An Indiana man was arrested this summer for allegedly stalking Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham and sending her threatening and explicit messages on social media.
That’s some pretty dark stuff, but it’s the kind of thing Cunningham says she has had to deal with quite often over the last few years.
During a recent appearance on the podcast “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,” the soon-to-be WNBA free agent made the startling revelation that she thinks that there are “20, I think, people kind of that the FBI are watching for me.”
“Me alone,” she said.
The FBI declined to comment for this article.
The topic came up as Cunningham, who just finished her sixth WNBA season, was discussing the league’s massive increase in popularity in recent years with the influx of such young stars as Fever teammate Caitlin Clark, the Atlanta Dream’s Angel Reese and the Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers.
Cunningham has seen her own popularity soar over the last two years as Clark’s on-court protector. She also has become a central figure in a national debate over trans athletes in women’s sports, after telling ESPN she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
“The more you’re visible on TV, you’re going to get more fans,” Cunningham told Von. “People are going to know who you are, and that’s a really great thing. But there’s also a lot of like kind of crazy people, too. Like, we do have a lot of stalkers. I know I do. And that’s a negative side of things that people don’t think about. And so you do want to feel secure.”
One of Cunningham’s alleged stalkers is Kevin Singh, 49, who is facing felony charges for stalking and intimidation, as well as a misdemeanor harassment charge. He was arrested June 24 and held in Marion County Jail in Indiana with bail set at $40,000. Last week, a judge denied Singh’s request for alteration or revocation of bail. A jury trial is scheduled for January.
According to the arrest affidavit, Singh sent Cunningham numerous messages on X and in September 2025 personally delivered a package marked with her name to the Fever’s arena (it contained a letter and a Guns N’ Roses T-shirt sprayed with men’s cologne).
Cunningham told investigators she had been having nightmares and was staying at home more because of Singh’s behavior, the affidavit said.
At least now, she is able to joke (kind of) about it.
“His name’s Kevin. And the worst part about that is I have a miniature donkey named Kevin,” she told Von. “And now I’m like, well, s—, do I need to rename Kevin?”
Last year, a 55-year-old Texas man was sentenced to 2½ years in prison after pleading guilty to stalking and harassing Clark.
In California, fuel prices often are higher than anywhere else in the country, a reflection of the state’s high cost of living that voters want their next governor to address.
The two candidates running to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom — Democratic former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton — have vastly different views on climate and energy policy.
Here is where they stand on gas prices, electric vehicle mandates and California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project.
Gas prices and California’s refineries
California is the most expensive gasoline market in the nation, according to AAA, with an average price of $6.01 per gallon. Nationally, the average price was $4.28 per gallon, and this month was expected to become the most expensive for gas prices on record, according to AAA.
Becerra and Hilton both blame the high costs on the opposing political party — Becerra says President Trump’s war in Iran has increased prices by $2 per gallon, while Hilton blames California’s prices on policies pushed by Newsom and Democratic lawmakers.
Hilton has made the promise of $3 a gallon gasoline at California’s pumps a central plank of his affordability campaign. He argues he can achieve the target by repealing “outdated” environmental regulations and issuing more drilling permits in California.
Pumps in the McKittrick oil field, just north of the town of McKittrick on State Route 33.
(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)
“We could be producing most of it here in California, [in] Kern County, and sending it to the refineries in a nice clean pipeline,” Hilton said during an August town hall in Modesto. “Instead of that, we’re shipping it halfway across the world, and giant super tankers spewing out carbon emissions. It’s insane.”
While he has expressed a desire to lower costs, Becerra has released scant details about how he would do it.
He took heat from fellow Democrats during the primary for defending Chevron after the oil producer donated half a million dollars to a committee supporting his campaign. He clarified that his statements were about keeping oil refineries in California, especially since several have shut down in recent years.
“We need to continue to have refineries so that we can process the petroleum, so we can have gasoline, so we don’t have prices that are even higher than what they are right now,” Becerra said during an August event with Politico.
EVs and car regulations
The next governor will decide whether to continue Newsom’s ambitious plan to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles by banning the sale of new gas cars in California by 2035.
While Becerra supports transitioning away from gas-powered vehicles, along with California’s broader carbon neutrality goals, he has raised concerns about costs.
“The goal is great. What we have to do is make sure that goal matches the reality of our families,” he told CalMatters this year. “And if our families can’t afford to keep pace with the goal, then what good is the goal?”
Becerra would be open to revising or delaying the goals to prioritize affordability.
Hilton would end the state’s climate goals, which he blames for driving up energy and other costs.
A car charges at an EV station.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“I’m not against reducing carbon emissions,” Hilton said during a town hall with The Times and LAist this month. “I just want to do it in a way that both helps with the fight against climate change, but doesn’t hurt working people and small businesses.”
He argued that increasing domestic oil production and overhauling vegetation management to reduce the risk of megafires would reduce emissions more effectively than decades of heavy-handed climate rules.
“We are gonna shut it all down, rein it in, merge all of these regulators so we have common-sense regulation instead of this out of control, costly bureaucracy,” he said, standing outside a state office building in August to protest the tire regulations. He also has pledged to abolish the Department of Motor Vehicles and reduce registration fees to $73.
High-speed rail
The Tied Arch Bridge construction site, which will take high-speed trains over State Route 43 in Fresno County.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)
Hilton would “cancel” all high-speed rail funding, which he said would save more than $3.7 billion per year.
While supportive of high-speed rail, Becerra is concerned by the project’s delays and cost overruns. He would “clean shop” at the authority, which signed off on hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses that should not have been approved, according to a recent audit.
“If we build, it’s gonna be because we can get this done the right way. We’re not gonna have this overspending, we’re not gonna have this misspending,” he said during a recent campaign stop in Sacramento. “California is the fourth-largest economy, with the most innovation. We can get it done too, but it won’t be done this way.”
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is deferring an additional $1.2 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California, citing concerns about potential fraud in a state program that helps older adults and people with disabilities with everyday tasks.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said federal officials took action after they grew concerned about the rapid expansion of California’s personal care services program in recent years. State officials were notified of the decision Tuesday, he said.
“California has been growing that program 24% in the last three years. That is twice the rate of every other state average in the country,” Oz said. “Impossible for us to understand how that could be so we are taking major action in California.”
Oz did not provide any evidence of fraud but suggested the state was paying people too much taxpayer money to help with services that could be offered for free, like “paying somebody to carry groceries upstairs for your mom.”
“Many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free, but in California, they will pay you a lot of money for it,” he said.
The move is the latest in a series of efforts by the administration to withhold federal money from California. In May, the administration held back $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to the state over concerns about “fraudsters” in the state’s hospice and in-home care programs. The actions have been part of a broad effort by the administration to rein in fraud in federal healthcare benefits programs, particularly in Democrat-led states.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the office has been critical of the administration’s past efforts.
In May, Newsom’s office called the action to withhold funds for in-home care programs a “sick” and politically motivated attack on services that are meant to “keep seniors and people with disabilities OUT of nursing homes.”
Those services usually cover assistants who help people with daily tasks such as bathing, laundry or cooking. They also provide needed care such as injections under the direction of a medical professional. A 2020 report by the California state auditor found that nearly three-quarters of In-home Supportive Services caregivers assist a family member.
Newsom’s office, however, has argued that the program saves taxpayers money, saying IHSS care costs $30,000 a year, while nursing home care costs $137,000 a year.
California’s hospice industry has had problems in the past and authorities have tried to crack down on the issue. A Times investigation in 2020 found that providers were billing Medicare for hospice services and equipment for patients who were not actually dying while the industry boomed.
The Trump administration, led by Vice President JD Vance, has tried to focus attention on the issue of waste, fraud and abuse as a centerpiece policy platform to bring down healthcare costs.
On Tuesday, Trump and Vance announced a $25-million whistleblower program designed to pay out cash to people who tip off the federal government about fraudsters. The program will offer a 1% commission for tips that lead to a successful conviction. Trump said he would be the sole arbitrator of who gets to keep the money.
“I’ll determine whether or not the person is deserving, and I will be very generous believe me. We are not looking to save on that,” Trump said. “I promise you I will be fair.”
Trump said the money will be handed out “expeditiously and fairly.”
“I promise there is nothing in this for me,” he said.
The White House referred comment about the decision to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The federal agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
And, for the first time since 2010, a Democrat may soon be sitting in the governor’s office in more than half the 50 states. As recently as 2017, just 16 of them had Democratic governors — the lowest number in nearly a century.
There are, however, exceptions to every political trend, outliers in every election, a contest that zigs when races just about everywhere else are zagging.
And yet the state’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, is on the defensive as she fights for a second term in November, burdened by a dismal approval rating and a sense that things have been pretty lousy in Oregon under her leadership.
The state “hasn’t thrived in the last decade, and certainly hasn’t thrived since COVID, the way other states have,” said John Horvick, one of Oregon’s leading independent pollsters.
Kotek, a former speaker of the state House — and a highly effective lawmaker in that role — made some very concrete promises.
“She was going to build 36,000 new homes. She was going to improve our educational outcomes and make improvements to behavioral health in the state,” Horvick said. “Voters give her poor marks on all those.”
Gov. Tina Kotek speaks to opponents of data center development during a demonstration at the state Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Sept. 8, 2026.
(Alex Milan Tracy / Sipa USA / Associated Press)
The Democrat still remains the favorite to win reelection. Oregon’s gubernatorial races tend to be closer than presidential contests and voters have been shown a reluctance to heave their governor from office, even when they tell pollsters they’re not happy with the incumbent or the state of their state.
“We watch this movie every four years in Oregon, where it looks really, really close and then, in the end, the Democrat wins,” said Kari Chisholm, a political strategist in Portland.
That may happen again. But Kotek’s travails show the perils of incumbency this angry election season, even for a Democratic swimming with a blue tide.
Thirty-six states are electing governors in November. Most of the contests lean toward one party or the other, like in California, where Democrat Xavier Becerra appears a shoo-in to replace Gavin Newsom.
But a dozen races are at least somewhat competitive, including toss-ups in Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin. All of the hardest-fought contests are in states that Trump carried in 2024 — several by double-digits — with Oregon being the lone exception.
Kotek, who’s been rated one of the least popular governors in America, is facing a rematch against Christine Drazan, a former GOP state House leader who now serves in the state Senate. In 2022, she lost narrowly lost to Kotek, 47% to 44%, in a three-way contest.
Unlike four years ago, Kotek has a gubernatorial record to defend and the case Drazan makes against her is succinct.
“Tina Kotek told Oregonians that she would solve the problems and challenges facing our state,” Drazan said in the candidates’ first debate this month. “She hasn’t.”
In a recent Fox News interview, Drazan elaborated.
“We have record high businesses that have gone out of business, bankruptcies, businesses that are leaving, family bankruptcies are at an all-time high,” Drazan said, exaggerating some. “Oregon is uniquely bad right now. It’s not a national issue, it’s here at home.”
Further distancing herself from the Republican brand, Drazan has undergone a distinct makeover since winning the GOP primary in May. “Tough. Tested. Conservative,” is no longer the descriptive shorthand she uses on her campaign website. Now it’s “Mom. Public Servant. Champion for All.”
Drazan’s revised campaign biography also omits her opposition to various Democratic-backed policies, such as gun control, and her culture-warrior vow to “protect girls’ sports and keep men out of their locker rooms.” Instead, the Oregonian newspaper noted, her emphasis is now affordability and relatability.
Despite that, Kotek has continued wielding her sharpest-pronged political weapon, tying Drazan — an “out-of-touch MAGA extremist,” in her campaign’s parlance — to the unpopular president.
“I think we all know that there have been a lot of challenges facing our state and they’re still coming at us because of the confusion and disruption coming from Washington, D.C.,” Kotek said during the candidates’ third and final debate last week. “It’s just a fact. It’s upending who we are as a state and it is … making it harder for us to solve the problems that we have ahead of us.”
Passing the buck and pointing her finger is not exactly a message of triumph, uplift and achievement, but it may be enough to win Kotek a second term.
It seems Chet Hanks, son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, is still in his feels over Eric André’s recollection of his zany and “dangerous” appearance on “The Eric Andre Show.”
Hanks, who became an internet personality in recent years for boasting his Jamaican accent at the 2020 Golden Globes red carpet and unironically coining the phrase “White Boy Summer,” seemingly reignited his feud with André when he confronted the Emmy winner during ComplexCon in Los Angeles over the weekend. On Tuesday, Hanks posted video of himself approaching André and his security team at the event and exchanging some words with the comedian.
It’s unclear what the two men say to each other but Hanks appears to bring up an issue to André who seemingly shrugs it off at first. The conversation seems to turn tense when Hanks speaks face-to-face with André and security personnel block the view. The video concludes with André and his securtiy walking away from Hanks and his posse. In the caption to his video, Hanks said André “had NO MEMORY WHATSOEVER of trashing me to the media after I outshined him on his own show!!”
Representatives for André did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment.
“He stole a motorcycle and rode it around. He almost knocked a bunch of grips and gaffers off their ladders,” André recalled in 2023. “It was very dangerous. He tried to prank us back, but we edited out all his b—! He’s not well. How did Colin Hanks come out so good and Chet Hanks come out so bad?”
In 2023, Hanks called André a “straight b—.” The comedian swiftly fired back, calling Hanks a “f— liar” and dared Hanks to take a “DNA test and prove that Tom Hanks is his f— father.”
After the weekend confrontation, Hanks said that André ultimately “admitted” the feud began “because he had a problem with me ‘mocking Caribbean culture’ when I did my Jamaican accent all those years ago.” Hanks, who is white and was born in Los Angeles, resurfaced to public consciousness in 2020 when he — unprompted — introduced himself at the Golden Globes red carpet with his impression of Jamaican Patois. His father, the prolific actor beloved for roles in “Saving Private Ryan,” “Forrest Gump” and “Toy Story,” received the Globes’ Cecil B. Demille award later that evening.
“WHO KNEW that in addition to the brain rot and poop joke humor he is known for, Eric is also such a passionate cultural activist!!! Great running into you Eric!!!!,” Hanks, who has repeatedly used and defended the N-word on social media, sarcastically ended his caption.
André, who is Black, has long been a vocal social and cultural activist. The “Street Fighter” actor over the years has spoken out against Israel’s war in Gaza and has used his platform to address racism and police brutality.
This summer André, alongside fellow comedian Clayton English, settled a racial profiling suit against Clayton County police in Georgia. The comics were both allegedly racially profiled and subject to “unconstitutional” stops by Clayton County police at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in 2021. The stops were part of a police program intended to combat drug trafficking. The Associated Press reported that the settlement “does not include an admission of fault or liability on the county’s part but says the county has ended the program at issue and has no intention of reactivating it.”
