House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will visit New Mexico next month at what will likely be an announcement by former U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell to campaign for her old seat.

The Roswell Daily Record reported Friday that McCarthy will attend a rally April 10 for Herrell at the Heritage Farm & Ranch Museum in Las Cruces.

‘I’m inviting you to join Speaker Kevin McCarthy and me in Las Cruces as we launch a new campaign to restore our values and flip this district,’ Herrell wrote on her campaign Facebook page this week.

Paul Smith, a spokesperson for Herrell, confirmed to the newspaper a campaign announcement will take place but offered no other details.

The Republican from Alamogordo, who represented the 2nd Congressional District since 2021, lost re-election last year to Democrat Gabe Vasquez by 1,350 votes.

She filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission just two weeks after the loss. The filing would permit her to raise funds in the 2024 election cycle.

A representative for Vasquez did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

The 2nd Congressional District includes the state’s eastern border with Texas to its western border with Arizona and from southern Albuquerque down to communities along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Missouri’s state attorney general is investigating gender-affirming care provided by Planned Parenthood, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by the St. Louis health provider.

Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey demanded documents from Planned Parenthood after finding out that the clinic provides ‘life-altering gender transition drugs to children with any therapy assessment,’ spokeswoman Madeline Sieren said in a statement. She described that as a departure from standard care.

Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued in response, trying to block access to its records. In court filings, the healthcare provider argued Bailey has no authority to investigate the clinic, which is inspected by the state health department.

A Planned Parenthood doctor described Bailey’s investigation as a ‘fishing expedition’ targeting the clinic, which provides gender-affirming care to adults, and teens ages 16 and older. Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the health center’s chief medical officer, told The Associated Press that the attorney general’s investigation is ‘an attempt to help him work outside of the legislative process and eliminate access to transgender care for Missourians.’

The Attorney General’s Office cited its ongoing investigation into a transgender youth clinic run by Washington University, ‘or others in the state providing similar services,’ as the reason for the document request, according to a letter to Planned Parenthood dated March 10.

Sieren criticized Planned Parenthood for withholding its records.

‘We look forward to prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on with Planned Parenthood in connection with gender transition issues,’ Sieren said in a Friday statement.

In February, Bailey launched an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital following allegations of mistreatment by a former employee. The ex-staffer alleged that physicians there did not warn patients and parents enough about potential side effects of puberty blockers and hormones, and that doctors pressured parents to consent to treatment.

Planned Parenthood argues in its lawsuit that its clinic has nothing to do with the Washington University center.

The lawsuit comes amid a national push to restrict transgender health care, drag shows, bathroom access and how LGBTQ+ topics are discussed in schools. The lawsuit was filed Friday as rallies were scheduled in cities nationwide as part of Transgender Day of Visibility.

As the state’s top prosecutor, Bailey is following his predecessor’s lead in using the office to take a stand on social issues. Last week, he announced plans to file an emergency rule to restrict healthcare for transgender children. It would require an 18-month waiting period, 15 therapy sessions and additional mental health treatment before Missouri doctors can provide gender-affirming care to minors.

‘I am dedicated to using every legal tool at my disposal to stand in the gap and protect children from being subject to inhumane science experiments,’ Bailey said in a statement announcing the planned rule.

His office has not yet filed the rule.

Transgender medical treatment for children has been available in the U.S. for over a decade and is endorsed by major medical associations. Many clinics use treatment plans pioneered in Amsterdam 30 years ago, according to a recent review in the British Psych Bulletin. Since 2005, the number of youth referred to gender clinics has increased as much as tenfold in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Finland, the review said.

McNicholas, of Planned Parenthood, said Bailey is using the ‘same playbook’ that anti-abortion activists and elected officials have used to restrict abortions.

Missouri banned almost all abortions in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Before that, Republicans fought for years to regulate abortion out of existence in the state. The GOP-led state legislature proposed anti-abortion bills yearly. When increasingly restrictive bans on the procedure were tossed in court, Republican governors stepped in.

‘If we are to learn anything from our past experience with the state targeting us for the provision of lawful abortion care, we know that other folks who are providing this care are certainly going to be targets,’ McNicholas said. ‘If not now, then soon.’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said nothing about former President Donald Trump’s indictment this week, even as several House Republicans have condemned the charges as politically motivated.

Since Trump’s indictment was reported Thursday, McConnell has issued no public statements on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against the former president and leading Republican 2024 candidate. Neither has Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

McConnell’s office told Fox News Digital that it did not have a comment as of Friday. Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

McConnell and Trump are not on good terms — McConnell said in December that Trump is ‘diminished’ and blamed the former president for the GOP’s disappointing performance in the 2022 midterm elections. Trump, who holds a grudge against the Senate GOP leader for refusing to go along with his claims that the 2020 election was stolen, called McConnell a ‘tremendous liability for the Republican Party’ in an interview with Fox News.

McConnell’s silence stands in stark contrast to his counterpart in the House of Representatives. After news of the indictment broke, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., slammed Bragg and said that he ‘has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.’

‘As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump,’ McCarthy said of Bragg. ‘The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.’

McCarthy’s lieutenant, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., called the indictment a ‘sham’ and accused ‘extremist Democrats’ of ‘weaponizing government to attack their political opponents.’

The criminal charges against Trump came after a years-long investigation into payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal in 2016 allegedly to keep them quite about their previous affairs with Trump while he was running for president.

Trump has denied the affairs and any wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019.

The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and other Republicans sent a letter to Bragg last week demanding that he turn over documents related to his Trump investigation and testify before Congress, asserting that the DA’s investigation must be politically motivated.

Bragg’s office blasted back Friday, accusing the House lawmakers of ‘unlawful political interference’ in an ongoing criminal case.

While McConnell and Thune have said nothing so far, other Senate GOP leaders have spoken out against the indictment. The No. 3 Republican, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wy., called it a ‘politically motivated prosecution by a far-left activist.’

‘If it was anyone other than President Trump, a case like this would never be brought. Instead of ordering political hit jobs, New York prosecutors should focus on getting violent criminals off the street,’ Barrasso said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Republican Policy Committee Chairman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., each gave similar statements.

Trump is expected to be arraigned in a Manhattan court on Tuesday, a law enforcement source told Fox News. Sources familiar say Trump will surrender himself and be taken into custody without handcuffs. Detectives with Bragg’s office will handle the arrest.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Marta Dhanis contributed to this report.

Some House Democrats who previously condemned former President Donald Trump for threatening to jail political opponents had a different reaction after a Manhattan grand jury’s decision to bring criminal charges against the leading Republican presidential candidate.

‘Threatening to jail political opponents is something despots do. This is dangerous and beneath our great country,’ Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., the House Minority Whip, said on Twitter during an October 2016 presidential debate between Trump and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

At the time Clark made her comments, Clinton was embroiled in an email scandal that threatened to derail her candidacy. Trump leaned hard into the scandal in the closing weeks of the campaign, with the phrase ‘lock her up’ becoming a common rallying cry at many Trump campaign events.

But Clark has indicated no such issues following Trump’s indictment, saying in a Thursday statement ‘no one is above the law’ and that the process must continue ‘unimpeded and free from’ political interference. 

‘Fundamental to the strength and survival of democracy is the principle that no one is above the law – including a former President of the United States,’ Clark said. ‘We must allow the judicial process to continue unimpeded and free from any form of political interference or intimidation. This is not a time for partisanship, but for all Americans to act peacefully and put their faith in the justice system.’

‘Core to our democracy is the rule of law,’ Clark tweeted earlier this month. ‘And yet the former president is calling for violence and the Speaker of the House is coming to his defense. This extreme behavior is dangerous and unpatriotic.’

After a years-long investigation from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, a Manhattan grand jury voted Thursday to indict Trump. The exact charges of the indictment are still under seal, but Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said Thursday evening Trump could face more than 30 counts next week when he’s arraigned.

In August 2018, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., shared a quote from a New York Times article that warned Trump would turn ‘authoritarian’ if Republicans were able to win that year’s midterm elections.

‘If Republicans hold both houses of Congress this November, Trump will go full authoritarian, abusing institutions like the I.R.S., trying to jail opponents and journalists… and he’ll do it with full support from his party,’ read the quote, which Pelosi shared on Twitter.

But after news of the Trump indictment, Pelosi shifted her tone, suggesting that in a statement that her political opponent Trump would have to ‘prove’ his innocence in court and that ‘no one is above the law.’

‘The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law,’ Pelosi said. ‘No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence. Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.’

Many criticized Pelosi’s claim that Trump has the right to a trial ‘to prove innocence.’ A cardinal principal of the justice system in the United States is that any person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Pelosi recently lashed out at Trump’s social media posts about the possibility of being arrested, calling the former president ‘reckless’ and accusing him of fomenting ‘unrest.’

Like Pelosi, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., shared the same New York Times article in August 2018. Casten recently took aim at House Speaker Kevin McCarty for opposing the indictment of Trump, arguing McCarthy should ‘treat [his] job with the dignity it deserves’ in a post on Twitter.

‘This is transparent political hackery unbefitting of the Speaker of the House,’ Casten said earlier this month in response to McCarthy. ‘You don’t what the charges are but you know exactly what violence he is capable of when he can count on people like you to cower rather than act.’

Following the indictment of Trump, Casten put out a one word reaction on Twitter: ‘Boom.’

Casten took further aim at McCarthy in a followup tweet on Thursday after the speaker claimed Bragg ‘has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.’

‘You know nothing about the charges. But thank you for reminding us of your unredeemable cowardice,’ Casten wrote.

Casten, who has represented Illinois in the House since 2019, also took aim at the Republican Party in a separate tweet, saying he wouldn’t have been elected if Republicans ‘had put country over Trump in 2016.’

‘I have not yet read the indictment. But I never would have ended up in this job if anyone of any power in the @GOP had put country over Trump in 2016,’ he wrote. ‘Their continuing obsequious, ignorant cowardice tonight disgusts me. And I’m glad good people stood up even as they sat.’

Like Clark, Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., was also critical of Trump’s rhetoric during the October 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton, taking to Twitter to share a quote from Jefferson Smith, a former Oregon lawmaker, in apparent shock of Trump’s remarks.

‘A man running for president threatened to put his political opponents in jail,’ read the quote Hoyle shared at the time.

‘Yep. That just happened,’ Hoyle said in reference to remarks made by Trump.

But Hoyle has gone silent following the indictment of Trump. As of Friday, Hoyle has yet to comment on the matter via social media or through a press release on her website.

Hoyle’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital about the indictment.

Another prominent House Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, was also critical of Trump’s calls to jail Clinton following the 2016 election, arguing that such rhetoric threatened to make the U.S. a ‘banana republic.’

‘Glad he’s not making us a banana republic by jailing foes,’ Swalwell said of Trump in November 2016, adding that he was still ‘angry’ Trump ‘lied so blatantly on this & other things to win.’

However, after the Trump indictment was revealed Thursday, Swalwell did not denounce the decision, but said it marked a ‘somber day’ in America and that Trump ‘deserves every protection provided to him’ by law.

‘The indictment of a former president is a somber day for America,’ Swalwell wrote in a tweet. ‘It’s also a time to put faith in our judicial system. Donald Trump deserves every protection provided to him by the Constitution. As that unfolds, let us neither celebrate nor destroy. Justice benefits us all.’

In recent weeks, Swalwell targeted McCarthy for the speaker’s apparent lack of support for an indictment of Trump.

‘The guy who created a committee to look into ‘weaponization of government’ is using his powers in government to stop an independent prosecution of his boss,’ Swalwell said of McCarthy on Twitter earlier this month.

Bragg requested that Trump surrender to his office Friday, but a source familiar told Fox News Digital that timeline was extended due to arrangements needed to be made by Secret Service. The source told Fox News Digital Trump will ‘most likely’ surrender on Tuesday.

The indictment of the Trump comes after Bragg has been investigating Trump for hush money payments made leading up to the 2016 presidential election. These include the $130,000 payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and the $150,000 payment made to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Fox News reported and revealed in 2018 a series of hush money payments made to both McDougal and Daniels, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and the Federal Election Commission both investigated those payments.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019, even as Michael Cohen, a former Trump attorney, implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this article.

The New Mexico Supreme Court blocked local anti-abortion ordinances Friday pending the outcome of a case centered on constitutional rights to equal protection and due process.

The ruling granted a request by Democratic state Attorney General Raúl Torrez and follows the state’s recent adoption of a new abortion rights bill signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham just weeks ago that overrides any local ordinances aimed at limiting access to abortion procedures and medications.

The state already had one of the country’s most liberal abortion access laws, but two counties and three cities in eastern New Mexico recently adopted restrictions that reflect deep-seated opposition to offering the procedure. Torrez’s petition and the legislation that was passed during the recent 60-day aim to override those ordinances and prevent other counties from adopting abortion restrictions.

The goal is for New Mexico to remain a safe haven for women seeking abortions, Torrez said in a statement Friday.

The legislation and the petition ‘will make it clear that everyone in the state of New Mexico has a protected, constitutional right to make their own healthcare decisions,’ he said. ‘Given the attacks we are seeing in Texas and across the country, I am proud to stand with our Legislature and the governor to continue this fight.’

Democratic governors in 20 states this year launched a network intended to strengthen abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision nixing a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy. The decision shifted regulatory powers over the procedure to state governments.

In 2021, the Democratic-led New Mexico Legislature repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, ensuring access to abortion even after the federal court rolled back guarantees. The governor also signed a series of executive orders that, among other things, barred state cooperation with other states that might interfere with abortion access.

The changes over the last two years have prompted more providers to relocate to New Mexico and bring patients with them.

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic also relocated to southern New Mexico. Tele-health provider Choix, based in San Francisco, became licensed last year to operate in New Mexico.

One of the largest abortion providers that had operated in Texas opened a new clinic in New Mexico’s largest city last week. Officials with Whole Woman’s Health said that out of the first 19 patients scheduled to walk through the doors of the Albuquerque clinic, 18 were from Texas.

Whole Woman’s Health started a fundraising effort last summer to help with the costs of moving equipment and supplies from Texas to New Mexico and for the purchase of a building to serve as its new home.

New Mexico’s governor also has pledged to spend $10 million to build a new abortion clinic in the southern part of the state near El Paso, Texas.

In its order, the New Mexico Supreme Court outlined a schedule for the ongoing case over the ordinances in the cities of Hobbs, Clovis and Eunice and in Lea and Roosevelt counties. It said briefs due in April should address what, if any, effect the new abortion rights law will have on the case.

In an earlier brief filed with the court, a coalition of anti-abortion organizations argued that the attorney general bypassed ordinary litigation procedures by filing the emergency petition in hopes of having the court declare a new constitutional right to abortion without the benefit of a lower court taking up the issue.

The groups argue that the New Mexico Constitution expressly guarantees ‘the right to life, not the right to end unborn life.’

Former Attorney General Bill Barr reacted to the indictment of former President Trump over his alleged 2016 hush money scandal on Friday, calling it ‘an abomination.’

Trump was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday. He is the first ex-president in U.S. history to be indicted.

Barr appeared on Fox Business to discuss the indictment with host Larry Kudlow.

‘Obviously, we don’t have the indictment, so there’s a little bit of speculation involved,’ Barr began. ‘But based on the news reports, if they’re accurate, this is an abomination.’

‘It’s the epitome of the abuse of prosecutorial power to bring a case that would not be brought against anyone else. They are going after the man, not a crime. And the legal theory, frankly, is pathetically weak,’ he argued.

‘They are going after the man, not a crime. And the legal theory, frankly, is pathetically weak.’

— Former Attorney General Bill Barr

The former attorney general delved into the legal arguments that will likely be made by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

‘The claim is that [recording the Cohen reimbursements as legal payments] is false and therefore violated a misdemeanor statute in the first instance against false documents,’ Barr said. ‘I actually don’t think that’s a valid claim in this case, because the statute actually requires that it be done with the intent to defraud.’

‘They’re assuming that the payments were a campaign finance violation because they were effectively a contribution to the Trump campaign. I can tell you that’s not the law. I don’t think that’s how the Justice Department would view it,’ Barr added.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating the alleged hush money scandal for years. The purported payments include the $130,000 sum given to Stormy Daniels, plus the $150,000 given to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

President Biden declined to comment on the indictment when asked about it on Friday.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Former President Trump is expected to travel from Florida to New York next week, as he faces an indictment for his alleged 2016 hush money scandal.

The former president plans to depart Mar-a-Lago for New York City Monday and will stay at Trump Tower that night.

Trump’s courthouse appearance is expected to happen early Tuesday morning. Previous reports said that he is expected to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. before Judge Juan Merchan.

The Secret Service will ensure that Trump is safely brought in. The Secret Service is working with the New York Police Department, FBI, New York State court officers and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to finalize the security and logistics of Trump’s arraignment and booking.

The former president will return directly to Mar-a-Lago after the arraignment.  A source told Fox News Digital that Trump will not be arrested in handcuffs, having made an arrangement with the DA’s office.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating the alleged hush money scandal for five years. The purported payments include the $130,000 sum given to Stormy Daniels, plus the $150,000 given to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Hush money is not illegal, but prosecutors are expected to argue that the payments were improper donations to the Trump campaign, as they helped his candidacy.

Trump has slammed the indictment, calling it a witch-hunt.

‘This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,’ Trump said in a statement. ‘From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats- the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country- have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement.’

Fox News’ Marta Dhanis and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

The indictment of former President Donald Trump will likely have little impact on the high stakes Wisconsin Supreme Court race to be decided next week, as Democrats try to flip majority control of the court with the fate of abortion access in the state on the line, those closely watching the contest said Friday.

Trump has not been directly involved in the race, did not endorse anyone, and the Republican-backed candidate has tried to distance his connections with the former president and the GOP. Additionally, Trump’s support among Republicans appears to be waning in the battleground state that he barely won in 2016 and then lost by a similar margin in 2020.

‘While this (indictment) may get the juice flowing with some of his supporters, some may have a head shake and shoulder shrug,’ said longtime Republican strategist and former state GOP party leader Brandon Scholz. ‘This indictment thing isn’t really tied into this race. It is a Trump issue.’

Charles Franklin, a pollster for the Marquette University Law School, said the indictment could spur a bump in turnout both among Trump’s most ardent supporters and his most fervent Democratic opponents. But he didn’t think it would fundamentally alter the dynamics of the Supreme Court race between Republican-backed Dan Kelly and Democratic-backed Janet Protasiewicz to be decided Tuesday.

‘The classic October surprises are things that involve the candidates themselves, not someone else,’ Franklin said. ‘For that reason, I think there’s probably less reason to think this news dramatically changes the Supreme Court race because people would have to know enough to connect Donald Trump to the Supreme Court race and have not been planning to vote, or vote differently, in Tuesday’s election.’

Protasiewicz’s campaign spokesperson, Sam Roecker, said Friday, ‘We don’t expect voters to be distracted by what’s happening in New York.’

‘We’re focused on winning a critical election in four days that will have long-term consequences for millions of Wisconsinites when it comes to issues like reproductive rights and the strength of our democracy,’ he said. ‘We know voters are focused on this race because it’s an opportunity to return fairness and impartiality to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.’

Kelly told reporters after a campaign stop Friday in Watertown that he had ‘no idea’ whether the indictment would motivate people to vote in his race.

Supporters of Kelly, who previously served on the state Supreme Court, are hoping the indictment will fire up the GOP base like the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home the day before Wisconsin’s August GOP gubernatorial primary did.

Although Trump endorsed Kelly in his run for the court in 2020, Kelly did not seek a Trump endorsement this time and wouldn’t even commit to accepting one if it had been offered.

Kelly worked for the Wisconsin Republican Party and the Republican National Committee after he lost the 2020 election. He also advised the state’s top Republicans on their scheme after Trump’s loss in 2020 to have fake electors cast Wisconsin’s electoral voters for him.

‘I am running against probably one of the most extreme partisan characters in the history of this state.’ Protasiewicz said during their only debate in March.

‘Again, this is you being quick to lie,’ Kelly responded.

Kelly insisted throughout the campaign that his personal politics are irrelevant and emphasized that he’s dedicated to the ‘rule of law.’

The indictment Thursday came after 10 days of early voting across the state. As of Friday morning, nearly 353,00 absentee ballots had been returned. Early voting ends Sunday.

‘In the last days before an election, things have been set in motion for a long time,’ said Franklin, the pollster. ‘People have already been making up their minds whether to vote or not and, if so, who to support. In that sense, these late-breaking things don’t shift support tremendously, particularly when they don’t involve the candidates.’

The winner Tuesday will determine majority control of the court, which is expected to rule on the fate of Wisconsin’s near-total abortion ban, Republican gerrymandered legislative districts and voting rights heading into the 2024 presidential election. The court came within one vote of overturning President Joe Biden’s win in the state in 2020.

Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, has tried to make the race a de-facto referendum on abortion, while also blasting Kelly for his ties to Republicans and his work for Wisconsin Right to Life.

Abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood, are behind Protasiewicz. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has given her campaign nearly $9 million, helping her to get an advantage over Kelly in television advertising.

Kelly’s backers include the state and local GOP chapters as well as GOP mega-donors Richard Uihlein and Diane Hendricks.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a nearly $13.5 billion state transportation budget Friday, touting new rail safety measures that were included in response to the February train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine.

The measure primarily funds bridges and highway projects over the next two years. It cleared the GOP-dominated Legislature with bipartisan support. It also lowers registration fees for plug-in hybrid vehicles, and raises the threshold for the amount of money a local government can spend on projects such as bridge repairs by its own public workforce before it must bid them out to private contractors.

The railway safety measures would mandate a two-person crew for freight trains and require that the wayside detectors used to help spot problems be installed in shorter intervals of 10 to 15 miles apart, with oversight from the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, among other provisions. Currently, the Federal Railroad Administration allows some wayside detectors to be spaced up to 25 miles apart.

The PUCO also would have to examine different kinds of railway detectors and cameras that are in use and submit its findings to the General Assembly.

‘We are ensuring that Ohio’s railroads follow the best practices in monitoring the railroad equipment and holding them responsible for their actions,’ DeWine said.

Whether the state has the right to impose these provisions remains a point of debate. The Ohio Railroad Association, a trade group, argued that several of the measures are preempted by federal law. State lawmakers say the General Assembly can put statewide safeguards in place to help protect constituents.

DeWine said enacting those provisions puts Ohio on record as taking a firm stance on rail safety concerns the East Palestine derailment brought into focus. He said he hopes the federal government will also take steps to strengthen rail safety.

Congress is considering safety proposals that would require freight train crews to continue to have two people, require more hot bearing detectors to be installed, and ensure railroads notify states about the hazardous materials they are transporting, among other changes.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday after being treated for depression.

A press release from Fetterman’s office says that he is in remission after his treatment for depression, and is in Braddock, Pennsylvania.

‘I am so happy to be home. I’m excited to be the father and husband I want to be, and the senator Pennsylvania deserves. Pennsylvanians have always had my back, and I will always have theirs,’ Fetterman said. 

‘I am extremely grateful to the incredible team at Walter Reed. The care they provided changed my life. I will have more to say about this soon, but for now I want everyone to know that depression is treatable, and treatment works. This isn’t about politics — right now there are people who are suffering with depression in red counties and blue counties. If you need help, please get help.’

Fetterman suffered a stroke in May of last year during his successful bid to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate. Fetterman experienced side effects that included ‘auditory processing disorder’ but his campaign and doctors insisted he has ‘no work restrictions’ and ‘can work full duty in public office.’

Fetterman squared off in only one debate with his opponent, Republican Mehmet Oz, on October 25th and struggled to effectively communicate on multiple occasions and used closed captioning due to limited auditory processing capability.  

After defeating Oz by five percent, Fetterman began his six-year Senate term in January but his office announced just a month later that he had checked himself into a hospital for treatment of severe depression.

‘Last night, Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,’ Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s chief of staff, said in a statement at the time.

Before he checked into Walter Reed, staffers said Fetterman had not been his usual self for weeks and described him as withdrawn, showing disinterest in talking, eating and the usual banter with aides.

Fetterman is said to be receiving daily in-person briefings from Jentleson and his office is issuing statements and sponsoring legislation while in the hospital.

Fetterman has missed 53 of the 64 Senate roll call votes during February and March as a result of being hospitalized.

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.