Crews battled wildfires in North and South Carolina on Sunday amid dry conditions and gusty winds as residents were forced to evacuate in some areas.

The National Weather Service warned of increased fire danger in the region due to a combination of critically dry fuels and very low relative humidity.

In South Carolina, where more than 175 fires burned 6.6 square miles, Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency on Sunday to support the wildfire response effort, and a statewide burning ban remained in effect.

Crews made progress containing a fire in the Carolina Forest area west of the coastal resort city of Myrtle Beach, where residents had been ordered to evacuate several neighborhoods, according to Horry County Fire Rescue. Video showed some people running down the street as smoke filled the sky. But by late Sunday afternoon, the fire department announced that Carolina Forest evacuees could return home.

The South Carolina Forestry Commission estimated Sunday evening that the blaze had burned 2.5 square miles with 30 percent of it contained. No structures had succumbed to the blaze and no injuries had been reported as of Sunday morning, officials said.

In North Carolina, the U.S. Forest Service said fire crews were working to contain multiple wildfires burning in four forests across the state on Sunday. The largest, about 400 acres, was at Uwharrie National Forest, about 50 miles east of Charlotte. The Forest Service said Sunday afternoon that it had made progress on the fire, reaching about one-third containment.

The small southwestern town of Tryon in Polk County, North Carolina, urged some residents to evacuate Saturday as a fire spread rapidly there. The evacuations remained in effect Sunday. A decision on whether to lift them was expected to be made Monday after intentional burns are set to try to stop the fire from spreading.

That fire has burned about 500 acres as of late Sunday, with zero percent containment, according to the Polk County Emergency Management/Fire Marshal’s office. The North Carolina Forest Service was conducting water drops and back-burning operations on the ground, and area residents should expect a lot of smoke during those operations, officials said.

Officials have not said what caused any of the fires.

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation will hear a new president sing a far different tune in his prime-time address before Congress on Tuesday night. Some Americans will lustily sing along. Others will plug their ears.

The old tune is out — the one where a president declares “we strongly support NATO,” “I believe strongly in free trade” and Washington must do more to promote clean air, clean water, women’s health and civil rights.

That was Donald Trump in 2017.

Related Articles

Lewis M. Rambo: A personal reflection on the dismantling of DEI initiatives

James Stavridis: Lacking coherent rationale, sudden firings of senior officers will reduce security

Other voices: The certainty of arrest and return is a huge changing point

Minnesota employers face significant labor shortages

Joe Soucheray: A little DOGE goes a long way. Be careful with the mail.

That was back when gestures of bipartisanship and appeals to national unity were still in the mix on the night the president comes before Congress to hold forth on the state of the union. Trump, then new at the job, was just getting his footing in the halls of power and not ready to stomp on everything.

It would be three more years before Americans would see Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, then the House speaker and his State of the Union host in the chamber, performatively rip up a copy of Trump’s speech in disgust over its contents.

On Tuesday, Americans who tune into Trump’s address will see whether he speaks to the whole country, as he mostly did in his first such speech in the chamber as president, or only to the roughly half who voted for him.

They will see also whether he hews to ceremony and common courtesies, as he did in 2017, or goes full bore on showmanship and incitement.

How Democratic lawmakers will react — whether they make a scene — is another question. At least four have invited fired federal workers to come as their guests.

Trump gives the speech days after assailing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face and before the cameras in the Oval Office for not expressing sufficient gratitude for U.S. support in Ukraine’s war with Russia. It was a display of public humiliation by an American president to an allied foreign leader with no parallel in anyone’s memory.

Jarrett Borden, walking to lunch on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Florida, this past week, expressed ambivalence about Trump, having heard a lot of “hogwash” from him even while liking some of what he has done. Borden anticipates a good show Tuesday and will watch.

“I want to see if he’s going to leave the mic open for Elon Musk, like it’s an open mic at a club or something,” he said, citing the billionaire architect of Trump’s civil service purge. “This is what he’s been doing recently, which is comical.”

In Philadelphia, visual artist Nova Villanueva will spend Tuesday evening doing something — anything — else. She is into avoiding politics and social media altogether these fraught days.

Nova Villanueva, a visual effects artist, speaks during an interview in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

“Yeah, it’s kind of sad,” she said. “It’s almost like I have to be ignorant to be at peace with myself and my life right now.”

A new president’s first speech to Congress is not designated a State of the Union address, coming so close to the Jan. 20 inauguration. But it serves the same purpose, offering an annual accounting of what has been done, what is ahead and what condition the country is in, as the president sees it.

It is customary in modern times for the president to say the state of the union is strong, no matter what a mess it may be in. Trump won the election saying the state of the union was in shambles and he was going to make it right.

The Trump who addressed Congress on Feb. 28, 2017, is recognizable now, despite the measured tone and content of that speech. After all, he had already shocked the political class by assailing “American carnage” from the inaugural stage.

He told Congress that night he wanted NATO members to spend more on their armed forces, wanted trade to be “fair” as well as free, and wanted foreign countries in crises to be made stable enough so that people who fled to the U.S. could go back home. But he did not open his first term with the wrenching turns in foreign policy, civil service firings, stirrings of mass deportation or cries of “drill, baby, drill” of today.

In a line that could have come from any president of either party, Trump noted in his 2017 speech that, “with the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we have formed a council with our neighbors in Canada to help ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets and capital they need to start a business and live out their financial dreams.”

Now he belittles Trudeau as “governor” of a land he wants to make the 51st state and is about to slam with tariffs, along with Mexico. Canadians, not known for displays of patriotism, are seething about their neighbor and rushing to buy and fly their flag.

In Philadelphia, small-time entrepreneur Michael Mangraviti cannot help but take some satisfaction in Trump’s scouring of the bureaucracy as the firings pile up with scant regard for how well people did their jobs or how those jobs helped keep services to the public running.

“He said for years and years, ‘Drain the swamp, drain the swamp,’” Mangraviti said. “But, you know, now is the time to actually drain the swamp.”

“We’ve seen time and time and time again that the government is horribly, horribly ineffective at everything it wants to do,” he went on. “The fact that they’re actually taking action on something that they say they’re going to do, the fact that they’re ready to take the ax and take it to our government, is something I appreciate.”

To Cassandra Piper, a Philadelphia instrumentalist, Trump’s move to stop making pennies was a “fine decision” — unlike everything else he has said and done.

Cassandra Piper, an instrumentalist, speaks about President Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)

“I comprehensively disapprove of the changes that are being made,” Piper said, stopping to speak while walking by the Liberty Bell Center. “Not that I was all too happy with the status quo beforehand in the first place, but there’s absolutely no good that can come from the inhumanity of mass deportation, something that this country has already been scarred by.”

So, too, with Trump’s selection of vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and his choice of Musk to lead the effort to “effectively plunder the government of its resources,” in Piper’s view.

In Hollywood, Florida, Borden, who is Black, said that to the extent Trump can take money that Washington spends overseas and pump it into the U.S. economy, “then you are making America great again. But do that without the racial overtones. Do that without the negative energy, and we’re going to be OK.”

“I think the world is just the world, and we should all just love each other,” he said.

Abraham Lincoln might have agreed, as he summoned the “better angels of our nature” in an inaugural speech, a month before the Civil War, that pleaded with Americans not to “break our bonds of affection.”

Trump had something to say on that subject, too, in 2017: “We all bleed the same blood.”

Associated Press video journalists Tassanee Vejpongsa in Philadelphia and Daniel Kozin in Hollywood, Florida, and AP Chief Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

In February, we featured eights dogs and 17 cats in the Morning Report.

It’s a great way to start the day.

“We look forward to seeing the pets every day,” one subscriber wrote. “What a day brightening service you provide for all of us animal lovers!”

To subscribe to our free newsletter, follow the prompts at twincities.com/newsletters. Also, check out more photos in our January slideshow.

Friday, Feb. 28

Pumpkin of New Zealand.

“This is Pumpkin, the resident cat of Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand,” Lynne wrote in January. “She accompanied us on our entire tour of the Hobbit village. It’s warm down there now!”

Congrats, Pumpkin, you are the first New Zealand cat featured in the Morning Report!

Thursday, Feb. 27

Pumpkin

Last month, we featured Kathy’s foster cat, Doodles, napping on a heating register. This month, meet her cat, Pumpkin.

“She is a beautiful tortoiseshell Calico,” Kathy writes. “She is 13 to 14 years old. She is one of four cats in the household. She was rescued as a kitten, found abandoned on the East Side. She puts up with the other cats in the household but she really doesn’t like being around them. She loves it when new people come to the door and pet her and she loves laying on our feet on top of her Minnesota Vikings blanket. Sorry, Pumpkin, the Vikings weren’t in the Super Bowl again this year.”

Wednesday, Feb. 26

Max, waiting for spring.

“Max is still sitting by the fire,” Linda writes. “I know he’s looking out the window waiting for spring.”

Same here, Max!

Tuesday, Feb. 25

Herman and Bandit

“My aunt rescues all sorts of animals, all with unique stories,” Jack writes. “I adopted my two cats, Herman and Bandit, thanks to her!

“Herman (orange and white) was owned by an elderly man who passed away with nobody who would adopt him. Bandit (gray and white) was born completely blind and lived in a shelter for the first few years of her life in a small kennel. She was set to be euthanized due to not having space, and nobody to adopt her. My aunt stepped up for both and gave them a large kennel where they could adjust to their new homes together. They became a bonded pair and when I called her saying I wanted to foster a cat, she said ‘How about two? I have this bonded pair…’ They’ve lived with me ever since.

“Bandit hid under the bed for those first weeks before she got comfortable. Herman acts like a dog and wants to be petted constantly. Almost 10 years later and they will still lie with each other, happy to be around!”

Monday, Feb. 24

Robin

“This is Robin,” writes Kristin of St. Paul. “She is six and from the Humane Society. She got her name from the Robin Hood fox from the 1970s cartoon since she likes to steal things (if they are dropped on the ground.) She always does a little ‘I’m guilty’ dance and you have a few moments to rescue the item before you hear a crunch. She now looks like any 70s’ TV/movie dog: scruffy with undetermined parentage. She loves treats and running through her doggy door to join the community canine chorus.”

Friday, Feb. 21

Sasha

“It might be cold outside, but eight-year-old Sasha is thinking spring while enjoying the sun beside the orchids,” Cindy writes. “I always enjoy the pet photos and stories. They brighten the day.”

Thursday, Feb. 20

Bernie Birman

“Bernie Birman was not much help with the jigsaw puzzle,” Kiki writes. “He squirreled away two pieces of the 1000 piece puzzle.”

Wednesday, Feb. 19

Izzy helps out with the recycling.

“This is Izzabelle aka ‘Izzy,’ our 13-year-old Goldendoodle,” write Brett and Mary. “During the pandemic lockdown, out of boredom, we taught her to carry plastic bags and small flattened boxes out to the garage for recycling. Ever since, whenever we return home from doing errands, she jumps out of the car and dashes into the kitchen to help us unpack and recycle. When she’s finished, she collects her ‘paycheck,’ in the form of a doggie biscuit.”

Tuesday, Feb. 18

Clover

“This is my sister’s teenage cat, Clover,” Diane writes. “He is very good at being cute and then taking a nap … He likes to sleep in chairs, even when they are not quite wide enough or when he must sleep around a corner.

Clover

Unfortunately, neither of these photos show his spectacular tail.”

Monday, Feb. 17 (Memorial Monday)

Pepper

“Pepper, or Pepper Doodle as I liked to call her, passed a few years ago,” Wendy writes. “She was not my cat, but I was unofficially her godmother. Pepper lived with a friend of mine. They both used to winter in Arizona. When my friend travelled without Pepper, I took care of her feeding, litter, and keeping her company. That increased our bond. Hardly a day goes by that she does not show up in my photo history.”

Friday, Feb. 14

Leila and friends.

“Leila loves to count sheep,” Angie reports. “It is more likely that she is part Border Collie, and she can’t resist the urge to herd her flock.

“Leila’s attachment to her lamb chop is heartwarming. She keeps it close, even using it as a pillow during a mid-afternoon nap.

Leila and Lamb Chop.

“Winter is here, along with dry air and static energy! But Leila seems to be enjoying it, having a great hair day.”

Leila’s winter hair.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Leila and friends!

Thursday, Feb. 13

Kiki supervises.

“My husband and I took over care for Kiki from my daughter several years ago,” Julie writes. “He loves to guide my baking, do laundry and assist in minor repairs. He helps around the house so much we wonder how we ever got anything done without him! I’m a teacher and he does a lot of reading and research for my classes. He earns a regular paycheck plus lots of love, attention and treats.”

Wednesday, Feb. 12

Dolly Parton

“Here are my grand kitties,” Grandma Deb writes. “Dolly Parton is a Tabby and Remus is a short-haired Exotic.

Remus

“My daughter is a veterinarian; Dolly was surrendered to the clinic after she had been hit by a car. She was a very healthy 1-year-old but had a severely broken rear leg from the accident. My daughter decided to amputate the leg with the intention of finding her a loving family once she had regained strength. She brought her home while she was recovering from the surgery, there she stole everyone’s heart! Dolly now lives very happily with Remus and three canine brothers.

“Don’t you just love happy endings?”

Tuesday, Feb. 11

Blue

“Hello,” writes John of Hudson, Wis. “I wanted to share the adventure of our kitty Blue, who came to us three years ago. We live in a rural location in western Wisconsin and noticed a dark gray cat in our yard in April of 2022, interacting with our other cat. He disappeared into the woods and we did not see him again for a month when he came and went once more, then a few months later in August, while we were out in the yard, he appeared again, walked right up to us and basically declared that he had picked us and he has been with us ever since. We think he was dropped off by someone and left to fend for himself. We are blessed to have him!”

Monday, Feb. 10

Good morning, Muchi!

“Good Morning,” the Sarpal family writes. “This is our beautiful cat, Muchi! Muchi turned 12 on Dec. 6 and is still a kitten at heart. Her favorite things to do are snuggle, take naps by the fireplace and play a game of chase with her sister, Poppy.”

Happy Belated Birthday, Muchi!

Friday, Feb. 7

Tony and Max, BFFs.

“Tony and Max, a couple of Morkies, have been BFFs since they got together as pups nearly four years ago,” Jerry writes. “They do everything together.

“Tony’s fully recovered now after major surgery in October from liver problems that were corrected thanks to having an ameroid constrictor placed on a shunt. Amazing what the doctors were able to do with such a small little guy and how resilient he’s been. And how sensitive Max was towards him during his recovery. They’re inseparable.

“They’re the joy of my life!”

Thursday, Feb. 6

Miss Biscuits on a walk.

“This is a picture of my boyfriend and then-new-to-us Corgi, Miss Biscuits, on one of our first walks with her, ” Barbara writes. “We had just come all the way up one of the looong stairways from Minnehaha Falls, and a man who saw them come up out of the stairway stopped and said, ‘I think that’s the most beautiful dog I’ve ever seen.’

“We were a little surprised to hear this kind of comment from a complete stranger, but over time we have to say, we kind of agree! Biscuits is beautiful — but she doesn’t know she’s beautiful. She’s intelligent, compassionate and just a wonderful person.”

(Miss Biscuits is a dog, of course, but we understand the sentiment!)

“She wants you to know how smart she is and to do a good job, ” Barbara writes. “And if anyone is ever in distress (including our three cats) she is right there trying to help. She works as a therapy dog and loves to train for rally obedience or any other activity we ask. We could not be more lucky than to be the family she chose.

“Some people say because she is a Corgi that she is the ‘Queen’s dog,’ we say that she is simply ‘The Queen.’ A big thank you to the breeders, Shooting Star Farm Corgis, for entrusting us with this precious girl.”

Wednesday, Feb. 5

A critter runs from Maddie.

“I’m a brand-new subscriber and have enjoyed Daily Doggo/Meow very much,” Nancy writes. “My 17-year-old cat, Maddie, is very skilled at catching/eating rodents. Her favorites are chipmunks and voles; this was taken last August. She prefers naps now that cold weather has set in.”

Tuesday, Feb. 4

Jolly Arthur

“This is Jolly Arthur, our Newfie who loves Christmas and all other times of the year,” Greg writes.

Monday, Feb. 3

Herky, Taz and Remi

“This is of my nephew dog, Herky (yellow Lab), who just passed the Rainbow Bridge and our black Lab, Taz, who passed four years ago and our Dalmatian, Remi, back in Dec. 2020,” Jen writes.

“Herky loved chewing on anything and everything. I believe his favorite thing to do was to try and catch minnows on Leech Lake during the summer.

Bella and Herky.

“Here is Herky with Bella, the dog of my niece and her fiancé. They loved playing together.”

Related Articles

House cats with bird flu could pose a risk to public health

Future unclear for animals at embattled Roseville aquarium chain after January sale thwarted

A cat called Luna Pontoon, and other pets we featured in our January newsletter

After bankruptcy filing, embattled Roseville aquarium chain to potentially sell for $80K

Meet the canine king and queen of the 2025 St. Paul Winter Carnival and Doggie Depot

Today is Monday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2025. There are 303 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On March 3, 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase; amateur video that captured the scene aired on local news that evening, sparking public outrage.

Also on this date:

In 1849, Congress established the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Related Articles

Today in History: March 2, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game

Today in History: March 1, serial killer BTK charged

Today in History: February 28, the Waco Siege begins

Today in History: February 27, the German Reichstag fire

Demolition continues on the Hamline-Midway Library in St. Paul

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the act creating the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed a bill making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States.

In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green Tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.

In 1945, Allied troops fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II after a monthlong battle that destroyed much of the city.

In 1969, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test NASA’s lunar module.

In 2022, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a nationwide settlement over its role in the opioid crisis, with the Sackler family members who own the company boosting their cash contribution to as much as $6 billion in a deal intended to staunch a flood of lawsuits.

Today’s birthdays:

Filmmaker George Miller is 80.
Singer Jennifer Warnes is 78.
Author Ron Chernow is 76.
Football Hall of Famer Randy Gradishar is 73.
Musician Robyn Hitchcock is 72.
Actor Miranda Richardson is 67.
Radio personality Ira Glass is 66.
Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 63.
Rapper-actor Tone Loc is 59.
Hockey Hall of Famer Brian Leetch is 57.
Actor Julie Bowen is 55.
Actor David Faustino is 51.
Actor Jessica Biel is 43.
Singer Camila Cabello is 28.
NBA forward Jayson Tatum is 27.