By BEN FINLEY and HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)

A rescue operation was underway deep in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on Monday in search of a technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago.

The vessel was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lt. Cmdr. Len Hickey said a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and military aircraft were assisting the search effort, which was being led by the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.

Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, said additional resources would arrive in the coming days.

“It is a remote area — and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” he said. “But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

According to the Coast Guard, the craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later.

The Polar Prince will continue to do surface searches throughout the evening and Canadian P8 Poseidon aircraft will resume their surface and subsurface search in the morning, the Coast Guard said on Twitter.

The submersible was operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, said the submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply starting at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday. In an email to The Associated Press, Concannon said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go due to another client matter. He said officials were working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) 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 five-person submersible. The Coast Guard said Monday that there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard.

OceanGate said its focus was on those aboard and their families.

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” it said in a statement.

U.K. businessman Hamish Harding was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company for which Harding serves as chairman. The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP that the crew set out on Friday.

“There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” Butler said. “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”

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 dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench. In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

Harding was “looking forward to conducting research” at the Titanic site, said Richard Garriott de Cayeux, the president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Harding belonged.

“We all join in the fervent hope that the submersible is located as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.

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. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.

The initial group of tourists in 2021 paid $100,000 to $150,000 apiece to go on the trip.

Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Polar Prince to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. The submersible would make multiple dives in one expedition.

The expedition was scheduled to depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in early May and finish up at the end of June, according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.

CBS journalist David Pogue, who went on the trip last year, noted his 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.”

The submersible, named Titan, is capable of diving 4,000 meters or 13,120 feet “with a comfortable safety margin,” OceanGate said in its court filing.

It 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.

The Titan is made of “titanium and filament wound carbon fiber” and has proven to “withstand the enormous pressures of the deep ocean,” OceanGate stated. OceanGate told the court that Titan’s viewport is “the largest of any deep diving submersible” and that its technology provides an “unrivaled view” of the deep ocean.

In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

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

“In the high sea state, the submersible sustained modest damage to its external components and OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements,” the filing stated.

More missions, however, followed. The company reported that 28 people visited the wreck site last year.

Experts said Monday that 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 they could attach to the hatch of OceanGate’s submersible.

___

AP reporters Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London, Robert Gillies in Toronto, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

By PAUL J. WEBER (Associated Press)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — More than 300,000 customers in the southern U.S. remained without power Monday following damaging weekend storms, leaving residents searching for relief as sweltering temperatures continued to scorch the region.

At least one person in Oklahoma died due to the prolonged outages, officials said.

The bulk of outages were in Oklahoma, where heavy storms Saturday night carried winds as strong as 80 mph around Tulsa, according to the National Weather Service. About 165,000 customers around the city still had no power Monday as crews scrambled to repair more than 700 broken poles and downed wires, said Amy Brown, a spokeswoman for Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

One person who used a respirator died because of the power outage, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said at a city news conference.

Power providers warned that some outages may not be fixed until the end of the week, and Bynum urged residents to keep in mind family and neighbors who are reliant on electronic medical equipment.

“Please check on them,” he said.

In all, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana had more than 300,000 customers without electricity as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices Monday because of the risks of severe weather. On top of the outages, a heat wave continued bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to Texas, and some parts of the state were under excessive heat warnings that were set to continue through at least Wednesday.

“It’s been unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident of Mount Vernon, Texas, told Dallas television station KXAS. She had not had power for about three days.

“It’s been horrible because it’s like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we’re having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we’re having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a heat stroke, it’s been that bad,” she said.

About 4,000 customers were also still waiting for electricity to come back in the Texas town of Perryton after a devastating tornado ripped through last week.

Power outages also extended to Mississippi, where some people had trouble obtaining medication after power forced pharmacies and grocery stores to close, according to WLBT-TV. As crews were working to restore power in Mississippi, multiple tornadoes swept through the state overnight into Monday, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi contributed to this report.

The legislative elections to take place in November will be a massive moment for Virginia and the future of the commonwealth. All 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for grabs and the effect of redistricting in 2021 has dramatically changed the landscape. Anything can happen.

Before voters can get there, however, they must finalize the slate of competitors for that November contest. Tuesday’s primary election will do just that, and it’s important that eligible voters who live in contested districts take part in helping chart a responsible course for Virginia.

Pundits love to call each election the most important in our lifetime, pumping up interest and viewership for their outlets. Nothing could be more consequential, they say. These races will decide everything.

While we strive to be less hyperbolic here, there is no question that the 2023 legislative elections are unlike any in recent memory, given the confluence of forces all converging on Nov. 7.

First, it is the only time in a four-year cycle that voters will decide every seat in the General Assembly. Delegates serve two years and senators four, so the outcomes of this year’s races will reset both chambers for the next two years. The stakes are enormous.

Second, the 2021 redistricting process — the first conducted under an independent commission approved by popular referendum — was akin to shaking an Etch-a-Sketch and starting anew. When commissioners were unable to reach agreement, the state Supreme Court tapped a special mapmaker to draw maps without favor to incumbents or party — a first for the commonwealth.

The result is that many lawmakers found themselves facing their colleagues in primary and general election contests. Eighteen senate districts included two incumbents and two districts included three sitting senators. On the House side, 42 of 100 districts had at least two incumbents.

That prompted a lot of soul searching and negotiations, and led to a wave of retirements as some long-serving leaders chose to bow out rather than to campaign against a colleague. The next legislature would look far different and will have far fewer years of combined experience — something to watch when the assembly convenes in January.

Third, is that Virginia seems to have reached a crossroads about its future direction. Voters elected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2021 following eight years of Democratic leadership. They also handed control of the House to the GOP while the Democrats retained a slim majority in the Senate.

November’s election will help decide whether Youngkin will have a General Assembly welcoming of his policy initiatives come January or one hostile to his vision for the commonwealth. That’s no small thing given that a governor only has a single four-year term in office.

Before that, however, voters will need to settle the contested primary contests in today’s election. There are a couple of bruising battles in Hampton Roads:  the Democratic contest in the 18th Senate District between Louise Lucas and Lionell Spruill, and the Republican contest in the 17th Senate District between Del. Emily Brewer and Hermie Sadler are particularly heated.

There’s also a chance of chicanery as Republicans in Northern Virginia and elsewhere have urged their voters to take advantage of the commonwealth’s open primaries to cast ballots in Democratic races.

There’s nothing illegal about that of course. Both sides have played that game and surely will again. But voters should be reminded that very rarely does such meddling deliver the hoped for outcomes. It’s more likely those schemes backfire. Be warned.

Primary election turnout is usually a trickle compared to the flood of a general election, but we salute all those who have taken the time to cast a ballot already or who will do so on Tuesday. Likewise to the poll workers and election officials who ensure things run smoothly.

This will be an enormous year for Virginia, and all eyes will be on the commonwealth come November. Today will set the table for the feast to come, so be sure to play your part.

By JOSH BOAK and ZEKE MILLER (Associated Press)

PALO ALTO, California (AP) — President Joe Biden ramps up his reelection effort this week with four fundraisers in the San Francisco area, as his campaign builds up its coffers and lays strategic foundations for 2024.

In the back half of June, Biden’s campaign will have more than 20 fundraisers involving him, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, according to a person involved in Biden’s travel plans who insisted on anonymity to discuss the schedule.

More than half of the fundraisers are with the Democratic president, who arrived in California on Monday and was greeted by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Biden also will be traveling to New York, Maryland and Illinois. The president hit the themes of his campaign at a Friday fundraising event in Connecticut, saying his goal is to do more to tell voters about his legislative accomplishments with infrastructure, computer chip production and programs for responding to climate change, among other policies.

At the first of two Monday fundraisers, Biden said democracy itself was at stake in the 2024 election and said his administration had reinstilled “a sense of confidence in the Constitution.” The fundraiser at the home of Microsoft chief technology officer Kevin Scott was cohosted by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn.

Biden took aim at Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville for holding up military promotions because of a policy that ensures members of the military still have access to abortions, which were restricted in many states after a Supreme Court ruling last year. “It’s bizarre. I don’t remember it happening before and I’ve been around,” said Biden, 80, who added a joke about his age: “I know I don’t look like I’ve been around a long time.”

The fundraising blitz follows Biden’s first campaign rally on Saturday in Philadelphia, where he was endorsed by key unions — the event highlighting a pivotal constituency in the largest population center of a critical battleground state. It was meant as an early display of enthusiasm for Biden’s campaign, and a venue for him to interact directly with voters before he spends much of the rest of the month meeting with deep-pocketed benefactors.

The flurry of engagements comes ahead of the end of the fundraising quarter at the end of the month — and Biden’s campaign finance report in July will provide the first test of Democratic donor enthusiasm for his reelection effort.

Biden, unlike former President Donald Trump and other 2024 GOP contenders, has not revealed any clues about his fundraising haul since declaring his candidacy in April. And his campaign launch was timed to avoid having to file a campaign finance report for the first quarter, a historically rough fundraising period.

For the first time in U.S, elections, Biden has joint fundraising agreements with all 50 state Democratic parties and the branch in Washington, D.C., an arrangement that can help maximize donations while minimizing expenses in the early months of the campaign. It’s part of a broader effort to unite a diverse Democratic coalition behind Biden as the Republicans undergo what could be a large and divisive primary.

“While MAGA Republicans burn cash in their primary, competing for whose agenda is the most extreme, the president’s campaign will be capitalizing on the opportunity to raise significant resources,” said Biden’s campaign manager Julie C. Rodriguez, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Separately, Rodriguez is traveling across the U.S. to meet with donors, local officials and community leaders to help align the coalition. Along with other campaign officials, the tour begins in Atlanta and will include Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Not all of Biden’s time Monday and Tuesday in San Francisco was devoted to the campaign. On Monday, he went with Newsom and other officials to the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center and Preserve in Palo Alto. He toured the coastal wetland area and announced $600 million for projects to address climate change.

“These wetlands act as a critical buffer between the rising tides and the communities at risk,” said Biden, calling the preserve a “success story” in ongoing efforts to contain the damage from climate change.

LAS VEGAS — A bright beam of light recently spotted plummeting through the darkness of an early morning Centennial Hills sky was a meteor and not a UFO, as some Las Vegas residents have speculated, NASA officials confirmed.

The flash of light was captured on an officer’s body-camera footage on May 1 that was posted online to the Metropolitan Police Department’s YouTube channel.

Perhaps in part because of Las Vegas’ proximity to Area 51, that video has since gone viral, with many speculating that it was a UFO. The 39-second clip had garnered more than 217,000 views as of Monday.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Office said in an email, however, that the beam of light was a bright meteor, less than a meter in size, that fell through the sky. It “certainly” was not a UFO that crash landed in someone’s backyard, a spokesperson with NASA said.

Metro said in a statement last week that they responded to a call from an address about a “suspicious situation” and conducted an early investigation, ultimately closing the event as “unfounded.”

Body-camera footage posted online by Metro shows officers discussing searching for “little green men” and later arriving to a house and interviewing residents.

“These people say there’s aliens in their backyard,” one officer can be heard saying before arriving at the home.

“It was like a big creature,” one resident said when questioned about what they saw.

The unusual flash of light apparently even had police bewildered, at least initially.

Officers searched the home that was blacked out in the video. And an officer can be heard saying that he had “chills” on his arms while searching the home.

The meteor was recorded on the American Meteor Society’s Fireball logs, but it did not make the logs for NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.

A NASA official said the discrepancy between the Meteor Society and NASA’s center occurred because the center’s website only captures reports for objects that are estimated to have exceeded 1 meter in size based on the observed total energy released, “in other words natural objects which were large enough to be categorized as asteroids prior to entering Earth’s atmosphere.”

In the video, Metro officers were not yet aware of the reports from NASA, and they asked bystanders at the address about the incident and whether they had seen anything out of the ordinary.

NASA officials added that based on the speed of the meteor, it would have likely been very high in the atmosphere, “so nothing from the meteor landed in anyone’s backyard in Vegas.”

©2023 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By BEN FINLEY and HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)

A rescue operation was underway deep in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean on Monday in search of a technologically advanced submersible vessel carrying five people to document the wreckage of the Titanic, the iconic ocean liner that sank more than a century ago.

The vessel was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lt. Cmdr. Len Hickey said a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and military aircraft were assisting the search effort, which was being led by the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.

Rear Adm. John Mauger, a commander for the U.S. Coast Guard, said additional resources would arrive in the coming days.

“It is a remote area — and it is a challenge to conduct a search in that remote area,” he said. “But we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people on board.”

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

The submersible was operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, said the submersible had an 96-hour oxygen supply starting at roughly 6 a.m. Sunday. In an email to The Associated Press, Concannon said he was supposed to be on the dive but could not go due to another client matter. He said officials were working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach a depth of 6,000 meters (about 20,000 feet) 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 “missions specialists.” They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-person submersible. The Coast Guard said Monday that there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard.

OceanGate said its focus was on those aboard and their families.

“We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible,” said a written statement from the company.

U.K. businessman Hamish Harding was one of the mission specialists, according to Action Aviation, a company for which Harding serves as chairman. The company’s managing director, Mark Butler, told the AP that the crew set out on Friday.

“There is still plenty of time to facilitate a rescue mission, there is equipment on board for survival in this event,” Butler said. “We’re all hoping and praying he comes back safe and sound.”

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

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. Some have predicted the ship could vanish in a matter of decades as holes yawn in the hull and sections disintegrate.

The initial group of tourists in 2021 paid $100,000 to $150,000 apiece to go on the trip.

Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. OceanGate hired the Canadian vessel Polar Prince, a medium duty icebreaker that was formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, to ferry dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site. The submersible would make multiple dives in one expedition.

The expedition was scheduled to depart from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in early May and finish up at the end of June, according to documents filed by the company in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters.

The submersible, named Titan, is capable of diving 4,000 meters or 13,120 feet “with a comfortable safety margin,” OceanGate said in its court filing.

It 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.

The Titan is made of “titanium and filament wound carbon fiber” and has proven to “withstand the enormous pressures of the deep ocean,” OceanGate stated. OceanGate told the court that Titan’s viewport is “the largest of any deep diving submersible” and that its technology provides an “unrivaled view” of the deep ocean.

In a May 2021 court filing, OceanGate said the Titan had an “unparalleled safety feature” that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.

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

“In the high sea state, the submersible sustained modest damage to its external components and OceanGate decided to cancel the second mission for repairs and operational enhancements,” the filing stated.

More missions, however, followed. The company reported that 28 people visited the wreck site last year.

Experts said Monday that 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 they could attach to the hatch of OceanGate’s submersible.

Chris Parry, a retired navy rear admiral from the U.K., told Sky News the rescue was “a very difficult operation.”

“The actual nature of the seabed is very undulating. Titanic herself lies in a trench. There’s lots of debris around. So trying to differentiate with sonar in particular and trying to target the area you want to search in with another submersible is going to be very difficult indeed.”

___

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. AP reporters Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless and Sylvia Hui in London, and Robert Gillies in Toronto, contributed to this story.

By BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS, ED WHITE and ADRIAN SAINZ (Associated Press)

Americans across the country this weekend celebrated Juneteenth, marking the relatively new national holiday with cookouts, parades and other gatherings as they commemorated the end of slavery after the Civil War.

While many have treated the long holiday weekend as a reason for a party, others urged quiet reflection on America’s often violent and oppressive treatment of its Black citizens. Still others have remarked at the strangeness of celebrating a federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the nation while many Americans are trying to stop parts of that history from being taught in public schools.

“Is #Juneteenth the only federal holiday that some states have banned the teaching of its history and significance?” author Michelle Duster asked on Twitter, referring to measures in Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama prohibiting an Advancement Placement African American studies course or the teaching of certain concepts of race and racism.

The holiday, which was on Monday, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued during the bloody Civil War. For generations, Black Americans have recognized Juneteenth, but it only became a federal holiday two years ago.

In Fort Worth, Texas, the woman known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal Lee, led her annual Walk for Freedom. The 96-year-old former teacher and activist is largely credited for rallying others behind a campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. This year, Lee became only the second Black person to have her portrait hung in the Senate chamber of the Texas Capitol.

Later Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to appear on a CNN special that also features musical guests including Miguel and Charlie Wilson.

At a Sunday Mass in Detroit, one Roman Catholic church devoted its service to urging parishioners to take a deeper look at the lessons from the holiday.

“In order to have justice we must work for peace. And in order to have peace we must work for justice,” John Thorne, executive director of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, said to the congregation at Gesu Catholic Church while standing before paintings of a Black Jesus and Mary.

It was important to speak about Juneteenth during the service, the Rev. Lorn Snow told a reporter.

“The struggle’s still not over with. There’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.

Most Black Americans agree, according to a recent poll. A full 70% of Black adults queried in a AP-NORC poll said “a lot” needs to be done to achieve equal treatment for African Americans in policing. And Black Americans suffer from significantly worse health outcomes than their white peers across a variety of measures, including rates of maternal mortality, asthma, high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease.

Ryan Jones, the associate curator at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennesse, said Juneteenth should be celebrated in the U.S. with the same emphasis that July 4 receives as Independence Day.

“It is the independence of a people that were forced to endure oppression and discrimination based on the color of their skin,” Jones said.

The museum is located at the site of the old Lorraine Motel, the former Black-owned hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968. It offered free admission on the holiday. At the museum, visitors can hear recorded speeches from civil rights leaders including King, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers and others.

Jones said the Juneteenth holiday is a time to reflect on the past.

“It acknowledges the sacrifices of those early civil rights veterans between World War I and World War II, and of course in the modern society, the protests, the demonstrations, the non-violence, the marches,” Jones said.

The Tennessee Legislature this year passed a bill this year making Juneteenth a state holiday.

In New York, a hybrid event in Central Park on Monday celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, with an emphasis on the local Black’s community’s impact on the genre. The event capped off a packed weekend of festivities that saw a growing number of collaborators working together to spread awareness of the holiday, according to Athenia Rodney, the founder of the nonprofit group Juneteenth NYC.

Rodney said she planned to spend Monday at home, reflecting on the historical roots of the holiday and how much has changed.

“Juneteenth isn’t just about a party or a festival, it’s about how we bring the community together under the umbrella of unity,” Rodney said.

As Americans gathered to mark the holiday, at least one event was marked by violence. In the Chicago suburb of Willowbrook, Illinois, on Saturday night, one person was killed and 22 were injured in a shooting where hundreds had gathered for a Juneteenth celebration.

___

Associated Press writers Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

WILLIAMSBURG — For those who knew Gil Granger, two things stand out: his endless well of kindness and his love for his city.

Granger, who died on Saturday, “truly loved his community, and especially the City of Williamsburg,” Mayor Doug Pons said. He was 87.

During his many decades in Williamsburg, Granger served on a number of boards, commissions and community organizations, including City Council, which he served on for 16 years, and the Williamsburg-James City County School Board. When he ran for council, it was the slogan: “Get Involved Locally,” a play on the first letters of his name. He served as mayor from 1996 to 1998.

For Pons, Granger was a longtime mentor.

“Gil and my father worked at the King’s Arms (Tavern) together during their days at William & Mary, so I’ve known him all my life,” Pons said. “He’s certainly been a mentor of mine and helped me in so many ways.”

After graduating from high school in Philadelphia in 1953, Granger came to Williamsburg to attend William & Mary, where he received a bachelor’s degree in accounting, served as a photographer for the Flat Hat college newspaper and met his eventual wife, Connie. After stints in Atlanta and Texas, Granger and his wife settled in the city and married at Wren Chapel in 1958.

Beyond his public service, Granger worked for an accounting firm in the city before opening his own firm. He was a member of organizations like the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club and also worked in real estate.

As he did with just about every facet of his life, Granger left an indelible mark on the local Kiwanis Club chapter. Gary Ripple, who serves as the executive director of the Williamsburg Kiwanis Foundation, first met Granger in the 1980s upon joining the Colonial Capital Kiwanis Club.

In an email to foundation members, Ripple called Granger a legendary pillar of the community and a “once-in-a-generation influence on everyone he knew.”

“His imprint will last as long as there is a place known as Williamsburg,” Ripple said.

Ripple last saw Granger about a month ago, when he visited Granger at home to deliver an annual letter inviting club members to donate. Granger, whose first check established the club’s tradition of Lead Donors, was quick with his generosity and handed Ripple a check that Ripple interpreted as Granger saying, “This is my gift to the future of our town.”

“We will all be better off because we knew a truly great man,” Ripple said.

When former Gazette publisher and vice president Bill O’Donovan worked for the newspaper, he spent a long time covering Granger as a public figure. What struck O’Donovan was Granger’s immense kindness.

“He never spoke ill of anyone,” O’Donovan said.

Regardless of whether articles covering him were positive or negative, Granger always looked at the bright side and never complained. He was so kind, O’Donovan said, that Gazette reporters could reach out to him for a comment on anyone and he would always have something specifically positive to say.

Even in his later years, as he dealt with ongoing health problems, Granger continued to stay positive and always remained a willing ear to anyone who might reach out.

“His impact on the city will long be felt and I am extremely grateful to his friendship and counsel,” Pons said.

Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]

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 spokeswoman 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.

In a Monday morning 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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Michael 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.