There comes a time each year that some forget about until a young girl wearing a badge or tie appears at their door or grocery store sporting a cheerful smile and offering the treat they suddenly crave: Girl Scout Cookies.

Yes, it is indeed Girl Scout Cookie season, but this year will look different as many scouts will be selling cookies online rather than knocking door-to-door.

“Given the community unrest and the instability in our communities, many of our Girl Scouts are choosing not to sell cookies in person,” Girl Scouts River Valley chief experience officer Susan Andersson said.

From now until March 29, Girl Scouts River Valleys’ cookie program will go digital. That includes 49 counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin plus Osceola County in Iowa.

The public can purchase cookies through specific troops, individual scouts, or by using the “cookie finder” feature on the Girl Scouts River Valleys website, girlscoutsrv.org.

Some scouts may continue to sell cookies door-to-door or at cookie booths in the state, though the public can anticipate seeing fewer scouts out and about than usual.

“There’s no playbook for what we’re going through right now, and it’s hard to forge the way forward when there is no precedent,” said Tammy Freese, senior director of product program. “That’s the most challenging thing is that we’re in a place that we haven’t been before. COVID was also full of uncertainties, but this just seems very, very different.”

Freese said the decision to go online was made to ensure the comfort of troop members and their families, who may not feel comfortable selling cookies in public during a time when immigration enforcement actions are going on.

“Girl Scouts has been around for 100-plus years, and one off-season won’t slow these girls down,” Girl Scouts River Valleys stated. “Cookie season remains the largest girl-led entrepreneurship program in the world, and it represents all girls, including daughters of immigrants, daughters of police officers, and girls from every kind of family and neighborhood.”

Digital Cookie

During the early COVID years, Girl Scouts used a platform called Smart Cookie to deliver online sales. In 2026, the organization is using Digital Cookie, an updated platform with “more bells and whistles,” according to Freese.

Girl Scouts with the new 2026 Exploremores cookies. The organization anticipates that many of its members will opt to sell cookies online instead of the traditional door-knocking method this year. (Courtesy of Girl Scouts)

With Digital Cookie, troops and individual Girl Scouts can create a personalized online storefront with information about the troop or Scout and what they’re raising money for. Scouts also have control over who sees their storefront and can choose to share a link to their business over social media, via text message and more. Once purchased, cookies can be shipped or directly delivered to the customer’s door, if the option is available.

“It’s a really great resource for Girl Scouts to learn real-world marketing and what it does take to be an entrepreneur these days,” Freese said.

Girl Scouts learn five main skills through the cookie program, Andersson said: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. Traditionally, the cookie program teaches scouts these skills through in-person learning opportunities, and though the season will have significantly less in-person social interaction, Andersson said the Digital Cookie program continues to foster the same kinds of lessons.

Anderson said these days, more and more customers shop online, and this change is one way for Girl Scouts to consider meeting a need. She said going digital opens accessibility to a wider range of people and allows the public to support Girl Scouts programs without needing to show up in person.

“Not only are our girls learning those five very important skills, but they’re also learning how to pivot when things don’t go as planned, and that is so very, very important, because life doesn’t always go as we plan it, and building up that resilience and that grit is so important,” Freese said.

Troop 2026

Freese said community members have reached out to ask how they can support those who feel particularly vulnerable during the immigration enforcement surge.

Inspired by a volunteer suggestion, Girl Scouts River Valleys created Troop 2026 through the Care to Share Program, which takes proceeds from cookie sales and distributes them to specific initiatives, like supporting veterans or food shelves. Troop 2026 consists of Girl Scouts whose cookie seasons have been “impacted by events in our communities,” according to Girl Scouts. Purchasing through Troop 2026 is one way people can support Girl Scouts during this challenging season, Freese said.

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“Care to Share, and Troop 2026, also educates girls about philanthropy, how giving back is really important,” Andersson said.

The cookie program helps to support and make Girl Scouts possible, Freese said. The proceeds fund Girl Scouts initiatives, learning opportunities, travel plans and more. A lot of troops depend on the cookie program to help them achieve their goals, she said.

“We want to make sure that we honor all decisions for folks that have maybe decided this is the year that they can’t participate in the cookie program, and make sure that they realize that, yes, you are not only a valued member of the troop, even if cookie participation has to be paused this year, but you’re also a valuable number of Girl Scouts River Valleys,” Freese said.

Getting Girl Scout Cookies

Individual Girl Scouts Digital Cookie storefronts went live Wednesday, Feb. 11, and will be active through the end of March.

Purchase cookies directly through a scout’s storefront or using the cookie finder on Girl Scouts River Valleys’ website, girlscoutsrv.org or by texting “cookies” to 59618.

Buy cookies from Troop 2026, a virtual troop made up of scouts impacted by immigration enforcement activity, search for Troop 2026 at girlscoutsrv.org.

By MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK (AP) — James Van Der Beek, a heartthrob who starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in “Dawson’s Creek” and in later years mocking his own hunky persona, has died. He was 48.

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“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come,” a statement from the actor’s family that was posted on Instagram said. “For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”

Van Der Beek revealed in 2024 that he was being treated for colorectal cancer.

Van Der Beek made a surprise video appearance in September at a “Dawson’s Creek” reunion charity event in New York City after previously dropping out due to illness.

He appeared projected onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre during a live reading of the show’s pilot episode to benefit F Cancer and Van Der Beek. Lin-Manuel Miranda subbed for him on stage. “Thank you to every single person here,” Van Der Beek said.

Forever tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek’

A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie “Varsity Blues” and on TV in “CSI: Cyber” as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to “Dawson’s Creek,” which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.

The series followed a high school group of friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, than 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

“Dawson’s Creek,” with the moody theme song Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want To Wait,” helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams.

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes’ character climbs through Dawson’s bedroom window and they curl up together. Racier shows like “Euphoria” and “Sex Education” owe a debt to “Dawson’s Creek.”

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha’s “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that ‘Dawson’s Creek’ was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

FILE – Actors Ali Larter, left, poses with co-stars James Van Der Beek, center, and Amy Smart at the premiere of “Varsity Blues” in Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 1999. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

A popular GIF and ‘Varsity Blues’

More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show’s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.

“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” he told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)

While still on “Dawson’s Creek,” Van Der Beek hosted “Saturday Night Live” — the musical guest was Everlast — and landed a plumb role in “Varsity Blues,” playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.

Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education which will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town. “I don’t want your life,” he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him “convincing and likable.”

FILE – James Van Der Beek attends the premiere of “The Words” in Los Angeles on Sept. 4, 2012. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

After ‘Dawson’s Creek’

Some of his projects after “Dawson’s Creek” include co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, “What Would Diplo Do?” In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on “How I Met Your Mother.”

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like “Criminal Minds,” “One Tree Hill,” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama “Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23,” and the short-lived “CSI” spinoff “CSI: Cyber” and CBS’ “Friends With Better Lives.”

He’s also appeared in a number of movies, such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and its 2019 sequel, “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.” He also was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of “The Rules of Attraction” in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on “The Masked Singer,” after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Early life as a theater kid

Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year on doctor’s orders. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of “Grease.”

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in “Finding the Sun” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of “Shenandoah” at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew University but left school early when he got “Dawson’s Creek.” In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his “selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,” the university said.

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his “Dawson’s Creek” character: “Edge is fleeting,” she said, “but heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.”

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report.

By FREIDA FRISARO

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A manatee that got stuck in a Florida storm drain while seeking warmer waters is now on the mend at SeaWorld Orlando after a large effort to rescue it.

Multiple fire rescue units and officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the University of Florida and even Jack’s Wrecker Service were brought in Tuesday to get the 410-pound sea cow out of the storm drain in Melbourne Beach.

The crews convened on the scene after a worker with Melbourne Beach spotted the manatee, the city’s Vice Mayor Terry Cronin told WESH-TV in Orlando.

“We’re in the process of improving the storm drain across Melbourne Beach. Our people were doing a survey. And one of the surveyors noticed a manatee in what is called a bethel box.” Cronin said.

The male manatee was taken to SeaWorld Orlando, where it is being cared for in one of the park’s medical pools, spokesperson Stephanie Bechara said.

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“He’s breathing on his own, moving independently and showing interest in food. Our teams are adjusting water levels to support buoyancy and comfort as part of his care,” Bechara said.

She said they work to stabilize and rehabilitate rescued manatees so they can ultimately be returned to the wild.

The protected species is still recovering from a mass starvation event. In 2021, officials recorded more than 1,100 manatee deaths, mostly caused by starvation. The state’s Fish and Wildlife agency said the number of deaths were down significantly, with 565 deaths recorded in 2024, and 555 deaths in 2023.

Last year, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 56 manatees and has already taken in seven this year.

By HILLEL ITALIE

As the Trump administration prepares to close the Kennedy Center for a two-year renovation, the head of Washington’s performing arts center has warned its staff about impending cuts that will leave “skeletal teams.”

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In a Tuesday memo obtained by The Associated Press, Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell told staff that “departments will obviously function on a much smaller scale with some units totally reduced or on hold until we begin preparations to reopen in 2028,” promising “permanent or temporary adjustments for most everyone.”

A Kennedy Center spokesperson declined comment Wednesday.

Over the next few months, he wrote, department heads would be “evaluating the needs and making the decisions as to what these skeletal teams left in place during the facility and closure and construction phase will look like.” Grenell said leadership would “provide as much clarity and advance notice as possible.”

The Kennedy Center is slated to close in early July. Few details about what the renovations will look like have been released since President Donald Trump announced his plan at the beginning of February. Neither Trump nor Grenell have provided evidence to support claims about the building being in disrepair, and last October, Trump had pledged it would remain open during renovations.

It’s unclear exactly how many employees the center currently has, but a 2025 tax filing said nearly 2,500 people were employed during the 2023 calendar year. A request for comment sent to Kennedy Center Arts Workers United, which represents artists and arts professionals affiliated with the center — wasn’t immediately returned.

A bronze sculpture of President John F. Kennedy is displayed in the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Leading performers and groups have left or canceled appearances since Trump ousted the center’s leadership a year ago and added his own name to the building in December. The Washington Post, which first reported about Grenell’s memo, has also cited significant drops in ticket revenue that — along with private philanthropy — comprises the center’s operating budget. Officials have yet to say whether such long-running traditions as the Mark Twain Award for comedy or the honors ceremony for lifetime contributions to the arts will continue while the center is closed.

The Kennedy Center was first conceived as a national cultural facility during the Eisenhower administration, in the 1950s. President John F. Kennedy led a fundraising initiative, and the yet-to-be-built center was named in his honor following his assassination. It opened in 1971 and has become a preeminent showcase for theater, music and dramatic performances, enjoying bipartisan backing until Trump’s return to office last year.

A bronze sculpture of President John F. Kennedy, left, is reflected in a mirror, right, in the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

“This renovation represents a generational investment in our future,” Grenell wrote. “When we reopen, we will do so as a stronger organization — one that honors our legacy while expanding our impact.”