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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleBy Tom Costello and Phil HelselUPS has grounded its fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11’s, the type of plane involved in Tuesday’s deadly crash in Louisville, Kentucky, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News Friday.UPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A photo seen by NBC news showed a screen in a plane that directed pilots to return and which read: “Per UPS MD11 are not to depart effective immediately.” At least 14 people have died in the crash, officials said. The UPS flight, headed from Louisville to Honolulu, crashed around 5:15 p.m. as it was taking off and struck an industrial area near the airport, causing a huge fire and killing the three crew in the plane and others on the ground.A UPS MD-11 cargo plane sits idle on the tarmac on Wednesday at Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Ky.Michael Swensen / Getty ImagesVideo shows that the left engine of the plane caught fire during takeoff and immediately detached, National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman said Wednesday.The NTSB is the lead agency in the investigation.On Friday night, Mayor Craig Greenberg said that the remains of a 14th victim had been found at the crash site.”We pray for each of the victims’ families, and pray that no additional victims were lost as our first responders continue to search and seek answers,” Greenberg said in a video.UPS is the largest employer in the Louisville metro area, with around 25,000 workers. The airport where the disaster happened, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, is a main hub for the company’s global air network.Tom CostelloTom Costello is an NBC News correspondent based in Washington, D.C.  Phil HelselPhil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 8, 2025

UPS has grounded its fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11’s, the type of plane involved in Tuesday’s deadly crash in Louisville, Kentucky, two sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

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Nov. 7, 2025, 9:36 AM EST / Updated Nov. 7, 2025, 9:34 PM ESTBy Aria Bendix, Ryan Nobles, Gary Grumbach and Lawrence HurleyWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday at least temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold about $4 billion in payments for the SNAP food benefits program that a federal judge had ordered.The court via an order issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson provisionally blocked an order issued by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell that required the payments to be made by Friday night.The administration has said that because of the government shutdown, there is only enough money to pay partial benefits this month. It had previously agreed to pay about $5 billion from a SNAP contingency fund but objected to paying another $4 billion from a separate program, arguing McConnell had no authority to force it to.Earlier on Friday, the Agriculture Department had indicated it would make the full payments, according to a memo obtained by NBC News. Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary of the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, informed states that USDA “will complete the processes necessary” to fully issue SNAP benefits for the time being.McConnell on Thursday afternoon ordered the administration to deliver full payments to states by Friday, chastising it for delays that he said have likely caused SNAP recipients to go hungry.The Trump administration unsuccessfully asked the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately block McConnell’s order while that court considers the case in more detail. The administration then turned to the Supreme Court.In her order, Jackson said a temporary stay was required so that the appeals court can consider the government’s application in full. Jackson is the justice assigned responsibility for appeals from the Boston-based appeals court.That court had said in an earlier order that it intends to act “as quickly as possible.”Nearly 42 million people rely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Friday that “The Supreme Court just granted our administrative stay in this case. Our attorneys will not stop fighting, day and night, to defend and advance President Trump’s agenda.”The administration agreed earlier this week to use $4.65 billion in contingency funds to cover about 65% of the benefits that eligible households would ordinarily receive. But it argued that it cannot draw from additional funds set aside for child nutrition programs, known as Section 32 funding, to fully fund SNAP because doing so would take away resources from other programs, like school lunches.“Once those billions are out the door, there is no ready mechanism for the government to recover those funds — to the significant detriment of those other critical social programs whose budgets the district court ordered the government to raid,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the Supreme Court filing.The back-and-forth over SNAP funding has persisted for weeks. First, the administration said the funding would not be distributed in November as long as the federal government remained closed. However, the progressive legal advocacy group Democracy Forward challenged that plan in a lawsuit, prompting McConnell last week to order the Trump administration to distribute benefits as soon as possible.Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said earlier this week that the partial payments were disbursed to states. Since states oversee the process of loading payments onto electronic benefits cards, the Trump administration has argued that it has done its part by authorizing SNAP funding and giving states information to calculate partial benefits for households.However, McConnell said Thursday that the administration’s actions did not comply with his order to deliver the payments expeditiously and efficiently.“People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” McConnell said, adding: “This should never happen in America.”This is the first time SNAP benefits have lapsed because of a government shutdown in the program’s 61-year history. Some families whose EBT cards were due to be reloaded already this week have reported skipping meals or subsisting on the meager foods remaining in their pantries, such as cereal or ramen.We’d like to hear from you about how you’re experiencing the government shutdown, whether you’re a federal employee who can’t work right now, a person who relies on federal benefits like SNAP, or someone who is feeling the effects of other shuttered services in your everyday life. Please contact us at tips@nbcuni.com or reach out to us here.Aria BendixAria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.Ryan NoblesRyan Nobles is chief Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.Gary GrumbachGary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.Lawrence HurleyLawrence Hurley is a senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 8, 2025

Shortly after telling states that the food assistance program would be fully funded, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step in.

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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.”

- Latest News - November 7, 2025

Crystal Rogers disappeared more than a decade ago in Bardstown, Kentucky, but it wasn’t until this year that three men were convicted in her presumed death.

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Nov. 7, 2025, 5:55 PM ESTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.President Donald Trump hailed his deal to slash the price of blockbuster weight loss drugs as a game changer, promising to make Wegovy and Zepbound more affordable for millions of Americans. But major gaps in the plan could blunt its impact, drug policy experts say: Some of the drugs the administration has promised discounts on haven’t been approved yet by the Food and Drug Administration; the lower prices for people paying out of pocket only appear to apply to the lowest doses of the drugs; and the deal doesn’t expand Medicare coverage to people seeking treatment for weight loss alone.“It’s a situation where we have more questions than answers,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. “Based on what we didn’t hear, that suggests to me that there’s a lot that the administration itself hasn’t even ironed out as of yet.”“It just feels,” she added, “a little bit too squishy right now.”U.S. President Donald Trump, joined by members of the pharmaceutical industry and administration officials, delivers remarks on lowering drug prices in the Oval Office at the White House on November 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesThe announcement marks one of the most ambitious efforts yet to tackle the high cost of weight loss drugs in the U.S. Wegovy and Zepbound carry list prices above $1,000 a month, a cost that both Republicans and Democrats have criticized as far too high, especially compared with what other countries pay. Administration officials say there’s still time to iron out details before the lower prices take effect. The lower prices that will be available through the administration’s self-pay platform, TrumpRx, aren’t expected to go live until the end of the year, and the Medicare and Medicaid changes won’t roll out until mid-2026.“I think the administration deserves credit for continuing to try to push the envelope on finding ways to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S.,” Cubanski said. She said KFF polling shows that health care costs, including prescription drugs, are a top concern for Americans.Art Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, said the deal, while ambitious, lacks crucial details.“It’s just murky as to how this will take shape, how the programs will work,” Caplan said. “You can’t really tell from what’s going on.”Unapproved drugsSeveral forms of the drugs included in the deal haven’t yet received FDA approval. That includes oral versions of the weight loss drugs — which are still under development or FDA review — and Eli Lilly’s new multidose injection pens, which haven’t been approved but the drugmaker says are the versions included in the pricing agreement.Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said that makes the administration’s promises premature, since those lower prices can’t take effect until the products are on the market. “It is reckless to negotiate pricing deals on products which the FDA have not yet approved as safe and effective,” Gostin said. “The administration is getting way out ahead of its own safety agency.”An oral version of Wegovy, from Novo Nordisk, is being reviewed by the FDA. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. A multidose version of Zepbound is under review by the FDA, Lilly said. The company hasn’t submitted its weight loss pill, orforglipron, to the agency yet. Lilly CEO David Ricks told NBC News’ Tom Llamas on “Top Story” that the FDA would review the pill quickly. “As part of the deal, they’ve agreed to give us an expedited approval,” Ricks said. Different doses, different pricesThe White House said that both the pills and the injection pens will be available for discounted prices for people who pay out of pocket. Starting doses of weight loss pills will cost $149 for a month’s supply, and the shots will cost an average of $350 for a month’s supply, the White House said. The price of the injections is expected to fall to about $250 within two years, it said.But people may end up paying more.When people start on a weight loss drug, they start with the lowest dose possible — the starting dose — to allow the body to get used to the drug. Over the course of several months, however, they increase the dose until they get to a dose that’s effective for weight loss. Wegovy comes in five doses and Zepbound comes in six, with the most weight loss seen at the highest doses. Administration officials said the starting doses of GLP-1 pills will cost $149 a month, but did not say what higher doses would be.For the injections, the exact White House language was vague: The shots will initially have a “weighted average” price of $350 a month. Lilly, however, said Zepbound will be available at the lowest dose for $299 a month, with additional doses priced up to $449. A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk didn’t say whether doses would have different prices, but said it plans to publish an update on costs “in the coming weeks.”That means patients paying through TrumpRx could end up paying far more than the administration’s advertised prices — especially if patients don’t stay on the lowest doses for long, Caplan said. Limited coverageAs part of the deal, Lilly and Novo Nordisk will charge Medicare and Medicaid $245 for a month’s supply of the shots, a move that will likely provide savings for the programs. Medicare enrollees will have their costs capped at $50 a month. Medicaid enrollees often don’t have copays.But not everyone on Medicare or Medicaid is eligible.Under the deal, Medicare will continue to cover the weight loss drugs for people who are overweight or obese and have another qualifying condition, such as heart or kidney disease. The agreement doesn’t expand coverage to people using the drugs for weight loss alone. Medicare, by law, is barred from covering weight loss drugs, Cubanski, of KFF, said.Eli Lilly CEO talks deal to cut medication prices with the Trump administration09:10The lack of expanded coverage is a significant omission, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Medicare is one of the largest payers in the country, and without broader coverage, millions of patients will remain priced out even as the administration touts lower costs.“You would have to change the law or go through several regulatory steps to be able to offer coverage outside of an already covered indication,” Dusetzina said. A White House spokesperson said the administration wanted to first lower prices for patients who would most benefit, such as those with risk factors associated with obesity. It’s possible the administration could eventually expand Medicare coverage through a pilot program. Ricks, the CEO of Lilly, said at a briefing Thursday that the government plans to launch one in spring 2026 that would be voluntary for Medicare plans. Still, there are issues Medicare plans would have to weigh, Dusetzina said. “The plans will have to think about how many more people might be interested in enrolling and using these drugs and how that would affect their costs,” she said. “So, again, it’s not totally clear to me how that will get operationalized and how soon Medicare beneficiaries would expect to see lower prices.”Ricks said the pilot would be “at no cost” to the plans.Dr. Shauna Levy, a specialist in obesity medicine and the medical director of the Tulane Weight Loss Center in New Orleans, said the deal is “a step in the right direction” but she worries if the administration is overstating the potential savings.“As an obesity community, I think we will remain skeptical of this deal until we see how it actually plays out,” Levy wrote in an email. Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.

- Latest News - November 7, 2025

President Donald Trump hailed his deal to slash the price of blockbuster weight loss drugs as a game changer, promising to make Wegovy and Zepbound more affordable for millions of.

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