New State Reports Measles Outbreak as RFK Jr. Slashes Vaccines

Measles is on the rise in Kentucky.

Health officials in the state confirmed that the disease has spread to Fayette County, marking the seventh case of the highly contagious illness in Kentucky since the beginning of the year. Previous cases had been reported in Woodfood County.

There are five active measles cases in the Bluegrass State, four of which are connected to the current outbreak, while another unrelated measles case was reported in Todd County last week, according to state health officials.

The life-threatening disease has so far infected 1,267 people and spread to 37 states in what public health experts are describing as the worst measles spread of the century. The majority of those cases are in Texas, where local officials have reported at least 753 confirmed cases since January. Ninety-nine of those cases were hospitalized, and at least two cases—who were unvaccinated, school-aged children—have died. An unvaccinated adult in New Mexico has also died of the disease.

Measles hasn’t been a national concern since 2000, when the long-term use of a corresponding vaccine proved so effective at minimizing risk and exposure to the disease that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles eradicated from the United States.

But the virus’s dormant status has been challenged by anti-vaxxers, who have opted against medicating their children in fear that vaccinations could cause autism. One such conspiracist, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has refused to combat the ensuing measles outbreak with vetted science—instead, he has issued guidance that the illness can be treated by simple vitamins.

In April, Kennedy fell short of offering a full-throated endorsement of the MMR vaccine that has historically been used to treat measles, telling CBS News that his agency was focused on finding treatments for unvaccinated individuals while falsely claiming that the jab had not been “safety tested” and was not effective for long-term prevention. As of 2025, there are no known effective treatments or cures for measles.

The return of historically eradicated diseases is due to a growing movement of anti-vax parents who refuse to provide their children with the same public health advantages that they received in their youth, mostly in fear of thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories. The researcher who sparked that myth with a fraudulent paper lost his medical license and eventually rescinded his opinion. Since then, dozens of studies have proven there’s no correlation between autism and vaccines, including one study that surveyed more than 660,000 children over the course of 11 years.

But America’s is not the first measles response that Kennedy has bungled. Under Kennedy’s stewardship, the anti-vax nonprofit Children’s Health Defense had its own questionable history with the disease. Preceding a deadly measles outbreak on Samoa in 2019, the organization spread rampant misinformation about the efficacy of vaccines throughout the nation, sending the island’s vaccination rate plummeting from the 60 to 70 percent range to just 31 percent, according to Mother Jones. That year, the country reported 5,707 cases of measles as well as 83 measles-related deaths, the majority of which were those of children under the age of 5.

President Donald Trump’s efforts to coax wary House Republicans off the fence to support his “big, beautiful bill” have seemingly succeeded, as GOP leaders say the president’s centerpiece legislation will likely pass by Friday.

Trump pulled out all the stops to achieve this outcome, including turning to what he does best, or at least most unrelentingly: merchandise.

The president has commoditized his image and the office of the president like no other, constantly hawking Trump-branded products, from his trademark MAGA hats to more peculiar products, like cryptocurrency, cell phones, shoes, Bibles, guitars, watches—and, most recently, a fragrance.

Given Trump’s penchant for merchandising, it’s perhaps no surprise he made lavishing Republican holdouts with awful merch a central prong of his “charm offensive” to garner support for the bill, per The New York Times.

The Times reports that, on Wednesday, GOP lawmakers who entered the White House uncertain about the bill—which would gut social programs and tilt taxes to benefit the wealthy—“walked out with signed merchandise, photos in the Oval Office and, by some accounts, a newfound appreciation for the bill.”

After Representative Tim Burchett met with the president, he posted a video in which he, walking with a gaggle of fellow House Republicans, heaped praise on the president.

“The president was wonderful, as always—informative, funny. He told me he likes seeing me on TV, which was kind of cool,” Burchett said.

From out of frame, Representative Byron Donald asked, “Did you show them what he signed for you?” to which Burchett, almost blushingly, replied, “Yeah, he signed a bunch of stuff. It’s cool.”

In response, Democrats such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have derided their Republican colleagues for being so easily swayed in favor of the bill.

Meanwhile, Trump is seemingly unaware of the content of the legislation he’s so vigorously pushing. According to NOTUS, during one meeting where he sought to court House Republicans, he impressed upon those in attendance that future electoral victories will require leaving social programs like Medicaid untouched.

“But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill,” one member of Congress replied. (The bill’s changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are estimated to strip at least 17 million Americans of their health insurance by 2034.)

If the bill passes as is expected, and social program cuts are the political loser Trump (wisely) says they are, then the MAGA merch with which he lavished lawmakers may be worth little within a couple election cycles.

The Department of Homeland Security is suddenly trying to distance itself from “Alligator Alcatraz,” after weeks of promoting the Trump administration’s premiere wetland-themed concentration camp in the Florida Everglades.

In a court filing Thursday responding to a lawsuit from environmental groups, the DHS claimed that it had “not implemented, authorized, directed or funded” the construction of the new ICE detention center made up of tents on a defunct airstrip in Miami-Dade County.

“Florida is constructing and operating the facility using state funds on state lands under state emergency authority and a preexisting general delegation of federal authority to implement immigration functions,” the filing said.  

Environmental groups had alleged that in addition to skipping the necessary environmental reviews, the DHS had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide a window for public notice and comment. The DHS argued that because it had not been involved in approving construction, “the ‘final agency action’ that the Administrative Procedure Act requires as a prerequisite to judicial review is entirely absent here.” 

But that’s not what the Department of Homeland Security said earlier this week. The DHS said it had signed off on a plan to house up to 5,000 people in Florida and planned to use funding from FEMA’s shelter program to reimburse the $450 million in estimated costs, according to Politico.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

But the Thursday filing asserted that it was up to Florida to file for reimbursement from FEMA, though the state had not yet done so. 

The filing also stated that because Florida has an agreement under Section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act so that “any decision to detain aliens ... would be Florida’s decision, not DHS’s,” according to Politico’s Gary Fineout. A majority of states have such an agreement with ICE, which allows immigration officers to collaborate with state and local officials. Using this legal gimmick, DHS could attempt to skirt accountability for the construction and management of ICE detainment centers across the country—while still taking the credit. 

For all of the president’s braggadocio about the economy, a key detail in last month’s jobs report paints a bitter picture for America’s market.

The June jobs report came with droves of good news: the unemployment rate had fallen to 4.1 percent, the lowest since February, and the Trump administration touted that the market had added 147,000 new jobs. But within the folds of the expansive report was a worrying statistic: The lowered rate was largely due to a growing cohort of Americans who either weren’t working or weren’t looking for work.

The number of Americans who had not looked for a job in the last month rose by 234,000 to 1.8 million, according to the report.

And the vaunted job gains—which were primarily enjoyed by the health care sector, public education, and local government—weren’t as major when assessed from another angle.

“The household survey, which is used to calculate the unemployment rate, showed a smaller employment gain of just 93,000,” reported CNBC.

The report indicated other weaknesses in the market, including concentrated job gains in a handful of sectors, slowing wage growth, and lagging participation, which dropped to its lowest level (62.3 percent) since 2022.

The positive numbers did offer a slight boon to the stock market, with the S&P 500 blooming in reaction to the report, but analysts were wary to overhype the gains.

“The U.S. job market continues to largely stand tall and sturdy, even as headwinds mount—but it may be a tent increasingly held up by fewer poles,” Cory Stahle, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote Thursday. “The headline job gains and surprising dip in unemployment are undoubtedly good news, but for job seekers outside of healthcare & social assistance, local government, and public education, the gains will likely ring hollow.”

“This is not a bad report, but it might not be as solid as it seems on the surface,” Stahle noted.

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear two cases involving transgender athletes being banned from women’s sports at the youth and collegiate level—a troubling sign of the court’s willingness to engage with the contentious culture war issues that have come to define the MAGA right.

Hecox v. Little and West Virginia v. B.P.J are the cases in question.

The first case stems from Boise State University student Lindsay Hecox, who is banned from running on the girls’ track team under Idaho’s House Bill 500. The second centers on Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender middle schooler who was banned completely from participating in sports by West Virginia’s House Bill 3293, which similarly bans transgender kids from participating in sports.

“Like any other educational program, school athletic programs should be accessible for everyone regardless of their sex or transgender status. Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do–to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends,” the ACLU’s Joshua Block, senior counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a press statement. “Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play.”

President Trump has long mocked trans athletes, calling them “social experiments” during a speech at West Point earlier in the year. He just forced the University of Pennsylvania to wipe the records of trans swimmer Lia Thomas in exchange for the release of $175 million of funding for the university. A pro-government decision from the Supreme Court in these two cases would only increase that type of treatment nationwide.

“Our client just wants to play sports with her friends and peers,” said Lambda Legal senior counsel Tara Borelli. “Everyone understands the value of participating in team athletics, for fitness, leadership, socialization, and myriad other benefits. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit last April issued a thoughtful and thorough ruling allowing B.P.J. to continue participating in track events. That well-reasoned decision should stand the test of time, and we stand ready to defend it.”

The cases will be heard in the fall.