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Source: Canadian Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As they readied to leave work Monday, some workers at the Food and Drug Administration were told to pack their laptops and prepare for the possibility that they wouldn’t be back, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

Nervous employees — roughly 82,000 across the nation’s public health agencies — waited to see whether pink slips would arrive in their inboxes. The mass dismissals have been expected since Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced last week a massive reorganization that will result in 20,000 fewer jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services. About 10,000 will be eliminated through layoffs.

The email sent to some at the FDA said staffers should check their email for a possible notice that their jobs would be eliminated, which would also halt their access to government buildings. An FDA employee shared the email with AP on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to disclose internal agency matters.

Kennedy has criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy” and said the department’s $1.7 trillion yearly budget “has failed to improve the health of Americans.” He plans to streamline operations and fold entire agencies — such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — into a new Administration for a Healthy America.

On Friday, dozens of federal health employees working to stop infectious diseases from spreading were put on leave.

Several current and former federal officials told The AP that the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy was hollowed out that night. Some employees posted on LinkedIn about the office emptying. And an HIV and public health expert who works directly with the office was emailed a notice saying that all staff had been asked to leave. The expert spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity over fears of losing future work on the issue.

Several of the office’s advisory committees — including the National Vaccine Advisory Committee and others that advise on HIV/AIDs response — have had their meetings canceled.

“It puts a number of important efforts to improve the health of Americans at risk,” said Dr. Robert H. Hopkins Jr., the former chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee, an advisory committee of the office.

An HHS official said the office is not being closed but that the department is seeking to consolidate the work and reduce redundancies.

Also, as of Monday, a website for the Office of Minority Health was disabled, with an error message saying the page “does not exist.”

Beyond layoffs at federal health agencies, cuts have begun at state and local health departments as a result of an HHS move last week to pull back more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related funds.

Local and state health officials are still assessing the impact, but some health departments have already identified hundreds of jobs that stand to be eliminated because of lost funding, “some of them overnight, some of them are already gone,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

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Associated Press writer Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed reporting.

Amanda Seitz And Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press


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British Columbia is reviewing health authority spending to ensure resources go to “critical patient services” and to minimize wasteful administrative costs.

Health Minister Josie Osborne said Monday that the government wants to ensure that all authorities are best positioned to tackle the “complex challenges” facing the health care system.

“There is no doubt that the health-care system is under a lot of strain right now,” she told reporters in Victoria on Monday.

“These reviews will be undertaken in a very thoughtful, structured way, with input from health-care providers so that we can do the best job possible, making the best use of all resources to deliver health care for British Columbians.”

The move comes amid a series of emergency room closures that have spread from rural communities to parts of the Lower Mainland.

BC Nurses Union vice-president Tristan Newby said the organization welcomed a review of the health system.

Newby, a registered nurse, said he couldn’t remember when B.C. last did a “holistic, system-wide assessment.”

“I think with any bureaucratic system, it’s prudent to do systematic reviews periodically, and we just haven’t seen that, and I’m confident that we will be able to see some efficiencies identified throughout this review,” he said Monday.

“We’re at a point now that we really need that, especially in the context of rolling out minimum nurse-patient ratios and a global nursing shortage.”

Newby said he expected the nurses union to play “an advisory role” in the reviews.

The ministry said in a news release that the Provincial Health Services Authority is the first to undergo the review because of its provincewide role across the health system.

That includes services through BC Cancer, BC Children’s Hospital, BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Mental Health and the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Osborne said every health authority in the province will be reviewed and that the government is committed to ensuring health authorities are functioning as effectively and efficiently as possible.

“We want to obviously take a very close look at administrative costs and make sure that the maximum use of dollars is going to the front line and delivering the services that British Columbians are counting on,” she told reporters.

Osborne said that she would “absolutely expect” the review to be done in the government’s current term, but noted there has been “no set timetable for the PHSA review.”

“I expect to get my first update in six weeks, and then regular updates after that.”

She noted that Cynthia Johansen will be stepping into the role of deputy minister at the Ministry of Health starting Wednesday. She comes to the position from the BC College of Nurses and Midwives.

“One of her first tasks will be to initiate those reviews of the health authorities,” Osborne said of Johansen.

The government’s news release said the PHSA’s president and CEO, David Byres, last week accepted a secondment reporting to Osborne to work on eliminating anti-Indigenous racism in health care.

It said Dr. Penny Ballem has stepped out of her role as board chair at Vancouver Coastal Health to serve as the PHSA’s interim president and CEO, and she will lead the review.

The release said Ballem will “make recommendations and associated changes as needed to reposition, streamline and optimize resources at the PHSA.”

Osborne defended Ballem’s appointment when questioned by reporters and again in the legislature Monday afternoon.

She told the legislature she has “full confidence” in the leaders chosen for the review.

“I have absolutely no problem standing up and defending the work that Dr. Ballem has been doing in the health-care sector for the past 35 years,” she said.

“She provides sound and sage advice to this government. I look forward to working with her and the review team, the board of PHSA and others, as we undertake a review that is incredibly important.”

Earlier Monday, she told reporters that Ballem was “uniquely positioned” for the role, noting she had served as B.C.’s deputy minister of health when the PHSA was created.

“She has seen the changes in evolution of the PHSA (throughout) all of these years, and her experience will play a really key role in helping to lead that review,” Osborne said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2025.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was signing an executive order Monday that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live entertainment events are priced.

Designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen,” the order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers offering tickets at higher prices than their face value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market,” which the Trump administration argues can restore sensibility and order to the ticket market.

“America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs,” the fact sheet said. “But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists.”

The push marks a rare instance of policy crossover with the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, which used the FTC to target “ junk fees,” or levies tacked on at the end of the purchase process that can mask the full price of things like concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.

Under Biden, the Justice Department also sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, last year. It accused them of running an illegal monopoly over live events and asked a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans.

Those companies have a history of clashing with major artists, including Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. whose summer 2022 stadium tour was plagued by difficulty getting tickets. Country music star Zach Bryan even released a 2022 album titled “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.” A representative for Bryan said he had “nothing to add” when asked to comment on Monday’s executive action.

The Biden administration used such initiatives as a way to protect consumers from rising prices that were already inflated. Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on combating high ticket prices, calling them “very unfortunate.”

“Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then re-sell them at an enormous markup on the secondary market, price-gouging consumers and depriving fans of the opportunity to see their favorite artists without incurring extraordinary expenses,” the White House face sheet said, adding, “By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.”

It also noted that higher prices don’t mean additional profits for artists but instead go “solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.”

Trump’s order also directs federal officials and the FTC to deliver a report in six months “summarizing actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industry and recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers in this industry.”

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Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report from New York.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Election boards in Pennsylvania’s 67 counties may not invalidate mail-in ballots simply because they lack accurate, handwritten dates on their exterior return envelopes, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, the latest in a long-running legal dispute over what is a small percentage of votes cast in the state, was issued more than two months after the state Supreme Court announced it also would consider the issue.

Baxter wrote that most counties did not try to argue that the exterior dates, which are not used to show whether a ballot was received in time, serve an important state interest in regulating elections. The Republican National Committee and one county, Berks, did argue the dates help combat voting fraud, Baxter wrote.

“Absent from the record, however, is any evidence demonstrating how this requirement furthers that purported interest,” the judge wrote. The exterior envelope dating mandate violates the U.S. Constitution, she ruled, by impairing the right to vote under the First and Fourteenth amendments.

Jeff Bukowski, Berks County’s lawyer, said he will discuss a potential appeal with the county commissioners. Phone messages were left Monday with lawyers for the state and national Republican Party groups that intervened in the case and lost the ruling.

The voter and groups that sued, including Democratic campaign organizations and a teachers’ union, called the exterior envelope dates “nothing more than a ‘compliance test’” to show how state voters “’can follow written instructions,’” Baxter said.

She ruled there is no state interest in requiring the signatures and noted that more than 10,000 votes statewide were invalidated as a result of the dating mandate in the 2022 election.

“Such disenfranchisement burdens the right to vote and there is no valid state interest to weigh this against,” Baxter wrote.

A decision by Baxter throwing out the envelope date mandate in a separate case was eventually reversed by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it was decided on a different issue.

Lower courts have repeatedly deemed it unconstitutional or illegal to throw out such ballots. But higher courts — including the state Supreme Court most recently on Nov. 1 — have blocked those decisions from taking effect. New envelope designs have helped reduce the number of invalidated votes.

Mark Scolforo, The Associated Press

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NEW YORK (AP) — Two election watchdog organizations sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday over his executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections through a proof-of-citizenship requirement, new mail ballot deadline restrictions and other sweeping changes.

The lawsuit, filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to declare the order unconstitutional and stop it from being implemented.

It names three nonprofit voter advocacy organizations as plaintiffs that it alleges are harmed by the order: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association.

“The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. “It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Monday’s lawsuit marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the U.S. Constitution and asserts power they say the president does not have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.

It comes as Congress is considering codifying a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration into law, and as Trump has promised more actions related to elections in the coming weeks.

The lawsuit draws attention to the Constitution’s “ Elections Clause,” which says states — not the president — get to decide the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run. That section of the Constitution also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.

“The Constitution is clear: States set their own rules of the road when it comes to elections, and only Congress has the power to override these laws with respect to federal elections,” said Lang, calling the executive order an “unconstitutional executive overreach.”

The lawsuit also argues the president’s order intrudes on Americans’ right to vote.

Trump, one of the top spreaders of election falsehoods, has argued this executive order will secure the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens. Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections, already a felony, is exceedingly rare.

Monday’s lawsuit against Trump’s elections order could be just the first of many challenges. Other voting rights advocates have said they’re considering legal action, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s order has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.

If courts determine the order can stand, the changes Trump is demanding are likely to cause some headaches for both election administrators and voters. State election officials, who already have lost some federal cybersecurity assistance, would have to spend time and money to comply with the order, including potentially buying new voting systems and educating voters of the rules.

The proof-of-citizenship requirement also could cause confusion or voter disenfranchisement because millions of eligible voting-age Americans do not have the proper documents readily available. In Kansas, which had a proof-of-citizenship requirement for three years before it was overturned, the state’s own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during the time it was in effect were U.S. citizens who had been eligible.

Monday’s lawsuit is the latest of numerous efforts to fight the flurry of executive actions Trump has taken during the first months of his second term. Federal judges have partially or fully blocked many of them, including efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, ban transgender people from military service and curb diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives among federal contractors and grant recipients.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Ali Swenson, The Associated Press



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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador, as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the U.S. to countries other than their own despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights issues.

The State Department said the migrants were removed Sunday night. The statement said murderers and rapists were among them but didn’t give details of the nationalities or alleged crimes of those removed. The office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, however, said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among them.

“These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement. “Once again, we extend our gratitude to President Bukele and the government of El Salvador for their unparalleled partnership.”

The men were flown to El Salvador by the U.S. military, the State Department said. As seen in video from the Salvadoran government, they were transported by bus to El Salvador’s maximum security prison, changed into the prison’s standard white T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaven.

They were walked by guards into a cell block, the video shows, and some were made to kneel upon the floor with their wrists cuffed behind their backs and ankles shackled. Guards put one or both hands on the men’s necks and forced them to walk quickly while bent at the waist and shackled with their heads down. Some men in the video grunted from the exertion, and one appeared to vomit on the floor while listening to instructions.

More than 200 Venezuelan migrants facing deportation were sent to El Salvador earlier this month and are also being held in the maximum security prison.

The Trump administration also has deported migrants of various nationalities to other countries in Central America. But El Salvador is the only country where the U.S. is sending people so they can be imprisoned there.

Bukele offered to jail migrants the U.S. wanted to deport — regardless of nationality — during a February meeting with Rubio.

Trump has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is invading the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations. He sent dozens of people to El Salvador before a judge barred further deportations under the act’s authority. The administration is now asking the Supreme Court to allow it to resume those deportations.

The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, which handled the removals Sunday, did not give detailed information about who was on the flight, their alleged crimes or under what legal authority they were removed from the country.

Immigration and civil rights advocates have sued to stop the Trump administration from deporting people to countries other than their own and from using the Alien Enemies Act.

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting people to third countries without first being allowed to argue that it would jeopardize their safety.

The judge ruled that people with final orders of removal must have “a meaningful opportunity” to argue that being sent to a country other than their own presents a level of danger deemed worthy of protection.

On Sunday, the Trump administration asked the court to reverse itself and gave guidance that Homeland Security uses to determine whether someone can be removed to a third country.

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Aleman reported from San Salvador, El Salvador.

Rebecca Santana And Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press


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President Donald Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they’re investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

Here’s the latest:

Trump task force to review Harvard’s funding after Columbia bows to federal demands

Harvard University has become the latest target in the Trump administration’s approach to fight campus antisemitism, with the announcement of a new “comprehensive review” that could jeopardize billions of dollars for the Ivy League college.

A federal antisemitism task force is reviewing more than $255 million in contracts between Harvard and the federal government to make sure the school is following civil rights laws, the administration announced Monday. The government also will examine $8.7 billion in grant commitments.

The same task force cut $400 million from Columbia University and threatened to slash billions more if it refused a list of demands from Trump’s administration. Columbia agreed to many of the changes this month.

▶ Read more about the review of Harvard’s funding

EPA administrator closes agency museum

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he is closing a one-room museum at the agency’s Washington headquarters, saving taxpayers about $600,000 a year.

Zeldin, who has vowed to slash agency spending, said in a video posted Monday that the museum cost $4 million to build and attracted fewer than 2,000 visitors since it opened last year.

The museum is “yet another example of waste by the Biden administration,” he said in the video, which was filmed in the museum. The project was overly focused on environmental justice and climate change, two Biden administration priorities, Zeldin said.

While admission is free, the museum’s operating costs — coupled with low attendance — means it costs taxpayers about $315 per visitor, he said.

“This shrine to EJ (environmental justice) and climate change will now be shut down for good,″ Zeldin said.

White House abruptly fires 2 career Justice Department prosecutors in latest norm-shattering move

The move is a sign of Trump’s tightening grip over a law enforcement agency known for its long tradition of political independence.

On Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles was fired without explanation in a terse email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office shortly after a right-wing activist posted about him on social media, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were concerned about potential retribution.

That followed the White House’s firing last week of a longtime prosecutor who had been serving as acting U.S. attorney in Memphis.

Justice Department political appointees typically turn over with a new administration, but rank-and-file career prosecutors remain with the department across presidential administrations and have civil service protections designed to shield them from being fired for political reasons. The breadth of terminations this year far outpaces the turnover typically seen inside the Justice Department.

▶ Read more about the Justice Department firings

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Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed.

Trump to sign executive order targeting ticket reselling

The executive order he is set to sign Monday would direct federal authorities to prioritize cracking down on ticket scalpers and others who profit from reselling entertainment tickets to consumers at a markup.

The White House says Trump will call on the Federal Trade Commission to enforce an Obama-era law that outlawed the use of bots to purchase a large number of tickets for the purpose of resale. He’s also calling for price transparency in the ticketing industry, so consumers will know the true value of what they’re purchasing on the secondary market.

It’s one area where Trump and his predecessor, President Joe Biden, have agreed, as the Democrat sought to crack down on so-called “junk fees” across industries during his term in office.

Senate GOP Leader says Trump just having ‘some fun’ with idea of 3rd term

“You guys keep asking the question,” Majority Leader John Thune said. And Trump is just “having some fun with it,” he said, “probably messing with you.”

All Institute of Museum and Library Services employees have been placed on administrative leave

The IMLS provides hundreds of millions of dollars each year in grants to libraries, museums and other cultural and educational institutions. According to a statement from the union representing the 77 IMLS employees, “all work processing 2025 applications has ended” and the status of previous grants is unclear.

The institute was among several agencies targeted earlier this month in Trump’s executive order that called for cutting federal organizations the president has “determined are unnecessary.”

On March 20, Trump replaced the institute’s acting director, Cyndee Landrum, with Keith Sonderling, who had recently been confirmed as deputy secretary of the Department of Labor. Sonderling said in a statement at the time that he was committed to “steering this organization in lockstep with this Administration.”

The move to place IMLS employees on administrative leave was first reported by the independent journalist Marisa Kabas.

Rubio to attend NATO foreign ministers meeting in Belgium

Top agenda items for the meeting this week in Brussels include the Russia-Ukraine war, U.S. efforts to end the conflict, European security and threats from China.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will leave Wednesday to attend the NATO meeting and hold separate bilateral talks with allied counterparts on Thursday and Friday, the State Department said Monday. Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the conversation would also include security priorities for the alliance and preparations for the upcoming NATO leaders summit to be held in the Netherlands this summer.

Trump has alarmed European allies by suggesting that NATO is obsolete and threatening not to defend them unless they meet minimum defense spending criteria.

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will overturn decades of trade policy

President Trump is taking a blowtorch to the rules that have governed world trade for decades. The “reciprocal’’ tariffs he’s expected to announce Wednesday are likely to create chaos for global businesses and conflict with America’s allies and adversaries alike.

Since the 1960s, tariffs — or import taxes — have emerged from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump wants to seize the process.

“Obviously, it disrupts the way that things have been done for a very long time,’’ said Richard Mojica, a trade attorney at Miller & Chevalier. “Trump is throwing that out the window … Clearly this is ripping up trade. There are going to have to be adjustments all over the place.’’

Pointing to America’s massive and persistent trade deficits — not since 1975 has the U.S. sold the rest of the world more than it’s bought — Trump charges that the playing field is tilted against U.S. companies. A big reason for that, he and his advisers say, is because other countries usually tax American exports at a higher rate than America taxes theirs.

Trump has a fix: He’s raising U.S. tariffs to match what other countries charge.

▶ Read more about Trump’s reciprocal tariffs

Fire at New Mexico Republican Party headquarters under investigation as arson

No suspect has been named in the Sunday morning blaze in Albuquerque that’s under investigation by local authorities, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Incendiary materials were found on the scene, according to an ATF spokesperson. Spray paint on the side of the building read “ICE=KKK,” said Lt. Jason Fejer with Albuquerque Fire Rescue. Fejer said federal officials were taking over the arson investigation.

Republican leaders described the fire as a deliberate attack. The building had extensive smoke damage, which Republican party spokesperson Ash Soular said left the offices uninhabitable.

The weekend fire followed vandalism across the U.S. in recent weeks targeting dealerships for Tesla, the electric car company owned by Elon Musk, who’s leading Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce.

▶ Read more about the fire at New Mexico GOP headquarters

And Trump pardons a man whose sentence already was commuted for convictions stemming from Jan. 6

Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer, was tried alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes but acquitted of seditious conspiracy — the most serious charge brought in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Caldwell’s pardon is dated March 20. Defense attorney David Fischer said he informed Caldwell of the pardon Monday after learning about it from news reports.

“And he’s elated,” Fischer added.

A jury convicted Caldwell of obstructing Congress on Jan. 6 and of obstructing justice for tampering with documents after the riot. One of those convictions was dismissed in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.

On Jan. 10, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Caldwell to time served with no supervised release. Prosecutors had recommended four years in prison for Caldwell.

Ten days later, on his first day back in the White House, Trump issued a sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the Capitol riot. Trump commuted the sentences of several defendants who were leaders and members of the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys extremist groups.

Trump commutes the prison sentence of a man who says he was a business partner of Hunter Biden

Jason Galanis, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence for various fraud schemes, is the second Hunter Biden associate to get clemency from Trump. Last week, he pardoned Devon Archer, a onetime business partner of the son of former President Joe Biden.

Galanis testified via video last year in the House impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Galanis told lawmakers he expected to make “billions” with Hunter Biden and other associates, using the Biden family name in their foreign business dealings.

Galanis described a particular time in May 2014 when Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone for a brief chat with potential foreign business partners — a Russian oligarch and her husband — during a party at a New York restaurant.

But Hunter Biden directly rebuffed involvement with Galanis in his own deposition, testifying he met Galanis for about 30 minutes 10 years ago.

In earlier testimony, Galanis acknowledged he unsuccessfully sought a pardon in the final days of Trump’s first term.

US sanctions six Beijing and Hong Kong officials over role in implementing security law

Those six sanctioned by the State Department on Monday include Hong Kong’s secretary of justice and its police commissioner.

The sanctions are over their role in the extraterritorial enforcement of a security law that’s targeted nearly 20 pro-democracy activists, including one U.S. citizen and four other U.S. residents. The U.S. government said the six sanctioned officials “have engaged in actions or policies that threaten to further erode the autonomy of Hong Kong in contravention of China’s commitments, and in connection with acts of transnational repression.”

Also sanctioned were two assistant police commissioners, the Beijing official heading the Hong Kong office on safeguarding national security, and a top Hong Kong official serving on the committee of safeguarding national security. The sanctioned officials will see their property and interests in the U.S. blocked from transactions.

The Hong Kong police in 2023 issued arrest warrants for five overseas-based activists and offered rewards of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) for information leading to each of their arrests.

Newark, New Jersey, mayor files complaint over a new immigration detention center

The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city filed the complaint in state court Monday saying the Trump administration and the private company GEO Group moved ahead with opening a new 1,000-bed immigration detention center without getting the proper permits.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement that the administration and the company failed to get construction and other permits in violation of city ordinances and state law. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last month the opening of a detention center in Newark, saying it would be the first to open under the president’s second administration.

Baraka is one of six Democrats running for governor in New Jersey this year. Messages seeking comment were left with ICE and GEO Group.

Trump keeps talking about running for a third term. The US Constitution says that can’t happen

President Trump has just started his second term, his last one permitted under the U.S. Constitution. But he’s already started talking about serving a third one.

“There are methods which you can do it,” Trump insisted to NBC News in a telephone interview Sunday.

That follows months of Trump making quips about a third term, despite the clear constitutional prohibition on it. “Am I allowed to run again?” Trump joked during a House Republican retreat in Florida in January. Just a week after he won election last fall, Trump suggested in a meeting with House Republicans that he might want to stick around after his second term was over.

Trump’s musings often spark alarm among his critics even when they’re legally impossible, given that he unsuccessfully tried to overturn his 2020 election loss and has since pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But Trump, who will be 82 when his term ends, has also repeatedly said this will be his last term. Trying for another also would flatly violate the Constitution.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments about a third term

White House says it’s ‘cased closed’ on Signal chat amid calls for investigations

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said National Security Adviser Mike Waltz continues to have Trump’s confidence and that it was done discussing the embarrassing matter of senior officials communicating about plans for an airstrike against the Houthis in Yemen on a commercial messaging app.

“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” Leavitt said.

Waltz added a journalist to the sensitive group chat on the platform Signal, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth divulged operational details on the strike and Vice President JD Vance discussed his reservations about the operation.

Leavitt said “there have been steps made to ensure that something like that can, obviously, not happen again,” but did not provide any clarity on what those steps were. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for an investigation into the sensitive conversation playing out on Signal.

Trump will unveil plans to place reciprocal tariffs on nearly all US trading partners Wednesday

He’ll be joined in the Rose Garden by his Cabinet, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Monday.

Leavitt said Trump believes “it’s time for reciprocity” but said the details of the announcement — which have roiled the financial markets — are up to Trump to announce. She said Trump had been presented with several proposals by his advisers but the president would make a final decision and, right now, Trump wasn’t contemplating any country-wide exemptions from the tariffs.

Trump administration says it’s deported 17 more ‘criminals’ from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs

The State Department said in a statement Monday that they were removed Sunday night and that the group included murderers and rapists.

The statement didn’t give nationalities, but the office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among the prisoners.

The men were transported to El Salvador’s maximum security prison, where they changed into the standard white T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaved. Hundreds of migrants facing deportation were sent there earlier this month.

Some schools won’t get the last of their federal COVID relief

The Trump administration is pulling back a final round of federal pandemic aid from schools across the country, saying the money wasn’t being spent on academic recovery.

States were notified Friday that the Education Department will not disburse the remainder of the federal aid passed by Congress, although the vast majority has already been sent to schools.

The department didn’t say how much money is left of the total $189 billion approved by Congress, though officials said it’s in the billions. As of Feb. 19, the department said there was $4.4 billion left, or about 2%.

A senior department official said the money was being misused on costs including astroturf fields and “sets of bouncy glow balls.” The agency said it will consider requests for individual projects related to pandemic recovery.

Schools were supposed to spend the last of the relief by January, but the Biden administration allowed schools to request extensions.

The Council of Chief State School Officers urged the department to rethink the decision, saying schools have already spent the money for pandemic recovery efforts and were promised reimbursement.

A DOGE employee is put in charge of the US Institute of Peace, a federal court filing alleges

The U.S. Institute of Peace is a congressionally created and funded think tank targeted by President Trump for closure.

Two board members of the institute have authorized replacing its temporary president with Nate Cavanaugh, the filing says. They ordered him, it says, to transfer the institute’s property to the General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate manager, which is terminating hundreds of leases at the behest of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The court filing asks U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington to stop the action or schedule a status conference to address the issues as soon as “practicable.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The action follows a Friday night mass firing of nearly all of the institute’s 300 employees.

▶ Read more about DOGE and the U.S. Institute of Peace

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates make final push amid high spending and voting

President Trump’s preferred candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court and his Democratic-backed challenger made a final blitz across the state Monday, the day before voting concludes in a race where early turnout has surged and spending is nearing $100 million.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, held a rally in Green Bay on Sunday night to push for the election of Brad Schimel, a Waukesha County judge and former Republican attorney general. He faces Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge and former attorney who fought for abortion rights and to protect union power.

Liberals currently hold a 4-3 advantage on the court, but the retirement of a liberal justice this year put the ideological balance in play. The court in battleground Wisconsin is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting regulations in the coming years.

▶ Read more about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Comic Amber Ruffin cut from White House correspondents’ event after angering Trump team

The White House Correspondents Association says it canceled her from performing at its annual dinner because it wants to refocus the event on journalistic excellence.

The association’s announcement over the weekend made no mention of Ruffin’s appearance on a podcast by the Daily Beast last week in which she referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers.”

Ruffin, a writer for NBC’s Seth Meyers and formerly a host of a Peacock talk show, also said she wouldn’t try to make sure her jokes would target politicians of different stripes, as she was told by the correspondents’ association.

Her comments drew angry responses from the Trump administration. The president isn’t expected to attend the April event, which in past years has featured comics such as Stephen Colbert and Colin Jost. The last time a comedian did not perform at the dinner was in 2019, when historian Ron Chernow spoke.

▶ Read more about Amber Ruffin and the White House correspondents’ dinner

From a lavish prison, Tren de Aragua ran a transnational gang. Now, it’s a favorite Trump target

Tocorón once had it all. A nightclub, swimming pools, tigers, a lavish suite and plenty of food. This wasn’t a Las Vegas-style resort, but it felt like it for some of the thousands who until recently lived in luxury in this sprawling prison in northern Venezuela.

Here, between parties, concerts and weeks-long visits from wives and children, is the birthplace of the Tren de Aragua, a dangerous gang that has gained global notoriety after Trump put it at the center of his anti-immigrant narrative.

But kidnappings, extorsion and other crimes were planned, ordered or committed from this prison long before Trump’s rhetoric.

The tiny, impoverished town where the Aragua Penitentiary Center is used to bustle with residents selling food, renting phone chargers and storing bags for prison visitors. Now, the prison is back under government control, and streets in the town, also called Tocorón, are mostly deserted.

▶ Read more about the Tren de Aragua gang

Justice Department instructed to dismiss legal challenge to Georgia election law

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday instructed the Justice Department to dismiss the lawsuit. Georgia Republican lawmakers passed the sweeping election overhaul in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2021 under former President Joe Biden, alleged the Georgia law was intended to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Bondi said the Biden administration was pushing “false claims of suppression.”

“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,” she said.

The law was part of a trend of Republican-backed measures that tightened rules around voting, passed in the months after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, claiming without evidence that voter fraud cost him victory.

▶ Read more about Georgia’s election law

More than 1,900 US scientists sign open letter warning how Trump administration is damaging research

The letter — released Monday — was penned by a group from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which was created in 1863 to provide expert guidance to the government.

Up to 19 Nobel laureates signed Monday’s letter, which described how the administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories and hampering international scientific collaboration. Those moves will increasingly put the United States at a disadvantage against other countries, the letter predicted.

The signees said they’re speaking up for colleagues who “have kept silent to avoid antagonizing the administration and jeopardizing their funding.”

Under the Trump administration, this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility has a different tenor

On the campaign trail, Trump used contentiousness around transgender people’s access to sports and bathrooms to fire up conservative voters and sway undecideds. And in his first months back in office, Trump has pushed the issue further, erasing mention of transgender people on government websites and passports and trying to remove them from the military.

For transgender people and their allies — along with several judges who’ve ruled against Trump in response to legal challenges — it’s a matter of civil rights for a small group. But many Americans believe those rights had grown too expansive.

Trump’s spotlight is giving Monday’s Transgender Day of Visibility a different tenor this year.

“What he wants is to scare us into being invisible again,” said Rachel Crandall Crocker, the executive director of Transgender Michigan who organized the first Day of Visibility 16 years ago. “We have to show him we won’t go back.”

▶ Read more about Transgender Day of Visibility

Stock markets around the world tumble as Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ approaches

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was down 1.3% following one of its worst losses of the past couple of years Friday. It’s on track to finish the first three months of the year with a loss of 6.4%, which would make this its worst quarter in nearly three years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 295 points, or 0.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.3% lower.

The U.S. stock market’s drops followed a sell-off that spanned the world earlier Monday as worries build that tariffs coming Wednesday from Trump will worsen inflation and grind down growth for economies. Trump has said he’s plowing ahead in part because he wants more manufacturing jobs back in the United States.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index dropped 4%. South Korea’s Kospi sank 3%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 1.5%.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

Trump tariff tumult has ripples for sporting goods, puts costly hockey gear in price-hike crosshair

Calls from the U.S. to Roustan Hockey headquarters in Canada in recent weeks have been anything but routine, as bulk orders of name-brand sticks have suddenly become complicated conversations.

“These customers want to know: When their orders ship, will they have to pay an additional 25% tariff? And we respond by saying, ’Well, right now we don’t know, so they postpone their order or cancel their order because they want to know before they order what the cost is going to be,” said Graeme Roustan, who owns the company that makes and sells more than 100,000 hockey sticks annually to the U.S. market.

The prospect of 25% tariffs by Trump on Canadian imports, currently paused for some goods but facing full implementation Wednesday, has caused headaches if not havoc throughout the commercial ecosystem. The sports equipment industry is certainly no exception, with so many of the products manufactured for sports -loving Americans outside the U.S.

▶ Read more about the effects of possible tariffs on the price of sporting goods

US immigration officials look to expand social media data collection

U.S. immigration officials are asking the public and federal agencies to comment on a proposal to collect social media handles from people applying for benefits such as green cards or citizenship, to comply with an executive order from Trump.

The March 5 notice raised alarms from immigration and free speech advocates because it appears to expand the government’s reach in social media surveillance to people already vetted and in the U.S. legally, such as asylum seekers, green card and citizenship applicants – and not just those applying to enter the country. That said, social media monitoring by immigration officials has been a practice for over a decade, since at least the second Obama administration and ramping up under Trump’s first term.

▶ Read more about what the new proposal means and how it might expand social media surveillance

Elon Musk hands out $1 million payments after Wisconsin Supreme Court declines request to stop him

Elon Musk gave out $1 million checks on Sunday to two Wisconsin voters, declaring them spokespeople for his political group, ahead of a Wisconsin Supreme Court election that the tech billionaire cast as critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda and “the future of civilization.”

Musk and groups he supports have spent more than $20 million to help conservative favorite Brad Schimel in Tuesday’s race, which will determine the ideological makeup of a court likely to decide key issues in a perennial battleground state.

A unanimous state Supreme Court on Sunday refused to hear a last-minute attempt by the state’s Democratic attorney general to stop Musk from handing over the checks to two voters, a ruling that came just minutes before the planned start of the rally.

Two lower courts had already rejected the legal challenge by Democrat Josh Kaul, who argues that Musk’s offer violates a state law.

▶ Read more about Musk in Wisconsin

Democratic election officials raise concerns about proof of citizenship proposal

The group of Democrats, most of whom serve as their state’s top election official, is telling Congress the legislative proposal to add a proof of citizenship requirement when registering to vote could disenfranchise voters and upend election administration.

On Monday, the House Rules Committee is expected to consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The letter signed by 15 secretaries of state was sent Friday.

Voting by noncitizens is rare, but Republicans say any instances undermine public confidence. Last week, President Trump directed, among other things, an update to the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. Legal challenges are expected.

In the letter, Democrats say it’s the “job of election officials to verify the eligibility of citizens to cast a ballot, not the job of citizens to convince the government that they are eligible to exercise their right to vote.”

Trump’s promised ‘Liberation Day’ of tariffs is coming. Here’s what it could mean for you

Trump says Wednesday will be “Liberation Day” — a moment when he plans to roll out a set of tariffs that he promises will free the United States from foreign goods.

The details of Trump’s next round of import taxes are still sketchy. Most economic analyses say average U.S. families would have to absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes. But an undeterred Trump is inviting CEOs to the White House to say they are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new projects to avoid the import taxes.

It is also possible that the tariffs are short-lived if Trump feels he can cut a deal after imposing them.

“I’m certainly open to it, if we can do something,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll get something for it.”

At stake are family budgets, America’s prominence as the world’s leading financial power and the structure of the global economy.

▶ Read more about what you should know regarding the impending trade penalties

Trump’s schedule for Monday

Trump will sign executive orders twice today, first at 1 p.m. ET and again at 5:30 p.m. ET, according to the White House.

Trump is stronger on immigration and weaker on trade, an AP-NORC poll finds

Immigration remains a strength for Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.

The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that his threats to impose tariffs might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.

Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove.

▶ Read more about the findings from the poll

Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president

Trump said Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029.

“There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club.

He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term because the other election, the 2020 election was totally rigged.” Trump lost that election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Still, Trump added: “I don’t want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we’ve got a long time to go.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on a third term

The Associated Press


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NEW YORK (AP) — As the trade wars launched by U.S. President Donald Trump continue to escalate, all eyes are on Wednesday.

Trump has repeatedly called April 2 “Liberation Day,” with promises to roll out a set of tariffs, or taxes on imports from other countries, that he says will free the U.S. from a reliance on foreign goods. To do this, Trump has said he’ll impose “reciprocal” tariffs to match the duties that other countries charge on U.S. products.

But a lot remains unknown about how these levies will actually be implemented. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Trump would unveil his plans to place reciprocal tariffs on nearly all American trading partners on Wednesday, but maintained that the details are up to the president to announce.

Since taking office just months ago, Trump has proven to be aggressive with tariff threats, all while creating a sense of whiplash through on-again, off-again trade actions. And it’s possible that we’ll see more delays or confusion this week.

Trump has argued that tariffs protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition, raise money for the federal government and provide leverage to demand concessions from other countries. But economists stress that broad tariffs at the rates suggested by Trump could backfire.

Tariffs typically trickle down to the consumer through higher prices — and businesses worldwide also have a lot to lose if their costs rise and their sales fall. Import taxes already in effect, coupled with uncertainty around future trade actions and possible retaliations, have already roiled financial markets and lowered consumer confidence while enveloping many with questions that could delay hiring and investment.

Here’s what you need to know.

What will happen on April 2?

Details around Trump’s plans remain uncertain. Reciprocal tariffs could take the form of product-by-product duties, for example, or more broad “averages” imposed across all goods from each country — or perhaps something else entirely. The rates could reflect what other countries charge as well as their value added taxes and subsidies to domestic companies.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told “Fox News Sunday” that the tariffs could raise $600 billion annually, which would imply an average rate of 20%.

Trump has talked about taxing the European Union, South Korea, Brazil and India, among other countries, through these levies. On Monday, Leavitt said Trump had been presented with several proposals by his advisers. She added that the president would make a final decision, but right now was not contemplating any country-wide exemptions from the tariffs.

Previously-delayed import taxes could take effect very soon. Trump’s month-long delay for many goods from Canada and Mexico, for example, is set to elapse in early April. Earlier this month, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that the extension granted for Mexican imports covered by the USMCA runs through April 2. But further confirmation around a specific date has not been issued since.

Which of Trump’s tariffs are about to start?

Trump has said he will place a 25% tariff on all imports from any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela, which includes the U.S. itself, starting Wednesday — in addition to imposing new tariffs on the South American country.

His 25% tariffs on auto imports will start being collected Thursday, with taxes on fully-imported cars kicking off at midnight. The tariffs are set to expand to applicable auto parts in the following weeks, through May 3.

The White House says it expects to raise $100 billion in revenue annually from these new duties, but economists stress this trade action will upend the auto industry’s global supply chain and lead to higher prices for consumers.

Which tariffs have already gone into effect?

Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports beginning Feb. 4, a levy he later doubled to 20% from March 4 onward. And China has hit back with retaliatory tariffs covering a range of U.S. goods, including a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products and 10% tariff on crude oil from the U.S. that took effect Feb 10. China also imposed tariffs of up to 15% on key U.S. farm exports starting March 10.

Trump’s expanded steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect earlier this month, too. Both metals are now taxed at 25% across the board — with Trump’s order to remove steel exemptions and raise aluminum’s levy from his previously-imposed 2018 import taxes taking effect March 12.

Canada and Mexico, America’s two largest trading partners, have also faced steep tariffs. Earlier this month, Trump implemented a partial, month-long delay of his 25% tariffs on both countries — delaying taxes for auto-related imports as well as goods that comply with the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement until early April.

But other imports are still levied, as well as a lower 10% duty on potash and Canadian energy products. In response to these tariffs, as well as the new steel and aluminum import taxes, Canada has rolled out a series of counter measures amounting to billions of dollars on U.S. goods. Mexico, meanwhile, has yet to formally impose new levies — signaling it may still hope to de-escalate the trade war, although the country previously promised retaliation to Trump’s actions.

Can we expect additional tariffs down the road?

Even more tariffs from Trump are likely, with the president also threatening import taxes on products like copper, lumber, pharmaceutical drugs and computer chips.

And many countries have promised retaliatory measures — if not already imposed them, like Canada. Trump has said he won’t negotiate with other countries on Wednesday’s tariffs until after they’re imposed, though he has said his 25% taxes on auto imports would be permanent.

In response to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, the European Union announced measures on U.S. goods worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion) — to target steel and aluminum products, but also American beef, poultry, bourbon, motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans. The 27-member bloc had intended to roll out this retaliatory trade action in two phases, on Tuesday and April 13, but later said it will delay it until mid-April, without giving a specific date.

We’ll potentially see more retaliatory announcements this week, particularly if Trump confirms more details of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday.

_________

Associated Press Writers Josh Boak and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Wyatte Grantham-philips, The Associated Press







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WASHINGTON (AP) — Harvard University has become the latest target in the Trump administration’s approach to fight campus antisemitism, with the announcement of a new “comprehensive review” that could jeopardize billions of dollars for the Ivy League college.

A federal antisemitism task force is reviewing more than $255 million in contracts between Harvard and the federal government to make sure the school is following civil rights laws, the administration announced Monday. The government also will examine $8.7 billion in grant commitments to Harvard and its affiliates.

The same task force cut $400 million from Columbia University and threatened to slash billions more if it refused a list of demands from President Donald Trump’s administration. Columbia agreed to many of the changes this month, drawing praise from some Jewish groups and condemnation from free speech groups, who see it as a stunning intrusion by the federal government.

Dozens of other universities have been put on notice by the Trump administration that they could face similar treatment over allegations of antisemitism. The federal government is a major provider of revenue for American universities through grants for scientific research.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Harvard symbolizes the American Dream but has jeopardized its reputation by “promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry.”

“Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” McMahon said in a statement.

The announcement didn’t say whether the government had made any specific demands of Harvard. The Education Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the U.S. General Services Administration are leading the review.

The review will determine whether orders to halt work should be issued for certain contracts between Harvard and the federal government, the government said. The task force is also ordering Harvard to submit a list of all contracts with the federal government, both directly with the school or through any of its affiliates.

“The Task Force will continue its efforts to root out anti-Semitism and to refocus our institutions of higher learning on the core values that undergird a liberal education,” said Sean Keveney, acting general counsel for Health and Human Services. “We are pleased that Harvard is willing to engage with us on these goals.”

____

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



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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmaker Pamela Stevenson, the top-ranking Democrat in the GOP-led state House, launched her U.S. Senate campaign on Monday, vowing to help “stop the recklessness” in Washington if elected. The seat has long been held by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is not seeking reelection in 2026.

Stevenson, an attorney and minister, ran for state attorney general in 2023 but lost by a wide margin to Republican Russell Coleman. The only Kentucky Democrats to win statewide that year were Gov. Andy Beshear and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, who won reelection to second terms.

Known for a fiery speaking style at the Kentucky Capitol, Stevenson pledged to continue fighting for health care access and public education, noting in an introductory digital profile that her legislative colleagues “know they only have a problem with me if they go after” her causes.

Her Senate announcement came days after Kentucky lawmakers ended their 2025 session.

In the digital profile, Stevenson didn’t mention by name Republican President Donald Trump — who has dominated the political landscape in GOP-trending Kentucky since first winning the White House in 2016 — but the Democrat signaled her disapproval with the country’s direction since Trump started his second term.

“We need someone to stop the recklessness in Washington,” said, Stevenson, the minority floor leader in the Kentucky House. “Someone to restore the balance of power.”

Stevenson is the first Black woman to lead a legislative caucus in the Kentucky General Assembly. In her digital biographical sketch, the Louisville, Kentucky, native says her father was a union welder and her mother was a clerk. Stevenson says they lived down the street from her grandparents’ church, where Stevenson serves as a minister, and she talks about her military service as a judge advocate general in the U.S. Air Force.

McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, announced in February that he won’t seek reelection next year but will retire when his current term ends. Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.

On the Republican side, former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron has entered the Senate race, while U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and businessman Nate Morris are considering Senate runs. All three speak glowingly of Trump, hoping to land his endorsement. Beshear defeated Cameron in the 2023 governor’s race, and speculation continues to build over whether the term-limited Beshear will run for president in 2028.

One potential wild card in Kentucky’s Senate race next year is Democrat Rocky Adkins, a former longtime state lawmaker who has deep political connections statewide. Adkins lost to Beshear in the 2019 Democratic gubernatorial primary and now serves as Beshear’s senior adviser in the governor’s office.

“While Rocky continues to receive tremendous encouragement from across Kentucky, he has not made any decisions on any race,” said Emily Ferguson, a spokesperson for Adkins.

Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press

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