possession

FORT PIERCE, Fla. — A federal trial is scheduled to begin Monday for a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump as he played golf in Florida in September 2024.

Jury selection is expected to take three days, with attorneys questioning three sets of 60 prospective jurors. They’re trying to find 12 jurors and four alternates. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Thursday, and prosecutors will begin their case immediately after that. The court has blocked off four weeks for the trial, but attorneys are expecting they’ll need less time.

Here’s what to know about the case:

Defendant to represent himself

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off in July on Ryan Routh’s request to represent himself during his trial, but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel.

The judge told Routh she believes it’s a bad idea for him to represent himself, but he wouldn’t be dissuaded. Routh, who has described the extent of his education as two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understood the potential challenges and would be ready.

Cannon confirmed during a recent hearing that Routh would be dressed in professional business attire for the trial. She also explained to Routh that he would be allowed to use a podium while speaking to the jury or questioning witnesses, but he would not have free rein of the courtroom.

“If you make any sudden movements, marshals will take decisive and quick action to respond,” Cannon said.

Self-styled mercenary leader

The 59-year-old Routh was a North Carolina construction worker who in recent years had moved to Hawaii. A self-styled mercenary leader, Routh spoke out to anyone who would listen about his dangerous, sometimes violent plans to insert himself into conflicts around the world, witnesses have told the Associated Press.

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Routh tried to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova and Taiwan to fight the Russians. In his native Greensboro, N.C., he had a 2002 arrest for eluding a traffic stop and barricading himself from officers with a fully automatic machine gun and a “weapon of mass destruction,” which turned out to be an explosive with a 10-inch-long fuse.

In 2010, police searched a warehouse Routh owned and found more than 100 stolen items, including power tools, building supplies, kayaks and spa tubs. In both felony cases, judges gave Routh either probation or a suspended sentence.

Attempted assassination charge

Authorities said Routh tried to assassinate Trump, then the Republican nominee for president, while Trump played golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Routh is facing five felony counts in federal court in Fort Pierce. They include attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm to carry out a violent crime, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.

Same judge presided over Trump case

Cannon is the same judge who presided over another high-profile case involving Trump — the classified documents case against him.

Last year, Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term, sided with Trump’s lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the U.S. Justice Department.

Cannon’s ruling halted a criminal case that, at the time it was filed, was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the president faced before he returned to office in January. The felony case was being appealed when Trump was elected in November, after which that and other criminal indictments against him were dismissed, following a Justice Department policy not to charge a sitting president.

No signs of shots fired

Trump was uninjured, and there’s no evidence that Routh fired his weapon at the golf course. U.S. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera. He was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

That alleged assassination attempt took place nine weeks after Trump survived another attempt on his life, in Pennsylvania, when a gunman’s bullet grazed the candidate’s ear during a rally.

Fischer writes for the Associated Press.

This fourth “The Conjuring” movie claims to be “Last Rites” and let’s hope that’s a promise.

While it’s highly likely the wildly successful Conjuring Cinematic Universe will itself continue — whether via scary nun, creepy doll or some other cursed object — the story of Ed and Lorraine Warren has been thoroughly wrung dry at this point and there’s no juice left to squeeze, as demonstrated in the dirge that is this final movie.

Credit where it’s due: The horror franchise has turned in some spectacularly scary and entertaining entries, anchored by performances from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the married paranormal investigators the Warrens, based on an infamous real-life couple. Thanks to their presence, these films have been the best of the Conjuring series, exploring themes of faith and seeing as believing when it comes to both God and the Devil. These films have also offered portrayals of the Warrens that skirt any of their personal controversies, presenting them as blissfully married, heroic figures. Onscreen text might indicate that they were polarizing figures, but the films itself never engage with the scandals.

The first two films, directed by James Wan, ingeniously engaged with many variations on the idea of vision: physical, psychic and through a camera’s lens. Bravura cinematography aligned the audience point of view with Lorraine’s terrifying otherworldly dreams of hauntings, possessions and demonic presence. Michael Chaves, who directed the spinoff “The Nun II” and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” has mostly upheld these requirements, though his approach is more bombastic than Wan’s elegant style.

Chaves is once again behind the camera for “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” with a script by Ian B. Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick that promises to deliver a final Warren case that devastated the family and ended their careers on a dark note. Instead, “Last Rites,” is merely a sluggishly routine send-off for the Warren family.

If you’ve seen a “Conjuring” movie, you’ll know what to expect and “Last Rites” doesn’t break with formula. While the film starts in 1964 with the harrowing birth of the Warren’s beloved daughter Judy, the plot largely takes place in 1986, an annus horribilis for the misbegotten Smurl family from West Pittstown, Penn., haunted by an antique mirror adorned with three carved baby heads, picked up from a swap meet. After a series of unfortunate eventsand increasingly violent visitations, a media frenzy surrounds them and the Warrens turn up to rid the house of creepy crawlies.

This time there’s the added complication of wedding planning: Judy (Mia Tomlinson) is about to get married, but she just can’t shake those pesky psychic flashes she inherited from her mother. Judy is the one who ventures to the Smurl household first. Then her parents, who had been hoping to hang up their ghost-hunting spurs, reluctantly join her for one last ride. Ax-swinging ghouls, terrifying baby dolls and demonic possessions ensue.

In “Last Rites,” the thematic metaphor for seeing is the mirror itself, suggesting that we need to look at the darkest, most terrifying parts of ourselves and not shut them out. Lorraine has tried to protect her girl from the life she has led, facing down the most terrifying demons, ghosts and spooks, but she can’t stop Judy’s destiny and the only way out is to not look away.

“Last Rites” extends the concept of a new generation by incorporating Judy’s fiancé, Tony (Ben Hardy), as a fresh member of the family business. His function in the story is a bit awkward and random, but required for the Warren plotline to end on a high note (that opening bit about the family devastation never seems to come to pass).

The heart of these movies has always been Wilson and Farmiga, and without them, the “Conjuring” movies wouldn’t be worth it. With this fourth movie, the Warren lore has been so thoroughly picked over, the tropes and rhythms now so ingrained, the jump scares end up feeling routine at best. Enduring the dour drudgery of “Last Rites,” it’s never been clearer that it’s time to give up the ghost.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

The San Diego Padres’ performance on Saturday could probably be put in a tutorial video.

Suggested title: How NOT to play a baseball game.

On a night the surging Padres were trying to bounce back from the Dodgers’ opening win in this weekend’s pivotal three-game series, one that tied the two Southern California rivals atop the National League West standings, the club instead put on an exhibition of poor, sloppy and outright comical execution.

While the once-slumping Dodgers have raised their level of play the last two nights, the Padres have made mistakes even Little League coaches would be reprimanding.

Except in their case, even the coaching appeared to be part of the problem.

In the Dodgers’ 6-0 win — a victory that restored their solo lead in the division, and clinched their head-to-head season series against the Padres in case of a tiebreaker at the end of the year — San Diego did all it could to give the game away from the start.

In the top of the first, three of the Padres’ first four batters recorded a hit against Blake Snell, the ex-Padre left-hander making his first start against the team since leaving in free agency at the end of 2023. But twice, Dodgers catcher Will Smith caught a runner trying to steal second, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. after his leadoff single before getting Manny Machado on the back end of an attempted double-steal to retire the side.

“We had a plan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “And they made some plays.”

Lo and behold, the plan backfired again in the second, with Smith throwing out yet another runner, Xander Bogaerts, with yet another strike to second.

“Through two innings,” Snell joked, “he had three outs and I had three outs.”

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

It was the Dodgers’ first game with three caught stealings since 2021, and it made Smith the first Dodgers catcher with three individually since Russell Martin in 2010.

“Obviously we feel that Will is the best catcher in baseball in totality,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, he showed it with his arm.”

And, just as importantly, Roberts quickly added: “Essentially, they played 24 outs.”

Somehow, the Padres’ pitching and defense found a way to be even worse.

Starting pitcher Dylan Cease began his outing with three-straight walks in the bottom of the first, spraying the ball around the plate while visibly frustrated.

After a one-out sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernández, Cease reloaded the bases with another free pass to Andy Pages, and followed that with a hanging curveball to Michael Conforto in a 3-and-0 count that had run full. Conforto was ready for it, ripping a two-run single into right. Seven batters in, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead.

“Definitely you don’t want to help him out in that situation,” Conforto said. “But he fell behind 3-0, and came back into the zone, and showed that he was going to throw strikes. He wasn’t going to put me on. So, being ready to hit 3-1, and then being ready to hit 3-2, was obviously the plan.”

Dodgers second base Miguel Rojas tags out San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts on a stolen-base attempt in the second inning. Catcher Will Smith threw out three Padres baserunners Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Walks continued to abound in the second, with Cease putting Shohei Ohtani and Smith aboard to create more traffic. This time, the right-hander had appeared to work his way out of it, after Freddie Freeman hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in right-center. But on this night, even routine outs were no sure thing.

Sensing Tatis converging from right field, center fielder Jackson Merrill briefly hesitated while pursuing the drive, before awkwardly reaching for it with an underhanded attempt. Predictably, he couldn’t hold on, the ball hitting the heel of his mitt before falling to the ground for a two-run error.

The Dodgers, who went on to get six shutout innings from Snell and a second home run in as many nights from Hernández, would never be threatened again.

“It’s certainly good to be on the other side of things,” Roberts said, after his club had for so long had been the one shooting itself in the foot. “We’ve caught some breaks … but for us to take advantage of them is huge.”

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani scores on a sacrifice fly in the first inning Saturday against the Padres.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

To recap the first two innings one more time:

The Dodgers (70-53) had just one hit, and saw their starting pitcher retire only one of the first five batters he faced — but drew six walks, were gifted a dropped ball and somehow led 5-0.

The Padres (69-54) had four hits — but apparently forgot how to throw up a stop sign, committed the costliest of imaginable errors defensively, and watched their starting pitcher throw 31 balls to only 27 strikes.

That, kids, is decidedly not how it’s done.

“It just got out of hand a little early,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously a little, couple of mistakes.”

Not that the Dodgers seemed all too much to mind.

Over the last couple months, as Roberts eluded to, they had been the team on the wrong end of sloppy fundamentals. What was once a nine-game division lead evaporated in the space of six weeks, thanks to un-clutch offense, unreliable relief pitching and one maddening close loss after another.

But in Friday’s series opener, they had finally played clean baseball, and even more importantly, grinded out a one-run win.

“If you win the close games, that’s how you build,” Freeman theorized last week. “Then you’ll score nine, 10 runs. Then you’ll start putting some things together. But just need to find a way to win those close ones.”

So far in this series, that prediction has come true.

Not that he, or anyone else with the Dodgers, could have expected the Padres to offer so much self-destructive help.

“I’m just happy that we’re playing better baseball,” Roberts said. “We’re playing clean baseball. We’re minimizing the walks, taking walks. Not making outs on the bases, and converting outs when we need to. When you have the talent that we do, you just gotta kind of play good baseball. … So this is a good time to go for the jugular [with a potential series sweep Sunday].”

The prominent activist and former photojournalist is charged over alleged role in deadly antigovernment protests in June.

A prominent Kenyan human rights activist has been charged with unlawful possession of ammunition over his alleged role in deadly antigovernment protests in June.

Boniface Mwangi was charged by the police on Monday, two days after he was arrested and accused of possessing unused tear gas canisters, a “7.62mm blank round”, two mobile phones, a laptop and notebooks.

Kenya has been facing mass antigovernment protests across the country since last year – first against tax increases in a finance bill and later to demand the resignation of President William Ruto.

Since the protests broke out, police have been accused of human rights abuses, including allegations of government critics and activists being abducted and tortured.

Rights groups said more than 100 people have been killed in the protests, which have been harshly suppressed.

This month, at least 31 people were killed and more than 100 injured in a government crackdown on a protest. In June, at least 19 people were killed in a similar demonstration against Ruto.

Police accused Mwangi, a former photojournalist, of “facilitating terrorist acts” during the June protests and arrested him on Saturday. The activist denied the charges, saying in a social media post shared by his supporters: “I am not a terrorist.”

His arrest triggered a wave of condemnation online with the hashtag #FreeBonifaceMwangi going viral and rights groups condemning it.

The search warrant police used to raid Mwangi’s home, which an ally shared with journalists, accused the campaigner of having paid “goons” to stoke unrest at last month’s protests.

However, 37 rights organisations and dozens of activists said they have not yet managed to prove that a judge had issued that warrant.

Mwangi’s arrest on “unjustified terrorism allegations” represents an abuse of the justice system to crush the opposition, the organisations said in a joint statement.

“What began as targeted persecution of young protesters demanding accountability has metastasized into a full-scale assault on Kenya’s democracy,” the groups said.

In June last year, Al Jazeera’s digital documentary strand Close Up profiled Mwangi during a ferocious police crackdown. He then said his nickname online was the “People’s Watchman” because he was striving to get justice for the families of protesters killed by police.

Mwangi has been arrested multiple times in Kenya.

He was arrested on May 19 this year in Dar-es-Salaam, neighbouring Tanzania’s largest city, where he had travelled to support treason-accused Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Both Mwangi and a fellow detainee, award-winning Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, accused the Tanzanian police of torturing and sexually abusing them while they were in custody.

The pair have brought a case before the East African Court of Justice.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Fabián Ruiz scored twice as Paris Saint-Germain built a three-goal lead in the first 24 minutes and routed Real Madrid 4-0 on Wednesday, advancing to the Club World Cup final against Chelsea.

Ruiz scored in the sixth minute and Ousmane Dembélé in the ninth following glaring mistakes by defenders Raúl Asencio and Antonio Rüdiger, and Ruiz made it 3-0 to cap a counter. Gonçalo Ramos added a goal in the 87th.

Coming off its first European title, PSG plays for the championship on Sunday.

“We’re truly happy to be in another final,” Ruiz said. “Now we have to enjoy it because we’re doing something historic. It’s very difficult to reach every final this season, and now we’re one step away.”

Real Madrid fared no better than Inter Milan, overrun by PSG 5-0 in the Champions League final. The 15-time European champion looked sluggish after traveling to Florida for training between games, and PSG had 76.5% possession in the first half.

A crowd of 77,542 was at MetLife Stadium on a scorching day with a temperature of 91 degrees at kickoff and humidity that made it feel like 101.

Real’s Kylian Mbappé was not a threat in his first game against his former team.

“It’s a painful defeat. We were not up to standard today,” Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said through an interpreter.

Luka Modrić entered in the 64th in likely his last match for Madrid, his team since 2012. Éder Militão came in at the same time in his first game since tearing his right ACL on Nov. 9.

PSG surged ahead after Lucas Beraldo’s cross was mis-hit by Raúl Asencio, Thibaut Courtois tipped the ball from Dembélé and Ruiz slammed it into the empty net.

Dembélé then took possession about 40 yards out after a Rüdiger mis-hit, dribbled and slotted past Courtois.

PSG went the length of the field to make it 3-0. Hakimi exchanged passes with Dembélé, then crossed for Ruiz, who maintained control despite Federico Valverde’s challenge and scored from 8 yards for his third goal of the tournament.

Madrid’s defense was missing Dean Huijsen, who got a red card Saturday against Borussia Dortmund, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had right leg muscle discomfort.

Paris Saint-Germain has earned $88,435,000 to $113,815,000 for reaching the final, the amount depending on a participation fee.

WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier’s sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.

The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represents a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a document was “sitting on my desk” in preparation for release.

Even as it released video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively prove that Epstein died by suicide, the department also said in a memo that it was refusing to release other evidence investigators had collected. Bondi for weeks had suggested that more material was going to be revealed — “It’s a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public,” she said at one point — after a first document dump she had hyped angered President Trump’s base by failing to deliver revelations.

That episode, in which conservative internet personalities were invited to the White House in February and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain, has spurred far-right influencers to lambast and deride Bondi.

After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were pouring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration “sat on these documents, no one did anything with them,” adding: “Sadly these people don’t believe in transparency, but I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty.”

But after a months-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo says. The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

The two-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Department and the FBI but was not signed by any individual official.

“One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims,” the memo says. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends.”

Conservatives who have sought proof of a government cover-up of Epstein’s activities and death expressed outrage Monday over the department’s position. Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: “We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn’t have to be.”

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that “next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,’ calling it “over the top sickening.” Elon Musk shared a series of photos of a clown applying makeup appearing to mock Bondi for saying the client list doesn’t exist after suggesting months ago that it was on her desk.

Among the evidence that the Justice Department says it has in its possession are photographs and more than 10,000 videos and images that officials said depicted child sex abuse material or “other pornography.” Bondi had earlier suggested that part of the reason for the delay in releasing additional Epstein materials was because the FBI needed to review “tens of thousands” of recordings that she said showed Epstein “with children or child porn.”

The Associated Press published an article last week about the unanswered questions surrounding those videos.

Multiple people who participated in the criminal cases of Epstein and former British socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell told AP that they had not seen and did not know of a trove of recordings along the lines of what Bondi had referenced. Indictments and detention memos also don’t allege the existence of video recordings and neither Epstein nor Maxwell were charged with possession of child sex abuse material even though that would have been easier for prosecutors to prove than the sex trafficking counts they faced.

The AP did find reference in a filing in a civil lawsuit to the discovery by the Epstein estate of videos and pictures that could constitute child sex abuse material, but lawyers involved in that case said a protective order prevents them from discovering the specifics of that evidence.

The Justice Department did not respond to a detailed list of questions from AP about the videos Bondi was referencing.

Monday’s memo does not explain when or where they were located, what they depict and whether they were newly found as investigators scoured their collection of evidence or were known for some time to have been in the government’s possession.

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, in a suicide that foreclosed the possibility of a trial.

The department’s disclosure that Epstein took his own life is hardly a revelation even though conspiracy theorists have continued to challenge that conclusion.

In 2019, for instance, then-Atty. Gen. William Barr told the AP in an interview that he had personally reviewed security video that revealed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died and Barr had concluded that Epstein’s suicide was the result of “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”

More recently, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have insisted in television and podcast interviews that the evidence was clear that Epstein had killed himself.

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island’s Democratic-controlled state House on Friday approved legislation that would ban the sale and manufacture of many semiautomatic rifles commonly referred to as assault weapons.

The proposal now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Daniel McKee, who has said he supports assault weapons bans. If the bill is signed into law, Rhode Island will join 10 other states that have some sort of prohibition on high-powered firearms that were once banned nationwide and are now largely the weapon of choice among those responsible for most of the country’s mass shootings.

Gun control advocates have been pushing for an assault weapons ban in Rhode Island for more than a decade. But despite being a Democratic stronghold, lawmakers throughout the country’s smallest state have long argued over the necessity and legality of such proposals.

The bill applies only to the sale and manufacturing of assault weapons and not possession. Only Washington state has a similar law. Residents looking to purchase an assault weapon from nearby New Hampshire or elsewhere will also be blocked. Federal law prohibits people from traveling to a different state to purchase a gun and returning it to a state where that particular of weapon is banned.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have bans on the possession of assault weapons, covering major cities including Los Angeles and New York. Hawaii bans assault pistols.

Democratic Rep. Rebecca Kislak described the bill during floor debates Friday as an incremental move that brings Rhode Island in line with neighboring states.

“I am gravely disappointed we are not doing more, and we should do more,” she said. “And given the opportunity to do this or nothing, I am voting to do something.”

Critics of Rhode Island’s proposed law argued Friday during floor debates that assault weapons bans do little to curb mass shootings and only punish people with such rifles.

“This bill doesn’t go after criminals, it just puts the burden on law-abiding citizens,” said Republican Sen. Thomas Paolino.

Republican Rep. Michael Chippendale, the House minority leader, predicted that if the legislation were to become law, the U.S. Supreme Court would deem it unconstitutional.

“We are throwing away money on this,” he said.

It wasn’t just Republicans who opposed the legislation. David Hogg — a gun control advocate who survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla. — and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence described the proposed ban as the “weakest assault weapons ban in the country.”

“I know that Rhode Islanders deserve a strong bill that not only bans the sale, but also the possession of assault weapons. It is this combination that equals public safety,” Hogg said in a statement.

Elisabeth Ryan, policy counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety, rejected assertions that the proposed law is weak.

“The weakest law is what Rhode Island has now — no ban on assault weapons,” Ryan said. “This would create a real, enforceable ban on the sale and manufacture of assault weapons, just like the law already working in Washington state, getting them off the shelves of Rhode Island gun stores once and for all.”

Nationally, assault weapons bans have been challenged in court by gun rights groups that argue the bans violate the 2nd Amendment. AR-15-style firearms are among the bestselling rifles in the country.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court may soon take up the issue. The justices declined to hear a challenge to Maryland’s assault weapons ban in early June, but three conservative justices — Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas — publicly noted their disagreement. A fourth justice, Brett M. Kavanaugh, indicated he was skeptical that the bans are constitutional and predicted the court would hear a case “in the next term or two.”

Kruesi writes for the Associated Press. AP writers David Lieb in Jefferson City, Mo., and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.