By ED WHITE

DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan police officer who fatally shot a Black man in the back of the head after a tumultuous traffic stop will not face a second trial, a prosecutor said Thursday, two weeks after a trial ended without a unanimous verdict.

The decision by prosecutor Chris Becker is certain to upset civil rights activists and the family of Patrick Lyoya, the 26-year-old Congolese immigrant whose death in the front yard of a Grand Rapids home was recorded on video and played repeatedly at trial.

Becker said he doubted that a second jury would come up with a different result.

“This is a split community,” he told reporters.

A message seeking comment from Christopher Schurr’s lawyer wasn’t immediately returned.

FILE – A TV display shows Patrick Lyoya as video evidence of a Grand Rapids police officer struggling with and shooting Patrick Lyoya is shown at Grand Rapids City Hall in Grand Rapids, Mich., Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Grand Rapids Police Department via AP)

Schurr, who was a Grand Rapids officer, claimed self-defense, saying he feared for his life and shot Lyoya because the man had control of his Taser. He was charged with second-degree murder, though the jury also was allowed to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Lyoya’s death in April 2022 was the climax of a fierce struggle that lasted more than two minutes. Schurr stopped a car for having the wrong license plate. Lyoya stepped out of the car, didn’t produce a driver’s license and began running.

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Schurr was on top of Lyoya on the ground when he shot him in the back of the head. The entire confrontation was recorded on video and repeatedly played for the jury.

At trial, defense experts said the decision to use deadly force was justified because the exhausted officer could have been seriously injured if Lyoya had used the Taser. The prosecutor’s experts, however, said Schurr had other choices, including simply letting Lyoya run.

It’s not known why Lyoya was trying to flee. Records show his driver’s license was revoked at the time and there was an arrest warrant for him in a domestic violence case, though Schurr didn’t know it. An autopsy revealed his blood-alcohol level was three times above the legal limit for driving.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and ALAN SUDERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin when those run out, a Treasury Department official confirmed Thursday.

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An immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs is expected by stopping penny production, according to the official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news.

In February, President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote at that time in a post on his Truth Social site. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

The nation’s treasury secretary has the authority to mint and issue coins “in amounts the secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States.”

Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost — almost 4 cents per penny now, according to the U.S. Mint — and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

Pennies are the most popular coin made by the U.S. Mint, which reported making 3.2 billion of them last year. That’s more than half of all the new coins it made last year.

Congress, which dictates currency specifications such as the size and metal content of coins, could make Trump’s order permanent through law. But past congressional efforts to ditch the penny have failed.

Two bipartisan bills to kill the penny permanently were introduced this year.

Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced the Make Sense Not Cents Act this month. In April, Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., along with Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced the Common Cents Act.

Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted on Thursday to block California’s first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, acting to kill the nation’s most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald Trump’s administration has doubled down on fossil fuels.

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The resolution approved by the Senate goes to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it, along with two other measures blocking California’s rules that the Senate is poised to pass. The House approved the three resolutions earlier this month.

The GOP effort to kill the rules could have a profound impact on California’s longtime efforts to curb air pollution. The push comes after Senate Republicans established a new exception to the filibuster on Wednesday to allow them to weigh in on the issue.

California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state air regulators say that what Congress is doing is illegal and they will likely sue to keep the rules in place.

The two other resolutions would block rules to cut tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks. Democrats charge that Republicans are acting at the behest of the oil and gas industry and they say California should be able to set its own standards after obtaining waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Republicans say the phaseout of gas-powered cars, along with other waivers that California has obtained from the EPA, is costly for consumers and manufacturers, puts pressure on the nation’s energy grid and has become a de facto nationwide electric vehicle mandate.

“The waivers in question allow California to implement a stringent electric vehicle mandate, which – given California’s size and the fact that a number of other states have signed on to California’s mandate – would end up not just affecting the state of California, but the whole country,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., before the vote.

Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans in 2020 to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within 15 years as part of an aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector. Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold.

The Biden administration approved the state’s waiver to implement the standards in December, a month before Trump returned to office. The California rules are stricter than a Biden-era rule that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles.

Biden’s EPA said in announcing the decision that opponents of the California waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.

Through a series of votes on Wednesday, Republicans set a new precedent for the Senate to reject the state EPA waivers with a simple majority vote, as opposed to the 60 vote threshold on legislation that is subject to a filibuster. The votes were a workaround that enabled them to hold the votes after the Senate parliamentarian agreed with the Government Accountability Office that California’s policies are not subject to the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to reject federal regulations under certain circumstances.

Democrats fought the changes, which were the latest attempt to chip away at the Senate filibuster after both parties have used their majorities in the past two decades to lower the threshold for nominations. Democrats tried in 2022 to roll back the filibuster for legislation, as well, but were thwarted by members of their own caucus who disagreed with the effort.

Republicans have insisted that they would not try a similar move after regaining the majority this year. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the move to block California’s laws were a “point of no return” and called the Republicans “fair weather institutionalists.”

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs.

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U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to dismantle the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.

The injunction was requested in a lawsuit filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers, along with other education groups.

In their lawsuit, the groups said the layoffs amounted to an illegal shutdown of the Education Department. They said it left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”

Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department.”

Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.

The Trump administration says the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.

The administration said restructuring the agency “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but it’s committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.

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.