ODESSA, Texas — When the pandemic started, Michelle Villegas was in 6th grade. Now she's finishing up middle school, but not without some unpleasant memories from remote middle school.

"The tests would just, it would just load and load and load. Like I hated seeing that circle was just, it was in my nightmares, the circle!" she said.

The nightmarish loading circle is something that so many families across the nation can relate to as the pandemic exposed a weak link in rural America’s access to the internet. Michelle's mom says her heart broke watching her daughter struggle just to simply join a class.

"It was stressful, it was overwhelming, it was frustrating," she said.

The Villegas live on the outskirts of Odessa, Texas – a boom or bust oil town that’s one of many spots on the map without access to reliable internet.

According to the FCC, 6% of the country’s population lacks internet access. Narrowing in on rural communities, one in four lacks access – that’s 14.5 million people.

"I couldn't get on and I would call my mom crying because I was like, mom, I'm going to fail this. Like, my grades are so low because I can't do this," Michelle recounted.

Scott Muri is the superintendent in Ector County, where Odessa is located. When the pandemic hit and they had to move to remote learning over the course of a weekend, they found that 39% of their student body lived in areas with inadequate internet or no internet at all.

"Many of our kids do not live in an area of our community, that even if they had the money, they could access the internet, it's simply didn't exist," said Muri.

With that large of a percentage of students that couldn’t log on for remote school, they had to think of solutions. So they decided to shoot their shot and contacted SpaceX to be a part of their Starlink internet access pilot project and the multi-billion dollar company said yes.

"This big dad started to cry because he understood as a parent, what that a simple little dish was going to mean for his children because he had watched his kids struggle mightily to connect with their teachers," he said.

What Ector County has is a unique public-private partnership. However, federal dollars will trickle into tackling this same issue nationwide. $45 billion dollars from the infrastructure bill is going toward equitable broadband access.

"I think we need to appreciate broadband as a utility. You know, it is not a special thing that only certain people have. It is not something that you earn through wealth. It is something that is a right and a privilege and an opportunity for every American," he said.

Next year, Michelle is entering high school and both her and her mom are relieved to have reliable service because it will help put her on an equal playing field for the rest of her education.

"Everything is technology now. And if you don't have a good internet source, you're not going to be caught up with everything that's happening now. Like you're going to be left in the past," said Michelle.

The National Spelling Bee is back and in full swing after last year's part in-person, part virtual competition because of the pandemic.

This is a tradition that goes back almost a century, and a lot has changed in that time.

The Bee has been around since 1925. Back then, nine newspapers got together to sponsor the first event. The first winner was an 11-year-old from Kentucky who spelled the word "gladiolus" correctly. He knew the word because he had raised the flower back home and won $500 worth of gold pieces as an award.

Nowadays, the semifinalists get a $500 gift card. The finalists get a few thousand dollars. The champion gets $50,000, the trophy, more money and a reference library from Merriam-Webster, and more gifts from Encyclopædia Britannica, including a 1768 Replica Set.

There have been a few times when the Bee did not buzz.

From 1943 to 1945, there was no Bee because of World War II, and it was canceled in 2020 when the pandemic first began.

In 2019, the Bee had to deal with an 8-way tie because the judges quite literally ran out of words.

Since then, the Bee has added a lightning round. If there are still multiple spellers left standing by the final round, they'll be given 90 seconds to spell out as many words as possible from a prepared list. Whoever spells the most words correctly wins.

After a yearlong hiatus because of the pandemic, the Bee returned last year with another first: Zaila Avant-Garde became the first Black American to be crowned winner of the Bee. She won in round 18 for spelling the word “Murraya” right. In case you were wondering, it’s a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers with imbricated petals.

So, it’s a plant, but Zaila was picturing something different when she won.

“Bill Murray’s face," Avant-Garde said. "I just got 'Murraya' and I just thought of his face, and it was so funny to me."

Millions of kids fight for the chance to make it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. This year, it began with 234. By the end of day one, 88 spellers remained.

The first few rounds consist of oral competition and one round of multiple-choice word meaning. As it turns out, it’s not just spelling.

An incorrect answer in any of those rounds will get you an automatic elimination — and a ding.

The Bee has become more than just a competition. Today, it is live-streamed and tweeted about, which is very different than when it first started. Now, it's a national spectacle.

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here: https://bit.ly/Newsy1

Bank of America was fined $250 million this week by U.S. federal regulators for allegedly harming customers by double-dipping on fees, withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts.

Related video above: Americans worry about their money’s safety in banks

Of those fines, $100 million is set to go directly to consumers who were impacted by the bank's alleged wrongdoing.

Some customers have already been compensated, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the two government agencies that investigated Bank of America's practices. But others may be waiting a while before they get the slice of money they're owed.

How to find out if you're owed money

If an account was fraudulently opened in your name, it would appear on your bank statements or credit report, the CFPB told CNN. Both records should list the bank accounts and credit cards you've opened. If you see one you don't recognize from Bank of America and have no record of opening it, there's a chance it could be fraudulent.

Bank of America's alleged wrongdoing dates back to at least 2012, according to the CFPB. That means customers could have had an unauthorized account open for over a decade.

People are generally bad at keeping or knowing how to access relatively recent bank records, said Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. It's unlikely the average customer saved copies of their bank records or credit reports for over a decade, he said.

Some of these records could be accessed online, but it gets dicey, especially if you switched from Bank of America to another bank over the past decade or if the customer affected has since passed away, said Rosenfield.

That's why he recommends calling Bank of America's customer service line directly and asking if you were a victim. The CFPB also told CNN that later this month Bank of America will identify a point of contact for these inquiries that will be posted on the CFPB site.

As part of the agreement Bank of America settled with the CFPB, it is also required to identify consumers who were harmed. But the CFPB did not provide CNN with a timeline of when the bank will be required to do so.

Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank, did not respond to CNN's request for comment regarding how its customers can find out if they were a victim of its alleged wrongdoing.

Some customers have already been compensated

People who allegedly didn't get the credit card reward bonuses they were owed have been compensated, the CFPB said, without specifying an amount.

Bank of America will be automatically refunding around $80.4 million in redress to people who were double-charged the $35 non-sufficient funds or overdraft fees since September 2018, the CFPB said. The bank will either put funds into their deposit accounts or will mail checks.

When will you get the money?

The CFPB didn't provide an estimation of when all affected customers or former customers will be compensated. So it could be a while.

The CFPB said, however, it will be monitoring the bank's progress and will require audits and other reporting by Bank of America to show the required funds were paid out.

BOSTON — The Navy's oldest commissioned floating Naval warship is now at the helm of its first female captain.

Captain BJ Farrell is the 77th commanding officer for the ship which is named for America's founding document, the Constitution.

"Today we have over 30 women in command of ships around the world, so I get to highlight that on a daily basis," Captain Farrell said.

A trailblazer in her own right, especially when you consider no other woman has been at the helm of this ship in the 225 years it's been in existence. Her rise and rank is has gained national notoriety this year from across the country.

"I hope it shows [other young girls] they can do whatever they put their mind to," Captain Farrell added.

First launched in 1797, the USS Constitution was crewed by 450 men. This warship is now run by about 80 men and women. They are hand-picked by the Navy for two-year deployments. Their mission is part ship maintenance and part public relations. An estimated 500,000 people visit the historic site in Boston each year.

Visitors also come to the ship to learn about its history inside the USS Constitution Museum. Museum President Anne Grimes Rand sees Captain Farrell rise in the ranks as a role model for other young women.

"I think it's so exciting to take a symbol of our nation and have a woman at the helm, the Navy after 225 years is giving women equal opportunity to serve. It speaks to the progress of our nation," Grimes Rand said.

Over the years there were two times this ship was almost scrapped. Now the Navy grows trees in a protected grove in Indiana to make replacement parts for the vessel.

"This ship is made in America, all our natural ingredients, we looked at the European model and made her a little bit stronger a little bit bigger a little faster a little better," Grimes Rand added.

These days there are no battles for the Constitution. She sails about six times each year including once on the 4th of July to help commemorate America's independence.

Keeping her safe while at sea now requires modern-day protection. Whenever she takes to the water, the Constitution is escorted and flanked by the Massachusetts State Police Marine Unit. Before each sail they dive beneath the boat, just to make sure no one has targeted the ship with explosives.

"It's a national treasure and something that needs to be protected," said Det. Lt. David Twomey who helps coordinate efforts to protect the ship while she's at sea.

The ship is a symbol of American greatness and unity at a time when so much of the country is divided. And for the Constitution's first female captain, it offers a chance to help preserve the past while sailing toward the future.

"I love the Navy and to tell this ship's story is an honor," Captain Farell said.

An American citizen was killed in Ukraine, Newsweek and CBS News reported Friday.

A Russian official reportedly claimed the American had volunteered to fight alongside Ukrainian forces.

That account has not been confirmed by U.S. officials.

CBS News reported that government officials were not releasing the man's name out of respect for his family.

According to Newsweek, at least 6 Americans have been killed in Ukraine.

The conflict in Ukraine has been going on for six months and shows no signs of stopping. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered an increase of more than 100,000 troops to prepare to fight in Ukraine.

Forget breakfast, lunch and dinner. People can't get enough of the in-between.Big companies report that snack sales are soaring. Net sales of Doritos, Cheetos, Ruffles, PopCorners, Smartfood and SunChips grew by double digits in the second quarter. Retail sales of Pirate's Booty jumped about 32% and SkinnyPop sales increased about 17%.That's partially because snacks are getting more expensive, and because people are getting back to their lives outside the home and want food they can eat on the go.But it's not just that. Eating habits have changed, and people are increasingly snacking instead of eating traditional meals. About 64% of consumers across the world said that they prefer to eat several small meals throughout the day, rather than a few large ones, according to a 2021 snacking survey by Mondelez. That's up from 59% in 2019. About 62% reported replacing at least one meal a day with snacks.America's eating habits have always changed with the times. The Industrial Revolution ushered in the three-meals-a-day template. Packaging innovations at the dawn of the 20th century introduced snacks to the mainstream. Massive supermarkets gave consumers a seemingly endless array of bright, shiny items to choose from.And during the pandemic, the major shift in how millions of Americans work opened up new snacking categories — that's good news for snack sellers, but not for our health.The U.S. snack market grew from about $116.6 billion in 2017 to an estimated $150.6 billion in 2022, and is forecasted to grow to $169.6 billion in 2027, according to Euromonitor International, which includes fruit snacks, ice cream, biscuits, snack bars, candy and savory snacks in the category."Snacking today, it is pervasive," said Sally Lyons Watt, executive vice president at the market research company IRI. "It's a lifestyle."Not until recently, though.From three square meals to snacks whenever It may be the norm today, but historically, eating three meals a day was "certainly not standard," said Ashley Rose Young, a food historian at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The practice came into vogue in the United States thanks to the Industrial Revolution, when factory schedules dictated workers' eating patterns."You would want to have a meal prior to heading to work to fuel you through the day," said Young. Then "there would be a midday break, to refuel your energy ... and then a post-work meal."As meals grew standardized in the United States, new rules around eating emerged — and with them, new attitudes toward snacking.In the 19th century, snacks like peanuts were sold by street vendors, and stigmatized for being associated with the working class and poor, Abigail Carroll explained in "Three Squares," her 2013 book about American snacking and eating habits. "When meals — especially dinner — became more social, more mannerly, and more rigidly defined, snacking became transgressive," she wrote.But food sellers saw a business opportunity in snacks — if they could figure out a way to get them off the streets and into the home. To do that, they needed better packaging, something that would seal an item and keep it fresh.Eventually, one set of entrepreneurs cracked the code, kicking the door open for the rest of the industry. Their product? Cracker Jack.Snacks hit the mainstream Frederick and Louis Rueckheim, German brothers who lived in Chicago, developed the sweet popcorn and peanut snack. In 1896, they traveled with it from city to city sharing samples and spreading the word about the product, Carroll recounted. To keep Cracker Jack fresh longer, they worked with a man named Henry Eckstein, who developed a special wax lining for the bags it was sold in. In the following years, companies like Nabisco and Kellogg built on that technology or adapted it for their own items, kicking the door open for others.Over the years, other shifts in American culture and technology made snacking on-the-go even more attractive, noted Young, the food historian.Microwaves, first introduced in 1955, allowed for a whole new type of packaged foods. And after World War II, more people started buying their groceries from mass retailers, rather than their neighborhood green grocer."You have these huge supermarkets with shelves and shelves full of boxed snacks," Young said, which contributed to the country's snacking culture.And once millennials started shopping for themselves, the trend accelerated further.Snacking nowBoomers and Gen Xers tend to indulge in a snack in the afternoon or evening, said IRI's Watt, who has been tracking snacking trends for decades. Millennials, however, also snack in the morning."Millennials really did start to change the way in which eat," said Watt. "You definitely started to see smaller meals and or snacks ... being consumed throughout the day," she said.Then the pandemic hit, and another shift occurred, Watt noted: People started eating more late-night snacks.That was partly because of how people spent their days during the pandemic. With kids stuck at home during traditional working hours, some parents put in more work hours at night and reach for snacks to refuel. Others developed new routines that included staying up later.The option of a late-night treat without having to leave your home became newly available thanks to the sudden proliferation of 15-minute delivery services, which encouraged people to order an item or two when they had a sudden craving.Now, as people return to the office and a more regular work schedule, they may be less interested in late-night snacking. But food sellers will likely keep trying to market food for that timeframe. "I don't think they're going to fall off and not be relevant," said Watt.Not all snacks are the sameSo what does all this snacking mean for our health? It depends on what you consider a snack."Those who are picking whole fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean protein sources, or are conscious of the portion size of their snack — it can sometimes help them meet certain recommendations and guidelines," said Jessica Bihuniak, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development.But other items, like candy, soda or chips, with saturated fats, high sodium levels and added sugars, can create unhealthy habits. "Regular intake" of these types of items "can increase a preference for these types of foods, leading to a change in eating behaviors and diet quality," according to the Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Source, the school's general guide to healthy eating.Snack sellers offer so-called "better for you" options, which may have less sugar or come in smaller packs for portion control. For some, such alternatives can be very helpful when it comes to weight management, said Bihuniak, noting that people should be mindful of serving sizes because smaller packages may still have more than one serving.When it comes to shelf-stable packaged goods — even those that claim that they're better for you — consumers should read the nutritional information on the packages."They did something to it to make it shelf stable," Bihuniak said. "The important part there is looking at food labels," she said, and watching out for sodium content, added content and saturated fat. Your healthiest option, she said, is probably something that doesn't come in a package at all, like a piece of fruit or a crunchy veggie.It's also worth noting that recent studies have found that all ultra-processed foods are linked to cancer and early death.It's less clear whether when or how often you eat matters. For some, it's just easier to snack rather than carve out time for sit-down meals, Bihuniak said. But as long as you're making the right food choices, "I think that's completely fine."

WASHINGTON —

Through history, the Fourth of July has been a day for some presidents to declare their independence from the public. They've bailed to the beach, the mountains, the golf course, the farm, the ranch. In the middle of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt was sailing to Hawaii on a fishing and working vacation.

It's also been a day for some presidents to insert themselves front and center in the fabric of it all.

In the video player above: A look at which president is said to have had an influence on the tradition of fireworks for the Fourth of July

Teddy Roosevelt drew hundreds of thousands for his July Fourth oratory. In 2019, Donald Trump marshaled tanks, bombers and other war machinery for a celebration that typically avoids military muscle.

Richard Nixon enraged the anti-war masses without even showing up. As the anti-Nixon demonstrations of 1970 showed, Independence Day in the capital isn't always just fun and games. It has a tradition of red, white and boo, too.

In modern times, though, presidents have tended to stand back and let the people party.

George W. Bush had a ceremony welcoming immigrants as new citizens. Barack Obama threw a South Lawn barbecue for troops. Bill Clinton went to the shores of Chesapeake Bay to watch a young bald eagle named Freedom be released to the wild.

In 2021, Joe Biden gathered more than 1,000 people on the White House South Lawn to eat burgers and watch fireworks. That event was noteworthy because such gatherings were unthinkable in the first year of the pandemic. Many wished Biden had not thought of doing it even then — the rampage of the omicron COVID-19 variant was still to come.

Still, the burgers were an improvement from July 4, 1850, when Zachary Taylor wolfed down apparently spoiled cherries and milk (and died five days later. )

A look at what some presidents have done on the Fourth of July:

1777: On the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with the Revolutionary War underway, a future president, John Adams, describes a day and night of spontaneous celebration in Philadelphia in a letter to his wife, Abigail. After hours of parading troops, fireworks, bonfires and music, he tells her he strolled alone in the dark.

"I was walking about the streets for a little fresh air and exercise," he writes, "and was surprised to find the whole city lighting up their candles at the windows. I walked most of the evening, and I think it was the most splendid illumination I ever saw; a few surly houses were dark; but the lights were very universal. Considering the lateness of the design and the suddenness of the execution, I was amazed at the universal joy and alacrity that was discovered, and at the brilliancy and splendour of every part of this joyful exhibition."

Video below: A historian discusses why July 2 is also a significant date as it relates to America declaring its independence

1791: Two years after becoming the first president, George Washington celebrates in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, "with an address, fine cuisine, and walking about town," says the National Park Service. Philadelphia was the interim capital as the city of Washington was being readied. Lancaster had hosted the Continental Congress for a quick, on-the-run session during the revolution.

1798: Now president, Adams reviews a military parade in Philadelphia as the young nation flexes its muscle.

1801: Thomas Jefferson presides over the first Fourth of July public reception at the White House.

1822: James Monroe hangs out at his farm in Virginia.

1826: Adams, the second president, and Jefferson, the third, both die on this July Fourth.

1831: James Monroe, who was the fifth president, dies on this July Fourth.

1848: James Polk witnesses the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument with Abraham Lincoln, then an Illinois congressman, attending. A military parade follows.

1850: Taylor attends festivities at the grounds of the Washington Monument and falls ill with stomach cramps after eating cherries and drinking iced milk and water. He dies July 9. A theory that someone poisoned him with arsenic was debunked in 1991 when his body was exhumed and tested.

1861: Lincoln sends a message to Congress defending his invocation of war powers, appealing for more troops to fight the South and assailing Virginia for allowing "this giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders." He vows to "go forward without fear."

1868: Postwar, Andrew Johnson executes a proclamation granting amnesty to those who fought for the Confederacy.

1902: Teddy Roosevelt speaks to 200,000 people in Pittsburgh.

1914: "Our country, right or wrong," Woodrow Wilson declares at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

1928: Calvin Coolidge (born July 4, 1872) goes trout fishing in Wisconsin.

1930: Herbert Hoover vacations by the Rapidan River in Virginia.

1934: Franklin Roosevelt is in or near the Bahamas after leaving Annapolis, Maryland, on a monthlong voyage and visit to Hawaii via the Panama Canal. On July 4, the U.S.S. Houston's log refers to the "fishing party" leaving the ship for part of the day.

1946: With World War II over the year before, Harry Truman relaxes in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains at Roosevelt's Shangri-La retreat, later renamed Camp David.

1951: With the U.S. at war in Korea, Truman addresses a huge crowd at the Washington Monument grounds, on the 175th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1953 and 1957: Dwight Eisenhower = golf.

1968: Lyndon Johnson, who favored his Texas ranch on the holiday, speaks in San Antonio about the lack of independence for the poor, minorities, the ill, people "who must breathe polluted air" and those who live in fear of crime, "despite our Fourth of July rhetoric."

1970: Nixon, in California, tapes a message that is played to crowds on the National Mall at an "Honor America Day" celebration organized by supporters and hotly protested by anti-war masses and civil rights activists. Tear gas overcomes protesters and celebrants alike, Viet Cong flags mingle with the Stars and Stripes, and demonstrators — some naked — plunge into the Reflecting Pool.

1976: As the United States turns 200, Gerald Ford speaks at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, then Independence Hall, and reviews the armada of tall ships in New York harbor.

1987: Ronald Reagan, at Camp David, makes a straight political statement in his holiday radio address, pitching an economic "bill of rights" and Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. On a Saturday, it served as his weekly radio address, which he and other modern presidents used for their agendas.

2008: Bush, like several presidents before him, hosts a naturalization ceremony. More than 70 people from 30 countries are embraced as new citizens.

2010: Obama brings 1,200 service members to the South Lawn for a barbecue. The father of a July Fourth baby, Malia, he would joke that she always thought the capital fireworks were for her.

2012: Obama combines two Fourth of July traditions — celebrating troops and new citizens — by honoring the naturalization of U.S. military members who came to the country as immigrants.

2017: Trump goes to his golf club, then hosts a White House picnic for military families.

2021: Biden tells a crowd on the South Lawn that "we're closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus." It was the largest event of his presidency since taking office. COVID-19 cases and deaths had dipped to or near record lows at that point but would rebound as the omicron variant spread.

2023: Biden plans to host a barbecue and holiday celebration at the White House for members of the military, veterans and their families.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

September is Hunger Action Month. It is a time when people across the nation join together in the mission to end hunger.

A 10-year-old Maryland fifth grader is using her own talents and creativity to contribute to the cause.

Julia Barnes is not the average fifth grader. She's now published not one, but two books. The latest one is called: "The Best Chef."

"This book is about a girl my age. She goes to her best friend's birthday party. However, her best friend's family doesn't know how to cook," Barnes said.

Barnes used her first published book to help raise money to build a well in Africa.

"I felt like I made a big difference," Barnes said.

Now, Barnes wants to keep making a difference, this time for kids in America facing hunger.

"Last year, kids at my school had free meals from the school which was awesome. But now they are reduced priced meals, and there are a couple of people who have problems with food, so I want to help those people," she said.

According to No Kid Hungry, one in eight kids in the United States are living with hunger, that's around 9 million children.

Barnes wants to raise $1,000 to benefit No Kid Hungry. The organization will use the money to buy 10,000 meals for kids. She said she hopes the proceeds from her new book will help her raise the money.

"We know there are lots of problems in the world, but they all seem big, and you're just kind of like, 'Well, I don't know what I can do about it,' and I think she's finding ways that she can do something to make a difference," said Tom Barnes, Julia's dad.

She's using her love for writing to make a difference and inspiring other kids to do the same.

"I just do what they like, and they can use that to help other people," she said.

Watch the video above for the full story.

NEW YORK (AP) — Slick-fielding third baseman Scott Rolen was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday with five votes to spare above the 75% needed.

The seven-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner appeared on 297 of 389 ballots cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for 76.3%. A player needed 292 votes for election.

He became the 18th third baseman elected to the Hall, the fewest of any position.

Rolen’s 76.3% of the vote was the smallest margin for an electee since Al Simmons got 199 votes in 1953 for 75.38%, one more vote than needed. Ferguson Jenkins (75.4% in 1991), Ralph Kiner (75.41% in 1975) and Willie Keeler (75.55% in 1939) made it with one ballot to spare.

First baseman Todd Helton was second with 281 (72.2%) and reliever Billy Wagner third with 265 (68.1%)

Rolen will join Fred McGriff, elected last month by the contemporary baseball era committee, as the inductees at Cooperstown on July 23.

Among 14 players appearing on the ballot for the first time, Carlos Beltrán received 181 votes. Beltrán’s vote total likely was impacted by his role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal en route to the 2017 World Series title.

Rolen increased his votes from 63.2% last year and 10.2% in his first ballot appearance in 2018.

Helton moved up from 52% and can have five more appearances, while Wagner rose from 51% and has two additional chances.

Next year’s first-time eligibles include Adrián Beltré, Joe Mauer, David Wright, José Bautista and Matt Holliday.

WASHINGTON — As you walk along the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., you can hear the sound of pencils rubbing across paper as those who served with or family of the particular veteran whose name is engraved in the stone creates a rubbing copy of the name to take with them.

On a recent Honor Flight Tri-State trip, Korean War veteran Paul Dickmann wandered along the wall in search of five names.

“I’m getting up in years and it was important to me while I was here,” Dickmann said.

With a small notepad in hand one by one he found each name.

The five names are out of a list of 20 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War who came back home to Boone County.

One of the men was Sergeant Charles Fleek of Petersburg, Kentucky. The Medal of Honor recipient jumped on top of a grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Fleek's medal is embedded in the wall of the Boone County courthouse for all to see.

Although Fleek was from Kentucky, he enlisted through a Cincinnati recruitment office.

“He's listed as a Congressional Medal of Honor winner in Ohio, but we know in Kentucky he's one of our boys,” Dickmann said.

The other names he searched for were men from Hebron and Petersburg. All five were people he had a close connection with, but did not know. The connection was only made possible by Dickmann's post-service work as a funeral director.

“I had the privilege of conducting services for nine of them, so while we're here I’m saying hello and goodbye one more time,” he said.

Having made the connection his journey ends a decades-old mission to continue to honor these men.

“Touch their spirit one more time,” he said. “I've touched their bodies, now I'm touching their spirit."

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

When President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, he'll set out to reassure anxious Americans the state of the union is strong.

He'll give the much-anticipated speech amid multiple crises and to a critical public, with hopes of resetting his presidency after a difficult first year in the White House. Polls show only a quarter of

Americans believe the country is on the right track. Biden's own approval rating is underwater, with more disapproving of his job as president than approving.

So expect him to empathize with the public's discontent, while simultaneously shining a spotlight on his successes, touting the 6.6 million jobs created, the waning coronavirus infections amid vaccinations and therapeutics, and the passage of a bipartisan infrastructure bill that eluded his predecessors.

President Biden is also expected to continue to push his stalled domestic spending agenda, unveil his strategies for tackling inflation and crime, and honor his selection of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court.

He will deliver his address amid the biggest global test of his presidency, underscoring what the Ukraine crisis could mean for Americans, while hailing the unity of U.S. alliances as the world confronts dangerous Russian aggression.

With November's high-stakes midterm elections just months away, Democrats are hoping the State of the Union address provides a much-needed boost to Biden's struggling presidency.

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Across the country, many major American cities are reporting spikes in violence.

Nationwide, homicides are up more than 44% compared to where they were in 2019.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden will speak about the violence and provide some solutions to reduce the bloodshed.

RECORD HOMICIDES

The following cities set new records for homicides in 2021:

• Albuquerque
• Austin
• Colorado Springs
• Columbus
• Indianapolis
• Louisville
• Memphis
• Milwaukee
• Philadelphia
• Portland
• Tucson

In Tucson, there were 93 homicides in 2021. In 2020, the city reported 68 homicides.

In Milwaukee, there were 197 in 2021 compared to 190 the year before.

In Indianapolis, 271 homicides occurred in 2021. That's a rise from 215 in 2020.

Other major metropolitan areas like Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Denver and Cleveland didn't set records but they came close.

PRESIDENT SET TO SPEAK

Mayors and police chiefs all around the country have their own ideas as to what is needed to reduce violence. On Thursday, Biden will share ideas. Whether or not they will make a difference is still unclear.

The president will deliver his remarks from New York City, a city reeling from the deaths of two police officers who were killed in the line of duty last month.

Biden is expected to address efforts to provide more federal funding to hire more officers nationwide and improve community programs that are meant to prevent violence.

The president will also highlight ways for police to better engage suspects, especially those experiencing a mental health crisis.

Biden is also expected to talk about how well his newly-created “Strike Force” program is combating gun trafficking, which is the process of firearms being moved from one city to another.

GUN TRAFFICKING UPDATE

It's estimated 50,000 guns are moved around the U.S. each year through gun trafficking, usually from states where it's easier to buy a gun to places where it is tougher.

That's how many criminals around the country are getting their guns, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

“We know that new guns are arriving by car, by bus and by train every day," Adams said during a recent speech on gun violence.

Biden's visit to New York is tacit approval of the city's new approach of utilizing more police on the street, which is the opposite of what the "Defund the Police" movement called for in 2020 after the death of George Floyd.

Whatever specifics Biden lays out Thursday, the reality is that his power on the issue of guns is relatively limited. Efforts to pass comprehensive gun control and universal background checks in Congress remain stalled.

In a New Year's Eve message Friday, President Joe Biden said he's "more optimistic about America's future than I've ever been."Related video above: New Cold War? In Phone Call, Putin Warns of ‘Complete Rupture’ in Relations"We learned again this year what we've always known: There's no quit in America," Biden said. "No matter how tough the challenge, how high the obstacles, we always overcome. This virus has been tough, but we've been tougher."Biden, who was joined by First Lady Jill Biden and their new puppy, Commander, struck an optimistic tone entering 2022, observing, "You know, at our best, we've taken every crisis we face and turned it into an opportunity to be a stronger and a better nation."The first lady paid tribute to front-line workers, praising "the dedication shown by the doctors and nurses, educators and parents, first responders and all front-line and essential workers," and paying tribute to members of the military and their families, "who stand guard over our freedom all over the world and here at home."

Hundreds of thousands of veterans are sitting and waiting for their claims for benefits to be reviewed as the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs pushes to hire 2,000 employees to help with the growing caseload.

In an email sent out to veterans in October, the VA projected a backlog of pending cases to reach 260,000 out of an inventory of 603,000 cases.

This backlog comes as the VA is adding three new presumptive health conditions to those deployed to Asia.

“These three conditions are respiratory conditions: chronic asthma, sinusitis, and rhinitis,” said Beth Murphy, Executive Director of Compensation Service.

She says those impacted by the new conditions are those who deployed to southwest Asia from August of 1990 to present day or were deployed in Syria, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan or Djibouti from September 19, 2001, to present day.

“There's a potentially eligible population, among those folks, up to 3.5 million veterans,” Murphy said.

That's a case load that, depending on how many of those eligible apply, will bog down a process with a 125-day average timeline for a case decision, according to Murphy.

She says teams are working overtime to process claims.

“Just since August, we've already processed 4,000 claims, millions of dollars in benefits and health care to these veterans,” Murphy said. “We continue to process the claims as they come in. And we're encouraging folks to file if they have one of these conditions, or if they have a respiratory condition, and they're not quite sure if it's one of those three. Please reach out, ask questions, file a claim. We're here to help.”

As of the 4^th quarter of fiscal year 2021, Kentucky has 4,125 servicemembers signed up to the "Burn Pit Registry," according to data on the VA website. Ohio has 6,215 participants and Indiana has 3,489.

Those are just those who’ve signed up for the registry, and the presumptive conditions are not just tied to the burn pits. The conditions are tied to particulates in the air from a range of sources.

If you’re a veteran who has already applied for benefits, you should receive something in the mail notifying you of the new illnesses tied to presumptive conditions and toxic exposure.

“If you've already filed a claim for one of these conditions, but it's still pending, you haven't received a decision yet, we’re asking folks to sit tight on those. They will be processed, and they will be considered under all available service connection,” Murphy said.

If you haven’t filed and you’re a veteran who served in those regions, head over to VA.org to begin the process for applying for benefits.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

EVENDALE, Ohio — There’s something to be said about keeping secrets, and GE Aviation has done a pretty good job with that over the years. During the early 1980s, many of its employees built engines in a special assembly line, but never knew what aircraft the engine would fly.

“When they first started to produce these, they had to build a separate classified production line so the people in the manufacturing plant couldn’t know what they were making, and they were shipped in crates off to Burbank, California, to Lockheed Martin to put them in the jet,” said Cole Massie, media relations for GE Aviation.

Those engines powered the F-117 Stealth Fighter.

GE Aviation got its footing on military aviation, despite it being only about 15% of the work it does today. The major work the company does is tied to commercial aircraft engine building. As you drive along I-75, you can’t help but notice the gigantic GE Aviation facility in Evandale.

“The Air Force actually encouraged GE to buy this plant,” Massie said.

Over the years, GE Aviation played a critical role in every major combat situation, whether through its first venture into aviation technology ensuring World War II bombers could get to their target, or the A-10 Warthog flying inverted toward enemy tanks on the battlefield. Engineers continue to gain the eye of Air Force contracts.

“The Air Force is fielding the F-15EX, which is the most up-to-date version of the F-15, and the Air Force selected GE’s engine to power the first eight examples of that jet,” Massie said.

GE Aviation is also working on a prototype engine to attempt to revolutionize the Air Force fleet.

“This is the next generation of engine architecture,” said David Tweedie, general manager of Advanced Combat Engines for GE Aviation.

He says the XA100 hit the drawing board in 2007 and it’s taken this long to get full testing underway.

“Right now, it’s a prototype we’re looking forward to putting into production for the F-35 and the airplanes that come beyond the F-35,” Tweedie said. “We have now run the two prototype engines; currently running the second.”

The engine design is called adaptive and will seamlessly change fuel use based on the need of the pilot or situation in flight.

“Fighter engines are typically sized to maximize thrust at the expense of fuel efficiency,” said Tweedie.

The XA100, according to Tweedie, will change the game when it comes to that fuel efficiency component, extending the capability of the Air Force and any aircraft flying it.

“They will fly and operate the airplane the way they will normally do, and the engine will decide which mode is most appropriate based on what’s needed at that point,” Tweedie said.

The House of Representatives has given GE Aviation an expected deadline of 2027 for full production status.

It’s another engine in a long history of engines created in secret to maintain the military advantage over other countries.

“If you think about some of the secret programs that have come to light in the past, you think about the F-117 Stealth Fighter. That engine was built by GE under complete secrecy,” Massie said. “The B-2 has GE engines. Those were developed in secrecy. The U-2 spy plane has GE engines developed in secrecy, and GE has a history of working on classified and military products and this is the next in a long line of military programs.”

There are approximately 1,400 military veterans currently working at GE Aviation. The company was recently named a Top Veteran-Friendly Company by U.S. Veterans Magazine.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

LONGMONT, Co. — On her 44 acre property tucked in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Carol Walker feeds her horses an afternoon treat.

Though Micah and Hermoso are living a sweet life, it still pains carol that they’re kept inside a fence.

"I love them both dearly, but I wish that they had stayed wild and free," she said.

A 1971 law protects wild horse numbers. However, the two adopted mustang brothers are in her care because they were captured in separate roundups by the Bureau of Land Management, the government agency tasked with keeping track of their numbers.

If there are too many, the bureau, or the BLM as it's referred to, herds them into corrals via helicopter, puts them into a long-term holding facility, examines them, and then the horses are offered for adoption.

"What the BLM is doing right now is completely against the spirit and the letter of this act, but nobody is stopping them," said Walker.

What Walker, who also photographs wild horses, is referring to is a string of recent roundups, including one ongoing right now in the southwestern corner of Wyoming. It’s a huge undertaking encompassing five different areas, and it's estimated to last weeks.

Brad Purdy, the spokesperson for the BLM, says this roundup is necessary because there are too many wild horses there for the land to sustain. However, there are voices saying that’s not necessarily the case.

Erik Molvar is an environmental biologist and director of the Western Watersheds Project, an organization that aims to improve public land management. He says the pressure that grazing done by domestic cattle and sheep is outpacing any damage to the land done by wild horses. He argues the number of wild horses the Wyoming land can sustain is actually more than the BLM’s numbers show.

"Right now, the wild horses are about four times that appropriate management and yet still the land is meeting the thriving natural ecological balance, which calls into question whether that appropriate management level has anything to do with a thriving, natural ecological balance at all, or whether what it really set at is to keep the wild horse populations low so they can have more domestic livestock out there," said Molvar.

State governments have stepped up with concern about roundups. At the end of August, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis wrote to the US Department of the interior that he is “extremely concerned” with the rate of the roundups and called for a six-month moratorium on them for the American public to weigh in.

Another issue Walker has is what happens to the horses after they're rounded up. Right now, 50,000 horses are in long-term holding, waiting to be adopted. There's an incentive program that gives up to $1,000 to anyone who adopts an untrained wild horse.

Walker is currently a plaintiff in a lawsuit against this practice, saying folks are taking the money and then selling the horses to auction where they could be killed.

"What I would ultimately like to have happen is an investigation into the BLM and to have them removed as the managers of these wild horses," she said.

Purdy said that while the area where the Wyoming round up is occurring is near private grazing land, the decision to remove horses is based solely on there being too many, saying quote, “BLM would be gathering horses regardless of the land patterns or ownership of the private lands as required by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971.”

Walker hopes more attention is brought to this issue, the more people stand up for America's mustangs

"If people aren't standing up strongly for them, aren't fighting for them, these horses are just going to disappear," she said, "and I don't want to have a library of photos of animals that have disappeared."

The events of Sept. 11, 2001, changed the lives of Americans forever.

In a recent poll by USA TODAY/Suffolk University, 60% of 1,000 people surveyed agreed.

Eighty-five percent polled said the terror attacks had a big impact on their generation, while nearly two-thirds said it had a big impact on their own lives.

From technological advances to changes in national security, exactly what has changed in the 20 years since America came under attack?

National Security

Just 11 days after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security was created.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was appointed as the first director of the department, which was tasked with overseeing and coordinating a national approach to protect the U.S. against terrorism and future attacks.

The Department of Homeland Security now consists of more than 240,000 employees who are responsible for aviation and border security, cybersecurity and other preparedness measures.

Technology

Technology has seen its fair share of changes in the last 20 years.

"Government agencies and private companies have beefed up their disaster preparedness and telecommunications providers have strengthened their digital infrastructure," wrote Darrell West, senior fellow at Brookings' Center for Technology Innovation and its director, Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, in an online article entitled "How technology and the world have changed since 9/11."

Since 9/11, "the United States realized the importance of mobile communications during terrorist attacks and natural disasters," the article says.

"Steps have been taken to safeguard vital networks, which is a huge advancement since 9/11 when thousands of people in New York, and in the area of the Pentagon bombing had to run and walk for miles to what appeared to be a safe space for shelter," the experts continued. "Back then, we didn’t even have voice-activated internet-enabled navigational tools that could advise pedestrians and drivers of road closures, or other potential road or walking hazards."

In October 2001, the U.S. Patriot Act was enacted, which gave the government more authority to investigate potential threats through surveillance of phone calls, emails and text messages.

"With the advent of smartphones and the prevalence of electronic communications, public authorities also developed new tools for monitoring particular individuals and tracking their physical whereabouts via geolocation data," West and Lee's article says. "Twenty years after the attack, the country continues to debate where to draw the line between promoting personal privacy and protecting national security."

It's easy to wonder if the world's technological advancements had happened sooner, whether 9/11 could have been prevented.

Travel

Remember the days when you could arrive at the airport 30 minutes before your flight and head straight to your gate?

In 2001, that's what travel looked like. Families could come through security to send off loved ones and, even if you didn't have photo ID in your carry-on bag, blades and liquids were allowed.

But on Sept. 11, 2001, 19 hijackers were able to board four different domestic flights and carry out the attacks that killed thousands. That's when air travel changed forever.

The attacks changed the nation "automatically, immediately, into one obsessed, in big ways and small, with protecting its security," historian James Mann wrote in 2018. "The way that 325 million Americans go through airports today started on Sept. 12 and has never gone back to what it was on Sept. 10."

Tougher security measures were introduced when air travel resumed on Sept. 14, 2001, but the comprehensive Aviation and Transportation Security Act was passed into law by Nov. 19, 2001.

Here are some of the changes to air travel in the U.S. since 2001:

• All passengers over 18 need valid government-issued identification to fly, even on domestic flights. Those identifications are checked against passengers' boarding passes.

• The No Fly List was born — a branch of the Terrorist Screening Database noting people banned from boarding commercial aircraft into, out of and inside the U.S.

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was introduced in November 2001 and took over all airport security functions.

• Potential weapons like blades, scissors and knitting needles are no longer allowed on board, and airport employees are now better trained to detect weapons or explosives. In 2006, a foiled plot to detonate liquid explosives on multiple transatlantic flights led to the restrictions of liquids, gels and aerosols in carry-on luggage that still exist today.

• Also in 2006, the TSA started requiring passengers to remove their shoes to screen for explosives.

• In March 2010, full-body scanners began to be installed in U.S. airports in addition to metal detectors.

• In July 2017, TSA began requiring all personal electronics larger than a cellphone to be placed in bins for X-ray screening.

In addition, bulletproof and locked cockpits became standard on commercial passenger aircraft within two years of the 9/11 attacks. The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act became law in 2002 and, in 2003, weapon-carrying pilots started boarding U.S. commercial flights.

Journalism

Michelle Wright, a reporter for sister station WTAE in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, remembers dropping off her son for his first day of preschool on Sept. 11, 2001, and holding her 1-year-old baby at home as she watched the first plane hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

"I was stunned," she said.

By the time she got to work, two other planes had crashed — another at the second tower of the World Trade Center and a third at the Pentagon — and there were reports of a plane down in Shanksville, less than two hours away. She and reporter Mike Clark rushed there, but had limited information about whether all of the crashes were related.

Wright and Clark were some of the first media on the scene.

"We just started going live," she said. "That shift turned into a nonstop week of being there. We immediately knew the significance."

Wright said the WTAE crew stayed in hotels and had to go to local stores for clothes and toiletries. They worked from about 3 a.m. until 8 p.m. each day in a world that didn't have social media and in an area of very poor cell reception.

"The public was glued to the television," she said. "People were just really eager to figure out what was going on."

Wright said in her career as a journalist, she can't remember a time when the information she was reporting was more important. Many broadcast stations dropped commercials during that time to make sure that reporters could relay the latest details.

"People were just waiting to find out what was happening to our country," she said.

Wright acknowledged that many relied on cable networks, morning newspapers and radio for breaking news in 2001. Today, however, many people would turn to their phones for instant information.

And, while social media often houses opinion, speculation and misinformation, it allows the public more access to reporters in today's world.

If an attack of that size took place today, the public may not have found out when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, but from a tweet from a passenger saying their plane had been hijacked.

Instead of circulating stories about passengers rushing the cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 to confront hijackers before the plane, video or photos of the actual encounter may have been posted online in today's world.

Camera footage would also show a clearer picture of the horror of the attacks, the victims and the aftermath.

In 2001, television news crews made editorial decisions not to show footage of people leaping or falling to their deaths, while networks eventually stopped showing reruns of planes striking the towers to prevent children from thinking the attacks were happening again.

Social media doesn't have that type of editorial censorship.

"As panic-inducing as it was and as tragic an experience it was historically in this country, had the current technology been around in 2001, I think you would have had something far more heart-wrenching," said David Friend, author of "Watching the World Changes: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11."

Wright said her experience covering the story of United Flight 93 taught her that passing along information to viewers allows them to make decisions, but also make a difference.

"Knowledge is power," she said. "And it's empowering."

She'll also never forget the moment the loved ones of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 were bussed to the crash site for the first time. Without cell phones capturing footage or even cameras rolling, members of the community lined roughly 30 miles of roadway from where the families were housed to the strip mine where the crash occurred to offer their condolences and support.

"Everyone at the site just froze," she said. "It was a powerful moment. All of our lives were changed."

The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.

Related video above: Officers at Oklahoma remember responding to 9/11 attacks

Rudolph Giuliani was a hero before he was a punchline. Lisa Beamer was a wife and mother before she became a symbol of Sept. 11 — and though her celebrity passed, her widowhood cannot.

In the aftermath of the planes falling from the sky, America and the world were introduced to an array of personalities. Some we had known well, but came to see in different ways. Others were thrown into public consciousness by unhappy happenstance.

Some, like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, are dead. But others have gone on to lead lives that are postscripts to Sept. 11, 2001. Here are a few of the boldface names of that tumultuous time — what they were then, and what has happened to them since.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI

THEN: Mayor of New York City, he was a hero of the moment -- empathetic, determined, a focus of the nation's grief and a constant presence at ground zero. "The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear ultimately," he said on Sept. 11. Oprah Winfrey pronounced him "America's Mayor"; Time magazine declared him "Person of the Year."

SINCE: After suggesting that his expiring term be extended due to the 9/11 emergency -- an idea that was roundly dismissed -- Giuliani went into private life, but not all that private. He launched a profitable security firm and ran abortively for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. His adventures as a supporter of and agent for President Donald Trump are well documented and resulted in the suspension of his law license in his home state.

BERNARD KERIK

THEN: New York City's police commissioner. Bald and stocky, he never left Giuliani's side in the days after Sept. 11 -- and followed the mayor after he left office, joining the Giuliani security firm.

SINCE: President George W. Bush appointed Kerik as Iraq's interim minister of the interior in 2003 during the Iraq war, and nominated him to head the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2004. He withdrew from consideration when it was revealed that he had employed an undocumented worker as a nanny and housekeeper; there followed a series of legal troubles, including convictions for ethics violations and tax fraud. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THEN: The 43rd president of the United States, Bush was informed of the 9/11 attacks while reading "The Pet Goat" to second graders in Sarasota, Florida. He spoke to the nation that night and visited ground zero three days later, grabbing a bullhorn to declare: "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people – and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." His support in the polls reached 85%.

SINCE: The War on Terrorism begat the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's demand that the Taliban "hand over the terrorists, or ... share in their fate." He had long retired to oil painting in Texas when Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, and when President Joe Biden pulled U.S. forces from Afghanistan. In August, he said he was watching developments there "with deep sadness."

RICHARD CHENEY

THEN: While the Secret Service played "hide the president" with Bush on Sept. 11 — he was shuttled to military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska, for fear of terrorist attacks — his vice president hunkered down in a "secure, undisclosed location," a bunker inside the White House where he helped direct the government's actions. Cheney became a fierce advocate of an unbridled response to the attacks, using "any means at our disposal." He pushed for the 2003 war in Iraq. The interrogation technique known as waterboarding was a proper way to get information from terrorists, he said -- not torture, as its critics have long insisted.

SINCE: After five heart attacks and a 2012 heart transplant, Cheney has lived to see his daughter, Liz, win his old congressional seat in Wyoming and become GOP persona non grata because of her criticism of Donald Trump.

COLIN POWELL

THEN: A former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell was confirmed unanimously as secretary of state in 2001. He would go on to make a persuasive case before the United Nations for military action against Iraq, claiming that Saddam Hussein was building weapons of mass destruction. The war was waged, Saddam was toppled and killed, Iraq was destabilized; no such weapons were found.

SINCE: Powell has consistently defended his support of the Iraq War. But the lifelong Republican had little use for Trump, endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016 and speaking in support of Biden at the 2020 Democratic convention. He left the Republican party after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE

THEN: National security adviser to Bush. In the summer of 2001, she met with CIA Director George Tenet at his request to discuss the threat of al-Qaida attacks on American targets. The CIA reported that "There will be significant terrorist attacks against the United States in the coming weeks or months." Rice would later say that the information was old.

SINCE: Rice succeeded Powell as secretary of state and has since returned to Stanford University as provost, then as a faculty member. In 2012, she also became one of the first two women allowed to join the Augusta National Golf Club.

JOHN ASHCROFT

THEN: Attorney general during Bush's first term. In the wake of 9/11, he was the administration's prime advocate of the USA PATRIOT Act, which gave the government broad powers to investigate and prosecute those suspected of terrorism. But in 2004, while lying in an intensive care unit with gallstone pancreatitis, he refused the administration's entreaties to overrule a Justice Department finding that the Bush domestic intelligence program was illegal.

SINCE: After leaving office in 2005, Ashcroft became a lobbyist and consultant. His appearances as a gospel singer (and songwriter — his tune "Let the Eagle Soar" was performed at the second Bush inauguration) have tailed off.

JOHN YOO

THEN: As deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, Yoo provided much of the legal underpinning for the War on Terrorism. He argued that "enemy combatants" captured in Afghanistan need not be given prisoner of war status; that the president could authorize warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens on American soil; that the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" like waterboarding was within the power of the president during wartime.

SINCE: Yoo is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He remains a strong supporter of presidential prerogatives; in 2020, his book "Defender in Chief: Donald Trump's Fight for Presidential Power" argued that Trump's vision of the presidency was in line with that of Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton.

KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED

THEN: Leading propagandist of al-Qaida, labeled the "principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" by the 9/11 Commission. He was captured in 2003 by the CIA and Pakistan's secret police, then spirited to CIA prisons in Poland and Afghanistan and finally to Guantanamo. Under duress — some called it torture — he confessed to involvement in nearly every major al-Qaida operation, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the killing of journalist Daniel Pearl, the 2001 attacks and others.

SINCE: His trial date has been postponed again and again. He remains at Guantanamo, indefinitely.

HAMID KARZAI

THEN: Interim leader and then elected president of Afghanistan in the wake of Sept. 11, he managed the delicate balancing act of remaining on friendly terms with the United States and the West while unifying his country's many factions — at least for a time. More than once, he called the Taliban "brothers," and the later years of his presidency were marked by friction with the United States.

SINCE: Karzai has survived numerous assassination attempts, but when his second term expired in 2014, the passage of power to his successor, Ashraf Ghani, was peaceful. Ghani would lead the country for almost seven years, until he fled in the face of the Taliban's triumphant return.

HOWARD LUTNICK

THEN: The chairman of the stock trading company Cantor Fitzgerald would have been in the company's offices at the top of One World Trade Center, but he took his son Kyle to the first day of kindergarten. A total of 658 of the company's employees — two thirds of its New York City workforce, including Lutnick's brother Gary — perished. Within three days, Lutnick had established the Cantor-Fitzgerald Relief Fund for his company's victims.

SINCE: The fund has disbursed more than a quarter of a billion dollars, including money for other victims of terrorism and disasters. Twenty years later, Lutnick remains the company's chairman.

LISA BEAMER

THEN: After 9/11, Lisa Beamer became the face of the day's mourners, and a reminder of the day's heroism. Her husband, Todd, a former college baseball and basketball player, is believed to have led other passengers in an attack on the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 that brought the plane down before it could crash in Washington. His exhortation of "Let's roll!" became a rallying cry. His widow made 200 public appearances in the six months after the attacks.

SINCE: Lisa Beamer co-wrote a book, "Let's Roll! Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage," and established a foundation in her husband's memory. Donations dwindled, and Beamer receded from public view. The couple had three children, and all attended Wheaton College, where their parents met. All are athletes, like their dad: Dave, 3 years old when his father died, was a football quarterback; Drew, who was 1, played soccer, as has Morgan, born four months after the attacks. Morgan was her father's middle name.

NORWOOD, Ohio — As the final hours of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan tick down, some cases of mental health tied to post-traumatic stress sparked by the chaos in Kabul have some veterans reaching out for help.

“It was heartbreaking. To see what people sacrificed and gave up for 20 years to watch it all just crumble before us,” Air Force veteran Tyler Britton said.

He’s served on a critical care transport team during the war. It was a fast-paced job he said he loved, and one he felt played a role in the ongoing fight against the Taliban.

“There were three tours, there were about 90 missions, 150 or so patients all around the world,” Britton said.

Now, 20 years later, the Taliban is back in control. As a veteran looking at the uprising of concern across non-military or veteran groups, he said he can see an awakening regarding the fact U.S. troops were still in Afghanistan.

“I've heard more about Afghanistan in the past two weeks than I had, you know, since I joined in 2000,” Britton said. “It's kind of disheartening to see, it's disheartening on both ends, right. You got an American public who, quite frankly, didn't care. And then you have the, the other side where you watch all the sacrifices that people made, and now it's just gone. It's all for naught.”

Frustrations being experienced by many Afghanistan War veterans.

“The primary reaction has been increased PTSD symptoms, which can include flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, hyper arousal, hyper vigilance,” said Cher Runtenelli, director of the Cincinnati area Vet Center.

She said the number of walk-ins and return veterans coming in the door of the center on Montgomery Road in Norwood with specific issues tied to the images they’re seeing on television has increased. In some instances, they’re Vietnam-era veterans with memories of the evacuation of Saigon.

WCPO Staff

The predominant veterans coming through the door right now, Runtenelli said, are those who’ve never really sought treatment for issues dealing with their wartime experiences.

”One symptom of PTSD is what we call avoidance, and you want to avoid all your thoughts and feelings related to your experience,” she said.

Army National Guard and Iraq War veteran Taylor Cott decided to use his school benefits after his service to become a certified counselor to help his fellow veterans post service. He now works at the Vet Center.

“We are getting blown up with calls," he said. "I mean, there's just call after call of people who have never engaged in this is the tipping point for them.”

He said one part in the process toward healing is to ensure these Afghanistan veterans focus on the single mission they were responsible for and the fact they completed the mission they were tasked with during deployment.

“You did your part, like don't carry the weight of the world almost,” Cott said. “That's all we can ask for any service member.”

Being mindful of your thoughts and what you're feeling and thinking during this time is also critical to realize you may need to reach out to the Vet Center, he said.

“Realize that maybe there's something past anger, push past that anger, maybe, maybe you're hurting," Cott said. "And hurting is best realized in community. We're not meant to be an island. So come, you know, hurt with us because we're hurting too. But we, thank God, have some skills. And we've learned a few tricks and we want to share those tricks with our fellow veterans.”

WCPO Staff

The counseling sessions have turned the compass for him, Cott said, and he encourages his fellow Afghan war vets to take that first step.

“A lot of veterans, are kind of taught to suck it up and move on,” he said. “So, I think it'll take a while for these groups to really get going. But once they do, I think there'll be a lot of freedom in that and realizing you're not alone – and your experience and what you're going through.”

Due to the increase in the number of veterans coming through the door the Vet Center has extended its counseling services. Patient walk-ins are welcome anytime during normal hours. Group sessions for Afghan War veterans take place every Tuesday at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The Vet Center is located at 4545 Montgomery Rd, Norwood, OH 45212. Their phone number is 513-763-3500.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

HILLSBORO, Ohio — Veterans returning to civilian life sometimes face mental health issues as a result of their time spent during deployment. One local charity, Save a Warrior, helps soldiers deal with those issues through an intense program.

“Once you have an absence of hope, inside of the spirit inside of somebody's psyche, that's when the trouble starts. That's when you can start going down that really dark path,” said Adam Carr, executive director of Save A Warrior.

The non-profit focuses on ‘alternative holistic’ approaches to overcome the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress and suicidal ideations, according to its website.

“We would love to be the first stop on somebody's journey as they're getting ready to transition,” Carr said. “We're here through transformation to inspire hope inside of a human being so they can take a different path, because we know our veterans and first responders, they deserve it. They've served our country; they've given everything to ensure that we get this incredible life of freedom that we have.”

Carr went through the program himself, following his time as a soldier within Special Forces. He discovered an all-too-common sense of trouble navigating the world outside of deployments and military structure. He missed the sense of serving.

“I was losing friends in combat," he said "I lost friends to suicide, commanders. I mean, the list goes on, we could have a whole segment just on that. And I was really looking for something that was having an impact in this area. And I found that through Save A Warrior.”

The SAW program is an intense 72-hour initial experience to get to the root of the issues followed by a 500-day plan to get the veteran back on track.

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

“I tried to go back into my old life, though, afterwards, you know, I tried to cope with my problems, the way that I knew how to cope with them. It wasn't until I actually hit my, you know, my real bottom, after Save a Warrior that I decided to, like, really buckle down,” Army veteran Keith Johnson said.

His journey after the military had its ups and downs. He used the education benefits he earned during his service to send himself to culinary school, with the goal of becoming a chef. However, despite his full certification, his lifestyle had veered him off course.

“I ended up at Save a Warrior after I caught a few felonies," Johnson said. "And basically, crashed my life in the ground.”

Save A Warrior was the lifeline he needed. He now serves as the organization’s executive chef planning and cooking for the dozen or so attendees to the program during different class groups or cohorts.

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

To date, the organization said they’ve had 1500 veterans and/or first responders come through the program. Those attending range from modern day veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq to veterans from World War II who are still dealing with the effects of their service.

“What happens is a 500-day, well-executed plan that really helps somebody get into a community, that 500 day starts when they come through the program, and then take a day by day, daily practice into account, whether it's meditation, serving other people, a lot of times, that's volunteering, and getting things back on track, into where life really, if you're to look at things in the fork of a road looks completely different 500 days later,” Carr said.

Rosa Torres is the Female Programming Facilitator for Save A Warrior and describes one of the principals behind what they do to help those attending process whatever weight the person is carrying.

“We're not negating what happened, we're not trying to erase what happened,” she said. “What this program does is it strips away the power, what happened, happened, it's how we perceive it, how we accept it, how it occurs to us, that can either affect our lives negatively, or just be another thing that we can accept, learn how to accept, and then continue to live a full life.”

Courtesy, Save a Warrior

According to Torres, women veterans or first responders carry the burden tragedy in a different manner which means women coming through the program often take a different route to free themselves.

“Women, by and large, carry a burden that men don't carry, because life comes through us. And we are responsible for life,” Torres said. “And then when we were present when lives are lost or taken, or even more so responsible for taking lives, as in the military, something inside is wounded, to the point where we start to feel that there will, never be a healing for that. This program, by and large, helps us address those wounds, and heal them. So that we can take our lives back and live with the freedom that life should bring us.”

The Save a Warrior headquarters is also expanding to be able to help even more veterans and first responders improve their mental health and overall well-being.

“We have the construction of the first ever National Center of Excellence for complex post-traumatic stress in the United States,” Carr said.

They hope to have the facility completed by the end of 2021.

People interested in finding out more information about the Save A Warrior program can visit their website.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

When Meghan Kahler and Steven Halstead adopted the Japanese mastiff, he came with the name Daniel.He is a big, old goofy dog, emphasis on big. He has paws the size of saucers and a head the size of a volleyball. He tips the scale at more than 100 pounds, with a wide body and a back you could use as a coffee table.Daniel didn’t seem to be a good name, the couple thought. It didn’t seem to capture his personality, or his heritage, so they changed it. They named him Ham.It’s not short for Hamilton – as in the play or the founding father. It’s just Ham, “like Christmas ham,” Meghan said.It made sense. They adopted Ham around Christmas 2020. And just a few months before that, Ham was destined to become ham, having been rescued from a South Korean farm where dogs were bred and raised to be food.“We think we’re funny,” Steven said. “For a meat market dog, it’s a great name.” Ham was among 170 dogs liberated from a farm in late October last year, rescued by South Korean members of the Humane Society International’s Animal Rescue Team from the facility in Haemi, a rural town south of the capital, Seoul.Although dog meat is not a staple in the South Korean diet, it is still part of the nation’s tradition, particularly in rural parts of the country during what’s known as Bok days, the hottest days in late July and early August. Bok days are, quite literally, the dog days of summer. Consuming dog, it is believed, increases energy and brings luck and prosperity.The majority of South Koreans, though, abhor the practice. Eighty-four percent of South Koreans, according to a poll commissioned by the Humane Society, have never eaten dog meat and have no plans to do so. And a majority of South Koreans – 57 percent, according to the poll – believe that dog meat consumption reflects poorly on the nation, contributing to racist Asian stereotypes.The South Korean government, responding to increased pressure, both internationally and domestically, has been leaning toward banning dog meat. Authorities, in the past couple of years, have shut down some of the nation’s largest dog meat farms, markets and slaughterhouses.Among those was the farm in Haemi. The 170 dogs in the farm lived in terrible conditions, kept in cages, stacked one upon another in a long, seemingly haphazard structure fashioned from PVC pipe, corrugated metal sheets and plastic tarps.An investigator from the Humane Society described the conditions as “truly pitiful.” Nara Kim, the Humane Society’s dog meat campaign manager, said, “Every dog meat farm I’ve visited has a horrible stench of feces and rotting food, but there was something different about this dog farm; it had a smell of death. When we found these dogs, they had looks of utter despair on their faces that will haunt us forever.”Nine of the dogs wound up at the York County SPCA. All but one has been adopted, a difficult feat considering that these dogs would need special attention to make the transition from the dinner table to the couch.Watch video above: South Korea expected to grant legal status to animals to end years of abuse and abandonment

CINCINNATI — Police departments across Ohio have received a recommendation from the Ohio Attorney General to implement a program created in Cincinnati to aid police response to a scene where a veteran is in crisis.

The Military Liaison Group was the idea of Cincinnati Police Sergeant Dave Corlett.

“Last year we were about 1,000 officers, over 300 veterans in the department so we’re more than a 30% veteran department which allowed me to expand the program,” Corlett said.

The concept is relatively simple: Veterans currently serving within the department respond to scenes where military veterans are in distress. It could be a domestic call or even a situation where the veteran is threatening suicide.

“The communication that goes on between two veterans is much different than the communication that would go on between a law enforcement officer and a veteran,” Corlett said. “The ability to have relatable experiences -- you can’t get any better than that.”

It’s part of the de-escalation process and often opens the door to treatment or services the veteran didn’t realize were available to them.

“I’m a Gulf War veteran, so I was out of the military and here serving in the police department by June 1992. I didn’t learn until five or six years ago that I was eligible for healthcare at the VA," Corlett said. "So, that kind of struck me that if I didn’t know those things other veterans don’t know them either."

That led to a discovery process for Corlett, who began to not only get healthcare at the VA, but he also began to better understand the process so he could share the knowledge with other veterans on the department and help veterans when he dealt with them during police calls.

“So, when I’m talking to a veteran and telling him he needs to go to the VA I don’t just tell him he needs to go to the VA, I ask him if he’s willing to go with me and speak to a doctor I know by name and I will take you there myself,” said Corlett.

That scenario played out one night when a veteran had a mental health crisis and barricaded himself inside with several guns, threatening to kill himself.

"Our crisis negotiator had been on the phone with him for 90 minutes before he remembered we existed," Corlett said. "He called me, woke me up and said, 'I need you to get down here.' Ten minutes later, he walked out and surrendered to me and I personally drove him up to the Veterans Administration hospital."

He said what they do is not a Band-Aid.

"We try to follow up and try to guide them into fixing the issues that brought to the crisis in the first place," said Corlett.

The program is made up of partnerships from the Veterans Court, Easterseals, sheriff's departments, fire departments, and more.

The success of the program and its simplistic approach caught the eye of Ohio’s Attorney General.

“I was so impressed with this, I immediately talked to my team and said we need to push this out around the state," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. "We need to help other departments begin to do this.”

Working with Corlett, the AG’s office created the Veterans Response Program guidelines for other police departments in the state.

“There’s a lot of talk about de-escalation and this is just one tool in that de-escalation toolkit,” Yost said. “Instead of hooking someone up and taking them down to the county, connecting them to resources to help them is a much better outcome.”

While he said the program doesn’t prevent arrests if the situation warrants it, it does put veterans on a path, whether through Veterans Court or the VA healthcare system, to turn their situation around.

“Recognizing the particular issues that a vet might have and looking for a way to respond proportionally,” Yost said.

As Corlett prepares for retirement from the police department, he said he’s proud of the program he will leave behind and the mark he’s made on so many other veterans.

“This program brought me back to where I felt like I was making a difference, and that was my goal as a policeman to begin with,” Corlett said.

You can read the Veterans Response Program guidelines on the Ohio Attorney General’s website.

If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — America’s infrastructure has scored near-failing grades for its deteriorating roads, public transit and storm water systems due to years of inaction from the federal government, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

In its “Infrastructure Report Card” released Wednesday, the group gave the nation an overall C- grade and called for “big and bold” relief to fix things.

The ASCE study evaluated 17 categories of infrastructure, with grades ranging from a B for rail to a D- for Transit.

“For the first time in 20 years, the country's infrastructure as a whole received a grade in the C range, meaning on average, the nation's infrastructure is in mediocre condition, has deficiencies and needs attention,” wrote ASCE in a press release.

However, 11 of the 17 categories in the “Report Card” received a grade in the D range: aviation, dams, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, public parks, roads, schools, stormwater, transit, and wastewater.

Over the past four years, the U.S. made incremental gains in some categories, according to the "Report Card." Due to increased investment, grades improved in aviation, drinking water, energy, inland waterways, and ports.

The ASCE estimates it would cost $5.9 trillion over the next decade to bring roads, bridges and airports to a safe and sustainable level. That’s about $2.6 trillion more than what government and the private sector already spend.

If the U.S. does not pay its overdue infrastructure bill, ASCE says by 2039, the U.S. economy will lose $10 trillion in growth and exports will decline by $2.4 trillion. Additionally, the group says more than 3 million jobs will be lost in 2039 and each American household will bear $3,300 in hidden costs per year.

President Joe Biden has said the nation's infrastructure is a priority of his and he campaigned on rebuilding it in a sustainable way that would create jobs. It could also present an opportunity for Democrats to work with Republicans, since both parties have complained about lack of progress on the issue. Much of that work will fall on Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was nominated by Biden to lead the Department of Transportation.

Related video above: Japan Tops Australia In Softball As Delayed Tokyo Games Open

The United States has beat Canada 1-0 for a 2-0 start in Olympic softball.

Monica Abbott pitched a one-hitter and center fielder Haylie McCleney and second baseman Ali Aguilar combined to throw out the potential tying run at the plate in the sixth inning.

The Americans are getting just enough offense as they try to regain the gold medal they lost to Japan in 2008.

Abbott struck out nine, walked three and needed 102 pitches to throw the Americans’ second consecutive one-hitter. Cat Osterman, at age 38 the Americans’ senior player, struck out nine over six innings and Abbott struck out the side in the seventh to finish an opening 2-0 win over Italy on Wednesday.

Amanda Chidester hit an RBI single in the fifth off loser Jenna Caira that scored McCleney, who went 3 for 3 with a walk and has reached base seven times in the two games.