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North Carolina county to place an AR-15 in each school in response to the Uvalde massacre

A North Carolina school system will place AR-15s in each school building this upcoming school year in a dramatic move meant to buff up school safety,

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office and school officials have decided to place the weapons in all six schools in the county when classes begin later this month in response to the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Each of the guns would be locked inside a safe, as well as extra ammunition and breaching tools, Sheriff Buddy Harwood told the Asheville Citizen-Times. He noted the delayed response by law enforcement to stop the attack on Robb Elementary School in May was a rationale for the measure.

“Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids,” Harwood told the newspaper. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens.”

There will be school resource officers at each of the six schools, including the three elementary schools, according to the Citizen-Times.

Officers have been training with instructors from Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College, he said.

The Madison County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina will place AR-15 rifles in each school building in the county when classes begin later this month.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina will place AR-15 rifles in each school building in the county when classes begin later this month.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File

“The reason we put the breaching tools in the safes is that in the event we have someone barricaded in a door, we won’t have to wait on the fire department to get there,” Harwood told the outlet.

“We’ll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time wasted.

“Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be.”

Madison County's school security decisions are in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 21 people died.
Madison County’s school security decisions are in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 21 people died.
AP Photo/Eric Gay, FILE

Ahead of the Aug. 22 start of the school year, Madison County Superintendent Will Hoffman said school leaders have been meeting with local law enforcement to review various safety measures.

“I hate that we’ve come to a place in our nation where I’ve got to put a safe in our schools, and lock that safe up for my deputies to be able to acquire an AR-15,” Harwood told the Citizen -Times.

“But, we can shut it off and say it won’t happen in Madison County, but we never know. I want the parents of Madison County to know we’re going to take every measure necessary to ensure our kids are safe in this school system.

“If my parents, as a whole, want me to stand at that door with that AR strapped around that officer’s neck, then I’m going to do whatever my parents want as a whole to keep our kids safe.”

With Post wires

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North Carolina county to place an AR-15 in each school in response to the Uvalde massacre

A North Carolina school system will place AR-15s in each school building this upcoming school year in a dramatic move meant to buff up school safety,

The Madison County Sheriff’s Office and school officials have decided to place the weapons in all six schools in the county when classes begin later this month in response to the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Each of the guns would be locked inside a safe, as well as extra ammunition and breaching tools, Sheriff Buddy Harwood told the Asheville Citizen-Times. He noted the delayed response by law enforcement to stop the attack on Robb Elementary School in May was a rationale for the measure.

“Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids,” Harwood told the newspaper. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens.”

There will be school resource officers at each of the six schools, including the three elementary schools, according to the Citizen-Times.

Officers have been training with instructors from Asheville–Buncombe Technical Community College, he said.

The Madison County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina will place AR-15 rifles in each school building in the county when classes begin later this month.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina will place AR-15 rifles in each school building in the county when classes begin later this month.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File

“The reason we put the breaching tools in the safes is that in the event we have someone barricaded in a door, we won’t have to wait on the fire department to get there,” Harwood told the outlet.

“We’ll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time wasted.

“Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be.”

Madison County's school security decisions are in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 21 people died.
Madison County’s school security decisions are in response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas where 21 people died.
AP Photo/Eric Gay, FILE

Ahead of the Aug. 22 start of the school year, Madison County Superintendent Will Hoffman said school leaders have been meeting with local law enforcement to review various safety measures.

“I hate that we’ve come to a place in our nation where I’ve got to put a safe in our schools, and lock that safe up for my deputies to be able to acquire an AR-15,” Harwood told the Citizen -Times.

“But, we can shut it off and say it won’t happen in Madison County, but we never know. I want the parents of Madison County to know we’re going to take every measure necessary to ensure our kids are safe in this school system.

“If my parents, as a whole, want me to stand at that door with that AR strapped around that officer’s neck, then I’m going to do whatever my parents want as a whole to keep our kids safe.”

With Post wires

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NYC sees second wave of migrants arrive from Texas border

A second group of migrants sent from the Texas border arrived early Sunday in New York City, where they were greeted by Mayor Adams.

Hizzoner promised support for the new arrivals after GOP governors began shipping migrants to the East Coast in a chaotic policy aimed at pressing the White House on immigration.

Speaking to reporters at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown, where a bus dropped off 14 migrants, Adams slammed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to Republican.

“It is unimaginable what the governor of Texas has done,” the Democratic mayor fumed.

“When you think about this country — a country that has always been open to those who are fleeing persecution and other intolerable conditions — we’ve always welcomed that,” he continued. “This governor is not doing that in Texas, but we are going to send the right message, the right tone, of being here for these families.”

Taxis took the 14 migrants to their next destinations free of charge, CBS New York reported.

Under New York State law, the city must provide housing for any adult who arrives by 10 pm with children at a homeless shelter the day of their arrival.

New York City saw its first bus of migrants sent by Abbott on Friday morning. A charter bus brought about 50 people to the Port Authority Bus Terminal after a roughly two-day journey from the Lone Star State.

Major Eric Adams and Texas Gov.  Greg Abbott

“The journey by bus, it was tough,” one of the new arrivals, 40-year-old Alfonso Ruiz, told the Daily News on Friday. “Stopping and shouting and stopping almost every day.”

In the spring, Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who’s also Republican, announced plans to send buses of migrants to Washington, DC They were protesting President Biden’s move to lift restrictions on seeking asylum that were imposed near the start of the COVID pandemic. The rule remains in effect, under a court order.

Adams has been calling for federal funding to help handle the new migrants. On Sunday, he said Texas should coordinate its plans with New York.

“In addition to Washington, DC, New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott stated Friday. “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”

Last week, the mayor turned down an invitation from Abbott to see the state’s southern border first-hand.

“Instead of a photo-op at the border, we hope Gov. Abbott will focus his energy and resources on providing support and resources to asylum seekers in Texas as we have been hard at work doing in New York City,” Adams spokesman Fabien Levy said at the time.

Washington, DC has received more than 6,100 migrants from Texas, according to Abbott’s office.

But the Pentagon on Friday rejected a request from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser for the National Guard to provide assistance for what she called a “growing humanitarian crisis.”

With News Wire Services

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North Carolina sheriff stocking schools with AR-15 rifles

MARSHALL, N.C. — When schools in one North Carolina county reopen later this month, new security measures will include stocking AR-15 rifles for school resource officers to use in the event of an active shooter.

Spurred by the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead in May, school officials and Madison County Sheriff Buddy Harwood have placed one of the semiautomatic rifles in each of the county’s six schools. Each of the guns will be locked inside a safe, Harwood said.

The North Carolina school district and sheriff’s office are collaborating to enhance security after the Uvalde shooting revealed systemic failures and “egregiously poor decision-making,” resulting in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was finally confronted and killed by law enforcement, according to to a report written by an investigative committee of the Texas House of Representatives.

“Those officers were in that building for so long, and that suspect was able to infiltrate that building and injure and kill so many kids,” Harwood told the Asheville Citizen Times. “I just want to make sure my deputies are prepared in the event that happens.”

The idea of ​​having AR-15s in schools does not sit well with Dorothy Espelage, a UNC Chapel Hill professor in the School of Education who has conducted decades of study and research on school safety and student well-being.

“What’s going to happen is we’re going to have accidents with these guns,” Espelage told WLOS-TV. Just the presence of an SRO increases violence in the schools. There’s more arrests of kids. Why is it that they have to have these AR-15s? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Madison County Schools Superintendent Will Hoffman said school administrators have been meeting regularly with local law enforcement officials, including Harwood, to discuss the updated safety measures.

Harwood said the county’s school resource officers have been training with instructors from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

Harwood said the safes where the AR-15s will be kept will also hold ammunition and breaching tools for barricaded doors.

“We’ll have those tools to be able to breach that door if needed. I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time wasted. Hopefully we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be,” he said.

Schools are scheduled to reopen Aug. 22, according to the Madison County Schools website.

While the optics of school resource officers potentially handling AR-15s in schools may be discomforting to some, Harwood said he believes it is a necessary response.

“I hate that we’ve come to a place in our nation where I’ve got to put a safe in our schools, and lock that safe up for my deputies to be able to acquire an AR-15. But, we can shut it off and say it won’t happen in Madison County, but we never know,” Harwood said.

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More Residents Ordered to Evacuate Due to Six Rivers Lightning Complex Surrounding Willow Creek; Fire Remains Uncontained | Lost Coast Outpost

The Six Rivers Lightning Complex. | US Forest Service

Two additional areas have been ordered to evacuate in response to the Six Rivers Lightning Complex — a grouping of eight wildfires surrounding the Willow Creek area.

Zones added to the mandatory evacuation list:

HUM-E056

  • North Bigfoot Scenic Byway, River Bend Road, Peach Tree Lane, Patterson Road
  • South of Bigfoot Scenic Byway, Horse Linto Creek Road
  • East of Orchard Lane
  • West of Horse Linto Creek Road

HUM-E057

  • North of Seeley Mc Intosh Road
  • South of Patterson Road
  • East of River Bend Road, Patterson Road
  • West of Moonset Lane


The Six Rivers Lightning Complex fires surrounding Willow Creek. | US Forest Service

An evacuation center has been set up in Willow Creek at Trinity Valley Elementary School at 730 Highway 96.

As of this morning, the size of the complex was reported to be 1,101 acres in size and 0 percent contained.

“Warm temperatures today could contribute to more extreme fire behavior,” the fire’s incident management team stated. “Firefighters will continue to provide protection for structures, infrastructure, and wildlife habitat.”

There is concern that the Six Rivers Lightning Complex could affect water quality in Humboldt County’s rivers, potentially causing a fish kill in the South Fork of the Trinity River. The McKinney Fire burning in Siskiyou County recently caused a large die-off in the Klamath River, impacting upcoming tribal ceremonies.

All areas under mandatory evacuation:

HUM-E077-C

  • North of Forest Route 5n32
  • South of Friday Ridge Road
  • South Fork Road
  • East of Forest Route 5n37
  • West of South Fork Road, Carpenter Road

HUM-E061

  • North of Forest Route 7n15
  • South of Seeley McIntosh Road
  • East of Seeley McIntosh Road, Campbell Ridge Road
  • West of Forest Route 7n15

HUM-E058

  • North of Forest Route 7n15
  • South of Horse Linto Creek Road
  • East of Peach Tree Lane WEST OF Coon Creek Rd, Forest Route 7n15


Areas under evacuation warning:

HUM-E063

  • North of Forest Route 6n39, Friday Ridge Road
  • South of Forest Rt 6n33
  • East of Friday Ridge Road
  • West of Friday Ridge Road, Riteway Lane
    HUM-E064
  • North of Trinity Highway, Wood Lane, Friday Ridge Road
  • South of Campbell Ridge Road, Triple R Lane, Butterfly Creek Road, Kimberly Drive, Trinity Highway
  • East of Trinity Highway
  • West of Wood Lane, Campbell Ridge Road

HUM-E077-B

  • North of Friday Ridge Road, Forest Route 5n01
  • South of Friday Ridge Road
  • East of 5n10, 5n09, 5n27
  • West of South Fork Road, Forest Route 5n42

“If you are under an evacuation warning, be ready and don’t wait until the last minute to leave,” the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has stated.

Evacuation orders have also been issued in Trinity County for Salyer Heights, Salyer Loop to the bridge at Highway 299, and Campbell Ridge Road.

Additional ground and air firefighting teams have been ordered, and are currently traveling to the fire’s location for deployment.

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Private-equity lobby wins relief from tax hikes in Inflation Reduction Act

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Senate Democrats agreed Sunday to protect firms owned by the private equity industry from a new minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations, bowing to pressure from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who insisted on making the change to the Democrats’ sprawling climate, health-care and tax package.

The decision came as Democrats tried to hold their caucus together through nearly 19 hours of debate on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which the 50-50 Senate approved Sunday with the help of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Harris.

Senate approves Inflation Reduction Act, clinching long-delayed health and climate bill

The package proposes hundreds of billions of dollars in fresh spending, financed in part through new taxes, including a corporate minimum tax that would require firms with more than $1 billion in annual profits to pay a tax rate of at least 15 percent. As originally written, the provision would have required private equity firms to tally profits from their various holdings and pay the tax if the total exceeded the $1 billion threshold.

Sinema, who for over a year has blocked Democratic ambitions to raise taxes, raised objections on Saturday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. The senator argued that, without changes to the bill, small and medium-sized businesses that happen to be owned by private equity firms would be exposed to the tax, violating a Democratic pledge to hike taxes only on the largest firms. A Sinema spokeswoman said several Arizona small businesses, including a plant nursery, had raised concerns.

The senator’s objections came days after she persuaded Democrats to abandon a different effort to raise taxes on private equity managers by closing the so-called “carried interest loophole,” which permits investment managers to pay lower rates on certain portions of their income.

In a statement, Sinema’s office said her goal is to “target tax avoidance, make the tax code more efficient, and support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.”

“At a time of record inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing economic growth, Senator Sinema knows that disincentivizing investments in Arizona businesses would hurt Arizona’s economy’s ability to create jobs, and she ensured the Inflation Reduction Act helps Arizona’s economy grow,” the statement said.

The last-minute changes mark a significant victory for the private equity industry and an estimated savings of $35 billion over the next decade. Private equity represents a roughly $4 trillion industry in the United States, and as the sector has grown markedly over the past decade, it has flexed its considerable political muscle repeatedly in Washington.

From the start, the unusual way private equity businesses are structured posed a challenge for Democrats crafting the new minimum tax. Typically, large conglomerates are formed as “C corporations” under the tax code and pay corporate taxes. The new minimum tax would clearly apply to them. But private equity firms are legally formed as partnerships, which typically pay taxes on the individual returns of their owners. Senate Democrats say they crafted the legislation to ensure that wealthy investment managers who own numerous C corporations and other business entities collectively worth more than $1 billion would be subject to the tax.

But the tax was never intended to hit the smaller subsidiaries that make up private equity portfolios, said Ashley Schapitl, a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who called industry claims to that effect “nonsense.”

Independent analysts largely agreed with that reading of the provision. “The language in the bill was intended to make sure they are treated the same way,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “The idea that billion-dollar private equity funds must be protected to save small businesses is absolutely absurd.”

Steve Rosenthal, a tax policy analyst at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, said his take is that “smaller firms would not be hit” by the original provision. “But it could be clarified,” he added.

Still, confusion over the provision touched off a late scramble to strip it from the bill. In recent days, private equity advocates circulated a document to lawmakers claiming the tax could hit 18,000 firms that employ 12 million people, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. The document called the measure a “new stealth tax” that would put small firms owned by private equity at a “competitive disadvantage by subjecting them to the book minimum tax when their similarly sized competitors would not be subject.”

How the Inflation Reduction Act might impact you and change the US

Republicans seized on the issue, and Sen. John Thune (RS.D.) worked with Sinema to craft an amendment to clarify that profits from subsidiaries would not have to be tallied to determine whether a firm is subject to the new minimum tax. On Sunday, the Senate voted 57-43 to adopt the change. In addition to Sinema, six Democrats voted yes: Sinema’s fellow senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly; Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada; Jon Ossoff and Raphael G. Warnock of Georgia; and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

The Senate later voted 51-50 to make up the lost revenue by limiting “pass-through” companies — which can include private-equity firms — from claiming more than $250,000 in annual tax deductions.

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Gunshots reported inside Tysons Corner Center; police say ‘nothing found’

Stores closed and shoppers fled from Tysons Corner Center mall Sunday afternoon after police said the crash of a falling light fixture — while officers were investigating a possible theft — was confused for gunshots.

No evidence of gunfire or injuries were found, police said, but the incident was enough to spark panic at the sprawling shopping center, just over a month after shots were fired in the mall during a fight in June.

Police received a report of gunshots inside Tysons at 2:49 pm and began clearing the mall, Fairfax County police second lieutenant Jason Chandler said. As of around 3:40 pm, the mall was clear and no threats were reported. The mall never went into a lockdown, Chandler said, but some stores closed.

Before the report of gunshots, Chandler said police responded to a possible theft in the mall near the glass elevator. A light fixture fell “in the general area” of the police activity causing a loud sound, Chandler said, which officers believe led to the panic in the mall.

A video posted on Twitter showed police officers leading several individuals away from the mall in handcuffs after reports of the gunshots were made. Chandler said no suspects were detained in response to the reports, but it was uncertain whether individuals were detained in the earlier response to a possible theft.

Other videos posted on social media show scores of customers fleeing from the mall. Tysons was advertising a tax-free weekend with discounted clothes and school supplies, according to the shopping center’s website.

In mid-June, gunshots were fired in Tysons after a fight, closing the mall and sparking a panic as customers fled or hid in stores. A boy was fatally shot at the Moechella concert in Northwest Washington that same weekend, and the week prior, three people were shot after a dispute at a shopping mall in Prince George’s County.

The incidents came amid a string of high-profile mass shootings across the country from Buffalo to Uvalde, Tex. In the wake of the killings, some DC and Virginia residents told The Washington Post they’d become more sensitive to the risk of gun violence, or hesitant to return to large gathering places.

Studies in 2019 and 2018 by the American Psychological Association and Pew Research Center conducted after high profile mass shootings found that, across the country, news of gun violence similarly exacerbated respondents’ fears and stress levels.

This developing story has been updated.

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DC lightning strike survivor had been fundraising for refugees

All day long, the tall, leafy tree had been a source of shade and comfort for Amber Escudero-Kontostathis.

Amid 90-some degree heat, she’d spent hours canvassing tourists in front of the White House for donations to help refugees in Ukraine, her family said. As she finished her shift on Thursday last week, a storm gathered overhead, thickening with clouds, rain and thunder.

That Thursday happened to be her 28th birthday, her family said. So while Amber waited for her husband to pick her up for a celebratory dinner, she sought shelter once again from the same tree, huddling with three others under its outstretched branches, according to her family and authorities.

Three people dead after lightning strike Thursday near White House

One was Brooks Lambertson, a young and rising bank vice president from Los Angeles. There was Donna Mueller, 75, a retired teacher, and her husband of Ella James Mueller, 76, who came from Wisconsin to Washington to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary. And there was Amber, a young woman from California whose travels in the Middle East teaching English had kindled a desire to help those stricken by war and poverty in that region.

They were strangers brought to that precise spot on the east side of the Lafayette Square, at that precise moment for different reasons — business, vacation, a passion to help.

just before 7pm, it was at that spot—under a leafy tree about 100 feet from a statue of President Andrew Jackson — that lightning struck.

Experts would later record a strike in the area as six individual surges of electricity that hit the same point in the space of half a second. If the electricity struck the tree first, experts said, it would have sent hundreds of millions of volts coursing through it before passing into the bodies of those gathered beneath it.

“It shook the whole area,” an eyewitness later recounted. “Literally like a bomb went off, that’s how it sounded.”

the strike left all four grievously wounded. Secret Service and US Park Police — who keep the park in front of the White House under constant patrol — ran to help.

On Friday morning, police announced the elderly couple from Wisconsin had died. Later that night, the banker from Los Angeles also passed away, police said.

Amber would be the sole survivor.

What happens when lightning strikes — and how to stay safe

The lightning strike stopped Amber’s heart, said her brother Robert F. Escudero. Two nurses, who happened to be visiting the White House on vacation and saw the Secret Service running to help her, immediately started giving her CPR and managed to restore her pulse, he said.

The lightning strike left her unable to walk and caused severe burns along the left side of her body and arm, her family said. That’s the side her bag de ella was on, carrying the iPad she used to sign people up for refugee donations.

Her parents rushed to Washington from California, and her mother has documented her fight to recover on Facebook. The lightning strike left Amber struggling at first to breathe, her mother, Julie Escudero, wrote. But by Friday, nurses were able to take her off the ventilator.

The lightning also damaged her short-term memory. She was scared and confused about what happened to her. “We definitely do not want her to remember the incident right now,” her mother de ella wrote on Facebook. But every time she wakes up, her mother de ella wrote, she asks what happened to her, is she going to die and will she be able to walk? Her family de ella said one thing she has been particularly worried about is her work fundraising for refugees.

She had majored in international studies in college and traveled to Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, according to her brother and her work profile. She spent a year teaching English in Jordan and soon after began fundraising for nonprofits. She started working in Washington last year for a group called Threshold Giving and focused especially on fundraising for the International Rescue Committee, a global relief agency.

“The first thing she told me when we FaceTimed is, ‘I need to get back to work on Saturday,’” Robert Escudero said. “She’s worried about raising money for the refugee kids. She asked me ‘Who’s going to get the money for them if I’m not out there?’”

A friend started a GoFundMe page to raise money for her medical bills. So her brother de ella said he promised Amber he’d work with Threshold Giving in the coming days to also create a way for people who learn about her survival story to donate to refugees.

The one thing her family has not yet broached with her is the fate of the others who were with her that night under the tree.

“She is starting to realize there were others and she wants to know how they are doing and what she did wrong,” her mother said in a Facebook post on Sunday. “She cares so much for others, it will be hard for her.”

On Sunday, many signs of the fatal lightning strike were still visible at Lafayette Square.

A tree bore streaks of charred bark, cracks and a large gash in the main trunk where the wood remained warped like a bruise. Folks passing through Lafayette Square paused at the tree to stare at the scars.

One of them was Cal Vargas, a childhood friend of Lambertson, who died. He brought a wreath and bouquet of white flowers to lay at the base of the tree. Vargas and Lambertson had been friends since kindergarten and grew up together in Folsom, Calif., where they shared a passion for sports and the Sacramento Kings.

“He was an amazing individual,” Vargas said quietly. “He always had a smile on his face, he always looked at the bright side of things.”

Earlier on the day the lightning struck, Lambertson, 29, had arrived in Washington on a business trip from Los Angeles. He was passing time before a dinner reservation when he got caught in the storm, Vargas said.

In a phone interview, Lambertson’s father, who The Washington Post is not identifying by name to protect his privacy, said his son was “probably the best human being that I know.” He said his son’s kindness, generosity and humility “showed up in everything he did, in all his interactions with people.”

He worked at City National Bank as a vice president managing sponsorships for the company. He had done marketing for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, and graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, according to a statement from the bank.

The elderly Wisconsin couple who also died that day were celebrating their 56th wedding anniversary, family members said.

Donna Mueller, 75, and her husband, James Mueller, 76, had been high school sweethearts before marrying. James had owned a drywall business for decades while his wife de ella worked as a teacher, according to one of their daughters-in-law, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy de ella.

The couple lived in Janesville, Wis., about 70 miles west of Milwaukee, and had five grown children, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “Both would do anything for their family and friends,” relatives said in a statement.

The odds of someone being killed by lightning are extremely rare. In the past decade, only an average of 23 people in the United States have died each year.

Multiple fatalities are even more rare. Before last week’s strike, the last time three people died in a single incident was more than 18 years ago on June 27, 2004, when three people in Georgia were struck under trees at Bedford Dam State Park, said John Jensenius, a specialist at the National Lightning Safety Council.

Because lightning tends to strike tall objects, experts warn that taking shelter under a tree during a thunderstorm is highly dangerous. When a tree is hit by the electrical charge, moisture and sap in the tree easily conducts the electricity, carrying it to the ground around the tree, experts say.

“When lightning strikes a tree, the charge doesn’t penetrate deep into the ground, but rather spreads out along the ground surface,” Jensenius said. “That makes the entire area around a tree dangerous, and anyone standing under or near a tree is vulnerable.”

For that and other reasons, Amber’s survival has felt miraculous, her family said. If it hadn’t happened right in front of the White House where secret service agents are stationed. If the two nurses who revived her hadn’t been on vacation and seen what happened.

Saturday night, Amber was finally able to take a few steps on her own, her family said. She was supposed to start a master’s program in international relations this fall at Johns Hopkins University — the latest step in her work trying to help refugees and those suffering abroad.

“She’s an amazing, strong-willed person. And ella she has such a heart for others, ”her brother de ella said. “So the goal now is to get her walking again by the time classes start in a few weeks.”

Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.

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Senate Passes Climate and Tax Bill After Marathon Debate

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation on Sunday that would make the most significant federal investment in history to counter climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs, as Democrats banded together to push through major pieces of President Biden’s domestic agenda over unified Republican opposition.

The measure, large elements of which appeared dead just weeks ago amid Democratic divisions, would inject more than $370 billion into climate and energy programs. Altogether, the bill could allow the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

It would achieve Democrats’ longstanding goal of slashing prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare for the first time to negotiate the prices of medicines directly and capping the amount that recipients pay out of pocket for drugs each year at $2,000. The measure would also extend larger premium subsidies for health coverage for low- and middle-income people under the Affordable Care Act for three years.

And it would be paid for by substantial tax increases, mostly on large corporations, including establishing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax and imposing a new tax on company stock buybacks.

Initially pitched as “Build Back Better,” a multi-trillion-dollar, cradle-to-grave social safety net plan on the order of the Great Society, Democrats scaled back the legislation in recent months and rebranded it as the Inflation Reduction Act. It was projected to lower the federal deficit by as much as $300 billion over a decade, though it remained to be seen whether it would counter inflation or lower costs for Americans in the long term.

Passage of the measure was a major victory for Mr. Biden and Democrats, who are battling to maintain their slim House and Senate majorities in November’s midterm congressional elections. Facing unanimous opposition by Republicans, who have used filibusters to block many elements of their domestic agenda, Democrats took full advantage of the Senate’s special budget rules to force through as much of it as they could with the support of all 50 members of their caucus.

The final tally was 51 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote. The House planned to interrupt its summer break to reconvene briefly on Friday to clear the measure, sending it to Mr. Biden for his signature.

“Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests, voting to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share,” Mr. Biden said in a statement.

The Senate vote was the culmination of more than a year of hard-fought negotiations between the party’s progressive core, which demanded a transformational plan that would touch every aspect of American life, and a conservative-leaning flank that sought a much narrower package. Those talks played out against the backdrop of a 50-50 Senate in which any single defection could have killed the effort — and nearly did, several times.

“The caucus overwhelmingly is focused on what’s in this bill — not what’s not in the bill, even though every one of us would want more — because what’s in the bill is so incredible,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said in an interview. “You had to thread the needle.”

Approval came after a weekend session featuring an all-night voting marathon that stretched for 16 hours, in which Republicans repeatedly tried and failed to derail the legislation, and Democrats united to beat back nearly all of their efforts.

Republicans did succeed in forcing the removal of a $35 cap on insulin prices for patients on private insurance, challenging it as a violation of Senate rules in a vote that Democrats were all but certain to use as a political weapon against them ahead of the midterms. The insulin price cap for Medicare patients remained untouched in the bill, with the potential to help millions of seniors.

As part of its landmark climate and energy initiative, which would put the Biden administration within reach of its aim to cut emissions roughly in half by 2030, the bill would offer tax incentives to steer consumers to electric vehicles and lure electric utilities toward renewable energy sources. like wind or solar power. It also includes millions of dollars in climate resiliency funding for tribal governments and Native Hawaiians, as well as $60 billion to help disadvantaged areas that are disproportionately affected by climate change.

For Democrats, passage of the measure capped a remarkably successful six-week stretch that included final approval of a $280 billion industrial policy bill to bolster American competitiveness with China and the largest expansion of veterans’ benefits in more than two decades. But unlike those bills, the tax and climate legislation passed the evenly divided Senate along party lines, condemned by Republicans as federal overreach and reckless spending at a time when prices remain high across the country.

The measure fell far short of Mr. Biden’s original vision for the plan and the $2.2 trillion measure that the House passed in November. To accommodate the demands and concerns of two holdouts, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Democrats jettisoned billions of dollars for child care, paid leave and public education and set aside plans to roll back key elements of the 2017 Republican tax overhaul.

Credit…T. J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

But the final package contained a series of proposals that Democrats have labored for decades to push through. If enacted, it would be the most significant climate law ever put in place in the United States, investing hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years in tax credits for manufacturing facilities for things like electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, and $30 billion for additional production tax credits to accelerate domestic manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical minerals processing. It would also impose a fee to penalize excessive emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.

The legislation would allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of up to 10 prescription drugs initially, beginning in 2026, and give seniors access to free vaccines. Coupled with a three-year extension of expanded health care subsidies first approved last year as part of the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid law, the package amounts to the largest change to national health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

To finance much of the plan, the measure would institute a new 15 percent corporate minimum tax that would apply to the profits that companies report on their financial statements to shareholders, known as book income. It would impose a new 1 percent tax on corporate stock buybacks beginning in 2023. The measure would also pour $80 billion into the IRS to bulk up the agency’s enforcement arm and crack down on wealthy corporations and tax evaders. That provision is estimated to raise $124 billion over a decade.

“When I come to the end of my service in the Senate, I’ll look back on the passage of this bill as one of the most significant things that I’ve had an opportunity to work on,” said Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota and one of the many climate hawks who pushed for the legislation.

Congressional Republicans hammered the bill as an exorbitant spending package with damaging tax hikes that would inflict more pain on the nation’s economy at a perilous moment. While outside analysis suggested the legislation would reduce the federal budget deficit by the end of the decade and have a limited impact on federal spending, Republicans continued to brand it a “reckless tax and spending spree.”

“Democrats’ policies have torn down the savings, the stability and the lifestyles that families worked and sacrificed for years to build up,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said on Sunday. “The effect of this one-party government has been an economic assault on the American middle class.”

It was the second time in less than two years that Democrats muscled through a sprawling spending package without any Republican support, following passage of the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package last year. Since inflation skyrocketed in the months after that measure became law, Republicans warned that Democrats were exacerbating the economic stress facing American families by passing the legislation.

Credit…Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, announced Saturday evening that he had “thought long and hard about how to explain this to the American people, and the only thing I can tell you is insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome.”

But there was little Republicans could do to stop passage once Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema said they would support it. Democrats moved the bill under the special process known as reconciliation, which shields budget measures from filibusters.

There was a price for Mr. Manchin’s and Ms. Sinema’s support, however.

Mr. Manchin ensured that the interests of his coal-producing state were reflected in the final bill. In addition to securing separate commitments to complete construction of a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia and votes on a measure to help fast-track permits for energy infrastructure, he fought to include tax credits for carbon capture technology and requirements for new oil drilling leases in Alaska’s Cook Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico.

Ms. Sinema extracted her own concessions, including $4 billion to help Western states combat historic drought levels and the preservation of a tax break that allows venture capitalists and hedge fund managers to pay substantially lower taxes on some of their income than other taxpayers.

She also preserved a valuable deduction known as bonus depreciation, used by manufacturers when they purchase equipment, that they could have lost or seen diluted under the new corporate minimum tax rules. And on Sunday afternoon, just as the measure appeared on a glide path to approval, she insisted on yet another change, backing a Republican proposal to shield hedge fund and portfolio companies from being hit by the minimum tax.

The concessions frustrated liberals, particularly Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and Budget Committee chairman who had pushed for spending as much as $6 trillion on the domestic policy package. He proposed changes to the measure during the all-night voting session, though most Democratic senators opposed them in order to protect the final product.

By Sunday afternoon around 3:30, staff aides wiped away tears as they watched the final vote on the floor. Democratic senators whooped with joy and hugged one another after the gavel fell, making a point of thanking and acknowledging Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema.

“This is pretty nearly a political miracle to negotiate with a caucus that is as diverse as we have, from Bernie to Manchin,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, who openly wept on the Senate floor during the final vote. “This thing got killed and got revived and got killed and got revived — all the way to the end.”

Reporting was contributed by Luke Broadwater, Lisa Friedmann, stephanie lai, Alan Rapport Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Tankersley.

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Republicans strip $35 insulin price cap from Democrats’ bill — but insist Senate rules are to blame

Nearly uniform Republican opposition in the Senate on Sunday stripped a proposed cap on insulin prices in private insurance from Democrats’ party-line climate, health and tax bill.

Democrats had sought to overrule a decision from the official Senate rules, the parliamentarian, that a $35-per-month limit on insulin costs under private insurances did not comply with the budget reconciliation process, which allowed Democrats to pass their bill with a bare majority .

The cap, which was proposed by Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., needed 60 votes to pass and remain in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It ultimately failed by a 57-43 vote.

Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan voted for the measure with Democrats. All 43 “no” votes came from Republicans.

The cap’s scrapping was quickly seized on by Democrats and stirred controversy beyond them, with critics of the GOP citing the sometimes starting cost of needed insulin for diabetics.

Republicans, in turn, accused Democrats of being misleading about a vote that they said amounted to a technicality rather than a policy difference.

PHOTO: Sen.  Raphael Warnock speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 6, 2022.

Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Aug. 6, 2022.

Patrick Semansky/AP

“Lying Dems and their friends in corporate media are at it again, distorting a Democrat ‘gotcha’ vote. In reality, the Dems wanted to break Senate rules to pass insulin pricing cap instead of going through regular order,” Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson tweeted afterward, noting that he previously “voted for an amendment, that Dems blocked, to provide insulin at cost to low-income Americans.”

While the proposed cap was not expected to get the 10 Republicans needed to have the measure preserved as part of the Democrats’ sprawling reconciliation deal — the 60-vote threshold would have overcome the parliamentarian’s objections about using the 51-vote reconciliation — the process allowed the party to put GOP senators on the record on a popular policy.

Republicans used a similar tactic in voting on Biden’s immigration policy as part of possible amendments to the IRA.

The parliamentarian had said the insulin cap would violate the Byrd Rule, which requires that a measure have an effect on the federal budget that is not “merely incidental” in order to qualify to pass through reconciliation.

The parliamentarian, meanwhile, did allow Warnock’s $35 insulin cap to apply to those covered under Medicare.