Atlanta forfeits $37.5M in airport funds after refusing to agree to Trump’s DEI ban

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ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta’s airport has forfeited at least $37.5 million because city leaders have refused to disavow diversity, equity and inclusion programs as mandated by President Donald Trump’s administration.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, declined on July 29 to agree to terms set out by the Federal Aviation Administration. Those terms certify that the airport doesn’t “operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”

That language mirrors a January executive order signed by Trump banning DEI programs operated by anyone doing business with or receiving money from the federal government.

The FAA told the Atlanta airport, owned and controlled by the city government, that it was holding back $57 million, The Journal-Constitution reports. But federal authorities said $19 million of that money would be available to Atlanta in the next federal budget year if it agrees to the language then.

The money would have gone to repave taxiways and renovate public restrooms, among other projects.

The language could force the city to give up on a longstanding program that targets 25% of airport business for minority-owned firms and 10% for women-owned firms. Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, held up a $400 million airport expansion by insisting that a portion of the spending go to minorities and women. That project put Atlanta on the path to having the world’s busiest airport, and the complex is now partially named for Jackson, along with former Mayor William Hartsfield. The city’s minority business programs are credited with helping to bolster Black-owned businesses in Atlanta, burnishing the city’s reputation as a place where Black people could advance materially.

The newspaper found that Atlanta officials unsuccessfully tried to persuade the FAA to alter the language.

A number of other local governments, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Minneapolis, sued in May to stop Trump’s DEI ban. They argue in a lawsuit filed in Seattle that Trump is usurping powers reserved to Congress by trying to impose funding conditions on congressionally approved grants. A judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from altering the grant conditions for the local governments that are suing, but not for any other governments.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is seeking reelection this year, has said he’s considering changes to the program so the city could keep receiving federal money for a wide range of functions including the airport. Atlanta’s officials are elected on a nonpartisan basis, but Dickens, who is Black, says he’s Democrat.

“The city is currently evaluating all options to ensure alignment with our long-held values, local policy, and federal law and we are confident that the airport will be well positioned to receive federal funds in the future,” said Michael Smith, a spokesperson for Dickens.

In the meantime, the airport plans to “pursue alternative funding to advance these projects without impacting customers or airport service providers,” although Smith didn’t say where that money would come from. The city’s policy has been to finance airport improvements solely with airport-generated income.

In the year ended June 2024, the airport had $989 million in revenue and $845 million in expenses, according to a city financial report. At the time, the airport had almost $1 billion in ongoing construction. Smith said federal funding is “important” but represents less than 10% of the airport’s planned construction program over the next six years.

Supreme Court keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions of dollars in foreign aid

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By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday extended an order that allows President Donald Trump’s administration to keep frozen nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, handing him another victory in a dispute over presidential power.

With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court’s conservative majority granted the Republican administration’s emergency appeal in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago.

The Justice Department sought the high court’s intervention after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled that Trump’s action was likely illegal and that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

The federal appeals court in Washington declined to put Ali’s ruling on hold, but Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked it on Sept. 9. The full court indefinitely extended Roberts’ order.

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The court has previously cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of migrants, fire thousands of federal employeesoust transgender members of the military and remove the heads of independent government agencies.

The legal victories, while not final rulings, all have come through emergency appeals, used sparingly under previous presidencies, to fast-track cases to the Supreme Court, where decisions are often handed down with no explanation.

Trump told House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in a letter Aug. 28 that he would not spend $4.9 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid, effectively cutting the budget without going through the legislative branch.

He used what’s known as a pocket rescission. That’s a rarely used maneuver when a president submits a request to Congress toward the end of a current budget year to not spend the approved money. The late notice essentially flips the script. Under federal law, Congress has to approve the rescission within 45 days or the money must be spent. But the budget year will end before the 45-day window closes, and in this situation the White House is asserting that congressional inaction allows it to not spend the money.

The majority wrote in an unsigned order that Trump’s authority over foreign affairs weighed heavily in its decision, while cautioning that it was not making a final ruling in the case.

But that was cold comfort to the dissenters. “The effect is to prevent the funds from reaching their intended recipients — not just now but (because of their impending expiration) for all time,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The Trump administration has made deep reductions to foreign aid one of its hallmark policies, despite the relatively meager savings relative to the deficit and possible damage to America’s reputation abroad as people lose access to food supplies and development programs.

Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge last month that another $6.5 billion in aid that had been subject to the freeze would be spent before the end of the fiscal year next Tuesday.

The case has been winding its way through the courts for months, and Ali said he understood that his ruling would not be the last word on the matter.

“This case raises questions of immense legal and practical importance, including whether there is any avenue to test the executive branch’s decision not to spend congressionally appropriated funds,” he wrote.

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out an earlier injunction Ali had issued to require that the money be spent. But the three-judge panel did not shut down the lawsuit.

After Trump issued his rescission notice, the plaintiffs returned to Ali’s court and the judge issued the order that’s now being challenged.

Sara Jane Moore, who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, dies at 95

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By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sara Jane Moore, who was imprisoned for more than 30 years after she made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, has died. She was 95.

Moore died Wednesday at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee, according to Demetria Kalodimos, a longtime acquaintance who said she was informed by the executor of Moore’s estate. Kalodimos is an executive producer at the Nashville Banner newspaper, which was first to report the death.

Moore seemed an unlikely candidate to gain national notoriety as a violent political radical who nearly killed a president. When she shot at Ford in San Francisco, she was a middle-aged woman who had begun dabbling in leftist groups and sometimes served as an FBI informant.

Sentenced to life, Moore was serving her time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, when she was unexpectedly paroled Dec. 31, 2007. Federal officials gave no details on why she was set free.

She lived largely anonymously in an undisclosed location after that, but in broadcast interviews she expressed regret for what she had done. She said she had been caught up in the radical political movements that were common in California in the mid-1970s.

“I had put blinders on, I really had, and I was listening to only … what I thought I believed,”” she told San Francisco television station KGO in April 2009. “We thought that doing that would actually trigger a new revolution.”

Moore was often confused with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a disciple of cult murderer Charles Manson who aimed a semi-automatic pistol at Ford in Sacramento, California, on Sept. 5, 1975. A Security Service agent grabbed the gun before any shots could be fired, and the president was unharmed.

Just 17 days later, on Sept. 22, Moore shot at Ford as he waved to a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square. Oliver Sipple, a 33-year-old former Marine, knocked the .38-caliber pistol out of her hand as she fired, causing the shot to go astray and hit a building.

“I’m sorry I missed,” Moore said during an interview with the San Jose Mercury News seven years later. “Yes, I’m sorry I missed. I don’t like to be a failure.”

But in later interviews, before and after her release, she repeatedly said that she regretted her actions, saying she was convinced that the government had declared war on the left.

Asked by KGO in 2009 what she would say to Ford if that had been possible, she replied that she would tell him, “I’m very sorry that it happened. … I’m very happy that I did not succeed.” Ford died in 2006, about a year before her release.

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Her family did not publicly comment on her death. Geri Spieler, who wrote a biography of Moore titled “Housewife Assassin,” said she had abandoned her children and was estranged from all her living relatives.

Moore was born Sara Jane Kahn on Feb. 15, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia. Her confusing background, which included multiple failed marriages, name changes and involvement with both leftist political groups and the FBI, baffled the public and even her own defense attorney during her trial.

“I never got a satisfactory answer from her as to why she did it,” retired federal public defender James F. Hewitt once said. “There was just bizarre stuff, and she would never tell anyone anything about her background.”

Ford insisted that the two attempts on his life should not prevent him from having contact with the people, saying, “If we can’t have the opportunity of talking with one another, seeing one another, shaking hands with one another, something has gone wrong in our society.”

His other attacker, Fromme, also was freed from prison eventually. She had no comment as she left a federal lockup in Texas in August 2009 at age 60.

It was in 1974 that Moore began working for People in Need, a free food program for the poor established by millionaire Randolph Hearst as ransom after his daughter Patty was kidnapped by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army.

Moore soon became involved with leftists, ex-convicts and other members of San Francisco’s counterculture. At this time, she became an FBI informant.

Moore said she shot at Ford because she thought she would be killed once it was disclosed that she was an FBI informant. The agency ended its relationship with her about four months before the shooting.

“I was going to go down anyway,” she said in the 1982 interview with the San Jose Mercury News. “And if I was going to go down, I was going to do it my way. If the government was going to kill me, I was going to make some kind of statement.”

Moore was sent to a West Virginia women’s prison in 1977. Two years later she escaped but was captured several hours later.

She was later transferred to a prison in Pleasanton, California, before going to Dublin.

In 2000 she sued the warden of her federal prison to prevent him from taking keys given to inmates to lock themselves in as a security measure.

In an interview after the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, Moore told the Nashville Banner that part of what motivated her was that Ford, who became president after Richard Nixon resigned, was not elected president.

“He wasn’t elected to anything. He was appointed,” Moore said. “It wasn’t a belief, it was a fact. It was a fact that he was appointed.”

Trump swings by the Ryder Cup, soaking up fans’ love after vowing revenge on more of his enemies

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By MICHAEL R. SISAK and CHRIS MEGERIAN

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump started Friday by warning that more of his enemies will face prosecution, shaking the foundations of the American justice system by treating it as a tool of political retribution.

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And then he jetted off to the Ryder Cup to enjoy the rest of the day as the golfer-in-chief, watching the U.S. compete against Europe as the sun shined and the crowd cheered.

It was the latest example of how Trump seizes the attention that comes along with high-profile sporting events, putting his personal imprint on activities that have existed for generations as largely nonpartisan affairs.

Standing on the tee box in white golf shoes and a dark suit, the Republican president led spectators in a “USA!” chant a day after James Comey, the former FBI director, became the first former senior government official involved in one of Trump’s chief grievances to face prosecution. Trump had demanded the prosecution out of anger over Comey’s role in the Russia investigation during his first term, and even replaced an experienced U.S. attorney in Virginia to ensure the case moved forward.

A warm welcome for Trump

Even as he pushes the bounds of the presidency in his second term, Trump still found a warm welcome at the Ryder Cup. The crowd, many of whom endured lengthy security delays, chanted “USA! USA!” as Air Force One flew low over the closing holes at the Bethpage Black course, a show of force that he used on the campaign trail with his private plane and has continued with his government-issued ride.

When Trump stepped away from the course after watching the afternoon fourball matches tee off, some people in the stands behind him chanted “48,” a suggestion that they want the 45th and 47th president to serve an unconstitutional third term.

“He’s doing a hell of a job for the country,” said Phil Dunn of Pittsburgh. “He’s trying to bring people together.”

As for Comey, Dunn said, “it was treasonous what he did.” After prosecutors targeted Trump while he was out of office — for keeping classified documents, for trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and for paying hush money to a porn star — “this is what you get back,” Dunn said.

Comey is charged with making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding. He said he will fight the charges, describing them as a consequence of standing up to Trump.

Golf has always been something of a refuge for Trump. He owns several courses and visits often on the weekends to play and hold meetings. On the day the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, he played a round in Virginia, ensconced in a bubble of adulation despite voters’ rejection.

The ‘People’s Country Club’

This year’s Ryder Cup represented a synthesis at the heart of Trump’s political appeal as a billionaire with populist tastes. Although golf has a reputation as an elitist sport, Bethpage, on Long Island, is known as the “People’s Country Club,” and it’s one of the few public courses to host professional tournaments. The course is about 27 miles east of Manhattan, in a suburban county that Trump won in 2024.

The Ryder Cup draws a patriotic scene since it pits American players against Europeans. Over-the-top attire — red-white-and-blue overalls, bald eagle shirts and even tricorner hats — are common sights.

“Now Watergate does not bother me,” Lynyrd Skynyrd sang over the loudspeaker. “Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth.”

The president arrived through a tunnel beneath the grandstand, an announcer heralding his arrival. The crowd roared and broke into more “USA!” chants. European fans countered with “Ole!” but were quickly drowned out. Trump saluted as New York City firefighter Bryan Robinson sang the national anthem. The crowd erupted again as a quartet of military jets raced across the sky.

He then watched from behind a glass barrier near the first tee and the 18th green as the day’s second round of matches got underway.

Trump left his perch to greet U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who gave him a thumbs-up and bowed to him. Bradley also did an imitation of the arm-pumping dance that Trump made famous on the campaign trail and several players, including U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, followed suit.

Trump has often harnessed the platform of sports to broaden his reach in American culture. His armored limousine led drivers on two ceremonial laps at the Daytona 500, and already this month he mingled with the New York Yankees in their locker room and attended the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Sports will become more central to Trump’s presidency

Sports will only become more central to his presidency. The U.S. is hosting the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and the World Cup next year, along with Canada and Mexico. Trump has suggested reshaping the schedule for the soccer tournament to mesh with his political agenda by moving matches away from U.S. cities that he deems unsafe.

Some of the cities, he said recently in the Oval office, are “run by radical left lunatics,” and he’s proposed expanding deployments of National Guard troops. He added that “if I think it isn’t safe, we’ll move it to a different city.”

Little of these controversies were on people’s minds at Bethpage on Friday.

Jody Erwin, of Houston, wore a Captain America costume and a red American flag hat from Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. Erwin played the course on Wednesday, his first time there, and was excited that Trump was attending the Ryder Cup.

“He supports golf. He loves golf,” Erwin said. “That’s his whole deal.”

Erwin brushed off the idea that golf has been a safe space for someone like the president, saying, “I don’t think he can ever relax.”

Peter Bruce, who attended from London while decked out in Europe’s blue-and-yellow colors, was less enthusiastic.

“It’s not about him, it’s about those 12 players for each team out there,” Bruce said. “It would be better if he decided not to come.”

David Ferraro of Babylon, New York, wore a “Make America Great Again” hat to the tournament and wanted to sit as close to Trump as possible.

“The more times you can see the president, the more access you get to a president, the better,” Ferraro said.

AP Ryder Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/ryder-cup