BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a>

A Jackson County judge previously allowed certain regulations, such as mandatory pelvic exams for medical abortion, to remain in place

Nearly two months after<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/12/05/abortion-lawsuit-planned-parenthood-amendment-3-missouri-jackson-county/">&nbsp;a voter-approved constitutional amendment legalizing abortion</a>&nbsp;went into effect, the procedure remains inaccessible in Missouri.&nbsp;

On Friday, a Jackson County judge heard arguments over whether to grant an injunction requested by Planned Parenthood that would permit the organization to offer abortion services almost immediately.&nbsp;

Last month, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/12/20/missouri-amendment-3-abortion-regulations-trap-laws/">struck down a number of “targeted regulation of abortion provider” statutes,</a>&nbsp;better known as TRAP laws.&nbsp;

Laws mandating a 72-hour waiting period for an abortion and a requirement that physicians performing the procedure have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals were put on hold.&nbsp;

But other regulations the judge allowed to remain — such as state licensing requirements and a mandate to receive a pelvic exam before being prescribed the pill used in medication abortion — have left clinics unable to perform the procedure in Missouri.

On Friday afternoon, Zhang again listened to arguments from Planned Parenthood and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office during the hearing in downtown Kansas City.&nbsp;

“We have still not been able to restore abortion access in Missouri,” Eleanor Spottswood, an attorney with Planned Parenthood, argued Friday.

Zhang asked how Planned Parenthood clinics would be regulated if she were to strike down the current licensing requirements from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Spottswood said that like other outpatient practices, the facility would not require a license, but the providers would need to meet their own professional licensing requirements through the Missouri Board of Healing Arts.&nbsp;

Planned Parenthood is currently held to a much higher threshold of regulations, she said.

Pottswood said if the judge strikes down the remaining TRAP laws, it’s Planned Parenthood’s intention to offer medication abortions at all nine clinics across the state within a week The organization hopes it can hire and train the necessary staff to also begin performing surgical abortions at its clinics in St. Louis and Kansas City.&nbsp;

The state previously asked that the case be dismissed, arguing that because abortion is still accessible by mail or by leaving the state, Planned Parenthood didn’t have the standing to ask for a temporary ruling.

Much of Friday’s hearing revolved around pelvic exams, which Planned Parenthood’s attorneys maintained are “invasive and unnecessary” ahead of prescribing abortion medication. Instead, Pottswood said, the clinics use other methods to determine if the pregnancy is at risk of being ectopic, meaning the fertilized egg has implanted itself outside the uterus.&nbsp;

Taking abortion medication to end an ectopic pregnancy can be dangerous.

Missouri Solicitor General Joshua Divine argued that pelvic exams ahead of any procedure are “routine care,” and should remain in place.&nbsp;

Zhang asked if hospitals can perform abortions following passage of Amendment 3 last year, seemingly attempting to determine whether the current pelvic exam law is discriminatory against abortion clinics or if it would also be required at hospitals.&nbsp;

Pottswood said they presumably can, but a question remains of whether any will. Divine agreed that while he believes hospitals can now provide abortions, it is “very, very rare” that they do so in Missouri … so there’s not much need to regulate.”

Without a broader injunction, Pottswood argued, “the state will enforce the law in the most obstructive way possible” and “treat abortion providers differently and worse than other providers.”&nbsp;

This interferes with patients rights, she said, which is in violation of&nbsp;<a href="https://moconstitutionalfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Missourians-for-Constitutional-Freedom-Amendment.pdf" target="_blank">Amendment 3, which states in part&nbsp;</a>that “the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”&nbsp;

A decade ago, more than 5,000 abortions were performed in Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. By 2020, when abortions were still legal, that number fell to 167, a drop that abortion providers attributed to the state’s growing list of regulations.

Divine questioned why the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis hadn’t reapplied for a license, since they were the only clinic in the state that still met licensing requirements when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. He called the lack of access a “purely self-inflicted injury.”

Missouri’s trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into effect the same day, ending the procedure at the St. Louis clinic.

Assuming that the state would grant the license, Pottswood said by limiting patients’ choices to one clinic in the state, “the licensing law inserts the state between the patient and the provider.”

The hearing, which lasted four hours, also discussed the state’s continued objection to the Jackson County prosecutor, formerly Jean Peters Baker and currently Melesa Johnson, being named as the defendants representing all county prosecutors in the case.&nbsp;

The attorney general’s office argues Johnson, who was endorsed by the advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood, does not appropriately represent all statewide prosecutors.

Zhang previously denied the state’s request to remove the Jackson County prosecutor as a representative for the defendant class and move the case to Cole County, where last summer a judge attempted to strike the abortion-rights amendment from the ballot.&nbsp;

On Friday, the prosecutors from Wright, Texas, Franklin and Saline counties showed up in court to continue to object, arguing that because there isn’t a Planned Parenthood clinic in any of their counties, all county prosecutors shouldn’t necessarily be a party in the case.&nbsp;

Zhang said her concern centers around the possibility that residents in any county could be prescribed abortion medication at a clinic before returning to their home counties. She also noted that three of the four counties have emergency rooms where women experiencing any abortion complications could be admitted.

“There could be a risk of prosecution across the state because of telemedicine,” she said.

No specific examples of what cases could be prosecuted were entertained. Tyrrell added that if he did prosecute an abortion case, he was confident he’d quickly find himself again sitting across from Planned Parenthood in a courtroom.

“I won’t swear I won’t and I won’t swear I will prosecute,” Wright County ProsecutorJohn Tyrrell told Zhang. “ … but the likelihood is very, very low.”

Zhang gave both parties one week to file additional briefings. Her decision is expected after that. The bench trial, at which point the judge will make a permanent ruling, has been set for January 2026.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/2/1738417012018.png" alt="A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on June 21, 2024, in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on June 21, 2024, in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a> <a href="https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-senate-committee-advances-bill-to-ban-texting-while-driving/">Missouri Independent</a><h2>A Jackson County judge previously allowed certain regulations, such as mandatory pelvic exams for medical abortion, to remain in place</h2>Nearly two months after<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/12/05/abortion-lawsuit-planned-parenthood-amendment-3-missouri-jackson-county/">&nbsp;a voter-approved constitutional amendment legalizing abortion</a>&nbsp;went into effect, the procedure remains inaccessible in Missouri.&nbsp;On Friday, a Jackson County judge heard arguments over whether to grant an injunction requested by Planned Parenthood that would permit the organization to offer abortion services almost immediately.&nbsp;Last month, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/12/20/missouri-amendment-3-abortion-regulations-trap-laws/">struck down a number of “targeted regulation of abortion provider” statutes,</a>&nbsp;better known as TRAP laws.&nbsp;Laws mandating a 72-hour waiting period for an abortion and a requirement that physicians performing the procedure have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals were put on hold.&nbsp;But other regulations the judge allowed to remain — such as state licensing requirements and a mandate to receive a pelvic exam before being prescribed the pill used in medication abortion — have left clinics unable to perform the procedure in Missouri.On Friday afternoon, Zhang again listened to arguments from Planned Parenthood and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office during the hearing in downtown Kansas City.&nbsp;“We have still not been able to restore abortion access in Missouri,” Eleanor Spottswood, an attorney with Planned Parenthood, argued Friday.Zhang asked how Planned Parenthood clinics would be regulated if she were to strike down the current licensing requirements from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Spottswood said that like other outpatient practices, the facility would not require a license, but the providers would need to meet their own professional licensing requirements through the Missouri Board of Healing Arts.&nbsp;Planned Parenthood is currently held to a much higher threshold of regulations, she said.Pottswood said if the judge strikes down the remaining TRAP laws, it’s Planned Parenthood’s intention to offer medication abortions at all nine clinics across the state within a week The organization hopes it can hire and train the necessary staff to also begin performing surgical abortions at its clinics in St. Louis and Kansas City.&nbsp;The state previously asked that the case be dismissed, arguing that because abortion is still accessible by mail or by leaving the state, Planned Parenthood didn’t have the standing to ask for a temporary ruling.Much of Friday’s hearing revolved around pelvic exams, which Planned Parenthood’s attorneys maintained are “invasive and unnecessary” ahead of prescribing abortion medication. Instead, Pottswood said, the clinics use other methods to determine if the pregnancy is at risk of being ectopic, meaning the fertilized egg has implanted itself outside the uterus.&nbsp;Taking abortion medication to end an ectopic pregnancy can be dangerous.Missouri Solicitor General Joshua Divine argued that pelvic exams ahead of any procedure are “routine care,” and should remain in place.&nbsp;Zhang asked if hospitals can perform abortions following passage of Amendment 3 last year, seemingly attempting to determine whether the current pelvic exam law is discriminatory against abortion clinics or if it would also be required at hospitals.&nbsp;Pottswood said they presumably can, but a question remains of whether any will. Divine agreed that while he believes hospitals can now provide abortions, it is “very, very rare” that they do so in Missouri … so there’s not much need to regulate.”Without a broader injunction, Pottswood argued, “the state will enforce the law in the most obstructive way possible” and “treat abortion providers differently and worse than other providers.”&nbsp;This interferes with patients rights, she said, which is in violation of&nbsp;<a href="https://moconstitutionalfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Missourians-for-Constitutional-Freedom-Amendment.pdf" target="_blank">Amendment 3, which states in part&nbsp;</a>that “the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”&nbsp;A decade ago, more than 5,000 abortions were performed in Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. By 2020, when abortions were still legal, that number fell to 167, a drop that abortion providers attributed to the state’s growing list of regulations.Divine questioned why the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis hadn’t reapplied for a license, since they were the only clinic in the state that still met licensing requirements when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. He called the lack of access a “purely self-inflicted injury.”Missouri’s trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into effect the same day, ending the procedure at the St. Louis clinic.Assuming that the state would grant the license, Pottswood said by limiting patients’ choices to one clinic in the state, “the licensing law inserts the state between the patient and the provider.”The hearing, which lasted four hours, also discussed the state’s continued objection to the Jackson County prosecutor, formerly Jean Peters Baker and currently Melesa Johnson, being named as the defendants representing all county prosecutors in the case.&nbsp;The attorney general’s office argues Johnson, who was endorsed by the advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood, does not appropriately represent all statewide prosecutors.Zhang previously denied the state’s request to remove the Jackson County prosecutor as a representative for the defendant class and move the case to Cole County, where last summer a judge attempted to strike the abortion-rights amendment from the ballot.&nbsp;On Friday, the prosecutors from Wright, Texas, Franklin and Saline counties showed up in court to continue to object, arguing that because there isn’t a Planned Parenthood clinic in any of their counties, all county prosecutors shouldn’t necessarily be a party in the case.&nbsp;Zhang said her concern centers around the possibility that residents in any county could be prescribed abortion medication at a clinic before returning to their home counties. She also noted that three of the four counties have emergency rooms where women experiencing any abortion complications could be admitted.“There could be a risk of prosecution across the state because of telemedicine,” she said.No specific examples of what cases could be prosecuted were entertained. Tyrrell added that if he did prosecute an abortion case, he was confident he’d quickly find himself again sitting across from Planned Parenthood in a courtroom.“I won’t swear I won’t and I won’t swear I will prosecute,” Wright County ProsecutorJohn Tyrrell told Zhang. “ … but the likelihood is very, very low.”Zhang gave both parties one week to file additional briefings. Her decision is expected after that. The bench trial, at which point the judge will make a permanent ruling, has been set for January 2026.

Planned Parenthood asks judge to block remaining Missouri abortion regulations

NEW YORK (AP) — Marianne Faithfull, the British pop star, muse, libertine and old soul who inspired and helped write some of the Rolling Stones' greatest songs and endured as a torch singer and survivor of the lifestyle she once embodied, has died. She was 78.

Faithfull passed away Thursday in London, her music promotion company Republic Media said.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull," a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”

The blonde, voluptuous Faithfull was a celebrity before turning 17, homeless by her mid-20s and an inspiration to peers and younger artists by her early 30s, when her raw, explicit “Broken English” album brought her the kinds of reviews the Stones had received. Over the following decades, her admirers would include Beck, Billy Corgan, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, although her history would always be closely tied to the Stones and to the years she dated Mick Jagger.

“I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull,” Jagger wrote on Instagram. “She was so much a part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress.”

One of the first songs written by Jagger and Keith Richards, the melancholy “As Tears Go By,” was her breakthrough hit when released in 1964 and the start of her close and tormented relationship with the band.

She and Jagger began seeing each other in 1966 and became one of the most glamorous and notorious couples of “Swinging London," with Faithfull once declaring that if LSD “wasn't meant to happen, it wouldn't have been invented." Their rejection of conventional values was defined by a widely publicized 1967 drug bust that left Jagger and Richards briefly in jail and Faithfull identified in tabloids as “Naked Girl At Stones Party," a label she would find humiliating and inescapable.

“One of the hazards of reforming your evil ways is that some people won’t let go of their mind’s eye of you as a wild thing,” she wrote in “Memories, Dreams and Reflections," a 2007 memoir.

Jagger and Richards often cited bluesmen and early rock ‘n rollers as their prime influences, but Faithfull and her close friend Anita Pallenberg, Richards’ longtime partner, also opened the band to new ways of thinking. Both were worldlier than their boyfriends at the time, and helped transform the Stones' songwriting and personas, whether as muses or as collaborators.

Faithfull helped inspire such Stones songs as the mellow tribute “She Smiled Sweetly” and the lustful “Let's Spend the Night Together." It was Faithful who lent Jagger the Russian novel ”The Master and Margarita" that was the basis for “Sympathy for the Devil” and who first recorded and contributed lyrics to the Stones' dire “Sister Morphine,” notably the opening line, “Here I lie in my hospital bed.” Faithfull's drug use helped shape such jaded takes on the London rock scene as “You Can't Always Get What You Want” and “Live with Me,” while her time with Jagger also coincided with one of his most vulnerable love songs, “Wild Horses.”

On her own, the London-born Faithfull specialized at first in genteel ballads, among them “Come Stay With Me,” “Summer Nights” and “This Little Bird." But even in her teens, Faithfull sang in a fragile alto that suggested knowledge and burdens far beyond her years. Her voice would later crack and coarsen, and her life and work after splitting with Jagger in 1970 was one of looking back and carrying on through emotional and physical pain.

She had become addicted to heroin in the late '60s, suffered a miscarriage while seven months pregnant and nearly died from an overdose of sleeping pills. (Jagger, meanwhile, had an affair with Pallenberg and had a baby with actor Marsha Hunt). By the early '70s, Faithfull was living in the streets of London and had lost custody of the son, Nicholas, she had with her estranged husband, the gallery owner John Dunbar. She would also battle anorexia and hepatitis, was treated for breast cancer, broke her hip in a fall and was hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020.

She shared everything, uncensored, in her memoirs and in her music, notably “Broken English,” which came out in 1979 and featured her seething “Why'd Ya Do It” and conflicted “Guilt,” in which she chants “I feel guilt, I feel guilt, though I know I’ve done no wrong.” Other albums included “Dangerous Acquaintances,” “Strange Weather," the live “Blazing Away” and, most recently, “She Walks in Beauty.” Though Faithfull was defined by the 1960s, her sensibility often reached back to the pre-rock world of German cabaret, and she covered numerous songs by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, including “Ballad of the Soldier's Wife” and the “sung” ballet “The Seven Deadly Sins."

Her interests extended to theater, film and television. Faithfull began acting in the 1960s, including an appearance in Jean-Luc Godard's “Made In U.S.A.” and stage roles in “Hamlet” and Chekhov's “Three Sisters.” She would later appear in such films as “The Girl on a Motorcycle,” “Marie Antoinette” and “The Girl from Nagasaki,” and the TV series “Absolutely Fabulous,” in which she was cast as — and did not flinch from playing — God.

Faithful was married three times, and in recent years dated her manager, Francois Ravard. Jagger was her most famous lover, but other men in her life included Richards ("so great and memorable," she would say of their one-night stand), David Bowie and the early rock star Gene Pitney. Among the rejected: Bob Dylan, who had been so taken that he was writing a song about her, until Faithfull, pregnant with her son at the time, turned him down.

“Without warning, he turned into Rumpelstiltskin,” she wrote in “Faithfull,” published in 1994. “He went over to the typewriter, took a sheaf of papers and began ripping them up into smaller and smaller pieces, after which he let them fall into the wastepaper basket.”

Faithfull's heritage was one of intrigue, decadence and fallen empires. Her father was a British intelligence officer during World War II who helped saved her mother from the Nazis in Vienna. Faithfull's more distant ancestors included various Austro-Hungarian aristocrats and Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, a 19th century Austrian whose last name and scandalous novel “Venus in Furs” helped create the term “masochism."

Faithfull's parents separated when she was 6 and her childhood would include time in a convent and in what she would call a “nutty” sex-obsessed commune. By her teens, she was reading Simone de Beauvoir, listening to Odetta and Joan Baez and singing in folk clubs. Through the London art scene, she met Dunbar, who introduced her to Paul McCartney and other celebrities. Dunbar also co-founded the Indica Gallery, where John Lennon would say he met Yoko Ono.

“The threads of a dozen little scenes were invisibly twining together,” she wrote in her memoir. “All these people — gallery owners, photographers, pop stars, aristocrats and assorted talented layabouts more or less invented the scene in London, so I guess I was present at the creation.”

Her future was set in March 1964, when she attended a recording party for one of London's hot young bands, the Rolling Stones. Scorning the idea that she and Jagger immediately fell for each other, she would regard the Stones as “yobby schoolboys” and witnessed Jagger fighting with his then-girlfriend, the model Chrissie Shrimpton, so in tears that her false eyelashes were peeling off.

But she was deeply impressed by one man, Stones manager Andrew “Loog” Oldham, who looked “powerful and dangerous and very sure of himself.” A week later, Oldham sent her a telegram, asking her to come to London's Olympic Studios. With Jagger and Richards looking on, Oldham played her a demo of a “very primitive” song, “A Tears Go By," which Faithfull needed just two takes to complete.

“It's an absolutely astonishing thing for a boy of 20 to have written,” Faithfull wrote in her 1994 memoir. “A song about a woman looking back nostalgically on her life. The uncanny thing is that Mick should have written those words so long before everything happened. It's almost as is if our whole relationship was prefigured in that song.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/1/1738267480803.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — Marianne Faithfull, the British pop star, muse, libertine and old soul who inspired and helped write some of the Rolling Stones' greatest songs and endured as a torch singer and survivor of the lifestyle she once embodied, has died. She was 78.Faithfull passed away Thursday in London, her music promotion company Republic Media said.“It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull," a company spokesperson said in a statement. “Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed.”The blonde, voluptuous Faithfull was a celebrity before turning 17, homeless by her mid-20s and an inspiration to peers and younger artists by her early 30s, when her raw, explicit “Broken English” album brought her the kinds of reviews the Stones had received. Over the following decades, her admirers would include Beck, Billy Corgan, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey, although her history would always be closely tied to the Stones and to the years she dated Mick Jagger.“I am so saddened to hear of the death of Marianne Faithfull,” Jagger wrote on Instagram. “She was so much a part of my life for so long. She was a wonderful friend, a beautiful singer and a great actress.”One of the first songs written by Jagger and Keith Richards, the melancholy “As Tears Go By,” was her breakthrough hit when released in 1964 and the start of her close and tormented relationship with the band.She and Jagger began seeing each other in 1966 and became one of the most glamorous and notorious couples of “Swinging London," with Faithfull once declaring that if LSD “wasn't meant to happen, it wouldn't have been invented." Their rejection of conventional values was defined by a widely publicized 1967 drug bust that left Jagger and Richards briefly in jail and Faithfull identified in tabloids as “Naked Girl At Stones Party," a label she would find humiliating and inescapable.“One of the hazards of reforming your evil ways is that some people won’t let go of their mind’s eye of you as a wild thing,” she wrote in “Memories, Dreams and Reflections," a 2007 memoir.Jagger and Richards often cited bluesmen and early rock ‘n rollers as their prime influences, but Faithfull and her close friend Anita Pallenberg, Richards’ longtime partner, also opened the band to new ways of thinking. Both were worldlier than their boyfriends at the time, and helped transform the Stones' songwriting and personas, whether as muses or as collaborators.Faithfull helped inspire such Stones songs as the mellow tribute “She Smiled Sweetly” and the lustful “Let's Spend the Night Together." It was Faithful who lent Jagger the Russian novel ”The Master and Margarita" that was the basis for “Sympathy for the Devil” and who first recorded and contributed lyrics to the Stones' dire “Sister Morphine,” notably the opening line, “Here I lie in my hospital bed.” Faithfull's drug use helped shape such jaded takes on the London rock scene as “You Can't Always Get What You Want” and “Live with Me,” while her time with Jagger also coincided with one of his most vulnerable love songs, “Wild Horses.”On her own, the London-born Faithfull specialized at first in genteel ballads, among them “Come Stay With Me,” “Summer Nights” and “This Little Bird." But even in her teens, Faithfull sang in a fragile alto that suggested knowledge and burdens far beyond her years. Her voice would later crack and coarsen, and her life and work after splitting with Jagger in 1970 was one of looking back and carrying on through emotional and physical pain.She had become addicted to heroin in the late '60s, suffered a miscarriage while seven months pregnant and nearly died from an overdose of sleeping pills. (Jagger, meanwhile, had an affair with Pallenberg and had a baby with actor Marsha Hunt). By the early '70s, Faithfull was living in the streets of London and had lost custody of the son, Nicholas, she had with her estranged husband, the gallery owner John Dunbar. She would also battle anorexia and hepatitis, was treated for breast cancer, broke her hip in a fall and was hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020.She shared everything, uncensored, in her memoirs and in her music, notably “Broken English,” which came out in 1979 and featured her seething “Why'd Ya Do It” and conflicted “Guilt,” in which she chants “I feel guilt, I feel guilt, though I know I’ve done no wrong.” Other albums included “Dangerous Acquaintances,” “Strange Weather," the live “Blazing Away” and, most recently, “She Walks in Beauty.” Though Faithfull was defined by the 1960s, her sensibility often reached back to the pre-rock world of German cabaret, and she covered numerous songs by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, including “Ballad of the Soldier's Wife” and the “sung” ballet “The Seven Deadly Sins."Her interests extended to theater, film and television. Faithfull began acting in the 1960s, including an appearance in Jean-Luc Godard's “Made In U.S.A.” and stage roles in “Hamlet” and Chekhov's “Three Sisters.” She would later appear in such films as “The Girl on a Motorcycle,” “Marie Antoinette” and “The Girl from Nagasaki,” and the TV series “Absolutely Fabulous,” in which she was cast as — and did not flinch from playing — God.Faithful was married three times, and in recent years dated her manager, Francois Ravard. Jagger was her most famous lover, but other men in her life included Richards ("so great and memorable," she would say of their one-night stand), David Bowie and the early rock star Gene Pitney. Among the rejected: Bob Dylan, who had been so taken that he was writing a song about her, until Faithfull, pregnant with her son at the time, turned him down.“Without warning, he turned into Rumpelstiltskin,” she wrote in “Faithfull,” published in 1994. “He went over to the typewriter, took a sheaf of papers and began ripping them up into smaller and smaller pieces, after which he let them fall into the wastepaper basket.”Faithfull's heritage was one of intrigue, decadence and fallen empires. Her father was a British intelligence officer during World War II who helped saved her mother from the Nazis in Vienna. Faithfull's more distant ancestors included various Austro-Hungarian aristocrats and Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, a 19th century Austrian whose last name and scandalous novel “Venus in Furs” helped create the term “masochism."Faithfull's parents separated when she was 6 and her childhood would include time in a convent and in what she would call a “nutty” sex-obsessed commune. By her teens, she was reading Simone de Beauvoir, listening to Odetta and Joan Baez and singing in folk clubs. Through the London art scene, she met Dunbar, who introduced her to Paul McCartney and other celebrities. Dunbar also co-founded the Indica Gallery, where John Lennon would say he met Yoko Ono.“The threads of a dozen little scenes were invisibly twining together,” she wrote in her memoir. “All these people — gallery owners, photographers, pop stars, aristocrats and assorted talented layabouts more or less invented the scene in London, so I guess I was present at the creation.”Her future was set in March 1964, when she attended a recording party for one of London's hot young bands, the Rolling Stones. Scorning the idea that she and Jagger immediately fell for each other, she would regard the Stones as “yobby schoolboys” and witnessed Jagger fighting with his then-girlfriend, the model Chrissie Shrimpton, so in tears that her false eyelashes were peeling off.But she was deeply impressed by one man, Stones manager Andrew “Loog” Oldham, who looked “powerful and dangerous and very sure of himself.” A week later, Oldham sent her a telegram, asking her to come to London's Olympic Studios. With Jagger and Richards looking on, Oldham played her a demo of a “very primitive” song, “A Tears Go By," which Faithfull needed just two takes to complete.“It's an absolutely astonishing thing for a boy of 20 to have written,” Faithfull wrote in her 1994 memoir. “A song about a woman looking back nostalgically on her life. The uncanny thing is that Mick should have written those words so long before everything happened. It's almost as is if our whole relationship was prefigured in that song.”___Brian Melley contributed from London.

Marianne Faithfull, singer and pop icon, dies at 78

Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes

OPENING STATEMENT:&nbsp;“Alright, no injuries to give you here. (We) look forward to the challenge of playing the Eagles, (they’re) a heck of a football team. (They’re) very well run from ownership on down through. (Eagles Head Coach) Nick’s (Sirianni) done a heck of a job there with the football team (and Eagles Executive Vice President/General Manager) Howie Roseman bringing the players in that they have and they’re very talented – well coached and very talented. Anyways, with that, time’s yours.”

Q: You’ve faced the Eagles in back-to-back seasons. How has Eagles RB Saquon Barkley helped the Eagles improve this season?

REID:&nbsp;“He’s (Eagles RB Saquon Barkley) a great player and a potential future hall of famer. He’s been – he was tremendous at New York and he had a great year this year with the Eagles. So, he’s helped them – he’s helped them, especially in the rush game but he can catch the ball. They have a quarterback that can throw the ball and two wide receivers out there that are tremendous and a couple tight ends, too. They’re fully loaded on the offensive side of the ball but to answer your question he’s been a great addition for them.”

Q: Did you watch Super Bowl IV when it happened as a kid?

REID:&nbsp;“Nope (laughs). Yeah, I remember. I watched all of them.”

Q: That goes back even before your punt, pass and kick episode, I guess?

Q: Would you ever consent to being mic’d up during a game?

REID:&nbsp;“I’m not big on that.”

Q: Have you ever run 65 Toss Power Trap?

REID:&nbsp;“We did last week, yeah. We ran it last week. The one that (Isiah) Pacheco caught. (We) tried to score – we didn’t quite score though. It wasn’t as good as the one they ran.”

Q: You’ve done the Super Bowl in New Orleans before. What do you remember about that?

REID:&nbsp;“It’s a great city and the hospitality was unreal back then – as I’m sure it will be now. They know how to put on a show but as coaches and players, you don’t get into too much of that, but it’s a great city. For the fans, I think it’s great.”

Q: Former NFL Coach Mike Holmgren is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In what ways did he influence you as a head coach?

REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, (former NFL Coach) Mike Holmgren, yeah. I felt like when I worked for him nobody did it better. I still feel that way after being a head coach for all these years. He’s a tremendous teacher – I mean, (a) great teacher so (I) took a ton from him in all areas. How he dealt with the players and also the football part, he’s got a great mind.”

Q: You’ve had great success in your 60’s and so did former NFL Coach Bill Belichick. Is that the new sweet spot for coaches?

REID:&nbsp;“I think they put something in the Geritol. Listen, it’s – I don’t know. It’s probably the experience, I guess if you had to – and you have good players, which helps and good coaches – good organization. We’re fortunate to have all of those things if there’s something in common with that.”

REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, I think you’re probably more patient. You’ve seen a lot to get to that point, so I know I’m more patient than when I was a younger head coach.”

Q: You’re a finalist for AP Coach of the Year. Would it be an honor to win this award?

REID:&nbsp;“Listen, I think it’s great for everybody involved, everybody’s got a piece of that. If that happens, it’s great. I look at those (award) more of a – really a team honor because it’s not a one man show. You’re really saying that your coaches did good, your players have done well, the organization’s done well. I mean, if it happens, it happens. I wasn’t even sure that was going on, but you could’ve just made that up.”

Q: When you ran 65 Toss Power Trap last week was that the first time and is that also what it’s called in your playbook too?

REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, that’s what we call it. It’s a tribute to the old guys.”

REID:&nbsp;“No, that was the first time.”

Q: Have you seen Patrick Mahomes’ ability to lock in in the postseason evolve over the years that you’ve worked with him or has he always been able to maintain that consistent focus?

REID:&nbsp;“He’s (Patrick Mahomes) been good with that. I’d say that’s been a consistency. You can really see as the season builds up (that) he’s even more focused and more focused and then you get to this time of the year (and) he’s really locked in.”

Q: Have you heard any of the reactions calling Patrick Mahomes Michael Jordan?

REID:&nbsp;“I haven’t – listen, I haven’t heard anything, I try not to listen to anything. I had to do my media things, but I don’t tune in during the season.”

Q: On allegations of the Chiefs getting friendly whistles.

REID:&nbsp;“I mean, I think they (the refs) balance – everything balances out. You have a human element there with the officials. These guys are trying to do the best job they possibly can out there. They take a lot of heat one way or the other. Coaches take a lot of heat one way or the other. I don’t pay much attention to it.”

Q: Some people are tired of the Chiefs winning, do you use this as motivation?

REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, I don’t care. Honestly, I don’t get into that; I don’t use that with the guys. I just want to make sure we get prepped. As coaches, our responsibility is to give them everything we can give them to be even greater than they already are and then make sure we’re digging in on plays to help them with that. Then, for them to focus in on learning it and keeping themselves physically fit and mentally fit to go play. There’s enough to do just with that where you don’t even have to pay attention to the other stuff.”

REID:&nbsp;“It’ll probably be the same. Again, we’ll rotate them (Joe Thuney and D.J. Humphries) all in there, but I think (it’ll) probably end up being the same when it’s all said and done.”

Q: What is it about Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s blitz package that you find most compelling?

REID:&nbsp;“He (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) doesn’t do it every down. Sometimes you become – you have the stigma of being a blitz guy. It’s when he does it and then how he knows the protections or the run scheme, you know for the run blitzes. How he understands the scheme and when to go ahead about using it. I think that’s what makes him so unique and why they’re successful. You can blitz, they know the blitz is coming, they pick it up and it’s one of those deals. The offensive guy calls the right play for that time. His objective is to find when that’s not happening.”

<a>Q</a>: What is your favorite meal in New Orleans?

REID:&nbsp;“I’ll tell you, there is one. Emerils, not that I turn any of them (meals) down but when I was with the Eagles, the chef there, the head chef, tremendous chef, he was a huge Eagles fan. He invited me over and he said, ‘I’m going to start at the ocean and finish in the mountains.’ He put me in the kitchen and said, ‘Have at it.’ He said, ‘I’ll stop when you’re full,’ so four hours later, we were done.”

Q: Are you worried that he would poison your food this time since he is an Eagles fan?

REID:&nbsp;“I probably won’t go there (laughter).”

Q: Did you ever foresee that Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach would eventually become the General Manager of the team you coach after he worked for you early on in your career in Philadelphia?

REID:&nbsp;“You can see right from the get-go his (Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach) energy and how smart he was. Then, his passion for the players side of it, so those guys that came in, I gave them the opportunity to either go personnel or to the football side. He was so passionate about the personnel side and just digging in with it and finding guys. You look at (former NFL WR and Delaware State University Head Coach) DeSean Jackson and (former NFL RB LeSean) McCoy and (former NFL DT Fletcher) Cox, all those guys, he’s throwing those guys on my desk saying, ‘You have to get these guys.’ He just had an eye and a knack for it and that hasn’t changed.”

Q: What is your advice to the rookies and the players who have not experienced opening night before?

REID:&nbsp;“You know what’s kind of neat about that is you get people from all over the world that show up. Now, some of the questions are a little bizarre, so (Vice President of Football Communications) Brad Gee talks to them (the players) just about how you handle those, that’s important. It might be a joke for them but what you say is what you say so you have to be careful with how you present it and present yourself. For the rookies, that’s all new. The veteran guys kind of know that but for the rookies, it’s kind of a wild event.”

Q: What’s the key to calming the nerves in the beginning of the game?

REID:&nbsp;“I think it’s – first of all, it’s (the) preparation before you get there. You have to make sure that you have everything going. You know your juices are going to be flowing so you’ve got to make sure you get in there and prep so you’re not thinking about things while your juices are going as much as you’re just going out and playing. You get excited, it’s an exciting game but you don’t want to hide that either and then you kind of settle down as you go through.”

Q: When you got your 300th&nbsp;win, did Bill Belichick reach out to you?

REID:&nbsp;“I believe he (former NFL HC Bill Belichick) did, yeah. I mean, he’s a good friend, so he’s great with all that. He’s the guy, this is all – an old hat for him. I have a ton of respect for him as a coach but he’s also a friend.”

Q: Was it like “Welcome to 300” or anything like that?

REID:&nbsp;“He’s never going to really reach the real 300 (lb.). There’s a lot of cheeseburgers that went into that (laughter).”

Q:&nbsp;On the people calling the Chiefs “Villains.”

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I try not to listen to it too much. I think more than anything, I just try to embrace who we have in this locker room and the personalities and how we enjoy playing football. I believe (that) if we play football the right way and we compete and go out there and play our best football that I’ll always have my guy’s backs. We have a lot of good dudes in this locker room and all we’re going to do is compete and try to win football games.”

Q:&nbsp;How much is potentially completing the three-peat to join legends like Michael Jordan, the late Kobe Bryant or Derek Jeter a motivating factor to win this game?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I mean, I think you always want to leave a legacy and kind of make your imprint on history but more than anything, you just want to accomplish a goal that you have with your teammates. When you start in St. Joe your goal is to win the Super Bowl. We know that’s a hard process, we know it’s a hard week-in and week-out, but I’m proud of how our guys have kind of went about that process. We know it’s not going to be easy, this team we’re playing is a really good football team, but we’re going to go out there and put our best effort out there and play as a team and hopefully that’s enough to get a win.”

Q:&nbsp;How much have athletes like the late Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan influenced you in your career?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I think more than anything is you see the competitors that they are (Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan) is that they’re going to do whatever it takes to win. That’s what you have to be in order to have success in professional sports is a competitor, someone that’s going to put in the work every single week and watching them and listening to the things that they talk about, that’s helped shape my career on how I have to work. Obviously, it’s a long way still for me to go to be mentioned with those guys but I’ll try to do whatever I can to be close enough as I can be.”

Q:&nbsp;Is there something that stands out about this year that makes this year different?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“Yeah, I think just – to me, this team’s been special because it’s been everybody. If you look at our entire season it’s like someone that makes a big play at the biggest moment to go out there and win a football game if that’s offense, defense or special teams. I think that fact that it’s been everybody – it’s not just offense, it’s not just defense, it’s everybody on the entire team (and) it’s something that I’ll remember this season by and hopefully we can do it the right way and get this final win.”

Q:&nbsp;On NFL Films capturing the moment when he said he wanted a third Super Bowl after winning Super Bowl LVIII.

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I don’t know if it was just this one in particular, it’s just when you’re on that stage and you’re celebrating you start thinking about the guys that are coming back, you think about how young that football team was last year and you knew that we had a chance to be in this position. Even though you’re winning, you’re enjoying that moment, you enjoy it, but at the same time, you have a bigger picture of your entire career, and I want to have as many chances as I can to be in the Super Bowl. It’s cool to have guys like Chris (Jones) and Trav (Travis Kelce) that I’ve kind of spent my entire career with and won all these games with. There’s a few others with James Winchester and Harrison (Butker), I’m probably forgetting someone here or there but it’s cool to have these guys because we’ve built such a great friendship and almost become a family and I think that’s really cool.”

Q:&nbsp;On the fourth quarter and overtime success in the past Super Bowls.

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I mean, not just start fast but just be consistent throughout the game. I think there’s been games where we’ve started fast and we have lolls, but you have to be able to deal with adversity and whenever you have those moments, just being able to respond. We’ve played a lot of good teams in the Super Bowls (and) a lot of good defenses and we’ve done a good job of kind of figuring out, but if we can start fast, obviously, it would help out and make it to where we don’t have to necessarily have a fourth quarter comeback every time, but however you find a way to win, you find a way to get a win.”

Q:&nbsp;What was it like calling 65 Toss Power Trap in the huddle and what kind of appreciation do you have for the history of that play?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I wish we would’ve scored; it got close. The history of that play – the history of this organization, it runs through this entire team. Just like last week getting that Lamar Hunt Trophy back at home, I mean, it’s special for us. That’s one of our goals is to get that trophy and to win it at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, it’s a special moment. Being able to run that play, one that I’ve watched and one that we have a room named after, next time we’ll just try to find a way to get it into the end zone.”

Q:&nbsp;What do you know about that play?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I know what’s cool about this organization is that we always go back and look at the history of it. If you look at (PFHOF Head Coach) Hank Stram and (PFHOF QB) Len Dawson and all the Hall of Famer’s – I think there’s like six or seven Hall of Famer’s on that football team.&nbsp; We go and we have museums and we learn, and I talked to other guys and other quarterbacks whenever they come in our room like Carson (Wentz) or Chris (Oladokun) or whoever that is about the history of the Chiefs. I think that’s the cool thing about the NFL is that you can look back at these special moments in organizations and really what defines organizations. That was a huge moment for this organization.”

Q:&nbsp;Who makes you guys aware of those things?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“It starts with (Chairman &amp; CEO) Clark (Hunt). We talk about it before every single training camp, then it goes down through the line. When you’re with (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid, you hear the best stories of all time. I meet with him every single Friday when we talk about the gameplan, but that becomes like a story time where I hear these stories about the great untold stories about the history of the NFL. One day, he’s going to have to write a book because there are some great ones in there.”

Q:&nbsp;What is Chairman &amp; CEO Clark Hunt like as an owner?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I think (Chairman &amp; CEO) Clark (Hunt) does a great job of being there and showing his support and showing that he is invested. You can tell (that) he loves it and not only for his family but for all of us. Then, at the same time, letting (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid help run the organization – the football side of it. He has huge impact on this organization. The way that he comes to work every single day and he’s there and he’s always there. I mean, it is really cool to see. (He’s a) Texas guy so all the best are from Texas.”

Q:&nbsp;What do you think drives Head Coach Andy Reid?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I think what drives (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid is just the greatness and becoming better people every single day. I think that’s something that is special about this is he doesn’t care if he’s playing Week 18 or Week 1 or Super Bowl or a preseason game, he’s the same. He’s the same (and) he’s going to expect greatness out of you and when you leave the building, he wants you to be a better person than when you got in the building. I think that makes you want to be better every single day that you’re in the building. When people talk about three-peat and everything like that, we’re focused on how we can be better today to prepare ourselves for the next day and it starts with him.”

Q:&nbsp;Do you ever hear him say something like “three-peat?”

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I think the only time I’ve heard him (Head Coach Andy Reid) say it is like to the media whenever y’all ask him about it. He’s very locked in on just, ‘How can we be great with our cadence today at practice?’ so that’s just the stuff that Coach Reid focuses on.”

Q:&nbsp;What do you appreciate most about what Kareem Hunt has done this season and why did you choose to invite him to your wedding?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I think first off – I mean, with Kareem (Hunt), obviously he made his mistakes, but I knew the person before, and I knew the person after and I knew that he had a good heart and he had to learn from his mistakes and become a better person because of it and he did that. He dealt with the consequences and he’s kind of tried to rebound and just be a better person for the community more than anything. Just knowing him and how close he was to me but also how he treated Brittany (Mahomes) and how he treated my family has always been special, so I wanted to have him at my wedding. I didn’t think anything of having any –&nbsp; all of my coaches – I was just having all the people that I love at my wedding. Obviously, I think (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid talked to him there and they were able to talk about just things. We never knew that was going to be coming back to the Chiefs, but getting him back now, you can tell that he appreciates the moment, he appreciates being out there on the practice field and being in the building and it’s been fun. For him to have the impact on this team that he’s had, and it’s been a big impact – to get to the Super Bowl with him, because as someone that was one of the first people I met when I got to Kansas City and not to be able to enjoy the Super Bowls with and finally getting to enjoy one with him will be a special moment and hopefully we can get a win and he can enjoy that too.”

Q:&nbsp;Does Head Coach Andy Reid encourage trash talking on the field and showing your personality?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“Well, for me, I’m pretty good – I don’t really talk trash unless I get trash talked to me, so I’m usually pretty calm. (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid is great about showing your personality and we want you to go out there and play with fire and we want you to show how much you care about the game, but we have respect for the game as well. We respect the guys on the other side of the football because we know how hard it is to get to this point and how great of a football team and great football players you have to be. That’s why it’s just genuine. You’re just honest and you respect the guys on the other side of the football. When you’re in between the lines, you show your fire, you show your love for the game, but when you’re off the field, you show respect for the game, and I think that’s important, and I think that’s why we’re in the position that we’re in.”

Q:&nbsp;On playing against former Kansas State Head Coach Bill Snyder.

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“First off, playing against him (former Kansas State Head Coach Bill Snyder) and then getting those letters after the game, I’ve kept those letters. Just a true, great person and iconic coach and iconic leader and just made his imprint in football forever, especially at K-State (Kansas State), but just throughout the Big 12 and football in general. (I) played a lot of games, I think I only won one of them, I came into the fourth quarter I believe of one of them. Then, (I) played at Texas Tech (and) we lost – I mean, we won at Texas Tech in Lubbock, (Texas). Then, (we) went to K-State and I came off and injury and we ended up losing that game. I tried to do a Hail Mary at the end of the game and got hit. I think I threw a pick to (New York Jets CB) D.J. Reed who’s in the NFL. It’s always cool when you play against the greats and you get to see their impact and why they’re so great. It was some fun moments for me in college.”

Q:&nbsp;Did you get a letter after every game?

MAHOMES:&nbsp;“I got two of them. The first one, I didn’t get one because I came in at the fourth quarter probably, but then the second one and the third one, I got one.”

Q:&nbsp;How did Alex Smith leave an impact on you to get you to where you are now?

Chiefs Quotes: 1-30-25

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned the actions of the army helicopter pilot and air traffic controller ahead of a deadly midair collision in Washington and quickly veered into politics to speculate that Democrats and diversity initiatives shared blame for the deaths of 67 people.

As Trump spoke, a federal investigation into the crash was just getting started and first responders were still working to recover bodies from the wreckage of the commercial jet and army helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night.

Speaking from the White House — just over three miles from the scene — Trump at points acknowledged that it was too soon to draw conclusions as he encouraged the nation to pray for the victims. But he moved nonetheless to assign blame.

Trump said “we are one family” as he expressed condolences for the crash. He then proceeded to attack political opponents and unleash grievances about diversity initiatives.

“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” Trump said. He added that the program allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”

Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be geniuses. “They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”

Trump said he had no evidence to support his claims that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and hiring preferences played a role in the crash, allowing that "it just could have been.” He defended doing so “because I have common sense.”

The plane crash marked the first major disaster of Trump's new term, and his response evoked his frequent — and controversial — briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic. His handling of the pandemic helped sour voters on him as he failed to win reelection in 2020.

Trump said “we do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions.” Then he proceeded to hold forth at length about what happened, at one point wondering if the helicopter pilot was wearing night vision goggles.

Trump declared that “you had a pilot problem” and the helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad.” And he questioned why the Army pilot didn’t change course, saying that “you can stop a helicopter very quickly.” He also mused about the air traffic controller, saying of the two aircraft, “for whatever reason they were at the same elevation," adding "they should have been at a different height.”

Vice President JD Vance, new&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sean-duffy-transportation-crash-dca-5d372d1945929293f10c1f0de58df3cc">Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy</a>&nbsp;and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all lined up behind Trump to praise his leadership and echo his concerns about DEI programs and hiring.

“When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand, you’re not getting the best people in government," Vance said, “But on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there.”

Trump complained specifically about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-democrats-buttigieg-governor-dcce1f0fbe78f900136bc1b0fefc4e9d">Pete Buttigieg</a>, who served as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, calling him “a disaster.”

“He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.

Complaining about the previous administration, Trump continued, “their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.”

Buttigieg responded in a post on X, calling Trump's comments “despicable.” He added: “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying."

Trump made a point to tell Duffy, who was sworn in on Tuesday as Buttigieg's replacement, “It’s not your fault.” Duffy took the White House podium alongside Trump and declared, “When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination.” Duffy added, “We will not accept excuses.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2025/1/1738257732728.png" alt="View of the Thursday morning President Trump press confernce-Photo by Margo Martin, Assistant to the President" />
 <figcaption>View of the Thursday morning President Trump press confernce-Photo by Margo Martin, Assistant to the President</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned the actions of the army helicopter pilot and air traffic controller ahead of a deadly midair collision in Washington and quickly veered into politics to speculate that Democrats and diversity initiatives shared blame for the deaths of 67 people.As Trump spoke, a federal investigation into the crash was just getting started and first responders were still working to recover bodies from the wreckage of the commercial jet and army helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night.Speaking from the White House — just over three miles from the scene — Trump at points acknowledged that it was too soon to draw conclusions as he encouraged the nation to pray for the victims. But he moved nonetheless to assign blame.Trump said “we are one family” as he expressed condolences for the crash. He then proceeded to attack political opponents and unleash grievances about diversity initiatives.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump Holds Press Briefing on Aviation Disaster <a href="https://t.co/uyYbkQJ9mp">https://t.co/uyYbkQJ9mp</a>&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1884997692281020745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump on DCA helicopter-plane crash: &quot;Sadly, there are no survivors. This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation&#39;s capitol and in our nation&#39;s history and a tragedy of terrible proportions.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ZzeXygwpAr">pic.twitter.com/ZzeXygwpAr</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885002717858263358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump on NTSB investigation and safety: &quot;I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first...my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/F557NDQ4iM">pic.twitter.com/F557NDQ4iM</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885004789492175047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">President Trump on helicopter in crash: &quot;The turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously...For some reason it just kept going...They shouldn&#39;t have been at the same height.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/scHGNIp9Iu">pic.twitter.com/scHGNIp9Iu</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885008528877719839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecDef?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecDef</a> Hegseth: &quot;Tragically last night a mistake was made. I think the president is right. There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately begun investigating.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/9udIM2o7Lc">pic.twitter.com/9udIM2o7Lc</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885008961146929508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Q: Should people be hesitant to fly right now? President Trump: No...this collision is something we don&#39;t expect to ever happen again...I&#39;m not blaming the controller. I&#39;m saying there are things that you can question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane. <a href="https://t.co/QpIDeeT3FG">pic.twitter.com/QpIDeeT3FG</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885012440695423113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Q: Are you saying this crash was somehow caused and the result of diversity hiring? Pres. Trump: It just could have been...you have to go by brain power. You have to go by psychological quality...these are very powerful tests that we put to use and they were terminated by Biden. <a href="https://t.co/IpaxJ12IBm">pic.twitter.com/IpaxJ12IBm</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885009901354631399?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenSchumer</a>: &quot;I just watched President Trump&#39;s news conference. Listen, it&#39;s one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracies, it&#39;s another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered...&quot; <a href="https://t.co/6kwuyRAOPq">pic.twitter.com/6kwuyRAOPq</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1885021113874301270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” Trump said. He added that the program allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”Trump said air traffic controllers needed to be geniuses. “They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”Trump said he had no evidence to support his claims that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and hiring preferences played a role in the crash, allowing that "it just could have been.” He defended doing so “because I have common sense.”The plane crash marked the first major disaster of Trump's new term, and his response evoked his frequent — and controversial — briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic. His handling of the pandemic helped sour voters on him as he failed to win reelection in 2020.Trump said “we do not know what led to this crash but we have some very strong opinions.” Then he proceeded to hold forth at length about what happened, at one point wondering if the helicopter pilot was wearing night vision goggles.Trump declared that “you had a pilot problem” and the helicopter was “going at an angle that was unbelievably bad.” And he questioned why the Army pilot didn’t change course, saying that “you can stop a helicopter very quickly.” He also mused about the air traffic controller, saying of the two aircraft, “for whatever reason they were at the same elevation," adding "they should have been at a different height.”Vice President JD Vance, new&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sean-duffy-transportation-crash-dca-5d372d1945929293f10c1f0de58df3cc">Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy</a>&nbsp;and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth all lined up behind Trump to praise his leadership and echo his concerns about DEI programs and hiring.“When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand, you’re not getting the best people in government," Vance said, “But on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there.”Trump complained specifically about&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/michigan-democrats-buttigieg-governor-dcce1f0fbe78f900136bc1b0fefc4e9d">Pete Buttigieg</a>, who served as transportation secretary under former President Joe Biden, calling him “a disaster.”“He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity,” Trump said.Complaining about the previous administration, Trump continued, “their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.”Buttigieg responded in a post on X, calling Trump's comments “despicable.” He added: “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying."Trump made a point to tell Duffy, who was sworn in on Tuesday as Buttigieg's replacement, “It’s not your fault.” Duffy took the White House podium alongside Trump and declared, “When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination.” Duffy added, “We will not accept excuses.”

🎥 President Trump takes question on airplane, helicopter crash

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday after cutting it three times in a row last year, a sign of a more cautious approach as the Fed seeks to gauge where inflation is headed and what policies President Donald Trump may pursue.

The Fed reduced its rate last year to 4.3% from 5.3%, in part out of concern that the job market was weakening. Hiring had slowed in the summer and the unemployment rate ticked up, leading Fed officials to approve an outsized half-point cut in September. Yet&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jobs-unemployment-economy-federal-reserve-wages-398073325c467fb2c676042854f6309b">hiring rebounded last month</a>&nbsp;and the unemployment rate declined slightly, to a low 4.1%.

In its statement Wednesday, the Fed upgraded its assessment of the job market, calling it “solid,” and noting that the unemployment rate “has stabilized at a low level in recent months.” The Fed also appeared to toughen its assessment of inflation, saying that it “remains somewhat elevated.” Both a healthier job market and more stubborn inflation typically would imply fewer Fed rate cuts in the coming months.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell conveyed a more deliberate approach to interest rate decisions at a press conference with reporters.

"With our policy stance significantly less restrictive than it had been and the economy remaining strong we did not need to be in a hurry we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance.”

Powell has said it is harder to gauge where inflation is headed, in part because of increased uncertainty around what policies Trump will adopt and how quickly they will affect the economy. Trump has promised widespread tariffs, tax cuts, and mass deportation of immigrants, all of which could push prices higher. The Fed typically keeps interest rates high to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation.

In December, Fed officials signaled they may reduce their rate just twice more this year. Goldman Sachs economists believes those cuts won’t happen until June and December.

In November, inflation was just 2.4%, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, not far from its 2% target. But excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose a more painful 2.8% from a year earlier. The Fed pays close attention to core prices because they are often a better guide to inflation’s future path.

Lindsay Rosner, head of multi sector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said “while we continue to think the Fed’s easing cycle has not yet run its course, the (Fed) will want to see further progress in the inflation data to deliver the next rate cut.”

It's unclear how of if Trump will respond to the Fed's decision to stand pat. Last week in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said that he would bring down energy prices, then&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-economy-inflation-interest-rates-borrowing-6ef86392b080ca963ec633546009409b">“demand”</a>&nbsp;that the Fed lower borrowing costs.

Later, when asked by reporters if he expected the Fed to listen to him, he said, “yes.” Presidents in recent decades have avoided publicly pressuring the Fed out of deference to its political independence.

Asked Wednesday if Trump had communicated his desire for lower rates directly to Powell, the Fed chair said he had “no contact.”

Most other central banks in developed countries are cutting their interest rates. The European Central Bank, for example, is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs at its next meeting on Thursday. The Bank of Canada said Wednesday it has also cut its rate, and the Bank of England is also expected to do so next month.

The Bank of Japan, however, is actually raising its rate from a rock-bottom level. Japan has finally experienced some inflation after decades of slower growth and bouts of deflation.

A Fed rate cut in March is still possible, though financial markets' futures pricing puts the odds of that happening at just one-third.

As a result, American households and businesses are unlikely to see much relief from high borrowing costs anytime soon. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mortgage-rates-housing-interest-financing-home-loan-c0761e8cbd4dba18f682541a18ae0fb2">slipped to just below 7% last week</a>&nbsp;after rising for five straight weeks. The costs of borrowing money have remained high economywide even after the Fed reduced its benchmark rate.

That is because investors expect healthy economic growth and stubborn inflation will forestall future rate cuts. They recently bid up the 10-year Treasury above 4.80%,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/37c91aa8d1cc4d2a09506d31e9dba99b">its highest level since 2023</a>.

Another reason for caution among Fed policymakers this year is that they will want to evaluate any changes in economic policy by the Trump administration. Trump has said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-energy-economy-inflation-ev-oil-gas-00be8d3d5216a328e129666032c889e1">he could slap tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico</a>&nbsp;as early as Feb. 1. During his presidential campaign he threatened to impose taxes on all imports.

The Trump administration has also said it will carry out&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-trump-border-security-enforcement-ice-cb40a6a7e2d94582aa0774be47a8ab36">mass deportations of migrants</a>, which could push up inflation by reducing the economy's ability to produce goods and services. At the same time, some economists say Trump's promises to deregulate the economy could lower prices over time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Wednesday after cutting it three times in a row last year, a sign of a more cautious approach as the Fed seeks to gauge where inflation is headed and what policies President Donald Trump may pursue.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">Fed Chair Jerome Powell: &quot;We do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance. At today&#39;s meeting, the committee decided to maintain the target range of the federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.5%.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FOMC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FOMC</a> <a href="https://t.co/gBb9GX99ai">pic.twitter.com/gBb9GX99ai</a>&mdash; CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1884690623292191079?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 29, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>The Fed reduced its rate last year to 4.3% from 5.3%, in part out of concern that the job market was weakening. Hiring had slowed in the summer and the unemployment rate ticked up, leading Fed officials to approve an outsized half-point cut in September. Yet&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/jobs-unemployment-economy-federal-reserve-wages-398073325c467fb2c676042854f6309b">hiring rebounded last month</a>&nbsp;and the unemployment rate declined slightly, to a low 4.1%.In its statement Wednesday, the Fed upgraded its assessment of the job market, calling it “solid,” and noting that the unemployment rate “has stabilized at a low level in recent months.” The Fed also appeared to toughen its assessment of inflation, saying that it “remains somewhat elevated.” Both a healthier job market and more stubborn inflation typically would imply fewer Fed rate cuts in the coming months.Fed Chair Jerome Powell conveyed a more deliberate approach to interest rate decisions at a press conference with reporters."With our policy stance significantly less restrictive than it had been and the economy remaining strong we did not need to be in a hurry we do not need to be in a hurry to adjust our policy stance.”Powell has said it is harder to gauge where inflation is headed, in part because of increased uncertainty around what policies Trump will adopt and how quickly they will affect the economy. Trump has promised widespread tariffs, tax cuts, and mass deportation of immigrants, all of which could push prices higher. The Fed typically keeps interest rates high to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation.In December, Fed officials signaled they may reduce their rate just twice more this year. Goldman Sachs economists believes those cuts won’t happen until June and December.In November, inflation was just 2.4%, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, not far from its 2% target. But excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose a more painful 2.8% from a year earlier. The Fed pays close attention to core prices because they are often a better guide to inflation’s future path.Lindsay Rosner, head of multi sector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said “while we continue to think the Fed’s easing cycle has not yet run its course, the (Fed) will want to see further progress in the inflation data to deliver the next rate cut.”It's unclear how of if Trump will respond to the Fed's decision to stand pat. Last week in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said that he would bring down energy prices, then&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-economy-inflation-interest-rates-borrowing-6ef86392b080ca963ec633546009409b">“demand”</a>&nbsp;that the Fed lower borrowing costs.Later, when asked by reporters if he expected the Fed to listen to him, he said, “yes.” Presidents in recent decades have avoided publicly pressuring the Fed out of deference to its political independence.Asked Wednesday if Trump had communicated his desire for lower rates directly to Powell, the Fed chair said he had “no contact.”Most other central banks in developed countries are cutting their interest rates. The European Central Bank, for example, is widely expected to reduce borrowing costs at its next meeting on Thursday. The Bank of Canada said Wednesday it has also cut its rate, and the Bank of England is also expected to do so next month.The Bank of Japan, however, is actually raising its rate from a rock-bottom level. Japan has finally experienced some inflation after decades of slower growth and bouts of deflation.A Fed rate cut in March is still possible, though financial markets' futures pricing puts the odds of that happening at just one-third.As a result, American households and businesses are unlikely to see much relief from high borrowing costs anytime soon. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/mortgage-rates-housing-interest-financing-home-loan-c0761e8cbd4dba18f682541a18ae0fb2">slipped to just below 7% last week</a>&nbsp;after rising for five straight weeks. The costs of borrowing money have remained high economywide even after the Fed reduced its benchmark rate.That is because investors expect healthy economic growth and stubborn inflation will forestall future rate cuts. They recently bid up the 10-year Treasury above 4.80%,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/37c91aa8d1cc4d2a09506d31e9dba99b">its highest level since 2023</a>.Another reason for caution among Fed policymakers this year is that they will want to evaluate any changes in economic policy by the Trump administration. Trump has said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-energy-economy-inflation-ev-oil-gas-00be8d3d5216a328e129666032c889e1">he could slap tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico</a>&nbsp;as early as Feb. 1. During his presidential campaign he threatened to impose taxes on all imports.The Trump administration has also said it will carry out&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-trump-border-security-enforcement-ice-cb40a6a7e2d94582aa0774be47a8ab36">mass deportations of migrants</a>, which could push up inflation by reducing the economy's ability to produce goods and services. At the same time, some economists say Trump's promises to deregulate the economy could lower prices over time.

🎥Bad news for borrowers: Fed hits pause on interest rate cuts

TOPEKA&nbsp; – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Iowa attorney General Brenna Bird today led a coalition of 19 state attorneys general in a letter to Costo urging the retail giant to cease its unlawful DEI policies, according to a media release from Kobach's office.

The state attorneys general are working to stop discriminatory practices."Racial discrimination is both immoral and illegal," Kobach said. 

"Race-based employment hiring violates state and federal law, and as the chief enforcement officer of Kansas, I intend to enforce the law vigorously."The letter notes that some companies face lawsuits related to their DEI practices and policies, and the attorneys general warn that its DEI policies expose Costco to potential legal liability. 

The letter suggests that Costco deal with more important matters like questions about its alleged connection between company products and child slave labor in China.“The Supreme Court has repeatedly warned against using race-based preferences and classifications… Race neutral practices, on the other hand, honor the founding ideals of this country,” the letter reads.

The letter isn’t the first time state attorneys general have issued warnings to corporate America to stop unlawful policies. Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 that struck down affirmative action programs in universities, a coalition of 13 attorneys general sent letters to some of the nation’s largest businesses warning of serious legal consequences if they continued to use race as a preferential qualification for hiring. Many companies listened, including Amazon, Ford, John Deere, McDonald’s, Meta and Walmart. However, Costco doubled down on DEI, according to the letter.

“Costco’s position runs contrary to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions and raises concerns about Costco’s compliance with state and federal laws,” the letter reads.The letter Gives Costco officials 30 days to notify state attorneys general that the company has&nbsp;repealed its DEI policies or explain to why Costco has failed to do so.In addition to Kobach and Bird, attorneys general from Missouri, Alabama,&nbsp;Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota&nbsp;signed onto the letter.

TOPEKA&nbsp; – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Iowa attorney General Brenna Bird today led a coalition of 19 state attorneys general in a letter to Costo urging the retail giant to cease its unlawful DEI policies, according to a media release from Kobach's office.The state attorneys general are working to stop discriminatory practices."Racial discrimination is both immoral and illegal," Kobach said. "Race-based employment hiring violates state and federal law, and as the chief enforcement officer of Kansas, I intend to enforce the law vigorously."The letter notes that some companies face lawsuits related to their DEI practices and policies, and the attorneys general warn that its DEI policies expose Costco to potential legal liability. The letter suggests that Costco deal with more important matters like questions about its alleged connection between company products and child slave labor in China.“The Supreme Court has repeatedly warned against using race-based preferences and classifications… Race neutral practices, on the other hand, honor the founding ideals of this country,” the letter reads.The letter isn’t the first time state attorneys general have issued warnings to corporate America to stop unlawful policies. Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2023 that struck down affirmative action programs in universities, a coalition of 13 attorneys general sent letters to some of the nation’s largest businesses warning of serious legal consequences if they continued to use race as a preferential qualification for hiring. Many companies listened, including Amazon, Ford, John Deere, McDonald’s, Meta and Walmart. However, Costco doubled down on DEI, according to the letter.“Costco’s position runs contrary to the Supreme Court’s recent decisions and raises concerns about Costco’s compliance with state and federal laws,” the letter reads.The letter Gives Costco officials 30 days to notify state attorneys general that the company has&nbsp;repealed its DEI policies or explain to why Costco has failed to do so.In addition to Kobach and Bird, attorneys general from Missouri, Alabama,&nbsp;Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota&nbsp;signed onto the letter.

Kan. AG leads coalition urging Costco to cease unlawful DEI practices

OPENING STATEMENT:&nbsp;“Alright, I have no injuries to mention to you. I think we came out of the game pretty clean as far as those go – unless something pops up here, which we’ll let you know down the road. Listen, we sure appreciate the support that we had yesterday and throughout the night there and really even to the celebration after the game, everybody stayed and – that was obviously a Chiefs fan, so it was a great event. When I say all of this, we understand that we have a big challenge ahead of us coming up with the Eagles, but we sure appreciate everybody involved in helping us get to that point. It always starts with the Hunt family and the great job in which they do of supporting and giving us opportunities to be successful. (President) Mark Donovan who doesn’t get a whole lot of credit from anybody, but he’s the President of the organization and really does a ton for the organization in so many different ways and helps bring this community in to be a part of what we do. Then, (General Manager) Brett Veach for the great job that he and his crew do with bringing players in and then the coaches and players. I mentioned this last night and it takes everybody to get to this point. I say this because we’re 19 games into this thing (the season) and it’s not about one person or one player or one coach, it’s about everybody. It’s everybody coming together and there’s no more important game than the one we’re going to play in that we need that joint effort. Then, the other team that we’re playing, the Eagles, they’re there for a reason, and it’s because they’re a good football team, so we’ve got to make sure that we keep everything together and work and get a nice plan together for this group. Anyways, with that, time’s yours.”

Q: You run a lot of different plays out of the same formation. Are those plays usually worked on in training camp or is it a week-to-week install?

REID:&nbsp;“Some of them (plays) we’ve worked on before (but) you always add a little wrinkle here and there to them as you go, and you feel the comfort of how the play’s being executed in practice. We’ve experimented with those all the way back to the offseason and into (training) camp. I would tell you that (Offensive Line) Coach (Andy) Heck does a great job with the run game and putting that together. I’ve always mentioned that he gets everybody involved, but he also comes up with some pretty good things there so my hat goes off to him.”

Q: On the thought process during the time out before the third-and-nine play call.

REID:&nbsp;“On that, Jesse (Newell), we go through, and we look at this before the game, like if it comes down to a third down or fourth down and the game’s on the line. We talk to quarterbacks about it, the coaches talk about it and that was kind of our number one option there as a go-to play for this game and it was just a matter of hoping that they’d be in the right coverage for that play, so it worked out okay that way. (Offensive Coordinator) Matt (Nagy) spends endless time going through all of that with the guys. You start on Tuesdays and you kind of refine it down until you get to the game. We just brought the guys over (to) calm the storm just a little bit and talk to them about – make sure (that) everybody was right on their assignments.”

Q:&nbsp;A lot of competitors seem to need extra stuff to motivate them, but you seem to focus on the moment in process. Is that true? How does that motivate you?

REID:&nbsp;“Listen, I think all the guys want to do well. I take that for – maybe for granted. Guys don’t want to be embarrassed out there, so as coaches it’s our responsibility to teach them and put them in the best positions for them to be successful. This is their living that their working at and so you hope they can hang on for awhile and take advantage of that part. Then, (General Manager) Brett Veach does a great job at bringing guys in that kind of have that attitude – that ‘want to’ attitude – and I think that’s very important. It’s an important part of the process. We’re fortunate to have a bunch of guys that feel that way and at the same time, they feed off of each other, which is also important.”

Q:&nbsp;Does the journey and the process fulfill you as much as anything else about the job?

REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, I mean, I like to teach. I think if you’re going to be a coach, you have to be a teacher first. There is a lot that goes into that, it’s not just knowing your stuff, but how it’s presented and the trust that you have in the guys and then the work that goes into each play. I mean, the detail and work that these coaches put in, I think, is important. When we see success, we enjoy that – I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing the guys go out and do something good. I’m happy for them because I know the time and the effort that went into it. There’s an aptitude part of that, you know?”

Q:&nbsp;What do you feel Xavier Worthy has improved at the most in the second half of the season?

REID:&nbsp;“I was actually talking to his (Xavier Worthy’s) mom about that after the game. I mean, the kid every week has just gotten better and better and better, and he’s really put together a nice half of the season (in) the second half here. Not that he didn’t have good plays in the first half, but you can see he was learning in the first half and that the quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) was kind of learning where he was going to be and how he was going to get there and then against all these different coverages that teams throw at you. It looks like they’re on the same page and they’ll have a big challenge this week or this next – in two weeks with the Eagles. Their secondary – they have a real good secondary there too.”

Q:&nbsp;What makes Patrick Mahomes different in close games and what allows him to have success in the fourth quarter?

Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid QuotesJanuary 27, 2025OPENING STATEMENT:&nbsp;“Alright, I have no injuries to mention to you. I think we came out of the game pretty clean as far as those go – unless something pops up here, which we’ll let you know down the road. Listen, we sure appreciate the support that we had yesterday and throughout the night there and really even to the celebration after the game, everybody stayed and – that was obviously a Chiefs fan, so it was a great event. When I say all of this, we understand that we have a big challenge ahead of us coming up with the Eagles, but we sure appreciate everybody involved in helping us get to that point. It always starts with the Hunt family and the great job in which they do of supporting and giving us opportunities to be successful. (President) Mark Donovan who doesn’t get a whole lot of credit from anybody, but he’s the President of the organization and really does a ton for the organization in so many different ways and helps bring this community in to be a part of what we do. Then, (General Manager) Brett Veach for the great job that he and his crew do with bringing players in and then the coaches and players. I mentioned this last night and it takes everybody to get to this point. I say this because we’re 19 games into this thing (the season) and it’s not about one person or one player or one coach, it’s about everybody. It’s everybody coming together and there’s no more important game than the one we’re going to play in that we need that joint effort. Then, the other team that we’re playing, the Eagles, they’re there for a reason, and it’s because they’re a good football team, so we’ve got to make sure that we keep everything together and work and get a nice plan together for this group. Anyways, with that, time’s yours.”Q: You run a lot of different plays out of the same formation. Are those plays usually worked on in training camp or is it a week-to-week install?REID:&nbsp;“Some of them (plays) we’ve worked on before (but) you always add a little wrinkle here and there to them as you go, and you feel the comfort of how the play’s being executed in practice. We’ve experimented with those all the way back to the offseason and into (training) camp. I would tell you that (Offensive Line) Coach (Andy) Heck does a great job with the run game and putting that together. I’ve always mentioned that he gets everybody involved, but he also comes up with some pretty good things there so my hat goes off to him.”Q: On the thought process during the time out before the third-and-nine play call.REID:&nbsp;“On that, Jesse (Newell), we go through, and we look at this before the game, like if it comes down to a third down or fourth down and the game’s on the line. We talk to quarterbacks about it, the coaches talk about it and that was kind of our number one option there as a go-to play for this game and it was just a matter of hoping that they’d be in the right coverage for that play, so it worked out okay that way. (Offensive Coordinator) Matt (Nagy) spends endless time going through all of that with the guys. You start on Tuesdays and you kind of refine it down until you get to the game. We just brought the guys over (to) calm the storm just a little bit and talk to them about – make sure (that) everybody was right on their assignments.”Q:&nbsp;A lot of competitors seem to need extra stuff to motivate them, but you seem to focus on the moment in process. Is that true? How does that motivate you?REID:&nbsp;“Listen, I think all the guys want to do well. I take that for – maybe for granted. Guys don’t want to be embarrassed out there, so as coaches it’s our responsibility to teach them and put them in the best positions for them to be successful. This is their living that their working at and so you hope they can hang on for awhile and take advantage of that part. Then, (General Manager) Brett Veach does a great job at bringing guys in that kind of have that attitude – that ‘want to’ attitude – and I think that’s very important. It’s an important part of the process. We’re fortunate to have a bunch of guys that feel that way and at the same time, they feed off of each other, which is also important.”Q:&nbsp;Does the journey and the process fulfill you as much as anything else about the job?REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, I mean, I like to teach. I think if you’re going to be a coach, you have to be a teacher first. There is a lot that goes into that, it’s not just knowing your stuff, but how it’s presented and the trust that you have in the guys and then the work that goes into each play. I mean, the detail and work that these coaches put in, I think, is important. When we see success, we enjoy that – I enjoy that. I enjoy seeing the guys go out and do something good. I’m happy for them because I know the time and the effort that went into it. There’s an aptitude part of that, you know?”Q:&nbsp;What do you feel Xavier Worthy has improved at the most in the second half of the season?REID:&nbsp;“I was actually talking to his (Xavier Worthy’s) mom about that after the game. I mean, the kid every week has just gotten better and better and better, and he’s really put together a nice half of the season (in) the second half here. Not that he didn’t have good plays in the first half, but you can see he was learning in the first half and that the quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) was kind of learning where he was going to be and how he was going to get there and then against all these different coverages that teams throw at you. It looks like they’re on the same page and they’ll have a big challenge this week or this next – in two weeks with the Eagles. Their secondary – they have a real good secondary there too.”Q:&nbsp;What makes Patrick Mahomes different in close games and what allows him to have success in the fourth quarter?REID:&nbsp;“Phenomenal player, had a phenomenal night last night. There’s no change in him (Patrick Mahomes) as you go. He comes in competitive; he’s going to finish competitive right down to the end. The pressure part of it when things can dilate you a little bit when things are tight, don’t do that to him. He kind of flourishes in those moments when they’re the toughest and he’s just – he’s wired that way. I’m sure growing up in a locker room with his dad (Patrick Mahomes Sr.) was a big part of that or at least a part of it, but some if it is just innate that’s given to you. He’s one of those guys, the tighter the situation, the looser he plays.”Q:&nbsp;How do you explain the parity in the league after winning so many close games?REID:&nbsp;“I think it’s a little bit of what I was saying there just with Pat (Mahomes) that, I think the guys, they kind of thrive on that. I look at (Leo) Chenal and he goes out (in) the Texans game and goes, ‘I’m going to block the field goal.’ He tells (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Dave) Toub that. Toub goes, ‘Let’s go, let’s go. We can get the’ – he (Leo Chenal) goes, ‘No, it’s done.’ I mean, that’s kind of the attitude that these guys have and it’s not just him, it’s all these guys. When given an opportunity, they’ve stepped up in those situations and as a coach, you love that part, and you know that’s a rare thing. These games could’ve gone either way and no different than last night and guys, they take so much pride in stepping up and they don’t shrink in those situations.”Q:&nbsp;In what other ways are the Eagles different than when you saw them in the Super Bowl two years ago?REID:&nbsp;“Well, those receivers are – been in the offense now for a while and they have good tight ends, they have good receivers, I mean real good receivers and they have a running back (Eagles RB Saquon Barkley) that arguably is one of the best in the history of the game. Their offensive line, for all those guys to work, their offensive line has to be good, too. Then, their quarterback (Eagles QB Jalen Hurts) is dialing it up right now so whatever injuries he had early in the season, I mean, he’s playing like crazy right now. That’s a heck of an offense and another huge challenge for us.”Q:&nbsp;How does the trust in the defense build and how important is it in big moments?REID:&nbsp;“Listen, (Defensive Backs Coach) Dave (Merritt), (Safeties Coach) Donald (D’Alesio), (Defensive Line Coach) Joe (Cullen) – I mean, all of these coaches – (Linebackers Coach) Brendan (Daly), I mean, they’re all in with (Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags. They know the scheme like the back of their hand. Spags has confidence in them and then the players have confidence in their coaches and Spags. That and they want to learn the system, that’s a tough system, Matt (Derrick). You have to really – you have to stay focused during the meetings, you have to detail it at practice, you have to detail the walkthroughs that you do (and) meetings on the field. Then, most of all, you have to execute it on game day, but there’s that trust, that whole foundation that you’ve built with the trust and these guys, they’ve got that. Then, likewise, I have the confidence in Spags and in certain situations, I just know he’s going to – I don’t even run over to him and go, ‘Hey, let’s not do that or this.’ I have enough confidence in him and been around him long enough to know he’s going to make the right call for the right time.”Q: How quickly did you turn the page from the game last night to the Eagles?REID:&nbsp;“He (Chris Jones) was off by a couple hours, but I’ve been watching it for a while here. I try to get back on it – listen, it’s about the game, right? It’s about how you perform in the game and the Eagles didn’t get there because they’re not a good team, the Eagles got there because they’re the best team in the NFC. They’re a great football team. As coaches, we’ve got to dig in and get going and make sure that we can feed the players a good gameplan for them. Most of that work, Matt (Derrick) gets done this week. I know it's a two-week period before the game but once you get down to New Orleans it’s a bit chaotic, so you want to make sure you take care of business now.”Q: What kind of energy do you get from the new guys who haven’t been through this before?REID:&nbsp;“That’s a great question Todd (Leabo). I mean I love that part; I went around all those guys, man. I was so happy for them. Just seeing Kareem (Hunt) standing there going, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable,’ or D.J. (Humphries) jumping up and down, who’s been in this league a while and been through a few things or DeAndre (Hopkins), he had a smile on his face, it was a mile wide. I mean all those things, (Samaje) Perine goes and helps seals the game for us – a new addition. All that stuff is great, that’s why you do this, that’s why you do this as a coach. To get to see those guys that have achieved like they’ve achieved here.”Q: Did getting guys healthy and opening up the playbook lead to you guys scoring the most points you’ve scored all season?REID:&nbsp;“Yeah, sure. It was a good day to get over 30 (points). You knew you were going to somewhere do that and there was no better time than against that team because they’ve got an explosive offense. You knew you were going to have to go for it for – whatever term you want to use but there’s certain situations where you just have to cut it loose a little bit. I think we’re at that point where guys are back healthy and they’ve been able to practice fast with Pat (Mahomes) and then you cut it loose a little bit, yes.”Q: On Kareem Hunt coming back this season.REID:&nbsp;“He (Kareem Hunt) called me, Vahe (Gregorian). I mean, he just said he wanted to be there, I knew he had changed. I had spent some time with him at Pat’s (Mahomes) wedding. He’s got a good heart, even when he went through his deal, he’s got a good heart. I had confidence that he could jump in and help us. I knew he wanted to redeem himself amongst the community and kind of get that part that people can change and ‘I’m changed’ is what he’s saying, so I think that’s been a positive.”Q: On the long review on fourth down.