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How to get access to a live tax professional today through TurboTax
This content is sponsored by TurboTax.
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The deadline for filing your taxes is fast approaching. If that thought fills you with dread, it shouldn’t — filing your taxes in 2024 is pretty easy with the right help.
When it comes to tax prep, CBS Essentials readers choose TurboTax more than any other software or service. TurboTax guides you through the tax filing process, doing all the math and asking all the right questions so you can get your maximum refund (or lowest tax bill if you underpaid in 2023).
As easy as Intuit’s TurboTax software is to use, the company offers another option that makes filing taxes even simpler: TurboTax Live Full Service. As the name implies, this full-service option connects you to a virtual tax expert with an average of 12 years of experience, or to a local Intuit TurboTax Verified Pro, who can handle the tax filing process for you from start to finish in just a day.
Here’s what you need to know about this helpful TurboTax service option.
What is TurboTax Live Full Service?
TurboTax Live Full Service matches you with a tax professional with expertise in your tax situation. Whether you’re an individual tax filer, self-employed or a small-business owner, TurboTax will find someone that’s right for you. Experts are available for both English- and Spanish-speaking filers.
The TurboTax expert you’re matched with will do just about everything for you, from start to finish. They’ll find you the maximum refund you’re entitled to. The expert will have access to Intuit Assist, the company’s new generative AI financial assistant, for additional accuracy checks and support. (Speaking of accuracy, your return is guaranteed for life, with free audit support.)
One thing we like about TurboTax Live Full Service is how quick it is. All you do is upload your documents, so the tax expert can access them, and you’ll get your taxes done on the same day. TurboTax Live Full Service works with your schedule — you can talk to a tax professional even on nights and weekends.
If you like the TurboTax Live Full Service tax expert that you’re matched with, you can choose to use them the following year. That way, you can build a personal relationship with someone who knows your unique tax situation.
TurboTax Live Full Service starts at $119. Tap the button below and get your taxes done today.
What other TurboTax options are there?
TurboTax offers many options for filing your taxes in 2024.
TurboTax Free Edition
This free version of TurboTax is a great option for taxpayers whose income is largely from W-2s (roughly 37% of tax filers qualify). The tax software includes free filing of your federal and state tax returns (Form 1040 and limited credits only). According to TurboTax, the free edition covers W-2 income, earned income tax credit (EIC) and child tax credits, plus your standard deductions, student loan interest deductions and limited interest and dividend reporting (1099-INT, 1099-DIV).
It’s worth noting that TurboTax Free Edition can’t handle 1099-G unemployment income or itemized deductions.
Users get anytime assistance from TurboTax’s online community of TurboTax specialists. Worried about something going wrong? TurboTax Free Edition includes guidance in case of an audit, backed by TurboTax’s audit support guarantee.
TurboTax Deluxe
TurboTax Deluxe includes all the features of TurboTax Free Edition, plus a few extras. It’s a good option for homeowners: This TurboTax version offers homeowners step-by-step guidance on how to turn their home investment into a major tax break. (If you’re hoping to deduct the interest you paid on your mortgage, you’ll want to go with TurboTax Deluxe.)
TurboTax Deluxe includes a search of more than 350 tax deductions and credits to find all qualifying tax breaks. And should an unexpected form arrive late, this software lets you make changes to your tax return, online, up to three years after it’s been filed and accepted by the IRS.
TurboTax Deluxe also includes one-on-one support from live TurboTax product specialists.
TurboTax Deluxe is available on the TurboTax site. You don’t have to pay for the tax software until you file.
TurboTax Deluxe, $59 (reduced from $69)
TurboTax Deluxe can be upgraded to TurboTax Live Deluxe. The upgrade gives you access to unlimited tax advice and an expert final review.
TurboTax Live Deluxe, $129 (reduced from $139)
TurboTax Premium
TurboTax Premium has all the features of TurboTax Deluxe, with added support for those who are self-employed or have investment income to report. If you’ve been buying and selling on Robinhood or Coinbase — especially selling, which is a taxable event — TurboTax Premium is likely the version for you. It makes reporting these transactions easy, even if there are a lot of them; the software can import thousands of transactions directly from brokers.
Similarly, if you own your house and are renting out a spare room, this version will help you report the income and locate common deductions that can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Like all TurboTax software, Premium aims to give customers the biggest tax break possible. TurboTax Premium searches for more than 450 tax deductions and credits to find qualifying tax breaks.
TurboTax Premium also is available via the TurboTax site. You don’t have to pay for the tax software until you file.
TurboTax Premium, $119 (reduced from $129)
TurboTax Premium can be upgraded to TurboTax Live Premium. The upgrade gives you access to unlimited tax advice and an expert final review.
TurboTax Live Premium, $209 (reduced from $219)
New Jersey Democrat targets Sen. Menendez’s access to classified information — and Trump’s
WASHINGTON — Now charged with 18 federal counts, embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., faces a mounting pressure campaign from his colleagues in Congress.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., will announce legislation Friday that would prohibit people charged with certain crimes from receiving classified information, implicitly targeting Menendez, who was charged with bribery, conspiring with foreign governments and other counts.
If approved by Congress, the bill — titled the Guarding the United States Against Reckless Disclosures Act, or GUARD Act for short — would apply to any federal official or candidate charged with compromising U.S. national security, acting as a foreign agent, obstructing an official proceeding or unlawfully retaining classified national defense information, according to a copy first shared with NBC News.
The bill could also apply to former President Donald Trump. In addition to members of Congress, Sherrill’s legislation would cover the president, the vice president, candidates for federal office who receive classified information, members of the military and employees of the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
Trump, who has been charged with mishandling classified information and with obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results, will soon begin to receive intelligence briefings, as is customary for presidential nominees to ensure a smooth transition of power. It’s one of the reasons Sherrill is introducing the legislation now.
“We have a former president who has shown a long history of disclosing secrets to adversaries, trying to hide and destroy information, not being clear on what he’s held and is now under indictment for these infractions,” Sherrill said in an interview Wednesday. “And yet our intelligence community is supposed to start briefing him?
“This legislation seeks to remedy that and make sure that people who are under indictment cannot have access to state secrets,” she added.
Trump and Menendez have pleaded not guilty, and neither has yet gone to trial. But Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and Navy pilot, believes neither man should have access to classified information in the meantime.
Sherrill called on Menendez to resign hours after he was initially indicted in September and accused of taking lavish gifts in exchange for using his influence as the chair of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee at the time.
Menendez stepped down as chair in the fall but has rejected calls to resign from Congress from more than half of his Democratic Senate colleagues and the entire New Jersey House delegation, except for his son, Democratic Rep. Robert Menendez Jr.
“It has long been a concern of mine about keeping access to classified information from people who seem willing to give away state secrets or undermine our national security,” Sherrill said. “So of course when Menendez was charged with acting as a foreign agent — how someone like that could have access to classified information when he has already misused it in such a powerful position is mind-boggling to me.”
Her bill would allow majority votes in the House and the Senate to override it and allow access to sensitive information case by case.
Menendez’s most vocal critic, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., introduced his own resolution to strip him of his committee assignments and ban him from receiving classified information after he continued to attend briefings on sensitive national security matters. But that legislation hasn’t gone anywhere. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., described Menendez’s legal woes as “serious allegations” but has declined to call on him to step down.
Sherrill said she didn’t discuss her effort with Fetterman.
Despite growing criticism and increased scrutiny, Menendez announced this month that he would run for re-election as an independent if he is exonerated. He is scheduled to go on trial in May, and the independent filing deadline is June 4.
“At a time like this, when we have a former president like Trump trying to call into question a lot of the institutions of our government, a lot of our values, it’s very important that we have leaders in office that people can have faith in,” Sherrill said.
“I don’t think you can argue that anyone can have faith in Menendez, who has used his office to enrich himself, who has put his interests, in a very Trump-like way, quite frankly, ahead of the interests of the nation,” she said.
New York attorney general speaks at rally for abortion pill access outside Supreme Court
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Supreme Court to hear abortion pill case today as justices weigh access to widely used drug
Washington — The Supreme Court is set to convene Tuesday to hear arguments in a case involving a commonly used abortion pill and recent actions by the Food and Drug Administration to make the medication easier to obtain.
At the center of the legal battle is the pill mifepristone, which is taken along with another drug to terminate an early pregnancy. Approved by the FDA in 2000, more than 5 million patients have taken mifepristone, according to the agency, and studies cited in court filings have shown it is safe and effective.
In recent years, the FDA has taken a series of steps to make mifepristone more accessible, including allowing it to be taken up to 10 weeks into pregnancy and delivered through the mail without an in-person doctor’s visit. Those actions, taken in 2016 and 2021, have come under legal scrutiny after a group of anti-abortion rights doctors and medical associations claimed the FDA violated the law when it relaxed the rules.
The Supreme Court is set to review a decision from a federal appeals court that found the agency’s actions were unlawful. A ruling unwinding those changes would threaten to curtail access to mifepristone nationwide, even in states with laws protecting abortion access.
Access to mifepristone has remained unchanged while legal proceedings in the case have continued, since the high court issued an order last April preserving its availability. That relief will remain in place until the Supreme Court hands down its decision, expected by the end of June.
ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
Arguments in the case are taking place less than two years after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 to unwind the constitutional right to abortion and return the issue to the states. And the dispute is not the only one involving abortion that the justices will consider within the next month — a second case involves whether federal law requires emergency room doctors in states that ban abortion to perform the procedure on pregnant patients whose lives are at risk.
The court’s consideration also comes on the heels of new findings that medication abortions in the U.S. have risen since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
A study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA found that the number of self-managed abortions obtained using pills grew in the six months after the high court reversed Roe. Research from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion rights, published last week showed that medication abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions that took place within the U.S. health care system in 2023, up from 53% in 2020.
The dispute over mifepristone
The challenge to the FDA’s efforts surrounding mifepristone was filed in November 2022 — more than two decades after the drug was made available in the U.S. — by a group of medical associations that oppose abortion rights. Brought in federal district court in Texas, the groups, led by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, challenged the FDA’s initial 2000 approval and its more recent changes in 2016 and 2021.
As part of those actions, the FDA allowed mifepristone to be taken up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy, instead of seven weeks, reduced the number of in-person visits required from three to one, allowed more health care providers to prescribe the drug and lifted a requirement that it be prescribed in-person.
The organizations, represented by the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, claimed the FDA did not have the authority to approve mifepristone for sale and failed to adequately consider the drug’s safety and effectiveness.
The federal judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, agreed that the FDA’s 2000 approval and subsequent actions were likely unlawful. He blocked the FDA’s initial action allowing the drug to be sold in the U.S.
But Kacsmaryk put his ruling on hold for a week, and a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court intervened. The high court ultimately maintained access to mifepristone while legal proceedings continued.
Months later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill, but said the agency violated the law with its more recent changes. The appeals court’s decision, though, is preempted by the Supreme Court’s earlier April 2023 order protecting access.
The Justice Department and Danco Laboratories — the maker of Mifeprex, the brand-name version of mifepristone — asked the Supreme Court to review the 5th Circuit’s ruling, and it agreed to do so in December.
The arguments in the case
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images
In asking the justices to reverse the appeals court’s decision, the Biden administration has argued that the medical associations and their physician members have failed to show that they may be injured by the FDA’s actions, and that those alleged injuries can be traced to the FDA’s easing of the rules for mifepristone.
The doctors challenging the changes do not prescribe the drug and haven’t identified a single case where a member has been forced to complete an abortion for a woman who shows up at an emergency room with an ongoing pregnancy, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court in filings.
But lawyers for the medical groups, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that their members object not only to abortion, but also to “complicity in the process.”
“FDA has spent decades directing women harmed by abortion drugs to emergency rooms. Many of them have sought treatment from respondent doctors,” the lawyers wrote. “Now that FDA is called to account for the harm caused, the agency cannot insist that the very treatment option it directed is somehow speculative.”
If the Supreme Court agrees with the Justice Department that the doctors do not have the proper basis to sue in federal court, it would order the case dismissed without deciding whether the FDA acted within the bounds of the law when it changed the rules for mifepristone’s use.
But if the justices reach the legal issues raised in the case, the Justice Department and Danco have urged the court to find that the FDA’s 2016 and 2021 actions were lawful.
The agency relied on a “voluminous body of medical evidence” on mifepristone’s use over decades when it determined that the 2016 changes would be safe, Prelogar wrote. In any event, the district court was wrong to second-guess the determinations that Congress empowered the FDA to make, she said.
“To the government’s knowledge, this case marks the first time any court has restricted access to an FDA-approved drug by second-guessing FDA’s expert judgment about the conditions required to assure that drug’s safe use,” Prelogar wrote.
Pharmaceutical companies and former heads of the FDA have warned the court that a decision upholding the 5th Circuit threatens to undermine the agency’s drug-approval process and could lead to persistent legal challenges of its approval decisions.
The lower court’s approach, if left intact, “would allow courts to substitute their lay analysis for FDA’s scientific expertise and to overturn the agency’s approval and conditions of use for drugs — even after they have been on the market for decades,” a group of former commissioners and acting commissioners told the court in a brief.
“The resulting uncertainty would threaten the incentives for drug companies to undertake the time-consuming and costly investment required to develop new drugs and ultimately hinder patients’ access to critical remedies that prevent suffering and save lives,” they said.
A slew of pharmaceutical companies and executives separately stressed the importance of drug companies being able to rely on the courts to respect the FDA’s scientific judgements.
“If a court can overturn those judgments many years later through a process devoid of scientific rigor, the resulting uncertainty will create intolerable risks and undermine the incentives for investment regardless of the drug at issue,” they said in a brief. “This, in turn, will ultimately hurt patients.”
But lawyers for the medical associations and their members that oppose abortion rights argued that the FDA failed to give a “satisfactory explanation” for its decision to lift the in-person dispensing requirement and called the studies the agency relied on “deeply problematic.”
Withdrawing the in-person visit requirement in 2021 eliminated the opportunity for health care workers to screen for ectopic pregnancies and other conditions, the associations argued. In 2016, the FDA removed “interrelated safeguards without studies” that examined the changes as a whole, they continued.
The group Americans United for Life, which is backing the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, claimed that the FDA has promoted access to abortion pills without medical supervision, which have increased health and safety risks to women and interfered with their care.
Supreme Court considers abortion pill access and major Baltimore bridge collapses: Morning Rundown
The Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether the abortion pill mifepristone should remain on the market. Federal agents executed search warrants at properties belonging to rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. And the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani spoke for the first time since his former interpreter was accused of “massive theft.”
Here’s what to know today.
SCOTUS considers abortion pill access — and the FDA approval process
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a high-stakes challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s drug approval process. At the center of the argument is the abortion pill mifepristone and whether access to the pill should remain.
The conservative-majority court, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, will consider the Biden administration’s appeal of lower court rulings that restricted access to the pill.
Mifepristone is part of a two-drug FDA-approved regimen for the majority of abortions nationwide.
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Nearly a year ago, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a sweeping ruling that completely invalidated the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. Then, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans narrowed Kacsmaryk’s decision on appeal but left in place his ruling, finding that the FDA’s move to lift restrictions on the pill starting in 2016 was unlawful.
Those loosened restrictions included allowing people to be prescribed the drug without an in-person doctor visit, expanding the number of pharmacies that can dispense the drug and extending the time mifepristone can be used to up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
The FDA has the backing of the pharmaceutical industry, which has warned that any second-guessing of the drug approval process by federal judges could cause chaos and deter innovation.
Ahead of the hearing, doctors and patient advocates raised alarm about what might happen if the high court decides to tighten access to the drug. “While there are alternatives that people could get if mifepristone is no longer available, it still means that most people seeking abortion are going to be impacted,” said Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an OB-GYN in New Jersey and former board chair of a reproductive rights advocacy group.
Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley explains more specifics in the case. Read the full story here.
Major bridge in Baltimore collapses
A major bridge collapsed in Baltimore early on Tuesday morning after it was hit by a container ship, sending several vehicles plunging into the water below.
Rescuers were searching for survivors after the ship collided with a pillar supporting part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which carries the Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River southeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area.
The incident was captured in dramatic video, which showed smoke billowing from the boat, as the bridge and road it held tumbled into the river. A livestream showed cars and trucks on the bridge just before the collision. The boat did not sink and its lights remained on.
The U.S. Coast Guard told NBC News it received a report at 1:27 a.m. ET that a “motor vessel made impact with the bridge” and confirmed it was a 948-foot vessel named DALI, a container ship sailing under a Singaporean flag.
Julian Assange wins temporary reprieve from extradition as U.K. court asks U.S. for assurances
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could receive permission to bring a fresh appeal against extradition to the United States on espionage charges, after a ruling by the U.K.’s High Court in London Tuesday.
The court ruled that Assange can pursue his appeal at a full hearing, unless the U.S. provides “satisfactory assurances” on the questions of whether he was able to rely on the First Amendment of the Constitution and whether he could be subject to the death penalty. It added that he should not be prejudiced at trial or sentencing “by reason of his nationality.”
Assange has been fighting extradition for more than a decade, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five in the high-security Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of the British capital.
Trump team fails to push back hush money trial
Donald Trump had a rollercoaster day in terms of legal developments. His attorneys failed to persuade New York state Judge Juan Merchan to delay the April 15 trial start date in his hush money case, which revolves around a $130,000 payment from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, who alleged that she had an affair with Trump and was given the money to buy her silence during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Ahead of yesterday’s hearing, Trump called the case a “witch hunt.” During the hearing, he was seen furrowing his brow and growing increasingly frustrated as his defense failed to persuade Merchan that more time was needed to review documents in the case. Read about more key moments from Trump’s day in court.
In another case, Trump and his team netted a small win. A New York state appeals court ruled that Trump and his co-defendant in the civil fraud trial case now have 10 days to post a $175 million bond, down from the $464 million bond that was originally due yesterday. Last week, Trump’s team had called coming up with the larger bond a “practical impossibility.”
More coverage of Donald Trump:
- Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is set to make its debut on the stock market today, a development that could generate a windfall for the cash-strapped former president. It’s unclear exactly how much he stands to gain. Even so, Trump won’t be able to sell his shares for six months.
- Trump said he “might” spend his own money on his 2024 presidential campaign, which he hasn’t done on his campaigns since 2016. Speaking to reporters, he added, “It’s none of your business.”
Homes of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs searched
Search warrants were executed yesterday at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ properties in Los Angeles and Miami, four law enforcement sources said, as the rap mogul faces a wave of lawsuits. Homeland Security officials also seized phones from Combs in Miami before he was scheduled to depart for a trip to the Bahamas, according to three law enforcement sources familiar with the warrant service.
A source familiar with the matter said Combs is the subject of a federal investigation. Three women and a man have been interviewed by federal officials in Manhattan in relation to allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms, the source said. Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Combs has been the subject of multiple lawsuits. In one filed in November and settled a day later, Combs’ former romantic partner Cassie accused him of physically and sexually abusing her for years. Since then, three other women have come forward with lawsuits, alleging they were sexually abused.
Combs has denied each of the sexual assault allegations, calling them “sickening.”
Read more about the searches.
Last night, hours after the searches were announced, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones amended his civil complaint against Combs to add actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who is accused of sexually harassing and assaulting Jones. According to the amended federal complaint, Gooding groped Jones while on Combs’ yacht in January 2023. Gooding has not been charged with any crime.
Shohei Ohtani denies involvement in sports betting scandal
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani painted a picture of betrayal by his former interpreter, breaking his silence on a sports betting scandal that has gripped Major League Baseball since last week. In a statement to the media yesterday, Ohtani said that he did not bet on any sports or ask anyone to do it for him. Here’s what else Ohtani said.
Ohtani’s former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, is accused of making several wire transfers from Ohtani’s account — totaling at least $4.5 million — to place bets with a bookmaking operation in Southern California. Mizuhara was fired last week after reports from ESPN and The Los Angeles Times revealed his name came up in a federal investigation of illegal gambling.
Cancer patients facing deportation to Gaza: ‘Our fate will be death’
A group of Palestinians from Gaza who have been receiving cancer treatment in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv now potentially face deportation back to Gaza, where the health care system has all but collapsed and basic medicines are scarce. Israel’s Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction last week to prevent them from being sent back to Gaza and will make its final decision next month.
While patients said they wanted to see their families, they feared what could happen in Gaza. “They would be sending us to the area of hell,” said Reem Abu Obeida, who has breast cancer. “Our fate will be death.”
Several children are among those facing deportation. That includes a 9-year-old girl who was brought out of Gaza to donate bone marrow to her sick brother. Now, she faces the prospect of returning to Gaza without her parents. Read the full story here.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a trip to Washington after the U.S. refused to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that passed which demanded a cease-fire in Gaza for the remainder of the month of Ramadan.
Politics in Brief
Social media: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that would prohibit children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state.
Defamation suit: A Kansas man is suing Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee over social media posts that falsely identified him as an “illegal alien” and as one of the shooters in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.
Election integrity: The Justice Department is investigating dozens of threats made to election workers, federal officials said, and has charged 20 individuals so far.
Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.
Staff Pick: The group bringing God to Ohio public schools
For the past year, as I’ve reported on fights over LGBTQ acceptance in classrooms, I’ve heard many Christian conservatives argue that America needed to “put God back in schools.” So I was surprised to learn recently that an Ohio nonprofit was already doing it. LifeWise Academy promotes itself as a nonpartisan program to teach children good character through Bible stories. The lessons happen during the school day, and it’s legal, so long as they’re off-campus and not funded by tax dollars. Lots of parents love it, but others say injecting religion into the school day is creating problems.
I traveled to Ohio to see how the program works and to better understand LifeWise’s ambitious goals. — Mike Hixenbaugh, senior enterprise reporter
In Case You Missed It
- MSNBC hosts criticized NBC News for hiring former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a paid political analyst.
- After years in which Islamic extremist terrorism has receded as a top-tier concern, the attack at a Moscow concert hall is a reminder the threat still looms. Here’s what officials know about ISIS-K, the group that has claimed the attack, including their apparent aspirations to attack the U.S. and Europe.
- Keisei Tominaga, the University of Nebraska guard who cried after his team lost in the first round of March Madness, spoke about the reaction (good and bad) that he has received since going viral.
- Three senior Boeing executives, including CEO Dave Calhoun, are stepping down as the company deals with an ongoing safety crisis.
- Flaco the New York City owl had evidence of bird herpes and rat poison in his system at the time of his death, postmortem testing found.
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RFK Jr. threatens to sue Nevada over ballot access
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is threatening legal action against Nevada over his petition to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate, his campaign said Monday, after CBS News reported that the signatures he had gathered could be invalid because his petition did not include a vice presidential candidate.
The Kennedy campaign claimed that the Democratic Party invented a new rule to invalidate his Nevada signatures. But Nevada’s requirement for a vice presidential candidate to be named in an independent candidate’s petition has been on the books since 1993.
“After successfully collecting all of the signatures we need in Nevada, the DNC Goon Squad and their lackeys in the Nevada Secretary of State’s office are outright inventing a new requirement for the petition with zero legal basis,” said Kennedy ballot access attorney Paul Rossi. “The Nevada statute does not require the VP on the petition. The petition does not even have a field for a VP on it.”
“This corrupt attempt by the Nevada Secretary of State must be enjoined by a federal judge,” Rossi said. “The Kennedy campaign intends to depose the Secretary of State to find out exactly which White House or DNC official concocted this scheme.”
Rossi also linked to an email exchange on Nov. 14 between the campaign and the secretary of state’s office in which the office erroneously said the petition did not require a named running mate.
“Does the vice presidential candidate have to be listed on the petition forms,” a Kennedy ballot access manager asked in the email. “No,” the office staffer replied, referring the campaign to the petition format on page 5 of the state’s petition guide. Rossi also linked to Jan. 9 correspondence from the secretary of state’s office approving Kennedy’s petition.
This differs from Nevada statutes, which say that in an independent candidate’s petition of candidacy, “the person must also designate a nominee for Vice President.”
Documents requested from the Nevada office revealed that Kennedy only named himself, without a running mate, on his candidate petition, in violation of the rules, potentially making the signatures collected in the state void.
The secretary of state’s office acknowledged its staff had misinformed Kennedy.
“Earlier today it was brought to the attention of our office that a Secretary of State employee had provided inaccurate guidance to an independent presidential campaign. This was an error, and will be handled appropriately. In no way was the initial error or subsequent statutory guidance made with intent to benefit or harm any political party or candidate for office,” the office said in a statement to CBS News.
But the office also said that despite the error, it was up to Kennedy’s campaign to follow the statute.
“When a government agency communicates with a member of the public and gives an unclear or incorrect answer to a question, Nevada courts have been clear that the agency is not permitted to honor the employee’s statements if following those statement[s] would be in conflict with the law,” the office said.
Kennedy is so far on the ballot only in Utah, although his campaign says it has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in several other states. Kennedy plans to name his running mate Tuesday, in Oakland.
Doctors fear restricted access to the abortion pill mifepristone
About two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court on Tuesday will revisit the issue of reproductive rights, this time contemplating whether to limit access to mifepristone, the first of two pills used in medication abortion.
Ahead of oral arguments and eventual ruling, doctors and patient advocates are expressing alarm about what might happen if the high court decides to tighten access to the drug.
Following the Dobbs ruling in 2022, 14 states now completely ban abortion, including medication abortion. A handful of other states ban delivering the drugs by mail and require patients to see a doctor in person before they can get a prescription for mifepristone. Medication abortions accounted for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
At issue Tuesday is whether the Food and Drug Administration disregarded important safety concerns when it expanded access to mifepristone beginning in 2016. Those eventual expansion include making it available from mail-order pharmacies.
Two studies cited in a Texas court ruling last year claimed mifepristone could be harmful. Those studies, however, were later retracted after the publication found “fundamental problems with the study design and methodology” as well as conflicts of interest.
“I’m very concerned,” said Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an OB-GYN in New Jersey and the former board chair for Physicians of Reproductive Health, an advocacy group for reproductive rights. “While there are alternatives that people could get if mifepristone is no longer available, it still means that most people seeking abortion are going to be impacted.”
It could set “an incredibly dangerous precedent,” said Kristen Moore, the director of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project. Putting the medication back “under lock and key” means “breaking the system,” she added.
The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 to end pregnancies of up to seven weeks.
Over the last decade, the FDA made revisions to the approval that made the drug easier to get, including allowing it to be prescribed without an in-person doctor visit and expanding the number of eligible pharmacies — such as drug store chains, including CVS and Walgreens — that can dispense the drug. It also extended the time mifepristone can be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
The Supreme Court could roll back those changes, including in states where abortion is still legal. It’s unclear when the court could make a final ruling, but experts expect a decision by the end of June.
“It is a uniquely important case,” said Arthur Caplan, the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. “If the court were to buy into it, it would clearly bring abortion by pill to end around this country.”
Limiting access to the only choice
The FDA has maintained that medication abortion is safe and effective.
Mifepristone is one of two drugs used in the regimen for use in early abortions. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken one to two days later.
Mifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone, which the body needs to support a pregnancy. Misoprostol causes the uterus to contract and empty. As a two-drug regimen, the medications successfully end a pregnancy nearly 100% of the time, according to a 2015 5study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Dr. Michael Belmonte, a fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said medication abortion is safe and the option that many of his patients prefer.
“I always include medication abortion as an option when counseling my patients,” he said. Limiting access, he added, could “make it harder for patients for whom medication is the right, or in some cases, the only choice for them.”
Clinics stocking up
Brandi said she is particularly concerned about people with disabilities or others who lack the resources to be able to travel to get a surgical abortion.
Women who are in the country illegally, she added, may also face difficulties crossing state lines to access abortions. The medication is also used to help women recover after a miscarriage.
“It’s going to vastly impact people that are marginalized,” she said. “Medication abortion has been a huge access point for people who need it.”
Providers are preparing for the worst-case scenario.
Moore, of the Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project, said doctors are already stocking up on the medication in their clinics in case they need to act as both the doctor and the dispenser.
Still, “it could put an intense amount of pressure on an already pressurized abortion care ecosystem,” she said.
Even ahead of Tuesday’s ruling, some patients are already under the impression that medication abortion is banned nationwide, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider with clinics in four states.
That is concerning, she added, because it leaves people confused about whether they can access care.
“My experience with patients oftentimes is that they will hear something like a bill being introduced and they think that it’s already law,” Miller said. “That strategy of having people confused about their rights, afraid of what’s legal, what’s not legal, where can I access something I think is part of what’s at play here.”
Audrey Wrobel, 27, of Philadelphia and a patient advocate for Planned Parenthood, said medication abortion was the best option for her when she decided to end her pregnancy in 2015.
In college at the time, Wrobel found out that she was pregnant after taking a pregnancy test in the bathroom of a grocery store. After telling her boyfriend, they drove to a Planned Parenthood about 20 minutes away to take a second pregnancy test. About two weeks later, she was prescribed mifepristone.
The medication abortion, Wrobel said, meant she could have privacy and “the care I needed on my own terms.”
She said the Supreme Court shouldn’t be able to decide what women should do with their bodies.
“We are the ones living with the decisions,” she said.
U.K. election regulator says hackers had access for over a year but elections still secure
Hackers gained access to the U.K.’s election regulator, the Electoral Commission, for more than a year, the agency said Tuesday.
The Electoral Commission said the hackers were not able to access any systems related to the actual administration of elections, but they did access the agency’s email servers and personal information like names and addresses of voters who registered from 2014 to 2022.
Most of the voter information that was accessed was already public, the commission said. The hackers first gained access in August 2021 and went undetected until October 2022, the agency said.
The Electoral Commission said it doesn’t know the identity of the hackers and that none have claimed responsibility.
The agency delayed announcing the breach because it first needed to kick out the hackers, assess their access and put in additional security measures, Andreea Ghita, a spokesperson for the commission, said in an email.
Shaun McNally, the organization’s chief executive, said in a statement that the U.K.’s elections system remains secure due in part to it use of paper documentation.
“Nevertheless, the successful attack on the Electoral Commission highlights that organisations involved in elections remain a target, and need to remain vigilant to the risks to processes around our elections,” McNally said.
A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre, the British government’s cybersecurity agency, said that it had helped the commission in its recovery from the incident but declined to comment further.
Since 2016 intelligence agencies from Russia and Iran have been accused of hacking election-related systems in several countries, including the U.S. and France. In 2020, the U.K. accused Russia of a cyber-influence operation designed to influence its nationwide elections the year before.
Lisa Forte, a partner at the British cybersecurity company Red Goat, said that the fact that the hackers were able to stay undetected for more than a year is noteworthy.
“This implies that they had a level of sophistication above and beyond that of the opportunistic attacker,” Forte said.
Florida school board reverses decision nixing access to children’s book about a male penguin couple
Months after access to a popular children’s book about a male penguin couple hatching a chick was restricted at school libraries because of Florida’s “ Don’t Say Gay law,” a central Florida school district says it has reversed that decision.
The School Board of Lake County and Florida education officials last week asked a federal judge to toss out a First Amendment lawsuit brought by students and the authors of “And Tango Makes Three” in June. Their complaint challenged the restrictions and Florida’s new law prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grade levels.
The lawsuit is moot since age restrictions on “And Tango Makes Three” have been lifted following a Florida Department of Education memo that said the new law only applied to classroom instruction and not school libraries, according to motions filed Friday by Florida education officials and school board members of the district located outside Orlando.
The “Don’t Say Gay” law has been at the center of a fight between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and has made the culture wars a driving force of his campaign. DeSantis and Republican lawmakers took over control of the district after Disney publicly opposed the law.
“The Court lacks jurisdiction both because this case is moot and because plaintiffs never had standing in the first place,” Florida education officials said in their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The school board and Florida education officials on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Brian Davis in Ocala, Florida, to postpone any further discovery until he rules on whether to dismiss the case.
Last week, the judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have ruled immediately in favor of the students and authors without the need for a trial, agreeing that the question over getting access to the book was moot since the school board had lifted restrictions.
“And Tango Makes Three” recounts the true story of two male penguins who were devoted to each other at the Central Park Zoo in New York. A zookeeper who saw them building a nest and trying to incubate an egg-shaped rock gave them an egg from a different penguin pair with two eggs after they were having difficulty hatching more than one egg at a time. The chick cared for by the male penguins was named Tango.
The book is listed among the 100 most subjected to censorship efforts over the past decade, as compiled by the American Library Association.