Green Bay News

Jail booking photos from June.

DETROIT (AP) – U.S. auto sales were stronger than expected in May, boosted by Memorial Day promotions and strong demand for new SUVs.

Analysts had expected sales to fall by around 1 percent, but Tuesday’s sales reports were beating their expectations. Ford said overall industry sales likely grew around 1 percent over last May.

Subaru led automakers with a 12 percent sales gain. General Motors’ sales rose 3 percent, Fiat Chrysler was up 4 percent and Honda rose 1 percent.

All four automakers benefited as buyers continued a steady shift from cars into small and medium-sized SUVs. Honda sold more than 6,300 HR-V small SUVs in the first two weeks it was on sale. Sales of the GMC Acadia SUV jumped 67 percent, while sales of the Jeep Cherokee were up 23 percent. Sales of Subaru’s XV Crosstrek small SUV jumped 36 percent.

Long-struggling Volkswagen surprised with an 8 percent sales gain thanks to its new Golf. Ford’s sales fell 1 percent. Nissan and Toyota said sales were flat.

May is typically one of the biggest sales months of the year, as buyers flush with tax returns look forward to summer road trips. Last May, sales jumped 11 percent to 1.6 million, their highest monthly total in nine years.

After five years of blistering growth after the recession, it’s getting increasingly difficult for the industry to match those kinds of numbers. U.S. sales are expected to hit 17 million this year, near their historic peak of a decade ago, and automakers will have to work harder to post big gains.

But the industry isn’t alarmed. Because of factory closures during the recession, output is closer to matching consumer demand, so car companies don’t have to resort to as much expensive discounting as they did in the past. Demand is also healthy thanks to easing credit standards, improving employment numbers, lower gas prices and enticing new vehicles.

In a sign of confidence, Ford is shortening its annual two-week summer break to one week at its six North American assembly plants, and FCA canceled its usual shutdown at four assembly plants in the U.S. and Mexico.

Analysts had forecast that lower sales to rental car companies and other fleets would drag down sales. But car buying site TrueCar.com said sales to individual buyers jumped 7 percent over Memorial Day weekend, thanks in part to promotions like zero-percent financing on the new Hyundai Sonata sedan.

GM’s sales rose 3 percent to 293,097 vehicles. Sales of its best-seller, the Chevrolet Silverado pickup, rose 11 percent, and Buick’s two small SUVs – the Encore and Enclave – both saw 20 percent gains. But car sales were weaker. Sales of the Chevrolet Cruze dropped 27 percent.

Ford’s sales dropped 1 percent to 250,813. Sales of its best-seller, the F-150 pickup, dropped 10 percent as the company continued to ramp up production of the newly redesigned truck. Ford’s U.S. sales chief, Mark LaNeve, said Ford had just half of its normal F-150 inventory at the beginning of the month. Ford also saw lower sales of the Escape and Explorer SUVs.

Toyota’s sales were flat at 242,579. Toyota’s SUV sales were up, led by the Highlander with a 25-percent increase. Lexus SUV sales were also strong thanks in part to the new NX small SUV. But Toyota’s car sales dropped 11 percent.

FCA’s sales rose 4 percent to 202,227, the company’s best May since 2005. Jeep sales rose 13 percent. Sales of FCA’s best-seller, the Ram pickup, rose 8 percent, while sales of Ram’s ProMaster van more than doubled.

Honda’s sales rose 1 percent to 154,593 vehicles. Car sales were weak; Honda’s best-seller, the Civic sedan, was down 4.5 percent. But sales of the Acura RDX SUV jumped 24 percent.

Nissan’s sales were flat at 134,779. Sales of the recently redesigned Murano crossover were up 58 percent, and the Rogue small SUV also saw strong sales. But Nissan’s car sales dropped 11 percent.

Subaru’s sales were up 12 percent to 49,561. Its biggest seller, the Forester SUV, saw a 7 percent gain. Sales of the newly redesigned Legacy sedan climbed 64 percent.

Volkswagen’s sales rose 8 percent to 34,758 thanks to sales of the new Golf small car, which nearly tripled over last May.

NORTH POLE, Alaska (AP) – North Pole residents can put marijuana on their Christmas list next year.

The city council in North Pole, Alaska, rejected a measure Monday that would have banned marijuana dispensaries. Marijuana became legal in Alaska in February, and sales begin next year.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported even Santa Claus – yes, that’s his real name – testified in favor of selling pot in this Christmas-themed town, where light poles resemble candy canes.

Claus said he is medical marijuana patient, and he’d like to buy pot in North Pole instead of making the short drive to Fairbanks.

Some worried how others might perceive North Pole if marijuana dispensaries are allowed. But one council member noted North Pole already allows the sale of alcohol, cigarettes and guns.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden and his family are planning a Saturday funeral mass for former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden in his hometown of Wilmington. President Barack Obama is planning to deliver a eulogy.

The vice president’s oldest son died on Saturday of brain cancer at age 46. The vice president’s office announced Tuesday that Beau Biden will lie in honor Thursday at Dover Legislative Hall. A wake and viewing is planned Friday at St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church in Wilmington, where the funeral also will be held. All are open to the public.

Beau Biden had been planning a run for Delaware governor next year after serving two terms as state attorney general. Beau Biden also was an Iraq War veteran and father of two.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal investigators say they still don’t know if the engineer involved in a deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia was on his cellphone before the speeding train derailed.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report released Tuesday says it also remains unclear if damage to the windshield was caused by the wreck or an object thrown at the train.

The NTSB has said engineer Brandon Bostian has been cooperative but says he cannot recall the moments before the accident. Eight passengers died and more than 200 were taken to hospitals.

The two-page preliminary report estimates damage from the May 12 crash at more than $9.2 million.

The NTSB says the train entered the 50 mile-per-hour curve at 106 miles per hour. The report says Bostian braked seconds before the wreck.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon says it has determined that possibly live anthrax was mistakenly sent to labs in Canada and Washington state, in addition to the numerous labs in the U.S. and abroad that were announced last week.

A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren, says Canadian and Washington state authorities have been notified.

Warren said the suspect anthrax was from a sample at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The anthrax was supposed to have been inactivated before being sent to labs across the U.S. for research but apparently was not. It also was sent to labs in South Korea and Australia.

The Pentagon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating.

Warren said there is no known risk to public health.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A Fargo man who admitted being drunk while operating a Zamboni during a high school hockey game was convicted Tuesday after the judge rejected his lawyer’s argument that the ice-resurfacing machine didn’t meet the definition of a vehicle under city code.

Steven James Anderson, 27, was sentenced to nine days in jail, with credit for one day served, and ordered a $1,500 fine, chemical dependency evaluation, and participation in the state’s 24/7 sobriety program.

He was arrested in January during the girls hockey game in Fargo after witnesses complained he was driving erratically on the ice between periods and crashing into the boards. Police say his blood-alcohol content was nearly four times the legal limit for driving a motor vehicle.

Defense attorney Lindsey Haugen said during the bench trial Tuesday that the law is not clear whether a Zamboni is considered a vehicle, or whether it is illegal to drive the machine on the ice while drunk. He also said witnesses are hazy on whether Anderson drove the Zamboni on a road behind the arena to dump ice or whether that road was accessible to other vehicles.

But Municipal Court Judge Stephen Dawson said state law is written to include vehicles “such as” a Zamboni.

Afterward, Haugen said his research of DUI law found specific vehicles such as tractors, snowmobiles, recreational vehicles and boats, but he found no references to a Zamboni.

“Our purpose was to have someone state with authority that this is a violation of the law,” Haugen said.

Anderson said he was drinking at a friend’s birthday party until about 3 p.m. on the day of the Jan. 30 game between Fargo Davies and Dickinson. Haugen said his client rode a bicycle to the Southside Arena after the party and had planned to take a cab home. Anderson’s blood-alcohol content registered a .314 at 9:30 p.m., police said.

Troy Cody, the Davies principal, testified that he “knew the situation wasn’t right” and called police between the first and second periods.

“I saw him crash into the boards rather hard,” Cody said.

Anderson, who declined to comment after the hearing, apologized to the court and said he has been sober since the incident.

“I just want to get it over with,” he said.

Haugen said his client is a good person who is embarrassed by the episode.

“He wants to move on with his life,” the attorney said. “He has made a lot of changes in the last four or five months.”

ZURICH (AP) – FIFA President Sepp Blatter will resign from soccer’s governing body amid a widening corruption scandal and has promised to call for fresh elections to choose a successor.

The 79-year-old Blatter was re-elected to a fifth term on Friday, two days after a corruption crisis erupted and seven soccer officials were arrested in Zurich ahead of the FIFA congress.

“This mandate does not seem to be supported by everybody in the world of football,” Blatter said Tuesday at a hastily arranged news conference. “FIFA needs a profound restructuring.”

Elections are expected to take place sometime between December and March.

“I will continue to exercise my function (until the new election),” Blatter said.

Blatter said he reached the decision after he “thoroughly considered my presidency and … (about) the last 40 years in my life.”

• Click here to read Blatter’s full statement

STURGEON BAY – The former director of the Door Co. Humane Society waived a preliminary hearing and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges she stole from the organization.

No trial date has been set for Carrie Counihan, according to online court records. She returns to court July 20 for a status conference.

Counihan admitted to using the shelter credit card on 86 transactions totaling $13,197.12. There may be another $9,605.90 in personal expenses she charged to the shelter, according to sheriff’s report attached to the complaint.

GREEN BAY – A Sturgeon Bay man will spend seven and a half years in federal prison for receiving child pornography.

Steven P. Link, 37, was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release and will have to register as a sex offender.

Link was arrested last September at his bookstore in Sturgeon Bay. Investigators also searched Link’s home. All told, they say they found thousands of images and videos of child pornography on computers and media storage devices. Many of the files showed children believed to be between 5 and 16 years old engaging in sexually explicit activity.

In addition, according to the criminal complaint, as police were searching Link’s bookstore, he told police he had been secretly videotaping people in the restroom with a camera disguised as a smoke detector. Court documents say police found videos of girls and adult women in various stages of undress using the bookstore’s bathroom.

Kory Murphy, another man who was arrested along with Link, was previously sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

MADISON (AP) – Independent charter schools could be approved in 146 public school districts across Wisconsin under a provision that’s been added to the state budget.

State Superintendent Tony Evers says the expansion of independent charter school authorizers would weaken local control of public education.

The measure added to the budget calls for the University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross to appoint someone to approve independent charter schools in Milwaukee and Madison. Four other authorizers could create charter schools in 144 other districts across the state.

Those authorizers are the College of the Menominee Nation, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Gateway Technical College District Board and the Waukesha County executive.

Supporters say it gives students more choices, while opponents like Evers say it will hurt public schools.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Officials say five invasive bighead carp have been caught in the St. Croix (croy) River in the past week, just south of Stillwater.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it’s the farthest upstream that bighead carp have been found in the St. Croix, and it’s about 7 miles north of the previous point. Only four other bighead carp had been taken in the St. Croix River, dating back to 1996.

Silver and bighead carp are two Asian carp species threatening the Mississippi River and connected waters. They out-compete native fish species for plankton.

While bighead and silver carp have been found in the Mississippi as far north as Hastings, the DNR says there’s no evidence yet that they’re reproducing in the Minnesota waters of the Mississippi or St. Croix.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The handsome, muscular Bruce Jenner, whose picture appeared on the Wheaties cereal box the year after he won the Olympic gold medal, is on the cover of Vanity Fair this week, only now as Caitlyn Jenner, an attractive woman in a strapless, white corset.

Although not the first celebrity (think Chaz Bono) to transition from one gender to another in the public eye, Jenner lit up online media Monday when she tweeted a photo of the magazine cover along with the declaration that, at age 65, she’s finally “living my true self.”

I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me.

— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) June 1, 2015

Twitter accounts, ranging from the one held by the White House to those of transgender advocates, sociologists and regular folks, quickly retweeted the cover photo, most often with positive comments.

Even some poking lighthearted fun at the perfectly coiffed Jenner said the handsome former athlete looks even better as a woman in the perfectly posed picture by celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz.

“All the women I know would LOVE to have the chance to have photos of themselves as beautiful as that one taken by Annie Leibovitz,” said Eden Lane, an anchor and producer for Denver PBS television station KBDI and a transgender woman.

But more important, Lane added, is the positive impact Jenner’s transition seems to have suddenly had on the transgender movement.

“When you know someone, it’s easier to leave room in your heart and mind for them. To just be without fear of them or without hatred of them,” she said. And pretty much everyone feels they know Jenner, Lane added.

Older people were enthralled by the athlete who dominated one of the Olympics’ most grueling competitions, the decathlon, in the 1976 summer games in Montreal. More recently, younger people have come to embrace the good-natured foil they saw on the long-running TV reality series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Until last December, Jenner was married for 23 years to Kris Kardashian and is the father of two of her children.

Jenner’s transition has played out in public over the past several months and included a high-profile interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer last April, in which Jenner, appearing nervous at first, declared, “Yes, for all intents and purposes, I am a woman.”

The celebrity had no other choice but to do it that way, said veteran Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, who represented Chaz Bono when the daughter of entertainers Sonny and Cher transitioned from female to male in 2009.

“The thing you have to understand about people like Caitlyn and Chaz is most people do this privately,” said Bragman, founder and CEO of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations. “Public people don’t get the luxury of doing that. It takes an extra amount of courage for them to do it, and to do it with class, and that’s exactly what Caitlyn has done.”

Not that it’s necessarily easy, any way it’s done.

“Even with the position Caitlyn is in and the positive reaction that seems to be surrounding her today, we can’t forget that there are so many transgender people who don’t have this environment, who are fearful just to step out of their homes or go to the grocery store or walk down the street every single day,” Lane said.

Aside from violence, there’s also the emotional toll. Jenner told Sawyer that she had contemplated suicide during the decades she struggled with her sexuality.

“To think she waited 65 years to come out, if you will, is a tragedy in itself,” University of Southern California sociologist Julie Albright said. “Keeping a secret like that for so many years is bound to take a psychological and even a physical toll on you.”

Renee Richards, the transgender pioneer who famously transitioned from man to woman in 1975, said recently that Jenner should benefit from living in a more enlightened time.

Richards was a successful doctor and, like Jenner, a father and star athlete.

But she had to sue to be allowed to play tennis at the U.S. Open, where she made it to the women’s doubles finals in 1977. And she said doctors initially refused to help her when she approached them as a 40-year-old man.

“It was too scary for them,” Richards recently told GQ Magazine. “They couldn’t fathom how someone who had been so supremely successful in everything – in medicine, in sports, in life – as a heterosexual man, as a husband, as a father, they couldn’t understand that.

“In this day and age,” she added, “they would understand.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A sex education teacher has drawn the ire of parents after taking students on a field trip to an adult novelty store in Minneapolis.

Gaia Democratic School director Starri Hedges took about a dozen middle- and high-school students to the Smitten Kitten last week. Hedges told the Star Tribune that she wanted to provide a safe environment for students to learn about human sexual behavior.

Besides offering adult books, videos, toys and other products, the store also has educational workshops, which the students attended.

“What I saw happening on our trip, I thought it was beautiful because kids could talk to these sex educators without any shame, without any fear,” Hedges said. Some of her students bought condoms, she said.

The small K-12 school has a motto that promises academic freedom, youth empowerment and democratic education. Parents say it has about 25 students. Tax records show the school, housed in a Unitarian church, has an annual budget of about $100,000.

Parent Lynn Floyd’s 11- and 13-year-old daughters were on the field trip. Floyd says the trip was “a major breach of trust” and has withdrawn his children from the school. Floyd said he is most troubled that parents were never notified before the trip.

“I just struggled to think that I wasn’t involved in that,” he said.

Hedges said that she “unfortunately didn’t communicate well enough with parents ahead of time” about the trip. Pornographic items were off limits to the children, Hedges said, but sex toys and other products were visible.

Minnesota Department of Education spokesman Josh Collins said the state has no authority over the school because it is private. “I don’t think anybody would think that going to the Smitten Kitten is a great idea,” he said.

It is not clear whether the field trip broke any laws. A city ordinance said those younger than 18 should not be exposed to “sexually provocative written, photographic, printed, sound, or published materials deemed harmful to minors.”

Minneapolis City Attorney Susan Segal did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Hedges said she probably would not take another class to the store.

“It was certainly the first time we have taken that kind of field trip and it will probably be our last, which I feel bad (about) because the kids had so much fun,” Hedges said.

BOSTON (AP) – A college friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison after he apologized to the victims and their families for not calling police when he recognized photos of Tsarnaev as a suspect.

Dias Kadyrbayev, 21, pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges for removing items from Tsarnaev’s dorm room after recognizing his friend in photos released by the FBI days after the bombing.

Prosecutors say Kadyrbayev exchanged text messages with Tsarnaev, then went to his room with two other friends. There, he and another man agreed to remove Tsarnaev’s computer and a backpack containing fireworks that had been partially emptied of their explosive powder. Kadyrbayev also threw the backpack into a garbage dumpster.

Kadyrbayev said Tuesday that he had no explanation for his actions.

“I can’t find an answer. I really can’t believe that I acted so stupidly,” he told Judge Douglas Woodlock before his sentence was imposed.

Kadyrbayev had faced up to seven years in prison. His lawyer had sought a three-year sentence.

He will get credit for the 26 months he’s been in custody and will be deported to his native Kazakhstan when his prison term is up.

In sentencing memos filed in court, prosecutors said Kadyrbayev had the power to help law enforcement identify Tsarnaev and prevent additional violence, possibly including the murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier, who was killed by the Tsarnaev brothers as they tried to flee after the FBI released their photos. Dzhokhar’s older brother, Tamerlan, died after a shootout with police.

“Hours before (Dzhokhar) Tsarnaev murdered Officer Collier, the defendant (Kadyrbayev) recognized that his friend Tsarnaev was the fugitive bomber. Any reasonable, decent person possessed of the information the defendant had would have recognized that immediate apprehension of Tsarnaev was a public-safety imperative,” prosecutors wrote.

Collier’s sister had been expected to speak Tuesday, but at the beginning of the hearing, prosecutors informed the judge that she had decided not to. A prosecutor did, however, quote from a letter written by Collier’s stepfather in which the family said they believe if Kadyrbayev had reported Tsarnaev’s identity to authorities, he could possibly have prevented Collier’s death.

Kadyrbayev’s father, Murat, traveled from Kazakhstan to attend his son’s sentencing hearing. He said his son didn’t fully understand in the moment how serious his actions were.

“Had he known what he was doing and had he understood what he was doing, we wouldn’t be standing here,” Murat Kadyrbayev said through a translator outside court.

Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured in the bombing April 15, 2013, near the marathon’s finish line. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for the attacks.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin’s health committees have begun a joint hearing about a fast-tracked bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Under the bill, doctors who perform an abortion after 20 weeks in non-emergency situations could be charged with a felony and subject to up to $10,000 in fines or 3½ years in prison.

• Click here to read 2015 Senate Bill 179

At a press conference Tuesday, Sen. Mary Lazich, a New Berlin Republican, said the ban is “on par with partial-birth abortions” because a fetus aborted after 20 weeks can feel pain.

As written, it doesn’t provide an exception for pregnancies due to rape or incest. The bill also requires that physicians performing abortions in situations in which the mother’s life is in danger do so in a way most likely to ensure the child’s survival.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is operating a small air force with scores of low-flying planes across the U.S. carrying video and, at times, cellphone surveillance technology — all hidden behind fictitious companies that are fronts for the government, The Associated Press has learned.

The planes’ surveillance equipment is generally used without a judge’s approval, and the FBI said the flights are used for specific, ongoing investigations. The FBI said it uses front companies to protect the safety of the pilots and aircraft. It also shields the identity of the aircraft so that suspects on the ground don’t know they’re being watched by the FBI.

In a recent 30-day period, the agency flew above more than 30 cities in 11 states across the country, an AP review found.

• Read registration documents for one of the planes

Aerial surveillance represents a changing frontier for law enforcement, providing what the government maintains is an important tool in criminal, terrorism or intelligence probes. But the program raises questions about whether there should be updated policies protecting civil liberties as new technologies pose intrusive opportunities for government spying.

U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed for the first time the wide-scale use of the aircraft, which the AP traced to at least 13 fake companies, such as FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services.

Even basic aspects of the program are withheld from the public in censored versions of official reports from the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The FBI also has been careful not to reveal its surveillance flights in court documents.

“The FBI’s aviation program is not secret,” spokesman Christopher Allen said in a statement. “Specific aircraft and their capabilities are protected for operational security purposes.” Allen added that the FBI’s planes “are not equipped, designed or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance.”

But the planes can capture video of unrelated criminal activity on the ground that could be handed over for prosecutions.

Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they’re not making a call or in public. Officials said that practice, which mimics cell towers and gets phones to reveal basic subscriber information, is rare.

Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas.

One of the planes, photographed in flight last week by the AP in northern Virginia, bristled with unusual antennas under its fuselage and a camera on its left side. A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI’s surveillance fleet.

The FBI also occasionally helps local police with aerial support, such as during the recent disturbance in Baltimore that followed the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who sustained grievous injuries while in police custody. Those types of requests are reviewed by senior FBI officials.

The surveillance flights comply with agency rules, an FBI spokesman said. Those rules, which are heavily redacted in publicly available documents, limit the types of equipment the agency can use, as well as the justifications and duration of the surveillance.

Details about the flights come as the Justice Department seeks to navigate privacy concerns arising from aerial surveillance by unmanned aircrafts, or drones. President Barack Obama has said he welcomes a debate on government surveillance, and has called for more transparency about spying in the wake of disclosures about classified programs.

“These are not your grandparents’ surveillance aircraft,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, calling the flights significant “if the federal government is maintaining a fleet of aircraft whose purpose is to circle over American cities, especially with the technology we know can be attached to those aircraft.”

Evolving technology can record higher-quality video from long distances, even at night, and can capture certain identifying information from cellphones using a device known as a “cell-site simulator” — or Stingray, to use one of the product’s brand names. These can trick pinpointed cellphones into revealing identification numbers of subscribers, including those not suspected of a crime.

Officials say cellphone surveillance is rare, although the AP found in recent weeks FBI flights orbiting large, enclosed buildings for extended periods where aerial photography would be less effective than electronic signals collection.

After The Washington Post revealed flights by two planes circling over Baltimore in early May, the AP began analyzing detailed flight data and aircraft-ownership registrations that shared similar addresses and flight patterns. That review found some FBI missions circled above at least 40,000 residents during a single flight over Anaheim, California, in late May, according to Census data and records provided by the website FlightRadar24.com.

The FBI asked the AP not to disclose the names of the fake companies it uncovered, saying that would saddle taxpayers with the expense of creating new cover companies to shield the government’s involvement, and could endanger the planes and integrity of the surveillance missions. The AP declined the FBI’s request because the companies’ names — as well as common addresses linked to the Justice Department — are listed on public documents and in government databases.

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Associated Press writers Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Joan Lowy and Ted Bridis in Washington; Randall Chase in Wilmington, Delaware; and news researchers Monika Mathur in Washington and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate sped toward passage Tuesday of legislation to end the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ calling records while preserving other surveillance authorities. But House leaders warned their Senate counterparts not to proceed with planned changes to a House version.

Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said amendments contemplated by the Senate “would bring real challenges” in getting the House to go along.

“The best way to make sure America is protected is for the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act,” he said, referring to the House version.

The Senate version of that bill cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday by a vote of 83-14, and it was expected to pass the Senate by day’s end. But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he planned votes on three modifications.

The law authorizing government bulk collection and storage of Americans’ phone records expired at midnight Sunday. The NSA stopped gathering the records from phone companies hours before the deadline. Other post-9/11 surveillance provisions considered more effective than the phone-data collection program also lapsed, leading intelligence officials to warn of critical gaps.

Those other provisions include the FBI’s authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations, and to more easily eavesdrop on a suspect who is discarding cellphones to avoid surveillance.

During a closed-door House GOP meeting Tuesday morning, several members expressed deep concerns about the planned Senate amendments. Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin called the changes a “poison pill” during the meeting, said a leadership aide who declined to be named because he was not authorized to be quoted publicly.

Republican Sen. John Barrasso attended the meeting to represent Senate leaders and indicated that the message was received, the aide said.

The bill before the Senate, known in the House as the USA Freedom Act, would reauthorize several surveillance provisions that have expired. But it would phase out NSA phone records collection over time. It passed the House overwhelmingly and is backed by President Barack Obama. Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who doesn’t believe it goes far enough, blocked consideration Sunday night.

If the measure becomes law over the next few days, the NSA will resume gathering the phone records, but only for a transition period of six months, in the House version, or a year in a proposed Senate amendment.

If the bill fails amid congressional politics, the collection cannot resume, period.

The amendments proposed by Sen. Richard Burr, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the intelligence committee, were designed, he said, to win quick House approval. One requires the director of national intelligence to certify that the NSA can effectively search records held by the phone companies in terrorism investigations. Another would require the phone companies to notify the government if they change their policy on how long they held the records.

A third, to extend the transition from six months to 12 months, promises to be controversial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it is needed, but Mike Rogers, the NSA director, has said six months is sufficient.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, accused Senate Republicans of engaging in “the politics of saving face,” adding that the amendments “may tank the USA Freedom Act in the House.”

Whatever the outcome, the past two days in Congress have made this much clear: The NSA will ultimately be out of the business of collecting and storing American calling records.

This turn of events is a resounding victory for Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who disclosed the calling records collection in 2013. Senators on the intelligence committee had been issuing veiled and vague warnings about the phone records program for years.

But it was Snowden who revealed the details. He’s now living in Moscow, having fled U.S. prosecution for disclosing classified information.

Because of Snowden, “people have some more insight into exactly how they are being spied upon and how the law has been twisted to authorize mass surveillance of people who have no connection to a crime or terrorism,” said Harley Geiger, senior counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group that supports the USA Freedom Act.

Still, the USA Freedom Act would hardly count as a defeat for the NSA, Snowden’s former employer. NSA officials, including former director Keith Alexander, have long said they had no problem with ending their collection of phone records, as long as they can continue to search the data held by the companies, which the legislation allows them to do.

The USA Freedom Act doesn’t address the vast majority of Snowden revelations, which concern NSA mass surveillance of global internet traffic that often sweeps in American communication.

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Associated Press reporter Erica Werner contributed to this report.

CHICAGO (AP) – A federal judge in Chicago has delayed what was supposed to be former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s first court appearance following his indictment in a hush-money case.

A filing Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin’s clerk says the arraignment of the Illinois Republican has been pushed from Thursday to June 9. It offers no explanation.

A grand jury indictment alleges the 73-year-old Republican agreed to pay $3.5 million to ensure someone from the town where he taught and coached high school wrestling stayed quiet about his “prior misconduct.”

Hastert hasn’t spoken or appeared in public since his indictment. No attorney has spoken on his behalf and no lawyer is named on his court docket.

The indictment charges Hastert with evading bank regulations and lying to the FBI.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are seeking answers from the maker of defective air bags and federal regulators as they focus on the biggest auto-safety recall in U.S. history.

Japan’s Takata Corp. agreed last month to declare 33.8 million air bags defective. Faulty inflators inside the air bags are responsible for six deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide. A top Takata executive and the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are answering questions at a U.S. House hearing Tuesday.

Lawmakers want to know how the replacement inflators being installed are different so that they won’t suffer the same defect, and how long all the repairs will take.

The chemical that inflates the air bags can explode with too much force, blowing apart inflators and sending shrapnel into the passenger compartment.