position

The American Academy of Pediatrics sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, seeking to block nearly $12 million in cuts to the group.

Earlier this month, the federal government “abruptly terminated” grants to the group, the lawsuit says.

The funding supported numerous public health programs, including efforts to prevent sudden unexpected infant death, strengthen pediatric care in rural communities and support teens facing substance use and mental health challenges.

“AAP does not have other sources of grant funding to replace the federal awards, and without the necessary funds it must immediately terminate its work on its dozens of programs that save children’s lives every day,” says the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “Within a few weeks, AAP will have to begin laying off employees dedicated to this critically important work.”

The suit alleges Health and Human Services made the cuts in retaliation for the doctors’ group speaking out against the Trump administration’s positions and actions.

The doctors’ group has been vocal about its support for pediatric vaccines and has publicly opposed the agency’s positions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years — is seeking to broadly remake federal policies on vaccines. Earlier this year, the pediatrics group released its own recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines, which substantially diverged from the government’s recommendations.

The group also supports access to gender-affirming care and has publicly criticized Health and Human Services positions on the topic, saying it opposes what it calls the government’s infringements on the doctor-patient relationship.

“The Department of Health and Human Services is using federal funding as a political weapon to punish protected speech, trying to silence one of the nation’s most trusted voices for children’s well-being by cutting off critical public health funding in retaliation for speaking the truth,” Skye Perryman, president and chief executive officer of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. Perryman’s organization is representing the doctors’ group in the case.

A spokesman for Health and Human Services could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mark Del Monte, CEO and executive vice president of the 67,000-member doctors’ group, said the organization depends on its relationship with the federal government.

“We need this partnership to advance policies that prioritize children’s health. These vital child health programs fund services like hearing screenings for newborns and safe sleep campaigns to prevent sudden unexpected infant death,” he said in a statement. “We are forced to take legal action today so that these programs can continue to make communities safer and healthier.” 

Ungar writes for the Associated Press.

After Friday afternoon’s practice, USC football coach Lincoln Riley said he had no update on D’Anton Lynn, who has been the target of Penn State’s defensive coordinator search.

Penn State showed interest in Lynn last year before he received a contract extension from USC. Lynn was hired by the Trojans after a successful season as the defensive coordinator at UCLA.

“This is what happens this time of year, especially when you have a really good staff and are doing a lot of positive things,” Riley said. “We’re excited about having the opportunity to keep continuity but if there is turnover, not just with that position but any position, these are coveted jobs. It’s just part of the world we live in.

“Obviously, D’Anton has done a really good job here and we’ll see how it turns out.”

Being prepared for change is a must in the current college football climate, Riley said.

“Contingency plans for coaches, players, staff, everyone because so much can and does change,” Riley said. “Our job is to be prepared and have flexibility. You can’t always predict everything that’s going to happen but you have to be ready to adjust. Yeah, every team goes through it on some level and you try to handle it as well as you can.”

Riley has liked what he has seen in practice as USC (9-3) prepares for its Alamo Bowl matchup against Texas Christian on Dec. 30.

“We’ve done a really good job the last couple of years of going to work and we’re not thinking about what players or coaches are here or aren’t here,” Riley said. “It’s all about trying to maximize this time and build for the future.”

USC announced Tuesday that redshirt junior quarterback Jayden Maiava had re-signed for the upcoming season and is not joining Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane — USC’s two best receivers — in declaring for the 2026 NFL draft.

“It’s great. Anytime you can get a returning guy like that who has played a good amount of football, it’s important,” Riley said of Maiava. “He’s also become a good leader in this program and I’d expect that to continue to improve. The majority of this team has already re-signed, we know those guys are going to be here and it’s cool for those guys to show how much they believe in this place and what we’re doing.

“The exciting thing is you look ahead and you start to imagine pairing what we have coming back with what’s going to be walking through the door here in three weeks or so, but it starts with your veterans who have been through the fire and we have a lot of them back.”

Maiava, one of the last players to leave the practice field Friday, made it clear why he chose to stay.

“Coach Riley,” Maiava said. “Of course, the staff too and my brothers. I’m super grateful to be back out here. I’m focused on a day at a time, staying level-headed, making the right decisions and just taking care of the ball.”

Maiava is happy for Lemon, who won the Biletnikoff Award as college football’s top receiver after catching 79 passes for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior this season.

“It was awesome, everybody was there in the lobby when we found out … it’s well-deserved,” Maiava said. “He and Ja’Kobi set the standard for everyone. He won the award, so I’d say we had pretty good chemistry even off the field going out to eat and places. I had to do my job, but he did his job, too, as best he could.”

Defensive end Braylan Shelby also is grateful to be back with the Trojans for another season.

“I always knew I wanted to be here, he said. “Bowl games mean a lot and it’s a time for the team to put it all together and play together one last time.”

Regarding the new NFL model for announcing re-signings, Shelby said: “Some people love it, some hate it. … USC is a step ahead of the game and I think it’s the right step. In this NIL era, it helps fans know who’s returning.”

Having re-signed, junior safety Christian Pierce is excited about being a potential starter next fall.

“The bowl game is a huge start going into next season in terms of building the culture,” Pierce said. “My focus is on trying to understand the defense even more and the skills and techniques I’ll need to get better at. The talk after re-signing was more on the coaching staff and the program.”

Riley praised offensive lineman Tobias Raymond on his willingness and ability to play multiple positions on the front line.

“He was one of the most important players on the entire team,” Riley said. “His toughness was off the charts, his versatility with all the different lineups we played, being able to physically and mentally handle that. He was just a steadying presence. He’ll be a huge key coming back as a captain, a leader and a player. As many of those guys as you can have in a locker room — you’ll be a lot closer to winning.”

Much to his coach’s liking, Raymond has embraced his leadership role.

“I’ve just tried to be more vocal, set an example and hold other people to the standard our coaches have put out for us,” said the 6–foot-6, 315-pound redshirt sophomore out of Ventura. “Pick people up when things are low and when things are high making sure we’re keeping level-headed.”

Regarding the transfer portal, Riley said he plans to be less reliant on it than in previous years.

“The number we’re talking about is so much less than before, so moving forward we’ll be able to zero in on what we’re going to go after. So the picture is starting to become clearer on what we’ll be targeting.”

WASHINGTON — FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday that he will resign from the bureau next month, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and was forced to reconcile the realities of his law enforcement job with provocative claims he made in his prior role as a popular podcast host.

The departure, which had been expected, would be among the highest-profile resignations of the Trump administration. It comes as FBI leadership has been buffeted by criticism over Director Kash Patel’s use of a government plane for personal purposes and social media posts about active investigations.

Bongino announced his planned departure in a post on X in which he said he was grateful for the “opportunity to serve with purpose.” He did not say precisely when in January he would leave or detail his future plans.

President Trump said earlier Wednesday, in response to a question about Bongino’s fate: “Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.”

Bongino was always an unconventional pick for the No. 2 job at the FBI, a position that historically has entailed oversight of the bureau’s day-to-day operations and typically has been held by a career agent. Though he had previously worked as a New York City police officer and Secret Service agent, neither he nor Patel had any experience at the FBI before being picked for their jobs.

Nonetheless, Bongino was installed in the role in March by Trump after years as a conservative podcast host, where he used his platform to repeatedly rail against FBI leadership and to encourage conspiracy theories related to the Epstein sex-trafficking case and pipe bombs discovered in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Once in the position, Bongino struggled to placate elements of Trump’s base who expected him to quickly deliver the reform he had claimed was needed at the FBI and to uncover the truths he had said had been hidden by the federal government.

On the Epstein case, for instance, he had previously challenged the official ruling that the wealthy financier had taken his own life in a New York jail soon after his 2019 arrest. But once in the FBI, he said in a Fox News interview: “I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

Bongino had separately speculated as recently as last year that the pipe bombs placed on the eve of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were an “inside job” and part of a “massive cover-up.” But after the FBI earlier this month arrested a 30-year-old Virginia man with no evident connection to the federal government, Bongino was pressed about his prior comments.

“I was paid in the past for my opinions,” Bongino said in a Fox News interview. “One day I will be back in that space, but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”

Tucker writes for the Associated Press.

Los Angeles City Councilman John Lee repeatedly violated the city’s gift laws in 2016 and 2017, accepting freebies during a lavish trip to Las Vegas and at multiple restaurants in L.A., a judge said in a filing released Friday.

In a 59-page proposed decision, Administrative Law Judge Ji-Lan Zang concluded that Lee committed two counts of violating a law governing the size of gifts a city official can receive and three counts of violating a law requiring that such gifts be publicly disclosed.

Zang recommended a $43,730 penalty for Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley and was chief of staff to then-City Councilmember Mitchell Englander at the time of the alleged violations. However, the judge did not agree with allegations by city ethics investigators that Lee misused his position or helped Englander misuse his position.

In 2020, federal prosecutors accused Englander of accepting $15,000 in cash from businessman Andy Wang, lying to FBI agents and obstructing their investigation into the 2017 Vegas trip. Englander ultimately pleaded guilty to a single count of providing false information to the FBI and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

The five-member Los Angeles City Ethics Commission is scheduled to make a determination on Wednesday, deciding both the number of violations Lee committed and any financial penalties to impose on him.

The commission has the power to accept or reject Zang’s recommendations. Ethics investigators have recommended that the commission take a more punitive approach by fining Lee about $138,000 and holding him responsible for all 10 counts.

The Lee case revolves around gifts — mostly food and alcohol but also hotel stays, transportation and $1,000 in gambling chips — provided by three men who have sought to do business with City Hall: Wang, who peddled Italian cabinets, “smart home” technology and facial recognition software; architect and developer Chris Pak; and lobbyist Michael Bai.

The judge issued her report six months after a multi-day hearing on the allegations against Lee, who replaced Englander on the council in 2019.

During those proceedings, Lee denied that he improperly accepted gifts, saying he made a good faith effort to pay his own way and, in some cases, declined to eat during meals. For example, he testified that he did not remember eating during his meetings at Yxta and Water Grill, both of which are in downtown L.A.

Zang, in her report, called those denials “not credible,” describing his testimony as “evasive and self contradictory.” She said Lee’s testimony also was in conflict with information he gave the FBI during its investigation into Englander, as well as testimony from other witnesses.

“It strains credulity to believe that [Lee] would join Englander, Bai, and Wang for lunch at Yxta and dinner at Water Grill without eating any food during the meals,” she wrote.

Ethics investigators have accused Lee of receiving an assortment of gifts during the 2017 Vegas trip with Englander and several others. Lee and a group of friends stayed at the Aria hotel and spent an evening at the Hakkasan Nightclub, according to the city’s allegations.

At the hotel restaurant, Blossom, Wang ordered a dinner worth nearly $2,500 for the group, which included Englander, Lee and several others, sending out servings of shark fin soup, Peking duck and Kobe beef, according to the judge’s summary of events.

Lee testified that he arrived at the restaurant in time for a dessert of bird’s nest soup, tasting it and deciding he did not like it, the judge said in her filing.

At Hakkasan later that night, Wang purchased three rounds of bottle service for the group for around $8,000 apiece, while Pak paid for a fourth round at a cost of $8,418.75.

“Each round of bottle service was served with fanfare, as female VIP hostesses brought bottles of alcohol to the table with flashing lights,” the judge wrote.

That night, at least 20 other club patrons went to Wang’s booth and drank alcohol at the table, according to the judge’s filing.

Lee was never charged by federal prosecutors and has said he was unaware of wrongdoing by Englander. In a filing submitted last week, his attorneys said that investigators incorrectly calculated the value of the gifts, including the bottles of alcohol, whose contents were distributed among many people.

Lee gave Wang $300 in cash as reimbursement for his drinks, withdrawing money from an ATM in Las Vegas to cover those expenses, his lawyers said.

In their reply to the city, Lee’s attorneys contend that the statute of limitations has expired on the city ethics counts. They have also pushed back on the recommendation from city ethics investigators that Lee pay a $138,000 penalty.

“Such inflated numbers are not grounded in reason, have no basis in the record, no support in the governing law, and no place in a fair and impartial enforcement system,” they wrote in their filing.

Englander previously agreed to pay $79,830 to settle a similar Ethics Commission case over the gifts he received.

Ethics investigators have accused Lee of committing 10 counts of violating city laws — two counts of accepting gifts in excess of the legal limit, three counts of failing to report those gifts on his public disclosure forms, four counts of misusing his position and one count of aiding and abetting Englander’s misuse of his position.

In 2016, the legal limit on gifts to city officials was $460 per donor. The following year, it was $470.

In Englander’s 2020 federal indictment, Lee was mentioned not by name, but instead referred to as “City Staffer B.” Despite his legal troubles, he won reelection in 2024.