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

Colorado man charged with murder says wife killed daughters

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man told police that he killed his pregnant wife in “a rage” when he discovered she had strangled their two daughters after he sought a separation, according to an arrest affidavit released on Monday.

Colorado prosecutors, though, filed formal charges earlier in the day, accusing the former oil and gas worker of murdering his entire family days before he was interviewed by local television stations and pleaded for his missing family’s safe return home.

Christopher Watts, who is being held without bail, is due back in court on Tuesday morning to be advised of the charges filed against him.

District Attorney Michael Rourke declined to answer most questions about the case Monday but said his office has three prosecutors assigned to it. Rourke also said it was too early to discuss whether he will seek the death penalty.

Under state law, the top punishment for homicide is the death penalty or life in prison.

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Trump ready to ease rules on coal-fired power plants

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is set to roll back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s efforts to slow global warming, the Clean Power Plan that restricts greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

A plan to be announced Tuesday would give states broad authority to determine how to restrict carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The Environmental Protect Agency announced late Monday that acting administrator Andrew Wheeler planned to brief the news media by telephone Tuesday on what the administration is calling the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule — greenhouse guidelines for states to set performance standards for existing coal-fired power plants.

President Donald Trump is expected to promote the new plan at an appearance in West Virginia on Tuesday.

The plan is also expected to let states relax pollution rules for power plants that need upgrades, according to a summary of the plan and several people familiar with the full proposal who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the plan publicly.

Combined with a planned rollback of car-mileage standards, the plan represents a significant retreat from Obama-era efforts to fight climate change and would stall an Obama-era push to shift away from coal and toward less-polluting energy sources such as natural gas, wind and solar power. Trump has already vowed to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement as he pushes to revive the coal industry.

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Los Angeles authorities looking into Asia Argento allegation

NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities said Monday that they are looking into sexual assault allegations by a young actor against Italian actress Asia Argento — one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darren Harris said investigators from his department will seek to talk to Jimmy Bennett or his representatives about the alleged incident at a Southern California hotel in 2013, when Bennett was 17.

The move comes in response to a New York Times story saying Argento, 42, settled a legal notice of intent to sue filed by Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her.

Argento and Bennett co-starred in a 2004 film called “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” in which Argento played Bennett’s prostitute mother.

Bennett says in the notice that he had sex with Argento in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, California, in 2013. The age of consent in California is 18.

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Confederate statue on UNC campus toppled by protesters

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A Confederate statue in the heart of North Carolina’s flagship university was toppled Monday night during a rally by hundreds of protesters who decried the memorial known as “Silent Sam” as a symbol of racist heritage.

The crowd gathered across the street from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill plaza for a series of speakers at 7 p.m. before heading over to the quadrangle. Then, about two hours into the protest, a group surrounded the statue and pulled it down, according to television footage. Once it was on the ground, demonstrators kicked it and cheered.

A half-hour after it was pulled down, a crowd of dozens remained standing around the empty pedestal. The crowd chanted “Tar Heels!” and “Whose Campus? Our Campus!” Cars honked as they passed nearby on the college town’s main drag.

Many students, faculty and alumni have called the statue a racist image and asked officials to remove it, though some argued it was a tribute to fallen ancestors. UNC leaders including Chancellor Carol Folt had previously said state law prevented the school from removing the statue.

Word that the statue had fallen drew curious students out.

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Watergate wisdom? Cohen lawyer turns to Nixon turncoat

NEW YORK (AP) — If anyone knows what Michael Cohen is up against, his lawyer figures it’s John Dean, the former White House counsel who turned on President Richard Nixon and helped run him out of office.

Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, told The Associated Press on Monday that he’s been talking with Dean over the last few months “to hear his wisdom, the lessons that he learned and his reflections on what he saw Michael Cohen going through.”

Davis’ revelation was widely seen as the latest sign that Cohen, who worked as a New York lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, could be seeking a deal to co-operate against Trump in the Russia probe. It also comes as federal prosecutors appear close to charging Cohen with financial crimes.

Two people familiar with the federal investigation into Cohen told the AP on Monday that Cohen could be charged by the end of the month with crimes including bank fraud in his dealings with the taxi industry. Davis has declined to talk about potential charges or a plea deal.

Davis, a special counsel to President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, said he’s been close with Dean since appearing regularly with him on MSNBC during Clinton’s impeachment.

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Army reinstates at least 36 discharged immigrants

At least three dozen immigrant recruits who were booted from the U.S. Army after enlisting with a promised pathway to citizenship are being brought back to serve, according to court records filed Monday.

Since Aug. 17, the U.S. Army has reinstated 32 reservists, and revoked discharge orders of another six enlistees who had sued. Another 149 discharges have been suspended and are under review, said Army Assistant Deputy for Recruiting and Retention Linden St. Clair, in the filing.

The reinstatements follow an Associated Press story in early July that revealed dozens of immigrant enlistees were being discharged or had their contracts cancelled. Some said they were given no reason for their discharge. Others said the Army informed them they’d been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defence Department had not completed background checks on them.

They had enlisted under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, known as (MAVNI), to increase the number of soldiers with critical language or medical skills.

The reinstatements come weeks after the Army reversed course, suspending the discharges at least temporarily.

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Hard to see, hard to breathe: US West struggles with smoke

SEATTLE (AP) — Smoke from wildfires clogged the sky across the U.S. West, blotting out mountains and city skylines from Oregon to Colorado, delaying flights and forcing authorities to tell even healthy adults in the Seattle area to stay indoors.

As large cities dealt with unhealthy air for a second summer in a row, experts warned that it could become more common as the American West faces larger and more destructive wildfires because of heat and drought blamed on climate change. Officials also must prioritize resources during the longer firefighting season, so some blazes may be allowed to burn in unpopulated areas.

Seattle’s Space Needle was swathed in haze, and it was impossible to see nearby mountains. Portland, Oregon, residents who were up early saw a blood-red sun shrouded in smoke and huffed their way through another day of polluted air. Portland Public Schools suspended all outdoor sports practices.

Thick smoke in Denver blocked the view of some of Colorado’s famous mountains and prompted an air quality health advisory for the northeastern quarter of the state.

The smoky pollution, even in Idaho and Colorado, came from wildfires in British Columbia and the Northwest’s Cascade Mountains, clouding a season that many spend outdoors.

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AP sources: Prosecutors preparing charges against Cohen

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, could be charged before the end of the month with bank fraud in his dealings with the taxi industry and with committing other financial crimes, two people familiar with the federal probe said Monday.

The people confirmed reports that federal prosecutors in Manhattan were considering charging Cohen after months of speculation over a case that has been a distraction for the White House with the midterm elections approaching.

The people, who weren’t authorized to discuss the case and spoke on Monday on condition of anonymity, refused to answer questions about speculation that Cohen still might strike a plea deal with prosecutors requiring his co-operation.

Absent a quick resolution, it’s believed that prosecutors would put off a decision on how to go forward with the case until after the election in compliance with an informal Justice Department policy of avoiding bringing prosecutions that could be seen as political and influence voters.

Both the U.S. attorney’s office and an attorney for Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on Monday. There was no immediate response to a message seeking comment from Sterling National Bank, one of the institutions that loaned Cohen money.

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Born out of the financial crisis, bull market nears record

NEW YORK (AP) — The bull market in U.S. stocks is about to become the longest in history.

If stocks don’t drop significantly by the close of trading Wednesday, the bull market that began in March 2009 will have lasted nine years, five months and 13 days, a record that few would have predicted when the market struggled to find its footing after a 50 per cent plunge during the financial crisis.

The long rally has added trillions of dollars to household wealth, helping the economy, and stands as a testament to the ability of large U.S. companies to squeeze out profits in tough times and confidence among investors as they shrugged off repeated crises and kept buying.

“There was no manic trading, there was no panic buying or selling,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of Cresset Wealth Advisors. “It’s been pretty steady.”

The question now is when the rally will end. The Federal Reserve is undoing many of the stimulative measures that supported the market, including keeping interest rates near zero. There are also mounting threats to global trade that have unsettled investors.

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J. Lo gets emotional at MTV VMAs, a show that feels flat

NEW YORK (AP) — With most of music industry’s top acts absent, the two-hour MTV Video Music Awards lacked star power and felt flat — and it was up to a pop veteran to bring the house down.

Jennifer Lopez, who earned the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for lifetime achievement, provided the night’s most energetic performance as she gave a lengthy performance of her hit songs.

She started off slow — Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott’s unamused faces perfectly captured the vibe — but she hit a strong stride when she sang old smashes like “Jenny from the Block,” ”I’m Real” — where Ja Rule joined her onstage — and “All I Have,” which showed the skilled dancer’s vocal range.

But Lopez’s speech was more stirring than her powerful performance: She was emotional as she thanked her children and beau Alex Rodriguez onstage at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

She was teary-eyed and looked at her “two little angels,” as she called them, and said, “I stand here stronger and better than ever … so thank you Max and Emme.” She called Rodriguez, who filmed her performance with his phone, “my twin soul.”