By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — They’re divided along party lines on policy. They’re divided on the government shutdown. And now federal lawmakers are divided on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that President Donald Trump wants to build.

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The stunning images of the teardown this week have left Democratic lawmakers incensed. Republicans, meanwhile, are likening it to a long line of White House renovations over the years. There was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s swimming pool addition, now covered over, they said. There was Barack Obama’s basketball court, a tennis court adapted so that it could be used for tennis and basketball. And William Taft added the Oval Office, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., noted.

“The ballroom is going to be glorious,” Johnson said.

Across the Capitol, Democratic senators incorporated the teardown photos into Sen. Jeff Merkley’s 22 hour-plus speech on the Senate floor.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., showed Merkley a picture of the smashed East Wing and asked the Oregon senator to describe what he saw and the significance of it.

“Here we have evidence of the president tearing down a symbol of our Republic and building a symbol that is really a symbol about authoritarian power, about a government that serves the rich,” Merkley said.

Trump says the White House needs a large entertaining space and has complained that the East Room, the current largest space in the White House, is too small — holding about 200 people. He has frowned on the past practice of presidents hosting state dinners and other large events in tents on the South Lawn.

The White House has said the ballroom will be ready for use well before Trump’s term ends in January 2029, an ambitious timeline. Trump said “me and some friends of mine” will pay for the ballroom, at no cost to taxpayers.

The White House saw the addition of the East Wing in 1942 to house additional staff and offices. The White House Historical Association says the construction was controversial due to its timing during wartime. Congressional Republicans labeled the expenditure as wasteful, with some accusing Roosevelt of using the project to bolster his presidency’s image.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s opening remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday sought to tie the president’s work on the East Wing to the current government shutdown, saying that Trump was not focused on dealing with the issue of threatened health care coverage for millions of Americans but on “vanity projects like this one that don’t do anything to benefit the American people. They only benefit Trump and his ego.”

Republican senators were dismissive at times of questions about the East Wing teardown. Asked whether he welcomed the renovations, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., replied: “I’m not much into architecture. I’m not a very good architect.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said the difference between Trump’s ballroom and a litany of prior construction projects that he recounted for reporters was that taxpayers wouldn’t be funding this one.

“I mean, you’ve got a builder who has any eye for construction and for excellence. What better person would you want to renovate the White House?” Mullin said.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut took issue with Republicans comparing the ballroom to other renovation projects over the years.

“They filled in the pool. They may have taken out a bowling alley. They haven’t destroyed an entire wing of the White House in a way that is irreversible,” Blumenthal said. “… I think it is just heartbreaking.”

An earlier version of this story identified Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader. He is Senate Democratic Leader.

POWELL, Ohio (AP) — The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has welcomed its second baby elephant in a single calendar year for the first time in its nearly 100-year history, a milestone that the Ohio attraction is touting as a win for conservation.

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Thirty-eight-year-old Phoebe gave birth to the male Asian elephant calf at 10:41 p.m. Tuesday. The 222-pound offspring is not yet on view to the public. That’s so the pair gets uninterrupted bonding time and the zoo’s animal care and conservation medicine team can provide round-the-clock monitoring as the baby begins to stand, nurse and explore his surroundings.

The calf’s father, Sabu, lives at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. They were paired through a national zoo initiative that aims to support healthy, genetically-diverse populations of threatened and endangered species in professional care.

Although there have been recent signs of hope for Asian elephants in the wild, habitat degradation and the challenges of maintaining genetic diversity are among reasons they remain endangered.

The baby joins Phoebe’s already large family, which includes another male and two female offspring. Her daughter Sunny, who is 16, gave birth to a female calf named Rita Jean four months ago.

The zoo said it will continue to share updates on public viewing opportunities, naming plans and other baby milestones.

By COREY WILLIAMS

A 21-year-old semitruck driver accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing a fiery crash that killed three people on a southern California freeway is in the country illegally, U.S. Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

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Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that also left four people injured.

He faces three counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence causing injury, the San Bernardino District Attorney’s office said.

Singh is scheduled for arraignment Friday. The district attorney’s office said he does not yet have a lawyer.

Singh, of Yuba City, California, is from India and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 across the southern border, Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.

That revelation prompted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to restate earlier concerns about who should be able to obtain commercial driver’s licenses. Duffy and President Donald Trump have been pressing the issue and criticizing California ever since a deadly Florida crash in August was caused by an immigrant truck driver the federal government says was in the country illegally.

The Transportation Department significantly restricted when noncitizens can get commercial driver’s licenses last month.

California’s Highway Patrol said in a release that traffic westbound on Interstate 10, about 26 miles west of San Bernardino, had slowed about 1 p.m. Tuesday when a tractor-trailer failed to stop, struck other vehicles and caused a chain-reaction crash.

Dashcam video from the tractor-trailer obtained by KABC-TV shows the truck slamming into what appears to be a small, white SUV in the freeway’s center lane. It continued forward, plowing into several other vehicles, including another truck. It then crossed over two lanes before crashing into an already-disabled truck on the freeway’s right shoulder.

Flames can be seen erupting alongside the tractor-trailer as it crosses the two right lanes.

California Highway Patrol Officer Rodrigo Jimenez says the agency has seen the KABC video and believes it is dashcam video from the truck that caused the crash.

“This tragedy follows a disturbing pattern of criminal illegal aliens driving commercial vehicles on American roads, directly threatening public safety,” Homeland Security said Thursday in its X post.

Deadly crash in Florida

In August, a truck driver made an illegal turn on Florida’s Turnpike, about 50 milesnorth of West Palm Beach, and was struck by a minivan. Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene, and the driver died at a hospital.

Homeland Security has said that truck driver, Harjinder Singh, was in the United States illegally. Florida authorities said he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018.

Homeland Security said Harjinder Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, which is one of 19 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that issue licenses regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center.

The Trump administration has pointed to the Florida crash while sparring with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

In April, Trump issued an executive order saying truckers who don’t read and speak the English language proficiently would be considered unfit for service.

“A driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period,” Duffy said the following month.

Under the new Transportation Department rules imposed last month, only noncitizen drivers who have three specific visas are allowed to qualify for commercial licenses. And states will be required to verify their immigration status. Only drivers who hold either an H-2a, H-2B or E-2 visa will qualify. H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, while H-2a is for agricultural workers. E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business

The licenses will only be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that.

On Thursday, Duffy called the California crash “outrageous” in a social media post.

In this photo provided by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office High Tech Crimes Unit, shows officials processing the scene of a deadly multi-vehicle crash Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Ontario, Calif. (San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office High Tech Crimes Unit via AP)

“This is exactly why I set new restrictions that prohibit ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS from operating trucks,” he wrote on X. “@CAgovernor must join every other state in the U.S. in enforcing these new actions to prevent any more accidents and deaths.”

Activist sees bias against immigrant drivers

Bhupinder Kaur, director of operations for UNITED SIKHS, said the New York-based humanitarian relief nonprofit, is alarmed by what it sees as growing bias involving immigrant drivers.

It was not immediately clear Thursday afternoon if Jashanpreet Singh is Sikh.

“Law enforcement and hasty social media posts constantly rush to name, photograph, and expose immigration status, while similar details about non-immigrant drivers remain withheld,” Kaur told The Associated Press in an email Thursday. “The discretion officials cite as ‘privacy’ elsewhere seems to vanish when the driver is an immigrant.”

Immigrant truckers make up nearly one in five long-haul drivers, Kaur continued, adding that most are fully licensed and law-abiding.

“Yet they face unequal scrutiny and coverage,” Kaur said. “Selective transparency distorts public understanding and can even influence legal outcomes.”

Associated Press writer Luis Andres Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will temporarily bring all its furloughed employees back to work starting Monday to manage health insurance open enrollment, according to an agency spokesperson.

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The recall to duty amid the more than three-week-long government shutdown is what’s needed to “best serve the American people amid the Medicare and Marketplace open enrollment seasons,” the spokesperson said Thursday.

It will be paid for by user fees gathered from sharing data with researchers, the agency said.

The decision to call the employees back shows how significantly shutting down the government and losing staffing has impacted federal government operations during a crucial season, as millions of Americans are selecting their health insurance plans for next year. CMS provides health coverage to more than 160 million people, according to its website.

It also comes during a moment of uncertainty for Affordable Care Act enrollees, with Congress deadlocked on how to handle expiring subsidies that have made marketplace health insurance less expensive for millions since 2021. Democratic lawmakers are demanding a deal to extend the COVID-era subsidies before they agree to fund the government, while Republican lawmakers want to reopen the government before negotiating that question.

As their stalemate and the resulting government shutdown continue, the cost of next year’s health insurance for many of the 24 million ACA enrollees is still unknown, even with open enrollment beginning in a week.

Though CMS didn’t specify for how long the employees will return, the open enrollment period for Medicare runs between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7, while the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act marketplace runs between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15.

While the agency didn’t answer questions about how many employees would return to work, about 3,300 of CMS’s staff, or a little over half, were expected to be retained during the shutdown, according to the agency’s contingency plans. That would mean about 3,000 furloughed workers are being called back to work Monday.

While CMS has not seen any layoffs during the current shutdown, its parent agency — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — was among the hardest hit by the government-wide reduction in force. Nearly 1,000 HHS staff were abruptly fired earlier this month, though a judge has temporarily paused those layoffs from taking effect.