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  • Former Prince Andrew arrested and held for hours on suspicion of misconduct over ties to Epstein

    Former Prince Andrew arrested and held for hours on suspicion of misconduct over ties to Epstein

    LONDON — The former Prince Andrew was arrested and held for hours by British police Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield the royal family from embarrassment.

    It was the first time in nearly four centuries that a senior British royal was placed under arrest, and it underscored how deference to the monarchy has eroded in recent years.

    King Charles III, whose late mother lived by the motto “never complain, never explain,” took the unusual step of issuing a statement on the arrest of his brother, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

    “Let me state clearly: the law must take its course,’’ the king said. “As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter.’’

    The Thames Valley Police force said Mountbatten-Windsor was released Thursday evening, about 11 hours after he was detained at his home in eastern England. He was photographed in a car leaving the station near his home on the royal Sandringham Estate.

    Police said he was released under investigation, meaning he has neither been charged nor exonerated. Police said they had finished searching Mountbatten-Windsor’s home, but officers were still searching his former residence near Windsor Castle.

    The police force, which covers areas west of London, including Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home, said Thursday that a man in his 60s from Norfolk in eastern England, had been arrested and was in custody. Police did not identify the suspect, in line with standard procedures in Britain.

    Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, moved to the king’s private estate in Norfolk after he was evicted from his longtime home near the castle earlier this month.

    Police previously said they were “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor and convicted sex offender, in 2010, when the former prince was Britain’s special envoy for international trade. Correspondence between the two men was released by the U.S. Justice Department late last month along with millions of pages of documents from the American investigation into Epstein.

    “Following a thorough assessment, we have now opened an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office,’’ Assistant Chief Constable Oliver Wright said in a statement.

    “We understand the significant public interest in this case, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time,” he added.

    Police also said they were searching two properties.

    Earlier in the day, pictures circulated online that appeared to show unmarked police cars at Wood Farm, Mountbatten-Windsor’s home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, with plainclothes officers gathering outside.

    Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently denied any wrongdoing in his association with Epstein.

    The allegations being investigated Thursday are separate from those made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked to Britain to have sex with the prince in 2001, when she was just 17. Giuffre died by suicide last year.

    Still, Giuffre’s family praised the arrest, saying that their “broken hearts have been lifted at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.”

    The family added: “He was never a prince. For survivors everywhere, Virginia did this for you.”

    A ‘spectacular fall from grace’

    “This is the most spectacular fall from grace for a member of the royal family in modern times,” said Craig Prescott, a royal expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, who compared it in severity to the crisis sparked by Edward VIII’s abdication to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

    “And it may not be over yet,’’ Prescott added.

    Thursday’s arrest came a day after the National Police Chiefs’ Council said it had created a coordination group to assist forces across the U.K. that are assessing whether Epstein and his associates committed crimes in Britain. In addition to the concerns about Mountbatten-Windsor ’s correspondence, documents released by the U.S. suggest Epstein may have used his private jet to traffic women to and from Britain.

    The documents also rocked British politics. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had to fight off questions about his judgment after the papers revealed that Peter Mandelson, the man he appointed ambassador to the U.S., had a longer and closer relationship with Epstein than was previously disclosed.

    London’s Metropolitan Police Service has said it is investigating allegations of misconduct in public office related to Mandelson’s own correspondence with Epstein. Mandelson was fired as ambassador to the U.S. in September.

    But it is Mountbatten-Windsor’s relationship with Epstein that brought the scandal to the doors of Buckingham Palace and threatened to undermine support for the monarchy.

    The last time a senior British royal was arrested was almost 400 years ago during the reign of King Charles I that saw a growing power struggle between the crown and Parliament.

    After the king attempted to arrest lawmakers in the House of Commons in 1642, hostilities erupted into the English Civil War, which ended with victory for the parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell.

    Charles I was arrested, tried, convicted of high treason, and beheaded in 1649.

    Modern concerns about Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein have dogged the royal family for more than a decade.

    The late Queen Elizabeth II forced her second son to give up royal duties and end his charitable work in 2019 after he tried to explain away his friendship with Epstein during a catastrophic interview with the BBC.

    But as concern mounted about what the Epstein files might reveal, the king moved aggressively to insulate the royal family from the fallout.

    Since October, Charles has stripped his younger brother of the right to be called prince, forced him to move out of the royal estate he occupied for more than 20 years and issued a public statement supporting the women and girls abused by Epstein.

    Last week, the palace said it was ready to cooperate with police investigating Mountbatten-Windsor.

    Charles was forced to act after Mountbatten-Windsor’s correspondence with Epstein torpedoed the former prince’s claims that he severed ties with the financier after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

    Instead, emails between the two men show Epstein offering to arrange a date between Mountbatten-Windsor and a young Russian woman in 2010, and the then-prince inviting Epstein to dinner at Buckingham Palace.

    Additional correspondence appears to show Mountbatten-Windsor sending Epstein reports from a two-week tour of Southeast Asia that he undertook in 2010 as Britain’s trade envoy.

    Danny Shaw, an expert on law enforcement in the U.K., told the BBC that in most cases, suspects are held between 12 and 24 hours and are then either charged or released pending further investigation.

    Mountbatten-Windsor will be placed in “a cell in a custody suite” with just “a bed and a toilet,” where he will wait until his police interview.

    “There’ll be no special treatment for him,″ Shaw said.

  • Silicon Valley is building a shadow power grid for data centers across the U.S.

    Silicon Valley is building a shadow power grid for data centers across the U.S.

    The GW Ranch project approved on 8,000 windswept acres of West Texas will look like many of the other data centers that have sprung up across the country to support Silicon Valley’s ambitions for artificial intelligence. Dozens of airplane-hangar-size warehouses packed with computing hardware will consume more power than all of Chicago.

    But it’s missing one standard feature: The mammoth project, recently green-lit by state environmental regulators, won’t need new power lines to deliver the electricity that it guzzles. GW Ranch will be walled off from the power grid and generate its own electricity from natural gas and solar plants installed on site.

    GW Ranch is set to become part of a shadow power grid emerging across the country with potentially far-reaching consequences for the U.S. electricity system and environment.

    After the rapid growth of data centers triggered pushback from politicians, utilities, and local residents over the pressures they place on the grid, tech companies are now building their own fleet of private power plants, mostly fueled by natural gas.

    Township should deny data center project proposed for Pennhurst, planning commissioners say

    Dozens of sprawling off-grid data center projects are planned across Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Utah, Ohio, and Tennessee, according to a review of regulatory filings, permits, earnings call transcripts, and other documents by the energy industry research firm Cleanview. Several are already under construction.

    Companies rushing to develop the facilities include Meta, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, business software provider Oracle, and oil giant Chevron. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

    The off-grid projects already approved by state energy and environmental regulators could power all of New York City several times over, a vast new energy infrastructure that will bring huge new industrial facilities to communities across the country and increase U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other air pollutants. A handful of states have passed laws to encourage off-grid data centers by loosening rules around who can build power plants and where they can be located.

    The projects are sparking alarm from El Paso to Davis, West Virginia, from residents unhappy to learn that gas plants large enough to fuel major cities are set to sprout in places they were never expected.

    “This came out of nowhere,” said Amy Margolies, a resident fighting an off-grid data center planned near Davis, in one of West Virginia’s major tourism corridors. The project was permitted to operate a gas plant large enough to generate roughly equivalent power to that used by every home in the state. It is being propelled by a 2025 state law that eased approvals for off-grid data centers.

    “They removed local control completely for this speculative gold rush,” Margolies said. “Everything is shrouded in secrecy, and the public is removed from the process.”

    The idea of taking data centers off-grid is the latest in a line of provocative strategies adopted by the tech industry in its pursuit of more electricity that also includes reviving old nuclear plants, backing long-shot fusion energy schemes, and planning to plunk down hundreds of compact nuclear power plants in communities across the U.S. But while these approaches are fossil fuel-free, most of the sector’s immediate investments will be in gas power, driving up the planet-warming emissions the companies long promised to take a lead in curbing.

    Billions of dollars are now being invested in power plants for off-grid data centers, even though key engineering challenges have not been solved, according to veteran energy developers.

    Most of the projects rely on natural gas because the variable output of solar and wind is difficult to manage without the grid as backup. But the most efficient gas turbines are back-ordered for years, forcing developers to use more wasteful and polluting equipment.

    “It is catastrophic for climate goals,” said Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview, which has identified 47 behind-the-meter projects nationwide.

    Others warn that off-grid projects could struggle to keep the lights on. Gas plants typically spend a third or more of the year down for maintenance, but data centers generally operate around the clock. “I get that cost is no object for these companies and they just want to get online,” said Jigar Shah, an energy entrepreneur who helped manage federal energy investments for the Biden administration. “But they have not figured out even with unlimited funds how to make these plants run with 24/7 reliability.”

    Shah said the projects could also drive up prices for customers who still use the power grid, as developers outbid utilities for equipment and leave other ratepayers to bear the costs of maintenance for older energy infrastructure. “This whole thing feels like a fairy tale concocted on the back of a napkin,” he said.

    Developers of the projects have said they can use backup generators or gas plants to keep data centers operating without interruption. President Donald Trump and White House officials have argued that loosening regulations that gave utilities a monopoly over power generation will make electricity more abundant and protect ordinary consumers.

    “President Trump’s vision really since the beginning of the administration is … ‘Let the AI companies become power companies. Let them stand up their own power generation as they built side by side with these new data centers,’” said David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, during a podcast interview at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, last month. “We get this infrastructure, [and] residential rates don’t go up.”

    Silicon Valley’s build-out of AI infrastructure is “too onerous for the power grid to take on,” said Kevin Pratt, chief operating officer of Pacifico Energy, the energy developer building GW Ranch in Texas. “We were hearing, ‘We want you to build these projects, but the utility can’t give us the power we need. What can you do?’”

    The off-grid strategy appears to have worked for Elon Musk. In 2024, his company xAI got a Memphis data center up and running in months — instead of the more typical years — in part by largely sidestepping the grid and powering the facility with dozens of portable gas generators.

    Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled the setup illegally breached emissions rules, and required the company to get permits. But tech industry officials say xAI had put rivals on notice that unless companies found work-arounds to lengthy wait times for power grid hookups, they risked being left behind.

    The fallout is now reverberating in places like Tucker County, W.Va. Residents learned through a legal notice in the community newspaper the Parsons Advocate that developer Fundamental Data was seeking to build a massive, off-grid data center with a large gas plant on a ridgeline near Davis.

    The state law promoting such projects strips local officials of their usual authority to vet and approve new developments if these proposals are related to data center campuses using off-grid power. Fundamental Data received a state environmental permit for the gas plant over the loud objections of residents and officials in surrounding communities.

    The company declined to say how many gas turbines it plans to use or what kind they will be. It would not comment on whether the data center would be for AI development, crypto mining, or something else.

    “As designed, it is intended to operate independently and does not rely on ratepayer-funded infrastructure or impact existing residential customers,” Fundamental Data said in a statement.

    The project is one of at least three large off-grid data center developments that builders are pursuing in West Virginia under its 2025 law. One of the others, the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, will initially use gas to generate enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes, plans say, and later quadruple its output. That would see the site generate and consume several times the total electricity consumption of West Virginia residents.

    The major tech companies that will tap this shadow grid are mostly keeping their names off the projects while developers go through the messy process of permitting, overcoming community opposition and construction.

    Meta is one exception. Through a subsidiary, it is working with natural gas colossus Williams on a project called Socrates in New Albany, Ohio, that will install a pair of off-grid gas power plants that will each sprawl across 20 acres. Williams says it will be operational this year.

    The social media giant has another off-grid project in El Paso, Texas, where it is working with the local utility to create a large gas generating facility by linking together 813 modest generators. Local officials and activists have protested the plan, alleging that Meta won lucrative city and county incentives after leaving the impression its data center campus would be powered by clean energy.

    Meta’s local partner, El Paso Electric, wrote in regulatory filings first reported on by the Texas Tribune that using solar panels and battery storage “would require thousands of acres adjacent to the Data Center site which are not available.”

    Meta said that the fossil fuel power used in El Paso will be paired with purchases of renewable energy. “As with all of our data centers, including dozens of renewable projects throughout Texas, we work to add energy to the grid and match our data center’s electricity use with 100% clean, and renewable energy,” company spokesman Ryan Daniels said in an email.

    Oracle and OpenAI are also developing off-grid power plants for their data centers. Construction is underway at their Stargate Project Jupiter campus in New Mexico, which will be powered by massive natural gas systems.

    OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is an investor in aerospace firm Boom Supersonic, which has refashioned a jet engine design to power off-grid data centers. The first batch will go to developer Crusoe, which is building one of the world’s largest data center campuses in Wyoming.

    Despite the immense capital invested and shovels in the ground, the AI industry’s off-grid plans do not compute for some veterans of big energy projects.

    Developers are “trying to rush to market with a bunch of clankety old stuff that was headed to the scrapyard, or with dozens to hundreds of small generating units strung together,” said Aaron Zubaty, CEO of California-based Eolian, which builds large energy installations.

    Those untested designs will inevitably develop maintenance problems that cause cost overruns, malfunctioning equipment and unanticipated outages, Zubaty said. He predicted that spending on the projects may be more likely to pay off by creating pressure on utility companies to accommodate more data centers on the grid.

    “If you are a utility, this can’t be your future,” he said. “You can’t have your biggest customers never need you again.”

  • When Rhode Island shooter started firing, bystanders jumped into action to end the carnage

    When Rhode Island shooter started firing, bystanders jumped into action to end the carnage

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Sitting in the stands at a hockey game, Michael Black heard what he thought was popping balloons before quickly realizing it was gunfire. As dozens of people rushed out of the Rhode Island arena, Black told his wife to “run, run” and then lunged toward the shooter’s handgun.

    Black managed to get his left hand caught in the chamber of Robert Dorgan’s gun, jamming it and then briefly attempted to hold Dorgan down. But Dorgan, a former bodybuilder, hoisted Black into the air before at least two other bystanders rushed over to subdue the shooter. One of them could be seen on video putting Dorgan into a choke hold.

    Dorgan fell to the ground, with the 58-year-old Black on top of him. The shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot after pulling out a second gun as the two locked eyes. Black never heard Dorgan say a word.

    “The first thought was the safety of my wife. And the second thought was, because the bullets were coming out, was to focus in on the gun,” said Black, who ran a printing company until he retired in 2021 and has no specialized emergency response training. “Get the gun and then subdue the shooter.”

    Pawtucket police have said the shooter behind the deadly ice rink tragedy on Monday was Robert Dorgan, who also went by Roberta Esposito and Roberta Dorgano.

    Dorgan’s ex-wife Rhonda Dorgan and adult son Aidan Dorgan were killed in the shooting, and three others were injured: Rhonda Dorgan’s parents, Linda and Gerald Dorgan; and a family friend, Thomas Geruso, all of whom remained in critical condition Wednesday.

    ‘Courageous citizens’ help stop tragedy

    Along with Black, Robert Rattenni, and Ryan Cordeiro are being credited as subduing the suspect. Separately, Chris Librizzi and Glenn Narodowy, both retired Rhode Island firefighters and EMTs, and nurse Maryann Rattenni provided first aid in the immediate aftermath.

    Pawtucket police say this group of “courageous citizens” who rushed to intervene in the attack “undoubtedly prevented further injury and increased the chances of survival for the injured.”

    “I look at it as being fortunate, saddened tremendously in the loss, but fortunate that a small group of people could make a difference,” Black said in a Zoom interview Thursday from South Carolina where he was on a college visit with his son.

    One of the more puzzling unsolved questions surrounding the ice rink shooting is over why Dorgan chose the Dennis M. Lynch arena. It was a familiar spot for Dorgan’s family, with Aidan Dorgan, 23, playing hockey and had once hoped to be recruited by a college hockey team. He’d shown up Monday to watch his little brother’s hockey match with his mom, grandparents, and other family. Dorgan had also been known to frequent the arena to watch family matches.

    On Monday, Amanda Wallace-Hubbard, Aidan Dorgan’s sister and stepdaughter to Rhonda Dorgan, was in the stands. She has since credited Black as the reason she’s still alive since she was likely next in line to have been shot.

    Black also said a detective reached out to him Tuesday to say that one of Dorgan’s daughters wanted to thank him for his efforts.

    Survivors grapple with hero title

    Authorities have not directly said that Dorgan was transgender and have said questions around Dorgan’s gender identity are not relevant to their investigation surrounding the case.

    However, court records from Dorgan’s past show that gender identity was at least one of the contributing factors to Dorgan’s wife filing for divorce in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage. Dorgan’s X account mentions being transgender and sharing far-right ideologies.

    With Dorgan dead, other bystanders rushed to provide treatment for the five people who had been shot and were lying between the bleachers. Blood was everywhere. Police arrived within minutes, and Black with his injured hand was escorted outside in the parking lot where he reunited with his wife.

    “My wife saw me and she ran underneath the yellow tape, kind of grabbed me from behind, and we gave a big hug,” Black said. “She said, ‘I heard you helped with the shooter. And she says, what’s all the blood? I said, ’I got my hand caught in the gun.’ And then she said, ‘Honey, I don’t know whether I should be proud of you, but I’m pissed off at you for putting yourself in that situation.’”

    As he was sitting in the hospital getting treatment on his injured hand, Black recalled a nurse calling him a hero — a label that has repeatedly been applied to all three bystanders in recent days.

    “I said I don’t feel like I’m a hero right now,” Black said. “I looked up and I was feeling for the family. So I started getting some tears in my eyes. And then she got tears in her eyes, too. It was just a moment of decompression at that point.”

    Black said after the shooting he initially canceled plans to take his son on a college visit to South Carolina before reconsidering and going ahead with the trip.

    “About an hour and a half later, as I was decompressing a little bit, I was on my couch, the TV, and I had my chocolate Lab next to me, and I started thinking that I’m not going to allow this shooter to change my life,” he said. “I’m not going to allow him to start, you know, dictating or making me afraid.”

  • Former South Korean president receives life sentence for imposing martial law in 2024

    Former South Korean president receives life sentence for imposing martial law in 2024

    SEOUL, South Korea — Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was found guilty of leading an insurrection on Thursday and sentenced to life in prison for his brief imposition of martial law in 2024, a ruling that marks a dramatic culmination of the country’s biggest political crisis in decades.

    The conservative leader was ousted from office after he declared martial law and sent troops to surround the National Assembly on Dec. 3, 2024, in a baffling attempt to overcome a legislature controlled by his liberal opponents.

    Judge Jee Kui-youn of the Seoul Central District Court said he found Yoon, 65, guilty of rebellion for mobilizing military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the Assembly, arrest political opponents and establish unchecked power for an indefinite period.

    Martial law crisis recalled dictatorial past

    Yoon’s martial law imposition, the first of its kind in more than four decades, recalled South Korea’s past military-backed governments when authorities occasionally proclaimed emergency decrees that allowed them to station soldiers, tanks, and armored vehicles on streets or in public places such as schools to prevent anti-government demonstrations.

    As lawmakers rushed to the National Assembly, Yoon’s martial law command issued a proclamation declaring sweeping powers, including suspending political activities, controlling the media and publications, and allowing arrests without warrants.

    The decree lasted about six hours before being lifted after a quorum of lawmakers managed to break through a military blockade and unanimously voted to lift the measure.

    Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by lawmakers and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He has been under arrest since last July while facing multiple criminal trials, with the rebellion charge carrying the most severe punishment.

    Yoon’s lawyers reject conviction

    An expressionless Yoon gazed straight ahead as the judge delivered the sentence in the same courtroom where former military rulers and presidents have been convicted of treason, corruption and other crimes over the decades.

    Yoon Kap-keun, one of the former president’s lawyers, accused the judge of issuing a “predetermined verdict” based solely on prosecutors’ arguments and said the “rule of law” had collapsed. He said he would discuss whether to appeal with his client and the rest of the legal team.

    Former President Yoon claimed in court that the martial law decree was only meant to raise public awareness of how the liberals were paralyzing state affairs, and that he was prepared to respect lawmakers if they voted against the measure.

    Prosecutors said it was clear Yoon was attempting to disable the legislature and prevent lawmakers from lifting the measure through voting, actions that exceeded his constitutional authority even under martial law.

    The court also convicted and sentenced five former military and police officials involved in enforcing Yoon’s martial law decree. They included ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who received a 30-year jail term for his central role in planning the measure, mobilizing the military and instructing military counterintelligence officials to arrest 14 key politicians, including National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik and current liberal President Lee Jae Myung.

    In announcing Yoon and Kim’s verdicts, Jee said the decision to send troops to the National Assembly was key to his determination that the imposition of martial law amounted to rebellion.

    “This court finds that the purpose of [Yoon’s] actions was to send troops to the National Assembly, block the Assembly building and arrest key figures, including the National Assembly speaker and the leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties, in order to prevent lawmakers from gathering to deliberate or vote,” Jee said. “It’s sufficiently established that he intended to obstruct or paralyze the Assembly’s activities so that it would be unable to properly perform its functions for a considerable period of time.”

    Protesters rally outside court

    As Yoon arrived in court, hundreds of police officers watched closely as Yoon supporters rallied outside a judicial complex, their cries rising as the prison bus transporting him drove past. Yoon’s critics gathered nearby, demanding the death penalty.

    There were no immediate reports of major clashes following the verdict.

    A special prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for Yoon Suk Yeol, saying his actions posed a threat to the country’s democracy and deserved the most serious punishment available, but most analysts had expected a life sentence since the poorly planned power grab did not result in casualties.

    South Korea has not executed a death-row inmate since 1997, in what is widely seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid calls for its abolition.

    Jung Chung-rae, leader of the liberal Democratic Party, which led the push to impeach and remove Yoon, expressed regret that the court stopped short of the death penalty, saying the ruling reflected a “lack of a sense of justice.”

    Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the conservative People Power Party, to which Yoon once belonged, issued a public apology, saying the party feels a “deep sense of responsibility” for the disruption to the nation.

    The office of current President Lee Jae Myung did not immediately comment on the ruling.

    Other officials sentenced for enforcing martial law

    Last month, Yoon was sentenced to five years in prison for resisting arrest, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full cabinet meeting before declaring the measure.

    The Seoul Central Court had previously convicted two other members of Yoon’s Cabinet in connection with the martial law debacle. That includes Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who received a 23-year prison sentence for attempting to legitimize the decree by forcing it through a Cabinet Council meeting, falsifying records and lying under oath. Han has appealed the verdict.

    Yoon is the first former South Korean president to receive a life sentence since former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for his 1979 coup, a bloody 1980 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju that left more than 200 people dead or missing, and corruption.

    The Supreme Court later reduced his sentence to life imprisonment, and he was released in late 1997 under a special presidential pardon. He died in 2021.

  • Some of the California avalanche victims had roots in Lake Tahoe

    Some of the California avalanche victims had roots in Lake Tahoe

    TRUCKEE, Calif. — After days of increasingly brutal conditions in California’s Sierra Nevada, a group of 15 backcountry skiers set out for home. But as they left remote huts at thousands of feet of elevation and trekked back toward the trailhead, they were slammed by a treacherous avalanche that left eight dead and one missing.

    With avalanche warnings in effect through early Thursday, officials were still waiting for the powerful storm to clear so they could recover the bodies of the victims of Tuesday’s avalanche, the nation’s deadliest in nearly half a century. Officials have not yet released the names.

    8 backcountry skiers found dead and 1 still missing after California avalanche

    The ski group involved has deep ties to the alpine recreation community in Lake Tahoe, including the elite Sugar Bowl Academy, which issued a statement late Wednesday mourning the loss of victims with “strong connections to Sugar Bowl, Donner Summit and the backcountry community.”

    It did not say how the skiers, said to range in age from 30 to 55, were connected to the school, which offers alpine and backcountry ski instruction and academics for young athletes.

    “We are an incredibly close and connected community,” Sugar Bowl Academy executive director Stephen McMahon said in the statement. “This tragedy has affected each and every one of us.”

    Four in the group employed by Blackbird Mountain Guides, which offers mountaineering and backcountry ski trips as well as safety courses across the West and internationally. One of them was among the six survivors.

    The three-day tour, which began Sunday, was for intermediate to expert skiers, according to the company’s website.

    The tour company said in a statement Wednesday night that it has launched an investigation and paused field operations at least through the weekend while it prioritizes supporting the victims’ families.

    The guides who led the group were trained or certified in backcountry skiing, and were instructors with the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education.

    While in the field, they “are in communication with senior guides at our base, to discuss conditions and routing based upon conditions,” founder Zeb Blais said in the statement.

    “We don’t have all the answers yet, and it may be some time before we do,” the company said. “In the meantime, please keep those impacted in your hearts.”

    Mayor Max Perrey of Marin County’s Mill Valley, a small city about 14 miles (22 kilometers) north of San Francisco, confirmed that some in the group were women from his city. He was not able to provide additional details but told The Associated Press via email that more information would be released later.

    One of the victims was married to a member of a backcountry search and rescue team in the area, said Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo.

    The Sierra Avalanche Center issued an avalanche watch Sunday morning, and that was elevated to a warning by 5 a.m. Tuesday, indicating that avalanches were expected. It is not clear whether the guides knew about the change before they began their return trek.

    Authorities described a harrowing scene as the survivors scoured the snow for the missing and waited six hours for help to arrive in blizzard conditions. They found three of the bodies, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said.

    The skiers all had beacons that can send signals to rescuers, and at least one guide was able to send text messages. But it was not clear whether they were wearing avalanche bags, which are inflatable devices that can keep skiers near the surface, sheriff’s Capt. Russell “Rusty” Greene said.

    One of those rescued remained hospitalized Wednesday, Moon said.

    Three to 6 feet (91 centimeters to 1.8 meters) of snow has fallen in the area since Sunday. The area was also hit by subfreezing temperatures and gale force winds.

    The avalanche is the deadliest in the U.S. since 1981, when 11 climbers were killed on Mount Rainier in Washington state, and the second deadly avalanche near Castle Peak this year, after a snowmobiler was buried January. Each winter the slides kill 25 to 30 in the country, according to the National Avalanche Center.

    The area near Donner Summit, where the ski trip took place, is one of the snowiest places in the Western Hemisphere and until just a few years ago was closed to the public. The summit is named for the infamous Donner Party, a group of pioneers who resorted to cannibalism after getting trapped there in the winter of 1846-1847.

  • Why it’s becoming so expensive to buy a car in America

    Why it’s becoming so expensive to buy a car in America

    It can be a shock shopping for a new car these days.

    The pandemic shortages are over. Dealer lots are stocked. Customers can find the colors and options they want.

    But prices have never been higher — and the auto loans bigger and longer than ever to make it pencil out.

    The average sticker price for a new car or truck now sits above $50,000 — about 30% more than in 2019. Even with incentives and specials, the out-the-door price reached above $50,000 for the first time in September and stood at $49,191 in January — a record for the typically sluggish sales month, according to Cox Automotive.

    That’s helped push the average monthly payment to buy a new vehicle to an all-time high of a little over $800, according to J.D. Power.

    Some customers go further. About 1 in 5 new auto loans have monthly payments of at least $1,000, S&P Global said, projecting that share could double by year’s end.

    “We are approaching a threshold that a lot people don’t want to go over,” said Patrick Manzi, chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association.

    The auto industry is increasingly worried how much more consumers can take. Signs of stress are growing. Severely delinquent auto loan rates have soared to levels last seen during the pandemic shutdown. Affordability was a buzzword at the 2026 North American Dealers Association conference in Las Vegas earlier this month. And there is growing talk about the need for automakers to offer more budget-friendly vehicles, especially when little relief is to be found in the used-car market, with average prices of about $25,000.

    “There is no doubt that affordability is front of mind,” said Mike Manley, chief executive of AutoNation, one of the nation’s largest auto retailers, speaking to analysts on an earnings call earlier this month.

    The question that the industry is asking, said Tyson Jominy, senior vice president at J.D. Power for automaker data and insights: “Is there a breaking point where you just push prices past what the average consumer can afford?”

    Sales remain strong, for now. Automakers are coming off their best year since the pandemic, selling 16.2 million vehicles in the United States.

    But sales are projected to slump to 16 million this year, according to NADA.

    One big change is that carmakers have largely abandoned entry-level vehicles in recent years.

    The last car with an asking price under $20,000 — the subcompact Nissan Versa, at $17,390 — ended production in December. Other affordable subcompacts have disappeared in the last couple of years, such as the Mitsubishi Mirage, Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, and Chevrolet Spark.

    “Americans just don’t want them,” said Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, the car-buying research company.

    They want SUVs and crossovers.

    A decade ago, the American market was about evenly split between cars and light trucks. Today, the light truck category — which includes SUVs — makes up about 8 in 10 of sales. Crossover SUVs, such as the Honda CR-V, account for nearly half of vehicles sold.

    Under $30,000 “is the new threshold for affordability,” said Manzi of NADA.

    That reality surprises many consumers, who might buy a new car every six to eight years.

    “It’s not something you shop for every day and so you come back a few years later and get real sticker shock,” said Erin Keating, executive analyst at Cox Automotive.

    It’s a common complaint, said Caldwell.

    “That’s what we hear from so many consumers,” she said. “People don’t like it. They’re not happy with how much cars costs.”

    Affordability was cited as the biggest obstacle for people who planned to buy a car in the near future, according to a survey recently released from credit reporting agency TransUnion.

    Automakers have managed to pay less attention to the entry-level market because luxury vehicles, with higher profit margins, continue to sell.

    The U.S. economy has seen a widening divide between the fortunes of its top earners and everyone else, creating the so-called K-shaped economy. And cars are no exception.

    At end of last year, vehicles priced over $70,000 were staying about the same amount of time on dealer lots as cars under $70,000. And buyers with household incomes above $150,000 accounted for 29% of all car purchases, up from 18% in 2020.

    “Wealthier customers are driving this,” Manzi said.

    New car buyers are also getting older, another sign of rising costs.

    Nearly half of all new car registrations last year came from people 55 and older, according to S&P Global data.

    A buyer’s average age was 51, according to J.D. Power. It was 50 before the pandemic.

    Twenty-five years ago, the average buyer was a little over 43 years old.

    Meanwhile, the other end of the car-buying market appears to be struggling.

    The average auto loan now runs for 68.8 months — more than five years.

    A growing share of auto loans now go for 84 months or longer. These seven-year loans made up 11.7% of the market last year, nearly double the share in 2019, according to J.D. Power.

    “We’ve already pushed things pretty far,” Jominy said. “How much further can they go?”

    Bad auto loans are becoming more common. The share of auto loans that were 90 days past due, known as severely delinquent, reached 8.6% early last year — levels last seen briefly in 2020 and then after the 2008-2009 financial meltdown, according to Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia data. The growth in bad loans is from borrowers with low credit scores.

    “That’s that K-shaped economy. That’s kind of the reality,” Manzi said. “Wages haven’t kept up.”

    Vehicle prices have surged even though carmakers have been absorbing most of the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, auto analysts said. It’s unclear how much longer they can do that.

    “At some point we’ll have to see tariff price increases,” Caldwell said.

    U.S. automakers also need to tackle affordability if they hope to keep out ultra-low-cost Chinese car manufacturers, said Keating of Cox Automotive.

    Auto analysts didn’t think the United States would welcome these foreign carmakers anytime soon. But Canada recently relaxed its tariff rules for Chinese electric vehicles.

    U.S. automakers are slowly starting to pay attention to pricing.

    Chevrolet has been touting its Trax crossover, which starts at $21,700. Car and Driver recently named the 2026 Trax its Best Crossover SUV.

    “It shows that it can be done,” Jominy said.

    The Ford Maverick pickup — which looks like a baby version of the Ford Ranger — starts at $28,145. And Ford announced earlier this month that it planned to offer several more vehicles under $40,000 by 2030.

    Honda also is evaluating its lineup.

    “With average new car prices hitting record highs across the industry, cost is a growing concern, and we want the Honda and Acura brands to continue to be recognized for delivering incredible value to our customers,” said Lance Woelfer, sales vice president for American Honda.

    No one expects a return of the $20,000 car. Instead, carmakers appear to be pinning their hopes on small SUVs.

    “That’s the new front door to the industry,” Tominy said.

  • U.S. trade deficit slipped lower in 2025, but gap for goods hits a record despite Trump tariffs

    U.S. trade deficit slipped lower in 2025, but gap for goods hits a record despite Trump tariffs

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit slipped modestly in 2025, a year in which President Donald Trump upended global commerce by slapping double digit tariffs on imports from most countries. But the gap in the trade of goods such as machinery and aircraft — the main focus of Trump’s protectionist policies — hit a record last year despite sweeping import taxes.

    Overall, the gap between the goods and services the U.S. sells other countries and what it buys from them narrowed to just over $901 billion, from $904 billion in 2024, but it was still the third-highest on record, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

    Exports rose 6% last year, and imports rose nearly 5%.

    And the U.S. deficit in the trade of goods widened 2% to a record $1.24 trillion last year as American companies boosted imports of computer chips and other tech goods from Taiwan to support massive investments in artificial intelligence.

    Amid continuing tensions with Bejing, the deficit in the goods trade with China plunged nearly 32% to $202 billion in 2025 on a sharp drop in both exports to and imports from the world’s second-biggest economy. But trade was diverted away from China. The goods gap with Taiwan doubled to $147 billion and shot up 44%, to $178 billion, with Vietnam.

    Economist Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the widening gaps with Taiwan and Vietnam might put a “bull’s-eye’’ on them this year if Trump focuses more on the lopsided trade numbers and less on the U.S. rivalry with China.

    In 2025, U.S. goods imports from Mexico outpaced exports by nearly $197 billion, up from a 2024 gap of $172 billion. But the goods deficit with Canada shrank by 26% to $46 billion. The United States this year is negotiating a renewal of a pact Trump reached with those two countries in his first term.

    The U.S. ran a bigger surplus in the trade of services such as banking and tourism last year — $339 billion, up from $312 billion in 2024.

    The trade gap surged from January-March as U.S. companies tried to import foreign goods ahead of Trump’s taxes, then narrowed most of the rest of the year.

    Trump’s tariffs are a tax paid by U.S. importers and often passed along to their customers as higher prices. But they haven’t had as much impact on inflation as economists originally expected. Trump argues that the tariffs will protect U.S. industries, bringing manufacturing back to America and raise money for the U.S. Treasury.

  • Should your therapy session be outdoors? More therapists are trying it.

    Should your therapy session be outdoors? More therapists are trying it.

    Jennifer Udler has been a practicing therapist for 25 years. A little over a decade ago, she started training for a marathon, running with a group near her home in Montgomery County, Maryland.

    “I noticed that people were more comfortable, less inhibited, opening up and talking during our group training runs,” Udler said. “And I started to wonder if there was a way to do a practice where people are moving.”

    Udler sees children and adolescents as well as adults, and she suspected that her younger clients especially might feel more comfortable talking while walking on a nature trail rather than sitting in a therapist’s office. She decided to try it with one of her young clients with his mom’s permission.

    “We met at a park, and we walked around, and he was a different kid,” Udler said. “He was running around, and he was showing me stuff in nature. And he talked.” She said they made more progress in one session outside than they had in two years meeting in her office.

    “That was in the snow in February,” she added. “So I was like, it’s only going to get better.”

    Udler started reading more about outdoor therapy, which is also known as walk-and-talk or nature-informed therapy. At that time she couldn’t find any formal training or certification programs, but she did learn that other therapists had tried it and found many of the same benefits she had.

    “You’ve got the movement, you’ve got nature, which is extremely grounding and stabilizing for people, and you have the co-regulation, walking side-by-side,” Udler said. For her younger clients or anyone uncomfortable with therapy, it also helped to be walking while talking about difficult topics because they didn’t always have to make eye contact with her.

    She wrote her own informed consent for her clients, establishing the additional risks of outdoor therapy and how confidentiality would work in a public park. She started a practice called Positive Strides, specializing in walk-and-talk therapy sessions outdoors in nature.

    “As I did the work and saw different types of people with different kinds of mental health issues, I realized how amazing it is,” Udler said.

    Trading the couch for the great outdoors

    In March of 2020, when many therapists moved their practices online, a smaller number brought their practices outside. The benefits were not felt only by the clients. Nature acts as a sort of “buffer against burnout,” said Heidi Schreiber-Pan, the executive director and founder of the Center for Nature Informed Therapy, where she trains clinicians in how to bring their practices outdoors.

    “What we’re hearing from people is that they can see more clients when they have outdoor sessions or nature-informed sessions,” Schreiber-Pan said.

    The American Psychological Association put out new guidelines this past fall for how clinicians can implement walk-and-talk therapy into their practice.

    The number of therapists working outside is still small. Shreiber-Pan believes that’s in part because therapists don’t realize that nature is all around us. One of the first questions she asks in her trainings is: When you think of nature, what comes to mind?

    “They talk about, like, these beautiful national parks or the mountains or the ocean,” Shreiber-Pan said. “And where is your therapy office? Not there.” She said that part of the training is helping practitioners recognize that nature is all around us — even in a city park.

    Miki Moskowitz is a clinical psychologist who practices in a primary care setting, which means she sometimes sees a patient only a couple of times.

    “We’re trying to make a difference, even in one single session,” she said.

    For Moskowitz, practicing outside has improved her own mental health and increased her capacity, but she also sees the immediate impact for her patients.

    “What I’ve seen that’s so encouraging is that sometimes just that first session we go for the walk, and patients are, like: ‘Wow, I didn’t know this trail was here. This is so beautiful. This feels so great. This is totally something I can do on my own,’” Moskowitz said. “That is so much more powerful than if we’re sitting in my office, which has no windows, just talking about the idea of going outside.”

    The brain benefits of getting outside — even when it’s freezing

    When Marc Berman was doing research at the University of Michigan, he helped devise a study to look at the brain benefits of time in nature. Participants did a challenging task testing their memory and attention, and then they were sent on a walk either through downtown Ann Arbor or in the area arboretum. Those who walked in nature showed a 20% improvement in their short-term memory, while those who walked in an urban environment did not.

    Berman and his colleagues did this experiment in June and January. In the winter, the nature walk was less enjoyable — but just as beneficial.

    “That was pretty cool because it suggested that you didn’t have to enjoy the nature walk to get these cognitive benefits. There was something deeper going on,” Berman said.

    One explanation for why nature is so good for our brains is called the attention restoration theory. The idea is that our ability to pay attention is finite, and spending time in nature can replenish our capacity. Nature is also “softly fascinating” — it captures our attention without overwhelming our senses.

    “I can kind of mind-wander and think about other things when I’m looking at a waterfall,” Berman said. “I can’t really mind-wander or think about other things when I’m in Times Square.”

    Berman is now a psychology professor at the University of Chicago and author of the new book Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical, and Social Well-Being.

    How to make the most of time outdoors

    Whether or not you are in therapy, your brain can benefit from a dose of nature, especially during the colder months when many of us are inclined to stay indoors. Here are some science-backed tips for how to get the benefits.

    • Nature can be found anywhere. You just have to look for it. Research has shown that noticing nature and paying attention to it can have positive effects even in an urban environment. Psychologists recommend noting the bird song you hear on the walk to your car, looking at the leaves on the trees and the clouds in the sky, and just taking a moment to appreciate nature’s beauty — even if it’s just a small plant poking through the sidewalk.
    • You don’t have to like it. Nature can be an acquired taste, especially when it’s cold. But you don’t have to be a backpacker or love camping to benefit from time outside. Berman and others have found in their research that we get the brain benefits whether or not we enjoy a walk in the woods.
    • Try a mindfulness exercise. Many people struggle to sit still and meditate, despite its benefits — but Moskowitz said that mindfulness practices can come more easily outside. “Just look up at the treetops and notice what you see, notice what you hear,” Moskowitz said. “Look for something that’s moving, and watch the branches sway in the breeze. Look at something close up, or look at something far away. You’re doing a mindfulness practice, and you’re tuning into your senses, and you are focusing your attention, but it’s not hard work.”
    • Bring nature inside. If you aren’t able to get outside as often as you would like, you can still get some of the benefits. Put a plant in your office — even a fake one — or look at pictures of beautiful landscapes. Listen to bird songs at your desk. “It’s not as strong as the real thing, but you can get benefits from the simulated nature,” Berman said.
    • Embrace the winter. When it’s cold and snowy outside, our impulse is to stay inside. But less time outside can contribute to seasonal depression. Schreiber-Pan recommends following the Scandinavian practices of “friluftsliv” — or “open-air living,” getting outside no matter the weather — and hygge, or embracing the cozy indoors when you come back in. “The happiest people on this planet are the Scandinavians,” Schreiber-Pan said. “They also have the longest winters.”
  • Grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups accuses Hershey of cutting corners

    Grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups accuses Hershey of cutting corners

    The grandson of the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups has lashed out at the Hershey Co., accusing the candy company of hurting the Reese’s brand by shifting to cheaper ingredients in many products.

    Hershey acknowledges some recipe changes but said Wednesday that it was trying to meet consumer demand for innovation. High cocoa prices also have led Hershey and other manufacturers to experiment with using less chocolate in recent years.

    Brad Reese, 70, said in a Feb. 14 letter to Hershey’s corporate brand manager that for multiple Reese’s products, the company replaced milk chocolate with compound coatings and peanut butter with peanut butter creme.

    “How does The Hershey Co. continue to position Reese’s as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built Reese’s trust in the first place?” Reese wrote in the letter, which he posted on his LinkedIn profile.

    He is the grandson of H.B. Reese, who spent two years at Hershey before forming his own candy company in 1919. H.B. Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in 1928; his six sons eventually sold his company to Hershey in 1963.

    Hershey said Wednesday that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are made the same way they always have been, with milk chocolate and peanut butter that the company makes itself from roasted peanuts and a few other ingredients, including sugar and salt. But some Reese’s ingredients vary, Hershey said.

    “As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes and innovations that Reese’s fans have come to love and ask for, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter,” the company said.

    Brad Reese said he thinks Hershey went too far. He said he recently threw out a bag of Reese’s Mini Hearts, which were a new product released for Valentine’s Day. The packaging notes that the heart-shaped candies are made from “chocolate candy and peanut butter creme,” not milk chocolate and peanut butter.

    “It was not edible,” Reese told the Associated Press in an interview. “You have to understand. I used to eat a Reese’s product every day. This is very devastating for me.”

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has strict ingredient and labeling requirements for chocolate. To be considered milk chocolate, products must contain at least 10% chocolate liquor, which is a paste made from ground cocoa beans and contains no alcohol. Products also must contain at least 12% milk solids and 3.39% milk fat.

    Companies can get around those rules by using other wording on their packaging. The wrapper for Hershey’s Mr. Goodbar, for example, contains the words “chocolate candy” instead of “milk chocolate.”

    Reese said Hershey changed the recipes for multiple Reese’s products in recent years. Reese’s Take5 and Fast Break bars used to be coated with milk chocolate, he said, but now they aren’t. In the early 2000’s, when Hershey released White Reese’s, they were made with white chocolate. Now they’re made with a white creme, he said.

    Reese said Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups sold in Europe, the United Kingdom, and Ireland are also different than U.S. versions. On Wednesday, a package advertised on the website of British online supermarket Ocado described the candy as “milk chocolate-flavored coating and peanut butter crème.”

    In a conference call with investors last year, Hershey chief financial officer Steven Voskuil said the company made some changes in its formulas. Voskuil did not say for which products but said Hershey was very careful to maintain the “taste profile and the specialness of our iconic brands.”

    “I would say in all the changes that we’ve made thus far, there has been no consumer impact whatsoever. As you can imagine, even on the smallest brand in the portfolio, if we were to make a change, there’s extensive consumer testing,” he said.

    But Brad Reese said he often has people tell him that Reese’s products don’t taste as good as they used to. He said Pennsylvania-based Hershey should keep in mind a famous quote from its founder, Milton Hershey: “Give them quality, that’s the best advertising.”

    “I absolutely believe in innovation, but my preference is innovation with quality,” Reese said.

  • Norman C. Francis, civil rights champion and recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom, dies at 94

    Norman C. Francis, civil rights champion and recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom, dies at 94

    Norman C. Francis, a civil rights pioneer and champion of education who played a pivotal role in helping rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, died Wednesday. He was 94.

    Community members, activists, and leaders across Louisiana celebrated the life and accomplishments of Mr. Francis.

    “The nation is better and richer for his having lived among us,” said Reynold Verret, the president of Xavier University, which confirmed Mr. Francis’ death Wednesday in a statement.

    Mr. Francis took a high-profile role in the state’s response to Katrina, heading the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which was tasked with overseeing the multibillion-dollar rebuilding effort.

    Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said that after Katrina, Mr. Francis “stood in the breach.” Landrieu, who served as lieutenant governor when Katrina decimated New Orleans in 2005, said he often turned to Mr. Francis for advice and counsel — including in “his toughest moments.”

    “The most defining part of his character is that he treats every human being with dignity and respect,” Landrieu posted on X on Wednesday.

    Mr. Francis was well-known for his role as president of Xavier University in New Orleans, the nation’s only predominantly Black Catholic university. Mr. Francis held the position for 47 years beginning in 1968.

    During his tenure, enrollment more than doubled, the endowment mushroomed and the campus expanded. The small school gained a national reputation for preparing Black undergraduates for medical professions and for producing graduates in fields such as biology, chemistry, physics, and pharmacy.

    In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when parts of the school’s campus were submerged under 8 feet of water, Mr. Francis vowed that the college would return.

    Multiple civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, honored Mr. Francis as one of the nation’s top college presidents. In 2006, then-President George W. Bush awarded Mr. Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    “Dr. Francis was more than an administrator. He was an institution builder, a civil rights champion, and a man of quiet generosity,” Louisiana U.S. Rep. Troy Carter posted on social media. “He believed education was the pathway to justice. He believed lifting one student could lift an entire family.”

    Mr. Francis, the son of a barber, grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana. He received his bachelor’s degree from Xavier in 1952. He became the first Black student at Loyola University’s law school — integrating the school and earning his law degree in 1955.

    He went on to spend two years in the Army, then joined the U.S. Attorney General’s office to help integrate federal agencies.

    Even then, he still couldn’t use the front door to enter many New Orleans hotels, restaurants, or department stores because of his race.

    “Some people say to me, ‘My God! How did you take that?’” Mr. Francis said during a 2008 interview with the Associated Press. “Well, you took that because you had to believe that one day, the words that your parents said to you ‘You’re good enough to be president of the United States’ yes, we held onto that.”

    In 1957, he joined Xavier in the role of Dean of Men, beginning his decades-long career at the university.

    Mr. Francis’ wife, Blanche, died in 2015. The couple had six children and multiple grandchildren.