14 Jul 2025

US imposes a 17% duty on fresh Mexican tomatoes

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By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

The U.S. government said Monday it is placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking U.S. tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the U.S. is also grown there. Mexico currently supplies around 70% of U.S. tomato market, up from 30% two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

But opponents, including U.S. companies that grow tomatoes in Mexico, said the tariff will make fresh tomatoes more expensive for U.S. buyers.

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The Commerce Department said in late April that it was withdrawing from a deal it first reached with Mexico in 2019 to settle allegations the country was exporting tomatoes to the U.S. at artificially low prices, a practice known as dumping.

As part of the deal, Mexico had to sell its tomatoes at a minimum price and abide by other rules. Since then, the agreement has been subject to periodic reviews, but the two sides always reached an agreement that avoided duties.

In announcing its withdrawal from the Tomato Suspension Agreement, the Commerce Department said in late April that it had been “flooded with comments” from U.S. tomato growers who wanted better protection from Mexican imports.

But others, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, had called on the Commerce Department to reach an agreement with Mexico.

In a letter sent last week to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Chamber of Commerce and 30 other business groups said U.S. companies employ 50,000 workers and generate $8.3 billion in economic benefits moving tomatoes from Mexico into communities across the country.

“We are concerned that withdrawing from the agreement – at a time when the business community is already navigating significant trade uncertainty – could lead to retaliatory actions by our trading partners against other commodities and crops that could create further hardship for U.S. businesses and consumers,” the letter said.

14 Jul 2025

Trump administration says it won’t publish major climate change report on NASA website as promised

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By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday took another step to make it harder to find major, legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people.

Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do.

But on Monday, NASA announced that it aborted those plans.

“The USGCRP (the government agency that oversees and used to host the report) met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov’s data,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. That means no data from the assessment or the government science office that coordinated the work will be on NASA, she said.

On July 3, NASA put out a statement that said: “All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting.”

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“This document was written for the American people, paid for by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselves safe in a changing climate, as the disasters that continue to mount demonstrate so tragically and clearly,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. She is chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and co-author of several past national climate assessments.

Copies of past reports are still squirreled away in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s library and the latest report and its interactive atlas can be seen here.

Former Obama White House science adviser and climate scientist John Holdren accused the administration of outright lying and long intended to censor or bury the reports.

“The new stance is classic Trump administration misdirection,” Holdren said. “In this instance, the administration offers a modest consolation to quell initial outrage over the closure of the globalchange.gov site and the disappearance of the National Climate Assessments. Then, two weeks later, they snatch away the consolation with no apology.”

“They simply don’t want the public to see the meticulously assembled and scientifically validated information about what climate change is already doing to our farms, forests, and fisheries, as well as to storms, floods, wildfires, and coast property — and about how all those damages will grow in the absence of concerted remedial action,” Holdren said in an email.

That’s why it’s important that state and local governments and every day people see these reports, Holdren said. He said they are written in a way that is “useful to people who need to understand what climate change is doing and will do to THEM, their loved ones, their property and their environment.”

“Trump doesn’t want people to know,” Holdren wrote.

The most recent report, issued in 2023, found that climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority communities, particularly Native Americans, often disproportionately at risk.

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.

14 Jul 2025

What to expect at Lumberjack Days 2025

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The 91st annual Lumberjack Days celebration is back this weekend with live music acts and even more kid-friendly activities. The event is Thursday-Sunday in downtown Stillwater.

Cory Svihla, one of the Lumberjack Days organizers, said there will be a new children’s entrepreneurs market this year. He said more than 50 kids have signed up for market booths where they will sell crafts, art and foods they’ve made. The market will be 12-4 p.m. July 19 at Lowell Park.

“Even though it’s been a whole-family tradition for 90 plus years, our focal point for this year and moving forward is making it more and more family-friendly,” Svihla said.

Musical lineup

Svihla said as a “music guy,” he was excited for the country artists coming to Lumberjack Days this year.

“We had a bigger focal point on solo acoustic acts last year,” he said. “This year, we’re bringing back the full band experience.”

The 2025 musical lineup includes Stevie Monce (4 p.m. Friday, 9:30 p.m. Saturday), Mitch Clark (3 p.m. Friday, 5 p.m. Saturday) and Alex Napier & Daybreak (7:30 p.m. Friday). Love & Theft will headline Saturday at 6:15 p.m.

“Stevie’s a big one,” Svihla said. “He has a big record deal that was signed. He has a single that was just released, kind of getting rolled out at all the radio stations.”

Minneapolis Prince tribute band Chase and Ovation will also perform at 9:30 p.m. Friday.

Svihla said musicians will play on the original floating stage, a 30-by-60-foot barge named Frank E., again this year. The organizers brought back the stage for the first time in 14 years at last year’s Lumberjack Days.

More events

The Lumberjack Days Parade is 11 a.m. Sunday. Chuck Dougherty has been named grand marshal of this year’s parade. Dougherty is the owner of Water Street Inn in downtown Stillwater and was recently appointed as Oak Park Heights mayor.

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The event will also include:

• Ice Cream Social, 5 p.m. Thursday at the Washington County Historic Courthouse

• Lumberjack Days Derby, 2 p.m. Friday down the Second Street Hill near Pioneer Park

• Lumberjack Days Bocce Ball Tournament, 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot behind Brian’s Bar and Restaurant

• Game World kids area with inflatables, 12-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Lowell Park

For more information, visit lumberjackdays.com/.

14 Jul 2025

How Trump plans to dismantle the Education Department after Supreme Court ruling

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By COLLIN BINKLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to continue unwinding the Education Department, allowing it to move ahead with mass layoffs and a plan to outsource the department’s operations to other agencies.

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The justices paused a lower court order that had halted nearly 1,400 layoffs and had called into question the legality of President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the department.

Now, Trump and his education secretary, Linda McMahon, are free to execute the layoffs and break up the department’s work among other federal agencies.

They’re expected to move quickly—department lawyers have already previewed the plans in court filings.

What happens with student loans, civil rights cases

Trump and McMahon have acknowledged only Congress has authority to close the Education Department fully, but both have suggested its core functions could be parceled out to different federal agencies.

Among the most important decisions is where to put management of federal student loans, a $1.6 trillion portfolio affecting nearly 43 million borrowers.

Trump in March suggested the Small Business Administration would take on federal student loans, but a June court filing indicated the Treasury Department is expected to take over the work. The Education Department said it had been negotiating a contract with Treasury but paused discussions when the court intervened. That work is now expected to proceed in coming days.

Under a separate arrangement, nine Education Department workers already have been detailed to Treasury, according to court filing.

The department had also recently struck a deal to outsource the management of several grant programs for workforce training and adult education to the Department of Labor. The Education Department agreed to send $2.6 billion to Labor to oversee grants, which are distributed to states to be passed down to schools and colleges.

Combining workforce training programs at Education and Labor would “provide a coordinated federal education and workforce system,” according to the agreement.

Additional agreements are expected to follow with other agencies. At her Senate confirmation hearing, McMahon suggested that enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act could be handled by the Department of Health and Human Services. Civil rights work could be managed by the Justice Department, she said.

Laying off staff

Trump campaigned on a promise to close the agency, and in March ordered it to be wound down “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” McMahon had already started a dramatic downsizing, laying off about 1,400 workers and declaring “one final mission” to turn over the agency’s power to states.

Education Department employees targeted by the layoffs have been on paid leave since March, according to a union that represents some of the agency’s staff. The lower court order had prevented the department from fully terminating them, though none had been allowed to return to work, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252. Without the lower court order, the workers would have been terminated in early June.

The Education Department had said earlier in June that it was “actively assessing how to reintegrate” the employees if courts did not rule in Trump’s favor.

The Associated Press’ education 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.