More than 1.5 million without power as Hurricane Milton slams Florida
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Milton crashed into Florida as a Category 3 storm Wednesday, pounding the coast with ferocious winds of over 100 mph (160 kph), heavy rain and producing a series of tornadoes around the state. Tampa avoided a direct hit.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) as it made landfall at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key, the National Hurricane Center said. Siesta Key is a prosperous strip of white-sand beaches home to 5,500 people about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa.
More than 1.5 million homes and businesses were without power Wednesday night in Florida, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The highest number of outages were in Hardee County, as well as neighboring Sarasota and Manatee counties.
The Tampa Bay area has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in more than a century, but the storm was still bringing a potentially deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
The National Weather Service said flash flooding was occurring in the Tampa Bay area, including St. Petersburg, where over 16 inches (41 centimeters) of rain had fallen.
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The Latest: Hurricane Milton lands near Siesta Key, Florida, as a Category 3 storm
Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm, bringing powerful winds, deadly storm surge and potential flooding to much of the state.
Milton drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, twice reaching Category 5 status.
The cyclone had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (205 kph) when it roared ashore in Siesta Key, Florida, at 8:30 p.m., the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane was bringing deadly storm surge to much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, including densely populated areas such as Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.
The hurricane was downgraded to a Category 2 storm as it moved through Florida later Wednesday evening.
Here’s the latest:
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Here's what has made Hurricane Milton so fierce and unusual
With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton powered into a very rare threat flirting with experts' worst fears.
Warm water fueled amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It weakened, but quickly bounced back, and when its winds briefly reached 180 mph, its barometric pressure, a key measurement for a storm's overall strength, was among the lowest recorded in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the year.
At its most fierce, Milton almost maxed out its potential intensity given the weather factors surrounding it.
“Everything that you would want if you’re looking for a storm to go absolutely berserk is what Milton had,” Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.
That's not all. Milton's eastward path through the Gulf is so infrequent the most recent comparable storm was in 1848. Tampa — the most populous metro area in its general path — hasn't had a direct hit from a major storm in more than 100 years, making this week the worst-case scenario for many experts.
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Trump lashes out at Harris and 'The View' co-hosts, as Hurricane Milton makes landfall
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump hurled insults at his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other women Wednesday — saying he had no interest in stopping his attacks even if they turn off female voters — as Hurricane Milton made landfall, lashing Florida with rain, tornadoes and tropical-storm-force winds.
“I don’t want to be nice,” Trump said at his first of two rallies of the day in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania. “You know, somebody said, ‘You should be nicer. Women won’t like it.’ I said, ‘I don’t care.’”
He later refuted the idea that his rhetoric was a problem, even as polls show Trump is viewed less favorably by women than by men. “The women want to see our country come back,” he said. “They don’t care.”
Trump was campaigning even as the storm threatened to overshadow the presidential race with fears that it would cause catastrophic damage in Tampa and other parts of Florida's Gulf Coast. Harris flew to Nevada for a Western campaign swing, but first attended a briefing on the storm and the federal response with President Joe Biden at the White House.
Speaking in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump lobbed personal insults at Harris — calling her “grossly incompetent” and “totally ill-equipped to do the job of being President of the United States” — and went after one of the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” which Harris appeared on Tuesday.
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Israeli defense minister warns an attack on Iran would be 'lethal' and 'surprising'
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister warned on Wednesday that his country's retaliation for a recent Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” while the Israeli military pushed ahead with a large-scale operation in northern Gaza and a ground offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah militants.
On the diplomatic front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden held their first call in seven weeks, with a White House press secretary saying the call included discussions on Israel's deliberations over how it will respond to Iran's attack.
The continuing cycle of destruction and death in Gaza, unleashed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, comes as Israel expands a weeklong ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and considers a major retaliatory strike on Iran following Iran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
“Our strike will be lethal, precise and above all, surprising. They won’t understand what happened and how. They will see the results,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a speech to troops. “Whoever strikes us will be harmed and pay a price.”
Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 which the United States helped fend off. Biden has said he would not support a retaliatory strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
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Trump-Putin ties are back in the spotlight after new book describes calls
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new book's assertion that former President Donald Trump may have had as many as seven private phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving the White House has refocused attention on their politically fraught relationship and on Trump's sustained dialogue with world leaders as he seeks a return to power.
It's not surprising in and of itself that an ex-president would preserve ties with foreign counterparts. But the detail in journalist Bob Woodward's book “War” raised eyebrows in light of a special counsel investigation during Trump's presidency that examined potential ties between Russia and the Republican's 2016 campaign as well as Trump's more recent criticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine as it fends off Russia's invasion — statements that have hinted at a possible U.S. policy overhaul if he's elected.
“I would caution any world leader about trusting Vladimir Putin with anything,” said Emily Harding, who led the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into 2016 Russian election interference and is now a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Both Trump campaign and the Kremlin, which U.S. officials have said is working to influence the 2024 election in favor of Trump, denied the reporting.
Asked at a press briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration would have “serious concerns” if the reported calls were true.
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Sanewashing? The banality of crazy? A decade into the Trump era, media hasn't figured him out
NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a decade into the Trump Era of politics, less than a month from his third Election Day as the Republican candidate for president and there is still remarkably little consensus within the media about how best to cover Donald Trump.
Are reporters “sanewashing” Trump, or are they succumbing to the “banality of crazy?" Should his rallies be aired at length, or not at all? To fact-check or not fact-check?
“If it wasn't so serious, I would just be fascinated by all of it,” said Parker Molloy, media critic and author of The Present Age column on Substack. “If it didn't have to do with who is going to be president, I would watch this and marvel at how difficult it is to cover one person who seems to challenge all of the rules of journalism.”
Books and studies will be written about Trump and the press long after he is gone. He's always been press-conscious and press-savvy, even as a celebrity builder in Manhattan who took a keen interest in what tabloid gossip columns said about him. Most issues stem from Trump's disdain for constraints, his willingness to say the outrageous and provably untrue, and for his fans to believe him instead of those reporting on him.
It has even come full circle, where some experts now think the best way to cover him is to give people a greater opportunity to hear what he says — the opposite of what was once conventional wisdom.
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Social Security's scheduled cost of living increase 'won't make a dent' for some retirees
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sherri Myers, an 82-year-old resident of Pensacola City, Florida, says the Social Security cost-of-living increase she'll receive in January “won't make a dent” in helping her meet her day-to-day expenses.
“Inflation has eaten up my savings," she said. “I don’t have anything to fall back on — the cushion is gone.” So even with the anticipated increase she's looking for work to supplement her retirement income, which consists of a small pension and her Social Security benefits.
About 70.6 million Social Security recipients are expected to receive a smaller cost of living increase for 2025 than in recent years, as inflation has moderated. The Social Security Administration makes the official COLA announcement Thursday, and analysts predicted in advance it would be 2.5% for 2025. Recipients received a 3.2% increase in their benefits in 2024, after a historically large 8.7% benefit increase in 2023, brought on by record 40-year-high inflation.
The AARP estimates that a 2.5 percent COLA would increase the average benefit for a retiree who receives about $1,920 a month by $48 a month starting in January 2025.
“I think a lot of seniors are going to say that this is not really enough to keep up with prices," said AARP Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Bill Sweeney.
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Francisco Lindor's grand slam sends Mets into NLCS with 4-1 win over Phillies in Game 4 of NLDS
NEW YORK (AP) — Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning, his latest clutch swing in a storybook season full of them, and the New York Mets reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Edwin Díaz struck out Kyle Schwarber with two runners aboard to end it as New York finished off the rival Phillies in Game 4 of their best-of-five Division Series, winning 3-1 to wrap up a postseason series at home for the first time in 24 years.
“I want to win it all. And ours will be a team that will forever be remembered,” Lindor said. "This will be a team that comes every 10 years and eats for free everywhere they go. And I want to do that. I want to do that. But the job is not done."
With tears in his eyes, outfielder Brandon Nimmo embraced Lindor as the Mets poured onto the field in excitement following the final out.
Then, in a raucous locker room, they enjoyed the team's first champagne-soaked clinching celebration in Citi Field's 16-season history. The last time the Mets won a playoff series in their own ballpark was the 2000 NLCS at Shea Stadium — which came 14 years after the most recent of the franchise's two World Series titles.
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Washington state woman calls 911 after being hounded by up to 100 raccoons
Sheriff's deputies in Washington's Kitsap County frequently get calls about animals — loose livestock, problem dogs. But the 911 call they received recently from a woman being hounded by dozens of raccoons swarming her home near Poulsbo stood out.
The woman reported having had to flee her property after 50 to 100 raccoons descended upon it and were acting aggressively, said Kevin McCarty, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. She told deputies she started feeding a family of raccoons decades ago and it was fine until about six weeks earlier, when the number showing up went from a handful to around 100.
“She said those raccoons were becoming increasingly more aggressive, demanding food, that they would hound her day and night — scratching at the outside of her home, at the door. If she pulled up her car, they would surround the car, scratch at the car, surround her if she went from her front door to her car or went outside at all,” McCarty said. “They saw this as a food source now, so they kept coming back to it and they kept expecting food.”
It was not clear what caused their numbers to balloon suddenly. Both the sheriff's office and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife determined no laws were broken, McCarty said.
“This is a nuisance problem kind of of her own making that she has to deal with,” he said. Video from the sheriff’s office shows raccoons milling around trees, and deputies who responded to the call observed 50 to 100 of them, he added.
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