You called me. No — you called ME. Before US-China meeting, nations each say the other wanted talks

• May 9, 2025

By DIDI TANG

WASHINGTON (AP) — Who called first?

It’s the question that has put Beijing and Washington in a verbal sparring match even as the two countries are heading into a weekend meeting in Switzerland to discuss lowering sky-high tariffs that they slapped on each other in heated moments that have shaken financial markets and stirred worries about the global economy.

“The meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,’’ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump disagreed. “They said we initiated it? Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files,” Trump said Wednesday when swearing in David Perdue as the new U.S. ambassador to China. That followed weeks of each side suggesting the other side had reached out first, including Trump implying Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him, only to be refuted by Beijing.

When it comes to the world’s two largest economies readying themselves for what is expected to be tough trade talks, the public back-and-forth is no trivial matter.

“The obsession with who reached out first is a proxy fight over leverage,” said Craig Singleton, senior director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “For Washington, signaling that Beijing initiated the meeting reinforces the narrative that the tariffs are working. For Beijing, denying outreach preserves the illusion of parity and avoids domestic perception of weakness.”

Jockeying for dominance

Daniel Russel, a former U.S. diplomat who oversaw East Asian and Pacific affairs, called the exchange “part diplomatic stalemate and part dominance display worthy of a nature documentary.”

In his decades-long career as a diplomat, Russel said he is unaware of a single instance where a Chinese leader initiated a call with a U.S. president. “It may be pride, it may be protocol, but for Beijing, being the demandeur is to show weakness — and that’s something the Chinese system is hardwired to avoid,” said Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

The Trump’s administration is less accommodating. “Their position is: ‘If Xi wants the tariffs lifted, he knows how to reach us,’” Russel said.

Not long after Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% and Beijing retaliated with 125% tariffs on U.S. goods, Trump suggested that China, like many other countries, was in talks with his administration. On April 22, he apparently directed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to say “we’re doing very well” regarding a potential trade deal with China.

“I think it’s a process that’s going to go pretty quickly with China,” Trump said on the same day. “I think we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together.”

Back and forth … and back again

Yet China quickly denied any talk towards a deal. When asked about such negotiations, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun responded: “All is fake news.” The next day, Guo asked the U.S. to “stop creating confusion” on tariff talks.

Then came a TIME magazine interview when Trump claimed Xi had called him. Details? None provided. When? Trump didn’t say. “He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump said in the interview published on April 25. Beijing dismissed it, saying there was no recent leadership phone call.

Yet soon the word started to spread on China’s social media that the Trump administration was contacting Beijing, and it was confirmed a few days later by the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

The U.S. had “repeatedly” and “proactively” conveyed messages to China recently to express the hope to engage in negotiations with China, the ministry said on May 2. “In this regard, the Chinese side is assessing it,” the ministry said, in an apparent off-ramp move climbdown that prepared the public opinion for the announcement a few days later that Vice Premier He Lifeng would meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Switzerland this weekend.

Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said the reality is more complicated when the two governments have been in regular contact and each side may have its own understanding what constitutes “reaching out” for tariff talks. “Technically,” Sun said, “both sides are correct.”

By Thursday, Trump appeared ready to move on. “We can all play games — who made the first call, who didn’t make them. Doesn’t matter,” Trump said.

Referring to the upcoming tariff talk this weekend in Switzerland, Trump said: “It only matters what happens in that room.”

​ Orange County Register 

Artists find the healing power of art after losing work to LA fires

• May 9, 2025

A Cal State Fullerton art instructor and her student were among the thousands who were victimized by the wildfires that wreaked devastation throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area in January.

A 10-piece exhibition titled “Quiver,” featuring the airbrushed paintings created by CSUF assistant art professor Mary Anna Pomonis opened at the Alto Beta Gallery in Altadena on Jan. 5.

Two days later, the entire exhibition, which was the culmination of five years of research, was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, the second-most destructive wildfire in California’s history.

Meanwhile, CSUF art major Mia Aghili was asleep in her home on Jan. 7 when she was awakened by her father and forced to evacuate with her family as the fire burning nearby was swiftly approaching their home.

Aghili and her family escaped with a precious few items, but their home — including all Aghili’s artwork and supplies — was destroyed.

“We evacuated Jan. 7, in the evening,” Aghili said. “My dad went back and he saw that our house was on fire. All I kept saying to myself was, ‘I just really want to draw.’ ”

Both Pomonis and Aghili, who didn’t know each other prior to the fires, turned to their art to heal the trauma.

Pomonis said she had started working on pieces for the “Quiver” exhibition during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to “create shields” and protect herself from anxiety and lack of social interactions caused by the virus.

She felt a sense of dread and wasn’t sure she even wanted to return to teaching right away.

“I was concerned about my ability to be present and effective as an instructor due to the overwhelming tasks of dealing with insurance and grant forms.”

Aghili also was overwhelmed by feelings of angst and disorientation during the days and weeks after the fires.

Then an angel appeared in the form of Caroline Harrington, assistant director of academic advising for the art department.

Harrington made the effort to contact art students who were impacted by the fires and then reached out to their teachers.

“Caroline Harrington called me,” Aghili said. “I think that was just my saving-grace moment. She saw my address, and she asked what my situation was. She said, ‘Do you need anything?’ and the first thing that popped into my mind was that I need art supplies. I can’t express how grateful I am.”

Harrington connected Pomonis and Aghili, and now Aghili is a student of Pomonis’ in the class, “Creative Thinking in the Studio Art Classroom.”

Hearing about a student who’s lost everything has helped Pomonis to channel her focus away from her own loss to a desire to help somebody else.

Pomonis said Aghili’s ability to rebound and continue to create art in less-than-ideal surroundings has been a source of inspiration for the entire class, Pomonis said.

“That’s just been positive peer pressure,” Pomonis said. “And I definitely have noticed that there’s a leveling up that’s happened because people respect her tenacity, and there’s a lot of admiration and respect. And I feel that every day I’m here.”

Aghili’s work this semester is “incredibly beautiful,” Pomonis said.

One piece in particular depicts the bombed-out interior of her burned-out home with a beautiful landscape visible through the destruction.

“These paintings convey a sense of alienation and dissociation that happens in a traumatic event but also show hope and possibility of what’s next. Mia’s work has a sense of urgency and importance, reflecting the need to express oneself and make work that matters.”

Aghili said Harrington’s gesture provided hope during the transition to the spring semester.

Pomonis has come to view the loss of her art as an act of” atonement and sacrifice” that serves a higher purpose and led to a more introspective level of creativity for making new art.

“The catastrophic event changed and activated our imagination in different ways,” Pomonis said. “And I think that it’s been super helpful because Mia is making incredible artwork this semester, and a lot of it is processing the loss of certain things, and now their significance.”

Both Pomonis and Aghili agree that their connection is serving as a testament to the healing power of art and the importance of community support.

“Art builds resilience in people,” Pomonis said. “That’s why we need art. It helps us to transcend the complexities of life or things that we can’t control.”

Aghili echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the transformative power of art in her life.

“Art is what keeps us human, and it helps us to transcend the complexities of life,” Aghili said. “It gives us a reason to be alive, to be here.”

​ Orange County Register 

The new rules of airline loyalty programs

• May 9, 2025

By Meghan Coyle, NerdWallet

The free flights and elite status perks offered by airline loyalty programs are ultimately designed to do one thing: Get you to spend more money with the airline.

But in the past few years, these programs have gotten a lot more complicated and less rewarding. Gone are the days of simply earning miles or elite status based on how far or how often you fly. Today, the “Big Four” U.S. airlines — American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — all reward customers based on how much they spend.

Ganesh Sitaraman, a law professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of “Why Flying is Miserable,” joined NerdWallet’s Smart Travel podcast to discuss how airline loyalty programs have evolved.

“In some ways, they’re not really frequent flyer programs at all. They’re big spender programs,” Sitaraman said.

That’s because loyalty programs have become an important source of revenue for airlines. According to aviation consulting firm IdeaWorksCompany, total revenue from the top 10 airline loyalty programs was $32.2 billion in 2023, an increase of almost 19% from 2022. Delta Air Lines alone reported earning nearly $2 billion last year through its partnership with American Express.

But strategic flyers can still enjoy the best parts of these loyalty programs while avoiding their pitfalls. Here’s what you need to know.

Airline miles and points are a currency

Members of airline loyalty programs earn “miles” or “points,” and then cash those in for award flights or other benefits. Miles and points are the currency that frequent flyer programs are built on.

“The airlines create points really out of nothing, and then they sell them for real money to banks that have co-branded credit cards,” Sitaraman said. “The result is that airlines, in some ways, are kind of like banks or quasi-banks… Airlines issue currency, the points, and they get to decide how much that currency is worth and what it can be spent on.”

Sitaraman says one of the biggest problems for flyers is that they don’t know the value of their points and miles. Airlines don’t publish that information, and it’s typically not a fixed value across all redemptions. For example, a $100 flight might cost 10,000 miles (meaning each mile is worth 1 cent for that redemption) while a $400 flight might cost 20,000 miles (meaning each mile is worth 2 cents).

NerdWallet analyzes the cent-per-point value of hundreds of award flights to calculate how much points and miles are worth. Using these types of estimates can help flyers decide whether to use their miles or to pay in cash instead, or whether to buy points.

It’s smart to spend your miles regularly

Since airline miles fluctuate in value, it’s easy for airlines to quietly raise the price of flights in points, which means your rewards are worth less.

“[Airlines] can reduce the value of the things you can get for the points,” Sitaraman said. “And so one of the things that we’ve seen is the changing value over time in these point systems.”

That’s why flyers should try to use their miles regularly, instead of stockpiling them. Miles generally devalue, meaning the flight for a dream trip to Europe might cost more miles in three years than it would this year. Not to mention, some programs’ miles expire after a certain period of inactivity.

You lose out on rewards without a travel credit card

Sitaraman explains that people with good credit scores who can pay off their credit card bills in full each month would be missing out if they don’t use a credit card that earns rewards.

“The credit card company takes a cut of every one of these [card transactions],” Sitaraman said. “And so what the point system is like is almost getting a little kickback.”

Typically, travel cards let you earn one or two points per dollar spent, with more on certain bonus categories. Cardholders can then redeem those points for travel or other types of rewards.

Choosing a travel credit card that fits your budget and goals, though, is crucial. Airline cards may offer benefits like free checked bags and priority boarding, but they also limit cardholders to earning points with just one airline loyalty program.

A more flexible strategy is to get a general travel credit card that earns transferable points. These points can be transferred to multiple airlines or hotels’ loyalty programs, often at a 1:1 ratio. That way, when an airline loyalty program inevitably raises the number of miles required to book award flights, you will have a stash of rewards that you can transfer to other programs that may provide better redemption rates.

Just make sure to pay off your credit card bill in full and on time. Late fees and high interest rates on rewards cards can eat into — and often fully negate — the value of any rewards earned. If you’re planning to carry a balance, focus on paying off your debt with a card offering a 0% APR promotion or low interest rate, instead of earning rewards with airlines.

Meghan Coyle writes for NerdWallet. Email: mcoyle@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @inkwaves.

The article The New Rules of Airline Loyalty Programs originally appeared on NerdWallet.

​ Orange County Register 

What happened to post-LA wildfire legislation? Here’s an update on those bills

• May 9, 2025

In the immediate aftermath of the January wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles County, state legislators rushed to introduce bills, pledging to provide relief to those who lost their homes or businesses, strengthen firefighting efforts and harden communities so they’re better equipped to protect themselves against future fires.

Four months after the wildfires broke out, some bills have already died while dozens of others are still making their way through the legislative process.

Where it gets tricky is the money aspect.

Many bills, because they would impact the state budget, are still waiting to be OK’d by appropriations committees. And even ones that have seen early success could still face hurdles —  particularly if they come with a hefty price tag, given the uncertainty of the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Related: You can track LA wildfire-related legislation with this tool

Efforts to provide mortgage relief, expedite permit approval processes for new homes and ensure homeowners get the full insurance payout are still in the works in the California Legislature.

Here’s a quick snapshot of a few wildfire-related bills that recently passed out of the Assembly but still need to be voted on in the Senate.

AB 226 would authorize the California FAIR Plan Association, which administers the state’s insurance program for property owners who can’t get insured through the traditional marketplace, to seek bonds or to enter into a loan agreement with the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to finance claim payouts.

Authors of the bill say the legislation would provide a financial tool to allow the FAIR Plan — which has heard from thousands of homeowners impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires — to make claims payments while spreading out costs to the plan over time to help stabilize the insurance market.

Assemblymembers Lisa Calderon, D-Whittier, and David Alvarez, D-San Diego, are the lead authors of the bill, with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara supporting it.

AB 238 would allow borrowers impacted by the wildfires to request a forbearance of monthly mortgage payments for up to nearly a year. The bill, authored by Assemblymembers John Harabedian, D-Pasadena, and Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, is modeled after the federal CARES Act that allowed for mortgage forbearance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Congress by Reps. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.

AB 253 seeks to expedite the approval process for those needing building permits for small residential projects, benefiting homeowners looking to rebuild after the wildfires, as well as others in the state. Specifically, the bill would allow a property owner or developer to hire a private, third-party professional to check plans submitted as part of a building permit application, to ensure compliance with state laws or local ordinances, if the city or county’s own building department can’t complete the check within 30 days.

Assemblymembers Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, and Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, are the lead authors of the bill.

AB 299, by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, and Rivas, would allow hotels, motels and short-term rentals to house individuals who lose their homes in a disaster for more than 30 days without it counting as a landlord-tenant relationship.

Currently, some landlords won’t rent out their places for more than 30 days because an existing law gives tenancy rights to people who stay longer than that. The intent of the bill is to encourage more landlords to rent out hotel, motel or Airbnb rooms to wildfire victims for longer periods of time to provide housing stability.

AB 301 would accelerate the state permit review process for housing projects by requiring state agencies to follow specific approval timelines, just as local governments are required to do. Speeding up the timeline for building new homes will help address the state’s housing crisis and also help those recovering from the Southern California wildfires, bill sponsors say. Assemblymembers Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, and Rivas are the main authors of the bill.

AB 306, by Assemblymembers Nick Schultz, D-Burbank, and Rivas, would place a moratorium on modifying or adopting new state or local building standards for residential units — except in specified cases, including standards to protect health and safety or to harden homes, as proposed by the state fire marshal.

The intent is to give homeowners who are rebuilding after the wildfires greater certainty about what to expect in terms of building standards.

AB 311, by Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, and Rivas, would temporarily allow a tenant to let another person at risk of homelessness, or that person’s pet, move into their unit with written approval from the property owner or landlord.

This would apply to a person facing homelessness due to a “disaster in a disaster-stricken area” where the governor has declared a state of emergency. The bill would allow a landlord to charge additional rent if a pet moves in, as long as the lease authorizes that.

AB 462, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal and Rivas, would exempt the construction of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, in coastal zones in a county where the governor has declared a state of emergency from needing a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission or a local government.

This would apply in situations where a home was damaged, destroyed or made uninhabitable by the event that caused the state of emergency. It would only apply to areas classified a state of emergency on or after Feb. 1,

AB 493, another bill authored by Harabedian, is sponsored by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The legislation would ensure that homeowners receiving an insurance payout for damaged or destroyed properties would also receive the interest accrued on that amount while the money was held in escrow.

State law already requires lenders to pay homeowners interest on funds held in escrow for property taxes and insurance. This bill would require lenders to do the same when it comes to insurance payouts.

It would apply to homeowners impacted by wildfires after Jan. 1, 2026, and those affected by the January 2025 L.A. wildfires whose refunds haven’t been disbursed.

Harabedian also authored AB 597, which seeks to prevent unfair fees and price gouging by public adjusters for residential properties and certain commercial properties. It would allow policyholders to cancel contracts if a public adjuster violates the law or solicits business during prohibited periods.

In addition, public adjuster contracts must clearly outline the services being provided, including specific claims or coverages they will handle. The bill is sponsored by the state’s insurance commissioner.

​ Orange County Register 

FDA will allow three new color additives made from minerals, algae and flower petals

• May 9, 2025

By JONEL ALECCIA

U.S. regulators said Friday that they would allow three new color additives made from natural sources to be used in the nation’s food supply.

It comes after health officials pledged a sweeping phase-out of petroleum-based dyes widely used in foods from cereals to sports drinks to boost health — though action is still pending.

The Food and Drug Administration said it is granting petitions to allow galdieria extract blue, a blue color derived from algae; calcium phosphate, a white color derived from a naturally occurring mineral; and butterfly pea flower extract, a blue color made from dried flower petals.

The colors will be approved for use in a range of foods from fruit drinks and yogurt to pretzels, ready-to-eat chicken and candies. The move “will expand the palette of available colors from natural sources for manufacturers to safely use in food,” FDA officials said in a statement.

Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating the dyes can cause neurobehavioral problems for some children, including hyperactivity and attention issues. The FDA has maintained for decades that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”

The new color approvals include a 2021 petition from the French company Fermentalg to allow galdieria extract blue; a 2023 petition from Innophos Inc. of Cranbury, New Jersey, to allow calcium phosphate; and a 2024 petition from Sensient Colors LLC of St. Louis, Missouri, to allow butterfly pea flower extract.

The approvals are set to be published in the federal register on May 12 and would take effect in June.

In April, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced that they would take steps to eliminate synthetic food dyes in the U.S. food supply by the end of 2026, largely through voluntary efforts from the food industry. The officials also said they would revoke authorization for two little-used artificial dyes, Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B, and accelerate the timeline to remove Red 3, a food color banned in January because of a link to cancer in laboratory rats.

The FDA plans to initiate the process to revoke those colors “within the coming months,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said.

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

​ Orange County Register 

Despite historic indictment, doctors will keep mailing abortion pills across state lines

• May 9, 2025

By Rosemary Westwood, WWNO, KFF Health News

When the news broke on Jan. 31 that a New York physician had been indicted for shipping abortion medications to a woman in Louisiana, it stoked fear across the network of doctors and medical clinics who engage in similar work.

“It’s scary. It’s frustrating,” said Angel Foster, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, a clinic near Boston that mails mifepristone and misoprostol pills to patients in states with abortion bans. But, Foster added, “it’s not entirely surprising.”

Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion providers like her had been expecting prosecution or another kind of legal challenge from states with abortion bans, she said.

“It was unclear when those tests would come, and would it be against an individual provider or a practice or organization?” she said. “Would it be a criminal indictment, or would it be a civil lawsuit,” or even an attack on licensure? she wondered. “All of that was kind of unknown, and we’re starting to see some of this play out.”

The indictment also sparked worry among abortion providers like Kohar Der Simonian, medical director for Maine Family Planning. The clinic doesn’t mail pills into states with bans, but it does treat patients who travel from those states to Maine for abortion care.

“It just hit home that this is real, like this could happen to anybody, at any time now, which is scary,” Der Simonian said.

Der Simonian and Foster both know the indicted doctor, Margaret Carpenter.

“I feel for her. I very much support her,” Foster said. “I feel very sad for her that she has to go through all of this.”

On Jan. 31, Carpenter became the first U.S. doctor criminally charged for providing abortion pills across state lines — a medical practice that grew after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision on June 24, 2022, which overturned Roe.

Since Dobbs, 12 states have enacted near-total abortion bans, and an additional 10 have outlawed the procedure after a certain point in pregnancy, but before a fetus is viable.

Carpenter was indicted alongside a Louisiana mother who allegedly received the mailed package and gave the pills prescribed by Carpenter to her minor daughter.

The teen wanted to keep the pregnancy and called 911 after taking the pills, according to an NPR and KFF Health News interview with Tony Clayton, the Louisiana local district attorney prosecuting the case. When police responded, they learned about the medication, which carried the prescribing doctor’s name, Clayton said.

On Feb. 11, Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed an extradition warrant for Carpenter. He later posted a video arguing she “must face extradition to Louisiana, where she can stand trial and justice will be served.”

New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, countered by releasing her own video, confirming she was refusing to extradite Carpenter. The charges carry a possible five-year prison sentence.

“Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York,” Hochul said.

Eight states — New York, Maine, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — have passed laws since 2022 to protect doctors who mail abortion pills out of state, and thereby block or “shield” them from extradition in such cases. But this is the first criminal test of these relatively new “shield laws.”

The telemedicine practice of consulting with remote patients and prescribing them medication abortion via the mail has grown in recent years — and is now playing a critical role in keeping abortion somewhat accessible in states with strict abortion laws, according to research from the Society of Family Planning, a group that supports abortion access.

Doctors who prescribe abortion pills across state lines describe facing a new reality in which the criminal risk is no longer hypothetical. The doctors say that if they stop, tens of thousands of patients would no longer be able to end early pregnancies safely at home, under the care of a U.S. physician. But the doctors could end up in the crosshairs of a legal clash over the interstate practice of medicine when two states disagree on whether people have a right to end a pregnancy.

Doctors on Alert but Remain Defiant

Maine Family Planning, a network of clinics across 19 locations, offers abortions, birth control, gender-affirming care, and other services. One patient recently drove over 17 hours from South Carolina, a state with a six-week abortion ban, Der Simonian said.

For Der Simonian, that case illustrates how desperate some of the practice’s patients are for abortion access. It’s why she supported Maine’s 2024 shield law, she said.

Maine Family Planning has discussed whether to start mailing abortion medication to patients in states with bans, but it has decided against it for now, according to Kat Mavengere, a clinic spokesperson.

Reflecting on Carpenter’s indictment, Der Simonian said it underscored the stakes for herself — and her clinic — of providing any abortion care to out-of-state patients. Shield laws were written to protect against the possibility that a state with an abortion ban charges and tries to extradite a doctor who performed a legal, in-person procedure on someone who had traveled there from another state, according to a review of shield laws by the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at the UCLA School of Law.

“It is a fearful time to do this line of work in the United States right now,” Der Simonian said. “There will be a next case.” And even though Maine’s shield law protects abortion providers, she said, “you just don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Data shows that in states with total or six-week abortion bans, an average of 7,700 people a month were prescribed and took mifepristone and misoprostol to end their pregnancies by out-of-state doctors practicing in states with shield laws. The data, covering the second quarter of 2024, is part of a #WeCount report estimating the volume and types of abortions in the U.S., conducted by the Society of Family Planning.

Among Louisiana residents, nearly 60% of abortions took place via telemedicine in the second half of 2023 (the most recent period for which estimates are available), giving Louisiana the highest rate of telemedicine abortions among states that passed strict bans after Dobbs, according to the #WeCount survey.

Organizations like the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, known as the MAP, are responding to the demand for remote care. The MAP was launched after the Dobbs ruling, with the mission of writing prescriptions for patients in other states.

During 2024, the MAP says, it was mailing abortion medications to about 500 patients a month. In the new year, the monthly average has grown to 3,000 prescriptions a month, said Foster, the group’s co-founder.

The majority of the MAP’s patients — 80% — live in Texas or states in the Southeast, a region blanketed with near-total abortion restrictions, Foster said.

But the recent indictment from Louisiana will not change the MAP’s plans, Foster said. The MAP currently has four staff doctors and is hiring one more.

“I think there will be some providers who will step out of the space, and some new providers will step in. But it has not changed our practice,” Foster said. “It has not changed our intention to continue to practice.”

The MAP’s organizational structure was designed to spread potential liability, Foster said.

“The person who orders the pills is different than the person who prescribes the pills, is different from the person who ships the pills, is different from the person who does the payments,” she explained.

In 22 states and Washington, D.C., Democratic leaders helped establish shield laws or similarly protective executive orders, according to the UCLA School of Law review of shield laws.

The review found that in eight states, the shield law applies to in-person and telemedicine abortions. In the other 14 states plus Washington, D.C., the protections do not explicitly extend to abortion via telemedicine.

Most of the shield laws also apply to civil lawsuits against doctors. Over a month before Louisiana indicted Carpenter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a civil suit against her. A Texas judge ruled against Carpenter on Feb. 13, imposing penalties of more than $100,000.

By definition, state shield laws cannot protect doctors when they leave the state. If they move or even travel elsewhere, they lose the first state’s protection and risk arrest in the destination state, and maybe extradition to a third state.

Physicians doing this type of work accept there are parts of the U.S. where they should no longer go, said Julie F. Kay, a human rights lawyer who helps doctors set up telemedicine practices.

“There’s really a commitment not to visit those banned and restricted states,” said Kay, who worked with Carpenter to help start the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine.

“We didn’t have anybody going to the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras or anything like that,” Kay said of the doctors who practice abortion telemedicine across state lines.

She said she has talked to other interested doctors who decided against doing it “because they have an elderly parent in Florida, or a college student somewhere, or family in the South.” Any visits, even for a relative’s illness or death, would be too risky.

“I don’t use the word ‘hero’ lightly or toss it around, but it’s a pretty heroic level of providing care,” Kay said.

Governors Clash Over Doctor’s Fate

Carpenter’s case remains unresolved. New York’s rebuff of Louisiana’s extradition request shows the state’s shield law is working as designed, according to David Cohen and Rachel Rebouché, law professors with expertise in abortion laws.

Louisiana officials, for their part, have pushed back in social media posts and media interviews.

“It is not any different than if she had sent fentanyl here. It’s really not,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told Fox 8 News in New Orleans. “She sent drugs that are illegal to send into our state.”

Louisiana’s next step would be challenging New York in federal courts, according to legal experts across the political spectrum.

NPR and KFF Health News asked Clayton, the Louisiana prosecutor who charged Carpenter, whether Louisiana has plans to do that. Clayton declined to answer.

Case Highlights Fraught New Legal Frontier

A major problem with the new shield laws is that they challenge the basic fabric of U.S. law, which relies on reciprocity between states, including in criminal cases, said Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow with the Heritage Foundation, which supports a national abortion ban.

“This actually tries to undermine another state’s ability to enforce its own laws, and that’s a very grave challenge to this tradition in our country,” Jipping said. “It’s unclear what legal issues, or potentially constitutional issues, it may raise.”

But other legal scholars disagree with Jipping’s interpretation. The U.S. Constitution requires extradition only for those who commit crimes in one state and then flee to another state, said Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

Telemedicine abortion providers aren’t located in states with abortion bans and have not fled from those states — therefore they aren’t required to be extradited back to those states, Cohen said. If Louisiana tries to take its case to federal court, he said, “they’re going to lose because the Constitution is clear on this.”

“The shield laws certainly do undermine the notion of interstate cooperation, and comity, and respect for the policy choices of each state,” Cohen said, “but that has long been a part of American law and history.”

When states make different policy choices, sometimes they’re willing to give up those policy choices to cooperate with another state, and sometimes they’re not, he said.

The conflicting legal theories will be put to the test if this case goes to federal court, other legal scholars said.

“It probably puts New York and Louisiana in real conflict, potentially a conflict that the Supreme Court is going to have to decide,” said Rebouché, dean of the Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Rebouché, Cohen, and law professor Greer Donley worked together to draft a proposal for how state shield laws might work. Connecticut passed the first law — though it did not include protections specifically for telemedicine. It was signed by the state’s governor in May 2022, over a month before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, in anticipation of potential future clashes between states over abortion rights.

In some shield-law states, there’s a call to add more protections in response to Carpenter’s indictment.

New York state officials have. On Feb. 3, Hochul signed a law that allows physicians to name their clinic as the prescriber — instead of using their own names — on abortion medications they mail out of state. The intent is to make it more difficult to indict individual doctors. Der Simonian is pushing for a similar law in Maine.

Samantha Glass, a family medicine physician in New York, has written such prescriptions in a previous job, and plans to find a clinic where she could offer that again. Once a month, she travels to a clinic in Kansas to perform in-person abortions.

Carpenter’s indictment could cause some doctors to stop sending pills to states with bans, Glass said. But she believes abortion should be as accessible as any other health care.

“Someone has to do it. So why wouldn’t it be me?” Glass said. “I just think access to this care is such a lifesaving thing for so many people that I just couldn’t turn my back on it.”

This article is from a partnership that includes WWNO , NPR , and KFF Health News .

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Wienerschnitzel gets into the chicken sandwich business with Bird Dogs

• May 9, 2025

When Wienerschnitzel recently added chicken to its menu, it wanted to do something more creative than “just bring in a chicken sandwich that you can get anywhere.”

That’s according to Doug Koegeboehn, the chain’s chief marketing officer who came up with a new item that’s a little different from its fast food competitors but uses ingredients it already had on hand.

The result is Bird Dogs, based on a regional favorite in South Carolina.

“We’re always looking for unique things we can bring into the menu,” Koegeboehn said in a phone interview. “And I was reading a Southern Living article. And it talked about all the greatest dishes from all the states in the South. And all of a sudden you get to South Carolina, and South Carolina’s got these things called Bird Dogs. I’m like, what? Are you serious?”

Bird Dogs are chicken tenders served in a hot dog bun with a variety of toppings.

Wienerschnitzel is offering three: Bacon Ranch, Buffalo Ranch and BBQ. They cost around $4.49 each.

Research and development went smoothly for the Newport Beach-based chain, Koegeboehn said.

“The biggest thing we had to do in development was sample and make sure we found the perfect tender. We tried probably 50 different tenders from 50 different manufacturers.”

Founded in 1961, Wienerschnitzel is known for its hot dogs, particularly its signature Chili Cheese Dogs. But Koegeboehn said the brand is about more than that.

“If you look at our menu over the years it’s always been American food: chili dogs, chili, cheese fries, burgers, soft-serve.”

Wienerschnitzel is currently celebrating fair food with a cotton candy shake and dipped soft serve cone. In August, it will be serving funnel cake, according to Koegeboehn.

Information: wienerschnitzel.com

ALSO SEE: LA County Fair: 7 outrageous, creative or flat-out delicious foods for 2025

​ Orange County Register 

Pentagon directs military to pull library books that address diversity, anti-racism, gender issues

• May 9, 2025

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has ordered all military leaders and commands to pull and review all of their library books that address diversity, anti-racism or gender issues by May 21, according to a memo issued to the force on Friday.

It is the broadest and most detailed directive so far on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s campaign to rid the military of diversity and equity programs, policies and instructional materials. And it follows similar efforts to remove hundreds of books from the libraries at the military academies.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo, which was signed Friday by Timothy Dill, who is performing the duties of the defense undersecretary for personnel.

Educational materials at the libraries “promoting divisive concepts and gender ideology are incompatible with the Department’s core mission,” the memo states, adding that department leaders must “promptly identify” books that are not compatible with that mission and sequester them by May 21.

By then, the memo says, additional guidance will be provided on how to cull that initial list and determine what should be removed and “determine an appropriate ultimate disposition” for those materials. It does not say what will happen to the books or whether they will be stored away or destroyed.

According to the memo, a temporary Academic Libraries Committee set up by the department will provide information on the review and decisions about the books. That panel provided a list of search terms to use in the initial identification of the books to be pulled and reviewed.

The search terms include: affirmative action, anti-racism, critical race theory, discrimination, diversity, gender dysphoria, gender identity and transition, transgender, transsexual and white privilege.

​ Orange County Register