By ISABELLA VOLMERT

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says President Donald Trump would be going back on his word to her if he pardoned two men who are serving prison sentences for leading a 2020 plot to kidnap her.

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Whitmer, a Democrat, told Michigan Public Radio on Thursday that Trump asked her about a month ago how she would feel if he pardoned the two men.

“I said, ‘I think it would be the wrong decision,’” Whitmer recounted. “I would oppose it and he said, ‘OK, I’ll drop it.’”

Whitmer, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, recounted the conversation one day after Trump said he was considering a pardon for the men, saying, “I will take a look at it. It’s been brought to my attention.”

The Republican president said he followed the men’s trial and “it looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job.” He said the men “were drinking and I think they said stupid things.”

The U.S. Justice Department’s new pardon attorney also said this month he would take a “hard look” at pardoning Barry Croft Jr. and Adam Fox.

Croft, 49, and Fox, 42, were portrayed as leaders of the kidnapping scheme. They were convicted of conspiracy in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2022. Croft, a trucker from Delaware, was also found guilty of a weapons charge.

Croft was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison, while Fox, a Grand Rapids man, got a 16-year term. They are being held at a prison in Colorado — the most secure in the federal system.

Whitmer later told an audience following a speech at the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference that she plans to talk to Trump again about the pardoning matter.

“We have an ongoing dialogue now … very different from the first term,” she said about Trump and turned to smile at the audience.

A spokesperson said the White House cannot confirm nor deny any upcoming actions.

“The White House does not comment on the President’s private meetings, and any speculation about future pardons is just that—speculation,” principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement.

Whitmer and Trump clashed publicly during his first term, with Trump referring to her as “ that woman from Michigan.” She has blamed Trump for the political anger that motivated the plot to kidnap her right before the 2020 presidential election.

Whitmer also hinted Thursday at anger over the possibility of pardons, saying she was disappointed to hear the news he was considering it.

“No one should hesitate to condemn political violence,” she said, noting the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last year.

Whitmer has faced scrutiny from some Democrats for taking a more collaborative approach to the Trump administration in his second term.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat who has criticized Whitmer for working with and appearing with Trump, said releasing the convicted men is “no laughing matter.”

“The reward you get for cozying up to Trump is him threatening to pardon the terrorists who plotted to kidnap and murder you,” she said on social media.

Whitmer’s collaboration with Trump has come with several awkward moments for her this year, including when she was unexpectedly in the Oval Office during a press conference as Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate two former members of his previous administration who had publicly criticized him.

Their new dynamic also led to some wins for her administration, including securing new jets at a military air base in Michigan and a commitment from Trump to fund a project to protect Lake Michigan from invasive carp.

The man who caused a fatal crash that killed Twin Cities’ restaurateur David Burley on Interstate 94 in Hudson, Wis., last month faces an additional homicide charge after a toxicology test shows he had a blood-alcohol concentration well over the legal limit to drive, according to a recent court filing.

David Burley, co-founder of Blue Plate Restaurant Company, died when his motorcycle was struck by a car near Hudson on Sunday afternoon, April 6, 2025. (Courtesy of Fluence Media)

Law enforcement suspected that Andre Lamont Mathews was intoxicated in the April 6 afternoon crash that killed Burley, the co-founder of Blue Plate Restaurant Co., who was driving his motorcycle. Burley, who grew up in Perth, Australia, was 58 and lived in Minnetonka.

Mathews, 33, of Brooklyn Park, was charged the next day with homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle as a repeat offender.

According to the criminal complaint, Mathews would not submit to an evidentiary test of his blood. A Wisconsin State Trooper applied for and received a search warrant to draw his blood for testing.

The toxicology test by the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene showed Mathews’ blood alcohol level was 0.134, according to an amended complaint filed this month that adds a charge of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle with a prohibited alcohol concentration. The legal limit to drive in Wisconsin is 0.08.

Beyond the BAC, no new details of the crash are included in the amended complaint.

The crash happened at 2:48 p.m. on westbound I-94 at milepost 1. Two people reported seeing Mathews’ vehicle, a 2011 Infiniti G25, “operating at a high rate of speed and weaving in and out of traffic for several miles prior to the crash,” the complaint states.

An investigation indicates Mathews was in the right lane and attempted to overtake traffic by using the right shoulder and then struck a guardrail, causing his car to veer back into the right lane, where it collided with Burley’s motorcycle, according to the Wisconsin State Patrol. Both Mathews’ car and Burley’s motorcycle “traveled across the roadway” and struck the median concrete barrier, the state patrol said.

Burley and Mathews were brought to Regions Hospital, where Burley died the same day. A trooper saw that his helmet had damage to the front and right rear.

Andre Lamont Mathews in an August 2018 booking photo. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

A trooper met with Mathews in a trauma room at the hospital. He “appeared to be disoriented and lethargic,” was not answering questions appropriately “and stated he did not know where he was or if he was driving,” the complaint states.

St. Croix County prosecutors are seeking a longer sentence for Mathews, if he’s convicted, due to a past offense. He was sentenced for possession of cocaine in Hennepin County in 2018.

Prosecutors in mid-April also filed three other cases against Mathews in connection with the crash: failure to keep a vehicle under control, failure to wear a seat belt and refusal to take a test for intoxication after arrest.

He’s due back in court June 23 on all the cases.

“It’s a very sad situation,” his attorney, Rachael Goldberger, said Friday. “And we don’t have any discovery yet. Once we get that, we’ll go through it.”

After working together as servers at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis during the 1990s, Burley and Stephanie Shimp opened the Highland Grill on St. Paul’s Cleveland Avenue, followed by a series of other local restaurants under the title Blue Plate Restaurant Co., including the Groveland Tap, Longfellow Grill, Edina Grill, The Lowry, The Blue Barn at the Minnesota State Fair and The Freehouse.

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Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Friday he canceled nearly $4 billion in project grants, in another massive blow to clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s administration.

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The grants, largely awarded during former President Joe Biden’s final few months in the White House, were primarily for programs to capture carbon emissions and store them underground. Other targeted efforts span cleaner cement, natural gas and more.

Some of the 24 canceled awards include $500 million to Heidelberg Materials US, Inc.; $375 million to Eastman Chemical Company; $95 million to Nevada Gold Mines, LLC; and $270 million to Sutter CCUS, among others, according to a list provided by the Department of Energy. Sublime Systems, which lost an $87 million grant, was “surprised and disappointed,” the company said in a statement.

“Today’s action is bad for U.S. competitiveness in the global market and also directly contradictory to the administration’s stated goals of supporting energy production and environmental innovation,” said Conrad Schneider, a senior director at the Clean Air Task Force. It “undercuts U.S. competitiveness at a time when there is a growing global market for cleaner industrial products and technologies.”

The news was a swift follow-up to plans the Energy Department announced earlier this month to review 179 funded projects, totaling over $15 billion, that were awarded by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations created under the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

It is part of Wright’s pledge to ensure “responsible” spending — aligning with the government’s broader efficiency and cost-cutting measures, such as those recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency, which has significantly impacted federal research, workers and agencies.

“While the previous administration failed to conduct a thorough financial review before signing away billions of taxpayer dollars, the Trump administration is doing our due diligence to ensure we are utilizing taxpayer dollars to strengthen our national security, bolster affordable, reliable energy sources and advance projects that generate the highest possible return on investment,” Wright said in Friday’s statement.

Moreover, the announcement marks the latest of the administration’s attacks on clean energy, broadly, and its effort to slash federal support for projects addressing climate change.

The Trump administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding, and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.

Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, called the news “shortsighted.”

Carbon capture has been a controversial climate solution, as skeptics say it enables the continued burning of fossil fuels oil, coal and natural gas that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases — including carbon dioxide — and distracts from the need to cut ties with those energy sources altogether. Though investment in the technology has grown, it also remains challenging to scale.

Industry decries the news

Organizations quickly decried the secretary’s actions, stressing that the cancelations don’t align with the administration’s goals to bolster domestic manufacturing or energy independence.

Jessie Stolark, the executive director of the nonpartisan Carbon Capture Coalition, said the news “is a major step backward” for carbon management technologies, which are “crucial to meeting America’s growing demand for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy.”

“These projects are not just reducing pollution, they are keeping the U.S. on the cutting edge of manufacturing technology,” said Mike Williams, senior fellow on the energy and environment team at public policy and advocacy group the Center for American Progress. “Canceling these important projects will raise energy prices for consumers and sacrifice thousands of high-quality union jobs, all because the president wants to curry favor with Big Oil.”

Evan Gillespie, partner at decarbonization organization, Industrious Labs, said the move dismantles the economy and the future of American manufacturing and its workforce.

“Killing these projects means more emissions, more pollution, and more people getting sick,” he said.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

As the White House moves to revoke Harvard University’s certification to enroll foreign students — escalating a battle between the administration and the oldest and wealthiest college in the U.S. — President Donald Trump is falsely claiming that Harvard offers “remedial mathematics” on topics such as simple addition.

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He most recently took aim at the school’s math offerings during a swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday for Interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host who was formerly a county prosecutor and elected judge, in response to a question from a reporter about how the “confrontation” with Harvard will end.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: “Harvard announced two weeks ago that they’re going to teach remedial mathematics, remedial, meaning they’re going to teach low grade mathematics like two plus two is four. How did these people get into Harvard? If they can’t, if they can’t do basic mathematics, how did they do it?”

THE FACTS: Harvard does not offer a remedial math class covering basic arithmetic. Asked whether Trump was referring to a specific class, a White House spokesperson provided information about Mathematics MA5, which was introduced in the fall of 2024 as a new format for an existing course that offers extra support in calculus. The original course — Mathematics MA — is still offered.

“Harvard College does not offer any so-called remedial math classes,” said James Chisholm, a spokesperson for the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which encompasses its undergraduate program.

He added: “Math MA5 is a college-level calculus class. It is simply a new format of Math MA, the introductory freshman calculus course that has been taught at Harvard for decades.”

Students in Mathematics MA and MA5 have the exact same homework, exams and grading structure, according to Chisholm. The only difference is that the former meets three days a week and the latter five days a week. They are both prerequisites for higher-level math courses.

One question on a sample exam Chisholm provided asks students to write a formula for determining the total number of cases during a hypothetical epidemic after a certain amount of days.

The Harvard Crimson reported in September that Director of Introductory Math Brendan Kelly said Mathematics MA5 is “aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students” created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A course description notes that its “extra support will target foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning.”

Harvard Extension School, the university’s continuing education program aimed at working adults, offers a precalculus course. Most students need only register to attend. Those who want to pursue a degree must first successfully complete two or three courses in their chosen field of study. Those earning a certificate or taking a single course must only meet certain enrollment requirements, such as English proficiency.

Harvard College undergraduates, who must apply to the university and be admitted under its rigorous admission standards, are not allowed to cross-register for Harvard Extension School classes.

“Harvard Extension School is 100% distinct from Harvard College and the two have nothing to do with each other in terms of curriculum or students,” said Chisholm.

Harvard’s Rising Scholars Program, an invite-only opportunity for incoming Harvard College students from “high schools that offered them limited college-level academic enrichment opportunities” offers a summer course for students who need an additional foundation on topics such as precalculus and algebra.

“The important point on Rising Scholars is it’s more about the incoming student’s high school than the individual student’s ability,” said Chisholm.

Harvard has also offered an Emerging Scholars Program to similarly support freshmen enrolled in introductory calculus who are interested in fields related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in an effort to “correct systemic inequalities in math and science K-12 education that have affected our college students for many years.”

The median math score for the most recently enrolled undergraduate class at Harvard College was 790 out of 800 on the SATs and 35 out of 36 on the ACTs. The average high school GPA was 4.2.

“There is no university in America that is as difficult to earn admission to as Harvard — no matter your demographics,” said Brian Taylor, managing partner at the college counseling service Ivy Coach. “President Trump’s math in this case simply doesn’t add up.”

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.