ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge has struck down key parts of a Florida law that helped parents get books they found objectionable removed from public school libraries and classrooms. It is a victory for publishers and authors who had sued after their books were removed.

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U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza in Orlando said in Wednesday’s ruling that the statute’s prohibition on material that described sexual conduct was overbroad.

Mendoza, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, also said that the state’s interpretation of the 2023 law was unconstitutional.

Among the books that had been removed from central Florida schools were classics like Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Richard Wright’s “Native Son” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

“Historically, librarians curate their collections based on their sound discretion not based on decrees from on high,” the judge said. “There is also evidence that the statute has swept up more non-obscene books than just the ones referenced here.”

After the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed the law, school officials worried that any sexual content was questionable, a belief that was enforced by new state training that urged librarians to err on the side of caution. Last year, Florida led the nation with 4,500 removals of school books.

Under the judge’s ruling, schools should revert back to a U.S. Supreme Court precedent in which the test is whether an average person would find the work prurient as a whole; whether it depicts sexual content in an offensive way; and whether the work lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

The lawsuit was brought by some of the nation’s largest book publishers and some of the authors whose books had been removed from central Florida school libraries, as well as the parents of schoolchildren who tried to access books that were removed.

The author plaintiffs included Angie Thomas, author of “The Hate U Give”; Jodi Picoult, author of “My Sister’s Keeper”; John Green, author of ”The Fault in Our Stars”; and Julia Alvarez, author of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.” The publisher plaintiffs included Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing and Simon and Schuster.

By PETER SMITH, DANIEL KOZIN and MARK THIESSEN

ANCHORAGE (AP) — Orthodox Christians across Alaska have been taking part in three days of prayer for peace ahead of Friday’s summit there between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will focus on the war in Ukraine.

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Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both Russia and Ukraine, although the religion has also been a source of controversy. The Russian church’s leadership has strongly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the war has aggravated a schism among Ukraine’s Orthodox.

“With the leaders coming to Alaska, what is the one thing that the church can offer? That is prayers for peace,” said Archbishop Alexei of the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska in the Orthodox Church of America.

The OCA is the now-independent offspring of Russian Orthodox missionaries who planted the faith in Alaska when it was a czarist territory in the 18th and 19th centuries. The church has about 80 parishes statewide and hundreds more across North America.

Mark Kalashnikov, a native of Russia living in the United States, poses for a photo outside St. Innocent Orthodox Cathedral on Aug. 12, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

The first prayers held Tuesday sought the help of St. Olga of Kwethluk — an Alaska Native woman who was canonized in June as the first Orthodox woman saint in North America.

“She was known to be really a healer in families,” said Alexei, who led prayers dedicated to her on Tuesday at St. Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage. “And because of the great pain and hardship that is experienced by families in the Ukraine and also in Russia, it felt good to start there.”

Wednesday’s services sought the intercession of St. Herman, an early monk and missionary “known for standing up against Russian authorities when they were doing what was wrong to the people,” Alexei said.

FILE – This image provided by the Diocese of Sitka and Alaska in June 2025 shows a detail of the official icon of St. Olga of Kwethluk, Matushka of All Alaska. (Diocese of Sitka and Alaska via AP, file)

On Thursday, the prayers focused on a historic icon of the Mother of God at the cathedral in Sitka, which was the capital of Alaska under Russian rule. Alexei said he hopes the prayers “will touch the hearts of our leaders.”

Lorinda Fortuin, one of the worshippers at Tuesday’s service at the Anchorage cathedral, echoed the thought.

“My heart breaks for my Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox brothers that are killing each other, over what?” she said. “It’s just a shame, and I want to just do what I can to bring peace to this world, and I believe my prayers can play a part in that.”

Mark Kalashnikov, another worshipper and a native of Russia living in the United States, said many people he knows have suffered in the war.

Two parishioners pray at St. Tikhon Orthodox Church in Anchorage during an Akathist service dedicated to peace in Ukraine on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/ Daniel Kozin)

“It is reassuring to see there is at least some communication happening,” he said of the summit. “We are trying to do what is asked of us, to come together as a community locally and to pray.”

Smith reported from Pittsburgh.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A state senator from Maplewood was arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired early Thursday morning. It’s his second drunken driving arrest while serving in the Minnesota Legislature.

Sen. Tou Xiong, DFL-Maplewood, was booked into the Ramsey County jail just before 4 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of third-degree DWI. He was released after 6:30 a.m. and has not yet been charged with a crime.

The Minnesota State Patrol said a trooper stopped a Honda CR-V on U.S. Highway 36 near McKnight Road in Maplewood around 2:40 a.m. Thursday, after noticing the vehicle was weaving in its lane and failing to use a signal.

Xiong gave a breath test that estimated his blood alcohol content was 0.09, the patrol said. The legal limit to drive in Minnesota is 0.08.

In a statement provided by the Senate Democratic-Farmer-Labor caucus, Xiong said police pulled him over near his home while he was driving back from a family gathering.

“I take full responsibility for my actions, and sincerely apologize to my constituents and the people I’ve let down,” Xiong said. “I want to thank law enforcement for doing their job to keep the roads safe. Today, I have begun the work of talking to my family and to my Senate colleagues about the situation.”

Tou Xiong, a state Representative from Maplewood, was arrested on Jan. 8, 2022, and accused of driving while impaired. (Courtesy of Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Xiong represents Senate District 44, which includes Little Canada, North St. Paul Oakdale and parts of Maplewood. He was elected to the district in 2022.

Xiong, who is serving his first term in the Minnesota Senate, was charged with DWI in 2022 while serving his second term as a state representative.

In January of that year, a Blaine police officer pulled Xiong over and found his blood alcohol content was 0.11. After news reports emerged of his charges, Xiong said he had made a “terrible mistake.”

As part of a plea agreement, Xiong pleaded guilty to having a blood alcohol concentration above 0.08 within two hours of being pulled over.

The Anoka County judge allowed a fourth-degree DWI charge to be dismissed, gave Xiong a year of probation, and ordered him to pay a $288 fine, according to court records.

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By JOSH FUNK

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Berkshire Hathaway revealed three new investments Thursday in steelmaker Nucor and two of the nation’s biggest homebuilders — Lennar and DR Horton — but none of the investments are big enough to ensure that legendary investor Warren Buffett handled them.

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Buffett, who plans to retire as CEO at the end of the year after six decades of building Berkshire, handles all of the conglomerate’s biggest investments worth $1 billion or more. All three of these new investments disclosed Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission are worth less than that, so they could be the ideas of one of Berkshire’s two other investment managers.

Berkshire’s filings simply offer a snapshot of its $258 billion portfolio at the end of the second quarters. Many investors comb through Berkshire’s filings every quarter because they like to follow Buffett’s moves. His record of trouncing the S&P 500 for decades has inspired legions of followers.

The filing doesn’t make clear who at Berkshire handled each investment. Besides Buffett, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs also pick stocks, but they generally handle smaller portfolios and Combs also serves as Geico’s CEO. But Buffett has had a hard time finding stocks or any other investments in recent years that he wants to invest much of Berkshire’s $344 billion cash in.

Berkshire’s Nucor stake of 6.6 million shares was the biggest new investment worth roughly $857 million at the end of the quarter. Shares of that company rose more than 6% in extended after-hours trading.

The Lennar investment was worth nearly $800 million. While the DR Horton stake was much smaller worth $191.5 million. Those companies’ stocks also saw gains in late trading

Buffett already knows quite a lot about the home building business because Berkshire owns the nation’s largest manufactured homebuilder, Clayton Homes.

Besides stocks, Berkshire owns dozens of companies in a variety of industries including Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, several major utilities and an assortment of manufacturing and retail companies. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s holdings include many well-known brands like See’s Candy and Dairy Queen.