Science
Judge halts Trump's NIH cuts that support medical research after California and 21 states sue
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the Trump administration from making billions of dollars in NIH funding cuts hours after California and 21 other Democratic-run states sued, saying the action would hurt Americans who benefit from life-saving medical discoveries into cancer, diabetes and other major diseases.
In granting a temporary restraining order, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley suggested that she agreed, for the time being, with arguments in the lawsuit saying the drastic cuts would cause irreparable harm to medical research at the University of California, California State University and other institutions.
The states, backed by university presidents, alleged in the suit that a $4 billion loss of funding would “result in layoffs, suspension of clinical trials, disruption of ongoing research programs, and laboratory closures.”
The halt only applies to the 22 states — including Arizona, Michigan, New York, Hawaii and Massachusetts — that sued. No states with Republican governors joined.
Kelley’s ruling is not final but applies as the case continues in court. The judge ordered the states to report back within 24 hours on the status of their funding and follow up every two weeks to verify the cash-flow. The next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 21.
In a statement, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said he was pleased with the court decision. “My fellow attorneys general and I will be closely monitoring to ensure that the Trump Administration follows the court’s order,” he said.
UC officials said in a statement that they were “grateful for the judge’s order…. The University of California is committed to working with the new administration to ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent on innovations and lifesaving research.”
UC is a major recipient of NIH research funding. It is not party to the suit but filed a declaration in support of the case.
The NIH policy announced Friday night reduces more than half of its spending for overhead costs tied to research grants. Called “indirect funding,” the money pays for research supplies, building maintenance, utilities, support staff and other costs.
The lawsuit argues the NIH cuts run counter to federal law. It cites part of a 2018 appropriations act that prohibits the NIH from making unilateral “deviations from negotiated rates” in its overhead funding to institutions. That portion of the budgetary rule “has remained in effect through every appropriations law governing HHS to this day,” the suit says, referring to the Department of Health and Human Services under which NIH operates. It also cites the Administrative Procedure Act, passed in 1946, regarding changes to federal agency rules.
The Trump administration is “violating the law” and wants to “eviscerate funding for medical research,” Bonta said of the suit, which was filed against the Department of Health and Human Services and the NIH.
The NIH directed The Times to the Department of Health and Human Services for comment about the suit. An HHS official declined to comment because on pending litigation and did not reply to a follow-up question about the judge’s order.
The NIH awards more than $35 billion in annual funding for a wide range of medical research on Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, strokes and studies on military veterans and trauma, among other health conditions.
California universities are among the largest awardees of NIH grants in the nation and UC receives more than half of the NIH distributions in the state. Stanford, Caltech, USC and CSU also receive significant research grants.
What the NIH cuts target
Beginning Monday, NIH-sponsored indirect funding was to be capped at 15% of grants, down from the 57% that many UCLA research projects receive and the 64% given at UC San Francisco, which has the highest rate in the UC system.
The new policy would affect grants supporting ongoing research and new ones.
In announcing the cuts, the NIH implied on a social media post and on its website that universities with large endowments were spending too much taxpayer money on overhead costs.
A graphic posted to the NIH X account showed the multibillion-dollar endowments of Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins next to their indirect funding rates. Harvard’s was the highest at 69%. As a comparison, NIH cited private foundations, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Gates Foundation, saying their overhead costs are 15% or lower.
“The United States should have the best medical research in the world,” the NIH said in guidance posted to its website. “It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead.”
In an email to The Times Monday, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon said “most of these higher education institutions already have endowments worth billions of dollars.” He also said the department had authority to make universities pay back “the excess overhead they have previously received” but decided to not do so.
The department will “continue to assess” the payback “policy choice and whether it is in the best interest of the American taxpayer” the email said.
Why researchers say the funds are essential
University leaders and medical researchers say the money, despite being labeled “indirect funding,” is essential to their work and pays to keep lifesaving science going — from ensuring the proper storage of biological samples to keeping alive animals for medical trials.
In an email to UC researchers Monday, Katherine S. Newman, UC system provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, elaborated on how the funding is used.
She said indirect money pays for “personnel who assure the safety of adults and children enrolling in clinical trials” and the ethics teams working on trials. Budgets, she wrote, are “carefully audited.” Newman also noted that the reductions would “disrupt a critical relationship to the pharmaceutical and device industry partners who rely on our independent research and clinical trials to establish the efficacy of emerging treatments.”
The lawsuit echoes such concerns.
“In order to conduct research, a university needs buildings, and needs to maintain those buildings and supply them with heat and electricity,” the suit says. “A university also needs the infrastructure necessary to comply with legal, regulatory and reporting requirements. These facilities costs cannot be attributed to any particular research project, but are still necessary for any research to occur.”
The lawsuit said university administrative support, including clerical staff, IT support, cybersecurity and data servers, “help make research possible without being attributable to any specific grant or project.”
The funding rates are negotiated in agreements between the government and universities, the suit says, but have now been unilaterally changed.
“No statute allows NIH to unilaterally alter all current grants retroactively,” the filing 0. “No such power was conveyed by Congress here. Indeed, Congress has explicitly limited the NIH’s authority to modify indirect cost rates retroactively.”
The suit adds that the Department of Health and Human Services also has its own regulations that bar the NIH from making “indiscriminate changes” to the grants. The suit alleges that the NIH has “acted beyond its statutory authority.”
What’s at risk in California
The NIH provided $2.6 billion of UC’s $4.2 billion in federal awards last year, with its San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles campuses receiving the bulk of the funding.
Stanford was awarded $613 million in the same period. USC took in more than $356 million in NIH funds last year. At CSU’s 23 campuses, the NIH awards totaled $158 million last year. CalTech received more than $62 million.
UC President Michael Drake said Monday the cuts, if realized, would be a “devastating blow” and the university is “ready to fight.”
“Like scores of institutions across the country, the University of California has relied on NIH grants to pursue life-saving research that benefits Americans nationwide,” Drake said. “Cuts of this magnitude would deal a devastating blow to our country’s research and innovation enterprise, undermine our global competitiveness, and, if allowed to go forward, will ultimately delay or derail progress toward treatment and cures for many of the most serious diseases that plague us today.”
“This is not only an attack on science, but on America’s health writ large,” Drake said.
In a statement, USC officials said the changes placed its medical research “in jeopardy” and that “we are working closely with partner organizations to address this evolving environment so that we continue our work on behalf of the public good.”
Jason Maymon, a CSU spokesman, said in a statement that the cuts threaten “the future of student innovation and scientific progress.”
“Federal grant funding is vital to the CSU’s teaching and research mission, which addresses some of society’s most urgent challenges in healthcare, agriculture, water, fire prevention and cybersecurity,” Maymon said.
In a statement Saturday, Stanford leaders said the cuts would amount to $160 million annually at the university, affecting the “construction of laboratory space, the purchase and maintenance of scientific tools, and research computing.”
“Indirect costs are the way the government invests in research infrastructure for the nation and are vital to our research activities,” said a campus message signed by Provost Jenny Martinez, medical school dean Dr. Lloyd Minor and Vice Provost and Dean of Research David Studdert.
Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with the naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.
The latest observable meteor shower will be the Lyrids, which has been active since April 14 and is forecast to continue through April 30. The shower reaches its peak April 21 to 22, or Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, and have been enjoyed by stargazers for nearly 3,000 years. Their bright, speedy streaks are caused by the dusty debris from a comet named Thatcher. They appear to spring from the constellation Lyra, which right now can be seen in the eastern sky at night in the Northern Hemisphere.
The moon will be about 27 percent full tonight, appearing as a thick crescent in the sky, according to the American Meteor Society.
To get a hint at when to best watch for the Lyrids, you can use this tool, which relies on data from the Global Meteor Network. It shows fireball activity levels in real time.
And while you gaze at the heavens, keep an eye out for other stray meteors streaking across the night sky. Skywatchers are reporting that the amount of fireballs is double what is usually seen by this point in the year.
Where meteor showers come from
There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.
The Perseid meteor shower, for example, peaks in mid-August from the constellation Perseus. The Geminids, which occur every December, radiate from the constellation Gemini.
How to watch a meteor shower
Michelle Nichols, the director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, recommends forgoing the use of telescopes or binoculars while watching a meteor shower.
“You just need your eyes and, ideally, a dark sky,” she said.
That’s because meteors can shoot across large swaths of the sky, so observing equipment can limit your field of view.
Some showers are strong enough to produce up to 100 streaks an hour, according to the American Meteor Society, though you probably won’t see that many.
“Almost everybody is under a light-polluted sky,” Ms. Nichols said. “You may think you’re under a dark sky, but in reality, even in a small town, you can have bright lights nearby.”
Planetariums, local astronomy clubs or even maps like this one can help you figure out where to go to escape excessive light. The best conditions for catching a meteor shower are a clear sky with no moon or cloud cover, sometime between midnight and sunrise. (Moonlight affects visibility in the same way as light pollution, washing out fainter sources of light in the sky.) Make sure to give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to seeing in the dark.
Ms. Nichols also recommends wearing layers, even during the summer. “You’re going to be sitting there for quite a while, watching,” she said. “It’s going to get chilly, even in August.”
Bring a cup of cocoa or tea for even more warmth. Then lie back, scan the sky and enjoy the show.
Where weather is least likely to affect your view
Storm systems sweep across the country in early spring, and some will be obscuring skies tonight. But there will still be plenty of areas with clear skies, particularly in parts of the central United States.
“The best spot is going to be in the Upper Midwest,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa will offer especially good sky-viewing weather and a beach on the Great Lakes could be a nice spot to look up at the stars.
But don’t expect to view the show from Chicago, as Illinois could see some thunderstorms. The weather will be better in the Northern and Central Plains, particularly the eastern Dakotas.
High, wispy clouds are expected over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and into parts of the Mid-Atlantic. But, Mr. Bann said, “you may be able to see some shooting stars through thin clouds.”
Clouds will be draped across much of the Southeast and the Northeast, though there could be some clearing in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Remember, the meteors could be visible all night long. If you look outside and see clouds, try again later.
Catching the spectacle will be challenging across much of the West, particularly from Washington into Northern California, where a storm system is bringing rain and snow. That system will move east overnight.
There are likely to be some pockets of clear skies at times across southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southwest Utah, Mr. Bann said.
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON — Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI said Tuesday that it has launched a broad investigation in the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff connected to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports of the disappearance and deaths of the scientists, sending letters seeking information from the agencies involved in the federal inquiry as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or dead scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote in the letters.
President Trump told reporters last week that he had been briefed on the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers on whether the deaths were connected “in the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists who disappeared or died. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death was disclosed.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at 61, with no cause of death disclosed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the string of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while on a hike near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On Feb. 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder had been arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder has been charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this point that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a span of four years, are connected.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists.
“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able.”
Representatives from Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sun had barely risen over the Pacific Ocean when a small motorboat carrying a team of Indigenous artisans and Mexican biologists dropped anchor in a rocky cove near Bahías de Huatulco.
Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, one of the craftsmen, was the first to wade to shore. With an agility belying his age, he struck out over the boulders exposed by low tide. Crouching on a slippery ledge pounded by surf, he reached inside a crevice between two rocks. There, lodged among the urchins, was a snail with a knobby gray shell the size of a walnut. The sight might not dazzle tourists who travel here to see humpback whales, but for Mr. Avendaño, 85, these drab little mollusks represent a way of life.
Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Men like Mr. Avendaño have been sustainably “milking” them for radiant purple dye for at least 1,500 years. The color suffuses Mixtec textiles and spiritual beliefs. Called tixinda, it symbolizes fertility and death, as well as mythic ties between lunar cycles, women and the sea.
The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them. Fishermen break them (and the other mollusks they eat) open and sell the meat to local restaurants. Tourists who comb the beaches pluck snails off the rocks and toss them aside.
A severe earthquake in 2020 thrust formerly submerged parts of their habitat above sea level, fatally tossing other mollusks in the snail’s food web to the air, and making once inaccessible places more available to poachers.
Decades ago, dense clusters of snails the size of doorknobs were easy to find, according to Mr. Avendaño. “Full of snails,” he said, sweeping a calloused, violet-stained hand across the coves. Now, most of the snails he finds are small, just over an inch, and yield only a few milliliters of dye.
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