Republicans in Congress are “trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.”

President Joe Biden on Oct. 14, 2023, in remarks at the 2023 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner.

____

Are Republicans threatening to stop spending federal money to end one of the world’s most pressing public health epidemics? That’s what President Joe Biden said during a dinner hosted by an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

“In the United States Congress, extreme MAGA Republicans are trying to undo virtually every bit of progress we’ve made,” Biden said Oct. 14 at the Human Rights Campaign event. “They’re trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.”

Programs to treat HIV and fight its spread have enjoyed bipartisan funding support in recent years, experts said, so Biden’s portrayal signals a significant departure.

When we asked the White House what Biden was referring to, it pointed us to reports of budget recommendations from House Republicans that call for large cuts to the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, a Trump administration-era program designed to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S., as well as other programs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a separate spending plan. The recommendations will be subject to negotiation as the House and Senate face a Nov. 17 deadline to pass another spending bill.

We found that although Republicans are recommending significant cuts to HIV prevention efforts across a number of public health agencies, the proposal keeps core funding intact. Meanwhile, political differences are eroding bipartisan support for global HIV-prevention funding.

Despite great strides in prevention and treatment since HIV was first reported in the U.S. in the 1980s, HIV remains at epidemic levels in the U.S. today, with approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV and around 30,000 to 35,000 new infections each year. Experts said cases are rising in the South and in rural areas, and new infection statistics show it is disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic populations.

What Are the Proposed Cuts?

The AIDS Budget and Appropriations Coalition, a group of more than 100 public health advocacy organizations that track changes in HIV-related federal spending, said a majority of the proposed cuts to domestic HIV funding stem from House Republicans’ effort to eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.

The program started in 2019 with the goal of reducing new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75% by 2025 and 90% by 2030. The program so far worked regionally, targeting areas that have the highest rates of HIV cases for funding.

In 2023, about $573 million was allocated for the program across various agencies, according to KFF’s funding tracker.

• $220 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• $165 million to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. (It was named for a 13-year-old diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and is overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration.)
• $5 million to the Indian Health Service.
• $26 million to the National Institutes of Health for research.
• $157.3 million to community health centers, which have treated around 200,000 HIV patients annually.

The program lags its goals as it approaches the 2025 benchmark. “It’s well designed, well planned, it has targets that makes sense,” said Jeffrey Sturchio, a lead researcher on a Center for Strategic and International Studies report.

Sturchio said the problem is not a fault of design, but funding, adding, “Congress has never fully funded the initiative.”

Sturchio pointed to a range of local and state “bureaucratic hurdles.” Jurisdictions that have pulled together sufficient resources have seen “tremendous progress,” he said, and overall indicators seem to be moving in the right direction.

But COVID-19 reduced HIV testing and may have diverted public health efforts, CDC administrators said. KFF Health News reported in April that stakeholders saw progress but worried that it won’t be enough to make the 2030 deadline.

Democrats appear to share this concern. The spending bill proposed by the Democratic-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee maintained or slightly increased funding levels to all HIV-related programs. The committee requested more data about the program, describing its “lack of quantifiable data showing outcomes.”

The House has not yet passed the bill out of committee. We know of some proposed cuts from the bill, which the Republican-led House Appropriations Subcommittee released in July.

It outlines a $1.6 billion cut to the CDC, including a $220 million reduction in “HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis prevention” and a $238.5 million cut from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program. The Ryan White program provides medical care and support services to low-income HIV patients and serves more than half of those diagnosed in the U.S.

The bill also proposes cutting funding to the Minority HIV/AIDS fund by more than half — from $60 million to $28 million. According to HIV.gov, the fund supports prevention and care projects targeting disparities that affect communities of color.

Additional details about how these cuts could affect programs are detailed in a committee report that has not been made public. PolitiFact and some advocacy organizations obtained copies of the report, but the House Appropriations Committee did not respond to questions about it. The report we saw recommended cutting all funding for the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.

And House Democrats, advocacy organizations, and KFF Health News have each reported that the Ryan White program and CDC cuts result from a plan to eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.

“If they cut funding, it’s going to have a dramatic and draconian impact on the ability of all of the people who are working in these jurisdictions to improve public health,” said Sturchio, the researcher.

Although the cuts would be dramatic, experts said, they would not eliminate all domestic HIV funding.

“There is certainly a demonstration and a commitment to some of the core HIV programs, but there are millions of dollars of proposed cuts in other areas,” said Lindsey Dawson, associate director for HIV policy at KFF. “These cuts would have a meaningful impact on the ability of programs to provide lifesaving interventions for both HIV care and treatment, as well as prevention.”

The cuts would mean a 16% cut to the CDC’s division of STD prevention, a 9% cut to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, and a 53% cut to the Minority HIV/AIDS Fund from fiscal year 2023 to 2024.

These funding cuts are only proposals. They require a vote from the full appropriations committee and would have to pass the House and be negotiated with a Democratic-controlled Senate.

“We’ve heard for a long time that HIV is a bipartisan issue. But what some people forget, is that that bipartisanship was hard fought for over the first decade of the HIV epidemic,” said Dawson.

Other Challenges to HIV/AIDS Spending

The U.S. commitment to global HIV prevention, meanwhile, is also under scrutiny. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., challenged reauthorizing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR, without first making some changes. Started in 2003 by President George W. Bush, the program distributes funds in more than 50 countries for HIV testing, prevention, treatment, and medications. It also strengthens health care systems to fight AIDS.

Funding for the program has grown over the past 20 years, totaling more than $110 billion. The program reported 25 million lives saved by medical intervention.

Smith, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Global Health, has expressed concerns that money is being given to nongovernmental organizations that support abortion rights and access.

U.S. law prohibits the direct use of overseas funding to provide abortions or to lobby for access to abortions. This has been the case since 1973. However, organizations that receive U.S. funding can do so with their own non-U.S. funding.

An official from the State Department, which runs the program, confirmed to PolitiFact that PEPFAR is legally restricted from funding abortion or lobbying for abortion access; the official cited the training of staff and partners and the monitoring of procedures to ensure compliance.

Other anti-abortion groups have favored a“Mexico City Policy,’‘ which has required foreign nongovernmental organizations to certify that they would not perform or promote abortion with funds from any source to be eligible for U.S. government funding. Trump applied the policy to PEPFAR, but Biden rescinded it.

The failure to reauthorize PEPFAR would not eliminate the program, and Congress can continue to fund the program without reauthorization, but it could cause some provisions to lapse over the next few years.

The lack of a reauthorization would have significant symbolic impact, said Kellie Moss, KFF’s associate director of global health and HIV policy. “It could make the program more vulnerable during funding discussions without a clear signal of bipartisan support.”

Although reauthorization is being held up, funding has progressed. On Sept. 28, the House passed a State Department and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which would fund PEPFAR for another year but implement a Mexico City-like policy provision on all global health funding. This bill would also extend the lapsing provisions for another year.

Our Ruling

Biden said that Republicans in Congress are “trying to wipe out federal funding to end the HIV epidemic.”

A subcommittee of House Republicans has proposed cutting some HIV prevention programs anywhere from 53% to 9% in fiscal 2024, depending on the program.

A committee’s draft report cited by advocacy and policy groups shows these cuts stem from the elimination of the Trump-era Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative, although the committee did not respond to questions about that.

Taken together, these cuts would not eliminate — or “wipe out” — all federal domestic HIV spending, but they do represent a significant cut.

Meanwhile, the House has not moved ahead to reauthorize PEPFAR, which supplies U.S. dollars for global HIV prevention, over Republican concerns about where organizations that receive the money stand on abortion access. But the House has passed one year of PEPFAR funding with some conditions about how it is distributed, which it can do without reauthorizing the program.

Biden’s statement is partially accurate in that significant funding cuts have been proposed by House Republicans, but he exaggerates by saying these efforts would “wipe out” federal funding.

We rate this claim Half True.

____

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A proposed federal policy aims to protect older Americans from contracting HIV by offering free preventive medication, the latest effort to catch up to much of Europe and Africa in stemming the spread of the virus.

Under the plan from the Biden administration, Medicare would cover patients’ full cost of preexposure prophylaxis drugs, which prevent HIV transmission. The drugs, known by the shorthand “PrEP,” would be free in pill form and — for the first time — as long-acting injectables through the government insurance program designed for those 65 and older. Those 50 and over make up half of all people in the U.S. already living with HIV.

The proposed policy change represents a big shift because it means that even new long-acting injectable versions of PrEP drugs, which can cost more than $20,000 a year in the U.S., would be covered fully, without requiring patients to kick in copayments. It is not yet clear what the plan would mean for taxpayers, though, either in paying for the medications or in offsetting the costs of caring for fewer Medicare patients with HIV in the future.

The final green light for the plan was expected Oct. 10, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it is still working out details of how to transition coverage for patients already taking the drugs.

The U.S. is decades behind nations in Europe and Africa that are on track to end new HIV infections by 2030. But while the proposal should bring down infections in older Americans, it highlights remaining inequities: Many people under age 65 will still struggle to pay for PrEP. And, at the same time, Republican congressional leaders have threatened to cut funding for a federal HIV prevention effort championed by the Trump administration that is intended to help all at risk.

“We’ve done a very poor job in the U.S. of assuring that people who could most benefit from PrEP have access to it,” said Justin Smith, who directs the Campaign to End AIDS at Positive Impact Health Centers in the Atlanta area.

Though PrEP has been embraced by gay and trans Americans, it is prescribed less often to heterosexuals over 50 or women of any age. In the first three months of this year, just 8% of the more than 300,000 people receiving PrEP in the U.S. were women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The racial gap is large, too: While 66% of white people eligible for PrEP got prescriptions for it in that period, only 8% of eligible Black people and 17% of eligible Hispanic people did.

Broadening access for gay and bisexual men of color, as well as straight and cisgender women of color — particularly Black women, who represent the majority of women with HIV in the U.S. as well as the majority of new infections among women — is critical for the nation to catch up to the rest of the world, Smith said.

PrEP, a Key HIV Prevention Tool, Isn’t Reaching Black WomenNew HIV infections occur disproportionately among Black women, but exclusionary marketing, fewer treatment options, and provider wariness have limited uptake of preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs, which reduce the risk of contracting the virus.

Leisha McKinley-Beach, a national HIV consultant and CEO of the Black Public Health Academy, which prepares Black health department employees for leadership positions, noted that the Medicare proposal to cover the cost of injectable PrEP could help many women because a shot given every two months can be easier to manage than a daily pill.

But it’s just a start. She and others are lobbying for a national PrEP plan that would build on momentum from the recent Medicare proposal to expand free access to other age groups, much as with covid-19 vaccinations. McKinley-Beach also wants the U.S. government to expand the message that anyone can get HIV, encourage drug companies to advertise more on TV to women of color, and fund outreach to dispel medical mistrust in communities of color.

“Gay white men have had a narrative of dignity and respect with regards to HIV treatment, and I would never want to change that narrative,” she said. “But the message needs to be broadened. Forty-two years into the HIV epidemic, the current HIV prevention model is detrimental to Black women who could benefit from PrEP.”

Though the U.S. was the first nation to approve PrEP, in 2012, it now trails the rest of the world in equitable access. That’s mostly due to the cost of laboratory tests and medical visits. While the cost of the generic form of Truvada, an oral form of PrEP, can be as low as about $30 a month in the U.S., a study by University of Virginia researchers reported the cost of starting PrEP is typically about $2,670 for uninsured patients, including about $1,000 for lab tests and medical visits. The new Medicare proposal would cover up to seven counseling visits every 12 months for HIV risk assessment and reduction.

Meanwhile, PrEP pills are free for people in the United Kingdom and European Union nations including France, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Those nations don’t yet cover the more expensive shots, although the U.K. is leading a small test on injectable PrEP in people who cannot take it in tablet form.

The U.S. also lags Western Europe and some nations in Africa in overall HIV treatment and prevention. For example, just 57% of HIV-positive Americans have attained viral suppression, according to the U.S. government website HIV.gov, meaning they regularly take medications to make them unable to transmit the virus. That makes PrEP, which is for people who don’t have the virus, all the more important for Americans to stay negative, according to HIV experts.

In Africa, by contrast, Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have already achieved the United Nations’ “95-95-95” targets set for 2025 — 95% of people with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of people with diagnosed HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 95% of people receiving antiretroviral therapy have achieved viral suppression, or the virus is undetectable in their blood — according to the U.N.

In the U.K., 98% of HIV-positive people have achieved “undetectable” status via free antiretroviral medicines and treatment available through the country’s universal health care program, the National Health Service. Moreover, nearly anyone in the U.K. who is HIV-negative and wants to take PrEP can get it at no charge. The U.K. says it is now on a path to reduce new HIV infections by 80% by 2025.

The U.K. changed its PrEP approach after 2015, when Greg Owen founded “iwantprepnow.co.uk,” a website that ignited a PrEP movement by helping people in the U.K. and Europe self-source low-priced generic forms of Truvada, the first drug approved as PrEP, from pharmacies in Hong Kong and India.

“It became more affordable,” said Owen, now PrEP lead at one of the U.K.’s top HIV and sexual health charities, Terrence Higgins Trust. “Soon people demanded it for free on the NHS.”

In the U.S., Smith said, the lack of a national PrEP program that would make the drugs and associated bloodwork free and a heated political climate around health care have hindered HIV outreach.

“In rural areas of the South, especially in places like Georgia or Tennessee, there has been outright hostility toward accepting money from the CDC and expanding Medicaid to treat and prevent HIV,” Smith said. “People think it’s just politics, but this is having an impact on public health, on people’s lives.”

Anti-queer sentiment in many quarters also creates an environment of hostility around overall sexual health, said Richard Elion, director of clinical research at Washington Health Institute and a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “There’s a chilling effect for everyone, not just queer Americans,” he said.

Elion said shame surrounding sex and the feeling of vulnerability that some people get from taking any medicine may also reduce PrEP uptake among older Americans. “Taking PrEP is actually very empowering, and that needs to be the message,” he said.

___

(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

In an email to the Orlando Sentinel, De Groft said he was “going to war to get my good name back, my professional standing and personal and professional exoneration.”

De Groft was fired by the museum’s board in June 2022, shortly after the FBI raided the “Heroes & Monsters” exhibition and seized art purportedly by acclaimed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as part of a fraud investigation. The museum’s lawsuit, filed in August against De Groft and the owners of the artwork, claims they colluded to use the exhibition to raise the value of the art and thereby increase personal profits by selling the art later.

Orlando Museum of Art, defendants negotiating lawsuit settlement

“I have kept my head down and suffered slings and arrows and humiliations when I did nothing wrong and all everyone else did was lie, misreport, make things up, get so much wrong,” De Groft wrote to the Sentinel.

In his countersuit, De Groft strikes at the center of the museum’s case: That he and the owners knew the artwork was fraudulent.

“OMA’s lawsuit against Defendant is based on the false premise that the 25 Basquiat paintings in the exhibition Heroes & Monsters (“Exhibition”) were fakes, Defendant actually knew they were fakes, but Defendant nonetheless represented to OMA that they were authentic because he wanted to sell them and receive a hefty sales commission from the owners,” his filing begins. “There is not a kernel of truth to this absurd allegation.”

Despite lawsuit’s claims, Orlando Museum of Art tight-lipped about how much damage it has suffered

De Groft goes on to accuse the museum of firing him illegally and orchestrating a campaign “to destroy him.”

A museum spokeswoman told the Sentinel, “At the advice of counsel, the Orlando Museum of Art is not offering any comment on this pending litigation.”

While the museum’s original suit says De Groft breached his fiduciary duty to the museum by failing to follow the proper procedures to authenticate the art, his countersuit points the finger at former board chair Cynthia Brumback, who left the organization last December.

De Groft says Brumback never told the board of trustees about an FBI subpoena received by the museum —  a claim that has been corroborated by several former trustees.

“As a result, the Board was completely in the dark about such an extraordinary, unprecedented and dangerous situation,” De Groft’s suit says. “The Board should have been immediately informed by Brumback. Brumback outrageously breached her fiduciary duty in masterminding this cover-up.”

The countersuit, filed Tuesday, also takes aim at Akerman, the law firm retained by the museum to investigate the affair and currently representing the institution in the lawsuit. De Groft says Akerman — as well as the FBI — advised him and Brumback there was no reason to cancel the “Heroes & Monsters” exhibition, thereby fortifying his belief the paintings were authentic.

The countersuit notes the original legal filing shows that Akerman was aware the firm had been engaged to investigate the exhibition without the knowledge of the full board.

“Akerman thus became a co-conspirator with Brumback in the coverup and flagrantly breached its fiduciary duty to OMA,” De Groft’s countersuit states.

The countersuit calls for Akerman to recuse itself from the lawsuit because Florida ethics laws prohibit lawyers from being both witnesses to the issue at hand as well as advocates for one party in the dispute.

“If Akerman does not immediately withdraw, Defendant will file a motion for their disqualification,” De Groft’s suit threatens.

Orlando Museum of Art said it filed its suit because the actions of De Groft and the owners harmed both its reputation and finances. De Groft’s countersuit says he has suffered the same fate because of the museum’s failings.

“OMA’s lawsuit is a transparent public relations stunt intended to save face and to wrongfully make Defendant a scapegoat for the FBI’s seizure of the 25 paintings,” the countersuit states.

While De Groft did not specify what sort of damages he sought beyond the legal category of “in excess of $50,000,” the countersuit indicates big money could be in play.

“Defendant’s conclusion that the 25 Basquiats are authentic will be proven at trial, thereby dealing a much-deserved, fatal blow to OMA’s lawsuit and exposing [the museum] to tens of millions of dollars for its outrageous treatment of [De Groft] and deliberately trashing his excellent reputation,” the suit says. “Acts have consequences, and intentionally malicious acts are punished harshly. An Orlando jury will teach OMA a lesson that it will never forget.”

Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more arts news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/arts, and go to orlandosentinel.com/theater for theater news and reviews.

At a law office in downtown Orlando, Worrell pointed to the reintroduction of the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office’s adult civil citation program, which was initially discontinued by appointed state attorney Andrew Bain before he announced Monday it will resume this month. The program offers alternatives to arrest for non-violent offenders, such as counseling or community service.

She further cited her office’s conviction rates, with what she said was a 70% felony conviction rate and 99% for homicide cases in the second quarter. On Monday, Bain reported strikingly similar numbers: convictions in 71% of felony trials and all of five homicide cases for his first 100 days.

“Not surprisingly, most of what he reported were the exact same things I was doing under my administration,” Worrell told reporters. A spokesperson for Bain did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Worrell’s press conference comes less than a month before her legal team is scheduled to present oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court in an attempt to be reinstated as state attorney. Lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Florida Senate is the proper venue for reinstatement, calling her suspension a “political question.”

The hearing is set for Dec. 6.

DeSantis appointed Bain, a former Orange County judge, after suspending Worrell on Aug. 9 for what he said was a dereliction of duty for not prosecuting certain crimes more aggressively. Cited in his suspension order were alleged policies to avoid pushing for mandatory minimum sentences along with prosecutors dropping cases involving illegal guns and drug trafficking.

Worrell on Monday said the governor to date has not offered “not one scintilla of evidence” supporting those claims, adding that cases involving minimum mandatory sentences were handled “with care and caution.” She also further questioned data reported by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office regarding her office’s handling of their drug trafficking cases. Sheriff Marcos Lopez said she refused to prosecute many cases, but Worrell insists cases had to be dropped because of mishandled investigations.

DeSantis, who critics say went after Worrell for exercising prosecutorial discretion, counts law enforcement leaders among his supporters in the lawsuit against him. Earlier this month, the Florida Sheriffs Association filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold Worrell’s suspension, which came after a months-long feud between her and local leaders.

“Law enforcement’s biggest contention with me was that I didn’t rubber stamp their decisions and that I did hold them accountable when they broke the law,” Worrell said. “That is why they wanted me out of office and that is why you see them laud and praise the governor’s state attorney [Bain], because they are all carrying out the governor’s agenda.”

On Monday, Bain said he plans on running for election against Worrell to keep his position as state attorney. Records show Worrell and Republican Seth Hyman have filed as candidates.

Authorities said Donna Adelson, 73, was arrested Monday night as she and her husband were about to use one-way tickets to board a flight to Dubai and Vietnam, countries that do not have an extradition treaty with the United States. She is charged with arranging the 2014 murder of Florida State University law professor Daniel Markel, who was shot in the head inside his Tallahassee garage.

Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell said in a Tuesday phone interview that while he believes his prosecutors already had enough evidence to convict Adelson before Monday, plans for her arrest had to be accelerated when investigators learned of her plans to leave the country.

“It was going to be complicated and really difficult trying to bring them back, depending on where they ended up in the world,” Campbell said. “The arrest was not just based on the flight, but that played a part in the timing.”

Adelson was being held Tuesday at the Miami-Dade County Jail without bail pending her transfer to Tallahassee. Jail records do not show if she has an attorney./ She has long denied involvement in the killing.

Her son, Dr. Charlie Adelson, was convicted last week of arranging Markel’s shooting through a girlfriend, Katie Magbanua. She employed her ex-husband and his friend, both members of the notorious Latin Kings gang, to murder Markel, 41.

Magbanua and her ex-husband, Sigfredo Garcia, are serving life sentences after being convicted earlier of first-degree murder. His friend, Luis Rivera, is serving a 19-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and testifying against the others.

Charlie Adelson, 47, faces a mandatory life term when sentenced next month.

Markel had been involved in a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife, lawyer Wendi Adelson, and had gotten a court order barring her move from Tallahassee back to South Florida with their two young sons.

Authorities say the Adelsons offered Markel $1 million to let his ex-wife and sons move, but when he refused Charlie Adelson and other members of the family began plotting his death.

During his trial, it was shown that Charlie Adelson paid Magbanua $138,000, which she split with the killers, and the family then gave her a no-show job at their dental practice and other payments totaling more than $56,000. Charlie Adelson also gave her a used Lexus.

Wendi Adelson and her father, dentist Harvey Adelson, have not been charged, but Campbell said the investigation remains open. They have denied involvement.

Markel was shot while parking in his garage after he dropped his sons off at daycare and visited the gym.

The Adelsons immediately became suspects in Markel’s slaying after Wendi Adelson told detectives that the killing could have been arranged on her behalf, saying her parents were “very angry at Markel.” She told them that her brother had joked about hiring a hit man to kill Markel as a divorce gift, but he bought her a TV instead.

Still, the investigation involving local and state agencies and the FBI proceeded slowly.

Investigators were able to track phone records showing numerous calls between Charlie Adelson and Magbanua, her and the killers and Charlie Adelson, his mother and his sister in the hours before and shortly after the killing as well as large monetary transactions between the family and Magbanua. Garcia and Rivera were then linked to a rented Toyota Prius the killers used.

In 2016, an FBI agent, impersonating an extortionist, approached Donna Adelson outside her home and demanded $5,000 to not turn information about the slaying over to investigators. The ruse had been concocted in hopes that it would trigger a reaction from the Adelsons.

She contacted her son, telling him they needed to discuss “some paperwork” and that “you probably have a general idea what I’m talking about.” They led to several calls and meetings between her and her son.

Charlie Adelson was arrested last year after technicians enhanced a recording made of him and Magbanua inside a Mexican restaurant in 2016 while they were under surveillance discussing the extortion attempt.

In the conversation, Adelson told Magbanua that she would need to meet with the extortionist and agree to a one-time payment.

He also told her he wasn’t worried about being arrested, but if he thought police had any evidence proving the family orchestrated the slaying, “we would have already gone to the airport.”

• 

  Finalists for the 26th Don Quijote Awards, presented by The Hispanic Chamber of Metro Orlando and Prospera, gather for a group photo after being announced at the Winter Park Library on Thursday, November 14, 2023. The Don Quijote Awards is a signature event in Central Florida that recognizes businesses and individuals committed to excellence and the development of Central Florida’s Hispanic community. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Dr. Marica Vazquez, Superintendent Orange County Schools; Melissa Marantes, Executive Director of Orlando Center for Justice and Dr. Isis Artze-Vega, Valencia College Provost, gather for a photo after being announced as Don Quijote Awards finalists in the Excellence category at the Winter Park Library on Thursday, November 14, 2023. The Don Quijote Awards is a signature event in Central Florida that recognizes businesses and individuals committed to excellence and the development of Central Florida’s Hispanic community (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel).

• 

  Dr. Cyndia Muniz, UCF Director of HSI Culture and Partnerships; Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet, Executive Director of Hope CommUnity Center and Diahann Smith, Director of Marketing at Florida Dairy Farmers, celebrate together after being named Don Quijote Awards finalists for the Professional of the Year at the Winter Park Library on Thursday, November 14, 2023. The Don Quijote Awards presented by The Hispanic Chamber of Metro Orlando and Prospera is the signature event in Central Florida that recognizes businesses and individuals committed to excellence and the development of Central Florida’s Hispanic community. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Finalists for the 26th Don Quijote Awards, presented by The Hispanic Chamber of Metro Orlando and Prospera, gather for a group photo after being announced at the Winter Park Library on Thursday, November 14, 2023. The Don Quijote Awards is a signature event in Central Florida that recognizes businesses and individuals committed to excellence and the development of Central Florida’s Hispanic community. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Dr. Marica Vazquez, Superintendent Orange County Schools, and Dr. Isis Artze-Vega, Valencia College Provost, congratulate each other after being announced as Don Quijote Awards finalists in the Excellence category at the Winter Park Library on Thursday, November 14, 2023. The Don Quijote Awards presented by The Hispanic Chamber of Metro Orlando and Prospera is the signature event in Central Florida that recognizes businesses and individuals committed to excellence and the development of Central Florida’s Hispanic community. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops on Wednesday stormed into Gaza’s largest hospital, searching for traces of Hamas inside and beneath the facility, where newborns and hundreds of other patients have suffered for days without electricity and other basic necessities as fighting raged outside.

Details from the raid remained sketchy, but officials from Israel and Gaza presented different accounts of what was happening at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City: The Israeli army released video showing soldiers carrying boxes labeled as “baby food” and “medical supplies,” while health officials talked of terrified staff and patients as troops moved through the buildings.

After encircling Shifa for days, Israel faced pressure to prove its claim that Hamas had turned the hospital into a command center, using the patients, staff and civilians sheltering there to provide cover for its terrorists — part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Hamas and Gaza health officials deny fighters operate in Shifa. Palestinians and rights groups say Israel has recklessly endangered civilians as it seeks to eradicate Hamas.

The war between Israel and Hamas erupted after the terrorists killed some 1,200 people and seized around 240 captives in an Oct. 7 attack that shattered Israelis’ sense of security. Israeli airstrikes have since killed thousands of Palestinians and unleashed widespread destruction in Gaza.

More than 11,200 people, two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, with most believed to be buried under the rubble. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.

As Israel tightens its hold on northern Gaza, leaders have talked of expanding the ground operation into the south to root out Hamas. Already, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have crowded into the territory’s south, where a worsening fuel shortage Wednesday threatened to paralyze the delivery of humanitarian services and shut down mobile phone and internet service.

ISRAELI RAID INTO SHIFA

Israeli forces launched their raid into the large Shifa compound around 2 a.m. and appeared to remain there more than 15 hours later. It was not possible to independently assess the situation inside.

Munir al-Boursh, a senior official with Gaza’s Health Ministry inside the hospital, said Israeli forces ransacked the basement and other buildings, including those housing the emergency and surgery departments.

“Patients, women and children are terrified,” he said by phone to The Associated Press. Another doctor there, Adnan al-Bursh, told Al-Jazeera TV that the troops removed displaced families who had been sheltering in the basement.

Neither the Palestinians nor the military reported any clashes inside the hospital. The military said its troops killed four militants outside the hospital at the start of the operation. Throughout days of fighting in the surrounding streets, there has been no report of militants firing from inside Shifa.

The Israeli military said it was carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area in the hospital,” adding that it was separate from where patients and medical staff are located.

The military said the soldiers were accompanied by medical teams bringing in incubators. It shared footage of them unloading equipment inside the hospital compound.

It added that forces are searching for hostages. The plight of the captives, who include men, women and children, has galvanized Israeli support for the war. Families and supporters of the hostages are holding a protest march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The raid drew condemnation from Jordan and the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, which called it a violation of international law. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said he was “appalled” by the raid, saying the protection of civilians “must override all other concerns.”

At one point, tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking safety from Israeli bombardment were sheltering at the hospital, but most left in recent days as the fighting drew closer. The fate of premature babies at the hospital has drawn particular concern.

The Health Ministry said 40 patients, including three babies, have died since Shifa’s emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. Another 36 babies are at risk of dying because there is no power for incubators, according to the ministry.

Hours before Israel’s raid, the United States said its own intelligence indicated militants have used Shifa and other hospitals — and tunnels beneath them — to support military operations and hold hostages.

With its troops inside Shifa, the burden will shift to Israel to prove its claim that the facility was being used by militants and that it was a big enough military target to justify the siege against it.

Hospitals can lose their protected status if combatants use them for military purposes, but civilians must be given ample time to flee, and any attack must be proportional to the military objective.

A TRICKLE OF FUEL FOR AID WORKERS

About two thirds of the territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes — and most are now squeezed into the southern part of the narrow coastal strip.

Conditions there have been deteriorating, as bombardment continues to level buildings. Residents say bread is scarce and supermarket shelves are bare. Families cook on wood fires for lack of fuel. Central electricity and running water have been out for weeks across Gaza.

After refusing to allow fuel into Gaza since the war’s start, saying it would be diverted to Hamas, Israeli defense officials early Wednesday let in some 24,000 liters (6,340 gallons). The fuel will only be used for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, to continue bringing limited supplies of food and medicine from Egypt.

The agency is providing basic services to the more than 600,000 people sheltering in severely overcrowded U.N.-run schools and other facilities in the south.

The fuel cannot be used for hospitals in the south or to desalinate water, said Thomas White, UNRWA’s director in Gaza. The amount is equivalent of “only 9% of what we need daily to sustain lifesaving activities,” he said.

The Palestinian telecom company Paltel, meanwhile, said it was relying on batteries to keep Gaza’ mobile and internet network running, and that it expected services to halt later Wednesday. Gaza has experienced three previous mass communication outages since the ground invasion.

LOOKING SOUTH

Israeli troops have extended their control across northern Gaza. The military says Israeli forces took control of the Shati refugee camp, a densely built district, and are moving about freely in the city as a whole.

The military says its forces have found weapons and Hamas fighters in government buildings, schools and residential buildings. Israel says it has killed several thousand fighters while 46 of its own soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the plans, saying Israel’s goal is “a complete victory over Hamas in the south and the return of our hostages.”

Israel told residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south, saying it wanted to get civilians out of the path of its ground assault, and hundreds of thousands fled. If Israeli troops move south, it is not clear where Gaza’s population can flee, with Egypt refusing a mass transfer onto its soil.

___

Magdy and Jeffery reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Dair al-Balah, Gaza, and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Full AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Pinnacle at the Wesleyan, includes 96 units on West Vine Street in Kissimmee that will be priced at or below 80% of the area’s median income for 50 years. The apartments— a mix of which will be mostly 2 bedrooms —will begin construction in December and are set to open in May of 2026.

The developer has 32 years to pay the no-interest loan back, which will be distributed over two years, according to meeting notes.

Commission Chair Viviana Janer said it is important that the county looks for innovative ways to create affordable housing.

“We do like the public-private partnerships in order to get them done,” Janer said on Monday.

Staff recommended the county manager fund a gap created by the rising costs of construction and labor, according to Board of County Commission meeting notes from March.

In a June letter to Pinnacle Housing, County Manager Don Fisher commitment to fund the project, saying the county is in need of more affordable housing.

The project is also being funded by a $500,000 loan from the city of Kissimmee, which approved it in June; low-income housing tax credits from the Florida Housing Finance Corp.; and $4.3 million from Live Local Act funds, according to Nov. 13 board of county commission meeting notes.

In total, the development is estimated to cost over $33.8 million, according to meeting notes.

The Pinnacle at the Wesleyan will be one of the first projects in the county that is using funds from the newly established Live Local Act through the Florida Housing Finance Corp. to build affordable housing in the county.

The Live Local Act or Senate Bill 102 was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March and established a $711-million fund  for affordable housing but also diminished the authority of local municipalities to set their own zoning and height regulations on new affordable developments.

“I think the state really needs to trickle that money down to communities that are really truly dedicating their time and resources to affordable housing like Osceola County,” Commissioner Peggy Choudhry said of the act. “Regardless, we are dedicating a lot of time and effort and we’re doing all we possibly can to bring more affordable housing.”

Pinnacle Housing and the Florida Housing Finance Corp. did not respond to requests for comment.

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica speaks during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica, left, speaks as Genean McKinnon, right, listens during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  A display is pictured at right as dignitaries gather during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Former U.S. Rep. John Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica, right, mingles during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica and Genean McKinnon (top) speak during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica speaks during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica speaks during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica speaks during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

• 

  Former US Rep. John Mica, right, mingles during an event at the Winter Park Library on Tuesday, November 14, 2023. Mica is presenting his congressional papers, along with those of former Sen. Paula Hawkins, to the library. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

But this year, the swarming insects were nowhere to be seen, and Norman Leppla, a professor with the University of Florida’s Department of Entomology and Nematology, is getting calls from across the state asking why.

Leppla fell in love with these particular bugs in 1972, when he moved from Arizona to the Sunshine State on a research grant. His first paper on lovebugs, published two years later, studied their behaviors in Paynes’ Prairie, just outside of Gainesville.

At that point, the lovebug outbreak still was at its peak and Leppla was fascinated by them.

The agglomeration of all his lovebug knowledge is chronicled in Leppla’s 2018 article Living with lovebugs. He’s now considering writing a sequel: Living without lovebugs.

While questions about the insects are swirling, Leppla said because lovebugs don’t contribute much to Florida’s ecology, research on their apparent demise would be unlikely to get funding.

The Tampa Bay Times recently spoke with Leppla about what may have happened to Florida’s nonessential nuisances.

Q: When did you realize the lovebugs had disappeared?

I didn’t really notice it until about maybe last year or the year before. They’ve just sort of tapered off and this year — or at least this season — I haven’t seen any. It just seemed like, “OK, it’s a natural variation.” But then they didn’t rebound and I was very surprised. I have a holly tree outside of my office window, and they’re always abundant there because it’s a source of nectar. But there’s nothing.

Q: Do we know what happened to them?

Well, people are noticing and would like to have answers, but it’s really not an area where we could get funding to do research. There is quite a bit of concern about declining insect populations. And maybe somebody would want to include (lovebugs) with some studies right now that focus on things like honeybees and pollinators.

Q: And lovebugs aren’t big pollinators, right?

No. We don’t even think of them as pollinators. They are basically thought of as nuisances. That’s a real classification. It’s insects that don’t bite or sting or transmit diseases or do things that harm other animals and plants. Those would be nuisances.

Q: Could their disappearance be related to this year’s drought conditions and record-breaking heat?

Florida is really, really diverse in habitats. We’ll get rainfall in one area and drought in another 30 miles [away]. So there’s so much variability in the habitat that that would not account for the lovebug decline.

They’re pretty hardy, but they’re also in lots of different habitats. So, all in all, there are plenty of ways that we would still have lovebugs in certain parts of Florida.

The larvae can move. If they have a bit of drainage — like on the side of a highway — they can move up and down, so they don’t drown or desiccate. They are under things like leaves, cow manure, just plain, decaying plants. So they get a certain amount of protection.

One thing that really would cause them to decline is their attraction to automobile exhaust. But that’s never caused them to go away before. I guess the only other thing would be some sort of general pressure.

It’s got to be variables that we look at, and that’s obviously climate, habitat, pollution. They’re just standard reasons that we look at and wonder, “What happened?”

Q: Scientists are warning of an “insect apocalypse.” Forty percent of all insect species are declining globally, and a third are endangered. Why is this happening?

It’s gotten to the point where it’s alarming. Entomologists are concerned about it, and we’re doing more and more to try to figure out what’s going on, but it’s just that our habitats are changing. Our climate is changing, and it’s putting pressure on lots of organisms.

Certainly, we’re tracking all kinds of vertebrates. As you know, populations are declining and habitats going away. We’re concerned that insects are part of that problem.

They’re part of the food chain. I guess even lovebugs have entered it. In the case of lovebugs, they’re invasive. Our ecosystem doesn’t depend on them, so they’re not that big of a concern.

Nobody seems like they wanted them to come back, but people are asking. I’m surprised there’s quite a bit of interest in wanting to know why they went away, and I wish I could give you an answer, but I don’t know, either.

Q: You’ve studied these insects for decades and seen populations wax and wane. Do you expect them to bounce back?

I don’t think so.

This continuous decline for three years indicates that something has changed. The flowers that typically attract them are abundant but the insects are absent.

Q: What could have caused lovebugs to decline in Central Florida?

Lovebugs have occurred over a wide geographical area and in a range of habitats. It is unlikely that environmental conditions have changed significantly everywhere in Central Florida. It is more likely that lovebugs have been attacked by a parasite or pathogen.

If so, these organisms require hosts for continued reproduction and may not be limited to lovebugs. This hypothesized situation would keep lovebugs from resurging.

Honestly, I can’t accurately predict what will happen to lovebugs in Central Florida.