LOWVILLE — A Glenfield woman who was injured in a two-vehicle crash Monday afternoon died from her injuries Tuesday night at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse.

Crystal L. Farney, 19, of Glenfield, was side-swiped by a delivery truck driven by Jeremy N. Harris, 31, of Watertown, after her car crossed into the opposite lane, according to Sgt. Ryan J. Lehman with the Lewis County sheriff’s department. The truck struck Ms. Farney’s car, which Sgt. Lehman said was slightly sideways, in the right rear.

“We are unsure as to what reason caused her to cross over into the other lane,” he said. “The roads were slushy and snow-covered.”

A portion of Number Four Road between East Martinsburg and Markowski roads was closed in the afternoon and evening and an accident reconstruction team from the state police was called to the scene.

Sgt. Lehman said the Lowville Fire Department and Lewis County Emergency Management also assisted at the scene.

The unemployment rates in October for Jefferson and Lewis counties dropped from the same time last year, but remained flat in St. Lawrence County.

According to statistics released Nov. 21 by the state Department of Labor, Jefferson County last month had a rate of 5.4 percent, down from 5.7 percent last October. The jobless rate last month in Lewis County was 5.2 percent, down from the same time last year when it was 5.7 percent.

St. Lawrence County, however, had unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in October, the same rate as the same month last year.

The jobless rates in Lewis and St. Lawrence counties decreased slightly from their September rates when they were 5.3 and 5.8 percent, respectively. The unemployment rate in Jefferson County, however, was slightly up from September when it was 5.3 percent.

Statewide, the October unemployment rate fell from 4.8 percent last year to 4.6 percent, and nationwide, the rate fell from 4.7 percent to 3.9 percent.

PIERREPONT — State police are seeking public assistance into their investigation of a Sweeney Road burglary.

Troopers said that on Nov. 8 one or more individuals entered a residence on Sweeney Road and stole three long guns: a Remington 870 20-gauge shotgun, a Browning BAR 308 and a Savage 93R17.

If anyone has information regarding this investigation, they are asked to call the state police at 518-873-2750.

Farm lobbyists are warily watching the tax-overhaul legislation moving through Congress, which comes with some favorable terms for them now but may have a big catch later: less money for farm programs crucial to producers dealing with lower commodity prices.

The farm groups are looking beyond the tax debate to a new farm law due in 2018 that could get squeezed if a bigger deficit caused by tax cuts makes less money available for farmers.

Multiple independent analyses of the Republican tax plan anticipate it would boost the federal budget deficit by as much as $1.5 trillion over 10 years. A Congressional Budget Office report released last week concluded that it would trigger automatic spending cuts of as much as $136 billion in the current fiscal year. One of the programs at risk in that scenario is $9.5 billion in farm subsidies, according to the National Farmers Union, the second-biggest U.S. farmer group.

“By far our biggest concern is what does this do to the deficit, and how does that impact upcoming farm bills,” said Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union in Washington. “If we blow a $1.5 trillion hole in the deficit, will people be saying a month later, ‘We need to scale back the farm bill?’ “

Some provisions of the tax bill are popular across farm groups that have quietly lobbied for favorable treatment. Both the House and Senate packages allow for faster depreciation of farm equipment, and neither would subject rental income to self-employment tax, an early House provision agriculture fought against.

The bill isn’t perfect for agriculture -- both plans repeal a tax deduction used by agricultural cooperatives to help finance a corporate tax-rate cut. But overall, the plans in Congress are moving in a direction the farmers can get behind, said Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. According to federal lobbying data, the sector is the 10th-largest in the U.S. and larger than transportation.

“America’s farmers and ranchers are ready for a tax system that recognizes their hard work and the unique challenges they face while reducing the tax burden that threatens their livelihoods,” Duvall, who heads the largest U.S. farmer group, said in a statement.

But deficit-boosting tax legislation may mean less money for other programs -- bad timing for farmers seeking to boost federal aid when passing a new farm law due Sept. 30. The law reauthorizes all U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and farm subsidies.

SNAP, also called food stamps, is protected from deficit-reducing cuts under congressional rules. Farm payments are not.

Farm profits have fallen for the past three years, with corn, the biggest U.S. crop, selling at less than half its record price in 2012. Land value gains have stagnated after a decade-long run-up, and debt levels have risen. That may make federal spending a bigger priority for many farmers than tax cuts, according to Harwood Schaffer, an agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Farmers are an important part of Republican tax-cut messaging because they’re sympathetic representatives of American business to the general public, he said. But the package proposed may not be as important to farmers facing extreme financial pressure from low prices as a generous farm bill would be, he said.

“It’s hard to benefit from a tax cut on your profits when you don’t have a profit,” he said.

Agriculture groups are pushing to largely keep current subsidies to growers of corn, wheat and other crops in place, while possibly adding new programs for dairy and cotton producers.

A deficit-boosting tax measure may be counter to meeting those goals, Johnson said.

“By far I’m most concerned about the deficit,” he said. “If tax reform goes nowhere, there will be enormous political pressure to pass a farm bill next year, just for Congress to show it can get something done,” he said.

“That pressure goes away if it passes, and it also could mean less money for a farm bill. That deficit could really destroy us,” he said.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, ran afoul of federal law when she attacked the Democratic candidate in Alabama’s Senate special election during a Fox News appearance Monday morning, according to Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Shaub, now at the Campaign Legal Center, tweeted Wednesday that he has filed a complaint against Conway with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which said it would open a case file. That office investigates violations of the Hatch Act, which bars most government officials from using their official positions to engage in partisan politics. Penalties can range from a fine of $1,000 to removal from federal service.

In the case of political appointees, like Conway, penalties are determined by the president. Recent violations, including one in the Obama administration, have resulted only in additional training for the appointees. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Conway stood in front of the White House during the Monday segment on “Fox & Friends” and was identified as a Trump counselor. She was promoting the Republican tax plan, but veered into electoral politics after expressing the hope that the measure would pass with bipartisan support.

“Doug Jones in Alabama? Folks, don’t be fooled. He’ll be a vote against tax cuts,” Conway said of the Democratic candidate in the race. “He’s weak on crime; he’s weak on borders; he’s strong on raising your taxes.”

When asked, Conway stopped short of saying Alabama voters should support Roy Moore, who faces allegations of sexual misconduct, including with minors, from decades ago. “We want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through,” she said.

Shaub, who has been critical of the ethics of the Trump administration, tweeted Monday, “It seems pretty clear she was appearing in her official capacity when she advocated against a candidate.”

The Fox interview isn’t the first time Conway has dealt with fallout over her comments on television. She received ethics counseling, but no disciplinary action, after a February appearance on “Fox & Friends” when she gave a “free commercial” for Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. Federal employees are barred from promoting private businesses. Conway’s endorsement was offered following reports that retailers, including Nordstrom, had dropped the line amid declining sales.

“It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it,” Conway said during the February interview. “I’m going to give it a free commercial here. Go buy it today everybody; you can find it online.”

Shaub, who headed OGE at the time, criticized the White House response to the incident. “Not taking disciplinary action against a senior official under such circumstances risks undermining the ethics program,” he wrote in a March letter to the White House.

Conway isn’t the first Trump official to run afoul of the law. In June, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency, issued a warning to Dan Scavino, White House director of social media, for an April tweet in which he called for Trump supporters to defeat Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., a critic of the president.

The OSC has also issued a warning to Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Haley retweeted Trump’s endorsement of Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican running to fill the House seat vacated by Mick Mulvaney, who resigned from Congress to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Officials have been cited for violating the law during media interviews before. During Obama’s administration, the OSC found that Julian Castro, then Housing and Urban Development secretary, violated the Hatch Act when he expressed his preference for Hillary Clinton as president in an April 2016 interview with Yahoo News. Castro prefaced his remarks by saying he was speaking individually, and not in his capacity as a government official.

Josh Earnest, President Barack Obama’s spokesman, said then that Castro would receive training to better comply with the law during media interviews.

NEW YORK — A hippopotamus soared over the ocean. A cartoon character burst into flames after drifting into a high-tension wire. And a 60-foot cat sent a plane and its two passengers plummeting.

These are just some of the fates met by the giant balloons that have glided through the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York over the years.

Around 3.5 million people are expected to line Manhattan’s streets on Thursday to watch this year’s parade, and millions more will view it on NBC. There will be floats, marching bands and clowns on stilts. But the enormous balloons remain one of the biggest draws.

Here is a closer look at milestones and mishaps involving the helium-filled characters sailing overhead, and the curiosities of a nearly century-old holiday tradition.

— Macy’s used to set the balloons free after the parade ended.

The first Macy’s parade, in 1924, looked very different from today’s celebration. Animals from the Central Park Zoo, including elephants and tigers, joined the procession. The giant balloons that the parade is now known for did not show up until a few years later.

In the late 1920s, Macy’s began releasing its balloons into the sky after the festivities, with a monetary reward offered for their return.

The New York Times reported on the various places where the balloons landed. In 1928, a balloon called the Sky Tiger descended into a Long Island neighborhood where “a tug of war ensued for its possession.” Another balloon was found broken in half and floating in the East River, “pursued by two tugboats.”

In 1931, the balloons included a 287-foot-long dragon that was held by 29 men. Macy’s released it and about 16,000 other balloons, many of them much smaller. Some carried postcards that could be brought to Macy’s for a prize.

A blue hippopotamus escaped the New York area, however, and the balloon was believed to be “soaring somewhere over the ocean.”

“Descriptions of the cruising beast have been broadcast,” The Times reported, and “the reward for its return has been multiplied by four.”

Calls streamed in from people who claimed to have found the hippo, but they were simply seeking the reward money.

Felix the Cat, Macy’s first character balloon, met its demise after floating into a high-tension wire and catching fire.

— Disaster in the skies was once narrowly avoided.

Despite these difficulties, the balloons were released again in 1932. One hit a plane, sending it on a 5,000-foot plunge. A 22-year-old woman had been piloting the plane over Jamaica, Queens, with her instructor when a 60-foot Tom Cat floated into view “like a sea serpent out of its native element,” The Times reported.

“She sent the ship hurtling at the goggle-eyed creature,” the article said. “The left wing of the plane smacked against the balloon fabric that was Tom’s hide.”

The plane plummeted, and the woman nearly fell out, but catastrophe was avoided when the instructor took control and pieces of the balloon “fluttered away from the wing.”

Macy’s stated that it would not award prize money to aviators who tried to down the balloons with their propeller blades. The company also decided that the tradition of releasing the balloons had to end.

— Mickey Mouse was in high demand.

Mickey Mouse made his parade debut in 1934, attracting interest from other countries that, as The Times put it, “have helium and a desire to stage grotesque parades.”

The Big Bad Wolf balloon was also a draw, and Macy’s planned to send them both to the highest bidders.

— The parade took a hiatus during World War II.

In 1942, the president of Macy’s, Jack Straus, announced that the parade would be canceled because of the war. He deflated a green dragon balloon and gave the rubber to the military, Macy’s recounted on its website; the company eventually donated 650 pounds of balloon rubber. In 1945, when the war ended, the parade returned. Three years later the parade was televised for the first time nationally, on NBC, Macy’s said.

— A helium shortage led to improvisation.

“Yes, There Is a Popeye,” The Times announced in its 1958 headline after a helium shortage spurred rumors that balloons would not appear at the parade.

The 56-foot-tall Popeye balloon had made its debut a year earlier, his hat periodically filling with rain during that overcast holiday.

After “a lot of calls” with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. before the 1958 parade, Macy’s figured out a way to fill three of its giant, traditional balloons with plain air and support them using cranes.

— The balloons were grounded, thanks to wind.

In 1971, for the first time in its history, wind gusts up to 40 mph and a severe downpour grounded every balloon, The Times reported.

NBC aired clips of balloons from the 1970 parade instead.

— A Cat in the Hat balloon nearly killed someone.

The parade has had its share of mishaps over the years, such as the time an M&M balloon struck a light pole and injured two people in 2005.

But one of the most shocking accidents occurred when a Cat in the Hat balloon hit a light pole and severely injured a woman in 1997. She was in a coma for 24 days afterward, and finally reached a settlement with the department store, the city and a city contractor in 2001.

— Snoopy has always been beloved.

Snoopy is just as popular today as he was in 1968, when he made his debut.

He has appeared in 39 parades — more than any other character — as an aviator, astronaut, skater and more. He made his most recent appearance in 2015, according to Orlando Veras, a Macy’s spokesman.

When Snoopy was absent from the parade last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to bring him back. The balloon will not return this year, however. Instead, Snoopy will appear in the parade aboard his own float, Veras said, and his friend Charlie Brown will fly overhead.

WATERTOWN — State police charged Joshua J. Jenkins, 27, of Chaumont, with driving while intoxicated, speeding, moving from a lane unsafely and a seat belt violation at 7:24 p.m. Monday on State Route 37 in Pamelia.

His blood alcohol content was not reported. State law says a BAC of 0.08 percent or higher constitutes intoxication, while 0.18 percent is the state threshold for aggravated DWI.

Mr. Jenkins was released on his on recognizance.

Further information was not made available by state police.

GREIG — State police charged Julie A. Weiler, 40, of Turin, with second-degree harassment at 2:45 p.m. Sunday.

Ms. Weiler was given an appearance ticket.

Further information was not made available by state police.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump began his first Thanksgiving vacation in office with an early-morning Twitter rage in which he again vented about some of his favorite targets: sports figures he thinks have defied him.

The president called LaVar Ball, the father of one of three UCLA players arrested in China for shoplifting, a “poor man’s version of Don King,” the black sports promoter. He also called Ball an “ungrateful fool!” and insisted that “IT WAS ME” who deserved more thanks for rescuing Ball’s son from the Chinese authorities.

Trump followed the angry rant toward Ball, who is African-American, with a return to his monthslong demand for football players to be more respectful while the national anthem is played — an issue that has strong support among some Americans. On the idea of asking players to stay in locker rooms during the anthem, Trump tweeted: “That’s almost as bad as kneeling!”

Together, the posts were a reprise of Trump’s personal attacks against sports figures — many of them African-American — for what he judges to be poor behavior on their part and a failure to demonstrate enough deference to others.

White House officials deny that the president is focused on race when he comments about sports and athletes. But to historians and black activists, the tweets are clear evidence of an attempt by the president to send a message of solidarity to many supporters.

“President Trump appears to have a peculiar overfascination with African-American athletes and a negative fascination,” said Douglas A. Blackmon, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Slavery By Another Name” and the host of “American Forum,” a weekly show produced by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Twitter has long been the president’s preferred method for directing his outrage at individuals, and those of all races have been his targets, including Hillary Clinton; James B. Comey, the former FBI director; and Khizr Khan, the Pakistani father of a fallen U.S. soldier.

But Mary Frances Berry, who is African-American and who served as the chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said that Trump’s particular desire during his first year in office to lash out at African-American sports figures was hard to ignore.

“It just reinforces a theme that’s already on their mind,” Berry, now a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, said of the president’s tweets. “It’s tailor-made for him to spout off and reinforce his base.”

In addition to NFL players and Ball, Trump has in the past tweeted angrily at other African-American athletes and broadcasters, including Stephen Curry, the star basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, and Jemele Hill, a sports journalist who is a host of ESPN’s flagship “SportsCenter.”

In the case of the NFL players, Trump has played to the beliefs of his most conservative supporters by openly deriding Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who last season kicked off the idea of sideline protests by kneeling.

Speaking to an adoring, and mostly white, crowd in Huntsville, Alabama, in September, Trump referenced the actions of football players like Kaepernick who knelt during the national anthem and said he would love to see an NFL owner say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now.”

On Wednesday, the president kicked off the first day of a five-day visit to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, by focusing his ire on Ball, the outspoken father of UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball, who, along with his teammates Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, was released from Chinese custody after Trump intervened.

LaVar Ball stoked the confrontation with the president this week, refusing on CNN to thank Trump for his assistance and saying that “I don’t have to say, to go around saying thank you to everybody.”

That interview appears to have prompted the angry response from Trump. He insisted that he was the one who rescued Ball’s son, and he chided Ball for refusing to give Trump the due he felt he deserved.

“LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you,” Trump wrote, referring to another of Ball’s sons, who plays professional basketball. “But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”

Trump has repeatedly denied that his criticism of kneeling is aimed at African-American players. “The issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race,” he tweeted in September. And White House officials have said the president’s tweets are about patriotism.

“This isn’t an us-versus-them. This should be something that brings our country together,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters in the days after Trump first raised the issue. “All Americans should be proud to stand up, salute that flag, salute that anthem and be part of that process.”

Polls suggest that many agree with Trump. One taken in September found that 49 percent of Americans agreed with the president that it was wrong for football players to kneel during the national anthem to express a political opinion, compared with 43 percent who said they were right to do so.

In some ways, LaVar Ball and Trump are made for each other: two publicity-seeking individuals who rarely shy away from a good verbal fight.

It was the success of Ball’s eldest son, Lonzo, as UCLA’s freshman point guard last season that gave Ball a platform to build a brand. Since then, he has often let loose a series of attention-grabbing statements, including once claiming that — in his prime — he could have beaten Michael Jordan one-on-one.

But some of Trump’s critics say the president’s attack on Ball was about more than just chest-thumping between the two men. They say it echoes what they view as an obsession by Trump on sports figures who are black.

Harry Edwards, a civil rights activist and professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, said that Trump understood that attacking black athletes — who are among the most popular figures in African-American communities — sent a powerful signal to some of his most fervent voters.

“All of these attacks resonate with a base that have some severe perspectives on African-American equality and justice,” he said. “To attack African-American athletes is really a way of sending that message that these are others.”

Trump’s decision Wednesday to revisit the issue of football players who kneel at games appeared to have been set off by a Washington Post article that said that the league was considering a policy change under which players would stay in the locker room during the playing of the anthem. A league official said Wednesday that the idea was not currently under consideration.

Trump has excoriated the NFL for allowing players to kneel, which he sees as disrespecting the American flag. In his tweet Wednesday, the president criticized Roger Goodell, the longtime leader of the football league, asking “when will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing your league!”

Blackmon said Trump’s focus on the actions of the players suggested that he took a particular affront when his expectations of their behavior was not met.

“This consistent pattern — African-Americans who stand up in a sense to him, who do not seem to be sufficiently compliant — seem to draw particular ire,” Blackmon said.

TOKYO — Four destroyers have been added to the search for three U.S. sailors still missing following an aircraft crash southeast of Okinawa on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

Eight of those onboard a C-2A Greyhound plane carrying crew and passengers in a routine transport flight from Marine Corps Air Base Iwakuni in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier were rescued after it crashed into the sea on Wednesday.

The Ronald Reagan was leading the search and rescue efforts, which included three U.S. destroyers as well as helicopters and surveillance aircraft.

The search, which had covered more than 320 nautical miles by Thursday morning, was being aided by three destroyers and two helicopter carriers from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force.

U.S. President Donald Trump took time out from his Thanksgiving celebrations in Florida to offer his support for those involved.

“We are monitoring the situation. Prayers for all involved,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The incident follows a nonfatal collision between a U.S. destroyer and a Japanese tugboat during a towing exercise on Saturday.

Four other U.S. ships in the U.S. 7th Fleet have been involved in collisions in Asian waters since January, including two that resulted in fatalities.

In August, 10 sailors were killed when the destroyer USS John S McCain collided with an oil tanker off Singapore.

In June, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship off Japan, resulting in the deaths of seven U.S. sailors.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Joe Barton, who apologized Wednesday for a lewd photo of him that circulated on the Internet, told a woman to whom he had sent sexually explicit photos, videos and messages that he would report her to the Capitol Police if she exposed his behavior, according to a recording reviewed by The Washington Post.

The woman spoke to The Post after the lewd photo was published Tuesday by an anonymous Twitter account. She shared a secretly recorded phone conversation she had with Barton in 2015 in which he warned her against using the explicit materials “in a way that would negatively affect my career.”

The woman described encounters and contact spanning a five-year period that began online after she posted a message on Barton’s Facebook page in 2011, leading to the sexually explicit exchanges and ultimately a pair of physical sexual encounters in Washington and Texas. Over time, she said, she became aware of and corresponded with multiple other women who engaged in relationships with Barton, who represents a suburban Dallas district and is one of the most senior Republicans in the House.

The woman, who is not married, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy.

In the 2015 phone call, Barton confronted the woman over her communications with the other women, including her decision to share explicit materials he had sent. In that context, he mentioned the Capitol Police, a comment the woman interpreted as an attempt to intimidate her.

“I want your word that this ends,” he said, according to the recording, adding: “I will be completely straight with you. I am ready if I have to, I don’t want to, but I should take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation. And if I do that, that hurts me potentially big time.”

“Why would you even say that to me?” the woman responded. “ . . . The Capitol Hill police? And what would you tell them, sir?”

Said Barton: “I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn’t like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. That’s the truth.”

In a statement late Wednesday, Barton said a transcript of the recording provided by The Post may be “evidence” of a “potential crime against me.”

He said that he received word Wednesday that the Capitol Police are opening an inquiry. While there is no federal law prohibiting the disclosure of intimate photos of adults without consent, the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday reported that the Twitter photo of Barton could violate a 2015 Texas law banning so-called “revenge porn,” which is the portrayal of another person’s intimate body parts and distributing the images without consent.

“This woman admitted that we had a consensual relationship,” Barton said. “When I ended that relationship, she threatened to publicly share my private photographs and intimate correspondence in retaliation. As the transcript reflects, I offered to take the matter to the Capitol Hill Police to open an investigation. Today, the Capitol Police reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted. Because of the pending investigation, we will have no further comment.”

The woman said she never had any intention to use the materials to retaliate against Barton.

A request for comment from the Capitol Police was not immediately returned late Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, Barton acknowledged “sexual relationships with other mature adult women” that he said took place while he was “separated from my second wife, before the divorce.”

“Each was consensual,” he said in a statement. “Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.”

Barton, 68, is the fifth-longest serving Republican in the House, now in his 17th term. He is a former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and now serves as vice chairman of the panel.

The Texas native has built a reputation on Capitol Hill as a fierce advocate for the oil and gas industry and a reliable vote for conservative legislation. A member of the Freedom Caucus, Barton regularly receives top scores from socially conservative groups such as the Family Research Council that analyze members’ stances on positions such as abortion and gay rights.

But he is not known as an outspoken culture warrior. In 1998, amid the scandal over President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern, Barton was quoted in the Los Angeles Times saying, “I personally don’t care a fig about what he does in his bedroom with his wife or any other sexual partners he may have, but I do care if he lies under oath.”

Barton was still married to his second wife when his relationship with the woman began. His wife filed for divorce in April 2014, according to court records; the divorce was made final in February 2015. A spokeswoman for Barton did not respond to a question about when his separation began.

Besides the recording of the phone call, the woman shared text and social-media messages she exchanged with Barton, as well as a 53-second cellphone video Barton recorded of himself while masturbating. The conspiracy theory website InfoWars obtained a copy of the video and published it Wednesday night, though the video appeared to have been removed from the site several hours later.

The lewd Twitter photo that Barton acknowledged on Wednesday appears to have been captured from that video. The woman said she did not post the image herself. She shared phone numbers for Barton that match his personal and government-issued cellphones. Barton was not abusive or coercive in his interactions, the woman said, but said she felt he was “manipulative and dishonest and misleading” in his dealings with her and other women.

“It’s not normal for a member of Congress who runs on a GOP platform of family values and conservatism to be scouring the Internet looking for a new sexual liaison,” she said, explaining her motive for coming forward.

The woman said Barton first reached out to her in 2011 after she posted a comment about politics on his Facebook page. As the two struck up a friendship, they would exchange messages for hours, including when he was on the House floor or in committee meetings, she said.

Soon, Barton began flirting, making suggestive comments and sending explicit messages, she said. She described feeling uncomfortable with his advances at first.

“He says to me, ‘Do you want me to send you a picture of myself?’ I said, ‘Oh no, no. Please do not do that.’ It kind of started there,” she said.

In the spring of 2012, the woman flew to Washington, where he gave her a tour of the Capitol building, she said. The two slept together during that visit, and he reimbursed her in cash for her flight, she said.

In 2014, she visited him in Texas, where the two slept together for the second and final time, she said. He again paid for her travel, she said.

“I was in it for the politics connection,” the woman said of their relationship. “I was kind of unwittingly drawn into it with him because of just the amazement of having a connection to a congressman.”

The reports started trickling out in May, in the weeks after the Federal Communications Commission had begun soliciting public comments on a proposal to repeal net neutrality rules that govern the flow of information on the Internet.

A large number of messages lambasting the Obama-era regulation began appearing on the FCC’s public forum with the same text. While it is not unusual for commenters to use form letters provided by activist groups, people began complaining that they hadn’t submitted the comments that carried their names and identifying information.

They were being impersonated.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman started to investigate after noticing that many of these comments involved people in New York. But there was an unexpected roadblock along the way: the FCC declined to cooperate with his office’s investigation, he said, rebuffing requests for logs and other records associated with the comments.

The disclosure that the FCC had denied the Schneiderman’s request was made in an open letter he wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai this week.

Schneiderman wrote that the FCC’s public comment process for the regulation change, which is required by law, “has been corrupted by the fraudulent use of Americans’ identities.”

“Such conduct likely violates state law - yet the FCC has refused multiple requests for crucial evidence in its sole possession that is vital to permit that law enforcement investigation to proceed,” he wrote. “In doing so, the perpetrator or perpetrators attacked what is supposed to be an open public process by attempting to drown out and negate the views of the real people, businesses, and others who honestly commented on this important issue.”

The letter has brought renewed scrutiny to what Schneiderman, as well as other researchers, believe may be hundreds of thousands of fake comments supporting the FCC’s proposed rule change. And the accusations have raised questions about the integrity of another public forum, this one run by the federal government, in a moment of growing national concern for the ways in which social media can be exploited for political purposes.

The generic text of the comment in question - “The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed,” it begins - currently appears in some 800,000 of the 22 million comments filed with the FCC. It is unknown how many are fraudulent. The attorney general’s office said that there were some indications that some of the names appeared to overlap with names released in past data breaches.

Schneiderman said he had made at least nine requests for records from the FCC between June and November that have gone unanswered. A freelance reporter, Jason Prechtel, says he has been similarly stymied; he has filed a lawsuit against the FCC after it has not fulfilled a Freedom of Information request he filed requesting data about the commenters.

Two members of Congress, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., have called for an investigation into what the FCC said was a cyber-hack that brought down its commenting site in May after a flood of commenters were prompted by Comedy Central host John Oliver to visit the site.

In a statement on Wednesday, the FCC dismissed Schneiderman’s assertions as “inaccurate,” but did not give specifics.

“This so-called investigation is nothing more than a transparent attempt by a partisan supporter of the Obama Administration’s heavy-handed Internet regulations to gain publicity for himself,” spokesman Mark Wigfield said in a statement.

The FCC said the majority of suspicious activity on its comment process were from those supporting the Obama-era rules, including 7.5 million copies of another form message it said came from a fake email generator and 400,000 comments in support of net neutrality came from one address in Russia. A conservative group, the National Legal and Policy Center, found that 1.3 million came from addresses in France, Russia and Germany and suspicious Internet domains after it analyzed the public comments, according to Fortune.

Schneiderman and other critics of the fraudulent public comments emphasized that their critiques had less to do with the messages’ political content than the process itself: fraudulent comments muddied the debate no matter where they fell on the political spectrum.

“We’ve been very clear - they should have addressed fraudulent comments on either side. They’re creating confusion,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit that opposes changing the net neutrality rule. “The issue is about the integrity of the process. They weren’t even trying to maintain the integrity of the process and that’s why there’s all these questions.”

The FCC said that it did not purge form letters because it did not have the resources to investigate the comments that were filed.

Reporters started noticing the series of identical comments that were critical of the Obama-era regulation just days after the public comment process opened.

While it is normal for activist groups to create petitions to allow people to easily endorse generic statements on government forums, people began finding their own names or those of relatives that were deceased on comments they hadn’t endorsed, Greer said. A couple dozen people signed a letter saying that their name and addresses were used to submit fake comments without their permission; others have come out in news reports that their names were wrongfully used. Fight for the Future set up a site to help people easily search for their name in the FCC’s comments.

The text of the form comment appears to originate from a campaign organized by a conservative group called the Center For Individual Freedom.

“The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation,” the text reads. “I urge the Federal Communications Commission to end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet known as Title II and restore the bipartisan light-touch regulatory consensus that enabled the internet to flourish for more than 20 years.”

The group, which did not respond to an immediate request for comment, has said that it does not know who filed the comments under other people’s names without their knowledge, according to Ars Technica.

The FCC’s plan to repeal so-called net neutrality regulation, a draft of which was revealed this week, has raised concerns about increased control over Internet content by telecom companies. Under the 2015 regulation, Internet service providers have been prohibited from selectively blocking or slowing websites, or rewarding others that pay or for any other reason with preferential download speeds.

But the new rules would allow broadband providers a much greater degree of control over Internet content, as well as the speed at which the content can be transmitted to customers, as long as the companies adhere to new transparency guidelines.

A study funded by the telecom industry lobbying group Broadband for America found that 60 percent of the comments were against the repeal of net neutrality rules. The number of “unique comments” - those that are not form notes - were overwhelmingly against repealing net neutrality regulations by a ratio of more than 73 to one.

A Texas woman has been accused of mailing homemade explosives to former president Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, that could have maimed or killed them, according to documents filed in federal court last week in Houston.

Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, according to the indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed,” according to court documents.

Had the devices exploded, they would have caused “severe burns and death” to the politicians, who federal investigators believe Poff targeted for multiple reasons. She was known to dislike Obama, the investigators said, and was “upset with Greg Abbott” because “she had not received support from her ex-husband,” according to the documents. Poff had also previously applied for Social Security benefits, but was denied, the documents said.

Investigators traced the devices to Poff after examining several of their components, including a cigarette box and a salad dressing cap. The cigarettes were bought at a truck stop near Poff’s home in Brookshire, Texas, 30 miles west of Houston. The salad dressing was a brand Poff was known to have bought for an “anniversary dinner,” the indictment said.

Most tellingly, the court documents noted, hair belonging to one of Poff’s two cats was found under the address label of the package sent to Obama.

Poff has been charged with six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure. She has also been charged with defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps, and falsely declaring bankruptcy — issues that came up during the course of the investigation.

The charges come at a time of heightened vigilance for many politicians. In July, 66-year-old James Hodgkinson opened fire at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, seriously injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and several others. And earlier this month, a neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., attacked him in his yard, breaking six of the senator’s ribs.

According to Nathan Kalmoe, an assistant professor of political science at Monmouth College, who has studied political violence, an individual’s support for such acts is often influenced by both her personality and the political environment.

“Many worry that political rhetoric is fueling the fire,” Kalmoe wrote in The Washington Post. “My findings suggest this concern is valid.”

Russia must press the Taliban to enter peace talks in Afghanistan, while an international inquiry should establish whether the Kremlin is arming the insurgent group, according to a senior Afghan official.

Russia has “a significant role” in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar told reporters in Moscow on Thursday. He said he told Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that “if you have contacts with the Taliban, please use these contacts for promotion of peace talks. The Taliban should not be able to use such contacts for war.”

U.S. accusations that Russia may be sending weapons and other supplies to the Taliban are “the most sensitive issue,” though Afghan officials have no evidence it’s happening, Atmar said. Unproven claims of U.S. help for the Islamic State should also be checked, he said. The government in Kabul has proposed to “Russia, central Asia and our Western partners that we have a joint fact-finding mission to investigate, to see if there is any truth in such allegations,” Atmar said.

The security chief’s visit took place as Russia and the U.S. are increasingly sparring over Afghanistan, adding to frictions over Ukraine, Syria and alleged Kremlin meddling in support of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential elections. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has voiced suspicion of Russia’s actions in Afghanistan, where it’s fostered ties with the Taliban amid a campaign by the terrorist group against Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. Russia, which fought a losing decade-long war in Afghanistan against U.S.-backed Islamist groups before the Soviet Union’s collapse, denies supplying arms to the Taliban.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “agreed to explore ways to further cooperate in the fight against” the Taliban during phone talks on Tuesday, according to the White House. Russia has criticized the Trump administration’s decision to send more troops to the war-torn country 16 years after the 2001 U.S. invasion that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Patrushev hosted the first informal meeting of security council officials from Russia, Afghanistan and the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in Moscow on Wednesday. They discussed threats from terrorism and drug trafficking as well as “national reconciliation in Afghanistan,” according to the Interfax news service.

The Taliban should be “put under pressure to come to peace talks” and Patrushev “fully supported that position,” Atmar said. The insurgent group has been invited to direct talks with the Afghan government and “will be making a big mistake if they fail to take advantage of this,” he said.

Taliban demands for the withdrawal of foreign troops “should be the goal of negotiation, not a pre-condition,” Atmar said. “There are no pre-conditions. We are saying to the Taliban that the withdrawal of foreign troops should be achieved through peace.”

U.S. plans to replace Russian helicopters and other military equipment used by Afghan forces with American models are “absolutely counter-productive” and “detrimental to our common goal of stabilizing the situation” in the country, Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said Thursday, according to the RIA Novosti news service.

Atmar said he hopes “cooperation will be restored” between Russia and the U.S., which previously purchased Russian-made helicopters for Afghan forces to use.

“Afghanistan will retain the Russian helicopters, we will also have American helicopters,” he said. “So it’s not one against the other.”

HARARE, Zimbabwe –– Former President Robert Mugabe won’t face prosecution and is free to remain in the Zimbabwe after his resignation on Tuesday after 37 years in power.

Simon Khaya Moyo, a spokesman for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, said: “We don’t have anything against him or his family. He’s the hero of our liberation.”

Emmerson Mnangagwa was due to be sworn in on Friday to replace Mugabe, who had ruled since the country won its independence in 1980. Moyo said he didn’t think any members of the opposition would be included in the new administration.

“To my knowledge, there aren’t any plans to include the opposition in the government while Zanu-PF has the people’s mandate,” he said. “The party won the last election and will rule as normal.”

President Donald Trump Thursday used a message to American troops overseas to take credit for a “win” in Afghanistan.

The Thanksgiving message was delivered by Trump from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over an internet connection to military men and women stationed near Kabul.

“I have to say just directly to the folks in Afghanistan: Everybody’s talking about the progress you’ve made in the last few months since I opened it up,” Trump said, according to pool reports.

“We opened it up. We said, ‘Go ahead; we’re going to fight to win.’ We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around. We’re fighting to win, and you people are really, you’ve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody’s seen. And they are talking about it. So thank you very much.

“Brave, incredible fighters.”

Earlier via Twitter, Trump spoke of what he sees as his accomplishments in office: “Jobs coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL”

The last was a reference to a barrier Trump wants to build along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

THERESA — State police charged Christopher T. Petrie, 26, of Theresa, with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance at 9:18 p.m. Monday.

Mr. Petrie was released on his own recognizance.

Further details were not provided by state police.

OGDENSBURG — The Ogdensburg International Airport has begun welcoming its first passengers from the new connection between Ogdensburg and the Tampa-St. Petersburg Airport in Florida.

Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority officials said history was officially made when the first passenger from that location arrived in Ogdensburg on an Allegiant Air flight Nov. 16.

“It was a great direct flight and was very convenient to fly into Ogdensburg. I previously used other airports but Ogdensburg is much more convenient,” said Frank R. LeFleur, of Lakeland, Fla.

Samuel J. LaMacchia, chairman of the OBPA board, said continuing access to and from Florida’s west coast will be a great driver for the airport and Ogdensburg as the facility continues to expand.

Wade A. Davis, the OBPA’s executive director, called the new flights a game changer for the region.

“Direct access to central Florida four times per week via Allegiant is a game-changer for the air traveler,” Mr. Davis said. “The flexibility of four times per week service coupled with two Florida airports which are only 120 miles apart offers the air traveler the greatest number of travel combinations and date flexibility.

Mr. Davis said the additional service allows people to get away for a few days or for an extended Florida vacation, directly from the Ogdensburg International Airport.

October marked one year since Allegiant began offering flights to Florida from the Ogdensburg airport.

The nonstop service includes flights from Ogdensburg to Orlando-Sanford and a new route to St. Pete-Clearwater in Tampa Bay, according to officials with the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority.

The flights to Tampa Bay began on Nov. 16.

Airport officials said flights from Ogdensburg to Florida can be booked through May 2018, for those wanting to make their travel plans in advance.

The expanded Ogdensburg airport has completed its first full year of operation, following a grand opening ceremony that took place Oct. 5, 2016. Since then, over 23,000 people have boarded airplanes at the facility.

WATERTOWN — A Carthage man was sentenced Tuesday to prison for his involvement in a drug lab that was exposed in March.

Robert W. Hubbard Jr., 30, was sentenced in Jefferson County Court to four years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in September.

He was also sentenced to 2½ years after pleading guilty to fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Mr. Hubbard was mandated into the Willard Drug Treatment program.

In other court action:

Curtis L. Kilgo, 36, Watertown, was sentenced to three years in state prison and mandated into the Willard program.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance on Oct. 20.

Mr. Kilgo is a second-felony offender, having been convicted of fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance in 2006.

Amanda L. Loera, 31, Watertown, was given two concurrent three-year conditional discharge sentences and ordered to enter the Bridge Drug Treatment Program.

Ms. Loera pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and third-degree unlawful manufacture of methamphetamine in connection with two separate incidents.

She was also fined $2,000, ordered to pay $3,605.93 in restitution and had her driver’s license revoked.

Cierra B. Jobson, 22, Watertown, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. She admitted to having more than one-eighth ounce of methamphetamine on Sept. 28.

Her sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 26.

Dustin J. Pryce, 34, Watertown, was ordered to pay $4,360 in restitution and given a five-year term of probation.

He pleaded guilty to fourth-degree welfare fraud on Oct. 4.

Chasmin J. Hunter, 29, Watertown, was sentenced to three years of probation and given a one-year conditional discharge.

He was also fined $1,500, had his driver’s license revoked and was ordered to install an ignition interlock device on any vehicle he owns or operates.

Mr. Hunter pleaded guilty to the amended misdemeanor charges of aggravated driving while intoxicated and second-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle on Sept. 19.

Richard M. Phelan, 24, Batavia, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $212.76 in restitution joint and several with his codefendants.

He was convicted of fourth-degree attempted grand larceny earlier this year.

Mr. Phelan’s probation was transferred to Genesee County.

Francis J. Conklin III, 40, Watertown, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $999.99 in restitution.

He was convicted of fourth-degree attempted grand larceny earlier this year.

Joshua L. Jackson, 28, Dexter, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal mischief.

He admitted to damaging a vehicle in Watertown on June 7.

He was given a one-year conditional discharge Tuesday after paying his full restitution at sentencing.

Matthew A. Arca, 34, Watertown, was sentenced to three years of probation and an unspecified amount of time served at the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal contempt as a misdemeanor on Sept. 20.

POTSDAM — Construction of the play area at Ives Park, donated by Town Councilwoman Rosemaria Rivezzi, has been delayed until spring after issues with the delivery of a climbing wall. The play area is in honor of Ms. Rivezzi’s mother-in-law, Kathryn I. Trithart, and was supposed to be built this fall.

Ms. Rivezzi updated the village Board of Trustees during its meeting on Monday about delays to building the central feature of the play area, a 6-foot- high mound with various access points to the top. These include steps, a rope ladder and a climbing wall.

“Critical to constructing that mound was that climbing wall that supported one end,” Ms. Rivezzi told the Times.

The wall was ordered in late June or early July, but did not arrive until recently.

“(It) got delayed, and delayed, and delayed, and when it arrived it was not in the state it was promised,” Ms. Rivezzi told the trustees. “It was a pile of lumber, they had to send somebody from their company to put it together.”

If the mound was built now, there would be no time to seed it, and without grass it might erode over the winter. Also, the area of the park designated for the play area would have to be fenced off all winter if it was under construction.

After discussing the issue with James Corbett, the village Department of Public Works superintendent, and representatives from Sheehan Construction, who volunteered their help to build the mound, Ms. Rivezzi decided to delay the construction until early April.

“I just feel bad ... but it was out of our hands,” Ms. Rivezzi said.

Besides help from Sheehan Construction, the park has received help from the Bicknell family and The Grasseroots Fund in Canton.

“There’s a lot of people who came forward,” Ms. Rivezzi said.