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More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials are beginning to grapple with how to keep the vaccines updated to best protect Americans from the ever-changing coronavirus. On Wednesday, a panel of vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration spent hours debating key questions for revamping the shots and conducting future booster campaigns. They didn't reach any firm conclusions. The questions facing the experts included: How often to update the vaccines against new strains, how effective they should be to warrant approval and whether updates should be coordinated with global health authorities. Last week, the FDA authorized a fourth dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for anyone 50 or older and for some younger people with severely weakened immune systems. It’s an effort to get ahead of another possible surge. Also read: UN finds link between widening inequalities and vaccine access But the FDA's vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks acknowledged at the meeting “we simply can’t be boosting people as frequently as we are.” He called the latest booster update a “stopgap” measure to protect vulnerable Americans while regulators decide whether and how to tweak the current vaccines. Marks cautioned that waning vaccine protection, new variants and colder weather in the fall could raise the risk of more surges. “Our goal here is to stay ahead of future variants and outbreaks and ensure we do our best to reduce the toll of disease and death due to COVID-19,” said Marks, adding that he expects more meetings of the vaccine panel in coming months. Some of the key questions the panel discussed: HOW SHOULD THE U.S. DECIDE WHEN TO LAUNCH FUTURE ROUNDS OF BOOSTER SHOTS? One area where experts appeared to agree is that vaccines should be judged on their ability to prevent severe disease that leads to hospitalization and death. “We need to focus on the worst case, which is severe disease, and we need to change strains when we’re losing that battle,” said Dr. Mark Sawyer of the University of California, San Diego. By that measure, the current vaccines have held up remarkably well. During the last omicron-driven surge, two vaccine doses were nearly 80% effective against needing a breathing machine or death — and a booster pushed that protection to 94%, federal scientists recently reported. But only about half of Americans eligible for a third shot have gotten one. And many experts said it was unsustainable to continue asking Americans to get boosted every few months. A panelist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the 80% protection from severe disease could become the standard for evaluating the vaccines. "I think we may have to accept that level of protection and then use other alternative ways to protect individuals with therapeutics and other measures,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, CDC's chief medical officer. Presentations at the meeting by government health officials and independent researchers underscored the challenges of predicting when the next major COVID-19 variant might appear. Trevor Bedford, a disease modeler with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said a major new strain like omicron could emerge anywhere from every 1.5 years to once a decade, based on currently available data. Given that unpredictability, researchers will need methods to quickly determine whether current vaccines work against emerging variants. WHAT’S THE PROCESS FOR UPDATING VACCINES TO ADDRESS NEW VARIANTS? All three COVID-19 vaccines now used in the U.S. are based on the original coronavirus version that emerged in late 2019. Updating the vaccines will be a complex task, likely requiring coordination between the FDA, manufacturers and global health authorities. Also read:Pfizer asks US to allow 4th COVID vaccine dose for seniors To speed the vaccines to market, the FDA relied on research shortcuts to judge effectiveness, mainly looking at their early impact on the immune system's antibody levels. A number of panelists said Wednesday they wanted more rigorous data from studies that track patients over time to see who gets sick or dies. But that approach would likely be too time consuming. “We’re looking at a conundrum here in that it’s going to be hard to generate all the data we want in short order when a new variant emerges,” said Dr. Ofer Levy of Harvard Medical School. A representative for the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority laid out the narrow window that manufacturers could face to reformulate, study and mass produce an updated vaccine by September. “If you’re not on your way to a clinical trial by the beginning of May, I think it’s going to be very difficult to have enough product across manufacturers to meet demand,” said Robert Johnson, deputy assistant secretary of BARDA. The process for updating annual flu vaccines offers one possible model, as laid out by a representative from the World Health Organization. Twice a year, WHO experts recommend updates to flu vaccines to target emerging strains. The FDA then brings those recommendations to its own vaccine panel, which votes on whether they make sense for the U.S., setting the stage for manufacturers to tweak their shots and begin mass production. But COVID-19 hasn’t yet fallen into a predictable pattern like the flu. And as the coronavirus evolves, different strains may become dominant in different regions of the world. Several experts said they would need more meetings with more data and proposals from the FDA to decide on a strategy. “We’ve never been here before. We’re all working together to do the best we can and it’s very complex,” said Oveta Fuller of the University of Michigan's Medical School.

The United States, United Kingdom and the European Union were set Wednesday to impose new punishing sanctions targeting Russia, including a ban on all new investment in the country and an EU embargo on coal, after evidence of torture and killings emerged in recent days from a town outside of Kyiv. Videos and images of bodies in the streets of Bucha after it was recaptured from Russian forces have unleashed a wave of indignation among Western allies, who have drawn up new sanctions as a response. The European Commission’s proposed ban on coal imports would be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said energy was key to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war coffers. “A billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us since the beginning of the war. We have given him 35 billion euro. Compare that to the one billion that we have given to the Ukraine in arms and weapons,” Borrell said. After several European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, the European Commission proposed a fifth package of sanctions including a ban on coal imports that could be adopted as soon as Wednesday once unanimously approved by the 27-nation bloc's ambassadors. The United States and Western allies plan to impose a ban on all new investment in Russia. Among the other measures being taken against Russia are greater sanctions on its financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on government officials and their family members, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. READ: White House: US, allies to ban new investments in Russia Separately, the Treasury Department moved Tuesday to block any Russian government debt payments with U.S. dollars from accounts at U.S. financial institutions, making it harder for Russia to meet its financial obligations. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the coal ban is worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per year and that the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports. She didn’t mention natural gas, with consensus among the 27 EU countries on targeting the fuel used to generate electricity and heat homes difficult to secure amid opposition from gas-dependent members like Germany, the bloc’s largest economy. But European Council President Charles Michel said the bloc should keep up the pressure on the Kremlin, suggesting that an embargo on gas imports should also be required at some point in the future. “The new package includes a ban on coal imports,” Michel said on Wednesday. “I think that measures on oil, and even gas, will also be needed, sooner or later.” The new package of measures proposed by the commission also includes sanctions on more individuals and four key Russian banks, among them VTB, the second-largest Russian bank. The bloc also would ban Russian vessels and Russian-operated vessels from EU ports. Further targeted export bans, worth 10 billion euros, in sectors covering quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, sensitive machinery and transportation equipment also were proposed. “I appreciate the strengthening of the 5th EU sanctions package: bans on Russian coal, vessels accessing EU ports, and road transport operators," Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “But it will take a gas/oil embargo and de-SWIFTing of all Russian banks to stop Putin. Difficult times require difficult decisions." Western allies have already cut out several Russian banks of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world.

A father of four. A best friend with a positive personality. A vivacious partygoer. The six people who were killed during a mass shooting in California’s capital city were remembered by their friends and family Monday as police worked to piece together what happened. Dozens of rapid-fire gunshots rang out early Sunday in the crowded streets of Sacramento, leaving three women and three men dead and another 12 people wounded. On Monday, small memorials with candles, balloons and flowers had been placed near the crime scene. Investigators were searching for at least two shooters who were responsible for the violence on the outskirts of the city’s main entertainment district that occurred as bars and nightclubs were closing. Sacramento police said Monday that they booked Dandrae Martin, 26, as a “related suspect” on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being a convict carrying a loaded gun. Jail records said he was held without bail and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether Martin had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Few details have been made public as investigators comb through evidence gathered from what Police Chief Kathy Lester called a complex crime scene. Witnesses have submitted more than 100 videos and photos taken during and shortly after the shooting. Read: Russia faces global outrage over bodies in Ukraine’s streets The Sacramento County coroner released the identities of the six people killed. They were Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and De’vazia Turner, 29. DE’VAZIA TURNER De’vazia Turner had four young children, including a 3-year-old daughter named Penelope with sticky fingers. But his bright yellow Mercedes CLS was always clean. Born and raised in Sacramento, Turner played football from a young age until a knee injury slowed him down. He worked as a manager for an inventory company, keeping a close eye on things his mother might like and letting her know when they would go on sale. “He was a protector,” his mother, Penelope Scott, said. “Raising him as a single mom, you know, he took the role of being the man of the house. He took care of everything.” He worked out with his dad, Frank Turner, five days a week. When they weren’t pumping iron, they were probably talking about cars. They both had old Buicks – Turner’s was a 1973 while his dad’s was a 1970 – and Turner had big plans for his. He had just ordered a new stereo and a steering wheel with a cherrywood finish. Frank Turner said he plans to finish his son’s car, including painting it to include images of De’vazia’s face for his kids to see. “I want them to see their daddy when they see that car,” Frank Turner said. De’vazia visited his mother on Saturday, eating leftover pork chops and taking a shower before briefly falling asleep on her couch. When he woke up, he said he was going out – a rarity for him, because he works so much, Scott said. Scott woke up at around 1 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep. She was looking at her phone when she got a call that her son had been killed. “Your kids are supposed to bury you. You’re not supposed to do that,” she said. “I’m grateful that he has a legacy with his children. However, you know, he’s 29. He didn’t make it to 30.” The last time Frank Turner saw his son was at the auto shop where they were working on their cars. After his son’s death, a friend called Frank Turner and told him the shop’s security cameras had picked up their conversation. He watched the video — a father and son spending time together on something they loved — and he cried. JOHNTAYA ALEXANDER Alexander was just shy of turning 22 when she was killed, her father told the Los Angeles Times. Her birthday was at the end of the month. Read: 6.0-magnitude quake strikes off eastern Indonesia She hoped to become a social worker who worked with children and was a doting aunt to her nieces and nephews, John Alexander told the newspaper. His daughter’s name was a combination of his own and his older sister’s, he told the Times. “She was just beginning her life,” he told the newspaper, sobbing. “Stop all this senseless shooting.” MELINDA DAVIS Davis was a “very sassy lady” who lived on the streets of Sacramento near the shooting site, The Sacramento Bee reported. Shawn Peter, a guide with the Downtown Sacramento Partnership who had known Davis for 15 years, told the newspaper that she had been homeless and lived in the area on and off for a decade. Officials had helped her find housing before the pandemic began but she had returned to the downtown business district in recent months, Peter said. A small bouquet of purple roses with a note saying “Melinda Rest In Peace” was left on the street in her memory. “Melinda was a very eccentric individual, a very sassy lady,” he told the newspaper. “This was her world, 24/7.” Davis was a periodic guest at Maryhouse, a daytime center for women and children experiencing homelessness, from 2016 to 2018, director Shannon Stevens said in an email to The Associated Press. Stevens recalled her as kind but someone who did not do well in crowds. She was seeking housing services at the time. “This was a space she came to find respite from the trauma of living on the streets of our city,” Sacramento Loaves & Fishes, which runs the Maryhouse program, said in a statement. SERGIO HARRIS Described by family members as the life of the party, Harris was a frequent presence at the London nightclub which is near the shooting scene. “My son was a very vivacious young man,” his mother, Pamela Harris, told KCRA-TV. “Fun to be around, liked to party, smiling all the time. Don’t bother people. For this to happen is crazy. I’m just to the point right now, I don’t know what to do. I don’t even feel like this is real. I feel like this is a dream.” Read: UN warns Earth 'firmly on track toward an unlivable world' His family members congregated at the crime scene Sunday after they hadn’t heard from him for hours. Later that day, Harris was the first victim publicly identified by the coroner. “This is a sad and terrible act of violence that took the lives of many,” his wife, Leticia Harris, told KCRA-TV. “I want answers so I can have closure for my children.” YAMILE MARTINEZ-ANDRADE Martinez-Andrade was killed in front of her best friend, according to KXTV-TV. She was described as someone who “brought light to the room,” the station reported, and had a positive outlook. “There was never a dull moment with her. She has a beautiful heart and a beautiful mind. Everyone misses her so much,” her best friend, who was not named, told KXTV-TV. JOSHUA HOYE-LUCCHESI A memorial with white and blue balloons, candles and two empty bottles of Hennessy was left a block from the shooting in honor of Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi. On the ground, someone wrote “Josh” in what appeared to be blue paint. “I love and miss you. Foreva n my heart!” someone wrote in black marker on a white balloon shaped like a star. “Things will never be the same,” read another balloon.

Police in California are searching for at least one suspect in connection with a mass shooting early Sunday in downtown Sacramento that claimed six lives and left 10 other people injured. Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said at a news conference that police were patrolling the area at about 2 a.m. when they heard gunfire. When they arrived at the scene, they found a large crowd gathered on the street and six people dead. Another 10 either took themselves or were transported to hospitals. No information was given on their conditions. Authorities don't know whether one or more suspects were involved and are asking for the public's help in identifying who is responsible. Lester did not give specifics on the type of gun used. This is “a very complex and complicated scene,” she said. Lester issued a plea to the public, asking for witnesses or anyone with recordings of the incident to contact police. Also read: 1 teen dead, 2 wounded in shooting outside Iowa high school Shortly after the shooting, video was posted on Twitter that showed people running through the street amid the sound of rapid gunfire. Video showed multiple ambulances at the scene. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said on Twitter: “Words can’t express my shock & sadness this morning. The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend. We await more information about exactly what transpired in this tragic incident.” Residents were asked to avoid the area, which is packed with restaurants and bars, including the London nightclub. Kay Harris, 32, said she was asleep when one of her family members called to say they thought her brother had been killed. She said she thought he was at London. Harris said she has been to the club a few times and described it as a place for “the younger crowd.” Bars and clubs close at 2 a.m. and it's normal for streets to be full of people at that hour. She has spent the morning circling the block waiting for news. “Very much so a senseless violent act,” she said. Police have the streets around the club closed, with yellow police tape fluttering in the early morning breeze. Also read: ‘Lizard Lick Towing’ star says son killed in N.C. shooting Berry Accius, a community activist, said he came to the scene shortly after the shooting happened. “The first thing I saw was like victims. I saw a young girl with a whole bunch of blood in her body, a girl taking off glass from her, a young girl screaming saying, ‘They killed my sister.’ A mother running up, ‘Where’s my son, has my son been shot?’“ he said.

At least eight people were killed and another 13 went missing in heavy rains that hit the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, local authorities said on Saturday. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Twitter that the federal government was deploying military aircraft to help with the rescue efforts in the state. Local authorities said on Friday that the region had received 655 milliliters of rain, the highest amount ever recorded in the municipality. READ: Heavy rains in southern India kill 14 people, flood Chennai According to estimates by Brazilian media, more rain is likely in the Rio de Janeiro area in the coming days.

"After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States sought to establish its global supremacy. In the countless wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and many other countries, any threat to U.S. hegemony was to be eliminated," said a video recently removed by Facebook. "The Ukrainian people are being sacrificed as pawns in order to advance NATO's confrontation with Russia. This confrontation ... is now escalating with breathtaking intensity," said the deleted video, according to the report on the World Socialist Web Site on Wednesday. Facebook last week deleted the video opposing Germany's role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict posted by the Socialist Equality Party of Germany (SGP). Facebook has not yet responded to the SGP's demand for an explanation. Also Read: Russians leave Chernobyl; Ukraine braces for renewed attacks The deletion of the video is "an act of political censorship directed against anyone who opposes war and militarism," the report said. The report noted that the tech companies collaborate intimately with the governments and the state apparatus of the major imperialist powers. The report also mentioned Google announced in 2017 that it would give preference to "authoritative sources" in search results, socialist and anti-war websites. Also Read: War in Ukraine fuels fears among draft-age Russian youths  

A line of severe storms packing isolated tornadoes and high winds ripped across the Deep South overnight, toppling trees and power lines and leaving homes and businesses damaged as the vast weather front raced across several states. At least two confirmed tornadoes injured several people Wednesday, damaged homes and businesses and downed power lines in Mississippi and Tennessee after earlier storm damage in Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. No deaths had been reported from the storms as of early Thursday, authorities said. But widespread damage was reported in the Jackson, Tennessee, area as a tornado warning was in effect. “Significant damage” occurred to a nursing home near Jackson-Madison County General Hospital and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office in Jackson, said Madison County Emergency Management Director Jason Moore. Read:Tornado rips through New Orleans and its suburbs, killing 1 In Nashville, Tennessee, paneling fell five stories from the side of a downtown hotel Wednesday evening and onto a roof of a building below. The fire department warned the debris could become airborne as high winds continued, and some hotel guests were moved to other parts of the building due to concerns that the roof would become unstable. No injuries were immediately associated with the collapse. Elsewhere, a warehouse roof collapsed as the storms moved through Southaven, Mississippi, near Memphis, police said. The building had been evacuated and no injuries were reported. The Mississippi Senate suspended its work Wednesday as weather sirens blared during a tornado watch in downtown Jackson. Some employees took shelter in the Capitol basement. Rander P. Adams said he and his wife, Janice Delores Adams, were in their home near downtown Jackson when severe weather blew through during a tornado warning Wednesday afternoon. He said their lights flashed and a large window exploded just feet from his wife as she tried to open their front door. “The glass broke just as if someone threw a brick through it,” he said. “I advised her then, ‘Let’s go to the back of the house.’” Adams said the storm toppled trees in a nearby park, and a large tree across the street from their house split in half. “We were blessed,” he said. “Instead of falling toward the house, it fell the other way.” Earlier Wednesday, a tornado that struck Springdale, Arkansas, and the adjoining town of Johnson, about 145 miles (235 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, about 4 a.m. injured seven people, two critically, said Washington County, Arkansas, Emergency Management Director John Luther. The National Weather Service said that tornado would be rated “at least EF-2,” which would mean wind speeds reached 111-135 mph (178-217 kph). “Search and rescue teams have been deployed, as there are significant damages and injuries,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said. In northwest Missouri, an EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 90 mph (145 kph) struck St. Joseph on Tuesday night, according to the weather service. That tornado damaged two homes, but no injuries were reported there. Another EF-1 tornado with wind speeds around 100 mph (160 kph) touched down briefly before dawn Wednesday in a rural subdivision 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Dallas, damaging two roofs, the weather service reported. The storms come a week after a tornado in a New Orleans-area neighborhood carved a path of destruction during the overnight hours and killed a man. More than 8,000 power outages were reported in Arkansas, while outages totaled about 44,000 in Mississippi, 26,000 each in Louisiana and Alabama and 24,000 in Tennessee. Strong winds in Louisiana overturned semitrailers, peeled the roof from a mobile home, sent a tree crashing into a home and knocked down power lines, according to weather service forecasters, who didn’t immediately confirm any tornadoes in the state. Read: 7 dead after tornadoes tore through central Iowa: Officials Ahead of the storms, schools in Memphis and dozens in Mississippi closed early or conducted classes online as a precaution against having children in crowded buildings or on buses. Officials in various Mississippi counties opened safe locations for people worried about staying in their homes during the storm. Firefighters, meanwhile, have been trying to get handle on a wildfire spreading near Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, amid mandatory evacuations as winds whipped up ahead of the approaching storm front. The fire, which was not contained, had expanded to about 250 acres (more than 100 hectares) as of Wednesday afternoon, and one person was injured, oficials said. A plume of smoke rose above one community not far from where 2016 wildfires ravaged the tourism town of Gatlinburg, killing 14 people and damaging or destroying about 2,500 buildings.

David Frodsham was a top civilian commander at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan when he “jokingly” asked an IT technician for access to YouPorn, the video-sharing pornographic website. During his time in the war zone, Frodsham told one woman that he hired her because he “wanted to be surrounded by pretty women,” and routinely called others “honey,” “babe,” and “cougar” before he was ordered home after the military verified multiple allegations of sexual harassment. “I would not recommend placing him back into a position of authority but rather pursuing disciplinary actions at his home station,” wrote one commanding officer when recommending that the Army order Frodsham to leave his post at Bagram Airfield and return to Fort Huachuca, a major Army installation in Arizona, according to a U.S. Army investigative file obtained by The Associated Press. But when Frodsham returned to his home station in fall 2015, he rejoined the Network Enterprise Technology Command, the Army’s information technology service provider, where he had served as director of personnel for a global command of 15,000 soldiers and civilians, according to his Army resume. By spring of the following year, he was arrested in Arizona for leading a child sex abuse ring that included an Army sergeant who was posting child pornography to the internet. Among the victims was one of Frodsham’s adopted sons Frodsham pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges in 2016 and is serving a 17-year sentence. But records reviewed by the AP show that the U.S. Army and the state of Arizona missed or ignored multiple red flags over more than a decade, which allowed Frodsham to allegedly abuse his adopted son and other children for years, all the while putting national security at risk. The state permitted Frodsham and his wife, Barbara, to foster, adopt and retain custody of their many children despite nearly 20 complaints, and attempted complaints, of abuse, neglect, maltreatment and licensing violations. Meanwhile, the Army gave Frodsham security clearances and sensitive jobs at a time when his illicit sexual practices made him vulnerable to blackmail. “He would have been an obvious target of foreign intelligence services because of his role and his location,” said Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director of counterintelligence for the FBI. “Fort Huachuca is one of the more sensitive installations in the continental United States. People with security issues should not be there.” In addition to NETCOM, where Frodsham worked, Fort Huachuca is home to the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, according to its website. Public relations officials at Fort Huachuca confirmed that Frodsham was a program manager for NETCOM before he was arrested on child sex abuse charges. They declined to say whether Frodsham was disciplined after returning from Afghanistan, or whether the Army ever considered him a security risk. Frodsham, former Sgt. Randall Bischak and a third man not associated with the Army are all serving prison terms for the roles they played in the child sex abuse ring. But the investigation is continuing because Sierra Vista police believe additional men took part. Now, the criminal investigation is spilling over into civil court, where two of Frodsham’s adopted sons have filed separate lawsuits against the state for licensing David and Barbara Frodsham as foster parents in a home where they say they were physically and sexually abused throughout their lives. A third adopted son is expected to file suit Tuesday in Arizona state court in Cochise County, said attorney Lynne Cadigan, who represents all three. In the latest complaint, 19-year-old Trever Frodsham says case workers missed or overlooked numerous signs that David and Barbara Frodsham were unfit parents. These included a 2002 sex abuse complaint filed with local police by one of the Frodshams’ biological daughters against an older biological brother, and the fact that David and Barbara Frodsham were themselves victims of child sex abuse. Trever’s allegations echo those featured in an earlier lawsuit filed by his older biological brother, Ryan Frodsham, and one filed by Neal Taylor, both of whom were also adopted into the Frodsham household. In an interview with the AP, Ryan Frodsham said his adoptive father began sexually abusing him when he was 9 or 10 years old and the abuse continued into his teens, when David Frodsham began offering his son’s sexual services to other men. “Makes me throw up thinking about it,” Ryan said. In his lawsuit, Ryan Frodsham said the state was informed that David and Barbara Frodsham were physically abusing their children “by slapping them in the face, pinching them, hitting them with a wooden spoon, putting hot sauce in their mouths, pulling them by the hair, bending their fingers back to inflict pain, forcing them to hold cans with their arms extended for long periods time,” and refusing to let them use the bathroom unless the door remained open. In his AP interview, Ryan said Barbara never sexually abused him but walked into the room where David was abusing him at least twice. “She knew what was going on,” he said. The two lawsuits already filed by the adopted sons and related legal filings also say investigators with the Department of Child Safety and case workers with Catholic Community Services, which subcontracts foster and adoption work from the state, failed to effectively follow up on 19 complaints and attempted complaints regarding the Frodsham home spanning more than a decade. Read: Pentagon may need more budget funding to help Ukraine The complaints began in 2002, when the Frodshams applied for their foster care license, and continued until 2015, when David Frodsham was charged with disorderly conduct and driving drunk with children in his car, prompting the state to suspend their license indefinitely and remove all foster children from their home, although the charges were later dismissed. Five months later, the Army deployed Frodsham to Afghanistan, where he was ordered back to Arizona after only four months of service. REPORTS FELL ON DEAF EARS The lawsuits say the Frodshams’ adopted children attempted to report their own physical and sexual abuse without success. For instance, Neal Taylor’s lawsuit says he attempted to report that David Frodsham was sexually abusing him in two phone calls to his case manager, both of which he placed from school. The first time, the case manager reported the call to Neal’s adoptive mother, who “interrogated” him and “proceeded to punish” him, according to his lawsuit. The second time, the case manager refused to meet with him unless he disclosed the reason for his call over the phone, because he would have had to drive 90 minutes from Tucson to Sierra Vista for a private meeting. Ryan Frodsham’s lawsuit and the related legal filings say he reported repeated alleged physical abuse by Barbara Frodsham to Sierra Vista police when he was 12 years old after running away from home. Police photographed several bruises, returned him to Barbara Frodsham, and reported the incident to the state Department of Child Safety. Despite the photographs and a police report, a case worker who met with Ryan five weeks later found his allegations “unsubstantiated.” Arizona Department of Child Safety spokesman Darren DaRonco declined to answer specific questions about the lawsuits. He instead sent an email outlining the state’s procedures for screening prospective foster and adoptive parents. “Despite all of these safeguards, people are sometimes able to avoid detection,” DaRonco said, “especially if a person has no prior criminal or child abuse history.” Yet David and Barbara Frodsham have both said they were abused as minors. In their written application to become foster parents, Barbara Frodsham indicated that neither she nor her husband had been sexually victimized. But in recent pretrial testimony for Ryan Frodsham’s lawsuit, she said she would have revealed her abuse if she had been asked by a state investigator as part of the licensing process. David Frodsham, for his part, told a probation official after his guilty plea that he had been abused as a teenager. Many child welfare experts believe people with a history of child sexual abuse are more likely to abuse children in their own households and should be questioned to ensure they’ve overcome their trauma before being allowed to provide foster care. Arizona’s child welfare case workers “did not know how to interview and, therefore, they didn’t get candid answers from the Frodshams,” said Kathleen Faller, an expert witness retained in Ryan Frodsham’s lawsuit. In pretrial testimony, Faller also said the state should not have granted the Frodshams’ foster care license. Barbara Frodsham, who divorced David following his guilty plea, did not return multiple telephone calls from the AP, and did not respond to detailed questions left on her voice mail. At the time of her husband’s sentencing, she was working at Fort Huachuca as a personnel specialist, according to law enforcement records. A spokeswoman at Fort Huachuca said she still holds the position. Attorneys for the state and the other defendants are seeking to have the cases dismissed, based in part on state law that grants immunity to state employees for mistakes or misjudgments committed in the course of their work. The law does not provide immunity for “gross negligence,” which the Frodsham brothers and Neal Taylor are alleging. Read: USA announces new actions to support intl students' careers The state also says all the complaints about the Frodsham children and the Frodsham home were properly handled. CHILD SEX ABUSE RING The Frodsham case started as child sex abuse investigations often do: with an undercover Homeland Security agent lurking in a chat room favored by child pornographers. The Philadelphia-based agent, using the Kik messaging app, ran into someone calling himself “Pup Brass” who was posting videos and photos labeled “pedopicsandvidd.” Kik offers users a degree of anonymity but it stores IP addresses, which help identify a device’s connection to the internet and can help identify the device’s owner. According to a Sierra Vista police probable cause statement, federal and local law enforcement agents using the IP address and other information — some gleaned from social media accounts — soon determined that “Pup Brass” was Sgt. Randall Bischak. When they raided his home, seizing computers, cell phones, tablets and CDs holding child pornography, Bischak confessed that he’d been having sex with a 59-year-old man he called “Dave” and his teenage son. In at least one instance Bischak had secretly recorded the sex on video. He also told investigators that he and Frodsham discussed having sex with small children and that Frodsham had supplied him with at least one of the “little ones.” Thomas Ransford, who specializes in child sex abuse cases for the Sierra Vista police, was no stranger to Frodsham. In the mid-2000s, he served as a military police officer at Fort Huachuca when Frodsham was director of Training, Plans, Mobilization and Security. “So, I knew him. I was familiar with him, attended meetings with him,” Ransford recalled. He also knew that Frodsham’s foster kids were always in trouble. When Ransford first questioned Frodsham he denied everything. “He was pompous, like he was the smartest guy in the room,” Ransford recalled. Then Ransford played the video Bischak had secretly taken of himself having three-way sex with Frodsham and his adopted son, Ryan, and Frodsham began to acknowledge his crimes. Ryan Frodsham also initially denied his father had abused him. “Ryan appeared very defensive of his father and did not want to implicate him in any misconduct,” Ransford wrote in a probable cause statement. But when Ransford showed him a compromising photograph seized from Bischak’s cell phone, Ryan began to open up. Over the course of several months, Ransford said, Ryan identified others he said were part of his father’s child sex abuse ring, fueling the continuing investigation. “There’s others we’re aware of,” Ransford said. “It’s open.” The Frodsham child sex abuse ring is part of a cluster of sex abuse cases that have come to light in Cochise County, Arizona, over the last several years, including several involving U.S. Border Patrol agents, two of whom worked at the Naco, Arizona, Border Crossing. Among them: — John Daly III. A year ago, authorities arrested the recently retired Border Patrol agent after DNA evidence led them to suspect him in at least eight rapes, and to consider whether he is the so-called East Valley rapist, who terrorized women outside Phoenix throughout the 1990s. Prosecutors in Maricopa and Cochise counties have charged him with multiple counts of sexual assault and kidnapping. Daly, who is being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty. — Dana Thornhill. A year ago, Thornhill was sentenced to a 40-year prison term after pleading guilty to years of sexually abusing his two children. Thornhill was charged following a stand-off with police in which he holed up in a local church. At the time, Thornhill was the chaplain at the Naco Border Crossing. — Paul Adams. In 2017, Adams was charged with raping his two daughters, one of whom was just 6 weeks old; taking videos of the sexual assaults; and posting them on the Internet. Adams, who took his own life before standing trial, was also stationed at the Naco Border Crossing. Ransford believes the cluster of cases should be attributed to good police work and effective prosecution, which give victims and others the confidence to report child sex abuse. “People report because they know something’s going to be done about it,” he said. But Cadigan, the attorney representing the Frodsham brothers and Neal Taylor, wonders whether child sex abuse in southern Arizona is on the rise. “Law enforcement has been very effective, and I appreciate their efforts, but I’ve been taking these cases for 30 years and I’ve never been so busy,” she said. A SCANDAL-PLAGUED DEPARTMENT The physical and sexual abuse allegedly endured by the Frodsham brothers and Neal Taylor occurred at a time when Arizona’s child welfare system was embroiled in scandal. In 2013, officials revealed that what was then the Department of Protective Services had a backlog of more than 6,500 abuse and neglect complaints it had never investigated. The revelation prompted then-Gov. Jan Brewer to dissolve the entire department and create a new Cabinet-level office called the Department of Child Safety. “It is evident that our child welfare system is broken, impeded by years of operational failures,” said Brewer, a Republican. Underlying the scandal were deep budget cuts to family support services, leading to soaring abuse and neglect complaints and what an auditor general’s report would later refer to as “unmanageable workloads, staff turnover and the limited experience of some CPS supervisors and newly hired investigators.” In 2014, an analysis produced for the state Legislature showed that the increase in workloads in Arizona during the decade that ended in 2012 was greater than in any other state but one. It also showed that the response time for abuse and neglect complaints ballooned from 63 hours to nearly 250 hours, between 2009 and 2012. In its defense against Ryan Frodsham’s lawsuit, the state is trying to exclude any mention of the department’s troubled past. “There is no evidence that the types of problems that led to the dissolution of CPS has any relation to or impact on his case,” the state said in a pretrial motion. But David and Barbara Frodsham were licensed as foster parents in 2002, at the dawn of what was perhaps the department’s most troubled period, and formally adopted the three men going to court about a decade later, shortly before the system collapsed. “The jury is entitled to the full picture,” lawyers for Ryan Frodsham said. In his AP interview, Ryan Frodsham said he filed his lawsuit for one reason: “I want the state to admit what it did was wrong.”

A wildfire south of Boulder that forced nearly 20,000 people to flee was listed at 35% contained by Sunday afternoon and most evacuations had been lifted, officials with Boulder Fire-Rescue said. The fire, which ignited Saturday, burned to within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of homes on the west end of Boulder, said Mike Smith, incident commander. No homes were lost and no injuries were reported, he said. A quick initial attack “combined with all of the fuels mitigation treatments that we've done in this area is one of the reasons that we've had such great success," Smith said Sunday. Read:Colorado wildfires burn hundreds of homes, force evacuations Fire crews were also able to use aircraft to fight the fire, laying down lines of fire retardant near homes in the rolling hills south of the college town, he said. The evacuation area was reduced late Saturday to cover about 1,700 people and 700 residences, down from about 8,000 homes earlier in the day. Fire managers hoped to allow more people back into their homes Sunday as the area becomes safe, officials said. New information for those still evacuated was expected by Sunday evening, Smith said. Work on Sunday focused on reinforcing the fire line and making sure the fire didn't burn toward the city of Boulder or down toward Eldorado Canyon, Smith said. Crews were working to corral the fire into an area of rocks and snow. “Today was a good day,” Smith said during a Sunday afternoon briefing as a helicopter flew in the background. “This morning was a little bit cooler, the wind was a little bit calmer and as we moved through the day we were happy to see that some of the winds that were forecast didn't actually come to fruition.” The containment level increased from 21% on Sunday morning to 35% on Sunday afternoon while the area burned remained the same — an estimated 189 acres (77 hectares), Smith said. Read: Out West, Biden points to wildfires to push for big rebuild The fire burned in dormant trees and dry grass not far from where a late December fire, pushed by strong winds, burned over 9 square miles (24 square kilometers) and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. Fire crews are concerned about the upcoming fire season, Smith said. “I think this is just a sign of the way things are going to go,” he said. “We continue to work on our planning processes. We continue to work on the team building and work with our partners to make sure that we're as dialed as we can be. We're feeling good, but we're a little nervous about the upcoming season.” The fire burned protected wildland near the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder police said. Authorities have called it the NCAR fire and its cause is not yet known, although officials have found the spot where it was believed to have started, Smith said.

A driver crashed their car into a homeless encampment in Salem, Oregon, early Sunday morning, killing four people and injuring three more, including the driver, authorities said. Police arrested Enrique Rodriguez Jr., 24, on Sunday evening. Rodriguez was charged with four counts of first-degree manslaughter, second and third-degree assault and six counts of reckless endangerment. In a statement, authorities said the Salem Police Traffic Team believes “alcohol may have been a contributing factor” in the crash. Read:Firefighters increase containment on Colorado wildfire It wasn’t immediately clear whether Rodriguez had retained an attorney. Nathan Rose tells the Salem Statesman Journal that he and his girlfriend were in their tent when they heard two loud thuds. The car just missed their tent, Rose said. Rose said he saw some of his friends pinned under the car and called 911. He said he helped pull one person from under the car but witnesses were unable to help the others. “From there, it was just chaos,” Rose told the newspaper. Police said in a statement Sunday afternoon that the driver was the only occupant of the two-door sports coupe. The crash happened at about 2 a.m. Sunday near a new men’s shelter, which has beds for about 300 people, and a program that offers emergency housing assistance and other services for the homeless. The camp is a small triangle of trees and grass, not far from the Willamette River. Two people who were at the encampment died at the scene. Four others were taken to Salem Health with with life-threatening injuries and two died at the hospital. The driver was also taken to the hospital. Officials have not released the victims’ names or the conditions of those who remain hospitalized. Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, said homeless people spend much of their day trying to find a safe place to sleep and rest, “but events like this remind us that there is no safe space.” The crash comes after Washington, D.C., police arrested a man earlier this month who is suspected of stalking and shooting homeless people asleep on the streets of New York City and the nation's capital. “No one deserves to have to live in unsheltered conditions and they damn sure do not deserve to die in them,” Jones said. “Tragedies like this will continue until this nation makes a serious commitment to the idea that housing is a human right, and that everyone deserves a warm, safe and dry place where they can live with dignity.” Read:Much of Shanghai locked down as mass COVID-19 testing begins More than 1,000 people sleep outside in the Salem area on any given night, the newspaper reported. The city has a population of over 175,000, according to the 2020 U.S. census. Mike Wade came to the camp after hearing one of his close friends had died. He helped others in the camp salvage their belongings and prayed for the victims. “It gets me weaker every day hearing about us die one by one,” Wade said. “My friends are dead and I don’t know what to say.”