Sit back, relax, and enjoy Madison’s interview with legendary pop music singer and songwriter Cyndi Lauper. In anticipation of her July 22nd concert at Raleigh’s Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Cyndi dishes about the first time she sang on stage, how she’s preparing for her farewell tour, and what she hopes her music legacy will be.
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Josh Stein vetoed on Thursday three anti-DEI bills and another measure that in part would target transgender rights. His actions set up more showdowns with Republican lawmakers who pitch the legislation as doing away with structured racial bias in government and public education, protecting women and empowering parents.
Stein criticized the Republican-controlled legislature for focusing on these measures while they’ve yet to enact a budget for the fiscal year that started this week. Instead, Stein said in a news release, it “wants to distract us by stoking culture wars that further divide us. These mean-spirited bills would marginalize vulnerable people and also undermine the quality of public services and public education.”
The measures cutting or eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in state and local governments, K-12 public schools and the university system have been a major priority for GOP lawmakers. They argue the programs targeted have overemphasized identity to the detriment of merit and societal unity.
The other vetoed bill initially ran as a bipartisan measure curbing sexual exploitation of women and minors by implementing age verification and consent requirements for people who appear on pornography websites. But the final measure was loaded up with several contentious provisions. One would prevent state-funded gender transition procedures or gender-affirming hormone therapy for prisoners. It also affirms the recognition of two sexes and requires the state to officially attach a transgender person’s new birth certificate to their old one if they change their sex assigned at birth.
The bills align with President Donald Trump’s agenda to dismantle DEI practices and press against transgender rights. The legislation is now back at the General Assembly, which could return from a recess later this month to attempt veto overrides and advance other legislation. Republicans are one House seat short of a veto-proof majority. No Democrats voted for the final three anti-DEI measures.
However, one House Democrat did vote for the other vetoed bill. By vetoing that measure, House Speaker Destin Hall said in a release, Stein “has sided with radical activists over the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians who believe in parental rights, biological reality, and protecting women and children.” The bill also would order local school districts to adopt policies so parents can ask that their child be excused from activities or readings that would “impose a substantial burden on the student’s religious beliefs.”
Stein said in a veto message that he strongly supported the sexual exploitation provisions in the bill, but the final measure went too far. “My faith teaches me that we are all children of God, no matter our differences, and that it is wrong to target vulnerable people, as this bill does,” he added.
As for the anti-DEI measures, one bill would ban training, staff positions and hiring decisions that incorporate DEI in state agencies. The legislation also would outlaw those agencies or local governments from using state funds for DEI programs. Workers who violate the law could face civil penalties and litigation. The two other bills would bar “divisive concepts” and “discriminatory practices” across public education statewide.
A Stein veto message said the bill addressing state and local governments in part “is riddled with vague definitions yet imposes extreme penalties for unknowable violations.” As for the education measures, Stein wrote, “we should not whitewash history” and “should ensure our students learn from diverse perspectives and form their own opinions.”
But Senate leader Phil Berger said on the social platform X that the governor is “choosing to ignore the clear will of the people who are tired of politically correct nonsense” by his refusal to rid schools and governments of DEI programs.
Stein has now vetoed 11 measures since taking office in January — all of them in the past two weeks.
Of the eight bills he signed Friday, one will block certain abuse and neglect charges for parents or caregivers raising transgender children “consistent with the juvenile’s biological sex.” The bill also says that adoption agencies can’t be permitted to deny someone from adopting a child because of their unwillingness to allow the child to transition.
Bill sponsors said the restrictions were needed to allow parents and guardians to raise children in line with their family values. But opponents said the measure would harm transgender children and intrude in family matters already governed by other laws. Nine House Democrats voted for the final bill. Stein’s office didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Supporters of the sweeping tax and spending legislation that Congress has sent to President Donald Trump say the changes to Medicaid, food aid and other programs will encourage personal responsibility and halt those scamming the system.
Critics of the bill, given final congressional approval Thursday, say the requirements will upend lives.
Here’s a look at what people are saying about the bill.
To enroll and stay on Medicaid, many ages 19 through 64 would be required to work, go to school or perform at least 80 hours of community service a month.
The Medicaid work requirement would apply to people in 40 states who are enrolled through expanded access that states agreed to put in place since 2014. Ten states, including Texas and Florida, did not expand the program.
For the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which already requires adults ages 18 to 55 to work, working would become mandatory for many until they turn 65.
For both benefits, there would be exceptions, including for parents who are caregivers to children under age 14.
Most people covered by Medicaid already meet the work requirement or qualify for an exception.
Theresa Gibbs, who lost her job as a school bus driver, is enrolled in both Medicaid and SNAP. She likely would be exempt from the work mandate because she has three children under age 14. But Gibbs said she is applying for jobs anyway.
“I don’t think people should just live off the state if they’re perfectly capable to work,” said Gibbs, 34, of Jefferson City, Missouri.
But the changes worry others.
Amanda Hinton, 39, of St. Martins, Missouri, receives Medicaid and SNAP benefits. She puts in enough hours at a part-time gas station job to likely meet the new requirements but is concerned should her fibromyalgia, which causes pain and fatigue, keep her from working for a time.
“I’m panicked. I mean I have some chronic health conditions that are not curable, and I rely on my medication to help me just get through the day,” she said. “And without my Medicaid, I couldn’t afford these.”
Brittany Phillips, 32, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said being on Medicaid has helped her stay afloat both financially and health-wise while she works a temporary, remote medical services job paying about $600 weekly.
“I do believe that Medicaid should be available for everyone regardless of who they are — regardless of capacity, faculty — everyone should have Medicaid,” she said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million fewer people could have health insurance by 2034 because of the changes, which also include booting off non-citizens who are not in the U.S. permanently and legally. And that doesn’t include those who could lose coverage for other reasons.
Advocates say that even people who are covered by exceptions to the work requirement could lose their Medicaid coverage. One major reason is a requirement that people’s eligibility would be assessed at least every six months.
“Every additional paper someone has to submit separately from their application,” said Deborah Steinberg, a senior health policy analyst at the Legal Action Center, “you lose people.”
Julia Bennker, who runs an in-home daycare in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, relies on SNAP and Medicaid and has had paperwork issues under existing Medicaid requirements. She said that earlier this year, she didn’t have health coverage for a month after she was told her forms were late — though she believes she submitted them on time.
That meant going a month without therapy and needing to reschedule another appointment with a prescriber.
Some of the conditions that would trigger exceptions — mental illness or substance use disorder — are not currently tallied in Medicaid computer systems.
“It’s not like you wave a magic wand and everyone who should be exempt is exempt,” said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
State health care and social services agencies will have to rework their computer systems to account for the various changes while also dealing with federal funding reductions. That’s cause for concern for some health care advocates.
The legislation requires all states to shoulder more of the administrative costs of SNAP starting in 2027 and, for the first time, could force some states to pay for a portion of food assistance benefits starting in 2028.
States also must implement the Medicaid work requirement by 2027.
“It will be a very tight and difficult timeline for many of these states,” said Sophia Tripoli, senior health policy director at Families USA, a health care advocacy organization. “There’s a huge cost burden on states from the administrative side just to stand up these systems.”
Julieanne Taylor, a lawyer at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy in North Carolina, said her organization’s clients already face delays in verifications for the food program.
“To add more to them, it’s going to be a disaster,” she said. “It’s going to cause people to drop off because they’re like, ‘I don’t want to have to do this every year or every six months.’”
The bill could also put rural hospitals at financial risk, experts say, because it seeks to cap the taxes that states impose on hospitals and other health care providers in a way that boosts Medicaid funding.
The nonprofit KFF, which studies health care issues, estimates that Medicaid spending in rural areas would decrease by $155 billion over the next decade under the bill.
“While there are already a number of small and rural hospitals that are vulnerable,” said R. Kyle Kramer, CEO of Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam, Connecticut, “it’s going to lead to a lot of closures.”
The bill includes a $50 billion fund to partially offset those reductions.
Federal taxpayer money is already barred from paying for abortions in most cases.
The bill would also ban federal funds going to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, for other purposes like family planning programs and cancer screenings.
The group says that one-third of its roughly 600 clinics across the U.S. could face closure as a result of the legislation, and that states where abortion is legal would be hardest hit.
At least one other group says it also stands to lose funding because of the provision. Maine Family Planning has 19 sites and subcontracts with other health care organizations, including Planned Parenthood, to provide services at other locations across the rural state.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case over state restrictions on which school sports teams transgender students can join.
Just two weeks after upholding a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the justices said they will review lower court rulings in favor of transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia. The case will be argued in the fall.
The nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls on girls sports teams has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.
More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.
At the federal level, the Trump administration has filed lawsuits and launched investigations over state and school policies that have allowed transgender athletes to compete freely. This week, the University of Pennsylvania modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by her participation on the women’s swimming team, part of a resolution of a federal civil rights case.
Separately, Senate Democrats in March blocked a Republican push for a national ban.
Republican President Donald Trump also has acted aggressively in other areas involving transgender people, including removing transgender troops from military service. In May, the Supreme Court allowed the ouster of transgender service members to proceed, reversing lower courts that had blocked it.
A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats.
West Virginia is appealing a lower-court ruling that found the ban violates the rights of Becky Pepper-Jackson, who has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade. Pepper-Jackson sued the state when she in was middle school because she wanted to compete on the cross country and track teams.
This past school year, Pepper-Jackson qualified for the West Virginia girls high school state track meet, finishing third in the discus throw and eighth in the shot put in the Class AAA division.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Pepper-Jackson in two areas, under the Constitution’s equal protection clause and the landmark federal law known as Title IX that forbids sex discrimination in education.
“It’s a great day, as female athletes in West Virginia will have their voices heard. The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this commonsense law preserving women’s sports for women,” state Attorney General John McCuskey said in a statement.
Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson, who had urged the court to reject the appeal, said they stand ready to defend the lower-court rulings.
“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status. Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do–to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” the American Civil Liberties Union’s Joshua Block said in a statement. Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBTQ rights, also is representing Pepper-Jackson.
Idaho in 2020 became the first state in the nation to ban transgender women and girls from playing on women’s sports teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities.
The ACLU and the women’s rights group Legal Voice sued Idaho on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, who hoped to run for Boise State University. A Boise-area athlete who is not transgender also joined the lawsuit because she fears the law could force her to undergo invasive tests to prove her biological sex if someone questions her gender.
The state asked for Supreme Court review after lower courts blocked the state’s ban while the lawsuit continues.
The justices did not act on a third case from Arizona that raises the same issue.
These sliders have all the flavor of a classic Big Mac, just in a fun, bite-sized form. They’re perfect for game day, parties, or when you’re craving a fast-food fix you can make at home.
For the sauce:
For the sliders:
1. Make the sauce. In a small bowl, stir together all the sauce ingredients until smooth. Give it a taste and adjust if needed. Set it aside so the flavors can come together.2. Get the buns ready. Place the bottoms of the slider buns in a baking tray or dish. Save the tops for the end.3. Shape the patties. Divide the ground beef into 12 small, thin patties about the size of your slider buns. Season both sides with a little salt and pepper.4. Cook the patties. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the patties for about 2 minutes per side. Add a slice of cheese just before flipping so it melts nicely. Once cooked, place each patty on a bun bottom.5. Build the sliders. Spoon a bit of special sauce onto each patty. Add shredded lettuce, chopped onion, and a pickle slice. Top each one with the remaining bun half.6. Time to serve. Stick a toothpick in each one if needed, and serve warm. These are always a hit.
By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Though patients don’t rush through the doors of this emergency room anymore, an empty hospital in Williamston, North Carolina, offers an evocative illustration of why Republican Sen. Thom Tillis would buck his party leaders to vote down President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy package.
Martin General is one of a dozen hospitals that have closed in North Carolina over the last two decades. This is a problem that hospital systems and health experts warn may only worsen if the legislation passes with its $1 trillion cuts to the Medicaid program and new restrictions on enrollment in the coverage.
Tillis’ home state showcases the financial impact that more Medicaid dollars can have on hospitals in rural and poor regions throughout the country. Tillis said in a floor speech on Sunday, explaining his vote, that the GOP bill will siphon billions of dollars from Medicaid recipients and the health system in his state.
“Republicans are about to make a mistake on health care and betraying a promise,” said Tillis, who has announced he will not seek re-election because of his opposition to the bill. Along with Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, he joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.
Tillis later accused the president and his colleagues of not fully grasping the full impact of the bill: “We owe it to the states to do the work to understand how these proposals affect them. How hard is that? I did it.”
For Martin General Hospital in Williamston, North Carolina’s decision to expand Medicaid came just too late. The emergency room abruptly closed its doors in the eastern North Carolina county that’s home to more than 20,000 people in August 2023. The closest hospital is now about a 30-minute drive away.
Then-Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper faulted the state’s failure to expand the Medicaid program to more low-income adults sooner to prevent Martin General’s closure.
North Carolina began offering Medicaid expansion to its residents in December. Today, more than 673,000 people are receiving this coverage.
Now, Tillis and other state officials are worried the Republican bill, which will limit how much Medicaid money is sent back to providers, threatens funds for hospitals in their state again. And it could trigger a state Medicaid law that would close down North Carolina’s otherwise successful expansion of coverage unless state legislators make changes or locate funds.
The Medicaid dollars that Republicans seek to scale back in their bill have helped buttress the remaining rural hospitals across North Carolina, said Jay Ludlam, a deputy health secretary who leads North Carolina Medicaid.
“This has been a lifeline for our rural hospitals here in North Carolina and has helped provide and keep them open,” Ludlam said. “Rural hospitals play an integral role in communities both as a point of access for health care but also for the local economy because of the contributions that those hospital and hospital systems make to those communities.”
Republicans have responded to concerns with a provision that will provide $10 billion annually to rural hospitals for five years, or $50 billion in total.
Around the country, 200 hospitals have closed or shuttered emergency services in the last two decades, many of them in red states across the southeastern and midwestern U.S.
States that have declined to expand Medicaid coverage, the health insurance program for the poorest of Americans, have seen the closures accelerate. Tennessee, for example, has shed 500 beds since 2014, when a federal law first allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to a greater share of low-income people. It’s one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid.
More than 300 hospitals could be at risk for closure if the Republicans’ bill becomes law, an analysis by the Cecil G. Sheps Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found last month. The center tracks rural hospital closures.
“Substantial cuts to Medicaid or Medicare payments could increase the number of unprofitable rural hospitals and elevate their risk of financial distress,” the analysis concluded. “In response, hospitals may be forced to reduce service lines, convert to a different type of health care facility, or close altogether.”
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Associated Press writer Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures behind bars for life. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offenses and denied bail as he awaits sentencing.
His lawyer Marc Agnifilo called the verdict a “great victory” and said the jury “got the situation right — or certainly right enough” as he stood outside Manhattan federal court at a stand of microphones. “Today is a victory of all victories.”
The mixed verdict capped a sordid legal odyssey that shattered Combs’ affable “Puff Daddy” image and derailed his career as a Grammy-winning artist and music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star.
“I’ll see you when I get out,” Combs told family members including his mother and children just before leaving the courtroom to return to jail. “We’re going to get through this.”
Combs stands convicted of two counts of a crime — transportation to engage in prostitution — that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But jurors cleared him of three charges, two of which carried a mandatory 15 years and a maximum of life.
He was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.
Combs’ lawyers said that under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely face about two years in prison. Prosecutors, citing Combs’ violence and other factors, said the guidelines would call for at least four to five years. Locked up since his September arrest, Combs has already served nine months.
“We fight on and we’re going to win,” Agnifilo said. “And we’re not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.”
In a triumph for Combs, the jury of eight men and four women acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fueled sex marathons with men.
Combs’ defense team argued that the women were willing participants and that none of his violence justified the severity of the charges.
Agnifilo asked that Combs be released on bond immediately to await sentencing, saying the acquittals changed the calculus about whether he needed to be held.
“He’s not going to flee. He’s been given his life back,” Agnifilo said.
Judge Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Combs — for now — had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community.”
By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed legislation Wednesday that in part would repeal an interim greenhouse gas reduction mandate set for power generation in a 2021 law, arguing that the bill would have discouraged diverse energy sources and harmed consumers.
The measure, which largely addresses activities involving Duke Energy — the state’s dominant electric utility — would get rid of the current requirement that electric regulators take “all reasonable steps to achieve” reducing carbon dioxide output 70% from 2005 levels by 2030.
A directive in the 2021 law to meet a carbon neutrality standard by 2050 stays in place with or without the legislation.
Environmental critics who want cleaner energy sources to come online sooner urged Stein to veto the bill. They also were unhappy with other bill provisions that they argue will make Duke Energy more profitable and shift costs of producing or purchasing electricity to residential customers.
The bill “walks back our state’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, sending the wrong signal to businesses that want to be a part of our clean energy economy,” Stein said in a news release. “My job is to do everything in my power to lower costs and grow the economy. This bill fails that test.”
Stein, a former attorney general who took office in January, also vetoed two more bills Wednesday from dozens still on his desk left by the GOP-controlled legislature.
These and four other recent Stein vetoes are subject to potential override votes, perhaps coming as soon as later this month. Speaking Wednesday only on the energy bill, House Speaker Destin Hall and Senate leader Phil Berger expressed confidence in successful overrides. Over a dozen House and Senate Democrats voted for the measure in June.
The 2021 greenhouse gas law was the result of a rare agreement on environmental issues by then-Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican lawmakers.
Now GOP supporters of the current bill say the 70% reduction mandate is unnecessary and will needlessly raise customer rates by requiring outsize growth for renewable sources like solar and wind power. The state Utilities Commission already pushed back the 2030 deadline — as the 2021 law allows — by at least four years.
By focusing on meeting the 2050 carbon-neutrality mandate, bill supporters say, regulators can direct Duke Energy, which backed the measure, to assemble less expensive power sources now and moderate electricity rate increases.
They cite an analysis performed by a state agency that represents utility customers that calculated the repeal would reduce by at least $13 billion what Duke Energy would have to spend on energy sources for the next 25 years.
Bill opponents, which include several environmental groups, question the savings figure. And Stein cited another study in saying the bill could cost utility customers more through 2050 due to higher fuel costs.
“We need to diversify our energy portfolio so that we are not overly reliant on natural gas and its volatile fuel markets,” Stein added.
At least 17 other states, most of them controlled by Democrats, have laws setting similar net-zero power plant emissions or 100% renewable energy targets, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The bill also contains language that would help Duke Energy seek higher electric rates to cover financing costs to build nuclear or gas-powered plants incrementally, rather than wait until the project’s end.
Environmentalists praised Stein’s action and urged lawmakers to uphold the veto. “Stand instead for affordable energy and economic opportunity for all,” said Dan Crawford of the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
Donald Bryson of the conservative-leaning John Locke Foundation urged an override, saying Stein “has chosen ideology over affordability.”
Another vetoed measure Wednesday attempted to clarify and adjust powers of the state auditor — currently Republican Dave Boliek — including his ability to investigate alleged improper governmental activities of individuals, nonprofits and other groups that receive government funds.
Stein’s veto message said the auditor’s “sweeping access” in the bill to records of “any private corporation that accepts any amount of state funding” could undermine business recruitment efforts.
Boliek said in a statement that Stein’s veto “undercuts the important principles of accountability and transparency that taxpayers expect from their government.”
Listen in as Madison learns how to cook the perfect steak while talking with Angus Barn Chef Michael Kerill. This fun, in-depth discussion covers everything from grill selection and cooking temperatures to how to properly season steaks and how to cook them to sear in juices. Before you fire up your grill, give this one a quick listen and learn how to become the ultimate backyard grillmeister.
DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks have signed No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg to his four-year rookie contract.
The team didn’t disclose details in announcing the deal Wednesday. The total value of the contract for the top pick on the 2025-26 rookie wage scale is in the range of $62.7 million, with a first-year salary of about $13.8 million, according to Spotrac. Those numbers can fluctuate slightly.
There are team options in the third and fourth seasons of rookie deals.
Flagg said during his introductory news conference last week that he intends to play in the Summer League in Las Vegas later this month. The Mavericks’ Summer League opener against the Los Angeles Lakers and Bronny James is set to be nationally televised on July 10.
Flagg was taken with the top pick after Dallas converted just a 1.8% chance to win the draft lottery. The 18-year-old from Duke became the fourth freshman to win The Associated Press national player of the year honors in the 64-year history of the award. Flagg led the Blue Devils to the Final Four in his only season.
The 6-foot-9 forward joins a frontcourt that should include 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis and promising young center Dereck Lively II, Flagg’s fellow Duke alum. The Mavs shocked the NBA by sending 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Davis in February.
Dallas guard Kyrie Irving is another former Duke player to go first overall in the draft, in 2011. He will be out, probably until at least midseason, while recovering from a torn ACL. Irving was injured in March.