Trump says he’s placing Washington police under federal control and deploying the National Guard

Trump says he’s placing Washington police under federal control and deploying the National Guard

By JOSH BOAK and DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he’s taking over Washington’s police department and activating 800 members of the National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime, even as city officials stressed crime is already falling in the nation’s capital.

The president, flanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary and the FBI director, said he was declaring a public safety emergency and his administration would be removing homeless encampments.

“We’re going to take our capital back,” Trump declared, adding he’d also be “getting rid of the slums.”

The White House has announced an increased federal law enforcement presence in Washington, D.C., for at least the next week to combat crime. (AP Video)

For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia’s status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will assume responsibility for Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, Trump said, as he also railed against potholes and graffiti in the city and called them “embarrassing.” The president did not provide a timeline for the control of the police department, but he’s limited to 30 days under statute unless he gets approval from Congress.

As Trump spoke, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest his moves. And local officials rejected the Republican president’s depiction of the district as crime-ridden and called his actions illegal.

“The administration’s actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia.”

Schwalb, a Democrat, said violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down an additional 26% this year.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would follow the law regarding the “so-called emergency” even as she indicated that Trump’s actions were a reason why the District of Columbia should be a state with legal protections from such actions.

“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser said.

Combating crime

The president dismissed the idea Washington needed to enlarge its 3,500-officer police force, even as he seeks to have more armed personnel going through the city with the goal of reducing crime.

“What you need is rules and regulations, and you need the right people to implement them,” he said.

Trump invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act in an executive order to declare a “crime emergency” so his administration could take over the city’s police force. He signed a directive for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to activate the National Guard.

While Trump has portrayed himself as a friend to law enforcement and enjoyed the political backing from many of their groups, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of assaulting police officers.

About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are contributing officers.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.

The National Guard

Bowser, a Democrat, has previously questioned the effectiveness of using the National Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.

“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she said Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” acknowledging it is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”

Bowser noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. She stressed during a Monday news conference that she believed Trump’s views of the city were shaped by the “challenging times” of the coronavirus pandemic, when he faced protests and crime spiked as the country began to recover from the outbreak.

Focusing on homelessness

Trump has emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go, and he did not give details at his news conference Monday.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday in a social media post. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

Jesse Rabinowitz, a advocate for homeless people, called Trump’s plan “fascist” and a “waste” of resources. He said the move wasn’t about safety.

“It is about power, and it is about fascism and authoritarianism,” said Rabinowitz, the campaign and communication director for the National Homelessness Law Center. “If Donald Trump wanted to keep D.C. safe, he would fund housing and support. Instead, the Republicans just gutted health care, and they’re passing through a budget that will make homelessness worse. They do not care about helping people.”

Crime statistics

Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.

The president has criticized the district as full of “tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,” and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.

“This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,” Trump said Wednesday.

He called Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining.

Bowser acknowledged the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.

“None of those conditions exist in our city right now,” she said. “We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we’re watching our crime numbers go down.”

___

Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer, Nathan Ellgren, Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

US stocks slip as Wall Street braces for an update on inflation

US stocks slip as Wall Street braces for an update on inflation

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged back from their record heights on Monday in Wall Street’s final moves before an upcoming update on inflation.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.3% after flirting with its all-time high, which was set two weeks ago, earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 200 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite shaved 0.3% off its own record.

The highlight of this week for Wall Street will likely arrive on Tuesday, when the government will report how bad inflation was across the country in July. Economists expect it to show U.S. consumers had to pay prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.8% higher from a year earlier, a slight acceleration from June’s 2.7% inflation.

Inflation has remained above 2%, even if it has improved substantially from its peak above 9% three years ago. And the worry is that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher.

That in turn is raising fears about a potential, worst-case scenario called “stagflation” where the economy stagnates but inflation remains high. The Federal Reserve has no good tool to fix both at once, and it would need to concentrate on either the job market or inflation first. But helping one of those areas by moving interest rates would likely hurt the other.

A top Fed official, Michelle Bowman, said on Saturday that she believes the job market is the bigger concern. She is still backing three cuts to interest rates by the Fed this year following this month’s stunning, weaker-than-expected report on the U.S. job market. Trump has also been angrily calling for cuts to interest rates to support the economy.

Other Fed officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, have been more hesitant. Powell has said he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation before the Fed makes its next move, and Tuesday’s update on the consumer price index may offer a big clue about that.

Strategists at Stifel are warning that stagflation may already be on the way, with spending by U.S. consumers slowing. That in turn could create a reckoning for investors after they sent stock prices soaring to records from their low point in April.

“Rate cuts cannot save an overvalued S&P 500,” according to the strategists, led by Thomas Carroll and Barry Bannister.

One way companies can make their stock prices appear less expensive is to deliver bigger profits.

Micron Technology climbed 4.1% after raising its forecasts for profit and revenue in the current quarter, which will end later this month. The maker of memory for computers said it’s benefiting from higher prices for its products.

AMC Entertainment rose 3.4% to trim its loss for the year so far, which came into the day at 26.4%, after reporting better results for the spring than analysts expected. The theater chain said moviegoers paid more for tickets, while also spending more on food and drinks.

TKO Group Holdings climbed 10.2% after reaching a deal to distribute its UFC mixed martial arts matches on the Paramount+ streaming platform. But Paramount Skydance’s stock dropped 3.7%.

Also on the losing side of Wall Street was C3.ai after the AI application software company warned it may report an operating loss as large as $124.9 million for its first quarter. CEO Thomas Siebel called the first-quarter sales results “completely unacceptable,” and its stock tumbled 25.6%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 16.00 points to 6,373.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 200.52 to 43,975.09, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 64.62 to 21,385.40.

The price of gold, meanwhile, eased after Trump said he would not place tariffs on the metal. That followed Friday’s brouhaha in the gold market after the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seemed to rule that some kinds of gold bars coming from Switzerland would face a tariff. That in turn caused a disconnect between the prices of gold trading in New York versus in London, but the market has since calmed.

Gold for December delivery settled at $3,404.70 per ounce in New York, down 2.5%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.27%, where it was late Friday.

___

AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Trump says he’s placing Washington police under federal control and deploying the National Guard

Trump says he’s placing Washington police under federal control and deploying the National Guard

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday he’s placing the Washington, D.C., police department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to make the nation’s capital safer.

Trump has promised new steps to tackle homelessness and crime in Washington, prompting the city’s mayor to voice concerns about the potential use of the National Guard to patrol the streets.

Ahead of a news conference, Trump said Monday on social media that the nation’s capital would be “LIBERATED today!” He said he would end the “days of ruthlessly killing, or hurting, innocent people.”

For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts.

Combating crime

The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime.

About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation’s capital as part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.

More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn’t immediately have a comment Monday morning.

Focusing on homelessness

Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go.

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote Sunday. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

Last week, the Republican president directed federal law enforcement agencies to increase their presence in Washington for seven days, with the option “to extend as needed.”

On Friday night, federal agencies including the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service assigned more than 120 officers and agents to assist in Washington.

Trump said last week that he was considering ways for the federal government to seize control of Washington, asserting that crime was “ridiculous” and the city was “unsafe,” after the recent assault of a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The National Guard

Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon.

“I just think that’s not the most efficient use of our Guard,” she said Sunday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” acknowledging it is “the president’s call about how to deploy the Guard.”

Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump’s weekend posts depicted the district as “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.”

For Bowser, “Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.”

Crime statistics

Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.

Trump offered no details in Truth Social posts over the weekend about possible new actions to address crime levels he argues are dangerous for citizens, tourists and workers alike. The White House declined to offer additional details about Monday’s announcement.

The police department and the mayor’s office did not respond to questions about what Trump might do next.

The president criticized the district as full of “tents, squalor, filth, and Crime,” and he seems to have been set off by the attack on Edward Coristine, among the most visible figures of the bureaucracy-cutting effort known as DOGE. Police arrested two 15-year-olds in the attempted carjacking and said they were looking for others.

“This has to be the best run place in the country, not the worst run place in the country,” Trump said Wednesday.

He called Bowser “a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining. It could face steep pushback.

Bowser acknowledged that the law allows the president to take more control over the city’s police, but only if certain conditions are met.

“None of those conditions exist in our city right now,” she said. “We are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we’re watching our crime numbers go down.”

___

Associated Press writers Ashraf Khalil, Alanna Durkin Richer and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

Judge denies request to unseal transcripts from grand jury that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell

Judge denies request to unseal transcripts from grand jury that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony that led to the sex trafficking indictment of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell won’t be released, a judge decided Monday.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written ruling that the government had suggested that the materials could be released publicly “casually or promiscuously,” which would risk “unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised” and eroding confidence by persons called to testify before future grand juries,

“And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous. The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or others, given in support of charges that later proceeded to trial,” he added.

Federal prosecutors had asked to unseal the documents, in an effort to calm a whirlpool of suspicions about what the government knows about Epstein, a well-connected financier who died behind bars while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, his socialite ex-girlfriend, was later convicted of helping him prey on underage girls.

It’s unclear how much the transcripts would have revealed since the Justice Department has acknowledged that they contained no testimony from witnesses who were not members of law enforcement.

Maxwell recently was interviewed by the Justice Department and was moved from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Her attorney says she testified truthfully.

Prosecutors have said much of what was discussed behind the grand jury’s closed doors ultimately became public at Maxwell’s 2021 trial in 2021, in victims’ civil lawsuits or in public statements from victims and witnesses. The only grand jury witnesses were law enforcement officers.

The decision about the grand jury transcripts doesn’t affect thousands of other pages that the government possesses but has declined to release. The Justice Department has said much of the material was court-sealed to protect victims and little of it would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial.

Another federal judge still is weighing whether to release the transcripts from the grand jury testimony that led to Epstein’s indictment.

A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007.

Some Epstein victims supported releasing the grand jury transcripts with some redactions. Other accusers said the debate over the material was causing them anguish.

Maxwell, who’s appealing her conviction, opposed unsealing the documents. Her lawyers said she hasn’t seen them but believed they were full of questionable statements that her defense had no opportunity to challenge.

The Epstein saga has again become a national flashpoint six years after authorities said the financier killed himself. The 66-year-old was facing federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.

Epstein already had served jail time and registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty to Florida prostitution offenses in a 2008 deal that let him avoid federal charges at the time.

President Donald Trump later raised questions about Epstein’s death, and Trump allies stoked conspiracy theories that dark secrets were covered up to protect powerful people. Some of those allies got powerful positions in Trump’s Justice Department and promised to pull back the curtain on the Epstein investigation — but then announced this summer that nothing more would be released and that a long-rumored Epstein “client list” doesn’t exist.

The about-face only amplified the clamor for transparency. After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for not moving on, the president told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for files in the case. The committee also issued subpoenas to conduct sworn questioning of former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.

Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was one of Epstein’s many famous former friends. So was Trump, a Republican. Both men have said they knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes until he was charged, and Epstein’s accusers have not alleged any wrongdoing by Trump or Clinton.

Judge denies request to unseal transcripts from grand jury that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell

Judge denies request to unseal transcripts from grand jury that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony that led to the sex trafficking indictment of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell won’t be released, a judge decided Monday.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written ruling that the government had suggested that the materials could be released publicly “casually or promiscuously,” which would risk “unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised” and eroding confidence by persons called to testify before future grand juries,

“And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous. The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or others, given in support of charges that later proceeded to trial,” he added.

Federal prosecutors had asked to unseal the documents, in an effort to calm a whirlpool of suspicions about what the government knows about Epstein, a well-connected financier who died behind bars while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, his socialite ex-girlfriend, was later convicted of helping him prey on underage girls.

It’s unclear how much the transcripts would have revealed since the Justice Department has acknowledged that they contained no testimony from witnesses who were not members of law enforcement.

Maxwell recently was interviewed by the Justice Department and was moved from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Her attorney says she testified truthfully.

Prosecutors have said much of what was discussed behind the grand jury’s closed doors ultimately became public at Maxwell’s 2021 trial in 2021, in victims’ civil lawsuits or in public statements from victims and witnesses. The only grand jury witnesses were law enforcement officers.

The decision about the grand jury transcripts doesn’t affect thousands of other pages that the government possesses but has declined to release. The Justice Department has said much of the material was court-sealed to protect victims and little of it would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial.

Another federal judge still is weighing whether to release the transcripts from the grand jury testimony that led to Epstein’s indictment.

A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007.

Some Epstein victims supported releasing the grand jury transcripts with some redactions. Other accusers said the debate over the material was causing them anguish.

Maxwell, who’s appealing her conviction, opposed unsealing the documents. Her lawyers said she hasn’t seen them but believed they were full of questionable statements that her defense had no opportunity to challenge.

The Epstein saga has again become a national flashpoint six years after authorities said the financier killed himself. The 66-year-old was facing federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.

Epstein already had served jail time and registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty to Florida prostitution offenses in a 2008 deal that let him avoid federal charges at the time.

President Donald Trump later raised questions about Epstein’s death, and Trump allies stoked conspiracy theories that dark secrets were covered up to protect powerful people. Some of those allies got powerful positions in Trump’s Justice Department and promised to pull back the curtain on the Epstein investigation — but then announced this summer that nothing more would be released and that a long-rumored Epstein “client list” doesn’t exist.

The about-face only amplified the clamor for transparency. After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for not moving on, the president told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for files in the case. The committee also issued subpoenas to conduct sworn questioning of former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.

Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was one of Epstein’s many famous former friends. So was Trump, a Republican. Both men have said they knew nothing of Epstein’s crimes until he was charged, and Epstein’s accusers have not alleged any wrongdoing by Trump or Clinton.

Deconstructed Burger Bowls

Deconstructed Burger Bowls

This recipe is a great way to mix up your dinner menu with a healthy spin on a favorite classic. These burger bowls are great for prepping in advance and super easy to customize.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef or turkey
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 head of lettuce, chopped roughly
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • a few pickles
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 1 tsp cooking oil
  • 1-2 russets potatoes, diced
  • condiments of your choice

Instructions

1. Cook the meat
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and cook meat thoroughly until it is browned. About halfway trough cooking, mix spices in a separate bowl and incorporate about 1/2 of the spice mixture into the meat.

2. Cook the potatoes
Dice potatoes and cook over medium-high heat for 10-15 minutes in a skillet.

3. Prep the veggies
Dice onion and tomato and roughly chop lettuce. Do the same for other toppings of your choice that require preparation.

4. Assemble bowls
Create your burger bowl, adding meat, potatoes and veggies to your preference, as well as condiments.

5. Serve it hot
Enjoy right away and store leftovers in separate containers in the fridge for easy repeat meals.

August 11th 2025

August 11th 2025

Thought of the Day

August 11th 2024
Photo by Getty Images

When you can think of yesterday without regret and of tomorrow without fear, then you are on the road to success.

Walden: N.C. economy still strong despite national slowdown

Walden: N.C. economy still strong despite national slowdown

RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) — While the national economy shows signs of slowing, North Carolina remains in good shape, according to N.C. State University Economist Emeritus Dr. Mike Walden.

Walden, the guest on this week’s Carolina Newsmakers, said tracking the effectiveness of tariffs is challenging and most economists did not expect the U.S. to be in its current position. He noted that President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a new approach to trade policy.

Trump on Thursday imposed higher import taxes on more than 60 countries and the European Union, with rates of 10% or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh face 20% tariffs. Walden said the trade policies in place for the last 80 years no longer work in today’s global economy.

Walden acknowledged that tariffs are causing some economic pains and that Trump anticipates a period of adjustment as companies adapt to the new taxes. Businesses that import goods from other countries incur the tariffs directly, Walden said, leaving them to either absorb the cost, raise prices or accept lower returns.

So far, many companies are absorbing the added expense, but Walden said that will not continue indefinitely.

Despite the potential for short-term disruption, Walden said the tariffs are unlikely to push the U.S. into a recession in the immediate future. The White House believes the policy will provide clarity and spur new investment, helping restore the nation’s position as a manufacturing power.

Mike Walden is the guest on this week’s edition of Carolina Newsmakers, airing Sunday at 7 a.m. on WPTF and this weekend on many NCN stations.

Salvia: A colorful, hardy favorite for Carolina gardens

Salvia: A colorful, hardy favorite for Carolina gardens

By MIKE RALEY WPTF Weekend Gardener

Everyone should have some type of salvia in their landscape. Sage advice, I must say, if you like puns that is! Salvia also is known for its medicinal qualities for oral health, digestion problems and cognitive issues. I for one have never considered eating salvia. Sage is, of course, considered a culinary herb, so I suppose I have eaten some over the years.

There are over a thousand salvia species and just as many cultivars and hybrids. Just like several plants I have in my yard, salvia is part of the mint family. Most salvia flowers don’t have fragrance, however their foliage does. Salvia is also a pollinator favorite. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds just love the taste of salvia. It thrives in full sun, but can also take partial shade. I think six to eight hours of sun works best. Some of the lighter colored varieties that might need a little afternoon shade in the summer.

Like just about every plant we enjoy here in North Carolina, salvia needs a well-drained soil. When planting, use some type of organic matter.

We often have drought conditions in North Carolina somewhere in the state each year. Salvia is a flower that adapts to these conditions once established. You should water salvia on a regular basis till established and during dry times.

Normally one would plant salvia after the average last frost in your area. In Raleigh that average date is April 15th. Break up the soil and dig the whole twice as wide as the rootball and about as deep. Add organic matter. Before placing the rootball in the hole, loosen the roots a bit and then plant with the top of the rootball level with the top of the soil surface. Fill in the soil mixed with organic matter and tamp down. It is always good to add 2 or 3 inches of mulch to the surface around the plant to protect the root system and preserve moisture.

I wouldn’t worry too much about fertilizing salvia if you’ve done your proper prep work, and normally I worry about everything. If you are overwhelmed with the urge to fertilize any plant, use a balanced, slow-release type.

Be cognizant of spent blooms in flowering plants. Salvia varieties will need some deadheading to encourage more blooms. Blooms give you more pleasure and then plants are more cost effective.

Summer pests might include aphids and spider mites. You may also experience some fungal disease problems especially with our summer humidity. The folks at NC State tell me salvia doesn’t seem to be a deer’s favorite food. However, Anne Clapp used to point out that when deer are hungry, they are likely to eat most any plant.

There are perennial and annual varieties of salvia. While most of these lovely plants we enjoy are not native to North Carolina, there are a few that are: Lyreleaf Sage, Azure Blue Sage and Nettleleaf Sage are among the varieties native to the “Tar Heel State”. However, salvia standards used by most of us in North Carolina include Salvia splendens, Salvia France’s, and Salvia leucantha. I love the Azure Blue and Scarlet Sage which are extraordinary red salvia and “Wolfpack” fans will dig the most. Many salvia varieties are native to places like the Mediterranean and Mexico.

We have spoken often on the “Weekend Gardener” about year round color in the landscape. Salvia will lend brilliant color to your yard from late April to the last frost of the year. And your favorite pollinators will thank you.

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia’s race for governor

Republican Winsome Earle-Sears is on the defensive in Virginia’s race for governor

By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America

HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) — Against an olive drab backdrop in a barbecue joint filled with the aroma of pulled pork and the sweat of a Virginia summer, Republican Winsome Earle-Sears told voters she was running her campaign for governor like a military-style operation.

The lieutenant governor, a former Marine, said she would protect Virginia just as she did America. The way the Earle-Sears tells it, not all attacks come from soldiers.

Earlier that day, she was asked on national television why Republican President Donald Trump had not endorsed her and whether she stood by her description of him as liability back in 2022, before his return to the Oval Office about two years later. She challenged the question as backward-looking and called the interview by CNN’s Manu Raju a trap. The interview quickly unraveled into a squabble.

“They ambushed me to talk about things that are so in the past, when we’ve got to move forward,” she told a crowd gathered at Saucy’s Sit-Down Bar.B.Q, a mainstay in Hopewell.

Her words in both settings, while cast in military terms, reflected a campaign on the defensive.

Underfunded and lacking unity

Earle-Sears, who faces Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman, in November, is taking her “Operation Defend & Deliver” campaign across the state. The off-year election all but guarantees that Virginia will have its first female governor in a race that offers an early sense of voter sentiment before the 2026 midterms.

An Earle-Sears victory also would make her the first Black woman to serve as a governor, according to the Center for American Women in Politics. But that feels like a distant prospect at the moment.

The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project says Spanberger has raised more than $27 million so far, with more than $15 million on hand. Nearly every Democrat in Virginia politics has pledged to support her. When Democrats Ghazala Hashmi and Jay Jones won their respective primary races for lieutenant governor and attorney general, the three nominees went on a bus tour across Virginia.

Earle-Sears’ ticket lacks that kind of unity, though that is not entirely of her doing.

Once the Republican statewide nominees had solidified before the June primaries, GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked John Reid, the candidate for lieutenant governor, to leave the ticket after opposition research linked him to a social media account with sexually explicit photos. Reid denied the allegations and refused to step down, but a rally for the statewide ticket was canceled.

After that, the three top Republican candidates did not campaign together for months.

Earle-Sears’ campaign, meanwhile, has had its own challenges.

This summer, a pastor with little political experience stepped down from managing her campaign, and her team has failed to gain traction with big money donors. Attorney General Jason Miyares, seeking a second term, has raised nearly as much money, with roughly $2 million short of the lieutenant governor. He has more in the bank — nearly $7 million compared with almost $5 million for Earle-Sears.

One of her biggest donors, a political action committee tied to the Republican Governors Association, gave $500,000 to her campaign in June. But by this time in August 2021, the association had donated more than $2 million to Youngkin’s campaign.

Responding to written questions about the donations, a spokesperson for the association said: “Winsome Earle-Sears is the only candidate in this race who will keep Virginia on the right track forged by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Under their leadership, parents’ rights have been protected, Virginia’s economy is growing, and communities are safe.”

Youngkin, who is term-limited, has offered more than $21,000 in support to Earle-Sears through his political action committee between March and June.

When asked in June whether he would give more, his PAC said the governor was “working to elect the entire GOP ticket and is urging all Virginians to support the commonsense team this November to keep Virginia winning.”

Tepid support from Trump

Republicans went into this election facing tough sledding in swing-state Virginia. Ever since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, Virginia has backed a governor from the opposite party of a first-term president in the following year. Whatever the outcome in Virginia, 2025 is a special case, given the gap between Trump’s terms.

Trump stopped short of an outright endorsement when asked last weekend about supporting Earle-Sears.

“I mean, I would,” he said. “I think probably she’s got a tough race. … She shouldn’t have, because the candidate she’s running against is not very good, but I think she’s got a tough race. But I would.”

Many state Republicans are more forceful about standing behind their nominee.

At the Hopewell gathering, Republican Dels. Mike Cherry and Scott Wyatt, who are seeking reelection, urged voters to back the lieutenant governor. In a prayer, Cherry asked God to “imbue her with strength and stamina for the days that are to come in the final, waning days of this election.” Wyatt encouraged voters to help Earle-Sears continue the successes of Youngkin’s administration.

Then Earle-Sears walked onto the stage, smiling and cracking jokes. She described a political climate where Democrats and the media were hitting her with everything they’ve got. She predicted that she would show them come November.

“How many of you have seen or read about the polls, which say I am 10 points down?” she said. “Don’t believe it.”

Not that she doesn’t need more money to make that happen.

“Are we going to pass the offering bucket?” Earle-Sears said to a chuckling crowd. “OK, see, you’re laughing again, and I’m not laughing because that’s what it’s going to take for us to win.”

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