Pool liner

was cut — NPS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top official at the National Park Service says a liner along the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was cut with a sharp knife or razor this month, causing damage to the foam sealant installed as part of a $16 million rehabilitation project.

The park service reported the June 9 incident to U.S. Park Police. Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the park service, said about 70 fence post tops also were thrown into the pool.

Lands made the statements in a court document filed late Wednesday as part of a lawsuit filed by a nonprofit organization to halt the administration’s work on the project.

Inflation

gauge jumps

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose to a new three-year high in May as gas prices peaked, a sign rising costs could pose political problems for President Trump as midterm elections near.

The increase was largely driven by more expensive gas, as well as pricier semiconductors and other computer equipment that are in high demand for the AI buildout. Rising prices have caused the inflation-fighters at the Federal Reserve to keep their key rate unchanged this year, a reversal from January when they had penciled in two cuts. Some economists forecast the central bank could lift rates this year instead.

Clayton-Thomas

dies at 84

NEW YORK (AP) — David Clayton-Thomas, the lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears whose husky, high-strung tenor on “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die” and other hits helped make the so-called brass rock band among the most popular acts of the late 1960s, has died at age 84.

He was a stocky, onetime street fighter and petty thief in Canada who briefly became a rock superstar, the front man of a nine-member group that sold millions of records and won two Grammys for its self-titled second album. Backed by horns, keyboards and percussion, his urgent shout was a signature voice of the era.

A spokesman says Clayton-Thomas died Wednesday in Toronto.