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

GAO: Climate change already costing US billions in losses

WASHINGTON (AP) — A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades.

A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year’s three major hurricanes and wildfires, expected to be among the most costly in the nation’s history.

The report predicts these costs will only grow in the future, potentially reaching a budget busting $35 billion a year by 2050. The report says the federal government doesn’t effectively plan for these recurring costs, classifying the financial exposure from climate-related costs as “high risk.”

“The federal government has not undertaken strategic government-wide planning to manage climate risks by using information on the potential economic effects of climate change to identify significant risks and craft appropriate federal responses,” the study said. “By using such information, the federal government could take the initial step in establishing government-wide priorities to manage such risks.”

GAO undertook the study following a request from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

___

Study: NYC could see bad flooding every 5 years

NEW YORK (AP) — Within the next three decades, floods that used to strike the New York City area only once every 500 years could occur every five years, according to a new scientific study released just days before the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.

The study, performed by researchers at several universities and published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, primarily blames the predicted change on sea-level rise caused by global warming.

“This is kind of a warning,” said Andra Garner, a Rutgers University scientist and study co-author. “How are we going to protect our coastal infrastructure?”

The researchers based their analysis on multiple models that factored in predictions for sea level rise and possible changes in the path of future hurricanes.

Many of the models had a dose of good news for the nation’s largest city: Climate changes may mean that storms are more violent, but are also likely to swing further off-shore, meaning storm surge heights aren’t likely to increase substantially through 2300.

___

10 Things to Know for Tuesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

1. TRUMP VOWS ‘NO CHANGE’ TO 401(K) TAX INCENTIVES

The president shoots down a GOP plan to raise federal revenue by taxing retirement fund earnings.

2. JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN DISCUSSES DEADLY NIGER AMBUSH

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford says four U.S. soldiers died in a “difficult firefight” in the Western African nation, but he offers few details.

___

Women on trial visit airport where Kim Jong Nam was attacked

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The two women accused of killing the North Korean leader’s half brother are touring at the Malaysian airport as participants in the murder trial visit the scene of the attack.

The entourage also at the Kuala Lumpur airport Tuesday includes the prosecutors, defence lawyers and the judge hearing the murder trial. Visits to crime scenes are common in Malaysian trials and are meant to give participants a better perspective of events as they unfolded.

High Court Judge Azmi Ariffin visited the check-in kiosk in the budget terminal where the two women alleged smeared VX nerve agent onto Kim Jong Nam’s face on Feb. 13.

Security footage shown previously during the trial showed the women, Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, rushing to restrooms afterward to wash their hands.

___

___

Angry soldier’s widow says Trump didn’t know husband’s name

WASHINGTON (AP) — A fallen soldier’s angry widow joined the stormy dispute with President Donald Trump on Monday over his response to her husband’s death, declaring that his failure to remember the soldier’s name in last week’s condolence call “made me cry.” He retorted that the call was “very respectful” and her accusation about her husband’s name simply wasn’t true.

Though Trump refused to let the new round of complaints go unanswered, he steered clear of the insults he exchanged last week with a congresswoman who had overhead the sympathy call.

The president spoke in public at two events during the day — including his awarding of the military Medal of Honor to a Vietnam-era Army medic — and made no mention of the case of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four soldiers killed Oct. 4 in a firefight with militants tied to the Islamic State group in Niger.

In addition to criticizing Trump, Myeshia Johnson, the sergeant’s widow, also complained bitterly that she had not been able to see her husband’s body.

“I need to see him so I will know that that is my husband,” she said. “I don’t know nothing, they won’t show me a finger, a hand.”

___

US general lays out Niger attack details; questions remain

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. special forces unit ambushed by Islamic militants in Niger didn’t call for help until an hour into their first contact with the enemy, the top U.S. general said Monday, as he tried to clear up some of the murky details of the assault that killed four American troops and has triggered a nasty political brawl.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the American people and the fallen soldiers’ families deserve answers about the deadly ambush in the west African nation. But he said he still lacks many of the details about how the attack unfolded, and he asked for patience as the military investigation continues.

Dunford’s description of the incident, however, underscored how long the mid-morning attack dragged on, and that it was many hours before the wounded and killed were evacuated. He said that “within minutes” after the unit called for assistance, a U.S. drone was moved into position overhead, providing surveillance and full-motion video. He declined to say if it was armed, but said it did not fire.

Another hour went by before French fighter jets arrived, but the wounded weren’t taken out until later in the afternoon when French helicopters arrived along with additional Niger troops. The bodies of the three Green Berets who were killed were evacuated that evening, he said.

“I make no judgment as to how long it took them to ask for support,” Dunford said. “I don’t know that they thought they needed support prior to that time. I don’t know how this attack unfolded. I don’t know what their initial assessment was of what they were confronted with.”

___

Wrongful conviction no surprise to Kansas black community

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Rose McIntyre says she wonders whether her refusal to grant regular sexual favours to a white detective prompted him to retaliate against her black son, who spent 23 years in a Kansas prison for a double murder he didn’t commit.

“I do believe that if I had complied with his request for me to become his ‘woman,’ that my son would likely not be in prison,” she said in a 2014 affidavit.

Her son, Lamonte McIntyre, 41, walked out of a court hearing on Oct. 13 a free man after Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree asked that charges from the 1994 murders be dismissed because of “manifest injustice.”

The case has outraged, but not surprised, the poor black community of Kansas City, Kansas, and highlights why many African-Americans do not trust police and the U.S. criminal justice system.

“In my community, this is a norm,” Lamonte McIntyre said Saturday in a telephone interview. “We are not shocked or surprised at the injustice or the brutality … of law enforcement. This is an everyday life for us.”

___

Senate advances $36.5 billion disaster relief package

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Monday gave a preliminary OK to a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would provide Puerto Rico with a much-needed infusion of cash and keep the federal flood insurance program from running out of money to pay claims.

The 79-16 procedural vote set the stage for a final vote, most likely Tuesday.

The measure also provides $18.7 billion to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s rapidly dwindling emergency disaster accounts. On Monday, FEMA announced more than $500 million in aid to Puerto Rico, including $285 million to help restore power and water services to the devastated island. An additional $16 billion would permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program to pay an influx of Harvey-related claims.

But the bill rejects requests from the powerful Texas and Florida congressional delegations for additional money to rebuild after hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, whose state’s citrus industry endured significant losses during Irma, sought to add $3 billion in immediate agriculture assistance to the measure, but was denied by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said money for crop losses would be in subsequent aid measures.

Senate passage on Tuesday would send the measure to President Donald Trump for his signature.

___

What to know about 401(k) plans amid talk of tax change

NEW YORK (AP) — The 401(k) may be in Washington’s crosshairs.

Congress is looking for ways to raise revenue as part of a tax overhaul plan, and one of the methods reportedly under consideration is to curtail how much pretax money workers can contribute to their 401(k) and similar accounts. Such a move would strike at a way that tens of millions of Americans use to save for retirement.

The suggestion has already run into some resistance, even if it isn’t an official policy proposal. President Donald Trump said Monday in a tweet that “There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!”

Here’s a look at how prevalent the 401(k) has become and how it’s used:

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN A 401(K)?

___

Baseball is hot! World Series opens in LA with high temps

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The fastballs aren’t the only things hitting triple digits at the World Series.

This Fall Classic is going to feel like summer.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros will meet on what’s expected to be a 100-degree Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, beginning possibly the warmest World Series ever.

An October heat wave slugged Southern California on Monday, with the temperature reaching 104 degrees shortly after lunchtime in Chavez Ravine. It was still blazing when the Dodgers and Astros showed up at Dodger Stadium for brief late-afternoon workouts that stretched into the early evening.

The heat isn’t likely to bother the players much: Both of these warm-weather teams are used to sweating it out all summer long.