Trinitee Lindsey’s older sister, Mahogany, had been offered more than $700,000 in scholarships for college when she graduated a year ago. She challenged Trinitee to beat that.

So Trinitee did with more than $1 million in scholarships offered by colleges from Hampton Roads to California.

She also has 15 college credits already completed and an advanced diploma from the Leadership Center for the Sciences and Engineering at Norview High School in Norfolk.

The 17-year-old just graduated with honors from Norview and plans on starting at Norfolk State University in the fall, where her sister will be a sophomore.

She had her choice of more than 30 schools but decided to accept the full ride to the historically Black university just up the road from her family and their restaurant she hopes to help expand in the future.

After four years of high school, Trinitee said one of the main lessons she learned was to “expect the unexpected.”

“It wasn’t like ‘High School Musical,’” she said. Schools were closed in response to the pandemic her freshman year.

She remembered she had been at track practice the afternoon she heard schools were closing their doors. She never did get back to track once students returned to in-person learning, but she and her family became closer.

It started with small challenges between Trinitee and her sister, Mahogany, who is a year older. These were “little things,” such as working out and eating healthy. After Mahogany was offered hundreds of dollars in scholarships just a year ahead of Trinitee, she said she knew her younger sister could do just as well, if not better, Trinitee said.

When the scholarship offers started to stack up, Trinitee said she was “in awe.” She said it was her sister who inspired her and Mahogany “felt very accomplished” seeing Trinitee succeed. Their time calculating their grade point averages together and going over the different scholarships available to them had paid off.

Trinitee ended up writing 10 to 20 different scholarship and admissions essays, all describing her roots and how her hair is a reflection of those roots and how she worked at her family’s restaurant while going to school during the pandemic.

The Lindsey family opened Our Peoples Soulful Seafood five years ago, and everyone in the family has helped over the years. Trinitee and her sister would participate in their classes online from the van before coming in to help.

Femi Lindsey, their mother, said the girls never complained to her. She watched them push and support each other through the pandemic and beyond, focusing in on their academics and family.

Now that both girls, two of the five Lindsey children, are navigating college and trying to figure out their futures, Femi said she wants them to find their independence. She said working as long as they have with the family, she wants them to know, “you’ve paid your dues,” and now is the time to enjoy college and live for the experience.

“I’m proud of my kids,” Femi said.

Trinitee said she is looking forward to homecoming and potentially studying abroad, though she said she is not sure where she would want to go just yet. For now, she plans on majoring in business and minoring in psychology. She will be a shareholder in the family business after graduating from college, and she said she hopes to help franchise it later on.

First, she and her sister hope to inspire and help other students find scholarship opportunities just like them. The two have made plans to be mentors for high school students grade 10 and up. Likely, they will start by helping their younger siblings to “set the foundation,” Trinitee said.

Trinitee said she would not be where she is today without her family, from her sister pushing her to watching her father, Carlos, lead by example with the restaurant and his “bold entrepreneurship” during rough economic times.

Kelsey Kendall, [email protected]

By BEN FINLEY and HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)

Rescuers in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean raced against time Tuesday to find a missing submersible before the oxygen supply runs out for five people who were on a mission to document the wreckage of the Titanic.

Despite an international rescue effort, U.S. Coast Guard officials said the search covering 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) had turned up no signs of the lost sub known as the Titan, but they planned to continue looking.

Authorities reported the carbon-fiber vessel overdue Sunday night, setting off the search in waters about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Aboard were a pilot, renowned British adventurer Hamish Harding, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert.

The submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it put to sea at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday, according to David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate Expeditions, which oversaw the mission.

That means the oxygen supply could run out Thursday morning.

CBS News journalist David Pogue, who traveled to Titanic aboard the Titan last year, said the vehicle uses two communication systems: text messages that go back and forth to a surface ship and safety pings that are emitted every 15 minutes to indicate that the sub is still working.

Both of those systems stopped about an hour and 45 minutes after the Titan submerged.

“There are only two things that could mean. Either they lost all power or the ship developed a hull breach and it imploded instantly. Both of those are devastatingly hopeless,” Pogue told CBC on Tuesday.

The submersible had seven backup systems to return to the surface, including sandbags and lead pipes that drop off and an inflatable balloon. One system is designed to work even if everyone aboard is unconscious, Pogue said.

Experts said the rescuers face steep challenges.

Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said submersibles typically have a drop weight, which is “a mass they can release in the case of an emergency to bring them up to the surface using buoyancy.”

“If there was a power failure and/or communication failure, this might have happened, and the submersible would then be bobbing about on the surface waiting to be found,” Greig said.

Another scenario is a leak in the pressure hull, in which case the prognosis is not good, he said.

“If it has gone down to the seabed and can’t get back up under its own power, options are very limited,” Greig said. “While the submersible might still be intact, if it is beyond the continental shelf, there are very few vessels that can get that deep, and certainly not divers.”

Even if they could go that deep, he doubts rescuers could attach to the submersible.

By Tuesday morning, an area totaling 10,000 square miles had been searched, the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted.

The Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, which was supporting the Titan, was to continue conducting surface searches with help from a Canadian Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, the Coast Guard said on Twitter. Two U.S. Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft also conducted overflights.

The Canadian military dropped sonar buoys to listen for any possible sounds from the Titan.

Concannon, who said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go, said officials were also working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can dive to a depth of 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) to the site as soon as possible.

OceanGate’s expeditions to the Titanic wreck site include archaeologists and marine biologists. The company also brings people who pay to come along, known as “mission specialists.” They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the submersible.

The Coast Guard said Monday that the Titan carried a pilot and four “mission specialists.” However, OceanGate’s website suggests that the fifth person may be a so-called “content expert” who guides the paying customers.

Authorities have yet to formally identify those on board, though some names have been confirmed, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who, according to the company, was serving as a member of the crew.

Rush told The Associated Press in June 2021 that the Titan’s technology was “very cutting edge” and was developed with the help of NASA and aerospace manufacturers.

“This is the only submersible – crewed submersible – that’s made of carbon fiber and titanium,” Rush said, calling it the “largest carbon fiber structure that we know of,” with 5-inch-thick carbon fiber and 3.25-inch-thick titanium.

Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company where Harding serves as chairman.

Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness world records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo descended to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Also on board were Pakistani nationals Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, according to a family statement. The Dawoods belong to one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. Their eponymous firm invests across the country in agriculture, industries and the health sector.

Shahzada Dawood also is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.

French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet was also aboard, according to David Gallo, a senior adviser for strategic initiatives and special projects at RMS Titanic. Gallo identified Nargeolet, a friend who has led multiple expeditions to the Titanic, on Tuesday during an interview with CNN.

Greg Stone, a longtime ocean scientist based in California and a friend of Rush, called the lost submersible “a fundamentally new submarine design” that showed great promise for future research. Unlike its predecessors, the Titan was not spherical in shape.

“Stockton was a risk taker. He was smart … he had a vision. He wanted to push things forward,” Stone said.

The expedition was OceanGate’s third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage’s discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria.

OceanGate’s website described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 a person.

Recalling his own trip aboard the Titan, Pogue said the vessel got turned around looking for the Titanic.

“There’s no GPS underwater, so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages,” Pogue said in a segment aired on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “But on this dive, communications somehow broke down. The sub never found the wreck.”

___

Associated Press writers Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

A sustained high number of new business applications from mid-2020 to now indicates an optimism not necessarily shared across the economy. That ambition may be tested in the coming months.

From January to July 2020 — the six-month period with a very short and deep recession smack dab in its middle — the number of applications for employer identification numbers (EINs) from the IRS nearly doubled. That ambitious optimism amid great economic uncertainty persists: As of April 2023, filings of these new business applications were 55% higher than in that January three years earlier.

But banks are being more cautious about lending, and consumers may begin pulling back on spending after a long campaign by the Federal Reserve to cool the economy. New businesses, by their nature often on already-vulnerable financial footing, should prepare for rocky times with the knowledge that all healthy businesses, young or old, can benefit from contingency planning.

New businesses still elevated, three years after peak

COVID-19 lockdowns and layoffs encouraged people to get creative about how they spent their time and how they earned and spent their money. For many, that period was the proverbial kick in the butt needed to finally chase a dream of being self-employed. The number of new business applications peaked in July 2020 at about 552,000, up from 279,000 just six months earlier. And while the surge has subsided slightly, it remains higher than any pre-COVID period tracked.

Could this be evidence that the pandemic did have a long-term impact on how we think about work? Perhaps. It could also indicate more people are starting side businesses to help them cover the increased costs of living under high inflation, or they’re eager to capture the increased demand for services that has ballooned as the pandemic has waned. Most likely, it’s a combination of factors whose influence will become clearer as time goes on.

Even the businesses deemed most likely to succeed (called “high propensity” by the U.S. Census Bureau) remain elevated. What identifies these businesses as high propensity, according to the agency, can include planned wages and hiring, corporate backing, or being in certain industries such as food services and accommodations, construction and manufacturing, educational services, health care and others. These applications also peaked in July 2020, at about 175,000, 73% higher than six months before. In April of this year, there were still 44% more such applications than in January 2020.

All states have experienced similar growth, albeit to varying degrees. The states that saw the biggest increases from January 2020 to their peak were Illinois and Mississippi, growing 248% and 247% respectively to their July 2020 highs. In Wyoming, application rates peaked later, in April 2023, the most recent month for which data is available. And there, they remain the most elevated, 181% more than the January 2020 rate.

But lenders say they’re pulling back

In the early stages of a new business, startup and expansion funding can be crucial. But for new businesses in 2023, access to these funds could prove increasingly difficult.

The share of domestic banks tightening lending standards for small businesses stood at 47% in the second quarter of this year, up from zero one year prior, according to the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey from the Fed. Loan officers report similar tightening for larger businesses, too. Lenders are most likely to cite economic uncertainty — not banking instability — for the tightening and anticipate the trend to continue.

What to expect (and how to prepare) for the rest of 2023

Throughout 2023, it will remain more difficult (and costly) for owners of all sizes of businesses to access funding. The economic uncertainty driving credit tightening is closely related to the lack of certainty around whether the Fed will continue to raise rates, pause or begin reducing them; whether the labor market will finally weaken; whether we’ll enter a recession this year; and whether any additional unforeseen economic shocks — like war or a pandemic — head our way. So businesses old and new would be wise to hope for the best but plan for tough times.

Prepare for falling consumer demand. The Fed’s battle against inflation is an effort to cool the economy and, in part, consumer demand. People will be spending less, whether or not we ultimately end up in recessionary territory. Businesses that make money from discretionary consumer spending could feel this the most.

Look for ways to reduce expenses. Think ahead — you may not need to change suppliers or reduce shipping frequency today, but where will you cut back if the need arises? Knowing where to cut when times get lean allows you to take quick action when those times occur.

Consider a line of credit. A business line of credit can act as an emergency relief valve — it’s close at hand if you need it and generally comes with relatively minimal carrying costs if you don’t end up using it. If your business has unpredictable or volatile cash flows, it can be an at-the-ready emergency fund.

If you have to borrow, consider a local bank or CDFI. Now is not a great time to need a loan: Rates are high, and lenders are watching their money carefully. But if you do need to borrow, consider a local bank, credit union or community development financial institution (CDFI). If you already have a relationship with one of these smaller institutions, you’re one step ahead. Because they’re in the relationship business, they may have competitive advantages over larger banks for smaller businesses.

Ask for help — before you need it. Having a plan in place just in case things get dicey can provide peace of mind even if they don’t. As a new business owner, you may not know what you don’t know, and it could pay to have someone with experience help inform your decisions. Small Business Development Centers offer free consulting and free or low-cost training to small-business owners. And SCORE, a nonprofit that partners with the Small Business Administration, provides mentors and resources to help small businesses succeed.

More From NerdWallet

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN (AP Business Writer)

Gannett has filed a civil lawsuit against Google and its parent company Alphabet, claiming that they unlawfully hold monopolies in the advertising technology tools that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell online ad space.

The largest U.S. newspaper publisher by total daily circulation alleges in the suit that Google controls how publishers sell their ad slots and forces them to sell an increasing amount of ad space to Google at lower prices. This in turn results in less revenue for publishers and Google’s ad-tech rivals and more money for Google.

In January the Justice Department and eight states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, seeking to shatter its alleged monopoly on the entire ecosystem of online advertising as a hurtful burden to advertisers, consumers and even the U.S. government. The suit accused the company of unlawfully monopolizing the way ads are served online by excluding competitors.

The European Union launched an antitrust investigation into Google’s digital ad dominance in 2021. And last week EU regulators hit Google with fresh antitrust charges, saying the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its lucrative digital ad business is by selling off parts of the tech giant’s main moneymaker.

The unprecedented decision to push for such a breakup marks a significant escalation by Brussels in its crackdown on Silicon Valley digital giants, and follows a similar move by U.S. authorities seeking to bust Google’s alleged monopoly on the online ad ecosystem.

Gannett CEO Mike Reed, in an opinion piece published Tuesday by Gannett-owned USA Today, said that the company is looking to “restore fair competition in a digital advertising marketplace that Google has demolished.”

Reed claims that local news outlets are hurting because of unlawful bid-rigging practices used by Google.

“The core of the case and our position is that Google abuses its control over the ad server monopoly to make it increasingly difficult for rival exchanges to run competitive auctions,” Reed wrote.

“These claims are simply wrong. Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize – in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services, including Google Ad Manager,” Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads said in a written statement. “And when publishers choose to use Google tools, they keep the vast majority of revenue. We’ll show the court how our advertising products benefit publishers and help them fund their content online.”

Gannett’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks an unspecified amount of damages and injunctive relief. The Virginia company is seeking a trial by jury.

VATICAN CITY — An unprecedented global canvassing of Catholics has called for the church to take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles, for a “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority.

The Vatican on Tuesday released the synthesis of a two-year consultation process, publishing a working document that will form the basis of discussion for a big meeting of bishops and laypeople in October. The synod, as it is known, is a key priority of Pope Francis, reflecting his vision of a church that is more about the faithful rank-and-file than its priests.

Already Francis has made his mark on the synod, letting lay people and in particular women have a vote alongside bishops. That reform is a concrete step toward what he calls “synodality,” a new way of being a church that envisions more co-responsibility in governance and the key mission of spreading the Catholic faith.

The document highlights key concerns that emerged during the consultation process, which began at the local parish level and concluded with seven continent-wide assemblies. It flagged in particular the devastating impact that clergy sexual abuse crisis has had on the faithful, costing the hierarchy its credibility and sparking calls for structural changes to remove their near-absolute power.

The synthesis found a “unanimous” and “crucial” call for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance. Without raising the prospect of women’s ordination to the priesthood, it asked whether new ministries could be created, including the diaconate – a reflection of a years-long call by some women to be ordained deacons in the church.

The document noted that “most” of the continent-wide assemblies and “several” bishops’ conferences called for the diaconate question to be considered by the synod.

The document also asked what concrete steps the church can take to better welcome LGBTQ+ people and others who have felt marginalized and unrecognized by the church so that they don’t feel judged: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled, as well as those who by tribal or caste feel excluded.

Perhaps most significantly, the document used the terminology “LGBTQ+ persons” rather than the Vatican’s traditional “persons with homosexual tendencies,” suggesting a level of acceptance that Francis ushered in a decade ago with his famous “Who am I to judge” comment.

Even the seating arrangements for the synod are designed to be inclusive. Delegates are to be seated at round tables, with around a dozen laity and clergy mixed together in the Vatican’s big auditorium.

Previously, synods took place in the Vatican’s theater-like synod hall, where cardinals and bishops would take the front rows and priests, nuns and finally lay people getting seated in the back rows, far from the stage.

Unlike past working documents, the synthesis doesn’t stake out firm points, proposals or conclusions, but rather poses a series of questions for further discussion during the October assembly. The synod process continues in 2024 with the second phase, after which Francis is expected to issue a concluding document considering the proposals that have been put to him by the delegates.

The working document re-proposed a call for debate on whether married priests could be considered to relieve the clergy shortage in some parts of the world. Amazonian bishops had proposed allowing married priests to minister to their faithful who sometimes go months at a time without Mass, but Francis shot down the proposal after an Amazonian synod in 2019.

It called for more “meaningful and concrete steps” to offer justice to survivors of sexual abuse. It noted that the faithful have also been victims of other types of abuse: “spiritual, economic, power and conscience abuse” that have “eroded the credibility of the Church and compromised the effectiveness of its mission.”

It suggested that the church must reevaluate the way authority is exercised by the hierarchy, suggesting structural, canonical and institutional reforms to eradicate the “clericalism,” or privilege that is afforded to clergy.

It acknowledged the fear and opposition that the synodal process has sparked among some bishops who see it as undermining their authority and power, but said transparency and accountability were absolutely necessary and that bishops should even be evaluated as a way to rebuild trust.

“The synodal process asks them (bishops) to live a radical trust in the action of the spirit in the life of their communities, without fear that the participation of everyone need be a threat to their ministry of community leadership,” it says.

Even before the synod began, the document and the consultative process that preceded it were already having an effect.

Sister Nadia Coppa, who heads the umbrella group of women’s religious orders, said anyone who exercises governance in religious orders was being called to develop a new way of exercising authority.

“It will be important for us to propose a style of governance that develops structures and participatory procedures in which members can together discern a new vision for the church,” Coppa told a press conference.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Kasim Al-Issa of Saudi Arabia is a man on a mission.

As secretary-general of the Muslim World League, a worldwide charity that serves as a voice of Muslims and promotes interfaith dialogue, Al-Issa led a high-level faith summit at the United Nations recently that gathered hundreds of spiritual leaders and diplomats for a unique purpose: to bridge east-west divisions.

The summit resulted in a commitment to establish a global day to celebrate east-west relations and to establish an educational curriculum based on shared values between the peoples of the world.

Mitchell Reiss, who served as president and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the U.S. Special Envoy for the Northern Ireland Peace Process, worked closely with Protestant and Catholic parties to end violence and achieve a lasting peace and called Al-Issa “one of the great voices of interfaith dialogue and friendship in the world.”

“He is the architect of the Makkah Charter, which is a sort of blueprint for modern, moderate Islam,” Reiss added. “It gained support of every major branch of Islam. That kind of inclusivity is what makes Sheikh Al-Issa and The Muslim World League so compelling and important.”

Al-Issa served as Saudi Arabia’s minister of justice from 2009 to 2015. In addition of being the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, he is also president of the International Islamic Halal Organization. He is considered a leading global voice on moderate Islam as well as a key figure in the fight against extremist ideology.

In an interview, I asked Al-Issa, what made him decide to embark on such a challenging journey as starting an interfaith dialogue?

“In recent years, humankind has become more divided, capitalizing on perceived differences rather than recognizing and appreciating our countless similarities,” he said. “It is this knowledge that made me want to dedicate my life to promote understanding of different cultures and peoples through the transformative power of interfaith engagement.”

He noted that the global challenges we are facing require collaboration, rather than isolation. And faith is something that connects the vast majority of humankind. Over 84% of people around the world define themselves as religious and many of them find themselves on the frontlines of climate crisis, conflicts and economic struggle.

I asked Al-Issa, what are the principles that guide him in his work?

“I am guided by the core principles of my Islamic faith and the principles outlined in the ground-breaking Charter of Makkah which include equality, harmony, diversity, as well as planetary welfare,” he replied. “I would also say that in my capacity as the secretary-general of the Muslim World League I am driven by my fervent desire to improve the lives of those who face a daily uphill struggle in some of the worlds more challenging circumstances.”

Another aspect of Al-Issa’s effort is to fight extremist ideology.

“Extremist ideology has no place in Islam, or any other faith for that matter,” he told me. “People of faith are very keen to ensure that religion is seen as a force for positive good, not hate and violence. At the heart of all major faiths is a desire to bring people together through the religious community. Extremist ideology, whether that be of groups like the Islamic State or far-right terror groups, is anathema to these core principles and is disturbingly one of key drivers of people’s misunderstanding of religion. This is why it is so important to champion interfaith cooperation, break down those misconceptions, and fight against extremism in all its forms.”

According to Al-Issa, the Arab world has actively embraced these efforts. The Makkah Charter, which the Muslim World League put together in 2019, was approved by Islamic leaders in 139 countries. The charter champions anti-extremism, religious and cultural diversity, and legislation against hate and violence, as well as environmental treaties and women’s rights.

The publication of the Makkah Charter led to breakthrough moments of cooperation and progress between Islam and other faiths. Al-Issa and other senior Islamic leaders were invited to Auschwitz by the American Jewish Committee in a ground-breaking display of Muslim/Jewish cooperation.

“To me, visiting Auschwitz was an emotionally arresting experience that further confirmed my desire to fight extremism, intolerance and hatred in all its forms,” he said. “To stand in the same spot where countless perished made the idea of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism even more absurd and vile. If we let extremism of any kind fester, then it is not unlikely we will see events like the Holocaust happen again.”

Al-Issa expressed confidence that the Muslim World League will play a role in ensuring that such horrendous events never happen again.

“This is why it was so important to become the first senior Islamic figure to visit Auschwitz,” he said. “It gave me hope we are entering a new era of positive interfaith cooperation and dialogue. Moments like that highlights that, despite our differences in religious practice, there are common principles across all faiths that can be leveraged to create a better world for us all.”

Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop, and Anazon.com.

Eight pieces of memorabilia from the storied life of Kansas-born aviator Amelia Earhart — including a glowing fan letter from her friend, President Franklin D. Roosevelt — go up for auction June 22.

A set of her fingerprints taken in a Mexico City police station is one of the more curious offerings.

Earhart was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and set numerous aviation records before mysteriously disappearing over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while trying to fly around the world. She was officially declared lost at sea. She was 41.

She is the most famous person to hail from Atchison in northeast Kansas, where a new Earhart museum opened in April, the town’s second. The Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum features a plane named “Muriel” identical to the one she flew on her last flight.

“What working with them has driven home is, although she was so young when she passed away, the profound impact she had on American culture, and many aspects of it, from women to the sciences during the 1930s at the height of her popularity before she disappeared,” said Darren Sutherland, senior specialist for fine books and manuscripts for Bonhams auction house.

“I think a lot of people get hung up on that disappearance and that becomes the conversation, when the real conversation is her, both her popularity and her achievements, her impact on the culture.”

Most of the items were once part of the collection of Earhart biographer and veteran pilot Elgen M. Long, who wrote “Amelia Earhart, The Mystery Solved,” with his wife, Marie K. Long. He died last year.

A photo of Earhart with explorers R.E. Byrd and Bernt Balchen, who redesigned the aircraft she flew across the Atlantic Ocean, and signed by all three, will be auctioned along with other photos.

Earhart pictures come up frequently for auction, Sutherland said. As one of the most famous women in the world in her day she spent quite a bit of time in front of cameras.

Two of the more rare items up for sale are books she owned, both heavily annotated in her handwriting.

“She was so famous and so approachable that there are lots of photographs,” he said. “But these things which are so personal and relate so closely to her life, or were owned by her, I think that those are largely making their way into institutions.

“It goes back to the kind of rarity of the personal items versus the kind of memorabilia. You see a lot of Earhart material at auction, but not a lot of these kinds of personal, really knockout … items that tell her story, that shed light on the individual.”

One is a chemistry book she used while studying at Columbia University, where she attended the School of General Studies from 1919 to 1920. She intended to go on to medical school. But the call of the skies was louder.

The book is estimated to be worth $5,000 to $8,000, Sutherland said.

Some of her notes in the book about evolution — “survival of the fittest” — read like free association, Sutherland said. “I just love that because I feel like that’s her tenacity that we’re seeing into,” he said.

Her copy of “The American Practical Navigator” by Nathaniel Bowditch, an encyclopedia of navigation, will also be auctioned. It too has extensive annotations, calculations and drawings Earhart made about a year before her historic transatlantic flight, Sutherland said.

Earhart lived in Boston at the time, where she got a job in 1925 as a social worker at the Denison House, the second-oldest settlement house in the nation. She still found time to teach herself navigation. Her transatlantic flight began at East Boston Airport, now known as Logan International Airport.

“This one is more heavily annotated, copious notes and equations on navigation and positioning and location, and she is learning, teaching herself, in 1927,” Sutherland said.

It’s estimated value: $10,000 to $15,000.

___

Fingerprinted in Mexico

In 1935 Earhart flew from Los Angeles to Mexico City, drawing an international spotlight to the country, then flew solo nonstop from there to Newark, New Jersey — the first person to do it.

“She was actually down there in Mexico City for a while and this I think is part of her legacy,” Sutherland said.

“So much of what she did caught people’s attention. Her feats were incredible, and then she used that popularity to promote issues and causes that were important to her and important to others.”

Possibly, she had herself fingerprinted while in Mexico as proof that she was there. And maybe, it was “a good opportunity to get some publicity for the flight,” said Sutherland, who assured that Earhart was not fingerprinted after committing a crime.

“I think it was all a bit of fun. It documents that it indeed was her in Mexico City,” he said. “So that’s a really fun one and a one of a kind thing.”

Estimated value of the fingerprint set: $8,000 to $12,000.

The star of the auction is a typed letter to Earhart signed by Roosevelt congratulating her on her transpacific solo flight, an 18-hour journey from Hawaii to the continental United States in 1935.

“He wrote to her with this glowing language about her advancement of both commercial aviation but also women’s rights, empowering women, and it’s just a lovely letter congratulating (her) on the flight,” Sutherland said.

Roosevelt wrote: “You have scored again. By successfully spanning the ocean stretches between Hawaii and California, following your triumphant trans-atlantic flight of 1928, you have shown even the ‘doubting Thomases’ that aviation is science that cannot be limited to men only.”

The letter’s value is between at $60,000 and $80,000.

The people who will be drawn to bid, to “spend their hard-earned money on these things is somebody I think who understands the importance and impact of Amelia Earhart, the adventurer, the woman, the activist, in all her guises,” Sutherland said.

Anyone can bid online. Bidders can register now on the Bonhams sale page. Thursday, the day of the sale, that page will link to a site where registered bidders can watch the sale live and bid directly on each item.

A guide to bidding is on the Bonhams website: bonhams.com/how-to-buy.

©2023 The Kansas City Star. Visit at kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MICHAEL GOLDBERG and ROGELIO SOLIS (Associated Press/Report for America)

LOUIN, Miss. (AP) — Multiple tornadoes swept through Mississippi overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen, officials said Monday.

State emergency workers were still working with counties to assess the damage from storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in eastern Mississippi’s Jasper County.

The small, rural town of Louin bore the brunt of the damage. Drone footage and photos showed wide expanses of debris-covered terrain, decimated homes and mangled trees. At least one person was lifted from the wreckage in a stretcher.

Standing in front of his damaged home on Monday, Lester Campbell told The Associated Press that his cousin, 67-year-old George Jean Hayes, is the person who died. Reached by phone Monday, Jones County Coroner Don Sumrall said Hayes was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. from “multisystem trauma.”

Campbell fell asleep in his recliner Sunday evening. He was awakened around midnight after the lights went out. After he walked to the kitchen to grab something from the refrigerator, the tornado struck.

“It happened so fast,” Campbell said. “It was like a train sound, a ‘roar, roar, roar.’”

He dropped to the floor and crawled to his bedroom closet, where his wife had already taken shelter. By the time he reached the closet, the tornado had passed.

Campbell said he heard calls for help across the street, where Hayes lived in a trailer home. He emerged from his home to find emergency workers carrying his cousin, with a bloodied forehead and leg, into an ambulance. She was conscious and talking when he saw her but died before reaching the hospital, he said.

Most of the people injured in Jasper County, including Hayes, were transported to the South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel between 2 and 3 a.m., said Becky Collins, a spokesperson for the facility. About 20 people had bruises and cuts. Most were in stable condition Monday morning.

Eric Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said an unseasonably strong jet stream blew through the area. A tornado emerged near Louin before traveling at least 7 miles (11 kilometers) south to Bay Springs.

Tornadoes typically hit Mississippi in early to mid-spring. Carpenter called the timing of the tornadoes, along with persistent thunder and hail as well as high temperatures, “a very unusual situation.”

“This is a whole different game here,” Carpenter said. “What we would typically see in March and April, we’re seeing in June.”

On March 24, a vicious tornado carved a path of destruction through parts of western and northern Mississippi, killing at least 26 and damaging thousands of homes. Some towns in the rural, poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta face a daunting task to rebuild.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday’s tornadoes also struck Rankin County, which borders the capital city of Jackson. Emergency crews were doing search and rescue missions and damage assessments, deploying drones in some areas because they were impossible to reach by vehicle due to downed power lines.

On Monday afternoon, another possible tornado struck the south Mississippi town of Moss Point. Photos showed homes with obliterated roofs and tilted power lines. As high winds and heavy rain blanketed Jackson County, WLOX-TV reported that eight people were trapped inside a bank in downtown Moss Point. They were later rescued uninjured. The county remained under a flash flood warning Monday.

In a Monday news release, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said more than 49,000 homes in central Mississippi were without power. Tens of thousands of people in Hinds County, the most populous area of the state, were still without power Monday morning after high winds pummeled the state early Friday.

Reeves said the state is opening command centers and shelters for those displaced by the severe weather.

After fleeing his home Monday morning, Campbell returned to survey the damage. He arrived to find that half of the roof was gone, the garage destroyed and the windows shattered. He felt lucky compared to his neighbors.

“Most of the houses are gone. They are demolished. They’re done,” Campbell said.

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Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.