Washington
Judge questions difference between Hegseth’s testosterone policy and transgender care for troops
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new initiative to test and treat troops for low testosterone has prompted a federal judge to question the differences between that kind of testosterone replacement therapy and hormone treatment for transgender men in the military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington raised the question Wednesday in an ongoing lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops. Reyes noted that Trump’s ban says “the Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards ... without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”
Reyes ordered both parties in the lawsuit to address “the similarities and differences in administering TRT, both medically and logistically, for trans men compared to other service members, including cis individuals.” She was using the acronym for testosterone replacement therapy.
The judge also requested information on the Pentagon’s “basis for treating trans men and other service members differently between this new policy and the Military Ban.”
Reyes’ order comes a week after Hegseth announced that he is rolling out a new screening program for “testosterone deficiency” among troops, calling it necessary to allow them to operate at their “absolute best.”
The screenings will be conducted annually as part of service members’ required medical screenings for those 30 and older, he said. Troops under 30 can volunteer to be tested. In a video on social media, Hegseth said receiving testosterone replacement therapy would be voluntary.
Other Trump administration officials have begun to advocate for men to have easier access to testosterone replacement therapies, but the messaging from Hegseth and others blends known science on the hormone with broader, and less substantiated, claims.
Testosterone levels in men decline naturally with age and have long been linked to issues like erectile dysfunction, low libido, mood changes and weight gain. But experts have debated for years how to diagnose those problems and whether they should be treated by replacing the hormone.
Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is overseeing one of the lawsuits against Trump’s ban on transgender troops. Transgender active duty service members and former service members seeking to reenlist sued in late January 2025, shortly after the president returned for his second term in office.
Reyes ruled last year against Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops. A divided panel of federal appeals court judges sent the case back to Reyes after partially upholding her order, finding that the ban was unlawful and service members who sued could not be kicked out.
Reyes has since given the case class-action status, which means the outcome could expand to all service members.
Trump’s transgender military ban remains in effect, however. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Pentagon to enforce it as litigation plays out.
Washington
Democrats urge IRS watchdog to find out why a top lawyer who clashed with White House left his job
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats want a watchdog at the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the recent departure of a high-ranking IRS attorney who clashed with President Donald Trump’s White House after the attorney raised concerns about influence over taxpayer audits.
Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury Department secretary and acting chief counsel of the IRS, left both roles earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kies had warned that political officials risked breaching a law that bars the executive branch from interfering in tax enforcement by starting or stopping audits or investigations.
Kies is a longtime Washington tax lobbyist who was confirmed to lead the Office of Tax Policy in June 2025. He also served as acting chief counsel to the IRS.
More than a dozen Democratic senators said Kies was forced out of Trump’s Republican administration after “raising concerns about those potential violations” in a letter addressed to Heather M. Hill, the Treasury Department’s acting inspector general for tax administration.
“If recent reporting is accurate and Mr. Kies did in fact advise White House officials of such risks, it is gravely concerning that this administration chose not only to ignore the IRS’ top legal adviser, but to fire him for attempting to follow the law and protect taxpayers,” the lawmakers said.
The White House, which confirmed Kies’ departure, sent The Associated Press an email statement that Kies was not a team player and was difficult to work with. Neither Kies nor the IRS responded to AP requests for comment.
The rule barring executive influence over directing tax audits came out of the Watergate scandal, in which President Richard Nixon, a Republican, discussed using the IRS against political opponents and groups on his administration’s “enemies list.”
Its unclear what taxpayer audits prompted Kies’ concerns over White House influence. However, Kies previously recused himself from tax matters involving Trump due to his prior work as Trump’s private lawyer.
Separately, lawmakers have questioned a settlement agreement to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit over the 2018 leak of his tax returns to The New York Times. The settlement, forged in May between Trump and his own government, includes a provision under which the IRS agrees to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair share of taxes.
The U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization’s current tax filings, according to a one-page addendum.
Florida
Captain pleads guilty in boat crash that killed 3 girls from Miami sailing camp
MIAMI (AP) — A tugboat captain has pleaded guilty to causing a deadly Miami collision that killed three girls from a sailing camp last summer.
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 47, of Miami, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to seaman’s manslaughter, according to court records. The charge carries up to 10 years in federal prison, but prosecutors have recommended a year in prison followed by six months of home detention as part of a plea agreement. A judge will make the final decision.
“Three children lost their lives in a tragedy that never should have happened,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement.
“Yusiel Lopez Insua ... admitted that his criminal failure to follow basic maritime safety rules caused this deadly collision. Our hearts remain with the children’s families and everyone whose lives were forever changed that day.”
According to court records, Lopez Insua was piloting a 25-foot (8-meter) tugboat pushing a construction barge across Biscayne Bay on July 28, 2025. The 108-foot-long (33-meter-long) barge was loaded with construction debris, bringing its total weight to about 149 gross tons.
The vessel’s forward view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no crewmember had been assigned to serve as a lookout, officials said. This prevented Lopez Insua from seeing a sailboat carrying a 19-year-old counselor and five girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, from a nearby sailing camp that had lost wind and stalled in the tugboat’s path, investigators said. The barge ran over the sailboat, submerging it beneath the barge’s hull.
The counselor and two girls managed to escape, but three girls became trapped beneath the wreckage and drowned, officials said. A forensic review of Lopez Insua’s cellphone revealed internet activity while the tugboat was underway, including at or near the time of the collision.
The children were in their last week of camp, according to the Miami Yacht Club.
Across the U.S. in 2024, there were over 550 deaths in recreational boating, but only 43 were caused by vessels crashing into each other, according to Coast Guard statistics.
Massachusetts
More than 24 states sue Trump administration after it put conditions on receiving disaster funding
BOSTON (AP) — More than two dozen states on Thursday sued the Trump administration for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions in order to receive billions of dollars in federal funding for disasters.
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island and challenging Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security policies, argued that the administration is requiring states to change their elections systems and help DHS with immigration enforcement. The conditions would also allow DHS to terminate grants at anytime and for any reason.
“Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding and once again, they won’t get away with it,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by attempting to bully the states into relinquishing their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents.”
The states argue putting conditions on congressionally appropriated funding violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is one of scores that have challenged the Trump administration over its repeated effort to browbeat mostly Democrat states into complying with its priorities to get billions of dollars in federal funding. The strategy has been used on everything from education funding to domestic violence grants to highway funding.
The courts have repeatedly found this strategy to be unlawful and unconstitutional. A ruling last year barred the administration from putting conditions on other FEMA funding and a second ruling this year blocked the administration from redirecting DHS funding away from states not seen as supportive to the its agenda.
“The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects,” U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote last year, when he barred the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from cutting off transportation funds to states that did not comply with immigration enforcement actions.
The latest lawsuit argues the administration is attempting to apply some of the same conditions on 2026 funding, as it failed to do with funding last year.
Among the requirements being challenged in Thursday’s lawsuit is that states change their elections systems. They must transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct a manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters and verify the citizenship of every registered voter in the state’s voter databases.
If states fail to comply, they risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding. That money is used to fund measures to protect citizens from cyberattacks and terrorism.
Since his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.
Judge questions difference between Hegseth’s testosterone policy and transgender care for troops
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new initiative to test and treat troops for low testosterone has prompted a federal judge to question the differences between that kind of testosterone replacement therapy and hormone treatment for transgender men in the military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington raised the question Wednesday in an ongoing lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender troops. Reyes noted that Trump’s ban says “the Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards ... without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.”
Reyes ordered both parties in the lawsuit to address “the similarities and differences in administering TRT, both medically and logistically, for trans men compared to other service members, including cis individuals.” She was using the acronym for testosterone replacement therapy.
The judge also requested information on the Pentagon’s “basis for treating trans men and other service members differently between this new policy and the Military Ban.”
Reyes’ order comes a week after Hegseth announced that he is rolling out a new screening program for “testosterone deficiency” among troops, calling it necessary to allow them to operate at their “absolute best.”
The screenings will be conducted annually as part of service members’ required medical screenings for those 30 and older, he said. Troops under 30 can volunteer to be tested. In a video on social media, Hegseth said receiving testosterone replacement therapy would be voluntary.
Other Trump administration officials have begun to advocate for men to have easier access to testosterone replacement therapies, but the messaging from Hegseth and others blends known science on the hormone with broader, and less substantiated, claims.
Testosterone levels in men decline naturally with age and have long been linked to issues like erectile dysfunction, low libido, mood changes and weight gain. But experts have debated for years how to diagnose those problems and whether they should be treated by replacing the hormone.
Reyes, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, is overseeing one of the lawsuits against Trump’s ban on transgender troops. Transgender active duty service members and former service members seeking to reenlist sued in late January 2025, shortly after the president returned for his second term in office.
Reyes ruled last year against Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops. A divided panel of federal appeals court judges sent the case back to Reyes after partially upholding her order, finding that the ban was unlawful and service members who sued could not be kicked out.
Reyes has since given the case class-action status, which means the outcome could expand to all service members.
Trump’s transgender military ban remains in effect, however. The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Pentagon to enforce it as litigation plays out.
Washington
Democrats urge IRS watchdog to find out why a top lawyer who clashed with White House left his job
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats want a watchdog at the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the recent departure of a high-ranking IRS attorney who clashed with President Donald Trump’s White House after the attorney raised concerns about influence over taxpayer audits.
Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury Department secretary and acting chief counsel of the IRS, left both roles earlier this month. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kies had warned that political officials risked breaching a law that bars the executive branch from interfering in tax enforcement by starting or stopping audits or investigations.
Kies is a longtime Washington tax lobbyist who was confirmed to lead the Office of Tax Policy in June 2025. He also served as acting chief counsel to the IRS.
More than a dozen Democratic senators said Kies was forced out of Trump’s Republican administration after “raising concerns about those potential violations” in a letter addressed to Heather M. Hill, the Treasury Department’s acting inspector general for tax administration.
“If recent reporting is accurate and Mr. Kies did in fact advise White House officials of such risks, it is gravely concerning that this administration chose not only to ignore the IRS’ top legal adviser, but to fire him for attempting to follow the law and protect taxpayers,” the lawmakers said.
The White House, which confirmed Kies’ departure, sent The Associated Press an email statement that Kies was not a team player and was difficult to work with. Neither Kies nor the IRS responded to AP requests for comment.
The rule barring executive influence over directing tax audits came out of the Watergate scandal, in which President Richard Nixon, a Republican, discussed using the IRS against political opponents and groups on his administration’s “enemies list.”
Its unclear what taxpayer audits prompted Kies’ concerns over White House influence. However, Kies previously recused himself from tax matters involving Trump due to his prior work as Trump’s private lawyer.
Separately, lawmakers have questioned a settlement agreement to resolve Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit over the 2018 leak of his tax returns to The New York Times. The settlement, forged in May between Trump and his own government, includes a provision under which the IRS agrees to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he’s paid his fair share of taxes.
The U.S. is “forever barred and precluded” from examining or prosecuting Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization’s current tax filings, according to a one-page addendum.
Florida
Captain pleads guilty in boat crash that killed 3 girls from Miami sailing camp
MIAMI (AP) — A tugboat captain has pleaded guilty to causing a deadly Miami collision that killed three girls from a sailing camp last summer.
Yusiel Lopez Insua, 47, of Miami, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to seaman’s manslaughter, according to court records. The charge carries up to 10 years in federal prison, but prosecutors have recommended a year in prison followed by six months of home detention as part of a plea agreement. A judge will make the final decision.
“Three children lost their lives in a tragedy that never should have happened,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement.
“Yusiel Lopez Insua ... admitted that his criminal failure to follow basic maritime safety rules caused this deadly collision. Our hearts remain with the children’s families and everyone whose lives were forever changed that day.”
According to court records, Lopez Insua was piloting a 25-foot (8-meter) tugboat pushing a construction barge across Biscayne Bay on July 28, 2025. The 108-foot-long (33-meter-long) barge was loaded with construction debris, bringing its total weight to about 149 gross tons.
The vessel’s forward view was obstructed by a deckhouse and crane, and no crewmember had been assigned to serve as a lookout, officials said. This prevented Lopez Insua from seeing a sailboat carrying a 19-year-old counselor and five girls, ranging in age from 7 to 13, from a nearby sailing camp that had lost wind and stalled in the tugboat’s path, investigators said. The barge ran over the sailboat, submerging it beneath the barge’s hull.
The counselor and two girls managed to escape, but three girls became trapped beneath the wreckage and drowned, officials said. A forensic review of Lopez Insua’s cellphone revealed internet activity while the tugboat was underway, including at or near the time of the collision.
The children were in their last week of camp, according to the Miami Yacht Club.
Across the U.S. in 2024, there were over 550 deaths in recreational boating, but only 43 were caused by vessels crashing into each other, according to Coast Guard statistics.
Massachusetts
More than 24 states sue Trump administration after it put conditions on receiving disaster funding
BOSTON (AP) — More than two dozen states on Thursday sued the Trump administration for requiring them to comply with election and immigration conditions in order to receive billions of dollars in federal funding for disasters.
The lawsuit, filed in Rhode Island and challenging Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security policies, argued that the administration is requiring states to change their elections systems and help DHS with immigration enforcement. The conditions would also allow DHS to terminate grants at anytime and for any reason.
“Once again, the Trump Administration is threatening to jeopardize public safety by unlawfully withholding billions in critical funding and once again, they won’t get away with it,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said. “This Administration is using the safety of Americans as collateral by attempting to bully the states into relinquishing their constitutional right to enact policies and laws that best serve their residents.”
The states argue putting conditions on congressionally appropriated funding violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is one of scores that have challenged the Trump administration over its repeated effort to browbeat mostly Democrat states into complying with its priorities to get billions of dollars in federal funding. The strategy has been used on everything from education funding to domestic violence grants to highway funding.
The courts have repeatedly found this strategy to be unlawful and unconstitutional. A ruling last year barred the administration from putting conditions on other FEMA funding and a second ruling this year blocked the administration from redirecting DHS funding away from states not seen as supportive to the its agenda.
“The States face losing billions of dollars in federal funding, are being put in a position of relinquishing their sovereign right to decide how to use their own police officers, are at risk of losing the trust built between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, and will have to scale back, reconsider, or cancel ongoing transportation projects,” U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. wrote last year, when he barred the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy from cutting off transportation funds to states that did not comply with immigration enforcement actions.
The latest lawsuit argues the administration is attempting to apply some of the same conditions on 2026 funding, as it failed to do with funding last year.
Among the requirements being challenged in Thursday’s lawsuit is that states change their elections systems. They must transition to paper-ballot systems, conduct a manual audit of voting systems, reconcile voters and verify the citizenship of every registered voter in the state’s voter databases.
If states fail to comply, they risk losing at least 20% of their Homeland Security Grant Program funding. That money is used to fund measures to protect citizens from cyberattacks and terrorism.
Since his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has groundlessly claimed mail voting is rife with fraud and has launched a federal investigation into that year’s vote, even though repeated audits and investigations, including ones run by Republicans, found it was free of widespread fraud. Trump also has said he wants to “take over” election administration in Democratic areas.
