By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris plans to use a high-profile speech Wednesday to sharply criticize President Donald Trump amid speculation about whether she will mount another presidential campaign or opt to run for California governor.

Harris will address the 20th anniversary gala for Emerge America, an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office that grew in part from Harris’ run for San Francisco district attorney in the early 2000s.

Her speech comes the day after Trump reached 100 days in office. It is expected to be her most extensive public remarks since leaving office in January following her defeat to Trump, with planned critiques of the Republican president’s handling of the economy, U.S. institutions and foreign policy.

Harris is ramping up her public presence as Democrats nationally search for a path forward after November’s election, in which Republicans also won control of Congress. While a slate of high-profile Democrats — from governors to businessmen — seek leadership roles within the party, the former vice president retains unique influence and would reshape any future race she chooses to enter.

Harris, a former state attorney general and U.S. senator from California, has not discouraged speculation that she might enter the race to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, himself a potential contender for president. And she has not ruled out another run for the White House.

She continues to fundraise, using a joint committee that includes Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee and state Democratic parties. The committee, the Harris Victory Fund, reported having about $4.5 million on hand at the end of March, according to federal records.

In recent fundraising emails, Harris has been blunt about the need for Democrats to unify ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Democrats need to “organize and stop Trump’s agenda while electing Democrats everywhere,” she wrote in recent emails. “There has never been a more important time for a strong Democratic Party — one that is willing to stand up to Donald Trump, Elon Musk and what they are doing to this country.”

The event will mark a homecoming of sorts. Harris, who lives in Los Angeles, is from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Emerge America’s gala begins at 7 p.m. PDT. Harris’ speech will be livestreamed on the AP’s YouTube channel.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has reassigned several agents who were photographed kneeling during a racial justice protest in Washington that followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The reasons for the moves were not immediately clear, though they come as the FBI under Director Kash Patel has been undertaking broad personnel changes and Deputy Director Dan Bongino has repeatedly sought to reassure supporters of President Donald Trump who are critical of the bureau.

“The Director and I are working on a number of significant initiatives to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated, and that many of your open questions are answered,” Bongino wrote in one recent post on X, without elaborating.

The reassignments, first reported by CNN, were confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss non-public personnel moves. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

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The photographs at issue showed a group of agents taking a knee during a demonstration following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, which sparked widespread anger after millions of people saw video of his arrest. It led to a national reckoning over policing and racial injustice.

The kneeling angered some in the FBI but was also understood as a possible de-escalation tactic during a time of widespread protests, and the agents were not punished at the time.

Patel pledged at his January confirmation hearing that he would not “go backwards” in seeking retribution on perceived adversaries. But even before he was sworn in, there was concern that the Justice Department was poised to do exactly that, including by demanding a list of the thousands of agents who worked on investigations into the Jan. 6,2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a request seen by some as a possible precursor to a purge at the bureau.

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

A federal appeals court says it won’t lift restrictions on the access that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The full panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-6 to keep the ruling from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in place while DOGE pushes forward with an appeal. The appellate decision was released Wednesday.

Earlier this month Hollander issued a preliminary injunction in the case, which was brought by a group of labor unions and retirees who allege DOGE’s recent actions violate privacy laws and present massive information security risks.

Hollander said DOGE staffers could access data that has been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, but only if they undergo training and background checks. She also said DOGE and its staffers must purge any of the non-anonymized Social Security data they have already obtained, and barred them from making any changes to the computer code used by the Social Security Administration.

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Attorneys representing DOGE had argued that anonymizing the data would be too burdensome, and disrupt the Trump administration’s efforts to root out any Social Security fraud.

Appellate Judge Robert B. King, writing for the majority, said DOGE wants “immediate and unfettered access” to all Social Security records, including “the highly sensitive personal information of essentially everyone in our Country,” like family court and school records, mental health and medical records of SSA disability recipients, and bank and earning information.

“All this highly sensitive information has long been handed over to SSA by the American people with every reason to believe that the information would be fiercely protected,” King wrote.

Appellate judge Julius Richardson, who voted against the majority ruling, said the case should have been handled by a smaller three-judge group rather than the full panel of active appellate judges. He also said the plaintiffs haven’t shown DOGE has actually snooped on any of their personal information, but instead are distressed by the possibility of “abstract harm.”

Apostle Supper Club is set to close on June 1.

The high-profile, tiki-themed restaurant across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, which opened in 2022, is the latest in a string of restaurant closures in downtown St. Paul. Co-owner Brian Ingram said the reasons for closing are many, including high crime rates, multiple break-ins and overdoses on the restaurant’s patio and in its bathroom.

“We are walking away from a $4 million buildout,” Ingram said. “It’s not something we’re doing lightly. It was a lifelong dream to build that style and that restaurant, but we can’t sustain it.”

Ingram said the busy patio season is coming up, and he’ll be able to offer jobs to all Apostle employees at his other restaurants, which include Hope Breakfast Bar locations all around the metro area, including one opening soon in Blaine, and The Gnome on Selby Avenue in St. Paul.

Ingram said office workers not returning to downtown and other businesses closing since the pandemic have transformed downtown from a “once vibrant” neighborhood into a quiet core “in crisis.”

While upwards of 90 percent of downtown residences are occupied, one-third of downtown St. Paul’s commercial office space is vacant, according to the mayor’s office.

In recent months, Saint Dinette and Dark Horse Bar in Lowertown have closed. Wrestaurant at the Palace closed due to some water damage a few months ago and has not reopened. All of the Madison Hospitality Group restaurants — including several on Mears Park in Lowertown and Gray Duck Tavern in downtown proper — remain shuttered since the death of owner Jim Crockarell last year.

Ingram and other restaurant owners, including Steve Lott of Big River Pizza in Lowertown, have talked about concern for their safety and that of staff members.

“The thought of something happening to one of our staff members when we close really weighs on me,” Ingram said. “It’s gotten pretty bad.”

St. Paul Police said they’re investigating the case of the latest Apostle break-in, which took place on April 21, as criminal damage to property.

Overall, though, crime reports in downtown St. Paul have been trending down this year. As of Monday, according to St. Paul Police Department statistics:

• There were 128 crimes against people reported vs. 179 in the same time period last year.

• There were 316 crimes against property reported vs. 376 in the same period last year.

• There were 144 quality-of-life crimes reported vs. 166 in the same timeframe last year.

Still, Ingram said, the city can and should do better. In his social media post about the closure, he said the following:

“This isn’t giving up. It’s taking a painful, honest look at what’s working — and what’s not. Right now, downtown St. Paul simply is not a viable place for small, independent restaurants to thrive.”

Mara H. Gottfried and Frederick Melo contributed to this report.

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