The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a major piece of the U.S. social safety net used by nearly 42 million, or about 1 in 8 Americans, to help buy groceries.

Originally known as the food stamp program, it has existed since 1964, serving low-income people, many of whom have jobs but don’t make enough money to cover all the basic costs of living.

Public attention has focused on the program since President Donald Trump’s administration announced last week that it would freeze SNAP payments starting Nov. 1 in the midst of a monthlong federal government shutdown. The administration argued it wasn’t allowed to use a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it to help keep the program going. But on Friday, two federal judges ruled in separate challenges that the federal government must continue to fund SNAP, at least partially, using contingency funds. However, the federal government is expected to appeal, and the process to restart SNAP payments would likely take one to two weeks.

Here’s a look at how SNAP works.

Who’s eligible?

There are income limits based on family size, expenses and whether households include someone who is elderly or has a disability.

Most SNAP participants are families with children, and more than 1 in 3 include older adults or someone with a disability.

Nearly 2 in 5 recipients are households where someone is employed.

Most participants have incomes below the poverty line, which is about $32,000 for a family of four, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, says nearly 16 million children received SNAP benefits in 2023.

Who’s not eligible?

People who are not in the country legally, and many immigrants who do have legal status, are not eligible. Many college students aren’t either, and some states have barred people with certain drug convictions.

Under a provision of Trump’s big tax and policy law that also takes effect Nov. 1, people who do not have disabilities, are between ages 18 and 64 and who do not have children under age 14 can receive benefits for only three months every three years if they’re not working. Otherwise, they must work, volunteer or participate in a work training program at least 80 hours a month.

How much do beneficiaries receive?

On average, the monthly benefit per household participating in SNAP over the past few years has been about $350, and the average benefit per person is about $190.

The benefit amount varies based on a family’s income and expenses. The designated amount is based on the concept that households should allocate 30% of their remaining income after essential expenses to food.

Families can receive higher amounts if they pay child support, have monthly medical expenses exceeding $35 or pay a higher portion of their income on housing.

How do benefits work?

The cost of benefits and half the cost of running the program is paid by the federal government using tax dollars.

States pay the rest of the administrative costs and run the program.

People apply for SNAP through a state or county social service agency or through a nonprofit that helps people with applications. In some states, SNAP is known by another, state-specific name. For instance, it’s FoodShare in Wisconsin and CalFresh in California.

The benefits are delivered through electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, cards that work essentially like a bank debit card. Besides SNAP, it’s where money is loaded for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program, which provides cash assistance for low-income families with children, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

The card is swiped or inserted in a store’s card reader at checkout, and the cardholder enters their PIN to pay for food. The cost of the food is deducted from the person’s SNAP account balance.

What can it buy?

SNAP benefits can only be used for food at participating stores — mostly groceries, supermarkets, discount retail stores, convenience stores and farmers markets. It also covers plants and seeds bought to grow your own food. However, hot foods — like restaurant meals — are not covered.

Most, but not all, food stores participate. The USDA provides a link on its website to a SNAP retail locator, allowing people to enter an address to get the closest retailers to them.

Items commonly found in a grocery and other participating stores that can’t be bought with SNAP benefits include pet food, household supplies like toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning products, and toiletries like toothpaste, shampoo and cosmetics. Vitamins, medicines, alcohol and tobacco products are also excluded.

Sales tax is not charged on items bought with SNAP benefits.

Are there any restrictions?

There aren’t additional restrictions today on which foods can be purchased with SNAP money.

But the federal government is allowing states to apply to limit which foods can be purchased with SNAP starting in 2026.

So far, a dozen states — 11 of them Republican-controlled plus Colorado — have received permission to do so.

All of them will bar buying soft drinks, most say no to candy, and some block energy drinks.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida is suing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in the state’s Supreme Court, alleging state elections officials are trying to improperly block the measure from getting on the ballot in 2026.

It’s the latest escalation in a yearslong clash between progressive organizers seeking to amend the state’s constitution, and the conservative governor, who in 2024 used state money and his political influence to successfully campaign against efforts to legalize adult personal use of marijuana and expand abortion rights.

In a petition filed Thursday, the group Smart & Safe Florida alleged state officials have “failed to perform an indisputable legal duty” and urged the Florida Supreme Court to order state election officials to confirm the campaign has gathered the hundreds of thousands of voter petitions needed to qualify for the ballot.

Smart & Safe argues it has collected more than three times as many petitions as the law requires, but that for months, state elections officials have failed to formally confirm that milestone. That official confirmation, while procedural, is legally required to put the proposed amendment before the state attorney general, who then must request the state Supreme Court to review the ballot language.

“As reflected by Respondents’ own publicly reported data, the initiative petition at issue here has secured three times the number of verified valid petitions required statewide,” the campaign’s filing reads.

“Ignoring the indisputable facts and their clear legal obligation, Respondents refuse to exercise their mandatory ministerial duty,” the filing continues.

With the 2026 election season fast approaching, the campaign is racing against the state’s April 1, 2026, deadline for the state Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed amendment, a key step to getting the issue before voters.

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Cord Byrd, who is named in the suit, said the Florida Department of State does not comment on pending litigation. Representatives for DeSantis referred questions to the department.

Medical marijuana is already legal in the state for qualifying patients, after Florida voters approved a 2016 constitutional amendment, broadening access to pot beyond the limited therapeutic uses previously approved by the legislature.

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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Do Quakers quake? Do Quakers eat Quaker Oats? Are Quakers still around today? These are some of the questions that visitors often ask at the Arch Street Meeting House in Old City Philadelphia.

Many visitors don’t know about the Quakers’ faith. But in recent years, attendance has been surging. The Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust has used exhibits, technology and social media to help teach others about Quakers and the meeting house that was built in the early 19th century. It is still one of the world’s largest and most important Quaker buildings.

Here’s a look at the faith’s beliefs and history — and some common misconceptions about it.

Quakers began in England

The Religious Society of Friends — best known as the Quakers — originated in 17th-century England. The Christian group was founded by George Fox, an Englishman who objected to Anglican emphasis on ceremony. In the 1640s, he said he heard a voice that led him to develop a personal relationship with Christ, described as the Inner Light. Fox taught that the Inner Light emancipates a person from adherence to any creed, ecclesiastical authority or ritual forms. Brought to court for opposing the established church, Fox tangled with a judge who derided him as a “quaker” in reference to his agitation over religious matters.

Quakers worship in silence and believe in the ‘Inner Light’

Quakers follow values of simplicity and equality and believe that everyone can have a personal connection with God. The basic unit of Quaker organization is the weekly meeting, which corresponds to the congregation in other churches. There are no religious symbols or clergy, and no one sings or chants. Quakers simply gather for silent worship at meeting houses, and wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak. This form of worship focused in stillness has been around for more than 350 years.

Quaker couples officiate their own weddings

Quakers marry in a self-uniting ceremony without an officiant. Couples observe silence that is only broken when they exchange their vows. At the end, guests sign, as witnesses, a marriage certificate.

Quakers have a long history of social activism and pacifism

Historically, Quakers have been involved in peaceful protests to end wars and slavery, and support women’s voting rights in line with their commitment to justice and peace. Earlier this year, Quakers marched from New York City to Washington to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

William Penn was a Quaker

Penn was an English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania following the faith’s emphasis on religious tolerance. In the U.S., Quakers became highly influential in cities like Philadelphia and founded colleges in Pennsylvania, including Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore. But members of the group also faced scorn for refusing to join wars due to their belief in pacifism and nonviolence. Some were persecuted and even killed for their religious beliefs.

Quakers are still around, and most live in Africa

Today, there are an estimated 400,000 Quakers worldwide. About half live in Africa; most are in Kenya, where in contrast to the silent services, they often use bands and choirs and evangelize.

And finally … Quaker Oats is not Quaker

Quakers say people often confuse them with Amish or Mennonites. Or say they knew about them through Quaker Oats, which is unrelated to the faith. The company uses “a figure of a man in “Quaker garb” with white hair and a tall black hat on its label that the owners picked along with the Quaker name more than 150 years ago “as a symbol of good quality and honest value.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — At the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia’s Old City, more and more young people are seeking respite from a clamorous technological age in the silent worship of a centuries-old faith.

Like other Quaker houses of worship, it follows values of simplicity and equality. There’s no clergy, pulpit or altar. No statues of saints, no stained-glass windows. No one sings or chants, burns incense or lights candles. They simply sit in silence in 200-year-old wooden pews — and wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak.

“This feels different in that it’s so simple. It’s set up in a way that makes you feel like your internal world … is equally as important as the space that you’re in,” says Valerie Goodman, a pink-haired artist reading her Bible outside the meeting house on a recent Sunday before going inside. Goodman, 27, grew up Southern Baptist but left the evangelical church in college.

“It feels like I can have a minute to breathe. It’s different than having a moment of meditation in my apartment because there’s still all of the distractions around. … And it’s crazy being in a room full of other people that are all there to experience that themselves.”

It has been called the “Westminster Abbey of Quakerism.” Yet for years, attendance at Arch Street was so low, and its historic 300-seat West Room felt so empty, that the few people present began to meet in a smaller room. But recent years have produced an unprecedented surge in the number of attendees at Sunday worship — from about 25 before the coronavirus pandemic to up to 100 today.

“One of the things that I’m very excited about is the number of people that we have coming to meeting, and the fact that the majority of them are young,” says Hazele Goodrich, Arch Street’s clerk.

One couple’s story

Among them: Emily Philbrook, 24, and Benjamin Barger, 27, who recently married at Arch Street in a traditional Quaker wedding. The couple moved from Washington to Philadelphia so he could attend veterinary school and began to worship at Arch Street three years ago.

He in a dark suit, she in a white wedding dress, they sat on chairs upfront facing hundreds of guests in wooden pews. Eyes shut, they held a long period of silence broken only when they stood to exchange their vows. Like other Quaker weddings, it was a self-uniting ceremony: They married each other, without an officiant. At the end, the guests lined up to sign, as witnesses, a marriage certificate.

Two days later, the couple returned to Arch Street for Sunday worship, wearing jeans, sneakers and Philadelphia Eagles T-shirts.

“It’s really nice to have that hour of silence when so much is going on in the world,” Barger says. “Kind of like stepping back into time a little bit in this building.”

It isn’t merely the silence. Philbrook says she values the faith’s long tradition of Quaker activism that she believes is attracting young people at a time of deep divisions and political violence in America.

Historically, Quakers have been involved in peaceful protests to end wars and slavery, and support women’s voting rights in line with their commitment to justice and peace. Earlier this year, Quakers marched from New York City to Washington to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.

“In times of national distress, people tend to turn towards something that is historically a peaceful and social justice-oriented faith,” Philbrook says. “They just want a place to sit and reflect and be in a like-minded community.”

Tracing its heritage to William Penn

William Penn, an English Quaker, who founded Pennsylvania following the faith’s emphasis on religious tolerance. It remains one of the world’s largest active meeting houses.

“It’s the most important building in the Quaker faith, probably because it is that sort of mecca of Quakerism,” says Sean Connolly, executive director of the Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust. “It was built to be the largest, grandest Quaker meeting house in the world.”

But not many knew about it. Tourists visiting Independence Hall and other historic Philadelphia attractions would walk into the meeting house’s brick building and were often surprised Quakers even existed, says Hazele Goodrich, a member of Arch Street for more than 25 years.

“They think, ’Oh, they must have all died out because probably they don’t hear too much about us,” says Goodrich, who is also the first Black clerk in Arch Street’s history. “They think of Quakers as a historic construct, something that used to be around.”

Others, she says, would confuse them with Amish or Mennonites or would invoke Quaker Oats, which is unrelated to the faith. The company describes the logo as “a figure of a man in ‘Quaker garb’” with white hair and a tall black hat on its label that the owners picked along with the Quaker name more than 150 years ago “as a symbol of good quality and honest value.”

“Quakers didn’t haggle,” Goodrich says. “Quakers were fair businesspeople. And they made good products — the benches are proof of it!”

Arch Street’s original wooden pews withstood the test of time. But how does a religion that offers the solace of quiet make itself known and compete against all the loud noise of the modern world?

Part of the challenge, Goodrich says, was that Quakers — those in the northeastern United States, at least — don’t proselytize. Arch Street, though, has more leeway because it’s a historic site with exterior exhibits that talk about the Quaker faith. That has helped increase visitation.

The museum run by Arch Street’s preservation trust has also held organized tours and virtual resources. One of them challenges visitors to test their knowledge of Quakerism with questions painted on a wooden panel. Among them: “Do Quakers quake?” “Do Quakers eat Quaker Oats?” and “Are Quakers still around today?”

Roots in 17th-century England

The Religious Society of Friends — the Quakers — originated in 17th-century England. The Christian group was founded by George Fox, who objected to Anglican emphasis on ceremony. In the 1640s, he said he heard a voice that led him to develop a personal relationship with Christ, described as the Inner Light.

Fox taught that the Inner Light emancipates a person from adherence to any creed, ecclesiastical authority or ritual forms. Brought to court for opposing the established church, Fox tangled with a judge who derided him as a “quaker” in reference to his agitation over religious matters.

In the United States, Quakers became highly influential in cities like Philadelphia and founded colleges in Pennsylvania. But members of the group also faced scorn for refusing to join wars due to their belief in nonviolence. Some were persecuted and even executed for trying to spread their religious beliefs.

Today, there are an estimated 400,000 Quakers worldwide. About half live in Africa; most are in Kenya, where they use bands and choirs and evangelize.

Arch Street Quakers, though, want to remain traditional. But members credit its outreach clerk, Alec Unkovic, for raising awareness about the often-ignored contributions of Quakers by redesigning the congregation’s site and posting about events on social media.

“The stillness in meeting and the way of silence is atypical for our current moment,” says Unkovic, who grew up Catholic. “This meeting made a really conscious choice to acknowledge that many people were interested in this.”

On a recent Sunday, Aurora Reardanz sat with dozens of others at Arch Street. After worship, she shared that she had decided to become a full member.

Though she was baptized Catholic, Reardanz never practiced. Instead, she found her spiritual home in Quakerism and the faith’s values, known as SPICES — Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship. Today, she also appreciates silence, calling it “beautiful and alluring.” But it wasn’t always that way.

“My first meeting for worship at 15, I thought I was in a cult. I was terrified. The silence was deafening,” she says. “And it’s something that grew on me, and I think it grows on a lot of people, and they learn to appreciate it in a world of constant noise.”

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The day after the stunning jewelry heist at the Louvre in Paris, officials from across Washington’s world-famous museums were already talking, assessing and planning how to bolster their own security.

“We went over a review of the incident,” said Doug Beaver, security specialist at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, who said he participated in Zoom talks with nearby institutions including the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. “Then we developed a game plan on that second day out, and started putting things in place on Days 3, 4 and 5.”

Similar conversations were of course happening at museums across the globe, as those tasked with securing art asked: “Could that happen here?” At the same time, many were acknowledging the inherent, even painful tension in their task: Museums are meant to help people engage with art — not to distance them from it.

“The biggest thing in museums is the visitor experience,” Beaver said. “We want visitors to come back. We don’t want them to feel as though they’re in a fortress or a restrictive environment.”

It’s an issue many are grappling with — most of all, of course, the Louvre, whose director, Laurence des Cars, has acknowledged “a terrible failure” of security measures, as have French police and legislators.

It was crystallized in a letter of support for the Louvre and its beleaguered leader, from 57 museums across the globe. “Museums are places of transmission and wonder,” said the letter, which appeared in Le Monde. “Museums are not strongholds nor are they secret vaults.” It said the very essence of museums “lies in their openness and accessibility.”

The Louvre wasn’t built to be a museum

A number of museums declined to comment on the Louvre heist when contacted by The Associated Press, to avoid not only discussing security but also criticizing the Louvre at a sensitive time.

French police have acknowledged major security gaps: Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers Wednesday that aging systems had left the museum weakened.

François Chatillon, France’s chief architect of historical monuments, noted nonetheless that many museums, especially in Europe, are in historic buildings that were not constructed with the goal of securing art. The Louvre, after all, was a royal palace — a medieval one at that.

“Faced with the intrusion of criminals, we must find solutions, but not in a hasty manner,” Chatillon told Le Monde. “We’re not going to put armored doors and windows everywhere because there was this burglary.”

The architect added that demands on museums come from many places. “Security, conservation, adaptation to climate change — they are all legitimate.”

Museums have been focusing on a different kind of danger

Even within security, there are competing priorities, noted attorney Nicholas O’Donnell, an expert in global art law and editor of the Art Law Report, a blog on legal issues in the museum and arts communities.

“You’re always fighting the last war in security,” said O’Donnell. For example, he noted museums have lately been focusing security measures on “the very frequent and regrettable trend of people attacking the art itself to draw attention to themselves.”

O’Donnell also noted that the initial response of Louvre security guards was to protect visitors from possible violence. “That’s an appropriate first priority, because you don’t know who these people are.”

But perhaps the greatest battle, O’Donnell said, is to find a balance between security and enjoyment. “You want people interacting with the art,” he said. “Look at the Mona Lisa right around the corner (from the jewels). It’s not a terribly satisfying experience anymore. You can’t get very close to it, the glass … reflects back at you, and you can barely see it.”

O’Donnell says he’s certain that museums everywhere are reevaluating security, fearing copycat crimes. Indeed, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin’s state museums and was hit hard by a brazen robbery in 2017, said it was using the Louvre heist “as an opportunity to review the security architecture of our institutions.” It called for international cooperation, and investments in technology and personnel.

It’s about creating a balance between security and accessibility

Beaver, in Washington, predicts the Paris heist will spur museums to implement new measures. One area he’s focused on, and has discussed with other museums, is managing the access of construction teams, which he says has often been loose. The Louvre thieves dressed as workers, in bright yellow vests.

It’s all about creating a “necessary balance” between security and accessibility, Beaver says. “Our goal isn’t to eliminate risk, it’s to really manage it intelligently.”

Soon after he took the security post in 2014, Beaver said he refashioned the museum’s security and notably added a weapons detection system. He also limited what visitors could carry in, banning bottles of liquid.

He said, though, that reaction from visitors had been mixed — some wanting more security, and others feeling it was too restrictive.

Robert Carotenuto, who worked in security for about 15 years at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art running the command center, says museums have become increasingly diligent at screening visitors, as they try to thwart protesters. But that approach alone doesn’t resolve risks on the perimeter — the Paris thieves were able to park their truck right outside the museum.

“If you’re just going to focus on one risk, like protesters … your security system is going to have a lapse somewhere,” he said. “You can stop the protesters … but then you’re not going to pay attention to people who are phony workers breaking into the side of your building.”

Preserving the magic of museums

Patrick Bringley also worked at the Met, as a security guard from 2008 to 2019 — an experience that led to a book and an off-Broadway show, “All the Beauty in the World.”

“Museums are wonderful because they are accessible,” he said. “They’re these places that will put things that are thousands of years old and incomprehensibly beautiful in front of visitors — sometimes even without a pane of glass. That’s really special.”

The tragedy of the Louvre heist, Bringley said, is that such events make it harder for museums to display all their beauty in a welcoming way.

“Art should be inviting,” Bringley said. “But when people break that public trust, the Louvre is going to have to step up their procedures, and it will just become a little less magical in the museum.”

When KC Neufeld announced on her Denver neighborhood’s Facebook page that her family would be handing out ramen and packs of macaroni and cheese in addition to candy this Halloween, she wasn’t expecting much of a response.

The mother of twin 4-year-olds was just hoping to make a small difference in her working-class neighborhood as food aid funding for tens of millions of vulnerable Americans is expected to end Friday due to the government shutdown.

Within two days, nearly 3,000 people had reacted to Neufeld’s post, some thanking her and others announcing they would follow suit.

“This post blew up way more than I ever anticipated and I’m severely unprepared,” said Neufeld, 33, explaining that she is heading back to the store to get more food despite her family hitting their grocery budget for the week.

“I wish I could just buy out this whole aisle of Costco,” she added. “I can’t. But I’ll do what I can.”

Neufeld is one of many people across the U.S. preparing to give out shelf-stable foods to trick-or-treaters this year to help fill the void left by looming cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries.

A flurry of widely shared posts have popped up over the last several days as many people look for ways to help offset the surge in need. Some posts suggest foods to give out while others show recently acquired stocks of cheese sticks, mini cereals, canned soup or even diapers ready for trick-or-treaters.

Posts are often followed by a string of comments from people announcing similar plans, along with plenty of reminders not to forget the candy.

Emily Archambault, 29, and her sister-in-law Taylor Martin, 29, in La Porte, Indiana, will be putting out pasta and sauce, peanut butter and jelly, cereal and other foods, along with diapers and wipes on Halloween. They’re also collecting donations from members of their church.

Their plan is to set everything out on a table away from where they’re giving out candy, so families can take what they need without worrying about judgement.

“It kind of takes a little bit of pressure off of the parents,” said Martin. “You’re out and about trick or treating and it’s there and your kids probably won’t even notice you’re taking it.”

Archambault said she relied on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, after her son’s medical complications forced her to stop working temporarily. Losing that assistance would have meant turning to food pantries. And while she said there are great ones in her area, she expects them to be overrun.

“We have to band together,” she said. “I am grateful to have received benefits, and I am even more grateful to be able to give back now.”

Erika Dutka, who depends on SNAP to feed herself and her three children in Archbald, Pennsylvania, went to a “trunk or treat” Sunday with people giving out candy from the trunks of cars. She said she was relieved to get packs of ramen, oatmeal, juice, pretzels and fruit snacks in addition to sweet treats.

The 36-year-old — who works two jobs and goes to school fulltime — said the food means she’ll have plenty of school snacks for her children the rest of the week and can save her last $100 of SNAP funds.

“It buys me more time,” she said. “Maybe things will change. Maybe it’ll get turned back on.”

Neufeld, the Denver mom stock-piling shelf-stable items for trick-or-treaters, said she relied on a food bank at her college to get through school. She said most people would never have known she was really struggling. And now, with SNAP drying up, she wants people to remember not to assume anything about others.

“You truly don’t know what other people are going through,” she said. “So even if they don’t ‘look like they need help,’ it’s still important to just give when you can because it can make a huge difference.”

EAST CORINTH, Vt. (AP) — For nearly 40 years, a tiny town in Vermont has attracted hoards of “Beetlejuice” fans eager to visit where the whimsical horror movie’s most famous scenes were filmed.

With a population hovering just around 1,500, “Beetlejuice” mania has helped put East Corinth on the map not only for fans of the movies, but also those looking for a spooky-themed road trip.

“It was like one of those coming of age films for me,” said “Beetlejuice” fan Lisa Pinkerton, who traveled with her family from England and decided to include a stop in East Corinth. “It brings back all those memories of watching it with friends at the time. It’s nice to put it all into place and see the sort of Hollywood magic that happens.”

The original “Beetlejuice” was released in 1988, where it was set in the fictional town of Winter River, Connecticut. The story is centered around a recently deceased couple played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin trying to scare a family out of their home. When their attempts fail, the couple hire “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice, played by Michael Keaton, but quickly regret that decision.

But in reality, director Tim Burton chose East Corinth, located near the New Hampshire border, for many of the iconic scenes.

This includes shooting the 100-year-old building that serves as the movie’s Miss Shannon’s School for Girls, where Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder, attends school, as well as the red covered bridge where the main characters Adam and Barbara Maitland drive off and plummet to their death.

East Corinth resident Sarah Polli lives beside the bridge used in the film, and her garage was converted into the Winter River Fire Department, with the rest of her home serving as Jane Butterfield’s Real Estate and Travel Agency. Her uncle, Maurice Page, was the only local who scored a role in the film.

“He was supposed to be the barber, but he kept ad libbing, which frustrated Tim Burton,” Polli said. “So, he gave him a nonspeaking part basically and he became Ernie dusting off the statues in front of the library.”

Page can be seen in the film saying, “Hi, how are you?” to the Maitlands as they drive by in their yellow Volvo.

“I think it was a lot of fun for everyone, but a lot of the older people in town, I think they thought that this was going to be a pleasant, bucolic movie about the countryside. There was some shock when the movie came out,” said Polli.

Burton, a moody gothic hero, returned to the Vermont town to film the sequel — “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” — which has only helped spark more tourists flocking to East Corinth.

Polli says the town welcomes fans, who residents affectionately refer to as “juicers,” from all over the world.

“It’s just been a continuous stream. I’ve met people from France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain, all over Canada and all over the United States. It’s just amazing,” she said.

Wade Pierson, who grew up in East Corinth, created a walking tour for fans like Pinkerton, highlighting the various filming locations that can be seen around town. Because some of the scenes incorporated a bit of movie magic, Pierson’s roughly 10-minute, self-guided tour helps enthusiasts visualize the films’ iconic sets with the use of large signs featuring screenshots from the films.

“People say, ‘Where’s the house?’ It was a movie set, so it was taken down,” Pierson said. “We do have a picture on a pole that if you stand in the right place and squat down, you can line it up with the hill across the river, take a pretty realistic looking photo of what it looked like when they shot the film.”

Meanwhile, the schoolhouse building has since been sold to a “Beetlejuice” enthusiast who hopes to restore and transform it into a community center that can serve as a “Beetlejuice” museum and theater.

Decked out in “Beetlejuice”-themed Halloween decorations, Pierson’s home is located directly across from the schoolhouse, where he says he’s had a front row seat to the filming of both movies.

“I literally have the honor of living across the street from Miss Shannon’s, which is a living, standing movie set,” he said. “The more people that enjoy it, the better.”

Go ahead and roll your eyes. Shrug your shoulders. Or maybe just juggle your hands in the air.

Dictionary.com’s word of the year isn’t even really a word. It’s the viral term “6-7” that kids and teenagers can’t stop repeating and laughing about and parents and teachers can’t make any sense of.

The word — if you can call it that — exploded in popularity over the summer. It’s more of an inside joke with an unclear meaning, driven by social media.

Dictionary.com says its annual selection is a linguistic time capsule reflecting social trends and events. But the site admitted it too is a bit confused by “6-7.”

“Don’t worry, because we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means,” the site said in its announcement this week.

How did “6-7” become a thing?

It all seems to trace back to rapper Skrilla’s song from 2024 called “Doot Doot (6-7).”

That song started appearing in TikTok videos with basketball players, including the NBA’s LaMelo Ball who stands 6-foot-7.

Then a boy, now known as “The 6-7 Kid,” shouted the ubiquitous phrase while another kid next to him juggled his hands in a video that went viral this year.

That’s all it took.

So what does “6-7” mean?

The real answer is no one knows.

And sometimes it depends on who’s on the receiving end of “6-7.”

Even how to write “6-7” is up for debate — is it “6 7” or “six seven?”

According to Dictionary.com, the phrase could mean “so-so,” or “maybe this, maybe that” when combined with the juggling hands gesture.

Merriam-Webster calls it a “a nonsensical expression used especially by teens and tweens.”

Some simply use it to frustrate adults when being questioned.

“It’s meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical. In other words, it has all the hallmarks of brainrot,” Dictionary.com said. “Still, it remains meaningful to the people who use it because of the connection it fosters.”

How has the rest of the world responded?

Parents and teachers have created their own videos trying to explain the sensation.

Some offer tips on how to stop their kids from repeating it all day long. Others suggest embracing it — even making “6-7” Halloween costumes — so it will become uncool.

Teachers have banned it. Influencers and child psychologists have tried to make sense of it.

It’s even spilled over into the NFL as a way to celebrate big plays.

Why is it word of the year?

Dictionary.com says it looks for words that influence how we talk with each other and communicate online.

The site scoured search engines, headlines and social media trends in making its choice. Online searches for “6-7” took off dramatically over the summer, it said, and haven’t slowed, growing by six times since June.

“The Word of the Year isn’t just about popular usage; it reveals the stories we tell about ourselves and how we’ve changed over the year,” the site said.

NEW YORK (AP) — The United States is running out of pennies.

President Donald Trump’s decision to stop producing the penny earlier this year is starting to have real implications for the nation’s commerce. Merchants in multiple regions of the country have run out of pennies and are unable to produce exact change. Meanwhile, banks are unable to order fresh pennies and are rationing pennies for their customers.

One convenience store chain, Sheetz, got so desperate for pennies that it briefly ran a promotion offering a free soda to customers who bring in 100 pennies. Another retailer says the lack of pennies will end up costing it millions this year, because of the need to round down to avoid lawsuits.

“It’s a chunk of change,” said Dylan Jeon, senior director of government relations with the National Retail Federation.

The penny problem started in late summer and is only getting worse as the country heads into the holiday shopping season.

To be sure, not one retailer or bank has called for the penny to stick around. Pennies, especially in bulk, are heavy and are more often than not used exclusively to give customers change. But the abrupt decision to get rid of the penny has come with no guidance from the federal government. Many stores have been left pleading for Americans to pay in exact change.

“We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” said Jeff Lenard with the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Trump announced on Feb. 9 that the U.S. would no longer mint pennies, citing the high costs. Both the penny and the nickel have been more expensive to produce than they are worth for several years, despite efforts by the U.S. Mint to reduce costs. The Mint spent 3.7 cents to make a penny in 2024, according to its most recent annual report, and it spends 13.8 cents to make a nickel.

“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The Treasury Department said in May that it was placing its last order of copper-zinc planchets — the blank metal disks that are minted into coins. In June, the last pennies were minted and by August, those pennies were distributed to banks and armored vehicle service companies.

Troy Richards, president and chief operations officer at Louisiana-based Guaranty Bank & Trust Co., said he’s had to scramble to have enough pennies on hand for his customers since August.

“We got an email announcement from the Federal Reserve that penny shipments would be curtailed. Little did we know that those shipments were already over for us,” Richards said.

Richards said the $1,800 in pennies the bank had were gone in two weeks. His branches are keeping small amounts of pennies for customers who need to cash checks, but that’s it.

The U.S. Mint issued 3.23 billion pennies in 2024, the last full year of production, more than double that of the second-most minted coin in the country: the quarter. But the problem with pennies is they are issued, given as change, and rarely recirculated back into the economy. Americans store their pennies in jars or use them for decoration. This requires the Mint to produce significant sums of pennies each year.

The government is expected to save $56 million by not minting pennies, according to the Treasury Department. Despite losing money on the penny, the Mint is profitable for the U.S. government through its production of other circulating coins as well as coin proof and commemorative sets that appeal to numismatic collectors.

In 2024, the Mint made $182 million in seigniorage, which is its equivalent of profit.

Besides American’s penny hoarding habit, a logistical issue is also preventing pennies from circulating.

The distribution of coins is handled by the Federal Reserve system. Several companies, mostly armored carrier companies, operate coin terminals where banks can withdraw and deposit coins. Roughly a third of these 170 coin terminals are now closed to both penny deposits as well as penny withdrawals.

Bank lobbyists say these terminals being closed to penny deposits is exacerbating the penny shortage, because parts of the country that may have some surplus pennies are unable to get those pennies to parts of country with shortages.

“As a result of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s decision to end production of the penny, coin distribution locations accepting penny deposits and fulfilling orders will vary over time as (penny) inventory is depleted” a Federal Reserve spokeswoman said.

The lack of pennies has also become a legal minefield for stores and retailers. In some states and cities, it is illegal to round up a transaction to the nearest nickel or dime because doing so would run afoul of laws that are supposed to place cash customers and debit and credit card customers on an equal playing field when it comes to item costs.

So, to avoid lawsuits, retailers are rounding down. While two or three cents may not seem like much, that extra change can add up over tens of thousands of transactions. A spokesman for Kwik Trip, the Midwest convenience store chain, says it has been rounding down every cash transaction to the nearest nickel. That’s expected to cost the company roughly $3 million this year. Some retailers are asking customers to give their change to local or affiliated charities at the cash register, in an effort to avoid pennies as well.

A bill currently pending in Congress, known as the Common Cents Act, calls for cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest nickel, up or down. While the proposal is palatable to businesses, rounding up could be costly for consumers.

The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether they had any guidance for retailers or banks regarding the penny shortage, or the issues regarding penny circulation.

The United States is not the first country to transition away from small denomination coins or discontinue out-of-date coins. But in all of these cases, governments wound down the use of their out-of-date coins over a period of, often, years.

For example, Canada announced it would eliminate its one-cent coin in 2012, transitioning away from one-cent cash transactions starting in 2013 and is still redeeming and recycling one-cent coins a decade later. The “decimalization” process of converting British coins from farthings and shillings to a 100-pence-to-a-pound system took much of the 1960s and early 1970s.

The U.S. removed the penny from commerce abruptly, without any action by Congress or any regulatory guidance for banks, retailers or states. The retail and banking industries, rarely allies in Washington on policy matters related to point-of-sale, are demanding that Washington issue guidance or pass a law fixing the issues that are arising due to the shortage.

“We don’t want the penny back. We just want some sort of clarity from the federal government on what to do, as this issue is only going to get worse,” the NACS’ Lenard said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Yes, you’ll get a shot at an extra hour’s sleep. But even with that, it might be one of the most dreaded weekends on the American calendar: the end of daylight saving time.

Only 12% of U.S. adults favor the current system of daylight saving time, which has people in most states changing the clocks twice a year, according to a new AP-NORC poll, while 47% are opposed and 40% are neutral.

Around the country, the clocks will go back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday (respective local times) to mark the return to standard time and more daylight in the mornings. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that for many Americans, it’s an unwelcome change — and if forced to choose, most would prefer to keep that extra hour of daylight in the evening.

Pranava Jayanti is among those who strongly oppose the switch. The 31-year-old Los Angeles resident grew up in India, where the clocks don’t change. When he came to the United States for graduate school, some relatives made sure he knew about it.

He thought he was prepared, “but when it actually happened, it still took me by surprise,” Jayanti said, because of how quickly it got dark in the latter half of the day.

There have been calls for the U.S. to stop making the twice-yearly changes, including a piece of legislation that stalled after the Senate passed it in 2022. Among those urging that the country stick to one time for the entire year are the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, as well as President Donald Trump, who issued a social media post about it earlier this year.

Permanent daylight saving (not daylight savings, as many people say colloquially) would be unpopular with a significant chunk of people, though, the poll found — particularly those who prefer mornings.

Changing the clocks is unpopular

The United States first started using the time shift over a century ago, during World War I, then again in World War II. Congress passed a law in 1966 that allowed states to decide if they would have it or not, but required their choices to be uniform across their territories. All states except Arizona and Hawaii make the time shifts; those two states remain on standard time year-round.

Time changes are also undertaken in some other parts of the world, like Canada and Europe, but not in others, like Asia. Europe and North America change the clocks a week apart, resulting in a short period where the time difference between the regions is an hour shorter than the rest of the year.

But although about half of U.S. adults are opposed to the switch — including 27% who are “strongly” opposed — many don’t care one way or another. That’s particularly true of adults under 30, with 51% saying they neither favor nor oppose the practice. Those over 30 are more likely to be opposed to it, with about half saying they dislike the twice-a-year switching of clocks.

If they had to choose one time for the country to use, more than half of adults — 56% – prefer making daylight saving time permanent, with less light in the morning and more light in the evening. About 4 in 10 prefer standard time, with more light in the morning and less in the evening.

Those who consider themselves “night people” are much more partial to permanent daylight saving time: 61% of them say this would be their choice.

“Morning people” were just about evenly split, with 49% of them preferring permanent daylight saving time, and 50% wanting permanent standard time.

Vicky Robson is one of those night people. If the 74-year-old retired nurse had to pick one time to go by, it would definitely be permanent daylight saving.

“I don’t get up early in the morning, so I don’t need the light in the mornings,” said Robson, of Albert Lea, Minnesota. “I need it more in the late afternoon, early evening. I like when it’s light later, because that’s when I do things. I’ve always worked the evening shift and now that I’m retired, I would go out and take a walk after supper if it was light.”

Why the clock change still happens

There’s no overwhelming evidence that daylight or standard time would be better for society, although there is advice for how to adjust sleep and habits to deal with it.

New research from Stanford University has found that at least when it comes to humans and our internal clocks — our circadian rhythm — having a single time would be better for health than switching. It also found that standard time had slightly better health benefits than daylight saving time.

“The more light you have earlier in the morning, the more robust your clock is,” said Jamie Zeitzer, one of the study authors and co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford.

But that’s only one aspect, he added. There are a range of others, from economics to people’s personal preferences.

“This is something that people feel very passionate about, and their passion is usually driven by … themselves, what they would prefer,” he said. “There is no time policy that you can have that will make everyone happy.”

America did try once, in the mid-1970s, to switch to permanent daylight saving time. It was supposed to be a two-year experiment, but lasted less than a year because it was so unpopular.

At this point, the time shift and the resulting change in daylight hours in different seasons have become part of our culture, said Chad Orzel, professor of physics and astronomy at Union College and author of “A Brief History of Timekeeping.”

“People really like having the long evenings in the summer,” he said. But “we drop back in the fall so that we don’t have the thing that everybody hates, which is it being dark until after you get to work. … We have earlyish sunrises in the winter and late sunsets in the summer. We like both of those things. The price we pay for that is we have to change the clocks twice a year.”

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Sanders reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,289 adults was conducted Oct. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

“That man, that young man — I forgive him.”

Erika Kirk softly spoke those words about the gunman accused of assassinating her husband, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as she struggled to hold back tears last month during his memorial service.

Her public declaration inspired another. Hollywood actor Tim Allen said he was so moved by her words that he was forgiving the drunken driver who caused his father’s death 60 years ago. Barely two weeks after Charlie Kirk’s death, members of a Michigan congregation made public that they too were forgiving a gunman, the one who had just attacked their church, killing four people and injuring eight others.

Their high-profile acts of forgiveness are all the more remarkable given the politically charged and highly polarizing climate gripping the U.S. It has pushed people of faith to contemplate what forgiveness means, particularly in the face of violence, trauma and unspeakable grief, and whether it could shift public consciousness toward compassion.

While some see a glimmer of hope in this moment, others are skeptical. Miroslav Volf, professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, said he views President Donald Trump’s response to Erika Kirk’s words — that he hates his opponents — as the more typical sentiment.

“Erika Kirk’s gesture is the outlier,” he said. “It was an extraordinary act of courage. But it was also telling that (Trump’s) response got the bigger reaction from the crowd at the memorial. You have to wonder about these two very different responses. How do we find space for grace when we are so at odds that we cannot recognize humanity on the other side of the divide?”

Forgiveness, a mandate for Christians

California pastor Jack Hibbs, who leads Calvary Chapel Chino Hills and is a friend of the Kirks, called her words an “incredibly powerful” message of hope for the shooter, and in keeping with the family’s deep commitment to the Gospel, which commands Christians to forgive even their enemies.

“The Bible warns us that bitterness, when left alone, can grow up in and destroy your heart,” Hibbs said. “So forgiveness was given to us by God to set us free from what’s been done to us.”

The Rev. Thomas Berg, visiting professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, said he hopes Erika Kirk’s gesture “ignites some kind of meaningful national conversation about forgiveness.”

He said forgiveness is not a one-time event, but a process that takes time and work. Berg, who counsels victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, warns that it should never be coerced but authentically given — an act that he says has the power to heal the deepest wounds.

He would like to see more public expressions of forgiveness, which could serve as a balm for the country.

“I hope this is not a passing moment,” he said. “The dynamic of forgiveness throws a wrench into the dysfunction of our partisan divides and our inability to have a reasonable exchange of ideas.”

Dave Butler, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and science fiction writer based in Utah, believes forgiveness is a mandate for all Christians, as his church teaches. He started a crowdfunding initiative for the family of the Michigan shooter who opened fire on the Latter-day Saints congregation, which as of this week, had raised a little over $388,000.

Butler said he started it because — in addition to the grieving church members who had lost loved ones in this mass shooting — there was the family of the gunman that was also traumatized.

“They also did not choose this,” he said. “Nevertheless, they are now short a husband and a father. If we’re not really thoughtful, we might be inclined to see them more as antagonists rather than victims. More than 10,000 people have contributed and they understand what they’re doing is an act of forgiveness.”

Forgiveness from the perspective of Anabaptists

An often-cited modern example of forgiveness is the response of the Amish community around Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, after a gunman killed five Amish schoolgirls and wounded five more in 2006 before taking his own life. Local Amish immediately expressed forgiveness for the killer and supported his widow.

Amish are part of the wider Anabaptist movement, which puts heavy emphasis on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, containing some of his most radical and counter-cultural sayings — to love enemies, live simply, bless persecutors, turn the other cheek and to endure sufferings joyfully. In it, Jesus says God will only forgive those who forgive others.

While many outside the Anabaptists’ world have endorsed their beliefs about forgiveness — which they also voiced for Haitian kidnappers of Anabaptist missionaries in 2021 — others say the picture is more complex. Advocates for victims of sexual abuse in Anabaptist communities say victims and their families are often forced to reconcile with abusers after the latter make a confession and undergo a brief period of discipline.

A complicated journey for trauma survivors

The Jewish perspective on forgiveness is different in that it requires the perpetrator to seek forgiveness from the person who has been wronged, said Rabbi Jeffrey Myers. He heads Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh where 11 people from three congregations were killed after a gunman attacked it during Shabbat services on Oct. 27, 2018.

“For me, it’s complicated because there are 11 dead people who cannot be sought for forgiveness,” Myers said, adding that he cannot offer forgiveness because the perpetrator — who faces execution — did not show remorse.

“While the perpetrator has received a measure of justice as outlined by the judicial process, it didn’t give me closure because those 11 people are gone,” Myers said. “There is nothing that makes that pain go away.”

What gives him some comfort is being able to help other congregations that are going through similar trauma. Myers said he was grateful to have received that support from the Rev. Eric Manning, pastor of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, a historically Black church where a self-proclaimed white supremacist shot and killed nine congregants on June 17, 2015 — including the church’s pastor at the time.

“Today, as someone who belongs to that club no one should belong to, I view it as my sacred obligation to help,” Myers said. “Even if I can help one person, that’s gratifying, that feels healing.”

Peg Durachko, whose husband Dr. Richard Gottfried, a dentist, was one of the victims in the synagogue shooting, said that as a Catholic, she looked to Pope John Paul II for inspiration as she read about how he visited the imprisoned man who shot him and offered forgiveness.

“I recognize (the gunman) as a child of God who made bad choices to lead him in that direction,” she said. “I’m not his judge, God is. I want him to have eternal life. I don’t harbor hate or ill wishes to anyone, including him. I don’t want to carry this baggage of hate.”

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AP journalist Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

President Donald Trump’s meeting Thursday with China’s top leader Xi Jinping produced a raft of decisions to help dial back trade tensions, but no agreement on TikTok’s ownership.

“China will work with the U.S. to properly resolve issues related to TikTok,” China’s Commerce Ministry said after the meeting.

It gave no details on any progress toward ending uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the U.S.

The Trump administration had been signaling that it may have finally reached a deal with Beijing to keep TikTok running in the U.S.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the two leaders will “consummate that transaction on Thursday in Korea.”

Wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner to replace China’s ByteDance. The platform went dark briefly on a January deadline but on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.

Three more executive orders followed, as Trump, without a clear legal basis, extended deadlines for a TikTok deal. The second was in April, when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership. That fell apart when China backed out after Trump announced sharply higher tariffs on Chinese products. Deadlines in June and September passed, with Trump saying he would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns.

Trump’s order was meant to enable an American-led group of investors to buy the app from China’s ByteDance, though the deal also requires China’s approval.

However, TikTok deal is “not really a big thing for Xi Jinping,” said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, during a media briefing Tuesday. “(China is) happy to let (Trump) declare that they have finally kept a deal. Whether or not that deal will protect the data of Americans is a big question going forward.”

“A big question mark for the United States, of course, is whether this is consistent with U.S. law since there was a law passed by Congress,” Glaser said.

About 43% of U.S. adults under the age of 30 say they regularly get news from TikTok, higher than any other social media app, including YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, according to a Pew Research Center report published in September.

A recent Pew Research Center survey found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren’t sure.

Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users’ data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.

The security debate centers on the TikTok recommendation algorithm — which has steered millions of users into an endless stream of video shorts. China has said the algorithm must remain under Chinese control by law. But a U.S. regulation that Congress passed with bipartisan support said any divestment of TikTok would require the platform to cut ties with ByteDance.

American officials have warned the algorithm — a complex system of rules and calculations that platforms use to deliver personalized content — is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, but no evidence has been presented by U.S. officials proving that China has attempted to do so.

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Associated Press Writer Fu Ting contributed to this story from Washington.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Basketball players who frequent a South Florida park feel like they’re being run off in favor of wealthy residents of a new luxury development.

The city of Fort Lauderdale is planning to replace the decades-old, beachside basketball courts with pickleball courts, part of a deal with developers for a massive condo and hotel project.

Local basketball players have generated a groundswell of support online, but city officials and developers have said the changes are part of larger improvement plan for the park that now includes building new basketball courts several hundred yards away.

Unpleasant surprise

Ozzie McRea said most people who use the basketball courts only found out about the changes to Fort Lauderdale Beach Park in April. He helped organize a group called Fort Lauderdale Beach Ballers to preserve the courts, located just a few dozen steps from the Atlantic Ocean.

“We saw a sign put up that says that there was going to be a conversion from a basketball court to a pickleball court,” McRea said. “And that raised a lot of flags, and it was a very surreal moment, because everybody that’s seen that sign, you see that their heart just dropped like out of nowhere.”

McRea said the message is clear: developers want to change the demographics of the area, allowing condo residents to use the public park across the street as a private club where working-class and diverse people aren’t welcome.

“It’s a very multicultural atmosphere out here. We have people from all ages, every ethnicity,” McRea said. “And it’s a beautiful thing because we all come in harmony over here. We all play basketball.”

Some advocates have linked the old basketball courts to the Civil Rights Movement and the push to desegregate the beaches. Photographs show basketball courts on Fort Lauderdale beach in the 1960s, but local historians believe those courts were in a different location. The current courts were likely installed at least a decade or so later.

Making a deal

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners approved a deal with developers in January 2024 for the construction of The St. Regis Resort & Residences Bahia Mar. The $2 billion project includes four residential towers and a hotel tower next to an existing marina on city-owned land under a 100-year lease.

Developers agreed to pay $1 million for improvements at the park, including replacing what they described as dilapidated and rarely used basketball courts with pickleball courts.

These types of public-private partnerships are nothing new.

Maria Ilcheva, a Florida International University professor with a focus in public policy, said partnerships between local governments and private companies have become more common over the past two decades in South Florida and other places around the U.S. with growing populations and rapid development. She said there’s nothing inherently bad about these agreements, and governments can often negotiate improvements to transportation, parks and other infrastructure in exchange for a project’s approval.

“If these partnerships take into account the local context and ensure that the community benefits from it, they could be a value,” Ilcheva said. “If they don’t take into account community perspectives and don’t take a broader look at how it will impact values and how it could potentially incentivize or push out local residents, they could be detrimental to the community.”

Moving, not removing

Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman said while the developer is paying for park improvements, it will remain city property and accessible to the public.

Glassman said it was all part of an agenda item that passed unanimously, with no opposition from the public during the meeting.

When community members began raising concerns earlier this year, Glassman said the city worked with developers to plan new basketball courts several hundred yards away at the other end of the park.

“We’ve got the pickleball, we’ve got the basketball, we’ve got new fitness equipment, we’ve got new picnic tables, new grills,” Glassman said. “So we’re not removing the basketball courts, we’re moving the basketball courts.”

But the Beach Ballers have their doubts, concerned that plans for the new basketball courts might be abandoned after the old courts are gone. The group is also supporting separate efforts to formally designate the park as a historically significant archaeological site. Experts believe the park was the site of a 19th century fort used during the Seminole Wars.

“We feel that there’s no reason to move these courts,” McRea said. “If they want to add something, wherever they think they want to relocate these basketball courts, that’s where they should relocate the pickleball courts.”

Too far along

Developer Jimmy Tate said he’d be happy to resolve the entire situation by keeping the basketball courts where they are and putting the pickleball courts elsewhere. But they’ve already pre-sold several dozen condos and created millions of dollars in marketing materials, including a giant model, that show pickleball courts.

“We can’t do that right now, there’s just too much out there, and we can’t have anything that’s misrepresenting facts for any contract,” he said.

Tate rejected the idea that he’s trying to deny beach access to anyone based on race or socioeconomic status. He thinks opposition has less to do with the basketball courts and more to do with a small group of people who have opposed any redevelopment at the Bahia Mar for years, even derailing attempts by two previous developers.

He said the fact that the city and developers have committed to brand new basketball courts at the same park proves the opposition is not really about the courts.

“Here’s the irony, I played basketball my whole life,” Tate said. “I don’t play pickleball.”

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Associated Press videojournalist Daniel Kozin in Miami contributed to this report.

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Follow David Fischer on the social platform Bluesky: ‪@dwfischer.bsky.social‬

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to get more homes built for people like Liam Murphy: a fifth-generation city kid who found himself repeatedly outbid for tiny two-bedroom houses that wound up selling for $1.6 million.

Murphy, 39, now lives about an hour’s drive away from his job as a San Francisco firefighter. He says it’s too late for his family to move back, but he hopes others can stay in a city where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom is $3,500.

“That would just make for a better city overall,” said Murphy, “and the reason is because city kids just grow up being exposed to more. They’re exposed to all the cultures of San Francisco, which makes a more well-rounded person.”

Tiny, colorful San Francisco — just seven miles squared — embraces its image as a city that welcomes all. But its inability to build more housing has made it one of the world’s toughest places to find a home, risking the diversity it prides itself on.

Epithets are hurled at the mayor

Lurie hopes to change that, with a plan to allow for denser and taller buildings throughout much of the city, including the westside Sunset neighborhood of single-family homes and the tourist friendly Haight-Ashbury, which is studded with classic Victorian and Edwardian homes.

The issue has roiled the city, and threats of recall loom over San Francisco supervisors who go along with Lurie. At a recent housing rally, the mayor who won a rare reprieve from President Donald Trump’s threats to send in federal forces struggled to be heard over angry chants of “shame!” and “liar.”

Protesters demanded the city invest in 100% below-market rate housing and accused him of being a gentrifier and a Republican.

“I truly believe that this has San Franciscans’ best interests at heart. Are some people going to be fearful? Absolutely. I get it. Change is scary,” said Lurie, who is a centrist Democrat. “But the status quo is not working. There’s an affordability crisis right now.”

Democrats vs Democrats

The city’s estimated 830,000 residents are passionate over both land use and equity. Housing projects have died as pressure to create more affordable units made potential developments unprofitable. Residents also want their stunning views.

But San Francisco is under pressure from the state to adopt a new zoning plan allowing for 36,000 more homes by 2031 — or else the state will decide what gets built where — and the mayor likely has the votes to pass his “Family Zoning Plan.”

Supporters say it’s a matter of supply and demand, and that more homes will bring down the overall cost of housing.

Critics say such trickle-down economics will not work in a city like San Francisco, which is in such global demand that some foreign investors buy properties sight-unseen. They say developers will only build luxury housing that’s too costly for most workers, while displacing tenants and destroying the character of entire neighborhoods.

“There’s a herd of elephants in the room that no one will address,” says Eric Jaye, a Democratic political consultant who opposes the plan.

A city ‘for people who didn’t love cities’

Much of the housing push has come from Democrats, including a former city mayor, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed into law a proposal by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener to build more homes near transit.

The city has made enormous strides in recent years, with whole districts of tall condo buildings cropping up around downtown, says Rafael Mandelman, president of the Board of Supervisors. But he acknowledges that people come to San Francisco for its more intimate neighborhoods and access to green space.

“San Francisco, historically, was the city for people who didn’t love cities,” Mandelman said.

Katherine Roberts, 72, initially welcomed construction of an affordable housing complex near the three-story Edwardian she labored to buy in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood two decades ago.

But at 160 units and eight stories high, the massive building has shattered her peace of mind, dominating her view.

“I’m looking out and it’s like I’m living in East Germany. How can you build something this inappropriate in a historic neighborhood like the Haight-Ashbury?” Roberts said. “What about all the people who already live here? What are we supposed to do?”

Proposal calls for denser homes

For the most part, the new zoning plan allows for more housing to be packed into the space of a single-family home — say a duplex with a studio — without exceeding the city’s height limit of roughly four stories for such properties. At least 15% of new housing must be below-market rate.

Buildings on neighborhood commercial corridors could double to eight stories. Busier thoroughfares could see high-rises of 10 stories and more, and in a few spots, on Van Ness Avenue, heights could hit 650 feet (200 meters), rivaling some downtown skyscrapers.

Passage of Lurie’s proposal won’t necessarily lead to more homes in a city with high labor and construction costs and “notoriously complex and cumbersome” approval processes, as the state said in a scathing 2023 review.

And so city dwellers make do with overcrowded — and sometimes awkward — living situations.

Laura Foote, executive director of “yes in my backyard” YIMBY Action, wound up living with the man who is now her husband — and the woman he was divorcing — in a one-bedroom apartment for about six months, until his ex could find another rental.

“We didn’t kill each other,” Foote said, “but it went on longer than it would have in a well-functioning housing market.”

Mayor’s plan is likely to pass

Supervisors are still negotiating amendments to the zoning plan, which could be voted out of committee on Monday for consideration by the full board. Some supervisors want to exempt historic properties, or all buildings currently used for housing. The mayor agreed to exempt buildings with at least three rent-controlled units.

The compromise was a major relief for Phyllis Nabhan, 78, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood, between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. She fears becoming homeless if a developer scoops up the property she’s called home for 47 years, starting with a rent of just $350 a month.

But Nabhan still objects to the proposal. She says it would ruin her neighborhood’s “cozy and wonderful” feel, and blames the state for forcing the city to change.

“I think that this mayor is trying,” she said. “It’s a horrible job, I wouldn’t want to be mayor.”