Unai Emery and Ollie Watkins react to controversial ending to Aston Villa draw with JuventusBy Jack Phillips Contributing Writer President-elect Donald Trump on Friday reiterated his support for Pete Hegseth, whom he tapped to become secretary of defense, amid reports and allegations against the Fox News host. This week, several Republican senators indicated that Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon could be in trouble, coming amid reports that cite anonymous sources about his time at Fox News and a 2017 police report that said a woman accused him of assault. No charges were brought, and Hegseth has denied those allegations. “Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He was a great student – Princeton/Harvard educated – with a military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high-energy, secretary of defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!” There also have been anonymously sourced reports, which Trump has not confirmed in public, that the president-elect may look to name Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead the Department of Defense if Hegseth falters in the Senate. Earlier this week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, considered a foreign policy and defense hawk, said he was disturbed by some of the reports that surfaced recently about Hegseth. But later in the week, Graham told reporters that anonymously sourced reports “don’t count.” “I’m not going to make any decision based on an anonymous source. If you’re not willing to raise your hand and make the accusation, it doesn’t count,” he said of anonymous allegations against Hegseth as well as other Trump choices. “I’ve heard everything about all these people. None of it counts, no rumors.” Hegseth had met with multiple senators this week in a bid to shore up support for his nomination amid the recent allegations. Several Fox News personalities, including his “Fox and Friends” co-hosts, have mounted a defense of his character, while his mother spoke to multiple media outlets to defend him. “As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I’m going to be standing right here in this fight,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday, adding that this won’t “be a process tried in the media.” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, who had previously expressed concerns about Hegseth, spoke positively about Hegseth’s prospects after the two met on Wednesday evening. “I see no reason at this point not to be supportive,” Cramer said. He said he told Hegseth, “It’s really important that we have a clear-eyed secretary of defense if the alarm goes off or the phone rings at 3 in the morning.” Hegseth responded, according to Cramer, that he would be available “at 3 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon, or any hour in between.” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, who joined Hegseth in a congressional meeting with Republicans, also defended the Fox News host. “All of us, at least all of us, have a time to grow up. We’re nominating Pete for who he is today, not for what he did seven years ago or five years ago or whatever it was,” he said. Two of Trump’s other Cabinet choices have stepped down as they faced intense scrutiny: former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, his first choice for attorney general; and Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff who was Trump’s first choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration. Trump later said that he asked for Chronister to step down. The sheriff stepped down amid resurfaced reports and his social media messages about his activity during COVID-19. “Today’s main headline is: ‘Trump’s DEA Pick Pulls Out in Latest Setback.’ With all that’s happening in the world, this is their No. 1 story of the day. Besides, he didn’t pull out, I pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(The Center Square) – Legislators in Washington, D.C., have taken a number of steps over the past few days to push for insurance and pharmaceutical reforms to be passed before the end of the year. On Wednesday, a bicameral group of Republican and Democrat lawmakers held a press conference discussing the need for pharmacy benefit manager reform to protect small pharmacies across the country and “save lives.” “Whether you are a Republican, Democrat, or an independent, we all want the same thing. We want accessible, affordable, quality health care,” said Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. “We’re not here today to just discuss one bill or to discuss just one patient’s story. We're here because there's broad, bipartisan pharmacy benefit manager, or PBM, reform that is needed to save lives.” Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen responsible for managing the drug prices covered by health insurance plans. According to the Harvard Political Review , the problem with pharmacy benefit managers is that they “have vertically integrated with pharmacy chains and health insurers through massive conglomerates.” That then allows them to abuse their power to cut out small pharmacies and increase prices. Carter also signed a letter that was released last week calling on the Department of Justice to dig into the role pharmacy benefit managers played in the opioid epidemic. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Deborah Ross, D-N.C., and Cliff Benz, R-Ore., all joined him in signing that letter. “The opioid crisis has devastated communities in North Carolina and across the country, and PBMs may have fueled it by prioritizing profits over people,” Ross said on social media . “That’s why I joined a letter calling on the DOJ to investigate their role and hold these bad actors accountable.” The letter looked at recent reports on the largest pharmacy benefit managers, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx which state that they “colluded and conspired to steer patients towards OxyContin in exchange for $400 million.” OxyContin is a trade name for the narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride, a painkiller available by prescription only. This and the general “lack of transparency” is just one of the many complaints that legislators aired on Wednesday. “My colleagues who are joining me today, Democrats and Republicans ... all recognize that PBMs are decreasing the accessibility, the affordability, and therefore the quality of health care in America,” Carter said. “We have an opportunity, right now, to advance bipartisan legislation that increases reporting requirements, which would heighten transparency and shine a light on the opaque practices of these PBMs.” Carter was also joined by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who is leading the effort to get legislation passed in the U.S. Senate. “This year, we're losing about one pharmacy a day in America,” Lankford said. “We want leadership to be able to take this up and to bring it up in the end-of-year package ... Stop holding up legislation that is bipartisan, bicameral, and solving a problem that Americans need solved.”Gary O’Neil accepts criticism from Wolves fans after heavy defeat at Everton
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new chief of the Los Angeles police force said his department is working with consulate offices for Mexico and other Central American countries to draft a plan to protect immigrants ahead of the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations. In an interview with The Associated Press, Jim McDonnell said his tenure as police chief will be marked by high engagement with the community, adding that all of society must participate in the criminal justice system to create a safe place to live. A veteran police officer and former sheriff, McDonnell was selected by Mayor Karen Bass in October and sworn in last month . The LAPD does not stop people or take action for any reason related to immigration status, and it doesn’t enforce immigration laws, a practice that has been in place for 45 years, said McDonnell, referring to a department policy known as Special Order 40 enacted in 1979. Any immigration enforcement would be “undercutting our primary mission, which is to be able to build public trust to work with every member of all of our communities, to be able to have hope that people will come forward if they were a victim of crime, a witness to a crime,” McDonnell said. The department plans to work with the consulates to create and circulate a video explaining their policies to the immigrant community and alleviating their concerns. During the last Trump administration, the U.S. Justice Department attempted to withhold funding from sanctuary cities and favor cities that pledged to cooperate with immigration enforcement for federal grants. McDonnell said the department is “cognizant of what’s at stake” –- with a majority of the LAPD budget going toward personnel, the police force often relies on grants to provide for equipment and tools. He will be working with national police groups like the Major Cities Chiefs Association to advocate for law enforcement needs with the Trump administration, McDonnell said. Along with engaging the immigrant community, McDonnell said he hopes to seek a greater level of engagement from communities that traditionally haven’t felt comfortable doing so, “just human-to-human, going out and asking for help.” He also vows to build back the police force from currently just under 9,000 sworn officers to a baseline of 10,000, ideally even exceeding that number. While recent recruitment class size numbers have been in the mid-30s, he hopes to double that to 60, McDonnell said. The additional officers will be crucial as Los Angeles prepares to play host to a number of events that will draw visitors from all over the world, including the FIFA World Cup in 2026, Super Bowl in 2027 and the Olympics in 2028. One additional tool in the law enforcement arsenal is the recent passage of Proposition 36 , which reverted to a previous law making some shoplifting and drug offenses felonies again. While it will mainly affect prosecutors, McDonnell said it will make arrests for those types of crimes “more meaningful” and give local businesses more safety and comfort, preventing them from having to shut down their stores and leave the community. “As we move forward, we do so judiciously so that we use the tools that are available to us,” McDonnell said. Jaimie Ding, The Associated PressChiefs radio play-by-play caller Mitch Holthus expects the Chiefs to face another test Friday against the Raiders as part of the Chiefs’ quest for the top overall seed in the AFC.As hundreds of millions of Americans get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with a huge feast, park managers are warning budding chefs not to brine their turkey in Great Salt Lake. The admonition came after workers in the Utah park found someone's bird that had floated off, apparently while they were trying to tenderize it ahead of Thursday's festivities. "Just your annual reminder not to use Great Salt Lake to brine your turkey," Great Salt Lake state park wrote on its social media feed this week. "Not only is the salinity too high for a proper brine, the waves can be very strong and there's a good chance you could lose the entire turkey as this person did." The post was accompanied by a photo of a bird's carcass -- still bafflingly wrapped in its store-bought packaging -- and covered with bits of grass and muck. Great Salt Lake is one of the largest landlocked bodies of salt water in the world. Human activity is putting an enormous stress on the lake, which is a vital tourist draw for the region. In 2022, water levels in Great Salt Lake plummeted to their lowest on record due to a combination of overconsumption by the farming and mining sectors, and a two-decade drought. The water became so salty that brine shrimp, a major source of income for the local economy, began to die. hg/amz/st
Harris dismisses ‘project fear’ approach to Sinn Fein
