TV News LIES

Volunteer searchers fanned out looking for clues as the hunt for the missing 84-year-old mother of "Today" show cohost Savannah Guthrie entered its 22nd day.

Early on Feb. 22, volunteers gathered in the parking lot of a Tucson, Arizona, Hobby Lobby before beginning an informal search not far from Guthrie's house. The group recovered a backpack that was handed over to deputies.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department later said on Feb. 23 that the backpack found by volunteers does not appear to be a "viable lead," noting that it seems to be a different brand than the one the suspect wore in the doorbell surveillance footage that the FBI previously released. The backpack also "appears to have been outside for much longer than three weeks" and "contained identification of a minor within it," the sheriff's department said.

Authorities had no updates on the investigation as of the morning of Feb. 22, according to Angelica Carrillo, a sheriff's department spokesperson.

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The final day of competition at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics has concluded and the Games have reached their end.

Athletes from more than 90 countries battled in 116 events over 16 days, and USA TODAY tracked each nation's podium finishes. Here's a look at the final medal standings as the Closing Ceremony in Verona begins the countdown for the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.

USA TODAY Sports has a team of more than a dozen journalists on the ground in Italy to bring you behind the scenes with Team USA and keep you up to date. Get our Chasing Gold newsletter in your inbox every morning and join our WhatsApp channel to get the latest updates right in your texts.

Broadcast coverage of the 2026 Milano Cortino Winter Olympics is airing exclusively airing across NBC's suite of networks with many competitions airing live on its streaming service, Peacock, which you can sign up for here.

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A federal judge rejected Tesla’s request to overturn a $243 million jury verdict over the 2019 crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S, which killed a 22-year-old woman and severely injured her boyfriend.

In a decision made public on Friday, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said the evidence at trial “more than supports” the August 2025 verdict, and Tesla raised no new arguments to set the verdict aside.

Tesla, led by Elon Musk, is expected to appeal. Neither Tesla nor its lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment.

The case arose from an April 25, 2019, incident in Key Largo, Florida, in which George McGee drove his 2019 Model S through an intersection at about 62 mph (100 kph) while he bent to look for his phone, which he had dropped.

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Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to ratify their first union contract Thu rsday, securing pay bumps, job protections and a rare win for the United Auto Workers union in the South.

It's been a long road to this contract. Workers initially voted twice against joining the union before casting ballots in favor in 2024, making this VW plant one of the few to unionize in the South, and the rare one that's not a member of the "Big 3" auto companies: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. That was nearly two years ago and negotiations have dragged on since, with workers at one  granting the union the ability to call a strike if necessary.

But contract talks were resolved in early February when the UAW and Volkswagen struck a tentative agreement, which the workers have now voted to approve, with 96% of them voting yes.

"Volkswagen workers have moved yet another mountain," UAW President Shawn Fain said in a press release sent by the union Thursday night. "From having the courage to stand up and form their union, to having the backbone to authorize a strike and hold out for a contract that honors their worth, VW workers are leading the way for the entire labor movement and non-union autoworkers everywhere. Welcome to the UAW family."

In a statement after the tentative contract was announced, Volkswagen officials wrote, "These benefits recognize and reward the hard work and dedication our team members give every day."

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Nurses have reached tentative deals on new contracts to end their strikes at hospitals run by Mount Sinai and Montefiore after nearly a month on the picketline, the New York State Nurses Association announced Monday.

Nurses must first vote on whether to ratify the tentative agreements before they can go back to work. Voting on the contracts was set to start Monday afternoon at the two hospital systems and continue through Wednesday, according to NYSNA. If the contracts are ratified, nurses will return to work by Saturday, NYSNA said.

Nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian said they were still negotiating Monday morning. A spokesperson for the hospital said there was movement at the bargaining table over the weekend.

“We reached a tentative contact agreement!” announced one email sent by Mount Sinai Hospital’s nurses union executive committee at 4:45 a.m. Monday.

A Montefiore spokesperson confirmed the tentative deal. At Mount Sinai, CEO Brendan Carr wrote in a message to employees, “This process has been difficult for all of us." He added, "I commit to you that we will heal the organization together in the service of continuing to help people to live longer and better lives.”

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The Brentano String Quartet had finished their performance when a special guest dropped in backstage: the US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “We thanked her for everything she had done for our country,” recalls violinist Mark Steinberg. “It was a nice moment.”

The year was 2016 and the place was the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Fast forward a decade and old certainties have been shaken: Ginsburg is dead, Donald Trump is president and the Kennedy Center has become a case study in how a seemingly solid American institution can quickly unravel.

The Brentano String Quartet were due to perform there last week but cancelled their show, citing Trump’s hostile takeover of the complex. Steinberg explained: “I would have felt ashamed to walk out on stage there. I can’t quite bring myself to go into the building at this point.

“It would be such a luxury to make art in a vacuum and that’s what I yearn for but that’s not possible right now. Had we appeared there, in my eyes, that would be a way of condoning everything that’s happening and I couldn’t stomach that.”

As the US national capital Washington is first and foremost a politics town, forever in New York’s shadow as a hub of arts and culture. In a 1961 speech Kennedy observed: “Somebody once said that Washington was a city of northern charm and southern efficiency.”

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