WASHINGTON — A new president with an ambitious agenda. Stark ideological divisions within both parties. And a deeply divided House with Republicans holding a slender majority.

“[We’re] going to be on offense to hold our House GOP majority in 2026,” North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who leads the National Republican Congressional Committee, said on social media last month. “Let’s get to work!’’

Democrats, meanwhile, are already looking for every opportunity to loosen the GOP’s narrow majority, including the recent Republican infighting over the government funding extension. But their earliest chances to do so — special elections to succeed Republican House members, including two poised to join the Trump administration — will be tough lifts. Those are set to take place in deep-red territory.

“House Republicans have reminded everyone AGAIN that they only care about doing what Donald Trump & Elon Musk tell them to,” Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on social media before the close of the previous Congress. “And the first chance voters will get to weigh in will be the midterms, and these irresponsible decisions will cost House Republicans the majority.”

CQ Roll Call is taking an initial look at House members who could be vulnerable in 2026, grouped by categories. But with the midterm elections almost two years away, a lot can be expected to change between now and Nov. 3, 2026.

New York and California

Two blue states, New York and California, have been key House battlegrounds in recent election cycles, and 2026 should be no different, with both parties defending competitive seats in both states.

Eight districts in California were decided by 5 points or less in 2024. They include the Central Valley seat of Democrat Adam Gray, who defeated Republican Rep. John Duarte by fewer than 200 votes. Two Southern California Democrats — George Whitesides, who knocked off GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, and Derek Tran, who unseated Republican Rep. Michelle Steel by just over 650 votes — likely start off among the most vulnerable members.

A handful of districts in New York will likely be competitive again too. Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen, who defeated GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito on Long Island, will fight for a second term in an area where local Republicans have seen a resurgence in recent years, while fellow Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi could also face another close race. Districts north of New York City, like the 17th, where Republican Mike Lawler won a second term, and the 19th, where Democrat Josh Riley ousted GOP Rep. Marc Molinaro, will likely be on party target lists. Lawler is considered a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2026, and an open seat might be easier for Democrats to flip.

One policy debate could shape the fate of Republicans in high-tax states, including New York and California: whether a 2017 tax law provision that placed a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions is renewed, and if so, in what way. Republican lawmakers in both states are among those leading the push to eliminate or raise the cap.

Blue Dogs and rural Democrats

Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington state have proved they can succeed in Republican-leaning territory, although both can expect to once again be GOP targets this cycle. Golden won a fourth term in November by less than a point as Trump carried his seat by 10 points.

Two other members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, scraped by in South Texas border districts that are predominantly Latino, a demographic that has grown more Trump-friendly in recent years.

And the president-elect’s robust appeal among rural voters could test Democratic Rep. Don Davis, who won a second term to his eastern North Carolina seat by less than 2 points.

Close margins

Beyond California, New York and Blue Dog territory, members who eked out victories in close races are likely to wind up as top targets in 2026.

They include Republicans such as Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who won a third term by less than a percentage point, or about 788 votes. That’s still a more comfortable margin than her six-vote edge in 2020. Colorado freshman Gabe Evans had the second-narrowest victory among House Republicans, flipping a seat north of Denver by just under 2,500 votes. And Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a perennial Democratic target, narrowly won a fifth term as Kamala Harris was carrying his Omaha-area district.

Republican Nick Begich III entered Congress after defeating Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola by 2 points for Alaska’s at-large seat. While the state typically votes red, its ranked choice voting system could keep the door open for a future competitive race.

Ideological warriors

Republicans who are philosophically opposed to raising the debt limit have already tangled with Trump over a stopgap spending measure that included language to suspend the borrowing cap for two years. One prominent conservative critic of the bill, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, was singled out by Trump, who expressed hope that challengers will “go after Chip” in a primary. Roy wasn’t the only GOP member to reject the measure: In all, 38 Republicans voted against it.

Mike Johnson’s election as speaker last week also showcased GOP divides. Ultimately, only one Republican, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, voted against Johnson after two other holdouts, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, switched their votes. Trump was firmly behind Johnson, who was elected on the first ballot. Former Rep. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s onetime acting chief of staff whom Norman succeeded in the House, offered to help target the congressman last week.

Trump has regularly used his sway with GOP voters to target Republicans he views as disloyal. Freshman Rep. John McGuire had Trump’s backing when he narrowly defeated Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good in a competitive primary in Virginia last year.

Democrats have their own ideological rifts. The party saw a number of divisive primaries in 2024, several of them targeting progressives and fueled by pro-Israel super PACs. This time around, philosophical splits within the party could leave Democrats across the political spectrum vulnerable. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, whose postelection comments suggesting the party’s support for transgender athletes is part of the reason why Democrats lost, has already drawn promises to find primary opponents. The Boston Globe reported last month that Dan Koh, a former Andover, Mass., selectman and aide to former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, is considering a run.

New battlegrounds?

Both parties will look to expand their offensive opportunities in 2026. In a memo released last month, House Majority PAC, a super PAC focused on electing Democrats to the House, includes several new GOP targets, including Eli Crane of Arizona, Kevin Kiley of California, Bill Huizenga of Michigan and Rob Wittman of Virginia.

Meanwhile, Republican hopes have been bolstered by Trump’s stronger-than-expected performance in traditionally blue territory, such as the suburban New Jersey district won by Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou. The president-elect’s gains in red states like Florida could expand the battleground House map further still.

Redistricting redux

A few states could have new congressional maps for the 2026 midterms. Expected new lines in Ohio could endanger Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in the House, and Emilia Sykes.

Pending court cases in several states could also lead to redrawn maps, including in Alabama and Louisiana, where Democrats Shomari Figures and Cleo Fields, respectively, picked up seats last fall that were drawn to include substantial Black populations.

Impeachment Republicans

Just two House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of an insurrection” after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol remain in Congress. But Reps. Dan Newhouse of Washington and David Valadao of California won reelection in 2024, although Newhouse had to dispatch Trump-backed challengers from the right in the primary and in the general election.

Eyes elsewhere?

Most gubernatorial contests are still taking shape, but a number of House members have sent signals that they are at least pondering running for their state’s highest office, including in New York (Lawler and Democrat Ritchie Torres), Tennessee (Republicans Tim Burchett and Andy Ogles), South Dakota (Republican Dusty Johnson), Colorado (Democrat Jason Crow), Pennsylvania (Republican Dan Meuser), Florida (Republican Byron Donalds) and South Carolina (Republicans Norman and Nancy Mace). Most of these seats would be expected to remain in party hands should the incumbents bolt for gubernatorial runs.

But first, there are the 2025 state elections in New Jersey and Virginia, where former or current House members are seeking the governor’s mansion. Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger, who opted against reelection last year to focus on her gubernatorial bid, could face a primary challenge from Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, who is keeping the door open on a run. And in New Jersey, two incumbent Democrats, Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, are part of a crowded field vying for the Garden State’s governorship.

©2025 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

This easy bean dish from Tieghan Gerard’s latest cookbook, “Half Baked Harvest: Quick and Cozy” (Clarkson Potter, $32.99), will make dinner or lunch feel like a warm hug. It combines the flavors of a creamy tomato soup with cheesy white beans and herby basil pesto with a touch of garlic.

And talk about easy: It comes together in less than 20 minutes in a single pan, making it easy for serving and cleanup.

I used cannellini beans and added the last few tablespoons of pesto in the jar to use it up. I also added another tablespoon of tomato paste and a splash of cream to even out the flavors of the extra pesto.

I served it with toasted and buttered sprouted spelt bread.

Skillet Tomato Cheddar Basil Beans

PG tested

1/4 cup olive oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced

1 teaspoon oregano or Italian seasoning

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 or 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup basil pesto, jarred or homemade

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 15-ounce cans white beans such as butter, cannellini or navy, drained

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Crusty or toasted bread, for serving

Preheat the broiler.

In large skillet over medium heat, heat olive oil. When oil is shimmering, add shallot and cook until it begins to soften, 1 minute.

Add garlic and oregano and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 2 minutes more.

Reduce heat to low, add tomato paste and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring, until the paste darkens to a rich brick red, about 4 minutes.

Stir in 1 cup water, then cream and pesto. Season with salt and pepper.

Add beans and 1/2 cup cheddar, tossing until the cheese melts.

Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beans are well coated and the flavors are melded, about 10 minutes.

Stir in basil and cook just to wilt, 1 minute more. Taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheddar and the mozzarella. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbling, about 2 minutes.

Divide among bowls and top with more basil. Serve with bread alongside for scooping and dipping.

Serves 4-6.

— adapted from “Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy (Clarkson Potter, $32.99)

©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The sister of Sam Altman accused the OpenAI chief executive officer of sexually abusing her for almost a decade, in a lawsuit filed in federal court.

Ann Altman, 30, alleged that Sam Altman abused and manipulated her while they were growing up in Missouri in the late 1990s to early 2000s. According to the lawsuit filed Monday, the alleged abuse began when she was 3 years old and the last instance allegedly occurred when he was an adult but she was still a minor. Ann Altman has previously claimed on social media that Sam Altman abused her.

Sam Altman, 39, posted a statement on behalf of himself, his mother and brothers on X on Tuesday, calling the claims “utterly untrue.”

“This situation causes immense pain to our entire family,” the statement read.

Sam Altman, a longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor, gained a global profile with the massive success of artificial intelligence startup OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, which sparked an AI frenzy upon its release in late 2022.

Under Missouri state law, plaintiffs can bring claims for childhood sexual abuse up until the age of 31. Ann Altman is suing for damages, claiming she has experienced severe emotional distress and faces mounting medical bills related to her mental health treatment.

The case is Altman v. Altman, 4:25-cv-00017, US District Court, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis).

(With assistance from Ellen Huet and Peter Blumberg.)

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

PITTSBURGH — The best meals are also often the simplest meals made with just a handful of everyday, easy-to-find ingredients.

And if they’re both fresh and local, even better.

As recounted in his new memoir, “A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France,” every Friday he and his wife, Mary Jo, would trek to the promenade where the fisherman of Valras sold extremely fresh seafood in stalls. Though it was unfamiliar, he was adventurous and would pick whatever looked the most interesting or was recommended by the fishmongers.

While “fishy” fish like mackerel didn’t go over well with his two kids, he could never go wrong with oysters or palourdes, the small, sweet clams harvested from the Etang de Thau, a salt-water lagoon along the Languedoc coast.

Cooked in a broth of white wine, parsley and piment d’espelette and tossed with sauteed shallots, garlic and pasta, “spaghetti and clams went from a once-a-year-delicacy to a heavily requested family staple,” he writes.

“The kitchen had begun to feel like the center that held [his family] together, and I craved my nightly aproned shift.”

Stuck in landlocked Pittsburgh, I had to “settle” for littleneck clams that arrive at Wholey’s in the Strip District from pristine North Atlantic waters instead of the Mediterranean Sea. (Still great, and cheap!)

I mistakenly bought fettuccine, which is wider and thicker than linguini, the preferred pasta to pair with clams in white sauce. I also substituted a pinch of hot paprika for the piment d’espelette.

Start to finish, the dish took about 15 minutes to prepare if you don’t count soaking time.

Cook’s note: Be sure to scrub the shells really well with a brush to remove any dirt or debris before placing them in the salt water to soak. (This allows the clams to purge any sand), and rinse them again before cooking. I had to strain the liquid twice to remove the remaining black grit.

Pasta and Clams ã la Famille Hoffman

PG tested

4 pounds small clams (littleneck or Manila)

Sea salt

1 pound spaghetti or linguini

1 cup dry white wine

1 large or 2 small shallots, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon piment d’espelette

Make sure clams are closed and that no shells are cracked. Soak in salted water for 20-30 minutes, then drain.

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water and follow the instructions for al dente. Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, add the white wine and clams to a saute pan or Dutch oven set over medium heat and cover. Check after 5 minutes, and if not all clams are open, keep checking every 2 minutes until all (or nearly all) clams are open.

Remove clams with a slotted spoon and reserve in a bowl. Toss any that have not opened.

Strain liquid (to remove grit), and set aside in a separate bowl. Taste and add salt to clam broth if necessary.

Sauté the shallot and garlic in olive oil for 3-5 minutes. They should be fragrant but not browned.

Pour reserved clam broth into pot, and add pasta to reheat.

Add parsley, piment d’espelette and shelled clams. Toss to combine.

Serve in pasta bowls and garnish with 3-4 unshelled clams each.

Serves 4.

— Stephen Hoffman

©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LOS ANGELES — A month before our December awards vote, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association launches a group email thread for members to advocate for their favorite films and standout work. The idea is to help everyone close any gaps in our viewing as we plow through screeners and links in a hopeless attempt to see everything before we vote.

You could argue that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande should be considered co-leads of “Wicked” too. But the musical is really Elphaba’s story, with Grande’s Glinda along for the ride as her best frenemy. So Universal pushing Erivo in lead and Grande for supporting doesn’t seem egregious.

And what about Kieran Culkin going supporting for “A Real Pain,” an odd-couple road movie about two cousins, played by Culkin and the movie’s writer-director, Jesse Eisenberg, traveling to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother? Culkin has almost as much screen time as Eisenberg, but the story is told from the point of view of Eisenberg’s character. (Same with Saldaña, which is why, for some, her placement has raised eyebrows.)

At our L.A. Film Critics vote, we tackled lead performance first, and Culkin came close to making the final round. Supporting came next, and it was immediately clear that even the people who thought Culkin was a lead weren’t going to be deterred from voting for him, and he won the award with Yura Borisov from “Anora.” A publicist friend texted me afterward: “That’s where Culkin belongs. If you gave him lead, you’d be saying that he was trying to pull a fast one by going supporting.”

Where he belongs remains up to Oscar voters, who don’t have to follow the studio’s suggested placement. And on rare occasions, they haven’t. The Weinstein Co. campaigned Kate Winslet in supporting actress for “The Reader” at the 2009 Oscars, looking to avoid competing with her lead turn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Revolutionary Road.” The Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominated Winslet for supporting, but film academy members put her in lead. And Winslet wound up winning the Oscar. (She made a point of not thanking Weinstein in her acceptance speech.)

It’s hard to see voters making such a category shift with Culkin or Saldaña or Grande this year. Who might be joining them in the supporting categories? Let’s take a quick look.

Supporting actor

Owing to his excellent work — and all that screen time — playing a charmer whose exuberance masks a deep inner turmoil, Culkin has been dominating the season’s early awards. Borisov could join him as a nominee for his soulful performance as the brooding Russian henchman in “Anora,” though it’s fair to wonder if his work might be too subtle for a branch that tends to reward “most” instead of best.

If you’re looking for “most,” Denzel Washington has got you covered and then some for “Gladiator II.” He’s clearly having the time of his life, and his exuberance (and the sharks!) made the movie well worth our time. Another actor clearly enjoying himself is Edward Norton playing folk singer Pete Seeger in “A Complete Unknown.” Norton leans into Seeger’s folksiness but also weaves in a manipulative streak as we see Seeger trying to keep Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) in the activist movement. He’s every bit as good as Chalamet.

Nobody has a better story among the supporting actor contenders than Clarence Maclin, who went from Sing Sing to “Sing Sing,” and he’s a marvel playing an inmate initially reluctant to participate in the prison theater program. Maclin should be winning more awards, but the movie just hasn’t found a big enough audience.

That’s five, but there are others in the hunt. Jeremy Strong is at the top of his game (as always) playing Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.” Stanley Tucci brings his delicious snark to “Conclave.” And there’s Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro, two members of the excellent “September 5” ensemble that, like “His Three Daughters,” is hampered because everyone’s so good. How do you single anyone out?

Supporting actress

This Oscar race will come down to a battle between Saldaña and Grande, thanks to the screen time, the quality of their work and the fact that this has been a strangely thin year for supporting women. If I were voting, I’d check off Natasha Lyonne, Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen from “His Three Daughters,” alongside Grande and Saldaña, and call it a day. Though I would be tempted to find room for Margaret Qualley, so good as Demi Moore‘s younger half in “The Substance.”

There’s been a lot of justified praise for Danielle Deadwyler’s performance in “The Piano Lesson,” playing a woman determined to deal with her family’s past in her own way — and not according to her brother’s wishes. After being overlooked two years ago for “Till,” Deadwyler makes a clear case for her first nomination. Felicity Jones also is looking to break through as an Oscar nominee, and her work as the strong-willed wife in the second half of “The Brutalist” has put her in the conversation.

Then there are Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Isabella Rossellini, making big impressions in a small amount of time. Rossellini has never been nominated and is in “Conclave” for less than eight minutes. But she has one great scene (that curtsy!) that often generates applause at screenings. Voters remember that. Ellis-Taylor, meanwhile, brings a palpable heartache to “Nickel Boys” as a devoted grandmother sidelined by inequality and avarice.

Finally, there’s Selena Gomez playing a drug cartel boss’ wife in “Emilia Pérez,” delivering a showstopping song and adding an interesting ambiguity to her character. Gomez has been called out for her Spanish in the film, but that feels like nitpicking in a movie where absurdity often feels like the principle.

©2025 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

After large drops during the pandemic, life expectancy in the United States should recover to 2019 levels this year nationally and in 26 states — but not as fast as it should compared with similar countries, according to a new study.

Bad habits such as junk food, smoking and illicit drug use are preventing longer lifespans even as technology brings major progress in diseases such as cancer and heart disease, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

By 2050, U.S. life expectancy is projected to increase from 79.1 years to 80.4 years for babies born in that year, a modest improvement that would drop the United States behind nearly all other high-income countries, according to the study.

Poverty and inadequate health insurance are slowing progress in some states. Wealthier, more urban and better-educated states are doing better and are more likely to adopt policies that save lives, from curbing gun access to offering income supports for young mothers. Nine of the 10 states (all but North Dakota) with the longest life expectancies for babies born this year are dominated by Democrats, and all 10 have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. All 10 states with the shortest life expectancies are controlled by Republicans (though Kentucky has a Democratic governor), and they include five of the 10 states that have not expanded Medicaid.

A Stateline analysis of data from the study shows how some states have risen, and some have tumbled, in terms of life expectancy.

In 1990, for example, New York and West Virginia were nearly tied at Nos. 39 and 41 among states’ life expectancy rankings. But the two have since taken sharply different paths — New York rose to No. 3 in 2024 and is projected to have the longest life expectancy of any state by 2050, passing Hawaii and Massachusetts.

West Virginia outranks only Mississippi in 2024 and is projected to be last among states in 2050.

New York has benefited from good health care availability in New York City hospitals as well as state policies such as strict gun laws that have curbed suicides, and harm reduction policies to curb overdose deaths with supervised use sites and other controversial programs, said Brett Harris, president of the New York State Public Health Association and an associate professor in the University of Albany’s Department of Health Policy.

Harris said she’s not surprised that New York state, despite its ascent in life expectancy among states, would still drop from No. 33 to No. 41 by 2050 if ranked as a nation, according to the analysis.

“I think part of that is how individualistic we are in this country, the idea of always trying to get ahead, versus more of a community-based environment in other countries,” Harris said. “Their social policies tend to be better for health outcomes. If you live in more of a family environment versus an individualistic environment, that builds in more support.”

West Virginia’s sparse population and rural poverty make it harder to get health care. It’s also hard to get past community and political skepticism about health measures, said Brian Huggins, health officer for Monongalia County, West Virginia. Huggins has worked with other county health officials to advocate for stricter anti-smoking laws and to maintain school vaccination mandates in the face of opposition.

“It hurts to see West Virginia ranked at the bottom. We’re a proud state,” said Huggins, adding that life expectancy there also is hampered by lack of economic opportunity that drives young, healthy residents to move away. A plethora of concerns include a lack of sidewalks that make healthy walking more hazardous, and a dietary culture that does not include vegetables; both promote obesity.

Huggins also has seen conditions abroad. While stationed in Germany for the U.S. Army, he saw generous health provisions for Germans, such as two-week retreats with massages and sauna baths for those feeling stressed or burned out at work.

“Their goal in Germany is they want you back at work. Prevention and keeping a healthy workforce are their priority because that contributes to the economy,” said Huggins. “On the other hand, they have built a tax system to support this. You pay like an 18% tax on everything you buy there — that would not be something Americans would necessarily accept.” Germany’s valued-added tax, now 19%, applies to most goods and services.

Life expectancy dropped two years in a row during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a national drop of more than 1.8 years between 2019 and 2020, from 79.1 to 77.3 years. Recovery will not be complete until this year, according to the projections, with slow progress predicted until 2050 — when the national life expectancy will be about 80.4 years.

Some of the states that recovered fastest from the pandemic were North Dakota, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, where life expectancy gained about a year between 2019 and 2024. Twenty-four states still haven’t regained their 2019 life expectancy.

The District of Columbia, which is not a state, had a lower life expectancy than all 50 states in 1990, but this year it ranks 23. Ali Mokdad, an author of the study and the chief strategy officer for population health at the University of Washington, said D.C.’s improvement is at least partly due to an influx of more affluent and well-educated people since 1990.

Most states that were in the top 10 in 1990 have fallen out: Colorado (from No. 7 to 11), Iowa (from No. 4 to 17), Kansas (from No. 8 to 36), Nebraska (from No. 9 to 19), South Dakota (from No. 10 to 21) and Utah (falling from No. 2 to 12).

Those new to the top 10 in 2024 compared with 1990 are: Massachusetts (from No. 13 to 2), New York (as mentioned from No. 39 to 3), California (from No. 24 to 4), New Jersey (from No. 26 to 6), Rhode Island (from No. 19 to 8), and Washington state (from No. 14 to 10).

Urban concentrations of people are important to long life because of the availability of top-flight care, said Mokdad.

“I’m very close to the hospital [in Seattle] and I have health insurance. But is that true for everyone in Washington state? You might live two or three hours from Seattle, so even for people of my income and education level it’s not the same,” Mokdad said.

Quality care and insurance also are important, Mokdad said, to ensure that problems such as obesity and high blood pressure are noted and controlled.

“You see obesity in many areas, especially the Southern states, has increased tremendously and while smoking has dropped in rich areas, it has stuck around in other communities. This is explaining many of these [state differences] — what we call preventable risk factors,” Mokdad said.

“There’s an increase in life expectancy but a lot of people are still left behind,” Mokdad said.

The program, launched this year, is the first nationally to mimic some in 140 other nations that offer cash subsidies for child health, according to the article. The success of similar, temporary child tax credits early in the pandemic has prompted other states to adopt or expand their own tax credits for young mothers.

“We increasingly know that what happens in early childhood can impact life expectancy,” said Dr. Mona Hanna, a Flint pediatrician who founded the program, called Rx Kids. It relies on state help, in the form of permission to use federal funds, as well as private donations.

Michigan included $20 million in its state budget for next year to expand the program to other cities as well as to mostly white, rural counties in the state’s Upper Peninsula. The program grants $1,500 to expectant mothers plus $500 a month for the first year of the baby’s life.

“This is a concrete solution to conquer these place-based disparities and inequities,” Hanna said. “The stress of being born into poverty can lead to things like prematurity and low birth weight. Moms are more likely to have stress and maybe smoke. I see it every day. Families can’t make it to the doctor because they don’t have transportation. They have trouble eating healthy food because it’s too expensive.”

Rural areas in West Virginia could benefit from similar programs to address the state’s issues with poverty, aging and reliance on declining industries like coal, said Darren Liu, a health policy professor at the School of Public Health at West Virginia University.

To get more access to care for rural residents, the state should expand telemedicine, deploy more mobile clinics and offer student loan forgiveness for health care workers in rural areas, Liu told Stateline in an email.

Huggins, the county health officer in West Virginia, said money is a problem despite new federal guidelines that mandate many health screenings at no cost for insured patients. Often low-income patients get screenings but can’t afford to treat disabling conditions such as the knee and back pain they get from manual labor jobs.

“Because of the barriers that insurance companies put up, because they have to be profitable, I think that’s another reason why West Virginia is ranking low,” Huggins said. “That’s a barrier that we have to try to figure out. Almost any insurance now has well over a $1,000 deductible.”

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

CHICAGO — Shoplifting rates in the three largest U.S. cities — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — remain higher than they were before the pandemic, according to a report last month from the nonpartisan research group Council on Criminal Justice.

Since 2020, when viral videos of smash-and-grab robberies flooded social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans have expressed fears that crime is out of control. Polls show that perceptions have improved recently, but a majority of Americans still say crime is worse than in previous years.

“There is this sense of brazenness that people have — they can just walk in and steal stuff. … That hurts the consumer, and it hurts the company,” said Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, in an interview.

“That’s just the world we live in,” he said. “We need to get people to realize that you have to obey the law.”

At least eight states — Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, New York and Vermont — passed a total of 14 bills in 2024 aimed at tackling retail theft, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The measures range from redefining retail crimes and adjusting penalties to allowing cross-county aggregation of theft charges and protecting retail workers.

Major retailers have responded to rising theft since 2020 by locking up merchandise, upgrading security cameras, hiring private security firms and even closing stores.

Still, the report indicates that shoplifting remains a stubborn problem.

In Chicago, the rate of reported shoplifting incidents remained below pre-pandemic levels throughout 2023 — but surged by 46% from January to October 2024 compared with the same period a year ago.

Shoplifting in Los Angeles was 87% higher in 2023 than in 2019. Police reports of shoplifting from January to October 2024 were lower than in 2023. Los Angeles adopted a new crime reporting system in March 2024, which has likely led to an undercount, according to the report.

In New York, shoplifting rose 48% from 2021 to 2022, then dipped slightly last year. Still, the shoplifting rate was 55% higher in 2023 than in 2019. This year, the shoplifting rate increased by 3% from January to September compared with the same period last year.

While shoplifting rates tend to rise in November and December, which coincides with in-person holiday shopping, data from the Council on Criminal Justice’s sample of 23 U.S. cities shows higher rates in the first half of 2024 compared with 2023.

Researchers found it surprising that rates went up despite retailers doing more to fight shoplifting. Experts say the spike might reflect improved reporting efforts rather than a spike in theft.

“As retailers have been paying more attention to shoplifting, we would not expect the numbers to increase,” said Ernesto Lopez, the report’s author and a senior research specialist with the council. “It makes it a challenge to understand the trends of shoplifting.”

Impact on retailers, communities

In downtown Chicago on a recent early afternoon, potential shoppers shuffled through the streets and nearby malls, browsing for gifts ahead of the holidays.

Edward Johnson, a guard at The Shops at North Bridge, said that malls have become quieter in the dozen or so years he has worked in mall security, with the rise of online retailers. As for shoplifters, Johnson said there isn’t a single type of person to look out for — they can come from any background.

“I think good-hearted people see something they can’t afford and figure nothing is lost if they take something from the store,” Johnson said as he patrolled the mall, keeping an eye out for lost or suspicious items.

Between 2018 and 2023, most shoplifting in Chicago was reported in the downtown area, as well as in the Old Town, River North and Lincoln Park neighborhoods, according to a separate analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice.

Newly sworn-in Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke this month lowered the threshold for charging retail theft as a felony in the county, which includes Chicago, from $1,000 to $300, aligning it with state law.

“It sends a signal that she’s taking it seriously,” Rob Karr, the president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, told Stateline.

Nationally, retailers are worried about organized theft. The National Retail Federation’s latest report attributed 36% of the $112.1 billion in lost merchandise in 2022 to “external theft,” which includes organized retail crime.

Organized retail crime typically involves coordinated efforts by groups to steal items with the intent to resell them for a profit. Commonly targeted goods include high-demand items such as baby formula, laundry detergent and electronics.

The same report found that retailers’ fear of violence associated with theft also is on the rise, with more retailers taking a “hands-off approach.” More than 41% of respondents to the organization’s 2023 survey, up from 38% in 2022, reported that no employee is authorized to try and stop a shoplifter.

(The federation’s reporting has come under criticism. It retracted a claim last year that attributed nearly half of lost merchandise in 2021 to organized retail crime; such theft accounted for only about 5%. The group announced this fall it will no longer publish its reports on lost merchandise.)

Increased penalties

Policy experts say shoplifting and organized retail theft can significantly harm critical industries, drive up costs for consumers and reduce sales tax revenue for states. Those worries have driven recent state-level action to boost penalties for shoplifting.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of 10 bills into law in August aimed at addressing retail theft. These measures make repeated theft convictions a felony, allow aggregation of crimes across multiple counties to be charged as a single felony, and permit police to arrest suspects for retail theft even if the crime wasn’t witnessed directly by an officer. In September, Newsom signed an additional bill that imposes steeper felony penalties for large-scale theft offenses.

California voters also overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in November that increases penalties for specific drug-related and theft crimes. Under the new law, people who are convicted of theft at least twice may face felony charges on their third offense, regardless of the stolen item’s value.

“With these changes in the law, really it comes down to making sure that law enforcement is showing up to our stores in a timely manner, and that the prosecutors and the [district attorneys] are prosecuting,” Rachel Michelin, the president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, told Stateline. “That’s the only way we’re going to deter retail theft in our communities.”

In New Jersey, a bipartisan bill making its way through the legislature would increase penalties for leading a shoplifting ring and allow extended sentences for repeat offenders.

“This bill is going after a formally organized band of criminals that deliver such destruction to a critical business in our community. We have to act. We have to create a deterrence,” Democratic Assemblymember Joseph Danielsen, one of the bill’s prime sponsors, said in an interview with Stateline.

The legislation would allow extended sentences for people convicted of shoplifting three times within 10 years or within 10 years of their release from prison, and would increase penalties to 10 to 20 years in prison for leading a retail crime ring.

The bill also would allow law enforcement to aggregate the value of stolen goods over the course of a year to charge serial shoplifters with more serious offenses. Additionally, the bill would increase penalties for assaults committed against retail workers, and would require retailers to train employees on detecting gift card scams.

Maryland legislators considered a similar bill during this year’s legislative session that would have defined organized retail theft and made it a felony.

The bill didn’t make it out of committee, but Cailey Locklair, president of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, said the group plans to propose a bill during next year’s legislative session that would target gift card fraud.

Retail theft data

Better, more thorough reporting from retailers is essential to truly understanding shoplifting trends and its full impact, in part because some retail-related crimes, such as gift card fraud, are frequently underreported, according to Lopez, of the Council on Criminal Justice.

Measuring crime across jurisdictions is notoriously difficult, and the council does not track organized retail theft specifically because law enforcement typically doesn’t identify it as such at the time of arrest — if an arrest even occurs — requiring further investigation, Lopez said.

The council’s latest report found conflicting trends in the FBI’s national crime reporting systems.

The FBI’s older system, the Summary Reporting System, known as SRS, suggests that reported shoplifting hadn’t gone up through 2023, remaining on par with 2019 levels. In contrast, the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, shows a 93% increase in shoplifting over the same period.

The discrepancy may stem from the type of law enforcement agencies that have adopted the latter system, Lopez said. Some of those communities may have higher levels of shoplifting or other types of property crime, which could be what is driving the spike, Lopez said.

Despite the discrepancies and varying levels of shoplifting across the country, Lopez said, it’s important for retailers to report these incidents, as doing so could help allocate law enforcement resources more effectively.

“All law enforcement agencies have limited resources, and having the most accurate information allows for not just better policy, but also better implementation — better use of strategic resources,” Lopez said.

Stateline staff writer Robbie Sequeira contributed to this report.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Here are three last-minute stocking stuffers under $30 to round out this year’s holiday gift coverage.

Anker Nano USB-C Power Bank, $19.99: Never run out of power with this tiny, innovative power bank with a folding USB-C connector. I’ve seen it on sale for $15.99 in stores like Best Buy. Given the quality, convenience and price everyone should have one for an emergency charge.

Austere V Series Clean & Protect, $29.99: This perennial favorite is the best and safest product on the market for cleaning your electronics and display screens. It is allergen-free, antibacterial, streak-free, anti-static and comes beautifully packaged with a special cleaning cloth. It’s great for car screens as well. austere.com

TEAC PD-301-X CD player/FM tuner for $299: Earlier this year I wrote about this excellent component that incorporates an audiophile-quality CD player and an FM tuner in a single, compact package. It’s solid and stylish, a pleasure to use and sounds fantastic. At the $549 introductory price it represented very good value, especially since stand-alone FM tuners are hard to find these days and typically very expensive. Given few stereo receivers are sold now and the marketplace has largely gone to integrated amplifiers, the PD-301-X becomes especially compelling because it goes a long way towards completing a system. An integrated amplifier, a turntable and a PD-301-X are all the components most people will need besides the speakers.

Until Dec. 31, TEAC has the PD-301-X on sale for $299. That’s pretty much unheard of for an audiophile quality CD player, and getting FM as part of the deal makes it even more of a standout bargain. With the prices also potentially going up in January due to tariffs and annual price hikes, it’s even more compelling to snag one by year-end. teacusa.com

Q. I read your comments about the Bluetooth turntable last week and had to wonder, doesn’t the introduction of Bluetooth to the otherwise analog system eliminate the supposed value of listening to vinyl? The analog signal mechanically transferred from the LP would become digital to transmit over Bluetooth, and that eliminates the supposed value of turntables and vinyl, doesn’t it?

—R.B., San Jose, California

A. I don’t think it eliminates the value of vinyl and turntables. Yes, having a system that is completely analog and wired from beginning to end is ideal. But even if Bluetooth is involved, the source itself is analog and vinyl records have a different sound than digital sources, which are often if not always compressed, cleaned up and modified for playback. Having a turntable also opens up the vast depth and breath of music that is available on vinyl, new and used. Much of this used vinyl is available very inexpensively, and once you have the turntable, collecting records is fun and inexpensive. Being able to use a turntable with a Bluetooth speaker opens up the hobby to many more people, and as noted in the last column you can use it wired with a stereo system and also connected via Bluetooth to a speaker in another room. It all adds up to a win in my book.

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Christmas is approaching fast, but you still have time to grab a gift for the techies in your life.

As usual, I’m going to be including list pricing, but you may find the items on sale when you visit their websites.

ReMarkable Paper Pro

If you know someone who still prefers to take notes with a pen and paper, chances are they’d love a note-taking tablet like the reMarkable Paper Pro ($579, remarkable.com).

This is a pretty unique class of gadgets — it looks like it might work like an iPad for watching movies or surfing the internet, but it won’t do either of those things.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is a pure note-taking tablet. The marketing message from remarkable is one of eliminating distractions and letting you do your work.

There are just a few things this tablet does, but it does them very well.

It lets you take notes with a stylus. It’s very easy to create a note and your notebook has unlimited new pages.

When you are writing, you can choose from several pen or pencil options.

Written text can be converted to digital words and notes can be emailed for sharing.

There are also companion apps for your phone or tablet or computer to sync and transfer your notes. You can also get extensions for Chrome or Office see them from a browser or add them to Office documents. There are also integrations to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox.

You can also load and read PDF and ePub documents.

The biggest update from the previous remarkable 2 is the addition of a larger color, backlit screen. The previous versions of the remarkable tablet used e-ink screens and had no backlighting. The new screen can be seen, even in complete darkness and you can write using nine distinct colors.

Battery life is up to two weeks of regular use or 90 days on standby.

Wyze Duo Cam Doorbell

I’m a big fan of Wyze cameras for keeping an eye on my house and yard. I also have used several brands of video doorbell, and for the last month or so I’ve been using the Wyze Duo Cam Doorbell ($89.98, wyze.com).

As you might surmise from the name, this doorbell has two cameras — one to show you who’s at the door, and one facing downward to show you packages that might be sitting on your front porch.

The Duo Cam Doorbell can be powered from your existing doorbell wiring, or it can operate from an included rechargeable battery. It also includes a microSD card slot so you can add your own memory card for 24/7 recording to the device, viewable through the app.

Each camera has 2K video resolution.

The doorbell has two-way audio so you can hear and speak to people at your door. There is also AI detection of things like pets, people, packages and vehicles.

Wyze cameras and doorbells don’t need a subscription to view the cameras via the app and to record to memory cards. If you want to record clips based on motion detection and send them to the cloud or utilize the AI features, you’ll need a CamPlus subscription, which starts at $2.99 per month per device.

Ugreen Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger

The Uno 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charger ($69.99, ugreen.com) is a neat little charger for your desk or nightstand.

It has a Qi2 15-Watt wireless charger that can lay flat or at an angle. If you raise up the wireless charger, you’ll expose another 5W wireless charging spot just the right size for your AirPods. Finally, there is a USB-C port to support charging another device, such as an Apple Watch.

The Qi2 charger has a pretty strong magnet to grab onto your phone if it’s equipped for Magsafe charging.

The front of the charger has an LED screen, but instead of showing any useful information, it shows a “groovy robot” face. If you read the website, Ugreen calls the Uno their fun line of chargers. The robot face on the screen changes depending on the charging state of the connected devices.

I get that Ugreen is trying to be whimsical, but I’d rather have a screen that showed me actual numbers of how much power was flowing in and out.

The charger includes a USB-C cable, but not a wall charger, so you’ll have to provide your own.

Dreo Solaris 718 Space Heater

I’ve only been using the Solaris 718 Space Heater ($129.99, amazon.com) for about three weeks, as it’s been too warm in Texas.

It’s tall and thin, so it doesn’t take up much room on your floor. It oscillates up to 120 degrees to heat the entire room. There are five heat settings as well as the ability to set a desired temperature (from 41 to 95 degrees) and let the heater do its thing.

It has all kinds of safety features, including overheat protection, child lock and tip over protection.

The best things about the 718 are its quiet operation and fast warm up. It will put out heat in less than 5 seconds and it does a great job heating a large room. There are controls on top of the unit, an easy carry handle built-in and a handy remote control.

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

When it comes to one-pot meals, you rarely go wrong with a dish built around chuck roast.

The budget cut requires long and slow cooking to turn it into a tender, fork-friendly meal. But if you have a few hours to kill on the weekend and love to fill your kitchen with wonderful aromas, you’ll be rewarded with a dish full of rich, beefy flavor.

This recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s latest cookbook, “When Southern Women Cook,” puts a Latin American spin on a boneless beef chuck-eye roast by combining it with chiles, diced tomatoes and an array of Mexican spices, then slow-braising it into a stew.

Carne guisada, which means “stewed meat” in Spanish, is perfect for cool weather comfort dining because it’s so simple and satisfying. A classic of Puerto Rican cuisine (where the dish is thought to have originated), it features the same aromatic base as many Latin American dishes — an heady mix of tomatoes, peppers, onions, cumin and garlic.

Adaptations of the dish also show up in communities along the Texas-Mexico border, where the stew gets extra heft from potatoes, is thickened with flour and served as a taco filling.

You can serve the savory chunks of meat and veggies over a simple bed of white rice, with beans or atop noodles, or simply eat it by the spoonful from a bowl. (You’ll need some crusty bread to soak up all that wonderful gravy.) Or, take the cookbook’s suggestion and tuck it into warm flour tortillas to enjoy as a burrito or tacos.

If your Dutch oven is on the small side (less than 6 quarts), brown the beef in batches to avoid overcrowding. I used fire-roasted tomatoes for extra flavor.

Carne Guisada

PG tested

3 pounds boneless beef chuck-eye roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1½ teaspoons salt, divided

½ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 onions, chopped

2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1½ teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

1 cup chicken broth

1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces

2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into ½-inch strips

24 (6-inch) flour tortillas, warmed

Fresh cilantro leaves

Lime wedges

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.

Pat beef dry with paper towels and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper.

Heat oil in Dutch oven until just smoking. Add half of beef and cook until browned on all sides, 7-10 minutes; transfer to plate.

Reduce heat to medium-low, add onions and remaining 1 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, garlic, chili powder, oregano, coriander and cumin and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

Stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes and broth and bring to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in all beef and any accumulated juices. Cover, transfer pot to oven and cook for 1½ hours.

Remove pot from oven and stir in potatoes and bell peppers. Cover, return pot to oven, and continue to cook until beef and potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes longer.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon small amount of stew into center of each tortilla, top with cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

Serves 8-10.

— “When Southern Women Cook: History, Lore, and 300 Recipes” by America’s Test Kitchen ($40)

©2024 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.