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Source: Canadian Press

Ontario’s snap election is set for Feb. 27. Here’s what you need to know about casting a ballot.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO VOTE?

Residents of Ontario who are Canadian citizens and 18 or older can vote.

WHAT DO I NEED TO VOTE?

Those who are not already registered must add or update their information at registertovoteon.ca to receive a voter information card before election day. Elections Ontario says the cards with information about your riding and assigned voting locations will be in the mail from Feb. 17 to 22.

You must bring your voter card and one piece of identification that shows your name when you go to vote.

If you don’t receive a voter card, you can still cast a ballot by bringing a piece of ID that shows both your name and home address to the polling station. Elections Ontario says photo ID is not required.

HOW DO I VOTE IN ADVANCE OR BY MAIL?

If you need to vote by mail, you must apply online before 6 p.m. ET on Feb. 21 to receive a voting kit. For your mail-in vote to be counted, Elections Ontario must receive a completed kit by 6 p.m. ET on Feb. 27.

You can vote in person at your local election office up until 6 p.m. on Feb. 26.

Voters can also head to advance polls in their electoral districts from Feb. 20 to 22. Locations will be listed on the Elections Ontario website. The website also has information for those who may be eligible to vote from home or a hospital under certain circumstances.

HOW DO I VOTE ON ELECTION DAY?

You can cast a ballot at your assigned polling station from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2025.

The Canadian Press

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TORONTO — The last time Ontarians went to the polls, the province recorded the lowest voter turnout in its election history. Observers say they don’t expect a significant change in this month’s snap election.

In June 2022, just 44 per cent of 10.7 million eligible voters cast a ballot in the election that yielded a sweeping victory for Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives. As Ford seeks an even bigger electoral mandate, some expect that trend to continue in the Feb. 27 vote.

University of Toronto political science professor Randy Besco said voter frustration, anger and a competitive race drive higher turnouts, but those elements don’t seem to be at play in this election.

“If they’re angry about things and they want change, then they get out and vote,” he said. “And the other thing is that turnout tends to be high when … the results are close and it’s unclear who is going to win.”

Observers point out that Ford already had a large majority government, his party is polling well, and his “Team Canada” approach U.S. tariff threats has only boosted his profile.

Lydia Miljan, a political science professor at the University of Windsor, said in addition to a perceived lack of competition and needle-moving voter anger, other factors may also lead to lacklustre turnout.

She said Ford’s decision to call an election nearly 1 1/2 years before the fixed date took Ontarians “off guard,” and the short campaign leading up to a very rare February vote – when some people may be travelling for winter vacations – could lower voter participation.

Chaos in federal politics, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set to step down as soon as the Liberal party chooses its new leader in early March, may turn out to be another distraction for Ontario voters, Miljan said.

“Simultaneously, people are gearing up for a federal election campaign,” she said.

Getting out the votes in northern parts of the province, where winter weather is harsher, could prove especially hard, Miljan suggested.

“I think that actually we might even have a lower turnout than last time’s historic low.”

But Besco said weather is unlikely to affect voter turnout, unless blizzards or extreme cold hit parts of the province on election day.

Elections Ontario has said there are “contingency plans” in case of severe weather.

“We are working closely with local and provincial authorities to monitor the situation and provide frequent updates for those of you who are unable to make it to a polling station,” the province’s chief electoral officer, Greg Essensa, said.

Essensa said efforts are underway to make voting easy for the 10.8 million Ontarians who can cast a ballot in this election. That includes options to vote by mail, at an advanced polling station or on election day. Under certain circumstances, some voters may also be able to vote from home or a hospital.

Both Besco and Miljan said low voter turnout is not necessarily an issue.

It means people are “fine with the status quo and there’s no big problems … you know, sometimes politics is boring,” Besco said.

Miljan said she doesn’t equate low voter turnout with low public engagement, or see it as “somehow a problem for democracy.”

“If people are happy with the system, they may not vote just because there there’s no great incentive,” she said.

Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, agrees that fewer people are likely to vote in this election, but said he could be proven wrong.

If Ontarians deem U.S. President Donald Trump’s cross-border policies an “existential moment,” they will be motivated to elect a premier who can fight back, he said.

A higher voter turnout is also possible if enough people believe that Ford wasted taxpayers’ dollars by calling an early election that wasn’t necessary, Siemiatycki added.

He said the participation of less than two-thirds of eligible voters is not healthy for any democracy.

“In the business I was in – and I used past tense because I am a retired professor – that was a failing grade,” he said. “That was an embarrassing, humiliating failing grade.”

– With files from Allison Jones.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2025.

Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Women represent half of the U.S. population but it’s still rare for them to have leading roles in setting taxes or budgets in some states.

Take Mississippi, for example. Only one woman currently serves on the 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The elite group makes the first recommendations on how much money the state should spend on schools, prisons, Medicaid and other programs, giving these lawmakers substantial influence over their colleagues and over the lives of people who use government services.

Second-term Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd was appointed to the committee by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a fellow Republican who said he did not consider whether to choose a balance of men and women.

“I don’t look at it so much like, ‘We need a woman here,’ or something like that,” Hosemann said. “I look at the abilities and there are plenty of people that have great abilities, male and female. Nicole Boyd, I believe, is outstanding.”

Just over 2,400 women are serving in state legislatures across the U.S., or about 33% of the total, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, at Rutgers University. Almost 1,600 are Democrats, just over 800 are Republicans and the others are nonpartisan or independent.

Last year, when 31% of state lawmakers nationwide were women, they held about 30% of the seats on committees overseeing taxes, revenues and other financial matters, according to a review by The Associated Press.

But participation varies widely by state, and by session. In Utah, women held only 5% of those seats in 2024. This year, they hold 28%. In Nevada, 62% of finance-related seats were held by women when the Legislature last met in 2023.

Jean Sinzdak, associate director of The Center for American Women and Politics, notes that people who serve in legislatures for a long time tend to receive the most desired committee assignments.

“Anything budget- and appropriations-related is always one at the top,” Sinzdak said. “And so part of the challenge of getting more women is that women haven’t been serving as long and in the numbers needed.”

Women ‘add to the conversation’

Mississippi has the third-lowest percentage of women in its legislature, at 15%, according to the center. The only states behind it are South Carolina, with 13%, and West Virginia, with 11%.

All together, women hold just over 11% of seats on Mississippi’s five money committees: Joint Legislative Budget, House and Senate Appropriations, House Ways and Means and Senate Finance.

Mississippi has never had a woman as governor or House speaker. Only two women have been elected lieutenant governor, decades ago. All of those roles are crucial to setting taxes and budgets.

“Look, I want to see more women there because I think we add to the conversation,” Boyd said. “We work together differently, and I think those are all good things for the Legislature.”

For example, women in the Mississippi Legislature banded together in 2023 to secure money for evidence testing in rape cases when a backlog at the state crime lab was delaying trials.

“Our male colleagues supported us just as strongly,” Boyd said.

Money committees aren’t the only way to serve

In West Virginia, Republican Delegate Kathie Hess Crouse said she believes women generally get the committee assignments they ask for. The low number of women on tax and budget committees is not only due to the fact that few serve in the legislature, but also because female lawmakers sometimes prioritize other committees, she said.

That’s the case for Hess Crouse, who chaired the House Committee on Workforce Development and served on other committees focusing on energy, manufacturing and government organization last year. She said legislative leadership has conversations with all the GOP lawmakers before the session starts and asks what their interests are. She always has received her top picks; it just so happens finance is not one of them.

“Do I like money? Yes,” Crouse said. “I do my home budget. I don’t necessarily like it, but I do it. I file my own taxes normally. I work on those things, but it’s not my main interest area. So do I want to serve on finance? No, I have interests elsewhere.”

Women are taking the lead in some states

The balance is different in Nevada, which in 2019 became the first state where a majority of legislators were women.

That is reflected on key committees. Women have most of the seats on the Assembly’s Revenue and Ways and Means committees. And they hold seven of eight seats on the Senate’s finance committee, including the entire Democratic delegation on the committee.

The chair, Sen. Marilyn Dondero Loop, said there could be areas, such as breast cancer funding, where female lawmakers might be more likely to put taxpayer money because of their personal connections to the issue. But she said she doesn’t approach her work thinking about gender.

“Whenever I vote and my other colleagues vote,” Dondero Loop said, “we do it solely as being a Nevadan and making things better.”

Elizabeth Steiner served as co-chair of the Oregon Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee, which handles money matters and has members from the House and Senate, before being elected state treasurer last year. She said it’s important for women’s personal and professional life experiences to be brought into state decision-making.

“If you don’t include 50% of the population, the perspective of 50% of the population in your decision-making, then you’re really disadvantaging everybody: men and women, and certainly children,” said Steiner, a Democrat.

Other states also have women in prominent roles. In Alaska, a Republican woman was one of three co-chairs of the House Finance Committee last year. Connecticut has two Democratic women leading the Appropriations Committee and another co-chairing the Finance Committee. Vermont had two Democratic women in charge of the Appropriations committees for 2023-24.

South Carolina has never had a woman chair a money committee. Three served on the 25-person House Ways and Means Committee in 2024. A Republican woman was rising in the 23-member Senate Finance Committee, but she took a stand against a total abortion ban and lost her primary along with the only two other Republican women in the South Carolina Senate.

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Associated Press reporters contributing to this report include Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Leah Willingham in Charleston, West Virginia; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon.

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The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — From an ice cream parlor in California to a medical supply business in North Carolina to a T-shirt vendor outside Detroit, U.S. businesses are bracing to take a hit from the taxes President Donald Trump imposed Saturday on imports from Canada, Mexico and China — America’s three biggest trading partners.

The levies — 25% on Canadian and Mexican and 10% on Chinese goods – will take effect Tuesday. Canadian energy, including oil, natural gas and electricity, will be taxed at a lower 10% rate.

Mexico’s president immediately ordered retaliatory tariffs and Canada’s prime minister said the country would put matching 25% tariffs on up to $155 billion in U.S. imports. China did not immediately respond to Trump’s action.

The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates that Trump’s tariffs would cost the average American household $1,000 to $1,200 in annual purchasing power.

Gregory Daco, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm EY, calculates that the tariffs would increase inflation, which was running at a 2.9% annual rate in December, by 0.4 percentage points this year. Daco also projects that the U.S. economy, which grew 2.8% last year, would fall by 1.5% this year and 2.1% in 2026 “as higher import costs dampen consumer spending and business investment.’’

The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, California, has had to hike prices of its ice cream — including popular flavors “strawberry pink peppercorn’’ and “chocolate caramel sea salt’’ — repeatedly in recent years as an inflationary surge increased the cost of its supplies.

“I feel bad about always having to raise prices,’’ said co-owner Zach Davis. “We were looking forward to inflation coming down, the economy stabilizing in 2025 … Now with the tariffs, we may be back at it again.’’

Trump tariffs, Davis said, threaten to drive up the cost of the mostly made-in-China refrigerators, freezers and blenders he’ll need if Penny Ice Creamery goes ahead with plans to add to its six shops. He still has painful memories of the extra equipment costs the company had to absorb when Trump slapped massive tariffs on China during his first term.

The new tariffs will also raise the price of a customer favorite — sprinkles — which Penny Ice Creamery imports from a company in Whitby, Ontario. Tacking a 25% import tax on even something as small as that can damage a small business like his.

“The margins are so slim,’’ he said. “Being able to offer that add-on can maybe generate an additional 10 cents in profit per scoop. If a tariff wipes that out, that can really be the difference between being profitable and being break-even and even being underwater by the end of the year.’’

In Asheville, North Carolina, Casey Hite, CEO of Aeroflow Health, expects to take a hit because his company gets more than half its supplies — including breast pumps — from Chinese manufacturers, providing them to American patients through insurance plans. Aeroflow Health gets paid by insurers at pre-negotiated rates, put in place before Trump decided on his tariffs.

Hite said the tax on Chinese imports would hit the company’s finances, forcing it either to purchase cheaper and lower-quality products or pass higher costs along via higher health insurance premiums. Those might take two years to materialize, Hite said, but eventually they would hit consumers’ budgets.

“It will impact the patients,” Hite said. “In time, patients pay more for the products.”

Even the made-in-USA absorbent incontinence pads Aeroflow Health buys aren’t safe from Trump’s import taxes. They may include pulp from tariff target Canada and plastics and packaging from China, according to the Aeroflow Health, which warns of “turbulences” from the tariffs.

“Is this going to affect our business? You bet it is,’’ said Linda Schlesinger-Wagner, who owns skinnytees, a women’s apparel company in Birmingham, Michigan, north of Detroit, that imports clothing from China. She said the 10% tax would increase her costs, though she plans to absorb the extra expense instead of passing it along to customers.

“I don’t like what’s going on,’’ she said, referring to the broader impact of the tariffs. “And I think people are going to be truly shocked at the pricing they’re going to see on the cars, on the lumber, on the clothes, on the food. This is going to be a mess.’’

William Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that many companies that stocked up on imported goods ahead of time to avoid the tariffs. They will be able to draw on their piled-up inventories for weeks or a couple of months, delaying their customers’ pain.

George Carrillo, CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, an industry advocacy group, said construction companies have been hoarding materials in anticipation of Trump’s actions, but he worries about the possibility of inflation spiking in three to six months.

“Once that inventory starts to get low, we’re going to start feeling the effects,” Carillo said in a phone interview Saturday, ahead of the announcement. “Developers and general contractors need to keep up with the pace and they’re going to start buying more products and it’s going to be at a higher price point.”

All that will be exacerbated by an emerging immigration crackdown that is already spooking the construction industry’s labor pool, he said.

“You put tariffs and you put workforce instability, it’s going to create major delays in projects. It’s going to create an increase in prices because of the lack of availability,” Carrillo said.

Then there are the industries that don’t have the luxury of stockpiling, including supermarkets whose farm products will spoil. So the tariff impact will show up on grocery shelves within days.

“You don’t stockpile avocados,’’ Reinsch said. “You don’t stockpile cut flowers. You don’t stockpile bananas.’’

In the tomato trading hub of Nogales, Arizona, produce vendor Rod Sbragia, who followed his father into the business nearly four decades ago, worries that the import levies will force some distribution companies out of business and “would be detrimental to the American consumer, to the choices they have at the supermarket.”

Sbragia voted for Trump in the past three elections and calls himself a “staunch Republican.” The president, he said, must not have been properly advised on the matter.

“When we’re worried about cost to consumers, inflationary pressures and the overall health of our population,’’ he asked, “why are we going to make it more difficult to get access to fresh fruits and vegetables?”

American farmers are also likely to get caught in Trump’s trade tussle with Canada, China and Mexico. The president’s supporters in rural America make a tempting target for retaliatory tariffs. That is what happened in Trump’s first term when other countries, notably China, slapped back against the president’s tariffs with levies of their own on things like soybeans and pork. In response, Trump spent billions in taxpayer money to compensate them for lost sales and lower prices.

Many farmers are now counting on the president to come through and protect them from reprisals.

“The Trump administration provided a safety net,” said former tobacco grower Lee Wicker, deputy director of the North Carolina Growers Association, a collection of 700 farms that lawfully brings in foreign temporary laborers to work the fields through a federal visa program. Many of the association’s farmers “trust him that he’s going to take care of anybody who’s hurt by the tariffs, and that’s really all that we can ask for.”

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AP Staff Writers Mae Anderson and Cedar Attanasio in New York; Mike Householder in Birmingham, Michigan; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Gabriel Sandoval in Phoenix; and Didi Tang and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this story.

Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press



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WASHINGTON (AP) — The website of the U.S. Agency for International Development went offline without explanation Saturday as thousands of furloughs, layoffs and program shutdowns continued in President Donald Trump’s freeze on U.S.-funded foreign aid and development worldwide.

Congressional Democrats battled the Trump administration increasingly openly, expressing concern that Trump may be headed toward ending USAID as an independent agency and absorbing it into the State Department. Democrats say Trump has no legal authority to eliminate a congressionally funded independent agency, and that the work of USAID is vital to national security.

Trump and congressional Republicans say much of foreign aid and development programs are wasteful. They single out programs they say advance liberal social agendas.

The fear of even tougher administration action against USAID comes two weeks into the administration’s shutdown of billions of dollars of the United States’ humanitarian, development and security assistance.

The U.S. is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid by far. It spends less than 1% of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share overall than some other countries.

Administration officials had no comment Saturday when asked about concerns expressed by lawmakers and others that Trump may be planning to end USAID as an independent agency.

President John F. Kennedy created at the height of the Cold War to counter Soviet influence. USAID today is at the center of U.S. challenges to the growing influence of China, which has a successful “Belt and Road” foreign aid program of its own.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, and Kennedy signed that law and an executive order establishing USAID as an independent agency.

USAID staffers spent Friday and Saturday in chat groups monitoring the fate of their agency, giving updates on whether the agency’s flag and signs were still up outside agency headquarters in Washington. As of late Saturday afternoon, they were.

In a post on X, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said presidents cannot eliminate congressionally appropriated federal agencies by executive order, and said Trump was poised to “double down on a constitutional crisis.”

“That’s what a despot — who wants to steal the taxpayers’ money to enrich his billionaire cabal — does,” Murphy said.

Billionaire Elon Musk, advising Trump in a campaign to whittle down the federal government in the name of efficiency, endorsed posts on his X site calling for dissolving USAID.

“Live by executive order, die by executive order,” Musk tweeted in reference to USAID.

Trump placed an unprecedented 90-day freeze on foreign assistance on his first day in office Jan. 20. The order, a tougher-than-expected interpretation of Trump’s freeze order on Jan. 24 drafted by Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term, shut down thousands of programs around the world and forced the furloughs or layoffs of many thousands.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to keep more kinds of strictly life-saving emergency programs going during the freeze. Aid groups say confusion surrounding what programs are still allowed to operate is contributing to paralysis in global aid organizations.

Rubio said Thursday, in his first public comments on the matter, that USAID’s programs were being reviewed to eliminate any that are not in the U.S. national interest, but he said nothing about eliminating it as an agency.

The shutdown of U.S.-funded programs during the 90-day review meant the U.S. was “getting a lot more cooperation” from recipients of humanitarian, development and security assistance, Rubio said.

Republicans and Democrats have fought over the agency for years, arguing whether humanitarian and development aid protects the U.S. by helping stabilize partner countries and economies, or is a waste of money. Republicans typically push to give State more control of USAID’s policy and funds. Democrats typically build USAID autonomy and authority.

A version of that legal battle played out in Trump’s first term, when Trump tried to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third.

When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to cut the flow of funds already appropriated by Congress for foreign programs. The General Accounting Office later ruled that it violated a law known as the Impoundment Control Act.

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AP photographer Carolyn Kaster contributed to this report.

Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press

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CBS says it will turn over an unedited transcript of its October interview with Kamala Harris to the Federal Communications Commission, part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing fight with the network over how it handled a story about his opponent.

Trump sued CBS for $10 billion over the “60 Minutes” interview, claiming it was deceptively edited to make Harris look good. Published reports said CBS’ parent company, Paramount, has been talking to Trump’s lawyers about a settlement.

The network said Friday that it was compelled by Brendan Carr, Trump’s appointee as FCC chairman, to turn over the transcripts and camera feeds of the interview for a parallel investigation by the commission. “60 Minutes” has resisted releasing transcripts for this and all of its interviews, to avoid second-guessing of its editing process.

The case, particularly a potential settlement, is being closely watched by advocates for press freedom and by journalists within CBS, whose lawyers called Trump’s lawsuit “completely without merit” and promised to vigorously fight it after it was filed.

The Harris interview initially drew attention because CBS News showed Harris giving completely different responses to a question posed by correspondent Bill Whitaker in clips that were aired on “Face the Nation” on Oct. 6 and the next night on “60 Minutes.” The network said each clip came from a lengthy response by Harris to Whitaker’s question, but they were edited to fit time constraints on both broadcasts.

In his lawsuit, filed in Texas on Nov. 1, Trump charged it was deceptive editing designed to benefit Harris and constituted “partisan and unlawful acts of voter interference.”

Trump, who turned down a request to be interviewed by “60 Minutes” during the campaign, has continued his fight despite winning the election less than a week after the lawsuit was filed.

The network has not commented on talks about a potential settlement, reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Paramount executives are seeking Trump administration approval of a sale of the company to another entertainment firm, Skydance.

ABC News in December settled a defamation lawsuit by Trump over statements made by anchor George Stephanopoulos, agreeing to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library rather than engage in a public fight. Meta has reportedly paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the company over its decision to suspend his social media accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

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This story was first published on Jan. 31, 2025. It was updated on Feb. 1, 2025, to correct the amount of damages President Donald Trump is seeking in his lawsuit against CBS. He is seeking $10 billion, not $10 million.

David Bauder, The Associated Press

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OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump will hit Canada with 25 per cent tariffs on Tuesday, with a lower 10 per cent duty for energy, provincial government sources say.

The federal government has been working to reassure Canadians that it is has a robust plan to respond with retaliatory measures.

Here’s the latest (all times Eastern):

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3:50 p.m.

Unifor, the country’s largest private sector union, says Canada must hit back “hard and fast” as U.S. President Donald Trump declares economic war on Canadian workers.

Unifor president Lana Payne says in addition to a “strong response” to tariffs, there should be other measures in place to support local jobs and industries, better manage strategic national resources, and ensure people buy Canadian products.

Unifor has also called for enhanced income supports for workers with better access to employment insurance benefits and emergency relief programs to mitigate the risk of layoffs and sustain companies in their operations.

———

3:30 p.m.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce calls the incoming tariffs to be imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump “profoundly disturbing.”

Chamber president Candace Laing says in a press release that tariffs will drastically increase the cost of everything for everyone, hurting families, communities and businesses.

She says the majority of Americans oppose tariffs, and that the way to strengthen the Canadian economy is to diversify its trading partners and dismantle unnecessary internal trade barriers to keep goods and services flowing.

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3:20 p.m.

Government sources say U.S. President Donald Trump will hit Canada with 25 per cent tariffs on Tuesday, while imposing a lower 10 per cent duty on energy imports.

The federal government informed provinces Saturday that tariffs are coming, say the provincial sources who can not be named in order to share details that governments have not yet made public.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2025.

The Canadian Press

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QUÉBEC — Former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre has still not submitted all the documents required to certify his candidacy in the Quebec Liberal party leadership race, according to an anonymous source within the party.

The source, which spoke with The Canadian Press on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly, said the documents in question relate to Coderre’s financial situation as media outlets have reported he owes about $400,000 in provincial and federal taxes.

Coderre went to the QLP office in Quebec City to file for candidacy last month and said that there were no issues with money owed to the two tax agencies.

Last week, Coderre maintained that his paperwork was in order, saying that he provided the party with the documents it had requested. He did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

The committee that authorizes candidates says those trying to join the race can be accepted or rejected within seven days once their documents have been submitted, with the nomination period closing in April and the election of a new leader in June.

On Friday the party’s president said the process is “ongoing” as it relates to Coderre.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2025.

Thomas Laberge, The Canadian Press

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dozens of Marines unfurled coils of concertina wire — one on the ground and one slightly above — making it more difficult to climb a border wall separating Tijuana from San Diego. They worked with speed and efficiency amid a weekend rush of cars nearby at the busiest border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico.

Fortifying barriers has long been a military task on border missions that date back to the administration of George W. Bush. But President Donald Trump has hinted strongly at the unprecedented use of the armed forces to repel what he calls a “disastrous invasion.”

Until now, the military has limited itself to a supporting role at the border — surveilling for illegal crossings by ground and air, repairing vehicles, building barriers — adhering to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to keep the armed forces away from civilian law enforcement.

The Associated Press toured the border in San Diego with Marines and saw a military operating similar to past missions. But some scholars and advisers close to Trump argue there are legal grounds to summon the military to combat narcotics and mass migration.

Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the southern border indicates he may redirect money, as he did during his first term, to get billions of dollars for border wall construction.

His inaugural day orders raise the possibility of invoking wartime powers, including the Insurrection Act of 1807, allowing him to deploy active-duty troops to suppress a rebellion. He gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 90 days to deliver recommendations.

The Insurrection Act “is just all-purpose. The regular military can do anything on U.S. soil,” said Adam Isacson, who follows the role of military at the Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy organization.

Trump has already broken from predecessors. While the military has housed migrants at times, its deportation flights to Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia mark a departure from previous administrations. Trump said he would use a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold tens of thousands of the “worst criminal aliens,” though it hasn’t happened yet.

There is a sense among Border Patrol agents and others that there is more to come. Isacson believes the administration may see a model in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star,” which thrust the state’s National Guard into a central role in border enforcement.

The Defense Department deployed 1,600 active-duty troops to the border during Trump’s first week in office. U.S. officials said Friday that they are preparing to deploy at least 1,000 more in Trump’s immigration crackdown, about half to the border and half to Guantanamo Bay.

So far, the military has maintained low visibility in San Diego. The Marines laid concertina wire Friday at the bottom of an 18-foot-high (5.5-meter-high) border wall that already had wire on top. Migrants who manage to get over or through the wire face a second, 30-foot-high (9.1-meter-high) wall.

A tour in Osprey military transport aircraft, which have been used to bring concertina to Brown Field Municipal Airport in San Diego, showed Border Patrol vehicles staged at various lookouts. They stretched about 70 miles (112 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean through boulder-strewn ranches east of San Diego and a treacherous mountain range where few migrants cross.

Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said Thursday that arrests for illegal crossings averaged 654 a day over the previous week, down from a daily average of 1,527 in December.

San Diego has been the busiest corridor for illegal crossings over much of the last year. Arrests averaged 222 a day in a seven-day period through Jan. 25, down from 237 the previous week.

Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press


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Federal authorities have arrested a former Federal Reserve senior adviser for allegedly giving inside economic information to China.

A grand jury indictment accuses John Harold Rogers, 63, of Vienna, Virginia, of stealing Federal Reserve trade secrets and selling them to Chinese intelligence officials for at least $450,000 by posing as a university professor in China. He is also accused of lying to Federal Reserve investigators and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials.

The Department of Justice announced Rogers’ indictment and arrest on Friday, the same day he made his first appearance before a Washington court. Rogers is being held without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, according to court records.

“As alleged in the indictment, Rogers betrayed his country while employed at the Federal Reserve by providing restricted U.S. financial and economic information to Chinese government intelligence officers,” said Assistant Director Kevin Vorndran of the FBI Counterintelligence Division in an announcement of Rogers’ indictment and arrest.

“This information could allow adversaries to illegally gain a strategic economic advantage at the expense of the U.S. This indictment sends a clear message that the FBI and our partners will hold accountable those who threaten our national security,” Vorndran said.

A public defender listed in court records as being assigned to Rogers’ case did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment.

The Justice Department said the information “could allow China to manipulate the U.S. market … in a manner to insider trading.” The department noted that China, as of October 2024, held about $816 billion in U.S. foreign debt and that Chinese financial players could benefit from inside knowledge of U.S. economic policy, such as advance notice of federal funds rate changes, when making decisions about buying and selling U.S. debt instruments.

Rogers, a U.S. citizen with a doctorate in economics, worked for the Federal Reserve from 2010 until 2021, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, Rogers, a U.S. citizen with a Ph.D. in economics, worked as a Senior Adviser in FRB’s Division of International Finance of the FRB from 2010 until 2021, where he would have had access to a range of classified information.

Prosecutors allege that Rogers and two Chinese co-conspirators began communicating as early as 2013. The indictment asserts that Rogers later forwarded protected information to his personal email or made print copies to pass along to his co-conspirators. The cache allegedly included proprietary economic data and analysis, briefing books written for Federal Reserve governors, details of Federal Open Market Committee deliberations and future announcements, and accounts of conversations about tariffs targeted at China, according to the indictment.

Rogers is accused of meeting co-conspirators in China for multiple visits, under the guise of him being an academic instructor teaching them as students. The indictment alleges that in 2023, Rogers received $450,000 as a part-time professor at a Chinese university. ___

Bill Barrow, The Associated Press

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