The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) with forecasts of trends across the energy sector through 2026.

Scientists have identified a new crocodile precursor that looked deceptively dinosaur-like and hunted with speed and precision. Named Tainrakuasuchus bellator, the armored “warrior” lived 240 million years ago and occupied a powerful niche in the Triassic food chain. Its fossils reveal deep evolutionary links between South America and Africa. The find sheds light on a vibrant ecosystem that existed just before dinosaurs emerged.

Colchicine, a cheap and widely used gout drug, may help prevent heart attacks and strokes in people with cardiovascular disease. Trials involving nearly 23,000 patients show meaningful reductions in risk with low doses. Side effects were mostly mild and short-lived. Researchers say this overlooked drug could become an accessible prevention tool pending further study.

Researchers have designed a smart drug that hunts down and breaks a little-known RNA that cancer cells depend on. The drug recognizes a unique fold in the RNA and triggers the cell to destroy it. Tests showed that removing this RNA slows cancer growth. The approach could lead to new treatments that attack cancer at its most fundamental level.

Researchers discovered that living horsetails act like natural distillation towers, producing bizarre oxygen isotope signatures more extreme than anything previously recorded on Earth—sometimes resembling meteorite water. By tracing these isotopic shifts from the plant base to its tip, scientists unlocked a new way to decode ancient humidity and climate, using both modern plants and fossilized phytoliths that preserve isotopic clues for millions of years.

Scientists have discovered strange microscopic structures in the blood of people with Long COVID—clusters of tiny microclots tangled together with sticky immune webs known as neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs. These combined structures show up far more often in Long COVID patients, where they appear larger, denser, and more stubborn than in healthy blood.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a trove of complex organic molecules frozen in ice around a young star in a neighboring galaxy — including the first-ever detection of acetic acid beyond the Milky Way. Found in the Large Magellanic Cloud, these molecules formed under harsh, metal-poor conditions similar to those in the early universe, suggesting that the chemical precursors of life may have existed far earlier and in more diverse environments than previously imagined.

Scientists have uncovered a new environmental culprit behind liver disease: tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning and household products. The study found that people with PCE exposure were three times more likely to develop severe liver scarring, even when traditional risk factors like alcohol or obesity were absent. The chemical is widespread in air, water, and consumer goods, making it a stealthy threat to public health.

Boron arsenide has dethroned diamond as the best heat conductor, thanks to refined crystal purity and improved synthesis methods. This discovery could transform next-generation electronics by combining record-breaking thermal conductivity with strong semiconductor properties.

Over 500 million years ago, the Cambrian Period sparked an explosion of skeletal creativity. Salterella, a peculiar fossil, defied conventions by combining two different mineral-building methods. After decades of confusion, scientists have linked it to the cnidarian family. The find deepens our understanding of how animals first learned to build their own skeletons.

Scientists in Seoul have uncovered 15 gut bacterial species linked to coronary artery disease, showing that microbes can influence heart health far beyond digestion. Their findings reveal how shifts in gut microbial function — including inflammation, loss of protective species, and overactive metabolic pathways — may drive disease progression. Intriguingly, even “good” bacteria like Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Akkermansia muciniphila can become harmful under certain conditions.

New research from the Technical University of Munich and Harvard Medical School reveals that popular GLP-1-based drugs, semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), not only promote weight loss but also significantly reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients with type 2 diabetes. Using real-world insurance data, the study found up to an 18% reduction in major cardiovascular events, confirming powerful heart-protective effects that appear to extend beyond weight control.

GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy may extend the lives of colon cancer patients, according to a major UC San Diego study. Patients on the medications had less than half the mortality rate of non-users. Researchers suspect the drugs’ anti-inflammatory and metabolic effects contribute to improved outcomes. They’re now calling for clinical trials to test whether these findings reflect a true anti-cancer mechanism.

Advocates and lawmakers attend a listening session on social justice issues hosted by WISDOM. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Advocates and lawmakers packed a room at the Capitol Wednesday for a listening session hosted by WISDOM, a statewide network of faith-based social justice organizations, to discuss immigration, criminal justice, housing and environmental policy. Participants said they hoped hearing personal stories would move lawmakers beyond “political posturing” and inspire change.

“It’s been almost nine years since I was last charged with anything,” said Jessica Jacobs, a formerly incarcerated woman who was one of the first to speak. “I’ve rebuilt my life, I’ve stayed in recovery, and I’ve dedicated myself to helping others do the same. But my criminal record still follows me, especially when it comes to finding a place to live.” Jacobs said that every time she pays a non-refundable fee only to fail a background check for housing, she’s reminded “that society hasn’t fully forgiven me, even though I’ve done everything I can do to make things right.”

When Jacobs was released from prison in 2010, she was placed in a transitional living program. It should have been a second chance, but it wasn’t because that apartment complex was in the very same neighborhood where she would get the substances she used. “It was a setup for failure,” said Jacobs, adding that women and men all over Wisconsin have similar experiences. “Imagine being locked up, and all you can imagine is being with your children again. You count the days dreaming about that reunion. But when you’re finally released, you find out that you can’t get housing that will allow your children to live with you. The pain doesn’t just stop with the mother, the children suffer, too. Families stay separated not because of lack of love or effort, but because there’s nowhere safe and stable for them to go home to.”

Jacobs finally found a landlord who was also in recovery, and could empathize with her situation. “No one’s success story should depend on luck,” she said. “When people don’t have housing, we see the same cycles of recidivism repeat and repeat. Without a place to live, it’s almost impossible to look for a job, maintain recovery, or reunite with your children and family. We say that we want people to come home and be better. But how can they if we won’t give them a place to call home?”

Crystal Keller, a member of the group My Way Out, shared  the struggle incarcerated mothers have in Wisconsin. Keller’s daughter is locked up at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution, where she will be for two years. Keller pointed to a 1991 Wisconsin law that says that incarcerated mothers should be housed with their babies until they turn 12 months old. Yet Keller’s daughter has never been offered access to that program, despite having a two-month-old when she was sentenced. “The program was allocated $198,000 per year,” Keller said. “Where is that money? That’s $6.7 million in the 35 years that they’ve never offered it.” 

Keller said that the Department of Corrections claims to offer the program for women who are out in the community. “That’s a lie,” said Keller. “…when are they going to start complying with the law?” Keller said that when her daughter was sent to Taycheedah, she was placed in restrictive housing for the first six months. “And it took them a month to pick her up from the county jail,” said Keller. “She was not allowed to hold her son for seven months, from two months old until just last month.” Keller’s family would travel from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac just to do hour-long video visits. “Often, visits would get cancelled…Why do I even need to go there?” 

Just last Sunday during a visit, Keller said that another family was told by a correctional officer that they weren’t allowed to even play hand-clapping games with their children. “It’s disgusting, it needs to stop, and DOC who punishes people for breaking the law has been breaking the law for 35 years.” 

Attendees drew attention to other conditions endured by people held in Wisconsin’s prisons and jails. Randy Gage, a member of WISDOM’s Solitary & Conditions of Confinement Task Force, who also has a background in psychology and experience working in prisons in both Georgia and Wisconsin. “Segregation is not the best way to go,” said Gage. “We went through a long period starting around the 1980’s of ‘get tough on crime’. Enough already with getting tough on crime! Enough!” Gage said that when he was growing up in Milwaukee, he didn’t have to worry about things like gun violence. “That didn’t happen, and that was before ‘get tough on time’. Since ‘get tough on crime’ all of this is going on? Don’t tell me it works. No, it doesn’t work.” 

Advocates also discussed Act 196, a bipartisan law that favors short-term sanctions for probation and parole violations like a weekend stint in jail, treatment program or community service over total revocation back to prison. “For more than a decade, the DOC has resisted implementing this law that could’ve reduced and stabilized our prison population,” said Tom Gilbert, a member of MOSES. “Finally in June of this year, the DOC issued proposed rules, but they are an extreme disappointment.” Although the proposed rules adopted some features of the law, they do not establish “a system of short-term sanctions,”, said Gilbert, saying that the DOC is choosing to keep a system that “sabotages” people’s chances of returning home rather than promoting healing. “It would save millions of taxpayer dollars spent on needless incarcerations,” said Gilbert. “Those dollars could be re-directed to proven, successful programs such as treatment programs and diversions.” 

Others pushed for restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated people, which is already law in 25 states. Jeremy Dings, a formerly incarcerated member of WISDOM’s Post-Releases Issues Task Force, said that he has not been able to vote in eight election cycles because even though he has been  back in the community for 13 years. Dings said that democracy is strongest when it includes everyone’s voice, and that such a policy change would help people transition and feel like active, valued members of the community. 

Restoring drivers licenses for immigrants was also discussed by immigrant rights advocates and dairy farmers. People in mixed-status families take great risk to perform simple tasks like driving to work, or dropping their children off at school, they said. “This is not just about paperwork,”  said Grace Mariscal, a student at St. John’s Northwestern Academies. “This is about parents being able to drive their children to school safely, or go to a doctor’s appointment, without fear.” 

Mariscal said that 19 other states have passed laws that allow members of mixed-status families to have drivers licenses, policies which reduce hit-and-run accidents, increase state revenue, and reduced law enforcement costs. “These reforms would also strengthen Wisconsin’s economies,” said Mariscal. “Our dairy farms, our factories, our restaurants, our food processing plants all depend on immigrant labor. By allowing workers to drive legally, we help businesses maintain stable workforces, and ensure that the industries that feed and sustain our state continue to thrive.”

The rights of nature was also discussed, with advocates pushing for laws that establish personhood for natural habitats, rivers, forests and other ecosystems. “It really comes out of Indigenous values,” said Jim Goodman, a member of Family Farm Defenders. “It is an international movement.” Goodman pointed out that in America, even corporations are given personhood. So why not the ecosystems and natural environments that all things, human or otherwise, depend on? Goodman also advocated for policies to require sulfide mines to prove that they won’t be harmful to the environment before digging begins, and new protections for Devil’s Lake State Park. “Wisconsin has a long history of environmental stewardship”, said Goodman, pointing out that former Wisconsin Gov.  Gaylord Nelson was the founder of Earth Day. 

Advocates also discussed closing the prison in Green Bay, and granting parole to older incarcerated people who were sentenced when they were young. Some in the room condemned Gov. Tony Evers for using his veto power to remove a deadline to close Green Bay Correctional, and pointed to the fact that the Lincoln Hills juvenile prison is still open despite plans to build new prisons to replace the aging and controversial facility. 

Several lawmakers including Reps. Darrin Madison (D-Milwaukee), Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee), and new legislators including Amaad Rivera-Wagner (D-Green Bay) and Karen DeSanto (D-Baraboo) said  hearing stories like those shared Wednesday are crucial for their work.

“Remember the folks that are not here,” said Madison, who told an emotional story about his brother and friends who struggled with mental illness, suicidal thoughts, and incarceration. “Give your anger to those folks, channel your grief towards those folks, because it’s a damn shame that they’re not here.” 

A sign explaining delays in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown is displayed at a Sprouts grocery store in Bountiful, Utah, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)

The Trump administration will release full benefits for most participants in the nation’s major federal nutrition program within 24 hours of the reopening of the federal government, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said Wednesday. 

Many of the roughly 42 million Americans who rely on USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to help afford groceries have faced uncertainty for weeks about their November benefits, which President Donald Trump and other top administration officials said could not be paid while the government was shut down. 

A USDA spokesperson answered an afternoon email from States Newsroom inquiring about when benefits would restart with a single sentence:

“Upon the government reopening, within 24 hours for most States,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Politico first reported the department’s 24-hour timeline.

While the federal government funds SNAP benefits, states are responsible for their administration, meaning an array of different processes across the country. 

The U.S. House was set to vote Wednesday evening to clear a bill to reopen the government after a record 43-day shutdown, after the Senate acted earlier this week. Trump is expected to sign it into law as early as Wednesday night. 

The enactment of the bill — and the subsequent renewal of federal payments — would resolve a dizzying weekslong saga over SNAP that placed the roughly 1 in 8 Americans who use the program in the middle of a political and legal battle playing out across every level of the federal judiciary. 

Since the shutdown began Oct. 1, the USDA has reversed its own position, the U.S. Supreme Court paused lower court orders and Trump himself expressed contradicting views.

In the most recent chapter, USDA said it would authorize states to pay 65% of benefits for November, and the Supreme Court paused until Thursday night lower court orders compelling full payments. 

The department had previously told a Rhode Island federal court it could take weeks or even months for beneficiaries to receive the partial allotments and the administration continued to fight rulings to immediately release full funding, even as the shutdown crept toward its conclusion.

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was sworn in to office on Nov. 12, 2025, by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Screenshot courtesy of C-SPAN)

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to office Wednesday after a delay that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson attributed to the long government shutdown, but that critics allege was because the Arizona lawmaker pledged to be the deciding signature on a petition to release the so-called Epstein files.

Grijalva, who was elected on Sept. 23, has publicly vowed to add her name to a bipartisan measure that would force the House to vote on the release of files from the government’s investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The Trump administration said in July it would not release further information related to the case. President Donald Trump had campaigned on releasing the files.

Grijalva, Arizona’s first elected Latina, called the delayed ceremony an “abuse of power.”

“It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District elected me to represent them. … One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing-in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons,” said Grijalva, who filled the seat occupied by her late father, Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year.

“Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse,” Grijalva said. “They are here in the gallery with us this evening.”

To cheers from her Democratic colleagues in the chamber, Grijalva said she was going to sign the petition “right now.”  

Massie, Khanna lead petition drive

As of early September, the discharge petition, led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had garnered the signatures of all Democrats and four Republicans, leaving the petition just one shy of the 218 signatures needed to bypass Johnson and force a vote on the House floor.

The three Republicans who joined Massie in signing were Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

The petition forces to the floor, likely at some point in the next few weeks, a Massie-sponsored resolution from July compelling the Department of Justice to “disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein” and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted on federal sex trafficking charges.  

The resolution attracted 50 cosponsors, nearly a dozen of them Republicans.

Johnson defends delay

Grijalva and her supporters have outright accused Johnson of delaying the swearing-in because of the Epstein petition.

“When the American people vote, this chamber respects their will and seats them immediately. Politics should never come into play,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., on the House floor moments before Johnson administered the oath to Grijalva.

Democrats pointed to the fact that Johnson has previously sworn in other lawmakers when the House was not in session. 

Johnson argued in mid-October that Grijalva hadn’t yet been sworn in because she won her special election after the House went home on Sept. 19, followed shortly thereafter by a government shutdown on Oct. 1.  “As soon as (Sen.) Chuck Schumer opens the government … we’ll have that as soon as we get back to business,” he said. 

At a press conference on Oct. 15, Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego accused Johnson of protecting “pedophiles, whether it’s involving Donald Trump or any of his rich, elite friends.”

Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein. Trump maintains he booted Epstein from his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, because the financier had poached young female employees.

A deluge of Epstein documents

New emails revealing details about the relationship between Trump and Epstein surfaced Wednesday. Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released three exchanges with content suggesting Trump was aware of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls. 

Republican leaders on the committee soon followed by releasing more than 20,000 documents they received from the Epstein estate.

Reports also surfaced that the Trump administration had reached out to two GOP lawmakers, Boebert and Mace, about removing their names from the petition.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to confirm during Wednesday’s briefing that Trump had met with Boebert in the Situation Room, a secure center of national and global information for the president.

“I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room,” Leavitt said when asked about Trump approaching Boebert to remove her name.

Boebert’s office pointed States Newsroom to the lawmaker’s afternoon social media post that read,“I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.”

Mace’s office did not respond to questions to confirm the White House reached out to the South Carolina lawmaker. Rather, Mace’s Communications Director Sydney Long said, “​​The Congresswoman is not removing her name from the discharge petition because of her personal story.”

Mace has publicly shared her own story of sexual assault.

Furloughed federal workers stand in line for hours ahead of a special food distribution by the Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries on Barlowe Road in Hyattsville, Maryland, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

This report has been updated.

WASHINGTON — The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended Wednesday night when President Donald Trump signed a spending package that  reopens the government and funds most of it through January.

The Oval Office ceremony came just hours after the House voted to approve the legislation, which senators passed earlier in the week. 

“I hope we can all agree that the government should never be shut down again,” Trump said, before urging Senate Republicans to eliminate the rule that requires bills to garner the support of at least 60 lawmakers to advance. “Terminate the filibuster.”

The 222-209 vote marked the first time that chamber took up a bill since mid-September, when Republican leaders recessed after members approved a stopgap spending measure they knew couldn’t advance in the Senate. 

That stalemate, centered around sharply rising health care costs, led to a 43-day shutdown that affected nearly every corner of the country through delayed funding for nutrition programs for millions of Americans, no pay for federal workers, flight delays tied to staffing shortages and much more. 

But after nearly six weeks of failed procedural votes, seven centrist Senate Democrats and one independent broke with party leaders on Sunday to advance the reworked spending package and then voted to approve the legislation Monday. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said throughout the shutdown he was interested in a bipartisan path forward on health insurance costs after the shutdown ended, committed to hold a floor vote on a Democratic bill “no later than the second week in December.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said repeatedly throughout the funding lapse GOP lawmakers have ideas to improve the health care system. However, he didn’t detail any of those publicly and hasn’t committed to a floor vote. 

“We have volumes of ideas on how to do this, on how to fix it, on how to drive costs down and how to increase access to care and quality of care, and you’re going to see all that vigorous debate,” Johnson said during a brief press conference after the vote.

House debate on the spending package that will reopen government was largely along party lines, though Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida voted against the bill.

Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state and Tom Suozzi of New York voted for passage. 

Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., urged support for the legislation ahead of the vote, saying “history reminds us that shutdowns never change the outcome.” 

“Over the last 43 days the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, the path forward did not change,” Cole said. “The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the nation.”

Much higher premiums predicted 

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the spending panel, rejected the legislation and said it does nothing to address the rising cost of health care. 

“More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple, their monthly insurance premium in just a matter of weeks,” DeLauro said. “And this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.”

The Senate significantly reworked the stopgap bill the House originally passed in mid-September into what is now a 394-page package, adding in three of the full-year government funding bills and changing the date of the stopgap measure to Jan. 30, among many other provisions. The original stopgap was set to last through Nov. 21. 

The updated measure gives Congress a couple more months to work out agreement on the remaining nine appropriations bills that were supposed to become law before the start of the current fiscal year on Oct. 1. 

Lawmakers could create a partial government shutdown if they’re unable to agree on approving the remaining appropriations bill before the new government funding deadline at the end of January.

Democratic discharge petition

Trump will turn his attention toward the rising cost of health care that Democrats highlighted during the shutdown, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Wednesday briefing, though she didn’t put a firm timeline on when he’ll release any plans.

“Once the government reopens, the president, as he’s always maintained, is absolutely open to having conversations about health care,” Leavitt said. “And I think you’ll see the president putting forth some really good policy proposals that Democrats should take very seriously to fix, again, the system that they broke.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters following a closed-door meeting that Democrats will try to get the necessary signatures on a discharge petition to force a floor vote on legislation to extend tax credits for three years for people who buy their health insurance from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

The New York Democrat said the extension mirrors how long the enhanced tax credits were set to last initially in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 

Temporary health care subsidies were originally passed as part of the COVID-19-era American Rescue Plan in 2021 for two years. The Inflation Reduction Act, the signature climate policy bill from the Biden administration, then extended those health care subsidies for three years, expiring at the end of December 2025. 

“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, co-pays and deductibles skyrocket,” Jeffries said. 

Democrats will need the support of at least a handful of Republicans in order to get the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the bill. The discharge petition was released mid-afternoon.

What’s in the new bill

The spending package wraps in several different bills and provisions, such as the three full-year funding bills that cover the Agriculture Department, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Legislative Branch, military construction projects and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Included are:

• A stopgap spending bill that will keep the rest of the federal government running through Jan. 30;
• $30 million for the U.S. Capitol Police to enhance protections for lawmakers, $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service to bolster security for members of the judicial and executive branches, and $28 million for enhanced safety for Supreme Court justices;
• Language requiring the Trump administration to reinstate the thousands of workers it sent layoff notices to during the shutdown and preventing officials from firing those workers through January;
• Provisions mandating the Trump administration provide back pay to all federal workers, including those furloughed during the shutdown. Trump at one point during the shutdown had threatened to yank that back pay, though it is required by law.

The Trump administration issued a Statement of Administration Policy a few hours before the House voted, saying the administration strongly supports the bill, describing the measure as “a fiscally responsible package that provides the full-year funding necessary to support the Nation’s veterans, farmers, and rural communities.”

The package also “ends disruptions to programs the American people rely on and ensures the thousands of Federal employees who have been forced to work without a paycheck, such as air traffic controllers, will be promptly paid,” the administration added. 

The Agriculture and Military Construction-VA spending bills include tens of billions of dollars in earmarks requested by lawmakers from both political parties, important to them as midterm elections loom in 2026.

‘Legislative self-dealing’ in Senate attacked

But not every Republican on Capitol Hill is happy with how the full-year bills turned out. 

Speaker Johnson announced mid-afternoon that the House would take a separate vote later this month to remove language from the package that will allow senators to file suit against the federal government if their data is subpoenaed.

“We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” Johnson wrote in a social media post. 

The provision, tucked into the full-year Legislative Branch spending bill, is retroactive to January 1, 2022, and would apply to the eight senators who had their cell phone records subpoenaed during a 2023 investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. 

The FBI reportedly obtained data for cell phone use between Jan. 4 and Jan. 7, 2021, for Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania. 

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said during floor debate the bill “contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on.”

“This provision is an affront to our taxpayers, to the rule of law, to everyone who believes that we in public office must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special legal rights and privileges and multi-million-dollar payoffs,” Raskin said. 

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters earlier in the day that he will “definitely” be filing a lawsuit after the new provision becomes law. 

“And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” Graham said, later adding he wasn’t sure if he’d win such a case.

Dissatisfaction among GOP lawmakers with that provision was on full display on social media, where Florida’s Steube responded to Speaker Johnson’s post by writing that the “Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill. This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”

 

A bin of THC edible products from Virginia stores is displayed by the state attorney general. While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. (Photo by Graham Moomaw/ Virginia Mercury)

A provision significantly limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp products made its way into legislation to reopen the federal government just a day before the Senate approved the bill. Its inclusion follows years of pressure from states and the marijuana industry.

While states continue to expand access to legal marijuana, a separate market of hemp-derived intoxicants has blossomed. The products, from drinks to gummies, are sold in gas stations and smoke shops. Critics say some companies have exploited a legal loophole from 2018 to manufacture products that get people high — without the safety regulations and taxes facing the legal marijuana industry.

That’s led dozens of states to limit or ban certain intoxicating hemp products. Most states also have pushed for federal changes, though some farm states worry the pending federal bill — which the House is expected to vote on as soon as today — goes too far.

A bipartisan group of 39 state attorneys general recently urged Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp, arguing that the underregulated industry threatens public health and undermines law enforcement.

Texas lawmakers this year approved a strict ban on intoxicating hemp, but that measure was vetoed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The governor raised constitutional concerns because federal law allowed the products, but he then issued an executive order increasing state agency regulations, including age restrictions.

This summer, Florida regulators seized tens of thousands of packages of hemp products that failed to meet new child protection standards, including child-resistant packaging, marketing restrictions and enhanced labeling rules. In Tallahassee, the state Senate approved a ban on hemp-derived THC products, including beverages, but that measure died in the state House. A similar effort last year was vetoed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said it would harm small businesses.

Last month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation strengthening state enforcement of its ban on intoxicating hemp products. Similarly, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declared an emergency last month in an executive order banning intoxicating hemp products for 90 days while lawmakers debate potential legislation.

Missouri hemp businesses fear new federal THC limits will destroy the industry

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the primary psychoactive component of the cannabis plant. The 39 state attorneys general argue manufacturers are manipulating hemp to produce synthetic THC that can be more intoxicating than marijuana.

“In this way, legal, nonintoxicating hemp is used to make Frankenstein THC products that get adults high and harm and even kill children,” the attorneys general wrote.

Hemp-derived gummies and beverages are sold without consistent age restrictions or labeling regulations and oftentimes resemble candy. During his announcement, DeWine showcased brightly packaged intoxicating hemp products that resembled name-brand candy products.

“Certainly, it’s easy to see how a child will confuse this product with real candy and eat a few gummy bears and ingest enough THC to require hospitalization,” he said, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.

Though it has faced mounting restrictions in the states, the hemp industry says the federal change poses an existential threat.

On Monday, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable said the legislation pending in Congress would wipe out 95% of the nation’s $28.4 billion hemp industry.

“The language will force patients, seniors and veterans who rely on hemp products to break federal criminal law to acquire them,” the trade group posted online.

Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the organization, said the industry has been pushing for regulation rather than outright prohibition. He acknowledged the problem of bad actors, but said those can be addressed with strong regulations like those that exist in Kentucky and Minnesota.

“These are good examples of states that have put together robust regulations. But we need to see that at the federal level, and we’ve been supporting legislation to do that for the last seven years,” he told Stateline.

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, said he included the hemp measure in the bill to close an unintended legal loophole and that the measure would still allow farmers to grow hemp for fiber, oil and drug trials.

But fellow Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul said the move would “eradicate the hemp industry” and could override some state laws. Paul offered an amendment to remove the hemp provision but failed.

The hemp loophole

Hemp derives from the same cannabis species as marijuana, but is legally defined by its lower levels of THC, the psychoactive component of the plant.

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, Congress sanctioned hemp in the 2018 farm bill to allow an agricultural market for hemp-based textiles, animal feeds and human wellness products centered on cannabidiol, or CBD, products. The farm bill allowed cultivation of hemp plants with a THC concentration of 0.3% or lower by dry weight.

But that threshold has become essentially meaningless, said Katharine Neill Harris, a fellow in drug policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

That’s because manufacturers have found ways to convert legal hemp plants into potent forms of synthetic marijuana. Aside from the potential of creating very strong products, she said the process requires the addition of solvents and other ingredients that raise many safety questions.

“With marijuana products, you can get some very potent products,” she said. “But the psychoactive components to THC are naturally occurring. It naturally occurs in that natural amount. You’re not doing a whole bunch of manipulation to increase the potency of the product and adding ingredients.”

Harris has tracked the growing number of states regulating the industry: Six states and the District of Columbia now ban all consumable hemp products with any amount of THC. In 24 states, intoxicating hemp products are permitted, though 15 of those states allow only low-potency products.

But even states with strict regulations still must contend with legal online markets.

“There’s a big part of that activity that you can’t control as a state when something is federally legal, and so that’s one thing that they’re asking for is federal leadership on this issue,” she said. “I think there is a big demand for some sort of industry standards.”

If approved by Congress and signed by the president, as expected, the new hemp legislation will likely have uneven impacts across the states.

For example, the change likely won’t dramatically alter the legal landscape in Alaska, where the regulators have banned all intoxicating hemp products. Marijuana businesses complain those products are still being sold, despite the ban.

But in a state like Nebraska, where lawmakers have been unsuccessful in limiting intoxicating hemp, the change could drastically alter both consumer access and business sales, depending on enforcement.

On Monday, Paul said the federal legislation would wipe away hemp regulations in many states, including Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine and Utah.

“The bill before us nullifies all these state laws,” he said.

‘Running with knives’

The hemp industry has argued that a lot of the opposition to it stems from marijuana businesses looking to protect their own markets, noting that campaigns for restrictions are often more organized in states that have legalized marijuana.

But producers of intoxicating hemp are looking for market access without the associated safety regulations and tax structures states have created for marijuana, argued Chris Lindsey, the director of state advocacy and public policy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, an organization representing the legal marijuana industry.

“They want to have some kind of regulatory framework that’s somehow different than the one that states already have [for marijuana],” he said.

His organization cheered the Senate’s efforts “to address the dangerous proliferation of unregulated synthetic THC products.”

Lindsey said hemp-derived products can contain contaminants, including pesticides. Many hemp products can be sourced cheaply overseas, he said, and with lax oversight, there is no system to recall tainted products here.

“To me, that’s like running with knives,” he told Stateline.

Floridians react to federal legislation that could ‘devastate’ state’s hemp industry

The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association recently purchased hemp products from gas stations and smoke shops from across the state to test them in an effort to show they need more regulation.

In its “Missouri Hemp Hoax Report,” the organization said independent testing found 53 of the 55 products purchased were actually intoxicating marijuana well above the legal limit of THC. Third-party lab results also showed some of the products contained pesticides and heavy metals.

Those results underscore that the products should face the same rules as legal marijuana does, said Andrew Mullins, president and executive director of the cannabis trade association. State law requires marijuana to be grown and manufactured in Missouri, mandates lab testing and allows for sales only at licensed dispensaries.

“In my mind, if it’s marijuana, which most of this is, then it should be regulated like marijuana,” Mullins said.

He said calling the unregulated products “hemp” is akin to someone selling whiskey and calling it corn: “Everybody is using hemp as a cover to basically sell intoxicating drugs.”

Mullins acknowledged the confusion among policymakers and law enforcement. But he said there are already laws — including those against trafficking marijuana without a license — that could help address the issue.

Catherine Hanaway, a Republican who was sworn in as Missouri’s new attorney general in September, has vowed action on unregulated hemp products, particularly THC beverages that are booming in popularity.

“Our focus is on the health and safety of Missourians,” James Lawson, her deputy chief of staff, told the Missouri Independent last month. “This is an unregulated industry that makes untested, unknown substances available to the public without any oversight, including children where we think it’s particularly detrimental.”

Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org.

A photograph of President Donald Trump and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is displayed after being unofficially installed in a bus shelter. (Leon Neal/Getty Images).

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democrats investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released emails Wednesday they say show President Donald Trump knew about the financier’s abuse of underage girls as far back as 2011.

The three emails released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were among 23,000 pages of documents turned over to the committee by Epstein’s estate, according to Democrats.

In a 2011 correspondence with the now-convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim whose name is redacted from the email. In the same email, Epstein refers to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked.”

In a 2015 email exchange between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff, Wolff tells Epstein that he’s heard CNN will ask Trump about his relationship with the financier. The two have an exchange about how to hypothetically “craft an answer” for Trump. 

Wolff responds, “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable (public relations) and political currency.”

In a January 2019 email, also to Wolff, Epstein referenced a victim’s name, redacted, as having been at Trump’s Florida estate and private club, Mar-a-Lago, and wrote “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” 

 

 

Trump has said he had a falling out with Epstein and kicked him out of his club over allegations Epstein poached young women workers from the club’s spa.

Emails raise more questions, leading Dem says

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement Wednesday the emails “raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”

“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims,” Garcia continued.

Within hours of the committee Democrats’ release of the emails, committee Republican leaders issued a brief press release linking to “an additional 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein” contained on Google Drive and Dropbox clouds. 

During Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

Leavitt added that Trump and Epstein both lived in Palm Beach, Florida.

“Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar a Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep,” she said.

Congress investigates after FBI backtracks

The bipartisan committee investigation began shortly after the FBI released a July memo stating the Department of Justice would not be releasing any further information on the government’s sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.

Epstein was found dead, apparently by suicide, in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell where he was awaiting federal trial.

The FBI’s announcement that the agency would not release further details caused a firestorm of demands to release all investigative material, even among Trump’s supporters in Congress and far-right media influencers, including Megyn Kelly and the late Charlie Kirk. 

Trump campaigned on releasing what are often referred to as the “Epstein files.”

A bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives is aiming to force a vote on the release of the files as soon as this week after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swears in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. 

Grijalva has pledged to be the final signature needed on a discharge petition by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., that will compel a floor vote on a bill to release all Epstein investigation files.

Massie and Khanna hosted a press conference on Capitol Hill in early September featuring several women who told stories of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.

Since the FBI memo, a magnifying glass has been fixed on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein. 

The president sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on a 50th birthday card Trump allegedly gave to Epstein. The card featured a cryptic message and a doodle of a naked woman with Trump’s apparent signature mimicking pubic hair. 

The Journal also reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed the president in May that his name appeared in the Epstein case files. The context in which his name appeared is unclear. 

Trump has denied the reports.

Telephones inside the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, Mo., where incarcerated people pay per-minute rates to call loved ones. (Photo by Amanda Watford/Stateline)

The Federal Communications Commission voted to roll back limits on how much companies can charge incarcerated people and their families for phone and video calls.

The 2-1 vote in late October reverses rate caps the FCC adopted last year under a 2023 law that allows the agency to set limits on prison phone and video call rates. Critics say the rates are kept high by limited competition among major providers such as Securus Technologies and ViaPath.

Under the new interim rules, phone calls will cost up to $0.11 per minute in large prisons and $0.18 per minute in the smallest jails. Video calls will cost up to $0.23 per minute in large facilities and as much as $0.41 in small ones.

Only three states — Florida, Kentucky and Oklahoma — currently have rates above the new rates, meaning most prison systems across the country are already below the previously adopted 2024 rate caps.

The new 2025 rates will take effect 120 days after being published in the Federal Register.

In June, the FCC had abruptly announced a two-year delay in implementing the 2024 rate caps after receiving complaints from local sheriffs and prison telecom companies. Republican attorneys general from 14 states also filed a lawsuit last year challenging the commission’s authority to limit how much prisons and jails can charge for phone calls, arguing that the rules deprived correctional facilities of needed funding.

Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Olivia Trusty, both appointed by President Donald Trump, supported the rollback. Carr argued the previous caps limited facilities’ ability to recover safety and security costs, such as monitoring calls, leading some to scale back or eliminate calling services altogether. Trusty said the 2024 rules “did not always strike the right balance,” and cited “unintended consequences” like service disruptions in some facilities.

At least one small jail — in Baxter County, Arkansas — ended phone services earlier this year in protest of the lower rate caps.

Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, appointed by President Joe Biden, voted against the order and called it “indefensible.” She said the decision gives monopoly telecom providers “the authority to increase the costs for families to maintain critical connections with their loved ones in prison.”

Advocates for incarcerated people condemned the vote.

“These changes are a betrayal of the families who entrusted the FCC to protect them from the notoriously predatory correctional telecom industry,” Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, said in a news release. Worth Rises is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry.

Some research suggests that incarcerated people who maintain consistent contact with loved ones are significantly more likely to succeed upon release and are less likely to reoffend.

The FCC’s latest decision comes months after New York joined California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota in offering free phone calls in state prisons. Colorado’s policy won’t take full effect until 2026.

At least two states — Maryland and Missouri — considered legislation this year to make prison and jail calls more affordable. Maryland’s proposal to make calls free in state prisons did not pass, but Missouri enacted a law in August capping phone call rates at no more than 12 cents per minute in correctional centers.

Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.