By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press

CALVERT CITY, Ky. (AP) — Republican Nate Morris had deftly warmed up a crowd of party faithful, gushing about President Donald Trump and recounting his own life’s journey — from hardscrabble childhood to wealthy entrepreneur — when he turned his attention to the man he wants to replace, Sen. Mitch McConnell.

That’s when things got feisty. While bashing Kentucky’s longest-serving senator at a GOP dinner on the eve of Saturday’s Fancy Farm picnic, a tradition-laden stop on the state’s political circuit, Morris was cut off in midsentence by a party activist in the crowd, who noted that McConnell isn’t seeking reelection and pointedly asked Morris: “What are you running on?”

Morris touted his hard line stance on immigration and defended Trump’s tariffs as a boon for American manufacturing. But he didn’t retreat from his harsh critique of McConnell.

“We’ve seen 40 years of doing it the same way,” Morris said. “And, yes, he’s not on the ballot, but his legacy is on the ballot. Do you want 40 more years of that? I don’t think you do.”

McConnell’s blunt-force approach used against him

The pushback from a county GOP chairman revealed the political risks of attacking the 83-year-old McConnell in the twilight of his career. Towering over Kentucky politics for decades, McConnell is regarded as the master strategist behind the GOP’s rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats. The state Republican headquarters bears McConnell’s name. As the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, McConnell guided Republican policymaking and helped forge a conservative Supreme Court. Back home, his appropriating skills showered Kentucky with federal funding.

Now, his blunt-force style of campaigning — which undercut so many foes — is being used against him.

Morris is running against two other prominent Republicans — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — for McConnell’s seat. The outcome will be decided in the spring primary next year. Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

All three Republican hopefuls lavish praise on Trump — in hopes of landing his endorsement — but also have ties to McConnell, who mentored generations of aspirational Republicans. Cameron and Barr have chided McConnell at times, but it’s been mild compared to Morris’ attacks. Morris interned for McConnell but glosses over that connection.

McConnell pushes back

At events surrounding the Fancy Farm picnic, an event long known for caustic zingers that he has always relished, McConnell showed no sign of backing down.

“Surely this isn’t true, but I’ve heard that one of the candidates running for my office wants to be different,” McConnell told a Republican crowd that included Morris at a pre-picnic breakfast in Mayfield. “Now, I’m wondering how you’d want to be different from the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. I’m wondering how you’d want to be different in supporting President Trump.”

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McConnell received multiple standing ovations. Morris stayed seated.

McConnell has consistently voted for Trump’s policies more often than Kentucky’s other Republican senator, Rand Paul, according to a Congressional Quarterly voting analysis. McConnell recently supported Trump’s signature tax and spending measure. Paul opposed it, saying it would drive up debt.

Yet Morris has taken on McConnell, who has famously had an up-and-down relationship with Trump.

McConnell teamed with Trump to put conservatives on the federal bench and pass tax cuts during the president’s first term. McConnell also guided the Senate — and Trump — through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals. But the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.

McConnell endorsed Trump in 2024, but in a biography by Michael Tackett of The Associated Press, released shortly before the election, McConnell described him as “a despicable human being.”

Running against career politicians

Morris, who started a waste management technology company, says the senator has been insufficiently loyal to Trump and allowed festering issues like immigration and the national debt to grow worse during his years in Senate leadership.

Morris wants to tether his opponents to McConnell while running on anti-establishment themes that his campaign thinks will appeal to legions of Trump supporters in the Bluegrass State.

“Let’s face it, folks, career politicians have run this country off a cliff,” Morris said.

Morris’ rivals sum up the anti-McConnell attacks as an angry, backward-looking message. Cameron called it a diversionary tactic to obscure what he said is Morris’ lack of both a message and credibility as a supporter of Trump’s MAGA movement.

“He can’t talk about his actual record. So he has to choose to pick on an 83-year-old,” Cameron said.

At Fancy Farm, where candidates hurl insults at one another against a backdrop of bingo games and barbecue feasts, Morris took a swipe at McConnell’s health.

“I have a serious question: who here can honestly tell me that it’s a good thing to have a senior citizen who freezes on national television during his press conferences as our U.S. senator?” Morris said. “It seems, to me, maybe just maybe, Mitch’s time to leave the Senate was a long time ago.”

McConnell had his customary front-row seat for much of the event but wasn’t there for Morris’ remarks. He typically leaves before all the speeches are delivered and exited before his would-be successors spoke.

Living by the sword

McConnell complimented Trump in his speech, singling out Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

“He turned Iran’s nuclear program into a pile of rocks,” McConnell, a steadfast advocate for a muscular U.S. foreign policy, said to cheers.

At the GOP dinner the night before in Calvert City, where candidates typically are more politely received, party activist Frank Amaro confronted Morris for his anti-McConnell barrage.

“He keeps bashing Mitch McConnell like he’s running against Mitch McConnell,” Amaro, a county Republican chairman, said afterward. “Overall, he’s helped Kentucky and the United States, especially our Supreme Court, more than any other U.S. senator in this country.”

But Morris’ blistering assessment of McConnell hit the mark with Trump supporter Patrick Marion, who applied the dreaded Republican-in-Name-Only label to McConnell.

“Personally, I think Mitch has been a RINO for way too long,” Marion said later. “I don’t think he was a true MAGA supporter of President Trump.”

Afterward, Morris was in no mood to back off.

“He’s the nastiest politician maybe in the history of this state if not in the history of this country,” Morris said of McConnell. “Look, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

When Democratic lawmakers fled Texas to try to prevent the Republican-led Legislature from redrawing the state’s congressional districts, it marked the latest episode in a long national history of gerrymandering.

The word “gerrymander” was coined in America more than 200 years ago as an unflattering means of describing political manipulation in legislative map-making.

The word has stood the test of time, in part, because American politics has remained fiercely competitive.

Who is responsible for gerrymandering?

In many states, like Texas, the state legislature is responsible for drawing congressional districts, subject to the approval or veto of the governor. District maps must be redrawn every 10 years, after each census, to balance the population in districts.

But in some states, nothing prevents legislatures from conducting redistricting more often.

In an effort to limit gerrymandering, some states have entrusted redistricting to special commissions composed of citizens or bipartisan panels of politicians. Democratic officials in some states with commissions are now talking of trying to sidestep them to counter Republican redistricting in Texas.

A U.S. map showing who controls redistricting in each state. (AP Digital Embed)

How does a gerrymander work?

If a political party controls both the legislature and governor’s office — or has such a large legislative majority that it can override vetoes — it can effectively draw districts to its advantage.

One common method of gerrymandering is for a majority party to draw maps that pack voters who support the opposing party into a few districts, thus allowing the majority party to win a greater number of surrounding districts.

Another common method is for the majority party to dilute the power of an opposing party’s voters by spreading them among multiple districts.

Why is it called gerrymandering?

The term dates to 1812, when Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill redrawing state Senate districts to benefit the Democratic-Republican Party. Some thought an oddly shaped district looked like a salamander. A newspaper illustration dubbed it “The Gerry-mander” — a term that later came to describe any district drawn for political advantage. Gerry lost re-election as governor in 1812 but won election that same year as vice president with President James Madison.

Is political gerrymandering illegal?

Not under the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court, in a 2019 case originating from North Carolina, ruled that federal courts have no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “The Constitution supplies no objective measure for assessing whether a districting map treats a political party fairly.”

The Supreme Court noted that partisan gerrymandering claims could continue to be decided in state courts under their own constitutions and laws. But some state courts, including North Carolina’s highest court, have ruled that they also have no authority to decide partisan gerrymandering claims.

FILE – Evan Milligan, center, plaintiff in Merrill v. Milligan, an Alabama redistricting case, speaks with reporters following oral arguments at the Supreme Court in Washington, Oct. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Are there any limits on redistricting?

Yes. Though it’s difficult to challenge legislative districts on political grounds, the Supreme Court has upheld challenges on racial grounds. In a 2023 case from Alabama, the high court said the congressional districts drawn by the state’s Republican-led Legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of Black residents. The court let a similar claim proceed in Louisiana. Both states subsequently redrew their districts.

What does data show about gerrymandering?

Statisticians and political scientists have developed a variety of ways to try to quantify the partisan advantage that may be attributable to gerrymandering.

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Republicans, who control redistricting in more states than Democrats, used the 2010 census data to create a strong gerrymander. An Associated Press analysis of that decade’s redistricting found that Republicans enjoyed a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years.

But Democrats responded to match Republican gerrymandering after the 2020 census. The adoption of redistricting commissions also limited gerrymandering in some states. An AP analysis of the 2022 elections — the first under new maps — found that Republicans won just one more U.S. House seat than would have been expected based on the average share of the vote they received nationwide. That was one of the most politically balanced outcomes in years.

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge says Rhode Island’s gun permit system, which requires residents to show “a need” to openly carry a firearm throughout the state, does not violate the Second Amendment.

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In a ruling handed down Friday, U.S. District Judge William Smith granted Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s motion for summary judgment that dismisses a lawsuit filed by a coalition of gun owners in 2023.

The lawsuit stems from a Rhode Island law dictating how the state issues firearms permits.

According to the statute, local officials are required to issue concealed-carry permits to anyone who meets the specific criteria outlined in the statute. However, it also allows the attorney general’s office to issue open-carry permits “upon a proper showing of need.” Unlike municipalities, the attorney general is not required to issue such permits.

The plaintiffs, largely led by Michael O’Neil, a lobbyist for the Rhode Island 2nd Amendment Coalition and a firearm instructor, said in their initial complaint that the attorney general’s office denied all seven of their applications in 2021 for an “unrestricted” firearm permit, allowing both open and concealed carry. Court documents show that the attorney general’s office denied their permits because all of them had been granted “restricted” permits, which only allowed concealed carry.

Smith said in his ruling that unrestricted permits “are a privilege and there is no constitutionally protected liberty interest in obtaining one.”

The plaintiffs had hoped for a similar ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, where the justices struck down a New York state law that had restricted who could obtain a permit to carry a gun in public.

Similar to Rhode Island, New York’s law had required residents to show an actual need to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense.

Yet, notably, Smith said in his ruling that the high court’s 2022 ruling did not declare that the Second Amendment “requires open carry,” but even if it did, Rhode Island’s law “is within the Nation’s historical tradition of regulation.”

Frank Saccoccio, the attorney representing the gun owners, said in an email Monday that they did not believe Smith’s decision was in line with the 2022 SCOTUS decision and would be appealing.

An email seeking comment from the attorney general was sent on Monday.

By Miquéla V Thornton, Bloomberg News

With heat advisories blanketing the eastern half of the U.S., air conditioners are once again working over time as essential resources to keep millions cool. But they’re unevenly distributed: Many poor households are unable to afford them.

To reduce the gap between the air conditioning haves and have nots, a growing number of programs are giving them out for free with waiting lists numbering in the thousands. And they view them as means to protect public health and reduce poverty.

Heat-related deaths have doubled over the last quarter century, and more people will be at risk as the planet warms. Temperature increases are correlated with higher disease risk and mortality rates. Extreme heat can reduce productivity, impact children’s cognitive development and lower overall well-being.

“Each individual heat-related death is preventable,” said Kai Chen, a researcher of environmental health at Yale University, “and in the past 20 years, air conditioning use has drastically reduced heat-related mortality.”

He added that without ACs, the amount of heat-related deaths in the US would likely double, especially for older adults.

There are 14 million households without air conditioning in the U.S., but lack of access is more acute in some communities. In New York, 10% of households don’t have AC, but that percentage doubles in many Black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods. Over 500 people die from heat in New York City each summer, mostly at home with a broken or underpowered air conditioner, according to the city’s most recent report on heat mortality. The top reason for the lack of cooling: cost.

The state’s Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) provides ACs to low-income households with members over 65 or under 6, and Gov. Kathy Hochul launched a program in June that makes units available to any low-income adult with asthma, which is exacerbated by heat.

The new program, which distributes the ACs through enrollment in the state’s Essentials Healthcare Plan, focuses on ages that HEAP does not cover.

“We think this is really important as extreme weather events are happening more and more and with a lower-income population with health needs, this is absolutely a meaningful way we can help them manage their health,” said Danielle Holahan, executive director at New York State of Health, the state’s marketplace for affordable health insurance, which administers the program.

But the program and others like it face challenges due to funding cuts. Federal money for many state-level heating and cooling relief programs is in peril, and energy-efficiency tax credits, which help households afford better cooling appliances, have been cut as part of President Donald Trump’s recently signed tax law.

The bedrock of New York’s program, the Essentials Healthcare Plan, was implemented under the Affordable Care Act. According to Holahan, the program has funding for the next five years, but cuts to the ACA in the new law could remove eligibility for about 730,000 enrollees, especially lawfully present immigrants.

Local, nongovernmental groups run similar programs and have found strong demand. In Cincinnati, which will see a run of extreme heat break by the end of the week, there’s a waiting list of more than 2,700 people for a program that gives out free air conditioners.

The program, run by the anti-homelessness charity St. Vincent de Paul, provides ACs to anyone 65 and older or with a medical need. Their waiting list grew by 700 in the last few weeks alone.

While St. Vincent de Paul Cincinnati’s program initially gave out fans, that felt like a “band-aid” for a persistent problem, said Kaytlynd Leinhart, who leads the organization’s development and marketing. The group switched to ACs in 2019. It is funded by local donors, businesses and foundations.

Leinhart said nonprofits carry more responsibility after pandemic-era support tapered off. She emphasized how cooling can be a stepping stone out of a crisis by providing something as simple as good night’s sleep.

“If you’re a single mom on one income, imagine that that’s how you’re starting your day every day, with your baby having not slept, you’ve not slept, you’ve been severely uncomfortable all night,” she said.

Providing a free AC can help individuals cope with heat stress and better attend to pressing challenges.

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Demand is especially high this year. The Cincinnati program gave out over 700 ACs in both 2023 and 2024 while in 2022, it provided 980 units. This year, it expects to exceed 1,000 units.

However, providing that many will cost $110,000, and the group only has $75,000 in funding this year. With such a long waitlist, many won’t receive relief.

Climate change is making summers hotter in New York and Cincinnati, places that already regularly experience temperatures above 90F (32C). Traditionally cool cities where air conditioning is less prevalent are also seeing temperatures rise. As it gets hotter, though, free home cooling programs are becoming more common.

“Cooling is going from being a luxury or a ‘nice to have’ in many places to being essential for health and safety,” said Laila Atalla, a building decarbonization expert at clean energy nonprofit RMI.

In the wake of a 2021 heat dome that killed hundreds across the US Pacific Northwest and Canada, the city of Portland, Oregon, formed Cooling Portland with the nonprofit Earth Advantage to install energy-efficient heat pumps in households at high risk of heat-related illness.

Using heat pumps is the ideal solution because of their reliability, smaller environmental footprint and affordability, reducing cooling costs by about 20%, Atalla said.

In 2022, Cooling Portland set a target of installing 15,000 units by 2027, but it reached that goal earlier this summer and plans to install 5,000 units this year alone. In a city that is 70% white, the program is helping close the racial cooling disparity: Of those served, about a third are Black and 14% Hispanic or Latino.

Portland funds its work through a 1% surcharge on local billion-dollar corporations, passed via a 2018 ballot measure. The fund — which has raised $1.2 billion — can only be used for climate justice initiatives.

Amidst the Trump administration’s cuts to social welfare and climate programs, Atalla said that local governments and utilities can do more to improve cooling access using money they already have. They noted that the US spends $9 billion a year on energy efficiency programs that only 3% of households take advantage of because of complex applications, inconsistent eligibility requirements and income verification hurdles.

“There’s an equity dimension here too,” Atalla said. “Low-income households are about one-third as likely to receive an energy-efficiency incentive.”

Atalla underscored that programs that can help cover the costs of energy bills — which low-income households spend a disproportionate amount of income in — can also help make free air conditioner programs more effective. They also pointed to a Colorado bill that would prevent utilities from disconnecting power for nonpayment during extreme heat events as another means to keep people safe.

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