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Tag: family

  • NTSB chair slams House aviation bill as ‘watered-down’ after 67 deaths near Washington

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    The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it’s misleading for members of the House to say their package of aviation safety reforms would address the recommendations that her agency made in January to prevent another midair collision like the one last year near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill’s “watered-down” requirements wouldn’t do enough to prevent a future tragedy, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a Senate bill that came up just one vote short of passing in the House earlier this week. The full NTSB followed up Thursday afternoon with a formal letter to two key House committees, saying that they can’t support the bill right now“We can have disagreements over policy all day. But when something is sold as these are the NTSB recommendations and that is not factually accurate, we have a problem with that. Because now you’re using the NTSB and you’re using people who lost loved ones in terrible tragedies,” Homendy said. “You’re using their pain to move your agenda forward.”The key concern of Homendy and the families of the people who died in the crash on Jan. 29, 2005, is that they believe all aircraft should be required to have key locator systems that the NTSB has been recommending since 2008, which would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out systems that broadcast an aircraft’s location are already required around busy airports. It’s the ADS-B In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft that isn’t yet standard.The House bill would ask the Federal Aviation Administration to draft a rule to require the best locator technology instead of just requiring ADS-B In, and even when it does suggest that technology should be required, the bill exempts business jets and small planes in certain parts of the airspace. Homendy said the bill is also weak in other areas, such as limits on when the military will be able to turn those locator systems off and the steps they must take to ensure those systems are working.House leaders defend their billThe leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee declined to respond to Homendy’s criticism Thursday, but Reps. Sam Graves and Rick Larsen have said they believe the ALERT bill they crafted effectively addresses the 50 recommendations that NTSB made at the conclusion of their investigation into the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.They defended their bill and pledged to work with the families, the Senate and the industry to develop the best solution as soon as possible. The committee will likely markup the bill within the next few weeks.“From the beginning, we have stressed the importance of getting this right, and we are confident that we will achieve that goal,” Larsen and Graves said. House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he is committed to getting the bill done.Victims’ families say they can’t support the bill as writtenThe NTSB released a side-by-side comparison of its recommendations and the House bill to highlight all the ways the bill falls short of fully addressing the needed changes.Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son in the crash, and many of the other victims’ families said the House bill “is not really a serious attempt to address the NTSB recommendations.” He said the introduction of this bill just a few days before the vote on the ROTOR Act, which the Senate unanimously approved, seemed designed to “scuttle” that bill and send the ADS-B In recommendation into limbo to be considered in a lengthy rulemaking process.Matt Collins, who lost his younger brother Chris in the disaster, said that the bill must require ADS-B In to be acceptable to the families.“As far as the ALERT act — the way it’s written now, I can’t endorse the way its written now. It needs to include ADS-B In,” Collins said. “It’s non-negotiable for us as family members, extremely non-negotiable.”Missed warnings led to the crashThe NTSB cited systemic weaknesses and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission.But Homendy said the House seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to include from the NTSB recommendations.“We were very explicit of what needed to occur,” Homendy said. “When we issue a recommendation, those recommendations are aimed at preventing a tragedy from happening again. And if you’re just going to give us half a loaf, it’s not going to do it. We’re not gonna save lives.”

    The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it’s misleading for members of the House to say their package of aviation safety reforms would address the recommendations that her agency made in January to prevent another midair collision like the one last year near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.

    NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill’s “watered-down” requirements wouldn’t do enough to prevent a future tragedy, and wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a Senate bill that came up just one vote short of passing in the House earlier this week. The full NTSB followed up Thursday afternoon with a formal letter to two key House committees, saying that they can’t support the bill right now

    “We can have disagreements over policy all day. But when something is sold as these are the NTSB recommendations and that is not factually accurate, we have a problem with that. Because now you’re using the NTSB and you’re using people who lost loved ones in terrible tragedies,” Homendy said. “You’re using their pain to move your agenda forward.”

    The key concern of Homendy and the families of the people who died in the crash on Jan. 29, 2005, is that they believe all aircraft should be required to have key locator systems that the NTSB has been recommending since 2008, which would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out systems that broadcast an aircraft’s location are already required around busy airports. It’s the ADS-B In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft that isn’t yet standard.

    The House bill would ask the Federal Aviation Administration to draft a rule to require the best locator technology instead of just requiring ADS-B In, and even when it does suggest that technology should be required, the bill exempts business jets and small planes in certain parts of the airspace. Homendy said the bill is also weak in other areas, such as limits on when the military will be able to turn those locator systems off and the steps they must take to ensure those systems are working.

    House leaders defend their bill

    The leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee declined to respond to Homendy’s criticism Thursday, but Reps. Sam Graves and Rick Larsen have said they believe the ALERT bill they crafted effectively addresses the 50 recommendations that NTSB made at the conclusion of their investigation into the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

    They defended their bill and pledged to work with the families, the Senate and the industry to develop the best solution as soon as possible. The committee will likely markup the bill within the next few weeks.

    “From the beginning, we have stressed the importance of getting this right, and we are confident that we will achieve that goal,” Larsen and Graves said. House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he is committed to getting the bill done.

    Victims’ families say they can’t support the bill as written

    The NTSB released a side-by-side comparison of its recommendations and the House bill to highlight all the ways the bill falls short of fully addressing the needed changes.

    Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son in the crash, and many of the other victims’ families said the House bill “is not really a serious attempt to address the NTSB recommendations.” He said the introduction of this bill just a few days before the vote on the ROTOR Act, which the Senate unanimously approved, seemed designed to “scuttle” that bill and send the ADS-B In recommendation into limbo to be considered in a lengthy rulemaking process.

    Matt Collins, who lost his younger brother Chris in the disaster, said that the bill must require ADS-B In to be acceptable to the families.

    “As far as the ALERT act — the way it’s written now, I can’t endorse the way its written now. It needs to include ADS-B In,” Collins said. “It’s non-negotiable for us as family members, extremely non-negotiable.”

    Missed warnings led to the crash

    The NTSB cited systemic weaknesses and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission.

    But Homendy said the House seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to include from the NTSB recommendations.

    “We were very explicit of what needed to occur,” Homendy said. “When we issue a recommendation, those recommendations are aimed at preventing a tragedy from happening again. And if you’re just going to give us half a loaf, it’s not going to do it. We’re not gonna save lives.”

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  • Why I Built AI Kiddo, A Kids Vocabulary App (and How) – Dragos Roua

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    When our one-year-old started to watch cartoons on iPad, we mostly used YouTube. He learned very soon how to scroll, how to pick new videos from the “related” column, and, sometimes, he even accidentally subscribed to some channels.

    The Accidental UX Researcher

    The more he watched, the more a clear UX pattern emerged. He didn’t care about the content — he cared about the interaction. Swipe. Tap. Something happens. Swipe again. New thing. Tap again. Sound comes out. That loop was deeply satisfying for him, and, honestly, it was fascinating to watch. A one-year-old who can’t form full sentences yet, but who had already internalized the core interaction patterns of one of the most used apps on the planet.

    And that’s when the question hit me.

    So one day I thought: “what if I mimicked the same UX on iPad, but with different content? Instead of the main video, some object image. The related column will scroll to related objects. And instead of Subscribe, we will have buttons to SPEAK that word in Romanian, English, and Vietnamese?”

    Three Languages, One Kitchen Table

    Now, a bit of context here. Our family is a beautiful linguistic mess. I’m Romanian, my wife is Vietnamese, and we talk to each other in English. So our kid is essentially growing up in a trilingual household, which is both a gift and a daily coordination challenge. At any given moment, the same object on the kitchen table has three names, and all three are correct.

    This multilingual reality is what made the idea click. YouTube was teaching him to swipe and tap, but it wasn’t teaching him words — at least not the words we wanted him to learn, in the languages we needed him to hear.

    It took me less than half of an afternoon to make the MVP, so we started to test. The first version was rough — just a handful of household items with images, a scrollable list on the right, and three language buttons. That’s it. No animations, no fancy design, just the bones of the idea.

    Initially, he was surprised there was no video, but the UX patterns were the same. He scrolled, he clicked, and he tapped the language buttons. Within minutes, he was navigating the app the same way he navigated YouTube. He’d pick an object — say, a chair — see the image, and then tap the Romanian button. “Scaun.” Tap the Vietnamese button. “Ghế.” Tap English. “Chair.” Then scroll to the next object and do it all over again.

    That was the moment I knew this wasn’t just a weekend hack. This was something real.

    That’s how AI Kiddo was born.

    From MVP to App Store

    I spent the next few weeks turning the MVP into a proper app. Built it in SwiftUI, kept it lean and focused. No backend, no analytics, no third-party SDKs — this is a kids’ app, and I take that seriously. Everything runs locally on the device. The text-to-speech uses Apple’s built-in AVSpeechSynthesizer, which means it works offline and doesn’t send any data anywhere.

    The content is organized into packs. You get three free starter packs right out of the gate — Around the House, Kitchen Essentials, and Bathroom Basics. That’s about 50 objects your kid can explore without paying anything. If they (or you) want more, there are twelve expansion packs covering everything from Animals and Food to Numbers, Colors, Body Parts, Actions, and even Weather. Each pack is $0.99, or you can grab the whole bundle for $2.99.

    And here’s the part I’m probably most proud of: it doesn’t just do three languages. It does eight. English, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Korean. You pick which languages you want to display in the settings, and only those show up as buttons. So if your family is Franco-German, you configure it for French and German. If you’re a Korean family living in Spain, you set it to Korean and Spanish. The app adapts to your family’s actual linguistic landscape.

    Simple UI Is The Best UI

    The UI stays true to the original insight — it still mimics the two-panel layout that my son had already mastered from YouTube. On iPad, you get a split view: the object image takes up the left two-thirds of the screen, and the scrollable list of items sits on the right. On iPhone, it stacks vertically. Big touch targets everywhere — we’re talking 60 to 80 points minimum — because toddler fingers are not exactly precision instruments.

    I also added a parental gate, because App Store requires it for kids’ apps, and honestly, it makes sense. Before any purchase or external link, there’s a simple math challenge (something like “15 + 23 = ?”) that a toddler definitely can’t solve. It keeps the experience safe and gives parents control.

    One thing I deliberately left out: gamification. No stars, no streaks, no “you did it!” pop-ups. The reward IS the interaction. Tap a button, hear a word. That’s it. Kids don’t need to be tricked into learning — they just need the right tool at the right moment.

    Now it’s live on the App Store with 8 integrated languages, 15 content packs, and over 300 vocabulary items. Instead of watching only cartoons, our son is also actively exploring words in multiple languages, building vocabulary at his own pace, driven by the same swipe-and-tap patterns that YouTube accidentally taught him.

    Sometimes the best product ideas don’t come from market research or competitor analysis. They come from sitting on the couch, watching a one-year-old accidentally subscribe to a Cars on the Road channel, and thinking: “There has to be a better use for this skill.”

    P.S. That’s not my first attempt to solve real-life problems by coding. Stay tuned, there might be another story about how I won against Mekong Delta mosquitoes soon…

    If you want to test it, you can download it for free from here: https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/ai-kiddo/id6758517566?l=en-GB

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    dragos@dragosroua.com (Dragos Roua)

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  • Tens of millions of Americans care for loved ones up to 6 hours a day while working a job—and don’t get any extra money for it | Fortune

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    Debra Whitman was traveling for work when her father was suddenly admitted to the hospital in serious pain.

    She jetted home to Maryland and took several days off to care for him in his rural community in eastern Washington state and to set him up with a motorized lift chair that would help him stand up.

    Fortunately for Whitman, who serves as chief public policy officer at AARP, her employer offers paid time off for caregiving for elderly family members, a benefit which experts say is growing in popularity as the U.S. population ages.

    “Instead of having to take all my vacation, I could take several days of caregiving leave while I was out there,” Whitman said. “That’s been a huge godsend for a lot of my staff.”

    More than 63 million Americans provide care for an adult family member, and most of them have regular paid jobs as well, according to AARP, formerly known as American Association of Retired Persons. But caretaking responsibilities can make holding down a full-time job challenging, especially for people caring for older adults and raising children at the same time.

    The average caregiver spends about six hours a day caring for aging loved ones, according to Meghan Shea, vice president at New York Life Group Benefit Solutions, which provides life insurance and helps administer leaves of absence for employers.

    “The challenge is that leave isn’t unlimited,” Shea said. “The average caregiving role spans about six years. So really, it’s a life change for these employees, and they need to figure out how to balance responsibilities in a new way, and that’s very stressful.”

    In the U.S., the Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for immediate family members. The law requires federal, state and local agencies, and private employers with 50 or more workers, to maintain health benefits and job protections for those taking leave, according to the Department of Labor.

    In addition to the law not applying to all workplaces, it does not account for people who can’t afford to take unpaid leave.

    More than a dozen states mandate some form of paid leave for caregiving, whether for a newborn child or a family member with a serious illness. The state laws generally entitle workers to a portion of their normal paychecks, although for how long and other benefit details vary.

    “Many people have to quit their jobs in order to care for somebody, and that not only affects their income but their retirement benefits, and then there’s a loss of productivity for the employer who may have lost a great person,” Whitman said. “Finding ways to support family caregivers is a huge employment issue right now.”

    To meet growing demand, some companies and organizations have started offering a variety of caregiving benefits, including flexible scheduling and help finding resources. Here are some ways to determine if a workplace is supportive of caregivers.

    Questions to ask

    Shea recommends asking the following questions during job interviews, if paid leave and other caregiving benefits are important to you.

    How much caregiving leave am I entitled to?

    Do I have to take it all at one time?

    Can I take it in multiple increments?

    Is it paid? Is it unpaid?

    What leave benefits am I entitled to at a federal and a state level?

    What do you offer employees in addition to that?

    Caregiving leave

    For any caretaker, time is a valuable — yet scarce — asset. Employers that provide paid leave for caregiving typically offer two to six weeks, and some provide as much as 12 weeks, said Meghan Pistritto, a vice president in Prudential Financial’s group insurance division.

    “Caregiving is a reality for a significant portion of the workforce,” Pistritto said. “The positive news is that employers are stepping up and they’re supporting their teams here. We’re seeing a lot of growth both in the employer-provided as well as in state-mandated paid leave programs that are showing up across the U.S.”

    AARP gives eligible employees up to two weeks of paid time off per calendar year to care for family members or domestic partners with serious health conditions or who are at least 50 years old and need help with activities such as meal preparation, appointments and managing finances.

    More than time off

    Flexible scheduling and the ability to work remotely can be very helpful, especially when those benefits are actively promoted and normalized, Pistritto said. Managers can openly encourage conversations about caregiving needs and proactively check on employee well-being, making it safe for people to share their situations without fear of stigma, she added.

    “Comprehensive paid leave is just the starting point. Genuine caregiver-friendly employers also provide practical resources such as access to counseling, backup care services, and caregiver support groups,” Pistritto said.

    Some employers offer access to “care concierges” who specialize in helping employees find health care providers, understand state and federally mandated benefits, and to navigate complex systems such as Medicare.

    Whitman tapped such a benefit offered by AARP to obtain a list of caregivers in her father’s area who could help him at home in her absence. “Just having that list was a really important step,” she said. The concierge can also help workers figure out where to find durable medical equipment or do home modifications, Whitman added.

    Turning to technology

    If time off work isn’t feasible, a growing number of electronic devices are available to help caregivers keep an eye on loved ones while managing their paid jobs.

    Susan Hammond lives across the street from her mother, who has dementia, in rural Vermont. Hammond spends four to five hours a day helping her mother prepare meals, take medication and shower, while also running War Legacies Project, a nonprofit organization that works to address environmental and health consequences from wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

    For the hours when she is working or sleeping, Hammond set up cameras and motion detectors in her mother’s house that alert her on her watch or phone if the front door opens. Her mother sometimes meanders outside, believing she’s in the wrong house.

    “The concern really is wandering. And she has said to me, ‘Why am I here? I’ve got to go home.’ At times from the camera, I can see she’s trying to get out and leave the house,” Hammond said.

    Her job requires traveling within the U.S. and Asia, and when she’s away, she monitors her mother from afar while her siblings help with daily caregiving. Her mother once had a health issue while Hammond was away. When emergency medical technicians arrived to help, the monitoring software allowed Hammond to talk with her mother, to provide reassurance, and the medical staff, to answer questions.

    “I can always know where she is just by looking at my watch,” Hammond said. “Because we can monitor the cameras and monitor the alarms, I know she’s safe.”

    ___

    AP Business Writer Dee-Anne Durbin contributed to this report.

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    Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press

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  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorses former Rep. Katie Porter for governor

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    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed former Rep. Katie Porter, her protege and former Harvard Law School student, for California governor on Thursday.

    “From the moment Katie set foot in my consumer law class, I knew that she would be a warrior for working families,” Warren said in a statement, citing Porter’s work on the foreclosure crisis as well as her questioning of corporate leaders and members of the Trump administration while wielding a white board in hearings when she represented an Orange County district in Congress.

    “No one will stand up to Trump with more grit and determination than Katie,” Warren said. “But just as importantly, she will champion the kind of bold, progressive vision that California workers and families deserve.”

    The endorsement comes on the cusp of the California Democratic Party’s convention in San Francisco this weekend, at a time that there is no true front-runner in the crowded race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    Porter was initially viewed as having a potential edge in the race, but her prospects dimmed after videos emerged in October of the UC Irvine law professor scolding a reporter and swearing at an aide. She expressed remorse for her behavior.

    Warren and Porter, who met more than two decades ago, have a long-standing relationship, to the point that the senator is the namesake of one of Porter’s children.

    Porter endorsed Warren during the 2020 presidential campaign, which caused consternation among some California Democrats since then-Sen. Kamala Harris, who as state attorney general appointed Porter in 2012 to oversee a $25-billion mortgage settlement with the nation’s top banks, was also running for the White House.

    Porter pointed to their shared values, such as fighting to protect consumer protection in Congress, as she responded to Warren’s endorsement.

    “Senator Warren and I fought together in Congress to hold Big Banks and giant corporations that cheat the American people accountable,” Porter said. “From the classroom to the Capitol, we have made … fighting for working families our lifework. I’ll be a governor who is unbought, undeterred, and unwilling to continue the special interest status quo that has left too many Californians behind.”

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    Seema Mehta

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  • Mom learns about “drowning child” theory, makes life-changing decision

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    A U.K. mom removed her neurodivergent son from mainstream school after she discovered a theory that unlocked so many answers.  

    Laura I’Anson, 42, posted a reel on Instagram (@thelevelledupmum) describing the day she learned about “drowning child” theory. Her caption challenged common reassurances she had heard from professionals: that her son was “coping,” “managing,” or simply needed “more resilience.” 

    What those words overlooked, I’Anson said, was the hidden toll on her son Coby, now 7. 

    “One of my friends who is an early years teacher said to me, ‘If you saw a child drowning, would you ask them to swim harder, or would you pull them out?’ and it really hit me,” I’Anson told Newsweek. 

    “While he was physically present at school, it became clear to me that he wasn’t truly living or thriving—he was surviving, at a very real cost to his mental and emotional well-being.” 

    From the age of 5, Coby began experiencing anxiety-led blackouts—periods of complete disconnection under overwhelm.  

    By 6, this had escalated into intense school meltdowns that were often treated as behavioral issues rather than signs of distress. Between ages 5 and 7, repeated suspensions followed. 

    The emotional aftermath left a deep impression on Laura, who is also mom to Kian, 20, Annie, 14, and 6-year-old Finn with husband Scott, 35. 

    Coby would be ashamed and apologetic, struggling to understand his own reactions. Over time, he grew hypervigilant and withdrawn, often ending the school week mentally and physically exhausted and finding public outings distressing. 

    The “drowning child” theory gave Laura a framework for what she was seeing. To her, it recognizes that drowning is not always dramatic.  

    “Sometimes, my son was drowning loudly, through meltdowns, lashing out and behaviors that were visible and disruptive,” Laura said. “Those moments were often the ones people noticed, and they were usually treated as the problem itself, rather than a sign of how overwhelmed he was.” 

    After withdrawing Coby from school, the first change was simple: he slept, often and deeply. Laura focused on rest and “deschooling,” allowing his nervous system to settle before introducing expectations.  

    “Learning became something we could approach gently and flexibly, at his pace, rather than something driven by fear or exhaustion,” she said. “The biggest change was that he no longer felt like he had to survive the day. He could just be.” 

    The mom of four acknowledged that stepping outside the system felt daunting and that she initially felt anger toward the school, but she worked to separate emotion from decision-making. 

    Her message to other parents is measured but firm: questioning systems is not irresponsibility but thoughtfulness.  

    “Trust your judgment as a mother,” Laura said. “I knew whatever decisions I made for Coby were coming from a place of love, and I kept that in the forefront of my mind on the days I felt unsure.” 

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  • James Van Der Beek’s Brother Jared Shares Heartbreak After Actor’s Death

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    James Van Der Beek’s brother Jared has shared a heartbreaking tribute to his sibling in the wake of his death.

    Jared, 47, took to Instagram on Friday, February 13 to open about his feelings of loss after the Dawson’s Creek star’s death. (James died on Wednesday, February 11 following a stage III colorectal cancer battle. He was 48.)

    “There’s a special bond that exists between brothers and two days ago, that physical bond was broken.I now know why people call it heartbreak when you lose someone close to you,” Jared wrote.

    He added, “There is a feeling of devastation and pain that runs so deep in the heart, I didn’t know it would hurt so badly.”

    Alongside a carousel of throwback photos of their family over the years, Jared paid tribute to James and shared more details of their close connection.

    “He was my person, the one I went to for any and all things. I’ve looked up to him since I was born. He has never failed to be there for me whenever I needed him,” Jared wrote.

    He continued: “It has been wonderful reading and seeing how he touched so many lives not because of something he did, but because of who he was. He shared with an open heart and with his wise soul. As painful as this pain deep in the heart is, the healing has already begun with all the outpouring of love, prayers, and support. I truly thank all of you have taken the time to reach out, letting me know that you’re there. The community of people who were intimately involved in his passing were nothing short of amazing. Thank you to everyone known and unknown who helped his transition be as beautiful as possible.”

    Concluding the post, Jared said he missed James and will always love him.

    “James, I already miss your physical being and your words of wisdom over the phone. Yet, I also feel your presence so strongly and I know you will continue to be guiding me,” he wrote. “Thank you for living your life with me. I love you.”

    Followers shared their support for Jared in the comments section, including James’  former Dawson’s Creek costar Kerr Smith.

    “Jared…I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m still having trouble processing all of this,” Smith, 53, wrote. “I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. Please know you’re in my thoughts. ❤️🙏😢”

    Family friend Erin Fetherston added, “This is so beautiful Jared. You were there for him in the most incredible way. What a gift it was to witness your brotherhood. God bless you and your family ❤️.”

    James’ death was announced via a statement made via his social media accounts on Wednesday.

    “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith and grace,” the statement read. “There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother and friend.”

    In the wake of his death, a GoFundMe campaign has been set up to raise funds for his widow Kimberly Van Der Beek and the couple’s six children.

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    Erin Doyle

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  • Drug overdose revealed as leading cause of maternal deaths in US

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    Accidental drug overdose has emerged as the leading cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women in the United States, a new study has revealed.  

    Researchers from Columbia University found that overdoses, homicides and suicides together account for a substantial share of deaths during pregnancy and shortly after birth—often exceeding medical causes that dominate the public discussion around maternal health. 

    In their study, the team analyzed U.S. death certificate data to identify all deaths among pregnant and postpartum women within 42 days of delivery between 2018 and 2023.  

    “Overdose and violence are not typically on our radar when it comes to thinking about approaches to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, but these events are far more common among pregnant and postpartum women than we think,” paper author Dr Hooman Azad said in a statement.  

    The analysis found that accidental overdose led mortality causes with 5.2 deaths per 100,000 births. Homicide and suicide followed, with a combined rate of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 births. 

    The research also highlighted disparities. Accidental overdose and suicide were more common among white women, while deaths via homicide was seen more frequent among Black women. 

    More than three-quarters of violent deaths involved firearms, underscoring the role of gun violence in maternal mortality. 

    Timing mattered as well. Over half of overdose and violence-related deaths occurred during pregnancy itself.  

    By contrast, the next four most common causes—cardiovascular disease, infection, hypertension and hemorrhage—were more likely to occur in the immediate postpartum period. 

    Despite fluctuations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall maternal death rate remained relatively steady across the six-year period studied. However, the composition of those deaths has shifted.  

    As medical care to prevent and manage obstetric complications has improved over the past two decades, a growing body of research shows that non-medical causes such as overdose and violence make up an increasing share of maternal deaths. 

    Tracking these trends has historically been difficult because of inconsistent methods for documenting pregnancy status on death records. Improved standardization in recent years has allowed researchers to see the patterns more clearly. 

    For Azad, the findings point to missed opportunities in care.  

    “The take-home message is that we may not do as good a job in screening for drug use and intimate partner violence among our pregnant patients as we do for medical complications,” he said. 

    Azad argues that maternal health efforts must broaden beyond clinical complications to include social and behavioral risks.

    He concluded: “We have an opportunity to refocus our efforts on preventing drug overdose and violence with multidisciplinary care that includes referrals to mental health care and social services throughout pregnancy—which could save hundreds of lives.”

    Do you have a tip on a health story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about maternal deaths? Let us know via health@newsweek.com.

    Reference

    Azad, H. A., Goin, D., Nathan, L. M., Goffman, D., Rajan, S., Reddy, U., D’Alton, M. E., & Laraque-Arena, D. (2026). Overdose, Homicide, and Suicide as Causes of Maternal Death in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 394(7), 722–723. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc2512078

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  • Douglas County woman billed Medicaid for patient who already died, federal officials allege

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    Federal officials unveiled a slew of charges Tuesday against two Coloradans accused of ripping off a program that provides free rides to Medicaid patients, the first criminal charges filed in response to a sprawling fraud bonanza identified by state officials more than two years ago.

    The indictments allege that Ashley Marie Stevens and Wesam Yassin separately participated in the transportation program and fraudulently collected seven-figure payouts — more than $3.3 million for Yassin alone, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. The two drivers, who ran separate companies, allegedly fabricated rides for appointments that didn’t exist. Stevens is accused of billing for rides for her husband while he was incarcerated, and Yassin allegedly billed $165,000 for driving a patient who was dead.

    Both Stevens, of Mesa County, and Yassin, of Douglas County, were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and health care fraud for their participation in the driving service.

    The program pays drivers to ferry Medicaid patients to and from doctor’s appointments, but it became a haven for fraud in 2022 and 2023, after state officials increased the service’s reimbursement rates. State officials told The Denver Post last month that an estimated $25 million was lost in the broader fraud.

    Yassin’s indictment was still sealed Tuesday evening. In a statement, federal officials alleged that Yassin billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rides that never occurred between March 2022 and October 2023. She raked in $283,000 from rides for just one patient, most of which was paid to Yassin after the patient had already died.

    Yassin allegedly used the proceeds to buy a home and furnishings, along with luxury vehicles, jewelry and cosmetic surgery. She was released on bond earlier this week, according to court records.

    Stevens billed the state for more than $1 million between July 2022 and February 2023, according to the indictment. More than $400,000 came from rides she provided to herself or to her family members, for which there were “very few” actual medical appointments, federal authorities allege.

    The trips included rides for her husband, who was incarcerated during some of the time when Stevens claimed she was driving him to the doctor. Another $150,000 was billed for rides that either never took place or were for trips that didn’t involve Medicaid services.

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  • Family mourns father killed in Elk Grove hit-and-run

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    THIS IS KCRA THREE NEWS LIVE AT 11 P.M. A GOOD HEART. AND HE ALWAYS MEANT WELL FOR PEOPLE. AND HE DEFINITELY DID NOT DESERVE TO BE KILLED. TONIGHT, AN EMOTIONAL MESSAGE FROM THE FAMILY OF A MAN KILLED IN A HIT AND RUN IN ELK GROVE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TONIGHT. I’M CECIL HANNIBAL. POLICE SAY THE 61 YEAR OLD VICTIM WAS FIXING A FLAT TIRE WHEN HE WAS HIT. NOW HIS FAMILY WANTS TO KNOW WHY THAT DRIVER WAS RELEASED FROM JAIL. KCRA 3’S ANAHITA JAFARY EXPLAINS WHY THE FAMILY SAYS JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED. HE’S NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO WATCH ME GRADUATE OR GROW UP. SO IT’S JUST SAD TO DEAL WITH IT. 61 YEAR OLD DANIEL SANCHEZ WAS SIMPLY CHANGING A TIRE WHEN HIS LIFE WAS CUT SHORT. KNOWING THAT IT WAS A HIT AND RUN MADE IT THAT MUCH HARDER. DANIEL’S WIFE WAS WITH HIM AT THE TIME AND CALLED THE MOTHER OF HIS CHILDREN TO TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED. SHE CALLED ME AND I ANSWERED, AND SHE WAS HYSTERICALLY CRYING, AND I JUST KNEW TELLING HER KIDS, SHE SAYS, WAS THE HARDEST PART. AS A MOM, WE TRY OUR HARDEST TO PROTECT OUR KIDS FROM ANYTHING THAT WOULD HURT THEM AND IT STILL HAPPENED. THEY STILL GOT HURT IN THAT MOMENT. IT WAS SURREAL IN A SENSE. THERE WAS. I ALMOST DIDN’T BELIEVE IT, BUT NOW, A FEW DAYS LATER, EVERYTHING IS STARTING TO SLOWLY SET IN. DANIEL’S SON, ANDRE SANCHEZ, IS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL. HE’S NOT GOING TO SEE THE MAN THAT I’M BECOMING IN THE FUTURE, AND THAT RESONATES WITH ME ON AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT LEVEL. HE SAYS HIS UPCOMING GRADUATION IS ONE MILESTONE HE WISHES HIS FATHER COULD BE HERE FOR. I’LL BE ABLE TO SEE ALL MY PEERS, AND AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHETHER PEOPLE LIKE TO ADMIT IT OR NOT, THAT’S GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT I ENVY BECAUSE EVERYBODY ELSE IS GOING TO GET TO HAVE THEIR MOMENT WITH THEIR FAMILY. AND I’M NOT. OFFICIALS SAY SCHMIDT SINGH WAS ARRESTED AFTER DETECTIVES SEARCHED HIS HOME AND FOUND THE DODGE TRUCK IN HIS GARAGE, WITH EVIDENCE OF IT BEING INVOLVED IN THE CRASH WHILE HE TOOK ANOTHER MAN’S LIFE. AND HE’S WITH HIS FAMILY HAPPY. AND ALL OF OUR FAMILY IS GRIEVING. SINGH HAS SINCE BEEN RELEASED ON BAIL, LEAVING THE FAMILY QUESTIONING THE SYSTEM. I CAN’T IMAGINE THE TYPE OF LOSS YOU GUYS ARE GOING THROUGH AND WHAT THIS HAS DONE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. WHAT WOULD HELP THIS SITUATION FOR YOU ALL? I HOPE THAT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE D.A., AT THE VERY LEAST, PUTS HIM BACK IN JAIL, AND I HOPE THAT THEY FOLLOW THROUGH WITH PRESSING CHARGES. AND THEY GIVE MY BOY SOME TYPE OF CLOSURE AND SOME TYPE OF JUSTICE FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR DAD. NOW THEY SHARE PHOTOS. WE’RE SO HAPPY TO BE A DAD. THE REASON I PLAYED FOOTBALL. REASON I PLAYED BASEBALL FOR AS LONG AS I DID IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY. HE DEFINITELY DI

    Family mourns father killed in Elk Grove hit-and-run

    A family is grieving the loss of Daniel Sanchez, who was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, as the suspect has been released on bail.

    Updated: 11:19 PM PST Feb 7, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    A family in Sacramento County is grieving and frustrated after Daniel Sanchez, 61, was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, and the suspect has been released on bail.Daniel’s son, 11-year-old Anthony Sanchez, expressed his sorrow, saying, “He’s not gonna be able to watch me like graduate or grow up, so it’s just sad to deal with it.” Angela Holguin, the mother of Daniel’s children, shared the difficulty of the situation, stating, “Knowing that it was a hit and run made it that much harder.” She recounted the moment she learned of the tragedy, saying, “She called me and I answered, and she was hysterically crying, and I just knew. So we cried on the phone together for about 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, but I had to pull it together, my kids are going to be waking up for school.”Holguin described the challenge of telling her children about their father’s death, saying, “As moms, we try our hardest to protect our kids from anything that would hurt them and it still happened; they still got hurt.”Daniel’s son, Andres Sanchez, a senior in high school, reflected on the loss, saying, “It was surreal in a sense. I almost didn’t believe it, but now, a few days later, everything is starting to slowly set in.”Andres expressed his sadness about his father missing important milestones, saying, “He’s not going to see the man that I’m becoming in the future, and that resonates with me on an entirely different level.” He added, “I’ll be able to see all my peers and at the end of the day, whether people like to admit it or not, that’s going to be something that I envy, because everybody else is going to get to have their moment with their family and I’m not.”Authorities arrested Kushmit Singh after detectives found the Dodge truck involved in the crash in his garage. Anthony Sanchez shared, “My grandma said to me to pray for him to get caught. I did. Three hours later, he actually got caught.” Despite the arrest, Singh has been released on bail, prompting Anthony to say, “He took another man’s life and he’s with his family happy and all of our family is grieving.”Angela Holguin expressed her hopes for justice, saying, “I hope that the police department and the DA, at the very least, put him back in jail and I hope that they follow through with pressing charges, and they give my boys some type of closure and some type of justice for what happened to their dad.” She shared memories of Daniel, saying, “He was so excited to be a dad,” while Andres added, “He’s the reason I played football, the reason I played baseball for as long as I did.”Holguin emphasized, “He definitely did not deserve to be killed,” and described Daniel as someone with “a good heart” who “always meant well for people.” Singh had his first court appearance yesterday and will be seen again on February 26 for further arraignment.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    ELK GROVE, Calif. —

    A family in Sacramento County is grieving and frustrated after Daniel Sanchez, 61, was killed in a hit-and-run while changing a tire, and the suspect has been released on bail.

    Daniel’s son, 11-year-old Anthony Sanchez, expressed his sorrow, saying, “He’s not gonna be able to watch me like graduate or grow up, so it’s just sad to deal with it.” Angela Holguin, the mother of Daniel’s children, shared the difficulty of the situation, stating, “Knowing that it was a hit and run made it that much harder.”

    She recounted the moment she learned of the tragedy, saying, “She [Daniel’s wife] called me and I answered, and she was hysterically crying, and I just knew. So we cried on the phone together for about 20 minutes, maybe a half hour, but I had to pull it together, my kids are going to be waking up for school.”

    Holguin described the challenge of telling her children about their father’s death, saying, “As moms, we try our hardest to protect our kids from anything that would hurt them and it still happened; they still got hurt.”

    Daniel’s son, Andres Sanchez, a senior in high school, reflected on the loss, saying, “It was surreal in a sense. I almost didn’t believe it, but now, a few days later, everything is starting to slowly set in.”

    Andres expressed his sadness about his father missing important milestones, saying, “He’s not going to see the man that I’m becoming in the future, and that resonates with me on an entirely different level.”

    He added, “I’ll be able to see all my peers [at graduation] and at the end of the day, whether people like to admit it or not, that’s going to be something that I envy, because everybody else is going to get to have their moment with their family and I’m not.”

    Authorities arrested Kushmit Singh after detectives found the Dodge truck involved in the crash in his garage. Anthony Sanchez shared, “My grandma said to me to pray for him to get caught. I did. Three hours later, he actually got caught.” Despite the arrest, Singh has been released on bail, prompting Anthony to say, “He took another man’s life and he’s with his family happy and all of our family is grieving.”

    Angela Holguin expressed her hopes for justice, saying, “I hope that the police department and the DA, at the very least, put him back in jail and I hope that they follow through with pressing charges, and they give my boys some type of closure and some type of justice for what happened to their dad.”

    She shared memories of Daniel, saying, “He was so excited to be a dad,” while Andres added, “He’s the reason I played football, the reason I played baseball for as long as I did.”

    Holguin emphasized, “He definitely did not deserve to be killed,” and described Daniel as someone with “a good heart” who “always meant well for people.” Singh had his first court appearance yesterday and will be seen again on February 26 for further arraignment.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • ‘Very strong’ clues in Nancy Guthrie abduction, Trump says, as authorities race against time to find her

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    Investigators again scoured the desert brush outside the Tucson home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, as officials were reviewing a new message that could be tied to her abduction.

    At the same time, President Trump said on Air Force One on Friday night that investigators have “very strong” clues, believing “we could have some answers coming up fairly soon.”

    “We have some things, I think that will maybe come out reasonably soon, from DOJ or FBI, or whoever, that could be, could be definitive. A lot has taken place in the last couple of hours. A lot of things have happened with regard to that horrible situation in the last couple of hours,” he said.

    Little is known about the new message and whether it has been tied to kidnappers.

    FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s officials confirmed they were aware of the message, and said they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.”

    Guthrie was last seen by her family just after 9:45 p.m. Saturday, which officials said matched with when her garage door opened and closed that night.

    About four hours later, at 1:47 a.m., officials said her doorbell camera disconnected. An empty frame for the camera had been previously noted at her home.

    Then at 2:12 a.m., the security camera software at Guthrie’s home detected a person — or an animal — on one of the home’s cameras, but Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said they have not been able to recover that footage and don’t know which camera recorded the movement.

    About 15 minutes later, at 2:28 a.m., Nancy’s pacemaker app shows that it was a disconnect from the phone, Nanos said. That appears to be exactly when she left her home, as her phone was left behind.

    Her family went to check on her at home, finding her missing, just before noon Sunday, after she hadn’t shown up for church. They almost immediately called 911, Nanos said.

    An earlier ransom note appears to be at the center of the effort to find her.

    Although the entire note has not been released, some details that were included have been shared publicly. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division. He declined to say what, if anything, was requested at each deadline, or if there was a threat if the deadlines weren’t met.

    Nancy’s son, Camron Guthrie, released a video statement pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter’s first deadline.

    “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”

    Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.”

    TMZ reported receiving the alleged note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.

    The family and authorities are particularly worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven’t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption — despite real concerns she could be dead.

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    Richard Winton, Grace Toohey

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  • The Nancy Guthrie ransom note was ‘carefully crafted,’ listed two deadlines, contained key details

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    A ransom note demanding money in exchange for the return of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother was “carefully crafted” and included details not previously released to the public, according to people who have read it.

    The note has taken center stage as authorities are still frantically trying to find Nancy Guthrie, 84, after her apparent abduction from her Tucson-area home. Her family has now made two heartfelt videos pleading with her suspected kidnappers to communicate with them.

    Officials say they are taking the ransom note seriously, but still have not identified any suspects in the case. On Friday, the fifth day since Guthrie disappeared, Arizona news outlet KOLD reported it received a new note from the alleged abductor. The station did not report details from the new letter, but said that “the new note contains information the senders seem to think will prove to investigators they’re the same people who sent the first note.”

    FBI and Pima County Sheriff’s officials confirmed they were aware of the message and said they are “actively inspecting the information provided in the message for its authenticity.” Members of a federal forensic task force were visible at the news station Friday afternoon.

    It’s been years since such a high-profile abduction case, particularly one with alleged ransom demands, has captured the nation’s attention quite like this. Experts who work on such cases say Guthrie’s abduction appears to have been intricately planned, given the lack of DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene and how officials — even the nation’s top internet-based exploitation investigators — do not appear to have traced the ransom letter’s origin.

    “Whoever did this came very prepared,” Tracy Schandler Walder, a former FBI agent who has been following the case, said on Instagram.

    Two deadlines

    Although the entire note has not been released, some details that were included have been shared publicly. The letter contained a first deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday and a second demand with a Monday deadline, said Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division. He declined to say what, if anything, was requested at each deadline, or if there was a threat if the deadlines weren’t met.

    Nancy’s son, Camron Guthrie, issued a video pleading with the kidnapper Thursday afternoon, around the time of the ransom letter’s first deadline.

    “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you,” he said. “We haven’t heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward.”

    Harvey Levin, founder of celebrity news website TMZ, has reviewed one of the three identical letters that were sent to media outlets and told CNN on Thursday that “the Monday deadline is far more consequential.”

    TMZ reported receiving the alleged note earlier this week via email, and said the letter demanded millions in cryptocurrency for Guthrie’s release. Levin said Thursday night that TMZ had confirmed the bitcoin address was real.

    The family and authorities are particularly worried because Nancy Guthrie has many physical ailments and requires a daily medication that she appears to be without. Officials said they haven’t yet received any proof that Guthrie is alive, but they are operating on that assumption — despite real concerns she could be dead.

    “I’m fearful of that. I think we all are,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said. “This is Day 4 or 5 and still we don’t know that she’s getting her medication, and that could in itself be fatal.”

    ‘Carefully crafted letter’

    Levin and a Tucson-area journalist, both who said they’ve seen the ransom note, offered a few additional details.

    “This is a letter that really spells out precisely what they want done, what the consequences are if they don’t get what they want,” Levin said in another interview with CNN.

    “They began the letter by saying that Nancy is OK, but scared,” Levin said, adding that it includes a line saying there will be no way to reply or contact the sender.

    “They went to great lengths in sending this email to us in making sure that it stays anonymous,” he said. “It is a carefully crafted letter, and this is not something that somebody threw together in five minutes.”

    Unique details

    Law enforcement sources, who spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity, said the ransom note is being considered legitimate because it contained at least two details about Guthrie’s home that hadn’t been made public.

    Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix division, said that there were details about an Apple Watch and a floodlight, but declined to elaborate.

    According to Levin, the note mentioned a specific detail about the Apple Watch, which he found to be key.

    “That placement of the Apple Watch, if this is true, is something where they would immediately take this seriously,” Levin told CNN.

    Mary Coleman, an anchor at KOLD-TV, added: “A lot of it is information that only someone who is holding her for ransom would know — some very sensitive information and things that people who were there when she was taken captive would know.”

    Race against time

    Authorities describe the investigation as a race against time.

    “Right now we believe Nancy is still out there. We want her home,” Nanos said at Thursday’s news conference. A massive team of local and federal partners continue to work “round the clock” on the case, he said, including specialized agents with the FBI.

    “There has been no proof of life,” Janke said. “…Time is of the essence.”

    Although Guthrie is of sound mind, family have said she has physical ailments and uses a pacemaker.

    “She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine,” Savannah Guthrie said in the first video she posted to social media about her mother’s abduction, where she also appears to address the captors directly. “She needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.”

    She begged for whoever took her mother to contact the family.

    “We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her,” she said in the video shared on Instagram. “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us.”

    FBI officials have said they are working with the family, but ultimately any decision about how to respond to the ransom demand is up to the Guthries.

    Horace Frank, a former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Police Department who oversaw kidnapping investigations, said the family’s videos try to appeal to the captor’s humanity.

    “You are trying to make it difficult for the those behind this,” Frank said. He said he’s glad the entirety of the note hasn’t been released, because the case becomes more difficult as more details are made public.

    “If you give too much information, the problem is you could be compromising some of these deadlines,” Walder, the former FBI agent, said on Instagram.

    While experts have called this case unique, both for its circumstances and the media involvement, it is not the first kidnapping and ransom scenario to fascinate the public.

    In 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped. She was abducted from UC Berkeley by a small cadre of Bay Area militant radicals, who demanded her family pay to feed the poor en masse. Her parents complied with the ransom, but Patty Hearst remained with her captors. It’s now unclear, however, how much of that decision was hers, or the group’s, because she would go on to pledge her allegiance to her captors and their cause and even robbed a bank with them.

    In 1963, Frank Sinatra’s son was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe lodge. His family worked with the FBI to comply with a ransom demand for $240,000, and their 19-year-old son was released. The entire ordeal lasted just four days.

    Several decades earlier, however, a ransom payment didn’t end well for the family of Charles Lindbergh, famed American aviator, whose 1-year-old son was kidnapped from his New Jersey home in 1932. The Lindbergh family ended up paying $50,000 through a mediator, but the baby was not returned as promised, and later found dead.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Grace Toohey, Richard Winton

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  • In tearful video, Savannah Guthrie addresses possible kidnapper: ‘Ready to talk’

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    Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings posted a tearful video Wednesday in which they pleaded for the return of their mother, Nancy Guthrie, and asked her possible kidnapper to communicate with them.

    “We live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated. We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen. Please reach out to us,” Guthrie says in the video posted to Instagram.

    She says she is aware of reports of a ransom demand and that the family is ready to talk.

    Guthrie, the “Today” co-anchor, expresses concern for her mother’s health. “She lives in constant pain. She is without any medicine. She needs it to survive and she needs it not to suffer.”

    Guthrie describes her mother as “kind, faithful, loyal, fiercely loving.”

    “She loves fun and adventure. She is a devoted friend. She is full of kindness and knowledge. Talk to her, and you’ll see.”

    “Mama, if you’re listening,” Annie Guthrie says, “we need you to come home, we miss you.”

    Authorities have been looking for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie for four days.

    There was evidence that someone had forced their way inside her Tucson home, and there was blood on the premises, according to law enforcement sources not authorized to speak about the case publicly. Images reviewed by The Times showed a trail of blood droplets near the front door of the home.

    On Wednesday morning, amid rumors swirling online about who could be involved, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said investigators still had not identified a suspect or person of interest.

    “While we appreciate the public’s concern, the sharing of unverified accusations or false information is irresponsible and does not assist the investigation,” the sheriff said in a social media post.

    The statement comes as details of the case have trickled out and after several news outlets reported receiving possible ransom notes requesting money in exchange for Nancy Guthrie’s release. The Sheriff’s Department said it was aware of those notes but did not verify their authenticity.

    “We have nothing else to go on but the belief that she is here, she’s present, she’s alive, and we want to save her,” Nanos told NBC during an interview Wednesday.

    On Tuesday, the sheriff said investigators still “don’t know where she is” and called for anyone who had had contact with her to come forward.

    Nancy Guthrie was last seen by family members around 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to officials, when she was dropped off at her home in the Catalina Foothills, a community just north of Tucson.

    The following morning, family members were notified around 11 a.m. that their mother hadn’t shown up for church, prompting them to go to her house to check on her. She was nowhere to be found.

    Soon after, family members reported her missing.

    Local authorities said they immediately found “concerning circumstances” at the house, and later said Nancy Guthrie might have been forcibly taken in the middle of the night.

    “We do believe Nancy was taken from her home against her will,” Nanos said at a news conference Tuesday.

    In Wednesday’s Instagram video, Savannah Guthrie says, “Our mom is our heart and our home. She is 84 years old. Her health, her heart, is fragile. … We will not rest, your children will not rest, until we are together again.”

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    Richard Winton, Clara Harter, Grace Toohey

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  • Attorneys for man killed by off-duty ICE agent call on California A.G. to investigate

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    Attorneys for a Los Angeles man shot and killed by an off-duty federal agent on New Year’s Eve are asking the California Attorney General to take over the case, alleging recent comments by LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell show a bias toward the Trump administration.

    In a Tuesday afternoon news conference, attorneys Ben Crump and Jamal Tooson called on Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to investigate the fatal shooting of Keith Porter at his San Fernando Valley apartment building.

    The request, they said, was based in large part on their lack of confidence in the LAPD and the U.S. Justice Department.

    A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security initially said an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who lived at same apartment complex was responding to a suspected “active shooter” when he opened fire. Porter’s relatives have said they believe he had been firing a gun into the air to ring in the new year.

    Tooson said witnesses have come forward saying that Porter, 43, appeared to be walking back to his apartment when he was shot, and was not a threat to anyone. Tooson also pointed out that witnesses didn’t hear the federal officer identifying himself before firing three shots.

    “So, forgive us, if we have skepticism of any claims of self defense,”according to Tooson, who is representing Porter’s mother, Franceola Armstrong.

    Crump — who previously represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, among other high-profile civil rights cases — said he is supporting Porter’s family but not acting as their legal counsel.

    “The family has not been confident that LAPD, with their close relationships with the ICE officials, that there’s going to be a fair and transparent investigation,.” Crump said. “Because them trying to whitewash the investigation into the death of Keith Porter is a nonstarter. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

    A Los Angeles police spokesperson responded to an inquiry about the remarks with a statement Tuesday afternoon that said: “The LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division-Homicide Special Section, continues its investigation into the death of Keith Porter. At this time, there are no additional details available for public release.”

    The fatal incident occurred at the Village Pointe Apartments on Roscoe Boulevard around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2025. Local police have refrained from using the Department of Homeland Security’s characterization of Porter as an “active shooter.” Nobody else was reported injured at the scene.

    Tooson and Porter’s relatives have repeatedly said that even if he was shooting a gun into the air — an activity that can bring felony charges and is discouraged as dangerous by city leaders — he was not threatening anyone and contended the agent who opened fire should have waited for LAPD to respond.

    Stacie Halpern, an attorney for the ICE agent, has said there is evidence that Porter shot first. A law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, echoed those claims to The Times last month.

    Halpern didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment left after Tuesday’s press conference.

    In a statement, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said it was confident that the LAPD was “conducting a thorough and independent investigation.”

    “Once the case is presented to our office, we will carefully examine the evidence, review the facts, and apply the law to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate,” the statement read. “This is the same rigorous, impartial process we use in every use-of-force case submitted to the District Attorney’s Office.”

    Porter’s death has become a rallying point locally for activists, who regularly invoke his name at Police Commission meetings and protests. Hours before the press conference, numerous speakers showed up to the Commission’s meeting to demand that the federal agent responsible be arrested.

    Last month, The Times identified the officer as Brian Palacios. Palacios lived in an apartment a short distance away from where Porter was killed, and has previously been accused during a custody dispute of child abuse and making racist remarks about Black and Latino men, according to court records reviewed by The Times. Records provided by Halpern show the child abuse allegations were deemed unfounded by police and the L.A. County Department of Child & Family Servies. Halpern also denied her client ever used racist language.

    In a statement issued in late January, a manager for the apartment complex said “the ICE agent is no longer a tenant and has permanently vacated the property.”

    In his call for an outside investigation, Tooson argued McDonnell is too cozy with ICE and other federal agencies to oversee an impartial investigation of Palacios’ conduct.

    Despite months of federal immigration raids causing chaos in and around Los Angeles, the chief has largely avoided criticizing the Trump administration, at times boasting about the strength of LAPD’s ties to federal law enforcement. He said last week he would not enforce a new California law — which is already being challenged in court — that bars ICE agents from wearing masks while on-duty.

    McDonell has stood by LAPD’s policy of not getting involved in civil immigration enforcement. When he served as L.A. County sheriff during President Trump’s first term, McDonnell took criticism for allowing ICE to access the jails when seeking inmates for deportation. His position on immigration was viewed a factor in the 2018 sheriff’s race, which saw McDonnell lose in an upset to Alex Villanueva.

    Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Armstrong, Porter’s mother, said she remained heartbroken by the thought of waking up everyday without her son, who was a Compton native and father of two.

    “I can’t bring my son back, but I want justice for him. I want justice for my child,” she said.

    Times Staff Writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.

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    James Queally, Libor Jany

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  • Witnesses describe scene near fire, explosion in Nashua, New Hampshire

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    People near a fire Monday afternoon at a commercial building in Nashua, New Hampshire, said the explosion was very loud and led the ground to shake.Fire officials said about 40 people were in the Greater Nashua Mental Health building when the gas leak was first reported at about 2:15 p.m. Fire Chief Steve Buxton said four people were unaccounted for as of Monday evening, but he believed officials would be able to make contact with them.Three firefighters were injured, one seriously. William Closs was working in the area when he felt the rumbling.”Real loud. It shook a lot,” Closs said. An emergency alert was issued in New Hampshire about a potential gas leak after the fire and explosion.The emergency alert urged anyone in the area of the building to extinguish burners or other flames and prepare to evacuate. People were told to stay away from the area.When he saw the emergency alert on his phone, Closs said he was already in the process of trying to evacuate the building he was in. “We were trying to figure out how to get people out, as it was the building right next to us,” Closs said.First responders assisted in the evacuation.”They were quick, efficient, thorough,” Closs said.Closs said he left the scene to walk down the road to meet friends and family, leaving his car at the scene. “Again, I didn’t know that if a roof had collapsed, or what was going on, but as soon as we saw the building next door was on fire, we were like, ‘What do we do now? Here we go,’” Closs said.>> Meanwhile, witness Peter Hernandez joined sister station WMUR live to describe what he saw:

    People near a fire Monday afternoon at a commercial building in Nashua, New Hampshire, said the explosion was very loud and led the ground to shake.

    Fire officials said about 40 people were in the Greater Nashua Mental Health building when the gas leak was first reported at about 2:15 p.m. Fire Chief Steve Buxton said four people were unaccounted for as of Monday evening, but he believed officials would be able to make contact with them.

    Three firefighters were injured, one seriously.

    William Closs was working in the area when he felt the rumbling.

    “Real loud. It shook a lot,” Closs said.

    An emergency alert was issued in New Hampshire about a potential gas leak after the fire and explosion.

    The emergency alert urged anyone in the area of the building to extinguish burners or other flames and prepare to evacuate. People were told to stay away from the area.

    When he saw the emergency alert on his phone, Closs said he was already in the process of trying to evacuate the building he was in.

    “We were trying to figure out how to get people out, as it was the building right next to us,” Closs said.

    First responders assisted in the evacuation.

    “They were quick, efficient, thorough,” Closs said.

    Closs said he left the scene to walk down the road to meet friends and family, leaving his car at the scene.

    “Again, I didn’t know that if a roof had collapsed, or what was going on, but as soon as we saw the building next door was on fire, we were like, ‘What do we do now? Here we go,’” Closs said.

    >> Meanwhile, witness Peter Hernandez joined sister station WMUR live to describe what he saw:

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  • Asking Eric: Friend wants to ‘divorce’ friend’s boorish husband

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    Dear Eric: I’ve been good friends with a woman for about five years now; we live abroad. However, I am not and never have been a huge fan of her new husband.

    He talks over people or one-ups any statement and simply doesn’t listen. He can’t do turn-taking in conversation. I’ve asked a mutual friend if he is like this in his second language, and she confirmed he is.

    He and my husband had a disagreement on a very sensitive topic for my husband, largely caused by this refusal to listen. Now my husband won’t tolerate small groups with him. We don’t have a large friend circle, so small groups are all we have!

    Now I rarely see my friend and I always have to come up with an excuse why we can’t accept invitations because I don’t love hanging out with both of them, and my husband hates being relegated to the “boys’ corner” and having to talk to him during any group outing. I’m at a loss.

    I really like her; it is hard to find down-to-earth people who are genuine like my friend, but her husband is always around and just so difficult to have fun with. How can I salvage the friendship but ditch her husband?

    — Trying to Keep Old Friends

    Dear Trying: Alas, you cannot divorce someone else’s husband. So, you may have to recalibrate your expectations regarding your friendship in order to salvage it.

    Let’s take the husband’s corner first: it’s not your responsibility to manage your husband’s good time. So, if he’s refusing to go to group outings, let him stay home. These can still be opportunities for you to get in some quality time with your friend at a time when her husband is otherwise engaged.

    Also, consider setting up one-on-one friend dates with her. You may not get to see her as often as you want, which can happen in friendships even when the friend’s spouse is a delight. But by being intentional and keeping the focus on creating opportunities for yeses, rather than focusing on what’s not working in this friendship, you may find a happy medium, with fewer interruptions.

    Dear Eric: I was in a relationship for 21 years until my ex had a baby on me and I left him. During my relationship with my ex, I would see this guy from time to time, when me and my ex would break up. So, then he and I started dating and eventually we became a couple.

    A couple months into the relationship things changed and I noticed that I was a handful to deal with. I didn’t realize how hurt I was about my past until I got into a new relationship and I can admit I saw myself hurting him. He left me and I don’t blame him.

    I really worked on myself, my ways and everything that I knew was a problem. After two years we got back together, he noticed the change in me and we got along great.

    One day he got sick and had to get admitted into the hospital. I worked the night shift so I would stay at the hospital all day and leave for work at night.

    On the third day of this, I called him to tell him I’m on my way and he told me his ex was there. He said, “Look, you’re not here for me like I need you to be.” He said I should have quit my job when he needed me and stayed with him. Since I didn’t, he got back with his ex.

    Now am I wrong for first of all wanting to strangle him for coming back into my life just to leave me again the same way, and in your opinion how do I move on from this hurt? I don’t want to hurt my next partner if I decide to get into a relationship, but I also don’t want to keep getting hurt either.

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    R. Eric Thomas

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  • Commentary: A California lawyer takes the civil rights fight home to Minneapolis

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    How do you find the missing?

    If you do find them, how can you help?

    Oakland civil rights attorney James Cook has been on the ground in Minnesota for months figuring out answers to these question as he goes.

    A fast-talking Minneapolis native who still lives in the Twin Cities part time, Cook is one of a handful of attorneys who have dropped everything to aid (for free) those caught up in the federal crackdown — protesters, immigrants and detained citizens — too many of whom have found themselves facing deportation, arrest or even been disappeared, at least for a time.

    Civil rights attorney James Cook in the rear view mirror as he makes phone calls in his car in Minneapolis.

    (Caroline Yang/For The Times)

    “They are leaders that are on the ground really helping people through this process,” Minnesota school board member Chauntyll Allen told me.

    She’s one of the protesters arrested inside a local church, charged with conspiracy to deprive others of their constitutional rights by Pam Bondi’s politicized Department of Justice, which also Friday arrested journalist Don Lemon for the same incident. Cook is one of the lawyers now representing Allen.

    “It shows us that the judicial arm, or some of the judicial arm of our democracy, is willing to step up and ensure that our democracy stands strong,” Allen said of Cook and others like him.

    While it’s the images of clashes in the streets that captivate media and audiences, it’s lawyers like Cook who are fighting an existential battle in the background to preserve the rule of law in a place where it is increasing opaque, to put it gently.

    The legal work behind detentions has largely been an overlooked battlefield that will likely rage on years after ICE departs the streets, leaving in its wake hundreds if not thousands of long-and-winding court cases.

    Beyond the personal fates they will determine, the outcome of the civil litigation Cook and others are spearheading will likely force whatever transparency and accountability can be pulled from these chaotic and troubling times.

    It’s time-consuming and complicated work vital not just to people, but history.

    Or, as Cook puts it, “I’ll be 10 years older when all this s— resolves.”

    Federal agents stand guard against a growing wall of protesters on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis.

    Federal agents stand guard against a growing wall of protesters on Jan. 24 in Minneapolis, just hours after Alex Pretti was shot by federal agents.

    (Caroline Yang/For The Times)

    Cook told me this while on his way to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building where some detainees are being held, maybe. It’s hard to find out. A few years ago, when immigration enforcement in Minnesota ramped up under the first Trump term, activists tried to get the name of the building changed, arguing Whipple, the first Protestant Episcopal bishop in the state, had been an advocate of the marginalized and wouldn’t want his name associated with what the feds were up to.

    It didn’t work, but the movement’s slogan, “What would Whipple do?” still has resonance in this town, where two American citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, have been fatally shot while protesting — incidents ugly enough that Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about them.

    Cook is well aware that the guns carried by the federal agents are not for show, even without the Boss’ new ballad. Just a few days ago, one of the first times he drove his beat-up truck up to the gate, the federal guards at Whipple pointed their guns at him.

    “I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m going to take my keys out of the ignition, drop them on the ground. So please don’t shoot,’” he said.

    They lowered the guns, but Cook was scared, a feeling that doesn’t come easy.

    Long before his law degree, when he was a punk-rock loving teen in the 1980s, fresh out of Southwest High, the public school not too far from Whipple, a former coach convinced him to give up college dreams and instead pursue a shot at making the first Muay Thai kickboxing team at the Olympics.

    The martial art ended up not making it as an official Olympic sport, but the experience launched Cook into a professional boxing and kickboxing career that took him to competitions around the world, and taught him fear is not a reason to back down.

    But, “Father Time is undefeated,” Cook said. “I got older and I started losing fights, and I was like, all right, time to get back to life.”

    That eventually led him to obtaining a law degree in San Francisco, where after an intern stint as a public defender, he decided he wanted to be a trial attorney, fighting in court.

    Civil rights attorney James Cook steps into his car to warm up and make phone calls in Minneapolis.

    Civil rights attorney James Cook has been doing pro bono immigration work since the crackdown began in Minneapolis.

    (Caroline Yang/For The Times)

    He started cold-calling John Burris, another Bay Area lawyer who is an icon of civil rights and police misconduct cases. Burris, who has been called the “Godfather of Police Litigation,” was involved in the “Oakland Riders” case in 2000, when officers were discovered to have planted evidence. He also represented Rodney King, the family of Oscar Grant, and the family of Joseph Mann among many others.

    But Burris, a boxing fan, didn’t respond to Cook’s calls until the young lawyer offered him free tickets to one of his fights, which he was still doing on the side.

    “And then immediately I got a call back,” Cook said.

    Burris said Cook’s history as a fighter intrigued him, but “I did say to James, you can’t be a fighter and lawyer. You can’t get punched in your head all the time.”

    Cook did not take this advice.

    Still, Burris said, “It was his persistence that I admired, because the type of work we’re involved in, you need people who are dedicated, who have some real commitment to the work, and he showed that kind of consistency and dedication.”

    Cook’s been working with Burris more than 20 years now, but until recently, the labyrinth of the immigration system wasn’t his area of expertise. It’s been a crash course for him, he said, on the often arcane laws that govern who gets to stay in America and who doesn’t.

    It’s also been a crash course on what a civil rights emergency looks like. Along with his work looking for locked-up immigrants, Cook spends a lot of time on the streets at protests, helping people understand their rights — and limitations — and seeing first hand what is happening.

    “If you ever wondered what you would have done in Germany, now is the time,” he said. “Now is the time to do something. People are being interned.”

    In the hours after Pretti was shot, Cook was at the location of the shooting, in the middle of the tear gas, offering legal help to anyone who needed it and bearing witness to conduct that will almost certainly face scrutiny one day, even if government leaders condone it now.

    Law enforcement officers launch tear gas canisters in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

    Law enforcement officers launch tear gas canisters as they work to push the crowd back and expand their perimeter in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

    (Caroline Yang/For The Times)

    “The way the officers chase people down, protesters who were really just protesting lawfully and were beaten and pepper sprayed and gassed — all those are civil rights violations,” Burris said. “And so the law is the guardrails. So there has to be lawyers who are prepared to protect those guardrails and to stand as centurions, as I refer to us.”

    Cook has tried to calm protesters, he told me, and prevent clashes. But people are mad, and resolute. His greatest fear is summer — when warm weather could bring even larger crowds if enforcement is still ongoing. He’s worried that the actions of the federal agents will spill over into anger at local cops enforcing local laws, leading to even more chaos.

    “I’ve always supported cops as long as they do their job correctly,” Cook said.

    For now, he’s taking it one day at a time, one case at a time, one name at a time.

    Protesters raise an inverted American flag as law enforcement officers launch tear gas canisters in Minneapolis.

    Protesters raise an inverted American flag as law enforcement officers launch tear gas canisters in Minneapolis after Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents.

    (Caroline Yang/For The Times)

    Tuesday, Cook passed through the armed checkpoint at Whipple carrying a list of about seven people, folks who have been picked up by federal agents for one reason or another, or reasons unknown, and now cannot be located. They are not in the public online system that is meant to track detainees, and family and friends have not heard from them.

    If he’s lucky, Cook will get information on one or two, that they are indeed inside, or maybe at a detention center in Texas, where many have been sent. But there will be more whose location remains unknown. He’ll make calls, fill out forms and come back tomorrow. And the tomorrow after that.

    “This is what we do,” he said. “I’m always in it for the long run. I mean, you know, shoot, yeah, that’s kind of the way it works.”

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Asking Eric: Boyfriend says ‘I love you’ but won’t commit

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    Dear Eric: I’m in my early 30s and seeing a really great guy. He checks a lot of boxes for me and I’m happy with him. My boyfriend and I said “I love you” to each other a few weeks ago. He said it first, and I said it back. We’ve been dating for about six weeks, so this feels normal. This isn’t my first relationship, but it’s moving more slowly than my other relationships have in the past. I’m OK with that for the most part.

    But he won’t ask me to be his girlfriend. We’ve talked about it and he’ll say things like, “that’s definitely where we’re heading.” But that’s it. I’m getting frustrated about it. What can I do?

    — Not the Girlfriend

    Dear Girlfriend: You can ask him to be your boyfriend. Or, if you don’t want to be that direct, you can tell him that you are interested in taking the relationship to the next level and you want to know what he’s interested in.

    If he feels you’re heading toward a committed relationship, it’s fair to ask questions like, how long is this road to a relationship? Are there any obstacles that you see? How fast are we traveling? Is it possible to step on the gas pedal?

    Your relationship belongs to both of you, so don’t be afraid to ask for what you want or need. And don’t be afraid to tell him when something isn’t working for you. Love is communication. It’s not just saying “I love you,” it’s also saying “let’s talk about this” and “can you help me understand” and “wow, this one thing is not working for me but this thing between us definitely does work for me and so I’m excited to figure out how to work it all out together with you.”

    Dear Eric: I have a loving and attentive husband, two adult children who stay in touch, lots of relatives (many of whom live near me and with whom I have monthly contact.) I am in my late 70s and know well enough that travel, hobbies, classes, causes, work and helping others are ways to get connected. I do these things, but they do not satisfy me.

    Most of my closer friends have died or moved away, and I don’t see that attrition changing. I long to have a few close friends that I can call or visit to share daily chitchat and deeper communication. Instead, I have to do all the reaching out, and do not feel that my efforts are returned.

    I am aware of “all the lonely people” around me. But I am most aware of my own loneliness. It is profound and raw and unabated.

    What is wrong with me? What can I do about this? I think I am caring and considerate, and show interest in others. Why do I not have any close friends at this stage of my life, after being committed to my family and community for so many decades?

    — In Search of Connection

    Dear Connection: Sometimes when I get into a tough place emotionally, I ask myself “what is real and what do I feel?” Often, the Venn diagram of the two is one solid circle. At other times, there’s some distance. The distance doesn’t make either less valid. Feelings aren’t facts, but it is a fact that I feel and it’s important to honor that. However, feelings and facts often have different remedies.

    In your letter, the facts are that you’ve experienced profound loss of some of your foundational connections. This is a part of life, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It also doesn’t mean that you won’t grieve these friendships and all the things they brought into your life. It’s possible that your grief process is making it even harder to feel connected to the loving husband you mentioned, or your hobbies or your other family members.

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    R. Eric Thomas

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  • Families of two men believed to have been killed in military strike on boat sue US government over ‘unlawful’ attacks

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    As the U.S. military began launching strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean last year, a young Trinidadian man who was in Venezuela for work was searching for a way home, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.Chad Joseph, 26, had been in Venezuela for months fishing and doing farm work when he began looking for a boat to hitch a ride back to Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago, where his wife and three children lived. But as the U.S. began targeting vessels officials said were carrying drugs destined for American streets, Joseph “became increasingly fearful” of making the journey, court documents say. The concerns became so real that in early September, his wife recalled, he called to assure her that he had not been aboard a vessel just hit by the U.S., pledging to be home soon.The last call home was on Oct. 12, when Joseph told his wife he’d found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad, and he would be seeing her in a matter of days, according to court documents. Two days later, however, on Oct. 14, the U.S. struck another target — a boat Joseph’s family believes he was in.“Mr. Joseph’s wife repeatedly called Mr. Joseph’s cellphone, but the line was dead,” a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. government says. “The line remains dead to this day.”Joseph’s family, and the family of another Trinidadian man, 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo, who had been working with Joseph in Venezuela and who is also believed to have been on the boat, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Tuesday for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing of the two men. The complaint calls the strikes “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful,” and says they have carried out “premeditated and intentional killings” with no legal justification.CNN asked the Justice Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response before publication. The Defense Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation.The complaint says that, despite claims by President Donald Trump and other administration officials that all the men killed on board were “narcoterrorists,” neither Joseph nor Samaroo had any affiliation to drug cartels.The lawsuit marks the first opportunity for a judge to rule on the legality of the strikes which are part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — dubbed Operation Southern Spear — that has killed at least 117 people. The most recent strike was carried out last week in the eastern Pacific, killing two and leaving one survivor who was being searched for by the Coast Guard.The lawsuit points specifically to the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows family members to sue over wrongful deaths on the high seas, and the Alien Tort Statute, which lets foreign nationals sue in federal courts over violations of international law.The families are suing for compensatory and punitive damages and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz with the Seton Hall Law School.The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in the ongoing campaign are affiliates of drug cartels, or that each of the vessels had drugs on them. When pressed by lawmakers during congressional briefings, military officials have acknowledged they do not know the identities of everyone on board the boats they have destroyed.The legality of the strikes has come under intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September, including particular interest in the very first strike, when the military carried out a second strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack. Multiple current and former military lawyers previously told CNN the strikes do not appear lawful.But the administration has maintained that the operation is a necessary step against drugs heading for US shores that will ultimately harm Americans.Trump announced the Oct. 14 strike in a social media post, saying “six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed” and that intelligence had confirmed the vessel was “trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route.”‘They must be held accountable’Similar to Joseph, Samaroo had communicated with his family just days before the Oct. 14 strike. Having served 15 years in prison for “participation in a homicide” in Trinidad, and released early on parole, Samaroo moved to Las Cuevas, Trinidad, and in August 2025 he went to Venezuela to work on a farm, the lawsuit says.He frequently shared photos and videos with his family of his time on the farm, “where he cared for cows and goats and made cheese.” During one video call, he introduced Joseph, a friend from home who he said he was working with in Venezuela.On Oct. 12, Samaroo sent his sister, Sallycar Korasingh, a photo in a lifejacket, telling her he had found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad and he would see her in a few days.“That call was the last time Ms. Korasingh, or anyone else in his family, heard from Mr. Samaroo,” the complaint says.In a statement issued by the ACLU, Korasingh said her brother was a “hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again.”“If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him,” she said. “Not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”Members of the administration have repeatedly insisted that those killed in the strikes are “narcoterrorists” — in November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that “every trafficker killed is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”The lawsuit, however, says neither Joseph nor Samaroo were “members of, or affiliated with, drug cartels.”“The Trinidadian government has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities,’ and that it had ‘no information of the victims of US strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms,’” the complaint says.The complaint calls into question one of the primary claims made by Trump administration officials throughout the course of the campaign, that the boats — and the drugs allegedly aboard them — were headed for the U.S. and required urgent military action. The lawsuit says, however, that Joseph and Samaroo were headed home to Trinidad on the vessel targeted by the US.In the wake of the first strike in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that boat was headed toward Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.Last year, the Trump administration justified the operation with a classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The opinion argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans.The opinion appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, legal experts have said, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them killed without legal review. Historically, those involved in drug trafficking were considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.The lawsuit, however, offers the first opportunity for those who believe the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings to present their case before a judge.“Whatever that secret memorandum states, it cannot render the patently illegal killings lawful,” the court filing says.

    As the U.S. military began launching strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean last year, a young Trinidadian man who was in Venezuela for work was searching for a way home, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

    Chad Joseph, 26, had been in Venezuela for months fishing and doing farm work when he began looking for a boat to hitch a ride back to Las Cuevas in Trinidad and Tobago, where his wife and three children lived. But as the U.S. began targeting vessels officials said were carrying drugs destined for American streets, Joseph “became increasingly fearful” of making the journey, court documents say. The concerns became so real that in early September, his wife recalled, he called to assure her that he had not been aboard a vessel just hit by the U.S., pledging to be home soon.

    The last call home was on Oct. 12, when Joseph told his wife he’d found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad, and he would be seeing her in a matter of days, according to court documents. Two days later, however, on Oct. 14, the U.S. struck another target — a boat Joseph’s family believes he was in.

    “Mr. Joseph’s wife repeatedly called Mr. Joseph’s cellphone, but the line was dead,” a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the U.S. government says. “The line remains dead to this day.”

    Andrea de Silva/Reuters/File via CNN Newsource

    Messiah Burnley, nephew of Chad Joseph, who was killed in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean, carries a girl in front of an altar for Joseph in the family home in Las Cuevas, Trinidad and Tobago, October 22, 2025.

    Joseph’s family, and the family of another Trinidadian man, 41-year-old Rishi Samaroo, who had been working with Joseph in Venezuela and who is also believed to have been on the boat, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on Tuesday for wrongful death and extrajudicial killing of the two men. The complaint calls the strikes “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful,” and says they have carried out “premeditated and intentional killings” with no legal justification.

    CNN asked the Justice Department for comment but did not immediately receive a response before publication. The Defense Department declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

    The complaint says that, despite claims by President Donald Trump and other administration officials that all the men killed on board were “narcoterrorists,” neither Joseph nor Samaroo had any affiliation to drug cartels.

    The lawsuit marks the first opportunity for a judge to rule on the legality of the strikes which are part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific — dubbed Operation Southern Spear — that has killed at least 117 people. The most recent strike was carried out last week in the eastern Pacific, killing two and leaving one survivor who was being searched for by the Coast Guard.

    The lawsuit points specifically to the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows family members to sue over wrongful deaths on the high seas, and the Alien Tort Statute, which lets foreign nationals sue in federal courts over violations of international law.

    The families are suing for compensatory and punitive damages and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Jonathan Hafetz with the Seton Hall Law School.

    The administration has publicly presented little evidence that those killed in the ongoing campaign are affiliates of drug cartels, or that each of the vessels had drugs on them. When pressed by lawmakers during congressional briefings, military officials have acknowledged they do not know the identities of everyone on board the boats they have destroyed.

    The legality of the strikes has come under intense scrutiny in Congress since the operations began in September, including particular interest in the very first strike, when the military carried out a second strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack. Multiple current and former military lawyers previously told CNN the strikes do not appear lawful.

    But the administration has maintained that the operation is a necessary step against drugs heading for US shores that will ultimately harm Americans.

    Trump announced the Oct. 14 strike in a social media post, saying “six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed” and that intelligence had confirmed the vessel was “trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO route.”

    ‘They must be held accountable’

    Similar to Joseph, Samaroo had communicated with his family just days before the Oct. 14 strike. Having served 15 years in prison for “participation in a homicide” in Trinidad, and released early on parole, Samaroo moved to Las Cuevas, Trinidad, and in August 2025 he went to Venezuela to work on a farm, the lawsuit says.

    He frequently shared photos and videos with his family of his time on the farm, “where he cared for cows and goats and made cheese.” During one video call, he introduced Joseph, a friend from home who he said he was working with in Venezuela.

    On Oct. 12, Samaroo sent his sister, Sallycar Korasingh, a photo in a lifejacket, telling her he had found a boat to bring him back to Trinidad and he would see her in a few days.

    “That call was the last time Ms. Korasingh, or anyone else in his family, heard from Mr. Samaroo,” the complaint says.

    In a statement issued by the ACLU, Korasingh said her brother was a “hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again.”

    “If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him,” she said. “Not murdered him. They must be held accountable.”

    Members of the administration have repeatedly insisted that those killed in the strikes are “narcoterrorists” — in November, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on social media that “every trafficker killed is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

    The lawsuit, however, says neither Joseph nor Samaroo were “members of, or affiliated with, drug cartels.”

    “The Trinidadian government has publicly stated that ‘the government has no information linking Joseph or Samaroo to illegal activities,’ and that it had ‘no information of the victims of US strikes being in possession of illegal drugs, guns, or small arms,’” the complaint says.

    The complaint calls into question one of the primary claims made by Trump administration officials throughout the course of the campaign, that the boats — and the drugs allegedly aboard them — were headed for the U.S. and required urgent military action. The lawsuit says, however, that Joseph and Samaroo were headed home to Trinidad on the vessel targeted by the US.

    In the wake of the first strike in September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio initially said that boat was headed toward Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.

    Last year, the Trump administration justified the operation with a classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. The opinion argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans.

    The opinion appears to justify an open-ended war against a secret list of groups, legal experts have said, giving the president power to designate drug traffickers as enemy combatants and have them killed without legal review. Historically, those involved in drug trafficking were considered criminals with due process rights, with the Coast Guard interdicting drug-trafficking vessels and arresting smugglers.

    The lawsuit, however, offers the first opportunity for those who believe the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings to present their case before a judge.

    “Whatever that secret memorandum states, it cannot render the patently illegal killings lawful,” the court filing says.

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  • Family builds colorful igloo to take advantage of cold weather: See the photos

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    Family builds colorful igloo to take advantage of cold weather: See the photos

    Updated: 8:27 AM PST Jan 26, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    A family in Pennsylvania took advantage of this week’s cold weather to make some memories. Ashley Barron showed off the colorful igloo her family finished after days of preparing frozen blocks.Ashley, Brandon, Colton, Coy and Kaia Barron started the whole process on Monday and finished the build on Saturday.Click the video above to see both inside and outside of the igloo.

    SOMERSET, Pa. —

    A family in Pennsylvania took advantage of this week’s cold weather to make some memories.

    Ashley Barron showed off the colorful igloo her family finished after days of preparing frozen blocks.

    Ashley, Brandon, Colton, Coy and Kaia Barron started the whole process on Monday and finished the build on Saturday.

    Click the video above to see both inside and outside of the igloo.

    Igloo in somerset

    Igloo in Somerset

    Igloo in somerset

    Igloo in somerset

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