After long rain delay, Twins rally for walk-off victory over Red Sox

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As he conducted his postgame media availability, Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson referred back to a sheet of paper with many of his teammates’ names written on it. So many different players contributed to Tuesday night’s win, and the starting pitcher didn’t want to forget any of them.

“It took everybody today,” he said, listing nine names. “Even if we had a long-(expletive) rain delay. Excuse my French. It was a good win.”

That it was.

Hours after the Twins traded starting pitcher to Chris Paddack, the first move in what could be a busy week ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, they stormed back in the ninth inning using a Brooks Lee two-run, walk-off single for a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox after waiting out an hour and a half rain delay in the middle of the ninth inning at Target Field.

“To be able to focus and play just a really good ballgame, to challenge guys in different spots and watch them come through, you have to want it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s a challenging day saying goodbye to a guy that you care about that’s done good work for us in Paddy, but watching guys step up on a day that’s kind of an emotional day is great.”

Lee’s single, which came after he fell behind 0-2 in the count, brought home Mickey Gasper and Willi Castro, who was hot on Gasper’s heels, to erase Boston’s advantage, one that it had gained in the top of the ninth. That was mere minutes before the wind started picking up, whipping trash on the field, and it started pouring with lightning bolts illuminating the sky over the ballpark.

The Twins (51-55) needed just a few minutes after the long delay to come back.

DaShawn Keirsey Jr. got them started with a single to lead off the inning. Gasper walked right after him, and then Castro was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for the third time in the game. Carlos Correa then hit a ground ball to third and Keirsey was thrown out at home, bringing Lee to the plate to play a starring role.

Down Byron Buxton, who was on the bench with cartilage irritation, and Ryan Jeffers, who is on paternity leave, the Twins still came through when it mattered most.

“We still knew we were going to play at some point (Monday night),” Lee said after collecting his third walk-off hit of the season. “Those are the times when you come together and figure it out, and we have baseball players to do that.”

The late-inning dramatics came after the Twins and Red Sox (57-51)  traded leads earlier in the game.

Keirsey broke open a scoreless game in the third inning with his second home run of the season, after which he noted he felt Paddack’s absence as he came back to the dugout and noticed the starting pitcher wasn’t waiting on the top step as usual to place the team’s celebratory helmet on his head.

The Twins were then unable to take advantage of a bases-loaded, no-out situation an inning earlier, allowing the Red Sox to hang around.

An Alex Bregman three-run home run off Woods Richardson, who had navigated out of trouble in three of the previous four innings, completed a big momentum swing and gave Boston its first lead of the night.

The Twins tied it up in the sixth, thanks in part to some wildness from reliever Jorge Alcala, and the score remained that way until the ninth.

“I think it just goes to show the guys we have in this locker room, rallying together,” Keirsey said.

State forecasts loss of $1.4B in Medicaid funding; 140K will lose coverage

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As changes to Medicaid funding and enrollment requirements come into effect over the next few years, the Minnesota Department of Human Services estimates that 140,000 Minnesotans will lose their coverage, officials said Monday.

“That’s about 12% of current program enrollment,” said John Connolly, state Medicaid director and DHS deputy commissioner.

The state’s latest analysis of the impacts of the sweeping Republican-authored tax and spending bill, signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, predicts that, over the next four years, Minnesota will lose $1.4 billion in federal funding.

“We actually expect those losses to get bigger over time, as well,” Connolly said.

Medicaid — which in Minnesota is called Medical Assistance — is a state-federal health insurance program for lower-income Americans, particularly children, disabled adults and those who are pregnant. Some states, including Minnesota, have expanded Medicaid access for adults whose incomes are no more than 138% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.

Two provisions in the federal bill will result in loss of Medicaid coverage, Connolly said. One is the new community engagement requirement, set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2027. Certain enrolled adults (under age 65, with no children or disabilities) must report at least 80 hours per month spent working, doing community service or seeking employment.

“We at DHS call this a work reporting requirement, because the large majority of people who are working age in the Medicaid program, presently, work or will be exempt from the work reporting requirement,” Connolly said. “The new requirement, ultimately, here is the reporting part.”

The other provision that is expected to lead to disenrollment is more frequent eligibility renewals. Instead of reviewing one’s Medicaid eligibility every 12 months, beginning Dec. 31, 2026, Medicaid recipients must submit documents every six months to verify that they qualify for coverage.

“This increases churn in the program, meaning that people will lose coverage because they can’t complete the paperwork (though they) may be eligible,” Connolly said.

Those covered under expanded Medicaid could see “the majority of the impact” of disenrollment, Connolly said, as they are subject to the new eligibility renewal and work reporting policies.

Those additional requirements will come at a higher cost for county and tribal governments, which process those documents.

“We expect that impact actually could be, at minimum, $160 million,” Connolly said. “They’ll have to leverage a bunch of new and different data sources that they may not be assessing right now, in addition to paper-based information, which is labor-intensive.”

DHS also estimates that hospitals will have to cover more uncompensated health care as the result of two other provisions in the bill: reduced Emergency Medical Assistance funding and a shorter retroactive coverage period.

“Retroactive coverage is for people who come in for care without health insurance, but are and have been eligible for Medicaid,” Connolly said. “Once they’re enrolled, Medicaid can cover care they received within the past 90 days.”

But starting in 2027, that retroactive period will only be one month for adults without children and two months for other Medicaid recipients. DHS estimates that change will lead to $31 million fewer federal dollars and a $9 million reduction in state spending each year.

While many changes to Medicaid are scheduled to take effect in the coming years, one immediate effect is a one-year prohibition on Medicaid funding for reproductive health care providers that perform abortions. In Minnesota, that amounts to $154 million less in fiscal year 2026.

On Monday, a federal judge in Massachusetts indefinitely blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the policy, which mainly affects Planned Parenthood clinics.

How the projected loss of federal Medicaid dollars will affect the state’s budget, Connolly said, is still being measured. Facing a future shortfall, Minnesota lawmakers, in June, passed their 2026-27 budget with some cuts, including $300 million from the human services budget. The budget also rolls back MinnesotaCare coverage for undocumented adults.

“We’re still analyzing certain elements of the law and what their impact on the state budget could be,” Connolly said.

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Citing fraud probe, Walz pauses funding to providers of housing stabilization aid

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Monday he paused funding to dozens of housing stabilization recipients, citing concerns about potential misuse of the money.

Walz told reporters at an unrelated event in Delano that about 50 of the largest recipients of Medicaid funding aimed at helping people get and keep stable housing would not get paid as a result.

The move comes after FBI investigators raided several providers earlier this month, citing suspected widespread fraud in the program. Minnesota was the first state to adopt the program and since 2020, costs have ballooned far beyond what lawmakers initially expected.

Walz said new laws allowing state agencies to stop grant funding when they detect potential fraud allowed him to pause the payments. It wasn’t immediately clear how long they would be on hold if organizations were found to be in good standing.

“The payments that were scheduled to go today are not going out to them,” Walz said. “I fully expect some of those folks will sue the state of Minnesota, but I think we’re in a position right now is a trust but verify that we want you to get in the program.”

The governor thanked acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson for investigating misuse of the program. And he said those who had engaged in fraud with government dollars would face consequences.

He also said the program had an important purpose but bad actors were pulling funding away from those in need.

“I think all of us are going to candidly recognize there is going to be legitimate organizations and legitimate need for people in good programs that are going to just have to be a little bit slower and a little more barriers put in place, because it’s proven right now, the folks can find the loopholes,” he said. “Because there’s good folks using these programs and making a difference, but there are folks who are defrauding them.”

Fraud was a key issue that legislators sought to address this year. And Republican legislators have said they would home in on the improper payments and government waste as part of the 2026 campaign.

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States file lawsuit against Trump administration over efforts to collect SNAP recipients’ data

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By KIMBERLY KINDY, Associated Press

Washington (AP) — A coalition of 20 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the Trump administration’s demand that their states turn over personal data of people enrolled in a federally funded food assistance program, fearing the information will be used to aid mass deportations.

The data demand comes as the Trump administration has sought to collect private information on mostly lower-income people who may be in the country illegally. It has already ordered the Internal Revenue Service and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to share private information with the Department of Homeland Security to aid in deportation efforts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture told states last week that it had until Wednesday to hand over the data for those enrolled in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which serves more than 42 million people nationwide. The USDA said the data will help it combat waste, fraud and abuse.

The states’ lawsuit seeks an injunction to block the data transfer. In the meantime, state attorneys general in the SNAP lawsuit said they will not disclose what they consider to be private information of recipients — including their immigration status, birthdates and home addresses — because they believe it would be a violation of privacy laws.

“It’s a bait-and-switch of the worst kind,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a Monday afternoon news conference announcing the lawsuit. “SNAP recipients provided this information to get help feeding their families, not to be entered into a government surveillance database or be used as targets in the president’s inhumane immigration agenda.”

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In May, the department announced it was seeking the data as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to obtain data from state programs to help root out fraud and waste. “For years, this program has been on autopilot, with no USDA insight into real-time data,” USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said in a statement at the time. “The Department is focused on appropriate and lawful participation in SNAP, and today’s request is one of many steps to ensure SNAP is preserved for only those eligible.”

USDA officials declined a request for comment on the suit.

The USDA did not mention immigration enforcement in the announcement or later notices. It is not clear why USDA officials believe the data will help it weed out fraud and abuse. The agency claims the program is already “one of the most rigorous quality control systems in the federal government.”

Immigration advocates noted that the Trump administration has used the same argument to obtain other sensitive data, only to later admit it would be using the information to enhance its deportation operations. Trump administration officials, for example, initially claimed they were seeking state Medicaid data to fight fraud. Last week, a top immigration official conceded they would be utilizing that same information to locate immigrants.

Agency officials have threatened to withhold SNAP funding if states fail to comply with their demand for data.

While immigrants without legal status are ineligible to receive SNAP benefits, they can apply on behalf of their children who are U.S. citizens or those who are part of a mixed-status household.

Under the program, formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays for 100% of the food benefits, but the states help cover the administrative costs. States are also responsible for determining whether individuals are eligible for benefits and for issuing those benefits to enrollees.

Immigration and data privacy advocates expressed alarm at the Trump administration’s efforts to obtain sensitive SNAP data maintained by states.

“The administration has all but told us that their intention is to comb this data and use it for unlawful purposes that include immigration enforcement,” said Madeline Wiseman, an attorney with the National Student Legal Defense Network, which filed a lawsuit in May with privacy and hunger relief groups that are also challenging USDA’s efforts for SNAP data.