3M took a hefty loss this summer after agreeing to pay $6 billion to settle lawsuits over its Combat Arms earplugs.
While 3M had a loss of $2 billion for the third quarter, or -$3.74 per share, when it recorded a $4.2 billion charge for the earplug settlement, the Maplewood-based company raised its full-year outlook, sending its stock higher in early morning trading.
When excluding one-time costs — related to the discontinuation of PFAS (forever chemicals), ongoing litigation and the health care spinoff — 3M beat expectations for the quarter, with an adjusted $2.68 a share.
“Our momentum accelerates our ability to define where we go next at 3M,” CEO Mike Roman said on a conference call Tuesday morning, “as we prioritize attractive markets where we have the right to win and the opportunity to differentiate ourselves through our unique capabilities and strengths.”
Wall Street analysts expected adjusted earnings of $2.34 per share.
3M shares jumped 5% early Tuesday. The company’s stock price had recently reached its lowest point in more than a decade.
Productivity improvements and benefits from restructuring helped improve profit margins even as sales shrank. Adjusted earnings were up 3% year over year.
The Post-it and N95 manufacturer had $8.3 billion in total sales during the quarter. 3M’s third-quarter revenue was $8.6 billion last year.
Sales were down across nearly every business group. The auto parts segment was a bright spot of growth but is now threatened by the ongoing autoworkers strike.
“We’re staying connected on what happens week to week and impacting our demand,” Roman said. “It has had some impact, but relatively small impact to this point.”
Roman highlighted the company’s $600 million auto electrification business as a way the company is “prioritizing emerging global trends that have attractive growth rates and customer needs that match up well with our capabilities.”
“Our material science expertise has led us to build a new business, and we see similar opportunities in other core platforms such as safety, home improvement, and consumer electronics,” he said.
3M increased its financial forecast for the rest of 2023 and now expects an annual profit of up to an adjusted $9.15 per share, up from a $9.10 top-end estimate. Sales are expected to fall 5% year over year.
“We are very focused on our priorities by driving improved performance through strong operational execution, progressing on our restructuring actions and spending discipline, successfully spinning off health care and reducing risk by managing litigation exposures,” said Monish Patolawala, 3M president and chief financial officer.
The health care spinoff has been pushed into the first half of 2024; the company initially wanted to finish the separation by the end of this year.
Thousands of inactive Ohio voters were quietly purged from the state’s voter rolls last month at the direction of Secretary of State Frank LaRose after some voters had already begun casting ballots in the November election.
The removal of those voter registrations, in the case of many Ohio counties, went ahead on Sept. 28, a week after military and overseas voting had started for the Nov. 7 general election, which features high-profile statewide votes on abortion rights and marijuana.
LaRose maintains that he issued the directive because he’s required by federal and state election law to set rules and timelines for maintaining accurate voter registration lists. But a Democratic state lawmaker called LaRose’s action a “bad decision” and asked why he didn’t delay it until after the general election, as he did earlier ahead of the August special election on a proposed constitutional amendment to make it harder to pass future amendments.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office orders county election officials on a regular basis – every year, for the past several years – to remove voters who haven’t cast ballots or responded to mailed notices from elections officials over a six-year period.
Ohio has been the most aggressive state in the nation when it comes to purging inactive voters. LaRose, a Columbus Republican running for U.S. Senate next year, says such purges are needed to prevent election fraud and that voters get plenty of chances to remain on the rolls. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Ohio’s purge policies in 2018.
Democrats, though, have blasted the process, saying it disproportionately affects liberal-leaning groups of voters, such as students, low-income people, and minorities.
Since becoming secretary of state in 2019, LaRose has publicized such purges before they happen, allowing voting-rights groups to try to contact voters at risk of seeing their registrations canceled. But no such notice was sent this time, according to Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters of Ohio.
State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Westlake Democrat, wrote LaRose on Friday asking him to clarify his decision to order the purge, asserting that it came amid staff turnover at the secretary of state’s office and with elections officials preparing for the Nov. 7 general election.
“This is a stunning order buried in a confusing directive on your website,” Sweeney wrote, adding that the secretary of state’s website mentions nothing about such a purge.
Sweeney asked LaRose to provide answers to a number of questions about the purge, including whether it actually took place, and – if so – when it happened and which voters were removed. If the purge did happen, she asked LaRose to undo it and wait until after Nov. 7, when Ohioans will vote on measures to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and to pass a law legalizing recreational marijuana.
In a written response Tuesday, LaRose suggested that Sweeney’s letter was “exaggerated, politically motivated, and often misguided criticism.”
LaRose stated he is required by federal and state election law to set rules and timelines for maintaining accurate voter registration lists. He wrote that it’s “inaccurate” to call his directive a “voter purge,” as “registrations that are demonstrably no longer active at a particular address …by definition are not legally defined as a voter at that location.”
LaRose wrote that the list of voter registrations being removed “was completed only this week as we awaited final data from the counties.” He did not explain why he didn’t push back the deadline until after the Nov. 7 general election, as he did ahead of the August special election; Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to LaRose’s office asking for such information.
His letter also did not explain how many voter registrations were removed from the rolls in the latest wave. In prior purges, including one as recent as February, elections officials have canceled hundreds of thousands of voter registrations. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has asked for the information.
The Franklin County Board of Elections removed 4,694 voters from the rolls in late September in response to LaRose’s directive, said board spokesman Aaron Sellers.
However, so far the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has not removed any voters from voter rolls so far, as LaRose’s directive states that any counties that held a primary or charter election within 30 days of the Sept. 28 deadline would have their purge deadline rescheduled, stated Hasani Wheat, manager of the board’s registration department, in an email. Cuyahoga County had two primaries on Sept. 12 in Garfield Heights and Maple Heights, he stated.
As of Tuesday, Wheat stated that his office had not yet received an alternate timeline from LaRose’s office about when inactive or ineligible county voters would need to be removed.
Judith Sullivan was recovering from major surgery at a Connecticut nursing home in March when she got surprising news from her Medicare Advantage plan: It would no longer pay for her care because she was well enough to go home.
At the time, she could not walk more than a few feet, even with assistance — let alone manage the stairs to her front door, she said. She still needed help using a colostomy bag following major surgery.
“How could they make a decision like that without ever coming and seeing me?” said Sullivan, 76. “I still couldn’t walk without one physical therapist behind me and another next to me. Were they all coming home with me?”
UnitedHealthcare — the nation’s largest health insurance company, which provides Sullivan’s Medicare Advantage plan — doesn’t have a crystal ball. It does have naviHealth, a care management company bought by UHC’s sister company, Optum, in 2020. Both are part of UnitedHealth Group. NaviHealth analyzes data to help UHC and other insurance companies make coverage decisions.
Its proprietary “nH Predict” tool sifts through millions of medical records to match patients with similar diagnoses and characteristics, including age, preexisting health conditions, and other factors. Based on these comparisons, an algorithm anticipates what kind of care a specific patient will need and for how long.
But patients, providers, and patient advocates in several states said they have noticed a suspicious coincidence: The tool often predicts a patient’s date of discharge, which coincides with the date their insurer cuts off coverage, even if the patient needs further treatment that government-run Medicare would provide.
“When an algorithm does not fully consider a patient’s needs, there’s a glaring mismatch,” said Rajeev Kumar, a physician and the president-elect of the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, which represents long-term care practitioners. “That’s where human intervention comes in.”
The federal government will try to even the playing field next year, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services begins restricting how Medicare Advantage plans use predictive technology tools to make some coverage decisions.
Medicare Advantage plans, an alternative to the government-run, original Medicare program, are operated by private insurance companies. About half the people eligible for full Medicare benefits are enrolled in the private plans, attracted by their lower costs and enhanced benefits like dental care, hearing aids, and a host of nonmedical extras like transportation and home-delivered meals.
Insurers receive a monthly payment from the federal government for each enrollee, regardless of how much care they need. According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, this arrangement raises “the potential incentive for insurers to deny access to services and payment in an attempt to increase profits.” Nursing home care has been among the most frequently denied services by the private plans — something original Medicare likely would cover, investigators found.
After UHC cut off her nursing home coverage, Sullivan’s medical team agreed with her that she wasn’t ready to go home and provided an additional 18 days of treatment. Her bill came to $10,406.36.
Beyond her mobility problems, “she also had a surgical wound that needed daily dressing changes” when UHC stopped paying for her nursing home care, said Debra Samorajczyk, a registered nurse and the administrator at the Bishop Wicke Health and Rehabilitation Center, the facility that treated Sullivan.
Sullivan’s coverage denial notice and nH Predict report did not mention wound care or her inability to climb stairs. Original Medicare would have most likely covered her continued care, said Samorajczyk.
Sullivan appealed twice but lost. Her next appeal was heard by an administrative law judge, who holds a courtroom-style hearing usually by phone or video link, in which all sides can provide testimony. UHC declined to send a representative, but the judge nonetheless sided with the company. Sullivan is considering whether to appeal to the next level, the Medicare Appeals Council, and the last step before the case can be heard in federal court.
Sullivan’s experience is not unique. In February, Ken Drost’s Medicare Advantage plan, provided by Security Health Plan of Wisconsin, wanted to cut his coverage at a Wisconsin nursing home after 16 days, the same number of days naviHealth predicted was necessary. But Drost, 87, who was recovering from hip surgery, needed help getting out of bed and walking. He stayed at the nursing home for an additional week, at a cost of $2,624.
After he appealed twice and lost, his hearing on his third appeal was about to begin when his insurer agreed to pay his bill, said his lawyer, Christine Huberty, supervising attorney at the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources Elder Law & Advocacy Center in Madison.
“Advantage plans routinely cut patients’ stays short in nursing homes,” she said, including Humana, Aetna, Security Health Plan, and UnitedHealthcare. “In all cases, we see their treating medical providers disagree with the denials.”
UnitedHealthcare and naviHealth declined requests for interviews and did not answer detailed questions about why Sullivan’s nursing home coverage was cut short over the objections of her medical team.
Aaron Albright, a naviHealth spokesperson, said in a statement that the nH Predict algorithm is not used to make coverage decisions and instead is intended “to help the member and facility develop personalized post-acute care discharge planning.” Length-of-stay predictions “are estimates only.”
However, naviHealth’s website boasts about saving plans money by restricting care. The company’s “predictive technology and decision support platform” ensures that “patients can enjoy more days at home, and healthcare providers and health plans can significantly reduce costs specific to unnecessary care and readmissions.”
New federal rules for Medicare Advantage plans beginning in January will rein in their use of algorithms in coverage decisions. Insurance companies using such tools will be expected to “ensure that they are making medical necessity determinations based on the circumstances of the specific individual,” the requirements say, “as opposed to using an algorithm or software that doesn’t account for an individual’s circumstances.”
The CMS-required notices nursing home residents receive now when a plan cuts short their coverage can be oddly similar while lacking details about a particular resident. Sullivan’s notice from UHC contains some identical text to the one Drost received from his Wisconsin plan. Both say, for example, that the plan’s medical director reviewed their cases, without providing the director’s name or medical specialty. Both omit any mention of their health conditions that make managing at home difficult, if not impossible.
The tools must still follow Medicare coverage criteria and cannot deny benefits that original Medicare covers. If insurers believe the criteria are too vague, plans can base algorithms on their own criteria, as long as they disclose the medical evidence supporting the algorithms.
And before denying coverage considered not medically necessary, another change requires that a coverage denial “must be reviewed by a physician or other appropriate health care professional with expertise in the field of medicine or health care that is appropriate for the service at issue.”
Jennifer Kochiss, a social worker at Bishop Wicke who helps residents file insurance appeals, said patients and providers have no say in whether the doctor reviewing a case has experience with the client’s diagnosis. The new requirement will close “a big hole,” she said.
The leading MA plans oppose the changes in comments submitted to CMS. Tim Noel, UHC’s CEO for Medicare and retirement, said MA plans’ ability to manage beneficiaries’ care is necessary “to ensure access to high-quality safe care and maintain high member satisfaction while appropriately managing costs.”
Restricting “utilization management tools would markedly deviate from Congress’ intent in creating Medicare managed care because they substantially limit MA plans’ ability to actually manage care,” he said.
In a statement, UHC spokesperson Heather Soule said the company’s current practices are “consistent” with the new rules. “Medical directors or other appropriate clinical personnel, not technology tools, make all final adverse medical necessity determinations” before coverage is denied or cut short. However, these medical professionals work for UHC and usually do not examine patients. Other insurance companies follow the same practice.
David Lipschutz, associate director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, is concerned about how CMS will enforce the rules since it doesn’t mention specific penalties for violations.
CMS’ deputy administrator and director of the Medicare program, Meena Seshamani, said that the agency will conduct audits to verify compliance with the new requirements, and “will consider issuing an enforcement action, such as a civil money penalty or an enrollment suspension, for the non-compliance.”
Although Sullivan stayed at Bishop Wicke after UHC stopped paying, she said another resident went home when her MA plan wouldn’t pay anymore. After two days at home, the woman fell, and an ambulance took her to the hospital, Sullivan said. “She was back in the nursing home again because they put her out before she was ready.”
With another government shutdown deadline less than a month away and no end in sight to the feuding over who House Republicans will elect speaker, Maryland officials are setting up a new lifeline for some federal employees who may soon be forced to work without pay.
The program — pending approval at Wednesday’s state Board of Public Works meeting — would offer small, no-interest loans to civilian federal employees who work in Maryland but are not otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
“It’s a fundamental issue of fairness,” said Del. Jessica Feldmark, a Howard County Democrat who helped come up with the idea during the last, historic 35-day federal government shutdown that ended in 2019.
“We have Maryland residents who are serving our community and our country in roles that are really critical to our community, which is why they’re still required to show up, and they weren’t able to access the same assistance that federal employees who were not working,” Feldmark said.
Congress narrowly avoided a lapse in appropriations earlier this month in a deal that kept previous funding levels through Nov. 17.
Not all U.S. House Republicans agreed on the plan, however, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy was soon ousted from his position as speaker, creating a leadership gap that continues to paralyze any progress on the budget and all other legislation.
Maryland’s workforce, meanwhile, stands to bear the brunt of a shutdown more than those of other states. The roughly 160,000 federal jobs here represent more than 5% of all jobs in the state, far above the national average.
Depending on each federal agency’s contingency plans and funding levels, workers may be furloughed or asked to work without pay, which those employees and their unions say can have dire consequences for those who live paycheck-to-paycheck.
“A federal shutdown will mean federal employees who work in Maryland will risk missing their paychecks — something most families cannot afford,” Maryland Labor Secretary Portia Wu said in a statement earlier this month.
If Congress misses the next deadline and a shutdown lasts longer than two weeks, loans through Maryland’s new program would be disbursed, according to a state Labor Department spokesperson.
Similar to unemployment benefits that max out at a few hundred dollars, current plans are to provide $700 loans per individual, the spokesperson said.
Federal civilian employees who are furloughed without pay — who can receive unemployment benefits because they would not be working — are not eligible. Neither are employees of federal contractors, who, unlike direct employees, are not guaranteed back pay after a shutdown ends. Maryland residents who work in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere also would not be eligible.
It’s unclear how many people that would leave and how much it would cost the state, at least temporarily.
During the 2018-19 partial shutdown, about 1,500 federal civilian workers in Maryland were paid unemployment benefits for a total of about $2 million, according to state legislative fiscal analysis in 2019. Because about half of all federal civilian employees nationally were eligible for unemployment benefits, it was estimated that the Maryland loan program could apply to about the same number of workers and cost a similar amount of money.
While that 2019 analysis estimated startup costs would total about $212,000 for the first few years, the contract before the state spending board this week is for $635,481. The process for the emergency procurement began in mid-August, when Maryland officials anticipated a shutdown could be “imminent,” according to the board’s agenda.
The vendor, the Missoula, Montana-based Submittable Holdings Inc., has started creating an online application portal and developing systems to conduct identity and eligibility verification, provide customer support and collect loan repayments, according to the department.
Funding for the loans themselves will be pulled from the Catastrophic Event Fund, which maintains reserves in the case of natural disasters.
Before the Oct. 1 shutdown was averted, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s administration had also pledged to use around $1 billion of the state’s $5 billion cash balance to cover state-run services and state employee salaries that are funded by the federal government.
Officials also warned that if a shutdown lasted several weeks, resources would need to be prioritized.
The short-term plan was also contingent on getting reimbursed once funding was approved in Washington.
For the new loan program, workers’ repayment would be due 45 days after the shutdown ends. Loans not paid after 135 days would be forwarded to a collections unit and assessed a 17% fee.
Feldmark, whose 2019 bill authorized the program now being set up, said the idea was to “mirror” unemployment benefits, while at the same time hoping federal lawmakers would eventually make the targeted employees eligible for those benefits anyway.
“I hope that Congress is able to get their act together and keep the government open,” Feldmark said. “But if they can’t, our priority is making sure that we’re doing what we can to help Maryland residents though that.”
Former “Daily Show” host, Jon Stewart’s Apple TV show, “The Problem With Jon Stewart” has been cancelled, reportedly due to editorial disagreements over topics such as China and artificial intelligence, as well as guests that would have been featured on the show.
According to The New York Times Stewart’s planned discussions concerning China and artificial intelligence were serious concerns with Apple, in addition to concerns Apple had regarding some of the upcoming guests on “The Problem With Jon Stewart.”
The New York Times reported that while the eight episodes of the third season of “The Problem With Jon Stewart” were scheduled to begin recording in the upcoming weeks, staff members were informed last week that production on the show had been brought to stop.
READ MORE: China now has 500+ nukes, will have 1,000+ by 2030: Pentagon
Apple reportedly reached out directly to Stewart before making the decision to cancel “The Problem with Jon Stewart. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple emphasized to Stewart that the company needed him and his team to be “aligned” with Apple’s views on the topics discussed as part of his show.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that Stewart decided to walk away from the show as a result of the editorial disagreement rather than adjusting the content of the show to align with Apple’s views. According to anonymous sources cited by The Hollywood Reporter, Stewart, who signed a multiyear deal with Apple in 2020, wanted to retain creative control of the show and was not interested in being “hamstrung” by the company with regard to potential topics and guests on the show.
While The New York Times’ report did not provide specific details regarding the points of disagreement between Stewart and Apple on the topics of artificial intelligence and China, The Verge noted that Apple’s relationship with China could have played a key factor in the company’s ultimate decision to cancel the show and Stewart’s decision to walk away.
The nation’s military has been working on a new weapon: Creating a ‘perfect,’ self-healing coral reef that can withstand disease, warming temperatures and sea rise.
Many U.S. military bases along the coasts are feeling the effects of climate change, and their current methods of defense — like sea walls — aren’t working against flooding and erosion. A reef would break up waves before they crash against the base.
So for the past 14 months, the Department of Defense has been working with three international teams of scientists, including from the University of Miami, to build a hybrid reef made of concrete and coral.
Catherine Lachnit, a University of Miami marine biology masters student, tends to her flock of sea urchins in a wet lab at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science complex. (Alie Skowronski/Miami Herald/TNS)
If it works, it may be a solution for cities and regions that face the worst effects of climate change, such as Miami. And the military appears to think it’s worth banking on.
The project is expected to receive its next second infusion of grant funding, on top of the $7.5 million it’s already received. By the end of the project, the team could receive more than $20 million.
It’s also a race against time, after higher-than-normal temperatures caused widespread bleaching of thousands of corals in the Florida Keys.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, selected UM to lead the Atlantic coral project. Rutgers University in New Jersey is focusing on oysters on the Gulf Coast; and the University of Hawaii is using coral from the Pacific Ocean.
The UM-led project, called X REEFS, was given 5 years to take the concept from design to production and cost evaluation.
UM’s team is made up of 12 organizations that in ordinary circumstances would not cross academic paths. Coral biologists are working with aerospace engineers, manufacturers and hydrologists to make the hybrid reef a reality.
“We essentially examined, is it going to cost more in the long run to adapt to climate change,” said Laura Cherney, program manager from AECOM. “And we found it’s not. And to adapt now, because there is saving.”
How it’s going to work
Compared to other artificial reef projects that are typically offshore and intended for fishing or deep water dives, the hybrid reef needs to be close to shore and must stay submerged at 12 feet, the lowest tide.
The reef design is made up of three stacked layers. The bottom layer is a concrete chamber called the “sea hive” after its honeycomb shape. As waves hit the bottom row of sea hives, turbulence is reduced from underneath.
“We are trying everything we can do to move the water over, under and through,” said Borja G. Reguero, a researcher at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
The middle layer consists of concrete lattices that are gyroid-shaped. If the term gyroid doesn’t ring a bell from geometry class, think of a shape that’s infinitely connected with no straight lines and plenty of holes, like the inside of a bone or a butterfly wing. It’s one reason the team picked the gyroid shape: It already occurs in nature.
“Nobody else has done this, created these large concrete gyroid shapes, we’re definitely forging a path here,” said Michael Yukish, a Penn State aerospace engineering professor.
The top layer features “coral mimics” — squishy and fragile foam that is coated with an epoxy and fiberglass to give it strength. Within that structure, living coral fragments will be seeded. As the sea rises, the coral should slowly grow, too, building its own skeleton around the concrete.
“I mean the idea is if 100 years from now, a ship runs into it, they’d say, ‘Oh my gosh. There’s concrete inside it.’ It should be a hidden fact that we created the scaffolding first,” Yukish said.
Breeding resistant coral
The Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science at UM is considered the “Noah’s Ark” for the coral that’s being used in the hybrid reef project.
There, the coral is housed in large tanks where temperatures can be measured to the decimal point. The team makes sure the corals are well-fed, implanted with the correct algae and given plenty of light and a lot of water flow.
“The last four years have been the growing pains of getting this built, working out the kinks and incrementally making improvements along the way to make things better and better,” said Andrew Baker, the UM professor leading the team on the project. “We’ve finally met that pipeline stage.”
The Florida Aquarium also is helping the UM team breed coral. They’re looking for the “hardiest coral” that grows quickly but can withstand stressors like temperature.
If they find the 100 ‘best’ coral, then they can breed those species into thousands, kind of like tomato plants being modified over generations for taste and color.
In a year, the Florida Aquarium tripled the amount of coral spawned in a tank.
“It just gives us hope that OK, some of these babies might be the one. They might be the deep tolerance we are looking for,” said Keri O’Neil, with the Florida Aquarium.
Military test
The X-REEFS team is waiting for results from the military’s first milestone test, proving the reef reduces wave “energy” by at least 70 percent. The calculation is complicated, but they’re measuring wave height and velocity to get the results. The team is optimistic because they tested their reef in UM’s wind-wave tank that can create Category 5 hurricane force winds of up to 155 mph, and it met the requirement.
“If you think of a wave that breaks, like if you’re going to the beach it can knock you over,” said Catherine Campbell, the DARPA project manager. “But if you take all the energy out of the wave, it’s lapping at your feet.”
The second phase is moving out of the lab and onto collecting data about how the reef performs in the ocean. The team met in Miami last month to visit the possible sample test site, which is less than a half mile off of Elliot Key at Biscayne National Park.
U.S. military installations have experienced more than $10 billion in damage from storms and flooding over the past five years, and more than 1,700 posts may be affected by sea level rise.
“We’ve already seen this damage, we see the erosion every day,” Campbell said. “We’ve seen a lot of good successes in the laboratory that show us it’s possible to selectively breed coral, to be more thermally tolerant, to be more resistant to disease.”
The son of a Tennessee police chief is accused of shooting two officers at a Dollar General store, according to police.
John C. Drake, Jr., 38, is on the run after he was accused of wounding officers in La Vergne, a suburb of Nashville roughly 20 miles southeast of the city’s downtown, the La Vergne Police Department said in a news release.
Police say the officers were investigating a case of a stolen vehicle, which they located outside a Dollar General at about 2:20 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21. They confronted Drake, the situation turned physical and he pulled out a gun and shot both officers, then left the scene, police said.
One officer was shot in the left shoulder and the other was struck in the right groin and forearm, according to police.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has issued a statewide alert for Drake, who is wanted on two charges of attempted murder.
Drake is the son of Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake, who has spoken out condemning his son’s actions and calling for his capture.
“I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn that my estranged son, with whom I have had very minimal contact over many years, is the suspect in this afternoon’s shooting of the two La Vergne police officers,” Drake said in a statement.
“Despite my efforts and guidance in the early and teenage years, my son, John Drake Jr., now 38-years-old, resorted to years of criminal activity and is a convicted felon. He has not been a part of my life for quite some time,” Drake added. “He now needs to be found and held accountable for his actions today. I hope that anyone who sees him or has information about him will contact law enforcement immediately.”
The La Vergne officers were taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.
Drake Jr. is described as 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 195 pounds, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. He has black hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing a black shirt with a hockey mask on it.
Philippine officials said on Sunday that Chinese vessels hit a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
China claims the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea almost in its entirety and its military activity in the disputed maritime territory has been increasing, encroaching on the Philippine part of the waters, the West Philippine Sea.
Philippine authorities have recorded China Coast Guard vessels and ships they say are part of the “Chinese maritime militia” within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone on multiple occasions so far this year.
The incident on Sunday morning took place near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal — part of the Spratly Islands off the coast of the Philippines — as Philippine forces were delivering supplies to troops stationed on a World War II-era transport ship, which has been used as an outpost on the shoal.
The Philippine National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said in a statement that “dangerous blocking maneuvers of China Coast Guard vessel 5203 (CCGV 5203) caused it to collide with the Armed Forces of the Philippines-contracted indigenous resupply boat.”
In a second incident near the same shoal, the Philippine Coast Guard vessel’s port side was “bumped by Chinese Maritime Militia vessel,” the task force said.
The China Coast Guard issued a statement blaming the Philippines for the collision, saying the “Philippine vessels approached the Chinese side in an unsafe manner” and were attempting to “illegally deliver construction materials to the illegally grounded warship.”
The Philippines and China have been locked in an ongoing territorial dispute in the resource-rich South China Sea, where other nations also have claims. Manila has filed over 400 diplomatic protests against Beijing since 2020, with three dozen filed so far this year.
In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague dismissed the expansive Chinese claim of the waters, but Beijing did not recognize the ruling and has in recent years rapidly developed its military presence, including by building artificial island bases in the contested waters.
The name of fallen Vietnam War veteran James E. Gosselin, from Atlantic County, was added to the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall during a ceremony, after it was discovered a clerical error had mistakenly listed him as being from another state.
More than 1,500 of the state’s Vietnam veterans’ names were inscribed on the memorial wall in Holmdel in 1995 when it was first created.
Lt. Col. Bill Leipold, veteran and former classmate of James E. Gosselin, delivers the keynote speech during a ceremony honoring Vietnam veteran, James E. Gosselin. (Julian Leshay/nj.com/TNS)
However, because records from the war listed Gosselin as being from Pleasantville, Pennsylvania — and not his true hometown of Pleasantville, New Jersey — he was never included.
Sunday’s ceremony marked the official correction and celebrated Gosselin’s addition to the wall, making him the second name added in the 28 years since its creation. He is the 1,564th veteran memorialized on the open-air monument.
He is listed on the Feb. 2 panel to commemorate the day in 1968 when he was killed in action while serving as a Navy Corpsman, a combat medic for the Marines, during the Battle of Huế. Gosselin was 26 years old when he died, having initially joined the Army after high school and later serving in the Navy.
The ceremony was attended by dozens of people, including members of the American Legion, Jewish War Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars and a large group from Gosselin’s hometown.
Captain Rick Palatucci, who served as a marine in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, proudly holds an American flag during a ceremony honoring Vietnam veteran, James E. Gosselin. (Julian Leshay/nj.com/TNS)
Pleasantville High School’s marching band, along with the school’s Junior ROTC, traveled to perform at the event.
“After working on this now for a couple of months, I feel like I’m related to the guy, like this is a long-lost cousin or uncle,” said Amy Osborn, chief executive office of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Foundation. “The one and only picture we have of him is his high school yearbook picture, so he’s frozen in time as an 18-year-old. And that’s how we picture him.”
Earlier this year, the clerical error was noticed when Bill Leipold, a Vietnam veteran and tour guide at the memorial, was informed by people who served with Gosselin that his name was missing from the wall.
Jeff Walding, department commander of NJ VFW, raises his hand, among other people in attendance who have served in the military, during a ceremony honoring Vietnam veteran, James E. Gosselin. (Julian Leshay/nj.com/TNS)
From there, Leipold, who also grew up in Pleasantville but was a few years younger than Gosselin, did some digging to confirm that the late veteran was from New Jersey and not Pennsylvania.
Leipold found Gosselin’s photo in the 1960 Pleasantville High School yearbook at the Atlantic County Historical Society and also located a 1968 Atlantic City Press newspaper article featuring Gosselin’s photo and obituary on the front page.
“It all came together,” he said. “Being a Vietnam veteran, myself, a New Jersey native myself, I just wanted to make sure everything was done right for him.”
As the information came to light, so did more information about Gosselin’s life. His comrades called him “Doc Goose” and described him as a “big teddy bear,” Osborn said.
A high school band plays a military hymn during a ceremony honoring Vietnam veteran, James E. Gosselin, at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall. (Julian Leshay/nj.com/TNS)
“(His) story to me, shows his level of commitment and courage of being a patriot and just wanting to serve his country at a time when he didn’t have to, but he did,” Osborn added. “And it just tells me a lot about him without having known him.”
He lost his life while trying to retrieve a comrade during the Battle of Huế, one of the longest and deadliest battles during the Vietnam War.
The unit that Gosselin was in when he was killed was the Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, which is one of the most decorated and storied regiments in the Marine Corps, Leipold noted.
“Given the misunderstanding, administrative error, it’s just wonderful that we can properly put him in place with his other brothers and sisters that lost their lives,” he said.
Next to the bowl of Halloween candy, battle gear is arrayed — knives, handguns, body armor — encircling all the M&Ms and Snickers.
A soldier’s preparations are underway.
Ariel Salley picks up a Hebrew Bible, holds it the way you would a child’s hand, with care.
“This one’s important to me — it goes with me at work,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer says from his dining room on a Friday afternoon, standing near a wall-mounted sign that reads “Duty, Honor, Courage.” “I received this when I first swore into the military.”
Ariel Salley has all his gear to bring, laid out on his dining room table at home. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)
He points to an emblem on its cover of a sword wrapped in an olive branch inside a Star of David.
“This is the IDF symbol right here.”
IDF stands for Israel Defense Forces.
In 2009, Salley, a Las Vegas native, relocated to Israel, where his mother and father were born, completing high school abroad in order to join the IDF as soon as he could.
He eventually became a sniper, serving in Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 war in Gaza.
Remaining a reservist in the IDF, Salley returned to his hometown in 2017, joining the LVMPD a few years later, his mother remaining in her native country.
On Oct. 6, Salley was working First Friday, patrolling the monthly arts gathering downtown.
He was in good spirits; his birthday was on Saturday, and he had just returned home from visiting family in Israel the previous day.
Ariel Salley talks about being a Metro officer who is going back to Israel to rejoin the Israel Defense Forces in fight against militants on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)
And then his phone began blowing up.
During a water break, he checked to see what was up.
Israel was under attack.
“I could see all the text messages from my mom saying, ‘Hey, missiles are falling. They’re falling pretty close to the house. The house is shaking,’ ” Salley remembers. “ ‘We’re OK, we’re in the bomb shelter, but just want to let you know.’ ”
At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 7 — which was 8:30 p.m. the previous night in Las Vegas time — Hamas terrorists began firing over 2,000 rockets into Israel, including the heart of the country, targeting cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, not far from where his mother lives.
The location of the strikes especially startled Salley.
“Once I started realizing that these missiles were going to the center of Israel, I realized, ‘OK, something big is coming,’ ” he says.
Ariel Salley has a collection of family images from his past while serving in the Israeli army. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS)
His instincts proved horrifically prescient: Hamas soon launched a barbaric terrorist assault massacring Jewish civilians.
Salley contacted the IDF the next day, asking them if he was needed to help defend the country.
The response was swift.
“Immediately, without hesitation, ‘Yes, you have emergency orders,’ ” Salley recalls. “ ‘Soldier, return.’ ”
A death, a new dream
It was family tragedy that begat a soldier.
Ariel Salley is looking at a photo on his living room wall, a picture of him in military uniform, standing with his father next to a grave.
The grave belongs to his brother.
In 2006, Salley lost his older sibling, Yoni Salley, to drug addiction.
It was Yoni’s goal in life to join the IDF, which he was in the process of doing at the time of his death.
It was a family tradition, his father and both grandfathers having also served.
Upon Yoni’s passing, it became Ariel’s goal as well.
“It was at that moment that I realized I want to join the Israeli military,” Salley says. “I’m going to complete the dream that my brother had, which essentially became my dream thereafter.”
Salley realized that dream and then some.
He earned his way to the Golani Brigade, a unit known for its prowess in heavy combat.
“They know that when we are put in, it’s go time,” Salley says.
He gestures toward a brown beret on the kitchen table, a signature of said brigade.
Earning the right to wear one does not come easy.
“I had to walk 80 kilometers in 16 hours, which is approximately 50 miles, in order to receive that one beret,” he says. “Never have I wanted to give up more, have I wanted to say, ‘I quit.’ But we pushed through. And we made it.”
In 2014, he was on the front lines of Operation Protective Edge, the last major conflict in the Gaza Strip, fighting for two months, helping destroy the “terror tunnels” that Hamas had made beneath Gaza.
When Salley returned to Vegas three years later, it was all but a given for him to join the LVMPD one day.
“It was important for me to come back and essentially be there for people, the way my brother didn’t have,” he explains. “I’m not saying that law enforcement did not provide my brother with an opportunity or any help of that sort — my brother just didn’t have long enough of a time to receive that help.
“It was a one-and-done for him,” he continues. “He was addicted to OxyContin for a very short period of time before he lost his life. So I wanted to be here to try to nip that, and go out there and help people. That’s what I wanted to do. That’s why I came back.”
Joining the fight
His mother was against it at first.
You protect the Jews in America. Stay there. Stay safe.
Salley’s a self-professed mama’s boy, and his relationship with his mom is tight, unyielding.
When his brother died, Salley’s parents divorced, and he mostly lived with his mom, forging a powerful bond.
“I can proudly say that she’s my best friend,” he notes.
Salley’s a tough guy — see that bit about him humping gear for over half a day straight — and built like a boulder, but when he recollects breaking the news to his mom that he was rejoining the IDF, he visibly softens.
“When I told her, ‘I’m coming home to fight,’ it was hard. It was very hard,” Salley acknowledges. “Her initial statements were, ‘Please stay there. Please don’t come.’
“And it quickly transitioned to, ‘Mom, I’m coming,’ ” he continues. “We can either help each other, or I’ll do this on my own.’ She quickly understood where my heart, where my mind was at.”
Early Sunday morning, Salley will board a plane to eventually land in Tel Aviv, making the 7,300-mile trip to join his fellow soldiers in a fight for their country.
It’s a one-way ticket; Salley doesn’t know how long he’ll be gone.
He’ll be leaving plenty behind: his girlfriend, his beloved pitbull, his fellow police officers who have given him their blessing, having thrown him a going-away party the previous night.
They can relate to where Salley’s coming from.
“As a police officer, you are in danger,” he says. “You have to have your head on a swivel. You don’t know if you’re coming home at the end of the day.
“All for what?” he asks. “For the love of our country, for the love of our city, our community, our people. That’s why we do what we do. So they wouldn’t question it. They understand it better than anyone else, that this is what needs to be done.”
But why is it so important to him to do so?
Why does Salley feel so compelled to leave a life — a good life, a fulfilling one — that he might not ever be able to return to by putting himself in the throes of war?
Because, as he explains it, an attack on Israel isn’t just an attack on a country, it’s an attack on an identity. His identity.
“Judaism — although it is a religion — it’s not just a religion. It’s a sense of who you are. It’s a characteristic,” Salley says. “We have been enslaved. We’ve been involved in genocide. You look at right now, where Hamas leaders are saying, ‘Kill every Jew,’ simply because of who we are. As a Jew, you’re born with this.
“You have many Muslim countries out there; you have Christian countries — we only have one Jewish country,” he continues. “And that’s Israel. And that’s home. I am a proud American. And I love the United States. But Israel is also my home.”
