10 rides that could replace Fast & Furious on Universal’s Studio Tour

• February 26, 2025

The retirement of one Fast & Furious ride to make room for a new coaster based on the $7 billion street racing film franchise means Universal Studios Hollywood has a giant hole to fill on the Studio Tour — but what will replace the massive motion simulator attraction?

Universal Studios Hollywood will close the Fast & Furious — Supercharged attraction on March 10 that has been part of the backlot tour for the past decade.

The new Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift coaster will debut in 2026 on the Upper Lot of Universal Studios Hollywood.

ALSO SEE: Universal Studios teases ‘secret plans’ for Wicked attractions

Amid all the changes, one mystery still remains: What will replace the Fast & Furious drive-through attraction as the grand finale on the Studio Tour?

The 2015 Fast & Furious — Supercharged attraction is housed in an 800 foot-long building on the studio backlot that’s longer than two football fields.

Inside, tram riders are surrounded by a wrap-around screen spanning nearly 400 feet in length and 40 feet in height with 34 projectors and more than 50 speakers.

The trams sit on a 200-foot-long motion simulator that rolls, pitches, undulates and vibrates in sync with the action on the screen.

Riders wear 3D glasses and experience multiple special effects — including water, mist, fire, smoke and wind.

ALSO SEE: What is Universal Fan Fest Nights? All about the first-ever fandom event

Universal Studios Hollywood will make an announcement soon on the replacement for the Fast & Furious backlot attraction, but until then fans are left to wonder “What’s next?”

We have gathered together possible replacements based on other Universal attractions around the world, new Universal theme parks under construction, Universal’s past partnerships with Hollywood studios and upcoming blockbuster movie releases.

Left off the list are attractions based on movie franchises already at Universal Studios Hollywood and retired rides that long ago disappeared from the park. So that means no Harry Potter, Transformers or Minions on the backlot or the return of Back to the Future, Terminator or E.T.

ALSO SEE: Grandmother injured on Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios awarded $7 million

Here are the Top 10 contenders likely to fill the void left by the retirement of Fast & Furious — Supercharged on the Studio Tour.

1) Wicked

Imagine the sound of hundreds of Studio Tour riders singing along to “Defying Gravity” and “The Wizard & I” as scenes from the film play on the wrap-around screen.

Universal Destinations & Experiences Chairman Mark Woodbury has been teasing plans to create theme park attractions based on “Wicked.”

The $700 million blockbuster film continues to ride a wave of success with 10 Academy Award nominations ahead of a sequel hitting theaters in November.

Glinda and Elphaba characters will pose for photos during the new Universal Fan Fest Nights starting on April 25 at Universal Studios Hollywood.

2) How to Train Your Dragon

Universal Orlando already has a fire-breathing dragon with more on the way — but the Hollywood park would certainly welcome a dragon or two on the Studio Tour.

Dragons will pose for photo ops, breath fire and soar above the Viking village of Berk when the world’s first How to Train Your Dragon themed land opens on May 22 at the new Universal Epic Universe theme park.

Universal Pictures will release the new “How to Train Your Dragon” live-action film on June 13.

3) Jason Bourne

A high-speed chase starring Jason Bourne through the narrow streets of an international city could be a perfect replacement for Fast & Furious.

Universal Studios Florida opened the “Bourne Stuntacular” stunt show in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as a replacement for “Terminator 2: Battle Across Time.”

Universal Pictures is developing a sixth Jason Bourne film in the $1.6 billion action-thriller franchise, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

4) Mission: Impossible

A high-speed chase starring Ethan Hunt on the ground and in the air could fill the soon-to-be-empty Studio Tour attraction if Jason Bourne is unavailable.

Paramount Pictures has dreamed up Mission: Impossible attractions for its own parks in development in China and the United Kingdom. Universal has worked with Paramount on past theme park attractions — but never with megastar Tom Cruise on the M:I franchise.

Paramount will release “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” on May 23.

5) Universal Monsters

Dracula, Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster could play a starring role on the Studio Tour in a tribute to the classic Universal horror movies from the 1920s through the 1950s.

A new Dark Universe monster-themed land will debut as part of the Epic Universe theme park in Florida.

Universal Monsters will also play a key role in the new Universal Horror Unleashed year-round experience opening Aug. 14 in Las Vegas.

6) Halloween Horror Nights

Universal has built Halloween Horror Nights into a franchise of its own, but do visitors want to face their fears during the day?

While it might be a stretch to imagine Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger terrorizing Studio Tour riders throughout the year — it certainly would be a powerful draw during September and October when Horror Nights takes over the park.

Universal has already lined up mazes based on “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Exorcist: Believer” for the new Universal Horror Unleashed attraction opening this summer just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The Fast & Furious — Supercharged attraction is really nothing more than an elaborate 3D movie. How hard would it be for Universal to run the Studio Tour in “horror mode” at night with a PG-13 warning for riders?

7) Twisters

Movie producer Steven Spielberg has teamed up in the past with Universal Studios to turn several of his movies into theme park attractions.

There are plenty of Spielberg movies that could work with the Studio Tour drive-through motion simulator, including “Ready Player One,” “War of the Worlds” and “Men in Black.”

But the 2024 “Twisters” is the most recent hit and likely the best fit. It’s not hard to imagine the Studio Tour tram chasing twin tornadoes across Oklahoma with riders caught in the middle of the action.

Universal Studios Florida closed the Twister: Ride It Out special effects attraction in 2015 that was based on the original 1996 film.

8) Madagascar

Universal Studios has a long history of turning Paramount’s DreamWorks animated films into theme park attractions.

There are plenty of film franchises left to choose from that haven’t already become rides at the Hollywood park, including Trolls, Puss in Boots and Bad Guys.

But Madagascar is probably the biggest DreamWorks franchise after Shrek and Kung Fu Panda — which have both had extended runs in the 4D theater at Universal Studios Hollywood.

A trek through the jungles of Madagascar with Alex the lion, Marty the zebra and Melman the giraffe could serve as a fun finale to the Studio Tour.

Madagascar has its own themed land at Universal Studios Singapore while Universal Orlando has a Trollercoaster. Trolls and Puss in Boots will get their own lands when the new Universal Kids theme park opens in May 2026 in Texas.

9) SpongeBob Square Pants

A trip to Bikini Bottom with SpongeBob, Squidward and Mr. Krabs would certainly be a trippy end to the Studio Tour.

SpongeBob has appeared in parades and as a meet-and-greet character at Universal parks — and he’s about to get his own themed land at the Universal Kids park coming to Texas.

Paramount Pictures will release “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” animated film in theaters on Dec. 19.

10) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What if Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael took riders into the New York City sewers for the finale of the Studio Tour?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rides have largely been confined to Nickelodeon Universe theme parks in the United States, but anything could happen with the Nickelodeon partnership now that Universal is dedicating an entire themed land to SpongeBob at the new Texas park.

Paramount Pictures is developing the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin” as an R-rated live-action film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

​ Orange County Register 

GOP-led lawsuit that could dismantle disability protections draws public backlash

• February 26, 2025

By Anna Claire Vollers, Stateline.org

A push by Republican attorneys general in 17 states to strike down part of a federal law that protects disabled people from discrimination has prompted an outcry from advocates, parents and some local officials.

The GOP-led lawsuit targets certain protections for transgender people. But some experts warn it has the potential to weaken federal protections for all people with disabilities.

Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government in September over the Biden administration’s addition of a gender identity-related disorder to the disabilities protected under a section of a 1973 federal law.

Republican attorneys general from 16 other states joined the lawsuit: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

But the AGs face a growing public backlash that stems from conflicting messages about what the lawsuit would actually do.

“The disability community is outraged and scared,” said Charlotte Cravins, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, attorney whose 1-year-old son has Down syndrome and is blind in one eye.

Cravins and other parents and advocates point to parts of the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs ask the court to find an entire section of the law unconstitutional. If the court agrees, they think it would allow schools, workplaces, hospitals and other entities to refuse to provide accommodations they’ve been required to provide for the past 50 years.

“It would affect so many people that every person in our state — really, in our country — should be concerned,” Cravins said. “If they can erase protections for disabled children, then who’s next?”

The provision in question, Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, prohibits entities that receive federal funding from discriminating based on disability. For example, the law prohibits hospitals from denying organ transplants to people because they have a disability. It requires schools to allow deaf students to use speech-to-text technology. The law covers a wide range of disabilities, including vision and hearing impairments, autism, diabetes, Down syndrome, dyslexia and ADHD.

Last May, the Biden administration issued a rule that added to the covered disabilities “gender dysphoria,” the psychological distress that people may experience when their gender identity doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth. Gender dysphoria is defined in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

In recent days, national disability rights groups — including the American Council of the Blind, the National Down Syndrome Society, the National Association of the Deaf and the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund— have encouraged the public to speak out, sparking a surge of activity on social media and calls to state lawmakers.

AGs respond

Despite the public backlash, some state AGs are digging in their heels.

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr insists the lawsuit wouldn’t affect existing disability protections. Instead, he said, it merely aims to reverse the Biden administration’s addition of gender dysphoria to the law’s protected disabilities.

“The constitutionality of 504 was never in question,” Carr said in a statement to Stateline. “We are fighting one woke policy added by Biden for virtue signaling.”

He said most Georgians don’t believe gender dysphoria should be treated as an eligible disability “as if it’s the same as Down syndrome or dyslexia or autism.”

Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin issued a statement claiming that if the states win the lawsuit, “regulations would go back to what they were” before gender dysphoria was added to the law. He said that a ruling declaring Section 504 unconstitutional would only mean the federal government couldn’t revoke funding over a failure to comply with the part of the law protecting gender dysphoria.

But Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert and the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, wrote in an email that the lawsuit clearly asks the court to declare the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional. He called the request “truly stunning.”

The lawsuit is currently on hold. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, the parties in the case agreed to pause litigation while the new administration reevaluates the federal government’s position. Status reports are due to a judge later this month. Some of the AGs involved in the lawsuit, including Georgia’s Carr and West Virginia Republican Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, have said they expect the Trump administration to reverse the Biden rule. That could cause the AGs’ lawsuit to be dropped.

Meanwhile, as public pressure escalates, some AGs are distancing themselves from the suit.

South Carolina Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement that Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order stating that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female” resolved his concerns. “Our mission is complete,” Wilson said. Some advocates understood his statement to mean he might withdraw South Carolina from the lawsuit.

However, a spokesperson for his office told Stateline that South Carolina would not be withdrawing from the lawsuit, but would be filing a notice with the court to clarify that the state is not asking for Section 504 to be declared unconstitutional.

Utah Republican Attorney General Derek Brown said in a statement that Utah joined the lawsuit before he took office and that he doesn’t think Section 504 will be invalidated because “the Trump administration will soon withdraw the regulation” that added gender dysphoria to the list of disabilities.

The AGs argue that established federal law does not consider gender identity disorders to be disabilities. They say allowing the Biden rule to remain in place would let the government withhold federal funding from schools unless they allow transgender students to compete in sports or use locker rooms that match their gender identity.

Grassroots efforts

Cravins, the Louisiana attorney and mother, sent a letter to Louisiana Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, asking her to drop Louisiana from the lawsuit.

Murrill issued a statement last week expressing support for people with disabilities and saying her office is “actively seeking a resolution with the Trump administration” to withdraw the Biden rule while keeping the law’s previous protections intact.

Cravins said her son depends on Section 504 protections to access specialized therapies, and will rely on those protections even more as he approaches school age. Section 504 will help ensure he receives access to vision-related support, therapy and other accommodations in school.

Cravins believes the AGs that signed onto the lawsuit aren’t being honest about its potential impact to protections for all people with disabilities.

“For them to say one thing and the lawsuit to say another, I can’t imagine it’s anything other than them being disingenuous with their constituents,” she said.

Ryan Renaud, a school board representative for one of the largest public school districts in Alabama, said a concerned parent who also is an attorney contacted him, after reading a story about Alabama Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall joining the lawsuit. More calls soon followed.

“We’ve been hearing from dozens of parents in the last couple of days,” Renaud told Stateline. Without Section 504 protections, he said, students could lose access to a wide range of accommodations, from classroom aides to extra time to take tests.

The impacts could extend beyond what most people think of when they think of special education, he said.

“This includes students with ADHD, heart disease, depression, visual impairment, diabetes,” Renaud said. “Accommodations that come with those health concerns also fall under 504 plan protection.

“When a student doesn’t have those accommodations, they become less secure in class and teachers are less able to manage their classrooms.”

He’s also worried that the funding from the U.S. Department of Education that helps pay for those accommodations could vanish if federal law no longer requires them. Trump has vowed to dismantle the agency.

“We spend on average $30 million a year or more on special education, and more than a quarter of that is provided by the federal government,” he said. “If [accommodations] aren’t federally protected and the Department of Education doesn’t have the authority to disburse the funds, we have to assume we’d have to pick up that slack through local or state funding.

“And it’s hard to believe Alabama would cough up tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to supplement these costs.”

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education reported that 1.6 million students with disabilities were served under Section 504 nationwide during the 2020-2021 school year.

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Egg prices could jump another 41% this year, USDA says, as Trump’s bird flu plan unveiled

• February 26, 2025

By JOSH FUNK and JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs.

With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022. Officials had hinted at the plan earlier this month.

It’s not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out.

Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds ever since the 2015 bird flu outbreak by taking measures like requiring workers to change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that the virus is spread easily by wild birds as they migrate past farms.

And the main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found — with most of those being egg-laying chickens. Last month was the worst yet for egg farmers with nearly 19 million egg-laying chickens slaughtered.

Egg prices will get much worse this year

The USDA now predicts that egg prices will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already record prices. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.

And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar an egg in some places. The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes.

The high egg prices, which have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, cost consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate done by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas.

Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.

When will the Trump plan bring down prices?

Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before consumers see an effect at the checkout counter. After all, it takes infected farms months to dispose of the carcasses, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. But she expressed optimism that this will help prices.

“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said.

Will DOGE layoffs affect the bird flu fight?

Rollins said she believes USDA will have the staff it needs to respond to bird flu even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will,” she said, “as we realign and and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”

Where’s the money going?

The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states.

It’s not clear what the additional aid would be for because USDA already pays farmers for any birds they must slaughter due to the virus, and roughly $1.2 billion has gone to those payments.

The administration is also in talks to import about 70 million to 100 million eggs from other countries in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market.

Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been approved and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots to each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.

The National Turkey Federation said the plan Rollins outlined should help stabilize the market, but the trade group encouraged the USDA to pay attention to all egg and poultry farmers — not just egg producers.

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.

​ Orange County Register 

The Trump administration sets the stage for large-scale federal worker layoffs in a new memo

• February 26, 2025

By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed by President Donald Trump ‘s administration that sets in motion what could become a sweeping realignment of American government.

The memo expands the Republican president’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, which he has described as bloated and impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now his administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

Agencies are directed to submit by March 13 their plans for what is known as a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate the position altogether. The result could be extensive changes in how government functions.

“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” said the memo from Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public.”

Trump foreshadowed this goal in an executive order that he signed with Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who is advising Trump on overhauling the government.

The order said agency leaders “shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force,” or RIF.

Some departments have already begin this process.

The General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, told employees on Monday that a reduction in force was underway and they would “everything in our power to make your departure fair and dignified.”

The memo came as Trump prepared for the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. He planned to include Musk, who oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “all of the Cabinet secretaries take the advice and direction of DOGE.”

“They’ll be providing updates on their efforts, and they’ll also be providing updates on what they’re doing at their agencies in terms of policies and implementing the promises that the president made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said.

Musk has caused turmoil within the federal workforce, most recently by demanding that employees justify their jobs or risk getting fired. OPM later said that the edict was voluntary.

​ Orange County Register 

Pope Francis sits upright in an armchair as Argentines in Rome pray for his recovery

• February 26, 2025

By NICOLE WINFIELD, TRISHA THOMAS and SILVIA STELLACCI

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis was sitting upright and receiving therapy for double pneumonia Wednesday, the Vatican said, as Argentines, Romans and others kept up the steady stream of prayers for his recovery. Francis remained in critical condition but the Holy See machinery ground on, with the announcement of new bishops and a new church fundraising initiative.

The Vatican said that it hoped to have information later in the day about the results of a CT scan taken Tuesday evening to check on the status of the complex lung infection that has kept the 88-year-old pope hospitalized since Feb. 14. Francis has chronic lung disease and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital after a bout of bronchitis worsened.

The Vatican said the pope had a peaceful night and was up, sitting in his armchair on Wednesday receiving therapy. Doctors have said he isn’t out of danger, but hasn’t had any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

Francis has been working from his hospital room, and the daily grind of the Vatican bureaucracy has been continuing in his absence. On Wednesday the Vatican said Francis had appointed four new bishops and approved the creation of a new fundraising initiative to encourage donations to the Holy See, which has been enduring a financial crisis for years.

Francis likely approved the bishop appointments awhile back and the new norms for the fundraising entity were approved Feb. 11, before he was hospitalized. But the announcements made them official and suggested Francis was still very much in charge and governing.

Pilgrims descend on the hospital to be closer to Francis

If he were to look out the hospital window from the 10th floor, he might see that a steady stream of well-wishers are lighting candles and leaving him get-well cards at the statue of St. John Paul II near the Gemelli entrance. It has become something of a makeshift pilgrimage destination, especially for church groups in town for the Vatican’s Holy Year.

On Wednesday, Bishop Gerardo Villalonga from Menorca, Spain led a group of 50 pilgrims to the site, saying they wanted to be as close to him as possible.

“Because when a family has someone who is sick it is very important that they are surrounded, it is necessary that everyone is near to them, and all the people of God are close the pope,” he said.

Cardinal Re picked to lead prayer vigil on Wednesday

The dean of the College of Cardinals, meanwhile, was designated to lead the Vatican’s prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday night, thrusting a key figure in a future possible conclave into the spotlight. Francis recently extended the term of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, keeping him in the important job rather than naming someone new.

As is now popularly known thanks to the Oscar-nominated film “Conclave,” the dean is a key point of reference for cardinals. He presides over a papal funeral and organizes the conclave to elect a new pope.

From 2000-2010, Re was prefect of the Vatican’s congregation for bishops, one of the most powerful and influential positions in the Holy See. Francis made him dean in 2020 and confirmed him in the job in January despite the expiration of his five-year term.

On Tuesday night, the faithful from Francis’ homeland gathered in the Argentine church of Rome for a special Mass presided over by Cardinal Baldassarre Reina, the pope’s vicar for Rome. Reina was also celebrating the lunchtime Mass on Wednesday at Gemelli to pray for Francis.

The rector of the Argentine church, the Rev. Fernando Laguna, said that he hoped the pope could feel the embrace of the community’s prayer.

“I can’t go to Gemelli, because for him to recover he must be isolated,” he said. “I know that I hug him and that he hugs me when I pray. And now I would like to embrace the pope.”

Sister Nilda Trejo, an Argentine nun, said that she knew Francis’ health has always been delicate, with problems breathing and speaking loudly, and that’s why she always prayed for him.

“We knew that he often found it difficult,” she said. “In fact, you see that at the beginning of Mass, the microphone always has to be turned up because he has a bit of trouble. But he always spoke to the people. To the heart of the people.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

The US Christian population has declined for years. A new survey shows that drop leveling off

• February 26, 2025

By TIFFANY STANLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a new survey Wednesday from the Pew Research Center.

The Religious Landscape Study finds 62% of U.S. adults call themselves Christians. While a significant dip from 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christian, Pew found the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019.

The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called “ nones ” — has also reached at least a temporary plateau, according to Pew. Approximately 29% of U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, including those who are atheist (5%), agnostic (6%) or “nothing in particular” (19%).

“It’s striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline,” said Pew’s Gregory Smith, one of the study’s co-authors. “One thing we can’t know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country’s religious trajectory.”

By some measures, the U.S. remains overwhelmingly spiritual. Many Americans have a supernatural outlook, with 83% believing in God or a universal spirit and 86% believing that people have a soul or spirit. About seven in 10 Americans believe in heaven, hell or both.

Young adults are less religious than their elders

Despite this widespread spirituality, there are harbingers of future religious decline. Most notably, Pew found a huge age gap, with 46% of the youngest American adults identifying as Christian, compared to 80% of the oldest adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated.

“These kinds of generational differences are a big part of what’s driven the long-term declines in American religion,” Smith said. “As older cohorts of highly religious, older people have passed away, they have been replaced by new cohorts of young adults who are less religious than their parents and grandparents.”

Michele Margolis, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist not affiliated with the Pew survey, has studied how religious involvement changes over a lifetime.

Young adults frequently move away from religion. “Then when you get married and have kids, this is a time where scholars have noted that religion is more likely to become important,” Margolis said.

Margolis said one question going forward is whether the youngest American adults firmly reject organized religion, or if some of them will return to the religious fold as they age.

Between 2007 and 2024, Pew religious landscape studies haven’t indicated that Americans are growing more religious as they get older.

Smith at Pew said “something would need to change” to stop the long-term decline of American religion, whether that’s adults becoming more religious with age or new generations becoming more religious than their parents.

How partisan politics intertwines with religious identity

The long-term decline of U.S. Christianity and rise of the “nones” has occurred across traditions, gender, race, ethnicity, education and region. But it is much more evident among political liberals, according to Pew. The survey shows 51% of liberals claim no religion, up 24 points from 2007. Only 37% of U.S. liberals identify as Christian, down from 62% in 2007.

Penny Edgell, a University of Minnesota sociologist and expert adviser for the Pew study, said this religious and political sorting aligns with whether people “support traditional, patriarchal gender and family arrangements.”

Edgell also notes that Black Americans defy the assumption that all Democrats are less religious than Republicans.

“More Black Americans percentagewise are Democrats, but their rates of religious involvement are still really high,” Edgell said. “That has something to do with the way that religious institutions and politics have been intertwined in historically unique ways for different groups.”

Roughly seven in 10 Black Protestants told Pew that religion is very important to them — about the same rate as evangelicals and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Black Protestants are likely to identify as Democrats (72%), whereas evangelicals and Latter-day Saints are likely to identify as Republican (70% and 73%, respectively).

The Pew survey tracks many religious traditions

It’s been nearly 10 years since the last Religious Landscape Study, which tracks religious data that the U.S. census does not.

The new survey found that a majority of immigrants to the U.S. are Christian (58%), but they also follow the upward trend of the religiously unaffiliated, with a quarter of foreign-born U.S. adults claiming no religion.

The number of Americans who belong to religions besides Christianity has been increasing, though it’s still a small portion of the population (7%). That includes the 2% who are Jewish, and the 1% each who are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu.

Of U.S. Christian adults, 40% are Protestant and 19% are Catholic. The remaining 3% in Pew’s survey include Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and smaller Christian groups.

The two largest Protestant denominations in the Pew survey remain the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church – though both have lost many members since the first Religious Landscape Study in 2007.

The Pew Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish between July 2023 and March 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey’s margin of error for results based on the full sample is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Luka Doncic, Lakers survive emotional game against Mavericks

• February 26, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The chant started late in the first half on Tuesday night, in the 200 level of the arena. By game’s end, as the Lakers were finally putting away the Dallas Mavericks, it had spread throughout the building.

“Thank you, Nico … thank you, Nico … thank you, Nico …”

It was directed at Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who will be known forevermore in north Texas as The Guy Who Traded Away Luka Doncic. Tuesday night, Doncic and the Lakers faced the Mavericks in downtown L.A., and Harrison – who is hardly the most popular man in Dallas these days – faced the music, making this trip with the team and sitting a few rows behind the visitors’ bench.

Let’s just say the first direct returns on this deal favored the Lakers.

Yes, it was emotional, and that might have had an effect. Doncic had a ragged shooting night, making 6 of 17 field goal attempts and 1 for 7 from 3-point range. He wasn’t the only one struggling, on a night when the Lakers shot 11 for 40 (27.5%) from behind the arc and 28 for 47 (59.5%) inside it.

But this was an example of Doncic the complete player. Even with his shot less than trustworthy, he finished with a triple-double – 19 points, 15 rebounds and 12  assists – plus three steals and two blocked shots, in his new team’s 107-99 victory over his old one.

Thank you, indeed. And considering this was a national TV game, those chants represented some first-class trolling, given how raw the emotions have been in Dallas.

The game itself might have been an illustration of how these new look Lakers might handle things going forward. The Lakers had a 16-point lead in the first half – about the time those chants began, actually – but found themselves tied 91-91 midway through the fourth quarter before putting on a finishing kick, mainly supplied by LeBron James’ 16-point quarter, to pull away at the end.

“He’s doing that at 40 years old, which is insane,” said Doncic, who turns 26 on Friday.

Starting center Jaxson Hayes played just 16:51. When he went to the bench, the Lakers went small, using 6-foot-7 Dorian Finney-Smith and 6-9 Jarred Vanderbilt alongside 6-8 Rui Hachimura.

What they’ve been doing has been working. Tuesday night’s victory was their 15th in 19 games dating to mid-January. The Lakers have won three in a row and nine of their last 11, all of those without Anthony Davis, who was hurt right before that stretch in a loss in Philadelphia, missed the victories in Washington and New York on that trip and was traded the night of the Lakers’ victory in Madison Square Garden.

The Lakers did honor Davis with a tribute video during the first timeout on Tuesday, a nice touch and one absolutely deserved considering the role Davis played in helping to hang championship banner No. 17 in 2020.

And now for the irony. Doncic was supposedly out of shape and a defensive liability, if you believed the spin Harrison provided in the immediate aftermath of the trade when he publicly denigrated his former player, as did Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont.

But in the six games since Doncic started suiting up for the Lakers (he sat out one of those in Portland last week), their defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) is 105.6. Their rating over the last 15 games (107.3) ties them with Boston and Cleveland at the top of the league in that category.

In the final five minutes of Tuesday’s game, Dallas scored eight points. The Lakers scored 15.

Then again, LeBron might have something to do with that defensive efficiency.

“If you watch our basketball team every night, and you’ve watched our team now for the last six weeks or so, LeBron’s playing at an All-NBA defense level,” Coach JJ Redick said. “He is.

“People may have perceptions of what he is as a defender. I watch it every night. He doesn’t get scored on in isolation if teams do try to target him. He blows plays up. He’s always in the right position, shifting, recovering. I think there was this perception of him at this age, like, conserving energy. No. There’s no conservation of energy on that end of the floor. He’s played elite defense now for a while.”

The crazy thing? Trading Davis to Dallas was supposed to poke another hole in the Lakers’ defensive efficiency. But they seem to have compensated with a more efficient, more aggressive team defensive effort. How far small-ball will take them going forward remains to be seen (worth noting that Dallas played without the 6-10 Davis, the 6-10 Daniel Gafford and 7-1 Dereck Lively II on Tuesday), but they’ve had some impressive efforts to this point.

Doncic, at least, won’t have to worry about old teammates or memories or any of that again until April 9, when the Lakers visit Dallas for their third-to-last regular-season game.

He saw old teammates, greeting Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving – “my mano,” as he called him – just before tipoff as well as Max Christie, who went from L.A. to Dallas in the deal. He did not acknowledge Harrison, even during the pregame warmup period when the Dallas general manager was courtside.

“There were just a lot of emotions (Tuesday night), honestly,” Doncic said. “I can’t even explain. It was a different game. Like I said, sometimes I don’t know what I was doing. I’m just glad it’s over, honestly.”

Both Redick and James thought that Doncic actually handled the emotions of the evening well.

“I mean, obviously a lot of emotion goes in,” James said. “You give so much to a franchise and you sacrifice for a franchise. … He’s grown from being an 18-, 19-year-old kid to now a 25-year-old man, family and all that stuff.

“When you move on or they move on from you, it’s very emotional, obviously. It’s very taxing. You know, it’s a lot of probably a lot of things going on in his head that probably didn’t even involve the game itself. So, with that said, I thought he handled it terrific.”

Any closure, Doncic said, “is going to take a while, I think. I don’t know. It’s just – it’s not ideal. I’m glad this game is over. There was a lot of emotions. It will go little by little. Every day is better.”

Anyway, this is home now. And we have concrete proof that the fans are grateful.

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​ Orange County Register 

American Airlines flight discontinues landing to avoid departing plane at Washington National

• February 26, 2025

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller’s instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway. Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”

The American flight “landed safely and normally” at National Airport after air traffic control instructed pilots to complete a go-around “to allow another aircraft more time for takeoff,” American Airlines said in a statement.

“American has a no-fault go-around policy as a go-around is not an abnormal flight maneuver and can occur nearly every day in the National Airspace System,” the airline said. “It’s a tool in both the pilot’s and air traffic controller’s toolbox to help maintain safe and efficient flight operations.”

The past few weeks have seen four major aviation disasters in North America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.

A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed Jan. 31 into a Philadelphia neighborhood. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

Twenty-one people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

​ Orange County Register