By The Associated Press

The Senate is finding itself in a familiar position, working to avoid a partial government shutdown with just hours to spare Friday. Democrats have only painful options: allow passage of a bill they believe gives President Donald Trump vast discretion on spending decisions, or vote no and give Trump free rein. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer gave members of his caucus days to vent their frustration before making clear he will not allow a government shutdown.

Also Friday, it’s Trump’s move now that two federal judges handed down orders Thursday requiring his administration to rehire thousands of probationary federal workers let go in mass firings. Trump also plans a Justice Department rally for what he’s calling a tough-on-crime agenda. And he’s asked the Supreme Court to limit a nationwide order that for now prevents him from denying birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment.

Here’s the Latest.

What to know about the bill being debated by the Senate

Congress has been unable to pass the annual appropriations bills designed to fund the government, so they’ve resorted to passing short-term extensions instead. The legislation before the Senate marks the third such continuing resolution for the current fiscal year, now nearly half over.

The legislation would fund the federal government through the end of September. It would trim non-defense spending by about $13 billion from the previous year and increase defense spending by about $6 billion, which are marginal changes when talking about a topline spending level of nearly $1.7 trillion.

The Republican-led House passed the spending bill on Tuesday and then adjourned. The move left senators with a decision to either take it or leave it. And while Democrats have been pushing for a vote on a fourth short-term extension, GOP leadership made clear that option was a non-starter.

A procedural vote Friday will provide a first test of whether the package has the 60 votes needed to advance, ahead of final voting likely later in the day. At least eight Democrats will need to join with Republicans to move the funding package forward.

Read more about the scramble to avert a government shutdown

Trump will visit a Justice Department he’s sought to reshape with loyalists

Trump is expected to use his visit to deliver a speech outlining his administration’s tough-on-crime agenda. But the appearance doubles as a victory lap after he emerged legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that were dismissed after his election win last fall.

The visit is the first by Trump and the first by any president in a decade. It brings Trump into the belly of an institution he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defense team in top leadership positions.

Read more about Trump’s visit to the Justice Department

Judges order Trump to rehire probationary workers let go in mass firings

Two federal judges handed down orders on Thursday requiring Trump’s administration to rehire thousands, if not tens of thousands, of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies, slowing down for now the president’s dramatic downsizing of the federal government.

Both judges separately found legal problems with the way the mass terminations were carried out and ordered the employees at least temporarily brought back on the job.

The Trump administration has already appealed the first ruling. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cast it as an attempt to encroach on the president’s power to hire and fire employees. “The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order,” she said in a statement.

Read more about the orders on mass firings

Schumer gives Democrats room to side with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer gave members of his caucus days to vent their frustration about the options before them, but late Thursday made clear he will not allow a government shutdown. His move gives Democrats room to side with Republicans and allow the continuing resolution, often described as a CR, to come up for a vote as soon as Friday.

Schumer said on the Senate floor that the choice between the GOP spending bill and a government shutdown is “no choice at all” but that a shutdown would be “a far worse option.”

A procedural vote Friday will provide a first test of whether the package has the 60 votes needed to advance, ahead of final voting likely later in the day. At least eight Democrats will need to join with Republicans to move the funding package forward.

Read more about the vote to avoid a government shutdown

Pentagon continues purge of images it sees as pro-DEI, including 3 related to the Enola Gay

The Pentagon is continuing its purge of photographs it considers promote DEI, and although it said historical photographs would be protected, at least three images related to the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, have been removed – likely because the aircraft was called the Enola Gay.

The images that have disappeared include a historical black-and-white photo of the Enola Gay “undergoing modification at Oklahoma City Air Depot to be able to drop atomic weapons,” according to a thumbnail of the photograph, which remains. Two others that mention a grandson of a member of the original Enola Gay crew flying a refurbished B-29 to honor his family have also been deleted, although their thumbnails are also still visible.

A request for comment to the Pentagon on why the Enola Gay images were removed was not immediately returned.

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A huge storm system crossing the U.S. threatens to unleash tornadoes Friday in the Mississippi Valley, blizzards in the northern Plains and dry, gusty conditions in Texas and Oklahoma that pose an extreme risk of wildfires.

The National Weather Service predicted extreme weather across a vast swath of the U.S. with a population exceeding 100 million people. Powerful winds gusting up to 80 mph were forecast from the Canadian line to the Rio Grande border with Mexico.

Forecasters say the severe storm threat will continue into the weekend, with a moderate chance of tornadoes and damaging winds pushing farther south Saturday to areas including New Orleans and Birmingham, Alabama. Heavy rain could bring flash flooding to some parts of the East Coast on Sunday.

Experts say it’s not unusual to see such weather extremes in March, when emerging spring warmth and lingering winter cold create big temperature differences for storms to thrive.

“If there’s a time of the year where a storm like this can deliver these coast-to-coast impacts, we are in it,” said Benjamin Reppert, a meteorologist at Penn State University.

Tornadoes likely amid storm outbreak

A regional outbreak of severe storms was expected Friday afternoon with some risk of thunderstorms extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.

Forecasters said tornadoes, damaging winds and hail up to baseball-size were likely, with the greatest risk in eastern Missouri, much of Illinois and portions of Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center said 17 million people faced an enhanced to moderate severe storm threat from Des Moines, Iowa, to Jackson, Mississippi.

The tornado threat pushes farther south on Saturday into the Gulf Coast states, including New Orleans and other parts of eastern Louisiana and much of Mississippi and Alabama.

Blizzards expected in Northern Plains

Forecasters warned that heavy snow whipped by powerful winds are likely to make travel treacherous in parts of the Rockies and Northern Plains. Blizzard conditions were possible in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

Winter storm warnings issued Thursday lingered into Friday morning in mountainous regions of Arizona and Utah, where more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snowfall was possible. Forecasters warned of poor visibility and icy road conditions, urging motorists to travel with extra food and water in case they became stranded.

The winter blast continued after snowfall of up to 3 feet (90 centimeters) blanketed the Sierra Nevada earlier in the week.

Dry, gusty conditions bring ‘extreme’ threat of wildfires

Warm, dry weather and sustained winds of up to 45 mph brought what the weather service called “near historic” conditions for sparking wildfires Friday to the Southern Plains and parts of the Southwest. Wind gusts exceeding 80 mph were possible.

Forecasters shared a bit of advice during a special briefing: For those stuck on the roads, keep a firm grip on the steering wheel and watch for fallen trees, power lines and other debris. They said the strong winds would be kicking up plenty of dust and that brownout conditions were possible.

“This is likely to be the worst dust storm so far this year,” said Randall Hergert, a lead forecaster with the weather service in Albuquerque.

Forecasters also warned about an extreme risk of fires in parts of northern Texas, much of Oklahoma and southeast Kansas. A broader area where the fire threat was designated as critical stretched from eastern New Mexico into Texas and north to a portion of southern Iowa.

The weather service said a potential for dry thunderstorms in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas carry the added risk of fires being started by lightning with minimal rainfall to stop them from spreading.

After an afternoon of catching and releasing walleye on the Mississippi River, Luke Durand, 17, on spring break from Champlin Park High School, relaxed on a boat as he waited for his fishing buddy to come back from putting air in the boat trailer tire at a boat landing in Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul on Thursday.

Temperatures reached 64 degrees on Thursday and the National Weather Service predicts more warmth Friday, with temperatures near 75 degrees. That could top the previous high of 73 in 2012.

People explore the banks of the Mississippi River at Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul on Thursday, March 13, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

A low-pressure system moves through the area Friday evening, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., bringing heavy rain, gusty winds and severe scattered storms.

Rain will transition to snow overnight on Friday into Saturday, the Weather Service reports.The best chances for heavy snow and high winds will be in western Minnesota, where blizzard conditions are possible.

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By AMANDA SEITZ, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Friday morning.

The 64-year-old was a respected heart surgeon who turned into a popular TV pitchman. Now he has his sights on overseeing health insurance for about 150 million Americans enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage.

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Republicans, who have coalesced around Trump’s nominees for the health agencies, are likely to ask Oz about his plans for Medicare and Medicaid, including the Trump administration’s focus on eliminating fraud from the $1 trillion programs.

Democrats, meanwhile, will question Oz’s tax filings, which they say show he has used a tax code loophole to underpay taxes by thousands of dollars on Medicare, the program he’ll oversee. They will also grill Oz on any cuts he would make to the health insurance coverage as well as comments on his TV show supporting privatized Medicare.

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has done an “extensive review” of Oz’s finances, spokesman Christopher Krepich said in a statement about Oz’s taxes. He added that the office has indicated “any potential conflicts have been resolved and he is in compliance with the law.”

Oz has hawked everything from supplements to private health insurance plans on his former TV series, “The Dr. Oz Show,” which ran for 13 seasons and helped him amass a fortune.

Oz’s net worth is between $98 million and $332 million, according to an analysis of the disclosure, which lists asset values in ranges but does not give precise dollar figures. His most recent disclosure shows he also holds millions of dollars worth of shares in health insurance, fertility, pharmaceutical and vitamin companies. He has promised to divest from dozens of companies that would pose conflicts for him as the CMS administrator.

In the job, he could wield significant power over most health companies operating in the U.S. because he can make decisions about who and what are covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

Oz’s hearing comes as the Trump administration seeks to finalize leadership posts for the nation’s top health agencies. On Thursday, Senate committees voted to advance the nominations of Marty Makary, poised to lead the Food and Drug Administration, and Jay Bhattacharya, set to helm the National Institutes for Health, for a full Senate vote. The nomination of Dave Weldon to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was abruptly withdrawn Thursday.

Those men have all leaned into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s call to “Make America Healthy Again,” a controversial effort to redesign the nation’s food supply, reject vaccine mandates and cast doubt on some long-established scientific research.

“Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists,” Oz wrote late last year in a social media post praising Kennedy’s nomination to be the nation’s health secretary.

This isn’t Oz’s first time testifying before senators. In 2014, several senators scolded him during a hearing about the questionable weight loss products he hawked on his television show.

AP Health Writer Tom Murphy contributed to this report from Indianapolis.