Board of Governors will have to approve Sasse’s position

By DANIELLE J. BROWN <a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/11/01/u-s-sen-sasse-sole-finalist-in-uf-presidential-search-to-lead-floridas-flagship-university/">Florida Phoenix</a>

The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to 
approve Nebraska’s U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse as the new president to lead 
Florida’s flagship institution, despite weeks of outcry, questions about
 the senator’s political views, and an air of secrecy around the search 
process that led to his candidacy.

The board agreed to provide compensation for Sasse that would be up 
to but not exceed $1.6 million. (A U.S. Senate salary is under $200,000 a
 year.) The overarching Board of Governors, which oversees the statewide
 university system, will have to approve Sasse’s position. That meeting 
is scheduled next week.

On Tuesday, the crowd in the meeting room in Gainesville was mostly 
calm, but when Sasse was approved, there were some shouts of disapproval
 in the audience, according to people who attended the meeting. The 
remarks included “F— you Mori (Hosseini)” who is the chairman of the 
board; “This whole process is bulls—,” and “This is a farce.”

The vote came after public testimony from the UF community and a 
lengthy Q+A session that covered topics from the future of higher 
education and academic freedom to tenure and the concerns from LGBTQ+ 
students and staff.

During the Q+A, Sasse said that he would practice “political 
celibacy” when it comes to partisan issues leading up to his presidency 
at the university.

“So I would have no activity in partisan politics in any way as I 
arrive at the University of Florida. I wouldn’t speak at political 
events. I wouldn’t make political contributions, partisan political 
contributions. I wouldn’t surrogate for or assist any candidates.”

Before the vote, “I was hesitant about the decision to bring in a 
politician,” said UF Board of Trustee member Richard Cole. “I had been 
in school here when we did that twice, and I didn’t think it was 
probably the right thing at the right time. But you’ve (Sasse) overcome 
that for me. I hope you will for them. I strongly support this 
nomination. I think it will do terrific job. I really do.”

But the candidacy of the Republican senator has been contentious from
 the moment he was announced as the “sole finalist” of UF’s presidential
 search.

“Once again, political meddling has made UF a laughingstock of the academic community,” said Bryn Taylor, a UF graduate student.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667330936433.png" alt="Sen. Ben Sasse answers questions from the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees before they vote on him to serve as UF’s next president on Nov. 1, 2022. (Screenshot/University of Florida)&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Ben Sasse answers questions from the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees before they vote on him to serve as UF’s next president on Nov. 1, 2022. (Screenshot/University of Florida)&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Board of Governors will have to approve Sasse’s position</h2>By DANIELLE J. BROWN <a href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/11/01/u-s-sen-sasse-sole-finalist-in-uf-presidential-search-to-lead-floridas-flagship-university/">Florida Phoenix</a>The University of Florida’s Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to 
approve Nebraska’s U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse as the new president to lead 
Florida’s flagship institution, despite weeks of outcry, questions about
 the senator’s political views, and an air of secrecy around the search 
process that led to his candidacy.The board agreed to provide compensation for Sasse that would be up 
to but not exceed $1.6 million. (A U.S. Senate salary is under $200,000 a
 year.) The overarching Board of Governors, which oversees the statewide
 university system, will have to approve Sasse’s position. That meeting 
is scheduled next week.On Tuesday, the crowd in the meeting room in Gainesville was mostly 
calm, but when Sasse was approved, there were some shouts of disapproval
 in the audience, according to people who attended the meeting. The 
remarks included “F— you Mori (Hosseini)” who is the chairman of the 
board; “This whole process is bulls—,” and “This is a farce.”The vote came after public testimony from the UF community and a 
lengthy Q+A session that covered topics from the future of higher 
education and academic freedom to tenure and the concerns from LGBTQ+ 
students and staff.During the Q+A, Sasse said that he would practice “political 
celibacy” when it comes to partisan issues leading up to his presidency 
at the university.“So I would have no activity in partisan politics in any way as I 
arrive at the University of Florida. I wouldn’t speak at political 
events. I wouldn’t make political contributions, partisan political 
contributions. I wouldn’t surrogate for or assist any candidates.”Before the vote, “I was hesitant about the decision to bring in a 
politician,” said UF Board of Trustee member Richard Cole. “I had been 
in school here when we did that twice, and I didn’t think it was 
probably the right thing at the right time. But you’ve (Sasse) overcome 
that for me. I hope you will for them. I strongly support this 
nomination. I think it will do terrific job. I really do.”But the candidacy of the Republican senator has been contentious from
 the moment he was announced as the “sole finalist” of UF’s presidential
 search.“Once again, political meddling has made UF a laughingstock of the academic community,” said Bryn Taylor, a UF graduate student.

Nebraska's Sasse OK'd as president of University of Florida

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have held both chambers of Congress and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">the presidency</a>&nbsp;for the last two years, but they may not have such consolidated power for much longer.

Republicans are favored to win the House in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections">the Nov. 8 midterm elections</a>, bolstered by frustration over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-economy-consumer-spending-prices-87798a21acc765400c98ff8b07fae96a">the economy</a>&nbsp;and advantages in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-2022-midterm-elections-us-supreme-court-health-voting-districts-46af62d6364b0c338a50b301d40ce8c1">the redistricting process</a>&nbsp;that takes place every 10 years. But Democrats are working to hold their ground, campaigning on maintaining&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">access to abortion</a>&nbsp;and other issues.

The outlook is murkier in the Senate, where Republicans are bidding to take back control. Several races in key battleground states are tight, leading Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to say the chances of his party winning a majority are just 50-50.

A look at control of Congress and what will happen if Republicans win a majority in either chamber in the election:

Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-business-ap-top-news-589730d4b6834a0db0b588f25356f33a">held the majority since 2018</a>, when they won control in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-north-america-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-c0be062914e048d79f70bcf120e1ccbb">then-President Donald Trump’s first midterm election</a>. Republicans could take back the House if they net just five seats in dozens of competitive districts, and they are trying to win dozens.

History also gives Republicans reason for optimism. In the modern era, the party that's held the White House has lost congressional seats in virtually every first-term president’s midterm election.

If Republicans win the House on Nov. 8, the GOP caucus will elect a new speaker and take power on Jan. 3, 2023. They will run every committee and decide what bills come to the House floor.

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has already unveiled his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-kevin-mccarthy-newt-gingrich-border-security-97f04b6997ea980a868b8d7628378824">“Commitment to America,”</a>&nbsp;a broad outline of economic, border security and other policies that the GOP would propose in the early days of the next Congress.

A return to Republican power in the House would be a victory for Trump, who has fought Democrat-led efforts to hold him accountable for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection</a>. The vast majority of Republicans who are expected to return to Washington next year, along with most of those hoping to win a first term, are loyal to Trump and have followed his example in their policies and positions.

Among those allies are far-right members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-gop-votes-greene-d00c46241478d39db3996a36f5cbf91e">stripped of her committee assignments</a>&nbsp;by Democrats because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-marjorie-taylor-greene-congress-ed7fb114dbe45d0cd703d8800c21bfa3">her extreme rhetoric</a>&nbsp;but would be part of a broad governing majority under a GOP House. Greene stood behind McCarthy as he introduced the “Commitment to America” in Pennsylvania last month.

Democratic priorities like access to abortion, addressing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment">climate change</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-covid-health-chicago-c912ecc5619e925c5ea7447d36808715">stricter gun control</a>&nbsp;would immediately be sidelined. And most, if not all, of President Joe Biden’s agenda would be effectively dead for the final two years of his term.

Still, nothing becomes law without Biden's signature. Bills to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with military issues are necessary for government to function. Those bills are likely to become flashpoints in negotiations between the GOP, Democrats and the White House.

Biden, who served in the Senate for decades, has often touted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">his bipartisan credentials</a>&nbsp;and said he wants to work with Republicans. But there would be little appetite for that in a GOP Congress that has made opposition to Biden its top priority.

While the Senate could tilt either way after the midterm elections, the majority party is still likely to have the slimmest of margins. That means Biden will be able to find a bit more common ground there, no matter who is in charge. Much of Biden's legislative achievements in office have been the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.

Still, a Republican-led Senate could pass bills sent over by a GOP House, putting political pressure on Biden. And the GOP would regain control of committees and, with it, the power to conduct investigations and oversight of the administration.

A Republican Senate could also make life difficult for Biden by blocking or delaying passage of the president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-bill-clinton-race-and-ethnicity-voting-rights-district-of-columbia-80830dd1e0687173a0d3927952ed4a8b">judicial and executive branch nominees</a>.

If Democrats were to hold the Senate and Republicans win the House, the two chambers would be unlikely to find much common ground. But Republicans could try to win over Democratic Senate moderates on some legislation.

If Democrats were able to keep the House and the Senate, they would likely restart negotiations on some of Biden’s agenda items that were never passed, including his new package of social and economic programs that stalled amid internal Democratic disagreements.

The majority of House districts aren't competitive, thanks to a redistricting process that allows state legislatures to draw their own congressional lines if they decide to. Many legislatures draw lines to give advantages to one party or the other.

Still, dozens of seats are in play, including many of those held by Democrats who won in suburban districts in 2018, winning the majority for the party that year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/10/1602710165442.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have held both chambers of Congress and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9">the presidency</a>&nbsp;for the last two years, but they may not have such consolidated power for much longer.Republicans are favored to win the House in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections">the Nov. 8 midterm elections</a>, bolstered by frustration over&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-economy-consumer-spending-prices-87798a21acc765400c98ff8b07fae96a">the economy</a>&nbsp;and advantages in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-2022-midterm-elections-us-supreme-court-health-voting-districts-46af62d6364b0c338a50b301d40ce8c1">the redistricting process</a>&nbsp;that takes place every 10 years. But Democrats are working to hold their ground, campaigning on maintaining&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">access to abortion</a>&nbsp;and other issues.The outlook is murkier in the Senate, where Republicans are bidding to take back control. Several races in key battleground states are tight, leading Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to say the chances of his party winning a majority are just 50-50.A look at control of Congress and what will happen if Republicans win a majority in either chamber in the election:WHAT IF THE HOUSE FLIPS?Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-business-ap-top-news-589730d4b6834a0db0b588f25356f33a">held the majority since 2018</a>, when they won control in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-north-america-donald-trump-race-and-ethnicity-elections-c0be062914e048d79f70bcf120e1ccbb">then-President Donald Trump’s first midterm election</a>. Republicans could take back the House if they net just five seats in dozens of competitive districts, and they are trying to win dozens.History also gives Republicans reason for optimism. In the modern era, the party that's held the White House has lost congressional seats in virtually every first-term president’s midterm election.If Republicans win the House on Nov. 8, the GOP caucus will elect a new speaker and take power on Jan. 3, 2023. They will run every committee and decide what bills come to the House floor.WHAT WOULD A REPUBLICAN HOUSE LOOK LIKE?House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has already unveiled his&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-kevin-mccarthy-newt-gingrich-border-security-97f04b6997ea980a868b8d7628378824">“Commitment to America,”</a>&nbsp;a broad outline of economic, border security and other policies that the GOP would propose in the early days of the next Congress.A return to Republican power in the House would be a victory for Trump, who has fought Democrat-led efforts to hold him accountable for&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-confirm-joe-biden-78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection</a>. The vast majority of Republicans who are expected to return to Washington next year, along with most of those hoping to win a first term, are loyal to Trump and have followed his example in their policies and positions.Among those allies are far-right members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/house-gop-votes-greene-d00c46241478d39db3996a36f5cbf91e">stripped of her committee assignments</a>&nbsp;by Democrats because of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-donald-trump-marjorie-taylor-greene-congress-ed7fb114dbe45d0cd703d8800c21bfa3">her extreme rhetoric</a>&nbsp;but would be part of a broad governing majority under a GOP House. Greene stood behind McCarthy as he introduced the “Commitment to America” in Pennsylvania last month.WHAT WOULD A GOP HOUSE MEAN FOR BIDEN?Democratic priorities like access to abortion, addressing&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment">climate change</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gun-violence-covid-health-chicago-c912ecc5619e925c5ea7447d36808715">stricter gun control</a>&nbsp;would immediately be sidelined. And most, if not all, of President Joe Biden’s agenda would be effectively dead for the final two years of his term.Still, nothing becomes law without Biden's signature. Bills to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and deal with military issues are necessary for government to function. Those bills are likely to become flashpoints in negotiations between the GOP, Democrats and the White House.Biden, who served in the Senate for decades, has often touted&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">his bipartisan credentials</a>&nbsp;and said he wants to work with Republicans. But there would be little appetite for that in a GOP Congress that has made opposition to Biden its top priority.WHAT ABOUT THE SENATE?While the Senate could tilt either way after the midterm elections, the majority party is still likely to have the slimmest of margins. That means Biden will be able to find a bit more common ground there, no matter who is in charge. Much of Biden's legislative achievements in office have been the byproduct of bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.Still, a Republican-led Senate could pass bills sent over by a GOP House, putting political pressure on Biden. And the GOP would regain control of committees and, with it, the power to conduct investigations and oversight of the administration.A Republican Senate could also make life difficult for Biden by blocking or delaying passage of the president’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-bill-clinton-race-and-ethnicity-voting-rights-district-of-columbia-80830dd1e0687173a0d3927952ed4a8b">judicial and executive branch nominees</a>.WHAT IF DEMOCRATS WIN?If Democrats were to hold the Senate and Republicans win the House, the two chambers would be unlikely to find much common ground. But Republicans could try to win over Democratic Senate moderates on some legislation.If Democrats were able to keep the House and the Senate, they would likely restart negotiations on some of Biden’s agenda items that were never passed, including his new package of social and economic programs that stalled amid internal Democratic disagreements.WHAT DOES THE HOUSE MAP LOOK LIKE?The majority of House districts aren't competitive, thanks to a redistricting process that allows state legislatures to draw their own congressional lines if they decide to. Many legislatures draw lines to give advantages to one party or the other.Still, dozens of seats are in play, including many of those held by Democrats who won in suburban districts in 2018, winning the majority for the party that year.

Control of Congress: What's at play one week from today

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An investigation into a crash that killed six people in southeastern Nebraska last month shows the driver of the car was drunk, police said in a news release.

Lincoln police said Monday that the results from a toxicology report show 26-year-old Jonathan Kurth, of Lincoln, had at the time of the crash a blood alcohol content of .211 — more than 2½ times the legal driving limit of .08.

Police also said that electronic data collected from the car showed it was traveling 100 mph in the moments before it crashed into a tree along a residential street where the speed limit is 25 mph.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/crime-nebraska-omaha-lincoln-b0e5189dec2fc1ad2de40d70f1c6ac41">Police were first alerted to the early morning Oct. 2 crash</a>&nbsp;when one passenger’s cellphone automatically alerted dispatchers that the phone's owner had been in a crash and was not responding.

Kurth and four male passengers died at the scene: Octavias Farr, 21; Jonathan Koch, 22; Nicholas Bisesi, 22; and Benjamin Lenagh, 23. A fifth passenger, Cassie Brenner, 24, died later at a hospital.

All of the dead were residents of Lincoln except Lenagh, who was from Omaha.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/6/1559744286393.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An investigation into a crash that killed six people in southeastern Nebraska last month shows the driver of the car was drunk, police said in a news release.Lincoln police said Monday that the results from a toxicology report show 26-year-old Jonathan Kurth, of Lincoln, had at the time of the crash a blood alcohol content of .211 — more than 2½ times the legal driving limit of .08.Police also said that electronic data collected from the car showed it was traveling 100 mph in the moments before it crashed into a tree along a residential street where the speed limit is 25 mph.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/crime-nebraska-omaha-lincoln-b0e5189dec2fc1ad2de40d70f1c6ac41">Police were first alerted to the early morning Oct. 2 crash</a>&nbsp;when one passenger’s cellphone automatically alerted dispatchers that the phone's owner had been in a crash and was not responding.Kurth and four male passengers died at the scene: Octavias Farr, 21; Jonathan Koch, 22; Nicholas Bisesi, 22; and Benjamin Lenagh, 23. A fifth passenger, Cassie Brenner, 24, died later at a hospital.All of the dead were residents of Lincoln except Lenagh, who was from Omaha.

Police: Driver in Lincoln crash that killed 6 was drunk

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday put a temporary hold on the handover of former President Donald Trump's tax returns to a congressional committee.

Roberts' order gives the Supreme Court time to weigh the legal issues in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-business-personal-taxes-76fea2bf34654d7ec854d5f9fd2836c2">Trump's emergency appeal to the high court</a>, filed Monday.

Without court intervention, the tax returns could have been provided as early as Thursday by the Treasury Department to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.

Roberts gave the committee until Nov. 10 to respond. The chief justice handles emergency appeals from the nation's capital, where the fight over Trump's taxes has been going on since 2019.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-personal-taxes-congress-government-and-politics-386ef94dc8c41c75ea77d02d36afe446">Lower courts ruled that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns</a>&nbsp;and rejected Trump’s claims that it was overstepping.

If Trump can persuade the nation’s highest court to intervene in this case, he could potentially delay a final decision until the start of the next Congress in January. If Republicans recapture control of the House&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">in the fall election</a>, they could drop the records request.

The temporary delay imposed by Roberts is the third such order issued by justices in recent days in cases related to Trump.

The court separately is weighing Sen. Lindsey Graham's emergency appeal to avoid having to testify before a Georgia grand jury that is investigating potential illegal interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election in the state.

Also before the court is an emergency appeal from Arizona Republican party chairwoman Kelli Ward to prevent the handover of phone records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The House Ways and Means panel and its chairman, Democrat Richard Neal of Massachusetts, first requested Trump’s tax returns in 2019 as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s audit program and tax law compliance by the former president. A federal law says the Internal Revenue Service “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.

The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had defended a decision by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to withhold the tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats for partisan reasons. A lawsuit ensued.

After President Joe Biden took office, the committee renewed the request, seeking Trump’s tax returns and additional information from 2015-2020. The White House took the position that the request was a valid one and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to comply. Trump then attempted to halt the handover in court.

Then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained copies of Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation. That case, too, went to the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump’s argument that he had broad immunity as president.

Trump had most recently sought the justices’ intervention in a legal dispute stemming from the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The court rejected that appeal.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667315055512.png" alt="Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts during the 2019 State of the Union address-photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts during the 2019 State of the Union address-photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday put a temporary hold on the handover of former President Donald Trump's tax returns to a congressional committee.Roberts' order gives the Supreme Court time to weigh the legal issues in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-donald-trump-mar-a-lago-business-personal-taxes-76fea2bf34654d7ec854d5f9fd2836c2">Trump's emergency appeal to the high court</a>, filed Monday.Without court intervention, the tax returns could have been provided as early as Thursday by the Treasury Department to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.Roberts gave the committee until Nov. 10 to respond. The chief justice handles emergency appeals from the nation's capital, where the fight over Trump's taxes has been going on since 2019.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667313899599.png" alt="Former President Trump during a rally for Arizona Republicans last month -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Former President Trump during a rally for Arizona Republicans last month -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-personal-taxes-congress-government-and-politics-386ef94dc8c41c75ea77d02d36afe446">Lower courts ruled that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns</a>&nbsp;and rejected Trump’s claims that it was overstepping.If Trump can persuade the nation’s highest court to intervene in this case, he could potentially delay a final decision until the start of the next Congress in January. If Republicans recapture control of the House&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections?utm_source=apnewsnav&amp;utm_medium=featured">in the fall election</a>, they could drop the records request.The temporary delay imposed by Roberts is the third such order issued by justices in recent days in cases related to Trump.The court separately is weighing Sen. Lindsey Graham's emergency appeal to avoid having to testify before a Georgia grand jury that is investigating potential illegal interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election in the state.Also before the court is an emergency appeal from Arizona Republican party chairwoman Kelli Ward to prevent the handover of phone records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.The House Ways and Means panel and its chairman, Democrat Richard Neal of Massachusetts, first requested Trump’s tax returns in 2019 as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s audit program and tax law compliance by the former president. A federal law says the Internal Revenue Service “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had defended a decision by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to withhold the tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats for partisan reasons. A lawsuit ensued.After President Joe Biden took office, the committee renewed the request, seeking Trump’s tax returns and additional information from 2015-2020. The White House took the position that the request was a valid one and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to comply. Trump then attempted to halt the handover in court.Then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained copies of Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation. That case, too, went to the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump’s argument that he had broad immunity as president.Trump had most recently sought the justices’ intervention in a legal dispute stemming from the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The court rejected that appeal.

Supreme Court temporarily blocks handover of Trump tax returns

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/increase-in-respiratory-illnesses-among-very-young-noted-in-lincoln-omaha-areas/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Health officials in 
Nebraska’s two largest counties are reporting notable increases in cases
 of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department on Monday reported 
outbreaks in at least 13 local child care facilities, while a spokesman 
with the Douglas County Health Department reported more than 250 cases 
last week, a new high for the year.

Lancaster County saw 238 cases of RSV in October, which was nearly 
four times as many as in September. Eighty-five percent of the cases 
involved children ages 5 and younger.

RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like
 symptoms and runs its course in a week or two. But officials said it 
can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.

Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said that some of 
the same precautionary steps that prevent COVID-19 and the spread of the
 flu can protect against RSV.

Those steps include: washing hands often, covering coughs and 
sneezes, wearing&nbsp;a mask if you have symptom, and staying home if you’re 
sick and avoiding contact with others.

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/increase-in-respiratory-illnesses-among-very-young-noted-in-lincoln-omaha-areas/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Health officials in 
Nebraska’s two largest counties are reporting notable increases in cases
 of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department on Monday reported 
outbreaks in at least 13 local child care facilities, while a spokesman 
with the Douglas County Health Department reported more than 250 cases 
last week, a new high for the year.Lancaster County saw 238 cases of RSV in October, which was nearly 
four times as many as in September. Eighty-five percent of the cases 
involved children ages 5 and younger.RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like
 symptoms and runs its course in a week or two. But officials said it 
can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said that some of 
the same precautionary steps that prevent COVID-19 and the spread of the
 flu can protect against RSV.Those steps include: washing hands often, covering coughs and 
sneezes, wearing&nbsp;a mask if you have symptom, and staying home if you’re 
sick and avoiding contact with others.Cover image courtesy Pixabay

Respiratory illnesses among very young increases in Neb.

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/11/01/nebraska-state-senator-returns-to-ukraine-to-deliver-bibles-stove-food-and-a-message-of-support/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — State Sen. Tom Brewer, a decorated military veteran, is 
back in Ukraine, this time delivering solar Bibles and portable 
cookstoves to soldiers at the front, while narrowly escaping a missile 
strike.

Two Russian missiles hit about 300 yards on either side of a highway 
Monday as Brewer’s party was leaving Zaporizhzhia, the site of heavy 
fighting in southeast Ukraine, Brewer said in a telephone interview.

Russian missiles usually strike in pairs, he said, but suddenly a 
third S-300 missile slammed into the opposite side of the road on which 
his group was traveling. Their heavy delivery truck jumped into the air 
on impact.

Luckily, he said, the missile was a dud, spitting out sparks and smoke instead of a 300-pound payload of explosives.

“It would have taken the entire road out,” Brewer said. “You would have been pieces of the road.”

“It would have been a bad day,” he said.

This is the second trip to Ukraine since the war started for Brewer, a
 two-term state senator who represents Nebraska’s vast Sandhills. He has
 experience with battlefields, after being deployed six times to 
Afghanistan, including once when he was seriously wounded.

Along with a Ukrainian pastor and a buddy from Elmwood, Nebraska, 
Brewer is delivering solar-powered Bibles to wounded soldiers and 
passing out food and small cookstoves to those on the frontlines, so 
they can warm water for coffee and tea and provide warmth as 
temperatures fall into the 30s.

The 64-year-old senator, who is battling leukemia and a serious sinus infection, said he’s trying not to get shot.

“But&nbsp;the deliveries are where the soldiers at, and the soldiers are at the front,” he said.

Brewer said his mission, in part, is to provide a hands-on look at 
what’s happening at the front of the Ukrainian’s war with Russia. The 
U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is abandoned and staff is in Poland, so he is 
preparing his own “trip report” for members of Congress — as he did this
 summer — about conditions at the front and whether American military 
aid is helping.

Since he last visited in early August, the Ukrainians have retaken 
large swaths of land from the Russians, aided by short-range HIMARS 
rocket launchers provided by the U.S.

Ukrainian soldiers are emboldened by their advance, Brewer said, but 
they need more artillery and better uniforms for the upcoming winter.

“It’s rare to see two soldiers with the same uniform,” he said. “I 
gave my stocking cap away to a guy the other day who looked cold, but 
now I’m kind of regretting it.”

Brewer said he’s arriving at a pivotal time in the war.&nbsp;The
 battle to retake Kherson, a southern Ukrainian city and regional 
capital captured early by the Russians, is going to “decide the war,” he
 said.

“That is going to be a 
Stalingrad-type battle,” Brewer said, referring to the bloodiest battle 
of World War II, in which the Russians repelled the Nazis, turning the 
tide against Germany.

This time, though, the senator said 
it is the Ukrainians who need to be victorious. To do that, Brewer said 
the U.S. should supply them with longer-range missiles that can knock 
out rocket-launching facilities outside of Ukraine. Such sites, in 
Belarus and Russia, are raining down attacks on Ukrainian cities, 
knocking out power plants, train tracks and other infrastructure.

“If we don’t (provide long-range 
rockets), then we guarantee them a cold, dark winter,” he said. “They 
will eventually lose their ability to generate electricity and pump 
water. Without water, things degrade pretty quickly.”

The Biden administration has thus far been reluctant to provide 
longer-range rockets that could strike into Russia, instead focusing on 
defensive weapons that don’t risk an escalation and spread of the war.

Can a state senator from a small Plains state have an impact on an international conflict, half a world away?

“No one can tell the story and share what’s going on here unless you go and see it,” he said.

Brewer said he is in regular contact with Nebraska’s U.S. House 
members and plans to travel to Washington, D.C., to share what hehas 
learned after he returns.

“We have a chance to help them, by 
just giving them the tools, to defeat the top army in the world. Without
 filling one American body bag,” he said.

“They want to defeat the Russians, and they’re fighting with a vengeance like I’ve never seen,” Brewer added.

He said he was afforded a visit with a top Ukrainian intelligence 
officer, who is guiding the country’s defense, and regularly gets 
“mobbed” by Ukrainians he sees in towns near the front.

“When they see the Stars and Stripes they want nothing more than to let you know that they are thankful,” Brewer said. “They go out of their way to thank you.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667309211987.png" alt="State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon is back in Ukraine, this time delivering stoves to soldiers at the front to heat water and stay warm. (Courtesy of Tom Brewer)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon is back in Ukraine, this time delivering stoves to soldiers at the front to heat water and stay warm. (Courtesy of Tom Brewer)</figcaption>
 </figure>By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/11/01/nebraska-state-senator-returns-to-ukraine-to-deliver-bibles-stove-food-and-a-message-of-support/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — State Sen. Tom Brewer, a decorated military veteran, is 
back in Ukraine, this time delivering solar Bibles and portable 
cookstoves to soldiers at the front, while narrowly escaping a missile 
strike.Two Russian missiles hit about 300 yards on either side of a highway 
Monday as Brewer’s party was leaving Zaporizhzhia, the site of heavy 
fighting in southeast Ukraine, Brewer said in a telephone interview.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/11/1667309300951.jpeg" alt="This is all that remains of a building in Zaporizhzhia, near the front lines in eastern Ukraine. (Courtesy of Tom Brewer)" />
 <figcaption>This is all that remains of a building in Zaporizhzhia, near the front lines in eastern Ukraine. (Courtesy of Tom Brewer)</figcaption>
 </figure>Russian missiles usually strike in pairs, he said, but suddenly a 
third S-300 missile slammed into the opposite side of the road on which 
his group was traveling. Their heavy delivery truck jumped into the air 
on impact.<h2>Missile was a dud</h2>Luckily, he said, the missile was a dud, spitting out sparks and smoke instead of a 300-pound payload of explosives.“It would have taken the entire road out,” Brewer said. “You would have been pieces of the road.”“It would have been a bad day,” he said.This is the second trip to Ukraine since the war started for Brewer, a
 two-term state senator who represents Nebraska’s vast Sandhills. He has
 experience with battlefields, after being deployed six times to 
Afghanistan, including once when he was seriously wounded.<h2>Delivering Bibles, food</h2>Along with a Ukrainian pastor and a buddy from Elmwood, Nebraska, 
Brewer is delivering solar-powered Bibles to wounded soldiers and 
passing out food and small cookstoves to those on the frontlines, so 
they can warm water for coffee and tea and provide warmth as 
temperatures fall into the 30s.The 64-year-old senator, who is battling leukemia and a serious sinus infection, said he’s trying not to get shot.“But&nbsp;the deliveries are where the soldiers at, and the soldiers are at the front,” he said.Brewer said his mission, in part, is to provide a hands-on look at 
what’s happening at the front of the Ukrainian’s war with Russia. The 
U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is abandoned and staff is in Poland, so he is 
preparing his own “trip report” for members of Congress — as he did this
 summer — about conditions at the front and whether American military 
aid is helping.<h2>Ukrainians advanced since August</h2>Since he last visited in early August, the Ukrainians have retaken 
large swaths of land from the Russians, aided by short-range HIMARS 
rocket launchers provided by the U.S.Ukrainian soldiers are emboldened by their advance, Brewer said, but 
they need more artillery and better uniforms for the upcoming winter.“It’s rare to see two soldiers with the same uniform,” he said. “I 
gave my stocking cap away to a guy the other day who looked cold, but 
now I’m kind of regretting it.”Brewer said he’s arriving at a pivotal time in the war.&nbsp;The
 battle to retake Kherson, a southern Ukrainian city and regional 
capital captured early by the Russians, is going to “decide the war,” he
 said.<h2>‘A Stalingrad-type battle’</h2>“That is going to be a 
Stalingrad-type battle,” Brewer said, referring to the bloodiest battle 
of World War II, in which the Russians repelled the Nazis, turning the 
tide against Germany.This time, though, the senator said 
it is the Ukrainians who need to be victorious. To do that, Brewer said 
the U.S. should supply them with longer-range missiles that can knock 
out rocket-launching facilities outside of Ukraine. Such sites, in 
Belarus and Russia, are raining down attacks on Ukrainian cities, 
knocking out power plants, train tracks and other infrastructure.<h2>Provide longer-range rockets</h2>“If we don’t (provide long-range 
rockets), then we guarantee them a cold, dark winter,” he said. “They 
will eventually lose their ability to generate electricity and pump 
water. Without water, things degrade pretty quickly.”The Biden administration has thus far been reluctant to provide 
longer-range rockets that could strike into Russia, instead focusing on 
defensive weapons that don’t risk an escalation and spread of the war.Can a state senator from a small Plains state have an impact on an international conflict, half a world away?Yes, Brewer believes.<h2>Must be there</h2>“No one can tell the story and share what’s going on here unless you go and see it,” he said.Brewer said he is in regular contact with Nebraska’s U.S. House 
members and plans to travel to Washington, D.C., to share what hehas 
learned after he returns.“We have a chance to help them, by 
just giving them the tools, to defeat the top army in the world. Without
 filling one American body bag,” he said.“They want to defeat the Russians, and they’re fighting with a vengeance like I’ve never seen,” Brewer added.He said he was afforded a visit with a top Ukrainian intelligence 
officer, who is guiding the country’s defense, and regularly gets 
“mobbed” by Ukrainians he sees in towns near the front.“When they see the Stars and Stripes they want nothing more than to let you know that they are thankful,” Brewer said. “They go out of their way to thank you.”

Neb. senator returns to Ukraine to deliver Bibles, stoves — and message of support

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — A Halloween celebration turned frantic after a man drove through a barricaded area and was shot by an Omaha police officer Monday night, police said.

The Omaha World-Herald&nbsp;<a href="https://omaha.com/news/local/officer-shoots-man-after-car-drives-through-barricades-at-minne-lusa-halloween-celebration/article_1f61e17e-597c-11ed-ad08-27e58dc35bcb.html#tracking-source=home-top-story">reports</a>&nbsp;that the shooting occurred during the popular annual “Halloween on the Boulevard" block party in the Minne Lusa neighborhood in Omaha.

Children and adults were out in the neighborhood trick-or-treating when a car drove recklessly through a blocked-off area shortly after 7 p.m., Omaha Police Lt. Neal Bonacci said.

The driver of the vehicle was shot by an Omaha police officer and taken to Nebraska Medical Center with serious injuries. The name of the driver has not yet been released. Police say no one else was injured.

Chrissy Lopez, a resident of the neighborhood, told the Omaha World-Herald that the vehicle initially drove slowly through the crowd as people yelled at the driver to stop.

“He would stop and then drive a little more,” she said. “I heard his engine rev and people started screaming, and I thought ‘Oh no.’ And then I heard the gunshots, and everybody just started screaming and running and crying.”

Police and firefighters were already on the scene for the block party, which is put on by the Miller Park Minne Lusa Neighborhood Association and draws thousands of people to the area each year.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSOMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — A Halloween celebration turned frantic after a man drove through a barricaded area and was shot by an Omaha police officer Monday night, police said.The Omaha World-Herald&nbsp;<a href="https://omaha.com/news/local/officer-shoots-man-after-car-drives-through-barricades-at-minne-lusa-halloween-celebration/article_1f61e17e-597c-11ed-ad08-27e58dc35bcb.html#tracking-source=home-top-story">reports</a>&nbsp;that the shooting occurred during the popular annual “Halloween on the Boulevard" block party in the Minne Lusa neighborhood in Omaha.Children and adults were out in the neighborhood trick-or-treating when a car drove recklessly through a blocked-off area shortly after 7 p.m., Omaha Police Lt. Neal Bonacci said.The driver of the vehicle was shot by an Omaha police officer and taken to Nebraska Medical Center with serious injuries. The name of the driver has not yet been released. Police say no one else was injured.Chrissy Lopez, a resident of the neighborhood, told the Omaha World-Herald that the vehicle initially drove slowly through the crowd as people yelled at the driver to stop.“He would stop and then drive a little more,” she said. “I heard his engine rev and people started screaming, and I thought ‘Oh no.’ And then I heard the gunshots, and everybody just started screaming and running and crying.”Police and firefighters were already on the scene for the block party, which is put on by the Miller Park Minne Lusa Neighborhood Association and draws thousands of people to the area each year.The shooting is under investigation.

Omaha officer shoots driver at annual Halloween block party

WASHINGTON (AP) — The survival of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/affirmative-action">affirmative action</a>&nbsp;in higher education appeared to be in serious trouble Monday at a conservative-dominated Supreme Court after hours of debate over vexing questions of race.

<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2022/21-707">Click here</a> to listen to the oral arguments in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina

<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2022/20-1199">Click here</a> to listen to the oral arguments in&nbsp;Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard

The most diverse court in the nation's history — among the nine justices are four women, two Black people and a Latina — is weighing challenges to admissions programs at the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/college-admissions-education-race-and-ethnicity-north-carolina-university-of-north-carolina-0ed19edd9dcb13d194afe0f13aa330df">University of North Carolina</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/appeals-court-clears-harvard-racial-bias-4e3eb42d20ee675887e02bcec57ab412">Harvard</a>&nbsp;that use race among many factors in seeking a diverse student body.

The court's six conservative justices all expressed doubts about the practice, which has been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978. The court's three liberals defended the programs, which are similar to those used by many other private and public universities.

Getting rid of race-conscious college admissions would have a “destabilizing” effect that would cause the ranks of Black and Latino students to plummet at the nation’s most selective schools, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, said.

Following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">the overturning of the half-century abortion precedent of Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;in June, the cases offer a big new test of whether the court, with its 6-3 conservative edge, will sharply steer the law to the right on another contentious cultural issue that conservatives have had in their sights for years.

The questions the justices offered further laid bare the stark ideological divisions on the court in an era of intense political polarization in the country.

Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's second Black justice, who has a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ketanji-brown-jackson-us-supreme-court-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-education-15a37e379866d590da82c0d0224679e3">long record of opposition to affirmative action programs and other conservative positions</a>, noted he didn’t go to racially diverse schools, at one point saying, “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means.” He also challenged defenders of affirmative action to “tell me what the educational benefits are.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another conservative, pointed to one of the court's previous affirmative action cases and said it anticipated a halt to its use in declaring that any classification based on race was “dangerous” and had to have an end point.

She was among several conservatives who pushed lawyers representing the schools and the Biden administration to venture a guess when that day would come.

“Your position is that race matters because it’s necessary for diversity, which is necessary for the sort of education you want. It’s not going to stop mattering at some particular point,” said Chief Justice John Roberts, who has long been skeptical of considerations of race.

Justice Samuel Alito likened affirmative action to a footrace in which a minority applicant gets to “start five yards closer to the finish line.” But liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Hispanic member, rejected that comparison saying what universities are doing is looking at students as a whole.

Likewise, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest justice and its first Black woman, also said race was being used among 40 different factors at the University of North Carolina as part of a broad review of applicants.

“They’re looking at the full person with all of these characteristics,” she said.

Justice Elena Kagan, who was the first female dean at Harvard Law School earlier in her career, called universities the “pipelines to leadership in our society” and suggested that without affirmative action minority enrollment will drop.

“I thought part of what it meant to be an American and to believe in American pluralism is that actually our institutions, you know, are reflective of who we are as a people in all our variety,” she said.

The Supreme Court has twice&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-texas-courts-relationships-race-and-ethnicity-87f9c6ae0150469f9204b5d79c7dc7ad">upheld race-conscious college admissions programs</a>&nbsp;in the past 19 years, including just six years ago.

But that was before the three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined. Jackson was chosen this year by President Joe Biden.

Lower courts have upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants.

The cases are brought by conservative activist Edward Blum, who also was behind an earlier affirmative action challenge against the University of Texas as well as the case that led the court in 2013 to end the use of a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Blum formed Students for Fair Admissions, which filed the lawsuits against both schools in 2014.

The group argues that the Constitution forbids the use of race in college admissions and calls for overturning earlier Supreme Court decisions that said otherwise.

Colleges and universities can use other, race-neutral ways to assemble a diverse student body, including by focusing on socioeconomic status and eliminating the preference for children of alumni and major donors, Students for Fair Admissions argues.

Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed Ryan Park, a lawyer for North Carolina, on why colleges shouldn't be forced to eliminate those preferences, “which tend to favor the children of wealthy white parents,” to see if it allowed them to increase diversity without considering race.

A college might end up with a more diverse student body, but "we just would have a crummy squash team and no art museum,” Gorsuch said.

In the Harvard case, lawyer Seth Waxman pointed to lower court findings rejecting claims that Harvard discriminates on the basis of race. Waxman said the school looks for many different kinds of diversity, including having oboe players for its student orchestra.

“We did not fight a civil war over oboe players," Roberts countered, a sharp allusion to the nation's long struggle with race.

The schools contend that they use race in a limited way, but that eliminating it as a factor altogether would make it much harder to achieve a student body that looks like America.

The Biden administration is urging the court to preserve race-conscious admissions. The Trump administration had taken the opposite position in earlier stages of the cases.

UNC says its freshman class is about 65% white, 22% Asian American, 10% Black and 10% Hispanic. The numbers add to more than 100% because some students report belonging to more than one category, a school spokesman said.

White students are just over 40% of Harvard's freshman class, the school said. The class also is just under 28% Asian American, 14% Black and 12% Latino.

Nine states already prohibit any consideration of race in admissions to their public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.

In 2020, California voters easily rejected a ballot measure to bring back affirmative action.

Public opinion on the topic varies depending on how the question is asked. A Gallup Poll from 2021 found 62% of Americans in favor of affirmative action programs for racial minorities. But in a Pew Research Center survey in March, 74% of Americans, including majorities of Black and Latino respondents, said race and ethnicity should not factor into college admissions.

Jackson and Roberts received their undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. Two other justices went to law school there.

Jackson is sitting out the Harvard case because she was until recently a member of an advisory governing board there.

A decision in the affirmative action cases is not expected before late spring.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/10/1667264915999.jpeg" alt="People rally outside the Supreme Court as the court begins to hear oral arguments in two cases that could decide the future of affirmative action in college admissions, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)" />
 <figcaption>People rally outside the Supreme Court as the court begins to hear oral arguments in two cases that could decide the future of affirmative action in college admissions, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The survival of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/affirmative-action">affirmative action</a>&nbsp;in higher education appeared to be in serious trouble Monday at a conservative-dominated Supreme Court after hours of debate over vexing questions of race.<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2022/21-707">Click here</a> to listen to the oral arguments in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina<a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2022/20-1199">Click here</a> to listen to the oral arguments in&nbsp;Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of HarvardThe most diverse court in the nation's history — among the nine justices are four women, two Black people and a Latina — is weighing challenges to admissions programs at the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/college-admissions-education-race-and-ethnicity-north-carolina-university-of-north-carolina-0ed19edd9dcb13d194afe0f13aa330df">University of North Carolina</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/appeals-court-clears-harvard-racial-bias-4e3eb42d20ee675887e02bcec57ab412">Harvard</a>&nbsp;that use race among many factors in seeking a diverse student body.The court's six conservative justices all expressed doubts about the practice, which has been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978. The court's three liberals defended the programs, which are similar to those used by many other private and public universities.Getting rid of race-conscious college admissions would have a “destabilizing” effect that would cause the ranks of Black and Latino students to plummet at the nation’s most selective schools, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, said.Following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">the overturning of the half-century abortion precedent of Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;in June, the cases offer a big new test of whether the court, with its 6-3 conservative edge, will sharply steer the law to the right on another contentious cultural issue that conservatives have had in their sights for years.The questions the justices offered further laid bare the stark ideological divisions on the court in an era of intense political polarization in the country.Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's second Black justice, who has a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ketanji-brown-jackson-us-supreme-court-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-education-15a37e379866d590da82c0d0224679e3">long record of opposition to affirmative action programs and other conservative positions</a>, noted he didn’t go to racially diverse schools, at one point saying, “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means.” He also challenged defenders of affirmative action to “tell me what the educational benefits are.”Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another conservative, pointed to one of the court's previous affirmative action cases and said it anticipated a halt to its use in declaring that any classification based on race was “dangerous” and had to have an end point.She was among several conservatives who pushed lawyers representing the schools and the Biden administration to venture a guess when that day would come.“Your position is that race matters because it’s necessary for diversity, which is necessary for the sort of education you want. It’s not going to stop mattering at some particular point,” said Chief Justice John Roberts, who has long been skeptical of considerations of race.Justice Samuel Alito likened affirmative action to a footrace in which a minority applicant gets to “start five yards closer to the finish line.” But liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Hispanic member, rejected that comparison saying what universities are doing is looking at students as a whole.Likewise, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest justice and its first Black woman, also said race was being used among 40 different factors at the University of North Carolina as part of a broad review of applicants.“They’re looking at the full person with all of these characteristics,” she said.Justice Elena Kagan, who was the first female dean at Harvard Law School earlier in her career, called universities the “pipelines to leadership in our society” and suggested that without affirmative action minority enrollment will drop.“I thought part of what it meant to be an American and to believe in American pluralism is that actually our institutions, you know, are reflective of who we are as a people in all our variety,” she said.The Supreme Court has twice&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-texas-courts-relationships-race-and-ethnicity-87f9c6ae0150469f9204b5d79c7dc7ad">upheld race-conscious college admissions programs</a>&nbsp;in the past 19 years, including just six years ago.But that was before the three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined. Jackson was chosen this year by President Joe Biden.Lower courts have upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants.The cases are brought by conservative activist Edward Blum, who also was behind an earlier affirmative action challenge against the University of Texas as well as the case that led the court in 2013 to end the use of a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act.Blum formed Students for Fair Admissions, which filed the lawsuits against both schools in 2014.The group argues that the Constitution forbids the use of race in college admissions and calls for overturning earlier Supreme Court decisions that said otherwise.Colleges and universities can use other, race-neutral ways to assemble a diverse student body, including by focusing on socioeconomic status and eliminating the preference for children of alumni and major donors, Students for Fair Admissions argues.Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed Ryan Park, a lawyer for North Carolina, on why colleges shouldn't be forced to eliminate those preferences, “which tend to favor the children of wealthy white parents,” to see if it allowed them to increase diversity without considering race.A college might end up with a more diverse student body, but "we just would have a crummy squash team and no art museum,” Gorsuch said.In the Harvard case, lawyer Seth Waxman pointed to lower court findings rejecting claims that Harvard discriminates on the basis of race. Waxman said the school looks for many different kinds of diversity, including having oboe players for its student orchestra.“We did not fight a civil war over oboe players," Roberts countered, a sharp allusion to the nation's long struggle with race.The schools contend that they use race in a limited way, but that eliminating it as a factor altogether would make it much harder to achieve a student body that looks like America.The Biden administration is urging the court to preserve race-conscious admissions. The Trump administration had taken the opposite position in earlier stages of the cases.UNC says its freshman class is about 65% white, 22% Asian American, 10% Black and 10% Hispanic. The numbers add to more than 100% because some students report belonging to more than one category, a school spokesman said.White students are just over 40% of Harvard's freshman class, the school said. The class also is just under 28% Asian American, 14% Black and 12% Latino.Nine states already prohibit any consideration of race in admissions to their public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.In 2020, California voters easily rejected a ballot measure to bring back affirmative action.Public opinion on the topic varies depending on how the question is asked. A Gallup Poll from 2021 found 62% of Americans in favor of affirmative action programs for racial minorities. But in a Pew Research Center survey in March, 74% of Americans, including majorities of Black and Latino respondents, said race and ethnicity should not factor into college admissions.Jackson and Roberts received their undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. Two other justices went to law school there.Jackson is sitting out the Harvard case because she was until recently a member of an advisory governing board there.A decision in the affirmative action cases is not expected before late spring.

🎤Affirmative action in jeopardy after justices raise doubts

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told police he wanted to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps," authorities said Monday.

David DePape, 42, confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi in the couple's San Francisco bedroom early Friday morning, according to a federal affidavit filed in court Monday.

Federal prosecutors have filed two charges against DePape, days after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-california-san-francisco-1582f7f07e277d65ce445c39de9a8bca">police say he broke into the Pelosi's home</a>&nbsp;and struck the Democratic leader’s 82-year-old husband in the head with a hammer. He was left seriously injured in the attack, underwent surgery for a skull fracture, and suffered other injuries to his arms and hands.

DePape is charged federally with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening or injuring a family member. He also faces one count of attempted kidnapping of a United States official on account of the performance of official duties.

The announcement of the federal charges comes as San Francisco's district attorney is set to announce state criminal charges as well against DePape, who police say shouted out “Where is Nancy?” during the attack. He was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempted murder, elder abuse and burglary and is expected to be arraigned on state charges Tuesday.

San Francisco's district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, also rejected conspiracy theories about the attack, confirming the assailant was targeting the Democratic leader when he broke into the couple’s home.

“At the time that the suspect had entered the Pelosi home that he was in fact, looking for Ms. Pelosi,” Jenkins told reporters late Sunday in San Francisco.

“The other thing is we want to make it clear that there were only two people in the home at the time that the police arrived, Mr. Pelosi and the suspect, there was no third person present,” she said.

“We have nothing to suggest that these two men knew each other prior to this incident.”

The district attorney’s remarks come as the gruesome attack on the husband of the House speaker is being mocked and dismissed in conservative, far-right social media, even among some Republicans leaders and those at the highest levels of social power. San Francisco’s police chief has also said the attack was targeted.

Elon Musk over the weekend tweeted, then deleted, a fringe website’s far-flung conspiracy theories to his millions of followers, as his purchase of Twitter has raised concerns that the social media platform would no longer seek to limit misinformation and hate speech.

In the toxic political climate, a week before the midterm elections, tensions are high with record security threats against lawmakers and other officials.

Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized in San Francisco after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull and other injuries. Speaker Pelosi, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, returned swiftly to California. Unlike presidents, the congressional leaders have security protection for themselves, but not their families.

The attack was an unsettling echo of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election defeat of Donald Trump stormed the halls eerily calling “Where’s Nancy?” DePape, was also carrying zip ties into the Pelosi home, two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press. The people could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Police were dispatched to the home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood around 2:20 a.m. Friday after Paul Pelosi placed a 911 call. Jenkins said DePape broke into the rear door and made his way upstairs to confront Paul Pelosi. Police said they arrived to see the two men struggling over a hammer, when DePape struck Pelosi at least once before being tackled by officers.

The incident sparked fresh security concerns for lawmakers and other elected officials before the midterms.

With nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year, U.S. Capitol Police have advised lawmakers to take precautions. Chief Tom Manger, who leads the U.S. Capitol Police, has said the threat from lone-wolf attackers has been growing and the most significant threat the force is facing is the historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years before.

The beating of the speaker’s husband follows other attacks and threats. This summer, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland after threatening to kill the justice. In 2017, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was seriously injured when a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball game practice.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those making light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, tweeting out a joke about a Halloween costume of the incident.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/10/1666975658521.jpeg" alt="Police investigators work outside the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)" />
 <figcaption>Police investigators work outside the home of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. Paul Pelosi, was attacked and severely beaten by an assailant with a hammer who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, according to people familiar with the investigation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told police he wanted to hold the speaker hostage and “break her kneecaps," authorities said Monday.David DePape, 42, confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi in the couple's San Francisco bedroom early Friday morning, according to a federal affidavit filed in court Monday.Federal prosecutors have filed two charges against DePape, days after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/arrests-california-san-francisco-1582f7f07e277d65ce445c39de9a8bca">police say he broke into the Pelosi's home</a>&nbsp;and struck the Democratic leader’s 82-year-old husband in the head with a hammer. He was left seriously injured in the attack, underwent surgery for a skull fracture, and suffered other injuries to his arms and hands.DePape is charged federally with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official by threatening or injuring a family member. He also faces one count of attempted kidnapping of a United States official on account of the performance of official duties.The announcement of the federal charges comes as San Francisco's district attorney is set to announce state criminal charges as well against DePape, who police say shouted out “Where is Nancy?” during the attack. He was arrested Friday on suspicion of attempted murder, elder abuse and burglary and is expected to be arraigned on state charges Tuesday.San Francisco's district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, also rejected conspiracy theories about the attack, confirming the assailant was targeting the Democratic leader when he broke into the couple’s home.“At the time that the suspect had entered the Pelosi home that he was in fact, looking for Ms. Pelosi,” Jenkins told reporters late Sunday in San Francisco.“The other thing is we want to make it clear that there were only two people in the home at the time that the police arrived, Mr. Pelosi and the suspect, there was no third person present,” she said.“We have nothing to suggest that these two men knew each other prior to this incident.”The district attorney’s remarks come as the gruesome attack on the husband of the House speaker is being mocked and dismissed in conservative, far-right social media, even among some Republicans leaders and those at the highest levels of social power. San Francisco’s police chief has also said the attack was targeted.Elon Musk over the weekend tweeted, then deleted, a fringe website’s far-flung conspiracy theories to his millions of followers, as his purchase of Twitter has raised concerns that the social media platform would no longer seek to limit misinformation and hate speech.In the toxic political climate, a week before the midterm elections, tensions are high with record security threats against lawmakers and other officials.Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized in San Francisco after undergoing surgery for a fractured skull and other injuries. Speaker Pelosi, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time, returned swiftly to California. Unlike presidents, the congressional leaders have security protection for themselves, but not their families.The attack was an unsettling echo of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, when rioters trying to overturn Joe Biden’s election defeat of Donald Trump stormed the halls eerily calling “Where’s Nancy?” DePape, was also carrying zip ties into the Pelosi home, two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press. The people could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.Police were dispatched to the home in the upscale Pacific Heights neighborhood around 2:20 a.m. Friday after Paul Pelosi placed a 911 call. Jenkins said DePape broke into the rear door and made his way upstairs to confront Paul Pelosi. Police said they arrived to see the two men struggling over a hammer, when DePape struck Pelosi at least once before being tackled by officers.The incident sparked fresh security concerns for lawmakers and other elected officials before the midterms.With nearly 10,000 threats against members of Congress in the last year, U.S. Capitol Police have advised lawmakers to take precautions. Chief Tom Manger, who leads the U.S. Capitol Police, has said the threat from lone-wolf attackers has been growing and the most significant threat the force is facing is the historically high number of threats against lawmakers, thousands more than just a few years before.The beating of the speaker’s husband follows other attacks and threats. This summer, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in Maryland after threatening to kill the justice. In 2017, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise was seriously injured when a Bernie Sanders supporter opened fire on Republicans at a congressional baseball game practice.Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was among those making light of the attack on Paul Pelosi, tweeting out a joke about a Halloween costume of the incident.___

Police: Pelosi suspect wanted to hold House Speaker hostage

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is going to the Supreme Court, again, this time to try to stop his tax returns from being handed to a congressional committee.

In an emergency appeal filed Monday, Trump wants the court to order at least a temporary hold on the Treasury Department turning over his returns to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.

Lower courts ruled that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns and rejected Trump's claims that it was overstepping.

Trump had most recently sought the justices' intervention in a legal dispute stemming from the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The court rejected that appeal.

If Trump can persuade the nation's highest court to intervene in this case, he could potentially delay a final decision until the start of the next Congress in January. If Republicans recapture control of the House in the fall election, they could drop the records request.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1660098261521.png" alt="In August, former President Trump delivered the keynote remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>In August, former President Trump delivered the keynote remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is going to the Supreme Court, again, this time to try to stop his tax returns from being handed to a congressional committee.In an emergency appeal filed Monday, Trump wants the court to order at least a temporary hold on the Treasury Department turning over his returns to the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee.Lower courts ruled that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns and rejected Trump's claims that it was overstepping.Trump had most recently sought the justices' intervention in a legal dispute stemming from the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The court rejected that appeal.If Trump can persuade the nation's highest court to intervene in this case, he could potentially delay a final decision until the start of the next Congress in January. If Republicans recapture control of the House in the fall election, they could drop the records request.The House Ways and Means panel and its chairman, Democrat Richard Neal of Massachusetts, first requested Trump’s tax returns in 2019 as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s audit program and tax law compliance by the former president. A federal law says the Internal Revenue Service “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had defended a decision by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to withhold the tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats for partisan reasons. A lawsuit ensued.After President Joe Biden took office, the committee renewed the request, seeking Trump’s tax returns and additional information from 2015-2020. The White House took the position that the request was a valid one and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to comply. Trump then attempted to halt the handover in court.Then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained copies of Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation. That case, too, went to the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump’s argument that he had broad immunity as president.

Supreme Court may decide if Congress sees Trump tax returns

By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS and SHARON LURYE&nbsp;

KANSAS CITY (AP) —The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives.

The scale of the disruption to American kids’ education is evident in a district-by-district analysis of test scores shared exclusively with The Associated Press. The data provide the most comprehensive look yet at how much schoolchildren have fallen behind academically.

The analysis found the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading – with some district averages slipping by more than double those amounts, or worse.

Online learning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/online-school-covid-learning-loss-7c162ec1b4ce4d5219d5210aaac8f1ae">played a major role</a>, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities.

“When you have a massive crisis, the worst effects end up being felt by the people with the least resources,” said Stanford education professor Sean Reardon, who compiled and analyzed the data along with Harvard economist Thomas Kane.

Some educators have objected to the very idea of measuring learning loss after a crisis that has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/one-million-dead-US-COVID-ea745d462d47a65029a8c507c94e679e">killed more than 1 million Americans</a>. Reading and math scores don’t tell the entire story about what’s happening with a child, but they’re one of the only aspects of children’s development reliably measured nationwide.

“Test scores aren’t the only thing, or the most important thing,” Reardon said. “But they serve as an indicator for how kids are doing.”

And kids aren’t doing well, especially those who were at highest risk before the pandemic. The data show many children need significant intervention, and advocates and researchers say the U.S. isn’t doing enough.

Together, Reardon and Kane created a map showing how many years of learning the average student in each district has lost since 2019. Their project, the&nbsp;<a href="https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/">Education Recovery Scorecard</a>, compared results from a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-government-and-politics-covid-education-39e01a570b560c685b5340078c8dcdee">test known as the “nation’s report card”</a>&nbsp;with local standardized test scores from 29 states and Washington, D.C.

In Memphis, Tennessee, where nearly 80% of students are poor, students lost the equivalent of 70% of a school year in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-education-race-and-ethnicity-atlanta-ff46418c59af90132998817731fe166a">reading</a>&nbsp;and more than a year in math, according to the analysis. The district’s Black students lost a year-and-one-third in math and two-thirds of a year in reading.

For church pastor Charles Lampkin, who is Black, it was the effects on his sons’ reading that grabbed his attention. He was studying the Bible with them one night this fall when he noticed his sixth and seventh graders were struggling with their “junior” Bible editions written for a fifth grade reading level. “They couldn’t get through it,” Lampkin said.

Lampkin blames the year and a half his sons were away from school buildings from March 2020 until the fall of 2021.

“They weren’t engaged at all. It was all tomfoolery,” he said.

The local school district this year set aside an hour every day for intervention, when struggling students can receive small-group tutoring, said Memphis-Shelby County Public Schools spokesperson Cathryn Stout. Students also receive tutoring help before and after school, and some campuses have started offering Saturday classes to help students catch up.

Lampkin said his sons have not been offered the extra help.

The amount of learning that students lost – or gained, in rare cases – over the last three years varied widely. Poverty and time spent in remote learning affected learning loss, and learning losses were greater in districts that remained online longer, according to Kane and Reardon’s analysis. But neither was a perfect predictor of declines in reading and math.

In some districts, students lost more than two years of math learning, according to the data. Hopewell, Virginia, a school system of 4,000 students who are mostly low-income and 60% Black, showed an average loss of 2.29 years of school.

“This is not anywhere near what we wanted to see,” Deputy Superintendent Jay McClain said.

The district began offering in-person learning in March 2021, but three-quarters of students remained home. “There was so much fear of the effects of COVID,” he said. “Families here were just hunkered down.”

When schools resumed in the fall, the virus swept through Hopewell, and half of all students stayed home either sick or in quarantine, McClain said. A full 40% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 days or more.

The pandemic brought other challenges unrelated to remote learning.

In Rochester, New Hampshire, students lost nearly two years in reading even though schools offered in-person learning most of the 2020-2021 school year. It was the largest literacy decline among all the districts in the analysis.

The 4,000-student district, where most are white and nearly half live in poverty, had to close schools in November 2020 when too few teachers could report for work, Superintendent Kyle Repucci said. Students studied online until March 2021, and when schools reopened, many chose to stay with remote learning, Repucci said.

“Students here were exposed to things they should never have been exposed to until much later,” Repucci said. “Death. Severe illness. Working to feed their families.”

In Los Angeles, school leaders shuttered classrooms for the entire 2020-2021 academic year, yet students held their ground in reading.

It’s hard to tell what explains the vastly different outcomes in some states. In California, where students on average stayed steady or only marginally declined, it could suggest that educators there were better at teaching over Zoom or the state made effective investments in technology, Reardon said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/6/1624370595340.png" alt=" Students at Cessna Elementary School in Wichita. Suzanne Perez / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption> Students at Cessna Elementary School in Wichita. Suzanne Perez / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure>By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS and SHARON LURYE&nbsp;KANSAS CITY (AP) —The COVID-19 pandemic devastated poor children’s well-being, not just by closing their schools, but also by taking away their parents’ jobs, sickening their families and teachers, and adding chaos and fear to their daily lives.The scale of the disruption to American kids’ education is evident in a district-by-district analysis of test scores shared exclusively with The Associated Press. The data provide the most comprehensive look yet at how much schoolchildren have fallen behind academically.The analysis found the average student lost more than half a school year of learning in math and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading – with some district averages slipping by more than double those amounts, or worse.Online learning&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/online-school-covid-learning-loss-7c162ec1b4ce4d5219d5210aaac8f1ae">played a major role</a>, but students lost significant ground even where they returned quickly to schoolhouses, especially in math scores in low-income communities.“When you have a massive crisis, the worst effects end up being felt by the people with the least resources,” said Stanford education professor Sean Reardon, who compiled and analyzed the data along with Harvard economist Thomas Kane.Some educators have objected to the very idea of measuring learning loss after a crisis that has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/one-million-dead-US-COVID-ea745d462d47a65029a8c507c94e679e">killed more than 1 million Americans</a>. Reading and math scores don’t tell the entire story about what’s happening with a child, but they’re one of the only aspects of children’s development reliably measured nationwide.“Test scores aren’t the only thing, or the most important thing,” Reardon said. “But they serve as an indicator for how kids are doing.”And kids aren’t doing well, especially those who were at highest risk before the pandemic. The data show many children need significant intervention, and advocates and researchers say the U.S. isn’t doing enough.Together, Reardon and Kane created a map showing how many years of learning the average student in each district has lost since 2019. Their project, the&nbsp;<a href="https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/">Education Recovery Scorecard</a>, compared results from a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-health-government-and-politics-covid-education-39e01a570b560c685b5340078c8dcdee">test known as the “nation’s report card”</a>&nbsp;with local standardized test scores from 29 states and Washington, D.C.In Memphis, Tennessee, where nearly 80% of students are poor, students lost the equivalent of 70% of a school year in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/science-education-race-and-ethnicity-atlanta-ff46418c59af90132998817731fe166a">reading</a>&nbsp;and more than a year in math, according to the analysis. The district’s Black students lost a year-and-one-third in math and two-thirds of a year in reading.For church pastor Charles Lampkin, who is Black, it was the effects on his sons’ reading that grabbed his attention. He was studying the Bible with them one night this fall when he noticed his sixth and seventh graders were struggling with their “junior” Bible editions written for a fifth grade reading level. “They couldn’t get through it,” Lampkin said.Lampkin blames the year and a half his sons were away from school buildings from March 2020 until the fall of 2021.“They weren’t engaged at all. It was all tomfoolery,” he said.The local school district this year set aside an hour every day for intervention, when struggling students can receive small-group tutoring, said Memphis-Shelby County Public Schools spokesperson Cathryn Stout. Students also receive tutoring help before and after school, and some campuses have started offering Saturday classes to help students catch up.Lampkin said his sons have not been offered the extra help.The amount of learning that students lost – or gained, in rare cases – over the last three years varied widely. Poverty and time spent in remote learning affected learning loss, and learning losses were greater in districts that remained online longer, according to Kane and Reardon’s analysis. But neither was a perfect predictor of declines in reading and math.In some districts, students lost more than two years of math learning, according to the data. Hopewell, Virginia, a school system of 4,000 students who are mostly low-income and 60% Black, showed an average loss of 2.29 years of school.“This is not anywhere near what we wanted to see,” Deputy Superintendent Jay McClain said.The district began offering in-person learning in March 2021, but three-quarters of students remained home. “There was so much fear of the effects of COVID,” he said. “Families here were just hunkered down.”When schools resumed in the fall, the virus swept through Hopewell, and half of all students stayed home either sick or in quarantine, McClain said. A full 40% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 days or more.The pandemic brought other challenges unrelated to remote learning.In Rochester, New Hampshire, students lost nearly two years in reading even though schools offered in-person learning most of the 2020-2021 school year. It was the largest literacy decline among all the districts in the analysis.The 4,000-student district, where most are white and nearly half live in poverty, had to close schools in November 2020 when too few teachers could report for work, Superintendent Kyle Repucci said. Students studied online until March 2021, and when schools reopened, many chose to stay with remote learning, Repucci said.“Students here were exposed to things they should never have been exposed to until much later,” Repucci said. “Death. Severe illness. Working to feed their families.”In Los Angeles, school leaders shuttered classrooms for the entire 2020-2021 academic year, yet students held their ground in reading.It’s hard to tell what explains the vastly different outcomes in some states. In California, where students on average stayed steady or only marginally declined, it could suggest that educators there were better at teaching over Zoom or the state made effective investments in technology, Reardon said.But the differences could also be explained by what happened outside of school. “I think a lot more of the variation has to do with things that were outside of a school’s control,” Reardon said.Now, the onus is on America’s adults to work toward kids’ recovery. For the federal government and individual states, advocates hope the recent releases of test data could inspire more urgency to direct funding to the students who suffered the largest setbacks, whether it’s academic or other support.School systems are still spending the nearly $190 billion in federal relief money allocated for recovery, a sum experts have said fails to address the extent of learning loss in schools. Nearly 70% of students live in districts where federal relief money is likely inadequate to address the magnitude of their learning loss, according to Kane and Reardon’s analysis.The implications for kids’ futures are alarming: Lower test scores are predictors of lower wages, plus higher rates of incarceration and teen pregnancy, Kane said.It doesn’t take Harvard research to convince parents whose children are struggling to read or learn algebra that something needs to be done.At his church in Memphis, Lampkin started his own tutoring program three nights a week. Adults from his congregation, some of them teachers, help around 50 students with their homework, reinforcing skills and teaching new ones.“We shouldn’t have had to do this,” Lampkin said. “But sometimes you have to lead by example.”____