By CLAIRE RUSH

TUALATIN, Ore. (AP) — Hoisting his kayak paddle in the air triumphantly, Gary Kristensen celebrated as he crossed the finish line, victorious in his giant, floating pumpkin.

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Dressed up as the character Buddy from Will Ferrell’s holiday movie “Elf,” Kristensen won the first race in the annual event over the weekend in Tualatin, Oregon. The Portland suburb has hosted the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta since 2004, drawing large crowds who cheer on costumed participants as they race around a small human-made lake in humongous pumpkins that have been carved out, allowing them to float.

“You’ve got an exciting activity that crowds love, you’ve got the costumes, cheering people, spectacle, pumpkins sinking, it has everything,” Kristensen said after emerging victorious in the first race of Sunday’s event in a 936-pound pumpkin.

For Kristensen, who has competed in the regatta since 2013, the activity has become much more than a once-annual affair. Earlier this year, he claimed a Guinness World Record for longest journey by pumpkin boat after paddling some 58 miles on the Columbia River — breaking the record he had set the previous year.

The niche endeavor has also become a passion for Brad Bahns, who participated in his fourth regatta dressed up as a character from the TV series “Squid Game.” He described the fun in growing his own pumpkin — which took six months — and “getting to culminate the season by putting it in the lake and paddling with our friends.”

At 1,376 pounds, the weight of his pumpkin this year marked a personal record for him.

“It’s kind of an addiction at this point,” he said.

In the early morning rain, before the races got underway, workers operated fork lifts and heavy machinery to lift the enormous pumpkins and transfer them to the water. Growers and competitors then wielded saws and knives to cut a hole in the top of their pumpkins, and scooped out the goopy insides with spoons, scrapers and their bare hands so that they could sit inside.

The more innards that are removed, the lighter the pumpkin becomes, giving its captain a competitive edge by allowing swifter travel. By the time the carving was done, there were enough discarded seeds and pulp to fill a dumpster.

Members of the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers, who grow the pumpkins for the regatta, were the competitors in the first race. On its website, the gardening association describes itself as “focused on the fun-filled, competitive hobby of growing obscenely large vegetables.”

Aboard pumpkins of differing orange and yellow hues, their costumes varied from celebrity chef Guy Fieri and a UPS delivery man with cardboard boxes stacked on the back of his pumpkin, to Elvis and a person in a hot dog suit. Someone dressed up as Luigi, the character from Nintendo’s Mario games with a trademark green cap and shirt, had a green pumpkin to match.

In another race, a participant wore a Shrek costume and green face paint, mirroring some fans in the crowd who also dressed up as the lovable ogre from the popular films.

When asked what it takes to grow a massive pumpkin, Kristensen shared his simple recipe for success: “Good seeds, good soil, good luck, hard work.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two more suspects have been charged with the attempted carjacking and beating of a 19-year-old man who was working for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency — a crime that was a catalyst for the White House’s law-enforcement surge in the nation’s capital.

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Laurence Cotton-Powell, 19, and Anthony Taylor, 18, were arrested last week on charges stemming from the Aug. 3 attack on Edward Coristine, a prominent DOGE employee nicknamed “Big Balls.” Two 15-year-old suspects from Maryland previously were charged with, convicted of and sentenced for Coristine’s beating.

“This case underscores the escalating challenges that we face in confronting crime in Washington, D.C.,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference on Monday.

Coristine was walking a woman to her car in the city’s Logan Circle neighborhood when he was attacked by a group of teenagers who repeatedly punched and kicked him, authorities said. The suspects fled when they spotted a police officer nearby.

The attack on Coristine fueled President Donald Trump’s decision to flood Washington with a surge of patrols by federal agents and National Guard members.

Cotton-Powell and Taylor also are accused of participating in a separate attack and robbery of a man at a gas station shortly before they assaulted Coristine, Pirro said.

Cotton-Powell was arrested last Thursday. Taylor was arrested last Friday. Both are charged in D.C. Superior Court with attempted unarmed carjacking, robbery and assault with intent to commit a robbery.

Last Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced the two 15-year-old suspects to probation after they pleaded guilty to assaulting Coristine. Trump said it was a “terrible” decision not to incarcerate the teens.

“I think the judge should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said during an Oval Office appearance.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s legislature formally began redrawing the state’s congressional district map Monday, plainly stating their intent to help Republicans gain another U.S. House seat under President Donald Trump’s push to retain his party’s grip on Congress next year.

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The state Senate gave initial approval along party lines to enact new boundaries for two eastern North Carolina districts in a move aimed to thwart the reelection of Democratic Rep. Don Davis, one of the state’s three Black members of Congress. That followed a committee meeting in which dozens of speakers from the public sharply accused Republican lawmakers in the ninth-largest state of bowing to Trump.

The plan’s chief author was direct about the map’s intent to help his party in the 2026 midterm elections.

“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular — draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina congressional delegation,” said GOP Sen. Ralph Hise, who shepherded it through his chamber. If Democrats otherwise take back the House, Hise added, they will “torpedo President Trump’s agenda.”

The Republican legislative leaders announced plans a week ago to rework the map, stepping into the fray over mid-decade redistricting that has Democrats and Republicans battling for electoral advantages coast to coast, including Texas and California. Democrats need just three more seats to seize control of the House, and the president’s party historically has lost seats in midterm elections.

Under the map used in the 2024 elections, Republicans won 10 of the state’s 14 U.S. House seats in a state where statewide races are often close. That compared to a 7-7 seat split between Democrats and the GOP under the map used in 2022. Based on past statewide elections, Republicans would stand a decent chance to win an 11th seat in 2026 should the proposed map be implemented.

Final vote expected this week, veto can’t block map

North Carolina state Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke (left and standing), presides over the Senate Committee on Elections while it considers legislation to redraw the state’s U.S. House district map at the Legislative Office Building in Raleigh N.C., Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary D. Robertson)

After a Senate procedural vote Tuesday, the proposed map will head to the House, which is expected to give it final General Assembly approval later this week. The state Democratic Party plans an outdoor rally Tuesday to oppose it. But Democrats are the minority in both chambers, and state law prevents Democratic Gov. Josh Stein from using his veto stamp on redistricting action. Litigation challenging the map is almost certain, with allegations of harming the voting power of Black residents likely.

“This is an attack on Black voters,” Sen. Kandie Smith, an African American legislator who represents a county in Davis’ current district, said during Senate floor debate. “It’s about stealing elections by design, so that the outcomes are predetermined and accountability becomes optional.”

Counties added, removed to make district lean more to right

Under the proposal, Davis’ current 1st District — the state’s only swing seat — would shift to the right as mapmakers remove inland counties, including Davis’ home county, and replace them with several from the coast. Counties removed from the 1st District are placed in a retooled 3rd District held by Republican Rep. Greg Murphy. Election results indicate the 3rd would remain favorable for Murphy.

FILE – Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, at East Carolina University, Oct. 13, 2024, in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/David Yeazell, File)

North Carolina Republicans, equipped with recent legal rulings that permit partisan advantage in drawing boundaries, last redrew the map in 2023, leading to three incumbent Democrats deciding against running in 2024 because lines had shifted rightward. Those changes helped Republicans maintain their House majority entering 2025.

Trump is also asking other red states for more seats. Apparently pleased with North Carolina’s action, he encouraged Republican legislators last Friday on Truth Social “to work as hard as they can to pass this new Map so that we can continue our incredible Record of SUCCESS.”

Senate Democrats and their allies blasted North Carolina GOP legislative leaders for acting on a partisan map while they are still over three months late passing a state budget.

“They are wasting precious time and taxpayer dollars bending the knee to Donald Trump and ripping away the voice of the voters. It is shameful, it is pathetic,” Eric Willoughby, a 19-year-old college student, told the committee.

The national redistricting battle began over the summer when Trump urged Republican-led Texas to reshape its U.S. House districts. After Texas lawmakers acted, California Democrats reciprocated by passing their own plan that still needs voter approval in November.

Former 1st District reps call proposal “a moral regression”

The current 1st District covers a region that has elected African Americans for over 30 years and where some counties have majority Black populations.

The proposed map is “not merely a political act — it is a moral regression,” said former 1st District representatives Eva Clayton and G.K. Butterfield, both Black Democrats, in a news release. “It weakens the representation of Black North Carolinians and undermines the promise of equal voice and fair elections that so many have fought to secure.”

Hise said there’s nothing unlawfully discriminatory about the map — race-based data wasn’t used to create the proposal and said the lack of evidence of racially polarized voting in the region would make it unconstitutional to draw lines with the chief goal of helping Black voters elect their favored candidates.

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man who sent a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” to a woman he later pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting on a Pennsylvania college campus was sentenced to two to four years in prison on Monday.

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The judge took into account Ian Cleary’s guilty plea, his remorse and his long history of mental illness in giving a sentence below state guidelines. Cleary, 32, said he sent the messages as part of a 12-step program, in hopes of seeking atonement.

However, victim Shannon Keeler told the court on Monday that the messages only reopened wounds she had long carried over the assault, which went years without being prosecuted.

“The system meant to protect me protected you instead,” said Keeler, detailing in a powerful 10-minute impact statement the years she spent pursuing charges, which prosecutors are often reluctant to do in campus sexual assault cases.

“This isn’t just my story, it’s the story of countless women,” she said.

Cleary faced a maximum of 10 years in prison for the 2013 attack on Keeler at Gettysburg College, and the two sides had initially proposed a four- to eight-year sentence.

Andrea Levy, Keeler’s lawyer, said the sentence was “less than what we expected and certainly less than he deserves.”

Senior Judge Kevin Hess said that anyone with daughters or, like him, granddaughters in college would find the crime “horrifying.” Nevertheless, he said, “the defendant has admitted his guilt, he’s come forward and even though 10 to 11 alarming years have passed in the meantime, we wouldn’t be here today but for his hope for some kind of forgiveness and contrition.”

According to Keeler, Cleary sneaked into her first-year dorm on the eve of winter break, when few people were left on campus, then pushed his way into her room and assaulted her.

Cleary left Gettysburg after the attack and ultimately finished college in Silicon Valley, California, where he’d grown up. He then got a master’s degree and worked for Tesla before moving overseas.

Years later, he sent the Facebook message to Keeler, and she renewed her efforts with police and prosecutors to have charges filed. In 2021, she shared her experience in an Associated Press story on the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue campus sex crimes.

Cleary was indicted weeks after the AP story was published, and following a three-year search, was extradited from Metz, France, where he had been detained on minor, unrelated charges in April 2024.

Cleary, standing just a few feet away, apologized to Keeler in court on Monday, as well as to his family.

“I’m committed to getting treatment for mental health and stuff like that as I go forward,” he said.

Keeler, in interviews with the AP, described her decade-long effort to persuade authorities to pursue charges, starting hours after the assault.

“I had been thinking about this moment for 12 years,” Keeler said after seeing Cleary in court in July when he pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault. She called it a surreal moment.

Authorities in the U.S. and Europe tried to track Cleary down after the indictment, but seemed unable to follow his trail, online or otherwise, until his arrest in the unrelated case.

In court in July, defense lawyer John Abom said Cleary was homeless at times and unaware of the charges. Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said he had his doubts, but could not prove that Cleary was on the run.

Cleary’s family members have declined to comment on the case and did not attend most of his court hearings. His father was present at Monday’s sentencing, however.

The AP typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Keeler has done.

“There’s a lot of joy in just the relief there is that this is over, and Shannon’s going to be able to turn the page (and) move on with the next steps of healing,” her lawyer said.