Former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd is leaving NBC News after nearly 18 years at the network.

Todd said in a memo to NBC News colleagues that Friday was his last day. He’ll continue doing his podcast and said he’s considering new projects, but offered no details.

He joined NBC News as political director in 2007 and was “Meet the Press” moderator from 2014 to 2023, before giving way to Kristen Welker. The role made him one of the more visible journalists in Washington and, as such, an occasional target of President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Todd was a leader in the on-air protest last year that scuttled the hiring of former Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel as an NBC News contributor.

In his memo to colleagues, Todd said the news media has much work to do in winning back the trust of consumers, “and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up” with entrepreneurship.

“National media can’t win trust back without having a robust partner locally and trying to game algorithms is no way to inform and report,” he wrote. “People are craving community and that’s something national media or the major social media companies can’t do as well as local media.”

Reporting is key to winning back public support, he said. “If you do this job seeking popularity, or to simply be an activist,” he said, “you are doing this job incorrectly.”

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

David Bauder, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Schools and universities responding to complaints of sexual misconduct must return to policies created during President Donald Trump’s first term, with requirements for live hearings and more protections for accused students, according to new guidance issued Friday by the Education Department.

In a memo to education institutions across the nation, the agency clarified that Title IX, a 1972 law barring discrimination based on sex, will be enforced according to a set of rules created by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The rules govern how complaints of misconduct are investigated and how to settle cases where students present differing accounts.

Colleges already have been returning to DeVos’ 2020 rules in recent weeks since a federal judge in Kentucky overturned the Biden administration’s Title IX rules. The court’s decision effectively ordered a return to the earlier Trump administration rules.

A statement from the Education Department called Biden’s rules an “egregious slight to women and girls.”

“Under the Trump Administration, the Education Department will champion equal opportunity for all Americans, including women and girls, by protecting their right to safe and separate facilities and activities in schools, colleges and universities,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.

The Biden administration sought to overhaul the rules and expand Title IX to protect LGBTQ+ students. It expanded the type of behavior that’s considered sexual harassment — a reversal of the DeVos policy, which used a narrower definition.

But a federal judge in Kentucky overturned Biden’s rule on Jan. 9, saying it was a presidential overstep and violated constitutional free speech rights by telling schools to honor students’ preferred pronouns. The judge, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves, said there was nothing in Title IX suggesting it should cover anything more than it did when Congress created it.

Even before the decision, Biden’s rule had been halted in half the states amid legal challenges from Republicans.

The full text of the Title IX law is just 37 words long, but the federal government has added rules over the years explaining how it’s interpreted. DeVos’ policy adds 500 pages detailing how schools must address complaints and how the Education Department makes sure schools comply.

Already, the Trump administration has taken a hard turn on its enforcement of Title IX: On Tuesday the Education Department said it opened an investigation into Denver schools after the district converted a girl’s restroom into an all-gender restroom while leaving another bathroom exclusive to boys.

The new memo says even investigations that started when Biden’s rules were in effect “should be immediately reoriented to comport fully with the requirements of the 2020 Title IX Rule.”

DeVos’ rules were welcomed by advocates who said colleges had become too quick to punish students accused of sexual misconduct without a fair trial. But the rules were condemned by victims’ rights groups who said they retraumatized victims and would deter many from reporting assaults.

Among the most controversial changes was a rule requiring colleges to hold live hearings where accused students could cross-examine their accusers through an adviser. The Biden rule eliminated the requirement and made live hearings optional, though some courts had previously upheld an accused student’s right to cross examination.

More broadly, the 2020 policy narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and the scope of cases that schools must address. It also reduced the liability for colleges, holding them responsible only if they acted with “deliberate indifference.”

Trump’s new pick for education secretary is Linda McMahon, a longtime Trump ally known for building the World Wrestling Entertainment professional wrestling empire with her husband, Vince McMahon. Her Senate confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will deliver his third budget proposal to lawmakers next week, a plan that’s expected to seek substantially more aid for the poorest public schools, emphasize frugality and press the politically fraught topics of bailing out public transit and legalizing marijuana.

The plan to be unveiled Tuesday also is expected to carry aid for rural hospitals, boost pay for workers who care for the elderly or disabled and introduce taxes on skill games that are seen as competitors to casinos and lottery contests.

It comes at a time when Pennsylvania has an enormous surplus. It’s projected to have $10.5 billion in reserve when the fiscal year ends June 30.

But the state also faces growing deficits, a slow-growing economy, a fast-growing retirement-age population that is costly to care for and cost pressures from a range of human services.

Passage will require approval from Pennsylvania’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate.

Here’s what to watch for:

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SPENDING

Lawmakers approved a $47.6 billion spending plan for the current fiscal year. That represented a 6% increase over the prior year’s approved budget and held the line on sales and income tax rates, the state’s two major revenue sources.

Big increases went toward public schools, nursing homes and services for the intellectually disabled. However, it required about $3 billion of surplus cash to balance, eliciting warnings from Republicans that the state must slow the pace of spending or risk depleting its surplus within several years.

The state is expected to bring in $46 billion in tax collections this fiscal year — likely well below what Shapiro will propose in spending.

Lawmakers say they expect Shapiro’s forthcoming plan to emphasize cost savings and scraping up unused cash in program accounts to help offset spending increases elsewhere.

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PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Public schools are expected to be a top priority again.

Shapiro is under pressure from education allies and Democratic lawmakers to marshal billions more for schools in response to a court decision that found that Pennsylvania’s system of public school funding violates the constitutional rights of students in the poorest districts.

Lawyers for the schools that sued the state are asking for a $1 billion increase in “adequacy” money for schools that have been disadvantaged by the funding system, plus another $325 million for instruction and special education to help all districts keep pace with rising costs. That’s almost 13% more.

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PUBLIC TRANSIT

Shapiro has been adamant about preventing cutbacks by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, the Philadelphia region’s public transit agency, which hasn’t regained ridership lost during the pandemic.

Republican lawmakers have insisted on finding a new revenue source and packaging transit aid with more cash for highway projects in their districts.

Last year, Shapiro proposed a $150 million tax on the skill games that are popular in bars, convenience stores, pizzerias and standalone parlors around the state. Lawmakers are again eyeing it as a way to raise the money.

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HUMAN SERVICES

Organizations that provide home care for the elderly and disabled are seeking increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Direct care workers’ pay rates have fallen far behind, and it’s getting harder to find workers, making the services harder to get for people who need them, said Mia Haney of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association.

The association is seeking about $500 million in rate increases, around 7% more. Pennsylvania has among the lowest in reimbursement rates among its neighbors and comparable states, it says.

Separately, nursing home operators want at least $139 million more, or about 7%, to help keep beds open, and a $20 million increase, or about 10% more, for day programs that help the elderly get medical, nutrition, rehab and other needs met.

Gary Pezzano of LeadingAge PA said nursing home operators are taking beds offline because they can’t affording staffing costs, and that’s causing emergency rooms to get backed up because there’s a lack of beds to accept people in need of rehab or nursing care.

Counties are seeking another $100 million for the mental health services they administer — about a 33% increase — and say the network that serves its social services and criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse.

Shapiro, meanwhile, has said he’ll propose more money to support health care in rural Pennsylvania.

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ENERGY

Shapiro wants to fast-track the construction of big power plants and offer hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks amid an energy crunch that threatens to raise electricity bills across Pennsylvania.

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LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Sen. Sharif Street, D-Philadelphia, said he believes passage of forthcoming legislation he’ll sponsor to legalize marijuana is possible by July 1, although getting enough Senate Republicans on board has been a challenge. Shapiro supports legalizing marijuana.

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VIOLENCE PREVENTION

The anti-gun violence group CeaseFirePA said it found big drops in gun violence — a 42% drop in victims and a 38% drop in deaths since 2022. It urged lawmakers to “double down” on $56.5 million it budgeted this year for violence prevention.

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Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

Marc Levy, The Associated Press

Robert Santos, who emphasized inclusivity and outreach to overlooked communities, has decided to resign as director of the U.S. Census Bureau, midway through his five-year term and in the midst of planning for the 2030 census, which will determine political power and federal funding nationwide for another decade to come.

Santos, who was appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, said in a letter Thursday evening that he had made the decision “after deep reflection.” Santos was sworn in as the bureau’s 26th director, and its first Hispanic leader, in 2022.

His planned departure clears the way for Republican President Donald Trump to reshape the agency’s leadership as his allies in Congress and among GOP state attorneys general renew efforts to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from the numbers used to divvy up congressional seats and Electoral College votes among states.

A Republican redistricting expert wrote that using citizen voting-age population instead of the total population for the purpose of redrawing congressional and legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. The census numbers also guide the distribution of $2.8 trillion in federal dollars to the states for roads, health care and other programs.

Civil rights groups on Friday urged Trump to appoint an impartial leader to head the nation’s largest statistical agency.

“The integrity of the U.S. Census Bureau must remain above partisan influence, ensuring that data collection and reporting continue to serve the American people with accuracy, transparency, and fairness,” The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement.

During his term, Santos emphasized restoring trust to the Census Bureau following Trump’s first term. Many census-watchers felt Trump’s administration tried to politicize the 2020 census by installing large numbers of political appointees at the agency and through failed efforts to keep people in the U.S. illegally from being counted for apportionment.

The Fourteenth Amendment says that “the whole number of persons in each state” should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment.

Before joining the Census Bureau, Santos was a vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute and had spent four decades in survey research, statistical design and analysis and executive-level management. The Texas native said in his letter that he planned to spend time with his family in retirement.

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The story has been corrected to show that Robert Santos has decided to resign as director of the U.S. Census Bureau instead of has resigned from the agency.

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Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform X: @MikeSchneiderAP.

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Democratic National Committee prepares to elect a new chair, its departing leader says Democrats should have stuck with Joe Biden in the 2024 race.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Jaime Harrison reflected on why his party lost to Donald Trump and what might have happened had then-Vice President Kamala Harris had more time to campaign after Biden ended his reelection bid following a disastrous debate performance.

He also offered advice to his eventual successor, who will be chosen Saturday. The next DNC chair, Harrison said, needs to insist that the party not be a “rubber stamp” to its presidential candidate.

Here are excerpts from that conversation:

Why did Harris and Democrats lose the White House?

HARRISON: “I don’t know that there’s one answer. A lot of people like to come up with things, and they say it’s the economy. Well, it could have been a part of it. I think every state had their own little nuance. In Michigan, the Palestinian issue played something there.”

“The gap in which she lost wasn’t huge, but when you add up little pockets where it’s, some people because of Gaza, some people because of the economy, some people because she was a woman. And I think in many of those states, those little nicks here and there added up to how she lost in some of those states.”

Did Harris’ shortened campaign timeline hurt her chances?

HARRISON: “Had she had more runway, it would have been probably easier for her and for the campaign. We were building a race for Joe Biden.”

“Joe Biden gave the State of the Union, people said it was one of the best State of the Unions that we’ve ever seen. Then we move forward to the debate, and people were like, that was a horrible debate performance. And then my thought was: ‘Joe Biden secured the nomination. The primary was done, and so, I’m a loyal guy. We’re riding with Biden.’”

“And if you look at the other side, in terms of Republicans, Donald Trump had just been convicted, how many times for all these felonies? And you didn’t hear a peep from the Republicans, in terms of like, ‘We need to jettison Donald Trump, and we need to open up a new primary, and we need to do this and that.’ And so sometimes, I think, Democrats can learn something in terms of, let’s put a line of defense around our folks and defend them as well.”

Should Democrats have stuck with Biden?

HARRISON: “That’s my normal default, is that you stick by your people, right, particularly people who have worked hard on behalf of the party.”

“I went into this thinking, OK, you’ve got probably the most successful of my lifetime legislative president who has poured tons of money into making sure that not just Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get elected, but Democrats get elected — not just in the battleground states, but all states who support a lot of resources and his own time fundraising in order to strengthen the state parties.”

“And then when he hits a roadblock, when he hits a bump in the road, do we stick with him, or do we jettison him? That’s the mentality that I had going into this. And my nature is, ‘I’m on the team with you, you’re my quarterback. You got sacked a few times. But you know what? I’m going to block the hell out of the next person that’s coming at you.’ And that is not always the mentality of everybody in my party. And so sometimes, people look on the sidelines, ready to call in the backup.”

Was the party prepped for a possible candidate switch?

HARRISON: “I had a very small group to whom I basically said, just game out for me what happens … if I have to do something, because people were asking for a big primary and this and that — and again, we have a short time frame, and so basically it was going back to the rules.”

“I didn’t even talk to all of the people in my inner circle. There were two staffers … just in case anything happened, I wanted to make sure that I knew what we could do. And so we had some structure for what something would look like.”

Did Harris act quickly enough to start acquiring support?

HARRISON: “She was literally on it. I wanted to get a sense of whether or not we were going to have a lot of people who were going to throw their hats in the ring.”

“And so I started making phone calls just asking, ‘I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the president,’ and to a person, they’re saying, ‘I just got off the phone with the vice president, and I’m pledging my support.’ I must have been chasing her calls, because literally, I’m calling, and everyone said, ‘Well, I’m supporting her.’”

What changes does the DNC need to make?

HARRISON: “The DNC shouldn’t just be a rubber stamp to whatever the campaign wants.”

“You don’t always have a seat at the table, in terms of, you take all of the arrows and the responsibility. People want to give you all the blame, but you don’t have the power to make those decisions, and I really think there needs to be reapportionment of a better, a greater balance.”

“I did not always have a seat at the table, was not always invited in the room. And I just think that is inherently problematic because of the perspectives that you bring.”

Do Democrats need to work harder with nonwhite voters?

Trump gained larger shares of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, when he lost those groups to Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters.

HARRISON: “People think, well, it’s just about turnout in the Black community, right? It’s just about turnout with this group. No, it’s not. It’s more than just turnout. It’s about persuasion. You have to persuade people why you are the best person for them. You have to talk to them about the issues that are important to them. You have to show them that you really are fighting for them, and that means having those individual conversations, but having targeted conversations specifically geared towards the people that you’re talking to.”

“You cannot take anybody for granted. You cannot just assume just because you’re a Black man, you’re gonna vote for a Democrat.”

How has the DNC changed under your leadership?

Harrison, who lost his 2020 Senate campaign against South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham but broke fundraising records during his run, said he has no immediate political plans. He didn’t close the door on another campaign. He has long been mentioned as a possible future contender for the seat held for decades by his mentor, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.

HARRISON: “I’m proud of what we started here at the DNC. I created a red-state fund, where we’re pouring more money into those red states to help them rebuild the infrastructure. But there’s a lot more that has to be done.”

“I’ve been thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be appropriate for another southerner, another South Carolinian, a former DNC chair, to figure out how to re-establish the Democratic Party back in the South? And so I think I’m going to spend my time doing that.”

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Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man who hopes to be President Donald Trump’s health secretary repeatedly asked to see “data” or “science” showing vaccines are safe – but when an influential Republican senator did so, he dismissed it.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent two days this week insisting to senators that he’s not anti-vaccine. He said that he instead supports vaccinations and will follow the science in overseeing the $1.7 trillion Department of Health and Human Services, which, among other duties, oversees vaccine research, approval and recommendations.

But Kennedy repeatedly refused to acknowledge scientific consensus that childhood vaccines don’t cause autism and that COVID-19 vaccines saved millions of lives, and he falsely asserted the government has no good vaccine safety monitoring. While appearing to ignore mainstream science, he cited flawed or tangential research to make his points, such as suggesting Black people may need different vaccines than whites.

His responses raised concern among health experts that Kennedy lacks basic skills needed for the job.

“He ignores science. He cherry-picks sometimes fraudulent studies. Sometimes he takes well-done studies and takes little pieces of them out of context,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

He worries that Kennedy could further damage public confidence in vaccines and “we will see return of diseases that we really haven’t seen much of and unfortunately children will suffer.”

Kennedy “in many ways demonstrated his lack of capacity to really understand some details around science and evidence that I think he would really need to know,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association.

The science on vaccines is clear to doctors and scientists — but not to Kennedy

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician, said the science is clear that measles and other childhood vaccines are safe and not linked to autism.

Kennedy said if shown the data he would recommend those vaccines and “not only will I do that but I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise.”

So Cassidy pulled out and read aloud definitive scientific conclusions that vaccines don’t cause autism. Kennedy rebuffed him, instead mentioning a recent paper that outside experts have called fundamentally flawed — and Cassidy agreed “has some issues” – in an attempt to counter decades of rigorous studies.

The senator told Kennedy his history of “undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me” – and risks casting “a shadow over President Trump’s legacy” if people die of vaccine-preventable diseases should he become health secretary.

Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said there’s a real-world ramification for “re-litigating and churning settled science” – diverting money and time that could be spent finding the real cause of autism.

Kennedy ignored science showing COVID-19 saved millions of lives

Kennedy claimed there’s no good surveillance system to know that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and lifesaving.

The U.S. tracks vaccine safety through multiple monitoring systems including electronic medical records from a list of health systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also checks how vaccines fare internationally, such as during the pandemic when large databases from Israel and the U.K. helped reinforce that the new mRNA vaccines were safe and lowering deaths from the coronavirus.

“You’re applying for the job — clearly you should know this,” said Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. “The scientific community has established that COVID vaccines saved millions of lives and you’re casting doubt.”

Kennedy declines to back a vaccine that prevents cancer in women

AAP’s O’Leary said there are about 35,000 cases of cancer related to the HPV virus that could be prevented by that vaccine, including 4,000 deaths per year. “We are already seeing decreases in the number of cases of HPV-related cancers as a result of HPV vaccination.”

Kennedy didn’t answer directly when asked if he stood by claims that the HPV vaccine could cause cancer or other disease. He instead brought up a pending lawsuit and suggested a jury — of non-scientists — would decide.

Kennedy’s unfounded comment about race and vaccine schedules

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Maryland Democrat, asked Kennedy about prior comments that Black people might need a different vaccination schedule than whites. Alsobrooks, who is Black, asked how Kennedy thought she should have been vaccinated differently.

Kennedy referred to some earlier papers suggesting people of African-American ancestry had a stronger immune response to measles and rubella vaccines than white people.

Vaccination recommendations aren’t based on race but on biological factors such as someone’s age and risk of a specific disease. Some studies show Black Americans are more hesitant than whites to receive certain vaccines.

“That is so dangerous,” Alsobrooks told Kennedy.

“There’s no evidence that there needs to be a different vaccine schedule based on race,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Such statements could make different populations wrongly believe “well, maybe I don’t need as many vaccines” as are recommended.

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AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson contributed.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Lauran Neergaard And Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press