Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued a New York doctor for sending abortion medication under the Empire State's shield law to Texas, which has a near-total abortion ban, his office said Friday.
Why it matters: The lawsuit, one of the first known of its kind, tests the future of shield laws enacted by blue states in the post-Roe era to help patients who live in states with abortion bans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on notice Friday after reports seemingly linking the Health and Human Services nominee to an effort to revoke the polio vaccine.
Why it matters: McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, will be an important vote for President-elect Trump's nominees to win over. Kennedy is expected to spend next week on the Hill meeting with senators.
An ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2022 petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to revoke approval for the use of a polio vaccine on children on the grounds that the agency didn't do sufficient safety studies, documents show.
The big picture: Aaron Siri, a lawyer who worked for Kennedy during his presidential campaign, has filed more than a dozen petitions on behalf of private citizensrequesting the government halt distribution of certain vaccines, also including the one for hepatitis B.
The Republican Party will aim to get rid of daylight saving time, President-elect Trump said in a post on Truth Social Friday.
Why it matters: Most U.S. adults dislike the semi-annual clock change — currently designed to maximized daylight during summer — and lawmakers have occasionally pitched scrapping it, without official success.
Daniel Penny, the former Marine acquitted this week in the death of an unhoused Black man, will join President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the Army-Navy football game Saturday.
Why it matters: The decision to prosecute Penny for Jordan Neely's death on a New York City subway train last year became a rallying point for some Republicans.
Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) want more information on private equity ownership of methadone clinics, and how those investments may impact both clinical decisions and lobbying efforts to restrict broader methadone distribution.
Why it matters: Private equity could have an opioids problem, after years of gobbling up abuse treatment facilities.
The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not a client of the medical insurer, a spokesperson for parent company UnitedHealth Group confirmed to Axios on Thursday night.
The big picture: NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York earlier Thursday there's "no indication" that Luigi Mangione "was ever a client of UnitedHealthcare," but evidence police allege the suspect wrote "does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America."
