AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Trump and Sessions spar as Trump rages

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions punched back hard at President Donald Trump’s latest sneering criticism Thursday as their long-running rift exploded into a public smackdown. Trump, concerned by the legal downfall of two former advisers, accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department, leading Sessions to declare that he and his department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Trump’s anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal “fixer” Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if “flipping” — co-operating with prosecutors in exchange for more favourable treatment— were illegal because people co-operating with the government “just make up lies” to get favourable treatment.

In the wide-ranging interview, Trump also defended himself against talk of impeachment — “the market would crash … everybody would be very poor” — tried to distance himself from Cohen — “I would see him sometimes” — and said anew that he hadn’t known in advance about Cohen’s hush money payments to silence women alleging sexual relationships with the celebrity businessman.

Trump’s latest shots against law enforcement came as he appeared increasingly vulnerable to long-running investigations after this week’s one-two punch of Cohen’s plea deal and the conviction of Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort.

Trump has spent more than a year publicly and privately venting over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the federal Russia-collusion investigation because he’d worked on Trump’s campaign. Trump, who blames that decision for the eventual appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, told “Fox and Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt that Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”

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AP: National Enquirer hid damaging Trump stories in a safe

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.

The detail came as several media outlets reported on Thursday that federal prosecutors had granted immunity to National Enquirer chief David Pecker, potentially laying bare his efforts to protect his longtime friend Trump.

Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty this week to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the tabloid were involved in buying the silence of a porn actress and a Playboy model who alleged affairs with Trump.

Five people familiar with the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because they signed non-disclosure agreements, said the safe was a great source of power for Pecker, the company’s CEO.

The Trump records were stored alongside similar documents pertaining to other celebrities’ catch-and-kill deals, in which exclusive rights to people’s stories were bought with no intention of publishing to keep them out of the news. By keeping celebrities’ embarrassing secrets, the company was able to ingratiate itself with them and ask for favours in return.

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Hurricane Lane is weaker but still pummels Hawaii with rain

HONOLULU (AP) — A powerful hurricane unleashed torrents of rain and landslides Thursday that blocked roads on the rural Big Island but didn’t scare tourists away from surfing and swimming at popular Honolulu beaches still preparing get pummeled by the erratic storm.

Employees of the Sheraton Waikiki resort on the famed beach filled up sandbags as shuttered stores stacked them against the bottom of their glass windows to prepare for heavy rain, flash flooding and damaging surf on Oahu, the most populated island.

Hurricane Lane already lashed the Big Island with nearly 20 inches of rain in nearly 24 hours and was moving closer to Hawaii, a shift that will put the Big Island and Maui “in the thick” of the storm, National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye said. The agency says the storm has weakened to a Category 3 but can still cause major damage.

The hurricane with winds from 111 to 129 mph was expected to move close to or over portions of the main islands later Thursday or Friday, bringing dangerous surf of 20 feet (6 metres) and a storm surge of up to 4 feet (1 metre), forecasters said.

Lane was not projected to make a direct hit on the islands, but officials warned that even a lesser blow could do significant harm. Some areas could see up to 30 inches (about 80 centimetres) of rain.

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John Lennon’s killer denied parole for 10th time

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — John Lennon’s killer has been denied parole for a 10th time and will remain behind bars for at least two more years.

Mark David Chapman appeared before New York’s parole board on Wednesday. In a denial decision obtained by The Associated Press Thursday, the board said it had determined Chapman’s release “would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society and would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.”

Chapman, 63, shot and killed the former Beatle outside Lennon’s Manhattan apartment on Dec. 8, 1980. He is serving 20-years-to-life in the Wende Correctional Facility in western New York.

“You admittedly carefully planned and executed the murder of a world-famous person for no reason other than to gain notoriety,” the parole panel wrote in its denial decision. “While no one person’s life is any more valuable than another’s life, the fact that you chose someone who was not only a world renown person and beloved by millions, regardless of the pain and suffering you would cause to his family, friends and so many others, you demonstrated a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life and the pain and suffering of others.”

It said releasing Chapman would not only “tend to mitigate the seriousness of your crime,” but also would endanger public safety because someone might try to harm him out of anger or revenge or to gain similar notoriety.

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Anger over Ed Dept mulling federal money for guns in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department said Thursday that it is weighing whether to allow states to use federal funds to purchase guns for schools, prompting a storm of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and educators.

If approved, the plan would likely generate a lot of controversy at a time when a string of especially deadly school shootings earlier this year led to the rise of a powerful student-led gun control movement.

A senior Trump administration official told The Associated Press on Thursday that the agency is reviewing legislation governing federal academic enrichment grants to see if the money can be used to procure firearms.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said the bipartisan Every Student Success Act, passed in 2015, does not expressly prohibit or allow the use of Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants for the purchase of firearms. The official said the agency received several letters asking it to clarify what those funds could be used for and began researching the issue.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who chairs a federal commission on school safety, has previously said that schools should have the option to arm teachers. The commission, formed in the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people, has been criticized for omitting the topic of gun control.

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Pawn to pauper: Broke Trump foe Cohen crowdfunds legal bills

NEW YORK (AP) — Mired in financial woes, Michael Cohen is sticking his hand out and asking the public for help paying for his legal defence, and one anonymous donor already has ponied up $50,000.

Through his lawyer, Donald Trump’s former “fixer” says collecting contributions through a GoFundMe page set up after his guilty plea this week is the only way to ensure the truth comes out about the president.

It’s also the latest sign that Cohen is broke.

Trump’s former personal lawyer owes at least $1.4 million to the IRS after pleading guilty Tuesday to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and bank fraud, and has racked up millions of dollars in debt. Because of his plea, he’s being forced to give up his New York City taxi medallions, which have shrunk in value as Uber and Lyft shake up the industry.

“He’s without resources and owes a lot of money,” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a battery of television interviews on Wednesday.

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Autopsy finds Iowa student died from ‘sharp force injuries’

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa college student who was allegedly abducted by a stranger while running last month in a small town was stabbed to death, investigators announced Thursday.

Preliminary autopsy results from the state medical examiner’s office determined that 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was the victim of a homicide who died from “multiple sharp force injuries,” the Division of Criminal Investigation announced in a news release.

State medical examiner Dennis Klein said in an interview that the finding means a sharp-edged or pointed object such as a knife was used to attack Tibbetts. He declined comment on the details of her injuries, and said that his office would hire consultants, including forensic anthropologists, to analyze her remains further and make additional findings.

The man charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts’ death, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, allegedly led investigators to her body early Tuesday in a cornfield outside of Brooklyn, Iowa, the town where the University of Iowa psychology major was last seen one month prior. While investigators were confident then that the body was that of Tibbetts, the autopsy definitively confirmed her identity.

Prosecutors allege that Rivera abducted Tibbetts while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn on July 18, killed her and disposed of her body in the secluded location.

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Improve your financial picture ahead of potential downturn

The economy is growing, the stock market is soaring and unemployment remains low. It’s the perfect time to prepare for the worst.

Any economist or financial planner will tell you that no party goes on forever. And it’s much easier to make smart decisions when things are going well than when times are tough.

So, The Associated Press talked to a few experts about what steps to take now while things are hot to better position yourself for when they, inevitably, are not.

INVESTMENTS

Stocks just set the record for the longest bull market of all time at 3,453 days — about nine and a half years.

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There’s no meat, eggs or dairy — but don’t call them vegan

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not vegan, it’s “plant-based.” So will carnivores bite?

As companies try to cater to Americans’ interest in lighter eating, the term “plant-based” is replacing “vegan” and “vegetarian” on some foods. The worry is that the v-words might have unappetizing or polarizing associations.

Impossible Foods, which makes a meatless patty that’s supposed to taste like meat, even warns restaurants not to use those words when describing its burger on menus.

“For many people, their notion of a vegan is someone who’s wagging a finger at them if they eat any animal products. I’m vegan. But for a lot of people that term — it’s almost like a cult,” says Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods, whose burger is served in about 3,000 locations including White Castle.

The trendier sounding “plant-based” may appeal to a broader market, since “vegan” or “vegetarian” could alienate those who don’t adhere strictly to those diets. “Plant-based” may also distance products from a perception of vegan and vegetarian food as bland.

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Ohio State probe shows Meyer allowed bad behaviour for years

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Urban Meyer may have weathered scandal at Ohio State, but not without a lasting stain as an exhaustive report detailed behaviour that could easily have taken down a coach of lesser stature.

The investigation released soon after Meyer answered questions from reporters about his suspension Wednesday night showed that he tolerated bad behaviour for years from assistant coach Zach Smith, including domestic-violence accusations, drug addiction, lies and other acts that directly clash with the values Meyer touts publicly.

The findings represent a new turn in the saga , showing how the superstar coach — who preaches “core values” like honesty, treating women with respect and not using drugs or stealing — failed to live up to those ideals when handling several issues squarely within his control while dealing with the grandson of legendary Ohio State coach Earle Bruce.

Ohio State issued Meyer a relatively light three game suspension — granting enough leeway to still let him prep the Buckeyes for two games. He will also lose six weeks of salary in a year he’s slated to earn $7.6 million under a deal that runs through 2022.

“Do I think 73-8 (Meyer’s record at Ohio State) had something to do with it?” former UCLA coach and CBS analysts Rick Neuheisel said of Meyer’s punishment. “The answer is yes. The answer is absolutely.”