Americans commemorate 9/11 today as the COVID-19 pandemic reconfigures anniversary ceremonies and a presidential campaign carves a path through the observances.

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden both were due at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Trump was expected to speak at the morning ceremony, the White House said. Biden planned to pay respects in the afternoon after attending the observance at the New York memorial, where he and Vice President Mike Pence, wearing masks, exchanged an elbow bump at Ground Zero before the ceremony began with the usual tolling of a bell.

Deadly wildfires in heavily populated northwest Oregon are growing, with hundreds of thousands of people told to flee the encroaching flames.

The number of people evacuated statewide rose to an estimated 500,000, which is more than 10% of the state’s 4.2 million people, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management reported late Thursday.

Oregon officials haven’t released an exact death count for the wildfires but at least four fatalities have been reported in the state. One person was killed because of the wildfires in Washington.

The four former Minneapolis officers charged in the death of George Floyd are in court today for a hearing on several issues, including the prosecution’s request to hold a joint trial.

Other issues that will be argued include defense requests to move the trial away from Minneapolis and to sequester the jury and keep jurors anonymous.

Burke Spizale can be reached at spiz8477@stthomas.edu