NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The owner of a factory where six workers died last year in flooding from Hurricane Helene won’t face charges after a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation found no criminal wrongdoing. First Judicial District Attorney General Steven Finney announced the decision to close the case on Friday, saying no further action will be taken.

The investigation found no evidence that Impact Plastics employees were told they could not leave the factory or that they would be fired if they left, according to a news release from the district attorney. It also found employees had a little more than an hour during which they could have evacuated from the Erwin, Tennessee, industrial park. The conclusion mirrors that of a similar investigation by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found in April that workers had time to evacuate the premises, albeit by makeshift routes.

A statement from Impact Plastics attorney Stephen Ross Johnson on Friday said company president and founder Gerald O’Connor welcomes the results of the TBI investigation.

“The true and accurate facts are now known,” the statement reads.

Five employees and one contractor who cleaned the offices once a week were killed on Sept. 27 after they were washed away by floodwaters. They were among 12 people who stuck close to the Impact Plastics building, waiting for the water to recede, after realizing the exit road was already submerged. When the water kept rising, they climbed onto the bed of a semitrailer loaded with giant spools of plastic piping that was parked outside the factory. When floodwaters eventually overwhelmed the truck, six people were able to use the piping for flotation and were later rescued. The other six drowned.

The TOSHA report notes that several Impact Plastics employees did escape the flood. Some were able to drive or walk over an embankment to a nearby highway after workers at a neighboring business dismantled a fence there. Others escaped by driving over a makeshift path onto nearby railroad tracks that an employee at a neighboring business created with a tractor. Still others were able to escape by walking to the railroad tracks, according to that report.

Although the criminal case is being closed, the company still faces a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of Johnny Peterson, and other civil suits are planned.

Attorney Luke Widener, who represents the families of several flood victims, said in a statement that they “categorically disagree that Impact Plastics employees were given any meaningful opportunity to escape. …Indeed, if Impact Plastics’ account were true, Bertha Mendoza, Sibrina Barnett, and the others who perished would still be with us.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A former chief executive of two clothing technology companies who was once portrayed as an on-the-rise fashion entrepreneur has surrendered to face charges in an indictment unsealed Friday alleging that she cheated investors of over $300 million over the last six years.

Christine Hunsicker, 48, of Lafayette, New Jersey, was charged with six counts, including fraud, aggravated identity theft and false statement charges in the indictment in Manhattan federal court.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a release that Hunsicker forged documents, fabricated audits and made material misrepresentations about her company’s financial condition to defraud investors in CaaStle Inc. and P180.

The indictment said she portrayed CaaStle as a high-growth, private company with substantial cash on hand when she knew it faced significant financial distress.

In a statement, defense lawyers Michael Levy and Anna Skotko said prosecutors “have chosen to present to the public an incomplete and very distorted picture in today’s indictment,” despite Hunsicker’s efforts to be “fully cooperative and transparent” with prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“There is much more to this story, and we look forward to telling it,” they said.

According to the indictment, Hunsicker continued her fraudulent scheme even after the CaaStle board of directors removed her and prohibited her from soliciting investments or taking other actions on the company’s behalf.

She “persisted in her scheme” even after law enforcement agents confronted her over the fraud, the indictment said.

Before the fraud allegations emerged, Hunsicker seemed to be a rising star in the fashion world after she was named to Crain’s New York Business “40 under 40” lists, was selected as one of Inc.’s “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs” and was recognized by the National Retail Federation as someone shaping the future of retail, the indictment noted.

At a time when the business was in financial distress with limited cash available and significant expenses, CaaStle was valued by Hunsicker at $1.4 billion, the indictment said.

Hunsicker was lying to investors in February 2019 and continued to do so through this March, prosecutors alleged.

They said she fed investors falsely inflated income statements, fake audited financial statements, fictitious bank account records and sham corporate records.

She allegedly told one investor in August 2023 that CaaStle reported an operating profit of nearly $24 million in the second quarter of 2023 when its operating profit that quarter was actually less than $30,000.

The indictment alleged that she carried out the majority of the fraud by bilking CaaStle investors of $275 million before forming P180 last year to infuse CaaStle with cash before its investors could discover her fraud.

Through misrepresentations and omissions, she cheated P180 investors out of about $30 million, the indictment said.

It said CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month, leaving hundreds of investors holding now-worthless CaaStle shares.

An attorney for Sadie Schreiner filed the complaint in New Jersey Superior Court on Tuesday, listing the school along with athletic director John Mack and director of track operations Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick as defendants. The lawsuit also lists New York-based Leone Timing and Results Services as a defendant in its role of handling official timing for organized track and field events.

The lawsuit comes more than five months after the NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes to limit competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth. That change came a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

Schreiner, who had transitioned during high school, had previously run for Division III Rochester Institute of Technology but was set to compete as an athlete unattached to any school or club in the Larry Ellis Invitational. The complaint seeks unspecified damages for a “humiliating, dehumanizing and dignity-stripping ordeal” in front of family and friends.

The complaint cites New Jersey anti-discrimination law barring discrimination for being transgender, with schools considered areas of “public accommodation.”

“We stand by the allegations in the pleading,” Schreiner attorney Susie Cirilli told The Associated Press on Friday. “As stated in the complaint, the defendants’ individual actions were intolerable in a civilized community and go beyond the possible bounds of decency.”

Princeton’s media and athletics officials as well as Leone Timing did not return emails from the AP seeking comment.

According to the complaint, Schreiner originally signed up to run the 100- and 200-meter races before later declaring only for the 200 despite registering and qualifying for both races. The complaint says she learned 15 minutes before her race that her name had been removed from the official list of competitors, then raised the issue with Leone Timing officials before being directed to Mack and Keenan-Kirkpatrick.

During that exchange, the complaint states, Keenan-Kirkpatrick said, “I do not want to assume, but you are transgender.” Additionally, Keenan-Kirkpatrick “further suggested that she had tried to organize a separate segregated event just for Sadie so that she could run” while Schreiner provided a birth certificate and driver’s license recognizing her as a female, according to the complaint.

According to her Instagram page, Schreiner said she was “barred” from running in a February track event at Boston University as an unattached athlete following the Trump order and NCAA policy change.

The nationwide battle over transgender girls on girls’ and women’s sports teams has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness. More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawyer for the maker of the video game Call of Duty argued Friday that a judge should dismiss a lawsuit brought by families of the victims of the Robb Elementary School attack in Uvalde, Texas, saying the contents of the war game are protected by the First Amendment.

The families sued Call of Duty maker Activision and Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram, saying that the companies bear responsibility for products used by the teenage gunman.

Three sets of parents who lost children in the shooting were in the audience at the Los Angeles hearing.

Activision lawyer Bethany Kristovich told Superior Court Judge William Highberger that the “First Amendment bars their claims, period full stop.”

“The issues of gun violence are incredibly difficult,” Kristovich said. “The evidence in this case is not.”

She argued that the case has little chance of prevailing if it continues, because courts have repeatedly held that “creators of artistic works, whether they be books, music, movies, TV or video games, cannot be held legally liable for the acts of their audience.”

The lawsuit, one of many involving Uvalde families, was filed last year on the second anniversary of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The gunman killed 19 students and two teachers. Officers finally confronted and shot him after waiting more than an hour to enter the fourth-grade classroom.

At the hearing, the families’ attorney, Josh Koskoff, showed contracts and correspondence between executives at Activison and gun makers whose products, he said, are clearly and exactly depicted in the game despite brand names not appearing.

He said the shooter experienced “the absorption and the loss of self in Call of Duty.”

Koskoff said that immersion was so deep that the shooter searched online for how to obtain an armored suit that he didn’t know only exists in the game.

Koskoff played a Call of Duty clip, with a first-person shooter gunning down opponents.

The shots echoed loudly in the courtroom, and several people in the audience slowly shook their heads.

Family lawyers are expected to argue the First Amendment issues of the Activision case later Friday.

Highberger told the lawyers he wasn’t leaning in either direction before the hearing, and it is unlikely he will issue a ruling immediately.

Meta was not involved in this hearing or the motion being argued.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan pawn shop owner pleaded guilty Friday to serving as a fence for luxury items stolen from wealthy residences across the country, including a brazen burglary at the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow while he was playing an away game last year.

Dimitriy Nezhinskiy admitted to knowingly purchasing stolen watches, jewelry and other high-end goods in order to re-sell them in his pawn shop. But he maintained that he did not know they had been taken from people’s homes until after his arrest.

“I am very sorry for my actions,” the 44-year-old New Jersey resident said in Brooklyn federal court. “Most of my business was completely legitimate, and it was a good business.”

Nezhinskiy pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to receive stolen property. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison as well as restitution of about $2.5 million and forfeiture of more than $2.5 million. He’ll be sentenced at a later date.

“This defendant ran a black-market pipeline, buying stolen luxury goods from organized theft crews that targeted homes and businesses,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. “It was a deliberate operation that helped professional burglars prey on innocent people.”

Nezhinskiy, who was born in the nation of Georgia but has legal status in the U.S., could also face deportation, U.S. District Court Judge William Kuntz noted.

Juan Villar, a New York resident who ran the pawn shop with Nezhinskiy, pleaded guilty to the same charge last month and will be sentenced in December.

Prosecutors said the shop in Manhattan’s famed Diamond District fenced stolen goods for international burglary crews that targeted homes of prominent athletes around the country.

They say Nezhinskiy and Villar had been purchasing items from various crews and re-selling them from 2020 until the FBI raided the storefront and arrested them in February.

The crews, many consisting of foreign nationals from South America, mostly hit homes while athletes were out of town, including while playing in road games, prosecutors have said. Targets also included the homes of NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, Luka Doncic of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Mike Conley Jr. of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The investigation spanned several states and led to at least six arrests.

Nezhinskiy and Villar weren’t charged in connection with specific robberies, but prosecutors said phone records link Nezhinskiy to one of the men charged with ransacking Burrow’s house.

Prosecutors also say a large amount of suspected stolen property was found at the two men’s business and at storage units in New Jersey belonging to Nezhinskiy, including luxury handbags, wine, sports memorabilia, jewelry, artwork and power tools commonly used for burglaries and opening safes.

The break-in at Burrow’s home happened on Dec. 9, 2024 while the Bengals were playing in Dallas. Police said a person arrived at the Anderson Township home to find a shattered bedroom window and the home ransacked. The person called her mother, who notified authorities, and was later revealed to be Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Olivia Ponton, not Burrow’s previous girlfriend.

“I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one,” Burrow said afterward. “Way more is out there than I would want out there and that I care to share.”

Police said they apprehended those burglars the following month after finding them in an SUV with a Louisiana State University shirt and a Cincinnati Bengals hat believed to be stolen from Burrow’s home. Burrow played college football at LSU.

Police also found photos the robbers took of themselves flashing some of the other spoils — jewelry, watches, designer luggage and glasses. One even wore necklaces with pendants showing “JB9” and the number 9 — Burrow’s jersey number.

Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under intense pressure from President Donald Trump’s own supporters, his administration now says it will push a court to unseal secret documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s case in an effort to put to rest for good a political crisis largely of its own making.

But even if those records become public, it’s far from certain they will appease critics enraged over the administration’s unfulfilled promises of full transparency about evidence against the wealthy financier. Meanwhile, the administration remains dogged by questions about its refusal to release other records in its possession after stoking conspiracy theories and pledging to uncover government secrets of the “deep state.”

Here’s a look at the ongoing Epstein files controversy and what may happen next:

How the case got here

Trump is desperately trying to turn the page on a crisis that has consumed his administration since the Justice Department announced last week that it would not release any more evidence about the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019.

The latest development came Thursday when the Wall Street Journal described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing the letter, calling it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”

Shortly after the story was published, Trump said he had directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”

“This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” the president wrote on social media.

Bondi then announced that the Justice Department would move Friday to ask the court to unseal the grand jury transcripts.

Courts are typically reluctant to release grand jury materials

Grand juries decide whether there is enough evidence to bring an indictment, or a formal criminal charge, and their proceedings are secret to protect the reputations of people who end up not being charged and to encourage reluctant witnesses to testify.

Grand jury transcripts — which could show the testimony of witnesses and other evidence presented by prosecutors — are rarely released by courts, unless they need to be disclosed in connection with a judicial proceeding. In fact, grand jury secrecy is such a sacrosanct principle under the law that government officials who improperly disclose testimony are subject to prosecution. Witnesses are not bound by those rules.

Even with the Justice Department endorsement, it could take weeks or months of legal wrangling to decide what can be released and how to protect witnesses and other sensitive victim information.

And it’s unlikely the transcripts would shed any light on a major fascination of conspiracy theorists obsessed with Epstein’s case: the financier’s connections to other powerful figures whom some believe were involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.

Court have blocked the release of grand jury materials in other high-profile investigations. House Democrats in 2019 sought grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while Congress was conducting its impeachment inquiry into Trump. But the Justice Department successfully fought for years to keep the material secret.

The administration could release other records right now

The Justice Department’s decision to seek grand jury transcripts gives the administration a reason to point to the courts to explain why more material hasn’t yet been released. But the uproar over the Epstein files was never about the grand jury transcripts — it was about the thousands of other pages in the government’s possession that the administration now says it won’t release.

Facing outrage after the first release of Epstein files flopped in February, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. But after a monthslong review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”

The Justice Department has yet to fully explain why none of that material could be released. It noted in its memo earlier this month that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

Since then, Bondi has largely refused to answer questions from reporters about the matter.

Congress’ Epstein files resolution carries no legal weight

House Republicans may vote next week on a resolution that seeks to appease GOP demands for more transparency on the Epstein case, The resolution calls on the Justice Department to publicly release records, but it carries no legal force.

“The House Republicans are for transparency, and they’re looking for a way to say that they agree with the White House,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday. “We agree with the president. Everything he said about that, all the credible evidence should come out.”

Democrats, with the support of nine Republicans, have advanced their own legislation that would require the Justice Department to release more information about the case.

Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally will remain blocked as an order from one judge went into effect Friday and another seemed inclined to follow suit.

U.S. District Judge Joseph LaPlante in New Hampshire had paused his own decision to allow for the Trump administration to appeal, but with no appeal filed in the last week his order went into effect.

“The judge’s order protects every single child whose citizenship was called into question by this illegal executive order,” Cody Wofsy, the ACLU attorney representing children who would be affected by Trump’s restrictions, said. “The government has not appealed and has not sought emergency relief so this injunction is now in effect everywhere in the country.”

The Trump administration could still appeal or even ask that LaPlante’s order be narrowed but the effort to end birthright citizenship for children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily can’t take effect for now.

The Justice Department didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

Meanwhile, a judge in Boston heard arguments from more than a dozen states who say Trump’s birthright citizenship order is blatantly unconstitutional and threatens millions of dollars for essential services. The issue is expected to move quickly back to the nation’s highest court.

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin was asked to consider either keeping in place the nationwide injunction he granted earlier or consider a request from the government either to narrow the scope of that order or stay it altogether. Sorokin, located in Boston, did not immediately rule but seemed to be receptive to arguments from states to keep the injunction in place.

Lawyers for the government had argued Sorokin should narrow the reach of his earlier ruling granting a preliminary injunction, arguing it should be “tailored to the States’ purported financial injuries.”

Much of the hearing was focused on what a narrower ruling would look like. The plaintiffs raised concerns that some alternatives floated by the Trump administration — such as giving children in states impacted by the birthright citizenship order social security numbers, but not citizenship — would be costly and unworkable.

They said such a system would burden these states with having to set up new administrative systems, sow confusion among the parents whose children are impacted and possibly turn these states into magnets for families from other states looking to access the benefits.

Government lawyers didn’t seem tied to any one alternative, but told Sorokin the scope of his injunction should be limited. When pressed on how they would do that, a lawyer for the government, Eric Hamilton, would only commit to complying with whatever order was issued.

“If the court modifies the preliminary injunction or stays the preliminary injunction, it should be at most tailored to injuries plaintiffs are alleging which are primary financial,” Hamilton said.

Sorokin pushed back, at one point using an analogy of someone who sued a neighbor over loud music. The defendant offers to build a wall to limit the noise but Sorokin wondered how they could ensure it met the zoning code and was something the defendant could afford.

“What you are telling me is we will do it but, in response to my question, you have no answer how you will do it,” Sorokin said.

LaPlante issued the ruling last week p rohibiting Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide in a new class-action lawsuit, and a Maryland-based judge said this week that she would do the same if an appeals court signed off.

The justices ruled last month that lower courts generally can’t issue nationwide injunctions, but it didn’t rule out other court orders that could have nationwide effects, including in class-action lawsuits and those brought by states. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the underlying citizenship order is constitutional.

At the heart of the lawsuits is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. That decision found that Scott, an enslaved man, wasn’t a citizen despite having lived in a state where slavery was outlawed.

The Trump administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship.

BOSTON (AP) — Attorneys for Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide argued in federal court Friday that cutting off Medicaid funding to its abortion providers would hurt vulnerable patients who already have limited health care options.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates in Massachusetts and Utah are fighting to block part of President Donald Trump’s tax bill they say is designed to target their clinics. The provision would end Medicaid payments to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood that primarily offer family planning services — things like contraception, abortion and pregnancy tests — and received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023.

Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.

“It’s the affiliation provision that makes this rotten to the core,” said Planned Parenthood attorney Alan Schoenfeld during Friday’s hearing in Boston.

The plaintiffs have filed their federal lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

So far, the provision has been on hold after U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a temporary restraining order blocking the cuts for two weeks. That order expires July 21, when Talwani has said she will decide whether to grant a motion for a preliminary injunction against the funding cuts while the lawsuit plays out.

On Friday, Talwani was particularly focused on getting a definition of what constituted an affiliation and what a Planned Parenthood health center would have to do to qualify for Medicaid funding, quizzing the federal government’s attorneys if stopping abortions would be enough or if they would have to completely severe all ties.

Emily Hall, an attorney representing HHS, said Friday that the federal government needs more information about Planned Parenthood’s structure and time to finalize interpretations of the law.

“It depends on the nature of the corporate relationship, which I don’t have,” Hall said.

Fears of pending cuts to Planned Parenthood further escalated this week after a Planned Parenthood office in Ohio announced Tuesday that it was closing two health clinics — in Hamilton and Springfield, north of Cincinnati — due to state and federal cuts.

“Make no mistake: This is not a decision made by Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio Region,” President and CEO Nan Whaley, a one-time Democratic gubernatorial nominee, told reporters. “We took every possible step to keep these centers open, but the devastating impact of state and federal political attacks has forced us into this very difficult position.”

The centers provide preventive health care, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control and wellness exams.

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — When the running gets hard in this desert dubbed “hell on Earth,” Danny Westergaard tells himself: “Slow and steady” or “smooth as butter.”

For 18 years, Westergaard, 66, has braved the scorching summer heat of California’s Death Valley in an ultramarathon billed as the world’s toughest. Last week, 99 runners from across the globe embarked on a grueling 135 mile competition from the lowest point below sea level of North America to the trailhead of the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. They had 48 hours to do it. Few have completed the competition as many times as Westergaard, a retired aerospace project manager, though finishing is not a given.

“It’s just become like a summer ritual and a family reunion,” he said. “I feel at home when I’m here. It’s my tribe.”

For the 37th year, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon challenged athletes to withstand stretches of this dry, searing desert. The race takes place in July, when temperatures have soared into the 130s F. Even as a place of extremes, Death Valley is not immune to global warming. Seven of its hottest summers have occurred in the past 10 years, according to the National Park Service. And if planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, more places could experience its broiling temperatures.

Over two days, Westergaard would trek up and down mountain ranges, past sand dunes and salt flats, through quaint towns and vast desertscapes amid temperatures as high as 117 F. He tried to smile throughout, even when he felt miserable.

“It just lifts you up,” he said of smiling so others smile back.

First night: The race begins

At 8 p.m., the first wave of runners take off. Westergaard jogs up a ramp into the pale light of dusk. It’s 113 F, and it feels like a blow dryer to the face.

Leap frogging in a van behind him is his cheer squad and support crew – Jennifer Drain, his smiley cousin back for the 17th year, and daughters Meagan, who has attended before, and Madison, a first timer. The crew, who playfully call Westergaard “wiener dog,” are hauling everything he needs: food, ice, water, electrolytes.

This heat can kill. Soaring body temperatures can lead to organ failure and strain the heart, especially for people with heart disease, and cause heat stroke. To prevent that they keep him cool. They spray mist on him and pour ice into his hat and a bandana wrapped around his neck. His drinking water is ice cold.

A few hours in, Meagan asks her dad if he’s peed. “Long stream,” he responded of his amount of urine. Staying hydrated is critical. As he sweats, he’s losing liquids that can critically stress kidneys if not replenished. Dehydration can cause organs to fail from lack of blood, oxygen and nutrients, leading to seizures and death.

No runners have died doing the competition, but heat-related issues are common, said Megan Dell, the race’s medical director. Stomach issues can lead to vomiting and dehydration. Hyponatremia — which happens when your blood’s sodium is too low — has sent runners to the hospital.

Westergaard has learned to embrace the rollercoaster. One moment he feels like Superman — the next he could be throwing up on the side of the road, questioning if he’ll make it. “You just suck it up, just like in life, and get through the lows, and it always gets better.”

The next day: Running through “the oven”

The runners dash toward mile 50.8, the critical cut off point they must get to by 10 a.m. or be eliminated. The sun is peaking over the mountains, casting a warm glow over dune fields. It’s 85 F.

“Living the dream, ey?” Westergaard said with a smile, his perky strut now a droopy shuffle.

He pours water on his face and arms and munches some watermelon. Madison paces behind him as they crack jokes. “Get er done! Junior wiener in training!” Meagan yelled.

Westergaard makes it to the cut off point before 9 a.m. It’s 90 F.

Mile 56: After moving for 14 hours straight, Westergaard rests and eats some avocado toast. “Great! Let’s motor!” he said after 10 minutes sitting on a chair.

Miles later, he begins his descent into “the oven” that is Panamint Valley, usually the hottest part of the race during the hottest part of the day. It’s 96 F and the heat sizzles from above and below. Westergaard runs on the white line on the road because it’s cooler. In hotter years, the asphalt got so hot the bottoms of his shoes felt sticky on the ground.

Westergaard trains year round to acclimate to the heat. As he gets older, he doesn’t tolerate heat as well and has slowed down. His two-hour sauna sessions are now one, and he runs a few times a week instead of daily.

“I’m just out there longer,” he said, “but still getting it done.”

Tony Wolf, kinesiology professor at the University of Georgia, said aging adults generally have reduced heart function compared to younger adults. When combined with the cardiovascular demand of exercise and heat stress, it can cause difficulties.

There isn’t much research about how the bodies of fit older adults, including competitive athletes, regulate internal temperature. “There aren’t a ton of people in their 60s and older who are doing those kinds of events,” said Wolf.

Studies focused on adults before and after a training program found that exercise improved heart function and thermoregulation. That could suggest that the heart and thermoregulation impairments linked to aging are largely mitigated by lifelong fitness, Wolf said.

Second night: Sleepy hallucinations

The runners are spread out now, their flashing lights twinkling in the distance. This night is the toughest for Westergaard as sleep deprivation sets in. He zigzags on the road, barely awake. The runners ahead of him look like they’re running toward him.

In past years, his hallucinations have included people luring him to rest on couches that were actually bushes. Another time, he struck up a conversation with a kid skateboarding by him with a dog. And once, he watched for hours as a guy swung off the edge of the crescent moon, waving down at him.

“It was just clear as day,” Westergaard said of the hallucination.

At 3:10 a.m. at mile 98, he sleeps for 15 minutes under the moonlight.

“No one really quite understands” why he does this, said Madison.

Final day: The push toward the finish

At 11:50 a.m. and around mile 123, Westergaard shuffles through the town of Lone Pine. Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental U.S., soars some 14,500 feet into the blue sky.

A crowd claps and cheers as he runs by.

“Go Danny, go!” yelled a man.

It’s 92 F as he approaches the final 4,750 foot mountain ascent to the finish line. Westergaard is walking at a snail’s pace and says he’s falling asleep. But his smile hasn’t waned.

“We’ve come a long way,” Westergaard said, Madison pacing behind and spraying him.

“Long way for a burger!” she responded. They giggle while thinking about the veggie burger they’ll buy upon finishing.

Then he does, crossing the finish line with his crew at exactly 45 hours and 29 minutes.

It was his most special Badwater 135 race by far, he says misty eyed, having Meagan and Madison at his side.

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “It Might Be You” and the classic “The Way We Were,” has died at 99.

Bergman died late Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues “but continued to write songs till the very end.”

The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend.

Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” the well-named Sinatra favorite “Nice ’n’ Easy” and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times.” Their film compositions included Ray Charles’ “In the Heat of the Night” from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair”; and Stephen Bishop’s “It Might Be You,” from “Tootsie.”

The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to “The Way We Were,” an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch’s tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history’s most famous opening stanzas: “Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.”

“The Way We Were” was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for “Windmills of Your Mind” and the soundtrack to “Yentl,” the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all.

The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand’s 2011 album of Bergman songs, “What Matters Most.” On “Lyrically, Alan Bergman,” Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans also wrote the Broadway musical “Ballroom” and provided lyrics for the symphony “Visions of America.”

Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn’t meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children’s concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn’s favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, “That Face,” which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed.

Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.

Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master’s from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children’s songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit “Yellowbird.” Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. “Do you know how wonderful you are?” was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer.

The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited “A Love Like Ours” as among their most personal:

“When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.”