The Trump administration continued to reshape U.S. health policy in recent days with several moves that could change what vaccines people can get to protect themselves from common illnesses.

Some of the changes are immediate, others are still being discussed, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must still sign off on some.

Doctors’ groups have expressed alarm at the moves made by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, and his appointees, who at times have ignored well-established science. Nearly 80 medical groups, including the American Medical Association, issued a statement backing vaccines against common respiratory ailments as “among the best tools to protect the public.”

“We come together as physicians from every corner of medicine to reaffirm our commitment to these lifesaving vaccines,” the groups wrote.

Here’s what to know about some of the recent vaccine policy changes:

Flu shots and thimerosal

On Thursday, a vaccine advisory group handpicked by Kennedy recommended that just about every American get a flu shot this fall.

But the group also said people should avoid shots containing thimerosal, a preservative used only in large multi-dose vials that has been proven to be safe. The ingredient isn’t used in single-dose flu shots, the type of syringe used for about 95% of U.S. flu shots last season.

Status: Kennedy must sign off on the recommendations. Read more AP coverage here.

How to get a COVID-19 shot

Universal access to updated COVID-19 shots for the fall remains unclear, even after Kennedy’s vaccine advisers were shown data showing how well the vaccines are working.

Kennedy changed CDC guidance last month, saying the shots are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women — even though doctors groups disagree. And the Food and Drug Administration has moved to limit COVID-19 vaccinations among healthy people under age 65.

Status: Upcoming advisory meetings, regulatory decisions and policies from insurers and employers are likely to influence access. Read more AP coverage here.

Expanded warnings on COVID-19 vaccine labels

At the request of the FDA, makers of the two leading COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday expanded existing warnings about a rare heart side effect mainly seen in young men.

Prescribing information from both Pfizer and Moderna had already advised doctors about rare cases of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation that is usually mild. The FDA had asked the drugmakers to add more detail about the problem and to cover a larger group of patients.

Status: Labels are being updated now. Read more AP coverage here.

Changes considered for the childhood vaccine schedule

On Wednesday, Kennedy’s vaccine advisers said they would be evaluating the “cumulative effect” of the children’s vaccine schedule — the list of immunizations given at different times throughout childhood.

The announcement reflected vaccine skeptics’ messaging: that too many shots may overwhelm kids’ immune systems. Scientists say those claims have been repeatedly investigated with no signs of concern.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said it would continue publishing its own vaccine schedule for children but now will do so independently of the government advisory panel, calling it “no longer a credible process.”

Status: The examination is in its early stages. Read more AP coverage here.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News on Friday over alleged defamation, saying the network knowingly aired false information about a phone call he had with President Donald Trump around the time the National Guard was sent Los Angeles.

The lawsuit alleges Fox News anchor Jesse Watters edited out key information from a clip of Trump talking about calling Newsom, then used the edited video to assert that Newsom had lied about the two talking.

Newsom is asking for $787 million in punitive damages in his lawsuit filed in Delaware court where Fox is incorporated. That’s the same amount Fox agreed to pay in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. The company said Fox had repeatedly aired false allegations that its equipment had switched votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden during the 2020 election, and the discovery process of the lawsuit revealed Fox’s efforts not to alienate conservatives in the network’s audience in the wake of Biden’s victory.

“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in a statement. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”

He asked a judge to order Fox News to stop broadcasting “the false, deceptive, and fraudulent video and accompanying statements” that Newsom said falsely say he lied about when he had spoken to Trump regarding the situation in Los Angeles, where protests erupted on June 6 over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Fox News called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed,” the company said in a statement.

The law makes it difficult to prove defamation, but some cases result in settlements and, no matter the disposition, can tie up news outlets in expensive legal fights.

Particularly since taking office a second time, Trump has been aggressive in going after news organizations he feels has wronged him. He’s involved in settlement talks over his lawsuit against CBS News about a “60 Minutes” interview last fall with Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. This week, Trump’s lawyers threatened a lawsuit against CNN and The New York Times over their reporting of an initial assessment of damage to Iran’s nuclear program from a U.S. bombing.

Newsom’s lawsuit centers on the details of a phone call with the president.

Both Newsom and the White House have said the two spoke late at night on June 6 in California, which was already June 7 on the East Coast. Though the content of the call is not part of the lawsuit, Newsom has said the two never discussed Trump’s plan to deploy the National Guard, which he announced the next day. Trump said the deployment was necessary to protect federal buildings from people protesting increased immigration arrests.

Trump later announced he would also deploy Marines to the area.

On June 10, when 700 Marines arrived in the Los Angeles area, Trump told reporters he had spoken to Newsom “a day ago” about his decision to send troops. That day, Newsom posted on X that there had been no call.

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote.

On the evening of June 10, the Watters Primetime show played a clip of Trump’s statement about his call with Newsom but removed Trump’s comment that the call was “a day ago,” the lawsuit said. Watters also referred to call logs another Fox News reporter had posted online showing the phone call the two had on June 6.

“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?” Watters asked on air, according to the lawsuit. The segment included text across the bottom of the screen that said “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”

Newsom’s suit argues that by editing the material, Fox “maliciously lied as a means to sabotage informed national discussion.”

Precise details about when the call happened are important because the days when Trump deployed the Guard to Los Angeles despite Newsom’s opposition “represented an unprecedented moment,” Newsom’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Fox demanding a retraction and on-air apology.

“History was occurring in real time. It is precisely why reporters asked President Trump the very question that prompted this matter: when did he last speak with Governor Newsom,” the letter said.

Associated Press journalist David Bauder contributed to this report.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican plan to expand private school vouchers nationwide was dealt a major setback Friday when the Senate parliamentarian said the proposal would run afoul of procedural rules.

The years-in-the-making plan would have created a federal tax credit supporting scholarships to help families send their children to private schools or other options beyond their local public schools. But in an overnight announcement, the Senate parliamentarian advised against including the proposal in President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill.

It added to mounting problems for Republicans as key proposals were deemed ineligible for the filibuster-proof reconciliation package. The parliamentarian’s rulings are advisory but are rarely, if ever, ignored. It’s unclear if Republicans will try to rewrite the provisions or simply drop them from the bill.

Another education plan deemed ineligible for reconciliation would have exempted religious colleges from a federal endowment tax. The proposal sought to raise the tax rate on wealthier colleges’ endowments while carving out religious institutions like Hillsdale College, a conservative, Christian school in Michigan and an ally of the Trump administration.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, said, “We have been successful in removing parts of this bill that hurt families and workers, but the process is not over, and Democrats are continuing to make the case against every provision in this Big, Beautiful Betrayal of a bill that violates Senate rules.”

School voucher provision had been seen as a win for supporters

The school voucher provision was seen as a breakthrough victory for proponents who have been pushing the idea for years. A similar plan failed to gain support from Congress in 2019 when it was championed by Betsy DeVos, the education secretary during Trump’s first term. Campaigning for his second term, Trump again promised to deliver some form of “universal school choice.”

Under the reconciliation plan, donors who gave money or stock to K-12 scholarship programs would receive 100% of the contribution back in the form of a discount on their tax bills. It would allow stock holders to avoid paying taxes they would usually face if they donated or transferred their stock.

Nearly all families would qualify to receive scholarships except those making more than three times their area’s median income.

A House version of the bill allowed up to $5 billion in tax credits a year, running through 2029. The Senate version reduced it to $4 billion but included no end date.

Supporters said the proposal would expand education options for families across the country, offering alternatives to students in areas with lower-performing public schools. Opponents said it would siphon money from public schools and open the door for fraud and abuse.

Republican-led states have similar programs

Similar scholarship and voucher programs have proliferated in Republican-led states such as Texas, which recently passed a $1 billion program. States have increasingly offered vouchers to families beyond only the neediest ones, contributing to budget concerns as expenses rapidly pile up.

The Senate’s college endowment proposal sought to raise a tax on schools’ investment income, from 1.4% now to 4% or 8% depending on their wealth. It would apply only to colleges with endowments of at least $500,000 per student, and it excluded all religious institutions. It would have exempted a small number of colleges, including Hillsdale, which lobbied against it.

Some small colleges that would have been hit hard by the proposal are now hopeful that Republicans will carve out an exemption for all smaller schools.

“The religious schools exemption showed senators were concerned about the endowment tax hike’s impact on small colleges,” said Lori White, president of DePauw University, a private liberal arts school in Indiana. “After the parliamentarian’s rulings, the best way to protect those and other small institutions from that impact is now to exempt all colleges with fewer than 5,000 undergraduate students.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

Weather experts are warning that hurricane forecasts will be severely hampered by the upcoming cutoff of key data from U.S. Department of Defense satellites, the latest Trump administration move with potential consequences for the quality of forecasting.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it would discontinue the “ingest, processing and distribution” of data collected by three weather satellites that the agency jointly runs with the Defense Department. The data is used by scientists, researchers and forecasters, including at the National Hurricane Center.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the government planned to cut off the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s microwave data by Monday. The Defense Department referred questions to the Air Force, which referred them to the Navy, which did not immediately provide comment. NOAA did not immediately respond to a message.

Unlike traditional weather satellites, the microwave data helps peer under a regular image of a hurricane or a tropical cyclone to see what is going on inside the storm, and it is especially helpful at night.

The news is especially noteworthy during the ongoing hurricane season and as lesser storms have become more frequent, deadly and costly as climate change is worsened by the burning of fossil fuels.

Microwave imagery allows researchers and forecasters to see the center of the storm. Experts say that can help in detecting the rapid intensification of storms and in more accurately plotting the likely path of dangerous weather.

“If a hurricane, let’s say, is approaching the Gulf Coast, it’s a day away from making landfall, it’s nighttime,” said Union of Concerned Scientists science fellow Marc Alessi. “We will no longer be able to say, OK, this storm is definitely undergoing rapid intensification, we need to update our forecasts to reflect that.”

Other microwave data will be available but only roughly half as much, hurricane specialist Michael Lowry said in a blog post. He said that greatly increases the odds that forecasters will miss rapid intensification, underestimate intensity or misplace the storm.

That “will severely impede and degrade hurricane forecasts for this season and beyond, affecting tens of millions of Americans who live along its hurricane-prone shorelines,” he said.

University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy called the loss of data “alarmingly bad news” in a post on Bluesky.

“Microwave data are already relatively sparse, so any loss — even gradual as satellites or instruments fail — is a big deal; but to abruptly end three active functioning satellites is insanity.”

NOAA and its National Weather Service office have been the target of several cuts and changes in President Donald Trump’s second term. The Department of Government Efficiency gutted the agency’s workforce, local field offices and funding.

Already, hurricane forecasts were anticipated to be less accurate this year because weather balloons launches have been curtailed because of the lack of staffing.

“What happened this week is another attempt by the Trump administration to sabotage our weather and climate infrastructure,” Alessi said.

Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The idea that Bruce Springsteen wrote, recorded and ultimately shelved entire albums of music may seem odd to the casual listener. Why put yourself through all that work for nothing?

Yet “lost albums” are embedded in music industry lore. Some were literally lost. Some remained unfinished or unreleased because of tragedy, shortsighted executives or creators who were perfectionist — or had short attention spans.

Often, the music is eventually made public, like Springsteen is doing now, although out of context from the times in which it was originally made.

So in honor of Springsteen’s 83-song “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” box set being released Friday, The Associated Press has collected 10 examples of albums that were meant to be but weren’t.

“Smile,” The Beach Boys

Back in the news with the death of Brian Wilson, this album “invented the category of the lost masterpiece in popular music,” says Anthony DeCurtis, contributing editor at Rolling Stone. Some of the material that surfaced suggested Wilson, the Beach Boys’ chief writer, was well on his way: the majestic single “Good Vibrations,” the centerpiece “Heroes and Villains” and the reflective “Surf’s Up.” Wilson succumbed to internal competitive pressure worsened by mental illness and drug abuse while making it in 1966 and 1967, eventually aborting the project. He later finished it as a solo album backed by the Wondermints in 2004. The better-known songs were joined with some psychedelic-era curios that displayed Wilson’s melodic sense and matchless ability as a vocal arranger, along with lyrics that some fellow Beach Boys worried were too “out there.”

“The Black Album,” Prince

The mercurial Prince pulled back this disc, set for release in December 1987, at the last minute. Some promo copies had already slipped out, and it was so widely bootlegged that when Warner Bros. officially put it out in limited release in 1994, the company billed it as “The Legendary Black Album.” Encased in an all-black sleeve, the project was said to be Prince’s nod to Black fans who may have felt they had lost him to a pop audience. It’s almost nonstop funk, including a lascivious Cindy Crawford tribute and the workout “Superfunkycalifragisexy.” The maestro’s instincts were well-placed, though. Coming after “Sign O’ the Times” — arguably his peak — this would have felt like a minor project.

“Cigarettes and Valentines,” Green Day

Written and recorded in 2003, Green Day’s “Cigarettes and Valentines” was actually lost; someone apparently stole the master tapes. Feeling on a creative roll, the rock trio decided against recreating what they’d done and pressed on with new material. Smart move. The result was “American Idiot,” the band’s best work. Perhaps the robbery was “just a sign that we made a crappy record and we should make a better one,” songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong told MTV. The title cut later surfaced on a 2010 live album. The rest was lost to time.

“Detox,” Dr. Dre

To say anticipation was high for Dr. Dre’s third album when he started recording in 2002 puts it mildly. The theme disc about a hitman, which Dre described as a “hip-hop musical,” had an all-star squad of contributors including Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes and Kendrick Lamar. “I’d describe it as the most advanced rap album musically and lyrically we’ll probably ever have a chance to listen to,” co-producer Scott Storch told MTV. But we never have. When he announced a different third album in 2015, Dre explained on his radio show what happened to “Detox”: “I didn’t like it. It wasn’t good. … I worked my ass off on it, and I don’t think I did a good enough job.”

“Black Gold,” Jimi Hendrix

A series of unfinished demos, “Black Gold” was a taste of where guitar god Jimi Hendrix might have gone creatively if he hadn’t died at 27 in 1970. He was composing a song suite about an animated Black superhero, says Tom Maxwell, whose podcast “Shelved” unearths stories behind lost music. Hendrix sent a tape of his work to longtime drummer Mitch Mitchell for advice on fleshing it out. That music was set aside at Mitchell’s home and forgotten for two decades after Hendrix died. To date, Hendrix’s estate has made only one of these recordings public, a song called “Suddenly November Morning.” Hendrix, after clearing his throat, slips in and out of falsetto while accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar.

“A Story,” Yoko Ono

Written while Yoko Ono was separated from John Lennon during his infamous “lost weekend” in 1973-74, “A Story” had the potential of changing the musical narrative around her. It was a strong album — without the avant-garde stylings that made Ono a challenge for mainstream listeners — recorded with musicians who worked on Lennon’s “Walls & Bridges.” Maxwell calls it “an emancipation manifesto” that was set aside when Ono reconciled with Lennon. She’s never publicly explained why, Maxwell says, although one song seems clearly about an affair she had while Lennon was away. Some of the material from “A Story” was included as part of the “Onobox” project that came out in 1992, and the album was released separately in 1997. Ono also re-recorded some of its songs in 1980, and Lennon was holding a tape of her composition “It Happened” when he was shot and killed. In it, she sings about an unspecified, seemingly traumatic event: “It happened at a time of my life when I least expected.” That wasn’t even the most chilling premonition. Her song “O’Oh” ended with firecrackers that sound like gunshots. It was left off the 1997 release.

“Chinese Democracy,” Guns N’ Roses

Guns N’ Roses was at the top of the hard rock world when they began recording a new album in 1994. It didn’t go well. Inconclusive sessions slogged on for years, and all but singer Axl Rose left the group. Recording costs exceeded a staggering $13 million, by some accounts the most expensive rock album ever. One witness told The New York Times in 2005: “What Axl wanted to do was to make the best record that had ever been made. It’s an impossible task. You could go on indefinitely, which is what they’ve done.” When “Chinese Democracy” was finally released in 2008, the world yawned.

“Love Man,” Marvin Gaye

Not even a decade after the triumph of “What’s Going On,” Marvin Gaye was floundering. His “Here, My Dear” divorce album flopped, he struggled with drugs and searched for relevance in the disco era. The single “Ego Tripping Out,” meant to herald a new album, laid bare the problems: Over a melody cribbed from Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff,” the famously cool “Love Man” boasted like an insecure rapper. He scrapped the album, repurposing some its material for the 1981 disc “In Our Lifetime,” a process so fraught he bitterly left his longtime label Motown. Gaye went to CBS, made a huge comeback with “Sexual Healing,” then was shot dead by his father in 1984.

“Homegrown,” Neil Young

Neil Young rivals Prince in the volume of material left in his vault, and he’s been systematically releasing much of it. The mostly acoustic “Homegrown” was recorded as 1974 bled into 1975, during Young’s breakup with actor Carrie Snodgress. Instead of releasing it in 1975, he put out another heartbreak album, the well-regarded “Tonight’s the Night,” about losing friends to drug abuse. When Young finally dropped “Homegrown” in 2020, he wrote in his blog, “Sometimes life hurts. This is the one that got away.”

“Streets of Philadelphia Sessions,” Bruce Springsteen

Of the discs included in Springsteen’s “Tracks II” set, this was reportedly the closest to being released, in the spring of 1995. After the success of the Oscar-winning song “Streets of Philadelphia,” Springsteen recorded an album in the same vein, with a synthesizer and West Coast rap-inspired drum loops setting the musical motif. Strikingly contemporary for its time, Springsteen ultimately felt it was too similar to previous releases dominated by dark stories about relationships. “I always put them away,” he said of his lost albums. “But I don’t throw them away.”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

For much of the last century of American history, barbecues and potlucks have dominated the Fourth of July feast-ivities.

Hot dogs and hamburgers accompany sides of macaroni and cheese, potato salad and watermelon slices in ecstatic union in backyards and front porches across the country. Coolers full of beer and soda crackle as the ice melts throughout the hot summer day. Ice-cream sandwiches, popsicles and pie await as the sun sets and fireworks light up the night.

But those aren’t the only kinds of American foods. Immigrants from other countries often celebrate their patriotism with twists on the classics, or other foods entirely.

And with its proximity to the Southwest, Colorado has a few of its own traditions for the patriotic holiday, including green and red chile, corn, beans and tortillas — foods eaten in Hispanic communities long before there was a Colorado or a Fourth of July.

In fact, anthropologist Carole Counihan documented Fourth of July foods in Colorado’s San Luis Valley in a report published in a 2009 anthology, The Globalization of Food. She observed special dishes such as posole, deviled eggs and pasta, noting the holiday is represented by dishes from all over the world with a heavy emphasis on grilled meats.

Below, a group of Denver chefs share their personal spreads for the Fourth of July. Some, like Munetoshi Taira at Sushi by Scratch and Manny Barella at Riot BBQ, which opened this year, weren’t born in the United States. Others, like Ni Nguyen of Sap Sua and Darren Chang at Pig and Tiger, are first-generation Americans. Lastly, one chef shares a recipe inspired by his annual travels to Italy for the Fourth.

The grill and the outdoors are what tie most of their respective menus together.

Manny Barella, Riot BBQ (2180 S. Delaware St.): “BBQ culture was a huge part of my upbringing in Monterrey, Mexico. Every gathering revolved around open-fire cooking and outdoor grilling. Tending to the grill on your own is a rite of passage. We celebrate the Fourth of July here in the U.S. by honoring those same grilling traditions. You can count on me having carne asada, ribs al pastor and grilled vegetables on the table. We also like to smoke chimichurri, a classic element of Monterrey cookouts thanks to the strong Argentine influence in our region.”

Erasmo “Ras” Casiano, Xiquita (500 E. 19th Ave.): “We go all out with a giant backyard BBQ that is exactly like the gatherings we had back in Mexico. We throw carne asada and chicken on the fire and make a bunch of salsas: salsa Mexicana, pico de gallo, salsa ranchera. And of course, fresh corn tortillas and rice. We wrap onions in aluminum and throw them in the fire. Once they are good and roasted we hit them with some lime juice. The day is all about great food and gathering with family and friends. That’s the best tradition of all.”

Darren Chang, Pig and Tiger (2200 California St.; opening this summer): “My dad grilled Taiwanese street corn every Fourth of July growing up in [Los Angeles]. Some of my best summer memories are standing around the grill and eagerly awaiting that first bite of succulent corn. At Pig and Tiger, our Taiwanese street corn starts with fresh Olathe corn. We use my dad’s original shacha sauce recipe (only difference is that we make it vegan), then we give it a dash of sweet soy for a perfectly savory-sweet bite.”

Anna and Anthony “Ni” Nguyen, Sap Sua (2550 E. Colfax Ave.): “Every year, we make BBQ pork skewers, Americana-style. We skewer quartered onions and bell peppers along with pork shoulder marinated in lemongrass. We still don’t miss out on the hot dogs, though! We throw them on the grill right alongside the pork shoulder and serve them with Vietnamese accouterments. Our favorite is bratwurst with our version of pickles: lacto-fermented garlic, baby eggplant, daikon, and carrot. It provides the perfect, briny, acid pop. Don’t forget the brown mustard.”

Munetoshi Taira, Sushi by Scratch Restaurants (1441 Larimer St.): “In my kitchen, I enjoy blending traditional American Independence Day dishes with Japanese flavors. For instance, I often prepare yakitori-style grilled meats alongside classic barbecue fare, and I like to incorporate ingredients like miso or shiso into familiar sides such as potato salad. This fusion not only honors the holiday but also reflects the harmonious blend of cultures that I cherish.”

Darrel Truett, Barolo Grill (3030 E. 6th Ave.): “For the past 15 years, I’ve spent the Fourth of July in Italy with the Barolo Grill team on our annual staff trip. One of the things I always look forward to on a hot day during that first week of July is Panzanella. It’s an Italian bread salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers and toasted bread tossed in a beautiful red wine vinaigrette. And I usually make it when I come home from the trip — shortly after the Fourth of July — to offset all of the incredible food and wine we indulged in.”

By Paula Span, KFF Health News

Kim Beckham, an insurance agent in Victoria, Texas, had seen friends suffer so badly from shingles that she wanted to receive the first approved shingles vaccine as soon as it became available, even if she had to pay for it out-of-pocket.

Her doctor and several pharmacies turned her down because she was below the recommended age at the time, which was 60. So, in 2016, she celebrated her 60th birthday at her local CVS.

“I was there when they opened,” Beckham recalled. After getting her Zostavax shot, she said, “I felt really relieved.” She has since received the newer, more effective shingles vaccine, as well as a pneumonia shot, an RSV vaccine to guard against respiratory syncytial virus, annual flu shots and all recommended COVID-19 vaccinations.

Some older people are really eager to be vaccinated.

Robin Wolaner, 71, a retired publisher in Sausalito, California, has been known to badger friends who delay getting recommended shots, sending them relevant medical studies. “I’m sort of hectoring,” she acknowledged.

Deana Hendrickson, 66, who provides daily care for three young grandsons in Los Angeles, sought an additional MMR shot, though she was vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella as a child, in case her immunity to measles had waned.

For older adults who express more confidence in vaccine safety than younger groups, the past few months have brought welcome research. Studies have found important benefits from a newer vaccine and enhanced versions of older ones, and one vaccine may confer a major bonus that nobody foresaw.

The new studies are coming at a fraught political moment. The nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long disparaged certain vaccines, calling them unsafe and saying that the government officials who regulate them are compromised and corrupt.

On June 9, Kennedy fired a panel of scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and later replaced them with some who have been skeptical of vaccines. But so far, Kennedy has not tried to curb access to the shots for older Americans.

The evidence that vaccines are beneficial remains overwhelming.

The phrase “Vaccines are not just for kids anymore” has become a favorite for William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“The population over 65, which often suffers the worst impact of respiratory viruses and others, now has the benefit of vaccines that can prevent much of that serious illness,” he said.

Take influenza, which annually sends from 140,000 to 710,000 people to hospitals, most of them seniors, and is fatal to 10% of hospitalized older adults.

For about 15 years, the CDC has approved several enhanced flu vaccines for people 65 and older. More effective than the standard formulation, they either contain higher levels of the antigen that builds protection against the virus or incorporate an adjuvant that creates a stronger immune response. Or they’re recombinant vaccines, developed through a different method, with higher antigen levels.

In a meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “all the enhanced vaccine products were superior to the standard dose for preventing hospitalizations,” said Rebecca Morgan, a health research methodologist at Case Western Reserve University and an author of the study.

Compared with the standard flu shot, the enhanced vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization from the flu in older adults, by at least 11% and up to 18%. The CDC advises adults 65 and older to receive the enhanced vaccines, as many already do.

More good news: Vaccines to prevent respiratory syncytial virus in people 60 and older are performing admirably.

RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants, and it also poses significant risks to older people. “Season in and season out,” Schaffner said, “it produces outbreaks of serious respiratory illness that rivals influenza.”

Because the FDA first approved an RSV vaccine in 2023, the 2023-24 season provided “the first opportunity to see it in a real-world context,” said Pauline Terebuh, an epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and an author of a recent study in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In analyzing electronic health records for almost 800,000 patients, the researchers found the vaccines to be 75% effective against acute infection, meaning illness that was serious enough to send a patient to a health care provider.

The vaccines were 75% effective in preventing emergency room or urgent care visits, and 75% effective against hospitalization, both among those ages 60 to 74 and those older.

Immunocompromised patients, despite having a somewhat lower level of protection from the vaccine, will also benefit from it, Terebuh said. As for adverse effects, the study found a very low risk for Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that causes muscle weakness and that typically follows an infection, in about 11 cases per 1 million doses of vaccine. That, she said, “shouldn’t dissuade people.”

The CDC now recommends RSV vaccination for people 75 and older, and for those 60 to 74 if they’re at higher risk of severe illness (from, say, heart disease).

As data from the 2024-25 season becomes available, researchers hope to determine whether the vaccine will remain a one-and-done, or whether immunity will require repeated vaccination.

People 65 and up express the greatest confidence in vaccine safety of any adult group, a KFF survey found in April. More than 80% said they were “very “or “somewhat confident” about MMR, shingles, pneumonia, and flu shots.

Although the COVID vaccine drew lower support among all adults, more than two-thirds of older adults expressed confidence in its safety.

Even skeptics might become excited about one possible benefit of the shingles vaccine: This spring, Stanford researchers reported that over seven years, vaccination against shingles reduced the risk of dementia by 20%, a finding that made headlines.

Biases often undermine observational studies that compare vaccinated with unvaccinated groups. “People who are healthier and more health-motivated are the ones who get vaccinated,” said Pascal Geldsetzer, an epidemiologist at the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford and lead author of the study.

“It’s hard to know whether this is cause and effect,” he said, “or whether they’re less likely to develop dementia anyway.”

So the Stanford team took advantage of a “natural experiment” when the first shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was introduced in Wales. Health officials set a strict age cutoff: People who turned 80 on or before Sept. 1, 2013, weren’t eligible for vaccination, but those even slightly younger were eligible.

In the sample of nearly 300,000 adults whose birthdays fell close to either side of that date, almost half of the eligible group received the vaccine, but virtually nobody in the older group did.

“Just as in a randomized trial, these comparison groups should be similar in every way,” Geldsetzer explained. A substantial reduction in dementia diagnoses in the vaccine-eligible group, with a much stronger protective effect in women, therefore constitutes “more powerful and convincing evidence,” he said.

The team also found reduced rates of dementia after shingles vaccines were introduced in Australia and other countries. “We keep seeing this in one dataset after another,” Geldsetzer said.

In the United States, where a more potent vaccine, Shingrix, became available in 2017 and supplanted Zostavax, Oxford investigators found an even stronger effect.

By matching almost 104,000 older Americans who received a first dose of the new vaccine (full immunization requires two) with a group that had received the earlier formulation, they found delayed onset of dementia in the Shingrix group.

How a shingles vaccine might reduce dementia remains unexplained. Scientists have suggested that viruses themselves may contribute to dementia, so suppressing them could protect the brain. Perhaps the vaccine revs up the immune system in general or affects inflammation.

“I don’t think anybody knows,” said Paul Harrison, a psychiatrist at Oxford and a senior author of the study. But, he added, “I’m now convinced there’s something real here.”

Shingrix, now recommended for adults over 50, is 90% effective in preventing shingles and the lingering nerve pain that can result. In 2021, however, only 41% of adults 60 and older had received one dose of either shingles vaccine.

A connection to dementia will require further research, and Geldsetzer is trying to raise philanthropic funding for a clinical trial.

And “if you needed another reason to get this vaccine,” Schaffner said, “here it is.”

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

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of millions of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ loans will soon affect credit scores for millions of Americans who use the loans to buy clothing, furniture, concert tickets, and takeout.

Scoring company FICO said Monday that it is rolling out a new model that factors the short-term loans into their consumer scores. A majority of lenders use FICO scores to determine a borrower’s credit worthiness. Previously, the loans had been excluded, though Buy Now, Pay Later company Affirm began voluntarily reporting pay-in-four loans to Experian, a separate credit bureau, in April.

The new FICO scores will be available beginning in the fall, as an option for lenders to increase visibility into consumers’ repayment behavior, the company said. Still, not all Buy Now, Pay Later companies share their data with the credit bureaus, and not all lenders will opt in to using the new models, so widespread adoption could take time, according to Adam Rust, director of financial services at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America.

Here’s what to know.

Why haven’t the loans appeared in credit scores previously?

Typically, when using Buy Now, Pay Later loans, consumers pay for a given purchase in four installments over six weeks, in a model more similar to layaway than to a traditional credit card. The loans are marketed as zero-interest, and most require no credit check or only a soft credit check.

The main three credit reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, haven’t yet incorporated a standard way of including these new financial products in their reports, since they don’t adhere to existing models of lending and repayment. FICO, the score of the Fair Isaac Corporation, uses data from the bureaus to calculate its own credit score, and is independently choosing to pilot a new score that takes the loans into account.

Why is this important?

BNPL providers promote the plans as safer alternatives to credit cards, while consumer advocates warn about “loan stacking,” in which consumers take on many loans at once across several companies. So far, there’s been little visibility into this practice in the industry, and the opacity has led to warnings of “phantom debt” that could mask the health of the consumer.

In a statement, FICO said that their new credit score model is accounting for the growing significance of the loans in the U.S. credit ecosystem.

“Buy Now, Pay Later loans are playing an increasingly important role in consumers’ financial lives,” said Julie May, vice president and general manager of business-to-business scores at FICO. “We’re enabling lenders to more accurately evaluate credit readiness, especially for consumers whose first credit experience is through BNPL products.”

What does FICO hope to achieve?

FICO said the new model will responsibly expand access to credit. Many users of BNPL loans are younger consumers and consumers who may not have good or lengthy credit histories. In a joint study with Affirm, FICO trained its new scores on a sample of more than 500,000 BNPL borrowers and found that consumers with five or more loans typically saw their scores increase or remain stable under the new model.

For consumers who pay back their BNPL loans in a timely way, the new credit scoring model could help them improve their credit scores, increasing access to mortgages, car loans, and apartment rentals. Currently, the loans don’t typically contribute directly to improved scores, though missed payments can hurt or ding a score.

Since March, credit scores have declined steeply for millions, as student loan payments resume and many student borrowers find themselves unable to make regular payments on their federal student loans.

What are the risks and concerns?

Nadine Chabrier, senior policy and litigation counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, said her main concern is that the integration of the loans into a score could have unexpected negative effects on people who are already credit-restrained.

“There isn’t a lot of information out there about how integrating BNPL into credit scoring will work out,” Chabrier said. “FICO simulated the effect on credit scoring through a study. They saw that some users’ scores increased. But if you factor in something that, last week, didn’t affect your credit, and this week, it does, without having very much information about the modeling, it’s a little hard to tell what the consequences will be.”

Chabrier cited research that’s shown that many BNPL users have revolving credit card balances, lower credit scores, delinquencies, and existing debt. Women of color are also more likely to use the loans, she said.

“This is a credit vulnerable community,” said Chabrier.

Will consumers see immediate effects?

Rust, of the Consumer Federation of America, said he doesn’t expect this to be a game-changer for consumers who already have a credit profile.

“Are we at a point where using BNPL loans will dramatically alter your credit profile? Probably not,” he said. “I think it’s important that people have reasonable expectations.”

Rust said the average BNPL loan is for $135, and that repaying such small loans, even consistently, might not result in changes to a credit score that would significantly move the needle.

“It’s not about going from 620 to 624. It’s about going from 620 to 780,” he said, referring to the kind of credit score jumps that affect one’s credit card offers, interest rates on loans, and the like.

Still, Rust said that increased transparency around the loans could create a more accurate picture of a consumer’s debts, which could improve accurate underwriting and keep consumers from over-extending themselves.

“This addresses the problem of ‘phantom debt,’ and that’s a good thing,” he said. “Because it could be something that keeps people from getting too deeply into debt they can’t afford.”

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

By MARC LEVY

ENOLA, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania isn’t even up for reelection until 2028, but already a one-time primary foe, former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, is crisscrossing Pennsylvania and social media, looking and sounding like he’s preparing to challenge Fetterman again.

At town hall after town hall across Pennsylvania, Democrats and allied progressive groups aren’t hearing from Fetterman in person — or Republicans who control Washington, for that matter.

But they are hearing from Lamb, a living reminder of the Democrat they could have elected instead of Fetterman. The former congressman has emerged as an in-demand town hall headliner, sometimes as a stand-in for Fetterman — who just might bash Fetterman.

“I thought I was going to play Senator Fetterman,” Lamb joked as he sat down in front of a central Pennsylvania crowd last Sunday.

Democrats are frustrated with Fetterman

Lamb’s reemergence comes at an in-between moment, roughly halfway through Fetterman’s six-year term, and is helping define the struggle facing Democrats in swing-state Pennsylvania.

There, Democrats figure prominently in their national effort to push back on President Donald Trump, but also in their struggle to figure out what to do about Fetterman, who is under fire from rank-and-file Democrats for being willing to cooperate with Trump.

Frustration with Fetterman has been on display on social media, at the massive “ No Kings ” rally in Philadelphia and among the Democratic Party’s faithful. The steering committee of the progressive organization Indivisible PA last month asked Fetterman to resign.

It’s quite a turnabout for the hoodies-and-shorts-wearing Fetterman, elected in 2022 with an everyman persona and irreverent wit, who was unafraid to challenge convention.

For some progressives, frustration with Fetterman began with his staunch support for Israel’s punishing war against Hamas in Gaza, an issue that divides Democrats.

It’s moved beyond that since Trump took office. Now, some are wondering why he’s — as they see it — kissing up to Trump, why he’s chastising fellow Democrats for their anti-Trump resistance and whether he’s even committed to their causes at all.

Most recently, they question his support for Trump’s bombing of Iran.

“It hurts,” said John Abbott, who attended Sunday’s event in suburban Harrisburg.

Speaking at the flagship “No Kings” rally in Philadelphia, Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg name-checked Fetterman.

“We’re looking to the leaders who will fight for us, because even today there are folks among the Democratic Party who think we should roll over and play dead,” Greenberg said. “Anyone seen John Fetterman here today?”

The crowd booed.

Why is Conor Lamb crisscrossing Pennsylvania again?

In Pittsburgh, progressives trying to land an in-person town hall with Fetterman or first-term Republican Sen. David McCormick noticed when the two senators advertised an event together at a downtown restaurant to celebrate the release of McCormick’s new book.

Progressive groups organized to protest it and — after it got moved to a private location with a private invite list — went ahead with their own town hall. They invited Lamb and a local Democratic state representative instead.

More invitations for Lamb started rolling in.

By his count, he’s now attended at least a dozen town halls and party events, easily clocking more than 2,000 miles to appear in small towns, small cities and suburbs, often in conservative areas.

“Showing up matters and it really does make a difference,” said Dana Kellerman, a Pittsburgh-based progressive organizer. “Is that going to matter to John Fetterman? I really don’t know. I don’t know what he’s thinking. I don’t know if he’s always been this person or if he’s changed in the last two years.”

Fetterman has brushed off criticism, saying he’s a committed Democrat, insisting he was elected to engage with Republicans and — perhaps hypocritically — questioning why Democrats would criticize fellow Democrats.

At times, Fetterman has criticized Trump, questioning the move to “punch our allies in the mouth” with tariffs or the need for cuts to social-safety net programs in the GOP’s legislation to extend 2017’s tax cuts. Fetterman’s office didn’t respond to an inquiry about Lamb.

Is Conor Lamb running for Senate?

For his part, Lamb — a former U.S. Marine and federal prosecutor — says he isn’t running for anything right now, but he’ll do whatever he can to “stop this slide that we’re on toward a less democratic country and try to create one in which there’s more opportunity for people.”

To some Democrats, he sounds like a candidate.

“That he’s doing these town halls is a good indication that he’ll be running for something, so it’s a good thing,” said Janet Bargh, who attended the event in suburban Harrisburg.

Aside from the town halls, he spoke at the Unite for Veterans event on the National Mall. He has also been active on social media, doing local radio appearances and appearing on MSNBC, where he recently criticized the June 14 military parade ordered up by Trump.

Not long ago, it was hard to envision Lamb losing a race, ever.

In 2018, he won a heavily Trump-friendly congressional district in southwestern Pennsylvania in a special election. It was the center of the political universe that spring, drawing campaign visits by Trump and then-presidential hopeful Joe Biden.

Suddenly, Lamb was ascendant. Then he ran for Senate and lost handily — by more than two-to-one — to Fetterman in 2022’s primary.

People often ask Lamb if he’s going to challenge Fetterman again. Lamb said he reminds them that Fetterman has three years left in his term and pivots the conversation to what Democrats need to do to win elections in 2025 and 2026.

Still, Lamb is unafraid to criticize Fetterman publicly. And, he said, he’s a magnet for Democrats to air their unhappiness with Fetterman. What he hears, over and over, is frustration that Fetterman spends too much time attacking fellow Democrats and not enough time challenging Trump.

“And that is, I think, what’s driving the frustration more than any one particular issue,” Lamb said.

At the town hall, Lamb wasn’t afraid to admit he’d lost to Fetterman. But he turned it into an attack line.

“When I watch the person who beat me give up on every important issue that he campaigned on … the more I reasoned that the point of all of this in the first place is advocacy for what’s right and wrong,” Lamb told the crowd. “And advocacy for not just a particular party to win, but for the type of country where it matters if, when you stand up, you tell the truth.”

The crowd cheered.

Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

By JIM MUSTIAN

ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) — Pounding away on a prison typewriter, Chad Scott seemed worlds apart from President Donald Trump.

But when the disgraced narcotics agent wrote the White House seeking clemency for his corruption conviction, Scott sought to draw Trump’s attention to what they have in common.

Both men had survived a bullet wound to the ear, Scott wrote, and had been convicted of falsifying records. They were also each a victim of “political persecution,” the type of catchphrase the former agent hoped would resonate with a man who has long complained of witch hunts.

By helping him, Scott argued, Trump would be showing he had “the back of law enforcement.”

“Chad Scott is a hero in this country’s war on drugs,” his attorney wrote in a clemency petition reviewed by The Associated Press, adding it would be a “gross waste of taxpayer money” to house and feed the former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent for six more years.

Scott’s application is hardly unique, according to prisoners, defense attorneys and officials. The White House and the Justice Department have received a wave of such requests — all carefully crafted to capture the attention and fancy of Trump or those who know his inclinations.

The flurry, legal experts said, has been sparked by Trump’s frequent and eyebrow-raising grants of clemency since retaking office in January. The Republican president has pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 1,600 people, including many political allies, former GOP officeholders and hundreds charged or convicted in the 2021 Capitol riot. He even pardoned a pair of reality TV stars who were serving time for bank fraud and tax evasion.

In doing so, Trump has largely cast aside a process that historically has been overseen by nonpolitical personnel at the Justice Department who spent their days poring over clemency applications — thick packets filled with character references attesting to applicants’ atonement and good deeds. Only those meeting strict criteria were then passed along to the White House.

Those procedures appear to have been replaced by the caprice of a president known for his transactional approach to governance, his loyalty to supporters and his disdain for perceived enemies.

It’s created “a free-for-all” for those seeking clemency, said Liz Oyer, the Justice Department’s former pardon attorney, who was fired in March. “The traditional process and practices,” she told the AP, “all seem to have fallen by the wayside.”

Inmates believe Trump might hear them out

That has left an opening for prisoners like Eric Sanchez Chaparro, who is seeking a commutation for a drug and weapons conviction that carries a 19-year prison sentence. The optimism, he said, has never been higher for those behind bars.

“In many ways I feel like he has the same point of view that we’ve got,” Chaparro said in a telephone interview, noting that both he and the president were convicted of felonies. Trump was convicted last year on New York state charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to a porn star but was sentenced to no punishment.

“Even though people try to put him down,” Chaparro added, “he kept on pushing for his goal.”

The Trump administration did not disclose how many people have reached out to Trump or White House officials to seek clemency, though some have boasted of doing so in colorful ways. Last week, Joe Exotic, the former zookeeper known as the “Tiger King,” posted a song he said he wrote for Trump on social media, claiming he was “paying the time for a crime I didn’t do.” He’s serving a 21-year sentence for the failed murder-for-hire of an animal-welfare activist.

Wave of pardon applications lands at Justice Department

Since Trump retook office five months ago, his Justice Department has received more than 9,300 petitions seeking commutations of sentences or pardons. At that pace, the tally would blow past the approximately 15,000 petitions filed during the four years of President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. The Justice Department received about 12,000 petitions in Trump’s first term.

Clemency is perhaps the most unchecked power enjoyed by a president, as actions cannot be undone by courts or other officials. Presidents can commute sentences — reducing or eliminating them — or bestow a pardon that wipes away convictions or criminal charges.

Trump is hardly the first president to generate controversy over how he has handled such powers. Biden prompted bipartisan outrage in December when he pardoned his son Hunter, sparing him a possible prison sentence for felony gun and tax convictions. And Biden was sharply criticized — mainly by Republicans — for issuing preemptive pardons to protect lawmakers, former officials and his family members from what he described as a potentially vindictive Trump administration.

Trump’s handling of pardons is unprecedented, experts say

Even so, legal scholars say, Trump’s approach to clemency has veered into unprecedented territory.

The president, for example, tapped a vociferous political supporter, Ed Martin Jr., to be the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. Martin is a former defense lawyer who represented Jan. 6 rioters and promoted false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen by Democrats. Trump gave Martin the post after pulling his nomination to be the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the face of bipartisan concerns over his divisive politics. Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

Much of Trump’s mercy has gone to political allies, campaign donors and fraudsters who claimed they were victims of a “weaponized” Justice Department. The pardons that have drawn the most attention include one issued to a tax cheat whose mother raised millions of dollars for Republican causes.

There was the pardon of a prolific straw donor for foreign contributions who gave $900,000 to Trump’s first inaugural committee. Trump voided the conviction of Scott Jenkins, a Virginia sheriff and vocal Trump supporter, sentenced to 10 years for deputizing several businessmen in exchange for cash payments.

“What these pardons signal — together with everything else — is that all bets are now off,” said Frank Bowman, a legal historian and professor emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Law who is writing a book on pardons. “It’s a grotesque misuse of constitutional authority of a kind that has never been seen in American history.”

Administration officials say Trump decides on clemency requests after they’re vetted by the White House Counsel’s Office, the White House pardon czar and the Justice Department. Reviewers have been focusing on nonviolent, rehabilitated criminals with compelling references, the officials said. The White House is also considering petitions from those serving unjustified sentences and what the administration deems “over-prosecution.”

“President Trump doesn’t need lectures from Democrats about his use of pardons, especially from those who supported a president who pardoned his corrupt son, shielded Dr. Fauci from accountability for the millions who suffered under his failed COVID leadership and backed the infamous ‘kids-for-cash’ judge who profited from incarcerating children,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in an email. “President Trump is using his pardon and commutation powers to right many wrongs, acting reasonably and responsibly within his constitutional authority.”

Felons say they have a kinship with Trump, a fellow felon

All the while, Trump’s approach has spread hope among lesser-connected prisoners who long ago exhausted their appeals, a half dozen federal prisoners told the AP in interviews.

A remedy long likened to winning the lottery seems more attainable in an administration that has dispensed with many of the traditional criteria considered in clemency, including remorse, the severity of the crime and the amount of time a prisoner has already served.

Jonathan E. Woods, an early Trump supporter and former Arkansas state senator, is serving an 18-year sentence for a bribery conviction.

The former legislator believes he has a legitimate shot at winning a commutation because, he wrote to the AP, “President Trump is viewed as someone as having a big heart, nonjudgmental and someone who has been put through hell by a very imperfect legal system.”

“Inmates view him as someone who will listen to them in hopes of going home early to their loved ones,” Woods added.

Woods, who is serving time in a prison in Texas, has also raised allegations he hopes will resonate with the president: evidence of misconduct by an FBI agent who investigated the former state senator. That agent pleaded guilty to “corruptly destroying” his government hard drive in Woods’ case.

Trump spent years blasting the FBI, particularly for how it investigated him over allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and its role in the Justice Department’s ill-fated prosecutions of Trump in the Capitol riot and his retention of classified documents at his Florida resort.

Pardon czar is playing a key role

Less political appeals have also been fruitful — thanks to the president’s advisers.

Those working to land pardons for Eddie and Joe Sotelo didn’t give up after Biden rejected their application. Instead, advocates turned to help from Alice Marie Johnson, whom Trump recently tapped as his pardon czar after commuting her sentence for federal drug and money laundering charges in 2018.

It was Johnson who intervened on behalf of the brothers, who had been serving life prison terms for a drug-trafficking conspiracy, said Brittany Barnett, founder of the Buried Alive Project, a nonprofit advocacy group that took up the Sotelos’ case. The brothers were freed late last month.

Johnson “knows firsthand the weight of a life sentence,” Barnett said. “These men were serving the same sentence as the Unabomber — on drug charges.”

Trump’s open-mindedness has sent “shock waves of hope through the prison walls for the thousands of people still serving extreme sentences,” Barnett said.

No commutation seems out of the question in prisons like FCI Ashland, the Kentucky lockup where Scott, the former DEA agent, has been held nearly four years.

Once hotshot DEA agent fell from grace

Scott, 57, was exercising in March with Brian Kelsey, when the former Tennessee state senator received word he had been pardoned just two weeks into a 21-month sentence for campaign finance fraud. Kelsey called his release a “victory for every American who believes in one impartial justice system for all.”

Last month, the president pardoned another former Ashland prisoner, P.G. Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati city councilman who not only won office as a Democrat but sharply criticized Trump. It is unclear why Trump pardoned Sittenfeld, who also seemed surprised by the grant of clemency. “I was as stunned as I suspect you were,” he wrote supporters this month, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier.

In his own application for a commutation, Scott sought to draw Trump’s attention not only to his ear wound — sustained in a shooting that predated his law enforcement career — but also the prosecutor who handled his case. That prosecutor went on to work for special counsel Jack Smith, whose team twice indicted Trump. The charges were dropped after Trump won the November election.

“Though I do not claim to be a saint, I DID NOT commit the crimes for which I have been convicted,” Scott wrote to the president, even using all caps like Trump does on social media.

Scott had been among the most prolific narcotics agents in the country during his 17-year career at the DEA and won several awards for his work.

His downfall began in 2016, when two members of his New Orleans-based task force were arrested for stealing and using drugs, prompting a yearslong FBI inquiry. A federal jury convicted Scott in 2019 of orchestrating false testimony against a trafficker. He also was found guilty of falsifying DEA paperwork to acquire a pickup truck and, following a separate trial, stealing money and property from suspects.

Scheduled for release in 2031, he has exhausted every possible appeal. Clemency from Trump, Scott told the AP, is his “last resort.”

By all accounts, Scott has been a model prisoner and has been awarded sought-after privileges. He spends his days as FCI Ashland’s “town driver,” chauffeuring newly released prisoners to bus stops, halfway houses, hospitals and doctors’ offices in nearby cities.

And he has participated in a program called Pawsibilities Unleashed, in which he raises and trains service and therapy dogs behind bars.

He named one of his most recent canines, a Labradane, Trump.

Follow the AP’s coverage of President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.

Eight players from Oakland County, including two each from Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, were named to this year’s Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association Dream Team.

A Division 1 regional finalist, Brother Rice’s Dream Team pair are senior infielder Cole Van Ameyde and sophomore catcher Broder Katke.

Van Ameyde, off to Michigan State in the fall, batted .398 for Rice, led the team with a .547 on-base percentage and had a team-high 10 home runs while tying for the team lead of 40 RBIs.

Katke hit .374 on the year, leading the Warriors in doubles with 17 while driving in 39 runs and swiping 16 bags, all while serving as a fixture behind the plate.

The Eaglets were repped by the tandem of Luke Crighton and Hudson Brzustewicz.

Committed to Indiana, Crighton started his spring with a no-hitter, and finished it nearly just as strong, tossing a complete-game shutout in the Eaglets’ district championship win.

A Notre Dame commit, Brzustewicz was just as integral to the Eaglets’ postseason success. He hit a grand slam in the district semifinal win against Detroit Country Day, drove in a pair of runs in the regional championship against Lake Shore and had four RBIs in the D2 quarterfinal victory over Yale.

Novi southpaw Uli Fernsler (TCU), also in the top-tier of the state’s talented senior pitching crop, drew in scouts thanks to a 0.33 ERA with 89 strikeouts in 42 2/3 IP.

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep Drake Roa was selected as an infielder but also dealt it on the hill for one of the top D2 programs in the state. In addition to batting a team-high .464 average, Roa homered three times, drove in 24 runs and nabbed 30 bags. On the bump, he pitched 19 frames, converting all seven of his save opportunities with just a 0.37 ERA.

An all-LVC, all-district, and all-region pick, senior catcher Kaiden Kapa made the Dream Team from Waterford Kettering. He ended the year with 19 RBIs and posted six three-hit performances over the course of the year for the Captains.

Rochester Adams outfielder Koltyn “Flip” Watters was the lone freshman to make the Dream Team. He led the Highlanders in both batting average (.469) and OBP (.545), along with a handful of doubles, 21 RBIs and 22 stolen bases.

Bay City Western’s Luke LaCourse was selected as the 2025 Mr. Baseball.

DIVISION 1

Joining Van Ameyde and Katke from Brother Rice (both first-team), senior pitcher Blake Ilitch and freshman outfielder Maksim Neshov from the Warriors made the D1 team as second-team selections.

Neshov made an immediate impact, as Katke did last year, with a team-high .417 BA. He accrued eight doubles, homered three times and tied for the team lead in stolen bases with 28.

Ilitch, part of the team’s formidable two-ace staff along with Cole Duhaime, pitched 51 2/3 innings and enjoyed a team-best 1.63 ERA with a 1.03 WHIP. The Ole Miss commit had just a .132 batting average against and struck out 90 on the year.

In addition to Dream Team picks Fernsler, Kapa and Watters, Rochester Adams junior outfielder Matt Toepper was also a first-team selection. He finished with a .436 average, and led the Highlanders in doubles (seven), triples (three), RBIs (25) and stolen bases (30).

West Bloomfield senior Slade Moore and Walled Lake Northern senior infielder Carson Beattie each received second-team nods, also.

When he wasn’t making plays with his glove in center field for the Lakers, Moore, committed to Michigan, made his mark as another of the state’s best left-handers on the mound. He had a pair of five-inning postseason outings in which he struck out eight batters both times and wasn’t charged with any earned runs in either, including West Bloomfield’s 2-0 regional semifinal victory over Lakeland.

Beattie was an on-base machine for the Knights, and along with a slew of walks, he finished with three home runs and 36 RBIs on the season.

DIVISION 2

Pontiac Notre Dame Prep and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s each placed a pair of players — all juniors — on the first-team D2 squad.

From a 29-win Irish team were Roa, also from the Dream Team, and Henry Ewles, selected as a utility player.

Ewles tossed a team-high 65 1/3 innings for Notre Dame Prep and went 7-4 in 11 starts. He had phenomenal metrics with just a 1.29 ERA and 0.80 WHIP, striking out 49 with only 10 walks allowed. At the plate, Ewles batted .420, homering three times while driving in 37 runs, best on the Irish.

Also from the Dream Team for St. Mary’s were Crighton and Brzustewicz.

DIVISION 4

A pair of Novi Christian Academy seniors, infielder Tyler Brown and outfielder Luke Gallagher, were each second-team selections, as well as Royal Oak Shrine senior first baseman Jackson Poulton.

In a sweep of Allen Park Inter-City Baptist, two of the Warriors’ best wins of the season, Gallagher combined to go 5-for-8, while Brown went 5-for-5 with nine RBIs, including a double short of the cycle in a 16-5 victory on April 29.

Poulton singled in the go-ahead run and drove in a pair for the Knights in their 3-1 win over Our Lady of the Lakes for Shrine’s district championship.

DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons selected guard Chaz Lanier with the No. 37 pick of the 2025 NBA Draft Thursday night.

Lanier came into the draft with five years of college experience. Before transferring to Tennessee, the 6-foot-4 guard played four seasons at North Florida. He appeared in 104 games with 49 starts for the Ospreys.

Lanier’s best season came during the 2023-24 campaign, when he notched a career-high 19.7 points on 51.0% shooting from the field and 44.0% from behind the arc, along with 4.8 rebounds.

Lanier, a native of Nashville, was named First Team All-SEC in 2025 and First Team All-Atlantic Sun in 2024.

MIAMI (AP) — A Canadian man being held by immigration officials in South Florida has died in federal custody, officials said.

Johnny Noviello, 49, died Monday afternoon at the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement press release said. The cause of death was under investigation.

Noviello was being detained pending removal from the U.S., officials said. He entered the U.S. in 1988 on a legal visa and became a lawful permanent resident in 1991. He was convicted of drug trafficking and other charges in 2023 and sentenced to a year in prison, officials said.

Noviello was picked up by ICE agents at his probation office last month and charged with removability because of his drug conviction, authorities said.

Seven other immigration detainees have died in federal custody this year, with 11 deaths reported in 2024.

By BERNARD CONDON

NEW YORK (AP) — When the Trump family unveiled a new phone before a giant American flag at its headquarters earlier this month, the pitch was simple and succinct, packed with pure patriotism: “Made in the U.S.A.”

The Trumps are apparently having second thoughts.

How about “proudly American”?

Those are the two words that have replaced the “Made in the USA” pitch that just a few days ago appeared on the website where customers can pre-order the so-called T-1 gold-toned phones with an American flag etched on the back. Elsewhere on the site, other vague terms are now being used, describing the $499 phone as boasting an “American-Proud Design” and “brought to life right here in the U.S.A.”

The Federal Trade Commission requires that items labeled “Made in USA” be “all or virtually all” produced in the U.S. and several firms have been sued over misusing the term.

The Trump Organization has not explained the change and has not responded to a request for comment. Neither did an outside public relations firm handling the Trumps’ mobile phone business, including a request to confirm a statement made to another media outlet.

“T1 phones are proudly being made in America,” said Trump Mobile spokesman Chris Walker, according to USA Today. “Speculation to the contrary is simply inaccurate.”

The language change on the website was first reported by the news site The Verge.

An expert on cell phone technology, IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo, said he’s not surprised the Trump family has dropped the “Made in the USA” label because it’s nearly impossible to build one here given the higher cost and lack of infrastructure to do so.

But, of course, you can claim to do it.

“Whether it is possible or not to build this phone in the US depends on what you consider ‘build,’” Jeronimo said. “If it’s a question of assembling components and targeting small volumes, I suppose it’s somehow possible. You can always get the components from China and assemble them by hand somewhere.”

“You’re going to have phones that are made right here in the United States of America,” said Trump’s son Eric to Fox News recently, adding, “It’s about time we bring products back to our great country.”

The Trump family has flown the American flag before with Trump-branded products of suspicious origin, including its “God Bless the USA” Bibles, which an Associated Press investigation last year showed were printed in China.

The Trump phone is part of a bigger family mobile business plan designed to tap into MAGA enthusiasm for the president. The two sons running the business, Eric and Don Jr., announced earlier this month that they would offer mobile phone plans for $47.45 a month, a reference to their father’s status as the 45th and 47th president. The call center, they said, will be in the U.S., too.

“You’re not calling up call centers in Bangladesh,” Eric Trump said on Fox News. “We’re doing it out of St. Louis, Missouri.”

The new service has been blasted by government ethics experts for a conflict of interest, given that President Donald Trump oversees the Federal Communications Commission that regulates the business and is investigating phone service companies that are now Trump Mobile rivals.

Trump has also threatened to punish cell phone maker Apple, now a direct competitor, threatening to slap 25% tariffs on devices because of its plans to make most of its U.S. iPhones in India.

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — A few Republicans reacted with indignation Thursday after the Senate parliamentarian advised that some of the measures in their tax and immigration bill could not be included in the legislation.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., tweeted on X that Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough should be fired, “ASAP.” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., intimated that she was partisan, asking why an “unelected swamp bureaucrat, who was appointed by Harry Reid over a decade ago” gets to decide what’s in the bill?”

It’s hardly the first time the parliamentarian’s normally low-key and lawyerly role has drawn a blast of public criticism.

MacDonough also dashed Democratic plans over the years, advising in 2021 that they couldn’t include a minimum wage increase in their COVID-19 relief bill. Later that same year, she advised that Democrats needed to drop an effort to let millions of immigrants remain temporarily in the U.S. as part of their big climate bill.

But the attention falling on MacDonough’s rulings in recent years also reflects a broader change in Congress, with lawmakers increasingly trying to wedge their top policy priorities into bills that can’t be filibustered in the Senate. The process comes with special rules designed to deter provisions unrelated to spending or taxes — and that’s where the parliamentarian comes in, offering analysis of what does and doesn’t qualify.

Her latest round of decisions Thursday was a blow to the GOP’s efforts to wring hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid over the next decade. Senate Republicans could opt to try to override her recommendations, but they are unlikely to do so.

Here’s a closer look at what the Senate parliamentarian does and why lawmakers are so focused on her recommendations right now.

The crucial role of the parliamentarian

Both the House and Senate have a parliamentarian to provide assistance on that chamber’s rules and precedents. They are often seen advising whoever is presiding over the chamber on the proper procedures to be followed and the appropriate responses to a parliamentary inquiry.

They are also charged with providing information to lawmakers and their respective staff on a strictly nonpartisan and confidential basis.

The parliamentarians and their staff only offer advice. Their recommendations are not binding. In the case of the massive tax and spending bill now before both chambers, the parliamentarian plays a critical role in advising whether the reconciliation bill’s provisions remain focused on fiscal issues.

How MacDonough became the first woman in the job

MacDonough, an English literature major, is the Senate’s first woman to be parliamentarian and just the sixth person to hold the position since its creation in 1935.

She began her Senate career in its library before leaving to get a law degree at Vermont Law School. She worked briefly as a Justice Department trial attorney before returning to the Senate in 1999, this time as an assistant in the parliamentarian’s office. She was initially appointed parliamentarian in 2012 by Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, Senate majority leader at the time. She was retained by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., when he became majority leader in 2015.

She helped Chief Justice John Roberts preside over Trump’s 2020 Senate impeachment trial and was beside then-Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for Trump’s second trial the following year. Trump was acquitted both times.

When Trump supporters fought past police and into the Capitol in hopes of disrupting Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, MacDonough and other staffers rescued those ballots and hustled mahogany boxes containing them to safety. MacDonough’s office, on the Capitol’s first floor, was ransacked and declared a crime scene.

Can the Senate ignore the parliamentarian’s advice?

Yes. The parliamentarian makes the recommendation, but it’s the presiding officer overseeing Senate proceedings who rules on provisions in the bill. If there is a dispute, it would be put to a vote.

Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank, said he doubts Republicans will want to go that route. And indeed, some Republican senators said as much Thursday.

“It’s the institutional integrity, even if I’m convinced 100% she’s wrong,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

Thorning said lawmakers from both parties view MacDonough as “very much an honest broker.”

“And the Senate relies on her,” Thorning said. “Sometimes, those decisions cut your way, and sometimes, they don’t. I also think members recognize that once you start treating the parliamentarian’s advice as just something that could be easily dismissed, then the rules start to matter less.”

Have parliamentarians been fired?

Majority leaders from both parties have replaced the parliamentarian. For more than three decades, the position alternated between Robert Dove and Alan Frumin depending upon which party was in the majority.

Thorning said the two parliamentarians weren’t far apart though, in how they interpreted the Senate’s rules and precedents.

MacDonough succeeded Frumin as parliamentarian. He said the small number of calls Thursday for her dismissal “tells you all people need to know about the current parliamentarian.”

“Senators know this isn’t somebody playing politics,” Thorning said.

By KATE PAYNE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is racing ahead with construction of a makeshift immigration detention facility at an airstrip in the Everglades over the opposition of Native American leaders who consider the area their sacred ancestral homelands.

A string of portable generators and dump trucks loaded with fill dirt streamed into the site on Thursday, according to activist Jessica Namath, who witnessed the activity. The state is plowing ahead with building a compound of heavy-duty tents, trailers and other temporary buildings at the Miami Dade County-owned airfield located in the Big Cypress National Preserve, about 45 miles west of downtown Miami.

A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is helping lead the project, did not respond to requests for comment.

State officials have characterized the site as an ideal place to hold migrants, saying there’s “not much” there other than pythons and alligators.

Indigenous leaders dispute that and are condemning the state’s plans to build what’s been dubbed “ Alligator Alcatraz ” on their homelands. Native Americans can trace their roots to the area back thousands of years.

For generations, the sweeping wetlands of what is now South Florida have been home to Native peoples who today make up the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

“Rather than Miccosukee homelands being an uninhabited wasteland for alligators and pythons, as some have suggested, the Big Cypress is the Tribe’s traditional homelands. The landscape has protected the Miccosukee and Seminole people for generations,” Miccosukee Chairman Talbert Cypress wrote in a statement on social media.

There are 15 remaining traditional Miccosukee and Seminole villages in Big Cypress, as well as ceremonial and burial grounds and other gathering sites, Cypress testified before Congress in 2024.

“We live here. Our ancestors fought and died here. They are buried here,” he said. “The Big Cypress is part of us, and we are a part of it.”

Garrett Stuart, who lives about 3 miles from the site, described the crystal clear waters, open prairies and lush tree islands of Big Cypress as teeming with life.

“Hearing the arguments of the frogs in the water, you know? And listen to the grunt of the alligator. You’re hearing the call of that osprey flying by and listening to the crows chatting,” he said. “It’s all just incredible.”

Critics have condemned the detention facility and what they call the state’s apparent reliance on alligators as a security measure as a cruel spectacle, while DeSantis and other state officials have defended it as part of Florida’s muscular efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“To have alligators and pythons be the security guards, only someone who’s never spent time in the swamp would ever say something like that,” Stuart said. “They’re afraid of human beings.”

The Florida National Guard is preparing to send up to 100 soldiers to the facility on July 1 to provide site security and staff augmentation, and other support “as directed.”

“We don’t have a set timeline for this mission due to the fluid nature of the situation, but we will stay on the ground for as long as we’re needed and at the direction of Governor DeSantis,” Guard spokesperson Brittianie Funderburk said in a statement.

Tribal leaders and environmentalists are urging the state to change course, noting billions of dollars in state and federal funds have been poured into Everglades restoration in recent years, an investment they say is jeopardized by plans to house some 1,000 migrants at the site for an undetermined amount of time.

Indigenous leaders and activists are planning to gather at the site again on Saturday to stage a demonstration highlighting why the area is “sacred” and should be “protected, not destroyed.”

“This place became our refuge in time of war. It provides us a place to continue our culture and traditions,” Miccosukee leader Betty Osceola wrote in a social media post announcing the demonstration.

“And we need to protect it for our future generations,” she added.

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By REBECCA SANTANA and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion of her Central America trip.

The agreements expand the Trump administration’s efforts to provide the U.S. government flexibility in returning migrants not only to their own countries, but also to third countries as it attempts to ramp up deportations.

Noem described it as a way to offer asylum-seekers options other than coming to the United States. She said the agreements had been in the works for months, with the U.S. government applying pressure on Honduras and Guatemala to get them done.

“Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refugee status as well,” Noem said. “We’ve never believed that the United States should be the only option, that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the United States.”

During U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. signed such accords called safe-third country agreements with Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. They effectively allowed the U.S. to declare some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for U.S. protection and permitted the U.S. government to send them to those countries deemed “safe.”

The U.S. has had such an agreement with Canada since 2002.

The practical challenge was that all three Central American countries at the time were seeing large numbers of their own citizens head to the U.S. to escape violence and a lack of economic opportunity. They also had extremely under-resourced asylum systems.

In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed deals with El Salvador and Guatemala that allowed the U.S. to send migrants from other nations there. But in Guatemala’s case it was to only be a point of transit for migrants who would then return to their homelands, not to apply for asylum there. And in El Salvador, it was broader, allowing the U.S. to send migrants to be imprisoned there.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that Mexico would not sign a third safe country agreement, but at the same time Mexico has accepted more than 5,000 migrants from other countries deported from the U.S. since Trump took office. She said Mexico accepted them for humanitarian reasons and helped them return to their home countries.

The U.S. also has agreements with Panama and Costa Rica to take migrants from other countries though so far the numbers sent have been relatively small. The Trump administration sent 299 to Panama in February and fewer than 200 to Costa Rica.

The agreements give U.S. authorities options, especially for migrants from countries where it is not easy for the U.S. to return them directly.

Sherman reported from Mexico City.

High school sports seasons are like a roller coaster.

Teams ride the ups and downs of run-of-the-mill games, holiday tournaments and rivalry matchups – a variety of mini-loops and corkscrews – before the big drop that is the postseason.

Typically, throughout those parts of the regular season, a series of league matchups means I wouldn’t run into my Macomb counterpart in Brady McAtamney too often. But when the playoffs roll around, Oakland and Macomb County teams inevitably face each other for the right to advance.

Brady talked about what a frenetic run-up it was for him to the state finals in East Lansing several weekends ago. I joked that mine across the county border wasn’t nearly so, a sign of the see-saw nature in which any given season, it’s either him or I. But we chatted briefly at McLane Stadium when Dakota was playing in the D1 baseball final, then parted ways.

These OAA vs. MAC all-star games at season’s end are another chance for us to intersect when the real ride of the spring is over. Last year, I spent a majority of the game hovering around the OAA dugout, and I assume Brady did something similar.

Last week, for this year’s baseball game between the two counties’ all-stars, Brady and his girlfriend were sitting at a table behind the plate. I hadn’t met her, and we’d spent so little time throughout the spring at the same place at the same time, and so rather than wandering back to the dugout, I pulled up a seat.

We chatted about work. We shared stories about coaches, players. The three of us shared our joy and disdain for pop stars.

Over the past few weeks, Brady and I had talked about anything from video games we had played or planned to play to dealing with seizures, which have been affecting an immediate family member of mine.

I’ve spent most of the week in a hospital watching over that family member, including Tuesday when I got the news that Brady had passed away over the weekend. As it does when you get any kind of text, email or call of that nature, my heart sank.

Just trying to work through the challenges of that, it didn’t really hit me until sometime Wednesday afternoon as I looked out the fifth-floor window of the hospital.

There won’t be any more ribbing each other in our group chat over Troy vs. Athens outcomes, the rival high schools we each went to. No more texting about games we wish we’d gotten to. No more commiserating about the busy season we can relate to.

Brady McAtamney, sports coordinator for Macomb Daily, dies at age 28

There’s no silver lining to the death of someone so young, but I’m dealing with it by finding joy in that decision to sit and chat with Brady one last time watching some baseball together, something he loved, too.

When the softball game between the OAA and MAC rolls around in the next several weeks, there will still be stories to celebrate of players and coaches. But whoever bats, pitches or wins, there’ll be a hole in the lineup without Brady there also. He will be missed.

An Oakland County neurologist is accused of trading medical care for sex with at least one trafficking victim.

Prosecutor Karen McDonald has charged Dr. Gireesh Velugubanti, a 49-year-old Royal Oak man, with human trafficking and drug charges.

An ongoing investigation by the county’s Human Trafficking Task Force identified Velugubanti as a possible customer of an alleged trafficking ring at the Sonesta Simply Suites hotel in the area of I-696 and Lahser Road in Southfield.

McDonald’s office has charged three other people – Antoine Fulgiam, Chanel Rackard, and Sherri Gress, in connection with the alleged ring at the hotel.

Text messages between Velugubanti and Fulgiam allegedly show the doctor arranging commercial sex with trafficking victims and purchasing drugs, according to a release from McDonald.

Text messages reveal that Velugubanti was unhappy with one of the trafficked sex workers and apparently asked Fulgiam to warn her that her “free medical care” may come to an end.

“Purchasing sex with trafficked women isn’t a victimless crime. It is abuse,” McDonald said. “This defendant and men like him, often living comfortable lives, prey on victims who have been denied personal agency or freedom by traffickers. Sex trafficking only exists because so-called ‘customers’ create an economic incentive. They will be held accountable.

“This defendant’s alleged behavior is especially shocking,” McDonald said. “According to police investigations, he effectively ransomed health care in order to exploit one or more victims. The first rule of the medical profession is to ‘do no harm.’ There are few things a doctor can do more harmful than to allegedly expect sex as a condition for care.”

Velugubanti is charged with Human Trafficking Enterprise Resulting In Injury/Commercial Sexual Activity, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/or a $15,000 fine, and Conspiracy To Deliver A Controlled Substance Less Than 50 Grams, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine.

He will be arraigned in the 46th District Court in Southfield.

Velugubanti is a practicing neurologist. McDonald’s office is not aware of any affiliations with area hospital systems, the release said.

Prosecutors are working with law enforcement to learn if any patients were impacted or need to be informed.

Southfield woman 1st hotel worker to be charged with trafficking

Man charged with forcing woman to perform sex acts in Southfield hotel, held on $3 million bond