TRONA, Calif. (AP) — A fighter jet with the Air Force’s elite Thunderbirds demonstration squadron crashed in the Southern California desert Wednesday, but the pilot managed to eject safely, the military said.

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The pilot was being treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

The F-16C Fighting Falcon crashed around 10:45 a.m. during a training mission “over controlled airspace in California,” according to a statement from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

The fire department said it had responded to an “aircraft emergency” near Trona, an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert about 180 miles north of Los Angeles.

In 2022, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed near Trona, killing the pilot.

Wednesday’s crash is under investigation and further information will be released from the 57th Wing Public Affairs Office, the Air Force statement said.

Like the Navy’s Blue Angels, the Air Force Thunderbirds perform their famous tight formations at air shows, and train to fly within inches of each other. The brief statement from the Air Force did not give details on the circumstances of the crash.

The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds have had dozens of crashes in their long histories.

Formed in 1953, the Thunderbirds practice seasonally out of Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. Aircraft based there include F-16 Falcon and F-22 Raptor fighter jets as well as A-10 Warthog ground-attack jets.

Minnesota’s projected budget surplus has grown to nearly $2.5 billion in the current two-year budget cycle, though an expected shortfall of almost $3 billion remains for the following two years.

The new budget forecast released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget shows a slight improvement over its March forecast, when state officials projected a $456 million surplus in the 2026-2027 biennium and a $6 billion shortfall in 2028-2029.

Growth in the projected surplus is the result of a “better-than-expected fiscal year close and higher near-term revenue collections, partially offset by increased spending estimates,” MMB said in a summary of its November forecast.

“Minnesota’s budget and economic outlook remains stable in the current biennium; however, structural budget challenges remain,” the agency said.

Higher health care costs and slow economic growth remain a challenge for the state later in the decade, according to MMB.

Meanwhile, the state’s general fund reserves remain “strong” and at their statutory target of $3.8 billion.

The updated numbers are a significant improvement over the last major update from state budget officials in March. Then, they warned that “significant near-term economic and fiscal uncertainty” from tariffs and other policy changes under President Trump could hurt the state’s fiscal position.

It’s yet to be seen how federal program cuts might affect Minnesota’s budget in the coming years.

The state was in a much better fiscal position more than two years ago, when MMB projected a nearly $18 billion surplus.

That year, Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled state government passed a more than $70 billion state budget that grew spending by nearly 40% — with a lot of the increase coming from one-time spending.

In June, a Legislature divided closely between the DFL and Republicans passed a $66 billion two-year budget, close to $5 billion less than the 2023 budget.

Special education transportation aid is one of the biggest areas for cuts. State leaders said that they’d have to curb spending this year to address shortfalls looming later this decade.

MMB will give a more detailed presentation to the press on its budget forecast at a noon news conference. Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders of both parties are also set to deliver remarks on the updated numbers.

The November forecast, typically released in the first week of December, gives Minnesota lawmakers insights on the state’s fiscal picture as they prepare to return to the Capitol for the legislative session early in the following year.

An updated forecast MMB releases in early March is generally when the Legislature begins deciding how it will spend money. Though the state will not have to pass a two-year budget in 2026, as this happens in odd-numbered years.

Past state budgets

Here’s a listing of past state two-year budgets:

• 2023 — $72 billion.

• 2021 — $52 billion.

• 2019 — $48 billion.

• 2017 — $46 billion.

• 2015 — $41.5 billion.

• 2013 — $38 billion.

• 2011 — $35.7 billion.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

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By JOSH FUNK, AP Transportation Writer

Two Black men who were fired by President Donald Trump from the National Transportation Safety Board and U.S. Surface Transportation Board accused the administration on Thursday of discriminating against them as part of a pattern of dismissing Black leaders across the government.

Robert Primus on the STB and Alvin Brown on the NTSB were the only Black board members overseeing their officially independent agencies when they were fired this year, in August and in May. Both had already filed lawsuits challenging their dismissals, saying the White House didn’t have good cause, as the law requires. Democracy Forward filed the new discrimination claims on behalf both men.

“When you look at who has been removed without cause, and who has been left in place, the pattern is impossible to ignore: Black commissioners across the federal government have been summarily fired,” said Brown, who was Vice Chairman of the NTSB. “My abrupt removal was unlawful, and it was discriminatory.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to the new legal filing, but has said Trump was well within his legal rights to fire Primus and Brown. The administration hasn’t filed a formal response to Primus’ lawsuit yet, but the Trump administration asked a judge to dismiss Brown’s lawsuit, arguing that the statutory protection saying board members can only be fired for cause is unconstitutional, and that the president should be able to pick his team at every executive agency.

When Brown was fired, experts said they couldn’t remember anyone ever being fired from the NTSB, which is tasked with investigating disasters across all modes of transportation to determine what caused them and make recommendations to prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again. The NTSB is currently investigating nearly 1,250 cases including the collision of a passenger jet and Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people in January.

Primus was pushed off the STB shortly after Union Pacific proposed its $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern railroad, a massive deal the five-member board will consider approving over the next year or two. He was the only member of the STB to oppose Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of Kansas City Southern railroad in 2023 because he was concerned about the impact on competition. Trump has said he thinks the Union Pacific deal sounds good.

By law, no more than three of the five members of each board can be from one party. Primus and Brown are Democrats. Primus was nominated for his position by Trump during his first term, named board chairman by President Joe Biden and led the board until Trump began his second term and elevated Board member Patrick Fuchs to chairman. Primus’ lawyers pointed out that the other Democratic member of the STB was allowed to continue serving.

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On the NTSB, another of the Democratic members, who is white, has continued serving beyond the expiration of his term the end of 2023, as is customary to do until a replacement is confirmed. But Brown was the one dismissed, even though he was scheduled to serve through the end of 2026. Trump nominated a white man to replace him.

The lawsuits argue that these firings reflect Trump’s broadening antipathy to seeing people of color in government positions: “This trend fits with President Trump’s consistent messaging criticizing diversity and inclusion and his clear and demonstrable emphasis on hiring white people.”

Trump has fired a string of board members at various agencies that are supposed to be independent including the Federal Reserve, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Senate Commerce Committee will consider advancing the nominations of both men’s replacements to a vote next week.