The Triangle's Rock 92.9

Swain County sheriff steps down after sexual misconduct charges

BRYSON CITY, N.C. (AP) — The longtime sheriff of a western North Carolina county whom some women accused of sexual misconduct has quit before he could be permanently removed.

Curtis Cochran, who was first elected Swain County sheriff in 2006, retired from the post effective July 1, according to a statement from the county Board of Commissioners. The chief deputy is performing the sheriff’s duties while the commissioners decide who will serve out the remainder of Cochran’s four-year term through late 2026, the statement said.

Cochran, 72, was charged in state courts with felonious restraint and misdemeanor sexual battery, soliciting prostitution and assault on a female, according to June 27 arrest warrants. The same day, Ashley Hornsby Welch, the district attorney for Swain and six other far western counties, filed a petition seeking to remove Cochran from office for “willful misconduct and maladministration in office.”

A Superior Court judge immediately suspended Cochran from office pending a final court ruling. But the removal petition becomes moot with Cochran’s retirement. A petition-related hearing set for Monday in adjoining Graham County was canceled, online court data said.

Welch’s removal petition included signed affidavits by two women who allege Cochran made separate unwanted sexual advances on them while he drove on land held by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The Eastern Band’s reservation, known as Qualla Boundary, is in portions of Swain County.

The county of 14,000 people is about 300 miles (483 kilometers) west of Raleigh and includes much of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that straddles the Tennessee border.

Cochran was released on bond on the state criminal charges and faces an Aug. 5 court hearing. He is also charged under Eastern Band tribal law with two counts of oppression in office and one count of abusive sexual contact, Cherokee Indian Police Department Chief Carla Neadeau said in a news release.

Cochran’s attorney didn’t respond Monday or Tuesday to a phone message and emails seeking comment and additional details.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.

The petition alleges that on June 22 one woman — an Eastern Band member — flagged down what she believed to be a law enforcement vehicle. She was upset and crying because she and her boyfriend had been fighting verbally, and she accepted an invitation into the SUV from the driver — whom authorities identified as Cochran — because she believed it would diffuse the situation, the petition says.

The petition alleges that when Cochran started driving he began touching the woman despite her objections and asked her to perform a sexual act, but she refused. He later pulled the SUV off the road, got out and positioned himself so the woman couldn’t get out of vehicle and asked again, according to the petition. Cochran told the woman if “there was a time that I got in trouble, all I would have to do is say his name and he would help me,” the woman’s affidavit read. She again declined, ultimately was dropped off at her house and contacted tribal police.

The affidavit signed by the other woman said that on June 23 — soon after being released from the tribal jail — she accepted a ride from what looked like a government vehicle that she said turned out to be driven by Cochran. She said Cochran starting touching her — doing so even as she pulled away — and she ultimately got out of the vehicle.

The FBI and State Bureau of Investigation also participated in the criminal investigation, which included video footage, according to the petition.

Cochran, a Republican, had no law enforcement experience before his first sheriff’s election victory, having previously been Swain County’s maintenance director.

Hope of finding Texas flood survivors dims as search efforts go on

By JIM VERTUNO, NADIA LATHAN and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — Hope of finding survivors of the catastrophic flooding in Texas dimmed Tuesday, a day after the death toll surpassed 100, and crews kept up the search for people missing in the aftermath.

The search efforts benefited from improving weather. The storms that battered the Hill Country for the past four days began to lighten up, although isolated pockets of heavy rain were still possible.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died during the flash floods. Officials said Monday that 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.

A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

Questions are mounting about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth holiday weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as “flash flood alley.”

At public briefings, officials in hard-hit Kerr County have deflected questions about what preparations and warnings were made as forecasters warned of life-threatening conditions.

“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said Monday. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”

Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many were caught by surprise.

Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps near the river, officials said.

Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.

Among those confirmed dead were 8-year-old sisters from Dallas who were at Camp Mystic and a former soccer coach and his wife who were staying at a riverfront home. Their daughters were still missing.

Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out a cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs. Both survived.

Search-and-rescue teams used heavy equipment to untangle trees and move large rocks as part of the massive search for missing people. Hundreds of volunteers have shown up to help with one of the largest rescue operations in Texas history.

Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks.

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Vertuno reported from Austin, and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.

Travelers may no longer be required to remove shoes before boarding a plane

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer

For the first time in almost 20 years, travelers may no longer be required to take off their shoes during security screenings at certain U.S. airports.

The Transportation Security Administration is looking to abandon the additional security step that has for years bedeviled anyone passing through U.S airports, according to media reports.

If implemented, it would put an end to a security screening mandate put in place almost 20 years ago, several years after “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001.

The travel newsletter Gate Access was first to report that the security screening change is coming. ABC News reported on an internal memo sent to TSA officers last week that states the new policy lets travelers keep their shoes on during screenings at many U.S. airports beginning this Sunday.

The plan is for the change to occur at all U.S. airports soon, the memo said.

Travelers were able to skirt extra security requirement if they were part of the TSA PreCheck program, which costs around $80 for five years. The program allows airline passengers to get through the screening process without removing shoes, belts or light jackets.

The TSA has not officially confirmed the reported security screening change yet.

“TSA and DHS are always exploring new and innovative ways to enhance passenger experience and our strong security posture,” a TSA spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. “Any potential updates to our security process will be issued through official channels.”

The TSA began in 2001 when President George W. Bush signed legislation for its creation two months after the 9/11 attacks. The agency included federal airport screeners that replaced the private companies airlines had used to handle security.

Over the years the TSA has continued to look for ways to enhance its security measures, including testing facial recognition technology and implementing Real ID requirements.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels attack a ship in the Red Sea, killing 3, after claiming they sank another

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea killed three mariners and wounded two others, a European Union naval force said Tuesday.

The attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C follows the Houthis claiming they attacked another vessel on Sunday in the Red Sea, a vital maritime trade route. The twin assaults are the first Houthi attacks on shipping since November 2024 and potentially signal the start of a new campaign threatening the waterway, which had begun to see more ships pass through it in recent weeks.

The bulk carrier had been heading north toward the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones Monday night. The security guards on board also fired their weapons. The European Union Operation Aspides and the private security firm Ambrey both reported those details.

While the Houthis haven’t claimed the attack, Yemen’s exiled government and the EU force blamed the rebels for the attack, as did the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.

“The Houthis are once again showing blatant disregard for human life, undermining freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” said the embassy, which has operated out of Saudi Arabia for nearly a decade due to Yemen’s wider war.

“The intentional murder of innocent mariners shows us all the Houthis’ true colors and will only further the Houthis’ isolation.”

The EU force offered the casualty information, saying one of the wounded crew lost his leg in the attack. The crew remains stuck on board the vessel, which is now drifting in the Red Sea.

The Houthis separately attacked the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Magic Seas on Sunday with drones, missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, forcing its crew of 22 to abandon the vessel. The rebels later said it sank in the Red Sea with its cargo of fertilizer and steel billets for Turkey.

“It is the first such attack against a commercial vessel in 2025, a serious escalation endangering maritime security in a vital waterway for the region and the world,” the EU warned. “These attacks directly threaten regional peace and stability, global commerce and freedom of navigation as a global public good. They can negatively impact the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. These attacks must stop.”

The two attacks and a round of Israeli airstrikes early Monday targeting the rebels raised fears of a renewed Houthi campaign against shipping that could again draw in U.S. and Western forces, particularly after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration targeted the rebels in a major airstrike campaign.

The attacks come at a sensitive moment in the Middle East, as a possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hangs in the balance, and as Iran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear program following American airstrikes targeting its most sensitive atomic sites during the Israel-Iran war in June.

The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group’s leadership has described as an effort to end Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Between November 2023 and January 2025, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. Their campaign has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. Shipping through the Red Sea, while still lower than normal, has increased in recent weeks.

The Houthis paused attacks until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March. That ended weeks later and the Houthis hadn’t attacked a vessel until this past weekend, though they did continue occasional missile attacks targeting Israel.

Homestyle New England Fish Pie

This pie brings together tender fish, leeks, parsnips, peas, and creamy sauce underneath a cheddar-horseradish mashed potato topping. It’s cozy comfort food with New England roots, perfect for chilly evenings or Sunday supper.

Ingredients

1 lb white fish like cod, halibut, or salmon, cut into chunks
2 leeks, sliced (white and light green parts)
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
2/3 cup frozen peas
3 large russet potatoes
6 tbsp butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 tsp prepared horseradish
2 cups whole milk
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Cook root vegetables
In a pot of salted boiling water, cook chopped potatoes and parsnips until tender. Drain and mash them with butter, buttermilk, cheddar, horseradish, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

2. Make creamy fish filling
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt remaining butter. Whisk in flour and slowly add milk. Cook until slightly thickened. Add bay leaf, leeks, and parsnips; simmer until soft. Stir in peas and fish chunks, season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Assemble the pie
Spoon fish mixture into a baking dish. Top with mashed potato mixture, spreading evenly or piping for a decorative top.

4. Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 375°F (190°C) until the topping is golden and filling is bubbling, about 25–30 minutes. Remove and let rest for a few minutes before serving.

Death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpasses 100

By JIM VERTUNO, NADIA LATHAN and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press

KERRVILLE, Texas (AP) — The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend surpassed 100 on Monday as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.

Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.

Flash floods swamped a road crossing the Llano River in Kingsland, Texas in a matter of minutes on Friday, blocking access to pedestrians and vehicles alike. (AP Video)

The officials spoke only hours after the operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, announced that they lost 27 campers and counselors to the floodwaters. Kerr County officials said Monday 10 campers and one counselor have still not been found.

Searchers have found the bodies of 84 people, including 28 children, in the county home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, officials said.

With additional rain on the way, more flooding still threatened saturated parts of central Texas. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise.

The raging flash floods — among the nation’s worst in decades — slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling sleeping people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

Piles of twisted trees sprinkled with mattresses, refrigerators and coolers littered the riverbanks Monday. The debris included reminders of what drew so many to the campgrounds and cabins in the Hill Country — a volleyball, canoes and a family portrait.

Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.

Calls for finding why warnings weren’t heard

Authorities vowed that one of the next steps would be investigating whether enough warnings were issued and why some camps did not evacuate or move to higher ground in a place long vulnerable to flooding that some local residents refer to as “flash flood alley.”

That will include a review of how weather warnings were sent out and received. One of the challenges is that many camps and cabins are in places with poor cellphone service, Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said.

“We definitely want to dive in and look at all those things,” he said. “We’re looking forward to doing that once we can get the search and rescue complete.”

Some camps were aware of the dangers and monitoring the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods.

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said recent government spending cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service did not delay any warnings.

“There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree. This is not that time,” Cruz said. “There will be a time to find out what could been done differently. My hope is in time we learn some lessons to implement the next time there is a flood.”

The weather service first advised of potential flooding on Thursday and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare step that alerts the public to imminent danger.

Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months of rain. Some residents said they never received any warnings.

President Donald Trump, who signed a major disaster declaration for Kerr County, said he plans to visit the state on Friday. He had said Sunday that he does not plan to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year.

“This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it,” the president said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said local and federal weather services provided sufficient warnings.

Crews search for dozens of people

More than three dozen people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing, Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday.

Search-and-rescue crews at one staging area said Monday that more than 1,000 volunteers had been directed to Kerr County.

Kerrville city officials urged people to stop flying drones over the area after they said a private drone operating illegally Monday afternoon collided with a helicopter involved in emergency operations. The helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing and is out of service until further notice.

Little time to escape floods

Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

“Then they were able to reach their tool shed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their tool shed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.

Elizabeth Lester, a mother of children who were at Camp Mystic and nearby Camp La Junta during the flood, said her young son had to swim out his cabin window to escape. Her daughter fled up the hillside as floodwaters whipped against her legs.

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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker and Brian Slodysko in Washington; Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.

Troops and federal agents briefly descend on LA’s MacArthur Park in largely immigrant neighborhood

By TARA COPP and CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn’t immediately known if any arrests were made.

Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park.

“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who called it a “political stunt.”

She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that “he was fearful of ICE.”

Bass showed video of officers on horseback sweeping across an empty soccer field.

Federal officers descend on MacArthur Park

The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”

Among those who spoke with Bass were health care outreach workers who were working with homeless residents Monday when troops pointed guns at them and told them to get out of the park.

Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.

“The world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They’re walking through the area where the children play,” Bass said.

Eunisses Hernandez, a council member whose district includes MacArthur Park said “it was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents.”

Operation escalates Trump’s immigration crackdown

The operation in the large park about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.

Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.

In response to questions about the operation in MacArthur Park, the Department of Homeland Security said in an email that the agency would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”

More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the events at the park “a spectacle.”

“This is not about going after dangerous criminals,” Newsom said of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. “This is about destroying the fabric of this state.”

LA raid ends abruptly

The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard’s participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly.

“It’s just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,” one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation.

The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said.

Local officials say feds are sowing fear

“This morning looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, adding if Border Patrol wants to film in LA, “you should apply for a film permit like everybody else. And stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy every day.”

Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday.

“It was a demonstration of escalation,” Newman said. “This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.”

Since federal agents have been making arrests at Home Depot parking lots and elsewhere in Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going to the park and immigrant neighborhoods near the city’s downtown.

“The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,” he said.

Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling overhead.

She said it was “gut-wrenching” to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. “It’s terror and, you know, it’s ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,” she said. “I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.”

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Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles; Julie Watson in San Diego; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed to this report.

Wall Street falls as Trump pressures trading partners with new tariffs

By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer

Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Monday as the White House stepped up pressure on major trading partners to make deals before punishing tariffs imposed by the U.S. take effect.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% for its biggest loss since mid-June. The benchmark index remains near its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 0.9%. The Nasdaq composite also finished 0.9% lower, not too far from its own record high.

The losses were widespread. Decliners outnumbered gainers by nearly 4-to-1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tesla tumbled 6.8% for the biggest drop among S&P 500 stocks as the feud between CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump reignited over the weekend. Musk, once a top donor and ally of Trump, said he would form a third political party in protest over the Republican spending bill that passed last week.

The selling accelerated after the Trump administration released letters informing Japan and South Korea that their goods will be taxed at 25% starting on Aug. 1, citing persistent trade imbalances with the two crucial U.S. allies in Asia.

“If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge,” Trump wrote in the letters to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

Trump also announced new tariff rates on Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar.

Just before hefty U.S. tariffs on goods imported from nearly every country around the globe were to take effect in April, Trump postponed the levies for 90 days in hopes that foreign governments would be more willing to strike new trade deals. That 90-day negotiating period was set to expire before Wednesday.

On Sunday, Trump said he would impose an additional 10% in tariffs against the BRICS bloc of developing nations, which had condemned tariffs increases at its summit in Brazil. In addition to Brazil, the BRICS countries also include Russia, India, China and South Africa.

This latest phase in the trade war heightens the threat of potentially more severe tariffs that’s been hanging over the global economy. Higher taxes on imported goods could hinder economic growth, if not increase recession risks.

“Just bringing back that meaty topic back into focus, after a strong week last week, has given a little bit of a pause in the market,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Asset Management.

The near-term outlook will likely hinge on several key factors like the extent to which trading partners are included in Trump letters, the rate of tariffs, and the effective date of such tariffs, according to analysts at Nomura.

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it reached a deal with Vietnam that would allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free, while Vietnamese exports to the U.S. would face a 20% levy. That was a decline from the 46% tax on Vietnamese imports he proposed in April.

“The type of deal struck with Vietnam may be a blueprint for similar countries in the region with economies heavily reliant on large trade deficits with the U.S.,” said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede.

Monday’s market sell-off came on the first day of trading in the U.S. after a holiday-shortened week.

Nearly all of the sectors in the S&P 500 index closed in the red, with technology, financial and consumer-related stocks among the biggest weights on the market.

Apple fell 1.7%, JPMorgan Chase dropped 1.4% and Home Depot slid 1.1%.

Molina Healthcare fell 2.9% after the insurer lowered its profit guidance due to rapidly accelerating costs. UnitedHealth Group also recently reported a spike in costs that forced it to cut its forecast, sending its stock tumbling in April.

In deal news, software company CoreWeave agreed to acquire cryptocurrency mining company Core Scientific in an all-stock transaction valued at about $9 billion. Shares in Core Scientific sank 17.6%, while CoreWeave fell 3.3%.

Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.39% from 4.34% late Thursday.

The downbeat start to the week follows a strong run for stocks, which pushed further into record heights last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 49.37 points to 6,229.98. The Dow lost 422.17 points to 44,406.36, and the Nasdaq slid 188.59 points to 20,412.52.

Stock indexes in Europe ended mostly higher. Asian markets closed mostly lower.

Oil prices fluctuated after OPEC+ agreed on Saturday to raise production in August by 548,000 barrels per day.

U.S. benchmark crude settled 1.4% higher at $67.93 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.9% to settle at $69.58 per barrel.

This week will be relatively light on economic data. On Wednesday the Federal Reserve will release minutes from its policymaking committee’s meeting last month.

The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has been insisting that the central bank wants to wait and see how Trump’s tariffs affect the economy and inflation before making its next move on interest rates. While lower rates give a boost to the economy by making it easier to borrow money, they can also give inflation more fuel. That could be dangerous if the Trump administration’s tariffs send inflation higher.

Twisting the truth: study finds fake news often rides on real headlines

RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – Trusted headlines, twisted reach? A new study in Nature finds that even reputable news stories can help fuel misinformation—especially when they’re passed around by users who also share fake news. Jon Green, Duke University Assistant Professor of Political Science, says the purpose of the study is to point fingers not just at the media but the people who share without taking proper care.

“One of the bigger points we’re trying to make in the article is that it’s easy to [categorize] information as either true or false or sources as either reliable or unreliable but information value depends a lot on how it’s used,” said Green.

Experts say some social media users are purposely posting reliable news to make their false claims look more credible and spread faster. People may think they are strategically repurposing information that is strictly speaking true but stitching it together in a way that serves to mislead an audience. However, it’s harder for mainstream outlets because people can find their own preferred versions of the truth very easily through other mediums.

“The Washington Post, during the pandemic, had a story about how after a certain critical mass of people had gotten vaccinated the base rates were such that the majority of people who were contracting COVID were also vaccinated,” said Green.

Green says you can imagine the people who were excited to share this article around — the ones who wanted to argue that the vaccine was ineffective and harmful. Sometimes the information and statistics are true, but the upshot depends on how people interpret it.

“The availability of that information is useful for promoting that narrative. The information is out there, it’s very easy to find and you can pick and choose how you want to use that information out in the world,” said Green.

It’s important to note that this is a very general phenomenon and not just prominent during events like the pandemic. The research suggests users are using trusted sources to make their own misleading narratives seem more convincing. Green says this is something we do frequently in a variety of contexts.

“I think it happens a lot when there are instances of, you know, contested interpretation of empirical reality ‘how dangerous is COVID and what should we do in response,’ is a very highly charged and contested kind of issue that lends itself to people trying to do a lot of their own research to support their own conclusions,” said Green.

Nine months after Helene: The Southeast still reels from rare hurricane damage

RALEIGH, N.C. (WPTF) – It’s already been nine months since Hurricane Helene carved its path through the Southeast—leaving behind memories many are still rebuilding from. State Assistant Climatologist Corey Davis says we’ve been through portions of all four seasons which has given them a pretty good idea of what these storms impacts are.

“Of course at the time Helene was most notable for the heavy rainfall, the record flooding that it produced in parts of Western North and South Carolina, the number of casualties that we had and the long term impacts that the flooding and flood damage is having. Those are all just among the worst we’ve seen,” said Davis.

Since those floods have receded they have started to see the impacts from the debris and wind damage. It’s important to keep in mind just 12 hours before Helene made it into the Carolinas it was a category 4 storm on Florida’s coastline.

“It was still packing some extreme winds (over 100mph winds) in parts of the mountains in North Carolina when it got here, and as we started getting the updates and the pictures from that part of the state we were seeing in some cases entire mountainsides that had been blown down, all the leaves had been blown off [and] all those trees had been toppled over,” said Davis.

Davis says Researcher Dr. Steve Norman is using satellite imagery to try and map where some of the worst damage has happened and the factors of said damage.

“What he’s found is that Helene was very different from the…hurricane that might hit, say the Eastern part of North and South Carolina where it might just topple every tree in the forest. In this case, damage was very localized but locally intense in some spots,” said Davis.

The results showed that certain trees fell in certain areas due to elevation, where the heaviest rain had fallen and places with the strongest winds. When Helene was first coming in, it was mainly considered a rain event until they were able to get good reports and now it’s also classified as a wind event.

“This conversation I had back at the time with Trisha Palmer, she’s a meteorologist with the weather service in Greenville Spartanburg, and it was clear to her and her office just how bad the wind damage was at the time. She mentioned it was basically like the collapsing remnant eyewall of a category four hurricane had hit the region,” said Davis.

Palmer told Davis this is like nothing any living person in this part of the country has ever seen before. You can listen to the whole Corey Davis interview at www.sfntoday.com