(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing $10 billion in federal funds in five Democrat-run states over allegations of fraudulent child care programming, an HHS official confirmed to ABC News.
The HHS official confirmed that the five states are California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — California Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa has died at the age of 65, according to House Republican leaders.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Lorde is headlining the 2026 Governors Ball festival, taking place June 5-7 in New York City’s Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The other headliners are rapper A$AP Rocky and K-pop star Stray Kids. The bill also includes Katseye, JENNIE, Ravyn Lenae, Audrey Hobert, Dominic Fike, Kali Uchis, Major Lazer, Mariah the Scientist and Absolutely, who is RAYE‘s sister and will be opening for her on tour this year.
You can sign up now for a presale taking place Thursday at 10 a.m. ET. Tickets will go on sale to the general public starting Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit GovernorsBallMusicFestival.com.
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(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Police have released new video of a person of interest in the mysterious murders of an Ohio dentist and his wife.
Spencer and Monique Tepe were found shot to death in their Columbus home on Dec. 30, Columbus police said. Two small children were found safe inside, police said.
Authorities said they believe the couple was killed between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on their home’s second floor.
Detectives on Monday shared what they called “recovered video footage” of a person walking in an alley near the victims’ house during that 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. timeframe. The grainy video shows the person of interest in jeans and a black hooded jacket, apparently with their hands in their pockets.
“We know there are questions and concerns,” police said. The department said tips are coming in, and they are “working diligently to solve this case.”
Meanwhile, the relatives of Spencer and Monique Tepe are mourning and waiting for answers.
“Makes no sense as to how somebody could do this,” Monique Tepe’s brother, Rob Misleh, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America.” “What kind of person can take two parents away from such young children, and just two beautiful people away from this earth?”
The police ask that anyone who could help identify the person of interest call 614-645-2228. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477.
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Travis Kelce is the nicest guy ever — at least according to everyone who’s ever met him. So why did Taylor Swift‘s video co-star Josh Charles once call her then-boyfriend a d*** to his face? He explained the story on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Monday night.
Charles and Ethan Hawke played mad scientists in Taylor’s elaborate video for “Fortnight,” and Travis was on set while they were filming it. When Fallon asked Charles about Hawke’s claim that Charles and Travis had gotten into a fight, Charles clarified that it wasn’t a fight but a disagreement over Travis’ attitude on the field.
Charles, who is a Ravens fan, told Fallon, “I’ve always liked Travis Kelce. I just thought he was so cool. But that year they beat us in the AFC Championship game — they beat the Ravens — he was a real jerk that year. So I kind of fell off of him.”
When he finally met Travis on set, Charles said he flat-out told him, “This year, you were kind of a d***. What was up with that?” Instead of punching him in the face, Charles recalled that Travis just laughed and said, “You know what? You’re right. I’m gonna tell you why.”
According to Charles, Travis explained that the Chiefs were “most worried” about facing the Ravens, so he had “to come in with some swagger.”
“And he did,” Charles said. “He got in our heads and they won the game.”
After clearing the air, Charles then said Travis turned out to be “actually great” and “such a good dude.” Still, he added, “I like him a lot, but I’ll root against him.”
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David Bowie is the latest artist to see a streaming bump thanks to the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Bowie’s “Heroes” plays over the closing credits of the show’s series finale, and according to Billboard, Luminate data shows that the song saw a 500% increase in streams following its inclusion.
“Heroes,” the title track to Bowie’s 12th studio album, saw about 342,000 streams on Jan. 1, the day after the show’s New Year’s Eve debut, and then continued to increase up to 456,000 streams on Jan. 2 and 470,000 streams on Jan. 3. Those numbers mark a significant increase compared to the months prior to the episode’s airing, when “Heroes” would average about 94,000 streams per day.
Stranger Things has a history of boosting the visibility of songs from previous decades. Most notably, Kate Bush‘s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill (Deal With God)” became the most streamed song on Spotify in the U.S. and the U.K. after its use in the fourth season of the show. It also went to #1 in the U.K. and #3 in the U.S.
“Heroes,” originally released in 1977, wasn’t the only song featured in the Stranger Things series finale. Other songs in the episode include Prince‘s “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper,” Pixies’ ” Here Comes Your Man” and Cowboy Junkies’ cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.”
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Mayor of Kingstown has been renewed for a fifth and final season on Paramount+. The series, which stars Jeremy Renner and Edie Falco, was co-created by Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon. The fourth season of the show debuted its finale on Dec. 28. It found Mike’s control over Kingstown threatened by the new players who arrive to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of the Russians …
KPop Demon Hunters keeps going up, up, up with awards nominations. The Netflix film and Pixar’s Elio lead the Annie Awards nominations with 10 each, followed by Zootopia 2 and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, which both have five noms. The 53rd Annie Awards ceremony is set to take place on Feb. 21 …
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are reunited in the official trailer for The Rip. Netflix has released the new trailer for the upcoming film, which also stars Steven Yeun and Teyana Taylor. The movie follows a group of cops from Miami who discover a stash of millions of dollars …
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(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Mammoth 3, Rangers 2
Ducks 4, Capitals 7
Red Wings 5, Senators 3
Kraken 5, Flames 1
Wild 2, Kings 4
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Knicks 90, Pistons 121
Bulls 101, Celtics 115
Hawks 100, Raptors 118
Suns 97, Rockets 100
Hornets 124, Thunder 97
Nuggets 125, 76ers 124
Warriors 102, Clippers 103
Jazz 117, Trail Blazers 137
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(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Monday it is changing the childhood immunization schedule.
The federal health agency is removing the universal recommendation for multiple shots, in what it calls an attempt to mirror the schedules of peer countries.
Instead of being universally recommended for almost all children at certain age cut offs, vaccines are now split into three categories: vaccines for all children, vaccines for certain high-risk groups and vaccines based on shared clinical decision making.
Shared clinical decision making is the term used by CDC to imply that patients, and parents, should talk to their provider about whether they should be vaccinated.
Some of the vaccines and immunizations that are no longer universally recommended include RSV, flu and COVID, as well as the hepatitis and meningococcal vaccines.
For children not in certain high-risk groups, no vaccine is recommended before the age of two months.
The change comes after President Donald Trump signed a memo in early December last year directing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to examine how other nations structure their childhood vaccine schedules.
HHS officials say the change will not affect health insurance coverage of vaccines.
“President Trump directed us to examine how other developed nations protect their children and to take action if they are doing better,” Kennedy said in a statement. “After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health.”
The changes drew rebuke from doctors, who expressed concern that such a change did not undergo further debate before being implemented.
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee met last month to discuss the childhood vaccine schedule, but only voted to remove the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
“I thought there might be proposals that were debated amongst experts in a public meeting, and then maybe something like this resulting from that, but not in the way this has been done, where a new schedule is released, which has already been signed on to by all the health advisors for the president,” Dr. Dave Margolius, an internal medicine physician and director of public for the city of Cleveland, told ABC News.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said altering the schedule without consulting U.S. experts in pediatrics, infectious diseases and public health “undermines both scientific rigor and transparency.”
He told ABC News that the American health care system is unique, which makes it difficult to align the U.S. vaccine schedule to those of peer nations.
“Vaccine schedules should be crafted to reflect the specific patterns of disease and access to healthcare in the United States; unfortunately, these vital factors were not adequately considered in the development of the new schedule,” Daskalakis said.
In a press briefing representing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Dr. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease physician and chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said the federal government can no longer be trusted in its role to protect American children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
“Tragically, our federal government can no longer be trusted in this role,” O’Leary said. “Unfortunately, our government is making it much harder for pediatricians to do our jobs, and they’re making it much harder for parents to know what to do.”
O’Leary confirmed the AAP was not consulted by HHS ahead of this decision to change the vaccine schedule.
Additionally, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician and chair of the Senate’s health committee, distanced himself from the CDC’s decision to change the childhood vaccine schedule.
“Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker,” Cassidy wrote in a post on X, rejecting the recent changes.
Cassidy added that the schedule is “not a mandate,” but rather a recommendation that gives parents the “power” to choose which vaccines their children receive.
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(CHICAGO) — The Department of Justice said in a new court filing Monday night that there are more than 2 million documents “potentially responsive” to the Epstein Files Transparency Act that are presently in various phases of review.
Federal prosecutors said that “in the next few weeks ahead” about 400 department attorneys in Washington, D.C., New York and Florida “will dedicate all or a substantial portion of their workday to the Department’s efforts to comply with the Act.”
The effort will tap DOJ lawyers from the Criminal and National Security Divisions and will also include assistance from more than 100 FBI analysts experienced with handling sensitive victim materials, according to the letter from Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer.
“Many of the attorneys dedicated to this review from the Department have experience in victim-privacy related matters, which is necessary given the nature of the materials and the types of documents that require careful redaction,” Clayton wrote. “While the commitment of Department personnel to this effort has been substantial in breadth and impressive in effort, substantial work remains to be done.”
The letter does not indicate a total page count for the millions of records under review and provides no specific time frame for when the DOJ expects to complete the work or when to expect its next public disclosure. The deadline set by Congress for the release of all the Epstein-related investigative files was Dec. 19.
Thus far, the DOJ says it has posted to its “DOJ Epstein Library” 12,285 documents totaling about 125,000 pages.
The filing from the DOJ follows ABC News’ reporting last week that the DOJ had recently identified over 5 million records that may be subject to disclosure under the law.
In a footnote to the court filing Monday, the DOJ indicates that it expects that a “meaningful portion” of about 1 million newly identified FBI records may be duplicative of others already collected by the DOJ for review, but those documents “nonetheless still need to undergo a process of processing and deduplication.”
Clayton’s Monday letter also notes that the DOJ has received “dozens” of inquiries from alleged victims and their representatives requesting that materials already posted to the DOJ’s website be further redacted to protect the privacy interests of the victims.
The DOJ will be modifying its procedures going forward “to better ensure the protection of victim identifying information,” according to the court filing.
“The Department remains committed to providing as much protection to the privacy interests of victims and their relatives as is practicable,” the letter states.
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