WASHINGTON&nbsp;—&nbsp;The Internal Revenue Service today kicked off the week 
with the 5th item on its 2022 annual Dirty Dozen scams warning list, 
with a sad reminder that criminals still use the COVID-19 pandemic to 
steal people's money and identity with bogus emails, social media posts 
and unexpected phone calls, among other things.

These scams can take a variety of forms, including using unemployment
 information and fake job offers to steal money and information from 
people. All of these efforts can lead to sensitive personal information 
being stolen, with scammers using this to try filing a fraudulent tax 
return as well as harming victims in other ways.

"Scammers continue using the pandemic as a device to scare or confuse
 potential victims into handing over their hard-earned money or personal
 information," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "I urge everyone to 
be leery of suspicious calls, texts and emails promising benefits that 
don't exist."

The IRS has compiled the annual Dirty Dozen list for more than 20 
years as a way of alerting taxpayers and the tax professional community 
about scams and schemes. The list is not a legal document or a literal 
listing of agency enforcement priorities. It is designed to raise 
awareness among a variety of audiences that may not always be aware of 
developments involving tax administration.

"Caution and awareness are our best lines of defense against these 
criminals," Rettig added. "Everyone should verify information on a 
trusted government website, such as IRS.gov."

A common scam the IRS continues to see during this period involves 
using crises that affect all or most people in the nation, such as the 
COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the scams for which people should continue to
 be on the lookout include:

Economic Impact Payment and tax refund scams: 
Identity thieves who try to use Economic Impact Payments (EIPs), also 
known as stimulus payments, are a continuing threat to individuals. 
Similar to tax refund scams, taxpayers should watch out for these 
tell-tale signs of a scam:

Any text messages, random incoming phone calls or emails inquiring 
about bank account information, requesting recipients to click a link or
 verify data should be considered suspicious and deleted without 
opening. This includes not just stimulus payments, but tax refunds and 
other common issues.

Remember, the IRS won't initiate contact by phone, email, text or 
social media asking for Social Security numbers or other personal or 
financial information related to Economic Impact Payments. Also be alert
 to mailbox theft. Routinely check your mail and report suspected mail 
losses to postal inspectors.

Reminder: The IRS has issued all Economic Impact Payments. Most 
eligible people already received their stimulus payments. People who are
 missing a stimulus payment or got less than the full amount may be 
eligible to claim a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/recovery-rebate-credit">Recovery Rebate Credit</a>
 on their 2020 or 2021 federal tax return. Taxpayers should remember 
that the IRS website, IRS.gov, is the agency's official website for 
information on payments, refunds and other tax information.

Unemployment fraud leading to inaccurate taxpayer 1099-Gs:
 Because of the pandemic, many taxpayers lost their jobs and received 
unemployment compensation from their state. However, scammers also took 
advantage of the pandemic by filing fraudulent claims for unemployment 
compensation using stolen personal information of individuals who had 
not filed claims. Payments made on these fraudulent claims went to the 
identity thieves.

Taxpayers should also be on the lookout for a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1099-g">Form 1099-G</a>
 reporting unemployment compensation they didn't receive. For people in 
this situation, the IRS urges them to contact their appropriate state 
agency for a corrected form. If a corrected form cannot be obtained so 
that a taxpayer can file a timely tax return, taxpayers should complete 
their return claiming only the unemployment compensation and other 
income they actually received. See <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits">Identity Theft and Unemployment Benefits</a> for tax details and <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/UIIDtheft">DOL.gov/fraud</a> for state-by-state reporting information.

Fake employment offers posted on social media: There
 have been many reports of fake job postings on social media. The 
pandemic created many newly unemployed people eager to seek new 
employment. These fake posts entice their victims to provide their 
personal financial information. This creates added tax risk for people 
because this information in turn can be used to file a fraudulent tax 
return for a fraudulent refund or used in some other criminal endeavor.

Fake charities that steal your money: Bogus charities are always a problem. They tend to be a bigger threat when there is a national crisis like the pandemic.

Taxpayers who give money or goods to a charity may be able to claim a
 deduction on their federal tax return. Taxpayers must donate to a 
qualified charity to get a deduction. To check the status of a charity, 
use the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-and-nonprofits">IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool</a>.

Here are some tips to remember about fake charity scams:

For more information about avoiding fake charities, visit the <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/giving-charity">Federal Trade Commission website</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON&nbsp;—&nbsp;The Internal Revenue Service today kicked off the week 
with the 5th item on its 2022 annual Dirty Dozen scams warning list, 
with a sad reminder that criminals still use the COVID-19 pandemic to 
steal people's money and identity with bogus emails, social media posts 
and unexpected phone calls, among other things.These scams can take a variety of forms, including using unemployment
 information and fake job offers to steal money and information from 
people. All of these efforts can lead to sensitive personal information 
being stolen, with scammers using this to try filing a fraudulent tax 
return as well as harming victims in other ways."Scammers continue using the pandemic as a device to scare or confuse
 potential victims into handing over their hard-earned money or personal
 information," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "I urge everyone to 
be leery of suspicious calls, texts and emails promising benefits that 
don't exist."The IRS has compiled the annual Dirty Dozen list for more than 20 
years as a way of alerting taxpayers and the tax professional community 
about scams and schemes. The list is not a legal document or a literal 
listing of agency enforcement priorities. It is designed to raise 
awareness among a variety of audiences that may not always be aware of 
developments involving tax administration."Caution and awareness are our best lines of defense against these 
criminals," Rettig added. "Everyone should verify information on a 
trusted government website, such as IRS.gov."A common scam the IRS continues to see during this period involves 
using crises that affect all or most people in the nation, such as the 
COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the scams for which people should continue to
 be on the lookout include:Economic Impact Payment and tax refund scams: 
Identity thieves who try to use Economic Impact Payments (EIPs), also 
known as stimulus payments, are a continuing threat to individuals. 
Similar to tax refund scams, taxpayers should watch out for these 
tell-tale signs of a scam:Any text messages, random incoming phone calls or emails inquiring 
about bank account information, requesting recipients to click a link or
 verify data should be considered suspicious and deleted without 
opening. This includes not just stimulus payments, but tax refunds and 
other common issues.Remember, the IRS won't initiate contact by phone, email, text or 
social media asking for Social Security numbers or other personal or 
financial information related to Economic Impact Payments. Also be alert
 to mailbox theft. Routinely check your mail and report suspected mail 
losses to postal inspectors.Reminder: The IRS has issued all Economic Impact Payments. Most 
eligible people already received their stimulus payments. People who are
 missing a stimulus payment or got less than the full amount may be 
eligible to claim a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/recovery-rebate-credit">Recovery Rebate Credit</a>
 on their 2020 or 2021 federal tax return. Taxpayers should remember 
that the IRS website, IRS.gov, is the agency's official website for 
information on payments, refunds and other tax information.Unemployment fraud leading to inaccurate taxpayer 1099-Gs:
 Because of the pandemic, many taxpayers lost their jobs and received 
unemployment compensation from their state. However, scammers also took 
advantage of the pandemic by filing fraudulent claims for unemployment 
compensation using stolen personal information of individuals who had 
not filed claims. Payments made on these fraudulent claims went to the 
identity thieves.Taxpayers should also be on the lookout for a <a href="https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1099-g">Form 1099-G</a>
 reporting unemployment compensation they didn't receive. For people in 
this situation, the IRS urges them to contact their appropriate state 
agency for a corrected form. If a corrected form cannot be obtained so 
that a taxpayer can file a timely tax return, taxpayers should complete 
their return claiming only the unemployment compensation and other 
income they actually received. See <a href="https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits">Identity Theft and Unemployment Benefits</a> for tax details and <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/UIIDtheft">DOL.gov/fraud</a> for state-by-state reporting information.Fake employment offers posted on social media: There
 have been many reports of fake job postings on social media. The 
pandemic created many newly unemployed people eager to seek new 
employment. These fake posts entice their victims to provide their 
personal financial information. This creates added tax risk for people 
because this information in turn can be used to file a fraudulent tax 
return for a fraudulent refund or used in some other criminal endeavor.Fake charities that steal your money: Bogus charities are always a problem. They tend to be a bigger threat when there is a national crisis like the pandemic.Taxpayers who give money or goods to a charity may be able to claim a
 deduction on their federal tax return. Taxpayers must donate to a 
qualified charity to get a deduction. To check the status of a charity, 
use the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/charities-and-nonprofits">IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool</a>.Here are some tips to remember about fake charity scams:<ul>
 <li>Individuals should never let any caller pressure them. A 
legitimate charity will be happy to get a donation at any time, so 
there's no rush. Donors are encouraged to take time to do the research.</li>
 </ul><ul>
 <li>Potential donors should ask the fundraiser for the 
charity's exact name, web address and mailing address, so it can be 
confirmed later. Some dishonest telemarketers use names that sound like 
large well-known charities to confuse people.</li>
 </ul><ul>
 <li>Be careful how a donation is paid. Donors should not work 
with charities that ask them to pay by giving numbers from a gift card 
or by wiring money. That's how scammers ask people to pay. It's safest 
to pay by credit card or check — and only after having done some 
research on the charity.</li>
 </ul>For more information about avoiding fake charities, visit the <a href="https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/giving-charity">Federal Trade Commission website</a>.

IRS warns of continued pandemic-related scams, bogus websites

WASHINGTON (AP) —Inspectors general need more authority to go after fraud in the COVID-19 relief programs, according to the independent committee overseeing federal pandemic relief spending.

The agencies watchdogs’ authority to administratively prosecute fraudsters is limited to fraud of $150,000 or less from COVID-19 relief programs and the Department of Justice is too busy for cases under $1 million— a gap that must be closed, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee said.

Michael Horowitz, head of the committee and the inspector general of the Department of Justice, said the $150,000 threshold is far too low given the scope of the fraud in programs set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. He’s asking Congress to modify provisions in the law on fraud committed against the federal government, to raise the maximum amount of a fraud claim that may be handled administratively to $1 million.

The request was highlighted in the committee’s semiannual report released to Congress.

“It can’t be the case that people come away from this thinking there’s a certain level of fraud that’s just OK, or a certain level of improper payments that’s just OK,” Horowitz said in an interview with The Associated Press before the report was released. “We don’t believe that as IGs, and we want to get to the bottom of that. So it’s a very important tool and every dollar matters.”

Out of more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief spending, more than 1 million awards under $1 million have been given out, according to the committee.

Inspectors general nationwide are focused on multi-million dollar cases of alleged fraud that are turned over to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Horowitz said he was not aware of any cases being brought for below $150,000, though he does know of cases that they would like to prosecute administratively involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most U.S. attorneys would not pursue cases for under $1 million because they are overwhelmed with other fraud cases, he added.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is sponsoring a bill that would make the change. It has bipartisan support, including from co-sponsor Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee was created by Congress in March 2020. It brings together the inspectors general offices to oversee pandemic relief emergency spending and investigate fraud and improper payments spread out among more than 400 programs implemented by 40 federal agencies.

Its report to Congress also stressed the need to better use the data the federal government already has, and improve data collection, particularly when the prime recipient of a grant shares it with sub-recipients to follow the funding from the federal to the local level.

Billions in loans were paid to potentially ineligible recipients at the beginning of the pandemic because the Small Business Administration didn’t check the Treasury Department’s “do not pay” list, the report said, and billions went to applicants with foreign IP addresses. Horowitz said “simple data matching” at the agency level should’ve flagged hundreds of applications using the same phone number from a gas station in Texas before the committee found it.

“That shouldn’t be the case, right? An agency should be able to figure that out,” he said. “That’s not sophisticated data analytics.”

Horowitz said agencies have substantially improved their ability to verify eligibility for pandemic relief payments, but “there is still a significant way to go.” That prompted the committee to set up a data analytics center, which it has asked Congress to keep in place to use when the federal government responds to future emergencies with relief spending.

WASHINGTON (AP) —Inspectors general need more authority to go after fraud in the COVID-19 relief programs, according to the independent committee overseeing federal pandemic relief spending.The agencies watchdogs’ authority to administratively prosecute fraudsters is limited to fraud of $150,000 or less from COVID-19 relief programs and the Department of Justice is too busy for cases under $1 million— a gap that must be closed, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee said.Michael Horowitz, head of the committee and the inspector general of the Department of Justice, said the $150,000 threshold is far too low given the scope of the fraud in programs set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. He’s asking Congress to modify provisions in the law on fraud committed against the federal government, to raise the maximum amount of a fraud claim that may be handled administratively to $1 million.The request was highlighted in the committee’s semiannual report released to Congress.“It can’t be the case that people come away from this thinking there’s a certain level of fraud that’s just OK, or a certain level of improper payments that’s just OK,” Horowitz said in an interview with The Associated Press before the report was released. “We don’t believe that as IGs, and we want to get to the bottom of that. So it’s a very important tool and every dollar matters.”Out of more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief spending, more than 1 million awards under $1 million have been given out, according to the committee.Inspectors general nationwide are focused on multi-million dollar cases of alleged fraud that are turned over to the Department of Justice for prosecution. Horowitz said he was not aware of any cases being brought for below $150,000, though he does know of cases that they would like to prosecute administratively involving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most U.S. attorneys would not pursue cases for under $1 million because they are overwhelmed with other fraud cases, he added.Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is sponsoring a bill that would make the change. It has bipartisan support, including from co-sponsor Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee was created by Congress in March 2020. It brings together the inspectors general offices to oversee pandemic relief emergency spending and investigate fraud and improper payments spread out among more than 400 programs implemented by 40 federal agencies.Its report to Congress also stressed the need to better use the data the federal government already has, and improve data collection, particularly when the prime recipient of a grant shares it with sub-recipients to follow the funding from the federal to the local level.Billions in loans were paid to potentially ineligible recipients at the beginning of the pandemic because the Small Business Administration didn’t check the Treasury Department’s “do not pay” list, the report said, and billions went to applicants with foreign IP addresses. Horowitz said “simple data matching” at the agency level should’ve flagged hundreds of applications using the same phone number from a gas station in Texas before the committee found it.“That shouldn’t be the case, right? An agency should be able to figure that out,” he said. “That’s not sophisticated data analytics.”Horowitz said agencies have substantially improved their ability to verify eligibility for pandemic relief payments, but “there is still a significant way to go.” That prompted the committee to set up a data analytics center, which it has asked Congress to keep in place to use when the federal government responds to future emergencies with relief spending.

Inspectors ask for authority to go after more COVID fraud

WICHITA COUNTY—A Kansas teen died in an accident just after 6p.m. Sunday in Wichita County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Dodge Intrepid driven by Trevor A. Korbe, 17, Holcomb,&nbsp; was eastbound on A Road just East of 8 Road.

The car began to rotate in a clockwise direction on all 4 tires. When the driver attempted to correct, the car began to rotate on all 4 tires in a counterclockwise direction and rolled into the south ditch.

Korbe was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp; EMS transported one passenger identified as 16-year-old Tyler Korbe of Wallace to the Wichita County Hospital in Wallace, Kansas.&nbsp; A second passenger 14-year-old&nbsp; Travis Korbe of Holcomb was not injured. The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

WICHITA COUNTY—A Kansas teen died in an accident just after 6p.m. Sunday in Wichita County.The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Dodge Intrepid driven by Trevor A. Korbe, 17, Holcomb,&nbsp; was eastbound on A Road just East of 8 Road.The car began to rotate in a clockwise direction on all 4 tires. When the driver attempted to correct, the car began to rotate on all 4 tires in a counterclockwise direction and rolled into the south ditch.Korbe was pronounced dead at the scene.&nbsp; EMS transported one passenger identified as 16-year-old Tyler Korbe of Wallace to the Wichita County Hospital in Wallace, Kansas.&nbsp; A second passenger 14-year-old&nbsp; Travis Korbe of Holcomb was not injured. The driver was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

Kansas teen dead, another injured after rollover crash

By KATIE LANGE <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3052217/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-d-day/">U.S. Department of Defense</a>

D-Day. The Invasion of Normandy. Operation Overlord. It goes by 
various names, but we've all heard about it through history class, 
grandparents, the news or shows like "Band of Brothers."

June 6, 1944, is the day when more than 160,000 Allied forces landed 
in Nazi-occupied France as part of the biggest air, land and sea 
invasion ever executed. It ended with heavy casualties — more than 9,000
 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in those first 24 hours — but 
D-Day is largely considered the successful beginning of the end of 
Hitler's tyrannical regime.

The bravery by the paratroopers and soldiers who stormed Normandy 
that day is well-known, but there are a lot of things you may not know 
about D-Day. Here are a few of those nuggets.

Do you actually know what D-Day stands for? Apparently it's the most 
frequently asked question at the National World War II Museum, but the 
answer isn't overly simple. Many experts have varying opinions, 
including that the D simply stood for "day," a code used for any 
important military operation. Others have said it's just alliteration, 
like "H-Hour," when a military assault begins.

While the true meaning remains up for debate, we'll go with what U.S.
 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said about it through his executive 
assistant, Brig. Gen. Robert Schultz: "Be advised that any amphibious 
operation has a ‘departed date;' therefore the shortened term ‘D-Day’ is
 used.” He said there were actually several other D-Days during the war —
 Normandy was just the biggest and most well-known.

D-Day Was Initially Set for 1 Day Earlier

A lot of weather-related requirements were necessary to pull D-Day 
off. The days needed to be long for maximum air power usage; a near-full
 moon was needed to help guide ships and airborne troops; and the tides 
had to be strong enough to expose beach obstacles at low tide and float 
supply-filled landing vehicles far onto the beach during high tide. 
H-Hour was also crucial in that it relied on those tides to be rising at
 that time. There also had to be an hour of daylight just beforehand for
 bombardment accuracy.

Only nine days in May and June seemed to fit those requirements, so 
commanders eventually settled on June 5; however, thanks to forecasts 
that showed a short window of good weather that day, Gen. Eisenhower 
decided last-minute to switch D-Day to the early hours of June 6.

Stories of how U.S. troops stormed the beaches of Normandy have been 
legendary for years, with the names Omaha Beach and Utah beach standing 
out in people's minds. But the invasion stretched out over 50 miles of 
land, so we couldn't do it alone. Three other beach invasions by Allied 
troops happened simultaneously: Great Britain and some smaller forces 
stormed Gold and Sword beaches, while the Canadians took Juno Beach.

While the ultimate goal of liberating France and ousting the Germans 
did happen, a lot went wrong on D-Day — especially for the Americans, 
who were the first to launch the invasion.

Thousands of U.S. paratroopers died during their drop behind enemy 
lines at Utah Beach, having been shot out of the sky by enemy fire or 
weighed down and drowned in flooded marshlands. Many also missed their 
landing spots, as did the seaborne forces, which landed more than a mile
 from their intended destination, thanks to strong currents.

The Omaha offensive turned out to be the bloodiest of the day, 
largely in part because Army intelligence underestimated the German 
stronghold there. Rough surf caused huge problems for the amphibious 
tanks launched at sea; only two of 29 made it to shore, while many of 
the infantrymen who stormed off the boats were gunned down by Germans. 
Gen. Omar Bradley, who led the Omaha forces, nearly considered 
abandoning the operation.

Somehow, though, both sectors of U.S. troops managed to advance their positions for overall success.

<a href="http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Article/196193/war-of-secrets-cryptology-in-wwii.aspx" target="_blank">Decoding the great German code machine</a>
 known as Enigma, then keeping that decoding device a secret, is one of 
the most brilliant strategies that came out of World War II.

Long story short, since radio was the standard communication of the 
time, the Allies and the Axis powers both needed machines to turn 
military plans into secret codes. The Germans had Enigma, which was 
thought to be unbreakable — until it wasn't. Early in the war, a team of
 Polish and British experts — led by <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/fall/turing.pdf" target="_blank">Alan Turing</a>,
 whose life and work are depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "The 
Imitation Game" — cracked that code through what became the foundation 
for the modern computer.

Instead of telling the world about it, though, leaders thought the 
device would be more useful if kept secret. So for years, German plans 
were hindered by the decrypted messages, including on D-Day. Officials 
said the German codes intercepted before D-Day precisely pinpointed 
nearly all of the German fighting units in the Normandy area. On D-Day 
itself, it also helped Allied commanders get word of their troops' 
progress quicker than through their own communication channels.

Breaking Germany's codes, and later those of the Japanese, proved to 
be a huge advantage for the Allies. While controversial for its secrecy,
 the decoding process has been widely credited with saving hundreds of 
thousands of lives and shortening the war by nearly two years.

Oh, and by the way, the U.S. military developed its own superior code machine — <a href="https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196193/war-of-secrets-cryptology-in-wwii/" target="_blank">SIGABA </a>— before entering the war. No one was able to break that one.

If you didn't know any of those things before today, now you do! But 
either way, make sure to remember those who gave their lives that day to
 help ensure a better future for all of us.

Editor's Note: This item was originally published June 3, 2016.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654545123962.png" alt="Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day -- "Full victory: nothing else" -- to paratroopers in England just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. U.S. Army photo" />
 <figcaption>Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order of the day -- "Full victory: nothing else" -- to paratroopers in England just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. U.S. Army photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By KATIE LANGE <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3052217/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-d-day/">U.S. Department of Defense</a>D-Day. The Invasion of Normandy. Operation Overlord. It goes by 
various names, but we've all heard about it through history class, 
grandparents, the news or shows like "Band of Brothers."June 6, 1944, is the day when more than 160,000 Allied forces landed 
in Nazi-occupied France as part of the biggest air, land and sea 
invasion ever executed. It ended with heavy casualties — more than 9,000
 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in those first 24 hours — but 
D-Day is largely considered the successful beginning of the end of 
Hitler's tyrannical regime.The bravery by the paratroopers and soldiers who stormed Normandy 
that day is well-known, but there are a lot of things you may not know 
about D-Day. Here are a few of those nuggets.<h2>Why It's Called D-Day</h2>Do you actually know what D-Day stands for? Apparently it's the most 
frequently asked question at the National World War II Museum, but the 
answer isn't overly simple. Many experts have varying opinions, 
including that the D simply stood for "day," a code used for any 
important military operation. Others have said it's just alliteration, 
like "H-Hour," when a military assault begins.While the true meaning remains up for debate, we'll go with what U.S.
 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower said about it through his executive 
assistant, Brig. Gen. Robert Schultz: "Be advised that any amphibious 
operation has a ‘departed date;' therefore the shortened term ‘D-Day’ is
 used.” He said there were actually several other D-Days during the war —
 Normandy was just the biggest and most well-known.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654545206752.png" alt="Soldiers of the 16th Infantry Regiment, wounded while storming Omaha Beach, France, wait by the chalk cliffs for evacuation to a field hospital for treatment on D-Day, June 6, 1944. U.S. Army photo" />
 <figcaption>Soldiers of the 16th Infantry Regiment, wounded while storming Omaha Beach, France, wait by the chalk cliffs for evacuation to a field hospital for treatment on D-Day, June 6, 1944. U.S. Army photo</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>D-Day Was Initially Set for 1 Day Earlier</h2>A lot of weather-related requirements were necessary to pull D-Day 
off. The days needed to be long for maximum air power usage; a near-full
 moon was needed to help guide ships and airborne troops; and the tides 
had to be strong enough to expose beach obstacles at low tide and float 
supply-filled landing vehicles far onto the beach during high tide. 
H-Hour was also crucial in that it relied on those tides to be rising at
 that time. There also had to be an hour of daylight just beforehand for
 bombardment accuracy.Only nine days in May and June seemed to fit those requirements, so 
commanders eventually settled on June 5; however, thanks to forecasts 
that showed a short window of good weather that day, Gen. Eisenhower 
decided last-minute to switch D-Day to the early hours of June 6.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654545260576.png" alt="A bird's-eye view of landing craft, barrage balloons and Allied troops landing in Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. U.S. Maritime Commission photo" />
 <figcaption>A bird's-eye view of landing craft, barrage balloons and Allied troops landing in Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. U.S. Maritime Commission photo</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>We Only Stormed 2 of the 5 Beaches</h2>Stories of how U.S. troops stormed the beaches of Normandy have been 
legendary for years, with the names Omaha Beach and Utah beach standing 
out in people's minds. But the invasion stretched out over 50 miles of 
land, so we couldn't do it alone. Three other beach invasions by Allied 
troops happened simultaneously: Great Britain and some smaller forces 
stormed Gold and Sword beaches, while the Canadians took Juno Beach.<h2>It Was Almost a Failure</h2>While the ultimate goal of liberating France and ousting the Germans 
did happen, a lot went wrong on D-Day — especially for the Americans, 
who were the first to launch the invasion.Thousands of U.S. paratroopers died during their drop behind enemy 
lines at Utah Beach, having been shot out of the sky by enemy fire or 
weighed down and drowned in flooded marshlands. Many also missed their 
landing spots, as did the seaborne forces, which landed more than a mile
 from their intended destination, thanks to strong currents.The Omaha offensive turned out to be the bloodiest of the day, 
largely in part because Army intelligence underestimated the German 
stronghold there. Rough surf caused huge problems for the amphibious 
tanks launched at sea; only two of 29 made it to shore, while many of 
the infantrymen who stormed off the boats were gunned down by Germans. 
Gen. Omar Bradley, who led the Omaha forces, nearly considered 
abandoning the operation.Somehow, though, both sectors of U.S. troops managed to advance their positions for overall success.<h2>Decoding 'Enigma'&nbsp;Helped Us Win</h2><a href="http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Article/196193/war-of-secrets-cryptology-in-wwii.aspx" target="_blank">Decoding the great German code machine</a>
 known as Enigma, then keeping that decoding device a secret, is one of 
the most brilliant strategies that came out of World War II.Long story short, since radio was the standard communication of the 
time, the Allies and the Axis powers both needed machines to turn 
military plans into secret codes. The Germans had Enigma, which was 
thought to be unbreakable — until it wasn't. Early in the war, a team of
 Polish and British experts — led by <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/fall/turing.pdf" target="_blank">Alan Turing</a>,
 whose life and work are depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "The 
Imitation Game" — cracked that code through what became the foundation 
for the modern computer.Instead of telling the world about it, though, leaders thought the 
device would be more useful if kept secret. So for years, German plans 
were hindered by the decrypted messages, including on D-Day. Officials 
said the German codes intercepted before D-Day precisely pinpointed 
nearly all of the German fighting units in the Normandy area. On D-Day 
itself, it also helped Allied commanders get word of their troops' 
progress quicker than through their own communication channels.Breaking Germany's codes, and later those of the Japanese, proved to 
be a huge advantage for the Allies. While controversial for its secrecy,
 the decoding process has been widely credited with saving hundreds of 
thousands of lives and shortening the war by nearly two years.Oh, and by the way, the U.S. military developed its own superior code machine — <a href="https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196193/war-of-secrets-cryptology-in-wwii/" target="_blank">SIGABA </a>— before entering the war. No one was able to break that one.If you didn't know any of those things before today, now you do! But 
either way, make sure to remember those who gave their lives that day to
 help ensure a better future for all of us.Editor's Note: This item was originally published June 3, 2016.

5 things you may not know about D-Day

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused in a fatal Memorial Day weekend shooting made his first court appearance in the case Thursday.

Roger Gale, 27, Wichita, is charged with 1st degree murder and aggravated assault, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

Just before 10p.m., Saturday officers responded to a shooting at an apartment complex&nbsp;in the 4900 block of East Harry. Upon their arrival, they located 30-year-old Emmanuel Hardy of Wichita outside of the residence with gunshot wounds, according to Office Paul Cruz. EMS transported Hardy&nbsp;to an area hospital where he died.

The investigation revealed 27-year-old Roger Gale and Hardy were in a verbal disturbance that&nbsp;stemmed from a prior verbal argument while Gale was walking his dog, according to Cruz.&nbsp;

During the disturbance Gale fired several shots at a 39-year-old woman and Hardy. Hardy was shot several times which caused his fatal injuries.

<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20064899">Gale remains jailed&nbsp;</a>on on a $250,000 bond, according to the DA's office.

His next court appearance is scheduled for June 13.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/5/1653857468279.png" alt="Gale-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Gale-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused in a fatal Memorial Day weekend shooting made his first court appearance in the case Thursday.Roger Gale, 27, Wichita, is charged with 1st degree murder and aggravated assault, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.Just before 10p.m., Saturday officers responded to a shooting at an apartment complex&nbsp;in the 4900 block of East Harry. Upon their arrival, they located 30-year-old Emmanuel Hardy of Wichita outside of the residence with gunshot wounds, according to Office Paul Cruz. EMS transported Hardy&nbsp;to an area hospital where he died.The investigation revealed 27-year-old Roger Gale and Hardy were in a verbal disturbance that&nbsp;stemmed from a prior verbal argument while Gale was walking his dog, according to Cruz.&nbsp;During the disturbance Gale fired several shots at a 39-year-old woman and Hardy. Hardy was shot several times which caused his fatal injuries.<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20064899">Gale remains jailed&nbsp;</a>on on a $250,000 bond, according to the DA's office.His next court appearance is scheduled for June 13.

Kan. man charged with murder after dispute while walking dog

By MAYA ROSSIN-SLATER, BOKYUNG KIM, HANNES SCHWANDT, MARIKA CABRAL and MOLLY SCHNELL <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-consequences-of-school-shootings-on-the-students-who-survive-them-183906">The Conversation</a>

As the U.S. reels from another school shooting, much of the public 
discussion has centered on the lives lost: 19 children and two adults. 
Indeed, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/25/us/shooting-robb-elementary-uvalde">massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde</a>, Texas is the second deadliest such incident on record, after the shooting at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> in 2012.

Since the Columbine massacre in 1999 in which <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">two teenagers killed a dozen students and one teacher</a>,
 at least 185 children, educators and others have been killed by gun 
violence at American schools, according to figures compiled by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/">The Washington Post</a>.

But this death toll captures only one part of the immense cost of gun violence in American schools. <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Emrossin/">We</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-_F-QrUAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">have</a> <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/faculty-experts/schwandt.html">studied</a> <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/economics/faculty/mc47484">the long-term</a> <a href="https://economics.northwestern.edu/people/directory/molly-schnell.html">effects</a> of school shootings on the health, education and economic futures of those who survive such incidents. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.200080411">research shows</a>
 that despite often escaping without physical harm, the hundreds of 
thousands of children and educators who survive these tragedies carry 
scars that affect their lives for many years to come.

In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2000804117">a 2020 study</a>,
 we analyzed 44 school shootings that took place in the U.S. between 
2008 and 2013 to assess the impact the incidents had on students’ mental
 health. Using a unique data set documenting antidepressant 
prescriptions in the surrounding areas, we found that antidepressant use
 among youth near schools that experienced shootings increased by over 
20% following the event.

This increased usage of antidepressants persisted for over three 
years after the shooting, indicating that the deterioration in mental 
health among local adolescents was not temporary.

The effects were more pronounced when the school shootings included 
fatalities, suggesting that events like the massacre in Uvalde are 
likely to result in long-lasting health effects on survivors that extend
 beyond the physical injuries some have received.

But the mental health impacts of mass school shootings tell only part
 of the story. While deadly massacres like the one in Uvalde receive 
widespread media and public attention, many more acts of gun violence at
 schools are less fatal and less highly publicized. Indeed, figures from
 <a href="https://www.chds.us/c/">the Center for Homeland Defense and Security</a> show that <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">in 2021 alone there were 240 incidents</a> in which a gun was either brandished or used in a school.

Of all shootings that took place at U.S. schools in 2018 and 2019, nearly <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">three-quarters had no fatalities</a>. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact.

To assess their effects, we studied <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w28311">fatal and non-fatal school shootings in Texas</a>
 – taking a wider lens and considering acts of gun violence that 
frequently take place at schools but are unlikely to make national news.

Between 1995 and 2016, 33 Texas public schools experienced a shooting
 on school grounds during school hours – some schools had more than one.

Using detailed educational and labor market data, we compared the 
trajectories of students at schools that experienced shootings with 
those of students at schools that were similar in terms of institutional
 and student characteristics, such as demographic makeup and percentage 
of students from low-income backgrounds. But the comparison group of 
schools did not have a shotting over our study period.

We found that students who had been exposed to a shooting at school 
were more likely to be chronically absent and to be held back a grade in
 the two years after the event. 

They were also significantly less likely to graduate high school, go 
to or graduate from college. The impacts extended into their early adult
 life. In their mid 20s, they were less likely to be employed and had 
lower earnings than their peers who had not been exposed to a shooting 
at school.

Eighteen of the 33 shootings we included in the study resulted in no 
fatalities, and no shootings resulted in more than one death. Yet, the 
negative impacts on people’s lives were profound. Our results reveal 
that each student exposed to a shooting could expect to earn US$115,550 
less over the course of their lifetime.

The tragedy of the lives lost to gun violence in America’s schools 
cannot be overstated. But the data indicate that even those who escape 
these horrific events alive and without physical injuries are also 
victims. 

These adverse impacts are observed in students exposed to mass 
shootings, but also the more routine acts of gun violence in schools 
that rarely make the news. With an average of nearly <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28311/w28311.pdf">50,000 American students</a>
 experiencing an act of gun violence at their school annually in recent 
years, our findings suggest that the aggregate costs of school gun 
violence in terms of lost lifetime earnings is nearly $5.8 billion. The 
full costs in terms of detriment to the mental health of tens of 
thousands of young people is harder to quantify.

So as we mourn the 21 lives lost in Uvalde, we must not forget about 
the hundreds of other students who were at the school that day. These 
students will be forced to live with the consequences of what happened 
for decades to come.

Maya Rossin-Slater is an Associate Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University. Bokyung Kim is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. Hannes Schwandt is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Marika Cabral is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. Molly Schnell is an Assistant Professor of Economicsat Northwestern University.

By MAYA ROSSIN-SLATER, BOKYUNG KIM, HANNES SCHWANDT, MARIKA CABRAL and MOLLY SCHNELL <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-consequences-of-school-shootings-on-the-students-who-survive-them-183906">The Conversation</a>As the U.S. reels from another school shooting, much of the public 
discussion has centered on the lives lost: 19 children and two adults. 
Indeed, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/25/us/shooting-robb-elementary-uvalde">massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde</a>, Texas is the second deadliest such incident on record, after the shooting at <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/us/connecticut-shootings-fast-facts/index.html">Sandy Hook Elementary School</a> in 2012.Since the Columbine massacre in 1999 in which <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1990s/columbine-high-school-shootings">two teenagers killed a dozen students and one teacher</a>,
 at least 185 children, educators and others have been killed by gun 
violence at American schools, according to figures compiled by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-database/">The Washington Post</a>.But this death toll captures only one part of the immense cost of gun violence in American schools. <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/%7Emrossin/">We</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-_F-QrUAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">have</a> <a href="https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/who-we-are/faculty-experts/schwandt.html">studied</a> <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/economics/faculty/mc47484">the long-term</a> <a href="https://economics.northwestern.edu/people/directory/molly-schnell.html">effects</a> of school shootings on the health, education and economic futures of those who survive such incidents. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.200080411">research shows</a>
 that despite often escaping without physical harm, the hundreds of 
thousands of children and educators who survive these tragedies carry 
scars that affect their lives for many years to come. <h2>Deterioration in mental health</h2>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2000804117">a 2020 study</a>,
 we analyzed 44 school shootings that took place in the U.S. between 
2008 and 2013 to assess the impact the incidents had on students’ mental
 health. Using a unique data set documenting antidepressant 
prescriptions in the surrounding areas, we found that antidepressant use
 among youth near schools that experienced shootings increased by over 
20% following the event.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654111791842.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>This increased usage of antidepressants persisted for over three 
years after the shooting, indicating that the deterioration in mental 
health among local adolescents was not temporary.The effects were more pronounced when the school shootings included 
fatalities, suggesting that events like the massacre in Uvalde are 
likely to result in long-lasting health effects on survivors that extend
 beyond the physical injuries some have received.<h2>Educational and economic trajectories</h2>But the mental health impacts of mass school shootings tell only part
 of the story. While deadly massacres like the one in Uvalde receive 
widespread media and public attention, many more acts of gun violence at
 schools are less fatal and less highly publicized. Indeed, figures from
 <a href="https://www.chds.us/c/">the Center for Homeland Defense and Security</a> show that <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">in 2021 alone there were 240 incidents</a> in which a gun was either brandished or used in a school.Of all shootings that took place at U.S. schools in 2018 and 2019, nearly <a href="https://www.chds.us/ssdb/view-chart/?chartid=8">three-quarters had no fatalities</a>. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have an impact.To assess their effects, we studied <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w28311">fatal and non-fatal school shootings in Texas</a>
 – taking a wider lens and considering acts of gun violence that 
frequently take place at schools but are unlikely to make national news.Between 1995 and 2016, 33 Texas public schools experienced a shooting
 on school grounds during school hours – some schools had more than one.Using detailed educational and labor market data, we compared the 
trajectories of students at schools that experienced shootings with 
those of students at schools that were similar in terms of institutional
 and student characteristics, such as demographic makeup and percentage 
of students from low-income backgrounds. But the comparison group of 
schools did not have a shotting over our study period.We found that students who had been exposed to a shooting at school 
were more likely to be chronically absent and to be held back a grade in
 the two years after the event. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654111826532.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>They were also significantly less likely to graduate high school, go 
to or graduate from college. The impacts extended into their early adult
 life. In their mid 20s, they were less likely to be employed and had 
lower earnings than their peers who had not been exposed to a shooting 
at school.Eighteen of the 33 shootings we included in the study resulted in no 
fatalities, and no shootings resulted in more than one death. Yet, the 
negative impacts on people’s lives were profound. Our results reveal 
that each student exposed to a shooting could expect to earn US$115,550 
less over the course of their lifetime.<h2>Living with the consequences</h2>The tragedy of the lives lost to gun violence in America’s schools 
cannot be overstated. But the data indicate that even those who escape 
these horrific events alive and without physical injuries are also 
victims. These adverse impacts are observed in students exposed to mass 
shootings, but also the more routine acts of gun violence in schools 
that rarely make the news. With an average of nearly <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28311/w28311.pdf">50,000 American students</a>
 experiencing an act of gun violence at their school annually in recent 
years, our findings suggest that the aggregate costs of school gun 
violence in terms of lost lifetime earnings is nearly $5.8 billion. The 
full costs in terms of detriment to the mental health of tens of 
thousands of young people is harder to quantify.So as we mourn the 21 lives lost in Uvalde, we must not forget about 
the hundreds of other students who were at the school that day. These 
students will be forced to live with the consequences of what happened 
for decades to come.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183906/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1"></iframe></div>Maya Rossin-Slater is an Associate Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University. Bokyung Kim is a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. Hannes Schwandt is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Marika Cabral is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts. Molly Schnell is an Assistant Professor of Economicsat Northwestern University.

Lasting consequences of shootings on students who survive them

By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/06/03/mccarthy-raises-funds-for-smith-flood-in-nebraskas-u-s-house-races/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN
 — The Republican vying to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House 
Speaker spent the end of this week in Nebraska, raising funds for two 
House candidates running in districts where the GOP holds significant 
advantages in voter registrations.

House
 Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy raised money Thursday for U.S. Rep. 
Adrian Smith, who represents the largely rural 3rd Congressional 
District. McCarthy did the same on Friday for State Sen. Mike Flood, who
 is running for an open seat in eastern Nebraska’s 1st District.&nbsp;

McCarthy’s
 visits to those two districts builds relationships for the potential 
Speaker if Republicans retake the House in November, and it strengthens 
McCarthy’s ties with lawmakers he might need support from in passing, 
amending or defeating legislation, political observers say.

McCarthy
 didn’t visit the state’s most competitive congressional district, the 
Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Rep. 
Don Bacon is seeking a fourth term against Democratic State Sen. Tony 
Vargas of Omaha.

McCarthy
 has stumped for Bacon before, including in 2020, when he attended the 
Douglas County Republican Party’s Elephant Remembers dinner in Omaha. 
This time, McCarthy focused on Nebraska’s two other congressional 
districts.

One
 reason, observers say, could be former President Donald Trump, who 
asked Nebraskans not to vote for Bacon during a visit in May, citing the
 congressman’s vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe
 Biden sought. Bacon has said he works for 2nd District voters, not for 
Trump.

“There
 is nothing going on in congressional races right now that doesn’t 
involve or factor in Donald Trump,” said Randall Adkins, a professor of 
political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “That could be
 one of many factors.”

McCarthy
 has been reassuring some GOP lawmakers that he remains loyal to former 
President Donald Trump after a recording was leaked in which he shared 
his criticisms of Trump after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 
2021.&nbsp;

McCarthy risks facing a challenge from the right for the role as Speaker if Republicans take over the House in November.&nbsp;

Flood,
 a former Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature from Norfolk, made plain 
where he stands in a potential race for House Speaker. He said McCarthy 
has proven his skill in uniting House Republicans. Smith called McCarthy
 a good friend and said he was glad to host him.&nbsp;

“He
 heard from hardworking Nebraskans about the challenges of inflation, 
record high gas prices and a border crisis,” Smith said. “I’m doing all I
 can to ensure Republicans retake the House majority in November.”

McCarthy
 told the Nebraska Examiner that he visited Nebraska, in part, to help 
Flood boost Republican awareness of the June 28 special election in 
which Flood is facing off with Democratic State Sen. Patty Pansing 
Brooks of Lincoln. Neither fundraiser was open to the press.&nbsp;

In
 a written response to a question, McCarthy said it was “great to be 
back in Nebraska and on the campaign trail in support of Rep. Bacon, 
Rep. Smith, and Sen. Flood. It’s clear Nebraskans are fired up and ready
 to deliver a red wave this November.”

The
 political party in control of the presidency typically loses seats in 
off-year elections. Republicans need to gain a net five seats to flip 
the House from Democratic control. Pelosi visited Nebraska for a state 
party fundraiser in 2019.

“He’s
 thinking about 435 races,” Adkins said of McCarthy. “He’s probably here
 for Mike Flood, but he’s probably thinking, ‘Who do I need to build a 
better relationship with’?”

Bacon said McCarthy has been in Omaha “every
 year” to support him. He said he was “glad that (McCarthy) came to 
Nebraska to help Mike who has an election this month and Adrian … . We 
refer you back to the Leader’s statement where he explicitly stated his 
support for us.”

Pansing
 Brooks on Friday touted her endorsements from a number of Nebraskans, 
including State Sens. John McCollister of Omaha and Lynne Walz of 
Fremont. Pansing Brooks criticized Flood for accepting the support of 
McCarthy, whom she said is obstructing efforts to investigate the events
 of Jan. 6.

“In
 running to change Washington, I look to our local leaders for 
inspiration,” Pansing Brooks said. “The answers to our nation’s problems
 are found right here at home.”&nbsp;

McCollister,
 a centrist Republican who often crosses party lines, called McCarthy 
part of a far-right fringe of the GOP who should not lead. He said he 
prefers Pansing Brooks’ approach of building consensus, even though she 
is progressive.

“I’m afraid of those people, what they’ll do, if they take the House,” he said of McCarthy and some Republicans who follow him.&nbsp;

Former
 State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, a Democrat, said she considers 
both Flood and Pansing Brooks to be her friends. She said she backs 
Pansing Brooks because she feels she would better represent Lincoln, and
 she’d like to see a mom in the seat.

“There’s
 no question that a lot of key issues are really hanging in the balance 
right now,” Conrad said, pointing to debates over gun rights and 
abortion rights as two examples.

Asked
 about Flood’s local endorsements, his campaign sent a list that 
includes Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman, U.S. Sen. Deb
 Fischer, Bacon and Smith and Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of
 Lincoln.

McCarthy
 told KFAB’s Ian Swanson on Friday that Congress needs Flood to help 
fight federal spending that he said is making inflation worse. He said 
Flood would support projects similar to the former Keystone XL pipeline 
project to address U.S. fuel costs.

McCarthy
 didn’t disagree when Swanson said Smith is in a position, because of 
his seniority, to compete for chairmanship of the House’s powerful, 
tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Smith faces Democrat David Else in
 November.

“I
 came to Nebraska to talk and listen to a lot of constituents here, but 
mainly to make sure they make the right decision…,” McCarthy told KFAB. 
“What you’re going to find from Republicans is we’re going to hold this 
administration accountable.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654454327219.png" alt="House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to a television reporter at a Lincoln fundraiser for State Sen. Mike Flood, a candidate for the 1st District special election to the U.S. House. (Mike Flood for Congress)" />
 <figcaption>House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks to a television reporter at a Lincoln fundraiser for State Sen. Mike Flood, a candidate for the 1st District special election to the U.S. House. (Mike Flood for Congress)</figcaption>
 </figure>By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/06/03/mccarthy-raises-funds-for-smith-flood-in-nebraskas-u-s-house-races/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN
 — The Republican vying to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House 
Speaker spent the end of this week in Nebraska, raising funds for two 
House candidates running in districts where the GOP holds significant 
advantages in voter registrations.House
 Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy raised money Thursday for U.S. Rep. 
Adrian Smith, who represents the largely rural 3rd Congressional 
District. McCarthy did the same on Friday for State Sen. Mike Flood, who
 is running for an open seat in eastern Nebraska’s 1st District.&nbsp;McCarthy’s
 visits to those two districts builds relationships for the potential 
Speaker if Republicans retake the House in November, and it strengthens 
McCarthy’s ties with lawmakers he might need support from in passing, 
amending or defeating legislation, political observers say.McCarthy
 didn’t visit the state’s most competitive congressional district, the 
Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, where incumbent Republican Rep. 
Don Bacon is seeking a fourth term against Democratic State Sen. Tony 
Vargas of Omaha.McCarthy
 has stumped for Bacon before, including in 2020, when he attended the 
Douglas County Republican Party’s Elephant Remembers dinner in Omaha. 
This time, McCarthy focused on Nebraska’s two other congressional 
districts.One
 reason, observers say, could be former President Donald Trump, who 
asked Nebraskans not to vote for Bacon during a visit in May, citing the
 congressman’s vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill President Joe
 Biden sought. Bacon has said he works for 2nd District voters, not for 
Trump.“There
 is nothing going on in congressional races right now that doesn’t 
involve or factor in Donald Trump,” said Randall Adkins, a professor of 
political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. “That could be
 one of many factors.”McCarthy
 has been reassuring some GOP lawmakers that he remains loyal to former 
President Donald Trump after a recording was leaked in which he shared 
his criticisms of Trump after rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 
2021.&nbsp;McCarthy risks facing a challenge from the right for the role as Speaker if Republicans take over the House in November.&nbsp;Flood,
 a former Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature from Norfolk, made plain 
where he stands in a potential race for House Speaker. He said McCarthy 
has proven his skill in uniting House Republicans. Smith called McCarthy
 a good friend and said he was glad to host him.&nbsp;“He
 heard from hardworking Nebraskans about the challenges of inflation, 
record high gas prices and a border crisis,” Smith said. “I’m doing all I
 can to ensure Republicans retake the House majority in November.”McCarthy
 told the Nebraska Examiner that he visited Nebraska, in part, to help 
Flood boost Republican awareness of the June 28 special election in 
which Flood is facing off with Democratic State Sen. Patty Pansing 
Brooks of Lincoln. Neither fundraiser was open to the press.&nbsp;In
 a written response to a question, McCarthy said it was “great to be 
back in Nebraska and on the campaign trail in support of Rep. Bacon, 
Rep. Smith, and Sen. Flood. It’s clear Nebraskans are fired up and ready
 to deliver a red wave this November.”The
 political party in control of the presidency typically loses seats in 
off-year elections. Republicans need to gain a net five seats to flip 
the House from Democratic control. Pelosi visited Nebraska for a state 
party fundraiser in 2019.“He’s
 thinking about 435 races,” Adkins said of McCarthy. “He’s probably here
 for Mike Flood, but he’s probably thinking, ‘Who do I need to build a 
better relationship with’?” 
Bacon said McCarthy has been in Omaha “every
 year” to support him. He said he was “glad that (McCarthy) came to 
Nebraska to help Mike who has an election this month and Adrian … . We 
refer you back to the Leader’s statement where he explicitly stated his 
support for us.”Pansing
 Brooks on Friday touted her endorsements from a number of Nebraskans, 
including State Sens. John McCollister of Omaha and Lynne Walz of 
Fremont. Pansing Brooks criticized Flood for accepting the support of 
McCarthy, whom she said is obstructing efforts to investigate the events
 of Jan. 6.“In
 running to change Washington, I look to our local leaders for 
inspiration,” Pansing Brooks said. “The answers to our nation’s problems
 are found right here at home.”&nbsp;McCollister,
 a centrist Republican who often crosses party lines, called McCarthy 
part of a far-right fringe of the GOP who should not lead. He said he 
prefers Pansing Brooks’ approach of building consensus, even though she 
is progressive.“I’m afraid of those people, what they’ll do, if they take the House,” he said of McCarthy and some Republicans who follow him.&nbsp;Former
 State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, a Democrat, said she considers 
both Flood and Pansing Brooks to be her friends. She said she backs 
Pansing Brooks because she feels she would better represent Lincoln, and
 she’d like to see a mom in the seat.“There’s
 no question that a lot of key issues are really hanging in the balance 
right now,” Conrad said, pointing to debates over gun rights and 
abortion rights as two examples.Asked
 about Flood’s local endorsements, his campaign sent a list that 
includes Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman, U.S. Sen. Deb
 Fischer, Bacon and Smith and Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of
 Lincoln.McCarthy
 told KFAB’s Ian Swanson on Friday that Congress needs Flood to help 
fight federal spending that he said is making inflation worse. He said 
Flood would support projects similar to the former Keystone XL pipeline 
project to address U.S. fuel costs.McCarthy
 didn’t disagree when Swanson said Smith is in a position, because of 
his seniority, to compete for chairmanship of the House’s powerful, 
tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Smith faces Democrat David Else in
 November.“I
 came to Nebraska to talk and listen to a lot of constituents here, but 
mainly to make sure they make the right decision…,” McCarthy told KFAB. 
“What you’re going to find from Republicans is we’re going to hold this 
administration accountable.”

McCarthy raises funds for Smith, Flood in Neb. U.S. House races

By MICHAEL POLAND <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/06/01/touring-the-volcano-shaped-landscape-of-yellowstone-national-park/">Daily Montanan</a>

The road over Dunraven Pass between Tower and Canyon Junctions, in the northeast part of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park, exposes an outstanding sequence of geological history, much of which significantly predates recent&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;volcanism.

Construction work closed the road during the summers of 2020 and 
2021, but the route is now open. The occasion provides an ideal 
opportunity to rediscover some of the most diverse geology and 
outstanding vistas in all of Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park! Let’s have a look, traveling south from Tower Junction to Canyon Junction.

The geology of the eastern portion of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park, outside the boundaries on&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera,
 is dominated by the Absarokas—a volcanic range that was active from 
about 53 to 43 million years ago. In contrast to the giant&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;caldera&nbsp;now
 filled with hummocky hills of rhyolite lava flows, the Absaroka Range 
back then might have looked more like the Cascade Range does today—a 
chain of large, steep-sided stratovolcanoes that erupted lava and ash 
flows, and whose slopes failed on multiple occasions with large 
collapses that created mudflow events. The Absaroka volcanoes have a 
different rock chemistry, a different origin and evolution, and are 
distinct from the younger&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;volcanism.

Even though the volcanoes have long since eroded way—the Absaroka 
Rage today only exposes the “guts” of these long-dead eruptive 
centers—debris from their eruptions is scattered across the region. In 
fact, petrified trees near Tower Junction were preserved because they 
were encased in ancient mudflow deposits from these volcanoes. The area 
is actually one of the largest deposits of petrified trees found 
anywhere in the world!

The road from Tower Junction (near Roosevelt Lodge) to Tower Fall—a 
magnificent waterfall that formed within the Absaroka volcanic 
rocks—follows the path of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;River 
and provides numerous vistas into its spectacular canyon. The base of 
the canyon is made up of debris from the ancient Absaroka volcanic 
eruptions.

About halfway up the canyon walls of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;River,
 and easily visible across the river from the road (especially from the 
Calcite Springs overlook), are a pair of dark, horizontal layers with a 
well-defined columnar structure (formed due to slow cooling of hot 
material). These are lava flows known as the basalt of the Narrows and 
that erupted about 1.3 million years ago—roughly the same time as the 
formation of second cycle&nbsp;caldera-forming eruption, the Henrys Fork&nbsp;caldera, southwest of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National
 Park in eastern Idaho. The two lava flows are separated by a thick 
accumulation of gravels, including from glacial deposits, and they are 
overlain by more glacial debris. Similar flows of columnar basaltic lava
 are also present along the road. Named the Junction Butte Basalt, this 
flow erupted about 2 million years ago, after the formation of, and 
outside, the Huckleberry Ridge&nbsp;caldera—the first major&nbsp;caldera-forming eruption in the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;region 2.1 million years ago.

A curious non-volcanic feature is also present in the same area—oil 
seeps! Deep beneath the surface in this area are sediments from an 
inland sea that are tens to hundreds of millions of years old. These 
sediments contain hydrocarbons formed from long-buried organic material.
 Perhaps aided by heat from&nbsp;Yellowstone’s 
magmatic system and fractures formed by circulating hydrothermal fluids,
 the hydrocarbons have made it to the surface as oil seeps at Calcite 
Springs and a few other areas in this part of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park.

Continuing south from Tower Fall, the road climbs through Absaroka 
volcanic rocks to Mount Washburn. Roadcuts along the route expose mud 
flow deposits that dip away from the summit of Mount Washburn, a massive
 Absaroka volcano. The dipping rock units follow the slope of the 
ancient volcano!

If you have the time, be sure to take in the view from Mount 
Washburn—either from the trailhead, the parking area off Chittenden 
Road, or from the lookout atop the peak itself. Looking east, the rugged
 Absaroka Range is laid out before you. To the southwest is the Grand 
Canyon of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;and&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;caldera, 631,000 years old and largely filled by lava flows and glacial debris. In the distance is&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Lake and the southern rim of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera&nbsp;at the base of Mount Sheridan and Flat Mountain.

As you descend from Dunraven Pass toward Canyon Junction, keep an eye
 out for Washburn Hot Springs to the east. Within about three miles of 
Canyon Junction, you will finally leave the steep slopes of the Absaroka
 Range and its diverse forests and cross into the lodgepole pine stands 
that grow on the soils of rhyolite lava flows that erupted after the 
formation of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera. After another mile or two, you have descended into the&nbsp;caldera&nbsp;itself, although much of its boundary is obscured by the rhyolite lava flows.

The geology of Canyon Junction is dominated by rhyolite lava flows 
that are several hundred thousand years old. Atop these flows are lake 
sediments and glacial debris, including some impressive boulders, known 
as erratics, that were transported at least tens of miles by ice that 
covered the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;region as recently as about 15,000 years ago.

The short drive between Tower and Canyon Junctions showcases tens of 
millions of years of Earth history, from petrified trees encased in 
ancient mudflows, to relatively young glacial and lake deposits that sit
 atop thick rhyolite lava flows. If you happen to be in&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;this
 summer, be sure to take advantage of the opening of the road over 
Dunraven Pass to explore some of the most diverse geology in all of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park!

Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera&nbsp;Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Volcano
 Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Michael Poland, 
geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of 
the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Volcano Observatory.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654118184959.png" alt="View of the Yellowstone caldera from the Washburn Range. The caldera extends to the base of the Red Mountains in the upper right of the photo. The rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is in the foreground (Photo by Jacob W. Frank | National Park Service). " />
 <figcaption>View of the Yellowstone caldera from the Washburn Range. The caldera extends to the base of the Red Mountains in the upper right of the photo. The rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is in the foreground (Photo by Jacob W. Frank | National Park Service). </figcaption>
 </figure>By MICHAEL POLAND <a href="https://dailymontanan.com/2022/06/01/touring-the-volcano-shaped-landscape-of-yellowstone-national-park/">Daily Montanan</a>The road over Dunraven Pass between Tower and Canyon Junctions, in the northeast part of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park, exposes an outstanding sequence of geological history, much of which significantly predates recent&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;volcanism.Construction work closed the road during the summers of 2020 and 
2021, but the route is now open. The occasion provides an ideal 
opportunity to rediscover some of the most diverse geology and 
outstanding vistas in all of Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park! Let’s have a look, traveling south from Tower Junction to Canyon Junction.The geology of the eastern portion of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park, outside the boundaries on&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera,
 is dominated by the Absarokas—a volcanic range that was active from 
about 53 to 43 million years ago. In contrast to the giant&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;caldera&nbsp;now
 filled with hummocky hills of rhyolite lava flows, the Absaroka Range 
back then might have looked more like the Cascade Range does today—a 
chain of large, steep-sided stratovolcanoes that erupted lava and ash 
flows, and whose slopes failed on multiple occasions with large 
collapses that created mudflow events. The Absaroka volcanoes have a 
different rock chemistry, a different origin and evolution, and are 
distinct from the younger&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;volcanism.Even though the volcanoes have long since eroded way—the Absaroka 
Rage today only exposes the “guts” of these long-dead eruptive 
centers—debris from their eruptions is scattered across the region. In 
fact, petrified trees near Tower Junction were preserved because they 
were encased in ancient mudflow deposits from these volcanoes. The area 
is actually one of the largest deposits of petrified trees found 
anywhere in the world!The road from Tower Junction (near Roosevelt Lodge) to Tower Fall—a 
magnificent waterfall that formed within the Absaroka volcanic 
rocks—follows the path of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;River 
and provides numerous vistas into its spectacular canyon. The base of 
the canyon is made up of debris from the ancient Absaroka volcanic 
eruptions.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654118260378.jpeg" alt=" The two distinct, columnar-jointed, lava flows seen here in the Narrows of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River erupted about 1.3 million years ago at about the time of the second caldera-forming rhyolitic ash-flow eruption, which occurred west of Yellowstone National Park. Thick layers of stream-deposited gravels lie beneath and between the two lava flows visible in this photo. The cliffs eroded into pinnacles below the lower basalt are older volcanic rocks of the Absaroka volcanic field. (Photo by Yellowstone Volcano Observatory)." />
 <figcaption> The two distinct, columnar-jointed, lava flows seen here in the Narrows of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River erupted about 1.3 million years ago at about the time of the second caldera-forming rhyolitic ash-flow eruption, which occurred west of Yellowstone National Park. Thick layers of stream-deposited gravels lie beneath and between the two lava flows visible in this photo. The cliffs eroded into pinnacles below the lower basalt are older volcanic rocks of the Absaroka volcanic field. (Photo by Yellowstone Volcano Observatory).</figcaption>
 </figure>About halfway up the canyon walls of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;River,
 and easily visible across the river from the road (especially from the 
Calcite Springs overlook), are a pair of dark, horizontal layers with a 
well-defined columnar structure (formed due to slow cooling of hot 
material). These are lava flows known as the basalt of the Narrows and 
that erupted about 1.3 million years ago—roughly the same time as the 
formation of second cycle&nbsp;caldera-forming eruption, the Henrys Fork&nbsp;caldera, southwest of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National
 Park in eastern Idaho. The two lava flows are separated by a thick 
accumulation of gravels, including from glacial deposits, and they are 
overlain by more glacial debris. Similar flows of columnar basaltic lava
 are also present along the road. Named the Junction Butte Basalt, this 
flow erupted about 2 million years ago, after the formation of, and 
outside, the Huckleberry Ridge&nbsp;caldera—the first major&nbsp;caldera-forming eruption in the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;region 2.1 million years ago.A curious non-volcanic feature is also present in the same area—oil 
seeps! Deep beneath the surface in this area are sediments from an 
inland sea that are tens to hundreds of millions of years old. These 
sediments contain hydrocarbons formed from long-buried organic material.
 Perhaps aided by heat from&nbsp;Yellowstone’s 
magmatic system and fractures formed by circulating hydrothermal fluids,
 the hydrocarbons have made it to the surface as oil seeps at Calcite 
Springs and a few other areas in this part of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park.Continuing south from Tower Fall, the road climbs through Absaroka 
volcanic rocks to Mount Washburn. Roadcuts along the route expose mud 
flow deposits that dip away from the summit of Mount Washburn, a massive
 Absaroka volcano. The dipping rock units follow the slope of the 
ancient volcano!If you have the time, be sure to take in the view from Mount 
Washburn—either from the trailhead, the parking area off Chittenden 
Road, or from the lookout atop the peak itself. Looking east, the rugged
 Absaroka Range is laid out before you. To the southwest is the Grand 
Canyon of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;and&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;caldera, 631,000 years old and largely filled by lava flows and glacial debris. In the distance is&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Lake and the southern rim of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera&nbsp;at the base of Mount Sheridan and Flat Mountain.As you descend from Dunraven Pass toward Canyon Junction, keep an eye
 out for Washburn Hot Springs to the east. Within about three miles of 
Canyon Junction, you will finally leave the steep slopes of the Absaroka
 Range and its diverse forests and cross into the lodgepole pine stands 
that grow on the soils of rhyolite lava flows that erupted after the 
formation of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera. After another mile or two, you have descended into the&nbsp;caldera&nbsp;itself, although much of its boundary is obscured by the rhyolite lava flows.The geology of Canyon Junction is dominated by rhyolite lava flows 
that are several hundred thousand years old. Atop these flows are lake 
sediments and glacial debris, including some impressive boulders, known 
as erratics, that were transported at least tens of miles by ice that 
covered the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;region as recently as about 15,000 years ago.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654118290471.jpeg" alt="This huge boulder was dropped by a retreating glacier on the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park — a testament to Yellowstone’s icy past. (Photo by Yellowstone Volcano Observatory)." />
 <figcaption>This huge boulder was dropped by a retreating glacier on the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park — a testament to Yellowstone’s icy past. (Photo by Yellowstone Volcano Observatory).</figcaption>
 </figure>The short drive between Tower and Canyon Junctions showcases tens of 
millions of years of Earth history, from petrified trees encased in 
ancient mudflows, to relatively young glacial and lake deposits that sit
 atop thick rhyolite lava flows. If you happen to be in&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;this
 summer, be sure to take advantage of the opening of the road over 
Dunraven Pass to explore some of the most diverse geology in all of&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;National Park!Yellowstone&nbsp;Caldera&nbsp;Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Volcano
 Observatory. This week’s contribution is from Michael Poland, 
geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey and Scientist-in-Charge of 
the&nbsp;Yellowstone&nbsp;Volcano Observatory.

Touring the volcano-shaped landscape of Yellowstone National Park

KANSAS CITY (AP) –An 18-year-old was undergoing treatment for an eating disorder when she learned she was pregnant, already in the second trimester. A mom of two found out at 20 weeks that her much-wanted baby had no kidneys or bladder. A young woman was raped and couldn’t fathom continuing a pregnancy.

Abortions later in pregnancy are relatively rare, even more so now with the availability of medications to terminate early pregnancies.

Across large parts of the United States, they are also increasingly difficult to obtain.

Now, if the U.S. Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-07439f9fc4542f1500ab78dfd34036b1">overturns</a>&nbsp;its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, women will face even more hurdles in some parts of the country, and may have to travel to another state to get an abortion.

That means more women could end up having the procedure later than they wish, and the burden falls more heavily on some groups, such as teens, poor, Black, Latino and Native American women and those who live in states where access to any abortion is limited.

“It’s not because people don’t want to have them sooner,” said Dr. Diane Horvath, an OB-GYN in Baltimore, Maryland, who has performed abortions for 16 years. “It’s because barriers and new information cause them to have to push it back to later in pregnancy.”

The Associated Press interviewed three women who had abortions later in their pregnancy. While their backgrounds and reasons for terminating their pregnancies were varied, none expressed doubt about their decision — or said they were traumatized by it — and all said they were grateful that they were able to do it.

Christina Taylor already had two kids when she became pregnant with her third. Everything was going well at the start and she was looking forward to welcoming a new baby into the family.

When she was 20 weeks pregnant, Taylor went for an ultrasound and basic anatomy scan that is normally done at this stage. For most people, this is a time to find out the baby’s sex. For some, it’s also when fetal abnormalities are detected.

“I laid down and the ultrasound tech was doing her thing and she was getting really quiet and was taking a really long time,” she recalled. “She left the room at one point, ‘I need to talk to the doctor.’”

When the tech returned, Taylor could see from the look on her face that something was wrong. When the doctor arrived, he told the couple that there was no amniotic fluid. There were also no kidneys. The baby would likely not survive the pregnancy, or if by some miracle made it to full term, he would die shortly after birth.

“I told the doctor, look, I’m not sure … I don’t buy the age of viability thing, but for my own mental health and for the health of my family I want to terminate my pregnancy as soon as possible,” Taylor recalled.

She got a second doctor’s opinion and an MRI, which not only confirmed that there were no kidneys present, but also no bladder.

Fortunately, in Colorado, abortion is legal, as it was at the time, with no gestational limits. In the U.S., nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester of pregnancy. Just over 6% of abortions were performed at 14 to 20 weeks’ gestation, the second trimester, in 2019 according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Less than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm" target="_blank">1% took place at 21 weeks or later,</a>&nbsp;in the third, based on the most recent data available.

Taylor’s story shows what getting an abortion with access to good health care, health insurance and no legal obstacles can look like.

“I had the option to wait it out and see when he passed and then, you know, you’d have a stillbirth. But I knew I couldn’t do that. Like, I couldn’t put my kids through that,” Taylor said.

On the way home from the MRI she called her insurance company and found that they covered both types of abortion procedures, dilation and evacuation, D&amp;E, and induction and dilation, or I&amp;D. She chose the latter, which essentially would mean inducing labor and going through delivery. This way, she could have the procedure in a maternity ward, with a team of midwives.

“There was a small chance that he could have been born still alive and we would have been able to hold him and say goodbye when he passed,” Taylor said.

She labored for a day and a half. Given the circumstances, she recalled it as an overall positive experience, knowing “how much worse it could have been” had they still lived in Texas, where even in 2017 the procedure would not have been legal. The state’s current ban of all abortions after 6 weeks makes no exceptions – Taylor would have had to travel out of state to receive care, or possibly wait until her baby died in her womb, putting her at increased risk of infections and even death.

Only eight states allow abortions at any time during a pregnancy. Twenty states have no specific time limits but prohibit abortions at the time of “fetal viability,” which is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks but depends on a host of other factors besides gestational age.

“I still grieve to this day for the loss of my son and my husband does too,” Taylor, who has been sharing her abortion story to bring attention to experiences such as hers, said. “But you know, we accept that that’s something that happens sometimes. And especially because of the context of knowing how lucky we were to just not have laws in the way of just doing what felt right.”

“Everyone thinks you present pregnancies the same way. You miss a period, you throw up, you take a test and at five weeks, you know you’re pregnant. And that is just not how life shakes out for a lot of people,” said Erika Christensen, founder of PatientForward, a nonprofit that helps people access later abortions.

Jenn Chalifoux, now 30 and studying law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, became pregnant in 2010, when she was 18 years old and receiving inpatient care for an eating disorder in New York. Her story touches on popular myths — that women always know they are pregnant and that women in liberal states with laws that only ban rare late abortions can easily get them.

Chalifoux returned home from college in the summer before her sophomore year to receive treatment for restrictive eating. A common symptom of such eating disorders is the loss of one’s period. A common – though by no means fail-safe – sign of being pregnant is also the loss of one’s period.

“I had a medical team of doctors and psychiatrists and stuff that I was working with. And at no point did any of us think that the fact that I hadn’t gotten my period was because of a pregnancy,” Chalifoux said.

As she was starting to recover from the eating disorder, though, her period still hadn’t returned. She was on birth control, but just to rule it out, she took a home pregnancy test, which was positive. After confirming the pregnancy through a blood test, she reached out to Planned Parenthood, where she was told that it was too late for a medical abortion and she would need a surgical procedure.

“I spent probably at least two weeks thinking about the financials, going through the money that I had,” Chalifoux said. “And a week makes a difference.”

The cost of an abortion increases significantly as time goes on, from a few hundred dollars to thousands in the second trimester and even tens of thousands later on. For many women, financial barriers to abortion serve to push the procedure later, because it can take time to come up with money. Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-income Americans, does not pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.

“It’s really hard to get an abortion in this country,” Christensen said. “And the idea that people are able to seek care by a certain date is kind of based on the myths that we get all the information we need by a certain time and that we live in equitable environments with equal access to resources and health care. Neither of those are true.”

Horvath, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said she’s already seeing patients from other states in her Maryland practice who have found themselves too far into the pregnancy to be able to have abortions in their state.

Realizing that she could not handle it alone, Chalifoux told her parents, who embraced her with support. By this point, weeks had passed since she learned she was pregnant and she started to experience physical symptoms of pregnancy. The experience of not having control over her body as it changed horrified her and she said she getting intrusive thoughts of performing an abortion on herself.

“I just remember feeling like I wanted to cut myself open or die. The experience of not having control over my body and feeling my body, feeling it change, noticing the changes and knowing that I was getting more pregnant every day was just … I mean, it was like horror,” she recalled.

After going for an initial appointment at a hospital to prepare for the procedure, another ultrasound revealed that she was further along than first thought. In all, Chalifoux said it took about a month from the time she learned she was pregnant until she was able to receive an abortion, a few days after she turned 19.

“It was such a long time ago that I’ve healed from a lot of it, but I’m able to recognize that where I used to think that my abortion was traumatic for me, I can realize now that it was the pregnancy that was traumatic. And that the abortion was actually very healing,” she said.

Today, Chalifoux is studying law, hoping to become a public defender or find work fighting against mass incarceration and speaks publicly about her abortion as part of her reproductive rights activism. Looking back, she says, she does not think she would have survived if she were forced to carry the pregnancy to term.

“I can remember having this fear that I would be forced to give birth,” she said. “And I can remember thinking that I would rather die.”

It was July 2020. The young woman decided to check out her friend’s stand-up comedy show in a downtown Houston comedy club. She wouldn’t know anyone in the audience, but that didn’t matter. Working in the service industry and being a social, responsible person who had lived on her own since she turned 18, she wasn’t worried. She met what seemed like “a group of really cool people.” She had some drinks with them and had a good time, she recalled. Looking back, she doesn’t recall any women being part of the group. But she trusted herself.

“Everything kind of happened really fast,” said the woman, 31, whom the AP is not identifying because she is the victim of sexual assault. “I’m pretty sure, pretty sure someone slipped something in one of my drinks. I ended up waking up the next morning in a rundown motel room somewhere in southwest Houston.”

She had nothing on her except her clothes and shoes. Her phone, wallet and underwear were missing. It was about 10:30 a.m. and the motel’s management was banging on her door. Instead of offering help, she recalled, they yelled at her and kicked her out. The woman, who is Black, thinks they might have thought she was a prostitute. She walked along the side of the highway until she found a gas station where she could call a family member to pick her up.

Time went on, and she didn’t tell anyone what happened except one close friend. She started dating someone.

In late October, early November of that year, she, took a home pregnancy test. She was on birth control, but she figured maybe it had failed. She was pregnant.

After an initial appointment with a doctor who gave her an incorrect gestational age, she followed up at a women’s clinic, where she learned that she was actually further along. She did the math, and traced back the start of her pregnancy to the time she was raped back in July.

“And that was just something that I was not … I would not have been able to live with,” she said.

The young woman said it took her more than a week to absorb the shock of learning that she became pregnant from a sexual assault. More time passed as she searched for an abortion provider, encountering crisis pregnancy centers that tried to steer her away from terminating the pregnancy. One of the centers, she said, was calling her daily at one point. The woman said she felt harassed.

There was also the cost. According to medical bills the woman provided to the AP, the cost of her procedure increased by $2,500 between the time she was examined in Austin before her abortion and the time she arrived in New Mexico for the procedure. PatientForward helped cover her costs.

She was in her third trimester by the time she got on an airplane, alone, to fly to New Mexico and terminate her pregnancy at 27 weeks of gestation. She hasn’t told her family what happened, or any other friends, still coping with feelings of shame and guilt from both the rape and the abortion. She does not know who raped her.

“I have no idea who did it. No idea,” she said. “I never went back and pursued it.”

By BARBARA ORTUTAYKANSAS CITY (AP) –An 18-year-old was undergoing treatment for an eating disorder when she learned she was pregnant, already in the second trimester. A mom of two found out at 20 weeks that her much-wanted baby had no kidneys or bladder. A young woman was raped and couldn’t fathom continuing a pregnancy.Abortions later in pregnancy are relatively rare, even more so now with the availability of medications to terminate early pregnancies.Across large parts of the United States, they are also increasingly difficult to obtain.Now, if the U.S. Supreme Court&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-07439f9fc4542f1500ab78dfd34036b1">overturns</a>&nbsp;its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, women will face even more hurdles in some parts of the country, and may have to travel to another state to get an abortion.That means more women could end up having the procedure later than they wish, and the burden falls more heavily on some groups, such as teens, poor, Black, Latino and Native American women and those who live in states where access to any abortion is limited.“It’s not because people don’t want to have them sooner,” said Dr. Diane Horvath, an OB-GYN in Baltimore, Maryland, who has performed abortions for 16 years. “It’s because barriers and new information cause them to have to push it back to later in pregnancy.”The Associated Press interviewed three women who had abortions later in their pregnancy. While their backgrounds and reasons for terminating their pregnancies were varied, none expressed doubt about their decision — or said they were traumatized by it — and all said they were grateful that they were able to do it.___WANTED BABY, MISSING ORGANSChristina Taylor already had two kids when she became pregnant with her third. Everything was going well at the start and she was looking forward to welcoming a new baby into the family.When she was 20 weeks pregnant, Taylor went for an ultrasound and basic anatomy scan that is normally done at this stage. For most people, this is a time to find out the baby’s sex. For some, it’s also when fetal abnormalities are detected.“I laid down and the ultrasound tech was doing her thing and she was getting really quiet and was taking a really long time,” she recalled. “She left the room at one point, ‘I need to talk to the doctor.’”When the tech returned, Taylor could see from the look on her face that something was wrong. When the doctor arrived, he told the couple that there was no amniotic fluid. There were also no kidneys. The baby would likely not survive the pregnancy, or if by some miracle made it to full term, he would die shortly after birth.“I told the doctor, look, I’m not sure … I don’t buy the age of viability thing, but for my own mental health and for the health of my family I want to terminate my pregnancy as soon as possible,” Taylor recalled.She got a second doctor’s opinion and an MRI, which not only confirmed that there were no kidneys present, but also no bladder.Fortunately, in Colorado, abortion is legal, as it was at the time, with no gestational limits. In the U.S., nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester of pregnancy. Just over 6% of abortions were performed at 14 to 20 weeks’ gestation, the second trimester, in 2019 according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. Less than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm" target="_blank">1% took place at 21 weeks or later,</a>&nbsp;in the third, based on the most recent data available.Taylor’s story shows what getting an abortion with access to good health care, health insurance and no legal obstacles can look like.“I had the option to wait it out and see when he passed and then, you know, you’d have a stillbirth. But I knew I couldn’t do that. Like, I couldn’t put my kids through that,” Taylor said.On the way home from the MRI she called her insurance company and found that they covered both types of abortion procedures, dilation and evacuation, D&amp;E, and induction and dilation, or I&amp;D. She chose the latter, which essentially would mean inducing labor and going through delivery. This way, she could have the procedure in a maternity ward, with a team of midwives.“There was a small chance that he could have been born still alive and we would have been able to hold him and say goodbye when he passed,” Taylor said.She labored for a day and a half. Given the circumstances, she recalled it as an overall positive experience, knowing “how much worse it could have been” had they still lived in Texas, where even in 2017 the procedure would not have been legal. The state’s current ban of all abortions after 6 weeks makes no exceptions – Taylor would have had to travel out of state to receive care, or possibly wait until her baby died in her womb, putting her at increased risk of infections and even death.Only eight states allow abortions at any time during a pregnancy. Twenty states have no specific time limits but prohibit abortions at the time of “fetal viability,” which is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks but depends on a host of other factors besides gestational age.“I still grieve to this day for the loss of my son and my husband does too,” Taylor, who has been sharing her abortion story to bring attention to experiences such as hers, said. “But you know, we accept that that’s something that happens sometimes. And especially because of the context of knowing how lucky we were to just not have laws in the way of just doing what felt right.”___‘I WAS FEELING SUICIDAL’“Everyone thinks you present pregnancies the same way. You miss a period, you throw up, you take a test and at five weeks, you know you’re pregnant. And that is just not how life shakes out for a lot of people,” said Erika Christensen, founder of PatientForward, a nonprofit that helps people access later abortions.Jenn Chalifoux, now 30 and studying law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, became pregnant in 2010, when she was 18 years old and receiving inpatient care for an eating disorder in New York. Her story touches on popular myths — that women always know they are pregnant and that women in liberal states with laws that only ban rare late abortions can easily get them.Chalifoux returned home from college in the summer before her sophomore year to receive treatment for restrictive eating. A common symptom of such eating disorders is the loss of one’s period. A common – though by no means fail-safe – sign of being pregnant is also the loss of one’s period.“I had a medical team of doctors and psychiatrists and stuff that I was working with. And at no point did any of us think that the fact that I hadn’t gotten my period was because of a pregnancy,” Chalifoux said.As she was starting to recover from the eating disorder, though, her period still hadn’t returned. She was on birth control, but just to rule it out, she took a home pregnancy test, which was positive. After confirming the pregnancy through a blood test, she reached out to Planned Parenthood, where she was told that it was too late for a medical abortion and she would need a surgical procedure.“I spent probably at least two weeks thinking about the financials, going through the money that I had,” Chalifoux said. “And a week makes a difference.”The cost of an abortion increases significantly as time goes on, from a few hundred dollars to thousands in the second trimester and even tens of thousands later on. For many women, financial barriers to abortion serve to push the procedure later, because it can take time to come up with money. Medicaid, which provides health care coverage to low-income Americans, does not pay for abortions except in the case of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger.“It’s really hard to get an abortion in this country,” Christensen said. “And the idea that people are able to seek care by a certain date is kind of based on the myths that we get all the information we need by a certain time and that we live in equitable environments with equal access to resources and health care. Neither of those are true.”Horvath, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said she’s already seeing patients from other states in her Maryland practice who have found themselves too far into the pregnancy to be able to have abortions in their state.Realizing that she could not handle it alone, Chalifoux told her parents, who embraced her with support. By this point, weeks had passed since she learned she was pregnant and she started to experience physical symptoms of pregnancy. The experience of not having control over her body as it changed horrified her and she said she getting intrusive thoughts of performing an abortion on herself.“I just remember feeling like I wanted to cut myself open or die. The experience of not having control over my body and feeling my body, feeling it change, noticing the changes and knowing that I was getting more pregnant every day was just … I mean, it was like horror,” she recalled.After going for an initial appointment at a hospital to prepare for the procedure, another ultrasound revealed that she was further along than first thought. In all, Chalifoux said it took about a month from the time she learned she was pregnant until she was able to receive an abortion, a few days after she turned 19.“It was such a long time ago that I’ve healed from a lot of it, but I’m able to recognize that where I used to think that my abortion was traumatic for me, I can realize now that it was the pregnancy that was traumatic. And that the abortion was actually very healing,” she said.Today, Chalifoux is studying law, hoping to become a public defender or find work fighting against mass incarceration and speaks publicly about her abortion as part of her reproductive rights activism. Looking back, she says, she does not think she would have survived if she were forced to carry the pregnancy to term.“I can remember having this fear that I would be forced to give birth,” she said. “And I can remember thinking that I would rather die.”___RAPE AND A DOCTOR’S MISCALCULATIONIt was July 2020. The young woman decided to check out her friend’s stand-up comedy show in a downtown Houston comedy club. She wouldn’t know anyone in the audience, but that didn’t matter. Working in the service industry and being a social, responsible person who had lived on her own since she turned 18, she wasn’t worried. She met what seemed like “a group of really cool people.” She had some drinks with them and had a good time, she recalled. Looking back, she doesn’t recall any women being part of the group. But she trusted herself.“Everything kind of happened really fast,” said the woman, 31, whom the AP is not identifying because she is the victim of sexual assault. “I’m pretty sure, pretty sure someone slipped something in one of my drinks. I ended up waking up the next morning in a rundown motel room somewhere in southwest Houston.”She had nothing on her except her clothes and shoes. Her phone, wallet and underwear were missing. It was about 10:30 a.m. and the motel’s management was banging on her door. Instead of offering help, she recalled, they yelled at her and kicked her out. The woman, who is Black, thinks they might have thought she was a prostitute. She walked along the side of the highway until she found a gas station where she could call a family member to pick her up.Time went on, and she didn’t tell anyone what happened except one close friend. She started dating someone.In late October, early November of that year, she, took a home pregnancy test. She was on birth control, but she figured maybe it had failed. She was pregnant.After an initial appointment with a doctor who gave her an incorrect gestational age, she followed up at a women’s clinic, where she learned that she was actually further along. She did the math, and traced back the start of her pregnancy to the time she was raped back in July.“And that was just something that I was not … I would not have been able to live with,” she said.The young woman said it took her more than a week to absorb the shock of learning that she became pregnant from a sexual assault. More time passed as she searched for an abortion provider, encountering crisis pregnancy centers that tried to steer her away from terminating the pregnancy. One of the centers, she said, was calling her daily at one point. The woman said she felt harassed.There was also the cost. According to medical bills the woman provided to the AP, the cost of her procedure increased by $2,500 between the time she was examined in Austin before her abortion and the time she arrived in New Mexico for the procedure. PatientForward helped cover her costs.She was in her third trimester by the time she got on an airplane, alone, to fly to New Mexico and terminate her pregnancy at 27 weeks of gestation. She hasn’t told her family what happened, or any other friends, still coping with feelings of shame and guilt from both the rape and the abortion. She does not know who raped her.“I have no idea who did it. No idea,” she said. “I never went back and pursued it.”___

Limits on early abortion drive more women to get them later

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.

Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.

Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the 132 voting-age cardinals. While there is no guarantee how the cardinals might vote, the chances that they will tap a successor who shares Francis’ pastoral priorities become ever greater.

In announcing the Aug. 27 consistory, Francis also announced he would host two days of talks the following week to brief the cardinals about his recent apostolic constitution reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. That document, which goes into effect Sunday, allows women to head Vatican offices, imposes term limits on priestly Vatican employees and positions the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, rather than vice versa.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis’ main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished.

All of which made Saturday’s otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L’Aquila carry more speculative weight than it might otherwise have.

Notable was the timing: The Vatican and the rest of Italy are usually on holiday in August to mid-September, with all but essential business closed. Calling a major consistory in late August to create new cardinals, gathering churchmen for two days of talks on implementing his reform and making a symbolically significant pastoral visit suggests Francis might have out-of-the-ordinary business in mind.

“With today’s news that @Pontifex will go to L’Aquila in the very middle of the August consistory, it all got even more intriguing,” tweeted Vatican commentator Robert Mickens, linking to an essay he had published in La Croix International about the rumors swirling around the future of the pontificate.

The basilica in L’Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope who resigned after five months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L’Aquila, which had been devastated by a recent earthquake and prayed at Celestine’s tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.

No one at the time appreciated the significance of the gesture. But four years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would follow in Celestine’s footsteps and resign, saying he no longer had the strength of body and mind to carry on the rigors of the papacy.

The Vatican announced Saturday Francis would visit L’Aquila to celebrate Mass on Aug. 28 and open the “Holy Door” at the basilica hosting Celestine’s tomb. The timing coincides with the L’Aquila church’s celebration of the Feast of Forgiveness, which was created by Celestine in a papal bull.

No pope has travelled to L’Aquila since to close out the annual feast, which celebrates the sacrament of forgiveness so dear to Francis, noted the current archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.

“We hope that all people, especially those harmed by conflicts and internal divisions, might (come) and find the path of solidarity and peace,” he said in a statement announcing the visit.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/10/1603292366279.png" alt="Pope Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis’ main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished- photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Pope Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis’ main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished- photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>ROME (AP) — Pope Francis added fuel to rumors about the future of his pontificate by announcing he would visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila in August for a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.Those rumors gained steam last week when Francis announced a consistory to create 21 new cardinals scheduled for Aug. 27. Sixteen of those cardinals are under age 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis’ successor.Once they are added to the ranks of princes of the church, Francis will have stacked the College of Cardinals with 83 of the 132 voting-age cardinals. While there is no guarantee how the cardinals might vote, the chances that they will tap a successor who shares Francis’ pastoral priorities become ever greater.In announcing the Aug. 27 consistory, Francis also announced he would host two days of talks the following week to brief the cardinals about his recent apostolic constitution reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. That document, which goes into effect Sunday, allows women to head Vatican offices, imposes term limits on priestly Vatican employees and positions the Holy See as an institution at the service of local churches, rather than vice versa.Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis’ main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished.All of which made Saturday’s otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L’Aquila carry more speculative weight than it might otherwise have.Notable was the timing: The Vatican and the rest of Italy are usually on holiday in August to mid-September, with all but essential business closed. Calling a major consistory in late August to create new cardinals, gathering churchmen for two days of talks on implementing his reform and making a symbolically significant pastoral visit suggests Francis might have out-of-the-ordinary business in mind.“With today’s news that @Pontifex will go to L’Aquila in the very middle of the August consistory, it all got even more intriguing,” tweeted Vatican commentator Robert Mickens, linking to an essay he had published in La Croix International about the rumors swirling around the future of the pontificate.The basilica in L’Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope who resigned after five months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L’Aquila, which had been devastated by a recent earthquake and prayed at Celestine’s tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.No one at the time appreciated the significance of the gesture. But four years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would follow in Celestine’s footsteps and resign, saying he no longer had the strength of body and mind to carry on the rigors of the papacy.The Vatican announced Saturday Francis would visit L’Aquila to celebrate Mass on Aug. 28 and open the “Holy Door” at the basilica hosting Celestine’s tomb. The timing coincides with the L’Aquila church’s celebration of the Feast of Forgiveness, which was created by Celestine in a papal bull.No pope has travelled to L’Aquila since to close out the annual feast, which celebrates the sacrament of forgiveness so dear to Francis, noted the current archbishop of L’Aquila, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi.“We hope that all people, especially those harmed by conflicts and internal divisions, might (come) and find the path of solidarity and peace,” he said in a statement announcing the visit.Francis has praised Benedict’s decision to retire as “opening the door” for future popes to do the same, and he had originally predicted a short papacy for himself of two to five years.Nine years later, Francis has shown no signs he wants to step down, and he has major projects still on the horizon.In addition to upcoming trips this year to Congo, South Sudan, Canada and Kazakhstan, in 2023 he has scheduled a major meeting of the world’s bishops to debate the increasing decentralization of the Catholic Church, as well as the continued implementation of his reforms.But Francis has been hobbled by the strained ligaments in his right knee that have made walking painful and difficult. He has told friends he doesn’t want to undergo surgery, reportedly because of his reaction to anesthesia last July when he had 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his large intestine removed.This week, one of his closest advisers and friends, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, said talk of a papal resignation or the end of Francis’ pontificate was unfounded.“I think these are optical illusions, cerebral illusions,” Maradiaga told Religion Digital, a Spanish-language Catholic site.Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, noted that most Vatican watchers expect Francis will eventually resign, but not before Benedict dies. The 95-year-old retired pope is physically frail but still alert and receiving occasional visitors in his home in the Vatican gardens.“He’s not going to have two former popes floating around,” Bellitto said in an email. Referring to Francis’ planned visit to L’Aquila, he suggested not reading too much into it, noting that Benedict’s gesture in 2009 was missed by most everyone.“I don’t recall a lot of stories at the time saying that Benedict’s visit in 2009 made us think he was going to resign,” he said, suggesting that Francis’ pastoral visit to l’Aquila might be just that: a pastoral visit.