Brian Tyree Henry stars in the just-released Apple TV+ series Dope Thief, in which his character, Ray, poses as a DEA agent to steal money and drugs from small-time drug dealers. It's different than the characters he's previously portrayed, which is exactly why he found it appealing.
"I think every actor worth their weight in salt wants to stretch themselves and really explore all these different parts of them. And for some actors, it's harder to find people who will write those things and want to see you in those different spaces," he tells ABC Audio. "So when I got the script for Dope Thief, [director Peter Craig's] writing immediately just drew me in because I was like, 'They really gonna put Ray on? They gon' put Ray on television? They ain't gonna do that.'"
Though interested, Brian says he wasn't "quite sure" if he was ready to be Ray, knowing it'd "be incredibly hard," and would require him to be vulnerable and transparent in his life.
"But I was like, if I have that feeling, then I know that it must be something I should lean into," he says. "And at the end of the day, it was the most cathartic thing I've ever done."
In Dope Thief, Ray is seen surviving various life-or-death situations while dealing with trauma from his past. Despite the difficulty that came with bringing that to life onscreen, Brian says his job was to usher Ray "through his generational trauma, trying to find all the different layers of how he can survive and live with the choices he's made and the relationships he's built."
"That was incredibly exciting to me. I was like, 'Oh, this will be cool,'" he says. "I don't think anyone has ever seen me like this, and I just wanted to push myself."
TYLER â Smith County Fire Marshal Chad Hogue is strongly advising residents to not burn anything while outdoors on Friday, citing high winds and low moisture as potential fire dangers.
âDue to multiple fire danger triggers predicted on Friday, March 14, 2025, Smith County Fire Marshal Chad Hogue is strongly advising residents of Smith County to help eliminate ignition sources by not conducting outdoor burning and ensuring that all previous controlled burns are out cold,â Hogue said. âSmith County will experience very low humidity, low surface fuel moisture, and winds of 15-20 mph with gust up to 35 mph which results in unusual and dangerous fire weather conditions throughout the day on Friday. The most effective way to extinguish a fire is to prevent it.â
Hogueâs statement comes after several recent fires have popped up all across East Texas including in Smith County, Cherokee County, Rusk County and Gregg County.
CANTON â According to our news partner KETK, the Van Zandt County Sheriffâs Office has arrested a man in connection to the theft of a vehicle that was reported stolen on Monday.
Deputies took a report of a stolen vehicle, and during an investigation, officials were able to identify the suspect as Mark A. Thomas of Wills Point and tied him to an address in Van Zandt County.
Mugshot of Mark Aaron Thomas Jr., courtesy of Van Zandt County Jail records. The sheriffâs office said: âA short time later, [deputies] saw Thomas drive by in the stolen vehicle and along with additional deputies, stopped the vehicle.â
Thomas was arrested for theft of property between $30,000 and $150,000 and an aggravated assault warrant. During a search of the vehicle deputies reportedly found suspected methamphetamines leading to Thomas also getting charged for possession of less than 1 gram of a controlled substance, according to the sheriffâs office.
UPDATE: According to our news partner KETK, the Diboll Police department have found Brynn Maxwell.
DIBOLL â The Diboll Police Department is seeking help locating a missing woman who is believed to be in danger. Brynn Maxwell was reported missing on March 7 and is believed to be with her boyfriend Anthony Cathcart, who police say had court orders to stay away from her. âBrynn is believed to be in danger and we are actively trying to locate her to ensure she is okay,â the police department said.
Longview company lays off 68 employees due to extensive facility issues
Anyone with any potential information regarding Maxwell is asked to contact Diboll PD and speak with either Lt. Reid or Assistant Chief Hopper at 936-829-5586.
TYLER â TJC police are searching for an individual after a student reported being a victim of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK, the victim alerted police on Thursday at 1:10 p.m., two days after the incident occurred. He said he had been approached while at the library near the quiet room. The suspect asked to speak with him in a quiet room.
âThe student and the suspect went into the quiet room where they talked,â TJC PD said. âAfter a period of time, the student went to leave and the suspect pulled a knife from a front pocket, held it to the studentâs neck area and said, ‘We are not finished talking.’â Continue reading Police search for man after TJC student reportedly threatened
SULPHUR SPRINGS â Our news partner, KETK, reports that the Sulphur Springs Police Department has arrested a man in connection to a Wednesday shooting on Putman Street.
Arrest reports show that Sulphur Springs police officers responded to reports of shots fired on Putman Street at around 2:59 p.m. on Wednesday. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a man who was shot in the leg and began applying medical aid. Witnesses at the scene identified the suspect, and one witness told officers that the person had taken their car and left the scene. Officers discovered a possible location for the suspect on Beckham Street. Continue reading Sulphur Springs man arrested after shooting victim in leg
Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) -- The White House has quietly directed the FBI to halt the background check process for dozens of President Donald Trump's top staffers, and has transferred the process to the Pentagon, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The directive came last month after agents tasked with completing the background investigations had conducted interviews with a handful of top White House aides -- a standard part of the background check process.
White House officials took the unusual step of ordering a stop to the background check investigations after they deemed the process too intrusive, sources said.
The procedure typically involves extensive interviews as well as a review of financial records, foreign contacts, past employment, and any potential security risks.
The White House instead decided to transfer the background check process for White House personnel to the Department of Defense for them to complete the checks, the sources said.
A former FBI official told ABC News the approach was "highly unusual."
"If any of this is true, and if you apply it to whatever has been historically in the remit of the FBI, then it would be breaking that historic, long-standing precedent, and highly unusual," a former FBI official told ABC News. "It would be highly unusual if that was taken away from the FBI now, for whatever reason, and given over to the DOD or another agency."
Newly installed FBI Director Kash Patel told ABC News in a statement, "The FBI is relentlessly focused on our mission to rebuild trust, restore law and order and let good agents be good agents -- and we have full confidence DOD can address any needs in the clearance process."
Pentagon representatives referred questions on the matter to the White House.
The background check process was halted just days before Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 20, the sources said. The FBI is still conducting background investigations for positions requiring Senate confirmation, said the sources.
The Pentagonâs Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) carries out the bulk of background investigations for the federal government. The FBI carries out investigations for presidential appointees that require Senate confirmation as well as some other presidential appointees, including White House staff.
Historically, administrations have relied on the FBI background check process to ensure that the personnel they are hiring meet stringent ethical standards and don't risk compromising national security.
"Background investigations for national security positions are conducted to gather information to determine whether you are reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S.," states the SF-86 form filled out by federal employees seeking security clearances and used for background investigations.
However Trump and many of his allies entered the White House with a bitter distrust of the bureau over what they argued was its "weaponization" through the prosecutions brought against him by former special counsel Jack Smith. His top political appointees in the opening month of the administration quickly moved to purge senior ranks of the FBI and DOJ from anyone tied to the Smith prosecutions and those they believed wouldn't be politically loyal to Trump.
Among Trump's first presidential actions was issuing a memorandum granting the highest level of security clearance to top White House officials who had not been fully vetted through the background check process.
That list of officials, while not publicly disclosed, included dozens of high-level White House staffers, according to sources familiar with the matter.
In that memorandum, Trump claimed there was a "backlog" in the security clearance process -- an issue he blamed on President Joe Biden's administration.
However, Trump's transition team had refused for months to enter into an agreement with the Department of Justice under Biden to begin the background check process for individuals who would staff Trump's incoming administration, which has contributed in part to the staffing issues they now face.
(NEW YORK) -- A dangerous, multiday severe weather outbreak is set to bring tornadoes, flash flooding and damaging winds to the Midwest, the South and the East Coast, with the worst of the weather hitting the South on Saturday.
This is the first outbreak of this magnitude this year and is only the third time the National Weather Service has issued a high risk warning one day ahead.
The severe weather begins in the Midwest on Friday evening.
Residents from Davenport, Iowa, to Peoria, Illinois, and St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee, are in the bull's-eye for strong tornadoes. Destructive winds from thunderstorms could reach 90 mph and hail could be as large as baseballs.
On Saturday, the highest threat for tornadoes moves into the Deep South, focusing on eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.
In a rare warning, the highest risk level for severe weather/tornadoes has been issued from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama, where Gov. Kay Ivey issued a state of emergency. Those in the area should brace for numerous, significant tornadoes, some of which could be long-track and potentially violent.
The most dangerous tornado threat will begin in Louisiana and Mississippi late Saturday morning and the early afternoon. The threat spreads into Alabama in the late afternoon and evening and then reaches Florida and Georgia late Saturday night.
Destructive winds up to 80 mph and large hail are also in the forecast.
The severe storms will cover a large area, spreading as far north as Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee.
On Sunday, the severe storms will be weaker as they target the East Coast from Florida to Pennsylvania.
The tornado threat will be focused on the Carolinas and Georgia in the afternoon.
Storms with the potential for damaging winds will reach the Northeast by the evening and last through early Monday morning.
(NEW YORK) -- The detaining of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student and Palestinian activist who possessed a green card, has raised questions about the deportation risks faced by lawful permanent residents amid the Trump administration's escalating crackdown on immigration.
President Donald Trump's administration, which has alleged that Khalil was a supporter of Hamas, has said it has the authority to deport Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"Secretary [Marco] Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press conference this week.
Khalil, whose detention has sparked protests this week, is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Under the Immigration Nationality Act, which experts say is rarely invoked, the government can charge a green card holder as being deportable without being convicted of a crime if there are reasonable grounds to believe they engaged in certain criminal or terrorist activities.
But experts and immigration attorneys ABC News spoke with said the statute does not give the secretary of state the power to deport green card holders like Khalil without going through a procedure.
"The way the statute is constructed, it doesn't mean that Secretary Rubio can just say, 'Oh, I determined this, and therefore we're just going to deport you out of the country,'" said Greg Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "You would still need to go through a process."
After the federal government invokes the statute, individuals like Khalil are entitled to argue their case before an immigration judge. Khalil is set to appear before an immigration judge later this month in Louisiana.
"There are some due process and protective procedures that the person is entitled to," Chen said, "including being given a notice of the charges, and an opportunity to confront that evidence and to bring his or her own evidence in response."
Chen told ABC News that typically it can take months or even years for immigration cases to "go from start to finish" -- but because of Khalil's "unique circumstances," a judge can prioritize a case and expedite the process.
Experts told ABC News there are a number of reasons why an individual could lose their green card, including marriage fraud, immigration fraud, violent crimes and other offenses.
Andrew Nietor, an immigration attorney, told ABC News said that while there are cases where the government invokes the Immigration and Nationality Act for certain green card holders with criminal convictions, he said he has never seen a case like Khalil's.
"I've never seen this ground of deportation invoked," Nietor said. "It's almost always a green card holder who is almost always in deportation proceedings because of some type of criminal conviction."
The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Eduction, which were ordered closed for the day for what officials described as security reasons amid large-scale layoffs, are seen Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
The Left â which for this discussion includes most Democratic members of Congress, most of the media, and the top leaders at the countryâs teachersâ unions â is aghast that the Trump administration just laid off about 1,300 employees at the Department of Education. Thatâs roughly half the staff.
National Education Association president Becky Pringleâs statement was predictably apocalyptic and predictably predictable. She said:
Firing â without cause â nearly half of the Department of Education staff means they are getting rid of the dedicated public servants who help ensure our nation’s students have access to the programs and resources to keep class sizes down and expand learning opportunities for students so they can grow into their full brilliance. The Trump administration has abandoned students, parents, and educators across the nation.”
Will someone help me here? Can someone please show me how the Department of Education has been helping American students grow into their âfull brilliance?â Because the data I read says that reading, math scores and overall educational attainment scores have been in freefall since the Department of Education was created under Jimmy Carter in 1979.
Most Americans alive today donât remember when American public education was the envy of the world. American public schools, under the control of the citizens in the communities that they served (thatâs why we persist in calling them âindependentâ school districts in Texas), did an amazing job turning out young adults that were competent in math, English, history, geography, and the basic sciences.
Emblazoned at the top of the Department of Education website youâll see the words, âFostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.â The part about âequal accessâ harkens back to the vestiges of discrimination against black students that still existed in 1979. Letâs leave that discussion for another time and for now agree that âfostering educational excellenceâ is simply not happening.
What is happening is that the Department of Education is passing out money. Gobs of it. Just for the exercise I clicked on the âGrants and Programsâ tab on the department website. Thatâs where I found the link to the âAsian American and Pacific Islander Data Disaggregation Initiative.â (No, I have no idea what that means.)
So, I dug a little deeper and learned that this program works, ââŠin consortia with local educational agencies to obtain and evaluate disaggregated data on English Learner AAPI subpopulationsâŠâ (Rule of thumb. If a federal program canât be explained in plain English, the program is very likely a total waste of money.)
But with due respect to “data disaggregation” and all, the Department of Education cost $268 billion in 2024 and yet American kids canât read or do math at grade level. Since its establishment in 1979, the DOE has, by any objective measure, failed to improve education in America.
If half the employees just got laid off, we should ask, âWhen will the rest get their pink slips?â
Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images via Getty Images
Dakota Johnson was spotted on the streets of New York City filming for the upcoming movie Verity.
Johnson was spotted on the streets of Manhattan on March 12 surrounded by film crews while shooting the film adaption of Colleen Hoover's popular novel of the same name.
In photos and a video from the shoot, Johnson dons a long beige peacoat and headphones while walking down 41st Street.
In another photo Johnson can be seen getting splashed with what appears to be a red substance on the street.
Also spotted in the photographs is Josh Hartnett, who is slated to star alongside Johnson in the film.
As previously announced, Anne Hathaway is set to star in the film as the movie's namesake character, bestselling author Verity Crawford, with Hartnett playing her husband, Jeremy Crawford, and Johnson playing a struggling writer named Lowen Ashleigh.
The official synopsis reads, "Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson) is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford (Hartnett), husband of best-selling thriller author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series that his wife is unable to finish after a mysterious accident."
"Upon arrival at the lavish Crawford estate, Lowen slowly learns that things are not exactly as they seem with the discovery of a secret, unfinished manuscript that may divulge chilling admissions about the family's past," the synopsis continues. "As Lowen ingratiates herself with Jeremy and his young son Crew, she must discern if Verity's writings are merely lurid works of fiction or an ominous warning by a deranged psychopath."
Michael Showalter is slated to direct the project for Amazon MGM Studios.
LUBBOCK (AP) â The power started to come back on Thursday at the Texas Tech University campus in Lubbock several hours after an explosion inside a maintenance hole set off fires and power outages, leading school officials to issue evacuation orders for several buildings and cancel classes for the rest of the week, university police said.
The explosion happened Wednesday evening at the Engineering Key section of campus, which was evacuated. Students were advised Thursday to avoid the area until further notice.
âI heard an explosion and then saw a smoke ring, almost like a cartoon or something,â doctoral degree student Robert Gauthreaux III told KCBD-TV. âIt traveled about 200 feet in the air.â
Gauthreaux said he went inside the architecture building, which lost power. He said he and others tried to help someone who was trapped inside an elevator.
Power was being shut down to the entire campus while repairs were underway, said Caitlynn Jeffries, a spokesperson for the universityâs police department. She asked that all public and unofficial personnel avoid campus.
âYou can go ahead and go home for spring break. We are closing school down for the next couple days,â Jeffries said at a news media briefing.
Firefighters responded to campus about 7 p.m. for a possible gas leak, Lubbock Fire Rescue Capt. Jon Tunnell said at the briefing. They found âmultiple manhole covers with active fire and smoke issuing from them,â he said.
No injuries were reported, Tunnell said.
An alert from the university sent to the campus community before the news conference had described the explosion as occurring at a substation.
Videos circulating on social media and TV stations showed a heavy presence of firefighters on campus and fire and smoke coming out of at least one maintenance hole cover.
It wasnât clear what might have caused the explosion.
There are more than 40,000 students at Texas Tech, and the school sits on 1,800 acres (728 hectares) in West Texas.
(LOS ANGELES) -- Authorities are searching for the man who broke into a Los Angeles-area house and gunned down a father while his wife and son were home, officials said.
The 61-year-old victim was attacked at about 6:26 p.m. Tuesday at his home in Arcadia, about 8 miles east of Pasadena, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said.
The 13-year-old son and his mother were pulling into their driveway when the intruder "approached them and forced them into the home" where there was a "confrontation" between the intruder and the father, sheriffâs Lt. Steven De Jong told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
It's not clear if the boy and his mom witnessed the shooting, but De Jong called it a "very frightening situation for the entire family."
The 13-year-old son called 911 to report that his dad was shot by an intruder, De Jong said.
A motive is not known, but De Jong said "it appears that this is possibly personally motivated, from my preliminary inspection of the crime scene."
"This individual that made entry into the house engaged the male victim," he explained. "So it appears that maybe he was the intended target."
A "couple" weapons were recovered at the house, but it's not clear if they belonged to the suspect or the family, he said.
It's possible the dad "armed himself and attempted to defend himself," De Jong said.
No arrests have been made, according to the sheriff's office.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's homicide bureau at 323-890-5500.
Alex Segre/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) -- At least 98 people were arrested Thursday at a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan that called for the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil -- the pro-Palestinian activist and green card holder arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week.
Protesters are facing charges of trespass and resisting arrest, according to the New York Police Department.
Hundreds of Jewish protesters wearing "Not in Our Name" t-shirts staged a sit-in in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan. Protesters entered the lobby in two groups, including many who entered the public lobby area in civilian clothes hiding their protest gear underneath, according to police.
The NYPD said it is familiar with this protest group and its tactics. As in other Trump Tower incidents, police were only called to the public lobby area once Trumpâs security deemed it necessary
The protesters carried banners in support of Khalil, who was a leader of protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University, that said "Jews say Free Mahmoud & Free Palestine" and "Fight Nazis Not Students."
"As Jews of conscience, we know our history and we know where this leads. This is what fascists do as they cement control. This moment requires all people of conscience to take bold action to resist state violence and repression. Free Mahmoud now," Jane Hirschmann, a Jewish New Yorker whose grandfather and uncle were abducted by the Nazis during Hitler's rise to power, said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also announced it is filing a federal lawsuit on behalf of Khalil and other students against Columbia University and the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce over the committee's request to disclose thousands of student records.
Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime, is currently being held in Louisiana after being detained in New York earlier this week.
His wife, who is 8 months pregnant, said the couple have been preparing for the arrival of their baby.
"Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all. I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration," she said in a statement to ABC News on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump's administration has alleged that Khalil -- who was a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment protests on Columbia's campus -- was a supporter of Hamas. Baher Azmy, one of Khalil's lawyers, called his client's alleged alignment with Hamas "false and preposterous."
"Setting aside the false and preposterous premise that advocating on behalf of Palestinian human rights and to plead with public officials to stop an ongoing genocide constitutes alignment with Hamas, his speech is absolutely protected by the Constitution, and it should be chilling to everyone that the United States government could punish or try to deport someone because they disapprove of the speech they're engaged in," Azmy told ABC News on Monday.
The administration has not provided any evidence showing Khalil's alleged support for the militant group.
Netflix has released the trailer for season 7 of the sci-fi anthology series. The show returns to the streamer on April 10.
Notably, season 7 finds Black Mirror revisiting characters from a past season for the first time. The seventh season will mark the return of characters from the popular season 4 episode "USS Callister." This means Cristin Milioti and other key actors from that episode will return to continue their virtual voyage.
Milioti returns to her character Nanette Cole, a computer programmer who was sucked into a video game. Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks, Osy Ikhile and Jimmi Simpson will all also reprise their roles.
Previously announced season 7 cast members include Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Patsy Ferran, Paul Giamatti, Lewis Gribben, Osy Ikhile, Rashida Jones, Siena Kelly, Rosy McEwen, Chris OâDowd, Issa Rae, Paul G. Raymond, TraceeEllis Ross and Harriet Walter.
Black Mirror was created by Charlie Brooker. He executive produces the show alongside Jessica Rhoades and Annabel Jones.
