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  • Where are the wackiest New Year’s Eve drops in the U.S.?

    Where are the wackiest New Year’s Eve drops in the U.S.?

    Why let New York City have all the fun with its Times Square ball drop on New Year’s Eve?

    Dozens of places across the U.S. will ring in 2026 by dropping a quirky assortment of fruits, vegetables, sea creatures, and balls of all shapes and sizes.

    Many have a hometown flair.

    There’s the giant cheese wedge in Plymouth, Wis., a chili pepper in Las Cruces, N.M., a pinecone in Flagstaff, Ariz., and a conch shell in Key West, Fla.

    Pennsylvania is home to a bonanza of bizarre New Year’s Eve events — the bologna drop in Lebanon, the pickle drop in Dillsburg, and the potato chip drop in Lewistown.

    It’s a New Year’s tradition that goes back to 1907, when a 700-pound ball measuring 5 feet in diameter debuted in Times Square. Copycat celebrations have surged coast to coast over the last few decades and around the beginning of the new millennium.

    Here’s a look at some of those events around the nation:

    Fruity traditions on New Year’s Eve

    It’s said in some cultures that eating fruit on New Year’s Eve brings luck and wealth. Perhaps that is why many cities mix fruit into their celebrations. Miami has its “Big Orange” drop, while Sarasota, Fla., features a pineapple. There are cherry drops in Milwaukie, Ore., and Traverse City, Mich. Brightly lit grapes plunge from above in Temecula, Calif. Atlanta this year is replacing its peach drop with a “digital drone peach in the sky.”

    Beach balls and flip-flops

    It’s tough to beat ringing in the year while watching a pair of sparkly flip-flops diving into Folly Beach, S.C. In Panama City Beach, Fla., there’s an evening-long bash in which 15,000 beach balls are dropped above revelers just hours before a giant beach ball descends a tower at midnight.

    MoonPies and a giant Peep

    What could be better than seeing a 600-pound MoonPie make a 60-second descent in Mobile, Ala.? How about getting a slice of MoonPie cake at the city’s biggest event of the year? Not sweet enough? Check out the 400-pound yellow Peeps chick that drops into Bethlehem, Pa.

    Seafood smorgasbord

    Waterfront cities celebrate the sea on New Year’s Eve. Brunswick, Ga., has the shrimp drop, while Easton, Md., serves up its annual crab drop. The oyster drop is the main event in Bay St. Louis, Miss. The biggest catch might be in Port Clinton, Ohio, along Lake Erie, home to a 600-pound walleye named Wylie. The original papier-mache version debuted 30 years ago and has given way to a menacing fiberglass fish.

    Potatoes and pierogi

    There’s definitely a food theme to these New Year’s drops. Just outside Chicago, watch out for a 10-foot pierogi in Whiting, Ind. The Idaho Potato Drop in Boise has been going for more than a decade, and Mount Olive, N.C., celebrates its hometown pickle brand by dropping a glittery green pickle that is close to 6 feet long.

    Possum drop lives on

    All of these events are meant to be fun, boost civic pride, and attract tourists. But one created such a stir that it ended up in court. Residents in western North Carolina no longer lower a live possum inside a glass box at midnight, having called off the event in 2019 after years of protests and legal challenges. There is still a possum drop in Tallapoosa, Ga., a town long ago known as Possum Snout. That one, though, stars a stuffed possum named Spencer.

  • Buddhist monks persist in peace walk despite injuries as thousands follow them on social media

    Buddhist monks persist in peace walk despite injuries as thousands follow them on social media

    ATLANTA — About two dozen Buddhist monks are persevering in their walking trek across much of the U.S. to promote peace, even after two of them were injured when a truck hit their escort vehicle.

    After starting their walk in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 26, the group has made it to Georgia as the monks continue on a path to Washington, D.C., highlighting Buddhism’s long tradition of activism for peace.

    The group planned to walk its latest segment through Georgia on Tuesday from the town of Morrow to Decatur, on the eastern edge of Atlanta. Marking day 66 of the walk, the group invited the public to a Peace Gathering in Decatur on Tuesday afternoon.

    The monks and their loyal dog, Aloka, are traveling through 10 states en route to Washington. In the coming days, they plan to pass through or very close to Athens, Ga.; the North Carolina cities of Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh; and Richmond, Va., on their way to the nation’s capital.

    The group has amassed a huge audience on social media, with more than 400,000 followers on Facebook. Aloka has its own hashtag, #AlokathePeaceDog.

    The monks’ Facebook page is frequently updated with progress reports, inspirational notes, and poetry.

    “We do not walk alone. We walk together with every person whose heart has opened to peace, whose spirit has chosen kindness, whose daily life has become a garden where understanding grows,” the group posted recently.

    The trek has not been without danger. Last month outside Houston, the monks were walking on the side of a highway near Dayton, Texas, when their escort vehicle, which had its hazard lights on, was hit by a truck, interim Dayton Police Chief Shane Burleigh said.

    The truck “didn’t notice how slow the vehicle was going, tried to make an evasive maneuver to drive around the vehicle, and didn’t do it in time,” Burleigh said at the time. “It struck the escort vehicle in the rear left, pushed the escort into two of the monks.”

    One of the monks had “substantial leg injuries” and was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Houston, Burleigh said. The other monk, with less serious injuries, was taken by ambulance to a hospital outside Houston. The monk who sustained the serious leg injuries was expected to have a series of surgeries to heal a broken bone, but his prognosis for recovery was good, a spokesperson for the group said.

    Buddhism is a religion and philosophy that evolved from the teachings of Gautama Buddha, a prince-turned-teacher who is believed to have lived in northern India and attained enlightenment between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C. The religion spread to other parts of Asia after his death and came to the West in the 20th century. The Buddha taught that the path to end suffering and become liberated from the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation includes the practice of nonviolence, mental discipline through meditation, and showing compassion for all beings.

    While Buddhism has branched into a number of sects over the centuries, its rich tradition of peace activism continues. Its social teaching was pioneered by figures like the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, who have applied core principles of compassion and nonviolence to political, environmental, and social justice as well as peace-building efforts around the world.

  • ICE doesn’t plan to detain Abrego Garcia again as long as judge’s order banning it stands

    ICE doesn’t plan to detain Abrego Garcia again as long as judge’s order banning it stands

    NASHVILLE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do not plan to detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia again as long as a judge’s order banning it stands, according to a Tuesday court filing.

    The Salvadoran citizen’s case has become a lightning rod for both sides of the immigration debate as he fights to remain in the U.S. after a mistaken deportation to his home country, where he was imprisoned. Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang, but he has vehemently denied the accusations and has no criminal record.

    The government court filing comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis earlier this month questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Abrego Garcia into immigration custody or deporting him.

    Earlier Tuesday, a newly unsealed order in Abrego Garcia’s criminal case revealed that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority,” only after he was erroneously deported and then ordered returned to the U.S.

    Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive — a way for the Trump administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.

    To support that argument, he has asked the government to turn over documents that reveal how the decision was made to prosecute him in 2025 in connection with an incident that had occurred nearly three years earlier. On Dec. 3, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw filed an order under seal that compelled the government to provide some documents to Abrego Garcia and his attorneys. That order was unsealed Tuesday and sheds new light on the case.

    Earlier, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Abrego Garcia could be vindictive. He specifically cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on a Fox News program that seemed to suggest that the Department of Justice charged Abrego Garcia because he had won his wrongful-deportation case.

    Rob McGuire, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to prosecute, and that he has no animus against Abrego Garcia.

    Abrego Garcia was freed earlier this month from the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania.

    In the newly unsealed order, Crenshaw writes: “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he in fact reported to others in DOJ and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision.”

    The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee released a statement saying: “The emails cited in Judge Crenshaw’s order, specifically Mr. McGuire’s email on May 15, 2025, confirm that the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute was made by career prosecutors based on the facts, evidence, and established DOJ practice. Communications with the Deputy Attorney General’s Office about a high-profile case are both required and routine.”

    The email referenced was from McGuire to his staff stating that Blanche “would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later,” according to Crenshaw’s order.

    The human smuggling charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and state troopers discussed the possibility of human smuggling among themselves. However, Abrego Garcia was ultimately allowed to leave with only a warning. The case was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations, but there is no record of any effort to charge him until April 2025, according to court records.

    The order does not give a lot of detail on what is in the documents that were turned over to Abrego Garcia, but it shows that Aakash Singh, who works under Blanche in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, contacted McGuire about Abrego Garcia’s case on April 27, the same day that McGuire received a file on the case from Homeland Security Investigations. That was several days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Abrego Garcia’s favor on April 10.

    On April 30, Singh said in an email to McGuire that the prosecution was a “top priority” for the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, according to the order. Singh and McGuire continued to communicate about the prosecution. On May 15, McGuire emailed his staff that Blanche “would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later,” Crenshaw writes.

    On May 18, Singh wrote to McGuire and others to hold the draft indictment until they got “clearance” to file it. “The implication is that ‘clearance’ would come from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General,” Crenshaw writes.

    A hearing on the motion to dismiss the case on the basis of vindictive prosecution is scheduled for Jan. 28.

  • Judge blocks White House’s attempt to defund the CFPB, ensuring employees get paid

    Judge blocks White House’s attempt to defund the CFPB, ensuring employees get paid

    NEW YORK — The White House cannot lapse in its funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal district court judge ruled on Tuesday, only days before funds at the bureau would have likely run out and the consumer finance agency would have no money to pay its employees.

    Judge Amy Berman ruled that the CFPB should continue to get its funds from the Federal Reserve, despite the Fed operating at a loss, and that the White House’s new legal argument about how the CFPB gets its funds is not valid.

    At the heart of this case is whether Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget director and the acting director of the CFPB, can effectively shut down the agency and lay off all of the bureau’s employees. The CFPB has largely been inoperable since Trump has sworn into office nearly a year ago. Its employees are mostly forbidden from doing any work, and most of the bureau’s operations this year have been to unwind the work it did under President Joe Biden and even under Trump’s first term.

    Vought himself has made comments where he has made it clear that his intention is to effectively shut down the CFPB. The White House earlier this year issued a “reduction in force” for the CFPB, which would have furloughed or laid off much of the bureau.

    The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents the workers at the CFPB, has been mostly successful in court to stop the mass layoffs and furloughs. The union sued Vought earlier this year and won a preliminary injunction stopping the layoffs while the union’s case continues through the legal process.

    In recent weeks, the White House has used a new line of argument to potentially get around the court’s injunction. The argument is that the Federal Reserve has no “combined earnings” at the moment to fund the CFPB’s operations. The CFPB gets its funding from the Fed through expected quarterly payments.

    The Federal Reserve has been operating at a paper loss since 2022 as a result of the central bank trying to combat inflation, the first time in the Fed’s entire history it has been operating at a loss. The Fed holds bonds on its balance sheet from a period of low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, but currently has to pay out higher interest rates to banks who hold their deposits at the central bank. The Fed has been recording a “deferred asset” on its balance sheet, which it expects will be paid down in the next few years as the low-interest bonds mature.

    Because of this loss on paper, the White House has argued there are no “combined earnings” for the CFPB to draw on. The CFPB has operated since 2011, including under Trump’s first term, drawing on the Fed’s operating budget.

    White House lawyers sent a notice to the court in early November in which they argued, using the “combined earnings” argument, that the CFPB would run out of appropriations in early 2026 and does not expect to get any additional appropriations from Congress.

    This combined earnings legal argument is not entirely new. It has floated in conservative legal circles going back to when the Federal Reserve started operating at a loss. The Office of Legal Counsel, which acts as the government’s legal advisers, adopted this legal theory in a memo on November 7. However, this idea has never been tested in court.

    In her opinion, Berman said the OLC and Vought were using this legal theory to get around the court’s injunction instead of allowing the case to be decided on merits. A trial on whether the CFPB employees’ union can sue Vought over the layoffs is scheduled for February.

    “It appears that defendants’ new understanding of ‘combined earnings’ is an unsupported and transparent attempt to starve the CPFB of funding and yet another attempt to achieve the very end the Court’s injunction was put in place to prevent,” Berman wrote in an opinion.

    “We’re very pleased that the court made clear what should have been obvious: Vought can’t justify abandoning the agency’s obligations or violating a court order by manufacturing a lack of funding,” said Jennifer Bennett of Gupta Wessler LLP, who is representing the CFPB employees in the case.

    A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Berman’s opinion.

  • Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs faces strangulation charges, denies allegations

    Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs faces strangulation charges, denies allegations

    BOSTON — New England Patriots star wide receiver Stefon Diggs is facing strangulation and other criminal charges in connection with an incident that happened earlier this month, police said.

    News of the charges emerged after a court hearing Tuesday in Dedham, Mass. It is unclear what led to the charges, which include felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery.

    Diggs’ lawyer, David Meier, said in an emailed statement that Diggs “categorically denies these allegations.”

    Meier said the allegations never occurred, describing them as unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.

    “The timing and motivation for making the allegations is crystal clear: they are the direct result of an employee-employer financial dispute that was not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction,” Meier wrote.

    In a statement, the Patriots said they were also standing by Diggs: “We support Stefon,” the team said.

    Diggs, 32, established himself as one of the NFL’s best wide receivers during a run with Minnesota and Buffalo from 2018 to 2023, when he had six consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and was selected to the Pro Bowl four times.

    After a lackluster stint in Houston last year, Diggs ended up in New England, signing a three-year, $69 million deal in free agency that guaranteed him $26 million.

    Diggs has been a reliable target for second-year quarterback Drake Maye and is a big reason the team has once again clinched the AFC East title.

    Off the field, though, his tenure with the Patriots got off to a rocky start when a video surfaced on social media in May showing Diggs passing what appeared to be a bag of pink crystals to women on a boat.

    It wasn’t clear what the substance was, and an NFL spokesperson said the league would not comment. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said the team would handle that matter internally.

  • Khaleda Zia, former Bangladeshi prime minister and archrival of a previous premier, dies at 80

    Khaleda Zia, former Bangladeshi prime minister and archrival of a previous premier, dies at 80

    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, 80, whose archrivalry with another former premier defined the country’s politics for a generation, has died, her Bangladesh Nationalist Party said in a statement Tuesday.

    Ms. Zia was the first woman elected prime minister of Bangladesh.

    Bangladesh’s interim government announced a three-day mourning period. A general holiday also was announced for Wednesday, when Ms. Zia’s funeral prayers are scheduled be held in front of the country’s national Parliament building in Dhaka.

    Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, issued a statement Tuesday citing Ms. Zia’s contributions to the country.

    “Her role in the struggle to establish democracy, a multi-party political culture, and the rights of the people in Bangladesh will be remembered forever,” Yunus said.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences in a statement Tuesday, noting that “as the first woman Prime Minister of Bangladesh, her important contributions toward the development of Bangladesh, as well as India-Bangladesh relations, will always be remembered.”

    Sajeeb Wazed, son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said in a statement Tuesday that Ms. Zia’s demise “will leave a deep impact on the country’s [democratic] transition.”

    “She will be remembered for her contributions in nation building but her death is a blow to stabilize Bangladesh,” said Wazed, whose mother was Ms. Zia’s greatest political rival.

    Hasina issued a statement from exile in India saying Ms. Zia’s death was “an irreparable loss” for politics in Bangladesh and recalling her contributions in establishing the nation’s democracy.

    Ms. Zia had faced corruption cases she said were politically motivated, but in January 2025 the Supreme Court acquitted Ms. Zia in the last corruption case against her, which would have let her run in February’s general election.

    The BNP said that after she was released from prison due to illness in 2020, her family sought permission for treatment abroad at least 18 times from Hasina’s administration, but the requests were rejected.

    Following Hasina’s ouster in 2024, the Yunus-led interim government finally allowed her to go. She went to London in January and returned to Bangladesh in May.

    Fighting military dictatorship

    Bangladesh’s early years of independence, gained in a bloody 1971 war against Pakistan, were marked by assassinations, coups, and countercoups as military figures and secular and Islamic leaders jockeyed for power.

    Ms. Zia’s husband, President Ziaur Rahman, had grabbed power as a military chief in 1977 and a year later formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He was credited with opening democracy in the country but was killed in a 1981 military coup. Ms. Zia’s uncompromising stance against the military dictatorship helped build a mass movement against it, culminating with the ousting of dictator and former army chief H.M. Ershad in 1990.

    Ms. Zia’s opponent when she won her first term in 1991 and in several elections after that was Hasina, the daughter of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in a 1975 coup.

    Ms. Zia was criticized over an early 1996 election in which her party won 278 of the 300 parliamentary seats during a wide boycott by other leading parties, including Hasina’s Awami League, which demanded an election-time caretaker government. Ms. Zia’s government lasted only 12 days before a nonpartisan caretaker government was installed, and the new election was held that June.

    Ms. Zia returned to power in 2001 in a government shared with the country’s main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which had a dark past involving Bangladesh’s independence war.

    Ms. Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party was previously closely allied with the party and her government maintained the confidence of the business community by following pro-investment, open-market policies. Ms. Zia was known to have a soft spot for Pakistan and used to deliver anti-Indian political speeches. India alleged insurgents were allowed to use Bangladesh’s soil to destabilize India’s northeastern states under Ms. Zia, especially during her term from 2001 to 2006.

    During that term, Ms. Zia also was tainted by allegations that her elder son, Tarique Rahman, was running a parallel government and was involved in widespread corruption.

    A rivalry with Hasina

    In 2004, Hasina blamed Ms. Zia’s government and Rahman for grenade attacks in Dhaka that killed 24 members of her Awami League party and wounded hundreds of people. Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, which she characterized as an assassination attempt, and subsequently won the 2008 general election.

    Ms. Zia’s party and its partners boycotted the 2014 election in a dispute over a caretaker government, giving a one-sided victory to the increasingly authoritarian regime of Hasina. Her party joined the national elections in 2018 but boycotted again in 2024, allowing Hasina to return to power for a fourth consecutive time through controversial elections.

    Ms. Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail in two separate corruption cases for misuse of power in embezzling funds meant for a charity named after her late husband. Her party said the charges were politically motivated to weaken the opposition, but the Hasina government said it did not interfere and the case was a matter for the courts.

    Hasina was bitterly criticized by both her opponents and independent critics for sending Ms. Zia to jail.

    Health concerns placed over politics

    Ms. Zia was released from jail by Hasina’s government in 2020 and was moved to a rented home, from which she regularly visited a private hospital. Her family repeatedly requested that Hasina’s administration allow Ms. Zia to travel abroad for medical treatment, but was refused.

    After 15 years in power, Hasina was ousted in a mass uprising in August 2024 and fled the country. Ms. Zia was given permission to travel abroad by an interim government led by Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

    Ms. Zia was silent about politics for years and did not attend political rallies, but she remained the BNP chairperson until her death. Rahman has been the party’s acting chair since 2018.

    She was last seen at an annual function of the Bangladesh military in Dhaka Cantonment on Nov. 21, when Yunus and other political leaders met her. She was in a wheelchair and appeared pale and tired.

    She is survived by Rahman, her elder son and heir apparent in the political dynasty. Her younger son, Arafat, died in 2015.

  • Israel says it will halt operations of several humanitarian organizations in Gaza starting in 2026

    Israel says it will halt operations of several humanitarian organizations in Gaza starting in 2026

    JERUSALEM — Israel said Tuesday it will suspend over two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, for failing to meet its new rules to vet international organizations working in Gaza.

    The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said the nongovernmental organizations that will be banned on Jan. 1 did not meet new requirements for sharing staff, funding, and operations information. It accused Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest health organizations operating in Gaza, of failing to clarify the roles of some staff that Israel accused of cooperation with Hamas and other insurgent groups.

    International organizations have said Israel’s rules are arbitrary and could endanger staff. The ministry said around 25 organizations, or 15% of the NGOs working in Gaza, did not have their permits renewed.

    Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel previously accused its staff of involvement in military activities in Gaza in 2024. At the time, the group said it was “deeply concerned by these allegations” and “taking them very seriously.” The group said it would never knowingly employ people engaged in military activity.

    Israel and international organizations have been at odds over the amount of aid going into Gaza. Israel claims it is upholding the aid commitments laid out in the latest ceasefire in the two-year war, which took effect Oct. 10, but humanitarian organizations dispute Israel’s numbers and say more aid is desperately needed in the devastated Palestinian territory of more than 2 million people.

  • Homeland Security says fraud investigation is underway in Minneapolis

    Homeland Security says fraud investigation is underway in Minneapolis

    MINNEAPOLIS — Federal Homeland Security officials were conducting a fraud investigation on Monday in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

    The action comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.

    A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said then that fraud will not be tolerated and that his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

    Noem on Monday posted a video on the social platform X showing DHS officers going into an unidentified business and questioning the person working behind the counter. Noem said that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.”

    “The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found,” U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement posted.

    The action comes a day after FBI Director Kash Patel said on X that the agency had “surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”

    Patel said that previous fraud arrests in Minnesota were “just the tip of a very large iceberg.”

    President Donald Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases to date.

    In recent weeks, tensions have been high between state and federal enforcement in the area as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.

    Among those running schemes to get funds for child nutrition, housing services, and autism programs, 82 of the 92 defendants are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

    Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said that the governor has worked for years to “crack down on fraud” and was seeking more authority from the Legislature to take aggressive action. Walz has supported criminal prosecutions and taken a number of other steps, including strengthening oversight and hiring an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, Lancaster said.

  • Trump administration rolls out rural health funding, with strings attached

    Trump administration rolls out rural health funding, with strings attached

    States will share $10 billion for rural healthcare next year in a program that aims to offset the Trump administration’s massive budget cuts to rural hospitals, federal officials announced Monday.

    But while every state applied for money from the Rural Health Transformation Program, it won’t be distributed equally. And critics worry that the funding might be pulled back if a state’s policies don’t match up with the administration’s.

    Officials said the average award for 2026 is $200 million, and the fund puts a total of $50 billion into rural health programs over five years. States propose how to spend their awards, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services assigns project officers to support each state, said agency administrator Mehmet Oz.

    “This fund was crafted as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, signed only six months ago now into law, in order to push states to be creative,” Oz said in a call with reporters Monday.

    Under the program, half of the money is equally distributed to each state. The other half is allocated based on a formula developed by CMS that considered rural population size, the financial health of a state’s medical facilities, and health outcomes for a state’s population.

    The formula also ties $12 billion of the five-year funding to whether states are implementing health policies prioritized by the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again initiative. Examples include requiring nutrition education for healthcare providers, having schools participate in the Presidential Fitness Test, or banning the use of SNAP benefits for so-called junk foods, Oz said.

    Several Republican-led states — including Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas — have already adopted rules banning the purchase of foods like candy and soda with SNAP benefits.

    The money that the states get will be recalculated annually, Oz said, allowing the administration to claw back funds if, for example, state leaders don’t pass promised policies. Oz said the clawbacks are not punishments, but leverage governors can use to push policies by pointing to the potential loss of millions.

    “I’ve already heard governors express that sentiment that this is not a threat, that this is actually an empowering element of the One Big Beautiful Bill,” he said.

    Carrie Cochran-McClain, chief policy officer with the National Rural Health Association, said she’s heard from a number of Democratic-led states that refused to include such restrictions on SNAP benefits even though it could hurt their chance to get more money from the fund.

    “It’s not where their state leadership is,” she said.

    Experts say fund is inadequate in face of other cuts

    Oz and other federal officials have touted the program as a 50% increase in Medicaid investments in rural healthcare. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska who has been critical of many of the administration’s policies but voted for the budget bill that slashed Medicaid, pointed to the fund when recently questioned about how the cuts would hurt rural hospitals.

    “That’s why we added a $50 billion rural hospital fund, to help any hospital that’s struggling,” Bacon said. “This money is meant to keep hospitals afloat.”

    But experts say it won’t nearly offset the losses that struggling rural hospitals will face from the federal spending law’s $1.2 trillion cut from the federal budget over the next decade, primarily from Medicaid. Millions of people are also expected to lose Medicaid benefits.

    Estimates suggest rural hospitals could lose around $137 billion over the next decade because of the budget measure. As many as 300 rural hospitals were at risk for closure because of the GOP’s spending package, according to an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    “When you put that up against the $50 billion for the Rural Health Transformation Fund, you know — that math does not add up,” Cochran-McClain said.

    She also said there’s no guarantee that the funding will go to rural hospitals in need. For example, she noted, one state’s application included a proposal for healthier, locally sourced school lunch options in rural areas.

    And even though innovation is a goal of the program, Cochran-McClain said it’s tough for rural hospitals to innovate when they were struggling to break even before Congress’ Medicaid cuts.

    “We talk to rural providers every day that say, ‘I would really love to do x, y, z, but I’m concerned about, you know, meeting payroll at the end of the month,’” she said. “So when you’re in that kind of crisis mode, it is, I would argue, almost impossible to do true innovation.”

  • During Netanyahu visit, Trump warns Iran of further U.S. strikes if it reconstitutes nuclear program

    During Netanyahu visit, Trump warns Iran of further U.S. strikes if it reconstitutes nuclear program

    PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump warned Iran on Monday that the U.S. could carry out further military strikes if the country attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program as he held wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his home in Florida.

    Trump had previously insisted that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities were “completely and fully obliterated” by U.S. strikes on key nuclear enrichment sites in June. But with Netanyahu by his side, Trump raised the possibility that suspected activity could be taking place outside those sites. Israeli officials, meanwhile, have been quoted in local media expressing concern about Iran rebuilding its supply of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.

    “Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump told reporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”

    Trump’s warning to Iran comes as his administration has committed significant resources to targeting drug trafficking in South America and the president looks to create fresh momentum for the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire. The Gaza deal is in danger of stalling before reaching its complicated second phase that would involve naming an international governing body and rebuilding the devastated Palestinian territory.

    At a news conference with Netanyahu after their meeting, Trump suggested that he could order another U.S. strike.

    “If it’s confirmed, they know the consequences, and the consequences will be very powerful, maybe more powerful than the last time,” Trump said.

    Iran has insisted that it is no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program. The two leaders discussed the possibility of taking new military action against Tehran just months after June’s 12-day war.

    The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s warning.

    Gaza ceasefire progress has slowed

    Trump, with Netanyahu by his side, said he wants to get to the second phase of the Gaza deal “as quickly as we can.”

    “But there has to be a disarming of Hamas,” Trump added.

    The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that Trump championed has mostly held, but progress has slowed recently. Both sides accuse each other of violations, and divisions have emerged among the U.S., Israel, and Arab countries about the path forward.

    The truce’s first phase began in October, days after the two-year anniversary of the initial Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. All but one of the 251 hostages taken then have been released, alive or dead.

    The Israeli leader, who also met separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has signaled he is in no rush to move forward with the next phase as long as the remains of Ran Gvili are still in Gaza.

    Gvili’s parents met with Netanyahu as well as Rubio, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Florida on Monday.

    “They’re waiting for their son to come home,” Trump said of the family of the young police officer known affectionately as “Rani.”

    Next phase is complex

    The path to implementing Trump’s peace plan is certainly complicated.

    If successful, the second phase would see the rebuilding of a demilitarized Gaza under international supervision by a group chaired by Trump and known as the Board of Peace. The Palestinians would form a “technocratic, apolitical” committee to run daily affairs in Gaza, under Board of Peace supervision.

    It further calls for normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world and a possible pathway to Palestinian independence. Then there are thorny logistical and humanitarian questions, including rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza, disarming Hamas, and creating a security apparatus called the International Stabilization Force.

    Much remains unsettled

    Two main challenges have complicated moving to the second phase, according to an official who was briefed on those meetings. Israeli officials have been taking a lot of time to vet and approve members of the Palestinian technocratic committee from a list given to them by the mediators, and Israel continues its military strikes.

    Trump’s plan also calls for the stabilization force, proposed as a multinational body, to maintain security. But it, too, has yet to be formed. Whether details will be forthcoming after Monday’s meeting is unclear.

    A Western diplomat said there is a “huge gulf” between the U.S.-Israeli understanding of the force’s mandate and that of other major countries in the region, as well as European governments.

    All spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that haven’t been made public.

    The U.S. and Israel want the force to have a “commanding role” in security duties, including disarming Hamas and other militant groups. But countries being courted to contribute troops fear that mandate will make it an “occupation force,” the diplomat said.

    Hamas has said it is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons but insists it has a right to armed resistance as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory. One U.S. official said a potential plan might be to offer cash incentives in exchange for weapons, echoing a “buyback” program Witkoff has previously floated.

    Trump makes case once again for Netanyahu pardon

    The two leaders, who have a long and close relationship, heaped praise on each other. Trump also tweaked the Israeli leader, who at moments during the war has raised Trump’s ire, for being “very difficult on occasion.”

    Netanyahu said Trump during the lunch was formally told that his country’s education ministry will award him the Israel Prize, breaking the long-held convention of bestowing the honor on an Israeli citizen or resident.

    “President Trump has broken so many conventions to the surprise of people,” Netanyahu said. He added, “So we decided to break a convention, too, or create a new one.”

    Trump also renewed his call on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to grant Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a corruption trial, a pardon.

    Netanyahu is the only sitting prime minister in Israeli history to stand trial, after being charged with fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes in three separate cases accusing him of exchanging favors with wealthy political supporters.

    Trump has previously written to Herzog to urge a pardon and advocated for one during his October speech before the Knesset. He said Monday that Herzog has told him “it’s on its way” without offering further details.

    “He’s a wartime prime minister who’s a hero. How do you not give a pardon?” Trump said.

    Herzog’s office said in a statement that the Israeli president and Trump have not spoken since the pardon request was submitted, but that Herzog has spoken with a Trump representative about the U.S. president’s letter advocating for Netanyahu’s pardon.

    “During that conversation, an explanation was provided regarding the stage of the process in which the request currently stands, and that any decision on the matter will be made in accordance with the established procedures,” the Israeli president’s office said.