Victor Chen, who studies labor issues as a sociologist.

“I expect the Trump 2.0 administration will continue with its earlier playbook of blocking unions at every turn. In negotiations, the unions will need to keep in the back of their minds that the White House will no longer step up for them the way that Biden did,” Chen said.

AUSTIN (AP) – The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.

The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

“Everytown will continue to raise awareness on InfoWars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives backed by Everytown,” The Onion said in a statement Thursday.

Jones confirmed The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars in a social media video Thursday and said he planned to file legal challenges to stop it.

“Last broadcast now live from Infowars studios. They are in the building. Are ordering shutdown without court approval,” Jones said on the social platform X.

Jones was broadcasting live from the Infowars studio Thursday morning and appeared distraught, putting his head in his hand at his desk.

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars. The other bidders have not been disclosed.

The Onion, a satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd, bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers.

Jones has been saying on his show that if his detractors bought Infowars, he would move his daily broadcasts and product sales to a new studio, websites and social media accounts that he has already set up. He also said that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms.

Relatives of many of the 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting Jones and his company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.

The lawsuits were filed in Connecticut and Texas. Lawyers for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit said they worked with The Onion to try to acquire Infowars.

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge on Tuesday sentenced a woman to 50 years in prison for forcing three of her children to live with the decomposing body of their dead 8-year-old brother for more than a year in a soiled, roach-infested Houston-area apartment.

Gloria Williams, 38, expressed deep regret before being sentenced, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Williams’ sentence came after she had pleaded guilty in October to two counts of injury to a child for abuse that involved 8-year-old Kendrick Lee, who was beaten to death by her boyfriend, and another child, the newspaper reported.

When authorities discovered the boy’s body in October 2021, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said many officers indicated it was the most disturbing scene they had worked in their careers and that it “seemed too horrific to be real.”

Lee’s three abandoned brothers had been living alone for months and were thin, malnourished and hungry when authorities found them in an unfurnished Harris County apartment that was infested with flies and roaches and had soiled carpet.

Authorities said the children had waited for Williams to call authorities to report that their brother had been beaten to death by her boyfriend, Brian Coulter. Investigators say the mother never made that call and the oldest surviving sibling, then a 15-year-old, finally overcame his fear and called authorities. The two other siblings were 7 and 10 years old when they were found by authorities.

Williams was sentenced following a nearly two-day court hearing that focused on the extent of her role in Lee’s death. Her defense attorneys blamed Coulter for most of the abuse. Coulter was sentenced in April to life in prison without parole for Lee’s death. The sheriff’s office had previously said Coulter had consistently hit the younger children and had fatally beaten Lee sometime around Thanksgiving in 2020.

A few months after the fatal beating, Williams and Coulter moved out and went to live at another apartment about 25 minutes away, leaving the three surviving siblings to fend for themselves as their brother’s body slowly decomposed, authorities said.

Williams relinquished parental rights over her children after her arrest. The two younger siblings have since been adopted, while the eldest is with a foster family, the newspaper reported.

AUSTIN (AP) – Conspiracy theory purveyor Infowars and most of its assets are set to go on the auction block Wednesday, with Alex Jones waiting to see if he will be allowed to stay or if he will get kicked off its online platforms.

The private auction is being held as part of Jones’ personal bankruptcy, which resulted from the nearly $1.5 billion in defamation lawsuit judgments a judge and jurors ordered the bombastic internet show and radio host to pay to families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for repeatedly telling his audience that the Connecticut massacre of 20 children and six adults was a hoax staged by crisis actors.

Jones has said that he believes he could remain at the Infowars studios in Austin, Texas, and continue to use its online platforms if supporters win the bidding. But if opponents buy the assets, he said it could be shut down immediately. He said he has set up a new studio, new websites and new social media accounts in case the latter happens.

On his show Tuesday, Jones alleged that the auction was “rigged” and that he believed “bad guys” will buy Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, and its assets. He did not elaborate but said he would “just drive down the road” and broadcast at another studio.

Up for sale are everything from Jones’ studio desk to Infowars’ name, video archive, social media accounts and product trademarks. Buyers can even purchase an armored truck and video cameras. Any items not sold will be auctioned off next month.

It’s not clear if the winning bidder or bidders will be announced Wednesday. The trustee in Jones’ bankruptcy case has three business days to disclose that information to a federal court in Texas.

Jones, who has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook shooting did happen, is appealing the defamation verdicts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the first seriously contested Senate Republican leadership election in decades, three senators are vying to replace longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell when he steps down from the post at the beginning of next year and Republicans take back the Senate majority.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Florida Sen. Rick Scott have been furiously campaigning to win their colleagues’ support in the secret-ballot election Wednesday. All three are trying to convince their colleagues that they have the ear of President-elect Donald Trump and will be the best person to implement his agenda.

They are also trying to differentiate themselves from McConnell, saying they will give rank-and-file senators more power and be more communicative.

It’s not clear who will win, or if there will be multiple rounds of votes before a winner is chosen.

A look at the three candidates:

SEN. JOHN THUNE

Thune, 63, defeated then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004 after arguing during the campaign that Daschle had lost his South Dakota roots during his years in Democratic leadership. Now Thune is running to become majority leader himself.

Well liked and a respected communicator, Thune has been perceived as a front-runner for much of the year. He is currently the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and took over for McConnell for a few weeks last year when he was on a medical leave. He is also a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

As he geared up to run for leader, Thune spent much of the year campaigning for his colleagues. According to his aides, he raised more than $31 million to elect Senate Republicans this cycle, including a $4 million transfer from his own campaign accounts to the Senate’s main campaign arm.

One potential liability for Thune has been his previously rocky relationship with Trump. Thune was highly critical of the then-president as he tried to overturn his election defeat in 2020 and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters. Thune said then that Trump’s efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power were “inexcusable.”

This year, though, Thune and Trump have talked frequently on the phone and Thune visited the then-GOP candidate at his home in Florida. Thune told The Associated Press over the summer that he views their potential relationship as a professional one. If they both win their elections, Thune said, “we’ve got a job to do.”

SEN. JOHN CORNYN

Like Thune, Cornyn is a popular and respected member of the Senate GOP conference. A former Texas attorney general and member of the state Supreme Court, much of his work has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was also McConnell’s No. 2, the job Thune now holds, for six years before he was term-limited out of the job.

Cornyn, 72, has also spent much of the year courting his colleagues one by one and fundraising for them around the country. He has long been one of the best fundraisers in the Senate, and his aides say he has raised more than $400 million for party candidates during his 22 years in office.

In 2022, after a gunman stormed a Texas elementary school and killed 19 children and two teachers, Cornyn was tapped by McConnell to lead the GOP in negotiating gun legislation with Democrats. The bill, passed that summer, stepped up background checks for buyers under 21, increased prosecutions for unlicensed gun sellers and put millions of dollars into youth mental health services. While Cornyn has touted his work on the gun bill, it could cost him some votes with the conference’s most conservative members.

Cornyn also had some past tensions with Trump, including his early suggestions that Trump might not be the best GOP candidate to run in 2024. But he, too, has smoothed relations with the incoming president, meeting him when he was in Texas to campaign and visiting him in Florida.

SEN. RICK SCOTT

While Thune and Cornyn both have leadership experience and have spent the better part of the year methodically trying to woo individual senators, Scott is running a different kind of campaign. And he believes he has a distinct advantage: his relationship with Trump.

Scott, a former two-term governor of Florida and a successful businessman, was reelected to a second term in the Senate last week, beating Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by more than 10 points. He is a longtime booster of the incoming president, and has positioned himself as a strong ally. Scott traveled to New York to support Trump during Trump’s hush money trial earlier this year, and has openly said he wants Trump to endorse him.

He won a rush of support on social media over the weekend when he was endorsed by people close to Trump, including Elon Musk. But Trump has not weighed in on the Senate contest.

It’s unclear if Scott’s outside approach could win him more support in the clubby Senate. He won 10 votes when he challenged McConnell for the post in 2022, and he will be aiming to improve that count in the first round of balloting Wednesday.

Scott, 71, is part of a growing group of far-right senators who have criticized McConnell’s tenure and advocated for more power for individual members. Several senators in that group, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, have endorsed him, arguing that his business experience and relationship with Trump should put him over the top.