The Brief

During the COVID pandemic, J. Paul Grayson was hit with an avalanche of health problems — high blood pressure, prediabetes and a heart arrhythmia.

He also gained 40 pounds to his 6-feet 3-inches frame. "I felt like my weight was getting out of control," says the 73-year-old retiree, who lives on a ranch in Oklahoma. "I had to start taking all these medications that I never had to take before. I actually felt pretty depressed about my health."

About six months ago, Grayson began taking the popular weight-loss drug Ozempic. He knew the side effects could be rough, including nausea, constipation, and diarrhea. But he thought it would be worth it if he could stave off further heart problems by losing the extra weight.

"Right away, I started eating less and losing weight," he says. That was expected. But what Grayson hadn't expected was that the drug also immediately altered one of his other habits.

"I remember going to dinner for the first time [while taking Ozempic]," Grayson explains. "I ordered a beer, took a sip, and I couldn't finish it," he says. "You know how sometimes you taste a beer, and it's like, 'Oh my God, this tastes so good that I want to guzzle it.' Well, I didn't feel like guzzling. I just really felt like sipping it."
And, instead of having several beers with dinner, Grayson stopped at just one drink.

J. Paul Grayson experienced an interesting side effect when he started taking Ozempic: He lost his taste for alcohol.

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J. Paul Grayson

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In the past year, prescriptions for both the diabetes drug Ozempic, and its weight-loss counterpart Wegovy, have skyrocketed, despite the fact that each costs about $1,000 a month, and some health insurers recently stopped covering them. Both drugs contain the same active ingredient, semaglutide, which belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 (a.k.a. "glucagon-like peptide 1"). These drugs regulate your blood sugar and make you feel satisfied after eating. Ozempic is approved for treating diabetes and, in some cases, excess weight.

With the drug's surge in popularity, doctors and patients have begun to notice a striking side effect of these drugs: They appear to reduce people's cravings for alcohol, nicotine and opioids. They may also reduce some types of compulsive behaviors, such as gambling and online shopping.

"There's really been a large number of clinical and anecdotal reports coming in suggesting that people's drinking behaviors are changing and in some instances pretty substantially while taking [Ozempic or Wegovy]," says Christian Hendershot, a psychologist and addiction researcher at the University of North Carolina.

He's leading one of six clinical trials now underway aimed at understanding how semaglutide may alter people's drinking and smoking habits.

"All these reports, for the most part, are anecdotal," Hendershot adds. "At the same time, it does seem like there's a pretty strong signal here."

Scientists are hopeful that a new class of treatments for alcohol use disorder or smoking may be on the horizon. Some doctors have even started prescribing these drugs for this specific purpose, even though evidence from large, randomized controlled trials are still years away.

Stopping at just one cookie or beer

To many doctors and patients, like J. Paul Grayson, Ozempic's effect on alcohol came as a big surprise.

"Before Ozempic, I could consume a whole bottle of wine in an evening without trying real hard, along with a bag of chocolates," he says laughing. "But with Ozempic, even one beer didn't feel good to me somehow," he says.

"I had no idea this would happen," he adds. "Nobody told me anything about the drug affecting alcohol, too."

But for scientists who study GLP-1 drugs, this striking side effect was exactly what they expected. "It's really not surprising," says pharmacologist Elisabet Jerlhag.

For more than a decade now, Jerlhag and her colleagues at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, have been figuring out in great detail how GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, reduce alcohol consumption in rats.

She and other scientists have published nearly a dozen studies, showing how these drugs stop binge drinking in rats or mice, prevent relapse in "addicted" animals, and overall decrease their consumption of alcohol. "So we see a reduction by over 50%, which is quite dramatic," Jerlhag says.

Other studies in animals have also found that GLP-1 drugs reduce the consumption of nicotine, opioids, as well as psychostimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

So why would a weight-loss drug do this? Turns out, these drugs (as well as the GLP-1 hormone) don't just work on blood sugar. "They also work in your brain," says Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, who's the clinical director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

"The mechanism in the brain that regulates overeating overlaps with those responsible for the development and maintenance of addiction, including alcohol disorder," he says.

The role of dopamine

Studies in animals, as well as a few in people, offer tantalizing clues to how this mechanism works for both food and alcohol.

Imagine for a second taking a bite of a chewy, chocolate cookie. It's buttery and very sweet.

That first bite triggers the release of dopamine inside the part of your brain that controls your motivation, says neuroscientist Alexandra G. DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech. "That dopamine essentially tells you, 'Hey, do that again!' Take another bite.' " And so, you want another bite. Maybe even another whole cookie. It's hard to stop.

Now imagine you're a beer lover and you take a big gulp of a cold IPA on a hot day. It also triggers a dopamine spike in the motivation center of the brain – just like the cookie.

"Dopamine in the striatum [the brain's motivation center] is the motivation and learning signal for everything. Not just for food," DiFeliceantonio says. "All addictive drugs increase dopamine there. That's a common thing."

And so after the first taste of beer, the dopamine tells you, "Do it again! Have another gulp."

But studies have found that in animals and people, GLP-1 drugs reduce the release of dopamine in this region when you eat something sweet and fatty, or when you consume alcohol. "The drug talks with our brain and says, 'we've had enough food here. So let's slow down. Let's have less appetite, let's have less food. Less alcohol," says NIDA's Leggio.

So you don't really feel like another bite of cookie, or as J. Paul Grayson said, "I didn't feel like guzzling. I just really felt like sipping it."

Oftentimes, now, he doesn't even feel like drinking at all. "When I still had wine or chocolate in the refrigerator, sometimes I would think, 'Oh, I should have some wine. I should have some chocolate.' But there just wasn't anything that made me get up and go to the refrigerator," he explains.

The 'horse has already left the barn'

Ozempic's potential to reduce alcohol consumption is now so well known that some people are seeking out the drug to help with their drinking, says Christian Hendershot.

"We're also hearing about clinicians prescribing for that reason," he says. "In many ways this is really kind of the indication that the horse has already left the barn. This is something that's already appearing to happen, whether we like it or not."

But NIDA's Leggio advises against this off-label use of Ozempic and Wegovy. "It's too early," he says. Ozempic may not work against alcohol for everyone, including people who don't have obesity.

So far, there has only been only one small randomized controlled study, looking at whether another GLP-1 drug could treat alcohol use disorder in people in general, as compared to cognitive behavioral therapy. This drug, called exenatide, isn't as potent as semaglutide (Ozempic) at inducing weight-loss or penetrating inside the brain. In the study, the drug reduced drinking in people with obesity, but it actually increased drinking in people who don't have obesity.

"We don't know why," Leggio says. One hypothesis is that the semaglutide caused people to lose weight even though they had normal weight and that led them to seek more calories through drinking, Leggio says.

"But that's only speculation," he adds. "We have to realize that no medication is going to work for everybody, and it's very important to identify the sub-class of patients for who this medication might work."

And he notes, in the end, maybe a newer version of the GLP-1 drugs might work better for treating addictions than diabetes.

Elisabet Jerlhag at the University of Gothenburg notes that people with obesity tend to have less severe side effects while taking semaglutide than people who don't have obesity. "With these drugs there's also a risk of developing pancreatitis," she says. "A person with alcohol use disorder may be at [elevated] risk for pancreatitis. So a doctor would need to monitor that."

On the other hand, if you have diabetes and you want to curb your alcohol intake then definitely talk to your doctor about the option of semaglutide, Leggio says. "Even more so if you have obesity and alcohol use disorder. Absolutely. Speak with your doctor."

'Many days I don't drink at all'

Meg Johnston's weight-loss medication has reduced her desire to drink. "Alcohol just doesn't sound as appetizing or appealing," she says.

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Nicole Jackson

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Meg Johnston

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That's exactly what Meg Johnston, age 37, did about a month ago. During COVID, she also gained weight. "I make this joke that food was the only thing that brought me joy," she says. But she also drank much more. "I would drink out of boredom, just total boredom."

So she began taking semaglutide at the end of June. A part of her goal was to curb drinking. "I was hoping that I would be one of the people that the drug affected this way," says Johnston, who's a real estate agent in Washington, D.C.

And indeed, the drug has not disappointed her. "Many days I don't drink at all," she says. "It's hard to explain why. Alcohol just doesn't sound as appetizing or appealing. And now my tolerance is lower, too.

"This has been a welcome change for me," she adds. "During those first couple of weeks of taking the drug, I was very much focused on not vomiting and making sure I continue to have bowel movements. I just knew alcohol was going to make me feel terrible afterwards."

President Donald Trump got more wins in Republican primaries on Tuesday, most notably in Kentucky.

There, Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed candidate after the president and his allies blitzed Massie with tens of millions in ads.

In fact, this was the most expensive House primary in history with $33 million total spent on TV ads and a lot of it aimed at Massie, according to NPR ad-tracking partner AdImpact.

While Trump continues to rack up victories on his vengeance tour, general election opponents are waiting in swing districts and swing states, and Trump is a double-edged sword — popular with the base but unpopular with more than half the country.

Can front-line Republican candidates navigate these choppy waters? And what comes next?

Here are four takeaways from Tuesday night's elections:

1. Trump flexes muscle (again) in Republican primaries 

Trump made it clear again that he's the alpha dog in Republican Party politics.

Massie became the latest, high-profile political casualty Tuesday night. Trump said all he needed was a "warm body" to pluck the thorn-in-Trump's-side that Massie had become.

And in Ed Gallrein, who served in the Navy as a SEAL officer, Trump said he got that warm body — with "a big, beautiful brain." In the end, it wasn't a very close race, a 10-point margin.

Following Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy's primary loss in Louisiana on Saturday, this week has been a punctuation mark on Trump's strength with the party. In addition to Massie and Cassidy losing, another Trump foe, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also did not advance to a runoff for Georgia governor Tuesday night.

Raffensperger was at the center of the 2020 presidential election controversy in the state when Trump pressured him to overturn the election results there that saw Democrat Joe Biden narrowly win the state. Raffensperger refused to go along and now joins a list of Republicans whose political careers were shortened because GOP voters punished them after their opposition to Trump.

2. Primaries aren't general elections, though. Georgia, in particular, is a good reminder of that

The Senate primaries in Georgia and Alabama were also all about candidates trying to out-MAGA each other. They hugged Trump as closely as possible to get through those contests.

Trump certainly showed his strength in these Republican primaries, but primaries aren't general elections, and Alabama and Georgia, while neighbors, have become very different states. They both have conservative primary electorates, but Alabama is a much more conservative general election state. Georgia is much more purple and has two Democratic senators. One of them, Jon Ossoff, is a top GOP target this fall.

It's worth remembering that, as the Republican primary heads to a runoff between the top two vote-getters on June 16, Trump may be popular with rank-and-file conservative voters, but he's equally, if not more, unpopular with swing voters, according to polls, focus groups and reports. His approval ratings are among the lowest of either of his terms as president, especially on the economy — the top issue for voters. This has been the Trump quandary for Republicans for as long as he's been the leader of the party. Republicans need him to turn out the base, but he's toxic with independents and now with lots of crossover voting groups, who cast ballots for him in 2024, like Latinos, according to polls.

In a general election in a place like Georgia, Republicans have to be careful not to look too extreme, if they want to have a chance of unseating Ossoff in November.

3. Pay attention to the economic messaging by GOP candidates in swing districts

One way to do that is to focus on kitchen-table issues. The economy and prices in particular continue to be voters' top concerns. Let's zoom in on a place where that economic swing-district messaging is going to be tested, one that always seems to be full of bellwethers — Pennsylvania.

There are three congressional races here, in fact, that the Cook Political Report rates as toss-ups. That includes the 7th Congressional District in the Lehigh Valley. It features freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who will now face off against Democrat Bob Brooks, the state firefighters union president.

Mackenzie's focus has been on the economy — and how he believes he's helped working-class voters. In an ad with about $225,000 behind it, according to AdImpact, Mackenzie stresses that he "voted for working family tax cuts that mean higher wages and lower taxes for working families, no tax on tips and no tax on overtime." He mentions wanting to expand health savings accounts, as well, and keeps a hard line on immigration.

Is that a winning message? It will be tested, as Republicans in these kinds of districts are trudging uphill right now given the national political environment and as Democrats look to flip this district Trump won by 3 points in 2024 and narrowly lost four years earlier. Trump's economic approval ratings are in the 30s, and people are blaming him for higher prices, according to the polls.

Democrats, meanwhile, are promoting Brooks as "one of us" — "a firefighter, snowplow driver, and union leader" who will "stand up to corporate greed and a corrupt political system." It's a left-wing, working-class populist message that will also be tested — as will Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro's political strength in this key presidential state, as he eyes a potential run for higher office in 2028.

4. Trump looks to keep riding high in the saddle — in Texas

Trump looks to finish off a May sweep in the Lone Star State. On Tuesday, Trump made the surprise move of endorsing Ken Paxton, the controversial state attorney general, in the Republican primary runoff against Republican Sen. John Cornyn. Trump had pledged to endorse after Cornyn failed to reach the 50%-plus threshold to win the primary outright.

The smart money was on Trump to endorse Cornyn to avoid a messy, drawn-out primary — and to safely keep this Senate seat in Republican hands. Operatives close to Trump were working for Cornyn, and that seemed to be the way things were headed. But then Paxton came out strongly in support of the SAVE America Act, the voting law that Trump has championed that would require not just voter ID, but birth certificates or passports to register to vote.

That seemed to put a pause on Trump's endorsement of anyone — until Tuesday when Trump flipped the script and went with the uber-MAGA Paxton. Make no mistake: this puts Texas on the map. Texas was seen as a likely much easier win for Republicans in November with Cornyn as the GOP nominee than if it's Paxton.

Paxton will still likely be the slight favorite over the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico. This is Texas, after all, and no Democrat has won statewide since 1994. But Republicans now are going to have to back up the money truck to try to save this seat — and it will be super expensive. Look for Trump's political action committee, MAGA Inc., with its deep war chest and now Trump's endorsement, to play heavily to try to keep this seat red.
Copyright 2026 NPR

The rate of high school seniors completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has hit an all-time high with the class of 2026, according to data from the National College Attainment Network.

But among U.S. citizens in mixed-status families — those where at least one parent is an undocumented immigrant — FAFSA completion in California has dropped. So has their completion of the California Dream Act Application, which provides access to state-based financial aid.

That difference is even more pronounced because California is otherwise a leader in how many students complete FAFSA, which gives them access to federal student loans, work study programs and grants.

According to the California Student Aid Commission, FAFSA completion among first-time applicants from mixed-status families dropped by over 3,000 students this past year. CADAA completion by students in mixed-status families fell by 910.

“That is not a small fluctuation,” said Nicole Kangas, a CSAC spokesperson, at a recent media roundtable. “That is a sharp and significant withdrawal from financial aid and higher education systems. Each one of these numbers represents a student who is a U.S. citizen and is eligible for federal aid, as well as state aid. And we should be concerned by any signs of application declines among this vulnerable group.”

How does financial aid work?

The U.S. Department of Education uses FAFSA data to provide federal financial aid. Colleges also use this information to calculate how much students will pay to go to their campus. Schools then make offers to prospective students, which can be composed of grants, loans, scholarships and work-study. For many students, these packages determine where—and even if—students will go to college.

Traditionally, undocumented students, DACA recipients, U Visa holders and students with Temporary Protected Status have completed the California Dream Act Application to access state-based financial aid. In 2024, the California Student Aid Commission began encouraging U.S. citizens in mixed-status families to consider CADAA as an option after learning that these students were encountering glitches and delays when trying to complete FAFSA.

CADAA completion among undocumented students and students with temporary immigration relief picked up a bit last year. But, generally, completion rates for this group are on a downward trend, which immigrant advocates tie to the wind-down of DACA in 2017, during President Trump's first term.

“ California has spent years telling students that college is the pathway to opportunity. But for many immigrant students and [U.S. citizens in] mixed-status families, that message now collides with another reality: fear,” Kangas said. “Fear that applying for aid could expose a loved one to harm, and fear that the systems designed to support them may not be able to protect them. That fear is reshaping college-going behavior in California in real time, and if we do not respond with urgency, we risk losing an entire generation of students.”

What’s driving the decline?

“What we're hearing consistently is that students aren't opting out because they don't value college,” said Justin Hurst, government relations and advocacy manager at CSAC. “They're opting out because they're worried that applying could expose them or a loved one to immigration enforcement, or that their information could then be accessed or misused.”

For students who fear completing the FAFSA for the first time, CSAC has instructed counselors across the state to underscore that state-based aid through CADAA is still an option — and that the latter includes legal protections to safeguard student data under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, SB 54 and AB 21.

“Even when strong privacy protections do exist, confusion will often spread faster than any reassurance that can be provided, especially through social media, peer networks, rumors. So not applying often feels like the safest choice,” Hurst said.

Marcos Montes, policy director at SoCal CAN, a coalition made up of over 120 educational nonprofits, provided an example: Recently, he heard about a U.S. citizen who was inaccurately advised that if she submitted the CADAA, she would be considered for federal aid. The student, he added, was later confused about why her financial aid package didn’t include a federal Pell Grant, which provides up to $7,395 a year for low-income families.

What about demographic changes?

Montes also noted that some college access advocates have wondered if CADAA completion declines among undocumented students are due to California’s population plateau. “But the best estimates available demonstrate that, every year, about 10,000 undocumented students graduate from California's high schools,” he said. Last year, 4,570 undocumented students completed the application, down from 8,833 in 2019.

“ The fact that we are also living in a post-DACA environment complicates things,” Montes added. “All of the students graduating from high school today are not eligible for DACA, and many wonder if pursuing higher education is even worth it if they would have very limited work opportunities during and after college.”

DACA, or the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program, grants work permits for undocumented people who were brought to the U.S. as children. It’s also meant to provide temporary deportation relief. But, under the second Trump administration, at least 270 DACA recipients have been arrested — including one Californian who was detained and deported within 24 hours.

What might change?

The role of advocates, Montes said, is to “empower students and families to make the best choice for them.” If students have older siblings who are in college, or if they’re renewing their financial aid applications, the federal government likely already has their family’s information, he said — this is also true for undocumented parents who pay federal taxes.

For some, completing a FAFSA might make the most sense. But “for a student who's just really afraid” of how the federal government might use their data, he said sticking to the state-based CADAA might be the best fit.

State senator Sasha Renée Pérez has introduced a bill to formally establish CADAA as an alternative to FAFSA.

According CSAC's Hurst, the bill is “ currently parked in appropriations." And “in the absence of any information on it being able to advance in its current form,” he added, the commission is advocating to have similar language included in a trailer bill to be passed as part of the state's budgeting process.

Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes.

Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. The National Weather Service forecasts cooler weather and "May gray" through the weekend.

Here's a roundup of some of the fires burning now.

Santa Rosa Island Fire (Santa Barbara County)

• CalFire incident page
• Channel Islands National Park on social media
• Acreage: About 17,000 as of 6: 15 p.m. Tuesday, May 19
• Containment: 26% as of 5 p.m.
• Cause: Human. KTLA and other outlets have reported a man whose boat shipwrecked fired a rescue flare that sparked the fire.

The fire is burning in Channel Island National Park territory. Firefighters traveled by boat with their equipment to get to the island, according to news reports. The island is home to rare and endangered plants and animals.

Sandy Fire (Ventura County)

• CalFire incident page
• Ventura County emergency website (includes evacuation information)
• Acreage: About 1,700
• Containment: 15% as of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Cause: Under investigation

CalFire reported about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday that lessening winds allowed "firefighters to take full advantage of improved weather to strengthen containment lines and continue aggressive suppression efforts. Crews remain actively engaged both on the ground and in the air to gain additional containment and keep the fire within its current perimeter."

The fire started Monday in the southern part of Simi Valley. It eventually spread eastward toward L.A. County communities in the San Fernando Valley, but overnight conditions were favorable to firefighters, CalFire said. Several communities were under evacuation orders and warnings, and schools in the area were closed.

Bain Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 1,375
• Containment: 10% as of 1:35 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire was first reported around noon Tuesday, according to CalFire, near Jurupa Valley (east of the 15 Freeway and south of the 60). CBS News Los Angeles reported that four people have been injured. Evacuation orders and warnings were expanded overnight.

Verona Fire (Riverside County)

• CalFire incident page (includes evacuation information)
• Social media updates
• Acreage: About 440 as of 1 a.m. Wednesday, May 20
• Containment: 0%
• Cause: Under investigation

Burro Fire (Angeles National Forest)

• CalFire incident page
• Social media updates
• Acreage: 30
• Containment: 70% as of about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 19
• Cause: Under investigation

The fire started Monday in a mountainous area north of the San Gabriel Reservoir.

Listen to our Big Burn podcast

Fire resources and tips

Check out LAist's wildfire recovery guide.

Prepare for the next disaster:

• Fire season is here. Make sure you're signed up for these alerts
• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire
• Yes, wildfires are getting worse. The history that got us to this moment

If you have to evacuate:

• Why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• How to get packed up
• How to leave your house
• What evacuation terms mean and how to sign up for alerts

Navigating fire conditions:

• How to drive in high winds and fire danger
• How to prep for power outages
• How to navigate poor air quality

How to help yourself and others:

• Resources for fire victims, evacuees and first responders
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
• How to help find lost pets

How to start the recovery process:

• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• How to make an insurance claim
• How to safely clean up wildfire ash

What to do for your kids:

• How to talk to children about wildfires and losing a home
• What parents should know about wildfire air quality