By ALLEN G. BREED and BRITTANY PETERSON

OLD FORT, N.C. (AP) — Morning mist is still burning off the surrounding mountains when they appear: Small groups of helmeted riders on one-wheeled, skateboard-like contraptions, navigating the pitched streets, past the 30-foot granite Arrowhead Monument on the town square.

They are among the 400 or so people converging on this Blue Ridge foothills town for FloatLife Fest, which bills itself as “the ORIGINAL and LONGEST RUNNING” gathering dedicated to motorized Onewheel boards. Swelling Old Fort’s normal population by half, the mid-September festival is injecting much needed money and hope into a town still recovering a year after it was inundated by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.

“We should definitely come back again,” says Jess Jones, a 34-year-old marine biologist from Edinburgh, Scotland. “The vibe and the welcome that we got there was really nice.”

That the festival occurred at all is a tribute to the area’s natural beauty, and the resilience of its people.

Signs of progress are mixed with still-visible scars from Helene in this town about 24 miles (39 kilometers) east of Asheville. Most of Old Fort’s shops have reopened, even as workers continue clawing away at a debris pile downtown and some homes remain unlivable.

Like other businesspeople in this tourist-dependent mountain region, bike shop owner Chad Schoenauer has been banking on a strong fall leaf-peeping season to help get him back on track after Helene. But many seem to assume Old Fort is still a wasteland.

“‘Oh, I didn’t know that you were open,’” he says is a typical reaction.

Helene’s floods and landslides interrupt outdoor tourism makeover

When Helene swept through, Old Fort was well on its way to remaking itself as an outdoor destination, especially after furniture manufacturer Ethan Allen laid off 325 workers when it converted its factory there into a distribution center in 2019.

“When the Ethan Allen layoff happened, local leaders started coming together and saying, `How do we use these beautiful natural assets that we have to diversify the manufacturing economy?’” says Kim Effler, president and CEO of the McDowell Chamber of Commerce.

Named for a Revolutionary War-era stockade, the town decided to become a world-class destination for hiking, running, horseback riding and, most notably, mountain biking.

“We have a red clay that makes some of the best trails in the country,” FloatLife founder Justyn Thompson says. “The trails are epic.”

In 2021, the G5 Trail Collective — a program led by the nonprofit Camp Grier outdoors complex — got the U.S. Forest Service to agree to 42 miles (68 kilometers) of new multi-purpose trails. The effort began paying dividends almost immediately.

“For every trail that we were able to open, we saw a new business open up in town,” says Jason McDougald, the camp’s executive director.

The collective had just completed the 21st mile (34th kilometer) of trail when Helene, in Schoenauer’s words, hit “the reset button” by washing away trails and damaging businesses.

When the storm blew through on Sept. 27, 2024, the Catawba River converged with the normally placid Mill Creek, leaving much of downtown under several feet of muddy water.

Schoenauer, who opened his Old Fort Bike Shop in 2021, says it took two days before he could make it to town to assess damage to the business housed in a refurbished 1901 former general store.

“I was numb coming all the way here,” he says. “And as soon as I got off the exit, I started crying.”

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The water rose more than 3 feet (1 meter) inside the shop, leaving behind a 10-inch (25-centimeter) layer of reddish-brown mud. The beautiful heart pine floors buckled.

Schoenauer says he suffered about $150,000 in uninsured losses.

At the Foothills Watershed mountain biking complex along the Catawba, the storm took 48 large shade trees and an 18,000-square-foot (1,672-square-meter) track built with banks and jumps.

“We had a septic field, a brand-new constructed septic field for the business that was destroyed,” says Casey McKissick, who spent the last three years developing the bike park. “Never been used; not even turned on yet. And it all went right down the river.”

McKissick says the business didn’t have flood insurance because it was too costly, and the threat of a catastrophic event seemed too remote.

The damage amounted to $150,000. Worse yet was the loss of eight months of business, including last year’s foliage season.

“We lost that really critical fourth quarter of the year, which is a beautiful fall,” McKissick says.

Part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, damaged in Hurricane Helene, is under construction near Ferrin Knob Tunnel in Candler, N.C., June 2025. (National Parks Service via AP)

Blue Ridge Parkway closure slows visitors’ return

Gov. Josh Stein recently announced that travelers had spent a record $36.7 billion in the state last year. But that boom eluded the counties worst hit by Helene.

Visitor spending in Buncombe County — home to Asheville — was down nearly 11% last year compared to 2023, according to the state Department of Commerce.

In McDowell, tourist spending dropped nearly 3% in that same period. Effler says this June and July, foot traffic at the county’s largest visitor center was down 50% from last year.

She blames much of that on damage to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is consistently one of the most-visited of the national parks. About 35 miles (56 kilometers) of the North Carolina route — including long stretches in McDowell County — aren’t slated to reopen until fall 2026.

McDougald says nearly every trail in the Old Fort complex was damaged, with landslides taking out “300-foot sections of trail at a time.”

They’ve managed to reopen about 30 miles (48 kilometers) of trail, but he says about that many miles remain closed.

Schoenauer reopened his shop in December, but traffic was down by about two-thirds this summer.

“My business, revenue-wise, has shifted more to the repair side,” he says. “People trying to still recreate, but use the bike that they have just to keep it going and have some fun.”

The Watershed complex opened in June, but without the planned riverfront gazebo and performance stage. And they’ve moved the bike jumps to higher ground.

“It’s changed our way of looking at the floodplain, for sure,” McKissick says.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

By JONATHAN MATTISE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — For two weeks, Memphis has been bracing for an influx of National Guard troops after President Donald Trump announced his intention to deploy them to the city. On Friday, residents finally learned more about that plan, and it looks to be very different from the deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Friday that the troops will be part of a surge of federal resources into the city to fight crime that includes 13 federal agencies and state troopers. The National Guard troops will be from Tennessee, and they will be deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service to support local law enforcement.

The Republican governor said the troops will not make arrests and will not be armed unless local law enforcement officials request it. Lee has previously said he doesn’t think there will be more than 150 Guard members deployed to Memphis, but he later said the number is still in the planning stages.

“The story of crime in Memphis is about to be a story of the past,” Lee said at a news conference in Memphis where he stood with city, state and federal officials including the Memphis mayor and police chief.

What Lee called the “Memphis Safe Task Force” will begin operations next week, he said. He could not give an exact timeline for when each agency would start to deploy resources to the city, saying it will occur in phases. He did say that agents from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Agency will arrive next week. He said he will not declare a state of emergency.

“Memphis is a world class city. Before us, we have a generational opportunity to make Memphis a safe city,” Lee said.

A post on the city’s website says “Guardsmen and women will be easily identifiable in their standard uniforms that they wear every day. The guardsmen and women will not be wearing masks.”

It continues: “Armored tanks will not be a resource used in this mission.”

President Donald Trump announced on Fox News on Sept. 12 that he would next send the National Guard to Memphis. He signed an order setting up the task force of law enforcement agencies for the mission on Sept. 15.

By JOSH FUNK, AP Transportation Writer

The Transportation Department will immediately tighten up the requirements for non-citizens to get commercial drivers licenses after three fatal crashes this year that officials say were caused by immigrant truck drivers who never should have received licenses.

The nationwide audit of these licenses began after a fatal U-turn crash in Florida that killed two people caused by a truck driver who officials said was in the country illegally. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said fatal crashes caused by truck drivers who shouldn’t have had licenses were also found in Texas and Alabama earlier this year.

Duffy also threatened to revoke $160 million in federal funding for California because investigators found that one in four of the 145 commercial drivers licenses for non-citizens issued since June that they reviewed should have never been issued under the current rules. That state has 30 days to audit its program and come up with a plan to comply or it will lose funding.

Duffy said the current rules aren’t strict enough and a number of states aren’t following them. The audit found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington.

“We have a government system designed to keep American families on the road safe. But that system has been compromised,” Duffy said.

Previously, Duffy threatened to pull some federal funding from California, Washington and New Mexico for failing to enforce English proficiency requirements for truckers that went into effect this summer. The Transportation Department is still reviewing the responses from those states.

All states must pause issuing commercial drivers licenses to non-citizens until they can comply with the new rules.

Officials said the new rules would mean that roughly 190,000 of the 200,000 non-citizens that currently hold one of these commercial licenses should never have received one, but the rules aren’t retroactive so those drivers won’t lose their licenses. Only drivers who have either an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa will now be eligible to get a commercial driver’s license. Just having an employment authorization document won’t be enough.

The head of the American Trucking Association trade group praised the Transportation Department’s efforts to make sure that everyone who receives a commercial drivers license is qualified and authorized to get one. The group previously called for an audit of these licenses in April.

“Rules only work when they are consistently enforced, and it’s imperative that all state driver licensing agencies comply with federal regulations,” ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said.

The Florida crash drew outrage from President Donald Trump and Duffy and inspired a political fight between the governors of Florida and California. It also put Sikh truck drivers in the crossfire because the truck driver in the Florida crash is a member of that faith.

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On August 12, Harjinder Singh made the illegal turn from northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, the Florida Highway Patrol said. A minivan that was traveling behind him was unable to avoid the truck’s trailer, which blocked the northbound lanes.

Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene and the driver died at a hospital. Singh and a passenger in his truck were not injured.

Singh lived in California but he was originally issued a commercial driver’s license in Washington before California issued him a license later. The fallout from the crash fueled a verbal tussle between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration.

Singh is charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. The federal government has asked that he be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after his criminal case is complete.

Singh faces an arraignment hearing Monday on charges of vehicular homicide and manslaughter, according to court records in St. Lucie County, Florida.

Singh has retained a private lawyer, Natalie Knight-Tai, to represent him, records show.

Associated Press Writer Jeff Martin contributed to this report.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards in a video posted to social media Thursday evening.

Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, ordered the review of the awards in 2024 after a Congressional recommendation in the 2022 defense bill — itself a reflection of efforts by some lawmakers to rescind the awards for those who participated in the bloody massacre on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Wounded Knee Creek.

While the events of that day are sometimes described as a battle, historical records show that the U.S. Army, which was in the midst of amid a campaign to repress the tribes in the area, killed an estimated 250 Native Americans, including women and children, of the Lakota Sioux tribe, while attempting to disarm Native American fighters who had already surrendered at their camp.

“We’re making it clear that (the soldiers) deserve those medals,” Hegseth said in the video, before adding that “their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate.”

After the fighting, Medals of Honor were given to 20 soldiers from the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and their awards cite a range of actions including bravery, efforts to rescue fellow troops and actions to “dislodge Sioux Indians” who were concealed in a ravine.

The event also became a celebrated part of the regiment’s history, with their coat of arms still featuring the head of a Native American chief to “commemorate Indian campaigns,” according to the military’s Institute of Heraldry.

In 1990, Congress apologized to the descendants of those killed at Wounded Knee but did not revoke the medals.

According to Hegseth, the review panel ordered by Austin “concluded that these brave soldiers should, in fact, rightfully keep their medals from actions,” but an official from the defense secretary’s office couldn’t say if the report he was referencing in the video would be made public.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” that decried efforts to reinterpret American history and, since then, Hegseth has undertaken multiple actions that have subverted the recommendations of a Congressionally-mandated commission that examined the use of Confederate names and references in the military.

He reverted the names of several Army bases back to their original, Confederate-linked names, though by honoring different figures.

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Hegseth also restored a 1914 memorial to the Confederacy that was removed from Arlington National Cemetery. The monument features a classical female figure, crowned with olive leaves, representing the American South, alongside sanitized depictions of slavery.

In September, the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, also confirmed that a painting of Gen. Robert E. Lee dressed in his Confederate uniform was back on display in the school’s library after being removed in 2022. The portrait shows a Black man leading Lee’s horse in the background, which had been hanging in the library since the 1950s before it was placed in storage.