A Cottage Grove man is facing three felony charges after allegedly firing a gun at two people who tried to rob him on Saturday behind a strip mall near Hy-Vee while he was selling them THC cartridges, police said.

The 18-year-old has been charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and a count of possessing a firearm without a serial number, according to the criminal complaint filed against him in Washington County District Court.

He also faces a misdemeanor charge for falsely reporting a crime: He reported the incident himself but said it was the other people who shot at him.

No injuries were reported, police said, and the people allegedly involved in the incident were known to one another.

According to the criminal complaint, the 18-year-old called 911 around 5:15 p.m. and told police that someone had fired a gun at him. He told officers he had arranged to meet two people behind Planet Fitness in Cottage Grove to sell them his dirt bike. He said one of the men gave him “fake money,” and he got into a fight with him, the complaint states.

He told police a third unidentified male then appeared with a gun, tried to take his phone and other items, and ended up taking “one THC cart” before fleeing in one of the other men’s car. He claimed that as the car drove off, the third person fired two shots at him, the complaint states.

The two other men told police a different story. They said they met the 18-year-old to buy THC cartridges, which are used to inhale cannabis oil through a vaporizer. They confirmed that a third person came along and attempted to rob the 18-year-old, which sparked a physical fight. They said they broke up the fight and started to leave, one on foot and two in the car.

They said they then saw the 18-year-old “putting a magazine” into a gun and taking a shooting stance, according to the complaint. “One heard a ‘boom boom’ as he was driving away.”

A woman who witnessed the incident told police she saw “some sort of fight” that involved some kids “hanging off the back of the car,” the complaint states. “She said that ‘the kid with the bike’ was chasing the people in the car and she observed (him) shoot at the car.”

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The 18-year-old was arrested early Sunday at his house in Cottage Grove and taken to the Washington County Jail. He told police he dumped the gun and where to find it. The gun was recovered from Hearthside Park, police said.

“It is concerning anytime a gun is involved, and I’m proud of our officers for their swift and professional response,” Public Safety Director and Police Chief Pete Koerner said in a statement. “We want to assure the public that there is no ongoing threat to community safety related to this case. These types of incidents are rare in our community, but no matter the rarity, we take them very seriously.”

The investigation remains active and ongoing; anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call 651-439-9381 or 911.

By NADIA LATHAN, Associated Press/Report for America

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — A rural Texas county needed but lacked an updated warning system, local officials testified Thursday, when flash flooding swept away homes and vehicles and left families begging for rescue on the roofs of their homes earlier this month.

Texas lawmakers searched for answers during a hearing on the deadly July 4 floods that overwhelmed Kerr County in a matter of hours. The hearing was the first time a panel of lawmakers visited the hard-hit Texas Hill Country since the floods. At least 136 people were killed, including 27 youths and counselors at an all-girls camp.

Among local officials who testified was the county’s emergency management chief, who explained his absence in the initial hours as the disaster unfolded.

Others who testified Thursday before an audience of hundreds of people — some who wore green ribbons in memory of the victims — called for urgent improvements for better flood warnings and flood mitigation.

Kerrville County Judge Rob Kelly said residents had virtually no warning of the impending weather catastrophe until it was too late.

“We need stronger communications and better broadband so we can communicate better,” he said, adding that poor cell service did not help those along the river. “What we experienced on July 4 was sudden, violent and overwhelming.”

Meanwhile, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator said he was relieved to have the opportunity to address rumors that he was slow to respond.

William “Dub” Thomas, Kerr County’s emergency management coordinator, told lawmakers he was sick the day before the flooding occurred and missed two calls with Texas Emergency Management officials, although he said those calls were routinely followed with written summaries sent to other county leaders, “ensuring that the flow of situational updates remained uninterrupted in my absence.”

Thomas said on the morning of July 4, he was first awakened by his wife around 5:30 a.m., more than an hour after emergency rescue operations were underway, and quickly drove to the sheriff’s office.

“There was no visible flooding on my drive into the office, but it quickly became clear that the situation was escalating,” he said.

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The hearing comes as authorities have begun publicly releasing records and audio — including 911 calls — that have provided new glimpses into the escalating danger and chaos in the early hours of the July Fourth holiday. They include panicked and confused messages from residents caught in trees as well as families fleeing with children from homes with water creeping up to the knees.

“People are dying,” one woman tells a 911 operator in call logs released by nearby Kendall County. She says she had a young relative at a church camp in Kerr County who was stranded along with his classmates because of the high waters.

“I don’t want them to get stuck in a low-water crossing. And what are they going to do? They have like 30 kids,” the woman says.

Kerr County officials have denied several Texas Public of Information requests filed by The Associated Press for 911 calls and body-camera footage related to the floods.

Lawmakers have had to address flood relief amid a busy 30-day legislative special session that has included a highly-partisan sprint by Republicans to redraw the state’s maps to pick up five more seats in the U.S. House.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott added flood relief and disaster preparedness to the agenda items shortly after calling a special session in June. He also included redrawing the state’s maps after receiving pressure from President Donald Trump, who has said he wants Texas Republicans to squeeze five additional seats.

House Democrats have launched a series of protests that have involved fleeing the state to meet with Democratic governors to try and stop Republican redistricting. As the minority party in both chambers, the caucus has few options and lawmakers face up to $500 a day for walking out after they broke a quorum in 2021. Party leaders have said they will not engage in other legislative business until the legislature addresses flood relief.

Lawmakers have filed bills to provide funding for early warning systems, improve emergency communications and strengthen flood infrastructure in flood-prone areas.

Residents along the Guadalupe River have said they were caught off guard and had no warning when rainfall struck. Kerr County does not have a warning system along the river after several missed opportunities by state and local agencies to finance one.

Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency’s plan this week to relax rules aimed at cleaning up auto tailpipe emissions is the latest Trump administration move to undo incentives for automakers to go electric.

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As part of a larger effort to undo climate-based governmental regulations, the EPA on Tuesday said it wants to revoke the 2009 finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. That would cripple the legal basis for limiting emissions from things like power plants and motor vehicles.

President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law already targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new electric car.

The tax law approved in early July also includes another provision that will hit Tesla and other EV makers in the pocketbook — repealing fines for automakers that don’t meet federal fuel economy standards.

Automakers can buy credits under a trading program if they don’t meet the mileage standards. EV makers like Tesla, which don’t rely on gasoline, earn credits that they can sell to other carmakers. The arrangement has resulted in billions of dollars in revenue for Tesla and millions for other EV makers like Rivian.

That is all set to go away under the new law.

Trump has also challenged federal EV charging infrastructure money and blocked California’s ban of new gas-powered vehicle sales.

It adds up to less pressure on automakers to continue evolving their production away from gas-burning vehicles. And that’s significant because transportation — which also includes ships, trains and planes — is the sector that contributes the most to planet-warming emissions in the U.S.

Push and pull on tailpipe and mileage rules

Stringent tailpipe emissions and mileage rules were part of the Biden administration’s pledge to clean up the nation’s vehicles and reduce use of fossil fuels by incentivizing growth in EVs. EVs do not use gasoline or emit greenhouse gases.

The Trump administration and the auto industry have said both rules were unreasonable for manufacturers.

Automakers could meet EPA tailpipe limits with about 56% of new vehicle sales being electric by 2032 — they’re currently at about 8% — along with at least 13% plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, and more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon.

The latest mileage targets set under the Biden administration required automakers to get to an average of about 50 miles (81 kilometers) per gallon for light-duty vehicles by model year 2031, and about 35 miles per gallon for pickups and vans by model year 2035.

But Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pressured the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this year to reverse the rules, and has recently said Biden’s inclusion of EVs in calculating them was illegal. NHTSA will likely reset or significantly weaken them.

The fines that are going away

Then there are the fines that automakers will no longer face for falling short on the fuel economy rules.

“With the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill, new penalties for automakers not complying with an illegal fuel economy standard designed to push EVs will be zero,” NHTSA spokesman Sean Rushton said in a statement.

Some legacy automakers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties for not meeting them. Just last year, Jeep-maker Stellantis paid $190.7 million for model years 2019 and 2020, and General Motors paid $128.2 million for the 2016 and 2017 model years.

Automakers that didn’t meet the standards could also instead buy credits from carmakers that did — or even surpassed them — such as Tesla. That provision earned Tesla $2.8 billion in 2024 — revenue it will no longer see.

Elon Musk sharply criticized the big tax-and-spending bill in June, saying it “gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.” Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the law’s effect on those credits.

The agency wrote to carmakers earlier this month informing them the penalties wouldn’t be issued from the model year 2022 onward. Some automakers confirmed receiving the letter but declined to comment further.

Experts say without them, the law “invites automakers to cheat on government fuel economy rules by setting fines to $0, ensuring consumers will buy more gas guzzlers, pay more at the pump and enrich Big Oil,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign.

Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former acting NHTSA administrator under Biden, called it a “stunning decision” for NHTSA to essentially forgive the fines from 2022 onward. She said it amounted to a windfall for companies that chose to pay penalties rather than produce more efficient cars.

Carlson said backing away from future fines also “poses a dilemma for auto manufacturers who may feel bound to comply with the law, even if there is not a financial consequence for failing to do so.”

Where auto manufacturers go from here

It takes a while for carmakers to shift their product lines, and experts say automakers might be locked into their technology and manufacturing decisions for the next few model years. But changes could come for model year 2027 and beyond, they said.

EVs aren’t as profitable as gas-engine cars, so automakers may make fewer of them if they no longer have to offset emissions from their gasoline models. Already, some automakers have pulled back on their ambitions to go all-electric with a slower pace of EV sales growth.

“Automakers also know every presidential administration eventually comes to an end, so they won’t abandon their EV development efforts,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com. “But they will reduce their near-term efforts in this area.”

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan died of a heart attack last week, according to a Florida medical examiner’s report released Thursday.

Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, previously had leukemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, the report from the District Six Medical Examiner said.

Hogan, 71, was pronounced dead at a hospital less than 90 minutes after medics arrived at his home in Clearwater, Florida to answer a call about a cardiac arrest on the morning of July 24, police said.

Hogan was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history, known for both his larger-than-life personality and his in-ring exploits. He was the main draw for the first WrestleMania in 1985 and was a fixture for years, facing everyone from Andre The Giant and Randy Savage to The Rock and even WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.

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