“These are the monsters sent to our country by cheater Joe Biden and the far-left Democrats.” This is how Donald Trump comments on the shocking video he posted last night on Truth showing the arrival, at an airport in combat gear, of over 200 Venezuelan migrants, considered by Washington to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang, classified as a terrorist organization, deported to the infamous Salvadoran maximum security prisons following an agreement with President Nayib Bukele.
“Thanks to El Salvador and thanks in particular to President Bukele who understood this horrible situation,” Trump writes again, commenting on the video, originally published by the Salvadoran president, which shows these men in chains, all forced to walk bent over, being dragged off the plane by soldiers in riot gear. The video continues with the arrival of dozens of buses, and a massive deployment of law enforcement and military, at the super-security prison, where the inmates are made to kneel and are shaved.
In short, Trump has chosen to publicize to the fullest, for the benefit of his supporters, what appears to be a real deportation, with which he challenges the federal judge who on Saturday blocked the application of the measure for two weeks, signed in secret on Friday, to invoke an 18th-century war law to have the authority to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants as “enemy aliens.” It was the first time since World War II that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 had been invoked, applied only three times in American history.
In blocking the application of the law, Judge James Boasberg had also ordered that all planes that had already departed with the Venezuelans to be expelled be returned. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt denied that this order had been violated, claiming that at the time of the federal judge’s ruling, the Venezuelans had “already been removed from American soil.” But then she openly stated that federal judges would have “no jurisdiction” over how the president manages foreign policy or his power to expel enemy aliens.
“A single judge in a single city cannot control the movements of a plane full of foreign terrorists who have been physically expelled from the United States,” she added, thus suggesting that there was a precise intention to challenge the ruling.
The announcement of the arrival of the Venezuelans in El Salvador also seems to have followed a precise script, with Bukele, the controversial president who likes to call himself “the coolest dictator in the world,” being the first to announce the arrival of the Venezuelans, with a post in which he also mocked the judge’s ruling: “Oops…too late.” Then came messages from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrating the “historic result,” with the removal of “foreigners who terrorized Americans with guerrilla warfare,” and finally the shocking video posted by Trump.
After being injured during combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chris Peskuski returned to civilian life damaged both physically and emotionally.
Even before deciding to leave the U.S. Marine Corps in 2011, the Albuquerque resident said he was starting to spiral due to alcohol abuse, a brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder.
“It took me a long time to admit this to myself, but I was broken and I was scaring myself enough to know that I needed to get out,” Peskuski said in a recent interview.
But Peskuski said he was able to turn his life and his marriage around after traveling to South America to use psilocybin, or magic mushrooms.
Now he’s one of several veterans who have been sharing their stories at the Roundhouse, as lawmakers debate creating a state-run psilocybin program for medical patients.
A bill that would make New Mexico just the second state in the nation with such a program, Senate Bill 219, passed the Senate last week on a 33-4 vote. It’s scheduled to be heard in its only assigned House committee on Monday and could reach the House floor later this week.
The advocacy of Peskuski and other veterans at the Roundhouse has already made an impact.
During the Senate debate on the bill this week, Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, said he was previously staunchly opposed to a state-sanctioned psilocybin program.
But he said he changed his mind after a heartfelt conversation with Peskuski, who sat on the chamber floor alongside Block while his wife and 7-year old son watched from the Senate gallery.
“There are many veterans who haven’t come yet,” Block said at one point during the Senate debate on the bill, referring to struggles with mental health issues.
Peskuski said he was encouraged to share his story with lawmakers by other veterans like Crystal C. Romero, who spoke about her own struggles with post traumatic stress disorder at a recent Senate committee hearing.
“I know that our voices have made an impact and changed some people’s minds up here,” Peskuski said.
Going forward, he said he wants to become a psychedelic facilitator to help other veterans experiencing similar struggles to his own.
“There’s a lot of stigma around it in the Marine Corps,” Peskuski said. “Mental health issues weren’t really talked about.”
NM would follow Oregon’s lead under bill
The bill advancing at the Roundhouse would create an advisory board under the New Mexico Department of Health to oversee supervised use of psilocybin for patients.
At least at the start, patients with four conditions would be eligible for the program, which would officially begin in 2028. Those conditions, which would have to be certified by a physician, are depression, substance abuse disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and end-of-life care.
It would also decriminalize the production, prescription and possession of medical psilocybin.
If the bill is signed into law, New Mexico would follow in the steps of Oregon, which became the first state to decriminalize possession and legalize use of psilocybin in 2022, though such use must be monitored.
Some other countries have also decriminalized or partly legalized psilocybin, including Australia, Brazil, Peru, Portugal and Switzerland.
Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, also pointed out during the Senate floor debate that psilocybin has been used for thousands of years by indigenous healers.
“This medicine is not ground-breaking,” she said. “It’s only new to western modalities of healing.”
But several skeptical senators pointed out the drug is still illegal at the federal level, since it’s classified as a Schedule 1 substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration, and raised questions about its side effects.
An unlikely road to healing
After leaving the military, Peskuski said he tried more traditional types of therapy at his wife’s urging, including a psychotherapy treatment and acupuncture, but found them only mildly helpful.
At one point, he said he was using a daily regiment of pharmaceutical drugs including Adderall to get out of bed in the morning, and alcohol mixed with Tramadol go to sleep at night.
“I was just super depressed, and became completely demoralized to the point where I really didn’t care anymore,” Peskuski said.
With his health deteriorating, he said a friend referred him to a nonprofit group called Heroic Hearts that helps U.S. military veterans navigate psychedelic therapy.
But that group had a lengthy wait list, so Peskuski decided to travel to Peru on his own to undergo a psilocybin medical treatment.
“I’m either going to die in Peru doing this medicine, or I’m going to die here one way or another,” he recalled thinking. “I was pretty much at the point where I had nothing left to lose.”
Peskuski said he had previously tried psilocybin as an adolescent but just for recreational purposes. He recalls the experience as “just running around tripping.”
As an adult using the hallucinogenic drug in a more controlled setting, he described the experience as profound. Specifically, he said it prompted him to take ownership of his personal struggles, while also reminding him of his resiliency.
“In my core, I am a warrior and I had forgotten that and I’d become a victim in so many ways,” Peskuski said.
He said he’s now able to be a better husband and father, though he said he also sticks to a daily routine of meditation, breath work and martial arts to remain grounded.
“What it really comes down to is I’m here — I’m present wherever I’m at, and I can be present for my family,” said Peskuski.
“I’m not worried about the future, and I’m not dwelling on my past,” he added.
A new report claims that President Donald Trump is expected to invoke the wartime powers of the “Alien Enemies Act of 1798” to quickly deport criminal illegal immigrants linked to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Multiple U.S. officials familiar with the president’s plan told CBS News that the 47th president is expected to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as early as Friday to authorize the expedited deportation of illegal immigrants who are suspected of being a part of the Tren de Aragua gang to Guantanamo Bay.
According to CBS News, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 gives the president the power to arrest, detain, and deport non-citizens 14 years and older if they come from nations committing an “invasion or predatory incursion” of the United States.
The Daily Wire reported that illegal immigrants arrested under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 would not be granted an asylum interview or a court hearing and would be processed under the president’s special wartime authority instead of normal U.S. immigration laws.
Earlier this year, the State Department announced the designation of Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
READ MORE: Suspected Venezuelan gang members protected by federal judge
“TdA is a transnational organization that originated in Venezuela with cells in Colombia, Peru, and Chile, with further reports of sporadic presence in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil,” the State Department said. “This brutal criminal group has conducted kidnappings, extorted businesses, bribed public officials, authorized its members to attack and kill U.S. law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure.”
Trump previously announced during his inaugural address that he would be invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to crack down on illegal immigration in the United States, specifically with regard to criminal gangs.
At the time, Trump said, “By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
“As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do,” the president added. “We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”
Dolly Parton reached out to fans, friends and family with what she called a “love note” Thursday in the wake of husband Carl Dean’s death earlier this week. Then on Friday she dedicated a new song in his honor, saying he was “the star” in her life story.
“I fell in love with Carl Dean when I was 18 years old,” Parton wrote on social media. “We have spent 60 precious and meaningful years together. Like all great love stories, they never end. They live on in memory and song. He will always be the star of my life story, and I dedicate this song to him.”
The song is “If You Hadn’t Been There” and includes the lyrics, “Oh you are my rock/ A soft place to land/ My wings, my confidence/ You understand/ Your willingness/ Beyond compare/ No I wouldn’t be here/ If you hadn’t been there.”
Her voice trembles with emotion as she sings the lyrics, fueled by the six decades of relationship behind them. Comments on the Instagram post are from people around the world.
The new tune follows Parton’s Thursday note to supporters on social media. “Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl. I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me,” she wrote.
Parton, 79, married Dean, who died Monday at age 82, on May 30, 1966, in Ringgold, Georgia, southeast of Chattanooga and close to the Tennessee-Georgia state line. The ceremony was tiny, according to her website, including only Parton’s mom, plus the preacher and his wife. Bride and groom had met two years prior, when she was 18 and he was 21.
Dean’s cause of death was not made public, and his funeral will be private. On Monday, Parton’s camp posted a quick statement online confirming his death in Nashville, Tennessee, and including a few words from the singer.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” she said in that first statement. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Among those responding with comments: Cracker Barrel restaurants and Dollar General stores, keeping the down-home vibe going. And while celebs including Reese Witherspoon and Khloe Kardashian registered their condolences, so did regular fans.
“What a beautiful love story coming to its worldly conclusion,” said one comment posted Thursday by a fan whose private Instagram account said her name is Sarah Lewis. “A handsome and understanding man providing such a foundation to a lightning bolt of a woman.”
Parton, that lightning bolt, ended her remarks in Thursday’s note, saying of her husband, “He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you.”
In a tropical corner of Bolivia, on a compound owned by a radio station that caters to growers of the plant often used to make cocaine, a former president is hiding from the law.
He’s holed up in a bunker, protected by an encampment filled with thousands of loyalists armed with sticks. They’re ready to beat back any attempt to take him into custody on charges of human trafficking and statutory rape.
Supporters of former Bolivia’s President Evo Morales celebrate the 16th anniversary of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Jan. 22, 2025. (Fernando Cartagena/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
Evo Morales, once a globetrotting star of the progressive left, hailed for overseeing a booming economy after becoming the first indigenous leader of one of Latin America’s poorest nations, now spends his days confined to just a couple buildings in an isolated town. He’s plotting a comeback with dreams of regaining office in August’s election, but courts have ruled him ineligible and Morales faces the threat of arrest if he ever steps outside the compound. He’s undaunted by taunts from one of Bolivia’s only billionaires to pay a $1 million bounty for his capture.
The messy reality of Bolivia’s politics means that Morales would stand a good chance of victory if he’s able to run, regardless of the charges against him. A recent bout of inflation is fueling a strong streak of nostalgia, especially among Bolivia’s poor, for the 14 years through 2019 when Morales led the country and gained a global following for nationalizing its booming gas industry and championing indigenous rights. He was a hero to the left then, hanging out with Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and even the movie director Sean Penn. During his presidency, Bolivia’s economy grew at an impressive 5% annually, almost double the average for Latin America, according to the World Bank.
That’s a sharp contrast with the past few years, as inflation accelerated to the fastest in more than three decades amid fuel shortages that have disrupted daily life and a sharp depreciation in the currency.
Few outsiders have seen Morales in person since a judge ordered his arrest in January over allegations he had a sexual relationship with an underage girl who gave birth to Morales’ child in 2016. Morales denies any wrongdoing, and his supporters say the accusations are politically motivated. They’ve set up highway checkpoints outside the town of Lauca Ñ, in the department of Cochabamba, and blockaded streets in an effort to protect him from police.
The bunker where he’s hiding out is the headquarters of Radio Kawsachun Coca, which caters to growers of the plant that’s refined into cocaine but is also legally used in its raw form in the Andes as a mild stimulant and remedy for altitude sickness.
Cochabamba is estimated to produce up to $110 million of raw coca a year, according to the United Nations, much of which is diverted to the illegal production of cocaine. Around Lauca Ñ there are signs everywhere offering pressed coca leaves, which have often been flavored with sweetener and bicarbonate to soften its bitterness and enhance its potency.
Morales, who first came to national prominence in the 1990s as the leader of a union for coca growers, has been there since October, with the encampment growing around him.
There are about 2,000 supporters who stand ready if called upon to defend him. At 10 a.m. every day, they parade around the bunker brandishing their sticks in a display of force and unity.
Anyone entering to arrest Morales “won’t come out alive,” one member of the security team told Bloomberg News reporters during a recent visit to the compound. He was dressed in camouflage, wearing a communications earpiece and sporting a fanny pack with additional gear. He declined to identify himself, but calls himself Jhon Connor, a reference to the protagonist of the Terminator films.
Morales lives in a walled property where he leads his campaign, such as it is, from an office full of pictures and books that celebrate his leadership. From his desk, he faces a photograph of himself wearing the presidential sash. To his left is another photo with the inscription: “The best president in the history of Bolivia.” To his right is an image of the former president posing with Castro and Chavez.
As president between 2006 and 2019, Morales commanded such outsized power that he changed laws and swapped judges to enable him to serve three consecutive terms, and run for a fourth on what judges elected during his administration said was his “human right.” A court under today’s less friendly government has deemed him ineligible to run because of term limits, but Morales disputes its jurisdiction.
When Bloomberg reporters were invited to interview him, he objected to questions about the possibility he wouldn’t be able to compete.
“There is no Plan B,” Morales said before abruptly ending the interview after just 10 minutes. “It’s homeland or death. We have to be allowed to run.”
Many have painful memories of his last campaign. In 2019, he was accused of trying to steal the election while Morales denounced a coup against his administration. He ended up leaving Bolivia for Mexico in the middle of protests that left at least 37 dead.
Morales returned in 2020, when his former finance minister Luis Arce became president. But Arce has gone from right-hand man to enemy, saying in December and again in January that it was an “open secret” that Morales liked underage girls.
Morales has denied the allegations and also accused Arce of trying to kill him in October, offering as evidence what he says is a video of himself and his aides in a car being shot at. Arce’s administration has denied that it sought to kill Morales, but said the incident in question occurred after his vehicle had blown past a police checkpoint.
Arce is poised to run for reelection this year, one of his top advisers said last month, and has taken control of the Movement to Socialism party that Morales had belonged to. Morales, meanwhile, has been forced to find a new party to host his candidacy.
Marcelo Claure, a former top executive at SoftBank and one of Bolivia’s only billionaires, has vowed to bankroll the campaign of anyone who can defeat Morales and Arce. He’s commissioning polls and exploring the fragmented field of potential conservative candidates with the idea of going all in on one of them, but has yet to announce a decision. In February, he posted a photo on X depicting a wanted poster for Morales.
Amid the political turmoil and growing discontent with the economy and inflation, supporters of Morales are advocating for his return.
“We don’t have enough money anymore,” said Maria Luz Ticlla, 46, a farmer who is participating in the encampment. “We would like him to return to power because with his government we had everything; with this government we have nothing.”
Paying a Visit
An expedition to see Morales in person gives a sense of what police are up against if they want to take him into custody. Bolivia’s top police official has confirmed there is an outstanding order to arrest Morales. But he has said officials are trying to avoid any violence that may result from entering the encampment.
Bolivia does have a recent history of cinematically arresting opposition figures. Former President Jeanine Anez was apprehended while hiding under her bed in 2021. The following year, police intercepted the motorcade used by Luis Fernando Camacho, then sitting governor of Santa Cruz, broke one of the vehicle’s windows and used tear gas to take him into custody. He was later flown to jail in a helicopter.
The area where Morales is holed up in central Bolivia has long been the former president’s stronghold because of his efforts to protect coca farmers.
“We need to be respected because everybody says we’re drug dealers, but that’s not the reality,” said Nestor Galarza, 67, who was volunteering as a guard at a highway checkpoint. Past his barriers of logs and rocks lies the outer ring of the encampment and a second checkpoint. It is guarded by a few dozen people, some of whom look out from an observation tower, all under a sign saying it’s the headquarters of the “People’s Great State.”
Then there’s a third checkpoint at the entrance to the building that serves as headquarters for the Kawsachun Coca radio station, where encampment members register guests and inspect their belongings. Inside the property, other security forces inspect belongings once again.
Only the few loyalists past the third checkpoint get to see Morales. Aides say he wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to exercise, then has a busy schedule of meetings to plan his presidential campaign. He can’t leave the property for fear of arrest.
During the recent visit, Morales said he feels a bit uncomfortable rooting for his favorite soccer team, Club Bolivar, ever since Claure, who owns the club, stepped up his political commentary. Claure has called Morales a “pedophile” on X and been harshly critical of Arce’s administration. In polls commissioned by Claure, Morales wasn’t included as a potential candidate, obscuring his level of support.
Morales is sure that he can win August’s election if he’s allowed to run, allowing reporters to glance at documents showing what he said were private polls that back his claim. In the 10-minute interview, he emphasized that he was running not because of any particular desire to serve another term, but instead because so many Bolivians had been asking him to return to the presidency.
He was not keen to discuss the legal impediments to running again, seemingly offended at even being asked about them. “I’m sorry, I’m ending the interview,” he said after being asked about his strategy. “I don’t want to engage in what ifs. That’s what the right does, that’s what the current administration does. “As reporters left the radio building, Morales watched from a window.
Jaime Puerta keeps a shrine to his son, Daniel, behind his desk — a collection of candles, old pictures and his son’s beloved toy car.
He also keeps a stash of naloxone, the lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drug, and a yellow poster Puerta carried while marching with other grieving parents outside the headquarters of Snap, creator of the disappearing messaging app Snapchat. At the bottom of the poster is the solemn slogan of his son’s life:
“Forever 16.”
“It haunts me,” Jaime Puerta said of finding his son nearly lifeless in bed. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Puerta is among the more than 60 families who are suing Snap, arguing the Santa Monica-based company is responsible for drug sales to teens that are facilitated through its app. Snap denies the allegations in the wrongful death cases, which accuse the company of designing an app that is inherently dangerous.
In a statement, the company said it removed more than 2.4 million pieces of drug-related content last year, disabling 516,000 related accounts, and noted that it blocks searches for drug-related terms and instead redirects users to resources about their dangers.
The cases, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, could have broader implications for social media companies and could weaken a key legal defense long used by Big Tech companies to shield themselves from liability.
Jaime Puerta stands in his son’s bedroom, next to a bookshelf filled with his pictures and mementos, shown on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
“We’re in the middle of a reckoning for Snap and other social media platforms,” said Tom Galvin, executive director of Digital Citizens Alliance, a nonprofit focused on internet safety.
Daniel Puerta-Johnson died at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on April 6, 2020, a few days after his father found him unconscious in bed. Half of a blue tablet lay on his son’s dresser, Puerta said.
It looked like oxycodone, but was actually fentanyl, a far more potent painkiller that can suppress a person’s breathing, according to the lawsuit. The investigation into Daniel’s death, the lawsuit said, determined that he met a drug dealer through Snapchat a few days before he died.
“What the hell is going on here?” Puerta remembered thinking.
Daniel Puerta-Johnson’s father placed old pictures, mementos and his son’s ashes on a bookshelf in the teen’s bedroom. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
A former Marine, Puerta now zigzags the nation sharing his son’s story. Last month, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging lawmakers to take action to stop what he characterized as low-level drug dealers selling with impunity on Snapchat and other social media apps.
Attorneys for Puerta and the other families have argued that Snapchat’s design features — specifically its signature disappearing messages, a tool that can be used to connect with strangers on the app, and what plaintiffs call ineffective methods of verifying users’ ages and identities — make it easy for drug dealers to connect with teens and avoid detection.
“Snapchat,” the lawsuit reads, “has evolved into a digital open-air drug market.”
Jaime Puerta answers the door behind a photo of his son Daniel, shown on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Snap’s lawyers have argued the company is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — a 1996 law that insulates platforms from liability for user content — and asked to have the case tossed out.
But Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff ruled last year that the matter could proceed on several counts, including the argument that the app’s design was itself destructive. Both sides have argued that the law is clear on the matter, but the judge disagreed.
“What is clear and obvious,” Riff wrote, “is that the law is unsettled and in a state of development.”
In December, justices on California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals denied a petition from Snap to overturn Riff’s ruling, paving the way for the proceedings in L.A. to resume. During a status conference in the case last month, Riff told the attorneys for Snap and the plaintiffs that he wanted the cases to move expeditiously.
Jaime Puerta, right, stands with his wife, Claudia Ortega, while holding a photo of Daniel outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. (Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Before the hearing, Puerta and several other parents gathered on the steps of the courthouse. One mother carried a framed portrait of her daughter, another clutched a flag with her son’s picture and a familiar refrain: “Forever 13.”
::::
Social media platforms have, over the last decade, faced growing public pleas to address evidence that their algorithms may be harmful, especially to teens, said Galvin of the internet safety nonprofit. But the platforms, including Snapchat, whose financial models rely on maximizing the number of users and how long users spend on the apps, haven’t done enough, he said.
“Next it was, ‘Look, if you don’t do it, someone will probably make you,’ ” he said.
Facebook, Instagram, Discord and YouTube all face legal accusations that they have caused harm to children, and last fall, a Florida mother sued Character.AI, alleging its chatbot technology was responsible after her 14-year-old son took his own life. Lawyers for the company, which asked to have the lawsuit dismissed on free speech grounds, said in court papers that the chatbot had discouraged the boy from hurting himself.
The platforms have also increasingly come under scrutiny from prosecutors and politicians.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his counterparts from other states filed lawsuits against TikTok last fall, arguing that the app’s features, such as beauty filters and infinite scrolling, were harming young people’s mental health. A few weeks earlier, New Mexico’s attorney general sued Snap, arguing that it was designed to addict young people and that its algorithm facilitated the sexual exploitation of children. Snap responded, saying it had worked diligently to find and remove bad actors and would keep doing so as online threats evolved.
Several states, including California, passed laws last year restricting children’s access to social media or requiring parental consent. Some of those laws are being challenged on 1st Amendment grounds.
And before he finished his second term as U.S. surgeon general earlier this year, Dr. Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require social media companies to include warning labels on their platforms similar to those mandatory on cigarette packaging. The platforms, he said, should be required to publicly share data on health effects.
“While the platforms claim they are making their products safer, Americans need more than words,” Murthy wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. “We need proof.”
::::
Sixty-four families have signed on to the fentanyl wrongful death suits against Snap in L.A. by the Social Media Victims Law Center, the Seattle-based legal firm representing Puerta.
“Every day we hear from new parents who have lost kids,” said Matthew Bergman, the firm’s founding attorney. “It’s just unbelievable.”
In addition to Puerta’s son, the lawsuits tell the stories of a Palmdale teen who died a few days after his 17th birthday, cutting short his dream of becoming a bull rider; a pharmacist’s daughter with aspirations of becoming a forensic psychologist; and a Santa Monica boy whose parents are advocating for Sammy’s Law, federal legislation in his name that would require platforms to allow parents to track children’s online activity using third-party software.
Snap’s chief executive, Evan Spiegel, addressed the tragedies directly under tense questioning by members of Congress last year.
“There are a number of parents whose children have been able to access illegal drugs on your platform,” said Laphonza Butler, then one of California’s senators. “What do you say to those parents?”
Spiegel looked down and shifted in his seat. “Senator, we are devastated that we cannot …” he said. Butler cut him off.
“To the parents,” she said. “What do you say to those parents?”
“I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies,” he said. “We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs from our platform.”
David Décary-Hétu, a University of Montreal criminology professor, said the situation of dealers peddling drugs on social platforms had “slowly gotten better.”
Last fall, he and other researchers scoured online for people selling drugs on several platforms, including Snapchat, Instagram and X. While they did find some, he said, the sellers used cryptic language — just the letter “C” or a snowflake emoji, for instance, instead of referencing “cocaine” — to get around algorithms the companies use to root out dealers.
But even when dealers’ accounts are removed, they can create new ones easily using a different email address or phone number, said Eric Feinberg, vice president of the Coalition for a Safer Web, an internet safety nonprofit that has researched drug sales on social media.
“That’s the whole problem with this stuff, it’s whack-a-mole,” he said.
For his part, Puerta said he would like to see Snapchat — whose 13-and-older age requirement can be quickly skirted by entering a fake birthday — take more sweeping steps, such as requiring users to upload a copy of their ID.
::::
As a boy, Daniel had a deeply inquisitive spirit.
But around the time he went through puberty — and got his first cellphone — Puerta noticed a stark change in his son’s demeanor. Always a great student who dreamed of becoming a software engineer, his grades dropped to Ds and Fs, and during a father-son trip to Maui a decade ago Daniel almost never looked up from his screen.
“He was completely immersed in that phone.”
After a growth spurt early in high school, he told his dad he felt uncomfortable in his body and so anxious that it felt like a race car was tearing through his mind. He began self-medicating with pot and then Xanax.
But after a stint at a wilderness camp in 2018, Puerta said he felt like he finally had his son back. Then came the isolation of the early pandemic shutdowns. On the first day of April in 2020, Puerta found his son barely breathing. He was taken off life support a few days later.
“It haunts me,” said Puerta, who blames himself for not researching the apps on his son’s phone more closely, for not asking more questions.
For two years, he left Daniel’s room untouched, but the image of the empty bed tormented him, so Puerta replaced it with two recliners.
He added a bookshelf, filling it with items, such as Daniel’s boyhood rock collection and a lei from their trip to Maui. Daniel’s ashes sit in a wooden box, tucked in front of the remains of his beloved dog Birdie.
“I commune with my son here,” he said. “It’s my go-to place. No one can take that away from me.”
Puerta keeps in touch with his son’s closest friends, including Sammi Ratkay.
The two met in first grade at Plum Canyon Elementary, but got close during their freshman year of high school. Neither had a first-period class, so they often hung out in Ratkay’s sister’s car blasting music on their phones.
Like most everyone in their school at the time, Ratkay, now 22, says, Daniel spent a lot of time on Snapchat. They messaged each other on the app daily. He sent clips of himself dancing and shared old photos, including one of himself with a bad haircut as a boy.
It was from a group message on the platform, she said, that she learned Daniel was in the hospital.
“Social media was our lives,” she said. “I hate to say it, but it was everything.”
Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor at the University of California-San Francisco medical school, has spent well over a decade researching the disquieting risk that one of modern medicine’s most valuable tools, computerized tomography scans, can sometimes cause cancer.
Smith-Bindman and like-minded colleagues have long pushed for federal policies aimed at improving safety for patients undergoing CT scans. Under new Medicare regulations effective this year, hospitals and imaging centers must start collecting and sharing more information about the radiation their scanners emit.
About 93 million CT scans are performed every year in the United States, according to IMV, a medical market research company that tracks imaging. More than half of those scans are for people 60 and older. Yet there is scant regulation of radiation levels as the machines scan organs and structures inside bodies. Dosages are erratic, varying widely from one clinic to another, and are too often unnecessarily high, Smith-Bindman and other critics say.
“It’s unfathomable,” Smith-Bindman said. “We keep doing more and more CTs, and the doses keep going up.”
One CT scan can expose a patient to 10 or 15 times as much radiation as another, Smith-Bindman said. “There is very large variation,” she said, “and the doses vary by an order of magnitude — tenfold, not 10% different — for patients seen for the same clinical problem.” In outlier institutions, the variation is even higher, according to research she and a team of international collaborators have published.
She and other researchers estimated in 2009 that high doses could be responsible for 2% of cancers. Ongoing research shows it’s probably higher, since far more scans are performed today.
The cancer risk from CT scans for any individual patient is very low, although it rises for patients who have numerous scans throughout their lives. Radiologists don’t want to scare off patients who can benefit from imaging, which plays a crucial role in identifying life-threatening conditions like cancers and aneurysms and guides doctors through complicated procedures.
But the new data collection rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued in the closing months of the Biden administration are aimed at making imaging safer. They also require a more careful assessment of the dosing, quality, and necessity of CT scans.
The requirements, rolled out in January, are being phased in over about three years for hospitals, outpatient settings, and physicians. Under the complicated reporting system, not every radiologist or health care setting is required to comply immediately. Providers could face financial penalties under Medicare if they don’t comply, though those will be phased in, too, starting in 2027.
When the Biden administration issued the new guidelines, a CMS spokesperson said in an email that excessive and unnecessary radiation exposure was a health risk that could be addressed through measurement and feedback to hospitals and physicians. The agency at the time declined to make an official available for an interview. The Trump administration did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
The Leapfrog Group, an organization that tracks hospital safety, welcomed the new rules. “Radiation exposure is a very serious patient safety issue, so we commend CMS for focusing on CT scans,” said Leah Binder, the group’s president and CEO. Leapfrog has set standards for pediatric exposure to imaging radiation, “and we find significant variation among hospitals,” Binder added.
CMS contracted with UCSF in 2019 to research solutions aimed at encouraging better measurement and assessment of CTs, leading to the development of the agency’s new approach.
The American College of Radiology and three other associations involved in medical imaging, however, objected to the draft CMS rules when they were under review, arguing in written comments in 2023 that they were excessively cumbersome, would burden providers, and could add to the cost of scans. The group was also concerned, at that time, that health providers would have to use a single, proprietary tech tool for gathering the dosing and any related scan data.
The single company in question, Alara Imaging, supplies free software that radiologists and radiology programs need to comply with the new regulations. The promise to keep it free is included in the company’s copyright. Smith-Bindman is a co-founder of Alara Imaging, and UCSF also has a stake in the company, which is developing other health tech products unrelated to the CMS imaging rule that it does plan to commercialize.
But the landscape has recently changed. ACR said in a statement from Judy Burleson, ACR vice president for quality management programs, that CMS is allowing in other vendors — and that ACR itself is “in discussion with Alara” on the data collection and submission. In addition, a company called Medisolv, which works on health care quality, said at least one client is working with another vendor, Imalogix, on the CT dose data.
Several dozen health quality and safety organizations — including some national leaders in patient safety, like the Institute of Healthcare Improvement — have supported CMS’ efforts.
Concerns about CT dosing are long-standing. A landmark study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2009 by a research team that included experts from the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and universities estimated that CT scans were responsible for 29,000 excess cancer cases a year in the United States, about 2% of all cases diagnosed annually.
But the number of CT scans kept climbing. By 2016, it was estimated at 74 million, up 20% in a decade, though radiologists say dosages of radiation per scan have declined. Some researchers have noted that U.S. doctors order far more imaging than physicians in other developed countries, arguing some of it is wasteful and dangerous.
More recent studies, some looking at pediatric patients and some drawing on radiation exposure data from survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, have also identified CT scan risk.
Older people may face greater cancer risks because of imaging they had earlier in life. And scientists have emphasized the need to be particularly careful with children, who may be more vulnerable to radiation exposure while young and face the consequences of cumulative exposure as they age.
Max Wintermark, a neuroradiologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who has been involved in the field’s work on appropriate utilization of imaging, said doctors generally follow dosing protocols for CT scans. In addition, the technology is improving; he expects artificial intelligence to soon help doctors determine optimal imaging use and dosing, delivering “the minimum amount of radiation dose to get us to the diagnosis that we’re trying to reach.”
But he said he welcomes the new CMS regulations.
“I think the measures will help accelerate the transition towards always lower and lower doses,” he said. “They are helpful.”
There are two contrasting approaches that lawmakers have taken to curbing the fentanyl epidemic: public health and criminal justice. This year, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is aiming for the latter.
A Jones-backed bill, carried by state Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, would create a separate schedule of offenses for fentanyl possession and trafficking, with longer mandatory sentences and fines than what are already in state code.
“We’re trying to put a little fear into the hearts of the people that are spreading this poison in our communities,” Goodman said.
Under Georgia law, anyone in possession of 1 to 4 grams of a substance that contains fentanyl could be subject to up to eight years in prison. Goodman’s proposal would lower that minimum of 1 gram to 250 milligrams and increase the maximum prison sentence from eight years to ten. Additionally, anyone possessing less than 250 milligrams of a substance that contains the synthetic opioid could face up to five years in prison.
Fentanyl trafficking charges, which start at weights of 4 grams, would carry a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence and a $75,000 fine under the proposal. On the high end, trafficking offenses for weights of at least 28 grams would carry 35 years in prison and $750,000 fines.
Goodman said he’s hoping that stiffer fentanyl penalties will help prevent drug trafficking and perhaps pave the way for the dealers to divulge information about other criminals linked to the illegal trade up the chain.
As little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal to some people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“If other illegal drugs are a BB gun, fentanyl is a nuclear bomb,” Goodman said.
Although Goodman’s measure has drawn support from both sides of the aisle, a few Democratic senators expressed reservations about the mandatory minimums.
State Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, who voted in opposition to the measure, said the mandatory minimums echoed the worst of the country’s war on drugs started under the Nixon administration.
The measure is a shift away from the General Assembly’s approach under former Gov. Nathan Deal, who sought to overhaul Georgia’s criminal justice system.
The bill has since moved to the House for debate, where Goodman said he expects there to be minor tweaks to the bill.
It’s a move that comes as preliminary data shows signs that drug overdose deaths are on a steep decline. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found about 87,000 overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, a nearly 24% decline in deaths from the year prior. That figure includes fentanyl and other illicit drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
The preliminary findings could mark a turning point in the fentanyl crisis.
And as Republican state legislators take aim at fentanyl trafficking, so does President Donald Trump. The president has used concerns over synthetic opioid trafficking from Mexico and Canada as part of the rationale for placing tariffs on goods coming from those countries. He’s also levied a 20% tax on imports from China that was put in place to stop fentanyl production.
But public health experts warned the approach outlined in bills like SB 79 could be less effective at reducing drug overdoses and helping people with substance use disorders.
“Certainly reducing the supply is important, but what we’ve seen time and time again is that if we just reduce the supply, we often see a substitution,” said Stephen Patrick, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
Patrick said there needs to be a focus on public health through expanded access to drug treatment and opioid reversal medicine.
For example, a measure signed into law last year made naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, more readily available in schools, on college campuses and in government buildings.
“There are two sides to this coin,” Patrick said. “One is particularly for folks with substance use disorder. Ideally we’re getting them into treatment — that’s a clear need.”
Goodman’s proposal expands on a measure signed into law last year that created a new category of felony aggravated involuntary manslaughter under which drug dealers and distributors can be prosecuted.
He said SB 79 is an additional facet to aid in the multifaceted approach to combat the fentanyl crisis.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the only person charged in the Las Vegas killing of Tupac Shakur, is maintaining his innocence in his first jailhouse interview since he was arrested in September 2023.
The 61-year-old former Crips member, who has also been questioned in relation to the 1997 slaying of Shakur’s East Coast rival Biggie Smalls, spoke to ABC News from Clark County Detention Center, insisting “I’m innocent.”
Authorities claim Davis was the brains behind Shakur’s slaying, which took place on September 7, 1996, near the Las Vegas strip following a boxing event. Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight was driving the Harlem-born West Coast rapper at the time of the shooting. Tupac died the following week. He was 25.
“I did not do it,” said Davis, who insists he was home “in Los Angeles” on the night in question.
“They don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”
According to Davis, that “nothing” includes his memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in which he cops to his purported role in the hit.
“I just gave [his co-author] details of my life,” said Davis, who claims he never read the book, let alone wrote it. “And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
Davis first told authorities in 2008 that he allegedly took part in Shakur’s killing. He shared the information as part of a “proffer agreement” — meaning he couldn’t be prosecuted for that information — with the joint-federal Los Angeles task force that had initiated a sting to get information on the death of Notorious B.I.G.
In 2009, Davis disclosed his alleged role to Las Vegas authorities, who the outlet reports are not linked to the prior proffer agreement, nor are they obligated to honor it.
He once again detailed his purported role in a 2018 docuseries and in “Compton Street Legends,” which Davis asserts he did for money and to keep others from having to serve time.
“I did everything (authorities) asked me to do. Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that,” said Davis, who is slated to stand trial early next year. “I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my f–king grandson’s football games, and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.”
In January of this year, a Nevada judge upheld the murder charge against Davis.
Conor McGregor, a mixed martial arts fighter and legendary Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion, visited the White House and met with President Donald Trump on Monday. Prior to meeting with Trump, McGregor claimed that the Irish government had “abandoned” the people of Ireland.
In a viral video shared on X, formerly Twitter, McGregor can be seen appearing alongside White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in front of the press at the White House press briefing room. After reporters tried pressing McGregor with questions, Leavitt confirmed that the legendary UFC fighter was at the White House to meet with the 47th president.
“We couldn’t think of a better guest to have with us on St. Patrick’s Day,” Leavitt said. “We’re both wearing our green. This was not planned, but very festive.”
Leavitt added that McGregor would also be “spending the day in Washington, D.C.,” and would be meeting with other Trump administration officials.
READ MORE: $50 million awarded to Starbucks customer in major lawsuit
Following Leavitt’s comments, McGregor said, “I’m here to raise the issues the people of Ireland face, you know, and it’ll be music to the people of Ireland’s ears. Never on the main stage has the issues the people of Ireland face been spoke[n].”
McGregor claimed that the Irish government has “long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland” and said it was “high time that America is made aware of what is going on in Ireland.”
“What is going on in Ireland is a travesty,” the UFC fighter added. “Our government is the government of zero action with zero accountability. You know, our money is being spent on overseas issues that has nothing to do with the Irish people. The illegal immigration racket is running ravage on the country.”
Another video shared on social media shows McGregor and Trump in front of a map featuring the Gulf of America. After Trump pointed toward the map, the UFC champion told the president, “Congratulations, sir, I tell you what, your work ethic is inspiring.”
BREAKING President Trump stuns the World by having UFC’s Champion, Connor McGregor in the Oval Office with him on st. Patrick’s Day
