The group, called Empowering America’s Parents, will focus on expanding awareness about the Education Freedom Tax Credit, a federal scholarship tax credit that has been adopted in 30 states.

Youngkin’s group plans to target the 20 remaining states that have not adopted the program with a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, according to a source familiar with internal planning.

Among the targets are Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — all key battleground states that went for President Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

The tax credit program, which officially launches in January 2027, allows taxpayers to donate up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting organizations in participating states and receive a federal income tax credit. Proponents say it supports scholarships for K–12 education tuition expenses.

A source familiar with the program said internal polling showed a lack of awareness around the tax credits, and they saw an opportunity to educate voters on its benefits.

Youngkin’s group plans to “aggressively target persuadable voters, primarily in the suburbs, who support school choice,” according to a source familiar with internal plans.

The announcement comes amid speculation about potential 2028 presidential contenders on the Republican side. , who has a and has not explicitly laid out his future political plans, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in April that he has “more to give” when it comes to his political future.

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As the Ìýlinked to iceberg lettuce spread to , Americans have dubbed the health concern “lettuce-gate” on social media, and they aren’t convinced the situation is under control.

Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ìýabout the parasitic illness, saying that the source of the outbreak has been identified and companies involved have implemented a recall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced hundreds more have been infected with cyclospora — bringing the nationwide total to 1,947 as of Friday.

At least 98 hospitalizations have been reported, but no deaths have been reported, according to the CDC.

“Is anyone else, like, deathly afraid to eat lettuce right now?” one person asked in a video posted on TikTok.

Health officials believe the affected iceberg lettuce came from a Taylor Farms facility located in central Mexico.

In a new statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for Taylor Farms said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not confirmed positive results from cyclospora testing of its product samples as of Friday.

“When questions were raised about the source of the recent Cyclospora outbreak, we immediately removed all potentially implicated product from the marketplace, and out of an abundance of caution we issued an even broader recall of all iceberg lettuce sourced from the region,” the spokesperson said.

Taylor Farms also said it voluntarily suspended all iceberg lettuce sourcing and production from central Mexico. The company supplied its lettuce to Taco Bell, which said it removed the affected products from its restaurants.

The Mexican government on Friday also said its tests found no evidence of the parasite at Taylor Farms. The country’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks said it tested 10 lettuce samples as well as four water samples.

More confusion sparked last week when the FDA announced that a sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms that had tested positive for cyclospora was a . But the FDA said Monday that its investigation and data “continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms locations in central Mexico.”

While illnesses have been confirmed in Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma,Ìý, Indiana, Kentucky, , Ohio and West Virginia, health officials suspect multiple outbreaks across 41 states, with more than 4,100 laboratory-confirmed cases and 7,400 suspected cases since May 1.

The number of confirmed cases is expected to rise despite the recall, due to the fact that it can take as long as six weeks for federal and state officials to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak, the CDC said.

Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that typically infects people through contaminated food or water. It causes a gastrointestinal illness called cyclosporiasis, which can result in symptoms like severe and sometimes “explosive” diarrhea. Symptoms can take up to two weeks to start.

“I don’t think we can say that this is under control yet,” Dr. Ulysses Wu, the chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, told CBS News. “Even if this lettuce was implicated, it doesn’t mean that other produce is not implicated as well.”

The FDA on Thursday reported a new cyclospora outbreak linked to unspecified products. It comes as health officials in North Carolina say they are investigating more than 560 cases there since May 1 that are possibly linked to parsley, cilantro and lettuce.

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Washington — President Donald Trump cracked jokes at reporters and politicians during take two of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday night, after Ìýwas upended when an armed assailant rushed through a security checkpoint and the U.S. Secret Service opened fire on the gunman.

Three months after the suspect was stopped outside the Washington Hilton’s ballroom, Mr. Trump attended the White House Correspondents’ Association’s do-over of the dinner at a different Washington hotel — the Waldorf Astoria, which was once a Trump Organization hotel.

The event highlighted the president’s sometimes-tense relationship with the press. Mr. Trump has sparred with many of the journalists who spoke or accepted awards during the dinner — though he didn’t visibly express frustration while seated on stage, and he shook the award-winners’ hands. The president smiled as CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer described the from The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Mr. Trump’s past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

“This has not been an easy evening,” Mr. Trump later joked during his speech, referring to the award-winners.

Mr. Trump said the assembled journalists included “a lot of people that I like, some I don’t like at all, but I respect most of them.” He needled and joked about the press, though he told the audience he scrapped some sharp-tongued material that he was planning to deliver in April: “I was going to rip people,” he said, calling it “such a letdown.” At times, the president got few reactions from the crowd when jabbing his political opponents or delivering rally-style material.

At other points, the president joked about his penchant for drawing press attention. “You people have no idea how lucky you are. When I’m gone, you’re all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished,” Mr. Trump said, later donning a “Trump 2028” hat in what he cast as a bid to help out the news business.

Weijia Jiang, the correspondents’ association’s most recent past president and CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, said at one point during the event: “There is … an existential difference between criticizing the press and trying to undermine it. One is healthy and it makes all of us better. The other is exactly what the founders hoped to prevent.”Ìý

Later in the event, mentalistÌý performed a set in which he appeared to correctly guess the amount of money in Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s wallet (it was $85).

Jiang told Pearlman earlier in the evening: “We can’t wait to see what you reveal, but you can skip the part where you guess the president’s phone number because already have it.”

Secret Service officials that nationwide threats have reached an unprecedented level, with agents opening roughly 10,000 protective intelligence cases since January — a nearly 40% increase from the same period last year. The Secret Service had prepared for the makeup dinner, and Secret Service Director Sean Curran told reporters in a briefing Wednesday that every venue is reevaluated before every presidential visit.

“We will always evaluate every site, and right now we have an advance team there, and they will take back, and they will set up a plan to set that site up for success, just like we did at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Hilton,” Curran said. “That is a success.”

On Friday night, the White House Correspondents’ Association presented an award for exceptional service to the Secret Service officer who was struck in his protective vest at the April dinner, along with the entire Washington Hilton staff.

“I do think their bravery should be recognized, and I’m really looking forward to giving out those two awards,” Jiang said.

Jiang said Friday night’s program was “very much the same” as April’s, although the size was smaller.

“There are enhanced security measures,” Jiang . “We have a private security firm that has worked closely with Secret Service. There are new measures that every single dinner guest has to take.”

Attendees had to present a unique QR code with a government-issued photo ID to get through ticketing, and go through layers of security to enter the ballroom. The association worked extensively with the Secret Service.

“It was incredibly important to have the safety of our guests to be the top priority,” she said.

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A sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms that had tested positive for was a false positive, the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday.

“Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive,” the FDA said.

In the statement announcing the false positive, the FDA said that as of Sunday it had not found any “confirmed positive sample results for product testing for Cyclospora.”

Taylor Farms on Friday sourced from central Mexico after the lettuce had been linked to one of the largest outbreaks of cyclosporiasis in the U.S. in recent years.

“While the FDA traceback is indicating a specific independent farm, which represents less than 1% of the U.S.’s iceberg lettuce supply, as the potential source of the outbreak, we have removed all iceberg lettuce from the region indefinitely,” the company said Friday in aÌý.

Taylor Farms after the false positive was announced that, “Our thoughts remain with everyone who has fallen ill in this outbreak. We are committed to working with public health authorities as the ongoing outbreak investigation continues.”

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified lettuceÌýÌýrestaurants as a source of the multistate outbreak, more than a month after cases first began to appear.

The iceberg lettuce was distributed to Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, according to the CDC. Taco Bell said on Friday it had “completed removal of affected Taylor Farms lettuce from our restaurants.”

Walmart also announced over the weekend it had removed fourÌýÌýfrom its stores in more than two dozen states, but added there was “no indication that products sold in our stores are affected by the current Cyclospora investigations.”

The outbreak, first reported in May, has spread to 34 states and sickened more than 1,600 people, according to the CDC. However, the CDC’s tally lags behind state health departments, which have reported much larger numbers of cases. For instance, the Michigan Department of Health and Human ServicesÌýÌýmore than 5,000 confirmed cases as of Friday.

No deaths have been reported.

Cyclosporiasis is a food- and waterborneÌýÌýcaused by the cyclospora parasite, which causes long-lasting, watery and sometimes explosive diarrhea, according to public health experts.

Outbreaks typically occur in late spring and summer and have historically been linked to bagged salads, cilantro, basil, raspberries, snow peas and green onions.

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Washington — Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said Sunday that he’ll vote against President Trump’s nomineeÌý as director of national intelligence, citing disappointment in his testimony at a confirmation hearing last week despite his previous optimism about the nominee.

“I’ve known Jay for a long time. I like Jay. I worked well with him when he was at the SEC. But I was bitterly disappointed by his performance in front of my committee,” .”

Clayton, who was the well-regarded leader of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in one of the highest-profile jurisdictions in the country, was nominated by Mr. Trump to replace Tulsi Gabbard. Clayton appeared beforeÌýÌýfor his confirmation hearing. Warner, the top Democrat on the committee, said he was disappointed in Clayton’s responses, “not just from my questions, but from many of my colleagues.”

During the hearing, Clayton was repeatedly asked by Democrats about the results of the 2020 election. And although Clayton acknowledged that former President Joe Biden was certified as president, and said that he is “not an election denier,” he evaded questions about who won the 2020 election.

Warner also pointed to Clayton’s response when he was asked about Gabbard’s presence at an FBI search of an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, earlier this year, saying he was “acting like he didn’t understand what Gabbard had done.”

“So I will be voting against Jay Clayton,” Warner said.

With a Republican majority on the panel, Warner noted that Clayton is still expected to advance out of committee — the next step before the nomination goes to the Senate floor. If he advances out of committee, he is expected to be confirmed given the GOP majority in the Senate.

Warner added that with the controversial acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte currently in the role, “we’re a little rock-in-a-hard-place here.”

“I know Jay Clayton will probably get confirmed. I hope we see the Jay Clayton that I have known and have worked with,” Warner said. “The one thing I also know is, the absolute disaster we have right now with the acting DNI, Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence experience, who has nothing but loyalty to Trump.”

Warner pointed to Pulte’s issuance of several criminal referrals to the Justice Department alleging mortgage fraud by a number of Mr. Trump’s political foes, adding, “that is not the kind of person we want in as DNI.”

Warner’s comments come after he had praised Mr. Trump’s nomination of Clayton just weeks ago. In an appearance on “” last month, Warner said, “We will get Clayton, I hope, confirmed as quickly as possible.”

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Flights were halted at Ronald Reagan National Airport for several hours on Tuesday, leading to over 100 canceled flights and cascading delays, due to security measures meant to protect the Iraqi prime minister during his visit to Washington, D.C., during the war with Iran, sources familiar with the situation told CBS News.

Commercial flights were postponed from taking off or landing at the D.C.-area airport from 11 a.m. ET until around 3 p.m. Over 300 flights were delayed and at least 126 flights were canceled, according to the flight tracking site .

The disruptions took place in one of the most congested and tightly controlled airspaces in the country, where hundreds of daily commercial flights contend with military traffic and snake around federal buildings in Washington and northern Virginia.

Helicopter flights in the D.C. airspace have been limited since the between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter conducting a training mission.

Since , which killed 67 people, helicopter routes near the airport have been restricted and new rules have been put in place for helicopters taking off from the Pentagon for the transport of high-ranking military officials.

White House and Federal Aviation Administration officials shared timing updates during Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s visit in an effort to minimize the impact, a senior administration official said. They allowed some of the planes that were holding in the air to land at DCA and those on the ground to depart, the official said.

Spokespeople for the FAA and Department of Transportation declined to comment.

President Donald Trump hosted al-Zaidi, who was elected in May, to discuss the future of U.S.-Iraqi relations during his first visit to the United States.

Mr. Trump extended their meeting by inviting the Iraqi leader to lunch. “It wasn’t scheduled, but we are going to do it on the fly because we have a tremendous chemistry together,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday morning.

Al-Zaidi’s motorcade left the White House for the Pentagon at 1:30 p.m., later than expected, with a security helicopter circling overhead, traveling through DCA airspace.

He became prime minister after Mr. Trump for Iraq if a candidate who was seen as overly close to Iran won. The Iraqi leader has a with neighboring Iran, which has significant influence within Iraq. The country’s governmentÌý for Iraq’s powerful pro-Iranian militias to disarm by Sept. 30, when U.S. troops are scheduled to leave.

The U.S. war with Iran, now in its fourth month, has prompted security concerns both in the Middle East and domestically. Some that Iran has sought to take action in the U.S. in the past, sometimes tapping into a network of U.S.-based surrogates to attempt and against regime opponents.

The federal government has also warned of non-Iran-related threats, particularly in light of the recent assassination attempts against Mr. Trump.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invited certain members of Congress to the Pentagon Tuesday night to brief them on the military’s proposed budget, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. The $1.5 trillion budget includes money for weapons and military capabilities, which would help the U.S. deal with critical threats.

Last month, the FBI said it foiled a using snipers and explosive-laden drones, later . Sources told CBS News last month that no actual drones had been recovered, and the idea of using drones in the alleged plot was believed to still be in the discussion-and-research phases.

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Capt. , who famously in 2009, shared Tuesday he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“It is early stage. For now, this means a name may not come easily to me, I forget a story I have recently told, or I don’t sleep as well, but I am in the beginning of this long journey,” he wrote in on social media. His statement was first shared with .

Alzheimer’s is a brain condition that gradually causes problems with memory and other skills. It is the cause of dementia. There is no cure.

Sullenberger became a national hero when his quick thinking saved 155 people on board US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15, 2009. Shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, both engines of the plane started to fail due to a bird strike. In less than four minutes, Sullenberger and his crew executed an emergency water landing in the Hudson River, after determining landing at an airport wasn’t feasible, according to . All passengers and crew members were then evacuated from the plane and rescued by first responders.

The landing would become known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” and was portrayed in the 2016 film titled “Sully.”

Sullenberger, who went on to serve for years as an on-air expert for CBS News, is an advocate for aviation safety.

Since his diagnosis, the retired pilot said he has learned how prevalent Alzheimer’s is. More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, according to the .

Sullenberger said he hopes that by sharing his diagnosis, others with the disease will also speak up.

“Over the years, when people would ask about the successful outcome of Flight 1549, I would say that ‘courage can be contagious,’ and on that day it helped everyone band together to get everyone off that airplane successfully,” he wrote. “Now we need that courage to battle this disease. I am now part of a larger community with many of you, and we will be courageous together.”

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WashingtonÌý— They are words etched into America’s conscience: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Visitors to the Library of Congress can rediscover those foundational principles in a rare, original draft of the Declaration of Independence written by President Thomas Jefferson. It’s on display in a new exhibit titled “The Declaration’s Promise” that debuted this month for America’s semiquincentennial and will continue through July 2027.

“This is Jefferson’s fully-realized draft,” Ryan Reft, lead curator for the exhibit, told CBS News. “You can see them changing words throughout and kind of distilling the initial draft into the draft that we know today.”

The document contains edits from fellow Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, like using the word “citizens” instead of “subjects.”

“They were breaking from a monarchy and they were breaking from the idea of kinship through ethnicity, creating a country based on this critical idea established in the Declaration that was new and that we were not subject to anyone,” Reft explained. “We were subject to each other. We were citizens.”

And there were other changes, according to historian Kevin Butterfield, acting chief of the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress.

“Initially, Thomas Jefferson had said, ‘We hold these rights to be sacred and undeniable.’ And Ben Franklin said, no, actually, maybe we should say ‘self-evident,'” Butterfield said.

But it was the phrase “all men are created equal” that took time to evolve.

“The ‘all men are created’ probably only applied to White men,” Reft said. “It ignored women and enslaved folks, Native Americans and others. But that’s the great thing about the Declaration — even in its weaknesses there is strength — the sense that the language he created, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, consent of the governed, enabled those folks who were unequal at the time to get to judge for themselves what equality was.”

The exhibit showcases the nation’s evolution through other items, like President Abraham Lincoln’s draft of the Gettysburg Address during the Civil War.

“He (Lincoln) says, well, why are we here? Why did we fight this war? And he comes down to one basic idea, equality,” Reft told CBS News.

The collection also features a Declaration of Rights read by Susan B. Anthony in support of women’s suffrage, as well as speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis during the Civil Rights Movement.

“These are moments to kind of look back and see where we are, and see where we should be,” Reft said.

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A federal judge on Friday agreed to dismiss the convictions of four members of the far-right Proud Boys group for their actions in the .

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly signed off the convictions against Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Dominic Pezzola, but not before saying that President Trump’s views about are based on “fiction” and citing a lack of other levers he could pull to stop the move.

“There is little mystery about why the Government is moving to dismiss this case, or whether dismissal is in fact what the Executive seeks,” Kelly wrote in his memorandum. “President Trump’s views about the prosecution of those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6—whether those views are based on fact or fiction—are well known, as is his intention to extend clemency to them through the Executive Order.”

, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy and all sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Pezzola became one of the more recognizable faces of the attempted insurrection after video showed him smashing a Capitol window with a riot shield.ÌýÌýof assaulting or resisting officers, robbery involving government property, obstruction and other charges.

The Justice Department said at the time that Nordean and Pezzola “participated in every consequential breach at the Capitol,” leading a group of Proud Boys onto the Capitol grounds, resulting in the dismantling of barricades, breaching of the Capitol building, assaults on police and destruction of property.

Immediately after taking office in January 2024, about 1,500 people who had been convicted for their actions on Jan. 6. However, in his proclamation at the time, the sentences of 14 people to time served, but kept their convictions in place. Biggs, Nordean, Pezzola and Rehl were among them. Rehl is the former leader of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys.

In April, the Justice Department moved to vacate the convictions against a dozen former members of the right-wing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, most of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Kelly’s ruling Friday was a procedural measure after a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia signed off on the dismissal of the convictions in May, and sent the case back down to him.

“It is unclear what the Court would do with more detailed information about the Government’s reasons for seeking to dismiss,” Kelly said in his decision. “… It is hard to see how any course other than granting the motion in full could make practical sense.”

CBS has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

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Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is suspected of crashing into a parked car and driving away from the scene Friday afternoon in Northern California, the Napa County Sheriff’s Office said.

Pelosi allegedly struck a vehicle on the 6700 block of Yount Street in Yountville, around 2:30 p.m. local time, the sheriff’s office said. The vehicle, which was unoccupied, was legally parked on the side of the roadway and was left with major rear damage, according to the sheriff’s office. Yountville is located about 50 miles north of San Francisco.

Deputies said they were told by a witness that the driver who hit the car briefly stopped, but then left the scene. The vehicle that left the scene was described as a brown-colored convertible, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office said deputies soon found the suspect vehicle partially blocking Yountville Cross Road and that a California Highway Patrol vehicle was parked behind it.

Deputies then learned that the driver was 86-year-old Paul Pelosi and noticed that the vehicle had significant damage on the front right side, the sheriff’s office said.

According to the sheriff’s office, Pelosi admitted to hitting something but told them he did not know what he hit so he had kept driving. He allegedly told deputies he continued to drive until his vehicle became disabled.

Deputies said an investigation ruled out alcohol being a factor in the crash and that Paul Pelosi was not arrested in accordance with misdemeanor arrest laws.

“A California DMV re-evaluation referral form will be submitted to DMV, which is common for elderly drivers,” the sheriff’s office said.

The case was forwarded to the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

In a statement provided to CBS News, a spokesperson for the Pelosi family said: “Mr. Paul Pelosi has personally apologized to the owner of the vehicle and assured them that he would take responsibility for the damage to their vehicle. Speaker Pelosi will not be commenting further on this private matter.”

In October 2022, Paul Pelosi was the victim of in the couple’s San Francisco home.

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“It is with profound sadness that I must announce the death of my husband, VICTOR WILLIS,” Karen-Huff Willis said in aÌýon the musician’s Facebook page. “Victor passed away on Tuesday June 30, 2026 as a result of a short, but aggressive illness.”

The band shared a on its Facebook page.

The Texas-born musician was a co-founder of the Village People and co-wrote hits including “Y.M.C.A,” “In the Navy” and “Macho Man” that swept the world’s dancefloors in the late 1970s.

With their flamboyant costumes and choreography, the group became a pop culture phenomenon, targeting disco’s large gay audience with camp fantasy characters of butch builders, bikers, cowboys and soldiers.

Willis left the group in 1980 but rejoined in 2017.

He struggled with drug addiction and took a plea deal over cocaine possession in 2006.

“I got very depressed over the years and decided to just drop off the map. So I got into drugs,”Ìý.

“Y.M.C.A.,” whose lyrics urge “young men” to head to the Young Men’s Christian Association in New York, became an anthem for the LGBTQ community and beyond.

But some say the song has been co-opted by the American right wing movement following its use at rallies and events supporting Mr. Trump.

“I don’t endorse Trump, I’ve never endorsed Trump, nor has the Village People,” Willis told the BBC in 2020. “But because of the copyright laws in the United States, he’s able to play our music any time he wants to.”

The at a Trump rally in January 2025, before the Republican was inaugurated for his second term as president.

“Let’s give President Trump a chance, regardless of what you may have thought about him in the past,” Willis said at the time. “Let’s see what he’s going to do moving forward, and if he does things to restrict LGBTQ rights, Village People will be the first to speak out.”

In 2012, when Willis was away from the group, a the singer could reclaim at least partial ownership of the copyrights to more than two dozen of the their songs, including “Y.M.C.A.,” “Macho Man” and “In the Navy.” The resolution paved the way for his return to the group in 2017, BBC News .

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As the United States marks theÌý of the nation’s founding, one historian is traveling 750 miles to remind Americans where that history has taken us.

Anthony Cohen, 62, isn’t the first person to make this trek. It’s a path that was once part of the . a secret network of routes traversed by thousands of enslaved people who had escaped captivity and sought freedom in Canada.

, first traveled the Underground Railroad in 1996 from his home state of Maryland to Ontario, Canada. Since then, he has established the , which creates immersive, history-based experiences to teach audiences about the Underground Railroad.

For , he wanted to again bring the once-treacherous journey into the spotlight. He chose another route, this one from Sandy Spring, Maryland, to Toronto. Cohen says he used “a lot of historic maps” and historical accounts to determine the route, which he calls the “Freedom Walk.”

The trip has wound through Delaware, New Jersey and New York. A lot of the journey has been on foot, but sometimes Cohen uses other forms of transportation, including a train to upstate New York that closely follows the historic route.

“Any freedom movement is about putting one foot in front of the other and going for it,” Cohen said.

He isn’t alone. The Menare Foundation shared a list of stops he would be making, allowing people to come learn about the history and his journey along the way. The Harriet Tubman Journey to Freedom statue is accompanying them on the walk.

Cohen also invited Tom DeWolf, whose family was once the largest slave-trader in the United States, to join him.

“I said, ‘But I’m a White guy,'” DeWolf said. “And he said, ‘White people, White people helped.’ And then he said ‘You can write a new legacy for your family.'”

At events, Cohen and DeWolf are speaking about the history of the slave trade, the Underground Railroad and the walk itself.

Cohen will cross into Canada on July 1. He is slated to arrive in Toronto and complete his journey on July 4, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the United States.

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Authorities believe two ransom notes addressed to Nancy Guthrie’s family days after her disappearance — including a note that said she had died — were likely sent by the person or group of people who abducted her, according to investigators familiar with the case. Investigators believe the same person or people sent both notes and that both were likely sent from the same computer IP address.

The demanded millions for Nancy Guthrie’s release. In the second note, sent a few days later, the apparent abductors revealed that Nancy Guthrie had died. The note indicated that they did not mean for her to die, according to sources who reviewed the notes.

Her daughter, “Today” show co-hostÌý , said in an interview with NBC in March that the family believes the two notes are authentic.

“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came, and I think most of them — it’s my understanding — are not real, and I didn’t see them,” she said. “But I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”

The first note, sent on Feb. 2, one day after Nancy Guthrie, 84, was from her home in Tucson, Arizona, was sent to three media outlets — two local news stations and TMZ — via their online tiplines. That note gave highly specific details about Guthrie’s home, including that an Apple Watch with a white band was on the floor of her bedroom and that her back porch light was broken, according to investigators. The note was addressed to Savannah Guthrie, according to multiple sources familiar with the note.

The second note was sent on Feb. 6 and was similar in language and style but did not make any demands, according to sources who reviewed both notes.

Savannah Guthrie and her siblings Ìýtheir mother’s in an Instagram video posted after the second note was sent.

“We received your message and we understand,” Savannah Guthrie said in the video. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. … This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

The task force made up of FBI and Pima County detectives continues to and search for Guthrie and her abductors.

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The Kennedy Center is establishing a new endowment in President Trump’s name to support previously existing private endowments and its $257 million in federal funding.

The fund was created at a Thursday meeting of the performing arts center’s board of trustees, with the members voting unanimously to acknowledge the president’s contributions to the center by all legal means. The Kennedy Center’s board is chaired by Mr. Trump and largely made up of his allies.

The Kennedy Center this weekend from the building to comply with a ruling by a D.C. District Court judge last month, according to a notice of compliance filed by the administration. The administration filed a last-minute request to stay the judge’s injunction pending their appeal, but it was ultimately rejected.

The board during Thursday’s meeting also voted to file Friday’s emergency appeal to stay that earlier ruling.

“We remain fully compliant with the court’s directive while we evaluate legal options regarding the Board’s unanimous vote,” said Roma Davari, Vice President of Public Relations at the Kennedy Center. “The establishment of the Trump Kennedy Center Fund is intended to recognize President Donald J. Trump’s significant contributions and dedication to America’s premier cultural center, while furthering our founding mission like never before.”

A Kennedy Center official told CBS News that the Trump Kennedy Center Fund is “a landmark commitment to securing the future of the nation’s preeminent performing arts institution and its enduring legacy of artistic excellence.” A source with knowledge of the plans for the endowment suggested it will focus on the “physical disrepair” of the building, an element the current board feels has been neglected in the past.

In the court filing last week, the administration argued that if it was required to revert back to its original name, it would be obligated to refund any donations made to The Trump Kennedy Center.

“Without the name, ‘Trump’ on the Building, our fundraising will not only come to a halt, but any and all monies raised or committed would be obligated to be returned, refunded, or terminated,” the government wrote.

The establishment of the fund comes less than two weeks after a district court judge ruled the Kennedy Center’s board acted unlawfully in adding the president’s name and in making plans for two years of closure and renovations. mandated Mr. Trump’s name be removed from the building by June 12.

In a statement to CBS News, lawyers representing Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sued the administration over the name change and closure last year, called the administration’s Friday appeal an “11th hour gambit,” after they waited almost two weeks to challenge the decision. After the name removal this weekend, Beatty said in a statement, “Today’s victory is the beginning of returning the Kennedy Center to the American people,” adding, “The rule of law prevailed, and that is worth celebrating.”

A Kennedy Center official said Mr. Trump will retain his role as chairman of the board, and the center will remain a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new fund in the president’s name.

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After several artists of a Washington, D.C., concert series organized by Freedom 250, rapper Vanilla Ice said he will still be on the bill, telling CBS News on Monday he would perform for anyone, including Russian President Vladimir Putin or Iran.

The rapper, whose real name is Robert Van Winkle, told CBS News, “It’s simple as a pimple for me, there’s nothing to it. It’s the birthday of America.”

“Two hundred and fifty years. It’s not anything to do with politics. I don’t know why they’re turning it into politics,” Van Winkle said, adding he’s “never voted in my life.”

After the lineup was announced Wednesday, several artists — including Morris Day and the Time, Young MC and The Commadores — said they were backing out. Bret Michaels and Martina McBride also announced they would not be performing in the following days.

Several artists said they were misled about the organizers of the event, with Young MC writing: “Despite the claims by the organizers that the event is non-partisan, SPIN magazine describes it as Trump-backed.”

Freedom 250 — an organization launched last year following an executive order from President Trump to provide “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence” — maintains that it and the events it is organizing are nonpartisan, saying in a previous statement it is “dedicated to uniting Americans around the nation’s 250th anniversary.” According to the executive order, Mr. Trump serves as the chair of the task force created to organize the celebrations. Freedom 250 and Task Force 250 are separate from a 2016 bipartisan commission created to help plan celebrations for the 250th anniversary.

The Great American State Fair, according to Freedom 250, will run from June 25 to July 10 on the National Mall, and will include “state and territory pavilions celebrating all 56 states and territories, specialty exhibits, live performances, interactive experiences, and classic fair attractions.”

Van Winkle said he understood why other artists would back out if they feel the event is too political and are “scared” of social media backlash, but added, “For me, I’m just here to celebrate the country I was born in.”

Van Winkle also brushed aside other artists’ accusations that they were misled.

“When I play events, I never ask about them,” he told CBS News. “I just go, ‘Where am I going?’ I don’t even know and I don’t even care, because I have fans and they have booked me to play a show.”

Asked if he felt it was possible to separate art from politics, Van Winkle said, “Heck yeah. They should never be in there.”

“You should do whatever you feel like doing and express yourself. That’s what music is,” he said.

Van Winkle, who has previously performed at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, said he’d play for Democratic politicians as well.

“I’d go play for anybody,” he said. “Putin. Whoever. You want — I’d go to Iran. Don’t matter.”

“You can’t pick your fans. They pick you,” Van Winkle added. “You’re just an entertainer. Don’t ever try to think you’re anything beyond that.”

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