WASHINGTON (AP) —Former Secretary of State&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/mike-pompeo">Mike Pompeo</a>&nbsp;said Friday he will not enter the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview with Fox News, the devoted ally and defender of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;opted out of a contest that would have put him into competition with his former commander in chief.

“The time is not right for me and my family,” Pompeo said in a statement later posted to Twitter. “At each stage of my public service — as a soldier, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and as your Secretary of State — I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to advance America in a way that fit the time and the moment. This is not that time or that moment for me to seek elected office again.”

Pompeo seemed to leave the door open on a future run.

“To those of you this announcement disappoints, my apologies,” Pompeo said. “And to those of you this thrilled, know that I’m 59 years old. There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary.”

Pompeo would have been the second former Trump Cabinet member to enter the race to challenge the former president for the 2024 GOP nomination, joining former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her campaign in February. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considering entering the race and has stepped up his travel and activity in early-voting primary and caucus states.

In addition, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have also announced campaigns. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has launched a presidential exploratory committee as he considers his own bid.

President Joe Biden has indicated he will seek reelection, tamping down any major challenges for the Democratic nomination.

Where Haley and Pence have openly expressed differences with Trump, Pompeo has had no public split with Trump and hasn't been rebuked by the former president, as many of his would-be rivals have. Pompeo recently referred to Trump as a “great boss.”

The former congressman graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy in 1986 before spending five years on active duty, deployed for a time as a cavalry officer commanding tank movements along the border between NATO-backed Western Europe and Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe.

The retired Army captain is a Harvard-educated lawyer who practiced law in Washington and founded two Wichita businesses — an aerospace firm and later a petroleum equipment manufacturer — before entering politics.

Pompeo — a witty and sometimes gruff politician — easily won four consecutive terms in the U.S. House representing southern Kansas. He sat on the House Intelligence Committee as well as the select committee investigating the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.

Pompeo counts as among his proudest moments the 2020 Abraham Accords, declarations of support for peaceful relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. He also points to the imposition of tariffs on China, direct talks with North Korea and the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as pillars of Trump’s “America First” theme he helped erect.

The 2018 withdrawal from the Iran deal and imposition of crippling sanctions have prompted death threats against Pompeo, who remains under 24-hour security protection provided by the State Department.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1677935775709.png" alt="Pompeo seemed to leave the door open on a future run.-photo courtesy CPAC" />
 <figcaption>Pompeo seemed to leave the door open on a future run.-photo courtesy CPAC</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) —Former Secretary of State&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/mike-pompeo">Mike Pompeo</a>&nbsp;said Friday he will not enter the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Susan and I have concluded, after much consideration and prayer, that I will not present myself as a candidate to become President of the United States in the 2024 election. <a href="https://t.co/hxujBzGgkI">pic.twitter.com/hxujBzGgkI</a>&mdash; Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikepompeo/status/1647001366441897985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>In an interview with Fox News, the devoted ally and defender of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;opted out of a contest that would have put him into competition with his former commander in chief.“The time is not right for me and my family,” Pompeo said in a statement later posted to Twitter. “At each stage of my public service — as a soldier, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and as your Secretary of State — I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to advance America in a way that fit the time and the moment. This is not that time or that moment for me to seek elected office again.”Pompeo seemed to leave the door open on a future run.“To those of you this announcement disappoints, my apologies,” Pompeo said. “And to those of you this thrilled, know that I’m 59 years old. There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary.”Pompeo would have been the second former Trump Cabinet member to enter the race to challenge the former president for the 2024 GOP nomination, joining former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her campaign in February. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considering entering the race and has stepped up his travel and activity in early-voting primary and caucus states.In addition, biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have also announced campaigns. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has launched a presidential exploratory committee as he considers his own bid.President Joe Biden has indicated he will seek reelection, tamping down any major challenges for the Democratic nomination.Where Haley and Pence have openly expressed differences with Trump, Pompeo has had no public split with Trump and hasn't been rebuked by the former president, as many of his would-be rivals have. Pompeo recently referred to Trump as a “great boss.”The former congressman graduated at the top of his class from the U.S. Military Academy in 1986 before spending five years on active duty, deployed for a time as a cavalry officer commanding tank movements along the border between NATO-backed Western Europe and Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe.The retired Army captain is a Harvard-educated lawyer who practiced law in Washington and founded two Wichita businesses — an aerospace firm and later a petroleum equipment manufacturer — before entering politics.Pompeo — a witty and sometimes gruff politician — easily won four consecutive terms in the U.S. House representing southern Kansas. He sat on the House Intelligence Committee as well as the select committee investigating the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.Pompeo counts as among his proudest moments the 2020 Abraham Accords, declarations of support for peaceful relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. He also points to the imposition of tariffs on China, direct talks with North Korea and the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as pillars of Trump’s “America First” theme he helped erect.The 2018 withdrawal from the Iran deal and imposition of crippling sanctions have prompted death threats against Pompeo, who remains under 24-hour security protection provided by the State Department.

Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not running for president

OSAGE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a wanted Kansas felon on new charges after a high-speed chase.

On Thursday, an Osage County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit attempted to initiate a traffic stop near just before the Waverly exit on Interstate 35&nbsp; for an alleged traffic violation. The driver later identified as 42-year-old Kansas felon Terrance of Shawnee failed to stop, and a pursuit began.

The pursuit traveled mainly through rural areas of Coffey and into Anderson County. The vehicle pursuit ended when the suspect traveled down a dead end road. The driver then eluded law enforcement on foot before being located.

Wade was taken into custody and transported to the Osage County Jail on requested charges of Flee or attempting to elude law enforcement by engaging in reckless driving,&nbsp;&nbsp;Aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer; use of a deadly weapon, Interference with law enforcement, a&nbsp;Jackson County, Missouri warrant, Shawnee County, and Kansas probation violation felony warrant. He has previous drug convictions in Wyandotte County, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.

The Osage County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Coffey County Sheriff's Office, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Garnett Police Department, Garnett Rural Fire Department, Anderson County EMS, Anderson County Emergency Management, and Kansas Highway Patrol.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/4/1681469136829.png" alt="Wade has previous drug convictions, according to the Kan. Dept. of Corrections-photo from an earlier arrest in Wyandotte Co." />
 <figcaption>Wade has previous drug convictions, according to the Kan. Dept. of Corrections-photo from an earlier arrest in Wyandotte Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>OSAGE COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a wanted Kansas felon on new charges after a high-speed chase.On Thursday, an Osage County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit attempted to initiate a traffic stop near just before the Waverly exit on Interstate 35&nbsp; for an alleged traffic violation. The driver later identified as 42-year-old Kansas felon Terrance of Shawnee failed to stop, and a pursuit began.The pursuit traveled mainly through rural areas of Coffey and into Anderson County. The vehicle pursuit ended when the suspect traveled down a dead end road. The driver then eluded law enforcement on foot before being located.Wade was taken into custody and transported to the Osage County Jail on requested charges of Flee or attempting to elude law enforcement by engaging in reckless driving,&nbsp;&nbsp;Aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer; use of a deadly weapon, Interference with law enforcement, a&nbsp;Jackson County, Missouri warrant, Shawnee County, and Kansas probation violation felony warrant. He has previous drug convictions in Wyandotte County, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/4/1681488138774.png" alt="Wade-photo Osage Co." />
 <figcaption>Wade-photo Osage Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>The Osage County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Coffey County Sheriff's Office, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, Garnett Police Department, Garnett Rural Fire Department, Anderson County EMS, Anderson County Emergency Management, and Kansas Highway Patrol.

Wanted Kansas felon captured after 3-county chase

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of an abortion drug, while it takes time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.

In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the court put a five-day pause on the fast-moving case so the justices can decide whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, mifepristone, should be allowed to take effect in the short term.

The justices are being asked at this point only to determine what parts of an April 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, as modified by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-abortion-pill-appeal-fe13d36218f1fb43590aff29b5ba4e9c">an appellate ruling Wednesday</a>, can be in force while the case continues. The order expires late Wednesday, suggesting the court will decide that issue by then.

The court finds itself immersed in a new fight involving abortion less than a year after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

President Joe Biden's administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday evening that the administration continues “to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and we will continue to support the FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.”

She added, “The stakes of this fight could not be higher in the face of ongoing attacks on women’s health, and we will continue to fight to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade.”

A lawyer for the anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations suing over mifepristone said the court's action Friday was “standard operating procedure” and urged the justices to allow the appeals court-ordered changes to take effect by the middle of next week.

The type of order issued by the court Friday, an administrative stay, ordinarily is not an indication of what the justices will do going forward. It was signed by Alito because he handles emergency filings from Texas. Alito also is the author of last year’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.

The Justice Department and Danco both warned of “regulatory chaos” and harm to women if the high court doesn't block the lower-court rulings that had the effect of tightening FDA rules under which the drug, mifepristone, can be prescribed and dispensed.

The new limits would have taken effect Saturday if the court hadn't acted.

"This application concerns unprecedented lower court orders countermanding FDA’s scientific judgment and unleashing regulatory chaos by suspending the existing FDA-approved conditions of use for mifepristone," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote Friday, less than two days after the appellate ruling.

The Biden administration and Danco now want a more lasting order that would keep the current rules in place as long as the legal fight over mifepristone continues. As a fallback, they asked the court to take up the issue, hear arguments and decide by early summer a legal challenge to mifepristone that anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations filed last year.

The court rarely acts so quickly to grant full review of cases before at least one appeals court has thoroughly examined the legal issues involved.

A ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday would prevent the pill, used in the most common abortion method, from being mailed or prescribed without an in-person visit to a doctor. It also would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use beyond the seventh week of pregnancy. The FDA says it’s safe through 10 weeks.

Still, the appeals court did not entirely withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-telehealth-mifepristone-9ba8f3ce130fae246e1d87ce428b74a0">while the fight over it continues</a>. The 5th circuit narrowed an April 7 ruling by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-abortion-pill-fda-75964b777ef09593a1ad948c6cfc0237">U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk</a>, whose far-reaching and virtually unprecedented order would have blocked FDA approval of the pill. He gave the administration a week to appeal.

“To the government’s knowledge, this is the first time any court has abrogated FDA’s conditions on a drug’s approval based on a disagreement with the agency’s judgment about safety — much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years,” Prelogar wrote.

Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the challengers, said in a statement that the FDA has put politics ahead of health concerns in its actions on medication abortion.

“The 5th Circuit rightly required the agency to prioritize women’s health by restoring critical safeguards, and we’ll urge the Supreme Court to keep that accountability in place,” said Hawley, a senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that also argued to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.

Adding to the uncertainty, a separate federal judge in Washington on Thursday clarified his own order from last week to make clear that the FDA is not to do anything that might block mifepristone’s availability in 17 Democrat-led states suing to keep it on the market.

It’s unclear how the FDA can comply with court orders in both cases, a situation that Prelogar described Friday as untenable.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, in a statement Friday night, said the April 7 ruling out of Texas poses “an existential threat to the FDA’s authority to review and approve a wide range of drugs. If it stands, no medicine approved by the FDA would be safe from these attacks.”

Use of medication abortion jumped significantly after the FDA's 2016 rule expansion, according to data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In 2017, medication abortion accounted for 39% percent of abortions, but by 2020 it had increased to become the most common method, accounting for 53% of all abortions.

Experts have said the use of medication abortion has increased since the court overturned Roe.

When the drug was initially approved, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug, misoprostol, and the third to address any complications. It also required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for any serious consequences of the drug.

If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed for now.

At the core of the Texas lawsuit is the allegation that the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone was flawed because the agency did not adequately review safety risks.

Mifepristone has been used by millions of women over the past 23 years. While less drastic than completely overturning the drug’s approval, the latest ruling still represents a stark challenge to the FDA’s authority overseeing how prescription drugs are used in the U.S. The ruling late Wednesday overturned multiple decisions made by FDA regulators after years of scientific review.

Common side effects with mifepristone include cramping, bleeding, nausea, headache and diarrhea. In rare cases, women can experience excess bleeding that requires surgery to stop.

Still, in loosening restrictions on mifepristone, FDA regulators cited “exceedingly low rates of serious adverse events.”

More than 5.6 million women in the U.S. had used the drug as of June 2022, according to the FDA. In that period, the agency received 4,200 reports of complications in women, or less than one tenth of 1% of women who took the drug.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/4/1680967457500.png" alt="About 60% of abortions in Kansas involve the abortion pill. photo Associated Press" />
 <figcaption>About 60% of abortions in Kansas involve the abortion pill. photo Associated Press</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of an abortion drug, while it takes time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.In an order signed by Justice Samuel Alito, the court put a five-day pause on the fast-moving case so the justices can decide whether lower court rulings restricting the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug, mifepristone, should be allowed to take effect in the short term.The justices are being asked at this point only to determine what parts of an April 7 ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, as modified by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-abortion-pill-appeal-fe13d36218f1fb43590aff29b5ba4e9c">an appellate ruling Wednesday</a>, can be in force while the case continues. The order expires late Wednesday, suggesting the court will decide that issue by then.The court finds itself immersed in a new fight involving abortion less than a year after&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-supreme-court-decision-854f60302f21c2c35129e58cf8d8a7b0">conservative justices reversed Roe v. Wade</a>&nbsp;and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.President Joe Biden's administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, the maker of the pill, asked the justices to intervene.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Friday evening that the administration continues “to stand by FDA’s evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and we will continue to support the FDA’s independent, expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs.”She added, “The stakes of this fight could not be higher in the face of ongoing attacks on women’s health, and we will continue to fight to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade.”A lawyer for the anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations suing over mifepristone said the court's action Friday was “standard operating procedure” and urged the justices to allow the appeals court-ordered changes to take effect by the middle of next week.The type of order issued by the court Friday, an administrative stay, ordinarily is not an indication of what the justices will do going forward. It was signed by Alito because he handles emergency filings from Texas. Alito also is the author of last year’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.The Justice Department and Danco both warned of “regulatory chaos” and harm to women if the high court doesn't block the lower-court rulings that had the effect of tightening FDA rules under which the drug, mifepristone, can be prescribed and dispensed.The new limits would have taken effect Saturday if the court hadn't acted."This application concerns unprecedented lower court orders countermanding FDA’s scientific judgment and unleashing regulatory chaos by suspending the existing FDA-approved conditions of use for mifepristone," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote Friday, less than two days after the appellate ruling.The Biden administration and Danco now want a more lasting order that would keep the current rules in place as long as the legal fight over mifepristone continues. As a fallback, they asked the court to take up the issue, hear arguments and decide by early summer a legal challenge to mifepristone that anti-abortion doctors and medical organizations filed last year.The court rarely acts so quickly to grant full review of cases before at least one appeals court has thoroughly examined the legal issues involved.A ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Wednesday would prevent the pill, used in the most common abortion method, from being mailed or prescribed without an in-person visit to a doctor. It also would withdraw the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone for use beyond the seventh week of pregnancy. The FDA says it’s safe through 10 weeks.Still, the appeals court did not entirely withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-telehealth-mifepristone-9ba8f3ce130fae246e1d87ce428b74a0">while the fight over it continues</a>. The 5th circuit narrowed an April 7 ruling by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-judge-matthew-kacsmaryk-abortion-pill-fda-75964b777ef09593a1ad948c6cfc0237">U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk</a>, whose far-reaching and virtually unprecedented order would have blocked FDA approval of the pill. He gave the administration a week to appeal.“To the government’s knowledge, this is the first time any court has abrogated FDA’s conditions on a drug’s approval based on a disagreement with the agency’s judgment about safety — much less done so after those conditions have been in effect for years,” Prelogar wrote.Erin Hawley, a lawyer for the challengers, said in a statement that the FDA has put politics ahead of health concerns in its actions on medication abortion.“The 5th Circuit rightly required the agency to prioritize women’s health by restoring critical safeguards, and we’ll urge the Supreme Court to keep that accountability in place,” said Hawley, a senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that also argued to overturn Roe v. Wade.Mifepristone was approved by the FDA more than two decades ago and is used in combination with a second drug, misoprostol.Adding to the uncertainty, a separate federal judge in Washington on Thursday clarified his own order from last week to make clear that the FDA is not to do anything that might block mifepristone’s availability in 17 Democrat-led states suing to keep it on the market.It’s unclear how the FDA can comply with court orders in both cases, a situation that Prelogar described Friday as untenable.Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, in a statement Friday night, said the April 7 ruling out of Texas poses “an existential threat to the FDA’s authority to review and approve a wide range of drugs. If it stands, no medicine approved by the FDA would be safe from these attacks.”Use of medication abortion jumped significantly after the FDA's 2016 rule expansion, according to data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In 2017, medication abortion accounted for 39% percent of abortions, but by 2020 it had increased to become the most common method, accounting for 53% of all abortions.Experts have said the use of medication abortion has increased since the court overturned Roe.When the drug was initially approved, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug, misoprostol, and the third to address any complications. It also required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for any serious consequences of the drug.If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed for now.At the core of the Texas lawsuit is the allegation that the FDA’s initial approval of mifepristone was flawed because the agency did not adequately review safety risks.Mifepristone has been used by millions of women over the past 23 years. While less drastic than completely overturning the drug’s approval, the latest ruling still represents a stark challenge to the FDA’s authority overseeing how prescription drugs are used in the U.S. The ruling late Wednesday overturned multiple decisions made by FDA regulators after years of scientific review.Common side effects with mifepristone include cramping, bleeding, nausea, headache and diarrhea. In rare cases, women can experience excess bleeding that requires surgery to stop.Still, in loosening restrictions on mifepristone, FDA regulators cited “exceedingly low rates of serious adverse events.”More than 5.6 million women in the U.S. had used the drug as of June 2022, according to the FDA. In that period, the agency received 4,200 reports of complications in women, or less than one tenth of 1% of women who took the drug.-------------

High court temporarily restores broad availability of abortion pill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas on Wednesday became the second state to restrict social media use by children, as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved legislation requiring minors to get their parents’ permission to create a new account.

The bill signed by the Republican governor requires social media companies to contract with third-party vendors to perform age verification checks on new users. The law will apply to new accounts created starting in September.

“While social media can be a great tool and a wonderful resource, it can have a massive negative impact on our kids,” Sanders said before signing the legislation.

The proposal is similar to a first-in-the-nation law that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed last month. Utah’s law takes effect in March 2024. Several other states are considering similar measures, touted by supporters as a way to protect children. California last year enacted a law requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.

Sanders last month announced the state had filed lawsuits against TikTok and Facebook parent Meta, claiming the social media companies misled consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and the protection of users’ private data.

The legislation has drawn criticism from opponents who said restrictions could raise new privacy concerns and exacerbate the mental health crisis among young people. Experts have also questioned how and if the restrictions could be enforced.

“The governor and the legislators who voted for this bill must not understand the harm it will cause to the privacy and free speech rights of the people they represent, because if they did, I don’t think they could pass it in good conscience,” Jason Kelley, acting director of activism for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a statement.

The restrictions would only apply to social media platforms that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. It also wouldn’t apply to certain platforms, including LinkedIn, Google and YouTube.

Social media companies that knowingly violate the age verification requirement could face a $2,500 fine for each violation under the new law. The law also prohibits third party vendors from retaining identifying information of users after they’ve been granted access to the social media site.

Republican Sen. Tyler Dees, the Arkansas bill’s sponsor, said the new law “sends a clear message that we want to partner with parents and empower them to protect our children.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas on Wednesday became the second state to restrict social media use by children, as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved legislation requiring minors to get their parents’ permission to create a new account.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">For years, social media companies have gotten away with exploiting kids for profit. Not anymore. I signed a new law today requiring social media companies to verify the age of all new Arkansas users — and if an account holder is under 18, they’ll need parental permission. <a href="https://t.co/k0WO8438wM">pic.twitter.com/k0WO8438wM</a>&mdash; Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) <a href="https://twitter.com/SarahHuckabee/status/1646320020702601216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The bill signed by the Republican governor requires social media companies to contract with third-party vendors to perform age verification checks on new users. The law will apply to new accounts created starting in September.“While social media can be a great tool and a wonderful resource, it can have a massive negative impact on our kids,” Sanders said before signing the legislation.The proposal is similar to a first-in-the-nation law that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed last month. Utah’s law takes effect in March 2024. Several other states are considering similar measures, touted by supporters as a way to protect children. California last year enacted a law requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.Sanders last month announced the state had filed lawsuits against TikTok and Facebook parent Meta, claiming the social media companies misled consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and the protection of users’ private data.The legislation has drawn criticism from opponents who said restrictions could raise new privacy concerns and exacerbate the mental health crisis among young people. Experts have also questioned how and if the restrictions could be enforced.“The governor and the legislators who voted for this bill must not understand the harm it will cause to the privacy and free speech rights of the people they represent, because if they did, I don’t think they could pass it in good conscience,” Jason Kelley, acting director of activism for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a statement.The restrictions would only apply to social media platforms that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. It also wouldn’t apply to certain platforms, including LinkedIn, Google and YouTube.Social media companies that knowingly violate the age verification requirement could face a $2,500 fine for each violation under the new law. The law also prohibits third party vendors from retaining identifying information of users after they’ve been granted access to the social media site.Republican Sen. Tyler Dees, the Arkansas bill’s sponsor, said the new law “sends a clear message that we want to partner with parents and empower them to protect our children.”

Another state will require parents OK for kids on social media

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Last year it was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting">Uvalde</a>. Now it's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nashville-school-shooting-covenant-school-5da45b469ccb6c9533bbddf20c1bfe16">Nashville</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/louisville-bank-shooting-9826ea39f24ff9dcf3cb5390c04be47b">Louisville</a>. For the second year in a row, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention within days of mass shootings that shook the nation.

The three-day gathering kicked off Friday with thousands of the organization’s most active members at Indianapolis’ convention center attracting a bevy of top Republican presidential candidates — enough that it could help shape the early part of next year’s GOP primary race.

It illustrates the stark reality that such shootings have become enough of the fabric of American life that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-convention-212dfd1b57474f1ab208d4a72521a010">the NRA can no longer schedule around them</a>. Nor does it really want to: The convention falls on the second anniversary of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fedex-indianapolis-mass-shooting-e92ad3117c56357b3b2c71a2903e68a8">mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis</a>&nbsp;that killed nine people.

In brief remarks, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre didn’t mention the recent mass shootings.

“Gun-hating politicians should never go to bed unafraid of what this association and all of our millions of members can do to their political careers,” LaPierre said.

But Randy Conner, a pistol and rifle instructor for the NRA from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, expressed the sentiment of many attendees when he said in an interview that blaming firearms for mass shootings is misguided: “A gun is not dangerous until somebody picks it up,” he said.

“No one wants to see the violence you see in schools and stuff today,” Conner said. “But I don’t think taking the guns away from ordinary citizens is going to change any of that at all.”

Former President Donald Trump will be speaking at the gathering, his first public appearance since being&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arraignment-hush-money-81225510ef7638494852816878f612f0#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20A,his%20first%20White%20House%20campaign.">arrested and arraigned in New York last week</a>&nbsp;on felony charges stemming from a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. His Secret Service protection means attendees can't have guns at the convention.

Also speaking Friday was Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, who is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pence-trump-republican-2024-election-ffc7babf74068ab6071a19e897e780b9">considering his own 2024 White House bid</a>&nbsp;— the first time they have addressed the same campaign event on the same day since their estrangement following the Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">insurrection at the U.S. Capitol</a>.

Pence, who was met by scattered boos before his NRA speech, has skipped a number of conservative gatherings in recent years, including the Conservative Political Action Conference as well as the Faith &amp; Freedom Coalition’s annual gathering after he was booed and heckled there in 2021.

The former vice president noted shootings at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank that killed five people this week and at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27 that killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members. But he said, “We don’t need gun control. We need crime control.”

“We don’t need lectures about the liberties of law-abiding citizens," Pence said. “We need solutions to protect our kids.”

Instead of fewer guns, Pence called for more institutions for the mentally ill and federal funding for armed school officers. He also called for a federal death penalty statute with expedited appeal to punish the perpetrators of mass shootings more quickly.

“To Joe Biden and the gun control extremists, I say: Give up on your pipe dreams of gun confiscation. Stop endangering our lives with gun bans," Pence said.

Two GOP Trump critics — former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/asa-hutchinson-president-2024-election-3a55855b1914d6e61338d1c8576a817f">announced his 2024 campaign</a>&nbsp;after news of the former president's indictment broke, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who may launch his own White House bid — are also speaking.

Offering video messages are former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-running-for-president-f28052019e8ac3846cd125b3d9614d4f">began her 2024 campaign in February</a>; South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who announced a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/exploratory-committee-president-tim-scott-2024-b129664cb44862100e43e2930e75efb3">presidential exploratory committee</a>&nbsp;this week, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-trump-president-2024-election-00b8335b1a2dd4d08fb216e4b609f6a3">top rival to Trump</a>&nbsp;even though he’s yet to jump into the race.

Pain over the Louisville and Nashville shooting rampages has crossed party lines. Kentucky Democratic Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-health-covid-kentucky-steve-beshear-e6dd4d00c92502d4814451d6e9995ed8">Andy Beshear</a>&nbsp;talked about having a friend killed in the Louisville shooting, while Republican Tennessee Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-health-covid-6e6d211ca65d625eef90d91ee8f4567d">Bill Lee</a>&nbsp;said he had friends killed during the Nashville school attack.

The NRA convention's tone was as defiant as last year, when the group held its convention in Houston just three days after the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across Texas in the town of Uvalde.

Further overlapping with recent tragedy, Pence and some of the other speakers plan to follow up their NRA speeches by traveling to Nashville to meet with top GOP donors gathered there.

“Every significant national Republican, every Republican that’s thrown their hat in the ring to run for president, is showing up this weekend to pledge their undying loyalty to the NRA and the gun lobby,” said Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who championed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-gun-violence-bill-c21249287f976c2c164d8753205c2e6d">bipartisan legislation</a>&nbsp;that passed last year and imposed some new federal gun restrictions after the Uvalde shooting. “Our kids are being hunted, and the NRA’s business model is to give aid to the hunters.”

Indeed, support for gun rights among Republican voters remains higher than for voters overall. Some 56% of voters in last fall’s midterm elections said they want to see stricter nationwide gun laws, compared with just 28% of Republicans, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate.

About half of Republicans said gun laws should be left as they are.

Also on display Friday was the resurgence of the NRA and the key role it is poised to play in next year's presidential race — in a stark departure from 2020. Back then, the organization was trying to regroup and saw its membership and political spending decline following serious legal and financial turmoil — including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nra-bankruptcy-dismissed-a281b888b64d391374f24539a820d60f">a failed bankruptcy effort</a>, a class action lawsuit and a fraud investigation.

Trump, meanwhile, has a contradictory history on guns. The NRA was a key backer of his 2016 campaign, spending some $30 million to support a candidate who sometimes mentioned carrying his own gun and vowed to eliminate gun-free zones in schools and on military bases. Trump also pledged to establish a national right to carry.

But, as the country reeled from a series of mass shootings,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-las-vegas-6c1af80fb290472c89fb930e223505af">Trump’s administration banned bump stocks</a>, which were used in a 2017 attack on a Las Vegas country music concert that killed 60 people. After the Parkland school shooting in Florida the following year,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-donald-trump-violence-gun-politics-politics-75db363bc4fb4779b92d4582f5d5bb70">Trump urged congressional Republicans to expand background checks</a>&nbsp;and proposed seizing guns from mentally ill people.

He also suggested raising the minimum age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, and suggested he was open to a conversation about reviving assault weapons bans. After later meeting with the NRA, however, Trump abandoned his push, instead focusing on arming teachers and making schools more secure.

Donna Alberts, who traveled around 600 miles (965 kilometers) from Greenbriar, Arkansas, for the convention, said nothing could sway her vote for Trump in 2024.

“He’s a good man," Alberts said, “and he does what he says he’s going to do, and he loves this country.”

Gun rights advocates continue to celebrate&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/Americans%20have%20a%20right%20to%20carry%20firearms%20in%20public%20for%20self-defense">a Supreme Court decision last June</a>&nbsp;that said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-guns-decision-58d01ef8bd48e816d5f8761ffa84e3e8">Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense</a>. That opened the door to a wave of challenges to firearm restrictions across the country by changing the test that lower courts had long used for evaluating challenges to firearm restrictions.

Amid upheaval in the wake of the ruling, courts have declared unconstitutional laws including federal measures designed to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and defendants under felony indictment, as well as a ban on possessing guns with the serial number removed. Courts are also considering challenges to state bans on AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles.

Attempting to counter gun rights advocates has been an ascendant gun safety movement that has poured tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns. That includes Moms Demand Action, which was among a coalition of groups that derided Friday’s speeches as “a cattle call of far-right" presidential candidates.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/4/1681497492227.png" alt="The NRA calls the convention “one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country, featuring our nation’s top Second Amendment leaders.-image courtesy NRA" />
 <figcaption>The NRA calls the convention “one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country, featuring our nation’s top Second Amendment leaders.-image courtesy NRA</figcaption>
 </figure>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Last year it was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting">Uvalde</a>. Now it's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nashville-school-shooting-covenant-school-5da45b469ccb6c9533bbddf20c1bfe16">Nashville</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/louisville-bank-shooting-9826ea39f24ff9dcf3cb5390c04be47b">Louisville</a>. For the second year in a row, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention within days of mass shootings that shook the nation.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Former Vice President and Indiana Governor closes out his speech STRONG at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NRAConvention?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NRAConvention</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ge7f1H8l3A">pic.twitter.com/Ge7f1H8l3A</a>&mdash; NRA (@NRA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1646949679492374564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The three-day gathering kicked off Friday with thousands of the organization’s most active members at Indianapolis’ convention center attracting a bevy of top Republican presidential candidates — enough that it could help shape the early part of next year’s GOP primary race.It illustrates the stark reality that such shootings have become enough of the fabric of American life that&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-nra-convention-212dfd1b57474f1ab208d4a72521a010">the NRA can no longer schedule around them</a>. Nor does it really want to: The convention falls on the second anniversary of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fedex-indianapolis-mass-shooting-e92ad3117c56357b3b2c71a2903e68a8">mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis</a>&nbsp;that killed nine people.In brief remarks, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre didn’t mention the recent mass shootings.“Gun-hating politicians should never go to bed unafraid of what this association and all of our millions of members can do to their political careers,” LaPierre said.But Randy Conner, a pistol and rifle instructor for the NRA from Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, expressed the sentiment of many attendees when he said in an interview that blaming firearms for mass shootings is misguided: “A gun is not dangerous until somebody picks it up,” he said.“No one wants to see the violence you see in schools and stuff today,” Conner said. “But I don’t think taking the guns away from ordinary citizens is going to change any of that at all.”Former President Donald Trump will be speaking at the gathering, his first public appearance since being&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arraignment-hush-money-81225510ef7638494852816878f612f0#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20A,his%20first%20White%20House%20campaign.">arrested and arraigned in New York last week</a>&nbsp;on felony charges stemming from a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. His Secret Service protection means attendees can't have guns at the convention.Also speaking Friday was Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, who is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pence-trump-republican-2024-election-ffc7babf74068ab6071a19e897e780b9">considering his own 2024 White House bid</a>&nbsp;— the first time they have addressed the same campaign event on the same day since their estrangement following the Jan. 6, 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">insurrection at the U.S. Capitol</a>.Pence, who was met by scattered boos before his NRA speech, has skipped a number of conservative gatherings in recent years, including the Conservative Political Action Conference as well as the Faith &amp; Freedom Coalition’s annual gathering after he was booed and heckled there in 2021.The former vice president noted shootings at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank that killed five people this week and at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27 that killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members. But he said, “We don’t need gun control. We need crime control.”“We don’t need lectures about the liberties of law-abiding citizens," Pence said. “We need solutions to protect our kids.”Instead of fewer guns, Pence called for more institutions for the mentally ill and federal funding for armed school officers. He also called for a federal death penalty statute with expedited appeal to punish the perpetrators of mass shootings more quickly.“To Joe Biden and the gun control extremists, I say: Give up on your pipe dreams of gun confiscation. Stop endangering our lives with gun bans," Pence said.Two GOP Trump critics — former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/asa-hutchinson-president-2024-election-3a55855b1914d6e61338d1c8576a817f">announced his 2024 campaign</a>&nbsp;after news of the former president's indictment broke, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who may launch his own White House bid — are also speaking.Offering video messages are former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-running-for-president-f28052019e8ac3846cd125b3d9614d4f">began her 2024 campaign in February</a>; South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who announced a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/exploratory-committee-president-tim-scott-2024-b129664cb44862100e43e2930e75efb3">presidential exploratory committee</a>&nbsp;this week, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-trump-president-2024-election-00b8335b1a2dd4d08fb216e4b609f6a3">top rival to Trump</a>&nbsp;even though he’s yet to jump into the race.Pain over the Louisville and Nashville shooting rampages has crossed party lines. Kentucky Democratic Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-health-covid-kentucky-steve-beshear-e6dd4d00c92502d4814451d6e9995ed8">Andy Beshear</a>&nbsp;talked about having a friend killed in the Louisville shooting, while Republican Tennessee Gov.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-abortion-health-covid-6e6d211ca65d625eef90d91ee8f4567d">Bill Lee</a>&nbsp;said he had friends killed during the Nashville school attack.The NRA convention's tone was as defiant as last year, when the group held its convention in Houston just three days after the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across Texas in the town of Uvalde.Further overlapping with recent tragedy, Pence and some of the other speakers plan to follow up their NRA speeches by traveling to Nashville to meet with top GOP donors gathered there.“Every significant national Republican, every Republican that’s thrown their hat in the ring to run for president, is showing up this weekend to pledge their undying loyalty to the NRA and the gun lobby,” said Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who championed&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-gun-violence-bill-c21249287f976c2c164d8753205c2e6d">bipartisan legislation</a>&nbsp;that passed last year and imposed some new federal gun restrictions after the Uvalde shooting. “Our kids are being hunted, and the NRA’s business model is to give aid to the hunters.”Indeed, support for gun rights among Republican voters remains higher than for voters overall. Some 56% of voters in last fall’s midterm elections said they want to see stricter nationwide gun laws, compared with just 28% of Republicans, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the electorate.About half of Republicans said gun laws should be left as they are.Also on display Friday was the resurgence of the NRA and the key role it is poised to play in next year's presidential race — in a stark departure from 2020. Back then, the organization was trying to regroup and saw its membership and political spending decline following serious legal and financial turmoil — including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nra-bankruptcy-dismissed-a281b888b64d391374f24539a820d60f">a failed bankruptcy effort</a>, a class action lawsuit and a fraud investigation.Trump, meanwhile, has a contradictory history on guns. The NRA was a key backer of his 2016 campaign, spending some $30 million to support a candidate who sometimes mentioned carrying his own gun and vowed to eliminate gun-free zones in schools and on military bases. Trump also pledged to establish a national right to carry.But, as the country reeled from a series of mass shootings,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/shootings-north-america-us-news-ap-top-news-las-vegas-6c1af80fb290472c89fb930e223505af">Trump’s administration banned bump stocks</a>, which were used in a 2017 attack on a Las Vegas country music concert that killed 60 people. After the Parkland school shooting in Florida the following year,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-donald-trump-violence-gun-politics-politics-75db363bc4fb4779b92d4582f5d5bb70">Trump urged congressional Republicans to expand background checks</a>&nbsp;and proposed seizing guns from mentally ill people.He also suggested raising the minimum age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, and suggested he was open to a conversation about reviving assault weapons bans. After later meeting with the NRA, however, Trump abandoned his push, instead focusing on arming teachers and making schools more secure.Donna Alberts, who traveled around 600 miles (965 kilometers) from Greenbriar, Arkansas, for the convention, said nothing could sway her vote for Trump in 2024.“He’s a good man," Alberts said, “and he does what he says he’s going to do, and he loves this country.”Gun rights advocates continue to celebrate&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.ap.org/Americans%20have%20a%20right%20to%20carry%20firearms%20in%20public%20for%20self-defense">a Supreme Court decision last June</a>&nbsp;that said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-guns-decision-58d01ef8bd48e816d5f8761ffa84e3e8">Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense</a>. That opened the door to a wave of challenges to firearm restrictions across the country by changing the test that lower courts had long used for evaluating challenges to firearm restrictions.Amid upheaval in the wake of the ruling, courts have declared unconstitutional laws including federal measures designed to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and defendants under felony indictment, as well as a ban on possessing guns with the serial number removed. Courts are also considering challenges to state bans on AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles.Attempting to counter gun rights advocates has been an ascendant gun safety movement that has poured tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns. That includes Moms Demand Action, which was among a coalition of groups that derided Friday’s speeches as “a cattle call of far-right" presidential candidates.___

NRA convention draws top GOP 2024 hopefuls after shootings

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-access-to-care-business-ca0fad2cc4af777044c1e61b5ec5372e">illegally as children</a>&nbsp;will be able to apply for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-access-to-care-business-ca0fad2cc4af777044c1e61b5ec5372e">health insurance exchanges</a>.

The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs.

“They’re American in every way except for on paper,” Biden said in a video released on his Twitter page. “We need to give Dreamers the opportunities and support they deserve.”

The action is likely to generate significant pushback from conservative leaders of states that have been reluctant to expand Medicaid and critical of the Biden administration's response to migrants who enter the U.S. illegally. While the federal government provides funding and guidelines for Medicaid, the program is administered by the states.

Then-President Barack Obama launched the 2012 DACA initiative to shield from deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” were still ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition for having “lawful presence” in the U.S. Biden's Department of Health and Human Services will aim to change that by the end of the month.

The White House action comes as the DACA program is in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-united-states-immigration-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-program-congress-6108ffa1d6e77c65e88438cdc1d6552e">legal peril</a>&nbsp;and the number of people eligible is shrinking.

An estimated 580,000 people were still enrolled in DACA at the end of last year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That number is down from previous years. Court orders currently prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from processing new applications. The DACA program has been mired in legal challenges for years, while Congress has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-asylum-trump-biden-gang-of-eight-3d8007e72928665b66d8648be0e3e31f">unable to reach consensus</a>&nbsp;on broader immigration reforms.

DACA recipients can work legally and must pay taxes, but they don’t have full legal status and are denied many benefits, including access to federally funded health insurance, available to U.S. citizens and foreigners living in the U.S.

Paloma Bouhid, 26, a DACA recipient originally from Brazil and small business owner in Orlando, Florida, where she grew up, said the announcement was a “huge sigh of relief.” Bouhid said she began her business in 2021 after losing her job with the Walt Disney company in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but being self-employed meant she had to pay $500 a month for private insurance following a health scare last year.

“This past year I have really been scrambling to just get all of my doctors appointments in,” Bouhid said. “Any doctor’s visits due, everything that I possibly can, because prior to today’s announcement, I really couldn’t afford to keep it any more than the year I have had it.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people signed up for Medicaid, the program that provides health care coverage for the poorest Americans. And the government increased federal subsidies to drive down the cost of insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. As of last year, just 8% of Americans were without health insurance, according to Health and Human Services.

But immigrants living in the U.S. without documentation are far more likely than others to not have health insurance. More than a third of DACA recipients are estimated to be without health care coverage, HHS said. About half of the roughly 20 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without documentation are uninsured, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/fact-sheet/health-coverage-and-care-of-immigrants/amp/">research from the Kaiser Family Foundation</a>.

Providing more people with insurance could have a positive impact on the entire health care system because it would give more people access to routine checkups and avoid emergency visits, said Jamila Michener, associate professor of government and policy at Cornell University.

“Having sizeable groups of people who live, work, go to school and make their home in the U.S. but cannot access vital health benefits is bad for everyone," Michener said in an email. “It makes preventive care less accessible thus driving up the cost of emergency care.”

Jose Muñoz, national communications manager for immigration advocacy organization United We Dream, said the announcement was a “major victory.” He said that until today, hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from DACA have been obligated to pay higher quantities for private insurance if their employers did not offer insurance or they were self-employed, or go uninsured.

“When you are thinking about going to the doctor for an annual checkup or like when you’re sick, those are a part of life and it is such a human need,” Muñoz said. “Unfortunately for far too many people, especially for undocumented people, getting affordable health insurance is often inaccessible.”

Jose Magaña-Salgado, founder of the Masa consulting group and a DACA recipient, said that growing up he witnessed his cousin, who was undocumented, be put in hospice and pass away after being diagnosed with cancer because she did not have insurance to help her pay for treatment. Magaña-Salgado has spent years advocating for health insurance for his fellow recipients and all immigrants.

“I went for several years without health insurance wondering if a medical bill was going to send me to bankruptcy or, even worse, lead to passing away early,” Magaña-Salgado said.

While there’s bipartisan support to enact some sort of protections for the immigrants, negotiations have often broken down over in debates about border security and whether an expansion of protections might induce others to try to enter the U.S. without permission. Biden, a Democrat, has repeatedly called on Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Other classes of immigrants — including asylum seekers and people with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigrants-temporary-protected-status-775e2b0ae18d32478db1124efb88a4be">temporary protected status</a>&nbsp;— are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces of the ACA, Obama’s 2010 health care law, often called “Obamacare.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/6/1592490581956.png" alt="The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs.-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs.-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-access-to-care-business-ca0fad2cc4af777044c1e61b5ec5372e">illegally as children</a>&nbsp;will be able to apply for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-access-to-care-business-ca0fad2cc4af777044c1e61b5ec5372e">health insurance exchanges</a>.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Today, my Administration is announcing our plan to expand health coverage for Dreamers, the thousands of young people brought to the U.S. as kids. We’re not done fighting for their pathway to citizenship, but we&#39;re getting them the opportunities they deserve in the meantime. <a href="https://t.co/4eqNMMNxtt">pic.twitter.com/4eqNMMNxtt</a>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1646514773042032640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The action will allow participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, to access government-funded health insurance programs.“They’re American in every way except for on paper,” Biden said in a video released on his Twitter page. “We need to give Dreamers the opportunities and support they deserve.”The action is likely to generate significant pushback from conservative leaders of states that have been reluctant to expand Medicaid and critical of the Biden administration's response to migrants who enter the U.S. illegally. While the federal government provides funding and guidelines for Medicaid, the program is administered by the states.Then-President Barack Obama launched the 2012 DACA initiative to shield from deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” were still ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition for having “lawful presence” in the U.S. Biden's Department of Health and Human Services will aim to change that by the end of the month.The White House action comes as the DACA program is in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-united-states-immigration-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-program-congress-6108ffa1d6e77c65e88438cdc1d6552e">legal peril</a>&nbsp;and the number of people eligible is shrinking.An estimated 580,000 people were still enrolled in DACA at the end of last year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That number is down from previous years. Court orders currently prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from processing new applications. The DACA program has been mired in legal challenges for years, while Congress has been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-asylum-trump-biden-gang-of-eight-3d8007e72928665b66d8648be0e3e31f">unable to reach consensus</a>&nbsp;on broader immigration reforms.DACA recipients can work legally and must pay taxes, but they don’t have full legal status and are denied many benefits, including access to federally funded health insurance, available to U.S. citizens and foreigners living in the U.S.Paloma Bouhid, 26, a DACA recipient originally from Brazil and small business owner in Orlando, Florida, where she grew up, said the announcement was a “huge sigh of relief.” Bouhid said she began her business in 2021 after losing her job with the Walt Disney company in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but being self-employed meant she had to pay $500 a month for private insurance following a health scare last year.“This past year I have really been scrambling to just get all of my doctors appointments in,” Bouhid said. “Any doctor’s visits due, everything that I possibly can, because prior to today’s announcement, I really couldn’t afford to keep it any more than the year I have had it.”During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people signed up for Medicaid, the program that provides health care coverage for the poorest Americans. And the government increased federal subsidies to drive down the cost of insurance plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. As of last year, just 8% of Americans were without health insurance, according to Health and Human Services.But immigrants living in the U.S. without documentation are far more likely than others to not have health insurance. More than a third of DACA recipients are estimated to be without health care coverage, HHS said. About half of the roughly 20 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without documentation are uninsured, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/fact-sheet/health-coverage-and-care-of-immigrants/amp/">research from the Kaiser Family Foundation</a>.Providing more people with insurance could have a positive impact on the entire health care system because it would give more people access to routine checkups and avoid emergency visits, said Jamila Michener, associate professor of government and policy at Cornell University.“Having sizeable groups of people who live, work, go to school and make their home in the U.S. but cannot access vital health benefits is bad for everyone," Michener said in an email. “It makes preventive care less accessible thus driving up the cost of emergency care.”Jose Muñoz, national communications manager for immigration advocacy organization United We Dream, said the announcement was a “major victory.” He said that until today, hundreds of thousands of people who benefit from DACA have been obligated to pay higher quantities for private insurance if their employers did not offer insurance or they were self-employed, or go uninsured.“When you are thinking about going to the doctor for an annual checkup or like when you’re sick, those are a part of life and it is such a human need,” Muñoz said. “Unfortunately for far too many people, especially for undocumented people, getting affordable health insurance is often inaccessible.”Jose Magaña-Salgado, founder of the Masa consulting group and a DACA recipient, said that growing up he witnessed his cousin, who was undocumented, be put in hospice and pass away after being diagnosed with cancer because she did not have insurance to help her pay for treatment. Magaña-Salgado has spent years advocating for health insurance for his fellow recipients and all immigrants.“I went for several years without health insurance wondering if a medical bill was going to send me to bankruptcy or, even worse, lead to passing away early,” Magaña-Salgado said.While there’s bipartisan support to enact some sort of protections for the immigrants, negotiations have often broken down over in debates about border security and whether an expansion of protections might induce others to try to enter the U.S. without permission. Biden, a Democrat, has repeatedly called on Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.Other classes of immigrants — including asylum seekers and people with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigrants-temporary-protected-status-775e2b0ae18d32478db1124efb88a4be">temporary protected status</a>&nbsp;— are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces of the ACA, Obama’s 2010 health care law, often called “Obamacare.”

🎥Biden to give DACA illegals healthcare not U.S. citizenship

WICHITA, KAN. – Twice in the last five days, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett has signed inquisitions from his Investigations Division requesting bank records. 

The records will assist investigators looking into two scams that have resulted in Wichita residents losing tens of thousands of dollars, according to a statement from Bennett's office.

In the first scam, a Wichita man in his late 70’s received a pop up warning on his computer that his bank account had been hacked. The scammer instructed the man to wire over 35-thousand dollars to another bank account to “keep his money from being stolen and to catch the hacker.” 

The money was wired and the scammer requested an additional 20-thousand dollars. But his Wichita bank blocked the wire transfer and it was then that the victim knew he had been scammed.

In the second scam, a Wichita woman in her mid-70’s received a pop up warning that her computer had been hacked. When she called the number on the screen, a woman who said she was with Microsoft answered and asked for authorization to log into her computer. The woman told the victim someone had withdrawn 20-thousand dollars to purchase pornography. The victim was told she could be charged with having pornography and money laundering.

The scammer convinced the woman to make several withdrawals from her Wichita bank, resulting in just under 140-thousand dollars.

According to the district attorney's office, there are some things to consider:

- Never call the number in the text, email, or pop up. Always look up the company if you are concerned. Call the number directly from the company website.

- If someone you have never met asks for cash, gift cards, or cryptocurrency, it is a scam.

- Legitimate companies do not use pop up messages on computers to contact their customers. If you receive such a message, or telephone call, or cell phone text, it is a scam. Hang up the phone or just disregard the pop up message. 

WICHITA, KAN. – Twice in the last five days, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett has signed inquisitions from his Investigations Division requesting bank records. The records will assist investigators looking into two scams that have resulted in Wichita residents losing tens of thousands of dollars, according to a statement from Bennett's office.In the first scam, a Wichita man in his late 70’s received a pop up warning on his computer that his bank account had been hacked. The scammer instructed the man to wire over 35-thousand dollars to another bank account to “keep his money from being stolen and to catch the hacker.” The money was wired and the scammer requested an additional 20-thousand dollars. But his Wichita bank blocked the wire transfer and it was then that the victim knew he had been scammed.In the second scam, a Wichita woman in her mid-70’s received a pop up warning that her computer had been hacked. When she called the number on the screen, a woman who said she was with Microsoft answered and asked for authorization to log into her computer. The woman told the victim someone had withdrawn 20-thousand dollars to purchase pornography. The victim was told she could be charged with having pornography and money laundering.The scammer convinced the woman to make several withdrawals from her Wichita bank, resulting in just under 140-thousand dollars.In both scams, the money is gone.According to the district attorney's office, there are some things to consider:- Never call the number in the text, email, or pop up. Always look up the company if you are concerned. Call the number directly from the company website.- If someone you have never met asks for cash, gift cards, or cryptocurrency, it is a scam.- Legitimate companies do not use pop up messages on computers to contact their customers. If you receive such a message, or telephone call, or cell phone text, it is a scam. Hang up the phone or just disregard the pop up message.

DA: 2 Kansans lost $175,000 in computer scams

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Missouri's attorney general announced new restrictions Thursday on gender-affirming care for adults in addition to minors in a move that is believed to be a first nationally and has advocacy groups threatening to sue.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced plans to restrict health care for transgender people&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/minors-gender-affirming-care-attorney-general-missouri-7332d7baee1580d1aec122cc4210792c">weeks ago</a>, when protesters rallied at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a law banning puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children. But the discussion was focused on minors, not adults.

Missouri Attorney General spokeswoman Madeline Sieren clarified in a statement later in the day that adults also would be covered.

“We have serious concerns about how children are being treated throughout the state, but we believe everyone is entitled to evidence-based medicine and adequate mental health care,” Sieren said.

The rule, which incudes a required 18 months of therapy before receiving gender-affirming health care, is set to take effect April 27 and expire next February.

The ACLU and Lambda Legal said in a joint statement that they would “take any necessary legal action” and urged those affected to call.

“The Attorney General’s so-called emergency rule is based on distorted, misleading, and debunked claims and ignores the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care,” the statement said.

Robert Fischer, the spokesman for the LGBT rights groups PROMO, said he was not aware of similar restrictions elsewhere.

“He’s essentially attacking the entire trans community at this point,” Fischer said of Bailey. “It’s no longer just about children.”

The National Center for Transgender Equality called the order “deeply wrong” in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/TransEquality?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">tweet</a>, adding that “trans people of all ages across the state of Missouri deserve access to health care.”

The restrictions are in response to a former employee's allegations of mistreatment at a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/josh-hawley-jamie-reed-st-louis-missouri-health-83953afb898dff7caa2b542c91480069">transgender youth clinic</a>&nbsp;in St. Louis run by Washington University. Bailey is investigating the center.

“My office is stepping up to protect children throughout the state while we investigate the allegations and how they are harming children,” Bailey said in a statement.

University spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Moving forward, doctors who provide gender-affirming health care must first provide them a lengthy list of potential negative side effects and information warning against those treatments, according to a copy of the rule released Thursday.

Health care providers will need to ensure “any psychiatric symptoms from existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved” before providing gender-affirming treatments under the new rule. Physicians also must screen patients for social media addiction, autism and signs of “social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity.”

The FDA&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-youth-medical-treatment-fd262eb61898c377aee9b6d84446532e">approved</a>&nbsp;puberty blockers 30 years ago to treat children with precocious puberty — a condition that causes sexual development to begin much earlier than usual. Sex hormones — synthetic forms of estrogen and testosterone — were approved decades ago to treat hormone disorders or as birth control pills.

The FDA has not approved the medications specifically to treat gender-questioning youth, but they have been used for many years for that purpose “off label,” a common and accepted practice for many medical conditions. Doctors who treat transgender patients say those decades of use are proof the treatments are not experimental.

Critics have raise concerns about children changing their minds. Yet the evidence suggests detransitioning is not as common as opponents of transgender medical treatment for youth contend, though few studies exist and they have their weaknesses.

Bailey's rule was released the same day Missouri's Republican-led House voted to ban access to transgender-related health care for minors.

The House voted 103-52 along mostly party lines in favor of the ban, although the bill’s passage seems uncertain in the Senate.

The House proposal is stricter than what was passed by the GOP-led Senate, where Democrats have more influence through the use of stall tactics.

Senators compromised to exempt care for minors whose treatment is already underway. The Senate bill also would expire after four years.

The House version includes no exceptions for current treatments and would remain in effect indefinitely.

Republican Senate leaders said it’s unlikely that the House version will make it through the Senate.

“We’ve already passed legislation on this issue out of the Senate,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden said. “We would expect the House to appreciate how hard and difficult it was and to take up our bill and pass it.”

Both the House and Senate proposals would ban inmates and prisoners from accessing gender-affirming surgeries and would end coverage of any gender-affirming treatments for Missouri patients on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program.

The Human Rights Campaign have condemned the legislation in a statement, describing gender-affirming care as medically necessary.

At least 13 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Bills are awaiingt action from governors in Kansas, Montana and North Dakota. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.

House debate on the bill became emotional as some Democrats argued the ban on health care will hurt transgender children.

“You are erasing my grandchild,” said St. Louis Democratic Rep. Barbara Phifer, whose grandson is transgender.

Republican sponsor Rep. Brad Hudson, of Cape Fair, criticized Democrats for threatening to end political partnerships and friendships with Republicans over the bill.

Hudson said his bill “seeks to protect kids” and that it's unfair that Democrats are describing it as hateful towards transgender children.

“A yes vote is a vote to protect kids from sex-change drugs and surgeries,” Hudson said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/4/1681466878038.png" alt="AG Bailey's rule was released the same day Missouri's Republican-led House voted to ban access to transgender-related health care for minors.-courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>AG Bailey's rule was released the same day Missouri's Republican-led House voted to ban access to transgender-related health care for minors.-courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — Missouri's attorney general announced new restrictions Thursday on gender-affirming care for adults in addition to minors in a move that is believed to be a first nationally and has advocacy groups threatening to sue.Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced plans to restrict health care for transgender people&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/minors-gender-affirming-care-attorney-general-missouri-7332d7baee1580d1aec122cc4210792c">weeks ago</a>, when protesters rallied at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a law banning puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children. But the discussion was focused on minors, not adults.Missouri Attorney General spokeswoman Madeline Sieren clarified in a statement later in the day that adults also would be covered.“We have serious concerns about how children are being treated throughout the state, but we believe everyone is entitled to evidence-based medicine and adequate mental health care,” Sieren said.The rule, which incudes a required 18 months of therapy before receiving gender-affirming health care, is set to take effect April 27 and expire next February.The ACLU and Lambda Legal said in a joint statement that they would “take any necessary legal action” and urged those affected to call.“The Attorney General’s so-called emergency rule is based on distorted, misleading, and debunked claims and ignores the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care,” the statement said.Robert Fischer, the spokesman for the LGBT rights groups PROMO, said he was not aware of similar restrictions elsewhere.“He’s essentially attacking the entire trans community at this point,” Fischer said of Bailey. “It’s no longer just about children.”The National Center for Transgender Equality called the order “deeply wrong” in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/TransEquality?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">tweet</a>, adding that “trans people of all ages across the state of Missouri deserve access to health care.”The restrictions are in response to a former employee's allegations of mistreatment at a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/josh-hawley-jamie-reed-st-louis-missouri-health-83953afb898dff7caa2b542c91480069">transgender youth clinic</a>&nbsp;in St. Louis run by Washington University. Bailey is investigating the center.“My office is stepping up to protect children throughout the state while we investigate the allegations and how they are harming children,” Bailey said in a statement.University spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.Moving forward, doctors who provide gender-affirming health care must first provide them a lengthy list of potential negative side effects and information warning against those treatments, according to a copy of the rule released Thursday.Health care providers will need to ensure “any psychiatric symptoms from existing mental health comorbidities of the patient have been treated and resolved” before providing gender-affirming treatments under the new rule. Physicians also must screen patients for social media addiction, autism and signs of “social contagion with respect to the patient’s gender identity.”The FDA&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/transgender-youth-medical-treatment-fd262eb61898c377aee9b6d84446532e">approved</a>&nbsp;puberty blockers 30 years ago to treat children with precocious puberty — a condition that causes sexual development to begin much earlier than usual. Sex hormones — synthetic forms of estrogen and testosterone — were approved decades ago to treat hormone disorders or as birth control pills.The FDA has not approved the medications specifically to treat gender-questioning youth, but they have been used for many years for that purpose “off label,” a common and accepted practice for many medical conditions. Doctors who treat transgender patients say those decades of use are proof the treatments are not experimental.Critics have raise concerns about children changing their minds. Yet the evidence suggests detransitioning is not as common as opponents of transgender medical treatment for youth contend, though few studies exist and they have their weaknesses.Bailey's rule was released the same day Missouri's Republican-led House voted to ban access to transgender-related health care for minors.The House voted 103-52 along mostly party lines in favor of the ban, although the bill’s passage seems uncertain in the Senate.The House proposal is stricter than what was passed by the GOP-led Senate, where Democrats have more influence through the use of stall tactics.Senators compromised to exempt care for minors whose treatment is already underway. The Senate bill also would expire after four years.The House version includes no exceptions for current treatments and would remain in effect indefinitely.Republican Senate leaders said it’s unlikely that the House version will make it through the Senate.“We’ve already passed legislation on this issue out of the Senate,” Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden said. “We would expect the House to appreciate how hard and difficult it was and to take up our bill and pass it.”Both the House and Senate proposals would ban inmates and prisoners from accessing gender-affirming surgeries and would end coverage of any gender-affirming treatments for Missouri patients on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program.The Human Rights Campaign have condemned the legislation in a statement, describing gender-affirming care as medically necessary.At least 13 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Bills are awaiingt action from governors in Kansas, Montana and North Dakota. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.House debate on the bill became emotional as some Democrats argued the ban on health care will hurt transgender children.“You are erasing my grandchild,” said St. Louis Democratic Rep. Barbara Phifer, whose grandson is transgender.Republican sponsor Rep. Brad Hudson, of Cape Fair, criticized Democrats for threatening to end political partnerships and friendships with Republicans over the bill.Hudson said his bill “seeks to protect kids” and that it's unfair that Democrats are describing it as hateful towards transgender children.“A yes vote is a vote to protect kids from sex-change drugs and surgeries,” Hudson said.

Missouri to also limit gender-affirming care for adults

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas residents who live near wind farms could eventually get a break from the nearly constant blinking of the red lights on wind turbines under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Laura Kelly.

Starting July 1, developers of new projects will be required to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for light mitigation technology. The technology turns off the lights except when aircraft are near — a rare occurrence in rural Kansas.

The developers would have two years to install the technology.

Beginning July 1, 2026, existing developments would have to apply to the FAA within six months of signing a new power offtake agreement, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/04/13/new-wind-farm-law-in-kansas-requires-light-mitigation-technology-laura-kelly-bill-signing/70100104007/">Topeka Capital-Journal reported</a>. Because that could take several years, the law allows counties to use bonds to help pay for the expensive technology earlier.

System installation costs about $2 million, with $100,000 in annual costs for a typical wind farm.

Rep. Lisa Moser, a Republican from Wheaton, who has wind farms near her home, has said she and thousands of Kansans see red blinking lights every three seconds, 24 hours a day.

Kansas has about about 4,000 turbines now, with plans to add another 6,000.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646924351746.png" alt="&nbsp;Photo by Jill Hummels for the Kansas Reflector" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Photo by Jill Hummels for the Kansas Reflector</figcaption>
 </figure>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas residents who live near wind farms could eventually get a break from the nearly constant blinking of the red lights on wind turbines under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Laura Kelly.Starting July 1, developers of new projects will be required to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for light mitigation technology. The technology turns off the lights except when aircraft are near — a rare occurrence in rural Kansas.The developers would have two years to install the technology.Beginning July 1, 2026, existing developments would have to apply to the FAA within six months of signing a new power offtake agreement, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cjonline.com/story/business/energy-resource/2023/04/13/new-wind-farm-law-in-kansas-requires-light-mitigation-technology-laura-kelly-bill-signing/70100104007/">Topeka Capital-Journal reported</a>. Because that could take several years, the law allows counties to use bonds to help pay for the expensive technology earlier.System installation costs about $2 million, with $100,000 in annual costs for a typical wind farm.Rep. Lisa Moser, a Republican from Wheaton, who has wind farms near her home, has said she and thousands of Kansans see red blinking lights every three seconds, 24 hours a day.Kansas has about about 4,000 turbines now, with plans to add another 6,000.

New Kansas law will reduce blinking lights on wind turbines

SEDGWICK COUNTY – A Kansas woman was sentenced in connection with the death of her boyfriend's 20-month old son.

A Sedgwick County judge sentenced 26-year-old Xjohnna Hannah of Wichita, to 12 months of probation, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

 The sentence carries an underlying sentence of seven months in prison with 12 months post release.

On February 9, Hannah pled guilty to aggravated endangering a child in connection with the death of Lasiah Williams. The toddler was the son of Hannah's boyfriend, 26-year-old Kentrell Willingham, who lived in the 2500 block of N. Chautauqua in Wichita.

A judge sentenced&nbsp; Willingham to just over 5-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County District attorney's office. He&nbsp;was originally charged with with first-degree murder, an alternative count of first-degree murder, child abuse and aggravated child endangerment.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Hannah, not the boy's mother was also originally charged with one count of 1st degree murder, abuse of a child and aggravated endangering a child, according to the District Attorney's office.

On July 30, 2022 police responded to a child abuse report at a Wichita area hospital, according to Officer Chad Ditch.&nbsp;

When officers arrived at the hospital, they were told a family member and guardian of 1-year-old Lasiah Williams brought him to the hospital unresponsive. Doctors pronounced the boy deceased.

Investigators learned Lasisah had been with his father, Kentrell Willingham, and his girlfriend Hannah,&nbsp;for a few days. A family member of the child met Willingham in the 1600 hundred block of South Oliver to exchange custody.

The family member left with Lasiah and a short time later would realize the child was unresponsive. The family member and Lasiah’s legal guardian immediately drove to the hospital where the boy was pronounced deceased.

On March 20th, Judge Jeffrey Goering sentenced Willingham to 66 months in prison

Autopsy failed to explain the cause of the child's death. The exam found several bruises over the child's body, but no "notable internal injuries" that would have explained the death.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1659123012533.png" alt="-Hannah-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>-Hannah-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY – A Kansas woman was sentenced in connection with the death of her boyfriend's 20-month old son.A Sedgwick County judge sentenced 26-year-old Xjohnna Hannah of Wichita, to 12 months of probation, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office. The sentence carries an underlying sentence of seven months in prison with 12 months post release.On February 9, Hannah pled guilty to aggravated endangering a child in connection with the death of Lasiah Williams. The toddler was the son of Hannah's boyfriend, 26-year-old Kentrell Willingham, who lived in the 2500 block of N. Chautauqua in Wichita.A judge sentenced&nbsp; Willingham to just over 5-years in prison, according to the Sedgwick County District attorney's office. He&nbsp;was originally charged with with first-degree murder, an alternative count of first-degree murder, child abuse and aggravated child endangerment.&nbsp; &nbsp;Hannah, not the boy's mother was also originally charged with one count of 1st degree murder, abuse of a child and aggravated endangering a child, according to the District Attorney's office.On July 30, 2022 police responded to a child abuse report at a Wichita area hospital, according to Officer Chad Ditch.&nbsp;When officers arrived at the hospital, they were told a family member and guardian of 1-year-old Lasiah Williams brought him to the hospital unresponsive. Doctors pronounced the boy deceased.Investigators learned Lasisah had been with his father, Kentrell Willingham, and his girlfriend Hannah,&nbsp;for a few days. A family member of the child met Willingham in the 1600 hundred block of South Oliver to exchange custody.The family member left with Lasiah and a short time later would realize the child was unresponsive. The family member and Lasiah’s legal guardian immediately drove to the hospital where the boy was pronounced deceased.On March 20th, Judge Jeffrey Goering sentenced Willingham to 66 months in prisonAutopsy failed to explain the cause of the child's death. The exam found several bruises over the child's body, but no "notable internal injuries" that would have explained the death.

Kan. woman gets probation in death of boyfriend's toddler son

WASHINGTON (AP) — The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court">Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;on Thursday allowed a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools.

The justices did not comment in rejecting an emergency plea from Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. and American National University. The schools had argued that they were unfairly included on a list of more than 150 institutions, most of them for-profit, linked with alleged misconduct. Lincoln and American are for-profit institutions; Everglades is a not-for-profit.

The justices’ action comes as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-forgiveness-supreme-court-hearing-2128da75fc27ff3bcc0c3804ebd98aa7">high court is weighing what to do with the Biden administration’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student debt</a>&nbsp;held by more than 40 million people. A decision on that plan is expected by late June.

The legal challenges have some similarities but the administration is relying on different laws in the two programs.

The class-action settlement was approved late last year by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco in response to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-education-0cabfb66daddbea9e804cb2860531775">complaints that the 150-plus schools had made false recruiting claims and left many students unable to find jobs</a>.

The Justice Department has already begun implementing the agreement and said in court that roughly 3,800 borrowers who are part of the settlement attended the three schools.

Lower courts had previously denied the schools’ efforts to halt the settlement while they appeal.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court">Supreme Court</a>&nbsp;on Thursday allowed a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools.The justices did not comment in rejecting an emergency plea from Everglades College, Lincoln Educational Services Corp. and American National University. The schools had argued that they were unfairly included on a list of more than 150 institutions, most of them for-profit, linked with alleged misconduct. Lincoln and American are for-profit institutions; Everglades is a not-for-profit.The justices’ action comes as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/student-loan-forgiveness-supreme-court-hearing-2128da75fc27ff3bcc0c3804ebd98aa7">high court is weighing what to do with the Biden administration’s plan to wipe away $400 billion in student debt</a>&nbsp;held by more than 40 million people. A decision on that plan is expected by late June.The legal challenges have some similarities but the administration is relying on different laws in the two programs.The class-action settlement was approved late last year by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco in response to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-education-0cabfb66daddbea9e804cb2860531775">complaints that the 150-plus schools had made false recruiting claims and left many students unable to find jobs</a>.The Justice Department has already begun implementing the agreement and said in court that roughly 3,800 borrowers who are part of the settlement attended the three schools.Lower courts had previously denied the schools’ efforts to halt the settlement while they appeal.