About 275 breath tests for suspected DWIs may have been impacted by “human error,” the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Monday.

Prosecutors and the Minnesota Attorney General’s office will need to examine each case individually to make a determination, according to BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.

DataMaster machines are stationed at law enforcement offices around the state, used by officers to give breath tests to people suspected of driving while intoxicated and taken into custody. Errors have been “identified … in particular when changing out a dry gas cylinder that is used for a control test,” Evans said.

The more detailed information from Evans came after the BCA announced Friday that it had ordered all law enforcement agencies in the state to suspend usage of DataMaster instruments until they verified that gas cylinder data was correctly entered into each instrument.

It’s a 5-minute inspection and then law enforcement agencies can return to using them, Evans said. St. Paul police and the sheriff’s offices for Ramsey, Dakota and Washington counties were among those who said Monday they have resumed using the breath tests.

Roseville-based attorney Chuck Ramsay said he discovered the issue in 2023 in Olmsted County, then again in August while defending a man charged with DWI in Aitkin County. On Oct. 2, the prosecutor’s office dismissed the charges.

Throughout the state, 19,000-20,000 Datamaster tests are conducted each year and there have been 15,000 tests so far this year, according to the BCA.

The state began deploying the DataMaster in 2010, with the bulk going out in 2012, Ramsay said.

“Nobody knows right now how many have been affected,” Ramsay said, adding it could reach into the thousands.

Initial errors were discovered in Aitkin, Winona and Chippewa counties, and the BCA said they became aware on Friday of two more instruments with data entry errors related to gas cylinder installation in Hennepin and Olmsted counties.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean, even if there were errors, that the test results themselves were not reliable,” Evans said. “… This is a very technical piece in this equipment. The reliability of the results really do need to be examined on a case-by-case basis.”

220 machines throughout state

There are 220 DataMaster instruments and about 4,500 law enforcement officers certified to use them in Minnesota. They go through three days of training and get a 4-hour refresher every two years, according to the BCA.

The DataMaster machines are placed at various law enforcement departments and are used by multiple agencies in the geographic area.

A DataMaster machine is seen in the pre-booking area outside the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul on Oct. 13, 2025. (Mara H. Gottfried / Pioneer Press)

“This has not impacted Minnesota law enforcement’s ability to conduct DWI enforcement across Minnesota,” Evans said. Many DataMaster machines have already been examined “and they can go right back online because they’re accurate in the testing process,” Evans added.

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Ramsay, the criminal defense attorney, said he knows of fewer than 10 cases where DWI charges have been dismissed by prosecutors and those cases have been outside of the metro.

“I’m unaware in the metro of any (being dismissed),” he said. “But it’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of how soon.”

In Ramsay’s client’s case, the state attorney general’s office reversed the man’s driver’s license revocation.

“The BCA agreed with me that not only was my client’s test invalid, but all 73 samples that were run on that for that entire year were also invalid,” he said.

Attorney: People with pending cases should plead not guilty

The BCA has a calibration team that manages, inspects and maintains DataMasters. They will now be the staff that changes out the gas cylinders, Evans said.

“By bringing this change process into a fewer number of people, we’re able to eliminate some of those errors along the way,” Evans said.

There has also been an instance discovered of the wrong cylinder, which was not provided by the BCA, being installed, according to the BCA.

Ramsay noted that the “bad control” isn’t used to measure a driver’s alcohol concentration, but to ensure that readings are accurate.

“The BCA will concede without that, they lose that guarantee of accuracy,” he said.

Ramsay suggested that anyone in Minnesota who has a pending DWI case plead not guilty.

“And if they have pending license revocation, they should hire an attorney to challenge it,” he said.

When it comes to past convictions, “that’s one of the ways it gets really messy,” he said.

“Who this really impacts are commercial vehicle drivers because if they get a DWI, for the most part, their career is over. And that, I mean, that could be devastating to a family forever. And those are the people that I really feel for and others who may have spent time in jail or may be in jail now.”

Determining extent of problems

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As of late Monday afternoon, the BCA had not heard from additional law enforcement agencies about finding any problems in their inspections, Evans said.

“But we’ll be working as part of this inspection process to determine if any others have challenges with them,” he said.

DataMaster machines are calibrated at the BCA each year, and staff has not seen the same issues with the cylinders in the past, according to Evans.

When the BCA was first notified of the problem, “we had no reason to believe it was a more widespread problem with the instrumentation,” he said.

Most DWI cases are misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors that are prosecuted by city attorneys, according to Ramsey County Attorney’s Office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein. The felony cases prosecuted by the county attorney’s office “are a small subset of the overall number of DWI cases,” he said.

“We have not been made aware of any felony DWI cases that have been presented to our office which involved the use of the device you reference,” Gerhardstein said. “If that changes, we will respond accordingly as justice requires.”

Mary Divine contributed to this report.

By PATRICK WHITTLE

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine (AP) — Republican lawmakers are targeting one of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction.

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Conservative leaders feel they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972 to protect whales, seals, polar bears and other sea animals. The law also places restrictions on commercial fishermen, shippers and other marine industries.

A GOP-led bill in the works has support from fishermen in Maine who say the law makes lobster fishing more difficult, lobbyists for big-money species such as tuna in Hawaii and crab in Alaska, and marine manufacturers who see the law as antiquated.

Conservation groups adamantly oppose the changes and say weakening the law will erase years of hard-won gains for jeopardized species such as the vanishing North Atlantic right whale, of which there are less than 400, and is vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear.

Here’s what to know about the protection act and the proposed changes.

Why does the 1970s law still matter

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is important because it’s one of our bedrock laws that help us to base conservation measures on the best available science,” said Kathleen Collins, senior marine campaign manager with International Fund for Animal Welfare. “Species on the brink of extinction have been brought back.”

It was enacted the year before the Endangered Species Act, at a time when the movement to save whales from extinction was growing. Scientist Roger Payne had discovered that whales could sing in the late 1960s, and their voices soon appeared on record albums and throughout popular culture.

The law protects all marine mammals, and prohibits capturing or killing them in U.S. waters or by U.S. citizens on the high seas. It allowed for preventative measures to stop commercial fishing ships and other businesses from accidentally harming animals such as whales and seals. The animals can be harmed by entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships and other hazards at sea.

The law also prevents the hunting of marine mammals, including polar bears, with exceptions for Indigenous groups. Some of those animals can be legally hunted in other countries.

Changes to oil and gas operations — and whale safety

Republican Rep. Nick Begich of Alaska, a state with a large fishing industry, submitted a bill draft this summer that would roll back aspects of the law. The bill says the act has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes and the regulated community” since its inception.

The proposal states that it would make changes such as lowering population goals for marine mammals from “maximum productivity” to the level needed to “support continued survival.” It would also ease rules on what constitutes harm to marine mammals.

AP illustration Marshall Ritzel

For example, the law currently prevents harassment of sea mammals such as whales, and defines harassment as activities that have “the potential to injure a marine mammal.” The proposed changes would limit the definition to only activities that actually injure the animals. That change could have major implications for industries such as oil and gas exploration where rare whales live.

That poses an existential threat to the Rice’s whale, which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico, conservationists said. And the proposal takes specific aim at the North Atlantic right whale protections with a clause that would delay rules designed to protect that declining whale population until 2035.

Begich and his staff did not return calls for comment on the bill, and his staff declined to provide an update about where it stands in Congress. Begich has said he wants “a bill that protects marine mammals and also works for the people who live and work alongside them, especially in Alaska.”

Fishing groups want restrictions loosened

A coalition of fishing groups from both coasts has come out in support of the proposed changes. Some of the same groups lauded a previous effort by the Trump administration to reduce regulatory burdens on commercial fishing.

The groups said in a July letter to House members that they feel Begich’s changes reflect “a positive and necessary step” for American fisheries’ success.

Restrictions imposed on lobster fishermen of Maine are designed to protect the right whale, but they often provide little protection for the animals while limiting one of America’s signature fisheries, Virginia Olsen, political director of the Maine Lobstering Union, said. The restrictions stipulate where lobstermen can fish and what kinds of gear they can use. The whales are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in heavy fishing rope.

Gathering more accurate data about right whales while revising the original law would help protect the animals, Olsen said.

“We do not want to see marine mammals harmed; we need a healthy, vibrant ocean and a plentiful marine habitat to continue Maine’s heritage fishery,” Olsen said.

A harbor seal rests on a submerged ledge near fishermen harvesting herring, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, off Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Some members of other maritime industries have also called on Congress to update the law. The National Marine Manufacturers Association said in a statement that the rules have not kept pace with advancements in the marine industry, making innovation in the business difficult.

Environmentalists fight back

Numerous environmental groups have vowed to fight to save the protection act. They characterized the proposed changes as part of the Trump administration’s assault on environmental protections.

The act was instrumental in protecting the humpback whale, one of the species most beloved by whale watchers, said Gib Brogan, senior campaign director with Oceana. Along with other sea mammals, humpbacks would be in jeopardy without it, he said.

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is flexible. It works. It’s effective. We don’t need to overhaul this law at this point,” Brogan said.

What does this mean for seafood imports

The original law makes it illegal to import marine mammal products without a permit, and allows the U.S. to impose import prohibitions on seafood products from foreign fisheries that don’t meet U.S. standards.

The import embargoes are a major sticking point because they punish American businesses, said Gavin Gibbons, chief strategy officer of the National Fisheries Institute, a Virginia-based seafood industry trade group. It’s critical to source seafood globally to be able to meet American demand for seafood, he said.

The National Fisheries Institute and a coalition of industry groups sued the federal government Thursday over what they described as unlawful implementation of the protection act. Gibbons said the groups don’t oppose the act, but want to see it responsibly implemented.

“Our fisheries are well regulated and appropriately fished to their maximum sustainable yield,” Gibbons said. “The men and women who work our waters are iconic and responsible. They can’t be expected to just fish more here to make up a deficit while jeopardizing the sustainability they’ve worked so hard to maintain.”

Some environmental groups said the Republican lawmakers’ proposed changes could weaken American seafood competitiveness by allowing imports from poorly regulated foreign fisheries.

This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By ALI SWENSON and JONEL ALECCIA

NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees working on mental health services, disease outbreaks and disaster preparedness were among those hit by the Trump administration’s mass firings over the weekend, current and laid-off workers said Monday, as the administration aimed to pressure Democratic lawmakers to give in and end the nearly two-week-long government shutdown.

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The government-wide reduction-in-force initiative that began Friday roiled the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just six months after it went through an earlier round of cuts and as many staffers already were disconnected from work because of the shutdown.

The situation turned even more chaotic over the weekend, when more than half of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who’d gotten layoff notices learned they received them in error and were still employed with the agency.

HHS, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance programs for nearly half the country. Among the HHS agencies facing staff cuts were the CDC, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, according to current and laid-off employees who spoke with The Associated Press.

Former staffers and health professionals said they were concerned the layoffs could have negative health impacts and make it difficult for HHS agencies to fulfill their obligations set by Congress.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the laid off employees were deemed nonessential. He added the agency is working to “close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”

Nixon declined to share which HHS agencies saw layoffs or how many HHS employees were affected. However, a Friday court filing from the Trump administration gave an estimate, saying about 1,100 to 1,200 of the nearly 80,000 staffers at HHS were receiving dismissal notices.

CDC is hit with layoffs — and reversals

About 600 workers at the CDC remained fired Monday in conjunction with the federal government shutdown after hundreds more had originally been targeted, according to the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, which represents CDC employees in Atlanta.

Of more than 1,300 CDC employees who received reduction-in-force notices Friday, about 700 later received emails revoking their terminations, the union said.

The AFGE Local 2883 called the action a “politically-motivated stunt” to illegally fire agency workers.

“These reckless actions are disrupting and destroying the lives of everyday working people, who are constantly being used as bargaining chips,” AFGE President Yolanda Jacobs said in a statement Monday.

A federal health official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media said the incorrect RIF notices resulted from a glitch in the system.

Among those targeted for dismissal and then reinstated were the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, the “disease detectives” who are deployed to respond to outbreaks that threaten public health, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, former principal deputy director of the CDC, who said she was in touch with EIS officers in that situation.

“These are people who go into really scary places,” Schuchat said. “Usually you think it’s nature that’s going to be giving you a hard time, the viruses, not the government.”

Mental health services cut in sweeping dismissals at agency

SAMHSA, an agency within HHS devoted to addressing mental illness and addiction, also saw cuts, according to two employees of the agency with knowledge of the layoffs who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

While the full scope of the firings wasn’t clear, some of the departments affected included the agency’s Office of Communications and the Center for Mental Health Services, where dozens were let go from multiple areas, according to one of the employees.

Within CMHS, one of two branches that oversaw millions of dollars in grants for community health clinics was mostly terminated, the employees said.

Dakota Jablon, a public health analyst and former employee of SAMHSA, said the loss of more staff at SAMHSA, primarily a grantmaking agency, would have “devastating ripple effects across the behavioral health field.”

“Even if the grants continue, the loss of experienced staff means those who remain will be stretched far too thin, often outside their areas of expertise,” she said.

Dr. Eric Rafla-Yuan, a psychiatrist and the chair of the Committee to Protect Public Mental Health, said staff cuts at SAMHSA could put state safety nets for people with mental illness at risk, because the agency provides significant funding and support to state programs.

Latest layoffs build on earlier cuts as HHS looks to restructure

The mass layoffs come six months after thousands of researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders were either laid off from HHS or took early retirement or volunteer separation offers.

The department’s staff was listed at just under 80,000 employees in a contingency plan before the government shutdown began, down more than 2,000 from its staffing level earlier in the year.

The cuts are part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sweeping effort to remake the department by consolidating agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America. The plan has been delayed amid ongoing legislation and congressional pushback.

Aleccia reported from Southern California. AP medical writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.

By MARCIA DUNN

SpaceX launched another of its mammoth Starship rockets on a test flight Monday, striving to make it halfway around the world while releasing mock satellites like last time.

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Her husband was deported to Mexico. Unwilling to remain apart, she left the US to join him.

Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — thundered into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas. The booster peeled away and made a controlled entry into the Gulf of Mexico as planned, with the spacecraft skimming space before descending into the Indian Ocean. Nothing was being recovered.

It was the 11th test flight for a full-scale Starship, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk intends to use to send people to Mars. NASA’s need is more immediate. The space agency cannot land astronauts on the moon by decade’s end without the 403-foot Starship, the reusable vehicle meant to get them from lunar orbit down to the surface and back up.

Instead of remaining inside Launch Control as usual, Musk said that for the first time he was going outside to watch — “much more visceral.”

The previous test flight in August — a success after a string of explosive failures — followed a similar path with similar goals. More maneuvering was built in this time, especially for the spacecraft. SpaceX planned a series of tests during the spacecraft’s entry over the Indian Ocean as practice for future landings back at the launch site.

Like before, Starship carried up eight mock satellites mimicking SpaceX’s Starlinks. The entire flight was meant to last just over an hour, originating from Starbase near the Mexican border.

SpaceX is modifying its Cape Canaveral launch sites to accommodate Starships, in addition to the much smaller Falcon rockets used to transport astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station for NASA.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.