US births dropped last year, suggesting the 2024 uptick was short-lived

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births fell a little in 2025, according to newly posted provisional data. Slightly over 3.6 million births have been reported through birth certificates, or about 24,000 fewer than in 2024. The decline seems to confirm predictions by some experts, who doubted a slight increase in births in 2024 marked the start of an upward trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its provisional birth data late last week, filling in two months of missing data and offering the first good look at last year’s tally. The posted numbers account for nearly all of the babies born in 2025, according to the CDC. Data is still being compiled and analyzed, but the final tally might only add “a few thousand additional births,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees birth and death tracking at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Republican chairman scrutinizes companies tied to husband of Rep. Omar

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee is requesting records related to firms partially owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar. It’s an extraordinary step of scrutinizing the spouse of a sitting House member. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky sent a letter to Timothy Mynett, a former Democratic political consultant who is married to Omar. Comer is requesting records related to a pair of companies that had a substantial jump in value between 2023 and 2024. Comer’s request marked a highly unusual move by the chair of a committee with a history of taking on politically-charged investigations, but almost always focused on government officials outside of Congress.

Actor Timothy Busfield indicted on 4 counts of sexual contact with a child

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — “West Wing” and “Field of Dreams” actor Timothy Busfield has been indicted by a grand jury on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child, a New Mexico prosecutor announced Friday. The allegations are tied to Busfield’s work as a director on the set of the TV series “The Cleaning Lady” in recent years. Busfield has denied the allegations, initially filed in court by police, and a defense attorney on Friday said he would “fight these charges at every stage.” Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced the indictment in a social media post.

FEMA will resume staff reductions that were paused during winter storm, managers say

(AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency will resume staff cuts that were briefly paused during January’s severe winter storm, according to two FEMA managers, stoking concern across the agency over its ability to address disasters with fewer workers. FEMA at the start of January abruptly stopped renewing employment contracts for a group of staffers known as Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery, or CORE employees, term-limited hires who can hold senior roles and play an important role in emergency response. But FEMA then paused the cuts in late January as the nation braced for the gigantic winter storm that was set to impact half the country’s population. FEMA did not say whether that decision was linked to the storm.