WASHINGTON — The White House still employs 45 staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency despite the Tesla Inc. CEO’s departure in May — and they’re exempt from being furloughed during the government shutdown.
The arrangement was revealed in a memo released Thursday from the White House Office of Administration detailing the staffing plan while funding from Congress remains in limbo.
The White House shutdown plan also highlights a pattern of shifting definitions of essential and non-essential workers under President Donald Trump, who has furloughed 514 fewer White House staffers than he did during the last government shutdown under his watch in 2018.
Under the earlier plan, which former President Joe Biden also adopted but never had to implement, about 61% of staff in the Executive Office of the President were temporarily laid off. The current plan furloughs only 32% of the staff.
Despite keeping more of the White House staff on-the-job during the shutdown, Trump has said he is looking to lay off federal workers, instead of just furloughing them. The White House has said the cuts could number in the “thousands.”
Among the offices fully open despite the shutdown is DOGE, the government cost-cutting operation once led by Musk before he and Trump had a falling out over the president’s support of a deficit-expanding tax cut bill.
After Musk’s departure in May, the White House said DOGE had been decentralized, and that its teams throughout the government would report to their presidentially appointed agency heads. But the shutdown plan reveals that 45 DOGE staffers still work in the US DOGE Service, a component within the Executive Office of the President.
The memo from Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, did not explain why the DOGE staffers were exempt from furloughs. But DOGE’s predecessor office, the US Digital Service, was able to function through previous shutdowns because it had a separate source of funding from fees it charged other government agencies for its work.
Other parts of the White House are also seeing fewer furloughs this time. The Office of Management and Budget keeps 437 employees on duty, compared with 161 under the 2018 plan. The tax cut law — dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill — provided $100 million in long-term funding for the budget office.
The White House Office itself — the president’s immediate staff — holds on to 175 aides, slightly more than the 156 in the last shutdown. And Trump has almost doubled the number of retained workers in the executive residence to 40.
At the same time, Trump officials have signaled they will use the lapse in funding to pare back or shutter programs they oppose — especially in states that voted for his opponent last year. And the White House has threatened to permanently fire thousands of federal employees in the coming days, citing the lack of congressional funding.
The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment on the shutdown plan, but instead sent an automated out-of-office reply echoing the administration’s political talking points.
“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the message said. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
US Capitol Police officers stand at a security checkpoint at the US Capitol building on the third day of the US government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2025. The US government shutdown appeared likely to stretch into next week as senators prepared Friday to vote for a fourth time on a funding fix proposed by Donald Trump’s Republicans that has little… (Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
On Monday, YouTube became the latest media and tech company to settle one of President Donald Trump’s lawsuits.
The Google-owned streamer agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit Trump filed after his account was banned following the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. That brings Trump’s haul from media and tech companies to more than $90 million in the last year.
Some of these suits deal with conflicts the president has experienced with news networks such as ABC and CBS. Others confront the fallout from the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Some of the settlement money will pay for renovations to a presidential library Trump is building on 2.6 acres of waterfront property in Miami. Other funds will go to the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall, with the intention of building a Mar-a-Lago-style ballroom, which is expected to cost $200 million overall.
Here’s a rundown of the payouts:
YouTube: $24.5 million
After the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, YouTube suspended the president’s account on the platform because of Trump’s alleged role in the insurrection. At the time, the company had cited “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence” and violation of its “policies for inciting violence.”
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in 2021 at the U.S. District Court in Northern California, argued the account’s suspension was “censorship.” Before the case was settled, YouTube had already lifted its suspension on Trump in March 2023, in light of the then-upcoming presidential race.
In court documents filed Monday, Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube and Google, did not admit any wrongdoing in the matter. The company did not agree to make any policy or product changes in the deal.
Of the $24.5 million, $22 million is going to Trump, who will contribute the money to the Trust for the National Mall, which is “dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating the National Mall” as well as supporting the construction of the White House State Ballroom, according to the filing.
Alphabet will also have to pay an additional $2.5 million to other plaintiffs in the case, including the American Conservative Union and writer Naomi Wolf.
Meta and Twitter (X): $35 million
Social media platforms Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter (now X) had suspended Trump’s accounts over Jan. 6, 2021. At the time, Twitter put out a statement, saying that recent tweets from his “account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter” had to be suspended to avoid “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Mark Zuckerberg of Meta also posted a statement on Facebook after banning Trump’s Meta accounts. He wrote, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”
In July of that year, Trump sued the companies for “censorship.”
By January 2023, Meta had reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, as had X in 2022.
Shortly before Trump was going to take office for his second term, in January 2025, Meta decided to pay the incoming president $25 million to settle the lawsuit. Elon Musk, who had purchased Twitter and renamed it “X” in the interim, agreed to pay $10 million to settle its Trump case.
Paramount Global: $16 million
Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to resolve Trump’s legal salvo against “60 Minutes” over the editing of an interview with his 2024 opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump claimed “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Harris to make her look better and bolster her chances in the election. CBS denied the claims, saying the edits were standard and the case was viewed as frivolous by 1st Amendment experts.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that CBS “did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn’t work for them.”
Last May, CBS offered $16 million to settle the civil suit filed in Texas. The lump sum included the president’s legal fees and an agreement that “60 Minutes” will release transcripts of interviews with future presidential candidates.
Less than a month after the settlement, the FCC approved Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount, which owns CBS.
Disney: $16 million
Earlier this year, ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos appeared on the network’s “This Week” news program and asserted that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. In May 2023, a jury in New York declined to find Trump liable for rape, but did find him liable for sexual abuse of Carroll.
Trump responded to the on-air comments with a defamation lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida. The lawsuit was settled by ABC News, owned by Disney, last December. Disney agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library and $1 million of Trump’s legal fees.
The settlement also included an editor’s note, posted on the ABC News website, expressing regret for Stephanopoulos’ comments.
(Los Angeles Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.)
President Donald Trump departs the White House for a quick flight to Quantico, Virginia, where he will meet with a gathering of generals and admirals on Sept. 30, 2025. (Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire/TNS)
The Trump administration is continuing its push to revise federal guidelines to delay the hepatitis B vaccine newborn dose for most children. This comes despite a failed attempt to do so at the most recent meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Both President Donald Trump and some newly appointed ACIP members have mischaracterized how the liver disease spreads, according to medical experts, including those working at the CDC. The ACIP panel’s recommendations can determine insurance coverage for immunizations.
At a White House press conference on Sept. 22, Trump, in advocating for delaying the newborn vaccine dose, falsely claimed that hepatitis B is solely a sexually transmitted infection.
“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born hepatitis B. So I would say wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed and take hepatitis B,” Trump said.
Hepatitis B is a highly infectious virus that attacks the liver and is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, including blood. It can also be passed from mother to baby.
A reporter asked if Trump had spoken with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, about making the change, and Trump said he had, as Kennedy looked on.
Although hepatitis B is often associated with high-risk behaviors such as injection drug use or having multiple sexual partners, health experts, including career CDC scientists, note that the virus can be transmitted in ordinary situations too, including among young children.
At the latest ACIP meeting, held Sept. 18 and 19, members debated postponing the hepatitis B newborn dose until 1 month of age.
CDC scientist Adam Langer outlined research showing incidences of unvaccinated children born in the U.S. to mothers who tested negative, later becoming infected with hepatitis B. Langer serves as acting principal deputy director for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention.
Langer told the vaccine advisory panel that the virus can survive for over seven days outside the body on surfaces. During that time, contact with even microscopic traces of infected blood on a school desk or on playground or sporting equipment is enough for a child to be infected. This means unvaccinated children not considered at high risk can still be exposed in everyday environments, or by an infected caregiver.
“We do have data that says that it can happen and that it is likely to happen,” he said. Though the exact cause of infection may not be clear in documented cases of children of hepatitis B-negative mothers becoming infected, “I can tell you that it didn’t come from the mother and it didn’t come from injection drug use and it didn’t come from sexual contact, so that means that it had to have been some kind of casual contact,” Langer said.
Yet during the debate, some members gave little credence to the risk of transmission to children through household contact.
“This is a very, very important vaccine that should be given to the high-risk populations,” said ACIP voting member Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “The high-risk populations seem to be babies born to hep B-positive mothers, drug addicts, and other populations at high risk,” he said, despite Langer’s presentation highlighting other avenues of possible transmission.
Contrary to research that was presented, Levi later said the risk of not vaccinating children of hepatitis B-negative mothers was “probably close to zero” in the first few years of life.
The CDC estimates 2.4 million people in the U.S. have hepatitis B and half do not know they are infected. The disease can range from an acute, mild infection to a chronic infection, often with few to no symptoms. The disease has no cure and, if left untreated, can lead to serious conditions like cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer later in life.
During debate on the vote to delay the newborn dose, ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln said that the proposed one-month gap would leave some children vulnerable to the virus, even if their mothers test negative for hepatitis B.
“This assumes implicitly that all the infections are coming from moms,” Hibbeln said. “You can’t decide on that simply by the mother’s status. You would have to look at the entire household’s status.”
ACIP member Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist, asserted that doctors could ascertain an entire household’s hepatitis B status by asking the mother.
“How are they going to know?” Hibbeln said. “If 50% of people don’t know that they are hepatitis B-positive, you can ask all you want, and nobody knows.”
The committee members, all handpicked by Kennedy, ultimately decided to table the vote on whether to delay the newborn dose after Hibbeln brought up inconsistencies in the wording of the text of the resolution.
“The notion that hepatitis B is only confined to transmission for prostitutes, drug users, etc. is such an ignorant and uninformed way of approaching infectious disease,” internist Jason Goldman, the president of the American College of Physicians and its liaison to ACIP, said when reached after the meeting.
“The virus does not care what your behavior or lifestyle is. The virus goes from person to person through bodily fluids,” Goldman said. It can be transmitted when an unvaccinated person touches infected bodily fluids on common surfaces and then accidentally touches the eyes or mouth. “What if someone was in a car accident and got exposed to blood?”
“It is not only mother-to-fetus transmission, it is not only certain risk groups,” he said. “This is why it’s universal; everyone should get this for their protection, and it is unfortunate that it is being politicized into a sexually transmitted disease and that’s it. That’s not an appropriate way to evaluate science.”
Pediatric vaccination recommendations are widely credited with nearly eliminating the virus in American-born children.
Babies infected at birth have a 90% chance of developing chronic hepatitis B, and a quarter of those children go on to have severe complications, like liver cancer, or to die from the disease.
In 1991, federal health officials determined newborns should receive their first dose of a hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, which can block the virus from taking hold if transmitted during delivery. From 1990 to 2022, case rates of hepatitis B declined by more than 99%. While parents may opt out of the shots, many day care centers and school districts require proof of hepatitis B vaccination for enrollment.
The next meeting of the ACIP is scheduled to begin Oct. 22. Agendas are usually posted weeks in advance, but so far, no information on the substance of the upcoming meeting has appeared on the CDC’s website. The agenda for the September meeting was posted less than a week before the meeting’s start.
Evelyn Griffin is seen during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Sept. 19, 2025, in Chamblee, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images North America/TNS)
President Donald Trump and top congressional leaders have strong political incentives to stoke the ongoing stalemate during a White House meeting Monday even as they drive the U.S. to its first government shutdown in nearly seven years.
Democrats are keen to use the shutdown battle to frame the next election around rising costs, particularly for health care. Republicans are equally eager to blame the Democrats and show them to be poor stewards of the government and the U.S. economy ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Progressive Democrats are putting party leaders under enormous pressure to show they are willing to fight the Trump administration. Those leaders are confident they can unite their caucus behind the health care issue and prevent a defection by the eight Democrats needed to pass the Republican bill, which would keep the government funded until Nov. 21.
GOP leaders say they can negotiate after the short-term bill is passed, but Democrats have said they don’t trust Trump or the Republican leaders to keep that promise. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Monday that Trump has leverage in the fight because the public dislikes government shutdowns.
“There is zero good reason for Democrats to vote against this clean continuing resolution,” Leavitt said. “The president is giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today. Look, there is nothing to negotiate when you have a clean CR look.”
Democrats want to spend $350 billion to permanently extend Obamacare tax credits to middle-class families, to avoid a premium spike on Jan. 1. They also want the bill to repeal Medicaid cuts in the giant Trump tax bill, including new work requirements and a crackdown on an accounting gimmick that has allowed states to increase their Medicaid reimbursement rates. They also want to reverse cuts to medical research and block the White House from rescinding previously enacted appropriations.
“Our position has been very clear: cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save health care so we can address the issues that really matter to the American people in an environment where the cost of living is too high,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.
Trump has tied Democrats’ demands to the hot-button issue of migration, accusing them of seeking to funnel $1 trillion in taxpayer funds for undocumented immigrants.
That claim is wildly exaggerated, but based lon an aspect of the Democratic proposal, which would effectively increase federal Medicaid reimbursements to states that pay for emergency care for undocumented migrants.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the current restriction saves $28 billion over 10 years. They also want to repeal a separate provision that clarifies parolees and asylum seekers with temporary permission to remain the U.S. can’t receive Obamacare subsidies would save $119 billion over 10 years.
Trump gave no indication Sunday that the meeting would offer an easy resolution.
“I just don’t know how we are going to solve this issue,” Trump said in a phone interview with CBS News. He continued his criticism of Democrats’ negotiation posture, saying “they’re not interested in fraud, waste and abuse,” which is the only thing Republicans claim they are cutting from the budget.
The Trump administration has also threatened Democrats with mass firings of federal workers in the wake of any shutdown, supercharging a downsizing overseen by White House budget Director Russ Vought.
Instead of merely furloughing non-essential workers, as is usual during a shutdown, the administration is preparing to permanently end a number of jobs likely in the areas of the environment, agriculture and labor regulation.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday dismissed the threat as something Trump was going to do anyway. October layoffs were already in the works and the shutdown could allow the White House to blame Democrats for any economic fallout from the layoffs, while satisfying small-government conservatives in the party base.
Leavitt on Monday said that there won’t be any layoffs if the government remains open.
Democrats such as Senator Amy Klobuchar told reporters last week that the party is not demanding its entire proposal in exchange for voting for a GOP bill to keep the lights on through Nov. 21. The talks Monday signal the pressure on the White House to at least meet with Democrats worked.
“We never said that we need to have every single thing and that every single thing’s a red line. We want to negotiate with them to make this health care crisis less bad,” Klobuchar, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, said Friday.
She and other senators said this weekend that a mere promise from the GOP to talk later won’t suffice.
But that is precisely what Senate Majority Leader John Thune is suggesting.
“We can have that conversation. But before we do, release the hostage. Set the American people free. Keep the government open, and then let’s have a conversation about those premium tax credits,” Thune said on NBC’s Meet the Press. He said any possible deal on Obamacare subsidies isn’t ready.
Republicans are divided on the Obamacare issue. Twelve swing-district House Republicans have signed onto a bill to extend them by a year, while Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is spearheading an effort to extend them by two years. Other moderates say they want to phase in an income limit to prevent high earners from claiming the benefit and introduce greater fraud controls.
Conservatives are standing firm, arguing that the COVID pandemic-era subsidies were meant to be temporary. Some argue that any deal on the premiums would have to include new restrictions preventing Obamacare plans from covering abortion and transgender-related procedures.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that the meeting on Monday will be an opportunity for Trump to tell Democrats to drop their demands.
“Think of it, troops won’t be paid because Chuck Schumer needs political cover. I mean, it’s really that simple and I think everybody is going to see that clearly,” Johnson said. “The president wants to talk with him about that and say, ‘Don’t do that.’”
Schumer said he expects a substantive meeting.
“We’ll see on Monday — are they serious about negotiating with us,” he said.
With assistance from Lauren Dezenski and Josh Wingrove.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters outside his office at the U.S. Capitol Building on Sept. 18, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America/TNS)
U.S. Rep. John James, a GOP candidate to be Michigan’s next governor, told a group Monday that he “was screwed” in his 2020 U.S. Senate race and suggested he’ll pursue “consequences” for those who had wronged Republicans five years ago.
The comments, made at a meet-and-greet gathering in Kent County that was not open to reporters, provided new insight into how James of Shelby Township views lingering but unproven claims of widespread election fraud in the battleground state he’s seeking to lead.
During the event inside the Kent County GOP office, an attendee asked James about the voting system in Michigan being “totally corrupt” and Republican state senators investigating the 2020 vote but finding no evidence of systematic fraud.
“How about this: Get you a governor who was screwed in 2020 and you’ll get consequences for those who did you wrong,” James replied, according to an audio recording of the discussion obtained by The Detroit News.
The remarks clashed with the fact that James publicly conceded his loss to Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township three weeks after the 2020 election and won a closer contest in 2022 for the U.S. House.
In 2020, Peters beat James by 1.7 percentage points statewide, 49.9%-48.2%, or by more than 92,000 votes. In 2022, James defeated Democrat Carl Marlinga for the 10th District U.S. House seat by less than 1 percentage point, 48.8%-48.3%, or 1,600 votes.
In a Wednesday interview, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democratic candidate for governor and Michigan’s top election official, labeled the comments by James “disqualifying for anyone who seeks to lead the state.”
“The 2020 election was safe, secure,” Benson said. “It is the most audited election in Michigan history, with over 250 audits all reaffirming the election results, which is that James lost, (Republican President Donald) Trump lost. And it’s high time that all leaders in the state abandon conspiracy theories about the election.”
The bipartisan Board of State Canvassers certified the 2020 election results in a 3-0 vote in which Republican canvasser Aaron Van Langevelde joined the two Democratic canvassers in approving the results, while Republican canvasser Norm Shinkle abstained.
The James campaign didn’t directly respond to a series of questions from The News about his speech in Kent County. Instead, James posted on X that Benson “illegally altered election rules at the eleventh hour.”
“As governor, I will rigorously investigate and expose past government overreach and partisan abuses in Lansing,” James added. “My administration will restore integrity, implement robust election oversight, rebuild public trust and promote transparent, impartial governance to protect the rights of every Michigander.”
Over the last five years, President Donald Trump has maintained that there was “massive fraud” in Michigan’s 2020 election, but he hasn’t provided evidence to prove his claims. The comments by James this week appeared to be his most direct, alleging there was wrongdoing in the vote five years ago.
In 2020, Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 3 percentage points, 48%-51%, or about 154,000 votes. The Republican president’s advisers sought to overturn the result, and Trump himself pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification.
Because James’ loss to Peters was tighter than Trump’s defeat, it was significant that James conceded to Peters on Nov. 24, as Trump continued to contest the election in Michigan.
“It’s too late for me,” James said on Nov. 24, 2020. “While I look forward to participating in efforts to secure both reasonable franchise and integrity in our election in the near future, today is the right time for me to congratulate Sen. Gary Peters.”
A lawyer for the James campaign had previously told the Wayne County Board of Canvassers he had “very serious concerns” about the way the election was administered in Democratic-dominated Wayne County. Republicans have also repeatedly criticized Benson’s decision to send absentee ballot applications to all of Michigan’s registered voters in 2020, but the courts upheld her power to do so.
During the Monday event, James said if Republicans don’t win next year’s gubernatorial election, Benson, who’s been the state’s top election official since 2019, “is going to be your governor.”
“You think she stole one election?” James then asked. “Just wait.”
Someone in the crowd could be heard responding, “Unless she’s in jail,” according to the recording reviewed by The News.
James then answered, “How’s that going to happen? Somebody who’s going to hold her accountable for their crimes, right?”
Benson said James’ remarks were “dangerous and disqualifying.”
“It’s particularly dangerous at a time when political violence is on the rise,” the Democratic secretary of state said.
Benson is in a three-candidate race for the Democratic nomination for governor against Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II of Detroit and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson of Fenton.
Curtis Hertel, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said James was “repeating Trump’s election denial conspiracy theories and dangerously suggesting there will be ‘consequences’ if he’s elected.”
“Michiganders have rejected James’ extremism twice before, and if he somehow makes it out of his messy primary and to the general election, James will lose statewide again,” Hertel said.
A Kent County Republican official at Monday’s event specifically asked members of the media to “depart at this time” before James began his address, according to the recording.
Among the people who remained inside the venue was Jarret Jakubowski, a member of the Kent County GOP’s executive committee. James’ comments about the 2020 election were “red meat” for party members, Jakubowski said, referring to his interpretation of them.
“The 2020 election was not the most secure and the most safe ever,” Jakubowski said.
Of the person in the crowd who suggested Benson might be sent to jail, Jakubowski said he didn’t know who made the remark. People tend to be “over-the-top” in their wishful thoughts, he added.
John James, R- Mich., introduced legislation passed by the House that calls for the creation of a new federal working group on critical supply chains, but authorizes no additional federal spending or loan authorizations. (Daniel Mears/The Detroit News/TNS)
NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — The conversations in French having given them away, the group of motorcyclists immediately stood out as foreigners over a Saturday breakfast in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
In the restaurant, the server was pleased, thanking them for coming. Because these days, tariffs and White House rhetoric have left Canadians a rare breed of visitors in New England, usually a hotspot vacation destination from the nearby province of Quebec.
“There’s a lot of people staying in Canada because of that,” said Dave Gingras, a 35-year-old biker from Saguenay, about two hours north of Quebec City.
While other Canadians are avoiding buying American products or traveling to the States, the group of 11 decided to leave politics behind on their road trip through New England.
“We are just keeping it neutral and trying to enjoy,” Gingras told Stateline.
After breakfast, they donned helmets and mounted an assortment of dusty Yamaha, BMW and Triumph bikes.
“We drive and when we’re tired, we stop and raise up a tent and relax with a beer,” Gingras said before pulling into a line of crawling traffic on the White Mountain Highway, the scenic byway dotted with quaint inns, old-timey stores and Colonial and Victorian homes.
Canadian Dave Gingras prepares to mount his Yamaha adventure bike on Aug. 2 in North Conway, New Hampshire. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)
Across Northeastern states, business owners and state officials have labored to maintain key economic connections with Canada despite the rhetoric coming out of the White House. President Donald Trump’s trade war, aggressive immigration enforcement and talk of making their country the 51st state has offended many Canadians. While concerns are acute in New England, tourism hubs from Hawaii to New York are reeling from a decrease in Canadian visitors.
To quell tensions, Maine leaders erected signs in French to welcome Canadian visitors and New Hampshire’s governor just returned from a Canadian trip she took to strengthen trade and tourism.
But hospitality businesses this summer reported a sharp decline in visitors from the North — Canadian travel to New Hampshire is down about 30% this year, according to state officials. Border crossings into Vermont hit their lowest levels since 2021, according to federal data, as the Canadian government reported a 34% drop in the number of August car visits into the U.S. compared with the same month last year.
New England businesses remain concerned as the region turns the page on the summer vacation season to its vibrant autumn, known for luring leaf-peeping travelers from across the globe.
Tourism is vital for White Mountain Valley communities like North Conway. While it’s home to only about 2,300 people, the village is a historic travel hotspot known for outdoor activities, tax-free shopping and family-friendly theme parks.
While many people think of the area as a winter ski destination, summers are actually the largest travel draw, said Chris Proulx, executive director of the Mt. Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce.
The drop in Canadian tourism has been especially evident during less popular travel times for Americans. For example, Canada’s Victoria Day, a late May holiday celebrating that queen’s birthday, has traditionally brought big crowds to the Northeast.
“Our retail outlets are a very, very popular destination for them during that time,” Proulx said. “And our retail outlets have reported that it was basically nonexistent this year.”
Proulx said local businesses have tried to lure travelers from close-by regions like the Boston area to help make up for the loss of Canadian tourists, “so it’s not an unrecoverable loss.” But the absence of visitors from parts North is hard to ignore.
“It almost feels like a birder might feel if they find a rare species,” he said. “If you see someone with a Canadian license plate, you notice it right away. It gives you a little bit of a smile.”
Aside from the economic loss, Proulx said he worries about longstanding relationships.
This scenic valley is nostalgic for many visitors from the U.S. and Canada alike. He said many people return again and again, sharing fond memories of their first camping trip along the Saco River, childhood trips to the Santa’s Village amusement park and picturesque rides on the Conway Scenic Railroad.
“So we just don’t want anybody thinking that they’re not welcomed here. That’s our biggest thing,” he said. “We want everybody to be able to call this their second home, to be able to visit and reconnect and feel welcomed.”
‘Towns are quieter’
In the heart of North Conway, tourists picnic on the grass in Schouler Park, look into the 1874-era train station and meander into shops selling hokey souvenirs and homemade fudge. Framing the village is the imposing Mount Washington, which at 6,288 feet boasts the tallest peak in the Northeast.
At one of the town’s busiest intersections, the crowds come in waves to the North Conway 5&10 Store. But even as families line up, employee Polly Howe said she hadn’t seen many Canadians this summer.
“It’s a shame,” she said, bouncing between the cash register, the candy counter and stocking staples like toys and hats.
In a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the souvenir shop has been around for 86 years and features a false-front facade, the kind made famous in boomtowns of the Old West. Manager Terri Johnson said she had encountered a good number of Canadians inside the shop, but said she didn’t blame any who felt put off by the political climate.
“I’m thankful they still come after all that,” she said.
It’s not just international relations that have changed tourism here.
A rainy start to the summer season didn’t help, and business owners say anxiety over the domestic economy and inflation have pinched travel budgets.
Mark Lahood says family travel has dipped at the three hotels he operates in the area.
“Towns are quieter,” he said this summer. “They’re not quiet, but they’re much quieter than years’ past.”
Some summer weekends, which traditionally sell out entirely, the three hotels had 30% vacancies, he said. And travelers are more keen for weekend trips than their weeklong road trips of previous seasons.
“With a seven-day trip, by the time they were all in, it’s a lot of driving, it’s a lot of gas money, it’s a lot of meals, it’s a lot of hotels,” he said. “And I think it’s just too much.”
To help with rising costs, he ran a free breakfast promotion for kids earlier in the summer. And he increased an existing international discount for Canadian guests.
“Did it help anything? Probably not. But you know, when you view it from a Canadian traveler, at least you made an effort.”
The decline in Canadian visitors has allowed for more local, spontaneous travel, said Genn Anzaldi, who owns J-Town Deli & Country Store in Jackson, New Hampshire.
“More day trippers for sure,” she said. “So maybe not as many people spending the night or as many nights.”
Shoppers walk outside the North Conway 5& 10 Store on Aug. 2 in North Conway, New Hampshire. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)
The scent of sizzling bacon and toasting panini fills her shop, which offers hot meals along with handmade gifts and convenience store staples.
Anzaldi, who also runs a cooperative marketing effort for a group of independent restaurants, said the local restaurant business was down, but not significantly.
The reason?
“Canadians,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s the economy. That seems to be going well.”
About nine miles away from North Conway, things are a bit quieter in Jackson, home to a famed one-lane covered bridge. With its spas and boutique hotels, Anzaldi said the community is more known as a destination for weddings, romantic stays and outdoor getaways.
While Anzaldi said she hopes Canadian tensions settle soon, she noted that the matter lies in the political domain and there’s little business owners can do but carry on.
“We have to run, right?” she said. “We’re not personally going to go up and advertise.”
States try to ease federal tension
To maintain tourism and trade, Democratic and Republican politicians in the Northeast have made overtures to their counterparts in Canada.
Since Trump’s inauguration, Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has met with Maine businesses near the border, embarked on a diplomatic Canadian tour and even installed “Bienvenue Canadiens” welcome signs near border crossings. But on her trip this summer, she was reminded that it’s not just tariffs that have irked Canadians — many are also worried about the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
“Lots of people don’t feel safe in the U.S. right now and for good reason,” Susan Holt, the premier of the New Brunswick province, told Mills, according to local news accounts. Holt has encouraged her constituents to avoid traveling to the United States.
Last year, the state said some 800,000 Canadians visited Maine. On her June trip, Mills asked Canadians to remember those who rely on the tourism industry.
“To the extent people feel angst about coming to Maine, just remember that if they aren’t coming to Maine, the ones that they’re hurting are the small mom and pop businesses,” the governor told News Center Maine while in Halifax.
Mills’ office did not respond to Stateline’s requests for comment.
Similarly, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte said ahead of a trade mission that she aimed to welcome Canadians to the Granite State, the New Hampshire Bulletin reported.
“That’s one of the things I’m going to just continue to promote on behalf of New Hampshire,” Ayotte said last month. “Not only that they’re welcome here — the Canadians — but we have open arms to them.”
Polly Howe stocks the shelves with merchandise on Aug. 1, at the North Conway 5& 10 Store in North Conway, New Hampshire. (Kevin Hardy/Stateline/TNS)
Ayotte’s office did not respond to Stateline’s requests for comment about her trip.
René Sylvestre, the Quebec province’s delegate to New England, said those gestures are appreciated. He spends much of his time meeting with state and business leaders. Last month, he met numerous state lawmakers at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Boston, where he is posted.
But he said calming federal tensions will be key to seeing a rebound in tourism.
“What we can see right now is people in Quebec are really sad with the whole situation,” he told Stateline. “But they’re saying, ‘Maybe we should stay and spend more time in Canada these days.’ So this is really the impact that we’ve seen, and we think that it’s going to take a while before it’s back to normal.”
A decline in international travel has hit border communities across the country — from New York state to Washington state. North Dakota estimated that Canadian visitors spent about $14.4 million less in the first half of the year compared with last year, as the number of personal vehicles crossing the border from Canada declined by 30%. Other hubs for international visitors, including Las Vegas and Hawaii, are also seeing significant declines.
“Right now, it’s hard to turn back federal policy,” Hawaii state Sen. Ron Kouchi told Stateline in August.
Kouchi, a Democrat and president of the state Senate, said Canada has traditionally been among Hawaii’s top five travel markets. The state has sent tourism officials to trade shows and is trying to show Canadians, like all visitors, the Aloha State’s iconic hospitality. But he said that message hasn’t been persuasive, even coming from leaders of the solidly liberal state.
“While we argue about Republicans or Democrats, in other nations they simply look at Americans and they don’t see it as an R or a D thing,” he said. “It’s an American thing.”
A stormy beach season
Old Orchard Beach in Maine is a favorite of New Englanders and Canadians alike.
Part of the Portland metropolitan area, the vacation town sports a seaside amusement park and seven miles of sandy beaches. But some Canadians started to cancel their summer reservations to the area early on in Trump’s term.
Sean Nickless, who co-owns the 30-room Crest Motel with his family, said Canadians began calling off trips in January and February,
Those cancellations and poor weather foretold a slower summer. “It’s not as steady,” Nickless said, noting business had been inconsistent with shorter stays.
Like many of the other beachfront properties here, the retro Crest Motel relies heavily on repeat customers, filled out by the occasional road tripper who ducks in from the angled carport to ask about an available room.
“The best you can do is let Canadians know they’re still welcome here,” he said from the motel’s small lobby scented with the aroma of a drip coffeemaker and a bright popcorn machine.
At the height of summer, rain ushered in what should have been a booming weekend along the Atlantic’s Saco Bay. Crest Motel guests swam, but only under the cover of the pool’s rolling roof.
Down the way, five teenagers stood listlessly inside a walkup Dairy Queen with no customers to serve. On the pier, arcade games, $1-per-visit restrooms and barstools sat idle. Few took up heavily advertised offers for pizza by the slice, $15 lobster rolls or fried clam cakes.
“I’ve never driven around Old Orchard Beach in the summer and seen ‘vacancy signs.’ I have this year,” said state Sen. Donna Bailey, who represents the community. “I mean, you just never see that in the middle of July — all you see is ‘no vacancy’ signs.” A Democrat, Bailey emphasized that Canada isn’t some far-off destination for Mainers. People routinely cross the border for health care and work. They have friends and family on both sides.
“I mean, there’s some places up in northern Maine that the nearest hospital is in Canada, as opposed to in the United States. You know, some people have their babies over in Canada.”
But aside from emphasizing existing bonds, Bailey said Maine residents and officials were largely at the mercy of the federal government’s actions.
“I think it’s helpful to remind the Canadians of our personal relationship and that we are Maine and we’re Mainers, and so we’re not necessarily the same as the federal government,” she said. “But, yeah, it does only go so far.”
Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called on the leaders of a fiercely divided Michigan Legislature to “work together” to approve a new budget Tuesday, 14 days before a deadline that could trigger a shutdown of state government.
During a 20-minute speech inside the Michigan Capitol’s Heritage Hall, Whitmer, a second-term Democrat who returned from a trade mission to Asia and Germany in recent days, made her most direct plea to lawmakers yet, amid a months-long budget battle.
She also appeared to pull closer than before to Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, who’s been in a political standoff with House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township.
“While we stand on different sides of the aisle, we all basically want the same things: Happy, healthy children, good-paying jobs, food on the table, safe communities and a strong future,” Whitmer said at one point. “That is our task at hand. Let’s get it done. Let’s get to work.”
The governor’s speech focused on economic turmoil facing the country and Michigan, contending that tariffs imposed by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration and the lack of a budget were both sources of uncertainty that were bad for residents, businesses and job creation.
“We must work together to get certainty here in Michigan,” Whitmer said.
Whitmer has previously touted her ability to work across the aisle, but there’s been little bipartisan cooperation in Lansing since Republicans won control of the state House last November.
Hall, who has prioritized trimming spending, and Brinks have struggled to agree on budget priorities and missed the Legislature’s self-imposed deadline of July 1 to approve a new financial plan for state agencies, K-12 schools and universities. The House didn’t pass its own budget proposal until Aug. 26, months later than the chamber normally would.
Now, Whitmer and lawmakers face a constitutional deadline of Oct. 1, when the state’s next fiscal year begins. Without a budget in place by then, thousands of state workers would likely be laid off, state parks would close, some daycare programs might shutter and liquor purchases could be limited.
Hall has frequently promoted his relationship with Whitmer, but he wasn’t present for her speech Tuesday. Instead, Brinks and House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri, D-Canton Township, were in the front row.
“I know that Leader Brinks is available and ready,” Whitmer said during her remarks. “My team and I are ready to go. We can still do this on time.”
The governor didn’t harshly criticize Hall by name but said she wouldn’t sign the $79 billion budget plan that House Republicans put forward that would bring large cuts to an array of state programs, including the Michigan State Police, the Department of Natural Resources, the attorney general’s office, civil rights operations and hospitals.
After the speech, Brinks said the Senate stood with Whitmer “committed to getting a budget done” but, she added, there were “delays and obstruction” coming from the House.
“The reality is Democrats … control of the Senate,” Brinks said. “Democrats control the governor’s office.
Of Hall, she said, “And he needs to work with us to come up with a compromise. If he is unwilling to do that, he is not doing his job for the people of Michigan.”
In February, Whitmer put forth an $83.5 billion budget for next year.
Both Hall and Whitmer have said they want to find $3 billion in additional funding for roads in next year’s plan. Hall would achieve it through redirecting money from other state spending, while Whitmer and Brinks prefer a mixture of cuts and new revenue, likely from some form of tax increases.
Also, Whitmer called on Tuesday for additional “job creation tools” to make it easier to build factories in the state, to retain jobs and to incentivize innovation.
Whitmer has previously championed a program she launched during her first term called the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund to provide dollars to pay for cash incentives for businesses bringing jobs to Michigan and to prepare large sites for development.
A wide-ranging tax law Whitmer signed in 2023 provided $500 million in annual funding for SOAR over three years. This current year is the final one in which the funding is reserved.
“We have to do something to deliver more wins for Michigan because competition is fierce,” Whitmer said.
Brinks referenced SOAR’s expiration after the speech.
“It doesn’t mean that we should be without any tools,” Brinks said. “So that is the subject of some conversation.”
Brinks told reporters there is still a path to get the budget done on time. But, she said, she wants to see a “change in approach” from the House.
“Should that not happen, we will get our leadership team together and make some decisions about what the best course forward is,” Brinks said.
In a statement Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, who’s campaigning to be Michigan’s next governor, said he was glad Whitmer is “finally back from another taxpayer-funded trip overseas because the clock is ticking.”
“It’s time to lead Democrats to the bargaining table to pass a balanced budget that fixes Michigan’s crumbling roads and bridges, puts kids first by focusing on reading and math and respects taxpayers enough to not reach deeper into their pockets,” Nesbitt said. “Republicans have put forward real plans to do this.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer makes a point during her talk Monday afternoon. (GEORGE NORKUS–For The Macomb Daily)
Pharmacies in Black and Latino neighborhoods are less likely to dispense buprenorphine — one of the main treatments for opioid use disorder — even though people of color are more likely to die from opioid overdoses.
The drug helps reduce cravings for opioids and the likelihood of a fatal overdose.
While the nation as a whole has seen decreases in opioid overdose deaths in recent years, overdose deaths among Black, Latino and Indigenous people have continued to increase.
Many medical and health policy experts fear the broad domestic policy law President Donald Trump signed in July will worsen the problem by increasing the number of people without health insurance. As a result of the law, the number of people without coverage will increase by about 10 million by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
About 7.5 million of the people who will lose coverage under the new law are covered by Medicaid. Shortly before Trump signed the bill into law, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University estimated that roughly 156,000 Medicaid recipients will lose access to medications for opioid addiction because of the cuts, resulting in approximately 1,000 more overdose deaths annually.
Because Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented on the rolls, the Medicaid cuts will have a disproportionate effect on communities that already face higher barriers to getting medications to treat addiction.
From 2017 to 2023, the percentage of U.S. retail pharmacies regularly dispensing buprenorphine increased from 33% to 39%, according to a study published last week in Health Affairs.
But researchers found the drug was much less likely to be available in pharmacies in mostly Black (18% of pharmacies) and Hispanic neighborhoods (17%), compared with mostly white ones (46%).
In some states, the disparity was even worse. In California, for example, only about 9% of pharmacies in Black neighborhoods dispensed buprenorphine, compared with 52% in white neighborhoods.
The researchers found buprenorphine was least available in Black and Latino neighborhoods across nearly all states.
Barriers to treatment
Dr. Rebecca Trotzky-Sirr, a family physician who specializes in addiction medicine, said many communities of color are “pharmacy deserts.” Even the pharmacies that do exist in those neighborhoods tend to “have additional barriers to obtain buprenorphine and other controlled substances out of a concern for historic overuse of some treatments,” said Trotzky-Sirr, who wasn’t involved in the study.
In addition to its federal classification as a controlled substance, buprenorphine is also subject to state regulations to prevent illegal use. Pharmacies that carry it know that wholesalers and distributors audit their orders, which dissuades some from stocking or dispensing it.
Dima Qato, associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California and an author of the Health Affairs study, said that without changes in policy, Black and Hispanic people will continue to have an especially hard time getting buprenorphine.
“If you don’t address these dispensing regulations, or regulate buprenorphine from the aspect of pharmacy regulations, people are still going to encounter barriers accessing it,” she said.
In neighborhoods where at least a fifth of the population is on Medicaid, just 35% of pharmacies dispensed buprenorphine, Qato and her team found. But in neighborhoods with fewer residents on Medicaid, about 42% of pharmacies carried the drug.
Medicaid covers nearly half— 47% — of nonelderly adults who suffer from opioid use disorder. In states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, another recent study found an increase in people getting prescriptions for buprenorphine.
“Medicaid is the backbone of care for people struggling with opioid use disorder,” said Cherlette McCullough, a Florida-based mental health therapist. “We’re going to see people in relapse. We’re going to see more overdoses. We’re going to see more people in the ER.”
Qato said the shortage of pharmacies in minority communities is likely to get worse, as many independent pharmacists are already struggling to stay open.
“We know they’re more likely to close in neighborhoods of color, so there’s going to be even fewer pharmacies that carry it in the neighborhoods that really need it,” she said.
‘There needs to be urgency’
Qato and her colleagues say states and local governments should mandate that pharmacies carry a minimum stock of buprenorphine and dispense it to anyone coming in with a legitimate prescription. As examples, they point to a Philadelphia ordinance mandating that pharmacies carry the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone and similar emergency contraception requirements in Massachusetts.
“We need to create expectations. We need to encourage our pharmacies to carry this to make it accessible, same day, and there needs to be urgency,” said Arianna Campbell, a physician assistant and co-founder of the Bridge Center, a California-based organization that aims to help increase addiction treatment in emergency rooms.
“In many of the conversations I have with pharmacies, when I’m getting some pushback, I have to say: ‘Hey, this person’s at the highest risk of dying right now. They need this medication right now.’”
She said patients frequently become discouraged due to barriers they face in getting prescriptions filled. The Bridge Center has been expanding its patient navigator program across the state, and helping other states start their own. The program helps patients identify pharmacies where they can fill their prescription fastest.
“There’s a medication that can help you, but at every turn it’s really hard to get it,” she said, calling the disparities in access to medication treatment “unacceptable.”
Trotzky-Sirr, the California doctor, fears the looming Medicaid cuts will cause many of her patients to discontinue treatment and relapse. Many of her patients are covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.
“A lot of our patients are able to obtain medications for treatment of addiction like buprenorphine, because of the state covering the cost of the medication,” said Trotzky-Sirr, who also is a regional coordinator at the Bridge Center.
“They don’t have the resources to pay for it, cash, out of pocket.”
Some low-income patients switch between multiple providers or clinics as they try to find care and coverage, she added. These could be interpreted as red flags to a pharmacy.
Trotzky-Sirr argued buprenorphine does not need to be monitored as carefully as opioids and other drugs that are easier to misuse or overuse.
“Buprenorphine does not have those features and really needs to be in a class by itself,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s hard to explain that to a pharmacist in 30 seconds over the phone.”
More is known about the medication now than when it was placed on the controlled substances list about two decades ago, said Brendan Saloner, a Bloomberg Professor of American Health in Addiction and Overdose at Johns Hopkins University.
Pharmacies are fearful of regulatory scrutiny and don’t have “countervailing pressure” to ensure patients get the treatments, he said.
On top of that fear, Medicaid managed care plans’ prior authorization processes may also be adding to the pharmacy bottleneck, he said.
“Black and Latino communities have higher rates of Medicaid enrollment, so to the extent that Medicaid prior authorization techniques are a hassle to pharmacies, that may also kind of discourage them [pharmacies] from stocking buprenorphine,” he said.
In some states, buprenorphine is much more readily available. In Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont, more than 70% of pharmacies carried the drug, according to the study. Buprenorphine availability was highest in states such as Oregon that have the least restrictive regulations for dispensing it.
In contrast, less than a quarter of pharmacies in Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C., carried the medication.
“We’re going to see more people becoming unhoused, because without treatment, they’re going to go back to those old habits,” McCullough, the Florida therapist, said. “When we talk about marginalized communities, these are the populations that are going to suffer the most because they already have challenges with access to care.”
In a small building tucked in a quiet Fort Mitchell neighborhood, more than 1,200 retirees have found a home.
But they aren’t people — at least, not when they’re not on stage. They are dummies and dolls that serve as the largest collection of ventriloquism memorabilia in the world.
The Vent Haven museum in Northern Kentucky claims to be the only ventriloquism museum in the world. Open since 1973, it has grown from 500 dummies in founder William Shakespeare Berger’s collection to its current size of 1,242 dummies.
The museum was in Berger’s house until three years ago, when the collection was moved to a neighboring building. Lisa Sweasy, curator of the Vent Haven Museum, described the collection as the “Mecca of ventriloquism.”
“Every ventriloquist, whether they’re a hobbyist, amateur, paraprofessional or professional, has been here. This is their home,” Sweasy said. “There are lots of puppetry museums, but for ventriloquists, this is that narrow slice of the puppetry community where we focus strictly on ventriloquism.”
Sweasy said a common reason people visit the museum is the scare factor. She said guests are often made uneasy by the dolls’ uncanny valley effect — a phenomenon where objects become repulsive as they approach realistic, human-like features.
Lisa Sweasy, the museum curator, explains that the head is the main part off a doll during a tour on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, at Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. (Christian Kantosky/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)
“When a face is static, like it is here, you perceive that you’re being stared at when you’re not,” Sweasy said.
That unease tends to dissipate, though, after the first exhibit, when the “brain becomes saturated of the normalcy of what you’re seeing,” Sweasy said.
The collection at Vent Haven stretches from the Civil War era to modern-day ventriloquism. Dummies used by popular modern ventriloquists like Jeff Dunham and Darci Lynne sit alongside dolls voiced by classic artists like Edgar Bergen and Paul Winchell.
Some of the older dummies in the museum, mostly in the vaudevillian era section spanning from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, portray racist stereotypes, which Sweasy said was common for ventriloquism acts of the time. Sweasy said ventriloquists often emphasized the stereotypes to showcase their “vocal gymnastics.”
The dolls take up spots in the exhibit and are viewable to guests in the museum. Sweasy said it was important for Vent Haven not to hide the history.
A wall of ventriloquial figures during a tour on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, at Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. (Christian Kantosky/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)
“Most museum guidelines are to tell the truth about the pieces and tell them within context,” Sweasy said. “Hiding it is worse.”
Sweasy said the museum draws people of all ages, and sees people visiting the museum for many reasons. Some groups come with no knowledge of ventriloquism, and some come to reminisce on memories of watching popular ventriloquists of the past.
Along with the collection, Vent Haven hosts the annual VentCon, the International ventriloquism convention, and the Vent Haven 5k “Dummy Run.” Both events have already been held this year.
Sweasy said Vent Haven is a must see attraction because of its “uniqueness.”
“I think a lot of people like one-off attractions. You can go to an art museum in any city that you visit,” she said. “There are places in our country that are just these great little niche museums … I think we’re in that crowd.”
If you go
Vent Haven Museum
Where: 33 West Maple Ave, Fort Mitchell, KY, 41011
Dummies used by Willie Tyler, a famous African American ventriloquist, and Jim Teter, a famous political ventriloquist, during a tour on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025, at Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. (Christian Kantosky/Lexington Herald-Leader/TNS)
Whether you travel often or would like to travel more, earning frequent flyer miles or points with an airline and its participating partners can help you get free flights. You can also enjoy perks such as airport lounge access, free checked bags and priority boarding.
You can typically collect frequent flyer miles through an airline loyalty program, but there are other easy ways to boost your stash of miles, such as through eligible credit card spending.
If you’ve never used a frequent flyer program before, you may wonder how they work and whether they can really benefit you. In this guide, we cover what you need to know about earning and redeeming frequent flyer miles and how travel credit cards can help you earn free flights.
How to earn frequent flyer miles
You can earn airline miles or points in many ways, such as by booking flights or spending money with a credit card through online shopping portals that allow you to earn airline miles on your purchases.
Earn miles through flights
To earn miles when you buy plane tickets, you’ll need to sign up for an airline’s loyalty program. Because most major airlines are part of a larger alliance, joining one frequent flyer program allows you to book award flights with a dozen or more airlines.
For example, United Airlines belongs to the Star Alliance, an airline network comprising over 20-plus airlines, including Air Canada, Air China and Lufthansa. When you become a member of United’s loyalty program, United MileagePlus, you’ll be able to earn rewards that can be used for Star Alliance airline partner flights booked through United.
Another airline network is SkyTeam, which includes Delta Air Lines, Air France and Aeromexico, among others. There’s also the Oneworld alliance, which counts American Airlines, British Airways and Qantas among its list of participating airlines.
After you complete enrollment for the loyalty program you want to join, you’ll get an email confirming your account with your new frequent flyer number. You’ll need to enter this number when you book flights to earn miles on those flights. Otherwise, you could miss out on earning rewards (though some programs allow you to add your number after booking).
You can often earn elite status if you join a program and meet specific requirements. For example, with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, you can reach:
MVP status after flying 20,000 miles in one year.
MVP Gold status after flying 40,000 miles.
MVP Gold 75K status after flying 75,000 miles.
MVP Gold 100K status after flying 100,000 miles.
Once you have elite status, you unlock access to valuable perks that can make travel more enjoyable. Depending on your status level, you could earn waived baggage fees, early boarding, lounge access, priority upgrades and free seat selection. The higher the tier, the better the rewards.
Earn miles with an eligible credit card
Travel credit cards — including credit cards that earn travel rewards, airline credit cards and hotel credit cards — allow you to earn miles or points through eligible credit card spending.
Many general travel credit cards allow you to earn flexible travel rewards, meaning you can typically redeem travel rewards with numerous airline and hotel partners. However, airline and hotel credit cards only allow you to earn and redeem rewards with a specific airline or hotel brand.
Additionally, the type of spending that qualifies for earning miles or points and the number of miles or points you’ll earn vary by the card issuer and card you choose, as different cards have different rewards programs and rates.
Most cards give you at least 1X miles or points for every dollar you spend on them, allowing you to rack up rewards every time you make a purchase. With a tiered rewards card, you may also earn a higher rate for purchases in specific categories.
Another perk of travel rewards credit cards is that they often come with a welcome bonus for new cardholders, which you can use to jump start your stockpile of miles or points. In most cases, you’ll have to spend a specific dollar amount on a card within a set amount of time to earn a bonus. You may also qualify for elite status simply by holding the airline or hotel’s co-branded card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Delta SkyMiles Gold welcome bonus
The Chase Sapphire Preferred currently offers a welcome bonus of 75,000 points after you spend $5,000 within the first three months of account opening, which is worth $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel℠ but can be worth up to $2,000 with the right transfer partner, according to Bankrate’s valuations.
For comparison, the Delta SkyMiles Gold card offers 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 in the first six months from account opening, which is worth around $960 with the right transfer partner, based on Bankrate’s valuations.
Getting approved for a top travel rewards credit card can be more complicated than signing up for an airline loyalty program. You’ll generally need a good to excellent credit score and a low debt-to-income ratio to qualify for the best travel cards. If you’re new to travel cards, you may want to look at the best travel cards for beginners first to make the card-choosing process easier.
Earn by buying, transferring or pooling miles
Although the primary ways to earn airline miles or points are by joining a loyalty program or regularly spending money on a travel rewards card, you have other options for racking up rewards.
Many loyalty programs allow you to buy miles or points if you don’t have enough in your account to book your desired vacation. The process is usually easy and can be done through the rewards program portal.
Remember, though, that buying miles is often not worth it, as they tend to cost more than their redemption value. But if you’re just shy of having enough miles to book your flight, buying more may be cheaper than purchasing the ticket with cash. You may also want to buy points if they go on sale, and you can get a good deal.
Need to add points or miles to your frequent flyer account?
If you need a few more points or miles to book a flight, you’ll often have the option to transfer rewards. If you have an eligible general travel card, you can easily transfer your rewards to any of your credit card issuer’s partner airlines. Most transfers are instant, while others can take a few days to process. Transfers aren’t reversible, so be careful when entering the number of points or miles you want to move.
Lastly, some loyalty programs allow you to pool your points or miles with family and friends who are members of the same program. For example, the Frontier Miles program offers a family pooling feature that allows you to share miles with up to eight friends and family members.
Earn through shopping portals and dining programs
Many major airline loyalty programs — including Southwest Rapid Rewards and Delta SkyMiles — have shopping portals you can use to earn miles on purchases you’re already planning to make. To do this, you’ll typically head to the rewards program’s shopping portal first. Then, check out available retailers or promotions or search for items you want to buy. Clicking through the portal will track your activity so that when you complete your purchase, you’ll receive credit in the form of extra miles or points added to your rewards account.
The best part? You don’t need to hold a co-branded airline card to take advantage of these offers. For example, fans of American Airlines can join the AAdvantage program for free and use their frequent flyer number to create an account with its online eShopping portal. Plus, paying for eShopping purchases with a card that earns American AAdvantage miles lets you double-dip on rewards, getting you to that award flight more quickly.
Similar to online shopping portals, dining programs also earn you rewards for eating at select restaurants. You’ll have to enroll in these programs separately (as you do with a shopping portal). Once you have an account, you’ll have to use your linked debit or credit cards to pay for your meal at an eligible restaurant.
How to redeem frequent flyer miles
Building a portfolio of frequent flyer miles can feel exciting, but don’t forget the real purpose of doing so — redeeming your miles for travel. Having a plan for redeeming your rewards isn’t just an essential part of maximizing your effort. Airline and hotel loyalty programs regularly devalue their points and miles, so holding them long-term puts you at risk of losing value over time.
The rewards programs associated with general travel credit cards typically provide more flexible redemption options than airline frequent flyer programs. With a general travel credit card, you can often redeem rewards for all types of travel purchases, along with cash back, gift cards, merchandise, event tickets and more. You may also be able to transfer your points or miles to a travel partner, increasing the potential value of your redemptions.
Frequent flyer programs, however, are limited to travel redemptions only, such as booking airfare. Similarly, points and miles earned with co-branded travel credit cards may be limited to redemption with the card’s specific airline or hotel partner’s booking portal. Always check your desired program for the specific options available to you to ensure the redemption options align with what you’re looking for.
Redeem through an airline program
Log in to your airline loyalty program account.
Search for your desired flight. You can choose to see how much flights cost in either dollars or miles (or points).
Choose miles or points as your form of payment when checking out.
Note that if you’re looking to redeem miles for a flight within an airline alliance, you might need to call the airline for assistance with the booking.
Redeem through a credit card program
Log in to your credit card account.
Locate the rewards portal. From there, you should be able to redeem your rewards for travel bookings, gift cards, charitable donations and more. To redeem for travel, you can redeem your rewards through your issuer’s travel portal or transfer your rewards to one of your issuer’s travel partners. Typically, your rewards go further when you transfer your points or miles to a high-value rewards program.
Select the redemption option you’re interested in and follow the prompts.
Before using your points or miles, ensure you’re getting the best deal, especially if you’re booking travel. Because airlines calculate the rewards value of their flights differently, sometimes you can save thousands of points or miles just by booking your ticket through a partner airline. Start by checking out one of the many tools available to redeem rewards for flights.
The bottom line
You can earn airline miles or points on the purchases you’re already making by signing up for a travel rewards card or joining your preferred airline loyalty program.
Frequently asked questions about frequent flyer miles
What’s the fastest way to get airline miles? It greatly depends on the frequent flyer program you’re a part of. However, usually one of the fastest ways is to have a credit card that earns miles on everyday purchases, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred, so you can rack up miles without much effort.If you have a co-branded card, then flying often with that airline and making eligible purchases may be your best bet.If you have neither, then stick to flying with the airline you prefer, and make sure to enter your frequent flyer number when making purchases to accumulate every mile you can.
How do I join a frequent flyer program for free? Most frequent flyer programs are free to join. The process to sign up has only a few steps:Head to the frequent flyer website you would like to join, such as the American AAdvantage program.Click on the “Join for free” button or a similar button that says “Sign up.”Follow the prompts to sign up for an account. You will likely need to enter your personal information, such as name, address and contact information.
How many miles are needed for a free flight? Different frequent flyer programs require different amounts of miles to earn a free flight. For example, Delta SkyMiles offers award deals for flights. Currently, a round-trip flight in the U.S. can go for as low as 5,000 miles, plus a small fee. Comparatively, United Airlines offers domestic round-trip flights starting at around around 7,0000 miles.
Key takeaways
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KINI, Mexico — On a hot June night Jesús Cruz at last returned to Kini, the small town in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula where he spent the first 17 years of his life.
His sister greeted him with tearful hugs. The next morning she took him to see their infirm mother, who whispered in his ear: “I didn’t think you’d ever come back.”
After decades away, Cruz was finally home.
Yet he was not home.
So much of what he loved was 3,000 miles away in Southern California, where he resided for 33 years until immigration agents swarmed the car wash where he worked and hauled him away in handcuffs.
Cruz missed his friends and Booka, his little white dog. His missed his house, his car, his job.
But most of all, he missed his wife, Noemi Ciau, and their four children. Ciau worked nights, so Cruz was in charge of getting the kids fed, clothed and to and from school and music lessons, a chaotic routine that he relished because he knew he was helping them get ahead.
“I want them to have a better life,” he said. “Not the one I had.”
Now that he was back in Mexico, living alone in an empty house that belonged to his in-laws, he and Ciau, who is a U.S. permanent resident, faced an impossible decision.
Should she and the children join Cruz in Mexico?
Or stay in Inglewood?
Cruz and Ciau both had families that had been broken by the border, and they didn’t want that for their kids. In the months since Cruz had been detained, his eldest daughter, 16-year-old Dhelainy, had barely slept and had stopped playing her beloved piano, and his youngest son, 5-year-old Gabriel, had started acting out. Esther, 14, and Angel, 10, were hurting, too.
But bringing four American kids to Mexico didn’t seem fair, either. None of them spoke Spanish, and the schools in Kini didn’t compare with those in the U.S. Dhelainy was a few years from graduating high school, and she dreamed of attending the University of California and then Harvard Law.
There was also the question of money. At the car wash, Cruz earned $220 a day. But the day rate for laborers in Kini is just $8. Ciau had a good job at Los Angeles International Airport, selling cargo space for an international airline. It seemed crazy to give that up.
Ciau wanted to hug her husband again. She wanted to know what it would feel like to have the whole family in Mexico. So in early August she packed up the kids and surprised Cruz with a visit.
Kini lies an hour outside of Merida in a dense tropical forest. Like many people here, Cruz grew up speaking Spanish and a dialect of Maya and lived in a one-room, thatched-roof house. He, his parents and his five brothers and sisters slept in hammocks crisscrossed from the rafters.
His parents were too poor to buy shoes for their children, so when he was a boy Cruz left school to work alongside his father, caring for cows and crops. At 17 he joined a wave of young men leaving Kini to work in the United States.
He arrived in Inglewood, where a cousin lived, in 1992, just as Los Angeles was erupting in protest over the police beating of Rodney King.
Cruz, soft-spoken and hardworking, was overwhelmed by the big city but found refuge in a green stucco apartment complex that had become a home away from home for migrants from Kini, who cooked and played soccer together in the evenings.
Eventually he fell for a young woman living there: Ciau, whose parents had brought her from Kini as a young girl, and who obtained legal status under an amnesty extended by President Reagan. They married when she turned 18.
As their family grew, they developed rituals. When one of the kids made honor roll, they’d celebrate at Dave & Buster’s. Each summer they’d visit Disneyland. And every weekend they’d dine at Casa Gambino, a classic Mexican restaurant with vinyl booths, piña coladas and a bison head mounted on the wall. On Fridays, Cruz and Ciau left the kids with her parents and went on a date.
As the father of four Americans, Cruz was eligible for a green card. But the attorneys he consulted warned that he would have to apply from Mexico and that the wait could last years.
Cruz didn’t want to leave his children. So he stayed. When President Trump was reelected last fall on a vow to carry out mass deportations, he tried not to worry. The government, he knew, usually targeted immigrants who had committed crimes, and his record was spotless. But the Trump administration took a different approach.
On June 8, masked federal agents swarmed Westchester Hand Wash. Cruz said they slammed him into the back of a patrol car with such force and shackled his wrists so tightly that he was left with bruises across his body and a serious shoulder injury.
At the Westchester Hand Wash last June, an employee tells a customer that they are closed due to a recent immigration raid. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Ciau, who was helping Esther buy a dress for a middle school honors ceremony, heard about the raid and raced over. She had been at the car wash just hours earlier, bringing lunch to her husband and his colleagues. Now it was eerily empty.
Cruz was transferred to a jail in El Paso, where he says he was denied requests to speak to a lawyer or call his family.
One day, an agent handed him a document and told him to sign. The agent said that if Cruz fought his case, he would remain in detention for up to a year and be deported anyway. Signing the document — which said he would voluntarily return to Mexico — meant he could avoid a deportation order, giving him a better shot at fixing his papers in the future.
Cruz couldn’t read the text without his glasses. He didn’t know that he very likely would have been eligible for release on bond because of his family ties to the U.S. But he was in pain and afraid and so he signed.
Returning to Kini after decades away was surreal.
Sprawling new homes with columns, tile roofs and other architectural flourishes imported by people who had lived in the U.S. rose from what had once been fields. There were new faces, too, including a cohort of young men who appraised Cruz with curiosity and suspicion. With his polo shirts and running shoes, he stood out in a town where most wore flip-flops and as few clothes as possible in the oppressive heat.
Cruz found work on a small ranch. Before dawn, he would pedal out there on an old bicycle, clearing weeds and feeding cows, the world silent except for the rustle of palm leaves. In all his years in the big city, he had missed the tranquility of these lands.
He had missed his mother, too. She has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. Some days, she could speak, and would ask about his family and whether Cruz was eating enough. Other days, they would sit in silence, him occasionally leaning over to kiss her forehead.
He always kept his phone near, in case Ciau or one of the kids called. He tried his best to parent from afar, mediating arguments and reminding the kids to be kind to their mother. He tracked his daughters via GPS when they left the neighborhood, and phoned before bed to make sure everyone had brushed their teeth.
He worried about them, especially Dhelainy, a talented musician who liked to serenade him on the piano while he cooked dinner. The burden of caring for the younger siblings had fallen on her. Since Cruz had been taken, she hadn’t touched the piano once.
During one conversation, Dhelainy let it slip that they were coming to Mexico. Cruz surged with joy, then shuddered at the thought of having to say goodbye again. He picked them up at the airport.
That first evening, they shared pizza and laughed and cried. Gabriel, the only family member who had never been to Mexico, was intrigued by the thick forest and the climate, playing outside in the monsoon rain. For the first time in months, Dhelainy slept through the night.
“We finally felt like a happy family again,” Ciau said. But as soon as she and the kids arrived, they started counting the hours to when they’d have to go back.
During the heat of the day, the family hid inside, lounging in hammocks. They were also dodging unwanted attention. It seemed everywhere they went, someone asked Cruz to relive his arrest, and he would oblige, describing cold nights in detention with nothing to keep warm but a plastic blanket.
But at night, after the sky opened up, and then cleared, they went out.
It was fair time in Kini, part of an annual celebration to honor the Virgin Mary. A small circus had been erected and a bull ring constructed of wooden posts and leaves. A bright moon rose as the family took their seats and the animal charged out of its pen, agitated, and barreled toward the matador’s pink cape.
Cruz turned to his kids. When he was growing up, he told them, the matador killed the bull, whose body was cut up and sold to spectators. Now the fights ended without violence — with the bull lassoed and returned to pasture.
It was one of the ways that Mexico had modernized, he felt. He felt pride at how far Mexico had come, recently electing its first female president.
The bull ran by, close enough for the family to hear his snorts and see his body heave with breath.
“Are you scared?” Esther asked Gabriel.
Wide-eyed, the boy shook his head no. But he reached out to touch his father’s hand.
Later, as the kids slept, Cruz and Ciau stayed up, dancing cumbia deep into the night.
The day before Ciau and the kids were scheduled to leave, the family went to the beach. Two of Ciau’s nieces came. It was the first time Gabriel had met a cousin. The girls spoke little English, but they played well with Gabriel, showing him games on their phones. (For days after, he would giddily ask his mother when he could next see them.)
That evening, the air was heavy with moisture.
The kids went into the bedroom to rest. Cruz and Ciau sat at the kitchen table, holding hands and wiping away tears.
They had heard of a U.S. employer who, having lost so many workers to immigration raids, was offering to pay a smuggler to bring people across the border. Cruz and Ciau agreed that was too risky.
They had just paid a lawyer to file a lawsuit saying Cruz had been coerced into accepting voluntary departure and asking a judge to order his return to the U.S. so that he could apply for relief from removal. The first hearing was scheduled for mid-September.
Cruz wanted to return to the U.S. But he was increasingly convinced that the family could make it work in Mexico. “We were poor before,” he told Ciau. “We can be poor again.”
Ciau wasn’t sure. Her children had big — and expensive — ambitions.
Dhelainy had proposed staying in the U.S. with her grandparents if the rest of the family moved back. Cruz and Ciau talked about the logistics of that, and Ciau vowed to explore whether the younger kids could remain enrolled in U.S. schools, but switch to online classes.
When the rain began, Cruz got up and closed the door.
The next morning, Cruz would not accompany his family to the airport. It would be too hard, he thought, “like when somebody gives you something you’ve always wanted, and then suddenly takes it away.”
Gabriel wrapped his arms around his father’s waist, his small body convulsed with tears: “I love you.”
“It’s OK, baby,” Cruz said. “I love you, too.”
“Thank you for coming,” he said to Ciau. He kissed her. And then they were gone.
That afternoon, he walked the streets of Kini. The fair was wrapping up. Workers sweating in the heat were dismantling the circus rides and packing them onto the backs of trucks.
He thought back to a few evenings earlier, when they had celebrated Dhelainy’s birthday.
The family had planned to host a joint sweet 16 and quinceñera party for her and Esther in July. They had rented an event hall, hired a band and sent out invitations. After Cruz was detained, they called the party off.
They celebrated Dhelainy’s Aug. 8 birthday at the house in Kini instead. A mariachi played the Juan Gabriel classic, “Amor Eterno.”
“You are my sun and my calm,” the mariachis sang as Cruz swayed with his daughter. “You are my life / My eternal love.”
At a news conference in June at Culver City Express Hand Car Wash and Detail, Noemi Ciau shows a photo of her husband, Jesús Cruz, who was taken into custody by immigration agents that month at a car wash. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
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