Major drought in Idaho could last years, water manager says

August 10, 2021

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho is facing unprecedented drought despite getting normal snow levels last winter, and water managers warn the state could be entering a dry spell that may last for years.

“Idaho is in the midst of a drought that is unprecedented in recent memory, mostly due to an exceptionally dry spring followed by a summer heat wave,” David Hoekema, hydrologist for the Idaho Department of Water Resources, wrote in a new analysis, the Idaho Press reported. “Without a snowpack that is significantly greater than normal next winter, Idaho could be seeing several years with limited water supply.”

Few saw this coming, as Idaho began the year with normal snowfall in the mountains, though temperatures were above normal every month but February. Then came a dry spring, followed by a blistering hot summer. The state’s basins all experienced the hottest June and July on record, Hoekema said.

“With storage being rapidly depleted across the state, concern is rising that we may be entering into a multiyear drought,” he said.

Still, it’s not the driest year on record in Idaho. That came in 1977, Hoekema said, which became known as “the year without snow.” Historically, Idaho’s drought years have followed winters with poor snowpack levels.

Irrigation-reliant farmers saw the reasonable snowpack levels in late March and planted accordingly, not expecting the dry, hot weather that followed.

“This year’s a really tough water year for farmers in Idaho,” said Sean Ellis, spokesman for the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. “If they could’ve foreseen this … there would’ve been some farmers that would’ve switched from higher-water crops like sugar beets and potatoes into lower-water crops” like barley, wheat, hay and dry beans.

Thanks to the reservoirs, many farmers’ crops will survive the season, Ellis said, though many are reporting lower yields. Next year could be more troublesome.

“We finished last year’s irrigation season with carryover water that was above normal,” Ellis said. “This year, we’re not going to do that.”

Hoekema wrote in his report that it could take several years for some of the state’s reservoirs to recover. That means less water for everything from irrigating crops to providing water for fast-growing communities, and water officials around the state are strongly urging conservation.

SUEZ Water, which serves 240,000 people in Boise and the surrounding area, reported in late July that its customers’ water use was up 15%, using a billion gallons more than anticipated, largely for lawn-watering amid the heat. It urged water-saving measures, including limiting lawn-watering and not watering during the heat of the day.

Northwest heat wave targeted vulnerable, tested climate prep

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

August 11, 2021

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Karen Colby listens on July 22, 2021 in Portland, Ore., while her neighbor Joel Aslin tells how he called an ambulance for her when she got heat stroke as temperatures reached 107 F in her small fifth-floor studio apartment during a record-breaking heat wave in June. The unprecedented heat, which reached 116 F in Portland, killed dozens of people in Oregon and hundreds across the region and was a wake-up call for the normally cool region as climate change accelerates. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Karen Colby thought she could make it through an unprecedented Pacific Northwest heat wave with a little help from her neighbor, who dribbled cold water on her head and visited every hour to wrap frozen towels around her neck

But when temperatures in her tiny fifth-floor studio soared to 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius), Colby suddenly stopped responding to questions and couldn’t move from her recliner to her walker. The friend called an ambulance, and Colby, 74, wound up hospitalized for 10 days with heatstroke.

“We had just survived the coronavirus and had been in complete lockdown. We were basically in jail here,” said Joel Aslin, Colby’s longtime friend who lives in the same apartment complex for low-income Portland residents who have a disability or are over 62.

“We did everything right and she survived — and then we had that stupid heat wave and that almost took her life,” Aslin said.

The record-smashing heat that swept through cities from Portland to Vancouver, British Columbia, at the end of June silently killed scores of the region’s most vulnerable who could not leave their homes, afford air conditioning or get a ride to public cooling centers.

Consecutive days of temperatures as high as 116 F (47 C) in Portland made a folly of years of planning for more anticipated emergencies such as earthquakes and snowstorms — and it was only as the disaster unfolded that authorities got a sense of how devastating it would ultimately be. Emergency rooms overflowed, 911 calls spiked and death reports rolled in.

The crisis was a wake-up call for the normally temperate Pacific Northwest about what lies ahead with climate change and was a harsh lesson in how unprepared the region is, particularly when it comes to those living on society’s margins.

The median summer temperature in Oregon could increase as much as 10 degrees by the end of the century, according to the Climate Impact Lab, and extreme weather events like heat waves will become more frequent.

“The really important and complex point is that places that are already hot — and are going to get hotter — are already adapted. They have air conditioning and they have homes built for wind to flow through,” said Alan Barreca, an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Institute of Environment and Sustainability.

“Definitely the Pacific Northwest is not used to those temps, and so they’re more vulnerable,” he said.

Authorities in Portland spent days leading up to the heat wave warning the public, calling and texting hundreds of the most vulnerable, dispatching volunteers with thousands of bottles of water and opening round-the-clock cooling centers.

Still, it was not enough to prevent what officials labeled a mass casualty event.

While nobody is certain exactly how many died, officials have estimated that the number is in the hundreds in Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia combined.

In Oregon, officials say 83 people died of heat-related illness, and the hot weather is being investigated as a possible cause in 33 more deaths. Washington state reported at least 91 heat deaths, and officials in British Columbia say hundreds of “sudden and unexpected deaths” were likely due to the soaring temperatures.

Most of the Oregon deaths occurred in Multnomah County, home to Portland, where the average victim was white, lived alone and 70 years old. There were more heat deaths in Portland in June than in the entire state over the past 20 years, authorities said.

Cassie Sorensen, who heads a nonprofit that does free grocery shopping and delivery for the homebound, said their phone lines were swamped by desperate clients in need of an air conditioning unit or a ride to a cooling center.

“We have clients who are bedbound or chairbound on their couches, and they were home in the heat until ‘home in the heat’ became a medical emergency and they were in an ambulance taking them to the hospital. It was a bit of a helpless feeling,” said Sorensen, program director of Store to Door.

The crisis also exposed gaps in planning that stymied those seeking transportation to cooler locations.

Leading up to the heat wave, officials publicized the number of a statewide call center that could direct people to cooling centers or help them get rides — but it was unstaffed for more than 24 hours during the peak heat, which fell on a weekend.

More than 700 callers gave up on hold or in the voicemail system as temperatures hit 112 F (44 C); it’s unclear how many needed rides or what happened to them.

Portland’s famed light rail system also shut down during the worst heat to reduce strain on the power grid, eliminating one transportation option for low-income people seeking relief. And many homeless people didn’t want to leave their belongings or pets behind to go to a cooling shelter, advocates said.

“This is great that we’re having a conversation around cooling centers, but what are we doing around people who can’t get there? Those are the people who are literally dying,” said Sorensen, who has been involved in discussions about how Portland can improve.

When a shorter and less intense heat wave struck last weekend, authorities applied some of the easiest lessons. Many more cooling centers opened, buses were free for people headed to those facilities and the statewide call center was staffed 24/7. It included a new option high in the voicemail menu for information on cooling centers.

Gov. Kate Brown activated an emergency coordination center, making more resources available to tribes and local governments, and authorities held a news conference to urge each resident to check on five people during the peak heat.

“We hadn’t experienced an event like that before, so we were working off potential impacts,” said Andrew Phelps, director of Oregon Emergency Management. “Now, we understand just how deadly these events can be, especially in our urban centers.”

Yet the longer-term solutions needed to prepare the Pacific Northwest for its future climate require much bigger fixes: revising building codes to require air conditioning, installing heat-repelling sidewalks in city centers and providing subsidies so lower-income residents can afford air conditioning.

Authorities also are looking at using an existing emergency alert system that would send a phone notification or landline message to warn people in real time as temperatures spike, said Dan Douthit, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.

An “earthquake is a big, looming hazard for Portland, but globally, heat emergencies kill more people than any type of emergency,” he said. “We did more for this heat emergency than any heat emergency we’ve ever responded to, but it doesn’t mean that we did enough.”

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Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.

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‘We fought a great battle’: Greece defends wildfire response

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS and ELENA BECATOROS

August 10, 2021

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A firefighter from Slovakia tries to extinguish a fire in Avgaria village on Evia island, about 184 kilometers (115 miles) north of Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. A massive wildfire burning for days on the northern tip of Greece's second largest island continued to devour forests Tuesday, its thick smoke hanging in the streets of a nearby town as hundreds of firefighters battled to save what they could. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — As the worst of Greece’s massive wildfires were being tamed Tuesday, the country’s civil protection chief defended the firefighting efforts, saying every resource was thrown into the battle against what he described as the fire service’s biggest-ever challenge.

Nikos Hardalias said authorities “truly did what was humanly possible” against blazes that destroyed tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of forest and hundreds of homes, killed a volunteer firefighter and forced more than 60,000 people to flee. Two other firefighters were in intensive care with severe burns.

“We handled an operationally unique situation, with 586 fires in eight days during the worst weather conditions we’ve seen in 40 years,” Hardalias told a news conference. “Never was there such a combination of adverse factors in the history of the fire service.”

Greece had just experienced its worst heat wave since 1987, which left its forests tinder-dry. Other nearby nations such as Turkey and Italy also faced the same searing temperatures and quickly spreading fires.

Worsening drought and heat – both linked to climate change – have also fueled wildfires this summer in the U.S. West and in Siberia in northern Russia.

Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events. Researchers can directly link a single event to climate change only through intensive data analysis, but they say such calamities are expected to happen more frequently.

In Greece, the worst blaze still burning Tuesday was in the northern section of Evia, the country’s second-largest island, which is linked by a bridge to the mainland north of Athens and is a favorite holiday destination for the Greek capital’s residents.

Nearly 900 firefighters, 50 ground teams and more than 200 vehicles were fighting the blaze that broke out Aug. 3, the fire service said. They included crews from Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Poland — part of a huge international response to Greece’s plea for assistance.

A burnt mountain over a beach in Agia Anna village on Evia island, about 148 kilometers (92 miles) north of Athens, Greece, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. As Greece's massive wildfires appeared to largely recede Tuesday, the country's civil protection chief defended the firefighting efforts, saying every resource was thrown into the fight against what he described as the fire service's worst challenge ever. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)

Fourteen helicopters provided air support Tuesday on Evia, including three from Serbia, two from Switzerland and two from Egypt. The wildfire on Evia, unlike many in the United States, was burning in an area in which villages and forests are entwined.

Hardalias said all the fire fronts on Evia were waning, but firefighters were guarding the perimeter of the blaze, particularly around a cluster of villages that were among the dozens evacuated on the island in recent days. However, heavy smoke from the fires has often reduced visibility to zero, making it too dangerous for water-dropping aircraft to assist ground forces.

According to EU wildfire data and satellite imagery, more than 49,000 hectares (121,000 acres) have burned up on Evia — by far the worst damage from any of the recent fires in Greece.

Several other wildfires were burning in the country, with the most significant in the southern Peloponnese region, where new evacuations were ordered Tuesday afternoon. About 400 firefighters, including teams from the Czech Republic and Britain, battled that blaze, assisted by five helicopters and 23 water-dropping planes from several countries.

A judicial investigation is under way into the causes of the fires, including any links to criminal activity. Several arson suspects have been arrested.

“I don’t know whether there is any organized arson plan, that’s not my job,” Hardalias told the news conference. But it was his “feeling” that at least with the flames near ancient Olympia, the seven or eight fires that broke out in close succession could be due to arson.

Also on Tuesday, a woman convicted of intentionally starting a fire in an Athens park last week was sentenced to five years in prison.

Residents and local officials on Evia have complained about a lack of water-dropping planes in the early stages that they say left the fire to grow to such proportions that flying became too hazardous.

Hardalias argued that when the Evia blaze broke out, authorities were already facing other enormous challenges. A major forest fire was burning through the northern outskirts of Athens, forcing the evacuation of thousands, and another was coursing through villages towards ancient Olympia — a hugely important archaeological site in the Peloponnese where the ancient Olympic Games were held for more than 1,000 years.

“Every house lost is a tragedy for all of us. It’s a knife in our heart,” he said.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the country’s firefighting response, Hardalias said: “Obviously, there can be no satisfaction after such a catastrophe. But all our available forces, ground and airborne, were sent immediately to the fires.”

“Whether we could have done something different remains to be seen,” he said. “But in any case, we fought a great battle, and the losses were among those fighting it, not among civilians.”

Greek authorities have emphasized saving lives, issuing evacuation alerts for dozens of villages and neighborhoods this summer. In 2018, a deadly fire that engulfed a seaside settlement near Athens killed more than 100 people, including some who drowned trying to escape the flames and smoke by sea.

Critics say the government’s focus on evacuating villages prevented villagers with local knowledge from helping firefighters and led to more property destruction.

Greece’s center-right government has pledged to provide compensation to everyone who suffered loss from the wildfires and to undertake a massive reforestation effort to replace the trees that have burned.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a special cabinet meeting Tuesday that owners of destroyed or damaged homes would receive up to 150,000 euros ($176,000) in state compensation, with initial payments to begin next week, while businesses and farmers will also get support and tax breaks.

In southwest Turkey, crews battled two fires Tuesday in the coastal province of Mugla, including a brush fire near Bodrum’s Gumusluk resort neighborhood. Bodrum’s mayor said the fire was close to being extinguished and no residential areas were threatened.

Meanwhile, firefighters quickly put out a new blaze in a forest in Istanbul’s Sariyer district.

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Paphitis reported from Kontias, Greece.

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Follow all AP stories about climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

Huge California fire grows; Montana blaze threatens towns

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Isaac Slabaugh and Fannie Stutzman are surrounded by smoke from the Richard Spring Fire as it moves toward Ashland, Mont., Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. The fire burning on and around the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation has grown into Montana's largest blaze so far in 2021. (Mike Clark/The Billings Gazette via AP)


GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest single wildfire in recorded history continued to grow Wednesday after destroying more than 1,000 buildings, nearly half of them homes, while authorities in Montana ordered evacuations as a wind-driven blaze roared toward several remote communities.

The dangerous fires were among some 100 large blazes burning across 15 states, mostly in the West, where historic drought conditions have left lands parched and ripe for ignition.

Burning through bone-dry trees, brush and grass, the Dixie Fire has destroyed at least 1,045 buildings, including 550 homes, in the northern Sierra Nevada. Newly released satellite imagery showed the scale of the destruction in the small community of Greenville that was incinerated last week during an explosive run of flames.

The Dixie Fire, named after the road where it started on July 14, by Wednesday morning covered 783 square miles (2,027 square kilometers) and was 30% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. At least 14,000 remote homes were still threatened.

The Dixie Fire is the largest single fire in California history and the largest currently burning in the U.S. It is about half the size of the August Complex, a series of lightning-caused 2020 fires across seven counties that were fought together and that state officials consider California’s largest wildfire overall.

The fire’s cause was under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric has said it may have been sparked when a tree fell on one of its power lines.

California authorities arrested a man last weekend who is suspected in an arson fire in remote forested areas near the Dixie Fire.

The 47-year-old suspect was charged with setting a small blaze in Lassen County, which is among the counties where the larger blaze is burning, around July 20.

In southeastern Montana, the uncontrolled Richard Spring Fire continued to advance Wednesday toward inhabited areas in and around the sparsely-populated Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, after several thousand people were ordered to evacuate the previous night.

Two homes caught fire Tuesday but were saved, authorities said.

The fire began Sunday and powerful gusts caused it to explode across more than 230 square miles (600 square kilometers).

A few miles from the evacuated town of Lame Deer, Krystal Two Bulls and some friends stuck around to clear brush from her yard in hopes of protecting it from the flames. Thick plumes of smoke rose from behind a tree-covered ridgeline just above the house.

“We’re packed and we’re loaded so if we have to go, we will,” Two Bull said. “I’m not fearful; I’m prepared. Here you don’t just run from fire or abandon your house.”

Some of the people who fled the fire Tuesday initially sought shelter in Lame Deer, only to be displaced again when the fire got within several miles.

The town of about 2,000 people is home to the tribal headquarters and several subdivisions and is surrounded by rugged, forested terrain. By late Wednesday a second fire was closing in on Lame Deer from the west, while the Richard Spring fire raged to the east.

Also ordered to leave were about 600 people in and around Ashland, a small town just outside the reservation with a knot of businesses along its main street and surrounded by grasslands and patchy forest.

The flames were within several miles of town and came right up to a subdivision outside it.

Local, state and federal firefighters were joined by ranchers using their own heavy equipment to carve out fire lines around houses.

Heat waves and historic drought tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West.

Scientists have said climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. The fires across the West come as parts of Europe are also enduring large blazes spurred by tinder-dry conditions.

State of emergency in Russia’s Yakutia expanded over fires

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A man rides his bicycle through smoke from a forest fire covers Yakutsk, the capital of the republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Smoke covered hundreds of villages in Siberia as wildfires raged for another day in Russia's vast, forest-rich region. Emergency officials in southeastern Siberia's Irkutsk oblast said that smoke from the wildfires in the north and in the neighboring Sakha Republic, covered 736 villages and nine cities in the region. (AP Photo/Ivan Nikiforov)


MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities expanded a state of emergency in northeast Siberia on Friday to bring in outside resources to combat wildfires that have engulfed the vast region.

Russian Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev declared the state of emergency for Sakha-Yakutia. The move should help organize the transfer of firefighting resources from other regions to help fight the blazes in Yakutia, which is Russia’s largest territory and bigger than Argentina.

The vast territory, also known as Sakha Republic, has faced a spell of particularly devastating wildfires this year following months of hot and dry weather featuring record-breaking temperatures.

A boy walks through smoke from a forest fire covers Yakutsk, the capital of the republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Smoke covered hundreds of villages in Siberia as wildfires raged for another day in Russia's vast, forest-rich region. Emergency officials in southeastern Siberia's Irkutsk oblast said that smoke from the wildfires in the north and in the neighboring Sakha Republic, covered 736 villages and nine cities in the region. (AP Photo/Ivan Nikiforov)

On Friday, officials reported 117 active forest fires burning across nearly 1.4 million hectares (3.4 million acres) in Yakutia, which encompasses 308.4 million hectares (762 million acres).

Smoke from burning forests has enveloped wide areas and forced the airport in the regional capital of Yakutsk to suspend operations Thursday. Flights resumed Friday to what is often described as the coldest city on Earth.

In recent years, Russia has recorded high temperatures that many scientists regard as a result of climate change. The hot weather coupled with the neglect of fire safety rules has caused a growing number of fires.

Experts blame the worsening situation with fires on a 2007 decision to disband a federal aviation network tasked to spot and combat fires and turn its assets to regional authorities. The forests that cover huge areas of Russia make spotting new fires a challenge, and the much-criticized transfer led to the force’s rapid decline.

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Follow AP’s coverage of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change

Russian investigators probe big Black Sea oil spill

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

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An aerial view of the Black Sea coast following an oil spill that happened while being pumped into the Minerva Symphony tanker, near Novorossiysk, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into an oil spill off the country's Black Sea coast that appeared to be far bigger than initially thought. Authorities initially estimated the spill to cover only 200 square meters, but Russian scientists said Wednesday after studying satellite images that it actually covered nearly 80 square kilometers (nearly 31 square miles). (AP Photo)


MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top criminal investigation agency on Thursday probed an oil spill off the country’s Black Sea coast that appeared hugely bigger than initially reported.

The spill occurred over the weekend at the oil terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka near the port of Novorossiysk that belongs to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which pumps crude from Kazakhstan. The oil spilled while being pumped into the Minerva Symphony tanker, which sails under the Greek flag.

Authorities initially estimated that the spill covered only about 200 square meters (2,153 square feet), but Russian scientists said Wednesday after studying satellite images that it actually covered nearly 80 square kilometers (nearly 31 square miles).

WWF Russia has estimated that about 100 metric tons of oil have spilled into the sea.


The Minerva Symphony tanker, which sails under the Greek flag is seen at the Black Sea coast after an oil spill, near Novorossiysk, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Russia'n prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into an oil spill off the country's Black Sea coast that appeared to be far bigger than initially expected. The oil spilled while being pumped into the Minerva Symphony tanker. Authorities initially estimated the spill to cover only 200 square meters (2,153 square feet). But Russian scientists said Wednesday after studying satellite images that it actually covered nearly 80 square kilometers (nearly 31 square miles). (AP Photo)

A part of the Black Sea near a delphinium at a coast following an oil spill that happened while being pumped into the Minerva Symphony tanker, near Novorossiysk, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into an oil spill off the country's Black Sea coast that appeared to be far bigger than initially thought. Authorities initially estimated the spill to cover only 200 square meters, but Russian scientists said Wednesday after studying satellite images that it actually covered nearly 80 square kilometers (nearly 31 square miles). (AP Photo)


The Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, said Thursday it was conducting a probe on charges of inflicting significant damage to marine biological resources. The committee said it performed searches at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and inspected the area for damage.

Russian media said traces of oil were spotted along the scenic Black Sea coast, including Abrau-Dyurso and a dolphin aquarium in Bolshoy Utrish, 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the west, where workers urgently put up barriers to protect the mammals. The spill’s oily film was also spotted in the resort city of Anapa, further west down the coast.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, sought to downplay the impact of the spill, saying that he and other officials flew over the area in a helicopter and saw no trace of it at sea. “Quick measures were taken to eliminate the consequences,” Kondratyev said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The governor later met with the head of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, who assured him that the sea has remained clean thanks to quick efforts to contain the spill.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro loses his bid to reform voting system

By MAURICIO SAVARESE and MARCELO SILVA DE SOUSA

August 11, 2021

SAO PAULO (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro has suffered a major defeat in Congress when Brazilian lawmakers rejected a proposal to require printed receipts at some electronic ballot boxes.

Without presenting any evidence, Bolsonaro has insisted Brazil’s electronic voting system is prone to fraud, and that printouts would allow for auditing results. The proposed constitutional change needed 308 votes in order to pass, and received 229 Tuesday night.

The opposition, however, also fell short of reaching an overwhelming majority to rebuff the president’s relentless efforts to undermine confidence in the voting system. Only 218 lawmakers voted against the measure.

Electoral authorities and even many of Bolsonaro’s political allies opposed the proposal, saying the system is fully reliable and the change could create opportunities for vote buying. Critics contend Bolsonaro is trying to sow doubt among his passionate supporters about the 2022 election results, setting the stage for potential conflicts similar to those spawned by then U.S. President Donald Trump’s allegations of fraud in the United States.

Cláudio Couto, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university, said Tuesday’s vote marked the biggest legislative defeat for Bolsonaro since he took office in 2019. The measure was a watered-down version of an initial proposal to adopt printouts at all of the nation’s voting ballot boxes. That initiative was rejected last week by a congressional committee

“The administration is getting more fragile in every aspect,” Couto said. “By insisting on the printed vote — for a nonexistent problem — Bolsonaro made this defeat important.”

Bolsonaro told supporters on Wednesday that, despite the loss, the divided vote showed that a large part of Congress doesn’t believe elections are conducted seriously and that Brazilians won’t trust next year’s results.

He said some lawmakers who voted against the proposal were pressured by Brazil’s electoral court, while others were blackmailed or feared retaliation. He offered no evidence for those claims.

In pushing for the change, Bolsonaro has repeatedly insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, a Supreme Court justice who is president of Brazil’s electoral court, accusing him of working to benefit former leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is expected to run in next year’s election and is leading in early polls.

Earlier Tuesday, dozens of military vehicles and hundreds of soldiers paraded past the presidential palace as Bolsonaro looked on, then they continued past Congress. The vehicles left the city at night.

The navy issued a statement saying the convoy had been planned long before the congressional vote. But it was announced only on Monday and critics said it looked like an attempt to intimidate the president’s opponents.

Tuesday’s vote represented a bid by lower house Speaker Arthur Lira, a Bolsonaro ally, to resolve the dispute and ease tensions in the capital.

“In the lower house, I hope that this issue is definitively settled,” Lira told reporters last night.

___ Marcelo Silva da Sousa reported from Rio de Janeiro.

Military display rolls into Brazil capital before tense vote

DÉBORA ÁLVARES and MAURICIO SAVARESE

August 10, 2021

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An armored vehicle drives past Congressional buildings as part of a convoy after it passed by Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. The convoy paraded by the palace on Tuesday, the day of a key congressional vote on a constitutional reform proposal supported by Bolsonaro that would add printed receipts to some of the nation’s electronic ballot boxes. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)


BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s military staged an unusual convoy of troops and armored vehicles through the capital Tuesday — an event that was announced only a day before and that coincided with a scheduled vote in Congress on one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s key proposals.

Hours later, Congress’ lower house did not approve the constitutional reform sought by Bolsonaro to require printed receipts from some electronic ballot boxes that the president alleges are prone to fraud. His allies needed 308 votes and got only 229. The opposition, which had hoped to get an overwhelming majority against the president, fell short, getting 218 votes.

Earlier in the day, dozens of vehicles and hundreds of soldiers paraded past the presidential palace as Bolsonaro looked on, then continued past the congressional building and Defense Ministry.

The navy issued a statement saying the convoy had been planned long before the congressional vote. But it was announced only on Monday and critics said it looked like an attempt to intimidate opponents of a president who has often praised the country’s past military dictatorship.

Military parades in the capital are usually limited to independence day events. Tuesday’s procession was described as a ceremonial invitation for Bolsonaro to attend annual navy exercises that are held in a town outside the capital. The army and air force also are participating for the first time.

President Jair Bolsonaro waves next to his Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto as a military convoy passes the presidential palace in Brasilia. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

The parade upset some lawmakers. Omar Aziz, the president of a Senate probe into the government’s COVID-19 pandemic response, said the parade was “a clear attempt to intimidate lawmakers and opponents. He (Bolsonaro) imagines he is showing strength, but he is showing a president weakened by investigations.”

Critics allege that Bolsonaro, who trails rivals in early opinion polls, is trying to sow doubt among his passionate supporters about the 2022 election results, setting the stage for potential conflicts similar to those spawned by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s allegations of fraud in the United States.

Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro cheer with a Brazilian flag as protesters in opposition to the president hold flowers to give to soldiers from a military convoy. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A soldier in a parked military vehicle outside Navy headquarters in Brasilia. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a lawmaker, on Monday reinforced the family’s close association with Trump by posting on social media what appeared to be a recent photo of himself standing alongside the former U.S. leader and saying he (Eduardo) is “on the side of men with unblemished reputations and the moral authority to walk down the street, head held high.”

Tuesday’s military procession shows Bolsonaro is either a poor judge of the political climate or is knowingly straining against democratic norms, said Kai Kenkel, a specialist on Brazil’s military at Rio de Janeiro’s Pontifical Catholic University.

“We still need to know for sure whether there is a connection between Bolsonaro’s agenda and the motivations of the navy to do this, because the navy has been much more careful not to make political statements,” Kenkel told The Associated Press.

Electoral authorities have repeatedly denied any problems with the voting system and Bolsonaro has failed to present proof despite a Supreme Court order to substantiate his allegations.

The president has repeatedly insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, a Supreme Court justice and the electoral court’s president, accusing him of working to benefit former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been leading in the polls.

Tuesday’s measure is a watered-down version of an initial proposal to adopt printouts at all of the nation’s voting ballot boxes — a bill rejected last week by a congressional committee.

Electoral authorities and even many of Bolsonaro’s political allies oppose the plan, saying it attacks a nonexistent problem and would create opportunity for vote buying.

The call for a vote appeared to be a bid by lower house Speaker Arthur Lira, a Bolsonaro ally, to settle the dispute for good and ease tensions.

On Monday, Lira called the military exercise taking place the same day as the vote a “tragic coincidence.″

Amid red smoke from flares lit by protesters, police detain two protesters blocking a military convoy that was heading to Planalto presidential palace. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

“We hope that this subject is finally ended in the lower house,” Lira said after the vote.

Cláudio Couto, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said Tuesday marked the biggest legislative defeat for Bolsonaro.

“The administration is getting more frail in every aspect. It suffers in polls, it is investigated in the Senate inquiry on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the chances that Bolsonaro is not reelected are getting bigger,” Couto said. “By insisting in today’s proposal to solve a problem that does not exist, Bolsonaro has made this defeat to be important.”

Bolsonaro has repeatedly hammered on the fraud claims to rally supporters and shows no sign of dropping the issue.

“We will do everything for our freedom, for clean, democratic elections and public count of votes,” he told backers Saturday at a rally in Santa Catarina state. Any election without that isn’t an election.”

He led another rally, a motorcycle convoy, in the capital on Sunday.

“It isn’t just now that there are rumors about fraud in the ballot boxes, but now there’s this proposal and he (Bolsonaro) resolved to go in head first,” said Maria da Silva, a 61-year-old homemaker from Sao Paulo. “I trust him.”

Women offer flowers to a soldier in a show of opposition to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a military convoy passed Planalto presidential palace and parked outside the Navy headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. The convoy paraded by the palace on Tuesday, the day of a key congressional vote on a constitutional reform proposal supported by Bolsonaro that would add printed receipts to some of the nation’s electronic ballot boxes. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Hours before the tense vote, Bolsonaro had another defeat in Congress. A dictatorship-era national security law, which was frequently used by police against critics of the president, was scrapped by the Senate. The law, which dates from 1983, made it a crime to harm the heads of the three branches of government or expose them to danger.

Juan Gonzalez, the U.S. National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters on Monday that Biden administration officials were “very candid” speaking last week with Bolsonaro about elections, particularly in light of parallels with what has happened in the U.S.

“We were also very direct, expressing great confidence in the ability of the Brazilian institutions to carry out a free and fair election with proper safeguards in place and guard against fraud,” Gonzalez said. “And we stressed the importance of not undermining confidence in that process, especially since there were no signs of fraud in in prior elections.” 

___ Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. AP journalist Eraldo Peres contributed from Brasilia

#ENDWOLFHUNTS ZERO WOLF LIMIT
Wisconsin sets 300-wolf limit after runaway spring hunt

By TODD RICHMOND

FILE - This July 16, 2004, file photo, shows a gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. Wildlife officials in Wisconsin were set Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, to consider adopting a 130-animal limit for the state's fall wolf hunt, saying they want to protect the population after hunters killed scores more wolves than they were allowed during a rushed spring season. (AP Photo/Dawn Villella, File)


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wildlife officials in Wisconsin set a 300-animal limit Wednesday for the state’s fall wolf hunt, exceeding biologists’ recommendations as they study the impact of a rushed spring season that saw hunters take almost twice as many wolves as allotted.

State Department of Natural Resources scientists asked its policy board to cap kills at 130 animals, saying board members must be cautions because the four-day season in February took place during wolves’ breeding season and the long-term ramifications on the population are unknown.

But conservative-leaning members of the board countered that the population is still well above the DNR’s goal of 350 animals and they have a responsibility to manage the pack and protect livestock from wolf attacks. The board ultimately voted 5-2 to set aside the department’s recommendation and up the quota to 300 animals.

“The department can’t go against the management plan now of 350,” board member Greg Kazmierski said. “We are stuck with the plan in front of us today. We need to show we’re trying to move toward that goal. If we don’t, we can throw out all the management plans in the state because we don’t need them.”

The working quota for state-licensed hunters will almost certainly be less than 300, however. The state’s Chippewa tribes are entitled to claim up to half of the quota under treaty rights dating back to the 1800s. The Chippewa consider wolves sacred and refuse to hunt them. If the tribes claim their full half of the quota, state-licenses hunters will be allowed to kill only 150 wolves.

The vote marks another testy chapter in what has becoming a bitter saga over wolf management in Wisconsin. The animal has made a remarkable comeback in the state — the DNR’s latest estimates from the winter of 2019-2020 put the population at around 1,000 animals statewide. The department’s management plan, adopted in 1999, sets out a population goal of 350.

DNR attorney Cheryl Heilman told the board that 350 number in the management plan isn’t a population target but the minimum number for holding a hunt. Conservative board members disputed that, insisting it was a population goal

As more wolves have appeared on the landscape conflict over how to handle them have only intensified.

Farmers and residents across northern Wisconsin say wolves menace their pets and livestock and hunting is the only way to control them. Conservationists counter that the population is still too small to sustain hunting and the creatures are so majestic people should just leave them alone.

Former Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed bills in 2011 and 2016 requiring the DNR hold an annual wolf hunt between November and February. The state held three hunts from 2012 to 2014 before a federal judge placed wolves back on the endangered species list. The Trump administration removed them from the list days this past January, days before Joe Biden was inaugurated.

DNR officials were planning to hold a hunt this November, but hunter advocacy group Hunter Nation won a court order forcing the department to hold a season in February. The group argued that President Joe Biden’s administration might put wolves back on the endangered species list before fall, robbing hunters of the chance to go after the animals.

The department rushed to put a season together in just days. The results were chaotic; state-licensed hunters killed 218 wolves in just four days, blowing past their quota of 119 animals. Many hunters used dogs to track and corner their prey. Fresh snow helped tracking. A state law requiring 24 hours notice before the season was closed along with the issuance of twice as many permits as usual contributed to the kill rate as well.

The kills left a sour taste in the mouths of conservationists and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration, which controls the DNR. The agency recommended the board take a conservative approach heading into the November hunt, hence the 130-animal limit. The department concluded that the impact of the February hunt is still unclear and a quota of 135-140 animals probably wouldn’t result in a overall population reduction.

Nearly 60 people registered to speak at the board meeting Wednesday, with most calling for the DNR to put a stop to wolf hunting altogether.

“The hatred toward this being is based on myth,” said John Johnson Jr., president of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “You’ve had the functional equivalent of two seasons already this year. (But) nothing will dissuade the desire for more blood from our brother. What will be in short supply today is respect. Respect for science, respect for the tribal community, respect for the ma’iingan,” he said, using the Chippewa term for wolf.

But hunt supporters demanded the board raise the fall quota to as high as 500 animals, insisting that the DNR has grossly underestimated the wolf population.

“We ask you, members of the Natural Resources Board, to listen to science, to listen to the people of northern Wisconsin, to listen to the elected county officials of the region, to listen to Wisconsin’s farmers, and to listen to the Wisconsin sportsmen and women who actually encounter and deal with wolves in pursuit of their sporting heritage,” Carl Schoettel, president of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, said in written remarks to the board.

Macy West, an Evers appointee on the board, said the vote will cost the board credibility with animal advocates and conservationists who demanded an end to wolf hunting. She warned that if the hunt results in a precipitous population decline federal wildlife officials will seize management rights from the state, costing farmers the right to kill problem wolves.

“We’re just teeing it up to lose credibility again,” she said.

Megan Nicholson, director the Humane Society of the United States’ Wisconsin chapter, called the new quota “egregious” in an email to The Associated Press.

“The only scientifically and ethically defensible path forward would have been a quota of zero,” she said. “The board should be ashamed of their brazen contempt of Wisconsin’s wolves and residents.”

Judge begins key hearing in Boy Scouts of America  bankruptcy case
By RANDALL CHASEtoday

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2020, file photo, Boy Scouts of America uniforms are displayed in the retail store at the headquarters for the French Creek Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Summit Township, Pa. Attorneys recently reached a tentative agreement that could help pave the way for the Boy Scouts of America to exit bankruptcy. A Delaware judge has set a Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 hearing on a proposed $850 million agreement between the Boy Scouts and attorneys representing about 70,000 child sex abuse claimants. (Christopher Millette/Erie Times-News via AP, File)


DOVER, Del. (AP) — An attorney for the Boy Scouts of America told a Delaware judge on Thursday that the group’s national board never adopted a resolution approving an $850 million agreement that is the linchpin of the Boy Scouts’ proposed bankruptcy plan.

Despite that acknowledgment, the Boy Scouts are asking the judge to rule that the organization properly exercised its business judgment in entering into the agreement and should be allowed to proceed with it as the foundation of a final bankruptcy plan.

The agreement involves the national Boy Scouts organization, the roughly 250 local Boy Scout councils, and law firms representing some 70,000 men who claim they were molested as youngsters by Scoutmasters and others. It also includes the official victims committee appointed by the U.S. bankruptcy trustee.

The agreement is opposed by insurers that issued policies to the Boy Scouts and local councils, other law firms representing thousands of abuse victims, and various church denominations that have sponsored local Boy Scout troops.

The Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 amid an onslaught of lawsuits by men who said they were sexually abused as children. The filing was part of an attempt to reach a global resolution of abuse claims and create a compensation fund for victims.

Under the agreement presented to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Laura Selber Silverstein, the Boy Scouts have proposed contributing up to $250 million in cash and property to a fund for abuse victims. Local councils, which run day-to-day operations for Boy Scout troops, would contribute $600 million.

The national organization and councils also would transfer their rights to Boy Scout insurance policies to the victims fund. In return, they would be released from further liability for abuse claims.

If approved, the agreement could result in one of the nation’s largest settlements in a sex abuse case.

Silverstein expressed surprise Thursday when Glenn Kurtz, an attorney for the Boy Scouts, said during arguments over what board materials had been provided to the insurers that the board never approved a formal resolution approving the agreement.

“Isn’t it a little unusual that a board doesn’t actually authorize the actual agreement?” the judge asked.

Kurtz replied that the board authorized “deal terms,” but delegated the documentation to the professionals.

“I don’t know it was the world’s most formal procedure in terms of documenting the approvals, but you got a yes vote from all 72 board members on these deal terms,” Kurtz said.

Silverstein suggested that the lack of board authorization for the agreement was particularly surprising given that several members of the board are lawyers.

“We’ll see whether the debtor is able, without an authorization, to convince me that they’ve met the business judgment standard or they’re entitled to the business judgment standard and they made informed decisions,” she said.

Under Delaware’s business judgment rule, courts typically give strong deference to a corporate board’s decision-making unless there is evidence that directors shirked their duties, had conflicts or acted in bad faith.

As part of the proposed agreement, the Boy Scouts are seeking permission from Silverstein to back out of a settlement reached in April with one of their insurers, The Hartford. The Hartford agreed to pay $650 million into the victims fund in exchange for being released from any further obligations, but victims attorneys have said their clients won’t support a reorganization plan that includes it.

The hearing, which is scheduled to resume Friday, is for the judge to examine whether the settlement agreement provides a basis for the Boy Scouts to move forward with a proposed reorganization plan.

Judge rules Dominion case can proceed against Trump allies

By GARY FIELDS and MICHAEL BALSAMO

FILE - Sidney Powell, right, speaks next to former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, as members of President Donald Trump's legal team, during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters on Nov. 19, 2020, in Washington. A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, for a defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Trump allies Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, who had all falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols handed down a ruling Wednesday that found there was no blanket protection on political speech. 

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for a defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, allies of former President Donald Trump who had all falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ruled that there was no blanket protection on political speech and denied an argument from two of the defendants that the federal court in Washington wasn’t the proper venue for the case.

“As an initial matter, there is no blanket immunity for statements that are ‘political’ in nature,” the judge wrote in the 44-page ruling.

While courts have recognized there are some hyperbolic statements in political discourse, “it is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election,” Nichols wrote.

The judge also rejected Powell and Lindell’s arguments that Dominion had failed to meet a legal burden that their statements were made with “actual malice.”

He outlined several instances where the trio made outlandish and blatantly false claims, including when Powell stated that the company was created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late leader Hugo Chavez and that it can switch votes.

In allowing the lawsuit to go forward, Nichols said Dominion had adequately proved that Powell made statements that could lead to a lawsuit “because a reasonable juror could conclude that they were either statements of fact or statements of opinion that implied or relied upon facts that are provably false.” Dominion has sought $1.3 billion in damages from the trio.


FILE - Founder and CEO of MyPillow Mike Lindell gives an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 28, 2021. A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday, Aug. 11 for a defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Trump allies Lindell, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who had all falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols handed down a ruling Wednesday that found there was no blanket protection on political speech. (Sam Thomas/Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)

The judge used similar language against Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, saying Dominion proved Lindell had “made his claims knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Powell and Giuliani, both lawyers who filed election challenges on Trump’s behalf, and Lindell, who was one of Trump’s most ardent public supporters, made various unproven claims about the voting machine company. Many of those statements came at news conferences, during election rallies and on social media and television.

There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country, including Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.

Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.

The judge’s ruling came just a day after the vote-counting machine maker filed defamation lawsuits against right-wing broadcasters Newsmax Media Inc. and One America News Network, as well as Patrick Byrne, a prominent Trump ally and former chief executive of Overstock.com.

Guards union warns Wolf of legal action over vaccine mandate

By MARK SCOLFORO and MICHAEL RUBINKAM

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The union that represents about 10,000 guards in Pennsylvania’s state prisons told Gov. Tom Wolf Thursday it plans legal action to stop his effort to force them to get COVID-19 vaccines over the next month.

The president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association sent a letter to the Democratic governor two days after Wolf ordered the guards and some other state workers to get fully vaccinated by Sept. 7 or face weekly testing.

Union president John Eckenrode told Wolf his policy announcement was “a slap in the face — and frankly, way too late because thousands of our members already have been infected, due to your inaction.”

“This is the latest episode of what has been a woefully inconsistent vaccination/testing/masking policy by this administration in our state prisons,” Eckenrode wrote, adding the union “has instructed legal counsel to challenge this latest proposed policy change.”

Wolf press secretary Lyndsay Kensinger said Thursday the initiative was designed to protect the guards, their families and the people they work among.

“The union exists to protect and support the employees it represents, so the corrections union’s opposition to this initiative to stop the spread of COVID-19 is extremely disappointing,” Kensinger said.

The Corrections Department’s website indicates about 4,800 of the prison system’s more than 12,000 staff have been infected by the coronavirus, and the union says nearly 3,700 of its members have caught COVID-19. The department says about 3,600 correctional employees are currently fully vaccinated.

Eckenrode told Wolf that the plan for testing won’t make people safer because it does not extend to inmates’ family members, contractors, vendors and volunteers.

“As for masking, our members are required to wear them, but inmates are not,” Eckenrode said, arguing that the masking policy does not make places where people congregate inside prisons safer.

Wolf announced Tuesday the vaccination policy that covers about 25,000 employees of state prisons and state health care and congregate care facilities. It applies to prisons as well as state hospitals, veterans’ homes, community health centers and homes for those with intellectual disabilities.

In other coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania on Thursday:

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VACCINES FOR NURSING HOME WORKERS

Nursing home workers who are not vaccinated could face more frequent testing under a new policy announced by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The Health Department said the state’s more than 700 skilled nursing facilities must have at least 80% of staff vaccinated by Oct. 1. Those that fail to meet the target will have to regularly test unvaccinated employees for COVID-19. Nursing homes that do not adhere to the testing requirement will face regulatory action.

Currently, only one in eight Pennsylvania nursing homes are meeting the 80% target.

“This is embarrassing, and quite frankly very frightening to residents and their loved ones,” Keara Klinepeter, a Health Department official, said at a news conference in Mechanicsburg.

Statewide, nearly 60% of nursing home staff are vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 83% percent of residents have gotten the shot.

Klinepeter said in a written statement that the vaccination policy will help prevent outbreaks “by stopping COVID-19 from entering a nursing home in the first place.”

COVID-19 swept through the state’s long-term care facilities, especially early in the pandemic, killing more than 13,400 residents — nearly half the statewide toll.

Nursing home operators appeared to be split over the new policy.

An industry group, the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, pushed back Thursday on what it called “yet another mandate” from the Wolf administration. The group recently came out against the state’s proposal to require long-term care facilities to boost staffing, and it took the state to court last year over more than $150 million in federal coronavirus funding.

“Instead of proposing solutions to increase vaccine acceptance rates in long-term care, the Department of Health, today, threatened providers and issued a punitive mandate on nursing homes,” said Zach Shamberg, the group’s president and CEO. “Working with providers — not punishing them — will produce better outcomes.”

Another trade group, LeadingAge PA — which has also challenged the Wolf administration over staffing and COVID-19 funding — said in a news release distributed by the state that it supports the new vaccination policy. The national LeadingAge organization has recommended that nursing homes make vaccination a condition of employment.

Also Thursday, the Health Department announced a dashboard that shows COVID-19 vaccination rates by facility.

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VAXXED AND MASKED AT MADE IN AMERICA

Jay-Z’s Made in America festival in Philadelphia says attendees will have to provide proof of full vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test at entry.

The negative test must be obtained within 48 hours of attendance, show organizers said on their website. And all attendees, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to wear face coverings in the wake of the city’s new mask mandate for outdoor, unseated events of 1,000 or more people.

“The safety and health of festival attendees and staff are always our first priority,” show organizers said.

Justin Bieber and Lil Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and others are headlining the two-day event over Labor Day weekend.

Last year’s festival was canceled because of the coronavirus. This year’s festival, held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

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Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.