The Trump administration plans to halt $10 billion in federal funding for child care assistance, low income and social service funds in Illinois and four other Democrat-led states, alleging unspecified “massive amounts of fraud.”

The pause in funding comes about a week after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was freezing child care funds in Minnesota and asking for an audit of day care centers amid allegations of fraud by day care centers run by Somali residents. In announcing that freeze, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said there is “blatant fraud” in Minnesota “and across the country.”

Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois and Colorado will be cut off from $7 billion in funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance for households with children, nearly $2.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund, which helps support working parents with child care and around $870 million for social services grants that help children at risk, according to an HHS official.

It marks the latest in a series of pauses in federal funding to Illinois that began when Trump took office last January, including social service, infrastructure and climate-related dollars.

“For too long, Democrat-led states and Governors have been complicit in allowing massive amounts of fraud to occur under their watch,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. “Under the Trump Administration, we are ensuring that federal taxpayer dollars are being used for legitimate purposes. We will ensure these states are following the law and protecting hard-earned taxpayer money.”

The Illinois Department of Health and Human Services on Monday said it had not received any official communication or notification about impacts to federal funding.

“This is yet another politically-motivated action by the Trump Administration that confuses families and leaves states with more questions than answers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “IDHS will provide an update if it is made aware of program or funding changes.”

The department did not immediately comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Matt Hill, spokesman for Gov. JB Pritzker, criticized the funding threat in a post on X.

“The Trump team is throwing around background quotes, governing by press release, and causing mass confusion for families who need child care,” Hill wrote. “Illinois has NOT been notified of these funds being canceled. Stop politicizing child care and instead make it more affordable.”

U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for the U.S. Senate in the March 17 Democratic primary, called the pending freeze “deeply disturbing.”

“Such a move wouldn’t punish bad actors — it would harm working parents and children who rely on these programs. As someone who grew up on essential social programs when my family got knocked down, I know firsthand how life-changing that support can be,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. “At a time when Illinois families are already facing an affordability crisis, the Trump Administration should not undermine support that helps parents remain in the workforce or play petty politics with the well-being of America’s families.”

Trump has deployed at least 2,000 federal agents to Minnesota amid a welfare fraud scandal. Federal prosecutors in December said half of more than roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported Minnesota programs since 2018 may have been stolen, the Associated Press reported.

Trump has used the fraud scandal to target the Somali population in Minnesota. A social media video posted by a right-wing influencer in late December reignited the fraud claims against daycare centers run by Somali people. Since then, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, citing “an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”

During a New Year’s Eve event, Trump claimed to reporters that fraud in Minnesota was “peanuts.”

“California is worse, Illinois is worse and, sadly, New York is worse — a lot of other places,” Trump said. “So, we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

An LGBTQ advocacy group is once again suing Loogootee, Indiana, claiming the city is ignoring a recent court decision ruling its actions unconstitutional and is pushing its festival out of the public square illegally.

The Southern Indiana city of 2,600 people and festival organizer Patoka Valley AIDS Community Action Group have fought for years over LGBTQ expression on city property, specifically where the annual PrideFest would be held.

The city had enacted a special events policy that would prevent the group from holding the festival at the public square downtown. The U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana handed the city a major defeat in August, ruling that the policy was too broad and violated organizers’ First Amendment rights.

Now, Loogootee has enacted another special events policy that mirrors several measures in the one that the court struck down. In response, the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Pakota Valley, filed a new lawsuit against the policy and filed a motion alleging the city is disobeying court orders.

“Court orders must be complied with, and Loogootee, by enacting an ordinance that contains provisions enjoined by the Court, is in contempt of its lawful orders,” ACLU Indiana legal director Ken Falk said in a news release. “Moreover, the ordinance it has adopted continues Loogootee’s pattern of attempting to unconstitutionally restrict this celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.”

The new legal twist is the most recent development in what’s been a tense local culture war between the LGBTQ+ community seeking to publicly celebrate their identity and the strong, sometimes threatening, community pushback to their efforts.

Is Loogootee’s ‘new’ policy new?

Judge Richard L. Young listed three primary factors in his August ruling as to why he found Loogootee’s old policy unconstitutional: a 45-day event permit application deadline, small group thresholds, and event location limits. He also disagreed with the city’s health and safety reasoning for such rules.

Public institutions can legally establish restrictions on the time, place and manner of free expression as long as these restrictions are narrowly tailored.

Enacted Dec. 29, the new ordinance reuses the same language regarding the permit deadline and small groups but broadens the locations where an event can be held. Instead of limiting an event to one of two places, an event can now be held anywhere except within 240 feet of the town center’s fountain.

In its complaint, the ACLU argued that the “verbatim” measures and the new location restriction are all unconstitutional.

“The ‘new’ Ordinance is therefore ‘new’ in name only and, in reality, Loogootee has simply reenacted provisions that this Court has explicitly enjoined as unconstitutional,” the ACLU’s complaint reads.

Loogootee Mayor Brian Ader previously told IndyStar that the city planned to appeal the District Court’s decision, but an appeal was never filed.

The USA TODAY Network – Indiana’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Have a story to tell? Reach Cate Charron by email at ccharron@indystar.com, on X at @CateCharron or Signal at @cate.charron.28.

Audi Crooks and Iowa State women’s basketball are officially sweeping the nation.

On Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, the Cyclones’ star and NCAA women’s basketball scoring leader garnered significant praise from the former-NFL-punter-turned-media-personality.

“I’m a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan,” McAfee said. “She just gets buckets. That’s literally all she does.

“Did I know anything about Iowa State’s women’s basketball team ever? Nope. But Audi Crooks highlights pop up on my (algorithm), and I say, ‘Boys, immediately, I’m making a song, we’re making a highlight,’ because people are trying to take shots at Audi right now.”

The song and video McAfee referenced was posted on his social media and played on his show before his monologue about Crooks. It features a stylish edit of Crooks points accompanied by what appears to be an AI-generated song with the chorus of, “You’re about to get cooked, by Audi Crooks.”

The “shots” at Crooks that McAfee mentioned refer to a TikTok posted by ESPN with the caption, “Baylor exposed Audi Crooks on defense,” which came in ISU’s first loss of the season on Jan. 4.

Audi Crooks stats

• 2025-26 season (14 games): 29.1 points (NCAA leader), 6.7 rebounds, 71% shooting
• 2024-25 season: 23.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 60.5% shooting
• 2023-24 season: 19.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 57.7% shooting