By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force says in a new memo that transgender airmen ousted under a recent Trump administration directive will no longer have the chance to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving their country.

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The memo dated Tuesday says military separation boards cannot independently decide whether to keep or discharge transgender airmen and instead “must recommend separation of the member” if the airman has a diagnosis of gender dysphoria — when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.

Military legal experts who have been advising transgender troops told The Associated Press that the new policy is unlawful, and while they were not aware of the other services releasing similar memos, they fear it could serve as a blueprint across the military. Advocacy groups say the change threatens to weaken trust in the military’s leadership.

It is the second policy change the Air Force has taken in recent weeks to crack down on transgender service members. The Associated Press reported last week that the Air Force would deny transgender troops early retirement benefits and was moving to revoke requests already approved.

The Air Force declined to answer questions about the policy and its legal implications.

The service provided a statement saying the new guidance “is consistent with and responsive to Department of Defense policy regarding Service members with a diagnosis of, or history of, or exhibiting symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria.”

How the boards usually work

The boards traditionally offer a quasi-legal hearing to determine if a service member set to depart is still of value to the military and should stay on. Fellow service members hear evidence of whatever wrongdoing occurred and about the person’s character, fitness and performance.

The hearings are not a formal court, but they have much the same structure. Service members are often represented by lawyers, they can present evidence in their defense and they can appeal the board’s findings to federal court.

The Pentagon’s policy on separating officers notes that they are entitled to “fair and impartial” hearings that should be “a forum for the officer concerned to present reasons the contemplated action should not be taken.”

This impartial nature means that the boards can sometimes reach surprising conclusions.

For example, the three active-duty Marines who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were retained.

The commanding officer of the USS McCain, a destroyer that collided with an oil tanker in the Pacific in 2017, killing 10, was not recommended for separation in 2019.

Military lawyers decry the Air Force change

Priya Rashid, a military lawyer who has represented service members before hundreds of separation boards, said she “has never seen an order like this.”

“I’ve seen people with three DUIs retained, I’ve seen people that beat their wives retained, I’ve seen all kinds of people retained because the board is empowered to retain anyone for any reason if they feel it’s in the best interest of the service,” she said.

Rashid said she and other lawyers working with transgender troops view the guidance as telling the boards to automatically order separation based solely on a diagnosis or symptoms of gender dysphoria.

She said that constitutes an unlawful command by the Air Force and upends impartiality.

“This instruction is essentially saying you will not make a determination of whether somebody has future potential in the service,” Rashid said.

The new Air Force guidance also prohibits recording the proceedings.

Rashid said the lack of an independent transcript would not only prevent Air Force leaders from reviewing the hearings to ensure they were conducted appropriately but would undercut any meaningful chance to appeal.

Stepped-up efforts to oust transgender troops

Pentagon officials say 4,240 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which the military is using as an identifier of being transgender.

The Pentagon got the green light from Supreme Court in May to move forward with a ban on all transgender troops. It offered two options: volunteer to leave and take a one-time separation payout or be discharged at a later date without pay.

Some transgender troops decided to fight to stay by turning to the boards.

Senior Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, who has served in the Air Force since 2011, said she “wanted to face an objective board to be evaluated on my years of proven capability.”

“I wanted the board to see the assignments overseas and at the Pentagon, the deployments to different Combatant Commands, the service medals and the sustained operational and mission effectiveness,” she said in an interview.

But now, she said, that “the path ahead feels more uncertain than it ever has.”

Logan Ireland, a master sergeant in the Air Force with 15 years of service that includes a deployment to Afghanistan, was planning to retire early until his request was denied last week.

After that, he decided he would take a stand at the separation board.

“I chose the involuntary route because I believed in the promise of a fair hearing — judged on my service, my record and the facts,” he said.

“Now that promise is being ripped away, replaced with a process designed to decide my fate before I even walk in the room,” he said, adding that “all I’m asking for is the same fairness and justice every service member deserves.”

Both Ireland and Hash said they have yet to hear from their immediate superiors on what the new policy will mean for them.

Lawyers are worried it will set a precedent that will spread throughout the military.

Rashid said both the Army and Navy are “going to look at what the Air Force is doing as a standard of law … is this the minimum standard of law that we will afford our service members.”

Transgender troops warn the policy could have wider implications

Col. Bree Fram, a transgender officer in the Space Force who has long been seen as a leader among transgender troops, argued that the policy is a threat to other service members.

In an online post, Fram said it “swaps judgment for automation.”

”Today it’s gender dysphoria; tomorrow it can be any condition or class the politics of the moment calls for,” she argued.

If the new policy is allowed to sideline “evidence of fitness, deployment history, awards, and commander input — the very material boards were built to evaluate,” Fram said, it sends a message that performance is no longer relevant to staying in the military.

Cathy Marcello, interim director for Modern Military Association of America, said the change adds to a “growing loss of trust” because outcomes are determined by politics, not performance. The organization advocates for LGBTQ+ service members, military spouses, veterans, their families and allies.

“It’s a signal that identity, not ability or achievement, determines who stays in uniform and who gets a fair shot,” she said.

After his personnel staff unloaded 10 regulars in a series of trade deadline moves from July 28-31, Twins president Derek Falvey flew to Cleveland, where the remaining players — and a few new ones — were ready to start a three-game series against the Guardians on Aug. 1.

The task for Falvey was to meet with players and coaches and explain why he and general manager Jeremy Zoll did an about-face on the roster they built to contend for a division title this season.

Because he has been rehabbing a shoulder injury in Minnesota, Pablo Lopez was not at that meeting. So, it was several days later that the veteran right-hander heard the gist of that talk one-on-one with Falvey in Minneapolis.

Lopez acknowledged that he was a little confused when Falvey told him that trading away players such as Carlos Correa, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, Willi Castro and Ty France was a step toward building around “younger talent that’s ready to display their set of tools and abilities, and we’re still gonna be a really good, competitive team.”

“Obviously,” Lopez added, “when you hear that after what transpired, you’re kind of like, ‘OK, 2 and 2 doesn’t, like, add up.’ ”

But Lopez, who had a successful, two-inning simulated start against live batters before Friday night’s game against Detroit at Target Field, said he quickly came to a separate peace with the moves.

Lopez might not understand the business decisions behind the sell-off, nor does he necessarily want to. But he and remaining veterans such as Byron Buxton, Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers decided they could use the change to stimulate winning within the clubhouse.

“I don’t understand the business side, so it’s hard to buy into that fully until you really understand it,” Lopez said. “But what we can buy into right now is what we really have in this clubhouse, which is the talent, which is the opportunity to really reshape and do our own rebuilding of the culture.”

“Culture,” he added, “is one thing we’ve been lacking the last couple of years.”

Despite fielding what was largely the same team that advanced to the American League Division Series in 2023, the Twins missed the playoffs last season and are on a pace this year that will likely see them eliminated from contention before the season actually ends.

Before Friday’s game against the division-lead Tigers, Minnesota was fourth in the Central, 13 games out of first place and seven games out of the third wild card spot. That’s roughly where they were at the July 21 trade deadline, when they still had all-stars Correa and Castro, closer Duran, set-up man Jax, lights-out lefty Danny Coulombe and starting first baseman Ty France.

What’s left is in-house young talent such as infielders Luke Keaschall, Brooks Lee and Royce Lewis, power-hitting outfielders Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach, a former first-round draft pick, and starting pitchers Simeon Woods Richardso, Zebby Matthews and David Festa.

Now management has added prospects from other organizations such as pitchers Mick Abel (acquired from Philadelphia for Duran) and Taj Bradley (acquired from Tampa Bay for Jax), as well as outfielder James Outman and Alan Roden, who started immediately with the big-league club.

“We have an opportunity here to take this clubhouse and say, ‘Hey, let’s take this opportunity to create the culture that we’ve been lacking the last couple years,’ the culture that prevents good teams from losing a lot of games, a good culture where instead of losing five games, you lose two and the guys pick themselves up so fast that it’s like, ‘Hey, we lost two; let’s back in the winning column.’

“That is something we’ve discussed as a group, like, ‘Hey, let’s reshape the philosophy and culture of who the Twins are: We hold each other accountable, we play hard, we compete and we don’t take anything for granted. We’re happy to be here. You’re fortunate and blessed enough to wear this (uniform), but you also have to play hard. Just being up here doesn’t fully cut it.”

Lopez, 29, has two years left on an extension signed in April 2023. He acknowledged wondering about whether he still might be moved ahead of next season but added that it doesn’t occupy him.
“The front office, the business side, has their vision and their thing to figure out,” he said. “And we also have things to figure out and we’re on it. We’re on it and on the way to creating that (winning) culture.”

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A Ramsey County probation officer’s random check this month of a Level 3 sex offender led to a disturbing discovery in his St. Paul apartment: a naked and unconscious woman in a bathtub with multiple injuries, according to charges filed Friday.

Officers soon arrived at the West Side apartment of 60-year-old Anthony DeWalt and found the woman unresponsive with a weak pulse. An officer began CPR and administered Narcan, the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. She had bruises throughout her body and was missing a nipple, which appeared to have been cut or torn off, the criminal complaint says.

Anthony DeWalt (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Paramedics arrived on scene and transported her to the hospital. A St. Paul police spokeswoman said Friday the woman is in her 40s.

DeWalt is on intensive supervised release for a 2005 first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction in Wright County. A 17-year-old girl testified at his trial that he dragged her from a porch during a late-night gathering in Rockford, Minn., and violently attacked her, according to court records. She was ultimately able to flee and ran for help. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2009.

Court records show he was convicted twice for assaulting a corrections employee while he was imprisoned. Later, while at the Wright County Jail, he was convicted of fraud after he sent his SNAP benefits card from the jail to his sister in Illinois. He was released from custody in 2023.

DeWalt’s criminal history includes a murder conviction in Illinois in 1987, according to Friday’s complaint.

Probation officer’s visit

The complaint gives the following account of the Aug. 5 incident:

DeWalt’s probation officer visited his apartment, located in the 500 block of Stryker Avenue, just after 3 p.m. He answered the door naked, and the probation officer told him to put on clothes. DeWalt closed the door, and returned wearing boxer briefs. Blood was on his chest.

The probation officer stepped inside the apartment, “where it appeared another person was present,” the complaint states. DeWalt has several conditions as part of his probation, including no visitors at his residence without preapproval from his probation officer.

The probation officer told DeWalt to have the other person come out, to which he responded that his friend was in the bathtub and unable to do so.

The probation officer glanced into DeWalt’s bedroom and saw a black knife with blood on it. A pipe, commonly used to smoke methamphetamine, was on the end of the couch near the bathroom. When the probation officer asked DeWalt if he had used meth, he didn’t answer.

The probation officer had DeWalt open the bathroom door and saw the woman in the bathtub. Cold water was running from the faucet.

No one else was in the apartment.

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When officers arrived at the apartment, DeWalt refused to let them inside through the locked door, while repeatedly yelling, “I’m ready for you.” Officers forced open the door and he raised his hands as if he was preparing to fight, the complaint says.

The woman was intubated at the hospital, and medical staff believed she “may have been sexually assaulted due to the injuries to her body,” the complaint states.

A sexual assault examination revealed she had suffered multiple injuries, including extensive bruising to the labia majora, groin, buttocks, breasts and upper chest; abrasions to both sides of her neck “consistent with bite marks” and lacerations to both nipples also consistent with bite marks and “inconsistent with the use of a knife, the complaint says.

Forensic swabs were collected during the exam and have been submitted to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing and analysis; results are pending.

The woman began to regain consciousness during the examination. She later spoke with police, saying her chest and arms hurt but did not know the extent of her injuries. She had no memory of the alleged assault or the events leading up to it.

Said she was a friend

Police spoke with DeWalt on scene. He said the woman was a friend who stopped by his apartment from time to time. He said she arrived at his place about 2 p.m. that day and wasn’t feeling well so she got in the bathtub. At one point he thought she was having an asthma attack, he said.

As police were talking with DeWalt, his probation officer obtained an arrest warrant for him based on the alleged probation violations, including possession of a dangerous weapon, possession of narcotics and the unauthorized visitor.

Later, in an interview at the jail, DeWalt said the woman was a friend who helped him clean and cook, and they had no sexual involvement. Before police arrived, he said, she had been at his place for an hour or two. She went to use the bathroom. After a period of time, he checked on her and found her unresponsive, he said, adding he thought she was dying so he poured water on her to revive her.

He underwent a suspect sexual assault examination on Aug. 8; forensic samples are pending.

During a search of his apartment, a breast nipple with jagged edges was located in a bucket with a mop in the kitchen. Blood smears were discovered on multiple areas of a mattress in the bedroom, along with a knife. Fentanyl and cocaine in two clear baggies were found in his shoe by his bed.

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The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged DeWalt with second-degree sexual assault and first-degree assault causing great bodily harm.

At a first appearance on the charges, Judge Reynaldo Aligada Jr. denied a request for a conditional release from jail. He set bail at $200,000, adding he considered the nature and circumstances of the allegations, his prior criminal history “and the fact that Mr. DeWalt appears to have been on supervision at the time of these allegations.”

DeWalt, who remained jailed Friday, is due back in court Sept. 10. A message seeking comment on the charges was left with his public defender assigned to the case.

By STEPHEN GROVES

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal budget deficits caused by President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law could trigger automatic cuts to Medicare if Congress does not act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Friday.

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The CBO estimates that Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans over age 65, could potentially see as much as $491 billion from 2027 to 2034 if Congress does not act to mitigate a 2010 law that forces across-the-board cuts to many federal programs once legislation increases the federal deficit. The latest report from CBO showed how Trump’s signature tax and spending law could put new pressure on federal programs that are bedrocks of the American social safety net.

Trump and Republicans pledged not to cut Medicare as part of the legislation, but the estimated $3.4 trillion that the law adds to the federal deficit over the next decade means that many Medicare programs could still see cuts. In the past, Congress has always acted to mitigate cuts to Medicare and other programs, but it would take some bipartisan cooperation to do so.

Democrats, who requested the analysis from CBO, jumped on the potential cuts.

“Republicans knew their tax breaks for billionaires would force over half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts — and they did it anyway,” said Rep. Brendan F. Boyle, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, in a statement. “American families simply cannot afford Donald Trump’s attacks on Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.”

Hospitals in rural parts of the country are already grappling with cuts to Medicaid, which is available to people with low incomes, and cuts to Medicare could exacerbate their shortfalls.

As Republicans muscled the bill through Congress and are now selling it to voters back home, they have been highly critical of how CBO has analyzed the bill. They have also argued that the tax cuts will spur economic growth and pointed to $50 billion in funding for rural hospitals that was included in the package.