Today is Monday, April 21, the 111th day of 2025. There are 254 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 21, 2016, Prince, one of the most inventive and influential musicians of modern times, was found dead at his home in suburban Minneapolis from an accidental fentanyl overdose; he was 57.

Also on this date:

In 1836, an army of Texans, led by Sam Houston, defeated the Mexican Army, led by Antonio López de Santa Anna, in the Battle of San Jacinto, the final battle of the Texas Revolution.

In 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Connecticut, at age 74.

In 1918, German Air Force pilot Manfred von Richthofen, nicknamed “The Red Baron,” was killed at age 25 after being shot during a World War I air battle over Vaux-sur-Somme, France.

In 1930, fire broke out inside the overcrowded Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, killing 322 inmates in the deadliest prison disaster in U.S. history.

In 1975, with Communist forces closing in, South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned after nearly 10 years in office, fleeing the country five days later.

In 1980, Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon, but was later exposed as having cheated by entering the racecourse less than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) before the finish line. (Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the actual winner of the women’s race.)

In 2015, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012. (Morsi collapsed and died during trial on espionage charges in June 2019.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor-comedian-filmmaker Elaine May is 93.
• Author-activist Sister Helen Prejean is 86.
• Singer Iggy Pop is 78.
• Actor Patti LuPone is 76.
• Actor Tony Danza is 74.
• Actor Andie MacDowell is 67.
• Musician Robert Smith (The Cure) is 66.
• Actor Rob Riggle is 55.
• Actor James McAvoy is 46.
• Former NFL quarterback Tony Romo is 45.
• Actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw is 42.

ANN ARBOR — Michigan’s Fred Richard and Paul Juda finished first and second in the all-around and Wolverines team total of 332.224 edged them past five-time defending champion Stanford (332.961) on Saturday to win their first NCAA men’s gymnastics title since 2014.

Juda, the individual champion on the parallel bars with a score of 14.200 and host Michigan’s last competitor of the day, scored a 13.966 on the vault to clinch the program’s seventh national title. The Wolverines finished second, 5.635 points behind Stanford, at the 2024 championships.

Oklahoma finished third with 327.891, ahead of Nebraska (326.222), Penn State (317.258) and Illinois was sixth with 316.293. Penn State and Oklahoma each hold a record 12 national titles.

Stanford’s Asher Hong took home the individual title in the floor exercise (14.600) and defended his crown with a score of 14.433 on the rings. Patrick Hoopes of Air Force scored a 14.833 to win the horse championship, Ohio State’s Kameron Nelson (14.633) won the vault title and Emre Dodanli claimed the high bar championship for Oklahoma with a score of (13.833).

Richard and Juda won bronze medals for Team USA at the Paris Olympics.

Bobby Witt Jr. hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 Sunday to stop a six-game losing streak.

With the score 3-3, Jonathan India's groundout off Tyler Holton (1-2) advanced automatic runner Drew Waters to third, and Witt hit a 280-foot fly to left. Waters scored headfirst ahead of Riley Greene's throw.

Carlos Estvez (1-0) intentionally walked Greene to put runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom half, then retired Dillon Dingler on a popup.

Kansas City went 2-8 on its trip and is 9-14. Detroit had won three straight.

Detroit left fielder Kerry Carpenter left the game after the eighth inning because of right hamstring soreness.

Tigers ace Tarik Skubal allowed two runs and seven hits in five innings, while Royals starter Michael Wacha gave up two runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 inning

Hunter Pasquantino and Drew Waters built a 2-0 lead with RBI singles in the second, but consecutive, two-out run-scoring singles by Carpenter and Zach McKinstry tied the score inthe fifth.

McKinstry's RBI single in the seventh ended Daniel Lynch IV's scoreless streak at 31 innings.

Mark Canha tied the score in the eighth with an RBI single after Witt reached second on a throwing error by third baseman Javier Bez.

With the bases loaded in the seventh, Salvador Perez scooped Greene's grounded and start an inning-ending 3-2-3 double play.

Skubal is 11-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 18 starts at home since the start of the 2024 season.

Royals: LHP Kris Bubic (2-1, 1.88) starts Tuesday homestand opener against Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (0-1, 4.82).

Tigers: RHP Keider Montero (0-1, 9.00) starts Monday's series opener against Padres RHP Randy Vasquez (1-1. 1.74).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Her first panic attack came at a company-wide meeting, right before her scheduled presentation. Carolina Lasso had given many similar talks about her marketing team’s accomplishments. When her name was called this time, she couldn’t speak.

“I felt a knot in my throat,” Lasso said. “My head, it felt like it was inside a bubble. I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t see, and it felt like an eternity. It was just a few seconds, but it was so profound, and in a way earth-shattering to me.”

Lasso was struggling after a cross-country move followed by a divorce. Her boss suggested a mental health leave, a possibility she didn’t know existed. She worried whether taking time off would affect how her team viewed her or cost her a future promotion, but in the end she did.

“I’m thankful for that opportunity to take the time to heal,” Lasso, 43, said. “Many people feel guilty when they take a leave of absence when it’s mental health-related. … There is some extra weight that we carry on our shoulders, as if it had been our fault.”

Despite a fear of repercussions, more adults are recognizing that stepping back from work to deal with emotional burdens or psychological conditions that get in the way of their lives is a necessary choice, one that a growing number of employers recognize.

ComPsych Corp., a provider of employee mental health programs and absence management services, encourages its business clients to make the well-being of workers a priority before individuals get to a breaking point while also having processes in place for those who require leaves of absence.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, collectively we’ve just been in this constant state of turmoil,” Jennifer Birdsall, the senior clinical director at ComPysch, said. “We just have had this barrage of change and uncertainty.”

Depression, anxiety and adjustment disorder, which involves excessive reactions to stress, were the top three diagnoses of employees who took mental health leaves in the past two years among clients of Alight, a Chicago-based technology company which administers leaves and benefits for large employers.

Structuring a leave

A mental health leave can last weeks or months. In some cases, workers get approval to work a reduced schedule or to take short periods of time off when needed, using an approach called “intermittent leave.”

At most U.S. organizations with 50 or more employees, people can request leaves through the Family and Medical Leave Act. The federal law entitles workers with serious health conditions to paid or unpaid leaves of up to 12 weeks, depending on state and local laws.

Some employers require people to use sick days or accumulated vacation days to continue receiving a paycheck while out. For longer leaves, workers can access short-term disability plans, if their employer offers one.

Lasso’s leave lasted six months, and included therapy and travel to India for additional treatment. She returned to her job but decided after a year to leave for good. She later launched a business to train people on fostering a more humane work culture.

A mental health leave is “not only OK, but it can really unlock new possibilities once we have the time to do the work — therapy, medication, whatever it is — and have enough distance from work to be able to reconnect with ourselves,” Lasso said.

Talking openly about struggles

A social stigma around mental health challenges causes many people to avoid seeking treatment or requesting a leave of absence. Newton Cheng, director of health and performance at Google, hopes to change that by sharing his own struggles.

His first self-disclosure happened during the pandemic, when a senior manager invited employees at a meeting to share how they were doing. When it was his turn, Cheng started crying.

He explained he was struggling to live up to his expectations of himself as a father and didn’t know how to turn things around.

“It was just totally horrifying to me because, one, I had just cried in front of my coworkers and I was definitely taught as a professional — and as a man — you do not do that,” Cheng recalled. “And then two, I had never really articulated and said out loud those words. I hadn’t even allowed myself to think that. But now they’re out there and I had to face them.”

Colleagues responded by relaying their own struggles, but Cheng’s difficulties continued. By February 2021, he couldn’t get out of bed because he felt paralyzed by dread, he said. A therapist said he was showing symptoms of major depression and anxiety.

“I just realized, ‘I’m struggling a lot and this goes pretty deep. I don’t think I can keep just putting duct tape on this. I probably need to take some leave,’” Cheng recalled.

Hoping his decision would benefit others, he announced to 200 people at a conference that he planned to take mental health leave. Instead of derailing the gathering as he feared, his honesty inspired fellow conference attendees to open up.

“It was like a fireworks show,” Cheng said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe he did that.’ Then they forgot about me. But the tone was set. It was like ’Oh, this is what we’re doing. Let me talk about what’s going on with me, too.’”

Take the time you need

While balancing classes and a full-time job during her last year of college, Rosalie Mae began struggling to get out of bed and crying uncontrollably. Yet she felt like she had “to keep it together” to avoid burdening her colleagues at the University of Utah bookstore, where Mae worked as an accounting clerk.

Then she found herself calling a suicide hotline. “Once it reached that point, I knew, especially at the urging of my husband, we need to do something more,” Mae, 24, said.

In her case, that meant taking a five-week work leave to put her own health and well-being first. She recommends the same for others who find themselves in a similar position.

“Taking a mental health leave is not necessarily a cure-all, but it is important to give yourself a break and allow yourself to regroup, make a plan of how to proceed and take the steps to work towards feeling better,” Mae said.

Telling managers and colleagues

Before broaching the subject of a mental health leave with a manager, consider the workplace culture and the strength of your professional relationships, Cheng said. He recalls saying, “For my health and well-being, and the sake of my family and what’s best for the business, the least risky thing for me to do is to go on leave soon.”

Individuals who suspect an unsympathetic reception can simply say, “I need to go on medical leave. I need time to recover,” he advised.

There’s also no legal or ethical requirement to tell everyone you work with the nature of your leave.

“Your coworkers don’t need to know why,” said Seth Turner, co-founder of AbsenceSoft, a leave and accommodation management solutions provider. “They just need to know, ‘I’m going to be here at this time, and I’m going to be gone at this time, and I’ll be back.’”

Have you overcome an obstacle or made a profound change in your work? Send your questions and story ideas to cbussewitz@ap.org. 

Today is Saturday, April 19, the 109th day of 2025. There are 256 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 19,1995, Timothy McVeigh, seeking to strike at the government he blamed for the Branch Davidian deaths two years earlier, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)

Also on this date:

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord—the start of an eight-year armed conflict between American colonists and the British Army.

In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held. Winner John J. McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile uprising against Nazi forces.

In 1977, the Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright, ruled 5-4 that even severe spanking of schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa during training exercises in the Caribbean.

In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as the Davidians set fire to their compound following an FBI tear gas attack. Seventy-five people, including 25 children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed.

In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.

In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv), a 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, was taken into custody after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed. His older brother and alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Tamerlan (TAM’-ehr-luhn), was killed earlier in a furious attempt to escape police.

In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury in the back of a Baltimore police van while he was handcuffed and shackled. (Six police officers were charged. Three were acquitted and the city’s top prosecutor eventually dropped the three remaining cases.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer-songwriter Roberto Carlos is 84.
• Actor Tim Curry is 79.
• Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 63.
• Actor Ashley Judd is 57.
• Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 55.
• Actor James Franco is 47.
• Actor Kate Hudson is 46.
• Actor Hayden Christensen is 44.
• Football Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu is 44.
• Actor-comedian Ali Wong is 43.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Mauer is 42.
• Former WNBA star Candace Parker is 39.
• Former tennis player Maria Sharapova is 38.
• Actor Simu Liu is 36.

DETROIT (AP) — Tomás Nido and Andy Ibáñez hit solo homers and rookie Jackson Jobe pitched five strong innings to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 7-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. doubled in the first to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, scoring on Vinnie Pasquantino’s double for a 1-0 lead.

Nido, who went 3 for 4, homered for the first time with the Tigers to tie it in the second. Ibáñez’s solo shot leading off the fourth put them ahead for good.

Jobe (2-0) allowed one run on five hits.

Riley Greene and Trey Sweeney had RBI singles in a three-run fifth to chase Royals starter Cole Ragans (1-1), whose team record-tying streak of three straight starts with 10-plus strikeouts ended. Ragans gave up five runs on six hits in four innings, striking out eight for a major league-best 39.

Witt singled and scored on Pasquantino’s single in the ninth off Kenta Maeda. Tommy Kahnle got the final two outs for his fourth save.

The Royals have lost five straight and are 1-7 so far on a 10-game road trip.

Key moment

The Royals sent the tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth, but Kahnle struck out Cavan Biggio before Drew Waters lined out to end it.

Key stat

The Royals began the day averaging 2.95 runs — ahead of only the Rockies. They have scored four runs or less in 19 of 21 games and haven’t scored more than four since April 4 against Baltimore.

Up next

RHP Seth Lugo (1-2, 3.86 ERA) starts for the Royals, who have dropped the first two in the four-game series. The Tigers counter with RHP Casey Mize (2-1, 2.60).

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot was asked to resign this week, a senior defense official told The Associated Press on Thursday, in the latest shakeup for the Defense Department following firings and other changes under President Donald Trump.

Ullyot was one of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s initial hires for the communications office and oversaw some of its most highly visible but controversial moves, including a broad edict to the military services to strip away online images and other content considered a promotion of diversity, equity or inclusion.

That directive, given under a wide-ranging Trump administration effort to purge so-called DEI content from federal agencies, led to public outcry when images of national heroes like Jackie Robinson were briefly removed.

Ullyot’s departure is the fourth this week among Hegseth’s former inner circle. Three other senior officials were escorted from the building this week after being implicated in an ongoing investigation into information leaks: Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Dan Caldwell, an aide to Hegseth.

It was not immediately clear what leaks led to the departures. Caldwell and Selnick had worked with the defense secretary during his time leading the nonprofit Concerned Veterans for America.

Under Hegseth, the communications office has made significant changes to how it works with Pentagon reporters, including removing many news outlets from their longtime workspaces and not yet holding weekly briefings.

Ullyot was transferred out of the communications office in late March following the blowback from the Pentagon’s purge of Robinson and a bungled public affairs response. Also, in his emailed responses to journalists, Ullyot referred to himself as the Pentagon press secretary. But Hegseth had hired Sean Parnell to speak for him from the Pentagon’s podium.

In an emailed response to the AP on Thursday, Ullyot said he told Hegseth when he was hired he “was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs” and that the understanding was always that he would stay only for about two months to help get the communications office up and running. When no other suitable position was found for him, Ullyot said he decided to resign.

But a senior defense official familiar with the decision said that wasn’t the case and that Hegseth’s office had requested that Ullyot resign.

Ullyot, who shared his resignation letter with AP, disputed the official’s account, calling it “flat out false and laughable.”

Ullyot’s resignation Wednesday was not tied to the inquiry into the unauthorized disclosures. Two other U.S. officials said Carroll, Selnick and Caldwell were placed on leave in that investigation.

All three officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.

The departures follow a purge of senior military officers, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown; Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti; National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command director Gen. Tim Haugh; and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee.

By RODRIQUE NGOWI and BEN FINLEY

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — University professors and students led protests on campuses across the U.S. on Thursday against what they say are broad attacks on higher education, including massive cuts to funding, the expulsion of international students and the stifling of free speech about the war in Gaza.

Demonstrations were held at schools including Harvard, where President Donald Trump’s administration says it will freeze $2.2 billion in grants and contracts and is threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host international students.

Rochelle Sun, a graduate student at Harvard’s Department of Government, said she came to stick up for international students because they’re integral to the school’s mission of pushing “the boundaries of human knowledge.”

“The whole point of me having this education here and for pursuing research at Harvard is to be among the best scholars that exist in the world,” Sun said after the protest in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “And so if they’re not going to be around me, then I’m not going to be able to achieve my goals of being here, either.”

Sun held a sign that read: “I should be writing my dissertation, but I keep having to fight this stupid fascism.”

Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology in Harvard’s School of Public Health, spoke to the crowd about cuts to programs that are crucial to medical discoveries and monitoring the health of the population.

“We are doing our work to make a better world in which all living on this planet can equitably thrive,” she said.

Krieger said her grant from the National Institutes of Health was terminated in late February because it studied discrimination in health, the kind of research that likely won’t be funded by companies or philanthropies.

“We need to have that money going towards research and academic work and the training and teaching of the next generation that can protect the public’s health,” Krieger said to cheers.

Federal funding targeted

A growing list of higher education institutions have had federal funding targeted by the government in order to comply with the Trump administration’s political agenda. The series of threats — and subsequent pauses in funding — to some of the top U.S. universities have become an unprecedented tool for the administration to exert influence on college campuses.

Trump vowed to pursue these federal cuts on the campaign trail last year, saying he would focus on schools that push “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content.”

Republican officials have also heavily scrutinized universities where Palestinian protests erupted on campus amid the war in Gaza last year, while several Ivy League presidents testified before Congress to discuss antisemitism allegations.

Trump and other officials have accused protesters and others of being “pro-Hamas,” referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Many protesters have said they were speaking out against Israel’s actions in the war.

The U.S. government has used its immigration enforcement powers to crack down on international students and scholars who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or criticized Israel over its military action in Gaza. Some have been taken into custody or deported. Others fled the U.S. after learning their visas had been revoked.

‘You cannot appease a tyrant’

Thursday’s protest at Harvard comes just a few days after it became the first university to openly defy the Trump administration as it demands sweeping changes to limit activism on campus. The university frames the government’s demands as a threat not only to the Ivy League school but to the autonomy that the Supreme Court has long granted American universities.

Meanwhile, roughly 450 people showed up for a protest at the University of California-Berkeley, where emeritus professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich spoke out against placating Trump.

“You cannot appease a tyrant,” said Reich, who served in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. “Columbia University tried to appease a tyrant. It didn’t work.”

Columbia University in New York initially agreed to several demands from the Trump administration. But its acting president took a more defiant tone in a campus message Monday, saying some of the demands “are not subject to negotiation.”

About 150 protesters rallied at Columbia, which had been the scene of huge pro-Palestinian protests last year. They gathered on a plaza outside a building that houses federal offices, holding signs emblazoned with slogans including “stop the war on universities” and “censorship is the weapon of fascists.”

The protests were organized by the Coalition for Action in Higher Education, which includes groups such as Higher Education Labor United and the American Federation of Teachers.

Kelly Benjamin, a spokesperson for American Association of University Professors, said in a phone call that the Trump administration’s goal of eviscerating academia is fundamentally anti-American.

“College campuses have historically been the places where these kind of conversations, these kind of robust debates and dissent take place in the United States,” Benjamin said. “It’s healthy for democracy. And they’re trying to destroy all of that in order to enact their vision and agenda.”

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press journalists Noah Berger in Berkeley, California, and Joseph B. Frederick in New York contributed to this report.

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA and THALIA BEATY

For more than a century, the majority of colleges and universities have not paid most taxes. The Revenue Act of 1909 excused nonprofits operating “exclusively for religious, charitable, or educational purposes” in order to continue acting in the public interest.

President Donald Trump is looking to challenge that designation, complaining that colleges and universities are “indoctrinating” their students with “radical left” ideas, rather than educating them. And he has decided to start with the 388-year-old Harvard University, one of the world’s most prestigious institutions of learning and the first college founded in the American colonies.

On Tuesday, he targeted Harvard University in a post on his social media site, questioning whether it should remain tax-exempt “if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

Tax-exempt status, which is decided by the Internal Revenue Service, means that these institutions do not pay certain kinds of taxes and that their donors receive a tax deduction when they make gifts. The rules they have to follow to maintain that status are set out in the tax code. We spoke with attorneys who specialize in nonprofit law and freedom of speech to try to answer questions about this challenge.

Does a university’s curriculum affect its charitable status?

In general, no. Colleges and universities have broad leeway to design the education they provide.

Genevieve Lakier, a First Amendment scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, said the U.S. Supreme Court has laid out four essential freedoms for colleges and universities — what to teach, how to teach it, who their students are and who their professors are.

“That’s the irreducible core of academic freedom and it is constitutionally protected in this country,” she said, adding the government cannot threaten funding cuts or revoking a school’s tax status as punishment for its views or what the school teaches.

The First Amendment also protects the rights of other nonprofits to pursue their charitable missions under freedom of assembly, Lakier said, even if those missions are odious or the government does not like them.

Can the president ask the IRS to revoke a nonprofit’s tax-exempt status?

No, he is not supposed to, according to two nonprofit tax attorneys who wrote about a previous call from Trump to revoke the nonprofit status of colleges and universities.

In 1998, Congress passed a law that forbade federal officials from telling the IRS to investigate any taxpayer in an effort to increase trust in tax enforcement.

The attorneys, Ellen Aprill and Samuel Brunson, also pointed to legislation that forbade the IRS “from targeting individuals and organizations for ideological reasons,” after a controversy over how it treated Tea Party groups in 2013.

How does a nonprofit get and keep its tax-exempt status?

The IRS recognizes multiple reasons for a nonprofit to to be exempt from paying many kinds of taxes, including pursuing charitable, religious or educational missions among many other examples. The statute specifically names sports competitions, preventing cruelty to children or animals and defending human or civil rights as exempt purposes.

Nonprofits can lose their tax-exempt status for things like improperly paying its directors, endorsing a political candidate or operating a business unrelated to its charitable mission.

In short, tax attorneys say nonprofits must operate “exclusively for charitable purposes,” which is a different standard than what the president referred to as, “acting in the public interest.”

Phil Hackney, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said, “Long history and precedent suggest that Harvard and institutions of higher education are operating for educational purposes, which are considered charitable,” under the tax code.

He said it would be exceedingly difficult to make a case that a college or university was not operating for charitable purposes under current law. However, Edward McCaffery, who teaches tax policy at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, warned there is precedent for the IRS revoking the tax-exempt status of colleges that the government could lean on.

“I think to dismiss it out of hand as over-the-top bluster and that the administration has no power to unilaterally pursue it, I think that’s naive,” McCaffery said. “This could happen.”

Has the IRS ever stripped a college of its tax-exempt status before?

Yes. In 1983, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that the IRS could deny tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, a private Christian university that banned interracial dating and marriage on campus, and Goldsboro Christian Schools, which employed racially discriminatory admissions policies.

The court found the IRS had some discretion to determine whether an organization seeking tax-exempt status met standards of “charity,” meaning that it “must serve a public purpose and not be contrary to established public policy.”

Nonetheless, McCaffery said, “The ability of the IRS just to come in and deny tax exemption, it better be a very clear, long-standing, deeply held public policy, and not political preferences for certain kinds of positions, attitudes and voting patterns.”

How can the IRS revoke a nonprofit’s tax-exempt status?

Usually, the IRS would open an audit, where it gathers evidence that a nonprofit is not operating exclusively for charitable purposes.

“The IRS would have to send to Harvard a proposed revocation of its status,” Hackney said. “At that point, Harvard would have many different means to talk with the IRS about why they believed they were within the law,” including suing.

However, Hackney said the U.S. Department of Treasury could implement new regulations, for example, stating that operating a diversity, equity and inclusion program is not consistent with charitable purposes. Such a change would usually take years to make and would run counter to decades of precedent, Hackney said.

“I am skeptical this effort will be successful,” he said. “If it were, this would be the most dramatic change of charitable law in my lifetime and I would say in the history of our charitable law.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Harvard University is 388 years old. A previous version stated it is 488 years old.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s claim that it can’t do anything to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S. “should be shocking,” a federal appeals court said Thursday in a blistering order that ratchets up the escalating conflict between the government’s executive and judicial branches.

A three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused to suspend a judge’s decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote that he and his two colleagues “cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.”

“This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time,” Wilkinson wrote.

The seven-page order amounts to an extraordinary condemnation of the administration’s position in Abrego Garcia’s case and also an ominous warning of the dangers of an escalating conflict between the judiciary and executive branches the court said threatens to “diminish both.” It says the judiciary will be hurt by the “constant intimations of its illegitimacy” while the executive branch “will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness.”

When asked by reporters Thursday afternoon if he believed Abrego Garcia was entitled to due process, Trump ducked the question.

“I have to refer, again, to the lawyers,” he said in the Oval Office. “I have to do what they ask me to do.”

The president added: “I had heard that there were a lot of things about a certain gentleman — perhaps it was that gentleman — that would make that case be a case that’s easily winnable on appeal. So we’ll just have to see. I’m gonna have to respond to the lawyers.”

The Justice Department didn’t immediately comment on the decision. In a brief accompanying their appeal, government lawyers argued that courts do not have the authority to “press-gang the President or his agents into taking any particular act of diplomacy.”

“Yet here, a single district court has inserted itself into the foreign policy of the United States and has tried to dictate it from the bench,” they wrote.

The panel said Republican President Donald Trump’s government is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”

“Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear,” Wilkinson wrote.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court said the Trump administration must work to bring back Abrego Garcia. An earlier order by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis “properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” the high court said in an unsigned order with no noted dissents.

The Justice Department appealed after Xinis on Tuesday ordered sworn testimony by at least four officials who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

The 4th Circuit panel denied the government’s request for a stay of Xinis’ order while they appeal.

“The relief the government is requesting is both extraordinary and premature,” the opinion says. “While we fully respect the Executive’s robust assertion of its Article II powers, we shall not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”

Wilkinson, the opinion’s author, was regarded as a contender for the Supreme Court seat that was ultimately filled by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005. Wilkinson’s conservative pedigree may complicate White House efforts to credibly assail him as a left-leaning jurist bent on thwarting the Trump administration’s agenda for political purposes, a fallback line of attack when judicial decisions run counter to the president’s wishes.

Joining Wilkinson in the ruling were judges Stephanie Thacker, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, and Robert Bruce King, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

White House officials claim they lack the authority to bring back the Salvadoran national from his native country. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele also said Monday that he would not return Abrego Garcia, likening it to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”

While initially acknowledging Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported, the administration has dug in its heels in recent days, describing him as a “terrorist” even though he was never criminally charged in the U.S.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that “he is not coming back to our country.”

Administration officials have conceded that Abrego Garcia shouldn’t have been sent to El Salvador, but they have insisted that he was a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say there is no evidence linking him to MS-13 or any other gang.

The appeals court panel concluded that Abrego Garcia deserves due process, even if the government can connect him to a gang.

“If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order,” the opinion says.

Xinis also was skeptical of assertions by White House officials and Bukele that they were unable to bring back Abrego Garcia. She described their statements as “two very misguided ships passing in the night.”

“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Xinis said Tuesday.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed reporting.

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Trump administration expected to reverse a controversial 2023 decision on the permanent location of U.S. Space Command, a review by the Defense Department inspector general could not determine why Colorado was chosen over Alabama.

The inspector general’s report, issued Friday, said this was in part due to a lack of access to senior defense officials during the Biden administration, when the review began.

The location of U.S. Space Command has significant implications for the local economy, given the fast growth in national defense spending in space-based communications and defenses.

In 2021, the Air Force identified Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred location for the new U.S. Space Command due to cost and other factors. But a temporary headquarters had already been established in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and after multiple delays President Joe Biden announced it as the permanent headquarters.

Alabama’s Republican congressional delegation accused the Biden administration of politicizing the decision. But Colorado, which has Republican and Democratic lawmakers, is home to many other Air Force and U.S. Space Force facilities.

As recently as last week, Rep. Mike Rogers House, an Alabama Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, told a panel at Auburn University he expects the decision to be reversed by the White House before the end of April.

The location of Space Command would be one of many decisions that have swung back and forth between Biden and President Donald Trump. For instance, Biden stopped the construction of the border wall that began during Trump’s first term, only to have Trump now vow to complete it. And Trump is again seeking to ban transgender troops from serving in the military, after Biden removed Trump’s first-term limitations.

The controversy over the basing decision began seven days before Trump’s first term expired, when his Air Force secretary announced Alabama would be home to Space Command, pending an environmental review.

That review was completed about six months into Biden’s term and found no significant impact with hosting the command in Alabama. But the new administration did not act on the decision.

Instead, a year later, the Biden White House said it was keeping the headquarters in Colorado Springs, citing the time that would be lost relocating staff and the headquarters to Huntsville.

The report said interviews has been requested with Biden’s Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to understand why Huntsville was not named, but the Biden White House would only allow the interviews if administration lawyers were present. The inspector general rejected that condition, saying it could affect its unfettered access to information.

By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth came a day after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a collection of major industry groups that had filed a lawsuit last year to stop the rule announced they had come to an agreement to throw out the rule. The groups that sued included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The banks and other groups had alleged the new rule — proposed last year under the administration of President Joe Biden — violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure or CARD Act of 2009, which was enacted to protect consumers from unfair practices by credit card companies. The groups claimed the new rule did not allow credit card issuers “to charge fees that sufficiently account for deterrence or consumer conduct, including with respect to repeat violations.”

“The parties agree that, in the Late Fee Rule, the Bureau violated the CARD Act by failing to allow card issuers to ‘charge penalty fees reasonable and proportional to violations,’” attorneys with the CFPB wrote in a joint motion on Monday with the banking groups to vacate the rule.

The banks have been pushing hard to stop the late fee rule, due to the potential billions of dollars the banks would lose in revenue. The CFPB estimated when it issued the proposal last year that banks brought in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.

“This is a win for consumers and common sense. If the CFPB’s rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most. It would have also penalized the millions of Americans who pay their credit card bills on time and reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances,” the banking groups and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Even if the lawsuit had gone forward, the banking groups had a good chance of winning as Pittman in a December ruling had said they would have likely prevailed as he found that the new rule violated the CARD Act by not allowing credit card issuers to charge penalty fees that are reasonable and proportional to violations.

The CFPB has been in turmoil since the Trump administration earlier this year began dismantling it, targeting it for mass firings and dropping various enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes. A federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stopped the agency’s demise.

The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of financial institutions and businesses.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at juanlozano70

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted out of the Pentagon by security on Tuesday, two defense officials said.

The officials said Caldwell’s sudden downfall was tied to an investigation into unauthorized disclosure of department information. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Caldwell, who served in the Marine Corps, was one of several senior advisers who worked closely with Hegseth. Caldwell’s ties to the secretary go back to Hegseth’s time as the head of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into financial difficulty during his time there. Caldwell worked at CVA beginning in 2013 as policy director and later as executive director.

He also was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal messaging chat that top Trump administration national security officials, including Hegseth, used to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen. The chat, set up by national security adviser Michael Waltz, included a number of top Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, was added to the group.

The officials did not disclose what leaks are being investigated, but there has been a crackdown across the Pentagon and the Trump administration on the disclosure of sensitive or classified information.

Caldwell’s ouster was first reported by Reuters.

On March 21, Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, said in a memo that the Pentagon was investigating what it said were leaks of national security information. Defense Department personnel could face polygraphs.

The memo referred to “recent unauthorized disclosures” but provided no details. Kasper warned that the investigation would begin immediately and result in a report to Hegseth.

“I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution,” Kasper said in the memo.

Caldwell, who graduated from Arizona State University in 2011, also worked as a public policy adviser at Defense Priorities, a think tank based in Washington.

By MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars meant to finance climate and infrastructure projects across the country.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, sided with conservation and nonprofit groups and issued a preliminary injunction until she rules on the merits of the lawsuit. The injunction is nationwide.

McElroy concluded that the seven nonprofits demonstrated that the freeze was “arbitrary and capricious” and that the powers asserted by the federal agencies, including the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, in halting the payouts were not found in federal law.

“Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a President’s agenda, nor do they have unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration,” she wrote.

Diane Yentel, the president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, welcomed the decision. It is the second legal victory for the organization, after a judge in February prevented the administration from issuing a broad freeze on all federal grants and contracts.

The nonprofits said that an executive order issued by Trump resulted in projects funded by these two laws being put on hold. As a result, funding from many federal agencies has been frozen for everything from urban forestry projects to weatherization programs to lead pipe remediation and has resulted in “serious and irreversible harm” to many groups.

“This funding freeze has already caused serious harm in communities, as nonprofits that provide critical services to our country’s most vulnerable have been forced to scale back operations, cancel projects, and consider laying off staff,” Yentel said. “This injunction offers much-needed relief and a path forward.”

Plaintiffs argued the freeze violated the Administration Procedure Act and contradicts a directive from the budget office that said the pause in funding in the executive order didn’t apply to all the funding. They also said there is no statutory provision that allows the federal agencies to freeze the funding.

Lawyers for the federal government responded that Congress gave agencies broad latitude to select recipients for the funding and that the plaintiffs failed to show that three of the seven agencies they sued have caused them any harm. They also argued that plaintiffs couldn’t seek relief through this lawsuit since they are already pursuing a similar challenge in a different court.

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided $550 billion in new infrastructure investments, but is set to expire in 2026. Another $30 billion came from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including for projects focused on clean energy and climate change.

Administration officials have said the decision to halt loans and grants funded by these two laws and others was necessary to ensure that spending complies with Trump’s recent blitz of executive orders. The Republican president wants to increase fossil fuel production, remove protections for transgender people and end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

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Today is Wednesday, April 9, the 99th day of 2025. There are 266 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 9, 1865, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia after four years of Civil War in the United States.

Also on this date:

In 1939, Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after the Black singer was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In 1940, during World War II, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway.

In 1942, during World War II, some 75,000 Philippine and American soldiers surrendered to Japanese troops, ending the Battle of Bataan in the Philippines. The prisoners of war were subsequently forced to march 65 miles (105 kilometers) to POW camps in what is now known as the Bataan Death March; thousands died or were killed en route.

In 1959, NASA introduced the “Mercury Seven,” its first seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald “Deke” Slayton.

In 1968, funerals, private and public, were held for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church and Morehouse College in Atlanta, five days after the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 2003, Baghdad fell to American troops during the Iraq War after six days of fighting.

In 2005, Britain’s Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, who took the title Duchess of Cornwall.

In 2018, federal agents raided the office of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, seizing records on matters including a $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Satirist-musician Tom Lehrer is 97.
• Actor Michael Learned is 86.
• Drummer Steve Gadd is 80.
• Actor Dennis Quaid is 71.
• Fashion designer Marc Jacobs is 62.
• Model-actor Paulina Porizkova is 60.
• Actor Cynthia Nixon is 59.
• Actor Keshia Knight Pulliam is 46.
• Actor Jay Baruchel is 43.
• Actor Leighton Meester is 39.
• Singer-songwriter Jazmine Sullivan is 38.
• Actor Kristen Stewart is 35.
• Actor Elle Fanning is 27.
• Rapper Lil Nas X is 26.
• Actor Isaac Hempstead Wright is 26.
• Singer Jackie Evancho (ee-VAYN’-koh) is 24.

At least 44 people died and 160 others were injured in the Dominican capital early Tuesday when the roof collapsed at an iconic nightclub where politicians, athletes and others were attending a merengue concert, authorities said.

Crews were searching for potential survivors in the rubble at the one-story Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, said Juan Manuel Mndez, director of the Center of Emergency Operations.

We presume that many of them are still alive, and that is why the authorities here will not give up until not a single person remains under that rubble, he said.

Nearly 12 hours after the top of the nightclub collapsed down onto patrons, rescue crews were still pulling out survivors from the debris. At the scene, firefighters removed blocks of broken concrete and sawed planks of wood to use them as planks to lift heavy debris as the noise of drills breaking through concrete filled the air.

The confirmed death toll had reached 44, Mndez said in the early afternoon. Earlier, officials had said there were at least 160 people injured.

Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi and sister of seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz, was among the victims. She had called President Luis Abinader at 12:49 a.m. saying she was trapped and that the roof had collapsed, First Lady Raquel Abraje told reporters. Officials said Cruz died later at the hospital.

This is too great a tragedy, Abraje said in a broken voice.

The Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic posted on X that MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel died. Officials had earlier rescued Dotel from the debris and transported him to a hospital.

Dotel played 15 years in the Majors, finishing his career as a Detroit Tiger in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Meanwhile, the injured include legislator Bray Vargas and merengue singer Rubby Prez, who was performing when the roof collapsed, officials said.

His manager, Enrique Paulino, whose shirt was spattered with blood, told reporters at the scene that the concert began shortly before midnight, with the roof collapsing almost an hour later, killing the group's saxophonist.

It happened so quickly. I managed to throw myself into a corner, he said, adding that he initially thought it was an earthquake.

It wasnt immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse.

Jet Set issued a statement saying it was cooperating with authorities. The loss of human life leaves us in a state of deep pain and dismay, it said.

It wasn't clear when the Jet Set building was last inspected.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Works told The Associated Press that all officials were on scene and not immediately available. She referred questions to the mayors office. A spokesperson for the mayors office could not be immediately reached for comment.

Prosecutor Rosalba Ramos told TV station CDN that while everyone wants to know what happened, authorities were still focused on finding survivors.

Manuel Olivo Ortiz, whose son attended the concert but did not return home, was among those anxiously waiting outside the club known for its traditional parties held on Monday where renowned national and international artists perform.

We're holding on only to God,, Olivo said.

Also awaiting word was Massiel Cuevas, godmother of 22-year-old Darlenys Batista.

I'm waiting for her. She's in there, I know she's in there, Cuevas said, firm in her belief that Batista would be pulled out alive.

President Abinader wrote on X that all rescue agencies are working tirelessly to help those affected.

We deeply regret the tragedy that occurred at the Jet Set nightclub. We have been following the incident minute by minute since it occurred, he wrote.

Abinader arrived at the scene and hugged those looking for friends and family, some with tears streaming down their faces.

We have faith in God that we will rescue even more people alive, he told reporters.

An official with a megaphone stood outside the club imploring the large crowd that had gathered to search for friends and relatives to give ambulances space.

You have to cooperate with authorities, please, he said. We are removing people.

At one hospital where the injured were taken, an official stood outside reading aloud the names of survivors as a crowd gathered around her and yelled out the names of their loved ones.

Meanwhile, dozens of people gathered at the National Institute of Forensic Pathology, which projected pictures of the victims so their loved ones could identify them.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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