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New York Post
3 days ago
- New York Post
Homecoming king killed as classmate allegedly drove him drunk to celebrate their graduation: ‘I f–ked up'
A high school homecoming king was killed when his drunk classmate crashed while showing off his truck just days after their graduation — with the driver sobbing to cops that he was an alcoholic who 'f–ked up,' according to authorities. Izak Schermerhorn, 18, was charged Thursday with vehicular homicide for crashing and killing his school's homecoming king, Blake Unger, 18, while taking him for a late-night drive in Western Minnesota, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Fox 9. Unger was found trapped under his pal's pickup truck — and a deputy noted deep ruts in the gravel road where 'it appeared the driver had been aggressively fishtailing back and forth.' Advertisement Izak Schermerhorn, 18, is charged with vehicular homicide. Otter Tail County Detention Facility Schermerhorn told deputies he had been sober for a year after battling with alcoholism — but had drunk three or four Mike's Hard lemonades 'to celebrate' them both graduating from New York Mills High School on Friday, the document said. The teen driver 'repeatedly made statements that 'his life was over and all for a couple of drinks' and that he 'f–cked up,'' according to the complaint. Advertisement Schermerhorn also allegedly told deputies 'he wanted to show off the sound of his exhaust because he modified his catalytic converter.' 'He intentionally had been sliding around the road before the crash and was not able to control the vehicle when it went into the ditch,' police noted. Blake Unger was named homecoming king of New York Mills High School this fall. Facebook / Dinee Dixie Dykhoff Schermerhorn was charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide related to being drunk and a third alleging gross negligence. Advertisement He appeared in court on Thursday where a judge granted his release on $1,000 bail on the condition he seeks counseling, abstains from drug or alcohol use and remains out of trouble. He is scheduled to return to court on June 10. Unger was a three-sport athlete at New York Mills High School and was crowned homecoming king last fall, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. 'It is with a great deal of sadness that I share this message with you … that a member of our school community has passed away in a motor vehicle accident,' District Superintendent Adam Johnson said in a statement to families. 'This is a devastating time for our entire community.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge orders ICE to immediately release Indonesian man accused of overstaying visa
A Minnesota federal judge ordered immigration officials to immediately release an Indonesian man who was taken into custody in late March after allegedly overstaying his student visa, reports say. Aditya Harsono, 34, has been held at the Kandiyohi County Jail in Willmar since being arrested by ICE agents at his workplace in Marshall on March 27, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. "The Court finds that [Harsono] has shown that he is in custody in violation of the First Amendment and is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus for his immediate release," the newspaper cited U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez as saying in her ruling Wednesday. "The Court finds it is more reasonable to infer that Respondents have detained [Harsono] in retaliation for his speech than because of any professed public safety concern," Menendez reportedly added. Judge Orders Trump Administration Restore Ohio State Grad Student's Visa Menendez ordered that Harsono be released within 48 hours, with his attorney Sarah Gad telling MPR News that his family posted a $5,000 bond. Read On The Fox News App Harsono previously said he thought his arrest on March 27 was in retaliation for his participation in protests following the 2021 police-involved killing of Daunte Wright, according to the outlet. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Aditya Wahyu Harsono of Indonesia March 27 at his place of work. Harsono entered the United States legally on Jan. 7, 2015. Harsono was arrested by Lyon County Sheriff's Office Oct. 18, 2022, for damage to property and convicted on Feb. 7, 2023. US law enforcement determined he poses a public safety threat," a senior Homeland Security official told Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul. The station reported that Harsono first arrived in the U.S. under a student visa to study at Southwest Minnesota State University before he married an American citizen in October 2023. It added that Harsono was in the process of obtaining a green card, but his visa was revoked just days before he was arrested at the hospital where he works. Trump College Crackdown: List Of Students Detained Amid Antisemitism On Campuses Harsono's attorney told Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul that his misdemeanor vandalism conviction is not a deportable offense. "There seems to be this trend recently where international students who have engaged in some type of activism or expressed, you know, political speech or have expressed, you know, support for Palestine – something along those lines – their student visas get revoked," Gad said to the station. Harsono's lawyers also argued in court that the government targeted him over posts on the Instagram page of his clothing line, which had pictures with messages such as "Free Palestine" and "Black Lives Matter," according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. Gad did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Fox News article source: Federal judge orders ICE to immediately release Indonesian man accused of overstaying visa
USA Today
07-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Biden made a mess of the border – and with student loans. Trump cleaned up both.
Biden made a mess of the border – and with student loans. Trump cleaned up both. | Opinion President Donald Trump is restoring fiscal responsibility to the student loan program after years of false promises made by Joe Biden. Show Caption Hide Caption Defaulted student loan collection resumes Federal student loans in default will start being sent to collections on Monday. Fox - Fox 9 Democrats and their media sycophants often describe President Donald Trump as a chaos agent. I would argue that former President Joe Biden deserves the title even more. The mess Biden and his administration made of the southern border was self-inflicted, with unprecedented numbers of illegal border crossings. It's no surprise that immigration became a flashpoint in the 2024 presidential election. And Trump has quickly cleaned up Biden's mishandling of the border. Yet, while illegal immigration has gotten considerable attention, millions of Americans also are suffering from the chaos Biden created in another realm. Student loans. Throughout Biden's four years in office, he repeatedly promised the more than 40 million federal student loan borrowers either outright loan 'cancellation' or payment plans that were greatly reduced or completely zeroed out. On top of that, Biden kept extending a COVID-related pause on loan payments, which allowed borrowers to stop paying down loans without interest until the fall of 2023. Opinion: Walz's weird 'code talk' moment exposes why Democrats keep losing Trump bringing sanity back to student loans, but it won't be easy Biden essentially fashioned a new entitlement program – on the backs of taxpayers – and made borrowers feel as if they should be unburdened by the debt they knowingly took on. That's despite major court decisions, including at the U.S. Supreme Court, that threw out Biden's first $400 billion loan forgiveness rollout as unconstitutional. The losses in court didn't stop Biden from attempting to find workarounds – and continuing to promise future debt cancellation. Yet, those other programs were similarly overturned by the courts or tossed by Biden's Education Department after Trump won reelection. In the meantime, borrowers have had to deal with the brunt of the confusion. Now, however, the Trump administration is bringing sanity back to loan repayments with the radical approach that loans should actually be repaid. Opinion: 77 million Americans voted for Trump. After 100 days, few of them regret it. On May 5, Trump's Education Department began collecting on defaulted student loans, which is the first time that's happened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. "The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a press release. "Hundreds of billions have already been transferred to taxpayers. Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly." That's a relief. Biden lied to borrowers. Now they have to face reality. After years of being made to feel their debt wasn't really their problem, many student loan holders are finding themselves in difficult situations that could hurt their credit if they don't address the defaulted debt immediately. Only 38% of borrowers are current on their student loans, and a record high – 20.5% – of student loan borrowers are seriously delinquent (at least 90 days overdue), a recent TransUnion report shows. The Trump administration has said that more than 5 million borrowers have not made a payment in more than 360 days, which means they could see their wages garnished. Opinion: It's time to ditch the tariffs that are slowing the economy. Even Trump knows it. As these student loan holders face harsh reality, Republicans in Congress are working on legislation that would cap the amount of loans individuals can take on, as well as the number of available income-driven repayment plans. That is the proper venue for determining the parameter of costly student loans – not the executive branch. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made promises they knew they couldn't keep to borrowers in an effort to buy their votes. That ploy failed. But the chaos they inflicted on millions of Americans remains. Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@ or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Discount clinic's shocking act after family complained about woman dying during gastric bypass surgery
A mother died from sepsis and internal bleeding when a discount gastric bypass surgery she had in Mexico went wrong. Lisa Roemeling, 53, died on November 21 after the surgery in Tijuana that was organized by a medical tourism company for about $7,000. Getting the weight-loss surgery in the US would have cost about $30,000 as it was not covered by insurance, and Roemeling couldn't afford it. The mother-of-one flew from Hugo, Minnesota, where she ran Carbone's Pizzeria with her husband Tad Roemeling, to San Diego. The company then drove Roemeling and her cousin Jenny Poppo across the border to the clinic where the operation was performed. But there were complications and she suffered internal bleeding and later sepsis, leading to a cardiac arrest that left her braindead. There was no improvement in her condition when she was transferred to a hospital in San Diego, and her husband took her off life support. Poppo furiously gave the medical tourism company a one-star review on Yelp, criticizing the clinic's lack of equipment, or staff who spoke English and had the skills to deal with her cousin's complications. The company sent her an email on Christmas Day that apologized for Roemeling's death, but warned her not to speak out. 'We respectfully request... that everyone affected refrain from making public statements that are both hurtful and inaccurate,' it said. Poppo said the surgery was a 'circus act' from the moment they arrived, and the staff failed to find the source of the bleeding. 'They didn't have basic things like an MRI machine, a CT machine,' she told Fox 9. Roemeling was buried after her funeral on January 12 at the Huge City Hall, where hundreds braved a freezing cold day to pay their respects. Her son Austin Roemeling mourned her online beside a photo of her holding his newborn son, born just three months before her death. 'It pains me that my son will have to grow up without seeing his grandma,' he wrote. 'But I'm so glad that she at least got her dream of being a grandma and getting those special 3 months with him where I wish she could have gotten 30 years, at least. 'As I told my mom before she passed, her legacy will live on in all of the people lives that she changed and I will be telling my son all about his amazing grandma as I try to do the best I can to be an amazing parent like she was for me.' Her family added in their eulogy: 'Her family was the center of her world, and she relished every moment spent with them, whether at home or on cherished vacations,' her family wrote. 'Known for her thoughtful and generous spirit, Lisa was always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need. 'Her warmth and compassion left a lasting impression on everyone she met, and her legacy of kindness will continue to inspire those who knew her. Lisa's love for life and her family was evident in everything she did.'
USA Today
19-04-2025
- Health
- USA Today
'If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it': Meet the food blogger influencing RFK Jr.
'If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it': Meet the food blogger influencing RFK Jr. A food blogger from Charlotte, North Carolina, is getting top billing at the White House thanks to President Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda Show Caption Hide Caption Trump: RFK Jr. will 'make America healthy again' Former President Donald Trump said during his Election Night victory speech that Robert Kennedy Jr. will "make America healthy again", adding "Go have a good time, Bobby." Fox - Fox 9 Dressed in a purple jumpsuit and wearing her signature bright pink lipstick, Vani Hari walks through a grocery store aisle filled with Easter candy. 'Welcome to the holiday death aisle,' says the 46-year-old food activist and influencer, gesticulating dramatically. 'It's back, and it's in Easter form.' Hari, who blogs as 'The Food Babe,' rattles off a list of ingredients, taking pains to emphasize how unpronounceable the chemical names in a pack of roll-up candy are: 'poly meanite… what?' More: Robert F. Kennedy now heads Trump's MAHA commission: What to know That's part of her shtick: 'If you can't pronounce it, don't eat it." Last month, the White House invited her to the first Make America Healthy Again Moms' roundtable. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moderated the closed-door meeting with some of the most influential women in the new Republican administration including members of the Cabinet. The typical response from her 2.3 million Instagram followers? 'You've helped me adjust my entire food thought process. I look at everything in the store with suspicion,' commented one user with the handle @idyllwild_history_bits_and_pc. Hari's clout as a wellness influencer - Time Magazine in 2015 named her as one of 'The 30 Most Influential People on the Internet' - has given her sway over large companies and government officials, even as many scientists say that many of her claims aren't backed by science. Now the food blogger from Charlotte, North Carolina, is getting top billing at the White House thanks to President Donald Trump and Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again agenda. 'For years, it felt like citizen activists like me were the only ones holding these food companies accountable,' Hari, who was listed on the agenda for the private roundtable session as a "MAHA Influencer," told USA TODAY. 'Finally, it was somebody in Washington willing to fix the issue that has allowed these companies to put chemicals in our food that they don't put in other countries.' MAHA Mom: Kennedy 'took my voice on the campaign trail' More: Looking to avoid toxic 'forever' chemicals? Here's your best chance of doing so. Vani Hari wasn't always a healthy eater. As a child, she rejected her mom's Indian cooking to assimilate with her American friends who favored fast food. But that path led to mounting health problems, and, by her mid-20s, she began investigating what she was consuming and advocating for transparency in food labeling and the removal of harmful chemicals from processed foods. She'd spent hours researching and reading books on nutrition and studying food labels. On trips abroad, she'd often visit grocery stores comparing labels on food sold by American companies with what they offered stateside. In 2011, armed with knowledge she had acquired through her self-styled research, she launched to document her healthy eating journey and to share what she was learning about the chemicals in her food. After writing a viral blogpost about the ingredients found in a Chick-fil-A sandwich including food coloring, MSG and refined grains, the company invited Hari to their headquarters to discuss her concerns. On her blog, she mentions the fact that two years later, the company responded by announcing they were removing artificial dyes - highlighting it as a big win for the activist community. More: Girl Scouts hit back after Joe Rogan calls their cookies 'toxic' on his podcast By 2014, her blog had millions of people reading it. Her career as a food activist took off. So did the blowback. Yale neuroscientist Steve Novella dubbed Hari as the "Jenny McCarthy of Food" and dismissed her as a "scaremonger" who was sounding the alarm on completely safe ingredients. McCarthy, an actress, model and talk show host, has been excoriated by the scientific community for her belief that vaccines caused her son to develop autism. Novella, the founder and executive editor of Science-Based Medicine, run by the nonprofit New England Skeptical Society, wrote in 2014 how he believed Hari had "marshaled her scientific illiteracy to pressure Subway" into removing an ingredient from their bread. "She called azodicarbonamide, an ingredient to make bread fluffier, the' yoga mat chemical 'because it also has a variety of industrial uses, including making yoga mats," he wrote. "Soy also has a variety of uses, including making yoga mats." In 2017, Hari said her activism took a back seat when she became a mom and launched Truvani, a food company which is billed as offering "real food without added chemicals." Among the organic products the company sells online and in stores are protein powders, snack bars and toothpaste. 'He took my voice on the campaign trail,' she said. Hari said she ended her hiatus from activism last September to speak at a Senate roundtable on 'American health and nutrition: A second opinion' organized by U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin. Kennedy, who had suspended his independent campaign for president weeks earlier and endorsed then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, came to the session on Capitol Hill. At a dinner afterward, Hari and Kennedy sat at the same table and talked at length about food additives. More: 'You frighten people': 4 takeaways from RFK Jr's contentious confirmation hearing Hari sat one row behind Kennedy's wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, during his Jan. 30 Senate confirmation hearing to oversee the nation's food and health care systems as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Wearing a fuchsia pantsuit, she nodded along as Kennedy spoke about the role of additives and what he said they were doing to America's waistline and its long-term health. Hari doesn't have professional training in health or nutrition. Neither does Kennedy, 71, a longtime environmental lawyer with no background in medicine or health care, but who has long argued that chemical additives and food dyes are behind the 'chronic diseases epidemic' in the country. His vow to take on "Big Pharma" during his short-lived presidential run won the support of many, particularly mothers worried about what was in their kids' diets. 'I lost faith in my government and my regulatory agencies because I had to go and directly petition food companies to change because they weren't doing the right thing,' she said in an interview at the end of Kennedy's first of two confirmation hearings. 'It's because the FDA was allowing them to get away with it.' Hari said it felt like a 'defining moment" because Kennedy had 'heard the call.' Roundtable at the White House and MAHA wins More: Snapshot of RFK Jr.'s plan for changing the U.S. food and drug system Hari said she didn't know what to expect when she went to the White House for the Make America Healthy Again Moms' roundtable. That day, right before she entered the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building armed with charts for her presentation, she could see Trump on the South Lawn showcasing Tesla models with Elon Musk, the car company's CEO and leader of the Department of Government Efficiency. Looking around the room, Hari said she was "pleasantly surprised" to find that the majority of the women at the table had ties to the administration. She took her seat next to two other MAHA Moms. Kennedy sat across from her flanked by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. Also at the table: Then-White House Counselor Alina Habba, now the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who had her infant son on her lap. Drawing on her research during her foreign travels, Hari gave a seven-minute presentation showing the discrepancies between the ingredients listed in American versions of certain food versus its European counterparts. Kennedy moderated the panel, where he weighed in on a West Virginia bill banning food dyes and preservatives. He urged people to call the state's Republican governor to back the legislation. The HHS secretary promised things would change. "We're going to stop this from happening," Kennedy told the room, according to Hari, adding: "American companies can basically stop poisoning us with ingredients they don't use in other countries." A few hours later, the White House posted a video on social media highlighting Kennedy, Cabinet members and the MAHA moms struggling to pronounce certain ingredients in common food items. Social media users were quick to point out that just because you can't pronounce certain items doesn't mean they are unsafe. Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
