Watch the new trailer for the ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel series, ‘Elle’

'Elle' key art. (Amazon MGM Studios)

Moving from LA to Seattle? What, like it’s hard?

The full-length trailer for the Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, has been released, and in it, future Harvard grad Elle Woods is navigating a move to a new city in her teenage years.

We see Elle, played by Lexi Minetree, enjoying life in sunny Bel-Air before her parents break the news that they are moving to Seattle, Washington. She immediately struggles to fit in her new high school — a drop of bubble gum pink in a sea of ‘90s grunge plaid.

"We meet her in 1995 as a fish in the tumultuous waters of high school where she encounters tricky friendships, forbidden romance, and questionable fashion choices," according to the show's official description. "Through it all, Elle uses her family as a touchstone, and forms an even tighter bond to her mother, proving that they can get through anything life throws their way as long as they have each other."

The series also stars June Diane Raphael as Elle’s mother, Eva, and Tom Everett Scott as her father, Wyatt. Gabrielle Policano, Jacob Moskovitz, Chandler Kinney and Zac Looker make up the rest of the main cast.

Reese Witherspoon, who originated the role of Elle in the 2001 film, is one of the executive producers on the project.

Elle will debut on Prime Video on July 1. It has already been renewed for season 2.

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Nick Reiner demands trust fund money to pay for his defense, court filing shows

Nick Reiner appears with Deputy Public Defender Kimberly Greene during his arraignment in Los Angeles County Superior Court on February 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chris Torres-Pool/Getty Images)

(LOS ANGELES) -- Nick Reiner says he needs money from his trust fund to help pay for his defense team, specifically to rehire famed defense attorney Alan Jackson, according to a new court filing. The petition alleges that Reiner is entitled to the funds in his trust, which were required to be released to him when he turned 30, something he claims did not happen.

Reiner, 32, was charged with the murders of his parents, renowned director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Reiner, in December.

Reiner was previously represented by Jackson, but Jackson abruptly resigned from the case in January for reasons that were not shared at the time.

The petition alleges Reiner's siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay Jackson's fees, but in January, "Nick learned that Jackson and his firm were forced to withdraw because the anticipated funding did not materialize, and the Public Defender was appointed to take over Nick's defense."

It is not known why funding from Reiner's siblings was unavailable.

"Since then, Nick has repeatedly asked that Jackson's firm resume its representation if funds become available," the petition states, adding that Jackson "has reaffirmed not only that he 'stands ready, willing, and able to resume [his] representation,' but that he is 'committed to representing' Nick and 'willing to consider reasonable alternatives to the original fee arrangement.'"

"These are not estate assets, and Nick does not seek them from his parents' estate," the petition adds. "They are his own funds. Nick has no other means -- to pay for his legal expenses, or for his basic support needs while incarcerated."

The petition specifically notes that the trust in question was created for Reiner by his parents "more than 30 years ago, when Nick was an infant," and that similar "children's" trusts were also created for his siblings.

The petition argues that these children's trusts were "funded independently" of the larger family trusts that hold the Reiner family's estate, and that the terms of the independent trusts required one half to be paid out when the beneficiary turned 30, with the other half disbursed when they turned 35.

"Nick turned 30 on September 14, 2023 -- more than two and a half years ago -- at which point his right to one-half of the Trust vested and became due to him as a matter of right. But he did not receive his Mandatory Age-30 Distribution then, and he has not received it since," the petition alleges.

The petition claims the "Current Trustee" overseeing Reiner's independent trust "has offered a shifting series of excuses and justifications, none of which can be reconciled with the Trust's plain terms -- most recently, unsubstantiated 'concerns' about Nick's so-called competence to 'manage a trust.'"

It adds, "Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation."

Jackson told reporters in January that he "had to withdraw as Nick Reiner's counsel" due to "circumstances beyond our control, but more importantly, circumstances beyond Nick's control."

"Sadly, it's made it impossible for us to continue our representation of Nick," Jackson said at the time.

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14, 2025. The night before their deaths, Nick Reiner -- who had been living on his parents' property at the time -- got into an argument with Rob Reiner at a holiday party and was seen acting strangely, sources told ABC News in December.

Nick Reiner was taken into custody in downtown Los Angeles hours after the bodies were discovered. He was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of multiple murders, to which he pleaded not guilty.

He remains in jail on no bail. His is scheduled to appear in court for a pretrial hearing in September.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the description of the trust fund in question, which is an individual "children's" trust and not a family trust.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

OpenAI, company behind ChatGPT, files for IPO

In this Nov. 16, 2023, file photo, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman looks on during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, FILE)

(NEW YORK) -- OpenAI, the artificial-intelligence company behind ChatGPT, announced Monday night it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), setting up the firm to raise fresh funds as it competes with deep-pocketed tech giants in the fast-growing AI industry.

In a post on X, OpenAI said it had not determined when the company would begin listing on public markets.

"We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best," the company said.

The move would subject the privately held company to new scrutiny from public investors and regulators, as well as ongoing financial reporting requirements. OpenAI valued itself at $852 billion after a round of funding in March.

This story will be updated shortly.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Drowning victim identified

Drowning victim identifiedSMITH COUNTY — A woman has died following a reported drowning at Lake Tyler over the weekend. According to a Tyler Police Department news release, Shelly Snow, 35, of Whitehouse, reportedly went under the water around 4:45 p.m Sunday. A Texas Game Warden arrived at approximately 4:50 p.m. and assisted with CPR.

Snow was transported to a local hospital, were she was later pronounced dead.

The investigation is ongoing.

Former Epstein executive secretary Lesley Groff appearing before Oversight Committee

Former Epstein executive secretary Lesley Groff appearing before Oversight Committee
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in a photo released by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice. (New York State Sex Offender Registry)

(NEW YORK) -- The House Oversight Committee is conducting a closed-door interview Tuesday with a woman so ubiquitous in Jeffrey Epstein's life that a search for her name in the Justice Department's Epstein files returns more than 160,000 results.

Lesley Groff worked as an executive secretary to Epstein in New York for more than 18 years, and was once described by her boss as an "extension of my brain."

Among her job requirements were scheduling Epstein's frequent meetings with celebrities, scientists and politicians, booking Epstein's daily massage appointments when he was in New York, and arranging travel for women linked to Epstein. She was one of four women listed as potential co-conspirators in Epstein's controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2007.

According to federal prosecutors, "numerous victims [of Epstein] had indicated that she was responsible for scheduling massages during which they were sexually abused."

Groff is appearing as part of the committee's ongoing inquiry into the federal government's handling of investigations into Epstein and his alleged co-conspirators, which to date has included interviews with former Attorney General Pam Bondi, Epstein's longtime personal assistant Sarah Kellen, and a prison guard who was on duty the night Epstein died in his jail cell.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on his way in Tuesday morning that he believes Groff has "information that is very valuable to our investigation."

"Hopefully, we'll learn more today," Comer said.

The chairman reiterated that the committee is conducting "the most thorough investigation ever of Epstein."

"We're bringing in the most important people in the whole Epstein criminal enterprise that are still alive, and hopefully we'll get the truth to the American people. If there's an opportunity for accountability, we sure want to see that happen," he said.

Groff did not speak to reporters upon her arrival.

Last September at a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol, Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda specifically called out Groff, alleging that Groff had called her so many times to go to Epstein's place for a massage that she dropped out of high school before the ninth grade.

Lacerda -- who was one of the key witnesses that led to Epstein's 2019 indictment for child sex trafficking -- told ABC News in an interview this week that Groff was the conduit to Epstein.

"Anything that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein, " Lacerda told ABC News in an interview, "had to go through Lesley Groff."   

Through her attorneys, Groff has denied any knowledge of, or participation in, Epstein's crimes.  

Michael Bachner, a lawyer for Groff, declined comment in advance of her appearance on Capitol Hill. He previously told ABC News that Groff "never knowingly booked travel for anyone under the age of 18, and had no knowledge of the alleged illegal activity whatsoever."

"Ms. Groff, a parent herself, is incredibly shocked and deeply upset about the alleged wrongdoings of Mr. Epstein," Bachner said.

After Epstein's arrest in July 2019, federal prosecutors included Groff in a list of potential co-conspirators and sent her a subpoena. Bachner informed the government, just four days after Epstein's arrest, that his client "would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege against compelled self-incrimination" if called to appear before a grand jury.

Groff, now 59, eventually interviewed with the investigators two years later, telling prosecutors that "making massage appointments was just another appointment she had to make" for Epstein, and said that scheduling massages was "around 1%" of her job.  

Groff, who was hired by Epstein in 2001, told the FBI she was immediately struck by Epstein's lifestyle and the company he kept, describing it as "pretty incredible to see all the people Epstein dealt with in politics, television, et cetera."   

"Groff felt, 'Wow,'" according to an FBI account of her interview.

Groff was initially paid a salary of $60,000 a year, but saw it doubled to $120,000 by Epstein four years later, DOJ records show.

The New York Times reported in 2005 that Epstein bought Groff a new Mercedes and paid for a nanny to ensure she would keep working for him.

"There is no way that I could lose Lesley to motherhood," Epstein said of Groff, according to the newspaper's account.

Banking records included in the DOJ's Epstein files indicate that Groff also received three payments of $100,000 and one for $110,000 from Epstein companies between 2016 and 2018, though the records do not indicate the reasons for the payments.

Bachner told the government that Groff stayed with Epstein after his first arrest in Florida in 2006 because she believed him when he said that "someone was trying to blackmail him."

When he was again arrested in 2019, she resigned, her lawyer told prosecutors.

"She felt betrayed and disgusted once the indictment came out," Bachner wrote.

According to documents released by the Justice Department in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, one victim -- who was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse -- told the FBI that she felt Groff "knew that the massage appointments were sexual" and "felt it was pretty obvious Lesley knew what was going on," according to the DOJ records.

Federal prosecutors in 2021 informed Groff that she would not be charged, according to a statement from her attorneys.

"After a more than two-year investigation by the Department of Justice into Jeffrey Epstein's conduct, which included lengthy interviews of witnesses and a thorough review of relevant communications, we have been informed that no criminal charges will be brought against Lesley Groff," the statement said. 

Lacerda said she hopes the congressional investigators press Groff for answers.

"I just think that she should be honest about it so that we can have some accountability here," she said.

Oversight Committee member Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said he's heading into the interview with Groff already skeptical of her denials.

"She will argue that she didn't know anything, but I find that to be hard to believe," he said. "I think at best she was blissfully trying to be ignorant, but probably wasn't."

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Graham Platner, amid controversies, looks to advance in Maine Democratic Senate primary

Graham Platner, amid controversies, looks to advance in Maine Democratic Senate primary
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026 in Portland, Maine. (Photo by Laura Brett/Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) -- Maine voters will decide on Tuesday whether oyster farmer Graham Platner will be the Democratic Party's nominee to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills is also on the Democratic Senate primary ballot on Tuesday, as is former Maryland state official David Costello. However, Mills suspended her campaign in late April citing financial resources, and a University of New Hampshire poll published recently found that Costello "is largely unknown."

Platner has been fighting controversies throughout his campaign, ranging from him once getting a tattoo accused of resembling a Nazi symbol to allegations published by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal claiming he sent sexually explicit texts to women.

And last Thursday, the Times reported that some of the Army veteran's former girlfriends said that his actions could be "intimidating and disturbing."

Platner did not deny the allegations that he sent sexually explicit texts, saying that his wife "went through something hard -- because of me."

In a statement after the Times' story was published last Thursday, Platner said, "Throughout this campaign, I've been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend," "I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated."

Platner previously covered up the controversial tattoo, saying at the time that it came up "because the establishment is trying to throw everything it can at me. It is terrified of what we are trying to build here."

During a rally in Bar Harbor, Maine, on Friday -- one day after the Times' most recent story, Platner said that "every single piece" of his past and journey is being "dug up, litigated and weaponized."

Also after the Times' latest report, Platner told ABC affiliate WMTW that "I'm very happy to talk about incredibly uncomfortable things in my life, but when things come along that are just made up or lies, I'm very much going to push back against those."

Throughout the campaign cycle, polling has found that most likely primary voters view Platner positively. The University of New Hampshire poll, which published shortly before the most recent reports on Platner, found that 76% of likely voters planned on ranking Platner, a progressive who has focused on wealth inequality, first on their ballots, which have ranked choice voting.

Given Maine's system of ranked choice voting and having local municipalities -- not the state government -- be responsible for counting the ballots on election night, it remains unclear how long it will take for each race to be called.

What voters are saying

Portland, Maine, voter Tyler Stoddard told ABC News that he supports Platner, explaining that he feels that people are focusing too much on personal matters.

"I think that he's going to break the Republican majority in the Senate, and I think that will help stop Donald Trump," Stoddard said.

Yarmouth, Maine, resident Janet Marstine told ABC News that she voted early for Mills.

"I don't trust the frontrunner in the Democratic Party. He has too many secrets, and we don't even know the depth of them," Marstine said, adding that Mills "knows Maine more than any other leader, really, in this state."

Affordability in 'Vacationland' top of mind

The Senate race is far from the only one on the largely ranked choice ballot in Maine on Tuesday.

In a state that describes itself as "Vacationland" on its license plates, affordability is top of mind, with many candidates including the issue in their campaign materials.

The gubernatorial primaries along with the Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District are expected to be particularly competitive.

Sitting Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is not running for reelection in the geographically sizable 2nd Congressional District.

With control of the House up for grabs this November, Democrats like Joe Baldacci, Matt Dunlap and Jordan Wood want to keep the seat blue while former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is seeking to make it red.

Baldacci has the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, while Dunlap has aligned himself with Platner. Prior to Katie Porter's unsuccessful run for California governor, Wood served as her congressional chief of staff.

In the governor's race, the Democrats running include former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree. Jackson, Bellows and Pingree previously announced they will rank each other on their ballots.

Candidates seeking the Republican nomination include former Naval Intelligence Officer Bobby Charles, businessman Ben Midgley, former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason and former Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, who is former President George W. Bush's cousin.

In Maine, voters who do not belong to either major party are allowed to choose to vote in one party's primary when they show up to vote.

Early voting in Maine concluded last Thursday. Voters who did not cast their ballots early have until 8 p.m. to vote on Tuesday.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In brief: ‘Descendants: Wicked World’ gets trailer, release date and more

Rotten to the core and back for more. Disney has released the trailer and release date for the upcoming film Descendants: Wicked Wonderland. The latest installment in the Descendants franchise is set to premiere to Disney Channel on July 16. It will stream on Disney+ the next day. The film will feature Awkwafina as part of its ensemble, with her taking on the role of Chessy the Cat ...

Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham star in the official trailer for Ride or Die. The Prime Video action-comedy series follows best friends Judith and Debbie, who are on the run after the former tells the latter she is a professional assassin. All eight episodes of the season will drop to the streamer at once on July 15 ...

Production has started on season 2 of Marshals. The series, which is executive produced by Taylor Sheridan, follows "Kayce Dutton as he joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana," according to an official description. Its upcoming second season is set to premiere this fall. Luke Grimes returns as its star ...

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Judge clears QB Brendan Sorsby to play for Texas Tech despite NCAA ban for gambling

AMARILLO (AP) – A Texas judge granted Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby a temporary injunction that clears the way for him to play this fall despite being declared ineligible by the NCAA for wagering on college sports, including bets made on his own team while he was at Indiana.

The decision sent shock waves across college sports since bans for gambling are a bedrock rule of the NCAA and many professional sports.

The NCAA said it strongly disagrees with the ruling and “is deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome — which undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports.” The NCAA said it would appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas in Amarillo.

Sorsby, whose school said he has a gambling problem that he is addressing through treatment, will miss the Red Raiders’ first two games next season under a judge-approved penalty that had been proposed by his attorneys. The NCAA, which usually handles such punishments, was not involved.

The ruling by Judge Ken Curry prevents the NCAA from being able to block the transfer QB’s eligibility for what will be his final college season with a team among the favorites to win the Big 12 Conference and return to the College Football Playoff for a second consecutive season.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said the ramifications of the ruling “could have broad impacts across college athletics, creating great concern amongst our membership.” He called a meeting this week of his league’s athletic directors and executive board, and been in touch with NCAA President Charlie Baker.

Texas Tech opens the season on Sept. 5 at home against Abilene Christian. The Red Raiders then play Oregon State before their Big 12 opener at home on Sept. 18 against Houston.

“I’m very grateful for the endless support I have received throughout this entire process,” Sorsby posted on social media. “I am also grateful for the chance to rejoin my teammates. This opportunity comes with the responsibility to remain focused on my personal growth, the ability to learn from this experience, and to be able to use my situation to help others going forward.”

The judge’s ruling

Curry held a two-hour hearing last week in the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, where Texas Tech is located. In his decision, he wrote that he agreed Sorsby would suffer “a probable, imminent and irreparable injury” if he cannot practice or play for the Red Raiders.

The injunction comes with conditions that Sorsby must continue counseling for his gambling and to participate in peer support through Gamblers Anonymous or a similar group. He also must continue treatment to address “the underlying anxiety that served as the primary driver of (his) gambling behavior.”

Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said a comprehensive support structure, including clinical care, monitoring and compliance checks, will remain fully in place for Sorsby during his time at the school.

“As we have said before, we do not believe that the circumstances of Brendan’s case warranted permanent ineligibility,” Hocutt said. “As he returns to our football program, we remain committed to supporting Brendan’s recovery and ensuring his compliance with the court’s order.”

Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor told Yahoo Sports he was disappointed by the ruling.

“It is absolutely devastating for him to be able to play when every other sport, no matter the level, deems an athlete ineligible or they are punished severely for betting on their team,” he told the outlet.

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen confirmed to The Associated Press that his coaches have been told to not schedule Texas Tech in any sport, as first reported by Yahoo Sports. Georgia also will not schedule Texas Tech in any sport, according to multiple media outlets.

“This may be one of those seminal moments we’ve all been waiting for,” Dannen said in a text to the AP.

A significant setback against the NCAA

NCAA attorney Taylor Askew had said during the hearing that allowing Sorsby to play another college season would provide “reputable harm” to the governing body.

“Saying the NCAA is now the first league in America that allows you, without punishment, to bet on its own contests, that’s a reputable harm to the NCAA,” Askew told the court. “This would be the first league in America that does that. … We should not say for the first time serial gambling is OK.”

Court records show that Sorsby has acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets totaling at least $90,000 during his time at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. That included 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, though none on any of the games he played in with the Hoosiers.

While some guidelines for penalties related to gambling have changed in recent years, NCAA rules still call for a permanent loss of eligibility for any player who wagered on his own team.

Sorsby was at Indiana for two seasons before the past two at Cincinnati.

The Texas native transferred in January to Texas Tech for a reported multimillion-dollar deal. The Red Raiders brought him in to be the starting quarterback when trying to defend their first Big 12 title and return to the CFP.

What led to the NCAA investigation

According to court filings, on March 11 the NCAA received a tip about Sorsby’s gambling activity from an online sportsbook, which had been informed by law enforcement. Texas Tech was notified April 14 that an investigation was underway by the NCAA.

Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who negotiated the $2.8 billion House settlement against the NCAA and now represents Sorsby, told the court that the 22-year-old quarterback has a diagnosed addiction and anxiety-driven compulsion. Sorsby recently completed a monthlong stay in a residential treatment program in Arizona that he entered after the start of the NCAA’s investigation.

According to a clinician who treated Sorsby, Kessler said, not allowing the quarterback to play would hurt his mental health and hamper his recovery.

The NCAA in its statement Monday said it is “committed to supporting student-athlete mental health but must continue to aggressively defend against actions that defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity, such as betting on one’s own sport.”

The lawsuit and NCAA appeals

The injunction came in Sorsby’s lawsuit filed May 18 against the NCAA seeking the restoration of his eligibility. That case was initially assigned to District Judge Phillip Hays, a Lubbock native and Texas Tech graduate who later recused himself. Curry is a retired judge from Tarrant County, nearly 300 miles away.

Since the filing of that lawsuit, the NCAA has twice denied Texas Tech’s petition to restore the quarterback’s eligibility.

When the school on May 26 revealed the first denial and its intent to appeal, university president Lawrence Schovanec wrote in a letter to the Texas Tech community that the school felt “the NCAA’s ruling should be reversed or modified.”

That comment illustrates the difficult landscape for the NCAA, which has lost multiple court cases challenging rules that were put in place by the very schools that make up its membership. Many focus on eligibility, with athletes contending they should be allowed to play and continue to earn money that was made available under the House ruling.

The NCAA is on the verge of approving a new eligibility model following meetings among stakeholders and even President Donald Trump. The NCAA continues to also seek limited antitrust protections from Congress in hopes of eliminating or at least smoothing the state-by-state rulings that have thrown the industry into chaos.

“There is no better example of why targeted intervention from Congress is necessary,” Baker said on social media after the ruling. “When you have schools and deep-pocketed supporters willing to look the other way on the glaring integrity threat of betting on your own team — and judges whose rulings effectively strip away our ability to stop them — only Congress can equip the NCAA to apply this common sense rule to everyone fairly and consistently. The Protect College Sports Act would empower the NCAA to enforce rules including the gambling restrictions — it’s needed now more than ever.”

OpenAI files confidential SEC paperwork for IPO, opening the door to a Wall Street debut

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – ChatGPT maker OpenAI filed preliminary paperwork that would open the door to it becoming a publicly traded company, the third in a powerhouse trio of artificial intelligence companies racing to Wall Street debuts.

The San Francisco-based company said Monday it has filed confidential paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company said in a statement. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

OpenAI’s move follows its rival Anthropic’s June 1 disclosure that it is also moving toward an initial public offering of shares. Both are now following Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, which has started an IPO roadshow pitching itself as an AI-focused space company.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first publicly floated the possibility of an IPO last fall, describing it as the “most likely path” for the company given its size and the need for vast amounts of capital to advance its technology.

OpenAI began in 2015 as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the common good and is now a company valued at $852 billion.

The filing comes at a “precarious moment” for OpenAI as it appears to be losing ChatGPT’s strong early leads with consumers and businesses to Google and Anthropic, said Emarketer analyst Nate Elliott.

“But OpenAI doesn’t have a lot of other places to look for the enormous capital required to support its costs,” Elliott said.

Paving the way for going public was OpenAI’s decision last year to reorganize its business structure and convert itself into a public benefit corporation even as it remains technically under the control of a nonprofit.

OpenAI cleared another obstacle last month with its victory against Musk in a federal jury trial. Musk, an OpenAI co-founder and early donor, had sued the company seeking to oust Altman from its leadership and unravel its conversion to a for-profit business. A judge dismissed the case after the jury found Musk filed his lawsuit too late.

OpenAI has not yet publicly disclosed how much money it is making or when it plans to turn a profit. Much like Anthropic and SpaceX, the company has been losing more money than it makes because of the huge costs of building out the venture. OpenAI faces fierce competition from Anthropic, maker of the increasingly popular chatbot Claude, and Google’s AI assistant Gemini.

In an April interview, OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar declined to give a timeline for a potential IPO but said the company was already “acting with the good hygiene of a public company,” such as by measuring its revenue in the way a publicly traded firm would have to report earnings to the SEC.

“I want us to be ready,” she told The Associated Press. “I think it’s good to be able to tap the public markets. They’re much bigger than the private markets.”

She said OpenAI’s current valuation would make it one of the 15 biggest companies in the S&P 500.

She also said there is a “credentializing moment of being a public company.”

“At that point, people are checking your balance sheet, the SEC is governing you and so on,” she said.

In a separate statement Monday published around the same time as the announcement of the confidential filing, Altman outlined a broad vision for OpenAI including three big goals: building an automated AI researcher, accelerating economic growth and giving “everyone on Earth a personal AGI,” which stands for artificial general intelligence or a form of AI that surpasses humans at many tasks.

Altman said OpenAI started out in AI research and moved into commercial product development but is now moving into its third phase involving a “broad distribution of power” as the economy reshapes around AI technology.

He said OpenAI is “working to ensure the gains are widely shared. Everyone should have an opportunity for a meaningful share in the prosperity AI creates.”

The remarks follow Altman’s visit last week with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is pushing a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies such as OpenAI, as well as comments from President Donald Trump embracing giving the public a stake in AI’s growth.

Man in Texas is accused of using a fake boarding pass to get on a United flight

HOUSTON (AP) – A Texas man is accused of using a fake boarding pass to get on a United Airlines flight before he was found hiding in a restroom, forcing the plane back to the gate before it could take off at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, court documents say.

The 25-year-old Houston man was discovered on the plane bound for Los Angeles in mid-May as it was taxiing to a runway when a passenger alerted a flight attendant, according to authorities.

He was charged last week with impairing or interrupting operation of critical infrastructure facility. A message seeking comment was left with his attorney Monday.

Surveillance cameras showed the man first having trouble with his boarding pass at a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint when he arrived at the Houston airport early on May 18, according to a criminal complaint.

He was eventually screened at the checkpoint and then tried to board a different flight to LA, but he was turned away when he tried to scan his pass, the complaint said.

About two hours later, the man went to another gate and waited until United employees who were checking boarding passes became distracted, the court document said. He then pretended to show his pass, walked by the employees and boarded the plane, the complaint said.

TSA said in a statement that the man first presented a valid boarding pass and went through standard screening and did not have any prohibited items. It referred other questions to Houston police and United Airlines. United referred all questions to law enforcement.

Once onboard the flight, the man tried to find a seat before going into a bathroom and a passenger noticed and told a flight attendant, the complaint said. He gave the flight attendant a fake name and then it was discovered he was not a passenger on the flight, the court document said.

Everyone on the flight had to get off the plane while it was checked for explosives, delaying its departure by three hours, the complaint said.

A United employee later told authorities the man had made a reservation, but it was canceled because he did not pay for it, the court document said.

He did show Houston police a confirmation number on his phone and what looked like a boarding pass, but a United employee told authorities the pass was fake and could not have been obtained without payment, the complaint said.

Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin star in ‘The Dog Stars’ trailer

Jacob Elordi as Hig in 'The Dog Stars.' (20th Century Studios)

The trailer for director Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars has arrived.

20th Century Studios released the official trailer for the upcoming film, which stars Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin. The film is based on Peter Heller’s bestselling book. It's described as "a riveting, epic thriller set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice," according to the studio.

Elordi plays Hig in the film, "a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist, Bangley (Brolin), has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world," according to an official description. "But when Hig receives a mysterious radio transmission, he ventures into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exist."

Alongside Elordi and Brolin, the film stars Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Benedict Wong and Guy Pearce.

The trailer finds Elordi's Hig speaking with Qualley's character.

"So what did you do before the world ended?" she asks him.

"I was kissing my wife, playing with my dog, and wondering every day how I got so lucky," he says.

Mark L. Smith adapted the film's screenplay from Heller's novel. Heller executive produces while Scott produces the movie.

The Dog Stars arrives in theaters on Aug. 28.

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A flesh-eating cattle parasite spreads beyond Texas as new screwworm cases are found

KERRVILLE (AP) – Three more cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed, including one outside the main cluster in Texas, demonstrating the difficulty of stopping a resurgent pest that could devastate the nation’s cattle industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

The screwworm is actually a fly larva that eats living flesh instead of dead material. The flies lay their eggs in open wounds of animals like cattle, but wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested. The government has a program to breed sterile male flies and drop swarms of them from planes to mate with wild females, which kept screwworm contained at the southern end of Panama for decades.

So far, there are five confirmed cases: three calves and a goat in Texas and a dog from neighboring Lea County, New Mexico. The small dog, which the USDA initially reported as a Texas case, lives in New Mexico and was reclassified as the first in that state.

The dog had not traveled to Mexico or Texas, so authorities were investigating around the property where the pet lived. If they find infected flies, animal inspections in the area will increase, New Mexico State Veterinarian Samantha Holeck said during a virtual news conference Monday.

Screwworm cases continue to climb

The first two screwworm cases were discovered last week in calves a few miles apart in south Texas. A case was announced Monday in a calf in La Salle County, southwest of San Antonio, and in a goat in Gillespie County, west of Austin.

In each case, officials have set up a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone to try to slow the parasite’s advance.

Along with cattle and other warm-blooded livestock, scientists worry screwworms could devastate the millions of wild white-tailed deer in Texas.

Scientists expect new cases could pop up in the coming days and weeks, but it doesn’t mean screwworm is spreading rapidly, said Edward Burgess, a University of Florida entomologist who studies the fly.

“When that first case is seen, everyone is being vigilant and their eyes are on it more intensely,” Burgess said. “And when you are looking for something, you are more likely to see it.”
A race to stop the screwworm now moves to Texas

Screwworm gets its name from the maggots’ habit of burrowing — or screwing — into a wound, according to the USDA. The pest eats the flesh of the animal, further opening wounds and increasing the risk of deadly bacterial infections. Animals can die within a few weeks if not treated. There are a dozen government-approved medications to treat livestock.

The agency and the U.S. cattle industry have been racing to prevent an outbreak since screwworm was detected in Mexico late in 2024. The USDA has been dropping sterile flies in south Texas since February and is working to both increase sterile fly production in plants outside the U.S. and build a $750 million fly factory in Texas.

So far, screwworm’s reappearance hasn’t greatly affected beef prices, which are already near record levels because there are fewer cows in the United States. Although the parasite attacks live cattle, it does not infest meat or fruit.

Canada temporarily stopped importing cattle, horses or other livestock from Texas on Friday. The parasites prefer humid areas where temperatures are at least 77 F (25 C), making them more of a summer problem up north.

Fighting screwworms with sterile male flies

Burgess said the long-term solution — breeding sterile male flies — is months away. Since wild female flies mate just once, if that encounter is with a sterile male, outbreaks can eventually be halted as the flies die out.

The goal is to have enough sterile flies to stop the pests from returning in 2027 after the winter kills off most of them, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a news conference at the U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas.

Scientists are also working on ways to sterilize only male flies to make the program even more effective.

Texas officials encouraged ranchers to keep a close eye on their herds and local wildlife. There’s now a 24-hour screwworm hotline and a website and map for reported cases.

“This is a highly treatable condition if you act on it immediately,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said.

However, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller — who lost the recent Republican primary to a candidate backed by Abbott — said the federal response will take too long and risks crippling the cattle industry.

Instead, he says a poison bait could eliminate the screwworm problem in a few months, even if the USDA and other experts say the bait hasn’t been proven effective and could poison other flies, animals and even humans.

“What the hell is a good fly?” Miller said in an interview.

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This story has been updated to reflect that the USDA revised the dog screwworm case to New Mexico, not Texas as the agency initially reported, and to correct the spelling of Kerrville.

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Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

City swears in first district police chief

City swears in first district police chiefLONGVIEW – Longview ISD held a ceremony on Monday to swear in Benjamin Kemper as the first police chief of the newly developed district police department. Prior to joining the district’s police department, Kemper worked with the Longview Police Department for twenty-four years, where he most recently served as Assistant Police Chief. Over his career, he has led patrol operations, criminal investigations, support services and special operations, including service as SWAT Commander and Captain of the Operations Bureau.

Before joining Longview ISD, Kemper earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Oklahoma.

During the ceremony Kemper spoke about what his new job means and why he believes it is a important role in the community.

“It’s the commitment to protecting everybody within the school district. It’s not just the students or staff, it’s about making sure that we can create the safest learning environment we can for everybody,” Kemper said. “So our students can come to school every day without the fear of safety concerns.So our students can come to school every day without the fear of safety concerns. and they can come here to learn what our district is about.”

Pedestrian killed in crash

Pedestrian killed in crashKILGORE – A pedestrian was killed on Monday morning at the CB Tire Shop in Kilgore after a truck left State Highway 135. According to the Kilgore Police Department, emergency services were sent out to the 700 block of State Highway 135 at around 8:07 a.m. on Monday because of a reported pedestrian crash. Upon arrival, responding personnel learned that a white 2024 Ford pickup truck was traveling south on State Highway 135 when the vehicle left the road and hit a pedestrian at the CB Tire Shop.

The pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene following the crash. Kilgore PD said their preliminary findings show that the driver of the Ford had a medical emergency before their vehicle crashed off the road.

Kilgore PD is still investigating this crash.

Police chief resigns, city water issues

Police chief resigns, city water issuesTRINIDAD – The chief of police for the Trinidad Police Department has resigned as the Henderson County community continues to deal with ongoing water woes. Our news partner KETK News has learned from a Trinidad Police Department officer that Chief Charles Gregory has submitted his two-week notice to city leadership, notifying them that he’s resigning from his position.

This news comes as Trinidad community residents gathered at the Trinidad Community Center on Monday to discuss solutions to the city’s ongoing water issues, which have prompted frustration with the city’s leadership, two lawsuits and calls for new leaders. On Thursday, the Trinidad City Council met to discuss the water problems. At that meeting, city council members voted 3 to 1 to dismiss Municipal Judge Shella Bievens and the city attorney.