By Miriam Fauzia, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — While Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love, for the 250 million roses and other floral bouquets produced for the holiday, it means a slow death.

That countdown is driven in part by ethylene, a natural plant hormone that speeds up aging in cut flowers. Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington are testing new ways to blunt ethylene’s effects, with the goal of helping bouquets and fresh produce last longer. Here’s what to know.

What is ethylene?

Plants produce ethylene — an odorless, colorless gas — as they age, when damaged and in response to shifts in temperature, sunlight and other environmental stressors.

“Ethylene plays a vital role in nature, from fruit ripening to leaf drop to seed germination,” Rasika Dias, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UT Arlington leading the research, said in a news release. “For instance, fruits such as bananas, avocados and pears ripen because of ethylene. This ripening process transforms starch into sugars, which explains why ripe fruit tastes sweet.”

Because ethylene can drift through the air, it can affect nearby plants, which is why a ripe banana can speed the ripening of other fruit. Depending on how much ethylene is circulating, the gas can visibly age a plant, triggering the yellowing and dropping of leaves, and shortening how long a bouquet can last, according to the American Floral Endowment.

Shipping and storage can amplify those aging effects. Stress and mechanical damage can spur plants to release more ethylene, hastening deterioration unless growers and distributors intervene with anti-ethylene treatments.

Switching off ethylene

To slow ethylene’s effects, floral and produce industries often use 1-methylcyclopropene, or 1-MCP, a chemical discovered in the mid-1990s. It works like an ethylene decoy, attaching to the same places in plant cells that ethylene normally would. But unlike the gas, 1-MCP doesn’t trigger ripening or aging. Instead, it blocks ethylene’s signal from getting through, slowing a plant’s wilting or a fruit’s ripening.

But using 1-MCP has drawbacks. The chemical is highly reactive, can be tricky to handle and typically must be applied in sealed or enclosed spaces to work effectively, according to the American Floral Endowment. And because its effects can last for an extended period, 1-MCP may prevent some fruits from ripening.

With support from the American Floral Endowment and the United States Department of Agriculture, Dias and his lab at UT Arlington are testing alternatives to 1-MCP that aren’t volatile. Some of the most promising candidates include compounds built around metals such as copper. To see whether they slow the wilting process, the researchers take about 30 freshly cut flowers and divide them into three groups: untreated, treated with existing commercial products and treated with the new compounds.

“You monitor how long each group lasts — how fast petals drop, how quickly they wilt,” Dias said in the news release. “If the treated flowers last significantly longer than the untreated ones, that compound shows promise.”

In addition to helping with flowers, Dias hopes the research will reduce food waste. In 2019, 66.2 million tons of wasted food were generated in the food retail, food service and residential sectors, with about 60% ending up in landfills; another 40.1 million tons came from food and beverage manufacturing and processing, according to a 2019 report by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“Fruits and vegetables are thrown away when they over-ripen — bananas turn brown, tomatoes become too soft and people won’t buy them,” Dias said. “This is a major issue during shipping, since most food travels long distances. Without treatment, much of it deteriorates before reaching stores. That’s a huge economic and food-security problem.”

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.

©2026 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By FARAI MUTSAKA

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Liquidity as affection and trash as a symbol of enduring love. From bouquets fashioned from dollar bills to heart-shaped gifts forged from recycled scrap metal, romance in Zimbabwe is taking strikingly inventive forms, reflecting life in an economy where cash reigns supreme and sustainability gains new social value.

You can’t buy love, the saying goes. But from florists in traditional markets to social media sellers angling for attention on TikTok, dollar bills rolled and pinned together to resemble a floral bouquet are increasingly rivaling fresh flowers as Valentine Day’s most coveted tokens of appreciation in the southern African country.

“Please God, make my lover see this,” commented one TikTok user under a video advertising glittering cash-and-flower arrangements. “May this bouquet locate me in Jesus name, amen,” wrote another.

Cash as courtship

At a decades-old flower market in the capital, Harare, Tongai Mufandaedza, a florist, patiently assembled one such “money bouquet.” Using adhesive and bamboo sticks, he folded crisp $50 notes into decorative cone shapes, weaving them with stems of white roses.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, he expects business to surge.

“The market has improved because of the money bouquets,” said Mufandaedza, who has worked at the country’s biggest flower market for three decades.

“On Valentine’s Day, we are going to have more, more, more customers, because this is something which is trending. Everyone wants to impress,” he said, then patched the arrangement in bright red wrapping and ribbons.

Among those browsing the market was Kimberleigh Kawadza. Her preference was clear.

“The person who came up with the trend, I just need to give them a hands up. They did a good job,” said the 23-year-old. “It’s a way of appreciating my partner, it’s a 100 for me, it’s a 100.”

Practical romance

While Generation Z is driving the craze, Mufandaedza said demand is spreading across generations. Some parents, he added, are even buying money bouquets for their daughters “so that they don’t fall into peer pressure and get tempted to go for sugar daddies who can lure them with such gifts.”

Prices vary widely. Smaller bouquets may contain as little as $10, while larger arrangements can run into the thousands. In some cases, they are even cheaper than traditional floral gifts.

A bouquet of dollar notes with a value of $10 costs $25, while a bouquet of 10 good-grade red roses costs between $35 and $40, he said. Many ask “where is the money?” if Mufandaedza delivers a bouquet of flowers without a cash design, he said.

Unlike traditional floral gifts, the appeal of money bouquets is as practical as it is romantic for Zimbabwe’s economic realities, where liquidity often carries more immediate value than luxury.

“People still love flowers, but when they see the notes on top, the love feels hotter and the gesture even more meaningful. Survival matters more in these difficult times and money plays a bigger role,” he said.

The U.S. dollar has dominated transactions since hyperinflation forced authorities to abandon the local currency in 2009. Although Zimbabwe has since reintroduced its own currency, the dollar remains legal and dominant.

With crisp notes scarce, worn and tattered U.S. bills, sometimes jokingly referred to as “war veterans,” are hardly suitable for decorative bouquets, spawning spin-off businesses of enterprising traders who supply clean replacement notes at a commission.

Zimbabwe isn’t alone in flirting with the fusion of cash and courtship. Money bouquets have also surged in popularity elsewhere in Africa, including Kenya, one of the world’s largest flower exporters.

Before Valentine’s Day, Kenya’s central bank warned of stiff penalties of up to seven years in prison for folding, stapling or gluing banknotes into bouquets, arguing that damaged currency disrupts cash-handling systems and violates laws against defacing money. The directive sparked lively debate online, with critics accusing regulators of overreach.

Love from scrap

Back in Zimbabwe, no such restrictions exist. But for some, love is finding expression not just through cash, but through trash recycled into keepsakes.

At an upscale shopping center in Harare, aluminium heart-shaped key rings, necklaces, platters and wine holders crafted from reclaimed scrap were lined up next to chocolates and gift boxes in Simpli Simbi, a decor and gift shop. “Simbi” means metal in the local Shona language.

“We are taking something that was unloved before, polishing it up and making it beautiful again towards a gift to someone that they can treasure forever,” said Stephanie Charlton, founder of the shop.

Charlton said that her customer base, once dominated by tourists and diaspora Zimbabweans, is increasingly local because of rising environmental awareness.

In an industrial area nearby, her foundry was stacked with discarded car radiators, rims and scrap metal collected from roadsides and landfills, before being melted in an open furnace and transformed into handmade gifts.

“Women love chocolates and flowers, but they are here today, gone tomorrow,” said Charlton, a former horticulture exporter who now employs 20 people.

“This is something that we have collected that would be filling up a landfill. But we have made it into something beautiful that you can give to (your valentine), show them that you treasure them. There is a meaning behind it, there is a story to be told with each piece.”

Associated Press writer Evelyne Musambi contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By STEPHEN GROVES and MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of U.S. lawmakers were trying to make their way this weekend to the Munich Security Conference to assure allies of America’s reliability, but burdened with political crises at home, their entrance to the annual gathering of international leaders was more of a limp than a stride.

Some didn’t make the trip at all. House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled an official delegation of roughly two dozen House members who had planned to attend the event, leaving those lawmakers either to find their own way to Germany or send their regrets.

While two bipartisan delegations from the Senate still made the trip, they departed amid bitter fights over how U.S. immigration agents are carrying out President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdowns on illegal immigration, which have included fatal shootings of two people protesting the raids, as well as the Trump administration’s recent failed effort to indict six Democratic lawmakers who produced a video urging U.S. military members not to obey “illegal orders.”

“It is a little bit, you know, depressing to be here with what we have to deal with at home,” Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who was among those investigated by the Department of Justice, said in a live interview with Politico in Munich.

For over six decades, the annual conference has gathered world leaders in pursuit of cooperation for shared security, with the United State often playing a leading role. But Trump has upended his nation’s posture toward the rest of the world, especially Europe. And while many lawmakers who attended tried to assure European counterparts that the U.S. still wants a seat at the table, it was clear they were still grappling with the rapidly changing political environment at home.

“I expect to have a number of challenging conversations with friends and allies about their concern and alarm about what they’ve seen federal law enforcement under this administration do in Minneapolis and the attempt to indict six of my colleagues and other steps that frankly have more of the hallmarks of authoritarian societies than democracies,” said Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senate’s bipartisan traditions are slipping

The security forum in recent years has been a reinforcing event for the coalition of nations backing Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion — a cause that once enjoyed strong support from Republicans. But several GOP senators who have participated in years past and hold spots on committees overseeing the U.S. military and foreign affairs decided this year to stay home. The delegations that did attend included significantly more Democrats.

As lawmakers exited Washington on Thursday, Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri ripped Democrats for heading to Munich while the Department of Homeland Security faced a shutdown during an impasse in Congress over funding the agency that oversees immigration enforcement.

“How do you justify getting on a plane and going to Europe when you’re shutting down DHS?” Schmitt told reporters. “They’re making a decision that their travel to Munich to cozy up with the Euros is way more important than funding DHS.”

Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz responded on social media, noting that he and Schmitt had both gone to Munich the year prior and that it “continues to be an important bipartisan trip.”

Still, Schatz also said this year is different in light of the Department of Justice attempting to indict two senators.

“Spare me the high-minded panel discussions and bilats and press availabilities about the United States as the indispensable nation, when we are dispensing with our most sacred constitutional obligations,” he said in a floor speech this week.

Republicans articulate Trump policy

Some Republicans who attended the Munich gathering came not to offer reassurances, but to herald the changing world under under Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby were among the top Trump administration officials participating.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is close to Trump, led one of the delegations of senators. He presented a bullish argument that European security is better off with Trump’s willingness to break up the traditional roles of Western allies. He argued the U.S. needs to keep up pressure on Iran with the goal of toppling the regime, as well as build pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a peace deal.

“We’re here at a crucial moment, folks. If we don’t follow through with what we promised the people of Iran, it will destroy America’s credibility for years to come, it will make this world less safe,” he said.

A new voice from the US

Graham has been a mainstay at Munich and other like conferences for years, yet there was also a new voice from the American side.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive from New York, made her first trip to the conference to discuss the rise of populism and the shifting role of American power in the world. Her attendance at the conference, she said, was meant to show support for international liberal values.

“We are ready for the next chapter, not to have the world turned to isolation, but to deepen our partnership on greater and increased commitment to integrity to our values,” she said at a roundtable.

Ocasio-Cortez said she identified with voters who had defected from traditional left-of-center parties in Europe and the United States for populist hard-right parties. She said her frustrations with a Democratic Party “that championed special interests, the elite” is what had pushed her to run for office.

“Domestically and globally, there have been many leaders who’ve said ‘We will go back’. And I think we have to recognize that we are in a new day and in a time,” she said, adding “That does not mean that the majority of Americans are ready to walk away from a rules-based order and that we’re ready to walk away from our commitment to democracy.”

Joey Cappelletti in Washington contributed to this story.

For some, there’s nothing more romantic than cozying up with a book on Valentine’s Day. Or maybe you’re going out and need something to read while you and your date wait for your table to open up when out for a fabulous dinner to celebrate the holiday. (It’s not unprecedented: Some of us always carry a book.)

So read on for romance.

“After Hours at Dooryard Books” by Cat Sebastian

In this novel set in a radical Greenwich Village bookstore during the tumult of the late-’60s, Patrick, a bookseller, takes in Nathaniel, a mysterious stranger who seems to fit in with the shop’s anti-establishment regulars.

“As Many Souls as Stars” by Natasha Siegel

A historical fantasy romance about the struggle between light and dark, this novel tells the story of two women entwined by a terrible bargain binding them across the passing centuries.

SEE ALSO: Southern California romance bookstores do not want AI for Valentine’s Day

“Carnival Fantástico” by Angela Montoya

A fortune-teller in a traveling carnival troupe teams up with a handsome military deserter – plus, he’s her ex! – investigating his family’s corruption in hopes that together they can solve their problems in this magical romantasy.

“Daddy Issues” by Kate Goldbeck

A debt-ridden, twentysomething PhD hopeful is living with her mother and working a dead-end job, hoping to find a way out, when a single father moves in next door with his 9-year-old daughter.

“The Everlasting” by Alix E. Harrow,

Harrow, known for “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” and “The Once and Future Witches,” delivers the goods again with a novel involving time travel, a formidable female knight and a soldier turned historian with a mission.

“Just for the Cameras” by Meghan Quinn

In this novel set in the Bay Area, a professional football player and a sexy zookeeper agree to engage in a fake public romance – there are reasons! – but what happens when the feelings start to seem real?

“Julia Song is Undateable” by Susan Lee

The title character is a success as the CEO of a cosmetics company, but a disaster at romance. So in an effort to appease her Korean grandmother, who just wants her to be happy (and married!), Julia Song hires a dating coach and …

SEE ALSO: Like books? Get our free Book Pages newsletter about bestsellers, authors and more

“The Re-Do List” by Denise Williams

In the wake of a painful breakup, a young woman agrees to dog-sit for her brother during his military deployment; she gets help from her brother’s handsome friend, who’s been given one order: Stay away from my little sister!

“Son of the Morning” by Akwaeke Emezi

In this paranormal romance set in the South, a young woman raised by a group of powerful Black women encounters what may be a literal boyfriend from hell in a tale of secrets, artifacts and powerful clashes between heaven, earth and beyond.

By DAVID A. LIEB

Virginia voters will get to cast ballots on a congressional redistricting plan benefiting Democrats while a court battle plays out over the legality of the effort.

The Virginia Supreme Court said Friday that a statewide referendum can be held April 21 on whether to authorize mid-decade redistricting, and the court will decide sometime later whether the plan is legal.

Democrats celebrated the green light for the election. But the court’s schedule raises the possibility that it could all be for naught, if the Supreme Court ultimately upholds a lower court ruling that the mid-decade redistricting amendment is invalid.

Virginia Democrats hold six of the state’s 11 U.S. House seats, but they are backing a revised map that could help them win up to 10 seats in this year’s midterm elections. The new districts are a key part of Democrats’ national strategy to try to offset potential Republican gains in several other states that redrew their districts last year at the urging of President Donald Trump.

The Republican president is trying to preserve a narrow GOP majority in the House against political headwinds that typically blow against the party in power in midterm elections.

Before Virginia Democrats can implement new congressional districts, they need voter approval to temporarily set aside a constitutional provision that places redistricting authority with a bipartisan commission and instead grant that power to the General Assembly. Lawmakers endorsed a constitutional amendment allowing their mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election in order for an amendment to be placed on the ballot.

But Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. last month struck down the General Assembly’s actions on three grounds. The judge ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

Hurley also ruled that the General Assembly’s initial vote for the amendment failed to occur before the public began casting ballots in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the two-step process. And he ruled that the state failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result of those issues, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.

Democrats appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court, which agreed on Friday to consider the case while stating that a narrowly tailored injunction by the lower court doesn’t prevent the April referendum. The court directed initial briefs to be filed by March 23, with the last round of court filings due April 23. Any oral arguments would be scheduled for later, the court said.

Nationwide, the redistricting battle has resulted so far in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats have hoped to make up that three-seat margin in Virginia, though the lower court ruling raised a hurdle to their plans. It’s unclear whether the redistricting efforts in various states ultimately will make any difference in determining control of Congress in the November election.

By WILL GRAVES, AP National Writer

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Soaring arias. Wrenching tragedy. Joyful triumphs. Exotic backdrops. Climaxes often designed to produce tears, sad or otherwise.

Perhaps more than anything, the operas that Italians began creating 400 years ago are designed to make you feel. To have the rest of the world melt away as you get lost in a story sung in a language you might not understand, but whose stakes are unmistakable.

No wonder the country that invented the art form where music and poetry merge, and these Winter Olympics seem to be such a perfect fit.

The quadrennial spectacle that began its stay in Northern Italy with a gala hosted by the International Olympic Committee at the iconic La Scala opera house in Milan spent its first full week reflecting the host country’s signature art form onto itself.

The magic the Games so often provide, no matter where they may go, seemingly a little bolder, a little louder, a little more deeply felt.

Tearful exits

The initial gasp that gave way to eerie silence after American skiing star Lindsey Vonn’s right arm clipped a gate just 13 seconds into the women’s downhill on Sunday, leading to a spectacular and brutal crash that broke her left leg and ended her unlikely Olympic return at 41.

Crashes happen. It’s a part of the sport. The “only at the Games” flourish came afterward, when Vonn’s long, slow helicopter ride down the mountain to safety veered gently to the left, flying over the grandstand where the throngs who came out to watch her bid for history waved a tearful goodbye instead.

The tears for Vonn were borne out of concern and what might have been. The tears from IOC president Kirsty Coventry after telling Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych he was disqualified for refusing to replace a helmet adorned with images of over 20 coaches and athletes who have died since Russia’s invasion began were of anguish and regret.

“No one, no one — especially me — is disagreeing with the messaging,” Coventry said. “The messaging is a powerful message.”

One so compelling and so important to Heraskevych that the 27-year-old sacrificed his dreams of Olympic glory to make it. Even if the attention he received for his stand caught him off guard.

“I never expected it to be such a big scandal,” he said on Friday after an appeal hearing.

Four years into a war that drags on with an end still not quite in sight, Heraskevych’s stand dragged a conflict that in some areas of the world has retreated to the shadows and thrust it back into the international spotlight unique to the Games. His selfless decision elevated the discussion about his homeland to the public writ large in a way that no gold-medal-winning run ever could.

Heraskevych’s act was intended for a global audience. Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid was speaking to an audience of one after earning bronze in the men’s 20-kilometer race. His startling confession of infidelity to a former partner after what was supposed to serve as one of the highlights of his career upstaging the gold won in the same race by countryman Johan-Olav Botn.

Love both lost and won

Being lovesick in Italy is hardly new. There’s a reason seemingly every high school literature class makes “Romeo and Juliet” required reading. The Shakespearean tragedy is set in Verona, about 3 hours southwest of where Laegreid made his stunning plea, sounding very much like a teenager in the throes of heartache. His vow of contrition created a viral moment that passes for social currency, the fallout be damned.

“I can understand what he wants to have happen with his girlfriend,” retired German athlete Erik Lesser told The Associated Press. “But I just want to think about sport, want to see sport, want to talk about sport.”

Yet the Olympics have never really been just about sport. How can they be when the lines between sports, politics and culture seem to be growing more blurry by the day? The only thing perfect about the Games may be the five intertwined rings that have long served as its logo.

That’s what makes it so enthralling. A few days after Laegreid achieved a small piece of infamy, Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson retreated into the arms of boyfriend Connor Watkins after crashing in the Super-G.

While Johnson’s dreams of leaving Cortina with multiple golds were gone, another was realized anyway when Watkins dropped to a knee and recited Taylor Swift lyrics while producing a blue and white sapphire ring.

Johnson giddily accepted before jumping into his arms, the physical pain and emotional disappointment of what happened up on the mountain only minutes earlier replaced by a memory and a promise that will stick with her forever.

“I think most people want to peak at the Olympics,” Johnson said. “I just extra peaked.”

Favorites upstaged

Not everyone does at a festival where unpredictability often outduels inevitability for top billing.

For every breakthrough like the one American figure skater Ilia Malinin is providing one electrifying backflip and quadruple jump at a time, there are bold-faced champions somewhat surprisingly ceding the stage they’ve so often commanded.

Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Cortina as the winningest ski racer in the history of the sport. Eager to put an 0 for 6 run four years ago in Beijing behind her, she instead began her fourth Olympics with her worst showing in a slalom that she started and finished since 2012, costing Shiffrin and Johnson a gold in women’s combined and opening the door for teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim the first Olympic medals of their long careers.

American snowboarding icon Chloe Kim’s bid for an unprecedented third gold in the halfpipe ended late Thursday when a teenager who grew up idolizing her — Gaon Choi of South Korea — pulled off an upset in snowy Livigno.

“I’m a winner because I was able to persevere and fight through,” said Kim, who competed just a month removed from a dislocated shoulder.

And perhaps more than anything at the Olympics, it’s the fight that matters.

For the thousands of athletes scattered across northern Italy, the road to this moment in their lives is rooted in a passion found long ago. The flames may have flickered for many along the way. How could they not? The drudgery of practice. The financial burden. The inevitable physical toll. The hidden mental strain has only recently graduated from hushed whispers to a full-fledged conversation.

It’s a lot to carry. No wonder it’s such fertile ground for drama.

Italy’s moment

And no one has leaned into it more than the hosts who have surged to the top of the medal table.

Yet a country known for big gestures and even bigger emotions is also one that can revel in the quiet and before the catharsis.

Ten months ago, Italian skier Federica Brignone shredded her left leg in a crash that required multiple surgeries, a handful of screws to keep things in place and months of rehab. The 35-year-old never stopped pointing toward Cortina. On Thursday, in front of a crowd that included Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Brignone ignored the lingering pain to throw down a sublime Super-G run in tricky conditions to earn her first Olympic gold.

After the medal ceremony, the Italian Air Force’s acrobatic unit thundered overhead, leaving a trail of the country’s familiar combination of green, white and red in its wake.

The slopes in Cortina shook. The flags waved. Brignone wept, thinking not so much of glory, but the winding path she took to get here.

“One of those films that you don’t believe in because it’s not possible for it to end that well,” Brignone said.

Maybe that’s the best part.

It’s not the end. We’re only halfway there. Who knows?

Milan Cortina’s second act could be even better than the first.

AP Sports Writers Andrew Dampf, Graham Dunbar, Dave Skretta, Tim Reynolds and AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By SUSAN HAIGH

NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.

The agency, which regulates U.S. passports, began issuing cease and desist orders to not-for-profit libraries in late fall, informing them they were no longer authorized to participate in the Passport Acceptance Facility program as of Friday.

“We still get calls daily seeking that service,” said Cathleen Special, executive director of the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut, where passport services were offered for 18 years but ceased in November after receiving the letter. “Our community was so used to us offering this.”

A State Department spokesperson said the order was given because federal law and regulations “clearly prohibit non-governmental organizations” from collecting and retaining fees for a passport application. Government-run libraries are not impacted.

The spokesperson did not respond to questions as to why it has become an issue now and exactly how many libraries are impacted by the cease and desist order. In a statement, they said, “passport services has over 7,500 acceptance facilities nationwide and the number of libraries found ineligible makes up less than one percent of our total network.”

The American Library Association estimates about 1,400 mostly non-profit public libraries nationwide could potentially be affected, or about 15% of all public libraries, depending on how many offer passport services.

Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland are pushing back, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month asking him to extend the existing program until Congress finds a permanent solution.

“In a time when demand for passports is surging, libraries are among the most accessible passport acceptance facilities, particularly for working families and rural residents,” the members wrote.

The lawmakers’ letter said people will have to travel long distances, take unpaid time off from work or forgo getting a passport when demand is surging due to Real ID requirements. If Republicans in Congress impose strict new voting rules, citizens could need their passport or birth certificate to register. People fearing immigration agents are also increasingly carrying passports to confirm their citizenship.

They said the change is particularly disruptive to their states, where many public libraries are structured as nonprofit entities. They predicted some libraries, which benefit financially from passport processing fees, will have to lay off staff, cut programs or close their doors if not allowed to continue providing passport services.

Public libraries are organized differently in each state. In Pennsylvania 85% of public libraries are non-profit organizations, versus being a department of a local municipal government. In Maine, it’s 56%; Rhode Island, 54%, New York, 47% and Connecticut, 46%, according to the American Library Association.

Pennsylvania Reps. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat, and John Joyce, a Republican, have proposed bipartisan legislation that would allow 501(c)(3) non-profit public libraries to continue to serve as passport acceptance facilities by amending the Passport Act of 1920. A similar companion bill is pending in the Senate.

Dean, who first learned about the policy change from a library in her district that has provided passport services for 20 years, called the State Department’s interpretation of the law “nonsense.”

In Joyce’s rural, south-central Pennsylvania district, the Marysville-Rye Library is one of only two passport facilities serving the 556-square-mile Perry County, according to the letter to Rubio. Now the county courthouse will be the only remaining option.

The State Department noted that 99% of the U.S. population lives within 20 miles of a designated passport processing location, such as a post office, county clerk’s office or government-run library authorized to accept in-person passport applications.

“Should the removal of an ineligible facility affect passport services, we will work to identify new eligible program partners in the impacted area,” the agency spokesperson said.

But Special said the Norwich post office had often referred people to her library for passports when someone needed service outside regular hours or had children who needed to be watched and entertained while their parent filled out the paperwork. Library staff also assisted applicants with language barriers.

“And now the burden falls on them to do all of it and that’s tough on them,” she said of the post office down the street. “I don’t know how they’re keeping up, to be honest, because it was such a popular service with us.”

ROME (AP) — A Slovak fugitive who had been on the run for 16 years was finally arrested when he turned up in Milan to support his national ice hockey team at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, police said Friday.

The 44-year-old man, who was not named, was wanted by Italian authorities for a series of thefts committed in 2010.

The carabinieri managed to track down and arrest the man Wednesday after he checked into a campsite in the outskirts of Milan, thanks to an automatic alert from the campsite reception.

The fugitive was then taken to Milan’s San Vittore prison to serve a pending sentence of 11 months and 7 days, according to the carabinieri, Italy’s military police.

The man did not manage to see the opening game in which Slovakia’s hockey team beat Finland with a sound 4-1 at Milan’s Santagiulia Arena on Wednesday.

By STEPHEN GROVES

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under questioning from Democrats Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that he had met with Jeffrey Epstein twice after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a child, reversing Lutnick’s previous claim that he had cut ties with the late financier after 2005.

Lutnick once again downplayed his relationship with the disgraced financier who was once his neighbor in New York City as he was questioned by Democrats during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings that were years apart.

“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him,” Lutnick told lawmakers.

But Lutnick is facing calls from several lawmakers for his resignation after the release of case files on Epstein contradicted Lutnick’s claims on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein again after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.

The commerce secretary said Tuesday that he and his family actually had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 and he had another hour-long engagement at Epstein’s home in 2011. Lutnick, a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, is the highest-profile U.S. official to face bipartisan calls for his resignation amid revelations of his ties to Epstein. His acknowledgement comes as lawmakers are grasping for what accountability looks like amid the revelations contained in what’s known as the Epstein files.

In countries like the United Kingdom, the Epstein files have triggered resignations and the stripping of royal privileges, but so far, U.S. officials have not met the same level of retribution.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Democrat who questioned Lutnick, told him, “There’s not an indication that you yourself engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s the fact that you believe that you misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements.”

Meanwhile, House members who initiated the legislative effort to force the release of the files are calling for Lutnick to resign. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called for that over the weekend after emails were released that alluded to the meetings between Lutnick and Epstein.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, joined Massie in pressuring Lutnick out of office on Monday.

“Based on the evidence, he should be out of the Cabinet,” Khanna said.

He added, “It’s not about any particular person. In this country, we have to make a decision. Are we going to allow the rich and powerful people who are friends and (had) no problem doing business and showing up with a pedophile who is raping underage girls, are we just going to allow them to skate?”

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI, STEVE PEOPLES and STEVEN SLOAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Governors Association will no longer hold a formal meeting with President Donald Trump when the group of state leaders meet in Washington later this month after the White House planned to invite only Republicans.

“NGA staff was informed that the White House intends to limit invitations to the annual business meeting, scheduled for February 20, to Republican governors only,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who is the chairman of the NGA, said in a Monday letter to fellow governors obtained by The Associated Press. “Because NGA’s mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program.”

The NGA is scheduled to meet in Washington from Feb. 19-21. Representatives for Stitt, the White House and the NGA didn’t immediately comment on the letter.

Brandon Tatum, the NGA’s CEO, said in a statement last week that the White House meeting is an “important tradition” and said the organization was “disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”

The governors group is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. In his letter, Stitt encouraged governors to unite around common goals.

“We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us,” he wrote. “The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. America’s governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics.”

Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Maine’s then-Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs.

Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, “We’ll see you in court.”

Trump then predicted that Mills’ political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.

The back and forth had a lasting impact on last year’s conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.

Peoples reported from New York.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, KEVIN FREKING and SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders say a proposal from the White House is “incomplete and insufficient” as they are demanding new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and threatening a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Monday that a White House counterproposal to the list of demands they transmitted over the weekend “included neither details nor legislative text” and does not address “the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct.” The White House proposal was not released publicly.

The Democrats’ statement comes as time is running short, with another partial government shutdown threatening to begin Saturday. Among the Democrats’ demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and a stop to racial profiling. They say such changes are necessary after two protesters were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.

Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had expressed optimism about the rare negotiations between Democrats and the White House, saying there was “forward progress.”

Thune said it was a good sign that the two sides were trading papers, and “hopefully they can find some common ground here.”

But coming to an agreement on the charged issue of immigration enforcement will be difficult, especially as rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties were skeptical about finding common ground.

Republicans have balked at the Democrats’ requests and some have demands of their own, including the addition of legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on cities that they say do not do enough to crack down on illegal immigration.

And many Democrats who are furious about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s aggressive crackdown have said they won’t vote for another penny of Homeland Security funding until enforcement is radically scaled back.

“Dramatic changes are needed at the Department of Homeland Security before a DHS funding bill moves forward,” Jeffries said earlier Monday. “Period. Full stop.”

Trump deals with Democrats

Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump agreed to a Democratic request that it be separated out from a larger spending measure that became law last week. That package extended Homeland Security funding at current levels only through Feb. 13, creating a brief window for action as the two parties discuss new restrictions on ICE and other federal officers.

Democrats made the demands for new restrictions on ICE and other federal law enforcement after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, and some Republicans suggested that new restrictions were necessary. Renee Good was shot by ICE agents on Jan. 7.

While he agreed to separate the funding, Trump has not publicly responded to the Democrats’ specific demands.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said late last week that the Trump administration is willing to discuss some items on the Democrats’ list, but “others don’t seem like they are grounded in any common sense, and they are nonstarters for this administration.”

Democratic demands

Schumer and Jeffries have said they want immigration officers to remove their masks, to show identification and to better coordinate with local authorities. They have also demanded a stricter use-of-force policy for the federal officers, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.

Among other demands, Democrats say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, “improve warrant procedures and standards,” ensure the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it’s verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen.

Republicans have said they support the requirement for DHS officers to have body-worn cameras — language that was in the original DHS bill — but have balked at many of the other Democratic asks.

“Taking the masks off ICE officers and agents, the reason we can’t do that is that it would subject them to great harm, their families at great risk because people are doxing them and targeting them,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday. “We’ve got to talk about things that are reasonable and achievable.”

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said on “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats are ”trying to motivate a radical left base.”

“The left has gone completely overboard, and they’re threatening the safety and security of our agents so they cannot do their job,” Hagerty said.

Consequences of a shutdown

In addition to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. If DHS shuts down, Thune said last week, “there’s a very good chance we could see more travel problems” similar to the 43-day government closure last year.

Lawmakers in both parties have suggested they could separate out funding for ICE and Border Patrol and pass the rest of it by Friday. But Thune has been cool to that idea, saying instead that Congress should pass another short-term extension for all of DHS while they negotiate the possible new restrictions.

“If there’s additional time that’s needed, then hopefully Democrats would be amenable to another extension,” Thune said.

Many Democrats are unlikely to vote for another extension. But Republicans could potentially win enough votes in both chambers from Democrats if they feel hopeful about negotiations.

“The ball is in the Republicans’ court,” Jeffries said Monday.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

By Kyle Stock, Bloomberg News

Despite a barren start to Colorado’s ski season, Winter Park Resort opened on Halloween and served up holiday powder.

The ski area’s secret is a contraption a few miles upwind of the chairlifts that looks like a meat smoker strapped to the top of a ladder. When weather conditions are just right, a Winter Park contractor fires up the machine, burning a fine dust of silver iodide into the sky — a process known as cloud seeding. Ideally, the particles disappear into a cloud that is cold enough and wet enough to produce snow, but may need a nudge. The silver iodide becomes the nuclei for water droplets, like iron filings to a magnet. Those droplets freeze and fall from the sky as snowflakes, freshening up the slopes of the resort as it tries to lure the Gore-Tex-clad masses between Denver and larger, showier ski destinations further west.

Doug Laraby, who has helped run Winter Park for nearly four decades, says the resort leaned heavily on its cloud seeding equipment over the Christmas holiday, sprinkling the skies as fresh powder fell days before the critical New Years weekend. At the moment, Winter Park has more snow than Breckenridge, Keystone and a host of bigger resorts nearby.

“For us,” Laraby explains, “that was a million-dollar storm.”

Resorts are increasingly seeking solutions to freshen up the brown slopes spanning the American West this winter, even as the East Coast grapples with back-to-back storms. Last month, Vail Resorts Inc. — which owns nearly 50 resorts across the U.S. and Canada — said it would miss revenue projections due to subpar snowfall this season. The dramatic lack of precipitation in the Rockies “limited our ability to open terrain” and, in turn, crimped spending by both locals and destination guests, Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said in a statement.

In a battle to improve — or at least maintain — snowpack in the face of rising temperatures and drought, Winter Park, operated by Vail rival Alterra Mountain Co., is one of a growing number of groups in the American West doubling down on cloud seeding, from state governments and ski hills to utilities and watershed management agencies.

Desperate for water — ideally snow — they’re banking on the strategy to buoy the $6 billion U.S. ski industry, while keeping rivers and reservoirs at healthy levels come spring. Despite the promise, though, companies are still trying to amass data showing the technology can actually deliver appreciable amounts of powder. And scientists studying cloud seeding have cast doubt on just how effective it is.

Katja Friedrich, an atmospheric science professor at the University of Colorado, concedes that cloud seeding works in a lab. “But out there,” she says, gesturing to cirrus clouds sweeping over the Front Range outside of her office, “it’s a totally different business.”

Storms are volatile, complex and unforgiving places to gather data. “The application is so far ahead of what the science actually shows,” Friedrich explains. “Usually, it’s the other way around.”

The idea of cloud seeding dates back to the 19th century, and it got an unexpected boost thanks to research at General Electric in the wake of World War II. DRI, a nonprofit research institute in Nevada, started cloud seeding in the 1960s. Putting particles in clouds to create precipitation gained traction in recent years as waves of drought hit the U.S., tallying $14 billion in damages in 2023 alone.

DRI now runs cloud-seeding operations all over the West, including the program at Winter Park. In 2023, the Winter Park generators burned for the equivalent of five straight days, planting an estimated 24 inches of powder on the slopes that wouldn’t have been there otherwise, according to DRI. That equates to 13% of what would have fallen naturally.

“The main driver [for our clients] is water resources,” says Frank McDonough, a DRI research scientist. But, he notes, “we can help the entire mountain economy.”

Private companies are also playing a growing role, most notably Rainmaker Technology Corp., a startup that is now the lead cloud seeding contractor for Utah, which has built one of the most aggressive programs in the American West. From a warehouse in Salt Lake City, founder Augustus Doricko, a 25-year-old with a resplendent mullet that belies his Connecticut childhood, manages a crew of 120, mostly young people working to make it snow on mountains they might otherwise be climbing or skiing.

When the weather looks right, Rainmaker crews pile into 12 pickups, each loaded with two drones, and convoy up the canyons of the Wasatch Mountains. They send half of the drones whirring into the soup of clouds and spray silver iodide for about an hour. When the machines come down to recharge, the team launches the second wave. The cycle is repeated until the clouds move on or get too warm.

Doricko says his company is creating a fresh supply of water with no ecological impact; silver iodide is inorganic and even if ingested, won’t dissolve in the human body.

This year, the state of Utah will pay Rainmaker $7.5 million, part of a cloud seeding blitz that began three years ago. With the Great Salt Lake at historic low levels, Utah lawmakers approved a tenfold increase in funding, committing at least $5 million a year to operations and another $12 million to upgrade and expand a fleet of almost 200 cloud seeding machines on the ground.

Rainmaker is charged with generating enough snow to help partially refill the lake. The company also has a contract with Snowbird Resort, located to the east of Salt Lake City, and much of its seeding will happen near Powder Mountain and Snowbasin resorts, located further north, although neither ski area is a client.

“Anything we can do to increase water levels is going to be well worth the funding,” says Jonathan Jennings, a meteorologist with the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

The list of stakeholders clamoring for more water in the American West is long, ranging from ski resorts to wildfire fighters, reservoir managers to farmers.

“Every state in the West is either cloud seeding or thinking of cloud seeding,” says Friedrich, the University of Colorado researcher.

It’s also popular, in part, because it’s cheap. Jennings estimates that it costs about $30 to produce 325,000 gallons of water, or what experts call an acre-foot of water. Recycling or desalinating a similar amount would cost somewhere around $1,000. Snowmaking, meanwhile, is more expensive and uses more water than it produces.

When Doricko visits potential customers, be they utilities, ski resorts or state agencies, his sales script is simple: “It’s the only way you can bring new water supply to the Rocky Mountain West.”

More often than not these days, the pitch lands. Idaho has also hired Rainmaker this winter, eager to fill its reservoirs and keep farmers happy. All told, the company has about 100 drones flying across Western skies.

In Colorado, where arid conditions have exacerbated wildfires, officials are curious about the capabilities of Rainmaker’s drones while waiting to see this winter’s snow tallies from Utah. In the meantime, they’re working to replace decades-old, ground-based seeding machines with ones that can be switched on remotely. Without the need of a human to light the burner, the new units can be tucked into more remote places and at higher elevations that are colder for longer, improving the odds for snow.

“We feel comfortable saying we can get an additional eight to 12% of precipitation per storm,” says Andrew Rickert, a weather modification program manager with the Colorado Water Conservation Board. “And if we have a great winter in Colorado, there are 30 to 35 storms we can seed.”

Friedrich isn’t so sure about that estimate, despite being regarded as a bit of a rockstar in the cloud seeding field. In 2017, her research team zig-zagged a plane rigged with seed flares through a cloud in Wyoming that wasn’t producing snow. Sure enough, snow fell in the same pattern as the flight, results that fueled much of the recent seeding boom.

However, Friedrich points out, there wasn’t that much snow. And she notes that much remains unknown, like how wind affects the amount of silver iodide that gets into a cloud, and whether the particles trigger much precipitation beyond what would occur naturally.

“I understand why people are buying it, because they’re so desperate,” she says. “But if you ask me, there’s no scientific proof” that it produces a meaningful amount of water. Friedrich is working on a new study to try to figure out how effective ground-based cloud seeding can be and the best operating conditions.

Cloud seeding has also faced pushback from conspiracy theorists who say it works too well. Despite no evidence, Rainmaker was inaccurately implicated in last summer’s deadly Texas floods, and bills to ban weather modification have been filed in dozens of statehouses across the U.S., including those of Colorado and Utah. Former Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also introduced a federal cloud-seeding ban in Congress in the wake of last July’s floods.

Doricko, at Rainmaker, has been working to convince lawmakers that cloud seeding does no harm and, on the other front, win over skeptical scientists like Freidrich. Rainmaker spent much of the spring and summer building its own radar system and deploying a layer of on-the-ground weather stations to measure results. It’s also working with independent researchers to provided peer-reviewed validation. As Friedrich did years ago, Rainmaker tries to spray silver-iodide in zig-zag patterns, so its results are more visible on radar — a so-called “seeding signature.”

Doricko acknowledges the challenge of teasing out the exact influence of manmade cloud seeding — which he jokingly refers to as “magic beans” — from natural precipitation. “Our fundamental research on now at Rainmaker is all about what kitchen sink of sensors can we throw at this problem to actually validate” our work, he says.

Vail abandoned its cloud seeding program in 2020, shifting its resources to invest heavily in machines that use water to spray artificial snow. The newest snow guns monitor weather in real time and can be programmed remotely.

“This technology means that Vail can make the most of every moment that conditions allow for snowmaking,” says spokeswoman Michelle Dallal. Still, the resort is feeling the pinch of an abnormally dry winter.

State officials are trying to get Vail back on board. Cloud seeding, they argue, can be cheaper than snowmaking, both in terms of cost and carbon, and it adds water to the ecosystem, rather than taking a share of it away. The state is also trying to get other ski areas to buy in: This year, Colorado positioned a ground system to seed clouds on the slopes of Aspen, in hopes that the resort will help fund future programs.

Meanwhile, Winter Park has emerged as one of the state’s biggest cloud seeding cheerleaders. Laraby says only 10% of the mountain is covered by snowmaking gear, and there are no plans to install more. And yet, when the storms rolled through the state Dec. 28, Winter Park says its cloud-seeding efforts conjured 12 inches of snow, triple what fell on Vail.

“If you ask me, it enhances the efficiency of these storms,” Laraby says. “I think it’s awesome.”

©2026 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By ALICIA RANCILIO, Associated Press

Christie O’Sullivan of Trinity, Florida, has spent 21 Valentine’s Days with her husband, but her favorite celebration was one spent with a girlfriend before she got married.

They took the day off work, got massages, and went out for cocktails and a fancy dinner.

“For me, it was 10 out of 10. That whole day was intentional,” said O’Sullivan. She remembers it as empowering “on a day that’s usually filled with pressure to be in a relationship, or sadness because I wasn’t currently in one.”

Galentine’s Day became a pop culture phenomenon with a 2010 episode of the TV comedy “Parks and Recreation” that celebrated female friendships around Valentine’s Day. Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, gathered her gal pals on Feb. 13.

“What’s Galentine’s Day? Oh, it’s only the best day of the year,” said Knope.

Honoring female friendships can happen any day of the year, of course. Whether on Feb. 13 or another day, here are some ways to create a fun-filled experience:

Making it a party

Chela Pappaccioli of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has been hosting a Galentine’s Day bash at her home for the last three years. She has a bartender and a DJ hired, and this year invited 45 of her nearest and dearest. So far, she has 34 confirmations, and is assembling gift bags for her guests to take home. There are no men allowed “unless the bartender happens to be male.”

The event may be extravagant, but Pappaccioli says it’s worth it.

“It’s an escape to just be with your girls, be silly, do something fun and just focus on the friendships you’ve created and enjoying each other’s company,” she says.

Learning how to do something new

Liz Momblanco of Berkley, Michigan, who describes herself as a “serial hobbyist,” invites her friends to take classes like cookie and cake decorating, calligraphy and stained glass.

“I enjoy learning something new and having a shared experience,” said Momblanco, who has attended day retreats for women that offer activities like floral arranging, yoga or a cold plunge.

Marney Wolf, who runs the retreat company Luna Wolf, says providing an opportunity for art and creativity builds community.

“It bonds you, whether it’s the smallest thing or really deep. You watch these grown women turn into almost like a childlike kindergarten response like, ‘Oh my gosh! Good job! You’re so talented!’ That little lift is the easiest thing to do,” she said.

Filling a Valentine’s void

Wolf takes care to schedule Galentine’s-themed retreats near Valentine’s Day because some women don’t have someone to spend Feb. 14 with.

“I know it can be a really lonely time for people and I think some take it for granted,” she says.

Pappaccioli said a couple of divorced friends come to her party, and “even if you’re married it can be depressing because your husband may not be doing what you want or your boyfriend may not support you in the way you want,” she says.

“It’s nice to know that you don’t need that. You can still celebrate the holiday, but turn it around a little bit and celebrate the relationships you want to.”

Creating different kinds of bonds

Galentine’s Day get-togethers can forge new friendships. And spending quality time with a friend provides an opportunity to put the phone away, avoid distractions and build memories.

O’Sullivan is a social media strategist for businesses but appreciates that her bestie Valentine’s Day was without cellphones.

“We could be fully present — no photos, no texts, no nothing,” she says.

“So while that means there’s no actual record of that day occurring, it also means the details became a core memory without it.”

Some celebrate Galentine’s Day by just going out for coffee or playing cards. You might go with a group of women friends to a play or museum, or take a hike or a workout class.

Other ideas include thrift store shopping, country line dancing, roller skating, karaoke, junk journaling, and getting manicures and pedicures.

By Gavin J. Quinton, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s promises on affordability in 2024 helped propel him to a second term in the White House.

Since then, Trump says, the problem has been solved: He now calls affordability a hoax perpetrated by Democrats. Yet the high cost of living, especially housing, continues to weigh heavily on voters, and has dragged down the president’s approval ratings.

In a poll conducted this month by the New York Times and Siena University, 58% of respondents said they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy.

How the economy fares in the coming months will play an outsize role in determining whether the Democrats can build on their electoral success in 2025 and seize control of one or both chambers of Congress.

With housing costs so central to voters’ perceptions about the economy, both parties have put forward proposals in recent weeks targeting affordability. Here is a closer look at their competing plans for expanding housing and reining in costs:

How bad is the affordability crisis?

Nationwide, wages have barely crept up over the last decade — rising by 21.24% between 2014 and 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. Over the same period, rent and home sale prices more than doubled, and healthcare and grocery costs rose 71.5% and 37.35%, respectively, according to the Fed.

National home price-to-income ratios are at an all-time high, and coastal states like California and Hawaii are the most extreme examples.

Housing costs in California are about twice the national average, according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, which said prices have increased at “historically rapid rates” in recent years. The median California home sold for $877,285 in 2024, according to the California Assn. of Realtors, compared with about $420,000 nationwide, per Federal Reserve economic data.

California needs to add 180,000 housing units annually to keep up with demand, according to the state Department of Housing. So far, California has fallen short of those goals and has just begun to see success in reducing its homeless population, which sat at 116,000 unsheltered people in 2025.

What do the polls say?

More than two-thirds of Americans surveyed in a Gallup poll last month said they felt the economy was getting worse, and 36% expressed approval for the president — the lowest total since his second term began.

The poll found that 47% of U.S. adults now describe current economic conditions as “poor,” up from 40% just a month prior and the highest since Trump took office. Just 21% said economic conditions were either “excellent” or “good,” while 31% described them as “only fair.”

An Associated Press poll found that only 16% of Republicans think Trump has helped “a lot” in fixing cost of living problems.

What have the Democrats proposed?

The party is pushing measures to expand the supply of housing, and cut down on what they call “restrictive” single-family zoning in favor of denser development.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats plan to “supercharge” construction through bills like California Sen. Adam Schiff’s Housing BOOM Act, which he introduced in December.

Schiff said the bill would lower prices by stimulating the development of “millions of affordable homes.” The proposal would expand low-income housing tax credits, set aside funds for rental assistance and homelessness, and provide $10 billion in housing subsidies for “middle-income” workers such as teachers, police officers and firefighters.

The measure has not been heard in committee, and faces long odds in the Republican-controlled body, though Schiff said inaction on the proposal could be used against opponents.

And the Republicans?

A group of 190 House Republicans this month unveiled a successor proposal to the “Big Beautiful Bill,” the sprawling tax and spending plan approved and signed into law by Trump in July.

The Republican Study Committee described the proposal as an affordability package aimed at lowering down payments, enacting mortgage reforms and creating more tax breaks.

Leaders of the group said it would reduce the budget deficit by $1 trillion and could pass with a simple majority.

“This blueprint … locks in President Trump’s deregulatory agenda through the only process Democrats can’t block: reconciliation,” said Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who chairs the group. “We have 11 months of guaranteed majorities. We’re not wasting a single day.”

Though the proposal has not yet been introduced as legislation, Republicans said it would include a mechanism to revoke funding from blue states over rent control and immigration policy, which they calculated would save $48 billion.

President Trump has endorsed a $200-billion mortgage bond stimulus, which he said would drive down mortgage rates and monthly payments. And the White House, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the two enterprises that back most U.S. mortgages — continues to push the idea of portable and assumable mortgages.

Trump said the move would allow buyers to keep their existing mortgage rate or enable new homeowners to assume a previous owner’s mortgage.

The Department of Justice, meanwhile, has launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the Fed’s renovation costs, as Trump bashed him over “his never ending quest to keep interest rates high.”

The president also vowed to revoke federal funding to states over a wealth of issues such as child care and immigration policy.

“This is not about any particular policy that they think is harmful,” California Democratic Rep. Laura Friedman said. “This is about Trump’s always trying to find a way to punish blue states.”

Is there any alignment?

The two parties are cooperating on companion measures in the House and Senate.

The bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act seeks to expand housing supply by easing regulatory barriers. It passed the Senate unanimously and has support from the White House, but House Republicans have balked, and it has yet to receive a floor vote.

A bipartisan proposal — the Housing in the 21st Century Act — was approved by the House Financial Services Committee by a 50-1 vote in December. It also has yet to receive a floor vote.

The bill is similar to its twin in the Senate, with Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) working across the aisle with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). If approved, it would cut permitting times, support manufactured-housing development and expand financing tools for low-income housing developers.

There was also a recent moment of unusual alignment between the president and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who both promised to crack down on corporate home buying.

What do the experts say?

Housing experts recoiled at GOP proposals to bar housing dollars from sanctuary jurisdictions and cities that impose rent control.

“Any conditioning on HUD funding that sets up rules that explicitly carve out blue cities is going to be really catastrophic for California’s larger urban areas,” said David Garcia, deputy director of policy at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

More than 35 cities in California have rent control policies, according to the California Apartment Assn. The state passed its own rent stabilization law in 2019, and lawmakers approved a California sanctuary law in 2017 that prohibits state resources from aiding federal immigration enforcement.

The agenda comes on the heels of a series of HUD spending cuts, including a 30% cap on permanent housing investments and the end of a federal emergency housing voucher program that local homelessness officials estimate would put 14,500 people on the streets.

In Los Angeles County, HUD dollars make up about 28% of homelessness funding.

“It would undermine a lot of the bipartisan efforts that are happening in the House and the Senate to move evidence-backed policy to increase housing supply and stabilize rents and home prices,” Garcia said.

The president’s mortgage directives also prompted skepticism from some experts.

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were pressed to get into the riskier parts of the mortgage market back in the housing bubble and that was a part of the problem,” said Eric McGhee, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett, Oona Zenda, KFF Health News

Lydia Romero strained to hear her husband’s feeble voice through the phone.

A week earlier, immigration agents had grabbed Julio César Peña from his front yard in Glendale, California. Now, he was in a hospital after suffering a ministroke. He was shackled to the bed by his hand and foot, he told Romero, and agents were in the room, listening to the call. He was scared he would die and wanted his wife there.

“What hospital are you at?” Romero asked.

“I can’t tell you,” he replied.

Viridiana Chabolla, Peña’s attorney, couldn’t get an answer to that question, either. Peña’s deportation officer and the medical contractor at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center refused to tell her. Exasperated, she tried calling a nearby hospital, Providence St. Mary Medical Center.

“They said even if they had a person in ICE custody under their care, they wouldn’t be able to confirm whether he’s there or not, that only ICE can give me the information,” Chabolla said. The hospital confirmed this policy to KFF Health News.

Family members and attorneys for patients hospitalized after being detained by federal immigration officials said they are facing extreme difficulty trying to locate patients, get information about their well-being, and provide them emotional and legal support. They say many hospitals refuse to provide information or allow contact with these patients. Instead, hospitals allow immigration officers to call the shots on how much — if any — contact is allowed, which can deprive patients of their constitutional right to seek legal advice and leave them vulnerable to abuse, attorneys said.

Hospitals say they are trying to protect the safety and privacy of patients, staff, and law enforcement officials, even while hospital employees in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon, cities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted immigration raids, say it’s made their jobs difficult. Hospitals have used what are sometimes called blackout procedures, which can include registering a patient under a pseudonym, removing their name from the hospital directory, or prohibiting staff from even confirming that a patient is in the hospital.

“We’ve heard incidences of this blackout process being used at multiple hospitals across the state, and it’s very concerning,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, the deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the California Immigrant Policy Center, an advocacy group.

Some Democratic-led states, including California, Colorado, and Maryland, have enacted legislation that seeks to protect patients from immigration enforcement in hospitals. However, those policies do not address protections for people already in ICE custody.

More detainees hospitalized

Peña is among more than 350,000 people arrested by federal immigration authorities since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. As arrests and detentions have climbed, so too have reports of people taken to hospitals by immigration agents because of illness or injury — due to preexisting conditions or problems stemming from their arrest or detention.

ICE has faced criticism for using aggressive and deadly tactics, as well as for reports of mistreatment and inadequate medical care at its facilities. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters at a Jan. 20 news conference outside a detention center he visited in California City that he spoke to a diabetic woman held there who had not received treatment in two months.

While there are no publicly available statistics on the number of people sick or injured in ICE detention, the agency’s news releases point to 32 people who died in immigration custody in 2025. Six more have died this year.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for information about its policies or Peña’s case.

According to ICE’s guidelines, people in custody should be given access to a telephone, visits from family and friends, and private consultation with legal counsel. The agency can make administrative decisions, including about visitation, when a patient is in the hospital, but should defer to hospital policies on contacting next of kin when a patient is seriously ill, the guidelines state.

Asked in detail about hospital practices related to patients in immigration custody and whether there are best practices that hospitals should follow, Ben Teicher, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association, declined to comment.

David Simon, a spokesperson for the California Hospital Association, said that “there are times when hospitals will — at the request of law enforcement — maintain confidentiality of patients’ names and other identifying characteristics.”

Although policies vary, members of the public can typically call a hospital and ask for a patient by name to find out whether they’re there, and often be transferred to the patient’s room, said William Weber, an emergency physician in Minneapolis and medical director for the Medical Justice Alliance, which advocates for the medical needs of people in law enforcement custody. Family members and others authorized by the patient can visit. And medical staff routinely call relatives to let them know a loved one is in the hospital, or to ask for information that could help with their care.

But when a patient is in law enforcement custody, hospitals frequently agree to restrict this kind of information sharing and access, Weber said. The rationale is that these measures prevent unauthorized outsiders from threatening the patient or law enforcement personnel, given that hospitals lack the security infrastructure of a prison or detention center. High-profile patients such as celebrities sometimes also request this type of protection.

Several attorneys and health care providers questioned the need for such restrictions. Immigration detention is civil, not criminal, detention. The Trump administration says it’s focused on arresting and deporting criminals, yet most of those arrested have no criminal conviction, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and several news outlets.

Taken outside his home

According to Peña’s wife, Romero, he has no criminal record. Peña came to the United States from Mexico in sixth grade and has an adult son in the U.S. military. The 43-year-old has terminal kidney disease and survived a heart attack in November. He has trouble walking and is partially blind, his wife said. He was detained Dec. 8 while resting outside after coming home from dialysis treatment.

Initially, Romero was able to find her husband through the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. She visited him at a temporary holding facility in downtown Los Angeles, bringing him his medicines and a sweater. She then saw he’d been moved to the Adelanto detention center. But the locator did not show where he was after he was hospitalized.

When she and other relatives drove to the detention facility to find him, they were turned away, she said. Romero received occasional calls from her husband in the hospital but said they were less than 10 minutes long and took place under ICE surveillance. She wanted to know where he was so she could be at the hospital to hold his hand, make sure he was well cared for, and encourage him to stay strong, she said.

Shackling him and preventing him from seeing his family was unfair and unnecessary, she said.

“He’s weak,” Romero said. “It’s not like he’s going to run away.”

ICE guidelines say contact and visits from family and friends should be allowed “within security and operational constraints.” Detainees have a constitutional right to speak confidentially with an attorney. Weber said immigration authorities should tell attorneys where their clients are and allow them to talk in person or use an unmonitored phone line.

Hospitals, though, fall into a gray area on enforcing these rights, since they are primarily focused on treating medical needs, Weber said. Still, he added, hospitals should ensure their policies align with the law.

Family denied access

Numerous immigration attorneys have spent weeks trying to locate clients detained by ICE, with their efforts sometimes thwarted by hospitals.

Nicolas Thompson-Lleras, a Los Angeles attorney who counsels immigrants facing deportation, said two of his clients were registered under aliases at different hospitals in Los Angeles County last year. Initially, the hospitals denied the clients were there and refused to let Thompson-Lleras meet with them, he said. Family members were also denied access, he said.

One of his clients was Bayron Rovidio Marin, a car wash worker injured during a raid in August. Immigration agents surveilled him for over a month at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, a county-run facility, without charging him.

In November, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to curb the use of blackout policies for patients under civil immigration custody at county-run hospitals. In a statement, Arun Patel, the chief patient safety and clinical risk management officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said the policies are designed to reduce safety risks for patients, doctors, nurses, and custody officers.

“In some situations, there may be concerns about threats to the patient, attempts to interfere with medical care, unauthorized visitors, or the introduction of contraband,” Patel said. “Our goal is not to restrict care but to allow care to happen safely and without disruption.”

Leaving patients vulnerable

Thompson-Lleras said he’s concerned that hospitals are cooperating with federal immigration authorities at the expense of patients and their families and leaving patients vulnerable to abuse.

“It allows people to be treated suboptimally,” Thompson-Lleras said. “It allows people to be treated on abbreviated timelines, without supervision, without family intervention or advocacy. These people are alone, disoriented, being interrogated, at least in Bayron’s case, under pain and influence of medication.”

Such incidents are alarming to hospital workers. In Los Angeles, two health care professionals who asked not to be identified by KFF Health News, out of concern for their livelihoods, said that ICE and hospital administrators, at public and private hospitals, frequently block staff from contacting family members for people in custody, even to find out about their health conditions or what medications they’re on. That violates medical ethics, they said.

Blackout procedures are another concern.

“They help facilitate, whether intentionally or not, the disappearance of patients,” said one worker, a physician for the county’s Department of Health Services and part of a coalition of concerned health workers from across the region.

At Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, nurses publicly expressed outrage over what they saw as hospital cooperation with ICE and the flouting of patient rights. Legacy Health has sent a cease and desist letter to the nurses’ union, accusing it of making “false or misleading statements.”

“I was really disgusted,” said Blaire Glennon, a nurse who quit her job at the hospital in December. She said numerous patients were brought to the hospital by ICE with serious injuries they sustained while being detained. “I felt like Legacy was doing massive human rights violations.”

Handcuffed while unconscious

Two days before Christmas, Chabolla, Peña’s attorney, received a call from ICE with the answer she and Romero had been waiting for. Peña was at Victor Valley Global Medical Center, about 10 miles from Adelanto, and about to be released.

Excited, Romero and her family made the two-hour-plus drive from Glendale to the hospital to take him home.

When they got there, they found Peña intubated and unconscious, his arm and leg still handcuffed to the hospital bed. He’d had a severe seizure on Dec. 20, but no one had told his family or legal team, his attorney said.

Tim Lineberger, a spokesperson for Victor Valley Global Medical Center’s parent company, KPC Health, said he could not comment on specific patient cases, because of privacy protections. He said the hospital’s policies on patient information disclosure comply with state and federal law.

Peña was finally cleared to go home on Jan. 5. No court date has been set, and his family is filing a petition to adjust his legal status based on his son’s military service. For now, he still faces deportation proceedings.

©2026 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Susan Jaffe, KFF Health News

Ever since Larry Wilkewitz retired more than 20 years ago from a wood products company, he’s had a commercial Medicare Advantage plan from the insurer Humana.

But two years ago, he heard about Peak Health, a new Advantage plan started by the West Virginia University Health System, where his doctors practice. It was cheaper and offered more personal attention, plus extras such as an allowance for over-the-counter pharmacy items. Those benefits are more important than ever, he said, as he’s treated for cancer.

“I decided to give it a shot,” said Wilkewitz, 79. “If I didn’t like it, I could go back to Humana or whatever after a year.”

He’s sticking with Peak Health. Members of Medicare Advantage plans, a privately run alternative to the government’s Medicare program, can change plans through the end of March.

Now entering its third year, Peak Health has tripled its enrollment since last year, to “north of 10,000,” said Amos Ross, its president. It expanded from 20 counties to 49, he said, and moved into parts of western Pennsylvania for the first time.

Although hospital-owned plans are only a sliver of the Medicare Advantage market, their enrollment continues to grow, reflecting the overall increase in Advantage members. Of the 62.8 million Medicare beneficiaries eligible to join Advantage plans, 54% signed up last year, according to KFF, the health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. While the number of Advantage plans owned by hospital systems is relatively stable, Mass General Brigham in Boston and others are expanding their service areas and types of plan offerings.

Health systems have dabbled in the insurance business for years, but it’s not for everyone. MedStar Health, serving the greater Washington, D.C., area, said it closed its Medicare Advantage plan at the end of 2018, citing financial losses.

“It’s a ton of work,” said Ross, who spent more than a decade in the commercial health insurance industry.

Like any other health insurer, hospitals entering the business need a back-office infrastructure to enroll patients, sign up providers, fill prescriptions, process claims, hire staff, and — most importantly — assure state regulators they have a reserve of money to pay claims. Once they get a state insurance license, they need approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to sell Medicare Advantage policies. Some systems affiliate with or create an insurance subsidiary, and others do most of the job themselves.

Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit health system by revenue, started an experimental Medicare plan in 1981 and now has nearly 2 million people enrolled in dozens of Advantage plans in eight states and the District of Columbia. The Justice Department announced Jan. 14 that KP had agreed to pay $556 million to settle accusations that its Advantage plans fraudulently billed the government for about $1 billion over a nine-year period.

Last year, UCLA Health introduced two Medicare Advantage plans in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States. Other new hospital-owned plans have cropped up in less profitable rural areas.

“These are communities that have been very hard for insurers to move into,” said Molly Smith, group vice president for public policy at the American Hospital Association.

But Advantage plans offered by hospitals have a familiar, trusted name. They don’t have to move into town, because their owners — the hospitals — never left.

Bad Breakups

Medicare Advantage plans usually restrict their members to a network of doctors, hospitals, and other clinicians that have contracts with the plans to serve them. But if hospitals and plans can’t agree to renew those contracts, or when disputes flare up — often spurred by payment delays, denials, or burdensome prior authorization rules — the health care providers can drop out.

These breakups, plus planned terminations and service area cuts, forced more than 3.7 million Medicare Advantage enrollees to make a tough choice last year: find new insurance for 2026 that their doctors accept or, if possible, keep their plan but find new doctors.

About 1 million of these stranded patients had coverage from UnitedHealthcare, the country’s largest health insurer. In a July earnings update for financial analysts, chief financial officer John Rex blamed the company’s retreat on hospitals, where “most encounters are intensifying in services and costing more.”

The turbulence in the commercial insurance market has upset patients as well as their providers. Sometimes contract disputes have been fought out in the open, with anxious patients in the middle receiving warnings from each side blaming the other for the imminent end to coverage.

When Fred Neary, 88, learned his doctors in the Baylor Scott & White Health system in central and northern Texas would be leaving his Medicare Advantage plan, he was afraid the same thing could happen again if he joined a plan from another commercial insurer. Then he discovered that the 53-hospital system had its own Medicare Advantage plan. He enrolled in 2025 and is keeping the plan this year.

“It was very important to me that I would never have to worry about switching over to another plan because they would not accept my Baylor Scott & White doctors,” he said.

Eugene Rich, a senior fellow at Mathematica, a health policy research group, said hospital systems’ Medicare Advantage plans offer “a lot of stability for patients.”

“You’re not suddenly going to discover that your primary care physician or your cardiologist are no longer in the plan,” he said.

A Health Affairs study that Rich co-authored in July found that enrollment in Advantage plans owned by hospital systems grew faster than traditional Medicare enrollment for the first time in 2023, though not as rapidly as the overall rise in sign-ups for all Advantage plans.

The massive UCLA Health system introduced its two Medicare Advantage plans in Los Angeles County in January 2025, even though patients already had a list of more than 70 Advantage plans to choose from. Before rolling out the plan, the University of California Board of Regents discussed its merits at a November 2024 meeting. The meeting minutes offer rare insight into a conversation that private hospital systems would usually hold behind closed doors.

“As increasing numbers of Medicare-enrolled patients turn to new Medicare Advantage plans, UC Health’s experience with these new plans has not been good, either for patients or providers,” the minutes read, summarizing comments by David Rubin, executive vice president of UC Health.

The minutes also describe comments from Jonathon Arrington, CFO of UCLA Health. “Over the years, in order to care for Medicare Advantage patients, UCLA has entered numerous contracts with other payers, and these contracts have generally not worked out well,” the minutes read. “Every two or three years, UCLA has found itself terminating a contract and signing a new one. Patients have remained loyal to UCLA, some going through three iterations of cancelled contracts in order to remain with UCLA Health.”

Costs to Taxpayers

CMS pays Advantage plans a monthly fixed amount to care for each enrollee based on the member’s health condition and location. In 2024, the federal government paid Advantage plans an estimated $494 billion to care for patients, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which monitors the program for Congress.

The commission said this month that it projects insurers in 2026 will be paid 14%, or about $76 billion, more than it would have cost government-run Medicare to care for similar patients.

Many Democratic lawmakers have criticized overpayments to Medicare Advantage insurers, though the program has bipartisan congressional support because of its increasing popularity with Medicare beneficiaries, who are often attracted by dental care and other coverage unavailable through traditional Medicare.

Whenever Congress threatens cuts, insurers claim these generous federal payments are essential to keep Medicare Advantage plans afloat. UCLA Health’s Advantage plans will need at least 15,000 members to be financially sustainable, according to the meeting minutes. CMS data indicates that 7,337 patients signed up in 2025.

A study published in JAMA Surgery in August compared patients in commercial Medicare Advantage who had major surgery with those covered by Medicare Advantage plans owned by their hospital. The latter group had fewer complications, said co-author Thomas Tsai, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Smith, of the American Hospital Association, isn’t surprised. When insurers and hospitals are not on opposite sides, she said, care delivery can be smoother. “There’s more flexibility to manage premium dollars to cover services that maybe wouldn’t otherwise be covered,” Smith said.

But Tsai warns seniors that hospital-owned Medicare Advantage plans operate under the same rules as those run by commercial health insurance companies. He said patients should consider whether the extra benefits of Advantage plans “are worth the trade-off of potentially narrow provider networks and more utilization management than they would get from traditional Medicare.”

In Texas, Neary hopes the closer relationship between his doctors and his insurance plan means there’s less of a chance that bills for his medical care will be kicked back.

“I don’t think I would run into a situation where they would not provide coverage if one of their own doctors recommended something,” he said.

©2026 Kaiser Health News. Visit khn.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ©2026 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Wellness Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Barbara Goldberg brings a stack of newspapers to the office every day. The CEO of a Florida public relations firm scours stories for developments relevant to her clients while relishing holding the pages in her hand. “I want to touch it, feel it, turn the page and see the photos,” Goldberg said.

Generation Z employees at O’Connell & Goldberg don’t get her devotion to newsprint when so much information is available online and constantly updated, she said. They came of age with smartphones in hand. And they spot trends on TikTok or Instagram that baby boomers like Goldberg might miss, she said.

The staff’s disparate media consumption habits become clear at a weekly Monday staff meeting. It was originally intended to discuss how the news of the day might impact the firm’s clients, Goldberg said. But instead of news stories, the conversation often turns to the latest slang, digital tools and memes.

The first time it happened, she listened without judgment, and thought, “Shoot, this is actually really insightful. I need to know the trending audio and I need to know these influencers.” Of her younger colleagues, she said, “they know the cultural conversation that I wasn’t thinking about.”

With at least five generations participating in the U.S. workforce, co-workers can at times feel like they speak different languages. The ways people born decades apart approach tasks may create misunderstandings. But some workplaces are turning the natural divides between age groups into a competitive advantage through reverse mentoring programs that recognize the strengths each generation brings to work and uses them to build mutual skills and respect.

Unlike traditional mentorships that involve an older person sharing wisdom with a younger colleague, reverse mentoring affords less experienced staff members the opportunity to teach seasoned colleagues about new trends and technologies.

“The generational differences, to me, are something to leverage. It’s like a superpower,” Goldberg said. “It’s where the magic happens.”

Here are some ways to make the most of a multigenerational workplace.

Mentoring up

Beauty product company Estée Lauder began a reverse mentoring program globally a decade ago when its managers realized consumers were rapidly getting beauty tips from social media influencers instead of department stores, said Peri Izzo, an executive director who oversaw the initiative.

The voluntary program now has roughly 1,200 participants. The mentors are millennials, born 1981 to 1986, and Gen Zers, born starting in 1997. They’re paired with mentees who are part of the U.S. baby boom of 1946 to 1964, and members of Generation X, born 1965 to 1980, according to the generational definitions of the Pew Research Center.

At the start of a new mentoring relationship, participants do icebreaker activities like a Gen Z vocabulary quiz. The young mentors take phrases they use with friends in group chats and quiz older colleagues about what they mean, said Izzo, who at age 33 qualifies as a young millennial. For example, if a Gen Zer says something is “living rent-free in your head,” it refers to someone or something that constantly occupies your thoughts.

“Most of the mentees knew what it was, but then one mentee’s reaction was, ‘Oh I get it, my son lives rent-free in my house,’ and everyone thought it was so funny because they were like, ‘You really don’t understand the context that it’s being used on TikTok and amongst millennial and Gen Z,’” Izzo said.

Madison Reynolds, 26, a product manager on the technology team at Estée Lauder, is a Gen Zer and serves as a reverse mentor in the program. She and her contemporaries teach their older colleagues phrases such as “You ate it up,” which means you did a good job. When her manager tries out Gen Z phrases, Reynolds offers feedback, saying, “No, that’s not right,” or “You got it.”

Give and take

When 81-year-old hotelier Bruce Haines brought in athletes from Lehigh University’s wrestling team to participate in a mentorship program at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, he taught them about entrepreneurship by having the students shadow managers in various departments. He also gained valuable marketing insights from the students, which he hadn’t anticipated.

“It’s been energizing for me. It’s almost reinvigorating,” Haines, the hotel’s managing partner, said. “We tended to be Facebook-focused. We’re a luxury destination hotel, so we tend to be an older crowd that we’re reaching. They enhanced our marketing by alerting us that we need to be on Instagram and YouTube and get out there and reach the younger people.”

The students also suggested offering prepackaged pints of ice cream to the hotel’s in-house parlor because their contemporaries didn’t want to wait around for cones. “We were really missing out, and it’s truly increased our ice cream sales and our profitability,” Haines said.

Old-fashioned people skills

Carson Celio, 26, is an account supervisor at the PR firm Goldberg leads. She’s part of the cohort that advises the CEO about what’s trending on TikTok and what’s over with. She says Goldberg has taught her how to successfully work a room and spark conversations that feel natural and organic.

Celio was a sophomore in college when COVID-19 hit, which pushed most of her classes online, including a public speaking course. “We have spent so much time online and conducting meetings over Zoom or Teams.” As a result, in-person networking can feel overwhelming to her generation, she said. “Learning the value of actually being face to face with people and building those connections — Barbara has helped me a lot with that.”

A text or a tome

At Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, a medical group that employs 2,400 doctors in eastern Massachusetts, Dr. Alexa B. Kimball adapts her communication style to a range of age groups. Some mature clinicians send very long emails, which can be unproductive.

“When you have an email conversation that’s in its 15th response, that tells you you should pick up the phone,” Kimball, the group’s CEO, said. On the other extreme, some of the youngest trainees communicate with six-word texts, she said.

A reverse mentoring program that teachers doctors about different communication styles helped when the practice launched a new medical records system that required 14 hours of training. Following the training, Kimball paired workers with more tech-savvy colleagues, who tended to be younger, to provide support.

Phased retirement

Robert Poole, 62, is the only person at health care technology company Abbott who manages the laser used to create nearly microscopic components of a cardiovascular device. Since he’s approaching retirement, Abbott hired Shahad Almahania, 33, an equipment engineer, to work alongside him and absorb some of his decades of knowledge.

“The equipment is all custom, so it takes a long time to learn how to run it and keep it running,” Poole said.

Poole, who began working in the 1980s, said he also learns from Almahania. When Abbott removed landline telephones five years ago, he migrated to group chats like Slack, asking her for help deciphering the meaning of emojis.

“When you strip away all the generational stereotypes, … every age group, every person, is looking for some of the same things,” said Leena Rinne, vice president at online learning platform Skillsoft. “They want supportive leadership. They want the opportunity to grow and to contribute in their workplace. They want respect and clarity.”

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

MILAN (AP) — Men’s downhill in Alpine skiing starts as the first medal event of the Milan Cortina Olympics and will take place Saturday, which is officially Day 1 of the Games.

Also in the spotlight will be U.S. figure skating star Ilia Malinin as well as Jessie Diggins, America’s most decorated cross-country skier.

Here is a guide of what to look out for:

Men’s downhill is wide open

Swiss teammates Marco Odermatt and world champion Franjo von Allmen are among the favorites, though there’s a long list of contenders for the podium at Stelvio Ski Center in Bormio.

The home crowd will be rooting for Dominik Paris, who in his fifth Games is still looking for his first Olympic medal. The 36-year-old Italian is a Bormio specialist, having won a record six World Cup downhills there. There’s also young Italian Giovanni Franzoni.

U.S. skier Ryan Cochran-Siegle was fastest in the opening downhill training session Wednesday. It is Cochran-Siegle’s third Winter Olympics. He won silver in the super-G at the Beijing Games four years ago.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time (0930 GMT, 4:30 a.m. ET), weather permitting.

Ilia Malinin performs in figure skating team event

Two-time reigning world champion Ilia Malinin, the overwhelming favorite to win Olympic figure skating gold, performs his short program as part of the team event. The defending champion U.S. leads Japan and Italy going into Day 2 of the three-day competition. It’s scheduled to begin at 6:45 p.m. local time (1745 GMT, 12:45 p.m. ET) in Milan.

In the free dance, the U.S. team of Madison Chock and Evan Bates is expected back on the ice. The three-time defending world champions won the rhythm dance portion of the team competition Friday.

Jessie Diggins competes in her 4th Olympics

Diggins, a 34-year-old Minnesota native, is trying to add to her Olympic haul before she retires at the end of the season. She already has a gold, silver, and bronze medal from three earlier Olympics. She will compete Saturday in the 20 kilometer skiathlon. The event is scheduled to begin at noon local time (1100 GMT and 6 a.m. ET). Cross-country skiing is held in Val di Fiemme, a valley in the heart of the Dolomites. It’s possible medals could be awarded before the men’s downhill medals.

There are also medal events in ski jumping (women’s normal hill individual), snowboard (men’s snowboard big air) and speedskating (women’s 3000 meters).

US faces Finland in women’s hockey

Women’s hockey is among the handful of disciplines that have already begun preliminary rounds. The U.S. team opened its campaign with a 5-1 victory over Czechia on Thursday.

Next up for the Americans is Finland. The game is scheduled to begin at 3:40 p.m. local time (1440 GMT, 9:40 a.m. ET) in Milan. The other games Saturday: Switzerland-Canada; Sweden-Italy; and Germany-Japan.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By The Associated Press

This photo gallery, curated by AP photo editors, features highlights from the opening ceremony of the Milan Cortina Olympics.