WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved Thursday to shut down a Miami organ donation group, calling it “failing” because of underperformance, unsafe practices and paperwork errors.
The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, nonprofit agencies around the country that coordinate the recovery of organs from deceased donors and help match them to patients on the nation’s transplant waiting list.
The administration cited an investigation that found a 2024 case where an unspecified mistake led a surgeon to decline a donated heart for a patient awaiting surgery.
In a news briefing, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said problems included would-be donations that went unrecovered, sending some donated organs to the wrong place and a lack of staff.
Life Alliance, a division of the University of Miami Health System, can appeal the decision. If it is shut down, it would mark the first time the federal government has decertified an OPO.
Life Alliance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 100,000 Americans are on the transplant list and thousands die waiting because there aren’t enough donations to go around. Last year there were more than 48,000 transplants, a record, the vast majority from deceased donors.
Changes to the transplant system have been underway for years to increase donations, reduce waste of potentially usable organs and address other concerns. They include some new safeguards after complaints last year that a different OPO didn’t stop donation preparations quickly enough when some patients showed signs of life, prompting some people to opt out of donor registries. Organ donation can proceed only after a hospital has declared someone dead — and by law, OPOs cannot be involved in that decision.
On Thursday, Oz sought to reassure would-be donors.
“Congress has thoughtfully and aggressively pursued some horrifying stories that have chilled some Americans’ enthusiasm for donating organs. We are here today to tell you this system is safe. It’s rigorously being addressed,” he said, adding later, “I want to applaud the OPOs that are doing a great job because most are.”
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Trump administration stated on Monday that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy may be linked to an increased risk of autism.
In a press conference at the White House, President Donald Trump said the Food and Drug Administration will begin notifying physicians immediately that it is “strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary.”
“They are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” Trump said. “That’s, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever.”
Studies on this question have not shown a direct cause and effect. Some studies point to a possible link, but major medical groups have evaluated the evidence and continue to recommend acetaminophen as the safest painkiller during pregnancy.
President Donald Trump alongside Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks about autism at the White House in Washington, Sept. 22, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Trump and his health officials said that the FDA would update the label for acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, to “reflect potential benefits in reducing some autism symptoms.”
In a statement, Dr. Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), said the medical group continues to recommend acetaminophen as the safest painkiller during pregnancy.
“Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy,” Fleischman said.
“Today’s announcement by HHS is not backed by the full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children. It is highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data,” the statement continued.
In a statement from Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, on Sunday, the company said it believes research shows that acetaminophen does not cause autism.
“We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers,” the statement read. “Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy. Without it, women face dangerous choices: suffer through conditions like fever that are potentially harmful to both mom and baby or use riskier alternatives.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivers remarks on autism while President Donald Trump listens, at the White House, in Washington, September 22, 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The administration also announced on Monday that it is starting an approval process for a drug called leucovorin, despite limited evidence of benefit.
Leucovorin, which is typically used as part of cancer care, has shown early promise in a handful of small studies suggesting it may help the symptoms of some children with autism.
Typically, more robust studies would be required for a new FDA approval. Doctors say there could be some promise for this drug, but caution that more research is needed to understand how much — or even whether — this drug helps certain children.
In the press release, GSK, the maker of the drug, did not mention autism by name but said it is starting a process to expand the approval.
During the press conference on Monday, Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also suggested the childhood vaccine schedule could contribute to autism, contradicting years of research that has found no link between the two.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Trump administration’s new $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications is sowing confusion among some immigrant workers and their employers, including whether it’s safe for current holders of the visa to travel outside the U.S.
The new fee, which President Trump announced in a proclamation on Friday, represents a major change to a 35-year-old program that has enabled millions of immigrants to work legally in the U.S. The visa has become a mainstay in the technology industry, including among bellwethers such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft, and is also widely used in the financial sector.
Over the weekend, the White House sought to clarify the new policy, stating that the fee doesn’t apply to current H-1B holders and that it is a one-time cost required only when initially applying for the visa.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the addition of a $100,000 charge for H-1B visas on top of the existing fees reflects President Trump’s promise “to put American workers first, and this commonsense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages.”
She added, “The text of the proclamation is very clear, and it is unfortunate that uninformed reporters and corporate lawyers attempt to sow chaos and confusion. Americans have another reason to celebrate unprecedented action by President Trump to protect Americans from cheap foreign labor.”
After the White House outlined the new policy on Friday, some tech companies including Google and Microsoft this weekend instructed H-1B employees who were traveling outside the U.S. to return immediately, expressing concern they might not be allowed to re-enter without the $100,000 payment, according to workers and immigration lawyers.
Despite the White House’s clarification that the new fee applies only to new visa applications, not existing H-1B holders, there remains “a great degree of uncertainty on the ground,” Parul Koul, president of the union that represents employees at Google owner Alphabet, said during a press conference on Monday to address the new policy.
CBS News spoke with attorneys and other sources about the new policy — here’s what to know.
Who pays the $100,000 fee?
Under current H-1B rules, employers pay the application fees on behalf of workers. Assuming that approach continues, that could deter many employers from picking up the additional $100,000 fees — roughly 10 times what they previously paid for an applicant, Emily Neumann, an immigration attorney and managing partner at Houston-based Reddy Neumann Brown, told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Very few employers would be willing to shell out that kind of money,” she said.
Such an outcome would appear to align with the White House’s goals of spurring employers to hire within the U.S. rather than recruiting foreign workers.
“It is therefore necessary to impose higher costs on companies seeking to use the H-1B program in order to address the abuse of that program while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers,” Mr. Trump said in his order.
When does the fee go into effect?
The new fee must be paid in submitting any new H-1B visa application and went into effect at 12:01 am EST on Sept. 21, according to a White House statement.
Each year, the federal government approves 85,000 H-1B visas for highly skilled non-U.S. workers, who typically require at least a bachelor’s degree and a skill in a highly specialized field, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. An estimated 700,000 people in the U.S. hold a H-1B visa, according to Capital Economics.
The USCIS says it has already reached its applicant cap for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. That means those applications would be excluded from having to pay the fee, but new applicants filing during the next fiscal year would be subject to it, Neumann explained.
What are the main issues for current H-1B holders?
According to the White House, the proclamation “does not prevent any holder of a current H-1B visa from traveling in and out of the United States.”
H-1B visas are valid for three years, but can be extended for an additional three years. A White House official said the one-time $100,000 fee is only charged when applying for a visa for the first time — the payment is not required for current visa holders or those renewing the document, and those fees aren’t changing.
Yet the new rules leave some gray areas for current H-1B holders, Neumann said. For instance, the new fee is targeted at new visa applicants residing outside the U.S. That raises questions about whether current H-1B visa holders who are applying for changes, such as a visa renewal or a change of employer, might be caught up in the new requirement if they leave the U.S., Neumann and other immigration attorneys said.
“Where the question comes in is, what if after September 21 they file that extension and then they need to travel — are they going to be expected to pay that in order to get back into the U.S.?” she said. “That’s kind of an open question right now.”
Although the White House said the fee doesn’t apply to current H-1B holders and won’t impact their travel, Neumann said she believes more guidance is needed because the White House’s Sept. 21 FAQ notes the fee applies to “any other H-1B petitions submitted after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on September 21, 2025.”
“This makes it sound like it could apply to an employee who travels with any petition filed after September 21, 2025. Although it seems clear that it does not apply to individuals currently in the United States, it is not clear how it impacts those who later travel and have a petition filed after the relevant date,” she said.
For now, Neumann said she is advising her corporate clients to direct their H-1B employees not to leave the U.S.. That was echoed by Jeff Joseph, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and an immigration attorney.
“Until we have more clarification, which hopefully we’ll have soon, we’re telling people to just sit tight and not travel,” Joseph said.
Asked about the issue of H-1B holders who are applying for a change and who travel outside the U.S., the White House said the one-time $100,000 fee doesn’t apply to renewals or current visa holders.
How does the new fee impact the H-1B program?
The $100,000 fee is likely to have a “chilling effect” on skilled foreign workers moving to the U.S., Joseph of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said.
Although the tech industry has long been the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B program, the visa is designed for highly skilled workers across many industries, he added. Employers who rely on the visa include those in health care, which often recruit medical professionals outside the U.S. in areas where they have shortages, he said.
More than 7 in 10 recipients of H-1B visas are from India, followed by China, at more than 1 in 10 recipients. The remainder of H-1B visa holders come from a range of countries, including Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Mexico and Taiwan, according to a 2022 USCIS report.
What about the national security exemption?
A provision in Mr. Trump’s proclamation exempts some workers, companies and even entire industries from the new $100,000 fee if they are deemed to support the “national interest” and are adjudged not to pose a threat to the security or welfare of the U.S.
For now, however, it’s unclear how to receive such an exemption, including which federal agency will be charged with approving them, Neumann said.
“There’s no guidance out there yet,” she said. “What are the national interest exemptions going to be? How would a company apply for that, if they can get the entire company to get the exemption? How would the individual apply?”
The White House didn’t respond to questions about how the national security exemption would be applied or which agency will be handling the issue.
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
Amazon faces a court hearing in Seattle this week to face allegations by federal regulators that the e-commerce giant duped customers into signing up for its Prime membership while also making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.
The case, announced by the Federal Trade Commission in 2023, centers on claims that Amazon engaged in what the agency said amounted to a “years-long effort” to trick millions of customers into automatically renewing their Prime subscriptions, specifically by using user-interface designs that were “manipulative, coercive or deceptive.”
When it announced legal action against Amazon two years ago, the FTC said consumers who used Amazon to make purchases were presented with numerous options to subscribe to Prime, but that it was less clear how to buy an item without signing up for a membership. In some cases, the button for Amazon users to complete their purchase did not clearly indicate that they were also agreeing to enroll in Prime, according to regulators.
The government’s lawsuit also alleges that Amazon obfuscated the process to cancel a Prime subscription by forcing customers to jump through several hoops to end their membership.
An FTC spokesperson declined to comment on the case.
Amazon denies that its practices misled consumers. An Amazon spokesperson said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch on Monday that “neither Amazon nor the individual defendants did anything wrong.”
“We remain confident that the facts will show these executives acted properly and we always put customers first,” the spokesperson added.
Jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin Monday, followed by opening arguments and possible witness testimony on Tuesday. The trial, which is being held at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, is expected to last up to four weeks. The outcome will be decided by a the jury.
Prime members, who pay $14.99 monthly or $139 a year, get free shipping on certain items, faster delivery times and access to Prime Video, Amazon’s streaming service, among other benefits.
In a separate suit, the FTC has also accused Amazon of engaging in illegal behavior that allows it to inflate prices and suppress competition from rivals in violation of antitrust laws. Amazon denies that its practices reduce competition and hurt consumers.
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
CBS News New York has reached out to the Mamdani campaign to see if Kimmel’s return will prompt the Queens assemblyman to revisit participating in the town hall.
Kimmel was taken off the air last week after he suggested in a monologue that President Trump’s allies were trying to use Charlie Kirk’s assassination for political gain. ABC announced it would “indefinitely” pre-empt the show after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said the network should “take action” over the comments. Station owners Nexstar — which needs the FCC to approve a deal to purchase rival Tegna — and Sinclair both said they’d pull the show indefinitely before ABC followed suit.
“I am withdrawing form an ABC town hall that was scheduled to take place this Thursday,” Mamdani said when he made his announcement earlier Monday. “It’s not the government’s job to bully talk show hosts off of the air. It is not the government’s decision to tell us what we can and cannot talk about.”
A spokesperson for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted Mamdani’s decision to not participate in the town hall.
“ABC suspending Kimmel was a big mistake, but refusing to talk to local reporters because of the actions of their parent company shouldn’t pass anyone’s smell test and the press shouldn’t continue to give him a pass,” the spokesperson said. “Since the primary, Mamdani has been running from reporters and refusing to answer direct questions on his past campaign pledge to decriminalize prostitution, his refusal to apologize for calling the NYPD racist and his vow to seize the means of production — i.e. abolish private property — among other deeply held beliefs that he is trying to keep a lid on before election day. He can’t word salad his way out of this one.”
amNewYork was first to report Mamdani’s plan to pull out of Thursday’s town hall.
Rallies were held in support of free speech Monday. In California, members of local Hollywood unions and local lawmakers gathered to highlight the impact of the show’s suspension on crew members. Over the weekend, people gathered in Times Square for a free speech rally to denounce ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.
“They give me only bad publicity or press,” Mr. Trump said while returning from his recent state visit to the United Kingdom. “I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Jesse Zanger is the managing editor of CBSNewYork.com. Jesse has previously worked for the Fox News Channel and Spectrum News NY1. He covers regional news around the Tri-State Area, with a particular focus on breaking news and extreme weather.
Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will decide whether President Trump can fire members of the Federal Trade Commission without cause, taking up a dispute that tests the president’s removal power and could weaken protections enacted by Congress that aim to insulate independent agencies from political pressure.
The high court said in a brief order that it will also allow Mr. Trump to fire Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from her position at the FTC while it considers the case. It will hear arguments in its December session, and its stay will remain in place until it issues a decision. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority’s decision to allow Slaughter’s removal.
The justices will consider whether removal protections for members of the FTC violate the separation of powers and, if so, whether its 1935 decision that allowed Congress to impose removal protections for officials at independent agencies should be overturned. It will also weigh whether a federal court can prevent a person’s removal from public office, as U.S. district courts have been doing in challenges stemming from Mr. Trump’s firings of Democratic appointees.
The dispute arose out of Mr. Trump’s move to oust Slaughter from her position on the FTC. A lower court found that the president’s attempt to fire Slaughter violated a 1914 law that limits the grounds for removing an FTC commissioner to instances of inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, and ordered her to be reinstated.
But the Trump administration sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court and urged it to swiftly evaluate the constitutionality of those removal restrictions before the appeals court has weighed in. Lawyers for Slaughter agreed that the question of whether the protections violate the separation of powers is ripe for the Supreme Court’s consideration.
The case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals that arrived before the Supreme Court in response to Mr. Trump’s efforts to fire Democratic-appointed members of independent agencies at will. The conservative justices have endorsed the president’s removal authority so far, clearing the way for Mr. Trump to fire without cause members of the National Labor Relations Board, Merit Systems Protection Board and Consumer Product Safety Commission despite federal laws protecting them from being removed at will.
Those decisions have called into question the future of the 90-year-old precedent that upheld removal protections enacted by Congress for members of the FTC, the same body on which Slaughter served. In its 1935 decision in the case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the Supreme Court said Congress could shield certain officials from being removed by the president without cause.
Lower courts have relied on Humphrey’s Executor as grounds for reinstating officials whom Mr. Trump has attempted to fire. But the steady stream of those decisions prompted calls for the Supreme Court to definitively decide whether the president has the authority to fire the leaders of independent agencies that Congress has insulated from political shifts.
In a concurring opinion in a case involving the removal of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Committee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh warned that “the downsides of delay in definitively resolving the status of the precedent sometimes tend to outweigh the benefits of further lower-court consideration.”
Mr. Trump appointed Slaughter to the FTC in 2018, and former President Joe Biden reappointed her to a second term expiring in 2029.
But in March, Mr. Trump moved to oust Slaughter from her position at the FTC. Slaughter, however, sued, arguing that her firing was illegal because federal law limits a commissioner’s removal to instances of inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.
Lower courts ruled in Slaughter’s favor and ordered her to be reinstated to her position. The Trump administration then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
In court filings, lawyers for the Trump administration argued that the modern FTC exercises “vast executive authority,” a change from the 1935-era commission. The Supreme Court in Humphrey’s Executor said Congress could insulate members of independent agencies from being removed without cause if that entity met certain criteria, including performing only quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial functions.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the FTC wields “substantial executive authority,” like the other agencies whose members the president has been allowed to remove.
“[D]istrict courts cannot compel reinstatement of agency heads and allow them to purport to exercise executive power when the President has determined they should exercise none,” he wrote.
But lawyers for Slaughter said that for the past 90 years, every president, including Mr. Trump during his first term, has respected the Supreme Court’s finding that the for-cause removal requirement for the FTC is valid under the Constitution.
“The protracted and unanimous acquiescence of all three branches of government in the law at issue here — a law that affirmatively empowers the President to remove commissioners for good cause — defeats Applicants’ assertion that their continued adherence to that still-binding precedent while their appeal is pending would cause them irreparable harm,” they wrote in a Supreme Court filing.
Slaughter’s legal team warned that if she could be fired by the president without cause, the FTC would be “severely wounded and radically transformed.”
The Supreme Court’s 90-year-old precedent provided a narrow exception to the president’s removal authority. But the high court has in recent years chipped away at that ruling.
In 2020, the Supreme Court found that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, headed by a single leader removable only for inefficiency, neglect or malfeasance, was unconstitutional. Then, the following year, it ruled that the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency violates the separation of powers because it is led by a single director who could be removed by the president only for cause.
Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s appointee to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors said Monday that the central bank’s key interest rate should be much lower than its current 4.1% level, staking out a position far different than his colleagues.
Stephen Miran, who is also a top economic adviser to Trump, said in remarks to the Economic Club of New York that sharp declines in immigration, rising tariff revenue, and an aging population all suggest that the Fed’s rate should be closer to 2.5% instead. According to projections released last week, that’s almost a full percentage point lower than any of his 18 colleagues on the Fed’s rate-setting committee, an unusually high divergence.
Miran’s comments underscore the different perspective he brings to the Fed’s deliberations over interest rate policy. His appointment has been controversial because he has kept his position as the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers while taking unpaid leave, raising concerns about the Fed’s traditional independence from day-to-day politics. His term on the Fed’s board expires in January, and Miran has suggested he would return to the White House after that, though he could remain on the board until a successor is appointed.
“It should be clear that my view of appropriate monetary policy diverges from those of other … members” of the committee, Miran said in written remarks. “I view policy as very restrictive,” he added, meaning that it is holding back the economy and “poses material risks” to the Fed’s congressional mandate of seeking maximum employment.
Miran said that fewer immigrants should free up more housing and lower rental costs, reducing inflationary pressures. And tariff revenues — which may top $300 billion a year, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates — should reduce the deficit, he added. Over time, that would mean the Fed doesn’t have to keep its benchmark interest rate as high as it is now to bring inflation down.
GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. expert monitoring human rights in Russia said Monday that “repression is escalating,” targeting civilians, journalists and even Ukrainian prisoners of war in an attempt to silence dissent and opposition to the war in Ukraine.
Mariana Katzarova, the U.N. special rapporteur focusing on human rights in Russia, presented her latest report that said Russian authorities have stepped up their use of “criminal prosecution, long-term imprisonment, torture and ill-treatment” to quell opposition to the war ordered by President Vladimir Putin.
“The repression is escalating … and becoming massive,” Katzarova told journalists before presenting the report to the Human Rights Council, which created her post after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The masterminds of this repression are employing new elaborate tools against a total impunity for their actions: Torture is also part of this equation, as a tool,” she said.
Her report said that over the one year covered, starting in mid-2024, the number of prosecutions increased, “with at least 3,905 individuals convicted on administrative or criminal charges for peaceful dissent.”
Most recently, Katzarova noted that through July, more than 150 children aged 14 to 17 were added to the federal list of “extremists” and “terrorists,” she reported, adding that some were accused of treason and subjected to torture to extract confessions.
By mid-July, a total of 1,040 individuals and organizations — nearly one-quarter of them journalists — had been designated as “foreign agents,” including 133 added since January.
“Torture and ill-treatment in the Russian Federation remain widespread and systematic, affecting not only Russian citizens but also Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees,” the report said. “At least 258 cases of torture by law enforcement, prison staff, and inmates acting under orders of prison authorities were documented in 2024/25.”
Katzarova recounted how one Ukrainian man captured by Russian troops was interrogated and subjected to electric shocks. Then, a Moscow doctor had to operate on him to save his life.
“The surgery was perfect, but when the guy woke up, he saw that there were extra bandages on his stomach. And this Russian doctor has burned, with the medical tool: ‘Victory! Glory to Russia’ on his stomach,” said Katzarova, a Bulgarian who formerly headed investigations on human rights in Russia for Amnesty International.
The Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment, referring to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement earlier this month that stated Moscow “does not recognize the mandate of this illegitimate special procedure” — the post held by Katzarova — “and any form of interaction with it is unacceptable for the Russian Federation.”
In the push to expand as quickly as possible, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is aggressively wooing recruits with experience slapping handcuffs on suspects: sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and local cops.
The agency even shelled out for airtime during an NFL game with an ad explicitly targeting officers.
“In sanctuary cities, dangerous illegals walk free as police are forced to stand down,” the August recruitment ad warned over a sunset panorama of the Los Angeles skyline. “Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst.”
To meet its hiring goal, the Trump administration is offering hefty signing bonuses, student loan forgiveness and six-figure salaries to would-be deportation officers.
ICE has also broadened its pool of potential applicants by dropping age requirements, eliminating Spanish-language proficiency requirements and cutting back on training for new hires with law enforcement experience.
Along the way, the agency has walked a delicate line, seeking to maintain cordial relations with local department leaders while also trying to poach their officers.
“We’re not trying to pillage a bunch of officers from other agencies,” said Tim Oberle, an ICE spokesman. “If you see opportunities to move up, make more money to take care of your family, of course you’re going to want it.”
But despite the generous new compensation packages, experts said ICE is still coming up short in some of the places it needs agents the most.
“The pay in California is incredible,” said Jason Litchney of All-Star Talent, a recruiting firm. “Some of these Bay Area agencies are $200,000 a year without overtime.”
Even entry level base pay for a Los Angeles Police Department officer is more than $90,000 year. In San Francisco, it’s close to $120,000. While ICE pays far more in California than in most other states, cash alone is less likely to induce many local cops to swap their dress blues for fatigues and a neck gaiter.
“If you were a state police officer who’s harbored a desire to become a federal agent, I don’t know if you want to join ICE at this time,” said John Sandweg, who headed ICE under President Obama.
Police agencies nationwide have struggled for years to recruit and retain qualified officers. The LAPD has only graduated an average of 31 recruits in its past 10 academy classes, about half the number needed to keep pace with the city’s plan to grow the force to 9,500 officers.
“That is a tremendous issue for us,” said Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, a professional advocacy organization.
A person walks near the stage during a hiring fair by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Aug. 26 in Arlington, Texas.
(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)
ICE, too, has long failed to meet its staffing targets. As of a year ago, the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations — it’s dedicated deportation force — had 6,050 officers, barely more than in 2021.
As of Sep. 16, the Department of Homeland Security said it has sent out more than 18,000 tentative job offers after a summer recruitment campaign that drew more than 150,000 applications.
It did not specify how many applicants were working cops.
At an ICE career expo in Texas last month, the agency at times turned away anyone who didn’t already have authorization to carry a badge or an honorable discharge from the military.
“We have so many people who are current police officers who are trying to get on the job right now and that’s who we’ve been prioritizing,” one ICE official at the event said.
But the spirited pursuit of rank-and-file officers has sparked anger and resentment among top cops around the country.
“Agencies are short-staffed,” said David J. Bier, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute. “They are complaining constantly about recruitment and retention and looking every which way to maintain their workforce — and here comes along ICE — trying to pull those officers away.”
Law enforcement experts say that outside of California, especially in lower income states, many young officers take home about as much as public school teachers, making the opportunity for newer hires to jump ship for a federal gig even more enticing.
Some fear the ICE hiring spree will attract problematic candidates.
“The scariest part keeping me up at night is you hear agencies say we’re lowering standards because we can’t hire,” said Justin Biedinger, head of Guardian Alliance Technologies, which streamlines background checks, applicant testing and other qualifications for law enforcement agencies.
At the same time, the Trump administration is finding ways to deputize local cops without actually hiring them.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at the Wilshire Federal Building in June in Los Angeles.
(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)
As of early September, according to the program website, 474 agencies in 32 states were participating, up from 141 agencies in March.
Some states such as Georgia and Florida require their agencies to apply for the program. Others, including California, forbid it.
But that, too, could soon change.
The administration is exploring ways to force holdouts to comply, including by conditioning millions of dollars of funding for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis hotlines and child abuse centers on compliance with its immigration directives. In response, California and several other states have sued.
Even in so-called sanctuary jurisdictions such as Los Angeles, where local laws prohibit cops from participating in civil immigration enforcement, police officers have found themselves tangled up in federal operations. The LAPD has drawn criticism for officers responding to the scenes of ICE arrests where confrontations have erupted.
“We get called a lot to come out and assist in providing security or making sure that it doesn’t turn violent,” said Marvel, the police advocacy organization president.
“The vast majority of peace officers do not want to do immigration enforcement because that’s not the job they signed up for,” Marvel said. “We want to protect the community.”
Among the agency’s most vocal critics, the push to beef up ICE is viewed as both dangerous and counterproductive.
“Punishing violent criminals is the work of local and state law enforcement,” said Ilya Somin, law professor at George Mason University and a constitutional scholar at the Cato Institute. “If we were to abolish ICE and devote the money to those things, we’d have lower violence and crime.”
The cash and perks ICE is dangling will inevitably draw more people, experts said, but some warned that newly minted deportation officers should be careful about mortgaging their future.
The potential $50,000 hiring bonus is paid out in installments over several years — and the role may lack job security.
At the same time Trump is doubling ICE’s headcount, he’s also rewriting the rules to make it far easier to ax federal workers, said Sandweg, the former Obama official.
That could come back to haunt many agency recruits four years from now, he said: “I think there’s a very good chance a future Democratic administration is going to eliminate a lot of these positions.”
Zurie Pope, a Times fellow with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, contributed to this report.
As officials ponder whether to spend at least a year and $1.5 billion more on an already ambitious upgrade of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, locals are asking if the mess they will have to endure during construction will be worth it.
Soon after the California Department of Transportation shared plans to fix up the more than 60-year-old bridge that connects downtown Long Beach to San Pedro and Terminal Island, the Port of Los Angeles piled on with even bigger plans.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of L.A., suggested Caltrans also raise the height of the symbol of the locality by 26 feet.
Raising the bridge would allow larger cargo ships to pass under its deck, helping create jobs and keep the port relevant. It would also increase the project’s price, already projected at more than $700 million, by an additional $1.5 billion.
Most painfully for local commuters and businesses, it would mean the bridge will be closed for around 28 months rather than the originally planned 16 months.
About 40% of the port’s cargo container capacity is beyond the bridge, which is 185 feet high. Raising the bridge to 211 feet would accommodate the next generation of cargo ships, which will be larger and more energy efficient, Seroka said.
“You’re going to need more capacity at the nation’s largest port,” he said. “Caltrans was looking to resurface the bridge and we thought maybe there was a way you could accomplish both.”
Seroka said he has already secured private funding from banks and industry participants to raise the bridge by putting sleeve lifts and platforms on the bridge’s legs.
The Bayonne Bridge connecting Staten Island, N.Y., and Bayonne, N.J., was raised in a similar manner in 2019.
While the Port of Los Angeles has garnered support for the idea, many communities surrounding the bridge have raised concerns about travel disruptions and the effect of rerouted traffic.
Closing the bridge for more than two years would require an alternative route for cargo trucks traveling to and from the port, and would likely affect tourism across San Pedro and Long Beach.
“It’s not only for employees going back and forth through the port complex,” said Elise Swanson, president of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce. “The bridge is really a connection to our communities for art, culture, dining.”
In August, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce voted to support a study of the effects of raising the bridge.
Swanson said she saw the merits of raising the bridge while acknowledging the disruption the project would have, particularly to Wilmington residents, where truck traffic would be rerouted.
Preliminary detour routes would send commuters, tourists and cargo through Harry Bridges Boulevard in Wilmington and on the 110 and 405 freeways.
“We’re all in agreement on the study and getting all the facts in front of us,” Swanson said. “If we’re going to go through all of this work and spend this money on fixing the current bridge, is that really a good expenditure of funds if the bridge won’t meet future needs for the shipping industry?”
Caltrans is expected to decide on the bridge raising in October, following a late September meeting with the Port of Los Angeles. The $706 million re-decking project is slated to begin next year and will also replace the bridge railings, fences and median barrier.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents port-adjacent communities including Wilmington, Harbor City and San Pedro, said he supports raising the bridge as long as it is safe and takes locals’ needs into account.
“In the years that it would take to come up with the plans, the financing and the environmental review for raising the bridge, we have to think about the traveling public in the meantime,” he said.
Under its original plans, Caltrans hoped to reopen the bridge to traffic in late 2027 or early 2028, in time for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
If the bridge is raised, it would likely not be done before the Olympics, making it harder for the tourists to visit that corner of Los Angeles.
The Pacific Merchant Shipping Assn., which represents marine terminal operators, says raising the bridge is worth the trouble.
“We would like to see the bridge’s useful life increased,” Pacific Merchant Shipping Assn. President Michael Jacob said of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which opened in 1963.
Increasing the port’s capacity and ability to accommodate larger ships would boost job opportunities by about 20% for longshoremen, truckers, warehouse workers and terminal operators, Seroka said. The newest and largest container ships are also the most environmentally friendly, he said.
Caltrans declined to comment on its decision-making process regarding the bridge raising and directed questions about the bridge to the Port of L.A.
“Caltrans is focused on delivering a needed bridge deck replacement project and is collaborating with our partners on those efforts,” the department said in a statement.
McOsker said his constituents are waiting on a decision.
“Making the bridge higher with a greater clearance is really important to industry and the workforce, but it also has significant time implications and significant cost implications,” McOsker said. “Caltrans will have to speak for themselves.”
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he still has good memories of U.S. President Donald Trump and urged Washington to drop its demand the North surrender its nukes as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.
Speaking to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament on Sunday, Kim stressed that he has no intention of ever resuming dialogue with rival South Korea, a key U.S. ally that helped broker Kim’s previous summits with Trump during the American president’s first term, according to a speech published by state media on Monday.
Kim suspended virtually all cooperation with the South following the collapse of his second summit with Trump in 2019 over disagreements about U.S.-led sanctions against the North. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have worsened in recent years as Kim has accelerated his weapons buildup and aligned with Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Kim’s comments came as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed for New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, where he is expected to address nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula and call on North Korea to return to talks.
Trump is also expected to visit South Korea next month to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, prompting media speculation that he may try to meet Kim at the inter-Korean border, as they did during their third meeting in 2019, which ultimately failed to salvage their nuclear diplomacy.
During his latest speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim reiterated that he would never give up his nuclear weapons program, which experts say he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival and the extension of his family’s dynastic rule.
“The world already knows well what the United States does after forcing other countries to give up their nuclear weapons and disarm,” Kim said. “We will never lay down our nuclear weapons … There will be no negotiations, now or ever, about trading anything with hostile countries in exchange for lifting sanctions.”
He said he still holds “good personal memories” of Trump from their first meetings and that there is “no reason not to” resume talks with the United States if Washington “abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearization.”
Kim has stepped up testing activities in recent years, demonstrating weapons of various ranges designed to strike U.S. allies in Asia and the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
Kim is also trying to bolster his leverage by strengthening cooperation with traditional allies Russia and China, in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence.
He has sent thousands of troops and huge supplies of military equipment to Russia to help support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. He visited Beijing earlier this month, sharing the spotlight with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin at a massive military parade. Experts say Kim’s rare foreign trip was likely intended to boost his leverage ahead of a potential resumption of talks with the United States.
There’s growing concern in Seoul that it could lose its voice in future efforts to defuse the nuclear standoff on the peninsula, as the North seeks to negotiate directly with the United States. Such fears were amplified last year when Kim declared that he was abandoning North Korea’s long-standing goal of peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered a rewriting of the North’s constitution to cement the South as a permanent enemy.
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.3 woke up a number of people with a sharp jolt in the San Francisco Bay Area early Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The earthquake was just east-southeast of Berkeley, the survey said. It happened shortly before 3 a.m. PDT.
People posted online that they felt their homes shake.
“Our calls are coming in from San Francisco and the East Bay and all over,” KTVU-TV anchor Dave Clark said in a video from the newsroom. “Things were shaking in our newsroom. … It caught everyone off guard.”
It wasn’t immediately known if there were any injuries or significant damage.
RIVERSIDE — It was either big plays or big penalties. And the defense remains a big puzzle.
Riverside City College’s Micah Valenzuela tackles Saddleback’s Tyler Dudden in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Dominic Cox celebrates a scoring a touchdown against Saddleback in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Saddleback’s Jaden Humphrey intercepts the ball intended for Riverside City College’s Brandon Raysor in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Hector Garcia is pushed out of bounds by Saddleback’s Emon Carter in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Saddleback’s Emon Carter stops Riverside City College’s Logan Quates just short of the goal line in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Camden Connor tries to hold off Saddleback’s Brayden Henson in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Camden Connortries to avoid the tackle by Saddleback’s Lucas Short in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Kayvion Sibley is tackled by Saddleback’s Kaleo Browne in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Brandon Raysor tries to get som extra distance while being pulled out of bounds by Saddleback’s Brandon Ross in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Kayvion Sibley is tripped up by Saddleback’s Joseph Walter in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Jared Doolittle is stopped by Saddleback’s Brandon Ross in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Saddleback’s Ben Stewart is stopped by Riverside City College’s Jamar Scott in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Riverside City College’s Jared Doolittle is tackled by Saddleback’s Cooper Cirillo in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Saddleback’s Leonidas Bell loses his helmet while bein tackled by Riverside City College’s Jamar Scott, left, and Micah Valenzuela in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
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Riverside City College’s Micah Valenzuela tackles Saddleback’s Tyler Dudden in a National Southern Conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (Photo by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Dominic Cox hauled in three highlight-reel touchdown receptions, but the Riverside City College football team could not hold onto a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter before losing 40-34 to Saddleback in double overtime Saturday afternoon at Wheelock Stadium.
“It’s a mixed emotion,” Cox said. “We played hard today but we beat ourselves.”
The Upland High graduate had eight catches for a career-high 208 yards but was twice penalized for taunting Saddleback’s defense during scoring plays.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with mental mistakes,” Cox said. “I have to be a leader.”
Riverside (2-2 overall) totaled 469 yards on offense but converted just 35% (6 of 17) of its third downs.
“It’s mistakes,” Riverside coach Kevin Craft said. “We had a lot of opportunities on both sides of the ball and (the loss) is on us and our lack of execution.”
The Tigers defense allowed 514 yards, and Saddleback quarterback Tyler Dudden, who played at both Norco and Rancho Cucamonga, passed for 317 yards and two touchdowns in the win.
“Our offensive line is five (freaking) dogs out there and we have some good receivers that are making my life a helluva lot easier,” Dudden said.
Dudden was 9 for 9 to start the game and later ran for score as the Bobcats (3-1) rallied in the fourth quarter to tie the game.
“Someone is going to get theirs and I’ve got to get mine. And when I get my opportunity I have to make the most of it,” Dudden said.
Trailing 10-0 early, Jared Doolittle (Western Christian) and Cox connected for two scores and Kiyel Shine (Kaiser) added another as Riverside scored 21 unanswered points to go into halftime with the lead.
Riverside kicker Timothy Tynan chipped in a pair of field goals in the third quarter and Cox added his third touchdown grab. But Saddleback did not go away, as running back Kavaughn Clark ran 53 yards for a touchdown and Manuel Maganda laced a field goal before Dudden went to work in the fourth quarter.
Dudden beat Riverside’s defense on a 21-yard touchdown run with 7 minutes to play, then led Saddleback 97 yards before hitting Joseph Walden near the right pylon for the game-tying touchdown with 40 seconds remaining in regulation.
Riverside linebacker David Lene ended the first overtime by intercepting Dudden, but Clark ran 9 yards for a score to give Saddleback the lead in the second overtime.
On the final possession, Riverside ran a pair of short-yardage plays before Doolittle’s final two pass attempts fell incomplete into the end zone.
Doolittle finished 20 of 41 for 331 yards with three touchdowns. He was intercepted twice, and now has seven interceptions through four games.
DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — On a battlefield swarming with deadly Russian drones, Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly turning to nimble, remote-controlled armored vehicles that can perform an array of tasks and spare troops from potentially life-threatening missions.
The Ukrainian army is especially eager to deploy what soldiers refer to as “robots on wheels” as it faces a shortage of soldiers in a war that has dragged on for more than 3 ½ years. The vehicles look like miniature tanks and can ferry supplies, clear mines and evacuate the wounded or dead.
“It cannot fully replace people,” said the commander of a platoon of the 20th Lyubart Brigade who goes by the call sign Miami and spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military rules. “I would put it this way: A person can go in there, but for a human it’s (sometimes) far too dangerous.”
The robotic vehicles are mostly made by Ukrainian companies and range in cost from about $1,000 to as much as $64,000, depending on their size and capabilities.
While they have become vital to Ukrainian troops along the 1,000 kilometer (620 mile) front line, such vehicles are not new to warfare.
The German army used a remote-controlled miniature tank – tethered by a wire — called the Goliath in World War II. In recent decades, the U.S., Israel, Britain and China have developed modern versions used for combat engineering and other battlefield roles, according to Ben Barry, a fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But Ukraine’s extensive deployment of these vehicles is noteworthy and could lead to advances, Barry said.
The Russian army also uses remote-controlled vehicles.
Miami joined the army on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. He served as an infantryman and later a drone operator before his latest assignment. His path reflects how the war itself has evolved.
“I couldn’t even imagine that I would become a (drone) pilot,” he said. “But war is progress, and we cannot stand aside.”
The robotic vehicles his team deploys are armored and mounted on either wheels or tracks. Painted in military colors, they crawl slowly over rubble or dirt roads, easily navigating terrain that would be difficult – or too dangerous — for soldiers.
“They arrive in one condition, and we improve them,” Miami said. “We adapt the controls to work better (in the face of Russia’s) electronic warfare so the connection doesn’t cut off.”
Miami’s 10-man team is just starting to incorporate the machines into their missions, mostly using them to deliver food and ammunition to soldiers near the front.
Just like remote-controlled, or first-person view, drones, the use of these vehicles will only grow, said a soldier in Miami’s unit who goes by the call sign Akim and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“When FPV drones first appeared, they weren’t popular, but those who pioneered them, (now) show (the best) results,” said Akim.
Before sending a remote-controlled vehicle forward, Akim flies a drone along the planned route to check for obstacles or mines.
Operating from a cramped basement near Kostiantynivka, less than 10 kilometers from the front, Akim can hear the muffled thuds of aerial bombs, the sharp cracks of artillery and the buzzing of drones.
Kostiantynivka, once home to 67,000 people, is a largely deserted city on a shrinking patch of Ukrainian-held territory just west of Bakhmut. It is nearly encircled on three sides by Russian forces. Apartment blocks are scarred by strikes, smoke still rises from recent bombings, and the roads leading toward nearby Pokrovsk are littered with burned-out cars.
The aerial drone allows Akim to scout the city and routes without risking his life.
“Every time a drone or a robot does something, it means one of our fighters doesn’t have to,” Akim said. On top of that, “the machine doesn’t get tired. It can carry as much as needed.”
Akim works in tandem with another soldier operating the robotic vehicle with a joystick. The vehicle has no camera; instead, Akim’s drone feed provides its “eyes.”
On one recent mission, the team loaded it with 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of supplies — ammunition, fuel, water and food — and sent it several kilometers to drone operators closer to the front. The machine moved forward at about six kilometers per hour, delivered its cargo into a well-hidden position in the forest, and returned to base.
Because robotic vehicles move more slowly than cars or trucks, and usually across open ground, they are an easy target — and this is one factor slowing their adoption.
“That’s why we haven’t evacuated many wounded (on these vehicles),” said Miami. “Some refuse to leave because it’s dangerous.”
There are also cost considerations, with the vehicles his platoon uses averaging roughly 400,000 hryvnias ($9,700). “That’s not too expensive, but when three or four get destroyed in a week, the total adds up,” Miami said.
To make them less vulnerable, Miami and his soldiers have tried welding grill-like cages onto the machines or attaching metallic rollers in front to detect mines. The war provides real-time feedback that is incorporated into newer models being built.
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Vasilisa Stepanenko and Yehor Konovalov contributed to this report.
Eight months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s long-standing pledge to take on those he perceives as his political enemies has prompted debates over free speech, media censorship and political prosecutions.
In a post on social media this weekend addressed to Bondi, Trump said “nothing is being done” on investigations into some of his foes.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he said. Noting that he was impeached and criminally charged, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Criticizing investigations into Trump’s dealings under Democratic President Joe Biden’s Justice Department, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that “it is not right for the Trump administration to do the same thing.”
Trump has ratcheted up his discussion of pursuing legal cases against some of his political opponents, part of a vow for retribution that has been a theme of his return to the White House. He publicly pressed Bondi this weekend to move forward with such investigations.
He posted that he had “reviewed over 30 statements and posts” that he characterized as criticizing his administration for a lack of action on investigations.
“We have to act fast — one way or the other,” Trump told reporters later that night at the White House. “They’re guilty, they’re not guilty — we have to act fast. If they’re not guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty or if they should be charged, they should be charged. And we have to do it now.”
Trump later wrote in a follow-up post that Bondi was “doing a GREAT job.”
Paul, a frequent Trump foil from the right, was asked during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the propriety of a president directing his attorney general to investigate political opponents. The senator decried “lawfare in all forms.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it was “unconstitutional and deeply immoral for the president to jail or to silence his political enemies.” He warned it could set a worrisome precedent for both parties.
“It will come back and boomerang on conservatives and Republicans at some point if this becomes the norm,” Murphy told ABC’s “This Week.”
The Senate’s Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump is turning the Justice Department “into an instrument that goes after his enemies, whether they’re guilty or not, and most of them are not guilty at all, and that helps his friends. This is the path to a dictatorship. That’s what dictatorships do.”
The Justice Department did not respond Sunday to a message seeking comment.
Each new president nominates his own U.S. attorneys in jurisdictions across the country. And Trump has already worked to install people close to him in some of those jobs, including former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro in the District of Columbia and Alina Habba, his former attorney, in New Jersey.
Trump has largely stocked his second administration with loyalists, continuing Saturday with the nomination of a White House aide as top federal prosecutor for the office investigating James, a longtime foe of Trump.
Trump announced Lindsey Halligan to be the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia on Saturday, just a day after Erik Siebert resigned from the post and Trump said he wanted him “out.”
Trump said he was bothered that Siebert had been supported by the state’s two Democratic senators.
“There are just two standards of justice now in this country. If you are a friend of the president, a loyalist of the president, you can get away with nearly anything, including beating the hell out of police officers,” Murphy said, mentioning the defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol pardoned by Trump as he returned to office. “But if you are an opponent of the president, you may find yourself in jail.”
Trump has styled himself as an opponent of censorship, pledging in his January inaugural address to “bring free speech back to America” and signing an executive order that no federal officer, employee or agent may unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.
Under a 17-page memo distributed Friday, the Pentagon stepped up restrictions on the media, saying it will require credentialed journalists to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting information that has not been authorized for release, including unclassified information. Journalists who don’t abide by the policy risk losing credentials that provide access to the Pentagon.
Asked Sunday if the Pentagon should play a role in determining what journalists can report, Trump said, “No, I don’t think so.”
“Nothing stops reporters. You know that,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Charlie Kirk’s memorial service.
Trump has sued numerous media organizations for negative coverage, with several settling with the president for millions of dollars. A federal judge in Florida tossed out Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times on Friday.
Perhaps the most headline-grabbing situation involves ABC’s indefinite suspension Wednesday of veteran comic Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. What he said about Kirk’s killing had led a group of ABC-affiliated stations to say it would not air the show and provoked some ominous comments from a top federal regulator.
Trump celebrated on his social media site: “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”
Earlier in the day, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, who has launched investigations of outlets that have angered Trump, said Kimmel’s comments were “truly sick” and that his agency has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said. “These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., argued that Kimmel’s ouster wasn’t a chilling of free speech but a corporate decision.
“I really don’t believe ABC would have decided to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a threat,” he said Sunday on CNN. “ABC has been a longstanding critic of President Trump. They did it because they felt like it didn’t meet their brand anymore.”
Not all Republicans have applauded the move. On his podcast Friday, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called it “unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying.”
Trump called Carr “a great American patriot” and said Friday that he disagreed with Cruz.
ATLANTA — A federal watchdog reported Thursday that Georgia’s program requiring able-bodied adults to document low-paying work to get Medicaid has spent much more on administrative costs than on providing health care.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office report on Georgia Pathways comes after Republicans mandated similar work requirements throughout the U.S. as part of the “big, beautiful bill” signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Starting in 2027, most adults who seek Medicaid coverage must first show they are working, taking classes or performing community service for at least 80 hours a month. And they must be extremely poor, earning incomes no higher than the federal poverty line.
The report attributes most of the administrative costs to the implementation of changes in determining eligibility and enrolling people, along with duplicative technology, training and coordination while the state litigated to overcome Biden administration objections.
“Now the entire country can see what we in Georgia already know — Georgia’s Medicaid work reporting requirement program is the real waste, fraud, and abuse,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, one of the Georgia Democrats who requested the report. “This report shows that Pathways is incredibly effective at barring working people from health coverage and making corporate consultants richer,” his statement said.
A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp countered that Democrats are responsible for the extra spending.
“Now, as other states prepare to adopt our model and reject one-size-fits-none big government healthcare, Democrats like Senators Ossoff and Warnock are trying to rewrite history after four years of inaction and blame the State for costs associated with their own stonewalling.”
Millions of eligible people will lose coverage due to the Trump law because the administrative process will make it too difficult for them to repeatedly document their work, critics say, pointing to what happened in Georgia, which is so far the only state that imposes work requirements.
Georgia has among the highest rates of uninsured and is one of 10 states that refused to expand Medicaid to all adults with incomes of up to 138% of the federal poverty level, as envisioned by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
Instead, Kemp heralded his July 2023 launch of Georgia Pathways to Coverage, which limits Medicaid for adults to those who earn no more than poverty-level wages, now set at $15,650 a year. Georgia’s traditional Medicaid still covers poorer children, disabled adults, poor people in nursing homes and a handful of other adults.
Nationally, most adults on Medicaid in states that expanded it are already working, and in Georgia, an estimated 246,365 adults are potentially eligible for traditional Medicaid or Pathways. But a year after it launched, Pathways had enrolled around 4,300. As of this spring, there were 6,514 adults enrolled, according to the state Department of Community Health.
Republicans have defended the low enrollment, saying Medicaid should be temporary for people who can get insurance through an employer.
The GAO analysis shows that from fiscal year 2021 through the second quarter of 2025, Georgia reported $54.2 million in administrative spending and $26.2 million on health care. The administrative portion declined more recently, from 96.5% in fiscal year 2023 to 58.8% in fiscal year 2024. It is expected to drop more in 2025.
Nearly 90% of this spending has been federal money, and Georgia used $20 million in other federal grants to help implement the program, trying to make it easier for people to apply. More spending is planned this year on improvements, publicity and staff training, the report notes.
“There’s incredibly wasteful public spending on systems of red tape,” said Joan Alker a health policy researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. “And spending money on corporate consultants to set up complicated systems of red tape that people can’t navigate, that keeps them out of health coverage, is one of the worst uses of taxpayer dollars I can think of.”
Kemp announced that he now wants to let low-income parents with young kids enroll without meeting work requirements, as part of an extension of Pathways that has required Trump administration approval.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
HUGO, Okla. — An animal handler was killed by a tiger under his care at a preserve for big cats in southeastern Oklahoma, the organization said Sunday.
Growler Pines Tiger Preserve said in a statement that Ryan Easley died Saturday in “an accident” involving a tiger at the property near Hugo, not far from the Texas border.
“This tragedy is a painful reminder of both the beauty and unpredictability of the natural world,” the preserve said on its Facebook page. “Ryan understood those risks — not out of recklessness but out of love. The animals under his care were not just animals to him, but beings he formed a connection with — one rooted in respect, daily care and love.”
All tours have been canceled until further notice, the statement said.
The preserve is a private facility where visitors can book tours to view tigers and see demonstrations on how the animals are trained and cared for, according to its website.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner is defending Jimmy Kimmel after the Disney-owned ABC network indefinitely suspended the late-night host from his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Where has all the leadership gone? If not for university presidents, law firm managing partners, and corporate chief executives standing up against bullies, who then will step up for the first amendment?” he said in a post on X Friday.
Eisner, who led Disney for more than two decades, spoke out two days after ABC confirmed to CBS News that it had suspended Kimmel indefinitely over remarks he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The network has not said if or when the show, which began airing in 2003, will return.
Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Eisner’s remarks.
In his Monday monologue, Kimmel suggested that allies of President Trump were attempting to use Kirk’s assassination for political gain.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr referred to Kimmel’s comments as “some of the sickest conduct possible,” and said there was a “path forward for suspension over this.”
Eisner made it clear he disagreed with ABC’s decision.
“The ‘suspending indefinitely’ of Jimmy Kimmel immediately after the Chairman of the FCC’s aggressive yet hollow threatening of the Disney Company is yet another example of out-of-control intimidation,” Eisner said in his post.
He added, “Maybe the Constitution should have said, ‘Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, except in one’s political or financial self-interest.’ By-the-way, for the record, this ex-CEO finds Jimmy Kimmel very talented and funny.”
Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
Your next Uber Eats order could get delivered to you via drone.
Uber Technologies announced Thursday it is partnering with Flytrex, an autonomous drone delivery system, to fly food deliveries to its customers. The company said it would roll out the service in U.S. Uber Eats pilot markets by the end of the year.
“Uber aims to build the world’s most flexible, multimodal delivery network — expanding beyond cars, bikes and couriers to sidewalk robots and now autonomous aerial delivery,” Uber said in its statement.
The company, known for its ride-sharing services, said it would also invest in Flytrex to “to accelerate the development and deployment of drone delivery technology” without specifying the size of the investment.
Flytrex drones have flown over 200,000 meals to suburban households in the past three years, according to Uber. It is one of four companies authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct “Beyond Visual Line of Sight” operations, which is when a pilot cannot see the aircraft with the naked eye.
Uber did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch’s comment seeking information on where the service will be piloted and how deliveries will work.
The announcement marks another advancement for Uber, which in May started delivering food via sidewalk robots in Los Angeles. Last week, the company announced plans to let customers book helicopter rides through its ride-sharing app.
Reached for comment on where the drone delivery service will be piloted and how deliveries will work, Uber pointed to its “existing robotic delivery partnerships,” as precedent, saying that “there is no consumer price difference between when an AV is dispatched or a courier.”
Added the company, “There are no additional details to share at this time.”
Uber shares have climbed more than 50% since the start of the year.
DoorDash, one of Uber Eats’ competitors, announced a partnership with Flytrex in June to deliver food in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Chipotle is also piloting drone technology in the Texas city. Last month it said it would fly food to customers in Dallas through a partnership with Zipline, which also has FAA approval for commercial drone deliveries.
Mary Cunningham is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. Before joining the business and finance vertical, she worked at “60 Minutes,” CBSNews.com and CBS News 24/7 as part of the CBS News Associate Program.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Sunday they have confiscated some of the cocaine transported by a speedboat that was destroyed recently by the U.S. Navy, in what the Caribbean nation called the first operation of its kind.
In a news conference, the Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control (DNCD) said it recovered 377 packages of cocaine from the boat which was allegedly carrying 1,000 kilograms, or more than 2,200 pounds, of the drug. The drugs were recovered after “an aerial military strike by the United States against a speedboat of narcoterrorists,” the DNCD said in a statement.
Officials said the boat was destroyed about 80 nautical miles south of Isla Beata, a small island that belongs to the Dominican Republic. They said the Dominican’s Republic Navy worked in conjunction with U.S. authorities to locate the speedboat which was allegedly trying to dock in the Dominican Republic and use the nation as a “bridge” to transport cocaine to the United States.
Officials released a video of the operation, showing officers unloading and inspecting bricks of the alleged drugs, some bearing the word “MEN” on the packaging.
“This is the first time in history that the United States and the Dominican Republic carry out a joint operation against narco terrorism in the Caribbean,” the directorate said in a statement.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Sunday they have confiscated some of the cocaine transported by a speedboat that was destroyed recently by the U.S. Navy.
Dominican Republic’s National Directorate for Drug Control
In August, the U.S. sent eight warships and a submarine to the southern Caribbean, in what the Trump administration has said was a mission to fight drug trafficking.
The White House says the naval flotilla has destroyed at least three boats carrying drugs so far. The separate strikes have killed more than a dozen people aboard the vessels.
Authorities did not say if anyone was killed in the strike off the Dominican Republic.
Human rights groups have said the strikes on the boats amount to extra judicial killings, and on Friday two Democratic senators introduced a resolution in Congress that seeks to block the administration from carrying out further strikes.
The Trump administration says two of the boats that have been sunk left from Venezuela, whose president is often described by White House officials as a drug trafficker and leader of a gang known as the Cartel of the Suns.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denies the charges and has described the U.S naval build up in the Caribbean as an attack on his country. Maduro has called the warships an “absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
On two occasions earlier this month, Venezuelan fighter jets flew near a U.S. naval ship, in what multiple Defense Department officials described to CBS News as a “game of chicken.”
Venezuela also accused the U.S. of seizing a fishing vessel in its exclusive economic zone and detaining nine fishermen for several hours.
The U.S. Navy has sent several warships to the waters off Venezuela in recent weeks, and 10 F-35 fighter jets were deployed to Puerto Rico this month for anti-cartel operations.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination was an attack on the U.S., Trump says
President Trump delivered the most overtly political speech of Charlie Kirk’s memorial, teasing an upcoming autism related announcement, criticizing his political opponents and again blaming “the radical left” for Kirk’s assassination.
“Charlie’s murder was not just an attack on one man or one movement. It was an attack on our entire nation,” Mr. Trump said. “The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us.”
“Charlie was killed for expressing the very ideas that virtually everyone in this arena and most other places throughout our country deeply believed in,” the president said. “The assassin failed because Charlie’s message has not been silenced, but it now is bigger and better and stronger than ever before.”
Mr. Trump has said he will posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The ceremony will take place at the White House, “in the very safe Washington, D.C.,” he said Sunday, referring to the federal takeover of the local police department as a part of his crackdown on crime.
Erika Kirk describes “a level of heartache that I didn’t know existed,” forgives shooter
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, speaks the public memorial service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sept. 21, 2025.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow and the new CEO of Turning Point USA, said she has never found as much comfort in her faith as she has following her husband’s assassination — even as she had to witness his lifeless body.
“I saw the wound that ended his life. I felt everything that you would expect to feel,” Erika Kirk said. “I felt a level of heartache that I didn’t know existed, but there was something else, too. Even in death, I could see the man that I loved.”
“I also saw on his lips the faintest smile. And that told me something important. It revealed to me a great mercy from God from this tragedy. When I saw that, it told me Charlie didn’t suffer,” she said.
Erika Kirk was visibly emotional and empowered as she delivered her eulogy, touching on her husband’s role not just in politics but in their family and most frequently as a Christian man.
Towards the end of her speech, she proclaimed about her husband’s alleged killer, “I forgive him.”
Vice President JD Vance remembers Charlie Kirk as “a dear friend”
Vice President JD Vance remembered Charlie Kirk as someone who acted the same way even when the cameras weren’t on.
“Charlie treated staffers as well as he treated the president of the United States,” Vance said. “When I was just a guy polling at nothing in my Senate race back in 2021, Charlie helped me, not because I was a future vice president but because I was a dear friend.”
“Because Charlie believed that we are all children of God, he treated everyone with grace. And that, perhaps, is the enduring legacy of Charlie Kirk,” he said.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recalls telling Charlie Kirk that there are worse fates than death
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recalled that one of the first conversations he had with Charlie Kirk in July 2021 was about the physical risks they take in their positions.
“He asked me if I was scared of dying,” RFK Jr. said. “And I said to him, ‘There’s a lot of worse things than death, and one of those things is if we lost our constitutional right in this country and that our children were raised as slaves.'”
The health secretary said he told Kirk that “sometimes the best consolation we can hope for is that we get to die with our boots on.”
“Charlie died with his boots on, and he died to make sure that we didn’t have to undergo those fates that are worse than death.”
Tulsi Gabbard calls for the protection of free speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard speaks during the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called to protect the right to free speech at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, saying that “his words were his weapons.”
“Charlie lived what our founders envisioned, freedom, the right to speak even when we disagree,” Gabbard said.
“I may not agree with what you say but I will fight to defend to the very death of my very life your right to speak,” she said. “Free speech is a foundation to our democratic republic. We must protect it at all costs because without it we’ll be lost. Charlie knew this.”
Tucker Carlson says Charlie Kirk was fearless “to his last moment”
Tucker Carlson speaks during the public memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sept. 21, 2025.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Media personality Tucker Carlson said Charlie Kirk’s religious belief was the reason that he was fearless until the end.
“To his last moment, he was unafraid. He was not defensive and there was no hate in his heart,” Carlson said.
Charlie Kirk remembered as “a modern-day disciple” and the biggest Trump supporter
Sergio Gor, the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, described Charlie Kirk as one of his best friends, recalling how the 31-year-old would text him a daily Bible verse in the morning.
Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office Sergio Gor at the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
“Charlie was more than an activist,” Gor said. “Charlie was a modern-day disciple who preached about the greatness of America, not just across our land but around the globe.”
Gor said Kirk was President Trump’s biggest supporter.
“He embodied the MAGA warrior,” Gor said. “When the president had an idea, no matter how big it was, Charlie was willing to make it happen.”
Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna says Charlie Kirk’s legacy “has just begun”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) speaks during the Charlie Kirk public memorial service.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida began her memorial speech by saying she would not be in Congress without Charlie Kirk.
Luna said she decided against going to medical school to become the director of Hispanic outreach for Turning Point USA in 2018 because she was inspired by Kirk’s patriotism.
“He didn’t just speak of patriotism. He lived it,” she said. “Giving everything to ignite a movement that turned the tide for conservatism, empowering young voices to challenge the status quo and to secure a brighter future for America.”
“If one man can awaken a generation and save a nation, imagine what ten thousand can do,” Luna said. “And we are all Charlie Kirk now, and his legacy has just begun.”
Photos from Charlie Kirk memorial service
The 63,400-seat State Farm Stadium in Arizona filled up Sunday with people dressed in red, white and blue, as organizers for the Charlie Kirk memorial suggested.
Attendees watch the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
Attendees listen to right-wing commentator Benny Johnson speak at the memorial service.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Political commentator Jack Posobiec holds up a cross as he speaks during the memorial service for Charlie Kirk.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Attendees at the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Ex-Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bower says the organization was Charlie Kirk’s life
Charlie Kirk’s former chief of staff Mikey McCoy speaks during the memorial service at State Farm Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Speaking at Kirk’s memorial, former Turning Point USA COO Tyler Bowyer recalled meeting Kirk in 2014, remembering the conservative activist as “just a kid” who “shared a vision of what the conservative movement should be.”
“When Charlie turned 21, he didn’t have a home. Turning Point USA was in its first year of raising real money,” Bowyer said. “He was rarely home in Chicago. He lived on a plane and zipped back and forth as Turning Point USA became his life.”
Bowyer said he was the person who convinced Kirk to move to Arizona. That’s where Kirk met his wife Erika, who Bowyer said wanted to help out at the first Trump rally in 2015.
“I wanted to hire her. I only had one problem, Charlie Kirk wanted to date her,” Bowyer told the crowd. “They immediately fell in love and I lost an employee. But now she’s my boss.”
President Trump steps off Air Force One in Arizona after arriving for the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk.
Win McNamee / Getty Images
President Trump arrived in Glendale, Arizona, shortly after 3 p.m. ET, or 12 p.m. local time. Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak in about two hours at the service.
Mr. Trump was traveling on Air Force One with Vice President JD Vance.
“I had to come”: Thousands from around the country pack Arizona’s State Farm Stadium
People sing and pray ahead of the public memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sept. 21, 2025.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
Thousands of people packed into Arizona’s State Farm Stadium hours before the Charlie Kirk memorial. CBS News reporters spoke with some of the attendees.
Rachelle Truong, of Southern California, told CBS News she drove four and a half hours to attend.
“We drove here last night. We got in about 1 o’clock in the morning and woke up at three to be here,” she said.
Meanwhile, Alecia Grantham flew in Saturday from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“There wasn’t an option to stay home and sit back and watch,” she said. “It was, come out, show my support. I really wanted to be here.”
Her significant other, she said, stayed home because it was duck-hunting season but would be watching on TV.
“I had to come. I had to make it. You have to take action. You have to be here and celebrate,” Grantham said.
— Lucia Suarez Sang, Aaron Navarro
Trump calls it a “very tough day” ahead of memorial service
Mr. Trump told reporters that it’s a “very tough day” as he departed the White House on his way to Glendale, Arizona Sunday morning for Kirk’s memorial service.
“We’re going to celebrate the life of a great man today,” the president said, adding, “that something like this could have happened is not even believable.”
Mr. Trump said of Kirk’s wife and family that he plans to continue to “give them my love.”
“There’s nothing much you can say,” the president said. “You talk about the great things he’s done. I mean, he’s been amazing — had a tremendous influence for a young man that was… did a great job. He did a tremendous job.”
Mr. Trump said Kirk “had a hold on youth because they loved him, they respected him.”
Erika Kirk tells New York Times that she insisted on seeing her husband in the hospital: “I want to see what they did to my husband”
In an interview with The New York Times that was published Sunday, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk, said that when she arrived at the Utah hospital after he was shot, she was warned against seeing his body. But, she said she told officials, “I want to see what they did to my husband.”
“His eyes were semi-open,” Kirk told the Times. “And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven.”
She said she had not kissed him before he left that morning, and she kissed him then.
Erika Kirk told the Times about how she and Charlie met and their relationship.
“I’m not saying he was perfect, by any means,” she said. “But I knew my expectations and role, and he knew his. I wasn’t going to be the nagging wife who he wouldn’t want to come home to. I wanted to create a sacred landing space for him. And I think that’s why he was always eager to come home.”
Erika Kirk also said she did not want to be the one who decided if the alleged shooter got the death penalty.
“I’ll be honest. I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger,” she said. “Because when I get to heaven, and Jesus is like: ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’ And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”
Tight security at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, where memorial service is being held
The memorial service for Charlie Kirk is taking place at State Farm Stadium — normally home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. The stadium, which is located in Glendale, near Phoenix, can seat more than 63,000 people.
But police are anticipating that more than 100,000 people may turn out, so Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, also reserved the venue next door, the Desert Diamond Arena, for overflow. Desert Diamond seats about 18,000.
Organizers said there would be tight security for the event, with “TSA-level screening” for the crowd.
Federal authorities have designated the memorial service as a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) Level 1 event, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said. That designation is used for “significant events with national and/or international importance that require extensive federal interagency support,” like the Super Bowl.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
Donald Trump Jr.
Tucker Carlson
Stephen Miller
Sergio Gor
Additional speakers are also expected to be announced.
What to know about Erika Kirk
One of the marquee speakers at the memorial will be Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, who has taken on leadership of Turning Point USA following his death.
The couple married in 2021 and had two young children.
Erika Kirk grew up in the Phoenix area and won Miss Arizona USA in 2012. She attended Arizona State University, earned a juris master degree from Liberty University and is pursuing her doctorate there in biblical studies.
She was a frequent presence at Turning Point USA events, where she spoke about politics, religion and her conservative views on family and marriage. She also founded a “faith-based clothing line” called PROCLAIM and a ministry called BIBLEin365.
During an appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show” earlier this year, Erika Kirk said she was more conservative than her husband — and he agreed.
In her first public remarks after his death last week, she said “the movement my husband built will not die.”
On Thursday, the board of Turning Point USA announced it had unanimously selected her as its new CEO and board chair.
At Turning Point USA, Kirk built a movement and stirred controversy
Charlie Kirk was the leader of Turning Point USA, a group for young conservatives that he co-founded in 2012, at the age of 18. A native of the Chicago area, Kirk briefly attended community college but dropped out to pursue political activism full-time.
He was an outspoken and ubiquitous presence in politics, especially for the younger set. He hosted a daily talk radio show and podcast, spread his message on social media and visited scores of college campuses every year, where he was known for hosting rapid-fire debates with left-leaning students.
Kirk frequently drew controversy for his views. He supported Mr. Trump’s false claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election, and his group maintained a “Professor Watchlist” of college instructors accused of spreading “leftist propaganda.”
He espoused anti-trans rhetoric and amplified the “Great Replacement” conspiracy, the claim that there’s a plot to replace White people with minorities.
Turning Point USA, a nonprofit, says it has chapters at thousands of high schools and colleges, and the group’s political arm, Turning Point Action, engages in grassroots canvassing.
Charlie Kirk’s close ties with Trump and Vance
Kirk’s support for President Trump dates back to his first campaign in 2016, and he remained allied with Mr. Trump after he left office under a cloud of controversy following the Capitol riot in January 2021.
In the 2024 presidential race, Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, was widely credited with helping to energize and mobilize young conservative voters for Mr. Trump.
Then President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec. 22, 2024.
“Charlie wasn’t just a friend — he was like a little brother to me,” Trump Jr. wrote on X.
Vice President JD Vance has credited Kirk with introducing him to Donald Trump Jr. before Vance ran for Senate in 2022, and with advocating “in public and private” for the president to choose Vance as his running mate last year.
Following Kirk’s assassination, Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket as it was flown from Utah to Arizona aboard the vice president’s plane, Air Force Two.
Thirty-two cats and one dog were killed in an apartment fire on Sunday morning, Sep. 21 in Long Beach.
Crews responded at 7:21 a.m. to the blaze at a three-story apartment building in the 3500 block of Linden Avenue, in the California Heights neighborhood, according to the Long Beach Fire Department.
Multiple people called 911 after seeing smoke in the third-floor hallway and fire coming from one of the units, said LBFD spokesperson Capt. Jack Crabtree. The fire was quickly contained and did not spread to adjacent units.
The resident of the unit said the animals were intended for adoption, Crabtree said. No one was in the apartment when the fire broke out, and no injuries were reported, he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, Crabtree said.
The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Eddie Wilson, Kevin Modesti and Mark Ratzky. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Sunday, September 21, 2025.
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