TODAY’S NATIONAL story

USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP payments

What happened
The Trump administration late Saturday told states to “immediately undo” any full food aid payments they had made to residents in a brief window between a federal court order and a Supreme Court pause of that ruling Friday night. States that did not “comply” with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s memo on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments could face “various actions,” including loss of funds or clawed back payments, the USDA said.

Who said what
The administration “has altered federal guidance on SNAP on a near daily basis” this month, “first directing states to pay partial benefits, then saying USDA would comply with full benefits, then filing an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court,” Politico said. As the “legal fight plays out,” Reuters said, many of the 42 million SNAP recipients “have turned to already strained food pantries and made sacrifices like forgoing medications to stretch tight budgets.”

It would be “unlawful” for the USDA to claw back paid benefits without due process, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told The Washington Post. It would not be “legal,” agreed Georgetown University law professor David Super, but the USDA’s goal was likely to “scare states partway along the process” to issuing full benefits and tell them “to turn back,” he told The New York Times.

What next?
The USDA memo “surprised, vexed and frustrated many state leaders,” the Times said, “and by Sunday, some had begun to explore their legal options.” Massachusetts residents with funds on their SNAP cards “should continue to spend it on food,” Gov. Maura Healey (D) said yesterday, and if President Donald Trump “wants to penalize states for preventing Americans from going hungry, we will see him in court.”

TODAY’S SPORTS Story

2 MLB pitchers charged with rigging throws

What happened
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn yesterday unsealed an indictment charging Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase (pictured above) and Luis Ortiz with rigging their pitches to enrich bettors and themselves. Prosecutors alleged that Clase, “one of baseball’s best closers over the past several seasons, received bribes and kickbacks for participating in the scheme,” The Wall Street Journal said.

Who said what
Ortiz and Clase “betrayed America’s pastime,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said. The indictment was the latest “involving gambling to rock the world of professional sports, and the third in the past month” from Nocella’s office, The New York Times said. Last month, he charged more than 30 people, including an NBA star and head coach, in alleged gambling schemes that shook professional basketball.

Sports betting scandals “have long been a concern,” The Associated Press said, “but a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to a wave of gambling incidents involving athletes and officials.” The details of this indictment “are jarring for a sport that maintains its most sacred rule is not betting on baseball,” The Washington Post said. Prosecutors said Clase, 27, “began rigging pitches as early as May 2023, a year after he signed a five-year deal with Cleveland worth $20 million.” Both pitchers denied the allegations through their lawyers.

What next?
Clase and Ortiz were charged with wire fraud, money laundering and bribery conspiracy counts punishable by decades in prison. They also face possible lifetime bans from MLB. Ortiz, 26, was arrested yesterday at Boston Logan International Airport and is scheduled to make his first court appearance today. Clase was “thought to be in his native Dominican Republic,” the Journal said.

It’s not all bad

The Great Barrier Reef has a pathway to recovery, with new modeling showing it could rebuild coral levels as long as global warming is kept below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. University of Queensland scientists found that earlier projections did not factor in how some corals can adapt to higher temperatures or that this trait can be passed on to offspring. Targeted conservation efforts combined with meaningful climate action could help avert a “very bad and grim future for corals,” study co-author Peter Mumby told The Guardian.

Under the radar

DC tourism has taken a hit

People looking to make a trip to Washington, D.C., may find a lot less to do than usual. Tourism in the nation’s capital has taken repeated blows this year, beginning in the summer, when “images of National Guard troops and federal officers stationed across D.C.” worked to “deter some would-be tourists,” said Axios. And last month, the government shutdown caused the closure of many top sightseeing attractions, including the Library of Congress and 21 museums that are part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Some attractions, including the district’s “privately funded museums” and “open-air national monuments and memorials,” are still open for business, said The New York Times. But without enough tourists, “everything from the small mom-and-pop sandwich shops to the larger entities are impacted,” Elliott Ferguson, head of the travel and tourism nonprofit Destination DC, said to CNN.

Tourism is one of the largest contributors to the D.C. economy. In 2024, more than 27 million people visited the city and spent $11.4 billion. But last month, the revenue per available hotel room dropped by nearly 9%.

The two government shutdowns during President Donald Trump’s first term “cost D.C. an estimated $47 million in lost revenue,” said Fortune. That was in addition to the “harder-to-measure toll inflicted by decreased discretionary spending on hotels, transportation and entertainment.”

To avoid repeating history, Destination DC has “revived its ‘D.C. is Open’ campaign,” said the Times. The organization is “letting people know what’s available,” including the Spy Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, said DC News Now.

On this day

November 10, 1975

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an iron ore freighter, sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad about the tragedy, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” helped make the vessel one of America’s most famous shipwrecks, and it remains an indelible part of Great Lakes lore.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Frustrations climbing’

“Deal on shutdown clears hurdle,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Air travel could slow to ‘trickle’” if “shutdown goes on,” USA Today says. “Frustrations climbing as travelers find they’re stuck,” says The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Americans facing sticker shock over health costs,” The Washington Post says. With “rural hospitals’ worsening problems,” health officials warn of “a sicker future,” the Arizona Republic says. “IRS quietly retracting limits on loopholes” to create “more tax breaks for the wealthy,” The New York Times says. “Climate summit to stress lack of progress,” the Chicago Tribune says. “California steps in as U.S. skips climate summit,” says the Los Angeles Times.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Return to sender

A Kentucky woman expecting to receive a package of medical supplies instead found human body parts inside, including “arms and fingers,” Christian County coroner Scott Daniel told NBC News. The remains were supposed to be sent to a surgical training center, but a courier mix-up put the package in the wrong hands. Daniel held the box at the morgue until it could get to its intended final destination, and soon after, the woman received her medical supplies.

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.