By The Associated Press

A growing number of aircraft and ships from the U.S. and Canada searched Tuesday for a submersible vessel carrying five people that disappeared on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic.

The U.S. Coast Guard is leading the search for the small craft, named Titan, in a remote area of the North Atlantic Ocean. OceanGate Expeditions, an undersea exploration company, has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.

What we know so far about the submersible, what may have gone wrong, and what’s being done to find it:

WHAT’S THE LATEST ON THE SEARCH?

A Canadian aircraft has detected underwater noises during the hunt for the submersible. The U.S. Coast Guard said via Twitter early Wednesday that as a result of the noises detected by the Canadian P-3 patrol aircraft, search efforts have been relocated and the data is being used to help guide the ongoing effort.

WHEN AND WHERE DID THE TITAN GO MISSING?

The craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, according to the Coast Guard.

The vessel was reported overdue about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The Titan was launched from an icebreaker that was hired by OceanGate and formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship has ferried dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan has made multiple dives.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday afternoon that the submersible had about 40 hours of oxygen remaining, meaning the supply could run out Thursday morning.

WHAT KIND OF DEEP-SEA VESSEL IS IT?

OceanGate has described the Titan as “the largest of any deep diving submersible” with an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

Made of titanium and filament wound carbon fiber, the Titan weighs 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) in the air, but is ballasted to be neutrally buoyant once it reaches the seafloor, the company said.

Titan is capable of diving four kilometers (2.4 miles) “with a comfortable safety margin,” according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.

At the time of the filing, Titan had undergone more than 50 test dives, including to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas and in a pressure chamber, the company said.

During its 2022 expedition, OceanGate reported that the submersible had a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform.

Greg Stone, a longtime ocean scientist based in California who has been on similar submersibles, said the vessels operate much like hot air balloons, with weights that pull it down. He said those onboard would have been briefed on how to bring the submersible back to the surface.

“It’s all about buoyancy,” he said. “It’s usually a few switches where you can throw them, and they’ll just release the weights on the outside of the submarine and it’ll come back up.”

WHAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO IT?

Eric Fusil, an associate professor and director of the shipbuilding hub at the University of Adelaide, described several possible scenarios, including a power blackout, fire, flood or entanglement.

A fire, he said, could incapacitate the vessel’s systems or create toxic fumes that could render the crew unconscious. A flood would be even more dramatic, resulting in a near instantaneous implosion.

The most optimistic scenario would be a power loss that allowed the vessel to return to the surface, where it would wait for search crews to find it, Fusil said.

“The takeaway is that it’s easier to go and rescue people in space than to dive that deep and rescue people because we can’t communicate easily,” he said. “It’s still a very, very risky endeavor, even with the technology of today.”

WHAT IS BEING DONE TO FIND IT?

At least 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) have been searched, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, was conducting surface searches with help from a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, and the Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan.

An underwater robot had also started searching in the vicinity of the Titanic, and there was a push to get salvage equipment to the scene in case the submersible is found, said Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District in Boston.

Two U.S. Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft were conducting overflights, and three C-17s from U.S. Air Mobility Command have also been used to move another commercial company’s submersible and support equipment from Buffalo, New York, to St. John’s to aid in the search.

A Royal Canadian Navy ship that provides a medical team specializing in dive medicine and a six-person mobile hyperbaric recompression chamber also was en route Tuesday, according to the Canadian military.

By DÁNICA COTO (Associated Press)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as the region prepared itself for an unusually early storm and the torrential rains that are forecast.

Bret had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) late Tuesday night and was moving westward across the Atlantic Ocean at 17 mph (28 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which warned that it’s been unable to get “a better handle on the system’s intensity and size.”

The storm was located some 730 miles (1,170 kilometers) east of the Windward Islands and is expected to pummel some eastern Caribbean islands on Thursday at near hurricane strength. A tropical storm watch was issued for Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique and Dominica, where the meteorological service said Tuesday that the storm poses a “high threat” to the island and warned of landslides, flooding and waves of up to 12 feet (4 meters).

“Landslides are highly likely as we are coming out of a relatively dry period where grounds may be compromised or developed cracks,” said Fitzroy Pascal with Dominica’s Office of Disaster Management.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center urged people in the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to closely monitor the storm and have their hurricane plans in place.

“Given the uncertainty in the track and intensity forecasts, it is too early to specify the location and magnitude of where Bret’s associated hazards could occur,” the center said.

Up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain were forecast from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe south to St. Lucia, and up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The government of Guadeloupe warned that inclement weather would start Wednesday evening and continue until late Friday, with waves of up to 10 feet (3 meters).

“Be careful!” officials warned in a statement.

Unfavorable winds and drier air are expected to later weaken Bret as it swirls through the central Caribbean region, with some models showing the storm could dissipate after affecting islands in the eastern Caribbean.

The storm formed Monday — an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began on June 1. A tropical disturbance with an 80% chance of cyclone formation is trailing Bret. No June on record has had two storms form in the tropical Atlantic, according to meteorologist Philip Klotzbach at Colorado State University.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 12 to 17 named storms for this year’s hurricane season. It said between five and nine of those storms could become hurricanes, including up to four major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

Virginia Tech meteorologist Stephanie Zick said she expects to see a higher than average number of storms rapidly intensify this season given warmer sea surface temperatures. She also noted that flooding from tropical systems that make landfall has caused the most deaths in the past 10 years.

“The hazards associated with tropical storms can occur hundreds of miles away from the storm center,” she said.

No winner had been called for the House of Delegates District 92 seat in the primary election by 11 p.m. Tuesday, but Democrat Bonita Anthony appears to have a slight lead over Kim Sudderth.

With only a little more than 200 votes between them and 95% of the vote counted, the Associated Press has not yet called the race. But Anthony declared victory in a press release sent out at 11:15 p.m.

“I am honored that the voters of the 92nd House district have put their trust in me,” she said. “As I have told the voters all along, this nomination is the beginning and I am ready to keep working for my community in this new capacity.”

Anthony also thanked Sudderth for “a hard fought campaign that stayed positive and productive.”

“I am excited to see what happens when Norfolk sends an engineer, an educator, and a caregiver to Richmond to fight for our values and community needs,” Anthony said.

Earlier in the night, Anthony celebrated Del. Angelia Williams Graves’ victory at Boss Queens Soul Café in Norfolk, and told The Virginian-Pilot she knew it’d be a close race.

With no Republican challenger on the ballot for the November general election, the primary election winner will be all but assured victory in a newly drawn district that includes parts of Chesapeake and Norfolk, including areas around Old Dominion University, downtown Norfolk, Berkley and South Norfolk.

During both of their campaigns, Anthony and Sudderth told The Virginian-Pilot that protecting public education, the environment and access to abortion are among the biggest priorities for the district.

Anthony, 55, is a university administrator for the College of Engineering and Technology at Virginia State University and received engineering degrees from Old Dominion University. She said she also previously worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, has taught K-12 and higher education and has been involved in community advocacy as a minister.

Anthony also identified gun violence as a major issue that she said requires policies that help address the what leads to it and the root causes, including legislation that addresses rent stabilization, tenant rights, livable wages and transportation infrastructure.

Anthony previously sought a seat on the Norfolk School Board during a crowded race in 2018.

Reached by phone after 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sudderth’s campaign said they had no comment due to the unofficial results.

Sudderth, 51, is a political newcomer with experience in community advocacy, including the Hampton Roads chapter of a group called Mothers Out Front, which works to amplify the voices of mothers and women with children in the climate movement. She also noted access to food and safety from flooding and gun violence are other concerns constituents have.

On the issue of reproductive healthcare, Sudderth said she would seek to preserve Virginia’s current rules on abortion and push for an amendment to “guarantee access to abortion without restrictions.”

Sudderth is a strategic planning consultant and has a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with a specialization in diversity and inequality, from Saint Leo University.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, [email protected]

Christie New Craig, chief of staff to Sen. John Cosgrove and a former Chesapeake School Board official, beat out Jeff Bruzzesi and Tim Anderson in Tuesday’s primary to secure the Republican ticket in the race to represent District 19 in the Virginia Senate.

“We had three great candidates,” New Craig said Tuesday night. “I think experience and leadership prevailed.”

New Craig added that she was humbled by people in the community who have supported her for decades.

In the Republican leaning district, New Craig will now face off against Democrat Myra Payne in November.

“I’m not going to stop working,” New Craig said of her campaign for the fall. “I’m not going to stop meeting with the voters and talking to people. I don’t take anything for granted.”

The Associated Press called the race for New Craig at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. New Craig had 4,565 votes, or 37.8%, compared to Anderson’s 3,937 and Bruzzesi’s 3,575 with 97% of the votes tallied.

District 19, which was recently reshaped due to once-a-decade redistricting, includes the southernmost parts of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. The area is currently represented by Cosgrove, who announced in March that he would not seek reelection because he wanted to spend more time with his family.

New Craig has worked for Cosgrove since 2002 when he was serving in the House. She also served on the Chesapeake School Board for about a decade.

Anderson, an attorney and gun shop owner, previously represented District 83 in the House of Delegates. He resigned in April and moved because redistricting placed him in the same boundary lines as Republican Del. Rob Bloxom.

Just after conceding to New Craig on Tuesday night, Anderson said he was proud of his campaign.

“I ran an entirely grassroots campaign,” he said. “I have absolutely no regrets from how we raised money and how we spent the money and what we did to try to convince the voters that I was the best choice.”

Next for Anderson is taking time off to spend with family, going to the beach and Busch Gardens.

Bruzzesi is a political newcomer and the owner of the Closet Factory in Virginia Beach. The business designs and builds custom closets and other personalized built-in organization systems.

Bruzzesi could not be reached for comments Tuesday night.

Cianna Morales, [email protected]

Katie King, [email protected].

Del. Emily Brewer won the Senate 17 Republican primary Tuesday night, defeating Hermie Sadler.

The Associated Press called the race for Brewer shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday. Brewer had 9,476 votes compared to 6,639 for Sadler with 96% of the votes counted.

Sadler had raised about $680,000 as of June 8, outraising Brewer by more than $200,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Brewer, 39, has represented the 64th House District since 2018. She decided to run for the newly drawn Senate 17 district last year, as it overlapped with much of her current House district. She campaigned on foster care and adoption reform, opposing abortion, expanding broadband and reducing taxes.

Sadler, 54, is a former NASCAR driver and political newcomer. She was born and raised in Emporia. He and his sister own Sadler Brothers Oil Company, a third-generation business that manages truck stops and convenience stores. He also owns several restaurants in the Emporia area with his wife, Angie, including FO SHO Bar and Grille, Victory Lane Restaurant, and Quiznos.

He largely campaigned on reducing government mandates and regulations on businesses, opposing gun control measures and bringing an “outsider” non-establishment perspective to the Senate.

District 17 includes areas in Hampton Roads and Southside, including Suffolk, Isle of Wight County, Franklin, Emporia, Southampton County, Brunswick County, Greensville County, and parts of Portsmouth and Dinwiddie County.

Brewer will face Del. Clint Jenkins, Suffolk Democrat, in the general election. The district leans Republican.

By DÁNICA COTO (Associated Press)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Tropical Storm Bret chugged toward the eastern Caribbean on Tuesday as the region prepared itself for an unusually early storm and the torrential rains that are forecast.

Bret had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph) and was moving across the Atlantic Ocean at 18 mph (30 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which warned that it’s been unable to get “a better handle on the system’s intensity and size.”

The storm was located some 780 miles (1,255 kilometers) east of the Windward Islands and is expected to pummel some eastern Caribbean islands on Thursday at near hurricane strength. A tropical storm watch was issued for Barbados, St. Lucia and Dominica, where the meteorological service said Tuesday that the storm poses a “high threat” to the island and warned of landslides, flooding and waves of up to 12 feet (4 meters).

“Landslides are highly likely as we are coming out of a relatively dry period where grounds may be compromised or developed cracks,” said Fitzroy Pascal with Dominica’s Office of Disaster Management.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center urged people in the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to closely monitor the storm and have their hurricane plans in place.

“Given the uncertainty in the track and intensity forecasts, it is too early to specify the location and magnitude of where Bret’s associated hazards could occur,” the center said.

Up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain were forecast from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe south to St. Lucia, and up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The government of Guadeloupe warned that inclement weather would start Wednesday evening and continue until late Friday, with waves of up to 10 feet (3 meters).

“Be careful!” officials warned in a statement.

Unfavorable winds and drier air are expected to later weaken Bret as it swirls through the central Caribbean region, with some models showing the storm could dissipate after affecting islands in the eastern Caribbean.

The storm formed Monday — an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began on June 1. A tropical disturbance with an 80% chance of cyclone formation is trailing Bret. No June on record has had two storms form in the tropical Atlantic, according to meteorologist Philip Klotzbach at Colorado State University.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 12 to 17 named storms for this year’s hurricane season. It said between five and nine of those storms could become hurricanes, including up to four major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

Virginia Tech meteorologist Stephanie Zick said she expects to see a higher than average number of storms rapidly intensify this season given warmer sea surface temperatures. She also noted that flooding from tropical systems that make landfall has caused the most deaths in the past 10 years.

“The hazards associated with tropical storms can occur hundreds of miles away from the storm center,” she said.

HIGH SCHOOLS

Kellam boys soccer coach Craig Powers has been named the Class 6 Coach of the Year, the VHSL revealed in announcing the all-state team.

Powers guided the Knights to a 21-0 record and the first state championship in the program’s 60-year history.

Kellam midfielder Josh Nevins and defender Hamilton Howes made the all-state first team along with Landstown forward Ryan Walsh and midfielder Kamar Wilson.

Osbourn midfielder Cooper Noseworthy was the Player of the Year.

Kellam defender Leo Fajardo made the all-state second team.

MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Several O’s moves impact Tides

The Baltimore Orioles made several moves on Tuesday, most of which impacted the Norfolk Tides.

The Orioles selected the contract of catcher Anthony Bemboom and recalled right-hander Logan Gillaspie from the Tides and optioned catcher Jose Goody to Norfolk. Also, the Orioles designated right-hander Spenser Watkins for assignment and pitcher Noah Denoyer has cleared waivers and was assigned to the Tides.

Bemboom hit .278 with a homer and nine RBIs in 21 games for the Tides. Gillaspie went 1-0 with a 3.50 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 18 innings.

In addition, Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins and first baseman Ryan Mountcastle were in the Tides’ lineup Tuesday night on injury rehab assignments.

The Tides also got reinforcements in the form of Double-A promotions: shortstop César Prieto and pitchers Justin Armbruester and Wandisson Charles are joining Norfolk from Bowie. Armbruester started Tuesday night’s game.

The Tides will look to clinch the International League’s first-half championship this week at Nashville. Their magic number is two.

* The Los Angeles Angels have promoted former Old Dominion star Matt Coutney to the High-A Tri-City Dust Devils. The first baseman hit .277 with 10 homers and 41 RBIs in 57 games for the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino.

MINOR LEAGUE HOCKEY

Admirals complete trade acquisitions

The Norfolk Admirals have acquired four forwards and four defensemen to complete future-consideration trades made last season.

The forwards are Keaton Jameson from the Utah Grizzlies, Keegan Iverson from the Rapid City Rush, Troy Lajeunesse from the Savannah Ghost Pirates and Jakov Novak from the Allen Americans.

The defensemen are Justin Young from the Allen Americans, Charlie Curti from the Toledo Walleye, Andrew McLean from the Orlando Solar Bears and Josh Thrower from the Atlanta Gladiators.

Jameson, 25, posted the best offensive numbers of the newcomers last season. He scored 15 goals and added 22 assists in 71 games.

The Admirals will open the 2023-24 season on Oct. 20 in Savannah, Georgia, against the Ghost Pirates.

COLLEGE GOLF

Six UVA women’s players honored

The Virginia women’s golf team placed six players on the All-ACC Academic Team, matching the most of any league school.

The players earning the honor were juniors Jennifer Cleary and Rebecca Skoler, sophomores Megan Propeck and Amanda Sambach, senior Celeste Valinho and graduate student Riley Smyth.

It was the third straight year that Cleary, Smyth and Valinho made the team.

* Virginia men’s golfers Pietro Bovari, George Duangmanee and Bryan Lee have been named to the All-ACC Academic Team. Bovari and Duangmanee have made the squad three straight years.

Briefly

* Western Carolina guard/forward Tyler Harris will transfer to Richmond, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The 6-7 grad transfer averaged 5.1 points and 2.5 rebounds in 34 games for the Catamounts last season.

* Virginia men’s lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany has hired Kevin Cassese as associate head coach and offensive coordinator. Cassese spent the past 16 seasons as head coach at Lehigh, where he became the school’s all-time winningest coach and guided the Mountain Hawks to three Patriot League titles.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s majority opinion for the Supreme Court in Haaland v. Brackeen is conservative in the good, old-fashioned sense of the word. In upholding the Indian Child Welfare Act, the court reaffirmed precedent and declined an invitation to revolutionize the law with a reactionary constitutional holding. Along the way, Barrett demonstrated a style of doctrinal confidence and aphoristic clarity reminiscent of her old boss, Justice Antonin Scalia. The opinion marks a step in her bid to inherit Scalia’s role as the leading conservative voice on the court.

Meanwhile, in a separate concurrence joined by the court’s two most liberal members, Justice Neil Gorsuch continued his laudable effort to tell the truth about the history of U.S. oppression of Native Americans in the court’s official records, known as the U.S. Reports.

The conservative judicial revolution isn’t over, not by a long shot. Expect further conservative activism in the days to come. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote separately to suggest that the court might still in the future strike down some of ICWA’s key provisions as violating the equal protection clause.

Nonetheless, the decision in Haaland v. Brackeen can tell you something about what a sane conservative court could look like.

The provisions of the ICWA at stake in the case essentially require that, when a Native American child needs an adoptive placement, the state court considering the issue place the child with an Indian family member if possible, or failing that, with a fellow tribal member or at least an American Indian. A non-Indian family is the final resort.

The parties in the Brackeen case challenged the adoption provisions of ICWA in two ways: by claiming that the law was outside Congress’s constitutional authority to pass in the first place; and by asserting that the law is racially discriminatory in that it treats Native American children differently from White children and Native American adoptive parents differently from White adoptive parents.

Barrett firmly rejected the notion that Congress lacked the power to legislate for the welfare of Native American children. Relying on caselaw, Barrett wrote that Congress’s power in the field was “muscular,” subject only to the limitations placed by the Constitution. (In a Scalian touch, she quipped that “like the rest of its legislative powers,” Congress’s authority “must derive from the Constitution, not the atmosphere.”)

Responding to the suggestion that family law is always a matter for states, not the federal government, Barrett called the argument “a non-starter,” noting that “the Constitution does not erect a firewall around family law.” And as to the claim that Congress can legislate with regard to American Indians collectively but not individually? A “dead-end” — because of contrary precedent.

In a particularly sharp retort to the parties who wanted to limit Congress’s power, Barrett made short shrift of their claim that state-run family courts could not be made to obey federal law. “This argument runs headlong into the Constitution,” she wrote, citing the supremacy clause of the Constitution. “End of story.”

When it came to the potentially most revolutionary aspect of the case, the argument that ICWA racially discriminates in violation of equal protection, Barrett declined to address the issue. Instead, the court held that the parties lacked standing to raise the issue on technical grounds.

The court’s conservative judicial revolution is ongoing, and I expect to see more radical decisions on issues such as abortion, affirmative action, the environment and church and state. But the Brackeen case offers a glimpse of what can happen when the conservative Gorsuch is guided by his heart and the conservative Barrett is guided by traditional conservative legal values like judicial restraint.

The practical takeaway is that ICWA is safe for now, and potentially for a long time to come. That’s good news for tribes — and for the legal continuity that comes from respecting precedent.

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery and the Refounding of America.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions.

U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18.

Arkansas’ law, which Moody temporarily blocked in 2021, also would have prohibited doctors from referring patients elsewhere for such care.

In his order, Moody ruled that the prohibition violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families. He said the law also violated the First Amendment rights of medical providers by prohibiting them from referring patients elsewhere.

“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,” Moody wrote in his ruling.

Republican lawmakers in Arkansas enacted the ban in 2021, overriding a veto by former GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson, who left office in January, said the law went too far by cutting off treatments for children currently receiving such care.

The ruling affects only the Arkansas ban but may carry implications for the fates of similar prohibitions, or discourage attempts to enact them, in other states.

“This decision sends a clear message. Fear-mongering and misinformation about this health care do not hold up to scrutiny; it hurts trans youth and must end,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas. “Science, medicine, and law are clear: gender-affirming care is necessary to ensure these young Arkansans can thrive and be healthy.”

The ACLU challenged the law on behalf of four transgender youth and their families and two doctors.

At least 19 other states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors following Arkansas’ law, and federal judges have temporarily blocked similar bans in Alabama and Indiana. Three states have banned or restricted the care through regulations or administrative orders.

Florida’s law goes beyond banning the treatments for youth, by also prohibiting the use of state money for gender-affirming care and placing new restrictions on adults seeking treatment. A federal judge has blocked Florida from enforcing its ban on three children who have challenged the law.

Children’s hospitals around the country have faced harassment and threats of violence for providing such care.

The state has argued that the prohibition is within its authority to regulate the medical profession. People opposed to such treatments for children argue they are too young to make such decisions about their futures. Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose the bans and experts say treatments are safe if properly administered.

The state is likely to appeal Moody’s decision to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which last year upheld the judge’s temporary order blocking the law.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Hutchinson’s successor, in March signed legislation attempting to effectively reinstate Arkansas’ ban by making it easier to sue providers of gender-affirming care for children. That law doesn’t take effect until later this summer.

A roughly two-week trial before Moody included testimony from one of the transgender youths challenging the state’s ban. Dylan Brandt, 17, testified in October that the hormone therapy he has received has transformed his life and that the ban would force him to leave the state.

“I’m so grateful the judge heard my experience of how this health care has changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and that of countless other transgender people,” Brandt said in a statement released by the ACLU. “My mom and I wanted to fight this law not just to protect my health care, but also to ensure that transgender people like me can safely and fully live our truths.”

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will plead guilty to federal tax offenses but avoid a full prosecution on a separate gun charge in a deal with the Justice Department that likely spares him time behind bars.

Hunter Biden, 53, will plead guilty to the misdemeanor tax offenses as part of an agreement made public Tuesday. The agreement will also avoid prosecution on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, as long as he adheres to conditions agreed to in court. It’s somewhat unusual to resolve a federal criminal case at the same time charges are filed in court but not unheard of.

The deal ends a long-running Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has acknowledged struggling with addiction following the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden. It also averts a trial that would have generated days or weeks of distracting headlines for a White House that has strenuously sought to keep its distance from the Justice Department.

While it requires the younger Biden to admit guilt, the deal is narrowly focused on tax and weapons violations rather than anything broader or tied to the Democratic president. Nonetheless, former President Donald Trump and other Republicans continued to try to use the case to shine an unflattering spotlight on Joe Biden and to raise questions about the independence of the Biden Justice Department.

Trump, challenging President Biden in the 2024 presidential race, likened the agreement to a “mere traffic ticket,” adding, “Our system is BROKEN!”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy compared the outcome to the Trump documents case now heading toward federal and said, “If you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another presidential challenger, used the same term.

The White House counsel’s office said simply in a statement that the president and first lady Jill Biden “love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life.”

Two people familiar with the investigation said the Justice Department would recommend 24 months of probation for the tax charges, meaning Hunter Biden will not face time in prison. But the decision to go along with any deal is up to the judge. The people were not authorized to speak publicly by name and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

He is to plead guilty to failing to pay more than $100,0000 in taxes on over $1.5 million in income in both 2017 and 2018, charges that carry a maximum possible penalty of a year in prison. The back taxes have since been paid, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The gun charge states that Hunter Biden possessed a handgun, a Colt Cobra .38 Special, for 11 days in October 2018 despite knowing he was a drug user. The rarely filed count carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but the Justice Department said Hunter Biden had reached a pretrial agreement. This likely means as long as he adheres to the conditions, the case will be wiped from his record.

Christopher Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, said in a statement that it was his understanding that the five-year investigation had now been resolved.

“I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” Clark said. “He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”

The agreement comes as the Justice Department pursues perhaps the most consequential case in its history against Trump, the first former president to face federal criminal charges. The resolution of Hunter Biden’s case comes just days after a 37-count indictment against former President Trump in relation to accusations of mishandling classified documents on his Florida estate. It was filed by a special counsel, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to avoid any potential conflict of interest in the Justice Department.

That indictment has nevertheless brought an onslaught of Republican criticism of “politicization” of the Justice Department. Meanwhile, congressional Republicans continue to pursue their own investigations into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including foreign payments.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said the younger Biden is “getting away with a slap on the wrist,” despite investigations in Congress that GOP lawmakers say show — but have not yet provided evidence of — a pattern of corruption involving the family’s financial ties.

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, on the other hand, said the case was thoroughly investigated over five years by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Delaware prosecutor judge appointed by Trump.

Resolution of the case, Coons said, “brings to a close a five-year investigation, despite the elaborate conspiracy theories spun by many who believed there would be much more to this.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was scheduled to campaign with the president Tuesday evening, reaffirmed his support for Biden’s reelection.

“Hunter changes nothing,” Newsom told The AP on Tuesday.

Misdemeanor tax cases aren’t common, and most that are filed end with a sentence that doesn’t include time behind bars, said Caroline Ciraolo, an attorney who served as head of the Justice Department’s tax division from 2015 to 2017. An expected federal conviction “is not a slap on the wrist,” she said.

Gun possession charges that aren’t associated with another firearm crime are also uncommon, said Keith Rosen, a past head of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware. For people without a significant criminal history, the total number of multiple types of illegal possession cases filed every year in Delaware amounts to a handful, he said.

The Justice Department investigation into the president’s son burst into public view in December 2020, one month after the 2020 election, when Hunter Biden revealed that he had received a subpoena as part of the department’s scrutiny of his taxes. The subpoena sought information on the younger Biden’s business dealings with a number of entities, including Burisma, a Ukraine gas company on whose board he sat. A federal grand jury in Delaware heard testimony related to his taxes and foreign business transactions.

In February 2021, the department sought the resignation of most Trump-era U.S. attorneys, as is customary in a new presidential administration, but made a point of noting that it was leaving Weiss in place as a way to ensure continuity in the probe.

At a congressional hearing last August, FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that the investigation remained active out of the bureau’s Baltimore field office and said it was a matter that “I expect our folks to pursue aggressively.”

Garland pledged not to interfere in the probe at another hearing in March. An unnamed IRS special agent, though, later alleged mishandling of the investigation in a letter to Congress in which he sought whistleblower protection.

The younger Biden joined the board of Burisma in 2014, around the time his father, then Barack Obama’s vice president, was helping conduct the Obama administration’s foreign policy with Ukraine. Trump and his allies have long argued, without evidence, that Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine influenced the Obama administration’s policies.

Years before the case was brought, Hunter Biden surfaced as a central character in the first impeachment case against Trump, who in an apparent bid to boost his own reelection bid had asked Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a telephone call to announce an investigation into the younger Biden.

Republicans later sought to make Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine a prominent issue during the 2020 presidential election.

In October of that year, the New York Post reported that it had received from Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had dropped off 18 months earlier at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved.

The story was greeted with skepticism due to questions about the laptop’s origins, including Giuliani’s involvement, and because top officials in the Trump administration had already warned that Russia was working to denigrate Joe Biden ahead of the November election. No evidence has emerged of any Russian connection to the laptop or to he will emails found on the advice.

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Colleen Long, Farnoush Amiri, Lisa Mascaro, Seung Min Kim and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Steve Peoples and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.