By MATT YORK and TY ONEIL

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Tourists staying at Grand Canyon National Park began moving to accommodations outside the park Thursday after water pipeline failures forced the sudden shutdown of overnight hotel stays during one of the busiest times of the year.

Water restrictions will run throughout the Labor Day holiday when hotels are near or at capacity. It’s an unprecedented outcome, even for a pipeline with a long history of frequent failures. Since July 8, the park has faced challenges with its water supply, and no water is currently being pumped to either the canyon’s south or north rims, officials said.

The 12.5 mile-long (20 kilometer-long) Transcanyon Waterline, originally built in the 1960s, supplies potable water for facilities on the South Rim and inner canyon. Park officials say it has exceeded its expected lifespan.

Since 2010, more than 85 major breaks have disrupted water delivery, but none have forced what park officials call “Stage 4” water restrictions. That is, until four recent significant breaks.

Under these water restrictions, visitors won’t be able to stay overnight starting Thursday, including at El Tovar, Bright Angel Lodge, Maswik Lodge and Phantom Ranch.

At Yavapai Lodge, about 970 reservations for the weekend were canceled, according to spokesperson Glen White. Guests will be refunded for all deposits and payments, he said.

A spokesperson for Xanterra Travel Collection, which operates other affected hotels and lodging at the park, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barbara Badger, who was visiting for two nights from Fontana, California, decided a few weeks ago to spend the first anniversary of her husband’s death at the Grand Canyon, a spot they visited together.

“We loved it. He loved it so much,” Badger said, tearing up as she spoke of her late husband, Douglas Badger. “We never hiked. We just drove around and looked at the beautiful scenery and took pictures of the animals and ate some nice food.”

She “decided to make an adventure out of it” and spend her second night at the campground after a sunset tour on Thursday evening. Badger said she was prepared to camp because not long after she made the reservation, a voice in her head told her to get a sleeping bag and some other gear, without knowing why.

“So I did all of that and, when I got here, I was prepared to camp out and with no reason why,” she said. “Except that’s just the way it worked.”

Hotels located outside the park in the town of Tusayan, Arizona, will not be impacted, and the park will remain open during the day.

Mark and Vicky Williams of London arrived at the park on Wednesday with their 15-month-old son and had planned to stay until Sunday. They got a refund for the nights when they won’t be staying at the hotel in the park, he said.

“We’ve had to rebook somewhere in Tusayan, which is good, but it’s not as good,” Mark Williams said, noting that they wanted to be close to the canyon to walk around the village easier. There wasn’t much choice at the last minute, he said.

“We did have to overpay quite a lot for somewhere that we probably wouldn’t have chosen to stay at,” he said. “But when you’ve got a kid, you just have to find somewhere.”

Carved by the Colorado River and known for its vast desert landscapes, the Grand Canyon welcomed nearly 523,000 visitors last August and more than 466,000 visitors last September.

Josh Coddington, communications director at the Arizona Office of Tourism, said he expects an uptick in calls from people wanting to know if they can visit the Grand Canyon.

“The Grand Canyon is known not only throughout the U.S., but throughout the world, and people love visiting it,” he said.

While the park isn’t entirely closed, any perception that it is could negatively impact the cities and towns where tourists sleep, shop and dine on their way to the canyon, including Flagstaff, Williams and Tusayan on the south side and Cameron on the east side.

Park officials hope to restore full operational status for overnight guests on the South Rim as quickly as possible.

Complicating restoration efforts, however, is that the breaks occurred in a narrow part of the canyon known as “the box,” an area susceptible to rock fall and higher temperatures this time of the year. A photo of one of the recent breaks released by park officials shows a funnel of water spewing from the pipe and across the slim canyon.

“It’s definitely a challenging place to be and have a pipeline break on you,” Grand Canyon spokesperson Joelle Baird said, noting safety concerns for the crews tasked with repairing the damage.

The pipeline failure comes amid a $208 million rehabilitation project of the waterline by the National Park Service that began recently. Upgrades to the associated water delivery system are expected to be completed in 2027.

The park says it wants to meet water supply needs for 6 million annual visitors and its 2,500 year-round residents.

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Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Walter Berry in Phoenix, Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — Next month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes, according to rules that ABC News, the host network, shared this week with both campaigns.

A copy of the rules was provided to the Associated Press on Thursday by a senior Trump campaign official on condition of anonymity ahead of the network’s announcement. The Harris campaign on Thursday insisted it was still discussing the muting of mics with ABC.

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign. It is the only debate that’s been firmly scheduled and could be the only time voters see Harris and Trump go head to head before the November general election.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, speaks with a supporter during a stop at a campaign office, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Roseville, Mich. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The back-and-forth over the debate rules reached a fever pitch this week, particularly on the issue of whether the microphones would be muted between turns speaking.

Harris’ campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying in a statement that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”

Biden’s campaign had made microphone muting condition of his decision to accept any debates this year, a decision some aides now regret, saying voters were shielded from hearing Trump’s outbursts during the debate.

“It’s interesting that Trump’s handlers keep insisting on muting him, despite the candidate himself saying the opposite,” Harris spokesman Ian Sams said. “Why won’t they just do what the candidate wants?”

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Representatives for Trump — who initially scoffed at the substitution of Harris into a debate arrangement he initially made with Biden in the race — had claimed that Harris sought “a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements,” specifications her campaign denied.

According to ABC News, the candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring notes during the 90-minute debate. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report. Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

In 2007, when Tim Walz was a freshman congressman, he told a reporter that his dream car was a 1973 Chevrolet Camaro, noting, “I’m kind of a muscle-car guy.” What he was actually driving was a more staid choice: a Dodge minivan.

But a year after that interview with the Hill, the self-professed car guy bought a vehicle that is now making headlines and has come to define the vice presidential candidate’s I’m-from-a-small-town, Minnesota-dad vibe: a 1979 International Harvester Scout II.

The choice impresses people like Brandon Ray, a 48-year-old fellow Scout II owner from Phoenix. As Ray tells it, he’d just gone through a divorce 15 years ago when a “bad-ass” yellow Scout II caught his eye. The SUV bore two decals: One said, “Face your fears,” the other, “Live your dream.” He bought the Scout.

“It did what it said it was gonna do,” Ray said. “I faced my fears and lived some of my dreams in that truck.”

News that Walz owns a 1979 Scout II came as a surprise to Ray. “I just don’t picture a blue guy driving a f— Scout,” he said, referencing Walz’s Democratic affiliation.

Cars and politics have long mixed. With exhortations to “buy American,” presidents have almost always favored rides from U.S. automakers. That includes President Biden, who cherishes his 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.

Amid Walz’s whirlwind journey to the national political stage, his car credentials have become part of his story. Notably, a 2018 video of Walz admonishing Ford over a low-quality headlight harness has resurfaced to the delight of gearheads.

Minnesotans talk vintage cars with the governor, right, over the engine of a 1978 Ford Pinto in 2022. (Tim Walz/TNS)

The teacher-turned-Minnesota governor wrenches on cars and goes to classic auto shows, too. But the most obvious part of his pistons-and-pushrods persona is his Scout.

For years, Walz, 60, has taken to social media to share photographs of his Scout, which is painted an arresting glacier blue and sports a license plate that reads “ONE MN,” an apparent reference to his “One Minnesota” political slogan. Of the many American classics still roaming the roads, the Scout is one imbued with particular meaning.

The Scout was produced in Fort Wayne, Ind., by International Harvester from 1960 to 1980 in multiple guises spread across two generations, known as I and II. It is among the quirkiest of the vintage SUVs that have become popular in recent years. The Scout wasn’t made by a familiar automotive brand: International Harvester was a Chicago-based farm equipment company that shut down about 40 years ago.

That has made the Scout less recognizable to the Instagram set — and more appealing to enthusiasts looking for a deal at a time when vintage Ford Broncos often sell for more than $100,000. The Scout, said Randy Nonnenberg, cofounder of the automotive auction platform Bring a Trailer, has “always been an underdog.”

With its boxy body, chrome grille, round headlights and removable or soft top, it is practical, charming and not too flashy. “Scouts are very Midwest, which is very on-brand” for Walz, said Nonnenberg, whose company has auctioned 285 Scout IIs at an average price of about $38,000. “It’s kind of like the vehicle version of him.”

Some other Scout owners agree.

“Anyone who wants to maintain and keep a ’79 Scout is not your average person,” said Gary Brown, an Orange County software engineer who has restored and sold about 10 Scouts over three decades. “It takes someone with a retro or somewhat older mindset … [who] knows how to tinker.”

“I like guys like that — guys who can fix things,” he said.

As for Ray, who is selling another Scout — a rare 1978 version priced at $59,999 — he didn’t want to talk politics, which he called “a tough topic.”

But, in a nod to the unifying power of cars, Ray imagined a trip he and Walz might take into the wilds of the Southwest: “Maybe he and I can go out in the dunes one of these days?”

No ‘garage queen’

Walz appears to have a genuine passion for cars, but he also seems to possess a finely calibrated understanding of how his actions may play with voters, said Matt Hardigree, publisher of the Autopian, which has written about the politician.

Just take the governor’s social media posts featuring his Scout and another Scout — his dog. That, Hardigree said, “is an unhateable image.”

“It is Norman Rockwell transported 50 years into the future,” he said.

This International Harvester Scout II was restored by Gary Brown, an Orange County resident who is impressed that Tim Walz maintains one of his own. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Then there’s Minnesota’s right-to-repair law, one of several such measures passed by states in recent years. Signed by Walz in 2023 and called the Digital Fair Repair Act, it directs makers of electronics and other items to give consumers access to information and parts so that they can repair their own devices.

Although the law doesn’t cover cars, Hardigree said it shows that Walz subscribes to a fix-it ethos that many vintage car owners can appreciate.

In the case of the Scout, maintaining one is no small feat, because parts are hard to come by. Still, Hardigree, who reviewed images of Walz’s ride, approved of the politician’s upkeep: “It’s clean, but it’s clearly driven. It’s not a garage queen.”

Being a motorhead is such a part of Walz’s political persona that it became the subject of a joke during this month’s Democratic National Convention. TV producer Ben Wexler, whose credits include “Arrested Development,” posted on X, “If Tim Walz walks out onstage wiping his hands on a greasy rag because he just fixed the transmission on the campaign bus, we win all 50 states.”

Scouting for votes

When Ray expressed surprise over Walz’s ownership of a 4×4, he was tapping into a stereotype: Trucks are for Republicans. It’s a notion that former President Trump has leaned into, singing the praises of beefy American rides, even saying in 2019, “I love trucks of all types.”

“Even when I was a little boy at 4 years old my mother would say, ‘You love trucks,’” Trump continued. “I do. I always loved trucks.”

Hardigree, a former Texas political consultant, said that a truck has long been a requirement to get elected in that state.

“The sense [in Texas] was you couldn’t get elected as a Democrat or a Republican if you didn’t own a pickup truck,” he said. “But the Republicans never had to prove they drove a truck, and the Democrats always did.”

Nonnenberg said that Walz’s Scout — and his ability to work on it — could help him find common ground with voters.

“It shows his connection to reality,” said Nonnenberg, who spoke with The Times from the wheel of his Rivian R1S electric SUV, whose styling calls to mind the Scout. “This guy is not out of touch with normal Americans.”

Elana Scherr, a senior editor at Car and Driver, took it a step further: “Having a hobby and being genuinely into it is charming.”

Could Walz’s ownership of a Scout convince some Republican car cognoscenti to vote for Kamala Harris? Nonnenberg is doubtful, believing it’s little more than an “interesting contextual addition” that would hardly change minds. It could, however, raise the profile of a new breed of Scout at an auspicious moment.

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In a twist, the Scout is coming back, with a new model expected by 2026. The 4×4 is being revived by Volkswagen, which acquired its trademark in 2021.

The new car will feature styling that harks back to the original. But it won’t be like the Scout that Walz drives in one important way, adopting technology whose proponents Trump has urged to “ROT IN HELL.”

It’ll be electric.

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