Washington
Judge blocks Trump from purging DEI-related terms from Head Start grant applications
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to remake Head Start, ordering it to stop purging words it associates with diversity, equity and inclusion from grant applications and barring it from laying off any more federal employees in the Office of Head Start.
The order came this week in a lawsuit filed in April against Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials. The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of illegally dismantling Head Start by shutting down federal Head Start offices and laying off half the staff. It also challenges the administration’s attempts to bar children who are in the U.S. illegally from Head Start programs and to ban language they view as suggestive of DEI.
The plaintiff organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in a court filing last month that officials told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to axe the terms “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” from her grant application. They later sent a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged her from using in her application, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”
A Health and Human Services spokesperson said he could not comment on the judge’s order.
Head Start, founded six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, is an early education and family support program that serves hundreds of thousands of children who come from low-income households, foster homes or homelessness. It is federally funded but operated by nonprofits, schools and local governments.
Joel Ryan, who heads the Washington State Head Start & Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, said the order halts an attack on Head Start centers.
“When a Head Start program has their funding withheld because of their efforts to provide effective education to children with autism, serve tribal members on a reservation, or treat all families with respect, it is an attack on the fundamental promise of the Head Start program,” Ryan said.
The directive on the forbidden words raised confusion for Head Start directors, who must describe how they will use the money in grant applications and are required by law to provide demographic information about the families they serve. A director in Washington state said in a court filing the guidance led her to cancel staff training on how to support children with autism and children with trauma.
The order from U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of Seattle, published Monday, bars Health and Human Services from cutting any more employees and from punishing Head Start providers if they use the prohibited language.
Washington
Man who held himself out as Native American activist sentenced to 46 years for serial rapes
SEATTLE (AP) — A man who held himself out as a Native American activist was sentenced Wednesday to 46 years in prison for drugging and raping women in a case that inspired calls for changes in Washington state law to prohibit defendants who represent themselves from directly questioning their accusers.
Redwolf Pope, who had apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was arrested in 2018 after guests at his Seattle apartment gave police videos from his iPad that showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. Police also found a secret camera in Pope’s bathroom that was used to capture video of women in the shower.
“I’ve had the horror of witnessing the scale of violence Pope inflicted on multiple women over many years. It will never leave me,” Erica Elan, a survivor who discovered the hidden cameras and video evidence of the crimes, said in a news release.
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse except in cases where they publicly identify themselves or share their stories openly.
Pope, 49, was found guilty of rape and voyeurism by a Santa Fe jury in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in prison, with credit for over two years already served. Pope claimed that encounter was consensual.
After his release from prison, he was extradited to Washington state to face charges from incidents that occurred in 2016 and 2017. He pleaded not guilty and represented himself during his September trial, cross-examining one of his victims for multiple days.
The jury found him guilty on Sept. 3, 2025.
Survivors have called on the Washington State Legislature to change laws that allow defendants who represent themselves to directly cross-examine their victims. They want lawmakers to update the Crime Victim Bill of Rights to provide an alternative to cross-examination of victims by perpetrators serving as their own lawyer.
They want judges to have the ability to allow an accuser to be cross-examined by a court-appointed designee rather than by a self-represented defendant.
“We must refine the outdated systems that cause further harm to survivors in their pursuit of justice,” Elan said.
Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who has appeared as a spokesperson for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. His LinkedIn page lists him as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade.
But his heritage and resume came under scrutiny after his arrest. While he received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association previously confirmed he was not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there.
Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said they’ve found no record of Pope’s enrollment, though it’s unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe.
Abigail Echo-Hawk, the executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native women’s rights, has said Pope created a “false identity and posed as a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey upon our Indigenous women.”
Echo-Hawk, who is a national leader in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls crisis and advocate for victims of sexual violence, said Pope not only inflicted harm until he was caught, but “was allowed to take advantage of our legal system and continue to traumatize his victims for years after.”
Judge blocks Trump from purging DEI-related terms from Head Start grant applications
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to remake Head Start, ordering it to stop purging words it associates with diversity, equity and inclusion from grant applications and barring it from laying off any more federal employees in the Office of Head Start.
The order came this week in a lawsuit filed in April against Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials. The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of illegally dismantling Head Start by shutting down federal Head Start offices and laying off half the staff. It also challenges the administration’s attempts to bar children who are in the U.S. illegally from Head Start programs and to ban language they view as suggestive of DEI.
The plaintiff organizations representing Head Start providers and parents said in a court filing last month that officials told a Head Start director in Wisconsin to axe the terms “race,” “belonging” and “pregnant people” from her grant application. They later sent a list with nearly 200 words the department discouraged her from using in her application, including “Black,” “Native American,” “disability” and “women.”
A Health and Human Services spokesperson said he could not comment on the judge’s order.
Head Start, founded six decades ago as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, is an early education and family support program that serves hundreds of thousands of children who come from low-income households, foster homes or homelessness. It is federally funded but operated by nonprofits, schools and local governments.
Joel Ryan, who heads the Washington State Head Start & Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, said the order halts an attack on Head Start centers.
“When a Head Start program has their funding withheld because of their efforts to provide effective education to children with autism, serve tribal members on a reservation, or treat all families with respect, it is an attack on the fundamental promise of the Head Start program,” Ryan said.
The directive on the forbidden words raised confusion for Head Start directors, who must describe how they will use the money in grant applications and are required by law to provide demographic information about the families they serve. A director in Washington state said in a court filing the guidance led her to cancel staff training on how to support children with autism and children with trauma.
The order from U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez of Seattle, published Monday, bars Health and Human Services from cutting any more employees and from punishing Head Start providers if they use the prohibited language.
Washington
Man who held himself out as Native American activist sentenced to 46 years for serial rapes
SEATTLE (AP) — A man who held himself out as a Native American activist was sentenced Wednesday to 46 years in prison for drugging and raping women in a case that inspired calls for changes in Washington state law to prohibit defendants who represent themselves from directly questioning their accusers.
Redwolf Pope, who had apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was arrested in 2018 after guests at his Seattle apartment gave police videos from his iPad that showed him raping several women who appeared to be unconscious, court documents said. Police also found a secret camera in Pope’s bathroom that was used to capture video of women in the shower.
“I’ve had the horror of witnessing the scale of violence Pope inflicted on multiple women over many years. It will never leave me,” Erica Elan, a survivor who discovered the hidden cameras and video evidence of the crimes, said in a news release.
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse except in cases where they publicly identify themselves or share their stories openly.
Pope, 49, was found guilty of rape and voyeurism by a Santa Fe jury in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in prison, with credit for over two years already served. Pope claimed that encounter was consensual.
After his release from prison, he was extradited to Washington state to face charges from incidents that occurred in 2016 and 2017. He pleaded not guilty and represented himself during his September trial, cross-examining one of his victims for multiple days.
The jury found him guilty on Sept. 3, 2025.
Survivors have called on the Washington State Legislature to change laws that allow defendants who represent themselves to directly cross-examine their victims. They want lawmakers to update the Crime Victim Bill of Rights to provide an alternative to cross-examination of victims by perpetrators serving as their own lawyer.
They want judges to have the ability to allow an accuser to be cross-examined by a court-appointed designee rather than by a self-represented defendant.
“We must refine the outdated systems that cause further harm to survivors in their pursuit of justice,” Elan said.
Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who has appeared as a spokesperson for the Seattle-based United Indians of All Tribes Foundation. His LinkedIn page lists him as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court for over a decade.
But his heritage and resume came under scrutiny after his arrest. While he received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association previously confirmed he was not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there.
Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said they’ve found no record of Pope’s enrollment, though it’s unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe.
Abigail Echo-Hawk, the executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and an advocate for Native women’s rights, has said Pope created a “false identity and posed as a Native man to infiltrate Native communities and prey upon our Indigenous women.”
Echo-Hawk, who is a national leader in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls crisis and advocate for victims of sexual violence, said Pope not only inflicted harm until he was caught, but “was allowed to take advantage of our legal system and continue to traumatize his victims for years after.”
