By GRAHAM LEE BREWER

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina achieved a goal more than a century in the making on Wednesday when it secured federal recognition as a tribal nation through the passage of a defense bill in Congress.

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The state-recognized tribe, whose historic and genealogical claims have been called into question by several tribal leaders, has been seeking federal acknowledgement for generations. Congress has considered the issue for more than 30 years, but the effort gained momentum after President Donald Trump endorsed the state-recognized tribe on the campaign trail last year.

Legislation to recognize the Lumbee Tribe had struggled to pass through Congress in recent years, but it was attached to the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by the Senate on Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear when the president would sign it.

“It means a lot because we have been figuring out how to get here for so long,” said Lumbee Tribal Chairman John Lowery moments after celebrating the victory in the office of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. “We have been second-class Natives and we will never be that again, and no one can take it away from us.”

With federal recognition comes a bevy of federal resources, including access to new streams of federal dollars and grants and resources like the Indian Health Service. It also allows the tribe to put land into trust, which gives it more control over things like taxation and economic development, such as a casino.

John Lowery, N.C. State Rep. and Chairman of the Lumbee Tribe of N.C., center, leads a toast to Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., center, front right, as members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, celebrate the passage of a bill granting their people federal recognition, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The journey to recognition

In the 1980s, the Lumbee Tribe sought recognition through the Office of Federal Acknowledgement within the Interior Department, which evaluates the historical and genealogical claims of tribal applicants. The office declined to accept the application, citing a 1956 act of Congress that acknowledged the Lumbee Tribe but withheld the benefits of federal recognition.

That decision was reversed in 2016, allowing the Lumbee to pursue recognition through the federal administrative process. The tribe instead continued to seek recognition through an act of Congress.

There are 574 federally recognized tribal nations. Since the Office of Federal Acknowledgement was established in 1978, 18 have been approved by the agency, while about two dozen have gained recognition through congressional legislation. Nineteen applications ranging from Maine to Montana are now pending before the agency, with at least one under consideration by Congress.

Once federally recognized, the Lumbee Tribe would become one of the largest tribal nations in the country, with about 60,000 members. Congressional Budget Office estimates have found that providing the tribe with the necessary federal resources would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the first few years alone.

Austin Curt Thomas, 11, gets a celebratory fist bump from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., as he and his father Aaron Thomas, of Pembroke, N.C., join fellow members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, to celebrate after the passage of a bill granting their people federal recognition, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“Hopefully, Congress will expand the pie in appropriations so that the other tribes, many of which are poor, don’t suffer because there’s suddenly such a larger number of Native Americans in that region,” said Kevin Washburn, former assistant secretary of Indian affairs at the Interior Department and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Over 200 Lumbee members gathered in a gymnasium in Pembroke, North Carolina, to watch the final Senate vote on television. They celebrated with shouts, raised hands and applause as the unofficial tally indicated the bill would receive final congressional approval.

Victor Dial held his 8-month daughter Collins at the celebration. Dial’s grandfather is a late former tribal chairman.

“He told us the importance of this, and he told us this day would happen, but we didn’t know when,” Dial said. “I’m so glad my kids were here to see it.”

Disputes over merit and heritage

Not everyone in Indian Country is celebrating. The move has drawn opposition from some tribal leaders, historians and genealogists who argue that the Lumbee’s claims are unverifiable and that Congress should require the tribe to complete the formal recognition process.

People celebrate after passage of the National Defense Authorization Act by the U.S. Senate during a watch party hosted by the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Pembroke, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

“Federal recognition does not create us — it acknowledges us,” Shawnee Tribe Chief Ben Barnes, an opponent of Lumbee recognition, testified before the Senate last month. He warned against replacing historical documentation with political considerations.

Critics have noted that the Lumbee have a history of shifting claims and previously used different names, including Cherokee Indians of Robeson County, and say the tribe lacks a documented historical language.

“If identity becomes a matter of assertion rather than continuity, then this body will not be recognizing tribes, it will be manufacturing them,” Barnes told lawmakers.

The Lumbee Tribe counters that it descends from a mixture of ancestors “from the Algonquian, Iroquoian and Siouan language families,” according to its website, and notes it has been recognized by North Carolina since 1885.

Politics influence tribal recognition

While the Lumbee Tribe has received bipartisan support over the years, federal recognition became a campaign promise in 2024 for both Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

“He kept that promise and showed extraordinary leadership,” said Tillis, the Republican senator who introduced a bill to recognize the Lumbee Tribe.

People celebrate after passage of the National Defense Authorization Act by the U.S. Senate, during a watch party hosted by the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Pembroke, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce)

Robeson County, where most Lumbee members live, has shifted politically in recent years. Once dominated by Democrats, the socially conservative area has trended Republican. The Lumbee Tribe’s members in North Carolina are an important voting block in the swing state, which Trump won by more than three points.

In January, Trump issued an executive order directing the Interior Department to develop a plan for Lumbee recognition. That plan was submitted to the White House in April, and a department spokesperson said the tribe was advised to pursue recognition through Congress.

Since then, Lowery, the tribal chairman, has worked closely with members of Congress, particularly Tillis, and appealed directly to Trump. In September, Lowery wrote to Trump announcing ancestral ties between the Lumbee Tribe and the president’s daughter Tiffany Trump, according to Bloomberg, which first reported on the letter.

Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, Allen G. Breed in Pembroke, North Carolina, and Jacquelyn Martin in Washington, D.C., contributed.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services says it will stop accepting license applications for adult day care providers for up to two years amid suspicion of fraudulent activity and allegations of kickback schemes in the program.

It’s the latest program the agency has put under greater scrutiny as officials try to do more to stop fraud. Last week, DHS announced it would pause new licenses for Home and Community-Based Human Services for two years.

DHS said Tuesday it will pause new licenses for daytime programs for the elderly and disabled because the number of providers currently goes “well beyond” the needs for service. The pause will begin Feb. 1 next year and likely extend to Jan. 31, 2028.

At a Wednesday hearing of the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, DHS Inspector General James Clark told state representatives that an “excess of providers” was cause for fraud concerns.

“When you have a marketplace where there’s excess capacity, there’s not a way for you to drum up legitimate business. Then you’re going to try to figure out — if profit is your motive — you’re going to figure out ways to drum up illegitimate businesses,” Clark said. “That’s why we’ve seen allegations and we’re investigating allegations of kickbacks in the adult day program area.”

Asked about how much adult day care programs had grown in the past five years, state Medicaid Director John Connolly said DHS numbers showed a roughly 7% increase in people enrolled in adult day care and a 43% increase in license capacity over the last decade.

For that reason, adult day services is among the 14 programs undergoing a third-party audit after being deemed high risk by the human services department, Connolly said. Gov. Tim Walz ordered the audit at the end of October, and the layer of review could mean delayed payments for providers.

DHS will stop issuing licenses for new home and community-based services providers at the beginning of 2026, and the pause is expected to last until the end of 2027. The agency said it would consider exceptions to the pause for both those services and adult day care.

Home and community services will have a licensing pause for similar reasons to adult day care: the increase in provider applications greatly exceeded the demand for services.

At the end of October, DHS ended one Medicaid-funded program altogether: Housing Stabilization Services. The move came after news emerged of a federal investigation of a “massive” fraud scheme that cost the state millions.

Housing Stabilization Services, a first-of-its-kind program launched in 2020, used Medicaid dollars to help the elderly and people with disabilities at risk of homelessness find and pay for housing. People with mental illness and addiction problems were also eligible.

But some providers acquired names and other information from facilities like addiction treatment centers to file false and inflated claims to DHS, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In September, federal prosecutors charged eight people for allegedly stealing around $10 million from the program. It’s just one of numerous fraud cases that have come to light in Minnesota in recent years. Then-acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson estimated in July that fraud in the state could top $1 billion.

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Walz has issued executive orders directing state agencies to do more to address fraud, though the administration of President Donald Trump also has begun pressuring Minnesota.

Earlier this month, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Mehmet Oz, better known as the TV personality Dr. Oz, demanded a six-month freeze on enrollments for “high-risk providers” and confirmation of existing providers’ legitimacy. Oz threatened federal funding for the state if it didn’t comply.

With official proclamations, the St. Paul City Council said goodbye to six longstanding public servants leaving City Hall, including Mayor Melvin Carter, mayoral adviser Russ Stark, and Fire Chief “Butch” Inks. Each was recognized with a day dedicated in their honor.

Also recognized by the council on Wednesday were three longstanding planners and project leads with the city’s department of Planning and Economic Development — Ross Currier, Paul Dubruiel and Marie Franchett — who have played no small role in determining the contours of some of the city’s most visible construction projects.

Franchett in particular served 32 years with the city, serving as project lead on Allianz Field, the Verdant at the West Side Flats, the downtown Penfield apartments and their adjoining grocery space, and other key housing and mixed-use developments.

Dubruiel, who oversaw lot splits and other Planning Commission work, spent 30 years working for the city, and Currier was with PED for 11 years, handling dozens of STAR grants,  as well as business Bridge Fund grants during the pandemic.

Council Member Nelsie Yang said the mayor always appeared cool in a crisis, and the city weathered several during his two terms, from riots to pandemic.

“There has not been a better ambassador and champion for our city throughout incredibly difficult times than Mayor Carter,” said Council President Rebecca Noecker.

Council Member Anika Bowie noted Carter had a history of centering children in his policies, from forgiving library fines and dedicating college savings accounts for newborns to lifting fees for youth sports at rec centers.

“It will take years, and even decades, for the seeds that he has planted and so much of the work to come to fruition,” added Molly Coleman, one of the newest members of the city council.

Fighting tears, Council Vice President HwaJeong Kim said Inks, a 41-year city employee, was fresh off of arm surgery when she called him about a person injured during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement action two weeks ago. Inks still showed up in person and demanded of ICE agents, “Are you denying this person medical care?” The individual was soon removed on a stretcher.

Kim said Stark — who had once served as president of the city council — had touched myriad aspects of the city by leading on the development of St. Paul’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan, the Evie electric car-sharing program and the EV Spot charging network. Through his efforts, carbon emissions in the city’s municipal buildings dropped 46%.

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Stark was also instrumental in establishing 55 miles of new bikeways, including the fully-completed Grand Rounds and the nearly-complete Capital City Bikeway, and installing geothermal systems and solar panels in The Heights development and the new North End Community Center, among other projects. St. Paul repeatedly reduced the amount of parking developers are required to install for new real estate development citywide, eventually eliminating parking minimums entirely.

By order of the city council, Wednesday was named Russ Stark Day in the city, to be followed by Melvin Carter III Day on Thursday. Dec. 30 will be “Butch” Inks Day in the city.

By MICHAEL CASEY

BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — Police intensified their search Wednesday for a suspect in the killing of professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, two days after he was shot to death at his home outside Boston.

Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, was shot Monday night at his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at a local hospital on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

The prosecutor’s office said the homicide investigation was “active and ongoing” as of early afternoon Wednesday and had no update — earlier they had said no suspects were in custody.

The investigation into the MIT professor’s killing comes as Brown University, another prestigious institution just 50 miles away in Providence, Rhode Island, is reeling from an unsolved shooting that killed two students and wounded nine others Saturday. Investigators provided no indication Tuesday that they were any closer to zeroing in on the gunman’s identity.

The FBI on Tuesday said it knew of no connection between the crimes.

Dozens of people gathered outside Louriero’s building Tuesday night, many with candles in hand, to honor the professor’s life and support his family. Neighbors received paper notices attached to their doors with tape to place candles in their windows in Louriero’s honor. Some people cried and held each other, but most attendees were silent, their breath visible in the bracing cold. A few children rode scooters from their nearby homes to the gathering.

The killing happened when most MIT students were on winter break, and more than a dozen of them on the Cambridge campus on Wednesday didn’t want to talk about it. Most said they didn’t know him.

A 22-year-old student at Boston University who lives near Loureiro’s apartment in Brookline told The Boston Globe she heard three loud noises Monday evening and feared it was gunfire. “I had never heard anything so loud, so I assumed they were gunshots,” Liv Schachner was quoted as saying. “It’s difficult to grasp. It just seems like it keeps happening.”

This undated photo provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in December 2025 shows Nuno Loureiro. (Jake Belcher/MIT via AP)

Loureiro, who was married, joined MIT in 2016 and was named last year to lead MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he worked to advance clean energy technology and other research. The center, one of the school’s largest labs, had more than 250 people working across seven buildings when he took the helm. He was a professor of physics and nuclear science and engineering.

He grew up in Viseu, in central Portugal, and studied in Lisbon before earning a doctorate in London, according to MIT. He was a researcher at an institute for nuclear fusion in Lisbon before joining MIT, the university said.

“He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner,” Dennis Whyte, an engineering professor who previously led MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told a campus publication.

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The president of MIT, Sally Kornbluth, said in a statement that the killing was a “shocking loss.” The office of Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also put out a condolence statement calling Loureiro’s death “an irreparable loss for science and for all those with whom he worked and lived.”

Loureiro had said he hoped his work would shape the future.

“It’s not hyperbole to say MIT is where you go to find solutions to humanity’s biggest problems,” Loureiro said when he was named to lead the plasma science lab last year. “Fusion energy will change the course of human history.”

Associated Press writers Leah Willingham in Boston; Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and David Biller in Rome contributed.