Scammers are posing as legitimate tow truck companies online, taking money from stranded drivers and leaving them without help, according to a local wrecker service owner who has seen multiple cases in recent weeks.

Bill Byers, owner of Byers Wrecker Service in Rochester, said one customer sat on a dirt road north of Rochester for six hours after paying more than $300 to what he thought was a legitimate towing company. No truck ever arrived.

"These people are calling them on the phone and they're going, 'we can send somebody out but it'll be a $300 charge prior to us coming out up to $600, I've even heard more," Byers said.

Byers started noticing this scam about two weeks ago. He said stressed drivers are calling companies they find through Google searches, but the addresses listed sometimes aren't actual tow lots.

The scam almost always begins with a demand for hundreds of dollars upfront, according to Byers.

"No legitimate towing business should ask money up front on a credit card," Byers said.

He explained that while some companies do require upfront payment to prevent customers from leaving before the truck arrives, legitimate fees should be $50 to $75, never $300, $600 or $900.

Byers said suspected scammers sometimes call trusted towing services like his, posing as customers or roadside assistance companies requesting a tow. However, these callers have already collected payment from the actual stranded driver.

"We went to a house up in Orion Township for a classic car and the gentleman said he already paid $392 to have his car towed, and it was only being towed two blocks two miles it was within a small area, and when we got there to collect he said I already paid, well we didn't get paid," Byers said. "So here we are, and we told him, 'you need to call and stop that transaction because this scam is going on.'"

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Computer Crimes Unit is actively investigating the scam.

"Any time they can get some kind of electronic payment or some other kind of methodology to get you to send them money without services, they're all about it," Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.

Bouchard said some scammers are even intercepting calls intended for legitimate tow truck companies.

"Our computer crimes unit is kind of evaluating and trying to examine the whole situation to determine, you know, where the security breach is that Google is now sending them or calling the wrong number with the wrong party on the other end," Bouchard said.

If you suspect you're being targeted by a scammer, hang up, don't pay over the phone, and look for another tow truck company. You can also call your local police or sheriff's department to connect you with a legitimate towing company.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

The U.S. stock market roared back, as technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin halted its plunge, at least for now.

The S&P 500 jumped 2% Friday for its best day since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared roughly 1,200 points and topped the 50,000 level for the first time, while the Nasdaq composite rallied 2.2%.

Chip companies helped drive the gains on hopes for more big spending by customers diving into AI technology. Stocks also got a boost from a better reading on sentiment among U.S. consumers. Bitcoin rose back above $70,000.

They were among the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, and they benefited from hopes for continued spending by customers diving into artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon, for example, said late Thursday it expects to spend about $200 billion on investments this year to take advantage of seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.

Such heavy spending, similar to what Alphabet announced a day earlier, is creating concerns of its own, though. The question is whether all those dollars will prove to be worth it and create much bigger profits in the future. With doubt remaining about that, Amazons stock dropped 7%.

Even with Fridays rebound, the S&P 500 is still potentially heading toward its third losing week in the last four. Besides worries about big AI spending by Big Tech companies, whose stocks are the most influential on Wall Street, concerns about AI potentially stealing customers away from software companies also hurt the market through the week. The hits for software stocks accelerated after AI firm Anthropic released free tools to automate things like legal services.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, steadied following a weekslong plunge that had sent it more than halfway below its record price set in October. It climbed back above $70,000 after briefly dropping close to $60,000 late Thursday.

Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild swings. Gold rose 1.8% to settle at $4,979.80 per ounce, while silver added 0.2%.

Their prices suddenly ran out of momentum last week following jaw-dropping rallies, which were driven by investors clamoring for something safe to own amid worries about political turmoil, a U.S. stock market that critics called expensive and huge debt loads for governments worldwide. By January, prices for gold and silver were surging so quickly that critics called it unsustainable.

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On Wall Street, the recovery for bitcoin helped stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto economy. Robinhood Markets jumped 13.6% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Crypto trading platform Coinbase Global rose 11.4%. Strategy, the company thats made a business of buying and holding bitcoin, soared 24.5%.

Stocks of smaller U.S. companies also helped lead the market, along with companies whose profits depend on U.S. households spending more money. They benefited from potentially encouraging data on how U.S. consumers are feeling.

A preliminary report from the University of Michigan suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is improving slightly, when economists were expecting to see a drop. The improvement was strongest among households who own stocks, which are benefiting from the S&P 500 setting a record late last month.

To be sure, sentiment remained at dismal levels for consumers without stock holdings, according to Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.

Airline stocks were strong with hopes that more confidence among U.S. households will translate into more spending on trips. That included gains of 9.2% for United Airlines, 7.6% for Delta Air Lines and 7.5% for American Airlines.

The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index jumped 3.4%, roughly double the gain of the S&P 500. Smaller companies profits can be more dependent on the strength of the U.S. economy than those for big, multinational rivals.

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In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe.

That was even though Stellantis, the auto giant whose stock trades in Italy, lost 25.2% after saying it would take a charge of 22 billion euros, or $26 billion, as it dials back its electric vehicle production. The automaker acknowledged over-estimating the pace of the energy transition and said it was resetting its business to align the company with the real-world preferences of its customers.

Stocks fell across much of Asia, but Japans Nikkei 225 rose 0.8%. It benefited from a 2% climb for Toyota Motor, which said CEO Koji Sato will step down in April and will be replaced by the companys chief financial officer, Kenta Kon.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury erased an earlier modest loss and held at 4.21%, where it was late Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wants to quickly send 5 year-old Liam Ramos and his father out of the country.

Images of Ramos in a blue bunny hat went viral last month after he was detained by ICE officers in Minneapolis.

Ramos and his father are asylum seekers from Ecuador and have since been released from a detention center in Texas and returned to Minnesota.

But the Department of Homeland Security filed a motion to expedite deportation proceedings in the family's asylum case.

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An immigration attorney told Scripps News the development matches the Trump administration's immigration goals.

"This is just part of a much larger picture is, you know, in which the Trump administration is doing everything it possibly can quickly detain and deport as many migrants as possible," said Philip Schrag, Delaney Family professor of public interest law at Georgetown University. "Even migrants who like this family have a pending asylum case. So this family is legally in the United States because they have pending asylum case and they should not be deported until case is resolved."

Ramos' attorney says the family was following all established protocols for pursuing asylum in the U.S. and should have never been detained in the first place. They called the new effort to deport the family uncommon and retaliatory.

Trump administration officials have argued the family did not properly apply for asylum.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the case.

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Ramos and his father could be deported in a matter of weeks. A hearing in their case was scheduled for Friday. Their attorneys are requesting more time to respond to the government's motion to support the family.

Colorado sheriffs Lt. Jeremy Muxlow has firsthand experience with high-profile kidnapping investigations and is closely following the search for Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie.

Those are the big moments in law enforcement. Those are the ones that demand 100% perfection because someones life is potentially hanging in the balance, Muxlow told Scripps News.

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Four years ago, Muxlow and the Rio Blanco County Sheriffs Office were called to a well-known property in their community the sprawling ranch owned by former New York City mayor and onetime presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg to investigate a reported car crash. But the deputies soon learned a housekeeper was missing, and had been taken by force by an intruder who used a truck to ram his way onto the property.

My mind was in battle mode, Muxlow recalled. Weve got to find the lady, weve got to ID the suspect. Weve got to start getting direction of travel and location.

Muxlow, like the rest of the nation, is following the search effort for Nancy Guthrie in Tucson. The 84-year-old was reported missing on Sunday. He said in his experience, the element of celebrity can add pressure to an investigation.

The reality of the situation is that high-profile cases add layers of complexity. Theres increased attention, media interest, and outside pressures, but the fundamentals dont change. They cant change, Muxlow said. I had to turn off whose ranch it was ... no offense to Mr. Bloomberg whatsoever. All that I was focused on 100% was just finding our victim.

In the Rio Blanco case, authorities said the kidnapper forced the victim to drive him out of state to a motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The SWAT team there executed a rescue operation and brought the victim home uninjured.

The suspect, Joseph Beecher, was convicted and later took his own life in prison, according to Muxlow. Prosecutors said he went to the ranch intending to kill Bloomberg, then committed the kidnapping when he discovered the politician wasnt there.

Muxlow said Beecher made a critical mistake that led authorities to track him down, but he would not elaborate on what that misstep was. He said revealing it might give clues to the person who took Nancy Guthrie, and hes holding out hope that investigators in Tucson will experience a similar break.

Its going to take a lot of patience, Muxlow said. Prayer, honestly, is huge, and just know that the best of the best in our nation are focused in Arizona right now doing what they can do.

Luigi Mangione spoke out in court Friday against the prospect of back-to-back trials over the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, telling a judge: Its the same trial twice. One plus one is two. Double jeopardy by any commonsense definition.

Mangione, 27, made the remarks as court officers escorted him out of the courtroom after a judge scheduled his state murder trial to begin June 8, three months before jury selection in his federal case.

Judge Gregory Carro, matter-of-fact in his decision after a lengthy discussion with prosecutors and defense lawyers at the bench, said the state trial could be delayed until Sept 8 if an appeal delays the federal trial.

Mangiones lawyers objected to the June trial date, telling Carro that at that time, they'll be consumed with preparing for the federal trial, which involves allegations that Mangione stalked Thompson before killing him.

Mr. Mangione is being put in an untenable situation," defense lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said. "This is a tug-of-war between two different prosecution offices.

The defense will not be ready on June 8," she added.

Be ready, Carro replied.

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Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges, both of which carry the possibility of life in prison. Last week, the judge in the federal case ruled that prosecutors cant seek the death penalty.

Jury selection in the federal case is set for Sept. 8, followed by opening statements and testimony on Oct. 13.

Wearing a tan jail suit, Mangione sat quietly at the defense table until his outburst at the end of the hearing.

As the trial calendar began to take shape, Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann sent a letter to Carro asking him to begin the New York trial on July 1.

The prosecutor argued that the states interests would be unfairly prejudiced by an unnecessary delay until after the federal trial. Under the law, he said, the state has priority of jurisdiction for purposes of trial, sentencing and incarceration" because Mangione was arrested by New York City police, not federal authorities.

When Mangione was arrested, federal prosecutors said anticipated that the state trial would go first. Seidemann told Carro on Friday that Thompsons family has also expressed a desire to see the state trial happen first.

It appears the federal government has reneged on its agreement to let the state, which has done most of the work in this case, go first, Carro said Friday.

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Scheduling the state trial first could help Manhattan prosecutors avoid double jeopardy issues. Under New York law, the district attorneys office could be barred from trying Mangione if his federal trial happens first.

The states double jeopardy protections kick in if a jury has been sworn in a prior prosecution, such as a federal case, or if that prosecution ends in a guilty plea. The cases involve different charges but the same alleged course of conduct.

Mangione isnt due in court again in the state case until May, when Carro is expected to rule on a defense request to exclude certain evidence that prosecutors say connects Mangione to the killing.

Those items include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used to kill Thompson and a notebook in which they say he described his intent to wack a health insurance executive.

Last week, Garnett ruled that prosecutors can use those items at that trial.

In September, Carro threw out state terrorism charges but kept the rest of the case, including an intentional murder charge.

Thompson, 50, was killed on Dec. 4, 2024, as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for UnitedHealth Groups annual investor conference.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting him from behind. Police say delay, deny and depose were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione, a University of Pennsylvania graduate from a wealthy Maryland family, was arrested five days later at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) west of Manhattan.

Matthew Stafford walked away with the AP NFL Most Valuable Player award and a declaration that he's returning to the Los Angeles Rams for another season.

Stafford edged Drake Maye for the MVP award on Thursday night in the closest race since Peyton Manning and Steve McNair were co-winners in 2003.

Stafford received 24 of 50 first-place votes while Maye got 23. But Maye has a chance to go home this week with a Vince Lombardi Trophy. He leads the New England Patriots against the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Stafford, who turns 38 on Saturday, wants another opportunity to try to win his second Super Bowl ring with the Rams.

Oh yeah, I'll be back. It was such an amazing season and I play with such a great group of guys and great group of coaches that I was lucky enough to finish this season healthy, and I wanna make sure that I go out there and see what happens next year," Stafford told the AP.

Stafford brought his four daughters all dressed in identical black-and-white dresses to the stage to accept the award.

He thanked his team and saved his wife and daughters for last: Youre unbelievable cheerleaders for me. I appreciate it. I am so happy to have you at the games on the sideline with me, and I cant wait for you to cheer me on next year when were out there kicking (butt).

It was Staffords way of announcing he will be back next season after contemplating retirement.

Myles Garrett was a unanimous choice for the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year award after setting a season record for sacks with 23.

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All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba beat out Christian McCaffrey for the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

New Englands Mike Vrabel beat out Jacksonvilles Liam Coen for the AP NFL Coach of the Year award, becoming the seventh coach to win it with two different teams.

McCaffrey became the first running back to win the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year award in 24 years.

Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger was a runaway winner for the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award.

Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan ran away with the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels won the AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year award in the first season of his third stint with the team.

A nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league completed voting before the playoffs began. Votes were tabulated by the accounting firm Lutz and Carr.

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Voters selected a top 5 for the eight AP NFL awards. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second- through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Josh Allen, the 2024 NFL MVP, received two first-place MVP votes, and Justin Herbert got the other one.

Stafford, who earned first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his 17-year career, finished with 366 points to Mayes 361. Allen placed third with 91 points, Christian McCaffrey (71) was fourth and Trevor Lawrence (49) came in fifth.

Its McCaffreys second top-five finish in three years, more than any other non-quarterback since the weighted point system was implemented in 2022.

Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 yards passing and 46 TDs. He threw eight picks and finished second to Maye with a 109.2 passer rating. Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams lost to Seattle in the NFC championship game.

Maye had 4,394 yards passing, 31 TDs and eight picks. The second-year pro led the league in passer rating (113.5) and completion percentage (72).

Artificial intelligence is quickly making its way into city halls across the country, helping local governments sort service requests, manage information and communicate with residents.

"There was general enthusiasm at first, particularly from elected officials, to try to integrate these tools quickly, to get more organizational efficiency out of them, and to try and scale," said Chris Jordan, program manager for AI and innovation at the National League of Cities.

Jordan helps city leaders navigate AI development through his work at the National League of Cities, which has found that AI tools can be most effective in enhancing city services, supporting employee tasks and helping cities make sense of their data.

With 96% of mayors expressing interest in using generative AI, Jordan said building public trust often comes down to establishing clear, uniform standards, including AI-specific privacy policies and labeling when AI is used in public-facing content.

"Public listening sessions or task forces can also be appropriate for cities to use if there's a general sentiment of anxiety or distrust about certain technologies," he said.

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Some cities are going further when it comes to transparency. Lebanon, New Hampshire, posts a public list of every AI tool it uses, while San Jose conducts an annual review examining how its algorithms affect residents.

"For the most part, constituents want faster and more effective city services that make them feel good about how their tax dollars are being spent," said Joe Scheidler, who is building Helios, an AI tool designed for policy work.

A major hurdle, however, is both the perception and reality that AI systems can make mistakes.

"Workforces do not trust generative AI outputs in many contexts and sensitive use cases. And so we've been really laser focused from a product mission perspective on solving the issue of hallucination, AI drift and baking verification, traceability and provenance into the user experience," Scheidler said.

Despite those concerns, successful use cases are already emerging. Dearborn, Michigan, uses a translation bot to better serve non-English-speaking residents. Washington has tested an AI tool to make its open-data portals easier to search. And Tucsons water department in Arizona uses AI to identify which pipes are most likely to fail before problems occur.

For residents curious about how their city is using artificial intelligence, experts recommend asking questions, attending public meetings and paying close attention to how those tools are explained.

A New Mexico grand jury has indicted actor Timothy Busfield on four counts of criminal sexual contact with a child.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman announced the indictment Friday in a social media post.

Authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Busfield over allegations of misconduct from when he was working as a director on the set of the TV series The Cleaning Lady.

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Busfield has denied the allegations. He turned himself in to authorities and later was released from jail.

Busfield is best known for appearances in The West Wing, Field of Dreams and Thirtysomething.

Larry Stein, an attorney for Busfield, did not comment on the sexual contact charge in the indictment but said the grand jury declined to endorse grooming charges sought by prosecutors.

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He said in a statement that a detention hearing already exposed fatal weaknesses in the states evidence gaps that no amount of charging decisions can cure.

It just wouldn't feel like the Super Bowl for them if they weren't all there. And this might be the last time they all do it.

That's what three old friends were coming to grips with just before this year's Super Bowl. The trio of octogenarians are the only fans left in the exclusive "never missed a Super Bowl" club.

Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel of Florida were back for another big game this year. But two of them are grappling with the fact that advancing years and decreasing mobility mean this is probably the last time.

This year's game pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday. Crisman, a Patriots fan since the franchise started, was excited to see his team in the game for a record-setting 12th time.

"This will definitely be the final one," said Crisman, who made the trip with his daughter, Susan Metevier. "We made it to 60."

Getting older, scaling back

Crisman, who first met Henschel at the 1983 Super Bowl, turns 90 this year. Meanwhile, Henschel, 84, has been slowed by a stroke. Both said this is the last time they'll make the increasingly expensive trip to the game, although members of the group have said that before. For his part, Eaton, 86, plans to keep going as long as he's still physically able.

Eaton, who runs a ground transportation company in Detroit, is the only member of the group not retired. And he'd still like to finally see his beloved Detroit Lions make it to a Super Bowl.

Even so, all three said they've scaled back the time they dedicate each year to the trip. Crisman used to spend a week in the host city, soaking in the pomp and pageantry. These days, it's just about the game, not the hype.

"We don't go for a week anymore, we go for three or four days," Crisman said.

Eaton, too, admits the price and hype of the big game have gotten to be a lot.

"I think all of them are big, they're all fun. It's just gotten so commercial. It's a $10,000 trip now," he said.

Friendly rivalries over the years

Henschel said this year's Super Bowl would be the most challenging for him because of his stroke, but he was excited to see Eaton and Crisman one more time.

Eaton met Crisman and Henschel in the mid-2010s after years of attending the Super Bowl separately. And Henschel and Crisman have a long-running rivalry: Their respective favorite teams the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots are AFC rivals.

The fans have attended every game since the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, as the first two Super Bowls were known at the time, in 1967. They have sometimes sat together in the past, but logistics make it impossible some years.

But this year it was just about being able to go to the game at all, Henschel said.

"I don't talk or walk good," he said.

An ever-shrinking club

The club of people who have never missed a Super Bowl once included other fans, executives, media members and even groundskeepers, but as time has passed, the group has shrunk. Photographer John Biever, who has shot every Super Bowl, also plans to let his streak end at 60.

The three fans spin tales of past games that often focus less on the action on the field than on the different world where old Super Bowls took place. Henschel scored a $12 ticket for the 1969 Super Bowl the day of the game. Crisman endured a 24-hour train ride to Miami for the 1968 Super Bowl. Eaton, who is Black, remembers the many years before Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl in 1988.

Metevier, Crisman's daughter, was born the year of the first Super Bowl and grew up with her dad's streak as a fixture in her life. She's looking forward to going to one last game with him.

"It's kind of bittersweet. It's about the memories," Metevier said. "It's not just about the football, it's something more."

Crisman's son, Don Crisman Jr., said he's on board with his dad making the trip for as long as he's still able, too.

"You know, he's a little long in the tooth, but the way I put it, if it was me and I was mobile and I could go, I would damn sure go," he said.

A key participant in the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans has been taken into custody and will be prosecuted in their deaths, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday

Bondi said in a news conference that Zubayr Al-Bakoush had landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at 3 a.m. on Friday.

We have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation, Bondi said.

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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said that an eight-count indictment charged Al-Bakoush with crimes including the murders of Ambassador Chris Stevens and State Department employee Sean Smith. It was unclear if Al-Bakoush had an attorney representing him.

The 2012 attack on the U.S. compound immediately emerged as a divisive political issue as Republicans challenged President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on security at the facility, the military response to the violence and the administrations changing narrative about who was responsible and why.

A final report by a Republican-led congressional panel faulted the Obama administration for security deficiencies at the Libyan outpost and a slow response to the attacks. The report, however, found no wrongdoing by Clinton.

Clinton dismissed the report as an echo of previous probes with no new discoveries, saying it was time to move on. Other Democrats denounced the Republicans report as a conspiracy theory on steroids."

On the night of Sept. 11, 2012, U.S. officials have said, at least 20 militants armed with AK-47s and grenade launchers breached the gate of the consulate compound and set buildings on fire.

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The fire led to the deaths of Stevens and Smith. Other State Department personnel escaped to a nearby U.S. facility known as the annex.

A large group assembled for an attack on the annex. That attack, including a precision mortar barrage, resulted in the deaths of security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

A Libyan militant suspected of being a mastermind of the attacks, Ahmed Abu Khattala, was captured by U.S. special forces in 2014 and was brought to Washington for prosecution. He was convicted and is serving a prison sentence. His attorneys argued that the evidence was inconclusive and that he was singled out because of his ultra-conservative Muslim beliefs.

President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a racist video that depicts former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The minute-long clip includes Trumps repeated, unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. It ends with the heads of the Obamas superimposed on the bodies of apes.

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Using apes or monkeys to portray Black people is widely recognized as a racist trope, rooted in centuries-old stereotypes used to dehumanize Black Americans.

After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post, it appears the video was deleted by midday Friday. The White House later blamed a "staffer."

A "White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down," the White House said.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, said he hoped Trump would delete the post.

Praying it was fake because its the most racist thing Ive seen out of this White House. The president should remove it, Scott said prior to its removal.

The NAACP also condemned the post, which remained on Trump's Truth Social account until Friday morning.

"Trump posting this video especially during Black History Month is a stark reminder of how Trump and his followers truly view people. And well remember that in November," the organization stated.

Leavitt defended Trumps post, calling it an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King. She added: Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.

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The video Trump shared appeared to be edited from a longer clip that placed the heads of several Democratic figures on African animals while the 1961 song The Lion Sleeps Tonight played. The portion Trump posted featured only the Obamas.

Step inside the desperate search for Savannah Guthries missing mother.

Watch this live Court TV & Scripps News Special Report Where is Nancy Guthrie? tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Find out how to stream online or on your favorite app.

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A Colorado funeral home owner who stashed 189 decomposing bodies in a building over four years and gave grieving families fake ashes will be sentenced Friday on corpse abuse charges.

Jon Hallford owned Return to Nature Funeral Home in Colorado Springs with his then-wife Carie. They pleaded guilty in December to nearly 200 counts of corpse abuse under an agreement with prosecutors.

Jon Hallford faces between 30 and 50 years in prison. Carie Hallford faces 25 to 35 years in prison at sentencing on April 24.

The Hallfords stored the bodies in a building in the small town of Penrose, south of Colorado Springs, from 2019 until 2023, when investigators responding to reports of a stench from the building discovered the corpses.

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Bodies were found throughout the building, some stacked on top of each other, with swarms of bugs and decomposition fluid covering the floors, investigators said. The remains including adults, infants and fetuses were stored at room temperature. Investigators believe the Hallfords gave families dry concrete that mimicked ashes.

The bodies were identified over months with fingerprints, DNA and other methods.

Families learned the ashes they had been given, and then spread or kept at home, weren't actually their loved ones' remains. Many said it undid their grieving process, others had nightmares and struggled with guilt that they let their relatives down.

The funeral home owners also pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges after prosecutors said they cheated the government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic-era small business aid.

Jon Hallford was sentenced to 20 years in prison in that case. He told the judge he opened Return to Nature to make a positive impact in people's lives, "then everything got completely out of control, especially me."

"I still hate myself for what I've done," he said at his sentencing last June.

Carie Hallford's federal sentencing is set for March 16.

Attorneys for the Hallfords did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

During the years they were stashing bodies, the Hallfords spent lavishly, according to court documents. That included purchasing a GMC Yukon and an Infiniti worth over $120,000 combined, along with $31,000 in cryptocurrency, luxury items from stores like Gucci and Tiffany & Co., and laser body sculpting.

One of the recovered bodies was that of a former Army sergeant first class who was thought to have been buried at a veterans' cemetery, said FBI agent Andrew Cohen.

When investigators exhumed the wooden casket at the cemetery, they found the remains of a person of a different gender inside, he said. The veteran, who was not identified in court, was later given a funeral with full military honors at Pikes Peak National Cemetery, he said.

The corpse abuse revelations spurred changes to Colorado's lax funeral home regulations.

The AP previously reported that the Hallfords missed tax payments, were evicted from one of their properties and were sued for unpaid bills, according to public records and interviews with people who worked with them.

In a rare decision, state District Judge Eric Bentley last year rejected previous plea agreements between the Hallfords and prosecutors that called for up to 20 years in prison. Family members of the deceased said the agreements were too lenient.

The search entered its sixth day Friday for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie and her siblings.

On Thursday, the 84-year-olds son, Cameron Guthrie, issued a plea for direct contact with whoever may be holding his mother. He asked for proof that she is alive and in their custody.

This is Cameron Guthrie. Im speaking for the Guthrie family. Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We havent heard anything directly. We need you to reach out and we need a way to communicate with you so we can move forward. But first, we have to know that you have our mom. We want to talk to you and we are waiting for contact, he said.

RELATED STORY | Blood found on front porch confirmed to be Nancy Guthries as search continues

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said authorities are continuing to investigate the case under the assumption that Nancy Guthrie is still alive.

"We believe Nancy is still out there," he said.

Nanos said DNA testing confirmed that blood found on Nancy Guthries front porch belonged to the 84-year-old. Other DNA evidence collected at the scene, however, did not produce significant investigative leads, he said.

Meanwhile, a man accused of sending a fake ransom demand to Nancy Guthries family is expected in federal court Friday. Derrick Callella faces two charges for allegedly sending text messages to two members of the Guthrie family.

The complaint says Callella wanted to see if the family would respond. His messages have not been connected to an earlier ransom demand sent to a local TV station.

A driver was rescued after their car slid onto the icy Clinton River near Yates Cider Mill early Friday morning.

According to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, the sheriff's search and rescue team responded to the 1900 block of Avon Rd. for a report of a car that ran off the roadway and onto the ice.

Crews responded and were able to safely remove the 27-year-old man from Auburn Hills from the car. Tow truck crews were able to safely remove the vehicle from the ice.

Deputies say that alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the incident

The U.S. military said Thursday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.

The strike was announced just hours after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that some top cartel drug-traffickers in the region "have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean. However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.

RELATED STORY | Families of 2 men killed in boat strike sue Trump administration over attack they call 'unlawful'

Neither U.S. Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseths claim.

The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.

Thursday's attack raises the death toll from the Trump administrations strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, U.S. Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.

RELATED STORY | Congress questions admiral about alleged illegal follow-up attack on drug boat survivors

Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an unprecedented and manifestly unlawful U.S. military campaign. The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is in armed conflict with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing narcoterrorists.

An unprecedented four-site, dual-cauldron Winter Olympics opening ceremony replete with references to Italian icons and culture plus American pop diva Mariah Carey was scheduled to officially start the Milan Cortina Games on Friday as the sports spectacle returns to a nation that last hosted the event 20 years ago.

This is the most spread-out Olympics Summer or Winter in history, with competition venues dotting an area of about 8,500 square miles (more than 22,000 square kilometers), roughly the size of the entire state of New Jersey.

RELATED STORY | Vance says Olympics unite the entire country as he meets US athletes in Milan

The main hub Friday is in Milan at San Siro soccer stadium, which is home to Serie A titans AC Milan and Inter Milan, opened a century ago and is due to be razed and replaced in the next few years. There also will be three other places where athletes can march, some carrying their country's flag: Cortina d'Ampezzo in the heart of the Dolomite mountains; Livigno in the Alps; Predazzo in the autonomous province of Trento.

That allows up-in-the-mountains sports such as Alpine skiing, bobsled, curling and snowboarding to be represented in the Parade of Nations without needing to make the several-hours-long trek to Milan, the country's financial capital, and back.

For good measure, the Feb. 22 closing ceremony will be held in yet another locale, Verona, where Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet was set.

Another symbol of how far-flung things are this time: Instead of the usual one cauldron that is lit and burns throughout the Olympics, there will be two, both intended as an homage to Leonardo da Vincis geometric studies. One is in Milan, 2 miles (4 kilometers) from San Siro, and the other is going to be 250 miles (400 kilometers) away in Cortina.

The people given the honor of lighting both was a closely guarded secret, as is usually the case at any Olympics. At the Turin Winter Games in 2006, it was Italian cross-country skier Stefania Belmondo.

Other links to Italy's heritage scheduled to be a part of Friday's festivities include a performance by tenor Andrea Bocelli; classically trained dancers from the academy of the famed Milan opera house, Teatro alla Scala; a tribute to the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died last year at 91. Armani designed the Olympic and Paralympic uniforms for the Italian national team for decades, and was a personal friend of the former president of the Italian National Olympic Committee, Giovanni Malag.

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Plenty more planned for Friday was being kept under wraps by organizers who said they sought to convey themes of harmony and peace, seeking to represent the city-mountain dichotomy of the particularly unusual setup for these Olympics while also trying to appeal to a sense of unity at a time of global tensions.

Another unknown: What sort of reception would greet U.S. Vice President JD Vance when he attended the ceremony in Milan? And what about the American athletes?

When new International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry was asked this week what sort of greeting the U.S. delegation would get when they enter San Siro in the Parade of Nations, she replied: I hope the opening ceremony is seen by everyone as an opportunity to be respectful.

Three dogs from Michigan will compete in the annual Puppy Bowl on Sunday! Also, for the first time ever, 15 adorable special needs pups will take the field.

This year's Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet will feature some updates that will make it even cuter.

For the first time ever, 15 adorable special needs pups will take the field in the annual event.

There will also be an exhibition match featuring senior dogs whoa re ready for adoption.

In all, the Puppy Bowl will highlight 15 dogs from more than 70 shelters. That includes three from Michigan.

They are: Dan from the SPCA of Southwest Michigan, and Mia Muffin and Shi-Shi from Big Lake Humane Society in Muskegon!

The Puppy Bowl will be simulcast across Animal Planet and more on Sunday at 2 p.m.

The Detroit Curling Club is experiencing unprecedented growth as the Olympic sport of curling captures the imagination of metro Detroit residents. What was once a struggling organization on the brink of closure in the 1990s has transformed into a thriving community with a waiting list.

See the full story in the video below

Curling thrives in metro Detroit as Olympic sport gains popularity at local club

"Our club is almost at capacity because we have 400 members that's about all we can hold," said Mike Grudzinski, vice president and membership director of the Detroit Curling Club.

The sport, often called "chess on ice," involves teams strategically moving 44-pound stones across an ice sheet toward a target. Players either throw stones, sweep to control their speed and direction, or serve as the "skip" who calls the shots from the target end.

"The team agrees on the shot and has an idea of how much force should be behind it, how fast it should be traveling down the ice," Grudzinski said.

The club's remarkable turnaround from near-closure to maximum capacity reflects growing interest in curling across Michigan. The welcoming atmosphere helps attract newcomers to the sport.

"Whenever we talk to people we're not just welcoming them in, we're encouraging them to just try the sport," Grudzinski said. "We love this sport so much."

The Detroit Curling Club demonstrates that Olympic sports can find passionate communities far from the international stage, bringing people together through friendly competition and shared enthusiasm for this unique winter sport.

Those looking to take a learn to curl class can sign up on the Detroit Curling Club's website.

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