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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Thursday proposed a series of debates with his Republican challenger David McCormick leading up to the November general election, and McCormick readily accepted. The race for a Senate seat in the battleground state is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and to help decide control of the chamber next year. Casey, in a statement, said he intends to participate in three debates in the fall, one apiece in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg before the Nov. 5 election. He made the proposal “in keeping with Pennsylvania’s proud history of political debates,” he said. Asked about it at a campaign event, McCormick said it’s a good way for the candidates to make their case to the public. Both Casey and McCormick were uncontested for their party’s nominations in Tuesday’s primary election, putting them on track for a six-month campaign against each other. The likelihood of a debate in this year’s presidential race is iffy — and the time-honored tradition of televised debates as a forum for voters to evaluate candidates has declined in recent years. A series of three debates in the Pennsylvania Senate race would be the most robust conversation between candidates since 2006, when Casey and then-GOP Sen. Rick Santorum had four debates. In Pennsylvania’s last five U.S. Senate contests since then, debates have not been a major feature. All of those debates took place in mid to late October, with two debates apiece in the 2010, 2016 and 2018 campaigns, and one debate each in the 2012 and 2022 races. In 2022’s Senate race, Democratic nominee John Fetterman — who went on to win the election — agreed to participate in just one debate, as he worked to recover from a stroke that he said nearly killed him and adjust to the lingering effects. In particular, he had struggled to speak fluidly at times and had a diminished auditory processing speed that made it difficult to respond quickly to what he was hearing. Fetterman agreed to the debate after weeks of his Republican rival, Dr. Mehmet Oz, pressuring Fetterman and aggressively questioning the severity of his lingering health problems from the stroke. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial race, Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano did not debate at all. Rather, Mastriano rejected a media-moderated debate and instead reserved a hotel ballroom two weeks before the election and picked a partisan moderator for himself: a one-time White House staffer who was the director of strategic communications for former President Donald Trump. ___ Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s GOP-controlled Statehouse on Thursday gave their final approval to legislation criminalizing adults who help minors receive gender-affirming care without parental consent, clearing the way for the first-in-the-nation proposal to be sent to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature. The bill mirrors almost the same language from a so-called “anti-abortion trafficking” proposal Tennessee Republican lawmakers approved just a day prior. In that version, supporters are hoping to stop adults from helping young people obtain abortions without permission from their parents or guardians. Lee, a Republican, hasn’t publicly commented on either bill but supporters are confident the governor will sign them into law. Lee eagerly approved both the state’s sweeping abortion ban and the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for children. He has also never issued a veto during his time as governor. While the Republican supermajority touted the proposed statutes necessary to protect parental rights, critics warned about the possible broad application. Violations could range from talking to an adolescent about a website on where to find care to helping that young person travel to another state with looser restrictions on gender-affirming care services. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Tennessee has enacted more anti-LGBTQ+ laws more than any other state since 2015, identifying more than 20 bills that advanced out of the Legislature over the past few months. This includes sending Gov. Lee a bill to ban spending state money on hormone therapy or sex reassignment procedures for inmates — though it would not apply to state inmates currently receiving hormone therapy — and requiring public school employees to out transgender students to their parents. Tennessee Republicans also passed a measure that would allow LGBTQ+ foster children to be placed with families that hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs. Lee signed the bill into law earlier this month. “Tennessee lawmakers are on the verge of enacting more than twice as many anti-LGBTQ+ laws as any other state, a staggering assault on their own constituents,” Human Rights Campaign Senior Director of Legal Policy Cathryn Oakley said in a statement. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up for the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of voter fraud. At least five states won in 2020 by President Joe Biden have investigated efforts to install slates of electors who would cast Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss. Those slates were to be used by Trump allies in the House and Senate to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, which was disrupted by pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol. Several of those charged or accused of involvement in election interference across the states are still involved in Republican politics today — including the lawyer overseeing “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee. And Trump, who faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn Biden’s win, frequently still claims the 2020 election was stolen, a falsehood echoed by many of his supporters. Here’s a look at the sprawling web of allegations, criminal charges and references to people in Trump’s orbit as unindicted co-conspirators. The former president faces state charges in Georgia and federal charges in Washington over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and has been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator by investigators in Arizona and Michigan. The Georgia charges came in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Fulton County in August that accused Trump and 18 others of participating in a wide-ranging scheme — that included the Republican elector effort — to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss in the state. Trump is the only one charged in the federal indictment in Washington, but several close associates are recognizable as unindicted co-conspirators. Trump has denied wrongdoing and the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing his arguments that he should be immune from prosecution. He has clinched his third straight Republican nomination for president. Racketeering and conspiracy are among the charges the former New York mayor and Trump-aligned attorney faces in Georgia. In Arizona, the charges against him have not yet been made public. In Michigan, a state investigator has testified that Giuliani is among several high-profile unindicted co-conspirators in a case against Republicans who signed elector certificates falsely saying Trump had won the state. He’s also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment in Washington, which cites comments he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally prior to the Capitol riot. His spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that the “continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.” Bobb is a lawyer and conservative media personality charged in Arizona. She worked closely with Giuliani as he tried to persuade Arizona lawmakers to block the certification of the election results. She later raised money for a discredited audit of the election results in Maricopa County and covered the spectacle for One America News Network. As lawyer for Trump, Bobb signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government before an FBI search revealed dozens of protected documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. She was recently tapped to oversee “election integrity” efforts at the Republican National Committee. Asked about Bobb’s role with the RNC, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of “weaponization of the legal system.” Trump’s White House chief is charged in the sweeping Georgia racketeering indictment, but not in connection with the Republican elector meeting. Among other things, he participated in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which the then-president urged the elections official to help “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state. Meadows’ charges in Arizona are not publicly known. He was also identified by the Michigan state investigator as an unindicted co-conspirator. His attorney, George Terwilliger, referred to Wednesday’s indictment in Arizona as a “blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.” Meadows now works for the Conservative Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that describes his role as leading “strategic initiatives on Capitol Hill, with other partner organizations, and with grassroots activists across the country.” A former dean of Chapman University’s law school in Southern California, Eastman wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the results of the electoral certification during a joint session of Congress using the slates of Republican electors from the battleground states. The charges against him in Georgia include racketeering and conspiracy, while the Arizona charges have not been made public. He’s also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment, which quotes his remarks at the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia and his lawyer Charles Burnham said he’s innocent of the charges in Arizona. Ellis was charged in the Georgia indictment after she appeared with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made. She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She wasn’t charged in connection with the Republican electors efforts in Georgia. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she had a lawyer in Arizona who could comment on charges she faces there, which have not yet been made public. A Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide, Roman was charged with several conspiracy counts related to the Republican elector meeting and the filing of the elector certificate in Georgia. He was also charged in Arizona. Roman has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer in Arizona yet. Chesebro, a lawyer, worked with Republicans in multiple swing states to coordinate and execute the Trump elector plan. He was charged with racketeering and several conspiracy counts in relation to that work in Georgia and in October reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal election indictment, which says he “assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” He was also named in the Wisconsin civil lawsuit, and when he turned over documents to settle that suit he didn’t admit liability but promised never to participate in similar efforts. A lawyer and unflinching Trump ally, Powell was charged with racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia but was not implicated in the elector scheme. The Fulton County indictment accused her of participating in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office. She pleaded guilty in October to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She’s an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference case, where prosecutors say she filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsupported claims of election fraud. Clark was a U.S. Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud. He was charged in Georgia with racketeering and criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings after he presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. He was also one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment against Trump. In addition to Arizona, criminal charges have been filed against Republicans who presented themselves as electors in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Wisconsin Republicans who signed elector certificates reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania or New Mexico, with the attorney general in the latter saying there’s no avenue for prosecution under state law. ___ Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit businessman was charged with involuntary manslaughter Thursday in connection with an explosion at a building he owned in which a nitrous oxide cannister propelled through the air, striking and killing another man. Noor Noel Kestou, 31, of Commerce Township, was charged in connection with the March 4 explosion that killed 19-year-old Turner Lee Salter about a quarter of a mile (0.40 kilometers) away. Kestou’s bond was set at $500,000 cash/surety only. A probable cause hearing is scheduled for May 7 in Clinton Township District Court. The explosion occurred in a building housing a distributor for the vaping industry called Goo, which had more than 100,000 vape pens stored on-site. Authorities have said a truckload of butane canisters had arrived at the building within a week of the explosion that sent cannisters soaring up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers), and more than half of that stock was still there when the fire began. Goo had received a township occupancy permit in September 2022 for the 26,700-square-foot (2,480-square-meter) building as a retail location for a “smoke shop/vape store” that would sell paraphernalia for vape products, Clinton Township’s Building Department has said. Kestou’s attorney, James Thomas, said he had no comment on the case. Authorities scheduled a Friday morning news conference to discuss the case. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A plan by federal agencies to rebuild the sardine population in the Pacific was not properly implemented and failed to prevent overfishing, a judge in California ruled this week. Monday’s decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi was a victory for environmentalists who said officials did not ensure sardine stocks would bounce back within a legally required timeframe. The nonprofit Oceana sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2021, claiming that Pacific sardines collapsed by more than 98% between 2006 and 2020. The small oily fish enjoyed by humans are also essential food for whales, dolphins, sea lions, pelicans and salmon. The loss of sardines can create problems throughout ocean ecosystems, environmentalists said. The Fisheries Service must develop a plan that supports rebuilding and set “hard, science-based caps on how many fish could be caught each year,” the judge wrote in her order. The agency said it doesn’t comment on litigation. “We’re grateful that the court followed the science and recognized the need for a real plan with enforceable catch limits that will rebuild Pacific sardines for a healthy, abundant, and resilient ocean,” Dr. Geoff Shester, a senior scientist for Oceana, said in a statement. DeMarchi declined to grant some of Oceana’s motions, including one asking that she order a new environmental impact statement. The judge ordered the parties to discuss and submit proposals for a remedy by May 6. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com