Colman Domingo attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 4, 2026, in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Colman Domingo is opening up about the making of the biopic Michael.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, Domingo talked about what it was like to portray Joe Jackson, Michael Jackson’s father, in the biopic about the King of Pop.
“This was not an easy shoot, I will not shy away from that,” Domingo said. To transform into his character, Domingo wore heavy prosthetics and colored contact lenses, and shaved his mustache into a thin line.
Additionally, Michael underwent heavy script rewrites and many reshoots. As part of the changes, Domingo’s role became more integral to the film. The story evolved to center on the friction between Joe and Michael.
“Every time the film was changing in some way, shape or form, there were discussions with me just to make sure that we’re clear about the story we’re telling,” Domingo said.
Even though its production was different than any other project he had been a part of previously, Domingo said he is proud of the film.
“[The movie] has become an examination of how Michael became Michael, before we deal with anything else. Everyone thinks there’s one way to tell his story, and there isn’t. One can’t deny Michael’s genius and his extraordinary legacy in the music industry,” Domingo said.
Michael earned $217 million worldwide during its opening weekend. The film didn’t tell all of the pop star’s life story, however, leaving the door open for more to come.
When asked about making a sequel to Michael, Domingo said, “I will want to know what story we will be telling in part two.”
Law enforcement officers, elected officials, and residents gathered Wednesday at the Henry County Administration Building for the annual Peace Officers’…
The U.S. Capitol Building dome, on May 12, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In an unanimous 99-0 vote, the Senate on Wednesday advanced a resolution to withhold pay from senators during a government shutdown.
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts did not vote on the resolution, which was introduced by Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana.
The vote was a procedural one. The legislation now moves toward final passage, and is expected to pass with resounding support.
The legislation, which would take effect after the November 2026 election, would instruct the secretary of the Senate to place senators’ paychecks on hold during the duration of any future federal government shutdowns. Those payments would be released to lawmakers only after the government reopens.
While multiple similar House bills have been introduced, it’s unclear if legislation in the lower chamber will pass.
“Take your brain with you, because this is about shared sacrifice. This is about putting our money where our mouth is,” Sen. Kennedy said on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Kennedy’s resolution comes after federal workers faced a historic 43-day government shutdown late last year caused by a deadlock between parties over Affordable Care Act subsidies.
During that time, approximately 670,000 federal workers were furloughed, 60,000 workers outside the federal government lost their jobs and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients lost out on benefits all while members of Congress continued to get paid — highlighting the disparity of financial pain endured by members of Congress and the people they serve.
Calls for withholding pay from members of Congress continued to grow this year during the record 75-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Transportation Security Administration agents, Coast Guard members and other department employees went without pay as a stalemate played out on Capitol Hill over immigration enforcement funding and oversight reforms.
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh, clearing the way for Warsh to replace central bank head Jerome Powell when his term ends later this week.
The Senate confirmed Warsh by a vote of 54 to 45. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was the lone Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh.
The vote comes weeks after the Department of Justice moved to drop its criminal probe into Powell. Before that, Warsh had faced a bipartisan stonewall in the Senate Banking Committee over the investigation.
The probe into Powell focused on alleged false testimony to Congress about an office renovation. Powell, whose term ends on Friday, called the investigation a politically motivated effort to influence interest-rate policy.
Last month, Washington U.S. Attorney Jeaninne Pirro said the investigation into the office renovation would be taken up by the Fed’s inspector general.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who previously vowed to oppose Warsh’s nomination on account of the investigation, said he would flip his vote after the investigation was set aside. Tillis greenlit the nomination in a committee vote last month, helping advance Warsh to a confirmation vote on the full Senate floor.
Powell said last month that he would stay on at the central bank’s board of governors after his term expires next month as the investigation into the central bank’s office renovation continues.
“I’ve said I won’t leave the board until this investigation is well and truly over with transparency and finality, and I stand by it,” Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
“My concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed, which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors,” Powell added.
Trump previously denied any involvement in the criminal investigation.
Powell could remain on the Fed’s 12-member policymaking board until 2028, retaining a role in the central bank’s interest-rate policy over that period.
Warsh, a former Fed official, will serve a 4-year term as chair. He is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution conservative think tank, which is based at Stanford University.
During his term as a Fed governor in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Warsh gained a reputation as an interest-rate “hawk,” meaning he generally preferred higher interest rates as a means of ensuring low and stable inflation.
In recent months, however, Warsh has voiced support for lower interest rates, rebuking the Fed’s concern about inflation risk posed by a flurry of new tariffs issued last year.
Warsh is set to take the helm of the Fed in a challenging period for central bank policymakers.
Inflation rose for a second consecutive month as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran continued to send gasoline prices surging in April, government data on Tuesday showed. Annual inflation jumped to its highest level in three years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Fed has opted to hold interest rates steady at three consecutive meetings since the outset of 2026. Before that, the Fed cut interest rates a quarter-point three straight times.
If the Fed moved to raise interest rates, it would hike borrowing costs for many consumer and business loans, risking an economic slowdown.
Markets forecast a roughly 60% chance of interest rates holding steady for the remainder of this year, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The odds of an interest-rate hike by the end of the year stand at about 30%.
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks at an event with US Vice President JD Vance and Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) at Ex-Guard Industries, a manufacturing facility on May 5, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. Vance is attending the event to support Nunn ahead of the state’s June 2 primary election. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt-Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A new federal lawsuit accuses Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins of proselytizing federal employees by frequently invoking Jesus Christ in work emails.
The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of seven USDA employees filed the lawsuit in California, accusing Rollins of violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
“Secretary Rollins’s practice and policy of subjecting agency employees to proselytizing messages conveys the expectation that USDA employees share in the Secretary’s religious beliefs, even when doing so would betray an employee’s own beliefs,” the lawsuit said. “It is exactly the sort of government-sponsored religious coercion, religious sermonizing, and denominational preference that the Establishment Clause prohibits.”
The complaint listed a series of emails sent by Rollins to commemorate recent holidays, including crediting “gratitude towards a loving God” in her Thanksgiving email, writing that “God gave us the greatest gift possible” in her Christmas email, and describing the story of Jesus’ resurrection as the “greatest story ever told” in her Easter email. Rollins only acknowledged Christian holidays, according to the complaint.
“Our nation’s Founders — having learned from the harmful effects of past religious conflicts — adopted the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to safeguard against government promoting any favored religion or imposing its preferred religious practice on its citizens to protect religious freedom for all,” the lawsuit said.
While religious expression is protected under law and federal employees are permitted to engage in private religious speech, the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from establishing an official state religion, favoring one religion over another, or favoring religion over non-religion.
The federal employees who brought the lawsuit alleged that Rollin’s speech “indoctrinates USDA employees and has caused them to feel coerced, unwelcome, excluded, and like outsiders to the agency.”
One employee claimed in the suit that she was told it would “create trouble” for her if she asked to be removed from the email distribution list, and others said they feared retaliation if they complained about the messages.
Another employee said he “feels that the Secretary is conveying to him that he is unwelcome and ‘going to hell’ because he does not share the Secretary’s beliefs.”
In response to the lawsuit, a USDA spokesperson said in a statement, “While we do not comment on pending litigation, we will keep the plaintiffs in our prayers during this process.”
‘KPop Demon Hunters’ world tour (Courtesy Netflix)
In the not-so-distant future, tickets for a KPop Demon Hunters world tour will be going up, up, up for sale.
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the record-breaking, Oscar-winning Netflix animated film and its award-winning, chart-topping soundtrack, the streamer has announced a KPop Demon Huntersglobal concert tour.
The tour is described as a “live experience” that will “bring elements of the global phenomenon to life in dynamic and unforgettable ways for fans around the world,” but there aren’t any details beyond that. For example, the involvement of the singers behind the movie’s two main groups, HUNTR/X and Saja Boys, is unknown at this time.
More information about which cities the tour will visit and when tickets will go on sale will be announced later this year, but you can join a wait list to be notified at KPopDemonHunterslive.com.
KPop Demon Hunters debuted on Netflix on June 20, 2025, and became the most-watched original title in Netflix history. Its soundtrack dominated the Billboard charts, including the #1 hit “Golden,” the first K-pop song in history to win a Grammy Award and the first to win an Academy Award. The film also won the best animated feature film Oscar.
Since the movie became a success, EJAE, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna, the voices of HUNTR/X, have performed together on TV and live, and were named Women of the Year at Billboard‘s annual Women In Music gala.
Actor Matthew Perry of the television show ‘The Kennedys – After Camelot’ speaks onstage during the REELZChannel portion of the 2017 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Langham Hotel on January 13, 2017, in Pasadena, California (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES, Calif. ) — A man who helped supply Matthew Perry with the doses of ketamine that killed the “Friends” actor was sentenced on Wednesday to two years in prison.
Erik Fleming, a licensed drug addiction counselor, admitted in a plea agreement to working with another dealer to provide Perry with dozens of vials of ketamine, including the dose that led to the actor’s fatal overdose in October 2023 at the age of 54.
Fleming is one of five people charged and convicted in what prosecutors called a conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine to Perry. He pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
He faced up to 25 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The sentence also includes three years of supervised release.
“I am regretfully sorry for the pain and anguish I have caused the family. It’s what hurts me the most,” Fleming told reporters upon leaving the courthouse.
He said he deserved a consequence, “and I got a consequence.”
“My chest and heart hurt every day for the pain that I’ve caused not only his family, but the millions of people who adored him,” Fleming said.
Federal prosecutors argued in a memorandum filed ahead of sentencing that Fleming should receive 30 months in prison due to his “profit-seeking behavior and reckless distribution of dubiously manufactured drugs.”
They said that after learning through a friend that Perry was seeking illicit ketamine, Fleming brokered multiple transactions between the other dealer, Jasveen Sangha, and the actor’s live-in personal assistant, “despite knowing the risk and dangers of selling the drugs.”
They said Fleming knew about Perry’s history of addiction and still chose to sell him drugs, which, unlike medical-grade ketamine, were contained in clear, unmarked vials of unknown concentrations. They said he also marked up the price of the vials Sangha was selling from $160 to $220.
They said Fleming struggled with addiction himself and was “well aware of the warning signs of drug seeking behavior,” but that he “nonetheless elected to insert himself into Mr. Perry’s addiction story to profit from it.”
“Although defendant’s drug trafficking appear[s] to be limited to the drug sales in October 2023, his criminal conduct nonetheless caused significant harm, including the loss of Mr. Perry’s life,” prosecutors stated.
Defense attorneys, meanwhile, requested that Fleming be sentenced to three months in prison and nine months in a residential drug treatment facility “where he can continue the hard work he has put into maintaining his sobriety.”
His attorneys, Robert Dugdale and Jeffrey Chemerinsky, said Fleming “relapsed into heavy drug use” following the death of his stepmother in September 2023 and was “most vulnerable to engage in uncharacteristically reckless conduct.” They argued that he only brokered three transactions “involving very small quantities” of ketamine to a single customer in exchange for less than $2,000 for “logistical fees.”
“Tragically, this brief diversion Mr. Fleming took from his otherwise law-abiding life led to a calamity Mr. Fleming never intended and foolishly did not foresee as possible,” the attorneys stated in a sentencing memorandum.
“Mr. Fleming is appearing at his sentencing fully acknowledging the role he played in this tragedy and is as remorseful as one could be for the harm he has caused those close to Mr. Perry,” they continued.
Fleming’s attorneys maintained there are multiple mitigating factors, including his “extraordinary cooperation,” which they said helped lead to the “immediate apprehension” of Sangha. Since pleading guilty, he has also “worked tirelessly to maintain his sobriety” and opened a sober living home, they said.
Prosecutors agreed that Fleming warranted leniency for accepting responsibility and cooperating with the government’s investigation, “including information that furthered the prosecution of a more culpable defendant,” Sangha.
Sangha, the so-called “Ketamine Queen,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison last month. She pleaded guilty last year to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Prosecutors said she ran a “high-volume drug trafficking business” out of her residence in North Hollywood and continued to sell “dangerous drugs” even after learning she had sold ketamine that contributed to the overdose deaths of two men: Perry and, years earlier, Los Angeles resident Cody McLaury.
In addition to Fleming and Sangha, three other people were charged and pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death: Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant; and two doctors, Mark Chavez and Salvador Plasencia.
Prosecutors said Sangha worked with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry, and that in October 2023, they sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine that were provided to Iwamasa.
“Leading up to Perry’s death, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that Sangha supplied to Fleming,” the DOJ said in a press release last year. “Specifically, on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha’s ketamine, which caused Perry’s death.”
Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, causing death, and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.
Chavez and Plasencia have already been sentenced for their roles in what prosecutors called a conspiracy to illegally distribute ketamine to Perry.
Chavez, who once ran a ketamine clinic, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and was sentenced to eight months of home confinement in December 2025.
Plasencia, who briefly treated Perry before the actor’s death, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of distribution of ketamine and was sentenced to 30 months in prison in December 2025.
Kouri Richins is seen in a Summit County Sheriff’s Office booking photo. (Summit County Sheriff’s Office)
(UTAH) — Kouri Richins, a Utah woman convicted of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, was sentenced to life without parole for murder on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old mother of three, who self-published a children’s book on grieving following her husband’s death in 2022, was found guilty on all counts in March following a weekslong trial. The Summit County jury reached a verdict after about three hours of deliberations.
She faced either 25 years to life in prison or life without parole.
Eric Richins, 39, was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined that he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document.
Kouri Richins was found guilty of aggravated murder, with prosecutors saying she spiked his drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl that she purchased illicitly after asking two people for the “Michael Jackson drug.”
She was also found guilty of attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors saying she gave her husband a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.
She was additionally found guilty of insurance fraud for taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on her husband’s life with his forged signature and for submitting a claim following his death.
Kouri Richins addresses court
Kouri Richins, who did not testify during her trial, addressed the court prior to her sentencing in what the defense said would be an “unusually long” allocution.
She spoke directly to her three children, referring to them as her “sweet baby boys,” saying she has been unable to contact them since early 2024 so “will use any opportunity I can to get a message to you — even if that means sharing it publicly to the world, fully restrained in my jail clothes, in one of the most horrible situations possible.”
“I don’t care, and I’m not embarrassed or ashamed by any of it,” she continued.
While surrounded by her attorneys at the podium in lime-green jail clothing and handcuffs during her nearly 40-minute remarks, she said her children are her reason for living and “I am so sorry for even one second you thought that I did for even one second you thought that I didn’t love you.”
“I know that today you don’t want to speak to me, have a relationship with me,” she said. “You may think you hate me, and that’s okay. I will never be angry at you for your feelings. When the day comes that you’re ready, I will be here for you, waiting for you, and loving you.”
She told them she is “not perfect.”
“I have succeeded and I have failed as a person, as a wife, as a parent — we all do,” she said.
Regarding her and her husband, she said, “We failed at some things, we never failed at loving you boys.”
She got emotional, telling them that they will always have their brothers.
“You have each other’s back,” she said.
Kouri Richins repeatedly told them to “be like their dad” and serve their community, be generous, love the outdoors and be a “noble son.”
“Be the friend everyone wants to be friends with, the dad that everyone wishes they had,” she said.
She said she may never see them again and apologized for them being in the middle of “absolute chaos.”
“I’m sorry that eight people from a jury who have never met you or me or our family have the right to determine our future, and they did that in less than three hours,” she said on her conviction.
She said she’s “broken” without her children and husband, and that the thought that she murdered their dad is an “absolute lie.”
“The thought of that is still as absurd today as it was four years ago,” she said.
“I would have never taken him from you, from us,” she continued.
She said she will appeal her conviction and fight the charges “no matter how long it takes.”
“I will not be blamed for something I did not do,” she said. “I need you boys to know the truth, and because of that, I will never quit the truth and coming home to you.”
Calls for life without parole
Prosecutors asked Judge Richard Mrazik to hand down a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, saying she “murdered Eric in the presence of their children, using poison, and for money.”
“Such a person should never again lurk among the rest of us,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. “Her children should never worry that they may one day encounter her.”
The memo included statements from the couple’s three boys, who were 9, 7 and 5 years old when their father was murdered.
The eldest son, identified by his initials as C.R., wanted the court to know that “my dad was a good person and very thoughtful and kind and helped whoever needed help,” the filing stated.
Prosecutors said that the Utah Division of Child and Family Services supported a finding of emotional and physical abuse by Kouri Richins against C.R. following the death.
“I’m afraid if she gets out, she will come after me and my brothers, my whole family. I think she would come and take us and not do good things to us, like hurt us,” the filing stated. “I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be, I don’t miss Kouri, I will tell you that.”
The middle child, A.R., was a “material witness” to the murder, according to prosecutors, as Kouri Richins told police that she had gone into his room before returning to bed and finding her husband dead. Had he taken the stand during the trial, “A.R. would have testified at trial that the Defendant did not sleep in his room with him the night she murdered his father,” prosecutors stated.
A.R. said he doesn’t want his mother out of jail “because I will not feel safe,” the filing stated. The youngest son, W.R., also said he would feel “so scared” if his mother ever got out, and that she “makes me feel hateful and ashamed.”
The statements were read on their behalf by advocates during the sentencing hearing.
Defense attorney Wendy Lewis asked that the court not consider the state’s sentencing memo, arguing during the hearing that it contained “unsworn allegations untested by cross-examination” and was a “not-so-subtle attempt” to make public evidence that they held back or were unable to present in court because Kouri Richins did not testify.
Lewis disputed several points in the memo, saying that the Utah Division of Child and Family Services made an initial finding of emotional and physical abuse based on reports, sending the case to juvenile court, which she said found “no fault” — “in other words, that the children needed intervention, but due to no fault of Kouri Richins.”
Lewis also said that upon Kouri Richins’ arrest a year after the death, A.R.’s statements to police at the time were consistent with hers, that “Kouri had gone to sleep in his room” that night.
Judge Mrazik ultimately denied the defense’s request to strike portions of the state’s sentencing memo.
‘Permanent trauma’
The three boys are now in the care of one of Eric Richins’ sisters, Katie Richins-Benson, and her husband, according to the filing.
Richins-Benson urged the court to hand down a sentence that guarantees Kouri Richins will remain in prison for the rest of her life for the “permanent trauma” she’s inflicted on the children.
“The mere thought that someone who has so little regard for human life or decency might one day walk free is horrifying,” she said while delivering a victim impact statement in court on Wednesday. “I worry about the safety of Eric’s boys, my daughters, my sister and myself. There is nothing Kouri will not do and no one she will not hurt to achieve her own selfish ends.”
Several other family members delivered emotional victim impact statements during the hearing, held on what would have been Eric Richins’ 44th birthday, while also asking for the maximum sentence possible.
In addition to the maximum sentence, prosecutors asked that Kouri Richins be ordered to pay restitution to two insurance companies totaling more than $1.3 million.
Defense says she’s not a ‘monster’
Defense attorney Kathryn Nester argued during the sentencing hearing that Kouri Richins is not the “monster” portrayed by the prosecution, while asking the judge to consider conduct displayed over the course of her life.
Nester described Kouri Richins as a “human being, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a person that has made mistakes,” but also a person who has “completed acts of kindness and love and care toward others, a person who’s contributed to her community, a person who even in the darkest time of her life, reached out to help others who were incarcerated alongside her, a person who unselfishly tried to ease the pain her family and friends experienced as a result of this case.”
Defense attorney Wendy Lewis read in court a letter written by Kouri Richins’ mother, during which she asked the court to hand down a sentence that reflects accountability but also “allows the possibility of a future.”
Her mother also called the conviction a “profound injustice.”
“I do not believe Kouri is capable of committing a murder,” she wrote.
Other letters by family members and friends in support of Kouri Richins were read on their behalf or delivered in court. She could be seen crying as her brother addressed the court.
“I miss your family, I miss our family,” her brother, Ronnie Darden, told the court. “We don’t, with 100% certainty, know what happened to Eric, no one does, but we do know, with 100% certainty, that it wasn’t caused by you.”
Lewis asked for a sentence of 25 years to life, saying, “When you put aside all of the media, all of the interest, and you look at the crime she is convicted of, this is an appropriate sentence.”
“A sentence of 25 to life is not a sentence that guarantees the release of Kouri Richins,” Lewis continued. “It is not saying that she even should be released. What it is saying is that the decision whether she should be released is a decision for someone else to make on another day — a day that will be at the minimum 25 to 30 years in the future, a future that could look very different than today.”
Prosecutors argued that Kouri Richins was having an affair and wanted a “fresh start” and to leave her husband — but didn’t want to leave his money. They said she was in “financial desperation” due to her house flipping business’ debts and needed a significant influx of cash immediately.
According to prosecutors, she believed she would have financially benefited from her husband’s death — without realizing that his assets were in a trust overseen by one of his sisters, Katie Richins-Benson.
The defense, meanwhile, said the case was “sloppy” and “driven by bias” and argued that the state failed to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense called no witnesses.
Kouri Richins also faces more than two dozen charges in a separate case filed last year, including allegations that she committed mortgage fraud in 2021. The charging document alleges she submitted falsified bank statements in support of mortgage loan applications for her realty business, committed money laundering and issued bad checks.
The charges in the case also allege she murdered her husband for financial gain as she “stood on the precipice of total financial collapse.”
