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

Kentucky hardest hit as storms leave dozens dead in 5 states

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — A monstrous tornado, carving a track that could rival the longest on record, ripped across the middle of the U.S. in a stormfront that killed dozens and tore apart a candle factory, crushed a nursing home, derailed a train and smashed an Amazon warehouse.

“I pray that there will be another rescue. I pray that there will be another one or two,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said, as crews sifted through the wreckage of the candle factory in Mayfield, where 110 people were working overnight Friday when the storm hit. Forty of them were rescued.

“We had to, at times, crawl over casualties to get to live victims,” said Jeremy Creason, the city’s fire chief and EMS director.

In Kentucky alone, 22 were confirmed dead by Saturday afternoon, including 11 in and around Bowling Green. But Beshear said upwards of 70 may have been killed when a twister touched down for more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) in his state and that the number of deaths could eventually exceed 100 across 10 or more counties.

The death toll of 36 across five states includes six people in Illinois, where an Amazon facility was hit; four in Tennessee; two in Arkansas, where a nursing home was destroyed; and two in Missouri.

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In storm’s aftermath, Kentucky residents struggle with loss

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Jarred Holmes was supposed to have been working inside a candle factory when it was ripped apart by a monstrous tornado that killed an untold number of employees and trapped many others under mounds of debris.

But Holmes’ fiancee had insisted he stay home Friday night because of the looming weather.

“She told me she had a bad feeling,” Holmes, 20, said Saturday outside the factory, where he awaited word on his coworkers. “I was going to go to work, but she basically demanded me to stay home.”

Kentucky residents affected by the twister grappled with its force and destruction and shared harrowing stories of survival even as some rushed out to help with rescue efforts. Gov. Andy Beshear said upwards of 70 people may have died when the tornado touched down for more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) in his state, but the number of deaths could exceed 100 across 10 or more counties.

Vernon Evans sifted through debris at one of the many residential houses that were torn to bits near Mayfield‘s downtown center. Earlier Saturday, he said he helped firefighters evacuate people from under a brick wall that collapsed at a nursing home. He recalled finding one resident dead and lying facedown in a few inches of water.

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Watchdog: Federal anti-terror unit investigated journalists

WASHINGTON (AP) — A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog.

Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress.

Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine. “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access too, that’s just status quo, that’s what everyone does,” Rambo was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.

The AP obtained a redacted copy of a more than 500-page report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general that included the same statement, but with the speaker’s name blacked out. The border protection agency is part of Homeland Security.

The revelations raised alarm in news organizations and prompted a demand for a full explanation.

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Strahan flies to space with astronaut’s daughter: ‘Wow!’

Football star and TV celebrity Michael Strahan caught a ride to space with Jeff Bezos’ rocket-launching company Saturday, sharing the trip with the daughter of America’s first astronaut.

“TOUCHDOWN has a new meaning now!!!” he tweeted after landing.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted off from West Texas, sending the capsule on a 10-minute flight with the two VIP guests and four paying customers. Their automated capsule soared to an altitude of 66 miles (106 kilometers), providing a few minutes of weightlessness before parachuting into the desert. The booster also came back to land successfully.

It was five minutes and 50 miles (187 kilometers) shorter than Alan Shepard’s Mercury flight from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961. His eldest daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley, took along a tiny piece of his Freedom 7 capsule as well as mementos from his Apollo 14 moonshot. She also packed some golf balls; her dad hit a couple on the lunar surface.

A co-host of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Strahan bubbled over with excitement in updates for the show all week. He took along his Super Bowl ring and retired New York Giants jersey No. 92. Bezos stashed a football on board that will go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

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Back-to-back: Young gives Alabama consecutive Heisman wins

NEW YORK (AP) — Bryce Young didn’t just meet the standard set by the star quarterbacks who preceded him at Alabama, he exceeded it.

Young became the first Crimson Tide quarterback to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night, making Alabama the fifth school with consecutive winners of college football’s most prestigious player of the year award.

Young received 684 first-place votes and 2,311 points to easily outdistance Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (78,954).

Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett (28, 631) finished third and Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud (12, 399) was fourth. Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr. (31, 325) was fifth, putting two defensive players in the top five for the first time since 1962.

A year after former teammate DeVonta Smith won the Heisman, Young received 83% of total points available, the seventh highest among 87 winners. He was named on 90% of all ballots, also the seventh highest in Heisman history.

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South African doctors see signs omicron is milder than delta

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As the omicron variant sweeps through South Africa, Dr. Unben Pillay is seeing dozens of sick patients a day. Yet he hasn’t had to send anyone to the hospital.

That’s one of the reasons why he, along with other doctors and medical experts, suspect that the omicron version really is causing milder COVID-19 than delta, even if it seems to be spreading faster.

“They are able to manage the disease at home,” Pillay said of his patients. “Most have recovered within the 10 to 14-day isolation period.” said Pillay.

And that includes older patients and those with health problems that can make them more vulnerable to becoming severely ill from a coronavirus infection, he said.

In the two weeks since omicron first was reported in Southern Africa, other doctors have shared similar stories. All caution that it will take many more weeks to collect enough data to be sure, their observations and the early evidence offer some clues.

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Capitol rioters’ social media posts influencing sentencings

For many rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, self-incriminating messages, photos and videos that they broadcast on social media before, during and after the insurrection are influencing even their criminal sentences.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson read aloud some of Russell Peterson’s posts about the riot before she sentenced the Pennsylvania man to 30 days imprisonment. “Overall I had fun lol,” Peterson posted on Facebook.

The judge told Peterson that his posts made it “extraordinarily difficult” for her to show him leniency.

“The ’lol’ particularly stuck in my craw because, as I hope you’ve come to understand, nothing about January 6th was funny,” Jackson added. “No one locked in a room, cowering under a table for hours, was laughing.”

Among the biggest takeaways so far from the Justice Department’s prosecution of the insurrection is how large a role social media has played, with much of the most damning evidence coming from rioters’ own words and videos.

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EXPLAINER: What’s behind ‘sordid’ evidence at Potter trial?

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — After prosecutors spent nearly a day reconstructing the moments after a suburban Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright, one of her attorneys had heard enough. Paul Engh asked for a mistrial, decrying the “sordid pictures” that he said were irrelevant and were shown repeatedly to inflame the jury’s sympathies.

But those details and the testimony of secondary witnesses, which may not directly affect whether the jury finds former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter guilty or acquits her, are part of a bigger-picture prosecution strategy to not only convict her of manslaughter, but to send her to prison for a longer term than she could get otherwise.

Minnesota judges must follow state sentencing guidelines with a range that offers little leeway without having to explain their reasons. If prosecutors want to get a sentence longer than the range allows, they have to persuade a judge that aggravating factors warrant a tougher sentence. And that’s what prosecutor Matthew Frank said he was doing.

Frank and his fellow prosecutors on Thursday presented a stream of officers, emergency medical workers and civilians who gave extensive details — accompanied by sometimes graphic videos and photos — about what happened in the minutes between Potter shooting Wright and paramedics declaring him dead at the scene where Potter and other officers tried to arrest the 20-year-old during a traffic stop.

Potter and the officer she was training, Anthony Luckey, stopped Wright the afternoon of April 11 for expired license tags and an air freshener hanging from his mirror. Testimony and video evidence shows that Wright got out of the car but tried to break away and get back in when the officers told him there was a warrant for his arrest on a gross misdemeanor weapons possession violation.

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San Francisco’s vaunted tolerance dims amid brazen crimes

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Caitlin Foster fell in love with San Francisco’s people and beauty and moved to the city a dozen years ago. But after repeatedly clearing away used needles, other drug paraphernalia and human feces outside the bar she manages, and too many encounters with armed people in crisis, her affection for the city has soured.

“It was a goal to live here, but now I’m here and I’m like, ‘Where am I going to move to now?’ I’m over it,’” said Foster, who manages Noir Lounge in the trendy Hayes Valley neighborhood.

A series of headline-grabbing crime stories — mobs of people smashing windows and grabbing luxury purses in the downtown Union Square shopping district and daytime shootings in the touristy Haight-Ashbury — has only exacerbated a general feeling of vulnerability. Residents wake up to news of attacks on Asian American seniors, burglarized restaurants, and boarded-up storefronts in the city’s once-vibrant downtown.

San Franciscans take pride in their liberal political bent and generously approve tax measures for schools and the homeless. They accept that trashy streets, tent encampments and petty crime are the price to pay to live in an urban wonderland.

But the frustration felt by Foster, who moved from Seattle in search of more sunshine, is growing among residents who now see a city in decline. There are signs that the city famous for its tolerance is losing patience.

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4 women met Maxwell as teens. They’re accusing her as adults

NEW YORK (AP) — One was an aspiring musician looking for her big break in show business. Another was a model striving for a leg up in British society. A third was a struggling middle school dropout. The last was an impressionable high school student.

All were drawn into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit as teenagers and now have also testified as key accusers in the sex-abuse trial ofBritish socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

The women’s testimony in federal court in Manhattan, at times emotional, offered sordid details about allegations Maxwell groomed them to participate in sexual massages with Epstein. The defense says Maxwell is being made to take the fall for Epstein, who died by suicide awaiting his own sex-abuse trial in 2019.

The first three women testified as Jane, Kate and Carolyn — first names or pseudonyms intended to protect their privacy. The last was Annie Farmer, who took the witness stand using her real name.

Here is what they said during two weeks of testimony for the government,which rested its case Friday. The defense is set to begin its own case next week: