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WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is tasked with helping states and communities hit by disasters like Hurricane Helene. With Helene hitting during the homestretch of an election year, the agency has been criticized by some residents and politicians, like Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who have questioned its response and are spreading false information that its funding is going to migrants or foreign wars. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The Biden administration has defended FEMA’s work and says it has the money it needs to help communities right now. President Joe Biden does say the agency will need more cash in the future.

BUTLER, Pa. — Former President Donald Trump plans to return Saturday to the site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July, setting aside what are now near-constant worries for his physical safety in order to fulfill a promise — “really an obligation,” he said recently — to the people of Butler, Pennsylvania. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I’ll probably start off by saying, ‘As I was saying …’” the Republican presidential nominee has joked, in a bit of black humor about a speech cut short when a bullet struck Trump’s ear and he was whisked off stage — fist aloft — with blood dripping across his face. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen.

Around midnight in the parking lot of a Denver bar a quarter century ago, the Colorado version of a classic Australian sport was born. Paul Renouf and his buddies were watching the Australian Football League’s Grand Final that night and decided to have a kick under the light poles at halftime of footy’s Super Bowl. And thus the seeds of the Denver Bulldogs were planted. “We didn’t ever plan to start a team,” Renouf said.

It took a camel for us to find out Nikola Jokic has never ridden a horse. The Nuggets spent this week in Abu Dhabi playing a pair of exhibition games against the world-champion Celtics. Many of the Nuggets staffers made the trip, including their media team. As the players experienced life abroad, a few boarded camels, including Russell Westbrook and Peyton Watson. A Nuggets reporter asked Jokic if he had been on a camel. “I have never been on a horse, to be honest,” Jokic said.

In his comeback from Tommy John, Gabriel Hughes took cues from Camus. Hughes, the Rockies’ first-round pick in 2022, returned to the mound in instructional league a little over a month ago after missing all of the 2024 minor-league season. While he was recovering from surgery, Hughes dove into a heady, philosophic reading list that included “The Myth of Sisyphus” by Albert Camus, “Existentialism Is a Humanism” by Jean-Paul Sartre and “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. Camus’ work struck a significant cord with the right-hander and underscored his mindset amid a rehabilitation that lasted over a year. “In these books, we’re trying to figure out how to deal with the inevitable bad things that happen in life, and after surgery, those were really what I was trying to find an answer to,” Hughes said.

Dear Eric: My adult son was a stellar athlete and scholar in our small Midwest high school. But as the years went on, he ended up suffering from chronic pain due to a back injury, which thwarted a career path after college. A year ago, he was diagnosed with long Covid, which he and his partner still have.