By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees at once, voting for the first time under new rules to begin clearing a backlog of executive branch positions that had been delayed by Democrats.

Related Articles

What are Nexstar and Sinclair, the ABC affiliate owners who issued statements against Jimmy Kimmel?

Ukrainian refugees in US face precarious future after losing legal right to work

White House scraps water expert’s nomination as states hash out Colorado River plan

Trump suggests US troops could return to base in Afghanistan, citing its proximity to rival China

Pete Buttigieg rallies against redistricting in home state of Indiana

Frustrated by the stalling tactics, Senate Republicans moved last week to make it easier to confirm large groups of lower-level, non-judicial nominations. Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor.

The new rules allow Senate Republicans to move multiple nominees with a simple majority vote — a process that would have previously been blocked with just one objection. The rules don’t apply to judicial nominations or high-level Cabinet posts.

“Republicans have fixed a broken process,” Thune said ahead of the vote.

The Senate voted 51-47 to confirm the four dozen nominees. Thune said that those confirmed on Thursday had all received bipartisan votes in committee, including deputy secretaries for the Departments of Defense, Interior, Energy and others.

Among the confirmed are Jonathan Morrison, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Kimberly Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump’s 2020 campaign and was once engaged to Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

Thune’s move is the latest salvo after a dozen years of gradual changes by both parties to weaken the filibuster and make the nominations process more partisan. Both parties have obstructed each other’s nominees for years, and senators in both parties have advocated for speeding up the process when they are in the majority.

Republicans first proposed changing the rules in early August, when the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan negotiations over the confirmation process and Trump told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” on social media.

Democrats have blocked more nominees than ever before as they have struggled to find ways to oppose Trump and the GOP-dominated Congress, and as their voters have pushed them to fight Republicans at every turn. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to members of the media after attending a policy luncheon with Democratic leaders, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has said Democrats are delaying the nominations because Trump’s nominees are “historically bad.” And he told Republicans that they will “come to regret” their action — echoing a similar warning from GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to then-Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 2013, when Democrats changed Senate rules for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations. At the time, Republicans were blocking President Barack Obama’s picks.

Republicans took the Senate majority a year later, and McConnell eventually did the same for Supreme Court nominees in 2017 as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“What Republicans have done is chip away at the Senate even more, to give Donald Trump more power and to rubber stamp whomever he wants, whenever he wants them, no questions asked,” Schumer said last week.

Republicans will move to confirm a second tranche of nominees in the coming weeks, gradually clearing the list of more than 100 nominations that have been pending for months.

“There will be more to come,” Thune said Thursday. “And we’ll ensure that President Trump’s administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors.”

The Trump administration’s mass deportations plan is fueling fear and an increased demand for mental health services among New York immigrants, who already face barriers to getting care, officials and advocates said at a Council hearing this week.

City Council Immigration Committee Chair Alexa Avilés at Tuesday’s hearing, where she said the administration is “a lot of talk and no action,” as immigrants are being targeted for arrests. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

An unprecedented immigration enforcement crackdown—evident in ongoing arrests carried out   at the city’s courthouses—has fueled fear among immigrant New Yorkers, many of whom have confined themselves from public life in response. 

At a City Council hearing Tuesday, advocates said they have not only noticed that shift, but also the mental toll it’s having on immigrant communities across the city, highlighting the vast need for access to culturally competent mental health services.

Charles Brown, the director of the immigration legal program at Lutheran Social Services of New York, said they had assisted 83 migrants last month. “Almost every single one of those 83 people needed mental health services. Almost every one of them expressed to us that they didn’t believe they could access those services,” Brown said.

Still, the heads of two city agencies lawmakers invited to testify and answer questions at the oversight hearing didn’t show.

Alexa Avilés, the head of the Council’s Committee on Immigration, criticized the absence of both the heads of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). Both agencies sent staffers in their place. 

Alluding to the absence of Adams administration leaders at another hearing on the impact of Donald Trump’s budget cuts the day before, Avilés expressed her disappointment. “I am continuing to be offended by this administration’s hypocrisy towards the immigrant communities, and the fact that they are a lot of talk and no action,” she said.

Access to mental health services is a problem for New Yorkers generally, and for immigrants, it’s even harder. According to a DOHMH report published in May, around 945,000 New Yorkers (or 14 percent of the population) reported having difficulty accessing the mental health treatment they needed, whether through counseling or medication.

One of the problems, the report explains, is that it can be hard to find a provider who speaks someone’s preferred language or understands their culture.

Another report published this year by DOHMH and MOIA found immigrants with depression are less likely to receive mental health treatment (34 percent) compared to U.S.-born New Yorkers with depression (48 percent).

Some of the challenges immigrants face that can contribute to their mental health struggles include language barriers, traumas experienced before, during, or post-migration, and economic instability, advocates explained at the hearing.

“Indeed, many of our clients arrive in the United States after suffering significant trauma in their country of origin, and on their journeys here, and they find themselves in New York City with mental health challenges resulting from their experiences,” Brown said. “Once they arrive, migrants are subjected to a complex immigration system that may appear designed to re-traumatize them.”

Since Spring of 2022, hundreds of thousands of migrants have come to New York City. Though the number of new arrivals has declined significantly in recent months, more than 34,000 remained in the city’s shelter system as of August. 

Immigrant adults are nearly twice as likely as U.S.-born adults to lack health insurance, the MOIA/DOHMH report found. Last month, The City reported that enrollment in NYC Care, the city’s healthcare access program for low-income residents—regardless of immigration status— declined for the first time this year since it launched in 2019.

The anxiety of an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and fear of being deported has become part of the stressors in migrants’ lives, advocates said.

“We conceive of trauma through the lens of the triple trauma paradigm, including pre-flight trauma, trauma during and post-migration,” said Jess Rucker, director of rescue settlement at Catholic Charities Community Services. “This experience is compounded by systemic factors for immigrant populations, fear of law enforcement, language barriers, and lack of health insurance and public services.” 

At the hearing, officials said that New Yorkers in crisis can access some services through a call, text, or chat to the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline, which merges local care and resources “with national standards and best practices,” its website explains.

Avilés criticized long wait times to get through on the 988 line, as well as what she described as the administration’s lack of preparedness to deal with issues affecting immigrant communities.

City Councilmember Tiffany Caban was one of several people arrested Thursday protesting ICE outside 26 Federal Plaza (Credit: Winnie Marion)

ICE agents have been arresting people as they show up for immigration hearings at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, where critics say migrants are being held in crowded and unsanitary conditions. Nearly a dozen lawmakers were arrested Thursday outside the courthouse during a protest against ICE.

“We know there is a clear path of violence that this Trump administration is taking that the mayor is not standing up to,” Avilés said at Tuesday’s hearing.

The demand for mental health services is immense, advocates said—and city officials acknowledged. Officials testified that MOIA’s general hotline has received thousands of calls this year, many of them with questions about health, including dozens on mental health specifically.

One staff member at the Arab American Family Support Center, a non-profit serving Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian immigrants and refugees, said the number of requests they’ve received from people seeking mental health help has gone up by 80 percent in the last few months.

There is also a lack of qualified workers in the city to meet the demand, according to advocates who testified and who urged the city to fund an immigrant health workforce.

A mental health clinician and supervisor at their Arab-American Family Support Center called for officials to “develop a linguistically competent mental health workforce by creating pathways and fast-track programs that empower skilled immigrants to serve their own communities.” 

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Federal Crackdown is Taking a Toll on Immigrant New Yorkers’ Mental Health, Officials & Advocates Say appeared first on City Limits.

By MAE ANDERSON and MATT SEDENSKY

NEW YORK (AP) — Two ABC affiliate owners spoke out against late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel ahead of ABC’s decision to suspend the presenter over comments he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Their comments highlight the influence local TV station owners have on national broadcasters such as Disney-owned ABC.

Related Articles

Ukrainian refugees in US face precarious future after losing legal right to work

White House scraps water expert’s nomination as states hash out Colorado River plan

Trump suggests US troops could return to base in Afghanistan, citing its proximity to rival China

Pete Buttigieg rallies against redistricting in home state of Indiana

Trump administration to close Miami organ donation group it calls ‘failing’

Here are key facts about the two companies.

Nexstar Media Group

Nexstar Media Group, based in Irving, Texas, operates 28 ABC affiliates. It said it would pull Kimmel’s show starting Wednesday. Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s death were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse,” said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division.

The company owns or partners with more than 200 stations in 116 U.S. markets, and owns broadcast networks the CW and NewsNation, as well as the political website The Hill and nearly a third of the Food Network.

It hopes to get even bigger. Last month, it announced a $6.2 billion deal to buy TEGNA Inc., which owns 64 other TV stations.

FILE- In this Oc. 29, 2014, file photo honoree Perry Sook, Chairman, President and CEO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, attends the 24th Annual Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Awards at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Nexstar is offering to buy Chicago’s Tribune Media for about $4 billion, four months after the collapse of a similar bid from Sinclair Broadcast Group. The offer Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, would make Nexstar, whose stations reach nearly 39 percent of all U.S. television households, the biggest operator of local TV stations in the U.S. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

The deal would require the Federal Communications Commission to change rules limiting the number of stations a single company can own. The FCC’s chair, Brendan Carr, has expressed openness to changing the rule.

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group, based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, operates 38 local ABC affiliates. On Wednesday the company, which has a reputation for a conservative viewpoint in its broadcasts, called on Kimmel to apologize to Kirk’s family and make a “meaningful personal donation” to the activist’s political organization, Turning Point USA. Sinclair said its ABC stations will air a tribute to Kirk on Friday in Kimmel’s time slot.

Sinclair owns, operates or provides services to 178 TV stations in 81 markets affiliated with all major broadcast networks and owns Tennis Channel.

Controversies

Sinclair made headlines in 2018 when a video that stitched together dozens of news anchors for Sinclair-owned local stations reading identical statements decrying “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country” went viral. Sinclair didn’t disclose that it ordered the anchors to read the statement.

Nexstar operates similarly.

Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, said the company is the “biggest duplicator” of news content today His research showed Nexstar stations duplicated broadcasts more than other affiliate owners.

Affiliate influence

Lauren Herold, an editor of the forthcoming book “Local TV,” said the web of companies involved in getting Americans their television shows is “relatively unknown” to most viewers, though their influence has been made known for decades.

Often, Herold said, that’s been when local affiliates have balked at airing something they viewed as controversial, such as the episode of the 1990s comedy “Ellen” in which Ellen DeGeneres’ character came out as gay.

“It’s not a complete oddity,” Herold said. “I think what’s more alarming about this particular incident to me is the top-down nature of it.”

Whereas past flare-ups between affiliates and their parent networks have often involved individual local TV executives, Herold pointed to the powerful voices at play in Kimmel’s suspension: Disney CEO Bob Iger, the FCC’s chair Carr, as well as Sinclair and Nexstar.

“The FCC kind of pinpointing particular programs to cancel is concerning to people who advocate for television to be a forum for free discussion and debate,” Herold said.

Jasmine Bloemhof, a media strategist who has worked with local stations, including ones owned by Sinclair and Nexstar, said consolidation has given such companies “enormous influence.” Controversies like the latest involving Kimmel, she said, “reveal the tension between Hollywood-driven programming and the values of everyday Americans.”

“Networks may push one agenda, but affiliates owned by companies like Sinclair and Nexstar understand they serve conservative-leaning communities across the country,” Bloemhof said. “And that friction is bound to surface.”

By JEFF MARTIN and MIKE SCHNEIDER

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A man who was unresponsive after riding a roller coaster at Universal Orlando Resort’s newest park died from blunt impact injuries, a medical examiner said Thursday.

Related Articles

Teen girl’s body found in impounded car registered to the singer d4vd

Toyota and Hyundai recall more than 1.1 million vehicles for seat belt, panel display problems

As immigration arrests spike in Chicago, activists escalate tactics to fight back

Trump administration to close Miami organ donation group it calls ‘failing’

U.S. Army helicopter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord crashes in Washington state

Joshua Stephany, the medical examiner for the Orlando area, ruled the death an accident after performing an autopsy. The statement from Stephany did not mention any details about the injuries, including where on the body they were found.

The man in his 30s was found unresponsive after riding the coaster at Epic Universe on Wednesday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Dennis Speigel, CEO and founder of consulting firm International Theme Park Services, called the autopsy’s conclusion “pretty shocking,” and he said it raised more questions than it answered.

“Was it the head or the chest? Was he banging around? Was he in his seat properly?” Speigel said. “Was it an accident caused by the ride or him doing something?”

The medical examiner’s office didn’t respond to an email seeking further details on the injuries.

The roller coaster involved was Stardust Racers, Universal officials said in a statement. It’s described on the resort’s website as “a breathtaking, dual-launch coaster reaching incredible speeds up to 62 mph.”

FILE – Guests ride on the Stardust Racers roller coaster at Epic Universe Theme Park at Universal Resort Orlando, April 10, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, file)

“We are devastated by this tragic event and extend our sincerest sympathies to the guest’s loved ones,” a Universal Orlando Resorts spokesperson said in a statement. “We are fully cooperating with Orange County and the ongoing investigation. The attraction remains closed.”

After the autopsy was released, Universal said it couldn’t comment beyond its earlier statement because of the ongoing investigation.

Universal opened the park in May. It has five themed sections and a 500-room hotel.

It’s the first major, traditional theme park to open in Florida since 1999, when Universal Islands of Adventure debuted, though Universal opened a themed Orlando water park, Volcano Bay, in 2017.

The addition of Epic Universe brought the total number of parks at the Florida resort to four, including Universal Studios.

Florida’s largest theme parks are exempt from state safety inspections, unlike smaller venues and fairs. Instead, the largest theme parks like Walt Disney World and Universal conduct their own inspections and have their own protocols, but they must report to the state any injury or death.

In the second quarter of this year, there were a dozen reports from Disney World, Universal and SeaWorld Orlando. They ranged from a 78-year-old woman becoming unresponsive on a child-friendly carousel at SeaWorld to an 87-year-old woman with a preexisting condition losing consciousness after going on the Dinosaur ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Since Epic Universe opened in May, there have been three reports made. In May, a 63-year-old man with a preexisting condition experienced dizziness and “an altered state of consciousness” and a 47-year-old woman with a preexisting condition had a “visual disturbance” and numbness after going on the Stardust Racers coaster, on separate days. A 32-year-old man experienced chest pains after going on the Hiccup’s Wing Gliders ride, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social