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  • How brokers gamed the ACA marketplace, roiling subsidy debate in Congress

    How brokers gamed the ACA marketplace, roiling subsidy debate in Congress

    The Florida insurance brokers offered an enticing deal to unemployed and homeless people: Enroll in a Healthcare.gov health plan they weren’t eligible for in exchange for gift cards, food, alcohol, or cash. They coached them to lie about their income to qualify for heavily subsidized coverage, according to court documents. Sometimes they enrolled people without their knowledge.

    A federal jury convicted Cory Lloyd and Steven Strong last month of collecting millions of dollars in commissions between 2018 and 2022 through a widespread plot to defraud the federal insurance marketplace. People earning at least the federal poverty level can get income-based subsidies to help them afford monthly premiums for plans sold through the Affordable Care Act. Under Lloyd and Strong’s scheme, the federal government paid at least $180 million in ineligible subsidies.

    Many more agents and brokers — likely thousands, according to two career staffers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to press — are gaming the marketplace where 24 million Americans get health insurance.

    Corruption among Healthcare.gov agents and brokers had emerged as a sticking point in Washington as Congress failed to reach a deal to halt the year-end expiration of enhanced subsidies for insurance premiums, which will drive up the cost of plans for millions of Americans. Republicans invoked the fraud to argue against extending the subsidies while Democrats said the solution is better enforcement rather than withholding assistance from Americans who need it.

    Last year, the Biden administration temporarily suspended 850 insurance agents and brokers suspected of fraudulent or abusive conduct. CMS hasn’t terminated any agents or brokers this year — although spokesman Christopher Krepich said the agency has “initiated terminations” — even as it sets up stricter enrollment rules for customers amid Administrator Mehmet Oz’s promises to root out fraud.

    Around 100,000 agents and brokers are authorized by Healthcare.gov. They facilitate more than three-quarters of enrollments. For each person enrolled, insurers pay them a small monthly commission, typically between $5 and $20. Florida, where Lloyd and Strong operated, offers the largest commissions in the country, averaging $28 per enrollee, according to the nonpartisan health policy organization KFF.

    A new government report underscored how easy it is to game the marketplace.

    When the Government Accountability Office, which evaluates federal programs and spending, submitted 20 fraudulent applications to Healthcare.gov for coverage this year, 19 were initially approved even though the agency didn’t submit documents requested to prove income, citizenship, and Social Security numbers. The marketplace terminated one enrollee for insufficient documentation. The government is still paying more than $10,000 a month in subsidies for 18 remaining enrollments.

    Investigators also discovered misuse of Society Security numbers — in one case, a single number was used for 125 policies in 2023 — and identified serious shortcomings in how CMS assesses marketplace fraud.

    Stopping marketplace fraud is “not a priority” for CMS, said Seto Bagdoyan, a director at GAO who worked on the report.

    Krepich said the agency has undertaken “a thorough investigation into improper agent and broker activity” and is committed to “ensuring consumers are never enrolled in coverage without their knowledge or consent.”

    Democrats complain the Trump administration is doing little to fix the problem despite its bluster about waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health programs.

    Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), the top Democrat on a subcommittee overseeing CMS, wrote a letter to Oz last week requesting closer scrutiny of the reinstated agents and brokers. “The remedy is not to deny a mother access to care for her sick child,” Doggett said in a statement. “What we need is effective law enforcement.”

    Like brokers for Lloyd and Strong, who did not return requests for comment, many have enrolled people without their knowledge, switched their plan without their consent or created fake enrollments to maximize commissions.

    The GAO concluded that the enhanced subsidies worsened fraud in recent years as bad actors seized upon the beefier assistance to lure new customers. As enrollments on Healthcare.gov skyrocketed under the extra subsidies, fraudulent sign-ups grew too. The Congressional Budget Office estimated those misstating their incomes to get more subsidies nearly doubled from 1.3 million to 2.3 million between 2023 and 2025.

    “We believe that the expansion of the subsidies — which put more money in the pool — invigorated the financial incentive to sign up as many people as possible,” Bagdoyan said.

    The GAO’s findings were among the hurdles to Republicans in Congress agreeing to extend extra subsidies for a marketplace they’ve accused of failing to sufficiently police from bad actors.

    “These findings validate long-standing Republican warnings: Obamacare’s subsidy system lacks even the most basic guardrails and has created an environment where criminals, identity thieves, and unscrupulous brokers can exploit taxpayers with ease,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) said in a statement last week.

    Democrats say the proper response isn’t to let the extra subsidies expire but to go after the brokers.

    “I’ve always said any fraud is too much,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has oversight of healthcare issues.

    Wyden introduced a bill to create new civil penalties for brokers who commit fraud. He said Republicans haven’t signed onto his bill or offered similar measures.

    After receiving hundreds of thousands of complaints about fraud, the Biden administration started requiring customers to hold a three-way call with their broker and the marketplace call center in July 2024. But the new policy left plenty of loopholes, agents told GAO. The rule didn’t apply to new enrollees. And the marketplace took only “limited steps to verify the identity of the consumer on the three-way call,” the report says.

    Oz has been vowing to root out the abuse, slamming the prior administration for rules he said were too lenient and touting stricter enrollment rules CMS released in June. Those rules don’t include any direct, new restrictions on agents and brokers but could indirectly make fraud harder by ending year-round enrollment for people earning less than 150% of the federal poverty level, roughly $23,000 for an individual.

    “The past administration prioritized achieving big program enrollment numbers over protecting program integrity,” Oz said in a video posted recently to X.

    CMS is also preparing to implement stricter verification requirements laid out in Trump’s sweeping tax-and-spending law he signed this summer. That legislation bans the marketplaces from awarding subsidies before verifying a customer’s personal information, including their income and legal status, before awarding any subsidies, which could make it harder for bad actors to sign people up.

  • Turning Point USA’s Erika Kirk backs Vice President JD Vance’s potential 2028 presidential bid

    Turning Point USA’s Erika Kirk backs Vice President JD Vance’s potential 2028 presidential bid

    PHOENIX — Erika Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and the organization’s new leader, endorsed a potential presidential bid by Vice President JD Vance on the opening night of the conservative youth group’s annual conference.

    After telling the cheering crowd that Turning Point would help keep Congress in Republican hands next year, she said, “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.”

    Vance would be the 48th president if he takes office after President Donald Trump.

    Kirk’s statement on Thursday is the most explicit backing of Vance’s possible candidacy by a woman who has been positioned as a steward to her late husband’s legacy. Charlie Kirk had become a powerbroker and bridge builder within the conservative movement before he was assassinated in September.

    Vance was close with Charlie Kirk, whose backing helped enable his rapid political rise. After the assassination, Vance and his wife joined Erika Kirk in Utah to fly her husband’s remains home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

    Vance is set to speak to Turning Point on Sunday, the conference’s last day. The convention has featured the usual spectacle and energy that have characterized the organization’s events, but the proceedings have also been marred by intense infighting among conservative commentators and estranged allies who have turned on each other in the wake of Kirk’s death.

    As Trump’s vice president, Vance is well-positioned to inherit the movement that remade the Republican Party and twice sent Trump to the White House. But it would be no small task for him to hold together the Trump coalition, which is built around personal loyalty to him more than shared political goals.

    Various wings of the conservative movement already are positioning to steer the party after Trump’s presidency, a skirmish that’s becoming increasingly public and pointed.

    Turning Point, with its thousands of young volunteers, would provide a major boost for Vance in a fractious primary. Now 41, Vance would be the first Millennial president if elected, a natural fit for the organization built around mobilizing youth.

    Trump has repeatedly mused about running for a third term despite a constitutional prohibition. However, he’s also speculated about a 2028 ticket featuring Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

    Although Rubio previously ran for president in 2016, he has said he would support Vance as Trump’s successor.

  • Mayor Parker touted her accomplishments and outlined a plan for homelessness during her State of the City speech

    Mayor Parker touted her accomplishments and outlined a plan for homelessness during her State of the City speech

    Mayor Cherelle L. Parker marked the halfway point of her term as mayor Friday by portraying the city as safer and more stable than when she took office two years ago, pointing to metrics like the plummeting homicide rate and cleaner streets.

    During her second end-of-year State of the City speech, Parker also briefly acknowledged challenges she faced this past year, including the eight-day city worker strike and a spat with City Council over her signature housing plan.

    And she outlined a plan to address rising street homelessness heading into 2026, when the city will host several major events expected to draw more than a million visitors.

    Parker outlined a plan to address rising street homelessness heading into 2026, when the city will host several major events expected to draw millions of visitors, during her end-of-year speech at Temple University Friday.

    “I am here today to proudly report to all of you,” she said, “that the state of our city is strong and good, and we are moving in the right direction.”

    Parker’s announcement to add 1,000 shelter slots to the city’s system was a stark reminder that — despite progress on public safety and a coming year ripe with opportunity for tourism and growth — some of the city’s longest-term challenges remain unresolved.

    Even as Philadelphia this year shed its long-held title as the “poorest big city in America,” the number of unsheltered people increased by 20% compared to last. While shootings have reached 50-year lows, the open-air drug market that has long plagued Kensington persists.

    And after the mayor this year unveiled a long-awaited plan to build thousands of units of housing in the city, she hit roadblocks in City Council, where members rejected her vision to bolster the middle class in favor of a plan that prioritizes the poorest Philadelphians.

    Still, Parker and members of her administration struck an optimistic tone Friday. During the highly produced event, top officials repeatedly proclaimed that the “state of the city” is strong, and they thanked municipal employees in attendance, like police officers and sanitation workers.

    Parker’s State of the City address last year was Philadelphia’s first. Traditionally, the mayor’s March budget address to Council was seen as the city’s version of the presidential State of the Union speech in Congress. Parker plans to make the December event an annual tradition as well.

    Here are three takeaways from Parker’s speech Friday in North Philadelphia:

    A homelessness plan is in the works for 2026

    In the middle of her speech, Parker signed an executive order on stage, directing city departments to add 1,000 new beds to the existing shelter system by Jan. 31. That would represent a 35% increase in the number of beds citywide.

    The move comes as city data shows homelessness in the city is rising. There were 1,178 unsheltered people in Philadelphia this year, a 20% increase over last year and the highest number recorded since at least 2018, according to city data.

    In total, 5,516 people were considered homeless, a number that includes people who live in emergency shelters, are couch surfing, or otherwise lack an adequate nighttime residence. That number is up slightly from 5,191 last year.

    Parker’s executive order directs city agencies to increase outreach efforts to people living on the streets and to collaborate with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to move people from shelters to more stable housing.

    “We are seeking long-term solutions,” she said, “Solutions that will not only provide an expanded quality shelter system, but with more beds in safe, clean, and welcoming environments.”

    Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker holds up executive order ending street homelessness.

    30,000-unit housing plan swells to 50,000

    The mayor’s second year in office was in part defined by her plan to build, repair, or preserve 30,000 units of housing. In March, she unveiled her Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., plan, funded by $800 million in bonds.

    Parker made clear that her plan would be aimed at uplifting the middle class and often vowed never to pit “the have-nots against the have-a-little-bits.” But City Council this month advanced its own version of the proposal, rejecting Parker’s vision and directing more resources to the poorest Philadelphians.

    It was the most significant break between Parker and the legislative branch of her tenure. But the mayor on Friday defended her strategy, saying the middle class should not be asked to wait for access to housing programs.

    “You want me to tell you why we shouldn’t tell them to wait?” she said. “Because when I knocked on their doors and asked for their votes — and we’re running for reelection — we don’t ask them to wait.”

    Of Council’s 17 members, just four attended Parker’s speech Friday: Anthony Phillips, a close ally, as well as Rue Landau, Jamie Gauthier, and Nicolas O’Rourke — three progressives who led the effort to amend her housing plan. They sat in the front row.

    Parker struck a conciliatory tone, saying: “We will work together to press forward together, and we won’t let petty politics get in the way of us moving Philadelphia forward.”

    The mayor also made clear Friday that her 30,000-unit benchmark is separate from a plan being advanced by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which is pursuing an ambitious expansion plan that Parker said would add an additional 20,000 units of affordable housing.

    “When you add our H.O.M.E. goal of 30,000 units with that 20,000, those are 50,000 units of housing,” Parker said, “and we shouldn’t have to leave any neighborhood behind.”

    Parker acknowledges city worker strike

    The most dramatic moment of Parker’s second year was undoubtedly the eight-day-and-four-hour city worker strike, Philadelphia’s first major municipal work stoppage in four decades.

    On Friday, Parker touted her administration’s work negotiating new contracts this year for almost all of the city’s major municipal unions. She acknowledged, but didn’t dwell on, the strike by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33.

    “We did have to endure an eight-day work stoppage,” she said. “But guess what we did? In true Philadelphia fashion … we got through it. It wasn’t easy, but we persevered together, and we found common ground, and we reached a fair and fiscally responsible agreement with both District Council 33 and District Council 47.”

    DC 33, the largest and lowest-paid union for city workers, called the strike when their previous contract expired at 12:01 a.m. July 1, the first minute the union was legally allowed to walk off the job. Union president Greg Boulware promised his members wouldn’t return to work unless they won raises of 5% per year.

    Over the next week, “Parker piles” of trash mounted across the city, and tensions mounted at picket lines. But Parker refused to budge.

    Boulware eventually called off the strike and accepted a contract with raises of 3% per year, which is close to Parker’s last offer before the strike. The deal also included $1,500 onetime bonuses for the union’s roughly 9,000 members and the addition of a fifth step in the DC 33 pay scale, a benefit for veteran employees.

    Parker also defended the city’s treatment of DC 33 under her tenure. Repeating an administration talking point from the strike, Parker noted that the union’s accumulated pay increases — combining raises the union won in a one-year contract during Parker’s first year with the increases included in the new three-year deal — will be higher in her first term than under any other mayoral term since the 1990s.

    “Just for the record, I also need to affirm — because sometimes people [create] revisionist history — I want to be clear that they were historic pay increases for our city workers,” Parker said. “It’s the largest in one term from any Philadelphia mayor over 30 years.”

  • Some of Philly’s most vulnerable residents say they lost medical care without notice after millions of Pa. state agency letters went unsent

    Some of Philly’s most vulnerable residents say they lost medical care without notice after millions of Pa. state agency letters went unsent

    “Do you realize you are going to end my life by doing this?”

    Eliana Chernyakhovsky said she asked the question through an interpreter over and over again to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services last week, after her 24-hour, state-funded care was cut off without warning. Her meal provider was also cut off. How would she feed herself? What if her oxygen tank ran out?

    “Fear had risen in my heart,” Chernyakhovsky said in Russian during an interview through an interpreter on Wednesday. “I was genuinely afraid.”

    Chernyakhovsky, 73, of Northeast Philadelphia, was born with spina bifida and has a number of physical disabilities associated with the condition, and uses a wheelchair to get around. She is among the Pennsylvania residents who say they have lost their government-funded services because a state-contracted mail vendor failed to deliver a month’s worth of agency mail.

    That breakdown resulted in 3.4 million letters never getting sent, 1.7 million of which were from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services — the agency that oversees SNAP food assistance and Medicaid and is tasked with serving the state’s most vulnerable populations.

    Pennsylvania’s unsent mail backlog now totals 3.4 million letters, including SNAP eligibility and health benefit info, officials say

    Millions of letters from state agencies — including notices of health and SNAP benefit renewal, driver’s license and vehicle registration renewal invitations, vehicle registration cards, and more — were never sent by a mail presort vendor, who was contracted by the state to tray and sort agency mail in order to save money on postage. The failure went undetected for a month until early December, when Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration fired Harrisburg-based Capitol Presort Services and hired another vendor on a $1 million emergency contract to work through the backlog.

    In Chernyakhovsky’s case, a letter dated Nov. 6 said she had failed to submit a renewal packet to continue receiving in-home care, said her attorney, Louise Hayes of Community Legal Services. Chernyakhovsky had 15 days to appeal to continue receiving services, or else her services would be shut off on Nov. 21.

    But due to the monthlong lapse in state agency mail, Chernyakhovsky did not receive the letter until last week, after funding for her in-home nurses and food services had already been cut off, she said.

    Chernyakhovsky’s home health aides opted to continue her care without pay, and with no assurance they would get paid for the time when her care was restored, because her needs are so great.

    Her services restarted last week thanks to efforts by Community Legal Services while her appeal works its way through the system. As of this week, one of her home health agencies has still not received payment from her insurance company.

    Alexander Aybinder, her day-shift nurse, said Wednesday it was still unclear when he would get paid. But he said he would still come to Chernyakhovsky’s home, no matter what.

    “I will come tomorrow, because she cannot stay without service. I will work,” he said. “She’s absolutely helpless.”

    DHS: Extended deadlines and ‘additional flexibility’

    DHS spokesperson Brandon Cwalina said in a statement Thursday the agency will extend deadlines for appeals and provide “additional flexibility for affected Pennsylvanians.” Residents affected by the mail issue will receive notice of their appeal options and deadline extensions, Cwalina said.

    Medicaid, CHIP, and TANF cash assistance recipients whose benefits were reduced or cut off during the mail delay will have their cases reopened, he added. These cases will be again reviewed to determine if the recipients received the necessary notification of a change in benefits. Renewals for the programs, originally due in December, are now due in January.

    DHS cannot extend renewal deadlines for SNAP benefits due to federal guidelines, but affected SNAP recipients who submit the necessary documentation within 30 days of losing their benefits will be able to have them reopened and backdated, Cwalina said.

    At least two dozen affected so far, with more expected

    At least two dozen Community Legal Services clients have had problems with receiving their benefits because of the mail delay, said Maripat Pileggi, a supervising attorney at CLS. The delay affected state agency letters dated Nov. 3 through Dec. 3, officials have said, and all unsent mail should be received by residents in a few days.

    And as the nonprofit legal agency has tried to help restore critical services to some of its most vulnerable clients, CLS attorney Lydia Gottesfeld said, legal advocates have struggled to reach the departments in DHS that could help them, with phone lines going unanswered or hour-long wait times.

    “It’s been very difficult to get information about these delays,” she added.

    Cwalina said Thursday that any DHS appeal hearings that were missed due to the mail disruption are being reopened and rescheduled, and the agency maintains that its callback system is accessible to recipients.

    Cases like Chernyakhovsky’s are among the first and most urgent that CLS has identified since the state said that a month’s worth of agency mail to residents from DHS and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was never sent. Residents like Chernyakhovsky who receive care through the Medicaid-funded home and community-based services program often have the most acute health issues and significant needs, meaning a loss in healthcare services can be catastrophic.

    Gottesfeld expects that more residents will realize in the coming weeks that they lost services — such as food assistance or health insurance — because of missed hearings or deadlines the next time they visit the doctor or grocery store.

    When people lose state-funded services, it is not usually because they suddenly no longer need them, Gottesfeld said. Rather, it is usually due to failing to submit paperwork properly, resulting in a loss of food assistance, healthcare, or other services.

    Questions remain

    It remains unclear how the state agency mail piled up for more than a month before officials noticed, how the backlog was discovered, or where the millions of agency letters were located after the vendor stopped sorting them.

    The reported loss of benefits stemming from the mail delay also comes after several tumultuous months for people who receive public benefits, following a federal government shutdown that cut food assistance, new work requirements to maintain benefits, and future uncertainty under federal cuts passed earlier this year. Shapiro was at the forefront of Democratic opposition to federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, and was a vocal critic when the department withheld benefits during the federal shutdown.

    On Thursday, a group of 15 state Senate Republicans, including top legislative leaders, sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of General Services citing The Inquirer’s reporting and requesting more information about how the mail delivery failure was discovered, why it took a month to find the backlog, and more.

    “Given the broad scope of this mail delivery failure, it is critical to ensure every effort is made to minimize the impact on our constituents and the disruption it may cause in their lives,” the senators wrote.

    Shapiro’s administration is “exploring all legal options” against the fired vendor, Capitol Presort Services, Cwalina said.

  • City Council bill would ban housing from former Hahnemann University Hospital area

    City Council bill would ban housing from former Hahnemann University Hospital area

    Philadelphia Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young introduced legislation at the last City Council meeting of 2025 that would ban residential development from the area that once housed Hahnemann University Hospital.

    The bill would create a new zoning overlay — a hyperlocal patch on the code — covering the area “bounded by the north side of Race Street, the east side of North 16th Street, the south side of Callowhill Street, and the west side of North Broad Street.”

    That covers the area where developer Dwight City Group plans to convert two former Hahnemann University Hospital patient towers into 288 apartments, and other related properties including those owned by Drexel University and Iron Stone Real Estate Partners.

    The project does not yet have building or zoning permits. The legislation would make the project impossible unless the developer could convince the Zoning Board of Adjustment to make an exception, if the law is passed.

    Young pitched the bill as an employment-generating measure in the long term.

    “It is for commercial preservation in that part of our district,” Young said last week. “We want to make sure that area keeps producing jobs for our city.”

    Dwight City Group declined to comment on the legislation.

    The developer is known for redeveloping old and underutilized buildings into moderately priced apartments.

    In an interview earlier this year, the company’s CEO Judah Angster said the apartments planned for the Hahnemann University Hospital patient towers would be moderately priced one- to two-bedroom units.

    “We stick with middle-market apartments, not super high-end,” Angster said at the time. “We like to believe that there’s a lot of space for affordable luxury product in the area. That’s the only thing we do.”

    But he also cautioned that the redevelopment would take a while, saying the buildings might not be leased up until 2030.

    City Council returns on Jan. 22. The earliest Young’s bill could be enacted is February. If Young proceeds with the bill, the tradition of “councilmanic prerogative” would likely guarantee its passage because other Council members are usually unlikely to vote against a district member’s bills that only affect their territory.

    Developers, good government groups, and housing advocates frequently decry City Council’s use of zoning overlays to create custom land use tweaks to specific corners of City Council districts, especially when they seem designed to help or hurt a particular project.

    “Choking housing supply isn’t the direction that our city should take,” said Mohamed “Mo” Rushdy, who is managing partner of the Riverwards Group and chair of the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp.

    “Overlays that prohibits housing units is generally a bad idea,” Rushdy said. “Overlays that target a ‘specific’ project is, let me be politically correct here, is simply unwise and not right.”

    Young said his bill is simply meant to preserve the possibility of jobs, especially as a new 20-year tax abatement is considered next year for the redevelopment of old commercial, industrial, and public buildings into housing.

    “Next year, we’re going to be facing, potentially, a bill that will allow abatements for underutilized commercial properties,” Young said. “We want to make sure that those benefits that the property owners can reap, that Philadelphians see those benefits with the creation of jobs in those locations.”

  • Coast Guard abruptly deletes swastika, noose entry from policy manual

    Coast Guard abruptly deletes swastika, noose entry from policy manual

    The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday deleted language from its new workplace harassment policy that had downgraded the definition of swastikas and nooses from overt hate symbols to “potentially divisive,” an abrupt turnaround after the more lenient interpretation of those items was allowed to take effect this week despite objections from Congress.

    In a message to all Coast Guard personnel, Adm. Kevin Lunday, the service’s acting commandant, said those revisions had been “completely removed” from the policy manual. The document, a copy of which was reviewed by the Washington Post, now shows a large black bar obscuring the relevant chapter in its table of contents and a message directing readers to a separate manual outlining the Coast Guard’s civil rights policies.

    Lunday’s message also says that a separate directive he issued last month prohibiting swastikas and nooses “remains in full effect.”

    The sudden turn of events appeared to satisfy Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) and Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.), who said after Lunday’s announcement that they had lifted their holds on his nomination to become the service’s full-time commandant. Both cited their disapproval of the new policy when explaining earlier this week why they had taken such measures.

    Lunday’s announcement caps a tumultuous few weeks within the Coast Guard, following Washington Post reports detailing the service’s plan to include the incendiary language within its new workplace harassment manual, its vow to reverse course in the face of widespread criticism, and the wording’s surprising retention as the new manual took effect earlier this week.

    In response to the Post’s initial reporting in late November, Lunday issued an order condemning and categorically prohibiting swastikas and nooses, and said then that his directive would supersede any other policy language. But for reasons that remain unclear, Lunday’s order was never incorporated.

    Two people familiar with the policy manual overhaul said this week that the Coast Guard, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, wanted to strike the “potentially divisive” wording from the document but was unable to do so. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the contentious situation.

    The Coast Guard’s hazing and harassment policy was an early focus of Lunday’s after the Trump administration, upon entering office in January, fired his predecessor, Adm. Linda Fagan — the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. In announcing Fagan’s removal, officials cited among other things her “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion initiatives.

    Within days, Lunday ordered the suspension of the policy manual that, among its other guidance, said explicitly that the swastika was among a “list of symbols whose display, presentation, creation, or depiction would constitute a potential hate incident.” Nooses and the Confederate flag also matched that description under the previous policy. Lunday was later nominated by Trump to lead the service as its commandant.

    In a statement announcing that she had lifted her hold on his nomination, Rosen said she had put another on Sean Plankey, Trump’s nominee to be the director of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and “will keep that hold in place until we see that this new policy works to protect our men and women in uniform from racist and antisemitic harassment.” She also chastised leadership within the Coast Guard and at DHS who, she said, had been “evasive, misleading, and elusive” as lawmakers sought assurances the “potentially divisive” wording would be cut from the policy manual.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a social media post earlier Thursday that the language was being removed from the manual “so no press outlet, entity or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate symbols.”

    Neither DHS nor the Coast Guard has addressed questions seeking to understand whether Lunday, as acting commandant, was empowered to change the manual’s wording on his own or if DHS leadership had to approve it.

    The lack of action, particularly amid a rise in antisemitism, incensed an array of lawmakers, including Republicans, who said Lunday had pledged to them that the “potentially divisive” wording would be removed from the policy manual before it went into effect.

    Several expressed anger at the existence of an official U.S. government document defining swastikas, inseparable from the extermination of millions of Jews in World War II, and nooses, a symbol of racial hatred, as “potentially divisive.”

    Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) was among those who registered disapproval with what his office called the Coast Guard’s “conflicting policies.” A GOP aide said Lankford took his concerns directly to the Trump administration and urged officials to change the manual.

  • CHOP faces threat as Trump administration proposes rules to stop gender-affirming care for minors

    CHOP faces threat as Trump administration proposes rules to stop gender-affirming care for minors

    President Donald Trump’s administration proposed a sweeping set of rules Thursday designed to prevent hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to minors, a move that could have consequential implications for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

    CHOP runs one of the nation’s largest clinics providing medical care and mental health support for transgender and gender-nonbinary children and teens and their families. Each year, hundreds of new families seek care at CHOP’s Gender and Sexuality Development Program, created in 2014. The information of CHOP patients who have sought gender-affirming care had been the target of a recent unsuccessful lawsuit from the Trump administration.

    The proposals constitute the most significant moves the administration has taken to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical interventions for transgender people under the age of 18 — including cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid dollars from being used to fund such procedures.

    “This is not medicine, it is malpractice,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, referring to gender-affirming procedures, at a news conference Thursday. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”

    CHOP, like most other hospitals in the country, participates in both Medicare and Medicaid.

    CHOP declined to comment Thursday.

    The renowned pediatric hospital treats children and teens with gender dysphoria — a medical condition in which a person’s body does not match their gender identity. Its doctors prescribe hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical associations, citing research, widely accept such medications as safe, effective, and medically necessary for the patients’ mental health.

    CHOP has said its doctors do not prescribe any medication before its patients undergo extensive medical and psychological evaluations.

    Gender-affirming care is legal in Pennsylvania, and states, not the federal government, regulate medicine and doctors.

    But Trump has sought to criminalize this care for minors, saying doctors are engaged in “chemical mutilation,” akin to child abuse, and he has called the research “junk science.”

    Just days into his second term in office, the president issued an executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which contains inflammatory and misleading descriptions of largely medically approved transgender care. Kennedy has followed the president’s lead, signing a declaration Thursday rejecting these procedures.

    Other actions proposed Thursday include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers for what an HHS news release claims to be “illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.”

    The court battle over gender care for minors

    In June, the U.S. Department of Justice issued subpoenas to CHOP and at least 19 other hospitals that treat transgender youth as part of an investigation into possible healthcare fraud. The federal subpoenas demanded patient medical records, including their dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and addresses, as well as every communication by doctors — emails, voicemails, and encrypted text messages — dating back to January 2020.

    The subpoenas touched off a wave of legal battles that continue to play out. Several hospitals around the country, including CHOP, filed motions asking federal judges to block the release of private patient information.

    So far, federal judges in Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington state have sided with the hospitals, ruling the subpoenas were politically motivated.

    In Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney last month determined that the “privacy interests of children and their families substantially outweighs the department’s need to know” such confidential and sensitive information. The federal government has 60 days to appeal the Nov. 21 ruling.

    In September, patients and their parents joined the legal fight to limit the scope of the subpoenas issued to CHOP and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center (PILC) filed separate but similar legal relief on behalf of families with children and teens who have received gender-affirming care at CHOP and in Pittsburgh.

    The federal judge presiding over the Pittsburgh hospital’s case has yet to issue a ruling. Earlier this week, however, DOJ lawyers said they are willing to accept redacted medical records. They argued that would solve the dispute over patient privacy rights.

    On Thursday, Mimi McKenzie, PILC’s legal director, said the center “strongly disagrees” and would fight the release of redacted medical records.

    “These records are so deeply personal and contain such highly sensitive information about these young patients,” McKenzie said. “There is no anonymization or redaction that can protect their privacy interests.”

    McKenzie said the proposed federal rule to ban all federal funding to hospitals that treat transgender youth would “face a myriad of legal challenges.” She described gender-affirming care as “lifesaving” for many children.

    “The notion that our federal government would tell hospitals to pick which children you want to save — the children who need gender-affirming care or all the other children — is despicable. The cruelty of this administration knows no bounds.”

    Other institutions have recoiled in the face of the Trump administration’s threats.

    Earlier this year, Penn Medicine and Penn State Health cut back gender-affirming care for youth. Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh announced they will no longer provide gender-affirming care beyond behavioral health services to new patients.

    All cited fear of federal funding cuts.

  • Trump’s handpicked board votes to rename Washington performing arts center the Trump Kennedy Center

    Trump’s handpicked board votes to rename Washington performing arts center the Trump Kennedy Center

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump Kennedy Center, the White House said, in a move that made Democrats fume, saying the board had overstepped its legal authority.

    Congress named the center after President John F. Kennedy in 1964, after his assassination. Donald A. Ritchie, who served as Senate historian from 2009-2015, said that because Congress had first named the center it would be up to Congress to “amend the law.”

    Ritchie said that while Trump and others can “informally” refer to the center by a different name, they couldn’t do it in a way “that would [legally] stick.”

    But the board did not wait for that debate to play out, immediately changing the branding on its website to reflect the new name.

    House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that legislative action was needed, “and we’re going to make that clear.” The New York Democrat is an ex officio member of the board because of his position in Congress.

    Trump has teased the name change for some time

    “The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” said Roma Daravi, the institution’s vice president for public relations.

    She said the vote recognized that Trump saved the center from “financial ruin and physical destruction,” a pair of claims denied by the venue’s ousted leadership.

    “The new Trump Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come,” Daravi said.

    Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, attributing it to the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”

    Trump, a Republican who’s chairman of the board, said at the White House that he was “surprised” and “honored” by the vote.

    “The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country and I was surprised by it and I was honored by it,” he said.

    Trump had already been referring to the center as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” Asked Dec. 7 as he walked the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors program whether he would rename the venue after himself, Trump said such a decision would be up to the board.

    Earlier this month, Trump talked about a “big event” happening at the “Trump Kennedy Center” before saying, “excuse me, at the Kennedy Center,” as his audience laughed. He was referring to the FIFA World Cup soccer draw for 2026, in which he participated.

    A name change won’t sit well with some Kennedy family members.

    Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, referred to the legislation introduced in Congress to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts as “insane” in a social media post in July.

    “It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote. “Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”

    Trump earlier this year turned the Kennedy-era Rose Garden at the White House into a patio by removing the lawn and laying down paving stones.

    Another Kennedy family member, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serves in Trump’s cabinet as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Trump showed scant interest in the Kennedy Center during his first term as president, but since returning to office in January he has replaced board members appointed by Democratic presidents with some of his most ardent supporters, who then elected him as board chairman.

    He also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance and has vowed to overhaul both.

    Trump secured more than $250 million from the Republican-controlled Congress for renovations of the building.

    He attended opening night of the musical Les Misérables, and last week he served as host of the Kennedy Center Honors program after not attending the show during his first term as president. The awards program is scheduled to be broadcast by CBS and Paramount+ on Dec. 23.

    Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump’s takeover of the center, and several touring productions, including Hamilton, have canceled planned runs there. Rows upon rows of empty seats have been seen in the Concert Hall during performances by the National Symphony Orchestra.

    Some performers, including actor Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens, have scrapped scheduled appearances, and Kennedy Center consultants including musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming have resigned.

  • House Democrats release more photos from Epstein’s estate

    House Democrats release more photos from Epstein’s estate

    WASHINGTON — House Democrats released several dozen more photos Thursday from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, showing his associations with the rich and famous, as the Department of Justice faces a deadline to release many of its case files on the late financier by the end of the week.

    The photos released Thursday were among more than 95,000 that the House Oversight Committee has received after issuing a subpoena for the photos that Epstein had in his possession before he died in a New York jail cell in 2019. Congress has also passed, and President Donald Trump has signed, a law requiring the Justice Department to release its case files on Epstein, and his longtime girlfriend and confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, by Friday. Anticipation about what those files will show is running high after they have been the subject of conspiracy theories and speculation about his friendships with Trump, former President Bill Clinton, the former Prince Andrew, and others.

    House Democrats have already released dozens of photos from Epstein’s estate showing Trump, Clinton and Andrew, who lost his royal title and privileges this year amid scrutiny of his relationship with the wealthy financier. The photos released Thursday showed Epstein cooking with Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, an Emirati businessman. The photos also include the billionaire Bill Gates and images of a 2011 dinner of notable people and wealthy philanthropists hosted by a nonprofit group. The committee made no accusations of wrongdoing by the men in the photos.

    There were also images of passports, visas and identification cards from Russia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, South Africa, and Lithuania with personally identifying information redacted, as well as photos of Epstein with women or girls whose faces were blacked out. The committee has said it is redacting information from the photos that may lead to the identity of victims being revealed.

    Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the oversight panel, said in a statement that the “new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”

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  • Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. found not guilty on all counts of abusing his teenage daughter

    Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. found not guilty on all counts of abusing his teenage daughter

    Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. was acquitted of child endangerment and related crimes Thursday after being accused of repeatedly assaulting his teenage daughter.

    Small, 51, faced charges stemming from a handful of incidents in late 2023 and early 2024 in which prosecutors said he and his wife abused and assaulted the teen. The couple said the incidents stemmed from their disapproval of their daughter’s relationship with a young man, leading to escalating tension and arguments in the family home.

    The jury delivered its verdict at 12 p.m. after deliberating for two days. They found Small not guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault, making terroristic threats, and witness tampering.

    “Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, jury!” Small said as the verdict was announced and broke into tears.

    Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Small said he and his family were prepared to “put this chapter behind us, in peace.”

    “It’s a lot of political forces out here that are against the leadership of my wife and I,” Small said. “But guess what? The people of Atlantic City want us, the people of Atlantic City need us, and the people of Atlantic City deserve us.”

    Had Small been convicted of any of the crimes, he would have been required by state law to cede his office.

    Those stakes were evident as the mayor’s friends and supporters packed into the courtroom for nearly two weeks of the trial. Supporters surrounded Small and broke into cheers outside the courthouse, celebrating a political career whose future had depended on the opinion of jurors.

    Small said he had been heavily scrutinized for more than a year after news of the allegations broke in spring 2024. He said he and his wife had since been “drug through the mud” and cast as child abusers by the media.

    Small’s defense attorney, Louis Barbone, said the verdict was “absolute proof that our justice system works” and that “honest men like Marty Small are vindicated.”

    Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds said he and his office “respectfully disagree with the verdict.”

    “We acted based upon the complaints of the victim,” Reynolds told reporters. “The trial in this case was truly to give the victim a voice — the jury chose not to believe that voice.“

    Prosecutors said Small, a Democrat who was reelected this year amid his legal struggles, punched his daughter and beat her with a belt. In an incident central to their case against the mayor, prosecutors said, Small struck her in the head with a broom multiple times, knocking her unconscious.

    Jurors heard a conversation the teen recorded on her phone, in which Small told the girl he would “earth slam” her down the staircase. And prosecutors said that after the girl reported the abuse and investigators stepped in, Small encouraged his daughter to “twist up” her account of the events to minimize his involvement.

    Over the course of the trial, Small and his wife, La’Quetta — who also faces charges of abusing the teen — looked on as prosecutors described the mayor’s actions as criminal. Prosecutors presented photos of the teen’s bruises and listened to testimony from a pediatrician who said the injuries did not appear accidental.

    Small’s defense team, by contrast, told jurors that the teen had lied to investigators and exaggerated the extent of her injuries, and that she and her boyfriend had conspired against her father.

    Barbone had called the trial “extortion by child.” He said the mayor was a caring father who was only attempting to discipline an out-of-control child, and presented jurors with more than 40 character witnesses on his behalf.

    Small also testified and said he loved his daughter. He denied abusing her in the manner she described, telling jurors: “I did not hit my daughter with a broom.”

    The girl, now 17, took the stand last week and described being punched in the legs by her father in his “man cave” after her parents found out she had sneaked her boyfriend into the family home to have sex.

    “He said some words and put his hands on me,” the teen testified. Her father, she said, “was punching me in my legs and he hit me with a belt.”

    Prosecutors said the girl’s decision to testify was one of the most challenging things a teenager could do, and they rebuffed Barbone’s suggestion that the girl was a liar who sought retribution against her politically powerful father.

    As for the broom incident, Barbone said, the mayor had not hit the girl but was wrestling the broom out of her hands when she fell and hit her head.

    Prosecutors showed jurors photos of marks on the girl’s face. But a nurse who treated the teen at a hospital several days after the girl complained of headaches said she had not been able to find signs of injury.

    Jurors asked to review multiple pieces of evidence during their deliberation, including video of Small’s testimony about the broom incident.

    Again they watched the mayor recall the morning he urged his daughter to get ready to attend a peace walk in January 2024 following a spate of killings in Atlantic City.

    The teen refused, cursing at Small before ripping his shirt and throwing laundry detergent on him, the mayor testified. A scuffle broke out when she picked up a butter knife and the broom, he said.

    Mentioning the hospital examination, the mayor asked: “Where is the bruise, where is the bump, where is the bleeding?”

    In less than half an hour, jurors returned their verdict.

    Small, in his post-verdict remarks, described his daughter as “lost” and vowed to right the course of his family life.

    “I’m gonna get my daughter back,” Small said. “In the Bible, it says, ‘Father, forgive her, for she know not what she do.’ And that’s what we’re gonna do.”

    Prosecutors declined to comment on what would happen to the girl, who is still a minor and does not currently live with her family.

    Small’s wife, La’Quetta, is scheduled to stand trial in January on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault. La’Quetta Small, the superintendent of Atlantic City public schools, is accused of repeatedly beating her daughter.

    Also facing a forthcoming trial is Constance Days-Chapman, the principal of the Smalls’ daughter’s high school. Prosecutors say when the teen reported her parents’ abuse, Days-Chapman failed to notify child welfare authorities and instead told the couple of the report.

    Days-Chapman, who is Marty Small’s former campaign manager, was later charged with official misconduct and related crimes.

    Reynolds, the county prosecutor, said his office would hold an internal meeting to discuss the charges against La’Quetta Small and Days-Chapman. They will also meet with the Smalls’ daughter, he said.

    “We need to get the victim in here and have a discussion with her before any decisions are made — and that’s out of respect for her,” Reynolds said.