By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and GENE JOHNSON (Associated Press)

HONOLULU (AP) — Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Company on Thursday over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The Aug. 8 fires killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing, making them the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

Hawaii Electric said in a statement it is “very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.”

The lawsuit said the destruction could have been avoided and that the utility had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”

The utility knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants also knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.”

A drought in the region had left plants, including invasive grasses, dangerously dry. As Hurricane Dora passed roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Hawaii, strong winds toppled at least 30 power poles in West Maui. Video shot by a Lahaina resident shows a downed power line setting dry grasses alight. Firefighters initially contained that fire, but then left to attend to other calls, and residents said the fire later reignited and raced toward downtown Lahaina.

With downed power lines, police or utility crews blocking some roads, traffic ground to a standstill along Lahaina’s Front Street. A number of residents jumped into the water off Maui as they tried to escape the flaming debris and overheated black smoke enveloping downtown.

Dozens of searchers in snorkel gear this week have been combing a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) stretch of water for signs of anyone who might have perished. Crews are also painstakingly searching for remains among the ashes of destroyed businesses and multistory residential buildings.

For now, the number of confirmed dead stands at 115, a number that the county said is expected to rise.

Maui County on Thursday released eight additional names of people who have been identified, including a family of four whose remains were found in a burned car near their home: 7-year-old Tony Takafua; his mother Salote Tone, 39; and his grandparents Faaoso Tone, 70, and Maluifonua Tone, 73.

The FBI and Maui County police are still trying to figure out how many others might be unaccounted for. The FBI said Tuesday there were 1,000 to 1,100 names on a tentative, unconfirmed list.

“Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County,” Hawaiian Electric’s statement said.

Hawaiian Electric is a for-profit, investor-owned, publicly traded utility that serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers. It is also facing several lawsuits from Lahaina residents as well as one from some of its own investors, who accused it of fraud in a federal lawsuit Thursday, saying it failed to disclose that its wildfire prevention and safety measures were inadequate.

Maui County’s lawsuit notes other utilities, such as Southern California Edison Company, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric, have procedures for shutting off power during bad windstorms and said the “severe and catastrophic losses … could have easily been prevented” if Hawaiian Electric had a similar shutoff plan.

The county said it is seeking compensation for damage to public property and resources in Lahaina as well as nearby Kula.

Other utilities have been found liable for devastating fires recently.

In June, a jury in Oregon found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter after its neglected equipment caused a fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 2018 that destroyed nearly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings and virtually razed the town of Paradise, California.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle.

757Teamz Top 15

#4 Green Run 34, Kempsville 14 

#6 Western Branch 21, Menchville 12 

Menchville 0 6 6 0 – 12

W. Branch 14 7 0 0 – 21

WB – Ky’Nique Baines 44 run (kick failed)

WB – Devin Cook 42 pass from Derrick Cook (Derrick Cook pass)

WB – Baines 92 run (Riley Higgins kick)

M – Amir Harrison 3 run (run failed)

M – La’Darius Adams 17 pass from Harrison (run failed)

Bayside 27, #8 Salem 21

Bayside 14 0 13 0 – 27

Salem 7 7 0 7 – 21

S-Williams 58 run (Ortiz kick), 8:53

B-Kirby 1 run (Diabagate kick), 3:20

B-Kirby 17 run (Diabagate kick), 2:37

S-Wells 37 pass from Williams (Ortiz kick), 0:21

B-Lyde 1 run (Diabagate kick), 8:36

B-Kirby 1 run (pass failed), 2:29

S-Williams 15 run (Ortiz kick), 6:32

#10 Lafayette 43, Spotsylvania 6

#14 Cox 41, Princess Anne 14 

PA 0 6 8 0 – 14

Cox 14 17 7 3 – 41

C – Walton 5 run (Braidwood kick)

C – Walton 2 run (Braidwood kick)

C – Trefry 1 run (Braidwood kick)

C – FG Braidwood 31

PA – Martin 80 pass from Francis via Sutton lateral (kick blocked by Gerald Johnson)

C – Johnson 15 pass from Trefry (Braidwood kick)

C – Trefry 14 run (Braidwood kick)

PA – Martin 28 pass from Francis (Martin run)

C – FG Braidwood 37

Statistics:

PA:

Christian Francis 10 for 23, 1 INT, 187 yards, 2 TD passing; 8-minus 17 yards rushing

AJ Martin 1 catch, 106 receiving yards (80 on a lateral after Kobe Sutton made the catch), 2 TD receiving; 3 rushes for 6 yards

Malachi Small 4 catches for 53 yards

Cox:

Gage Trefry 3 for 8, 1 TD, 0 INTs, 44 yards passing; 10 carries for 62 yards, 2 TDs

Josh Walton 16 carries for  104 yards, 2 TDs rushing

Gerald Simmons 8 carries for 65 yards

Gerard Johnson 1 catch for a 15-yard TD; blocked a PAT

Sam Braidwood 2/2 FG (31, 37), 5/5 PAT, 11 points; 8 kickoffs, 4 touchbacks

Beach District

First Colonial 27, Kellam 25 

Ocean Lakes 13, Landstown 12 

757Teamz Top 15

#4 Nansemond River 10, Smithfield 0

G-B. Johnston 2, White 2, Stuffel, Bibbo, Phiri, Outlaw, Binley, Johnston.

Jordan White and Brylee Johnston each scored 2 goals for the Warriors.

#11 Gloucester 11, Prince George 0

Reese Miller scored a hat trick for the Dukes. Mackenzie Reece, Leigha Germain and Avery Watkins had two apiece.

757Teamz Top 15

#3 Indian River def. Grassfield, 3-1

Jaden Norman and TJ Taylor amassed 29 kills, while Aiden Barlow provided 33 assists.

#11 Great Bridge def. Oscar Smith, 3-0 

(25-19, 25-9, 25-19)

Charlie Cooper had 24 assists and seven aces, Jonathan Badowski had 10 kills, and Jacob Parrott scored six kills.

Hickory def. #13 Princess Anne, 3-2

(22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 17-15)

Cole Coston provided 46 assists, while Elijah Woods contributed 17 kills, three aces and 11 digs. Nathan Amos had 14 kills, three aces and 13 digs. Will Katchmark had eight kills and three blocks, and Carson Tortone had seven kills and two blocks.

Cox def. #14 Norfolk Christian, 3-0 

(25-15, 25-18, 25-8)

Bay Rivers District

Gloucester def. Hampton, 3-0

(25-19, 25-12, 25-17)

Dylan Deyoung had four kills and three aces, Colter Callis had four kills, three aces and seven assists, Grayson Shield had one kill, four aces and 10 assists, and Gavin Pham had six kills, three aces and one block.

Peninsula District

Menchville def. Bethel, 3-0

James Powell achieved 10 kills. Jacob Commons contributed three kills, two blocks and two aces. Luke Woodard provided 13 assists and two aces.

Warwick def. Kecoughtan, 3-1

Non-district

Churchland def. Nansemond River, 3-1

757Teamz Top 15

#3 Norfolk Academy def. Atlantic Shores, 3-0 

(25-15, 25-10, 25-20)

Peyton McGee achieved 11 kills, while Sasha Gilliard contributed nine.

#10 Hickory def. #6 Princess Anne, 3-0  

(25-16, 25-16, 25-13)

Milan Curl had seven kills, while Dominique Gray added six. Daisey Wettstein provided 16 assists. The Hawks combined for 27 digs.

#9 StoneBridge def. Hampton Roads Academy, 3-0

(25-10, 25-11, 25-18)

Ava Baker, Elise Thomason and Amelia Matson combined for 25 kills. Emily Hinton finished with 25 assists and four aces.

#11 Grassfield def. Indian River, 3-0

(25-19, 25-7, 25-16)

Ella Friedrichs had 26 assists and three aces. Ellielynn Rock contributed 17 digs, while Benisa Moore had 12 kills and four digs.

Southeastern District

Deep Creek def. King’s Fork, 3-0

(25-8, 25-17, 25-12)

Great Bridge def. Oscar Smith, 3-0

(25-20, 25,16, 25-16)

Abigail Damato recorded four kills, five aces and 10 assists. Grace Slovensky contributed five kills, three aces, nine digs and 22 assists. Katrina Miller led the Wildcats with 24 kills and 10 digs.

Western Branch def. Nansemond River, 3-0

(25-22, 25-21, 25-13)

Abbey Smith led the team in assists, resulting in seven kills from Tiana Leverett and six kills each from Bryana Williams, Makayla Waiters and Keira Wright.

Peninsula District

Heritage def. Denbigh, 3-0

Cierra Guilford had three aces, five kills and two digs. Trinity Williams had three aces, four kills and five digs. Makiernn Vicens contributed an ace and four kills.

Menchville def. Bethel, 3-1 

(13-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-16)

Emma Wade had six kills, four aces and 17 assists.

Private schools

Norfolk Christian def. Denbigh Baptist, 3-0

(25-20, 25-18, 25-22)

Megan Saunders and Natalie Duckworth contributed 15 assists each. Jayla Walker had seven aces and five kills, while Zaria Saunders achieved 16 digs. Kaci Morrison managed seven kills.

Bay Rivers District

REGULAR-SEASON PLAY

Team scores: Jamestown 300, Grafton 316, Lafayette 319, New Kent 320, Warhill 324, Poquoson 326, York 331, Smithfield 333, Tabb 354, Bruton 354

Grafton’s Lilly McDermott won the medal with a 69 at Kiln Creek Golf & Country Club.

Beach District

Cox 297, Kellam 305, Ocean Lakes 410

Cox’s Ben Kablach and Kellam’s Charlie Dennison were co-medalists with 73s.

First Colonial 305, Kempsville 329, Tallwood 365

Jake Chavis was the medalist with a 69. Jake also made an eagle on hole 17.

Landstown 342, Bayside 381, Green Run 448

Princess Anne 344, Salem 362

Princess Anne’s Fin Worrall carded a 1-under 71 to earn medalist honors at Red Wing Lake.

Southeastern District

Grassfield 324, Western Branch 367

Brayden Thien shot a 72 for Grassfield at Bide-a-Wee in Portsmouth.

Hickory 337, Deep Creek 439

Jake Weertz shot 83 for the Hawks.

Lakeland 334, Oscar Smith 418

The medalist for Oscar Smith, Emma McGowan, shot 72.

Private schools

Hampton Roads Academy 2, StoneBridge 0

Nathan Seely and Cameron Hall scored for the Navigators.

By KELVIN CHAN (AP Business Writer)

LONDON (AP) — Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe must comply with one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people see online.

The European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules took effect Friday for the biggest platforms. The Digital Services Act is part of a suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by the 27-nation bloc — long a global leader in cracking down on tech giants.

The DSA is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans’ fundamental rights like privacy and free speech.

Some online platforms, which could face billions in fines if they don’t comply, already have made changes.

Here’s a look at what has changed:

So far, 19. They include eight social media platforms: Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat.

There are five online marketplaces: Amazon, Booking.com, China’s Alibaba AliExpress and Germany’s Zalando.

Mobile app stores Google Play and Apple’s App Store are subject, as are Google’s Search and Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Google Maps and Wikipedia round out the list.

The EU’s list is based on numbers submitted by the platforms. Those with 45 million or more users — or 10% of the EU’s population — face the DSA’s highest level of regulation.

Brussels insiders, however, have pointed to some notable omissions, like eBay, Airbnb, Netflix and even PornHub. The list isn’t definitive, and it’s possible other platforms may be added later on.

Any business providing digital services to Europeans will eventually have to comply with the DSA. They will face fewer obligations than the biggest platforms, however, and have another six months before they must fall in line.

Platforms have rolled out new ways for European users to flag illegal online content and dodgy products, which companies will be obligated to take down quickly and objectively.

The DSA “will have a significant impact on the experiences Europeans have when they open their phones or fire up their laptops,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president for global affairs, said in a blog post.

Facebook and Instagram’s existing tools to report content will be easier to access. Amazon opened a new channel for reporting suspect goods.

TikTok gave users an extra option for flagging videos, such as for hate speech and harassment, or frauds and scams, which will be reviewed by an additional team of experts, according to the app from Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Google is offering more “visibility” into content moderation decisions and different ways for users to contact the company. It didn’t offer specifics. Under the DSA, Google and other platforms have to provide more information behind why posts are taken down.

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat also are giving people the option to turn off automated systems that recommend videos and posts based on their profiles. Such systems have been blamed for leading social media users to increasingly extreme posts.

The DSA also prohibits targeting vulnerable categories of people, including children, with ads. Platforms like Snapchat and TikTok will stop allowing teen users to be targeted by ads based on their online activities.

Google will provide more information about targeted ads shown to people in the EU and give researchers more access to data on how its products work.

Zalando, a German online fashion retailer, has filed a legal challenge over its inclusion on the DSA’s list of the largest online platforms, arguing that it’s being treated unfairly.

Nevertheless, Zalando is launching content flagging systems for its website even though there’s little risk of illegal material showing up among its highly curated collection of clothes, bags and shoes.

The company has supported the DSA, said Aurelie Caulier, Zalando’s head of public affairs for the EU.

“It will bring loads of positive changes” for consumers, she said. But “generally, Zalando doesn’t have systemic risk (that other platforms pose). So that’s why we don’t think we fit in that category.”

Amazon has filed a similar case with a top EU court.

Officials have warned tech companies that violations could bring fines worth up to 6% of their global revenue — which could amount to billions — or even a ban from the EU.

“The real test begins now,” said European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who oversees digital policy. He vowed to “thoroughly enforce the DSA and fully use our new powers to investigate and sanction platforms where warranted.”

But don’t expect penalties to come right away for individual breaches, such as failing to take down a specific video promoting hate speech.

Instead, the DSA is more about whether tech companies have the right processes in place to reduce the harm that their algorithm-based recommendation systems can inflict on users. Essentially, they’ll have to let the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top digital enforcer, look under the hood to see how their algorithms work.

EU officials “are concerned with user behavior on the one hand, like bullying and spreading illegal content, but they’re also concerned about the way that platforms work and how they contribute to the negative effects,” said Sally Broughton Micova, an associate professor at the University of East Anglia.

That includes looking at how the platforms work with digital advertising systems, which could be used to profile users for harmful material like disinformation, or how their livestreaming systems function, which could be used to instantly spread terrorist content, said Broughton Micova, who’s also academic co-director at the Centre on Regulation in Europe, a Brussels-based think tank.

Big platforms have to identify and assess potential systemic risks and whether they’re doing enough to reduce them. These assessments are due by the end of August and then they will be independently audited.

The audits are expected to be the main tool to verify compliance — though the EU’s plan has faced criticism for lacking details that leave it unclear how the process will work.

Europe’s changes could have global impact. Wikipedia is tweaking some policies and modifying its terms of use to provide more information on “problematic users and content.” Those alterations won’t be limited to Europe and “will be implemented globally,” said the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts the community-powered encyclopedia.

“The rules and processes that govern Wikimedia projects worldwide, including any changes in response to the DSA, are as universal as possible,” it said in a statement.

Snapchat said its new reporting and appeal process for flagging illegal content or accounts that break its rules will be rolled out first in the EU and then globally in the coming months.

It’s going to be hard for tech companies to limit DSA-related changes, said Broughton Micova, adding that digital ad networks aren’t isolated to Europe and that social media influencers can have global reach.

The regulations are “dealing with multichannel networks that operate globally. So there is going to be a ripple effect once you have kind of mitigations that get taken into place,” she said.

___

AP videojournalist Sylvain Plazy contributed from Brussels.

VIRGINIA BEACH — A large crowd showed up at Kempsville High on a beautiful Thursday evening to see the Chiefs host fourth-ranked Green Run in the football season opener for both teams.

But the excitement of the game was lost when gunfire was heard in a nearby neighborhood, and the game was halted in the fourth quarter. After a 45-minute delay, the game was called.

Guns shot heard at Green Run-Kempsville game. Fans and players sprinting to safety as game is stopped. No decision yet pic.twitter.com/hqgZmze0PN

— Larry Rubama (@LHRubama) August 25, 2023

With Green Run leading 34-14 with 5:57 left in the game, gunshots could be heard in close proximity of the school, sending fans and players scattering for safety. The Stallions football team hustled toward their locker room, while Kempsville players and coaches raced to the other side of the stadium as police officers scrambled to find the source of the gunfire.

Several police officers and administrators confirmed the shooting didn’t happen on campus, but instead occurred in a nearby neighborhood. More than 10 police cars and many officers could be seen in and around Kempsville High.

“It’s very heartbreaking because kids on both teams worked so hard to get to this point,” said Green Run coach Brandon Williams. “And to have someone take it away from them that wasn’t involved in the game, you know, that’s a hard thing to take.”

Kempsville coach Daryl Cherry also was stunned by the turn of events.

“Both teams just want to compete and play the game of football,” he said. “This takes the fun out of the family atmosphere and for everybody to enjoy the moment. It was a packed house. It’s just sad to see. You know it should be a fun time to just be able to compete and the best team wins.”

The gunfire ruined what had been an entertaining night of football that began with a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Kempsville, which graduated more than 20 seniors, battled the heavily-favored Stallions early as the Chiefs took a 7-0 lead on quarterback Sawyer Whitmore’s 16-yard touchdown pass to Ryley McIntosh.

The Stallions, who have now won 23 consecutive Beach District regular-season games, tied the game on quarterback K’Saan Farrar’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Quali Price.

Green Run running back Quran Reames-Jones scored on a 21-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7. And then Farrar, a first-year starter, threw two more touchdowns passes to help give the Stallions a comfortable 27-7 halftime lead.

Green Run scores again before the half on TD pass from K’Saan Farrar to Keylen Adams. Green Run 27, Kempsville 7 pic.twitter.com/SS5F7KPNUP

— Larry Rubama (@LHRubama) August 25, 2023

Both teams added another score before the game was called.

“We came out with the intensity that we wanted to come out with,” Williams said. “We played and fought hard in the first half, then we kind of took our foot off the gas in the second half … We bend but we don’t break. And we’ll continue to get better each and every week.”

Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, [email protected] Follow @LHRubama on Twitter

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and GENE JOHNSON (Associated Press)

HONOLULU (AP) — Maui County sued Hawaiian Electric Company on Thursday over the fires that devastated Lahaina, saying the utility negligently failed to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions.

Witness accounts and video indicated that sparks from power lines ignited fires as utility poles snapped in the winds, which were driven by a passing hurricane. The Aug. 8 fires killed at least 115 people and left an unknown number of others missing, making them the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.

Hawaii Electric said in a statement it is “very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding.”

The lawsuit said the destruction could have been avoided and that the utility had a duty “to properly maintain and repair the electric transmission lines, and other equipment including utility poles associated with their transmission of electricity, and to keep vegetation properly trimmed and maintained so as to prevent contact with overhead power lines and other electric equipment.”

The utility knew that high winds “would topple power poles, knock down power lines, and ignite vegetation,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants also knew that if their overhead electrical equipment ignited a fire, it would spread at a critically rapid rate.”

A drought in the region had left plants, including invasive grasses, dangerously dry. As Hurricane Dora passed roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of Hawaii, strong winds toppled at least 30 power poles in West Maui. Video shot by a Lahaina resident shows a downed power line setting dry grasses alight. Firefighters initially contained that fire, but then left to attend to other calls, and residents said the fire later reignited and raced toward downtown Lahaina.

With downed power lines, police or utility crews blocking some roads, traffic ground to a standstill along Lahaina’s Front Street. A number of residents jumped into the water off Maui as they tried to escape the flaming debris and overheated black smoke enveloping downtown.

Dozens of searchers in snorkel gear this week have been combing a 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) stretch of water for signs of anyone who might have perished. Crews are also painstakingly searching for remains among the ashes of destroyed businesses and multistory residential buildings.

For now, the number of confirmed dead stands at 115, a number that the county said is expected to rise.

Maui County on Thursday released eight additional names of people who have been identified, including a family of four whose remains were found in a burned car near their home: 7-year-old Tony Takafua; his mother Salote Tone, 39; and his grandparents Faaoso Tone, 70, and Maluifonua Tone, 73.

The FBI and Maui County police are still trying to figure out how many others might be unaccounted for. The FBI said Tuesday there were 1,000 to 1,100 names on a tentative, unconfirmed list.

“Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County,” Hawaiian Electric’s statement said.

Hawaiian Electric is a for-profit, investor-owned, publicly traded utility that serves 95% of Hawaii’s electric customers. It is also facing several lawsuits from Lahaina residents as well as one from some of its own investors, who accused it of fraud in a federal lawsuit Thursday, saying it failed to disclose that its wildfire prevention and safety measures were inadequate.

Maui County’s lawsuit notes other utilities, such as Southern California Edison Company, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric, have procedures for shutting off power during bad windstorms and said the “severe and catastrophic losses … could have easily been prevented” if Hawaiian Electric had a similar shutoff plan.

The county said it is seeking compensation for damage to public property and resources in Lahaina as well as nearby Kula.

Other utilities have been found liable for devastating fires recently.

In June, a jury in Oregon found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared bankruptcy and pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter after its neglected equipment caused a fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 2018 that destroyed nearly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings and virtually razed the town of Paradise, California.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle.

By ERIC TUCKER, KATE BRUMBACK and JILL COLVIN (Associated Press)

ATLANTA (AP) — A scowling Donald Trump posed for a mug shot Thursday as he surrendered inside a jail in Atlanta on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, creating a historic and humbling visual underscoring the former president’s escalating legal troubles.

The booking photo instantly becomes part of the former president’s legacy as he confronts criminal charges in four American cities while seeking to reclaim the White House. His aides swiftly seized on the image, fundraising off the first mug shot in American history of a former president as representative of the persecution they contend Trump is encountering. His opponents, meanwhile, are likely to use it to remind voters of dangers in electing a president facing dozens of felony charges.

Trump was released on $200,000 bond and headed back to the airport for his return flight home to New Jersey, flashing a thumbs-up through the window of his sport utility vehicle as his motorcade left. Unrepentant but subdued after the brief jail visit, he again insisted that he “did nothing wrong” and called the case accusing him of subverting election results a “travesty of justice.”

“If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election,” he told reporters on the airport tarmac.

Trump’s surrender to law enforcement authorities, the fourth time this year, has by now become a familiar election-season routine in a way that belies the unprecedented spectacle of a former president, and current candidate, being booked on criminal charges. But his visit to Atlanta was notably different from the three past surrenders, unfolding at night and requiring him to visit a problem-plagued jail — rather than a courthouse.

And unlike in other cities that did not require him to pose for a mug shot, a booking photo of him was taken. It depicts Trump, wearing a navy suit and red tie, angrily scowling at the camera, his brows furrowed as he stares into the lens.

Before Trump’s plane had crossed North Carolina, his campaign was already using the image to solicit contributions on a fundraising site. And for the first time since Jan. 8, 2021, he made a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, issuing a fundraising plea on the platform that prevented him from using his account after he helped spark the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“This mugshot will forever go down in history as a symbol of America’s defiance of tyranny,” said a Trump campaign fundraising email.

He also called into conservative TV channel Newsmax to talk about what he said had been “a very sad day for our country,.”

His jail visit created a remarkable split-screen visual during a 2024 Republican primary contest in which he remains the leading candidate, swiping the spotlight at least temporarily from his opponents and coming one day after a debate in Milwaukee where eight of his leading rivals sought to exploit Trump’s absence by trying to stand out from the pack.

Trump landed in Atlanta around 7 p.m. and was driven to jail for the booking process. He offered a wave and thumbs-up as he descended the steps of his private plane.

He completed the process in a brisk 20 minutes, providing officials as is customary with his physical measurements: 6 foot 3 inches. 215 pounds. Blond or strawberry hair. And Trump, who for four years in the White House reveled in the title of “Mr. President,” was given the inmate number of P01135809.

The Fulton County prosecution is the fourth criminal case against Trump since March, when he became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted. Since then, he’s faced federal charges in Florida and Washington, and this month he was indicted in Atlanta with 18 others — including his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — under a racketeering statute normally associated with gang members and organized crime.

District Attorney Fani Willis had given all of the defendants until Friday afternoon to turn themselves in at the main Fulton County jail.

Just ahead of his surrender, Trump hired a new lead attorney for the Georgia case.

Prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney Steve Sadow replaced another high-profile criminal defense attorney, Drew Findling, who had represented Trump as recently as Monday when his bond terms were negotiated. But by Thursday Findling was no longer part of the team, according to a person with knowledge of the change who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Sadow said in a statement that “the president should never have been indicted. He is innocent of all the charges brought against him.”

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. He said in a social media post this week that he was being prosecuted for what he described in capital letters as a “perfect phone call” in which he asked the Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to help him “find 11,780 votes” for him to overturn his loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Fulton County jail where Trump surrendered has long been a troubled facility. The Justice Department last month opened a civil rights investigation into conditions, citing filthy cells, violence and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects in the main jail’s psychiatric wing. Three people have died in Fulton County custody in the past month.

He did not spend much time there. His attorneys and prosecutors had already agreed to a $200,000 bond, plus conditions that include barring the former president from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case.

Charles Shaw, CEO of Foster Bail Bonds in metro Atlanta, said his company put up Trump’s $200,000 bond. Shaw said Trump paid his company 10% — or $20,000 — which is customary for bail bondsmen to charge. Shaw said he doesn’t know Trump, but that Trump’s Atlanta defense attorneys have a close business relationship with his company.

Unlike in other jurisdictions, in Fulton County, arraignments — in which a defendant appears in court for the first time — generally happen after a defendant surrenders at the jail and completes the booking process, not on the same day.

That means Trump may have to make another trip to Georgia in the coming weeks though the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has said some arraignments in the case may happen virtually if the judge permits. Or Trump’s arraignment could be waived.

____

Tucker reported from Washington, Colvin from New York. Associated Press writers Sudhin Thanawala, Jeff Amy and Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga. contributed to this report.

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)

ATLANTA (AP) — Roads between the Atlanta airport and the Fulton County Jail were blocked off as former President Donald Trump arrived in a motorcade to turn himself in on charges related to his efforts to remain in power after his 2020 election loss, giving the scene something of a presidential aura.

But Trump was going to do something no other president has ever done — surrender for booking on criminal charges and have a mug shot taken.

As word spread that Trump was on his way, demonstrators near the main entrance on the Rice Street side of the jail lined security barricades two to three deep. There were more Trump supporters than opponents braving the intense Georgia summer heat, but both groups were outnumbered by media. The crowd, which began gathering in the morning, had grown as the hour of Trump’s booking approached.

Trump entered on the opposite side, along Jefferson Street, where police had blocked off the entrance. Fulton County sheriff’s deputies blocked one end of the block with an empty prisoner bus, while a county dump truck blocked the other end.

Many in the crowd wore pro-Trump T-shirts and waved large flags, including one that proclaimed “TRUMP WON.” Shortly after 6 p.m., U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and a staunch Trump defender, spoke briefly to the crowd.

“I’m telling you right now, regular Americans are watching this, and they are disgusted and they’re outraged,” she told reporters shortly before Trump’s arrival.

It was the fourth time this year that Trump, the early front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, was booked on criminal charges. But unlike his previous arrests, which happened in courthouses just before initial appearances before a judge, this time he had to turn himself in at a notoriously troubled jail. In another departure, he had a booking photo taken.

Trump and 18 others were indicted last week, accused by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of participating in a sprawling scheme to undermine the will of Georgia voters, who had narrowly rejected the Republican incumbent in favor of Democrat Joe Biden. Many of the others charged turned themselves in at the jail earlier this week, including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis on Wednesday and John Eastman on Tuesday.

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat had said Trump, and the others in this case, would be treated like anyone else — notably saying at a news conference earlier this month: “Unless somebody tells me differently, we are following our normal practices, and so it doesn’t matter your status, we’ll have a mugshot ready for you.”

But the scene outside the jail was anything but normal Thursday.

It included supporters of the former president such as Cliff MacMorris, 66, from Naples, Florida, who held a flag that read, “Trump Won Save America.”

He and his wife, Georgine, spent the night in Atlanta.

“You don’t have the right to persecute somebody unjustly,” Cliff MacMorris said.

His wife said the indictments against the former president were politically motivated because of the four years of “prosperity, safety, freedom” that Trump achieved in the White House.

“They must be worried about him for some reason,” she said.

Sharon Anderson, 67, from east Tennessee, was outside the jail for a second straight day. She had spent the night in a car with the air conditioning running.

“I’m here to support Donald J. Trump. I want him to see some of the millions that show up at the polls for him.”

She said the indictments against Trump had only strengthened her support for him. The former president questioned the election results, which isn’t a crime, she said.

While the crowd was mostly made up of Trump supporters, 64-year-old Laurie Arbeiter, who is from New York City, wore a shirt that said “Arrest Trump” and carried more than 50 black-and-white signs with her, including ones that read “Convict Trump” and “Trump is a Traitor.” She said she’d also traveled to other places where Trump was indicted.

As midday temperatures hovered near 90 degrees, sheriff’s deputies in vests toweled off and sought shade under a tree.

The main Fulton County Jail, also known as the Rice Street Jail, is located in a traditionally industrial part of northwest Atlanta where warehouses are currently being redeveloped for retail and residential use. It’s set back from the street by a long, tree-lined driveway that leads to a parking lot in front of the jail’s imposing façade.

On most days, the public and news media are free to drive right up to the front of the jail, and news cameras have captured the arrivals and departures of many high-profile people who have been booked into the jail. But with the booking of a former president looming, the driveway off the main street in front of the jail had been closed off for days, with no reporters or cameras allowed within viewing distance of that entrance.

Security tightened further on Thursday. While cars had been allowed on the Rice Street side of the jail a day earlier, sheriff’s deputies cut off vehicle traffic on Thursday. Some deputies wore vests and covered their faces with black masks. They formed a line along the street.

Members of a group called Blacks for Trump hurled racial slurs at Black sheriff’s deputies. But the demonstration was otherwise peaceful.

While others who are booked there spend months or even years in the facility awaiting indictment or trial, Trump left the jail 20 minutes after surrendering. The jail is plagued by crumbling infrastructure and overcrowding. On Thursday morning, the jail housed 2,618 people, above its capacity of 2,254, according to data from the sheriff’s office.

The U.S. Department of Justice last month announced a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filth and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy and Jeff Martin contributed.

By EUGENE GARCIA, AMY TAXIN and JOHN ANTCZAK (Associated Press)

TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. (AP) — The retired police sergeant who opened fire in a popular Southern California biker bar during a lively evening had traveled from Ohio to confront his estranged wife, whom he shot in the face before turning his gun on the crowd, authorities said.

John Snowling killed three people, including his wife’s dining companion and a man who approached him as Snowling retrieved additional guns from his truck, and wounded six others, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Thursday. He was fatally shot by deputies within minutes of the rampage.

The shooting unfolded as a cover band entertained guests during the bar’s popular weekly spaghetti night. Some froze and others ran as bullets flew inside the bar before Snowling exited to the parking lot and continued to fire, witnesses and authorities said.

As the shooting began, M Street band keyboardist Mark Johnson hid behind a speaker with his wife, singer Debbie Johnson.

“Once he started shooting, it was very indiscriminate,” Mark Johnson said.

Snowling, 59, was a retired police sergeant with the Ventura Police Department in Southern California. His wife, Marie Snowling, had filed for divorce in December 2022, citing irreconcilable differences. The proceedings were ongoing and the case was scheduled for a mandatory settlement conference in November.

The two had been married for more than three decades and have two adult children.

Officials said John Snowling traveled from Ohio, where he had been living on a 7-acre property with his dog, according to his divorce lawyer, Tristan teGroen. It was unclear when he arrived in Southern California, where he still owns property in Camarillo. There was “no murmur of domestic violence or threats or anything like that from the other attorney,” teGroen said.

John Snowling used two guns at the beginning of the shooting and then went to retrieve two more from his truck. All four — three handguns and a shotgun — were purchased legally, Barnes said.

Two of those killed weren’t immediately named and the third was identified as John Leehey, 67, of Irvine, Calif. All nine people shot were adults. Marie Snowling was conscious and speaking but remained in the hospital Thursday, Barnes said.

Her father, William Mosby, of Lake Forest, told The Orange County Register, that John Snowling could not “deal with the divorce.”

Kenneth H.J. Henjum, Marie Snowling’s attorney, said in an email that her family was in shock and was requesting privacy.

John Snowling had worked for the police department in coastal Ventura, northwest of Los Angeles, from 1986 to 2014. Ventura Police Chief Darin Schindler issued a statement expressing condolences to the victims’ families, the survivors and the deputies who responded.

Cook’s Corner has long been a place for motorcyclists to gather for bands, open-mic nights or just a cold beer after a long ride. It calls itself the oldest motorcycle bar in Southern California and it sits at the intersection of two picturesque highways in an area of scrubby hills and bicycle trails. It attracts everyone from motorcycle riders on choppers to avid cyclists in Lycra and families with young children.

“It’s a Disneyland for bikers,” Kamran Amiri, who has been a Cook’s Corner regular for two decades, said Thursday.

Amiri, who was there Wednesday but left before the shooting, said the bar is “just full of the friendliest people” who go there to chat over a drink, listen to music or show off their motorcycles.

Hours before the shooting, rows of motorcycles and bikes framed the gravel entrance where plaques describe the bar’s history.

M Street had performed in Cook’s Corner’s outdoor area before, but this was the band’s first time on the stage inside, Mark and Debbie Johnson said.

Two people in the crowd were celebrating birthdays, and the band promised a special song later in the evening, Debbie Johnson said.

It never came.

“We launched into our next song and somewhere in the middle of it this man just walks in, doesn’t say a word, and just starts shooting,” she said.

Some bargoers fled and ran up a nearby hill.

Mark Johnson said that once the gunman went outside, he and about 30 others shut the doors and hunkered down inside. Johnson called 911.

“We opened the back gate to see where he was and he immediately started shooting,” he said.

He and his wife said two of their fellow bandmembers were wounded and were expected to survive. The fifth member was not injured.

“I have never been so happy to see dozens of police cars heading my way,” Debbie Johnson said. “We were fish in a very small barrel.”

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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif., and Antczak from Los Angeles. Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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This version corrects the spelling of the name of the attorney for John Snowling.

By DAVID BAUDER (AP Media Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Even without lead contender Donald Trump, an estimated 12.8 million people watched the first Republican presidential primary debate on two Fox News television channels and its streaming service.

There seemed little evidence that Trump’s attempt to counterprogram the debate, by appearing in an online interview with Tucker Carlson at about the same time on Wednesday, appreciably affected the number of people who were interested in checking out the eight alternatives.

The viewership was a little more than half the 24 million people who watched Trump appear in his first presidential debate in August 2015, the Nielsen company said. But it outpaced a January 2016 GOP candidates debate on Fox that Trump also skipped and was seen by 12.5 million people

Television is a vastly different world than it was eight years ago, with streaming more established and thousands of cable customers cutting the cord. The most-watched program seen live last week on either broadcast or cable TV was a “60 Minutes” rerun on CBS that reached 5.3 million viewers.

While ex-Fox host Carlson boasted Wednesday that his streamed interview would get a “far larger” audience than the televised debate — and Trump claiming that the interview exceeded the Super Bowl in audience — there’s no reliable way of checking that.

X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, said late Thursday afternoon that the tweet of Carlson’s interview show had 236.7 million views. But that’s a count of how many times someone scrolled by Carlson’s interview with Trump in their feeds — even if they didn’t open up the post to see what was said.

If you happened to scroll by the post a dozen different times, that counts as a dozen views.

Public interaction numbers were smaller: There were some 55,000 comments attached to the interview, with about 200,000 people saying they liked it.

The television viewership figure is an estimate of how many people were watching the debate at any given minute. The debate was simulcast on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.

Moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, the two-hour debate barely mentioned Trump until it was halfway through. Then Baier said he wanted to take a brief moment to talk about “the elephant not in the room” — Trump and his four criminal indictments.

The reluctance to talk about the topic was evident, but the 10 minutes when it was discussed included some of the debate’s more electric moments.