The U.S. will spend more than $750 billion over the next decade to overhaul nearly every part of its nuclear defenses and replace systems that in some cases are more than 50 years old. But until each of those programs is ready, it's up to young military troops and government technicians across the U.S. to care for the existing bombs, often through delicate maintenance performed by hand. The Associated Press was granted rare access inside military nuclear missile bases and government weapons facilities to report on how they are adjusting to meet the increasing workload. There are many missile silos across the Midwest region states.

Authorities say a man who posed as an undercover police officer kidnapped a woman in Seattle, drove her hundreds of miles to his home in Oregon and locked her in a cinder block cell until she bloodied her hands breaking the door to escape. The FBI said Wednesday that police in Reno, Nevada, arrested 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi on July 16, a day after he fled from his home in Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he had taken the Seattle woman. It says he is charged with interstate kidnapping and that authorities are searching for additional possible victims after linking him to sexual assaults in at least four other states.

A Nevada company that recycles batteries for electric vehicles has won a $2 billion green energy loan from the Biden administration. Redwood Materials, a recycling venture founded by the former chief technology officer at Tesla, secured a conditional loan from the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which helped Tesla more than a decade ago. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm toured Redwood's facility in Nevada with Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday.