Federal agents raided two homes owned by Winnie Greco, Adams's director of Asian affairs. The raid, first reported by News 12 in the Bronx, is part of an investigation conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. 

It is unclear if the raid is connected to Adams, who is the subject of a separate inquiry.

The search of the properties came months after Adams associates’ homes were searched as part of a federal corruption probe centered on the mayor’s 2021 election campaign, which allegedly conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.   

Following the raid, Greco was put on leave. 

The New York City Department of Investigation opened a probe into Greco in November after a local news outlet, The City, reported that she tried to improperly benefit from her post through a nonprofit she ran. Greco was also accused of asking Adams’s campaign volunteer to help renovate her kitchen, in exchange for help getting a government position.

A City Hall spokesperson told multiple outlets that the Adams administration “always” follows the law. 

“Our administration will always follow the law, and we always expect all our employees to adhere to the strictest ethical guidelines. As we have repeatedly said, we don’t comment on matters that are under review, but will fully cooperate with any review underway. The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said.

Before politics, Greco ran a food export business.

People can now book a stay at the first-ever Eggo House of Pancakes in Gatlinburg, Tenn. The “pancake house” includes a stick-of-butter-shaped chimney and breakfast-inspired décor from fluffy pancake beds and bean bag chairs. The home also includes a fire pit overlooking the Smokies, and a maple syrup fountain.

Eggo shared in a release that the home's freezer will be packed full of Eggo pancakes. The pancakes range in flavors from Buttermilk, Blueberry, Chocolatey Chip to Minis & Chocolatey Chip Minis.

Starting on National Pancake Day, Feb. 28, people can request to book one of four different three-night stays at the house for $0 a night, by visiting www.hometogo.com. Bookings will be available throughout March.

• Wednesday, Feb. 28: March 7-10 open for booking
• Monday, March 4: March 14-17 open for booking
• Monday, March 11: March 21-24 open for booking
• Monday, March 18: March 28-31 open for booking

“At HomeToGo, we’re on a mission to make vacation planning as delightful as the trips themselves. And, we love pancakes. That’s why we are thrilled to partner with Eggo to bring their House of Pancakes to fans of unique vacation rentals," said Danielle Finch, Director of Customer Experience at HomeToGo. “We look forward to inspiring adventure-seeking families to embark on unforgettable journeys, all while showcasing the simplicity of booking their dream stays using HomeToGo. We believe booking a vacation rental should be as easy as a pancake breakfast with Eggo: without any chaos and full of fun.”

Gatlinburg is one of the top most-searched destinations in Tennessee according to HomeToGo data. It also ranks as one of the top 10 most searched destinations in the entire United States. In 2023, USA Today named Gatlinburg the best place in the country to visit.

“Eggo and waffles are an iconic combination, so much so that fans might forget about our pancakes. That’s why we’re flipping our focus with this unexpected experience that celebrates Eggo pancakes as a breakfast go-to that’s equally good at making parents' lives easier and making breakfast delicious,” said Joe Beauprez, Senior Director of Marketing for Frozen Foods at Kellanova. “Plus, we know that planning a family vacation can be chaotic, so we’re helping parents check one more thing off their to-do list for spring break season with this deliciously fun house.”

The photographs, published in "Marine Mammal Science," are unique because copulation between humpback whales has never been photographed during decades of research on the species. The animals were spotted off the coast of Hawaii by two photographers on a private boat.

Scientists confirmed the whales in the images were both male based on photographs of their tail flukes and genital regions. One whale in the encounter appeared healthy, while the other was thin, covered in lice and appeared to be suffering a jaw injury.

Animals, including whales, may engage in non-reproductive mating behavior for a variety of reasons, including enjoyment, social bonding or asserting dominance. In any number of species, including primates, penguins, dolphins and birds, mating behaviors between animals of the same sex have been observed.

While many animal species have been seen engaging in homosexual behavior, scientists don't classify animals as gay because the word comes with social and political connotations that don't apply to animals.

Humpback whales can measure up to 52 feet long and weigh as much as 36 tons. A male whale's penis can be as long as ten feet, though they are rarely observed by scientists as they are usually concealed in a genital slit.

One of the whales in Hawaii could be seen holding the other whale in place with its fins while penetrating it. Prior to the act, the two whales had circled the boat, one pursuing the other. After the pair finished, the healthier whale dove off and disappeared, while the weaker whale lingered near the surface before also swimming away.

Scientists noted that the images raise more questions, including the motivation for the behavior and whether two healthy male whales would behave the same.

Zanotti told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports" that Williams, who was diagnosed last year with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, was excited about the documentary.

“Where Is Wendy Williams?” premiered right after Williams’ team announced her diagnosis, and it left many feeling uncomfortable.

When asking about having Williams as part of the documentary, Zanotti said the production company told her it was going to be about her "comeback, her story."

"Immediately, when I mentioned it to Wendy," Zanotti said. "She was excited and said, 'I want to do this. I want to get my life out there. I want to talk about my comeback.'"

Now, the documentary, which captured Williams' struggles with alcohol-induced dementia, has sparked widespread criticism of the producers and raised questions about their motivations.

Williams has been open about having Graves’ disease and lymphedema, but it wasn’t until 2023, when she underwent a “battery of medical tests,” that she was given an official diagnosis of aphasia and dementia, the same form of dementia actor Bruce Willis has.

Zanotti, who appears repeatedly in the documentary, was critical of its editing, noting that many positive moments were omitted in favor of focusing on negative aspects of Williams' life.

"There were many, many, many good moments," Zanotti said. "A lot of good moments that happened during that time. And they decided to show none of the good moments, but focus in on all of the negative moments, those horrific scenes."

One particular scene in which Williams appears disoriented and erratic has drawn scrutiny.

Zanotti clarified that the incident occurred a year ago and that Williams was in the process of addressing her health issues at the time of filming.

"This was actually this time last year, over three days with me," Zanotti said. "And she was in the process at that time of getting back to herself. So she was, you know, working on her health. She was really trying to focus on the better component of her life. And so when they mentioned that to her, and that she can showcase that, she thought that was something that she wanted."

Further controversy surrounds a trip to Los Angeles featured in the documentary during which Williams is shown ordering alcoholic drinks before a pitch meeting.

Zanotti defended her actions, explaining that she was primarily concerned with ensuring Williams' safety in a potentially volatile situation.

"She was afraid of her manager, her management at the time," Zanotti said. "And so she was belligerent and demanded that I come to pick her up to get away. So I did just that."

Critics have also raised questions about Zanotti's knowledge of Williams' struggles with alcoholism, as she can be seen drinking in several scenes of the documentary.

Zanotti maintained that he was not present for many of the scenes and emphasized her efforts to communicate concerns to her guardian.

In an exclusive interview on NewsNation’s “CUOMO,” Regina Shell, a close friend of Williams, voiced concerns over the TV personality’s guardianship arrangement in the wake of the new documentary.

Shell, who also appeared in the documentary without prior knowledge of its contents, recounted instances where Williams had no access to her finances, leading to delays in necessities like food. Shell expressed worries about the integrity of the appointed guardian, citing legal allegations against them.

Williams’ brother, Tommy, told NewsNation that his sister is doing better, but his family doesn’t know where she’s located.

“We are able to communicate with Wendy when we get a call,” Tommy said on “Banfield.” “But everybody’s not that reachable. So generally, my sister will get the call, and then she’ll patch me in.”

Zanotti expressed concern about the impact the documentary will have on Williams' reputation and brand. She reiterated her commitment to supporting Williams and clarified that she was not compensated for her involvement in the documentary.

Williams has yet to see the documentary herself, meaning the full extent of her reaction remains unknown.

The 57-year-old actor was attending the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie "Spaceman" on Monday when he was asked what kind of junk food he'd take with him if he were to head into space, similar to his character in the new movie.

"Oh, that's good. I guess right now a Marathon bar. You ever have one of those? They don't make them anymore. Maybe they make only a few," Sandler told reporters, according to PEOPLE.

According to the Daily Meal, Marathon bars were discontinued in 1981 after an eight-year run. The bars were a combination of chocolate and caramel, in a braid formation, and were longer than most candy bars (measuring 8 inches long), the Daily Meal says.

Monday night, reporters joked with Sandler, asking if he had a secret factory making bars for him. He said, "No, I don't. Maybe I do. I'm Sandler for God's sake, I can get a Marathon bar, all right."

The Daily Meal reports a Curly Wurly, made by Cadbury, is a similar bar that is still available at select locations in the U.S.

"Spaceman" is based on the 2017 novel "Spaceman of Bohemia" by Jaroslav Kalfař and will be available to watch on Netflix on March 1. The sci-fi drama stars Sandler alongside Carey Mulligan ("Maestro") and Paul Dano ("Okja").

Once every four years, we get an extra day on the calendar, so 2024 will have 366 days instead of the traditional 365 days. But why?

The Earth's orbit around the sun (one year) isn't exactly 365 days — it's 365.242190 days. So every year, there's a leftover 5 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds that goes unused. That extra time eventually adds up, and every four years it roughly adds up to an extra 24 hours.

So on that fourth year, the extra day is needed to account for the extra time!

If we didn't account for the extra time, the seasons would slowly slide century after century.... so much so that a several hundred years from now, summer would start in December, not June! Wouldn't that be weird!? Weirder than simply adding an extra day to the calendar every four years.

"While this season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve, it will be my last one at Iowa. I am excited to be entering the 2024 WNBA Draft," Clark posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon. Though Clark is in her senior year and has played four full years, she is still eligible for one more year of competition due to disruptions to the 2020-2021 season by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The top pick in the WNBA Draft is held by the Indiana Fever. Clark's full announcement reads:

While this season is far from over and we have a lot more goals to achieve, it will be my last one at Iowa. I am excited to be entering the 2024 WNBA Draft.

It is impossible to fully express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me during my time at Iowa - my teammates, who made the last four years the best; coaches, trainers and staff who always let me be me; Hawkeye fans who filled Carver every night; and everyone who came out to support us across the country, especially the kids.

Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without my family and friends who have been by my side through it all. Because of all of you, my dreams came true."

Caitlin Clark

Clark has already set the NCAA women's all-time scoring record and is within 17 points of Pete Maravich's record for career points scored in college basketball overall. The Hawkeyes welcome No. 2 Ohio State to Iowa City on Saturday night.

Two tetanus and diphtheria (Td) vaccine products have been available for use in the United States: one made by Sanofi, and one made by MassBiologics, which is the sole DT vaccine manufacturer in the country. According to CDC, MassBiologics has discontinued its shot. 

“Sanofi is taking steps to augment their available U.S. supply,” CDC said, but it will take time and the agency said it anticipates "that the supply of Td vaccine in the U.S. market will be constrained during 2024.” 

Grifols, which is the exclusive distributor for the MassBiologic shot, expects to have product available only through about June, the agency said. 

Temporary ordering controls are in place in the public and private sectors to help manage the gap in supply. CDC said doctors should switch to giving the broader Tdap vaccine instead whenever possible. In addition to tetanus and diphtheria, the Tdap vaccine also offers protection against pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Tetanus shots are often given as a booster dose every 10 years, though doctors are recommended to give them earlier when treating severe or dirty wounds and burns. Tdap vaccine is an acceptable alternative, CDC said, including when a tetanus booster is indicated for wound management. 

The use of Td vaccines has been declining in recent years, according to CDC data, though it is less expensive than the Tdap shot.  

There are two licensed manufacturers of Tdap vaccines, and CDC said there are no supply constraints.  

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices released the details of the 2023-24 season vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates on Thursday. Among children, the vaccine was 52 to 61 percent effective in preventing flu-associated hospitalizations. It was 41 to 44 percent effective against preventing adult flu hospitalizations.

“These findings indicated that the 2023-24 seasonal influenza vaccine is effective at reducing the risk of influenza-associated outpatient visits and hospitalization,” the CDC said in its report.

The strains selected to be targeted by the flu vaccine are changed each year as authorities seek the best updates to stop the virus.

This season, the vaccine targeted both influenza A and B, and the committee said it was effective at combatting both viruses.

"We're right in the range that we typically see when the vaccine is a good match with the viruses that are circulating. Good VE, and it's working consistent with past years," Sascha Ellington, head of the CDC's flu prevention and control team, said in a statement to CBS News.

The CDC recommends all eligible people 6 months and older receive an annual flu shot.

What the man reportedly didn't know, however, was that his wife allegedly faked all the financial documents submitted to the realtors, broke into the home, smashed open the lock box, and told her husband they were new homeowners.

According to court documents, police officers from the Eaton Police Department were called out to a home on Feb. 16 after the property owner claimed to have spotted a U-Haul truck outside. The owner told police no one was supposed to be at the home, which was vacant and for sale.

Officers say they arrived to the scene to find a couple moving into the house, unloading boxes and brandishing keys to the front door.

Courtney L. Davis, 32, reportedly told officers that she and her husband had purchased the home and been given the keys by their realtor, who took them out of the lock box after the sale was finalized and handed them over. Davis even showed police screenshots of paperwork that showed they had purchased the home, officers say.

But the story didn't match what the property owner told police. According to the property owner's realtor, the sale of the house was never finalized due to payment never being received. A deeper dive uncovered that not only had the couple not submitted their payment, but the forms handed over to the realtor were allegedly fraudulent.

The realtor said they noticed something was off with the forms due to grammatical errors such as "contact u at" instead of "contact us at."

Police reached out to the couple's realtor, who supposedly handed the pair the keys from the house's lock box, only to learn that that too was a lie. The realtor said the sale hadn't been completed and told police she did not hand over the keys from the lock box.

Police ended up discovering that the lock box had been smashed open, the pieces hidden inside a drawer in the house.

When the couple was confronted, police say Davis told them her husband had been left in the dark about the fraud. He hadn't been aware of the fraudulent statements or the truth behind the lock box, she confessed.

Davis reportedly confessed to breaking into the home prior to the couple "moving in." She said she climbed through the windows, unlocked all the doors, and smashed open the lock box before her husband arrived to move their stuff in.

During the investigation, it was also discovered that a tow truck driven by Davis's husband was reported stolen.

Davis told police she had let her husband drive the truck because she couldn't drive stick. The truck had reportedly been purchased with a bad check. Again, Davis's husband was reportedly kept in the dark about the stolen nature of the truck, allegedly having no idea about the bad check used to purchase the vehicle.

Davis faces felony charges of possession of stolen property, fraud, criminal mischief, burglary, residential entry, obstruction of justice and false informing.

Her husband faces charges of residential entry and possession of stolen property.

The Delaware County Prosecutor's Office will determine final charges.

The bill, HB-117, states in part that grand jury testimony "may be disclosed so long as the subject of the grand jury inquiry is deceased, the grand jury inquiry related to criminal or sexual activity between the subject of the grand jury investigation and a person who was a minor at the time of the alleged criminal or sexual activity."

According to DeSantis, the law will spearhead the release of records related to the grand jury case where a single criminal charge was brought against Epstein, despite prosecutors identifying over 30 victims. Some of the people who claimed he abused them at his Palm Beach home were as young as 14 years old.

When police raided Epstein's home in 2006, they found hidden cameras believed to have been used to document the abuse, as well as several photos of young girls.

The FBI stepped in after the Palm Beach Police Chief requested Epstein be charged with several offenses and accused the state prosecutor of being too lenient with Epstein. The then-state attorney, in an unusual move, decided to present evidence to a grand jury, which would legally seal the identities of those involved and the details of the accusations.

Epstein pleaded not guilty to the single charge of "procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18" as part of a deal negotiated between his lawyers and the state attorney. According to the Miami Herald, the deal "essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes."

After spending just 13 months in jail - housed in a private wing and permitted to leave for up to 12 hours a day - Epstein walked free until his July 2019 federal sex trafficking arrest. He died by suicide in his jail cell just over a month later.

Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy in 2021 for helping Epstein groom his victims.

Two victims of the disgraced billionaire joined DeSantis at the Palm Beach Police Department on Thursday. Haley Robson, a former teen "recruiter" for Epstein, said victims are still healing from the abuse, and she hopes the law will bring some closure.

"I'm trying to put the final pieces of this puzzle together so I can move on and finally get the peace I deserve for my life," Robson said. "I'm so grateful for this bill. Really, I just want to know why Jeffrey Epstein was given such grace and mercy for his inhumane crimes."

Robson also wants to know why the young victims were scrutinized so heavily in the media. She said the victim-shaming that arose from the high-profile case was psychologically damaging and led some to retract statements out of fear.

Jena-Lisa Jones was 14 years old when she was sexually assaulted by Epstein.

"We've been left in the dark for so long, with no answers as to what was going on and why things played out the way that they did," Jones said. "It would have saved literally hundreds of girls from being put in a position none of us ever wanted to be put in."

Both women said they were grateful to the legislature for passing the bill.

“It’s going to shed light on what I’ve known this entire time. I'm excited to see what is and what isn't included in these documents," Robson said. "I think it's going to be groundbreaking."

Grand jury documents from the Epstein case will be authorized for release on July 1, when the law goes into effect. When Robson asked DeSantis if the documents were allowed to be altered before they are released, he said the judge is allowed to redact some things, but the law is “structured in a way that’s disfavored.”

The bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives with 94 yeas, six nays and three abstentions. It will now head to the Alabama Senate.

The legislation would "provide civil and criminal immunity to persons providing goods and services related to in vitro fertilization in certain circumstances; to provide retroactive effect; and to provide for the repeal of the act on a certain date."

This exemption does not apply in situations that involve "an act or omission that is both intentional and not arising from or related to IVF services."

This comes after several fertility clinics, including the largest health care provider in Alabama, paused IVF services due to concerns of legal action in the event that frozen embryos stored at their facilities were destroyed.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that an 1872 law that allows families to sue for damages in the event of a wrongful death of minor did not have any exemptions, explicit or unwritten, for frozen embryos.

While the court acknowledged concerns that allowing embryos to be considered children would make IVF services more difficult to provide in Alabama, it stated in its ruling that those issues were for the state Legislature to address.

This cleared the way for patients whose embryos had been accidentally destroyed at an Alabama fertility clinic to sue for damages, after a lower court had previously dismissed the lawsuit upon finding frozen embryos did not meet the definition of a "'person' or 'child.'"

The high court's ruling and the subsequent pause on services has led members of the GOP to scramble, as they both agree with the court finding embryos can be considered children while opposing the inadvertent restrictions the decision placed on IVF access.

Senate Democrats earlier this week attempted to force a vote on a bill that would similarly protect access to IVF services, but Republicans blocked it, claiming the legislation was full of "poison pills" and overreached its aims.

A lawsuit filed in October 2022 (and since revised) had accused Walmart of “falsely inflating” the weights of certain sold-by-weight groceries at the register, thereby negating any sale pricing (or “rollback” pricing) that shoppers may have believed they were paying, court documents say. The lawsuit also accuses the retailer of incorrectly labeling certain sold-by-weight bagged produce items and sold-by-weight clearance items, leading the consumer to unknowingly pay more for the amount they were getting. The grocery items included meats, seafood, poultry and pork, as well as a variety of bagged citrus items.

Walmart denies any wrongdoing or deceptive practices. But in November 2023, the company reached a deal to settle, according to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

A hearing to determine whether the proposed settlement can move forward will be held later this year.

Until then, customers can submit claims online or by mail for a share of the proposed $45 million at WalmartWeightedGroceriesSettlement.com.

To qualify, Walmart customers needed to have purchased the aforementioned sold-by-weight items between Oct. 19, 2018 and Jan. 19, 2024. Customers need not provide any proof of purchase to file, though payouts without receipts or other documentation are capped at $25 per person depending on the amount of claimed purchases (to those who qualify). Customers with receipts or other proof of purchase may be eligible to receive up to 2% back on the total amount paid for the groceries, but capped at $500.

Consumers may also opt out of the settlement, if they wish to take separate legal action against Walmart, according to the settlement website.

The hearing to determine approval of the proposed settlement is scheduled for June 12, 2024, in Tampa. More information on the settlement agreement, and instructions for filing a claim, can be found on the settlement website.

The media mogul and former talk show host first joined WW International, Inc.’s board in 2015, before kicking off a high-profile 2020 marketing campaign as the weight loss and management company’s spokeswoman.

Shares of WW International Inc. tumbled more than 23% in Thursday morning trading, following news of Winfrey's decision.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Winfrey said that she would “continue to advise and collaborate” with the brand and its leaders, and would work toward “elevating the conversation around recognizing obesity as a chronic condition, working to reduce stigma, and advocating for health equity.”

“Weight Health is a critically important topic and one that needs to be addressed at a broader scale. I plan to participate in a number of public forums and events where I will be a vocal advocate in advancing this conversation,” Winfrey said.

Regarding her donation to the Washington museum, she added, “I have been a long-time supporter of this worthy organization, and I am proud to continue my support.”

The donation, WeightWatchers said, aims to support the museum’s “goal to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans and to eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around [Winfrey] taking weight loss medications.”

Winfrey, who’s been public about her health and fitness struggles throughout her career, made headlines last year after revealing that she was taking a weight loss medication.

"The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” Winfrey, 70, said at the time.

“I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself," she said. Winfrey did not disclose which medication she was prescribed.

One in three American adults are overweight, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

In a poll conducted last August, 18% of adults surveyed said they were “very interested” in taking a weight loss drug, and 27% said they were “somewhat interested.”

The lawsuits allege the menu prices and fees listed on Panera's menu for delivery were misleading. The suits claim Panera advertised free or flat-rate delivery, but then charged customers more in other, sneakier ways. For example, one lawsuit, obtained by USA Today, alleges menu items were marked up 5% to 7% when they were ordered for delivery.

Panera denies the claims, but has agreed to put the matter to rest by settling the lawsuits.

To figure out if you qualify, you'll have to think back a couple years. If you placed a delivery order from Panera, either via the website or the app, between Oct. 1, 2020, and Aug. 31, 2021, then you are part of the settlement class. Eligible recipients may have also received a notice in their email inbox.

People filing a claim will have two options: cash or vouchers. If you elect to receive a portion of the $2 million cash fund, you'll get up to $12, the settlement administrator says. It could be less if lots of eligible people file claims.

If you elect to get the vouchers, you'll receive up to two coupons for free items from Panera's "Soups & Mac" menu. Each item's value will be capped at $9.50.

If you want a piece of the payout, you'll need to file a claim by June 10, 2024. You can do so online or by mail.

People who don't file a claim won't receive anything. See more about whether you qualify and how you'll get paid on the settlement's official page.

The settlement's next court hearing is scheduled for May 31, 2024, in St. Louis, Missouri. Assuming the settlement is granted final approval, payments and vouchers should go out in about 60 days. However, appeals can delay the payment process.

The Estes siblings come across as your typical Utah family, making jokes and reminiscing over family pictures, but they have something you might call special. 

Xavier, Remington, and Jade Estes all share a birthday. Not just any birthday, but one that only comes around every four years. 

Louise Estes gave birth on Leap Day not once ... not twice ... but three separate times.

(Photos courtesy of the Estes family)

“The first one was unintentional, the second one just happened, and the third one is the one we actually tried on purpose,” she said. 

If you’re measuring by Leap Years, Xavier is 5, Remington is 4, and Jade is 3. On years without a Leap Day, they celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28. 

“We celebrate it every year, but we do like a big celebration every four years,” Remington said. 

They throw a big party with pinatas and three cakes for each of them. 

The Estes family has five children — the three who share a birthday refer to one another as “Leaplings.” As for the other two siblings, if you’re worried about them feeling left out, they look at the positives.

“Every four years, I get to eat three times the amount of cake in one year,” Alexander Estes said. 

“It does seem to be special to be part of it, but I don’t want to take away from them,” Seeley Estes added. 

They say having a child on a Leap Day is rare, but the Estes family recognizes having three is even more incredible. 

To Louise, no matter how rare their birthday is, she says her kids are special.

“I always try and let them know that, ‘I love you because you’re mine,’” she said. “That’s the kind of thing that could never change no matter how far they go, no matter what happens. That’ll never stop.” 

That's as long as you fall within a certain group of workers.

You'll need to be among those Americans who get paid biweekly on Fridays and received their first check of the year on January 5. Your first paycheck will come on March 1, with the next two coming on March 15 and 29.

“So if you’re getting paid on the first, third and fifth Fridays, that means you have a bonus paycheck, which obviously you still earned, but is potentially outside of your regular budget and kind of like a mini windfall or a mini bonus,” Chanelle Bessette, banking specialist with NerdWallet, previously told Nexstar.

That also means if you get paid weekly, you'll see a fifth paycheck in March.

If you are paid biweekly on Thursdays, however, you won't see a three-paycheck month. You can blame Leap Day for that. Had February been a 28-day month, March would've started on Thursday, which would've given you three paydays: March 1, 15, and 29.

As you can probably guess, not every employee who gets biweekly checks will get an “extra” check during the same months. If you won't get a paycheck until March 9, your three-paycheck months will be May and November this year, according to Alliant Credit Union. Those getting three paychecks in March have to wait until August for the same treatment.

So what’s behind the financial phenomenon?

Dividing 52 weeks by two — since payments are biweekly — means that you will get 26 checks over the course of the year. But if you were to just multiply the number of months in a year by two, you would only get 24. So a third paycheck will go out in a couple of months during the year, usually very early in the month.

Before you can count a third paycheck as a "bonus check," you should review your budget and debts. If you're on track with two paychecks a month, then a third twice a year can be used for investing or other financial goals, according to Alliant.

It may help to think of the third paycheck like a tax refund, Bessette said. Depending on one’s financial situation, the money could be used to pay off a nagging bill, make an extra mortgage payment or line an emergency fund.

You may have already had a surprise on your paychecks this year: you may be making more money than in 2023, even if you didn't get a raise.

It’s all thanks to changes made by the federal government (unless you did actually get a raise of more than roughly 5.4% to start the year, then it’s partially due to that, too).

In November, the IRS announced inflation adjustments to the tax code, including changes to the standard deduction and individual income brackets. The standard deduction is a dollar amount that reduces the amount of income that is taxable.

So, depending on your withholdings, and if you're making roughly what you did in 2023, you could be seeing a small increase in your paychecks this year. You can see more specifically where the increase is coming from by comparing the federal withholdings on your first paycheck of 2024 to the last paycheck you received in 2023.

Although you’re technically taking home more money each week (or every other week, depending on your employer’s pay schedule), the funds are intended to help offset the inflation we’re still seeing.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire has merged with another blaze and is 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

The fire's explosive growth slowed as snow fell and winds and temperatures dipped, but it was still untamed and threatening more death and destruction. It is the largest of several major fires burning in the rural Panhandle section of the state. It has also crossed into Oklahoma.

Firefighters have made little progress corralling it, but Thursday’s forecast of snow, rain and temperatures in the 40s offered a window to make progress before temperatures and winds increase this weekend. Authorities have not said what ignited the fires, but strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm temperatures fed the blazes.

Less than an inch of snow is expected, but moisture is not the only benefit, said National Weather Service meteorologist Samuel Scoleri.

“It will help keep relative humidity down for the day, and that will definitely help firefighters,” Scoleri said.

Snow and rainfall were expected to end Thursday afternoon, with dry, windy conditions returning Friday and critical fire conditions possible again Saturday and Sunday.

An 83-year-old woman is the only confirmed death so far, but with flames still menacing a wide area, authorities have yet to conduct a thorough search for victims or tally the numerous homes and other structures damaged or destroyed.

Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said the weekend forecast and “sheer size and scope” of the blaze are the biggest challenges for firefighters.

“I don’t want the community there to feel a false sense of security that all these fires will not grow anymore,” Kidd said. “This is still a very dynamic situation.”

The largest fire recorded in state history was the 2006 East Amarillo Complex fire, which burned about 1,400 square miles (3,630 square kilometers) and resulted in 13 deaths.

This week, walls of flames were pushed by powerful winds while huge plumes of smoke billowed hundreds of feet in the air across the sparsely populated region. The smoke delayed aerial surveillance of the damage in some areas.

“There was one point where we couldn’t see anything,” said Greg Downey, 57, describing his escape as flames bore down on his neighborhood. “I didn’t think we’d get out of it.”

The woman who died was identified by family members as Joyce Blankenship, a former substitute teacher. Her grandson, Lee Quesada, said he had posted in a community forum asking if anyone could try and locate her. Quesada said deputies told his uncle on Wednesday that they had found Blankenship’s remains in her burned home.

Quesada said she’d surprise him at times with funny little stories “about her more ornery days.”

“Just talking to her was a joy,” he said, adding that “Joy” was a nickname of hers.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties. The encroaching flames caused the main facility that disassembles America’s nuclear arsenal to pause operations Tuesday night, but it was open for normal work Wednesday.

Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall described the charred terrain as being “like a moonscape. ... It's just all gone.”

Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community. Kendall also said he saw “hundreds of cattle just dead, laying in the fields.”

Tresea Rankin videotaped her own home in Canadian as it burned.

“Thirty-eight years of memories, that’s what you were thinking,” Rankin said of watching the flames destroy her house. “Two of my kids were married there ... But you know, it’s OK, the memories won’t go away.”

The small town of Fritch, north of Amarillo, lost hundreds of homes in a 2014 fire and appeared to be hit hard again. Mayor Tom Ray said Wednesday that an estimated 40-50 homes were destroyed on the southern edge. Ray said natural gas remained shut off for the town of 2,200.

Residents are probably not "prepared for what they’re going to see if they pull into town,” Hutchinson County Emergency Management spokesperson Deidra Thomas said in a social media livestream. She compared the damage to a tornado.

Near Borger, a community of about 13,000 people, emergency officials at one point late Tuesday answered questions from panicked residents on Facebook and told them to get ready to leave if they had not already.

“It was like a ring of fire around Borger. There was no way out ... all four main roads were closed,” said Adrianna Hill, whose home was within about a mile of the fire. She said wind that blew the fire in the opposite direction “saved our butts.”

The Pantex nuclear weapon plant, northeast of Amarillo, evacuated nonessential staff Tuesday night out of an “abundance of caution,” said Laef Pendergraft, a spokesperson for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s production office at Pantex. Firefighters remained in case of an emergency.

Pantex tweeted early Wednesday that the facility was “open for normal day shift operations.”

The Smokehouse Creek Fire spread from Texas into neighboring Roger Mills County in western Oklahoma, where officials encouraged people in the Durham area to flee. At least 13 homes burned in fires in the state's Panhandle region, officials said Wednesday.

Haynes, who wrestled with the WWE (then the WWF) in the 1980s, was taken into custody earlier this month after a reported shooting at a home in Portland. On Thursday, Feb. 8, police were called to a home in the city's Lents neighborhood, spending multiple hours trying to contact a man inside the home. Believing he may have been armed, authorities asked those in the area to shelter in place.

Roughly two hours after police arrived on the scene, the man — later identified as Haynes — came out of the home and was detained.

When officers got into the home, they found the body of Haynes' wife Janette Becraft, 85. Her death was ruled a homicide by gunshot wound.

Haynes, 70, remained in police custody while being treated at a local hospital earlier this month. Portland police had said in a statement that Haynes' hospitalization concerned "a medical condition unrelated to the homicide or his contact with law enforcement."

Upon his release Wednesday, Haynes was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center for charges of murder in the second degree and unlawful use of a weapon, officials announced.

Haynes had started his pro-wrestling career in 1982, but began his stint with the then-WWF in 1986, according to the "WWE Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to World Wrestling Entertainment." Some of his major storylines revolved around feuds with "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Hercules.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

That makes what happened to her on Jan. 29 all the more devastating and difficult for her to take in.

Video obtained by Nexstar's KDVR shows a female student coming up behind Owen at an afternoon stop in Jefferson County. Owen said she initially asked the student's boyfriend to get off at the stop for moving around the aisle, standing and putting safety in jeopardy.

The video shows the female student hold a phone up to the driver, saying her mother is on the line. Owen is then heard on surveillance video acknowledging the threats she hears on the phone — that this person is going to "kill me" — before asking the female student to exit the bus again.

“We only implement the bus safety that we are instructed to do per district policy and nothing more than that,” Owen said.

After refusing to get off of the bus, the student then goes back to a seat and is seen coming back to Owen and physically assaulting her.

"I didn't do anything to deserve that. This situation should have never happened," Owen said.

Owen suffered a concussion and now battles residual and constant ringing in her ears, headaches and neck pain on top of emotional trauma as she tries to recover a portion of her salary through workers' compensation.

“The best thing I can do is get back to work at this point. But physically and mentally, I have to be OK for those kids. So I'm doing the best that I can right now," Owen said.

"I can't change what happened. I can only pray that things get safer throughout the district," Owen said.

Jefferson County Public Schools responds after attack

Jefferson County Public Schools released the following statement:

“On January 29 a very serious incident took place on one of our school buses which resulted in harm to one of our bus drivers. Disciplinary action has been initiated by the district and local law enforcement has an open investigation related to this matter.

We want to commend the other students who were on the bus at the time who checked in on the driver’s wellbeing and offered her support in addition to the SRO who responded immediately. In Jeffco we value all of our staff and our bus drivers, in particular, play such an important role in students’ education in getting them to and from school. It is absolutely unacceptable to us that an employee would come to harm on the job. In reviewing all safety incidents we strive to improve and strengthen our measures to keep our staff and students safe.

The district is concerned for this driver’s wellbeing and working with her to ensure she has the time she needs to recover and support to return to the job when she is ready.”

Jeffco Public Schools

Loved ones have made a GoFundMe for Owen to support her while she is out of work recovering.

Each has chosen an optimal location from which to underscore his respective points.

Biden, who wants to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump's orders, will go to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but illegal crossings there have dropped sharply in recent months.

Trump, for his part, wants to continue his attacks on Biden and keep up his dialed-up rhetoric after saying migrants were poisoning the blood of Americans. He will do so from Eagle Pass, roughly 325 miles northwest of Brownsville, in the corridor that's currently seeing the largest number of crossings. Trump is expected to speak from a state park that has become a Republican symbol of defiance against the federal government's immigration enforcement practices.

In other words, the split-screen moment couldn't possibly be more split, and each candidate is asking voters to side with his approach to immigration.

Among voters, worries about the nation’s broken immigration system are rising on both sides of the political divide, which could be especially problematic for Biden.

According to an AP-NORC poll in January, the share of voters concerned about immigration rose to 35% from 27% last year. Fifty-five percent of Republicans say the government needs to focus on immigration in 2024, while 22% of Democrats listed immigration as a priority. That’s up from 45% and 14%, respectively, from December 2022.

The number of people who are illegally crossing the U.S. border has been rising for years for complicated reasons that include climate change, war and unrest in other nations, the economy, and cartels that see migration as a cash cow.

The administration's approach has been to pair crackdowns at the border with increasing legal pathways for migrants designed to steer people into arriving by plane with sponsors, not illegally on foot to the border.

Arrests for illegal crossings fell by half in January, but there were record highs in December. The numbers of migrants flowing across the U.S-Mexico border have far outpaced the capacity of an immigration system that has not been substantially updated in decades. Trump and Republicans claim Biden is refusing to act, but absent a law change from Congress, any major policies are likely to be challenged or held up in court.

Trump this week said Biden was copying him by heading to the border, although the White House insisted the president’s trip was quietly in the works before Trump's visit was announced.

“I finally found a way to get him down to the border,” said Trump, who is again making immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. “We let it out that we’re going on Thursday … and all of a sudden, out of the blue, he announced he’s going.”

Unlike Trump, Biden has made few trips to the border. Since the president was last at the border a year ago, the debate over immigration in Washington has shifted further to the right. Democrats have become increasingly eager to embrace border restrictions now that migrants are sleeping in police stations and airplane hangars in major cities.

During bipartisan talks on an immigration deal that would have toughened access for migrants, Biden himself said he'd be willing to “shut down the border” right now, should the deal pass.

The talks looked promising for a while. But Trump, who didn't want to give Biden a political win on one of his signature campaign issues, convinced Republicans to kill the deal. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declared the deal dead on arrival.

Biden vowed to make sure everyone knew why.

“Every day, between now and November, the American people are gonna know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends,” Biden said earlier this month, referring to the former president's Make America Great Again slogan.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president would meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, law enforcement officials, frontline personnel and local leaders during his trip to Texas.

Trump will speak from Shelby Park, an expanse along the Rio Grande owned by the city of Eagle Pass. It was taken over last month by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who then banned Border Patrol agents from operating there. The Biden administration sued, and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed federal agents to cut the razor wire encircling the park, but Abbott has since put more up in a defiant move that challenges federal authority.

While there, Trump is expected to lay out updated immigration proposals that would mark a dramatic escalation of the approach he used in office and that drew alarms from civil rights activists and numerous court challenges.

Some of those include reviving and expanding his controversial travel ban, imposing "ideological screening” for migrants, terminating all work permits and cutting off funding for shelter and transportation for people who are in the country illegally. He's also likely to bring up the killing of a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia. The suspect is a Venezuelan migrant.

“The country can’t survive this much longer,” Trump said this week on Michigan’s WFDF (910 AM), calling the suspect in the woman's death ”an animal."

Trump claimed things were far better during his presidency and now “you have the worst border in history and the whole country’s falling apart, and criminals are moving into our country by the millions. And I’ll get it all stopped and I’ll get it done fast.”

Associated Press Writer Valerie Gonzalez in Eagle Pass contributed to this report.

“The only thing surging at Burger King is the flame,” the company posted on X, formerly Twitter. “We don’t believe in charging people more when they are hungry.”

Burger King customers can receive a free Whopper or Impossible Whopper with a $3 purchase until March 1 at participating U.S. locations. The offer is only available on the BK app or website.

The new deal comes after Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner announced that the company will invest about $20 million into digital menus at all U.S. company-operated restaurants and begin testing dynamic pricing by 2025.

Dynamic pricing is described as “product pricing based on various external factors, including current market demand, the season, supply changes and price bounding,” according to Business.com.

Companies such as Target, Walmart, Amazon and Uber have implemented similar practices.

However, after consumers expressed their disapproval of the plans on social media, Wendy’s is now clarifying the company’s future plans.

“Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The company said that any features it decides to test in the future “would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members.”

In the address to Russia's Federal Assembly, Putin boasted of his country's nuclear arsenal, including the deployment of new hypersonic missiles. He then referenced a controversial idea stirred up by French President Emmanuel Macron to send troops to Ukraine, which was swiftly rejected by the U.S. and other members of the western alliance NATO.

But, Putin doubled down on his threats against any NATO action, saying "potential aggressors will face far graver consequences" if they enter Russian territory.

"They must grasp that we also have weapons capable of striking targets on their territory," Putin said. "Everything they are inventing now, spooking the world with the threat of a conflict involving nuclear weapons, which potentially means the end of civilization — don’t they realize this?"

The Russian leader has threatened to use nuclear weapons throughout the war in Ukraine, part of a campaign to keep them in the minds of western leaders. He has suspended participation in a nuclear arms limitation treaty with the U.S. and moved tactical nuclear weapons to ally Belarus.

Putin, in his Thursday message, said "strategic nuclear forces are on full combat alert and the ability to use them is assured."

He also again denied that Russia was preparing to deploy a nuclear weapon in space, which the U.S. said Moscow could potentially launch in a major new threat to global communications and networks.

"Such fake narratives, and this story is unequivocally false, are designed to involve us in negotiations on their conditions, which will only benefit the United States," Putin said.

In his speech, the Russian leader also accused the West of fomenting hysteria and a new arms race.

Russia's war in Ukraine, which has entered its third year, has shifted into Putin's favor as the U.S. continues to debate whether to send struggling Ukrainian soldiers more military aid.

Russian forces this month took the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, giving them an important foothold in the Donetsk region, and Moscow is pressuring the Ukrainians elsewhere across the 600-mile front line with U.S. aid on hold.

Putin also offered an upbeat tone in the status of the war, saying Russian troops have "acquired a lot of experience" and were "mastering the latest tactics and methods of war."

"Our units have seized the initiative and will not surrender it," he said. "They are confidently advancing in several operational theatres and liberating more territories."

Still, Russia has suffered around 315,000 casualties in the war, according to U.S. intelligence, and Moscow has struggled to gain any significant ground or perform tactical maneuvers, instead throwing waves of troops at Ukrainian defenses for high losses.

"We are aware of the challenges we face. They do exist," Putin admitted. "That being said, we also know what needs to be done to address them."

"There is an ongoing and unrelenting effort unfolding both along the frontlines and in the rear in this regard in order to improve the striking power of the army and the fleet, to make them more tech-savvy and effective," he added.

Using data from the National UFO Research Center, U of U geographers examined the influence of environmental factors and whether they increase or decrease the number of reported sightings of UFOs — now referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, or UAPs.

"Most sightings occur in the American West where proximity to public lands, dark skies, and military installations afford more opportunities to see strange objects in the air," the university said in a press release.

The university referred to the movement of UAPs from the realm of conspiracy theories to reality when a whistleblower spoke to the House Oversight Committee in July 2023 about his experience seeing UFOs.

"The U.S. Department of Defense has increasingly taken UAP, formerly known as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), as a serious threat to national security," the university said.

Details of the study

Data used in the National UFO Research Center (NUFORC) study amounted to 98,000 total sighting reports between the years 2001 and 2020.

With those reports, researchers examined the "sky view potential" — how much light pollution is in the area — for each county in the contiguous states. They also looked at cloud cover and tree canopy cover, plus the proximity to airports and military installations, according to the press release.

According to the findings, the majority of UFO sightings happened in the western United States because of the physical geography of the area, with darker skies and "wide-open spaces."

Additionally, hotspots for sightings had "credible relationships with air traffic and military activity," which the university said could mean people are seeing real objects without fully recognizing what they are.

Are people really seeing UFOs?

"The authors note that the National UFO Research Center’s data is a public, self-reporting system with no real way to verify hoaxes," the university said. "However, the authors assert that if the data were entirely invalid due to some psychological and sociological cause, then there would be no spatial pattern. But there is."

Richard Medina, associate professor of geography at the University of Utah and lead author of the study, said it is more likely for individuals to see unexplained items in the sky if there is more chance that known items are in the sky (such as from airports or the military).

“There’s more technology in the sky than ever before so the question is: What are people actually seeing?" Medina asked. "It’s a tough question to answer, and it is an important one because any uncertainty can be a potential threat to national security,"

Based on the findings, the West and isolated areas in the very Northeast of the U.S. saw "far more sightings," classifying them as hot spots, while the "cold spots" were reportedly the central plains and the Southeast.

“The West has a historical relationship to UAP — Area 51 in Nevada, Roswell in New Mexico, and here in Utah, we have Skinwalker Ranch in the Uinta Basin and military activity in the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground,” Medina said.

Medina also cited the "robust outdoor community" of Utah, which he said means people are generally looking at the sky more. Simon Brewer, co-author of the study and associate professor of geography at the University of Utah, said several factors can contribute to the reporting of these anomalous objects.

“By examining the spatial distribution of reports and how they relate to the local environment, we hope to provide some geographical context that may help resolve or understand reports by both the public and in military settings," Brewer said.

How is the government involved with UFOs?

According to the university, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was established in July 2022. The AARO is said to be the "single authoritative UAP office to lead and synchronize a whole government approach to the issue," as stated in the release.

There have been both historical and recent sightings of flying saucers, but the University of Utah says many sightings have a natural explanation — such as seeing the planet Venus, large satellites, or personal drones.

Sean Kirkpatrick is another co-author of the study.

“The U.S. government — the military, intelligence, and civil agencies — needs to understand what is in the operating domains to ensure the safety and security of the nation and its people,” said Kirkpatrick, who is also the first director of the AARO and an adjunct assistant professor of physics at the University of Georgia.

Kirkpatrick added that the scientific community is responsible for investigating the unknown and educating about the unknown.

Chick-fil-A is warning customers that a recent batch of Polynesian Sauce cups may contain another sauce altogether, posing the risk of allergic reaction.

“Please discard any Polynesian Sauce dipping cups that you may have taken home between February 14-27, 2024,” reads a message posted to the Chick-fil-A website. “The Polynesian Sauce dipping cups may contain a different sauce that includes wheat and soy allergens.”

The restaurant is also informing customers of the mix-up with in-restaurant signage. Chick-fil-A is also targeting its One Rewards program via the Chick-fil-A app, if they were shown to have placed orders between Feb. 14–27.

Chick-fil-A did not initially say which sauce the affected Polynesian Sauce dipping cups actually contained, but ultimately disclosed that the product inside was Sweet and Spicy Sriracha. The restaurant’s website indicates that Sweet and Spicy Sriracha is the only dipping sauce on the menu that contains both wheat and soy allergens.

Customers with questions are instructed to contact Chick-fil-A at 1-866-232-2040.

Chick-fil-A’s Polynesian sauce, which debuted in 1984 alongside its Honey Mustard and Barbeque sauces, is described by Chick-fil-A as “a delicious sweet and sour sauce with a strong, tangy flavor.”

While a popular sauce option at Chick-fil-A, the restaurant claims Polynesian Sauce is not the most requested choice among customers: That honor belongs to Chick-Fil-A Sauce, which the company has previously revealed to be a blend of honey mustard, barbecue and ranch.

The elections are a crucial moment for President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who are the overwhelming front-runners for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations, respectively. As the day with the most delegates up for stake, strong performances by Biden and Trump would move them much closer to becoming their party's nominee.

The contest will unfold from Alaska and California to Virginia and Vermont. And while most of the attention will be on the presidential contest, there are other important elections on Tuesday.

Some things to watch:

DOES TRUMP KEEP ROLLING?

So far, the Republican presidential primary has been a snoozer.

The former president has dominated the race and his last major rival in the race, his onetime U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, is struggling to keep up. She lost the Feb. 27 primary in Michigan by more than 40 percentage points. She even lost her home state of South Carolina, where she was twice elected governor, by more than 20 percentage points.

As the race pivots to Super Tuesday, the vast map seems tailor-made for Trump to roll up an insurmountable lead on Haley. His team has been turning up the pressure on Haley to drop out, and another big win could be a major point in their favor.

Haley's banked a considerable amount of campaign money and says she wants to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in July in case delegates there have second thoughts about formally nominating Trump amidst his legal woes. But she's seen some of her financial support waver recently — the organization Americans For Prosperity, backed by the Koch brothers, announced it'd stop spending on her behalf after South Carolina.

She may not be able to afford another sweeping loss.

DO COLLEGE GRADS KEEP TURNING AGAINST TRUMP?

Amid Trump's commanding wins this primary season have been a notable warning sign for November: He's performed poorly with college-educated primary voters.

In the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, APVoteCast found that college graduates picked Haley over Trump. Roughly two-thirds of voters in both states who went to graduate school after college voted for the former South Carolina governor.

In South Carolina, Trump won the suburbs but not by the same magnitude as his dominance in small towns and rural areas, essentially splitting the vote with Haley.

One of the biggest questions on Tuesday is whether Trump can start repairing that rupture. Weakness with college graduates and in the suburbs where they cluster is what doomed Trump in his 2020 loss to Biden.

DOES BIDEN END DOUBTS?

As sleepy as the Republican presidential primary has been, the Democratic one has been even quieter. Biden has many political problems dragging him down in public opinion polls, but not, so far, at primary polling stations.

The one speed bump came in Michigan, where an organized attempt to vote “uncommitted” in the primary there to protest Biden's support of Israel during the war in Gaza garnered 13% of the vote, a slightly higher share than that option got in the last primary under a Democratic president.

There are no similar organized anti-Biden efforts on the Super Tuesday calendar, just the president's two longshot primary opponents who've yet to crack low single digits against him, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and self-help author Marianne Williamson, who revived her campaign after receiving a surprise 3% of the Michigan primary vote.

WHAT HAPPENS IN CALIFORNIA'S SENATE RACE?

There's far more than the presidential primaries on the ballot Tuesday. One of the most consequential contests is the California primary for the U.S. Senate seat left open by the death of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The seat's temporary occupant, Laphonza Butler, isn't running for a full term. Rather than having the winners of party primaries face off in November, California throws every candidate into a single primary and has the top two vote-getters make it to the general election.

Democrats have a lock on statewide races in the overwhelmingly blue state, and for months the speculation was that two prominent U.S. House members from that party, Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff, would battle it out until Election Day. But that's changed since former Dodgers great Steve Garvey threw his hat in the ring.

Garvey, 75, is both a Republican and a novice at politics. Schiff has been airing ads slamming him — or, more accurately, promoting him — as most likely to carry out Trump's wishes. The idea is to unite the state's outnumbered conservatives behind Garvey so he and Schiff finish in the top two, denying Porter a spot in November. Schiff would then be the overwhelming favorite for the seat.

The current primary setup was passed by voters in 2010, partly to stop partisans from engaging in primary shenanigans. Among other things, the Senate primary will be a test of whether, in the end, motivated politicians can game any system.

WHICH WAY ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE?

Voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles will once more grapple with questions of criminal justice and public order.

In Los Angeles County, District Attorney George Gascon faces 11 challengers in a primary amid criticism of his progressive approach that includes not seeking cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies and not prosecuting juveniles as adults. His opponents have blamed him for a rise in property crimes in some parts of the county, including a brazen smash-and-grab spree at luxury stores.

Gascon has weathered criticism before, including two failed recall efforts, one of which was in his first 100 days of taking office. The primary will determine who he faces in November and whether there are signs that Los Angeles' liberal voters are changing their minds.

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed is pushing one ballot measure to expand police powers to use tactics like drones and surveillance cameras, and another testing single adults on welfare for drugs. The two initiatives come as the city has been wracked by homelessness and drug use, and Breed faces a cranky electorate in her own reelection in November.

ANOTHER GOP TEST IN TEXAS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year survived an impeachment led by his own party. Now he wants payback, and Trump is helping him. The primary will be a test of how Republican voters are willing to regulate their own leaders.

The impeachment stemmed from Paxton's legal woes. He faces an April trial on felony security fraud charges, and an additional federal corruption probe over the allegations that he used his office to favor a campaign donor that was the foundation of the impeachment charges.

Paxton is targeting more than 30 Republican state lawmakers in the primary, including House Speaker Dale Phelan. Paxton is also trying to remove three Republican judges on the state's conservative appeals court who voted to limit the attorney general's powers.

Paxton has been a staunch supporter of Trump, including the former president's attempts to overturn his own 2020 election loss, and Trump is helping Paxton in his primary campaign. The Texas purge will be a test of what Republican voters value the most in their elected officials.

CAN NORTH CAROLINA CANDIDATES UNITE THE PARTIES?

Most of the country picked its governors in the 2022 off-year elections, but North Carolina is gearing up for an intense race this fall. The major-party front-runners for the seat being vacated by term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper both will need to demonstrate an ability to unite their parties in the primary.

Attorney General Josh Stein has Cooper’s endorsement. Stein's main competitor is a former state Supreme Court associate justice, Mike Morgan, who is Black. Watch whether Stein’s able to hold onto a significant share of the primary’s Black voters, which is essential for any Democrat who wants to be competitive in November.

The Republican front-runner is Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is Black, has been a divisive figure for some for criticizing vocally the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues during sex education and for comments at a church that Christians are “called to be led by men.” His opponents, state Treasurer Dale Folwell and trial attorney Bill Graham, say Robinson is too polarizing to win in November.

Robinson received Trump’s support last year, but it’s worth watching whether he shows the same weaknesses as the former president among college-educated, suburban voters. Biden’s reelection campaign is targeting North Carolina because it thinks those voters can help him beat Trump there.

Volcanic ash from the Popocatépetl disrupted flights out of Mexico City's largest airport on Tuesday and caused another airport even closer to the volcano to temporarily suspend activity.

Mexico City's Benito Juárez international airport said at least 22 flights were cancelled due to safety concerns after ash was found in some planes during safety checks. Other flights were rerouted to different parts of Mexico.

In Puebla, a city close to the volcano, airport operations were temporarily suspended on Wednesday due to the gas and fumes coming from the “Popo”. The airport said staff was hard at work cleaning up the ash floating down from above.

Mexico City's airport also warned Wednesday that “operations could be suspended” with its website showing a number of cancellations and delays.

“Our priority is safety in operations,” the airport's official account posted on X, formerly Twitter, adding that it is continually monitoring flight conditions.

According to the airport, the ash has produced a slew of safety concerns. Volcanic ashes are especially dangerous for aviation, not only because they reduce visibility but because they can act as an abrasive, damaging an aircraft’s wings and fuselage. In airports, the ashes can coat runways, hurt airport personnel and cause a number of other logistical issues.

The volcano has been active for half a million years and regularly erupts. Last year, large eruptions caused alarm after nearby towns were coated in ash, but volcanologists called the activity “nothing new or surprising”.

Its last major eruption happened more than a thousand years ago.

But a social media backlash this week to media reports that said fast-food chain Wendy’s had plans to increase menu prices during its busiest hours showed a limit to where, when and for what U.S. consumers will trade more cash for convenience. It looks like a Dave's Double Combo or a Frosty won't make the cut.

Wendy's clarified its intentions Wednesday, drawing a distinction between the company's “dynamic pricing” strategy and “surge pricing” practices that charge more during times of peak demand. The company said any fluctuations it decides to test in the future “would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members.”

Here’s a look at the differences between dynamic and surge pricing, which industries are using them and some of the more subtle ways in which companies build price fluctuations into their bottom lines.

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DYNAMIC PRICING AND SURGE PRICING ?

Dynamic pricing and surge pricing are both models that continuously adjust prices based on a range of factors, sometimes within minutes. Dynamic pricing can involve both increasing and decreasing prices, based on market conditions, the season and supply changes. Surge pricing is a subset of dynamic pricing and only involves increasing prices, based on supply and demand, experts say.

WHICH INDUSTRIES USE DYNAMIC PRICING?

Dynamic pricing has been part of some industries almost as long as they’ve had technology capable of adjusting prices quickly.

Airlines, for instance, regularly raise and lower fares depending on the time of year, expected customer surges, and projections of how many seats they can fill at various times. Flights on Sundays and Fridays, for instance, tend to cost more than those in the middle of the week. Airlines even have a name for the practice: yield management.

Hotels do much the same with room reservations. It’s why you can score better deals during hurricane season or immediately following big holidays when travel tends to slump. These days, though, the actual calculations that go into reservation pricing are much more complex.

Other places where dynamic pricing shows up include concerts, sporting events, parking facilities and street meters. Utilities use dynamic pricing to limit usage at times of high demand that could threaten blackouts, notes Daniel Freund, a business professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Neil Saunders, a managing director with research firm GlobalData, said that even though dynamic pricing is already ubiquitous, the grief Wendy's got shows how sensitive consumers are to price variations.

“Dynamic pricing is common in travel and accommodations. There’s a fixed level of supply,” Saunders said. “But if one minute a burger is $5 and the next minute it’s $6, and then it goes up and down again, they will simply get annoyed. And they’ll probably go elsewhere.”

HOW COMMON IS DYNAMIC PRICING IN RESTAURANTS?

Experts say it’s not common. But a growing number of restaurants are charging more for items that patrons order using third-party apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, according to Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, a global marketing and communications company.

Debbie Roxarzade, founder and CEO of Las Vegas-based Rachel’s Kitchen restaurants, uses technology from a startup called Sauce Pricing to help adjust prices for users of third-party apps based on algorithms and the in-person traffic at the chain's nine restaurants.

For example, a sandwich that would cost $12 on the regular menu might rise to $12.60 for a delivery customer during peak hours but fall to $11.05 during slow times such as after lunch, Roxarzade said.

“It’s helpful to streamline operations and keep things fresh and clean and more consistent instead of having a huge peak in demand and then just very little sales in other hours,” she said.

Roxarzade emphasized that her physical locations do not employ such dynamic pricing methods.

WHAT ABOUT IN RETAILING?

Amazon and other online retailers push prices up and down based on supply and demand and competitive pressures. The strategy goes full tilt during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping bonanza.

Shoppers know that prices for a hot toy can go up ahead of the holidays, given a surge of demand, while prices for familiar games and puzzles can go down, Goldberg said.

But businesses “exploitatively” raising prices based on the time of day for routine items isn’t a good practice, Goldberg said.

“We do not engage in surge pricing, “ said Amazon in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. ”Retail prices fluctuate all the time. Our prices change based on our work to compare and match low prices to competitors.”

Amazon currently faces a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing it of various unfair practices such as overcharging sellers and preventing them from lowering prices.

Amazon has called the lawsuit “misguided” and said if the suit is successful, it will force Amazon to actually engage in practices that actually harm consumers and the many businesses that sell in its store like having to feature higher prices.

DO GROCERY STORES USE THE STRATEGY?

Before the coronavirus pandemic, grocers and restaurants already were playing with technology to make changing prices easier. But the pandemic pushed more restaurants and stores, particularly grocers, to turn to digital pricing because of severe labor shortages.

Walmart Inc. and other grocers have expanded their use of electronic shelf tags, relieving workers of doing the job manually so they can better help out customers. Restaurants had another reason to ditch printed menus in favor of QR codes that diners could scan to access the menu: They were worried about physical interactions during the height of high COVID-19 infection rates.

Businesses have seen more of a need to rely on digital pricing at a time of high inflation, analysts said.

“It’s not that they can raise the price every hour, but they do occasionally change prices up and down, ” said Goldberg. He noted that changing prices at a grocer, which typically has 20,000 items in each store, can be laborious if they have to depend on workers.

WILL CONSUMERS ACCEPT DYNAMIC PRICING?

Experts say it's going to be hard to change public attitudes toward dynamic pricing, especially in fast-food restaurants. At the same time, charging customers to choose a seat or check a suitcase for a flight hasn't always been the routine it is now.

It's also possible to approach dynamic pricing in a way that defuses consumer resentment, MIT's Freund said.

“Rather than saying we’re going to use surge pricing at peak demand periods, they could say we’re going to explore giving discounts during off-peak periods," he noted. "And of course, those two statements are equivalent.”

The lawsuit was filed in the District of Rhode Island federal court on Monday by Nintendo Inc., which is accusing Tropic Haze LLC of being aware that the use of its emulator, Yuzu, is being used in “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.” It also alleges that developer violated provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), including its measures against circumvention and trafficking.

The complaint defines a video game emulator as “a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games that were published only for a specific console on a general-purpose computing device.” It alleges that Yuzu instructs others on how to “circumvent” Nintendo Switch consoles and “make unlawful copies of encrypted games so Yuzu can circumvent and play those games.”

“With Yuzu in hand, nothing stops a user from obtaining and playing unlawful copies of virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo or to any of the hundreds of other game developers and publishers making and selling games for the Nintendo Switch,” the complaint reads.

“In effect, Yuzu turns general computing devices into tools for massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo and others’ copyrighted works,” the complaint adds.

The Yuzu’s website listed in the complaint, “yuzu-emu.org,” includes a disclaimer that states the website “is in compliance” with DMCA. However, Nintendo maintained that it was unlawful to use Yuzu for any of its games.

“And to be clear, there is no lawful way to use Yuzu to play Nintendo Switch games, including because it must decrypt the games’ encryption. Defendant must be held accountable for willfully providing users the means to violate Nintendo’s intellectual property rights at such a scale. The harm to Nintendo is manifest and irreparable,” the complaint reads.

The Hill has reached out to Nintendo and Yuzu for additional comment.

Her family said in a statement released through the Red Sox that she died Wednesday at her Massachusetts home, less than five months after her husband died at the age of 57. Stacy was 53, according to online records.

“She was surrounded by her family and dear friends, as well as her wonderful caretakers and nurses," the statement said. "The loss is unimaginable, especially in the wake of losing Tim just under five months ago. Our hearts are beyond broken."

The family mentioned a diagnosis but did not provide a cause of death. In September, Tim's former Red Sox teammate Curt Schilling said on a podcast both of the Wakefields had been diagnosed with cancer. Schilling said Tim had brain cancer and Stacy had pancreatic cancer. The news came with an outpouring of support for the Wakefields and criticism for Schilling disclosing the matter without their permission.

“We will remember Stacy as a strong, loving, thoughtful and kind person, who was as down-to-earth as they come," the family's statement continued. “We feel so lucky to have had her in our lives, and we take comfort in the fact that she will be reunited with Tim, the love of her life.”

Stacy and Tim are survived by their children, Trevor and Brianna.

As much as Tim was celebrated for his achievements on the field, both he and Stacy were also regarded in Boston for their work in the community.

Stacy worked alongside her husband in raising money for multiple charitable groups, including the Red Sox Foundation. They also worked with the Jimmy Fund, visiting with patients and raising funds for the childhood cancer charity.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced on its social media platforms that their negotiating committee went back to the table with Anheuser-Busch management Wednesday and hammered out a deal. The current five-year contract was going to expire at the end of the month.

"Teamsters at Anheuser-Busch will have big pay raises, better benefits, and job security under a strong agreement that benefits everyone. The Teamsters fought hard and made sure we got every single item that our members need and deserve,” Jeff Padellaro, director of the Teamsters, Brewery, Bakery, and Soft Drink Conference, said.

The agreement will go up for a vote next week for Teamsters.

The tentative deal improves pay, health care, and retirement benefits for all 5,000 Teamsters at A-B breweries nationwide.

According to the Teamsters, highlights of the agreement include:

• Significant job security for all 5,000 Teamsters at Anheuser-Busch, including brewers, packagers, and warehouse workers
• Wage increases of $8/hour, including an immediate $4/hour raise in the first year — average wage increases total 23 percent over the length of the agreement
• $2,500 ratification bonus for every member
• An end to two-tier health care, providing all workers with the same high-quality Teamsters health care coverage
• Increased pension contributions and benefits nationwide
• Increased maximum vacation accrual to 8 paid weeks
• Restoration of retirement benefits for active and retired members

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Teamsters previously authorized a plan in December 2023 to strike if negotiations didn’t lead to a new union contract by Feb. 29, 2024.

Anheuser-Busch, headquartered in St. Louis, employs more than 4,500 people in the St. Louis region, and operates more than 120 facilities nationwide.

A-B owns 12 breweries nationwide, including sites in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Houston and Jacksonville, among others.

AB InBev, the brewery’s parent company, reported $32 billion in gross profits for fiscal year 2023, a four-year high.

"If I end up dead and my dismembered body is found all over Kokomo, it was John Christy," the woman, named Brandi Bradley, said in the video.

On Tuesday, 16 days after a missing persons report was officially filed for Bradley's disappearance, Jonathan Christy was arrested on one count of murder.

Police said his arrest stemmed from their investigation into the missing woman, but have not confirmed if the woman's body has been found.

Court documents obtained by Nexstar's WXIN reveal, however, that the search for Bradley led investigators to trace Christy's steps. One of the places that search led police was to a dumpster in Kempton, where Christy allegedly threw out some debris from a job site. In that dumpster, amid bits of ash and melted debris, investigators found burnt bones — bones a doctor believes to be human.

While a missing person's report wasn't filed for Bradley until Feb. 11, police said the 44-year-old woman was last seen and heard from on Jan. 19. From the beginning, Christy was a suspect in Bradley's disappearance, according to authorities. Bradley lived in Christy's home, who later told police he had a "bad habit of taking in strays."

Several friends of Bradley told police that Christy had been abusive to Bradley in the past. Bradley made posts on social media about her issues with Christy, including the post where she predicted her death at his hands.

Investigators said police were called out to the home where Christy and Bradley lived five times between Dec. 30, 2023, and Jan. 19, 2024. There had allegedly been a lot of arguing and fighting in the home, where another woman also lived with Bradley and Christy.

Witnesses told police that after Bradley's disappearance, Christy spray-painted his truck and was heard asking around about "burn piles" where he could discard some items.

Christy later told police he worked construction and used these locations to get rid of various debris left over from jobs. At one of these locations, on Feb. 14, police said they found a small red stain believed to be blood.

On the same day at another location, one near Kempton on Division Road, police stated there was a dumpster with "definite signs" that a fire had been lit inside the dumpster. Digging through the dumpster, police found burnt remains of a necklace, a tarp, and a belt.

Then, police found what they believed to be human bones.

On Feb. 15, police had the bones examined by a doctor. The doctor's team concluded that the bones found were arm, rib and finger bones. The doctor stated "with high confidence" that the bones were likely human, but tests would need to be done in a lab to confirm.

Police pressed further into the investigation into Christy, listening to a recorded prison call with him and another individual. In the call, Christy pressed the person about a conversation they had with police.

"Did you tell them I did it?" he asked.

Court documents state that police were contacted by an individual on Feb. 26 who claimed to have vital information into the case, but they were worried about whether they'd be charged in relation to Bradley's death.

The individual eventually spoke to police and claimed that Christy called them one day in January and offered them $500 to help with a job. The individual went to a home where Christy told them, "It's done."

Inside the home, the individual claimed to see Bradley's body lying dead on the ground with a bag over her head and a belt around her neck.

Christy allegedly told the individual that Bradley had trashed his house, which led him to "lose control" and attack her with a wrench.

The individual told police that Christy then made them help load Bradley into his truck, which they drove to another house. The individual said there was a large dumpster outside the home.

Christy allegedly told the individual, "I have to burn it," in reference to Bradley's body. The individual then witnessed Christy light the body on fire, according to his account.

The day after police spoke with this alleged witness, police arrested Christy on a preliminary charge of murder. On Wednesday, the Howard County Prosecutor officially filed a murder charge against Christy.

One of the fires, the Smokehouse Creek wildfire in Hutchinson County, grew to 500,000 acres Wednesday, making it the second-largest wildfire in Texas history, according to maps and archives from the Texas A&M Forest Service. The fire jumped into parts of neighboring Oklahoma, and is now larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The Texas A&M Forest Service said the flames were only about 3% contained. Authorities warned that the damage to communities on the high plains could be extensive.

For more perspective on the size of the Smokehouse Creek fire, it is nearly three times the size of the City of Austin by measure of acres.

The largest wildfire recorded in Texas history also occurred in Hutchinson County. Known as the East Amarillo Complex fire, it ignited on March 12, 2006, and burned 907,245 acres, according to the Forest Service. It is also recorded as the deadliest fire in Texas history, with 13 fatalities reported.

A video of charred pastures and columns of smoke seen in the distance was captured by KXAN's Ryan Chandler on the drive to Canadian, Texas on Wednesday.

Authorities had not reported any deaths or injuries as of Wednesday morning while huge plumes of smoke billowed hundreds of feet in the air. But officials warned residents of potentially large property losses.

“There was one point where we couldn’t see anything,” said Greg Downey, 57, describing his escape from the flames as flames bore down on his neighborhood. “I didn’t think we’d get out of it.”

“When we came out, the sky had gone black.”

Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall described the charred terrain as being “like a moonscape. ... It's just all gone.”

Kendall said about 40 homes were burned around the perimeter of the town of Canadian, but no buildings were lost inside the community.

Another video showed debris left behind from buildings that were destroyed in the area.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties. The encroaching flames caused the main facility that disassembles America’s nuclear arsenal to pause operations Tuesday night, but it was open for normal work on Wednesday.

The blazes tore through sparsely populated counties on the vast, high plains that are punctuated by cattle ranches and oil rigs.

The weather forecast provided some hope for firefighters — cooler temperatures, less wind and possibly rain on Thursday. But for now, the situation was dire in some areas.

Sustained winds of up to 45 mph, with gusts of up to 70 mph, caused the fires that were spreading east to turn south, threatening new areas, forecasters said. But winds calmed down after a cold front came through Tuesday evening, said Peter Vanden Bosch, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

“Fortunately, the winds have weakened quite significantly,” Vanden Bosch said Wednesday. Breezy conditions were expected again Friday, and fire-friendly weather could return by the weekend, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found daily use of cannabis — predominantly through smoking — was linked with a 25 percent increased likelihood of heart attack and a 42 percent increased likelihood of a stroke when compared to nonusers of cannabis. 

Less frequent use of cannabis also was linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular events, with weekly users showing a 3 percent increased chance of a heart attack and a 5 percent increased chance of a stroke. 

The study, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, used data from nearly 435,000 American adults from 2016 to 2020. About 75 percent of the study’s respondents said they primarily used cannabis by smoking it, while 25 percent said they used the drug through other methods, including vaping, drinking or eating it. 

“We know that toxins are released when cannabis is burned, similar to those found in tobacco smoke," wrote lead study author Abra Jeffers, Ph.D., a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, in a release with the NIH. 

Researchers added the link between cannabis and cardiovascular diseases was also observed among those who have never used tobacco cigarettes or electronic cigarettes. 

Jeffers noted scientists have known for a long time that tobacco smoking is linked to heart disease, and that same trend is now being seen with cannabis. 

“Cannabis use could be an important, underappreciated source of heart disease,” she said. 

Researchers said the specific mechanisms linking cannabis with heart disease are not clear but pointed to various potential factors including endocannabinoid receptors, which recognize THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. 

Citing their findings, researchers called on patients and policymakers to become informed about the associated risks of cannabis use, especially in the wake of the “declining perception of risk” currently associated with cannabis as it becomes legal in many states.

The study used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an annual phone survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) across the nation. 

Jacqueline A. Smith, 33, is a military wife, mom, business owner, and medical professional who is in the process of moving her family to another military base with her husband, a Navy sailor, and two young children.

On Friday, Feb. 16, Smith was stopped by authorities on Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, which ultimately led to Smith's arrest — with her newborn baby boy in the car.

Smith told Nexstar's WAVY that on-base police "manhandled" her during the arrest, causing her to start bleeding near her postpartum incisions.

"I just can't even imagine how [it] went from a traffic stop to this," Smith said. "All I kept saying out loud was, 'Is this how you treat a service member's wife? Is this how you're treating a new mother?'"

Authorities did not respond to WAVY's request for information regarding why Smith was initially pulled over.

Smith was arrested by Virginia Beach police officer K. Brewer and brought to Virginia Beach Correctional Center, court records show.

Though her maiden name is Jacqueline Alcita Smith, she was booked under the wrong name: Jacqueline Renee Smith.

"The whole ordeal was literally a nightmare. Every wrong turn that could have been taken, was taken," she said. "Three different agencies failed me. The Navy Police, the Virginia Beach Police Department and the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office. Each one had an opportunity to operate in good faith, identify me and use the systems they had in place. Instead, they were picking and choosing when to use my correct name."

She added: "They fingerprinted me. They took mugshots of me under this person's name."

Her husband and her dad, a military veteran, worked for two days to clear the mix-up while Smith was behind bars.

“The actual process was so humiliating, so degrading. To have to strip naked, to have to spread and cough, all while I'm experiencing a medical emergency,” Smith said, adding that she was bleeding and passing blood clots while in jail. She had to ask correctional officers several times for medical assistance.

"When I close my eyes, I'm just imagining what could have happened to me, just to be there alone and bleeding," Smith said.

Smith was eventually taken to the hospital, where she believes healthcare providers violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and coerced her into signing a medical release form. When Smith returned to VBCC, she said was placed in a detox unit because of the medication hospital staff provided to lessen the pain and bleeding. Smith was told this is standard protocol by correctional staff.

"The only people that showed me compassion were the other women in the detox tank," Smith said.

The Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office shared this statement with WAVY:

“The Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office is responsible for the security, care and custody of everyone committed into the Virginia Beach Correctional Center. We do not have any say or discretion over who is admitted into the jail. That is the purview of the arresting agency, the magistrate and/or the courts. If we receive a commitment order from the magistrate or a judge, we are required to detain that person. We cannot disclose any inmate’s medical information, which is prohibited by medical privacy laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Inmates are housed based on a variety of classification criteria, which includes recommendations from our medical personnel. All inmates receive appropriate medical care, including any required prescriptions once they have been confirmed by our medical staff.”

The court documents obtained by WAVY still show the wrong name, which belongs to a woman with a different middle name. The woman is wanted for aggravated assault in Baltimore County.

"Now, the identities have been blurred. That's what's so concerning to me," Smith said. "I am a medical professional here in the 757. I have clinicals coming up — like they run background checks. What does this mean for me? What does this mean for housing if I go apply for a house?"

Paperwork shows VBPD "began to have concerns of [the] identity," adding a VBPD lieutenant noticed inconsistencies with the fingerprints. Smith was later released with a $5 bond.

"That was the extent of their sorry," Smith said.

VBPD released the following response: "We are aware of the concerns levied by [Mrs.] Smith and have opened up an internal investigation into the incident to assess the actions of the responding officer."

The mom of two had to hire an attorney for an extradition hearing last Thursday.

"The judge was extremely dismissive," she said. "This was not a hearing about the identity. This was not a hearing about whether or not Virginia Beach [law enforcement] made a mistake. It was just merely to address, 'Are we going to extradite this person or not?' Once they said dismissal, it was on to the next case. That's all the appearance in court was. Is the Commonwealth going to further pursue this?"

She is disappointed that she must navigate how to correct all of the legal documents and get the case expunged from her record.

"I've been doing my own footwork, contacting the ACLU [and] different complaint lines," Smith said. "I'm just more so concerned for my professional career."

Smith plans to start an online petition and go before Virginia Beach City Council next Tuesday.

"I'm just thankful that there are people who are willing to listen to my story," she said, "and that if this does happen to you, don't be silent about it."

The vehicles were recalled specifically because the “upper control arm ball joint and steering knuckle” may separate on the steering wheel and fall out, which would result in a loss of vehicle control and a higher risk of crashing, according to documents released this week by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA).

The recall affects 2021-2023 models of the Grand Cherokee — that's at least 338,238 vehicles. Owners will be notified via letters that are expected to be mailed by April 12 and can contact NHSTA for more information, the release said.

To remedy the recall, dealers will replace the upper control arm pinch bolts free of charge for owners who have affected vehicles.  

Drivers may notice an “indication of any warning” by hearing an abnormal noise when driving over bumps, NHSTA documents say.

An investigation was opened into the Cherokees in June 2023. The vehicle build records were examined, car parts were tested and assembly methods were reviewed to determine the affected vehicles.

As of January 2024, there are no accidents or injuries related to the issue, NHTSA said.

Automaker Stellantis said a routine review of customer feedback led to the discovery. The company said that while no injuries or accidents have been found due to the issue, they urge all customers to "follow the instructions on their recall notices."

Stellantis said additional vehicles will be subject to recall, including more than 18,000 in Canada, nearly 4,000 in Mexico and about 16,000 elsewhere outside of North America.

Named the Halichoeres sanchezi, or the tailspot wrasse, the colorful species was found living among volcanic rubble in the waters surrounding the Revillagigedo Archipelago — an island system known as the "Mexican Galapagos" for its vast marine biodiversity.

The discovery was officially penned into the scientific record on Tuesday with the publication of a paper on the species in the journal PeerJ.

“It’s amazing that we can still find species that are new to science in a place where people are visiting pretty regularly — it just shows how big and complex the world is,” said UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Ben Frable, who was one of the scientists in the expedition.

Based on the specimens examined by Frable and the rest of the team, the species ranges in size from about an inch long to nearly six inches, Scripps said. They are also believed to be hermaphroditic, beginning life as female with some later transitioning to male.

The smaller female fish are mostly white with reddish horizontal stripes along their top half and black patches on their dorsal fin, behind their gills and just in front of their tail fin. The male fish were described by Frable as having an “orangy red up top fading to a yellow belly with a dark band at the base of the tail.” 

According to Scripps, researchers believe they are related to other fish in the wrasse family, such as the California sheephead and the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, both pictured below. However, the species are believed to be endemic, meaning it is unique to the area and cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.

Located just 250 miles south of the Baja California peninsula, the Revillagigedo islands are well-known for their abundance of marine life, due in part to protections that prevent fishing in the area.

This preservation of the island's aquatic biosphere regularly attracts recreational scuba divers and scientists, offering them a "window back in time to before intensive fishing," as Frable described.

Compared to other islands, however, the undersea wildlife of the Revillagigedo remains much less studied. According to Scripps, the last robust scientific survey of the island's fish species occurred more than two decades ago.

That lapse is what prompted marine scientist Carlos Armando Sánchez Ortíz of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur to mount the latest expedition alongside a team of international researchers in November 2022, leading to the discovery of the tailspot wrasse.

Over the course of the two-week excursion, the group, which included dozens of researchers and underwater photographers, explored all four islands in the Revillagigedo system in 30 different research dives, collecting over 900 specimens representing more than 100 species of fish.

As Frable recalled, the team encountered the tailspot wrasse on the final day of the trip when Sánchez had collected a small, red fish in the waters off San Benedicto Island about 70 feet below the surface without really knowing what it was.

Back on the boat, Frable said they realized the specimen was some type of wrasse and matched a photograph of a fish of an unknown species captured by a diver back in 2013.

During one of the final dives of the expedition, Frable spotted another one of this species of fish, but it slipped through the team's nets. However, on the trip's last dive, Frable and the National History Museum of Los Angeles County's William Lundt were able to collect another specimen.

According to Scripps, DNA analysis confirmed that the fish was part of a district species, bringing the total number of endemic fish species for the Revillagigedo Archipelago up to 14.

Lewis, who revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2023, died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham.

A regular performer in clubs and on late-night TV for decades, Lewis also played Marty Gold, the romantic co-lead opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, in the ABC series “Anything But Love” and the reliably neurotic Prince John in “Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men In Tights.” He re-introduced himself to a new generation opposite Larry David in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” kvetching regularly.

“I'm paranoid about everything in my life. Even at home. On my stationary bike, I have a rear-view mirror, which I'm not thrilled about,” he once joked onstage. To Jimmy Kimmel he said: “This morning, I tried to go to bed. I couldn't sleep. I counted sheep but I only had six of them and they all had hip replacements.”

Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time and he earned a berth in GQ magazine’s list of the “20th Century’s Most Influential Humorists.” He lent his humor for charity causes, including Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.

“Watching his stand-up is like sitting in on a very funny and often dark therapy session,” the Los Angeles Times said in 2014. The Philadelphia’s City Paper called him “the Jimi Hendrix of monologists.” Mel Brooks once said he "may just be the Franz Kafka of modern-day comedy.”

The hearing touched on several topics, including when the trial may begin and a motion to move the trial away from the area of the murders.

On Jan. 30, the defense team for Kohberger filed a motion in hopes of getting the case moved outside of Latah County. The motion argues the court can’t get a fair and impartial jury in Latah County due to allegations made against Kohberger by the media and says the county doesn’t have a large enough population to overcome bias in the community.

The prosecution objected to the motion on Feb. 8, saying the change of venue request was premature and the defense hadn’t provided sufficient information to back the claims, noting the Idaho Supreme Court explained that “publicity by itself does not require a change of venue.”

The defense and prosecution have also been at odds on a potential start date for the trial. April 17 was set as the date for both parties to share discovery but no trial start date has been scheduled.

A change of venue hearing was also set for May 14.

During the last hearing, the defense asked for a summer 2025 trial, arguing the large volume of discovery items would be impossible to sort through in time to make the 2024 date the prosecution pushed for.

Kohberger has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and burglary in the stabbing deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 22; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four were found dead inside an off-campus rental home in the early morning hours of Nov. 13, 2022.

The panel voted 11-1 to say Americans 65 and older should get another dose of the updated vaccine that became available in September — if at least four months has passed since their last shot. The committee advises the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who will decide whether to sign off on the recommendation.

The panel's decision came after a lengthy discussion about whether to say older people “may” get the shots or if they “should" do so. That reflects a debate among experts about how necessary another booster is and whether yet another recommendation will add to the public's growing vaccine fatigue.

Some doctors say most older adults are adequately protected by the fall shot, which built on immunity derived from earlier vaccinations and exposure to the virus itself. And preliminary studies so far have shown no substantial waning in vaccine effectiveness over six months.

However, the body’s vaccine-induced defenses tend to fade over time, and that happens faster in seniors than in other adults. The committee had recommended COVID-19 booster doses for older adults in 2022 and 2023.

COVID-19 remains a danger, especially to older people. There are still more than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 2,000 deaths each week due to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. And people 65 and older have the highest hospitalization and death rates.

Some members of the advisory panel said a “should" recommendation is meant to more clearly prod doctors and pharmacists to offer the shots.

“Most people are coming in either wanting the vaccine or not,” said Dr. Jamie Loehr, a committee member and family doctor in Ithaca, New York. “I am trying to make it easier for providers to say, ‘Yes, we recommend this.’”

In September, the government recommended a new COVID-19 shot recipe built against a version of the coronavirus called XBB.1.5. That single-target vaccine replaced combination shots that had been targeting both the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version.

The CDC recommended the new shots for everyone 6 months and older, and allowed that people with weak immune systems could get a second dose as early as two months after the first.

Most Americans haven’t listened. According to the latest CDC data, 13% of U.S. children have gotten the shots and about 22% of U.S. adults have. The vaccination rate is higher for adults 65 and older, at nearly 42%.

“In each successive vaccine, the uptake has gone down,” said Dr. David Canaday, a Case Western Reserve University infectious diseases expert who studies COVID-19 in older people.

“People are tired of getting all these shots all the time,” said Canaday, who does not serve on the committee. “We have to be careful about over-recommending the vaccine.”

But there is a subset of Americans — those at higher danger of severe illness and death — who have been asking if another dose is permissible, said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccines expert who serves on a committee workgroup that has been debating the booster question.

Indeed, CDC survey data suggests that group's biggest worry about the vaccine is whether it's effective enough.

Agency officials say that among those who got the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine, 50% fewer will get sick after they come into contact with the virus compared with those who didn't get the fall shot.

The 25-year-old “Euphoria” star was part of a group of more than 100 demonstrators who packed the lobby at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Monday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the group Jewish Voice Peace said.

Schafer and other protesters wore black shirts reading, “Ceasefire Now” and “Not in Our Name" while chanting “Let Gaza Live” and other slogans as Biden's motorcade pulled into the area, according to videos and photos of the event provided by Jewish Voice Peace. A video of those protesters can be seen at the top of this story.

Schafer, who like many protesters also wore a facemask, is seen at one point seated on the floor as others hold up a banner behind her reading, “Jews to Biden: Stop Arming Genocide.”

Representatives for Schafer didn’t respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday, but protest organizers said she and others are due in court sometime next month.

“We commend her commitment to Palestinian freedom and to a future of justice for everyone,” Sonya Meyerson-Knox, of Jewish Voice for Peace, said in an emailed statement confirming the arrest Wednesday.

The New York Police Department on Wednesday said 30 people were taken into custody and issued summonses for trespassing following the hour-and-a-half-long demonstration.

Biden, meanwhile, said Monday he was optimistic a ceasefire would be reached in the coming days.

“I hope by the end of the weekend,” he told reporters after taping the late show interview. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”

HOUSTON — NASA and Intuitive Machines discussed the private company's first mission, known as IM-1, in a Wednesday afternoon event from Johnson Space Center.

The lander, called Odysseus, carried six NASA science instruments to the South Pole region of the Moon as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, and Artemis campaign. The IM-1 mission is the first U.S. soft landing on the Moon in more than 50 years, successfully landing on Feb. 22, albeit ending up on its side.

Intuitive Machines posted new photos of the moon’s unexplored south polar region Tuesday.

The company's lander, captured the shots last Thursday shortly before making the first U.S. touchdown on the moon in more than 50 years. Odysseus landed on its side, hampering communication and power generation.

Once sunlight can no longer reach the lander’s solar panels, operations will pause, and possibly end. Intuitive Machines previously expected that to happen sometime between Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday, however the press conference team noted they were still receiving data from Odysseus.

The mission, part of NASA's effort to boost the lunar economy, was supposed to last until at least Thursday, when lunar nighttime sets in. Though Intuitive Machines representatives stated one of their experiments involves trying to awaken the lander once the sun returns to that part of the moon. NASA has six experiments on board.

Intuitive Machines is the first private business to land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing. Another U.S. company launched its own lunar lander last month, but a fuel leak doomed the mission and the craft came crashing back to Earth.

After 2025 tickets went on sale Tuesday, the resort's website showed that prices for a single-day admission ticket went up by as much as $20, depending on the day and the park chosen.

For example, below are the single-day ticket prices for Aug. 1, 2024, compared to the same date in 2025.

Prices will vary based on date. But this year, Disney World's cheapest ticket is priced at $109 (for select dates in the summer). Starting next year, the lowest starting price for a ticket is $119.

Disney last raised date-based ticket prices for its parks in 2022. Disney's website didn't show any increase for annual passes, which last increased in October 2023.

According to the theme park's website, those looking for a cheaper trip should aim to book tickets for late August and September.

If Congress fails to reach a deal to fund the government, a partial government shutdown would be triggered on March 1. That partial shutdown would impact several federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which manages SNAP and WIC food assistance.

Impact on SNAP food stamps

SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, used to be called the Food Stamp Program. The program helps low-income and no-income families buy groceries by loading up a monthly benefit allowance onto an EBT card.

Because of the way SNAP is funded, the impact of a government shutdown wouldn't be felt right away, a USDA spokesperson told Nexstar. Each month's benefits are issued the month prior, so people would receive their benefits as normal in March even if Congress can't reach a deal by the first of the month.

If the shutdown drags on longer than a month, there is reserve funding that should allow SNAP to keep operating for a while, but delays and issues might arise if USDA employees who run the program are furloughed, explains the Food Research & Action Center.

Impact on WIC benefits

When it comes to WIC, which refers to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, the situation is a bit different. WIC provides food assistance to low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and their babies and young children. The program is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall.

WIC has enough money to keep offering aid for a short time under a government shutdown, but that could quickly run out, explained Safa Hamad, who oversees the WIC program in Wake County, North Carolina.

When WIC doesn't have enough money to help everyone who qualifies, the program prioritizes pregnant women, breastfeeding women and infants with nutritional issues like anemia or pre-term birth. If there's enough funding to help them, WIC will offer assistance to the next priority tier, which includes infants under 6 months who have nutrition-related medical issues. (See all seven priority tiers here.)

Hamad told Nexstar's WNCN that when there's not enough funding, people in lower priority tiers get put on waitlists.

"What I’m most concerned about is that we’re going to have to turn people away," she said. "So, even toddlers will be put on waitlists."

While funding for WIC is a point of contention in the current negotiations, a continuing resolution could avert a funding lapse even if the government shuts down, a USDA spokesperson said. A continuing resolution is a temporary spending plan that allows the government to keep running as normal while lawmakers continue to debate a final budget.

A shutdown's impact on federal agencies

While some USDA benefits continue and others won't, the fate is clearer for the agency's employees under a government shutdown. "The Federal government is currently not allowed to spend money effective 12:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 2, 2024," reads an FAQ for department employees.

"Most USDA employees will be placed on furlough," the FAQ continues, at which point they will not be allowed to work except to help with shutting down operations. They won't be paid for their furloughed time until the government is funded again.

If Congressional leaders don't come to an agreement soon, government funding for agriculture, transportation, military construction and some veterans’ services expires Friday. Funding for the rest of the government, including the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, expires a week later, on March 8.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

McConnell, who turned 82 last week, was set to announce his decision Wednesday in the well of the Senate, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders.

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

His decision punctuates a powerful ideological transition underway in the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and strong international alliances, to the fiery, often isolationist populism of former President Donald Trump.

McConnell said he plans to serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.” Aides said McConnell’s announcement about the leadership post was unrelated to his health. The Kentucky senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking.

“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” McConnell said in his prepared remarks. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”

The senator had been under increasing pressure from the restive, and at times hostile wing of his party that has aligned firmly with Trump. The two have been estranged since December 2020, when McConnell refused to abide Trump’s lie that the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president was the product of fraud.

But while McConnell's critics within the GOP conference had grown louder, their numbers had not grown appreciably larger, a marker of McConnell’s strategic and tactical skill and his ability to understand the needs of his fellow Republican senators.

McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife's youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. “The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” McConnell said.

But his remarks were also light at times as he talked about the arc of his Senate career.

He noted that when he arrived in the Senate, “I was just happy if anybody remembered my name.” During his campaign in 1984, when Reagan was visiting Kentucky, the president called him “Mitch O’Donnell.”

McConnell endorsed Reagan’s view of America’s role in the world and the senator has persisted in face of opposition, including from Trump, that Congress should include a foreign assistance package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine.

“I am unconflicted about the good within our country and the irreplaceable role we play as the leader of the free world," McConnell said.

Against long odds he managed to secure 22 Republican votes for the package now being considered by the House.

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them," McConnell said. "That said, I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. For as long as I am drawing breath on this earth I will defend American exceptionalism.”

Trump has pulled the party hard to the ideological right, questioning longtime military alliances such as NATO, international trade agreements and pushing for a severe crackdown on immigration, all the while clinging to the falsehood that the election was stolen from him in 2020.

McConnell and Trump had worked together in Trump’s first term, remaking the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary in a far more conservative image, and on tax legislation. But there was also friction from the start, with Trump frequently sniping at the senator.

Their relationship has essentially been over since Trump refused to accept the results of the Electoral College. But the rupture deepened dramatically after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. McConnell assigned blame and responsibility to Trump and said that he should be held to account through the criminal justice system for his actions.

McConnell’s critics insist he could have done more, including voting to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial. McConnell did not, arguing that since Trump was no longer in office, he could not be subject to impeachment.

Rather than fade from prominence after the Capitol riot, Trump continued to assert his control over the party, and finds himself on a clear glidepath to the Republican nomination. Other members of the Republican Senate leadership have endorsed Trump. McConnell has not, and that has drawn criticism from other Republican senators.

McConnell’s path to power was hardly linear, but from the day he walked onto the Senate floor in 1985 and took his seat as the most junior Republican senator, he set his sights on being the party leader. What set him apart was that so many other Senate leaders wanted to run for president. McConnell wanted to run the Senate. He lost races for lower party positions before steadily ascending, and finally became party leader in 2006 and has won nine straight elections.

He most recently beat back a challenge led by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida last November.

McConnell built his power base by a combination of care and nurturing of his members, including understanding their political imperatives. After seeing the potential peril of a rising Tea Party, he also established a super political action committee, The Senate Leadership Fund, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Republican candidates.

Despite the concerns about his health, colleagues have said in recent months that they believe he has recovered. McConnell was not impaired cognitively, but did have some additional physical limitations.

“I love the Senate,” he said in his prepared remarks. “It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.”

But, he added, "Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership.”

There would be a time to reminisce, he said, but not today.

“I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed.”

With a tongue circumference of 5.21 inches, which apparently is larger than a soda can, Jenny DuVander, of Portland, now holds a new title.

She told Guinness World Records she wasn’t aware of the record until she and her son saw male winner Braydon McCullough in the book’s 2023 edition. The West Virginia man’s tongue circumference measured at 6.3 inches.

Duvander proceeded to measure her tongue at home, saying she “has been able to flex her tongue for as long as she can remember.” Her dentist also measured it by wrapping it in floss last May.

Duvander said her son pushed her to submit the application for Guinness World Records 2024.

“My son, Evan, loves Guinness World Records and pores through the hardcover books every year,” DuVander said. “My record is definitely inspired by his love of facts and human abilities.”

The record-holder explained she typically showcases her unusual talent when other people are discussing what tongue tricks they can do. She noted it isn’t a particularly useful skill, but as a flute player, it is helpful when playing fast notes.

“When you articulate a note on a flute, they actually call it tonguing,” she said.

Duvander said both she and her daughter can touch their tongues to their noses, so it could be hereditary.

“Tongues aren’t exactly gorgeous, are they?” she added. “But they are pretty cool. They’re pure muscle and so agile. When you think about it, the tongue is the only muscle that’s free to move around like that. We use it all the time to speak and eat. It moves around all day and never gets tired.”

Wrestling referee Mark Charles III first confirmed Jones' death, writing on Facebook Wednesday morning, "My dear friends, it is with great sorrow that I bring news from the Jones family of the passing of our beloved Michael Jones, whom we know and loved as Virgil, Vincent, Soul Train Jones and more."

"Virgil passed peacefully at the hospital this morning and I ask that you pray for him and for his family," the post continued. "May his memory be eternal!"

A post made to his verified Instagram account also confirmed his death.

"There is so much to say here and would love to share stories but for now it’s a rough day as our friend is gone," the post read. "We would only ask at this time to remember him as the man that he was. Wishing him all the unlimited pasta in heaven. We love you Mike."

Virgil, who also performed under the name Curly Bill, made his in-ring debut in Tennesse in 1987, according to his WWE bio.

Later that year, he joined the WWE (then known as WWF) as a bodyguard for The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase.

He also performed as Vincent as a member of the New World Order (NWO) in WCW in the late 1990s.

Virgil recently attended public events hosted by ATD Promotions. The company's co-promoter, Anthony D' Alfonso said in a statement Wednesday, "The one and only time that we had the pleasure of having Virgil for appearances, was nothing short of memorable. It was an experience I will not forget. He was truly a character in and out of the wrestling ring. May his memory live on forever!"

According to Nexstar's WTRF, Virgil was diagnosed with dementia and suffered two strokes in 2022. His cause of death has not been released.

Jones made his last ring appearance in 2020.

The burger chain clarified its stance on how it will approach pricing after media picked up on comments by CEO Kirk Tanner that the company would test features like dynamic pricing at restaurants.

Companies like Uber have used dynamic pricing, or surge pricing, to moderate use by customers during the busiest days of the year, or when drivers or cars are in short supply during the day. Prices rise and fall with demand using that business model.

This month during a conference call with investors and industry analysts, Tanner said, “Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing more enhanced features like dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, along with AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling.”

The company said Wednesday, after the story began to circulate this week, that any features it decides to test in the future “would be designed to benefit our customers and restaurant crew members.”

“Wendy’s will not implement surge pricing, which is the practice of raising prices when demand is highest. We didn’t use that phrase, nor do we plan to implement that practice,” the company said in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Wendy’s Co. plans to invest about $20 million to launch digital menu boards at all of its U.S. company-run restaurants by the end of 2025. It also plans to invest approximately $10 million over the next two years to support digital menu enhancements globally.

Wendy's said that its digital menu boards “could allow us to change the menu offerings at different times of day and offer discounts and value offers to our customers more easily, particularly in the slower times of day.”

(KTLA) - Taco Bell has chosen one California city in as the testing grounds for three new items.

In partnership with Tajín, the Mexican spice blend, Taco Bell will test the Tajin Crunchy Taco, Tajín Twists and the Tajín Strawberry Freeze at its Irvine location for a limited time until March 6.

Here’s what customers should know about the new menu items:

• Tajín Crunchy Taco: A crunchy corn shell seasoned with Tajín, featuring seasoned beef, flavorful ranch sauce, crisp lettuce, real shredded cheddar cheese, and a mango salsa,
• Tajín Twists: Crispy puffed corn twists sprinkled with a bold Tajín seasoning.
• Tajín Strawberry Freeze: A Wild Strawberry Freeze with real mango pieces, Tajín fruity chamoy sauce, and a Tajín packed on the side for a customizable sprinkling.

The Tajín Crunchy Taco will be available for $2.89, the twists for $1.29 and the strawberry freeze for $3.59.

Customers can also purchase the Tajín Combo, which includes all three new menu items, for $6.99.

“We’re thrilled to embark on this culinary journey with Tajín, a brand whose unique seasoning
blends are revered for their versatility in the kitchen,” Liz Matthews, global chief food
innovations officer at Taco Bell, said in a statement.

“This collaboration is a celebration of bold flavors and innovative pairings that showcase how Tajín’s iconic chili lime seasoning perfectly complements classic Taco Bell menu items. Together we’re bringing new flavors to the taco experience and delivering an unforgettable taste adventure.”

The exclusive new menu items are available while supplies last.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by Nexstar's WFRV, on Feb. 20 around 11 a.m., Jesse Vang, 39, of Two Rivers, called 911 reporting that 3-year-old Elijah Vue was missing. He was babysitting Elijah, according to the complaint.

Vang told authorities he fell asleep and when he woke up, Elijah was missing. He also reportedly said he has been trying to help Elijah's mother correct Elijah's "bad behaviors."

Authorities spoke with Elijah's mother, Katrina Baur, 31, of Wisconsin Dells, who reportedly said Eljiah has been in the care of Vang for about a week. She also reportedly said Vang is the "enforcer of rules" in the relationship, which is why she sent Elijah to stay with him.

According to the complaint, some examples of discipline included: praying, saying he was sorry, and going over the rules Elijah was supposed to be memorizing.

Baur reportedly told authorities she wanted Vang to teach Elijah by example how to "be a man." She originally told authorities she was not in Two Rivers between Feb. 12 and 20. However, she later admitted to being in Two Rivers on Feb. 14 and 16.

Vang met with law enforcement at the Two Rivers Police Department and talked about the situation. He reportedly said Elijah is afraid of him, but corrected himself and said that "he (Elijah) respects me."

He also told authorities Elijah was put with him as a "punishment" for his bad behavior. Vang then said Elijah was disciplined with timeouts. These timeouts were described by Vang as standing for periods of one to three hours long.

The complaint states Vang told authorities the time Elijah spent with him was intended to be a form of "boot camp."

"He gets pretty tired from... I guess like from standing, too," Vang told authorities during his interview, adding it was not like Elijah's knees were shaking and about to fall over. Vang reportedly told Elijah when he would try to sit down, "You want cold water?" The complaint said Vang would give Elijah cold showers as a form of punishment.

On the day Elijah went missing, Vang said he got his own son ready for school and saw Elijah still sleeping. Vang and Elijah then ate breakfast before Vang went back to bed. When he woke up Elijah was missing. Vang reportedly told authorities he locked the door at the doorknob, deadbolt, and with a security chain.

Baur was formally charged Monday in Manitowoc County with one felony count of party-to-a-crime of child neglect and two misdemeanor counts of resisting or obstructing an officer. She was being held on a $15,000 cash bond.

Vang was formally charged with one felony count of party-to-a-crime child neglect. He was being held on a $20,000 cash bond.

The FBI on Tuesday provided a reward of up to $15,000 for information leading to the location and return of the boy or to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for his disappearance, Two Rivers Police Chief Ben Meinnert said at a news conference.

The FBI reward is in addition to a Manitowoc County Crime Stoppers reward of $1,000 established Saturday, Meinnert said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.