By ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Woike was cautiously optimistic when she saw news reports that the nearly $2 billion in grants that the Trump administration pulled from substance abuse and mental health programs around the country the previous day might be getting reinstated.

Then she got a 2 a.m. email Thursday from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reiterating the cuts — and didn’t know what to think anymore.

“I just shook my head. It’s mass chaos,” said Woike, the CEO of BestSelf Behavioral Health, a mental health and substance use disorder treatment provider in Buffalo, New York. As it turned out, the second termination letter was sent in error. She and roughly 2,000 other grant recipients nationwide were notified later Thursday morning that their federal funding had indeed been restored.

Woike’s feeling of whiplash over the past two days has been a common experience for providers, state health agencies and Americans who receive services amid the Trump administration eliminating, then abruptly reinstating, grants that support some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.

It builds on what program directors say has become a pattern of uncertainty from this administration, which has repeatedly canceled millions of dollars in federal funding without notice and at times reversed course in decisions about what will and won’t be covered. Woike said the unsteadiness makes it impossible for organizations like hers to make long-term plans.

“No one’s looking at expansion or really trying to ramp up services to meet the need in the community,” she said. “Everyone is just retrenching, looking at putting aside every penny and every resource.”

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Trump administration surprised grant recipients

The administration first notified grant recipients that their funding was being pulled in emailed letters Tuesday evening, according to copies received by organizations and reviewed by The Associated Press.

On Wednesday, several organizations told the AP they were already making difficult decisions in response to the cuts, including laying off employees and canceling scheduled trainings.

By Wednesday evening, news reports were suggesting the cuts might be reversed — but grant recipients hadn’t yet been notified of the change. Some of them said they instead received confusing emails overnight that duplicated their termination notices or instructed them on how to to close down their grants within 30 days.

It wasn’t until Thursday morning that grant recipients started getting form emails saying the grant terminations were “hereby rescinded.”

Even then, not everyone could rest easy. Sara Howe, CEO of the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, said members of her professional association are still nervous about whether their funding is guaranteed.

“Any time this happens, you wind up in a position where you’re like, is it OK to breathe?” Howe said. “It puts everybody on really unsteady, shaky ground.”

An administration official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed the grants were restored, but didn’t say why. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t answer a question about the administration’s reasoning and declined to comment on the confusion that resulted from the situation.

Democrats blast the administration

Democratic lawmakers erupted at the Trump administration for the uncertainty and stress they caused in cutting grants and then abruptly reversing course.

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro described Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision-making as dangerous and haphazard after grant recipients began laying off employees based on the original plans.

“He must be cautious when making decisions that will impact Americans’ health,” DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement. “I hope this reversal serves as a lesson learned.”

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin told the AP in a statement that the episode “caused chaos and real harm to Americans — and now, they need to come clean and give families some answers why they caused this mess.”

Providers said they were hustling to undo changes they’d already made in response to the cuts. Honesty Liller, CEO of the peer support organization the McShin Foundation in Richmond, Virginia, said she was working on the logistics of getting five laid-off employees their jobs back.

Ryan Hampton, founder of the nonprofit advocacy organization Mobilize Recovery, said he was relieved the funding was restored to his and other organizations, but criticized the administration for endangering lifesaving services in the first place.

“Restoring these grants was the only acceptable outcome, yet the chaos inflicted on frontline providers and families these past 24 hours is unforgivable,” he said. “We cannot normalize a political environment where overdose prevention and recovery are treated as leverage.”

With less than a dozen games remaining before the NHL takes a three-week break for the Winter Olympics, the Minnesota Wild find themselves getting younger on defense — and not by choice.

Veteran blue line presence Jonas Brodin — who missed four games in December due to a lower-body injury — is out of the lineup again, and this time the absence could be more lengthy.

Wild coach John Hynes said on Thursday morning that Brodin is once again beset by a lower-body injury, and is considered week to week. Brodin was one of four Wild players selected to skate for Team Sweden in next month’s Olympics. Hynes said he is still awaiting more information on the injury but said it was too early to rule Brodin in or out for the Winter Games.

Brodin played for Team Sweden at the World Championship last May and aggravated an injury that limited him in training camp. Hynes was asked if Wild general manager Bill Guerin would suggest Brodin skip the Olympics to be healthier for the Wild in March, April and a potential playoff run.

“I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I think that’s, obviously, something that’d be between Billy and Jonas,” Hynes said. “Right now, I think we’ll just see where he’s at and exactly what it is. I think there needs to be more things looked at in order for us to get to that point. … Maybe he’s ready before the Olympics, maybe he’s not. We don’t know at this point in time.”

The loss of Brodin comes as the Wild headed into Thursday night’s matchup with Winnipeg still missing veteran forward Joel Eriksson Ek — also a potential member of Team Sweden — and veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian.

Hynes said that he expects Eriksson Ek and Bogosian to accompany the Wild on their upcoming three-game road trip to Buffalo, Toronto and Montreal.

With the blue line looking thin, the Wild recalled defensemen David Spacek and Carson Lambos from Iowa on Thursday. Spacek, who was expected to make his NHL debut versus the Jets, said he was on the way to Costco in Des Moines, Iowa, when he got the call-up.

“We went there and turned around, got packed and went up to Minnesota,” said Spacek after the team’s morning skate on Thursday. Thurday’s game will be the NHL debut for David but not his family. His father, Jaroslav, played more than 900 NHL games for a handful of teams before retiring in 2012.

The NHL debut for David comes just days after he was named to Team Czechia for the Olympics.

“It’s just been piling up a little bit, but I’m very glad for both,” he said. “I’ll just go out there and have fun.”

Hynes, who coached Spacek in training camp and in the preseason, said he feels the rookie could contribute right away.

“I think he’s played some solid hockey. He’s a good puck-moving defenseman,” Hynes said. “Talking to the management … he’s played with efficiency, he’s defended well, he’s moved the puck well, positioning has been strong. So, just come in and keep doing what he’s doing.”

A fifth-round pick of the Wild in the 2022 NHL draft, Spacek has 19 points in 35 games for Iowa this season.

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Goaltending, it has been said, is 90% of the equation in hockey. And for top-ranked Michigan, it has been the key to much of the Wolverines’ success this season.

At a program that seemingly always has offensive depth, goaltending has been the missing link there in the past decade. But Michigan seemed to have that problem solved this season. They come to Minnesota this weekend with an 18-4-0 record, having lost just once since Thanksgiving.

And they also have a problem.

Freshman goalie Jack Ivankovic has been the every night puck-stopper for Michigan, and spent the holidays in the Twin Cities, winning a World Juniors bronze medal with Team Canada. Then disaster struck.

In a home win versus Notre Dame last weekend, Ivankovic was injured during a collision in the crease and is expected to miss the next month or more with a lower-body injury. The Wolverines will be playing another freshman, Stephen Peck, going forward.

Peck, who is from New York City, has one college game — a win — under his belt. Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said Ivankovic has been the team’s backbone this season and, despite the injury, they are planning more of the same when they visit a Gophers’ team that is 8-12-1 (4-6 Big Ten) and coming off a pair of road losses at Penn State last weekend.

“We’re not going to change our style of play because a different goalie’s in net,” Naurato said this week. “So, we have trust in Steve and will be good to go. Excited for the weekend.”

Gophers coach Bob Motzko is familiar with being forced to make a mid-season goalie change.

When he met with the media this week, it was four years to the day since Justen Close made his debut as Minnesota’s every night goalie after their mainstay — Jack LaFontaine — left the team in January 2022 to sign a professional contract. Forced to be “the guy” unexpectedly, Close backstopped a pair of trips to the Frozen Four, a pair of Big Ten titles, and a national runner-up finish in 2023.

“How many times have we seen that? A guy goes down, the next guy comes in and he’s just as good,” Motzko said. “The guy that went out had a terrific first half.”

Minnesota has not played a home game since before Thanksgiving and is quickly reaching a point of some desperation.

They’re sitting fifth in the seven-team conference and will likely have to win the conference tournament to get a NCAA tournament invite. As much as he believes veterans drive success, Motzko said one key to finishing strong will be getting his younger players to keep contributing.

“We don’t have a choice. That group is going to play in key roles,” Motzko said of his freshmen. “And we’re watching them grow up in front of us.”

Minnesota-Michigan is one of college hockey’s oldest rivalries, and there is a traveling trophy at stake, in addition to the host Gophers getting a shot at the team that sits atop the national polls. Motzko said rankings are of little importance anytime his team faces a foe wearing maize and blue.

“It wouldn’t matter what number you put by Michigan. They’re a really talented hockey team,” Motzko said. “Something we’ve gotten used to seeing around here. They’ve got offense out of all four lines and they’re feeling it.”

The games, at 3M Arena at Mariucci, face off at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday.

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Officials at the Basic Needs food pantry in Cottage Grove on Thursday were still trying to determine the location of a volunteer who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Wednesday afternoon in the organization’s parking lot.

“We don’t know where he is. We don’t know how he’s doing,” said Opey Peñaloga, the organization’s executive director. “We’ve been trying to reach his family. ICE showed up Monday, came back on Tuesday and then arrested him on Wednesday. We knew that they were there, we could see them, and so we were preparing ourselves.”

The man, whom Peñaloga described as “middle-aged and Latino,” has been volunteering at Basic Needs Food Market, located at 8475 E. Point Douglas Road, several times a week since October. The volunteer, a pastor who leads a Spanish-speaking congregation, helps shoppers at Basic Needs and provides translation services for Spanish-speaking customers, Peñaloga said.

The volunteer went on a break around 1 p.m. Wednesday, and “as he was coming back in the doors, they just pulled up out of nowhere,” he said. “They asked him for his documents, and he supplied them with whatever ID he had. … Whatever it was that he did show them wasn’t enough, you know, to satisfy them. They arrested him on the spot, just at the doors of our food market.”

Peñaloga declined to share the volunteer’s name. He said he does not know his immigration status, although he does not believe he is a citizen.

The arrest, which was captured on video, shows the man being loaded in the back of a black SUV in the parking lot.

“It is deeply upsetting,” Peñaloga said. “It has had our volunteers and shoppers on edge, and we have seen a noticeable decrease in shoppers of color. People, as you know, they’re keeping themselves safe at home, which poses the next problem: If they were using our services, they already had food insecurity, and so we’re working with other organizations that are local that can help us do food drops to their homes.”

City officials troubled

Basic Needs shared the news in a statement posted on social media on Wednesday night.

“Basic Needs is deeply troubled by the arrest and detention of one of our valued volunteers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today,” the statement reads. “We stand firmly with our community during this challenging time. Our commitment to serving all members of our community remains unwavering. We believe in the dignity and worth of every individual, and we will continue to provide support and resources to those who need them. Our doors remain open, and our mission continues. We will not be deterred from serving our community with the same dedication and care that you all expect and deserve.”

The arrest shows that ICE agents are everywhere in the Twin Cities, Peñaloga said, including in the suburbs. “I think people are under this false illusion that the suburbs are safe, but there are just too many ICE agents here,” he said. “They’re just all across the Twin Cities.”

City officials in Cottage Grove said they have heard reports from residents of apparent ICE activity within city limits, but said Cottage Grove police officers “are not notified of federal operations and do not participate in federal immigration enforcement activity.”

Mayor Myron Bailey said Thursday that he was “troubled” to hear about the arrest of the volunteer.

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“While I am unaware of the details surrounding this, I want to vocalize my support for Basic Needs and the incredible work they do as an organization in our community,” Bailey said. “Our staff and I are committed to continuing our communication with Basic Needs and their doors remain open as they continue to serve this community. I am deeply grateful for all that they do.”

Washington County Board Chair Karla Bigham, who represents Cottage Grove, decried the actions of ICE.

Basic Needs “is a community organization where people go to get food,” she said. “He was a volunteer. This is completely unacceptable and egregious. These actions are not making our community safer. They will prohibit residents and citizens from getting essential services, like food, due to fear of being wrongfully detained by ICE. Our community will step up and help our neighbors because that is who we are.”

Volunteers, donations needed

The Basic Needs Food Market is stocked daily with food rescues from local grocers and the South Washington County School District and donations from the public. It is open from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays.

Many clients are seniors, and many are Hispanic, Hmong and East African, according to Peñaloga.

Basic Needs is in need of additional volunteers “to help us keep the food market open,” he said. “We have volunteers who are conflicted about coming in. Some people maybe don’t share that same level of fear, and if they’d like to volunteer, and come on in, that’s what we need.”

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The organization also is putting out a call for donations because “we’ve doubled our food orders, and we have to buy culturally specific food, especially for our East African neighbors,” said Peñaloga, who joined the organization, formerly known as Stone Soup, in 2024. “That’s much more expensive than just general food.”

In addition to the food market, Basic Needs, based in St. Paul Park, runs the Basic Needs Thrift Shop in St. Paul Park.

Peñaloga said organization staff and volunteers are committed to continuing their “important work.”

“We’re continuing to ground our work in the belief that every person deserves access to basic needs and to be treated with humanity regardless of their circumstances,” Peñaloga said. “We all have a job to do, and our job is to get food out to our neighbors in need, and we’re going to keep doing that.”