By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” is expected to plead guilty to U.S. drug trafficking charges at a Wednesday hearing. He would be the first of El Chapo’s sons facing similar charges in the U.S. to enter a plea deal.

Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. They became known locally as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, and federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send “staggering” quantities of fentanyl into the U.S.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez previously pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors.

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Speculation about a deal has been percolating for months, as behind-the-scenes negotiations have quietly progressed.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez’s father, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly assumed their father’s former role as leaders of the cartel.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty but has signaled in recent months his intent to change his plea.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Their dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed.

Longtime Chicago mob attorney Joe “The Shark” Lopez, who has represented Chicago mobsters Mario “The Arm” Rainone and Anthony “Tough Tony” Calabrese, said he expects both of El Chapo’s sons to pursue plea deals and avoid trials.

He estimated that Ovidio Guzman Lopez still may face about 20 to 25 years in prison based on the charges.

“This is an international drug case,” Lopez said. “These cases are usually very solid, almost unbeatable. There is no upside to them going to trial because they can’t win. And he saw what happened when his dad went to trial.”

Laurie Levenson, law professor at Loyola Law School and a former assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, added that a plea can be strategic to avoid a revealing trial, full of testimony about cartel operations and the actions of both sons and their father.

“For Chapo, I don’t think he’d want to get into the details on his family’s conduct,” she said.

Last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed skepticism about the possibility of Ovidio Guzman Lopez reaching a plea deal. She reminded people that Mexican soldiers died in the operation to apprehend him.

Ten soldiers and 19 alleged members of the cartel died during the Jan. 5, 2023, operation.

“What did the United States government call organized crime groups in Mexico?” Sheinbaum asked during her daily press briefing last week. To which, those assembled called out “terrorist organizations.”

She suggested that by negotiating with Guzman Lopez, Washington was doing one of the things President Donald Trump’s administration has said not to do.

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

By MORIAH BALINGIT, Associated Press Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The impact of the massive spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Independence Day is expected to filter down to infants and toddlers — a segment of the population that is particularly vulnerable to cuts to the federal social safety net.

Many middle-class and wealthy families will see benefits from the new legislation, but programs that help low-income families keep babies healthy have been cut back. While state money funds public schools and preschool in some cases, programs supporting the youngest children are largely backed by the federal government.

The law extends tax cuts that Trump passed during his first term in office and pours billions more into border security as the president seeks to broaden his crackdown on immigration. To pay for these initiatives, the law cuts Medicaid and food stamps — programs relied upon by poor households with children — by more than $1 trillion.

The legislation Republicans called Trump’s “big beautiful bill” is set to deliver some gains for families with children. It increases tax credits, including one that now allows parents to deduct up to $2,200 per child from their tax bills. And it introduces investment accounts for newborns dubbed “Trump Accounts,” each seeded with $1,000 from the government.

Still, advocates say they do not make up for what children are likely to lose under the new law. And they fear what comes next, as the next Trump budget proposes more cuts to programs that help parents and babies.

Medicaid cuts could add to strains on families

Over 10 million Americans rely on Medicaid for health care. About 40% of births are covered by Medicaid. Newborns, too, qualify for it when their mothers have it.

The new law doesn’t take little kids or their parents off Medicaid. It institutes Medicaid work requirements for childless adults and adults with children over the age of 13. But pediatricians warn the cuts will be felt broadly, even by those who do not use Medicaid.

President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Washington, surrounded by members of Congress. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Medicaid cuts are expected to put a financial strain on health care providers, forcing them to cut their least profitable services. That’s often pediatrics, where young patients are more likely to use Medicaid, said Lisa Costello, a West Virginia pediatrician who chairs the federal policy committee for the American Association of Pediatrics.

The ripple effects could exacerbate an existing shortage of pediatricians and hospital beds for children.

“Any cuts to that program are going to trickle down and impact children, whether that’s pediatric practices who depend on Medicaid to be able to stay open or children’s hospitals,” Costello said.

States also use Medicaid to pay for programs that go beyond conventional medical care, including therapies for young children with disabilities. Under the new law, states will foot a greater portion of the bill for Medicaid, meaning optional programs are at risk of getting cut.

Advocates worry that if an adult loses Medicaid coverage, it could ratchet up household stress and make it more difficult for parents to make ends meet, both of which can negatively impact youngsters. And parents who lose their health insurance are less likely to take their children to the doctor.

“When parents lose their health insurance, they often think that their children also are no longer eligible, even if that’s not the case,” said Cynthia Osborne, a professor of early education and the executive director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University.

The law increases tax credits for parents who qualify

The law increases the child tax credit to $2,200 per child, up from $2,000. But parents who don’t earn enough to pay income tax will still not see the benefit, and many will only see a partial benefit.

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The measure also contains two provisions intended to help families pay for child care, which in many places costs more than a mortgage. First, it boosts the tax credit parents receive for spending money on child care. The bill also expands a program that gives companies tax credits for providing child care for their employees.

Both measures have faced criticism for generally benefiting larger companies and wealthier households.

“It’s a corporate business tax break,” said Bruce Lesley, president of the advocacy group First Focus on Children. “It makes their child care dependent upon working for an employer who has the credit.”

‘Trump Accounts’ will be opened with $1,000 for newborns

The law launches a program that creates investment accounts for newborn children. The “Trump Accounts” are to be seeded with $1,000 from the government, and children will be able to use the money when they become adults to start a new business, put the money toward a house or go to school.

Unlike other baby bond programs, which generally target disadvantaged groups, the federal program will be available to families of all incomes.

The program’s backers have pitched the accounts as a way to give young people a boost as they reach adulthood and teach them about the benefits of investing. Critics have argued that families in poverty have more immediate needs and that their children should receive a larger endowment if the goal is to help level the playing field.

A food assistance program faces cuts

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) faces the largest cut in its history under the law. It will, for the first time, require parents to work to qualify for the benefit if their children are 14 or older. But even households with younger children could feel the impact.

The law kicks some immigrants — including those with legal status — off food assistance. It makes it more difficult for individuals to qualify by changing how it considers their utility bills.

SNAP has historically been funded by the federal government, but under the new law, states will have to shoulder some of the financial burden. Cash-strapped governments could decide to implement new requirements that would make it more difficult for people to qualify, said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Some states may decide to exit the program altogether.

“When young children lose access to that healthy nutrition, it impacts them for the rest of their lives,” Bergh said. “This bill fundamentally walks away from a long-standing nationwide commitment to making sure that low-income children in every state can receive the food assistance that they need.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Exactly how cuts to public assistance programs in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” will affect Minnesota is yet to be seen, though by one estimate, up to a quarter-million people in the state could lose Medicaid coverage over the next decade. Counties expect financial strain from new administrative requirements could drive up property taxes.

About $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid could result in 12 million Americans losing coverage. In Minnesota, anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000 people could lose benefits under new Medicaid eligibility requirements, including a requirement for able-bodied adults to work, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a public health policy nonprofit.

The reconciliation bill, which Trump signed into law last week after it passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House and Senate, requires people between the ages of 19 and 64 to work 80 hours a month to receive benefits. It also requires Medicaid providers to perform monthly and quarterly checks on addresses and eligibility. Typically, that happens annually.

Added paperwork could drive people to drop coverage, Minnesota Medicaid Director John Connolly said at a Tuesday hearing of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Committee.

Under the bill’s new requirements, the state could also lose about $500 million in federal reimbursements for hospitals and nursing homes each year, according to Department of Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi, who also testified at the Tuesday hearing.

State officials say those losses could lead to the closure of rural hospitals and nursing homes that rely on federal aid to stay open.

Nearly 1.3 million Minnesotans are currently on Medicaid at a cost of around $12 billion each year. The federal program provides health coverage for low-income people, children and the disabled.

The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that around two-thirds of people on Medicaid between 19 and 64 were employed. Three in 10 were exempt for reasons like caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability.

County costs

Minnesota’s Department of Management and Budget is still working to figure out the exact fiscal impact of the bill, but could have estimates ready by the end of this week or early next week, according to an agency spokesman.

Counties are concerned that new eligibility and administration requirements will put strain on local taxpayers. Those include the new work requirement that, by one estimate, could add $160 million in workload and other costs to local governments. Minnesota is one of 10 states where counties handle Medicaid enrollment, meaning they would bear much of the responsibility and costs.

“We’re expecting property tax burdens to counties, increased workload for the folks that are currently working on eligibility, we’re concerned about the ability to add that workforce,” said Matt Freeman, a policy analyst with the Association of Minnesota Counties. “Making the system more complex with more steps doesn’t inherently prevent fraud.”

Metro counties that administer the largest assistance programs, such as Ramsey County, could see a lot more of that burden, Freeman said. It’s not yet clear how much it could affect the local tax burden. The association estimates that workloads could double for counties.

Many of the new requirements for Medicaid are not set to go into effect until early 2027, after the midterm elections, so they won’t immediately affect coverage. But there are other provisions on public assistance programs that are already in effect.

Trump’s big bill also makes about $186 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, over the next decade and expands work requirements.

Able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 64 will have to verify whether they have a job. That’s up from 54. Around 450,000 Minnesotans are on SNAP and the state receives about $1.4 billion a year in aid for the program.

While an expanded work requirement for SNAP won’t take effect until 2027, new administrative rules are already in place. Reimbursements from the federal government will depend on the rate at which local governments properly provide benefits. If there’s an error rate above 6%, states will have to cover 5% to 15%. Minnesota was at a 10% error rate in 2024, though the rule would apply to 2025 and 2026 rates.

Under an earlier version of the big bill, which featured bigger SNAP cuts, Ramsey County was poised to see a $4.6 million increase in administrative costs alone, according to the county association.

The change could have forced counties to raise property taxes by 5% to account for cuts to SNAP and a drop in the federal share of administrative cost coverage. Ramsey County could have needed to raise property taxes by 10%, according to the analysis, though with smaller cuts, that hike would now likely be lower.

Special session?

Throughout the 2025 legislative session, Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislative leaders suggested lawmakers might have to return to the Capitol again later this year to address the effects of Trump’s big bill. Potential cuts to Medicaid and welfare programs like SNAP would require the state to make spending adjustments.

Republicans dismissed those concerns as hypothetical and said they’d have to wait and see what kind of bill would pass. Now that the president has signed the bill into law, it’s still not clear whether that will be necessary. At Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, reiterated that point, saying questions about who may or may not lose coverage remain speculative at this point.

Many of the newly enacted cuts aren’t set to go into effect until 2027 — after the midterm elections. The Legislature could likely address many of the issues in the 2026 legislative session, which starts in February.

House DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long said it’s too soon to tell whether there will be a need for a special session, though he acknowledged the bill probably won’t require a prompt return to the Capitol. When lawmakers do return, it’ll be tough to make up for the federal cuts.

“It does seem like we have some time to respond, but we know what’s coming, and it’s not going to be without a lot of harm for Minnesotans,” he said.

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Today is Wednesday, July 9, the 190th day of 2024. There are 175 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, granting citizenship and “equal protection under the laws” to anyone “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people.

Also on this date:

In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died of gastrointestinal illness after consuming a large amount of cherries and iced milk on a hot day five days earlier; Vice President Millard Fillmore was sworn in as president the following day.

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In 1896, William Jennings Bryant delivered his famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In 1918, 101 people were killed in a train collision in Nashville, Tennessee in the deadliest US rail disaster in history.

In 1937, a fire at 20th Century Fox’s storage facility in Little Ferry, New Jersey, destroyed most of the studio’s silent films.

In 1943, during World War II, the Allies launched Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily.

In 1944, during World War II, American forces secured Saipan as the last Japanese defenses fell.

In 1947, the engagement of Britain’s Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.

In 1965, the Sonny & Cher single “I Got You Babe” was released by ATCO Records.

In 1982, Pan Am Flight 759, a Boeing 727, crashed in Kenner, Louisiana, shortly after takeoff from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 145 people aboard and eight people on the ground.

In 2004, a Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration had relied on to justify going to war.

In 2010, the largest U.S.-Russia spy swap since the Cold War was completed on a remote stretch of Vienna airport tarmac as planes from New York and Moscow arrived within minutes of each other with 10 Russian sleeper agents and four prisoners accused by Russia of spying for the West.

In 2011, South Sudan officially became an independent nation.

In 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat left vacant by the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Today’s Birthdays:

Artist David Hockney is 88.
Author Dean Koontz is 80.
Actor Chris Cooper is 74.
Musician and TV personality John Tesh is 73.
Country singer David Ball is 72.
Business executive/TV personality Kevin O’Leary (TV: “Shark Tank”) is 71.
Singer Debbie Sledge (Sister Sledge) is 71.
Actor Jimmy Smits is 70.
US Senator Lindsey Graham is 70.
Actor Tom Hanks is 69.
Singer Marc Almond is 68.
Actor Kelly McGillis is 68.
Rock singer Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) is 66.
Actor-rock singer Courtney Love is 61.
Actor Pamela Adlon is 59.
Actor Scott Grimes is 54.
Actor Enrique Murciano (TV: “Without a Trace”) is 52.
Musician/producer Jack White is 50.
Rock singer-musician Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) is 50.
Actor-director Fred Savage is 49.
Actor Linda Park (TV: “Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 47.
Actor Megan Parlen is 45.
Animator/writer/producer Rebecca Sugar is 38.
Actor Mitchel Musso is 34.
Actor Georgie Henley (Film: “The Chronicles of Narnia”) is 30.