ATLANTA — President Jimmy Carter was released from Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Georgia on Thursday and will continue to recuperate from a broken hip at home, according to information from The Carter Center.

The former president will undergo physical therapy as part of his recovery from hip replacement surgery.

He broke the hip Monday when he took a fall while preparing to go turkey hunting in south Georgia.

The Carter Center said that Mr. Carter will teach Sunday school on his regularly scheduled date this weekend at Maranatha Baptist Church.

Also, Wednesday, former first lady Rosalynn Carter felt faint and was admitted overnight to the hospital for observation and testing. She left the hospital with Mr. Carter on Thursday morning.

Both of the Carters extended their thanks to the many people who sent well wishes the past few days.

Monday, both Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and President Donald Trump tweeted out their wishes and support for the 94-year-old former president.

EPA watchdog suggests agency recover $124,000 in Pruitt's 'excessive' travel expenses

The Environmental Protection Agency should consider recovering nearly $124,000 in improper travel expenses by former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, the agency’s inspector general recommended Thursday.

The findings, issued nearly a year after Mr. Pruitt resigned amid controversy over his spending, travel and ties to lobbyists and outside groups, highlight the fiscal impact of his penchant for high-end travel and accommodations. Investigators concluded that 40 trips Mr. Pruitt either took or scheduled during a 10-month period, between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, cost taxpayers $985,037.

The bulk of those expenses were for Mr. Pruitt’s round-the-clock security detail, which billed $428,896 in travel costs. The agency spent an additional $339,894 on staffers traveling with the former administrator. The “questioned amount” the inspector general’s office identifies for possible recovery is the $123,941 that taxpayers spent on flying both Mr. Pruitt and a security agent in first- or business-class, instead of coach.

The report also highlights the extent to which Mr. Pruitt’s official travel revolved around trips to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he maintained a home while a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. It noted that out of the 40 trips investigators scrutinized, 16 included “travel to, or stops in, Oklahoma” - where Mr. Pruitt maintained a residence.

Trump administration cancels $1 billion for California bullet train

LOS ANGELES — The federal Transportation Department on Thursday fulfilled its promise to cancel a nearly $1 billion grant that would have helped pay for California’s bullet train, in yet another blow for the ambitious high-speed rail project meant to connect Los Angeles to the Bay Area.

In a letter to state officials, the Federal Railroad Administration said it had made a final decision to terminate a longstanding agreement to send $928.6 million to the California High-Speed Rail Authority for the first phase of the project, in the Central Valley.

The administration had first said that it planned to cancel the money, and would try to claw back $2.5 billion it had already spent on the high-speed rail network, in February, after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to scale back the project.

Federal officials said in the letter Thursday that California “has repeatedly failed to comply” with the terms of the original 2010 agreement “and has failed to make reasonable progress on the project.”

“It is now clear that California has no foreseeable plans, nor the capability, to pursue that statewide High-Speed Rail System as originally proposed,” wrote Ronald Batory, the federal railroad administrator, adding that the state “is chronically behind in project construction activities and has not been able to correct or mitigate its deficiencies.”

The project has faced many challenges in the last decade, though it was vigorously backed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, who made it a top priority of his final years in office. The overall cost of the project was estimated at $45 billion when voters approved its financing a decade ago. Now that figure has swelled to as much as $98 billion.

Man facing trial in Bethlehem church arson says he was 'mad at God'

A man charged with setting two fires at a Bethlehem, Pa., church that banned him said as he was leaving court Thursday that he “was mad at God.”

Wilmer Jose Ortiz Torres, 43, is a former member at Iglesia Pentecostal De Bethlehem on Pembroke Road. Mr. Ortiz Torres is charged with arson, burglary and criminal trespass. After Mr. Ortiz Torres waived his right to a preliminary hearing — a move that typically acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to merit charges — he spoke briefly with the media.

When asked if he set the fires, Mr. Ortiz Torres said yes and that he was “mad at God.” Mr. Ortiz Torres’ attorney, Edward Andres, and Assistant District Attorney Jim Augustine declined to comment after the brief hearing before District Judge Nicholas Englesson.

Bethlehem police Chief Mark DiLuzio has not said why Mr. Ortiz Torres had been banned, but said he held a grudge that “festered and festered,” prompting him to light fires at the church. The first fire damaged the sanctuary and the second was set on the church’s roof.

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said Mr. Ortiz Torres, who remains in Northampton County Jail on $100,000 bail, “had some mental health issues.”

Church officials have not commented on Mr. Ortiz Torres’ arrest.

Also in the nation …

The CEO of Gilead Sciences, the nation’s leading manufacturer of HIV drugs, defended the high cost of a key drug that prevents the potentially lethal infection, telling a House committee Thursday that its hefty profits pay for continued research. … Officials in some of south Florida’s Democratic strongholds said Thursday that they had been warned the federal government is considering a plan to send them hundreds of migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border in two weeks without any resources to house or feed them. … A 2½-year-old Guatemalan boy apprehended on the US-Mexico border died Tuesday night in El Paso, Texas, The Washington Post reported. … Alabama executed convicted murderer Michael Brandon Samra on Thursday, a day after the state enacted a near-total ban on abortions — two actions on contentious social issues that often have people across the political spectrum invoking the sanctity of human life. … The Senate on Thursday confirmed Wendy Vitter’s appointment to the federal bench as Republicans overcame strong opposition from Democrats who criticized the nominee’s stand against abortion.

First Published: May 17, 2019, 6:52 a.m.