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Tag: information

  • iPhone feature saved skiers from deadly avalanche—how you can turn it on

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    An iPhone safety feature is drawing renewed attention after six skiers were rescued during California’s deadliest recorded avalanche, with survivors using satellite messaging to stay in contact with emergency responders when traditional cell service failed.

    The avalanche struck near Lake Tahoe, killing eight people and leaving one missing, while six others were located and rescued after hours in severe winter conditions.

    The skiers were able to communicate with authorities using Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite feature when they found themselves outside cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.

    Remote Areas

    Apple introduced Emergency SOS via satellite with the iPhone 14 lineup. The feature is available on supported models running iOS 16.1 or later and is designed for use in remote areas where cellular signals are not accessible.

    The satellite tool, available on newer iPhone models, allows users to text emergency services directly when traditional networks are unavailable. As interest in the feature grows, Apple users have been discussing how it works—and whether it should remain free.

    In the Lake Tahoe rescue, communication between the stranded group and emergency personnel proved critical.

    Rescuers ultimately found the group roughly 11 hours after the avalanche began, according to reports from Inc.

    Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon described the strength of the slide, saying: “A two would bury a person. A three would bury a house and it’s right in the middle of those two.”

    ‘Life saving’

    Reddit contributors reacting to the story said the feature justified the cost of newer iPhones.

    “This is probably the best feature the iPhone has ever added, possibly only behind fall detection in Apple Watches,” a fan declared on Reddit.

    Another agreed that, “This is the kind of feature that justifies the premium. Most people will never need it, but for the ones who do, it’s literally life-saving.”

    Some critics, however, raised concerns about reports that the feature may not remain free indefinitely.

    “The only worry is that it’s still planned to be a paid feature… which I think is completely wrong,” one remarked.

    Apple advises users to first attempt calling 911 or local emergency services, even if their regular carrier shows no service.

    If the call fails, iPhones will display an option to use Emergency Text via Satellite. Users can tap “Report Emergency” and follow on-screen prompts while keeping the phone held naturally with a clear line of sight to the sky.

    Once connected, the iPhone shares critical information with responders, including the user’s location, elevation, Medical ID (if set up), emergency contacts, responses to an emergency questionnaire and the device’s battery level.

    Risks Posed

    Apple also recommends trying the built-in demo under Settings > Emergency SOS before traveling to remote areas. The demo does not contact emergency services, but walks users through the satellite connection process.

    Emergency SOS via satellite is not available in all countries and regions and works only on supported models.

    As extreme weather and backcountry travel continue to pose risks, the Lake Tahoe rescue has prompted renewed attention on how smartphones can function as a lifeline when traditional networks fail.

    Newsweek has reached out to Apple for comment via email.

    To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, click here.

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  • Miami fugitive wanted for murder on the run, known to frequent Orlando, police say

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    A fugitive wanted for first-degree murder in Miami Gardens is on the run, according to the Miami Gardens Police Department. MGPD homicide detectives and agents from the U.S. Marshals Task Force have actively attempted to locate Yalanski Dawkins, 45, for a homicide that occurred on Jan. 5, 2025. MGPD said that Dawkins has been known to frequent the Orlando area.Dawkins should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Dawkins is asked to contact Miami Gardens Police Homicide Detective H. Baez at 305-474-2082 or at 305-474-6473 or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477) >> This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.

    ORLANDO, Fla. —

    A fugitive wanted for first-degree murder in Miami Gardens is on the run, according to the Miami Gardens Police Department.

    MGPD homicide detectives and agents from the U.S. Marshals Task Force have actively attempted to locate Yalanski Dawkins, 45, for a homicide that occurred on Jan. 5, 2025.

    MGPD said that Dawkins has been known to frequent the Orlando area.

    Dawkins should be considered armed and dangerous.

    Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Dawkins is asked to contact Miami Gardens Police Homicide Detective H. Baez at 305-474-2082 or at 305-474-6473 or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS (8477)

    >> This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is released.

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  • 7 dead, suspect linked to 2 separate Florida shootings hundreds of miles apart, deputies say

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    Investigators in Florida say a double homicide discovered during a well-being check was linked to a shooting rampage hours later in a gated community on the other side of the state, which left five more people dead including the suspected shooter.The suspect had a romantic relationship with one of the Fort Lauderdale victims, who was connected to the victims in the second shooting in Sarasota, but Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office detectives released few other details.“The suspect’s motivation for targeting the Sarasota victims is unknown,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Wednesday.According to the sheriff’s office, deputies received a call around noon Tuesday reporting an adult male with gunshot wounds in the front yard of a residence in a gated community. That man was taken to a hospital where he died. Deputies entered the residence after neighbors said the man’s wife was likely inside the home.When deputies entered the home, deputies said they found four adult victims, two male and two female, pronounced dead on the scene. One of the male victims was the suspect, 51-year-old Russell Kot.While working to identify Kot, authorities in Sarasota received information from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department advising that they were actively investigating a double homicide, and they believed their suspect was involved in the Sarasota shooting.Fort Lauderdale is more than 200 miles away from Sarasota, on the opposite side of Florida’s main peninsula.Fort Lauderdale provided Sarasota with the suspect’s vehicle information, which can be seen entering the neighborhood around 11:30 a.m. Sarasota deputies said their investigation revealed Kot had been in a previous romantic relationship with one of the victims in the Fort Lauderdale double homicide.That victim was also connected to the four people shot in Sarasota.The suspect’s motivation for targeting the Sarasota victims is unknown, officials said.The victims in the Sarasota shooting were later identified as Olga Greinert, Florita Stolyar, Anatoly Ioffe and Yaroslav Blyudoy.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    SARASOTA, Fla. —

    Investigators in Florida say a double homicide discovered during a well-being check was linked to a shooting rampage hours later in a gated community on the other side of the state, which left five more people dead including the suspected shooter.

    The suspect had a romantic relationship with one of the Fort Lauderdale victims, who was connected to the victims in the second shooting in Sarasota, but Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office detectives released few other details.

    “The suspect’s motivation for targeting the Sarasota victims is unknown,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

    According to the sheriff’s office, deputies received a call around noon Tuesday reporting an adult male with gunshot wounds in the front yard of a residence in a gated community. That man was taken to a hospital where he died.

    Deputies entered the residence after neighbors said the man’s wife was likely inside the home.

    When deputies entered the home, deputies said they found four adult victims, two male and two female, pronounced dead on the scene. One of the male victims was the suspect, 51-year-old Russell Kot.

    While working to identify Kot, authorities in Sarasota received information from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department advising that they were actively investigating a double homicide, and they believed their suspect was involved in the Sarasota shooting.

    Fort Lauderdale is more than 200 miles away from Sarasota, on the opposite side of Florida’s main peninsula.

    Fort Lauderdale provided Sarasota with the suspect’s vehicle information, which can be seen entering the neighborhood around 11:30 a.m.

    Sarasota deputies said their investigation revealed Kot had been in a previous romantic relationship with one of the victims in the Fort Lauderdale double homicide.

    That victim was also connected to the four people shot in Sarasota.

    The suspect’s motivation for targeting the Sarasota victims is unknown, officials said.

    The victims in the Sarasota shooting were later identified as Olga Greinert, Florita Stolyar, Anatoly Ioffe and Yaroslav Blyudoy.

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    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Justice Department under scrutiny for revealing victim info and concealing possible enablers in Epstein files

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    The Justice Department failed to black out identifying information about many of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and redacted the details of individuals who may have aided the convicted sex offender, prompting an outcry from survivors who accuse DOJ of botching the release of more than 3 million documents last week.A CNN review of the Epstein documents identified several examples of people whose identities were blacked out possibly helping to connect him with women, including redacted co-conspirators in a much-anticipated draft indictment of Epstein from the 2000s.A redacted individual wrote in one 2015 email to Epstein: “And this one is (i think) totally your girl.”In another 2014 email in the files, a person wrote to Epstein: “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.” But the name of the individual who wrote that message is redacted.The Department of Justice on Friday released what it said was the last of the Epstein files that it was required to disclose by law, but the documents have prompted widespread outcry about a continued lack of transparency and justice for Epstein’s many survivors.Epstein survivors are up in arms about the mishandled redactions, including blacked out statements that victims made to the FBI.A DOJ official said in a statement that any fully redacted names are of victims. “In many instances, as it has been well documented publicly, those who were originally victims became participants and co-conspirators,” the official said. “We did not redact any names of men, only female victims.”FBI and law enforcement names were also redacted, the DOJ official said.Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been scrambling to fix the improper disclosure of victim information.The Justice Department narrowly avoided a hearing in federal court on Wednesday by reaching an agreement late Tuesday with lawyers for some of the Epstein survivors, who had accused DOJ of releasing information about nearly 100 Epstein victims in the files.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged Monday that “mistakes were made” but argued that DOJ has moved expeditiously to correct any information unintentionally released.For Epstein survivors, the DOJ’s response is unacceptable.“To have pieces of my life be out there on display in that way, was really troublesome,” said Dani Bensky, who told CNN in a roundtable with Epstein survivors that her name, address and phone number were all initially in the files.“And I know that I’m public now, yes, it hurts me — but it really hurts our survivor sisters who are still ‘Jane Does’ even more,” she added.The furor over what is and isn’t included in the Epstein documents highlights how the department’s release of more than 3 million documents on Friday is hardly the end of the fight over the Epstein files — even as both Blanche and President Donald Trump have said they think it’s time to move on.Congress forced the disclosure of the Epstein documents after passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act last November over Trump’s initial objections. But the bipartisan group of lawmakers who pushed for the law’s passage say there are still millions of files that have not been released, which the DOJ argued fell within exceptions to the law not requiring their disclosure.Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who led the effort to release the files, have asked to view the unredacted files — and are still threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi with impeachment or contempt for failing to comply with the law if more are not disclosed.“The DOJ has protected the Epstein class with blanket redactions in some areas while failing to protect the identities of survivors in other areas,” Khanna said in a statement to CNN. “Congress cannot properly assess DOJ’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases without access to the complete record.”‘There’s no reason to redact it’The documents released on Friday include the names of numerous high-profile men who interacted with Epstein — who died by suicide in 2019 awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges — a list that included Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and the former Prince Andrew, among many others. All have denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and have never been charged by law enforcement with any crimes.But Epstein survivors say the files appear to shield those who specifically enabled the convicted sex offender’s abuse, as well as other men who may have been named in the survivors’ statements that were completely redacted.One Epstein survivor pointed to another FBI form contained in the files where full pages were blacked out.“It basically outlines everything that this person experienced and shared with the FBI. It was seven pages long and four of them looked like this,” Jess Michaels told CNN in an interview. “What happened to her and who did it is also redacted. So you cannot say in the same sentence: ‘There were no men, there was no list’ and redact this much of a statement. Because if there’s no men, then there’s no reason to redact it. There’s no other reason.”One of the most anticipated documents in the files was the controversial draft indictment from the Southern District of Florida from the 2000s, which would have charged Epstein, along with three others, who were described as having been “employed” by Epstein.The individuals are all described as having conspired to “persuade, induce, and entice individuals who had not attained the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution.” But their names are redacted.The files also include numerous email exchanges with Epstein that appear to describe the procurement of women.A redacted individual from a Paris modeling agency wrote in a 2013 email to Epstein: “New Brazilian just arrived, sexy and cute, 19yo .”The email appears in the files twice: In one version, the modeling agency’s name is redacted, but in another, the agency is not redacted from the sender’s email signature.In a 2018 email to Epstein, another redacted individual wrote: “I found at least 3 very good young poor.”“Meet this one,” the person continued. “Not the beauty queen but we both likes her a lot.”In a letter to Congress on Friday, the Justice Department detailed how it made redactions, saying it complied with the law by redacting victim information, child sex abuse materials and anything that would jeopardize an active investigation.DOJ also withheld 200,000 pages “covered by various privileges, including deliberative process privilege, the work-product doctrine, and attorney-client privilege,” according to the letter.At his press conference last Friday announcing the release of the files, Blanche said they did not contain information about evidence that would lead to the prosecution of any men who abused women.“I said this earlier, there’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about that we’re covering up or that we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case,” Blanche said. “I don’t know whether there are men out there that abuse these women.”Scrambling to scrub filesIn the hours after Friday’s DOJ release, CNN reported that multiple survivors, including anonymous “Jane Doe” victims, were seeing their names and information throughout the documents that were published.Attorneys for some of the survivors sent a letter saying the DOJ’s failure to properly redact victims’ information had triggered an “unfolding emergency,” asking two federal judges in New York for an “immediate judicial intervention.”Sunday’s letter included testimony from various anonymous “Jane Doe” victims who described receiving death threats and harassment from the media since the publication of the files.“When DOJ believed it was ready to publish, it needed only to type each victim’s name into its own search function. Any resulting hit should have been redacted before publication. Had DOJ done that, the harm would have been avoided,” the lawyers wrote.DOJ said in a response filed to the judges that it had removed all documents that victims or their lawyers identified, and a Justice Department spokesperson had said it had 500 reviewers looking at the files “for this very reason.”“Mistakes were made by – you have really hard-working lawyers that worked for the past 60 days. Think about this though: you’re talking about pieces of paper that stack from the ground to two Eiffel Towers,” Blanche said Monday on Fox News. “The minute that a victim or their lawyer reached out to us since Friday, we immediately dealt with it and pulled it down.”Epstein’s survivors say the release of names, even if corrected, is yet another example of how the Justice Department failed them.“Publishing images of victims while shielding predators is just a failure of complete justice,” Epstein survivor Sharlene Rochard told CNN. “There’s this deep sense of betrayal when the systems meant to protect you becomes the one causing all of this harm.”

    WASHINGTON —

    The Justice Department failed to black out identifying information about many of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and redacted the details of individuals who may have aided the convicted sex offender, prompting an outcry from survivors who accuse DOJ of botching the release of more than 3 million documents last week.

    A CNN review of the Epstein documents identified several examples of people whose identities were blacked out possibly helping to connect him with women, including redacted co-conspirators in a much-anticipated draft indictment of Epstein from the 2000s.

    A redacted individual wrote in one 2015 email to Epstein: “And this one is (i think) totally your girl.”

    In another 2014 email in the files, a person wrote to Epstein: “Thank you for a fun night… Your littlest girl was a little naughty.” But the name of the individual who wrote that message is redacted.

    The Department of Justice on Friday released what it said was the last of the Epstein files that it was required to disclose by law, but the documents have prompted widespread outcry about a continued lack of transparency and justice for Epstein’s many survivors.

    Epstein survivors are up in arms about the mishandled redactions, including blacked out statements that victims made to the FBI.

    A DOJ official said in a statement that any fully redacted names are of victims. “In many instances, as it has been well documented publicly, those who were originally victims became participants and co-conspirators,” the official said. “We did not redact any names of men, only female victims.”

    FBI and law enforcement names were also redacted, the DOJ official said.

    Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been scrambling to fix the improper disclosure of victim information.

    The Justice Department narrowly avoided a hearing in federal court on Wednesday by reaching an agreement late Tuesday with lawyers for some of the Epstein survivors, who had accused DOJ of releasing information about nearly 100 Epstein victims in the files.

    Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged Monday that “mistakes were made” but argued that DOJ has moved expeditiously to correct any information unintentionally released.

    For Epstein survivors, the DOJ’s response is unacceptable.

    “To have pieces of my life be out there on display in that way, was really troublesome,” said Dani Bensky, who told CNN in a roundtable with Epstein survivors that her name, address and phone number were all initially in the files.

    “And I know that I’m public now, yes, it hurts me — but it really hurts our survivor sisters who are still ‘Jane Does’ even more,” she added.

    The furor over what is and isn’t included in the Epstein documents highlights how the department’s release of more than 3 million documents on Friday is hardly the end of the fight over the Epstein files — even as both Blanche and President Donald Trump have said they think it’s time to move on.

    Congress forced the disclosure of the Epstein documents after passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act last November over Trump’s initial objections. But the bipartisan group of lawmakers who pushed for the law’s passage say there are still millions of files that have not been released, which the DOJ argued fell within exceptions to the law not requiring their disclosure.

    Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who led the effort to release the files, have asked to view the unredacted files — and are still threatening Attorney General Pam Bondi with impeachment or contempt for failing to comply with the law if more are not disclosed.

    “The DOJ has protected the Epstein class with blanket redactions in some areas while failing to protect the identities of survivors in other areas,” Khanna said in a statement to CNN. “Congress cannot properly assess DOJ’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases without access to the complete record.”

    ‘There’s no reason to redact it’

    The documents released on Friday include the names of numerous high-profile men who interacted with Epstein — who died by suicide in 2019 awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges — a list that included Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and the former Prince Andrew, among many others. All have denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and have never been charged by law enforcement with any crimes.

    But Epstein survivors say the files appear to shield those who specifically enabled the convicted sex offender’s abuse, as well as other men who may have been named in the survivors’ statements that were completely redacted.

    One Epstein survivor pointed to another FBI form contained in the files where full pages were blacked out.

    “It basically outlines everything that this person experienced and shared with the FBI. It was seven pages long and four of them looked like this,” Jess Michaels told CNN in an interview. “What happened to her and who did it is also redacted. So you cannot say in the same sentence: ‘There were no men, there was no list’ and redact this much of a statement. Because if there’s no men, then there’s no reason to redact it. There’s no other reason.”

    One of the most anticipated documents in the files was the controversial draft indictment from the Southern District of Florida from the 2000s, which would have charged Epstein, along with three others, who were described as having been “employed” by Epstein.

    The individuals are all described as having conspired to “persuade, induce, and entice individuals who had not attained the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution.” But their names are redacted.

    The files also include numerous email exchanges with Epstein that appear to describe the procurement of women.

    A redacted individual from a Paris modeling agency wrote in a 2013 email to Epstein: “New Brazilian just arrived, sexy and cute, 19yo .”

    The email appears in the files twice: In one version, the modeling agency’s name is redacted, but in another, the agency is not redacted from the sender’s email signature.

    In a 2018 email to Epstein, another redacted individual wrote: “I found at least 3 very good young poor.”

    “Meet this one,” the person continued. “Not the beauty queen but we both likes her a lot.”

    In a letter to Congress on Friday, the Justice Department detailed how it made redactions, saying it complied with the law by redacting victim information, child sex abuse materials and anything that would jeopardize an active investigation.

    DOJ also withheld 200,000 pages “covered by various privileges, including deliberative process privilege, the work-product doctrine, and attorney-client privilege,” according to the letter.

    At his press conference last Friday announcing the release of the files, Blanche said they did not contain information about evidence that would lead to the prosecution of any men who abused women.

    “I said this earlier, there’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about that we’re covering up or that we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case,” Blanche said. “I don’t know whether there are men out there that abuse these women.”

    Scrambling to scrub files

    In the hours after Friday’s DOJ release, CNN reported that multiple survivors, including anonymous “Jane Doe” victims, were seeing their names and information throughout the documents that were published.

    Attorneys for some of the survivors sent a letter saying the DOJ’s failure to properly redact victims’ information had triggered an “unfolding emergency,” asking two federal judges in New York for an “immediate judicial intervention.”

    Sunday’s letter included testimony from various anonymous “Jane Doe” victims who described receiving death threats and harassment from the media since the publication of the files.

    “When DOJ believed it was ready to publish, it needed only to type each victim’s name into its own search function. Any resulting hit should have been redacted before publication. Had DOJ done that, the harm would have been avoided,” the lawyers wrote.

    DOJ said in a response filed to the judges that it had removed all documents that victims or their lawyers identified, and a Justice Department spokesperson had said it had 500 reviewers looking at the files “for this very reason.”

    “Mistakes were made by – you have really hard-working lawyers that worked for the past 60 days. Think about this though: you’re talking about pieces of paper that stack from the ground to two Eiffel Towers,” Blanche said Monday on Fox News. “The minute that a victim or their lawyer reached out to us since Friday, we immediately dealt with it and pulled it down.”

    Epstein’s survivors say the release of names, even if corrected, is yet another example of how the Justice Department failed them.

    “Publishing images of victims while shielding predators is just a failure of complete justice,” Epstein survivor Sharlene Rochard told CNN. “There’s this deep sense of betrayal when the systems meant to protect you becomes the one causing all of this harm.”

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  • Justice Department drops demand for records naming transgender kids treated at Children’s Hospital L.A.

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    The U.S. Department of Justice has agreed to stop demanding medical records that identify young patients who received gender-affirming care from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, ending a legal standoff with families who sued to block a subpoena that some feared would be used to criminally prosecute the parents of transgender kids.

    The agreement, filed in federal court Thursday, allows the hospital to withhold certain records and redact personal information from others who underwent gender-affirming treatments, which Trump administration officials have compared to child mutilation despite support for such care by the nation’s major medical associations.

    Several parents of CHLA patients expressed profound relief Friday, while also acknowledging that other threats to their families remain.

    Jesse Thorn, the father of two transgender children who had been patients at Children’s Hospital, said hospital officials have ignored his requests for information as to whether they had already shared his kids’ data with the Trump administration, which had been scary. Hearing they had not, and now won’t, provided “two-fold” relief, he said.

    “The escalations have been so relentless in the threats to our family, and one of the things that compounded that was the uncertainty about what the federal government knew about our kids’ medical care and what they were going to do about that,” he said.

    Less clear is whether the agreement provides any new protections for doctors and other hospital personnel who provided care at the clinic and have also been targeted by the Trump administration.

    The agreement follows similar victories for families seeking to block such disclosures by gender-affirming care clinics elsewhere in the country, including a ruling Thursday for the families of transgender kids who received treatment at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C.

    “What’s unique here is this was a class action,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and legal instructor at Harvard, who was not involved in the Los Angeles case. “I can’t undersell what a major win that is to protect the records of all these patients.”

    Some litigation remains ongoing, with families fearful appeals to higher courts could end with different results. There is also Republican-backed legislation moving through Congress to restrict gender-affirming care for youths.

    Another father of a transgender patient at Children’s Hospital, who requested anonymity because he fears for his child’s safety, said he was grateful for the agreement, but doesn’t see it as the end of the road. He fears the Trump administration could renew its subpoena if it wins on appeal in cases elsewhere.

    “There’s some comfort, but it doesn’t close the book on it,” he said.

    In a statement to The Times, the Justice Department said it “has not withdrawn its subpoena. Rather, it withdrew three requests for patient records based on the subpoenaed entity’s representation that it did not have custody of any such records.”

    “This settlement avoids needless litigation based on that fact and further instructs Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to redact patient information in documents responsive to other subpoena requests,” the DOJ statement said. “As Attorney General Bondi has made clear, we will continue to use every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care.’”

    Children’s Hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

    “This is a massive victory for every family that refused to be intimidated into backing down,” Khadijah Silver, director of Gender Justice & Health Equity at Lawyers for Good Government, which helped bring the lawsuit, said in a statement Friday. “The government’s attempt to rifle through children’s medical records was unconstitutional from the start. Today’s settlement affirms what we’ve said all along: these families have done nothing wrong, and their children’s privacy deserves protection.”

    Until last summer, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was among the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States — and one of few providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgical procedures for trans youth on public insurance.

    It was also among the first programs to shutter under coordinated, multi-agency pressure exerted from the White House. Ending treatment for transgender children has been a central policy goal for the Trump administration since the president resumed office last year.

    “These threats are no longer theoretical,” Children’s Hospital executives wrote to staff in an internal email announcing the closure of the clinic in June. “[They are] threatening our ability to serve the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on CHLA for lifesaving care.”

    In July, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department was subpoenaing patient records from gender-affirming care providers, specifically stating that medical professionals were a target of a probe into “organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology.”

    California law explicitly protects gender-affirming care, and the state and others led by Democrats have fought back in court, but most providers nationwide have shuttered under the White House push, stirring fear of a de facto ban.

    Parents feared the subpoenas could lead to child abuse charges, which the government could then use to strip them of custody of their children. Doctors feared they could be arrested and imprisoned for providing medical care that is broadly backed by the medical establishment and is legal in the states where they performed it.

    The Justice Department’s subpoena to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles had initially requested a vast array of personally identifying documents, specially calling for records “sufficient to identify each patient [by name, date of birth, social security number, address, and parent/guardian information] who was prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.”

    It also called for records “relating to the clinical indications, diagnoses, or assessments that formed the basis for prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy,” and for records “relating to informed consent, patient intake, and parent or guardian authorization for minor patients” to receive gender-affirming care.

    According to the new agreement, the Justice Department withdrew its requests for those specific records — which had yet to be produced by the hospital — on Dec. 8, and told Children’s Hospital to redact the personally identifying information of patients in other records it was still demanding.

    Thursday’s agreement formalizes that position, and requires the Justice Department to return or destroy any records that provide personally identifying information moving forward.

    “The Government will not use this patient identifying information to support any investigation or prosecution,” the agreement states.

    According to the attorneys for the families who sued, the settlement protects the records of their clients but also all of the clinic’s other gender-affirming care patients. “To date, they assured us, no identifiable patient information has been received, and now it cannot be,” said Amy Powell, with Lawyers for Good Government.

    Cori Racela, executive director for Western Center on Law & Poverty, called it a “crucial affirmation that healthcare decisions belong in exam rooms, not government subpoenas.”

    “Youth, families, and medical providers have constitutional rights to privacy and dignity,” she said in a statement. “No one’s private health records should be turned into political ammunition — especially children.”

    The agreement was also welcomed by families of transgender kids beyond Southern California.

    “This has been hanging over those families specifically in L.A., of course, but for all families,” said Arne Johnson, a Bay Area father of a transgender child who helps run a group of similar families called Rainbow Families Action. “Every time one of these subpoenas goes out, it’s terrifying.”

    Johnson said each victory pushing back against the government’s demands for family medical records feels “like somebody is pointing a gun at your kid and a hero comes along and knocks it out of their hand — it’s literally that visceral of a feeling.”

    Johnson said he hopes recent court wins will push hospitals to resist canceling care for transgender children.

    “Parents are the ones that are fighting back and they’re the ones that are winning, and the hospitals should take their lead,” he said. “Hospitals should be fighting in the same way the parents are, so that their doctors and other providers can be protected.”

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    Kevin Rector, Sonja Sharp

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  • Commentary: This is not normal: Why a fake arrest photo from the White House matters

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    How do you know what you know?

    Did you learn it in school, read it in a newspaper? Did you get your information on social media or though chatter with friends?

    Even in an age of misinformation and disinformation — which we really need to start clearly calling propaganda — we continue to rely on old ways of knowing. We take it for granted that if we really need to get to the truth, there’s a way to do it, even if it means cracking the pages of one of those ancient conveyors of wisdom, a book.

    But we are entering an era in America when knowledge is about to be hard to come by. It would be easy to shrug off this escalation of the war on truth as just more Trump nonsense, but it is much more than that. Authoritarians take power in the short term by fear and maybe force. In the long term, they rely on ignorance — an erasure of knowledge to leave people believing that there was ever anything different than what is.

    This is how our kids, future generations, come to be controlled. They simply don’t know what was, and therefore are at a great disadvantage in imagining what could be.

    This week, the White House altered a photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, the civil rights lawyer arrested in Minneapolis for protesting inside a church.

    The original photo shows Armstrong in handcuffs being led away by a federal officer with his face blurred out. Armstrong is composed and steady in this image. A veteran of social justice movements and a trained attorney, she appears as one might expect, her expression troubled but calm.

    In the photo released by the White House, Armstrong is sobbing, her mouth hanging open in despair. In what is clearly nothing more than overt racism, it appears her skin has been darkened. Her braided hair, neatly styled in the original picture, is disheveled in the Trump image.

    On the left, a photograph from the X (formerly Twitter) account of U.S. Secretary Kristi Noem, showing Nekima Levy Armstrong being arrested. On the right, the photo has been altered before being posted to the White House’s X (formerly Twitter) account.

    (@Sec_Noem via X/@WhiteHouse via X)

    A strong, composed resister is turned into a weeping, weak failure.

    “YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,”

    That was the official White House response to inquiries about the photo, posted on social media.

    The same week, the Trump administration began ripping down exhibits at the President’s House in Philadelphia that told the story of the nine Black people held in bondage there by George Washington. I’ve been to that exhibit and had planned to take my kids this summer to learn about Joe Richardson, Christopher Sheels, Austin, Hercules, Giles, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond.

    They are names that barely made it into American history. Many have never heard of them. Now, this administration is attempting to erase them.

    How do you know what you know? I learned most of what I knew about these folks from that signage, which is probably in a dump somewhere by now.

    The information we once took for granted on government websites such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is gone. Climate change information; LGBTQ+ information; even agricultural information. Gone (though courts have ordered some restored).

    The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, which tracked federal police misconduct, has been shut down.

    The Smithsonian is undergoing an ideological review.

    And now, our government is telling us it will alter in real time images of dissenters to create its own narrative, demand we believe not our own eyes, our own knowledge, but the narrative they create.

    “I’ll end with this, we’re being told one story which is totally different than what’s occurring,” said Cumberland County, Me., Sheriff Kevin Joyce.

    He was speaking specifically about an incident in his town in which a corrections officer recruit was detained by ICE this week. In video taken by a bystander, about five agents pull the man from his car as he drives home after work. They then leave the car running in the street as they take him away.

    Joyce told reporters the man had a clean background check before being hired, had no criminal record, and was working legally in the country. The sheriff has no idea where the man is being held.

    Joyce’s sentiment, that what we are being told isn’t what’s happening, applies to nearly everything we are seeing with our own eyes.

    A woman shot through her temple, through the side window of her car? You don’t understand what you are seeing. It was justified, our vice president has told us, without even the need for an investigation.

    Goodbye Renee Good. They are attempting in real time to erase her reality and instead morph her into a domestic terrorist committing “heinous” crimes, and maybe even worse.

    “You have a small band of very far left people who are doing everything they can … to try to make ICE out to be the ultimate enemy, and engage in this weird, small-scale civil war,” Vice President JD Vance said this week.

    Protesting turned into civil war.

    Next up, artificial intelligence is getting into the erasure game. Scientists are warning that those who wish to destroy truth will soon unleash AI-run operations in which thousands if not millions of social media posts will offer up whatever alternative reality those in control of it wish. Under the pressure of that avalanche of lies, many will believe.

    The message the White House is sending with Armstrong’s photo is that they control the truth, they decide what it is.

    Our job is to fight for truth, know it when we see it, and demand it not be erased.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Jobs AI Is Replacing Faster Than Anyone Expected

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    Source: Katrinaku / Getty

    Artificial intelligence no longer feels like a future problem. It now reshapes workplaces in real time.

    Companies across industries deploy AI tools to cut costs, increase speed, and reduce human labor. That shift moves faster than many workers expected.

    Jobs once seen as stable now face disruption. Some roles shrink quietly. Others disappear almost overnight. Customer service, data entry, and content work already feel the pressure. AI handles tasks that once required full teams.

    This shift does not mean every job vanishes. Many roles evolve or change shape. Still, workers must adapt faster than previous generations. Employers increasingly value flexibility and tech fluency.

    The pace concerns labor experts and economists alike. Many say policy and training lag behind real-world adoption. Workers often learn about changes after companies implement them.

    Here are jobs AI replaces faster than most people expected, based on current trends and industry adoption.

    Customer Service Representatives

    AI chatbots now handle basic questions instantly, reducing the need for large call centers.

    Data Entry Clerks

    Automation completes repetitive data tasks faster and with fewer errors.

    Content Moderators

    AI scans text, images, and video at scale before humans ever step in.

    Copywriters (Entry-Level)

    AI tools generate basic marketing copy in seconds, shrinking demand for junior roles.

    Social Media Managers (Basic Posting)

    Scheduling, captions, and analytics now run through automated platforms.

    Transcriptionists

    Speech-to-text software delivers near-instant results at low cost.

    Proofreaders

    AI flags grammar, clarity, and tone issues faster than manual reviews.

    Bookkeepers

    Accounting software now handles invoicing, reconciliation, and expense tracking.

    Market Research Assistants

    AI analyzes surveys and consumer trends without human data crunching.

    Resume Screeners

    Algorithms sort applicants before recruiters review a single resume.

    Travel Agents

    AI-powered booking tools build full itineraries instantly.

    Paralegal Researchers

    Legal AI scans case law and documents in minutes.

    Video Editors (Basic Cuts)

    AI handles trimming, captions, and highlight reels automatically.

    Tutors (Intro-Level)

    AI tutors now offer on-demand help in math, writing, and languages.

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    Matty Willz

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  • What to know about the upcoming Epstein files release

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    A new federal law requires the Justice Department to release by Friday a massive trove of investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.The release of the Epstein files, detailing the probes into the disgraced multimillionaire and sex offender who died in 2019, has attracted significant attention. The public has been captivated by Epstein’s lavish lifestyle, claims of underage sex trafficking, and his ties to President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, celebrities and foreign dignitaries.Veto-proof majorities in Congress passed a law last month requiring the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein-related files in its custody. Trump fought hard to stop the law but signed it after being outmaneuvered by a bipartisan groundswell of support from lawmakers and the public.However, it’s unclear exactly which records will be made public and how much of the material will be new. Over the 20-year saga surrounding Epstein’s sex crimes, thousands of files have already been disclosed through civil litigation and public records requests.Here’s what you need to know about the files:Why is this happening now?The law, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, is only three pages long and spells out in simple language what the Justice Department must release and what it can withhold.The federal government is required to release “searchable and downloadable” copies of “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and Maxwell that are in the possession of the Justice Department or FBI.The law explicitly calls for the release of travel logs, materials about Epstein’s associates, any related immunity deals, relevant corporate records, all internal Justice Department communications about the investigations, and documents about Epstein’s 2019 death.What’s in DOJ’s Epstein files?CNN has reported that there’s more than 300 gigabytes of data that lives within the FBI’s primary electronic case management system, called Sentinel. This includes videos, photographs, audio recordings and written records.The FBI conducted two probes into Epstein. The first began in 2006 after sex abuse allegations emerged in Florida. That led to a non-prosecution deal in which Epstein avoided federal charges. Much of the same conduct was also scrutinized by the Palm Beach Police Department, leading to Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea on state charges. He would serve just 13 months in a Florida jail for state prostitution charges, though he was allowed to spend nearly half of that time on “work release” at his office.The second FBI investigation led to Epstein’s federal sex trafficking indictment in 2019. The bulk of the “Epstein files” comes from that New York-based second FBI probe, though there are also materials from the first investigation in Miami, CNN previously reported.What has DOJ said it may release?The Justice Department has described in court filings the types of documents in its possession that it believes must be publicly released under the new law. However, the department warned that the list is “not entirely comprehensive” of what may be released.The list says materials obtained from search warrants, and FBI affidavits supporting search warrants, will be released. The FBI notably raided Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, and the private island that he owned in the US Virgin Islands, known as Little Saint James.The list also mentions memos from FBI interviews with witnesses. CNN has reported that there are at least hundreds of pages of these memos, known as “302s.”The list also includes financial records, bank records, travel logs from commercial and private flights, materials subpoenaed from Internet providers like Google, what’s referred to as “school records,” information from law firms representing victims, arrest reports, depositions from related civil lawsuits, immigration records, documents from the Palm Beach Police Department and forensic reports from seized dozens of Epstein’s electronic devices.Federal judges have also paved the way for the Justice Department to release grand jury materials from the Epstein indictment, the Maxwell trial and the related probe in Florida.But the grand jury files might not be all that illuminating. One of the judges wrote that nearly all of the grand jury material from the Maxwell case “was already a matter of public record” and that its disclosure “would not reveal new information of any consequence.”What might be redacted?The law says records can’t be “withheld, delayed, or redacted” due to concerns about “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.” And it explicitly says this applies to “any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”However, under the law, Attorney General Pam Bondi can “withhold or redact” portions of records that fall under five categories, as long as she publicly explains every redaction.Those categories are: records that contain personally identifiable information about Epstein’s victims, materials depicting child sexual abuse, materials depicting physical abuse, any records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation,” or any classified documents that must stay secret to protect “national defense or foreign policy.”CNN reported that the FBI recovered thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young women at Epstein’s property in Manhattan. Those images will not be made public.What won’t be in the release?There are limits for what we’ll see. The Justice Department’s in-house files about the Epstein case only represent a portion of what exists in the entire Epstein-related universe.For instance, the House Oversight Committee’s recent releases contained documents obtained from Epstein’s estate, including some materials that the FBI later said it had never seen before. Lawmakers are also pursuing bank records that might not be in the Justice Department’s existing cache of materials.Naturally, this means there could be more disclosures even after the Justice Department’s highly anticipated document drop.What are experts looking for?Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, a top expert on the Epstein saga, said she is keeping an eye out for drafts of un-filed indictments, tips from the public that the FBI received about Epstein, and internal emails and texts from the investigators who worked on the cases.Others, including some Democratic lawmakers, have raised concerns about the possibility that the Trump administration will overzealously withhold or redact materials – particularly documents that make Trump look bad – due to the ongoing Trump-backed probe into Epstein’s associates.Last month, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s ties to several well-known Democrats, including former President Clinton. That probe is ongoing, though the Justice Department said back in July that its exhaustive review of the Epstein and Maxwell case files did not uncover enough evidence to charge any of their associates.What have the victims said?Some of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims have been wary of the Justice Department releasing grand jury and other materials, for fear of being named publicly. But others have supported the unsealing, if proper redactions are made to conceal names and identifying information.One victim who testified during Maxwell’s trial supported the release provided such redactions are made. In a letter to the federal judge who presided over the case, the victim also voiced concern that the Justice Department might not release everything they have.Others have been far more critical of the releases. When Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a large tranche of documents from Epstein’s estate in November, a group of victims quickly lamented that names and other personal information was not redacted.“Transparency cannot come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims,” lawyers for the victims wrote in a letter to the judge in the Maxwell case, adding that they “already suffered repeatedly, both at the hands of their abusers as well as by the actions of the media and inactions on the Government.”The judge who presided over Maxwell’s case, Paul Engelmayer, also criticized the Justice Department’s handling of victims during the months-long debate over whether to release more of the files. He said in one ruling that the Justice Department, “although paying lip service to Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims, has not treated them with the solicitude they deserve.”The Justice Department has said in court filings that, in anticipation of the release, it has coordinated closely with known victims and was trying to reach lawyers for more victims. However, CNN reported Tuesday that some Epstein survivors haven’t received any outreach from the Justice Department ahead of the files’ release.What has already been released?A deluge of files, memos, transcripts and other documents surrounding the Epstein saga have already been released through Maxwell’s 2021 criminal trial, public records requests over the years, Justice Department reports, and numerous civil lawsuits.Such documents released by the Justice Department include their findings from an internal investigation into the 2008 non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, which the DOJ now says was wholly improper, as well as the department’s inspector general’s report on Epstein’s suicide at a federal prison in Manhattan.Earlier this year, Trump appointees at the Justice Department and FBI released a batch of declassified Epstein files investigators had gathered. The information from those files, however, was largely already public and the Trump administration has been heavily criticized by supporters and detractors for the bungled release ever since.The Justice Department released hundreds of pages from its controversial sit-down interview with Maxwell earlier this year, where she defended her actions and even criticized some of the victims.More recently, members of the House Oversight Committee released multiple tranches of files and photographs from Epstein’s estate.CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

    A new federal law requires the Justice Department to release by Friday a massive trove of investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

    The release of the Epstein files, detailing the probes into the disgraced multimillionaire and sex offender who died in 2019, has attracted significant attention. The public has been captivated by Epstein’s lavish lifestyle, claims of underage sex trafficking, and his ties to President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, celebrities and foreign dignitaries.

    Veto-proof majorities in Congress passed a law last month requiring the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein-related files in its custody. Trump fought hard to stop the law but signed it after being outmaneuvered by a bipartisan groundswell of support from lawmakers and the public.

    However, it’s unclear exactly which records will be made public and how much of the material will be new. Over the 20-year saga surrounding Epstein’s sex crimes, thousands of files have already been disclosed through civil litigation and public records requests.

    Here’s what you need to know about the files:

    Why is this happening now?

    The law, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, is only three pages long and spells out in simple language what the Justice Department must release and what it can withhold.

    The federal government is required to release “searchable and downloadable” copies of “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and Maxwell that are in the possession of the Justice Department or FBI.

    The law explicitly calls for the release of travel logs, materials about Epstein’s associates, any related immunity deals, relevant corporate records, all internal Justice Department communications about the investigations, and documents about Epstein’s 2019 death.

    What’s in DOJ’s Epstein files?

    CNN has reported that there’s more than 300 gigabytes of data that lives within the FBI’s primary electronic case management system, called Sentinel. This includes videos, photographs, audio recordings and written records.

    The FBI conducted two probes into Epstein. The first began in 2006 after sex abuse allegations emerged in Florida. That led to a non-prosecution deal in which Epstein avoided federal charges. Much of the same conduct was also scrutinized by the Palm Beach Police Department, leading to Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea on state charges. He would serve just 13 months in a Florida jail for state prostitution charges, though he was allowed to spend nearly half of that time on “work release” at his office.

    The second FBI investigation led to Epstein’s federal sex trafficking indictment in 2019. The bulk of the “Epstein files” comes from that New York-based second FBI probe, though there are also materials from the first investigation in Miami, CNN previously reported.

    What has DOJ said it may release?

    The Justice Department has described in court filings the types of documents in its possession that it believes must be publicly released under the new law. However, the department warned that the list is “not entirely comprehensive” of what may be released.

    The list says materials obtained from search warrants, and FBI affidavits supporting search warrants, will be released. The FBI notably raided Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, and the private island that he owned in the US Virgin Islands, known as Little Saint James.

    The list also mentions memos from FBI interviews with witnesses. CNN has reported that there are at least hundreds of pages of these memos, known as “302s.”

    The list also includes financial records, bank records, travel logs from commercial and private flights, materials subpoenaed from Internet providers like Google, what’s referred to as “school records,” information from law firms representing victims, arrest reports, depositions from related civil lawsuits, immigration records, documents from the Palm Beach Police Department and forensic reports from seized dozens of Epstein’s electronic devices.

    Federal judges have also paved the way for the Justice Department to release grand jury materials from the Epstein indictment, the Maxwell trial and the related probe in Florida.

    But the grand jury files might not be all that illuminating. One of the judges wrote that nearly all of the grand jury material from the Maxwell case “was already a matter of public record” and that its disclosure “would not reveal new information of any consequence.”

    What might be redacted?

    The law says records can’t be “withheld, delayed, or redacted” due to concerns about “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.” And it explicitly says this applies to “any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

    However, under the law, Attorney General Pam Bondi can “withhold or redact” portions of records that fall under five categories, as long as she publicly explains every redaction.

    Those categories are: records that contain personally identifiable information about Epstein’s victims, materials depicting child sexual abuse, materials depicting physical abuse, any records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation,” or any classified documents that must stay secret to protect “national defense or foreign policy.”

    CNN reported that the FBI recovered thousands of nude and seminude photographs of young women at Epstein’s property in Manhattan. Those images will not be made public.

    What won’t be in the release?

    There are limits for what we’ll see. The Justice Department’s in-house files about the Epstein case only represent a portion of what exists in the entire Epstein-related universe.

    For instance, the House Oversight Committee’s recent releases contained documents obtained from Epstein’s estate, including some materials that the FBI later said it had never seen before. Lawmakers are also pursuing bank records that might not be in the Justice Department’s existing cache of materials.

    Naturally, this means there could be more disclosures even after the Justice Department’s highly anticipated document drop.

    What are experts looking for?

    Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, a top expert on the Epstein saga, said she is keeping an eye out for drafts of un-filed indictments, tips from the public that the FBI received about Epstein, and internal emails and texts from the investigators who worked on the cases.

    Others, including some Democratic lawmakers, have raised concerns about the possibility that the Trump administration will overzealously withhold or redact materials – particularly documents that make Trump look bad – due to the ongoing Trump-backed probe into Epstein’s associates.

    Last month, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s ties to several well-known Democrats, including former President Clinton. That probe is ongoing, though the Justice Department said back in July that its exhaustive review of the Epstein and Maxwell case files did not uncover enough evidence to charge any of their associates.

    What have the victims said?

    Some of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims have been wary of the Justice Department releasing grand jury and other materials, for fear of being named publicly. But others have supported the unsealing, if proper redactions are made to conceal names and identifying information.

    One victim who testified during Maxwell’s trial supported the release provided such redactions are made. In a letter to the federal judge who presided over the case, the victim also voiced concern that the Justice Department might not release everything they have.

    Others have been far more critical of the releases. When Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a large tranche of documents from Epstein’s estate in November, a group of victims quickly lamented that names and other personal information was not redacted.

    “Transparency cannot come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims,” lawyers for the victims wrote in a letter to the judge in the Maxwell case, adding that they “already suffered repeatedly, both at the hands of their abusers as well as by the actions of the media and inactions on the Government.”

    The judge who presided over Maxwell’s case, Paul Engelmayer, also criticized the Justice Department’s handling of victims during the months-long debate over whether to release more of the files. He said in one ruling that the Justice Department, “although paying lip service to Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims, has not treated them with the solicitude they deserve.”

    The Justice Department has said in court filings that, in anticipation of the release, it has coordinated closely with known victims and was trying to reach lawyers for more victims. However, CNN reported Tuesday that some Epstein survivors haven’t received any outreach from the Justice Department ahead of the files’ release.

    What has already been released?

    A deluge of files, memos, transcripts and other documents surrounding the Epstein saga have already been released through Maxwell’s 2021 criminal trial, public records requests over the years, Justice Department reports, and numerous civil lawsuits.

    Such documents released by the Justice Department include their findings from an internal investigation into the 2008 non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, which the DOJ now says was wholly improper, as well as the department’s inspector general’s report on Epstein’s suicide at a federal prison in Manhattan.

    Earlier this year, Trump appointees at the Justice Department and FBI released a batch of declassified Epstein files investigators had gathered. The information from those files, however, was largely already public and the Trump administration has been heavily criticized by supporters and detractors for the bungled release ever since.

    The Justice Department released hundreds of pages from its controversial sit-down interview with Maxwell earlier this year, where she defended her actions and even criticized some of the victims.

    More recently, members of the House Oversight Committee released multiple tranches of files and photographs from Epstein’s estate.

    CNN’s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.

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  • Justice Department drafting a list of ‘domestic terrorists’

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    WASHINGTON — Justice Department leadership has directed the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism” by the start of next year, and to establish a “cash reward system” that incentivizes individuals to report on their fellow Americans, according to a memo reviewed by The Times.

    Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo, dated Dec. 4, to identify “domestic terrorists” who use violence, or the threat of violence, to advance political and social agendas, including “adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity.”

    Although the memo does not mention protests against President Trump’s immigration crackdown directly, it says that problematic “political and social agendas” could include “opposition to law and immigration enforcement, extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders.”

    The memo, sent by Atty, Gen. Pam Bondi to federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, follows on a presidential memorandum signed by Trump in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative figure, that gave civil rights groups pause over the potential targeting of political activists, donors and nonprofits opposed to the president.

    The memo also outlines what it says are causes of domestic terrorist activity, including “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality.”

    “Federal law enforcement will prioritize this threat. Where federal crime is encountered, federal agents will act,” the memo states.

    Some national security experts said the memo represents a dramatic operational shift, by directing federal prosecutors and agents to approach domestic terrorism in a way that is “ideologically one-sided.” At worst, critics said, the memo provides legal justification for criminalizing free speech.

    “I think this causes a chilling impact, because it definitely seems to be directing enforcement toward particular points of view,” Mary McCord, a former acting assistant attorney general for national security, said in an interview.

    The memo, for example, primarily focuses on antifa-aligned extremism, but omits other trends that in recent years have been identified as rising domestic threats, such as violent white supremacy. Since Trump resumed office, the FBI has cut its office designated to focus on domestic extremism, withdrawing resources from investigations into white supremacists and right-wing antigovernment groups.

    The memo’s push to collect intelligence on antifa through internal lists and public tip lines also raised questions over the scope of the investigative mission, and how wide a net investigators might cast.

    “Whether you’re going to a protest, whether you’re considering a piece of legislation, whether you’re considering undertaking a particular business activity, the ambiguity will affect your risk profile,” Thomas Brzozowski, a former counsel for domestic terrorism at the Justice Department, said in an interview.

    “It is the unknown that people will fear,” he added.

    Protesters in 1980s style aerobic outfits work out during a demonstration dubbed “Sweatin’ Out the Fascists” on Sunday in Portland, Ore.

    (Natalie Behring / Getty Images)

    Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed alarm over the new policy, which could be used by the Justice Department to target civil society groups and Democratic individuals and entities with burdensome investigations.

    But the White House argues that Democratic appointees under the Biden administration targeted conservative extremists in similar ways.

    Members of Trump’s team have embraced political retribution as a policy course. Ed Martin, the president’s pardon attorney, has openly advocated for Justice Department investigations that would burden who Trump perceives as his enemies, alongside leniency for his friends and allies.

    “No MAGA left behind,” Martin wrote on social media in May.

    Law enforcement agencies are directed in the memo to “zealously” investigate those involved in what it calls potential domestic terrorist actions, including “doxing” law enforcement. Authorities are also directed to “map the full network of culpable actors” potentially tied to crime.

    Domestic terrorism is not an official designation in U.S. law. But the directive cites over two dozen existing laws that could substantiate charges against domestic extremists and their supporters, such as conspiracy to injure an officer, seditious conspiracy and mail and wire fraud.

    Only in a footnote of the memo does the Justice Department acknowledge that the U.S. government cannot “investigate, collect, or maintain information on U.S. persons solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment.”

    “No investigation may be opened based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment or the lawful exercise of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States,” the footnote says.

    Some tension could arise when citizens report what they believe to be suspected domestic terrorism to the FBI.

    The memo directs the FBI online tip line to allow “witnesses and citizen journalists” to report videos, recordings and photos of what they believe to be suspected acts of domestic violence, and establish a “cash reward system” for information that leads to an arrest.

    “People will inform because they want to get paid,” Brzozowski said. He added that some information could end up being unreliable and likely be related to other Americans exercising their constitutional rights.

    State and local law enforcement agencies that adhere to the Justice Department directive will be prioritized for federal grant funding.

    A man dressed as a bee holds an American flag at a No Kings protest.

    A man dressed as a bee participates in the No Kings Day of Peaceful Action in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 18.

    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

    One of the directives in the memo would require the FBI to disseminate an “intelligence bulletin on Antifa and Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremist groups” early next year.

    “The bulletin should describe the relevant organizations structures, funding sources, and tactics so that law enforcement partners can effectively investigate and policy makers can effectively understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by these extremist groups,” the memo states.

    The mission will cross several agencies, with the FBI working alongside joint terrorism task forces nationwide, as well as the Counterterrorism Division and the National Threat Operations Center, among others, to provide updates to Justice Department leadership every 30 days.

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    Michael Wilner, Ana Ceballos

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  • Managing your digital footprint: Tips for online privacy

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    EVEN WEBSITES, WE SEARCH ONLINE. WE’RE ALL LEAVING BEHIND A DIGITAL FOOTPRINT TO CREATE THAT DATA. PRETTY EASY TO ERASE. IT CAN BE REALLY TOUGH, AND THAT TRAIL OF DATA CAN BE USED AGAINST YOU. WESH TWO MEREDITH MCDONOUGH SHOWS US HOW WE CAN CLEAN UP OUR ONLINE FOOTPRINT AND THE THREE THINGS WE SHOULD NEVER LEAVE ONLINE. YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. IT’S THE TRAIL WE LEAVE BEHIND ONLINE. FROM POSTS AND PURCHASES TO EMAILS WE SEND AND WEBSITES WE VISIT. I THINK WHEN WE SIGNED UP FOR SOCIAL MEDIA, WE WE ALL TOOK AN EXCHANGE. WE WE EXCHANGED OUR PRIVACY FOR THE COMFORT OF CONNECTION. IS THIS POSSIBLE IN TODAY’S DAY AND AGE TO EXTRACT YOURSELF ONLINE? JOSH HAMMONDS IS THE CHAIR OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT AT ROLLINS COLLEGE. HE TEACHES HIS STUDENTS THE IMPORTANCE OF INTENTIONAL POSTING. AND SO WE’VE TALKED ABOUT BEFORE THAT I POSTED THAT. LET ME SEE IF I CAN DELETE THAT POST OR TAKE THAT DOWN. YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO, BUT YOU DON’T KNOW IF SOMEBODY’S NOT GOING TO SCREENSHOT THAT OR PUT THAT SOMEWHERE ELSE. AND SO ANYTHING THAT YOU POST ON TWITTER OR ANY KIND OF FEED THAT YOU POST, THERE’S SOMEBODY THAT MIGHT BE CAPTURING THAT DIGITAL FOOTPRINT. ONE OF HIS UPPERCLASSMEN GETS THE MESSAGE LOUD AND CLEAR. I THINK THAT WHEN YOU’RE POSTING YOURSELF NOWADAYS, YOU HAVE TO BE, LIKE, VERY CAUTIOUS BECAUSE EVERYBODY CAN SEE IT. EVERYBODY CAN LIKE, COMMENT, POST, SHARE. FOR THIS GENERATION, THEY ALSO HAVE TO REMIND THEIR PARENTS OF WHAT NOT TO POST. I DON’T REALLY WANT LIKE FUTURE EMPLOYERS, LIKE GOING INTO SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES AND THE POSTS THAT THEY SEE ARE FROM WHEN I WAS 15 YEARS OLD. SO WHEN IT COMES TO DELETING YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT, CAN YOU REALLY DO IT? CAN YOU GET RID OF YOUR PICTURES AND YOUR POSTS AND YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? AND WHAT DOES IT ENTAIL? IT BECOMES A HUGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS. AND SO, YOU KNOW, IF YOU’VE GOT SOMETHING THAT’S THAT’S NEGATIVE, THAT’S THAT’S ONLINE, YOU’VE GOT TO HIRE A COMPANY TO TRY TO RE SORT OF MANAGE YOUR IDENTITY. I SPOKE TO THE OWNER OF ONE OF THOSE COMPANIES, HARRY MCGINNES, THE FOUNDER AND CEO OF PRIVACY B IS A NATIONAL COMPANY OUT OF GEORGIA. THEY MAP OUT YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT AND THEN REACH OUT TO ALL THE COMPANIES YOU’VE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH AND ASK THAT YOUR POST BE TAKEN DOWN AND YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION REMOVED. THE DATA BROKERS ARE COMPANIES THAT THEIR PRIMARY REVENUE SOURCE IS BUYING AND SELLING PII OR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. THESE COMPANIES CRUNCH ALL THE NUMBERS THEY BUY AND SELL YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER, YOUR HOME ADDRESS, YOUR BIRTHDAY, YOUR YOUR SPOUSE’S INFORMATION, ALL EVERYTHING THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON. HARRY SAYS THERE ARE THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO GET OFF THE INTERNET YOUR CURRENT ADDRESS, YOUR PHONE NUMBER, AND YOUR EMAIL. SO YOUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINT MATTERS. NOT ONLY YOUR CURRENT INFORMATION, BUT THE OLD INFORMATION. BECAUSE DATA BROKERS ARE EXPERTS AT WEAVING TOGETHER DISPARATE PIECES OF DATA AND CONNECTING IT TO PAINT THE STORY OF WHO YOU ARE. MEREDITH MCDONOUGH WESH TWO NEWS. AND YOU CAN PUT IN THE ELBOW GREASE AND DO YOUR BEST TO DELETE YOUR POSTS AND ONLINE FOOTPRINT, OR PAY ABOUT $200 A YEAR TO HAVE A COMPANY WORK ON DELETING YOUR DATA FOR YOU. BUT KEEP IN MIND THERE ARE SOME GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS THAT CANNOT

    As digital footprints become increasingly difficult to erase, experts are emphasizing the importance of managing one’s online presence to protect privacy. From social media posts to websites visited, every action leaves a trail collecting your data. Josh Hammonds, chair of the communications department at Rollins College, said, “I think when we signed up for social media, we all took an exchange. We exchanged our privacy for the comfort of connection.” Hammonds teaches his students the importance of intentional posting, noting that even if a post is deleted, it might have been captured by someone else.Denathany Cerpa, one of Hammonds’ students, understands the need for caution, saying, “I think that when you’re posting yourself nowadays, you have to be, like, very cautious because everybody can see it. Everybody can like, comment, post, share.” Cerpa also highlights the importance of reminding parents what not to post, expressing concern that future employers may access old social media posts.The process of deleting one’s online presence can be complex, often requiring professional help.”And so, you know, if you’ve got something that’s, that’s negative, that’s that’s online, you’ve got to hire a company to try to re-sort of manage your identity,” Hammonds said.”Data brokers are companies that their primary revenue source is buying and selling PII or personally identifiable information,” said Harry Maugans, founder and CEO of Privacy Bee, a company that specializes in managing digital footprints. “These companies crunch all the numbers — they buy and sell your cellphone number — your home address, your birthday — your spouse’s information — everything they can get their hands on.”Maugans advises removing three key pieces of information from the internet: your current address, phone number, and email. “So your digital footprint matters — not only your current information but the old information because data brokers are experts at weaving together pieces of data and connecting it to paint the story of who you are,” he said.He emphasized the importance of cleaning up digital footprints to protect against those with bad intent.Individuals can attempt to delete their online presence themselves or pay approximately $200 a year for a company to manage their data removal. However, some government documents, such as tax records, cannot be removed from the internet.

    As digital footprints become increasingly difficult to erase, experts are emphasizing the importance of managing one’s online presence to protect privacy.

    From social media posts to websites visited, every action leaves a trail collecting your data.

    Josh Hammonds, chair of the communications department at Rollins College, said, “I think when we signed up for social media, we all took an exchange. We exchanged our privacy for the comfort of connection.”

    Hammonds teaches his students the importance of intentional posting, noting that even if a post is deleted, it might have been captured by someone else.

    Denathany Cerpa, one of Hammonds’ students, understands the need for caution, saying, “I think that when you’re posting yourself nowadays, you have to be, like, very cautious because everybody can see it. Everybody can like, comment, post, share.”

    Cerpa also highlights the importance of reminding parents what not to post, expressing concern that future employers may access old social media posts.

    The process of deleting one’s online presence can be complex, often requiring professional help.

    “And so, you know, if you’ve got something that’s, that’s negative, that’s that’s online, you’ve got to hire a company to try to re-sort of manage your identity,” Hammonds said.

    “Data brokers are companies that their primary revenue source is buying and selling PII or personally identifiable information,” said Harry Maugans, founder and CEO of Privacy Bee, a company that specializes in managing digital footprints. “These companies crunch all the numbers — they buy and sell your cellphone number — your home address, your birthday — your spouse’s information — everything they can get their hands on.”

    Maugans advises removing three key pieces of information from the internet: your current address, phone number, and email.

    “So your digital footprint matters — not only your current information but the old information because data brokers are experts at weaving together pieces of data and connecting it to paint the story of who you are,” he said.

    He emphasized the importance of cleaning up digital footprints to protect against those with bad intent.

    Individuals can attempt to delete their online presence themselves or pay approximately $200 a year for a company to manage their data removal.

    However, some government documents, such as tax records, cannot be removed from the internet.

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  • E-biking teens accused of violently assaulting Hermosa Beach man are arrested

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    A video of a gang of teenage e-bikers beating up a man near the Hermosa Beach Pier until one of them yells “he’s dead, he’s dead” sent waves of outrage through the tight-knit coastal community this week.

    On Wednesday, the Hermosa Beach Police Department said it had identified five juveniles involved in the attack. Their ages range from 13 to 15. Two who are accused of being the primary aggressors are under arrest.

    The two teens were booked on suspicion of felony assault at the city jail and will be transported to Juvenile Hall. Their case will be presented to the L.A. County district attorney’s office’s juvenile division for filing consideration, police said.

    The group assaulted a 56-year-old resident about 8 p.m. Friday near 11th Court and Beach Drive, police said. The resident had walked past his intended destination to initiate contact with the youths and did not appear to have been targeted, authorities said.

    Surveillance camera recordings show the teens surrounding the man, knocking him to the ground and then repeatedly punching and kicking him.

    Officers responded to a 911 call for the assault and took the victim to hospital. He was discharged and interviewed by officers Monday. No information has been shared on his condition or injuries.

    In the days after the assault, police spoke with the parents of the teens involved and fielded numerous phone calls, e-mails and videos from the scene submitted by the community as calls for accountability intensified.

    “We know the videos circulating are disturbing,” the department said in a Wednesday statement. “As with all cases, we take this seriously and appreciate the community’s patience while we continue to work on this case. We sincerely thank those who have trusted the process and allowed our team to remain focused on the facts and evidence.”

    The assault was the latest in a string of incidents involving teenagers on e-bikes in the South Bay communities of Manhattan Beach, El Segundo and Redondo Beach. E-biking teens have also been accused of igniting fireworks on the busy Hermosa Beach Pier as well as barreling down streets and assaulting residents.

    The city of Hermosa Beach enacted an emergency ordinance in June 2024 intended to curb dangerous behavior on the motorized bikes. The ordinance requires minors to wear helmets on e-bikes, forbids riding an e-bike under the influence of drugs or alcohol and bans e-bikes on the Greenbelt trail. Juveniles who violate the ordinance can have their e-bikes impounded.

    The Police Department issued 40 e-bike citations this year as of Nov. 13 and has impounded 19 e-bikes since the ordinance was adopted.

    Anyone with additional information regarding the recent assault is asked to contact the Hermosa Beach Police Department at (310) 318-0360.

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    Clara Harter

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  • Orlando mail thief wanted; $100K reward offered for information leading to arrest

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    A $100,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of a mail thief.According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a suspect can be seen on surveillance footage prying open mailboxes and stealing mail from the Ventura post office in Orlando.The incident occurred on Nov. 21 just after midnight. The United States Postal Inspection Service has issued a letter to residents, warning them of the ongoing criminal investigation and the difficulty in determining which mail pieces have been affected.Martha Morales headed to the post office near Curry Ford and South Goldenrod on Tuesday. Morales, who has had a PO box for nearly ten years, discovered the letter from the Miami division of the United States Postal Inspection Service when she checked her mail Tuesday night. “Going on ten years,” she said.”We are currently conducting a criminal investigation in your area involving a mail theft ring,” the letter stated.The letter further explained, “Because of the nature of the crime, it is difficult to determine exactly what mail pieces corresponding to you have been taken. It is possible recovered mail was returned to you and/or mail was destroyed as a result of the perpetrators actions.”On the door of the post office, the same letter Morales received is displayed, along with another notice about adjusted lobby hours to protect mail and ensure timely service. Morales expressed her concern, saying, “Oh yeah,” when asked if she would double-check her mail for missing checks.Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly noted that mail theft is typically considered a federal offense, and his office has investigated similar cases recently. “We have investigated a theft of five, six hundred pieces of mail that were attributed to a group out of Central Florida,” Staly said. “They were stealing checks, they were washing the checks, and then adding a different amount and a different person payable.”Sheriff Staly encourages residents to report stolen mail to their post office and local law enforcement. As for the mailbox theft on Curry Ford, it remains unclear what the thief managed to steal. Morales hopes, “they got caught.”Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact law enforcement at 1-877-876-2455. WESH 2 reached out to the inspection service for more information on the alleged theft ring, but by Tuesday night, had not heard back. Though mail theft would typically be considered a federal offense, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said his office investigated mail theft just within the last six or seven months. “We have investigated a theft of five, six hundred pieces of mail that were attributed to a group out of Central Florida,” Staly said. As far as what that group was doing with the mail they stole, Staly said, “They were stealing checks, they were washing the checks, and then adding a different amount and a different person payable.”If your mail gets stolen, the sheriff encourages you to tell your post office and local law enforcement.

    ORLANDO, Fla. —

    A $100,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of a mail thief.

    According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a suspect can be seen on surveillance footage prying open mailboxes and stealing mail from the Ventura post office in Orlando.

    The incident occurred on Nov. 21 just after midnight.

    The United States Postal Inspection Service has issued a letter to residents, warning them of the ongoing criminal investigation and the difficulty in determining which mail pieces have been affected.

    Martha Morales headed to the post office near Curry Ford and South Goldenrod on Tuesday.

    Morales, who has had a PO box for nearly ten years, discovered the letter from the Miami division of the United States Postal Inspection Service when she checked her mail Tuesday night. “Going on ten years,” she said.

    “We are currently conducting a criminal investigation in your area involving a mail theft ring,” the letter stated.

    The letter further explained, “Because of the nature of the crime, it is difficult to determine exactly what mail pieces corresponding to you have been taken. It is possible recovered mail was returned to you and/or mail was destroyed as a result of the perpetrators actions.”

    On the door of the post office, the same letter Morales received is displayed, along with another notice about adjusted lobby hours to protect mail and ensure timely service. Morales expressed her concern, saying, “Oh yeah,” when asked if she would double-check her mail for missing checks.

    Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly noted that mail theft is typically considered a federal offense, and his office has investigated similar cases recently. “We have investigated a theft of five, six hundred pieces of mail that were attributed to a group out of Central Florida,” Staly said. “They were stealing checks, they were washing the checks, and then adding a different amount and a different person payable.”

    Sheriff Staly encourages residents to report stolen mail to their post office and local law enforcement. As for the mailbox theft on Curry Ford, it remains unclear what the thief managed to steal. Morales hopes, “they got caught.”

    Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact law enforcement at 1-877-876-2455.

    WESH 2 reached out to the inspection service for more information on the alleged theft ring, but by Tuesday night, had not heard back.

    Though mail theft would typically be considered a federal offense, Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said his office investigated mail theft just within the last six or seven months.

    “We have investigated a theft of five, six hundred pieces of mail that were attributed to a group out of Central Florida,” Staly said.

    As far as what that group was doing with the mail they stole, Staly said, “They were stealing checks, they were washing the checks, and then adding a different amount and a different person payable.”

    If your mail gets stolen, the sheriff encourages you to tell your post office and local law enforcement.

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  • How scammers use the holiday season to steal your money, information

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    Scammers particularly use the holiday season to steal your money and information.Hoping consumers will let down their guard, or just trying to spoof legitimate businesses, scammers will do everything they can to take advantage of your vulnerability or generosity.Chase and the Baltimore Police Department recently hosted a scam education event to show consumers how to protect themselves. Some of their tips are listed below.Holiday shopping: What to knowShop with trusted retailers: Stick to reputable websites when shopping online. If you’re unfamiliar with a store, search for its name along with terms like “scam,” “complaints” or “reviews” to uncover any red flags.Verify website URLs: Scammers can create fake websites that look like legitimate retailers. Ensure the URL starts with “https://” as the “s” stands for secure. Avoid clicking links from unsolicited emails or texts.Beware of unrealistic deals: Scammers lure buyers by offering massive discounts on popular or sold-out items. If a deal seems too good to be true, it’s likely a scam.How you pay matters: Credit cards and debit cards offer different protections than cash or payment transfer apps, like Zelle and Venmo. Remember, only use apps like Zelle to pay others you know and trust.Shopping on public Wi-Fi: Avoid connecting to public Wi-Fi when making an online purchase. Scammers can intercept your personal information on unsecured networks.Use digital tools: Trusted financial institutions offer credit and identity monitoring, including alerts to inform you when your data is exposed in a data breach or on the dark web.Online deals that are too good to be trueWhen shopping online or on social media, buy only from trusted websites and vendors. If purchasing on a marketplace, stay on the platform to complete transactions and communicate with sellers, as protections often only apply when you use the platform.Use payment methods that offer buyer protection. Never send money to strangers, particularly via payment-transfer apps like Zelle or Venmo, for purchases, especially when you can’t confirm the goods exist. Missed packages or problems with deliveryExpecting a package? Be cautious of phishing messages through email or text message that impersonate delivery services, like the U.S. Postal Service, UPS or FedEx, with links to view “missed deliveries.” These links may lead to fake sign-in pages to capture your actual password or to malware-infected sites.Do not respond to messages requesting personal or financial information, including money or cryptocurrency. Be wary of unexpected packages and avoid scanning QR codes, as they may be attempts to steal your information.Scams: Fake refunds, quishing, phishing/smishing, whalingRefund scams: Another scam doesn’t demand payment. Instead, it dangles a refund, sometimes via text messages posing as official messages from “Department of Taxation,” urging recipients to “click here to claim your refund.” The texts look legitimate at a glance, but they are designed to lure you into tapping a fraudulent link and handing over personal information. Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. The practice called “quishing” uses a QR code that sends you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.When it comes to phishing, the term is more widely known, but people are still falling for it. Phishing emails or texts (known as “smishing”) attempt to trick a recipient into clicking a suspicious link, filling out information or downloading a malware file.Whaling attacks generally target leaders or other executives with access to large amounts of information at an organization or business. Whaling attacks can target people in payroll offices, human resources and financial offices as well as leadership. Video below: An expert’s tips to avoid falling for QR code scamsGift card scamsBe cautious about buying gift cards from third-party sites. Scammers will pre-save card details or sell expired cards.Don’t respond to an unsolicited email or text message offering you a gift card because it’s often a way to track your online activity.Don’t fall for scammers asking you to pay for services or goods using gift cards.Video below: Guide to selling gift cards securely onlinePhony charitiesThe holidays are also a season of giving, but before you donate money, double-check the contact and payment information for a charity.Beware of text, email or phone call solicitations. Like any other unsolicited message, don’t click on links or open attachments because they may contain malware or try to steal your information.Travel scamsScammers try to mimic or impersonate popular travel websites by recreating familiar branding, logos or company verbiage.As part of your travel research, do scam checks by looking up unfamiliar retail, travel and services websites by searching online for their names along with terms like “scam,” “complaints” or “reviews.”Chase advises using a credit card to book travel so that if an issue arises, you can dispute it.What to do if you fall victim to a scamVideo below: Steps to take immediately after falling for a scamStop communication: Discontinue all contact with the scammer immediately to prevent further damage.Document everything: Take note of all relevant information, including the scammer’s contact details and any information that may be useful when reporting the incident.Contact your bank: Report the incident and verify recent transactions to ensure there is no fraudulent activity on your account.Report the incident: File a police report or an inquiry to the Federal Trade Commission for official documentation.Monitor for identity theft: Sign up for credit and identity monitoring to receive alerts when your personal information has been leaked in a data breach or shows up on the dark web.Change your passwords: Update your online accounts by creating strong passwords, particularly if the scam involved accessing your personal information.Share your experience: Let friends and family know what happened to raise awareness about the signs of scams and help others avoid falling victim. Remember that financial scams can, and do, happen to anyone, so don’t feel embarrassed.Remain on high alert for follow-up scams: Scammers might attempt to target you again, especially if they know you’ve fallen victim before. Be cautious of unsolicited communications.

    Scammers particularly use the holiday season to steal your money and information.

    Hoping consumers will let down their guard, or just trying to spoof legitimate businesses, scammers will do everything they can to take advantage of your vulnerability or generosity.

    Chase and the Baltimore Police Department recently hosted a scam education event to show consumers how to protect themselves. Some of their tips are listed below.

    Holiday shopping: What to know

    Shop with trusted retailers: Stick to reputable websites when shopping online. If you’re unfamiliar with a store, search for its name along with terms like “scam,” “complaints” or “reviews” to uncover any red flags.

    Verify website URLs: Scammers can create fake websites that look like legitimate retailers. Ensure the URL starts with “https://” as the “s” stands for secure. Avoid clicking links from unsolicited emails or texts.

    Beware of unrealistic deals: Scammers lure buyers by offering massive discounts on popular or sold-out items. If a deal seems too good to be true, it’s likely a scam.

    How you pay matters: Credit cards and debit cards offer different protections than cash or payment transfer apps, like Zelle and Venmo. Remember, only use apps like Zelle to pay others you know and trust.

    Shopping on public Wi-Fi: Avoid connecting to public Wi-Fi when making an online purchase. Scammers can intercept your personal information on unsecured networks.

    Use digital tools: Trusted financial institutions offer credit and identity monitoring, including alerts to inform you when your data is exposed in a data breach or on the dark web.

    Online deals that are too good to be true

    When shopping online or on social media, buy only from trusted websites and vendors. If purchasing on a marketplace, stay on the platform to complete transactions and communicate with sellers, as protections often only apply when you use the platform.

    Use payment methods that offer buyer protection. Never send money to strangers, particularly via payment-transfer apps like Zelle or Venmo, for purchases, especially when you can’t confirm the goods exist.

    Missed packages or problems with delivery

    Expecting a package? Be cautious of phishing messages through email or text message that impersonate delivery services, like the U.S. Postal Service, UPS or FedEx, with links to view “missed deliveries.”

    These links may lead to fake sign-in pages to capture your actual password or to malware-infected sites.

    Do not respond to messages requesting personal or financial information, including money or cryptocurrency. Be wary of unexpected packages and avoid scanning QR codes, as they may be attempts to steal your information.

    Scams: Fake refunds, quishing, phishing/smishing, whaling

    Refund scams: Another scam doesn’t demand payment. Instead, it dangles a refund, sometimes via text messages posing as official messages from “Department of Taxation,” urging recipients to “click here to claim your refund.” The texts look legitimate at a glance, but they are designed to lure you into tapping a fraudulent link and handing over personal information.

    Cybersecurity experts are warning about scammers using QR codes to take advantage of unsuspecting victims. The practice called “quishing” uses a QR code that sends you to a dummy website to get your information — and money.

    When it comes to phishing, the term is more widely known, but people are still falling for it. Phishing emails or texts (known as “smishing”) attempt to trick a recipient into clicking a suspicious link, filling out information or downloading a malware file.

    Whaling attacks generally target leaders or other executives with access to large amounts of information at an organization or business. Whaling attacks can target people in payroll offices, human resources and financial offices as well as leadership.

    Video below: An expert’s tips to avoid falling for QR code scams

    Gift card scams

    Be cautious about buying gift cards from third-party sites. Scammers will pre-save card details or sell expired cards.

    Don’t respond to an unsolicited email or text message offering you a gift card because it’s often a way to track your online activity.

    Don’t fall for scammers asking you to pay for services or goods using gift cards.

    Video below: Guide to selling gift cards securely online

    Phony charities

    The holidays are also a season of giving, but before you donate money, double-check the contact and payment information for a charity.

    Beware of text, email or phone call solicitations. Like any other unsolicited message, don’t click on links or open attachments because they may contain malware or try to steal your information.

    Travel scams

    Scammers try to mimic or impersonate popular travel websites by recreating familiar branding, logos or company verbiage.

    As part of your travel research, do scam checks by looking up unfamiliar retail, travel and services websites by searching online for their names along with terms like “scam,” “complaints” or “reviews.”

    Chase advises using a credit card to book travel so that if an issue arises, you can dispute it.

    What to do if you fall victim to a scam

    Video below: Steps to take immediately after falling for a scam

    Stop communication: Discontinue all contact with the scammer immediately to prevent further damage.

    Document everything: Take note of all relevant information, including the scammer’s contact details and any information that may be useful when reporting the incident.

    Contact your bank: Report the incident and verify recent transactions to ensure there is no fraudulent activity on your account.

    Report the incident: File a police report or an inquiry to the Federal Trade Commission for official documentation.

    Monitor for identity theft: Sign up for credit and identity monitoring to receive alerts when your personal information has been leaked in a data breach or shows up on the dark web.

    Change your passwords: Update your online accounts by creating strong passwords, particularly if the scam involved accessing your personal information.

    Share your experience: Let friends and family know what happened to raise awareness about the signs of scams and help others avoid falling victim. Remember that financial scams can, and do, happen to anyone, so don’t feel embarrassed.

    Remain on high alert for follow-up scams: Scammers might attempt to target you again, especially if they know you’ve fallen victim before. Be cautious of unsolicited communications.

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  • Slender Man stabbing attacker missing in Wisconsin after cutting off GPS monitor

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    Morgan Geyser, one of the girls convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and left her group home Saturday night, according to Madison police.Geyser was last seen at 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Police were notified of her disappearance Sunday morning. Anyone with information is urged to contact 911.In 2014, Geyser and Anissa Weier nearly killed their classmate by stabbing her 19 times as part of a plot involving the fictional character Slender Man. Both girls were found not guilty because of a mental defect or disease in 2017 and were sentenced to mental institutions. Geyser was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute earlier in 2025 and placed in a group home after being granted a conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.Payton Leutner and her family of aware of the most recent situation regarding Morgan Geyser,” a spokesperson for the Leutner family said in a statement to WISN 12 News. “Payton and her family are safe and are working closely with local law enforcement to ensure their continued safety. The family would like to thank all of the law enforcement entities involved in the efforts to apprehend Morgan. The Leutner family also wish to thank the outpouring of support from family, friends, and well-wishers who have contacted them during this difficult time.”Sunday afternoon, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted a video on Instagram after hearing the news of her disappearance.In the video, Cotton calls for Geyser to turn herself in immediately.”We don’t know any of the facts about what happened, or who might have assisted her, but certainly if there is somebody who has assisted her, that person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Cotton said in the video.Cotton also called for anyone who has been in communication with Geyser to contact police as soon as possible.

    Morgan Geyser, one of the girls convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and left her group home Saturday night, according to Madison police.

    Geyser was last seen at 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Police were notified of her disappearance Sunday morning. Anyone with information is urged to contact 911.

    In 2014, Geyser and Anissa Weier nearly killed their classmate by stabbing her 19 times as part of a plot involving the fictional character Slender Man.

    Both girls were found not guilty because of a mental defect or disease in 2017 and were sentenced to mental institutions.

    Geyser was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute earlier in 2025 and placed in a group home after being granted a conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.

    Payton Leutner and her family of aware of the most recent situation regarding Morgan Geyser,” a spokesperson for the Leutner family said in a statement to WISN 12 News. “Payton and her family are safe and are working closely with local law enforcement to ensure their continued safety. The family would like to thank all of the law enforcement entities involved in the efforts to apprehend Morgan. The Leutner family also wish to thank the outpouring of support from family, friends, and well-wishers who have contacted them during this difficult time.”

    Sunday afternoon, Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, posted a video on Instagram after hearing the news of her disappearance.

    In the video, Cotton calls for Geyser to turn herself in immediately.

    “We don’t know any of the facts about what happened, or who might have assisted her, but certainly if there is somebody who has assisted her, that person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Cotton said in the video.

    Cotton also called for anyone who has been in communication with Geyser to contact police as soon as possible.

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  • Slender Man stabbing attacker missing in Wisconsin after cutting off GPS monitor

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    Morgan Geyser, one of the girls convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and left her group home Saturday night, according to Madison police.Geyser was last seen at 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Police were notified of her disappearance Sunday morning. Anyone with information is urged to contact 911.In 2014, Geyser and Anissa Weier nearly killed their classmate by stabbing her 19 times as part of a plot involving the fictional character Slender Man. Both girls were found not guilty because of a mental defect or disease in 2017 and were sentenced to mental institutions. Geyser was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute earlier in 2025 and placed in a group home.

    Morgan Geyser, one of the girls convicted in the 2014 Slender Man stabbing, cut off her GPS monitoring bracelet and left her group home Saturday night, according to Madison police.

    Geyser was last seen at 8 p.m. with an adult acquaintance. Police were notified of her disappearance Sunday morning. Anyone with information is urged to contact 911.

    In 2014, Geyser and Anissa Weier nearly killed their classmate by stabbing her 19 times as part of a plot involving the fictional character Slender Man.

    Both girls were found not guilty because of a mental defect or disease in 2017 and were sentenced to mental institutions.

    Geyser was released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute earlier in 2025 and placed in a group home.

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  • Trump signs bill demanding his administration release the Epstein files

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    WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday night signed into law legislation demanding that the Justice Department release all documents related to its investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    With little fanfare, the president announced the action in a lengthy social media post that attacked Democrats who have been linked to the late financier, a line of attack that he has often deployed while ignoring his and other Republicans’ ties to the scandal.

    “Perhaps the truth about these Democrats and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, but I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

    Now the focus turns to Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, whom the legislation compels to make available “all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” in the Department of Justice’s possession no later than 30 days after the legislation becoming law.

    The action on the bill marks a dramatic shift for Trump, who worked for months to thwart release of the Epstein files — until Sunday, when he reversed course under pressure from his party and called on Republican lawmakers to back the measure. Within days, the Senate and House overwhelmingly voted for the bill and sent it to Trump’s desk.

    Although Trump has now signed the bill into law, his resistance to releasing the files has led to skepticism among some lawmakers on Capitol Hill who question whether the Justice Department may try to conceal information.

    “The real test will be, will the Department of Justice release the files or will it all remain tied up in investigations?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said at a news conference Tuesday before the House and Senate passed the bill. Greene was among a small group of GOP defectors who joined Democrats in forcing the legislation to the floor over Trump’s objections.

    The legislation prohibits the attorney general from withholding, delaying or redacting the publication of “any record, document, communication, or investigative material on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

    Carve-outs in the bill could allow Trump and Bondi to withhold documents that include identifying information of victims or depictions of child sexual abuse materials.

    The law also would allow them to conceal information that would “jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.”

    Trump directed the Justice Department last week to investigate Epstein’s links with major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former President Clinton.

    Bondi abided, and appointed a top federal prosecutor to pursue the investigation with “urgency and integrity.” In July, the Justice Department determined after an extensive review that there was not enough evidence that “could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties” in the Epstein case.

    At a news conference Wednesday, Bondi said the department had opened another case into Epstein after “new information” emerged.

    Bondi did not say how the new investigation could affect the release of the files.

    Asked if the Epstein documents would be released within 30 days, as the law states, Bondi said her department would “follow the law.”

    “We will continue to follow the law with maximum transparency while protecting victims,” Bondi said.

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    Ana Ceballos

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  • House expected to vote on bill forcing release of Jeffrey Epstein case files

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    The House is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a long-shot effort, especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said Republicans should vote for it. His blessing all but ensures that the House will pass the bill with an overwhelming margin, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill if it passes both chambers of Congress, adding, “Let the Senate look at it.”Tuesday’s vote also provides a further boost to the demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.Trump’s reversal on the Epstein filesTrump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure. On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn’t want the Epstein files to “detract from the great success of the Republican Party.”Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, several survivors of Epstein’s abuse will appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to push for release of the files. They also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait two months for the vote.That’s because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and also refused to swear-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority support in the 435-member House.It quickly became apparent the bill would pass, and both Johnson and Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote for the bill.Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who sponsored the bill alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, said Trump “got tired of me winning. He wanted to join.”How Johnson is handling the billRather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to officially take effect, Johnson is moving to hold the vote this week. He indicated the legislation will be brought to the House floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority.“I think it’s going to be an important vote to continue to show the transparency that we’ve delivered,” House Republican leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Monday night.House Democrats celebrated the vote as a rare win for the minority.“It’s a complete and total surrender, because as Democrats we made clear from the very beginning, the survivors and the American people deserve full and complete transparency as it relates to the lives that were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.What will the Senate do?Still, it’s not clear how the Senate will handle the bill.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has previously been circumspect when asked about the legislation and instead said he trusted the Justice Department to release information on the Epstein investigation.But what the Justice Department has released so far under Trump was mostly already public. The bill would go further, forcing the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”Johnson also suggested that he would like to see the Senate amend the bill to protect the information of “victims and whistleblowers.”But Massie said the Senate should take into account the public clamor that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.“If it’s anything but a genuine effort to make it better and stronger, it’ll backfire on the senators if they muck it up,” Massie said.___Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

    WASHINGTON —

    The House is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

    When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills see the House floor, it appeared a long-shot effort, especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.” But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote.

    Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said Republicans should vote for it. His blessing all but ensures that the House will pass the bill with an overwhelming margin, putting further pressure on the Senate to take it up.

    Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill if it passes both chambers of Congress, adding, “Let the Senate look at it.”

    Tuesday’s vote also provides a further boost to the demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

    A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.

    Trump’s reversal on the Epstein files

    Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure. On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn’t want the Epstein files to “detract from the great success of the Republican Party.”

    Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, several survivors of Epstein’s abuse will appear on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to push for release of the files. They also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait two months for the vote.

    That’s because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and also refused to swear-in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority support in the 435-member House.

    It quickly became apparent the bill would pass, and both Johnson and Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote for the bill.

    Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who sponsored the bill alongside Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, said Trump “got tired of me winning. He wanted to join.”

    How Johnson is handling the bill

    Rather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to officially take effect, Johnson is moving to hold the vote this week. He indicated the legislation will be brought to the House floor under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority.

    “I think it’s going to be an important vote to continue to show the transparency that we’ve delivered,” House Republican leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Monday night.

    House Democrats celebrated the vote as a rare win for the minority.

    “It’s a complete and total surrender, because as Democrats we made clear from the very beginning, the survivors and the American people deserve full and complete transparency as it relates to the lives that were ruined by Jeffrey Epstein,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

    What will the Senate do?

    Still, it’s not clear how the Senate will handle the bill.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has previously been circumspect when asked about the legislation and instead said he trusted the Justice Department to release information on the Epstein investigation.

    But what the Justice Department has released so far under Trump was mostly already public. The bill would go further, forcing the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

    Johnson also suggested that he would like to see the Senate amend the bill to protect the information of “victims and whistleblowers.”

    But Massie said the Senate should take into account the public clamor that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.

    “If it’s anything but a genuine effort to make it better and stronger, it’ll backfire on the senators if they muck it up,” Massie said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

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  • Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files

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    President Donald Trump said House Republicans should vote to release the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal as a growing number of those in his own party supported it.“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.Video above: Congressman: ‘Let’s just release’ Epstein filesTrump’s statement followed a fierce fight within the GOP over the files, including an increasingly nasty split with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had long been one of his fiercest supporters.The president’s shift is an implicit acknowledgement that supporters of the measure have enough votes to pass it the House, although it has an unclear future in the Senate.It is a rare example of Trump backtracking because of opposition within the GOP. In his return to office and in his second term as president, Trump has largely consolidated power in the Republican Party.“I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in his social media post. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”Lawmakers who support the bill have been predicting a big win in the House this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP leadership and the president.In his opposition to the proposal, Trump even reached out to two of the Republican lawmakers who signed it. One, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, met last week with administration officials in the White House Situation Room to discuss it.The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted.“There could be 100 or more” votes from Republicans, said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., among the lawmakers discussing the legislation on Sunday news show appearances. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.”Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a discharge petition in July to force a vote on their bill. That is a rarely successful tool that allows a majority of members to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote.Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had panned the discharge petition effort and sent members home early for their August recess when the GOP’s legislative agenda was upended in the clamoring for an Epstein vote. Democrats also contend the seating of Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was stalled to delay her becoming the 218th member to sign the petition and gain the threshold needed to force a vote. She became the 218th signature moments after taking the oath of office last week.Video below: Epstein emails falloutMassie said Johnson, Trump and others who have been critical of his efforts would be “taking a big loss this week.”“I’m not tired of winning yet, but we are winning,” Massie said. The view from GOP leadershipJohnson seems to expect the House will decisively back the Epstein bill.“We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” adding that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been releasing “far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit.”The vote comes at a time when new documents are raising fresh questions about Epstein and his associates, including a 2019 email that Epstein wrote to a journalist that said Trump “knew about the girls.” The White House has accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the Republican president.Johnson said Trump “has nothing to hide from this.”“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson said.Trump’s association with Epstein is well-established and the president’s name was included in records that his own Justice Department released in February as part of an effort to satisfy public interest in information from the sex-trafficking investigation.Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and the mere inclusion of someone’s name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise. Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, also had many prominent acquaintances in political and celebrity circles besides Trump.Khanna voiced more modest expectations on the vote count than Massie. Still, Khanna said he was hoping for 40 or more Republicans to join the effort.“I don’t even know how involved Trump was,” Khanna said. “There are a lot of other people involved who have to be held accountable.”Khanna also asked Trump to meet with those who were abused. Some will be at the Capitol on Tuesday for a news conference, he said.Massie said Republican lawmakers who fear losing Trump’s endorsement because of how they vote will have a mark on their record, if they vote “no,” that could hurt their political prospects in the long term.“The record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency,” Massie said.A MAGA splitOn the Republican side, three Republicans joined with Massie in signing the discharge petition: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Boebert.Trump publicly called it quits with Greene last week and said he would endorse a challenger against her in 2026 “if the right person runs.”Greene attributed the fallout with Trump as “unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files.” She said the country deserves transparency on the issue and that Trump’s criticism of her is confusing because the women she has talked to say he did nothing wrong.”I have no idea what’s in the files. I can’t even guess. But that is the questions everyone is asking, is, why fight this so hard?” Greene said.Trump’s feud with Greene escalated over the weekend, with Trump sending out one last social media post about her while still sitting in his helicopter on the White House lawn when he arrived home late Sunday, writing “The fact is, nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!”Even if the bill passes the House, there is no guarantee that Senate Republicans will go along. Massie said he just hopes Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., “will do the right thing.”“The pressure is going to be there if we get a big vote in the House,” Massie said, who thinks “we could have a deluge of Republicans.”Massie appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Johnson was on “Fox News Sunday,” Khanna spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Greene was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union.”Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump said House Republicans should vote to release the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after previously fighting the proposal as a growing number of those in his own party supported it.

    “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.

    Video above: Congressman: ‘Let’s just release’ Epstein files

    Trump’s statement followed a fierce fight within the GOP over the files, including an increasingly nasty split with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had long been one of his fiercest supporters.

    The president’s shift is an implicit acknowledgement that supporters of the measure have enough votes to pass it the House, although it has an unclear future in the Senate.

    It is a rare example of Trump backtracking because of opposition within the GOP. In his return to office and in his second term as president, Trump has largely consolidated power in the Republican Party.

    “I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in his social media post. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”

    Lawmakers who support the bill have been predicting a big win in the House this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP leadership and the president.

    In his opposition to the proposal, Trump even reached out to two of the Republican lawmakers who signed it. One, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, met last week with administration officials in the White House Situation Room to discuss it.

    The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted.

    “There could be 100 or more” votes from Republicans, said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., among the lawmakers discussing the legislation on Sunday news show appearances. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.”

    Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a discharge petition in July to force a vote on their bill. That is a rarely successful tool that allows a majority of members to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote.

    Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had panned the discharge petition effort and sent members home early for their August recess when the GOP’s legislative agenda was upended in the clamoring for an Epstein vote. Democrats also contend the seating of Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was stalled to delay her becoming the 218th member to sign the petition and gain the threshold needed to force a vote. She became the 218th signature moments after taking the oath of office last week.

    Video below: Epstein emails fallout

    Massie said Johnson, Trump and others who have been critical of his efforts would be “taking a big loss this week.”

    “I’m not tired of winning yet, but we are winning,” Massie said.

    The view from GOP leadership

    Johnson seems to expect the House will decisively back the Epstein bill.

    “We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” adding that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been releasing “far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit.”

    The vote comes at a time when new documents are raising fresh questions about Epstein and his associates, including a 2019 email that Epstein wrote to a journalist that said Trump “knew about the girls.” The White House has accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the Republican president.

    Johnson said Trump “has nothing to hide from this.”

    “They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson said.

    Trump’s association with Epstein is well-established and the president’s name was included in records that his own Justice Department released in February as part of an effort to satisfy public interest in information from the sex-trafficking investigation.

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais

    Protest art representing President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is seen outside the entrance to Bustboys and Poets restaurant in the U Street neighborhood of Washington, Thursday, Nov., 13, 2025.

    Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and the mere inclusion of someone’s name in files from the investigation does not imply otherwise. Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, also had many prominent acquaintances in political and celebrity circles besides Trump.

    Khanna voiced more modest expectations on the vote count than Massie. Still, Khanna said he was hoping for 40 or more Republicans to join the effort.

    “I don’t even know how involved Trump was,” Khanna said. “There are a lot of other people involved who have to be held accountable.”

    Khanna also asked Trump to meet with those who were abused. Some will be at the Capitol on Tuesday for a news conference, he said.

    Massie said Republican lawmakers who fear losing Trump’s endorsement because of how they vote will have a mark on their record, if they vote “no,” that could hurt their political prospects in the long term.

    “The record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency,” Massie said.

    A MAGA split

    On the Republican side, three Republicans joined with Massie in signing the discharge petition: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Boebert.

    Trump publicly called it quits with Greene last week and said he would endorse a challenger against her in 2026 “if the right person runs.”

    Greene attributed the fallout with Trump as “unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files.” She said the country deserves transparency on the issue and that Trump’s criticism of her is confusing because the women she has talked to say he did nothing wrong.

    “I have no idea what’s in the files. I can’t even guess. But that is the questions everyone is asking, is, why fight this so hard?” Greene said.

    Trump’s feud with Greene escalated over the weekend, with Trump sending out one last social media post about her while still sitting in his helicopter on the White House lawn when he arrived home late Sunday, writing “The fact is, nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!”

    Even if the bill passes the House, there is no guarantee that Senate Republicans will go along. Massie said he just hopes Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., “will do the right thing.”

    “The pressure is going to be there if we get a big vote in the House,” Massie said, who thinks “we could have a deluge of Republicans.”

    Massie appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Johnson was on “Fox News Sunday,” Khanna spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Greene was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

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  • Investigation underway into suspected intentional explosion at Harvard University medical campus

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    Overnight explosion at Harvard University’s medical campus believed to be intentional, police say

    Updated: 12:56 PM PDT Nov 1, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The Harvard University Police Department is investigating what it is calling an intentional explosion inside a building on the medical campus early Saturday morning.Police say the explosion occurred around 2:48 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building at 220 Longwood Ave.There were no reports of any injuries.A responding officer saw two people fleeing the scene and tried stopping them, but was unsuccessful, according to police.Investigators from the Boston Fire Department Arson Unit made an initial assessment that the explosion appeared to be intentional.Boston police officers conducted a sweep of the building to check for additional devices.The Harvard University Police Department is actively investigating the incident, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. No further information was immediately available.

    The Harvard University Police Department is investigating what it is calling an intentional explosion inside a building on the medical campus early Saturday morning.

    Police say the explosion occurred around 2:48 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building at 220 Longwood Ave.

    There were no reports of any injuries.

    A responding officer saw two people fleeing the scene and tried stopping them, but was unsuccessful, according to police.

    Investigators from the Boston Fire Department Arson Unit made an initial assessment that the explosion appeared to be intentional.

    Boston police officers conducted a sweep of the building to check for additional devices.

    The Harvard University Police Department is actively investigating the incident, as well as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

    No further information was immediately available.

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