Parent arrested for giving vodka-laced Jell-O shots to elementary kids

Parent arrested for giving vodka-laced Jell-O shots to elementary kidsTYLER – Our news partner, KETK, reports that an East Texas woman was arrested on Monday after reportedly providing Jell-O shots with vodka to 5th graders at a Tyler elementary school Christmas party. According to a Smith County arrest affidavit, multiple children were throwing up, and one was unable to stand up after consuming six shots.

On Dec. 20, 2024, at around 11:15 a.m., a Tyler ISD police officer received a phone call from the Jones Elementary and Boshears Center assistant principal that said she believed a parent had brought Jell-O shots to a class Christmas party. The officer asked the suspect, Teresa Isabel Bernal, to come to the principal’s office. The officer said he saw on the conference table in the principal’s office a cafeteria boat containing four Jell-O shots.

While the officer was interviewing Bernal, she said the Jell-O shots came from a local business she found on Facebook. “The business is run out of a house, so she went by the house and purchased the Jell-O shots and brought them to the school for the Christmas party,” the affidavit said. When asked if the Jell-O shots contained alcohol, Bernal said, “They do taste different.” Continue reading Parent arrested for giving vodka-laced Jell-O shots to elementary kids

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is married

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(PHILADELPHIA) -- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is a Super Bowl champion -- and now a husband too.

Hurts married his longtime girlfriend Bryonna "Bry" Burrows this spring, not long after he led the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory on Feb. 9, 2025.

The Eagles star confirmed his marriage to Burrows in an interview with Men's Health published Monday.

Hurts did not share any further details of his wedding to Burrows, to whom he got engaged last September. ABC News has also reached out to a representative for Hurts for additional comment.

Burrows, who met Hurts as a student at the University of Alabama, was among the family members who celebrated with Hurts on the field of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in February after he led the Eagles to a 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.

Hurts has played for the Eagles since 2020, when the team selected him in the second round of the NFL draft.

Since making his home in Philadelphia, Hurts has given back to the community through his Jalen Hurts Foundation.

In 2024, the quarterback donated $200,000 for air conditioners in Philadelphia-area schools to ensure students can stay comfortable during warmer months. On Feb. 5, just days before the 2025 Super Bowl, Hurts unveiled his new charity initiative, 1 Mission, to provide school supplies and support teachers and students in Philadelphia-area schools.

"We're on a mission and it's not just to bring [a Super Bowl win] home to Philly," Hurts said in a message to a group of Philadelphia elementary school students shared on "Good Morning America." "It's to always give you guys the resources you need, everything you need to be great and be successful."

Hurts, 26, previously announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Burrows in September 2024.

The couple shared engagement photos with Essence and Hurts previously told the magazine he knew Burrows, whom he met while he was a student at the University of Alabama, was "the one" for him.

"I knew a long time ago," he said in a 2023 interview. "To this point in my life, that's an irreplaceable feeling. I think that's what allowed us to get to where we are now."

Hurts gives a lot of credit for his success over the years to his parents, Averion Hurts, Sr. and Pamela Hurts.

"I have a foundation kind of set for myself, but my parents did that for me," he said in 2023, in a press conference ahead of Super Bowl LVII. "I think being a coach's kid, they created habits for me to see things a certain way, have the wisdom that I have, and I give all the credit to them."

Hurts got his start in football in part through his dad Averion Hurts, Sr., who coached him while he was a student at Channelview High School in Channelview, Texas.

In an interview with "Good Morning Football," the elder Hurts said it has been a "blessing" to watch his son develop a passion for football.

"It's humbling as a parent, as a coach, but it's a great opportunity for him and his teammates," he said.

Hurts' older brother, Averion Hurts, Jr. also played football and was a quarterback for Texas Southern University's Tigers in Houston, Texas. He is now a coach at Baytown High School in Texas.

Hurts also has a younger sibling, his sister Kynnedy. Like her brothers, Kynnedy Hurts is an athlete and played volleyball for Channelview High School.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rusk man sentenced to life for robbing and killing elderly man

Rusk man sentenced to life for robbing and killing elderly manCHEROKEE COUNTY – A Rusk man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for robbing and killing a 70-year-old man in 2022. According to the Cherokee County District Attorney’s Office and our news partner KETK, on April 22, 2022, Christopher Anthony Peoples of Rusk robbed and attacked Valentine Ortega Sanchez with a knife, leaving him dead in his driveway near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Dixon Avenue.

Officials said around 1 a.m. on April 23, 2022, Peoples fled from deputies in a vehicle while disposing of evidence south of Rusk on FM 241, and then wrecked in the 3000 block of FM 241.

Deputies removed Peoples from the vehicle, and began life-saving measures before EMS arrived and took him to a local hospital by helicopter where he was then arrested for evading arrest in a vehicle. Continue reading Rusk man sentenced to life for robbing and killing elderly man

Texas measles outbreak surpasses 600 cases with most among children, teens

Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

(AUSTIN, Texas) -- The measles outbreak in western Texas has now reached 624 cases, with 27 new infections confirmed over the last five days.

Nearly all of the cases are among unvaccinated individuals or among those whose vaccination status is unknown, according to new data published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) on Tuesday.

Currently, 10 cases are among residents who have been vaccinated with one dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, while 12 cases are among those vaccinated with two doses.

At least 64 measles patients have been hospitalized so far, according to the DSHS, with the majority of cases presenting in children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17, followed by children ages 4 and under.

Gaines County, which borders New Mexico, remains the epicenter of the outbreak, with 386 cases confirmed so far, DSHS data shows.

The increase in cases comes as five measles cases have been confirmed in Montana. The patients were exposed while traveling outside of Montana and are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, the state Department of Public Health & Human Services (DPHHS) said in a press release.

Montana DPHHS and the Gallatin City-County Health Department said that these are the first measles cases recorded in Montana in 35 years.

Three additional states – Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia – also reported their first measles cases of 2025 within the last week.

Additionally, two new measles cases have been confirmed in Indiana, connected to an earlier reported outbreak, bringing the total cases in the state to eight, according to the Indiana Department of Health.

As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has so far confirmed 800 measles cases in at least 24 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington. That number is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.

Among the nationwide cases confirmed by the CDC, about 97% are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Of those cases, 1% are among those who have received just one dose of the MMR inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don't need a booster.

Public health officials may recommend a dose of the MMR vaccine as early as 6 months old for babies traveling internationally or in areas impacted by an outbreak in the U.S.

Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.

An outbreak lasting 12 months or more would threaten to end measles elimination status in the U.S. The large outbreak in Texas began in January of this year.

ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud and Jade Cobern contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Video shows doctor with measles treating kids. RFK Jr praised him as an ‘extraordinary’ healer

TEXAS (AP) — A Texas doctor who has been treating children in a measles outbreak was shown on video with a measles rash on his face in a clinic a week before Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met him and praised him as an “extraordinary” healer.

Dr. Ben Edwards appeared in the video posted March 31 by the anti-vaccine group Kennedy once led, Children’s Health Defense. In it, Edwards appears wearing scrubs and talking with parents and children in a makeshift clinic he set up in Seminole, Texas, ground zero of the outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people and killed three, including two children.

Edwards is asked whether he had measles, and he responded, “Yes,” then said his infection started the day before the video was recorded.

“Yesterday was pretty achy. Little mild fever. Spots came in the afternoon. Today, I woke up feeling good,” Edwards said in the video.

Measles is most contagious for about four days before and four days after the rash appears and is one of the world’s most contagious diseases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors and public health experts said Edwards’ decision to go into the clinic put children, their parents and their community at risk because he could have spread it to others. They said there was no scenario in which Edwards’ conduct would be reasonable.

Kennedy met with Edwards about a week after the video was posted by Children’s Health Defense, the group Kennedy led for years until December. In an April 6 post on X, Kennedy said he “visited with these two extraordinary healers,” including Edwards and another doctor, and praised their use of two unproven treatments for measles.

Even as measles has exploded in Texas and spread across the country, Kennedy, the nation’s top health official, has declined to consistently and forcefully encourage people to vaccinate their children and remind them that the vaccine is safe. Kennedy’s post drawing attention to Edwards is inappropriate but unsurprising given Kennedy’s record, said Dr. Craig Spencer, a medical doctor who is also a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health.

“I think is unfortunately perfectly on-brand for how he thinks that medicine should be practiced,” Spencer said. “And that is what makes me remarkably uncomfortable and extremely concerned and scared for the next three-and-a-half years.”

It was unclear whether Kennedy knew that Edwards had gone into his clinic while infected with measles before meeting him. A spokesperson for Kennedy said he is not anti-vaccine and that he is “committed to improving children’s health in America and has re-deployed resources to Texas to help with the current outbreak.” He did not answer why the health secretary chose to meet with and praise Edwards rather than any of the other doctors in West Texas who have been treating children in the outbreak.

Edwards told The Associated Press in an email that he “interacted with zero patients that were not already infected with measles” during the time he was infectious. “Therefore, obviously, there were no patients that were put in danger of acquiring measles since they already had measles.”

But Jessica Steier, a public health scientist, said the video shows Edwards in the room with people who do not appear sick, including parents of sick children and the people who visited the clinic from Children’s Health Defense. She also questioned what steps Edwards was taking to confirm people were sick with measles, rather than relying on guesswork.

Steier, who runs the Science Literacy Lab and co-wrote an article about Edwards’ conduct, said while there may be some extraordinary emergencies where it would be appropriate for a sick doctor to work, this is not one of those situations because there is no shortage of providers who are not infected. She also pointed out that the video shows Edwards was not wearing a mask.

“You have the HHS secretary lifting him up,” she said. “You know, it’s so, so dangerous. I really feel for the people who are on the ground.”

Children’s Health Defense has sued a number of news organizations, among them the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.

Kennedy’s promotion of a doctor who has touted unproven measles treatments is “wholly irresponsible” but is in line with Kennedy’s long public record of anti-vaccine views, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He said Kennedy has carried those views to his new job as the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“He’s not the director of Children’s Health Defense anymore. He’s responsible for the health and well-being of children in this country,” Offit said. “It’s an emergency, but Kennedy is not treating it that way.”

Texas Republicans trying to rein in high home and rent prices

DALLAS — For decades, Texas benefited from relatively low home prices and rents, a key component of the state’s ability to lure new residents and employers from more expensive parts of the country.

Now, Texas Republicans find themselves trying to rein in the state’s high housing costs — before it’s too late.

The state’s top Republicans have shown increasing alarm as high housing costs have put homeownership out-of-reach for an increasing number of Texas families, especially young ones. GOP leaders have pointed to figures from Texas Realtors that show the typical homebuyer is getting older. The median age of a Texas homebuyer was 48 in 2020. Last year, it was 58.

“Young people have been boxed out of the housing market,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a news conference earlier this month.

There’s political urgency for Republicans to deal with housing affordability. They are increasingly aware that Texans view the state’s high housing costs as a considerable problem. A poll last year showed some 90% of Texans view housing affordability as a problem where they live — an agreement that transcends party lines and whether people live in a big city, suburb or rural town.

“Broadly, Texans want to see something done about housing,” said Felicity Maxwell, who heads the advocacy group Texans for Housing. “They’re very concerned about the costs and impact that it’s having on their budgets. They want to see solutions, and they want to see change.”

The stakes are high. Buying or renting a home is still cheaper in Texas than in chief rival states like California and New York. The state’s comparatively low housing costs have been a chief ingredient in attracting new residents and employers over the past decade. But there’s fear that Texas could wind up in the same position as those states, worsening the state’s competitive advantage, if lawmakers don’t act to contain home prices and rents. That means making it possible to build enough homes to meet demand from new and existing residents, said Scott Norman, Texas Association of Builders CEO.

“People who are coming here have to live somewhere,” Norman said.

Texas faces a substantial shortage of homes. The state needs about 320,000 more homes than it has, according to an estimate from the housing advocacy group Up For Growth, a finding embraced last year by the comptroller’s office in an oft-cited report drawing attention to the state’s housing affordability woes.

Under Patrick, Senate Republicans have advanced bills aimed at making it easier to build smaller homes on smaller lots, additional dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes and residences along commercial corridors and in vacant office buildings. In the House, Speaker Dustin Burrows wants to make it easier for homebuilders to obtain permits and more difficult for neighboring property owners to stop new homes from being built among his top priorities.

Republicans’ proposals to tackle housing affordability aren’t a sure thing.

Many of Republicans’ housing proposals target local rules that determine what kinds of homes can be built and where — a prospect that unnerves some Democrats, who for the past decade have opposed GOP efforts to prevent cities from enacting certain policies and see many GOP proposals to deal with the housing crisis as an extension of that yearslong campaign. But many Senate Democrats, though not all, voted for housing bills that have cleared the Senate so far. Whether House Democrats, who helped kill similar legislation two years ago, will embrace or reject these ideas remains to be seen.

It’s also unclear how sympathetic lawmakers will be toward neighborhood groups who have voiced opposition to the bills and may not want new homes built in or even near their neighborhoods.

Some of the legislation they’re pitching would only go so far. Texas has more than 1,200 cities, but GOP proposals to reduce lot sizes and allow residences to be built in more places would only apply to its 18 largest cities.

And Texas has a deep shortage of homes affordable for the state’s poorest families, but state lawmakers appear unlikely to put more funds toward building those kinds of homes — though the reforms that have caught on will still likely make those homes easier to build.

At the same time Republicans are trying to make it easier to build homes, they’re pursuing legislation that housing groups and tenants’ advocates say would make it easier for landlords to evict renters.

Even if Republicans manage to enact their housing agenda at the state level, that affordability push will undoubtedly be undercut by President Donald Trump’s immigration and trade agenda.

Immigrants make up a considerable chunk of the state’s construction workforce, which would be disrupted should Trump proceed with mass deportations — resulting in fewer homes built and higher costs as a result.

Tariffs on materials used to build homes threaten to drive up construction costs, resulting in higher prices for would-be homebuyers and renters. Trump enacted a 25% tariff on imported steel, used in the building of apartments. He’s also promised to enact higher levies on Canadian lumber used to build homes. Texas homebuilders tend to get their lumber from domestic sources, Norman said. But tariffs on Canadian lumber could increase competition for domestic lumber supply — driving up material prices and home prices as a result.

“It’ll be a shame if we get all these passed and whatever savings all these incremental changes make get eaten up by tariffs, which they could,” Norman said.

Texas Republicans have adopted a playbook similar to what other states like Montana, Florida, California and Oregon have enacted in recent years to try to rein in their housing costs, said Alex Armlovich, senior housing policy analyst at the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank. Enacting that playbook in Texas could help the state prevent housing costs from rising as high in the long run as they have in California, Armlovich said.

“Texas is starting early enough that you can avoid a lot of pain if you get moving now,” Armlovich said.

That agenda is popular with Texas voters, a recent poll conducted by YouGov and Texans for Housing found. A majority of registered voters support allowing smaller homes on smaller lots, poll results show. More than two-thirds of voters think it’s a good idea to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units, allow vacant office and commercial buildings to become homes and allow more homes in business and shopping districts.

For Republicans, such moves have the ideological appeal of reducing government regulations, unshackling the free market and boosting property rights.

Somewhat more urgent amid the state’s housing shortage is the idea of allowing homes to be built in more places — particularly in places where people already live, work and play.

“The bottom line is there’s no new land coming online,” state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican behind some of the Senate’s efforts, said during floor debate on one of the bills. “It’s supply and demand. If there’s land ripe for development, for homes, for families, no government should stand in the way.”

There’s also frustration among Republicans, shared by at least some Democrats, that many cities, they perceive, haven’t done enough to contain housing costs, chiefly by allowing enough homes to be built, amid the state’s boom — and in some cases are actively trying to stop new homes from going up.

Senate lawmakers last month passed a bill to allow smaller homes on smaller lots by reducing the amount of land cities require single-family homes to sit on — at least in new subdivisions, not in existing neighborhoods. Senate Bill 15, a top Patrick priority, would bar cities from requiring homes in those subdivisions to sit on more than 1,400 square feet. In the state’s biggest cities, the most common lot-size requirements sit between 5,000 and 7,500 square feet, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.

Patrick has voiced frustration with such rules — which housing experts contend either force homebuyers to buy more land than they want, leaving them with higher housing costs, or help price them out altogether.

“Not everyone who starts out needs a home on a big lot with a lot of square footage,” Patrick said at the press conference. “And in a lot of communities, they’re stuck in that position.”

That impatience has surfaced as leaders of some cities testified in opposition to proposals that would take some land-use decisions out of their hands.

Ann Martin, the mayor pro tem of the North Texas suburb Flower Mound, testified against a bill in March that would allow houses of worship to build homes on land they own. The proposal would bypass local ordinances that say what religious organizations can do with their land and city councils that would have the final say in whether to rezone those properties to allow housing.

Martin said town leaders worry the bill would extend an unfair benefit to religious groups and that developers could unduly masquerade as religious organizations to build homes they wouldn’t otherwise be able to build.

State Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican who authored the bill, noted that the typical home in Flower Mound goes for about $600,000 — among the most expensive cities in the state, according to Zillow. (Rents in Flower Mound, too, are among the highest in Texas.)

“You have retail stores, you have fast food restaurants,” Gates said to Martin. “There’s employees there that earn $8, $10, $12 an hour…do you really want to force everyone that works and provides services for your residents to have to live outside that city?”

Not everyone who works those jobs commutes to Flower Mound from surrounding cities, Martin said; teenagers who live at home hold those jobs, too. The Flower Mound City Council recently approved a plan to allow 6,000 apartments to be built, she noted.

“It’s not that we don’t want apartments,” Martin said. “We just plan for them in zones where it makes sense.”

So far, Democrats have been hard to pin down.

Democrats in the Legislature have long been in a defensive posture, trying to shield the state’s urban areas from efforts by the GOP-dominated Legislature over the last decade to chip away at local governments’ ability to enact progressive policies.

That posture, in part, drove House Democrats to kill similar housing legislation two years ago. So far, the House hasn’t voted on housing legislation.

Some Democrats this year have shown discomfort with the state weighing in on what kinds of homes cities allow and where — a power the state grants to cities. They’ve also expressed concerns about measures in some of the bills that would allow residents to sue cities that don’t comply with state law should they pass. State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, an Austin Democrat, said the bill to allow residences in commercial, retail and office areas constitutes “putting the big boot of the state on the necks of our local governments.”

But more than 60% of Texas voters surveyed by YouGov and Texans for Housing said preserving local control isn’t as important as allowing property owners to build more kinds of homes “to meet the needs of their community.”

Some Texas cities have made moves in recent years to remove barriers to housing construction. City Council members in Austin, which saw huge spikes in home prices and rents during the COVID-19 pandemic, enacted a series of reforms in recent years intended to boost supply and relieve housing pressure — like reducing lot-size rules, allowing up to three homes to be built in most places where previously only one was allowed and eliminating requirements that new homes be built with a certain amount of parking. At the same time, the Austin region experienced a massive apartment building boom — and as a result, rents have dipped for nearly two years.

But those moves were only possible owing to a major political realignment in Austin, housing advocates have said — accelerated by sky-high rents and home prices exceeding $500,000. Proponents of statewide zoning reform fear officials in other cities, fearful of potential backlash from existing homeowners, won’t take substantive action on housing unless costs get as bad as they did in Austin — though a majority of renters in the state’s major urban areas already spend too much of their paycheck on housing and home prices have grown beyond the reach of many families.

“I try to defer where I can to local control,” said state Sen. Nathan Johnson, a Dallas Democrat, who voted for the bills to reduce lot sizes and allow ADUs. “But there are some things I think that politically are impossible at the local level.”

Texas hospital data shows millions spent in care for non-U.S. citizens

AUSTIN – Preliminary data shows that “tens of thousands” of patients who were not “lawfully” in the United States were treated by Texas hospitals in recent months and the cost for their care is in the millions of dollars, according to a state employee testifying before lawmakers late Monday.

Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Texas hospitals last summer to begin asking all patients to disclose whether they were “lawfully in the United States.” Patients were told their answers would not jeopardize their access to health care but they were not legally required to answer.

Hospitals were expected to turn in their first months of data by March 1 but it has not been released publicly yet.

But during a House Public Health Committee hearing on a bill from state Rep. Mike Olcott, R-Fort Worth, that would formalize Abbott’s order into a regular annual report each year, a Texas Health and Human Services Commission executive answered lawmakers’ questions about what the agency has learned so far from the 558 Texas hospitals that have responded to Abbott’s order.

“The number of visits was in the thousands, the tens of thousands, and the costs were in the millions,” said Victoria Grady, director of provider finance at HHSC, “We should be finalizing the data by the end of the week.”

Several media outlets, including The Texas Tribune, have asked for the data following the hospitals’ first March 1 deadline set by Abbott’s office. Grady and Olcott detailed why there’s been such a delay in getting that first snapshot out into the public view.

“They actually got some data on like pieces of paper,” Olcott told committee members. Grady confirmed that the agency has had to, on occasion, manually input data on paper that was mailed into the agency from some hospitals into a spreadsheet. She also said she expects the data to be released by the agency later this week.

Abbott’s order told hospitals to begin collecting information in November 2024. But it’s not clear if the data collected by the 558 hospitals was just for that month or all months since then.

Olcott said his bill, like one already passed in 2023 in Florida, is necessary because it would streamline the survey process and keep Texans informed about how their tax dollars were spent.

“Since 2005, we’ve had 181 small rural hospitals close primarily due to uncompensated care,” Olcott said. “The goal of this is simply to know what percentage of that uncompensated care are due to people here illegally.”

According to the Texas Hospital Association, hospitals in this state spend $3.1 billion a year on uninsured care that is not reimbursed. But a large portion of that is for American citizens who are uninsured in Texas. The state has one of the highest rates of uninsured residents in the nation, with more than 4 million without health insurance coverage.

Lynn Cowles, health and food justice programs manager at Every Texan, which advocates for better health care in Texas, testified on that fact.

“I think one of the big issues with this bill –– if it is intended to understand the problems of rural hospitals closing across the state –– is that the pool of uncompensated care is so large because of the amount of citizens who are uninsured in Texas,” Cowles said.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

American cardinal entrusted as the ‘camerlengo,’ running the Holy See between popes

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinal Kevin Farrell remembers the day Pope Francis asked him to be the camerlengo, the Vatican official who runs the Holy See after the death of one pope and before the election of another. They were flying back to Rome from the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama, and Francis popped the question in business class.

Farrell, 77, had been in Rome only a few years, summoned out of the blue from his job as bishop of Dallas, to reorganize the Vatican’s laity office, a key part of Francis’ reforms. Three years into the job, Francis asked him to take on another role that is steeped in myth and mystery but also has real-world responsibilities: managing the Vatican as “camerlengo” — or chamberlain — during the often traumatic “interregnum” between papacies and helping to organize the conclave to elect the next pontiff.

“I said to him I would accept the position but on one condition,” Farrell recalled in a 2022 interview, smiling as he remembered their airborne conversation. The condition was that the pope would have to preach at Farrell’s own funeral, reflecting Farrell’s hope that he would die before Francis and never have to act as a camerlengo.

The joke was twofold: Farrell didn’t particularly want the heavy responsibility. But more personally, he didn’t want to entertain the possibility of outliving Francis, whom he credited with having set the Catholic Church on a crucial path of renewal, redirecting it away from culture war defensiveness and back to its Gospel-driven essence of inclusion.

“We were defending ourselves always: Self-preservation was the theme of the church,” Farrell said. “And Pope Francis moved us beyond self-preservation” to a message of welcome and accompaniment.

The camerlengo’s role

With Francis’ death, though, Farrell is in the spotlight, albeit only until a new pope is elected. Farrell on Monday morning announced the death from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta hotel where Francis lived and died. In a short statement read live on Vatican television, he said Francis’ “entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his church.”

According to tradition, the camerlengo certifies the pope’s death, seals the papal apartment and breaks the pope’s fisherman’s ring, as a symbol of a vacancy at the Holy See. He leads the procession accompanying the coffin into St. Peter’s Basilica and presides over the burial.

The camerlengo also gets written reports from Vatican offices about their current assets; a copy of the current and projected budget for the Holy See; and any other information from the Vatican’s economic ministry that would be useful for cardinals and the future pope. He and the dean of the College of Cardinals, Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then play key roles organizing the meetings of cardinals preceding the conclave.

Farrell, a no-nonsense Irish-born American, said the financial duties are far more important than the ceremonial ones and the ones for which he is more qualified. Farrell already heads top Vatican committees on finances, investments and confidential matters, as well as its supreme court, making him particularly well-suited to deliver a financial prospectus to the new pope.

From Ireland to the U.S.

The man Francis chose to bridge his papacy was born in Dublin on Sept. 2, 1947. He entered the Legionaries of Christ religious order in 1966 and was ordained a priest for the Mexican-based order in 1978. He left six years later — long before revelations that its founder was a pedophile who sexually abused his young seminarians — and became a diocesan priest in the Washington Archdiocese.

He worked in a series of parishes but also took on increasing charge of the books in the archdiocese — he has a keen mind for finances but says he never finished his MBA. He became auxiliary bishop of Washington in 2001 and served under the ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick before being made bishop of Dallas in 2007.

Farrell has said repeatedly that during his years in Washington, he never heard the rumors that McCarrick had behaved inappropriately with seminarians, sleeping with them in his bed while he was a bishop in New Jersey. McCarrick, who died earlier this month, was defrocked after a Vatican investigation in 2019 found he sexually abused children as well as adults.

Farrell said he was happy and “very comfortable” as bishop in Dallas when his secretary came to him in May 2016 to tell him the pope was on the phone.

“And I said ‘the pope’s not on the phone. Popes don’t use telephones,’” Farrell said, assuming another bishop was playing a prank. “And so I picked up the phone. I was about to tell him where to go,” when all of a sudden the voice on the line said quietly in Spanish: “Soy Francisco” — “This is Francis.”

The two had never met, but Francis knew Farrell spoke Spanish fluently, given his years in the Mexican-based Legion.

A Vatican assignment

Francis also knew that Farrell had made it a policy in both Washington and Dallas to put qualified lay experts, rather than priests, in positions of authority in running the dioceses.

Farrell said Francis asked him to do the same with the Holy See’s laity office, which the pontiff wanted to rebuild by merging it with the Vatican’s family and life departments and serve as a model of lay-led governance of church management.

“I was trying to come up with every reason why I should not do it. And he said, ‘Well, you think about it for three days and I’ll call you back,’” Farrell recalled. “Three days later, at the same time, I get a telephone call and then I gave him all my reasons that I had formulated. And he said, ‘Well, why don’t you come on over and talk to me?’”

“Well, that was the end,” Farrell said.

He moved to Rome in October 2016 to head the laity office. Within hours of his arrival, Francis announced that Farrell would be made a cardinal.

It was a sign, later confirmed with his nomination as camerlengo, that Francis fully intended to entrust Farrell with some of the most important responsibilities of the church, including after he was gone.

HHS, FDA move to phase out 8 artificial food dyes in the US

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) -- The Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday a series of measures to phase out eight artificial food dyes and colorings from America’s food supply by the end of next year.

Speaking at a news conference, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agencies are looking to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings and to eliminate six remaining synthetic dyes used in cereal, ice cream, snacks, yogurts and more.

"Today, the FDA is taking action to remove petroleum-based food dyes from the U.S. food supply and from medications. For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals," he told reporters. "The FDA is also announcing plans today to authorize four additional natural color additives using natural ingredients in the coming weeks, while also accelerating the review and approval of other natural ingredient colors."

Makary claimed studies have found a like between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and health conditions, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, cancer and gastrointestinal issues.

'Why are we taking a gamble?" he said. "While America's children are sick and suffering, 41% of children have at least have at least one health condition, and one in five are on medication. The answer is not more Ozempic, more ADHD medication and more antidepressants. There's a role for those medications, but we have to look at underlying root causes.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was also due to speak at the news conference.

Former President Joe Biden's administration in January started the process to ban one artificial dye, Red No. 3, which will need to be removed from food by January 2027 and from medications by 2028 because it was shown to cause cancer in rats.

Kennedy is now seeking to remove the six other petroleum-based dyes approved by the FDA. This includes Green No. 3, Citrus Red No. 2, Red No. 40, Orange B, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2. The agency is also taking steps to revoke the authorization for two synthetic food colorings -- Citrus Red No. 2 and Orange B -- within the coming months.

The department is also authorizing four new natural color additives.

It is not yet clear what enforcement mechanism Kennedy will seek to implement the new changes.

The timeline to phase out synthetic dyes comes after Kennedy told food industry leaders at a meeting last month that he wanted their companies to remove artificial dyes from their products by the end of his four-year term, according to a memo describing the meeting, which was obtained by ABC News.

Kennedy’s announcement Tuesday speeds up that process — and alert companies that Kennedy intends to make good on his warning quickly.

From candy to breakfast cereal to medication, synthetic food dyes are in a wide range of products that Americans consume. Studies suggest their vibrant color makes food more appealing and could even increase appetite.

The health effects of the dyes are not fully understood, but many other countries have either banned the additives outright or required food packaging warning labels about the health risks.

All dyes have the potential to spark allergic reactions for a small minority. Several dyes have been linked to hyperactivity and behavioral problems in children or have been shown to cause cancer in mice or rats -- but none have shown to cause cancer in humans.

Already, red and blue states alike have taken matters into their own hands in removing artificial food dyes from certain foods. Both West Virginia and California have passed laws to ban a handful of food dyes from school lunches, with plans to extend the ban to a broader, statewide level too.

In West Virginia, the ban on artificial dyes in school lunch will go into effect in August, making it the first state in the country to implement such restraints. In California, it will take effect in 2028.

Twenty-six other states, from Iowa to Washington and from to Texas to Vermont, are considering similar legislation around banning food dyes or other chemical additives in foods, according to a list compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that focuses on chemicals and toxins.

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment within California’s Environmental Protection Agency in 2021 concluded a two-year study into seven synthetic food dyes that found associations with certain neurobehavioral outcomes in some children.

Researchers also found that the FDA’s current level of “acceptable daily intake” levels for the dyes may be too high to protect children from the potential behavioral impact, the report said.

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Tesla earnings to show whether anti-Musk backlash damaged bottom line

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(WASHINGTON) -- Worldwide protests against Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his role in the Trump administration have coincided with a sales slump and stock woes at the electric carmaker.

Little will be known about the precise impact on Tesla’s bottom line, however, until the company releases its earnings report on Tuesday afternoon. That announcement holds implications for Musk, the world’s richest person, who derives much of his wealth from his Tesla holdings.

The release of the new financial details arrives as some shareholders have called on Musk to step down from his White House role and return full-time to the helm of Tesla.

Musk, whose temporary status as a government employee expires next month, will likely face questions about his plans during a conference call with analysts after the earnings release.

“We view this as a fork-in-the-road time,” Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at the investment firm Wedbush and a longtime Tesla booster, said in a memo to investors on Sunday.

Tesla shares have dropped in value by roughly half from an all-time high in December. Most of those losses have come since President Donald Trump took office and Musk began his controversial governmental cost-cutting efforts as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Tesla remains a top electric carmaker but the company faces growing competition, especially from Chinese firms such as BYD.

Deliveries of Tesla vehicles over the first three months of 2025 dropped about 13% compared to the same period a year ago, the company said earlier this month.

When Tesla announced the decline in deliveries, the company made no mention of its CEO but did say that a "changeover of Model Y lines across all four of our factories led to the loss of several weeks of production in Q1," but added that "the ramp of the New Model Y continues to go well."

Tesla sold fewer cars in 2024 than it did the year prior, marking the company's first year-over-year sales decline in more than a decade, earnings released in January showed.

As rivals have challenged Tesla's dominance in the electric vehicle market, the company has promised a future revenue stream from autonomous taxis, also known as robotaxis.

Musk announced in late January that the company would roll out its robotaxi test program in Austin, Texas, in June. But within days, China-based competitor BYD unveiled advances in self-driving technology, which the company said was set to be included in models costing as little as $9,600.

Tesla boasts a more complete domestic supply chain than its rival U.S. carmakers but the company remains vulnerable to auto tariffs of the type President Trump imposed earlier this month, according to Musk.

“To be clear, this will affect the price of parts in Tesla cars that come from other countries. The cost impact is not trivial,” Musk said in a post on X in late March.

Gordon Johnson, CEO and founder of data firm GLJ Research, who is bearish on Tesla, voiced concerns about the company in a memo to investors on Monday, saying that the automaker faces a mix of “operational, financial, and reputational challenges.”

“Is Tesla facing an existential crisis?” Johnson added.

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Thermoresistant ‘super corals’ offer hope amid climate change: Scientists

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(TATAKOTO, FRENCH POLYNESIA) -- A possible "biological treasure chest" of corals located in an underwater lagoon off a remote island in the South Pacific appear to be surviving extreme heat stress caused by climate change, scientists say.

In the pristine waters off a French Polynesian island in the South Pacific, a team of marine biologists believes it has made a "miracle-like" discovery -- a type of coral which can survive in abnormally warm water.

The coral lives in a semi-enclosed underwater lagoon, within which the water temperature is significantly higher than the swirling South Pacific Ocean beyond.

The lagoon is situated off the remote island of Tatakoto, and in the warmest month of March, water temperatures can reach a sizzling 95 F (35 C) which is about 7 F to 9 F (4 C or 5 C) higher than the wider ocean, according to France's National Scientific Research Center (CRNS), which is behind the study.

In extreme heat events, which scientists say have become more frequent around the world because of our planet's changing climate, abnormally warm water temperatures can "bleach" corals, which are a vital food source and habitat for a vast array of marine organisms.

Bleaching means the coral loses the algae living in its tissues, turning it white. Coral struggles to survive in this state.

The warming of seas and oceans, which scientists say is primarily driven by human-amplified climate change, has contributed to the death of large areas of coral reef right across the globe, putting fragile underwater ecosystems at risk.

For four years, the team of marine biologists led by Dr Laetitia Hédouin -- in a joint partnership with the marine research non-profit 1ocean.org -- has been studying what they say are thermoresistant "super corals" living and "thriving" inside the abnormally warm lagoon off Tatakoto.

Hédouin told ABC News that she and her colleagues are carrying out further studies on the corals, but she is already confident the corals seem to have developed some type of "biological mechanism" that helps them survive.

Last year, French Polynesia experienced a "super long and super strong" marine heat wave that bleached other coral reefs elsewhere in French Polynesia in less extreme water temperatures, according to Hédouin.

It was "almost like a miracle" that the corals survived in the lagoon, because the sea water there is "way warmer" than the ocean outside, Hédouin said.

The aim of the mission is to study whether the so-called super-resistant corals can live and reproduce in new environments outside of the warm lagoon, and potentially survive extreme heat events that have bleached other corals.

The mission has the backing of UNESCO, the lead U.N. agency on ocean research. UNESCO described the corals found in the lagoon as "remarkable specimens" and said the study in French Polynesia could pave the way for the development of "new strategies to repopulate coral reefs worldwide."

Hédouin and her team have planted cuttings of the heat-resistant coral from the lagoon in another area of the archipelago to see if they can adapt and thrive in a more typical environment where the sea temperature is lower.

If the corals from Tatakoto can survive being moved -- a process known as "assisted migration" -- then scientists behind the project hope the island could become "a biological treasure chest" of heat-resistant corals that would help restore damaged reefs elsewhere in the world.

The project is being documented by French underwater photographer and 1ocean.org founder Alexis Rosenfeld, who described the lagoon off Tatakoto as a symbol of hope because it represented what he said is humankind's ability to "live better" with nature.

Rosenfeld said he and his team were documenting this project and others like it through photos and film to "build awareness" of the need to protect fragile ecosystems in our oceans and seas.

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Faithful recall Pope Francis’ historic US virtual town hall with David Muir in 2015

ABC News

(VATICAN CITY) -- Pope Francis' death is bringing renewed attention to his historic virtual town hall in 2015, during which he connected with followers via satellite, demonstrating how modern technology can bridge distances and bring the Catholic Church closer to its people.

Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, died Monday at the age of 88. The Vatican announced that the pope died from a stroke followed by heart failure, as mourners worldwide gathered to honor his legacy of compassion and inclusivity.

Francis' death followed a series of worsening health problems, including a respiratory crisis that left him in critical condition back in February.

During his decade-long papacy, Francis broke new ground in many ways, including a 2015 virtual town hall with Americans that showcased his dedication to connecting directly with the faithful.

ABC News and "World News Tonight" revisited the pope's historic town hall, where he participated in a virtual audience with Americans from across the country, moderated by ABC News anchor David Muir.

The groundbreaking event, held Aug. 31, 2015, marked the first time a pope had ever engaged in such direct dialogue with Americans through virtual technology. The conversation revealed Francis' characteristic warmth and accessibility, moving many participants to tears.

The pope spoke for nearly an hour via satellite to groups including Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago; Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas; and homeless individuals and outreach workers in Los Angeles.

Throughout the conversation, the pontiff responded directly to participants' questions and provided encouraging words of wisdom.

"It really touched my heart. It really made me feel that he is really connecting with us," Ricardo Ortiz, 19, told ABC News at the time, after speaking to Francis from the church in McAllen.

Valerie Herrera was 17 when she shared her story with Pope Francis about struggling with a rare skin disorder and turning to music to cope with bullying. In a touching moment during the virtual town hall, the pope asked her to sing for him.

As cheers filled the room at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, Herrera sang a song of her choice, moving many in the audience. The pope thanked her with his characteristic warm smile.

Now 26 and working as a nurse outside Chicago, Herrera reflects on that transformative moment.

"When I think about Pope Francis, I remember his warming and welcoming smile when he asked me to sing for him," Herrera told ABC News. "That's the face I will always remember."

Herrera detailed how the moment with the pontiff inspired her in her carrer and personal life, saying it "taught me to just to be more of a woman of faith that is here to serve others, that is here to provide care as a nurse."

"I have the responsibility to care for those that are under my care. I have the responsibility to provide and give everything that I have in order to ensure that people are healing, people are getting better, and to provide the love and compassion that family members and patients really need in their time of weakness when they're sick," Herrera said.

Members of the audience who did not get a chance to ask the pope a question were still equally touched by the event, including Adam Nichol, a formerly homeless man who lives and works at the Midnight Mission.

"This experience touched me, and it will be something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life," Nichol told ABC News at the time.

The virtual town hall remains a testament to Francis' pioneering efforts to modernize the Church's outreach while maintaining its focus on compassion, social justice, and connecting with those on society's margins.

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5 million student loan borrowers face mandatory collections starting May 5

(WASHINGTON) -- Some 5 million Americans with defaulted student loan payments will have their loans sent for collections on May 5, the Department of Education announced on Monday.

Next month, for the first time since student loan payments were paused due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Education Department will collect the debts from borrowers who had defaulted -- which means they hadn’t paid their debts for around nine months or 270 days -- before the pandemic.

The announcement comes as scores of Federal Student Aid (FSA) employees have been terminated at the Department of Education as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to shutter the agency, which creates uncertainty for borrowers and the future of the student loan system, according to former Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal.

“The concern is that the department is, you know, cutting the people who would help borrowers make this transition,” Kvaal told ABC News. “Borrowers who are trying to get help by getting into an affordable repayment plan or by applying for loan forgiveness, if they're eligible, you know, just don't have the same resources that they did before the department staff was cut in half.”

The pause -- started in 2020 in Trump's first administration -- for all 43 million student loan borrowers was implemented due to the economic hardship and disruption caused by COVID. This will be the first time in five years the repayments have begun.

Kvaal said defaults can be “tragic” for borrowers. In some cases, Kvaal said, defaults can negatively impact credit scores and future student aid, and several states revoke driver’s licenses over defaults.

However, the department emphasized that its effort will protect taxpayers from shouldering the cost of federal student loans that borrowers "willingly" undertook. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon also said taxpayers will no longer be responsible for the “irresponsible student loan policies” of the previous administration.

“The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear,” McMahon wrote in a department release. “Hundreds of billions have already been transferred to taxpayers. Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly and according to the law, which means helping borrowers return to repayment -- both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook.”

A defaulted loan is a loan that a borrower hasn't made payments on for 270 days, according to the office of federal student aid. When the loan officially enters default, it becomes eligible for mandatory collections.

The collections on loans are typically done through wage garnishments, a legal procedure in which a person's earnings are required by court order to be withheld by an employer for the payment of a debt, according to the Department of Labor.

Student debt can also be collected through offsetting tax refunds or other federal benefits, which Kvaal said can include one’s Social Security. The collections process starting in just two weeks is blocking these borrowers' path out of default, according to Student Borrower Protection Center Executive Director Mike Pierce. Pierce said the Trump administration is feeding them into the “maw of the government debt collection machine.”

“This is cruel, unnecessary and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country," Pierce told ABC News in a statement.

But the administration's efforts to place borrowers into involuntary collections programs will be paired with a comprehensive communications and outreach campaign to ensure borrowers understand how to return to repayment or get out of default, according to the department release.

The news also comes as the administration is working to rehome the $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to other agencies. Trump announced the loan system would be moved to the Small Business Administration “immediately” during a White House event last month.

After the announcement, Kvaal, who worked in senior roles in the Obama and Biden administrations, told ABC News his higher education portfolio under Obama included moving some loan functions to the Department of Treasury. But he warned shifting the student loan portfolio again could lead to real world consequences.

“We're at a point now where millions of borrowers are late on their student loans,” he said. “For the department to be focused on laying off half its staff and going through a fundamental reorganization of how it administers these programs, you know, in really critical weeks for borrowers who are trying to get into repayment plans or get loan forgiveness, I think it's very dangerous and puts at risk millions of borrowers of going into default on their loans.”

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El Salvador government rejects lawmakers’ request to visit Abrego Garcia

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(SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR) -- The government of El Salvador on Monday rejected a request from four Democratic lawmakers to visit wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The lawmakers were trying to arrange a meeting four days after a visit from Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia and his family live.

In an interview with MSNBC from El Salvador, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said Monday that he and the others were told that their visit was rejected because they are not in El Salvador "in an official capacity."

"We're not giving up," Frost said. "We have more meetings scheduled."

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.

The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. His wife and attorney have denied that he is an MS-13 member.

An official with the U.S. Department of State said Monday in a status report that Abrego Garcia is in "good conditions and in an excellent state of health."

"The Salvadoran government responded on April 21 that Mr. Abrego Garcia is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary facility in Santa Ana," Michael Kozak, a senior bureau official for the State Department, reported.

Sen. Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia told him at their meeting that he had been transferred out of CECOT "about eight days" prior.

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