By MORIAH BALINGIT and CHARLOTTE KRAMON

Even with two incomes, Charity Pallum said she and her husband would not be able to afford child care for their 1-year-old twins. But because of federal child care subsidies, both Pallum, a teacher, and her husband, who works at a car dealership, are able to work full-time.

Now, the Trump administration is increasing the reporting burdens for states to access the money. If Pallum’s family were to lose that support, her husband might have to stop working, putting a pinch on their family budget.

“I guess our plans are, ’We’re just going to see how this goes,’” said Pallum, a teacher living in Ada, Minnesota.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on the $12 billion Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes care for 1.4 million children from low-income households, has rattled child care providers and families that rely on the aid money. Citing unspecified allegations of fraud, Trump administration officials are requiring states to provide extra documentation before receiving the money.

It’s unclear if or when child care providers and families like Pallum’s would feel the pinch. Some states, like Minnesota, also invest state resources in child care programs, which could insulate families from any impacts.

Child care centers are bracing for scrutiny and possible cuts

The administration announced last week that state officials will be required to provide additional information to receive the federal child care money. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a “freeze” that will require officials in five Democratic-led states to provide even more exhaustive documentation.

The department said it also would withhold other federal safety net money for those states — California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York — including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which supports low-income parents with children under 18 with direct payments and by providing them with child care.

The administration has not released information about the fraud allegations that prompted the new scrutiny.

HHS said in a statement that it “identified concerns that these benefits intended for American citizens and lawful residents may have been improperly provided to individuals who are not eligible under federal law.”

The actions raised fears of payment delays and disruptions for the beleaguered child care industry, which has been struggling under staff shortages, long waits for subsidy programs and the effects of the Trump administration crackdown on immigration.

“Child centers are always living on the margins. Our staff are never paid enough. We can’t charge families enough privately to cover what staffers make,” said Jeanie Harris, executive director of programs at First Learning, a group of child care centers in New York state. “So we’re always living on the margins, especially with the subsidy programs, and any change or hit our reimbursements is going to be a house of cards.”

Providers say they already face extensive regulations

Already, child care providers comply with extensive regulations to receive federal subsides. Dawn Uribe, who runs Mis Amigos Preschool with several Minnesota locations, said staff have to make sure kids sign in and out with the correct ID, and it can take a month to get paid for services. For years, inspectors have regularly visited to assess their records.

“There’s already so much oversight that goes into this so I don’t really understand how much more they can do,” Uribe said.

The legwork required to meet federal subsidy requirements has at times made Uribe question whether she wants to keep accepting children who receive subsidies. Ultimately, it’s worth it to ensure she can provide care to low-income kids who need it, she said.

“We’re doing the best we can, and it’s hard work,” Uribe said.

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Karen DeVos, who runs three childcare facilities in rural northwest Minnesota, is preparing her staff to pull records on the spot in case an investigator shows up unannounced. Daycare centers are regularly subjected to audits and attendance checks, she said.

“If we continue to view every provider as somebody who could be committing fraud, we are going to lose really valuable resources in our child care providers,” DeVos said. “There is only so much stress that people can take and not knowing every single day if somebody is going to knock on your door and accuse you of something is terrifying.”

Pallum said neither she nor her husband want to risk skipping paychecks if they lose the child care subsidy.

“We have responsibilities to our families and we have responsibilities to our work, and we want to maintain both,” said Pallum. With federal childcare funds, “we can give our twins a consistent schedule. They do so much for the twins and they do so much for us, just being consistent and being able to live up to our responsibilities as parents and as community members.”

The Associated Press’ education 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.

A Mahtomedi man has been put on probation for 15 years for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl who was lured to his apartment by an accomplice who gave her crack cocaine and also assaulted the teen.

Michael Lewis (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Michael Lewis, 69, was sentenced Wednesday in Washington County District Court after entering a Norgaard plea to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the teen’s June assault. Under a Norgaard plea, a defendant says they are unable to remember what happened due to drug use or mental health impairment at the time, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

Judge Juanita Freeman gave Lewis three years in prison, then stayed the sentence for 15 years in favor of probation. He was not ordered to serve additional days in the workhouse beyond the 152 that he’d already served since his arrest.

Lewis received the presumptive sentence under state sentencing guidelines, according to a spokesman for the Washington County Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Lewis’ accomplice, Billy Ray Wiley, looked for women and girls in the Twin Cities area, often approaching them near grocery stores or in the street in Minneapolis and St. Paul. He would offer them rides, drugs or money.

Wiley, 52, of Minneapolis, was convicted by a jury in November of two counts of sex trafficking and one each of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct after prosecutors said he brought the teen and a 20-year-old woman to the Mahtomedi apartment where they were given drugs and sexually assaulted. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26.

According to the criminal complaints:

Officers on June 30 were called to the Piccadilly Square Apartments, a 62-plus housing community near Wildwood and Stillwater roads, on a report of a teenager dancing in the parking lot and screaming, “no no no.” The person who called said an unknown man dropped her off about four hours earlier.

A man identified as Lewis stepped out the front door of the apartment. The teen, later identified as the 14-year-old, pointed to him and said she was with Lewis and one of his friends. Officers spoke with Lewis, who said he did not know the teen.

Officers searched her purse and found several unopened condoms and drug paraphernalia.

Billy Ray Wiley (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

She was taken to the hospital, where investigators met with her and asked how she knew the man who brought her to the apartment. She said he was a “friend,” who she referred to as “Billy,” and she said he often drove around her Minneapolis neighborhood.

The teen told investigators in a follow-up interview several days later that “when Wiley picked her up, she knew she would be expected to engage in sexual acts in exchange for money and drugs.” She said Wiley had given her crack cocaine and brought her to the apartment, where she was sexually and physically assaulted by Wiley and the other man. She identified Lewis as the man inside the apartment after looking at a photo.

Earlier, on June 13, a 20-year-old woman reported to St. Paul police that a man, later identified as Wiley, picked her up while she was waiting for a bus on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She said he brought her to an apartment, where he physically and sexually assaulted her.

After the assault, Wiley drove her to downtown St. Paul. Once she got out of the car, she asked people on the street for help and they flagged down an officer.

She told police he recorded the sexual assault on his phone, and investigators later recovered the video and identified the location as Lewis’ apartment.

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Law enforcement obtained a tracking warrant and arrested Wiley on July 8 when he drove by the Piccadilly apartments.

Law enforcement also arrested Lewis, and drug paraphernalia was found in his apartment.

A 17-year-old girl was in the car with Wiley. She said that earlier in the day, in the area of Dale Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, Wiley “pulled up right next to her and asked her what she needed. He then gave her a cigarette and asked if she wanted to go for a ride,” the complaints said.

She said they drove around for several hours, and he “told her that she was pretty and had a nice body,” the complaints said. She said she told Wiley several times to drop her off, but he kept driving.

The teen also told officers “that many girls who are struggling with addiction hang around Dale and University” and “said that Wiley is known to pick up a lot of girls in the area,” the complaints said.

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, AP Staff Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Venezuela’s oil industry has been in the spotlight since President Donald Trump used military force to capture the country’s leader, President Nicolas Maduro.

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In the days that followed, Trump said the U.S. would run Venezuela and tap its oil reserves. He said Venezuela stole U.S. oil, a reference to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s move decades ago to nationalize hundreds of foreign-owned assets, including those owned by American oil companies.

Trump floated a plan for those companies to return and rebuild Venezuela’s beleaguered oil industry. He later announced Venezuela would provide 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S. Then the administration “selectively” removed sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of Venezuelan oil to markets worldwide, saying the proceeds would settle in U.S.-controlled accounts and be disbursed to the American and Venezuelan populations, according to the Energy Department.

The moves may be part of a long-term strategy to gain a foothold in a nation with vast oil reserves.

Interest in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves

Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, and some energy analysts predict there won’t be enough oil to meet global demand in coming years.

The South American nation has an estimated 303 billion barrels of crude oil in the ground, which is about 17% of the world’s supply, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Unlike other parts of the world, where geologists have to search for untapped oil, the reserves under Venezuela’s soil are largely mapped and known, experts say. But because of dilapidated infrastructure, the country only produces about 1% of the world’s oil.

“Venezuela has enormous reserves,” said Claudio Galimberti, global market analysis director and chief economist at Rystad Energy. “If you ask any oil company around the world, go to their exploration team, their geologists, and ask them where is oil going to come from in the 2030’s and 2040’s, their answer is a rather scary, ‘We don’t know.’ So there is going to be a problem of finding oil in the next few years.”

In the short term, the global supply of oil exceeds demand, so increased production from Venezuela isn’t critically needed. But the International Energy Agency estimates that under current policies approximately 25 million barrels per day of new oil supply projects will be needed by 2035 to keep markets in balance.

A ship named Ithaca Patience, Panama, is docked on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Edgar Frias)

Possible help for U.S. refineries and consumers

The oil in Venezuela is heavy, sour crude, which is what refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast process, and there are only a handful of countries that produce it. By contrast, most oil produced in the U.S. is light, sweet crude. If Venezuelan oil flows freely, it could potentially reduce the price of oil and gasoline.

American refineries could benefit financially from processing more crude oil, and it could increase the availability of diesel and jet fuel, said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners.

“There seem to be two objectives. The first is to overall lower energy prices by adding to global supply, and second is to produce more of the heavy, sour crude that is currently in short supply relative to other grades,” Book said. “The first generally benefits end-users everywhere because lower prices reduce transportation and energy costs.”

More Venezuelan crude wouldn’t necessarily help U.S. oil producers, though, because having more oil on the market can lower oil prices, discouraging production and making it harder for those companies to remain profitable.

The options for major U.S. oil companies

After Chavez nationalized hundreds of private businesses and foreign-owned assets in 2007, including oil projects run by Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, international arbitration panels ordered Venezuela to repay billions of dollars to both companies, but the debts have yet to be collected.

In theory, if sanctions were lifted and Venezuela was under new leadership, major oil companies could invest in infrastructure and profit from the sale of oil.

Trump said he thinks Venezuela’s decimated oil industry could be rebuilt in less than 18 months with U.S. support. He envisions major oil companies returning to Venezuela to make those investments and profit from its oil industry.

But given the unrest and decades of badly damaged infrastructure, it’s unlikely to top the list of places oil companies would choose to invest, experts said.

“Imagine you are Exxon and you have global operations. Where are you going to put your money? Where it’s going to give you most return,” Galimberti said.

Companies also need assurance that assets won’t be taken again by a future government, said Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“You need to start with basic political stability before you’re going to have companies that are interested in making those kinds of investments,” Sternoff said. “We have more questions than answers over what the government of Venezuela will be.”

A ConocoPhillips spokesman said the company is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. “It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments” he said.

Exxon Mobil did not respond to a request for comment.

Production hurdles

Infrastructure and equipment that the oil industry needs to maintain and increase production has been badly damaged in recent years.

“There was a lot of chaos and looting, and so therefore there’s a tremendous amount of damage to the surface equipment for producing oil all around the country,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University. “There are a lot pipelines that are leaking, and it requires a massive cleanup, there’s just a lot of physical devastation.”

There are also massive fuel shortages and electricity blackouts frequently across the country, and “to really produce oil, you need to have a stable grid,” Jaffe said.

In addition, many workers with technical expertise have left the country. Millions of Venezuelans fled as a consequence of Chavez and Maduro, and “there has been tremendous brain drain,” Sternoff said.

Rystad Energy estimates it would take $54 billion of oil and gas investment over the next 15 years to keep Venezuela’s oil production flat at around 1.1 million barrels per day, and that with additional investment over two to three years an additional 300,000 barrels per day could be added. Going beyond 1.4 million barrels per day would require an additional $8 billion to $9 billion per year, the group said.

There’s also no precedent where a regime change in a major oil producing country has led to a rapid increase in output, Sternoff said. In most cases, such as Iraq, Iran, Libya and the Soviet Union, oil output fell significantly, often for years, before returning to prior peaks, he said.

“One of the lessons from Iraq is that the companies did go back, but that it was very difficult to operate when there was a difficult political and local backdrop that can range from insurgency to governance issues and corruption to infrastructure challenges,” Jaffe said.

By SYLVIE CORBET and THOMAS ADAMSON

PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot’s funeral was being held on Wednesday with a private service and a public homage in Saint-Tropez, the French Riviera resort where she lived for more than half a century after retiring from movie stardom at the height of her fame.

The animal rights activist and far-right supporter died Dec. 28 at age 91 at her home in southern France.

She died from cancer after undergoing two operations, her husband, Bernard d’Ormale, said in an interview with Paris Match magazine released Tuesday evening. “She was conscious and concerned about the fate of animals until the very end,” he said.

Residents and admirers applauded the funeral convoy as the coffin of Bardot, once one of the world’s most photographed women and a defining screen siren of the 1960s, was being carried through the town’s narrow streets.

A service started to the sound of Maria Callas’ “Ave Maria” at the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Catholic Church in the presence of Bardot’s husband, son and grandchildren, as well as guests invited by the family and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the protection of animals.

“Sadness is overwhelming, and pain too,” Max Guazzini, a friend and secretary general of the Foundation, said in a speech.

“We’re going to dream about her as if we were sleeping. In our dream, Brigitte arrives in a great, white immensity and suddenly … thousands of seals arrive,” he said. “All the animals she saved and she loved form a procession behind her … Thousands of animals say: Brigitte, we will miss you, we love you so much, thank you.”

Hundreds of people gathered in the small town to follow the farewell on large screens set up at the port and on two plazas.

Bardot is to be buried “in the strictest privacy” at a cemetery overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

She had long called Saint-Tropez her refuge from the celebrity that once made her a household name.

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A public homage was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at a nearby site for admirers of the woman whose image once symbolized France’s postwar liberation and sensuality.

“Brigitte Bardot will forever be associated with Saint-Tropez, of which she was the most dazzling ambassador,” the town hall said last week. “Through her presence, personality and aura, she marked the history of our town.”

Bardot settled decades ago in her seaside villa, La Madrague, and retired from filmmaking in 1973 at age 39, during an international career that spanned more than two dozen films.

She later emerged as an animal rights activist, founding and sustaining a foundation devoted to the protection of animals.

While she withdrew from the film industry, she remained a highly visible and often controversial public figure through decades of militant animal rights activism and links with far-right politics.

She will be buried in the so-called marine cemetery, where her parents are also interred.

The cemetery, overlooking the Mediterranean sea, is also the final resting place of several cultural figures, including filmmaker Roger Vadim, Bardot’s first husband, who directed her breakout film “And God Created Woman,” a role that made her a worldwide star.