Anthony Edwards was suspended for Friday’s game in Utah without pay, the NBA announced hours before the contest. The suspension was the result of Edwards picking up his 16th technical foul on Thursday against the Lakers.

The Timberwolves guard picked up tech No. 15 in that same contest, a double technical called against he and Jarred Vanderbilt amid a minor altercation between the former teammates.

In the second half, Edwards made contact with Lakers guard Gabe Vincent and fell to the floor. While down there, he grabbed the ball and shouted a few words in the direction of a ref, resulting in the second tech of the evening and an immediate ejection.

Crew chief James Williams, per the postgame pool report, said Edwards directed “profanity toward the game official.”

As Edwards walked off the floor, he threw the ball into the stands. That likely erased any possibility of having either technical foul rescinded by the league.

It appears as though Edwards is the first player to receive a suspension for accruing 16-plus technicals before the calendar even flipped to March since DeMarcus Cousins in 2017. Every two additional technical fouls Edwards receives between now and the end of the regular season will result in another one-game suspension. The count resets for the postseason.

But if Edwards keeps receiving technical fouls at his current rate, the 23-year-old guard will miss another two to three regular-season games. Minnesota can’t afford that given its current position in the Western Conference standings.

The Wolves entered Friday’s slate in a tie for eighth place in the West. While a strong finish to the year could vault Minnesota into the top six, and out of the play-in tournament, any stumbles could mean they have to win two play-in games just to reach the playoffs.

Mike Conley told reporters after the game that Edwards apologized to his teammates.

Edwards “has got to be better,” Wolves coach Chris Finch told reporters after the Lakers game. “He’s had too many outbursts. I think a lot of (the techs) are deserved. They’re going to miss some calls from time to time, for sure. So, he’s got to be better. We’ve been talking to him about it, so it’s on him.”

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By Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News

A Kentucky county nestled in the heart of Appalachia, where the opioid crisis has wreaked devastation for decades, spent $15,000 of its opioid settlement money on an ice rink.

That amount wasn’t enough to solve the county’s troubles, but it could have bought 333 kits of Narcan, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses. Instead, people are left wondering how a skating rink addresses addiction or fulfills the settlement money’s purpose of remediating the harms of opioids.

Like other local jurisdictions nationwide, Carter County is set to receive a windfall of more than $1 million over the next decade-plus from companies that sold prescription painkillers and were accused of fueling the overdose crisis.

County officials and proponents of the rink say offering youths drug-free fun like skating is an appropriate use of the money. They provided free entry for students who completed the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) curriculum, recovery program participants, and foster families.

But for Brittany Herrington, who grew up in the region and became addicted to painkillers that were flooding the community in the early 2000s, the spending decision is “heartbreaking.”

“How is ice-skating going to teach [kids] how to navigate recovery, how to address these issues within their home, how to understand the disease of addiction?” said Herrington, who is now in long-term recovery and works for a community mental health center, as well as a regional coalition to address substance use.

Brittany Herrington grew up in northeastern Kentucky and became addicted to prescription opioids in the early 2000 s, when pills were flooding her community, she says. (Brittany Herrington/Brittany Herrington/TNS)

She and other local advocates agreed that kids deserve enriching activities, but they said the community has more pressing needs that the settlement money was intended to cover.

Carter County’s drug overdose death rate consistently surpasses state and national averages. From 2018 to 2021, when overdose deaths were spiking across the country, the rate was 2.5 times as high in Carter County, according to the research organization NORC.

Other communities have used similar amounts of settlement funding to train community health workers to help people with addiction, and to buy a car to drive people in recovery to job interviews and doctors’ appointments.

Local advocates say $15,000 could have expanded innovative projects already operating in northeastern Kentucky, like First Day Forward, which helps people leaving jail, many of whom have a substance use disorder, and the second-chance employment program at the University of Kentucky’s St. Claire health system, which hires people in recovery to work in the system and pays for them to attend college or a certification program.

“We’ve got these amazing programs that we know are effective,” Herrington said. “And we’re putting an ice-skating rink in. That’s insane to me.”

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A yearlong investigation by KFF Health News, along with researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the national nonprofit Shatterproof, found many jurisdictions spent settlement funds on items and services with tenuous, if any, connections to addiction. Oregon City, Oregon, spent about $30,000 on screening first responders for heart disease. Flint, Michigan, bought a nearly $10,000 sign for a community service center building , and Robeson County, North Carolina, paid about $10,000 for a toy robot ambulance.

Although most of the settlement agreements come with national guidelines explaining the money should be spent on treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts, there is little oversight and the guidelines are open to interpretation.

A Kentucky law lists more than two dozen suggested uses of the funds, including providing addiction treatment in jail and educating the public about opioid disposal. But it is plagued by a similar lack of oversight and broad interpretability.

Chris Huddle and Harley Rayburn, both of whom are elected Carter County magistrates who help administer the county government, told KFF Health News they were confident the ice rink was an allowable, appropriate use of settlement funds because of reassurances from Reneé Parsons, executive director of the Business Cultivation Foundation. The foundation aims to alleviate poverty and related issues, such as addiction, through economic development in northeastern Kentucky.

The Carter County Times reported that Parsons has helped at least nine local organizations apply for settlement dollars. County meeting minutes show she brought the skating rink proposal to county leaders on behalf of the city of Grayson’s tourism commission, asking the county to cover about a quarter of the project’s cost.

In an email, Parsons told KFF Health News that the rink — which was built in downtown Grayson last year and hosted fundraisers for youth clubs and sports teams during the holiday season — serves to “promote family connection and healing” while “laying the groundwork for a year-round hockey program.”

“Without investments in prevention, recovery, and economic development, we risk perpetuating the cycle of addiction in future generations,” she added.

She said the rink, as well as an $80,000 investment of opioid settlement funds to expand music and theater programs at a community center, fit with the principles of the Icelandic prevention model, “which has been unofficially accepted in our region.”

That model is a collaborative community-based approach to preventing substance use that has been highly effective at reducing teenage alcohol use in Iceland over the past 20 years. Instead of expecting children to “just say no,” it focuses on creating an environment where young people can thrive without drugs.

Part of this effort can involve creating fun activities like music classes, theatrical shows, and even ice-skating. But the intervention also requires building a coalition of parents, school staffers, faith leaders, public health workers, researchers, and others, and conducting rigorous data collection, including annual student surveys.

About 120 miles west of Carter County, another Kentucky county has for the past several years been implementing the Icelandic model. Franklin County’s Just Say Yes program includes more than a dozen collaborating organizations and an in-depth annual youth survey. The project began with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has also received opioid settlement dollars from the state.

Parsons did not respond to specific questions about whether Carter County has taken the full complement of steps at the core of the Icelandic model.

If it hasn’t, it can’t expect to get the same results, said Jennifer Carroll, a researcher who studies substance use and wrote a national guide on investing settlement funds in youth-focused prevention.

“Pulling apart different elements, at best, is usually going to waste your money and, at worst, can be counterproductive or even harmful,” she said.

At least one Carter County magistrate has come to regret spending settlement funds on the skating rink.

Millard Cordle told KFF Health News that, after seeing the rink operate over the holidays, he felt it was “a mistake.” Although younger children seemed to enjoy it, older kids didn’t engage as much, nor did it benefit rural parts of the county, he said. In the future, he’d rather see settlement money help get drugs off the street and offer people treatment or job training.

“We all learn as we go along,” he said. “I know there’s not an easy solution. But I think this money can help make a dent.”

As of 2024, Carter County had received more than $630,000 in opioid settlement funds and was set to receive more than $1.5 million over the coming decade, according to online records from the court-appointed settlement administrator.

It’s not clear how much of that money has been spent, beyond the $15,000 for the ice rink and $80,000 for the community arts center.

It’s also uncertain who, if anyone, has the power to determine whether the rink was an allowable use of the money or whether the county would face repercussions.

Kentucky’s Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, which controls half the state’s opioid settlement funds and serves as a leading voice on this money, declined to comment.

Cities and counties are required to submit quarterly certifications to the commission, promising that their spending is in line with state guidelines. However, the reports provide no detail about how the money is used, leaving the commission with little actionable insight.

At a January meeting, commission members voted to create a reporting system for local governments that would provide more detailed information, potentially opening the door to greater oversight.

John Bowman works on criminal justice reform with the national nonprofit Dream.org. He says he encounters people with substance use disorders daily, as they struggle to find treatment, a safe place to live, and transportation. He wants elected officials to use opioid settlement money to address these problems. (John Bowman/John Bowman/TNS)

That would be a welcome change, said John Bowman, a person in recovery in northeastern Kentucky, who called the money Carter County spent on the ice ink “a waste.”

Bowman works on criminal justice reform with the national nonprofit Dream.org and encounters people with substance use disorders daily, as they struggle to find treatment, a safe place to live, and transportation. Some have to drive over an hour to the doctor, he said — if they have a car.

He hopes local leaders will use settlement funds to address problems like those in the future.

“Let’s use this money for what it’s for,” he said.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the war in Ukraine, accusing him of not showing gratitude after he challenged Vance on the question of diplomacy with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

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Watch: Trump and Vance call Zelenskyy ‘disrespectful’ in Oval Office meeting

The argument in the Oval Office was broadcast globally. It led to the rest of Zelenskyy’s White House visit being canceled and called into question how much the U.S. will still support Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Here is a transcript of the key moments of the exchange, which began when Zelenskyy challenged Vance.

Zelenskyy challenges Vance on Russia and diplomacy

Vance: “For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.”

Zelenskyy: “Can I ask you?”

Vance: “Sure. Yeah.”

Zelenskyy: “OK. So he (Putin) occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was (Barack) Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the –“

Trump: “2015?”

Zelenskyy: “2014.”

Trump: “Oh, 2014? I was not here.”

Vance: “That’s exactly right.”

Zelenskyy: “Yes, but during 2014 ’til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, (French President Emmanuel) Macron and (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go … But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”

Vance: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Zelenskyy: “Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?”

Vance: “I have been to –”

Zelenskyy: “Come once.”

Vance: “I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military?”

Zelenskyy: “We have problems –”

Vance: “And do you think that is respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”

Zelenskyy: “A lot of questions. Let’s start from the beginning.”

Vance: “Sure.”

Trump erupts when Zelenskyy suggests the U.S. might ‘feel it in the future’

Zelenskyy: “First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now. But you will feel it in the future. God bless –”

Trump: “You don’t know that. You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”

Zelenskyy: “I’m not telling you. I am answering on these questions.”

Trump: “Because you’re in no position to dictate that.”

Vance: “That’s exactly what you’re doing.”

Trump: “You are in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good.”

Zelenskyy: “You will feel influenced.”

Trump: “We are going to feel very good and very strong.”

Zelenskyy: “I am telling you. You will feel influenced.”

Trump: “You’re, right now, not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position –”

Zelenskyy: “From the very beginning of the war —”

Trump: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”

Zelenskyy: “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m very serious.”

Trump: “You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III.”

Zelenskyy: “What are you speaking about?”

Trump: “You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”

Vance: “Have you said thank you once?”

Zelenskyy: “A lot of times. Even today.”

Vance: “No, in this entire meeting. You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.”

Zelenskyy: “No.”

Vance: “Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.”

Zelenskyy: “Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you can –”

Trump: “He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.”

Zelenskyy: “Can I answer —”

Trump: “No, no. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.”

Zelenskyy: “I know. I know.”

Trump: “You’re not winning. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us.”

Zelenskyy: “Mr. President, we are staying in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war, we’ve been alone. And we are thankful. I said thanks.”

Trump demands Zelenskyy accept a ceasefire

Trump: “If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.”

Zelenskyy: “In three days. I heard it from Putin. In three days.”

Trump: “Maybe less. It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this, I tell you.

Vance: “Just say thank you.”

Zelenskyy: “I said a lot of times, thank you, to American people.”

Vance: “Accept that there are disagreements, and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.”

Trump: “But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful.”

Zelenskyy: “I’m thankful.”

Trump: “You don’t have the cards. You’re buried there. People are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing, and then you tell us, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire. I don’t want a ceasefire, I want to go, and I want this.’ Look, if you can get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it so the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.”

Zelenskyy: “Of course we want to stop the war. But I said to you, with guarantees.”

Trump: “Are you saying you don’t want a ceasefire? I want a ceasefire. Because you’ll get a ceasefire faster than an agreement.”

Zelenskyy: “Ask our people about a ceasefire, what they think.”

Trump: “That wasn’t with me. That was with a guy named Biden, who is not a smart person.”

Zelenskyy: “This is your president. It was your president.”

Trump: “Excuse me. That was with Obama, who gave you sheets, and I gave you Javelins. I gave you the Javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets, and Trump gave Javelins. You’ve got to be more thankful because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.”

Trump says Putin respects him due to the investigations of his first term

Vance, restating a reporter’s question: “She is asking what if Russia breaks the ceasefire.”

Trump: “What, if anything? What if the bomb drops on your head right now? OK, what if they broke it? I don’t know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt … All I can say is this. He might have broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden. He did, maybe. Maybe he did. I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal.”

“The problem is I’ve empowered you (turning toward Zelenskyy) to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States. And your people are very brave. But you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out. But you don’t have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position, but you’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing.

“All right, I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think? This is going to be great television. I will say that.”

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R&B star and former Minnesotan Lizzo released a new single, “Love in Real Life,” on Friday and announced three small-venue shows, including Minneapolis’ First Avenue on March 18.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. March 6 through Axs. Fans can sign up for a presale at lizzomusic.com.

The woman born Melissa Jefferson in Detroit was raised in Houston and moved to Minneapolis in 2011 to pursue a career in music. During that time, she released a pair of acclaimed albums, recorded a song with Prince and started to get ever-increasing amounts of national attention. But by the time she signed to Atlantic Records, she realized she had to move to Los Angeles to break through to the masses.

Her career took off in 2019 with her single “Juice,” the first of a string of hits that include “Truth Hurts,” “Good as Hell,” “Rumors” and “About Damn Time.” The latter earned Lizzo a record of the year Grammy Award, her fourth win out of 13 nominations.

By the time 2022 rolled around, Lizzo was nearly inescapable. Her reality series “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” debuted on Amazon Prime Video and went on to win a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding competition program. That April, she performed double duty as both host and musical guest of “Saturday Night Live.” She also toured heavily and sold out St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center in October. She called the show “a true homecoming” from the stage and told the crowd that moving to Minnesota was “the best decision I ever made.”

Lizzo stepped back from the spotlight in late 2023, when three former backup dancers and her stylist filed lawsuits accusing her of sexual, religious and racial harassment and other workplace issues. Lizzo denied the allegations in an Instagram post that read, in part: “Usually I choose not to respond to false allegations but these are as unbelievable as they sound and too outrageous to not be addressed. These sensationalized stories are coming from former employees who have already publicly admitted that they were told their behavior on tour was inappropriate and unprofessional.”

In addition to her First Avenue show, which is expected to sell out quickly, Lizzo is also playing the Wiltern in Los Angeles on March 12 and Irving Plaza in New York on March 16. She will release her fifth album later this year.