By JACQUES BILLEAUD and FELICIA FONSECA

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The disappearance of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother three weeks ago has inspired a small number of volunteers to launch their own searches in the dense desert near her home in hopes of cracking the case.

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The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said while it appreciates the concern for Nancy Guthrie, it asked people inquiring about volunteering to give investigators space to do their jobs.

“We all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals,” the agency said in a statement over the weekend.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen at her home just outside Tucson on Jan. 31 and was reported missing the following day. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, abducted or otherwise taken against her will. Drops of her blood were found on the front porch, but authorities haven’t publicly revealed much evidence.

Despite the sheriff’s request for people not to search on their own, volunteers have continued to look. A small group reported finding a black backpack on Sunday, but it wasn’t the same brand as one identified in video surveillance that the FBI released of a masked man at Guthrie’s home the night she disappeared.

A sheriffs’ spokesperson told Tucson television station KOLD that the bag and its contents didn’t appear to be viable leads. The Associated Press reached out to the sheriff’s department for comment on Monday.

Two women from the group Madres Buscadoras de Sonora, or “Searching Mothers of Sonora,” who were carrying digging tools Sunday outside of Guthrie’s home, said they, too, would join the search. They posted fliers on Guthrie’s mailbox with her picture and their contact information.

A memorial grows outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Tony Estrada, the former long-time sheriff in neighboring Santa Cruz County, said volunteer searchers have good intentions in wanting to help and can serve as a force multiplier, but it’s crucial that their efforts be coordinated with law enforcement.

“You can’t have people all over the place looking for something and not reporting to anybody or letting them know that they’re going to be in that area,” Estrada said. “They may be trampling into things that may come out to be helpful in the future.”

Nearly all search operations for U.S. law enforcement agencies are staffed with volunteers, said Chris Boyer, executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue.

Untrained volunteers who show up to help in a search may mean well, but experts say they could end up contaminating a crime scene.

“It’s painful for law enforcement when that happens,” Boyer said.

Neighbors walk by a growing memorial for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, outside her home in Tucson, Ariz., Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Volunteers should undergo background checks, be trained in things like administering first aid and preserving crime scenes, and work under the direction of law enforcement authorities, said Boyer, whose group provides education, certification and advocacy for search and rescue efforts across the United States and other countries.

Several hundred people are working the Guthrie investigation, and more than 20,000 tips have been received, the sheriff’s office has said. The FBI and other agencies are assisting.

The sheriff’s office has watched around the clock lately at Guthrie’s house. It also enacted a temporary one-way flow on the road so that emergency vehicles and trash collection trucks could get through. The constant presence of news crews, bloggers and curious onlookers has drawn mixed reaction from neighbors.

A memorial grows outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Some appreciated the attention the case has been getting. Others have placed traffic cones and signs on their properties to keep people off.

Meanwhile, the tribute to Nancy Guthrie outside her home keeps growing, with flowers, yellow ribbons, crosses, prayers and patron saints for older adults and in desperate situations.

A hand-painted pot is part of a growing memorial outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca)

Aran Aleamoni and his daughter Ariana picked out a bouquet of red, pink and white flowers and placed them at the edge of Guthrie’s yard, alongside a sign that read “Let Nancy Come Home” and a statuette of an angel.

“My heart goes out to the entire family,” said Aran Aleamoni, who has known the Guthrie family for a long time. “We are all pulling for you. We’re with you in your corner.”

Billeaud reported from Phoenix.

Don Halverson’s 103rd birthday is Tuesday, but the World War II vet who served in Italy celebrated a day early with the Minnesota National Guard at the 34th Infantry Division “Red Bull” Headquarters in Arden Hills.

A birthday cake for World War II veteran Don Halverson birthday cake is ready for slicing as he is honored by his old unit, the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, at the division’s Arden Hills headquarters on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Halverson stays connected with his fellow service members, sometimes sharing a meal at his VFW club. Halverson was a part of the 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division (Red Bulls). He was a weapons platoon sergeant in charge of machine and motor sections while in combat in Italy from 1943 to 1945.

“I figured they got me through World War II without getting hit. I got to hang with them,” joked Halverson, who lives in Brooklyn Center.

Halverson said he used to get birthday and Christmas cards from his fellow WWII veterans and now when he goes to the State Fair on Veterans Day, he’s the only WWII veteran there.

“Or my VFW club, I’m the only World War II veteran there. There’s a lot of them around yet, but they’re all in senior centers or somewhere,” Halverson said.

Members of the 34th Infantry Division were in attendance at Halverson’s celebration Monday and took the chance to shake his hand and wish him a happy birthday.

World War II veteran Don Halverson, left, explains where and when photos of him were taken (Italy in 1945) to Brigadier General Joseph Sharkey as he is honored by his old unit, the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, at the division’s Arden Hills headquarters on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

“It’s esprit de corps. It’s the 34th Infantry Division in Minnesota. It’s a proud division,” said Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Sharkey, commanding general of the 34th Infantry Division. “And to hear stories from Don, what they had to endure during World War II, specifically in Italy — heaven forbid our division should see another day like that — but it’s a good reminder to our current serving soldiers that service does come with sacrifice and always be prepared for the unknown. So that’s what we do day in and day out across the state.”

Halverson, who grew up in the Minneapolis area near Minnehaha Park, was drafted at the age of 20. When asked about his service, Halverson remembered one November in the mountains of Italy, walking around the cliffs to find rainwater to drink, clothes soaked through by rain and snow.

“You take your helmet and sit on that so you didn’t have to lay in the mud because you had a few inches of mud in your foxhole. Then eat a couple cans of stew every day — cold stew — and lick your spoon clean, put it back in your pocket,” Halverson said.

Halverson — a sergeant in the 4th Platoon, G Company, of the 1st Battalion — led a platoon of soldiers north from Naples, Italy up to the border of Switzerland. The 34th Infantry Division endured 517 days of frontline combat operations in World War II — the second most of any American division, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

After the war, French General Charles de Gaulle honored the division with the “Croix de Guerre” with Palm.

Upon returning to Minnesota, Halverson worked for Downtown Chevrolet and Mid-Continent Engineering until his retirement in 1988. He was married to his wife, Bernice, for more than 62 years until her death in 2010 and the couple had three children.

The Minnesota National Guard also celebrated Halverson’s birthday last year when he was awarded the Order of St. George bronze medallion, He wore the medallion Monday along with the Order of St. Maurice medallion. Halverson was awarded the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Unit Badge, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, among other recognitions, before his return to Minnesota in 1945.

“He was in fighting shape during World War II and clearly Don’s in fighting shape today. So, you know, it is a blessing,” Sharkey said. “I don’t think there’s many divisions, whether in the active component or in the National Guard that have living veterans from World War II that are available to tell their stories to the current generation.”

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By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will be honored at the South Carolina capitol in the state where he was born and where his crusade career as a civil rights activist started in high school by pushing to integrate his local library.

Jackson’s body will lie in state next Monday at the South Carolina Statehouse, Gov. Henry McMaster announced. Details were to be released later.

Jackson, 84, died on Feb. 17 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and talk.

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He will lie in repose this week at the Chicago headquarters of his Rainbow PUSH Coalition. His body will then travel to South Carolina and Washington, D.C., for more celebrations of his life. A public service will be held in Chicago at House of Hope, a 10,000-seat church, on March 6, followed by private homegoing services the next day at Rainbow PUSH, which will be livestreamed.

Jackson was born in 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina, in a tiny house on Haynie Street just outside of downtown. A portion of the street will be named in his honor.

He was the quarterback at segregated Sterling High School, where he led seven other Black classmates into the whites only public library in Greenville in 1960 where they sat and read books and magazines until they were arrested.

It was the start of a long civil rights career during which Jackson became a protégé of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., including joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Jackson went on to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

He continued to be active in his home state, pushing in 2003 for Greenville County to honor King by matching the federal holiday in his honor and in 2015 by advocating for removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina Statehouse grounds after nine Black worshipers were killed in a racist shooting at a Charleston church.

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Peter Attia, a medical influencer whose emails with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were revealed in the latest U.S. Justice Department release of files, has resigned a post with CBS News.

Attia, podcast host and author of “Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity,” was one of a group of people named last month by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss as a contributor to network programming. He was the subject of a “60 Minutes” profile that ran on the network last October.

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But shortly after the appointment, Attia’s name surfaced in hundreds of Epstein documents. While Attia said he was guilty of no wrongdoing and did not attend any of Epstein’s sex parties, he admitted in an apology earlier this month that some of his emails were “embarrassing, tasteless and indefensible.”

Despite some public pressure, CBS News did not cut ties with Attia after the documents surfaced. Instead, Attia resigned from the network on his own, according to published reports confirmed by CBS News on Monday.

Attia is one of several public figures, including some in the corporate and public sectors, whose relationships with Epstein have surfaced in recent weeks, causing resignations.