A 14-year-old died and a 13-year-old was critically injured in a motorized scooter crash in St. Paul Tuesday morning.

Officers responded to the West Side about 8:50 a.m. on a report of a crash. The teens were riding a scooter together when the driver of a pickup truck struck them at Ohio and George streets, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman.

Preliminary information indicates the 14-year-old was driving the scooter in the street, ran a stop sign before the crash, and that neither of the teens were wearing helmets, Arcand said.

Officers provided first aid and St. Paul Fire Department medics transported the 14-year-old driver and the 13-year-old passenger to Regions Hospital. The 14-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the hospital. The 13-year-old boy was being treated for life-threatening injuries, according to police.

The pick-up driver did not show signs of impairment and is cooperating with the investigation, Arcand said.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that recent mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce.

U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose granted the preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May.

DuBose said the states had shown “irreparable harm,” from the cuts and were likely to prevail in their claims that “HHS’s action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law.”

“The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” DuBose wrote in a 58-page order handed down in U.S. district court in Providence.

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Her order blocks the Trump administration from finalizing layoffs announced in March or issuing any further firings. HHS is directed to file a status report by July 11.

The ruling applies to terminated employees in four different divisions of HHS: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug Administration; the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families and employees of regional offices who work on Head Start matters; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated more than 10,000 employees in late March and consolidated 28 agencies to 15. Since then, agencies including the CDC have repeatedly rescinded layoffs affecting hundreds of employees, including in branches that monitor HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.

The attorneys general argued that the massive restructuring was arbitrary and outside of the scope of the agency’s authority. The lawsuit also says the action decimated essential programs and pushed burdensome costs onto states.

“The intended effect … was the wholesale elimination of many HHS programs that are critical to public health and safety,” the lawsuit argued.

The cuts are part of a federal “Make America Healthy Again” directive to streamline costly agencies and reduce redundancies. Kennedy told senators at a May 14 hearing that there is “so much chaos and disorganization” at HHS.

But the restructuring had eliminated key teams that regulate food safety and drugs, as well as support a wide range of programs for tobacco, HIV prevention and maternal and infant health. Kennedy has since said that because of mistakes, 20% of people fired might be reinstated.

The states who joined the lawsuit have Democratic governors, and many of the same states — plus a few others — also sued the Trump administration over $11 billion in cuts to public health funding. A preliminary injunction was granted in that case in mid-May.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By KATIE WORKMAN

NEW YORK (AP) — If you have a cocktail scene in your neck of the woods (and it’s safe to say that I do in NYC), you might have noticed the words “pickle juice” appearing more often on drink menus.

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Pickles and pickle brine have been an ingredient that mixologists — and chefs — have played with for a long time, but they’re finally getting a star turn in beverage menus around the world.

Pickle juice is salty, tangy acidic, and sometimes a little spicy. It adds zing to all kinds of cocktails.

“Pickles are a great gateway into savory cocktails,” says Camille Goldstein, managing partner of Muddling Memories, a Brooklyn-based hospitality company that promotes beverages as an experience.

“The sweet-salty brine of a pickle really creates an interesting depth of flavor for your margarita, martini or even a highball.”

A drink called the Pickleback has been popular for years. Said to have originated at a Brooklyn bar called Bushwick Country Club, it consists of a shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle brine. Word spread.

Now, pickle juice has been making its way into all kinds of cocktails, from margaritas to martinis to micheladas. The pickle juice martini, in particular, has taken off; it’s kind of a twist on a dirty martini (usually made with olive juice).

It’s all part of a pickle and fermentation renaissance in many food categories.

The many variations of the pickle martini

Watering holes known for their pickle martinis include Rizzo’s Bar & Inn in Chicago; Belle’s Bagels, Delicatessen and Bar in Los Angeles; Maison Pickle and The Penrose in New York; Reata in Forth Worth, Texas; The Loutrel in Charleston, South Carolina; and Old Pony Martini Pub in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, among other places.

At The Penrose, they serve up about 100 pickle martinis a day, made with McClure’s Pickles spicy brine and ALB vodka, says bartender Heaven Cluesman. Once shaken, he says, the brine creates a foamy layer on top of the drink. A garnish of a couple of pickle slices on a skewer makes it clear what’s in the glass.

Casa Thirteen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (where Jewish immigrants sold pickles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) makes a spicy pickle martini with pickle juice spiked with hot peppers, vodka and vermouth (recipe below). The bartender, Reinaldo Maria, says the restaurant makes its own pickles, and cocktails are a good way to use the spicy brine — a nice little restaurant-kitchen ecosystem.

And beyond martinis

Pickle juice is a great foil to fatty foods, so a pickle juice cocktail is a nice accompaniment to burgers, steaks, chops, duck and other rich meals. But note: It contains a lot of sodium, so if you are reducing salt in your diet, keep that in mind.

Other pickle-juice drinks of note:

The “Mr. Pickles” shooter at The Barbershop Cuts and Cocktails in Las Vegas is a shot of whisky served with a hollowed-out pickle filled with pickle brine.

You’ll find a Pickle Negroni with gin, aquavit, vermouth, bitter bianco, cucumber and dill brine at Little Bear in Atlanta.

And at the Hollywood Lounge at Disneyland in California, there’s a Pickle Michelada, made with beer, pickle juice, tomato mix and chile lime seasoning, garnished with a pickle spear.

“The beauty of pickle brine is that it plays nicely and favorably with all the other aspects of flavors in a cocktail, aka bitter, sweet, salt, sour and spicy,” says Goldstein.

Fast-food restaurants put pickles in drinks

Pickle juice is appearing in more non-alcoholic drinks as well. Popeyes Chicken introduced Pickle Lemonade this spring as part of a limited-time-only pickle menu.

And V8 Grillo’s Pickles has partnered with Sonic on a limited-time, pickle-centric menu including the “Picklerita Slush,” a sweet-tart beverage made with pickle juice, lime and fizzy pickle “flavor bubbles” (topped with a Grillo’s Pickle Chip).

Making one at home

If pickles aren’t your thing, then it’s unlikely a pickle juice cocktail will be either. But if you like pickles, don’t knock it ’til you’ve sipped it.

To try a pickle cocktail at home, pick up a pack of Spritz Society’s Pickle Spritzers, made with wine, carbonated water and Claussen’s pickle juice. Or look for canned Dill Pickle Bloody Mary mix (non-alcoholic) from V8 Grillo’s Pickles. Enjoy it as a mocktail, or use it as a mixer and add a shot of your favorite spirit.

A spicy pickle martini, made with jalapeno pickle juice, vodka and vermouth, appears Casa Thirteen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. (Jack Barbour via AP)

Here’s one recipe:

Casa Thirteen’s Spicy Pickle Martini

The bar enhances their pickle juice with hot peppers, but you can use the strained brine from any store-bought spicy pickles. You could also add a splash of brine from pickled hot peppers to bump up the heat in your cocktail.

Ingredients:

.75 ounce spicy pickle juice

1½ ounces vodka (the bar uses Grey Goose, but any vodka will do)

.5 ounces dry vermouth

Pickled basque pepper or pickled jalapeno to garnish (optional)

Directions:

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the pickle juice, vodka and vermouth and shake until the outside of the shaker is ice cold. Strain and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with the pickled pepper, if desired. Serve cold.

Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.

For more AP food stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/recipes.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legally mandated U.S. national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world.

Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down Monday and Tuesday with no links, notes or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within NASA to comply with the law, but gave no further details.

Searches for the assessments on NASA websites did not turn them up. NASA did not respond to requests for information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which coordinated the information in the assessments, did not respond to repeated inquiries.

“It’s critical for decision makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is. That is the most reliable and well-reviewed source of information about climate that exists for the United States,” said University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs, who coordinated the 2014 version of the report.

“It’s a sad day for the United States if it is true that the National Climate Assessment is no longer available,” Jacobs said. “This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people’s access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts.”

Harvard climate scientist John Holdren, who was President Obama’s science advisor and whose office directed the assessments, said after the 2014 edition he visited governors, mayors and other local officials who told him how useful the 841-page report was. It helped them decide whether to raise roads, build seawalls and even move hospital generators from basements to roofs, he said.

“This is a government resource paid for by the taxpayer to provide the information that really is the primary source of information for any city, state or federal agency who’s trying to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who has been a volunteer author for several editions of the report.

Copies of past reports are still squirreled away in NOAA’s library. NASA’s open science data repository includes dead links to the assessment site.

The most recent report, issued in 2023, included an interactive atlas that zoomed down to the county level. It found that climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority and Native American communities often disproportionately at risk.

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The 1990 Global Change Research Act requires a national climate assessment every four years and directs the president to establish an interagency United States Global Change Research Program. In the spring, the Trump administration told the volunteer authors of the next climate assessment that their services weren’t needed and ended the contract with the private firm that helps coordinate the website and report.

Additionally, NOAA’s main climate.gov website was recently forwarded to a different NOAA website. Social media and blogs at NOAA and NASA about climate impacts for the general public were cut or eliminated.

“It’s part of a horrifying big picture,” Holdren said. “It’s just an appalling whole demolition of science infrastructure.”

The national assessments are more useful than international climate reports put out by the United Nations every seven or so years because they are more localized and more detailed, Hayhoe and Jacobs said.

The national reports are not only peer reviewed by other scientists, but examined for accuracy by the National Academy of Sciences, federal agencies, the staff and the public.

Hiding the reports would be censoring science, Jacobs said.

And it’s dangerous for the country, Hayhoe said, comparing it to steering a car on a curving road by only looking through the rearview mirror: “And now, more than ever, we need to be looking ahead to do everything it takes to make it around that curve safely. It’s like our windshield’s being painted over.”

Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental 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.