By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops who need an exemption from shaving their facial hair for longer than a year should get kicked out of the service.

While commanders are still able to issue service members exemptions from shaving — a policy that has existed for decades — they will now have to come with a medical treatment plan, Hegseth said in an Aug. 20 memo made public Monday. Troops who still need treatment after a year will be separated from service, the memo says.

“The Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos,” Hegseth wrote in his memo.

Most shaving waivers are for troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hair curls back into the skin after shaving and causes irritation. It is a condition that disproportionately affects Black men.

The memo is silent on what treatments the military would offer for troops affected by the new policy or if it will front the cost for those treatments.

It is also unclear if policies like broad exemptions from shaving for special forces troops who are in operational settings or soldiers stationed in the Arctic climates of Alaska where shaving can pose a medical hazard in the extreme cold will be affected by the change.

The announcement applies to all the military services. The Army this week announced its own grooming standard update, which significantly changes acceptable appearance standards for soldiers, especially for women, including revisions for nails, hairstyles, earrings and makeup.

By Jackie Fortiér, KFF Health News

A key federal vaccine advisory panel whose members were recently replaced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to vote to recommend delaying until age 4 the hepatitis B vaccine that’s currently given to newborns, according to two former senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

“There is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life,” said Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Apparently this is a priority of the secretary’s.”

The vote is expected to take place during the next meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, scheduled for Sept. 18-19.

For more than 30 years, the first of three shots of hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended for infants shortly after birth. In that time, the potentially fatal disease has been virtually eradicated among American children. Pediatricians warn that waiting four years for the vaccine opens the door to more children contracting the virus.

“Age 4 makes zero sense,” pediatrician Eric Ball said. “We recommend a universal approach to prevent those cases where a test might be incorrect or a mother might have unknowingly contracted hepatitis. It’s really the best way to keep our entire population healthy.”

In addition to the hepatitis B vaccine, the panel will also discuss and vote on recommendations for the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine and covid-19 vaccines. Pediatricians worry changes to the schedules of these vaccines will limit access for many families, leaving them vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Typically, ACIP would undertake an analysis of the data before recommending a change to vaccine guidelines. As of the end of August, this process had not begun for the hepatitis B vaccines, Daskalakis and another former official said.

“This is an atypical situation. There’s been no work group to discuss it,” Daskalakis said.

The second former senior official spoke to NPR and KFF Health News on the condition of anonymity.

In response to questions from KFF Health News, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote, “ACIP exists to ensure that vaccine policy is guided by the best available evidence and open scientific deliberation. Any updates to recommendations will be made transparently with gold standard science.”

The draft agenda for the upcoming ACIP meeting was released to the public less than a week before it is scheduled to begin.

At the last ACIP meeting, in June, Martin Kulldorff, the chair and one of seven new members handpicked by Kennedy, questioned the need to vaccinate every newborn, citing only two of the many ways the virus can spread. Kulldorff is a former Harvard Medical School professor who became known for opposing some public health measures during the pandemic.

“Unless the mother is hepatitis B positive, an argument could be made to delay the vaccine for this infection, which is primarily spread by sexual activity and intravenous drug use,” he said.

The virus spreads via direct exposure to an infected bodily fluid like blood or semen. The disease has no cure and can lead to serious conditions like cirrhosis and liver cancer later in life. The CDC advisory panel may maintain the recommendation to inoculate newborns whose mothers have hepatitis B or are considered at high risk of the disease, the former officials said.

Protection from birth

In 1991, federal health officials determined it was advisable for newborns to receive their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, which blocks the virus from taking hold if transmitted during delivery. While parents may opt out of the shots, many day care centers and school districts require proof of hepatitis B vaccination for enrollment.

The prospect of ACIP’s altering the recommendation has left some people living with the virus deeply unsettled.

“I am goddamn frustrated,” said Wendy Lo, who has lived with the liver disease, likely since birth. Years of navigating the psychological, monetary, medical, and social aspects of chronic hepatitis B has touched almost every aspect of her life.

“I would not want anyone to have to experience that if it can be prevented,” she said. Lo learned she had the disease due to a routine screening to study abroad in college.

Lo credits the vaccines with protecting her close family members from infection.

“I shared with my partner, ‘If you get vaccinated, we can be together,’” she said. He got the vaccine, which protects him from infection, “so I’m grateful for that,” she said.

The CDC estimates half of people with hepatitis B do not know they are infected. It can range from an acute, mild infection to a chronic infection, often with few to no symptoms. Most people with chronic hepatitis B were born outside of the U.S., and Asians and Pacific Islanders followed by Black people have the highest rates of newly reported chronic infections.

When her children were born, Lo was adamant that they receive the newborn dose, a decision she says prevented them from contracting the virus.

The earlier an infection occurs, the worse the consequences, according to the CDC. When contracted in infancy or early childhood, hepatitis B is far more likely to become a chronic infection, silently damaging the liver over decades.

Those who become chronic carriers can also unknowingly spread the virus to others and face an increased risk of long-term complications including cirrhosis and liver cancer, which may not become evident until much later in life.

“Now I’m in my 50s, one of my big concerns is liver cancer. The vaccine is safe and effective, it’s lifesaving, and it protects you against cancer. How many vaccines do that?” Lo said.

Thirty years of universal vaccination

Treatments like the antivirals Lo now takes weren’t available until the 1990s. Decades of the virus’s replicating unchecked damaged her liver. Every six months she gets scared of what her blood tests may reveal.

After a vaccine was approved in the 1980s, public health officials initially focused vaccination efforts on people thought to be at highest risk of infection.

“I, and every other doctor, had been trained in medical school to think of hepatitis B as an infection you acquired as an adult. It was the pimps, the prostitutes, the prisoners, and the health care practitioners who got hepatitis B infection. But we’ve learned so much more,” said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a former voting member of ACIP.

As hepatitis B rates remained stubbornly high in the 1980s, scientists realized an entire vulnerable group was missing from the vaccination regime — newborns. The virus is often transmitted from an infected mother to baby in late pregnancy or during birth.

“We may soon hear, ‘Let’s just do a blood test on all pregnant women.’ We tried that. That doesn’t work perfectly either,” Schaffner said.

Some doctors didn’t test, he said, and some pregnant women falsely tested negative while others acquired hepatitis B after they had been tested earlier in their pregnancies.

In 1991, Schaffner was a liaison representative to ACIP when it voted to advise universal vaccination for hepatitis B before an infant leaves the hospital.

“We want no babies infected. Therefore, we’ll just vaccinate every mom and every baby at birth. Problem solved. It has been brilliantly successful in virtually eliminating hepatitis B in children,” he said.

In 1990, there were 3.03 cases of hepatitis B per 100,000 people 19 years old or under in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Since the federal recommendation to vaccinate all infants, cases have dramatically decreased. CDC data shows that in 2022 the rate among those 19 or under was less than 0.1 per 100,000.

While hepatitis B is often associated with high-risk behaviors such as injection drug use or having multiple sexual partners, health experts note that it is possible for the virus to be transmitted in ordinary situations too, including among young children.

The virus can survive for up to seven days outside the body. During that time, even microscopic traces of infected blood on a school desk or playground equipment can pose a risk. If the virus comes into contact with an open wound or the mucous membranes of the eyes, an infection can occur. This means that unvaccinated children not considered at high risk can still be exposed in everyday environments.

Future access uncertain

If the CDC significantly alters its recommendation, health insurers would no longer be required to cover the cost of the shots. That could leave parents to pay out-of-pocket for a vaccine that has long been provided at no charge. Children who get immunizations through the federal Vaccines for Children program would lose free access to the shot as soon as any new ACIP recommendations get approved by the acting CDC director.

The two former CDC officials said that plans were underway to push back the official recommendation for the vaccine as of August, when they both left the agency, but may have changed.

Schaffner is still an alternate liaison member of ACIP, and hopes to express his support for universal newborn vaccination at the next meeting.

“The liaisons have now been excluded from the vaccine work groups. They are still permitted to attend the full meetings,” he said.

Schaffner is worried about the next generation of babies and the doctors who care for them.

“We’ll see cases of hepatitis B once again occur. We’ll see transmission into the next generation,” he said, “and the next generation of people who wear white coats will have to deal with hepatitis B, when we could have cut it off at the pass.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, questioning whether Americans understand the difference between a king and a president, told a New York Law School crowd Tuesday that improved civic education across the country would help people make better decisions.

Sotomayor, speaking at a panel discussion during a “Constitution and Citizenship Day Summit,” did not make comments that were overtly political and did not directly address any controversies of the moment. President Donald Trump was not mentioned.

At one point, though, she raised doubts about how much Americans are being taught about civics in schools.

“Do we understand what the difference is between a king and a president? And I think if people understood these things from the beginning, they would be more informed as to what would be important in a democracy in terms of what people can or shouldn’t do,” she said.

She decried the lack of education about civics and how democracy works, even giving her version of Ben Franklin’s famous anecdote at the end of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia when he was asked whether the nation would have a republic or a monarchy.

“We have a republic, madam, if we can keep it,” she recalled that Franklin said.

Sotomayor called social media “one of the largest causes of misinformation on the internet.”

“If you are only hearing one side of the story, you are not making an informed decision,” Sotomayor said. “The world is a complex place and issues are always difficult.”

The Bronx-born justice said she became interested in civics in grammar school, where she began debating issues, and improved those skills when she learned to debate both sides of a single issue.

At the end of her remarks, she urged students who watched in a large auditorium or saw her on video screens in overflow rooms to think about everything in the world that is wrong and “everything that’s happening in the United States” and realize ”we adults have really messed this up.”

She said she’s counting on today’s students to find solutions.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump formally extended the deadline to keep the social media app TikTok available in the United States until Dec. 16, giving time to complete the framework of the deal announced Monday after talks between American and Chinese government officials.

The executive order signed on Tuesday by Trump was the fourth time he has bypassed federal law to prolong the deadline for the China-associated TikTok to sell its assets to an American company or face a ban. The original deadline was Jan. 19 of this year, a day before Trump took the oath of office for his second term.

Trump was asked Tuesday about the framework deal he announced a day earlier and repeated that he would discuss TikTok with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. He has said there are companies that want to buy the social media app owned by ByteDance and that details about its potential suitors would be announced soon.

“I hate to see value like that thrown out the window,” Trump said as he departed the White House, with his wife, first lady Melania Trump, for a state visit to the United Kingdom.

The framework came out of a meeting in Madrid that concluded Monday between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, among other officials.

Bessent told reporters that the goal was to switch TikTok’s assets to U.S. ownership for its operations in America, though he declined to discuss the details of the framework.

Li Chenggang, China’s international trade representative, told reporters the sides have reached “basic framework consensus” to cooperatively resolve TikTok-related issues, reduce investment barriers and promote related economic and trade cooperation.

The U.S. president warmed to TikTok and the prospect of keeping it alive under the belief that it helped him to win younger voters in the 2024 presidential election. Still, the law mandating its sale in the U.S. was premised on the possible security risks the app poses in its collection of data.

The prolonged negotiations between the U.S. and China over TikTok might ultimately mean little as its novelty has “slowly faded,” said Syracuse University political science professor Dimitar Gueorguiev in a statement.

“The U.S.–China deal on TikTok may look like a breakthrough, but it risks being a Pyrrhic victory,” Gueorguiev said. “Its famous algorithm, once seen as uniquely powerful, has lost much of its mystique—copycat efforts show that the secret was not the code itself but TikTok’s early-mover advantage and network effects. Any U.S. buyer is therefore purchasing market share and user base, not transformative technology.”

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders lashed out Tuesday at a short-term spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month, warning Republicans they will not support a measure that doesn’t address their concerns on the soaring cost of health insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

House Republicans unveiled the spending bill Tuesday. It would keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 21, buying lawmakers more time to work out their differences on spending levels and policy for the coming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Republicans said that they were providing exactly what Democrats have insisted upon in past government shutdown battles — a clean funding bill free of partisan policy riders.

“It’ll be a clean, short-term continuing resolution, end of story,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “And it’s interesting to me that some of the same Democrats who decried government shutdowns under President Biden appear to have no heartache whatsoever at walking our nation off that cliff right now. I hope they don’t.”

The bill would generally fund agencies at current levels, with a few limited exceptions, including an extra $88 million to boost security for lawmakers and members of the Supreme Court and the executive branch. The proposed boost comes as lawmakers face an increasing number of personal threats, with their concerns heightened by last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have been asking their Republican counterparts for weeks for a meeting to negotiate on the bill, but they say that Republicans have refused. Any bill needs help from at least seven Democrats in the Senate to overcome procedural hurdles and advance to a final vote.

The two Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday after Republicans unveiled the short-term funding bill, saying that by “refusing to work with Democrats, Republicans are steering our country toward a shutdown.”

“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” Schumer and Jeffries said. “At a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.”

The House is expected to vote on the measure by Friday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would prefer the Senate take it up this week as well. But any bill will need some Democratic support and it’s unclear whether that will happen.

In past budget battles, it has generally been Republicans who’ve been willing to engage in shutdown threats as a way to focus attention on their priority demands. That was the situation during the nation’s longest shutdown in the winter of 2018-19, when President Donald Trump insisted on money to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall. A 16-day shutdown in 2013 occurred as Republicans demanded significant changes to then-President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in exchange for funding the government and permitting Treasury the borrowing latitude to pay the nation’s bills.

This time, however, Democrats are facing intense pressure from their base of supporters to stand up to Trump. They have particularly focused on the potential for skyrocketing health care premiums for millions of Americans if Congress fails to extend enhanced subsidies, which many people use to buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange. Those subsidies were put in place during the COVID crisis, but are set to expire.

Some people have already received notices that their premiums — the monthly fee paid for insurance coverage — are poised to spike next year. Insurers have sent out notices in nearly every state, with some proposing premium increases of as much as 50%. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the number of people without insurance would rise by 2.2 million in 2026, and by 3.7 million the following year, if Congress does not extend the enhanced tax credits.

Johnson called the debate over health insurance tax credits a December policy issue, not something that needs to be solved in September. And Thune said that almost every Democratic lawmaker voted for the short-term continuing resolutions when Joe Biden was president and Schumer was majority leader.

“I’m sure you’re all asking the question, are we or are we not going to have a Schumer shutdown?” Thune asked reporters Tuesday. “And it sounds like, from what he is indicating, that very well may happen.”

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Amazon Prime Video will stream two hours of coverage during the first and second rounds of the Masters beginning next year.

The Masters will stream on Prime Video from 1-3 p.m. ET daily on April 9 and 10, leading into ESPN’s coverage both days from 3-7:30 p.m.

“Working alongside Amazon in this capacity is an exciting opportunity for the Masters Tournament and its fans,” Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, said in a statement. “We are proud of our longstanding partnerships with CBS Sports and ESPN, who have set the highest standard for broadcast coverage of the Masters. The addition of Amazon will only further our abilities to expand and enhance how the Tournament is presented and enjoyed.”

Paramount+ will stream the third and fourth rounds on April 11 and 12 from noon-2 p.m. ET before CBS takes over beginning at 2 p.m.

With the addition of Prime Video, primary broadcast and streaming coverage of the Masters will be at least 27 hours, up from 18 hours last year.

“It’s an honor for all of us at Amazon to become a broadcast partner of the Masters Tournament and to provide fans additional hours of live coverage of this treasured event,” Jay Marine, head of Prime Video U.S. and Global Sports, said in a statement. “We are humbled and proud to begin our relationship with Augusta National Golf Club, and we cannot wait to get started.”

By GARY FIELDS and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to once again federalize Washington, D.C.’s police force, in what he suggested could come in response to the city’s mayor’s stated refusal to cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Trump’s emergency order, which took over the local police force, expired last week. Hours before it elapsed, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the city would not cooperate with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement in their continued operations in the nation’s capital. Earlier, she had said the city would work with other federal agencies even after the emergency order expired.

In an early-morning social media post on Monday, Trump said his intervention into the D.C.’s law enforcement had improved crime in the city, a claim Bowser has backed up, though, data shows crime was already falling in Washington before the law enforcement surge began.

Trump said crime could increase if cooperation on immigration enforcement ceases, in which case he would “call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”

The mayor’s office declined to comment.

The White House did not say if Trump would follow through on his threat. It also did not say whether the president had considered trying to extend his previous order that placed the city’s police force under federal control. The order was not renewed by Congress and lapsed Sept. 11.

Bowser issued an order Sept. 2, setting up how the local police will continue working with the federal law enforcement agencies that continue working in the city. The order listed a number of federal agencies she anticipated working cooperatively with the MPD, the local police, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Secret Service, among other agencies. Absent was ICE.

Speaking Sept. 10 at a ribbon cutting ceremony, the mayor said “immigration enforcement is not what MPD does,” referring to the local police department. She added that when the emergency order ends, “it won’t be what MPD does in the future.”

Data analyzed by the Associated Press during the emergency period showed that more than 40% of arrests were immigration related, highlighting that the Trump administration continued to advance its hardline immigration policies as it sought to fight crime in the nation’s capital.

Federal law enforcement agencies and National Guard units from D.C. and seven states are continuing operations in the city.

Trump’s threat comes the same day that the House Committee on Rules is taking up several D.C.-related bills, including a proposal to lower the age at which juveniles can be tried to 14 from 16 for certain serious crimes, as well as restricting the district’s authority over its sentencing laws and its role in selecting judges.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a similar hearing last week.

The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C council.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Monday hosted the radio program of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who was assassinated last week, telling listeners that the best way he knows how to honor his friend is to be a better husband and father.

Vance hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” from his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. The livestream of the two-hour program was broadcast in the White House press briefing room and featured a series of appearances by White House and administration officials who knew the 31-year-old Kirk.

Vance, who transported Kirk’s body home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two last week, opened by saying he was “filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I’ll do my best.”

The Republican vice president, 41, was especially close to Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations with chapters on high school and college campuses. The two began a friendship nearly a decade ago, and Kirk advocated for Vance to be Republican Donald Trump’s choice for vice president last year.

Vance spoke Monday about sitting with Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and being at a loss for words. But he said she told him something he’ll never forget, which was that her husband had never raised his voice to her and was never “cross or mean-spirited to her.”

Vance allowed that he could not say the same about himself.

“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” the vice president said on the program, which was streamed on Rumble. “That is the way I’m going to honor my friend.”

After Kirk was fatally shot last Wednesday at Utah Valley University, Vance tore up his schedule for the next day — he was scheduled Thursday to attend the 24th annual observance in New York of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — to fly instead to Orem, Utah, with his wife, second lady Usha Vance.

The two accompanied Erika Kirk and Charlie Kirk’s casket to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

NEW YORK (AP) — Serena and Venus Williams are taking a swing at podcasting.

The two sisters and tennis stars — Serena finished her career at the 2022 U.S. Open; Venus just competed at that tournament in singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles — will launch their podcast on X with a debut episode Wednesday.

The podcast is called “Stockton Street,” named for where their home was in Compton, California. It is set to air every other week on Wednesdays and will be distributed on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

The first episode was filmed at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main arena for the U.S. Open, where Serena won six of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles, and Venus collected two of her seven.

The 45-year-old Venus just became the oldest singles entrant at the U.S. Open since 1981. She returned to the tennis tour in July after a 16-month absence.

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey sued the U.S. government Monday to get her job back, saying her firing was for political reasons and was unconstitutional.

Her lawsuit in Manhattan federal court blamed the firing on the fact that her father is James Comey, a former F.B.I. director, “or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.”

Comey is seeking to be reinstated as well as a declaration that her firing was unlawful and a violation of the “Separation of Powers” clause in the U.S. Constitution.

“Defendants have not provided any explanation whatsoever for terminating Ms. Comey. In truth, there is no legitimate explanation,” the lawsuit said.

Comey, who successfully prosecuted hundreds of cases since becoming an assistant U.S. attorney in 2015, was notified of her dismissal in an email with an attachment saying she was being fired “(p)ursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution and the laws of the United States,” the lawsuit said.

James Comey was fired as FBI director by President Donald Trump in 2017. The lawsuit noted that he has since written a memoir critical of Trump and has continued to publicly criticize Trump and his administration, including a social media post in May that Trump and others perceived as threatening.

The lawsuit noted that Maurene Comey’s firing in July came the day after her supervisors had asked her to take the lead on a major public corruption case and three months after she’d received her latest “Outstanding” review.

“The politically motivated termination of Ms. Comey — ostensibly under ‘Article II of the Constitution’ — upends bedrock principles of our democracy and justice system,” the lawsuit said. “Assistant United States Attorneys like Ms. Comey must do their jobs without fearing or favoring any political party or perspective, guided solely by the law, the facts, and the pursuit of justice.”

Named as defendants in the lawsuit were, among others, the Justice Department, the Executive Office of the President, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the Office of Personnel Management and the United States.

A message for comment from the Justice Department was not immediately returned.

Comey’s July 16 firing came amid a spate of dismissals of prosecutors by the Justice Department without explanation, raising alarm that civil service protections meant to prevent terminations for political reasons were being overlooked.

Comey’s lawsuit noted that she was employed with protections under the Civil Service Reform Act governing how and why she could be terminated, including specific prohibitions against termination for discriminatory reasons such as political affiliation.

“Her termination violated every one of those protections,” the lawsuit said.

The Justice Department also has fired some prosecutors who worked on cases that have provoked Trump’s ire, including some who handled U.S. Capitol riot cases and lawyers and support staff who worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump.

She became a rising star in her office for her work on the case against financier Jeffrey Epstein and his onetime girlfriend, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and the recent prosecution of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her December 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.

Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Combs is awaiting sentencing next month after his conviction on prostitution-related charges after he was exonerated in July of more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.

By MARK KENNEDY

The Emmy Awards weren’t all about Seth Rogen walking up the aisle in his burnt brown tux to collect yet another award. It just sometimes seemed that way.

Rogen’s “The Studio” won a total of 13 Emmys, breaking the all-time record for most wins for a comedy series. Rogen himself won four, tying the record for most Emmys won by a single individual in one night.

“I’m legitimately embarrassed,” Rogen admitted at one point.

But behind the undeniable march of “The Studio” were some other pieces of Emmy history. The youngest male actor ever was crowned for the series “Adolescence” and “Severance” star Tramell Tillman became the first Black actor to win in his category. And the up and down year of Stephen Colbert hit a high.

An adolescent makes history

Owen Cooper, 15, shattered the Emmy record for youngest male acting winner.

The “Adolescence” star won best supporting actor in a limited or anthology series. The Netflix four-part series which traces the emotional fallout after a U.K. teenage stabbing, became a sensation, a sort of 2025 version of last year’s “Baby Reindeer.”

In his acceptance speech, Cooper revealed he only started acting classes a few years ago and encouraged those watching to step out of their comfort zones.

“A couple years back I didn’t expect to be in the United States, let alone here. Tonight proves if you listen, you focus and you step out of your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life. I was nothing three years ago. I’m here now,” he said.

The record for youngest male actor had previously been held by Scott Jacoby, who was 16 when he won in the supporting drama actor trophy for “That Certain Summer” in 1973. The youngest Emmy winner ever is Roxana Zal, who won a Primetime Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series in 1984 at age 14.

Cooper beat Javier Bardem, Bill Camp, Rob Delaney, Peter Sarsgaard and his “Adolescence” co-star Ashley Walters.

Stephen Colbert going out with a bang

“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” won the award for best talk series for the first time, just months after learning it was being canceled.

In July, CBS announced it was ending the show, attributing the cause to financial reasons. The series will go off the air in May 2026.

Colbert, who has hosted his show since 2015, was gracious, thanking CBS for his shot and quoting from Prince’s hit “Let’s Go Crazy”: “If the elevator tries to bring you down/Go crazy, punch a higher floor.”

Earlier in the night, he turned his time as award presenter into a job ad, getting a standing ovation as he approached the microphone to announce the winner of lead actor in a comedy series.

“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring? Because I’ve got 200 very well-qualified candidates with me here tonight. We’ll be available in June,” he said.

He then pulled out a resume and an old headshot but realized he only had the one copy. “Harrison Ford, could you get this to Spielberg?” He ran over to Ford, who seemed to promise he would.

Tramell Tillman charms

Tramell Tillman made history, but he made it all about his mom.

The “Severance” star became the first Black actor to win best supporting actor in a drama playing the creepy, unnerving Seth Milchick.

Tillman thanked his first acting coach — his mother, who was also his date.

“You remember what you want to remember. You make time for what you want to make for. Do the work. Show up. And most importantly, for the love of God, don’t embarrass me in public,” he said. “My first acting coach was tough, y’all, but all great mothers are.”

Tillman, holding the statuette high, added: “This is for you. I am full, I am humbled, I am honored.”

A fake ER worker honors the real ones

Noah Wyle’s narrative was just too powerful to deny. After getting five nominations without a win for “ER,” the actor came back to don scrubs 30 years later and won his first Emmy for playing another emergency doctor on “The Pitt.”

Wyle thanked HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television for allowing “the conditions to exist for lightning to strike in my life twice.”

And then he dedicated his award to those in the health care field.

“To anybody who’s going on shift tonight or coming off shift tonight, thank you for being in that job. This is for you,” Wyle said.

A little politics

CBS is likely wiping its network forehead that a bitterly divided nation didn’t make the Emmys a divisive place.

Yes, Javier Bardem wore a kaffiyeh in support of Palestinians and Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego criticized Congress for voting to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk were never mentioned on the broadcast and even Stephen Colbert — never shy to mock the powerful — stayed apolitical.

The most explosive it got was when “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder ended her acceptance speech win with vocal support for the Philadelphia Eagles, an expletive aimed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and a call to “free Palestine.”

Speeches that cost a lot

At the last Emmys, host Anthony Anderson turned to his mother to enforce shorter acceptance speeches. This year host Nate Bargatze used guilt.

He revealed he would pledge $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America but that donation would shrink by $1,000 for every second a winner exceeded their 45-second speech limit.

Some winners went too long — like Einbinder, who promised to pay the difference — and some went purposely fast — like John Oliver and Rogen — to take advantage of a new rule Bargatze proposed: Every second saved from the 45-second limit would get back $1,000.

In the end, Bargatze promised to still donate not just the original amount, but — when adding CBS’ contribution — came out to be a full $350,000.

“Go to heaven a-shoutin’”

Phylicia Rashad introduced the in memoriam section, highlighting the loss of her TV son, Malcolm Jamal Warner, the “Cosby Show” star who died in July. “Like all our friends and colleagues who transitioned this past year, Malcolm Jamal Warner remains in our hearts.”

Then Lainey Wilson and Vince Gill sang a tender “Go Rest High on That Mountain” during the tribute, which included Teri Garr, Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Woolery, Loni Anderson, Bill Moyers, George Wendt, Loretta Swit. Maggie Smith, David Lynch, Richard Chamberlain, Linda Lavin, Anne Burrell, Michelle Trachtenberg and Quincy Jones. Notable absences were Hulk Hogan and Polly Holliday.

Tributes, tributes, tributes

The Emmys looked back by celebrating the anniversary of several shows, including having Reba McEntire, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman performing the theme song of “The Golden Girls” for its 40th anniversary.

Jeff Probst was on hand to celebrate the 50th season of “Survivor,” presenting the award for scripted variety series as if it was a tribal council meeting.

Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham stood in a replica of their Connecticut home set to celebrate “Gilmore Girls,” a coming-of-age story, blending wittiness with relatable family dynamics that celebrated its debut 25 years ago.

Additional tributes honored “Law & Order’s” 35th anniversary, featuring Ice-T, Tony Goldwyn, Mariska Hargitay, S. Epatha Merkerson and Christopher Meloni.

“Grey’s Anatomy” — the longest-running prime-time medical drama in American television history — was supposed to mark its 20th anniversary with appearances by Eric Dane and Jesse Williams. Only Williams was there; Dane revealed his ALS diagnosis in April.

Ray Romano and Brad Garrett had a mini-reunion of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It was one of the night’s funniest bits, with both men sad about how long it had taken them to be back at the Emmys. Garrett wondered if he’d make the in memoriam section after he died. “If it’s a slow year, no doubt,” Romano told him.

This story corrects the title of “Baby Reindeer.”

For more coverage of this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards

By JESSICA DAMIANO

If the wait for bulbs to bloom in spring seems excruciatingly long, you can pot some up now and enjoy a floriferous winter indoors.

Gardeners are constantly gaming the system, using fertilizers to force plants to direct energy toward more blooms, more fruit or faster growth; starting seeds indoors to ensure earlier tomatoes; and using row covers or cold frames to extend the season. So why not bend nature’s schedule to gift ourselves some joy during the bleakness of January?

That is, after all, what professional growers do to fill all those pastel-foil-wrapped pots of tulips and daffodils sold as Easter plants.

All you need are clay pots, potting mix, ordinary spring bulbs and some patience.

How to do it

Fill pots with the mix, then set grape or standard hyacinth, tulip, daffodil or crocus bulbs — or a combination — just beneath the surface. (Tulip bulbs should be angled with their flat sides facing outward so that their eventual leaves unfurl over the container’s edge.)

Store the pots at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit for four to six weeks to ensure good root establishment, and water regularly to keep the soil slightly moist. An unheated basement or attached garage could serve well, depending on your location.

Then prepare for the deception.

For the bulbs to bloom, you’ll have to convince them that they’ve lived through winter. You can achieve this by placing the pots in the refrigerator (away from fruit, which releases ethylene gas that inhibits sprouting) for 12 weeks.

If you find yourself growing impatient, you can remove them from the fridge after six weeks, but they will take longer to bloom.

And if you’re feeling creative, take one pot out at the six-week mark, then remove another every couple of weeks. You’ll be rewarded with a succession of blooms that will last through winter.

After the chilling period, move the pots into the warmth and light of your living space, where they’ll grow and bloom in as little as two weeks. If you live in a frost-free region, you can even plant the chilled bulbs outdoors.

Aside from water, the plants won’t require anything from you, as bulbs contain all the stored energy and nutrients they need to survive and thrive.

When the danger of frost has passed, you can move your plants into the garden. Tulips may not reappear next year — that’s a gamble with nothing to lose — but you can expect daffodils, crocus and hyacinths to bloom again alongside their bedmates.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

Just after Labor Day, movie studios become more serious-minded about the films they are releasing — with the upcoming awards season in mind.

That means titles, directors and actors will start showing up on theater marquees that studios hope will be repeated on Oscar night.

Not that the popcorn season has popped its last kernel. Plenty of potential blockbusters will be hitting theaters this season along with expected “prestige” films.

This fall season is no exception, with awards contenders getting carted out amongst the crowd-pleasers.

And, of course, plenty of sequels, reboots and remakes will be in the picture. This fall, for example, brings the hard-luck rockers from “Spinal Tap” back to the big screen in a much-anticipated sequel. “Downton Abbey” gets a “Grand Finale.” Bill Condon offers a new take on “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” And Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi star in Guillermo del Toro’s new adaption of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”

In short, film fans can look forward to a rich assortment of new and time-honored cinematic stories this fall.

We took a look at a few (44!) of the most promising titles hitting theaters from Sept. 5 to Nov. 14. Note: Release dates are subject to change.

September

“Twinless”: A single-for-a-reason guy (director/screenwriter James Sweeney) enters a support group and gets cozy with a straight twin (Dylan O’Brien, in a dual role). Confused? Not to worry; this hot, cringey jaw-dropper makes sense out of an increasingly outlandish situation. (In theaters Sept. 5.)

“The Conjuring: Last Rites”: The Smurl brood from Pennsylvania hire paranormal-busters Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) to remove a most unwelcome demonic houseguest. Billed as the final in the franchise. (In theaters Sept. 5.)

“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues”: Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for late-blooming nostalgic sequels (“Beetlejuice,” “Happy Gilmore”) continues with director/co-screenwriter Rob Reiner’s ADU to his 1984 mockumentary classic.  It takes place 41 years after with those estranged metalheads and documentarian Marty Di Bergi (Reiner) prepping for one last boisterous concert. Paul McCartney and Elton John crash the party. (In theaters Sept. 12.)

“Paper Bag Plan”: Oakland native Anthony Lucero’s big-hearted follow to his Oakland-set “East Side Sushi” follows a terminally ill father (Lance Kinsey) as he shows disabled son (Cole Massie) the ropes on bagging groceries so he’ll thrive independently. Both performances are phenomenal. (Opens Sept. 12 at the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland; Sept. 19 at Cinelux Almaden Cafe & Lounge, San Jose.)

“The Long Walk”: Some Stephen King diehards consider his 1979 dystopian psychological thriller, written as Richard Bachman, to be his bleakest. That’s saying somethin’. This one is about teen boys in an authoritarian America participating in a brutal and lethal walking contest. (In theaters Sept. 12.)

“Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale”: The 1930s prove a topsy-turvy time for the Crawleys as they weather scandal and money woes, all of which disrupt the lives of the people who work for them. (In theaters Sept. 12.)

“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle”: Anime fans are already queuing up for the latest outing that’s based on the insanely popular fantasy manga and series. (In theaters Sept. 12.)

“HIM”: Executive producer Jordan Peele hands the big-league ball over to talented El Cerrito-born filmmaker Justin Tipping (“Kicks”), who directs/co-writes a sports horror story about a gifted young athlete (Tyriq Withers) training at a freaky football camp overseen by a sunsetting game veteran (Marlon Wayans). (In theaters Sept. 19.)

“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”: Two of today’s most beloved actors — Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell — unite for a romantic fantasy wherein strangers get a chance to revisit their pasts. Kogonada (he of the the criminally underrated “After Yang”) directs. (In theaters Sept. 19.)

“The Lost Bus”: Matthew McConaughey is a school bus driver and America Ferrera is a teacher who team to save schoolchildren during the horrific 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County. Director Paul Greengrass co-wrote the screenplay. (In select theaters Sept. 19; streaming on Apple TV+ Oct. 3.)

“One Battle After Another”: Paul Thomas Anderson attempts the near-impossible again, adapting another wily Thomas Pynchon tome. (He had limited success with “Inherent Vice.”) Leonardo Di Caprio, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Sean Penn hop aboard for this wild ride wherein a pack of quirky ex-revolutionaries queue up to save one of their daughters. (In theaters Sept. 26.)

“Eleanor the Great”: In Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, June Squibb portrays a longing-for-connection 94-year-old who sparks the attention of a journalism student after she shares a story that’s not her own. (In theaters Sept. 26.)

October

“The Smashing Machine”: Will Hayward native Dwayne Johnson score an acting nom for his portrayal of real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr? With Benny Safdie helming this bio-pic, it wouldn’t surprise us. (In theaters Oct. 3.)

“Anemone”: One of our acting greats — Daniel Day-Lewis — comes out of retirement for a drama he co-wrote with son, Ronan — who directs. The Oscar winner plays a hermit who reconnects with his brother decades after a traumatic incident. (In limited release Oct. 3; expands Oct. 10.)

“Shelby Oaks”: A horrifying videotape propels a woman on a hellish odyssey to pinpoint her long-missing sister. It’s YouTube sensation Chris Stuckmann’s horror debut. (In theaters Oct. 3.)

“Good Boy”: Some might well shout out “nepo puppy!” upon hearing that the doggie hero in this horror film is played by director Ben Leonberg’s retriever Indy. Don’t. Word is this effective horror ditty set in a haunted country home features star turns from its director, canine star and others in the cast. (In theaters Oct. 3.)

“Bone Lake”: Wicked and kinky games between two couples turn bloody in a cabin in the woods. This erotic horror film has been shocking early audiences. (In theaters Oct. 3.)

“Tron: Ares”:  After the meh “Tron: Legacy” (2010), Disney hopes to rev up the engines of this franchise. Jared Leto is in the driver’s seat in an AI-themed actionfest set in the real world. Original star Jeff Bridges gives it gravitas. (In theaters Oct. 10.)

“Roofman”: In this film based on a true story, a robber (Channing Tatum) camps out for six months in a Toys “R” Us store but finds that double-life challenged when he meets a customer (Kirsten Dunst). Derek Cianfrance

(“Blue Valentine”) directed and co-wrote this comedy-drama. (In theaters Oct. 10.)

“Kiss of the Spider Woman”: Both the Tony-winning musical adaptation and the 1976 novel it was based on, which also begat an award-winning 1985 feature, serve as the inspiration for Bill Condon’s music-infused version with Diego Luna, Tonatiuh and Jennifer Lopez. It’s centered on a relationship between two people in prison. (In theaters Oct. 10.)

“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”: Rose Byrne’s gaining buzz for her committed performance as a stressed-to-the-breaking-point mom who leaps from one crisis to another. Conan O’Brien plays her not-so-helpful therapist. (In select theaters Oct. 10.)

“After the Hunt”: The past of college professor Alma Olsson (Julia Roberts) and academic egos collide when a brilliant student (Ayo Edebiri) lobs a sexual abuse accusation the way of Alma’s colleague (Andrew Garfield). Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name,” “Challengers”) directs this conversation-starter, which sparked a vigorous post-screening convo after its Venice Film Fest screening last weekend. (Opens Oct. 10 in Los Angeles and New York; Oct. 17 elsewhere.)

“It Was Just an Accident”: Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s intense drama continues to gobble up awards on the festival circuit, including the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes. The premise is a grabber: A mechanic believes he’s run into the cruel jailhouse captor from his past and takes matters into his own hands. (In select theaters Oct. 15.)

“Ballad of a Small Player”: “Conclave” director Edward Berger jumps from bishops to gamblers for this adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s much-praised novel set in Macau. Colin Farrell rolls the dice in the lead. (In select theaters Oct. 15; available on Netflix Oct. 29.)

“Good Fortune”: The trailer alone promises huge laughs, as a bungling angel (Keanu Reeves) becomes too involved in the lives of a down-on-his-luck gig worker (Aziz Ansari, who also directs and stars) and an obscenely rich venture capitalist (Seth Rogen). (In theaters Oct. 17.)

“Frankenstein”: Mary Shelley’s Gothic classic comes to life again, this time with Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as The Creature and Mia Goth as Elizabeth and Guillermo del Toro directing. (In select theaters Oct. 17; on Netflix Nov. 7.)

“Black Phone 2”: Villains never stay dead and buried, at least in the horror film world. Case in point: The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) who haunts the living daylights once again out of a now-17-year-old Finn (Mason Thames) and his sister at a snowed-in winter resort. Scott Derrickson returns to direct.

“Hedda”: Nia DaCosta (“Candyman”) gives Ibsen’s classic story and iconic character a modern revival with Tessa Thompson portraying Hedda, who’s confronting harsh societal expectations and demands. (In select theaters Oct. 22; available on Amazon Prime Oct. 29.)

“Regretting You”: Colleen Hoover’s tearjerker of a best seller about a mom (Allison Williams) and daughter (Mckenna Grace) and the fraught relationship between the two that settles in after a tragic accident stars Palo Alto native Dave Franco and Monterey native Scott Eastwood, as well Mason Thames. (In theaters Oct. 24.)

“Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”: Director/screenwriter Scott Cooper hones in on a pivotal period in the career of The Boss (Jeremy Allen White): the making of his brilliant 1982 acoustic album “Nebraska.” Will the smoldering star of “The Bear” land an Oscar nod like Timothée Chalamet did for playing Dylan? Looks hopeful. (In theaters Oct. 24.)

“Bugonia”: In yet another bizarre head trip from filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, two “worker bees”(Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) become convinced a CEO (Emma Stone) is intent on obliterating our world. So they kidnap her. Will Tracy’s screenplay uses the 2003 Korean comedy “Save the Green Planet!” as its jumping off point. (In New York and Los Angeles Oct. 24; opens wide Oct. 31.)

“Blue Moon”: The often-inebriated lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) hangs out at a New York bar on the eve of the premiere of his collaboration with Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), the musical “Oklahoma!,” and becomes smitten with an enchanting woman (Margaret Qualley). Richard Linklater directs. (In theaters Oct. 24.)

“Nouvelle Vague”: What transpired during the making of Jean Luc-Godard’s French New Wave classic “Breathless”?  Richard Linklater’s black-and-white film imagines it. (In select theaters Oct. 31; on Netflix Nov. 14.)

“A House of Dynamite”: Director Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson focuses on a missile getting aimed at the U.S. and the countdown over what to do next. (Available on Netflix Oct. 24.)

November

“Train Dreams”: The Sundance crowd embraced Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella about an early 20th century logger and railroad worker portrayed by Joel Edgerton. (In select theatres Nov. 7; on Netflix Nov. 21.)

“Predator: Badlands”: Dan Trachtenberg revitalized the “Predator” franchise in 2022 with the Indigenous-themed “Prey” and he looks to be carrying on that tradition with a futuristic rejiggering in which a Predator that’s been rejected from his clan teams with a female robot (Elle Fanning) and takes on a new nemesis. (In theaters Nov. 7.)

“Sentimental Value”: The Cannes crowd gushed over Joachim Trier’s latest drama, which reteams the director with the iridescent Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”). She plays one of two daughters sucked into her father’s filmmaking world. (In theaters Nov. 7.)

“Nuremberg”: Pressure reaches the boiling point for a psychiatrist (Rami Malek) determining whether infamous Nazi leader Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) is mentally sound to stand trial. Director James Vanderbilt adapts author Jack El-Hai’s “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist.” (In theaters Nov. 7.)

“I Wish You All the Best”: When their parents kick them out for revealing they’re nonbinary, Ben (Corey Fogelmanis) moves in with their estranged sister and finds connection and friendship at a new school. Tommy Dorfman steps into the director’s and producer’s chair and adapts author Mason Deaver’s heralded YA novel. (In theaters Nov. 7.)

“The Running Man”: Edgar Wright put his electrifying directorial skills to work with his take on a 1982 Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) novel that was turned into a 1987 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Glenn Powell enters the danger zone as a contestant participating in a deadly game. Colman Domingo looks to be a scene stealer as the host of “The Running Man” show. (In theaters Nov. 14.)

“Keeper”: Prolific Osgood Perkins (“Longlegs,” “The Monkey”) gives us another multi-layered horror story, this time penned by “Dangerous Animals” screenwriter Nick Lepard. It’s set in a cabin in the woods where a couple (Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland) gets sucked into a vortex of terror. (In theaters Nov. 14.)

“Now You See Me, Now You Don’t”: A diamond heist brings veteran and newbie illusionists together in the latest installment of a franchise that again boasts a killer cast (Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Rosamund Pike, Morgan Freeman and more. (In theaters Nov. 14.)

“Jay Kelly”: With his longtime manager (Adam Sandler) by his side, an introspective 60-year-old actor (George Clooney) considers his place in the world while attending an Italian film festival honoring him. Noah Baumbach’s dramedy costars Billy Crudup, Laura Dern and Greta Gerwig. (In theaters Nov. 14.)

“Sirat”: The search for a young woman brings a father and son to a rave in Morocco in this twist-filled, genre-defiant feature from Oliver Laxe.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.

By Jamie Ducharme, KFF Health News

After losing 50 pounds on the injectable weight loss medication Zepbound, Kyra Wensley received a surprising letter from her pharmacy benefit manager in April.

Her request for coverage had been denied, the letter said, because she’d had a body mass index of less than 35 when she started Zepbound. The 25-year-old who lives in New York had been taking Zepbound without incident for months, so she was confused: Why was her BMI, which had been around 32 when she started, becoming an issue only now?

Wensley had no interest in quitting an effective drug. “Going right off like that, it’s easier said than done,” she said.

Her doctor fought to keep her on the GLP-1 agonist, the category that includes weight loss and Type 2 diabetes drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. But Wensley ultimately had to switch from Zepbound to Wegovy to meet her plan’s requirements. She said she doesn’t like Wegovy as much as her old medication, but she now feels lucky to be on any GLP-1.

Lots of research suggests such medications must be used indefinitely to maintain weight loss and related health benefits. But with list prices of roughly $1,000 a month, public and private payers are struggling to keep up with ballooning demand for GLP-1 weight loss drugs and in some cases are eliminating or restricting their coverage as a result.

North Carolina Medicaid plans to end GLP-1 coverage for weight loss on Oct. 1, just over a year after starting the coverage. Pennsylvania is planning to limit Medicaid coverage to beneficiaries at the highest risk of complications from obesity. And despite recent reports of a potential federal pilot program to extend coverage of GLP-1 obesity drugs under Medicaid and Medicare, all state Medicaid programs are likely to be under pressure due to steep spending cuts in the budget reconciliation package recently signed into law by President Donald Trump.

Already, many GLP-1 users quit within a year, studies suggest — often due to side effects, high costs, or insurance issues. Now a growing number of researchers, payers, and providers are exploring deliberate “deprescription,” which aims to taper some patients off their medication after they have taken it for a certain amount of time or lost a certain amount of weight.

The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which creates guidance for the National Health Service, recommends two-year limits on the use of some weight loss medications, such as Wegovy. And the concept was raised in a recent Institute for Clinical and Economic Review report on affordable access to obesity drugs.

A. Mark Fendrick, who directs the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, has argued that if some people using GLP-1s to lose weight were eventually transitioned off, more people could take advantage of them.

“If you’re going to spend $1 billion or $100 billion, you could either spend it on fewer people for a long period of time, or you can spend it on a lot more people for a shorter period of time,” he said.

Fendrick’s employer, the University of Michigan, indeed does that. Its prescription drug plan caps coverage of GLP-1 drugs at two years if they’re used solely for weight loss.

Jamie Bennett, a spokesperson for Wegovy and Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk, declined to comment on the concept of deprescription, noting that its drugs are intended for chronic conditions. Rachel Sorvig, a spokesperson for Zepbound and Mounjaro manufacturer Eli Lilly, said in a statement that users should “talk to their health care provider about dosage and duration needs.”

Studies have shown that people typically regain a substantial amount of weight within a year of stopping GLP-1 medications, and that many people who quit ultimately go back on the drugs.

“There’s no standard of care or gold standard on how to wean right now,” said Allison Adams, an obesity and internal medicine doctor with UK HealthCare in Kentucky.

But the math shows why time-limited coverage is appealing to payers that struggle to pay for beneficiaries’ GLP-1 prescriptions, said Michelle Gourdine, chief medical officer for the pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark.

And states are “between a rock and a hard place,” said Kody Kinsley, who until January led North Carolina’s Health and Human Services Department. “They’re going to have to look at every single thing and trim dollars everywhere they can.”

Pennsylvania was looking for cost-saving strategies even before the new federal tax-and-spending law, according to Brandon Cwalina, press secretary for the state’s Department of Human Services. Pennsylvania projects it will spend $1.3 billion on GLP-1 drugs this year.

Plans could see real savings, Fendrick said, if they covered GLP-1s for initial weight loss then moved people to cheaper options — such as more affordable drugs or behavioral health programs — to maintain it.

Plenty of companies are eager to sell insurers, employers, and individuals on behavioral alternatives. One is Virta Health, which advertises its nutrition-focused weight management program as “a proven approach for deprescribing GLP-1s when clinically appropriate.” A Virta-funded study assessed 154 people with Type 2 diabetes who stopped using GLP-1 medications but continued following Virta’s program, concluding that their weight did not significantly increase after a year.

Researchers affiliated with a European weight management company also recently reported that slowly tapering off the medications may help maintain weight loss.

For employers and insurers, the “initial question” was whether to cover GLP-1s for obesity, said Virta CEO Sami Inkinen. “Now, basically, everyone’s coming to the middle and asking, ‘How do we responsibly cover these drugs?’”

Part of responsible coverage, Inkinen said, is providing other forms of support to patients who stop using GLP-1 medications, by choice or otherwise.

For some people, however, maintaining weight loss without a GLP-1 remains a challenge, even with other options available.

Lily, who lives in Michigan, lost almost 80 pounds in roughly 18 months on Wegovy. But she had to quit the drug when she turned 26 and left her parents’ insurance plan this year. The plan her employer offers stopped covering GLP-1s for weight loss right around the time she joined.

Lily, who asked to be identified by only her first name because she is not out to her family as transgender, has tried other medications since then, and previously tried lifestyle programs to control her weight. But she said nothing works as well for her as Wegovy.

She has regained 20 pounds since going off the drug at the beginning of the year and worries that number will continue to rise, potentially contributing to future health problems.

“Just give people the drugs,” she said. “It seems cheaper and safer in the long run.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Today is Saturday, Sept. 13, the 256th day of 2025. There are 109 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 13, 1993, at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands after signing an accord granting limited Palestinian autonomy.

Also on this date:

In 1788, the Congress of the Confederation authorized the first national election and declared New York City the temporary national capital.

In 1948, Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the U.S. Senate; she became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

In 1971, a four-day inmate rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in western New York ended as police and guards stormed the prison; the ordeal and final assault claimed the lives of 32 inmates and 11 hostages.

In 1997, a funeral was held in Kolkata, India, for Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa.

In 2008, crews rescued people from their homes in an all-out search for thousands of Texans who had stayed behind overnight to face Hurricane Ike.

In 2010, Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic to win his first U.S. Open title and complete a career Grand Slam.

In 2021, school resumed for New York City public school students in the nation’s largest experiment of in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Barbara Bain is 94.
• Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias is 85.
• Rock singer David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat & Tears) is 84.
• Actor Jacqueline Bisset is 81.
• Singer Peter Cetera is 81.
• Actor Jean Smart is 74.
• Record producer Don Was is 73.
• Chef Alain Ducasse is 69.
• Rock singer-musician Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) is 64.
• Olympic gold medal sprinter Michael Johnson is 58.
• Filmmaker Tyler Perry is 56.
• Fashion designer Stella McCartney is 54.
• Former tennis player Goran Ivanisevic (ee-van-EE’-seh-vihch) is 54.
• Country musician Joe Don Rooney (Rascal Flatts) is 50.
• Singer-songwriter Fiona Apple is 48.
• Actor Ben Savage is 45.
• Soccer player Thomas Müller is 36.
• Rock singer Niall Horan (One Direction) is 32.
• Actor Lili Reinhart (TV: “Riverdale”) is 29.

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

The governors of Arizona and Maine on Friday joined the growing list of Democratic officials who have signed orders intended to ensure most residents can receive COVID-19 vaccines at pharmacies without individual prescriptions.

Unlike past years, access to COVID-19 vaccines has become complicated in 2025, largely because federal guidance does not recommend them for nearly everyone this year as it had in the past.

Here’s a look at where things stand.

Pharmacy chain says the shots are available in most states without individual prescriptions

CVS Health, the biggest pharmacy chain in the U.S., says its stores are offering the shots without an individual prescription in 41 states as of midday Friday.

But the remaining states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah and West Virginia, plus the District of Columbia — require individual prescriptions under the company’s interpretation of state policies.

Arizona and Maine are likely to come off that list as the new orders take effect there.

“I will not stand idly by while the Trump Administration makes it harder for Maine people to get a vaccine that protects their health and could very well save their life,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills said in the statement. “Through this standing order, we are stepping up to knock down the barriers the Trump Administration is putting in the way of the health and welfare of Maine people.”

Democratic governors have been taking action

At least 14 states — 12 with Democratic governors, plus Virginia, where Republican Glenn Youngkin is governor — have announced policies this month to ease access.

In some of the states that have expanded access — including Delaware and New Jersey this week — at least some pharmacies were already providing the shots broadly.

But in Arizona and Maine, Friday’s orders are expected to change the policy.

While most Republican-controlled states have not changed vaccine policy this month, the inoculations are still available there under existing policies.

In addition to the round of orders from governors, boards of pharmacy and other officials, four states — California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — have announced an alliance to make their own vaccine recommendations. Of those, only Oregon doesn’t currently allow the shots in pharmacies without individual prescriptions.

Vaccines have become politically contentious

In past years, the federal government has recommended the vaccines to all Americans above the age of 6 months.

This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved them for people age 65 and over but said they should be used only for children and younger adults who have a risk factor such as asthma or obesity.

That change came as U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June, accusing of them of being too closely aligned with the companies that make the vaccines. The replacements include vaccine skeptics.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, framed her order Friday as “protecting the health care freedom” of people in the state.

One state has taken another stance on vaccines

Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, announced this month that the state could become the first to eliminate requirements that children have a list of vaccinations.

Since then, though, the state health department said that the change likely wouldn’t take effect until December and that without legislative action, only some vaccines — including for chickenpox — would become optional. The measles and polio shots would remain mandatory.

Associated Press writer Patrick Whittle in Maine contributed to this report.

By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Republicans handed President Donald Trump a political victory Friday, giving final legislative approval to a redistricting plan that could help Republicans win an additional U.S. House seat in next year’s elections.

The Senate vote sends the redistricting plan to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe for his expected signature to make it law. But opponents immediately announced a referendum petition that, if successful, could force a statewide vote on the new map.

Missouri is the third state to take up mid-decade redistricting in an emerging national battle for partisan advantage ahead of the midterm elections. Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U.S. House map last month aimed at helping their party win five additional seats. Democratic lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan aimed at winning five more seats, but it still needs voter approval.

Each seat could be critical, because Democrats need to gain just three seats to win control of the House, which would allow them to obstruct Trump’s agenda and launch investigations into him. Trump is trying to stave off a historic trend in which the president’s party typically loses seats in midterm elections.

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. The revised map passed the state House earlier this week as the focal point of a special session called by Kehoe.

Missouri’s revised map targets a seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by shaving off portions of his Kansas City district and stretching the rest of it into Republican-heavy rural areas. The plan reduces the number of Black and minority residents in Cleaver’s district, partly by creating a dividing line along a street that Cleaver said had been a historical segregation line between Black and white residents.

Cleaver, who was Kansas City’s first Black mayor, has served in Congress for over 20 years. He won reelection with over 60% of the vote in both 2024 and 2022 under districts adopted by the Republican-led state Legislature after the 2020 census.

By DAVID A. LIEB and M.K. WILDEMAN, Associated Press

President Donald Trump has approved federal disaster aid for six states and tribes following storms and floods that occurred this spring and summer.

The disaster declarations, announced Thursday, will allow federal funding to flow to Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin, and for tribes in Montana and South Dakota. In each case except Wisconsin, it took Trump more than a month to approve the aid requests from local officials, continuing a trend of longer waits for disaster relief noted by a recent Associated Press analysis.

Trump has now approved more than 30 major natural disaster declarations since taking office in January. Before the latest batch, his approvals had averaged a 34-day wait from the time the relief was requested. For his most recent declarations, that wait ranged from just 15 days following an aid request for Wisconsin flooding in August to 56 days following a tribal request for Montana flooding that occurred in May.

The AP’s analysis showed that delays in approving federal disaster aid have grown over time, regardless of the party in power. On average, it took less than two weeks for requests for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. That rose to about three weeks during the past decade under presidents from both major parties. During Trump’s first term in office, it took him an average of 24 days to approve requests.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the AP that Trump is providing “a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him” to make sure that federal tax dollars are spent wisely.

But delays mean individuals must wait to receive federal aid for daily living expenses, temporary lodging and home repairs. Delays in disaster declarations also can hamper recovery efforts by local officials uncertain whether they will receive federal reimbursement for cleaning up debris and rebuilding infrastructure.

Trump’s latest declarations approved public assistance for local governments and nonprofits in all cases except Wisconsin, where assistance for individuals was approved. But that doesn’t preclude the federal government from later also approving public assistance for Wisconsin.

Preliminary estimates from Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ administration said more than 1,500 residential structures were destroyed or suffered major damage in August flooding at a cost of more than $33 million. There was also more than $43 million in public sector damage over six counties, according to the Evers administration.

Evers requested aid for residents in six counties, but Trump approved it only for three.

“I will continue to urge the Trump Administration to approve the remainder of my request, and I will keep fighting to make sure Wisconsin receives every resource that is needed and available,” Evers said in a statement in which he thanked Democratic officeholders for their efforts, but not Trump or any Republicans.

Trump had announced several of the disaster declarations — including Wisconsin’s — on his social media site while noting his victories in those states and highlighting their Republican officials. He received thanks from Democratic North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein and Republican officials elsewhere.

Trump’s approval of six major disaster declarations in one day would have been unusual for some presidents but not for him. Trump approved seven disaster requests on July 22 and nine on May 21.

But Trump has not approved requests for hazard mitigation assistance — a once-typical add-on that helps recipients build back with resilience — since February.

Associated Press writers Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Scott Bauer, Jack Dura and Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.

By Nada Hassanein, Stateline.org

Pharmacies in Black and Latino neighborhoods are less likely to dispense buprenorphine — one of the main treatments for opioid use disorder — even though people of color are more likely to die from opioid overdoses.

The drug helps reduce cravings for opioids and the likelihood of a fatal overdose.

While the nation as a whole has seen decreases in opioid overdose deaths in recent years, overdose deaths among Black, Latino and Indigenous people have continued to increase.

Many medical and health policy experts fear the broad domestic policy law President Donald Trump signed in July will worsen the problem by increasing the number of people without health insurance. As a result of the law, the number of people without coverage will increase by about 10 million by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

About 7.5 million of the people who will lose coverage under the new law are covered by Medicaid. Shortly before Trump signed the bill into law, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University estimated that roughly 156,000 Medicaid recipients will lose access to medications for opioid addiction because of the cuts, resulting in approximately 1,000 more overdose deaths annually.

Because Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented on the rolls, the Medicaid cuts will have a disproportionate effect on communities that already face higher barriers to getting medications to treat addiction.

From 2017 to 2023, the percentage of U.S. retail pharmacies regularly dispensing buprenorphine increased from 33% to 39%, according to a study published last week in Health Affairs.

But researchers found the drug was much less likely to be available in pharmacies in mostly Black (18% of pharmacies) and Hispanic neighborhoods (17%), compared with mostly white ones (46%).

In some states, the disparity was even worse. In California, for example, only about 9% of pharmacies in Black neighborhoods dispensed buprenorphine, compared with 52% in white neighborhoods.

The researchers found buprenorphine was least available in Black and Latino neighborhoods across nearly all states.

Barriers to treatment

Dr. Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, a family physician who specializes in addiction medicine, said many communities of color are “pharmacy deserts.” Even the pharmacies that do exist in those neighborhoods tend to “have additional barriers to obtain buprenorphine and other controlled substances out of a concern for historic overuse of some treatments,” said Trotzky-Sirr, who wasn’t involved in the study.

In addition to its federal classification as a controlled substance, buprenorphine is also subject to state regulations to prevent illegal use. Pharmacies that carry it know that wholesalers and distributors audit their orders, which dissuades some from stocking or dispensing it.

Dima Qato, associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California and an author of the Health Affairs study, said that without changes in policy, Black and Hispanic people will continue to have an especially hard time getting buprenorphine.

“If you don’t address these dispensing regulations, or regulate buprenorphine from the aspect of pharmacy regulations, people are still going to encounter barriers accessing it,” she said.

In neighborhoods where at least a fifth of the population is on Medicaid, just 35% of pharmacies dispensed buprenorphine, Qato and her team found. But in neighborhoods with fewer residents on Medicaid, about 42% of pharmacies carried the drug.

Medicaid covers nearly half— 47% — of nonelderly adults who suffer from opioid use disorder. In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, another recent study found an increase in people getting prescriptions for buprenorphine.

“Medicaid is the backbone of care for people struggling with opioid use disorder,” said Cherlette McCullough, a Florida-based mental health therapist. “We’re going to see people in relapse. We’re going to see more overdoses. We’re going to see more people in the ER.”

Qato said the shortage of pharmacies in minority communities is likely to get worse, as many independent pharmacists are already struggling to stay open.

“We know they’re more likely to close in neighborhoods of color, so there’s going to be even fewer pharmacies that carry it in the neighborhoods that really need it,” she said.

‘There needs to be urgency’

Qato and her colleagues say states and local governments should mandate that pharmacies carry a minimum stock of buprenorphine and dispense it to anyone coming in with a legitimate prescription. As examples, they point to a Philadelphia ordinance mandating that pharmacies carry the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone and similar emergency contraception requirements in Massachusetts.

“We need to create expectations. We need to encourage our pharmacies to carry this to make it accessible, same day, and there needs to be urgency,” said Arianna Campbell, a physician assistant and co-founder of the Bridge Center, a California-based organization that aims to help increase addiction treatment in emergency rooms.

“In many of the conversations I have with pharmacies, when I’m getting some pushback, I have to say: ‘Hey, this person’s at the highest risk of dying right now. They need this medication right now.’”

She said patients frequently become discouraged due to barriers they face in getting prescriptions filled. The Bridge Center has been expanding its patient navigator program across the state, and helping other states start their own. The program helps patients identify pharmacies where they can fill their prescription fastest.

“There’s a medication that can help you, but at every turn it’s really hard to get it,” she said, calling the disparities in access to medication treatment “unacceptable.”

Trotzky-Sirr, the California doctor, fears the looming Medicaid cuts will cause many of her patients to discontinue treatment and relapse. Many of her patients are covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.

“A lot of our patients are able to obtain medications for treatment of addiction like buprenorphine, because of the state covering the cost of the medication,” said Trotzky-Sirr, who also is a regional coordinator at the Bridge Center.

“They don’t have the resources to pay for it, cash, out of pocket.”

Some low-income patients switch between multiple providers or clinics as they try to find care and coverage, she added. These could be interpreted as red flags to a pharmacy.

Trotzky-Sirr argued buprenorphine does not need to be monitored as carefully as opioids and other drugs that are easier to misuse or overuse.

“Buprenorphine does not have those features and really needs to be in a class by itself,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to explain that to a pharmacist in 30 seconds over the phone.”

More is known about the medication now than when it was placed on the controlled substances list about two decades ago, said Brendan Saloner, a Bloomberg Professor of American Health in Addiction and Overdose at Johns Hopkins University.

Pharmacies are fearful of regulatory scrutiny and don’t have “countervailing pressure” to ensure patients get the treatments, he said.

On top of that fear, Medicaid managed care plans’ prior authorization processes may also be adding to the pharmacy bottleneck, he said.

“Black and Latino communities have higher rates of Medicaid enrollment, so to the extent that Medicaid prior authorization techniques are a hassle to pharmacies, that may also kind of discourage them [pharmacies] from stocking buprenorphine,” he said.

In some states, buprenorphine is much more readily available. In Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont, more than 70% of pharmacies carried the drug, according to the study. Buprenorphine availability was highest in states such as Oregon that have the least restrictive regulations for dispensing it.

In contrast, less than a quarter of pharmacies in Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C., carried the medication.

“We’re going to see more people becoming unhoused, because without treatment, they’re going to go back to those old habits,” McCullough, the Florida therapist, said. “When we talk about marginalized communities, these are the populations that are going to suffer the most because they already have challenges with access to care.”

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

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