AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT

Thousands gather at March on Washington commemorations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Capping a week of protests and outrage over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, civil rights advocates on Friday denounced police and vigilante violence against Black Americans at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Thousands gathered near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic, “I Have a Dream” address, a vision of racial equality that remains elusive for millions of Americans.

The event came on the heels of yet another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man — 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin— that sparked days of protests and violence that left two dead.

“I want to give space for Black people in the crowd to say they are not OK,” said Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, who addressed march attendees shortly after the program began.

“We are like the nameless grandmothers who got in the streets and said, ‘We will make you live up to what America says she is,’” Williams said. “We are here. We’re not going anywhere.”

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Health agencies' credibility at risk after week of blunders

WASHINGTON (AP) — The credibility of two of the nation’s leading public health agencies was under fire this week after controversial decisions that outside experts said smacked of political pressure from President Donald Trump as he attempts to move past the devastating toll of the coronavirus ahead of the November election.

The head of the Food and Drug Administration grossly misstated, then corrected, claims about the life-saving power of a plasma therapy for COVID-19 authorized by his agency. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly updated its guidelines to suggest fewer Americans need to get tested for coronavirus, sparking outrage from scientists.

Trump's own factual misstatements about COVID-19 are well documented, but the back-to-back messaging blunders by public health officials could create new damage, eroding public trust in front-line agencies. That's already raising concerns about whether the administration will be forthcoming with critical details about upcoming vaccines needed to defeat the pandemic.

"I do worry about the credibility of the FDA and CDC, especially at a time when the capacity of the federal government to advance public health should be a priority for all policymakers,” said Daniel Levinson, former longtime inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees both the FDA and the CDC.

On Friday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn removed a conservative public relations official involved in the botched plasma announcement, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

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GOP portrayal of urban mayhem doesn't always match reality

At almost every turn at the Republican National Convention, speakers from the president on down portrayed American cities like Portland, Oregon, New York and Chicago as lawless Democratic wastelands that have been overrun with violence, looting and destruction that is forcing residents to flee for safer locales.

The reality on the ground is much more nuanced.

In downtown Portland this week, tourists from Texas enjoyed gyros at a food cart, a couple from the suburbs soaked up the afternoon sun and a recent transplant from Indiana strummed an acoustic guitar outside a shuttered Apple store, in front of a mural that’s dedicated to Black people killed by police.

“It’s a pretty day and we feel just perfectly safe as long as we’ve got our masks on,” said Benjamin Green, a warehouse forklift operator from Beaverton, Oregon. “I don’t see why there’s any need to be scared to walk around out here.”

The picture of American cities overwhelmed by violence has become a central theme of the 2020 presidential race. In his convention acceptance speech Thursday night, President Donald Trump called for “law and order” and said the country can never allow “mob rule.” But for the most part that portrait doesn't line up with reality.

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Biden, Harris prepare to travel more as campaign heats up

WASHINGTON (AP) — After spending a pandemic spring and summer tethered almost entirely to his Delaware home, Joe Biden plans to take his presidential campaign to battleground states after Labor Day in his bid to unseat President Donald Trump. No itinerary is set, according to the Democratic nominee's campaign, but the former vice president and his allies say his plan is to highlight contrasts with Trump, from policy arguments tailored to specific audiences to the strict public health guidelines the Biden campaign says its events will follow amid COVID-19. That's a notable difference from a president who on Thursday delivered his nomination acceptance on the White House lawn to more than 1,000 people seated side-by-side, most of them without masks, even as the U.S. death toll surpassed 180,000. “He will go wherever he needs to go,” said Biden’s campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman. “And we will do it in a way the health experts would be happy” with and “not the absolutely irresponsible manner you saw at the White House.”

Richmond said it was “always the plan” for Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris to travel more extensively after Labor Day, the traditional mark of the campaign's home stretch when more casual voters begin to pay close attention.

Trump and Republicans have for months mocked Biden as “hiding in his basement,” because Biden has anchored his campaign from his Wilmington, Delaware, residence since mid-March, when public health officials first recommended that Americans severely limit close social contact.

Biden has conducted online fundraisers, campaign events and television interviews from his home, but traveled only sparingly for speeches and roundtables with a smattering of media or supporters. His only confirmed plane travel was to Houston, where he met with the family of George Floyd, the Black man who was killed by a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25, sparking nationwide protests. Even some Democrats worried quietly that Biden was ceding too much of the spotlight to Trump. But Biden aides have defended their approach. “We will never make any choices that put our staff or voters in harm’s way,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in May.

Throughout his unusual home-based campaign, Biden blasted Trump as incompetent and irresponsible for downplaying the pandemic and publicly disputing the government's infectious disease experts. Richmond said that won't change as Biden ramps up travel.

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Carter Center, pushing for fair elections, turns focus to US

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Carter Center, an organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, has worked for decades to ensure fair elections in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

It's now turning its focus to the United States.

The Atlanta-based center said Friday that it has launched an initiative meant to strengthen and build confidence in the U.S. election system. It has observed over 110 elections in 39 countries since 1989 but now feels compelled to take on the problems at home, it says.

The center notes that while the U.S. has fallen short of some international election standards before, it's only in the last decade that the center would describe the country's democracy as “backsliding.”

Countries that are at risk of “backsliding” are “often characterized by polarization, a lack of public trust, ethnic or racial divisions and injustice, and fears that election results won’t be seen as credible or could trigger violence," the Carter Center said in a statement.

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Kansas girl's killer 5th federal inmate executed this year

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A Kansas girl’s killer Friday became the fifth federal inmate put to death this year, an execution that went forward only after a higher court tossed a ruling that would have required the government to get a prescription for the drug used to kill him.

Questions about whether the drug pentobarbital causes pain prior to death had been a focus of appeals for Keith Nelson, 45, the second inmate executed this week in the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions this summer after a 17-year hiatus.

Nelson was pronounced dead inside the execution chamber at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, at 4:32 p.m. EDT, about nine minutes after the execution began.

When a prison official standing over him asked if he had any last words, Nelson didn't utter a word, grunt or even nod his head. After the official waited for about 15 seconds, his eyes fixed on Nelson waiting in vain for an answer, he turned away and began the execution procedure.

Nelson, whose face was entirely obscured behind a medical mask and a blue sheet across his body, stayed still as the lethal drug pentobarbital was delivered, which his attorneys made as the focus of their last-minute appeals. None of his limbs twitched or quivered, but after about a minute his chest and midsection began to heave and shutter involuntarily.

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Laura victims may go weeks without power; deaths climb to 14

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — The Louisiana coastline devastated by Hurricane Laura began a long and gloomy recovery Friday as hundreds of thousands of people still without water and power confronted the possibility that basic services may not return for weeks or even longer. The number of dead climbed to at least 14.

A day after the Category 4 storm hit, more bodies emerged in the aftermath in Louisiana and neighboring Texas. The deaths included five people killed by fallen trees and one person who drowned in a boat. Eight people died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to unsafe operation of generators, including three inside a Texas pool hall, where authorities say the owner had let seven Vietnamese shrimp boat laborers and homeless men take shelter. The other four were in critical condition.

The lack of essential resources was grim for the many evacuated residents eager to return.

Chad Peterson planned to board up a window and head to Florida. “There’s no power. There’s no water. There’s no utilities,” he said.

Thousands of people who heeded dire warnings and fled the Gulf Coast returned to homes without roofs, roads littered with debris and the likelihood of a harsh recovery that could take months.

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College towns growing alarmed over outbreaks among students

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As more and more schools and businesses around the country get the OK to reopen, college towns are moving in the opposite direction because of too much partying and too many COVID-19 infections among students.

With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus and an alarming 44% positivity rate for the surrounding county, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. and close by 10 p.m.

Earlier this week, Iowa’s governor ordered all bars shut down around Iowa University and Iowa State, while the mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did the same in the hometown of the state’s flagship university.

“What we’re seeing in our violations is they’re coming late at night,” said Stephanie Browning, head of the health department for Columbia, Missouri. “Big groups gathering. They’re not wearing their masks, they’re not social distancing.”

In Provo, Utah, the home of Brigham Young University, the Municipal Council passed a mask ordinance over the mayor's veto because of the influx of students from around the country for the start of classes Monday.

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Victims of shooting during Kenosha protest engaged gunman

CHICAGO (AP) — A man known for his love of skateboarding, a Texas transplant to the state and a college student acting as a volunteer medic were killed or wounded this week by a 17-year-old gunman amid chaos on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, has been charged with fatally shooting two protesters and wounding a third. Attorneys representing Rittenhouse have said he acted to defend himself.

Kenosha County prosecutors said in court records this week that the first person shot around 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday has been identified as Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha.

Prosecutors said Rosenbaum followed Rittenhouse into a used car lot, where he threw a plastic bag at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him.

The medical examiner found that Rosenbaum was shot in the groin, back and left hand. The wounds fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver. He also suffered a superficial wound to his left thigh and a graze wound to his forehead.

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NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

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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CLAIM: More than 128 million people tuned in to watch the Republican National Convention’s opening day, compared to just over 20 million who watched the Democratic National Convention.

THE FACTS: There's no data to back this up. In fact, available metrics show more viewers tuned into the first night of the DNC than the first night of the RNC. The Associated Press reported an estimated 17 million people watched the last hour of the Republican National Convention’s opening night on Aug. 24 on television. That is lower than the estimated 19.7 million who tuned into the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 17. The estimates come from the Nielsen company, and account for viewers of 11 television networks. There is no way to truly calculate the total views across platforms, including all online streaming options. False claims circulated on Twitter and Facebook about viewership between the conventions. “Day 1 of the DNC: 21.4 Million Views. Day 1 of the RNC: 128.4 Million,” reads one widely shared Facebook post. The AP could find no evidence for the 128.4 million figure cited in the post, which is six times greater than the figure listed for the DNC. A headline in The Hill did announce, “First night of GOP convention delivers nearly six times more views than start of Democrats’ event on C-SPAN live stream.” The article only referred to online C-SPAN views, which were 440,000 on the opening day of the RNC, compared to 76,000 for the DNC. Those numbers represent a small fraction of the millions of viewers who watched the conventions across multiple networks and platforms. It is possible that the 128.4 million figure in the post was generated by taking 21.4 million, which was a preliminary Nielsen estimate for the third night of the DNC, and multiplying it by six, based on a misunderstanding of the headlines about the C-SPAN numbers. Nielsen estimated the GOP enjoyed slightly more viewers than Democrats on the second night of conventions, when an estimated 19.4 million tuned into the RNC on television, versus 19.2 million who tuned into the DNC. Democrats had more viewers on the third night, with an estimated 22.8 million viewers compared to 17.3 million for Republicans. And on the final night of their respective events, the Democrats had 24.6 million viewers, while Republicans had 23.8 million.

— Associated Press writer Jude Joffe-Block reported this item from Berkeley, California.