KANSAS CITY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and asking the public for help to identify a suspect.

Just after 4p.m. Thursday, a suspect robbed the UMB at&nbsp;8442 Wornall in Kansas City, according to a statement from the FBI.

The suspect was described as a light-skinned male, approx. 50-years-old, 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3, slender to medium build/approximately 230 pounds.&nbsp;The suspect was wearing a black covid style mask, blue baseball cap, rust colored plaid button down and jeans.  He was also wearing a black wig.&nbsp;

The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of currency on foot in an east bound direction on 85th street.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680219059741.png" alt="photo FBI" />
 <figcaption>photo FBI</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a bank robbery and asking the public for help to identify a suspect.Just after 4p.m. Thursday, a suspect robbed the UMB at&nbsp;8442 Wornall in Kansas City, according to a statement from the FBI.The suspect was described as a light-skinned male, approx. 50-years-old, 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3, slender to medium build/approximately 230 pounds.&nbsp;The suspect was wearing a black covid style mask, blue baseball cap, rust colored plaid button down and jeans. He was also wearing a black wig.&nbsp;The suspect fled with an undisclosed amount of currency on foot in an east bound direction on 85th street.

FBI: Suspect wearing a wig robbed Kansas City bank

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a woman's death.

Just after 7p.m. Thursday police were dispatched to the&nbsp;2000 block of Orville Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, according to a media release.&nbsp; First responders found a woman dead inside the home.

Police released no additional details early Friday.

KANSAS CITY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a woman's death.Just after 7p.m. Thursday police were dispatched to the&nbsp;2000 block of Orville Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas, according to a media release.&nbsp; First responders found a woman dead inside the home.Police released no additional details early Friday.

Police: Woman found dead in Kansas home

BROWN COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged school threat at a Kansas middle school.

Brown County Sheriff John Merchant reported he received calls expressing concern about the alleged threat involving&nbsp; a student at the Everest Middle School,&nbsp;221 South 7th, Everest, Kansas, that occurred Wednesday. 

When the potential threat was discovered, school personnel immediately&nbsp; acted and involved law enforcement who were on scene very quickly.&nbsp; An investigation was launched, and the juvenile involved was taken into custody swiftly and without incident.

&nbsp;The Brown County investigators forwarded a report to the Brown County Attorney, who was actively involved with the sheriff's office in this matter and was consulted during the investigation and detention of the suspect, according to Merchant.

Formal charges have been filed in Brown County Juvenile Court against the suspect involved. "Rumors about the incident have reportedly spread through the community," according to Merchant.&nbsp; They are simply not true.

The sheriff also commended USD 430 on their commitment to keeping students and staff safe.&nbsp;

BROWN COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged school threat at a Kansas middle school.Brown County Sheriff John Merchant reported he received calls expressing concern about the alleged threat involving&nbsp; a student at the Everest Middle School,&nbsp;221 South 7th, Everest, Kansas, that occurred Wednesday. When the potential threat was discovered, school personnel immediately&nbsp; acted and involved law enforcement who were on scene very quickly.&nbsp; An investigation was launched, and the juvenile involved was taken into custody swiftly and without incident. <figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680212224847.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>&nbsp;The Brown County investigators forwarded a report to the Brown County Attorney, who was actively involved with the sheriff's office in this matter and was consulted during the investigation and detention of the suspect, according to Merchant.Formal charges have been filed in Brown County Juvenile Court against the suspect involved. "Rumors about the incident have reportedly spread through the community," according to Merchant.&nbsp; They are simply not true. The sheriff also commended USD 430 on their commitment to keeping students and staff safe.&nbsp;

Sheriff: 1 in custody after alleged threat at Kan. middle school

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers say, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.

The former president responded to the indictment on his social media account and through his campaign.

The charges remained under seal late Thursday, but the investigation centered on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-arrest-process-what-to-know-02a2ce34e03e25ab2fdd0e81dbcc62c7">working to coordinate Trump's surrender</a>, which could happen early next week, but they did not say whether they intended to seek prison time in the event of a conviction.

The indictment, an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings, injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump "did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Trump's defense team to coordinate a surrender. A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss sealed proceedings, said the surrender was expected to happen next week.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-alvin-bragg-trump-manhattan-da-d77a4ec8df9a2b2b35f6e8bb9a52a5a7?utm_source=hubpage&amp;utm_medium=RelatedStories&amp;utm_campaign=position_03">District Attorney Alvin Bragg</a>&nbsp;left his office Thursday evening without commenting.

The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors for months scrutinized money paid to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal-26f0b7e7cf464f5fc0681e04efe5fe9b">porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal</a>, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.

The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges were likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.

For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment sets up yet another never-before-seen spectacle — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse.

The prosecution also means that Trump will have to simultaneously fight for his freedom and political future, while also fending off&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-else-is-trump-being-investigated-for-bbc926171b5bdf91eabd76db93411b8b">potentially more perilous legal threats</a>, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents.

In fact, New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to his much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.

The indictment comes as Trump is seeking to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination. An expected leading rival in the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called the indictment “un-American” in a statement Thursday night that pointedly did not mention Trump's name.

In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment. The case may also turn in part on the testimony of a key witness, Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the hush money payments.

The fate of the investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.

Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut Cohen's credibility.

Trump himself had raised anticipation that he would be indicted soon, issuing a statement earlier this month in which he predicted an imminent arrest and called for protests. He did not repeat that call in a fresh statement Thursday, but the New York Police Department told its 36,000 officers to be fully mobilized and ready to respond to any potential protests or unrest.

Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.

Cohen was then reimbursed by Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000.

Earlier in 2016, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a Trump affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.”

The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media.

Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison.

Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements — obliquely referred to in charging documents as “Individual 1” — but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.

Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of Trump’s business dealings and tax strategies.

Vance ultimately charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives.

The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges.

Bragg saw it differently. After the Trump Organization was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring longtime white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury.

Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury.

Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.

The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between Trump and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favorite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press.

Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers say, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.The former president responded to the indictment on his social media account and through his campaign.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680220494039.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680223200656.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The charges remained under seal late Thursday, but the investigation centered on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-arrest-process-what-to-know-02a2ce34e03e25ab2fdd0e81dbcc62c7">working to coordinate Trump's surrender</a>, which could happen early next week, but they did not say whether they intended to seek prison time in the event of a conviction.The indictment, an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings, injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump "did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Trump's defense team to coordinate a surrender. A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss sealed proceedings, said the surrender was expected to happen next week.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-alvin-bragg-trump-manhattan-da-d77a4ec8df9a2b2b35f6e8bb9a52a5a7?utm_source=hubpage&amp;utm_medium=RelatedStories&amp;utm_campaign=position_03">District Attorney Alvin Bragg</a>&nbsp;left his office Thursday evening without commenting.The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors for months scrutinized money paid to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal-26f0b7e7cf464f5fc0681e04efe5fe9b">porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal</a>, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges were likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment sets up yet another never-before-seen spectacle — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse.The prosecution also means that Trump will have to simultaneously fight for his freedom and political future, while also fending off&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-else-is-trump-being-investigated-for-bbc926171b5bdf91eabd76db93411b8b">potentially more perilous legal threats</a>, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents.In fact, New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to his much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.The indictment comes as Trump is seeking to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination. An expected leading rival in the race, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called the indictment “un-American” in a statement Thursday night that pointedly did not mention Trump's name.In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment. The case may also turn in part on the testimony of a key witness, Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges arising from the hush money payments.The fate of the investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut Cohen's credibility.Trump himself had raised anticipation that he would be indicted soon, issuing a statement earlier this month in which he predicted an imminent arrest and called for protests. He did not repeat that call in a fresh statement Thursday, but the New York Police Department told its 36,000 officers to be fully mobilized and ready to respond to any potential protests or unrest.Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.Cohen was then reimbursed by Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000.Earlier in 2016, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a Trump affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.”The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media.Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison.Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements — obliquely referred to in charging documents as “Individual 1” — but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of Trump’s business dealings and tax strategies.Vance ultimately charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives.The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges.Bragg saw it differently. After the Trump Organization was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring longtime white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury.Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury.Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between Trump and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favorite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press.Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.

Read Donald Trump's response to grand jury indictment 

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow won her court battle over a 2016 ski collision at a posh Utah ski resort after a jury decided Thursday that the movie star wasn’t at fault for the crash.

A jury dismissed the complaint of a retired optometrist who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boston.com/culture/celebs/2019/01/29/gwyneth-paltrow-sued-over-utah-ski-crash/">sued Paltrow</a>&nbsp;over injuries he sustained when the two crashed on a beginner run at Deer Valley ski resort, siding with Paltrow after eight days of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-0d1bf78d45d65d86eafcd0e6bc21ae38">live-streamed courtroom testimony</a>&nbsp;that made the case&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-b748dfec3d0cc7ba7281355a21a4f6ff">a pop culture fixation.</a>

Paltrow, an actor who in recent years has refashioned herself into a celebrity wellness entrepreneur, Paltrow looked to her attorneys with a pursed lips smile when the judge read the eight-member jury’s verdict in the Park City courtroom. She sat intently through two weeks of testimony in what became the biggest celebrity court case since&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/amber-heard-johnny-depp-entertainment-ae1cbc0ff84940adf857355ec956723e">actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off</a>&nbsp;last year.

The dismissal concludes two weeks of courtroom proceedings that hinged largely on reputation rather than the monetary damages at stake in the case. Paltrow’s attorneys described the complaint against her as “utter B.S.” and painted the Goop founder-CEO as uniquely vulnerable to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travel-entertainment-ap-top-news-us-news-lawsuits-89356b1afe574eee890e7f31cb193b86">unfair, frivolous lawsuits</a>&nbsp;due to her celebrity.

Paltrow took the witness stand during the trial to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-utah-ski-collision-trial-3f3b25539799e4537f2157ee3679d202">insist the collision</a>&nbsp;wasn’t her fault, and to describe how she was stunned when she felt “a body pressing against me and a very strange grunting noise.”

Throughout the trial, the word&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-2d9de9365c38">“uphill” became synonymous with “guilty,</a>&nbsp;” as attorneys focused on a largely unknown skiing code of conduct that stipulates that the skier who is downhill or ahead on the slope has the right of way.

Worldwide audiences followed the celebrity trial as if it were episodic television. Viewers scrutinized both Paltrow and Sanderson’s motives while attorneys directed questions to witnesses that often had less to do with the collision and more to do with their client’s reputations.

The trial took place in Park City, a resort town known for hosting the annual&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival">Sundance Film Festival,</a>&nbsp;where early in her career Paltrow would appear for the premieres of her movies including 1998’s “Sliding Doors,” at a time when she was known primarily as an actor, not a lifestyle influencer. Paltrow is also known for her roles in “Shakespeare in Love” and the “Iron Man” movies.

The jury’s decision marks a painful court defeat for Terry Sanderson, the man who sued Paltrow for more than $300,000 over injuries he sustained when they crashed on a beginner run. Both parties blamed the other for the collision. Sanderson, 76, broke four ribs and sustained a concussion after the two tumbled down the slope, with Paltrow landing on top of him.

He filed an amended complaint after an earlier $3.1 million lawsuit was dismissed. Paltrow in response countersued for $1 and attorney fees, a symbolic action that mirrors Taylor Swift’s response to a radio host’s defamation lawsuit. Swift was awarded $1 in 2017.

Paltrow’s defense team tried to paint Sanderson as an angry, aging and unsympathetic man who had over the years become “obsessed” with his lawsuit against Paltrow. They argued that Paltrow wasn’t at fault in the crash and also said, regardless of blame, that Sanderson was overstating the extent of his injuries.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680216584319.png" alt="Gwyneth Paltrow sits in court during an objection by her attorney during her trial, Wednesday, March 29, 2023, in Park City, Utah, where she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation, leaving him with brain damage and four broken ribs. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)" />
 <figcaption>Gwyneth Paltrow sits in court during an objection by her attorney during her trial, Wednesday, March 29, 2023, in Park City, Utah, where she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into a skier during a 2016 family ski vacation, leaving him with brain damage and four broken ribs. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)</figcaption>
 </figure>PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Gwyneth Paltrow won her court battle over a 2016 ski collision at a posh Utah ski resort after a jury decided Thursday that the movie star wasn’t at fault for the crash.A jury dismissed the complaint of a retired optometrist who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.boston.com/culture/celebs/2019/01/29/gwyneth-paltrow-sued-over-utah-ski-crash/">sued Paltrow</a>&nbsp;over injuries he sustained when the two crashed on a beginner run at Deer Valley ski resort, siding with Paltrow after eight days of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-0d1bf78d45d65d86eafcd0e6bc21ae38">live-streamed courtroom testimony</a>&nbsp;that made the case&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-b748dfec3d0cc7ba7281355a21a4f6ff">a pop culture fixation.</a>Paltrow, an actor who in recent years has refashioned herself into a celebrity wellness entrepreneur, Paltrow looked to her attorneys with a pursed lips smile when the judge read the eight-member jury’s verdict in the Park City courtroom. She sat intently through two weeks of testimony in what became the biggest celebrity court case since&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/amber-heard-johnny-depp-entertainment-ae1cbc0ff84940adf857355ec956723e">actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced off</a>&nbsp;last year.The dismissal concludes two weeks of courtroom proceedings that hinged largely on reputation rather than the monetary damages at stake in the case. Paltrow’s attorneys described the complaint against her as “utter B.S.” and painted the Goop founder-CEO as uniquely vulnerable to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/travel-entertainment-ap-top-news-us-news-lawsuits-89356b1afe574eee890e7f31cb193b86">unfair, frivolous lawsuits</a>&nbsp;due to her celebrity.Paltrow took the witness stand during the trial to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-utah-ski-collision-trial-3f3b25539799e4537f2157ee3679d202">insist the collision</a>&nbsp;wasn’t her fault, and to describe how she was stunned when she felt “a body pressing against me and a very strange grunting noise.”Throughout the trial, the word&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/gwyneth-paltrow-ski-trial-lawsuit-utah-2d9de9365c38">“uphill” became synonymous with “guilty,</a>&nbsp;” as attorneys focused on a largely unknown skiing code of conduct that stipulates that the skier who is downhill or ahead on the slope has the right of way.Worldwide audiences followed the celebrity trial as if it were episodic television. Viewers scrutinized both Paltrow and Sanderson’s motives while attorneys directed questions to witnesses that often had less to do with the collision and more to do with their client’s reputations.The trial took place in Park City, a resort town known for hosting the annual&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival">Sundance Film Festival,</a>&nbsp;where early in her career Paltrow would appear for the premieres of her movies including 1998’s “Sliding Doors,” at a time when she was known primarily as an actor, not a lifestyle influencer. Paltrow is also known for her roles in “Shakespeare in Love” and the “Iron Man” movies.The jury’s decision marks a painful court defeat for Terry Sanderson, the man who sued Paltrow for more than $300,000 over injuries he sustained when they crashed on a beginner run. Both parties blamed the other for the collision. Sanderson, 76, broke four ribs and sustained a concussion after the two tumbled down the slope, with Paltrow landing on top of him.He filed an amended complaint after an earlier $3.1 million lawsuit was dismissed. Paltrow in response countersued for $1 and attorney fees, a symbolic action that mirrors Taylor Swift’s response to a radio host’s defamation lawsuit. Swift was awarded $1 in 2017.Paltrow’s defense team tried to paint Sanderson as an angry, aging and unsympathetic man who had over the years become “obsessed” with his lawsuit against Paltrow. They argued that Paltrow wasn’t at fault in the crash and also said, regardless of blame, that Sanderson was overstating the extent of his injuries.

Gwyneth Paltrow not at fault for ski collision, jury decides

HARVEY COUNTY — One man was found dead and another man in critical condition at a residence east of Hesston Thursday afternoon, according to Harvey County public information officer Kyle Mccaskey.&nbsp;

Two acquaintances of the men found both men unresponsive at a home in the 8000 block of North West Road.

Harvey County Communications received a call from one of the acquaintances at 3:49 p.m. requesting medical assistance for the two men. EMS and law enforcement were dispatched to the home.

Emergency responders found a 48-year-old man dead inside the home. His name has not been released pending notification of family.

Emergency responders performed life-saving measures on scene for a 55-year-old man. He was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. He is a resident of the home.

The incident remains under investigation by the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office. Foul play is not immediately suspected.

HARVEY COUNTY — One man was found dead and another man in critical condition at a residence east of Hesston Thursday afternoon, according to Harvey County public information officer Kyle Mccaskey.&nbsp;Two acquaintances of the men found both men unresponsive at a home in the 8000 block of North West Road.Harvey County Communications received a call from one of the acquaintances at 3:49 p.m. requesting medical assistance for the two men. EMS and law enforcement were dispatched to the home.Emergency responders found a 48-year-old man dead inside the home. His name has not been released pending notification of family.Emergency responders performed life-saving measures on scene for a 55-year-old man. He was taken to an area hospital in critical condition. He is a resident of the home.The incident remains under investigation by the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office. Foul play is not immediately suspected.

Man dead, another in critical condition at rural Kansas home

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused in a fatal hit-and-run accident was charged Wednesday in connection with the February 20, death of death of Kristine Sheffield.

Chase Faimon, 21 of Valley Center, was charged with felony 1st&nbsp;degree murder or in the alternative 2nd&nbsp;degree murder, leaving the scene of an accident. He was also charged with the misdemeanors that include three counts of operate a motor vehicle without proper license, two counts of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, and two counts of expired tag or registration, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office.

"Cases can be charged alternatively if there are two or more theories of how the crime was committed. Each charge can be presented to a jury and a defendant may be convicted of more than one of the alternative charges.&nbsp; However, the defendant can only be sentenced for one of the alternative counts, that being the most severe offense," according to the district attorney.

Just after 7 p.m. Feb. 20, police responded to the intersection of 11th Street North and Broadway for an injury hit-and-run collision, according to Officer Juan Rebolledo.

First responders located 48-year-old Sheffield in the street unresponsive. EMS transported her to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased.

During the investigation, officers learned Sheffield was struck by a black dirt bike while crossing the street. After the collision, the driver of the motorcycle left the scene northbound on Broadway.&nbsp;<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20071435">Chase Faimon, 21, Valley Center</a>&nbsp;turned himself in after police released security camera images of him on a motorcycle, according to Rebolledo.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1677064202271.png" alt="Faimon-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Faimon-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man accused in a fatal hit-and-run accident was charged Wednesday in connection with the February 20, death of death of Kristine Sheffield.Chase Faimon, 21 of Valley Center, was charged with felony 1st&nbsp;degree murder or in the alternative 2nd&nbsp;degree murder, leaving the scene of an accident. He was also charged with the misdemeanors that include three counts of operate a motor vehicle without proper license, two counts of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, and two counts of expired tag or registration, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's office."Cases can be charged alternatively if there are two or more theories of how the crime was committed. Each charge can be presented to a jury and a defendant may be convicted of more than one of the alternative charges.&nbsp; However, the defendant can only be sentenced for one of the alternative counts, that being the most severe offense," according to the district attorney.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1676999156108.png" alt="photos Wichita Police" />
 <figcaption>photos Wichita Police</figcaption>
 </figure>Just after 7 p.m. Feb. 20, police responded to the intersection of 11th Street North and Broadway for an injury hit-and-run collision, according to Officer Juan Rebolledo.First responders located 48-year-old Sheffield in the street unresponsive. EMS transported her to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased.During the investigation, officers learned Sheffield was struck by a black dirt bike while crossing the street. After the collision, the driver of the motorcycle left the scene northbound on Broadway.&nbsp;<a href="https://ssc.sedgwickcounty.org/sheriffinmates/SheriffInmateDetail.aspx?nameId=20071435">Chase Faimon, 21, Valley Center</a>&nbsp;turned himself in after police released security camera images of him on a motorcycle, according to Rebolledo.&nbsp;

Kansas man charged for hit-and-run that killed Kan. woman

NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.

The charges center on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. They mark an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings.

The indictment injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.

A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Trump's defense team to arrange a surrender. A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss sealed proceedings, said the surrender was expected to happen next week.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-alvin-bragg-trump-manhattan-da-d77a4ec8df9a2b2b35f6e8bb9a52a5a7?utm_source=hubpage&amp;utm_medium=RelatedStories&amp;utm_campaign=position_03">District Attorney Alvin Bragg</a>&nbsp;left his office Thursday evening without commenting.

The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors scrutinized money paid to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal-26f0b7e7cf464f5fc0681e04efe5fe9b">porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal</a>, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.

The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges was likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.

For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment presents yet another never-before-seen spectacle. It will require a former president, and current hopeful, to simultaneously fight for his freedom and his political future while also fending off&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-else-is-trump-being-investigated-for-bbc926171b5bdf91eabd76db93411b8b">potentially more perilous legal threats</a>, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents.

In fact, New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.

As he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination, the indictment sets the stage for an unprecedented scene — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment and possibly a criminal trial. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse.

In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.

In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump, who is seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and . railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.

The fate of the hush-money investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.

Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements, but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.

Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty or at least his reputation in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, his lawyers said Thursday, producing the first criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly attacked the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024.

The indictment is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

In a statement, his lawyers, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, said: “He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”

The district attorney's investigation centered on money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.

Trump was expected to surrender to authorities next week, though the details were still being worked out, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.

In bringing the charges, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.

In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.

Trump faces other potential legal perils as he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination.

The district attorney in Atlanta has for two years been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 vote count. And a U.S. Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and his efforts to reverse his election loss.

NEW YORK (AP) —A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.

The indictment, confirmed Thursday by Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, and other people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss sealed criminal charges, is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly attacked the investigation as politically motivated, was expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.

NEW YORK (AP) —A lawyer for Donald Trump said Thursday he's been told that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.

It becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.

Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, told The Associated Press he had been told that a grand jury that had been meeting for months voted to indict Trump. The specific charges were not immediately made public.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has attacked the investigation, was expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.

The grand jury indictment of Trump, 76, is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1660098261521.png" alt="This becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.&nbsp; -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>This becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.&nbsp; -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, prosecutors and defense lawyers said Thursday, making him the first former U.S. president to face a criminal charge and jolting his bid to retake the White House next year.The charges center on payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. They mark an extraordinary development after years of investigations into Trump’s business, political and personal dealings.The indictment injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor.Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly assailed the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024. In a statement confirming the charges, defense lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said Trump "did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney's office confirmed the indictment and said prosecutors had reached out to Trump's defense team to arrange a surrender. A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to discuss sealed proceedings, said the surrender was expected to happen next week.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/who-is-alvin-bragg-trump-manhattan-da-d77a4ec8df9a2b2b35f6e8bb9a52a5a7?utm_source=hubpage&amp;utm_medium=RelatedStories&amp;utm_campaign=position_03">District Attorney Alvin Bragg</a>&nbsp;left his office Thursday evening without commenting.The case centers on well-chronicled allegations from a period in 2016 when Trump’s celebrity past collided with his political ambitions. Prosecutors scrutinized money paid to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-indictment-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal-26f0b7e7cf464f5fc0681e04efe5fe9b">porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal</a>, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.The timing of the indictment appeared to come as a surprise to Trump campaign officials following news reports that criminal charges was likely weeks away. The former president was at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Thursday and had filmed an interview with a conservative commentator earlier in the day.For a man whose presidency was defined by one obliterated norm after another, the indictment presents yet another never-before-seen spectacle. It will require a former president, and current hopeful, to simultaneously fight for his freedom and his political future while also fending off&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/what-else-is-trump-being-investigated-for-bbc926171b5bdf91eabd76db93411b8b">potentially more perilous legal threats</a>, including investigations into attempts by him and his allies to undo the 2020 election as well into as the hoarding of hundreds of classified documents.In fact, New York until recently had been seen as an unlikely contender to be the first place to prosecute Trump, who continues to face long-running investigations in Atlanta and Washington that could also result in charges. Unlike those inquiries, the Manhattan case concerns conduct by Trump that occurred before he became president and is unrelated to much-publicized efforts to overturn a presidential election.As he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination, the indictment sets the stage for an unprecedented scene — a former president having his fingerprints and mug shot taken, and then facing arraignment and possibly a criminal trial. For security reasons, his booking is expected to be carefully choreographed to avoid crowds inside or outside the courthouse.In bringing the charges, Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump, who is seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and . railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.The fate of the hush-money investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.Cohen was then reimbursed by Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000.Earlier in 2016, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a Trump affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.”The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media.Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison.Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements, but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of Trump’s business dealings and tax strategies.Vance ultimately charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives.The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges.Bragg saw it differently. After the Trump Organization was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring longtime white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury.Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury.Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between Trump and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favorite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press.Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty or at least his reputation in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.-------------NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, his lawyers said Thursday, producing the first criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House.Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly attacked the investigation, called the indictment “political persecution” and predicted it would damage Democrats in 2024.The indictment is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.In a statement, his lawyers, Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina, said: “He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court.”The district attorney's investigation centered on money paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.Trump was expected to surrender to authorities next week, though the details were still being worked out, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.In bringing the charges, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.Trump faces other potential legal perils as he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination.The district attorney in Atlanta has for two years been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 vote count. And a U.S. Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and his efforts to reverse his election loss.The fate of the hush-money investigation seemed uncertain until word got out in early March that Bragg had invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, a signal that prosecutors were close to bringing charges.Trump’s attorneys declined the invitation, but a lawyer closely allied with the former president briefly testified in an effort to undercut the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.Late in the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about what she says was a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament.Cohen was then reimbursed by Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which also rewarded the lawyer with bonuses and extra payments logged internally as legal expenses. Over several months, Cohen said, the company paid him $420,000.Earlier in 2016, Cohen had also arranged for the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer to pay Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 to squelch her story of a Trump affair in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill.”The payments to the women were intended to buy secrecy, but they backfired almost immediately as details of the arrangements leaked to the news media.Federal prosecutors in New York ultimately charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance laws, arguing that the payments amounted to impermissible help to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to those charges and unrelated tax evasion counts and served time in federal prison.Trump was implicated in court filings as having knowledge of the arrangements, but U.S. prosecutors at the time balked at bringing charges against him. The Justice Department has a longtime policy that it is likely unconstitutional to prosecute a sitting president in federal court.Bragg’s predecessor as district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., then took up the investigation in 2019. While that probe initially focused on the hush money payments, Vance’s prosecutors moved on to other matters, including an examination of Trump’s business dealings and tax strategies.Vance ultimately charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax fraud related to fringe benefits paid to some of the company’s top executives.The hush money matter became known around the D.A.’s office as the “zombie case,” with prosecutors revisiting it periodically but never opting to bring charges.Bragg saw it differently. After the Trump Organization was convicted on the tax fraud charges in December, he brought fresh eyes to the well-worn case, hiring longtime white-collar prosecutor Matthew Colangelo to oversee the probe and convening a new grand jury.Cohen became a key witness, meeting with prosecutors nearly two-dozen times, turning over emails, recordings and other evidence and testifying before the grand jury.Trump has long decried the Manhattan investigation as “the greatest witch hunt in history.” He has also lashed out at Bragg, calling the prosecutor, who is Black, racist against white people.The criminal charges in New York are the latest salvo in a profound schism between Trump and his hometown — a reckoning for a one-time favorite son who grew rich and famous building skyscrapers, hobnobbing with celebrities and gracing the pages of the city’s gossip press.Trump, who famously riffed in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and “wouldn’t lose voters,” now faces a threat to his liberty or at least his reputation in a borough where more than 75% of voters — many of them potential jurors — went against him in the last election.NEW YORK (AP) —A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Donald Trump on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter, the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.The indictment, confirmed Thursday by Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, and other people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss sealed criminal charges, is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly attacked the investigation as politically motivated, was expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.In bringing the charges, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, is embracing an unusual case that had been investigated by two previous sets of prosecutors, both of which declined to take the politically explosive step of seeking Trump’s indictment.In the weeks leading up to the indictment, Trump railed about the investigation on social media and urged supporters to protest on his behalf, prompting tighter security around the Manhattan criminal courthouse.Trump faces other potential legal perils as he seeks to reassert control of the Republican Party and stave off a slew of one-time allies who are seeking or are likely to oppose him for the presidential nomination.The district attorney in Atlanta has for two years been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 vote count. And a U.S. Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and his efforts to reverse his election loss.--------------NEW YORK (AP) —A lawyer for Donald Trump said Thursday he's been told that the former president has been indicted in New York on charges involving payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter.It becomes the first ever criminal case against a former U.S. president and a jolt to Trump’s bid to retake the White House in 2024.Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, told The Associated Press he had been told that a grand jury that had been meeting for months voted to indict Trump. The specific charges were not immediately made public.Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing and has attacked the investigation, was expected to surrender to authorities next week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss a matter that remained under seal.The grand jury indictment of Trump, 76, is an extraordinary development after years of investigations into his business, political and personal dealings. It is likely to galvanize critics who say Trump lied and cheated his way to the top and embolden supporters who feel the Republican is being unfairly targeted by a Democratic prosecutor.

Donald Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime

SALINE COUNTY —The Salina Police Department reported Thursday evening&nbsp; 54-year-old Garret Crutchfield turned himself in.

SALINE COUNTY —The cause of the death of a man whose body was found dumped along the side of the road in north Salina in late January has been ruled a fentanyl overdose and one of two people sought in the case has been arrested, according to a media release from Salina Police Department.

On Jan. 28, a citizen contacted police about a body in the 1900 block of N. Fifth Street. Police later identified the body as that of 20-year-old Brendon Thomas Wade Reed.

According to a statement from police, On January 29, an autopsy was conducted and no signs of fatal trauma were located during the examination. The autopsy and toxicology findings determined Reed’s cause of death a fentanyl overdose.&nbsp;

This week, warrants were issued for 44-year-old Jack Allen Kelley and 54-year-old Garret Clayton Crutchfield, both Salina residents for criminal desecration of a body and interference with law enforcement.

On Wednesday, police booked Kelley into the Saline County Jail for one count of criminal desecration of a body and one count of interference with law enforcement.

Police are looking for Crutchfield. He has previous felony convictions for burglary and theft, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.&nbsp; 

If you know where he is, please contact the Salina Police Department at (785) 826-7210 and ask for dispatch to report his location.

The autopsy findings, toxicology report, and information from the case investigation have been provided to the Saline County Attorney, Jeff Ebel. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680205560645.png" alt="Police are asking for help to locate Garret Clayton Crutchfield in connection with the overdose death. Crutchfield has previous convictions for burglary and theft, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections" />
 <figcaption>Police are asking for help to locate Garret Clayton Crutchfield in connection with the overdose death. Crutchfield has previous convictions for burglary and theft, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections</figcaption>
 </figure>SALINE COUNTY —The Salina Police Department reported Thursday evening&nbsp; 54-year-old Garret Crutchfield turned himself in.--------------SALINE COUNTY —The cause of the death of a man whose body was found dumped along the side of the road in north Salina in late January has been ruled a fentanyl overdose and one of two people sought in the case has been arrested, according to a media release from Salina Police Department.On Jan. 28, a citizen contacted police about a body in the 1900 block of N. Fifth Street. Police later identified the body as that of 20-year-old Brendon Thomas Wade Reed.According to a statement from police, On January 29, an autopsy was conducted and no signs of fatal trauma were located during the examination. The autopsy and toxicology findings determined Reed’s cause of death a fentanyl overdose.&nbsp;This week, warrants were issued for 44-year-old Jack Allen Kelley and 54-year-old Garret Clayton Crutchfield, both Salina residents for criminal desecration of a body and interference with law enforcement.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680181055668.jpeg" alt="Jack Allen Kelley-photo Saline Co." />
 <figcaption>Jack Allen Kelley-photo Saline Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>On Wednesday, police booked Kelley into the Saline County Jail for one count of criminal desecration of a body and one count of interference with law enforcement.Police are looking for Crutchfield. He has previous felony convictions for burglary and theft, according to the Kansas Dept. of Corrections.&nbsp; If you know where he is, please contact the Salina Police Department at (785) 826-7210 and ask for dispatch to report his location.The autopsy findings, toxicology report, and information from the case investigation have been provided to the Saline County Attorney, Jeff Ebel.

Police: 2nd suspect in Kan. man's fentanyl death turns himself in

RENO COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a&nbsp; Kansas man who was in possession of fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, according to a media release from Hutchinson Police.

The Hutchinson Police Department Special Operations Division arrested 31-year-old Holden S. Walden for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Officers seized over one hundred suspected fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680206140730.jpeg" alt="Photo Courtesy Hutchinson Police" />
 <figcaption>Photo Courtesy Hutchinson Police</figcaption>
 </figure>RENO COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a&nbsp; Kansas man who was in possession of fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, according to a media release from Hutchinson Police.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680206198324.jpeg" alt="Walden-photo Reno Co." />
 <figcaption>Walden-photo Reno Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>The Hutchinson Police Department Special Operations Division arrested 31-year-old Holden S. Walden for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Officers seized over one hundred suspected fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.&nbsp;

Police seize oxycodone pills containing fentanyl in Hutchinson

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Nine people were killed in a crash involving two Army <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-hawk-helicopters-crash-d8ebd81d05f0b917df61d7dbcdb1752f">Black Hawk</a> medical evacuation helicopters conducting a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, Army officials said Thursday.

Nondice
 Thurman, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell, said the deaths happened 
Wednesday night in southwestern Kentucky during a routine training 
mission.

A statement from Fort Campbell said the two HH-60 Black 
Hawk helicopters, part of the 101st Airborne Division, crashed around 10
 p.m. Wednesday in Trigg County, Kentucky. The 101st Airborne confirmed 
the crash about 30 miles northwest of Fort Campbell. The
 crash is under investigation.

The helicopters crashed in a field 
near a residential area with no injuries on the ground, Brig. Gen. John 
Lubas, the 101st Airborne deputy commander, said. One helicopter had 
five people aboard and the other had four, Lubas said.

An Army spokesperson declined to comment on whether the helicopters collided in the air.

"At
 this time, there is no determination on the specifics regarding the 
accident,” Daniel Matthews, a public affairs officer for the 101st 
Airborne Division, said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon. 
Matthews said an aviation safety team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, will 
investigate the accident.

Speaking a news conference Thursday 
morning, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state would do everything 
it can to support the families of those killed.

“We’re going to do
 what we always do. We’re going to wrap our arms around these families, 
and we’re going to be there with them, not just for the days, but the 
weeks and the months and the years to come," Beshear said.

Lubas said it is unclear what caused the crash.

“This
 was a training progression, and specifically they were flying a 
multi-ship formation, two ships, under night vision goggles at night," 
Lubas said. He said officials believe the accident occurred when "they 
were doing flying, not deliberate medical evacuation drills.”

The 
helicopters have something similar to the black boxes on passenger 
planes, which records the performance of aircrafts in flight and are 
used by investigators to analyze crashes.

“We’re hopeful that will provide quite a bit of information of what occurred,” Lubas said.

The
 Black Hawk helicopter is a critical workhorse for the U.S. Army and is 
used in security, transport, medical evacuations, search and rescue and 
other missions. The helicopters are known to many people from the 2001 
movie “Black Hawk Down,” which is about a violent battle in Somalia 
eight years earlier.

Black Hawks were a frequent sight in the 
skies over Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars conducting combat 
missions and are also used by the Army’s 160th Special Operations 
Aviation Regiment. They were also often used to ferry visiting senior 
leaders to headquarters locations in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.

Fort
 Campbell is located near the Tennessee border, about 60 miles orthwest of Nashville, and the crash occurred in the Trigg 
County, Kentucky, community of Cadiz.

Nick Tomaszewski, who lives 
about a mile from where the crash occurred, said he saw two helicopters 
flying over his house moments before the crash.

“For whatever 
reason last night my wife and I were sitting there looking out on the 
back deck and I said 'Wow, those two helicopters look low and they look 
kind of close to one another tonight,’” he said.

The helicopters flew over and looped back around and moments later “we saw what looked like a firework went off in the sky.”

“All
 of the lights in their helicopter went out. It was like they just 
poofed ... and then we saw a huge glow like a fireball,” Tomaszewski 
said.

Flyovers for training exercises happen almost daily and the helicopters typically fly low but not so close together, he said.

“There
 were two back to back. We typically see one and then see another one a 
few minutes later, and we just saw two of them flying together last 
night,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered his condolences to the families of those killed.

“My
 heart goes out to the families of these servicemembers and to the 
members of the 101st Airborne Division who bravely and proudly serve our
 country each and every day," Lloyd said in a statement.

In the 
Kentucky House and in the Senate, members stood for a moment of silence 
Thursday morning in honor of the crash victims. Kentucky state Rep. 
Walker Thomas said the crash occurred about 15 to 20 minutes from his 
home.

“They’re there to protect us,” Thomas said. “And we’re constantly seeing these helicopters flying over our communities.”

Thomas spoke about how connected Fort Campbell soldiers and their families are to the communities near the Army post.

“The
 Fort Campbell soldiers that live in our communities, go to our churches
 ... they go to our schools, their kids do,” he added. “And this really 
hurts.”

By Thursday morning, word of the crash was spreading 
through the community of Clarksville, Tennessee, just outside Fort 
Campbell.

Chaterra Watts, a former Army soldier who was stationed 
at Fort Campbell from about 2015 to 2019, said once she heard about the 
crash, she jumped on social media to try to find out more and if she 
knew any of the victims.

“I pray for their friends and their 
families and just hope that we can all come together as a community and 
that something positive will come out of something so tragic,” Watts 
said.

Last month, two Tennessee National Guard pilots were killed when their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-alabama-tennessee-helicopter-crashes-70e5fa88184336305ed7ef435fd23248">Black Hawk helicopter crashed</a> along an Alabama highway during a training exercise.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680208722157.jpeg" alt="Military officials hold a news conference in Fort Campbell, KY, on Thursday March 30, 2023, to discuss a fatal helicopter crash. Nine people were killed in a crash involving two Army Black Hawk helicopters conducting a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, a military spokesperson said. (AP Photo/Sharon Johnson)" />
 <figcaption>Military officials hold a news conference in Fort Campbell, KY, on Thursday March 30, 2023, to discuss a fatal helicopter crash. Nine people were killed in a crash involving two Army Black Hawk helicopters conducting a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, a military spokesperson said. (AP Photo/Sharon Johnson)</figcaption>
 </figure>Associated PressFORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Nine people were killed in a crash involving two Army <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-hawk-helicopters-crash-d8ebd81d05f0b917df61d7dbcdb1752f">Black Hawk</a> medical evacuation helicopters conducting a nighttime training exercise in Kentucky, Army officials said Thursday.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/PentagonPresSec?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PentagonPresSec</a> on incident in which nine Army soldiers were killed in a crash involving two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Kentucky, which occurred during a routine training mission. <a href="https://t.co/QZg8GivRaE">pic.twitter.com/QZg8GivRaE</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1641525073474461699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Nondice
 Thurman, a spokesperson for Fort Campbell, said the deaths happened 
Wednesday night in southwestern Kentucky during a routine training 
mission.A statement from Fort Campbell said the two HH-60 Black 
Hawk helicopters, part of the 101st Airborne Division, crashed around 10
 p.m. Wednesday in Trigg County, Kentucky. The 101st Airborne confirmed 
the crash about 30 miles northwest of Fort Campbell. The
 crash is under investigation.The helicopters crashed in a field 
near a residential area with no injuries on the ground, Brig. Gen. John 
Lubas, the 101st Airborne deputy commander, said. One helicopter had 
five people aboard and the other had four, Lubas said.An Army spokesperson declined to comment on whether the helicopters collided in the air."At
 this time, there is no determination on the specifics regarding the 
accident,” Daniel Matthews, a public affairs officer for the 101st 
Airborne Division, said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon. 
Matthews said an aviation safety team from Fort Rucker, Alabama, will 
investigate the accident.Speaking a news conference Thursday 
morning, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state would do everything 
it can to support the families of those killed.“We’re going to do
 what we always do. We’re going to wrap our arms around these families, 
and we’re going to be there with them, not just for the days, but the 
weeks and the months and the years to come," Beshear said.Lubas said it is unclear what caused the crash.“This
 was a training progression, and specifically they were flying a 
multi-ship formation, two ships, under night vision goggles at night," 
Lubas said. He said officials believe the accident occurred when "they 
were doing flying, not deliberate medical evacuation drills.”The 
helicopters have something similar to the black boxes on passenger 
planes, which records the performance of aircrafts in flight and are 
used by investigators to analyze crashes.“We’re hopeful that will provide quite a bit of information of what occurred,” Lubas said.The
 Black Hawk helicopter is a critical workhorse for the U.S. Army and is 
used in security, transport, medical evacuations, search and rescue and 
other missions. The helicopters are known to many people from the 2001 
movie “Black Hawk Down,” which is about a violent battle in Somalia 
eight years earlier.Black Hawks were a frequent sight in the 
skies over Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars conducting combat 
missions and are also used by the Army’s 160th Special Operations 
Aviation Regiment. They were also often used to ferry visiting senior 
leaders to headquarters locations in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.Fort
 Campbell is located near the Tennessee border, about 60 miles orthwest of Nashville, and the crash occurred in the Trigg 
County, Kentucky, community of Cadiz.Nick Tomaszewski, who lives 
about a mile from where the crash occurred, said he saw two helicopters 
flying over his house moments before the crash.“For whatever 
reason last night my wife and I were sitting there looking out on the 
back deck and I said 'Wow, those two helicopters look low and they look 
kind of close to one another tonight,’” he said.The helicopters flew over and looped back around and moments later “we saw what looked like a firework went off in the sky.”“All
 of the lights in their helicopter went out. It was like they just 
poofed ... and then we saw a huge glow like a fireball,” Tomaszewski 
said.Flyovers for training exercises happen almost daily and the helicopters typically fly low but not so close together, he said.“There
 were two back to back. We typically see one and then see another one a 
few minutes later, and we just saw two of them flying together last 
night,” he said.U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered his condolences to the families of those killed.“My
 heart goes out to the families of these servicemembers and to the 
members of the 101st Airborne Division who bravely and proudly serve our
 country each and every day," Lloyd said in a statement.In the 
Kentucky House and in the Senate, members stood for a moment of silence 
Thursday morning in honor of the crash victims. Kentucky state Rep. 
Walker Thomas said the crash occurred about 15 to 20 minutes from his 
home.“They’re there to protect us,” Thomas said. “And we’re constantly seeing these helicopters flying over our communities.”Thomas spoke about how connected Fort Campbell soldiers and their families are to the communities near the Army post.“The
 Fort Campbell soldiers that live in our communities, go to our churches
 ... they go to our schools, their kids do,” he added. “And this really 
hurts.”By Thursday morning, word of the crash was spreading 
through the community of Clarksville, Tennessee, just outside Fort 
Campbell.Chaterra Watts, a former Army soldier who was stationed 
at Fort Campbell from about 2015 to 2019, said once she heard about the 
crash, she jumped on social media to try to find out more and if she 
knew any of the victims.“I pray for their friends and their 
families and just hope that we can all come together as a community and 
that something positive will come out of something so tragic,” Watts 
said.Last month, two Tennessee National Guard pilots were killed when their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-alabama-tennessee-helicopter-crashes-70e5fa88184336305ed7ef435fd23248">Black Hawk helicopter crashed</a> along an Alabama highway during a training exercise.

🎥9 killed in Army Black Hawk helicopter crash in Kentucky

By JENNIFER SHUTT, ARIANA FIGUEROA and&nbsp; ASHLEY MURRAY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/30/u-s-judge-rules-insurers-dont-have-to-cover-many-free-preventive-health-services/">States Newsroom</a>

WASHINGTON — Health insurance 
companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health 
care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a
 federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas.

The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer screenings, HIV prevention pharmaceuticals and more — that a federal agency given new powers under Obamacare required health insurance companies to cover.

It wasn’t immediately clear when or 
how the decision could take effect in consumer insurance plans. The 
Biden administration is likely to appeal the case.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck 
Schumer called for an immediate stay and appeal of the ruling and for 
insurance providers to “publicly commit they will retain free preventive
 care.”

“This ruling is not only misguided, 
it is outright dangerous and could cost lives,” Schumer, a New York 
Democrat, said in a statement.

New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank 
Pallone, ranking member on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee,
 said in a written statement the judge’s decision “imperils access to 
lifesaving care including mammograms, lung cancer and skin cancer 
screenings, screenings for pregnant women and newborns, and PrEP.”

“It has no basis in the law, will 
unnecessarily cause confusion, and will put lives at risk if people are 
forced to forgo routine screenings and treatment,” he added. “The 
Department of Justice should immediately move to appeal this reckless 
decision and have it stayed so that Americans do not lose access to 
care.”

The U.S. Justice Department and the 
Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for 
comment Thursday morning on the case, Braidwood Management v. Becerra. 
The White House also did not return a request for comment on the ruling.

Judge Reed O’Connor, from the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, wrote in his <a target="_blank" href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381.113.0_2.pdf">ruling</a>
 that preventive services required by the U.S. Preventive Services Task 
Force to be covered are unlawful because they violate the Appointments 
Clause.

That <a target="_blank" href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C2-3-1/ALDE_00013092/">section of the Constitution</a>
 requires the president to nominate certain positions, sometimes 
referred to as principal officers, that the U.S. Senate then confirms.

Government officials whose positions 
are generally considered “inferior” are often left for the president, 
Cabinet secretaries, or others in the executive branch to hire without 
Senate involvement.&nbsp;

The conservative Christian business 
owners who filed the lawsuit argue the preventive care measure mandates 
are unconstitutional, due to a lack of oversight on how recommendations 
are made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

The business owners argue that 
because the ACA does not allow the secretary of HHS — or other leaders 
of the agency — to reject recommendations made by that committee, it has
 insufficient oversight.

O’Connor, nominated by former president George W. Bush, sided in his ruling with the businesses owners, who
 want to provide health insurance without coverage for “PrEP drugs, the 
HPV vaccine, contraceptives, and screenings and behavioral counseling 
for STDs and drug use.” They argued their employees had no need for such
 coverage and that it violated their religious beliefs under the 
Religious Freedom Restoration Act.&nbsp;

PrEP, also known as pre-exposure 
prophylaxis, are drugs that have a 99% prevention rate for HIV, and are 
used by all Americans, but primarily by men who have sex with men. The 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/fact-sheets/hiv/PrEP-for-hiv-prevention-in-the-US-factsheet.html">found</a> the drugs “played a part in recent decreases in new HIV infections.” The CDC estimates that 1.2 million Americans are eligible for PrEP.&nbsp;

The business owners argue that 
requiring health insurance to cover preventive HIV medication, such as 
PrEP, violates their faith. They also argue it’s unconstitutional for 
the federal government to recommend covered preventive services.

O’Connor wrote in Thursday’s ruling 
that Braidwood Management Inc. and Kelley Orthodontics, as well as 
others “need not comply with the preventive care coverage 
recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued on or 
after March 23, 2010, because the members of the Task Force have not 
been appointed in a manner consistent with Article II’s Appointments 
Clause.” The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on that date.

Numerous medical groups — the 
American Medical Association, The American College of Obstetricians and 
Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Women’s Association, the 
American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Medical Association 
and the Infectious Diseases Society of America — warned against revoking
 no-cost preventive care services in a <a target="_blank" href="https://searchltf.ama-assn.org/case/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fcasebriefs%2FBraidwood_Management_v__Becerra_Northern_District_of_Texas_Brief.pdf">brief</a> filed in November.&nbsp;

“​​Ultimately, if this Court 
invalidates the Task Force’s recommendations nationwide, physicians and 
healthcare professionals will be left in an untenable situation,” they 
wrote.

“Amici will struggle to encourage 
their patients to accept services that they know will save lives and to 
help their patients navigate a new and confusing insurance situation,” 
they added. “Amici will see many of their patients, including some of 
their most vulnerable, turn down medically indicated services because of
 the very financial barriers that Congress sought to remove.”&nbsp;

“The past ten years have shown the 
benefits of no-cost preventive coverage, and amici ask that the Court 
hesitate before ordering a remedy that could upset that substantial 
progress,” they said.&nbsp;

The<a target="_blank" href="https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation-topics/uspstf-a-and-b-recommendations"> preventive care services </a>&nbsp;in
 question receive either an “A” or “B” rating from the Preventive 
Services Task Force. They include domestic violence counseling, 
postpartum depression counseling, breastfeeding support, and treatment 
for heart disease.&nbsp;

Some of the screenings for cancer 
include breast, colorectal, ovarian, lung and skin for patients as young
 as 6 months to 24-year-olds with fair skin.&nbsp;&nbsp;

HHS <a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/786fa55a84e7e3833961933124d70dd2/preventive-services-ib-2022.pdf">estimated</a>
 in 2020 that nearly 152 million people had access to preventive care 
services under the law. That breaks down to about 58 million women, 57 
million men, and 37 million children, according to HHS data.

Several cases challenging whether 
employers should have to comply with the ACA’s birth control mandate 
have come before the U.S. Supreme Court. Thursday’s ruling does not 
change that section of the ACA.&nbsp;

In 2020 the court granted a victory to those opposed to offering health plans that cover contraception.

In a 7-2 decision, with an opinion 
written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of 
the Little Sisters of the Poor, which challenged that the mandate 
violated its rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The case brought by the nonprofit 
Catholic religious organization, which operates homes for the elderly, 
upheld a Trump administration expansion of an exemption under the ACA 
that allowed private employers to object to the birth control mandate 
for religious or moral reasons.

The Trump administration widened the exemptions in November 2018.

In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously returned a case brought by a Pittsburgh-based Catholic priest to the lower court level.&nbsp;

Bishop David Zubik, the main 
plaintiff, had argued that religious freedoms were violated by the 
contraceptive mandate. Zubik argued that a special carve-out exemption 
for religious organizations did not go far enough and therefore burdened
 the exercise of their religious freedoms. The Catholic Diocese of 
Pittsburgh and Erie, as well as the nonprofit Catholic Charities, joined
 as plaintiffs.

In 2014, Hobby Lobby, a 
Christian-owned craft supply retailer, won at the Supreme Court level 
after it became the first high-profile plaintiff to challenge coverage 
of birth control under the ACA.

In a 5-4 decision, Justice Samuel 
Alito wrote in the majority opinion that a requirement for “closely 
held” for-profit corporations to provide employees with access to 
no-cost contraception under ACA plans violated the Religious Freedom and
 Restoration Act.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1680202853184.jpg" alt=" Insurance companies would not be required to cover preventative screening if a federal judge’s ruling on the 2010 Affordable Care Act stands. Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption> Insurance companies would not be required to cover preventative screening if a federal judge’s ruling on the 2010 Affordable Care Act stands. Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By JENNIFER SHUTT, ARIANA FIGUEROA and&nbsp; ASHLEY MURRAY <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/30/u-s-judge-rules-insurers-dont-have-to-cover-many-free-preventive-health-services/">States Newsroom</a>WASHINGTON — Health insurance 
companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health 
care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a
 federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas.The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care — including pregnancy-related care, cancer screenings, HIV prevention pharmaceuticals and more — that a federal agency given new powers under Obamacare required health insurance companies to cover.It wasn’t immediately clear when or 
how the decision could take effect in consumer insurance plans. The 
Biden administration is likely to appeal the case.U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck 
Schumer called for an immediate stay and appeal of the ruling and for 
insurance providers to “publicly commit they will retain free preventive
 care.”“This ruling is not only misguided, 
it is outright dangerous and could cost lives,” Schumer, a New York 
Democrat, said in a statement.New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank 
Pallone, ranking member on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee,
 said in a written statement the judge’s decision “imperils access to 
lifesaving care including mammograms, lung cancer and skin cancer 
screenings, screenings for pregnant women and newborns, and PrEP.”“It has no basis in the law, will 
unnecessarily cause confusion, and will put lives at risk if people are 
forced to forgo routine screenings and treatment,” he added. “The 
Department of Justice should immediately move to appeal this reckless 
decision and have it stayed so that Americans do not lose access to 
care.”The U.S. Justice Department and the 
Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for 
comment Thursday morning on the case, Braidwood Management v. Becerra. 
The White House also did not return a request for comment on the ruling.Judge Reed O’Connor, from the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, wrote in his <a target="_blank" href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381.113.0_2.pdf">ruling</a>
 that preventive services required by the U.S. Preventive Services Task 
Force to be covered are unlawful because they violate the Appointments 
Clause.That <a target="_blank" href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S2-C2-3-1/ALDE_00013092/">section of the Constitution</a>
 requires the president to nominate certain positions, sometimes 
referred to as principal officers, that the U.S. Senate then confirms.Government officials whose positions 
are generally considered “inferior” are often left for the president, 
Cabinet secretaries, or others in the executive branch to hire without 
Senate involvement.&nbsp;The conservative Christian business 
owners who filed the lawsuit argue the preventive care measure mandates 
are unconstitutional, due to a lack of oversight on how recommendations 
are made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.The business owners argue that 
because the ACA does not allow the secretary of HHS — or other leaders 
of the agency — to reject recommendations made by that committee, it has
 insufficient oversight.O’Connor, nominated by former president George W. Bush, sided in his ruling with the businesses owners, who
 want to provide health insurance without coverage for “PrEP drugs, the 
HPV vaccine, contraceptives, and screenings and behavioral counseling 
for STDs and drug use.” They argued their employees had no need for such
 coverage and that it violated their religious beliefs under the 
Religious Freedom Restoration Act.&nbsp;PrEP, also known as pre-exposure 
prophylaxis, are drugs that have a 99% prevention rate for HIV, and are 
used by all Americans, but primarily by men who have sex with men. The 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/fact-sheets/hiv/PrEP-for-hiv-prevention-in-the-US-factsheet.html">found</a> the drugs “played a part in recent decreases in new HIV infections.” The CDC estimates that 1.2 million Americans are eligible for PrEP.&nbsp;The business owners argue that 
requiring health insurance to cover preventive HIV medication, such as 
PrEP, violates their faith. They also argue it’s unconstitutional for 
the federal government to recommend covered preventive services.O’Connor wrote in Thursday’s ruling 
that Braidwood Management Inc. and Kelley Orthodontics, as well as 
others “need not comply with the preventive care coverage 
recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued on or 
after March 23, 2010, because the members of the Task Force have not 
been appointed in a manner consistent with Article II’s Appointments 
Clause.” The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on that date.Numerous medical groups — the 
American Medical Association, The American College of Obstetricians and 
Gynecologists, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Women’s Association, the 
American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Medical Association 
and the Infectious Diseases Society of America — warned against revoking
 no-cost preventive care services in a <a target="_blank" href="https://searchltf.ama-assn.org/case/documentDownload?uri=%2Funstructured%2Fbinary%2Fcasebriefs%2FBraidwood_Management_v__Becerra_Northern_District_of_Texas_Brief.pdf">brief</a> filed in November.&nbsp;“​​Ultimately, if this Court 
invalidates the Task Force’s recommendations nationwide, physicians and 
healthcare professionals will be left in an untenable situation,” they 
wrote.“Amici will struggle to encourage 
their patients to accept services that they know will save lives and to 
help their patients navigate a new and confusing insurance situation,” 
they added. “Amici will see many of their patients, including some of 
their most vulnerable, turn down medically indicated services because of
 the very financial barriers that Congress sought to remove.”&nbsp;“The past ten years have shown the 
benefits of no-cost preventive coverage, and amici ask that the Court 
hesitate before ordering a remedy that could upset that substantial 
progress,” they said.&nbsp;The<a target="_blank" href="https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation-topics/uspstf-a-and-b-recommendations"> preventive care services </a>&nbsp;in
 question receive either an “A” or “B” rating from the Preventive 
Services Task Force. They include domestic violence counseling, 
postpartum depression counseling, breastfeeding support, and treatment 
for heart disease.&nbsp;Some of the screenings for cancer 
include breast, colorectal, ovarian, lung and skin for patients as young
 as 6 months to 24-year-olds with fair skin.&nbsp;&nbsp;HHS <a target="_blank" href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/786fa55a84e7e3833961933124d70dd2/preventive-services-ib-2022.pdf">estimated</a>
 in 2020 that nearly 152 million people had access to preventive care 
services under the law. That breaks down to about 58 million women, 57 
million men, and 37 million children, according to HHS data.<h2>Other legal challenges to ACA coverage</h2>Several cases challenging whether 
employers should have to comply with the ACA’s birth control mandate 
have come before the U.S. Supreme Court. Thursday’s ruling does not 
change that section of the ACA.&nbsp;In 2020 the court granted a victory to those opposed to offering health plans that cover contraception.In a 7-2 decision, with an opinion 
written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of 
the Little Sisters of the Poor, which challenged that the mandate 
violated its rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.The case brought by the nonprofit 
Catholic religious organization, which operates homes for the elderly, 
upheld a Trump administration expansion of an exemption under the ACA 
that allowed private employers to object to the birth control mandate 
for religious or moral reasons.The Trump administration widened the exemptions in November 2018.In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously returned a case brought by a Pittsburgh-based Catholic priest to the lower court level.&nbsp;Bishop David Zubik, the main 
plaintiff, had argued that religious freedoms were violated by the 
contraceptive mandate. Zubik argued that a special carve-out exemption 
for religious organizations did not go far enough and therefore burdened
 the exercise of their religious freedoms. The Catholic Diocese of 
Pittsburgh and Erie, as well as the nonprofit Catholic Charities, joined
 as plaintiffs.In 2014, Hobby Lobby, a 
Christian-owned craft supply retailer, won at the Supreme Court level 
after it became the first high-profile plaintiff to challenge coverage 
of birth control under the ACA.In a 5-4 decision, Justice Samuel 
Alito wrote in the majority opinion that a requirement for “closely 
held” for-profit corporations to provide employees with access to 
no-cost contraception under ACA plans violated the Religious Freedom and
 Restoration Act.

Judge: Insurers don’t have to cover many preventive measures

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday approved a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-climate-health-bill-9a7f349fa7b07387d20ad603f2ff4875">President Joe Biden's agenda to address climate change.</a>

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?527072-1/house-republicans-speak-energy-bill-passage">Click here to watch the </a>House Speaker's press conference

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 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Thursday approved a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-climate-health-bill-9a7f349fa7b07387d20ad603f2ff4875">President Joe Biden's agenda to address climate change.</a><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?527072-1/house-republicans-speak-energy-bill-passage">Click here to watch the </a>House Speaker's press conferenceThe legislation would sharply increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects. It would boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in electric vehicles, computers, cellphones and other products.By a 225-204 vote, the House sent the measure to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “dead on arrival.”Biden has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would replace “pro-consumer policies” adopted in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-congress-climate-and-environment-f084d23d61ebb068068d4aa92c82fdbb">the landmark climate law approved last year</a>&nbsp;“with a thinly veiled license to pollute.'' The bill would roll back Democratic investments in clean energy and ”pad oil and gas company profits,'' the White House said.Republicans call the bill the&nbsp;<a href="https://scalise.house.gov/press-releases/Scalise%3A-Unleashing-American-Energy-Lowers-Costs-for-Families">“Lower Energy Costs Act”</a>&nbsp;and gave it the symbolic label H.R. 1 — the top legislative priority of the new GOP majority, which took control of the House in January.The measure combines dozens of separate proposals and represents more than two years of work by Republicans who have chafed at Biden's environmental agenda. They say Biden's efforts have thwarted U.S. energy production and increased costs at the gas pump and grocery store.“Families are struggling because of President Biden's war on American energy,'' said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., one of the bill's main authors.The GOP bill will “unleash" abundant U.S. natural resources "so we can produce energy in America,'' Scalise said. “We don't have to be addicted to foreign countries that don't like us.''Democrats called the bill a giveaway to big oil companies."Republicans refuse to hold polluters accountable for the damage they cause to our air, our water, our communities and our climate,'' said New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.“While Democrats delivered historic wins for the American people by passing historic climate legislation, Republicans are actively working to undermine that progress and do the bidding of their polluter friends,″ Pallone said.House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the bill “restores American energy leadership by repealing unnecessary taxes and overregulation on American energy producers,'' and "makes it easier to build things in America'' by placing a two-year time limit on environmental reviews that now take an average of seven years.“Every time we need a pipeline, a road or a dam, it gets held up five to seven years and adds millions of dollars in costs for the project to comply with Washington’s permitting process,'' McCarthy said in speech on the House floor. “It’s too long, it’s unaffordable, it’s not based on science and it’s holding us back.''He pointed to a project to modify and improve Lake Isabella Dam in his central California district that has lasted 18 years and still is not completed.“Permitting reform isn’t for everyone,'' McCarthy added. “If you like paying more at the pump, you don’t want to make it faster for American workers to build more pipelines. If you’re China, you’d rather America sit back and let others lead. And if you’re a bureaucrat, maybe you really do enjoy reading the 600-page environmental impact studies.''Most Americans want lower prices and more U.S. energy production, McCarthy said — results he said the bill will deliver.Democrats called that misleading and said the GOP plan was a thinly disguised effort to reward oil companies and other energy producers that have contributed millions of dollars to GOP campaigns.Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, derided the bill as the “Polluters Over People Act'' and “a nearly 200-page love letter to polluting industries.''Instead of reining in&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-exxon-mobil-corp-business-0de95b8421a658f020717a148a63c9c5">“Big Oil” companies that have reported record profits</a>&nbsp;while “hoarding thousands of unused leases'' on public lands and waters, the GOP bill lowers royalty rates paid by energy producers and reinstates noncompetitive leasing of public lands, Grijalva said.The bill also gives mining companies “a veritable free-for-all on our public lands” and “makes mockery of tribal consultation'' required under federal law, he said.Under the GOP plan, mining companies will “destroy sacred and special places" throughout the West, "ruin the landscape and leave behind a toxic mess that pollutes our water and hurts our health — all without paying a cent to the American people,'' Grijalva said.Schumer called the measure “a giveaway to Big Oil pretending to be an energy package.”The House energy package “would gut important environmental safeguards on fossil fuel projects,'' locking America "into expensive, erratic and dirty energy sources while setting us back more than a decade on our transition to clean energy,'' Schumer said.Schumer said he supports streamlining the nation's cumbersome permitting process for energy projects, especially those that will deliver “clean energy” such as wind, solar and geothermal power. “But the Republican plan falls woefully short on this front as well,'' he said, calling on Republicans to back reforms that would help ease the transition to renewable energy and accelerate construction of transmission lines to bolster the nation's aging power grid.Schumer and other Democrats said the Republican bill would repeal a new $27 billion&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-and-environment-financial-services-us-environmental-protection-agency-business-664750a30b238523bc025663f4a1f002">Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund</a>&nbsp;and other parts of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-congress-climate-and-environment-f084d23d61ebb068068d4aa92c82fdbb">the climate and health care law passed by Democrats last year</a>. The bill also would eliminate a new tax on methane pollution.