South Florida Local News

Today is Saturday, April 19, the 109th day of 2025. There are 256 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 19,1995, Timothy McVeigh, seeking to strike at the government he blamed for the Branch Davidian deaths two years earlier, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. (McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.)

Also on this date:

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord—the start of an eight-year armed conflict between American colonists and the British Army.

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In 1897, the first Boston Marathon was held. Winner John J. McDermott ran the course in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 10 seconds.

In 1943, during World War II, tens of thousands of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto began a valiant but ultimately futile uprising against Nazi forces.

In 1977, the Supreme Court, in Ingraham v. Wright, ruled 5-4 that even severe spanking of schoolchildren by faculty members did not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1989, 47 sailors were killed when a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa during training exercises in the Caribbean.

In 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as the Davidians set fire to their compound following an FBI tear gas attack. Seventy-five people, including 25 children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed.

In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany was elected pope in the first conclave of the new millennium; he took the name Benedict XVI.

In 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR’ tsahr-NEYE’-ehv), a 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, was taken into custody after a manhunt that had left the city virtually paralyzed. His older brother and alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Tamerlan (TAM’-ehr-luhn), was killed earlier in a furious attempt to escape police.

In 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man, died a week after suffering a spinal cord injury in the back of a Baltimore police van while he was handcuffed and shackled. (Six police officers were charged. Three were acquitted and the city’s top prosecutor eventually dropped the three remaining cases.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Singer-songwriter Roberto Carlos is 84.
• Actor Tim Curry is 79.
• Motorsports Hall of Famer Al Unser Jr. is 63.
• Actor Ashley Judd is 57.
• Latin pop singer Luis Miguel is 55.
• Actor James Franco is 47.
• Actor Kate Hudson is 46.
• Actor Hayden Christensen is 44.
• Football Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu is 44.
• Actor-comedian Ali Wong is 43.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Mauer is 42.
• Former WNBA star Candace Parker is 39.
• Former tennis player Maria Sharapova is 38.
• Actor Simu Liu is 36.

Another Davion Mitchell shot went up in overtime, another shot swished through, and suddenly the Miami Heat were dancing off the court in Atlanta and into the playoffs, carrying all the scars and bumps and exhausted smiles of a tortured season suddenly turned good.

Twice is nice, right?

Two play-in games. Two wins on the road. And now the reward is a trip to the playoffs to meet top seed Cleveland Sunday night for Game 1.

“We had to do it the hard way,’’ Mitchell said after the Heat’s 123-114 win Friday night against Atlanta.

It’s not just that the Heat did it. It’s who did it for them. Bam Adebayo had a complete game with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks. Tyler Herro brought the Heat back from the season’s brink in the fourth quarter and finished with 30 points. But …

“Davion Mitchell is taking over the night!” as TNT’s Ian Eagle boomed during overtime.

Davion Mitchell? The throw-in in the Jimmy Butler trade? The point guard benched after a test run in the Heat starting lineup? The guy known for tough-guy defense more than any take-over-a-game offense?

Could you pick a more perfect player to send this imperfect Heat season to the playoffs?

In four possessions over 40 seconds that defined the overtime — and in some sense this larger season — Mitchell broke from such a bad game he’d been benched to have a sequence where he:

(a) hit a 3-point shot;

(b) defended Atlanta star Trae Young into a travel;

(c) hit another 3-pointer for a 115-108 lead;

(d) and then took a charge for another Atlanta turnover.

“It wasn’t just his 3s,’’ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That offensive rebound.”

The rebound came after Young was so dismissive of Mitchell that the Atlanta star didn’t even defend him at the 3-point line despite trailing 120-114 with under a minute left.

Mitchell missed that open shot. But he followed up the shot, just like you’re taught in youth ball, and got the rebound. That second-chance possession ended with Young again not bothering to close out Mitchell, but Mitchell made his third 3-point shot to seal the win.

Who needs Playoff Jimmy when you have Play-In Davion?

“He’s an animal on both sides of the ball,’’ Herro said.

Maybe he’ll get a contract with the Heat now? Yes, that’s something that has to be done coming up. It also puts the full night in perspective.

Let’s not over-do this and get “warm fuzzies,’’ as Heat president Pat Riley might say. The Heat were the 10th seed. Their reward for winning these past two games is top seed Cleveland on Sunday. They won’t come within sight of a title that’s always this franchise’s bar.

So, sure, you can overdo what this moment means. You can likewise underplay it. This is a franchise sabotaged by Butler quitting on it. It’s a team that then lost 10 straight games. What was left to play for?

It kept its footing with Spoelstra, Adebayo and Herro. Andrew Wiggins’ hamstring finally got healthy. It found roles for plenty of others — even if as late as Friday’s first half Mitchell looked so lost in his role Spoelstra sat him down.

“I felt like I was forcing it in the first half, trying to do too much, not letting the game come to me,’’ Mitchell said. “I reset my mind, believed in the work I put in and went out and played and let the game come to me.”

It didn’t come to him. It ran. He embraced it, too.

Mitchell had one point in the first half.

He made 2 of 9 shots in regulation.

He made three 3-pointers, caused two turnovers and had one vital offensive rebound in overtime.

“This group has grown closer together from all the adversity, and Davion has given us that kind of passion,’’ Spoelstra said. “He wears his emotion on his sleeve. I think that’s good for us. We have a lot of guys who are intense who don’t outwardly express it.

“For him to struggle like that in the first half and then have that fourth quarter and overtime speaks of his competitiveness. We needed every single bit of it.”

 

The body of a teenager who disappeared while swimming off of Fort Lauderdale beach late Friday afternoon has been recovered after an hours-long search, police said.

Police were called just before 5 p.m. to the water near the 800 block of Seabreeze Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale Police spokesperson Casey Liening said.

The teen was swimming in a group with at least two other people, according to U.S. Coast Guard Southeast Petty Officer First Class Diana Sherbs. Lifeguards rescued the others.

For hours into Friday evening, the Coast Guard, Fort Lauderdale Police’s Dive Team, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue and Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue searched using fire boats, a helicopter, personal boats and first responders on the shore, according to Liening and Frank Guzman, a Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue spokesperson.

Divers with the police department found the teen’s body shortly after 8 p.m., Liening said in a news release late Friday night. The teen’s identity has not been released.

The death appears to be an accidental drowning, though FLPD will investigate, Liening said.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.

ATLANTA — Observations and other notes of interest from Friday night’s 123-114 overtime NBA play-in victory over the Atlanta Hawks:

– Cliche’, yes.

– But the Heat wanted it more.

– And, in the end, it showed.

– For some, a No. 8 seed stands as a consolation prize.

– As in, why put yourself through a best-of-seven gauntlet against the Cavaliers, faced with overwhelming odds?

– A reasonable supposition.

– But for the Heat this was different.

– And not for making the playoffs from the No. 10 lottery seed.

– But rather because to the Heat this was something tangible.

– A climb from the depths.

– Without the assistance of Jimmy Butler.

– Still learning the new players injected into the mix from the Butler trade.

– And even now hardly a sure thing when building a substantial lead.

– For posterity, the 2024-25 standings will cast the Heat as, well, losers.

– A 37-45 record says as much.

– But to Erik Spoelstra it is all about ascension.

– From the Butler trade.

– From the 10-game losing streak.

– From a pair of play-in games on the road.

– So, yes Pat Riley, cue “The Rising.”

– Playoff tickets already had been on sale.

– Now they hold tangible value.

– With at least a Game 3 and Game 4 at Kaseya Center.

– White Hot to follow a soiled season.

– A bit of bleach, and the outlook has changed.

– The Heat stayed with their season-closing primary lineup of Kel’el Ware, Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Alec Burks.

– Davion Michell and Haywood Highsmith were first off the Heat bench.

– Duncan Robinson then followed

– Kyle Anderson then made it nine deep for the Heat at the start of the second period.

– The nine Spoelstra has come to trust at a stage when it all is about trust.

– So no Ware at the close.

– Because one has to be ready for this.

– With the Heat a fixture in the round the past three years, Spoelstra was asked pregame for his thoughts on the play-in.

– “When you’re in it, you don’t wish that your season went that way,” he said. “You wish you would have an automatic bid to the playoffs. But it certainly made everything a lot more competitive.”

– Herro said having been in the play-in previously made this trip a bit more predictable this time,

– “Having guys who have been experienced in the play-in definitely helps,” he said at the morning shootaround. “having other guys we can lean on. The coaching staff has been through it, so it’s no unfamiliar territory.”

– Herro said there also was added motivation.

Related Articles

• Dave Hyde: Davion Mitchell took over the night in Atlanta and told the Heat story
• Heat play-in rollercoaster leaves them with 123-114 OT victory over Hawks and playoff berth
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• Heat’s Davion Mitchell will be intriguing case study in NBA free agency
• ASK IRA: Why not Tyler time again for the Heat against the Hawks?

– “I don’t think a 10th seed ever went to the playoffs,” he correctly said, “so we could be the first team to do that. So that’s kind of on our minds.”

– There was respect going in from Hawks coach Quin Snyder.

– “As many times as you play a team over the course of the year, teams evolve, and I think they’re playing right now as well as anyone,” he said. “Really, the last time we played in Miami, I thought they’d really started to play at a high level. Similar to our situation, when you have a trade at the deadline, your team grows, however that evolution occurs.”

–Spoelstra went in with respect of his own.

– “We’ve been humbled by them twice,” he said of the Heat’s two regular-season losses in Atlanta. “We respect their firepower.”

– Spoelstra offered ample praise at the morning shootaround for Hawks first-round pick Zaccharie Risacher.

– “I think their system really fits his skill set,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a great off-the-ball player. He’s really good in transition. He runs to the rim, where there’s a lot of guys in this league that don’t do that anymore. A lot of guys run to the 3-point line. He runs to the rim. He’s a great cutter. He knows how to generate actions and these plays in-between that are kind of unscripted. That’s a notable skill set that he has.”

– Risacher was not a factor in this one, with just three points.

ATLANTA — For a moment Friday night, as the final buzzer sounded at State Farm Arena, the Miami Heat no longer felt like a 37-45 team, one that finished in 10th place in its conference and endured a 10-game losing streak.

No, at that moment, when the 123-114 overtime victory over the Atlanta Hawks was complete, the feeling was of a mission accomplished, of a season salvaged, of meaning, finally, attached to this whirlwind.

Erik Spoelstra’s team is going to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, no need for lottery Ping-Pong balls, with games still to be played.

“I know how badly our group wanted to get in this thing,” an emotional Spoelstra said afterward. “I could see it in their eyes. I could feel it with their hearts. This group has grown closer together from all these adversities.”

With Davion Mitchell converting three 3-pointers and Tyler Herro two in the extra period, by the time it was over, nobody was thinking about the blown 17-point lead that allowed overtime or even the harrowing ending to the fourth quarter that extended the game.

No, just euphoria — even with a losing record.

“The validation,” center Bam Adebayo said, “is we punched our ticket.”

Up next is the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in a best-of-seven first-round playoff series that opens Sunday at 7 p.m. at Rocket Arena.

The odds are daunting, but also hardly a new challenge, with the Heat now each of these past three seasons emerging from the play-in round as the No. 8 seed, left to square off against No. 1.

In 2023, from this same No. 8 vantage point, the Heat began a rise all the way to the NBA Finals. Last year, No. 8 meant only five games before being vanquished by the eventual NBA-champion Boston Celtics.

But what lies ahead and what came before mattered little at Friday night’s final buzzer. Instead heartfelt celebration of defying play-in odds and becoming the first 10th-place team ever to make the NBA playoffs.

“Our message,” Spoelstra said, “was we wanted to become worthy to win.”

Herro led the Heat with 30 points, with Mitchell adding 16. The Heat also got 17 points and 11 rebounds from Adebayo, and 20 points and eight assists and eight rebounds from Andrew Wiggins.

Atlanta was led by Trae Young’s 29 points.

Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat got out to a 10-0 lead, forcing a Hawks timeout 2:25 into the game, then taking a 33-24 lead into the second period. From there, the Heat went up 17 in the second period and held a 62-53 lead at halftime.

The Hawks then stormed within 67-64 with 8:46 left in the third period, leading to a Heat timeout. Six straight Heat points followed after Mitchell was inserted for Alec Burks, with the Heat taking an 86-77 lead into the fourth.

And then, just like the third, the Hawks clawed back, this time all the way back, with a Trae Young 3-pointer giving the Hawks their first lead of the game at 91-88 with 7:36 to play.

2. Closing time: From there, Herro was sent to the line with 12.2 seconds left in regulation and the Heat up one, making the first free throw but missing the second, leaving the Heat up 106-104.

Off a Hawks timeout with 11.3 seconds to play in regulation, the Heat gave a foul, with the Hawks then calling another timeout with 6.1 seconds to play in regulation. A driving Young layup followed to tie it 106-106 with 1.3 seconds remaining, with Wiggins off with a corner 3-pointer at the fourth-quarter buzzer.

A Herro 3-pointer and two Mitchell 3-pointers opened the Heat scoring in overtime, creating a 115-108 lead midway through the extra period, with the advantage moving to 117-108 on a Wiggins floater.

Young and Herro later traded 3-pointers, for a 120-114 Heat lead with 1:41 left.

And then, with 24.7 seconds to play, Mitchell put it away with a 3-pointer.

“He’s got something inside of him,” Spoelstra said of Mitchell stepping up at that moment, “and it brought out the best in him.”

It also brought out the best in Herro.

“When he plays like that,” Herro said, “he gets me going.”

3. Up next: This will be the first playoff series between the Heat and the Cavaliers.

“You have to respect what Cleveland has done all year long, they’ve played probably the most confident level, them and OKC,” Spoelstra said. “But you have to have big aspirations.”

The Heat lost the season series 2-1, but nearly pushed the latest meeting into overtime before a potential game-tying 3-pointer by Heat guard Duncan Robinson was ruled to have come after he stepped on the sideline.

Related Articles

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• Winderman’s view: One with meaning for the Heat, stepping up when needed
• TNT’s Miller, Van Gundy address fallout of how Butler ‘pulled a grenade’ on Heat only to thrive with Warriors
• Heat’s Davion Mitchell will be intriguing case study in NBA free agency
• ASK IRA: Why not Tyler time again for the Heat against the Hawks?

The Heat won the season’s first meeting 122-113 Dec. 8 at Kaseya Center, led by 34 points from Herro, on a night Cleveland’s Evan Mobley was limited to 11:46 by injury and a night Heat center Kel’el Ware was on assignment in the G League.

The Cavaliers won the second meeting 126-106 Jan. 29 at Kaseya Center, when Donovan Mitchell scored 34 on a night teammate Darius Garland was given the night off for rest.

Most recently, the Cavaliers won 112-107 March 5 in Cleveland, on a night Herro was ill and not with the Heat.

“We’re the first team to do it,” Spoelstra said of advancing as a No. 10 seed, “so why not, to take on two road games?”

4. Draft implications: With the victory, the Heat moved out of their No. 11 seed in the lottery to No. 15 in the draft order. However, that selection now goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder to complete a previous trade.

Had the Heat lost and been locked into the lottery, the Thunder instead would have received an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from the Heat.

The forwarding to the Thunder also now advances the Heat first-rounder due to the Charlotte Hornets to a lottery-protected 2027 first-round pick.

The Heat still hold the Golden State Warriors pick in the June 25 first round of the draft, with that selection to be determined in a random drawing Monday for the Nos. 18-19-20 picks.

5. And now tickets: Following the game, the Heat announced today that individual game tickets for Round 1 home games for the 2025 White Hot Heat Playoffs are now on sale to the general public.

There is an eight-ticket limit per household per game. The team advised that individual game-ticket inventory is limited are expected to sell quickly. Purchases can be made online at HEAT.com and Ticketmaster.com.

Tickets can be purchased for home games 1, 2, and 3 of the first round. Fans who purchase tickets for any unplayed games will be automatically issued a refund by Ticketmaster, including fees (except UPS and retail pickup fees). If fans purchase tickets at a retail location, they can secure a refund by returning tickets for unplayed games at the same retail location where the tickets were originally purchased.

All Heat home postseason games will be mobile-only entry. Tickets can be accessed via the Heat’s app, Ticketmaster.com, and/or the Ticketmaster app.

PHILADLEPHIA (AP) — Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber homered, Zack Wheeler struck out 13 in seven innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 7-2 on Friday night.

Harper hit a two-run home run in the first inning off Sandy Alcantara. Schwarber hit a solo shot in the fifth, his National League-leading seventh of the season.

Wheeler (2-1) allowed five hits, two runs and no walks. He struck out the side in the seventh to finish his day at 96 pitches.

Eric Wagaman hit a two-run home run off Wheeler in the sixth. Xavier Edwards extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games as the Marlins lost their fourth straight game.

Alcantara (2-1), making his fourth start since Tommy John surgery in October 2023, needed 61 pitches to get six outs, allowing four hits, six earned runs, two walks and throwing two wild pitches. His ERA rose to 7.27.

He allowed a walk and back-to-back singles to start the second. Alec Bohm and Johan Rojas hit RBI singles, Bryson Stott hit a sacrifice fly and Rojas scored on a wild pitch for a 6-0 lead.

Nick Castellanos, who had two hits, left his second straight game with a hip issue.

Key moment

The Phillies jumped on Alcantara early. Harper’s home run took Alcantara to 18 pitches on the third batter of the game. He needed 30 to escape the first inning and recorded his fourth out with his 53rd pitch. Alcantara has not thrown more than 91 pitches in an outing this season.

Key stat

19 — Friday was the Phillies’ 19th game in the first 20 with a starter pitching at least five innings. Phillies starters entered having thrown 109.1 innings, fourth-most in the majors.

Up next

Taijuan Walker (1-1, 2.30 ERA) takes the mound for the Phillies against Miami’s Cal Quantrill (1-1, 5.79) on Saturday.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

General Daily Insight for April 19, 2025

Confidence abounds, but it ought to be correctly channeled. The confident Sun enters romantic Taurus at 3:56 pm EDT, encouraging us to seek love, friendship, beauty, and the finer things in life. Driven Mars then teams up with dreamy Neptune, providing us with the perfect balance between motivation and inspiration. That said, the Moon feels the tension with ego-focused Jupiter, making it difficult to see outside our individual perspectives. Feeling your best doesn’t mean that you have to treat others any less kindly.

Aries

March 21 – April 19

You don’t have to be such a trailblazer. While forging a path may be your specialty, with boldness and independence as your natural talents, you’re being given an opportunity to create stability in your life. It might feel foreign at first, to allow such stability to take hold in your life. You could initially feel somewhat stifled, but the truth is, treating every day like a fresh start can start to feel like you’re getting nowhere fast. Try building something that lasts.

Taurus

April 20 – May 20

Happy Taurus season! This is your time to shine. It’s the season for you to enjoy the fruits of your labor and all the little luxuries that make life worth living. If you want to spend the day indulging in your favorite foods, music, and the company of your friends and family, then don’t let anyone hold you back from doing so. You’ve got the universe’s permission to celebrate yourself and everything it took to get where you are today. Cheers to you!

Gemini

May 21 – June 20

It may be time to take a break. Other people might have drained you recently, even if you enjoyed hanging out with them. Take this chance to spoil yourself with things that spark joy, especially when it comes to personal hobbies and self-care. There is the potential of being drawn into continually pushing yourself to spend time with others, but that puts you at a higher risk of burning out. For the best possible results, honor your need for rest.

Cancer

June 21 – July 22

The people who make you happy are more valuable than gold. The people who love pampering you might be about to ask to spend time together, particularly if you don’t regularly see each other. They might be older relatives with entertaining stories to share, or maybe they’re friends who remind you of the beautiful sides of life. You could be in for pleasant and witty company, spending time enjoying good food and hilarious tales. Sometimes the best medicine really is good friends and laughter.

Leo

July 23 – August 22

You’re not going to sell yourself short anymore. You have the ability to show other people what you’re really worth, so don’t back down when unnecessarily challenged. There is a sense of cosmic stubbornness that is actually supporting you today, preventing you from accepting anything under what you’ve earned. When you show people that you know your value, they should know better than to offer less than what you’re worth. Show up like you know what you deserve and you’re ready to get it.

Virgo

August 23 – September 22

Nothing can contain you for long — unless you want it to. You understand the contentment that can come from following instructions, but at this time, you’re capable of uncovering a better way than any methods you’ve been shown. It’s okay to rethink your strategy and decide that you want to take a different path in life. There’s nothing wrong with pivoting once you’ve realized that you’re not going in the direction that you truly crave. Set yourself free from outdated structures!

Libra

September 23 – October 22

Speaking up against someone else doesn’t mean you don’t trust them. Sometimes it’s easier to deflect to what the other person wants when it comes to group decisions, but recognizing the need for compromise is vital. Allowing others to make all of the choices without your input could put you on the fast track to places you don’t want to go. Make sure that your input is taken seriously, especially if you’re meant to have equal power. There’s nothing wrong with speaking your mind.

Scorpio

October 23 – November 21

You’re learning to work with someone else. Collaboration could be tough at first, because you may not have the same strategy when it comes to how you approach life. Still, you should soon realize that you’re more similar than you had thought. It’s almost like you’re two sides of the same coin — when you accept that, you might even be able to count them as a friend of yours. It’s okay to keep using your preferred methods, just don’t try to control each other.

Sagittarius

November 22 – December 21

You’re overcoming old struggles with new insights. You may realize what is at the base of an obstacle that you’ve been fighting against for a long time — now that you’ve found this root, it’s time to start pulling it up. It’s unlikely to be finished in a day, but once you get some momentum going and a plan of action attached to this obstacle, you’re capable of overcoming it sooner or later. A little consistency and focus will go a long way.

Capricorn

December 22 – January 19

It’s time to create your reality. You may have been letting other people shape your space, such as friends telling you what to wear, parents telling you what to think, or authorities telling you what your goals should be. It’s time to take a step back and ask yourself what you actually want. Be honest with yourself about what you’d like your life to look like and if you’re on track for that to become the truth. Don’t let their agendas wash yours away.

Aquarius

January 20 – February 18

Home is where the heart is. You could be realizing that it’s time to return to your roots. Whether you’ve been getting a bit lost in other people’s identities or literally traveling here, there, and everywhere, it’s likely that you’re feeling rather homesick. Even if you can’t physically return home, try calling old friends and family or watching something nostalgic. Do what you can to remind yourself of where you truly come from. That should help you feel like yourself again.

Pisces

February 19 – March 20

Humanity can be immensely inspiring at the moment. You may be about to meet people who show you the type of person that you could be — potentially who you’ve wanted to be for a while. While the details of your lives likely differ, they’re providing a piece to the puzzle that’s inside you, waiting to be finished. The more you develop your inner masterpiece, utilizing inspiration from others and making it your own, the more fulfilled you’ll end up becoming.

By CLAIRE SAVAGE, Associated Press

The federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ civil rights is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, essentially putting them on indefinite hold, according to two agency employees.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a meeting on Wednesday clarifying how it would treat new worker complaints of gender-identity discrimination in view of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order declaring that the government would recognize only two “immutable” sexes — male and female.

Staff who handle incoming charges, or intakes, were directed to code them as “C,” the lowest categorization in the EEOC’s system that is usually reserved for meritless charges, according to the agency employees who attended the Microsoft Teams meeting for intake supervisors, district directors and support staff that was led by the EEOC’s national intake coordinator. The employees asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to reveal the meeting details.

An EEOC spokesman declined to comment on the meeting, saying that “per federal law, we cannot discuss investigatory practices.”

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The decision is the latest step by the EEOC to back away from defending the rights of transgender and nonbinary workers in a major shift in civil rights enforcement under the Trump administration. In February, the EEOC moved to drop seven of its own pending lawsuits alleging discrimination against transgender and nonbinary people.

EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, a Republican, has said one of her priorities will be implementing Trump’s executive order on gender and “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights.” She had previously ordered that any worker discrimination charge that “implicates” Trump’s executive order on gender should be elevated to headquarters for review.

This latest decision to bury gender identity-related complaints leaves transgender and nonbinary people experiencing discrimination at work with limited recourse. U.S. workers must file discrimination complaints through the EEOC in most cases before they can seek other legal avenues.

Giving gender identity-related cases the lowest priority essentially pre-determines that they are meritless, said Chai Feldblum, who was an EEOC commissioner from 2010-2019.

“If they say they are bringing it to a central location to give them due consideration, they at least have the facade of doing something,” Feldblum said of Lucas’ previous directive on gender identity cases. “If they are sweeping them out the door as “C” charges, they are not doing their job.”

The EEOC has said that it will still issue “right to sue” notices in gender-identity related cases upon request, meaning workers can decide to pursue a lawsuit on their own. The agency will also honor requests for mediation, according to the employees who attended Wednesday’s meeting. But if mediation fails, the EEOC will take no further action on the case, the employees said.

The EEOC’s new approach to gender-identity related discrimination has raised a debate over whether the agency is acting in violation of the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark case that established that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination based on gender identity.

Civil rights activists have accused the EEOC of illegally defying the Supreme Court and abdicating its duty to enforce anti-discrimination laws by abandoning gender-identity related lawsuits. Lucas has previously told The AP that the EEOC has a duty to comply with Trump’s executive orders but she has not directly addressed the criticism that the agency’s handling of gender-identity cases are in tension with the Supreme Court.

The EEOC in fiscal year 2024 received more than 3,000 charges alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and 3,000-plus in 2023, according to the agency’s website.

Associated Press business reporter Alexandra Olson contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. 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 MEG KINNARD, Associated Press

There was the pool furniture in the background. There were the tropical drinks, which looked to be margaritas garnished with cherries. And then there were the deported prisoner and the American senator, sitting and chatting.

That senator, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, accused El Salvador’s government on Friday of aiming to paint the picture of a leisurely respite for the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia by staging their meeting with drinks appearing to be alcohol, and angling to set the meeting by a hotel pool.

Van Hollen referred to the stagecraft with a term that had ricocheted around social media for much of the day: “Margaritagate.”

“Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is,” the Democratic senator said, calling the whole situation “a lesson” in “the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what’s going on.”

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A Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, Abrego Garcia was sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.

U.S. President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said this week that they have no basis to return him to the United States, even as the Trump administration has called his deportation a mistake and the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return.

During a news conference Friday at Dulles International Airport, just after returning from El Salvador, the Maryland Democrat said Bukele is aiming to “deceive” people about what happened during his meeting with Abrego Garcia, in part by posting a photo with drinks appearing to be alcohol.

When he and Abrego Garcia first sat down for a meeting at the hotel where Van Hollen had been staying, the senator said, they “just had glasses of water on the table, maybe some coffee.”

Subsequently, Van Hollen said, “one of the government people” on the sidelines of their half-hour meeting deposited other beverages on the table, with salt or sugar around the top — “but they look like margaritas.”

On X Thursday night, Bukele posted photos of Van Hollen seated with Abrego Garcia, including with the drinks, garnished with maraschino cherries.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” Bukele wrote, adding an emoji of a tropical drink.

Van Hollen also noted that the Bukele government had initially proposed that he and Abrego Garcia conduct their meeting poolside at the hotel, rather than in the restaurant setting where they convened.

“They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar,” Van Hollen said.

In Friday’s news conference, Van Hollen also revealed that Abrego Garcia told him that he was no longer being held at the high-security Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where he and others were initially taken upon leaving the U.S. Van Hollen said he was initially denied entry to the facility but surmised Friday that had been because Abrego Garcia had already been moved from there to a detention center with better conditions.

“They decided that it was not a good look to continue to detain Abrego Garcia without anybody having access to him,” Van Hollen said. He added that Abrego Garcia told him he had not had contact with anyone outside prison at all since he was removed from the United States.

It was unclear where Abrego Garcia was taken after the meeting with Van Hollen.

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wiped away tears as Van Hollen spoke of her husband’s comments about wanting to speak with his wife. She did not speak during the news conference.

Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from enacting a policy that bans the use of “X” marker used by many nonbinary people on passports as well as the changing of gender markers.

In an executive order signed in January, the president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order says a person is male or female and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender. The framing is in line with many conservatives’ views but at odds with major medical groups and policies under former President Joe Biden.

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U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which stays the action while the lawsuit plays out.

“The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny,” Kobick wrote. “That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.”

The ACLU, which sued the Trump administration on behalf of five transgender Americans and two nonbinary plaintiffs, said the new policy would effectively mean transgender, nonbinary and intersex Americans could not get an accurate passport.

“We all have a right to accurate identity documents, and this policy invites harassment, discrimination, and violence against transgender Americans who can no longer obtain or renew a passport that matches who they are,” ACLU lawyer Sruti Swaminathan said.

In response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration argued the passport policy change “does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution.” They also contended that the president has broad discretion in setting passport policy and that plaintiffs would not be harmed by the policy, since they are still free to travel abroad.