Author: Susan Hauser

Patricia Gillespie is an Emmy Award-winning documentary director. She has told difficult stories before. But when she first heard the air traffic control recordings from August 2018 — the voice of a 29-year-old ground service agent flying a stolen commercial turboprop over the waters of Puget Sound, cracking jokes, apologizing to the people he loved, and waiting to die — she found herself unable to move on. “When I heard these recordings, they really struck a chord with me,” Gillespie told Fox News Digital. “He just sounded like guys I knew back home, especially when he was talking about his…

Nearly a year and a half after Hailey E. Athay was last seen by her family, her fate has been confirmed — not by investigators, but by two young men who happened to walk into the right stretch of Washington state forest on a Sunday afternoon. The Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday that skeletal remains discovered over the weekend in a wooded area of Rose Valley have been positively identified as those of Athay, a 33-year-old woman from Cowlitz County who was last seen in Kelso, Washington in November 2024. The discovery was made on Sunday when two hikers…

Elizabeth Banks reignited a political debate this week after saying she cannot understand why a majority of White women backed President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Speaking on a Bustle podcast episode highlighted by Variety, Banks used the moment to urge women to act more like her “Hunger Games” character and resist what she called a “fascist regime.” Her comments turned a pop-culture interview into a broader political statement. They also revived a familiar post-election argument about gender, race, celebrity activism, and how women voters split in one of the country’s most divisive elections.…

Gaines said she had received “so much pushback” from Trump’s online supporters after objecting to the image, which depicted Trump in robes while appearing to heal a sick man. She argued that several things could be true at once: that Trump could benefit from more humility, that God should not be mocked, and that she still stands by her vote. That was the heart of her message. Gaines did not frame her criticism as a break with Trump. Instead, she presented it as a line she believed should not be crossed, especially when religious imagery is involved. [Suggested Link: Riley…

Forty-eight hours after a San Francisco Chronicle report detailed graphic sexual misconduct allegations against him, Rep. Eric Swalwell made it official: he is out of the race for California governor. In a statement posted to X on Sunday, the California Democrat apologized to those closest to him while maintaining that the allegations against him are false — and framing his exit as a protective measure for the campaign rather than an admission of wrongdoing. “I am suspending my campaign for Governor,” Swalwell wrote. “To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I’ve made…

Days before they were set to perform at one of the most watched music festivals in the world, The Lambrini Girls delivered news no band wants to share: they would not be taking the stage at Coachella 2026. The reason was serious. Lead singer Phoebe Lunny had fractured her neck and sustained what the band described as an “acute brain injury” — an injury that was initially missed by medical professionals, leaving her without proper treatment for a critical window of time. “We have to pull out of Coachella and reschedule our whole American headline tour,” the punk band shared…

By Friday evening, the endorsement page on Eric Swalwell’s California gubernatorial campaign website was displaying an error message. It was a fitting symbol for what had become a rapidly unraveling political situation. Within hours of a San Francisco Chronicle report publishing the first firsthand public account from a former staffer alleging sexual assault by the California congressman, some of the most prominent names in California Democratic politics had pulled their support — and the calls for Swalwell to exit the race were growing louder by the hour. Swalwell has denied the allegations. The account published by the San Francisco Chronicle…

For 30 years, the disappearance of 13-year-old Christina “Tina” Plante from a small Arizona town was treated as something dark. She had left home one afternoon, told people she was headed to a nearby horse stable, and never came back. Investigators feared the worst. The case went cold. What cold case detectives recently discovered was not a crime scene. It was a life. Plante, now 45, has been living quietly in Springfield, Missouri — more than 1,100 miles from where she vanished. She is married. She has three sons. She holds a college degree. She works in private investigations. Authorities…

California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is facing allegations of sexual misconduct, which his campaign has firmly denied, calling them baseless and politically motivated. The claims surfaced just weeks before voting begins in the state’s primary election. A spokesperson for Swalwell, Micah Beasley, dismissed the accusations as false and described them as an attempt by political rivals to damage the congressman’s standing ahead of the election. According to Beasley, opponents are spreading misinformation because Swalwell is currently leading the race. The allegations were raised by Cheyenne Hunt, a former Capitol Hill staffer and political media figure. Hunt has publicly…

For decades, transatlantic tensions over NATO have followed a familiar pattern: sharp words, bruised feelings, and an eventual return to the alliance’s foundational commitments. European leaders have learned to wait out the friction. This time, according to one of the world’s most closely watched geopolitical observers, may be genuinely different. Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, said Monday that European capitals are no longer simply absorbing another round of American pressure — they are beginning to accept that the relationship with the United States may have fundamentally changed. “I think there’s a recognition in Europe that, you know, maybe…