By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

Tourists celebrating the new year in Hawaii could become the first to be taxed to address the consequences of climate change.

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In Utah, people who party too heartily — and get caught driving drunk — could be among the first to have their driver’s licenses striped red with the label: “No Alcohol Sale.”

And motorists in Georgia could become the first to display their patriotism via the stylings of President Donald Trump with a special “America First” vehicle license plate.

The first of the year brings with it a variety of new state laws, including some that appear to contain first-of-their-kind policies, programs or procedures.

Here’s a look at some of the new laws taking effect:

The first tourism tax for the earth

Many cities and states impose special taxes on hotel stays and vacation rentals. Hawaii will become the first state to hike its tourist lodging tax specifically to help cope with the effects of a changing climate.

State officials hope to use the proceeds from the additional 0.75% daily room rate tax for projects like replenishing sand on eroding beaches or removing invasive grasses similar to those that fueled a deadly wildfire on Maui in August 2023. Officials estimate the so-called “Green Fee” will generate nearly $100 million annually.

“As an island chain, Hawaii cannot wait for the next disaster to hit before taking action. We must build resiliency now,” Democratic Gov. Josh Green said while signing the legislation earlier this past year.

`ID please’ — no matter your age

Utah’s already strict alcohol laws are getting even stricter. As part of a new law intended to keep alcohol away from some people convicted of drunken driving, restaurants and bars will be required to check the identification of every customer, regardless of age, before serving or selling them alcohol.

FILE – Bottles of wine are displayed during a tour of a state liquor store, in Salt Lake City, June 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

People convicted of “extreme driving under the influence” — defined as a blood alcohol content of at least 0.16% or one of several other factors — must surrender their driver’s licenses. Any replacement ID will bear a prominent red stripe on the front alongside the words, “No Alcohol Sale.” Judges also will have the discretion to impose the restriction for lesser offenses, and anyone wanting to shun booze can voluntarily obtain a red-striped ID.

“While this isn’t completely bulletproof in terms of ensuring that somebody that’s alcohol-restricted isn’t going to drink, it just makes it more difficult for them,” said Republican state Rep. Steve Eliason, sponsor of the legislation.

State-branded insulin for sale

California is targeting high prescription drug prices by getting into the business itself. It will become the first state to sell affordable insulin under its own label.

FILE – California Gov. Gavin Newsom announces CalRx-branded insulin glargine pens available next Jan. 1, 2026, at a suggested retail price of no more than $55 per five-pack, or $11 per pen, during a news conference at Cedar-Sinai’s Mark Goodson pharmacy in Los Angeles Oct. 16, 2025. Secretary Kim Johnson, Cal HHS Agency, middle. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The sales come nearly three years after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a partnership with the nonprofit Civica to sell state-branded generic drugs at lower prices. The “CalRx” brand of insulin pens will be available at a recommended price of $11 per pen, or a maximum of $55 for a five-pack.

Newsom also signed legislation this past year that will require large health insurers to start capping insulin copayments at $35 per month.

A minimum wage tops $17 an hour

An annual inflationary adjustment will raise Washington’s statewide minimum wage to $17.13 an hour, making it the first state to exceed the $17 threshold.

Others aren’t too far behind. The statewide minimum wage will rise to $16.94 an hour in Connecticut and $16.90 and California.

Some cities will have even higher minimum wages. The rate will rise to $21.30 an hour in Seattle and $21.65 in its suburb of Tukwila, Washington.

At least a dozen states will have minimum wages of $15 or more, including new rates set by voter-approved ballot measures in Missouri and Nebraska. By contrast, 20 other states still follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Patriotic plates for the road

New specialty vehicle license plates in Georgia will display an image of the American flag with the words “America First.” The plate will cost $90 the first year and $55 to renew, compared to $20 yearly for a standard license plate.

A rendering of Georgia’s new America First license plate, which becomes available Jan. 1, 2026, is shown at the Georgia Capitol, in Atlanta, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)

The new license plate gives people an opportunity to “show your support for President Trump and his movement with every mile you drive,” said Republican state Sen. Steve Gooch, who sponsored the legislation.

“No other state has passed it,” Gooch said. But “I predict other states will copy our legislation next year.”

Several other states also are introducing new patriotic license plates timed to the nation’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Michigan will have a new red, white and blue license plate. South Carolina will have a liberty flag plate with the words, “Where the Revolutionary War Was Won.” Pennsylvania got a head start on the celebration earlier this year, printing a “Let Freedom Ring” license plate featuring the Liberty Bell.

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; Jennifer Kelleher in Honolulu; and Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.

By DAVID CRARY, GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO, LUIS ANDRES HENAO and TIFFANY STANLEY, Associated Press

For faith leaders supporting and ministering to anxious immigrants across the United States, 2025 was fraught with challenges and setbacks. For many in these religious circles, the coming year could be worse.

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The essence of their fears: President Donald Trump has become harsher with his contemptuous rhetoric and policy proposals, blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages and, in a social media post, demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”

Haitians who fled gang violence in their homeland, as well as Afghans allowed entry after assisting the U.S. in Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover, now fear that their refuge in America may end due to get-tough policy changes. Somali Americans, notably in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, worry about their future after Trump referred to them as “garbage.”

After Trump’s slurs, the chair of the Catholic bishops conference’s subcommittee on racial justice urged public officials to refrain from dehumanizing language.

“Each child of God has value and dignity,” said the bishop of Austin, Texas, Daniel Garcia. “Language that denigrates a person or community based on his or her ethnicity or country of origin is incompatible with this truth.”

Here’s a look at what lies ahead for these targeted immigrant communities, and the faith leaders supporting them.

Haitians in limbo

In 2024, Trump falsely accused Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, of eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs. It worsened fears about anti-immigrant sentiment in the mostly white, blue-collar city of about 59,000, where more than 15,000 Haitians live and work.

Thousands of them settled in Springfield in recent years under the Temporary Protected Status program.

FILE – Jean-Michel Gisnel cries out while praying with other congregants at the First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, File)

Their prospects now seem dire. The TPS program, allowing many Haitians to remain legally in Springfield and elsewhere, expires in early February.

“It’s going to be an economic and humanitarian disaster,” said the Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church — one of several Springfield churches supporting the Haitians.

Ruby and Viles Dorsainvil, a leader of Springfield’s Haitian community, traveled recently to Washington to seek help from members of Congress.

“Every single legislator we’ve talked to has said nothing is going to happen legislatively. Trump’s rhetoric keeps getting harsher,” Ruby said. “It just doesn’t feel like anything is going our way.”

Many Haitians fear for their lives if they return to their gang-plagued homeland.

Faith communities have come together to support immigrants in the face of Trump’s crackdown, Ruby said.

“It’s increasing our resolve to oppose this,” he said. “There are more and more churches in Springfield saying we will provide sanctuary. … We will do whatever it takes to protect our members.”

Afghan refugees

Trump suspended the U.S. refugee program on the first day of his second term. Halting the program and its federal funding affected hundreds of faith-based organizations assisting refugees.

Among them was Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, which serves the region around Washington, D.C., and lost 68% of its budget this year. The organization laid off two-thirds of its staff, shrinking from nearly 300 employees to 100.

FILE – A group of female Afghan refugees gather for a class on self-care and a post-Ramadan celebration at Catholic Charities Migrant and Refugee Services office in Fredericksburg, Va., on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

Many of its employees and nearly two-thirds of its clients are Afghans. Many worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan and fled after the Taliban’s takeover from a U.S.-backed government in 2021.

The Trump administration announced new immigration restrictions after an Afghan national became the suspect in the Nov. 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.

“It shook up our team. It was awful,” said Kristyn Peck, CEO of LSSNCA.

Peck said there is increased fear among Afghans on her staff and a false public narrative that Afghan immigrants are a threat.

“A whole group of people have now been targeted and blamed for this senseless act of violence,” she said.

She still finds reasons for hope.

“We continue to do the good work,” Peck said. “Even in challenging moments, we just continue to see people putting their faith into action.”

Volunteers have stepped up to provide services that employees no longer have funding to provide, including a program that helps Afghan women with English-language and job-skills training.

U.S.-based World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization overseen by the National Association of Evangelicals, has joined left-of-center religious groups decrying the new crackdown on Afghan refugees.

“When President Trump announces his intention to ‘permanently halt’ all migration from ‘Third World countries,’ he’s insulting the majority of the global Church,” declared World Relief CEO Myal Greene. “When his administration halts processing for all Afghans on account of the evil actions of one person, he risks abandoning tens of thousands of others who risked their lives alongside the U.S. military.”

Somalis targeted by Trump

In mid-December, imams and other leaders of Minnesota’s Somali community established a task force to tackle the fallout from major fraud scandals, a surge in immigration enforcement, and Trump’s contemptuous words toward the largest group of Somali refugees in the U.S.

“We’re not minimizing the crime, but we’re amplifying the successes,” said imam Yusuf Abdulle.

FILE – A woman and a child hold hands as they walk down a street in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski, File)

He directs the Islamic Association of North America, a network of more than three dozen mostly East African mosques. About half are in Minnesota, which, since the late 1990s, has been home to growing numbers of Somali refugees who are increasingly visible in local and U.S. politics.

“For unfortunate things like fraud or youth violence, every immigrant community has been through tough times,” Abdulle said. “For the number of years here, Somali is a very resilient, very successful community.”

Even though most Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens or lawfully present, Abdulle said, many deserted local businesses and mosques when immigration enforcement surged.

The new task force includes more than two dozen faith and business leaders, as well as community organizers. Addressing their community’s fears is the first challenge, followed by increased advocacy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“Every election year the rhetoric goes up. And so we want to push back against these hateful rhetorics, but also bring our community together,” said community leader Abdullahi Farah.

Faith leaders respond

In mid-November, U.S. Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly to issue a “special message” decrying developments causing fear and anxiety among immigrants. It marked the first time in 12 years that the bishops invoked this urgent way of speaking collectively.

“We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care,” said the message. “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”

The bishops thanked priests, nuns and lay Catholics accompanying and assisting immigrants.

“We urge all people of goodwill to continue and expand such efforts,” the message said.

The presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Yehiel Curry, issued a similar pastoral message last month thanking ELCA congregations for supporting immigrants amid “aggressive and indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”

“The racial profiling and harm to our immigrant neighbors show no signs of diminishing, so we will heed God’s call to show up alongside these neighbors,” Curry wrote.

HIAS, an international Jewish nonprofit serving refugees and asylum-seekers, has condemned recent Trump administration moves.

“As a Jewish organization, we also know all too well what it means for an entire community to be targeted because of the actions of one person,” HIAS said.

“We will always stand in solidarity with people seeking the opportunity to rebuild their lives in safety, including those being targeted now by harmful policies and hateful rhetoric in the Afghan American and Somali American communities.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said his country’s answer to an attack would be harsh, which appeared to be in response to a warning by U.S. President Donald Trump over reconstruction of Iran’s nuclear program.

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“Answer of Islamic Republic of Iran to any cruel aggression will be harsh and discouraging,” Pezeshkian said on the social media platform X.

Pezeshkian did not elaborate, but his statement came a day after Trump suggested the U.S. could carry out military strikes if Iran attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program. Trump made the comment during wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump said during a news conference with Netanyahu after their meeting. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”

The two leaders discussed the possibility of renewed military action against Tehran months after a 12-day air war in June that killed nearly 1,100 Iranians including senior military commanders and scientists. Iran’s retaliatory missile barrage killed 28 people in Israel.

Trump suggested Monday that he could order another U.S. strike against Iran.

“If it’s confirmed, they know the consequences, and the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time,” Trump said.

Pezeshkian said Saturday that tensions between the sides already had risen.

“We are in a full-scale war with the U.S., Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” he said.

Iran has insisted it is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program.

U.S. intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed Iran last had an organized nuclear weapons program in 2003, though Tehran had been enriching uranium up to 60%, which is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

A decade after an investment firm was created to help save Sears from its inevitable demise, both are now in their last gasps.

Five Sears stores are still operating in the country, but they won’t be around much longer, industry experts predict.

Neither will Seritage Growth Properties, the real estate investment trust created in 2015 to cash in on the value of the retailer’s properties. It abandoned its somewhat audacious plan to turn Sears’ rich real estate holdings into dazzling mixed-use properties. Today, Seritage is offloading the last of its assets as it pays down a $1.6 billion term loan from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

“The goal is to sell the remaining Seritage assets as quickly and profitably as possible, but we are also very open to an alternative transaction that could enhance shareholder value,” Adam Metz, CEO of Seritage, said in an interview.

Stores in the St. Paul area have seen various redevelopments since being put up for sale by Seritage in 2022.

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After being acquired by the founder of Frogtown’s HmongTown Marketplace, the former Sears store at the Maplewood Mall is now an indoor shopping bazaar featuring Southeast Asian vendors and a video game arcade, as well as a “Pan-Asian Center” performance space for collectibles sales and traveling shows, including the recent Illuminate Festival of Lights.

In St. Paul, the Sears department store at 425 Rice St. closed in January 2019, and longstanding plans for a full-scale redevelopment with housing, offices and ground-level retail never materialized. A Twin Cities partnership backed by Illinois investors purchased the site mid-2023, and then quickly sold it that same year to Twin Cities-based Asian Media Access, which announced plans for a charter school, a 3D-themed theme park, a hotel and other attractions that have never moved forward.

The most active use of the Rice Street location has been its parking lot, which has hosted pan-Asian night markets, amateur wrestling, a tequila festival and other outdoor events.

Two-decade saga

The winding down of Sears and Seritage in tandem brings to an end a two-decade saga that hedge fund magnate Edward S. Lampert started when he bought Sears in 2005.

When Lampert combined Sears with Kmart, which he had bought out of bankruptcy in 2003, investors were betting that the retailers would be better off dead and their land repurposed. At the time, Sears owned most of its more than 3,400 stores. Sears’ market value soared past $20 billion in those early days of Lampert’s ownership as the company slashed costs and investors anticipated cashing in on its valuable holdings.

Within a decade, though, Sears was flailing and Lampert had embarked on a plan to sell hundreds of stores to Seritage. The fund’s shares, now trading at less than $4, hit more than $50 in the years after Seritage was formed.

So what went wrong with Lampert’s big promise?

Bad timing and an egregious conflict of interest involving Lampert at the helm of both entities are to blame, industry experts say. Through Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments, which was a major lender to Sears, he was the retailer’s biggest creditor and shareholder. Over the years, he was also Sears’ chairperson and CEO, and until 2022 was chairperson of Seritage. This unusual setup put him on both sides of transactions and led to accusations that he prioritized his fund’s interests over Sears’ financial health, something that prompted lawsuits by Sears’ creditors after the company filed for bankruptcy.

Lampert and his hedge fund had stakes in the businesses that were spun off, and he collected hundreds of millions of dollars in interest and fees from the retailer.

Early red flags

Lampert’s formation of Seritage in 2015 was promising enough to attract prominent backers, including Buffett, who took an 8% stake in the company and later lent it almost $2 billion to fund the redevelopments. Lampert’s success at ESL Investments, including a big win with AutoZone, had made him something of an investing legend and once even prompted comparisons to Buffett.

There were red flags from the beginning, though. Sears’ “finances were more fragile than they let on,” said Victor Rodriguez, senior director of market analytics at CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data and analytics firm. And Seritage’s fortunes were too closely tied to those of Sears, once the country’s leading retailer.

The retailer was hemorrhaging cash after years of struggling to compete against larger rivals like Walmart and Home Depot. Lampert sold or spun off assets, including its Lands’ End clothing brand, to stanch the losses. The explosion of online shopping would put Sears even further behind as it fought to stay relevant.

Lampert’s effort to revive Sears included programs like online ordering, in-store pickup and a loyalty program. Many former executives said Lampert’s strategy was to compete with Amazon.

The problem with that plan, though, was that most Sears customers still preferred shopping in person, but the stores were poorly maintained as the company was spending little on upkeep.

Neither Lampert nor Transformco, the company that currently operates Sears, responded to requests for comment.

Bankruptcy beckoned

In 2015, Sears said it was selling about 250 stores to Seritage for $2.7 billion. Most of those would be leased back to Sears, and the rent would provide an income stream for Lampert’s plan to redevelop stores. The new developments would then command higher rents — and more revenue for Seritage.

But Seritage couldn’t depend on Sears’ rent payments; the retailer’s continued troubles led to the closing of hundreds of stores.

“Seritage was in a very tough spot — you have all your income tied to dying retailers,” said Vince Tibone, a managing director at Green Street, a commercial real estate research and consulting firm. “They just couldn’t replace the lost income from Sears fast enough.”

Sears filed for bankruptcy in 2018, with more than $11 billion in losses and about 700 stores remaining — roughly one-fifth of its size at the time Lampert bought it.

Lampert started Transformco, another ESL-controlled entity, to buy Sears’ assets out of bankruptcy.

The Sears estate and the company’s creditors sued Lampert and Sears Holdings’ directors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, as the bankruptcy played out, accusing them of stripping $2 billion in assets in a series of insider deals while lacking a realistic plan to turn Sears around. In one legal filing, creditors accused Lampert of plundering the company by selling and spinning off assets in a yearslong “Shakespearean tragedy.”

The suit was settled in 2022 with a $175 million payment.

Today, the handful of remaining operating Sears stores are under Transformco’s ownership, which is also selling and redeveloping old stores.

The last stores

A shopper in a Sears department store in Miami, Fla., Oct. 28, 2025. (Scott McIntyre/The New York Times)

More recently, Seritage has been able to take advantage of higher real estate values amid a scarcity of land and construction, said Brandon Svec, national director of U.S. retail analytics at CoStar.

Still, it serves as an example of a real estate strategy gone wrong.

“By the time Seritage got started, it was a decade too late to extract the most value possible for these assets,” Svec said. Rents for retail space peaked around the time Seritage was created, Tibone of Green Street said, before a wave of bankruptcies and store closures curbed demand.

In hindsight, it may have been better to split Seritage into two businesses — one concentrating on smaller and simpler projects requiring less investment, such as renovating and re-leasing old Sears stores, Tibone said. The other could have navigated the longer-term, large-scale, capital-intensive projects that are difficult to execute even in the best of times.

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Recent visits to two Sears stores and the last operating U.S. Kmart, in Florida, revealed sites almost devoid of shoppers. Julio Guzman and his family were the only shoppers at a Sears store on a recent weekday at the otherwise lively Florida Mall in Orlando. Guzman said he was delighted to discover a Sears that was still operating after he moved to the area this year.

“It was very convenient to have Sears almost around the corner,” said Guzman, who said he had been a loyal customer for 30 years, relying on the merchant for electronics, appliances and tools. “Unfortunately, our kids are not going to remember.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Pioneer Press staff writer Frederick Melo contributed.