ACROSS THE NATION

Trump signs order calling for spacing out childhood vaccines, against medical groups' guidance

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order calling for revamped childhood vaccine recommendations that promote his long-held but discredited theory that childhood shots should be spaced out into separate medical visits.

The order advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three different single-disease shots and administering all childhood immunizations at separate appointments whenever possible. It also directs the nation's health department to improve research on vaccines, which are already extensively studied, and present a plan to offer separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines for children, since that is not currently an option in the United States.

The renewed focus on vaccines marks a departure from the Trump administration's recent efforts to emphasize less controversial health policies related to healthy eating, drug price negotiations and medical fraud crackdowns ahead of November's midterm elections.

Public health experts have raised concerns that spacing out shots as Trump suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit. Childhood vaccines -- and how and when to give them in combination -- go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.

Trump called the announcement a "major victory for parents rights, religious and constitutional rights, and for the gold standard science."

Speaking about the order at the Oval Office on Monday, Trump repeatedly suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link. The order also includes several changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that his health department has already attempted, but that have been blocked by a federal judge. A White House official who insisted on anonymity to brief reporters said Trump was within his right to provide his own recommendation through the executive order and said the lawsuit blocking the health department's schedule was a separate issue.

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the announcement spreads uncertainty, fear and confusion where "there doesn't need to be any of that." He disputed Trump's recommendations and said previous ones should stand.

"Science about vaccines and their efficacy has not changed," he said. "The distribution of viruses and other pathogens in our environment has not changed. Children in this country have not changed in the last 48 hours."

Deadline passes for Rep. Max Miller to be replaced on Ohio ballot as he faces domestic abuse claims

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Embattled Republican Rep. Max Miller is staying in the race for his Ohio congressional district, defying voices within his own party who urged him to step aside as he faced domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife.

His determination to press on with his reelection campaign is creating headaches for a Republican Party that had not planned to devote attention to defending the seat in this year's midterm elections. His Democratic challenger, union ironworker Brian Poindexter, seized on Miller's controversies by appealing to voters with a promise to "serve with honor."

Monday presented the last chance for Republicans to replace Miller on the general election ballot in Ohio, leaving the congressman in what is increasingly seen as a competitive race.

Democratic groups supporting U.S. House campaigns have been closely watching the race for Ohio's 7th Congressional District, just south of Cleveland, to see if they want to ramp up their support for Poindexter.

President Donald Trump won the GOP-leaning district comfortably two years ago. Miller won it with just 51% of the vote two years ago in a three-way contest that included former congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who ran as an independent. Under Ohio's current maps, the district leans 55%-44% Republican, according to Dave's Redistricting.

Miller, 37, has said he is confident he can pull out a win, given those odds and the goodwill he said he has built with constituents over his two terms. While both of Ohio's senators, including his former father-in-law, Sen. Bernie Moreno, called on him to drop out of the race, Trump never did.

The Republican president called Miller "a good person" and said his legal dispute with Emily Moreno is best left to the families to figure out. Miller was a senior aide to Trump during his first term as president.

In a CNN interview last week, Miller said the president told him that if he stayed in, "it's going to be a tough race." Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters suggested the party would back Miller but stopped short of saying it would spend on his campaign.

"We're going to support our nominees. Everybody has to prove they are capable of winning," Gruters said during a Sunday appearance on NewsMax. "We'll see. I hope that he can."

Todd Blanche is sworn in as attorney general after bruising confirmation fight

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, was sworn in Monday as attorney general after a bruising confirmation fight that exposed bipartisan concerns about the Justice Department's direction under the Republican president.

Another former Trump attorney -- Emil Bove, now a federal appeals court judge -- administered the oath of office to Blanche at the White House following early Saturday's Senate confirmation vote by the narrowest of margins. Shortly after, the newly sworn-in attorney general arrived at Justice Department headquarters to cheers from employees lined up along the entrance.

Blanche, a former federal prosecutor in New York, is officially taking command of a Justice Department he has been leading in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi's firing in April.

With the confirmation battle behind him, Blanche now faces the challenge of having to navigate the demands of a president who has made no secret his desire to use the law enforcement agency to target his political foes. Blanche will do so with an agency that has been hollowed out by resignations, firings and voluntary departures while also confronting mounting pushback from the courts.

Blanche was confirmed in a 50-49 vote, opposed by two Republicans who cited concerns about what they described as increased politicization of the department under Trump.

Under deputy attorney general and later as acting attorney general, Blanche has overseen the investigations of numerous Trump foes, including former FBI Director James Comey, whom the Justice Department indicted in April for a second time since Trump returned to the White House last year.

Blanche has strongly defended the Trump administration against accusations that it has weaponized the Justice Department. Blanche has said he feels no pressure to placate Trump and insists he sees no problem with the president's interest in Justice Department matters, calling it the president's "right" and "his duty."

Blanche entered the president's orbit when he left his law firm in 2023 to represent Trump against multiple criminal cases, including two brought by the Justice Department under Democratic President Joe Biden. Blanche has said that experience afforded him a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

Contiguous US breaks its record for hottest month ever, NOAA says

KENSINGTON, Maryland (AP) -- The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

July averaged 76.89 degrees Fahrenheit across the Lower 48 states, eclipsing the Dust Bowl's July 1936 by an eighth of a degree. Records go back to 1895.

"It's not good when you're breaking records from the Dust Bowl, which we are in this case," said meteorologist Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections. "And that was a crazy sort of situation where you put tens of millions of people in motion. You had this great migration because of the drought and the heat that hit the center of the U.S. -- just a cataclysmic event in U. S. history. If we're exceeding records from The Dust Bowl, that says that we're in deep trouble."

Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information.

The heat in the Dust Bowl years was more concentrated in parts of the Midwest and was aggravated by agricultural practices at the time, Vose said.

What's happening now is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists said.

"Extremely high temperatures across the continental U.S. this summer, along with intense drought and fire conditions, are absolutely consistent with the climate change signal,' said Katharine Jacobs, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona.

The biggest driver of the record heat was nighttime lows that smashed the old mark for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change, according to scientists and several studies in peer-reviewed literature. NOAA's calculation is based on averaging 24 hours of temperature, not just highs or lows.

"If you're talking heat waves, that nighttime low is incredibly important for determining total heat stress," Masters said. "So if it doesn't cool off at night, your body doesn't have time to readjust to all the heat."

Ben Jones, good ol' boy 'Dukes of Hazzard' actor and 2-term US House member, dies at 84

Ben Jones, who played the good ol' boy mechanic in "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV series and parlayed his fame into a political career and two terms in the U.S. House, has died. He was 84.

Jones had a heart attack in his home Sunday in Washington, Virginia, as he was waiting to watch his beloved Atlanta Braves play baseball, his wife, Alma Viator, said on social media. Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie Compton confirmed his death.

Jones' fame came from his role as Cooter Davenport, the mechanic who got the Duke boys out of jams as they tried to do the right thing and fight the corrupt Boss Hogg in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia.

After playing Cooter for all seven seasons of the series from 1979 to 1985, Jones turned to politics and was elected to the U.S. House from a district near Atlanta in 1988. The Democrat served two terms before he was redistricted out of the seat.

Jones was born in North Carolina and in college got involved in acting and civil rights, he wrote in his autobiography "Redneck Boy in the Promised Land: The Confessions of 'Crazy Cooter.'"

Acting took over his life. Jones performed in numerous stage productions and had a few minor TV and movie roles in Atlanta during the 1970s before his life-defining break came on a TV show Jones defended as a modern-day morality tale and a fine example of Southern values.

For seven seasons, Jones was one of a small band of friends and family helping Bo and Luke Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard." The brothers were on probation for running moonshine and were constantly trying to clear their names and stop the crooked and powerful Boss Hogg from stealing or cheating.

The Duke boys drove a modified 1969 Dodge Charger called the General Lee with a Confederate flag on its roof. Cooter owned "Cooter's Garage" in the town square. Nearly every episode involved a car chase with jumps and stunts and a patrol car badly in need of repairs.

Taylor Farms recalls jalapeno products over salmonella concerns

Taylor Fresh Foods, parent company of Taylor Farms, is voluntarily recalling some products that include jalapenos because of worries about a possible salmonella contamination.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled its iceberg lettuce products sourced from central Mexico because of a potential link to a multistate cyclospora outbreak that has sickened people across the U.S.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it was pulling some products including jalapenos from stores shelves after finding out that Coast Citrus Distributors was voluntarily recalling fresh jalapeños due to a potential salmonella contamination.

Guacamole, pico de gallo and taco dip are some of the prepared foods included in the recall. The list of recalled products were distributed by Taylor Farms in multiple states with a "Best If Used By" date up to and including Aug. 16, 2026. The products were sold at stores including Kroger, Stop & Shop, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Walmart.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were working with state and local partners to investigate illnesses in a multistate outbreak of salmonella infections linked to fresh jalapeños supplied by Coast Citrus Distributors. The company said that a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, a supplier to Coast Citrus Distributors, was identified as the potential source in the outbreak.

Taylor Fresh Foods said that it is no longer sourcing products from the farmer and will be filling orders from alternative suppliers. The company is currently not aware of any reported illnesses linked to its products containing jalapeños.

Consumers who have any recalled product are advised to discard it immediately and not eat it. Refunds are available at the location of purchase.

Consumers with any questions can contact Taylor at 855-455-0098 Monday through Friday from 8am-5pm PT.