WASHINGTON — Many U.S. taxpayers in a dozen states for the first time can electronically file their federal returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service for free — but critics insist the new federal benefit is not needed and will even harm both users and states.

More than 50,000 taxpayers in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming have so far used the new online IRS Direct File program this tax season, according to the agency.

The free alternative to potentially costly private tax filing software rolled out in mid-March for the 2023 filing season. It is only available for those with W-2 income or simple credits and deductions, like the child tax credit or student loan interest.

The IRS estimates that 19 million taxpayers are eligible to use the new program in advance of the April 15 tax filing deadline.

But opponents argue the government Direct File program is a waste of resources and will snag business from professional tax preparers. They say it will confuse taxpayers who are accustomed to automatically filing their federal and state returns together through private software.

Some states also claim it will cost them revenue and increase what they have to spend on collections from taxpayers who owe money to their states.

The IRS program is purposefully small for now. The agency said in a launch-day release that it’s following “best practices for launching a new technology platform by starting small, making sure it works and then building from there.”

The pilot program “is almost tailor-made for students and young people with simple tax situations,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/commissioner-danny-werfel-1-year-anniversary-speech-the-future-irs-transforming-for-a-digital-world">said</a>&nbsp;in late March, encouraging people to visit the new&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://directfile.irs.gov/">directfile.irs.gov</a>.

The White House is&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1772669844615213260?s=20">celebrating</a>&nbsp;the launch as a win for President Joe Biden, who in 2022 along with a Democratic-led Congress authorized its funding to jumpstart the program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The progressive Economic Security Project&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://economicsecurityproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Full-Report_-The-Impact-of-Direct-File-by-the-Numbers.pdf">estimates</a>&nbsp;that if the program scales up, it could eventually save the average taxpayer up to $160 annually in tax prep costs. Assuming broad public adoption, that could add up to Americans saving $11 billion a year in filing fees and time.

The organization also estimates low-income households could gain up to $12 billion in unclaimed federal tax credits, and that the IRS would see a return on investment of more than $100 per federal dollar spent on the program due to less paperwork and fewer errors.

Roxy Caines, director of the Get It Back campaign, said Direct File could increase tax participation, particularly for low-income households.

“Having an accessible way to file taxes is really important because of the high cost of tax preparation as well as the arduous process. It’s often viewed as intimidating,” said Caines, who runs the financial literacy and tax credit advocacy campaign by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

When Werfel appeared in February before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, Republican Chair Jason Smith of Missouri&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/event/hearing-with-commissioner-of-the-internal-revenue-service-daniel-werfel/">described</a>&nbsp;the program as a “scheme the American people didn’t ask for.”

In January, 13 Republican attorneys general sent a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://dojmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/IRS-Direct-File-Letter-Final.pdf">letter</a>&nbsp;to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opposing “the unnecessary and unconstitutional efforts to empower the Internal Revenue Service with the expansive authority to prepare and file tax returns for all taxpayers.”

“American taxpayers do not want to invite the proverbial fox into the hen house,” wrote the officials, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.

Attorneys general from Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia co-signed it.

The officials wrote that a program for taxpayers to directly file with the IRS at no cost “needlessly threatens” the livelihoods of tax preparers.

“Every year, tens of millions of taxpayers file their taxes for free with help from existing programs or online software. Additionally, millions of Americans work with small businesses in our states to file their taxes at an affordable cost, including both independent tax preparation services and local accountants. They choose to do so because they want an advocate in their corner who will represent their interests against the IRS bureaucracy,” they wrote.

The IRS did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism.

Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union, a fiscally conservative organization that advocates for simplifying the tax code, told States Newsroom the project has been “dramatically oversold” and is being piloted in “some very easy places,” including states that don’t collect their own income tax.

Money for the IRS would be better spent on improving customer service, he argues.

“Every single penny they can scrounge up from other places needs to be poured into that effort, right? Now, in our opinion, designing a portal for direct file that is underpowered and is competing with other services is just not a priority,” he said, referring to the 22-year “Free File” arrangement the IRS has had with select private companies.

Today, the vast majority of taxpayers file electronically,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-fiscal-year-2022-data-book-describing-agencys-activities">according</a>&nbsp;to IRS data. Of the 160 million individual federal tax returns that the IRS processed in 2022, 150.6 million, or 94%, were e-filed. Of those, just under 3.3 million used what’s been criticized as an opaque and complicated electronic Free File program.

Free File dates back to the early 2000s, when the idea of e-filing was just budding, and the government had no such program in place.

President George W. Bush’s administration was exploring the possibility of a free direct file portal through the IRS website.

At the time the agency was struggling after failed modernization efforts, and a public-private partnership with the burgeoning tax preparation software companies became an appealing option.

“The tax companies just said, ‘Well, we got a deal for you,’” recalls Nina Olson, who served as the National Taxpayer Advocate for the IRS from 2001 to 2019.

“And at that time, I was very suspect of the deal. I said at the time that they’re going to find themselves in 20 years, that you know, tax companies would pull out and you would have a patchwork of services available to people,” Olson, who now runs the nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights, said in an interview with States Newsroom.

What began in 2002 was an agreement between the IRS and a group of&nbsp; private tax prep software companies, under the name Free File Alliance, to offer free federal tax returns to those under a certain income threshold. In 2023, that annual earnings threshold was $79,000 or less.

Taxpayers who earn above that income threshold have the option to complete their federal returns for free, unguided, using fillable PDF tax forms.

The just over two-decade-old program has been scrutinized for not reaching the taxpayers who most need a free filing option and for not providing a better user experience.

A 2019 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6768599/TIGTA-Free-File-audit.pdf">report</a>&nbsp;described the program as “fraught with complexity and confusion.”

The inspector general found that in 2018 only 2.5 million of the 104 million taxpayers eligible for Free File actually used it.

About 34.5 million of those Free File-eligible taxpayers used one of the alliance companies’ commercial software options, and a likely 14 million of them paid to e-file their federal returns, the report found.

The low number of Free File users likely was because an estimated 9 million eligible taxpayers were unaware that they had to access the Free File software options via the IRS website.

Those who, for example, searched the web and found one of the IRS partner companies’ websites were “not guaranteed a free return filing,” and subsequently susceptible to advertising for potentially costly add-ons like “audit defense,” the report found.

Investigative reporting in 2019 by ProPublica&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free">revealed</a>&nbsp;deliberate tactics to cloud the Free File program by Intuit, maker of TurboTax, one of the Free File Alliance’s largest partners.

Terms between the IRS and Free File Alliance initially included a commitment from the agency to not develop its own free online filing program. In exchange, the partner companies agreed to limit advertising and add-on solicitation on their free file web pages.

In 2019 the IRS&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-reforms-free-file-program-drops-agreement-not-to-compete-with-turbotax">dropped</a>&nbsp;the prohibition on developing its own program. Limits on company marketing and solicitation for add-on products continued as part of the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-efile/ninth-memorandum-of-understanding-on-service-standards-and-disputes.pdf">agreement</a>&nbsp;— though Intuit would eventually have to pay for breaking its commitment.

H&amp;R Block and Intuit respectively left the Free File Alliance in 2020 and 2021. Together they served about 70% of eligible Free File taxpayers in 2019, according to a 2022 Government Accountability Office&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105236#summary_recommend">report</a>&nbsp;that recommended the IRS develop additional options for taxpayers to file for free.

Acknowledging the opposing viewpoints on whether the IRS should create, or could handle, its own program, the report concluded the agency “should work to manage the risk of taxpayers having fewer options to electronically file their federal taxes for free.”

In 2022, Intuit&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.agturbotaxsettlement.com/Portals/0/Document%20Files/Final%20AVC.pdf?ver=ktHm0t4iOO2k2RruoESSLA%3d%3d">settled</a>&nbsp;with attorneys general from across the U.S., agreeing to pay $141 million to Intuit TurboTax customers who ended up buying services that should have been free to them.

Today there are eight companies in the Free File Alliance, with differing income and tax situation criteria. All are&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">listed</a>&nbsp;on the IRS website.

Olson said she doesn’t view the IRS Direct File pilot as a competitor to the already existing Free File partnership. Rather, it’s “one more component of a robust tax online taxpayer account,” she said.

“This is what countries do around the world. We’re so far behind,” Olson said. “There’s a response to folks who say ‘The government doesn’t need to do this’ or ‘There’s no interest in this product.’ Regardless of whether there’s interest in the product, it’s a government obligation.”

Among the tens of billions of dollars Congress authorized for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act, $15 million was earmarked for exploring the possibility of an IRS-run direct federal tax filing system.

Specifically Congress mandated the agency to use the money to survey taxpayers’ wants and needs, obtain a third-party opinion, and report back to lawmakers on the costs to create and run such a program.

In its third-party&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/Independent-Third-Party-Report-to-Congress-508c.pdf">review</a>, the left-leaning think tank New America assessed that a successful IRS-run Direct File program “depends critically” on whether the agency prioritizes the project and begins with limited testing before building up.

The organization estimated that development, staffing, infrastructure and customer service for a scaled-up platform would cost the IRS annually anywhere from $22 million to $47 million if 1 million taxpayers use a Direct File program, and up to $126 million to $213 million in the event that 25 million taxpayers jump on board.

New America also recommended the IRS consider the importance of customer service, data privacy and taxpayers’ habits of filing federal and state returns all on one platform — one of the main concerns from critics.

Ayushi Roy, deputy director of New America’s New Practice Lab, which led the review, told States Newsroom she’s been talking to taxpayers using the Direct File pilot and “broadly speaking, we’re finding that filers are really landing on either ‘Wow,’ or ‘it didn’t include me for now.’”

The group will conduct its own analysis of the IRS trial run, particularly focusing on the experience for Spanish-speaking filers.

As for taxpayer interest, the IRS&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5788.pdf">found</a>&nbsp;that 72% of survey respondents said they were “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in a free IRS-provided tool to prepare and file federal taxes.

The survey conducted in 2022 by MITRE, a nonprofit that runs federally funded research and development centers, also found that a top reason cited by 46% of those interested is that they would rather give their financial data to the IRS than to a third party.

An October 2023&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.tigta.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-10/2024408002fr.pdf">report</a>&nbsp;from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration took issue with the design of the survey, warning that the interest level may be “overstated” because the survey did not include a “neutral” option for respondents to choose.

However, the largely Democrat- and progressive-aligned international polling firm GQR&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://betterirs.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/283/Better-IRS_Direct-File-State-Polling-Memos.pdf">found</a>&nbsp;in late January through early February that between 92% and 95% of taxpayers across political ideologies and income levels in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New York and Texas support a free online IRS filing service.

Several state governments already offer free public electronic filing for state income tax returns, including&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/individual-corporate/individual-income-tax-electronic-filing-options/">Alabama</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ksrevenue.gov/iiwebfile.html">Kansas</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://revenue.ky.gov/Individual/Pages/Free-Electronic-Filing.aspx">Kentucky</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.revenue.pa.gov/OnlineServices/mypath/Individuals/Pages/PIT.aspx">Pennsylvania</a>, which offer the service regardless of income level. Some states, like&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/calfile-qualifications.html">California</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://tax.iowa.gov/individual-income-tax-electronic-filing-options">Iowa</a>, have income thresholds for free filing.

Despite the adoption of free public filing in some states, 21 state auditors, comptrollers and treasurers from 18 states sent a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://myfloridacfo.com/docs-sf/cfo-news-libraries/news-documents/2024/irs-direct-file-letter.pdf">letter</a>&nbsp;on March 25 to Yellen and Werfel expressing concern about the “serious harm” the IRS Direct File program will cause and urging them to “shut down” the service.

“Taxpayers are not the only parties who will suffer from Direct File. States will suffer too. States will lose out on payments from Direct File taxpayers who owe state taxes but incorrectly assume that Direct File covers federal and state filings.

“States will then have to increase resources dedicated to collection efforts,” wrote the officials from Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

According to the Treasury Department, taxpayers using the IRS Direct File pilot in Arizona, California, Massachusetts or New York are&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/inflation-reduction-act/irs-direct-file-service">automatically directed</a>&nbsp;to their state-supported tax filing websites. Those in Washington are sent to that state’s page to claim the Working Families Tax Credit.

The IRS could not provide a more specific figure of how many taxpayers have so far used Direct File, and its latest estimate stands at 50,000. Advocates say they expect to learn updated numbers as soon as a week after federal taxes are due on April 15.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1644341985746.jpg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON — Many U.S. taxpayers in a dozen states for the first time can electronically file their federal returns directly to the Internal Revenue Service for free — but critics insist the new federal benefit is not needed and will even harm both users and states.More than 50,000 taxpayers in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming have so far used the new online IRS Direct File program this tax season, according to the agency.The free alternative to potentially costly private tax filing software rolled out in mid-March for the 2023 filing season. It is only available for those with W-2 income or simple credits and deductions, like the child tax credit or student loan interest.The IRS estimates that 19 million taxpayers are eligible to use the new program in advance of the April 15 tax filing deadline.But opponents argue the government Direct File program is a waste of resources and will snag business from professional tax preparers. They say it will confuse taxpayers who are accustomed to automatically filing their federal and state returns together through private software.Some states also claim it will cost them revenue and increase what they have to spend on collections from taxpayers who owe money to their states.The IRS program is purposefully small for now. The agency said in a launch-day release that it’s following “best practices for launching a new technology platform by starting small, making sure it works and then building from there.”The pilot program “is almost tailor-made for students and young people with simple tax situations,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/commissioner-danny-werfel-1-year-anniversary-speech-the-future-irs-transforming-for-a-digital-world">said</a>&nbsp;in late March, encouraging people to visit the new&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://directfile.irs.gov/">directfile.irs.gov</a>.The White House is&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1772669844615213260?s=20">celebrating</a>&nbsp;the launch as a win for President Joe Biden, who in 2022 along with a Democratic-led Congress authorized its funding to jumpstart the program as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.The progressive Economic Security Project&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://economicsecurityproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Full-Report_-The-Impact-of-Direct-File-by-the-Numbers.pdf">estimates</a>&nbsp;that if the program scales up, it could eventually save the average taxpayer up to $160 annually in tax prep costs. Assuming broad public adoption, that could add up to Americans saving $11 billion a year in filing fees and time.The organization also estimates low-income households could gain up to $12 billion in unclaimed federal tax credits, and that the IRS would see a return on investment of more than $100 per federal dollar spent on the program due to less paperwork and fewer errors.Roxy Caines, director of the Get It Back campaign, said Direct File could increase tax participation, particularly for low-income households.“Having an accessible way to file taxes is really important because of the high cost of tax preparation as well as the arduous process. It’s often viewed as intimidating,” said Caines, who runs the financial literacy and tax credit advocacy campaign by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.<h2>‘Unnecessary and unconstitutional’</h2>But not everyone is on board.When Werfel appeared in February before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, Republican Chair Jason Smith of Missouri&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/event/hearing-with-commissioner-of-the-internal-revenue-service-daniel-werfel/">described</a>&nbsp;the program as a “scheme the American people didn’t ask for.”In January, 13 Republican attorneys general sent a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://dojmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/IRS-Direct-File-Letter-Final.pdf">letter</a>&nbsp;to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opposing “the unnecessary and unconstitutional efforts to empower the Internal Revenue Service with the expansive authority to prepare and file tax returns for all taxpayers.”“American taxpayers do not want to invite the proverbial fox into the hen house,” wrote the officials, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen.Attorneys general from Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia co-signed it.The officials wrote that a program for taxpayers to directly file with the IRS at no cost “needlessly threatens” the livelihoods of tax preparers.“Every year, tens of millions of taxpayers file their taxes for free with help from existing programs or online software. Additionally, millions of Americans work with small businesses in our states to file their taxes at an affordable cost, including both independent tax preparation services and local accountants. They choose to do so because they want an advocate in their corner who will represent their interests against the IRS bureaucracy,” they wrote.The IRS did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism.Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union, a fiscally conservative organization that advocates for simplifying the tax code, told States Newsroom the project has been “dramatically oversold” and is being piloted in “some very easy places,” including states that don’t collect their own income tax.Money for the IRS would be better spent on improving customer service, he argues.“Every single penny they can scrounge up from other places needs to be poured into that effort, right? Now, in our opinion, designing a portal for direct file that is underpowered and is competing with other services is just not a priority,” he said, referring to the 22-year “Free File” arrangement the IRS has had with select private companies.<h2>So what about Free File?</h2>Today, the vast majority of taxpayers file electronically,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-fiscal-year-2022-data-book-describing-agencys-activities">according</a>&nbsp;to IRS data. Of the 160 million individual federal tax returns that the IRS processed in 2022, 150.6 million, or 94%, were e-filed. Of those, just under 3.3 million used what’s been criticized as an opaque and complicated electronic Free File program.Free File dates back to the early 2000s, when the idea of e-filing was just budding, and the government had no such program in place.President George W. Bush’s administration was exploring the possibility of a free direct file portal through the IRS website.At the time the agency was struggling after failed modernization efforts, and a public-private partnership with the burgeoning tax preparation software companies became an appealing option.“The tax companies just said, ‘Well, we got a deal for you,’” recalls Nina Olson, who served as the National Taxpayer Advocate for the IRS from 2001 to 2019.“And at that time, I was very suspect of the deal. I said at the time that they’re going to find themselves in 20 years, that you know, tax companies would pull out and you would have a patchwork of services available to people,” Olson, who now runs the nonprofit Center for Taxpayer Rights, said in an interview with States Newsroom.What began in 2002 was an agreement between the IRS and a group of&nbsp; private tax prep software companies, under the name Free File Alliance, to offer free federal tax returns to those under a certain income threshold. In 2023, that annual earnings threshold was $79,000 or less.Taxpayers who earn above that income threshold have the option to complete their federal returns for free, unguided, using fillable PDF tax forms.The just over two-decade-old program has been scrutinized for not reaching the taxpayers who most need a free filing option and for not providing a better user experience.A 2019 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6768599/TIGTA-Free-File-audit.pdf">report</a>&nbsp;described the program as “fraught with complexity and confusion.”The inspector general found that in 2018 only 2.5 million of the 104 million taxpayers eligible for Free File actually used it.About 34.5 million of those Free File-eligible taxpayers used one of the alliance companies’ commercial software options, and a likely 14 million of them paid to e-file their federal returns, the report found.The low number of Free File users likely was because an estimated 9 million eligible taxpayers were unaware that they had to access the Free File software options via the IRS website.Those who, for example, searched the web and found one of the IRS partner companies’ websites were “not guaranteed a free return filing,” and subsequently susceptible to advertising for potentially costly add-ons like “audit defense,” the report found.Investigative reporting in 2019 by ProPublica&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free">revealed</a>&nbsp;deliberate tactics to cloud the Free File program by Intuit, maker of TurboTax, one of the Free File Alliance’s largest partners.Terms between the IRS and Free File Alliance initially included a commitment from the agency to not develop its own free online filing program. In exchange, the partner companies agreed to limit advertising and add-on solicitation on their free file web pages.In 2019 the IRS&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-reforms-free-file-program-drops-agreement-not-to-compete-with-turbotax">dropped</a>&nbsp;the prohibition on developing its own program. Limits on company marketing and solicitation for add-on products continued as part of the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-efile/ninth-memorandum-of-understanding-on-service-standards-and-disputes.pdf">agreement</a>&nbsp;— though Intuit would eventually have to pay for breaking its commitment.H&amp;R Block and Intuit respectively left the Free File Alliance in 2020 and 2021. Together they served about 70% of eligible Free File taxpayers in 2019, according to a 2022 Government Accountability Office&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105236#summary_recommend">report</a>&nbsp;that recommended the IRS develop additional options for taxpayers to file for free.Acknowledging the opposing viewpoints on whether the IRS should create, or could handle, its own program, the report concluded the agency “should work to manage the risk of taxpayers having fewer options to electronically file their federal taxes for free.”In 2022, Intuit&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.agturbotaxsettlement.com/Portals/0/Document%20Files/Final%20AVC.pdf?ver=ktHm0t4iOO2k2RruoESSLA%3d%3d">settled</a>&nbsp;with attorneys general from across the U.S., agreeing to pay $141 million to Intuit TurboTax customers who ended up buying services that should have been free to them.Today there are eight companies in the Free File Alliance, with differing income and tax situation criteria. All are&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/">listed</a>&nbsp;on the IRS website.Olson said she doesn’t view the IRS Direct File pilot as a competitor to the already existing Free File partnership. Rather, it’s “one more component of a robust tax online taxpayer account,” she said.“This is what countries do around the world. We’re so far behind,” Olson said. “There’s a response to folks who say ‘The government doesn’t need to do this’ or ‘There’s no interest in this product.’ Regardless of whether there’s interest in the product, it’s a government obligation.”<h2>Congressional mandate</h2>Among the tens of billions of dollars Congress authorized for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act, $15 million was earmarked for exploring the possibility of an IRS-run direct federal tax filing system.Specifically Congress mandated the agency to use the money to survey taxpayers’ wants and needs, obtain a third-party opinion, and report back to lawmakers on the costs to create and run such a program.In its third-party&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://d1y8sb8igg2f8e.cloudfront.net/documents/Independent-Third-Party-Report-to-Congress-508c.pdf">review</a>, the left-leaning think tank New America assessed that a successful IRS-run Direct File program “depends critically” on whether the agency prioritizes the project and begins with limited testing before building up.The organization estimated that development, staffing, infrastructure and customer service for a scaled-up platform would cost the IRS annually anywhere from $22 million to $47 million if 1 million taxpayers use a Direct File program, and up to $126 million to $213 million in the event that 25 million taxpayers jump on board.New America also recommended the IRS consider the importance of customer service, data privacy and taxpayers’ habits of filing federal and state returns all on one platform — one of the main concerns from critics.Ayushi Roy, deputy director of New America’s New Practice Lab, which led the review, told States Newsroom she’s been talking to taxpayers using the Direct File pilot and “broadly speaking, we’re finding that filers are really landing on either ‘Wow,’ or ‘it didn’t include me for now.’”The group will conduct its own analysis of the IRS trial run, particularly focusing on the experience for Spanish-speaking filers.As for taxpayer interest, the IRS&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5788.pdf">found</a>&nbsp;that 72% of survey respondents said they were “very interested” or “somewhat interested” in a free IRS-provided tool to prepare and file federal taxes.The survey conducted in 2022 by MITRE, a nonprofit that runs federally funded research and development centers, also found that a top reason cited by 46% of those interested is that they would rather give their financial data to the IRS than to a third party.An October 2023&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.tigta.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-10/2024408002fr.pdf">report</a>&nbsp;from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration took issue with the design of the survey, warning that the interest level may be “overstated” because the survey did not include a “neutral” option for respondents to choose.However, the largely Democrat- and progressive-aligned international polling firm GQR&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://betterirs.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/283/Better-IRS_Direct-File-State-Polling-Memos.pdf">found</a>&nbsp;in late January through early February that between 92% and 95% of taxpayers across political ideologies and income levels in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New York and Texas support a free online IRS filing service.Several state governments already offer free public electronic filing for state income tax returns, including&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/individual-corporate/individual-income-tax-electronic-filing-options/">Alabama</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ksrevenue.gov/iiwebfile.html">Kansas</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://revenue.ky.gov/Individual/Pages/Free-Electronic-Filing.aspx">Kentucky</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.revenue.pa.gov/OnlineServices/mypath/Individuals/Pages/PIT.aspx">Pennsylvania</a>, which offer the service regardless of income level. Some states, like&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/ways-to-file/online/calfile/calfile-qualifications.html">California</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://tax.iowa.gov/individual-income-tax-electronic-filing-options">Iowa</a>, have income thresholds for free filing.States bite backDespite the adoption of free public filing in some states, 21 state auditors, comptrollers and treasurers from 18 states sent a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://myfloridacfo.com/docs-sf/cfo-news-libraries/news-documents/2024/irs-direct-file-letter.pdf">letter</a>&nbsp;on March 25 to Yellen and Werfel expressing concern about the “serious harm” the IRS Direct File program will cause and urging them to “shut down” the service.“Taxpayers are not the only parties who will suffer from Direct File. States will suffer too. States will lose out on payments from Direct File taxpayers who owe state taxes but incorrectly assume that Direct File covers federal and state filings.“States will then have to increase resources dedicated to collection efforts,” wrote the officials from Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.According to the Treasury Department, taxpayers using the IRS Direct File pilot in Arizona, California, Massachusetts or New York are&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/inflation-reduction-act/irs-direct-file-service">automatically directed</a>&nbsp;to their state-supported tax filing websites. Those in Washington are sent to that state’s page to claim the Working Families Tax Credit.The IRS could not provide a more specific figure of how many taxpayers have so far used Direct File, and its latest estimate stands at 50,000. Advocates say they expect to learn updated numbers as soon as a week after federal taxes are due on April 15.

IRS is testing a free method to directly file taxes. But not everyone is thrilled

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five-year period, according to new data released Thursday by the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives">Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives</a>.

That represents 54% of the illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. between 2017 and 2021, Justice Department officials said. The guns were used in 368 shooting cases, which are harder to investigate because unlicensed dealers aren't required to keep records of their sales that could allow federal agents to trace the weapon back to the original buyer, said ATF Director Steve Dettelbach.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-crime-5797d08e27b4904c4a6b68d88cf544c1">The report ordered</a>&nbsp;by Attorney General Merrick Garland is the first in-depth analysis of firearm trafficking investigations in more than 20 years. It examined more than 9,700 closed ATF firearm trafficking investigations that began between 2017 and 2021. Firearms trafficking is when guns are purposely moved into the illegal market for a criminal purpose or possession.

The second-highest share of firearm-trafficking cases investigated by ATF was straw purchases, when someone buys a gun for a person who can’t get it legally themselves.

The report also shows that the recipients of trafficked firearms were people who had previously been convicted of a felony in almost 60 percent of the cases in which investigators were able to identify the background of the recipient. Furthermore, trafficked firearms were used to commit additional crimes in almost 25 percent of the cases, Dettelbach said. That includes more than 260 murders and more than 220 attempted murders, according to the report.

“The data shows, therefore, that those who illegally traffic firearms whether its out of a trunk, at a gun show or online are responsible for real violence in this nation,” Dettelbach said. “In short, you can’t illegally help to arm violent people and not be responsible for the violence that follows,” he said.

The report found the average number of guns trafficked per case was 16. People who got them through unlicensed dealers bought 20 weapons on average, compared to 11 guns for straw buyers, according to the report.

The Biden administration has separately&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/firearms-dealers-biden-background-checks-gun-violence-d53441dc0242c515b6b1478ab27a5dac">proposed a rule</a>&nbsp;that would require thousands more gun sellers to get licensed and run background checks. The Justice Department says it’s aimed at sellers who are in the business of firearm sales, but the proposal quickly drew protest from gun-rights groups who contend it could ensnare regular people who sometimes sell their own guns.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/12/1702505915425.png" alt="Photo Aristide Economopoulos&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Photo Aristide Economopoulos&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five-year period, according to new data released Thursday by the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives">Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives</a>.That represents 54% of the illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. between 2017 and 2021, Justice Department officials said. The guns were used in 368 shooting cases, which are harder to investigate because unlicensed dealers aren't required to keep records of their sales that could allow federal agents to trace the weapon back to the original buyer, said ATF Director Steve Dettelbach.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/bureau-of-alcohol-tobacco-firearms-and-explosives-crime-5797d08e27b4904c4a6b68d88cf544c1">The report ordered</a>&nbsp;by Attorney General Merrick Garland is the first in-depth analysis of firearm trafficking investigations in more than 20 years. It examined more than 9,700 closed ATF firearm trafficking investigations that began between 2017 and 2021. Firearms trafficking is when guns are purposely moved into the illegal market for a criminal purpose or possession.The second-highest share of firearm-trafficking cases investigated by ATF was straw purchases, when someone buys a gun for a person who can’t get it legally themselves.The report also shows that the recipients of trafficked firearms were people who had previously been convicted of a felony in almost 60 percent of the cases in which investigators were able to identify the background of the recipient. Furthermore, trafficked firearms were used to commit additional crimes in almost 25 percent of the cases, Dettelbach said. That includes more than 260 murders and more than 220 attempted murders, according to the report.“The data shows, therefore, that those who illegally traffic firearms whether its out of a trunk, at a gun show or online are responsible for real violence in this nation,” Dettelbach said. “In short, you can’t illegally help to arm violent people and not be responsible for the violence that follows,” he said.The report found the average number of guns trafficked per case was 16. People who got them through unlicensed dealers bought 20 weapons on average, compared to 11 guns for straw buyers, according to the report.The Biden administration has separately&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/firearms-dealers-biden-background-checks-gun-violence-d53441dc0242c515b6b1478ab27a5dac">proposed a rule</a>&nbsp;that would require thousands more gun sellers to get licensed and run background checks. The Justice Department says it’s aimed at sellers who are in the business of firearm sales, but the proposal quickly drew protest from gun-rights groups who contend it could ensnare regular people who sometimes sell their own guns.

Report: 68,000 guns illegally trafficked through unlicensed dealers over 5 years

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.

The single ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement.

The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-annuity-vs-cash-0e741f164106c0f4dba89707c5763c99">an annuity</a>&nbsp;paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.

The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.

Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.

The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lottery-jackpots-mega-millions-powerball-80fcb836622ba8e18883ce778786c1cc">eighth largest in U.S. lottery history</a>. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales and the jackpots subsequently become harder to hit. The game’s long odds for the weekend drawing were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-lottery-us-news-ap-top-news-ia-state-wire-b5572da1e5d74f6e974bea45c707b5cb">1 in 292.2 million</a>.

Saturday night’s scheduled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-lottery-delay-ef6c513ad9fc94dd3d07cd9db2e8e22f">drawing was held up</a>&nbsp;and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., Powerball said in a statement.

“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement said. “This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.The single ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement.The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-annuity-vs-cash-0e741f164106c0f4dba89707c5763c99">an annuity</a>&nbsp;paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/lottery-jackpots-mega-millions-powerball-80fcb836622ba8e18883ce778786c1cc">eighth largest in U.S. lottery history</a>. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales and the jackpots subsequently become harder to hit. The game’s long odds for the weekend drawing were&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-lottery-us-news-ap-top-news-ia-state-wire-b5572da1e5d74f6e974bea45c707b5cb">1 in 292.2 million</a>.Saturday night’s scheduled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-lottery-delay-ef6c513ad9fc94dd3d07cd9db2e8e22f">drawing was held up</a>&nbsp;and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., Powerball said in a statement.“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement said. “This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”

Powerball player wins a $1.3 billion jackpot, ending months without a grand prize

NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pg-earnings-economy-prices-30f7be157579994c9d5cdf3ae01eb923">Procter &amp; Gamble</a>&nbsp;is recalling more than 8 million bags of Tide, Gain, Ace and Ariel laundry detergent packets sold in the U.S. and Canada due to a defect in the products' child-resistant packaging.

According to Friday notices from both P&amp;G and product-safety regulators in the U.S. and Canada, the outer packaging meant to prevent easy access to the liquid laundry detergent pods can split open near the zipper track, posing serious risks to children and others who may ingest them, in addition to possible skin or eye injuries.

So far, there have been no confirmed injuries directly tied to the defect. During the time period that the recalled lots were sold, there were four reports of children accessing the laundry packets in the U.S., including three ingestion cases — but whether these pods actually came from the recalled bags is still unknown, P&amp;G and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The recall impacts select batches of Tide, Gain, Ace and Ariel laundry detergents that were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024 and sold at major retailers including Walmart, Target, CVS and Amazon.

The recalled products, which can be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pggoodeveryday.com/bags/">identified by lot code</a>, vary in scent and size. About 8.2 million were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Procter-Gamble-Recalls-8-2-Million-Defective-Bags-of-Tide-Gain-Ace-and-Ariel-Laundry-Detergent-Packets-Distributed-in-US-Due-to-Risk-of-Serious-Injury">sold in the U.S.</a>&nbsp;and more than 56,700 were&nbsp;<a href="https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-lots-liquid-laundry-detergent-pods-bags-pg-recalled-due-potentially-damaged">sold in Canada</a>.

Consumers in possession of the now-recalled bags are instructed to keep the products out of the reach and sight of children and contact Cincinnati-based P&amp;G for a full refund and replacement child-resistant bag to store the detergent, which itself remains safe to use for laundry purposes.

Health risks tied to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-election-laundry-detergent-giveaway-9e0ad520dffe86e2455530568e67ae79">ingestion of liquid laundry detergent</a>&nbsp;has been well-documented — notably in light of the social media-fueled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-804c363c292245e3950ec61fbfe7adb1">"Tide Pod challenge"</a>&nbsp;that skyrocketed several years ago. Eating the detergents' chemicals can cause vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage, and even death.

Beyond online trends, experts warn that children are especially vulnerable to accidentally ingesting liquid laundry packets, as they may confuse the products with candy — urging consumers to always store them safely.

P&amp;G will Refund or Replace Affected Product Packages

Consumers should immediately secure the recalled bags out of sight and reach of children and contact Procter &amp; Gamble for a full refund and a free replacement child resistant bag to store the product. Consumers can also receive a cabinet lock for securing laundry materials.

Consumers should check to see if their bag is part of the recall by checking the lot code on their bag. Recalled lot codes will be listed at&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;esheet=53923267&amp;newsitemid=20240405233949&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;index=1&amp;md5=89d06830c5900316032d144e675bd990" rel="nofollow">www.pg.com/bags</a>&nbsp;and can be found on the bottom of the bag package. Consumers with recalled bags can submit a photo of the recalled product, showing the lot code, to participate in the recall.

Consumers can contact Procter &amp; Gamble toll-free at 833-347-5764 from Monday through Friday, 9 AM ET to 6 PM ET, Saturday, 9 AM ET to 5:30 PM ET, or online at&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;esheet=53923267&amp;newsitemid=20240405233949&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;index=2&amp;md5=99d2fc0a2724aff11434221dff7f0403" rel="nofollow">www.pg.com/bags</a>.

This recall involves about 8.2 million units sold in the U.S. and about 56,741 sold in Canada of certain lot codes of Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods, and Ariel Pods liquid laundry detergent packets packaged in flexible film bags that were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024. 

Recalled products range from bags with 12 to 39 laundry detergent packets and include the following:

There have been no confirmed cases of incidents or injuries directly relating to this packaging defect.&nbsp;P&amp;G has received four reports of children in the United States accessing the liquid laundry packets, three of which reported ingestion during the time period that the recalled lots were sold, but it is not known if these laundry packets came from recalled bags.

Affected packages were sold at Big Lots, CVS, Family Dollar, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart, and other major stores nationwide, and online at Amazon.com and other websites from September 2023 through present for between $5 (one 12 ct. bag) and $30 (four 39 ct. bags in a box).

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712339157870.png" alt="Courtesy photo" />
 <figcaption>Courtesy photo</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) —&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pg-earnings-economy-prices-30f7be157579994c9d5cdf3ae01eb923">Procter &amp; Gamble</a>&nbsp;is recalling more than 8 million bags of Tide, Gain, Ace and Ariel laundry detergent packets sold in the U.S. and Canada due to a defect in the products' child-resistant packaging.According to Friday notices from both P&amp;G and product-safety regulators in the U.S. and Canada, the outer packaging meant to prevent easy access to the liquid laundry detergent pods can split open near the zipper track, posing serious risks to children and others who may ingest them, in addition to possible skin or eye injuries.So far, there have been no confirmed injuries directly tied to the defect. During the time period that the recalled lots were sold, there were four reports of children accessing the laundry packets in the U.S., including three ingestion cases — but whether these pods actually came from the recalled bags is still unknown, P&amp;G and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.The recall impacts select batches of Tide, Gain, Ace and Ariel laundry detergents that were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024 and sold at major retailers including Walmart, Target, CVS and Amazon.The recalled products, which can be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pggoodeveryday.com/bags/">identified by lot code</a>, vary in scent and size. About 8.2 million were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2024/Procter-Gamble-Recalls-8-2-Million-Defective-Bags-of-Tide-Gain-Ace-and-Ariel-Laundry-Detergent-Packets-Distributed-in-US-Due-to-Risk-of-Serious-Injury">sold in the U.S.</a>&nbsp;and more than 56,700 were&nbsp;<a href="https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-lots-liquid-laundry-detergent-pods-bags-pg-recalled-due-potentially-damaged">sold in Canada</a>.Consumers in possession of the now-recalled bags are instructed to keep the products out of the reach and sight of children and contact Cincinnati-based P&amp;G for a full refund and replacement child-resistant bag to store the detergent, which itself remains safe to use for laundry purposes.Health risks tied to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/taiwan-election-laundry-detergent-giveaway-9e0ad520dffe86e2455530568e67ae79">ingestion of liquid laundry detergent</a>&nbsp;has been well-documented — notably in light of the social media-fueled&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-804c363c292245e3950ec61fbfe7adb1">"Tide Pod challenge"</a>&nbsp;that skyrocketed several years ago. Eating the detergents' chemicals can cause vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage, and even death.Beyond online trends, experts warn that children are especially vulnerable to accidentally ingesting liquid laundry packets, as they may confuse the products with candy — urging consumers to always store them safely.P&amp;G will Refund or Replace Affected Product PackagesConsumers should immediately secure the recalled bags out of sight and reach of children and contact Procter &amp; Gamble for a full refund and a free replacement child resistant bag to store the product. Consumers can also receive a cabinet lock for securing laundry materials.Consumers should check to see if their bag is part of the recall by checking the lot code on their bag. Recalled lot codes will be listed at&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;esheet=53923267&amp;newsitemid=20240405233949&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;index=1&amp;md5=89d06830c5900316032d144e675bd990" rel="nofollow">www.pg.com/bags</a>&nbsp;and can be found on the bottom of the bag package. Consumers with recalled bags can submit a photo of the recalled product, showing the lot code, to participate in the recall.Consumer Contact InformationConsumers can contact Procter &amp; Gamble toll-free at 833-347-5764 from Monday through Friday, 9 AM ET to 6 PM ET, Saturday, 9 AM ET to 5:30 PM ET, or online at&nbsp;<a href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;esheet=53923267&amp;newsitemid=20240405233949&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=www.pg.com%2Fbags&amp;index=2&amp;md5=99d2fc0a2724aff11434221dff7f0403" rel="nofollow">www.pg.com/bags</a>.Recall DetailsThis recall involves about 8.2 million units sold in the U.S. and about 56,741 sold in Canada of certain lot codes of Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods, and Ariel Pods liquid laundry detergent packets packaged in flexible film bags that were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024. Recalled products range from bags with 12 to 39 laundry detergent packets and include the following:Gain Flings OriginalTide Simply Pods Plus Oxi BoostGain Flings Moonlight Breeze ScentTide Pods Clean Breeze ScentGain Flings Blissful Breeze ScentTide Pods Free &amp; GentleGain Flings Spring Daydream ScentTide Pods OxiGain Flings Plus Ultra OxiTide Pods Ultra OxiGain Flings Plus Odor DefenseAce Pods Clean BreezeTide Pods OriginalAce Pods Spring MeadowTide Pods Spring Meadow ScentAriel Pods Alpine BreezeTide Pods LightThere have been no confirmed cases of incidents or injuries directly relating to this packaging defect.&nbsp;P&amp;G has received four reports of children in the United States accessing the liquid laundry packets, three of which reported ingestion during the time period that the recalled lots were sold, but it is not known if these laundry packets came from recalled bags.Affected packages were sold at Big Lots, CVS, Family Dollar, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart, and other major stores nationwide, and online at Amazon.com and other websites from September 2023 through present for between $5 (one 12 ct. bag) and $30 (four 39 ct. bags in a box).For information on impact in C

Recall: Laundry packets sold at Walmart, Family Dollar and Target

&nbsp; The 2024 Nebraska Range Short Course is teaming up with the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLC) Grazing School on June 25 – 27, 2024 at the Spring Lake Ranch south of Gordon, Nebraska to host an event that will give individuals an opportunity to increase their skills with grazing, rangeland management, and livestock production.

The three-day, in-person course will be taught through classroom and field sessions focused on the underlying principles of grazing and rangeland management. “The goal of this event is to provide up-to-date, applicable information and training for the efficient and sustainable use of rangelands for livestock production and multiple ecosystem services,” said Mitch Stephenson,&nbsp;associate professor and range management specialist with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Course topics include setting appropriate stocking rates, improving grazing returns, rangeland inventory and monitoring, grazing for healthier soils, managing for diversity, and plant identification.

“The Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition is excited to partner with Nebraska Extension to bring the summer Grazing School and the Range Short Course together in an event for livestock producers, agency representatives, and anyone interested in improving grazing lands,” said Leah Peterson, executive director of the NGLC. “Healthy grazing lands are essential to all, and this opportunity to improve upon those practices is packaged into a hands-on learning experience in the Nebraska Sandhills.”

Presenters include Bart Carmichael and Pat Guptill of Principled Land Management, LLC, ranchers who have been using diverse grazing management strategies for soil health, NRCS specialists, and Nebraska Extension rangeland specialists.

“A healthy ecosystem benefits livestock, the environment, wildlife, and ultimately, producers’ bottom lines,” Stephenson said. “In this course, we’ll use research and experiences from skilled grazing managers to show that.”

Registration is $200 and includes monitoring tools, meals, and interactive class materials.

The short course can be taken for university credit, which is an additional cost. Applications are due June 1 and enrollment is limited. For more information contact Leah Peterson (<a href="mailto:director@nebraskagrazinglands.org" target="_blank">director@nebraskagrazinglands.org</a>) or Mitch Stephenson (<a href="mailto:mstephenson@unl.edu" target="_blank">mstephenson@unl.edu</a>). Visit the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition website (<a href="https://unl233.lt.acemlnb.com/Prod/link-tracker?redirectUrl=aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZuZWJyYXNrYWdyYXppbmdsYW5kcy5vcmclMkZFdmVudHMlM0Z1dG1fc291cmNlJTNEQWN0aXZlQ2FtcGFpZ24lMjZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtJTNEZW1haWwlMjZ1dG1fY29udGVudCUzREZvciUyQkltbWVkaWF0ZSUyQlJlbGVhc2UlMjUzQSUyQk5lYnJhc2thJTJCUmFuZ2UlMkJTaG9ydCUyQkNvdXJzZSUyQiUyNTI2JTJCR3JhemluZyUyQlNjaG9vbCUyQnNldCUyQmZvciUyQkp1bmUlMkJuZWFyJTJCR29yZG9uJTI2dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduJTNEQmVlZiUyQlJlbGVhc2UlMjUzQSUyQkdyYXppbmclMkJTY2hvb2w=&amp;sig=EAktmSMiHYadhmqjRgdyjvjiL4BkbUde342VDqLtB5CV&amp;iat=1712270167&amp;a=%7C%7C68108822%7C%7C&amp;account=unl233%2Eactivehosted%2Ecom&amp;email=pT5Hc3Ejz7ZDo6NU47SD%2F%2F8vm%2BMOOOI2Z7TQ3SbCkn95HLlDYNLpQkA%3D%3AADjZOn95wa4F4Wjn5UlqDl3Er1vShG41&amp;s=073f67d35943f6c01a66f2eac84e284e&amp;i=706A807A50A14741" target="_blank">nebraskagrazinglands.org/Events</a>) to enroll in this event.&nbsp;&nbsp;

UNL Beef&nbsp; The 2024 Nebraska Range Short Course is teaming up with the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition (NGLC) Grazing School on June 25 – 27, 2024 at the Spring Lake Ranch south of Gordon, Nebraska to host an event that will give individuals an opportunity to increase their skills with grazing, rangeland management, and livestock production.The three-day, in-person course will be taught through classroom and field sessions focused on the underlying principles of grazing and rangeland management. “The goal of this event is to provide up-to-date, applicable information and training for the efficient and sustainable use of rangelands for livestock production and multiple ecosystem services,” said Mitch Stephenson,&nbsp;associate professor and range management specialist with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.Course topics include setting appropriate stocking rates, improving grazing returns, rangeland inventory and monitoring, grazing for healthier soils, managing for diversity, and plant identification.“The Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition is excited to partner with Nebraska Extension to bring the summer Grazing School and the Range Short Course together in an event for livestock producers, agency representatives, and anyone interested in improving grazing lands,” said Leah Peterson, executive director of the NGLC. “Healthy grazing lands are essential to all, and this opportunity to improve upon those practices is packaged into a hands-on learning experience in the Nebraska Sandhills.”Presenters include Bart Carmichael and Pat Guptill of Principled Land Management, LLC, ranchers who have been using diverse grazing management strategies for soil health, NRCS specialists, and Nebraska Extension rangeland specialists.“A healthy ecosystem benefits livestock, the environment, wildlife, and ultimately, producers’ bottom lines,” Stephenson said. “In this course, we’ll use research and experiences from skilled grazing managers to show that.”Registration is $200 and includes monitoring tools, meals, and interactive class materials.The short course can be taken for university credit, which is an additional cost. Applications are due June 1 and enrollment is limited. For more information contact Leah Peterson (<a href="mailto:director@nebraskagrazinglands.org" target="_blank">director@nebraskagrazinglands.org</a>) or Mitch Stephenson (<a href="mailto:mstephenson@unl.edu" target="_blank">mstephenson@unl.edu</a>). Visit the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition website (<a href="https://unl233.lt.acemlnb.com/Prod/link-tracker?redirectUrl=aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZuZWJyYXNrYWdyYXppbmdsYW5kcy5vcmclMkZFdmVudHMlM0Z1dG1fc291cmNlJTNEQWN0aXZlQ2FtcGFpZ24lMjZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtJTNEZW1haWwlMjZ1dG1fY29udGVudCUzREZvciUyQkltbWVkaWF0ZSUyQlJlbGVhc2UlMjUzQSUyQk5lYnJhc2thJTJCUmFuZ2UlMkJTaG9ydCUyQkNvdXJzZSUyQiUyNTI2JTJCR3JhemluZyUyQlNjaG9vbCUyQnNldCUyQmZvciUyQkp1bmUlMkJuZWFyJTJCR29yZG9uJTI2dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduJTNEQmVlZiUyQlJlbGVhc2UlMjUzQSUyQkdyYXppbmclMkJTY2hvb2w=&amp;sig=EAktmSMiHYadhmqjRgdyjvjiL4BkbUde342VDqLtB5CV&amp;iat=1712270167&amp;a=%7C%7C68108822%7C%7C&amp;account=unl233%2Eactivehosted%2Ecom&amp;email=pT5Hc3Ejz7ZDo6NU47SD%2F%2F8vm%2BMOOOI2Z7TQ3SbCkn95HLlDYNLpQkA%3D%3AADjZOn95wa4F4Wjn5UlqDl3Er1vShG41&amp;s=073f67d35943f6c01a66f2eac84e284e&amp;i=706A807A50A14741" target="_blank">nebraskagrazinglands.org/Events</a>) to enroll in this event.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Nebraska Range Short Course and Grazing School team up in 2024

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Far-right conservatives loyal to former President Donald Trump aren't slowing their push for the Republican-led Nebraska Legislature to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/electoral-votes-nebraska-maine-3dc4b2f6cd59e3eb52ddc9ed15cf33e1">adopt a “winner-take-all”</a>&nbsp;system of awarding Electoral College votes, despite having almost no viable avenue to do so with only five days left in this year's legislative session.

The Nebraska Republican Party, currently led by Trump loyalists, will hold a rally Tuesday in Omaha featuring conservative activist Charlie Kirk to target the state's atypical system of splitting its five presidential electoral votes based on the popular vote within its congressional districts. Maine is the only other state to split its electoral votes.

Republicans want the switch ahead of this year's hotly contested presidential election to ensure an electoral vote tied to Nebraska's Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District doesn't go to President Joe Biden,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-lincoln-omaha-93fdcb5a05fc62878b4fe70c2f7f6e5a">as it did in 2020</a>. Barack Obama became the first presidential contender to shave off that electoral vote in 2008.

“California would never do this. New York would never do this. And as long as that's the case, neither should we,” Kirk said Tuesday via X, formerly known as Twitter.

If Biden were to win the Rust Belt swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, an electoral vote from Nebraska would give him the 270 electoral votes he needs to win reelection, even if Trump wins all the other swing states.

The issue gained national attention when Kirk urged his followers to call Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s office to urge the state to adopt a winner-take-all approach this year. Within hours, Pillen did just that.

Trump, in turn, took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to praise Pillen and urge the switch to winner-take-all in Nebraska, saying “it's what the Founders intended."

More buzz followed on Wednesday when state Sen. Mike McDonnell announced he was switching political parties from Democrat to Republican. The unique one-chamber Nebraska Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but lawmakers self-identify as Republican, Democrat or independent and tend to vote along party lines. With McDonnell's switch, Republicans now hold 33 of the legislative body's 49 seats.

Republican pundits celebrated the move as giving Republicans a filibuster-proof majority and a shot at pushing through a winner-take-all measure. Even Republicans in Nebraska's federal delegation — U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and U.S. Rep. Mike Flood — got in on the act, issuing statements welcoming McDonnell and urging the Legislature to pass a winner-take-all measure.

Republican state Sen. Julie Slama answered Pillen's call by taking a winner-take-all bill currently stalled in committee and attaching it as an amendment to an unrelated bill — a practice not allowed under the Nebraska Constitution.

When the amendment was challenged, Slama called on her colleagues to ignore the law.

“Germanenous means what we want it to mean in the Nebraska Legislature,” she said. “The courts have largely upheld how we chose to regulate ourselves, and if we have the votes, odds are the courts will rule that it is germane.”

She also acknowledged that the window to change Nebraska's system this year is closing.

“If you want winner-take-all in the state of Nebraska, this is your chance,” she said. “This is the last train out of the station.”

The presiding officer — a fellow Republican — found the amendment not germane, and the vote to overrule that decision overwhelmingly failed.

But the push by the GOP continued Thursday, with Kirk tweeting that another attempt will be made in the coming days to attach a winner-take-all amendment to another unrelated bill. But many state lawmakers seemed dubious. Even Slama responded on X that it's unlikely.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Far-right conservatives loyal to former President Donald Trump aren't slowing their push for the Republican-led Nebraska Legislature to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/electoral-votes-nebraska-maine-3dc4b2f6cd59e3eb52ddc9ed15cf33e1">adopt a “winner-take-all”</a>&nbsp;system of awarding Electoral College votes, despite having almost no viable avenue to do so with only five days left in this year's legislative session.The Nebraska Republican Party, currently led by Trump loyalists, will hold a rally Tuesday in Omaha featuring conservative activist Charlie Kirk to target the state's atypical system of splitting its five presidential electoral votes based on the popular vote within its congressional districts. Maine is the only other state to split its electoral votes.Republicans want the switch ahead of this year's hotly contested presidential election to ensure an electoral vote tied to Nebraska's Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District doesn't go to President Joe Biden,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-lincoln-omaha-93fdcb5a05fc62878b4fe70c2f7f6e5a">as it did in 2020</a>. Barack Obama became the first presidential contender to shave off that electoral vote in 2008.“California would never do this. New York would never do this. And as long as that's the case, neither should we,” Kirk said Tuesday via X, formerly known as Twitter.If Biden were to win the Rust Belt swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, an electoral vote from Nebraska would give him the 270 electoral votes he needs to win reelection, even if Trump wins all the other swing states.The issue gained national attention when Kirk urged his followers to call Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s office to urge the state to adopt a winner-take-all approach this year. Within hours, Pillen did just that.Trump, in turn, took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to praise Pillen and urge the switch to winner-take-all in Nebraska, saying “it's what the Founders intended."More buzz followed on Wednesday when state Sen. Mike McDonnell announced he was switching political parties from Democrat to Republican. The unique one-chamber Nebraska Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but lawmakers self-identify as Republican, Democrat or independent and tend to vote along party lines. With McDonnell's switch, Republicans now hold 33 of the legislative body's 49 seats.Republican pundits celebrated the move as giving Republicans a filibuster-proof majority and a shot at pushing through a winner-take-all measure. Even Republicans in Nebraska's federal delegation — U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and U.S. Rep. Mike Flood — got in on the act, issuing statements welcoming McDonnell and urging the Legislature to pass a winner-take-all measure.Republican state Sen. Julie Slama answered Pillen's call by taking a winner-take-all bill currently stalled in committee and attaching it as an amendment to an unrelated bill — a practice not allowed under the Nebraska Constitution.When the amendment was challenged, Slama called on her colleagues to ignore the law.“Germanenous means what we want it to mean in the Nebraska Legislature,” she said. “The courts have largely upheld how we chose to regulate ourselves, and if we have the votes, odds are the courts will rule that it is germane.”She also acknowledged that the window to change Nebraska's system this year is closing.“If you want winner-take-all in the state of Nebraska, this is your chance,” she said. “This is the last train out of the station.”The presiding officer — a fellow Republican — found the amendment not germane, and the vote to overrule that decision overwhelmingly failed.But the push by the GOP continued Thursday, with Kirk tweeting that another attempt will be made in the coming days to attach a winner-take-all amendment to another unrelated bill. But many state lawmakers seemed dubious. Even Slama responded on X that it's unlikely.

Pressure builds from Nebraska Trump loyalists for a winner-take-all system

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/05/its-coming-demographer-says-of-latino-voting-power-that-could-sway-key-ne-elections/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Ness Sandoval left his western Nebraska hometown for more schooling and later returned, with a doctorate in hand, only to visit.

While pursued over the years for positions at other university systems around the country, Sandoval said, Nebraska has never been as interested in the expertise of a native Latino who today is a professor of sociology and demography at St. Louis University.&nbsp;

At age 55 and with a growing family, Sandoval said uprooting at this point is not appealing — even if he were recruited today to a job opportunity.&nbsp;

Whether a growing tide of younger Latinos feels connected and stays in their Nebraska communities is a factor in when the state reaches the kind of Latino voting power that can shift major elections, Sandoval said.

It’s also a matter of getting immigrant families more engaged in civic activities, including going to the ballot box.&nbsp;

“The Latino vote. The Latino vote. The Latino vote,” Sandoval said, parroting political pundits. “Before there is the Great Latino Vote, you have to have the Great Latino Registration. Then we have to exercise that right.”

Sandoval will return, virtually, to his home state for a Saturday summit hosted by Las Voces Nebraska to help boost Latino civic engagement and voting.&nbsp;

Dubbed “The Nebraska Latino Vote Will Count,” the event features a lineup that includes keynote speaker Rosie Castro of San Antonio, the mother of politically active twin sons Joaquin and Julian Castro. Joaquin is a U.S. congressman representing Texas and Julian is a former San Antonio mayor and Obama administration cabinet member.

Rosie Castro, a firebrand in her own right, is a civil rights activist and educator who just recently served a stint on the San Antonio City Council when a seat was vacated. That moment on the council came last year, 52 years after she ran unsuccessfully for the same political entity in 1971 — on a platform that the at-large council member system in effect at the time stymied diversity and representation.

Scheduled also to speak on a panel are Latino officials including State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, former Lincoln City Council member Michelle Suarez, Grand Island School Board member Erik Garcia and Wood River City Council Blanca Rodriguez.

Business and civic leaders from cities such as Fremont, Scottsbluff and Omaha are set to talk about efforts in their communities.&nbsp;

J.S. Onesimo “Ness” Sandoval — the St. Louis professor who grew up in Scottsbluff and specializes in research on patterns of social, economic and environmental inequality —&nbsp; will set the stage with a look at the state’s demographic landscape.

Inevitable, Sandoval said, is continued sizable growth in the number of eligible Latino voters in Nebraska, many from families of earlier immigration waves.

Hispanics are a relatively young population, he said, and&nbsp;pointed to Census data: 12.4% of Nebraska today is Latino/Hispanic, compared to 2.3% in 1990.

“This is not small growth,” said Sandoval. “It’s going to continue to grow as you go forward.”

While such growth will translate into voting power, Sandoval said that won’t happen in a game-changing way until more young members of newer immigrant families come of age to vote.

It will likely be closer to 2050, he said, before Nebraska sees the sheer numbers of Latinos that could shift major elections.

Variables, he said, include how soon and deeply the population engages more in community and civic affairs.&nbsp;&nbsp;

He questioned why the City of Lexington, which has a majority Latino population whose immigrant community is more established than most rural areas of the state, hasn’t yet had a Hispanic mayor.

Places like Schuyler and Madison also have majority Hispanic populations, but Sandoval said many of the children of immigrant families there are still too young to vote.

Of course not all Nebraska Hispanics share the same political views, just as not all share the same ancestral roots or country of origin, Sandoval and others note.&nbsp;

That can contribute to the difficulty of organizing newer immigrant leaders and voter education efforts, which Rebecca Gonzales of Las Voces said is expensive and time-consuming. Results aren’t easy to quantify.

She recalled her earlier work with Nebraska Appleseed, when she and another Spanish-speaking staffer began traversing the state in 2008 to build a “basic infrastructure” through which immigrants could better understand worker rights and access resources.

Those seeds have helped yield fruit, she said, citing nonprofits such as Unity in Action of South Sioux City, which is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Gonzales noted other strides including the formation of Empowering Families of Scottsbluff, a nonprofit born in 2018, and the Fremont Spanish Networking Group, a program under that city’s chamber of commerce.

Momentum in building diversity programs has reversed, though, in recent years, said Gonzales, a lawyer. She said increasing political “backlash” against new migrants also has impacted established third- and fourth-generation immigrants.

“We’re basically in a situation where we’re struggling for our civil rights,” Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro said in an interview.

She cited the controversial Texas immigration law that would allow state police new and broad powers to arrest migrants.

She also referred to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s alliance with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in sending State Patrol troopers to help at the Texas border.

In some ways, Castro said, she sees a return to the 1970s, when immigrants and Latinos became the “boogeyman.”&nbsp;

Meanwhile, she said, activism among community leaders is not as strident as was the case decades ago. People who have benefited from the battle for civil rights have become “busy” with life, she said.&nbsp;

To be sure, opening doors to more opportunity was a reason for past activism, she said. But progress in diversity, equity and inclusion is “being eroded,” she said, and she touts events such as Saturday’s summit to help inform and provoke more engagement in communities.

Said Castro: “Voting is a way to change things.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712328689280.jpeg" alt=" A virtual summit to be held Saturday, April 6, looks at the potential of Latino voting power. (Courtesy of Las Voces)" />
 <figcaption> A virtual summit to be held Saturday, April 6, looks at the potential of Latino voting power. (Courtesy of Las Voces)</figcaption>
 </figure>Cindy Gonzalez<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/05/its-coming-demographer-says-of-latino-voting-power-that-could-sway-key-ne-elections/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Ness Sandoval left his western Nebraska hometown for more schooling and later returned, with a doctorate in hand, only to visit.While pursued over the years for positions at other university systems around the country, Sandoval said, Nebraska has never been as interested in the expertise of a native Latino who today is a professor of sociology and demography at St. Louis University.&nbsp;At age 55 and with a growing family, Sandoval said uprooting at this point is not appealing — even if he were recruited today to a job opportunity.&nbsp;Whether a growing tide of younger Latinos feels connected and stays in their Nebraska communities is a factor in when the state reaches the kind of Latino voting power that can shift major elections, Sandoval said.It’s also a matter of getting immigrant families more engaged in civic activities, including going to the ballot box.&nbsp;“The Latino vote. The Latino vote. The Latino vote,” Sandoval said, parroting political pundits. “Before there is the Great Latino Vote, you have to have the Great Latino Registration. Then we have to exercise that right.”<h2>Boosting civic engagement</h2>Sandoval will return, virtually, to his home state for a Saturday summit hosted by Las Voces Nebraska to help boost Latino civic engagement and voting.&nbsp;Dubbed “The Nebraska Latino Vote Will Count,” the event features a lineup that includes keynote speaker Rosie Castro of San Antonio, the mother of politically active twin sons Joaquin and Julian Castro. Joaquin is a U.S. congressman representing Texas and Julian is a former San Antonio mayor and Obama administration cabinet member.Rosie Castro, a firebrand in her own right, is a civil rights activist and educator who just recently served a stint on the San Antonio City Council when a seat was vacated. That moment on the council came last year, 52 years after she ran unsuccessfully for the same political entity in 1971 — on a platform that the at-large council member system in effect at the time stymied diversity and representation.Scheduled also to speak on a panel are Latino officials including State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, former Lincoln City Council member Michelle Suarez, Grand Island School Board member Erik Garcia and Wood River City Council Blanca Rodriguez.Business and civic leaders from cities such as Fremont, Scottsbluff and Omaha are set to talk about efforts in their communities.&nbsp;J.S. Onesimo “Ness” Sandoval — the St. Louis professor who grew up in Scottsbluff and specializes in research on patterns of social, economic and environmental inequality —&nbsp; will set the stage with a look at the state’s demographic landscape.<h2>‘Not small growth’</h2>Inevitable, Sandoval said, is continued sizable growth in the number of eligible Latino voters in Nebraska, many from families of earlier immigration waves.Hispanics are a relatively young population, he said, and&nbsp;pointed to Census data: 12.4% of Nebraska today is Latino/Hispanic, compared to 2.3% in 1990.“This is not small growth,” said Sandoval. “It’s going to continue to grow as you go forward.”While such growth will translate into voting power, Sandoval said that won’t happen in a game-changing way until more young members of newer immigrant families come of age to vote.It will likely be closer to 2050, he said, before Nebraska sees the sheer numbers of Latinos that could shift major elections.“It’s coming,” he said.<h2>Differences among Latinos</h2>Variables, he said, include how soon and deeply the population engages more in community and civic affairs.&nbsp;&nbsp;He questioned why the City of Lexington, which has a majority Latino population whose immigrant community is more established than most rural areas of the state, hasn’t yet had a Hispanic mayor.Places like Schuyler and Madison also have majority Hispanic populations, but Sandoval said many of the children of immigrant families there are still too young to vote.Of course not all Nebraska Hispanics share the same political views, just as not all share the same ancestral roots or country of origin, Sandoval and others note.&nbsp;That can contribute to the difficulty of organizing newer immigrant leaders and voter education efforts, which Rebecca Gonzales of Las Voces said is expensive and time-consuming. Results aren’t easy to quantify.She recalled her earlier work with Nebraska Appleseed, when she and another Spanish-speaking staffer began traversing the state in 2008 to build a “basic infrastructure” through which immigrants could better understand worker rights and access resources.Those seeds have helped yield fruit, she said, citing nonprofits such as Unity in Action of South Sioux City, which is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Gonzales noted other strides including the formation of Empowering Families of Scottsbluff, a nonprofit born in 2018, and the Fremont Spanish Networking Group, a program under that city’s chamber of commerce.<h2>Backlash</h2>Momentum in building diversity programs has reversed, though, in recent years, said Gonzales, a lawyer. She said increasing political “backlash” against new migrants also has impacted established third- and fourth-generation immigrants.“We’re basically in a situation where we’re struggling for our civil rights,” Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro said in an interview.She cited the controversial Texas immigration law that would allow state police new and broad powers to arrest migrants.She also referred to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s alliance with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in sending State Patrol troopers to help at the Texas border.In some ways, Castro said, she sees a return to the 1970s, when immigrants and Latinos became the “boogeyman.”&nbsp;<h2>‘Way to change things’</h2>Meanwhile, she said, activism among community leaders is not as strident as was the case decades ago. People who have benefited from the battle for civil rights have become “busy” with life, she said.&nbsp;To be sure, opening doors to more opportunity was a reason for past activism, she said. But progress in diversity, equity and inclusion is “being eroded,” she said, and she touts events such as Saturday’s summit to help inform and provoke more engagement in communities.Said Castro: “Voting is a way to change things.”

‘It’s coming,’ demographer says of Latino voting power that could sway key NE elections

NEW YORK (AP) — An&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/live/earthquake-new-york-updates">earthquake centered between New York and Philadelphia</a>&nbsp;shook skyscrapers and suburbs across the northeastern U.S. for several seconds Friday morning, causing no major damage but startling millions of people in an area unaccustomed to such tremors.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake at 10:23 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, or about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of New York City and 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia. The agency's figures indicated that over 42 million people might have felt the rumbling.

People from Baltimore to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border reported feeling the ground shake. While there were no immediate reports of serious damage, officials were checking bridges and other major infrastructure, Amtrak slowed trains throughout the busy Northeast Corridor, and a Philadelphia-area commuter rail line suspended service out of what it said was “an abundance of caution.”

Pictures and decorative plates tumbled off the wall in Christiann Thompson's house in Whitehouse Station, she said. Thompson was volunteering at the local library when the quake hit, leaving few effects, but she got a report from her husband on the scene at home.

“The dogs lost their minds and got very terrified and ran around," she said.

It was “pretty weird and scary” for Shawn Clark, who felt the quake in his 26th-floor midtown Manhattan office. Clark, an attorney, initially feared an explosion or construction accident. His colleague Finn Dusenbery worried the ceiling or even the building would collapse.

The earthquake slowed travel along the East Coast, with some flights diverted and traffic snarled on roads and rails for runway, bridge, and tunnel inspections. Flights to the Newark, New York and Baltimore airports were held at their origins for a time while officials inspected runways for cracks. At least five flights en route to Newark were diverted and landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Among the affected travelers: Seton Hall University’s men’s basketball team, which was stuck in Indianapolis, where it won the National Invitational Tournament on Thursday. The team said its flight to Newark was being held because of the earthquake-related ground stop, likely delaying a welcome-home celebration scheduled for Friday afternoon on Seton Hall's campus in South Orange, New Jersey.

Traffic through the Holland Tunnel between Jersey City, New Jersey, and lower Manhattan was stopped for about 10 minutes for inspections, the Port Authority of New York and Jersey said.

In midtown Manhattan, motorists blared their horns on shuddering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a boom and felt their building shaking. Cellphone circuits were overloaded for a time as people tried to reach loved ones and figure out what was going on.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, the shaking interrupted the chief executive of Save The Children, Janti Soeripto, as she briefed an emergency Security Council session on the threat of famine in Gaza and the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-world-central-kitchen-gaza-aid-workers-69b6176362dafc8e4e2754b2342faa1d">Israeli drone strikes that killed aid workers</a>&nbsp;there.

“Is it an earthquake?” Soeripto wondered aloud, then asked if it was all right to go ahead. She did, but soon diplomats’ phones blared with earthquake alerts.

In New York City’s Astoria neighborhood, Cassondra Kurtz was giving her 14-year-old Chihuahua, Chiki, a cocoa-butter rubdown for her dry skin. Kurtz was recording the moment on video when her apartment started shaking hard enough that a large mirror banged audibly against a wall.

Kurtz assumed at first it was a big truck going by. The video captured her looking around, perplexed. Chiki, however, “was completely unbothered.”

Earthquakes are less common on the eastern than western edges of the U.S. because the East Coast does not lie on a boundary of tectonic plates. The biggest Eastern quakes usually occur along the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which extends through Iceland and the Atlantic Ocean.

Quakes on the East Coast can still pack a punch, as its rocks are better than their western counterparts at spreading earthquake energy across long distances.

“If we had the same magnitude quake in California, it probably wouldn’t be felt nearly as far away,” said USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso.

A 4.8-magnitude quake isn't large enough to cause damage, except for some minor effects near the epicenter, the agency posted on X.

Robert Thorson, a University of Connecticut earth sciences professor, said the quake resulted from the constant compression of the earth's hard, brittle crust in New Jersey.

“It’s like having a big block of ice in a vise, and you are just slowly cranking up the vise,” he said. Eventually, you’re going to get some crackling on it.”

Friday's quake was felt as far as Vermont and New Hampshire, where some residents initially figured it was snow falling off their roofs or plow trucks rumbling by.

Stacy Santa Cruz, a paralegal, watched her computer screen shake at her office in Hartford, Connecticut.

“I kind of was taken aback, but then I kind of processed that it might have been an earthquake," she said, noting that she'd experienced a significant quake in her native Peru.

Earthquakes with magnitudes near or above 5 struck near New York City in 1737, 1783 and 1884, the USGS said. And Friday's stirred memories of the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. With an epicenter in Virginia, it left cracks in the Washington Monument and rattled New Yorkers ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest earthquake to hit the East Coast since World War II.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said he had had spoken to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy about the earthquake. The White House said the administration would provide help if needed to state and local officials.

As of noon, New York City had no indications of major safety or infrastructure problems from the earthquake, said Mayor Eric Adams, who said he didn't feel the quake himself. City Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said officials would watch out for any delayed cracks or other effects on the Big Apple’s 1.1 million buildings.

A Chinatown art gallery owner, Kristen Thomas, worried for the fate of a sculpture that features five real eggs poised on a candelabra-like base. But the piece, by Carlos Estévez, was unbroken.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the quake was felt throughout the state, but officials had no reports of any life-threatening problems.

Solomon Byron felt it as he sat on a park bench in Manhattan’s East Village.

“I was just like, ‘Where is that vibration coming from?'" Byron recalled. He was especially puzzled since there were no subways running nearby.

But he didn’t realize there had been an earthquake until he got the alert on his cellphone.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712329282349.png" alt="Quake centered near Lebanon, New Jersey-USGS image" />
 <figcaption>Quake centered near Lebanon, New Jersey-USGS image</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — An&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/live/earthquake-new-york-updates">earthquake centered between New York and Philadelphia</a>&nbsp;shook skyscrapers and suburbs across the northeastern U.S. for several seconds Friday morning, causing no major damage but startling millions of people in an area unaccustomed to such tremors.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I AM FINE&mdash; Empire State Building (@EmpireStateBldg) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmpireStateBldg/status/1776254633599480130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgovkathyhochul%2Fvideos%2F1150569402614787%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=1" width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Earthquakes are uncommon but not unheard of along the Atlantic Coast, a zone one study called a &quot;passive-aggressive margin&quot; b/c there&#39;s no active plate boundary between the Atlantic &amp; N. American plates, but there are stresses. Did you feel the NJ quake? <a href="https://t.co/ADcDLsTp8b">https://t.co/ADcDLsTp8b</a>&mdash; USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGS_Quakes/status/1776262335688044979?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York. My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day.&mdash; Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovKathyHochul/status/1776257181454676383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The U.S. Geological Survey reported a quake at 10:23 a.m. with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, or about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of New York City and 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Philadelphia. The agency's figures indicated that over 42 million people might have felt the rumbling.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">JFK Airport remains open and operational. Flights are arriving and departing at this time. Please check with your carrier for any updates to your flight status.&mdash; John F. Kennedy Airport (@JFKairport) <a href="https://twitter.com/JFKairport/status/1776270324952170522?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>People from Baltimore to the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border reported feeling the ground shake. While there were no immediate reports of serious damage, officials were checking bridges and other major infrastructure, Amtrak slowed trains throughout the busy Northeast Corridor, and a Philadelphia-area commuter rail line suspended service out of what it said was “an abundance of caution.”Pictures and decorative plates tumbled off the wall in Christiann Thompson's house in Whitehouse Station, she said. Thompson was volunteering at the local library when the quake hit, leaving few effects, but she got a report from her husband on the scene at home.“The dogs lost their minds and got very terrified and ran around," she said.It was “pretty weird and scary” for Shawn Clark, who felt the quake in his 26th-floor midtown Manhattan office. Clark, an attorney, initially feared an explosion or construction accident. His colleague Finn Dusenbery worried the ceiling or even the building would collapse.The earthquake slowed travel along the East Coast, with some flights diverted and traffic snarled on roads and rails for runway, bridge, and tunnel inspections. Flights to the Newark, New York and Baltimore airports were held at their origins for a time while officials inspected runways for cracks. At least five flights en route to Newark were diverted and landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.Among the affected travelers: Seton Hall University’s men’s basketball team, which was stuck in Indianapolis, where it won the National Invitational Tournament on Thursday. The team said its flight to Newark was being held because of the earthquake-related ground stop, likely delaying a welcome-home celebration scheduled for Friday afternoon on Seton Hall's campus in South Orange, New Jersey.Traffic through the Holland Tunnel between Jersey City, New Jersey, and lower Manhattan was stopped for about 10 minutes for inspections, the Port Authority of New York and Jersey said.In midtown Manhattan, motorists blared their horns on shuddering streets. Some Brooklyn residents heard a boom and felt their building shaking. Cellphone circuits were overloaded for a time as people tried to reach loved ones and figure out what was going on.At U.N. headquarters in New York, the shaking interrupted the chief executive of Save The Children, Janti Soeripto, as she briefed an emergency Security Council session on the threat of famine in Gaza and the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-world-central-kitchen-gaza-aid-workers-69b6176362dafc8e4e2754b2342faa1d">Israeli drone strikes that killed aid workers</a>&nbsp;there.“Is it an earthquake?” Soeripto wondered aloud, then asked if it was all right to go ahead. She did, but soon diplomats’ phones blared with earthquake alerts.In New York City’s Astoria neighborhood, Cassondra Kurtz was giving her 14-year-old Chihuahua, Chiki, a cocoa-butter rubdown for her dry skin. Kurtz was recording the moment on video when her apartment started shaking hard enough that a large mirror banged audibly against a wall.Kurtz assumed at first it was a big truck going by. The video captured her looking around, perplexed. Chiki, however, “was completely unbothered.”Earthquakes are less common on the eastern than western edges of the U.S. because the East Coast does not lie on a boundary of tectonic plates. The biggest Eastern quakes usually occur along the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which extends through Iceland and the Atlantic Ocean.Quakes on the East Coast can still pack a punch, as its rocks are better than their western counterparts at spreading earthquake energy across long distances.“If we had the same magnitude quake in California, it probably wouldn’t be felt nearly as far away,” said USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso.A 4.8-magnitude quake isn't large enough to cause damage, except for some minor effects near the epicenter, the agency posted on X.Robert Thorson, a University of Connecticut earth sciences professor, said the quake resulted from the constant compression of the earth's hard, brittle crust in New Jersey.“It’s like having a big block of ice in a vise, and you are just slowly cranking up the vise,” he said. Eventually, you’re going to get some crackling on it.”Friday's quake was felt as far as Vermont and New Hampshire, where some residents initially figured it was snow falling off their roofs or plow trucks rumbling by.Stacy Santa Cruz, a paralegal, watched her computer screen shake at her office in Hartford, Connecticut.“I kind of was taken aback, but then I kind of processed that it might have been an earthquake," she said, noting that she'd experienced a significant quake in her native Peru.Earthquakes with magnitudes near or above 5 struck near New York City in 1737, 1783 and 1884, the USGS said. And Friday's stirred memories of the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. With an epicenter in Virginia, it left cracks in the Washington Monument and rattled New Yorkers ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest earthquake to hit the East Coast since World War II.On Friday, President Joe Biden said he had had spoken to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy about the earthquake. The White House said the administration would provide help if needed to state and local officials.As of noon, New York City had no indications of major safety or infrastructure problems from the earthquake, said Mayor Eric Adams, who said he didn't feel the quake himself. City Buildings Commissioner James Oddo said officials would watch out for any delayed cracks or other effects on the Big Apple’s 1.1 million buildings.A Chinatown art gallery owner, Kristen Thomas, worried for the fate of a sculpture that features five real eggs poised on a candelabra-like base. But the piece, by Carlos Estévez, was unbroken.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the quake was felt throughout the state, but officials had no reports of any life-threatening problems.Solomon Byron felt it as he sat on a park bench in Manhattan’s East Village.“I was just like, ‘Where is that vibration coming from?'" Byron recalled. He was especially puzzled since there were no subways running nearby.But he didn’t realize there had been an earthquake until he got the alert on his cellphone.

Rare earthquake centered near New York City rattles the Northeast

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/04/proposal-advances-to-restrict-nebraska-school-bathrooms-sports-teams-based-on-sex-at-birth/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712321963168.jpeg" alt="State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha introduces a bill Feb. 13, 2023, in Lincoln, before the Education Committee that would define school group bathrooms and sporting teams as either male or female. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha introduces a bill Feb. 13, 2023, in Lincoln, before the Education Committee that would define school group bathrooms and sporting teams as either male or female. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>Zach Wendling<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/04/proposal-advances-to-restrict-nebraska-school-bathrooms-sports-teams-based-on-sex-at-birth/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN —&nbsp;A legislative committee narrowly advanced a measure Thursday that would define Nebraska K-12 school bathrooms and sporting teams as male or female based on sex at birth.Education Committee members voted 5-3 to advance Legislative Bill 575, the Sports and Spaces Act, proposed by State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha. Public, private and parochial schools would need to adopt a policy to implement LB 575 if passed, including classifying group bathrooms and locker rooms as male or female and sports teams as male, female or mixed.An&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/AM2049-2.pdf">amendment</a>, also adopted 5-3, removes legal relief for students who may be “deprived of an athletic opportunity” or otherwise harmed if a public school knowingly violated the act.&nbsp;The change also adds a second prohibition for girls sports to include: “a biological female student who is taking cross-sex hormones and competing as a transgender male.”&nbsp;Athletic teams or sports designated for males would not be open to female students unless there is no female team equivalent.Kauth said after the vote she was “very pleased.” She said she is “presuming” debate will be Friday.“I believe I have the votes and what happens happens, and if it doesn’t work, then I bring it back next year,” Kauth said.<h2>One vote remains a ‘mystery’</h2>State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, Education Committee chair, said LB 575 had been stuck in committee for two years, and “we don’t want to be held hostage by a fraction, probably a small fraction, of the Legislature.”Murman said taking a vote on the bill was overdue after Kauth and State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood prioritized it two years in a row.&nbsp;State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston has targeted the State Board of Education for not acting on issues such as LB 575.&nbsp;Although he signed onto the bill when it was introduced, Riepe removed his name last May. At the time, he revealed a memo he wrote to Kauth and other senators regarding LB 575, suggesting that it be amended so the State Board of Education would be required to address the issue, not the Legislature.“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle,” Riepe wrote, quoting Sun Tzu, a Chinese general.&nbsp;Riepe declined again Thursday to say how he would vote on LB 575, other than to say it would be a “mystery” until the last second.Other senators who expressed hesitation with the bill last year declined Thursday to say how they would vote on LB 575. Debate on the measure could be scheduled as early as Friday and could last a maximum of four hours before seeking “cloture,” a procedural vote to end debate, which requires 33 votes.An internal vote count this week run by Sumner State Sen. Teresa Ibach on Kauth’s behalf sat at 32 votes, with one senator “leaning” toward voting for cloture. Kauth confirmed the count.<h2>‘Put politics aside’</h2>State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, an Education Committee member who led opposition to LB 575, including a failed vote to kill the bill (5-3 against doing so), said it has been known that the bill could shape up to be one of the most divisive of the session, similar to its sister bill, LB 574, in 2023.&nbsp;LB 574 contained a more restrictive limit on abortions and restricted transgender health care for minors.Conrad said LB 575 doesn’t solve issues that are most important to schools, ranging from needed resources and teacher shortages to a desire to increase parental engagement.“I’m asking you to put politics aside,” she told her fellow committee members, noting it could throw gasoline on the 2024 session.State Sens. Lynne Walz of Fremont and Justin Wayne of Omaha also opposed LB 575.Conrad asked her colleagues why discrimination&nbsp;was more important than tax relief or other issues. State Sen. Fred Meyer of St. Paul said it was an unfair question because the issue was simple in his district about differences between boys and girls.Multiple superintendents in his district, he said, have asked the Legislature to step in so they don’t have to. He declined to give names to Conrad after the executive session.Aryn Huck, community organizer for OutNebraska, a leading statewide LGBTQ organization, said that OutNebraska wants all children to thrive and succeed at school and that trans youths shouldn’t be excluded from opportunities that could build confidence, self-respect and teamwork.“By excluding kids from sports, or not allowing them to continue using the school facilities they’ve been using, LB 575 sends the message that not everyone is welcome,” Huck said. “Singling out kids who want to belong will only harm them in the long term.”<h2>NSAA’s Gender Participation Policy</h2>Multiple times during the executive session, Conrad pointed to the Nebraska School Activities Association, which governs school activities and athletics in many public and private schools statewide and already has a Gender Participation Policy.Since being implemented in 2016, fewer than 10 students have utilized the policy, which allows a path for trans students to play on a sporting team that matches their gender identity. An associated committee must unanimously approve the student’s application, which includes affirmation of the student’s gender identity.For trans girls, the process also includes a medical examination and physiological testing to affirm the student has taken at least one year of cross-sex hormones and doesn’t “possess physical … or physiological advantages over genetic females of the same age group.”Conrad said it is a “very expensive, arduous process” that hasn’t had issues.&nbsp;Meyer said in his experience, the NSAA is flimsy and may not hold firm in policy. Murman said he has heard second-hand concerns with the policy, though he hadn’t “personally verified it.”Gov. Jim Pillen, who has supported LB 575 and designated it a priority in his State of the State address, said the bill is “just common sense” and matches Nebraska values.<h2>Bellevue senator listening for concerns</h2>Bellevue Public Schools has a policy to address transgender students, allowing students to use the restrooms for the gender they identify with. Sarah Centineo, a Bellevue school board trustee, testified against LB 575 last year.Centineo testified “with absolute certainty” that Bellevue’s policy, which has been in place since 2015, has not been a problem. She added that her husband is a bowling coach and personally expressed concern that he would be required to question whether a girl should be allowed to bowl with other girls and how he could be required to “prove” that she’s a girl.“That destroys trust between a coach and between a student,” Centineo testified.State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, former mayor of the city, said that after numerous phone calls and emails related to LB 575, it’s time to make a decision — “up or down, we move on.”Centineo and Sanders disagreed about whether Centineo was speaking on behalf of Bellevue Public Schools when she testified last year. Centineo is running against Sanders this election cycle.&nbsp;Sanders said she confirmed with the district that Centineo was not representing the district when testifying.&nbsp;Centineo told the Examiner she was representing the district and provided an email she sent from her district email to the committee one week after testifying that Sanders responded to.Bellevue Public Schools did not immediately return a request for comment.Sanders said she will be listening for any concerns to be “brought to light” during LB 575 debate and emphasized that senators need to remember they are talking about children.“I think with any bill you have to look for the concerns, the areas of concerns, that I think are addressed during good debate,” Sanders added.<h2>Enforcing the policy</h2>When it comes to enforcing LB 575, Sanders said lawmakers need to have a discussion, such as around chromosomes, and said lawmakers or lobbyists could suggest amendments.“We either come out with a better bill, or it goes away,” Sanders said.Murman told the Examiner that he’s unsure how schools would track students’ chromosomes or enforce the bill.“That’s something I never thought about,” Murman said, noting schools would need to decide.Kauth said a birth certificate or a doctor’s attestation, such as through students’ annual sports physicals, could satisfy her bill’s requirements. She also pushed back on “fear mongering” from some opponents to her bill that schools would implement “genital inspections.”“Come on,” she said. “I am very concerned by anyone who’s promoting that.”<h2>Opposition strategy forming</h2>Thursday’s committee action represents one of the last possible moments for members to advance LB 575 to the full Legislature. Murman declined to say whether Speaker Arch — who sets the floor debate agenda —&nbsp;asked the committee to delay consideration until Thursday.“Every bill that comes to the floor is a negotiation between the speaker and the bill sponsor, or the committee sponsor, and that includes this bill,” Murman said.&nbsp;Murman has supported LB 575 since its introduction. When&nbsp; asked why LB 575 didn’t advance or come up for a vote sooner, he noted that 2023 demonstrated how a “very small minority” can control what happens in the Legislature and “can, in their own words, ‘burn down the session.’”“We don’t want that to happen, and I assume it won’t happen because we’ve been very giving in waiting and so forth,” he said.State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, who fought Kauth’s LB 574 last year, often bringing debate to a crawl as she extended debate on&nbsp; every bill to its maximum time limit, committed to stall debate in the Legislature’s final days because of the Education Committee’s vote.“Get ready to hear my recipes, my movie synopsis and on and on,” Cavanaugh said Thursday afternoon. “Until 575 is dead, that’s what we’re going to be doing.”She added that while LB 574 was a “travesty” and harmed transgender children, LB 575 “makes it impossible for transgender children to exist in this state.”Cavanaugh later said she would focus opposition on LB 575, not on other bills.<h2>Attorney general’s opinion</h2>Kauth, Murman and other LB 575 supporters deny any discrimination —&nbsp;and did so during the Education Committee executive session. They argue the bill is about protecting all school-aged children and preserving women’s sports, including Title IX.“Protecting women’s sports and girls sports is so critically important, especially for kids at that age,” Kauth said. “… We’ve got all these amazing opportunities that will go away if girls are starting to compete with boys in their high school and middle school years.”Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, in an opinion sought by Kauth that does not carry the same weight as a judicial opinion, argues LB 575 does not violate federal laws, such as the Equal Protection Clause of Title IX, the federal educational civil rights law.&nbsp;The attorney general is charged with defending state laws.Hilgers noted the measure does not reference gender identity, so the plain text of the bill “cannot be said to single out transgender students.”Now, however, with the amendment adopted by the committee, the measure does reference gender identity.