Science
Senate panel vote clears the way for Kennedy to become health secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to lead the sprawling federal bureaucracy responsible for the healthcare of millions of Americans, received the backing of a key Senate committee on Tuesday despite his history of denying the science supporting vaccinations and support of disproved medical conspiracy theories.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who has vocally struggled with whether to support Kennedy, ultimately voted in line with his party in the face of fierce pressure from fellow Republicans to support the nominee, including threats of a primary challenge in 2026.
Kennedy’s nomination moved forward on a party-line vote of 14 to 13 in the Senate Finance Committee.
All eyes were on Cassidy, a member of the committee who also chairs another Senate committee in which he told Kennedy on Thursday that he had “been struggling with your nomination” because of Kennedy’s past comments questioning the safety of vaccines and refusal to accept science that shows that childhood immunizations don’t cause autism.
Trump raised the issue of autism shortly before the hearing began.
“20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34. WOW! Something’s really wrong. We need BOBBY!!! Thank You! DJT,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Cassidy announced his intention to support Kennedy’s nomination on social media just before the committee voted.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy wrote on X. “With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”
Cassidy did not speak during the hearing, but another Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said he looked forward to seeing Kennedy take on populist issues, such as reining in rising drug prices and promoting food safety. But Tillis warned that he would be keeping an eye on Kennedy’s handling of vaccines.
“The only way that Bobby Kennedy and I will get crosswise is if he does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis said. “That would be a problem for me.”
Kennedy did not attend Tuesday’s hearing. A date for the Senate to vote on his nomination has not been set, but it could occur next week.
Kennedy, 71, is the son of former U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of former President Kennedy. The Brentwood resident, who is married to actor Cheryl Hines, was a Democrat for decades before he unsuccessfully ran for president as an independent in 2024. After he dropped out of the race in August, Kennedy endorsed Trump, a man he had previously labeled a likely “sociopath.”
After winning the November election, Trump nominated Kennedy to be his secretary of Health and Human Services, leading a department with a $1.8-billion budget and 90,000 employees. Among the agencies and programs that fall under the department’s purview are the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health as well as Medicaid and Medicare.
Public health groups and medical officials have assailed the prospect of putting a self-described “poster child for the anti-vax movement” in charge of the nation’s premier health and medical research agencies.
His candidacy and his nomination also faced notable opposition from several of his relatives, most recently his cousin Caroline Kennedy, who sent senators a scathing letter on the eve of his first nomination hearing last week — the first time she had spoken out publicly about his politics.
The sole surviving child of President Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy served as an ambassador in two Democratic administrations. In the letter, first reported by the Washington Post, she warned that her cousin was a “predator” whose views on vaccinations were disqualifying, and that he would continue to profit off a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company Merck about a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer.
“He is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls,” Caroline Kennedy wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) alluded to those lawsuits Tuesday when she reiterated her concerns about Kennedy’s possible financial conflicts of interest. She said concessions he made to address such concerns — such as agreeing to hand off his financial interest in certain lawsuits against vaccine makers to his son — did not go far enough.
“He has figured out how to make money off his anti-vax positions,” Warren said. “He is in a position where he can affect the outcomes by things he does as secretary of HHS, and yet he refuses to say that he will delay by even a day taking on anti-vax lawsuits the minute he leaves.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a fellow Democrat from Georgia, expressed particular concern for the fate of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I simply do not trust him to oversee the CDC,” Warnock said. “He’s unqualified, and I dare say everybody here knows it.”
In two days of Senate hearings last week, Kennedy, who pledged to “make America healthy again,” faced aggressive questions about his past vocal skepticism of vaccines, embrace of debunked medical claims, financial conflicts of interest and political pirouetting on issues such as abortion rights.
Kennedy, a once-lauded environmental attorney, framed the attacks against him as the result of his willingness to ask hard questions of entrenched, powerful interests such as pharmaceutical companies.
He sought to highlight healthcare issues where there is broad bipartisan agreement, such as nutrition and substance abuse.
But Kennedy frequently contradicted his past positions, saying he was pro-vaccine despite a well-documented history of questioning their safety, including serving for several years as the chair of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that falsely claims childhood vaccines cause autism. He also stumbled while answering questions about the health programs he would lead if he is confirmed.
Dr. Joseph Varon, president of the Independent Medical Alliance, hailed the committee’s support for Kennedy and said he was looking forward to the full Senate’s vote next week.
“Americans demand a frank conversation about the state of our government healthcare agencies,” the Kennedy ally and COVID-19 vaccine critic said in a statement.
The organization said its advocacy arm, IMA Action, reached out to more than 100,000 Kennedy supporters in Louisiana over the weekend and helped them make their views known to Cassidy.
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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