By JOSHUA A. BICKEL and MELINA WALLING

EMINENCE, Ky. (AP) — Allan Bryant scans the sky as he watches over a minutes-old calf huddled under a tree line with its mother. After a few failed tries, the calf stands on wobbly legs for the first time, looking to nurse.

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Above, a pair of birds circle in the distance. Bryant, hoping they’re not black vultures, is relieved to see they’re only turkey vultures — red-headed and not aggressive.

“Honestly, the black vulture is one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen,” he said. “They’re easy to hate.”

Black vultures, scavengers that sometimes attack and kill sick or newborn animals, didn’t used to be a problem here. But now Bryant frequently sees the birds following a birth. He hasn’t lost a calf in several years, but they’ve killed his animals before. So now he takes measures to stop them.

In some of his fields, he erects a scarecrow of sorts — a dead black vulture — aimed at scaring off the birds. It’s a requirement of his depredation permit through the Kentucky Farm Bureau, which allows him to shoot a few birds a year. The dead bird keeps the live birds away for about a week, but they eventually come back, he said.

It’s a problem that may grow worse for cattle farmers as the scavenging birds’ range expands northward, in part due to climate change. Lobbying groups have been pushing for legislation that would allow landowners to kill more of these birds, which are protected but not endangered. But experts say more research is needed to better understand how the birds impact livestock and how their removal could affect ecosystems.

Warmer winters and changing habitats expanding birds’ range

Black vultures used to mainly live in the southeastern U.S. and farther south in Latin and South America, but over the past century they’ve started to rapidly stretch northward and also west into the desert Southwest, said Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studies bird migration.

Warmer winters on average, fueled by climate change, are making it easier for the birds to stay in places that used to be too cold for them. What’s more, the human footprint in suburban and rural areas is enriching their habitat: development means cars, and cars mean roadkill. Cattle farms can also offer a buffet of vulnerable animals for vultures that learn the seasonal calving schedule.

A black vulture stands over a carcass Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Ballardsville, Ky. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from a lot of different studies of birds, it’s that they are very good at taking advantage of food resources and remembering where those things are,” Farnsworth said.

Although black vultures are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, they aren’t really a migratory species, he said. Instead, they breed, and some disperse to new areas and settle there.

How farmers have been dealing with it

After losing a calf to a black vulture a decade ago, Tom Karr, who raises cattle near Pomeroy, Ohio, tried to move his fall calving season later in the year in hopes the vultures would be gone by then. But that didn’t help — the birds stay all year, he said.

Until newborn calves are a few days old, “we try to keep them up closer to the barns,” said Joanie Grimes, the owner of a 350-head calf-cow operation in Hillsboro, Ohio. She said they’ve been dealing with the birds for 15 years, but keeping them out of remote fields has helped improve matters.

A cow stands next to her newborn calf Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Eminence, Ky. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Annette Ericksen has noticed the black vultures for several years on her property, Twin Maples Farm in Milton, West Virginia, but they haven’t yet lost any animals to them. When they expect calves and lambs, they move the livestock into a barn, and they also use dogs — Great Pyrenees — trained to patrol the fields and the barnyard for raptors that might hurt the animals.

The size of their operation makes it easier to account for every animal, but “any loss would be severely detrimental to our small business,” she wrote in an email.

Local cattlemen’s associations and state farm bureaus often work together to help producers get depredation permits, which allow them to shoot a few birds each year, as long as they keep track of it on paper.

“The difficulty with that is, if the birds show up, by the time you can get your permit, get all that taken care of, the damage is done,” said Brian Shuter, executive vice president of the Indiana Beef Cattle Association. Farmers said calves can be worth hundreds of dollars or upward of $1,000 or $2,000, depending on the breed.

A new bill would let farmers shoot the protected birds with less paperwork

In March, lawmakers in Congress introduced a bill that would let farmers capture or kill any black vulture “in order to prevent death, injury, or destruction to livestock.” Many farmers and others in the cattle industry have supported the move, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in July commended the House Natural Resources Committee for advancing the bill.

Farnsworth, of the Cornell lab, said it’s not necessarily a good thing to make it easier to kill black vultures, which he said fill “a super important role” in cleaning up “dead stuff.”

Simply killing the birds, Farnsworth said, may make room for more bothersome predators or scavengers. He said though black vultures can leave behind gory damage, current research doesn’t show that they account for an outsize proportion of livestock deaths.

But many farmers are unwilling to do nothing.

“They just basically eat them alive,” Karr said. “It is so disgusting.”

Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

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.

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MAKIYA SEMINERA, AP Education Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government shutdown has been a source of anxiety for school leaders wondering how long grant money will last and who can help them interpret federal laws. For Education Secretary Linda McMahon, it offers a preview of what she hopes to make permanent.

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Much of the department’s work has gone completely cold. No new grants are being awarded, and civil rights investigations have been halted. Money is still flowing for key programs, but in many respects, schools and states are on their own.

That’s the vision President Donald Trump has promoted since his presidential campaign — a world where states fully have the reins of education policy with little or no influence from the federal government.

Even before the shutdown, mass layoffs had left the agency with 2,400 employees, down from 4,100 when Trump took office. Remaining workers have mostly been furloughed during the budget impasse, leaving some 330 who are responsible for carrying out duties that are deemed essential.

In a recent social media post, McMahon said the shutdown proves her department is unnecessary. “Two weeks in, millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” McMahon wrote.

She offered a more direct assessment days later, after the agency hit its 46th year: “We don’t need a birthday cake,” she wrote. “We need an eviction notice.”

Some say the shutdown’s impact has been more significant. They warn that funding for preschool centers and school meals is running out, and students with disabilities might not be getting the help they need.

Here’s what we know about the impact so far.

Schools mostly have the money they need — for now

Most of the billions of dollars the Education Department steers to schools each year went out the door in October, leaving schools funded until July.

Other programs that aren’t funded in advance face more uncertainty. That includes federally funded Head Start preschool centers and school nutrition programs funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Julia Martin, director of policy and government affairs at the Bruman Group, an education law firm.

Districts are required to cover the cost of school meals and then seek reimbursement from the Department of Agriculture, but the agency said it only has two months of reimbursements left amid the shutdown.

“Districts are really worried that they’re going to have to dig deep into their pockets to fund meals,” Martin said.

The last remnants of federal COVID-19 aid are still being released by the Education Department, but reimbursements have slowed with fewer staff reviewing the requests, Martin said.

America’s public schools are primarily funded by states and cities, but federal funding plays an important role. The billions sent already to schools include grants to help low-income students, those with disabilities and other populations.

Grant competitions to award smaller amounts of money have largely frozen. Schools and states that already received grants can keep spending them down, but all new grantmaking has ceased, the department said. At the college level, federal Pell grants for low-income students are still flowing, and the FAFSA financial aid form is still being processed.

FILE – The U.S. Department of Education building is photographed in Washington, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

With the government shuttered, schools look elsewhere for a help desk

Ordinarily, states and schools rely on the department to answer questions on a wide range of topics — from special education laws to statewide academic assessments to laws requiring public schools to provide certain services to students at private schools.

That work, known as technical assistance, has halted during the shutdown, and the Trump administration has moved to eliminate it almost entirely. A new round of layoffs this month targeted most workers in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Also gutted was the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which ensures that students with disabilities get the services they’re entitled to under federal law. It maintains “very regular” communication with states to field questions on coordinating aid to families and eliminating waitlists, said Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States, a disability rights group.

The new layoffs have been halted by a federal judge. But as the shutdown drags on, more states are likely to break federal laws unknowingly because they can’t get help from the government, said Neas, who led the special education office under former President Joe Biden.

“People of good intention and good faith are going to have honest questions that they’re not going to be able to get an answer for,” Neas said.

Some states have turned instead to law firms for advice, but there are not always clear answers. In August, the department rescinded 2015 guidance explaining schools’ legal obligations to students who are learning English. But with no new guidance replacing it before the government shutdown, schools have questions about their responsibilities, said Martin, of the Bruman law firm.

“In the meantime, a lot of districts are just going to continue to follow the old guidance because it’s the best thing they have,” Martin said.

What’s next for the department?

McMahon has acknowledged that only Congress can fully eliminate the Education Department, despite Trump’s campaign pledge to shut it down. As a workaround, officials have been developing plans to transfer core functions to other agencies.

The Education Department already moved some of its adult and career education programs to the Labor Department in July. The Labor Department now oversees federal Perkins grants, which go to states to fund career and technical education.

In court filings, the Education Department has said it was pursuing a similar deal to put the Treasury Department in control of the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.

The Supreme Court paved the way for that work to continue in a July decision overturning a lower court order blocking the department’s wind-down.

At her Senate confirmation hearing, McMahon also said special education programs might fit under the Department of Health and Human Services, and that the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights could be moved to the Justice Department.

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.

BY SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seemingly frustrated by the government shutdown and Democrats’ unwillingness to accept a Republican funding bill, President Donald Trump is once again demanding that the Senate eliminate the legislative filibuster.

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The filibuster is a longstanding parliamentary tool that halts action on most bills unless 60 senators in the 100-member chamber vote to move forward. Over the years, it has stymied policy priorities for Democrats and Republicans alike, and Trump has been complaining about the maneuver since his first White House term.

Getting rid of it would be a way for Republicans to immediately end the now month-long shutdown, he said. “It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!” the president wrote on his social media site Thursday night.

But majority Republicans have strongly resisted calls to eliminate the legislative filibuster, since it would dilute their power if and when they are in the minority again. In its best form, the filibuster encourages compromise and dealmaking.

Here are some common questions about the filibuster, and why it’s coming up now in the shutdown debate.

What is a filibuster?

Unlike the House, the Senate places few constraints on lawmakers’ right to speak. But senators can use the chamber’s rules to hinder or block votes. That’s what’s effectively a filibuster — a term that, according to Senate records, began appearing in the mid-19th century.

The filibuster isn’t in the Constitution and it wasn’t part of the Founding Fathers’ vision for the Senate. It was created inadvertently after Vice President Aaron Burr complained in 1805 that the chamber’s rule book was redundant and overly complicated, according to historians.

But how the filibuster is used today doesn’t resemble the public’s longstanding perception of the tactic, which was made famous by the 1939 film, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in which James Stewart played a senator who spoke on the floor until exhaustion.

Now, senators inform their leaders — and often confirm publicly — that they will filibuster a bill. No lengthy speeches required. Nonetheless, the Senate still needs to muster 60 votes to move past that obstacle. If they get that, then senators can move to final passage, which only requires a simple majority.

Wait — isn’t the filibuster already gone?

Yes, but only for nominations. In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., led Senate Democrats in eliminating the filibuster for all nominations except for candidates to the Supreme Court, triggering what’s known in the Senate as the “nuclear option.” Democrats were fed up with repeated Republican filibusters of President Barack Obama’s nominees, especially to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, then the minority leader, furiously warned Democrats that they’d come to regret going nuclear. And he returned the favor in 2017, when Republicans moved to eliminate the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees as they confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the high court.

Trump mentioned in his Truth Social post that eliminating the filibuster would help Republicans get the “best Judges” and the “best U.S. Attorneys,” but it’s unclear what he meant since he needs only a simple majority to install those picks.

Democrats came close to dumping the legislative filibuster for voting rights legislation in 2022, but faced resistance from then-Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. They said changes to the filibuster would haunt Democrats if Republicans regain control of Congress and the White House — which the GOP did, not long after.

Earlier this year, Republicans changed the Senate’s rules further to make it easier to confirm large groups of the least controversial executive branch nominees. But they have resisted calls from Trump to eliminate so-called “blue slips” that allow both senators to sign off on some lower court judges regardless of party.

What does this have to do with the shutdown?

As with any government funding bill — and most other legislation — Republicans need help from at least a handful of Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate since they control just 53 votes.

In exchange for their votes on a stopgap funding bill, most Democrats have been demanding an extension of subsidies for people who purchase health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say that’s a costly nonstarter, especially on a bill that keeps the federal government operating for a mere seven weeks.

Democrats argue that because the Senate needs 60 votes to advance funding bills, that gives them leverage. As the shutdown drags on, frustrated Republicans have been floating the idea of getting rid of the filibuster in order to erase that leverage.

“Maybe it’s time to think about the filibuster,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, on Fox News earlier this month. “Let’s just vote with Republicans. We’ve got 52 Republicans. Let’s go, and let’s open the government. It may get to that.” (There are 53 GOP senators, but one — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — is a committed ‘no’ on funding bills.)

Where do Republicans stand on dumping the filibuster?

Unlike many other demands from Trump, GOP senators have generally resisted his calls to get rid of the filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has long defended the filibuster, and began his tenure as the Senate’s top official in January pledging to preserve it.

He reiterated those sentiments in early October, saying the filibuster is “something that makes the Senate the Senate” and that the “60-vote threshold has protected this country.” His spokesman emphasized on Friday after Trump’s comments that Thune’s position hasn’t changed.

Veteran senators who have seen the chamber swing back and forth from Democratic to Republican control are generally the ones who are the most firm on keeping the filibuster. But even some newer members agree.

“The filibuster forces us to find common ground in the Senate,” Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, elected in 2024, said on social media on Friday. “Power changes hands, but principles shouldn’t. I’m a firm no on eliminating it.”

Oftentimes, House Republicans weigh in on Senate strategy, urging GOP senators to follow Trump’s wishes to eliminate the filibuster. But House members — unfortunately for them — have no influence on what the Senate does.

Speaker Mike Johnson said he texted with the president after Trump’s late-night demand but refused to publicly weigh in on the filibuster question.

“It’s not my call,” Johnson said during his daily press conference at the Capitol.

By AMANDA SWINHART and KIMBERLEE KRUESI, Associated Press

EAST CORINTH, Vt. (AP) — For nearly 40 years, a tiny town in Vermont has attracted hoards of “Beetlejuice” fans eager to visit where the whimsical horror movie’s most famous scenes were filmed.

With a population hovering just around 1,500, “Beetlejuice” mania has helped put East Corinth on the map not only for fans of the movies, but also those looking for a spooky-themed road trip.

“It was like one of those coming of age films for me,” said “Beetlejuice” fan Lisa Pinkerton, who traveled with her family from England and decided to include a stop in East Corinth. “It brings back all those memories of watching it with friends at the time. It’s nice to put it all into place and see the sort of Hollywood magic that happens.”

The original “Beetlejuice” was released in 1988, where it was set in the fictional town of Winter River, Connecticut. The story is centered around a recently deceased couple played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin trying to scare a family out of their home. When their attempts fail, the couple hire “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice, played by Michael Keaton, but quickly regret that decision.

But in reality, director Tim Burton chose East Corinth, located near the New Hampshire border, for many of the iconic scenes.

This includes shooting the 100-year-old building that serves as the movie’s Miss Shannon’s School for Girls, where Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder, attends school, as well as the red covered bridge where the main characters Adam and Barbara Maitland drive off and plummet to their death.

East Corinth resident Sarah Polli lives beside the bridge used in the film, and her garage was converted into the Winter River Fire Department, with the rest of her home serving as Jane Butterfield’s Real Estate and Travel Agency. Her uncle, Maurice Page, was the only local who scored a role in the film.

“He was supposed to be the barber, but he kept ad-libbing, which frustrated Tim Burton,” Polli said. “So, he gave him a nonspeaking part basically and he became Ernie dusting off the statues in front of the library.”

Page can be seen in the film saying, “Hi, how are you?” to the Maitlands as they drive by in their yellow Volvo.

“I think it was a lot of fun for everyone, but a lot of the older people in town, I think they thought that this was going to be a pleasant, bucolic movie about the countryside. There was some shock when the movie came out,” said Polli.

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Burton, a moody gothic hero, returned to the Vermont town to film the sequel — “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” — which has only helped spark more tourists flocking to East Corinth.

Polli says the town welcomes fans, who residents affectionately refer to as “juicers,” from all over the world.

“It’s just been a continuous stream. I’ve met people from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain, all over Canada and all over the United States. It’s just amazing,” she said.

Wade Pierson, who grew up in East Corinth, created a walking tour for fans like Pinkerton, highlighting the various filming locations that can be seen around town. Because some of the scenes incorporated a bit of movie magic, Pierson’s roughly 10-minute, self-guided tour helps enthusiasts visualize the films’ iconic sets with the use of large signs featuring screenshots from the films.

“People say, ‘Where’s the house?’ It was a movie set, so it was taken down,” Pierson said. “We do have a picture on a pole that if you stand in the right place and squat down, you can line it up with the hill across the river, take a pretty realistic looking photo of what it looked like when they shot the film.”

Meanwhile, the schoolhouse building has since been sold to a “Beetlejuice” enthusiast who hopes to restore and transform it into a community center that can serve as a “Beetlejuice” museum and theater.

Decked out in “Beetlejuice”-themed Halloween decorations, Pierson’s home is located directly across from the schoolhouse, where he says he’s had a front-row seat to the filming of both movies.

“I literally have the honor of living across the street from Miss Shannon’s, which is a living, standing movie set,” he said. “The more people that enjoy it, the better.”

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.