Tod Goldberg is the author of more than 15 books, including his Gangsterland series about a Chicago hitman who assumes a false identity as a Las Vegas rabbi. Goldberg’s latest is the crime novel, “Only Way Out,” about a crooked plot in an Oregon resort town that goes awry. As well as his writing, Goldberg founded and directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside. In a 2023 interview with this newspaper, Goldberg said, “In my books, there’s going to be a consequence. There’s always going to be a consequence for a bad thing someone does.” Here, he takes the Book Pages Q&A.

Q. Please tell readers about your new book, “Only Way Out.”

Like a lot of my work, it’s about bad people trying to be good, good people turned bad, and worse people caught in the middle. In this case, instead of being set primarily in the desert (though there is a section in the high desert…I can’t resist), it takes place in a dying resort town on the Oregon coast. And instead of Mafia gangsters, it involves smaller-time crooks, in this case a failed lawyer and his child-prodigy sister who plans an audacious heist, a crooked cop who stumbles on it, and an ex-con who knows too much. So, you know, a happy family story.

Q. What was it like doing a stand-alone novel after working for years on your Gangsterland books?

It was great fun. I’ve devoted the better part of the last 15 years writing about one character – Sal Cupertine, the Chicago gangster who hides out in Las Vegas as the Rabbi David Cohen – and while I enjoyed that immensely, I admit that I was getting restless to do other things. Some of that came out in my book “The Low Desert,” where I was able to expand the criminal universe I’ve been creating for most of my career in short stories, some of which took place in a version of the fictional town I’ve created for “Only Way Out.” On a craft level, it also meant I had to change the way I wrote, which was more challenging, since Sal/David’s voice is such a peculiar one that won’t work for all the stories I want to tell.  

Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?

I’m a real evangelist for Daniel Woodrell. His best-known book, “Winter’s Bone,” is a huge favorite of mine, but really his entire catalog is amazing. 

Q. What are you reading now?

I just finished “The CIA Book Club: The Secret Mission to Win the Cold War with Forbidden Literature” by Charlie English, which has some, uhm, startling parallels to our present reality and then Susan Straight’s luminous new novel, “Sacrament.” She’s simply the best in the business. 

Q. How do you decide what to read next?

It’s hard to say – I have a lot of books I haven’t read yet, and yet I keep buying more. Often, it’s the situation that I pick up something to “flip through it,” and then five hours later, I’m still sitting on the floor, my feet asleep, reading. I did just buy a signed Donald Westlake/Richard Stark novel from about 20 years ago – “Nobody Runs Forever” – and I’m planning on diving into that to justify that princely sum I paid for the late author’s work. 

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you?

I do. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. That book reordered my reality at ten years old. It’s the first time I recall crying while reading, and it’s the first time I experienced violence on the page that felt like an honorable thing. 

Q. Is there a book or type of book you’re reluctant to read?

Well, I just can’t get through “Moby Dick.” I’ve tried. I have. It’s like how some people love tomatoes. I get it, they’re probably pretty good if you like them, but I don’t like the way they taste. 

Q. Can you recall a book that felt like it was written with you in mind (or conversely, one that most definitely wasn’t)?

Oh, yes. “Get Shorty” by Elmore Leonard. When I read that book, I thought: Well, this is the perfect distillation of all my interests!

Q. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, are there any titles or narrators you’d recommend?

I listen to more audiobooks these days than I read, which has mostly to do with my need to turn my brain off every night at bedtime. Audiobooks do a wonderful job of putting me into a meditative state. I just listened to “The Confidence Game” by Maria Konnikova, which I loved. And then it’s hard to beat Colin Firth reading Graham Greene’s “The End of the Affair,” which I highly recommend if you’re feeling like you’d enjoy a long car ride with a very depressed Colin Firth.

Q. Do you have a favorite book or books?

Of course. Too many, of course. But here’s a few: “Empire Falls” by Richard Russo. “Give Us a Kiss” by Daniel Woodrell. “The Laws of Evening” by Mary Yukari Waters. “Fifth Business” by Robertson Davies. “Mecca” by Susan Straight. “Columbine” by Dave Cullen. “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. “Father’s Day” by Matthew Zapruder. “Trouble Boys” by Bob Mehr. “These Women” by Ivy Pochoda. “Out of Sight” by Elmore Leonard. “Your House Will Pay” by Steph Cha.

Q. Which books are you planning to read next?

“Subject: Punk: The Photographs of Maggie St. Thomas” by Maggie St. Thomas and “Crooks” by Lou Berney are queued up on my nightstand as we speak.

 Q. Do you have a favorite character or quote from a book?

“I’m a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go. It can be done, all right, and sometimes it is done, but it’s not the natural thing.” – “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett 

Authors and brothers Tod and Lee Goldberg each have books coming out in early September. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Q. Is there a person who made an impact on your reading life — a teacher, a parent, a librarian or someone else?

My older brother Lee. He’s nine years older than me and when he left for college, he left me with bags of classic (and not so classic) crime novels, which essentially became my YA literature. This is why I probably knew more about hitmen than your average 6th grader. 

Q. What do you find the most appealing in a book: the plot, the language, the cover, a recommendation? Do you have any examples?

I’ll follow an interesting character into any kind of fine mess. I’m fascinated by people who make very poor decisions, or people who are pushed into a corner, or people who are pushed into a corner and then make very poor decisions. I think of a book like “The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones, one of the scariest damn books I’ve ever read, which I could not tear myself from, just to see what horrible terrible mess was to come next. 

Q. Are you someone who must finish every book you start — or is it OK to put down the ones you don’t connect with?

I put books down all the time. This is why video games and streaming TV were created. 

Q. Is there a book that tapped into an emotion you didn’t expect?

“Five Days at Memorial” by Sheri Fink and also “Ghettoside” by Jill Leovy. Both made me question preconceived notions I had about how society does and does not work.  

Q. Do you have a favorite bookstore or bookstore experience?

My favorite bookstores’ experience of recent vintage came in 2016, the day after the election, when I found myself wandering the stacks at the late, great Sundance Books in Reno, NV, which was housed in this dying old mansion. I spent hours in the store that day, reading bits of books, going into and out of rooms, touching books, sitting quietly among printed friends, reminding myself that what we do as artists has a larger importance. 

By THALIA BEATY, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion Tuesday to provide 25 million American children under 10 an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation.

Michael and Susan Dell, pose for photographs Nov. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1 billion, much less multiple billions. Announced on GivingTuesday, the Dells believe it’s the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children.

Its structure is also unusual. Essentially, it builds on the “ Trump Accounts ” program, where the U.S. Department of the Treasury will deposit $1,000 into investment accounts set up by Treasury for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. The Dells’ gift will use the “Trump Accounts” infrastructure to give $250 to each qualified child under 10.

“We believe that if every child can see a future worth saving for, this program will build something far greater than an account. It will build hope and opportunity and prosperity for generations to come,” said Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies whose estimated net worth is $148 billion, according to Forbes.

Though the “Trump Accounts” became law as part of the president’s signature legislation in July, the Dells say the accounts will not launch until July 4, 2026. Michael Dell said they wanted to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.

“We want these kids to know that not only do their families care, but their communities care, their government, their country cares about them,” said Susan Dell. “And we’re all rooting for them to have a wonderful future, a bright future, and that that’s available to them.”

Under the new law, “Trump Accounts” are available to any American child under 18 with a Social Security number and their families can fund the accounts, which must be invested in an index fund that tracks the overall stock market. When the children turn 18, they can withdraw the funds to put toward their education, to buy a home or to start a business.

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The Dells will put money into the accounts of children 10 and younger who live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $150,000 or less and who won’t get the $1,000 seed money from the Treasury. The Dells hope their gift will encourage families to claim the accounts and deposit more money into it, even small amounts, so it will grow over time along with the stock market.

President Trump plans to celebrate the commitment later on Tuesday and a White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the Dell’s gift will be the first of many new pledges to fund the accounts.

“The One Big Beautiful Bill’s Trump Accounts are a revolutionary investment by the federal government into the next generation of American children,” Desai said. “It’s also President Trump’s call to action for American businesses and philanthropists to do their part, too.”

“It’s hard to give effective dollars away at scale, particularly to the country’s neediest kids in a way that you have confidence that those dollars are going to compound with the upside of the U.S. economy,” Brad Gerstner, a venture capitalist, who advocated for the passage of this legislation. “And so, this is a unique platform that’s being created by the government that I think can unlock major giving.”

Gerstner is also the founder of Invest America Charitable Foundation, which is supporting the Treasury in launching the accounts. He said the goal of the accounts is to give young people funds to jump start their lives but also to help them benefit from the growth of the U.S. economy through investing in stocks.

“Fundamentally, we need to include everybody in the upside of the American experiment. Otherwise, it won’t last. And so, at its core, we think it can re-energize people’s belief in free market, capitalist democracy,”″ Gerstner said of the accounts.

About 58% of U.S. households held stocks or bonds in 2022, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, though the wealthiest 1% owned almost half the value of stocks in that same year and the bottom 50% owned about 1% of stocks.

In 2024, about 13% of children and young people in the U.S. lived in poverty, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and experts link the high child poverty rates to the lack of social supports for new parents, like paid parental leave.

While the funds in the Trump Accounts may help young adults whose families or employers can contribute to them over time, they won’t immediately help to diminish childhood poverty. Cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and child care that were also included in the spending package are likely to reduce the support children from low-income families receive.

Ray Boshara, senior policy advisor with both the Aspen Institute and Washington University in St. Louis, said he is excited about the idea that the Trump Accounts will be able to receive contributions from the business, philanthropic and governmental sectors.

“We would like to see this idea continue and get better over time, just like any big policy,’ said Boshara, who co-edited the book “The Future of Building Wealth.” “The ACA, Social Security – they start off fairly flawed, but get much better and more progressive and inclusive over time. And that’s how we think about Trump Accounts. It’s a down payment on a big idea that deserves to be improved and there’s bipartisan interest in improving them.”

Through the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Dell’s have reported giving $2.9 billion since 1999, with a large focus on education.

Michael Dell said they had not initially envisioned committing so much to boost the child investment accounts, but Susan Dell said over time, they decided to increase the size of their commitment.

“We’re thrilled to be spearheading this in the philanthropy sector and are so excited because we know that more people are going to jump on board because really, we can’t think of a better idea and better way to help America’s children,” she said.

AP writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

NEW YORK (AP) — Luigi Mangione is due back in court on Tuesday for the second day of a hearing in his bid to bar New York prosecutors from using some key evidence they say links him to last year’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Luigi Mangione, center, appears in court for an evidence hearing, Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Various law enforcement officers are expected to take the witness stand Tuesday.

The pretrial hearing in Mangione’s state murder case started Monday with prosecutors playing surveillance videos of the killing on a Manhattan sidewalk and security footage of his arrest five days later at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.

Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to “wack” a health insurance executive.

The defense contends the items should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack. They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent.

The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases.

In Mangione’s case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were “exigent circumstances” that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant.

Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled.

Mangione’s lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this week’s hearing pertains only to the state case.

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Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.

Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Prosecutors say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims.

Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school.

Mangione was arrested as he ate breakfast at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan. The restaurant’s manager had told a 911 dispatcher, “I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of — that he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.”

The manager said she could only see Mangione’s eyebrows because he had a beanie pulled down close to his eyes and was wearing a medical face mask.

Court officials say the hearing could take more than a week.

By Susan Jaffe, KFF Health News

Along with the occasional aches and pains, growing older can bring surprise setbacks and serious diseases. Longtime relationships with doctors people trust often make even bad news more tolerable. Losing that support — especially during a health crisis — can be terrifying. That’s why little-known federal requirements are supposed to protect people with privately run Medicare Advantage coverage when contract disputes lead their health care providers and insurers to part ways.

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But government documents obtained by KFF Health News show the agency overseeing Medicare Advantage does little to enforce long-standing rules intended to ensure about 35 million plan members can see doctors in the first place.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request covering the past decade, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services produced letters it sent to only five insurers from 2016 to 2022 after seven of their plans failed to meet provider network adequacy requirements— lapses that could, in some cases, harm patient care.

Agency officials said some plans lacked enough primary care clinicians, specialists, or hospitals, according to the letters. And they warned that failure to meet the requirements could result in a freeze on marketing and enrollment, fines, or closure of the plan.

CMS declined to detail why it found so few plans with network violations over the 10 years. “The number of identified violations reflects the outcomes of targeted reviews, not a comprehensive audit of all plans in all years,” said Catherine Howden, a CMS spokesperson.

Officials in states with Advantage network violations say CMS didn’t notify them, including directors of the government-funded State Health Insurance Assistance Program, which helps people navigate Medicare.

“It’s hard for me to believe that only seven Medicare Advantage plans violated network rules,” said David Lipschutz, a co-director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, a nonprofit group. “We often hear from folks — particularly in more rural areas — who have to travel significant distances in order to find contracted providers.”

Medicare Advantage is an increasingly popular alternative to the government-run Medicare program, which covers adults 65 and older and some people with disabilities. Of the 63 million Americans who were eligible to join Advantage plans instead of traditional Medicare, 54% did so for this year. The plans usually offer lower out-of-pocket costs and extra benefits, like coverage for vision, dental, and hearing care, but typically require their members to stick to select networks of doctors, hospitals, and other providers. Last year, the federal government paid Advantage plans an estimated $494 billion to care for patients.

Traditional Medicare, by comparison, has no network and is accepted by nearly all doctors and hospitals in the nation.

Conflicts between Medicare Advantage plans and the doctors, hospitals, and other providers that serve their members are common. Just this year, at least 38 hospital systems serving all or parts of 23 states have cut ties with at least 11 Advantage plans after failing to agree on payment and other issues, according to a review of news releases and press reports. Over the past three years, separations between Advantage plans and health systems have increased 66%, said FTI Consulting, which tracks reports of the disputes.

After March, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries are generally locked into their plans for the year until the annual open enrollment period happening now through Dec. 7, for coverage beginning Jan. 1. But hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, and other health providers can leave plans anytime.

When providers and insurers separate, Advantage members can lose access to longtime doctors or preferred hospitals in the middle of the year. In response, CMS sometimes gives Advantage customers a little-known escape hatch called a “special enrollment period” to change plans or enroll in traditional Medicare midyear.

How CMS decides who gets an SEP is a mystery even to well-versed state insurance regulators and U.S. senators who oversee federal health programs. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) cited previous KFF Health News reporting on Medicare Advantage in an Oct. 30 letter asking CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz for an explanation.

“Despite the serious impacts of SEPs on enrollees and the market, the process of SEP determinations is opaque, leaving enrollees and state regulators in the dark,” they wrote.

“Seniors deserve to know their Medicare plan isn’t going to pull the rug out from under them halfway through the year,” Wyden told KFF Health News.

‘Help Us’

Oz spoke to Medicare Advantage insurers Oct. 15 at a conference organized by the Better Medicare Alliance, a trade group, and encouraged them to help CMS police fraud in the program.

“Be our early-warning system,” he told them. “Tell us about problems you’re witnessing. Help us figure out better ways of addressing it.”

When he finished speaking, he took a seat in the audience next to the president and chief executive of the group, Mary Beth Donahue, and smiled for photos.

In six letters KFF Health News obtained, CMS officials told five insurers that their network adequacy violations could affect Advantage members’ access to care. Five letters listed the number or types of medical specialists or facilities missing from the networks. In three cases, CMS noted that plans could request exceptions to the rules but didn’t. In one letter, CMS requested the plan allow members to receive out-of-network care at no additional cost. Four letters required specific steps to address deficiencies, including submitting evidence that more clinicians were added to networks.

Three letters required a “corrective action plan,” set deadlines for fixing problems, and warned that failure to comply with the rules could result in enrollment and marketing suspensions, fines, or forced plan closure. The other three letters were a “notice of non-compliance,” which urged insurers to comply with legal requirements.

Although CMS regards the letters as the first step in its enforcement process, the agency did not provide information about whether these violations were resolved or if they resulted in penalties.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a group created by Congress to monitor the program, said in a June 2024 report that “CMS has the authority to impose intermediate sanctions or civil monetary penalties for noncompliance with network adequacy standards, but it has never done so.”

One of the network adequacy violation letters went to Vitality Health Plan of California in November 2020. That came after five hospitals and 13 nursing homes in one county and four hospitals in another all left the insurer’s network, according to the letter from Timothy Roe, then-director of CMS’ Division of Compliance, Surveillance, and Marketing. Two months before sending its letter, CMS granted Vitality plan members a special enrollment period.

Beneficiaries welcomed the opportunity, said Marcelo Espiritu, program manager of the Santa Clara County office of California’s Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program. But Espiritu didn’t know at the time that Vitality’s depleted network violated CMS requirements, which Roe said put “the health of Vitality’s beneficiaries at risk.”

“By not having enough network providers, beneficiaries may not be able to receive necessary services timely, or at all,” Roe wrote.

That’s information patients need to know, Espiritu said.

“People would not be able to receive promised benefits and there would be delays in care and a lot of frustration in trying to find a new plan,” he said. “We would certainly warn people about the plan and remove it from our materials.”

Representatives from Commonwealth Care Alliance, which acquired Vitality in 2022, did not respond to requests for comment.

Network Minimums

Federal law requires Medicare Advantage plans to include in their networks a minimum of 29 types of health care providers and 14 kinds of facilities that members can access within certain distances and travel times. The rules, which vary depending on a county’s population and density, also limit how long patients should wait for appointments. The agency checks compliance every three years, or more often if it receives complaints.

Networks can vary widely even within a county because the provider minimums apply to the insurer, not each plan it sells, according to a report from KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. The company can offer the same network to members of multiple plans in one or more counties or create a separate network for each plan.

In Arizona’s Maricopa County, KFF researchers found, UnitedHealthcare offered 12 plans with 12 different networks in 2022. Depending on the plan, the company’s customers had access to 37% to 61% of the physicians in the area available to traditional Medicare enrollees.

In early 2016, CMS allowed 900 people in an Advantage plan in Illinois run by Harmony, then a WellCare subsidiary, to leave after the Christie Clinic, a large medical practice, left its provider network. The WellCare plan continued to operate without the clinic. But in June 2016, CMS told the plan in one of the letters KFF Health News obtained that losing the Christie Clinic meant the remaining provider network violated federal requirements.

It was “a significant network change with substantial enrollee impact,” the letter said.

Claudia Lennhoff, executive director at Champaign County Health Care Consumers, a government-funded Medicare counseling service that helped the WellCare members, said her group didn’t know about the letter at the time.

“Not disclosing such information is a violation of trust,” Lennhoff said. “It could lead someone to make a decision that will be harmful to them, or that they will deeply regret.”

Centene Corp. bought WellCare in 2020, and representatives for the St. Louis-based company declined to comment on events that occurred before the acquisition.

Two violation letters KFF Health News obtained from CMS went to Provider Partners Health Plan of Ohio in 2019 and 2022. The Ohio Department of Insurance was unaware of the violations, spokesperson Todd Walker said. He said CMS also did not notify the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program, the state’s free counseling service.

Rick Grindrod, CEO and president of Provider Partners Health Plans, which is based in Maryland, said that after CMS reviewed its 2019 network, “we proactively reduced our service area and deferred enrollment in the plan until 2021.”

But Grindrod said the plan enrolled only a small number of members in one county in 2021 and decided to withdraw from the Ohio market entirely at the end of that year.

After Provider Partners withdrew from Ohio, CMS sent it another letter in March 2022 saying its network in 2021 had gaps in four counties for four types of providers and facilities. CMS asked the plan to comply with network rules by adding more providers.

“We believe CMS’ network adequacy standards are generally clear and appropriate for ensuring beneficiary access,” Grindrod said. “While the standards are not difficult to understand, as a provider-sponsored plan with a small footprint, we sometimes face challenges securing contracts with large systems that prioritize larger Medicare Advantage plans.”

In 2021, CMS also sent a violation letter to North Carolina’s Liberty Advantage. CMS didn’t tell the state’s free counseling service, the Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program, about the letter, said its director, Melinda Munden.

Liberty representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

CMS sent a letter in 2016 to CareSource about network deficiencies in some of its Medicare Advantage plans sold in Kentucky and Indiana. The agency asked the company to fix the problems, including by reimbursing any members billed for services from doctors who were not in the plans’ networks.

“In response to the 2016 violations, we promptly implemented a Corrective Action Plan, which included a thorough review of our provider network to ensure adequacy standards were met,” said Vicki McDonald, a CareSource spokesperson. “CMS approved our plan, and no further action was required.”

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.