A Pontiac teen accused of shooting to death a Warren teen in January is scheduled for a preliminary exam in late March where evidence will be presented for a judge to determine if there’s probable cause to advance the case to Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial.

Kqualin Isaac Douglas, 19, is charged with second-degree homicide for the death of Cornelius Traves Murphy Jr., 19, whose body was discovered on Jan. 8 near a home in the 100 block of North Jessie Street in Pontiac. A caller had reported seeing a man lying in a field and not breathing, the sheriff’s office said.

The man — subsequently identified as Murphy — had been shot in the chest, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators said the shooting happened Jan. 7. Douglas turned himself in to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office a few weeks later.

The preliminary exam is scheduled for March 30 before 50th District Judge Ronda Fowlkes Gross.

Along with second-degree homicide, Douglas is charged with tampering with evidence, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. He’s held in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $300,000.

As stated in his obituary, Murphy was the son of Cornelius T. Murphy, Sr. and Chantell Hunter. He’s also survived by eight siblings, and several other relatives and friends.

Case advances against Royal Oak man accused of ramming car with infant passengers

Days before trial was to start, psych exam ordered for woman accused of abandoning kids in squalor; seen as possible ‘delay tactic’ by defense

 

 

Braids have been a part of African culture since the beginning, carrying meaning far beyond style. For Black History Month, we're taking a closer look at how one Milwaukee stylist is keeping that history alive, one braid at a time.

Inside Lush Beauty Lounge, JuQuita Vance's hands move with purpose. For her, braiding is not just a skill it is a living connection to history, survival and identity.

How braids connect African American culture from past to present

"History teaches us that they started braiding hair, and they would put the maps in the hair for the escape routes. They would hide seeds in our hair for food. Everything that was meant for survival, we turned it into culture," Vance said.

Long before slavery, braid patterns across Africa signified tribe, status, age and identity. When Africans were enslaved, their heads were often shaved in an attempt to strip away culture.

What began as an act of survival was reclaimed, braid by braid and passed down through generations.

"It's never just about the hair," Vance said.

"This is a community. It's how it joins us together. It's our roots," Vance said.

Vance has extended those roots beyond the salon. She teaches braiding at Messmer High School, where she works to give students both a cultural foundation and a path to financial independence.

"I teach them the business aspect of it. I teach them how to make money off of it, how it can be profitable to them. I then teach them the technique whether it's locks, twists, braids and then I teach them how to keep their hair healthy," Vance said.

Most students begin the classes with little to no experience, but all leave with a skill they can carry with them.

"Knowing how to braid, knowing how to twist, knowing how to take care of their natural hair" Vance said.

For Vance, the impact reaches well beyond the classroom or the chair.

"I want to grab a hold of them, give them a hug, and tell them that you are great, you are powerful, you are going to be something," Vance said.

She sees every braid as an act of preservation.

"Our hair is powerful," Vance said.

"As a stylist, I'm keeping our culture alive It's been around for 5,000+ years. So why stop it now?" Vance said.

That sense of pride extends to how she sees Black hair in all its forms.

"When I see Black men with braids, locks, afros it symbolizes Black power It's a part of us," Vance said.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

This story was originally reported by Gideon Verdin with the Scripps News Group station in Milwaukee.

The post Community members, public officials push back against ICE expansion into metro Detroit appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

A pair of social media trolls  — including one who sports a “Make America Great Again” red hat  —  have been arrested for trying to light a Black woman’s boots on fire during a clash on a Manhattan street filled with racist insults, police said Thursday.

The demented duo, known online as “ScrubsNYC,” were nabbed late Wednesday, just a few hours after cops released their images and asked the public’s help tracking them down. They were wanted for a bizarre hate crime on W. 26th St. and Seventh Ave. in Chelsea on Feb. 19.

Michael Santiago, 31, and Michael James, 33, were hit with a slew of charges including attempted assault, criminal mischief and menacing, all as hate crimes, as well as aggravated harassment, arson and criminal tampering. The two suspects live in the same apartment building on the Upper East Side, according to cops.

The two approached the 54-year-old victim about 2:50 p.m. and were chatting her up when the provacateur in the MAGA hat began spewing a racist tirade that was caught on camera and posted online.

“I want to f— you right up your n—– a–,” the man in the MAGA hat screamed. “I want to f— a slave. You’re my slave. You’re my slave.”

The woman casually pulled out her own phone and began recording the creeps, throwing insults right back at them.

“Of course you do,” she said of their comments about bedding her. “I could never ’cause you’re a slave — you’re a slave to my Blackness.”

The suspect told the woman, “kiss me,” and she replied saying she “would never.”

“That’s your bitch, not me,” the woman said casually, motioning to the camera man recording the entire exchange.

At one point, one of the provacateur’s asked to kiss the victim’s pair of boots. She agreed, but when he knelt down he set one of her boots on fire with a hand-held blowtorch.

The hair on the boots were singed but the flames quickly petered out, the video shows. Cops say the $89 pair of boots were ruined.

The woman didn’t appear to notice as she continued to trade insults with the creep.

“I just burned your boot,” the provocateur said.

“Of course you did,” the victim replied.

“I want to impregnate you, let’s f—,” the MAGA hat sporting suspect said.

“Of course you want to impregnate me and contaminate my race,” she replied. “Your mother’s a f——.”

The victim reported the incident to police after she realized her $89 boots were damaged. She also gave cops images of the two suspects from her recording of the bizarre exchange.

Scrubsnyc boasts about being the “biggest streamers in New York right now” in one of their online videos.

One video shows the pair lying in traffic and angering strangers with their bizarre rants.

“Yeah, right here bro! Do something!” one angered resident screams at them on the sidewalk in one clip. “Do something! Then don’t f—ing run your mouth! Get the f— out of here!”

Many of the videos show the MAGA hat-wearing provocateur being forced to leave an apartment building or a bodega. In one quick clip, a bodega patron throws a drink at him. In another, a woman knocks the red hat off his head.

“They tell you that the city never sleeps,” Scrubsnyc wrote in the opening of one video. “But they don’t tell you about the ones who keep it awake.”

Sheriff Michael Bouchard is worried about people who want to keep tabs on federal agents for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the U.S. Border Patrol in Oakland County.

There’s confusion between the federal agents in masks and unmarked cars and undercover sheriff’s deputies assigned to the narcotics enforcement or fugitive apprehension teams, he said.

“We’ve had people show up at these high-risk (sheriff’s) raids … running up with their phones and trying to insert themselves, thinking it’s ICE,” he said. “But it’s a very dangerous situation. If a suspect opens fire, the (people with phones) would be in the middle of it.”

Deputies working undercover must wear masks and use unmarked cars for their own safety and the safety of anyone who helped them as part of a criminal investigation, Bouchard said, adding that suspects would recognize an unmasked undercover officer, make the connection with the person who helped the officer, endangering their lives.

Police dispatchers get calls every week from residents who think ICE agents were at a mall, a school or other location, “but that never happened,” he said.

Those are just a few things people don’t understand about the difference between deputies’ and ICE activities.

Another, he said, is that deputies don’t work with ICE.

“The U.S. Supreme Court held that immigration is under federal authority and it’s a federal government job,” he said. “We don’t have the authority, nor do we want the authority, to arrest someone simply for being in this country illegally. But if they’re in our custody and suspected of a crime, we will alert ICE.”

Bouchard said ICE agents would be informed when that person would be released from custody, but if federal agents are not present at that time the person would go free.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald issued a statement last week opposing the presence of ICE in the county.

She reminded people that basic constitutional rights include “the right to be free from unlawful arrest, regardless of immigration status.”

McDonald said she expected any legal violations by federal, local or county officers to be “fully and transparently investigated by independent authorities.”

Federal agents do not have absolute immunity from prosecution, according to the think tank Brennan Center for Justice, which has offices in New York and Washington D.C., however federal officials can impede state or local investigations.

After the shooting deaths of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents, federal officials opposed an investigation by Minnesota officials and would not share information with the state. Deaths during law-enforcement incidents are typically investigated by a separate, independent law-enforcement agency.

Earlier this month, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced her office would accept reports of suspected misconduct by ICE agents using an online form at https://www.michigan.gov/ag/news/press-releases/2026/02/04/ag-nessel-launches-form-for-reporting-immigration-action-in-michigan.

In a controversial vote on Wednesday, the Little Miami Local Schools board voted 4-to-1 to remove a poster with the words "Hate Has No Home Here" from a classroom in the school district.

The district is located north of Cincinnati.

The poster, which a parent said has been hanging in the classroom for several years without complaints, includes five hands holding up hearts with images on them. Two of those images appear to reference the LGBTQ+ pride flag and the transgender pride flag.

"Hate has no place anywhere," said Mandy Bullock, board vice president. "But, once you add the symbols, that shouldn't be in a classroom setting."

Several board members during the meeting said they believe the poster is inappropriate, and board member Dan Smith talked about his religious beliefs before voting.

RELATED STORY | Salt Lake City adopts new flags to circumvent Utah's ban on pride flags in government buildings

WATCH: A controversial school board vote to remove an anti-hate poster has parents wondering if a lawsuit will follow

School board votes to remove 'Hate Has No Home Here' poster

"Christians are lovers. We love people. Jesus loved people," Smith said. "But I'll tell you what he didn't love. He didn't love sin."

During the nearly three-hour meeting, most parents who commented spoke in support of keeping the poster up. Parent Amanda Van Mil was one of those in attendance.

"What we've seen in our school board is that they replaced our council who advises the school board on legal issues," she said. "Our previous council at a school board meeting had advised that choosing which posters or which displays were allowed based on content was a violation of First Amendment rights and was likely to have the school district be sued."

The only school board member to vote against removing the poster, Wayne Siebert, echoed Van Mil's worries about litigation.

"This is ridiculous. This has gone on for over a year," Siebert said. "We were told if we adopt this policy, the lawsuits will follow."

In 2024, the previous school board mulled over a policy that looked to dictate what items are appropriate to display in classrooms across the school district.

We reached out to all five Little Miami Local Schools board members, asking them if they had any additional comments to provide. Only David Wallace, the school board president, responded as of Thursday evening.

RELATED STORY | The history behind the ubiquitous Pride flag

"This decision was not based on the words 'Hate Has No Home Here,'" Wallace wrote in a statement. "The district remains fully committed to ensuring every student feels safe, respected and free from bullying or harassment."

Some of the four school board members who voted to remove the poster cited Ohio House Bill 8, also known as Ohio's Parents' Bill of Rights law.

The law, enacted in April 2025, directed school boards across the state to adopt policies allowing parents to be notified and given the choice to opt their students out of any instruction that includes "sexuality content."

However, the Little Miami Local Schools policy carves out specific exemptions for this rule, including "incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology occurring outside of formal instruction."

The poster in question falls under "incidental references," according to Wallace.

"Under Ohio law, incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology do not trigger parental notification requirements," Wallace wrote in a statement. "However, based on the record before it, the board determined this poster was reasonably understood to engage students on those topics, which requires parental notice and the opportunity to review and opt out. Until those procedures are followed, the board directed that the poster be removed."

We asked Van Mil how the poster became an item on the school board's agenda and if a parent reported it.

"That's a good question," she said. "That information was not made public at the school board meeting, and I think that this is part of a trend with our new school board that was sworn in in January."

We spoke with another parent, Amanda Hollingsworth, who said she disagrees with the characterization that the poster falls under "sexuality content."

"In no way does it promote it. It's not teaching children how to have this gender ideology or the sexual ideology," she said. "It's acknowledging that these people exist. That's how I see it. And there are gay children in the schools, there are gay employees in the schools. I don't see any problem with recognizing that they are there."

This story was originally published by Connor Steffen for the Scripps News Group station in Cincinnati.

What are the worst tourist traps in the world? What attractions live up to the hype?

Stasher, a company that hooks travelers up with temporary luggage storage, weighs in with its blog post, “World’s Best and Worst Tourist Attractions, Ranked.” These rankings were calculated by considering five factors: online ratings, TikTok likes, distance from an airport, the country’s safety and quality of local lodging.

Ergo, Stasher has determined the worst tourist attraction in existence is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “Located 38.1 km from the LAX airport, this sidewalk of celebrity stars had the lowest Google rating and safety score,” it writes. Other sites that supposedly suck in terms of a visitor experience include Disneyland Paris and the Dead Sea, dinged for “accessibility challenges” and “regional instability.”

Conversely, places that scored high include Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here are the first five from each list; check out the full post for more.

Stasher’s best and worst tourist attractions in the world

Worst:

1 Hollywood Walk of Fame, L.A.

2 The Dead Sea

3 The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

4 Great Wall of China

5 Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

Best:

1 Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

2 Colosseum, Rome

3 Eiffel Tower, Paris

4 Milford Sound, New Zealand

5 Walt Disney World, Florida

Source: stasher.com/blog/worlds-best-and-worst-tourist-attractions-ranked

As filmmaker Baz Luhrmann was deep into his work on “Elvis,” his 2022 biopic of Elvis Presley, an idea struck him: What if he wove real-life footage of Presley into concert scenes of actor Austin Butler as Elvis?

He reached out to his Elvis experts and quickly heard back.

“This wonderful man called,” Luhrmann says on a recent video call from the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. “Ernst [Mikael Jorgensen] is like the scientist of all things Elvis, and he says, ‘I think there are these lost reels.’”

Jorgensen told him that they might not be easy to get, if they’re even gettable at all, Luhrmann says.

“Unfortunately, they’re in the salt mines in Kansas where they keep all the negatives of everything,” he says of the underground vault in Kansas where many Hollywood studios store their original negatives and master copies.

It’s too expensive to go down, Jorgensen told Luhrmann. But maybe you can get to them, he added.

“I think, ‘Well, maybe I can use the footage in the showroom [scenes in Las Vegas],” Luhrmann continues. “Like to sort of deal with budget.

“We met, and it cost a lot to get down there,” he says. “About $100,000 just to go down and look.”

But what he found there was priceless: 65 boxes of never-before-seen footage from the concert documentaries “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is,” shot in 35mm anamorphic film at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1970, and “Elvis on Tour,” filmed at arena shows in New York, Virginia, Florida and Texas in 1972.

Angie Marchese, vice president of archives and exhibits at Graceland, came up with a few more boxes of unseen footage, a stash of Super 8 movies of Elvis that included rare footage of Elvis with his wife, Priscilla Presley, and only child, Lisa Marie Presley.

Now, Luhrmann had 59 hours of extremely rare footage and the irresistible opportunity to do much more than he’d initially considered.

“And then we find this half hour of audio of Elvis just talking about his life,” Luhrmann says of the epiphany that he and longtime editor Jonathan Redmond experienced as they worked through the archival negatives. “I said, ‘This is it. We’ve got to let Elvis just tell his own story.’

“Because Elvis stuff is always someone telling you about it,” he continues. “That was the light bulb moment. It was that and then all the song choices that help tell the story, you know?”

“EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert” opened in IMAX theaters on Friday, Feb. 20, and opens in movie theaters everywhere on Friday, Feb. 27.

It’s a remarkable look at Elvis, the untouchable icon restored to his flesh-and-blood humanity through a forgotten trove of film footage that had sat for decades in a vault hundreds of feet below the Kansas plains.

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Luhrmann talks about why he wants everyone to see it on the biggest screen possible, what it took to restore the film and audio, how he fell for Elvis as a boy growing up in Australia, and more.

Q: So you must be a busy guy this week.

A: I’m good, man. It’s like “EPiC” weekend, so you do everything you can. By the end, you just hope enough people come to see the man on the big screen.

Q: I saw it earlier this week in IMAX, and it’s so impressive. People are going to come see this.

A: I hope so. I love the fact that you saw it in IMAX. I’m really glad you took the time because I just think the nature of the subject is there’s no screen big enough for Elvis, you know?

Q: So tell me how you started to explore all those boxes of film.

A: Well, we bring the stuff back to Warner’s, and it smells so strongly of vinegar, which means it’s falling apart. And some is missing, and some is mislabeled, and there’s no sound. So the first thing we do is I convince Warner’s to scan it because it’s going to disappear. Then we spent two years finding mag track [magnetic tape used to sync the audio track to the film images]

We were able to get the mag track, which gave us voices and the band. But a lot of the micing on the orchestra, the Sweets [backing vocalists the Sweet Inspirations], and the gospel singers was a bit up and down.

We wanted to do it in five months. It took two years to sync the sound with the pictures.

Q: Your new film – is that all stuff that’s never been seen before? Or does it include material from the original concert films?

A: Yeah, that’s a good question. There will be some bits that are in the previous doc, but there’s a lot in there where people think, “Oh, I’ve seen that before.” And they might have seen that, but they wouldn’t have seen that camera or that take or that night. [Eleven cameras simultaneously shot performances for the 1972 movie.]

And if you notice, his costume changes all the time, and we didn’t care about that. We didn’t care that in one song we got six versions. The third thing is they would have seen online and on YouTube lots of bootleg. There’s a huge black market in stolen stuff. So even with the sound, sometimes we had deal with gangsters in carparks to get a little bit of missing sound.

There are a few actual bits where we’ve gone, “Ah, that’s what we need to join that to those other two shots [by inserting a piece from the ’70s films between newly discovered footage]. It’s very small. I don’t know what the percentage is.

Q: Watching the movie, I was struck by how real and how human he seemed here.

A: That’s it, that’s it. Like he says in the film, there’s the image, and there’s the man. When you see as much material as I have, you really realize that there’s the humor and the goofiness, too. I think that’s him disarming everyone so they get past the icon and they see the man.

Q: What else struck you as you worked through the footage?

A: Some things really jumped out. There’s some things we couldn’t use because it just didn’t have the focus of the story. You realize he just kind of hung with people, and he’s very human, very empathetic, very polite. And he’s always goofing, because I think he’s just damn shy, and he’s trying to disarm everyone.

It’s like Whitney Houston said. Her mom [Cissy Houston] was in the original Sweets the year before. And she meets Elvis, she was probably 10 or something. She said he walked in the room with a fur coat on, and it wasn’t like, “Hello, Mr. Elvis.” She said, you just stare. You freeze and stare. Because of the way he looks, you know? So there was a lot of that

It’s happening quite a bit actually now. People not into Elvis at all, they know the caricature. But they come out of this film, they go, “Who is this guy? I love this guy!” Because he’s human.

Q: Tell me how the unused audio of Elvis talking about his life was recorded.

A: In the tour, there’s a little bit you see, and he looks very tired. He’s talking about, “Well, I like all kinds of music,” and he talks about gospel, and he says, “Look, I’m too tired. I’ll do it in the morning.”

And when he comes back, he says, “Guys, I can’t be on camera. I’ll just talk.” So they never used the talking bit. That’s where he goes, “I got a whipping from my mother,” and that same bit is where he goes, “I was very shy, you know.” About girls liking him after he started singing.

Q: What needed to be fixed or restored in the film and the audio? And how did you go about it?

A: Yeah, one thing I want to be really clear about: there’s not a frame of AI. Some people said, ‘Oh, it’s AI.” No, no, no. There’s no AI, and there’s no visual effects. But [filmmaker] Peter Jackson, the magician, and his wonderful team at Park Road, we gave them the anamorphic.

I don’t know if you know about anamorphic 35mm, but it’s squashed. And when you stretch it, you just sort of head towards a possible 70mm. You get a lot more out of it. What [Jackson] does is, he’s able to go frame by frame and take out aberrations and really help the grain. There’s 8mm footage in that’s the size of two buildings, and it still holds up.

He’s just brilliant at that. Peter, I mean, he’s a savior of many, many things. He did it with the Beatles [the docuseries “Get Back”]. Love that piece.

And with the sound, some of it we had to do remixes, some we take three [versions of] songs and make new works because we couldn’t just do everything straight off the stage. A lot of it is. I mean, “Suspicious Minds” is just remixed.

Q: The editing is such a terrific part of storytelling. How did you and Jonathan go about that?

A: The process was once we said let him tell the story, we worked out parts. Like, “OK, now he’s going to talk about his Hollywood years, now he’s going to talk about relationships, now he’s going to talk about his feelings.”

You know, when he was asked about politics, he says, “Well, I’m just an entertainer.” They seldom play the second clip where he’s asked, “Should other people speak about their politics?” and he says, “Sure.” Then we put “In The Ghetto” and that other lovely song [“Walk a Mile in My Shoes”] where he goes “There are people on reservations and in ghettos and there but for the grace of God go you.” It’s a very empathetic song.

Then take the cut of “Poke Salad Annie,” which I think is brilliant. Jonathan is a brilliant cutter, anyway. He started with U2 when he was a kid, but he’s worked with me for years, and we make these, like, tone poems. Poetry, more than linear. The vibes of the movie. But it had to be guided by Elvis’s story, and the way we did it was by this question: What would Elvis have done?

Q: You don’t use the usual documentary talking heads – were there models for that for you?

A: The only one I can think of that I actually really enjoyed was that documentary [“Listen to Me Marlon”] where they found all these tapes that Brando did. I was a big Brando fan, and at one stage, Marlon Brando was maybe going to be in “Romeo + Juliet,” believe it or not. I have some very treasured letters from Marlon Brando.

I just loved the way you heard Marlon just talking [in the documentary]. It made you fall in love with Marlon all over again, just the way he illuminated things. [He does a quite good impression of Brando talking about Cary Grant.] I love that stuff. I just think you can’t beat it having someone actually tell their story.

Q: What was it like when you showed “EPiC” to Priscilla and Riley?

A: Actually, Priscilla’s only seeing it for the first time next week, and Riley’s about to see it, too. But I want to explain something. First of all, they were so supportive during the making of the [“Elvis” biopic]. But since then, it was a great sadness of what was a beautiful journey. [Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla Presley’s daughter with Elvis, and Riley Keough’s mother, died in January 2023.]

Right in this building, after the Golden Globes, I remember Lisa Marie saying, “Can you help me down to the car?” And of course, she was gone a few days later. [“EPiC”] is about Elvis, but for Riley, it’s about mom, and for Priscilla, it’s about her daughter. There’s some really poignant unseen 8mm in there that no one’s ever seen of Lisa Marie as a little baby, you know?

I think they need to see it in their own time. Just anywhere that suits them. I mean, I love them, so anytime, anywhere they need it, I’ll make it happen.

Q: As a boy growing up in Australia, how’d you first encounter Elvis and become such a fan?

A: We lived in a very isolated little country town. We had a gas station on the highway through it, and we had a farm. Dad was super industrious. He was in the Vietnam War. So we had artists living with us, and we did everything from command training to ballroom dancing to learning how to shoot film and process photography.

At a certain point, we [owned] the local cinema, and there were Elvis matinees every Sunday. So that was my intro, and I just thought he was the coolest guy in the world, you know? I probably think differently about “Easy Come, Easy Go” now, but then I thought, “Wow, look at that guy in that black sweater.” I wanted to be him.

Then he loomed large, but in life, I ran away and grew and [explored] opera and Bowie and all sorts of different musical forms. He was there, but not in the same way. I’m a great admirer, as I was making films, of “Amadeus,” and a lot of people wanted me to do different musical bios.

Yes, you learn about a lot about Mozart [in “Amadeus”], but it’s really about jealousy then. And I thought, well, if you want to make “Amadeus” for America, it’s Elvis because of this relationship between the Colonel [Tom Parker] and Elvis.

One is the great salesman, promoter, and the other sort of what [the Colonel] thought was a carnival act but turned out to be sort of Orpheus. Sort of Greek, mythical, very sensitive and gifted. A singer, mover, creator. Remember, Elvis didn’t have a choreographer; Elvis didn’t have a stylist.

Q: He just made that up on his own. You see him playing around and seeing what works in “EPiC.”

A: Well, as he says, “I just do what I feel.” And that’s kind of interesting, because that kept the band always having to watch him, and they never knew what he was going to do. Neither did the audience, and that makes it really spontaneous.

[He snaps his fingers.] Electric.

U.S. stocks are sinking as Wall Street gets back to hunting and punishing companies that could be made losers by the artificial-intelligence revolution. A surprisingly discouraging update on inflation also hurt the market.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8% and is staggering toward the finish of what would be just its second losing month in the last 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 569 points, or 1.2%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% lower.

A report showing that inflation at the U.S. wholesale level was at 2.9% last month, much higher than the 1.6% that economists expected, upset the market. The number was so much worse than expected that it could help persuade the Federal Reserve to hold off longer on its cuts to interest rates.

RELATED STORY |Andrew Yang predicts AI could eliminate half of white-collar jobs

Lower rates would give the economy and prices for investments a boost, but they risk worsening inflation at the same time.

The discouraging data layered more worries atop a Wall Street where investors returned to knocking down software companies and others whose businesses may end up getting supplanted by AI-powered competitors.

Block, the company behind Cash App, Square and other businesses, gave a signal of what AI could do after CEO Jack Dorsey said he was cutting its workforce by nearly half. Thats even though Blocks profit is growing and its sending more cash to shareholders through stock buybacks.

Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company, Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders while announcing Blocks latest profit results. Were already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools were building, can do more and do it better.

The co-founder of Twitter also said, I dont think were early to this realization. I think most companies are late. Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes.

Block is cutting more than 4,000 jobs from its workforce of over 10,000. Its stock jumped nearly 20%.

Capable AI tools that can replace humans could also replace entire companies, or at least eat away at their profit margins. Fears about AI disruption have been causing sudden and swift sell-offs for stocks seen as potentially under threat, rolling through industries as seemingly disparate as trucking logistics and legal services.

Salesforce, whose platform helps customers manage their relationships with clients, fell 4.4%. It gave back its 4% gain from the day before after reporting a better profit than analysts expected.

Even the companies currently seeing their revenue and profits soar because of AI-related demand are also weakening. Nvidia fell 2.6%, a day after dropping to its worst loss since last spring, even though it reported a better profit than analysts expected and forecast more in revenue for the current quarter.

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Rival chip companies fell by similar amounts, and Broadcom dropped 2.6%. Worries are hurting such companies not only about whether their stock prices following huge gains in recent years but also whether the huge spending driving their growth can continue. Can big spenders like Amazon, Alphabet and others possibly make back all their billions of dollars in AI investments through higher productivity and profits in the future?

On the winning side of Wall Street was Netflix, which jumped 8.6% after walking away from its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discoverys studio and streaming business. That put Skydance-owned Paramount in a position to take over its Hollywood rival.

Paramount Skydance shares climbed 2.2%, while Warner Bros. Discovery fell 1.9%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was at 3.97%. It swiveled higher following the inflation report, but its down from its 4.02% level late Thursday.

ln stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. South Koreas Kospi fell 1% from its latest record, and Hong Kongs Hang Seng rose 0.9% in two of the worlds larger moves.

In energy markets, the price for a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 3.2% to $67.27. Worries about rising tensions between the United States and Iran over Irans nuclear program have been causing big swings.

The U.S. military has already gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the Middle East, and a conflict could disrupt the global flow of oil and drive prices higher.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 3.1% to $73.04 per barrel.

By Linda Gassenheimer, Tribune News Service

Chicken simmered in a tomato sauce infused with onion, green pepper, and paprika forms the comforting foundation of this Hungarian goulash.

The key to its authentic flavor is using good-quality Hungarian paprika. It’s available in both mild and hot varieties and found in most supermarkets. This rich, savory goulash is served over pappardelle, a broad, flat pasta similar to extra-wide fettuccine, perfect for catching every spoonful of sauce.

HELPFUL HINTS:

• Any type of pasta can be used.
• Any type of sliced mushroom can be used.

To save preparation time, use diced onion and green pepper found in the produce section.

COUNTDOWN:

Place water for noodles on to boil.

Make goulash.

Boil pasta.

SHOPPING LIST:

To buy: 1/2 pound cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, 1 jar reduced sodium marinara sauce, 1 green bell pepper, 1 medium tomato,1 container sliced portobello mushrooms, 1 small container reduced fat sour cream, 1 bottle Hungarian paprika, 1 container caraway seeds, 1 package pappardelle

Staples: olive oil, onion, salt, black peppercorns

Chicken Hungarian Goulash

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1 cup sliced portobello mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika or 1 1/2 tablespoons ordinary paprika
• 1 cup reduced sodium marinara sauce
• 1/2 pound cooked boneless skinless chicken breast 1/2-inch pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons reduced fat sour cream
• 1 medium tomato cut into wedges

Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat and add onion, green pepper and mushrooms. Saute 3 minutes. Sprinkle paprika over vegetables and saute 2 minutes. Add marinara sauce and simmer 1 minute. Add chicken and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and serve over pappardelle. Dot the goulash with sour cream. Arrange tomatoes on the side.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 369 calories (32 percent from fat), 13.0 g fat (3.0 g saturated, 4.3 g monounsaturated), 114 mg cholesterol, 38.0 g protein, 26.5 g carbohydrates, 7.1 g fiber, 132 mg sodium.

Caraway Pappardelle

Recipe by Linda Gassenheimer

• 1/4 pound pappardelle (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot with 2 to 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add the pappardelle and boil 3 to 4 minutes or according to package instructions. Drain leaving about 2 tablespoons water on the pappardelle. Toss with olive oil and caraway seeds and salt and pepper to taste. Divide in half and serve on two dinner plates with the Goulash.

Yield 2 servings.

Per serving: 262 calories (20 percent from fat), 5.8 g fat (0.8 g saturated, 2.5 g monounsaturated), no cholesterol, 8.1 g protein, 44.1 g carbohydrates, 3.0 g fiber, 3 mg sodium.

©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

A metro Detroit woman is facing federal charges over an alleged multi-million-dollar fraud scheme involving supposed child modeling events.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, Chanise Coyne, 46, from New Boston, is charged with seven counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering.

The feds allege that Coyne obtained more than $4.6 million from a family by claiming that the money would be used for advanced fees associated with the family's young daughter participating in modeling events across the country.

According to the indictment, Coyne generated false records that allegedly showed the supposed placement of that girl in modeling events and she also impersonated a third party.

Feds say that Coyne used the money for significant gambling expenditures, including multiple alleged money laundering transactions on the FanDuel online gambling platform.

Fraud schemes that prey on the emotional bonds of families are egregious. This defendant allegedly took advantage of a familys love for their daughter, stole their nest egg, and then gambled it away. We will pursue fraud schemes in all their forms, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said in a statement.

A criminal case has advanced for a Royal Oak man charged with felonious assault and other crimes for allegedly crashing his vehicle multiple times into another — with infant occupants — and then fleeing the scene.

The case against Brian Robert Bock, 54, was bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court on Thursday at the conclusion of a preliminary exam in Troy’s 52-4 District Court.

According to police, on Feb. 3 a woman reported that she was rear-ended while stopped at a red light at Big Beaver and Crooks roads; her car was then struck by the same vehicle multiple times before it went on the road’s shoulder to get around her and drove away.

No injuries were reported, police said.

After reviewing dash camera video from a witness, police caught up with Bock in a vehicle with heavy front-end crash damage — then arrested him.

Along with felonious assault, Bock is charged with malicious destruction of personal property valued at more than $1,000 but less than $20,000, reckless driving and failure to stop at the scene of a property damage accident. He’s held in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $50,000.

Bock is scheduled for arraignment in the higher court on March 10.

For the MDOP charge, Bock could face up to five years in prison and a hefty fine if convicted. Felonious assault is punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a $2,000 fine; the other crimes he’s charged with are misdemeanors.

Days before trial was to start, psych exam ordered for woman accused of abandoning kids in squalor; seen as possible ‘delay tactic’ by defense

 

 

 

By GISELA SALOMON, JACK BROOK and SARAH RAZA

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Their family spent years opposing Venezuela’s socialist system.

The government retaliated by sending men to beat the father, a state oil company worker whom it accused of being uncooperative. Other relatives were threatened.

The situation became so untenable that the family fled the country for the United States in 2021 after it obtained refugee status, according to one of the daughters, a 24-year-old clothing salesperson who was interviewed by The Associated Press.

The six siblings and their parents settled in Minnesota in 2023, living peaceful lives until the Trump administration said it was casting new scrutiny on refugees. One priority is those admitted to the U.S. under former President Joe Biden, whom the government accuses of prioritizing quantity over detailed screening and vetting, with an initial focus on 5,600 refugees who settled in Minnesota and are not yet permanent residents, making them particularly vulnerable.

Last month, three masked officers got out of a black SUV with tinted windows outside a St. Paul apartment complex, handcuffed the Venezuelan woman and her mother and told them their legal status was under review, according to the woman, who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Overturning years of precedent, immigration authorities have arrested or questioned dozens of refugees in Minnesota, attorneys and advocates say, with more detentions likely to come nationwide.

In January, a federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the arrest and detention of refugees in Minnesota while a lawsuit challenging the “revetting” continues. The judge ordered the immediate release of all refugees detained in Minnesota, and those taken to Texas.

Three refugees told The Associated Press that whatever happens, the rounds of inconclusive interviews with immigration authorities well after they thought their status was safe has them questioning their futures in the U.S. and living in constant fear.

The young woman from Venezuela hasn’t returned to her job at a clothing factory. A man who fled persecution in Myanmar won’t walk on the streets of Minneapolis without a letter from his church appealing for immigrants to “be treated humanely.” A Congolese refugee arrested in St. Paul despite her refugee status says “everything that’s happened feels like a movie.”

A change in US treatment of refugees

Welcoming refugees has been a source of bipartisan agreement in the U.S. since Congress passed the Refugee Act with overwhelming support in 1980.

The act helped make refugee applications some of the immigration system’s most heavily scrutinized. Government decisions that someone was persecuted for who they are or what they believe are rarely second-guessed, and revisiting refugee status that’s already been granted is a major blow to legal tradition, advocates say.

“They’ve been heavily vetted and were admitted by the government with approval,” said Beth Oppenheim, chief executive officer of HIAS, a major refugee aid group.

Once a refugee is admitted to the U.S. through the resettlement program, the only way to strip them of their status is to prove that they should never have been admitted, Oppenheim said. That is why the Trump administration is interviewing people again, she said.

Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a written statement refugees “are REQUIRED to be subject to a full inspection after a year within the United States.”

“This is not novel or discretionary; it is a clear requirement in law,” he wrote.

While it is correct that refugees must apply for green cards one year after admission — a change of status that brings a renewed layer of scrutiny — the administration is breaking with decades of tradition by revisiting initial decisions to admit people as refugees, and then detaining them while they are under review.

“Arresting, detaining, and rescreening refugees are all new changes which will inflict grave harm on vulnerable populations,” said Smita Dazzo, deputy director of U.S. programs at HIAS.

Venezuela to Minnesota to Houston and back

In January, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the Venezuelan women to Houston on a flight where migrants were shackled at the wrists and ankles and forbidden from talking. The daughter said she was told she was there for green card interviews and isolated in a cold room with no food, water or anything warm to cover her. She said she refused to sign documents without an attorney present.

“They told us, ‘Your status is worthless. You’re illegal,’” she said. “What we went through is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone … We were supposed to arrive in this country with refugee status, and we thought we would be protected here. But right now, at this moment, it is quite the opposite.”

The women were released after successfully filing habeas corpus petitions in federal court, part of a flood of last-ditch attempts at freedom under a Trump policy denying bond hearings in immigration court. Friends of their attorney drove them back to Minnesota at their own expense. Since then, the younger woman has been too afraid to leave the house.

The pastor who received a letter and went to the interview

Saw Ba Mya James, a 46-year-old ethnic Karen father of three who fled military persecution in Myanmar, arrived in St. Paul last year after obtaining refugee status with help from a local church.

Despite a pending green card application, the Anglican pastor did not attend church for weeks after friends advised him to avoid going outside.

“I was told to stay at home, so I listened, and I prayed to God with my family,” James said.

James received a letter Feb. 2 ordering a “post-admissions refugee reverification” at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services St. Paul field office, according to a copy reviewed by The Associated Press.

During an interview that lasted several hours, an officer pressed James with questions he said he already addressed extensively before being admitted to the U.S. The officer said the review was needed because an inexperienced employee handled James’ initial vetting.

Within two weeks of the interview, James got another letter asking that he and his family provide fingerprints, which his attorney took as a positive sign.

Still, James remains wary of being detained. He faithfully carries his church sponsors’ letter appealing for him and other immigrants to “be treated humanely as fellow image-bearers of God.”

The Congolese refugee arrested arriving at work

A Congolese woman settled in the Twin Cities area in November 2024 with refugee status, working in the hospitality business as the breadwinner for her husband and four children.

She said an immigration officer approached her parked car when she arrived for work at 7 a.m. on Jan. 14 in St. Paul, saying he knew her name and that she was a refugee. After telling her to exit the vehicle to answer questions, he handcuffed her despite her efforts to show a work authorization document and identification.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she fears reprisals, was flown to Houston to be questioned in detail about her experiences in the Congo, Uganda and the United States. She and other refugees refused to sign documents to be sent back to their home countries. She was released Jan. 18 without any ID documents to book a flight to Minneapolis. A manager at her company flew to Houston and drove her 17 hours back home.

“If I told you I’m feeling OK, I’d be lying to you,” she said.

Salomon reported from Miami.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP Technology Writers

Social media addiction has been compared to casinos, opioids and cigarettes.

While there’s some debate among experts about the line between overuse and addiction, and whether social media can cause the latter, there is no doubt that many people feel like they can’t escape the pull of Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and other platforms.

The companies that designed your favorite apps have an incentive to keep you glued to them so they can serve up ads that make them billions of dollars in revenue. Resisting the pull of the endless scroll, the dopamine hits from short-form videos and the ego boost and validation that come from likes and positive interactions, can seem like an unfair fight. For some people, “rage-bait,” gloomy news and arguing with internet strangers also have an irresistible draw.

Much of the concern around social media addiction has focused on children. But adults are also susceptible to using social media so much that it starts affecting their day-to-day lives.

Recognizing signs of compulsive use

Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, defines addiction as “the continued compulsive use of a substance or behavior despite harm to self or others.”

During her testimony at a landmark social media harms trial in Los Angeles, Lembke said that what makes social media platforms so addictive is the “24/7, really limitless, frictionless access” people have to them.

Some researchers question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media, arguing that a person must be experiencing identifiable symptoms. These include strong, sometimes uncontrollable urges and withdrawal to qualify as addiction.

Social media addiction is not recognized as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is the standard reference psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners use to assess and treat patients. That’s partly because there is no widespread consensus on what constitutes social media addiction and whether underlying mental health issues contribute to problematic use.

But just because there is no official agreement on the issue doesn’t mean excessive social media use can’t be harmful, some experts say.

“For me, the biggest signpost is how does the person feel about the ‘amount,’ and how viewing it makes them feel,” said Dr. Laurel Williams, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. “If what they discover is they view it so much that they are missing out on other things they may enjoy or things that they need to attend to, this is problematic use. Additionally, if you leave feeling overwhelmed, drained, sad, anxious, angry regularly, this use is not good for you.”

In other words, is your use of social media affecting other parts of your life? Are you putting off chores, work, hobbies or time with friends and family? Have you tried to cut back your time but realized you were unable to? Do you feel bad about your social media use?

Ofir Turel, a professor of information systems management at the University of Melbourne who has studied social media use for years, said there was “no agreement” over the term social media addiction, and he doesn’t “expect agreement soon.”

“It’s obvious that we have an issue,” Turel said. “You don’t have to call it an addiction, but there is an issue and we need, as a society, to start thinking about it.”

Noninvasive tips to reduce social media use

Before setting limits on scrolling, it’s helpful to understand how social media feeds and advertising work to draw in users, Williams said.

“Think of social media as a company trying to get you to stay with them and buy something — have the mindset that this is information that I don’t need to act on and may not be true,” she added. “Get alternate sources of information. Always understand the more you see something, anyone can start to believe it is true.”

Ian A. Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at California Institute of Technology, suggests making small, meaningful changes to stop you from opening your social media app of choice. Moving the app’s place on your phone or turning off notifications are “light touch interventions,” but more involved options, like not bringing your phone into the bedroom or other places where you tend to use it, could also help, Anderson said.

Tech tools can also help to cut back on tech overuse. Both iPhones and Android devices have onboard controls to help regulate screen time.

Apple’s Screen Time controls are found in the iPhone’s settings menu. Users can set overall Downtime, which shuts off all phone activity during a set period of their choice.

The controls also let users put a blanket restriction on certain categories of apps, such as social, games or entertainment or zero in on a specific app, by limiting the time that can be spent on it.

The downside is that the limits aren’t hard to get around. It’s more of a nudge than a red line that you can’t cross. If you try to open an app with a limit, you’ll get a screen menu offering one more minute, a reminder after 15 minutes, or to completely ignore it.

If a light touch doesn’t work

If a light touch isn’t working, more drastic steps might be necessary. Some users swear by turning their phones to gray-scale to make it less appealing to dopamine-seeking brains. On iPhones, adjust the color filter in your settings. For Android, turn on Bedtime Mode or tweak the color correction setting. Downgrading to a simpler phone, such as an old-school flip phone, could also help curb social media compulsions.

Some startups, figuring that people might prefer a tangible barrier, offer hardware solutions that introduce physical friction between you and an app. Unpluq, for instance, is a yellow tag that you have to hold up to your phone in order to access blocked apps. Brick and Blok are two different products that work along the same lines — they’re squarish pieces of plastic that you have to tap or scan with your phone to unlock an app.

If that’s not enough of an obstacle, you could stash away your phone entirely. There are various phone lockboxes and cases available, some of them designed so parents can lock up their teenagers’ phones when they’re supposed to be sleeping, but there’s no rule that says only teenagers can use them.

Yondr, which makes portable phone locking pouches used at concerts or in schools, also sells a home phone box.

Seeking outside help

If all else fails, it may be a good idea to look for deeper reasons for feeling addicted to social media. Maybe it’s a symptom of underlying problems like anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression or low self-esteem. If you think that’s the case, it could be worth exploring therapy that is becoming more widely available.

“For people struggling to stay away — see if you can get a friend group to collaborate with you on it. Make it a group effort. Just don’t post about it! The more spaces become phone free, the more we may see a lessened desire to be ‘on,’” Williams said.

A globally recognized brand is celebrating a Detroit invention that put the world on wheels. LEGO Group has teamed up with Ford Motor Company to build the Model T.

Its a project that started a year ago, and the LEGO set officially comes out Monday.

Watch Jolie's piece in the video player below: LEGO & Ford create a Model T set honoring 'the car that changed the world'

A Ford archivist and LEGO enthusiast was able to work on this project thats right in his wheelhouse.

We always, always build with the kids. So, I missed the ability to build with the kids, so I just said, 'heck, I'm gonna start getting them myself,'" said Ted Ryan, archives and brand manager for the Ford Motor Company.

Ryan says it was his passion for LEGOs and his passion for Ford that brought this amazing project together.

Ive got the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower and once you get the bug, it's, you just get it," he said.

LEGO and Ford have done a number of LEGO sets over the years, but he says the replica of a Model T is different.

In this particular case, the questions and the level of details that the designer was looking for it made me know that she was really invested in making the project exactly as perfect as it could be," said Ryan.

And to get it just right, Ryan flew to Billund, Denmark, LEGOs headquarters, where he met with the designers in person and shared original artifacts.

It was a one-of-a-kind, unique experience getting to be in the LEGO campus at LEGO Idea House, seeing a prototype of something that I'd only seen pictures of," he said.

From classic old school tires and rims to a folding cloth top, this 1,000+ piece LEGO set is highly detailed and historically accurate.

"The wheels were white because the tire manufacturers hadn't switched to dyeing or to creating black wheels, so they did that," he said.

Designers also included a gas tank, which was under the main seat back in the day.

The group that actually produced it within the LEGO Group is called the LEGO Icons Team. And so they're the ones that look for things in culture that are significant enough to turn into a LEGO set, and they chose the Model T because it's the car that changed the world," said Ryan.

It's a Detroit invention that's still celebrated in 2026, more than a century later.

It's putting the Model T back up on a pedestal that it rightly belongs to be on," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel on Friday told its staff that it could leave the country and urged anyone considering departure to do so immediately, as the threat of an American strike on Iran looms.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee told embassy employees in an email that discussions with officials in Washington had led to a decision authorizing departures for those who wished to leave.

The email was recounted to The Associated Press by someone involved with the U.S. mission who wasn't authorized to share details. Sent before 10:30 a.m., it urged staff considering departure to do so quickly, advising them to to focus initially on getting any flight out of Israel and to then make their way to Washington.

RELATED STORY | US military stages largest Middle East buildup since Iraq war amid heightened tensions with Iran

Those wishing to take AD should do so TODAY," Huckabee wrote, using an acronym for authorized departure.

While there may be outbound flights over the coming days, there may not be," he added.

Huckabee said that there was no need for panic, but for those desiring to leave, it was important to make plans soon.

The email came a day after Iran and the United States walked away from nuclear negotiations without a deal. Airlines such as Netherlands-based KLM have already announced plans to suspend flights out of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, and other embassies have also made plans for authorized departures from Israel and neighboring countries.

Australia on Wednesday directed the departure of all dependents of Australian officials posted to Israel in response to the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East. India and several European countries with missions in Iran advised citizens to avoid travel to the country as well.

On a town hall meeting Friday after the email was sent, Huckabee told staff that he was encouraging airlines to keep flying.

RELATED STORY | Trump weighing next steps with Iran

The departure authorizations signal a new level of contingency planning as a massive fleet of U.S. aircraft and warships mass in the Middle East.

Badr al-Busaidi, Oman's foreign minister who is mediating in the negotiations, said that there had been significant progress made on Thursday, though officials from Iran and the United States haven't announced steps forward.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday offered no specifics, but said what needs to happen has been clearly spelled out from our side.

Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including a requirement that members use biological sex at birth and not gender identity, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday.

Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the Defense Department in January, which included discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge as well as waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.

Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the militarys partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand in 2024 from the Boy Scouts and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of woke culture efforts that he wants to root out.

Hegseth said in a video posted on X that the Pentagon will vigorously review the changes the organization has made in six months and will cease its support of Scouting America if it fails to comply.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Boy Scouts of America changing name to more inclusive Scouting America after years of woes

We hope that doesnt happen, but it could, Hegseth said. Ideally I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday.

Scouting America, which is based in Irving, Texas, didnt immediately comment.

The organization began allowing gay youth in 2013, ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015 and announced in 2017 that it would accept transgender students. It began accepting girls as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program renamed Scouts BSA in 2019. As of May 2024, more than 6,000 girls had earned the coveted Eagle Scout rank.

The Pentagon said in a statement earlier this month that it was reviewing its relationship with Scouting America, claiming it had lost its way in many ways and calling the organizations diversity, equity and inclusion efforts unacceptable.

Scouting Americas leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration, the Feb. 6 statement said, including an embrace of DEl and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances.

The Pentagon previously said it and Scouting America were nearing an agreement to continue their partnership if the organization rapidly implements the common-sense, core value reforms.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Scouts can now earn merit badges in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity

Scouting America remains far from perfect, but they have firmly committed to a return to core principles, the statement said. Back to God and countryimmediately!"

The U.S. military and the Boy Scouts have had longtime ties, including the military providing logistical support for the National Boy Scout Jamboree since its inception in 1937.

The military also has a long history of sponsoring Scout troops and activities on U.S. military bases and has maintained a strong relationship with the Eagle Scouts, whose members often enlist in the armed forces.

In a statement last year, Scouting America raised concerns following a report from NPR that the Pentagon planned to cut support for Scouting programs on military bases as well as for the National Jamboree and would eliminate increases in pay grade for Eagle Scouts who enlist.

The Scouts told Hegseth in January that after hearing his suggestions, they had come up with a plan for him to review, which included discontinuing their Citizenship in Society merit badge and introducing a Military Service merit badge, waiving registration fees for military personnel and holding a ceremony to rededicate themselves to leadership, duty to God, duty to country and service, besides dissolving their DEI board committee.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Girl Scout cookie season returns with new flavor and digital skills program

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America achieved a vaunted status in the U.S. over the decades, with pinewood derbies, the Scout Oath and Eagle Scouts becoming part of the lexicon.

Lore has it that American businessman William Boyce was inspired to start the organization after he became lost in the fog in London and was guided to his destination by a youth who turned down a tip, telling Boyce that because he was a scout (they were formed in Britain in 1907) he couldnt accept money for a good deed.

Since then, the organization has faced controversies and undergone significant changes.

In 1990, the organization expelled an Eagle Scout who had become an assistant scoutmaster after discovering he was co-president of his universitys gay and lesbian organization. He sued in 1992 alleging discrimination and lost at the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Scouts could maintain membership and leadership criteria that excluded gay people.

Conservative groups rallied around the Boy Scouts, but scores of institutions curtailed support as the ban continued. The ban ended in 2013. In 2015, the organization ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

In 2017, the Boy Scouts announced that they would allow transgender children who identify as boys to enroll in their boys-only programs. That came after an 8-year-old was asked to leave his Scout troop in New Jersey after parents and leaders found out he was transgender.

The Boy Scouts also faced a flood of sexual abuse claims and sought bankruptcy protection in 2020, when it had been named in about 275 lawsuits and had told insurers it was aware of another 1,400 claims.

In 2023, a judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan allowing the organization to keep operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused while in scouting.

Last year, Scouting Americas President and CEO Roger Krone acknowledged some backlash to the rebrand but described the overall response as a positive one that generated wider interest.

The fact that we were going with a more kind of gender-neutral name, a lot of people kind of wanted to know more about it, Krone said.

The organization said it saw a gain in membership of about 16,000 new scouts, less than 2% from the prior year. The organization said at the time that it had just over 1 million members.

A former Cherry Creek School District teacher was arrested Monday on suspicion of child sex assault after a former student came forward, police said.

Robert Combs, 56, was arrested on investigation of five counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and three misdemeanor counts of abusing public trust as an educator, according to Arapahoe County court records.

Combs was a CTE Engineering and Technology Teacher at Grandview High School, 20500 E. Arapahoe Road, between 2002 and late 2025, according to a letter sent to parents and families by the Cherry Creek School District.

The school district placed Combs on administrative leave in October 2025, when Grandview Principal Lisa Roberts was first made aware of the sexual assault allegations by the Aurora Police Department, police wrote in his arrest affidavit. Combs was officially “separated” from the school district on Nov. 13, according to the letter sent to parents.

“The safety and security of our students and staff is our highest priority,” school district officials wrote in the letter. “We appreciate your partnership in these critical efforts. We are committed to keeping you informed about all aspects of your child’s education.”

Aurora officers responded to Grandview High School on Oct. 30, after a former student reached out to Roberts to apologize for lying to her in 2022 and said they were considering reporting Combs, according to the affidavit.

The student previously denied having an inappropriate relationship with Combs to Roberts in 2022 after a security guard and other teachers came forward with suspicions about the nature of the two’s relationship, the affidavit stated. At that time, the student said Combs was “like a father.”

Roberts encouraged the student to report Combs and also contacted the Aurora Police Department in October to report the incident on her own, according to the affidavit.

The unidentified victim first met Combs in August 2021 when the student joined a high school club the man advised, the Technology Student Association, according to Combs’ arrest affidavit.

Other teachers at Grandview High School also recommended that the student reach out to Combs for assistance with getting into a military academy, police wrote in the affidavit. Combs helped the student with interview preparation, essay writing and physical training.

In February 2022, Grandview students and staff attended the association’s state conference in Denver, according to the affidavit. Combs allegedly encouraged the then-underage student to come back to his hotel room, where they kissed and he “expressed romantic feelings” for them.

The victim told Aurora Police they “felt shocked and unsure how to respond,” according to the affidavit.

Combs’ interactions with the student after the conference “became more frequent and increasingly inappropriate,” police wrote in the arrest affidavit.

The student would meet Combs after school to work on applications, and those meetings often turned intimate, the student told police. Combs also sent the student inappropriate photos and text messages.

Combs and the student had sex in classrooms, offices and closets at the high school almost every day between March 2022 and May 2022, according to the arrest affidavit. They would also drive to empty parking lots and have sex in cars.

The student told police that it felt like they “owed” Combs for his help, the affidavit stated.

Combs and the student’s relationship ended in December 2022, according to the affidavit. The student blocked his number and “ceased all contact” with Combs in February 2023, but didn’t come forward about the relationship until October 2025.

Police advised Roberts of the specific sexual assault allegations made toward Combs late that month, at which point Combs was suspended and escorted out of the school, according to the affidavit.

Combs is next scheduled to appear in court on March 20 for a preliminary hearing, court records show. He posted a $50,000 surety bail on Monday.

Shares in the financial technology company Block soared more than 20% in premarket trading Friday after its CEO announced it was laying off more than 4,000 of its 10,000 plus employees, reconfiguring to capitalize on its use of artificial intelligence.

The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company, Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders in Block, the parent company to online payment platforms such as Square and Cash App. A significantly smaller team, using the tools were building, can do more and do it better, he said.

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Dorsey's comments explicitly naming AI as a key driver behind the move were also posted on X, or Twitter, a company he co-founded. The assertion that the job cuts will add to Block's profitability and efficiency led investors to jump in and buy, analysts said.

Blocks shares gained 5% Thursday to $54.53, before it reported its earnings. They shot up to nearly $69 in after-hours trading. The mobile payments services provider reported its fourth quarter gross profit jumped 24% from a year earlier.

For years, we have debated whether AI would dent jobs at the margin. Now we have a public case study in which the CEO explicitly says that intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Other large employers have announced tens of thousands of cuts in recent months. Some have downplayed the AI link. Block did not, he said.

A global technology company founded in 2009, San Francisco-based Block operates in the United States, Canada, parts of Europe, Australia and Japan.

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In a post on X, Dorsey outlined various ways the company will support those laid off. For employees overseas, the terms might differ, he said.

It was unclear which employees would be laid off where.

Layoffs by American companies remain at relatively healthy levels, but the job cuts at Block are the latest among thousands announced in recent months.

A number of other high-profile companies have announced layoffs recently, including UPS, Amazon, Dow and the Washington Post.