Donald Trump's deposition, Jimmy Buffett dies, Subway sells to private equity firm, and more news from the week

NEW YORK — In newly public testimony, Donald Trump boasts about building a multibillion-dollar brand and saving "millions of lives" as president.

He spars with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, telling Letitia James "the whole case is crazy" and accusing her staff of trying to trip him up like TV lawyer Perry Mason did to witnesses.

Read the full deposition here:

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New York v. Donald Trump deposition

Trump gave seven hours of sworn testimony in April as part of James' lawsuit, which accused the Republican and his company of defrauding banks, insurers and others with annual financial statements that inflated the value of assets and boosted his net worth by more than $2 billion in some years.

Trump's lawyers posted a transcript of his deposition in a flurry of court filings Wednesday, ahead of a possible October trial.

Here are the highlights:

A 'TERRIBLE THING'

Trump decried James' lawsuit as a "terrible thing," telling her and her staff "you don't have a case."

He insisted the banks she alleges were snookered with lofty valuations suffered no harm, got paid in his deals and "to this day have no complaints."

"Do you know the banks made a lot of money?" Trump asked. "Do you know I don't believe I ever got even a default notice and, even during COVID, the banks were all paid. And yet you're suing on behalf of banks, I guess. It's crazy. The whole case is crazy."

Banks "want to do business with me because I'm rich," Trump told James. "But, you know what, they're petrified to do business because of you."

Trump complained New York authorities "spend all their time investigating me, instead of stopping violent crime in the streets."

He said they'd put his recently jailed ex-finance chief Allen Weisselberg "through hell and back" for dodging taxes on company-paid perks.

"Now I have to come and justify myself to you," Trump groused.

***

DON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT

Trump said he never felt his financial statements "would be taken very seriously," and that people who did business with him were given ample warning not to trust them.

Trump described the statements as "a fairly good compilation of properties" rather than a true representation of their value. Some numbers, he noted, were "guesstimates."

Trump claimed the statements were mainly for his use, though he conceded financial institutions sometimes asked for them.

Even then, he insisted it didn't matter legally if they were accurate or not, because they came with a disclaimer.

"I have a clause in there that says, 'Don't believe the statement. Go out and do your own work," Trump testified. "You're supposed to pay no credence to what we say whatsoever."

***

WHAT'S IN A NAME? $10 BILLION

Trump estimated that his "brand" alone is worth "maybe $10 billion."

He called it "the most valuable asset I have" and attributed his political success to the ubiquity of his name and persona.

"I became president because of the brand, OK," Trump said. "I became president. I think it's the hottest brand in the world."

***

'MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD'

After Trump was elected, he put the Trump Organization into a trust overseen by his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and longtime finance chief, Weisselberg.

Trump claimed he did so not because it was required but because he wanted to be a "legitimate president" and avoid appearance of a conflict of interest.

Plus, Trump said, he was busy solving the world's problems — like preventing North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un from launching a nuclear attack.

"I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives," Trump testified. "I think you would have nuclear holocaust if I didn't deal with North Korea. I think you would have a nuclear war, if I weren't elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth."

***

NOW WE'RE TALKING

Trump's often garrulous testimony was a 180-degree turn from the approach he took when James summoned him for questioning in August 2022 — before her lawsuit or any of the four criminal cases against him were filed.

At that first deposition, Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions more than 400 times. Trump said he did so because he was certain politically motivated prosecutors would use his answers as a basis for criminal charges.

By April, Trump changed his mind and responded to even simple questions at such length that his interrogator, James' deputy Kevin Wallace, suggested he was trying to run out the clock.

"Chris, we're going to be here until midnight if your client answers every question with an eight-minute speech," he said to one of Trump's lawyers, Christopher Kise.

Trump, though, seemed aware there was a risk in going on and on.

In the middle of one of his protracted answers, expounding on the greatness of one of his golf courses, Trump said: "You are going to let me go on, hoping that I make a mistake. And that's OK. That's the way it is. Perry Mason. Perry Mason."

***

OBSTRUCTED VIEW

Trump testified at the attorney general's Manhattan office, across the street from 40 Wall Street — a skyscraper labeled "The Trump Building" in big, gold letters.

Asked how the building was doing, financially, Trump answered: "Good. It's right here. Would you like to see it?"

"I don't think we're allowed to open the windows," Wallace said.

"Open the curtain," Trump suggested.

"No," Wallace said.

"Open the curtain, go ahead," Trump said. "It's right here. I just looked out the window."

"Can't open it?" Trump lawyer Clifford Robert asked, after a beat.

"I wouldn't," Wallace said.

***

'BEAUTIFUL' AND 'INCREDIBLE'

Trump showed off his knack for superlatives, uttering the words "beautiful" and "incredible" 15 times each and "phenomenal" six times as he described his properties.

Trump called his Turnberry, Scotland, golf course "one of the most iconic places in the world," and the renovated villas at his Doral golf resort near Miami "the most beautiful rooms you've ever seen."

Trump described his 213-acre Seven Springs estate north of New York City as "the greatest house in New York State."

His golf courses in Aberdeen, Scotland? "Really incredible." Jupiter, Florida? "An incredible facility." Just outside Los Angeles? "An incredible property … an unbelievable property ... a phenomenal property that fronts on the ocean."

"I don't want to sell any of them," Trump testified. "But if I ever sold them — if I ever put some of these things up for sale — I would get numbers that were staggering."

He said he could get $1.5 billion for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and maybe $2.5 billion for Doral.

Trump suggested he could get "a fortune" from the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV golf league for the Turnberry course, a former British Open site.

"There would be people that would do anything to own Doral. There are people that would do anything to own Turnberry or Mar-a-Lago or ... Trump Tower or 40 Wall Street."

Photos: Donald Trump through the years

Talking politics

With Melania

'How to Get Rich'

On the course

At Doral

Sarazen Cup

With Serena

USS Iowa

Debating Jeb Bush

In Biloxi

Campaign rally

Winning South Carolina

She's with him

Signing autographs

Another debate

Waving to supporters

In Arizona

The Trump family

At the convention

The nominee

The ticket

Showing her support

In Mexico

Debating Clinton

Casting his vote

Election Night

In the Oval Office

Mitt Romney

The inauguration

Thumbs up

Taking the oath

Waving goodbye

Armed Forces Ball

James Comey

Trump to lay out his agenda to Congress

Thanking school children

Medal of Honor recipients

Justice Anthony Kennedy swears in Neil Gorsuch

Easter Egg Roll

Super Bowl champs

Little Sisters of the Poor

Russian foreign minister, ambassador

At the Western Wall

Meeting the pope

Wreath-laying ceremony in Arlington

National champs

Congressional shooting

At the White House

Congressional Picnic

Go, Cubs, go

Departing the White House

USS Gerald R. Ford joins the Navy

The eclipse

9/11 anniversary

Trump addresses world leaders at U.N. General Assembly

Las Vegas shooting

Trump visits Puerto Rico

Trump meets Kissinger

With Trudeau

Medal of Honor

Happy Halloween

National Christmas Tree Lighting

Celebrating GOP tax plan

March for Life

State of the Union

School shootings

State dinner

With Olympians

Greeting a guest

Freed Americans

Historic summit

With Kim Kardashian West

In Washington

Trump North Carolina

Debating Joe Biden

Election Night 2020

Jan. 6

Leaving the White House

WASHINGTON — A former member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group who smashed a window at the U.S. Capitol in the building's first breach of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison — and then defiantly declared as he walked out of the courtroom, "Trump won!"

The sentence for Dominic Pezzola is the latest handed down after leaders of the group were convicted of spearheading an attack aimed at preventing the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

Pezzola, 46, took a police officer's riot shield and used it to smash the window, allow rioters to make the first breach into the Capitol, and he later filmed a "celebratory video" with a cigar inside the building, prosecutors said. He was a recent Proud Boys recruit, however, and a jury acquitted him of the most high-profile charge, seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offense. He was convicted of other serious charges, and prosecutors had asked for 20 years in prison.

"He was an enthusiastic foot soldier," prosecutor Erik Kenerson said.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly noted that Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, was a newcomer to the group who didn't write the kind of increasingly violent online messages that his co-defendants did leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. Still, he was in some ways a "tip of the spear" in allowing rioters to get into the Capitol, the judge said.

"The reality is you smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers," the judge told Pezzola. "It's not something that I ever dreamed I would have seen in our country."

Defense attorneys had asked for five years for Pezzola, saying that he got "caught up in the craziness" that day.

Pezzola testified at trial that he originally grabbed the officer's shield to protect himself from police riot control measures, and his lawyers argued that he broke only one pane of glass and that it was other rioters who smashed out the rest of the window.

He told the judge that he wished he'd never crossed into a restricted area on Jan. 6, and he apologized to the officer whose shield he took. "There is no place in my future for groups or politics whatsoever," he said.

But later, as he left the courtroom, he raised a fist and said, "Trump won!"

Another Proud Boy, former chapter president Ethan Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, is also set to be sentenced Friday. Prosecutor are asking the judge to sentence him to 27 years.

Two of their co-defendants were sentenced Thursday to a couple of the longest prison terms handed down yet in the Jan. 6 attack. Joseph Biggs, an organizer from Ormond Beach, Florida, got 17 years, and Zachary Rehl, a leader of the Philadelphia chapter, got 15 years.

The highest profile defendant in the monthslong trial, former top Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to next week because the judge was sick.

The Proud Boys' trial laid bare far-right extremists' embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.

The longest Jan. 6-related prison sentence so far was 18 years for Stewart Rhodes, founder another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers. Six members of that anti-government group also were convicted of seditious conspiracy after a separate trial last year.

Images of chaos: AP photographers capture US Capitol riot

NEW YORK — Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song "Margaritaville" and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died. He was 76.

"Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs," a statement posted to Buffett's official website and social media pages said late Friday. "He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many."

The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death. Illness had forced him to reschedule concerts in May and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalized, but provided no specifics.

"Margaritaville," released on Feb. 14, 1977, quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those "wastin' away," an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those "growing older, but not up."

The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil. The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love. Somewhere there is a misplaced salt shaker.

"What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling," Spin magazine wrote in 2021. "The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you're not even sure when."

The song — from the album "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 8. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historic significance, became a karaoke standard and helped brand Key West, Florida, as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over.

"There was no such place as Margaritaville," Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. "It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach."

The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett's alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He landed at No. 13 in Forbes' America's Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $550 million.

Music critics were never very kind to Buffett or his catalogue, including the sandy beach-side snack bar songs like "Fins," "Come Monday" and "Cheeseburgers in Paradise." But his legions of fans, called "Parrotheads," regularly turned up for his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, leis around their necks and loud Hawaiian shirts.

"It's pure escapism is all it is," he told the Republic. "I'm not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it's really a part of the human condition that you've got to have some fun. You've got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it's worked out."

His special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, like steel drums. It was a stew of steelpans, trombones and pedal steel guitar. Buffett's incredible ear for hooks and light grooves were often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets.

Rolling Stone, in a review of Buffett's 2020 album "Life on the Flip Side," gave grudging props. "He continues mapping out his surfy, sandy corner of pop music utopia with the chill, friendly warmth of a multi-millionaire you wouldn't mind sharing a tropically-themed 3 p.m. IPA with, especially if his gold card was on the bar when the last round came."

Buffett's evolving brand began in 1985 with the opening of a string of Margaritaville-themed stores and restaurants in Key West, followed in 1987 with the first Margaritaville Café nearby. Over the course of the next two decades, several more of each opened throughout Florida, New Orleans and California.

The brand has since expanded to dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear for men and women, a radio station, a beer brand, ice tea, tequila and rum, home décor, food items like salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants, including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o'Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill.

There also was a Broadway-bound jukebox musical, "Escape to Margaritaville," a romantic comedy in which a singer-bartender called Sully falls for the far more career-minded Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at Margaritaville, the hotel bar where Sully works.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and raised in the port town of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing six nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs.

He released his first record, "Down To Earth," in 1970 and issued seven more on a regular yearly clip, with his 1974 song "Come Monday" from his fourth studio album "Living and Dying in ¾ Time," peaking at No. 30. Then came "Margaritaville."

He performed on more than 50 studio and live albums, often accompanied by his Coral Reefer Band, and was constantly on tour. He earned two Grammy Award nominations, two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award.

Buffett was actually in Austin, Texas, when the inspiration struck for "Margaritaville." He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas.

"And I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville," Buffett told the Republic. "She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it."

He wrote some on the plane and finished it while driving down the Keys. "There was a wreck on the bridge," he said. "And we got stopped for about an hour so I finished the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was apropos."

Buffett also was the author of numerous books including "Where Is Joe Merchant?" and "A Pirate Looks At Fifty" and added movies to his resume as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen's novel "Hoot."

Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son, Cameron.

Photos: Remembering Jimmy Buffett, 1946-2023

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is acknowledging that he took three trips last year aboard a private plane owned by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.

It's the first time in years that Thomas has reported receiving hospitality from Crow. In a report made public Thursday, the 75-year-old justice said he was complying with new guidelines from the federal judiciary for reporting travel, but did not include any earlier travel at Crow's expense, including a 2019 trip in Indonesia aboard the yacht owned by the wealthy businessman and benefactor of conservative causes.

The filing comes amid a heightened focus on ethics at the high court that stems from a series of reports revealing that Thomas has for years received undisclosed expensive gifts, including international travel, from Crow.

Crow also purchased the house in Georgia where Thomas's mother continues to live and paid for two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Thomas and his wife, Ginni.

The reporting by the investigative news site ProPublica also revealed that Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose a private trip to Alaska he took in 2008 that was paid for by two wealthy Republican donors, one of whom repeatedly had interests before the court.

The Associated Press also reported in July that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade.

Supreme Court justices do not have a binding code of ethics and have resisted the idea that they adopt one or have one imposed on them by Congress. In the spring, all nine justices recently signed a statement of ethics that Chief Justice John Roberts provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Roberts has acknowledged that the justices can do more to address ethical concerns.

But neither the statement nor Roberts' comments assuaged Senate Democrats. The Democratic-controlled committee approved an ethics code for the court in July on a party-line vote. The legislation has little chance of passing the Senate — it would need at least nine GOP votes, and Republicans have strongly opposed it — or the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

One trip Thomas reported was to Crow's lodge in the Adironack Mountains in upstate New York, where the investigative news site ProPublica has reported that Thomas visits every year.

The other two trips were to Dallas, where he spoke at conferences sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Thomas noted that court officials recommended that he avoid commercial travel for one of the trips, in mid-May, because of concerns about the justices' security following the leak of the court's draft abortion opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade.

The justice also belatedly acknowledged that Crow had purchased the home in Savannah, Georgia, where Thomas' mother still lives. Thomas and other family members owned the house, along with two neighboring properties. The sale was completed in 2014, but Thomas said he erroneously thought he didn't have to report it because "this sale resulted in a capital loss."

In reporting that he and his wife have assets worth $1.2 million to $2.7 million, Thomas also corrected several other mistakes from earlier reports. These include the omission of accounts at a credit union that last year were worth $100,000 to $250,000 and a life insurance policy in his wife's name that was valued at less than $100,000.

Thomas is considering whether to amend prior reports, he noted.

The annual financial reports for Thomas and Alito were released Thursday, nearly three months after those of the other seven justices. Thomas and Alito were granted 90-day extensions.

Alito reported assets worth $2.8 million to $7.4 million. While most of his holdings are in mutual funds, Alito retains shares of stocks in energy and other companies that sometimes force his withdrawal from Supreme Court cases.

Alito, in an unusual column in the Wall Street Journal, said he was under no obligation to report the Alaska trip or step aside from any cases involving the benefactor.

The 9 current justices of the US Supreme Court

Chief Justice John Roberts

Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Samuel Alito

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Neil Gorsuch

Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

WASHINGTON — A judge on Monday set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington charging the former president with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting a defense request to push back the case by years.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rebuffed claims by Trump's attorneys that an April 2026 trial date was necessary to account for the huge volume of evidence they say they are reviewing and to prepare for what they contend is a novel and unprecedented prosecution. But she agreed to postpone the trial slightly beyond the January 2024 date proposed by special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution team.

"The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter," Chutkan said.

If the current date holds, it would represent a setback to Trump's efforts to push the case back until well after the 2024 presidential election, a contest in which he's the early front-runner for the Republican nomination. The March 2024 date would also guarantee a blockbuster trial in the nation's capitol in the heat of the GOP presidential nominating calendar, likely forcing Trump to juggle campaign and courtroom appearances, and it would come the day before Super Tuesday — a crucial voting day when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs.

"I want to note here that setting a trial date does not depend and should not depend on the defendant's personal or professional obligations," Chutkan said.

The setting of the trial date came despite strong objections from Trump lawyer John Lauro. He said defense lawyers had received an enormous trove of records from Smith's team — a prosecutor put the total at more than 12 million pages — and that the case concerned novel legal issues that would require significant time to sort out.

"This is one of the most unique cases from a legal perspective ever brought in the history of the United States. Ever," Lauro said.

Prosecutor Molly Gaston countered that the public had an unquestionable interest in moving the case forward and said that the general evidence in the case has long been well known to the defense.

"What is the balance of the defendant's right and need to prepare for trial and, on the other hand, the public's exceedingly and unprecedently strong interest in a speedy trial?" Gaston said. Trump, she said, is accused of "attempting to overturn an election and disenfranchise millions."

"There is an incredibly strong public interest in a jury's full consideration of those claims in open court," Gaston said.

Trump, a Republican, was charged earlier this month in a four-count indictment with scheming to undo his loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the 2020 election.

The federal election subversion prosecution is one of four criminal cases against Trump. Smith's team has brought a separate federal case accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Palm Beach, Florida, property, Mar-a-Lago, and refusing to give them back. That case is currently set for trial next May 20.

Trump also faces state cases in New York and Georgia. Manhattan prosecutors have charged him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actor who has said she had an extramarital affair with Trump, while prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have charged Trump and 18 others in a racketeering conspiracy aimed at undoing that state's 2020 election.

Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, surrendered Thursday in that case, posing with a scowling face for the first mug shot in American history of a former U.S. president. He has claimed the investigations of him are politically motivated and are an attempt to damage his chances of winning back the White House.

Images of chaos: AP photographers capture US Capitol riot

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration weakened regulations protecting millions of acres of wetlands Tuesday, saying it had no choice after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government's jurisdiction over them.

The rule would require that wetlands be more clearly connected to other waters like oceans and rivers, a policy shift that departs from a half-century of federal rules governing the nation's waterways.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the agency had no alternative after the Supreme Court sharply limited the federal government's power to regulate wetlands that do not have a "continuous surface connection" to larger, regulated bodies of water.

Justices boosted property rights over concerns about clean water in a May ruling in favor of an Idaho couple who sought to build a house near a lake. Chantell and Michael Sackett had objected when federal officials required them to get a permit before filling part of the property with rocks and soil.

The ruling was the second decision in as many years in which a conservative majority on the high court narrowed the reach of environmental regulations.

"While I am disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision in the Sackett case, EPA and Army (Corps of Engineers) have an obligation to apply this decision alongside our state co-regulators," Regan said in a statement Tuesday.

The rule announced Tuesday revises a rule finalized earlier this year regulating "waters of the United States." Developers and agriculture groups have long sought to limit the federal government's power to use the Clean Water Act to regulate waterways, arguing the law should cover fewer types of rivers, streams and wetlands. Environmental groups have long pushed for a broader definition that would protect more waters.

The new rule is highly unusual and responds specifically to the Supreme Court ruling in the Sackett case. Typically, a rule is proposed, the public weighs in and then the federal government releases a final version. This rule changes existing policy to align with the recent Supreme Court decision and is final.

The Supreme Court ruling was a win for developer and agriculture groups. It said federally protected wetlands must be directly adjacent to a "relatively permanent" waterway "connected to traditional interstate navigable waters," such was a river or ocean.

They also must have a "continuous surface connection with that water," Justice Samuel Alito wrote.

The court's decision broke with a 2006 opinion by former Justice Anthony Kennedy that said wetlands were regulated if they had a "significant nexus" to larger bodies of water. That had been the standard for evaluating whether developers needed a permit before they could discharge into wetlands. Opponents had long said the standards was vague, hard to interpret and generally unworkable.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent that the majority's decision was political, improperly weakening regulatory powers Congress gave the federal government.

The rule issued Tuesday removes the "significant nexus" test from consideration when identifying tributaries and other waters as federally protected.

The Supreme Court ruling "created uncertainty for Clean Water Act implementation,'' the EPA said in a statement Tuesday. The Biden administration issued the amended rule "to provide clarity and a path forward consistent with the (Supreme Court) ruling,'' the agency said.

Because the sole purpose of the new rule is to amend specific provisions of the previous rule that were rendered invalid by the high court, the new rule will take effect immediately, the EPA said.

In December, the Biden administration finalized its regulations basing them on definitions in place prior to 2015 that federal officials hoped were durable enough to survive a court challenge. They protected many small streams, wetlands and other waters and repealed a Trump-era rule that environmentalists said left far too many of those waterways unregulated.

In recent years, depending on the political party in the White House, the power of the Clean Water Act has varied sharply. The Obama administration sought to enlarge federal power to protect waterways. The Trump administration rolled them back as part of a broader curtailment of environmental regulations.

It's been a political issue, too. Earlier this year, Congress approved a resolution overturning the Biden administration's water protections. Republicans argued the White House had imposed rules that were a burden to businesses and agriculture and the Senate voted in favor 53-52, persuading four Democrats and Independent Sen. Krysten Sinema of Arizona to side with Republicans and vote in favor. Biden vetoed the resolution.

The 9 current justices of the US Supreme Court

Chief Justice John Roberts

Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Samuel Alito

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Neil Gorsuch

Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Investigative Committee has confirmed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash.

The committee said in a statement Sunday that after forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site of the crash were identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest.”

Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of those on board the plane that crashed Wednesday.

Check here for further updates:

NEW YORK — JCPenney said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion by the end of 2025 in a bid to revive the storied but troubled 121-year-old department store chain.

The money is going toward remodeling JCPenney stores, upgrading its online shopping site and app, and making its supply network more efficient so that online orders are delivered more quickly.

JCPenney's CEO Marc Rosen, who took the company's helm in November 2021 and has served as an executive at Levi Strauss and Walmart, is renewing the chain's focus on its core middle-income shoppers with affordable fashion and housewares.

"Now is the time more than ever to lean into that and make sure that we're delivering that experience for our customer," Rosen said in an interview with The Associated Press. That's a change of tactics from previous management teams that pursued wealthier shoppers with offers of trendy items and major appliances.

As part of the plans unveiled Thursday, check-out stations that had been located throughout JCPenney's stores will be replaced with a single area of cashiers. Shoppers will also see brighter lighting and a fresh coat of paint. Store employees will be equipped with mobile devices to scan inventory and ring up shoppers' purchases. And the chain is making upgrades to its Wi-Fi networks to speed up in-store connections.

But JCPenney is playing catch-up with its competitors — from discounters to department stores like Macy's and Walmart — that have been upgrading their stores and online businesses, underscoring the challenges faced by the retailer based in Plano, Texas.

JCPenney, which emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization in December 2020 with new owners, not only has grappled with years of internal issues but also faces an uncertain economy that has challenged healthier department stores.

The chain's core customers are budget-conscious families, whose median income ranges from $50,000 to $75,000. They've been particularly hit hard by higher costs basic items and high interest rates, making borrowing on credit cards and taking out a mortgage more expensive.

Rosen said JCPenney's customers are spending $700 more per month than two years ago just for basic necessities, like rent, gas and food. He noted they're seeking competitive prices as well as a good shopping experience.

But in this tough economy, JCPenney has a role, Rosen said. He believes shoppers are finding other department stores too expensive, while online retailers and off-price stores don't give them the customer service JCPenney shoppers are looking for.

The company filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May 2020 after the pandemic-induced temporary closing of stores put the already struggling retailer deeper in peril.

Under new owners — mall companies Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners LP — JCPenney shuttered nearly a quarter of its 850 stores. It now has roughly 650 stores. It has less than $500 million in debt, down from nearly $5 billion at the time of its bankruptcy filing, Rosen said.

As part of the latest remodeling push, Rosen said 100 stores have been refurbished. The plan is to remodel anywhere from 50 to 100 per year, he said.

The retailer has been rebuilding its beauty business after Sephora announced a deal to leave the chain for rival Kohl's three years ago. As part of its overhaul, it has been highlighting beauty products that cover a wider range of skin tones. One third of its customers are of color. The company said that more than 50% of its beauty brands are either owned by females or people of color.

The retailer launched new store label brands like Mutual Weave men's clothing and reintroduced some national brands like Adidas. It launched national labels such as Forever 21, owned by Authentic Brands Group LLC, which has a minority stake in JCPenney. It also teamed up with celebrity stylist Jason Bolden to recreate collections for two of its store label brands, J. Ferrar and Worthington, a long-time brand it brought back.

Most importantly, Rosen said JCPenney has worked hard to keep the basics like jeans, white-T-shirts, and sheet sets in stock with the full size range or full color assortment, a problem that has plagued the chain and frustrated shoppers.

Rosen said the changes have helped increase the number of repeat visits of existing customers to both stores and online. More than 50 million customers have visited JCPenney in the past three years, he said. After about five years of declines, it's now seeing customers coming to JCPenney more frequently — a 5% increase. As for its beauty departments,25% are new customers, he noted.

"That's showing us that if we get the basic relevant experience right, then they're going to come to us more frequently because they know the brand, they're shopping us already and they're now starting to shop across more areas of the store and come more frequently, " he said.

Placer.ai, which tracks people's movements via cellphone usage, show that visits for JCPenney stores are down 24% compared with the year-ago period.

Rosen arrived at JCPenney when its annual revenue ranged between $8 billion and $9 billion and that number was unchanged last year. He expects it could decline slightly this year because of all the economic uncertainty. It had annual sales of roughly $11.2 billion when it filed for bankruptcy, but also ran more stores back then.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said he was recently at a JCPenney store in Phoenix, and the stores looked messy, and there were gaps on shelves. But he did praise the beauty area.

"They may have steadied the ship, but they have not revived the brand," he said.