By Kat Odell, Bloomberg News

Get ready to step up to the counter for some of the year’s more anticipated cooking.

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If there’s one restaurant trend to get excited about, it’s pedigreed chefs reinventing the concept of walk-up counters where customers order, then seat themselves. It’s an efficient model that allows operators to trim labor costs while featuring fine-dining-calibre ingredients.

The trend reflects the general movement of optimizing restaurants to meet the current moment. Inflation and rising living costs have generally left diners more selective on how and where they’ll spend their money. With that in mind, many luxury dining-room alums are opening more accessible, amped-up comfort food spots where the specialty ranges from hand rolls to cuts of beef at modern steakhouses, served with large-format martinis.

But if you thought fine dining is done, think again. Tasting menus are another unlikely trend given the eroding demand for fine dining. Chefs are leaning into the experiential side with meals that are theatrical, playful and even educational — and often involve dining in multiple settings.

And then there’s premium Japanese cuisine, a trend that shows no signs of abating this year. Some of Tokyo’s most vaunted sushi specialists and wagyu champions will arrive in the U.S. with their first outposts outside of Tokyo, looking to attract a larger, more global and affluent audience in cities like New York and Miami, where enthusiasts are lined up. Get ready for the most exciting openings coming in 2026.

Casual Counters Come Back

Fatback, Chicago

Barbecue champ Charlie McKenna’s new place in the Loop is a combination sandwich shop, butcher counter and specialty market (think high-end pantry staples like pastas, sauces and olive oil). Inspired by 1950s French butchers, with a vintage restored Berkel slicer inside a glass case by the entrance, McKenna will offer butchered steaks and chickens and a range of sandwiches like French dips and country ham and butter, constructed from high-quality meats with housemade sauces. Opening: winter

Safta’s Table, New Orleans

Chef Alon Shaya speeks to guests during Dinner with Alon Shaya and Andrew Zimmern presented by Boisson during Food Network New York City Wine& Food Festival presented by Capital One on Oct. 15, 2022, in New York City. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images North America/TNS)

Alon Shaya — who introduced modern Israeli food to New Orleans a decade ago — is opening a casual, all-day Mediterranean cafe in Lakeview. The 50-seat counter-service spot, part of a mixed-use development, will have bright white and blond wood design with retro color pops when its completed. On Safta’s menu: harissa glaze-roasted chicken; ginger-garlic-marinated salmon; sides like hummus with lamb ragu; and the chef’s signature sourdough pitas from a wood-fired oven, plus halvah lattes and wine on tap Shaya will also sell prepared casseroles, like lasagna Bolognese and spanakopita. Opening: late February

Rye Bunny, Washington

After nearly a decade helming the influential Tail Up Goat, the husband-and-wife team of Jill Tyler and chef Jon Sybert will reopen the 2,000-square-foot space as Rye Bunny. At the counter-service, 84-seat restaurant, the menu — which changes weekly — might include charred Napa cabbage with fennel pollen breadcrumbs, as well as date-molasses-glazed fried chicken flecked with benne seeds. Beverage director Audrey Dowling will focus on international small-production wines and a rotating list of three classic cocktails. The warm, folk-craft decor will include rag rugs, patchwork tile floors and string lights. Opening: spring

Tasting Menus Emphasize Experience

Maize, Denver

Johnny Curiel and his wife, Kasie — the couple behind the rustic-modern hit Alma Fonda Fina — will spotlight their devotion to masa at a place with their first Mexican tasting menu. The $225, 18-course menu, served twice nightly, will allow eight guests per seating to move through a sequence of spaces within the restaurant, with each one spotlighting nixtamalized in-house corn. A raw counter offers bites like vivid green hoja santa and chlorophyll tamale topped with Hokkaido uni. A glass-enclosed room has drinks with ferments such as pulque (the alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave sap) and atole agrio (made from fermented masa). At another counter, entrees made à la minute might include squab in mole amarillo made with subtly smoky chile costeño, alongside dry-aged Colorado lamb rack finished with tropical-tasting mole manchamanteles. Opening: spring

Oyatte, New York

In Murray Hill, the 30-seat bilevel restaurant is a collaboration between Hasung Lee, a veteran of the French Laundry and Atomix, and Brett Ellis, the French Laundry’s former head farmer. Ellis is now the force behind Crown Daisy Farm in upstate New York, and his sustainable produce, from radicchio to radishes, will anchor Lee’s contemporary seasonal menu. (Barn wood from the farm also went into Oyatte’s design. Meals will begin with canapés on the ground floor, then guests will head upstairs into a pair of intimate dining rooms for the tasting menu. They’ll open serving wine and beer with the possibility of a Champagne cart and wine-based cocktails made table side. Opening: spring

Comfort Food Gets Amped

JouJou, San Francisco

Early this year, Colleen Booth and chef David Barzelay, the duo behind the Bay Area’s renowned Lazy Bear, will open the more laid-back French-rooted JouJou. The seafood-leaning menu will be inspired by the French West Indies and New Orleans, via plates such as lobster and mango salad and king salmon almondine. The 6,000-square-foot space will encompass a raw bar, a sunken-garden dining room, a booth-lined main dining area and a glass-enclosed patio lounge where guests can order seasonal takes on classics like kir royales and French 75s. Opening: winter

Lion’s Share, Nashville

Robbie Wilson, the chef who ran the acclaimed Bird Dog in Palo Alto, California, is headed to Sylvan Park in Nashville, where his multilevel, 100-seat live-fire restaurant will evoke a modern British colonial hunting lodge centered on a custom-built hearth. There Wilson will sear dry-aged proteins, from fish to game birds to beef. Think shima aji (Japanese striped jack) with a mandarin kosho paste; swordfish belly with za’ tar spice and calamansi; and New York strip and filet served on the bone, au poivre. The blue-ceilinged lounge will specialize in old-world wines such as Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Opening: late January

Saverne, New York

Over a decade after opening his eponymous fine-dining Midtown restaurant, chef Gabriel Kreuther is expanding to the Spiral at Hudson Yards with a 5,000-square-foot wood-fired brasserie. The 120-seat, light-filled space with an open kitchen was designed by prolific New York firm Modellus Novus with rosewood-toned walls and a quartzite bar. Kreuther’s a la carte menu channels his Alsatian roots (the restaurant is named for a town there) with dishes such as slow-cooked rabbit with mustard, as well as braised country bacon with beer and sauerkraut. Opening: early February

Ox & Olive Steakhouse, Washington

As a follow-up to his decorated dining rooms Jônt and Bresca, Ryan Ratino will focus on beef in a 2,500-square-foot, 60-seat steakhouse in Georgetown. Meals will kick off with a nonalcoholic table-side martini before moving into dishes like steak tartare éclairs; steak frites paired with a chocolate shake and wagyu flank; and dry-aged porterhouse with housemade A.1. sauce. Beverage director Will Patton is building an expansive (actual) martini program, complete with a large-format offering. Design-wise, expect an old-world aesthetic with animal furs, antlers and candlelight. Opening: Early Spring

Maru San, Washington

Chef Carlos Delgado, the force behind DC’s Peruvian tasting-menu spot Causa, is spotlighting Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei-style hand rolls in a moody 1,000-square-foot Capitol Hill space anchored by a 25-seat black stone dining counter below a giant octopus mural. Delgado’s rolls might be filled with white fish like snapper, crispy sweet potato chips and the Peruvian citrus marinade leche de tigre. Small plates like a wagyu tataki riff showcase seared beef and aji panca (Peruvian chile) in pickled ají amarillo (yellow chile) sauce. Alongside will be sake and Japanese and Peruvian beers. At night, Delgado will offer a tasting menu for just four guests, with dishes like a chirashi-ceviche hybrid: sushi rice folded with uni, topped with seasonal aged fish and tangy ceviche sauce. Opening: January

Gingie, Chicago

Eleven Madison Park’s longtime chef de cuisine Brian Lockwood has decamped to Chicago, where he’s teamed up with the hit-making Boka Restaurant Group to open this vast, 5,500-square-foot, 150-seat River North restaurant. In a space dressed in burgundy marble and white oak paneling, Lockwood will highlight an à la carte menu that includes nontraditional hand rolls with fillings like Peekytoe crab with miso-cured egg yolk and horseradish, as well as American wagyu with a ricotta dumpling. Boka’s Ashley Santoro’s drinks program emphasizes cocktails with savory flavors and rare ingredients, plus old-world wines and premium sakes. Opening: February

The Unstoppable Japanese Wave

Oniku Karyu, Miami

The Design District will soon be home to the American debut of Tokyo’s acclaimed wagyu-focused omakase from chef Haruka Katayanagi in partnership with restaurateur Andre Sakai. The tiny space — it’s only 500 square feet — has a 10-seat counter and minimalist Japanese aesthetic with white oak millwork, hay-embedded plaster walls and sliding panels that reveal a concealed chef’s table and sake room. Katayanagi protégé Hiroshi Morito will helm the $350 menu of exceptionally marbled Tajimaguro wagyu in dishes like katsu sando, a taco course and traditional sukiyaki. The beverage program includes premium sakes and a handful of red and white wines. Opening: January

Nikuya Tanaka, New York

Karyu isn’t the only high-end Japanese beef project from Sakai. In the spring, he’ll bring an outpost of Nikuya Tanaka, the lauded Ginza kappo-style wagyu spot from chef Satoru Tanaka, to Tribeca in New York. At the 10-seat counter, beef dishes will range from sashimi to shabu-shabu and tempura. Upstairs will be the first international location of Land Bar Artisan where Daisuke Ito is famed for his precise fruit-forward drinks, styled to customers’ tastes down to the spirit and sugar levels. Opening: spring

Sushi Yoshitake, New York

On the mezzanine level at the new 550 Madison development, Masahiro Yoshitake of Tokyo’s iconic three-Michelin-starred Sushi Yoshitake will make his New York debut with two eight-seat counters. His multicourse omakase shows off the chef’s restrained minimalist Edomae style and love of aged fish. It’s part of restaurateur Simon Kim’s highly anticipated expansion to Midtown that also includes an outpost of Cote Korean steakhouse (more below). Opening: spring

Sushi Mitani, New York

Legendary Tokyo sushi chef Yasuhiko Mitani of the vaunted Sushi Mitani arrives in Manhattan with his first international location inside Midtown’s Lotte New York Palace hotel. Unlike most top sushi spots, Mitani will serve lunch as well as dinner, offering a premium omakase with extended seafood aging and minimal modern nigiri embellishments. Guests sitting at two six-seat counters set in private rooms will have the option to pair the meal with Champagne, wine, sake or tea. Opening: May

Empire Extenders

Lapaba, Los Angeles

Star chef Nancy Silverton is expanding her range beyond Italian in this Korean-accented pasta bar in Koreatown. In an Avengers-like move, she’s teamed up with other notable hospitality stars including Tanya and Joe Bastianich and local restaurateur Robert Kim to open the 2,200-square-place. It will be led by Silverton’s protégés, husband-and-wife team Matthew Kim and McKenna Lelah. A snaking, semicircular white-and-gray-marble-topped dining counter wraps around an open kitchen, with a handful of round tables tucked to the side. On the menu: dishes like dduk (Korean rice cake) cacio e pepe, as well as tonnarelli pasta in a sauce made from kombu, clams and chorizo. The pasta, handmade in front of guests, can be paired with cocktails such as makgeolli-laced negroni sbagliato and a soju-and-persimmon hot toddy. Opening: January

Cantina Contramar, Las Vegas

Fontainebleau Las Vegas will be home to the latest from celebrated Mexico City chef Gabriela Cámara. Cantina Contramar is being designed by architect Frida Escobedo (who’s also designing the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Tang Wing) and will feature a dining room and bar serving new dishes as well as CDMX icons like the soy-and-orange-seasoned raw tuna tostada and whole butterflied grilled fish lacquered in contrasting smoky red and herbaceous green adobos. The agave-based drinks program will be created by Casa Dragones co-owner Bertha González Nieves. Opening: early spring

Chimera and Cote Madison, New York

When Cote founder Simon Kim decided to expand his popular Korean barbecue empire uptown, he was determined to go big. The new 15,000-square-foot Rockwell Group-designed space at 550 Madison in the Sony building contains three concepts. One is Sushi Yoshitake (above). The second, on the ground floor, is Chimera, which will operate as a lunch-and-dinner restaurant with an under-wraps food concept and three distinct bars, each centered on a specific drink. And then there’s the buzz about a second Cote location, located in a dramatically lit subterranean area. There, executive chef David Shim will serve Cote classics like Butcher’s Feast and the build-your-own caviar and sea urchin gimbap rice roll, alongside new, yet-to-be-announced dishes. Opening: April

Brasserie Boulud, New York

Last year, mega chef Daniel Boulud announced that his three long-time Upper West Side properties — Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud and Épicerie Boulud — would become one massive space, Brasserie Boulud, on Broadway and 64th Street. The 10,000-square-foot all-day bistro will span two floors, with most of the 200-seat action on the renovated lower level, including the central gray-marble-topped bar and main dining room with dark brown leather booths. The straightforward French service will start in the morning with coffee and croissants, and later in the day, it will transition to steak frites and roast chicken. At the back, a separate 20-seat red-and-gold-toned bar and lounge will mix craft cocktails for the Lincoln Center crowd across the street. Opening: spring

©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Edward Lotterman

President Trump’s attention has passed on from seizing control of Venezuela to seizing control of Greenland and seizing control of Minnesota.

But he took on a big task when he said he was also “president of Venezuela” and saying that our nation was going to run it. The task will be far more complicated than he can imagine. So I suggest he start now.

The longer he delays, the harder gaining control will be. In the meantime, citizens can ponder just why our leader opened such a huge can of worms. Consider the following.

A sordid history

Trump’s decision to “run” another nation in the hemisphere has precedent in history. The U.S. military governed the Dominican Republic for eight years from 1916 into 1924 and again for 17 months in 1965-1966. We ruled adjoining Haiti longer, 15 years from 1919 into 1934. We governed Nicaragua for 21 years, 1912 through 1933. In all we installed dictators who were increasingly inept, corrupt and brutal over long terms and produced stagnant economies. Outside of our announced goals of keeping either the German or British navies from capturing the Panama Canal, we gained nothing. In all cases, we ended up asking, “How do we get the heck out of here?” That will happen again.

Less oil that people think

Venezuela claims some 300 billion barrels of oil reserves. If true, they own about a sixth of all the known reserves on the planet. But while there are generally used terms about “reserves,” there is no standard methodology for estimating them. British Petroleum makes annual tabulations for all countries based on available information. Many other nations issue their own. Accuracy varies with actual data from seismic surveys and test drilling. Most indexes include caveats such as “with current technology” and “at current prices.” Both of these change over time. Lower prices mean lower recoverable reserves.

However, the most important caveat about Venezuela’s 300 billion figure is that it was simply issued when Hugo Chávez still was president. That was an increase from 80 billion beforehand and was due to adding acidic tar-like deposits in the Orinoco Basin.

Venezuelan oil is not that valuable

Even with a still sizable 80 billion barrels, Venezuela’s oil is not as valuable as some think. The problem is that virtually all is graded “heavy” and “sour.” Heavy means it is very thick, some requiring heating to be pumpable. Sour means it contains sulfur compounds that make it acidic, sometimes to the point that all piping and refinery equipment has to be made of stainless steel. That means only a small number of refineries can process it without major upgrades in their facilities.

Yes, decades ago, U.S. refineries did handle larger quantities of Venezuelan crude, but many no longer have that capability. Chevron, the one U.S. company that past administrations allowed to continue operating there, could expand refining as it expands production. But overall, Venezuelan crude is not highly desirable and sells at lower prices than crudes that are “light” and “sweet,” often a fourth less than that from west Texas, North Dakota, Saudi Arabia or Nigeria.

U.S. gas prices will change little

Even though we import some 6 million barrels of crude and refined petroleum a day, and run 17 million barrels through our refineries, we are a net exporter of some 2 million barrels. In other words, we are not a closed market. Our prices vary with world prices. Industry sources say that if we import more from Venezuela we will simply cut imports of heavier grades we buy from Saudi Arabia. Just as federal farm subsidies to growers of internationally-traded corn and soybeans don’t cut the price of vegetable oils on U.S. store shelves, more Venezuelan crude will change little at gas pumps.

Money from Venezuelan oil already has many claimants

The president talks of what can be done with money from the sale of Venezuelan oil as if it is pot of money that can be grabbed without harm to others. He is already setting up accounts in an opaque Qatari bank to be controlled by him. This leads some to wonder if the whole operation is just to shift a flow of money from a small-time grifter to a much larger grifter.

Supposedly it is a way for money to be funneled back to the corrupt and inept still-Chávista government of Venezuela now headed by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez without being attached legally by creditors such as U.S-based Exxon-Mobil. That firm is due at least $1.6 billion for assets expropriated by Chávez in 2007. Laundering the money through Qatar is billed as a way for the money to benefit the Venezuelan people by keeping the government operating and supplying at least minimal health and educational and other services to them. Time will tell.

In any case, some 250,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil a day, about a third of current total output, belong to Chevron. The company and people connected to it have given large amounts to Trump’s campaign and inauguration funds. Chevron is the one company capable of increasing output with current assets, saying it could double its current 300,000 barrels a day. That would increase current total output by a third. But Chevron will not release increased revenues to anyone other than royalties to Venezuela that already apply.

Ramping up oil production take longer than some think

Most of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is worn out junk after decades of inept administration by Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. or PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, and by decades of sanctions. Existing wells themselves need to be “worked over” to restore output. New wells take time to be sited, drilled, developed and connected to gathering pipelines. Pipelines, storage and loading facilities need to be built along with equipment to process oil for shipping by removing water, sediment and other contaminants. Chevron’s facilities are the only exception. Such infrastructure is complex and cannot simply be purchased from some “oil equipment R Us,” shipped to Venezuela and hooked up like a new clothes washer.

The crucial question is whether new facilities will be operational before the end of Trump’s term in three years. The answer is not much of it. Companies know this.

Others in the hemisphere will suffer

While governments and people of many other nations in the region are glad to see the Chávista-Maduro regime gone, Trump’s aggressive move to assert U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere is not popular. This is realpolitik in action. We have directly intervened militarily, backed military coup d’etats or supported brutal dictators who favored U.S. fruit, oil, sugar and other interests, and politically repressed leftists who might have favored deeper relations with the USSR. I know, I was a pimple-faced clerk in the large U.S. military mission to Brazil 58 years ago. Then its military government was torturing political prisoners with the guidance of U.S. “public safety” advisers working for USAID. Brazil’s past president Dilma Rousseff was one of them, and the brother of current president Luis Ignacio da Silva suffered particularly horrific acts. Similar cases could be found in a dozen other nations.

But it is not just that. There is a 250-year history of Latin Americans asserting their equality as nations and the United States asserting that they are subordinates. No one likes being bullied even if the bully does not beat them up anymore. Other than for some right-wingers like Jair Bolsonaro’s followers in Brazil, Trump is highly unpopular in the region as are his policies.

China will be the net gainer

The upshot is that America First — whether home or abroad — boosts the standing of China, the obvious economic alternative to the USA, just as it undercuts our own. People and governments are wary of China, but it does not threaten them the way the current administration does, and it is far more willing to spend money on infrastructure projects and industrial investments. People and governments see China as a poor second best but resent being forced to kowtow to our president.

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The issue of exactly how Trump plans to “govern” Venezuela and how he expects that dominance to be extended after his term ends is yet another, even larger, can of worms.

St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

By Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, Oona Zenda, KFF Health News

Just hours after Rhonda Swaney left a prenatal appointment for her first pregnancy, she felt severe pain in her stomach and started vomiting.

Then 25 years old and six months pregnant, she drove herself to the emergency room in Ronan, Montana, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, where an ambulance transferred her to a larger hospital 60 miles away in Missoula. Once she arrived, the staff couldn’t detect her baby’s heartbeat. Swaney began to bleed heavily. She delivered a stillborn baby and was hospitalized for several days. At one point, doctors told her to call her family. They didn’t expect her to survive.

“It certainly changed my life — the experience — but my life has not been a bad life,” she told KFF Health News.

Though her experiences were nearly 50 years ago, Swaney, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said Native Americans continue to receive inadequate maternal care. The data appears to support that belief.

(Oona Zenda/KFF Health News/TNS) (Oona Zenda/KFF Health News/TNS)

In 2024, the most recent year for which data for the population is available, Native American and Alaska Native people had the highest pregnancy-related mortality ratio among major demographic groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In response to this disparity, Native organizations, the CDC, and some states are working to boost tribal participation in state maternal mortality review committees to better track and address pregnancy-related deaths in their communities. Native organizations are also considering ways tribes could create their own committees.

State maternal mortality review committees investigate deaths that occur during pregnancy or within a year after pregnancy, analyze data, and issue policy recommendations to lower death rates.

According to 2021 CDC data, compiled from 46 maternal mortality review committees, 87% of maternal deaths in the U.S. were deemed preventable. Committees reported that most, if not all, deaths among Native American and Alaska Native people were considered preventable.

Our matriarchs, our moms, are what carries a nation forward.

State committees have received federal money through the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, which President Donald Trump signed in 2018.

But the money is scheduled to dry up on Jan. 31, when the short-term spending bill that ended the government shutdown expires.

Funding for the committees is included in the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026. That bill must be approved by the House, Senate, and president to take effect.

Native American leaders said including members of their communities in maternal mortality review committee activities is an important step in addressing mortality disparities.

In 2023, tribal leaders and federal officials met to discuss four models: a mortality review committee for each tribe, a committee for each of the 12 Indian Health Service administrative regions, a national committee to review all Native American maternal deaths, and the addition of Native American subcommittees to state committees.

Whatever the model, tribal sovereignty, experience, and traditional knowledge are important factors, said Kim Moore-Salas, a co-chair of the Arizona Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She’s also the chairperson of the panel’s American Indian/Alaska Native mortality review subcommittee and a member of the Navajo Nation.

“Our matriarchs, our moms, are what carries a nation forward,” she said.

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Mental health conditions and infection were the leading underlying causes of pregnancy-related death among Native American and Alaska Native women as of 2021, according to the CDC report analyzing data from 46 states.

The CDC found an estimated 68% of pregnancy-related deaths among Native American and Alaska Native people happened within a week of delivery to a year postpartum. The majority of those happened between 43 days and a year after birth.

The federal government has a responsibility under signed treaties to provide health care to the 575 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. through the Indian Health Service. Tribal members can receive limited services at no cost, but the agency is underfunded and understaffed.

A study published in 2024 that analyzed data from 2016 to 2020 found that approximately 75% of Native American and Alaska Native pregnant people didn’t have access to care through the Indian Health Service around the time of giving birth, meaning many likely sought care elsewhere. More than 90% of Native American and Alaska Native births occur outside of IHS facilities, according to the agency. For those who did deliver at IHS facilities, a 2020 report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General found that 56% of labor and delivery patients received care that did not follow national clinical guidelines.

The 2024 study’s authors also found that members of the population were less likely to have stable insurance coverage and more likely to have a lapse in coverage during the period close to birth than non-Hispanic white people.

Cindy Gamble, who is Tlingit and a tribal community health consultant for the American Indian Health Commission in Washington, has been a member of the state’s maternal mortality review panel for about eight years. In the time she’s been on the state panel, she said, its composition has broadened to include more people of color and community members.

The panel also began to include suicide, overdose, and homicide deaths in its data analysis and added racism and discrimination to the risk factors considered during its case review process.

Solutions need to be tailored to the tribe’s identity and needs, Gamble said.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Gamble said, “because of all the beliefs and different cultures and languages that different tribes have.”

Gamble’s tenure on the state committee is distinctive. Few states have tribal representation on maternal mortality review committees, according to the National Indian Health Board, a nonprofit organization that advocates for tribal health.

The National Council of Urban Indian Health is also working to increase the participation of Urban Indian health organizations, which provide care for Native American people who live outside of reservations, in state maternal mortality review processes. As of 2025, the council had connected Urban Indian health organizations to state review committees in California, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.

Native leaders such as Moore-Salas find the current efforts encouraging.

“It shows that state and tribes can work together,” she said.

In March 2024, Moore-Salas became the first Native American co-chair of Arizona’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. In 2025 she and other Native American members of the committee developed guidelines for the American Indian/Alaska Native subcommittee and reviewed the group’s first cases.

The subcommittee is exploring ways to make the data collection and analysis process more culturally relevant to their population, Moore-Salas said.

But it takes time for policy changes to create widespread change in the health of a population, Gamble said. Despite efforts around the country, other factors may hinder the pace of progress. For example, maternity care deserts are growing nationally, caused by rapid hospital and labor and delivery unit closures. Health experts have raised concerns that upcoming cuts to Medicaid will hasten these closures.

Despite her experience and the ongoing crisis among Native American and Alaska Native people, Swaney hopes for change.

She had a second complicated pregnancy soon after her stillbirth. She went into labor about three months early, and the doctors said her son wouldn’t live to the next morning. But he did, and he was transferred about 525 miles away from Missoula to the nearest advanced neonatal unit, in Salt Lake City.

Her son, Kelly Camel, is now 48. He has severe cerebral palsy and profound deafness. He lives alone but has caregivers to help with cooking and other tasks, said Swaney, 73.

He “has a good sense of humor. He’s kind to other people. We couldn’t ask for a more complete child.”

©2026 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

One welcome effect of President Donald Trump’s intervention in Venezuela that led to the capture of strongman Nicolás Maduro is the release of political detainees in the South American nation. It appears that another authoritarian regime, this one in Central America, has taken notice: Nicaragua.

This month, the Nicaraguan government announced the release of dozens of political prisoners after the U.S. ramped up pressure on President Daniel Ortega’s regime. Of course, anything coming from Nicaragua has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Ortega, 80, has been in power for almost two decades.

Without a hint of irony, the government stated the official reason for the prisoner release was to commemorate Ortega’s 19 years of rule. There was no mention of who was released and under what conditions, but a day earlier, the U.S. Embassy lamented that “more than 60 people remain unjustly detained or disappeared, including pastors, religious workers, the sick, and the elderly.”

Nicaragua doesn’t have oil reserves like Venezuela or a strong lobby of exiles like Cuba, but it is as ruthless as the other two dictatorships in the region. Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who is now “co-president,” have managed so far to remain under the radar of the Trump administration, but there are signs this might be changing.

A recent post from the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs stated: “Nicaraguans voted for a president in 2006, not a lifetime of an illegitimate dynasty.” U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a Trump ally, also said Nicaragua “will get fixed.”

The Ortega-Murillo regime is known for arbitrary detentions of political adversaries, religious leaders and journalists. The couple has stripped hundreds of Nicaraguans of their citizenship and possessions and more than 5,000 religious and civic organizations have been shuttered. Thousands have fled the country.

After Maduro’s fall, the Nicaraguan regime seems to be in survival mode, doing the bare minimum to avoid international scrutiny, but at the same time, repression is still business as usual. A human rights group reported that roughly 60 people were detained for expressing support for Maduro’s capture.

Ortega and Murillo are doubling down on their police state, increasing surveillance in neighborhoods and social media monitoring, El País reported. An analyst interviewed by the Spanish newspaper added that the Nicaraguan “power couple” is increasingly paranoid. This is a sign of weakness that the U.S. could exploit.

There are plenty of reasons why the Trump administration should increase pressure on Nicaragua through political and diplomatic channels. For one, the country has enhanced its ties with Russia and China while remaining defiant in its relationship with the U.S.

Nicaragua is also a transit point for drug cartels. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration was set to leave the country due to Nicaragua’s rampant corruption and lack of cooperation, but at least one White House official told Politico that the Central American nation has been changing its tune lately.

The Trump administration should not be fooled. The Ortega-Murillo regime is not interested in drug cooperation, but only in its own survival.

— The Dallas Morning News

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