Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will be face-to-face for the first time Tuesday night as they debate, aiming to keep the other out of the Oval Office.

Harris closed the polling gap on Trump after her surprise ascension to the Democratic nomination, but she still trails in some polls. She will have a chance to change that when the nominees square off in Philadelphia.

The vice president had narrow leads nationally in a list of polls released in the past few weeks, but her campaign got a surprise Sunday when a New York Times-Siena College survey put Trump up 1 percentage point — suggesting her surge after President Joe Biden dropped out has ended.

But a strong debate performance against the unpredictable, bare-knuckle debater Trump could give her White House bid a boost with less than two months until Election Day. The stakes couldn’t be higher in a race that shows ample signs of a photo finish on Nov. 5.

“If her momentum continues, Harris will probably win. But it may not. If she stumbles in the Sept. 10 debate, the momentum of the race may change,” according to William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a former White House aide under President Bill Clinton. “Trump’s campaign could regain its balance and sharpen its focus. And unforeseen events could shift the dynamic between the candidates.”

Polls suggest voters want to hear from Harris about policy, and prognosticators in Las Vegas say she has a better chance of winning the debate. “Latest odds reveal Harris has an implied probability of 57% of winning the debate, while Trump only holds a 53% chance,” according to Vegas Insider. “Kamala Harris’ past debate performance gives her a 55 percent chance of winning the debate, while Donald Trump has a 45 percent shot.”

Here are three things to watch as Harris and Trump debate.

Donald the distracted?

The nominees have taken different paths to Philadelphia, with Harris debate-prepping in Pittsburgh and Trump saying and posting more outlandish things — even threatening, if elected, to throw his opponents in the slammer.

“Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump wrote in a post on Sunday. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”

That followed a wild Friday press appearance in New York during which Trump repeatedly insulted several women who have accused him of sexual assault at a time when women voters could decide the election.

The former president’s antics in recent weeks led one Republican pollster to question whether his heart really is in the presidential race.

“I have never seen a candidate more determined to blow an election. Instead of talking about affordability and immigration security (the top public issues), Trump is once again screaming about prosecuting his opponents,” pollster Frank Luntz wrote on X. “Message to Donald: Focus on helping voters, not yourself.”

Abortion access

Harris has been telling supporters at her rallies for more than a month that the election likely will be extremely close and that Democrats have work to do to secure enough votes to put her in the White House.

She and her campaign are banking that access to abortion will help her with women voters, especially college-educated white suburban ones who often vote Republican.

“The impact of abortion on the 2022 midterms, when Democrats did much better than expected, is undeniable. But some evidence suggests that its impact may be more muted in this year’s contest,” Galston noted.

Abortion ranked second, at 15 percent, in the Times-Siena survey when likely voters were asked what issue was most important to them. The economy was first, at 22 percent, and immigration third, at 12 percent.

But, to Galston’s point, abortion ranked eighth when registered voters in seven swing states were asked by polling firm Blueprint about their top issues. Still, more of them said they trusted Harris more on abortion than Trump by an 11-point margin. Notably, among registered independent voters in those battlegrounds, the vice president’s advantage grew to 24 percentage points.

Expect her to try to appeal to more voters in that crucial bloc on Tuesday night.

‘Old guard’

It’s doubtful anyone had this on their election-year bingo card: A Democratic presidential nominee praising Iraq War architect and staunch conservative Dick Cheney. In any other year, that might seem laughable.

After all, Democratic lawmakers and officials spent most of the super-hawkish Cheney’s run as vice president harshly criticizing him over his moves as President George W. Bush’s right-hand man on national security and foreign policy after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Yet, in this campaign, which already has been defined by twist and turns, it seems fitting and could add a twist to Tuesday’s debate. Harris on Saturday told reporters she is “proud” to have Cheney’s endorsement. Her campaign also released an ad Monday showing members of Trump’s administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence, saying they would not support him again this year.

It’s an effort to win over Republicans uncomfortable with Trump that Harris began by having GOP speakers at the Democratic convention last month. But bringing up Cheney could give Trump, who has struggled to settle on an anti-Harris message, a much-needed line of attack. In fact, Trump could opt to use the Cheney endorsement to try painting Harris as too much of a wild card on national and global security matters — especially amid worries of a regional Middle East war and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Cheney has long been a proponent of using U.S. military force, even starting preemptive wars. Trump is unabashedly anti-war, often calling them “stupid” and even appearing, at times, to harshly judge those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

“Well, he’s clearly the old guard, the guard that, you know, the country club Republicans that don’t support Donald Trump,” Corey Lewandowski, a Trump campaign adviser, told Fox News on Sunday.

“And so, look, I don’t really care what Dick Cheney says. We saw what happened to Liz Cheney in her last election,” he added. Cheney’s daughter Liz was ousted from House GOP leadership for questioning Trump’s false claims about election fraud and then lost her reelection bid in the 2022 Wyoming Republican primary by a more than 2-to-1 margin after serving as vice chair of the special committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “She was absolutely destroyed. … So they’re bitter and they’re angry and they’re living in the past. It’s time to move forward.”

©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

If you’re visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in its centennial year — as I was recently — or making a road trip that extends as far as Wyoming or Utah, it’s easy to consider breezing through southern Idaho en route to your destination.

Instead, take the scenic route through this corner of the Gem State, which offers some real diamonds in the rough. There are immaculate hot springs, delightfully odd museums, occasional good eats, hikes with uninterrupted summit views and a breathtaking canyon to explore.

Along the way, you’ll never be too far from the Snake River, which defines this part of Idaho as it winds a whopping 1,080 miles from its headwaters in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks until it merges with the Columbia River in the Tri-Cities. The Snake carves canyons through a swath of southern Idaho that offers big sky vistas of mountain peaks towering over plains and deserts.

Dotting the rural landscape of small towns and farmland, meanwhile, are some decidedly quirky roadside attractions befitting the region that served as the setting for 2004 cult comedy “Napoleon Dynamite.”

Pocatello: Eat, climb, soak

Among southern Idaho’s small cities, I made a detour to Pocatello, curious to check out the college town home to Idaho State University which also claims to be the “U.S. Smile Capital.” I didn’t stick around long enough to vet the friendliness of the locals, but two attractions made me smile.

First was a hearty breakfast at Elmer’s, the midcentury greasy spoon diner of my dreams. The Pocatello location is one of only two in Idaho for this Oregon-based mini-chain (there are also locations in Tacoma and Vancouver, Wash.). The “looking for sun” omelet ($15) laden with cheese, salsa, avocado and sour cream started my day on a decidedly bright note.

Second was the plethora of hiking trails that rise right out of this college town nestled in the mountains. I found plenty of sun, and vistas across the Bannock Range, on the 8-mile round-trip, nearly 2,000 vertical feet climb to the summit of Scout Mountain.

Nothing beats a posthike hot springs soak, a combination Idaho offers in spades. Pocatello was also attractive because it’s just 35 miles from Lava Hot Springs, a small but bustling resort town centered on a clutch of hot mineral pools.

The hot springs facility, beautifully set against a rocky outcropping, was clean and uncrowded on my visit — a solid value at just $3-$12 per session depending on the day of the week and your age.

The waters range from 102 to 112 degrees and, a rare treat, have no sulfurous odor. Try the gravel-bottom pools for a gentle foot massage, or take a break from the mineral baths and stroll through the adjacent sunken garden. With summer hours until 11 p.m. nightly through Sept. 30, a soak under the stars comes highly recommended.

Peckish or thirsty? Lava Hot Springs welcomed Eruption Brewery & Bistro in October, a solid choice for a meal before a soak and a beer for after. (Alcohol consumption before entering a geothermal pool is not recommended.)

Small-town hotels

I’m a sucker for a touch of luxury in an unexpected setting, so I swooned at the prospect of staying at The Harkness Hotel, a bank built in 1906 and converted to a boutique hotel 10 years ago (rooms $134-$279 per night). It’s likely the only reason you’ll stop in McCammon, a speck of a town halfway between Pocatello and Lava Hot Springs.

While the rooms, each with a distinctive decorative style, looked dreamy in photos, I was less enamored upon arrival with the quality of the furniture and finishings in The Ebony. The spartan amenities — an airport lounge-style coffee machine in the lobby and a gift shop in the former bank vault — didn’t encourage me to linger. But in this sparsely populated part of the country, The Harkness is still a cut above a chain motel. On my next swing through the region, I hope to check in at The Drift Inn in Rupert.

Offbeat museums

Antique mops, vintage washing machines and the world’s largest collection of vacuum cleaners are among the exhibition highlights at the Museum of Clean in Pocatello ($5-$10 admission).

Cleaning magnate Don Aslett collected thousands of artifacts in his career preaching the gospel of cleanliness, like these vintage vacuum cleaners on display at the Museum of Clean. The museum claims to have the world’s largest collection of vacuums — nearly 1,000, the oldest dating to 1869. (Gregory Scruggs / The Seattle Times)

The haphazardly curated museum is the bizarre brainchild of Don Aslett, who while a student at Idaho State University started a cleaning company in 1957 that he turned into a national brand. Along the way he authored dozens of books on housecleaning — all of which are on prominent display near a larger-than-life statue of a janitor nicknamed “Big Don.”

Evergreen State science and history buffs surely know of our state’s role in the Manhattan Project at the Hanford site in Eastern Washington. But did you know that southern Idaho is arguably the birthplace of atomic energy, the world’s first nuclear power plant to produce in-house electricity?

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) was erected at the Idaho National Laboratory along a lonesome stretch of highway. The facility lasted for a decade before it was replaced by a more advanced reactor. Today it operates as a free museum that feels like an “Oppenheimer” film set, with tours led by national lab docents. Twenty more miles west on Highway 26 and you’ll end up in Arco, the world’s first city powered by nuclear energy.

Views and brews

Daredevil Evel Knievel tried and failed to jump the majestic Snake River Canyon in 1974 (stuntman Eddie Braun pulled it off in 2016). There’s a monument to Knievel’s legendary attempt at the foot of the Perrine Memorial Bridge, which crosses the canyon just outside of Twin Falls, another of southern Idaho’s bigger (albeit still quite small) cities — but well worth the detour off I-84.

The bridge is open to pedestrians on both sides and offers sweeping upriver and downriver views. The middle is a popular site for BASE jumpers to launch into the abyss 486 feet above the Snake River (tandem jumps $250). For a river-level view, hike the steep Pillar Falls Trail — just remember, never swim near the falls, where dangerous undercurrents lurk — or rent a kayak or paddleboard from AWOL Adventures and paddle as far as 8 miles upriver from Centennial Park to Shoshone Falls ($40-$45 for six-hour rental).

After ogling the canyon high and low, retreat to downtown Twin Falls for a well-earned refreshment at Koto Brewing Co. A roomy, inviting gathering space with a steady roster of live music and events, the brewery also serves up tasty food and drink. Order an Easy Rider Pilsner done up michelada-style ($6) and tuck into a koto steak sando with housemade miso vinaigrette ($17).

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If you go

Lava Hot Springs; 430 E. Main, Lava Hot Springs, Idaho; 208-776-5221; lavahotsprings.com; $3 for ages 2 and under, $7.50-$10 for ages 3-11, $8-$12 for ages 12-59, $7.50-$10 for ages 60-plus

The Harkness Hotel; 206 Center St., McCammon, Idaho; 208-254-4340; theharknesshotel.com; room with queen bed from $134

Elmer’s Restaurant; 851 S. Fifth Ave., Pocatello, Idaho; 208-232-9114; eatatelmers.com; breakfast items from $10-$20

Koto Brewing Co.; 156 Main Ave. N., Twin Falls, Idaho; 208-933-2570; koto.beer; 16-ounce beer $5.50-$7, appetizers $10-$18, burgers and sandwiches $13-$17

Museum of Clean; 711 S. Second Ave., Pocatello, Idaho; 208-236-6906; museumofclean.com; $5 for age 1, $8 for ages 2-15, $10 for ages 16-plus

Experimental Breeder Reactor-I Atomic Museum; Highway 20/26, 18 miles southeast of Arco, Idaho; 208-526-0050; inl.gov/ebr; free

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©2024 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The plan was to read a few pages, maybe the first chapter, and then put “The House Hunt” down and read an earlier book by its author, British crime and mystery writer C.M. Ewan (also know as Chris Ewan, creator of the “Good Thief” series).

Turns out Ewan’s latest thriller didn’t want to be put down.

If I’d been wearing something with lapels, the book would have grabbed me by them and not let go. It might even have shook me a little. It begged to be finished in one sitting, but I wasn’t able to oblige it. It took me a couple of days — which is even better. Is there anything quite like a lapel-grabbing book, waiting to be read?

Anybody who has put their house on the market will relate to “House Hunt,” especially the anxiety that accompanies the process, and more especially if you’re a Londoner named Lucy who has finished renovating a house your boyfriend Sam inherited. The two did most of the work themselves, skimping on nothing. Despite all the sweat equity, they are selling because they’ve decided to leave London for good: “A clean slate. Starting again.”

From the first sentence, you know something’s not right, that the anxiety surrounding this real estate transaction is in a class by itself: “Paranoia stalks me when I’m vacuuming the house and Sam is out.” Lucy is readying the house for a viewing but she is also readying herself. Her attack of nerves seems to be connected with her mysterious references to “what happened to me.”

Lucy doesn’t like being alone; she likes being with strangers even less. Her plan was to go to a nearby cafe while her estate agent, Bethany, showed the potential buyer around the house. Then Bethany calls. Leaves a voicemail. She’s running late. The viewing is in 15 minutes.

Lucy supposes she could cancel, but their “debts were spiraling” and she and Sam need this potential buyer to make an offer. She’ll just have to deal, although it won’t be easy. Lucy does what she has hoped never to have to do: She lets a stranger into her house.

Ewan is adept at building the trust necessary to prolong suspense, among characters and the reader. Lucy is suspicious and fearful right out of the gate, so Ewan must provide a path for her — and us — to move forward. (The sane thing to do, after all, is for her to reschedule the viewing.) He does this by alternating Lucy’s first-person chapters with third-person chapters involving Sam, a psychological and behavioral science lecturer at the London School of Economics.

As Lucy shows Donovan the house, Sam carefully leads a group of five people confronting their phobias. The juxtaposition grounds the action even while Ewan keeps the tension thrumming, the sense of unease never letting up.

Even though the plot occasionally strains credulity, the short chapters — I do love a short chapter — kept pushing me forward, egging me on to read just one more. And so I did, collecting a bit of real estate wisdom along the way: If you’re selling your house and the person looking at it never takes their gloves off, be very afraid.

The House Hunt

By: C.M. Ewan.

Publisher: Grand Central, 423 pages, $30.

©2024 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit at startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

PITTSBURGH — In the mood for a quick and easy dessert that ushers summer sweetly into fall?

The end of August and beginning of September are typically when peaches shine the brightest at Pennsylvania farmers markets and in local groceries. Georgia may call itself “The Peach State,” but Pennsylvania grows a lot of the fruit, too — nearly 40 million pounds each year with an annual value of approximately $20 million.

Some of the most celebrated fruit wear a “Chambersburg” sticker. Devotees say the Franklin County soil in which the trees have been planted for more than a century makes its peaches especially sweet and juicy. Having eaten quite a few over the years, often out of hand, I’d have to agree.

You can certainly hit the sweet spot with an old-fashioned cobbler or peach crisp, but the fruit is just as tasty in a crunchy parfait. Most often I make the treat with yogurt for breakfast, but if you layer the individual glasses or bowls with fresh whipped cream instead — here, gently spiced with cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar — it’s a pretty terrific way to end a meal.

Homemade granola (so easy!) adds a wonderful crunch.

For more color and variety, add a handful of fresh blueberries or raspberries if you’ve got them.

While you can use any variety of peaches — freestones are probably the easiest to prepare — make sure the fruit is ripe but not overly squishy; there should only be a tiny bit of give when you (very gently) squeeze it.

To easily remove skin, cut a small X through the skin of the bottom of the peach, blanch in boiling water for about 10 seconds, then place in ice water. The skin should slide right off.

Peach Parfait

PG Tested

For granola

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups mixed raw nuts and/or seeds, such as cashews, pecans or walnuts
• 1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• Generous sprinkling of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For whipped cream

• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of ground cinnamon

For parfait

• 4 peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced thin
• Fresh cherries or mint sprigs, for garnish

Prepare granola: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, nuts and/or seeds, salt and cinnamon. Stir to blend well.

Add oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Toss well, so that all the ingredients are lightly coated. Pour granola mixture onto your prepared pan and spread it out in an even layer.

Bake until lightly golden, about 24 minutes, stirring halfway. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely. (The granola will further crisp up as it cools.) You should end up with about 6 cups of granola — more than enough for the parfaits with some left over for snacking.

Prepare whipped cream: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip heavy cream, brown sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until medium peaks form, about 3 — 4 minutes. Use immediately, or cover tightly and chill in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours

Assemble parfaits: Using a large spoon or pastry bag, fill wine or parfait glasses about 1/4 full with the spiced whipped cream. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup granola on top of the whipped cream, followed by 1/4 cup sliced peaches. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Garnish with a fresh cherry and/or mint sprig, and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WASHINGTON — With the political conventions in the rearview mirror, Congress returns this week facing the traditional election year push and pull of members wanting to get out of Washington as quickly as possible while doing just enough to avoid a government shutdown.

House conservatives have been agitating about attaching a noncitizen voting bill to the September stopgap spending bill, and for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pitch a plan to punt the spending debate into 2025.

The stopgap bill released Friday night by House Republicans would combine a six-month continuing resolution with a House-passed bill that supporters say would help to ensure that noncitizens can’t vote in federal elections — something Democrats note is already against the law. If it becomes law, the continuing resolution would set a March 28 deadline to avert a partial government shutdown.

As with any spending bill in the narrowly divided House, its path to passage is far from certain. And in any case, Senate Democrats are unlikely to seriously entertain the noncitizen voting legislation — which likely would set up a scenario where the Democrat-led Senate would kick back a “clean” stopgap bill that would force a decision on Johnson’s part.

Aside from that, appropriators might rather tackle spending issues in the lame-duck session, while current members are still in office. That would set the stage for an omnibus spending package — exactly what House conservatives would like to avoid.

“Democrats support a CR to keep the government open,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a weekend letter to colleagues. “As I have said before, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way. Despite Republican bluster, that is how we’ve handled every funding bill in the past, and this time should be no exception. We will not let poison pills or Republican extremism put funding for critical programs at risk.”

Spending won’t be the only thing on the agenda, however.

The farm bill lapses at the end of September, meaning it will need an extension either as part of the continuing resolution or in some other legislative vehicle. And the fiscal 2025 national defense authorization measure is still awaiting action.

Schumer began the recess talking up the possibility of attaching legislation advanced by the Rules and Administration Committee intended to counter the use of deepfakes in political advertising.

“These are American bills. We are going to fight because democracy is at such risk. We’re going to fight to get these done in every way that we can, and we hope our Republican friends will relent,” Schumer told NBC News. “As I said, we do have some Republican support. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue. Democracy is at risk if these deepfakes are allowed to prevail.”

The House is kicking off a week full of bills targeting China, many of which are likely to have bipartisan support because they are being considered under suspension of the rules, an expedited procedure that requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

That may be the primary substance, but there’s also plenty of room for more politics.

In the Senate, Schumer could opt to call another vote on legislation intended to support access to and availability of fertility treatments like IVF. A procedural vote to advance the measure back in June only got 48 votes. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine crossed over in support. Sixty votes were needed.

Still, since then former President Donald Trump has been talking up his support for IVF and there may be a political advantage for Democrats to forcing another vote, especially if the Trump doubles down on his support during Tuesday night’s presidential debate.

House Republicans will surely have plenty of politically charged votes of their own.

There is an ongoing possibility of an effort to impeach President Joe Biden — which could be forced onto the floor agenda by conservative agitators even if Republican leaders would prefer to focus on other matters.

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©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WASHINGTON — When Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump take the stage Tuesday for their first — and perhaps only — presidential debate, the stakes will be enormously high.

With just eight weeks to election day and early voting in Pennsylvania beginning Sept. 16, there’s little time for either candidate to recover from a bad performance.

“The debate could be another defining moment,” said Berwood Yost, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll. “This is the first time we get to see these two on the same stage. … Who knows what could happen given what’s happened so far?”

It will be one of the few chances Harris has to show the nation and Pennsylvania residents how she operates under pressure.

Pennsylvania is a must-win for each candidate.

The debate stage is in Philadelphia; Harris is prepping in Pittsburgh. Both sides have been campaigning regularly here and pouring unprecedented amounts of cash into the state, the most populous of the battleground states whose trove of 19 electoral votes likely will decide whether Trump or Harris takes the oath of office in January.

The Real Clear Politics polling average has the race as a dead heat in Pennsylvania after Trump led President Joe Biden by 4.5 percentage points. Harris is spending the weekend in Pittsburgh’s Omni William Penn hotel preparing for the debate after joining Biden in the city at a Labor Day rally. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, just finished a two-day barnstorming tour, while Trump picked Harrisburg for a Fox News Channel town hall meeting last week, and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, toured businesses in Erie.

Tobe Berkovitz, associate professor of advertising emeritus at Boston University, said the candidates need to “stay on message and most importantly stay under control.”

Polling shows most Americans have already made up their minds and won’t be swayed; a handful of undecideds will determine the next president. Yost estimated that 85% of the electorate is locked, with about 15% still up for grabs.

Both candidates need to play to those undecided voters, experts said.

“This election, as with the last one, will be decided on the margins,” acknowledged Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

Trump needs to appeal to the almost 1 in 5 Pennsylvania Republican voters who backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in this year’s Pennsylvania primary, even though she had ended her campaign weeks before.

Harris needs to address energy issues and thread the needle on an increasingly complicated union vote.

Her appearance at Pittsburgh’s Labor Day event was another effort to keep the union support Biden, a native of Scranton, had shored up. Biden won 56% of the votes of union households in 2020, up from the 51% who supported 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton four years earlier, according to CNN exit polls. Meanwhile, Trump’s share of the union vote fell from 46% in 2016 to 40% in 2020.

Harris joined Biden — and Trump — in siding with the United Steelworkers union and opposing the proposed sale of U.S. Steel, Pittsburgh’s iconic company, to a Japanese concern, Nippon Steel Corp.

But even as labor leadership opposed the deal, 400 steelworkers rallied Downtown last week in support of Nippon’s proposed purchase, and U.S. Steel’s CEO warned that local jobs — and possibly the company headquarters itself — could be lost if the merger failed.

That’s an issue that could affect the outcome of the election in Pennsylvania, and therefore nationally, whether or not U.S. Steel is brought up during Tuesday’s debate.

“With the intense media focus, and the social media and the 24/7, for both of these candidates this is make or break,” Berkovitz said, “Plus, we’re going into early voting. … There’s not a lot of time or events for them to recover. We’re on a tight time frame as it is.”

Vetting the VP

Harris was not vetted by voters in the presidential primaries, becoming the party’s nominee only after Biden decided not to seek reelection following a disastrous performance in the first debate. Though she has served as vice president for more than three years, her national debut as a presidential candidate came last month in Chicago when she delivered her acceptance speech to an enthusiastic crowd at the Democratic National Convention.

Her nomination has energized an electorate that was going through the motions and preparing for a rematch between Trump and Biden, meaning a larger audience on Tuesday.

The debate will be just one of her initial chances to command the attention of a nation as a candidate for the White House.

“She’s making a first impression this time around,” said Vince Galko, a Pennsylvania Republican strategist.

Harris is no stranger to debates, however. As Biden’s running mate, she faced off against then-Vice President Mike Pence four years ago. And during the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, she enjoyed a short-lived burst of support after confronting Biden over his relationships with segregationist Democratic senators and his initial opposition to school busing.

In one response, she talked about a little girl who rode the bus to integrate the public schools. “That little girl was me,” she said.

Trump made the 2016 Republican debates must-watch TV as he gave his primary opponents unflattering nicknames. He skipped the primary debates in 2024, and was on stage during Biden’s dismal debate performance in June.

He’s already named his opponent “Comrade Kamala” as he falsely charged her with being a communist.

“His only hope is to drag Harris down,” said former U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., who is helping to lead a group of Pennsylvania Republicans backing Harris. “He’s going to use his usual absurd characterizations that she’s a communist, she’s a lunatic, she’s going to destroy the country. She’s probably a good enough debater that she can parry those criticisms back at him.”

Democratic consultant Glenn Totten said Harris also needs to empathize with those tuning in to the debate.

“The only hurdle she has to get over is to make people believe and make people understand that she’s on their side,” Totten said. “Almost everybody will acknowledge that Donald J. Trump is all about Donald J. Trump. As long as Vice President Harris can make people understand she’s there to protect their interests and move the country forward, she’ll walk away with all the roses.”

Still, Harris’ previous opposition to fracking and her deciding vote to spend billions of dollars for clean energy projects is a hurdle she must overcome in Western Pennsylvania, Galko said.

She’s backed off on opposing fracking, and those clean energy projects include two hubs to develop clean hydrogen in opposite ends of the state, but Galko said a lot of her positions are at odds with those of Pennsylvanians.

“Let her talk,” Galko said. “As more people get to know her, they see her positions are not within those of average Americans. … I’m curious to see how she moderates on issues that relate to Pennsylvania, whether it’s fracking or late-term abortions. Does she lead with that or wait for that to come up?”

Indeed, Trump, in a speech Thursday to the Economic Club of New York, hit hard on energy, insisting that Harris still opposed fracking and promising to ratchet up oil and gas production while ending funding for clean energy projects like the hydrogen hubs.

“We have more liquid gold under our feet than any other country, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. We will be using it,” Trump said. “We will blast through every bureaucratic hurdle to issue rapid approvals for new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants and new electric plants and reactors of all types.”

Wooing Republicans

Still, many Republicans already oppose Trump, and a strong performance at the debate by Harris could encourage them to pull the lever for her in November, Greenwood said.

“What the vice president needs to do is first be herself, second be presidential,” Greenwood said. “She talked about putting a Republican in her Cabinet. I think she needs to contrast herself with Trump, who shows little interest in bipartisanship and more interest in appealing to his pretty far-right-of-center base.”

Harris’ presence atop the Democratic ticket is attracting more interest from those who previously had not been excited about this November, pollsters said.

“What the polling right now is showing is because of the enthusiasm about having a fresh face, you’re going to get significantly more voters who are not committed watching this debate who would not normally watch a debate,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It could have more of an impact than a typical debate has when the only people paying close attention are real partisans.”

Those persuadable voters are more independent, more moderate, and less likely to show up at the polls, Yost said. He said Harris needs to address their issues, such as the economy, abortion, immigration and saving democracy.

“You’ve got to talk in a way that speaks to those people who are still truly making up their minds. You have to approach those questions in a way that is perceived as being more moderate than partisan,” he said. “Some of them are looking for credentials that you can do the job. It’s not just about these issues but it’s about talking about the issues in a way that not only appeals to these voters but gets them to vote.”

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(c)2024 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

PHILADELPHIA — The spotlight aimed at Pennsylvania is going to need a new bulb soon.

Tuesday’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris at 9 p.m. at the National Constitution Center will become the latest high-stakes moment in an unprecedented presidential campaign playing out in Pennsylvania.

The impact could be huge. The race is essentially tied in Pennsylvania, which could determine the whole election — and while polling shows that Harris has made up ground from where President Joe Biden was, she’s far from definitively overcoming Trump, who still enjoys substantial support in the state.

Debates can be consequential, as this election season has already shown. And Tuesday could wind up being the only debate between Harris and Trump before the November election.

So what do both candidates have to do, and what are we watching for?

Trump allies hope he keeps his cool, focuses on issues

Trump comes in with an advantage of experience, as this will be his seventh general election debate — more than any other candidate in history. His team also won the war over muting the candidates’ mics when they’re not speaking, which means he’ll have less leeway to interrupt or go on tangents.

His allies want him to stick to the issues, particularly immigration and inflation, and to tie Harris to Biden on both. He’ll also likely try to argue Harris, who is less well-known than the presidential candidates before her, is not yet ready to run the country. It’s all an opportunity to slow some of the momentum Harris enjoyed coming out of the Democratic National Convention.

“[Harris] told the world on CNN ‘my values have not changed,’ so we’re going to pin her actual record to her,” Trump senior adviser Tim Murtaugh said, previewing an attack on Harris over issues she’s pivoted on, like fracking. “Her record is what it is… She is a San Francisco liberal who is pretending not to be one and she will not be allowed to get away with that.”

Murtaugh said Trump will also emphasize Harris is part of the Biden-Harris administration Harris and Trump are readying for their first debate in Philly. Here’s what’s at stake. “She cannot run as an outsider.”

Calm and disciplined aren’t typically words used to describe Trump on stage, RNC chairman Andy Reilly acknowledged. But he said it’s the former president’s best chance at capturing undecided voters, a small but potentially crucial group in neck-and-neck swing states like Pennsylvania.

“Sure, there will be times Trump goes off message and can’t help himself. I tell him, [when it comes to] persuadable voters, that’s not gonna ring the bell for them.”

Harris looks to further define herself and let Trump be Trump

Harris, who will conduct her debate prep from — where else? — Pennsylvania, will look to hammer Trump on issues like reproductive rights and threats to democracy while laying out her priorities. It will be the first time the two have shared a room since Trump’s State of the Union addresses when Harris was a senator, and comes after Trump has unleashed racist and sexist attacks on her.

Thus far, Harris has established herself as above the often racist and sexist accusations he’s wielded at her, rarely engaging in any response — and that strategy may continue on the debate stage on Tuesday. There’s also the question of whether Trump will further alienate himself from some voters by doubling down on those attacks on stage.

Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist in Pennsylvania, said Harris’ best move is to “let Trump dig himself into a hole.”

“He has a unique talent to do that.”

Stern thinks that’s an achievable mission for Harris, even in a format without muted mics, which could restrain Trump somewhat. “She should let him take his full 60 — and then 30 and whatever — to tell us all what he really thinks,” Stern said.

Both will be making their pitch to a very small group of undecided voters

Even after Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee, voters expressed frustration with the political system — a sentiment that’s often especially true for undecided voters, who tend to be moderate or independent.

While both Trump and Harris have served in the White House, they have each tried to present themselves as the candidate who can bring a fresh start. Some of Trump’s campaign signs read “Let’s Save America.” Harris has been vice president for nearly a term, but frequently talks to voters about “fighting for a brighter future.” As both candidates make a pitch that they’re the change the country needs, who will do it more effectively?

“He has to remember that his target audience is a swing persuadable voter,” Reilly said. “This is when the swing voter is focusing in on the race and he has to debunk the Kamala 2.0 movement for them. He needs to remind people, with facts in a calm way, that Harris was there. Harris had a long record prior to being the vice president and as vice president, she supported views of Biden’s which have turned them off.”

For Harris’ part, Stern thinks she needs to tell voters about the specifics of her plans and how they can help working-class Americans, a key voting bloc in Pennsylvania and other “Blue Wall” states.

“I’m excited for her to talk about abortion rights and greedflation and going after corporate price gouging,” he said.

Ultimately, he thinks her best appeal to undecided voters who may be watching is an anti-Trump pitch.

“Tell them, this guy is a crook, this guy is dangerous. He has been convicted of crimes … he will not be good for you, he is dangerous.”

Look for questions about fracking, U.S. Steel, and other direct appeals to Pennsylvania

The two candidates are bound to cover a lot, but with the debate taking place in Pennsylvania — the state both Trump and Harris see as a pathway to the presidency — look for appeals on two very commonwealth-specific issues: Fracking and the sale of Pittsburgh’s U.S. Steel.

“I think you might hear a thing or two about fracking,” Murtaugh, the Trump campaign adviser and a Pennsylvania native, said.

Ironically, they’re also both issues Harris and Trump agree on now. But on both, Harris has only recently solidified her stance, saying she won’t ban fracking and also opposes the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan.

Look for Trump to try to argue he’s the legitimate champion of the Rust Belt, and for Harris to double down on her positions.

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©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

What’s the first industry to fall victim to climate change? There’s a decent argument that it already happened — more than 600 years ago.

When the Norman Conquest in 1066 installed a French feudal aristocracy in the British Isles, the invaders brought with them a love of winemaking. Those skills flourished in the conditions of the Medieval Warm Period, a patch of unusually high temperatures from about 950 to 1250 that allowed vineyards to spread across the well-drained chalk soils of southern England. The mild conditions gave way to a frigid period known as the Little Ice Age, however, which held sway until the 19th century. As the climate cooled, English viticulture collapsed.

That should be a worrying example if you’re a winemaker. Grape vines are notoriously sensitive to the smallest changes in landscape and climate. Those with a skilled palate (I’m not one of them) can supposedly sense the subtlest of environmental effects in a bottle of wine — whether the winter that preceded the vintage was warm or cold, the harvest wet or dry, the grapes grown on a slope facing to the north or the south.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how a warming climate could play havoc with this. Own a semiconductor factory, and your climate exposures will occur on the macro scale. Will bigger rainstorms flood the site, and will hotter summers push up my bill for air conditioning? A vintner, on the other hand, has to think about micro issues. Will a few extra warm nights or blazing days in growing season throw off the delicate balance of sugar and water formation in developing bunches? And will that make the resulting bottles less fragrant or complex than they otherwise would be?

For winemakers in Europe, a fresh climate headache is looming in the geographic indications they’ve used to defend their art. For the best part of a century, European agricultural producers have built a complex system of intellectual property around the idea that particular types of food and drink are regionally distinctive, and have names that must be protected under copyright law. There’s even a line on geographical indications in the Treaty of Versailles, the document that formally ended World War I.

Recognition of geographic indications is a basic hurdle for any nation wanting to strike a trade deal with the European Union and gain access to the world’s second-biggest market. It’s why makers of sparkling wine in most of the world can’t call their product Champagne, and why Australian and Canadian producers of fortified white wine these days label their bottles as “Apera,” because only those from the Jerez region of Spain can call themselves Sherry. Fully 1,646 of the 1,658 geographic indications for wine listed on the European Union’s eAmbrosia register are for EU countries. Of the rest, five are in the UK, four in China, two are in the U.S. (the Napa Valley and Willamette Valley) and one in Brazil.

Adding such geographic limits might have seemed like a good idea during the stable climate of the 20th century, but in the more disordered era into which we’re now moving it’s a risk. Many geographic indications assign a specific grape variety for a specific region. Barolo, arguably Italy’s most revered wine style, must be grown only with Nebbiolo grapes in a handful of communities among the misty mountains of Piedmont. As a warming planet makes the climate of northern Italy more like regions further south where Nebbiolo can’t flourish, the rigidity of Barolo’s geographic indication risks driving it into extinction.

Researchers in Europe recently analyzed 1,085 wine geographic indications across the continent to work out which were most at risk from a warming climate. What they found should worry viticulturalists: a swath of country is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and has little natural capacity to adapt.“Strong yield decreases were projected for northern Italy, central Spain, Greece, and Bulgaria,” they wrote, “and decreased suitability for Spain, parts of France, central and northern Italy, and large parts of eastern Europe.” In Burgundy, regions known for the Pinot Noir grape may become unable to grow the variety. The geographic indication system needs to be rethought to allow winegrowers to switch their practices as the climate warms, they argued.

That shouldn’t be impossible. Champagne, grown at the northern limit of wine cultivation and traditionally seen as the product of a difficult environment, is conventionally made from just three grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meunier. But there are four other less celebrated varieties (1) that can be added to the blend, and may provide a way of preserving the wine’s characteristics even as the climate of Champagne starts to more closely resemble that of southern France. A further variety, known as Voltis, has been selectively bred as part of a deliberate effort to prepare for the effects of a warmer climate.

For many wine regions, that’s going to be a wrenching shift. What makes European wine unique is the marriage of a particular grape and viticultural practice with a particular region’s soil, climate, and intangibles. That sort of thinking is going to have to change as the planet warms. If Europe’s winemakers don’t want to experience the fate of medieval English vineyards, they’ll need to adapt before they’re wiped out.

(1) The varieties are Arbane, Petit Meslier, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc. They’re often regarded as more difficult to work with in Champagne.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com/opinion. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES — In April, a group of Orange County parents flew to Sacramento to attend a conference hosted by Disability Voices United, an advocacy group for people with disabilities and their families.

They wanted to emphasize three issues to state officials at the event: the paucity of mental health care for children with developmental disabilities, the confusing mess of government systems meant to help them, and the gaps in availability of day-to-day caregiving.

Among them was Christine LyBurtus, a single mom living in Fullerton. Last fall, after repeated rounds of 911 calls and emergency hospitalizations, she had made the agonizing decision to move her son, Noah, who is autistic, into a state-operated facility for at least a year.

LyBurtus had struggled to find the support she needed to keep him at home. “Families are being forced to give up their children to group homes and treatment centers over 12 hours from their homes … or out of the state of California entirely,” she told the crowd at the conference.

“I beg you to hear us,” she said to state officials before turning from the microphone.

Despite the growing diagnosis of autism, which has been estimated to affect more than 2 million children and teens across the country, experts and advocates have bemoaned glaring gaps in services to meet the mental health needs of autistic youth.

Some researchers have estimated that upward of 90% of autistic youth have overlapping conditions like anxiety, depression or ADHD. Many have suffered alarming levels of trauma.

Yet “there are very few specialized facilities in the country that meet the unique needs of individuals with autism and co-occurring mental health conditions,” especially in crisis situations, said Cynthia Martin, senior clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, which is based in New York.

Between 2020 and 2021, the number of California children and teens served by the state developmental disability system who were deemed to have “complex needs” — a state term for those who needed a range of crisis services or landed in a locked psychiatric ward — rose from 536 to 677, according to a report released last year by the California Department of Developmental Services.

California has been working to build more facilities to house and support such youth, including STAR homes that provide “crisis stabilization” for roughly a year, like the one into which Noah moved. But the state has seen an uptick in the number of people in need of such programs, as well as more former residents boomeranging back for “further stabilization,” the state report said.

As of this summer, the STAR homes could accommodate only 15 teens across the state; the one that accepted Noah budgets for more than $1 million per resident annually.

There are other community facilities where developmentally disabled youth in crisis can be placed, but “there remains a critical need for a ‘can’t say no’ option for individuals whom private sector vendors cannot or will not serve,” the state report concluded.

Autistic people and their families have also lamented that they cannot find adequate help in their communities before they reach a crisis point. Researchers have found that mental health workers are often unprepared to work with people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or may chalk up symptoms to their disabilities, rather than overlapping needs.

“It’s pretty common for a mental health practitioner to turn away someone with a developmental disability or say, ‘I don’t serve that population,’” said Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Alison D. Morantz, director of the Stanford Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Law and Policy Project, called it a “scandal” that amid a scarcity of psychiatric beds for youth, “if a family member discloses that their child is on the autistic spectrum, they can say, ‘No thank you.’”

“It puts parents in impossible situations,” she said.

The biggest challenges for many families of autistic youth often surround aggression, which isn’t a core feature of autism, but the symptom of other issues that need to be uncovered, child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Siegel told a federal committee last year.

“You have to look underneath or in front of that … for what could be contributing or what is driving this aggression,” said Siegel, founder of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative. He and other researchers have seen promising results from specialized units at hospitals, but few exist — “not even one per state.”

“Even specialized clinics that can work on these challenges are quite rare,” he said.

The Supreme Court has ruled that institutionalizing people with disabilities who could live in the community is discriminatory if a community placement “can be reasonably accommodated.” Federal investigations have, at times, faulted states for failing to provide needed services for people to stay in their homes or communities.

The law “requires that services are provided in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of a person with a disability,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

But the struggle to find needed services can end up pushing autistic people with mental health needs out of their communities. Bonnie Ivers, director of clinical services for the Regional Center of Orange County, said last year that “more and more families are having to review options that are outside of our county.”

Some Californians even go outside the state: As of June 2022, there were 49 youth with “complex needs” getting services outside of California, and an additional 33 “at risk of being referred to out-of-state resources,” according to the developmental services department.

In the following year, that number grew to 57 youth out of state — and an additional 64 who might be at risk of joining them. The numbers may actually be higher: The state agency says it learns about out-of-state placements only when families inform the regional centers that coordinate developmental disability services.

Nancy Bargmann, director of the California Department of Developmental Services, said their goal is to provide “a continuum of supports” so that families “don’t need to make that really hard decision of having their child not live at home.”

California has launched more than a dozen teams focused on crisis prevention, called START teams, which it says have helped keep people in their homes. Their services include connecting different systems that assist families, such as mental health providers and disability services.

But they do not yet exist everywhere in the state. California also has mobile “Crisis Assessment Stabilization Teams” — or CAST — that are meant for people who have exhausted other kinds of help or are at risk of having to move into more restrictive settings. There were three of them as of this spring, according to the developmental services department.

Judy Mark, president of the advocacy group Disability Voices United, argued it is counterproductive to try to stabilize a child away from his or her family. If at all possible, she said, California should be ensuring constant support in the home, which she argued would also be less costly than caring for a child in a STAR facility.

But disability services providers say that getting such caregivers has continued to be a challenge, with state rates for such workers outstripped by what they can earn elsewhere. Increases in those provider rates have been slowly phased in over time, with the next bump slated for January.

In many cases, “what you’d want to see is somebody, 24 hours a day, in the home helping the parent,” said Larry Landauer, executive director of the Regional Center of Orange County. But “that’s where we have been just drastically short on staffing.”

All the gaps in the system can come to a head when young people with developmental disabilities hit puberty, especially if they face “the inability to communicate in such a complex and confusing time,” said California Commission on Disability Access member Hector Ramírez, who is autistic and lives in the San Fernando Valley.

If autistic teens and their families cannot get the support they need, Ramírez said, it “has compounding consequences that result in people just getting worse — when they shouldn’t be getting worse.”

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.