By KIM CHANDLER

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Alabama’s largest county to redraw county commission lines after ruling that the districts were unconstitutional because of racial gerrymandering.

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U.S. District Judge Madeline H. Haikala ruled the county map was unconstitutional because race was the predominant factor when the Jefferson County Commission drew districts. The ruling came in a 2023 lawsuit that says the plan overly packed Black voters, who make up 40% of the county population, into just two districts.

“Because the 2021 plan violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection against racial gerrymandering, the Court permanently enjoins the Commission and its agents from using the 2021 plan in Jefferson County Commission elections,” Haikala wrote.

Jefferson County is Alabama’s largest county and home to Birmingham, the city center of the largest metropolitan area in the state. A new map could shift the balance of power in the county. The commission is made up of three Republicans and two Democrats.

Cara McClure, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she is looking forward to the commission “coming to the table to finally draw a map that is fair to Black voters in the county.”

“The County Commission is responsible for so many things that impact our everyday life. The main thing is making sure every voice and every vote is heard and counted. And that’s not what has been happening,” McClure said, who is executive director of Faith and Works Statewide Civic Engagement Collective.

The judge gave the county and plaintiffs 30 days to file a report on the development of a remedial redistricting plan.

“We are currently reviewing the order to determine next steps,” Jefferson County Attorney Theo Lawson wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Kathryn Sadasivan, assistant counsel with NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the existing plan overly packed Black voters into the two districts while the county sought to maintain set racial ratios in the other three.

“It’s a problem of not just those two districts that were maintained at super majority Black status without consideration of what the Voting Rights Act required, but also an explicit attempt to maintain the racial ratios of Black voters to white voters in every other district,” Sadasivan said.

Haikala noted in a footnote that the results of the case might be different if the commission showed that the higher percentage of Black voters was required to ensure they could select the candidates of their choice. But the judge said the commission offered no such evidence.

Jefferson County was the site of some of the most infamous moments of the Civil Rights Movement, including the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four girls. The industrial city has evolved into a corporate economic engine fueled in part by the banking and medical industries.

By DAVID FISCHER

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A pair of North Carolina brothers testified Wednesday about a box left with them by a man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course last year.

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Samuel and Lazaro Plata described in Spanish through translators how Ryan Routh left the container filled with pipes, bullets, wires and other items at Lazaro Plata’s home in Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 2024 — about five months before the alleged attempt.

Both men have known Routh for about 30 years and had previously worked at his roofing business. They contacted authorities last September after seeing news of Routh’s arrest.

Wednesday was the fifth day of testimony in the trial of Ryan Routh, who prosecutors said spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.

Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had initially blocked off more than three weeks for trial at the Fort Pierce federal courthouse. But prosecutors have said they should be able to rest their case by Thursday or Friday, and Routh’s witnesses have been subpoenaed to appear by Friday.

Both brothers testified that they never opened the box until after Routh’s arrest. Lazaro Plata testified that he didn’t have any reason to think there was anything suspicious about Routh leaving the container.

An FBI agent testified that he found a 12-page letter in the box addressed to “Dear World.” Prosecutors only wanted the first few lines included as evidence.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” the handwritten letter said. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

Routh had asked that the entire letter be allowed into evidence, arguing that the first few lines lacked context. He was specifically interested in a line that referred to shredding Trump’s plane. Routh said the letter doesn’t say anything about a golf course, the location of the alleged attack.

Cannon sided with prosecutors, saying the rest of the letter was irrelevant or hearsay.

Routh has indicated he plans to call a firearms expert, as well as two character witnesses. He hasn’t said whether he plans to testify himself. He tried to use the Plata brothers as de facto character witnesses during cross examination, asking questions like, “Did I teach your whole family how to roof and do construction?” and “Have I ever got into a physical fight?”

The judge gave Routh some leeway but eventually brought the questions to an end.

Also Wednesday, Ronnie Jay Oxendine testified that he sold Routh the SKS rifle used in the alleged assassination attempt, according to local news outlets. Oxendine was convicted of a weapons charge in July and was testifying against Routh as part of his plea agreement.

Recounting the incident at the Trump International Golf Club, a Secret Service agent testified last week that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who testified that he saw a person fleeing the area after hearing gunshots. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witnesses said he confirmed it was the person he had seen.

Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived an attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear. The gunman was then fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s another blow to Rudy Giuliani’s withered wallet: A judge has ordered the former New York City mayor to pay $1.36 million in legal fees he racked up during investigations into his efforts to overturn President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

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Judge Arthur Engoron made the ruling Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by lawyer Robert Costello and the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP. In granting summary judgment for Costello and the firm, Engoron rejected Giuliani’s claim that he never received any bills for legal fees.

With interest, Giuliani owes nearly $1.6 million. He must also pay lawyer costs that Costello and the firm incurred in fighting to recoup his unpaid legal fees, the judge ruled.

Engoron, a Democrat, is the same Manhattan judge who last year ordered Trump to pay a massive civil penalty after finding that he had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades. The fine ballooned to more than $500 million with interest before an appeals court overturned it last month.

Giuliani’s spokesperson said the ex-mayor will appeal.

“The idea that Judge Arthur Engoron is permitted to sit on a case involving President Donald Trump’s good friend and former personal lawyer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, flies in the face of justice and demonstrates the partisan political nature of this decision,” Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman said.

Messages seeking comment were left for Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron.

The decision is the latest financial setback for Giuliani, once celebrated as “America’s mayor” for his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In recent years, the Republican has filed for bankruptcy; been threatened with jail for failing to pay money owed to his third ex-wife, Judith; and reached an undisclosed settlement to keep his homes and belongings, including prized World Series rings, after he was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia elections workers he defamed.

Last month, Giuliani, 81, sustained a fractured vertebra and other injuries in a car crash in New Hampshire. Soon after, Trump announced he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Costello and Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP sued Giuliani in 2023, accusing him of paying only a fraction of nearly $1.6 million in legal fees for their work representing him in investigations related to his alleged election interference.

Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington for repeatedly making false statements about the 2020 election, and he was criminally charged in Georgia and Arizona in connection with efforts to undo Trump’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Giuliani has denied wrongdoing.

Costello and the law firm alleged Giuliani paid them just $214,000, leaving a $1.36 million tab. Giuliani’s last payment was $10,000 on Sept. 14, 2023, about a week after Trump hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for Giuliani at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

Costello was Giuliani’s lawyer from November 2019 to July 2023. He represented Giuliani in matters ranging from an investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine, which resulted in an FBI raid on his home and office in April 2021, to state and federal probes of his work in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Costello and the firm said in their lawsuit that they also helped represent Giuliani in various civil lawsuits filed against him and in disciplinary proceedings that ultimately led to his disbarment. The lawyer and the law firm accused Giuliani of breaching a retainer agreement by failing to pay invoices in full in a timely fashion.

Costello, a former federal prosecutor, has since left Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP and was hired last in September 2024 as a lawyer for Republican-controlled Nassau County on Long Island.

Last year, Trump’s lawyers called Costello as a witness at the president’s hush money criminal trial in an effort to attack the credibility of a key prosecution witness, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. Costello irritated the judge, Juan M. Merchan, by making comments under his breath, rolling his eyes and calling called the whole exercise “ridiculous.”

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Cracker Barrel said Wednesday it expects lower sales and weaker customer traffic in the coming year as the controversy over its planned logo change continues to play out.

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In a conference call with investors, Cracker Barrel said traffic at its restaurants was down 1% in early August, before it announced it was adopting a more simplified logo. The new logo dropped the image of an older man in overalls leaning on a barrel and removed the words “Old Country Store.”

But after the announcement on Aug. 18 and the outcry that followed from many longtime fans, restaurant traffic dropped 8%. Cracker Barrel said Wednesday that traffic will likely be down between 7% and 8% in the first quarter and could decline 4% to 7% for the full 2026 fiscal year.

Cracker Barrel’s shares dropped 9% in after-hours trading Wednesday.

Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino said the company conducted extensive research before releasing the new logo and launching a plan to remodel its 660 U.S. restaurants. The company has since scrapped the new logo and paused the remodeling.

Masino said the four restaurants that have been remodeled — with new paint, new lighting, more comfortable seating and other changes — will be transitioned back to their former decor. Remodels that had begun at 58 other restaurants will also be halted, she said.

“What can not be captured in data is how much our guests see themselves and their own story in the Cracker Barrel experience, which is what’s led to such a strong response to these changes,” Masino said during a conference call with investors Wednesday.

Masino said Cracker Barrel will continue other aspects of its plan to boost sales and attract new customers, including menu innovation and kitchen upgrades. She said marketing will lean into nostalgia and fans’ love for Uncle Herschel, the character pictured on the brand’s logo.

FILE – The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store logo in Pearl, Miss., is photographed, Sept. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

The company is also continuing to grow its loyalty program. Masino said the 2-year-old program now has 9 million members and gained 300,000 new members in just the last four weeks. Masino said one new loyalty perk will be the ability to give the company feedback after every restaurant visit.

“We’re moving ahead with a strong plan to regain traffic and the momentum we had a month ago,” Masino said. “There is a lot to be optimistic about.”

The Lebanon, Tennessee-based company said it expects total revenue of $3.35 billion to $3.45 billion in its 2026 fiscal year, which began Aug. 2. That is lower than the $3.48 billion Cracker Barrel reported in its 2025 fiscal year.

It expects a $25 million hit due to U.S. tariffs on imported goods in the 2026 fiscal year. The company said it’s adjusting some of the products sold in its stores to mitigate that.