Three major wildfires have consumed over 4,000 acres and forced mandatory evacuations in western North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene last September.
The New York Times reported on Monday that over 4,000 acres have been consumed in the North Carolina wildfires. According to Fox Weather, the three main wildfires currently raging throughout North Carolina include the Black Cove, Deep Woods, and Fish Hook wildfires in Polk County.
Fox Weather reported that the Black Cove Fire, which started last Wednesday due to a downed power line, was at 0% containment as of Sunday afternoon and had burned 2,076 acres. The outlet noted that the Deep Woods Fire was also at 0% containment as of Sunday afternoon and had burned 1,802 acres, while the Fish Hook Fire was at 50% containment and had burned 199 acres.
Videos shared on X, formerly Twitter, show the massive wildfires raging throughout multiple communities in North Carolina.
America is burning again.
Three wildfires in western North Carolina are proving challenging for firefighters to beat because of rough terrain and debris left behind by Hurricane Helene.
The Black Cove, Deep Woods and Fish Hook fires continue burning in Polk County, an area… pic.twitter.com/XthbmfIXpS
Videos shared on social media also show smoke rising from the wildfires as emergency crews attempt to contain the fires.
According to Fox Weather, North Carolina officials confirmed that multiple evacuation orders have been issued in the areas surrounding the Deep Woods Fire and the Black Cove Fire.
The Associated Press reported that the North Carolina Department of Public Safety announced mandatory executions on Saturday for various parts of Polk County beginning at 8:20 p.m.
In a post on X, North Carolina Emergency Management wrote, “Attn Polk County- Mandatory Evacuation Order in Place for ALL Piney Gate Residents! Visibility in area will be reduced and roads/evacuation routes can become blocked; if you do not leave now, you could be trapped, injured, or killed.”
North Carolina Emergency Management also announced the designation of a shelter location in Columbus, North Carolina. Additionally, North Carolina Emergency Management announced expanded evacuation orders for Polk County on Sunday night.
READ MORE: Videos/Pic: Mysterious green flames erupt from manhole, force evacuations
In addition to the North Carolina wildfire evacuations, Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) declared a state of emergency on Saturday as firefighters battled the Table Rock Fire in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“As this wildfire continues to spread, the State of Emergency allows us to mobilize resources quickly and ensure our firefighters have the support they need to protect lives and property,” McMaster said. “Given the elevated risk of wildfires throughout the state, the statewide burning ban will remain in effect until further notice. Anyone who violates this ban can and will go to jail.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro this week joined leaders from OpenAI, Carnegie Mellon University and Pennsylvania’s labor community to unveil the results of the Commonwealth’s first-in-the-nation Generative AI Pilot Program.
The findings revealed that employees had a highly positive experience, reporting an average time savings of 95 minutes per day while using ChatGPT for writing, research, summarization and IT support.
The pilot underscored the importance of human oversight, demonstrated AI’s potential to streamline government operations and showed that Commonwealth employees across various roles, ages, and demographics benefited from the tool. Employees across multiple roles — including human resources, information technology, policy, and program management — benefited from the tool, helping them work more efficiently and focus on more complex, high-value tasks.
“Pennsylvania is leading the way in responsibly integrating AI into government by giving Commonwealth employees access to tools that enhance efficiency while ensuring people remain at the center of decision-making,” Shapiro said. “This pilot program showed that when used thoughtfully, generative AI can help employees save time, streamline processes, and improve services for Pennsylvanians. But let me be clear — AI will never replace our workers. Instead, we’re equipping them with the best tools to do what they do best: get stuff done for Pennsylvanians.”
A first-in-the-nation AI Pilot Program
In January 2024, Pennsylvania launched its first-in-the-nation pilot program in partnership with OpenAI to explore how generative AI could enhance productivity across state government.
Over the course of a year, 175 employees from 14 agencies used ChatGPT Enterprise to test AI’s impact.
The results of the pilot, collected through biweekly feedback sessions, user interviews and live demonstrations, showed significant benefits:
—Time Savings: Employees reported saving an average of 95 minutes per day on administrative tasks, such as drafting emails, summarizing lengthy documents, and navigating complex bureaucratic processes.
—Enhanced Efficiency: AI-assisted work helped employees improve hiring timelines, streamline procurement, more quickly analyze contracts, and research new policies faster.
—Human Oversight Remains Essential: Employees emphasized that AI augments human expertise rather than replacing it, reinforcing the importance of human review and judgment.
—Training and Adoption: Early challenges — including a learning curve and workflow adjustments — highlighted the need for robust training to help employees successfully integrate generative AI tools into their daily work. While targeted training and implementation strategies helped address some barriers, ongoing support and adaptation remain essential for maximizing AI’s effectiveness in government operations.
AG Sunday joins bipartisan coalition standing up for veterans who were denied education benefits
Attorney General Dave Sunday this week joined 52 other Attorneys General in filing an amicus brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in support of two military veterans who were unlawfully denied their full G.I. Bill education benefits by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Virginia.
According to the brief, U.S. Army veteran Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yoon and U.S. Air Force veteran Colonel Toby Doran, and their families, were denied crucial education benefits to which they are clearly entitled via the G.I. Bill. The amicus brief argues the Virginia VA is using an erroneous interpretation of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to limit education benefits.
“This bipartisan coalition of every state Attorney General in the country is a proclamation that veterans will not be cheated out of what they are owed,” Sunday said. “As a proud veteran myself, my service and the benefits I received under the G.I. Bill enabled me to pursue an education, find a satisfying career, and provide for my family. The least we can do for veterans who sacrifice so much is make sure they receive that same access to education.”
The brief argues that the Virginia VA’s interpretation of the G.I. Bills contradicts the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Rudisill v. McDonough, which confirmed that veterans who qualify under both the Montgomery and Post-9/11 G.I. Bills are entitled to a full 48 months of education benefits. Despite clear precedent, the Virginia VA has continued to deprive veterans and their families of critical educational opportunities.
Department of Aging to improve accountability, increase transparency
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging this week announced the roll-out of the agency’s new Comprehensive Agency Performance Evaluation — or CAPE — an innovative tool designed to boost transparency and accountability of Pennsylvania’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA) network that provides a host of services to older adults.
In April, the Department will begin publicly posting performance results on its website for the first batch of AAAs to be monitored under CAPE, with more AAA performance results regularly added.
After nearly two years of work, the public will be able to see for the first time how well their local AAA is performing in major program areas, such as investigative activities related to suspected elder abuse and helping older adults at home with tasks of daily living.
“Since arriving at the Department of Aging 25 months ago, one of the Shapiro Administration’s top priorities has been to modernize how we oversee AAA performance at the local level and make those results easily available to the public,” said Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich. “The completion of CAPE — the first major overhaul and upgrade of the department’s monitoring system in decades — is a huge achievement and monumental leap forward for this agency. We are transforming our ability to evaluate and improve services for older Pennsylvanians.”
Implemented with an initial group of four AAAs in January 2025 following a 2024 pilot program, CAPE transforms the Department’s prior monitoring approach into a more holistic philosophy, where each of the 52 AAAs is evaluated for different performance metrics during a singular monitoring review.
Performance evaluations will include things like:
—Older Adult Protective Services (documentation requirements, data management, administrative oversight, risk mitigation and safety, and investigative activities).
—OPTIONS (help at home) and the Caregiver Support Program (documentation requirements, data management, administrative oversight, care management, program eligibility, and policy and fiscal operations).
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging works with a network of 52 AAAs to deliver services to older adults that help them stay healthy, safe and able to continue thriving in their homes of choice as they age.
The Department disburses millions of dollars annually to AAAs to fund these services, and one of the Department’s most important responsibilities is to monitor the performance of each AAA to make sure they are meeting performance standards. However, the Department’s system for doing so has previously been fragmented, inconsistently scheduled, and did not focus on objective measures.
Under the new system, the Department will continue to monitor AAA data and performance monthly — in addition, each AAA will be comprehensively monitored on a consistent schedule, with regular communications in-between those monitorings to discuss the outcomes, ensure that they are taking steps toward any needed performance improvement and provide additional training and technical assistance as needed.
Hundreds of USPS workers left their postal-blue uniforms at home on Sunday, when they rallied on Boston Common for a fair contract and vowed to “fight like hell” against a march toward the privatization of a 250-year-old public good.
Many clad in the red t-shirts of their union, the postal workers and their supporters stood for hours against a steady and chilly March breeze while speaker after speaker reminded them that every benefit they have ever received from the government they work for was brought about through union solidarity, protest, and by making their voices heard.
“We’re going to make them hear us,” James Capone, president of Branch 764 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the crowd.
Postal workers first earned the right to collectively bargain in 1970, Capone said, and since the early 80s the postal service has managed to exist without the benefit of additional federal dollars or support.
“We’ve run on stamps,” Capone said.
Despite that, he said, the agency has continued to deliver mail across the country, affordably, even through incredibly trying circumstances.
“Anytime there was a disaster, whether it be Katrina, Helene, the wildfires in Maui and Los Angeles, a global pandemic, we’re out there delivering. We were delivering a service that’s essential, that is affordable, to everybody,” Capone said.
Now, the federal government is now moving to cut service and staff. There is a simple reason, he said.
“They want to cut our service to give it to private corporations who will raise prices,” Capone said.
According to rally organizers, the postal employees are faced with an administration that would see the USPS Board of Governors and Postal Regulatory Commission eliminated, “stripping the Postal Service of independent oversight” and “leaving no independent regulatory authority on pricing and service.”
There are plans in place, they say, to cut service to rural addresses, “including 51.5 million addresses where private carriers often do not deliver,” and increase shipping costs “affecting small businesses and major private shippers” alike.
The Trump Administration also, they say, aims to “carve up the USPS” and sell its functions off to private interests, “jeopardizing 7.9 million jobs tied to the postal industry.”
“Every day, our 200,000 letter carriers deliver 376 million pieces of mail to nearly 169 million delivery points, supporting a $1.92 trillion mailing industry. This universal service is vital, particularly in rural areas where USPS ensures the delivery of medications, ballots and essential packages. The proposed executive order threatens 640,000 postal jobs, including over 73,000 veterans. And it would be illegal and unconstitutional,” Capone said.
Just last week, Post Master General Louis DeJoy, a first-term Trump Administration appointee, said that he is open to working with Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate 10,000 postal service jobs.
“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote of DOGE in a letter to Congress.
Capone said that postal workers are demanding a fair contract — they’ve gone more than 700 days without one — that includes better wages, but that they are also fighting for the survival of the centuries-old service itself. Capone asked the audience to remember the grandparents that need medication and can’t easily leave their homes, and the military members overseas who want correspondence from home.
That service, he said, is worth being proud of and worth doing.
“We’re going to fight like hell, and we’re going to win this fight,” he said. “We need to be loud.”
The rally-goers were joined by U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, who listed a dozen family members who are or were postal employees, including his mother.
Lynch said the blame for cuts to USPS can be squarely placed against the “lawlessness and disregard” of the current presidential administration, but also with congressional Republicans who refuse to “stand up and prevent that lawlessness.” When Lynch mentioned Musk, describing him as “Trump’s henchman,” it drew widespread and loud boos from the crowd.
“Trump and Musk have fired more veterans, more federal workers, then any presidential administration in the history of the country,” Lynch said.
Rallying against cuts by Trump and an “unelected goon squad run by a billionaire – the richest guy in the world” isn’t just about labor issues, Lynch said, but Democracy itself.
“This is not just about postal jobs, it’s about the future of our country,” he said. “This is a dangerous time in this country. There is something strange going on in this country. Something dark and sinister.”
A member of the audience shouted, with mock surprise, “you don’t say!”
Ukrainian and U.S. officials held talks in Riyadh, resuming efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion as President Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire.
The discussion on Sunday in Saudi Arabia was “productive and focused,” and “addressed key points including energy,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on social media. U.S. and Russian delegates are expected to hold separate talks on Monday.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said earlier Sunday that the latest talks among “technical teams” would focus on a potential Black Sea maritime ceasefire. He suggested that would lead into discussions about “the line of control, which is the actual front lines” of the conflict, which started when Kremlin forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“That gets into the details of verification mechanisms, peace-keeping, freezing the lines where they are,” Waltz said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And then, of course, the broader and permanent peace” including security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump said Saturday that efforts to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine from escalating further are “under control.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a meeting of his military cabinet in Kharkiv focused on the talks in Saudi Arabia.
Umerov attended that meeting, along with Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Andrii Hnatov, the forces’ chief of general staff, and top Zelenskyy aides.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television that negotiators from Moscow will be ready to discuss nuances of resumption of the Black Sea initiative in Riyadh.
As of 2024, Russia occupied an estimated 20% of Ukraine in the nation’s east and southeast, including Crimea. About 3 million Ukrainians are estimated to be living under Russian occupation, with millions more displaced and many others — including children — deported to Russia.
Former Utah Rep. Ludmya “Mia” Love,” who was the first black Republican congresswoman, died at the age of 49 on Sunday following a battle with brain cancer.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Love’s family wrote, “With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully today. She was in her home surrounded by family. In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy memories, Mia quietly slipped the bands of mortality and, as her words and vision always did, soared heavenward.”
Love Family: With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully today. She was in her home surrounded by family. In the midst of a celebration of her life and an avalanche of happy… pic.twitter.com/YzhAuH1l9x
According to The Daily Wire, Love was diagnosed in 2022 with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. The outlet noted that Love served as the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, prior to her election as the representative of Utah’s 4th Congressional District in 2014. Love served as the representative of Utah’s 4th Congressional District until narrowly losing her re-election race in 2018 to former Rep. Ben McAdams (D-Utah).
The Daily Wire reported that Love worked as a commentator for CNN following her re-election loss and appeared multiple times on ABC’s “The View.”
READ MORE: Democrat congressman dies at 77
Last May, Love told CNN host Jake Tapper that faith played a crucial role in her battle with cancer.
“I was looking for a cure in my faith and in science,” Love said. “Funny thing is, my patriarchal blessing said you will have a long and prosperous life, a rich and rewarding life, so long as you decide to remain in public service.”
Love also shared a post on Facebook about her cancer battle, saying, “Whether you are facing a cancer diagnosis yourself, or fighting a different battle, there is hope! For me, that hope comes from my faith and my family. Both have been a source of immeasurable strength, peace, love, and support. Every day, I thank God for my life and a family who give that life beauty and meaning.”
On March 1, Love’s daughter Abigale announced that the former congresswoman’s cancer treatments were no longer working.
“Many of you are aware that Mom has been fighting GBM brain cancer. Sadly her cancer is no longer responding to treatment and the cancer is progressing,” Love’s daughter tweeted. “We have shifted our focus from treatment to enjoying our remaining time with her.”
Hello Friends, I’m Mia’s daughter Abigale. Many of you are aware that Mom has been fighting GBM brain cancer. Sadly her cancer is no longer responding to treatment and the cancer is progressing. We have a shifted our focus from treatment to enjoying our remaining time with her. I… pic.twitter.com/xlJfSC3IX7
Following the announcement of Love’s death on Sunday, Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) issued a statement, saying, “Abby and I are heartbroken by the passing of our dear friend Mia Love. A true trailblazer and visionary leader, Mia inspired countless Utahns through her courage, grace, and unwavering belief in the American dream. Her legacy leaves a lasting, positive impact on our state. We will miss her deeply.”
On March 18, President Donald Trump ordered the release of thousands of files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, taking steps to fulfill an order he signed on his first week back in office.
The Kennedy assassination has long been the subject of scrutiny and theorizing, with official investigations and amateur enthusiasts questioning the extent of the CIA connection to the high profile killing. Indeed, allegations of CIA involvement emerged quickly after Kennedy’s death and became a subject of interest in the primary investigative effort, known as the Warren Commission.
The Warren Commission formed just one week after the assassination and disbanded after less than a year of investigation. The commission—which included among its members former CIA director Allen Dulles—came to the conclusion that Kennedy was killed by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone. Further, the commission concluded that Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald dead two days after the Kennedy assassination, also acted alone.
Many have remained unsatisfied with the Warren Commission’s efforts and have, for decades, demanded complete disclosure of the records they reviewed to reach their conclusions.
In 2014, CIA Chief Historian David Robarge authored a report concluding John McCone—the CIA director at the time of the Kennedy Assassination and the Warren Commission investigation—was complicit in a “benign cover-up” by withholding documents sought by the Warren Commission. Robarge concluded McCone wanted the commission to remain focused on what he deemed the “best truth,” that Oswald acted alone.
Many of the files in this week’s document disclosure remain blurry and barely legible. Many of these documents have already been released, but in a more redacted form. And no clear smoking gun has emerged to reverse the Warren Commission’s conclusions, no matter how skeptical the public remains of that initial investigation.
That said, these new documents provide important context about the CIA’s activities in the years surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
Here are five things we now better understand about the CIA, thanks to these new disclosures.
1. A CIA Recruiting Program
Among the new disclosures, we now have more details about a CIA program to inspect mail being sent from the United States to what was then the Soviet Union. Previous disclosures of the Kennedy investigation have revealed the CIA had devoted resources to inspecting mail between the United States and the Soviet Union, but a new document reveals the extent of the program and it’s purpose.
An FBI internal memo, shared around in the winter of 1958, reveals the Bureau was aware of a CIA program that began about a year and a half prior, to search U.S. mail to the Soviet Union, on the grounds that Soviet secret agents around the world would use the postal service to coordinate with their handlers.
The new document reveals between 200 and 300 CIA employees had been assigned to this mail inspection program, at an approximate annual cost of $1 million a year (around $11 million today, when adjusted for inflation).
The FBI memo reveals that one of the sole purpose of this program was to identify individuals that the CIA could flip, to become intelligence sources.
James Angleton, the head of the CIA’s counterintelligence program at the time, revealed to the FBI that the agency “had successfully developed several sources through this means.”
This revelation is critical, as it relates to Oswald. A former U.S. Marine, Oswald defected to the Soviet Union in 1959, only to return to the United States in June of 1962, about a year and a half before the Kennedy Assassination.
In his 2014 report, Robarge alluded to this CIA mail inspection program. He noted the agency had, through this program “acquired information from Oswald” prior to the assassination. Robarge raised the possibility that CIA employees hid these details about the mail inspection program from CIA director McCone. The CIA historian also raised the possibility McCone knew about the mail inspection program but elected to conceal it, so as to protect a highly-secretive effort to recruit double agents.
Robarge’s report states McCone may have concluded that if there was no sign from Oswald’s mail indicating that he was a threat to the president, then the Warren Commission didn’t need to know about the CIA’s mail inspection program.
Noteworthy here is that Dulles, who was McCone’s immediate predecessor and a member of the Warren Commission, had been in charge of the CIA until 1961, overlapping the span of time in which the CIA’s mail sorting program was active.
That Oswald’s mail became a point of interest in a CIA program whose sole purpose was to recruit assets, could raise the possibility that he indeed was an asset of the CIA.
Marguerite Oswald, the mother of the alleged assassin, had told Warren Commission in February of 1964 that her son indeed was a CIA agent.
2. CIA Had Extensive Undercover Network at Embassies
This week’s JFK disclosures provide new context about concerns raised within the Kennedy White House, that the CIA was increasingly acting without oversight, and possibly at odds with official U.S. policy.
These concerns about the CIA arose after the failed attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in April of 1961, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion.
In June of 1961, Kennedy White House aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr., authored a classified memo titled “CIA Reorganization.” Throughout the memo, Schlesinger warned the CIA was operating with increasing autonomy, lacking appropriate supervision and safeguards to ensure their covert operations were properly aligned with official U.S. policy.
At one point Schlesinger said the agency had the makings of “a state within a state.”
Schlesinger’s memo was previously released, but with redactions. The latest round of disclosures now allows the public a view an additional page and a half of previously redacted material. With this new look, the public can now see that Schlesinger reported that some 47 percent of the political officers serving in United States embassies at the time Kennedy entered office, were Controlled American Sources (CAS), a euphemism for intelligence agents pretending to be diplomats.
Schlesinger also warned that CIA station chiefs in certain countries often had more influence with the embassy staff within those countries than actual U.S. ambassadors and would sometimes pursue different policies.
In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs failure, Schlesinger concluded that the CIA has had an outsized influence in directing covert political operations without the necessary input of the State Department until the late planning stages. Schlesinger wrote that by the time the State Department became aware of the Bay of Pigs plan, it was under significant pressure to endorse the operation.
Schlesinger presented the significant portion of diplomatic employees who are actually undercover CIA assets as a further example of how the intelligence agency had subverted the State Department’s diplomatic mission.
Kennedy publicly accepted responsibility for the U.S. role in the failed Bay of Pigs operation, but still considered opportunities to assassinate Castro and overthrow his government thereafter. These continued anti-Castro plans were led by the CIA and dubbed Operation Mongoose.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, in which the Soviet Union threatened to deploy nuclear-armed missiles on Cuba, Kennedy reduced the size and scope of Operation Mongoose and made some public efforts to repair relations with Castro.
In a 1979 report, the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, discussed the possibility that CIA-connected anti-Castro factions felt Kennedy had left them hanging without proper U.S. support during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and were embittered by this and by the appearance of Kennedy backing away from efforts to remove Castro. The committee studied the possibility that some of these CIA-linked anti-Castro groups played a role in the Kennedy assassination. They found no specific evidence to support this theory but also didn’t preclude the possibility of a plot by anti-Castro actors to kill Kennedy either.
3. The French Consulate Break-In, and ‘KGB tactics’ in the US
Included among the latest disclosures is a more complete picture of a range of CIA’s most controversial actions, oftentimes referred to as the agency’s “Family Jewels.” William Colby, the director of the CIA from 1973 to 1976, described these operations as “skeletons in the CIA’s closet.”
Previously disclosed portions of the “Family Jewels” files revealed CIA operations to wiretap and surveil American journalists, and political dissidents within the United States, including anti-war activists. Prior disclosures also revealed break-ins at the homes of Americans, including at least two former CIA employees. Another famed “jewel” in these past disclosures was Project MK ULTRA, in which the CIA studied ways to interrogate, brainwash, and psychologically torture people through the use of powerful psychoactive compounds, such as LSD.
While these actions were previously known, this week’s disclosure reveals another document related to the “Family Jewels.” The document, which was prepared for by director Colby in 1973, describes CIA activities that officials believed had exceeded the agency’s charter.
The memo describes a CIA operation to break into and steal sensitive documents from a French consulate in the United States in April of 1963. The document notes CIA director McCone briefed President Kennedy. The President’s brother, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was also briefed on the break-in.
An apparent objective of the break-in at the French consulate was to gather information on espionage activities in the United States by the French. Then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk expressed misgivings about the break-in and urged the Kennedy administration to inform the French that their spying activities were known and should desist.
At another point, the memo states the FBI had tipped off the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board that the CIA was “planning to wiretap extensively and indiscriminately in this country, to greatly increase the Agency representation in the Moscow Embassy, and generally to use KGB-type tactics, also extensively and indiscriminately.” This tip-off by the FBI led to a “heated exchange” between CIA Director McCone and FBI Assistant Director Alan Belmont.
The memo also described plans that were discussed to use chemical warfare agents against crops in Cuba and Vietnam, a proposal to sabotage a nuclear installation of the Communist Chinese government, and plans to greatly increase intelligence gathering efforts targeted at embassies of foreign governments within the United States.
4. The French Consulate Break-In, and ‘KGB tactics’ in the US
While the previously mentioned 1972 “Family Jewels” memo touched on proposals for the use of chemical warfare agents in Cuba and Vietnam, other documents contained in this latest round of disclosures also describe planning for biological warfare operations.
A 1962 memo, prepared as part of Operation Mongoose, reveals discussions about the best way to covertly induce crop failure in Cuba to destabilize and topple the Castro government.
According to the memo, U.S. Army Gen. Marshall Carter, who was involved in Operation Mongoose planning, urged extreme sensitivity in biological warfare during the operation, to guard against the possibility that the Cuban government would trace resulting crop failures back to a U.S. sabotage effort.
The document indicates some planners had a preference for using biological agents that appear to be natural in origin, rather than chemical agents that might be recognized as a deliberate sabotage effort.
The memo states White House national security adviser McGeorge Bundy, who was involved in these discussions, “Had no worries about any such sabotage which could clearly be made to appear as the result of local Cuban disaffection or of a natural disaster, but that we must avoid external activities such as release of chemicals, etc., unless they could be completely covered up.”
It’s unclear, from the new document, whether the U.S. government proceeded with efforts to sabotage Cuban crops with biological agents.
Cuba did experience shortfalls in its 1962 and 1963 sugar production, according to contemporaneous documents authored by U.S. generals involved in Operation Mongoose.
Past disclosures have revealed the CIA did use cloud seeding techniques to try to divert rainfall away from Cuba to hinder its crop production.
5. Other Western Hemisphere Regime Change Operations
The CIA’s efforts to shape overthrow and install new governments didn’t end at Cuba. Newly-released documents provide new clarity about the agency’s role in shaping other governments in the Western Hemisphere.
A 1973 document included in the newest disclosures describes how the CIA supported Bolivian Gen. René Barrientos in his bid for the Bolivian presidency. Barrientos had already been the vice president of Bolivia before he co-led a November 1964 coup to overthrow then-President Víctor Paz Estenssoro.
Barrientos was on the U.S. government payroll and seen in Washington as a bulwark against the spread of communist and left-wing political thought in South America. Estenssoro had been more left-leaning at the time Barrientos drove him out of power.
While Washington had an ally in Barrientos, they desired for him to be seen as a constitutionally-elected leader rather than the leader of a post-coup military government.
According to the 1973 CIA document, the U.S. government indeed served as the driving force compelling the post-Estenssoro military government to hold elections in the summer of 1966. Furthermore, the government backed Barrientos in his bid for the presidency.
The document states the CIA spent $585,000 in 1964 dollars (the equivalent of about $6 million today) to convince Bolivia’s military government to hold constitutional elections, suppress leftists in the process, keep other political actors out of the way, and to give the election the overall appearance of legitimacy.
“To have Barrientos elected, CIA first had to promote a credible election by underwriting the campaigns of both the selected winner and his token opposition at the polls,” the document states.
It appears the final result was pre-determined.
The CIA document states, “In a genuine tour de force, [CIA Chief of Station] Lawrence M. Sternfield produced what [Organization of American States] observers called a democratic and honest election–and got the results from the electoral tribunal four days before the election.”
Not every leadership outcome could be set through a fixed election. Sometimes, existing leaders first had to be eliminated.
On May 30, 1961, a group of gunmen gunned down Rafael Trujillo—the dictator of the Dominican Republic—on a stretch of highway in what is today the capital city, Santo Domingo.
Following Trujillo’s assassination, the U.S. government took efforts to steer the country’s future governance. Beyond that, people have been left to debate the degree to which the U.S. government was involved in the Trujillo assassination itself.
In a 1975 report to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, CIA officials admitted the agency had plotted the assassinations of Castro, Trujillo and the former President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Patrice Lumumba. The memo goes on to state the CIA had “no role whatsoever” in Lumumba’s assassination in January of 1961. As for Trujillo, the memo stated the agency played “no active part” in the killing but “had a faint connection” with those did the shooting.
Exactly what the CIA meant by “no active part” and a “faint connection,” has been unclear in the decades since.
Following a 2011 interview with one of Trujillo’s alleged assassins, the BBC reported the U.S. involvement in his assassination amounted to “Three M1 carbines left in the US Consulate after the withdrawal of embassy staff, and handed over with CIA approval.”
Though earlier disclosures left a vague acknowledgement of a CIA-connection to Trujillo’s assassination, a newly-released document provides the names of specific U.S. officials involved in the plot, and provides a detailed recounting of their engagement with the Dominican dissidents who pulled the triggers.
The CIA memo, dated to some time around 1967, specifically identifies six from the CIA and six State Department employees, some who routinely communicated through CIA channels.
Roy R. Ribottom – Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs; Washington D.C.
Frans Devize – U.S. State Department; Washington D.C.
Joan C. Hill – U.S. State Department; Washington D.C.
Joseph S. Farland – U.S. State Department; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Henry Dearborn – U.S. State Department; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Jodn D. Barfield – U.S. State Department; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
J.C. King – CIA, Chief, White House Division; Washington D.C.
Ned Holman – CIA, Chief, Branch III, White House Division; Washington D.C.
Lear Reed – CIA Chief of Station in Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, until October 1960
Robert Owen – CIA Chief of Station in Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic, Jan. 20 – June 4, 1961
Charles Cookson – CIA Operations Officer; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Isabel Cintron – CIA Administrative Assistant; Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic
Rather than simply passing along three rifles one day, the document indicates the CIA actually took proactive steps to arrange the transfer of the guns for months, and finally did so by recruiting an intermediary; an American who owned a grocery store in the country, named Lorenzo Berry.
The 64-page document details discussions of U.S. efforts to first convince Trujillo to step down on his own, followed by discussions of options to assassinate him. The document also reveals extensive conversations about what weapons would be best to transfer to the assassins. While the killers did eventually receive the three M1 Carbines described by BBC, the plotters also discussed transfers of high-powered sniper rifles, submachine guns, rockets, and grenades.
Discussions about the transfer of weapons proceeded up to the last few days before the assassination.
The CIA said machine guns would be supplied “to demonstrate good will” with the assassins and steps were taken to achieve this goal. But the memo states they never did go through with passing along any weapons other than the M1 Carbines.
The CIA had transferred the three M1 Carbines to the assassins on or around April 7, 1961, just days before the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The internal memo indicates the high-profile failure in Cuba influenced their decision to not provide more weapons to their Dominican contacts involved in the Trujillo assassination plot.
While they had previously admitted to a “faint connection” to the Trujillo assassination, the CIA record instead indicates the agency was closely involved in the planning even after the Bay of Pigs failure, but limited their support thereafter as a way to maintain a low profile.
In a message sent the day after Trujillo’s assassination, the CIA’s Dominican Republic Chief of Station Robert Owen states, “If we are to at least try ‘cover up tracks,’ CIA personnel directly involved in assassination preparation must be withdrawn now. . . . . . If assassination tried and not successful, immediate evacuation of the chief of station, the operations officer, and the administrative assistant mandatory. . .”
Indeed, by June 2, Owen and two other CIA officers in the Dominican Republic who were named as plotters, left the country.
Some of the Dominican assassination plotters were arrested and interrogated, and proceeded to tell of a high-level U.S. government role in the planning. Dominican authorities actually didn’t believe these confessions by the assassins because they presumed if the U.S. government was involved, the plan would have seen not only Trujillo’s successful assassination but the complete overthrow of his government.
Indeed, the overthrow of Trujillo’s government was discussed by the CIA, but they assessed after the fact that their Dominican co-conspirators were too fragmented and failed to coordinate among themselves the general government coup that would follow Trujillo’s assassination.
Lorenzo Berry, the store owner who facilitated the weapons transfers to the assassins would later return to the United States and receive $2,000 (about $21,000 when adjusted for inflation) in compensation for his efforts by the CIA. The document further notes Berry and his wife became involved in other political intrigues in the Dominican Republic thereafter, including “actions that led to the overthrow of Dominican President Juan Bosch in 1963.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.
LOS ANGELES — George Foreman, the sleek, surly boxer who tangled with Muhammad Ali in the epic “Rumble in the Jungle” heavyweight championship fight before embarking on a lifetime of reinventions as a minister, youth counselor, cookbook author and TV pitchman for his own line of big and tall menswear, has died.
As bubbly in the spotlight as he was ferocious in the ring, Foreman died on Friday, his family announced in a social media post. He was 76.
“A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father, and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility and purpose,” his family wrote on Instagram.
Although Foreman was best known for his accomplishments in the ring, he also was a successful entrepreneur. He was so successful at promoting the George Foreman Lean Mean electric grill that an entire generation grew up recognizing him as the television grill guy, little knowing and little suspecting that he had ever been a boxer, much less a two-time heavyweight champ who won 76 of his 81 fights, 68 by knockout.
“People trust me,” Foreman once told USA Today of the zigs and zags in his colorful and varied career. “I sell sincerity.”
Along the way, he married five times and had at least 12 children. He named all five of his sons George, assigning each a number and a nickname, explaining on his website: “I named all my sons George Edward Foreman so they would always have something in common. I say to them, ‘If one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and if one goes down, we all go down together.’ ”
He didn’t start out being George Foreman. His biological father was Leroy Moorehead, but his mother married J.D. Foreman when George was a toddler, and raised him, along with six siblings, as a Foreman.
His was not an idyllic childhood. Embarrassed at living in chronic poverty — his school lunches often were mayonnaise sandwiches — he set out to remedy the situation, shoplifting, intimidating students for their lunch money, mugging people in the street. He once said his goal was to go to prison, then build the fiercest gang in his hometown of Houston.
“I was a bad guy, badder than anything you can imagine,” he told Newsday in 1991. “I was a real bad boy.”
One day when he was 16, fleeing police after another mugging, he crawled into a house excavation. It had been raining and the ground was muddy. Foreman wallowed in the mud, hoping to throw off the scent of any dogs the police might be using in their pursuit, then lay still, thinking. Stinking of the filth he’d rolled in, he concluded that he was probably on the wrong path.
“You are one gutter rat,” he said he told himself.
Not long afterward, he saw a TV commercial for the Job Corps and persuaded his mother to sign him up. There, he earned his GED, learned bricklaying and carpentry, was introduced to boxing and visualized a real future.
“I was rescued by a compassionate society,” he said.
Instead of putting his newfound skills to work, though, he chose boxing, moving to the Bay Area for training. Slow but methodical and possessing a wicked knockout punch, he advanced through the amateur ranks, qualifying for the Summer Olympics in Mexico City in 1968.
There, in the Games famous for Black power protest salutes by track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the medal stand, Foreman bloodied Lithuanian Jonas Cepulis, fighting for the Soviet Union, for 1 1/2 rounds in the gold-medal heavyweight match, winning when the referee stopped the fight. Then, to the dismay of Black activists who used the Games as a platform to protest systemic racism back home, Foreman paraded around the ring waving a miniature American flag.
As an amateur, Foreman had sparred with former heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, and when he turned pro, it was with Liston’s management team, Foreman assuming Liston’s fierce demeanor in the process.
“Well, we’re all a product of our heroes,” Foreman told Newsday. “You want to be like your heroes, but before you know it, you’ve bypassed being like them. You become them.”
Thus, a very unpleasant Foreman scaled the heavyweight division, getting his shot at champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in January 1973. A decided underdog, the unbeaten Foreman nonetheless dominated, knocking Frazier down six times and winning on a technical knockout in the second round amid Howard Cosell’s excited call: “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”
Twenty-one months and three fights later, he was an ex-champion, because of Muhammad Ali, himself a former champion. Ali had dominated the heavyweight division in the mid-1960s but was stripped of his title belts and banned from boxing after refusing to respond to the U.S. military draft during the Vietnam War. By 1974, after four years of forced exile, Ali was back in boxing’s good graces and on the comeback trail, hungry to regain the championship.
Ali had recently beaten Frazier to earn a shot at Foreman, but he was also 32 and no longer the ringmaster whose speed and power mesmerized fans. Still, the match was made, “The Rumble in the Jungle,” in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with Foreman a formidable favorite.
Ali attacked in the first round and, in the second, fell back against the ring ropes, inviting Foreman to hit him, taunting, counterpunching, clinching, covering up, deflecting Foreman’s thunderous punches in a unique style he later called “rope-a-dope.” As the fight wore on, a frustrated Foreman began to tire and Ali began landing punches. He connected with a combination in the eighth round, Foreman went down for the count, and Ali was, once again, the heavyweight champion.
“I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until about the seventh round,” Foreman said later. “I hit him hard to the jaw, and he held me and whispered in my ear, ‘That all you got, George?’ I realized that this ain’t what I thought it was.”
Foreman won his next five fights over a three-year span, then signed to fight a rising Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico. Ignoring advice to move his training site, Foreman flew into San Juan the day before the fight then, on a hot day in a building with no air conditioning, fought sluggishly for 12 rounds before being knocked to the mat. He lost on a decision.
In his dressing room after the fight, suffering from exhaustion and heatstroke, Foreman collapsed and thought he had died.
“If there’s a place called ‘nowhere,’ this was it,” he later wrote. “I was suspended in emptiness, with nothing over my head or under my feet. … I knew I was dead and this wasn’t heaven.” He said he began to plead with God to help him and when he said, “I don’t care if this is death, I still believe there is a God,” he felt a hand pulling him out of his ordeal.
He never announced a retirement but quit fighting and began preaching, on street corners at first, then, after ordination, in his own Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Houston. He also opened a youth center and, for the next decade, dedicated himself to helping others, losing all of the fierceness he’d adopted as a fighter.
Eventually, though, expenses, questionable bookkeeping by associates and bad investments ate his savings, and in 1987, at 38 and weighing nearly 300 pounds, he announced, to the mirth of many, his comeback.
And he made it work. His punch was still there, and, lining up a string of stiffs to ease the way, he gradually fought himself back into reasonable shape, losing to name fighters Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison, but finally getting another crack at the title against Michael Moorer at Las Vegas in 1994.
It quickly became obvious that Moorer was the superior boxer, and after nine rounds, he was far ahead on points, leaving Foreman one chance — a knockout. One chance was enough. He hit Moorer with a left in the 10th, then followed it up quickly with the thunderous right, and Moorer was gone. Foreman, at 45, had become the oldest heavyweight champion.
He successfully defended the title three times before losing it to Shannon Briggs in 1997, and then, at 48 and having made more money the second time around than he’d made the first time, ensuring the continuation of his church and youth center, he finally retired.
The marketing world, however, had discovered the new, people-friendly George Foreman, and soon other opportunities were coming his way, the biggest, as it turned out, the grill. Since Foreman began touting its drain-the-grease benefits, it has sold more than 100 million units, and counting, worldwide.
After making about $60 million on the original deal, Foreman sold his naming rights back to the company for $137.5 million, continued proclaiming the grill’s superiority and carried on with his various other lucrative activities. As of 2022, Forbes put his net worth at more than $300 million.
In 2022, two women sued Foreman, saying he sexual abused them as teenagers after “grooming” them as children. Foreman denied the allegations and alleged the women were trying to extort him The lawsuits were still being litigated at the time of his death
Late in life, Foreman and his wife, Mary, retired to a 45-acre compound in Huffman, Texas, where he had basketball and tennis courts and a garage packed with 38 cars. On weekends, they’d head to their ranch in nearby Marshall and go horseback riding and tend to the black Angus cattle they raised for their mail-order meat company, his latest enterprise.
“Money has to be spent,” Foreman told Sports Illustrated during a visit to his cattle ranch. “It is not made to be saved.”
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— Kupper is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer.
— Staff writer Steve Marble contributed to this report.
State Farm General, California’s largest home insurer, asked state officials for an emergency rate hike averaging 22% Monday, saying the Los Angeles County fires have put the company in dire financial straits.
The insurer, a subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Ill., said the company has already received at least 8,700 claims and paid more than $1 billion to customers. It expects to pay out “significantly more,” with the fires being the costliest natural disasters in its history.
“As the insurance commissioner, you can have a very significant impact on (State Farm General’s) ability to continue operating in California by immediately approving the requested interim rate changes,” the company said in a letter to state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.
The company is also asking for rate hikes of 38% for rental dwellings and 15% for tenants, with the rates taking effect May 1.
State Farm said the latest request is necessary to rebuild the company’s capital base so it will not have to “further constrain” the company’s ability to provide home insurance in the state. Insurance industry ratings agencies have said they expected premium increases due to the fires.
The California insurer said it has lost $2.8 billion over the nine-year period ending last year, including gains from investment income. It also noted State Farm General’s financial rating was downgraded last year by AM Best. The company said it will access reinsurance it acquired from its parent to pay claims from the Los Angeles-area fires.
State Farm General, which had about a 20% share of the homeowners insurance market in 2023, insures about 1 million homeowners in the state and has 1.8 million other policies in force.
The proposed rate hike is likely to be controversial. In June, the company filed for a 30% rate increase for its homeowners polices, a 36% increase for condo owners and a 52% increase for renters. That request took state officials by surprise, with Lara saying it raised “serious questions about its financial condition.”
That rate hike request is still pending. State Farm said it is prepared to issue refunds for customers who pay the interim emergency rates if the department approves lower increases for the rate hikes it sought last year.
The company previously received a 6.9% bump of its homeowner rates in January 2023 and a 20% hike that went into effect in March of last year.
“To protect millions of California consumers and the integrity of our residential property insurance market, the department will respond with urgency and transparency to recommend a course of action for Commissioner Lara,” the Department of Insurance said Monday in response to the request.
The department added that any rate hike would be approved only if it is justified under Proposition 103, the 1988 ballot measure that gave the commissioner the authority to review, adjust and reject proposed rate hikes.
Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog disputed that State Farm General was in financial trouble, saying that the company made underwriting profits of $1.4 billion from 2020 to 2023 and thta parent State Farm Mutual had “$134 billion in the bank.”
“Filling State Farm’s bank accounts shouldn’t fall on the backs of California homeowners recovering from disaster,” it said.
State Farm Group, led by State Farm General’s parent company, was given a superior financial rating in December by AM Best.
In March, State Farm General announced it would not be renewing 72,000 home, apartment and other property policies in California, citing soaring reconstruction costs, increasing wildfire risks and outdated state regulations.
That followed its decision in May 2023 to stop writing new business, homeowners, and other personal property and casualty insurance in the state, with the exception of personal auto insurance.
Last month, after the scale of the L.A. County fires became apparent, State Farm modified its decision and said it would offer renewals to any policyholder affected by the Palisades, Eaton and other county fires whose policies had not lapsed before the fires’ start on Jan. 7.
The insurer estimated that it would apply to roughly 70%, or 1,100, of the 1,626 residential policies it had in Pacific Palisades’ primary ZIP Code when it announced the nonrenewals last year.
It later expanded the renewal offer to any Los Angeles County policyholder on those same terms. The company said it had about 250,000 residential policyholders in the county.
A new report claims that Canada is working to increase funding to its military amid pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to spend more on military defense and Trump’s recent comments regarding Canada as the “51st state.”
According to Bloomberg, following the end of the Cold War in 1991, Canada published a report regarding budget cut proposals for the nation’s military spending. The outlet noted that Canada has allowed its military capabilities to diminish while relying upon the United States for a significant portion of its military protection. Additionally, Bloomberg reported that Canada has recently missed multiple patrols and military exercises with its allies.
According to Defense News, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly told journalists on Wednesday that Canada has been working with European officials to develop a joint defense alliance that would involve joint military procurement projects. The outlet reported that Joly claimed the negotiations were partially in response to Trump’s comments regarding Canada as the “51st state.”
“We need new partnerships,” Joly told reporters on Wednesday. “We have an over-reliance on American procurement, particularly in the defense sector.”
The foreign affairs minister added, “The rhetoric coming out of the White House is not only concerning, but it is also a threat to our sovereignty.”
READ MORE: Viral Video: USA crushes Canada’s hockey team after Canadians boo national anthem
During a Monday press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed that he ordered a review of the country’s purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 jets, according to Defense News. Defense News reported that Canada previously committed to spending $13.2 billion in January of 2023 to purchase 88 F-35s from the United States.
Addressing the review of the purchase agreement, Carney said, “Given the geopolitical environment, given the fact that there are options, given the need for value for money, given the possibility of having substantial production of alternative aircraft in Canada — as opposed to sending, as we have been, on average, 80 cents of every dollar to the United States — it’s prudent and in the interest of Canada to review those options.”
Carney also announced on Tuesday that it would be partnering with Australia to implement a new radar system. While Carney indicated that the new system would contribute to Canada’s efforts as part of the U.S.-Canada North American Aerospace Defense Command, the prime minister also suggested that it will help Canada defend itself.
“International institutions and norms that have kept Canada secure are now being called into question,” Carney stated, according to Defense News. “The United States priorities, once closely aligned with our own, are beginning to shift.”
Will Smith has announced his return to music. The “West Philadelphia born-and-raised” rapper and actor who rose to fame in the late 1980s as one-half of the musical duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, has not released an album under his own name since 2005′s Lost and Found.
That will change next week, when Smith returns as a solo artist with Based On a True Story, a 14-track album that comes out on March 28 on Slang Records. The set features contributions from Smith’s old partner Jeffrey Townes, plus Fridayy, Teyana Taylor, Big Sean, Joyner Lucas, and Smith’s son Jaden Smith.
Smith, who made his solo debut with 1997′s Big Willie Style, which produced the signature hit “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It,” teased the project with the single “Beautiful Scars” earlier this year.
The album, with a cover that photographs Smith outfitted in a Phillies jacket and cap, will also include “You Can Make It,” a song he released with Fridayy and the Sunday Service Choir last year.
In January, Smith told Billboard that the album was shaped by soul searching that began during the filming of the 2022 movie The Emancipation. It continued, he said, in the aftermath of the incident at that year’s Oscars ceremony in which he slapped Chris Rock during the live broadcast after the comedian mocked Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
“After the Oscars, that spiritual investigation continued and a whole world woke up inside that I didn’t even know was there. Dreams, visions; parts of my inner landscape that I had no awareness of prior to three years ago,” Smith told Billboard.
“And that opened up this bubbling to share what I’m seeing and experiencing,” said Smith, who narrated the “In Memoriam” segment for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air executive producer and his mentor Quincy Jones, at this year’s Grammy Awards.
“A big part of my music now is about that: the ecstatic kind of joy I remember from church when I was growing up; the ability to try to make this place more bearable. You know, I’ve always had a wild imagination; that’s part of who I am. But there’s something new happening with me that’s demanding I explore musically.”
Smith has also announced his “Based On a True Story” tour, which kicks of in Rabat, Morocco on June 25 and carries on in Europe through the summer, culminating in Paris on Sept. 2. North American dates have not been announced. Tickets details are not yet available, but fans can sign up for early access at willsmith.com/#tour