By MELISSA GOLDIN, Associated Press

Don’t splurge just yet.

Rumors spread online Friday that the U.S. government will soon be issuing stimulus checks to taxpayers in certain income brackets.

But Congress has not passed legislation to authorize such payments, and, according to the IRS, no new stimulus checks will be distributed in the coming weeks.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department have approved $1,390 stimulus checks that will be distributed to low- and middle-income taxpayers by the end of the summer.

THE FACTS: This is false. Taxpayers will not receive new stimulus checks of any amount this summer, an IRS official said. Stimulus checks, also known as economic impact payments, are authorized by Congress through legislation and distributed by the Treasury Department. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri last month introduced a bill that would send tax rebates to qualified taxpayers using revenue from tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump. Hawley’s bill has not passed the Senate or the House.

The IRS announced early this year that it would distribute about $2.4 billion to taxpayers who failed to claim on their 2021 tax returns a Recovery Rebate Credit — a refundable credit for individuals who did not receive one or more COVID-19 stimulus checks. The maximum amount was $1,400 per individual.

Those who hadn’t already filed their 2021 tax return would have needed to file it by April 15 to claim the credit. The IRS official said there is no new credit that taxpayers can claim.

Past stimulus checks have been authorized through legislation passed by Congress. For example, payments during the coronavirus pandemic were made by possible by three bills: the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act; the COVID-related Tax Relief Act; and the American Rescue Plan Act.

In 2008, stimulus checks were authorized in response to the Great Recession through the Economic Stimulus Act.

Related Articles

President Trump ramps up takeover of Washington’s police department. Here’s what to know

Solar panels that fit on your balcony or deck are gaining traction in the US

Trump’s ‘safe and beautiful’ move against DC homeless camps looks like ugliness to those targeted

US stocks tap the brakes as Wall Street heads toward the finish of a record-setting week

Retail sales rise 0.5% in July as some shoppers step up purchases ahead of tariffs

The Treasury Department, which includes the Internal Revenue Service, distributed stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Recession. The Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, formed in 2012, played a role as well during the former crisis.

Hawley in July introduced the American Worker Rebate Act, which would share tariff revenue with qualified Americans through tax rebates. The proposed rebates would amount to at minimum $600 per individual, with additional payments for qualifying children. Rebates could increase if tariff revenue is higher than expected. Taxpayers with an adjusted annual gross income above a certain amount — $75,000 for those filing individually — would receive a reduced rebate.

Hawley said Americans “deserve a tax rebate.”

“Like President Trump proposed, my legislation would allow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump’s tariffs are returning to this country,” Hawley said in a press release.

Neither the Senate nor the House had passed the American Worker Rebate Act as of Friday. It was read twice by the Senate on July 28, the day it was introduced, and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

Minnesota United has not signed a single new player in the summer transfer window and has less than one week to get deals over the line.

Efforts are being made by the Loons front office to bring in additions, but with the window closing next Thursday, circumstances appear to be shifting from when MNUFC will sign new players to if they will manage to do so at all.

The club’s lack of action so far and the pending deadline has caused consternation for supporters, players and staff.

On Friday, Loons head coach Eric Ramsay expressed “frustration” over the inactivity that leaves him with a smaller squad going into Saturday’s important Western Conference game against Seattle Sounders at Allianz Field.

“If someone had said to me three months ago we would be in a position on the 15th of August where we wouldn’t have a single player in the building and four would have left, I would have found that hard to believe,” Ramsay told the Pioneer Press. “But ultimately that is the position we are in, unfortunately.”

Last summer, MNUFC added six new players, including key attacking pieces Kelvin Yeboah and Joaquin Pereyra. This summer, they set out to add two to three players, but have yet to get any contracts over the line.

This left the Loons with only 16 first-team, out-field players to train at the National Sports Center in Blaine on Friday, setting up another match without a full bench this weekend.

The second-year head coach said his players and staff are trying to focus on what they can control.

“I think we maybe got the luxury, I suppose, as a group of players and staff of being able to keep our focus on what’s immediately to come in the games and the training, but I’m sure I share everyone’s frustration that is connected to the club that we are in the position that we are in,” Ramsay said. “But I know full well, still, we have enough here to make (Saturday’s) game, of course, more than competitive and we had enough last week to win the game (a 2-1 loss to Colorado). The group is certainly not hiding behind” no reinforcements.

Minnesota traded winger Sang Bin Jeong to St. Louis and sent three players away on loans — midfielder Sam Shashoua, defender Devin Padelford and goalkeeper Wessel Speel. Sending players away was viewed as preparation for United to bring in new players to help them finish the MLS regular season and advance in the U.S. Open Cup.

The Loons are primarily in need of attacking help and the club’s target list includes attacking midfielder, winger and a defensive midfielder. MNUFC was linked this week to 22-year-old central/defensive midfielder Nectarios Triantis, a Sunderland player who was on loan Hibernian in Scotland’s Premiership, and 19-year-old attacking mid Liran Hazan of Maccabi Petach Tikva in Isreal.

It’s unclear how advanced those pursuit might be at the end of this week.

The transfer window opened July 24 and Saturday’s game will be the sixth overall match when new players could have been eligible to contribute to the Loons’ highly competitive season.

Given the routine lag in time for transfer deals to become finalized and for work visas to be ironed out for foreign players, how much any new player can contribute this season is shrinking. The Loons, who are third in the West, have eight MLS regular-season games remaining and will host a Open Cup semifinal vs. Austin FC in September.

By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press

Federal troops are patrolling the National Mall and neighborhoods across Washington in President Donald Trump’s extraordinary takeover of the police department in the nation’s capital.

Now the Trump administration is moving to install its own emergency police commissioner, a big step forward in one of the most sweeping uses of federal authority over a local government in modern times.

While Washington went to court on Friday to block Trump’s takeover, how it will play out and whether the federal government views this as a potential blueprint for dealing with other cities remains up in the air. Here’s what to know about the situation and what might come next:

Why is Trump taking over the police in DC?

The Republican president this week announced he’s taking control over Washington’s police department and activating National Guard troops to reduce crime, an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. But District of Columbia officials say the action isn’t needed, pointing out that violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down significantly again this year.

Can he do that?

D.C.’s status as a congressionally established federal district gives Trump a window to assert more control over the the district than other cities. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn’t offer much resistance at first, allowing city workers to clear homeless encampments and work closely with federal immigration agents. But on Friday, the heavily Democratic district asked for an emergency court order blocking Trump officials from putting a federal official in charge of D.C. police.

So who is in charge of police in Washington?

Right now, it’s unsettled. Trump’s administration announced Thursday that the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration will take over the police chief’s duties, including authority over orders issued to officers. It’s unclear where the move leaves the city’s current police chief, Pamela Smith, who works for the mayor. Smith says upending the command structure would be a “dangerous” threat to law and order.

Related Articles

Texas Republicans announce another redistricting session. California Democrats will counter

Trump’s ‘safe and beautiful’ move against DC homeless camps looks like ugliness to those targeted

Critics say Trump’s push for fairness in college admissions is leaving out legacy preferences

Watch live: Scene in Alaska as Trump heads for high-stakes meeting with Putin

DC sues to block Trump’s federal takeover of its police department as intervention intensifies

What’s at stake

The showdown in Washington is the latest attempt by Trump to test the boundaries of his legal authority to carry out his tough-on-crime agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally.

What are the federal troops doing in DC?

About 800 National Guard troops are being activated, with Humvees parked along the Washington Monument and near Union Station. Troops have been spotted standing outside baseball’s Nationals Park and neighborhood restaurants. The White House says guard members aren’t making arrests but are protecting law enforcement officers who are making arrests and helping deter violent crime. Trump says one of the objectives will be moving homeless people far from the city.

How long can this go on?

Trump has the authority to do this for 30 days and says he might look into extending it. But that would require congressional approval. Whether Republicans in Congress would go along with that is unclear. Some D.C. residents have protested against the increased police presence. For some, the action echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint predominantly Black cities with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify police action.

Will Trump try to take control in other US cities?

Washington is very different from any other American city, and the rules that govern it give the federal government much more control than it would have anywhere else. Whether Trump is using this as a blueprint for how to approach cities — largely Democratic cities — that he wants to exert more control over remains to be seen.

Redistricting is, admittedly, a complicated political tradition. But, put simply, it’s a logistical part of the process that determines who represents you in elected office based on where you live.

In other words, redistricting is all about maps and boundaries.

And it’s certainly, especially this year, all about politics.

Gov. Gavin Newsom officially launched the campaign for mid-cycle redistricting in California with a rally at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, Aug. 14. Newsom said it would be up to voters to decide, in a special election on Nov. 4, whether to implement new congressional districts in the state for 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.

The idea is a partisan one, an effort to favor Democrats in the state’s congressional elections as a way to counter similar, Republican-led plans elsewhere in the country to boost the GOP.

From how redistricting is defined to what the process typically looks like in California and what this means for you, here are some redistricting questions, asked and answered.

First of all, what even is redistricting?

Redistricting refers to the process that determines the boundaries for electoral districts for Congress, the state legislature and other elected offices, such as the State Board of Equalization districts in California.

More simply speaking, it’s the drawing of maps. Then, voters use those maps to learn, based on where they live, what districts they can vote in for certain elections, including the U.S. House.

Why are we talking about it now?

Generally, this happens every 10 years, after new census data paints a better picture of population and who is living where. States have differing processes for how these boundaries, or maps, are drawn, but in California, it’s up to a group of commissioners who draw the maps based on what is best for voter representation, not partisan politics.

But several states across the country are considering what’s called mid-cycle redistricting this year after President Donald Trump put pressure on Republican-controlled states to change their congressional boundaries to benefit the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans now control the White House, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, but midterm elections generally favor the party not in charge; that would suggest the Democratic Party for 2026.

How does redistricting work in California?

Like other states, it used to be up to the California Legislature to determine district boundaries for congressional and legislative seats. But voters changed that in 2008 when they narrowly passed a proposition giving that responsibility to a group of independent commissioners.

The 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four who are not affiliated with the two major parties.

They hold public hearings and collect public input on maps. They analyze census data and geographic boundaries. And they consider neighborhoods, communities and minority populations when drawing maps, ensuring these types of groups are kept together in districts as much as possible.

What is Gov. Gavin Newsom proposing?

Newsom has called for a special election on Nov. 4, where voters will decide whether to redraw the state’s congressional maps for the next three elections: the 2026 midterms, as well as the 2028 and 2030 elections.

Newsom is billing the effort a “five-alarm fire for democracy.”

“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” the governor said.

Republicans are largely opposed to this plan.

“Californians have made clear that they want an independent redistricting process,” said GOP Rep. Young Kim, who represents communities in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“Changing that for partisan reasons disenfranchises voters and degrades trust in our political system,” said Kim.

Why does California care about Texas?

California’s redistricting efforts are “triggered” if any Republican state moves forward with partisan, mid-cycle redistricting, Newsom has said, but the focus has largely been on Texas.

Trump is pushing Texas and other red states to redraw maps to favor Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. The president recently said his party was “entitled to five more seats” in Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has warned that Texas “has the ability to eliminate 10 Democrats in our state” should California “gerrymander.”

Texas, meanwhile, has struggled to approve new congressional districts in recent weeks after Democratic legislators there fled the state to prevent any action on new maps. Many have visited California and met with Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the standoff.

What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering refers to redrawing electoral maps to favor a particular political party or group of people.

While gerrymandering is generally seen as taboo, or used perjoratively, it isn’t illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled, in a split decision, that federal judges cannot weigh in on disputes over partisan gerrymandering. The nation’s highest court, in 2024, sided with South Carolina’s Republican legislature in its drawing of a congressional district’s boundaries there, disagreeing with a lower court’s ruling that it was racially gerrymandered and discriminated against Black voters.

The term “gerrymander” is a molding of former Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry’s name with “salamander.” It was used by the Boston Gazette in 1812 in reference to a redistricting bill Gerry signed for state Senate seats that left one district looking a bit like a salamander. (Gerry later became a U.S. vice president under President James Madison.)

I’m not an elected official. Does redistricting affect me?

Yes. Redistricting, any change in these maps, could impact who represents you or who is on your ballot next year.

In this case, California is only considering redrawing congressional maps, not those for state legislative districts. So redistricting could change who represents you in the House of Representatives.

How do I even find my congressional district?

You can find who represents you in Congress — and what district you live in — through the House’s website.

Just input your ZIP code, and you may also need to enter your street address to determine your representative and congressional district.