Nearly half of U.S. kids are breathing unhealthy air, report says. These are the cleanest and most polluted cities.

April 22, 2026 / 2:25 PM EDT / CBS News

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Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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For 152 million Americans, including nearly half of the nation’s children and teens, just breathing air in the places they live can be harmful. According to the American Lung Association’s latest State of the Air report, 44% of the U.S. population reside in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution, including 33 million who are younger than 18.

Experts have warned for years that kids are particularly susceptible to the consequences of pollution exposure. Young people are deemed more vulnerable because they have developing lungs, relatively large air consumption needs compared with adults and spend more time outdoors.

“We recognize that there’s a connection between air pollution and exposure in children and chronic diseases,” said Kevin Stewart, the director of environmental health at the American Lung Association and one of the report’s co-authors. “The problems aren’t necessarily immediate, in terms of just sending a child with asthma to the hospital. It also can affect the induction of asthma in children who ordinarily wouldn’t have gotten it, or reduce lung function over their lifetime because they’ve been exposed as children.”

The new report evaluated air quality in different parts of the country by measuring the presence of ozone and particle pollution in the atmosphere, over short-term and longer periods of time. Ozone pollution is also known as smog; particle pollution is known as soot.

Counties were graded based on how much smog and soot the researchers detected, in addition to the length of time the pollutants were there. The report is based on data collected between 2022 and 2024. As its authors noted, air quality conditions over that two-year period appeared to show improvements in some ways and setbacks in others.

Nearly 4 million more people across the U.S. were breathing unhealthy levels of smog between 2022 and 2024 than they were between 2021 and 2023, which was the time frame used to compile last year’s State of the Air report. And, although the latest report showed more than 61 million people living in counties that earned “F” grades for unhealthy short-term spikes in soot pollution, and another 75 million living in counties with “F” grades for soot pollution year-round, both numbers were better than they were before.

Stewart called that good news, but noted “there are still some areas in the country that show some obvious problems.” Southern and southwestern states, as well as a number of metropolitan areas in Texas, specifically, experienced notable particle pollution, he said.

Most polluted U.S. cities

Bakersfield, California, continued to rank highest on the American Lung Association’s list of cities with the worst particle pollution year-round. It was also third-highest on this year’s lists of cities with the worst short-term particle pollution and ozone pollution.

The five most polluted cities, according to the American Lung Association report, are:

1. Bakersfield-Delano, California
2. Brownsville-Harlingen-Raymondville, Texas
3. Eugene-Springfield, Oregon
4. Fresno-Hanford-Corcoran, California
5. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California (tied with Visalia, California)

Another major annual air quality review, by the Swiss technology company IQAir, placed El Paso, Texas, and Los Angeles, California among the most polluted areas in the U.S. That report examined pollution around the world and found that concentrations in the U.S. increased by 3% between 2024 and 2025.

Cleanest U.S. cities

The American Lung Association’s report also ranked American cities with the cleanest air. When looking at year-round particle pollution, Bozeman, Montana, topped the list ahead of Casper, Wyoming, which held the first-place position in 2025.

The five cleanest cities are:

1. Bozeman, Montana
2. Casper, Wyoming
3. Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii
4. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
5. Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, Vermont

Data centers

In addition to the more traditional sources of pollution, like power plants and vehicle exhaust, the new air quality report warned that data centers used to train, maintain and operate artificial intelligence models are increasingly contributing to air pollution, too.

“We’re trying to raise the warning sign for the public to make sure that any data centers that are created are using state-of-the-art pollution controls,” whether they burn fossil fuels or rely on backup generators as their main power source, said Stewart.

The American Lung Association also cited policies by the Trump administration, which has faced pushback this year over its decision to deregulate emissions and repeal the landmark scientific finding that linked greenhouse gases to human health problems.

Known as the “endangerment finding,” the policy was repealed by the Environmental Protection Agency in February, when President Trump announced that greenhouse gases emitted from cars, power plants and other large-scale sources would no longer be regulated by the federal government. Emissions of common air pollutants fell massively since the Clean Air Act was signed into law in 1970, according to the EPA, but additional data show it has been rising again in recent years.

“Contrary to its mission, EPA has recently acted to weaken, delay or revoke key health protections that will leave America’s children more exposed and more vulnerable to the consequences of many different pollutants, including ozone and particle pollution,” the report’s authors wrote, adding that the agency “must not devalue the benefits of removing deadly pollution from the air children breathe.”

Republicans eye ending government shutdowns forever over fears Dems will do it again

April 22, 2026 2:28pm EDT / Fox News

Senate Republicans are worried that Democrats will force a government shutdown in the fall, and are eyeing ways to prevent government funding from being weaponized ever again.

Republicans are in the early stages of funding federal immigration enforcement through the party-line budget reconciliation process — a maneuver that would cut Democrats out of the process altogether.

The push comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains closed after Democrats more than 60 days ago refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unless Republicans agreed to stringent reforms, including warrant requirements and agents unmasking.

SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL IN BID TO CUT DEMS OUT OF THE FUNDING PROCESS

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks at a press conference with Senate Republican leaders following a policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said “it was a great idea,” and claims conversations were ongoing about how to include a measure in the reconciliation package that could survive the strict Senate rules dictating what can and can’t be done through the partisan process.

He told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon that Republicans tried and failed during the government shutdown last year to pass legislation that would prevent future shutdowns.

“If we could figure out a way to execute on that — anything that we can do that would ensure that the Democrats don’t decide once again to play partisan political games with the function of our government would be a good outcome,” Thune said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who has pushed legislation to prevent shutdowns, was skeptical about whether Republicans could actually get that kind of measure into the broader package.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., questions acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate during a joint Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“I would support that,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “Will that happen? It seems to me to be pretty unlikely. But I think this package is baked, the text is out, it is what it is.”

He warned that Congress likely “would be facing this again” when the current fiscal year ends in September because “the Democrats are in a hostage taking sort of mood.”

“And sadly, the hostages they’re taking are for working people of this country,” Hawley went on. “And if they shut down the government again in September, which they very well may, well, that would just be disastrous, I think.”

Democrats, however, view the GOP’s reconciliation push as a prime opportunity to go on the offensive.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said his party will unload several amendments that target affordability issues in the country.

SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL IMMIGRATION FUNDING PLAN WITH $140 BILLION PRICE TAG AS GOP AIMS TO SPEND LESS

When asked if Democrats had overplayed their hand on immigration enforcement reforms now that Republicans plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three and a half years, Schumer countered that Americans wanted changes and that Republicans were “tied in a knot.”

“They’re twisting themselves in a pretzel,” the senior senator from New York said. “They’re giving us an opportunity to emphasize the number one issue facing the American people in terms of reconciliation. So we Democrats are staunch and united in what we did.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a news conference after a weekly Democrat policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 2026.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

If Republicans can’t stop shutdowns, another option could be ensuring that federal workers are at least paid.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital that he’s been pushing the House — which has so far not voted on the Senate’s carve-out DHS funding bill — to include his Shutdown Fairness Act, which would pay federal employees during closures and possibly act as a sweetener to conservatives frustrated by the Senate’s bill.

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“I mean, they’re pretty upset about, I guess, not really being informed in terms of what the Senate was gonna do here,” Johnson said. “We were just doing what we could do to fund the agencies so we don’t deplete the flexible funding we had in reconciliation, but the box ticking on that.”

“So, the sooner we pass the partial DHS funding bill — I just think if Democrats would allow that bill to be passed by unanimous consent, I think they [wouldn’t] have a hard time voting for that exact same bill if all we’re adding is something their unions are lobbying hard to get,” he continued.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

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Tierney Sneed

1 hr 8 min ago

PUBLISHED Apr 22, 2026, 2:56 PM ET

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This image contained in a court filing by the Department of Justice on Aug. 30, 2022, and partially redacted by the source, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8 FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Department of Justice

White House staff are still following the “preservation” mandates of the Presidential Records Act, the Justice Department told a federal court as it pushes back on a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s disavowal of a Watergate-era documents law.

The filings made public the White House’s official approach to records retention now that the Justice Department – via an opinion from the department Office of Legal Counsel – told President Donald Trump that he was no longer had to comply with the Presidential Records Act.

White House Counsel David Warrington issued a memo on April 2, the day after the OLC opinion was published, that was released publicly with Tuesday’s court filings.

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The law requires that presidents and their staffs preserve records related to government activity, and that those records be turned over to the National Archives at the end of each administration – with provisions of the law eventually making some of those documents available to the public.

The new White House memo did not address what steps President Trump or Vice President JD Vance should take to preserve records, nor did it lay out plans to ultimately turn White House documents over to the Archives.

Critics have raised concerns that Trump will take with him when he leaves office the same kinds of highly sensitive government records that he brought to Mar-a-Lago after his first administration, leading to charges against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

Acting attorney general Todd Blanche – who represented Trump in the criminal case – rejected the idea that the OLC opinion would undermine government transparency.

“There is no dispute that this administration in just 14 months has been a lot more transparent than the last administration or in any administration,” Blanche said in response to a question from CNN’s Paula Reid at a Tuesday press conference.

“So if critics are suggesting that that somehow we’re not being transparent, I don’t find that credible in any way, shape or form,” Blanche added.

In the new documents-preservation memo, Warrington told White House staff that, even though the administration no longer considers itself bound by the Presidential Records Act, they should “preserve any material related to the performance of their duties,” while noting those records might be needed in future litigation.

Physical documents and work-related emails sent via official White House accounts should be saved, Warrington said, but he also made a distinction for when staff members are required to retain text messages.

“Text messages reflecting personal conversations, workplace gossip, ministerial tasks or other workplace minutiae” need not be preserved, he said. But staff must save messages “when they are the sole record of official decision-making, government action, or contain unique information not available elsewhere.”

The American Historical Association and American Oversight, a left-leaning government watchdog group, are seeking an emergency court order that would require the preservation of presidential records and that would make clear the PRA’s demands apply to messaging apps, including encrypted services like WhatsApp and Signal.

The Justice Department laid out several reasons the request should be denied, including with an argument that the historians are not currently facing imminent harm because the White House is still following a policy “consistent” with the Presidential Record Act. Additionally, the Archives is continuing to preserve the presidential records it already holds, DOJ said, pointing to a declaration from an Archives employee.

“Plaintiffs’ claim to irreparable harm hinges on the possibility of indiscriminate document destruction … but the record is entirely to the contrary,” the administration said.

Senior US District Judge John Bates has scheduled a hearing for May 5.

De La Hoya, Ali’s grandson warn US lawmakers against boxing law overhaul

2026-04-22 17:51:40 UTC / Reuters

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Boxing promoter and former boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya attends a U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on federal boxing laws, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

[1/2]Boxing promoter and former boxing champion Oscar de la Hoya attends a U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on federal boxing laws, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Purchase Licensing Rights

April 22 (Reuters) – Former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya appeared before the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and argued against a potential transformation of the current system governed by the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act that, since ​2000, has aimed to protect fighters from exploitative practices.

The hearing — titled “Return to Your Corners: Have Federal Boxing ‌Laws Gone the Distance or Slipped the Jab?” — was held a month after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act which, if it becomes law, would allow for the creation of a single entity to combine promotion, rankings, titles and sanctioning under one roof.

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“This ​is a fundamental shift in power that, if enacted, would put corporate profits first and fighters second,” De La ​Hoya told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “We should be clear about who benefits ⁠from this.”

Thirty years ago, Congress set federal boxing standards by passing the Professional Boxing Safety Act. Four years later, Congress tightened ​those standards by enacting the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. Together known as the Ali Act, the federal framework for professional ​boxing was designed to address conflicts of interest in the boxing market and strengthen boxers’ bargaining power.

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Last month the House passed the Revival Act to make it easier for boxing to be organized in the same manner as other professional sports leagues.

‘FIGHTERS WILL HAVE FEWER CHOICES’

De La Hoya told ​the hearing that, like him, many fighters enter the sport young, trusting and without resources, and that once they are locked ​into the wrong deal, it is very difficult to get out. That is, he argued, exactly why the Reform Act exists.

“Fighters deserve real protection ‌and real ⁠opportunity — not to have to fight the system as well,” said De La Hoya. “If this bill passes, fighters will have fewer choices, less leverage, and less control over their careers. And when that happens, it will not be the sport that failed them. It will be us.”

Nico Ali Walsh, a professional boxer and grandson of former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, also argued to ​preserve the current Reform Act.

Walsh told ​the hearing the Reform ⁠Act was built on a simple principle: the people controlling fighters should not also control the entire marketplace those fighters depend on.

“That separation exists to prevent conflicts of interest and exploitation,” said Walsh. “The ​new Muhammad Ali Boxing Revival Act would undermine that principle.

“If this bill is passed in ​its current form, ⁠it should not have my grandfather’s name on it, as it would betray the principles his Act was created to protect.”

WWE President and TKO Group board member Nick Khan spoke in support of the Revival Act, which would allow for the creation of a new, ⁠centralized, alternative ​professional boxing system called Unified Boxing Organizations.

“The existing Act, as it currently stands, ​would remain in place,” said Khan. “This is an added option. It creates the framework for Unified Boxing Organizations, otherwise known as UBOs, that can do what ​major sports do — promote competition, develop talent, and enforce consistent standards under one roof.”

(This story has been corrected to fix the day to Wednesday, from Tuesday, in paragraph 1)

Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto Editing by Toby Davis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

White House pushes imminent easing of controls on marijuana

2026-04-22T17:06:05.150Z / The Washington Post

Under an administration plan, marijuana would be moved to Schedule III, like some common prescription painkillers. It now has the same Schedule I classification as heroin.

Updated

April 22, 2026 at 1:14 p.m. EDT today at 1:14 p.m. EDT

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President Donald Trump on Dec. 18 holds an executive order on loosening federal regulations covering marijuana. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

By Dan Diamond

The White House has told federal agencies to prepare to imminently loosen restrictions on marijuana, days after President Donald Trump appeared to express frustration with the pace of easing federal restrictions on illegal drugs.

Iran seizes ships in Hormuz as US talks falter after ceasefire extension

2026-04-22T12:10:03-04:00 / Fox News

Trump said Iran’s navy was ‘laying at the bottom of the sea,’ but fast-attack boats continue to disrupt shipping lanes

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Published April 22, 2026 12:10pm EDT | Updated April 22, 2026 2:15pm EDT

VP Vance’s Pakistan trip suspended as Trump weighs diplomacy vs force on Iran

Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reports on the U.S.-Iran peace talks as a ceasefire deadline looms on ‘The Story.’

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Iran seized two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz hours after President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire, as confrontations at sea continued under the truce.

Both ships were managed by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the vessels, identified as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, were operating without proper authorization and had tampered with navigation systems, accusations that could not be independently verified. The ships had earlier reported coming under fire near the strait, underscoring the increasingly volatile conditions in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.

The Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported.

IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS

In a turn of events Tuesday, Trump announced he would extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran. For how long is unclear, but a White House official told Fox News it would be several days.

Despite heavy U.S. strikes that officials say severely degraded Iran’s conventional navy, Tehran maintains maritime capability through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ fleet of fast-attack boats used for harassment and boarding operations in the narrow strait.

“We should think in the thousands,” Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News Digital. “If you include very small boats up to more capable fast-attack craft, the total could reach 3,000 to 4,000 vessels.”

Those forces have been used to harass commercial ships, force them to stop, and take them into custody. Iranian state media said similar tactics were used when Revolutionary Guard units attacked multiple vessels before escorting at least two into Iranian waters.

Despite heavy U.S. strikes that officials say severely degraded Iran’s conventional navy, Tehran maintains maritime capability through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ fleet of fast-attack boats.(Yalda Moaiery/AFP via Getty Images)

The continued attacks highlight a gap between battlefield claims and reality.

In a Truth Social post April 13, Trump said, “Iran’s Navy is obliterated. It is laying at the bottom of the sea,” adding that U.S. forces did not need to target Iran’s “little fast-attack boats” because they were not a threat.

TRUMP WATCHES STRIKE ON IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN IN NEW WHITE HOUSE PICS AS LARGE-SCALE OP CONTINUES

But those smaller vessels, long a cornerstone of Iran’s asymmetric strategy, are now central to its ability to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The seizures mark the latest escalation in a widening maritime standoff between Iran and Washington.

Both sides have targeted commercial and cargo vessels as part of a broader pressure campaign tied to stalled negotiations. U.S. forces have also moved to seize at least one Iranian-linked vessel in the region, with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a fragile ceasefire.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for global oil shipments, with roughly 20% of the world’s supply passing through it. Traffic has slowed dramatically as ships reroute or avoid the area amid gunfire, seizures and conflicting directives from both militaries.

In a series of Truth Social posts Tuesday night, Trump claimed Iran privately wants the Strait of Hormuz reopened despite public threats to close it.

“Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!),” he wrote.

The Iranian-flagged Touska cargo ship pours smoke out after U.S. forces launched missiles at its control room following its violation of the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.(U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM))

“But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!”

Trump said he agreed to extend the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani officials while waiting for Iran’s leadership to present a unified position in negotiations.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.

Plans for renewed peace talks remain in limbo, with Iran signaling it may not participate in a second round of negotiations while the U.S. maintains its naval blockade. The blockade remains a key sticking point driving the confrontation at sea.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the naval blockade an “act of war,” accusing Washington of violating the ceasefire.

“Blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire. Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation,” he wrote on X.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the naval blockade an “act of war,” accusing Washington of violating the ceasefire.(Vahid Salemi/AP)

The comments came after U.S. forces moved to seize Iran’s M/V Touska vessel Monday, which Araghchi described as “an act of piracy.”

The seizures come as U.S.-Iran diplomacy appears increasingly uncertain, with a planned second round of talks in Islamabad thrown into doubt. Vice President JD Vance, who had been expected to lead the U.S. delegation, remained in Washington after Iran signaled it would not participate, scrapping plans for the delegation to travel to Pakistan.

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The abrupt shift followed a day of mixed signals from Trump, who said Tuesday morning he did not want to extend the ceasefire as its deadline approached, warning time for negotiations was running out. By the afternoon, however, he reversed course and announced he would extend the truce to allow more time for diplomacy.

The reversal has further clouded fragile negotiations.

No date has been set for renewed talks, and Iranian officials continue to insist they will not engage while the U.S. maintains its naval blockade. The confrontation has increasingly shifted from the negotiating table to the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, where the risk of miscalculation is rising.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.

Kalshi prediction site suspends three political candidates for betting on their own races

2026-04-22T18:32:11.581Z / CNN

By Marshall Cohen

1 hr 28 min ago

PUBLISHED Apr 22, 2026, 2:32 PM ET

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In this photo illustration, an app for the online prediction market Kalshi is shown in Chicago, on February 25.

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Washington—

The prediction market Kalshi suspended three political candidates from its platform on Wednesday for “political insider trading” after an internal probe found that they bet on their own campaigns.

These suspensions and fines, reported first by CNN, are the most aggressive enforcement actions taken to date by a prediction site against political candidates, with primaries for the 2026 midterms already underway.

The announcement comes as lawmakers from both parties have steadily raised concerns about how the rapidly expanding prediction market industry could potentially undermine the integrity of US elections.

On prediction sites, users can bet on nearly everything from elections to sports, entertainment, or even the daily high temperature. (CNN has a partnership with Kalshi and uses its data to cover major events. However, editorial employees are not allowed to participate in prediction markets.)

Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, said in a statement announcing the suspensions that these cases are “political insider trading” and violated Kalshi’s rules as approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction platforms.

The statement didn’t identify the three users facing punishments. A source familiar with the matter said they were candidates for federal offices.

“When a trader violates our exchange rules, they will be subject to exchange discipline,” DeNault said. “For more serious matters, we refer cases to the CFTC or DOJ for further investigation and prosecution, which didn’t happen here.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how much money these candidates wagered on their own campaigns, though DeNault suggested they might be small trades.

“Regardless of the size of a trade, political candidates who can influence a market based on whether they stay in or out of a race violate our rules,” DeNault said. “No matter how small the size of the trade, any trade that is found to have violated our exchange rules will be punished.”

The Biden-era CFTC tried to prohibit election-related prediction markets, but two federal courts later cleared the way before the 2024 presidential election. The Trump-appointed CFTC chair, Michael Selig, has embraced these markets and withdrew the agency’s proposed ban earlier this year.

This is Kalshi’s second round of major enforcement actions this year. In February, it suspended an employee of YouTube star MrBeast and a little-known candidate for California governor who bet $200 on his own race.

A source familiar with the matter says Kalshi, as it did in prior cases, is expected to donate the fines from Wednesday’s enforcement actions to a nonprofit organization that educates consumers about financial markets.

Legal gray area

Over the past year, Kalshi and its main rival, Polymarket, have exploded in popularity. Both sides now see billions of dollars in weekly total volume.

A bipartisan array of lawmakers have expressed alarm about the risks of insider trading. These criticisms grew after reports from CNN and other outlets about well-timed and highly lucrative trades on Polymarket regarding the US-Israeli war in Iran and US military actions in Venezuela.

But not all insider activity on prediction markets is automatically illegal.

Federal laws focus on whether the trader has an existing legal obligation to keep information secret. This leaves a gray area with political campaigns, according to Noah Solowiejczyk, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who often partnered with the CFTC on financial cases.

“If it was a campaign employee who has a duty to keep campaign information confidential, that might be different scenario, violating existing law,” Solowiejczyk said. “But the candidate themselves, trading on their own information, isn’t breaching a duty to anyone. It’s their own campaign.”

Lawmakers have proposed at least two bills this year to stop CFTC regulated companies like Kalshi from offering election contracts in the first place.

Rep. Blake Moore, a Utah Republican, said in a statement last month announcing his bipartisan bill that “under-regulated prediction markets have exposed America to needless public safety and national security risks” by letting users trade on “sensitive matters,” including elections.

Prediction sites are federally regulated by the CFTC. But about 40 states have argued in court that prediction platforms offer products that are nearly identical to gambling and therefore must comply with state gaming laws.

One state, Arizona, filed criminal charges against Kalshi for allegedly operating an unlicensed casino and violating state bans against election bets. Kalshi denies wrongdoing, and a federal judge recently halted the state case.

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With Rep. David Scott’s death, 5 members of 119th Congress have died in office

April 22, 2026 / 3:14 PM EDT / CBS News

By Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.

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Washington — Democratic Rep. David Scott, who represented Georgia in the House for more than two decades, has become the fifth member of the 119th Congress to die in office. He was 80.

All five members who died since the start of the current Congress in January 2025 were between the ages of 65 and 87.

The deaths come against the backdrop of a narrow House GOP majority, where just one or two absences, vacancies or defections can play a role in whether legislation passes. Scott’s death means Democrats now have 212 seats, compared to 218 for Republicans, including one GOP-leaning independent.

During the 118th Congress, four members died in office, all between the ages of 65 and 90. The eldest was the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, whose determination to remain in office despite her evident decline frustrated many Democrats.

When the 119th Congress began in January 2025, 117 House and Senate members were over the age of 70, according to the Pew Research Center, and 19 were over 80.

These are the members who have died in office during the 119th Congress:

Rep. David Scott, 80

Rep. David Scott of Georgia speaks during a House Agriculture Committee hearing titled The Future of Digital Assets in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. Ting Shen / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Scott, who represented the Atlanta suburbs, was seeking his 13th term in office when he died. A lifelong champion of civil rights, he was elected to the Georgia State House in 1974 and to the Georgia State Senate in 1982 before he was elected to Congress in 2002. Scott was the first Black member to chair the House Agriculture Committee, and prioritized strengthening access to nutrition, particularly for children from low-income families.

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, 65

Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California leaves the House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa died at 65 in January 2026 during surgery necessitated by a medical emergency. He represented California for over a decade in the northern part of the state. LaMalfa was a fourth-generation rice farmer and a businessman who championed rural and agricultural issues in the House.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, 75

Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia questions witnesses at a House Oversight Committee hearing on March 5, 2025. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia died on May 21, 2025. Weeks earlier, he announced he would not seek reelection in 2026 and would step back from his role as the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee because his cancer had returned. He had served in Congress since 2009.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, 77

Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona died March 13, 2025, after battling cancer. Grijalva, who had served in Congress since 2003, had been absent for votes since the start of the 119th Congress.

Rep. Sylvester Turner, 70

Sylvester Turner speaks in Houston, Texas, on July 28, 2023. Marcus Ingram/Getty Images

Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner of Texas died on March 4, 2025, weeks after taking office. He had served as Houston’s mayor from 2016 until 2024, before joining the House. Turner won the House seat after Democratic Rep. Sheila Lee Jackson died in office from cancer in July 2024 at the age of 74.

Georgia Congressman David Scott dies

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/georgia-congressman-david-scott-dies/

Georgia Congressman David Scott dies

(03:16)

Senator presses RFK Jr. over his promotional videos

2026-04-22 3:07 PM EDT / CNN

Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) pressed HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about videos that were posted online featuring Kennedy with Kid Rock, as a professional wrestler, and as a video game character.

1:26 • Source: CNN

EXCLUSIVE: Planned Parenthood set for massive taxpayer windfall if Senate fails to act

2026-04-22 1:46pm EDT / Fox News

‘Taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize an industry that distributes cross sex hormones to vulnerable kids and kills millions,’ said Lila Rose

By Peter Pinedo Fox News

Published April 22, 2026 1:46pm EDT | Updated April 22, 2026 2:02pm EDT

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6372909079112

Founder of Live Action says Trump admin’s move to pull Planned Parenthood funding ‘positive step’

Founder of Live Action, Lila Rose, told Fox News Digital that President Donald Trump’s move to pull funding from Planned Parenthood is a “positive step” but a “small step forward,” as the nonprofit receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

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EXCLUSIVE: A coalition of pro-life groups, including Lila Rose’s Live Action, Students for Life, CatholicVote and others, is urging the Senate to take urgent action to enact a decade-long ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers before a July 4 deadline.

Senate Republicans hope to nail down the first step of their party-line funding package for immigration operations this week.

The current prohibition on federal tax dollar funding for abortion businesses, which President Donald Trump signed as part of last year’s budget bill, is set to expire this Independence Day. With the deadline fast approaching and congressional majorities subject to change this November, the groups stressed in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the lives of unborn children — and hundreds of millions in annual tax dollars — are at stake.

In their letter to Thune, the pro-life leaders wrote that extending the prohibition is a matter of urgent fiscal responsibility, saying the “financial stakes are significant” and that a 10-year extension “would represent one of the most meaningful pro-taxpayer reforms Congress can enact.”

PRO-LIFE GROUPS WARN TRUMP HYDE AMENDMENT IS ‘NON-NEGOTIABLE’ AFTER FLEXIBILITY REMARKS

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up a key test vote on a funding package to avert a partial government shutdown as Democratic resistance threatens to thrust Washington, D.C. into chaos.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Before the big, beautiful bill’s provision took effect, Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in America, received nearly $800 million annually in taxpayer funding, primarily through federal health programs.

The letter asserts that “at a time of historic federal debt and growing budgetary pressure, continuing to subsidize the abortion industry is neither fiscally responsible nor defensible.”

Though federal law bans taxpayer money from covering most abortions, many Republicans have long argued that abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood use Medicaid money for other health services to subsidize abortion. Under the tax provision in Trump’s 2025 spending bill, Medicaid payments are barred from going to abortion businesses, including Planned Parenthood.

The letter states that this prohibition “reflected longstanding concerns that many of the nation’s largest abortion businesses engage in activities that extend beyond traditional healthcare services.”

These services, the letter says, include “providing and promoting abortion as a core organizational activity,” offering or referring for gender transition interventions, including for minors, and delivering sex education programs that “promote inappropriate content to minors while denying parents meaningful transparency.”

The letter states that the budget reconciliation process “remains the appropriate and proven legislative vehicle to achieve this objective” and that “defunding provisions fall squarely within reconciliation’s fiscal and policy scope.”

“As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence,” the pro-life leaders argue that “Congress has an obligation to ensure that federal spending reflects fiscal discipline, accountability, and respect for life.”

PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES

Activists opposing funding for Planned Parenthood demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.(Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, via Getty)

They further framed a ten-year extension as consistent with longstanding bipartisan precedent separating abortion from federal spending. Such an extension, the letter says, would also “provide long-term policy stability, protect taxpayers, and prevent future administrations from restoring funding through executive action alone.”

In response, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood shared a statement in which the organization slammed Republicans for including a provision to make the prohibition permanent in a 2026 reconciliation package framework released by the Republican Study Committee.

Planned Parenthood has said that 23 of its health clinics have been forced to close due to Trump’s spending bill. More than 50 clinics closed in 18 states last year, with most located in the Midwest.

The organization called the 2025 budget bill’s bar on federal dollars for abortion businesses “unconstitutional,” adding that the closure of its locations has left “thousands of patients with fewer options, higher costs, and less freedom to make their own decisions about their lives, bodies, and futures.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said that “any member of Congress who supports this proposal is choosing to sacrifice our health care system and Planned Parenthood health center patients who already struggle to get care, just so they can score points for their anti-abortion agenda,” adding that “people’s ability to get the health care they need is on the line.”

“President Trump and his backers in Congress have already caused irreparable harm when they passed a law ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood,” said Johnson, concluding that “Planned Parenthood Action Fund will never stop fighting to protect everyone’s access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.”

SENATE GOP READYING PARTY-LINE FUNDING BILL DESPITE DIVISIONS, ANGER AT THE HOUSE

Left: Live Action President and founder Lila Rose. Right: Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill-Johnson(Live Action; Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Rose emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital that “if Congress does not act, the abortion industry will once again have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”

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“This letter makes clear why that cannot be allowed to happen,” wrote Rose, adding, “Planned Parenthood’s core business is abortion. It exists to kill preborn children for profit. It has also become a major promoter of gender ideology, including puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for minors.”

“The Senate should use reconciliation again and enact the strongest defunding measure possible under the law,” she added. “American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize an industry that distributes cross sex hormones to vulnerable kids and kills millions of preborn American babies through abortion every year.”

In addition to Rose, the letter was signed by Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, Catholic Vote President Kelsey Reinhardt, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser and 34 other pro-life leaders from across the country.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.