Pear Frangipane Tart

Pear Frangipane Tart

Pear Frangipane Tart

Photo by Getty Images

Pear Frangipane Tart Recipe from A Beautiful Plate

Prep time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes – 2 hours

Serving size: 8 servings

Ingredients

For the Tart Dough

  • 2 cups (240 g) unbleached all-purpose flour fluffed, spooned, and leveled
  • ⅓ cup (70 g) granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 11 tablespoons (155 g; 1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter cubed
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Poached Pears

  • 6 cups (1.4 L) cold water
  • 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 star anise pod
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped
  • 2 strips lemon peel without the pith, plus half a lemon
  • 3 Harry & David Royal Riviera Pears or pears of your choosing as long as they are firm yet slightly ripe

For the Frangipane Filling

  • 8 tablespoons (4 oz; 115 grams) unsalted butter softened
  • ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (115 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 cup (115 g) almond flour
  • 3 large whole eggs room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon (15 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon dark rum optional

For Serving (optional)

  • powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
  • lightly sweetened whipped cream (optional)

Directions

  1. Prepare the Tart Dough: Lightly grease a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom and set aside. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Pulse until well mixed. Add the cold cubed butter and pulse repeatedly until the butter is well distributed into the flour. You shouldn’t be able to see any distinguishable pieces. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and pulse continuously until the dough just starts to clump together. Note: It might appear very dry at first, but if you continue to pulse and process, it will come together. Be patient.
  2. Transfer the dough and any smaller pieces to a clean countertop, and knead – pressing the dough down with the heel of your hand – until it is completely smooth. It will resemble a sugar cookie dough in texture. Press the dough into the greased tart pan (with a removable bottom) – it should be just under ¼-inch thick, you should have some dough leftover – and chill in the fridge for a minimum of one hour, or freeze for at least 30 minutes.If you are preparing the dough ahead of time: press it into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour or up to 2 days. If following this method, take the dough out of the fridge at least 15 to 20 minutes before rolling, as it will be too hard to roll right from the fridge. Roll the dough out (between pieces of parchment or wax paper to prevent sticking), carefully pick up and transfer the dough to the tart pan, using fingers to push in dough and gently shape the tart. If it cracks, just simply patch or press the pieces back together. This is a forgiving tart dough. Make sure to press dough tightly inside corners and sides. The dough can be made up to 2 days in advance or frozen up to a month ahead.
  3. Poach the Pears: As the tart dough is chilling, poach the pears. Combine the cold water and granulated sugar in a medium pot (roughly 3-quart capacity). Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the cinnamon sticks, star anise pod, vanilla bean paste, and lemon peel.
  4. Peel the pears, leaving the stem on, and gently rub each pear with the lemon half to prevent the pears from oxidizing. Using melon baller or small paring knife, core the pears from the bottom end. Using a large spoon, gently lower the cored, whole pears into the poaching liquid. The poaching liquid should almost completely cover the pears.
  5. Return the poaching liquid to a low simmer, cover the surface of the pot with a parchment round, and simmer the pears, occasionally flipping them during the cooking process, for about 12 to 15 minutes or until tender. Remember that you will be cooling the pears in the liquid, so do not overcook. You can test whether the pears are done by piercing the pear (through the bottom end) with a paring knife. The pears should be tender, yet not at all mushy.
  6. Cool the pears to room temperature in the poaching liquid. Serve or transfer the pears to a large container and refrigerate for up to one week. The poaching liquid can be kept, discarded, or used to store the poached pears. Try reusing the liquid for poaching other pears or as a simple syrup in cocktails, etc.
  7. Blind Bake the Tart Shell: Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) with a rack in the center position. Lightly grease the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit it, buttered side down, against the chilled tart dough. Fill the foil with baking weights, dried beans, or granulated sugar (all options work well). Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and weights, and bake uncovered for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, or until the shell is lightly golden and cooked through. Set tart pan on a wire rack to cool completely before adding the frangipane and poached pears.
  8. Make the Frangipane Filling: Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand-held mixer). Beat over medium speed until creamy. Over low speed, add the almond flour, alternating with egg until the ingredients are incorporated evenly. Add the flour and mix to combine. Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and rum (if using) and mix until just combined. Use right away if the other tart components are ready, or transfer to a container and refrigerate until ready to use.
  9. Assemble the Tart: Place the tart pan on a baking sheet. Fill the pre-baked tart shell with the frangipane filling and spread into an even layer with an offset spatula. Place the poached pears on a few paper towels to help soak up any excess poaching liquid (this will help prevent it from seeping into the frangipane). Cut the poached pears in half, removing the stem and any core that might remain. Slice the pear halves crosswise into thin slices. Using a spatula, carefully lift each sliced pear half and place on the frangipane, with the narrow end of the pear facing the center of the tart, fanning the slices apart slightly as you work. Repeat with the remaining pear halves, spacing them evenly around the tart.
  10. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 40 to 55 minutes, or until the frangipane has risen substantially around the pears and is deep golden brown in color.Note: *If your oven runs hot, you may wish to reduce the temperature by 25 degrees. If the edges of the tart are gaining color too quickly, you can lightly cover them with a ring of foil – be sure to cook the filling through completely. Transfer the tart to a rack to cool until lukewarm or room temperature before removing the sides of the tart pan.
  11. Before serving, dust lightly with powdered sugar. Serve plain or with whipped cream. While you can prepare several components of this tart ahead, it is best served the day of baking. Any leftovers can be kept at room temperature for 1 to 2 days.
March 29th 2025

March 29th 2025

Thought of the Day

Photo by Getty Images

Sometimes, I spend the whole meeting wondering how they got the big meeting table through the door.

North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo

North Carolina judge challenging outcome of race wore Confederate uniform in college photo

By BRIAN SLODYSKO and MICHAEL BIESECKER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge challenging the outcome of his North Carolina Supreme Court race was photographed wearing Confederate military garb and posing before a Confederate battle flag when he was a member of a college fraternity that glorified the pre-Civil War South.

The emergence of the photographs comes at a delicate time for Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge who is seeking a spot on North Carolina’s highest court. Griffin, 44, is facing mounting criticism – including from some Republicans – as he seeks to invalidate over 60,000 votes cast in last November’s election, a still undecided contest in which he is trailing the Democratic incumbent by over 700 votes.

The photographs, which were obtained by The Associated Press, are from when Griffin was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1999-2003 and a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, one of the oldest and largest fraternities in the U.S., with tens of thousands of alumni.

Griffin said he regretted donning the Confederate uniform, which was customary during the fraternity’s annual “Old South” ball.

“I attended a college fraternity event that, in hindsight, was inappropriate and does not reflect the person I am today,” Griffin said in a statement. “At that time, like many college students, I did not fully grasp such participation’s broader historical and social implications. Since then, I have grown, learned, and dedicated myself to values that promote unity, inclusivity, and respect for all people.”

One of the pictures, taken during the 2001 ball, shows Griffin and roughly two-dozen other fraternity members clad in Confederate uniforms. Another photograph from the spring of 2000 shows Griffin and other Kappa Alpha brothers in front of a large Confederate flag. He served in 2002 as his chapter’s president.

Controversial fraternity

Kappa Alpha has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy over the decades, often due to the racist or insensitive actions of some of its members. A number of politicians have been forced to apologize for having worn Confederate costumes at the fraternity’s functions or for being photographed in front of a Confederate flag.

Jesse Lyons, a spokesman for the fraternity’s national office in Lexington, Virginia, said use of the rebel battle flag was prohibited in 2001 and displaying other Confederate symbols had been discouraged years before. The fraternity banned the wearing of the Confederate uniforms in 2010. It’s unclear if the chapter at UNC banned the uniforms before the national organization did.

“We believe in cultural humility, we respect the best parts of our organization’s history, and through education we challenge our members to work for a better future. These things are not mutually exclusive,” Lyons said.

The fraternity claims Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder” and long championed the Southern “Lost Cause,” a revisionist view of history that romanticizes the Confederacy and portrays the Civil War as a valiant struggle for “states’ rights” unrelated to the enslavement of Black people. In decades past, some Kappa Alpha chapters referred to themselves as a “klan,” a term that many viewed as an unsubtle wink to the Ku Klux Klan.

The photographs featuring Griffin were taken at a time when many other Kappa Alpha chapters were reevaluating their celebration of the Confederacy.

During Griffin’s time in the fraternity, some in his chapter questioned the appropriateness of dressing up in Confederate uniforms for the ball. Griffin opposed abandoning the tradition, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The uniforms stayed.

Griffin said he would “not respond to unsubstantiated comments based on memories of 20-plus years past.”

In high school Griffin also expressed an affinity for Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who led southern forces during the Civil War. In a 1998 feature on high school “scholars of the week” in The News & Observer of Raleigh newspaper, Griffin said Lee was his No. 1 choice to include on an “ideal guest list” for a party.

Clinging to traditions

The Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865, not long after Lee surrendered to the Union Army, at a Virginia college where Lee served as president. At least one of the first members was a former rebel soldier who had served under Lee, who is revered by the fraternity as the ideal of gentlemanly Southern chivalry.

For more than a century, Kappa Alpha threw “Old South” parties. They were formal affairs where the Confederate battle flag was flown and fraternity brothers dressed in replica Confederate gray uniforms and their dates wore antebellum-style hoop skirts. Sometimes they would ride through campus on horseback.

Some Kappa Alpha chapters, particularly in the South, clung to their traditions, including the wearing of blackface, even as they drew protests and public sentiment shifted.

A Kappa Alpha “Old South” parade at Alabama’s Auburn University in 1992 drew supporters waving Confederate battle flags, as well as counter protesters who burned them. In 1995, a group of Kappa Alpha members at the University of Memphis hurled racial slurs while beating a Black student who caused a disturbance outside a frat party, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported at the time.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was no exception to the turmoil. Under pressure from student group’s, the school’s Kappa Alpha chapter in 1985 canceled its annual “Sharecropper’s Ball,” which some attended in blackface. Fraternity members said blackface was worn because the event needed both Black and white attendees, but promised to discontinue the practice, according to a news story in the Daily Tar Heel student newspaper.

The Kappa Alpha chapter at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University stopped allowing members to wear Confederate uniform and display the Confederate flag in 1987.

But other chapters held on longer. It wasn’t until Kappa Alpha members at the University of Alabama wore Confederate uniforms during a parade that paused in front of a Black sorority, which elicited intense blowback, that the national headquarters forbade them.

Public officials face criticism over ties to fraternity

Griffin is not the first public official to draw unwanted attention for their college-age embrace of symbols drawn from the darker chapters of the South’s past.

Virginia’s then-governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, came under intense criticism in 2019 over a racist photo that appeared on his yearbook page of his medical school. The incident led reporters to scour the college histories of other Southern leaders, forcing a number of politicians to publicly address their time as Kappa Alpha brothers.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, then the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, dodged questions in 2019 about photos showing him wearing a Confederate uniform while he was a Kappa Alpha member at Millsaps College in the early 1990s. While Reeves was enrolled there in October 1994, other members of the fraternity were disciplined for wearing afro wigs and Confederate battle flags and shouting racial slurs at Black students, the AP reported at the time.

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to comment after yearbooks listed him as the leader of the fraternity’s chapter at the University of South Carolina in 1969, along with photos of members wearing Confederate uniforms and posing with a rebel flag.

And Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, also a Republican, expressed regret for participating in “Old South” parties as a student at Auburn University in the 1970s.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at [email protected] or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Boys with cancer can face infertility as adults. Can storing their stem cells help?

Boys with cancer can face infertility as adults. Can storing their stem cells help?

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AP Medical Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who battled childhood cancer has received the first known transplant of sperm-producing stem cells, in a study aimed at restoring the fertility of cancer’s youngest survivors.

Jaiwen Hsu was 11 when a leg injury turned out to be bone cancer. Doctors thought grueling chemotherapy could save him but likely leave him infertile. His parents learned researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center were freezing testicular cells of young boys with cancer in hopes of preserving their future fertility — and signed him up.

Hsu, now 26, is the first to return as an adult and test if reimplanting those cells might work.

“The science behind it is so incredibly new that right now it’s kind of a waiting game,” said Hsu, of Vienna, Virginia. “It’s kind of eagerly crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.”

Researchers have performed the first known transplant of sperm-producing stem cells in hopes of restoring fertility in a man who survived childhood cancer. (AP Video)

It may seem unusual to discuss future fertility when a family is reeling from the diagnosis of a child’s cancer. But 85% of children with cancer now survive to adulthood and about 1 in 3 are left infertile from chemotherapy or radiation.

Young adults with cancer can bank sperm, eggs or sometimes embryos ahead of treatment. But children diagnosed before puberty don’t have that option because they’re not yet producing mature sperm or eggs.

Boys are born with stem cells inside spaghetti-like tubes in the testes, cells that start producing sperm after puberty sparks a rise in testosterone. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Pitt reproductive scientist Kyle Orwig studies how to preserve and potentially use testicular cells to restore fertility.

It starts with a biopsy-like removal of a small amount of testicular tissue that contains millions of cells – some of them precious sperm-producing stem cells. Since 2011, Orwig’s team has frozen samples from about 1,000 prepubertal boys.

It’s impossible to tell if enough stem cells are in each tiny sample to matter. But in 2019, Orwig used preserved testicular tissue from a young male monkey that, in an animal version of IVF, led to the birth of a healthy baby monkey.

By 2023, Orwig was ready to reimplant now-grown cancer survivors’ cells when Hsu — not ready to start a family yet but curious about his long-ago study participation — reached out.

“We’re not expecting a miracle result,” cautioned Orwig, whose colleagues transplanted Hsu’s thawed cells in November 2023.

In a paper posted online this week, Orwig reported the injection, guided by ultrasound to the right spot, was safe and easy to perform. His work has not yet been reviewed by other scientists.

And Orwig said it’s too soon to know if the experiment worked and standard tests likely won’t tell, as animal testing found assisted reproduction techniques were needed to detect and retrieve small amounts of sperm. Still, he hopes the ongoing research will alert more families to consider fertility preservation so they’d have the option if it eventually pans out.

Belgian researchers announced a similar experiment in January, implanting pieces of testicular tissue rather than cells in a childhood cancer survivor.

“These developments are of great importance,” said researcher Ellen Goossens of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. While animal research “was very promising, transplantations in humans will be the only way” to tell if this really works.

Similar research with immature ovarian tissue is underway for female childhood cancer survivors, too, noted Dr. Mahmoud Salama, who directs the Oncofertility Consortium at Michigan State University.

Hsu said even if his experimental transplant doesn’t work, it will guide further research. He’s grateful his parents years ago “made a call that gave me the option to make the choice for myself today.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake

Photo by Getty Images

Black Forest Cake Recipe from Liv For Cake

Prep time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Serving size: 12 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder sifted
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk room temperature
  • 1 cup hot water or hot coffee
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Cherry Liqueur Syrup

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup cherry liqueur

For the Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 3 c whipping cream, cold
  • 1/4 c powdered sugar, sifted

For the Chocolate Bark

  • 250 g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

For Assembling

  • 2 1/2 c cherries, pitted and cut in half
  • 1 bar dark chocolate for shavings (optional)
  • cherries

Directions

Chocolate Cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F, grease two 8″ round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.
  2. Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
  3. In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients (pour hot water in slowly as not to cook the eggs).
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin*.
  5. Pour evenly into prepared pans. I used a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.
  6. Bake for 45 mins or until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. 
  7. Cool 10 minutes in the pans then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Cherry Liqueur Syrup:

  1. Place sugar and water into a small pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 min then remove from heat. Stir in cherry liqueur and allow to cool completely.

Whipped Cream Frosting:

  1. Whip cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks. Ideally in a cold bowl with a cold whisk.

Chocolate Bark:

  1. Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in 20 second bursts in the microwave.
  2. Using a large offset spatula, spread melted chocolate in a thin layer on a large sheet of parchment.
  3. Roll up from the short side of the parchment. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate or freeze until firm.
  4. Unroll to create chocolate bark. 

Assembly:

  1. Cut each cake layer in half horizontally.
  2. Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Brush generously with cherry syrup. 
  3. Top with approximately 1 cup whipped cream and spread evenly. Top with approximately 1 cup of cherries and gently press them into the whipped cream. Repeat with remaining layers and frost the outside of the cake.
  4. Decorate with chocolate bark, chocolate shavings, rosettes, and cherries if desired.
March 28th 2025

March 28th 2025

Thought of the Day

Photo by Getty Images

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

Was classified information shared? Senators overseeing military request probe into Signal leak

Was classified information shared? Senators overseeing military request probe into Signal leak

By STEPHEN GROVES, AAMER MADHANI and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee requested an investigation Thursday into how Trump national security officials used the Signal app to discuss military strikes and a federal judge said he would order the preservation of the messages, ensuring at least some scrutiny on an episode President Donald Trump has dismissed as frivolous.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the committee, and Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat, signed onto a letter to the acting inspector general at the Department of Defense for an inquiry into the potential “use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

The senators’ assertion that classified information was potentially shared was notable, especially as Trump’s Republican administration has contended there was no classified information on the Signal chain that had included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

Later Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said during a hearing for a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, that he’ll issue a temporary restraining order barring administration officials from destroying messages.

Across Washington, the Signal leak presented a major test early in Trump’s second term on the federal government’s system of checks and balances meant to protect national security. Yet even as mechanisms for oversight and investigation sputtered to life, it was a halting effort as most Republicans seemed content to allow the controversy to blow over. Meanwhile, Democrats slammed the Signal chat as a reckless violation of secrecy that could have put service members in harm’s way.

“This put pilots at risk because of sloppiness and carelessness,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former fighter pilot.

Kelly and other Democrats have called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to either resign or be fired. “If this was an officer in the military — at any level — or enlisted person, they would have been fired already,” Kelly said.

Asked by a reporter Wednesday about the call by Wicker, of Mississippi, and Reed, of Rhode Island, for an investigation, Trump replied, “It doesn’t bother me.”

Classified hearing with administration requested

Wicker, whose support was crucial to Hegseth’s Senate confirmation, is one of the most ardent defense hawks in Congress and has said the committee will request a classified hearing to follow up on the inspector general’s report, as well as for the administration to verify the contents of the Signal chat. The contents, which were published by The Atlantic, show that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month.

Senate Republicans have criticized the discussion on Signal but have stopped short of calling for the removal of Hegseth or anyone else involved. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican member of both the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services committees, said any oversight should be done “in a bipartisan way.”

Still, Democrats are pressing to probe much deeper. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wants to check the phones of those involved in the Signal chat for malware as well as whether Hegseth had shared military plans on other Signal chats.

Warner said he expected support from Republicans in calling for such an investigation, but so far Warner’s Republican counterpart on the intelligence committee, Sen. Tom Cotton, has given no sign he would join in those calls.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department, which has traditionally handled investigations into the mishandling of classified or sensitive information by both Republican and Democratic administrations, showed that under Trump it would likely stay on the sidelines. When asked at an unrelated news conference what the Justice Department plans to do, Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected, saying the mission was ultimately a success.

Echoing the White House, Bondi also insisted that none of the information shared on Signal was classified, even though officials have provided no evidence that that’s the case. Espionage Act statutes require the safe handling of closely held national defense information even if it’s not marked classified.

Bondi, who has pledged not to play politics with the department, quickly pivoted to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Joe Biden, who were investigated for allegations that they mishandled classified information but were not charged. Both Democrats were subject to extensive criminal investigations, and the FBI and the Justice Department have long track records of such inquiries.

Trump is unhappy with a lawsuit and the judge overseeing it

In civil court, the lawsuit filed by the group American Oversight against several Trump administration officials and the National Archives and Records Administration alleges they violated federal record-keeping laws.

That only further inflamed Trump’s ire at the judiciary, especially when the case was randomly assigned Wednesday to Boasberg, who was already presiding over a case challenging the deportation of Venezuelan migrants under wartime powers. In that case, the Trump administration just this week invoked the “state secrets” privilege to refuse to share details with the judge about the timing of deportation flights to El Salvador.

Trump early Thursday declared it “disgraceful” that Boasberg had been assigned the case in the Washington court. He added that Boasberg, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, is “Highly Conflicted.” Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg.

In court Thursday, Boasberg limited his order to messages sent between March 11 and March 15, and a government attorney said the administration already was taking steps to collect and save the messages.

Meanwhile, the White House National Security Council has also said it would investigate the Signal chat. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that she had no update on the status of that investigation.

“We’ve been incredibly transparent about this entire situation, and we will continue to be,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

___

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker contributed.

First rain and then fire chase people from their homes in North and South Carolina

First rain and then fire chase people from their homes in North and South Carolina

By JEFFREY COLLINS and BRITTANY PETERSON Associated Press

When Nicole Taylor and her family moved to their new home in the South Carolina mountains six months ago, the gorgeous view of Table Rock Mountain was the clincher.

She ended up with a porch-side seat to one of at least a half dozen wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolinas, fed by dry conditions and millions of trees that were knocked down by Hurricane Helene in 2024 and began decaying into tinderbox fuel.

Taylor watched this past weekend as smoke started to rise from the ridges across Highway 11 in Pickens County. The smoke got worse Monday, and it was pouring off the mountain Tuesday when she got a text saying she was under a mandatory evacuation.

So far no one has been hurt in the fires, which have burned more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) in mostly rugged, remote forests and the popular state park that includes Table Rock Mountain. Only a few dozen structures have been damaged.

But the firefighting is slow work. Sources of water to extinguish the flames are scarce, so crews depend on building fire breaks to try to stop them in their tracks, using bulldozers, excavators and even shovels and saws to strip the land of fuel.

It then becomes a waiting game, making sure embers don’t jump the break and hoping for the winds to die down or — the best relief of all — a long, soaking rain.

The long wait

Hurricane Helene slammed through Pickens County the Friday after Taylor moved into her dream home last September. The hurricane-force winds traveled hundreds of miles inland, smashing entire forests and destroying the electrical grid.

There was more than a week of what she called “prairie life.”

“We we’re like, OK, if we can make it through that, we can make it through anything. Unfortunately fire is one thing we can’t fight.”

This week Taylor decamped to wait the fire out in a hotel room in Greenville with her fiance, two children and their dogs. So far the fire has remained across the highway, but it is still too close for them to be able to go home.

“It’s been an actual whirlwind,” Taylor said of the last several days.

Rain and then fire

Six months ago Eric Young packed up his cats and left his home in Transylvania County, North Carolina, after floods and winds from Helene knocked out power, water and cell service. On Wednesday the fires in nearby South Carolina forced them all out again.

A retired environmental educator who moved there from Long Island a few years ago, he had his car, driveway and crawl space flooded in September.

Now he is at a friend’s home near Charlotte, trying to keep a sense of humor about the absurdity of floodwaters followed so soon by flames.

“I thought it was nirvana here — never get anything but severe thunderstorms, the weather is temperate, very nice,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d be gut-punched twice in six months.”

Fighting the blaze

Forestry officials were worried after all those trees came down during Helene. It’s not just the fuel they create, they also hinder firefighters’ movement.

“It is nearly impossible to get through this stuff. We’ve got about five bulldozers, an excavator and saw crews to open this up and clean this,” Toby Cox, the firefighter in charge of the Table Rock fire, said about a fire break in a video briefing Thursday morning.

Extinguishing wildfires in the Carolinas takes time. A fire near Myrtle Beach that threatened dozens of homes and burned 2.5 square miles (6.5 square kilometers) in early March has been out of the news for nearly four weeks, but it is still just 80% contained and sends smoke billowing over neighborhoods when the wind shifts.

Conditions that favor fire outbreaks

Wildfires are unusual in the Carolinas, but not unheard of. The Great Fire of 1898 burned some 4,700 square miles (12,175 square kilometers) in the two states, an area roughly the size of Connecticut, said David Easterling, the director of the Technical Support Unit at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Spring is typically when blazes happen, according to Kathie Dello, North Carolina’s state climatologist.

This season the Blue Ridge Mountains are dry, having received only about two-thirds of the normal amount of rainfall in the last six months since Hurricane Helene. March has been full of sunny, dry, windy days.

Meanwhile the risk to people and property has increased over the years thanks to a boom in popularity of the mountains as a place to live.

“North Carolina has a lot of homes in the wildland urban interface, or more people living with a higher fire risk,” Dello said.

Any trees downed by Helene that do not burn this year will still be around for future fire seasons.

“All that storm debris will be there for years to come, increasing the fire danger considerably,” Easterling said.

The latest fire updates

The two large fires in South Carolina continued to burn Thursday. The Table Rock fire has consumed 7.1 square miles (18.4 square kilometers), and the one on Persimmon Ridge in Greenville County has burned 2.4 square miles (6.2 square kilometers).

The fires are about 8 miles (13 kilometers) apart, and emergency officials have asked almost everyone living between them to leave as a precaution. The evacuation zone extended into nearby Transylvania County, North Carolina.

In North Carolina at least eight fires were burning in the mountains. The largest — the Black Cove Fire and the Deep Woods Fire in Polk County — were 17% and 30% contained, respectively, after firefighters made more progress. The fires have scorched about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) combined but have barely grown for more than a day.

Chief lawyer’s position at alma mater prompted Newton’s departure from North Carolina Senate

Chief lawyer’s position at alma mater prompted Newton’s departure from North Carolina Senate

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — A leader among the North Carolina Senate Republicans who resigned this week from the General Assembly is the next chief attorney for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

University Chancellor Lee Roberts announced on Thursday the hiring of outgoing Senate Majority Leader Paul Newton as general counsel and vice chancellor at the UNC system’s flagship campus.

Newton revealed in a Tuesday news release his decision to step down from the Senate effective Wednesday “to pursue an opportunity outside of state government” that wasn’t immediately made public. During his farewell speech Wednesday on the Senate floor, Newton said he learned about a job opening several weeks ago and was offered it only on Monday.

Newton, who received undergraduate and law degrees at UNC-Chapel Hill, is a retired Duke Energy employee and executive who joined the Senate in 2017 and became majority leader after the 2022 elections. He said he is also the father of four UNC-Chapel Hill graduates.

Roberts said Newton, who begins the job April 21, “brings exceptional skills and deep experience in law, business and government to our University” and “is passionate about returning to his alma mater and contributing to our success.”

Republicans in Newton’s Cabarrus County Senate district will pick someone to fill his seat through the end of 2026. Senate Republicans also will meet to pick a new majority leader, which is considered a chief lieutenant to the chamber’s top leader, GOP Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger.

KIX Kitties and K9s: Meet Mimi!

KIX Kitties and K9s: Meet Mimi!

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Second Chance Pet Adoptions
6003 Chapel Hill Rd., Ste. 133
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 851-8404

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