News – Page 13 – 105.7 WDNY

udges temporarily block Trump orders targeting Jenner and Block, WilmerHale law firms

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Federal judges in D.C. on Friday partially blocked two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump targeting the Jenner and Block and WilmerHale law firms — temporarily halting Trump’s attempts to punish prominent law firms associated with his political foes.

In a lawsuit brought by Jenner and Block, D.C. District Judge John Bates described Trump’s executive order — which aims to strip the firms’ attorneys of any security clearances they may hold and severely restrict any business they may have before the federal government — as “troubling” and “disturbing.” He said it targets the firm’s and its employees’ First Amendment rights and rights to due process.

Bates, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, temporarily enjoined the administration from enforcing aspects of the order that seek to restrict government officials from engaging with officials from Jenner and Block, after he said the government failed to provide any substantive answers as to how employees from the firm threaten national security.

The judge said that attorneys representing Jenner and Block showed that they were likely being targeted on the basis of their protected free speech rights, and that they would suffer irreparable economic harm if it were fully implemented.

Later Friday, Judge Richard Leon also granted a temporary restraining order partially enjoining another executive order signed by Trump targeting the law firm WilmerHale.

Leon, also an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said several parts of Trump’s order clearly show “retaliatory actions based on perceived viewpoint” of employees of WilmerHale.

“There is no doubt this retaliatory action chills speech and legal advocacy, or that it qualifies as a constitutional harm,” Leon said in his written order, following a hearing late Friday.

Leon is now the third federal judge to largely accept arguments from law firms targeted by Trump that his orders are likely unconstitutional — and that if implemented, Leon said, WilmerHale “faces crippling losses and its very survival is at stake.”

Both law firms filed suit in D.C. federal court on Friday to block the executive orders — the same day another major law firm struck a $100 million deal to preemptively avoid a similar Trump executive order.

The lawsuits accuse Trump of engaging in a sweeping campaign to intimidate major law firms who have represented plaintiffs currently suing the administration, or who have represented or at one point employed those he dislikes.

The Trump executive order threatened their futures as well as “the legal system itself,” Jenner and Block said in its lawsuit.

“These orders send a clear message to the legal profession: Cease certain representations adverse to the government and renounce the Administration’s critics — or suffer the consequences,” the Jenner and Block suit said. “The orders also attempt to pressure businesses and individuals to question or even abandon their associations with their chosen counsel, and to chill bringing legal challenges at all.”

The two firms are the latest firms seeking to counter what has been a rapid onslaught by the White House seeking to target individual firms that have hired or otherwise represented Trump’s political enemies.

Meanwhile, Trump said on Friday that the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom struck a deal to avoid one of his executive orders by providing $100 million in pro bono work during the Trump administration — among other guarantees.

The move has sent shockwaves through the legal community. The White House is prepared to target more big law firms, sources tell ABC News, and there are ongoing discussions among top advisers on strategy associated with possibly entering into negotiations with more of them.

Legal scholars have said there is little legal precedent for Trump’s war on Big Law, which has created a chilling effect across the legal community, and most will certainly have a chilling effect on his opponents who will need legal representation against him.

The firms’ legal actions come on the heels of successful effort by the law firm Perkins Coie, which earlier this month secured a court order blocking similar executive action signed by Trump.

3 dead after storms bring record-breaking Texas floods, officials say

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(TEXAS) — At least three people have died after heavy rain brought record-breaking flooding to South Texas, according to officials.

The deaths occurred in Hidalgo County, where officials issued a disaster declaration as a result of the flooding. The county, which includes the city of McAllen, saw some of the heaviest rain accumulations over the last 24 hours.

There was no further information about the three deaths immediately available, but officials said they would release more details later.

A large part of South Texas is still reeling from the life-threatening flooding that began overnight and continued into Friday morning.

Thunderstorms began Wednesday, with another round of heavy rainfall on Thursday afternoon and evening. The rain continued through Friday afternoon.

The National Weather Service issued flash flooding emergency warnings multiple times on Thursday and overnight for South McAllen and Harlingen — both located in the Rio Grande Valley in the southernmost parts of Texas.

“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” the NWS said in a statement issued Thursday night, urging people to avoid travel unless fleeing a region subject to flooding or are under an evacuation order.

The region received between 6 inches and a foot of rain or more in some areas, according to the NWS. McAllen got more than 6 inches of rain, while more than 14 inches was recorded at the Valley International Airport in Harlingen.

The NWS received reports for several vehicles stranded on Interstate 2 in waist-deep water, according to the agency. Dozens of water rescues took place as a result of the flash flooding.

Video shows first responders in inflatable boats rescuing people stranded on roadways. The South Texas Health System hospital in McAllen experienced minor flooding on its first floor.

Several school districts in the region canceled classes on Friday, as did the South Texas College in McAllen.

Flooding continued into Friday morning, with rivers nearly overflowing. A flood watch is in effect for parts of South Texas and southern Louisiana.

Water levels at the Arroyo Colorado River at Harlingen are nearing a record-breaking 30 feet. There is no precedent for the kind of damage a 30-foot water level in the Arroyo Colorado River could do, according to the NWS. The previous record water levels measured at the Arroyo Colorado River was 24 feet.

The flooding stemmed from a stationary boundary — a front between warm and cold air masses that moves very slowly or not at all. A band of significantly heavy storms was forming over the same hard-hit areas on Friday morning. A storm with 3-inch rain rates was forming over Harlingen on Friday morning.

The system also conjured up a tornado, with a twister reported near Edcouch, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of McAllen, that damaged several structures.

The potential for showers and thunderstorms in this region is expected to continue through the afternoon, with the threat ending Friday evening, forecasts show.

Emotional Education Department ‘clap-outs’ celebrate departed federal employees

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of emotional Department of Education employees took part in a final “clap-out” in Washington, D.C., after losing jobs amid the Trump administration’s agency restructuring.

The administration slashed about 50% of the department’s workforce as part of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s strategy to abolish the department and send education decisions to the states.

The departing civil servants, who have either been terminated, retired or voluntarily bought out, have each been given about 30 minutes to retrieve their belongings this week — before exiting the building to clapping colleagues who were screaming “thank you!” outside the offices in Washington, D.C.

The last education chief, former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, visited his old office to celebrate employees affected by the workforce shakeup.

Clapping, shaking hands and cheering them along, Cardona told the civil servants, “Thank you for your service.”

“These public servants that are walking out right now deserve a thank you. They deserve respect. They’ve worked hard — not just during the time that I served as secretary but before that,” Cardona, wearing plain clothes, told reporters in a brief statement outside agency headquarters.

“I’m here, for the staff here, to say thank you,” he added.

DeNeen Ripley shook Cardona’s hand and told him her entire transportation division was eliminated. Ripley has worked at the department over 30 years and said she is taking an early retirement now.

“It feels like a death,” Ripley told ABC News. “It feels like a bad divorce of sorts, it just feels heartbreaking.”

Despite the massive overhaul and almost 2,000 employees lost, McMahon has stressed the Department of Education will continue to administer its statutory functions that students from disadvantaged backgrounds rely on, including grants, formula funding and loans.

“The president made clear today that none of the funding will stop for these [programs],” McMahon told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott after Trump’s executive order signing last week, which directed McMahon to use all necessary steps permitted under the law to abolish the agency she’s been tapped to lead.

“I think it is his hope that even more funding could go to the states. There will be more opportunity for it. And, you know, he means what he says. And so there’s not going to be any defunding or reduction in funding,” she added.

A dream job “snatched”

Washington, D.C., native Leondra Richardson and a crowd of emotional colleagues across the department left the near-defunct agency’s headquarters for the final time Friday.

“It was a dream job,” Richardson told ABC News. “And that dream was snatched from me by the new administration.”

Richardson said her entire office, the Office of the Chief Data Officer, was folded earlier this month by the “reduction in force” implemented on March 11.

Sydney Leiher, a midlevel career public servant, said she felt forced out and doesn’t know what’s next for her. After leaving with her belongings, including a beach volleyball and Trader Joe’s sack, Leiher stressed the reforms are not only unjustified but also unpopular.

“It’s definitely emotional,” Leiher said, holding back tears. “I feel bad for all of the people in the Chief Information Office who have to, like, gather all of our laptops and equipment — like, they don’t want to be doing this either.

“It’s just a really sad day. But seeing the support out here from all of other Department of ED staff and then also, like, other federal agencies and then the public just makes it shows to me that, like, people do not want this, and like, this is not popular, and this shouldn’t be happening,” Leiher added.

Richardson and Leiher both worked in the same division, the OCDO, that was shuttered. Without the office, Richardson said there will hardly be anyone left at the federal level to collect data to show student improvements or delays.

The Trump administration has claimed it is making cuts to rid the government of bureaucratic bloat, but Richardson told ABC News her IT job was not policy based or bureaucratic. Leiher, an analyst who worked on artificial intelligence machine learning, told ABC News that she took this job after returning from the Peace Corps. She added that civil service work shouldn’t be about politics.

“I believe in public service,” Leiher said. “I believe in a nonpartisan civil service. We’re important, we matter.”

Meanwhile, departing civil servants such as Dr. Jason Cottrell, a data coordinator in the Office of Postsecondary Education, the largest grant-making division in the department, said he believes students are being put in jeopardy as the Department of Education is diminished.

“Our nation’s students are going to suffer,” Cottrell said. “I think of the doctoral students that are, you know, trying to do research on cancer or, you know, learning or whatever it may be, and without the funds to support them, they are going to — it’s going to be hard for them to succeed without those funds, and we’re not going to gain that knowledge that we need.”

The farewell ceremony at the department comes as “clap-outs” are set to continue across the country next week at regional offices in places such as Cleveland, Dallas and San Francisco. But these moments hit especially close to home for Richardson, who detailed how she overcame a teenage pregnancy while growing up east of the river in the Southeast quadrant of the city.

She said it’s so close yet so “far away” from the federal government.

“I hate that I can’t be a voice or inspiration to the young girls growing up in Southeast D.C. that I wanted to inspire,” Richardson said, adding that she “wanted to give a chance to, you know, show that there’s another way and you can make it forward.”

“You can make a big impact and a big difference in the country coming from where we from,” she said.

ABC News’ Alex Ederson contributed to this report

Tornado threat issued for Midwest as severe storms move through country

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A spring storm system will move east over the next three days, bringing a variety of dangerous and life-threatening weather, including tornados and large hail, from the Heartland to the East Coast.

From late Saturday evening into Saturday night, severe storms will take shape from Oklahoma City to Kansas City, according to the forecast. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds and large hail, but a tornado cannot be ruled out.

On Sunday, the storm will move into the Midwest and the South with severe weather expected from near Dallas all the way to Erie, Pennsylvania. The highest threat for strong tornadoes will be from east of Little Rock, Arkansas, to Tupelo, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; Nashville, Tennessee; and Evansville, Indiana.

Damaging winds and hail are also possible in Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Cleveland.

On Monday, the severe weather moves to the East Coast and I-95 corridor from Upstate New York all the way south to Tallahassee, and New Orleans. Damaging winds will be the biggest threat for northern cities but a few tornadoes cannot be ruled out across the southern areas.

On the north side of this storm, snow and ice is forecast from Dakotas all the way to New England Saturday into Sunday.

Ice storm warnings have been issued for Wisconsin and Michigan, where up to a half an inch of icy glaze will cover streets, roads, trees and sidewalks.

Additionally, periods of rain and thunderstorms will move into the Carolinas and Asheville Saturday night into Sunday morning. The area has experienced wildfires over the last week due to the dry conditions.

On Saturday, seven states from New York to North Carolina are under Elevated Fire Danger.

The thunderstorms with heavy rain will be on and off into Monday.

Deportation halted for Tufts student whose visa Rubio says was revoked due to activism

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Boston ruled that Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk cannot be deported until she decides whether she has jurisdiction to rule if Ozturk was lawfully taken into custody.

Judge Denise Casper said Friday that Ozturk “shall not be removed from the United States until further Order of this Court.”

The government revoked Ozturk’s visa due to her pro-Palestinian activism, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who added the State Department may have revoked more than 300 student visas since the beginning of the second Trump administration.

“It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said during a press conference in Guyana on Thursday.

Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested by immigration authorities as she was headed to meet her friends and break her fast during Ramadan on Tuesday.

She is listed in the ICE database as “in custody” and appears to be held at an ICE processing center in Louisiana.

Rubio plainly said Ozturk’s visa was revoked by the government.

“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus — we’re not going to give you a visa,” he said.

“If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa. And once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legally in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it’s just that simple,” Rubio said.

Last year, Ozturk was the co-author of an opinion piece in the Tufts Daily newspaper, demanding the university administration “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and disclose and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

She made no mention of Hamas in the op-ed, though a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”

“She’s softspoken, she doesn’t want to hurt you when she’s talking,” her friend, Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University’s psychology department, told ABC News. “She makes sure that she doesn’t offend anyone, let alone possibly incite violence. I’ve never heard her swearing, believe me, this is the kind of person we’re talking about.”

The secretary said it was “crazy” and “stupid” for any country to issue visas to any individual who intends to be disruptive on college campuses.

“If you invite me into your home because you say, I want to come to your house for dinner and I go to your house and I start putting mud on your couch and spray painting your kitchen, I bet you you’re going to kick me out,” he said. “Well, we’re going to do the same thing if you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us.”

“We don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country, but you’re not going to do it in our country,” he said.

The mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, where Ozturk was approached and detained, said it appears the Tufts doctoral student was detained over the exercise of free speech.

“I am deeply concerned to see a student with legal status detained for what appears to be the exercise of free speech. Rumeysa Ozturk has a First Amendment right to free speech and a right to due process and that must be upheld, just as all immigration detainees have rights that must be respected without exception,” Mayor Katjana Ballantyne said in a statement.

“Our rights are being threatened in a variety of ways right now and Somerville will make use of the law and our voices to defend them. My administration recently filed a joint lawsuit with Chelsea against federal officials to do just that. We cannot sit by idly,” the mayor said.

Denmark doesn’t ‘appreciate the tone’ of US Greenland remarks, minister says

March 29, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Denmark is open to discussions with the U.S. on how to “fix” the status quo in Greenland, the country’s foreign minister said, after Vice President JD Vance accused Copenhagen of failing to adequately protect the Arctic island during a controversial visit on Friday.

In a post to X addressed to Denmark’s “dear American friends” late Friday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said his nation agrees that the “status quo” in the Arctic “is not an option.”

“So let’s talk about how we can fix it — together,” Rasmussen wrote.

In a video statement, Rasmussen acknowledged the “many accusations and many allegations” about Greenland. “Of course, we are open to criticism, but let me be completely honest — we do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered.”

“This is not how you speak to your close allies,” Rasmussen continued, “and I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.”

Danish and Greenlandic leaders have pushed back on Trump’s desire to gain control of Greenland. They have simultaneously criticized his perceived overreach while seeking to ease tensions by proposing deeper military and economic cooperation on the Arctic landmass.

“We respect that the United States needs a greater military presence in Greenland, as Vice President Vance mentioned this evening. We — Denmark and Greenland — are very much open to discussing this with you,” Rasmussen said in his statement.

The existing bilateral defense agreement — signed in 1951 — “offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland,” Rasmussen said. “If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it.”

President Donald Trump has repeatedly — both in his first term and since returning to office for his second — expressed his ambition to take control of the island. Rasmussen’s appeal for dialogue came shortly after Vance completed his visit to Greenland, which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Speaking to American service members at the U.S. Pituffik Space Base on the northwestern coast of Greenland, Vance said, “Well, the president said we have to have Greenland. And I think that we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland.”

“We can’t just ignore this place,” he continued. “We can’t just ignore the president’s desires.”

Vance said Trump’s administration “respects the self-determination of the people of Greenland,” but suggested the island would be safer under the U.S. security umbrella.

Greenland is already covered by the Article 5 collective defense clause that underpins NATO, of which both Denmark and the U.S. are members.

“Yes, the people of Greenland are going to have self-determination,” Vance said. “We hope that they choose to partner with the United States because we’re the only nation on Earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security — because their security is very much our security.”

Vance accused Denmark of failing to provide adequate security against “very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and from other nations.”

“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change,” he said.

Rasmussen said that both Denmark and the U.S. had done too little in the Arctic since the end of the Cold War. “We all acted on the assumption that the Arctic was and should be a low tension area, but that time is over,” he said. “Status quo is not am option.”

Trump has repeatedly expressed his ambition to acquire Greenland, despite fierce criticism from leaders in Greenland, Denmark and Europe. There appears little support among Greenlanders for his proposal. A January poll by Verian, commissioned by the Danish paper Berlingske, showed that only 6% of Greenlanders are in favor of becoming part of the U.S., with 9% undecided.

The island sits in a strategic position facing the northern coast of Russia across the Arctic Ocean and close to two shipping routes — the Northeast and Northwest passages. Greenland is also thought to be home to a large amount of valuable mineral deposits. Both the shipping routes and minerals are expected to become more accessible as the warming climate causes sea ice to recede further.

“We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of: Do you think we can do without it? We can’t,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. “If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place, and we’re not going to be able to do that.”

“We’re not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation,” he added. “And we’re not talking about peace for the United States.”

“Greenland’s very important for the peace of the world — not us, the peace of the entire world,” the president said. “And I think Denmark understands it. I think the European Union understands it. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to explain it to them.”

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie, Molly Nagle and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

Man charged for posing as ICE officer, placed fake emblems on SUV: Police

March 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(FIFE, Wa) — A man was charged for posing as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Washington state, according to police.

Ilya Kukhar, 26, was charged on Thursday for impersonating an ICE officer after he allegedly drove a vehicle that “displayed prominent emblems with large letters spelling ‘I.C.E’ along with a pseudo-seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” the Fife Police Department said in a statement on Thursday.

At approximately 5 p.m. on March 16, police responded to a 911 call of a “suspicious vehicle at the Emish Market,” a Ukrainian grocery store in Fife, Washington, officials said.

The vehicle, which had no license plates, was identified as a black 2019 Ford SUV and was later confirmed to be a former patrol car for the Tukwila Police Department, officials said.

The presence of the vehicle “appeared intentional, targeting a Ukrainian grocery store” which indicated a “deliberate effort to intimidate and draw attention to itself,” police said.

Witnesses told officials that the “occupant(s)” of the vehicle were “recording employees and customers on video, causing alarm and concern,” police said.

Once police arrived on the scene, the vehicle left, officials said.

The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that the vehicle was not an official DHS unit, leading the police — in coordination with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations Seattle field offices — to look into this incident, officials said.

In response to a bulletin posted by the Fife Police Department, officials in Tukwila “identified the vehicle as one of their former patrol cars,” officials said.

Previously, it had been “removed from their fleet after being involved in a collision,” officials said. Once it was no longer in service with the City of Tukwila, an insurance company sold it to a private buyer, police said.

After “numerous tips” and the assistance of Tukwila Police, the “primary suspect in this case” was identified as Kukhar, officials said. Police have not said if there are other suspects involved.

Kukhar, who is “not employed by any federal law enforcement agency,” has been charged with one count of Criminal Impersonation in the Second Degree.

He is currently not in police custody and his initial arraignment is scheduled for April 11, officials said.

Extreme, record-breaking flooding sweeps through southern Texas

March 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(TEXAS) — A large part of South Texas is reeling from life-threatening flooding that began overnight and continued into Friday morning.

Thunderstorms began Wednesday, with another round of heavy rainfall on Thursday afternoon and evening. The rain is expected to continue through Friday afternoon, forecasts show.

The NWS received reports for several vehicles stranded on Interstate 2 in waist-deep water, according to the agency. Dozens of water rescues took place as a result of the flash flooding.

Video shows first responders in inflatable boats rescuing people stranded on roadways. The South Texas Health System hospital in McAllen experienced minor flooding on its first floor.

Several school districts in the region canceled classes on Friday, as did the South Texas College in McAllen.

Flooding continued into Friday morning, with rivers nearly overflowing. A flood watch is in effect for parts of South Texas and southern Louisiana.

The system also conjured up a tornado, with a twister reported near Edcouch, Texas, about 25 miles northeast of McAllen, that damaged several structures.

The potential for showers and thunderstorms in this region is expected to continue through the afternoon, with the threat ending Friday evening, forecasts show.

Nearly 500 cases of measles reported nationwide across 19 states: CDC

March 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 400, with 73 cases reported over the last three days, according to new data released Friday.

Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). At least 41 people have been hospitalized so far.

Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases at 164, followed by children ages 4 and under comprising 131 cases, according to the data.

It comes as the CDC has so far confirmed 483 measles cases this year in at least 19 states: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington

This is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that some unvaccinated children hospitalized with measles in Texas are showing signs of vitamin A toxicity.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine skeptics have promoted vitamin A amid the measles outbreak. During an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity earlier this month, Kennedy said that HHS was currently providing vitamin A to measles patients for treatment, claiming vitamin A can “dramatically” reduce measles deaths.

Vitamin A can be used as part of supportive treatment for those who are already sick, with the World Health Organization recommending two doses of vitamin A in children and adults with measles to restore low vitamin A levels, which can help prevent eye damage and blindness.

However, vitamin A does not prevent measles infections, experts previously told ABC News, nor does it directly fight the virus when used as a treatment.

Covenant Children’s Hospital, which has treated dozens of measles patients in Texas amid the outbreak, told ABC News in a statement that some parents appear to have given their unvaccinated children vitamin A for “treatment and prevention.” Some of those children now show signs of vitamin A toxicity.

Fewer than 10 children have come in with abnormal liver function in routine lab tests, indicating possible vitamin A toxicity, according to Covenant Children’s.

Vitamin A toxicity occurs when someone consumes too much vitamin A, and can result in severe complications iincluding liver and kidney damage.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.

State health data shows that Gaines County, which is the epicenter of the Texas outbreak, has seen its number of vaccine exemptions grow dramatically in the last dozen years.

In 2013, roughly 7.5% of kindergartners in the county had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.

Among the nationally confirmed cases by the CDC, about 95%, are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, the agency said.

Of those cases, 3% are among those who received just one dose of the MMR inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

After months of cuts, State Department says it’s officially shuttering USAID

March 28, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The State Department said Friday it was officially shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development, in what could deal a final blow to the beleaguered foreign aid agency.

In a memo distributed to USAID employees and obtained by ABC News, Jeremy Lewin, the agency’s new deputy director and a former Department of Government Efficiency official, wrote that the State Department “intends to assume responsibility for many of USAID’s functions and its ongoing programming.”

The State Department “will seek to retire USAID’s independent operation” immediately and “assess” whether to rehire some unknown number of officials to “assume the responsible administration of USAID’s remaining life-saving and strategic aid programming,” the memo said.

“This transfer will significantly enhance efficiency, accountability, uniformity, and strategic impact in delivering foreign assistance programs — allowing our nation and President to speak with one voice in foreign affairs,” according to the memo.

“It will also obviate the need for USAID to continue operating as an independent establishment,” the memo said.

As part of the move, the memo said, “all non-statutory positions at USAID will be eliminated.”

Trump administration officials, including Elon Musk’s DOGE group, have leading a widespread effort to dismantle the agency by laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shedding its Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The decision to completely dissolve a federal agency is expected to prompt legal scrutiny, according to experts who said such a move would typically require congressional approval.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that the administration was officially moving to sunset USAID and that foreign aid would now officially be administered by the State Department.

“Thanks to President Trump, this misguided and fiscally irresponsible era is now over,” Rubio said in his statement. “We are reorienting our foreign assistance programs to align directly with what is best for the United States and our citizens.”

“We are continuing essential lifesaving programs and making strategic investments that strengthen our partners and our own country,” Rubio said in his statement.

Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.

The State Department also said that its leadership, along with USAID leadership in place, had notified Congress of their intent to reorganize some USAID functions within the State Department by July 1 of this year.

The overall push to eliminate USAID and the reduction of the agency’s staff is being challenged in multiple court cases.

+ More