“When unhealthy options dominate and nutrition information is limited, families face steeper barriers to making healthier choices or finding better options at all.”

(Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Dontree_M)

It’s hard to find political consensus on many issues in the United States in 2026, but there is one area where we still largely agree: junk food is bad for kids. As a millennial pediatrician, I’ve seen the consequences of our broken food system play out in real time. Growing up, the hidden dangers of junk food were already part of the conversation. Over time, that concern has expanded to include the ultraprocessed products now dominating our food supply.

But today, the problem isn’t just what’s in the food—it’s also the aggressive marketing aimed at children, who are especially vulnerable to colorful branding and animated characters. The reality is that kids are growing up in an increasingly unhealthy food environment, with the odds stacked against them.

Every day, I see families doing their best to make healthy choices, often without the information and agency to succeed. With fewer wholesome, affordable options available, junk food remains the cheapest and most accessible option for many families shopping paycheck-to-paycheck. This year, Albany has a chance to protect New York families and children by advancing two public health bills: the Sodium Warning Bill (S428)and Sweet Truth Act (S427), sponsored by Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera and Assemblymember Karines Reyes.

Chronic disease has many causes, but Big Food’s influence—combined with a lack of transparency—continues to play a major role in driving poor health outcomes statewide. Heart disease and stroke remain leading killers nationwide, while Americans consume excessive amounts of sodium and added sugars without clear information about what’s on their plates.

New York faces the same crisis, compounded by the face that residents eat out 130 percent more than other Americans. As a result, more than 10 percent of adults statewide—around 1.7 million people—live with diabetes. Weight-related care costs New York $5.2 billion annually, while hypertension and diabetes cost more than $40 billion. I became a pediatrician to help children and families make healthier decisions early in life—before these statistics become inevitable decades later. Yet current policies fail to provide basic nutrition transparency, leaving families in the dark.

The Sodium Warning Bill and Sweet Truth Act represent an important step forward. These bills would require clear warning labels for high-sodium and high-added sugar menu items at chain restaurants statewide—a straightforward transparency measure that can help families reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even certain cancers. Over time, better health outcomes would also mean lower healthcare costs, delivering a meaningful affordability benefit for New Yorkers. 

The food environment families are navigating makes these protections especially urgent. At fast casual restaurants, meals routinely exceed the FDA’s daily recommendations of 50 grams of added sugar and 2,300 milligrams of sodium. Even single fountain drinks often contain more than a day’s worth of added sugars. Research shows that diets high in added sugar and sodium are linked to developmental delays, endocrine dysfunction, cancer, obesity, and diabetes in children, setting young people on a path toward chronic disease before they even finish high school. 

Still, these harms are not distributed equally. New York City’s 2,000-plus chain restaurants are disproportionately concentrated in Black and Latino neighborhoods—including where I live in the Bronx. Residents in these neighborhoods are twice as likely to have diabetes as white New Yorkers. When unhealthy options dominate and nutrition information is limited, families face steeper barriers to making healthier choices or finding better options at all. 

In my practice, I remind families that even small changes can lead to big health gains over time. Transparency is a simple but powerful tool in that process. It can look like a child choosing water over a sugary soda, and picking up mango slices instead of spicy tortilla crisps at their bodega; or a family opting for grilled chicken over the breaded cutlet after seeing a sodium warning.

Providing clear information gives families agency and empowers New Yorkers to make safer choices when dining out—choices that add up to fewer chronic illnesses and fewer trips to the doctor’s office. 

The public is ready. Nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers already support warning labels for menu items high in added sugars—a demand that pushed the New York City Council to pass the Sweet Truth Act in 2023. Now it’s time for the state to follow the city’s lead and extend this public health protection to all New Yorkers. 

New York has long been a national leader in public health. For the sake of our children, our communities, and our shared future, the legislature should prioritize these bills and give families the truth about what’s on their plates.

Dr. Charles Moon, MD, FAAP is the chair of the New York State Chapter 3 of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health & Climate Change, as well as co-chair of the NYS AAP’s Public Public and Advocacy Committee. He lives in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx. 

The post Opinion: Give New York Families The Truth About What’s On Their Plates appeared first on City Limits.

A new report examining fraud risk in Minnesota government programs describes longstanding vulnerabilities dating back to the 1970s and repeated inaction by state leaders despite nearly a half-century of warnings.

Gov. Tim Walz’s director of Program Integrity, Tim O’Malley, on Monday released what he described as a “roadmap” to address those vulnerabilities, which he said were driven in large part by a culture in state agencies “more based on compassion than compliance.”

“That’s misplaced. If state workers want to provide services, want to directly help people in need, then they should go work for a provider. They should deliver the wheelchairs. They should do the bed baths. They should take people to medical appointments,” he said at a news conference announcing the report’s findings. “The state has a responsibility to make sure those things happen by protecting state (taxpayer) money.”

Every governor and Legislature had been made aware of problems in programs for the last 50 years, according to the review, but plans to strengthen protections against fraud in state welfare programs were never executed effectively.

The review can be read at https://tinyurl.com/4z3ufffv.

‘Inadequate accountability’ in agencies

O’Malley’s report comes after allegations of hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud at the Department of Human Services and Department of Education, and speculation that the fraud could reach the billions. Overall, he found that “inadequate accountability” in agencies was largely to blame.

“Recent events have revealed longstanding vulnerabilities in multiple facets of state administration and leadership and priority setting to specific elements such as enrollment, oversight, data sharing and investigative capacity,” the report said. “These weaknesses have been exploited repeatedly over decades by organized networks of providers, intermediaries and recipients, resulting in significant financial losses, erosion of public trust and inadequate delivery of essential services to vulnerable Minnesotans.”

Questions remain about who exactly has been held responsible for fraud in state agencies — if anyone. Past reports from the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor have pointed to issues with “inadequate oversight” and “pervasive noncompliance” in how the state handles payments and grants.

In December, Walz said there were state employees who should have “done more” and that they were “no longer working in the state.”

Former Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead resigned in January this year, before federal prosecutors brought charges in connection with significant fraud in children’s autism programs and housing stabilization services supported by the agency.

In late 2022, Education Commissioner Heather Mueller announced she would not seek reappointment in Walz’s second term, months after the first charges in the $250 million Feeding Our Future case.

And days before federal prosecutors announced charges tied to housing stabilization in September, it emerged that the assistant commissioner with the program was no longer working with the agency.

Neither DHS nor Walz has said whether Eric Grumdahl, assistant commissioner of Homelessness and Housing Supports, lost his job due to fraud in the program, which was expected to cost $2.6 million a year when it launched but ballooned to over $105 million in 2024.

Fraud czar

Walz, a Democrat, appointed O’Malley in December as scrutiny mounted on his administration’s handling of widespread fraud in state government programs. As program integrity director, O’Malley was tasked with creating fraud prevention measures across agencies and working with the outside financial audit firm WayPoint.

O’Malley was superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension under Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. He’s a former FBI agent and interim chief judge for the state Court of Administrative hearings, and for a decade handled allegations of sexual misconduct by clergy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

When Walz announced his appointment of O’Malley as state fraud czar on Dec. 12, federal investigators estimated Minnesota had lost hundreds of millions of dollars to fraud in recent years, with former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson speculating total theft could top more than $1 billion.

That estimate ballooned to at least $9 billion just a week later when Thompson announced another round of criminal charges in Medicaid fraud cases. Thompson told reporters he believed more than half of the $18 billion in federal money the state distributed through “high-risk” Medicaid programs since 2018 could have been lost to fraud.

Officials with the Minnesota Department of Human Services have disputed that estimate. Walz, who suspended his campaign for a third term in office just weeks after Thompson’s remarks, described the $9 billion figure as speculative and defamatory.

The report recommends changing agency culture, boosting accountability measures, modernizing technology and oversight.

It also recommends that state lawmakers, who returned to the state Capitol last Tuesday for the 2026 legislative session, pass several bills to support a “modern fraud‑prevention infrastructure.”

They include ending direct appropriations — which present a high risk of fraud — as well as ending grants without dedicated fraud prevention funding and requiring bills that create or modify programs to have a fraud prevention component.

O’Malley told reporters Monday that he had “independence and autonomy” to go where the facts took him and that the governor had not tried to influence his work.

Senate GOP leader calls report ‘lip service’

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, called the report an example of Walz “lip service” on fraud, saying it was little more than a compendium of existing public issues in state programs.

“They don’t have to wait for the Legislature. They have the tools to really get started if they need help,” he said. “We’re happy to figure out a bipartisan way forward. But the response has been so lackluster. We need to get going on this.”

O’Malley’s hiring was the latest in a series of moves Walz has made to address fraud allegations in state agencies.

In January 2025, the governor directed the creation of a fraud investigation unit at the BCA. The Department of Human Services moved to shut down a Medicaid-funded housing stabilization program beset by fraud after news emerged in July of a federal investigation into several providers.

Earlier this month, a Walz-ordered third-party audit assessing the 14 Minnesota Medicaid programs at high risk for fraud found the state could safeguard $1 billion in the next four years by changing its policies on payment reviews.

State officials described the report as the “first phase” of developing a payment review process for the high-risk programs.

Gandhi permanent appointment

Before O’Malley shared the findings of his report on Monday, Walz announced the permanent appointment of Shireen Gandhi as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which has been the subject of significant fraud allegations recently.

Shireen Gandhi. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Human Services)

The post had been vacant for more than a year. Gandhi had served as interim commissioner since the resignation of former Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead in January 2025, before federal prosecutors brought charges in connection with significant fraud in children’s autism programs and housing stabilization services supported by the agency.

Walz praised Gandhi for her leadership during troubled times at the agency.

“Over the past year, she has demonstrated steady, decisive leadership at the Minnesota Department of Human Services, strengthening program integrity, rooting out fraud, and ensuring taxpayer dollars reach the Minnesotans who rely on these services,” he said in a news release.

Gandhi will serve in the remaining months of the Walz administration. The governor, who is no longer seeking a third term, leaves office next January.

Republicans welcomed the appointment, calling it “long overdue,” though they expressed skepticism about the governor’s choice.

“Commissioner Gandhi has worked at DHS for years, including in compliance and oversight, while billions of taxpayer dollars were lost to fraud. For the past 13 months, she has served as interim commissioner as Minnesota’s fraud epidemic has made international news,” House Republican Floor Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said in a statement. “That’s not accountability. That’s failure rewarded.”

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By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — For years as an environmental lawyer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. crusaded against a controversial herbicide ingredient known as glyphosate, even winning a landmark case against chemical giant Monsanto by arguing that its Roundup weedkiller contributed to his client’s cancer.

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But now that he’s the nation’s top health official, Kennedy is falling in line with President Donald Trump after he issued an executive order that’s aimed at boosting glyphosate’s production. The order would also grant limited legal immunity to manufacturers if they’re following federal directives.

Kennedy on Sunday evening posted a lengthy statement on social media that calls pesticides “toxic by design” but frames Trump’s move as necessary for agricultural stability and national security.

“President Trump did not build our current system — he inherited it,” Kennedy wrote. “I support President Trump’s Executive Order to bring agricultural chemical production back to the United States and end our near-total reliance on adversarial nations.”

It was a gesture of loyalty to the president who has enabled Kennedy’s overhaul of vaccine policy at the federal government’s highest levels, but it also opens a dangerous fault line in their political coalition ahead of the midterm elections in November.

As Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again supporters grow impatient with a Republican-led administration that’s largely resisted their calls to regulate pesticides, they’re speaking up about what they view as a betrayal of their support.

“It’s been a year. Not a single thing has been done by the EPA to reduce our children’s and families exposure to pesticides,” Moms Across America founder Zen Honeycutt, a prominent MAHA activist, replied to Kennedy’s post. “We love you Bobby but this administration needs to keep their word.”

Critics of the executive order said it is part of a pattern that favors pesticide manufacturers, who defend their products as rigorously reviewed by regulators to ensure they don’t threaten human health if used properly.

For example, a proposal from House Republicans would make it harder to sue pesticide companies for failing to warn about product dangers. The Justice Department in December also backed Monsanto owner Bayer in a Supreme Court case that could limit its future liability for Roundup.

“That is America Last, Anti-MAHA, and unforgivable,” prominent activist Kelly Ryerson wrote on social media.

Kennedy pledges change while some environmentalists say they’re still waiting

Trump’s executive order is intended to protect domestic production of elemental phosphorus, which is used in military devices as well as to make glyphosate-based herbicides. It also seeks to protect the production of glyphosate-based herbicides themselves, which the administration says are critical to agricultural supply chains.

Kennedy has repeatedly said that he believes glyphosate causes cancer, including as recently as January.

While several studies have supported Kennedy’s contention, the Environmental Protection Agency has said the chemical is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans when used as directed. Bayer said in an emailed statement that it “stands behind the safety of our glyphosate-based products which have been tested extensively, approved by regulators and used around the globe for more than 50 years.”

In his social media post, Kennedy said he is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the EPA to expedite a future in which the food supply is not reliant on harmful chemicals. Along those lines, the Trump administration in December launched a $700 million regenerative pilot program aimed at helping farmers adopt practices that boost soil health, water quality and productivity.

Yet some longtime environmental advocates say they haven’t yet seen compelling evidence of any particularly transformative change.

“If there is a big plan, a big MAHA-style plan to move in the direction of detoxifying agriculture from these chemicals, where is it?” said Ken Cook, head of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which has fought for raising environmental standards since the 1990s. “What I’m seeing here is a very aggressive effort to try and hang onto MAHA principles even as, at every turn, you betray them.”

Cook said many veteran public health advocates never believed Kennedy would be the force for change that MAHA activists hoped. He said the language of Kennedy’s post matched arguments from pesticide makers.

“He’s jumped onto their message square and is dancing on it,” he said of Kennedy.

The EPA has teased a forthcoming MAHA agenda that it says will address issues such as forever chemicals, plastic pollution, food quality, Superfund cleanups and lead pipes. On Friday, for example, federal officials said they would enforce a tough, 10-year deadline for lead pipe removal to make drinking water safer. EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch said in a statement the agenda is “in the final stages” and will also reaffirm the agency’s commitment to science and transparency on pesticides.

MAHA’s support hangs in the balance

Kennedy’s MAHA coalition, a diverse group that includes anti-vaccine activists, environmental defenders and healthy food advocates, is seen as a politically important group for Republicans to win to keep their narrow majorities in Congress.

But the movement doesn’t always agree with Republican policies, putting Kennedy in a “tough spot,” according to Matt Motta, a professor at Boston University School of Public Health.

“He does need to try to please his base of supporters who care a lot about this issue and presumably think that it can cause cancer – while also pleasing the president if he wants to be able to keep this job,” Motta said.

The Kennedy-aligned political advocacy organization MAHA Action on Monday issued a memo aiming to address some of the movement’s anger by fact-checking inaccurate claims about the executive order and urging the administration to take several actions, including an independent EPA review of glyphosate’s effects on health.

“We know many of you are angry. That anger is understandable, and we share the urgency behind it,” the memo read. “We also know that this movement is most powerful when it is precise, factual, and strategic. Corporate media and political opponents would love nothing more than to see the MAHA coalition fracture. We will not give them that.”

Indeed, as Democrats watch the rupture between MAHA supporters and the Trump administration, some see an opportunity.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is up for reelection this fall, called the executive order “a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who have gotten cancer from glyphosate.” He argued on social media the administration’s message is that “chemical company profits are more important than your health.”

Democratic strategist Anjan Mukherjee said he expects more left-leaning midterm candidates to emphasize to MAHA supporters “how this administration has failed them.”

“What this administration has shown to them over and over again is that they’re only interested in enriching themselves and putting more money into the pockets of the wealthy,” Mukherjee said.

Still, those efforts may not pan out in recruiting MAHA supporters who have seen Kennedy champion many of their other goals, including overhauling childhood vaccine recommendations and reforming the FDA’s approach to artificial food dyes.

Handing Democrats a majority in Congress could invite oversight and budgetary limitations that would slow that momentum, said David Mansdoerfer, a Department of Health and Human Services official during Trump’s first term who now advises several MAHA groups.

“MAHA has a choice this election season,” he said. “Support the Trump administration and continue to have a voice in Washington or stay at home and watch their federal agenda come to a halt.”

Associated Press writer Michael Phillis contributed to this report.

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An estimated 31,000 registered nurses and other front-line Kaiser Permanente health care workers will return to work on Tuesday after a four-week strike in California and Hawaii to demand better wages and staffing.

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The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals said in a statement Monday that “significant movement at the bargaining table” prompted an end to the walkout. There were no details about what progress was made during negotiations or what a potential deal might look like.

“According to the union, returning members to their patients and their livelihoods is the clearest path to securing a final agreement and building on the progress achieved during the strike,” the statement said.

Kaiser Permanente officials didn’t immediately comment on the union’s announcement.

The picketing that began Jan. 27 marked the second major strike in recent months by employees represented by the union. A five-day strike in October ended with negotiations resuming, but talks broke down in December.

Those on picket lines, including pharmacists, midwives and rehab therapists, said salaries have not kept pace with inflation and there is not enough staffing to keep up with patient demand.

They asked for a 25% wage increase over four years to make up for wages they say are at least 7% behind their peers.

Kaiser Permanente had countered with a 21.5% increase over four years. The company maintained that its union employees earn, on average, 16% more than their peers, and that it would have to charge customers more to meet strikers’ pay demands.

Clinics and hospitals remained open during the strike, with some in-person appointments shifted to virtual, and some elective surgeries and procedures rescheduled.

Kaiser Permanente operates one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health systems, serving 12.6 million members at 600 medical offices and 40 hospitals in largely western U.S. states. It is based in Oakland, California.

In New York City, nurses in the privately run NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital system approved a new contract Saturday, voting to end a major strike there after more than a month.

Two other big private hospital systems in New York, Montefiore and Mount Sinai, ended their nurses’ walkout earlier this month by inking contract agreements with the same union.