By MORIAH BALINGIT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is telling Head Start providers to avoid dozens of terms in federal grant applications, including “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” — a directive that could reshape the early education program.

A coalition of organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in court filings last month that the Department of Health and Human Services told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to cut those and over a dozen other terms from her application. She later received a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged her from using in her application, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”

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President Donald Trump’s administration associates the terms with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which it has vowed to root out across the government.

The guidance could lead Head Start centers to preemptively drop anything that could be seen as fitting the administration’s definition of DEI, said Ruth Friedman, who led the Office of Child Care under President Joe Biden.

“Grantees are sort of self-selecting out of those activities beforehand because of fear and direction they’re getting from the Office of Head Start that they can’t do these important research-based activities anymore that are important for children’s learning and that are actually required by law,” Friedman said.

The filings came in a lawsuit filed in April by parent groups and Head Start associations in Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials. They allege the Trump administration is illegally dismantling Head Start.

The plaintiffs say the administration is trying to force providers to change how they operate in violation of the Head Start Act, which requires directors to provide demographic information about their families, a task that becomes difficult if they are banned from using “Black,” “disability” and “socioeconomic.”

Health and Human Services officials said they do not comment on pending litigation.

Head Start centers receive the bulk of their funding from the federal government. The long-standing preschool and family support program serves babies, infants and toddlers who come from low-income households, foster care or homeless families.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys say the anti-DEI guidance has generated confusion for Head Start programs, which are operated by nonprofits, schools and government agencies. The grant application itself contains many of the banned words, asking directors to include demographic data about their community that includes estimates of the number of pregnant women and children with disabilities.

“This has put me in an impossible situation,” the unnamed Head Start director in Wisconsin wrote in the court filing. If she complies with the Head Start Act and includes the banned words in her application, she could end up losing her grant, she said. But if she follows the Trump administration’s guidance, she said she fears she’ll face penalties for violating the law down the line.

Another Head Start, located on a Native American reservation in Washington state, was told to cut “all Diversity and Inclusion-related activities,” leading it to drop staff training on how to support autistic children and children with trauma, according to the court filing. Officials there also told the director that she could no longer prioritize tribal members for enrollment — even though the Head Start Act expressly permits this. The word “Tribal” is among the disfavored terms.

For some, the new grant application rules are another attempt to undermine Head Start, a program with a history of bipartisan support that some conservatives have been attacking as problematic and ineffective.

“They don’t believe these public programs should actually be open to serving all communities,” said Jennesa Calvo-Friedman of the ACLU, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The effort to ban words from applications “is a way to gut the fundamentals of the program.”

Not long after Trump took office, his budget chief unsuccessfully tried to halt all federal grants, saying they needed to be reviewed to root out any DEI efforts. Head Start was not supposed to be part of the freeze, which was quickly reversed, but in the months afterward, grantees reported problems drawing down their funding. Some had to briefly close.

The Government Accountability Office later said the delays violated the Impoundment Control Act, which limits when the president can halt the flow of government funds.

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.

Head coach Niko Medved knows the tradition might be considered a little corny, perhaps something out of an elementary school, but he has kept it alive with the Gophers men’s basketball team this season.

After his team produces a road win, it’s snack time.

On the way home after a victory, the team’s coach bus will pull off the road at a gas station or convenience store and everybody on board gets to pick two items to munch on during the rest of the trip. While current players are, of course, fed a postgame meal, the U foots the bill for snack time, even if players can now afford it in the revenue-sharing era.

The Gophers’ first snack time experience this season came after an 84-78 win over Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. on Saturday. The cashier at Graham’s MarketPlace in Skokie, Ill., must have been surprised when roughly 40 people descended on the store at the same time that evening.

“It was … different,” said senior guard Langston Reynolds, a first-year transfer from Northern Colorado. “I didn’t know what to get. I was kind of stunned at first.”

Freshman guard Kia Shinholster recorded the scene on a phone and commentated on his teammates’ choices for subsequent social media posts. Even athletics director Mark Coyle got in on the grub, although his choices weren’t critiqued.

Medved started the snack time tradition when he was coaching at Furman roughly a decade ago, but it really became a routine pastime during his tenure at Colorado State after the pandemic. The Rams community in Fort Collins bought in, too. Fans traveling to road games would try to suss out where snack time would be, while supporters back home in Colorado would record videos of their own snack time and send them to the team.

“It turned into a huge deal,” Medved said Monday ahead of the Gophers’ home game against No. 19 Iowa at Williams Arena on Tuesday night. “The players love it. It’s one of those things that they will remember. The fans really got into it. It kind of became a thing.”

The Rams’ most memorable snack time last year came after Colorado State won the Mountain West Conference tournament title in Las Vegas. The Rams flew back home, and while the tradition is reserved for road games and not neutral sites, they made an exception after three straight victories.

“We were like, ‘We’ve got to do it,’ ” Medved recalled. “We had the (school) president with us, so we went to Buc-ee’s up the road (in Fort Collins and) brought the trophy in there. It’s kind of like holding the Stanley Cup.”

Medved’s old team also might have blown past the two-snack limit during that late-night visit. “I don’t know how many we got that day; whatever they wanted,” Medved said. “Brisket sandwiches all the way around.”

Gophers forward Jaylen Crocker-Johnson played for Colorado State last year and said his favorite snack time was either that one or after an 83-73 win at Boise State’s ExtraMile Arena to close out the regular season.

It’s also a snack time tradition to take photo of the group outside the convenience store. That particular snapshot in Idaho had the logo of the ExtraMile in it — a coincidence, not a troll job of the arena where they’d just won.

It appears any good snack time comes with friendly ribbing of other people’s choices. Medved raised his own hand. He got an ice cream sandwich, a go-to, but also cheese curds, which he said he later regretted.

Forward Grayson Grove, who had a career-high 12 points against the Wildcats, raised eyebrows with a small jug of chocolate milk.

“Are you serious?” Medved joked in the video. Grove reportedly didn’t finish it.

Before the players disembarked in Illinois on Saturday, they were told to not follow the lead of one Colorado State player who used one of his snacks on a bottle of water. The buses are always stocked with plenty of that.

But freshman commentator Shinholster was giving senior Reynolds guff for picking Chex Mix in 2026.

“He’s always calling me old,” said Reynolds, who had a career-high 13 assists against the Wildcats. “It’s a little weird because we are not that far apart in age. But it’s alright. It’s fine. I can take the hit.”

Snack time veteran Crocker-Johnson went with an Arizona ice tea and an ice-cream sandwich, just like his head coach.

“Some questionable options by my teammates,” he critiqued. “But it was definitely a fun experience for us to get that first road win and enjoy that snack time.”

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A 54-year-old man who authorities say is a Cuban national was charged with three counts of assault on a federal officer after authorities say he struck two ICE officers with his vehicle and bit one on the hand, drawing blood, U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen announced on Monday.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Romero was indicted and charged with two counts of assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon and one count of assault on a federal officer, Rosen’s office said in a press release.

The following details were released in a statement from Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin at the time of the arrest:

On the morning of Dec. 21, ICE officers said they saw Romero, who they say is illegally in the country from Cuba. After he got into a white SUV near Westminster Street in St. Paul, they did a vehicle stop. When they approached and identified themselves as ICE law enforcement, they say that Romero was “noncompliant and refused to roll down his window, causing officers to warn that they would have to break the window if he continued to not comply with lawful orders.”

“In response, Romero drove off, striking one of the officers in his attempt to escape. ICE officers gave chase, and, after a brief pursuit, Romero pulled into a parking lot near his residence and struck two parked vehicles. Officers again stopped Romero’s vehicle and commanded him to exit,” the statement said.

The man began ramming his car into an ICE vehicle and struck a second ICE officer, the statement said. That officer fired two rounds from his weapon and the man drove off again.

No one was struck by any of the shots fired, the statement said.

The U.S. Attorney General’s press release said that when ICE officers arrested Romero, he bit one of the officers, drawing blood. The ICE officers were transported to the hospital. Injuries included bruised ribs, a dislocated finger and a bite wound, Rosen’s office said.

Romero was admitted into the United States in 2024 by the Biden administration through the CBP One app, according to ICE. The CBP One app was a Customs and Border Protection tool designed to open legal pathways to enter the United States and discourage illegal border crossings. The Trump administration canceled the program last year and notified asylum seekers already in the country that they should leave immediately.

Romero remains in custody until a detention hearing, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. If he is convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

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Let’s hop in a time machine and take a trip back to August 2024.

The future looked bright for the Vikings, largely because of how rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy was progressing in camp.

Never mind that journeyman quarterback Sam Darnold had been penciled in to be the starter. The growth that McCarthy had put on display throughout training camp was enough to make some wonder whether he could overtake Darnold.

The dazzling performance that McCarthy put forth for the Vikings in an exhibition game against the Las Vegas Raiders only added to the hype. He completed 11 of 17 passes for 188 yards and a pair of touchdowns while showcasing the skill and swagger that convinced the Vikings to select him in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

The wind was taken out of the sails roughly 48 hours later when McCarthy reported soreness in his right knee. Shortly thereafter, exploratory surgery revealed a torn meniscus that needed to be fully repaired. McCarthy’s rookie campaign was over before it even got started.

The official announcement came on Aug. 14, 2024, when head coach Kevin O’Connell addressed reporters before joint practice between the Vikings and the Cleveland Browns. O’Connell spoke of McCarthy with a conviction that hasn’t been heard since.

“He’s confirmed everything that I hoped to see,” O’Connell said at the time. “Everybody should be excited about the fact that we’ve got our young franchise quarterback in the building.”

Now, juxtapose that statement with the lukewarm response O’Connell provided about McCarthy on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium after the Vikings earned a 16-3 win over the Green Bay Packers. Asked if he felt comfortable with McCarthy being the starter for the Vikings moving forward, O’Connell meandered his way through a politically correct answer, tying his best not to make any sort of declaration.

“I think he’s improved,” O’Connell said. “I can’t wait to work with him.”

Not once did O’Connell declare McCarthy to be the young franchise quarterback like he did 16 months ago. Why would he with the resume McCarthy has put together since taking over as the starter?

There’s absolutely nothing that suggests McCarthy should be handed the keys to the car once again, not without some form of competition. He simply hasn’t proven to be somebody the Vikings can rely on.

The raw numbers are a big concern as McCarthy has struggled by virtually every standard metric. He completed a mere 57.6% of his passes for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, all while throwing less than 250 times total.

It doesn’t matter that McCarthy showed signs of improvements here and there in wins over the Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. He set the bar so low for himself that he was bound to trend upward at some point. It shouldn’t be praiseworthy that McCarthy no longer has to be mentioned in the same sentenced as JaMarcus Russell.

His inability is stay on the field might be an even bigger concern for the Vikings. The Vikings have played 35 games since drafting McCarthy; he has started 10. After missing every game as a rookie last season, he missed some more games this year because of a high ankle sprain, a concussion and a broken hand. All those injuries occurred while he was trying to create outside the structure of the designed play.

It’s not so much that McCarthy gets injured. It’s that he constantly puts himself in position to get injured. He can’t help himself. Just look at the opening drive between the Vikings and the Packers for proof.

After completing a few passes to move the chains, McCarthy scrambled into to open space, delivered a nasty stiff arm in the open field, then, for some reason, decided to lower his shoulder against cornerback Keisean Nixon rather than simply run out of bounds. The decision to actually seek out contact was ridiculous.

A fake tough guy move shouldn’t be celebrated, and he made worse by garnering a taunting penalty in the aftermath.

“I got carried away,” McCarthy said. “I felt like I let my teammates down.”

The childish antics might be the biggest concern of them all as McCarthy hasn’t shown the maturity required to lead. You would think that the 22-year-old who got flamed on social media for creating an alter ego for himself would understand when it’s time to tone it down. He clearly hasn’t learned his lesson, and that’s a problem.

Asked if he feels like he’s earned the right to be the Vikings’ starter, McCarthy expressed confidence in himself before later acknowledging that it’s not necessarily up to him.

“They have their own opinion and own perspective,” McCarthy said. “I feel like I know they know who I am as an individual, and the potential and capability that this offense can have with me at the helm.”

Asked if he thinks the Vikings should bring in somebody to compete with McCarthy, star receiver Justin Jefferson wouldn’t take the bait. It’s never been his style to publicly call out his teammates. He puts his head down and goes to work regardless of who’s throwing him the ball.

“It is what it is,” Jefferson said. “It’s not really my job to make that call.”

The fact that it’s even a conversation right now is poof that the Vikings have at least lost some faith in McCarthy, who they once thought was their young franchise quarterback with everything in front of him.

Look no further than how much the messaging has changed from August 2024 to January 2026.

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