Glen Powell is charming, but 'Chad Powers' is a football fumble

<p>-

• Glen Powell is charming, but 'Chad Powers' is a football fumble</p>

<p>Kelly Lawler, USA TODAYSeptember 30, 2025 at 7:02 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>"Ted Lasso" is the exception, not the rule.</p>

<p>The Apple TV+ hit is a Hollywood oddity, not necessarily a roadmap for future series. It was based on a character created for an ad for soccer coverage on NBC, combines sports comedy with mental health, Anglophile obsession, twee romanticism and the charm of its star, Jason Sudeikis. It can't really be replicated.</p>

<p>But it's hard not to think about "Lasso" while watching Hulu's new comedy "Chad Powers" (streaming now, ★★ out of four), a similarly monikered show that takes place within a semi-professional sports team. Starring Glen Powell as a disgraced college football player who tries a second go at the game under a fake name and a prosthetic nose "Mrs. Doubtfire"-style, "Powers" goes for irreverent and goofy, but oftentimes ends up awkward and cringe. There are moments when it feels as if the show, based on an ESPN+ short that starred Eli Manning as the titular imposter, is trying directly to be an American version of "Lasso," all the sunny humor with gridirons and a bigger tolerance for profanity and lewdness. Although the potential is there, the result is deeply disappointing. Fake noses, questionable Southern accents and gay panic jokes can't make up for a show that lacks soul.</p>

<p>Glen Powell as Russ Holliday/Chad Powers in "Chad Powers."</p>

<p>"Powers" is built entirely on the back of Powell, who brings out all the smarm he drummed up for "Top Gun: Maverick" and then adds some real odiousness on top. Russ Holliday, his character's true name, is a perennial screw-up. Tabloid fodder before he even makes it out of college football, the star quarterback makes a huge mistake in a Rose Bowl game that costs him his career. Eight years later a struggling college team is holding open try outs for a quarterback, so Russ thinks he should have a go at it, in disguise.</p>

<p>Russ invents the persona of Chad Powers, who, under a wig and prosthetics and an accent that makes everyone around him call him derogatory names for mentally disabled people, somehow makes the team. What team is that? Oh right, the South Georgia Catfish, as if there was too much subtlety already in a show in which Powell wears a prosthetic nose as big as the whole of Georgia.</p>

<p>Glen Powell as Russ Holliday/Chad Powers and Frankie A. Rodriguez as Danny in "Chad Powers."</p>

<p>There are flavors of "Mrs. Doubtfire" here, but also underrated Amanda Bynes 2006 high school comedy "She's the Man" and any number of Shakespearean hidden identity foibles. It's all a little bit ludicrous and witless, and not just because, though he is handsome and stately, 36-year-old Powell does not look like he could pass for a student athlete. But in spite of this, he is a magnetic personality even when he's playing an A+ jerk ("Powers" likely has the distinction of being one of the first pieces of media to define just how sleazy its protagonist is by the fact that he drives a Cybertruck). Powell commits to both Russ and Chad in an admirable way − if only the scripts lived up to his dedication.</p>

<p>First up: 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' (Paramount+, Sept. 4): Michael Weatherly (Tony) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva) return to their star-making "NCIS" roles in this spy caper spinoff featuring Isla Gie as their daughter Tali.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>Fall TV season is fast arriving on all your streaming services and networks, and there are dozens of shows premiering, that are new, old and something in between. As you get cozy in your sweaters and with your pumpkin spice lattes, some of the biggest shows of the decade will be returning for new seasons, new series will be trying to capture your attention and new spinoffs will try to convince you everything old is new again. First up: 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' (Paramount+, Sept. 4): Michael Weatherly (Tony) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva) return to their star-making "NCIS" roles in this spy caper spinoff featuring Isla Gie as their daughter Tali.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/M8CnKQb class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>Fall TV season is fast arriving on all your streaming services and networks, and there are dozens of shows premiering, that are new, old and something in between. As you get cozy in your sweaters and with your pumpkin spice lattes, some of the biggest shows of the decade will be returning for new seasons, new series will be trying to capture your attention and new spinoffs will try to convince you everything old is new again. First up: 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' (Paramount+, Sept. 4): Michael Weatherly (Tony) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva) return to their star-making "NCIS" roles in this spy caper spinoff featuring Isla Gie as their daughter Tali.</p>

<p>">Fall TV season is fast arriving on all your streaming services and networks, and there are dozens of shows premiering, that are new, old and something in between. As you get cozy in your sweaters and with your pumpkin spice lattes, some of the biggest shows of the decade will be returning for new seasons, new series will be trying to capture your attention and new spinoffs will try to convince you everything old is new again. First up: 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' (Paramount+, Sept. 4): Michael Weatherly (Tony) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva) return to their star-making "NCIS" roles in this spy caper spinoff featuring Isla Gie as their daughter Tali.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/M8CnKQb class=caas-img>'The Paper' (Peacock, Sept. 4): 'The Office' cameras move from a Scranton paper company to a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper. The same style of humor, lovable characters and incredibly awkward moments await. The charming cast includes Domhnall Gleeson and returning "Office" coworker Oscar Nuñez.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'The Paper' (Peacock, Sept. 4): 'The Office' cameras move from a Scranton paper company to a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper. The same style of humor, lovable characters and incredibly awkward moments await. The charming cast includes Domhnall Gleeson and returning "Office" coworker Oscar Nuñez.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/H3ijYfP class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'The Paper' (Peacock, Sept. 4): 'The Office' cameras move from a Scranton paper company to a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper. The same style of humor, lovable characters and incredibly awkward moments await. The charming cast includes Domhnall Gleeson and returning "Office" coworker Oscar Nuñez.</p>

<p>">'The Paper' (Peacock, Sept. 4): 'The Office' cameras move from a Scranton paper company to a Toledo, Ohio, newspaper. The same style of humor, lovable characters and incredibly awkward moments await. The charming cast includes Domhnall Gleeson and returning "Office" coworker Oscar Nuñez.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/H3ijYfP class=caas-img>'Task' (HBO/HBO Max, September 7): From the creator of "Mare of Easttown" comes another crime drama set in suburban Philadelphia. The series is told from the points of view of Tom, Mark Ruffalo's FBI investigator, and everyman robbery ringleader Robbie (Tom Pelphry).</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Task' (HBO/HBO Max, September 7): From the creator of "Mare of Easttown" comes another crime drama set in suburban Philadelphia. The series is told from the points of view of Tom, Mark Ruffalo's FBI investigator, and everyman robbery ringleader Robbie (Tom Pelphry).</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/IXKDmSr class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Task' (HBO/HBO Max, September 7): From the creator of "Mare of Easttown" comes another crime drama set in suburban Philadelphia. The series is told from the points of view of Tom, Mark Ruffalo's FBI investigator, and everyman robbery ringleader Robbie (Tom Pelphry).</p>

<p>">'Task' (HBO/HBO Max, September 7): From the creator of "Mare of Easttown" comes another crime drama set in suburban Philadelphia. The series is told from the points of view of Tom, Mark Ruffalo's FBI investigator, and everyman robbery ringleader Robbie (Tom Pelphry).</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/IXKDmSr class=caas-img>'Only Murders in the Building' (Hulu, Sept. 9): They're back for Round 5. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are seemingly unstoppable, and their building has a seemingly infinite number of murders in this Hulu mystery comedy.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Only Murders in the Building' (Hulu, Sept. 9): They're back for Round 5. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are seemingly unstoppable, and their building has a seemingly infinite number of murders in this Hulu mystery comedy.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/Ri9HS8s class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Only Murders in the Building' (Hulu, Sept. 9): They're back for Round 5. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are seemingly unstoppable, and their building has a seemingly infinite number of murders in this Hulu mystery comedy.</p>

<p>">'Only Murders in the Building' (Hulu, Sept. 9): They're back for Round 5. Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are seemingly unstoppable, and their building has a seemingly infinite number of murders in this Hulu mystery comedy.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/Ri9HS8s class=caas-img>'The Gold' (PBS, Oct. 5): The series is a gripping heist drama set in 1983 about a group of British thieves who attempt to make a small score but wind up with £26 million of gold bullion. The cops chasing the robbers include Charlotte Spencer as Nicki Jennings, Emun Elliott as Tony Brightwell and Hugh Bonneville as Brian Boyce.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'The Gold' (PBS, Oct. 5): The series is a gripping heist drama set in 1983 about a group of British thieves who attempt to make a small score but wind up with £26 million of gold bullion. The cops chasing the robbers include Charlotte Spencer as Nicki Jennings, Emun Elliott as Tony Brightwell and Hugh Bonneville as Brian Boyce.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/epmunBD class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'The Gold' (PBS, Oct. 5): The series is a gripping heist drama set in 1983 about a group of British thieves who attempt to make a small score but wind up with £26 million of gold bullion. The cops chasing the robbers include Charlotte Spencer as Nicki Jennings, Emun Elliott as Tony Brightwell and Hugh Bonneville as Brian Boyce.</p>

<p>">'The Gold' (PBS, Oct. 5): The series is a gripping heist drama set in 1983 about a group of British thieves who attempt to make a small score but wind up with £26 million of gold bullion. The cops chasing the robbers include Charlotte Spencer as Nicki Jennings, Emun Elliott as Tony Brightwell and Hugh Bonneville as Brian Boyce.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/epmunBD class=caas-img>'Boots' (Netflix, Oct. 9): Liam Oh and Miles Heizer play two young men at the U.S. Marine Corp Boot Camp in this comedy set in 1990.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Boots' (Netflix, Oct. 9): Liam Oh and Miles Heizer play two young men at the U.S. Marine Corp Boot Camp in this comedy set in 1990.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/5ran1Ni class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Boots' (Netflix, Oct. 9): Liam Oh and Miles Heizer play two young men at the U.S. Marine Corp Boot Camp in this comedy set in 1990.</p>

<p>">'Boots' (Netflix, Oct. 9): Liam Oh and Miles Heizer play two young men at the U.S. Marine Corp Boot Camp in this comedy set in 1990.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/5ran1Ni class=caas-img>'The Diplomat' (Netflix, Oct. 16): In Season 3, Allison Janney's Grace Penn becomes the president and clashes with Keri Russell's Kate Wyler.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'The Diplomat' (Netflix, Oct. 16): In Season 3, Allison Janney's Grace Penn becomes the president and clashes with Keri Russell's Kate Wyler.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/zbWfUuw class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'The Diplomat' (Netflix, Oct. 16): In Season 3, Allison Janney's Grace Penn becomes the president and clashes with Keri Russell's Kate Wyler.</p>

<p>">'The Diplomat' (Netflix, Oct. 16): In Season 3, Allison Janney's Grace Penn becomes the president and clashes with Keri Russell's Kate Wyler.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/zbWfUuw class=caas-img>'Nobody Wants This' (Netflix, Oct. 23): Everybody wants a new season of Netflix's electric romantic comedy starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell as a bumbling couple trying to make an interfaith relationship work.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Nobody Wants This' (Netflix, Oct. 23): Everybody wants a new season of Netflix's electric romantic comedy starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell as a bumbling couple trying to make an interfaith relationship work.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/724Nh6o class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Nobody Wants This' (Netflix, Oct. 23): Everybody wants a new season of Netflix's electric romantic comedy starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell as a bumbling couple trying to make an interfaith relationship work.</p>

<p>">'Nobody Wants This' (Netflix, Oct. 23): Everybody wants a new season of Netflix's electric romantic comedy starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell as a bumbling couple trying to make an interfaith relationship work.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/724Nh6o class=caas-img>'Stranger Things' (Netflix, Nov. 26, Dec. 25 and Dec. 31): David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown lead the returning cast in the fifth and final season of this Netflix juggernaut.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Stranger Things' (Netflix, Nov. 26, Dec. 25 and Dec. 31): David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown lead the returning cast in the fifth and final season of this Netflix juggernaut.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/jVXH0dU class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Stranger Things' (Netflix, Nov. 26, Dec. 25 and Dec. 31): David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown lead the returning cast in the fifth and final season of this Netflix juggernaut.</p>

<p>">'Stranger Things' (Netflix, Nov. 26, Dec. 25 and Dec. 31): David Harbour and Millie Bobby Brown lead the returning cast in the fifth and final season of this Netflix juggernaut.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/jVXH0dU class=caas-img>'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'</p>

<p>Disney+, Dec. 10: Young stars Leah Sava' Jefffries and Walker Scobell will tackle a "Sea of Monsters" in book adaptation "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" Season 2.</p>

<p>" style=padding-bottom:56%>'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'</p>

<p>Disney+, Dec. 10: Young stars Leah Sava' Jefffries and Walker Scobell will tackle a "Sea of Monsters" in book adaptation "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" Season 2.</p>

<p>" data-src=https://ift.tt/KnbmRcz class=caas-img data-headline="These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall" data-caption="</p>

<p>'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'</p>

<p>Disney+, Dec. 10: Young stars Leah Sava' Jefffries and Walker Scobell will tackle a "Sea of Monsters" in book adaptation "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" Season 2.</p>

<p>">'Percy Jackson and the Olympians'</p>

<p>Disney+, Dec. 10: Young stars Leah Sava' Jefffries and Walker Scobell will tackle a "Sea of Monsters" in book adaptation "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" Season 2.</p>

<p>" src=https://ift.tt/KnbmRcz class=caas-img></p>

<p>1 / 10These are the 10 TV shows you should watch this fall</p>

<p>Fall TV season is fast arriving on all your streaming services and networks, and there are dozens of shows premiering, that are new, old and something in between. As you get cozy in your sweaters and with your pumpkin spice lattes, some of the biggest shows of the decade will be returning for new seasons, new series will be trying to capture your attention and new spinoffs will try to convince you everything old is new again. First up: 'NCIS: Tony & Ziva' (Paramount+, Sept. 4): Michael Weatherly (Tony) and Cote de Pablo (Ziva) return to their star-making "NCIS" roles in this spy caper spinoff featuring Isla Gie as their daughter Tali.</p>

<p>The series also can't really develop any supporting characters around Russ/Chad to bolster the series into more than a one-joke sketch. There's Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez), Russ' accomplice who risks his own future in the fraudulent scheme seemingly just for the fun of it, after meeting Russ one time. Ricky (Perry Mattfeld), is a female coach in a male-dominated sport trying to shrug off sexism and a "nepo baby" reputation. And head coach Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn) is trying to save his job and a failing football program with his surprise new star.</p>

<p>There is great potential for an offbeat, bawdy comedy about one of our nation's obsessions, but "Powers" always goes for the simplistic jokes and surface-level plots. Chad can't get wet and risk his prosthetics, so the team makes fun of him. Chad has no back story so he pretends he's a homeschooled shut in. The laughs are supposed to come, but they don't.</p>

<p>Perry Mattfeld as Ricky and Glen Powell as Russ/Chad in "Chad Powers."</p>

<p>It's a shame, because football is great fodder for deep storytelling in the right context. Even the show namechecks a bunch of pop culture's football stories in its first few episodes, from "Rudy" to "Radio." If "Powers" wasn't as contrived as the character itself, maybe it could stand to be on a list with those others.</p>

<p>As it is, it's only worth cutting from your lineup.</p>

<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Glen Powell football comedy 'Chad Powers' is a flop</p>

<a href="https://data852.click/5a32cd58501e613bf372/ee0a75caf0/?placementName=default" class="dirlink-1">Original Article on Source</a>

Source: "AOL Entertainment"

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Source: AsherMag

Full Article on Source: Astro Blog

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byVenus Vivaldi

in

September 30, 2025

Glen Powell is charming, but 'Chad Powers' is a football fumble

<p>- Glen Powell is charming, but 'Chad Powers' is a football fumble</p> <p>Kelly ...

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NBCUniversal-YouTube TV distribution fight highlights streaming's new power struggle

<p>-

• NBCUniversal-YouTube TV distribution fight highlights streaming's new power struggle</p>

<p>Aditya Soni September 30, 2025 at 7:05 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>FILE PHOTO: The Peacock logo is seen in this illustration</p>

<p>By Aditya Soni</p>

<p>(Reuters) -Popular NBC shows including "Sunday Night Football" and "America's Got Talent" may disappear from YouTube TV as soon as Tuesday if the two sides fail to agree on a new distribution deal, a standoff that could influence the future of television.</p>

<p>Carriage talks have stalled over the rates Alphabet's YouTube TV will pay to distribute to its 10 million subscribers the shows of Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, the two companies have said.</p>

<p>But a bigger negotiation looms behind the scenes, and it reflects the newfound clout of YouTube as the dominant provider of video services in the United States.</p>

<p>YouTube TV wants to show content offered exclusively on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service - such as hit reality series "Love Island" - directly on its platform, a person familiar with the talks told Reuters. Currently, users have to open the Peacock app to see the shows, even on YouTube TV.</p>

<p>Known as "direct ingestion," it is an approach that NBCUniversal opposes, as it wants to preserve Peacock - which it launched in 2020 - as a standalone service that can collect subscriber data and sell targeted ads. For YouTube, securing NBC content would aid its push to become the country's biggest pay-TV distributor and strengthen the core ad business of Google - which is also owned by Alphabet - on smart TVs, where ad slots command premium rates.</p>

<p>These battles "will have important strategic implications for the future of media," LightShed analyst Richard Greenfield said in a note to clients. Disney's carriage deal with YouTube TV is also up for renewal at the end of October and similar talks will likely occur then, he said.</p>

<p>"We suspect YouTube TV cares far less about the rate it ultimately pays and far more about being able to ingest content from legacy media streaming apps," he said.</p>

<p>YOUTUBE'S GROWING CLOUT</p>

<p>YouTube now accounts for the largest share of TV viewing in the U.S., ahead of streaming rival Netflix and traditional media companies such as Disney, according to Nielsen.</p>

<p>Its cable-like subscription service, YouTube TV, ranks among the four largest U.S. pay-TV distributors, and Alphabet's deep pockets recently gave it leverage over Paramount and Fox Corp in carriage talks, according to media firms and analysts.</p>

<p>NBCUniversal offered YouTube the same terms it extended to other large TV distributors - including Amazon's Prime Video Channels - and is looking to include its streaming service as part of the bundle of programming YouTube TV distributes, said the person familiar with the negotiations, who requested anonymity because the talks were private.</p>

<p>An NBCUniversal spokesperson said in a statement last week: "YouTube TV has refused the best rates and terms in the market, demanding preferential treatment and seeking an unfair advantage over competitors to dominate the video marketplace — all under the false pretense of fighting for the consumer."</p>

<p>The online video service counters, however, that NBCUniversal is asking for YouTube TV to pay more for its shows than the media company charges consumers for the same content on Peacock. The company said in a blog post on Thursday that it would offer YouTube TV subscribers a $10 credit if NBC content is "unavailable for an extended period of time."</p>

<p>Analysts believe that losing carriage on YouTube TV could cut affiliate revenue and shrink subscriber bases for traditional media companies, with little assurance that viewers will migrate to their standalone streaming apps.</p>

<p>For Google, losing NBC content could weaken YouTube TV's appeal on connected TVs.</p>

<p>(Reporting by Aditya Soni in San Francisco; Editing by Sayantani Ghosh and Matthew Lewis)</p>

<a href="https://data852.click/5a32cd58501e613bf372/ee0a75caf0/?placementName=default" class="dirlink-1">Original Article on Source</a>

Source: "AOL Entertainment"

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NBCUniversal-YouTube TV distribution fight highlights streaming's new power struggle

<p>- NBCUniversal-YouTube TV distribution fight highlights streaming's new power struggle</p> ...

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Kentucky has kicked people off food benefits using data that doesn’t tell the full story

<p>-

• Kentucky has kicked people off food benefits using data that doesn't tell the full story</p>

<p>SYLVIA GOODMAN September 30, 2025 at 7:03 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>1 / 2Food Insecurity-Kentucky BenefitsA sign advertises a store accepts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/EBT) in Louisville, Ky., on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (Sylvia Goodman/Kentucky Public Radio via AP)</p>

<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A single mother who relied on federal food assistance lost her benefits in 2020 after Kentucky investigators concluded she'd committed fraud.</p>

<p>The state alleged she had made multiple same-day purchases, tried to overdraw her account a few times, entered a few invalid PINs and sometimes made "whole-dollar" purchases that are unlikely during typical grocery runs.</p>

<p>The woman from Salyersville in Appalachian Kentucky had an explanation: She worked at the store. She would sometimes buy lunch there and then get groceries after work. Her child would also occasionally use her card.</p>

<p>An administrative hearing officer kicked her off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) regardless, based solely on the allegedly suspicious shopping pattern. She sued — and won.</p>

<p>"It is draconian to take away SNAP benefits from a single mother without clear and convincing evidence that intentional trafficking was occurring during a time when food scarcity is so prevalent," Franklin County Judge Thomas Wingate said in his 2023 decision.</p>

<p>A surge of disqualifications</p>

<p>Over the last five years, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has brought hundreds of fraud cases that are heavily reliant on transactional data with the goal of revoking people's food benefits.</p>

<p>Judges, lawyers and legal experts said in interviews and in court documents that such evidence proves little. Kentucky Public Radio reviewed dozens of administrative hearing decisions and court documents from the last five years in which the cabinet relied on shopping patterns to prove a person had "trafficked," or sold, their benefits.</p>

<p>Kentucky is so aggressive in disqualifying people from SNAP benefits that the state is second in the nation for per-capita administrative disqualifications, behind Florida, according to the most recent federal data from 2023.</p>

<p>In the last decade, disqualifications in Kentucky rose from fewer than 100 in 2015 to over 1,800 in 2023. And more than 300 others have been accused of selling or misusing their benefits since January 2024, according to records obtained by Kentucky Public Radio.</p>

<p>Another Franklin County judge in 2023 ordered the cabinet to stop disqualifying individuals based solely on transactional data, but since the decision, at least three lawsuits allege the health agency continues to bring such cases.</p>

<p>Transactional data alone cannot prove intent to commit fraud nor show the actual result of any individual transaction, University of Kentucky law professor Cory Dodds said, adding, "I'm not saying that folks didn't do it, didn't commit the fraud, but I don't think the cabinet in a lot of these cases has met their burden of proof, either."</p>

<p>Facing punishment, recipients are pressured to waive their hearings</p>

<p>Kentuckians receive notice of their alleged suspicious activity through mailed letters, in which they're asked to voluntarily waive their right to a hearing and automatically accept the punishment. On first offense, that's generally a one-year SNAP ban. They're also required to repay the full amount the state says they misused.</p>

<p>Often, these cases involve a relatively small amount of money. Records show that more than 900 people have been kicked off for "trafficking" or misuse for less than $1,000 since 2022. The lowest amount alleged was 14 cents.</p>

<p>The state has leaned heavily on administrative hearing waivers since 2015, and by 2023, almost a quarter of all disqualifications were via waiver. Some lawsuits allege individuals did not fully understand the consequences of the waivers and were encouraged to sign by officials.</p>

<p>Kentucky Public Radio reviewed more than two dozen cases since 2020 in which the cabinet accused an individual of trafficking using only spending patterns, despite the participants' denial or lack of response — and with no other evidence or interviews presented, according to administrative hearing decisions.</p>

<p>Kendra Steele, a spokesperson for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, declined to schedule an interview with cabinet officials after multiple requests. Steele said in an email that "we have never" brought trafficking cases based solely on transactional data and acknowledged it would not be sufficient to prove intent.</p>

<p>In response to a different question, Steele wrote the investigation into fraud allegations consists of looking into income, living situations "and patterns of spending that are indicative of trafficking." She did not indicate how any of those factors could be used to prove intentional misuse or selling of SNAP benefits, or how it differs from relying on transactional data — which is inherently a pattern of spending. Steele said in another email that they also interview vendors and SNAP recipients.</p>

<p>'It's our fellow Kentuckians who are going hungry'</p>

<p>Roughly 4 in 25 Kentuckians suffer from food insecurity, similar to the national rate of about 14%, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Feeding America data.</p>

<p>The USDA will stop collecting and releasing statistics on food insecurity after October, saying Sept. 20 that the numbers had become "overly politicized." The decision comes in the wake of federal funding cuts for food and nutrition safety net programs nationwide.</p>

<p>In the last fiscal year, 1 in 8 Kentuckians benefitted from SNAP, formerly called food stamps. Food insecurity in Kentucky's rural areas is even more stark, and legal representation harder to come by.</p>

<p>"The people who benefit from these programs are some of the folks that we need to be helping the most in this country," Dodds said. "It's our fellow Kentuckians who are going hungry as a result of baseless allegations of waste, fraud and abuse."</p>

<p>The cabinet denied KPR's request for case notes on individual fraud accusations starting in early 2024 that would include the evidence used in the accusations. But administrative hearing decisions reviewed by KPR from 2020 through 2023 included evidence the cabinet relied on; hearing officers would frequently say a person had trafficked their benefits based on shopping patterns the state deemed suspicious.</p>

<p>Expert say officials overrely on purchase data</p>

<p>National legal experts who specialize in SNAP access say an overreliance on transactional data isn't unique to Kentucky. Transactional data was initially meant as a tool to identify potential fraud cases — not as a means to prove it, Georgetown law professor David Super said.</p>

<p>He's studied SNAP disqualifications for decades, and has seen many cases where he believes transactional data is misconstrued as direct evidence of wrongdoing, instead of requiring a state to build cases with witnesses, affidavits, video evidence and plea deals.</p>

<p>In one redacted 2023 state administrative hearing decision, a hearing officer decided a woman in the eastern Kentucky city of McKee had trafficked her benefits because she had made eight back-to-back transactions in a year. The decision also said she'd checked her balance several times, made a few insufficient fund attempts and had incorrectly entered her PIN number a few times.</p>

<p>She lost her SNAP benefits for a year. In an appeal, the woman told the state she has two kids and had recently discovered she was pregnant.</p>

<p>"Everyone forgets to get something and has to go back in the store and get it," she wrote, defending her back-to-back purchases.</p>

<p>She received another hearing, but the outcome didn't change.</p>

<p>Cabinet officials acknowledged in cross examinations during a 2023 case that back-to-back transactions and whole-dollar purchases aren't forbidden under SNAP rules, nor are recipients told that the cabinet considers them suspicious.</p>

<p>But all of these things are used as evidence — sometimes the sole evidence — that a person misused their benefits.</p>

<p>Kristie Goff, an AppalRed legal aid lawyer in Prestonsburg in southeast Kentucky, used to see many of these cases, though they've declined in the last year.</p>

<p>"There have been very few instances in cases I have handled, where a client was not able to give me a perfectly reasonable explanation for those transactions, and none of it was trafficking," Goff said. "There are no receipts, there's no video footage to show that someone's doing anything wrong. It's just a number written on a paper."</p>

<p>While saying purchasing history is insufficient to prove trafficking, Kentucky judges have stopped short of demanding that the state change how it trains employees or conducts its SNAP investigations.</p>

<p>State training materials focus almost entirely on purchase patterns</p>

<p>In response to an open records request, the cabinet provided KPR with documents used to train investigators on intentional program violations. They appear to almost exclusively discuss transactional data, including investigating back-to-back payments, large transactions and whole-dollar purchases.</p>

<p>In 2020, Michigan appellate judges decided transactional data alone is never sufficient to prove that a business — or person — fraudulently used SNAP benefits.</p>

<p>Dodds believes that should be the standard for all states, including Kentucky.</p>

<p>He is in the early stages of systematically reviewing thousands of SNAP benefit trafficking hearing decisions between 2020 and 2023. Data from about 700 decisions in 2020 alone already shows that many Kentuckians have been denied benefits before the state presents what he considers real evidence of guilt.</p>

<p>"There are maybe a handful of cases that I would say there was real evidence that they had done something wrong," Dodds said. "There was one where a woman was on the phone with the hearing officer while she was actively trying to sell her benefits. ... But cases with non-transactional data are exceedingly rare."</p>

<p>___</p>

<p>data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.</p>

<p>___</p>

<p>This reporting is part of a series called Sowing Resilience, a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News' Rural News Network and The focused on how rural communities across the U.S. are navigating food insecurity issues. Nine nonprofit newsrooms were involved in the series: The Beacon, Capital B, Enlace Latino NC, Investigate Midwest, The Jefferson County Beacon, KOSU, Louisville Public Media, The Maine Monitor and MinnPost. The Rural News Network is funded by Google News Initiative and Knight Foundation, among others.</p>

<p>The Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.</p>

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Environmental enforcement drops to a new low in Trump administration, data shows

<p>-

• Environmental enforcement drops to a new low in Trump administration, data shows</p>

<p>Ignacio Calderon, USA TODAYSeptember 30, 2025 at 6:05 AM</p>

<p>1</p>

<p>Environmental enforcement has hit historic lows, as the Trump administration has brought fewer lawsuits against companies for environmental violations in its first six months than any other administration in the 21st century, underscoring that the administration has scaled back rules that protect vulnerable communities from pollution.</p>

<p>The administration started 14 lawsuits for environmental violations, the fewest in any six-month stretch this century, beating the previous lows in the Biden administration.</p>

<p>In Trump's first term, his administration filed 42 such lawsuits in the first six months, federal data shows.</p>

<p>The dwindling enforcement tracks budget cuts at the EPA's enforcement department over the years, but some experts say the Trump administration's enforcement approach could mean communities losing protection if polluters are not held accountable.</p>

<p>"We all went through the first Trump administration, and things felt chaotic, but it felt like there was rule of law," said Keene Kelderman, a research manager at the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project. "It just feels like they don't care this time around."</p>

<p>Enforcement actions by federal agencies, both administrative and judicial, are an important lever that administrations have used to hold companies accountable for polluting the environment, a burden that has usually fallen on low-income communities.</p>

<p>The administrative cases form the bulk of the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement actions. Those tend to be smaller offenses that are handled without the need for a court. For example, a water treatment facility failing to submit a pollution report.</p>

<p>But for bigger violations, think an oil spill, the EPA will take a company to court, which it calls a judicial action. These lawsuits are filed through the Department of Justice seeking hefty fines, compensation for clean-ups and adding pollution control equipment. In very rare cases, such as when a company knowingly pollutes its surroundings or when its actions are responsible for a death, the DOJ can pursue criminal charges against a company.</p>

<p>The Trump administration's new administrative enforcement cases match past presidencies, but new judicial cases, which carry heavier financial consequences, are at their lowest start this century.</p>

<p>Examples of recent judicial actions came against a facility in Puerto Rico for emitting too much of a carcinogenic gas, Virginia farms dumping debris into wetlands and streams and an aluminum facility in Illinois for violating Clean Air Act standards.</p>

<p>Asked about the declining trend, the EPA defended its enforcement record, downplayed lawsuits as a measure of enforcement and emphasized its administrative and criminal enforcement record this year.</p>

<p>The agency said it has opened more environmental criminal cases in its first six months than the Biden administration. Data on recent criminal cases is not publicly available on the database analyzed by USA TODAY – the most recent criminal cases recorded there date back to 2023. USA TODAY has requested newer data to verify this.</p>

<p>The agency also said in its statement: "This Administration is focused on efficiently resolving violations and achieving compliance as quickly as possible rather than pushing for broad injunctive relief that goes beyond what the law requires and unfairly and unlawfully burdens industry and energy."</p>

<p>Judicial cases have been on a downward trend for more than a decade after reaching their peak in former President Barack Obama's first administration in 2009. In the first six months of his first term, the Obama Administration filed 102 lawsuits.</p>

<p>The decline in every subsequent administration since the first Obama administration came as the EPA's resources dwindled.</p>

<p>During Obama's first term, the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance budget also reached its peak. It's since been slashed by multiple administrations. In fiscal year 2024, it sat about $200 million lower than in 2011, adjusted for inflation, and its staff was cut by over 500 employees, according to data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project.</p>

<p>Beyond the EPA, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency's restructuring of the federal government has also diminished the DOJ's environmental enforcement section, which handles these major cases.</p>

<p>Based on the farewell parties he was invited to and other conversations with former colleagues, Tom Mariani, former chief of the DOJ's environmental enforcement section, estimates the number of lawyers in his unit is at 65 to 70, down from the 120 or so it had earlier in 2025.</p>

<p>Mariani said when the EPA sues someone, it's a labor-intensive process to get the evidence to prove a violation. He remembers reading about someone saying, "I keep hearing, 'you need to do more with less,' and maybe you can do that for a while, but sooner or later, you start to do less with less."</p>

<p>Besides these budget and staffing cuts, Larry Starfield, a former principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, said political will is the other big variable in enforcement.</p>

<p>Often minorities and low-income communities tend to be disproportionately exposed to pollution. Environmental justice programs were enacted to address these inequalities.</p>

<p>In March, the EPA set its new enforcement priorities in a memo, making it clear that it won't punish companies on environmental justice grounds, following Trump's executive orders.</p>

<p>"Environmental justice considerations shall no longer inform EPA's enforcement and compliance assurance work," the memo said, explicitly noting that it may no longer consider whether an affected community is overburdened or vulnerable.</p>

<p>"So, if you've got communities that have been suffering for decades from high levels of pollution, enforcers can't look at that. If a community has high cancer rates and poor health care, enforcers can't consider that," Starfield said. "I think it's a very sad overreaction to a perceived problem, and I think it is wrong."</p>

<p>In its email statement, the EPA said environmental justice is "actually discrimination" and said the agency is committed to addressing pollution for all Americans. "The EPA will ensure that enforcement focuses on the worst pollution and harm to human health, wherever it is found," the agency said.</p>

<p>The March memo also limits enforcement that pauses energy production.</p>

<p>"Enforcement and compliance assurance actions shall not shut down any stage of energy production (from exploration to distribution) or power generation absent an imminent and substantial threat to human health," the document says.</p>

<p>Daniel Farber, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said it is not unusual that the administration would align enforcement with its priorities, "but in this case, because the administration's priorities are so heavily tilted against environmental protection, you're just amplifying the problem at the enforcement level."</p>

<p>Farber added that federal action is not the only way environmental laws get enforced.</p>

<p>"There's state government involvement and some private citizen suits, and we don't know to what extent those are really taking up the slack," Farber said.</p>

<p>Beyond shifting enforcement priorities, the EPA has also launched dozens of other deregulatory efforts: proposals to repeal the government's ability to limit greenhouse gas emissions, such as those from cars and power plants and weaken standards around emissions from power plants. USA TODAY previously reported that the agency's cost analysis models estimate that these actions could end up costing Americans more than they could save them.</p>

<p>For his part, Starfield said he hopes the EPA focuses on what it was established to do: protect public health and the environment.</p>

<p>"I would like the mission of the agency to be restored to what its mission had been from Richard Nixon until this year."</p>

<p>Mariani, the former DOJ environmental enforcement chief, said there's a surprising number of people who live near some sort of industrial operation. "If you care about having clean air, clean water and land where we have to dispose of stuff in a safe and secure way, then you should care about this."</p>

<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Environmental enforcement drops to a new low in Trump administration</p>

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Hamas weighs its response to Trump's Gaza peace proposal

<p>-

• Hamas weighs its response to Trump's Gaza peace proposal</p>

<p>Andrew Mills and Nidal al-MughrabiSeptember 30, 2025 at 7:06 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>Israeli soldiers walk on the on Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border</p>

<p>By Andrew Mills and Nidal al-Mughrabi</p>

<p>DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -A U.S.-sponsored ceasefire proposal for Gaza on Tuesday was hinging on Hamas's response to the 20-point plan which President Donald Trump has said was "beyond very close" to ending the two-year-old conflict in the enclave.</p>

<p>Mediators Qatar and Egypt shared the document with Hamas late on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood alongside Trump at the White House and pledged his support for the proposal because he said it met Israel's war aims.</p>

<p>It was not clear what had allayed Netanyahu's earlier misgivings about elements of the proposal.</p>

<p>Hamas was not involved in the rounds of negotiations in the lead-up to Trump's plan, which calls on the Islamist militant group to disarm, a demand they have previously rejected.</p>

<p>"The Hamas negotiators said they would review it in good faith and provide a response," an official briefed on the talks told Reuters early on Tuesday.</p>

<p>Trump warned Hamas that if it rejects what he has offered, Israel would have full U.S. support to take whatever action it deemed necessary.</p>

<p>The plan specifies an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.</p>

<p>Hamas had not on Tuesday officially responded to Trump's proposal, and it was not immediately clear what was new about it, beyond the wide backing for the initiative expressed by Arab and Muslim countries.</p>

<p>Many elements of the 20 points have been included in numerous ceasefire deals proposed over the last two years, including those accepted and then subsequently rejected at various stages by both Israel and Hamas.</p>

<p>A source close to Hamas told Reuters the plan was "completely biased to Israel" and imposed "impossible conditions" that aimed to eliminate the group.</p>

<p>"What Trump has proposed is the full adoption of all Israeli conditions, which do not grant the Palestinian people or the residents of the Gaza Strip any legitimate rights," the Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.</p>

<p>It was unclear how Hamas would word its response, as an absolute rejection may put it in collision with a group of Arab and Muslim countries which welcomed the plan.</p>

<p>The foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt issued a joint statement on Monday welcoming Trump's proposal and underscoring what they said were the president's "sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza."</p>

<p>Some Palestinians hailed the plan, saying it could end the bombardment and deaths, but they wondered whether it would really end Israel's control of the Gaza Strip.</p>

<p>"We want the war to end but we want the occupation army that killed tens of thousands of us to get out and leave us alone," said Salah Abu Amr, 60, a father of six from Gaza City.</p>

<p>"We hope the plan will end the war, but we are not sure it will, neither Trump nor Netanyahu can be trusted," he told Reuters via a chat app.</p>

<p>In Gaza, Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza City, reaching to the centre of the territory, which Netanyahu described as the last Hamas bastion. Israel also ramped up its bombardment of residential districts, forcing more families to leave, witnesses and medics said.</p>

<p>At least two people were killed when the Israeli army blew up an explosive-laden vehicle in Beach camp in western Gaza City, medics said, while nine people, including a mother and five of her children, were killed in two separate attacks in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis in the south.</p>

<p>(Reporting by Andrew Mills, Editing by William Maclean)</p>

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<p>- Hamas weighs its response to Trump's Gaza peace proposal</p> <p>Andrew Mills and ...

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Robotic exoskeletons help Chinese tourists climb the country’s most punishing mountain

<p>-

• Robotic exoskeletons help Chinese tourists climb the country's most punishing mountain</p>

<p>Joyce Jiang, CNNSeptember 30, 2025 at 6:02 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>DOUYIN / Kenqing Technology</p>

<p>A towering 5,000 feet high, with more than 7,000 steps, Mount Tai, in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, is known for turning legs to jelly for anyone game for scaling to the top.</p>

<p>Videos all over Chinese social media, such as TikTok's sister app Douyin, show even the fittest hikers shaking, collapsing or trying to climb downhill on all fours.</p>

<p>Some visitors hire "climbing buddies" to help them make the summit.</p>

<p>But tourism officials in Shandong have come up with another idea: robotic legs.</p>

<p>On January 29, the first day of Chinese New Year, ten AI-powered exoskeletons debuted at Mount Tai (Taishan in Mandarin), attracting over 200 users for a fee of 60 yuan to 80 yuan ($8 - $11 USD) per use during a week-long trial, according to Xinhua News Agency.</p>

<p>Co-developed by Taishan Cultural Tourism Group and Kenqing Technology, a Shenzhen-based tech company, this device is designed to wrap around users' waists and thighs and weighs in at just 1.8 kilograms, according to the firm's product introduction.</p>

<p>Powered by AI algorithms, it can sense users' movements and provide "synchronized assistance" to ease the burden of legs, according to Kenqing Technology.</p>

<p>Each robotic exoskeleton runs on two batteries, lasting for about five hours, according to Wang Houzhe, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group. It generally takes six hours to climb to the top.</p>

<p>"It really works!" Li Chengde, a 68-year-old tourist from the capital Jinan, told state-run Xinhua News Agency after trying out the device. "It felt like someone was pulling me uphill!"</p>

<p>"This can help more people hike up the mountain and enjoy the scenery of Mount Tai… without it being too strenuous," Wang told Chinese state media.</p>

<p>Jacky, a content creator from Shandong who requested a pseudonym for privacy reasons, tested the device last Sunday for half an hour over hundreds of steps.</p>

<p>While echoing the general positive feedback as many others, he told CNN there is still room for improvement.</p>

<p>"The experience is definitely easier," he said about climbing with the device on. "But once I took it off, I felt a bit clumsy walking (on my own)."</p>

<p>The 29-year-old said he felt like a "puppet" with the machine doing all the work but once he got used to not exerting himself, it was "really tiring" after he removed the exoskeleton and went back to climbing of his own power.</p>

<p>Jacky added he also found the device inconvenient when he needed to use the bathroom and tie his shoelaces while wearing it. The exoskeleton requires extra hands to put on and take off and fully squatting down could risk breaking the tight straps.</p>

<p>He also said that the battery needed more juice.</p>

<p>Wang from the Taishan Cultural Tourism Group said the team will extend battery life and set up replacement spots along the hiking trails, according to Chinese state-linked media.</p>

<p>Currently in beta testing, the exoskeletons are expected to hit the mass market in early March, according to the local publicity department.</p>

<p>Despite a few hiccups, Jacky deems the exoskeleton robots a "good product" and a "true blessing" for the elderly, children and mobility-impaired visitors. Half of the hikers who opted to try out the prototype exoskeletons at Mount Tai were senior citizens.</p>

<p>In addition to making mountain climbing a whole lot easier, these walking supports have sparked online discussions about their wider applications in a country grappling with a rapidly aging population.</p>

<p>Last year, 22% of China's population was over 60, and that figure is expected to rise to 30% by 2035, with the elderly population surpassing 400 million, according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.</p>

<p>And the market size of smart elderly care in China was estimated at 6.8 trillion yuan (about $934 billion) in 2024, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.</p>

<p>Kenqing Technology, the robotic exoskeletons' co-developer, which was founded in 2015, is eyeing this vast elderly care market. It has rolled out an exoskeleton specifically designed for elderly users, weighing 2.4 kilograms and priced at 17,000 yuan ($2,334 USD) on China's e-commerce giant Taobao.</p>

<p>To fully unlock the potential of elderly care robots, industry insiders told Xinhua News Agency that stronger policy support is needed to scale up their production while keeping prices affordable for all.</p>

<p>Editor's Note: CNN's Chris Lau contributed reporting. This article was first published in February 2025 and has been .</p>

<p>For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com</p>

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Robotic exoskeletons help Chinese tourists climb the country’s most punishing mountain

<p>- Robotic exoskeletons help Chinese tourists climb the country's most punishing mountain</p> ...

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Louisiana seeks arrest of California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills

<p>-

• Louisiana seeks arrest of California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills</p>

<p>CBSNewsSeptember 30, 2025 at 6:08 AM</p>

<p>0</p>

<p>Baton Rouge, La. — Louisiana is pursuing a criminal case against another out-of-state doctor accused of mailing abortion pills to a patient in the state, court documents filed this month revealed.</p>

<p>A warrant for the arrest of a California doctor is a rare charge of violating one of the state abortion bans that has taken effect since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed enforcement. It represents an additional front in a growing legal battle between liberal and conservative states over prescribing abortion medications via telehealth and mailing them to patients. Pills are the most common way abortions are accessed in the U.S. and are a major reason that, despite the bans, abortion numbers rose last year, according to a report. Louisiana said in a court case filed Sept. 19 that it had issued a warrant for a California-based doctor who it says provided pills to a Louisiana woman in 2023. Both the woman, Rosalie Markezich, and the state's attorney general are seeking to be part of a lawsuit that seeks to order drug regulators to bar telehealth prescriptions to mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used in combination for medication abortions. In court filings, Markezich says her boyfriend at the time used her email address to order drugs from Dr. Remy Coeytaux, a California physician, and sent her $150, which she forwarded to Coeytaux. She said she had no other contact with the doctor. She said she did not want to take the pills but felt forced to and said in the filing that "the trauma of my chemical abortion still haunts me" and that it would not have happened if telehealth prescriptions to the drug were off limits. The accusation builds on a position taken by anti-abortion groups: that allowing abortion pills to be prescribed by phone or video call and filled by mail opens the door to women being coerced into taking them. "Rosalie is bravely representing many woman who are victimized by the illegal, immoral, and unethical conduct of these drug dealers," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. Murrill's office didn't immediately answer questions about what charges Coeytaux faces or when the warrant was issued. But under the state's ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, physicians convicted of providing abortions face up to 15 years in prison and $200,000 in fines. Coeytaux is also the target of a lawsuit filed in July in federal court by a Texas man who says the doctor illegally provided his girlfriend with abortion pills. Email and a telephone message seeking comment were left for Coeytaux. The combination of a Louisiana criminal case and a Texas civil case over abortion pills is also playing out surrounding a New York doctor, Margaret Carpenter. New York authorities are refusing to extradite Carpenter to Louisiana or to enforce Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton the $100,000 civil judgment against her. In the Louisiana case, officials said a pregnant minor's mother requested the abortion medication online and directed her daughter to take them. The mother was arrested, pleaded not guilty and was released on bond. New York officials cite a law there that seeks to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion medications to patients in states with abortion bans - or where such prescriptions by telehealth violate the law. New York and California are among the eight states that have shield laws with such provisions, according to a tally by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. The Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine said they "fully expect" California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to uphold his state's shield law in the new case. Murrill told The she will sue governors whose shield laws "purport to protect these individuals from criminal conduct" in Louisiana. The legal filings that revealed the Louisiana charge against Coeytaux are part of an effort for Louisiana, along with Florida and Texas, to join a lawsuit filed last year by the Republican attorneys general for Idaho, Kansas and Missouri to roll back federal approvals for mifepristone. This year, both Louisiana and Texas have adopted laws to target out-of-state providers of abortion pills. The Louisiana law lets patients who receive abortions sue providers and others. The Texas law goes further and allows anyone to sue those who prescribe such pills in the state. Both Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary have said they are conducting a full review of mifepristone's safety and effectiveness.</p>

<p>Asked whether the review could lead to a ban on mifepristone, CBS News medical contributor Dr. Celine Gounder suggested it would be difficult for the FDA to withdraw approval, an extraordinary step that would quickly draw legal challenges. But she said depending on what the safety review finds, it could make access more difficult by limiting the drug's availability through telehealth or by mail or by restricting the ability to prescribe it to doctors, rather than physician assistants or nurses who are also currently permitted to prescribe it. Medication abortion has been available in the U.S. since 2000, when the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of mifepristone. A group of 19 Democratic state attorneys general on Monday issued a statement saying that mifepristone is safe and expressing concern over an FDA review, which some Republican attorneys general had called for. The Abortion Coalition of Telemedicine reiterated in a statement to The that the medication is safe and an "essential part of women's healthcare." The nationwide organization, co-founded by Carpenter, described Louisiana's legal actions against Coeytaux as "extreme" and said it is an attempt to "intimidate healthcare providers." Murrill described the "unlawful distribution" of the pills in Louisiana as "dangerous," adding that she will use "any legal means available" to hold accountable those who violate the state's abortion laws.</p>

<p>After Charlie Kirk assassination, Utah Gov. Cox urges U.S. away from division, violence</p>

<p>Government shutdown likely, CBS News' Robert Costa says after conversation with Trump</p>

<p>Why crickets are as good as a thermometer</p>

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Louisiana seeks arrest of California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills

<p>- Louisiana seeks arrest of California doctor accused of mailing abortion pills</p> <p>...

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