By PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports Writer

The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will debut a new sport next month: Ski mountaineering, which combines uphill sprinting (on boots and on skis) and downhill skiing. Although the sport on the global stage is relatively new, it does have roots dating to the late 19th century. Backcountry winter sports have grown in popularity and there is anecdotal evidence that they saw a surge in participation during the pandemic.

Something to know about skimo: It’s fast, with sprint races lasting about 3 minutes.

FILE – United States’ Kelly Wolf competes during the women’s mixed relay race at the Ski Mountaineering World Cup event in Bormio, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

How it works

Ski mountaineering will have men’s and women’s sprint events along with a mixed relay.

The race works like this: The racers sprint uphill with skins on the bottom of their skis. A skin is a strip of material that allows for traction going uphill. They then run a section in boots before putting their skis back on to traverse another uphill section. Once at the top, they take the skins off and race downhill. In the men’s and women’s sprint-event format, there will be a qualifying round where 18 racers qualify over three heats. The top three athletes in each heat advance to the semifinals along with three others based on time. In the semifinal rounds, two advance along with two more “lucky losers,” which sets up the race for medals. The mixed relay consists of one female and one male racer from each country. Each will complete two ascents and descents. The female athlete begins, then tags her male teammate for the switch. The team that completes all four laps first wins gold.

Who to watch

The current ski mountaineering sprint champions are Swiss racer Marianne Fatton and Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll. Another favorite is France’s Emily Harrop, who won the test event at the venue last winter ahead of Fatton. Coll won the men’s event ahead of Swiss racers Jon Kistler and Arno Lietha. In the mixed relay event, Coll partnered with Ana Alonso Rodriguez for the win. Harrop and Thibault Anselmet were second. Rodriguez said in October she was hit by a car while cycling, tearing knee ligaments, hoping to heal in time. The U.S. earned an Olympic spot in the mixed relay thanks to a World Cup victory from Anna Gibson and Cam Smith.

Venues and dates

The races will be staged in Bormio at the Stelvio Ski Center, with the men’s and women’s sprint events taking place on Feb. 19. The mixed relay competition takes place two days later.

Memorable moments

The medal winners will be the first in their sport at the Olympics.

Fun facts

There are penalties in the race for things such as disrespectful behavior, unsportsmanlike conduct, technical errors and equipment that’s missing. The penalties range from a disqualification to adding time. The first ski mountaineering world championships were held in France in 2002. The sport is presided over by the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), representing roughly 55 national federations across five continents. Ski mountaineering was part of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne. The sport is proposed for the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s health department starting Monday can resume sharing the personal data of certain Medicaid enrollees with deportation officials, according to a federal judge’s ruling, in a blow to states that had sued the administration over privacy concerns.

But the judge’s decision, issued last Monday, strictly limits the scope of data from the 22 plaintiff states that can be shared — for now only allowing the agency to hand over basic biographical information about immigrants residing in the United States illegally. The states’ lawsuit came after an Associated Press report identified the data sharing policy.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco comes after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it planned to share the data again as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Chhabria in August had initially blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from sharing the personal data, which includes home addresses, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. In December, he extended that temporary order.

Then, last week, Chhabria ruled that after the temporary order expires on Jan. 5, HHS can resume sharing “basic biographical, location and contact information” about immigrants living in the U.S. illegally with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. He wrote in a court filing that this sharing “is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions.”

While the lawsuit plays out, HHS and CMS aren’t allowed to give detailed, sensitive medical information about enrollees to the Department of Homeland Security or ICE, Chhabria wrote. They also can’t hand over Medicaid data about U.S. citizens or legal immigrants in the 22 plaintiff states, he wrote.

In explaining why he blocked the broader data sharing, Chhabria wrote that the new federal policies “are totally unclear about what that information would be, why it would be needed for immigration enforcement purposes, and what the risks of sharing it with DHS would be.”

It wasn’t clear Monday whether HHS had resumed sharing data on Medicaid recipients living in the U.S. illegally, and a spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Immigrants illegally living in the U.S., as well as some who are lawfully present, are not allowed to enroll in the Medicaid program that offers nearly free coverage for health services. But federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens. Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government.

HHS first shared the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June.

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In July, CMS entered into a new agreement that gave DHS daily access to view the personal data — including Social Security numbers and home address — of all the nation’s 77 million Medicaid enrollees. Neither agreement was announced publicly.

The extraordinary disclosure of such personal health data to deportation officials in the Trump administration’s far-reaching immigration crackdown immediately prompted the lawsuit over privacy concerns.

Immigration advocates have said the disclosure of personal data could cause alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children. Other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration have made schools, churches, courthouses and other everyday places feel perilous to immigrants and even U.S. citizens who fear getting caught up in a raid.

CMS in November said its intention to provide the data to ICE is “consistent with federal laws” and intended “to advance administration priorities related to immigration.”

The data sharing comes as the Trump administration has implemented an unprecedented immigration crackdown that has looped in agencies across the federal government and which has included sending the military and immigration agents into multiple Democratic-run cities.

The administration has also made other efforts to share data with immigration officials. In May, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with ICE to help agents locate and detain people living in the U.S. illegally.

Mexico City has a rich, layered history you can explore by studying an ancient colossal head sculpture in the city’s world-renowned anthropology museum, kayaking the canals built by Aztecs or admiring the political murals of artists like Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

But Mexico City is also a food lover’s paradise. On my honeymoon with my wife, Gia, we had consistently phenomenal meals (and cocktails) at restaurants like Lismoneros. Still, to get a genuine taste of the city — the food and the culture — you need to eat like a local. And to do that, you should go on the walking tours of Eat Like a Local.

Rocio Vazquez started Eat Like a Local a decade ago after traveling to Istanbul. She loathed the tours and tourist traps and was miserable till she went drinking with some residents. She returned home, created tours focused on Mexican street food, eventually quit her advertising job and gradually hired more guides and added itineraries. (All tours have a maximum of seven people.)

Gia Rosenblum shows off the food from the world’s only Michelin-starred taco stand. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

Gia and I took two tours: the Street Food at Night Tour started in Condesa before going to the lesser known San Rafael and Santa Maria neighborhoods and included tastings of pulque and mezcal, two culturally significant native drinks; the Hidden Gems tour took us to San Rafael and the Tacuba Market, ending at a small tortilla factory. Both were fun, informative and filled with incredible food.

“This company is about getting people to see beyond both the stereotypes and the fancy neighborhoods of Mexico City,” said our Hidden Gems guide Carla Obregon. (She’d also stop on the street to show us things like the crumbling Art Deco masterpiece Cine Opera, explaining its role in San Rafael’s history.)

At the tortilla factory, our guide, Carla Obregon, explains the process of making those bags of dried corn into tortillas. (Photo by Gia Rosenblum)

Our Night Tour guide, Fernanda Castro, started us at Tortas Al Fuego, a staple in the Condesa neighborhood for nearly 40 years. The restaurant slow cooks its pork for six hours then adds Oaxacan cheese, chilis, fried beans, onions and tomatoes to the flavor-packed tacos.

What amazed us was how many different tastes we found in the tacos (all soft shell) we sampled across these two tours. The taco al pastor at Tacos el Betin was inspired by Lebanese shawarma, albeit served with pork instead of lamb. The cinnamon and clove provide “a Middle Eastern memory,” Fernanda said, while the chili pepper and pineapple add local flavor. At El Paisa, the brisket is so juicy, owing some of its deliciousness to being cooked in lard. (This is not a tour for the weak of heart — Gia noted with alarm how often Fernanda used the word lard.)

Outside of El Betin, the meat awaits. Taco stands all over the city share this feature but look for one where the meat looks this juicy. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

Our first on the Hidden Gems tour was a favorite: chilorio de sinaloa, pork in a red sauce from dried chiles, bay leaf and spices like cumin and a generous squeeze of lime.  “A taco is not a taco without lime,” Carla said.

The writer thoroughly enjoying the flavors of Mexico City. (Photo by Gia Rosenblum)

That taco was made from a handmade flour tortilla, a rarity in a city where corn tortillas dominate; 80 years ago, the restaurant’s original owner, a professional wrestler, reached back to his Monterrey roots to make tacos northern Mexico style; the family that took over the business continues the tradition. (Vazquez asked that I not name the Hidden Gems stops to protect these small businesses from being overrun by tourists.)

Crowds, mostly locals, gather at El Paisa on a street corner in the San Rafael neighborhood. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

That tour also took us to the city’s only taco stand to earn a Michelin star. Carla explained that it thrives on simplicity, cooking the steak only in lime and salt. It was remarkably tender but Carla rightfully recommended the rib, which had even more flavor, enhanced by red salsa.

Watching the gorditas get made at this family-owned restaurant may make you want to buy some to go.(Photo by Stuart Miller)

It wasn’t all tacos, of course. The former wrestler’s restaurant also makes magic out of gorditas, small pancakes to dip in fried beans and melted cheese. The gorditas  are actually sweet enough that I couldn’t resist eating one (OK, two) plain.

These gorditas go great with the fried beans and cheese but they’re also fantastic plain. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

In the Tacuba Market, Carla steered us to a fruit stand for a bag of jicama, papaya, pineapple, cantaloupe and watermelon jazzed up with salt, spices and Chamoy sauce, an Asian-influenced sauce that blends dried apricots and plums with chili peppers and hibiscus flowers. These markets are so packed we never would have discovered this on our own nor would we have known what to order.

In Tacuba Market, preparing a selection of fruit to be seasoned with salt, spices and Chamoy sauce. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

At Tamale Cintli, where we loved the tamale mole con pollo, Fernanda introduced us to atole, a thick and fresh pre-Hispanic corn flour-based drink. At La Canica we also sampled pulque, a traditional pre-Hispanic alcoholic drink “and one of my favorite subjects,” Fernanda told us as she served it to us plain and flavored — with tangerine, red wine, strawberry, and, my favorite, pineapple. The liquor comes from sap extracted from the center of agave plants (which also yield tequila and mezcal).

Pulque, a traditional drink derived from the agave plant and served in many flavors, is making a comeback at places like La Canica. (Photo by Gia Rosenblum)

We learned that the Spanish conquerors tried banning and then taxing pulque, while the dictator Porfirio Diaz sneered at it as a drink of the poor and beer companies slandered it as being fermented in cow dung. But it survived and now is making a comeback.

The only thing better than ending a food tour with a churro dipped in chocolate is having a second churro dipped in chocolate immediately after. (Photo by Gia Rosenblum)

We also had a mezcal lesson and tasting later at Bello Cafe, but the drinks paled compared to our final stop, La Galeterie in Santa Maria. There we indulged in churros: dulce de leche for Gia and chocolate for me … and when Fernanda offered, I said yes to seconds. (She and Carla always offered extra drinks or tastes but you need to pace yourself; dessert, for me, is always an exception.)

Buying fresh crackling at Tacuba Market, an essential part of taco placeros, “the working man’s taco.” (Photo by Stuart Miller)

Even more memorable was Hidden Gems’ finale. In Tacuba Market, Carla bought cactus salad, avocado, fresh cracklings (far superior to packaged pork rinds) and Oaxacan string cheese. Then she gave us a tour of a tiny tortilla factory that sells 100 kilos of tortillas daily to residents and to stalls in the market and beyond. We learned about the 29 varieties of Mexican corn and how the limestone powder used in the process provides minerals and vitamins and maximizes the corn’s protein, allowing the simple taco to nourish a nation for centuries. Then as fresh hot tortillas slid off the machine we added the ingredients Carla had just bought to make taco placeros, “the working man’s taco.”

In the tortilla factory, these are moments away from being ready to eat. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

Fernanda and Carla were both knowledgeable about the food and history as well as warm and curious about their customers, creating a sense of intimacy and fun.

Their success stems from Vazquez’s unique approach. She takes guides to different countries each year to see “horrible mass tourism” and to understand good tours from the client’s perspective. ““You have to read the guests — if they don’t care about the history don’t bore them,” Vazquez says. “Don’t be one of those guides who says, ‘This is my script. I have to tell you everything.’”

Vazquez also pays her guides well and provides benefits. “They need to have a good life — if my employees cannot afford the life I have, then I’m doing something wrong,” she says.

Gia Rosenblum builds her own taco placero with ingredients from Tacuba Marekt and tortillas hot off the presses. (Photo by Stuart Miller)

More notable is the way Vazquez has built Eat Like A Local’s mission. Initially, Vazquez “just wanted to make money,” she admits, adding that she had no plans to build a company, much less a socially conscious one. “My tours were good, but they didn’t have a soul.”

She put some soul into a tour called Badass Mexican Women that celebrates the strength and resilience of her countrywomen. She took history lessons and hired a historian to find the right subjects like Antonieta Rivas Mercado, an influential arts promoter from a century ago and Juana Inés de la Cruz, a nun and poet and feminist in the 17th century. (Each woman’s story is linked to a food.)

Our guide, Carla Obregon, and our group on the Hidden Gems tour. (Photo by Manpreet Anand)

But her own story provided the most profound inspiration. In 2017, her boyfriend turned violent but she was not yet earning enough to easily flee. “I saw the signs and I didn’t leave because I couldn’t afford to,” she recalls. Then he tried to strangle her and Vazquez finally left, while realizing she needed to do more to help others in her situation.

So Eat Like a Local has been built to help her dozen female guides earn a good living but also to help younger generations. Vazquez has also created a program teaching younger women English and about topics like financial independence and sexual health. “We have to make a difference,” she says. “I now have a program director and this is the heart of my business.”

If you go

Eat Like A Local tours cost $120 per person and usually last three to four hours. The website cautions you not to eat much beforehand — take that seriously. For more information, go to eatlikealocal.com.mx/about-elal

Here are five Mexico City sightseeing tours to help you work up an appetite for Eat Like a Local:

Kayak through the hidden canals of Xochilmilco: kayakxochimilco.com
Tour the Teotihuacán pyramid: www.airbnb.com.sg/experiences/993168
Tour Chapultepec Castle and the Anthropology Museum: www.viator.com/tours/Mexico-City/Chapultepec-Anthropology-Museum-and-Castle/d628-364896P1
Historic downtown Mexico City walking tour: www.viator.com/tours/Mexico-City/Historic-Downtown-Walking-Tour/d628-41370P14
Tour of Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo’s neighborhood: www.viator.com/tours/Mexico-City/Frida-Kahlo-Life-and-Neighbourhood/d628-136557P1

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Rick Bass didn’t set out to resume his football career at the “somewhat desiccated age of 60.” It just kind of happened.

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Bass, the journalist and author of books including “Oil Notes,” “The Ninemile Wolves,” and “Why I Came West,” wrote a 2015 story for Texas Monthly magazine about the Brenham Express, a semi-pro football team in the town known chiefly for its beloved food export: Blue Bell ice cream. Kirby Simmons, Bass’s best friend from high school, was a trainer for the team, and Bass was intrigued enough to return to his native Texas from Montana, where he now lives. 

Bass, who as a young man played a year as a tailback for the Utah State Aggies, was fascinated by the program, and its coach, Anthony Barnes. Je noticed that the team was being “decimated” by injuries, and thought he might as well get off the sidelines and onto the field. “I don’t recall precisely how it happened, but I do recall in shuttered, fractured vignettes, suiting up with the ever-diminishing number of the team,” he writes.

Bass chronicles his experience playing for the team in “Wrecking Ball: Race, Friendship, God, and Football,” published by High Road Books. He talked about his book via telephone from Austin, Texas, where he was in town for the Texas Book Festival. This conversation has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Q: You grew up in Texas. Were you interested in football when you were a kid?

Oh, gosh, yeah. That was all there was. Yeah. Soccer was rumored to be a passing fad, like the hula hoop. I lived in Houston, so I followed Bum Phillips and the Houston Oilers, for better or worse. Usually, the latter.

Q: And then you went on to play college ball.

Yeah, at Utah State, and that was an amazing experience. I look back at some of the players that I practiced with, and hit, and was hit by, like Eric Hipple, who went on to play for Detroit, and Rick Parros, who played for Buffalo for a while. Our record was miserable, but we had some great individuals, and our coaches went on to coach for Dallas and Detroit and so forth. It was pretty strange just how you get to participate in these little dots of history.

Q: How did you first learn about the Texas Express in Brenham?

My best friend from high school, Kirby Simmons, was the trainer for the Express, and he told me, “This is an amazing group of young men. So I got an assignment for Texas Monthly to write about it, and went down there and met the guys and the coach and was just hanging out with them for a while. They were not overly clad with muscle, and I thought, These guys are smaller than the ones I used to play against. I could hang with these guys.” So I spoke to Kirby and Coach about it, and they said, “Yeah, jump on and see what you can do.” So it went from observatory journalism to [George] Plimpton’s famed participatory journalism.

Q: Is the team pretty popular in Brenham?

No. They’re incredibly unknown. Friends and family are the only fans, and it’s totally a shadow team, a shadow league, very insular. So that was wonderful, the anonymity, they’re just there purely for the love of the game, just accountable to each other and themselves. It was a learning process for everyone of us, each player on the team with regard to that. But I think what was most moving to me was the affection and dignity with which they received me across the age divide and the racial divide. It was really a beautiful experience for all of us.

Q: Did you find it difficult to get back into the groove from your college days?

It was hard. I had major knee surgery in January, a meniscus repair, and it was a six-to-eight week rehab. I went in still within the window of my rehab, but I had good surgeons, and it all worked out. I trained a little more, but I try to stay in as good shape as possible anyway. I was not prepared for the pulled muscles from the cleats and artificial turf. When we played at the Rock in Brenham, it was natural turf, but mostly rocks and gravel. But that AstroTurf in your cleats — I mean, you make a plant to cut and it’ll pop your groin every time. 

Q: Do you have any standout memories that stick out of your time on the Express?

I have a lot of them. The one that first comes to mind is that we had this giant offensive lineman, and we were getting beat badly by somebody. He just was a mountain of a man, probably 6’8,” 350 pounds. And he was just getting hammered, beaten down by the defensive line, and he just quit. At halftime, he walked off and there was just this archetypal view of this huge mountain of a man blocking out the setting sun, trudging with his helmet and his head down, dejected, toward the setting sun, and we knew he was not coming back for the second half. That was a real image, really sticks with me about who stays and who leaves and why. Another image, I can’t remember the linebacker’s name, but he tore his patella, and he was hollering out on the field, and the ambulance came and six of us carried him off the field with him screaming in pain. It was real.

Q: What do you think it is about football that has captured the imagination of America?

For me, it creates an alternative universe of accountability and cause and effect and good versus evil within a finite globe of time, in which time is able to be manipulated and controlled, unlike the real world. You can call a timeout to stop the clock. You can step out of bounds, you can throw an incomplete pass, you can manipulate time toward your desire, toward your goals, which is to advance the ball to the end zone or to stop the opponent from reaching theirs. And the complexity of it is really attractive. The permutations of 22 players on the field on any given play, in a 120-yard-long universe is like looking at a cell under a microscope with all the organic activities swirling within. It’s both organic and very intellectual and obviously very physical. It’s just an extraordinary game in its design and logic and rules. The unfortunate serpent in the Garden of Eden is the guaranteed damage it does to young men’s bodies and minds.