South Florida Local News

(Editor’s Note: The Sun Sentinel invited our readers to voice their views on the proposed new Fort Lauderdale City Hall. The readers who responded strongly oppose the preliminary design and estimated cost of $344 million. We invited Mayor Dean Trantalis to respond to his own constituents’ criticism, including a lack of transparency in the posting of renderings online. He did not respond. We invite readers to send their opinions to letters@sunsentinel.com, and we will publish more letters soon.)

The new Fort Lauderdale City Hall looks like they’re trying to recreate the Taj Mahal.

It’s totally out of context. It’s ugly, the design is out of proportion. It’s inappropriate for our city — except for the part that resembles a sinking ship.

I saw no mention of any green initiatives, and I am doubtful it can get a LEED certificate. Surprisingly, for a city that says it wants to plant 246,000 trees, the rendering shows they managed to remove every single shade tree on the swale next to the property.

They apparently wanted to make sure no mature trees were anywhere nearby.

Pat Roth, Fort Lauderdale

I love Fort Lauderdale. I consider it my home.

A city hall is a government building. It’s supposed to be functional, resilient and sturdy. It shouldn’t break the budget.

I agree with Vice Mayor John Herbst that the P3 process is not appropriate for this project. The city should have listed specifications, and contractors should have competitively bid for the project. Instead, we seem to have contractors running the show and telling the city how much taxpayer money they want, and the majority of commissioners seem willing to hand it over.

Kathryn Summer lived in Fort Lauderdale for 37 years and is a member of the civic group Leadership Broward.

This city has trouble with construction projects. A new fire station developed mold problems, a public parking lot’s exterior lighting feature failed and will require $3 million to replace. A new police headquarters with a cracked roof will cost $50 million more, all while infrastructure continues to fail as broken sewer lines pour waste into our waterways. Estimates are that Fortify Lauderdale (the city’s infrastructure resiliency program) is 10-15 years from completion.

The public should have had more time to review and comment on this extremely hot topic. I’d like to see the commission address flooding and infrastructure with the same fervor they have for dumping taxpayer money into projects like City Hall, the Swimming Hall of Fame and re-landscaping Las Olas. Yes, we need a city hall. We don’t need a $300+ million Taj Majal.

Kathryn Summer, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea

The writer came to Fort Lauderdale in 1957 and was a permanent city resident for 37 years.

I think the new City Hall design is awful.

It’s wasteful, and the money would be better spent in so many ways. Infrastructure, affordable housing — anything but that ugly, ostentatious design. Why don’t the mayor and commissioners listen to the outcry of residents, from overdevelopment to ignoring residents’ needs? Please stop hurting our city.

Susan Lazarus, Fort Lauderdale

As a student of architecture and design, I have never seen a more unsuitable design than the one presented to our city commission.

I find it despicable. I respect our commissioners greatly, but must ask: Do they have any experience judging architecture?

This building will long outlast our current community and, I believe, we should strive to make this design live beyond our lifetimes. I totally agree with Commissioner John Herbst and I don’t see it as a serious civic building.

What are we saying with this design? To me, it looks like the last few minutes of the Titanic sinking.

I believe a cityscape should reflect its community, and at least nod to other structures around it. Take for example, the new county office building.  It sits in the same sight line as the old jail, but it conforms beautifully. Well done.

I dislike the design immensely. For the love of and pride for my city, I would hate to see my tax dollars go to its construction.

We can do so much better!

Joanne M. Snead, Fort Lauderdale

It is a disgusting show of bad taste and an unmitigated waste of hard-earned tax dollars. At the very least, they could have put the design out to the citizens for input. I guess their only consideration was erecting a monument to their time in office.

In my view, it merely shows that their time in office should be cut short as soon as possible so we can replace them with people who have good taste in their decision-making and an honest desire to spend the people’s money wisely, as we all must do in these difficult times.

Maureen Solomon, Fort Lauderdale

It’s an ugly anachronistic disaster.

Any new construction should include renewable electricity generation. Where are the solar panels or wind turbines? Do the windows open? Will those windows attract migrating birds that fly into them and are killed? Will it generate glare? Does it add to a pedestrian lifestyle?

Isobel Sturgeon, Fort Lauderdale

Who really thinks it looks like the bow of the ship in a vertical position? Maybe to a drunken sailor with billions of tax dollars to spend.

To me, it’s an unimaginative architect’s vision of a cool, futuristic building.

While it’s nice to have a building with design flair, this deviates too far to be taken seriously, and it’s way too expensive.

The Broward County Courthouse, the new Fort Lauderdale headquarters and now Fort Lauderdale City Hall were all built, or will be built, on incredibly valuable downtown land that could have been sold to developers to offset their cost.

These buildings should be built away from the downtown core on more affordable property.

George Mulhorn, Fort Lauderdale

I hate it! And yes, it looks like a vagina — or a sinking ship!

Jennifer Sakaris, Fort Lauderdale

I enthusiastically support the proposed design of Fort Lauderdale’s new City Hall.

While I understand this bold, boat-hull-inspired structure has sparked debate, I believe it represents exactly the kind of forward-thinking vision our city needs.

Fort Lauderdale has long branded itself as the yachting capital of the world, and this design celebrates that identity in a meaningful way. Rather than settling for another forgettable glass box, our city has the opportunity to create a true landmark that reflects our maritime heritage and coastal character.

Iconic architecture has the power to define a city’s skyline and identity for generations.

Commissioner John Herbst’s concerns about cost and process are worth noting, but we should remember that great civic buildings are investments in our city’s future.

If this new structure can serve us well into the next century while making a bold architectural statement, the investment is justified.

Yes, the design is unconventional. That’s precisely what makes it exciting. Cities that embrace distinctive architecture, from Milwaukee’s art museum to Sydney’s opera house, create landmarks that residents grow to cherish and that attract visitors and new residents alike. I urge my fellow residents to embrace this opportunity for something truly special, rather than settling for the safe and ordinary.

Dr. Bret M. Ribotsky, Fort Lauderdale

It’s a welcoming and distinctive work of art. I love it!

Richie Baptista, Fort Lauderdale

I love it. It’s futuristic, eye-catching, bold. Not all that radical. We’re in 2025, not the 1900s.

Tomas L. Perez, Fort Lauderdale

As a Sun Sentinel subscriber and an old man of 85, I want you to know that I love, love, love it. It needs to happen. I’m tired of the same old brutalist designs for government buildings.

Geoffrey Calderone, Fort Lauderdale

It’s a waste of my tax dollars. A functional building can be built for much less. The things that need to be focused on are infrastructure and open space. Stop the sewage leaks and stop the building.

Traffic is out of control even before all the new construction from Searstown to Galleria Mall is completed. Do the mayor and commissioners actually drive on these roads?

I’ve been a Fort Lauderdale resident since 1973 and have seen many negative changes. I hope the powers-that-be rethink this foolish waste of tax dollars.

Carol Pundai, Fort Lauderdale

I do not think it’s attractive or appropriate. It should be a functional city government building, built at a reasonable price, since taxpayers are paying. I care more about service than looks. The boat design is trying too hard to be something the city is not interested in becoming.

Can we please see what the other options are?

Michelle Nassar, Fort Lauderdale

There’s no reason for such extravagance. My main concern is whether they are using all of a requested $88 million FEMA grant to fund this building.

I understand that City Hall suffered flood damage. But so did we, residents of the River Oaks and Edgewood neighborhoods. FEMA didn’t give people squat in relief dollars, and most of us didn’t have flood insurance because we’re not in a flood zone. Are we going to be victimized again?

Shirlee Sandler, Fort Lauderdale

The four City Hall renderings and their costs were on the city website since August, but were difficult to find.

Commissioner Herbst acknowledged there was no specific effort to present them to the public for input until the Dec. 2 conference meeting.

On that date, only three residents spoke (all were against the design, cost and lack of taxpayer input). It was obvious, very few knew of the options until the Sun Sentinel published the design and its costs, likely due to the ambiguity of where to find the renderings.

The mayor confirmed they were shown to civic association presidents, but there was no robust taxpayer input from HOA presidents, many of whom were not in attendance. In short, public outreach was practically nonexistent.

This is why residents responded in droves when they saw the selected top design and its cost. About 200 people commented negatively on Next Door. I forwarded those comments to commissioners to demonstrate how few people had any idea of these four choices, or that there were four choices.

The city commission now knows that its choice and its cost are unacceptable to many. It’s time for the commission to go back and make a robust effort to obtain public input on all four contenders.

It’s not too late — and it’s the right thing to do.

Nancy Thomas, Fort Lauderdale

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. 

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Here are the top stories for Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. Get the weather forecast for today here.

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Q: I’ve been having an issue while trying to rent a condo apartment. I have a good job, drive a nice car and have a credit score of 690. The condo’s board has refused to let me rent in their building because they say the rules require a minimum credit score of 700. Are they allowed to deny my application for this reason? — Gordon

A: Yes, they probably can.

Condominium boards often have the authority to set rules and standards for who can rent or live in their building. These rules are outlined in the condo association’s governing documents, such as the bylaws or rental policies.

A minimum credit score requirement is a common way for boards to evaluate financial reliability and reduce perceived risks. If their rules clearly state that renters must have a credit score of 700 or higher, they are within their rights to enforce that rule.

That said, there are several steps you can take to understand your situation better and possibly challenge the decision.

First, review the condo’s rules and policies by requesting a copy of the condo association’s bylaws or rental policies. As a prospective renter, the landlord may need to do this part. Look for specific language about credit score requirements.

If the rule is clearly stated, the board is likely acting within its authority. However, if the rule is unclear or inconsistently applied, there may be grounds to question their decision.

Also, rules like this cannot be discriminatory. While condo boards can establish reasonable rules, they cannot discriminate against applicants based on protected characteristics such as race, religion, gender, disability, or familial status under Fair Housing rules.

Nor can it use any ‘rule’ as a pretext for discrimination, such as if the credit score requirement is only being applied against people in a protected class, for example, people of a specific religious affiliation.

Since your credit score seems to be the only issue, and is very close to the threshold, try reaching out to the board to explain the situation and supply evidence of your financial stability, such as proof of income, savings, or a history of on-time rent payments.

Some boards may be willing to make exceptions or reconsider their decision if you demonstrate reliability as a tenant.

If the board remains firm, exploring other rental options might be the best approach, as not all condos have the same requirements.

Another option is to speak with a reputable credit repair agency to see if they can quickly raise your score.

Board-certified real estate lawyer Gary Singer writes about industry legal matters and the housing market. To ask him a question, email him at gary@garysingerlaw.com, or go to SunSentinel.com/askpro. 

Today is Thursday, Dec. 11, the 345th day of 2025. There are 20 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 11, 1978, nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry were stolen from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport; the ‘Lufthansa Heist,’ the largest cash robbery in history at the time, was immortalized in the film “Goodfellas.”

Also on this date:

In 1816, Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th U.S. state.

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In 1936, Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI.

In 1946, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.

In 1972, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan guided lander Challenger to a touchdown on the moon, where he and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt would become the last two Apollo astronauts to walk on the lunar surface. They returned to Earth three days later with astronaut Ronald Evans, who remained aloft in the command module.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “Superfund” to pay for cleaning up hazardous chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.

In 1997, more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.

In 1998, majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, over Democratic objections.

In 2008, former Nasdaq chairman Bernie Madoff was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out the life savings of thousands of people and wrecked charities. (Madoff died in April 2021 while serving a 150-year federal prison sentence.)

In 2020, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit backed by President Donald Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory, ending an attempt to get legal issues that were rejected by state and federal judges before the nation’s highest court.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Rita Moreno is 94.
• Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is 82.
• Singer Brenda Lee is 81.
• Singer Jermaine Jackson is 71.
• Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 67.
• Actor-comedian Mo’Nique is 58.
• Hockey Hall of Famer Daniel Alfredsson is 53.
• Rapper-actor Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) is 52.
• Author Colleen Hoover is 46.
• Actor Rider Strong is 46.
• Actor Alexa Demie is 35.
• Actor Hailee Steinfeld is 29.

On Friday, Dec. 5, Ryan Reid, a former Boyd Anderson star who went on to play in the NBA, was remembered at the Lauderdale Lakes high school as his jersey was retired and a banner was hung from the rafters at the gymnasium.

Reid, a 2005 B.A. graduate who was a Sun Sentinel first-team All-County selection and went on to stand out at Florida State, died on July 9 of what only has been reported to have been a medical emergency.

In 2012, Reid joined Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond as the second Cobras alum to play in the NBA, logging five appearances with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Before the Dec. 5 game between Boyd Anderson and Dillard, the memory of Reid, who also had been a member of the Jamaican national team, was honored with his family and friends on hand or offering long-distance remembrances.

Reid’s wife, Rebecca, and his two children traveled from Tampa to be on hand as Reid’s jersey was retired and an orange banner with his No. 42 was lifted up to the gym’s ceiling.

A force in the paint in high school, Reid averaged 18 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks per game across his final three seasons.

According to Cobras assistant coach Johnny McCray, current and former NBA players Russell Westbrook, Nick Collison and Pine Crest grad Brandon Knight were among those who provided remembrances, and a number of Reid’s former FSU teammates also were on hand.

Westbrook, a 37-year-old playing in his 18th NBA season for the Sacramento Kings, said in a video that his former Thunder teammate was “a great human being and great individual.”

Members of Ryan Reid's family were on the Boyd Anderson court before the Dec. 5 boys game against Dillard to receive a framed jersey of the Cobras great, who died unexpectedly on July 9 at 38. (Courtesy/Broward County School District)

By Nilesh Christopher, Los Angeles Times

People aren’t lovin’ it.

McDonald’s was forced to pull down an AI-generated Christmas commercial from YouTube after some consumers said the AI-slop-filled tongue-in-cheek take on the holidays was distasteful.

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The ad, titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year,” was a satirical take on holiday realities. It showed a series of short, chaotic clips of people braving the winter, tripping while carrying overloaded gift bags, getting stuck in tangled lights, burning homemade cookies or starting an unexpected cooking fire during a family gathering.

The ad agency TBWANEBOKO collaborated with film production company Sweetshop, whose Los Angeles-based directing duo Mark Potoka and Matt Spicer shot the film. The 45-second ad was created for McDonald’s Netherlands.

It ends with a call to ditch the madness and hide out in McDonald’s till January. The ad, meant to spread cheer, irked viewers.

“Even without all the ai slop this ad feels incredibly odd,” said one comment on the commercial posted on YouTube. “Ditch your family and hide in mcdonalds because christmas sucks???”

Some said the ad was a sloppy move by one of the world’s largest advertisers.

“The McDonald’s ad emphasizes all that is negative about the holiday season, and the suggestion that McDonald’s is a respite from such negative experiences is not credible,” said David Stewart, emeritus professor of marketing at Loyola Marymount University. “It is likely that a very unhappy human came up with the idea of denigrating the holiday experience, even if AI was used to create part of the ad.”

After the McDonald’s backlash, the Sweetshop said it used AI as a tool for the commercial but a lot of human effort went into it as well.

“We generated what felt like dailies — thousands of takes — then shaped them in the edit just as we would on any high-craft production,” the company said in a statement. “This wasn’t an AI trick. It was a film.”

McDonald didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mainstream brands are gradually embracing AI-generated ads. Last month, Coca-Cola released a holiday ad in which a Coca-Cola truck drives through snow and forests, awakening animals and lighting up trees, then pulls up to a town square.

This is the second year in a row Coca-Cola has dropped an AI holiday ad despite widespread artist pushback.

“AI is gaining traction for the creation of ads because it is viewed as a way to save costs,” Stewart said.

More brands, including Google, Toys R Us and Under Armour, have produced synthetic ads. Proponents of AI ads see them as a change from traditional advertising.

“Whether we like the ad itself, McDonald’s is making a statement with this campaign: AI has changed the playbook. As one of the largest consumer brands on the planet, McDonald’s is reading the tea leaves of what’s to come for brand marketing and is aggressively indexing its brand for the new generative decision funnel,” said Justin Inman, chief executive of Emberos, a platform that monitors how brands appear inside major AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

AI-powered search could influence $750 billion in revenue by 2028, and half of consumers now use chatbots to discover brands, according to McKinsey & Co.

Such an association with AI may even boost McDonald’s visibility inside chatbots, surfacing its brand name ahead of others.

“Love it or hate it, expect to see more of it,” Inman said. “McDonald’s getting thousands of people to prompt McDonald’s + AI will greatly benefit their overall brand visibility.”

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By DAVID BAUDER

The New York Times, attacked by President Donald Trump for reporting about his physical condition, said on Wednesday that it wouldn’t be deterred by “false and inflammatory language” that distorts the role of a free press.

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The president had posted on his Truth Social platform that he believed it was “seditious, perhaps even treasonous” for the Times and other media outlets to do “FAKE” reports on his health.

“They are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it,” Trump wrote.

The 79-year-old president wouldn’t specify, but the newspaper has posted a handful of reports about his health in recent weeks. In a Nov. 25 story headlined “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,” reporters examined Trump’s public and travel schedules to conclude Americans were seeing less of him than they were used to.

A story on Dec. 2, accompanied by a video, said that Trump “appeared to be fighting sleep” during a Cabinet meeting that day.

Trump says he hasn’t slowed down

Columnist Frank Bruni discussed these reports in a Dec. 8 opinion piece headlined “Trump’s Approval Ratings Have Declined. So Has His Vigor.” Bruni wrote that Americans “might want to brace ourselves for some presidential deja vu. He’s starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” Biden, who was in his early 80s, dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House after a disastrous debate with Trump that raised doubts about the then-incumbent’s fitness for office.

Trump, in his post, said he was history’s hardest-working president with a lengthy list of accomplishments. He said he went out of his way to do “long, thorough and very boring” medical examinations, including three cognitive tests that he “ACED.”

“The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am ‘slowing up,’ and maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true,” the Republican president said.

• President Donald Trump dances to music after speaking at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
• President Donald Trump speaks at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
• President Donald Trump speaks at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Mount Pocono, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
• President Donald Trump arrives to speak at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Mount Pocono, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Show Caption1 of 4President Donald Trump dances to music after speaking at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pa., Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Expand

The health of American presidents has long been a delicate and sometimes thorny issue between the White House and the press that covers it — from Grover Cleveland’s secret tumor surgery to Woodrow Wilson’s debilitating stroke to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s polio to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s heart attack. Trump has frequently critiqued the cognitive fitness of his predecessor, Biden.

Trump has fought back against some reports

Trump already has a $15 billion defamation lawsuit pending against the Times. In the suit, filed in September, Trump targeted four Times journalists about three articles that discussed his finances. He has also been involved in legal cases involving The Associated Press and CBS News, among others.

Nicole Taylor, a spokeswoman for The New York Times, said the outlet’s reporting on Trump’s health is heavily sourced, based on interviews with people close to the president and with medical experts.

“Americans deserve in-depth reporting and regular updates about the health of the leaders they elect,” Taylor said. “Mr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we’re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality.”

Taylor said that “we won’t be deterred by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press.”

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A parent of a Kentucky State University student has been charged with murder in an on campus shooting that killed one student and critically injured another.

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Jacob Lee Bard was at the school’s campus in Frankfort on Tuesday and fired shots at the victims at a residence hall, police said in a statement.

Investigators said the shooting was isolated, but they have not publicly shared details of the circumstances or a possible motive. The shooting killed 19-year-old De’Jon Fox of Indianapolis. A second student who was shot remains in critical condition, but his name has not been released, police said.

Bard, 48, was booked into jail on murder and first-degree assault charges. Police said Bard is from Evansville, Indiana, which is about 150 miles (241 kilometers) west of Frankfort.

Bard is being represented by a public defender at the Franklin County Department of Public Advocacy, which declined to talk about his case Wednesday.

University police officers were near the scene of the altercation that ended with the shooting and immediately arrested Bard, police said.

Investigators have watched video taken by others at the scene and surveillance footage.

Asked by reporters about alleged videos showing a fight involving Bard’s sons preceded the shooting or whether Bard might have come to campus to talk to administrators about his sons’ safety, Frankfort Assistant Police Chief Scott Tracy refused to say what may have led to the shooting.

“It’s really too early in the investigation right now to really give any details that led up to it. A lot of it would be speculation,” Tracy said Wednesday.

The shooting happened at Whitney M. Young Jr. Hall. It was the second shooting in four months near the student residence.

Someone fired multiple shots from a vehicle on Aug. 17, striking two people that the university said weren’t students. Frankfort police said one victim was treated for minor injuries and a second sustained serious injuries. The dorm and at least one vehicle were damaged by gunfire.

University President Koffi C. Akakpo said the school brought in more police officers after the first shooting and will evaluate whether more needs to be done to keep students safe once the investigation into the latest shooting is complete,

“The campus is a safe place,” Akakpo said at the news conference.

Kentucky State is a public historically Black university with about 2,200 students. Lawmakers authorized the school’s creation in 1886.

The school sits about 2 miles east of the Capitol building in Frankfort.

TALLAHASSEE — Raising issues about chronic health problems and Florida’s lethal-injection process, attorneys for condemned killer Frank Walls on Wednesday filed an emergency motion asking a federal appeals court to issue a stay of his scheduled Dec. 18 execution.

The motion, filed at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, came a day after U.S. District Judge Mark Walker refused to halt the execution of Walls, who was convicted in the 1987 murders of two people in Okaloosa County. Walls also has asked the Florida Supreme Court to stop the execution on different grounds.

The appeals-court motion is rooted in arguments that putting Walls to death by lethal injection would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Walls’ attorneys cited a July medical exam that indicated the 354-pound Walls has conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol, a thyroid disorder and chronic sleep apnea. It also alleged errors as the Florida Department of Corrections has carried out a record number of executions this year, including using expired drugs and preparing incorrect quantities of drugs.

The motion contends Walls could be at an increased risk during the execution of suffering pulmonary edema — a condition that involves too much fluid in the lungs — because of his medical problems.

“At issue here is the link between Walls’s complex health issues and the resultant increased risk of an intolerably painful death by pulmonary edema. … The gruesome details of pulmonary edema — and the fact that it has been documented in the autopsies of other prisoners executed by the (lethal injection) protocol and is therefore a known possibility — is crucial to the claim that Walls is in danger of intense pain and suffering, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, should the protocol be applied to him,” Walls’ attorneys wrote.

The motion also linked the health issues to allegations that the Department of Corrections has made errors in using the lethal-injection process in some of the modern-era record 18 executions this year.

“This is a case-specific challenge to defendants (the Department of Corrections) using their protocol to kill a medically vulnerable prisoner like Walls during a sloppy, breakneck pace of executions,” Walls’ attorneys wrote.

But in rejecting the arguments Tuesday, Walker said Walls could have raised the issues long before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on Nov. 18. Walker wrote that a law “does not permit a last-minute stay in this case when Mr. Walls’s claim could have been brought months, if not years, before his death warrant was signed.”

“In short, Mr. Walls has demonstrated that, for years, some states and federal courts have questioned the continued use of — or completely abandoned — a three-drug protocol like Florida’s to avoid cruel and unusual executions,” Walker wrote. “This history is publicly known, well-documented, and compelling evidence that Mr. Walls could have challenged the … protocol, as applied to him, well before his death warrant was signed in November 2025.”

Walls was convicted in the July 22, 1987, murders of Edward Alger and Ann Peterson, who died of gunshot wounds after Walls broke into their home, according to court documents.

In asking the Florida Supreme Court to halt the execution, Walls’ attorneys have argued, in part, that he is intellectually disabled and executing him would violate the Eighth Amendment for that reason.

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

The ranks of U.S. government statisticians have been gutted in the past year due to layoffs and buyouts. That along with diminished funding and attacks on their independence have put at risk the data used to make informed decisions about everything from the nation’s economy to its demographics, according to a new report from outside experts released Wednesday.

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One agency lost 95% of its staff, while others dropped by about quarter to more than a third, due to government downsizing this year during President Donald Trump’s first months in office, according to the report released by the American Statistical Association. Besides veteran employees with deep institutional knowledge, some of the cuts hit new hires meant to infuse new blood into the agencies, said the annual report.

“Things are getting a lot worse,” Nancy Potok, a former U.S. chief statistician during the first Trump administration who was on the team that produced the report, said Wednesday. “It’s kind of dropping off the cliff there and in a really dire situation.”

The administration’s Office of Management and Budget, home to the U.S. chief statistician who coordinates the system of gathering data, didn’t respond Wednesday morning to an e-mailed inquiry about the report.

However, when asked last month about concerns that the statistical agencies were getting politicized, Mark Calabria, who was appointed in July as the U.S. chief statistician, said: “Everything in government is embedded in politics and is embedded in accountability.”

“So these kinds of debates about independence and accountability, they’re oranges and apples to some extent,” Calabria said during a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “What you have is wanting to make sure that the data gives you the right answer.”

In the first months of the second Trump administration, thousands of federal government workers were shown the door as part of efforts by the White House and its Department of Government Efficiency. The White House also offered a “deferred resignation” proposal in exchange for financial incentives, like months of paid leave, to almost all federal employees who opted to leave their jobs. It also moved to lay off probationary employees — those generally on the job for less than a year and who have yet to gain civil service protection.

“The statistical system is still functioning, but the threats are very serious,” said Beth Jarosz, vice president of the Association of Public Data Users, who was not involved in the report. “There are staffing reductions, contracted services that have been reduced. We’re seeing that showing up in the cancellation of data products, the reduction in data collection on things like consumer prices.”

The team behind the report noted that they had a “sparsity of information” about the detailed impacts of the cuts since the agencies wouldn’t provide them “perhaps out of caution or because they are not allowed to communicate with outside entities.”

The hardest hit agency was the National Center for Education Statistics, a part of the U.S. Department of Education, which lost 95% of its staff. The agency tracks educational trends with the goal of improving outcomes, and the staff losses halted most of its data collection earlier in the year, according to the report. Many outside contracts have since been restored but with a reduced scope, the report said.

The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics’ workforce in the Social Security Administration was almost halved. The cuts eliminated retirement and disability research, among other things, the report said.

The Energy Information Administration, the Economic Research Service in the Department of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Statistics Service each lost between 25% and 40% of their staff. The cuts have resulted in discontinued or delayed reports about the energy industry and the cancellation of a survey about farmworkers and some state-specific agricultural reports.

The nation’s largest statistical agency, the U.S. Census Bureau, lost at least 15% of its staff this year, according to the report.

Besides the staff cuts, some barriers to the statistical agencies’ political independence were removed this year. The Trump administration made unsubstantiated claims of biased data; removed the heads of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics; failed to fill key leadership vacancies; and named political appointees who hold other jobs to fill in leadership positions that had been held by career civil servants, according to the report.

“These actions undermine public trust in federal statistics,” the report said.

Follow Mike Schneider on Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social

DEAR MISS MANNERS: How do I respond to some common shaming I get from people I know?

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For background, I am a female member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and have many dear friends who are members of other marginalized communities. My rights and the rights of the people I love are important to me.

Some people I know openly support politicians who want to strip rights away from me and from others I care deeply about. I do not ask people about their political, social, religious or moral beliefs, so I only learn this when they advertise them. They do this through social media posts, clothing items, lawn signs and offhand comments in conversation.

When I learn that an acquaintance supports stripping my rights away, I distance myself from them. Because of this, I’ve received some comments like, “It’s such a shame that you can’t even be friends with me because we disagree on politics,” or, “I don’t know how you can call yourself inclusive if you won’t even socialize with people who think differently than you.”

Miss Manners, I don’t see wanting women or members of the LGBTQIA+ community to have fewer rights as a “difference in politics.” It’s not a matter of supporting different tax plans. Nor is it just “thinking differently,” as if we preferred different ice cream flavors.

To me, it’s strange that people who think I deserve fewer rights also want to be my friend — and complain when I distance myself.

Is there a polite reply I can give when I get yet another scolding comment about how I can’t put these “differences” aside? I unfortunately run into this frequently.

GENTLE READER: Your observation that there is no sense in offering friendship to someone who would strip you of basic rights is, of course, logical.

From a manners perspective, however, it matters little whether the people who are doing this are incapable of understanding that — or whether you have failed to recognize that you are being made light of, if not actively taunted.

Either way, we are where too many societies have been before: divided on fundamental questions and perpetually angry.

The question is how to be these people’s opponent without coming to blows. To that, the general answer is little different than how one deals with an irate customer at work: Be civil, be reserved and put as much distance — mental and physical — between you and them as possible after the workday, or event, is complete.

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• Asking Eric: My husband mooches expensive meals and he ‘treats’ me to half a sandwich
• Miss Manners: I don’t want to be stuck at a party with women who don’t like me
• Asking Eric: I’m banned from their house because of what I said about the kids’ violent game

DEAR MISS MANNERS: How many “verys” is too many? My wife has a habit of using “very” to such excess that it becomes annoying. For example, “She has a very, very, very loud voice” or “His shoes are very, very, very, very ugly.” Am I being very critical?

GENTLE READER: Very. While Miss Manners personally agrees that even one “very” is a burden, you will have to negotiate an acceptable number directly with your wife.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, gentlereader@missmanners.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

Here are the top stories for Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. Get the weather forecast for today here.

SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get our free Morning Update email. Sign up here.

Nonprofit Handy sues Broward schools over terminated $2.6 million lease

Democrat wins Miami mayor’s race for the first time in nearly 30 years

Broward dogfighter sentenced to two years probation for running training, fighting ring

Florida’s CAIR vows lawsuit against DeSantis over ‘foreign terrorist’ label

Florida executes man convicted of killing woman during 1989 home invasion

House panel backs insurance restriction: People, not AI, would have ultimate say on claims

Former Donna Klein Jewish Academy teacher accused of sexual activity with student

Florida lawmakers ready for data centers amid growth of AI and other technology

Lawmakers target ‘crypto ATM’ scams

Miss Manners: I’m so disgusted by begging that I don’t tip anyone, anywhere

The proposal to eliminate Florida property taxes has sparked debate over how schools, public safety and infrastructure would be funded. But a bigger issue is at stake: local control.

Property taxes are one of the few tools cities and counties have to address their needs. Whether fixing a fire station, improving parks or hiring deputies, these decisions are made by people who understand their communities.

Eliminating this revenue source would shift power from local governments to Tallahassee, forcing cities to compete for state funding and undermining the long-standing principle of home rule.

Tax relief sounds appealing, but weakening local authority is too high a price. Before moving forward, Floridians deserve a clear explanation of how this proposal would preserve — not diminish — the ability of communities to govern themselves.

David Rosenof, Parkland

The writer is a former Parkland city commissioner and former President of the Broward League of Cities. 

Cameron Kasky and Israel

Young Jewish activist Cameron Kasky, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting survivor, is running for office (from Manhattan). He boasts of his Hebrew School inspiration that ending American-made weapons slaughtering children must now be his goal by condemning Israel’s genocide.

Larry French/Getty Images for SiriusXMCameron Kasky in 2018, a month after the Parkland shooting.

Either he missed classes or misconstrued what he heard, or he would have learned that Israel’s response was to a slaughter of 1,200 innocent young Israeli Jews and hostage-taking of 250 many of whom were murdered. starved, beaten and sexually abused.

The surprise attack by Hamas was led by Yahya Sinwar, who proclaimed “casualties were necessary to achieve victory.” It required fighting in Hamas tunnels under schools, hospitals and homes in order to create causalities, despite reasonable efforts by Israel to minimize them.

Kasky should return to Hebrew School.

Seymour Brotman, Delray Beach

Drilling platforms in Palm Beach?

With regard to Trump’s desire to drill for oil no matter the consequences to our air and life, a reader suggested setting up drilling towers off Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago.

Since Trump has been guilty of cheating by inflating and deflating the value of his property depending on his financial needs at any given time, I suggest Palm Beach County relieve him of the land and put it to a similar use that it’s getting now, while discouraging people who would own and operate those drilling platforms.

Tracy Anton, Hollywood

Editor’s Note: New drilling in Florida would not be off the Atlantic Coast but in a newly designated South-Central Gulf region, according to the AP. Mar-a-Lago is safe from drilling platforms.

Give Trump a break

Amazing. It seems every letter to the editor is a complaint against Trump.

Not a single person thanks Trump for finally closing the border or doing something against the terrorists who bring deadly drugs into the U.S. I can’t recall anyone complaining when the incompetent Joe Biden had inflation at a 40-year high.

This paper’s one-sided editorial board is going to be the reason you go out of business.

When Democrats rigged the redistricting maps, we didn’t hear a peep out of you. When Nancy Pelosi scammed us on her insider trading scheme, there wasn’t a peep out of anyone.

This paper is only good for wrapping fish, because they stink equally.

Michael Olmstead, Deerfield Beach

Deranged and blinded

I recently had a rather long exchange with a friend whose politics place him a bit more to the right than I am to the left. At some point, he said I had “TDS,” Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I didn’t take kindly to being told I was deranged. So I told him he was BBB (not Build Back Better, but Blinded By Bull***t). He then apologized for his “deranged” comment, to his credit.

Robert Bialer, Palm Beach Gardens

_____________________________________________________________________________

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. 

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Today is Wednesday, Dec. 10, the 344th day of 2025. There are 21 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 10, 2007, former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call to confront human-caused climate change and stop waging war on the environment.

Also on this date:

In 1861, the Confederacy admitted Kentucky as it recognized a pro-Southern shadow state government that was acting without the authority of the pro-Union government in Frankfort.

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In 1898, a treaty was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize, winning the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”

In 1967, singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others were killed when their plane crashed into a Wisconsin lake; trumpeter Ben Cauley, a member of the group the Bar-Kays, was the only survivor.

In 1994, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to advance the Middle East peace process.

In 2021, a two-day outbreak of tornadoes in the U.S. Midwest and South killed more than 90 people across five states, including 77 in Kentucky. The National Weather Service recorded more than 40 twisters Dec. 10 and Dec. 11.

In 2022, Morocco became the first African country to reach the World Cup semifinals by beating Portugal 1-0.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Fionnula Flanagan is 84.
• Actor-singer Gloria Loring is 79.
• Republican Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas is 75.
• Actor Susan Dey is 73.
• Jazz musician Diane Schuur is 72.
• Actor-director Kenneth Branagh (BRAH’-nah) is 65.
• Actor Nia Peeples is 64.
• TV chef Bobby Flay is 61.
• Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 51.
• Actor Emmanuelle Chriqui is 50.
• Actor Raven-Symone is 40.
• Actor/singer Teyana Taylor is 35.
• Actor Kiki Layne is 34.
• Cyclist Jonas Vingegaard is 29.

ORLANDO — At the outset Tuesday night, it was as if the Heat already had passage booked to Las Vegas for the final two rounds of the NBA Cup.

A 15-0 lead can do that.

Not so fast . . . as Vegas baby turned into Vegas maybe and then, ultimately, leaving Las Vegas.

In the end, Erik Spoelstra’s team crapped out, snake eyes of a lost opportunity the ultimate result of a 117-108 loss to the Orlando Magic at Kia Center.

So on to the NBA Cup and the Vegas Strip for the Magic, and back to the regular season for the Heat.

“There was something to really play for right now,” Spoelstra said. “We had all wrapped our minds around it. We’re all still kind of shocked about it.

“We just weren’t able to get the job done.”

With all of an early 16-point lead lost by the midpoint of the second period, and with the Magic later pushing to that margin in the fourth quarter, the Heat now get a multi-day reset instead of an additional payday, after falling to 0-3 this season against their intrastate rival.

“We have an opportunity to do something we hadn’t before,” center Bam Adebayo said, and we let it slip away.”

So, now, idle until a home game on Monday night against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center, which has been added to the schedule to compensate for not advancing in the Cup.

Having made it to the in-season tournament’s knockout round for the first time in the event’s three years, Heat players each received a $53,093 NBA Cup bonus just for stepping on the court Tuesday night.

But now it is the Magic cashing in, upping their individual Cup bonuses to $106,187, with the opportunity to lift that further by advancing Saturday to the Cup final, where the bonus for championship players rises to $530,933 per player.

For the Heat, the reality of a four-game losing streak, a 14-11 record, with extra time now on the practice court.

The Heat got 21 points from Norman Powell and 21 from Tyler Herro, as well as 19 apiece from Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins.

But it wasn’t enough to offset the 37 points of Magic forward Desmond Bane, who did it while playing through foul trouble.

“Once he got going,” Spoelstra said, “then he became a handful.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s NBA Cup game:

1. Game flow: The Heat busted out to a 15-0 lead that then moved to 18-2, before closing the opening period up 30-17.

The Magic then came back to take a three-point read in the second period, before the Heat went into halftime up 57-56.

“An early lead at the beginning is nothing,” Spoelstra said. “You have to complete quarters and possessions all the way through. So they were able to work their way through it, as it often happens. And they had a huge second quarter. That could have kept things a little bit different if we could have gotten a few more stops.”

The Magic then pushed their lead to seven in the third period and went into the fourth up 89-83.

From there, the Magic went up 16 early in the fourth, and held on from there.

“We were trading baskets when we were down a couple digits,” Spoelstra said. “And you need to put together three, four, five stops in a row to be able to change it. And we just weren’t able to do it.”

2. All present (at outset): Every eligible player on the Heat roster was available at the outset, the only absentee being Terry Rozier, who is on NBA leave in light of the FBI’s gambling investigation.

That necessitated several adjustments for Spoelstra, including moving Kel’el Ware out of the starting lineup to accommodate the returns of Herro and Davion Mitchell.

With a starting lineup of Adebayo, Herro, Powell, Mitchell and Wiggins, Spoelstra then went with a first four off the bench of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Ware, Pelle Larsson and Simone Fontecchio.

That had Dru Smith initially out of the mix, after not practicing Monday and being on the injury report earlier in the day Tuesday with a left hip contusion.

Again out of the rotation was Nikola Jovic.

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3. Larsson lost: However, the Heat then lost Larsson in the second period with a sprained left ankle, which was after Larsson returned from a one-game absence due to tightness in his right hip flexor.

Larsson wound up going 10 minutes, with two points and two rebounds. X-rays on the ankle were negative, with an MRI scheduled for Wednesday.

That had Smith checking in for the first time at the midpoint of the third period.

Shuffled out of the second-half rotation was Fontecchio after his 0-for-5 first half on his 30th birthday.

4. Herro harm: Herro was back after missing the previous two games with a toe contusion, scoring nine points in his opening seven minutes stint, before asking out.

With the performance, Herro extended his career-best streak of games with 20 or more points to 16, dating to last season.

However, he was not his typical 3-point threat, at 0 for 6 from beyond the arc, still one 3-pointer shy of joining Duncan Robinson as the only players with 1,000 or more with the Heat.

“It’s going to be a work in progress,” Herro said.

With the loss, the Heat are now 2-2 in games when Herro and Powell both are available.

“I think it’s just going to continue to take time,” Powell said.

5. What next?: With the loss, the Heat will fill out their regular-season schedule with that Monday night game against the Toronto Raptors, which will return them to an even split of 41 home games and 41 road games.

It will be the first of two games against the Raptors at Kaseya Center in a span of nine days, with the Raptors also to visit on Dec. 23.

“There’s always a silver lining,” Spoelstra said of the break in the schedule. “We’ll be able to get a couple of days of just rest.”

The New York Knicks defeated the Raptors 117-101 Tuesday night in the other Cup Eastern Conference quarterfinal. Had the Raptors won, the Heat would have played Sunday in New York and only have had 40 home games this season.

ORLANDO — Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 117-108 NBA Cup loss to the Orlando Magic:

– Yes, this was a different look for the NBA Cup.

– That’s because the Magic’s Cup court was damaged in storage, so the regular-season court was utilized.

– But in his pregame comments, Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said the Cup matters very much within the NBA, no matter any outside skepticism.

– “The guys want to win, they want to get to Vegas, they want the money,” he said of the cash bonus for players that crests at over $500,000 per player for winning the title. “They want to have the bragging rights throughout the year. That’s a big thing. No other way to put it. That’s how each team that’s in it looks. ”

– He added, “You know, you see the commercials, you see the advertisements, you see the guys talking about it. They want to win it and there’s no other way to look at it. … That’s the competitive edge that these guys have.”

– And, yes, the money.

– “No matter what they get with their contract, you have the incentive on the back end of getting to Vegas and having the chance to have the bragging rights of winning something big,” Mosley said. “You want to go after it.”

– Similar sentiment had been offered by the Heat in preceding days.

– With the Magic the ones who from the midpoint of the opening period simply did more to cash in.

– With Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell back, the Heat opened with a lineup of Herro, Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell.

– The Heat entered 2-1 when starting that group.

– The shift again had Kel’el Ware shuffled back to the bench, his ninth appearance as a reserve this season.

– Of having Herro alongside Powell for just the third time this season, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it is needed.

– “If you’ve noticed,” he said pregame, “The last few games our offense hasn’t been that good.”

– As for his roster back to full health, Spoelstra said, “It’s a good thing.”

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– “The guys that have been working back from injury, they’ve been very dedicated behind the scenes,” Spoelstra said. “So you deal with whatever you have to deal with during the NBA season.”

– Which includes fewer minutes than some might expect.

– “The best teams, there is a level of sacrifice to connect to,” Spoelstra said. “But also it’s a long season. Everybody’s going to get their opportunities.”

– The Magic, without sidelined Franz Wagner, opened with a lineup of  Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, Desmond Bane, Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr.

– Jaime Jaquez Jr. again was first off the Heat bench.

– Ware and Pelle Larsson then followed, with 4:29 left in the opening period.

– With Simone Fontecchio making it nine deep.

– This was the last of three regular-season games in the matchup in Orlando this season, with two to follow in Miami, on Jan. 28 and March 14.

– The teams also met twice in the preseason.

– “We feel like we’ve played ’em nine times already this season,” Mosley said.

By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has removed any mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change. Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity.

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Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasizing and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change. The website’s causes of climate page mentions changes in Earth’s orbit, solar activity, Earth’s reflectivity, volcanoes and natural carbon dioxide changes, but not the burning of fossil fuels. Seven scientists and three former EPA officials tell The Associated Press that this is misleading and harmful.

“Now it is completely wrong,” said University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain, who also noted that impacts, risks and indicators of climate change on the EPA site are now broken links. “This was a tool that I know for a fact that a lot of educators used and a lot of people. It was actually one of the best designed easy access climate change information websites for the U.S.”

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration removed the national climate assessment from government websites.

“It is outrageous that our government is hiding information and lying,” said former Obama National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief and Oregon State oceanographer Jane Lubchenco. “People have a right to know the truth about the things that affect their health and safety, and the government has a responsibility to tell the truth.”

An October version of the same EPA page, saved by the internet Wayback Machine, said: “Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which has changed the earth’s climate. Natural processes, such as changes in the sun’s energy and volcanic eruptions, also affect the Earth’s climate. However, they do not explain the warming that we have observed over the last century.”

That now reads: “Natural processes are always influencing the earth’s climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s. However, recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone.”

“Unlike the previous administration, the Trump EPA is focused on protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback, not left-wing political agendas,” said Brigit Hirsch, EPA spokesperson, in an email. “As such, this agency no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult. Plus, for all the pearl-clutchers out there, the website is archived and available to the public.”

Clicking on “explore climate change resources” on the EPA archived website leads to an error message that says: “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it.”

Former Republican Governor Christie Todd Whitman, who was EPA administrator under George W. Bush, said, “You can refuse to talk about it, but it doesn’t make it go away. And we’re seeing it. Everybody’s seeing it.”

“We look ridiculous, quite frankly,” Whitman told The Associated Press in an interview. “The rest of the world understands this is happening and they’re taking steps… And we’re just going backwards. We’re knocking ourselves back into the Stone Age.”

Democratic EPA chief Gina McCarthy blasted current EPA chief Lee Zeldin, calling him “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, actively spiking any attempt to protect our health, well-being and precious natural resources.”

Nearly 100% of the warming the world is now experiencing is from human activity, and without that, the Earth would be cooling and dropping in temperatures until the Industrial Revolution, Swain and other scientists said. The EPA listed natural causes “might be causing a very tiny amount of warming or cooling at the moment,” he said.

Marcia McNutt, a geophysicist and president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that there is consensus among experts from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or NASEM, on the causes of climate change.

“Numerous NASEM reports from the nation’s leading scientists confirm that the climate is changing as a result of human activities,” McNutt said. “Even the EPA acknowledges that natural causes cannot explain the current changes in climate. It is important that the public be presented with all of the facts.”

Former EPA climate advisor Jeremy Symons, now a senior advisor for Environmental Protection Network of former EPA officials, said: “Ignoring fossil fuel pollution as the driving force behind the climate changes we have seen in our lifetime is like pretending cigarettes don’t cause lung cancer.”

Michael Phillis contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MIKE STOBBE

It’s normal for parents, or anyone, to have questions about vaccinations — but what happens if your pediatrician urges a shot that’s under attack by the Trump administration?

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That’s getting more likely: The nation’s leading doctors groups are in an unprecedented standoff with federal health officials who have attacked long-used, lifesaving vaccines.

The revolt by pediatricians, obstetricians, family physicians, infectious disease experts and internists came to a head when an advisory panel handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged an end to routine newborn vaccination against hepatitis B, a virus that can cause liver failure or liver cancer.

That vaccine saves lives, helped child infections plummet and has been given safely to tens of millions of children in the U.S. alone, say the American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctors groups that vowed Tuesday to keep recommending it.

But that’s not the only difference. That Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices now is examining possible changes to the entire childhood vaccination schedule, questioning certain ingredients and how many doses youngsters receive.

Pushing back, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued its own recommendations for youngsters. Other medical groups — plus some city and state public health departments that have banded together — also are issuing their own advice on certain vaccines, which largely mirrors pre-2025 federal guidance.

“We owe our patients a consistent message informed by evidence and lived experience, not messages biased by political imperative,” Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told reporters Tuesday.

But Nahass acknowledged the inevitable consumer confusion, recounting a relative calling him last weekend for advice about hepatitis B vaccination for her new grandbaby.

“Most Americans don’t have a Cousin Ronnie to call. They are left alone with fear and mistrust,” he said, urging parents to talk with their doctors about vaccines.

New guidelines without new data concern doctors

Hepatitis B isn’t the only vaccine challenge. Kennedy’s health department recently changed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines don’t cause autism. Federal agencies also moved to restrict COVID-19 vaccinations this fall, and are planning policy changes that could restrict future flu and coronavirus shots.

But when it comes to vaccine advice, “for decades, ACIP was the gold standard,” said Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician and Stanford University researcher.

The panel once routinely enlisted specialists in specific diseases for long deliberations of the latest science and safety data, resulting in recommendations typically adopted not only by the CDC but by the medical field at large, he said.

FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

Last week’s meeting of Kennedy’s panel, which includes vaccine skeptics, marked a radical departure. CDC specialists weren’t allowed to present data on hepatitis B, the childhood vaccine schedule or questions about vaccine ingredients. Few of the committee members have public health experience, and some expressed confusion about the panel’s proposals.

At one point, a doctor called in to say the panel was misrepresenting her study’s findings. And the panel’s chairman wondered why one dose of yellow fever vaccine protected him during a trip to Africa when U.S. children get three doses of hepatitis B vaccine. The hepatitis B vaccine is designed to protect children for life from a virus they can encounter anywhere, not just on a trip abroad. And other scientists noted it was carefully studied for years to prove the three-dose course offers decades of immunity — evidence that a single dose simply doesn’t have.

“If they’ve got new data, I’m all for it — let’s see it and have a conversation,” said Dr. Kelly Gebo, an infectious disease specialist and public health dean at George Washington University, who watched for that. “I did not see any new data,” so she’s not changing her vaccine advice.

Committee members argued that most babies’ risk of hepatitis B infection is very low and that earlier research on infant shot safety was inadequate.

Especially unusual was a presentation from a lawyer who voiced doubt about studies that proved benefits of multiple childhood vaccines and promoted discredited research pointing to harms.

Dr. Robert Malone chairs a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

“I don’t think at any point in the committee’s history, there was a 90-minute uninterrupted presentation by someone who wasn’t a physician, a scientist, or a public health expert on the topic — let alone someone who, who makes his living in vaccine litigation,” said Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University.

By abandoning data and the consensus of front-line doctors, the ACIP is “actively burning down the credibility that made its recommendations so powerful,” added Stanford’s Scott. “Most parents will still follow their pediatricians, and AAP is holding the line here. But the mixed messages are precisely what erode confidence over time.”

Parents already have a choice — they need solid guidance

Trump administration health officials say it’s important to restore choice to parents and to avoid mandates. That’s how the panel’s hepatitis B recommendation was framed — that parents who really want it could get their children vaccinated later.

Parents already have a choice, said Dr. Aaron Milstone of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The government makes population-wide recommendations while families and their doctors tailor choices to each person’s health needs.

But many doctors don’t — or can’t — do their own lengthy scientific review of vaccines and thus had relied on the ACIP and CDC information, Yale’s Schwartz noted.

They “rely on trusted expert voices to help navigate what is, even in the best of times, a complicated landscape regarding the evidence for vaccines and how best to use them,” he said.

That’s a role that the pediatricians and other doctors groups, plus those multistate collaborations, aim to fill with their own guidelines — while acknowledging it will be a huge task.

For now, “ask your questions, bring your concerns and let us talk about them,” said Dr. Sarah Nosal, of the American Academy of Family Physicians, urging anyone with vaccine questions to have an open conversation with their doctor.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ISABEL DEBRE

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers.

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Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur.

Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones. Children squealed with delight and giddily petted every dog that pranced about.

Families posed for pet selfies under the blazing Southern Hemisphere’s summer sun.

Sipping Argentina’s traditional yerba mate drink, attendees swapped fun facts about their favorite breed — such as goldens’ famed ability to sniff out low blood sugar and cancer — and shared stories of their retrievers comforting them throughout all of life’s ups and downs.

“Since we were children, she’s been a constant presence in our family. We’ve had vacations with her. We’ve done everything together,” said Nicolás Orellana, a 26-year-old wearing a T-shirt with a photo of a golden retriever on it. His family said they drove an hour and a half from their hometown in Buenos Aires province for the event.

“It’s a type of dog that’s known to create a special bond,” he said, kneeling to pet his contented-looking 13-year-old dog Luna.

Around them, fellow golden retrievers sniffed each other furiously, some decked out in costumes ranging from Argentine soccer jerseys and national flags to tutus and Star Wars bandanas.

Through the tsunami of tail-wagging and treat-giving, 10 dog-loving volunteers clad in yellow vests roved with clipboards to register each golden retriever in attendance.

• A man plays with his dog at a Palermo neighborhood park as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
• Golden Retrievers pose for a picture in a Palermo neighborhood park where people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
• Golden Retrievers gather at a Palermo neighborhood park as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
• A girl offers a treat to a dog in a Palermo neighborhood park as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Show Caption1 of 4A man plays with his dog at a Palermo neighborhood park as people try to set a world record of most Golden Retrievers gathered in a park, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Expand

After hours of meticulous counting, the final number came in late Monday. With 2,397 golden retrievers recorded, the event’s organizer, Fausto Duperre, announced that Argentina had broken the informal world record set last year when an event in Vancouver drew 1,685 goldens.

“This is a historic event,” gushed Duperre, a 28-year-old Argentine actor who has become something of a golden retriever influencer on social media, where he regularly posts content about his 10-year-old golden named Oli.

“I’m truly grateful and happy, proud, excited and overjoyed all at once,” he added.

High hopes for a big group photo of the dogs alone on the field quickly faded as it became clear that no owner — nor dog — would withstand even a few moments of separation. Plus, there was the all-too-real fear of dogs getting lost among their thousands of furry counterparts. Owners yanked at leashes and wrangled with the most restive dogs to keep them close.

Some said they were expecting total chaos from Monday’s event but were surprised to report that it turned out to be easy and delightful — like the dogs themselves.

“I was afraid I would lose her, I was afraid she would fight, I was afraid another dog would attack her,” said Elena Deleo, 64, stroking her golden retriever Angie. “But no, they’re all affectionate, all gentle. … It’s just a very lovely experience.”

By JIM MUSTIAN and JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from an agreement with the city of Houston to curb illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods, part of the Trump administration’s broad dismantling of environmental justice initiatives.

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Federal authorities quietly ended the monitoring this year as they pulled the plug on a similar settlement over wastewater problems in rural Alabama, according to three former law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the move wasn’t made public.

Without federal monitoring, advocates in Houston said city officials have become less responsive to residents afflicted by persistent dumping in the historically Black neighborhood of Trinity/Houston Gardens.

“We have nothing to fight with anymore,” resident Huey German-Wilson, who has spent years drawing attention to the problem, told The Associated Press during a tour of illegal dumping hotspots. “We’ve got a watered-down EPA. We’ve got no assistance from the DOJ. The city has no reason to respond to us, and we’re finding that they are truly ignoring us.”

The Justice Department declined to comment. Houston officials did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Rotting carcasses’

A DOJ investigation found in 2023 that the Houston neighborhood in question had been inundated by illegal dumping of trash, medical waste, mattresses and even dead bodies and “rotting carcasses” — a description local officials insisted was exaggerated.

Its settlement with the city called for three years of federal monitoring, public data reporting requirements and community outreach to impacted neighborhoods.

Former Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat who died this year after winning a U.S. House seat, had called the DOJ investigation “absurd, baseless and without merit,” though his administration later agreed to the federal monitoring. The city previously has pointed to its efforts to combat illegal dumping through One Clean Houston, a multimillion-dollar cleanup and enforcement initiative.

The nixing of the settlement, which was set to expire in June 2026, came as the Trump administration directed federal agencies to eliminate jobs and programs dedicated to environmental justice. It followed President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order putting a stop to diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the U.S. government.

“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in April when the Justice Department announced it was ending an agreement with Alabama over persistent wastewater issues in Lowndes County. “President Trump made it clear: Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.”

Lowndes County is a high-poverty area between Selma and Montgomery where a type of soil makes it difficult for traditional septic tanks to work. A federal investigation found the majority-Black community has long been exposed to raw sewage and lacked basic sanitation services as officials engaged in a pattern of inaction and neglect.

The Alabama agreement required the state to develop a public health and infrastructure improvement plan and stop prosecuting residents who lack the resources to install or repair wastewater systems. It was the result of the Justice Department’s first environmental justice investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin in their federally funded programs and activities.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced it was changing its regulations under Title VI to require “proof of actual discrimination, rather than enforcing race- or sex-based quotas or assumptions.” The department said it was ending regulations that “required recipients of federal funding to make decisions based on race.”

‘It’s never-ending’

In Houston, illegal dumping has been a hot-button issue for years. It drew the DOJ’s attention after Lone Star Legal Aid, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for low-income populations, filed a complaint about city response times lagging considerably for pickups in Black and Latino neighborhoods compared with white communities.

• Huey German-Wilson, Trinity-Houston Community President, is interviewed near large piles of trash and debris littering a narrow roadway in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood in northwest Houston, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi )
• A toilet lays among large piles of trash and debris littered on a narrow roadway in the TrinityGardens neighborhood in northwest Houston, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi )
• Piles of trash fill the ditch across a construction site in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood in northwest Houston, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi )

Show Caption1 of 3Huey German-Wilson, Trinity-Houston Community President, is interviewed near large piles of trash and debris littering a narrow roadway in the Trinity Gardens neighborhood in northwest Houston, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi ) Expand

During the first year of federal monitoring, the city picked up illegal dumping much faster, rolled out new vehicles and added workers, said German-Wilson, president of the Trinity/Houston Gardens Super Neighborhood, a community group.

“We could email everybody,” she said, “and they were listening very intently to see what they could do differently.”

This year, the city has received thousands of complaints about illegal dumping, according to data it publishes online, a backlog that was on display last week when an AP reporter walked past piles of trash and debris, including mattresses, construction waste, a toilet, mulch, wooden pieces of a fence and a car bumper. Some of the piles began as long uncollected leaves and tree branches.

“We also find animals dumped in the midst of all of this,” German-Wilson said. “It’s never-ending.”

Other environmental justice advocates said ending the Alabama and Houston settlements was short-sighted.

“What I find appalling about this administration’s position is these people have not gone out into the community to see how folks are impacted,” said Catherine Coleman Flowers, an activist who filed the civil rights complaint that prompted the Alabama investigation.

“The message they’re sending is they really don’t understand what they’re doing. There are Americans across the board suffering from these issues.”

Mustian reported from New York.