(The Center Square) – A Pennsylvania company boasting the reach of 1 billion patients annually and twice consecutively recognized by TIME magazine’s most sustainable companies list is paying nine states more than a quarter-billion dollars over the next years.

The settlement state prosecutors say “worsened the nationwide opioid crisis” will yield $23 million to North Carolina. Mylan, now a part of Viatris, owns a $284,447,916 share of the $720 million going to the Tarheel State, California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

As part of the deal, some states can get free pharmaceutical products instead of cash. Seven companies in the deal are “prohibited from promoting or marketing opioids and opioid products, making or selling any product that contains more than 40 mg of oxycodone per pill, and are required to put in place a monitoring and reporting system for suspicious orders. Indivior has agreed to not manufacture or sell opioid products for the next 10 years, but it will be able to continue marketing and selling medications to treat opioid use disorder.”

North Carolina is sending 85% of the settlements to local governments.

The companies and their amount owed to all states collectively are Mylan (now part of Viatris), $284,447,916 paid over nine years; Hikma, $95,818,293 paid over one to four years; Amneal, $71,751,010 paid over 10 years; Apotex, $63,682,369 paid in a single year; Indivior, $38,022,450 paid over four years; Sun, $30,992,087 paid over one to four years; Alvogen, $18,680,162 paid in a single year; and Zydus, $14,859,220 paid in a single year.

“These companies didn’t do enough to prevent misuse of the addictive opioids they manufactured and helped push us into the nationwide opioid crisis that continues to take lives in North Carolina every day,” said first-term Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Today’s settlements hold them accountable for hurting the people of our state and give us resources to help people struggling with addiction.”

(The Center Square) – Rescue and recovery personnel from 13 states are assisting Texas with recovery efforts in the aftermath of a deadly July 4 flash flood event that killed at least 119, with at least 173 reported missing.

Both Republican and Democratic governors have sent help to Texas from the states of Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his wife and family members were rescued in Hunt, Texas, where they were vacationing with close family friends and were stranded as flood waters rose, NBC News reported. Not soon after, he deployed two Virginia Type III Swift Water Rescue Teams to assist with ongoing recovery efforts.

States are providing relief through an Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) responding to a request from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). TDEM is overseeing recovery efforts in six counties with the majority of personnel in Kerr County, where the majority of people were killed and reported missing.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders deployed 22 Arkansas National Guard troops to Texas; an Arkansas Division of Emergency Management team deployed Friday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also deployed 27 highly skilled Urban Search and Rescue Team members, including nine from Riverside City and Oakland City and 18 from the Los Angeles County, Riverside City, Menlo Park and Orange County Fire Departments. Among them are four Human Remains Detection team units, including eight canines.

“The scale of loss and devastation Texas is experiencing right now is unfathomable. California is proud to lend a helping hand to our fellow Americans,” Newsom said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was among the first to deploy swift water rescue teams and K-9 units to assist with search and recovery efforts in Kerr County.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry dispatched 14 swift water rescue personnel to Texas, including boat operators, technicians, support personnel and fire marshals.

“Louisiana is committed to helping our neighbors in Texas during this difficult time,” Landry said.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen deployed members of its Task Force 1 and Type 3 Urban Search and Rescue Task Force to Texas.

“Nebraskans always step up to help those in need. These families and communities need our support and continued prayers as recovery efforts go on,” Pillen said.

New Jersey deployed members of its Task Force 1, one of 28 federal FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams in the country. A New Jersey native also led a U.S. Coast Guard crew to rescue a record 165 people in Kerr County, The Center Square reported.

North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong deployed a seven-person crew from the North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Wing.

It’s the first time the 119th Wing “has provided MQ-9 support for an EMAC request,” the governor’s office said. “Other states have come to our aid in extremely challenging times, and North Dakota stands ready to help Texas through this catastrophe however we can,” Armstrong said.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also deployed 20 Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers and an Ohio Department of Natural Resources team with K-9s.

“When we put the request out to our troopers, we had the complete roster filled up within two hours,” Major David Brown said.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt deployed two Type III swift water rescue teams including Task Force 1 members from Tulsa and Oklahoma City, state emergency management personnel and boats, trailers, and equipment.

“As always, Oklahoma will answer the call to help our friends and neighbors during these devastating floods. That’s the Oklahoma Standard, plain and simple,” Stitt said.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster deployed the state’s Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue team, including five personnel and two human remains detection K-9s.

“In some of our toughest moments, the people of Texas were there for us. Now, it’s our duty to return that support and stand by our friends in their time of need,” McMaster said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee dispatched a Memphis Fire CST-HRD team of expert handlers and specialized search dogs.

“Tennessee stands with Texas – we always have and always will. Proud of our first responders who are in Kerr County,” Lee said.

Wisconsin’s Task Force 1 were deployed to Texas, including Regional All-Climate Training Center employees, K-9 units, and Janesville, Menomonie, and Green Bay fire department crew.

Eight WI-TF1 members began search efforts with their K9s on Thursday northwest of Austin, the Wisconsin Emergency Management said. Its Canine Human Remains Detection Mission Ready team, including “three very important K9s (Duke, Merlin, and Reaper)” are performing “extremely difficult and heartbreaking work, but it plays a crucial role in bringing closure to families.”

(The Center Square) – If a judge approves a proposed court order, the IRS will soon allow churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit again without losing their nonprofit status.

Churches lost the right to endorse candidates after the 1954 Johnson Amendment by former President Lyndon Johnson was approved.

The Johnson Amendment prohibits nonprofits “from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS.

Johnson – at that time a senator – was “running for re-election, and he and other members of Congress pushed the amendment to stop support for their political opponents’ campaigns,” according to Time.

A recent lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and a few churches against the IRS may change the way the amendment affects churches, however.

National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) is an association of Christian communicators that – among other things – advocates for freedom of speech.

NRB and the churches involved in the case state that the Johnson Amendment “violates their First Amendment rights to the freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, their Fifth Amendment rights to due process of law and equal protection under the law, and the Religious Freedom Restoration.”

Both plaintiffs and defendants jointly motioned in a proposed court order that “the Johnson Amendment does not reach speech by a house of worship to its congregation, in connection with religious services through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith.”

If the order is approved, the IRS will recognize that “when a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate[s]’ nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign.’”

“Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates,” the proposed court order said.

“Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,” the court order said.

When asked twice for comment, the IRS did not respond.

NRB General Counsel Mike Farris told The Center Square “this is all tentative until the judge approves the proposed order,” and so NRB will not yet comment.

Likewise, NRB media relations told The Center Square that “NRB is awaiting the judge’s approval of the filing prior to publicizing our comments,” and that it “will issue this formal statement once the judge grants approval.”

The National Council of Nonprofits is against the proposed order, with its president and CEO Diane Yentel stating in a release that she believes the filing will “radically [alter] campaign finance laws” and could allow political operatives to give money to their preferred candidates while also receiving tax breaks.

As it now stands, however, the order only applies to churches.

When reached, the National Council of Nonprofits referred The Center Square to its release.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker told The Center Square: “We are pleased with the IRS’s decision to lift its restrictions upon church sermons as it reaffirms that the government shouldn’t be able to threaten a church with financial penalties based on a requirement that the church self-censor and surrender its constitutionally protected freedom.”

“Now and always, churches have the constitutional right to speak freely,” Tucker said.