By DAVID A. LIEB

Virginia voters will get to cast ballots on a congressional redistricting plan benefiting Democrats while a court battle plays out over the legality of the effort.

The Virginia Supreme Court said Friday that a statewide referendum can be held April 21 on whether to authorize mid-decade redistricting, and the court will decide sometime later whether the plan is legal.

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Democrats celebrated the green light for the election. But the court’s schedule raises the possibility that it could all be for naught, if the Supreme Court ultimately upholds a lower court ruling that the mid-decade redistricting amendment is invalid.

Virginia Democrats hold six of the state’s 11 U.S. House seats, but they are backing a revised map that could help them win up to 10 seats in this year’s midterm elections. The new districts are a key part of Democrats’ national strategy to try to offset potential Republican gains in several other states that redrew their districts last year at the urging of President Donald Trump.

The Republican president is trying to preserve a narrow GOP majority in the House against political headwinds that typically blow against the party in power in midterm elections.

Before Virginia Democrats can implement new congressional districts, they need voter approval to temporarily set aside a constitutional provision that places redistricting authority with a bipartisan commission and instead grant that power to the General Assembly. Lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election in order for an amendment to be placed on the ballot.

But Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. last month struck down the General Assembly’s actions on three grounds. The judge ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

FILE – Republican gubernatorial candidate and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears presides over the Virginia Senate during a special legislative session in Richmond, Va., Oct. 29, 2025. (Mike Kropf/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP, File)

Hurley also ruled that the General Assembly’s initial vote for the amendment failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. And he ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result of those issues, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.

Democrats appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, which agreed on Friday to consider the case while stating that a narrowly tailored injunction by the lower court doesn’t prevent the April referendum. The court directed initial briefs to be filed by March 23, with the last round of court filings due April 23. Any oral arguments would be scheduled for later, the court said.

Nationwide, the redistricting battle has resulted so far in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats have hoped to make up that three-seat margin in Virginia, though the lower court ruling raised a hurdle to their plans. It’s unclear whether the redistricting efforts in various states ultimately will make any difference in determining control of Congress in the November election.

FORT MYERS, Fla. —  For a brief period of time, as teammate after teammate got shipped away on trade deadline day last July, Joe Ryan was convinced he had been traded, too, the result of an erroneous post on social media that suggested he was headed to the Boston Red Sox.

Minutes later, Ryan found out that that trade didn’t happen. He was still a Twin.

But as the Twins reached the offseason, there were questions about how they might proceed from there, and there some thought they might continue tearing down their roster by trading away some of their most-valuable players, Ryan included.

“I think it was just so unknown,” Ryan said.

The Twins hung on to veterans Ryan, who is under team control through next season, Pablo López and Byron Buxton, and tried to build a roster around the talented trio. But it wasn’t until December that the Twins signaled publicly that they planned to keep that group rather than trade from it.

Out in California, there wasn’t all that much time for Ryan to think about trade rumors anyway. In November, Ryan and his fiancée, Clare, welcomed their first child, a baby boy whom they named Rowan.

“Obviously, having the baby, it was a very nice focus to just not think about baseball and really separate there,” Ryan said. “Just think about the baby boy, Clare, and make sure everyone is happy and healthy. … Anything else was just noise. I wasn’t really putting any stock into anything I was hearing or reading or whatever.”

While Ryan remained in place, things at the upper level of the organization changed, and team leaders made it a point to communicate with him along the way.

New manager Derek Shelton was planning on heading west to visit with Ryan, though those plans were dashed after the birth of Ryan’s son. Months later, new executive chair Tom Pohlad paid Ryan a visit in January and the two shared a conversation over a meal.

“I really appreciated that. I thought it was a nice gesture,” Ryan said. “I got to talk to him and see where his vision was. I think the organization is in a good spot with him at the helm. We’ll see how that goes.”

Ryan, who narrowly avoided arbitration with the Twins — agreeing to a one-year, $6.2 million deal on the day he was supposed to fly out for his hearing — is coming off his first all-star season, one in which in which he registered 30 starts for the first time in his career and posted a 3.42 earned-run average.

In the middle of that career year, he spoke with Team USA manager Mark DeRosa about the possibility of competing in the World Baseball Classic when the Twins were in New York to play the Yankees in August. As he did at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the starter has committed to play for Team USA at the upcoming tournament.

In order to prepare for the tournament, which starts in early March, Ryan got off the mound earlier this year, something he said he had wanted to do anyway. But unlike some of the offseasons early in his career, there wasn’t much to tinker with or overhaul.

“More just mechanical, physical things that I just want to hone in on, get better at and improve in those areas,” Ryan said. “I think that takes care of a lot of the problems.”

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By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Soaring arias. Wrenching tragedy. Joyful triumphs. Exotic backdrops. Climaxes often designed to produce tears, sad or otherwise.

Perhaps more than anything, the operas that Italians began creating 400 years ago are designed to make you feel. To have the rest of the world melt away as you get lost in a story sung in a language you might not understand, but whose stakes are unmistakable.

No wonder the country that invented the art form where music and poetry merge, and these Winter Olympics seem to be such a perfect fit.

The quadrennial spectacle that began its stay in Northern Italy with a gala hosted by the International Olympic Committee at the iconic La Scala opera house in Milan spent its first full week reflecting the host country’s signature art form onto itself.

The magic the Games so often provide, no matter where they may go, seemingly a little bolder, a little louder, a little more deeply felt.

United States’ Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women’s downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Tearful exits

The initial gasp that gave way to eerie silence after American skiing star Lindsey Vonn’s right arm clipped a gate just 13 seconds into the women’s downhill on Sunday, leading to a spectacular and brutal crash that broke her left leg and ended her unlikely Olympic return at 41.

Crashes happen. It’s a part of the sport. The “only at the Games” flourish came afterward, when Vonn’s long, slow helicopter ride down the mountain to safety veered gently to the left, flying over the grandstand where the throngs who came out to watch her bid for history waved a tearful goodbye instead.

The tears for Vonn were borne out of concern and what might have been. The tears from IOC president Kirsty Coventry after telling Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych he was disqualified for refusing to replace a helmet adorned with images of over 20 coaches and athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion began were of anguish and regret.

“No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging,” Coventry said. “The messaging is a powerful message.”

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych holds his crash helmet as he stands outside the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

One so compelling and so important to Heraskevych that the 27-year-old sacrificed his dreams of Olympic glory to make it. Even if the attention he received for his stand caught him off guard.

“I never expected it to be such a big scandal,” he said on Friday after an appeal hearing.

Four years into a war that drags on with an end still not quite in sight, Heraskevych’s stand dragged a conflict that in some areas of the world has retreated to the shadows and thrust it back into the international spotlight unique to the Games. His selfless decision elevated the discussion about his homeland to the public writ large in a way that no gold-medal-winning run ever could.

Heraskevych’s act was intended for a global audience. Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid was speaking to an audience of one after earning bronze in the men’s 20-kilometer race. His startling confession of infidelity to a former partner after what was supposed to serve as one of the highlights of his career upstaging the gold won in the same race by countryman Johan-Olav Botn.

Love both lost and won

Being lovesick in Italy is hardly new. There’s a reason seemingly every high school literature class makes “Romeo and Juliet” required reading. The Shakespearean tragedy is set in Verona, about 3 hours southwest of where Laegreid made his stunning plea, sounding very much like a teenager in the throes of heartache. His vow of contrition created a viral moment that passes for social currency, the fallout be damned.

“I can understand what he wants to have happen with his girlfriend,” retired German athlete Erik Lesser told The Associated Press. “But I just want to think about sport, want to see sport, want to talk about sport.”

Yet the Olympics have never really been just about sport. How can they be when the lines between sports, politics and culture seem to be growing more blurry by the day? The only thing perfect about the Games may be the five intertwined rings that have long served as its logo.

That’s what makes it so enthralling. A few days after Laegreid achieved a small piece of infamy, Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson retreated into the arms of boyfriend Connor Watkins after crashing in the Super-G.

While Johnson’s dreams of leaving Cortina with multiple golds were gone, another was realized anyway when Watkins dropped to a knee and recited Taylor Swift lyrics while producing a blue and white sapphire ring.

United States’ Breezy Johnson, right, and fiancee Connor Watkins smile at each other as they are interviewed after he proposed to her at the end of an alpine ski, women’s super-G race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Johnson giddily accepted before jumping into his arms, the physical pain and emotional disappointment of what happened up on the mountain only minutes earlier replaced by a memory and a promise that will stick with her forever.

“I think most people want to peak at the Olympics,” Johnson said. “I just extra peaked.”

Ilia Malinin of the United States does a back flip while competing during the figure skating men’s team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Favorites upstaged

Not everyone does at a festival where unpredictability often outduels inevitability for top billing.

For every breakthrough like the one American figure skater Ilia Malinin is providing one electrifying backflip and quadruple jump at a time, there are bold-faced champions somewhat surprisingly ceding the stage they’ve so often commanded.

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Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Cortina as the winningest ski racer in the history of the sport. Eager to put an 0 for 6 run four years ago in Beijing behind her, she instead began her fourth Olympics with her worst showing in a slalom that she started and finished since 2012, costing Shiffrin and Johnson a gold in women’s combined and opening the door for teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim the first Olympic medals of their long careers.

American snowboarding icon Chloe Kim’s bid for an unprecedented third gold in the halfpipe ended late Thursday when a teenager who grew up idolizing her — Gaon Choi of South Korea — pulled off an upset in snowy Livigno.

“I’m a winner because I was able to persevere and fight through,” said Kim, who competed just a month removed from a dislocated shoulder.

And perhaps more than anything at the Olympics, it’s the fight that matters.

For the thousands of athletes scattered across northern Italy, the road to this moment in their lives is rooted in a passion found long ago. The flames may have flickered for many along the way. How could they not? The drudgery of practice. The financial burden. The inevitable physical toll. The hidden mental strain has only recently graduated from hushed whispers to a full-fledged conversation.

It’s a lot to carry. No wonder it’s such fertile ground for drama.

Italy’s moment

And no one has leaned into it more than the hosts who have surged to the top of the medal table.

Yet a country known for big gestures and even bigger emotions is also one that can revel in the quiet and before the catharsis.

Ten months ago, Italian skier Federica Brignone shredded her left leg in a crash that required multiple surgeries, a handful of screws to keep things in place and months of rehab. The 35-year-old never stopped pointing toward Cortina. On Thursday, in front of a crowd that included Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Brignone ignored the lingering pain to throw down a sublime Super-G run in tricky conditions to earn her first Olympic gold.

After the medal ceremony, the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic unit thundered overhead, leaving a trail of the country’s familiar combination of green, white and red in its wake.

The slopes in Cortina shook. The flags waved. Brignone wept, thinking not so much of glory, but the winding path she took to get here.

“One of those films that you don’t believe in because it’s not possible for it to end that well,” Brignone said.

Maybe that’s the best part.

It’s not the end. We’re only halfway there. Who knows?

Milan Cortina’s second act could be even better than the first.

AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf, Graham Dunbar, Dave Skretta, Tim Reynolds and AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

MILAN — When Francesca Lollobrigida collected Italy’s first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics this week, the speedskater immediately looked for her 2-year-old son, Tommaso, so they could celebrate together. She found him but was told he wasn’t allowed to go over to where she was after winning the 3,000 meters.

“So, I said, ‘Fine. I’ll go to him,’ ” Lollobrigida said. She sprinted over to Tommaso and enveloped him in a big hug; soon, he was shushing his mother while in her arms during TV interviews.

“Aside from doing this for me, I did it for him, so one day he will be proud of me. Not just for being an Olympic champion, but for all of the journey we’ve lived together,” explained Lollobrigida, who added another gold in the 5,000 on Thursday. “The message I wanted to show is that I didn’t choose between being an athlete and being a mom.”

Yes, mothers and fathers are part of the fabric of these Olympics, and so, too, are their children who’ve tagged along. The 232-athlete U.S. roster, for example, included nine moms — up from just one at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and from four at Beijing in 2022 — and 17 dads.

They’re as little as 1-year-old River, the son of Swiss curlers Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland — the kid dubbed the “Curling Baby” for toting a broom twice his size.

River is hardly alone at the curling. Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have their son, Luke, 2, with them. And Eagan sisters Tabith and Tara Peterson are in Italy with two toddlers, Tara’s son Eddie and Tabitha’s daughter Noelle.

This is the third Olympics for Tabitha and second for Tara, and obviously their first with their children in tow. It certainly hasn’t affected their play. The U.S. team — which also includes lead Taylor Anderson-Heide, third Cory Thiesse and alternate Aileen Geving — is 2-1 after the Americans’ 9-8 victory over Canada on Friday.

“You only have so many hours to dedicate to curling. The rest, I want to be a mother. I also have a day job as well — I’m a dentist — so there’s just a lot of things that we need to balance,” Tara Peterson said.

“As for competition, it just makes it that much more sweet when … you make the big shot, you win the big game, you look over, and there’s a little baby screaming, ‘Mama! Mama!’ ”

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