GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gainesville Police Department and University of Florida Police Department are continuing their partnership in Midtown, deploying a joint police detail to increase law enforcement visibility during the busy periods in the area bordering the University of Florida campus.
The Midtown detail is activated on days and at times when GPD and UFPD expect heavier activity. During those shifts, sworn officers from both agencies patrol the area and jointly respond to calls for service.
The initiative is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two departments. Gainesville Police Chief Nelson Moya and UFPD Chief Bart Knowles meet regularly to assess public safety needs and develop strategies aimed at improving security and well-being for University of Florida students and the wider Gainesville community.
“This is about putting officers where they can have the greatest impact at the time they’re most needed,” Moya said. “We’re in constant communication with our partners at the university. Our job is to maintain a high level of public safety together.”
The Midtown police detail builds on GPD’s existing Downtown Unit, which launched in 2025. The unit works with business owners and other stakeholders to identify issues, exchange information and strengthen relationships. Its four officers and sergeant answer calls in downtown Gainesville while keeping watch over pedestrian traffic, parking lots and popular gathering spots.
Midtown follows a similar model but creates an expanded role for interagency policing. Assigning GPD and UFPD officers to work side by side brings together the staffing, information and experience of both departments in one of Gainesville’s busiest student-focused districts.
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“Gainesville and the University of Florida are one community, and public safety is one of the places where that partnership matters most,” Mayor Harvey L. Ward said. “When our police departments share information, resources, and responsibility, we are better able to respond to the needs of our neighbors and students. This detail is another example of that collaboration at work.”
The joint Midtown detail reflects the understanding that student safety extends beyond campus boundaries. UF students live, work, travel and socialize throughout Gainesville, making close coordination between GPD and UFPD essential. The departments have a longstanding history of working together, as well as with other local agencies, and the detail further reinforces that coordinated approach to public safety.
Shailene Woodley’s Stylist Hits Back at Mean Emmys Look Criticism
Shailene Woodley’s stylist, Karla Welch, has pushed back against what she called “mean” reactions to the actress’s 2026 Emmys outfit, which drew a fierce response from fans online.
Woodley, 34, arrived on the red carpet for television’s biggest night in a plunging Balenciaga top, embellished trousers, maroon leather gloves that stretched past her elbows and a rainbow gemstone necklace. The unconventional ensemble sparked widespread criticism, with some social media users urging the actress to “fire” her stylist.
Welch, 52, addressed the backlash in a Threads post on Wednesday, writing: “Love or hate something fine but it’s an opinion.”
“It can even be a conversation but being super rude and mean and taking glee from it, well that says a lot more about the mouths it’s coming from,” the celebrity stylist continued.
The post prompted divided reactions. While some followers applauded Welch’s willingness to take fashion risks, others urged her to acknowledge that the Emmys look had “fell short.”
“The whole point of fashion is to play and try new things and be adventurous! Most are too scared to! Most importantly, she looked so happy and at ease, and like she was having so much fun and feeling like the best version of herself!” one supporter wrote. Welch liked the comment.
Shailene Woodley’s, 34, stylist Karla Welch, 52, (R) has responded to the “mean” comments about the actress’s 2026 Emmys look, after fans demanded that she “fire” her stylist
Welch hit back at the “super rude” criticism in a Threads post on Wednesday
Another commenter simply said that Woodley “looked amazing.”
But one critic remained unconvinced, writing: “You need to own you made her look bad. She trusted YOU and you fell short.”
Welch – who has styled a number of A-listers, including Karlie Kloss, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Paulson, as well as Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey – went on to share a photo of Woodley’s look along with another picture that read, ‘Trigger Warning.’
‘We ♥️ pppiccioli,’ she added on Threads about the look, referencing Balenciaga creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.
Welch also styled Hacks star Hannah Einbinder for the star-studded Emmy Awards.
Woodley’s look raised a number of eyebrows, including those of red carpet expert Melissa Rivers, who put the actress on her worst dressed list.
The Divergent star later covered up her ‘bizarre’ outfit with a T-shirt as she attended a Disney after party for the event on Monday night.
Her rare fashion miss comes just days after her ex-fiance Aaron Rodgers, 42, sensationally claimed that she asked to ‘go f***’ another man before getting married.
And fans were quick to callback to the drama as they mocked her red carpet look on X (formerly Twitter), with one writing: ‘fit so bad you completely vindicate Aaron Rodgers.’
Another commented: ‘Who told her this looks good and did she look in mirror?’
‘I am so sad her stylist led her astray. What a terrible outfit’
Several fans branded Woodley’s look a ‘mess’ while others went as far as to say her stylist should be out of a job.
Woodley graced the red carpet at TV’s biggest night wearing a low-cut Balenciaga top paired with bedazzled pants, over-the-elbow maroon leather gloves and a rainbow stone necklace
Woodley’s look raised a number of eyebrows, including those of red carpet expert Melissa Rivers, who put the actress on her worst dressed list
Several fans branded Woodley’s look a ‘mess’ while others went as far as to say her stylist should be out of a job
Woodley later covered up her ‘bizarre’ red carpet outfit with a t-shirt, as she attended an after party for the event on Monday night
Welch also styled Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, 31, for the star-studded Emmy Awards. Einbinder wore a custom Calvin Klein two-piece set
With a powerhouse roster under her belt, Welch has styled the likes of Karlie Kloss, Olivia Wilde, Sarah Paulson, plus Justin Bieber and wife Hailey; Welch pictured in 2023
‘Shailene Woodley, fire your stylist,’ read one scathing tweet, with another person writing: ‘how can hannah’s stylist dress her so good and then there’s shailene woodley.’
Some jokingly suspected that Woodley’s stylist may be a ‘Packers fan,’ referring to her ex Rodgers’s football team.
The NFL star put his past romance with Woodley on blast when he appeared on the ‘Not Just Football’ podcast last Thursday.
He claimed the Paradise actress told him she had to ‘go f***’ another man before telling Rodgers she didn’t want to be with him anymore.
Rodgers proposed to Woodley in December 2021 but their relationship ended just three months later. They had gone public with their romance a year earlier.
‘I proposed to Shailene and she said yes. Now, she maybe felt like she was forced to make a decision. She could have said no,’ Rodgers told Pittsburgh Steelers teammate Cam Heyward.
‘A couple days after that she tells me, ‘Before we get married, I gotta go f*** this guy,’ and I’m like – because her story is that I ruined her life and gave her crazy depression because I left her.’
‘But in actuality, she told me that and then she took off the ring by March – I proposed in December – and we had a couple of times where we tried to get reunited and nothing ever happened. There wasn’t even a relationship in 2022 to break off.
Woodley’s rare fashion miss comes just days after her ex-fiance Aaron Rodgers sensationally claimed that she asked to ‘go f***’ another man before getting married
The 42-year-old Super Bowl champion proposed to Paradise star Woodley in December 2021 but their relationship ended just three months later
‘She literally told me, “I don’t want to be with you” after we tried some reconciliation in 2021. There’s just a lot of narrative out there that isn’t true.’
While Woodley herself has yet to publicly respond, the star’s inner circle have reportedly been left ‘alarmed’ by Rodgers’s remarks, according to TMZ.
Her pals reportedly feel that Rodgers’ comments were ‘completely out of character,’ claiming the football player, who is now married, hasn’t spoken to Woodley in more than two years.
Woodley previously described the breakdown of her relationship with Rodgers as a ‘traumatic thing.’
NASA Spacecraft Detects Newly Formed Crater on the Moon
Scientists have identified a newly formed crater on the moon that is larger than Rome’s Colosseum, created by a powerful impact that went unnoticed when it occurred two years ago.
The steep-walled lunar crater measures roughly 728 feet wide and reaches depths of up to 141 feet. Researchers say it is the largest known impact crater formed anywhere in the solar system in recent times.
Events of this scale are expected only about once every 132 years, according to the researchers. The discovery offers an unusual opportunity to study fresh lunar impacts as NASA moves ahead with plans to establish a base for astronauts on the moon.
“This event constitutes a statistically rare, effectively once-in-a-lifetime observation,” scientists wrote in one of two studies on the discovery published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, detected the crater on the moon’s near side in May 2024, shortly after it was excavated by a fragment from an asteroid or comet.
Despite the force of the lunar strike, telescopes on Earth and in space did not detect the impact in real time.
The LRO’s wide-angle images were initially lost amid the vast volume of spacecraft data and were not recognized until August 2025.
More detailed images were collected by the spacecraft last fall, with the discovery confirmed early this year.
The crater was named for the late Thomas McGetchin, a former director of Houston’s Lunar and Planetary Institute. It is three times larger than the previous record-holder, which the LRO found a decade ago.
Scarred by impacts since ancient times, the moon is home to some of the solar system’s biggest craters, including one spanning more than 1,500 miles.
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This latest impact churned the lunar surface for more than 66 miles.
Dust and rocky soil were hurled away at a higher angle than expected, according to Mark Robinson, chief scientist for the LRO’s cameras who works at Intuitive Machines.
Robinson was the lead author for one of the studies.
A separate study identified a 4-mile-wide cold spot around the new crater, consistent with a loosening of the moon’s top soil.
Co-author David Paige of the University of California, Los Angeles, likens it to gardening.
“We’re now thinking of impacts as a way to garden the regolith — churning the sediments and putting stuff above that’s usually below the surface,” Paige said in a statement.
The LRO’s numerous crater discoveries since its launch in 2009 show that the moon’s top inch of soil is being overturned by ejected material every 80,000 years, faster than previously thought, according to Robinson.
Contrary to the popular belief that the Apollo moonwalkers’ dusty lunar footprints will last forever, they will “definitely be long gone in that time frame,” Robinson said in an email.
The next step is to calculate the risk of ejected crater material striking NASA’s planned moon base, he added.
“That information will help engineers harden structures so one won’t have to worry about damage, or maybe worry less.”
Nia Long Receives Hollywood Walk of Fame Star With Family by Her Side
Nia Long celebrated a major career milestone with the people closest to her present as she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The actress was surrounded by family at the Sept. 16 ceremony in Los Angeles, including her sons, 25-year-old Massai Zhivago Dorsey II and 14-year-old Kez Sunday Udoka, as well as her mother, Talita Long.
Embed from Getty Images
In her acceptance speech, Long said the star’s five points each symbolized a person or force that has kept her grounded throughout her life.
She dedicated one of those points to her mother, praising her for believing in and supporting her well before Hollywood recognized her talent.
“I remember the hard days living in South Central L.A. when you drove the RTD bus and I was a latchkey kid,” Long said. “Money was scarce and opportunities to thrive seemed to pass us by.”
Long also reflected on the time she and her mother spent walking along Hollywood Boulevard, years before she could have imagined seeing her own name there.
“I remember the days we’d walk down Hollywood Boulevard to the only New York-style pizza spot in L.A. while reading the cemented names of stars aloud on this very boulevard,” she said. “You told me I would have a star one day, and here we are.”
The actress thanked her mother for enrolling her in her first acting class, taking her to auditions and helping her navigate the rejection she faced along the way.
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“I share this star with you because there isn’t any part of my story that doesn’t circle back to your bravery and unconditional love,” she said. “I love you, mommy, and I wouldn’t be here without you.”
Another point on the star belonged to her sons.
“To the left top point of this star holds two of my favorite people on the planet and my deepest loves, Masai and Kes,” Long said. “Thank you for being my soldiers. Thank you for giving me the space to do the work that I enjoy so very much.”
She continued, “For every season and every reason, I will forever be your anchor, a voice of truth, and a place where love holds your hand. There are parts of me that belong to no one but the two of you.”
Long’s career spans more than three decades and includes Boyz n the Hood, Friday, Love Jones, Soul Food, The Best Man franchise and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Most recently, she portrayed Katherine Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.
After reflecting on the people who helped shape her journey, Long went on to describe the woman she has become.
“And at the nucleus of this star is a force who once doubted herself, a girl from Brooklyn with Caribbean roots who doesn’t suffer fools and expects transparency from everyone who loves her. She has never followed the crowd and would rather take the scenic route to success,” Long said.
“She loves deeply, and if you’re lucky enough to have her in your life, she will have your back by any means necessary. She is me, Nia Talita Long, a mother, a daughter, a friend, a storyteller, a writer, a director, a producer, and a voice for my community,” she added.
US-Backed Israel-Morocco Deal Deepens Abraham Accords Amid Regional Threats
NEW YORK — Israel and Morocco on Wednesday agreed to elevate their diplomatic missions to full embassies and exchange ambassadors, nearly six years after Morocco joined the U.S.-brokered normalization initiative that transformed Israel’s ties with several Arab nations.
The announcement followed a trilateral meeting in New York involving U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. It came a day after officials commemorated the sixth anniversary of the Abraham Accords.
Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the original Abraham Accords on Sept. 15, 2020. Morocco later joined the normalization effort through a separate U.S.-Morocco-Israel Joint Declaration signed in Rabat on Dec. 22, 2020. That agreement restored formal contacts and set out plans for full diplomatic relations, direct air links and deeper economic cooperation.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and their delegations meet at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York on Sept. 16, 2026, for a summit focused on expanding Israel-Morocco relations. (Yuval Golan/ Israeli Foreign Ministry)
Wednesday’s Israel-Morocco agreement moves several of those earlier commitments forward. The two countries said they will open full embassies, exchange ambassadors, restore direct flights operated by Israeli and Moroccan carriers before the end of 2026, and complete agreements covering investment protection and the avoidance of double taxation.
According to a Sept. 16 joint statement, Israel and Morocco also committed to broader cooperation in trade, finance, technology, tourism, water, agriculture, food security, energy, telecommunications and regional security.
The statement further reaffirmed U.S. and Israeli recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, as well as support for Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the basis for resolving the long-running territorial dispute.
The conversation, however, quickly extended beyond Morocco to the possibility that Saudi Arabia could eventually join the Abraham Accords normalization framework.
Asked by News Media whether Saudi Arabia might become the next country to enter the Abraham Accords, amid reports of increased Israeli-Saudi security coordination against the Iran-backed Houthis, Waltz instead stressed the regional danger posed by Houthi attacks on international shipping.
“The scourge of terrorism from them is unacceptable to the entire region,” Waltz said. “They continue to act as a proxy of the Iranian regime.
Satellite imagery shows Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping waterway and the gateway to the Red Sea, as Iran threatens using Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, in a handout picture dated July 12, 2026. (Nasa Worldview/Handout via Reuters)
“You cannot attempt to punish the rest of the world to achieve a political end,” he added. “The oceans, trade and international waterways must remain open.”
The comments come as the Houthis have made major gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Reuters reported Sept. 16 that the offensive has exposed new vulnerabilities for Saudi Arabia and strengthened Iran’s regional leverage.
The 18-mile-wide Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and carries roughly 7% of global oil output. Houthi attacks beginning in 2023 forced major shipping companies to reroute vessels around Africa, increasing costs and transit times.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar meet at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York Sept. 16, 2026, for a summit focused on expanding Israel-Morocco relations. (Efrat Lachter/ News Media)
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Sa’ar said the threats at Bab el-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz demonstrated why countries with shared interests should cooperate.
“What’s happening in Bab al-Mandab, like what’s happened in Strait of Hormuz, demonstrates the significance of all nations that want to respect freedom of navigation, world trade and cooperate against this kind of modern piracy,” Sa’ar said.
He declined to elaborate on any operational cooperation involving Saudi Arabia but made clear Israel wants the normalization framework expanded.
“It is clear that we would like this camp to be widened,” Sa’ar told News Media.
Yemen’s Iran-backed armed Houthi group has warned they will move to shutter the Bab Al-Mandeb Strait through missile-drone attacks if Gulf nations join the US-Israel war on Iran. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
Bourita, meanwhile, said Morocco’s experience demonstrates that relations with Israel can also give Arab governments practical tools to help Palestinians.
“We can help the Palestinians, humanitarianly, because we have these relations with Israel,” Bourita said.
During the Gaza war, Morocco used its ties with Israel to secure a land route for 40 tons of humanitarian assistance into northern Gaza in March 2024.
“Is it better to continue in the rhetorics, political positions, while sitting in our cities, our capitals or take initiatives?” Bourita asked.
“We don’t agree with Israel 100%. Each one may have its policy,” he said, arguing that Morocco uses the “Abraham Accords spirit” to “promote peace” and “promote stability in the region.”
Bourita also pointed to Morocco’s participation in Gaza stabilization efforts.
“I think it needs courage to contribute to peace,” he said. “And it’s easier to keep on making statements and engaging in rhetorics.”
Waltz echoed that argument, praising Morocco’s humanitarian work and its role in postwar Gaza efforts.
(L-R) Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, Foreign Affairs Minister of Bahrain Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and Foreign Affairs Minister of the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan wave from the Truman Balcony of the White House after the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on the South Lawn of the White House on September 15, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“It is far more than just signing agreements or coming to ceremonies,” Waltz said. “The Moroccan government, the Moroccan people are leaning in, in very meaningful ways for a more peaceful future.”
Jay-Z Says His Family May Find Parts of ‘JAY-Z in 8’ Cringe
Jay-Z is opening up about the mixed emotions surrounding JAY-Z in 8, the new documentary series in which he revisits his landmark music career alongside celebrated producer Rick Rubin. While the rapper said he is thrilled for audiences to see the project, he also acknowledged feeling slightly uneasy about screening such a personal portrait for his own family.
Jay-Z shared why he felt nervous about sharing ‘JAY-Z in 8’ with his family
The JAY-Z in 8 docuseries follows Jay-Z and Rubin during two days of wide-ranging conversations in Paris, touching on the artist’s life, catalog and approach to creating music. At the premiere, Jay-Z said he was eager—but also understandably nervous—to share the finished series with Beyoncé and their children.
“I’m really excited,” he told E! News. “They know these things. We talk all the time. It’ll be fascinating to see on a big screen and at times, I know it’ll be, like, cringe.”
For Jay-Z, the uneasiness comes with the territory of being so open on camera. The series puts a significant part of his inner life and personal history in view, making the experience feel especially exposed.
“You know, when you put yourself out there like that, you get embarrassed, but it’s honest, and it’s a beautiful piece,” he admitted. “So, I’m very proud of it.”
Jay-Z said this felt like the perfect time to release ‘JAY-Z in 8’
Although he said the process did not necessarily reveal much he did not already know about himself, Jay-Z explained that revisiting his journey gave him a different lens through which to view his life and work.
“You become more resolved in your beliefs and the core of the things that you believe in because looking back,” he said. “I wrote these things in ’96 and you know these things have come to fruition now and so it affirms the things that you believe.”
The arrival of the Jay-Z documentary also happens to coincide with the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. However, the timing was not designed as an anniversary tribute, according to the rapper.
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“Two or three years ago, we shot this, and it’s just all aligned [with what’s] happening right now,” Jay-Z said. “We didn’t plan on it being part of a 30-year celebration. We were just, you know, creating a piece that we both believed in, and it just so happened it all lined up.”
He liked to see that his old songs still resonated with an audience
In July, Jay-Z celebrated the anniversary of Reasonable Doubt with shows at Yankee Stadium. He said he loved to see the way that these decades-old songs still resonated with the audience.
“It was just phenomenal to have these songs still resonate,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “And they weren’t made for such a big venue. So to see ‘Can I Live’ or ‘D’Evils’ connect in such big stadiums — it’s a testament to the work that was created.”
He also liked to reflect on the way that he predicted his own future success in his early lyrics.
“Just going back through there, there were a lot of things that were said — a lot of manifesting in those songs,” he said. “A lot of those things came true. So to just go back and connect with those things — it’s just a phenomenal feeling, because you believe it at the time and you hope. And now, reflecting, a lot of those things came true.”
Jay-Z in 8 premieres on HBO on Sept. 18.
Trump DOJ Urges Supreme Court to Hear Letitia James Fraud Appeal
Left: New York Attorney General Letitia James joins elected officials at New York City Hall on Sept. 14, 2026, to announce a Public Rights Project lawsuit challenging the federal government’s new public charge rule. (Photo by Lev Radin/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images). Right: John Sarcone, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, exits Manhattan federal court on Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister).
The Trump administration brought its dispute over New York Attorney General Letitia James to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking to restore subpoenas issued to her office. The filing came the same day the Justice Department urged an appeals court to revive its bank fraud case against James.
The central issue is whether John Sarcone, who has been disqualified as acting U.S. attorney, can take part in a grand jury investigation involving officials who investigated President Donald Trump and his family real estate business in New York’s civil fraud case.
In August, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision in a 2-1 ruling. The decision quashed the subpoenas and barred Sarcone from “any further involvement in prosecuting or supervising the instant investigations, regardless of his title.”
The appellate majority concluded that Senior U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield correctly found Sarcone had neither “validly” served nor “lawfully” exercised the powers of an acting U.S. attorney.
Sarcone originally took office as interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, a role capped at 120 days. After that period expired, the court appointed Donald Kinsella as his successor. Kinsella was fired immediately, however, allowing Sarcone to return to the office in the Justice Department’s view through appointments as a special attorney and first assistant U.S. attorney.
Federal courts have repeatedly rejected that position. The 2nd Circuit’s ruling added to decisions against former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s use of interim or acting U.S. attorney appointments that did not receive Senate confirmation, including district court decisions within the 3rd, 4th and 9th Circuits.
Only days before the Sarcone decision, the 9th Circuit unanimously found that Sigal Chattah was “not lawfully serving” as Nevada’s acting U.S. attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The court upheld her disqualification from overseeing indictments involving the criminal defendants who challenged her appointment, ruling that the law “permits only a First Assistant already in place when the vacancy arises to become the acting officer automatically.”
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The Justice Department is now asking the Supreme Court to hear both cases. Its petition in the Sarcone matter was added to the court’s docket Tuesday.
“The recent court-of-appeals decisions are incorrect. Nothing in the FVRA’s text limits acting service to the pre-vacancy first assistant. To the contrary, the statute uses the present tense and imposes an ongoing duty on the ‘first assistant to the office of such officer’—not the pre-vacancy first assistant—to ‘perform the functions and duties of the office.’ Moreover, the Attorney General may delegate his broad law-enforcement authorities to anyone in the Department of Justice,” the DOJ said. The department argued that the lower courts had improperly “invalidat[ed] two longstanding executive-branch practices for addressing vacancies” in Senate-confirmed offices.
The government then pointed the justices to the Chattah dispute — and the petition it filed one week earlier — as one that “cleanly presents the FVRA questions at the heart of this case” and provides “a better vehicle than this [Sarcone] case for resolving the questions presented,” because it doesn’t involve the “issuance of subpoenas[.]”
The DOJ nonetheless urged the high court to reverse three appellate courts’ holdings, claiming these “risk chaos at the next presidential transition when officers and their first assistants typically resign together, leaving the new Administration with few good options for acting officers to safeguard critical posts pending confirmation of permanent replacements.”
“More immediately, the decision below threatens to inject mass confusion into five U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the Ninth Circuit that collectively handle over 8,000 civil and criminal cases annually. This Court’s swift intervention is warranted to put that uncertainty to rest,” the Chattah petition said.
Notably, the criminal probe of James’ office was never blocked and the government “remains free” to reissue the subpoenas “through lawfully authorized officials.”
The post Trump DOJ demands SCOTUS take the wheel after probe of Letitia James’ civil fraud case stalls, points out ‘a better vehicle’ already exists first appeared on Law & Crime.
Australia’s Child Support Changes Set to Affect Thousands of Fathers
Australian fathers who have children overseas could soon be required to pay child support to mothers living abroad, under major Labor reforms targeting parents accused of avoiding their financial obligations.
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek is set to introduce legislation to parliament on Thursday that aims to recoup billions of dollars in outstanding child support, improve safeguards for domestic violence survivors and close loopholes that can be exploited by former partners.
The proposed changes would allow parents based overseas to apply directly to Services Australia for child support payments from an Australian parent.
Where an application is approved, Services Australia would calculate the amount owed, collect the money and arrange for it to be sent to the overseas parent.
Labor has described the package as the most significant shake-up of Australia’s child support system in decades.
‘There is almost $2bn of unpaid child support in this country,’ Plibersek told News Corp.
‘There are almost 100,000 parents and carers in the child support system who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing family and domestic violence.
‘The child support system should never be able to be used to punish, harass and control ex-partners and deny children the support they deserve.’
Tanya Plibersek (pictured) said the proposed reforms would help recover billions of dollars in unpaid child support.
ABC’s Four Corners reported in 2024 that tens of thousands of Filipino children are believed to have been born to foreign fathers, including Australians and New Zealanders, with many of those fathers never taking part in their children’s lives.
The investigation examined a DNA-tracing initiative led by Australian lawyer Andrew MacLeod, which uses ancestry databases, family tree mapping and public records to identify and locate suspected fathers years after they left the Philippines.
The legislation targets parents who avoid their obligations by failing to lodge tax returns, understating their income or refusing to make payments.
Services Australia will also gain greater powers to withhold sensitive personal information, including employment details, from former partners where there are safety concerns.
The government says the changes will make it harder for abusive ex-partners to weaponise the child support system as a tool of control.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the reforms would put the needs of families first.
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‘This legislation is about making sure that we design government services around the safety and needs of the people who use them.’
A key change will see more child support payments collected directly through employers via wage deductions, rather than relying on private arrangements that can be difficult to enforce.
Single parents will also find it easier to recover unpaid child support debts from July 2027, while parents who deliberately avoid payments by failing to lodge tax returns will face greater scrutiny.
Parents living overseas will be able to apply directly to Services Australia for child support (file)
The measures are part of a $186 million package announced in the federal budget.
Plibersek said too many parents were using loopholes in the system to avoid supporting their children, leaving families financially vulnerable.
‘Abuse of the child support system is an insidious form of family and domestic violence,’ she said.
‘While most parents do the right thing, when parents weaponise the system by deliberately not making payments, not lodging tax returns, or lying about their income or care arrangements, there are real and immediate impacts on children and parents.’
Until now, some single parents have been forced to choose between receiving family tax benefits and cutting ties with an abusive former partner.
Others have avoided seeking child support altogether out of fear that it could trigger further harassment.
‘Currently, our system allows all these things to happen,’ Plibersek said.
‘There are too many loopholes.
‘That will not be tolerated by this government. Government systems must never be allowed to become tools through which that abuse is perpetuated.’
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