LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A monster storm system tore through the South and Midwest on Friday, spawning deadly tornadoes that shredded homes and shopping centers in Arkansas and collapsed a theater roof during a heavy metal concert in Illinois.At least one person was killed and more than two dozen were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado Friday night in Belvidere, Illinois, and that injuries have been reported.Authorities said a theater roof collapsed during a tornado in Belvidere, Illinois, killing one person and injuring 28. The Belvidere Police Department said the collapse occurred as a heavy storm rolled through the area and that calls began coming from the theater at 7:48 p.m. It said that an initial assessment was that a tornado had caused the damage.<blockquote>Our ministry partner Convoy of Hope is responding to the disaster:Convoy of Hope is responding to the tornado or tornadoes that hit Little Rock.&nbsp; Disaster Services team members are already en route to the affected areas with relief supplies for survivors of the storm.&nbsp;&nbsp;And as the storms move east, Convoy teams stand ready to respond to the areas where we are most needed.</blockquote>The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52750.jpg" alt="Car is upturned in a Kroger parking lot after a severe storm swept through Little Rock, Ark"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP/Andrew DeMillo] Severe Weather Arkansas</figcaption></figure>In the evening, officials in Pulaski County announced a confirmed fatality in North Little Rock but did not immediately give details.The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock was operating at a mass casualty level and preparing for up to 20 patients, spokesperson Leslie Taylor said. Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock officials told KATV in the afternoon that 21 people had checked in there with tornado-caused injuries, including five in critical condition.Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that officials were aware of 24 people who had been hospitalized in the city."Property damage is extensive and we are still responding,” he said.Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.In Little Rock, resident Niki Scott took cover in the bathroom after her husband called to say a tornado was headed her way. She could hear glass shattering as the tornado roared past, and emerged afterward to find that her house was one of the few on her street that didn’t have a tree fall on it.“It’s just like everyone says. It got really quiet, then it got really loud,” Scott said afterward, as chainsaws roared and sirens blared in the area.Outside a Guitar Center, five people were captured on video aiming their phones at the swirling sky. “Uh, no, that’s an actual tornado, y’all. It’s coming this way,” Red Padilla, a singer and songwriter in the band Red and the Revelers, said in the video.Padilla told The Associated Press that he and five bandmates sheltered inside the store for around 15 minutes with over a dozen others while the tornado passed. The power went out, and they used the flashlights on their phones to see.“It was real tense,” Padilla said.At Clinton National Airport, passengers and workers sheltered temporarily in bathrooms.“Praying for all those who were and remain in the path of this storm,” Sanders, who declared a state of emergency, said on Twitter. “Arkansans must continue to stay weather aware as storms are continuing to move through.”About 50 miles west of Memphis, Tennessee, the small city of Wynne, Arkansas, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP by phone that Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”Police Chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.City officials implemented a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.The unrelenting tornadoes continued moving east into the evening.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/ReedTimmerAccu/status/1641984384306753538"></oembed></figure>Police in Covington, Tennessee, also reported storm damage including downed power lines and toppled trees.Multiple tornadoes were reported moving through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to buildings. Images showed at least one flattened barn and some houses with roofing and siding ripped off.One tornado veered just west of Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which cancelled a watch party at an on-campus arena for the women’s basketball Final Four game. Video from KCRG-TV showed toppled power poles and roofs ripped off an apartment building in the suburb of Coralville and significantly damaged homes in the city of Hills.Nearly 90,000 customers in Arkansas lost power, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages.About 32,000 were without electricity in neighboring Oklahoma, where where wind gusts of up to 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.More outages were reported in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/wx_Frankie/status/1641955995076247553"></oembed></figure>In Illinois, Ben Wagner, chief radar operator for the Woodford County Emergency Management Agency, said hail broke windows on cars and buildings in the area of Roanoke, northeast of Peoria.Fire crews were battling several blazes near El Dorado, Kansas, and some residents were asked to evacuate, including about 250 elementary school children who were relocated to a high school.At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, a traffic management program was put into effect that caused arriving planes to be delayed by nearly two hours on average, WFLD-TV reported.The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had forecast an unusually large outbreak of thunderstorms with the potential to cause hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes that could move for long distances over the ground.Such “intense supercell thunderstorms ” are only expected to become more common, especially in Southern states, as temperatures rise around the world.Meteorologists said conditions Friday were similar to those a week ago that unleashed the devastating twister that killed at least 21 people and damaged some 2,000 homes in Mississippi.The toll was especially steep in western Mississippi's Sharkey County, where 13 people were killed in a county of 3,700 residents. Winds of up to 200 mph (322 kph) barreled through the rural farming town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars and toppling the town’s water tower.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/FrannyWX/status/1641912074098835456"></oembed></figure>The hazardous conditions were a result of strong southerly winds transporting copious amounts of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico north, where they will interact with the strengthening storm system.The weather service is forecasting another batch of intense storms next Tuesday in the same general area as last week. At least the first 10 days of April will be rough, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said earlier this week.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52766.jpg" alt="Debris litters a parking lot and vehicles are seen thrown around after a tornado touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Ninth Street in Coralville, Iowa"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette via AP] Debris litters a parking lot and vehicles are seen thrown around after a tornado touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Ninth Street in Coralville, Iowa</figcaption></figure>Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Harm Venhuizenin in Madison, Wisconsin, Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi and Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

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Jacob Dilks, right, looks over storm damage to his home in Hills, Iowa 

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The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was devastated. Police Chief Richard Dennis said the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.

Lives Lost In Tornado Outbreak, National Guard Activated, Convoy Of Hope Responds 

(AP) — Authorities say one person was killed and 28 were injured when the roof collapsed Friday night during a heavy metal concert at an Illinois theater. The featured group was 'Morbid Angels.'Belvidere Fire Department Chief Shawn Schadle said 260 people were in the venue at the time. He said first responders also rescued someone from an elevator and had to grapple with downed power lines outside the theater.Belvidere Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos.”<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/edreamsWREX/status/1641986813484052486"></oembed></figure><figure class="media"><oembed url="https://twitter.com/ChuckCallesto/status/1641988580779126785"></oembed></figure>

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Police Chief Shane Woody described the scene after the collapse as “chaos, absolute chaos.”

Storm Collapses Roof At Illinois Theater During Heavy Metal Concert, Many Hurt

Adam Kelchner was the church’s new pastor - and twice while preaching, he saw a man and his wife sitting way back in the foyer. “Folks don’t typically sit back there during the service. He was in a wheelchair and they were longtime members of the church and he had a spinal condition,” explains the pastor, who leads Camden, Tennessee, First United Methodist Church.This is not rightThe awkward situation bothered Pastor Adam immensely. “It was heartbreak that somebody physically could not be in sacred space with everybody else. And I wanted to do whatever it was as quick as I could to rectify that!”&nbsp;His idea was to shorten a pew to give Jerry Lamb room to park his wheelchair in an area with other worshippers. And his wife, Laura, could be there right beside him. Pastor Adam asked church trustees to greenlight his idea. “It was a pretty easy ‘sell’ for our trustees ‘to get this family in here with the rest of us.’”Jerry and Laura expressed appreciation, but didn’t want the church to go to any trouble to help them. Understanding that, Pastor Adam still believed it was the right thing to do.A quick fix“Two days' worth of work. $2,500 dollars and it was done.” A trusted contractor was brought in to shorten two pews – opposite each other, so the seating would match.More than local newsThis act of kindness ricocheted into national news when an Associated Press religion editor learned of the pew shortening and arranged for a feature story.&nbsp;Why has this gotten such attention? “I think folks are probably moved to see a community of faith doing good works in this kind of way – and good news is a little hard to come by sometimes,” Pastor Adam smiles.&nbsp;There’s much more to this story – including a number of people, including a cancer patient, who now use the open spaces to take part in worship. You will be encouraged as you listen to our complete podcast interview just below.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://soundcloud.com/emf-public-affairs-audio/determined-pastor-cuts-pew-in-half-to-make-room-for-worshipers-wheelchair?si=e40a799ac1644180b32fc9d01ba9765a&amp;utm_source=clipboard&amp;utm_medium=text&amp;utm_campaign=social_sharing"></oembed></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://emfservices.azureedge.net/news/40830.jpg" alt="Laura Lamb, left, hugs Pastor Adam Kelchner after helping her husband, Jerry, who has a spine condition, into their truck while leaving Camden First United Methodist Church"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/John Amis] Laura Lamb, left, hugs Pastor Adam Kelchner after helping her husband, Jerry, who has a spine condition, into their truck while leaving Camden First United Methodist Church</figcaption></figure><figure class="image"><img src="https://emfservices.azureedge.net/news/40829.jpg" alt="Jerry Lamb, who has a spine condition, talks to Pastor Adam Kelchner at Camden First United Methodist Church "><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/John Amis] Jerry Lamb, who has a spine condition, talks to Pastor Adam Kelchner at Camden First United Methodist Church&nbsp;</figcaption></figure><figure class="image image-style-align-left"><img src="https://emfservices.azureedge.net/news/40832.jpg" alt="Jerry Lamb, who has a spine condition, poses with wife, Laura, in front of Camden First United Methodist Church"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/John Amis] Jerry Lamb, who has a spine condition, poses with wife, Laura, in front of Camden First United Methodist Church</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Man in wheelchair talking to pastor in a space with a shorter pew.

“It was heartbreak that somebody physically could not be in sacred space with everybody else.”

Determined Pastor Cuts Pew In Half To Make Room For Worshiper’s Wheelchair (+podcast)

Marc Gold and Rob Croft are buddies - and they’re riding bicycles together for much more than fun. Their hearts are aligned for a 3,000-mile mission to raise awareness of Christian pregnancy centers nationwide, and focusing on one in particular, <a href="https://handsofhopetucson.com/bike-for-life/ ">Hands of Hope/Tucson</a>.&nbsp;When a woman experiences an unexpected pregnancy, life can become very confusing, very quickly. In many cities, compassionate help is readily available, and at no cost. But that fact is not always known, especially among young women. So, Marc and Rob are dedicating a lot of energy and sweat to get the word out. “My main goal,” explains Marc, “is to spread awareness that…there is hope during an unexpected pregnancy. That can be a pretty stressful time.”Rather listen?&nbsp;<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52268.mp3"></oembed></figure><figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52269.jpg" alt="Bike mission launched with prayer"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Bike for Life Tucson] Bike mission launched with prayer</figcaption></figure>Coast-to-coast on 2 wheels and padded bike pants“We’re going for it. And it’s going to be a long journey, but I think it’s going to be something if we can get it. With his [God’s] help, we’ll make a difference.” &nbsp;<a href="https://handsofhopetucson.com/bike-for-life/">Long-distance biking</a> partner Rob offers his thoughts. “I buy into, and believe, that God is in control, and he wants us to make choices that promote life,” adding Marc’s idea of an awareness and fundraising mission, “resonated with me on a spiritual level,” but also as sharing in a worthy project with a friend.&nbsp;Their multi-state route is all planned out. Marc and Rob average five or six hours on the road each day. And they’re careful to eat enough protein and good food to keep their bodies going. Rob is 66-year-old, Marc is 67. Both are avid cyclists. One of them has a passion for ice cream.What hope is available?Marc visited Hands of Hope/Tucson before the bicycle mission wanting to learn more about what they offer for the community. Besides free pregnancy testing and ultrasound to see the developing baby, the outreach offers support for women - and men - involved in the pregnancy, with counseling and guidance.&nbsp;There’s also help for a woman who has miscarried, experienced a stillbirth, or is suffering from emotional discomfort about past decisions. Marc emphasizes, “everything is free” and he says a woman can expect “to be welcomed” to the Christ-centered organization. Hands of Hope’s motto is “No Questions. No judgment.”10,000 Differences Made&nbsp;Marc learned that over the past 40 years Hands of Hope/Tucson has been responsible for guiding some 10,000 new births. But, “honestly, in October, I didn’t even know there was a Hands of Hope. And they’re right here in Tucson,” where he lives. That’s one reason he and Rob want to create all the awareness they can as their tires hit the pavement.&nbsp;Marc emphasizes, “If you think about it, Richard, this is all about help. It’s not a left or a right situation as far as politics and all that kind of stuff. This is all about help.” Besides pregnancy awareness, non-profit Hands of Hope even offers emergency diaper assistance.&nbsp;<figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52270.jpg" alt="Stork Hope Mobile Medical Unit offers the same free services - now on wheels"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Hands of Hope/Tucson] Stork Hope Mobile Medical Unit offers the same free services - now on wheels</figcaption></figure>Florida or bust (no flats, please)Marc &amp; Rob’s nationwide ride began in San Diego March 13th, with the end point being Jacksonville, Florida. Besides creating awareness, their goal is to raise funding for Hands of Hope. “Man, this isn’t about the money, really, this is about saving lives and of course it takes money to save the lives.” Marc believes, and Rob agrees, “If we can help save one life, it’ll be worth every pedal stroke that we make to Florida!”<a class="btn btn-primary" href="https://maps.findmespot.com/S/N4ZC/X2#history/assets">You can track their bike progress here.</a>These two bicycle enthusiasts have great hearts for the cause, their friendship, and especially for God. Learn more in our complete podcast interview just below.<figure class="media"><oembed url="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52268.mp3"></oembed></figure><figure class="image text-center"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52271.jpg" alt="Rob &amp; Marc pray together daily before hitting the road"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: Bike for Life Tucson] Rob &amp; Marc pray together daily before hitting the road</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;

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Rob Croft & Marc Gold: “If we can help save one life, it’ll be worth every pedal stroke that we make to Florida!”

“My main goal,” explains Marc, “is to spread awareness that…there is hope during an unexpected pregnancy. That can be a pretty stressful time.”

Rob & Marc Biking 3,000 Miles For Hope

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USGS said the quake, which struck around 6:16 p.m., was centered near Palomar Mountain and shook the San Diego area.

4.2-Magnitude Quake Hits San Diego County, Shaking Felt In OC, Inland Empire

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday after his indictment in New York City, court officials said Friday. Trump's planned surrender will usher in the unprecedented scenario of a former U.S. commander-in-chief being arrested and arraigned.Trump's indictment, announced Thursday, came after a grand jury probe into hush money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to squelch allegations of immoral behavior. The indictment itself has remained sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment.Trump has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the investigation as a “scam,” a “persecution,” an injustice and a political low blow aimed at damaging his 2024 presidential run. He is a Republican; the district attorney who oversaw the inquiry, Alvin Bragg, is a Democrat.No ex-president has ever been charged with a crime before, so there's no rulebook for booking one. Trump has Secret Service protection, so agents would need to be by his side at all times.Indeed, Trump was asked to surrender Friday, but his lawyers said the Secret Service needed more time to make security preparations, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.Even for defendants who turn themselves in, answering criminal charges in New York generally entails at least several hours of detention while being fingerprinted, photographed, and going through other procedures.Bragg’s office said Thursday it had contacted Trump’s lawyer to coordinate a surrender. Ahead of the court's announcement of the arraignment date, Trump's attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said that Tuesday was the likely date for Trump to turn himself in.The investigation dug into six-figure payments made to two women. As Trump ran for president in 2016, his allies paid the women to bury their allegations.&nbsp;Federal prosecutors argued — in a 2018 criminal case against Trump lawyer Cohen — that the payments equated to illegal aid to Trump’s campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violation charges, but federal prosecutors didn’t go after Trump, who was then in the White House. However, some of their court filings obliquely implicated him as someone who knew about the payment arrangements.The New York indictment came as Trump contends with other investigations that could have grave legal consequences.In Atlanta, prosecutors are considering whether he committed any crimes when trying to get Georgia officials to overturn his narrow 2020 election loss there to Joe Biden.At the federal level, a Justice Department-appointed special counsel also is investigating Trump’s efforts to unravel the national election results. Additionally, the special counsel is examining how and why Trump held onto a cache of top secret government documents at his Florida club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, and whether the ex-president or his representatives tried to obstruct the probe into those documents.___Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed from Washington.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023

No ex-president has ever been charged with a crime before, so there's no rulebook for booking one. Trump has Secret Service protection, so agents would need to be by his side at all times.

Former President Trump Faces Arraignment Tuesday In NYC

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A former New York prosecutor weighs in on the process for indicting former President Trump and how long the legal process could play out.

Former Manhattan Prosecutor: The Case Against Trump Not A Slam-Dunk

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Public health authorities are working to identify a specific brand of flour linked to the outbreak and believe more people may be ill.

CDC: Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Raw Flour Sickens 12 In 11 States

ROLLING FORK, Miss. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday is visiting a Mississippi town ravaged by a deadly tornado, even as a new series of severe storms threatens to rip across the Midwest and the South.Last week's twister destroyed roughly 300 homes and businesses in Rolling Fork, and the nearby town of Silver City, leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal. Hundreds of additional structures were badly damaged. The death toll in Mississippi stands at 21, based on those confirmed by coroners. One person died in Alabama, as well.Biden was announcing that the federal government will cover the total cost of the state’s emergency measures for the next 30 days, including overtime for first responders and debris cleanup. He's announcing the Federal Emergency Management Agency will open disaster recovery centers in storm ravaged counties to help residents access the resources available to them.The president and first lady Jill Biden are to survey the damage, meet with homeowners impacted by the storms and first responders and get an operational briefing from federal and state officials. They're expected to be joined by Gov. Tate Reeves, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Rep. Bennie Thompson.From Marine One, as they flew from Jackson to the area hardest hit by last week’s storm, the Bidens got a view of the devastation across acres of farmland — destroyed homes, toppled trees and piles of debris.In a statement after the tornado, Biden pledged that the federal government would "do everything we can to help.”“We will be there as long as it takes," he said. "We will work together to deliver the support you need to recover.”Presidents regularly visit parts of the U.S. that have been ravaged by natural disasters or suffered major loss of life from shootings or other disasters. Republicans have criticized Biden for not yet making a trip to the site of a toxic chemical spill in a small Ohio town. He also has to decide whether to visit Nashville after three children and three adults were shot and killed at Covenant School.Last week's severe weather makes life even more difficult in an area already struggling economically. Mississippi is one of the poorest states, and the majority-Black Delta has long been one of the poorest parts of the state — a place where many people live paycheck to paycheck, often in jobs connected to agriculture.Two of the counties walloped by the tornado, Sharkey and Humphreys, are among the most sparsely populated in the state, with only a few thousand residents in communities scattered across wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields. Sharkey’s poverty rate is 35%, and Humphreys’ is 33%, compared with about 19% for Mississippi overall and less than 12% for the entire United States.FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said some of the damage to the area's infrastructure will take much time to repair and that the administration will help in rebuilding key facilities to be "more resilient” to withstand future natural disasters.“We know that these communities could be cash strapped and we want to get that funding flowing," Criswell added.Biden approved a disaster declaration for the state, which frees up federal funds for temporary housing, home repairs and loans to cover uninsured property losses. But there's concern that inflation and economic troubles may blunt the impact of federal assistance.Biden has spoken in separate phone calls with Reeves, Sen. Roger Wicker, Hyde-Smith and Thompson.An unusual weather pattern has set in, and meteorologists fear that Friday will be one of the worst days, with much more to come. The National Weather Service said 16.8 million people live in the highest-risk zone, and more than 66 million people overall should be on alert Friday.According to a new study, the U.S. will see more of these massive storms as the world warms. The storms are likely to strike more frequently in more populous Southern states including Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.The study in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society predicts a nationwide 6.6% increase in tornado- and hail-spawning supercell storms and a 25.8% jump in the area and time the strongest storms will strike, under a scenario of moderate levels of future warming by the end of the century.But in certain areas in the South the increase is much higher. That includes Rolling Fork, where study authors project an increase of one supercell a year by 2100.Biden's decision to visit the ravaged area was welcomed by at least some of the area's residents.Under a canopy set up blocks away from Rolling Fork’s obliterated city hall building, church volunteers doled out packages of breakfast sausages and pancakes with syrup Friday morning. Joseph Thomas, a 77-year-old Vietnam veteran and lifelong Rolling Fork resident, arrived to claim his meal wearing a bandana emblazoned with an American flag.Thomas said he never imagined any president would come to his rural Delta hometown.“I’m proud that he is coming to this little small town. That means a lot to me,” Thomas said. “Because we need a lot of help to come through here, federal help, boots on the ground to put all this back together.”

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Charles Shields, left, sits with friend Robbie Diffey on the roof of Diffey's garage after a tornado destroyed her home

Last week's twister destroyed roughly 300 homes and businesses in Rolling Fork

Marine One Flies Over Destruction In Mississippi, Bidens Survey Damage

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“She was 4 when she was taken, so she was learning to hunt. She knows her family song. She’ll remember, but it will take time.”

Orca Taken In Whale Roundup May Be Released After 52 Years

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As new volunteers kept streaming into the Church of the Incarnation, Reynaldo Hidalgo prepped fresh palm fronds for them to weave into elaborate designs that will be blessed at services on Palm Sunday, the start of Christianity’s holiest week.“It’s to give welcome to the king, our Lord Jesus Christ,” said Hidalgo, who has led traditional Mexican palm weaving workshops here for half a dozen years, along with his wife. “We wanted to keep a memory of this tradition.”Many Christians around the world will be getting blessed palm or other tree branches this weekend, in commemoration of Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, when the Gospel narrates that crowds spread branches on the road before him.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52717.jpg" alt="Isabel Tenorio, right, teaches how to weave palm fronds into elaborate designs to Kari Mendoza, left, and her mother, Maria Teresa Mendoza, at the Church of the Incarnation in anticipation of Palm Sunday in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>At Hidalgo's Catholic church, and others across the country where parishioners observe the Easter traditions of many Latin American and European countries, the fronds are woven and braided into intricate designs of up to several feet, often decorated with rosettes, ribbons and images of Jesus or the saints.It’s a celebration not just of faith, but ancient cultural crafts, often related to spring and farming rituals, that they’re eager to pass on to younger generations.Teens and younger children, some lugging their homework, gathered Wednesday in Incarnation’s basement, where the tropical perfume of fresh palms contrasted with the below-freezing evening outside.Maria Consuelo Palapa came with her 7-year-old son, Omar, “first to help the church, and to teach the child my traditions” from the Mexican state of Puebla.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52716.jpg" alt="Maria Consuelo Palapa weaves a palm frond in a traditional Mexican design with help from her son Omar, 7, at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>When she ran into trouble weaving the back of a two-foot-long palm shaped into a giant flower, she consulted Hidalgo’s wife, Isabel Tenorio, who supervised the efforts to produce more than 400 palms before this weekend’s Masses. They will be sold then, all proceeds going to the community outreach and maintenance costs of the historic church.“I would like that the community kept this going, to help our church,” Tenorio said as the woven fronds piled up on the large table in front of her and so many volunteers kept coming that some tried their hand at the craft standing up.One of the first to arrive was Adriana Mozo, a long-time parishioner but first-time weaver whose parents migrated from Mexico.“I’m very crafty, but this is wild,” she said as she tackled the green fronds, brittle and resistant at the same time. She bought one a couple of years ago that’s still framed in her dining room. “It feels like a connection to God.”The palms are kept in places of honor in many homes for a year, when they’re traditionally burned to make ashes for the Ash Wednesday celebrations that mark the beginning of Lent.“It’s a form of ratifying a pact by Mexican believers with the Catholic religion,” said Elio Masferrer, an anthropologist at Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History. “It’s a form of endorsing a social alliance,” especially for migrant communities.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn.corpemf.com/news/52718.jpg" alt="Victor Ramirez weaves a palm frond into a rosette at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis"><figcaption>[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Giovanna Dell’Orto]</figcaption></figure>At Saint Michael Church in New Haven, Connecticut, Jean Quartiano started weaving workshops precisely so that a tradition brought over by nuns from Italy nearly a century ago wouldn’t be lost. This week, she’s been at the church up to 12 hours a day, training volunteers to braid palm crucifixes they will sell at Mass, to help keep the lights on in the shrinking parish.“We’re going to keep the tradition alive as long as we can,” Quartiano said.Back in Minneapolis, a high school junior who came for the chance to learn a new craft lined up for Tenorio’s advice behind a mother and daughter duo who remembered seeing artisans selling the palm designs outside churches in their native Puebla.“I was raised in this culture, where it’s a blessing to have a little blessed palm,” Kari Mendoza said as her mother nodded.Victor Ramirez came with his wife and 16-year-old son to learn to weave palms, which his grandparents kept in their home in the Mexican state of Morelos as protection against storms and other evils.Even with a finger in a splint, he was soon deftly and quickly creating palm rosettes to decorate the much larger creations.“We all keep palms as a symbol of joy,” Ramirez said.

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Reynaldo Hidalgo, right, teaches a volunteer how to weave palm fronds at the Church of the Incarnation in Minneapolis

“We’re going to keep the tradition alive as long as we can.”

Art Of Palm Weaving Taught Across Country Ahead Of Palm Sunday

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is expected to be discharged on Saturday from the Rome hospital where he is being treated for bronchitis as his recovery proceeds in a “normal” way, even had pizza for dinner and will be in St. Peter's Square for Palm Sunday Mass, the Vatican said.Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni gave the update in a written statement on Friday. In a subsequent statement, Bruni said that Francis was due to be in the square for the Mass, which marks the start of Holy Week and ushers in a series of solemn public ceremonies that culminate on Easter on April 9.Francis, 86, was hospitalized on Wednesday at Gemelli Polyclinic, where doctors said the pontiff was receiving antibiotics intravenously to treat his bronchitis.“Yesterday went well, with a normal clinical recovery,'' Bruni said. “In the evening (of Thursday), Pope Francis had dinner, eating a pizza, together with all those who are assisting him in these days of the hospital stay,” the spokesman said, including doctors, nurses, assistants and Vatican security personnel.On Friday morning, the pope read newspapers and resumed his work after breakfast.The pontiff's return to the Vatican hotel where he lives "is expected for tomorrow, as a result of the last tests of this morning,'' Bruni said.The spokesman later added that, given the pope would return to the Vatican on Saturday, Francis was expected to be present in the square for Palm Sunday Mass. He didn't indicate whether Francis would deliver a homily during the ceremony, a particularly long service, or if someone else might read it for him.Medical staff decided to hospitalize him on Wednesday after he returned to his Vatican residence following his customary weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican reported he had experienced difficulty breathing in the previous days.Bruni on Thursday evening said that antibiotic treatment for bronchitis had resulted in a “marked” improvement in his health.In a video released by the Vatican, Francis is seen baptizing a hospitalized baby who is a few weeks old. After being told the boy's name, “Miguel Angel,” the pope uses a metal hospital tray usually employed to hold syringes to pour water over the sleeping baby's head, then tries to comfort the infant, who wakes up, wailing and seeming to swat away the pope's hand.Francis was smiling and looked chipper as he visited children being treated at Gemelli for cancer and gave out large, wrapped chocolate Easter eggs.Earlier in the day, Francis sent a tweet on Friday possibly inspired by his current health challenge.“When experienced with faith, the trials and difficulties of life serve to purify our hearts, making them humbler and thus more and more open to God,” Francis wrote. The tweet carried a hashtag for Lent, the period of the liturgical year stressing penitence and sacrifice in the run-up to the joyous Church celebration of Easter, which marks the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion.The Vatican seemed keen to quickly dispel any worries about the pope's physical fitness to carry on fully with his duties. Nearly immediately after the announcement of a discharge date for Francis, the Vatican announced that the pope would meet the prime minister of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace.The hospitalization came four days before outdoor Palm Sunday Mass, which usually draws tens of thousands of faithful, flocking to Rome before Easter.Francis had already largely stopped celebrating Mass at major Catholic Church holy days because of a chronic knee problem, but had continued to preside at the ceremonies and deliver homilies.Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said Friday that Francis would be able to preside over — but not celebrate — Holy Week ceremonies.The Holy Week appointments include a stamina-taxing late night Way of the Cross procession marked by prayers on Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome and Easter Mass on April 9, which is traditionally followed by a long papal speech delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.During Wednesday's hour-long public audience, Francis at times appeared visibly in pain when he moved about and was helped by aides.In July 2021, Francis underwent surgery at Gemelli Polyclinic after suffering from a narrowing of his colon. As a young man in Argentina, Francis had part of a lung removed.

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Pope Francis meets children at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 29, 2023.

The pontiff's return to the Vatican hotel where he lives "is expected for tomorrow, as a result of the last tests of this morning."

Pope Will Be Released From Hospital Ahead Of Palm Sunday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The financial safety nets millions of older Americans rely on and millions of young people are counting on will run short of money to pay full benefits within the next decade, the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released Friday warns.Medicare, the government-sponsored health insurance that covers 65 million older and disabled people, will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031, the report forecast. And just two years later, Social Security won't have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees.The report is another prod for politicians to address the fragile financial state of the social programs, which are only expected to get more expensive in the coming years as more Americans age into eligibility for them.“The Trustees continue to recommend that Congress address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely fashion to phase in necessary changes gradually,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, acting commissioner of Social Security.Friday's report is a mix of good and bad news: The forecasted go-broke date for Medicare was moved back three years — last year's report predicted the government wouldn't have enough money to start paying those benefits in 2028. But the date for Social Security's trust was moved up one year earlier.On its current track, Medicare would be able to cover only 89% of costs for patients' hospital visits, nursing home stays and home health care starting in 2031. Social Security, meanwhile, will be able to cover only 77% of benefits starting in 2033.Social Security's disability trust fund is in much better shape — it's not expected to be depleted within the next 75 years.The future of Social Security and Medicare has become a top political talking point as President Joe Biden heads into his expected 2024 reelection campaign. Biden, a Democrat, has vowed to rebuff any Republican-led efforts to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits to brace for the shortfall. Instead, he's pitched raising taxes on some of the country's wealthiest people, those making $400,000 or more a year, to shore up Medicare.Republican leaders, meanwhile, say they don't intend to ax benefits either, but they've yet to coalesce behind a plan to keep the programs solvent. Last year, however, members of the House Republican Study Committee proposed raising the age at which someone could qualify for Social Security and Medicare.Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson said ahead of the report's release that “if lawmakers do nothing, in less than a decade more than 70 million beneficiaries would face an automatic 23% cut, reducing the average benefit by several thousand dollars per year. We simply can’t let that happen.”“The sooner we act, the easier it will be to ensure the future of Social Security," he said. "Lawmakers shouldn’t take anything off the table, and the good news is there are plenty of reasonable options on both the revenue and spending side of the ledger to implement fair, gradual and common sense reforms.”Lawmakers have for years kicked Social Security and Medicare's troubling math to the next generation. Social Security benefits were last reformed 40 years ago, when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the program from 65 to 67. The eligibility age has never changed for Medicare, with people accessing the medical coverage when they turn 65.The funds' future should be a top priority for Congressional leaders, AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins said in a statement, calling on elected officials to hammer out a plan.“Today’s Social Security and Medicare Trustees reports reinforce that while they are financially strong today, both programs face long-term funding needs, and Congress must act to find solutions to ensure Social Security and Medicare will be there for the next generation and into the future," Jenkins said.

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President Joe Biden speaks about his administration's plans to protect Social Security and Medicare and lower healthcare costs

“The sooner we act, the easier it will be to ensure the future of Social Security."

Social Security, Medicare Part Of Fragile Social Programs

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Letters to first responders at Nashville school shooting

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