By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans’ view of the U.S. economy declined modestly in August as anxiety over a weakening job market grew for the eighth straight month.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index ticked down by 1.3 points to 97.4 in August, down from July’s 98.7, but in the same narrow range of the past three months.

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The small decline in confidence was in line with the forecasts of most of the economists who were surveyed.

A measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market fell by 1.2 points to 74.8, remaining significantly below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead.

Consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation also fell modestly, to 131.2 in August from 132.8 in July.

While the unemployment and layoffs remain historically low, there has been noticeable deterioration in the labor market this year and mounting evidence that people are having difficulty finding jobs.

U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well short of the 115,000 analysts expected. Worse, revisions to the May and June figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%.

That report sent financial markets spiraling, spurring President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallies the monthly employment numbers.

Another government report showed that U.S. employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies in June, down from 7.7 million in May. The number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their prospects elsewhere — also fell.

More jobs data comes next week when the government releases its August job gains and June job openings reports.

The Conference Board’s report said that references to high prices and inflation increased again and were often mentioned in tandem with tariffs.

Other government data this month showed that while prices at the consumer level held fairly steady from June to July, U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month. Economists say that’s a sign that Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs up and that higher prices for consumers may be on the way.

The share of consumers expecting a recession over the next year rose in August to the highest level since April, when Trump’s tariff rollout began.

By Maykel Gonzalez, Miami Herald

As part of efforts to “deliver on President Trump’s vision” for travel security in the United States, several airports will soon introduce new technology to verify passenger information.

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In an announcement, the Transportation Security Administration said the change is intended to “enhance traveler experience.”

For now, only a handful of airports will incorporate the technology, which stems from a new TSA public-private partnership, according to the agency.

Electronic gates

TSA checkpoints are beginning to incorporate new electronic gates to help expedite identity verification at select airports.

“The eGates allow TSA to automatically compare traveler biometrics with their identity document and boarding pass without the need for a human operator, enhancing efficiency and security. CLEAR, a private company operating under TSA’s Registered Traveler Program, is piloting these specific eGates in coordination with TSA at no cost to U.S. taxpayers,” the agency said.

The pilot program is being carried out by CLEAR in coordination with the agency. According to TSA, the initiative does not involve cost to U.S. taxpayers.

TSA Acting Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl said: “eGates accomplish several objectives toward achieving Secretary Noem’s goal to enhance TSA security and hospitality.” Kristi Noem is U.S. secretary of Homeland Security.

“This includes creating a seamless, less invasive traveler experience and shorter wait times at TSA security checkpoints. We look forward to rolling out additional eGate systems as we work to implement President Trump’s vision for a new Golden Age of American Travel,” Stahl added.

Which U.S. airports will feature eGates?

The CLEAR eGates made their debut at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

According to TSA, the technology is also expected to be installed later in August at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

How they work

According to FOX, the new system in Atlanta is currently available to members enrolled in the CLEAR+ pilot program, who can use dedicated CLEAR lanes at certain TSA checkpoints to bypass traditional processes.

The eGates use biometric software to compare a traveler’s face with their identity document and boarding pass. Once the traveler’s identity and authorization are confirmed, they move directly to the physical screening stage without interacting with TSA staff.

The technology arrives as the U.S. anticipates a surge in international travel, with millions of visitors expected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

However, the eGates won’t be available to everyone. CLEAR+ membership costs $209 per year per traveler, although the company also offers discounted family plans.

Other changes in the ‘Golden Age’ of travel

Another policy celebrated by the Trump administration as part of the so-called “Golden Age of American Travel” is the end of the TSA shoe-removal requirement for domestic flights, a measure in place for nearly 20 years.

Recently, TSA clarified that passengers may still be asked to remove their shoes if an alarm is triggered during screening.

In July, TSA also highlighted Trump administration policies aimed at eliminating redundant passenger checks for international flights.

That program is in its early stages and currently involves only major U.S. airlines American Airlines and Delta, which partnered with TSA to pilot the new protocol from London’s Heathrow International Airport.

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By LEA SKENE, Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maryland’s entire federal bench over an order by the chief judge that stopped the immediate deportation of migrants challenging their removals.

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U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen granted a request by the judges to toss the case, saying to do otherwise “would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”

“In their wisdom, the Constitution’s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign,” Cullen wrote. “That structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another’s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary’s constitutional role.”

The White House had no immediate comment.

Cullen was nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2020. He serves in the Western District of Virginia, but he was tapped to oversee the case because all 15 of Maryland’s federal judges are named as defendants, a highly unusual circumstance that reflects the Republican administration’s harsh response to judges who slow or stop its policies.

Cullen expressed skepticism of the lawsuit during a hearing in August. He questioned why it was necessary for the Trump administration to sue all the judges as a means of challenging the order.

Signed by Chief Maryland District Judge George L. Russell III, the order prevents the Trump administration from immediately deporting any immigrants seeking review of their detention in Maryland district court. It blocks their removal until 4 p.m. on the second business day after their habeas corpus petition is filed.

The order says it aims to maintain existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of the court, ensure immigrant petitioners are able to participate in court proceedings and access attorneys and give the government “fulsome opportunity to brief and present arguments in its defense.”

The Justice Department, which filed the suit in June, says the automatic pause violates a Supreme Court ruling and impedes the president’s authority to enforce immigration laws. The department has grown increasingly frustrated by rulings blocking Trump’s agenda, repeatedly accusing federal judges of improperly impeding his powers.

The lawsuit was an extraordinary legal maneuver, ratcheting up the administration’s fight with the federal judiciary.

Attorneys for the Maryland judges argued the lawsuit was intended to limit the power of the judiciary to review certain immigration proceedings while the Trump administration pursues a mass deportation agenda.

“The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,” attorney Paul Clement said during the hearing. “There really is no precursor for this suit”

Clement is a prominent conservative lawyer who served as solicitor general under Republican President George W. Bush. He listed several other avenues the administration could have taken to challenge the order, such as filing an appeal in an individual habeas case.

Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Themins Hedges said the government was simply seeking relief from a legal roadblock preventing effective immigration enforcement.

“The United States is a plaintiff here because the United States is being harmed,” she said.

In an amended order pausing deportations, Russell said the court had received an influx of habeas petitions after hours that “resulted in hurried and frustrating hearings in that obtaining clear and concrete information about the location and status of the petitioners is elusive.” Habeas petitions allow people to challenge their detention by the government.

Attorneys for the Trump administration accused the Maryland judges of prioritizing a regular schedule, writing in court documents that “a sense of frustration and a desire for greater convenience do not give Defendants license to flout the law.”

Among the judges named in the lawsuit is Paula Xinis, who found the Trump administration in March illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador — a case that quickly became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia was held in a notorious Salvadoran megaprison, where he claims to have been beaten and tortured.

Trump has railed against unfavorable judicial rulings, and in one case called for the impeachment of a federal judge in Washington who ordered planeloads of deported immigrants to be turned around. In July, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against the judge.

By MARK SCOLFORO

MOUNT GRETNA, Pa. (AP) — It takes a 54-page pamphlet to list all the classes, concerts, outdoor recreation and other self-improvement and entertainment going on at the Pennsylvania Chautauqua in Mount Gretna this summer.

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The area springs to life every June, July and August, when a year-round population of about 1,000 more than doubles and thousands more crowd in for big events. The picturesque front porches that define the town are abuzz with energetic cottagers who punctuate their days with cooking lessons, nature walks, yoga, professorial lectures, music and plays.

In short, it’s kind of a summer camp for the sort of people who want to fit in a lecture on the Marquis de Lafayette between a bird watching walk and a bluegrass duo performance on a random July day.

“Some people don’t last, but most of the people who understand it, love it,” said Bonnie Harvey, who has lived full-time in Mount Gretna since she and her husband, Dave, sold a bed-and-breakfast inn in a nearby town. “If you’re bored, it’s your own fault.”

Retired cardiologist Dr. Joe Bering teaches himself flute on the front porch of his cottage in the Campmeeting section of Mount Gretna, Pa., Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

As many quirks as people

Summertime get-togethers known as Chautauquas were practically a craze more than a century ago. A program for Christian Sunday school teachers along Lake Chautauqua in New York soon became a movement, energized by early alcohol prohibitionists, book club reading circles and a demand for scientific and literary awareness. Eventually they brought education, entertainment and a dose of religion to communities across the Northeast and Great Lakes, into Canada and beyond.

What they all had in common, said Jon Schmitz, an archivist and historian at the original Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, was “the good use of leisure time.”

Traveling “tent” Chautauquas soon developed, and by one account the programs reached millions of people before the movement peaked in 1907 and largely died out as priorities changed during the Great Depression.

Although the great majority of the Chautauquas are long gone, Mount Gretna got a second wind in the 1970s with the establishment of a successful art show and a highly regarded chamber music and jazz concert series. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s been thriving ever since.

Local historian Sue Hostetter opens the door to the rarely used jail cell with wooden bars on the second floor of the Hall of Philosophy, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, in Mount Gretna, Pa. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

These days, Mount Gretna can seem to have as many quirks as it does people. Described as “Culture Gulch” by a newspaper decades ago, the mountainous, wooded terrain about 84 miles west of Philadelphia includes some 200 privately owned cottages, most of them maintained to look just as they did in the early 1900s. But it isn’t some private club — while some of the cottages are kept within families for generations, others are bought and sold, and a small percentage are available for rent under restrictive local regulations.

“When most people call and say, ‘I’m interested in buying a house,’ one of the first things I say is, ‘How patient are you?’ Sometimes it can take a week, sometimes it can take years to find the right one,” said real estate agent Michelle Shay, who lives in Mount Gretna. “Some of them are 100-year-old cottages built on tree stumps. You have to be really aware of what you’re buying.”

Cottages in the town of Mount Gretna, Pa., shown Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, spring to life every summer with people who spend their leisure time in activities such as cooking lessons, nature walks, yoga, professorial lectures, music and plays. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

Committed to lifelong learning

The imposing 1909 Hall of Philosophy building is where many of the lectures and classes are held — and where Mount Gretna’s old jail is on the second floor, with wooden bars. Cottages carry quaint names such as Lazy Dog, As You Like It, Uneeda Rest, the Vicarage and Whole New World. Benches are scattered about, inviting conversations. There’s no mail delivery in some parts of town, so the post office serves double duty as a sort of community hub. The ice cream shop, in operation since the 1890s, does brisk business all summer.

“The community is really great, there’s always something going on,” said Reed Fretz, a college student who grew up in Mount Gretna and was renting out canoes on its Lake Conewago. “What you want out of it, you can get out of it.”

Lifeguard Luke Macchione watches over swimmers and boaters Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, on Lake Conewago in Mount Gretna, Pa., a town that springs to life every summer, when its picturesque front porches become filled with energetic cottagers. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

The feel of a summer retreat is fostered by restrictions about operating lawn mowers and other power equipment, and strict regulations about tree trimming. But with cottages cheek-by-jowl, getting away from it all doesn’t necessarily mean getting away from each other. Parking can be a challenge and privacy elusive. Volunteerism is rampant.

There’s a “concentration of pure talent” in Mount Gretna, said John Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua Foundation. “You have a group of really, really smart people that are committed to lifelong learning that all sort of hang out at the same place.”

Just a few of this summer’s events: a Rachel Carson re-enactor during Nature Week. Playwrights discussing their work. Dancers giving flamenco lessons. The annual art show that’s so popular, out-of-towners ride shuttle buses in from a field miles away. And for two hours toward the end of August, International Make Music on Your Porch Day.

Steeped in American history

Mount Gretna was founded along a rail line constructed in the 1880s by Robert Coleman, the great-grandson of an Irish immigrant who supplied munitions to the Continental Army during the American Revolution and became an iron magnate, known as Pennsylvania’s first millionaire.

Cottages in the town of Mount Gretna, Pa., shown Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, spring to life every summer with people who spend their leisure time engaged in activities such as cooking lessons, nature walks, yoga, professorial lectures, music and plays. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

Coleman directed construction of a picnic grounds along his new rail line and doled out parcels. One went to a group inspired by the “mother” Chautauqua in New York. By 1892, lots were laid out and work began on the Pennsylvania Chautauqua’s public buildings and cottages.

It was an immediate hit, according to Jack Bitner’s comprehensive 2012 history of Mount Gretna. Classes held during the inaugural season included Bible studies, botany, zoology and music. A Department of Pedagogy organized lectures on history, art, languages, literature, psychology and math.

About 8,800 people attended. They’d be right at home in Mount Gretna today.