New York on Thursday sued some of the country’s biggest distributors of electronic cigarettes, accusing the companies of violating state laws that prohibit the sale of vaping flavors and designs that appeal to children.

Attorney General Letitia James announced the lawsuit targeting middlemen that distribute fruit- and candy-flavored e-cigarettes like Puff Bar and Elf Bar to hundreds of convenience stories and gas stations across the state. The approach differs from past litigation by New York and other states, which targeted vaping manufacturers, such as Juul Labs.

Widely blamed for sparking the teen vaping trend, Juul has paid more than $1 billion to settle dozens of state and local lawsuits and investigations into its early marketing practices, which included launch parties and product giveaways. The company stopped selling flavors like mango and mint in 2019 and is no longer popular with teens.

Instead, Chinese-made disposable e-cigarettes like Elf Bar have become the top choice among high school and middle school students. None of the products are approved by federal health regulators but they continue shipping into the U.S., often mislabeled as batteries, cell phones or other products.

The state’s nearly 200-page legal complaint points to “widespread evidence of illegal conduct, including documents showing illegal shipments of flavored vapes to New York.” The filing also includes photos of brightly colored e-cigarettes that resemble soft drinks and candy and come in flavors like “fruity bears freeze,” “cotton candy,” and “strawberry cereal donut milk.”

New York banned all vaping flavors other than tobacco in 2020.

“For too long, these companies have disregarded our laws in order to profit off of our young people, but we will not risk the health and safety of our kids,” James said in a statement.

The lawsuit seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages from the companies, as well as a permanent ban on their sales of flavored vapes in New York.

Companies named in the lawsuit include Demand Vape of New York, Evo Brands of California, Safa Goods of Florida and Midwest Goods of Illinois.

Calls and messages to the companies were not immediately returned Thursday morning.

According to the lawsuit “Demand Vape maintains close ties with international manufacturers, such that its co-founder routinely travels to China where Demand Vape’s products originate to direct flavor development and marketing.”

In 2022 litigation, the co-founder of Buffalo-based Demand Vape told a federal judge that his company had sold more than $132 million worth of Elf Bar e-cigarettes in the past year. The company that makes Elf Bar is based in Shenzhen, China, and sells flavors including “strawberry mango” and “lemon mint.”

Despite the continued availability of disposable e-cigarettes, the vaping rate among U.S. teens has fallen to a 10-year low of under 6%, according to federal figures released last year. Government health officials attribute the drop to more aggressive U.S. enforcement, including hundreds of warning letters sent to retail stores selling unauthorized vaping products.

All but two of the passengers injured on a Delta Air Lines jet that crashed upon landing in Toronto have been released, the airport CEO said Tuesday.

Miraculously, all 80 people on board the flight from Minneapolis to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport survived the crash Monday afternoon. Most of them walked away with minor injuries, the airport’s chief executive said.

The aircraft came down fast, landing so hard that it lost its right wing, then burst into flames on the runway. The aircraft slid to a stop, upside down, leaving a trail of black smoke in its wake.

Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said 19 of the 21 people who were hurt have been released but did not provided any details on the two who remain hospitalized.

Authorities said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Communications between the tower and pilot were normal on approach and it’s not clear what went wrong when the plane touched down.

At the time of the flight’s arrival, Pearson was experiencing blowing snow and winds of 32 mph (51 kph) gusting to 40 mph (65 kph), according to the Meteorological Service of Canada. The temperature was about 16.5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8.6 degrees Celsius).

Peter Carlson, a passenger traveling to Toronto for a paramedics conference, said the landing was “very forceful.”

“All the sudden everything just kind of went sideways and the next thing I know, it’s kind of a blink and I’m upside down still strapped in,” he told CBC News.

Canadian authorities held two brief news conferences Monday but provided few details. The aircraft was a Mitsubishi CRJ-900 made by the Canadian company Bombardier.

“We are very grateful there was no loss of life and relatively minor injuries,” Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told reporters.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement that “the hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected.”

The crash was the fourth major aviation accident in North America in recent weeks. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground. And on Feb. 6, 10 people were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.

The last major crash at Pearson was on Aug. 2, 2005, when an Airbus A340 from Paris skidded off the runway and burst into flames in stormy weather. All 309 passengers and crew aboard Air France Flight 358 survived.

The Delta flight was cleared to land at about 2:10 p.m. Audio recordings show the control tower warned the pilots of a possible air flow “bump” on approach.

“It was windy, but the airplanes are designed and certified to handle that,” said John Cox, CEO of aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida. “The pilots are trained and experienced to handle that.”

The plane came to a rest at the intersection of Runways 23 and 15L.

Carlson said when he took off his seat belt he crashed onto the ceiling, which had become the floor. He smelled gas, saw aviation fuel cascading down the cabin windows and knew he needed to get out, but his paramedic skills kicked in and he looked for those he could help.

Carlson and another man assisted a mother and her young son out of the plane and then Carlson dropped onto the tarmac. He said snow was blowing but “I didn’t care how cold it was, didn’t care how far I had to walk, how long I had to stand — all of us just wanted to be out of the aircraft.”

Cox, who flew for U.S. Air for 25 years and has worked on U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigations, said the CRJ-900 has been in service for decades and does a good job of handling inclement weather, but that it’s unusual for any plane to end up on its roof.

“We’ve seen a couple of cases of takeoffs where airplanes have ended up inverted, but it’s pretty rare,” Cox said.

Among the questions that need to be answered, Cox said, is why the crashed plane was missing its right wing. He said the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will be imperative to understanding what actually occurred.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada would head up the investigation and provide any updates. The NTSB in the U.S. said it was sending a team to assist.

Endeavor Air, based in Minneapolis, is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and the world’s largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. The airline operates 130 regional jets on 700 daily flights to over 126 cities in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, according to the company’s website.

A Chicago Democrat who once set much of Illinois’ political agenda as the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history was convicted of some charges Wednesday in a mixed verdict in his high-profile corruption trial.

Jurors convicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan 10 counts and acquitted him of seven, but could not reach a decision on six counts. They returned the verdict after deliberating more than 10 days in a bribery case that led to the downfall of a man who was nicknamed the “Velvet Hammer” for his forceful yet quiet leadership style.

The backbone of federal prosecutors’ case was hours of videos and phone calls secretly recorded by a onetime Chicago alderman turned FBI informant. But the most surprising moment was when the normally private Madigan took the stand himself, strongly denying all wrongdoing.

“When people asked me for help, if possible, I tried to help them,” he testified.

Madigan, who was speaker for more than three decades and once led the Democratic Party of Illinois, was charged in a 23-count indictment with racketeering conspiracy, using interstate facilities in aid of bribery, wire fraud and attempted extortion.

Among multiple schemes, he was accused of using his influence to pass legislation favorable to utility companies that doled out kickbacks, jobs and contracts to his loyalists. An attorney, Madigan was also accused of benefiting from private work that was illegally steered to his law firm.

“Time and again, Madigan abused the tremendous power he wielded,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Schwartz during closing arguments.

The trial, which began in October, featured more than 60 witnesses, including a congresswoman, business leaders and former state legislators. Prosecutors presented photographs, transcripts and recordings on alleged schemes. For instance, he allegedly tried to have state-owned land in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood transferred to the city for development and expected developers of a hotel project to hire his tax firm.

The trial was also a glimpse into how Madigan, who famously didn’t use a cellphone or email, operated behind closed doors. The lines between his roles were often blurred. Madigan, who represented a district near Midway International Airport on Chicago’s southwest side, often had meetings at his downtown law office, whether they were for political or legal work. Elected officials or his political advisers met alongside business contacts. Even in meetings about tax work, he was called “the speaker,” the recordings show.

On the stand, Madigan cast himself as a devoted public servant with a tough upbringing in a working-class Chicago neighborhood. But federal prosecutors on cross-examination, sometimes in tense exchanges, probed about his comments on the secret recordings, including one where he chuckled that some of his loyalists “made out like bandits.”

Madigan, 82, left political office in 2021 while under investigation and was indicted the following year.

During the trial, he watched the proceedings intently, taking notes on a legal pad. Several of his family members attended, including his daughter, Lisa Madigan, who served four terms as Illinois attorney general. She declined to seek reelection in 2018.

First elected to the Legislature in 1970, Michael Madigan was the Illinois House speaker from 1983 to 2021, except for two years when Republicans were in control. He decided which legislation would be voted on, oversaw political mapmaking and controlled several campaign funds.

Standing trial alongside Madigan was longtime confidant Michael McClain, who prosecutors called Madigan’s “mouthpiece.” Jurors were deadlocked on all of the charges McClain faced. The onetime state legislator and former lobbyist also stood trial last year in a related case and was convicted with three others of a bribery conspiracy involving ComEd, the state’s largest utility company.

President Donald Trump on Monday will pardon Democratic former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to a person familiar with his plans.

Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence for political corruption charges during his first term. The Republican president planned to sign the pardon on Monday, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the pardon publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 on charges that included seeking to sell an appointment to then-President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and trying to shake down a children’s hospital. Blagojevich, who appeared on Trump’s reality TV show “Celebrity Apprentice,” served eight years in prison before Trump cut short his term in 2020.

The former governor’s wife, Patti Blagojevich, reached by phone, referred a reporter to a spokesperson who did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Already this term, Trump has granted clemency to more than 1,500 people, all of whom were charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The clemency, announced on Trump’s first day back in office, paved the way for the release from prison of people found guilty of violent attacks on police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump expressed some sympathy for Blagojevich when he appeared on “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 before his first corruption trial started. When Trump fired Blagojevich as a contestant, he praised him for how he was fighting his criminal case, telling him, “You have a hell of a lot of guts.”

Blagojevich was convicted on 18 counts. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in 2015 tossed out five of the convictions, including ones in which he offered to appoint someone to a high-paying job in the Senate.

Patti Blagojevich spent nearly two years making public pleas for her husband’s release during Trump’s first term, appearing often on Fox News Channel, which Trump devotedly watches. She drew parallels between her husband’s treatment and Trump’s, along with showering Trump with praise.

At the time that Trump announced Blagojevich’s commutation in 2020, Trump had been investigated for his ties to Russia and their attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. The president made clear that he saw similarities between efforts to investigate his own conduct and those that took down Blagojevich.

“It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group,” Trump told reporters. He was referring to Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney who prosecuted Blagojevich and later represented former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired from the agency in May 2017. Comey was working in the private sector during the Blagojevich investigation and indictment.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the investigation into ties between between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, was FBI director during the investigation into Blagojevich.

Trump’s decision to commute Blagojevich’s sentence was met with bipartisan criticism in Illinois. Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the time that Trump “has abused his pardon power in inexplicable ways to reward his friends and condone corruption, and I deeply believe this pardon sends the wrong message at the wrong time.”

Axios first reported the news of the expected pardon on Monday afternoon.

Virginia McCaskey, who inherited the Chicago Bears from her father, George Halas, but avoided the spotlight during four-plus decades as principal owner, has died. She was 102.

McCaskey’s family announced through the team that she died Thursday. She had owned the Bears since her father’s death on Oct. 31, 1983.

“While we are sad, we are comforted knowing Virginia Halas McCaskey lived a long, full, faith-filled life and is now with the love of her life on earth,” the family said. “She guided the Bears for four decades and based every business decision on what was best for Bears players, coaches, staff and fans.”

A Senate panel divided starkly along partisan lines voted on Tuesday to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, sending his bid to oversee the $1.7 trillion U.S. Health and Human Services agency to the Senate floor.

Fourteen Republicans voted together to advance Kennedy’s nomination, with even Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who has aired deep concerns about approving Kennedy, joining in. All 13 Democrats opposed him.

It mattered little on Tuesday that Democrats, as well as some Republicans, have sounded an alarm on Kennedy’s work to sow doubt around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers.

Tuesday’s committee vote is a strong indication that Kennedy’s nomination will succeed absent any last-minute vote switches. Republican senators are facing a maximum pressure campaign from the White House as well as Kennedy’s formidable following, which has been bombarding senators with hundreds of phone calls and emails.

A full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled. To be installed as the nation’s health secretary, Kennedy can lose only three Republican votes if Democrats in the 100-member chamber uniformly reject him.

Cassidy has publicly detailed his personal struggle, as a doctor who has seen the lifesaving ability of vaccines, with Kennedy’s confirmation.

“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy last week.

Yet when it came to his vote Tuesday, he advanced Kennedy with a simple “aye.”

Cassidy declined to discuss his vote. In a social media post on X, he described “intense conversations” with Kennedy and President Donald Trump’s White House that started over the weekend and continued into Tuesday morning ahead of the vote and yielded “serious commitments” from the administration.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are all seen as potential no votes because they voted against Trump’s defense secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work. In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, McConnell declined to say how he would vote on Kennedy’s nomination but reiterated “vaccines are critically important.”

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, another vulnerable vote that Kennedy worked to win over, said he was reassured last week by the health secretary nominee’s promise to let scientists at the public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes for Health, work “independently.”

“The only way that Bobby Kennedy will get crosswise is if he does take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis said. “That will be a problem to me.”

“If you touch the gold standard for the NIH and the CDC, then I’ll have a problem with that nominee,” he added.

Democrats, meanwhile, have continued to raise alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers if confirmed as health secretary.

“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Kennedy.

Kennedy said he’ll give his son all of the referral fees in legal cases against vaccine makers, including the fees he gets from referring clients in a case against Merck. Kennedy told the committee he’s referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the past three years.

As secretary, Kennedy would be responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.

Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support to Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration. Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods. Trump and Kennedy have branded the movement as “Make America Healthy Again.”

All 64 people aboard an American Airlines jet that collided with an Army helicopter were feared dead in what was likely to be the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century, officials said Thursday.

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the jet late Wednesday as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew. Three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.

“We don’t believe there are any survivors,” said John Donnelly, the fire chief in the nation’s capital. “We are now at the point where we are switching from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”

The plane was found upside-down in three sections in waist-deep water, and first responders were searching an area of the Potomac River as far south as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, roughly 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the airport, Donnelly said. The helicopter wreckage was also found.

If no one survived, the collision would be the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2001.

There was no immediate word on the cause of the collision, but officials said flight conditions were clear as the jet arrived from Wichita, Kansas, with U.S. and Russian figure skaters and others aboard.

“On final approach into Reagan National, it collided with a military aircraft on an otherwise normal approach,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said. “At this time, we don’t know why the military aircraft came into the path of the … aircraft.”

President Donald Trump opened a White House news conference after the crash with a moment of silence honoring the victims, calling it an “hour of anguish” for the country.

But he most of his time casting political blame, lashing out at the Biden administration and diversity efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration, saying they had led to slipping standards — even as he acknowledged that the cause of the crash was unknown.

Without evidence, Trump blamed air traffic controllers, the helicopter pilots and Democratic policies at federal agencies. He claimed the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.”

Images from the river showed boats around the partly submerged wing and the mangled wreckage of the plane’s fuselage.

Inside Reagan National Airport, the mood was somber Thursday morning as stranded passengers waited for flights to resume, sidestepping camera crews and staring out the terminal’s windows at the Potomac, where recovery efforts were barely visible in the distance.

Aster Andemicael had been at the airport since Wednesday evening with her elderly father, who was flying to Indiana to visit family. She spent much of the long night thinking about the victims and their families.

“I’ve been crying since yesterday,” she said, her voice cracking. She recalled seeing a young woman frantically running through the airport around the time of the crash, possibly in search of a loved one who would never return.

“I pray for them,” she said. “This is devastating.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, who was sworn in earlier this week, was asked if he could reassure Americans that the United States still has the safest airspace in the world.

“Can I guarantee the American flying public that the United States has the most safe and secure airspace in the world? And the answer to that is, absolutely yes, we do,” he said.

Authorities have ‘early indicators’ of what went wrong
The night was clear, the plane and helicopter were both in standard flight patterns and there was standard communication between the aircraft and the tower, Duffy said.

“We have early indicators of what happened here,” Duffy said, though he declined to elaborate pending an investigation.

It is not unusual to have a military aircraft flying the river and an aircraft landing at the airport, he said. Asked if the plane was aware that there was a helicopter in the area, Duffy said the helicopter was aware that there was a plane in the area.

Asked about Trump suggesting in an overnight social media post that the collision could have been prevented, Duffy said: “From what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely.”

Likely the deadliest plane crash since November 2001
If everyone aboard the plane was killed, it would be the deadliest U.S. airline crash since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of Belle Harbor, New York, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport, killing all 260 people aboard.

The last major fatal crash involving a U.S. commercial airline occurred in 2009 near Buffalo, New York. Everyone aboard the Bombardier DHC-8 propeller plane was killed, including 45 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants. Another person on the ground also died, bringing the total death toll to 50. An investigation determined that the captain accidentally caused the plane to stall as it approached the airport in Buffalo.

Passengers on Wednesday’s flight included a group of figure skaters, their coaches and family members who were returning from a development camp that followed the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita.

“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” U.S. Figure Skating said in a statement.

Two of those coaches were identified by the Kremlin as Russian figure skaters Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, who won the pairs title at the 1994 world championships and competed twice in the Olympics. The Skating Club of Boston lists them as coaches and their son, Maxim Naumov, is a competitive figure skater for the U.S.

Club CEO Doug Zeghibe described the group as highly talented, saying their loss would resonate through the skating community for years.

“Folks are just stunned by this,” Zeghibe said. “They are like family to us.”

What happened
The FAA said the midair crash occurred before 9 p.m. EST in some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world, just over 3 miles south of the White House and the Capitol.

American Airlines Flight 5342 was inbound to Reagan National at an altitude of about 400 feet (122 meters) and a speed of about 140 mph (225 kph) when it rapidly lost altitude over the Potomac River, according to data from its radio transponder. The Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-701 twin-engine jet, manufactured in 2004, can be configured to carry up to 70 passengers.

A few minutes before landing, air traffic controllers asked the arriving commercial jet if it could land on the shorter Runway 33 at Reagan National, and the pilots said they were able. Controllers then cleared the plane to land on Runway 33. Flight-tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway.

Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked the helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: “PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.” Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided.

The plane’s transponder stopped transmitting about 2,400 feet (732 meters) short of the runway, roughly over the middle of the river.

Video from an observation camera at the nearby Kennedy Center showed two sets of lights consistent with aircraft appearing to join in a fireball.

The U.S. Army said the helicopter was a UH-60 Blackhawk based at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Military aircraft frequently conduct such training flights in and around the nation’s capital.

A shooting at a grocery store in northern Indiana on Monday left three people dead, including the suspected shooter, and two police officers wounded, officials said.

Police received a 911 call at about 5:30 p.m. about a shooting at Martin’s Super Market in Elkhart, the city police department said in a social media post. When officers arrived, they found two shooting victims dead inside the store.

When police “engaged” the shooting suspect outside the store, two officers were wounded and the suspect was fatally shot, according to the Elkhart Police Department post, which was made to update information given at an earlier news conference.

The officers were taken to hospitals with gunshot wounds, the post said. One has since been released and the other is in stable condition, it said.

“In this horrific situation, words cannot express the pain felt in our community when a tragic incident like this happens,” Elkhart Police Department Chief Dan Milanese said in a statement.

The names of the victims, suspect and officers will not be released until families have been notified.

Erin Swary, a pregnant mother, was at the store checking out and talking with the person bagging her groceries when she heard a pop, she told WNDU-TV. She said she first thought the sound was a balloon but then saw everyone ducking down so she did, too.

“After that I would say there were six to eight more shots, just one right after another,” Swary said. “So, I was just down on the ground, just frozen.”

Swary said she eventually got out of the store, shaken and breathless.

Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson in a statement Monday night asked people to continue to pray for the victims including “our two police officers who were wounded, our heroic first responders, and those at the incident.”

Gov. Mike Braun said on social media that he was in contact with state and local law enforcement about the shooting.

“Maureen and I are praying for the victims and their families,” the post said, referencing his wife.

As President Donald Trump cracks down on immigrants in the U.S. illegally, some families are wondering if it is safe to send their children to school.

In many districts, educators have sought to reassure immigrant parents that schools are safe places for their kids, despite the president’s campaign pledge to carry out mass deportations. But fears intensified for some when the Trump administration announced Tuesday it would allow federal immigration agencies to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, ending a policy that has been in effect since 2011.

“Oh, dear God! I can’t imagine why they would do that,” said Carmen, an immigrant from Mexico, after hearing that the Trump administration had rescinded the policy against arrests in “sensitive locations.”

She took her two grandchildren, ages 6 and 4, to their school Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area after school officials assured her it is safe.

“What has helped calm my nerves is knowing that the school stands with us and promised to inform us if it’s not safe at school,” said Carmen, who spoke on condition that only her first name be used, out of fear she could be targeted by immigration officials.

Immigrants across the country have been anxious about Trump’s pledge to deport millions of people. While fears of raids did not come to pass on the administration’s first day, rapid changes on immigration policy have left many confused and uncertain about their future.

At a time when many migrant families — even those in the country legally — are assessing whether and how to go about in public, many school systems are watching for effects on student attendance. Several schools said they were fielding calls from worried parents about rumors that immigration agents would try to enter schools, but it was too early to tell whether large numbers of families are keeping their children home.

Missing school can deprive students of more than learning. For students from low-income families, including many immigrants, schools are a primary way to access food, mental health services and other support.

Tuesday’s move to clear the way for arrests at schools reverses guidance that restricted two federal agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — from carrying out enforcement in sensitive locations. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said: “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”

Daniela Anello, who heads D.C. Bilingual Public Charter School in the nation’s capital, said she was shocked by the announcement.

“It’s horrific,” Anello said. “There’s no such thing as hiding anyone. It doesn’t happen, hasn’t happened. … It’s ridiculous.”

An estimated 733,000 school-aged children are in the U.S. illegally, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Many more have U.S. citizenship but have parents who are in the country illegally.

Schools work to reassure parents
Education officials in some states and districts have vowed to stand up for immigrant students, including their right to a public education. In California, for one, officials have offered guidance to schools on state law limiting local participation in immigration enforcement.

A resolution passed by Chicago Public Schools’ Board of Education in November said schools would not assist ICE in enforcing immigration law. Agents would not be allowed into schools without a criminal warrant, it said. And New York City principals last month were reminded by the district of policies including one against collecting information on a student’s immigration status.

That’s not the case everywhere. Many districts have not offered any reassurances for immigrant families.

Educators at Georgia Fugees Academy Charter School have learned even students and families in the country legally are intimidated by Trump’s wide-ranging proposals to deport millions of immigrants and roll back non-citizens’ rights.

“They’re not even at risk of deportation and they’re still scared,” Chief Operating Officer Luma Mufleh said. Officials at the small Atlanta charter school focused on serving refugees and immigrants expected so many students to miss school the day after Trump took office that educators accelerated the school’s exam schedule so students wouldn’t miss important tests.

Asked on Tuesday for attendance data, school officials did not feel comfortable sharing it. “We don’t want our school to be targeted,“ Mufleh said.

The new policy on immigration enforcement at schools likely will prompt some immigrant parents who fear deportation to keep their children home, even if they face little risk, said Michael Lukens, executive director for the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. He said he believes it’s part of the administration’s goal to make life so untenable that immigrants eventually leave the United States on their own.

While many U.S. adults are on board with the idea of undertaking some targeted deportations, a shift toward arresting people in the country illegally at places like schools would be highly unpopular, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It found only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults somewhat or strongly favor arresting children who are in the country illegally while they are at school.

Some parents see school as one of the last safe places
For Iris Gonzalez in Boston, schools seem like just about the only safe place for her to go as someone in the country illegally. She’s had children in Boston schools for nearly a decade and she doesn’t expect anyone there to bother her or her daughters for proof they’re here legally. So her children will keep going to school. “Education is important,” she said in Spanish.

Gonzalez, who came to the U.S. from Guatemala illegally 14 years ago, does worry about entering a courthouse or driving, even though she has a license. “What if they stop me?” she wonders.

“I don’t sleep,” she said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty about how to look for work, whether to keep driving and what’s going to change.”

Carmen, the Mexican grandmother who now lives in California, said returning home is not an option for her family, which faced threats after her son-in-law was kidnapped two years from their home in Michoacan state, an area overrun with drug trafficking gangs.

Her family arrived two years ago under former President Joe Biden’s program allowing asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. and then apply for permission to stay. Following his inauguration Monday, Trump promptly shut down the CBP One app that processed these and other arrivals and has promised to “end asylum” during his presidency.

Carmen has had several hearings on her asylum request, which has not yet been granted.

“My biggest fear is that we don’t have anywhere to go back to,” she said. “It’s about saving our lives. And protecting our children.”

The defense has rested its case in the trial of former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan. Madigan faces 23 counts of bribery and racketeering. The jury was sent home early today and will be back in the courtroom for closing arguments that are expected to begin on Wednesday. Closing arguments are expected to last three days. Also today the judge in the trial denied a motion for co defendant Mike McClain’s motion to separate his trial from Madigan’s. McClain was a long time confidante to Madigan.

Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are beginning their nomination process this week, starting with Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. The hearing opened Tuesday as senators question whether the former combat veteran and TV news show host is fit to lead the U.S. military.

Here’s the latest:

Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth questioned Hegseth on his knowledge of geopolitics
And she questioned Hegseth’s experience in global affairs and whether he had ever conducted an audit of his non-profits in a manner similar to the audit he intends to carry out at the Pentagon.

Hegseth said his leadership of the charities had been “mischaracterized” but did not answer Duckworth’s question. Flanked by a portrait of the Soldier’s Creed by which all army service members are expected to live, Duckworth told Hegseth troops “cannot be led by someone who is not competent,” directing her critique at President-elect Donald Trump’s pick.

A comment from Sen. Roger Wicker drew applause
The packed audience broke out into brief applause after the committee chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker told Hegseth “it seems to me that you’ve supervised far more people than the average United States senator.”

The Mississippi Republican’s comments came after Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., inquired why senators should support him despite him not ever leading an organization of comparable size to the military.

An exchange between Hegseth and Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew laughter from the audience
Warren, a Democrat, asked Hegseth whether he’d commit to not serving in the defense industry for ten years after his service should he become defense secretary. Hegseth said he had not given the issue any thought.

“You are quite sure every general who serves should not go directly into the defense industry for 10 years but you’re not willing to make that same pledge?” Warren asked.

“I’m not a general, senator,” Hegseth replied.

Both Hegseth and Warren have said generals and other high-ranking officials should not be allowed to work for private defense contractors for at least a decade after their service in the armed forces.

The military’s prioritization of weeding out extremism was misplaced, Hegseth says
He cited a report that around 100 people were identified as extremists in the military, a number he considered small and said were “mostly gang related.”

“Things like focusing on extremism, senator, have created a climate inside our military that feel political when it has hasn’t ever been political,” Hegseth said.

“Those are the types of things that are going to change,” he promised. He added that Trump’s broader strategy and personality would help ease recruitment challenges the military has faced in recent years.

“There’s no better recruiter for our military, in my mind, than President Donald Trump,” Hegseth said.

He promised the administration would be “getting anything that isn’t related to meritocracy” out of the military, multiple times claiming lawmakers and higher level military officials have been “injecting DEI” that “divides” the armed services. He argued that the Pentagon should instead focus on “how capable you are of doing your job.”

Hegseth was questioned about his tattoos
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer asked about Hegseth’s tattoos, which have come under question for their association and use by White Nationalist groups.

However Cramer did not focus on the “Deus Vult” tattoo that got Hegseth flagged as a potential “insider threat.” Instead Cramer focused on the Jerusalem Cross — which was not flagged and was not the reason Hegseth was pulled from duty.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan defended Hegseth
And the Alaska senator called it “a ridiculous narrative” that the military has a serious problem with extremism or is “systemically racist.”

Sullivan called the Biden administration’s declarations early in the administration that they would prioritize curbing extremism a “shameful” smear of the armed services. The Biden administration focused on curbing white nationalist recruitment of service members and veterans.

Hegseth added in an exchange that the military is “one of the least racist institutions in our country” to which Sullivan replied it is “one of the greatest civil rights organizations in the United States.” The federal government integrated the military years before the Civil Rights Act.

Hegseth had a less combative exchange with Republican Sen. Joni Ernst
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, a military veteran and sexual assault survivor, ended up being far less combative in her exchange with Hegseth.

Ernst was cordial with Hegseth and focused primarily on the Department of Defense passing a financial audit.

Ernst is one of the three critical votes Hegseth cannot afford to lose in his confirmation.

Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono engaged in a tense exchange with Hegseth
It was over news reports that he had drank on the job while employed at Fox News and elsewhere.

Hirono directly asked Hegseth if he would commit to not drinking while in service, which she called “a 24/7 job,” and after a tense back and forth she concluded he would not.

Hirono also asked him whether he’d follow orders from Donald Trump to invade Greenland, which is controlled by NATO-ally Denmark, occupy the Panama Canal or shoot protestors of the incoming administration in the leg. Hegseth cited the election and a need for strategic ambiguity as reasons he could not answer the questions. Hirono concluded that he would follow such commands.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal inquired into the tax returns of two veterans support non-profits
The Democratic senator noted that Hegseth had been pushed out of one non-profit due to dissatisfaction from donors, to which Hegseth replied that he spent the interceding time obtaining a degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.

At one organization Hegseth led from 2011 to 2016, Blumenthal noted that during several years of his management the organization “had deep debts including credit card transaction debts of about 75,000. That isn’t the kind of fiscal management we want at the Department of Defense.”

Blumenthal told Hegseth he would support him for a communications job but not to lead the Defense Department.

“I would support you as a spokesperson to the Pentagon,” Blumenthal said. “I don’t dispute your communication skills.”

Hegseth has made accusations that standards have been lowered to allow women in combat
And he continued to tout those claims even as senior female lawmakers who’ve served on the committee for years, including Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, asked him for one specific example of standards being changed for women.

Hegseth did not provide one, instead deferring to interviews he’d conducted for his book “War on Warriors,” that it was what he was told by troops.

A senior defense official said “the standards for military service have not been lowered,” and that the standards are based on each field and based on ability, not gender.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Kirsten Gillibrand hammered Hegseth over his views on women in combat
Shaheen noted that Hegseth has said publicly: “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.” But has since then said more generally he supports women in the military.

“Which is it?” Shaheen demanded, adding, “I appreciate your 11th hour conversion.”

She submitted for the record a chapter of his book that outlines his opposition to women in combat. She also asked whether that meant he did not think the two female senators who served in the military are less capable.

Gillibrand told Hegseth his quotes about women are terrible and harmful to morale.

“You will have to change how you see women to do this job,” she said.

Hegseth faces a Senate committee that includes several women
As Pete Hegseth’s stance on the role of women in the military comes under questioning by both Democratic and Republican senators, he faces a committee with several women combat and foreign policy leaders.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who’s a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, has been an advocate for women in the military and women’s rights globally. Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are both combat veterans who sit on the committee.

Freshman Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., served in the intelligence community. And a narrow majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee are women, including a majority of its Democratic members.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen asked multiple questions about Hegseth’s stances on women in the military
Just after her questions, committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker motioned to introduce five testimonials from women who had served in the military in support of Hegseth’s nomination.

Hegseth was combative in the face of questions from Democrat Ranking Member Reed
Hegseth often talked past Reed’s questions and refused to defer to the senior member as he tried to get his questions answered.

In one particular exchange, Hegseth scoffed as Reed asked him to explain what a “JAG Off” was — responding to Reed that “I don’t think I need to” because troops knew what it was. Only after further pressure from Reed did Hegseth say it was a military lawyer who “put their own priorities in front of the warfighters.”

Would Hegseth be the first defense secretary who’s been on the font lines in combat?
The argument that Hegseth would be the first door-kicker or service member to serve on the front lines in combat to become defense secretary has continued to evolve and become far more specific.

An array of previous secretaries have had combat service, dodging bombs and leading troops into the fight, including current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who led the invasion into Iraq.

On Tuesday, the assertion was whittled down to Hegseth being the first “to have served as a junior officer on the front lines, not in the headquarters, on the front lines in the War on Terror.”

It’s not clear how “junior” an officer they had to be.

Lt. Col. Jim Mattis fought in the Gulf War — he later retired as a four-star general and was Trump’s first defense secretary. And Trump’s final acting Pentagon chief, Chris Miller, served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army special forces officer. He later retired as a colonel.

Chuck Hagel was a first: the first former enlisted soldier to become defense secretary, and he served as a sergeant on the front lines in Vietnam.

Sen. Reed pressed Hegseth on his opposition to diversity initiatives in the military
Ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, Democrat, noted that the military was a forerunner in American society on racial integration efforts and other inclusive standards.

Hegseth said that it was “precisely right the military was a forerunner in courageous racial integration in ways no other institutions were willing to do” but argued that modern diversity and inclusion policies “divide” current troops and didn’t prioritize “meritocracy.”

Reed replied that Hegseth’s statements were “a political view” that he repeated in harsher terms without mentioning meritocracy in past statements.

Reed said Hegseth’s intention was to “politicize the military in favor of your particular position” and would harm “the professionalism of the United States military.”

Sen. Wicker denies request to release FBI report to the full committee
While Reed and Wicker were maintaining a bipartisan tone, Wicker denied Reed’s requests to release the FBI report to the fuller committee and denied a request to allow members a second round of questioning.

Ranking member Jack Reed called the FBI investigation ‘insufficient’
“There are still FBI obligations to talk to people. They have not had access to the forensic audit” of Hegseth’s time at the head of a veteran’s advocacy group where he is facing questions of financial mismanagement, the Democrat said.

Hegseth criticizes the accusations made against him
Hegseth called the accusations of drinking and womanizing he would face from “left wing media” on “second and third hand accounts” a “coordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media against us.” Hegseth said the attacks were about Trump, not him.

He did not specifically address any of the accusations and did not tell Chairman Wicker that he did not drink or womanize.

Several more protestors jumped out from the audience
Wearing camouflage fatigues, the protestors stood on their chairs and began condemning Hegseth throughout his opening remarks. Each was swiftly dragged out from the hearing by Capitol Police.

One woman jumped up and yelled that her veteran father “had committed suicide after his service and you’re sending money to bomb babies…every veteran in here needs to speak up” she screamed as she was ushered out of the room. Another yelled that Hegseth supported “murdering babies…that’s the real recruiting crisis” he screamed as three officers carried him by his arms and legs out.

Several other people were approached by police and directed out of the room without any clear coercion.

More from Hegseth’s opening remarks
Hegseth in his opening remarks Tuesday said “officers and enlisted, Black and white, young and old, men and women, all Americans, all warriors — this hearing is for you. Thank you for figuratively, and literally, having my back. I pledge to do the same for you. All of you.”

Hegseth struck a far different tone in his opening remarks than he did in his books
Comments in his books included inflammatory passages questioning the capabilities of Black troops — like a passage in “War on Warriors” that “we can assume that 17 percent of all Black officers in the Air Force are promoted simply because of how they look,” and questioning the value of women serving in combat.

As Hegseth spoke, a protester calling him a misogynist was removed from the hearing

Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency during a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed.

All of Carter’s living successors were in attendance, with President Joe Biden, the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, delivering a eulogy. Biden and others took turns praising Carter’s record — which many historians have appraised more favorably since losing his bid for a second term in 1980 — and extolling his character.

“He built houses for people who needed homes,” said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in his native hamlet of Plains, Georgia, after leaving the White House. “He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people.”

Jason Carter, another grandson, praised his grandfather and his wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023. He wryly noted the couple’s frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and the former president’s struggles with his cellphone.

“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from no matter what happened in their lives,” said Jason, who chairs the Carter Center, a global humanitarian operation founded by the former president after leaving office.

The extraordinary gathering offered an unusual moment of comity for the nation in a factionalized, hyper-partisan era. Former President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump, political rivals who have mocked each other for years, sat next to each other Thursday and talked for several minutes, even sharing a laugh.

Biden, who will leave office in 11 days, hinted at politics in repeating several times that “character” was Carter’s chief attribute. Biden said the former president taught him the imperative that “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor,” Biden said, also noting the importance of standing up to “abuse in power.” Those comments echoed Biden’s typical criticisms of Trump, his predecessor and successor.

As Trump went to his seat before the service began, he shook hands with Mike Pence in a rare interaction with his former vice president. The two men had a falling out over Pence’s refusal to help Trump overturn his election defeat to Biden four years ago. Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, entered afterwards and was not seen interacting with him. Michelle Obama, the former first lady, did not attend.

Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100, living so long that two of the eulogies were written by people who died before him — his vice president Walter Mondale and his White House predecessor Gerald Ford.

“By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals,” said the eulogy from Ford, which was read by his son Steven. “But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.”

Carter defeated Ford in 1976 but the presidents and their wives became close friends, and Carter eulogized Ford at his own funeral.

Days of formal ceremonies and remembrances from political leaders, business titans and rank-and-file citizens have honored Carter for decency and using a prodigious work ethic to do more than obtain political power.

The proceedings began Thursday morning as military service members carried Carter’s flag-draped casket down the east steps of the U.S. Capitol, where the former president had laid in state, to be transported to the cathedral. There was also a 21-gun salute.

At the cathedral, the Armed Forces Chorus sang the hymn “Be Still My Soul” before Carter’s casket was brought inside.

Mourners also heard from 92-year-old Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor, congressman and U.N. ambassador during the Carter administration. Carter outlived much of his Cabinet and inner circle, but remained especially close to Young — a friendship that brought together a white Georgian and Black Georgian who grew up in the era of Jim Crow segregation.

“Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped create a great United States of America,” Young said.

“Hail to the Chief” was performed by the band as his casket was carried out. Carter once tried to stop the traditional standard from being played for him when he was president, seeing it as an unnecessary flourish.

Thursday concludes six days of national rites that began in Plains, Georgia, where Carter was born in 1924, lived most of his life and died after 22 months in hospice care. Ceremonies continued in Atlanta and Washington, where Carter, a former Naval officer, engineer and peanut farmer, has lain in state since Tuesday.

After the morning service in Washington, Carter’s remains, his four children and extended family will return to Georgia on a Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One when the sitting president is aboard.

The outspoken Baptist, who campaigned as a born-again Christian, will then be remembered in an afternoon funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church, the small edifice where he taught Sunday school for decades after leaving the White House and where his casket will sit beneath a wooden cross he fashioned in his own woodshop.

Following a final ride through his hometown, past the old train depot that served as his 1976 presidential campaign headquarters, he will be buried on family land in a plot next to Rosalynn, to whom Carter was married for more than 77 years.

Carter, who won the presidency promising good government and honest talk for an electorate disillusioned by the Vietnam War and Watergate, signed significant legislation and negotiated a landmark peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. But Carter also presided over inflation, rising interest rates and international crises — most notably the Iran hostage situation with Americans held in Tehran for more than a year. Carter lost in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Former White House aide Stu Eizenstat used his eulogy to make an effort to reframe the Carter presidency as more successful than voters appreciated at the time.

He noted Carter deregulated U.S. transportation industries, streamlined energy research and created the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He emphasized that Carter’s administration secured the release of the American hostages in Iran, though they were not freed until after Reagan took office.

“He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills,” Eizenstat said.