David A Johnson

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Escalating his trade fight with China, President Donald Trump has raised retaliatory tariffs and ordered American companies to consider alternatives to doing business there.

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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana enters the upcoming school year back among the handful of states without publicly funded preschool, and the unions and education groups that are otherwise staunch allies of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock are a big reason why his fledgling pre-kindergarten program fizzled.

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KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) — The question was about climate change. The answer soon turned to the Bible.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies (all times local):

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a trade war against China that has shaken the global economy, President Donald Trump gathered his most trusted economic aides in the Oval Office.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 600 points Friday after the latest escalation in the trade war between the U.S. and China rattled investors. The broad sell-off sent the S&P 500 to its fourth straight weekly loss.

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LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners paid their respects to former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco at a public visitation Friday evening in Cajun country.

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

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In a story Aug. 22 about federal authorities breaking up an international theft ring, The Associated Press reported erroneously the suspects are accused of stealing at least $46 million. The alleged thefts actually totaled $6 million, and authorities say the suspects attempted to steal another $40 million.

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MARYSVILLE, Mich. (AP) — A city council candidate in Michigan said Friday she has no plans to end her campaign after shocking a public forum when she said she wants to keep her community white "as much as possible."

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A new U.S. government management plan unveiled Friday clears the way for coal mining and oil and gas drilling on land that used to be off limits as part of a sprawling national monument in Utah before President Donald Trump downsized the protected area two years ago.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who with his older brother Charles poured a fortune into right-wing causes, transforming the American political landscape and shaping U.S. policies on such issues as climate change and government regulation, died Friday at 79.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Add salmon to the list of species affected by Alaska's blistering summer temperatures, including the hottest July on record.

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In a story Aug. 21 about a lawsuit against novelist Nicholas Sparks by the former headmaster of the school the author founded, The Associated Press, citing testimony from Sparks, reported that former headmaster Saul Hillel Benjamin accepted severance of $150,000 to resign. While a lawyer for Sparks told jurors that Benjamin agreed to the offer, Benjamin's law firm said he didn't accept or receive the payment.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Republican Tate Reeves was a 29-year-old banker and political novice when he won his first statewide office in Mississippi in 2003. After two terms as treasurer and the next two as lieutenant governor, Reeves now has his sights set on becoming governor.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Friday that he had "hereby ordered" American companies with operations in China "to immediately start looking for" an alternative after Beijing announced a series of retaliatory tariffs.

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SEATTLE (AP) — The Trump administration is opposing Washington state's effort to make a privately run, for-profit immigration detention center pay detainees minimum wage for the work they do.

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CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the appointment of a special prosecutor to look at the dropping of charges in the Jussie Smollett case (all times local):

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump calls on US companies to consider alternatives to business in China in response to new tariffs.

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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago judge names special prosecutor to investigate the dropping of charges against actor Jussie Smollett.

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CHICAGO (AP) — The troubling scene inside the dingy Chicago apartment seems real: dangling exposed wires, open pill bottles near a sleeping baby and a kitchen strewn with dog feces and cockroaches.

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Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Trump campaign has a message for its female supporters: It's time to come out of hiding.

There's an interesting debate going on now about the nature of our drug laws.

When I was in high school, I played a football game at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene. It was a JV match, so very sparsely attended, and other than the fact that it was very cold, and we won, I don't remember much else about the game apart from the halftime.

The Cowboys lost Sunday and didn't make the playoffs.

I saw an article the other day about tapes from the Lyndon Johnson presidency being released. 

Actually, until my sister got a job selling cell phones (down in the Sam's store), I was pretty ignorant about the whole idea.

I once read that in a single year, California changed the nature of America more than any state ever has, maybe more than all the rest put together.

If anything I say here offends you, I wasn't trying to. There are two things you don't talk about over dinner, but if that extended to newspaper columns, I wouldn't have much to write. Religion and politics offend easily, and taken together the problem is even worse. Actually, this is my point, that under no circumstances should we put either at risk by mixing them.

According to the Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, God hates gays, 9/11 was the result of America's tolerance toward homosexuality, and every dead U.S. soldier is a sign of the Lord's judgment on our depraved national character.

Because I didn't know that until someone told me to look it up. It has nothing to do with anything, but some people only read headlines, and I wanted to share.

I've recently rediscovered bouncing. Tennis balls, rubber balls, golf balls, toy balls - whatever bounces and fits in my hand, I bounce it, oh how I do.

Another OA writer had a recent column mourning the death of Customer Service. In response, readers offered explanations why we’d reached this sad state where employees are apathetic, have a poor work ethic, are all-around incompetent or some mixture of the above.