SINCLAIR, Maine — Residents in a Maine town believe they’ve created the world’s largest ice carousel on a frozen lake.

About 100 volunteers cut a circle in the ice that’s 427 feet in diameter, and they used four outboard boat motors to get it rotating Saturday. It happened on Long Lake in Sinclair in northern Maine.

[Ice carousel creators ready for round 2]

Mike Cyr, one of the organizers, announced, “we got ‘er spinning!”

He says the ice carousel is big enough to break the world record held by a town in Finland. A surveying team confirmed the measurements on Saturday.

[Efforts to create world record ice carousel fall short over weekend but will continue]

Volunteers used augurs to bore more than 1,300 holes, along with chainsaws and other equipment, to cut the massive hole in lake ice that was 30 inches thick. They waited for warmer weather to get it spinning.

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“Baby Joe” had slipped out of the house before, his parents told reporters, but never in the middle of the night and never for this long.

Joe Clyde Daniels’s parents told investigators that they went to wake the 5-year-old for school around 5:20 a.m. Wednesday, but he was gone.

His parents said they usually located him within shouting distance of their house in Dickson, about 50 miles west of Nashville, Tennessee.

On Wednesday morning, the couple searched their property on Garner’s Creek Road for an hour, then called police. The call led to a search that consumed their community and drew in hundreds of volunteers, all looking for an autistic 5-year-old who never talked.

Joseph Ray Daniels, 28, told Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN that he was afraid his son was “lonely, tired, scared and confused.” They were hoping for the best, Daniels added, but they were still “really scared.”

On Saturday, the search for a missing boy turned into a murder investigation after his father’s confession, authorities said.

Daniels told investigators that he killed his 5-year-old son, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, then hid the boy’s 65-pound body.

Daniels has been arrested and charged with criminal homicide, authorities said. He is being held in jail, with bail set at $1 million. It was unclear whether he had hired or been appointed an attorney.

“It’s just been a devastating end to this, with our hope the whole time being that there would be a safe rescue,” Sheriff Jeff Bledsoe told reporters at a Saturday morning news conference. “A lot of people have poured their heart and soul into this in the community, and even outside of our community has rallied around each agency and organization there to support us and carry us through this week.”

As authorities turned the rescue mission into a recovery mission and apprised the community of the criminal allegations, one question remained: Why?

Investigators have not released a motive — or even said whether Clyde gave one when he confessed.

Authorities did not immediately suspect foul play when Joe’s family called them Wednesday.

“My son has disappeared and we cannot find him,” his father told the dispatcher who answered his call, according to a 911 recording obtained by Nashville ABC-affiliate WKRN. “He is 5 and has autism. … He must have unlocked the door. He got out.”

A person passing by the family’s house around 1 a.m. reported seeing what appeared to be a boy within 100 yards of the family’s home.

Over the ensuing three days, hundreds of neighbors who heard of the disappearance volunteered to join the search, coordinating their efforts at a nearby Baptist church where a mobile command center had been set up. The search was expanded to a one-mile radius, then a three-mile radius. Investigators examined what appeared to be a child’s footprints, drained a pond and followed search dogs who indicated that they’d picked up the child’s scent. All were dead ends.

On Friday, Daniels told WKRN that the family was still worried about their child.

A day later, the Tennessee Bureau of investigation said it had an update.

“This is not the news that anyone wanted to hear,” the bureau said in a statement posted on its Facebook page around noon Saturday. “The father of the Dickson County child who was the subject of an Endangered Child Alert this week has been arrested and changed with the homicide of 5-year-old Joe Clyde Daniels.”

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BEIRUT — Syrian opposition activists and rescuers said Sunday that a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town near the capital has killed at least 40 people, allegations denied by the Syrian government.

The alleged attack in the town of Douma occurred late Saturday amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce with the Army of Islam rebel group. The reports could not be independently verified.

First responders said they found families suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths. The opposition-linked Syrian Civil Defense were able to document 42 fatalities but were impeded from searching further by strong odors that gave their rescuers difficulties breathing, said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the group, which is known as the White Helmets.

A joint statement by the Civil Defense and the Syrian American Medical Society, a relief organization, said more than 500 people, mostly women and children, were brought to medical centers with difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, and burning of the eyes. It said patients gave off a chlorine-like smell. Some had blue skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation.

It said the symptoms were consistent with chemical exposure. One patient, a woman, had convulsions and pinpoint pupils, suggesting exposure to a nerve agent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 people were killed in Douma on Saturday, including around 40 who died from suffocation. But it said the suffocations were the result of shelters collapsing on people inside.

“Until this minute, no one has been able to find out the kind of agent that was used,” Mahmoud, the White Helmets’ spokesman, said in a video statement from Douma.

He said the government was also targeting homes, clinics, and first responder facilities with conventional explosives and barrel bombs. Most of the medical points and ambulances of the town have been put out of service.

Videos posted online by the White Helmets showed victims, including toddlers in diapers, breathing through oxygen masks at makeshift hospitals.

The Syrian government, in a statement posted on the state-run news agency SANA, strongly denied the allegations. It said the claims were “fabrications” by the Army of Islam, calling it a “failed attempt” to impede government advances.

“The army, which is advancing rapidly and with determination, does not need to use any kind of chemical agents,” the statement said.

Syrian government forces resumed their offensive on rebel-held Douma on Friday afternoon after a 10-day truce collapsed over disagreement regarding the evacuation of Army of Islam fighters. Violence resumed days after hundreds of opposition fighters and their relatives left Douma toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria. Douma is the last rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta.

The alleged gas attack in Douma comes almost exactly a year after a chemical attack in the northern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people. That attack prompted the U.S. to launch several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base. President Donald Trump said the attack was meant to deter further Syrian use of illegal weapons.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Washington was closely following “disturbing reports” of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma.

“These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community,” she said in a statement late Saturday.

The Syrian government and its ally, Russia, denied any involvement in the alleged gas attack.

Douma is in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta. A chemical attack in eastern Ghouta in 2013 that was widely blamed on government forces killed hundreds of people, prompting the U.S. to threaten military action before later backing down.

Syria denies ever using chemical weapons during the seven-year civil war, and says it eliminated its chemical arsenal under a 2013 agreement brokered by the U.S. and Russia after the attack in eastern Ghouta.

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NEW YORK — A raging fire that tore through a 50th-floor apartment at Trump Tower on Saturday killed a man inside and sent flames and thick, black smoke pouring from windows of the president’s namesake skyscraper.

New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the cause of the blaze is not yet known but the apartment was “virtually entirely on fire” when firefighters arrived after 5:30 p.m.

“It was a very difficult fire, as you can imagine,” Nigro told reporters outside the building in midtown Manhattan. “The apartment is quite large.”

Todd Brassner, 67, who was in the apartment, was taken to a hospital and died a short time later, the New York Police Department said. Property records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Brassner was an art dealer who had purchased his 50th-floor unit in 1996.

Officials said four firefighters also suffered minor injuries. An investigation is ongoing.

Shortly after news of the fire broke, Trump, who was in Washington, tweeted: “Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”

Asked if that assessment was accurate, Nigro said, “It’s a well-built building. The upper floors, the residence floors, are not sprinklered.”

Fire sprinklers were not required in New York City high-rises when Trump Tower was completed in 1983. Subsequent updates to the building code required commercial skyscrapers to install the sprinklers retroactively, but owners of older residential high-rises are not required to install sprinklers unless the building undergoes major renovations.

Some fire-safety advocates pushed for a requirement that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with sprinklers when New York City passed a law requiring them in new residential highrises in 1999, but officials in the administration of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani said that would be too expensive.

Nigro noted that no member of the Trump family was in the 664-foot tower Saturday.

Trump’s family has an apartment on the top floors of the 58-story building, but he has spent little time in New York since taking office. The headquarters of the Trump Organization is on the 26th floor.

Nigro said firefighters and Secret Service members checked on the condition of Trump’s apartment. About 200 firefighters and emergency medical service workers responded to the fire, he said.

Some residents said they didn’t get any notification from building management to evacuate.

Lalitha Masson, a 76-year-old resident, called it “a very, very terrifying experience.”

Masson told The New York Times that she did not receive any announcement about leaving, and that when she called the front desk no one answered.

“When I saw the television, I thought we were finished,” said Masson, who lives on the 36th floor with her husband, Narinder, who is 79 and has Parkinson’s disease.

She said she started praying because she felt it was the end.

“I called my oldest son and said goodbye to him because the way it looked everything was falling out of the window, and it reminded me of 9/11,” Masson said.

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DAHLONEGA, Georgia — Their classmates took to the streets to protest gun violence and to implore adults to restrict guns, seeming to forecast a generational shift in attitudes toward the Second Amendment. But at high school and college gun ranges around the country, these teens and young adults gather to practice shooting and talk about the positive influence firearms have had on their lives.

What do they say they learn? Discipline. Patience. Responsibility.

“I’ve never gone out onto a range and not learned something new,” said Lydia Odlin, a 21-year-old member of the Georgia Southern University rifle team.

There are an estimated 5,000 teams at high schools and universities around the country, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and their popularity hasn’t waned despite criticism after it emerged that the gunman who killed 14 students and three staff members at a Florida high school had been a member of the JROTC rifle team. The youths who are involved, coaches and parents say there’s an enormous difference between someone bent on violence and school gun clubs that focus on safety and teach skills that make navigating life’s hardships easier.

The clubs use a variety of firearms — from air rifles that shoot pellets to 9 mm pistols that fire bullets. Its members invest hundreds of dollars in specialized stiff uniforms and shoes that provide stability and support for spending hours standing, kneeling or lying prone to fire at targets down range. Some have hopes of representing the U.S. in the Olympics. Some simply love the camaraderie and mental focus required.

On a recent weekend, close to a dozen high school and college gun team members gathered at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega to work with JP O’Connor, a coach affiliated with USA Shooting, the Olympic organization. For the first hour he only talks — not about techniques or scores, but about mental strategy.

“I want to encourage you to be self-aware and to be disciplined about what you’re doing,” he said. “If you are patient with yourself, life is a lot easier — or less difficult.”

Many of the students came with their parents. All of them say they have no qualms about putting a firearm in the hands of kids, many of whom are too young to drive a car, vote or buy alcohol.

“So many people have assumed — and I picked that word on purpose — that guns are bad,” O’Connor told The Associated Press. “Some people are, ‘I can’t believe you’re teaching kids to shoot.’ Well, I’m not teaching kids to shoot. I’m teaching kids life skills. And I’m teaching them about a topic that is very contentious … and when we educate people about something and they’re not ignorant about it, then we’re actually safer.”

Emily Clegg from Monroe accompanied her 16-year-old daughter, Ashley, to O’Connor’s session. Clegg said that in the two years Ashley has been involved in the JROTC program, she’s seen “tremendous, positive things” happen to her, from motivation and leadership to learning to set goals.

Everyone is upset by gun violence, “but I don’t think what students are doing here will lead to that,” Clegg said.

Mike Lewis, who started the Carrollton High School team, recalled bringing his .22-caliber rifle to school in the 1980s. He might open up the trunk in the school parking lot to show it off to his classmates or one of the teachers. “Now there’s a whole knee-jerk reaction based on ignorance and misunderstanding,” he lamented.

It’s a unique sport, he said, that doesn’t attract typical jocks. Rather than brawn, it’s a very brainy sport, and he’s proud that most of his team is made up of straight-A students.

Kevin Neuendorf, the director of marketing communications at USA Shooting, said views toward school gun clubs are part of the cultural divide in the country.

“There are a lot of misperceptions out there about the gun culture and all that, but for many it’s just a way of life. Most people who are shooters, respect the sport and respect the game and have a respect for the firearm they shoot and for the people around them,” he said. “I question anybody who can’t go out to a gun range and have fun. That’s the way our athletes see it and that’s the way our sport is built.

“It’s no different than playing basketball or soccer. … For our athletes and for our club members and for our parents, that gun is no different than Serena’s tennis racket … and through that gun and through that firearm, what comes? Unbelievable discipline, opportunity, showing them success. Not every kid can be successful at basketball or football.”

Odlin grew up in Maine, a microcosm of the country’s divisions over guns. In the northern, more rural parts of the state, hunting is more prevalent. But in the southern, more-populated part, she said, she wasn’t even allowed to wear her rifle team’s T-shirt in high school.

“Overall, it was something you just didn’t talk about. You just kind of avoided the topic of guns,” she said.

As soon as she moved to Georgia, she was greeted with more acceptance.

“You say you’re on a rifle team, there’s no negativity surrounded by it. It’s, ‘Oh cool. What do you shoot? How far do you shoot?'”

Few go on to compete at the college level. After spending time working at a range and honing her skills, Odlin made the team in her second year. What she learns on the range, she said, has helped her in untold ways.

“You can’t become a quality shooter without becoming a quality person off the range, too. The amount of focus just blends right into schoolwork,” she said.

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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Portland had a 2-1 lead early, but the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (2-0) scored four times in the fifth inning, and beat the Sea Dogs 5-3 on Saturday afternoon at NYSEG Stadium. Portland has dropped the first two games of the series.

The Sea Dogs scored their first run of the season in the second inning, as Josh Tobias blasted a homer off Andrew Church (ND), giving Portland a 1-0 lead. Binghamton tied the game in the second inning on Jhoan Urena’s RBI infield single.Portland had a 2-1 lead early, but the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (2-0) scored four times in the fifth inning and beat the Sea Dogs 5-3 on Saturday afternoon at NYSEG Stadium. Portland has dropped the first two games of the series.

The Sea Dogs scored their first run of the season in the second inning, as Josh Tobias blasted a homer off Andrew Church (ND), giving Portland a 1-0 lead. Binghamton tied the game in the second inning on Jhoan Urena’s RBI infield single.

Esteban Quiroz game the ‘Dogs a 2-1 lead with a homer to right field. The game would change in the fifth inning. Portland stranded two runners in scoring position in their half and Binghamton made them pay. Dedgar Jimenez (0-1) left the game after a game-tying double by Peter Alonso. Daniel McGrath entered for his Double-A debut and hit Patrick Mazeika to load the bases. On the next pitch, Tomas Nido (2-for-4, 3 RBI, 2 2B) cleared the bases with a double.

Jimenez suffered his first loss since last June 28 against Lynchburg. He was 5-0 in eight career starters entering Saturday’s contest.

Binghamton’s bullpen worked 4.2 innings on just one hit and one run, that happening in the ninth on a sac-fly by Tobias.

Danny Mars went 2-for-4 with a double, Tobias went 2-for-3, as Portland had seven hits.

The series concludes on Sunday afternoon at 2:05 PM from NYSEG Stadium. Right-hander Mike Shawaryn makes his Double-A debut for Portland. Binghamton counters with righty Nabil Crismatt. Radio coverage begins at 1:50 PM on the U.S. Cellular Sea Dogs Radio Network and the TuneIn App. The game is also available on MiLB.TV beginning at 2:00 PM.

Portland opens up their 25th season at Hadlock Field on Friday, April 13th vs. Binghamton. Tickets are available at 207-874-9300 and seadogs.com. Book your nine inning vacation today!

One of the real pleasures of getting old is the joy of making fun of the young. It’s easy and few people get their feelings hurt because the young don’t listen to the old on anything that might be called a regular basis.

Maybe we should show the young a little more respect. We should admit that we do, occasionally, learn from them.

We make fun of their styles, then adopt them. (“Why do they dye their hair those unearthly colors?” asked women of 55 who, now at 60, are delightedly sporting waves of violet and magenta in their own). We ridicule their dependence on technology, then beg for their help when we decide to rely on the same technology ourselves. (“Those kids and their phones!” sneer grandparents who then must request emergency assistance when we can’t figure out how to update our iTunes.) We guffaw at their gross misuse of language and then integrate their hipster terms into our vocabularies. (“My aunt thought ‘LOL’ meant ‘lots of love’ and kept using it everywhere,” one of my students explained, with pity in her voice. “But then one of her friends put up a heartbroken Facebook message about her dog’s death, and my aunt learned the hard way about the correct use of acronyms.”)

Do you remember the stunning scene from “Mad Men” when, after a charming picnic in a park, the Draper family lifted up their gingham blanket, shook off the paper napkins, potato chip bags and aluminum cans, and left their garbage on the ground? The concept of littering was not part of their civic or moral framework. The Draper kids were not singing “Don’t be a litterbug because every litter bit hurts.” Like other families of the early 1960s, the Drapers weren’t being deliberate slobs — both parents made sure the kids’ hands were clean enough to get into the car — but just didn’t think about keeping public spaces free from trash.

The viewers of “Mad Men” were outraged by the littering scene because, although the show’s big sins like adultery and misogyny cut across generations and cultures, smaller transgressions are signs of class and markers of a certain moment in time.

Not all change is good, but much of it is. Consider sneezing into our elbows instead of into our hands. Consider designated drivers. Consider cleaning up after walking the dog. Consider sunblock. We need to remind ourselves of these improvements when we’re tempted into wholesale celebrations of the so-called good old days.

Sure, there was the lovely smell that sheets had when they’d been hung on the line outside in the sun, as recalled in a recent group email sent around by a friend who felt a need to inspire one big sigh of nostalgia.

But it started me thinking: The women who’d spent their days pinning up heavy laundry had sore shoulders and weary backs since they’d also been scrubbing the floors on their knees and washing the dishes by hand. They weren’t permitted to complain because that was women’s work. What else could they expect? They had to shut up and get the food on the table. If they got a black eye for not doing it to their husband’s liking, there was nobody they could turn to for help, because in the good old days, there wasn’t a term for domestic violence any more than there was one for littering.

Sometimes things get better.

The young people I am privileged to know don’t make fun of their peers with learning disabilities but figure out ways to accommodate them, whereas we, embarrassingly, made fun of kids who lisped or who were slow readers.

They’re better at making boundaries and speaking up for themselves. They came up with #MeToo and #NeverAgain whereas we, dismally, thought we brought terrible things on ourselves because that was just the way of the world.

They’ve learned to examine how they categorize people, and they often call each other out on racism, homophobia and bullying whereas we, disastrously, have put racist, homophobic and bullying creeps into leadership positions and into public office.

Perhaps the real pleasure of getting old is realizing that somebody did a pretty good job of raising the young.

Gina Barreca is an English professor at the University of Connecticut and the author of “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?” and eight other books.

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GORHAM, Maine — A late-night armed robbery in Gorham Saturday marks the 11th robbery in Greater Portland since March 20.

The robbery happened at the Domino’s on Main Street in Gorham just after 11:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.

A man entered Domino’s, had his hand under his sweatshirt and asked for money. A gun was never shown, but police are describing this incident as an armed robbery.

The suspect was wearing jeans, gray boxers and a gray sweatshirt, and was described as standing about 5-foot-7 and weighing around 150 pounds.

Police said he left Domino’s and got in a vehicle at a nearby business and headed toward Westbrook. He left with an undisclosed amount of money.

After a roughly week-long lull in reported robberies, the Gulf Mart in Westbrook was robbed Friday night. Westbrook police have released enhanced video as local police departments continue tracking the suspect or suspects in the rash of robberies.

Gorham police said Saturday night’s robbery is under investigation but have not said if it is linked with the previous 10 robberies.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Gorham police at 222-1660.

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U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday that the U.S. may need to consider a military strike against the Syrian government in response to a gas attack in a rebel-held town near Damascus that left at least 42 people dead, a move the White House is not ruling out.

“This attack with chemical weapons, which are banned by international conventions, is absolutely horrific,” Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The alleged gas attack hit the city of Douma late Saturday, Syrian opposition forces and rescue workers told the Associated Press, as Syrian government forces resumed an offensive after talks collapsed with the Army of Islam group.

The Syrian American Medical Society and Syrian Civil Defense said in a joint statement Sunday that more than 500 people, the majority of whom were women and children, were brought to local hospitals with symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, burning eyes and emitting a chlorine-like odor, symptoms the group allege indicate exposure to toxic chemicals.

The Syrian government strongly denied the allegations it had used chemical weapons against civilians, calling them “fabrications,” according to the Associated Press.

“The army, which is advancing rapidly and with determination, does not need to use any kind of chemical agents,” the Syrian government said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted that there would be a “big price to pay” for the attack.

“Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world,” Trump tweeted, adding pointedly that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran also bear responsibility for the attack for “backing Animal Assad,” a reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Vice President Mike Pence in a statement posted on Twitter before noon Sunday echoed Trump’s condemnation of the gas attack, saying “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the assault on innocent lives, including children. The Assad regime & its backers MUST END their barbaric behavior. As POTUS said, big price to pay for those responsible!”

White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that no response to the attack is being taken “off the table,” saying “These are horrible photos, we’re looking into the attack at this point.”

It would not be the first time the Trump administration has used military force against the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons on civilians. Last April, Trump ordered the U.S. military to launch 59 tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base, where a deadly gas attack on the city of Idlib was believed to have originated, according to The Washington Post.

That’s an option Collins said the Trump administration should be considering.

“Last time this happened, the president did a targeted attack to take out some of the facilities, that may be an option we should consider now,” Collins said.

Collins last year commended Trump for the targeted attack on the Shayrat air base in Homs province, calling it a “decisive response to Assad’s appalling and indiscriminate attack against his own people.”

A spokeswoman for the senior senator also told the Bangor Daily News last year that Trump administration should consult Congress on use of military force against the Syrian government.

Collins in the past has been reluctant to support using military force against the Syrian government to curtail its use of chemical weapons, as such a move risks drawing the U.S. deeper into the now 7-year-old civil war.

Speaking to Jewish constituents at Temple Beth El in Portland in September 2013, Collins said “At this point, military strikes risk entangling the U.S. in a protracted and dangerous civil war,” adding that the U.S. has an “obligation to use nonmilitary options” to address the use of chemical weapons in Syria, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Her comments followed President Barack Obama’s decision to not use airstrikes against the Syrian government after it crossed a “ red line” with a chemical weapon attack that killed more than 1,400 Syrians near Damascus, a decision that Trump has criticized as recently as Sunday morning. Instead, Syria agreed to a Russian-brokered deal to give up its chemical weapons.

Saturday’s gas attack comes just days after Trump directed military leaders to prepare to withdraw the 2,000 U.S. troops currently in Syria, telling reporters on Tuesday that the mission there is “close to 100 percent” accomplished, and that “I want to get out. I want to bring our troops back home.”

Collins on Sunday appeared to cast doubt on whether now is the time to scale back the U.S. presence in Syria, telling CNN that “I think the president is going to have to reconsider his plan for an early withdrawal in light of what has happened.”

During her appearance on CNN, she also urged the Trump administration to ratchet up the pressure — particularly with sanctions — on Moscow for its support of Assad, saying “without the support of Russia, I do not believe that Assad would still be in office.”

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Martin Luther King Jr. died 50 years ago, on April 4, 1968, but he is not dead to me, not in what he did, not in what he achieved. While he hardly made it go away, he took the dread of American racism, and, out of his Christian love, patriotism and inspired leadership, he helped change it into something wondrously lessened.

Here was one of the great Americans of my lifetime.

Because of fresh, often justified anger and lingering, hurtful issues, it is apparently easy for some to forget how terrible things were before King and how much better they were after him. It is obviously easy as well for some to embrace his opposites, and now I am talking about people like Ta-Nehisi Coates. He is a gifted man, an African-American writer of exceptional talent and sharpness of intellect, but also someone who, in my view, will only make things worse.

Considered by some as America’s foremost public intellectual, Coates is a regular writer for the prestigious, liberal Atlantic magazine and the author of a much-praised book, “Between the World and Me.” It focuses on white oppression while simultaneously insisting blacks are in no way responsible for what goes wrong in their lives. If they kill each other in frightening numbers, that is because whites designed things that way.

Conciliation of a King kind? No, what he likes is infuriated confrontation of the kind his father had exhibited as a Black Panther.

Coates says a chief focus of Western civilization has been to dehumanize blacks for the advantage of whites, who seem unlikely to him to ever reform. Some of the worst cruelty has been in America, he writes, and, to be fair, his description of 250 years of slavery is powerful stuff. When you arrive at the 1960s, the period in which King and others began to change all of this, helping to beget the 1964 Civil Rights Act as one example, Coates says phooey. The movement did nothing.

To Coates, all police are “menaces of nature,” even black ones. He sees America as criminal throughout its history. The American dream is nothing but whites seeking comfort and pleasure. His own answer to racism is reparations under which whites would hand over enough money to make blacks on average equally well off. I myself can think of little more likely to worsen racial tensions.

The point in all of this is not to beat up on Coates in particular or even to insist none of his stances have merit. It is to underline a widespread, overall take on things that seems to me more about revenge than rectification. You see as much in so many who seem to think like him even if they do not know about him.

I happen to agree that those of us who do not walk around in black skins cannot really know what it is to be black in this society. We can, however, read other black writers of note who grant the horrors blacks have had to endure while saying blacks do have self-responsibility for making things better. Shelby Steele, a Hoover Institution fellow, says that liberals, with their self-appreciative, shame-erasing largesse, degrade the human capacities of blacks. Jason L. Riley of the Wall Street Journal points to the deprivations of single-parent families and cultural inadequacies that blacks themselves must deal with. No one else can do it for them.

King was like this. He did not disparage dreams. He had a dream. He did not believe in judgments based on skin color. It was character that counted. He believed that someday blacks, like whites, could be free at last, free at last.

Thanks to him and others like him, we are surely closer.

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service.

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After 37 years in the Army, including multiple deployments to Vietnam, I returned home to serve for a decade in the Army Reserves until I was appointed as adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard. I’m retired now, but when I learn about an issue that affects those who served our country, I do what I can to help.

That’s why I’m speaking today in defense of our protected public lands and national monuments, including Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Penobscot County. I feel compelled to stand up for our lands because they are actively under attack.

In December, President Donald Trump and his interior secretary, Ryan Zinke (another veteran), traveled to Utah to announce the biggest reduction in protected lands in American history, slashing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This attack on our monuments is a disgrace.

By shrinking these two monuments in Utah, Trump and Zinke made clear their disregard for wild landscapes that have been explicitly protected for the access, enjoyment and benefit of present and future generations. This attack on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante is an attack on all our monuments and our confidence that our treasured places will remain protected in perpetuity.

As an Army veteran living in South Bristol, I spend most of my days enjoying the Maine outdoors. Hiking, fishing, kayaking and canoeing, and getting out on the ocean with my wife in our active fishing community is peaceful and deeply rewarding. Maine is special for many reasons, but two are especially important for me — it is a state with abundant recreation opportunities and an active and thriving veteran community. (Our state has one of the highest populations of veterans per capita in the country.)

And make no mistake — national monuments are crucial to veterans. Throughout my life, whenever I have felt stress, I have sought out peace outdoors. To me, it feels like going to church. I know many fellow veterans who feel the same way, find a deep sense of serenity in our protected lands and use these places for healing after returning from active deployment. These places can provide us with the peace and space we need to process what our service has exposed us to, including the mental and physical stress unique to being a veteran.

Last year, Zinke initiated a review of 27 different monuments, including Maine’s Katahdin Woods and Waters. His recommendations to Trump included the shrinkage of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Though Zinke recommended no changes to Katahdin Woods and Waters, Trump has the final say and could attack this special place.

Like any attack on our national monuments, that would be a disgrace. People in larger numbers have started visiting the monument, adjacent to beloved Baxter State Park. In addition to being host to a great variety of recreational uses for Maine veterans and others, it has the potential to be a significant economic boost in the Katahdin region, which needs it. The relationship between economics and public lands is just beginning to be explored, and the numbers are promising. Earlier this year, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis found that the American outdoor recreation economy accounts for 2 percent of our total GDP, or $373 billion annually.

Our public lands are a treasure, and as we grow in population, there will be fewer and fewer places where we have access to wild landscapes in our country. These days, not all Americans have the platform to have their voices heard in defense of our protected lands, such as the numerous tribal leaders whose defense of Bears Ears was ignored. But I believe veterans have earned the opportunity to speak out and have our opinions heard.

My hope, along with many other veterans who rely on our national monuments and other protected public lands for peace and recreation, is that the president and interior secretary will cease this sacrilegious attack.

Maj. Gen. Don Edwards was the adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard from 1981 to 1997. He served in the Army from 1951 to 1971, including two tours in Vietnam, and later joined the Army Reserve. From 1975 to 1981, he was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives. He lives in South Bristol.

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PORTLAND, Maine — Merton G. Henry, a longtime friend and adviser to the family of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, died Friday night at Maine Medical Center in Portland, following a brief illness. He was 92.

“Mert was a wonderful friend to my husband, Tom, and me for decades,” Collins said Saturday. “In addition to being a tremendous lawyer, Mert worked tirelessly for countless civic and philanthropic causes and was a wise counselor to many of us who served in public office.”

Henry grew up in the Hampden area, and served in the military during World War II, then went on to earn degrees at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, and the school of law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

[Donald Collins, father of Sen. Susan Collins, dies at 92]

Henry served as a longtime adviser and supporter of moderate Republican Sens. Margaret Chase Smith, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins, but was also known for his friendship with Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, participating in the George J. Mitchell Oral History Project.

Henry was also involved in a number of nonprofits over the years as a supporter and board member, including the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation, the Morton Kelly Charitable Trust, Portland Museum of Art, Hospice of Maine and the Scarborough Public Library.

Former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and former Gov. John McKernan Jr., said in a joint statement Saturday, “Mert stood as an exemplar for us to emulate with his voice of reason and moderation; what we like to call the ‘sensible center.’”

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 14, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Portland.

This report appears as part of a media partnership with Maine Public.

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A man serving a two-year sexual assault sentence was found dead Sunday at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Gregory E. Leeman, 57, was serving a three-year sentence for assault on an officer, a sentence that began Oct. 20, 2015, and a 10-year sentence for gross sexual assault, which began May 26, 2005. The latter sentence had all but two years suspended and four years of probation, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.

Leeman was convicted of assault after striking a female caseworker in the head with a padlock tied around an electronics cord in 2012. The prisoner had walked into the woman’s office where he committed the assault, a prosecutor said in 2013.

The padlock and cord were traced back to belonging to Leeman.

Leeman’s death occurred at 6:35 a.m. The cause of death was not immediately announced. Maine State Police and state medical examiner were notified, per protocol. The investigation is ongoing.

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Three people were charged with distributing a bad batch of heroin after police linked them to four of nine non-fatal overdoses Friday.

A Machiasport man and two others were arrested at 11 p.m. Friday after police found evidence that they sold heroin about five hours earlier to two overdose victims in Machiasport and a third in East Machias, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The three overdoses occurred in about 30 minutes. The victims were two men and a woman, all in their 30s. First responders used Narcan, a brand name for the anti-overdose drug naloxone, to revive them. Two were hospitalized and released Saturday, McCausland said.

[Police say bad heroin caused 9 overdoses on Friday]

A fourth overdose in the Hancock County town of Franklin occurred two hours after the Washington County overdoses. All are suspected to be connected to the three arrests, McCausland said in a statement Sunday.

Having four overdose victims inside three hours “created a flurry of activity in the law enforcement community, to say the least,” said Darrell Crandall, commander of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency units in northern Maine.

The urgency of the situation compelled the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department on Saturday to issue a warning about the bad heroin on its Facebook page.

“All of the agencies involved immediately made an all-hands-on-deck commitment,” Crandall added Sunday. “You don’t know, when you have a large number of overdoses like this in a very short period, what’s going to happen next. You have to be prepared for an even-worse-case scenario.”

[Maine saw 418 overdose deaths in 2017, continuing a deadly trend]

Jon Wright, 50, of Machiasport was taken into custody on a previously-issued MDEA arrest warrant charging him with unlawful trafficking in heroin.

Agents obtained a search warrant for a home on Cutler Road in Machiasport, where the three were arrested. Authorities seized 12 grams of crack cocaine, three grams of suspected heroin and $934 in cash from the home, McCausland said.

Based on the seizures, Leanza Boney, 20, of Harlem, New York, was charged with unlawful trafficking in heroin. Jesse Michaud, 38, of Machias was also taken into custody for violation of bail conditions.

More charges are likely and more arrests are possible, Crandall said.

The other five overdoses do not appear to be related to those in Washington and Hancock counties, police said.

The number of Mainers who died from drug-induced deaths rose to 418 in 2017, compared with 376 who died the previous year, according to the Maine attorney general’s office.

Investigators do not know exactly where the heroin originated from or what it was mixed with, Crandall said. They assume that these kinds of overdoses involve heroin combined with fentanyl, an opioid used for anesthesia and analgesia, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Fentanyl is the most deadly drug typically added to heroin, police said.

The number of deaths in 2017 was driven by a sharp 27 percent increase in deaths from illegal fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, while heroin deaths decreased, officials have said.

In 2017, fentanyl killed 247 people and five died as a result of carfentanil, a fentanyl analog.

Traffickers often lace heroin with fentanyl and sell fentanyl as heroin because fentanyl is cheaper to make and the profit margin for dealers is higher.

No further overdoses connected to Friday’s cases had been reported as of Sunday, Crandall said.

“We are quite confident that we went to the right place for the right reasons,” Crandall said.

BDN writers Judy Harrison and Meg Haskell contributed to this report.

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BERLIN — Six people were detained in connection with what police and prosecutors allege was a plan to carry out an attack on Berlin’s half-marathon Sunday, German authorities said.

“There were isolated indications that those arrested, aged between 18 and 21 years, were participating in the preparation of a crime in connection with this event,” prosecutors and police wrote in a joint statement.

Berlin police tweeted that six people were detained in cooperation with the city’s prosecutor’s office.

The German daily Die Welt first reported that police foiled a plot to attack race spectators and participants with knives.

The main suspect allegedly knew Anis Amri, a Tunisian who killed 12 people and injured dozens more when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016, Die Welt reported.

One of the apartments Berlin police raided before the race started Sunday was also searched after the Christmas market attack, the newspaper said.

Special police forces detained four men in connection with the race plot, the paper said — different from the six that police reported.

Die Welt reported that the main suspect, who was not identified, had prepared two knives to use in the attack. It also wrote that in one of the searched apartments, dogs trained to find explosives barked when they were taken into the dwelling’s basement.

The local daily Tagesspiegel reported that the main suspect had been under observation for two weeks around the clock. After a foreign intelligence service tipped off German authorities that he was planning to attack the half-marathon, police raided apartments and two vehicles in the Charlottenburg and Neukoelln districts of the city.

The half-marathon was being guarded by some 630 police officers, German news agency dpa reported.

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HUMBOLDT, Saskatchewan — A hockey arena became the epicenter of grief for a small Canadian town on Sunday, as friends, relatives and those that housed the young hockey players gathered to mourn 15 people killed after a semi-trailer slammed into a bus carrying a youth hockey team in western Canada.

Fourteen were also injured, some critically, in a collision that left a country, its national sport and the hockey-obsessed town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan reeling.

The bus had 29 passengers, including the driver, when it crashed at about 5 p.m. Friday on Highway 35, police said. Among the dead are Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan, team captain Logan Schatz and radio announcer Tyler Bieber.

Residents of this town of less than 6,000 have been leaving flowers, team jerseys and personal tributes on the steps of the arena’s entrance, forming a makeshift memorial. One tribute included a Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner box, which was a favorite meal of deceased forward Evan Thomas. A bouquet of pink roses adorned the box, which read “to Evan, game day special, love your billet brother and sister Colten and Shelby.”

While most of the players were from elsewhere in western Canada, they were put up by families in the small town of Humboldt. Billeting families are a large part of junior hockey, with players spending years with host families.

Dennis Locke, his wife and three young children came to the arena to hang posters of forward Jaxon Joseph, who is the son of former NHL player Chris Joseph. The Locke family housed Joseph and treated him like a son.

“Best person ever,” Locke said. “Down to earth, loved playing with the kids.”

His wife wiped away tears from swollen eyes.

Forward Logan Hunter and defensemen Stephen Wack, Adam Herold and Xavier Labelle were also among the dead, according to family members and others. Assistant coach Mark Cross, bus driver Glen Doerksen and stats keeper Brody Hinz, who was 18, were also killed.

Herold, who would have turned 17 on Thursday, played for the Regina Pat Canadians hockey team until just weeks ago, but was sent to join the Broncos for their playoff round when the Pat Canadians’ season wrapped up, said John Smith, the Pat Canadians’ manager.

The names of all the dead and injured have not been released by police.

Norman Mattock, a longtime season ticket holder, said his neighbor housed player Morgan Gobeil. The defenseman was severely injured and remains in serious but stable condition, Mattock said.

He said players become part of the community fabric, doing volunteer work or serving in restaurants. Three players who billeted by the same family all died in the crash, he added.

“They lost them all,” Mattock said.

The Broncos are a close-knit team who dyed their hair blonde for the playoffs. The bus was driving the team to a crucial playoff game Friday against the Nipawin Hawks.

A vigil will be held on the hockey team’s home ice Sunday night, and a makeshift stage and hundreds of chairs sit ready for the memorial.

“We’re devastated,” said hockey club Vice President Randolph MacLEAN. “At the center of this, we have 15 souls who’ll never go home again. We have 29 lives that will never be the same.”

MacLEAN said the community comes together at the arena on game nights that draw 800 to 1,000 people to the stands.

“It’s an energy that spreads through the town with road signs saying ‘game tonight,’ tickets for sale everywhere,” he said.

As is the case with small town hockey across Canada, he said, the arena is not just a recreation facility, but a focus of community life with the hockey team at its center.

With players who billet by local families, work in city businesses and attend local schools, MacLEAN said the tragedy touches every corner of Humboldt.

Canadian police said the truck driver, who was not hurt, was initially detained but has since been released and provided with mental health assistance. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said it’s too early to state a cause for the crash.

Photographs of the wreckage showed the twisted trailer with most of its wheels in the air and the bus on its side with its back portion destroyed. The force of the crash sent both vehicles into the ditch at the northwest corner of the intersection.

The tractor-trailer would have had to yield to a stop sign before crossing over the highway that the hockey bus was traveling on. There is a stand of trees on the southeast corner of the intersection, limiting visibility of the approach on both roads.

Police said a lot of issues have to be investigated, including weather conditions at the time and any mechanical issues with the vehicles.

The tragedy brought to mind an accident in 1986, when the Swift Current Broncos team bus slid off an icy highway and crashed in late December, killing four players.

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Politicians sow discord

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once asked, “where do we go from here, chaos or community?” It’s a great question for America today. Unfortunately, our political leaders today decided we should descend into chaos and ideological discord. Instead, we need more politicians to lead us to community and conscientious.

Steven Roth

Swans Island

Trump tearing American apart

I think it’s an incontrovertible fact that America is the strongest nation on the planet when we stand together as a nation. But there’s the rub: It’s only when we stand together.

Since our adversaries (Russia) have not been able to overwhelm us militarily, politically or otherwise, a new strategy is emerging: sowing the seeds of dissension. That strategy, while extremely subtle and nuanced, is now alive and well and beginning to take effect. Indeed, in my 80-plus years of life, I have never seen this country so torn, and I now feel President Donald Trump is directly responsible.

All the pundits are more or less in agreement that Trump is a loose canon, a veritable train wreck, because nothing he does makes any sense. When you put his actions in the context of being a Putin stooge, however, everything he does makes perfect sense. When you consider that Trump’s border-wall storm and his anti-caravan bombast and his activation of the National Guard are all actions taken to create dissension, it all makes sense.

How so? Well, I would call what Trump is doing an explicit act of evil genius (ergo Vladimir Putin). When you consider the fact that 18 percent of this country’s population is ethnic Hispanic, going after the Honduran caravan and the DACA group makes perfect sense by way of alienating Hispanics and sowing a cancerous dissension that will eventually metastasize and bring us down.

Phil Tobin

Ellsworth

Stop degrading Bangor’s waterfront

As we are all aware, Bangor has a significant older population. We enjoy the opportunity to savor the outdoors in areas that the city provides for recreating, enjoying friends in pleasant natural surroundings. The city, in its efforts to attract all age groups, has destroyed locations that we have very much enjoyed over the years and never replaced.

Take, for example, the beautiful park, expanse of lawn, fountain and band stand on Main Street, where my wife and I used to go on a summer evening to join with friends and listen to the Bangor Band play. This entire area was displaced by the Cross Insurance Center. The city “promised” to re-erect the bandstand someplace else. It never happened. The excuse was that the bandstand was in disrepair and couldn’t be salvaged. Another sacrifice to bring in more revenue from the entertainment faction.

Now the promoter of the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion has submitted a proposal to the city council to erect a grand edifice on the waterfront. This, it appears, will all but destroy the beautiful riverside promenade that so many enjoy in order to garner additional bucks from an expanded concert crowd. Please stop this further destruction of what few natural and beautiful areas we have left to us.

Bill Shook

Bangor

Fulford for Congress

Jonathan Fulford is running for the Democratic nomination for the 2nd Congressional District. He is not asking to go to Washington, D.C., to hobnob with mega fundraisers and corporate fat cats.

He is not the darling of the establishment, anointed for success before all contenders have made their views known. He has said “no thanks” to corporate political action funds and dark money, making him beholden only to the people of Maine.

Here is what you really need to know. A farmer, builder, small-business owner, parent and grandfather, Fulford is a candidate committed to making a positive difference for Maine’s future. His campaign is centered on three areas that should be of great concern to rural Mainers.

Climate change. We can create good-paying, meaningful jobs by meeting the challenges of climate change.

Universal, single-payer health care. This can save our rural hospitals, support good-paying jobs and provide much-needed help to those suffering from addiction.

Economic fairness. Working Mainers deserve a livable minimum wage and a fair tax code that doesn’t favor the wealthy and large corporations.

At a time when loud voices, questionable ethics and hyperbole are all too common, Fulford presents measured, thoughtful proposals in a calm and civil manner.

If you are one of those pesky constituents frustrated by our current inaccessible and unresponsive congressman, Fulford’s honest, engaging approach is a breath of fresh air. Please consider sending him to represent us from the 2nd District.

Gail Maynard

Perham

As legislators reconsider solar legislation early this week, the Mayors’ Coalition on Jobs and Economic Development stands with Maine people, towns and businesses that can benefit from solar power and supports overturning Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of the solar bill, LD 1444.

It is discouraging that jockeying and political pressure last week impeded this modest and widely bipartisan bill. The Maine House failed to override the governor’s veto, but House Democratic leaders invoked rules that have kept the bill alive a little longer. Legislators have one last opportunity to choose to support Maine people, businesses and towns’ ability to harness solar power.

From Gorham to Gray to Dayton to Carrabassett Valley and beyond, Maine towns have taken the lead, investing in community solar arrays to stabilize budgets, save residents money, produce clean energy, reduce pollution, cut local taxes and boost jobs. Many more cities and towns across Maine are looking to do so, too.

The solar bill under consideration will help in two major ways. The bill will allow up to 50 electricity users to share in a community solar project, instead of the current arbitrary cap of nine. Even Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of a Spanish company lobbying against the solar bill, submitted comments last year supporting a “ realistic cap of 200 customers” per community solar project. These larger solar arrays can benefit from an economy of scale, too, and raising this cap may invite business and industrial parks to pursue joint solar projects that can help lower energy costs and attract new businesses.

Here in Belfast, we installed 396 solar panels on the town’s capped landfill site and more on the roof of the fire station, too. It has been an unquestionable success, with the panels sitting there cleanly and quietly pumping out kilowatt-hours day after day.

Our experience has been so good that last month, the City Council approved the construction of an additional solar array, which will help us power a new public works facility with virtually no annual fuel costs. Together with our previous solar installations, Belfast will generate close to 90 percent of the electric load used by city buildings and facilities, making us more energy independent, reducing pollution and saving money for taxpayers.

Municipal solar installations let towns seize a great opportunity to stabilize and reduce energy costs. And with ever-rising energy costs and tight budgets, solar power provides steady financial benefits to our residents. As municipal decision makers, it is important for us to be stewards of our towns’ budgets and resources. Solar power helps stabilize energy costs for years into the future — the savings go into pockets of local taxpayers and back into our economy. More Maine towns deserve this opportunity.

In addition to increasing the number of meters allowed in a group solar project, LD 1444 stops utilities like Central Maine Power from implementing the Maine Public Utilities Commission scheme to charge a “gross metering” fee on the solar power people or businesses make and use in their own homes and shops. The Mayors’ Coalition also opposes this new fee.

This absurd new fee on solar power that people make and use on site would be equivalent to a grocery store charging you money for the tomatoes you grow in your backyard and eat at home. Furthermore, because of the complex equipment and billing changes that would be needed, “gross metering” would actually increase electricity bills for all Mainers, regardless of whether they have solar, and it would serve no benefit or purpose.

That’s right, a failure to pass this bill will raise electricity bills for all Mainers.

In addition, solar energy helps to protect the health of Mainers for years to come. As a registered nurse, I know and see the value of clean air to the health of Mainers. Maine has one of the highest asthma rates in the country, which can be directly linked to poor air quality. Solar systems generate electricity, while producing no air pollution.

The Mayors’ Coalition supports LD 1444 because it ensures that municipalities can continue to transition to solar energy. We appreciate the broad bipartisan supermajority of lawmakers that voted to enact the bill in March. We encourage them to cast one final vote so that it can become law, and urge all Mainers to reach out to their elected officials to gather their support as well.

Samantha Paradis is the mayor of Belfast.

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WASHINGTON — The attorney for a porn actress who says she had an affair with President Donald Trump plans to release a composite sketch Tuesday of the person he says threatened Stormy Daniels to stay quiet — and says there will be a reward for help with identification.

Michael Avenatti said Monday that a “sizeable monetary reward” will be offered to anyone providing information identifying the person that Daniels says threatened her in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. He said the sketch will help provide “additional details about what happened here.”

A hard-charging attorney who has relentlessly kept the case in the headlines, Avenatti said “common sense dictates” that this person could only have been someone associated with Trump or the Trump Organization. He said the money would likely come from a crowd-sourced legal fund.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, says she had sex with Trump once in 2006 and was paid $130,000 by Trump’s personal attorney days before the 2016 presidential election as part of a nondisclosure agreement she is seeking to invalidate.

Daniels said in a recent interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that she was threatened to keep quiet by an unidentified man in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 when she was with her infant daughter. Avenatti tweeted a photo Sunday that he said showed Daniels sitting with a forensic sketch artist to develop a sketch.

The “60 Minutes” interview prompted a lawyer for Trump attorney Michael Cohen to demand that Daniels publicly apologize to his client for suggesting Cohen was involved in her intimidation. Daniels responded by filing a revised federal lawsuit accusing Cohen of defamation.

Avenatti is also pushing to have Trump and Cohen answer questions under oath. He refiled a motion in federal court in Los Angeles Sunday, seeking a jury trial and to depose Trump and Cohen. If successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women.

Trump answered questions about Daniels for the first time last week, saying he had no knowledge of the payment made by Cohen and adding that he didn’t know where Cohen had gotten the money. The White House has consistently said Trump denies the affair and Cohen has held that he made the payment out of his own pocket, without involvement from the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign.

Cohen did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Sunday.

Avenatti filed a similar motion over a week ago, which a judge deemed premature. He refiled after Trump asked a federal judge to order private arbitration in the case. Trump and Cohen filed papers last week asking a judge to rule that the case must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury. Avenatti opposes private arbitration.

In the filing, Avenatti says he wants to question Trump and Cohen for “no more than two hours.”

He says the depositions are needed to establish if Trump knew about the settlement agreement and if he “truly did not know about the $130,000 payment.” He also asks if Trump was involved in any effort to “silence” Daniels.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the “profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.”

Wozniak says he’d rather pay for Facebook. He says “Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company’s ongoing data-privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

Facebook has announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.

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