The resolution of the debt ceiling debacle, former first lady Rosalynn Carter diagnosed with dementia, and more top news of the week

The tears were flowing.

Iowa native Frank Fritz and lifelong friend and reality-show co-star Mike Wolfe have reunited after nearly three years without seeing one another.

Another longtime friend of Fritz’s helped arrange for the Memorial Day weekend reunion between the pair who found fame as “American Pickers” on the History Channel. She has asked that her name not be published to protect her privacy.

“This was not a feud between Mike and Frank at all,” Fritz’s friend said Tuesday. “They were not feuding. They needed separation to appreciate each other.”

After 11 seasons on a reality show, “working 10-hour days, seven days a week with your best friend,” the relationship became strained. But the pair made clear during their get-together on Sunday, she said, that their nearly lifelong friendship isn’t over.

“Mike has been wanting to see Frank for quite some time,” she said. “Frank just now felt up to seeing him. It was Frank’s request to see Mike.”

She gave them privacy during the meeting, the friend said, but she came and went from the room where Fritz, 57, continues to receive care after suffering a stroke in July 2022.

“They were both in tears. Both were crying,” she said. “Mike brought up how nervous they both were to be going on David Letterman, which was one of their first big appearances.

“He said, ‘Nobody can replace you, Frank.’ He said it was Frank’s ‘uniquely funny personality’ that made them fit so well together as a team.”

Fritz one day told his friend, “I need to talk to Mike,” she said, and they called him on Mother’s Day. They made arrangements then to meet over Memorial Day weekend.

“They talked about old times — how things got started and the impact they had on the world,” she said. “There were tears flowing on both sides.

“Mike really stressed all the good times they had before the show and during the show. Mike did say he’d like Frank back on the show, but Frank is focused on his health.”

Fritz had serious spine and digestive-health issues before his stroke. He wishes to remain private about his current condition. He continues to receive in-patient care related to the stroke, his friend said.

“Frank appreciates all the love, support and care, and he does hear your prayers,” his friend said.

Photos: 'American Pickers' attend Kid Pickers Flea Market in LeClaire in 2018

ATLANTA (AP) — Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia and remains at home, her family has announced.

Carter, now 95, remains at home with former President Jimmy Carter, who has been at home receiving hospice care since early this year.

“She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones,” the family said via The Carter Center, the global humanitarian organization the couple founded in 1982 after leaving the White House.

Married nearly 77 years, the Carter are the longest-married first couple in U.S. history.

The family noted in its statement that Rosalynn Carter spent her long public life advocating for individuals and families affected by mental illness and for those in caregiving relationships with loved ones.

"Mrs. Carter often noted that there are only four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers; those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers,” the statement reads. “The universality of caregiving is clear in our family, and we are experiencing the joy and the challenges of this journey. We do not expect to comment further and ask for understanding for our family and for everyone across the country serving in a caregiver role.”

The Carters have been visiting only with family and close friends in recent months, after the former president's announcement that he would forgo further medical intervention after a series of short hospital stays.

Photos: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter through the years

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1966

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1970

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1971

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1976

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1977

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1978

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1978

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1979

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1979

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1980

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1980

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1984

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1985

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1988

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 1995

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2004

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2007

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2007

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2008

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2009

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2009

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2009

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2010

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2011

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2014

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2015

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2015

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2017

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2018

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2018

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2019

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2021

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2023

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, 2023

Former President Jimmy Carter praised for his election observation work around the world

Habitat for Humanity homeowners reflect on Jimmy Carter's work

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Target's Pride collection features 'tuck-friendly' swimsuits for adults, not kids

CLAIM: Target's Pride collection features a bathing suit for kids that is labeled "tuck-friendly."

THE FACTS: The "tuck-friendly" swimsuits are only offered in adult sizes, according to a spokesperson for the company and Target's website. Kids' swimsuits in the collection do not feature this label.

But the store's seasonal collection of clothes for Pride month has been the subject of several misleading videos in recent weeks. Many of the posts criticizing Target have also urged people to boycott the company, following similar threats and transphobic commentary from conservative social media personalities towards brands including Bud Light and Nike over promotional campaigns featuring transgender people. Posts criticizing Target shared photos or videos of either a one-piece swimsuit with a bright pink, orange, green and blue colorblock pattern, or black swim bottoms with colorful line stitches. Both feature a circular tag that reads, "Tuck-Friendly Construction," and "Extra Crotch Coverage."

"Did you know @Target also sells 'tuck-friendly' bathing suits for children in the Pride section? Well now you do," reads one post sharing a photo of the tag on Twitter. The post has received more than 4,000 likes.

However, the swimsuits labeled "tuck-friendly" are only in adult sizes, and are not available in kids' sizes, Kayla Castaneda, a spokesperson for Target, told the AP. Both the colorful one-piece and black swim bottoms seen in the photos and videos online are clearly labeled on Target's website as adult swimsuits. Both pages list the products as coming in "general adult sizing" and offer adult XS as the smallest size for sale. "The 'tuck-friendly' swim suits are for adults only," Castaneda said. The kids' swimsuits in the Pride collection are not the same design or construction and do not have the same label, Castaneda confirmed. At a Target in New York City's downtown Brooklyn neighborhood that the AP visited on Monday, the same adult swimsuits shown on social media featured the "tuck-friendly" tag, while a kids' black swimskirt for sale instead had a tag reading: "Thoughtfully Fit on Multiple Body Types and Gender Expressions." The Pride apparel for kids, adults and pets was located together at the front of the store, in an area often used for seasonal or limited-edition collections, and not in the children's section. After the intense online backlash and some reports of in-store confrontations, Target removed some LGBTQ+-themed products and relocated Pride Month displays to the back of stores in certain Southern locations. Target declined to specify which items it was removing.

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Video doesn't show banned books being removed from Florida school, officials say

CLAIM: Video taken by school staffer shows scores of banned books being removed from a middle school in Broward County, Florida.

THE FACTS: Officials in the school district say the books are being removed as part of a routine weeding out of old materials that coincides with a library renovation project, not because they were banned.

The local teacher's union and the state education department confirm it is unrelated to any bans and the old books are being replaced with newer ones. The short clip in question shows a woman walking through a school hallway lined with large boxes filled to the brim with books. "The state just came last week and decided which books were appropriate or inappropriate," the woman says in the clip as she and two other school staffers hold up some of the materials and read off their titles, which range from "Hispanic American, Texas and the Mexican War" to "Black Eagles: African Americans in Aviation." The video comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis, who launched his campaign for president Wednesday, has controversially championed policies allowing greater censorship, including a law that makes it easier for parents to challenge books and instructional materials in schools. "WATCH THIS VIDEO," wrote one Twitter user. "A Florida public school staff member, risking her job, documented a glimpse of what's currently happening at her school." But county and state education officials maintain the school shown in the video — McNicol Middle School in Hollywood — is actually in the process of refreshing nearly its entire book collection, not getting rid of materials banned or deemed inappropriate. Keyla Concepción, a spokesperson for Broward County Public Schools, said the library collection is being overhauled as the school media center is undergoing a roughly two-year renovation. She said the new books are slated to be in place when the center reopens this summer. John Sullivan, another district spokesperson, added that nearly 90% of the library collection was more than 15 years old and the average date of publication was 1997. "The books in question were not removed at the direction of the state," he wrote in an email. "It is the national standard that school library specialists review and 'weed' books from their collections to ensure the material is current and up-to-date." Sullivan pointed to collection maintenance standards from the American Library Association as well as a 2000 legal settlement that dealt with educational equity issues within the district, as the primary drivers for the collection update. He added that the district has been assisting dozens of other schools with updating their collections. "Due to the current climate in education across the nation surrounding library media practices, we understand how those not familiar with the weeding of books from school collections may confuse this process," Sullivan wrote. The staffer who posted the video didn't respond to messages seeking comment this week, but said in a subsequent post that she was asked to take down the original post after she was provided with the reasons for the book removal. Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, also backed up the district's explanation. She acknowledged there have been recent efforts by district parents to ban certain books from the school but said this doesn't appear related. "Those books were purged due to being outdated or worn out," Fusco wrote in a text message. "Nothing was banned." State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz dismissed the staffer's initial video, too. "Broward County has confirmed to me that this is simply an end-of-year book inventory," he tweeted Monday. "It has nothing to do with vetting any books. This video is completely false and a sad attempt to disrupt our educational environment." But while the Broward County incident doesn't appear to be a case of censorship, book bans are a growing concern in DeSantis' Florida, stressed Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, which is focused on library censorship issues. This week, "The Hill We Climb," a poem written by Amanda Gorman for President Joe Biden's inauguration, was placed on a restricted list at a South Florida elementary school after one parent complained. "The entire state of Florida is on our watch list," said Caldwell-Stone. "We are aware that censorship is occurring. We are deeply concerned about states like Florida."

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

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Phones given to US immigrants have limited uses

CLAIM: The U.S. government gives immigrants who cross the country's border illegally smartphones with unlimited texting and internet access.

THE FACTS: Immigration and Customs Enforcement does give some immigrants phones. However, they can only access an app called SmartLink, which is used to monitor immigrants after they cross the border, according to the agency, the company that makes the phones and an immigration expert.

The devices, used by ICE since 2018, are not connected to a cellular network and cannot be used to browse the internet, make unauthorized phone calls, or access apps other than SmartLink. Posts sharing the claims generally include a video first tweeted by a reporter for the Washington Examiner, who said it shows migrants boarding a flight from Brownsville, Texas, to Dallas. Even though the reporter's tweet does not mention smartphones, other posts sharing the video do. "Illegals waiting to fly out of Brownsville to Dallas - paid for by US taxpayers while on their taxpayer paid Galaxy 10 smart phones with unlimited text and internet," reads one tweet. Immigrants who participate in ICE's Alternatives to Detention program may receive phones instead of remaining in custody or wearing a tracking device such as an ankle monitor. But these devices have extremely limited uses — not the "unlimited" messaging and web browsing suggested by the posts. A spokesperson for ICE pointed to the agency's webpage describing the program, which says certain participants are "issued a device capable solely of running the SmartLINK application" if they don't have a personal phone that supports the app when they enroll. They must return the device if they acquire their own phone, are reassigned to a different technology or are no longer in the program. "SmartLINK is intended for the sole purpose of providing immigration compliance and case management services to ATD participants," the page states. It goes on to explain that this includes verifying the location from which participants complete scheduled check-ins, reminding participants about court hearings and providing a database of community services. The phones are manufactured by BI Incorporated, an electronic monitoring technologies company. BI is a subsidiary of The GEO Group, a private prison company that runs immigration detention facilities for ICE under other contracts. Monica Hook, a spokesperson for The GEO Group, told the AP that claims about the phones having unlimited messaging and internet are "categorically false." "BI Mobile is a hand-held communications device that comes with the BI SmartLink application pre-installed," she wrote in an email. "BI Mobile is not a smartphone and does not have the associated capabilities of traditional, consumer smartphones such as browsing the internet, disabling device settings, and unauthorized calls and texts." Rebekah Wolf, an expert in immigration detention and border issues who works as a policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, confirmed that these phones are "limited" in their capabilities. "BI controls what phone numbers it can call, so it's not just a sort of free for all," she told the AP. "It has to be Wi-Fi enabled because that's how SmartLink the app works. But it doesn't have software on it to, like, go to Google Chrome. Like the entire interface of the phone is just the app. So like, yes, you can call in because you can call your ICE officer." Wolf has been to briefings with BI and the Department of Homeland Security where the use of these phones is discussed. She also works with local case management providers who interact directly with immigrants in the Alternatives to Detention program. More than 257,000 active Alternative to Detention participants were using the SmartLink app at the end of 2022, according to ICE statistics. As of early May 2023, that number had gone down to approximately 224,000. Critics of SmartLink have raised concerns about issues such as privacy and whether the app is necessary for immigrants who have no criminal history, the AP has reported.

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.

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NASA didn't publish study on snake plants providing life-saving oxygen

CLAIM: A NASA study found that six to eight snake plants in a room with no airflow is enough for human survival. The agency therefore recommends 15 to 18 plants for an 1,800-square-foot home.

THE FACTS: The agency did not reach those conclusions or offer such recommendations, a spokesperson confirmed. The claim may be a distortion of a 1989 NASA report focused on whether indoor plants can help clean the air, not sustain human life.

Social media users shared a Facebook video advancing the false claim nonetheless. "According to NASA's Clean Air Study, the Snake Plant is so effective in producing oxygen that if you were locked in a sealed room with no airflow (yikes!), you would be able to survive with just 6-8 plants in it," text on the video reads. "NASA recommends 15 to 18 medium-to-large size plants for a 1,800 square-foot home for optimum air quality." But the agency didn't issue such a study or guidance. "NASA has not made these claims or recommendations," NASA spokesperson Rob Margetta told The Associated Press in an email. A small team at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi did publish a report more than three decades ago that looked at common household plants and their ability to remove some household toxins from sealed chambers, Margetta noted. That 1989 report, " Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement," was done in conjunction with a landscaping group and focused on plants' ability to filter out contaminants in such settings. The report did assert that plants — including snake plants, referred to in the report as a mother-in-law's tongue — can help improve air quality. It didn't, however, evaluate using them to produce enough oxygen to sustain human life in precarious situations. The "research was focused on sealed areas with limited airflow, not typical residential or commercial spaces," Margetta added. "Since the study's publication, its findings have often been misinterpreted or misapplied." Some subsequent research has cast doubt on plants' ability to improve air quality in normal indoor environments. And while plants use a process known as photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, they aren't as efficient as the social media post suggests. "The reality is that the rate at which they do these processes is much lower than what you need to actually support a human," said Berkley Walker, an assistant professor of plant biochemistry at Michigan State University. Using a generous and general estimate, Walker said, it would likely take leaf area the size of a one-car garage to produce enough oxygen that a human requires in one day. Even then, that's assuming constant, ideal conditions — such as continuous sunlight. There's no evidence that snake plants perform at a higher level than other plants, let alone one to support the theory shared online, Walker said.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New Jersey contributed this report.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury found “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson guilty of two out of three counts of rape Wednesday in a Los Angeles retrial in which the Church of Scientology played a central role.

The jury of seven women and five men reached the verdict after deliberating for seven days spread over two weeks. They could not reach a verdict on the third count, that alleged Masterson raped a longtime girlfriend. They had voted 8-4 in favor of conviction.

Masterson was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. The 47-year-old actor faces up to 30 years in prison.

His wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, wept as he was led away. Other family and friends sat stone-faced.

“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions – relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness – knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” one of the women, whom Masterson was convicted of raping at his home in 2003, said in a statement.

Prosecutors, retrying Masterson after a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in December, said he forcibly raped three women, including a longtime girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. They told jurors he drugged the women’s drinks so he could rape them. They said he used his prominence in the church — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades.

Masterson did not testify, and his lawyers called no witnesses. The defense argued that the acts were consensual, and attempted to discredit the women’s stories by highlighting changes and inconsistencies over time, which they said showed signs of coordination between them.

“If you decide that a witness deliberately lied about something in this case,” defense attorney Philip Cohen told jurors, going through their instructions in his closing argument, “You should consider not believing anything that witness says.”

The Church of Scientology played a significant role in the first trial but arguably an even larger one in the second. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo allowed expert testimony on church policy from a former official in Scientology leadership who has become a prominent opponent.

Tensions ran high in the courtroom between current and former Scientologists, and even leaked into testimony, with the accusers saying on the stand that they felt intimidated by some members in the room.

Actor Leah Remini, a former member who has become the church’s highest-profile critic, sat in on the trial at times, putting her arm around one of the accusers to comfort her during closing arguments.

Founded in 1953 by L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology has many members who work in Hollywood. The judge kept limits on how much prosecutors could talk about the church, and primarily allowed it to explain why the women took so long to go to authorities.

The women testified that when they reported Masterson to church officials, they were told they were not raped, were put through ethics programs themselves, and were warned against going to law enforcement to report a member of such high standing.

“They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against,” Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told jurors in his closing argument. “Scientology told them there’s no justice for them. You have the opportunity to show them there is justice.”

The church vehemently denied having any policy that forbids members from going to secular authorities.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they’ve been sexually abused.

Testimony in this case was graphic and emotional.

Two women, who knew Masterson from social circles in the church, said he gave them drinks and that they then became woozy or passed out before he violently raped them in 2003.

The third, Masterson’s then-girlfriend of five years, said she awoke to find him raping her, and had to pull his hair to stop him.

The issue of drugging also played a major role in the retrial. At the first, Olmedo only allowed prosecutors and accusers to describe their disorientation, and to imply that they were drugged. The second time, they were allowed to argue it directly, and the prosecution attempted to make it a major factor, to no avail.

“The defendant drugs his victims to gain control,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson said in her closing argument. “He does this to take away his victims’ ability to consent.”

Masterson was not charged with any counts of drugging, and there is no toxicology evidence to back up the assertion. His attorney asked for a mistrial over the issue’s inclusion. The motion was denied, but the issue is likely to be a major factor in any potential appeal.

These charges date to a period when Masterson was at the height of his fame, starring from 1998 until 2006 as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show” — the show that made stars of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace.

Masterson had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when an LAPD investigation was revealed in December 2017.

Photos: Danny Masterson

Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson

Danny Masterson, Sam Elliott, Ashton Kutcher

Danny Masterson, Ashton Kutcher

Danny Masterson

Danny Masterson

Danny Masterson

Danny Masterson

Danny Masterson, Bijou Phillips

Danny Masterson

After ballooning for years, CEO pay growth is finally slowing.

The typical compensation package for chief executives who run S&P 500 companies rose just 0.9% last year, to a median of $14.8 million, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. That means half the CEOs in the survey made more and half made less. It was the smallest increase since 2015.

Still, that's unlikely to quell mounting criticism that CEO pay has become excessively high and the imbalance between company bosses and rank-and-file workers too wide. Discontent over that gap has helped fuel labor unrest, and even some institutional investors have pushed back against a few of the most eye-popping packages.

The smaller increase came after CEO pay soared 17% in 2021, when boards rewarded top executives handsomely for steering their companies through the pandemic-induced recession.

Many of the compensation packages were approved early in 2022 but even a small raise might seem lavish in retrospect against the backdrop of a year in which stock markets tanked to their worst performance since 2008, inflation erased wage gains, fears of a recession grew, and tech giants began laying off workers.

"I'm not surprised that after two record years in a row, pay hikes cooled somewhat," said Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies. "What we shouldn't lose sight of is that CEO pay is still off the charts by historical measures." She said even a small hike last year was "outrageous."

In contrast to recent years, CEO pay gains were lower than the 5.1% increase in wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers through 2022. 

Still, worker pay failed to keep up with inflation, which was sitting at 6.4% at the end of last year. And the pay disparity between CEOs and rank-and-file workers, which has been widening for years, narrowed only slightly.

The median pay for workers at companies included in the AP survey was $77,178, up 1.3% from $76,160 the previous year. That means it would take that worker 186 years to make what a CEO making the median pay earned just last year. At the same group of companies in 2021, it would have taken 190 years.

The timing of some of the biggest pay packages struck a discordant note against the backdrop of difficult times for their industries.

Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, ranked No. 1 in the AP's pay survey this year with a package valued at nearly $226 million. The vast majority of his compensation came from a grant of restricted stock, valued at $218 million, and which Google grants its CEO every three years.

The leader of Google won't reap most of the benefits of the stocks awards right away and how much he realizes ultimately depends on how Alphabet's stock performs. Alphabet noted in its annual proxy filing that, compared with Pichai's 2019 stock awards, a greater proportion of the latest batch will only vest if the company reaches goals for shareholder return.

Even so, Pichai received a total compensation package 15 times higher than this year's median CEO pay just before Google laid off tens of thousands of workers. The company's total shareholder returns fell 39% last year.

Stephen McMurtry, a Google software engineer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, said he was not impressed when Pichai told employees shortly after the layoffs that executives would take significant bonus cuts in 2023 because "bonuses are a small part of executives' primarily stock-based compensation." Pichai didn't receive a bonus in 2022.

"The clear disparity between executive rewards and our jobless former coworkers erodes trust and further underscores the need for transparency," McMurtry said in a statement e-mailed to AP.

Like many companies, Alphabet's equity portion of executive compensation is designed to reflect results over several years. Since Pichai started as CEO in 2015, Alphabet's stock has nearly quadrupled, and the company has become the third most valuable on Wall Street.

Alphabet declined to comment beyond its proxy statement.

Nearly 130 CEOs in the AP's survey saw pay cuts last year. Among them was UPS CEO Carol Tomé, who received a total compensation package valued at nearly $19 million, most of it in stock awards. That's down 31% from $27.6 million in 2021. UPS said Tome's compensation was lower because she didn't exceed performance targets by as much in 2022 as she did in 2021.

Tomé is trying to stave off a potentially crippling strike by unionized workers, who feel they saw little of the company's windfall in profits, which nearly tripled during the pandemic as consumer reliance on deliveries grew.

"I don't feel bad for her that she got a decrease," said Jimi Hadley, UPS package driver in Roswell, Georgia, and Teamsters shop steward. "Nineteen million? Most workers will never make that in their entire life."

Tomé's pay was 364 times higher than $52,144 median pay for UPS workers, although the company notes that the average pay for full-time drivers is $95,000. UPS says its executive pay is "at the midpoint when compared to other companies of similar size and global scale."

Some boards put the brakes on CEO compensation following pushback from institutional investors, who get the chance to vote in "Say On Pay" tallies at annual shareholder meetings, although such votes are only advisory and don't compel boards to make changes.

Homebuilder Lennar, for example, capped the annual cash bonuses for its co-CEOs, Rick Beckwitt and Jonathan Jaffe, at $6 million each in response to complaints from investors about their $16.6 million bonuses in 2021. Just 63% of Lennar's investors voted to approve the pay packages at last year's shareholder meeting, compared to 84% in 2021.

Beckwitt and Jaffe saw their total compensation fall 11% and 12% in 2022, respectively, to $30.4 million and $30 million.

Higher up the pay scale, Apple CEO Tim Cook was No. 3 in the AP survey with a compensation package valued at $99.4 million, nearly identical to what Apple gave him in 2021. But Cook has requested a 40% pay cut for 2023, in response to the vote at last year's annual meeting, where just 64% of shareholders approved of Cook's pay package, compared to 94% the previous year.

Such shareholder pushback remains rare, however. The vast majority of companies included in AP's survey received more than 90% support for their executive compensation programs in 2022.

The AP's and Equilar's compensation study included pay data for 343 CEOs at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30. Some well-paid CEOs are not included because they don't fit the criteria, such as Amazon's Andy Jassy and Microsoft's Satya Nadella.

The biggest cuts to CEO pay last year were in annual performance-based cash awards, which were down 15.5% to a median of $2.3 million. On the other hand, stock awards rose 10.5% to a median of $8.5 million.

Cash salaries and bonuses comprised less than a quarter of compensation for the typical CEO in the survey. The bulk comes from stock and stock options because shareholders have advocated for CEO pay to closely aligned with their own returns.

Executives will likely see steeper pay cuts in 2023 when boards consider the full effect of the stock market's downturn, said Kelly Malafis, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, a consulting firm that works with boards.

"We're not seeing companies slash and burn," Malafis said. "We might see some of that next year."

***

A DIFFERENT RANKING

Using data from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Stacker listed the 100 highest-paid CEOs in the United States according to what they made in 2020, 2021, or 2022, depending on what data was available as of Nov. 30, 2022.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an “agreement in principle” to raise the nation's legal debt ceiling late Saturday as they raced to strike a deal to limit federal spending and avert a potentially disastrous U.S. default.

However, the agreement risks angering both Democratic and Republican sides with the concessions made to reach it. Negotiators agreed to some Republican demands for increased work requirements for recipients of food stamps that had sparked an uproar from House Democrats as a nonstarter.

Support from both parties will be needed to win congressional approval next week before a June 5 deadline.

Read more about it here:

Can Biden win again? Here's how past incumbents fared

Intro

Harry Truman

Dwight Eisenhower

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WASHINGTON — Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden's desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.

The compromise package negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome. But the result, after weeks of hard-fought budget negotiations, shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue that risked upending the U.S. and global economy until 2025 after the next presidential election.

Approval in the Senate on a bipartisan vote, 63-36, reflected the overwhelming House tally the day before, relying on centrists in both parties to pull the Biden-McCarthy package to passage.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill's passage means “America can breathe a sigh of relief.”

He said, “We are avoiding default.”

Fast action was vital if Washington hoped to meet next Monday's deadline, when Treasury has said the U.S. will start running short of cash to pay its bills, risking a devastating default. Raising the nation’s debt limit, now $31.4 trillion, would ensure Treasury could borrow to pay already incurred U.S. debts.

In the end, the debt ceiling showdown was a familiar high-stakes battle in Congress, a fight taken on by McCarthy and powered by a hard-right House Republican majority confronting the Democratic president with a new era of divided government in Washington.

Refusing a once routine vote to allow a the nation's debt limit to be lifted without concessions, McCarthy brought Biden's White House to the negotiating table to strike an agreement that forces spending cutbacks aimed at curbing the nation's deficits.

Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas line that many Democrats oppose.

It bolsters funds for defense and veterans, cuts back new money for Internal Revenue Service agents and rejects Biden’s call to roll back Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy to help cover the nation’s deficits. It imposes automatic 1% cuts if Congress fails approve its annual spending bills.

After the House overwhelmingly approved the package late Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell signaled he too wanted to waste no time ensuring it became law.

Latest Headlines

Underestimated Kevin McCarthy emerges from debt deal empowered as House speaker

• LISA MASCARO Associated Press

The debt ceiling has existed since 1917. Here's how it's impacted government spending ever since

The debt ceiling has existed since 1917. Here's how it's impacted government spending ever since

When was the debt ceiling imposed?

How often has the ceiling been changed?

Who else has a debt ceiling?

President Reagan campaigns against the federal debt

Speaker Gingrich upends Washington

Debt ceiling crisis results in credit rating drop

Senator Mitch McConnell proposes reform

Crisis averted when ceiling suspended

Suspending the debt ceiling for two years

Another debt ceiling deadline looms

WASHINGTON — With days to spare before a potential first-ever government default, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached final agreement Sunday on a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling and worked to ensure enough Republican and Democratic votes to pass the measure in the coming week.

The Democratic president and Republican speaker spoke with each other Sunday evening as negotiators rushed to draft the bill text so lawmakers can review compromises that neither the hard-right or left flank is likely to support. Instead, the leaders are working to gather backing from the political middle as Congress hurries toward votes before a June 5 deadline to avert a damaging federal default.

“Good news,” Biden declared Sunday evening at the White House.

"The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a default, for the first time in our nation’s history,” he said. “Takes the threat of a catastrophic default off the table.”

The president urged both parties in Congress to come together for swift passage. "The speaker and I made clear from the start that the only way forward was a bipartisan agreement,” he said.

The compromise announced late Saturday includes spending cuts but risks angering some lawmakers as they take a closer look at the concessions. Biden told reporters at the White House upon his return from Delaware that he was confident the plan will make it to his desk.

McCarthy, too, was confident in remarks at the Capitol: "At the end of the day, people can look together to be able to pass this.”

The days ahead will determine whether Washington is again able to narrowly avoid a default on U.S. debt, as it has done many times before, or whether the global economy enters a potential crisis.

In the United States, a default could cause financial markets to freeze up and spark an international financial crisis. Analysts say millions of jobs would vanish, borrowing and unemployment rates would jump, and a stock-market plunge could erase trillions of dollars in household wealth. It would all but shatter the $24 trillion market for Treasury debt.

Anxious retirees and others were already making contingency plans for missed checks, with the next Social Security payments due soon as the world watches American leadership at stake.

McCarthy and his negotiators portrayed the deal as delivering for Republicans though it fell well short of the sweeping spending cuts they sought. Top White House officials were briefing Democratic lawmakers and phoning some directly to try to shore up support.

As Sunday dragged on, negotiators labored to write the bill text and lawmakers raised questions.

McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol on Sunday that the agreement “doesn’t get everything everybody wanted,” but that was to be expected in a divided government. Privately, he told lawmakers on a conference call that Democrats "got nothing” they wanted.

A White House statement from the president, issued after Biden and McCarthy spoke by phone Saturday evening and an agreement in principle followed, said the deal “prevents what could have been a catastrophic default."

Support from both parties will be needed to win congressional approval before a projected June 5 government default on U.S. debts. Lawmakers are not expected to return to work from the Memorial Day weekend before Tuesday, at the earliest, and McCarthy has promised lawmakers he will abide by the rule to post any bill for 72 hours before voting.

Negotiators agreed to some Republican demands for increased work requirements for recipients of food stamps that House Democrats had called a nonstarter.

With the outlines of an agreement in place, the legislative package could be drafted and shared with lawmakers in time for House votes as soon as Wednesday, and later in the coming week in the Senate.

Central to the compromise is a two-year budget deal that would essentially hold spending flat for 2024, while boosting it for defense and veterans, and capping increases at 1% for 2025. That’s alongside raising the debt limit for two years, pushing the volatile political issue past the next presidential election.

Driving hard to impose tougher work requirements on government aid recipients, Republicans achieved some of what they wanted. It ensures people ages 49 to 54 with food stamp aid would have to meet work requirements if they are able-bodied and without dependents. Biden was able to secure waivers for veterans and homeless people.

The deal puts in place changes in the landmark National Environmental Policy Act designating “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews, in hopes of streamlining the process.

It halts some funds to hire new Internal Revenue Service agents as Republicans demanded, and rescinds some $30 billion for coronavirus relief, keeping $5 billion for developing the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines.

The deal came together after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress that the United States could default on its debt obligations by June 5 — four days later than previously estimated — if lawmakers did not act in time. Lifting the nation's debt limit, now at $31 trillion, allows more borrowing to pay bills already insurred.

McCarthy commands only a slim Republican majority in the House, where hard-right conservatives may resist any deal as insufficient as they try to slash spending. By compromising with Democrats, he risks losing support from his own members, setting up a career-challenging moment for the new speaker.

“I think you’re going to get a majority of Republicans voting for this bill," McCarthy said on “Fox News Sunday," adding that because Biden backed it, "I think there’s going to be a lot of Democrats that will vote for it, too.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said on CBS' “Face the Nation” that he expected there will be Democratic support but he declined to provide a number. Asked whether he could guarantee there would not be a default, he said, “Yes.”

A 100-strong group of moderates in the New Democratic Coalition gave a crucial nod of support on Sunday, saying in a statement it was confident that Biden and his team “delivered a viable, bipartisan solution to end this crisis” and were working to ensure the agreement would receive support from both parties.

The coalition could provide enough support for McCarthy to make up for members in the right flank of his party who have expressed opposition before the bill's wording was even released.

It also takes pressure off Biden, facing criticism from progressives for giving into what they call hostage-taking by Republicans.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told CBS that the White House and Jeffries should worry about whether caucus members will support the agreement.

WASHINGTON — It was advice that Mitch McConnell had offered to Joe Biden once already: To resolve the debt limit standoff, he needed to strike a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and McCarthy alone. But after the first meeting of the top four congressional leaders with the president in early May, the Senate minority leader felt the need to reemphasize his counsel. 

After returning from the White House that day, McConnell called the president to privately urge him to "shrink the room" – meaning no direct involvement in the talks for himself, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

That, McConnell stressed to Biden, was the only way to avert a potentially economy-rattling default.

A week later, Biden and McCarthy essentially adopted that path, tapping a handful of trusted emissaries to negotiate a deal that would lift the debt limit. It was a turning point in an impasse that, until then, seemed intractable.

Having lived through the debacle of a 2011 debt limit fight, Biden would not entertain any concessions for a task that he viewed as Congress' fundamental responsibility. But McCarthy, prodded by conservatives insisting on sweeping changes to federal spending, was intent on using the nation's borrowing authority as leverage even if it edged the U.S. closer to default.

The scramble that ensued showed how two of the most powerful figures in Washington — who share a belief in the power of personal relationships, despite not having much of one between themselves — jointly staved off an unprecedented default that could have ravaged the economy and held unknown political consequences. It's a tale of an underestimated House speaker determined to defy expectations that he couldn't address a complex debt limit fight, and a president who tuned out the noise from his own party to ensure a default would not happen on his watch.

But it was also a standoff largely instigated by Republicans who argued they needed to use the debt limit threat as a cudgel to rein in federal spending. And even with a resounding 314-117 House vote — followed by a 63-36 Senate vote — the episode is testing the durability of McCarthy's speakership and his ability to tame a restive hard-right flank.

'HOW YOU FINISH'

McCarthy, now emboldened, is unfazed.

He reflected back on his election as speaker after the House passed the debt limit package, referring to his long battle to claim the gavel in January. "Every question you gave me (was), what could we survive, what could we even do? I told you then, it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

This account of the weeks-long saga of how Washington defused the debt limit crisis is based on interviews with lawmakers, senior White House officials and top congressional aides, some who requested anonymity to discuss details of private negotiations.

Perhaps most critical to clearing the blockades were Biden and McCarthy's five negotiators who came to the discussions armed with policy gravitas and empowered by their principals. Particularly comforting to Republicans was the presence of presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti, who speaks on behalf of Biden like no one else, and Shalanda Young, now the director of the Office and Management and Budget, who cut her teeth as a beloved senior congressional aide managing the complex annual appropriations process.

Young and Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, one of McCarthy's negotiators, grew so close that they checked in each morning by phone as they did their respective day care drop-offs. Meanwhile, she and the other GOP negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves, who represents the south central part of Louisiana where Young hails from, ribbed each other over who had the better gumbo recipe and squeezed in debt limit talks during a White House celebration for the national champion Louisiana State University women's basketball team.

The five negotiators — Graves, McHenry, Ricchetti, Young and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell — met daily in a stately office on the first floor of the Capitol, under frescoes painted by the 19th century muralist Constantino Brumidi. Inside, they would home in with seriousness on priorities and red lines to figure out how they could reach a deal.

THE PAUSE BUTTON AND A 'REGRESSIVE' OFFER

By May 19, the negotiations were getting shaky.

Republicans were losing patience as the White House didn't appear to be budging on curbing federal spending. For the GOP, anything short of that was a nonstarter.

During a morning meeting that Friday, White House officials pushed McHenry and Graves to put a formal offer on the table, but by that point, the frustrated Republicans decided to take it all public.

Republicans told reporters the talks had momentarily stopped. Graves, in a ball cap and blue button-up shirt that looked more apt for a fishing trip than high-stakes deal-making, said as he walked briskly through the Capitol: "We decided to press pause because it's just not productive,"

"We were not going to play games here," Graves recounted later of his and McHenry's frustrations.

The friction wasn't about to ease. When the negotiations reconvened that night, McHenry and Graves put forward a fresh proposal to administration officials: It not only revived more of the rejected provisions in the GOP's debt limit bill, but also included the House Republicans' border-security bill for good measure.

One White House official called the offer "regressive."

The White House went public with its own frustrations as the negotiations seemed to be going awry, first with a lengthy statement from communications director Ben LaBolt and then from Biden himself at a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where he was attending a summit of the world's leading democracies.

"Now it's time for the other side to move their extreme positions," the president said. "Because much of what they've already proposed is simply, quite frankly, unacceptable."

OPTIMISM, LATE NIGHTS AND GUMMY WORMS

Even as the public rhetoric sharpened, there were signs that the talks were starting to take a better turn.

As Biden left Japan, he called McCarthy from Air Force One, and the speaker emerged appearing more optimistic than he had in days. Sustained by coffee, gummy worms and burritos, the negotiators worked grueling hours, mostly at the Capitol but once at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where they noshed on Call Your Mother bagel sandwiches sent over by Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff.

One session lasted until 2:30 a.m. Graves, at another time, showed reporters an app on his phone that tracked his sleep, which showed he was averaging three hours a night during the final stretch.

Still, McCarthy sent lawmakers home over the Memorial Day weekend, which McHenry said helped.

"The tone of the White House negotiators became much more serious and much more grounded in the realities they were going to have to accept," McHenry said.

SELLING THE DEAL

By May 27, Biden and McCarthy announced a deal in principle, and now had to sell the agreement in earnest.

The night before the vote, McCarthy gathered House Republicans in the basement of the Capitol, wheeled in pizza and walked lawmakers through the bill, while daring the Freedom Caucus members to use the same confrontational language they used at a news conference earlier in the day. By the time the meeting ended, it was clear McCarthy had subdued the revolt.

Meanwhile, the White House had work of its own to mollify rank-and-file Democrats.

Biden and McCarthy were a study in contrasting styles. The speaker chatted about the debt limit talks at every turn throughout the negotiations to frame the debate on his terms; the president stayed silent by design, leery of fouling anything up before the deal was finalized.

Even as the deal was coming together, Biden had been privately trying to assuage his party's concerns. After the Congressional Progressive Caucus publicly eviscerated the few details that they knew of, particularly about toughening requirements for federal safety-net programs, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., got a call that night.

It was Biden. He assured her that his negotiators were working hard to minimize Republican-drafted changes to programs that offer food stamps and cash assistance.

"I do believe that had we not done that, this would have been much worse than what I heard," Jayapal said.

After the deal was finalized, through phone calls and virtual briefings, White House officials answered questions, explained the agreement's intricacies and fielded complaints from lawmakers about their communications strategy. As of Thursday, senior White House officials had called more than 130 lawmakers personally.

Biden himself got on the phone. On one call, he spoke with Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., the leader of the center-left New Democrats Coalition, and thanked her for the group's efforts to ensure the deal would pass.

"I appreciate that he knows this institution so well, and that he understands what it takes to deliver these votes to get us across the line and to uphold the full faith and credit of the United States of America," Kuster said. "We all took an oath."

Late Wednesday night, as the House voted its approval with significant bipartisan support, Biden watched from the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, where he had traveled to for a commencement address at the Air Force Academy. On the phone with Biden throughout were Ricchetti and Terrell, who were listening in from the West Wing with other legislative aides, munching on more pizza.

In a statement after the vote, Biden sounded thankful — and relieved.

"Tonight, the House took a critical step forward to prevent a first-ever default and protect our country's hard-earned and historic economic recovery," he said. "This budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise. Neither side got everything it wanted. That's the responsibility of governing."

Then the Senate labored toward its own vote. It passed the bill Thursday night.

Photos: Scenes from the debt ceiling negotiations

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden lauded the sacrifice of generations of U.S. troops who “dared all and gave all” fighting for their country and called on Americans to ensure that their “sacrifice was not in vain” as he marked Memorial Day with the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Biden was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, for the 155th National Memorial Day Observance. He had a moment of contemplation in front of the wreath, which was adorned with flowers and a red, white and blue bow, and then bowed his head in prayer.

“We must never forget the price that was paid to protect our democracy,” Biden said later in an address at the Memorial Amphitheater. "We must never forget the lives these flags, flowers and marble markers represent.”

”Every year we remember," he said. "And every year it never gets easier.”

Photos: Biden marks Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery

Monday's federal holiday honoring America's fallen service members came a day after Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached final agreement on a deal that would raise America's debt limit and that now awaits approval by Congress.

As it stands, the agreement would keep nondefense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year. The measure would allow for 3% defense growth in fiscal 2024, to $886 billion, and then another 1% in fiscal 2025, to $895 billion.

Latest Headlines

Debt ceiling deal: What's in, what's out of the bill to avert US default

• By KEVIN FREKING, FARNOUSH AMIRI and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

Biden has taken pride that his Democratic administration has overseen a time of relative peace for the U.S. military after two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s been nearly 21 months since Biden ended the United States’ longest war in Afghanistan, making good on a campaign promise to end a 20-year-old "forever war" that cost the lives of more than 2,400 U.S. service members.

The war in Afghanistan, however, ended in chaotic and deadly fashion on Biden's watch in August 2021 with critics blasting the administration's handling of the evacuation of some 120,000 American citizens, Afghans and others as poorly planned and badly executed.

The Biden administration last month released a review of the last days of the war, largely blaming his Republican predecessor, President Donald Trump, and asserting that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump's decisions.

The U.S. now finds itself leading a coalition of allies pouring tens of billions of dollars in military and economic aid into Ukraine as it tries to repel the Russian invasion, which appears to have no end in sight.

While making clear that he has no desire for U.S. troops to enter the conflict, Biden has maintained that he sees the Russian effort to grab territory as an affront to international norms and has vowed to help Kyiv win, sending artillery, tanks and drones and recently agreeing to allow allies to train Ukrainian military on American F-16 jets.

Biden connected the sacrifices of some 400,000 Americans buried at Arlington to the work of U.S. troops deployed around the world today, saying the impact of the fallen men and women “goes far beyond those silent stones” of the solemn burial ground.

“We see the strength of our NATO alliance built from the bonds that were forged in the fires of two World Wars,” Biden said. “We see it in the troops still standing sentinel on the Korean Peninsula, preserving the peace side by side with allies. We see it in every base, every barrack, every vessel around the globe where our military proudly serves and stands as a force for good in the world.”

During the Arlington ceremony, Biden also spoke of the need to care for U.S. service members on and off the battlefield.

“We have only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home and when they don’t," Biden said.

The president noted legislation he had signed expanding federal health care services for millions of veterans who served at military bases where toxic smoke billowed from huge burn pits, commonly used by the military until several years ago to dispose of chemicals, tires, plastics and medical and human waste.

Before Monday's ceremony at the Arlington, Virginia, cemetery, the Bidens hosted a breakfast at the White House for members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen U.S. troops, senior Department of Defense officials and other administration officials.

The president and the first lady were scheduled to return to their home near Wilmington, Delaware, later Monday to spend the rest of the federal holiday.