logo
Rep. Tim O'Brien announces law keeping biological males out of female sports

Rep. Tim O'Brien announces law keeping biological males out of female sports

Yahoo06-06-2025
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – According to Indiana House Republicans and Indiana State Representative Tim O'Brien, there's a new law that pertains to keeping biological males out of female sports.
Rep. O'Brien explains, 'Ensuring fairness in collegiate sports is essential to protecting opportunities for female athletes. Biological differences impact athletic performance, and a new law I supported this session further protects the integrity of women's sports in Indiana.'
WKU votes to extend contract of current president
The Indiana House Republicans say House Enrolled Act 1041 ensures 'fair competition' by preventing biological males from competing in female categories at the collegiate level in Indiana. This legislation aligns with an executive order at the federal level signed by President Donald Trump and one at the state level signed by Governor Mike Braun, codifying the language into state law. HEA 1041 was signed into law by Gov. Braun on April 16.
Evansville Flag Group and Otters to raise money for Marvin Gray tribute
Legislators say Elle Patterson, a former San Jose State volleyball player, testified in support of HEA 1041 in both the House and Senate committee hearings. She stated that she lost a volleyball scholarship to a biological male athlete and was required to share hotel rooms and locker rooms, while being unfairly compared in athletic performance.
To learn more about HEA 1041 and other new laws signed by the governor, go here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Chuck Todd warns America is heading towards a 'cold civil war' as redistricting battle continues
Chuck Todd warns America is heading towards a 'cold civil war' as redistricting battle continues

Fox News

time16 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Chuck Todd warns America is heading towards a 'cold civil war' as redistricting battle continues

Former NBC host Chuck Todd argued that America is heading towards a "cold civil war" on "The Chuck Toddcast" on Tuesday as redistricting battles in states like Texas and California continue to rage. Todd contended that the ongoing redistricting battles are "just the latest skirmish between what is turning into a cold civil war," and that it is President Donald Trump and the Republican Party who are "creating this unprecedented challenge to our constitutional republic." "I hate using that rhetoric. I hate using those words, but what else are you going to describe it? We are literally having a redistricting war between the states right now, and we have governors who have decided they don't care about the minority rights in their own states," Todd argued. "Greg Abbott doesn't care. If you don't agree with Greg Abbott, he is going to force his will upon you in the state of Texas. And if you don't agree with Gavin Newsom and how they're going — he's going to force his will upon you." The former NBC host stated that "this is not what the founders intended," placing blame on both sides of the aisle, but focusing in on Trump as the primary catalyst for what he describes as a "cold civil war." "This is not a policy fight. This isn't the usual partisan back and forth. It is a direct stress test of whether our constitutional system actually works when a president and his party decide they don't have to care about the limits that are written down on paper," he asserted. "Trump has spent years — parts of his first term and much so far of these first 200-plus days bending and breaking the guard rails of the republic." While Todd criticized the Trump administration's use of federal power and Texas Governor Greg Abbott's redistricting efforts, he also took issue with the Democrats' 'fight fire with fire' approach to these perceived problems. "The Democratic response is pretty troubling because, right now as a party, okay, as an official party apparatus, they've decided to frame this moment as a war, right? Okay, you got to fight fire with fire. This is an unprecedented moment, so they're framing this as a war," he stated. "And when you tell yourself you're in a war, you start rationalizing things you'd normally not do that you would say is immoral or wrong or unprincipled. But hey, it's war and all is fair in war, right?" Todd noted that Democrats have championed independent commissions and wanted competitive district mapping for years, but now with Republicans "openly wanting to break the rules like they're doing in Texas," Democrats are also looking to "break the rules" with their own redistricting efforts. "And if you criticize that decision, as I've been doing, I've been told I'm naive, that I don't understand the stakes, that you are not taking this threat seriously," he railed. "Au contraire, my friend, I do god---- understand the stakes, and we are not replacing one unprincipled, unconstitutional set of leaders with another set of unprincipled, unconstitutional set of leaders." In closing, Todd called on Republican members of Congress to "check" Trump's power and use the tools afforded to them by the Constitution to hold him accountable for the "unconstitutional" actions he has taken while in office. "They've not lifted one finger of oversight. Not one… You couldn't even say there've been a weak check on Trump. It has been no check on him at all," he asserted. "Guess what? The Constitution can't enforce itself without people willing to wield those checks. All we have are words on yellowing parchment paper."

New work rules could deny food stamps to thousands of veterans
New work rules could deny food stamps to thousands of veterans

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

New work rules could deny food stamps to thousands of veterans

Darryl Chavis, 62, served in the U.S. Army for two years as a watercraft operator. He stands outside the Borden Avenue Veterans Residence, a short-term housing facility in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., where he lives. Chavis relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and is worried about new work requirements for the program, commonly known as food stamps. (Shalina Chatlani/Stateline) NEW YORK — After a year in the U.S. Navy, Loceny Kamara said he was discharged in 2023, because while on base he had developed mental health issues, including severe anxiety and nightmares, and had fallen into alcoholism. Kamara, 23, went to rehab and managed to get sober for some time while living with family in the Bronx, he said. But after he lost his job as a security guard in December, Kamara was kicked out of his home. Now he lives at a veterans homeless shelter in Long Island City, a neighborhood in Queens, New York, and he relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — commonly known as food stamps — and odd jobs to make ends meet. Each month, nearly 42 million people receive SNAP benefits to help supplement their grocery budgets. Able-bodied SNAP recipients who are between 18 and 54 and don't have children have always been required to work. Veterans, however, have been exempt from those rules — but that's about to change. The giant domestic policy measure that President Donald Trump signed on July 4 eliminates that exemption. Beginning in 2026, veterans will have to prove they are working, volunteering, participating in job training, or looking for work for at least 80 hours a month to keep their food stamps beyond three months, unless they qualify for another exemption, such as having certain disabilities. Republicans in Congress and conservatives who helped formulate the law say these eligibility changes are necessary to stop people who could be working from abusing the system. But critics say the change fails to take into account the barriers many veterans face, and that the new work rules will cause thousands of veterans to go hungry. 'I'm pissed. I mean, I cannot get a job. Nowhere to live,' said Kamara. As he spoke, Kamara pointed to his collared shirt, noting that he had just dressed up to interview for a job as a security guard. He learned that morning he hadn't gotten the job. 'I've been out of work for eight months,' Kamara told Stateline. 'It's hard to get a job right now for everybody.' Veterans depend on SNAP Nationally, around 1.2 million veterans with lower incomes, or about 8% of the total veteran population of 16.2 million, rely on food stamps for themselves and their families, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research group. An analysis by the group found veterans tend to have lower rates of employment because they are more likely to have health conditions, such as traumatic brain injuries, that make it difficult for them to work. They also tend to have less formal education, though many have specialized skills from their time in the military. There has been a work requirement for most SNAP recipients since 1996. But Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said the rules have 'never really been enforced.' Rector argued that able-bodied people who have been exempt from the work requirement, such as veterans and homeless people, create an unnecessary burden on the system if they are capable of working but don't. 'Most of the people that are in this category live in households with other people that have incomes, and so there really isn't a chronic food shortage here,' Rector said in an interview. 'We have tens of thousands of free food banks that people can go to. So it's just a requirement to nudge these people in the proper direction, and it should no longer go unenforced.' Darryl Chavis, 62, said that view ignores the difficulties that many veterans face. When Chavis left the U.S. Army at 21 after two years of service, he said, he was 'severely depressed.' 'Nobody even came to help me,' said Chavis, who served as a watercraft operator, responsible for operating and maintaining tugboats, barges and other landing craft. Chavis said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which has made it difficult for him to keep a job. He just moved back to New York from Virginia after leaving a relationship. He's been at the housing shelter in Long Island City since January. 'What I'm trying to do is get settled in to, you know, stabilize into an apartment. I have the credentials to get a job. So it's not like I'm not gonna look for a job. I have to work. I'm in transition, and the obstacles don't make it easy,' Chavis said. The new SNAP work rules apply to all able-bodied adults between 55 and 64 who don't have dependents, and parents with children above the age of 14. Some groups, such as asylum-seekers and refugees, are no longer eligible for the program. Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, estimates that around 300,000 New Yorkers could lose SNAP benefits due to work requirements. Of those, around 22,000 are veterans, homeless or aging out of foster care, she said. Almost 3 million New Yorkers relied on SNAP as of March 2025. Veterans in other states are in a similar situation. In California, an estimated 115,000 veterans receive SNAP benefits, according to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The number is nearly 100,000 in Florida and Texas, and 49,000 in Georgia. Between 2015 and 2019 about 11% of veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lived in food insecure households, meaning they had limited or uncertain access to food, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP. 'We know that SNAP is the best way to help address hunger. It gets benefits directly to individuals,' Guinn said. 'There are other ways that people can get assistance if they need it, through food banks or other charitable organizations, but we do not think that those organizations will have the capacity to pick up the needs.' A greater burden on states In addition to the work rule changes, the new law reduces federal funding for SNAP by about $186 billion through 2034 — a cut of roughly 20%, according to the Congressional Budget Office, an independent research arm of Congress. The federal government expects the new work requirements to reduce SNAP spending by $69 billion as people who don't comply are dropped from the rolls. SNAP has historically been funded by the federal government, with states picking up part of the cost of administering the program. Under the new law, states will have to cover between 5% and 15% of SNAP costs starting in fiscal year 2028, depending on how accurately they distribute benefits to people who are eligible for the program. This has been a strategic agenda to dismantle SNAP and to blame states for doing so. – Gina Plata-Nino, Food Research & Action Center SNAP deputy director 'This has been a strategic agenda to dismantle SNAP and to blame states for doing so, because they knew they are making it so incredibly burdensome to run and operate and unaffordable,' said Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center, a poverty and hunger advocacy group. 'States are going to have to cut something, because there's no surplus. There are no unlimited resources that states may have in order to be able to offset the harm.' Guinn said New York expects to see a new cost burden of at least $1.4 billion each year. In California, new state costs could total as much as $3.7 billion annually, according to the California Department of Social Services. Kaitlynne Yancy, director of membership programs at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said many veterans with disabilities will not be able to fulfill the work requirements or find resources elsewhere. And it's unclear whether states will be able to provide their own relief to people who are no longer exempted from work requirements or will be excluded from the program. 'It is a frustrating thing to see, especially for those that have been willing to put everything on the line and sacrifice everything for this country if their country called them to do so,' she said. Yancy, 35, served in the U.S. Navy from 2010 to 2014. She began to use food stamps and the Medicaid program, the public health insurance program for people with lower incomes, as she navigated life's challenges. They included going back to school to pursue her bachelor's degree, becoming a single mother, and a leukemia diagnosis for one of her children. Frequent trips to the hospital made it hard for her to work steadily or attend school for 20 hours each week, she said. Guinn said the new rules will create significant administrative challenges, too; even SNAP recipients who are working will struggle to prove it. 'Maybe they're working one month, they have a job, and then their employer cuts their hours the next month,' Guinn told Stateline. 'There are mechanisms for people to upload documentation as needed to demonstrate compliance with the program, but from an administrative standpoint, right now, we don't have any super-high-tech automated way of doing this.' Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE This report was originally published by Stateline, part of the States Newsroom nonprofit news network. It's supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@ Solve the daily Crossword

Lawmakers keep pushing for release of Epstein files: 'Will not be buried for decades'
Lawmakers keep pushing for release of Epstein files: 'Will not be buried for decades'

USA Today

time37 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Lawmakers keep pushing for release of Epstein files: 'Will not be buried for decades'

Though lawmakers are on their annual one-month summer break, they are continuing to demand answers and records on Jeffrey Epstein. WASHINGTON - Though lawmakers are on their annual one-month summer break, the controversy surrounding convicted late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hasn't left their minds. Democrats and Republicans alike have been pushing for the release of all the Epstein files after a Justice Department report found that Epstein died by suicide and did not have a 'client list,' despite previous suggestions by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Members of Congress from both parties say they'll force more public debate on the issue when their recess ends after Labor Day. 'The Epstein case will not be buried for decades,' Missouri Republican Rep. Eric Burlison wrote in an Aug. 10 post on X. 'We are demanding records, taking depositions, and putting officials under oath. The American people need to get the truth.' The Epstein controversy has created a schism between President Donald Trump and his MAGA base. His supporters have pushed back on the Republican administration's attempt to close the book on Epstein after Trump and his backers helped to heighten expectations of blockbuster revelations. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, subpoenaed longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to sit for a deposition at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Aug. 11. But Comer ended up postponing the testimony, writing in a letter to Maxwell's attorney that the House panel will wait until after the Supreme Court considers her request to overturn a sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, D-California, have also been leading efforts that could force a House floor vote on a bill requiring the government to release all the Epstein files. They need 218 signatures to make that happen and plan to hold a press conference on Sept. 3 with victims of Maxwell and Epstein to drum up more support for their efforts. 'The survivors deserve justice and the public deserves transparency,' Khanna wrote on X. Trump's longtime friendship with Epstein has been under scrutiny for years. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the future president sent a lewd letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday as part of a leather-bound book with dozens of other messages, the Journal reported. Khanna and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-California, requested the book in a letter sent to lawyers of Epstein's estate on July 25. The New York Times also reported that former Epstein employee Maria Farmer told law enforcement in 1996 that she encountered Trump in Epstein's office and Epstein told Trump "No, no. She's not here for you.' Some Democrats have claimed that Trump's recent action deploying the National Guard in D.C. to crack down on crime are an attempt to distract from the Epstein controversy. 'He needs to get his base talking and thinking about something besides his refusal to open up the Epstein files because he's mixed up in them,' former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a video clip shared on X. But Vice President JD Vance has defended Trump in multiple interviews, arguing that the president wants full transparency on the issue. 'President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years,' Vance told Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' in an interview aired Aug. 10.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store