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Zohran Mamdani takes on governing as the left and right fight to define him

admin - Latest News - November 5, 2025
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Zohran Mamdani’s rapid rise from outer-borough state assemblyman to shock Democratic mayoral nominee was already one of the biggest political stories in years in New York City



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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleNov. 5, 2025, 12:34 PM ESTBy Bracey HarrisGeorge Barnett’s work as a small-town pastor means folks probably won’t challenge him when he tells of the day he picked up a hunting rifle and took aim at an escaped rhesus monkey in rural Mississippi.What started as a routine visit to his mom’s house in Vossburg on Monday is now the latest chapter in the not-so-tall tale that captivated much of the state, after a transport of research primates overturned in Jasper County just before Halloween. Barnett’s wife spotted the runaway monkey as a blur of fur crossing near a highway exit ramp late Monday afternoon. Once in the woods, it scampered into a tree and flashed its teeth. Barnett, 45, grabbed his rifle and fired twice, he said, sending the animal crashing to the ground. “As soon as I saw it, the only thing I thought about was, ‘What if this thing attacks one of those people that I grew up with, or my children,’” Barnett said.George and Kerri Barnett.Courtesy George BarnettThe monkey was one of three escapees from last week’s accident, when a truck crashed while carrying 21 primates from the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center near New Orleans. Barnett was the second Mississippi resident to take the monkey business into their own hands. On Sunday, Jessica Bond Ferguson opened fire after her 16-year-old son saw a monkey outside their home near Heidelberg, killing the animal. “I did what any other mother would do to protect her children,” she told The Associated Press.That leaves one runaway still missing, according to the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, which warned that it may be aggressive. Residents’ fears were partly driven by incorrect information that circulated just after the crash, when the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office warned that the monkeys carried diseases, including Covid, hepatitis C and herpes. Authorities killed five of the monkeys near the crash scene based on those concerns, which turned out to be false, Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson said.He confirmed the latest monkey shooting on Monday. Tulane clarified after the crash that the monkeys “had not been exposed to any infectious agents” and sent a team to assist. Thirteen of the monkeys reached their planned destination last week, according to the university. Animals rights organizations, like PETA, said the accident highlighted the plight of animals used in research and called for more transparency, including the release of the monkeys’ veterinary records.On Monday, PreLabs, a biomedical research company, said the monkeys were theirs.“We are cooperating with authorities and reviewing all safety procedures to ensure the continued wellbeing of both the animals and the community,” the statement said.The company did not respond to questions from NBC News.On Oct. 28, a truck carrying rhesus monkeys from Tulane University crashed in Mississippi.Jasper County Sheriff’s DepartmentKristen Moore, director of wildlife for the Hattiesburg Zoo, said she understands the worries, but she hopes the public will heed officials’ advice to stay clear of the last monkey. The primates, native to Asia, generally prefer running away over attacking.And for those wondering, they’re typically herbivores. So, pets should be OK.“If you have a cat, they’re not going to chase that,” she said.Barnett initially thought his wife, Kerri, was joking when she pointed out the furry creature running across the road shortly after 4 p.m. Monday. They had just taken the exit to his mother’s house, with their two young sons in the car.“Babe, there’s one of those monkeys,” he recalled Kerri saying.She was right. “This monkey was just walking across the street,” Barnett said. “Almost like he owned the neighborhood.”One day earlier, Barnett was getting ready for church when he heard about Ferguson’s story.Now, he was dialing 911 to report his own sighting in Vossburg, about 100 miles east of the state’s capital.“We just saw one of the monkeys right off Exit 118,” he told the dispatcher, according to a recording obtained by NBC News. “It’s sitting on the side of the road right off the exit.”Barnett’s 7- and 8-year-old boys in the backseat became hysterical. Normally they love playing outside at their grandmother’s, but they’d been staying indoors the past few days while the primates were on the loose.Barnett dropped his children off at his mom’s, grabbed a rifle and headed back.He walked into the woods, where the monkey had taken refuge in a tree.An experienced squirrel and deer hunter, he estimates the animal was 35 to 40 pounds. (Generally, the monkeys are 17 to 20 pounds, Moore said.) After he took two shots, the monkey dropped to the ground and took off, he said. Barnett didn’t chase after it.George Barnett, shown with his wife, Kerri, said he usually hunts squirrel and deer. Courtesy of George BarnettTwo men in a white truck who Barnett believes were with a transport company soon arrived. They tried to track the monkey based on a trail of blood, then got an assist from a drone that could detect the animal’s body heat, Kerri said. It was dark by the time a worker emerged with the deceased primate.Kerri documented the night on Facebook Live. The videos drew some pushback interspersed with praise, but Barnett believes he made the right choice. Most critics weren’t locals.“They’re not close around here, so they don’t have that fear,” he said.Meanwhile, he said he’s heard from congregants at his church in Buckatunna, about 40 miles away, who were excited about his adventure. He’s anticipating some questions at Wednesday night’s Bible study. Back in Heidelberg, a short distance from the accident site, Mayor Robert Barnett (no relation to George) said online jokes about the apocalypse have been circulating among the town’s roughly 600 residents. Crews in protective equipment have been spotted on the area’s highways. The mayor noted lightly there’s no quarantine in effect — he doesn’t want locals to be afraid or visitors to stay away.“I hated it happened in this type of way,” he said, “but at least people know about Heidelberg right now.” Bracey HarrisBracey Harris is a national reporter for NBC News, based in Jackson, Mississippi.
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Oct. 14, 2025, 3:53 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 14, 2025, 4:19 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Scott WongWASHINGTON — At the two-week mark, Republicans and Democrats are bracing for a long government shutdown, with both parties seeing more upside in persisting with their conflicting demands.As a result, neither side is willing to give an inch in the standoff, now the fifth-longest shutdown in the country’s history. Republicans say their message is simple: Senate Democrats should vote for the short-term funding bill to reopen the government that passed the House last month and pursue their policy demands separately. They accuse Democrats of holding the government “hostage” to their goals.But Democrats are eager to continue a national debate they’ve forced about a looming health care cliff, by demanding any funding bill be tied to addressing expiring Obamacare subsidies. The health care money is popular, even among self-described MAGA supporters, and has divided Republicans — although they are unified in saying it must be dealt with separately, outside the context of a government funding bill.“It feels like both parties are digging their trenches and preparing for a long conflict,” said Ian Russell, a former national political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This is Washington, so things can obviously change very quickly. But you get the sense from leadership suites on both sides that both parties feel like they’re either maximizing their strengths or certainly not exposing themselves to serious vulnerabilities.”The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday for the eighth time on the GOP’s short-term funding bill, which requires 60 votes to advance. Republicans need at least five more Democrats to break a filibuster and have made no progress since the shutdown began.Russell said Democrats see the Obamacare funding as a way to “reset the narrative” and “unite” a party that has clashed about the way forward after their devastating defeat in 2024. “We took back the House in 2018 while campaigning on health care. We’re able to unite the factions in our own path when we’re talking about health care,” Russell said. “For Democratic leadership it makes sense to have this fight now, on these terms.”Earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the nation could be “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”Recent polls show that more voters are generally blaming President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats. But a Reuters/Ipsos survey released last week showed that clear majorities of Americans are placing “at least a fair amount” of blame on Trump, Republicans and Democrats. The overall public opinion deficit for the GOP is narrow enough not to move them off their position — particularly as Trump has taken on a posture of all-out political war with Democrats, including by telling GOP leaders not to bother negotiating with the opposition in the run-up to the shutdown. On Tuesday, Johnson insisted — again — that he won’t negotiate with Democrats on their demands because House Republicans have already passed a stopgap funding measure with no extraneous policy provisions. “I don’t have anything to negotiate. … We did not load up the temporary funding bill with any Republican priorities or partisan priorities at all. I don’t have anything that I can take off of that document to make it more palatable for them,” Johnson told reporters at his daily shutdown news conference in the Capitol. “So all I am able to do is come to this microphone every day, look right under the camera and plead with the American people … to call your Senate Democrats and ask them to do the right thing,” he continued. “We’re not playing games; they’re playing a game.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., praised Senate Democrats on Tuesday for continuing to block the GOP funding bill, while saying he’s “flummoxed” that House Republicans are keeping the chamber in recess for a fourth consecutive week.He said Democrats aren’t intimidated by the White House’s attempts to lay off federal workers.“For the Republicans, cruelty is the point,” Jeffries said. “And the fact that they are celebrating, meaning the extremist, the extreme MAGA Republicans, the fact that they’re celebrating firing hard-working federal employees doesn’t strengthen their position with the American people. It weakens it because the American people don’t accept that kind of cruel and callous behavior.” The war of words between the party leaders comes as Trump and his administration have begun to mitigate some of the critical pain points of the shutdown that were expected to drive the two sides to the negotiating table.A food aid program assisting women, infants and children had been set to run out of money because of the shutdown, but Trump officials said they would shift $300 million in tariff revenue to the WIC program to keep it running temporarily. This Wednesday was a key date, with more than 1 million active-duty service members set to miss their first paycheck due to the shutdown impasse. But Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to move money around again to ensure the troops got paid. Hundreds of thousands civilian federal workers, however, have missed part of their paychecks and will miss a full paycheck on Oct. 24. And many government contractors also are not being paid during the shutdown, and won’t receive backpay unlike federal workers.Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday representing Maryland and Virginia — states with a large number of federal workers — railed against what they described as Trump’s “illegal” move Friday to fire roughly 4,000 federal workers through a “reduction in force,” or RIF.“This is unjust. It is unjustified, and this is the feeling that we’ve awakened with this morning,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in her message to federal workers. “But I want them to recognize that another morning is surely coming, that none of this is sustainable. This evil cannot last.”Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump threatened to inflict more pain on the opposition by shutting down “Democrat programs.” “So we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up … and we’re not going to let them come back. The Democrats are getting killed, and we’re going to have a list of them on Friday,” Trump said. “We’re not closing up Republican programs because we think they work.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Gabrielle Khoriaty, Kyle Stewart, Brennan Leach and Caroline Kenny contributed.
November 7, 2025
Nov. 7, 2025, 5:26 PM EST / Updated Nov. 7, 2025, 5:42 PM ESTBy Tim Stelloh, Rachel White, Justin Smith and Marissa MaierIt was almost the perfect crime.But in the end, a pair of mundane events on Kentucky’s Bluegrass Parkway — a flat tire and a phone call — played an outsize role in solving the disappearance and presumed death of Crystal Rogers more than a decade ago.That, at least, is how the prosecutor who tried three men convicted this year in connection with Rogers’ death views the resolution of a case that was based on a mountain of circumstantial evidence. Authorities never found Rogers’ body. Nor did they identify a crime scene or a murder weapon.“If they had not gotten a flat tire, we probably wouldn’t have solved this case,” said Shane Young, the commonwealth’s attorney for the state’s 9th Judicial Circuit. “That phone call was the one hiccup in the plan because that phone call was not supposed to be made.”For more on the case, tune in to “The Trouble in Bardstown” on “Dateline” at at 9 ET/8 CT tonight.DATELINE FRIDAY SNEAK PEEK: The Trouble in Bardstown01:48In an exclusive interview with “Dateline,” the veteran prosecutor reflected on the yearslong effort to bring justice to Rogers’ family and to other unsolved homicide victims in Bardstown, the scenic small town in the heart of Kentucky’s bourbon region where Rogers lived. Among the other victims is Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, who was gunned down roughly a year and a half after his daughter vanished on July 3, 2015.Tommy Ballard.DatelineAt the time, Ballard, 54, was leading an effort to investigate his daughter’s disappearance.Rogers’ boyfriend, Brooks Houck, 44, was convicted of murder in Rogers’ killing and sentenced to life in prison in September. His attorneys are appealing the verdict.Two men whom prosecutors identified as accomplices, Steve Lawson and his son, Joey Lawson, were convicted of conspiracy and tampering with physical evidence. Steve Lawson, 55, was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Joey Lawson, 34, was sentenced to 25 years to life. They’re also appealing their convictions.In court, attorneys for the men said they were victims of police coercion — one of the lawyers described the interrogation tactics to “Dateline” as “the Bardstown inquisition” — and said there was no physical evidence linking them to the murder.A relationship on the rocks?Young was tasked with taking over the case as a special prosecutor in 2022. At trial, Young argued the couple’s relationship was deteriorating. The killing, he said, was motivated by Houck’s fear of losing custody of the couple’s 2-year-old son. Rogers was likely killed at the Houck family farm, prosecutors have said.That theory was partly backed up by a cousin of Rogers’ who testified that when she saw Rogers on July 3, Rogers said she and Houck were going on a surprise date that night.In interviews with police, Houck said he’d last seen Rogers that evening, after they’d gone to the farm for several hours with their toddler and walked around in the fields. Back at home, he said he fell asleep before Rogers did, according to a video of the interview.Crystal Rogers.DatelineThe next morning, Houck said that when he awoke, Rogers was gone — something he said she’d done before when she needed space, according to the video.Jon Snow, the former Nelson County Sheriff’s detective who questioned Houck, pressed him for details during a follow-up interview. It was raining on July 3, Snow pointed out, but Houck said he’d spent hours outside with their toddler.“Four and a half hours is a long time to be outside in the rain, in the mud, with a 2 1/2 year old,” Snow said. “Does that make sense?”“I understand what you’re saying,” Houck responded.Problems on the parkwayAccording to prosecutors, the Lawsons were responsible for getting rid of Rogers’ car — a maroon Chevrolet Impala that was found, with a flat tire, on July 5 on the side of the Bluegrass Parkway.“I think the plan was to make it look like she left,” Young told “Dateline.” “Whether they were gonna drive the car into a lake or a river or whatever, I don’t think the car was ever supposed to be found again.”Crystal Rogers and Brooks Houck.DatelineBut then, according to the prosecution, Joey Lawson got a flat tire while driving the Impala. So he dialed his father, who then called Houck, Young said. (Joey Lawson has denied driving the car or playing a role in Rogers’ disappearance.)The call was made around midnight and lasted just 13 seconds, according to Snow. In the follow-up interview with the detective, Houck said that he didn’t recall what the conversation was about, but that it had been made by Steve Lawson, who worked for him.So Houck dialed Steve Lawson on the spot, a video of the interview shows.Steve Lawson during a police interview.Dateline“Can you remember what you asked me or what you were after?” Houck said.“Sure, I can,” Steve Lawson responded. “I called and asked you for them numbers for the house.”Steve Lawson initially denied having been on the parkway, though he later admitted it to a grand jury. Under questioning from investigators, he said that the phone call from his son was actually a request to pick him up on the parkway, a video of the interview shows.An FBI analysis of Steve Lawson’s phone confirmed that he’d been on the parkway, near the spot where Rogers’ Impala was found on the night of her disappearance. At trial, Joey Lawson’s attorneys disputed the analysis and said the phone actually showed Steve Lawson not on the parkway, but on a road parallel to it.Joey Lawson.DatelineThe same FBI analysis showed that Joey Lawson had repeatedly called his father before Steve Lawson finally answered and made the 13-second call to Houck, according to Steve Keary, an FBI agent who investigated the case.Steve Lawson told authorities that when he arrived at the parkway, he found Rogers’ Impala, got in and scooted the seat forward, a video of the interview shows. His son was taller than Rogers, he said, and Steve Lawson said he was worried his son had gotten caught up in something bad. Moving the seat, he told investigators, was his way of covering that up.Steve Lawson also told authorities that before Rogers’ disappearance, Houck had described the couple’s relationship as troubled and said he wanted her “gone.”“To me, ‘gone’ means gone,” a video of the interview shows him saying.Making the case in courtEven though investigators had only gathered circumstantial evidence, Young told “Dateline” that he believed they’d gathered enough to prove their case.Shane Young.DatelineIn Houck’s trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict in only a few hours.It’s unclear if two people identified by prosecutors at trial as unindicted co-conspirators will face charges, he said.One of those alleged co-conspirators is Houck’s brother, former Bardstown police officer Nick Houck. The department’s former police, Chief Rick McCubbin, told “Dateline” that he fired Nick Houck because McCubbin believed he hadn’t fully cooperated with the investigation into Rogers’ disappearance.Nick Houck has denied playing a role in the disappearance and has never been charged with a crime. His attorney did not respond to a detailed list of questions from “Dateline.”Prosecutors say they have identified a possible link between Nick Houck and the killing of Rogers’ father, Tommy Ballard, who was fatally shot while on a hunting trip with Rogers’ 11-year-old son on Nov. 19, 2016. In a court hearing and in his interview with “Dateline,” Young said that Nick Houck sold a gun to an undercover officer that investigators believe has the same or a similar caliber as the weapon used to kill Ballard.Officer Jason Ellis.FBIHe sold the firearm using the name Nick Ballard, Young told “Dateline.” Houck has not been charged with a crime in Tommy Ballard’s death.Young is also investigating the killing of Bardstown police officer Jason Ellis, who was fatally shot on May 25, 2013, while clearing tree branches from an exit ramp on the Bluegrass Parkway — branches that investigators believe were placed intentionally. McCubbin said there was evidence the shooter had been lying in wait at the top of a nearby rock wall.Asked if he expects charges in either case, Young said: “Don’t know. We’re working on them.”Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Rachel WhiteJustin SmithJustin Smith is the sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado, a graduate of the FBI National Academy and a member of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections.Marissa MaierMarissa Maier is a producer for “Dateline.”
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