Dolly Parton’s estate has reportedly accused the late singer’s nephew of extortion and threats against staff.
On Tuesday, Parton’s estate, She’s Alive, LLC, requested a restraining order against Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver, court records show. The request came after he was fired from his job as head of security, as TMZ reported.
She’s Alive is run by Parton’s former manager Danny Nozell.
The New York Times reviewed court records containing allegations that Seaver began making demands shortly before Parton died. The demands grew into more serious threats, according to the records the news outlet cited, which the plaintiffs saw as an attempt to obtain money from the Parton estate.
Here’s what to know.
Who is Bryan Seaver?
Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, shared the news of his aunt’s death in a video posted to her Instagram account on Aug. 25.
In the video, Seaver, standing in front of a black background, introduces himself as the the son of Dolly’s sister Cassie Parton and says he is representing the Parton and Owens family in announcing his aunt’s death. The Owens are the maternal side of the country star’s family.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he says in the video.
Seaver adds that he followed in his father Larry’s footsteps in becoming Parton’s head of security, a post he held for more than 20 years.
Seaver and his company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, LLC, are the defendants in the lawsuit. They were reportedly terminated about three weeks after the country icon’s death.
Seaver did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
According to the New York Times’ reporting on the court records, the restraining order request, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, sought to keep Seaver away from Parton’s properties and staff.
Who is Danny Nozell?
Nozell was Parton’s longtime manager. He has claimed credit for helping revive Parton’s international touring career.
He told The Times last month that Parton “worked up until the day she died” on multiple projects.
“She loved seeing her dreams come to life, and loved knowing her work brought people joy,” Nozell said in the statement. “Ever the planner, Dolly worked with the team that she handpicked, for the past several years to build a project roadmap that will guide us for decades to come.”
Nozell’s website described his work with Parton as “arguably his most notable achievements.”
What are the allegations?
The court records, according to the New York Times, include allegations that Seaver sent a profane threat to a Dollywood business partner, and that, separately, he referred to himself as a “killer” and “not an entertainment person” while corresponding with one of Parton’s longtime lawyers.
According to TMZ, Seaver and his team said in a statement that they were “dismayed by the … unexplained actions” following Parton’s death and “[w]e remain unshakably resolved to fulfill her final directive to protect her family, and we refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith and with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much.”
DAVID Walliams’ entire children’s book catalogue has been dropped by publisher HarperCollins.
The author and TV star, 55, was let go by the company last year after it had been reported that he “harassed” young female staff.
David Walliams’ entire children’s book catalogue has been dropped by publisher HarperCollinsCredit: GettyWalliams was let go by the company last year after it had been reported that he ‘harassed’ young female staffCredit: Getty
A junior employee had complained about Walliams’ conduct, prompting an internal investigation.
HarperCollins will now phase out physical copies in bookshops before removing ebook and audiobook versions.
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His back catalogue of titles includes Billionaire Boy and Gangsta Granny.
In December 2025 the publisher said it would not publish any new titles by Walliams, saying it “takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously”.
DUBAI: Medecins Sans Frontieres has rejected claims by Israeli authorities that it employed individuals with links to Hamas in Gaza, saying the allegations were only brought to the organization after the accused were killed.
“Medecins Sans Frontieres unequivocally refutes the allegations made by the Israeli authorities that we knowingly hired people with ‘ties to terrorism,’” MSF told Arab News in a statement.
“MSF would never knowingly employ anyone involved in military activities, which contradicts our core values and ethics. The MSF staff members whom Israel has alleged to have ‘ties to terrorism’ were only reported as such to our organization after they had been killed.”
On Friday, British newspaper The Telegraph revealed that Israeli lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel had written to British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, urging that the humanitarian organization be banned for its links to terrorism.
A report, produced by UKLFI, alleged links between MSF employees and militant groups, including Fadi Jihad Mohammed Al-Wadiya, an accused Palestinian Islamic Jihad member who was killed in Gaza City last year.
Al-Wadiya, a physiotherapist employed by MSF from 2018 to 2022 and again from Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on June 25, 2024. MSF condemned the strike at the time.
MSF initially rejected claims linking Al-Wadiya to the group. However, on Feb. 24 this year, Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a poster naming him as a “martyr commander” and identifying him as deputy head of its military manufacturing unit.
The charity later updated its post about Al-Wadiya, who remained listed as an employee on its website, to note that Palestinian Islamic Jihad had publicly stated on Feb. 24, 2026, that he had been a member of the group.
The report also accused Nasser Hamdi Abdelatif Al-Shalfouh, an MSF driver, of being a sniper for the Hamas Jabaliya battalion.
MSF questioned the reliability as well as the intention of Israeli authorities, who failed to consult with the organization prior to killing the supposed members.
“If Israeli authorities had reliable information about any MSF staff involvement in military activity, they never shared it with us before their deaths.”
The organization told Arab News that the latest allegations were part of a broader disinformation and smear campaign seeking to discredit it.
“For months, MSF has been the target of a disinformation campaign, and we strongly condemn the intentional spread of false allegations.”
Founded in 1971, MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides emergency healthcare in conflict zones, disease outbreaks and other crises.
In Gaza, MSF’s teams provide surgical care, wound and burn treatment, maternal and pediatric services, physiotherapy, vaccinations, mental health support, water and sanitation assistance, and treatment for chronic diseases through hospitals, field hospitals and clinics.
An AI researcher who quit Anthropic told the BBC that people working on the technology are “genuinely frightened” about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for humanity.
Jacob Coxon spoke with BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Saturday about his viral resignation post where he raised concerns about out-of-control artificial intelligence.
“I believe that if we don’t slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future,” he said.
His resignation comes amid growing safety concerns in the industry, including from his former boss, head of Anthropic Dario Amodei, who in an essay on Saturday argued for development to slow down.
However some industry figures say the dangers are being overblown, possibly to build hype around the two biggest AI companies ahead of their potential stock market debut or to prompt regulation which would slow their competitors.
Coxon, a 27-year-old from Britain whose research focuses on training AI models, said AI leaders including Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have shared similar concerns to Amodei.
“They’ve all made statements about the necessity of being careful of the potential for AI takeover. They’ve all talked about this. AI takeover implies human extinction,” Coxon said.
The hardest question to answer, according to Coxon, is what that would look like.
“Any kind of concrete scenario you can lay out ends up sounding like science fiction,” Coxon said, but notes that advancements which have already happened would have sounded like fiction in the past.
A potential scenario could involve AI agents hacking into medical laboratories to “autonomously produce deadly viruses”, Coxon said. Another example he listed could be AI hacking into “critical infrastructure that the world runs on”.
“They did it autonomously, without any human encouragement. They chose to go on this hacking spree. It was the combination of things getting faster and things also getting scarier,” Coxon said.
Coxon said this scenario could be realistic in six months to a year.
Anthropic and OpenAI are reportedly preparing for potentially record-setting initial public offerings. Industry figures have suggested comments about the perils and power of AI may be designed to generate hype. Other critics say Anthropic has been trying to trigger a regulatory push to block competition, leaving it and OpenAI with a duopoly.
Coxon’s views have also been questioned by the CEO of the AI platform Hugging Face, Clement Delangue.
“Sorry, but asking Jacob about AI extinction risk is like asking your AC guy about climate change,” he wrote on X. “Not saying it’s necessarily uninteresting or wrong per se but let’s keep things in perspective.”
After Amodei’s essay on Saturday, however, Delangue offered to help be a part of the potential solutions proposed by the Anthropic boss.
Nvidia boss Jensen Huang also discussed Coxon’s comments before a crowd at a conference hosted by the investment bank Goldman Sachs last week, multiple people in the group told the BBC. They said he dismissed them as untrue.
Huang has previously said the notion that AI “is going to be the end of humanity” is “complete nonsense”.
And while he may have a business interest in an AI boom – Nvidia builds chips that power AI systems – his comments reflect a growing backlash in Silicon Valley to the existential warnings from current and former staffers.
Dana Williamson, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s onetime chief of staff, is seeking to delay her criminal sentencing date for political corruption because of health issues, according to documents filed last week in federal court.
Williamson’s attorney McGregor Scott, asked the court to delay her Sept. 17 sentencing and seal documents related to her health condition.
Scott submitted documents that reference a Sept. 4 surgery that Williamson underwent, medical records, and a text message from Williamson’s mother about the surgery.
Williamson underwent a liver transplant earlier this year, prompting a judge to delay a February hearing in her case.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the requested sentencing delay.
Williamson, a veteran political consultant who also formerly worked for former Govs. Jerry Brown and Gray Davis, admitted she took part in a scheme from 2022 to 2024 to skim campaign funds from then-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, now a leading candidate for governor, and divert the money to Becerra’s then-chief of staff.
She also admitted in her plea deal to filing a false tax form in 2024 and lying to FBI agents that same year.
Beyond lying to the FBI about the scheme involving Becerra, Williamson misled federal authorities on another topic, the plea agreement stated.
She lied to FBI agents when asked about the state’s lawsuit against video game company Activision Blizzard Inc., details contained in the November indictment against Williamson and other public records show.
Former Chargers coach Brandon Staley and former Atlanta coach Raheem Morris — now defensive coordinators with New Orleans and San Francisco, respectively — also parlayed stints with McVay into head coaching opportunities.
“The development of the coaches who have worked for him — that’s not an accident,” O’Connell said. “That is something he’s purposeful about, and that he genuinely does care about.”
As always, McVay is quick to acknowledge the early NFL opportunities he was afforded and the lessons learned from his grandfather, John McVay, and the Gruden and Shanahan families.
“What I would hope is that the most helpful thing for them is that they get exposed to everything,” McVay said of helping assistants become head coaches. “Because I try to be as inclusive as possible, so when they get that role, they’ve kind of been in a lot of those scenarios already because they’re helping me navigate those things.”
Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur, right, hugs Rams coach Sean McVay following a game at Lambeau Field in November 2023.
(Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
“That was a huge learning experience for me, just being so close to Sean and seeing all the stuff he had to deal with.”
— Matt LaFleur, Green Bay Packers coach, on the influence Sean McVay had on igniting his head coaching career
Matt LaFleur said he knew McVay would become an NFL head coach within 10 minutes of McVay interviewing for a quality control job with Washington in 2010.
Seven years later, after the Rams made the then-30-year-old McVay the youngest head coach in modern NFL history, McVay hired LaFleur as offensive coordinator. To that point, LaFleur said, becoming an NFL head coach himself was not at the forefront of his mind.
“It wasn’t until I was with Sean and you got kind of a front-row seat,” LaFleur said. “That was a huge learning experience for me, just being so close to Sean and seeing all the stuff he had to deal with. That’s where it kind of intrigued me and piqued my interest.”
After the 2017 season, and the Rams’ first playoff appearance since 2004, LaFleur interviewed to become the Tennessee Titans’ head coach. The Titans ultimately hired him as offensive coordinator and playcaller.
2026 NFL season preview
In 2019, the Packers hired LaFleur as head coach, and he has since guided teams to five playoff appearances and two NFC championship games.
Taylor also was a member of the Rams’ 2017 staff as an assistant receivers coach. The next season, he coached quarterbacks.
McVay empowers all coaches, said Taylor, who had previous experience as a coordinator. Taylor’s initial role with the Rams was a step back, but McVay and other staff members did not make it feel like one.
A month after the Packers hired LaFleur, the Bengals hired Taylor. Two years later, Taylor guided his team to a matchup against the Rams in Super Bowl LVI.
“Sean just shows you this is the model you can follow that works well,” Taylor said. “You take it to your own place, you tweak it. And certainly, over eight years, tweaked it drastically. … But I think there’s just belief when you work there, that this is something you can model off of and win championships with.”
The Chargers hired Staley after the 2020 season. The Chargers requested to interview O’Connell to become offensive coordinator and playcaller, but McVay blocked it, citing it as a lateral move.
“He had different plans,” O’Connell said, “and he’s entitled to do that. But he followed that up with: ‘We’re going to go get Matthew Stafford, we’re going to win a Super Bowl, and you’re going to become a head coach.’
“When all three of those things became true a little over a year later — I love him to death, and I would love to not give him that kind of credit. But I absolutely need to.”
The Vikings hired O’Connell after McVay led the Rams to their Super Bowl victory.
Rams coach Sean McVay, left, and Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell greet one another after a game at SoFi Stadium in October 2024.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
“There were countless times where he brought me into his office for circumstances that went beyond the role of a coordinator — to really pull back the curtain and let me understand,” O’Connell said, adding, “He wanted to help my development, and that’s something I’ve now taken very seriously with some of the coaches who have coached for me.”
Coen joined the Rams’ staff in 2018 as an assistant wide receivers coach. He left in 2021 to become Kentucky’s offensive coordinator, but returned to the Rams in 2022 as offensive coordinator.
The Rams suffered the worst Super Bowl hangover in NFL history, and Coen returned to Kentucky before becoming the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. The Jaguars hired him in January 2025.
Coen said the lessons he learned from McVay in 2022, when injuries decimated the Rams’ roster, were among the most valuable.
“He challenges every aspect of who you are as a coach,” Coen said.
Coen and McVay talked for close to three hours in the days after the Rams sent the Jaguars to a loss that dropped their record to 4-3. Coen then led his team to nine victories in their last 10 games en route to the playoffs.
“He mentioned something like, ‘Look, you can get frustrated with jersey number X or Y, but we still need to love the name on the back,’” Coen said. “And that was helpful for me because sometimes you can get caught up in the assignment and the execution that you forget, ‘Man, like I really care about that player. His last name, that means something to me as a coach,’ and to lean into that and to make sure that when you come in the building every day and your players come in the building every day, they genuinely want to be there.”
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen stands on the sideline during a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Aug. 28.
(Parker S. Freedman / Getty Images)
The Falcons hired Morris in 2024, and the Cardinals last February made Mike LaFleur, Matt’s younger brother, a head coach for the first time.
During three seasons as the Rams’ offensive coordinator, Mike LaFleur said McVay established strong foundations but also used his tireless energy to encourage assistants to tear down tried-and-true concepts and build them back, sparking innovation.
“It’s long, it’s tiring, but it’s necessary,” LaFleur said, adding that lessons learned from McVay have served him and others well.
”You look at Kevin [O’Connell], you look at my brother, I do think you just kind of naturally take that with you.
“And in my opinion, it just gives you a leg up.”
McVay laments, usually lightheartedly, the loss of staff members that have ascended to become head coaches.
But said he was grateful for the opportunity to help them achieve their goals.
And there is an added benefit.
“What I think has been really cool is that if you are fortunate to see guys go on and do well, it attracts really high-level coaches as well,” McVay said. “When you show that you’re willing to invest in people, there’s really good coaches that become available on a year-to-year basis.”
First-year offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, a Rams assistant since 2024, appears on track to be the next head coach from McVay’s staff. During the offseason, several teams interviewed Scheelhaase for head coaching vacancies.
If this season plays out as anticipated — the Rams are favorites to win the Super Bowl — McVay’s tree likely will have another branch.
Staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday named Adam Telle, a civilian leader in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as the acting Army secretary following the departure of Dan Driscoll amid widespread reports of tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Telle is currently the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. But he spent more than 20 years working for Republican senators as well as in the White House during Trump’s first term, serving as the president’s chief liaison to the Senate, according to an Army bio.
“He is a Great Patriot, who is respected by all,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Hegseth echoed that in his own post on X.
“Huge congrats to Adam. Strong and whip smart,” Hegseth wrote. “He is indeed a great Patriot — and will be an immediate asset to the @USArmy.”
Driscoll gave no explanation for his decision to quit this week as the Army’s top civilian official. His clashes with Hegseth have been widely reported, and some of Driscoll’s allies in the Army were ousted this year by Trump’s Pentagon chief.
Telle has been at the Army Office of Civil Works since August 2025, according to Legistorm, a website that tracks lawmakers and Capitol Hill staffers. Before that, Telle worked as chief of staff for Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee from 2021-25.
Telle spent 18 months working in the White House during Trump’s first term and 10 years working for the late Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, according to Legistorm.
Telle also worked as the chief staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, according to Hagerty’s remarks when Telle was nominated for the civil works job in May 2025.
In his most recent job, Telle focused on matters involving commercial navigation, flood damage reduction and permitting under the Clean Water Act. Telle issued a statement in August about the approval of a company’s plans to reroute an aging oil pipeline around a Wisconsin tribal reservation. In May, he was quoted in a story in the Forum, a newspaper in Fargo, N.D., about a $3.2-billion flood control project that will protect more than 200,000 people.
Telle will now be overseeing the nation’s largest fighting force at a time when the U.S. is still engaged in conflict with Iran and significant Army forces are stationed in the Middle East.
The war has significantly contributed to the U.S. military’s shortfall in critical weapons like the Patriot and THAAD defense missile interceptors systems, which are operated by the Army.
Driscoll, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, is a friend of Vice President JD Vance and had good relationships with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
His allies in the Army who were ousted by Hegseth included its top uniformed leader, Gen. Randy George. Gen. Christopher LaNeve took over as the Army’s acting chief of staff and recently pulled the plug on a drone modernization program that Driscoll had championed.
Driscoll spoke with Trump on the current state of the Army before he submitted his resignation, the Associated Press has reported.
Driscoll did not allude to any problems in the only public statement on his departure, saying Tuesday that it has been “the honor of a lifetime” to serve as Army secretary under Trump and Hegseth.
Democrats and Republicans lamented Driscoll’s departure, with some blaming Hegseth directly.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is retiring and sometimes has clashed with Trump, said on social media that Hegseth “is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks.”
PHOENIX — The staff caring for Jakob Blodgett said he already had been sneaking candy and refused to take his insulin. An employee at the Arizona group home where the 9-year-old boy was being cared for texted a supervisor about the boy’s elevated blood-glucose reading.
The response? Give him water.
After two missed doses of the long-lasting insulin he needed, he was taken to the hospital. He was diagnosed with brain swelling, put on a ventilator and died in 2022 of complications from Type 1 diabetes.
There were no penalties imposed for Blodgett’s death, and Arizona’s largest group home provider now stands at the center of a political controversy swirling as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs seeks reelection. Records show Sunshine Residential Homes made political donations beneficial to Hobbs and months later received a rate increase from the state for providing beds for children.
The Arizona attorney general, a fellow Democrat, found no evidence of bribery. But Republican legislators are pushing back with their own questions, and the state auditor general’s office is conducting a separate investigation.
The boy’s death and the pay-to-play allegations highlight questions about Arizona’s congregate-care capacity for children, training for workers who care for them and oversight of providers and other contractors who hold leverage over the state simply due to their size and influence.
Alleged political favors become campaign fodder
Hobbs maintains she wasn’t involved in the decision to increase rates for Sunshine Residential Homes. But Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, has made the scandal a centerpiece of his campaign to unseat her.
“That was all handled by the department,” Hobbs said, “and they made the decision based on what was in the best interest of the department and the kids in their care.”
The allegations were first reported by The Arizona Republic and prompted an investigation by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes. However, Mayes’ office said it couldn’t find evidence to support bribery charges against Hobbs and concluded that Sunshine’s rate increases were the result of its “outsized leverage” as the state’s largest group home provider, not because of politics.
The company had threatened to reduce its bed capacity if it didn’t get an increase, saying it would instead use beds to house unaccompanied immigrant children for the federal government, officials said. Child welfare officials have said a reduction in Sunshine’s beds would significantly affect the state’s ability to place children in homes and would likely lead to siblings in foster care being split up and sent to different homes.
In all, Sunshine made $550,000 in contributions, including $100,000 to Hobbs’ inaugural fund in December 2022 and $150,000 to a legal defense fund for Hobbs between November 2023 and May 2024, according to records.
A separate investigation by the state auditor general’s office and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, is continuing.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office also has interviewed several Sunshine employees as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into Blodgett’s death. No one has been charged.
Blodgett isn’t the only diabetic child to die after a stay at an Arizona group home. In July 2024, a 15-year-old boy staying at a group home in Mesa operated by another company died of diabetic ketoacidosis after staff said the boy refused to take insulin, according to records.
Text messages outline concerns over a diabetic coma
Blodgett was staying at a foster home in metro Phoenix where only the house manager was trained in managing his diabetes.
Staff members said the boy was refusing to take his medicine. The manager advised an employee via text to tell the boy that the manager would be called if he refused to take his medicine.
“We don’t want him to go into a diabetic coma,” the manager texted.
The employee texted back about whether the child should get insulin. The manager didn’t respond.
The next day, the employee texted the boy’s blood glucose reading to the manager and asked what to do. The manager said to give Blodgett water but didn’t give any instructions about insulin, according to lawyers for the state and Blodgett’s family. The day after missing his second dose, Blodgett was taken to a hospital.
Violation nets no penalties
Two weeks before approving a 30% rate increase in May 2023, the Arizona Department of Child Safety issued a licensing violation against Sunshine over Blodgett’s case. The agency declined to specify to The Associated Press which policy was violated.
Robert Pastor, an attorney representing the family in a wrongful death lawsuit, said the violation was for not giving Blodgett the insulin as prescribed. The lawyer said Sunshine’s staff missed the signs of ketoacidosis, a serious complication caused by a lack of insulin, and waited too long to take Blodgett to the hospital. He also disputed claims that the boy had refused medication.
The state didn’t fine Sunshine or suspend or revoke its license as a result of the violation, according to court records. The agency said it detailed the steps Sunshine had to take to come into compliance, but declined to reveal to the AP what those steps were.
Pastor agreed with the attorney general’s conclusion that Sunshine has a lot of leverage over the state due to reliance on the company’s beds.
“That leverage gave Sunshine an increased rate increase,” Pastor said. “We also know that that leverage that Sunshine has over DCS means that when they kill a child, there will be no consequences. There will be no accountability.”
In a statement, Sunshine spokesperson Tommy McKone said the wrongful death lawsuit remains active, but declined to comment on the licensing violation and the company’s policy on responding to children who refuse medications.
“Sunshine Residential followed all policies and procedures for the required care, throughout his stay at our homes, under state law,” McKone said.
In court records, lawyers for Sunshine said the state indicated Blodgett’s medical needs were minimal and didn’t inform the group home provider that Blodgett’s diabetes management was complex.
Boy was hospitalized before heading to group home
Blodgett went into foster care in December 2022 after his father was jailed on a drug charge. His blood glucose levels were high when he was brought to a welcome center operated by the Department of Child Safety, which sought medical help for Blodgett from a children’s hospital where he was treated over several days.
Once discharged, Blodgett went to a Sunshine home.
While he went two days without getting the long-lasting insulin he needed before going to bed, the staff did give him another type of insulin — fast-acting insulin after eating meals — over both days. After the boy missed a long-lasting dose, the house manager contacted the same hospital to talk about how to improve his blood glucose levels.
In a deposition, the house manager testified there was nothing the staff could do if the child refused his medication. Pastor said the claim that the boy refused insulin is a false narrative aimed at blaming the child.
More workers should have been trained
Myriam Villarreal, an official in the Department of Child Safety’s operation that licenses group homes, testified in an April 2025 deposition that Blodgett’s condition wasn’t caught in time because group home workers weren’t trained in spotting the signs of ketoacidosis.
Pressed on why the company didn’t face any penalties, Villarreal testified that the state asked for policy modifications from the company. And she said training should have been provided to the staff members who directly cared for the boy, not just the house manager.
“We didn’t look that every single staff (member) had the appropriate training,” Villarreal testified.
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is pressing the Army to explain why it told a unit based in Europe to stop specializing in drone warfare, an order that comes as the world’s battlefields rapidly evolve and military tactics increasingly rely on uncrewed systems to fight.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade was building its own drones and practicing the kind of warfare that Ukraine has pioneered against Russia and that Iran has fought against the U.S. — warfare that has killed and wounded American troops. The brigade of 600 soldiers was set up in November to be deployed anywhere that drones were needed.
“We have deep concerns that eliminating this specialized drone unit will limit our ability to learn from allies, particularly the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and hinder our efforts to modernize drone warfare at the speed necessary to compete on the modern battlefield,” the lawmakers said in a letter shared with The Associated Press.
It requests a briefing from the Army to explain its decision and was sent Tuesday to departing Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff. It was signed by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio.
“This specialized unit was a prudent response in a moment when the character of warfare is changing faster than a conventional formation’s ability to adapt,” the lawmakers say.
They said they were particularly keen to understand the data, analysis and process behind the change after less than a year of the drone unit being active. They also want to know if the decision was based on guidance from Pentagon leadership or made internally by the Army.
LaNeve, who is filling in as the Army’s top uniformed officer, recently ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit. The move followed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sudden ousting of the Army’s prior chief of staff, Gen. Randy George.
Integrating drones into the Army’s tactics was a major focus for George. Last year, he and Driscoll had rolled out what they called the Army Transformation Initiative, which pushed to add “modernized (unmanned aircraft systems) into formations.”
George, who became Army chief of staff under President Joe Biden, regularly spoke about the need to accelerate development of new drone systems and get them in the hands of regular soldiers, not just specialized units. Driscoll supported such efforts and focused on cutting the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones.
After George was ousted by Hegseth without explanation in April, he was replaced by LaNeve. This week, Driscoll submitted his own resignation and later said on social media that Wednesday would be his final full day on the job. A reason for his departure was not publicly revealed, but he was an ally of George, and his tensions with Hegseth have been widely reported.
“We are supportive of the transformative initiatives the Army has taken under Secretary Driscoll’s leadership in this area and would like to see that momentum maintained even as uniformed leadership changes,” the lawmakers wrote.
Toropin and Finley write for the Associated Press. Toropin reported from Nuremberg, Germany.
