A Texas jury on Tuesday sentenced the FedEx driver who admitted to murdering seven-year-old Athena Strand to death. Tanner Horner, who confessed last month to killing the young girl in 2022, stood expressionless as Judge George Gallagher delivered the sentence. “It is therefore the order of this court that your punishment be death,” Gallagher said. Strand’s naked body was found in a creek on December 2, 2022, just about 40 miles north of the courtroom where Horner learned his fate. The judge said the execution would be carried out by legal injection “before the hour of sunrise” at a future date. After the verdict, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, addressed Horner directly while fighting back tears. “You did not just take a life, you destroyed a family,” he said. “You will be judged. You will face the wrath of God. And I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story. Her name will forever be celebrated and everyone will forget you.” Horner looked toward Strand as he spoke but otherwise showed little reaction in court. Tuesday’s sentencing concluded a case that has devastated the Strand family since 2022. Horner was working as a FedEx delivery driver when he went to Athena’s father’s home. He told investigators he accidentally struck the child with his truck while backing out of the driveway, per CBS News. According to investigators, Horner said Athena did not appear seriously injured, but he panicked, placed her in his vehicle, and strangled her out of fear she would tell her dad what happened. Horner pleaded guilty to his capital murder and kidnapping charges on April 7, just before his trial was set to begin. The case then moved into a two-week sentencing phase. Dallas television station WFAA had access inside the courtroom during the sentencing hearings, where audio played of Horner strangling Athena inside the vehicle. At one point, Horner told Athena to take her shirt off, and she replied: “My mom says that you can’t do that to me.” She started to scream as the sounds of Horner slamming her into the floor of his truck echoed through the courtroom, according to The Post. Christmas songs can be heard on the FedEx truck’s radio. Horner sang along to “Jingle Bell Rock” as he strangled her with his bare hands, per the outlet. Horner returned to the area the following day as search efforts were underway and denied any knowledge of the child’s disappearance, authorities said. Under Texas law, the death sentence will automatically be appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

McDonald’s has ticked off many customers as it continues making an unpopular change to its restaurants. The fast-food behemoth announced in 2023 that it planned to gradually phase out self-serve beverage stations. That was not an idle threat, as many customers are now seeing this change implemented at their local McDonald’s. “This change is intended to create a consistent experience for both customers and crew across all ordering points, whether that’s McDelivery, the app, kiosk, drive-thru or in-restaurant,” the company told USA Today in a statement in 2023. McDonald’s confirmed that the plan was moving forward despite significant backlash. “As confirmed in 2023, McDonald’s will be transitioning away from self-serve beverage stations in dining rooms across the U.S. by 2032,” the company told Fox Business this week, giving a nearly identical statement. “The change is being rolled out over 10 years, and is intended to create a consistent experience for both customers and crew across all ordering points, whether that’s McDelivery, the app, kiosk, drive-thru or in-restaurant.” The change is being seen as a move away from in-store dining in favor of drive-thru, delivery, and digital orders. This lines up with many restaurants being remodeled and removing play places for kids, plus generally changing the aesthetic to be more muted and modern.  Beverages, one of the biggest sources of profit for the company, remain a focus for McDonald’s. Sodas have a profit margin of up to 90%, with the fast-food restaurant charging $1.50 to $4 for an item that costs 10 to 40 cents per cup, including product, packaging, and labor. The company told Fox Business in a statement that it would introduce new items to the lineup, including “dirty sodas” that have been going viral online.  “Our fans’ love for McDonald’s beverages runs deep … Next month, we’re building on that passion with a new era of beverages, featuring a variety of Refreshers and crafted sodas rolling out nationwide,” the statement said.

A rare strain of hantavirus that has a 40% mortality rate and spreads through human-to-human contact could be responsible for three deaths on board a luxury cruise ship, health officials believe. The outbreak on the MV Hondius, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, has resulted in at least seven other infections and has trapped other passengers on the ship as government and health officials try to figure out how to get sick passengers off the cruise ship. Most hantavirus strains only spread to humans from rodent droppings, urine, or saliva, but one rare and extremely dangerous strain can spread from human-to-human and “can’t be ruled out,” the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. “We do believe that there may be some human-to-human transmission that is happening among the really close contacts,” World Health Organization official Maria Van Kerkhove said. “We do know that some of the cases had very close contact with each other and certainly human-to-human transmission can’t be ruled out,” Van Kerkhove added. The deadly strain suspected of spreading on the cruise ship is known as the “Andes virus” and is most commonly found in the Andes Mountains of Argentina and Chile. Van Kerkhove assured the media that the risk posed to the public from the hantavirus outbreak on the ship “is low.” The cruise ship, along with its nearly 150 passengers and crew members, is being held off Cape Verde, an archipelago off the coast of West Africa. Van Kerkhove said on Tuesday that the ship would soon move around 1,000 miles northeast to the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory. The Spanish government said it was still trying to figure out “which port of call is most appropriate” for the ship to dock. Health officials in hazmat suits checked out the cruise ship on Monday, and the World Health Organization said that no rodents were found on board, giving more credence to the human-to-human transmission theory. Medical teams also went aboard the ship to look into suspected infections of two crew members, The New York Post reported. Jake Rosmarin, an American travel blogger who’s stuck on the ship, said in a video recording on Tuesday that all the healthy passengers “are doing well” and are in “good spirits.” He said that healthy passengers “have the option to have meals delivered directly to their cabins,” but “gathering in indoor common areas such as the lounge is currently restricted.” Two of the people who died after contracting hantavirus were a Dutch couple who had been traveling in South America before boarding the MV Hondius, which left from Argentina on March 20 for a weeks-long voyage. The World Health Organization believes the couple contracted the disease before boarding the ship. The first person, a 70-year-old Dutch man, died on board the ship on April 11. His wife, a 69-year-old woman, died 15 days later in South Africa while she was attempting to fly home to the Netherlands, The New York Times reported. A German national died on the ship on Saturday. Hantavirus typically begins with flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, and body aches, before potentially progressing to breathing problems and possible lung or heart failure.

Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber said Tuesday that officials are preparing to move on potential Medicaid fraud uncovered by a Daily Wire investigation. Faber, a Republican running for state attorney general, said in an interview with radio host Bruce Hooley that he was ready to make the transition from uncovering fraud to prosecuting those responsible for it — and that The Daily Wire’s recent investigation had given him a great place to look deeper. Faber and Hooley discussed the investigation by The Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak and said they would certainly not be surprised to find a fair amount of fraud in a massive government program like Medicaid. Because the state is responsible for determining who is eligible for benefits at the federal level, all that is necessary for fraud and abuse is for someone not to look too closely at what’s happening at the bottom. Still, Faber said that an investigation was clearly warranted — and that Vice President JD Vance’s promise to get his federal task force involved would open up much broader access to data. The next step, Faber said, is a full audit to get comparative data from around the state and line up the different counties side by side — and if there were anomalies between counties that should show similar use of those programs, they would know where to dig deeper. “If you have a program, for example, that I testified six weeks ago in front of the Medicaid Joint Committee, that literally is a $1.6 billion program, 38% of of that money is spent in Franklin County — and by demographics, Cuyahoga County is 16%, which should be about the same as Franklin County, you’re saying something’s unusual, that’s an anomaly in the data,” he explained. “And then if you find that 40% of that 38% — or more than $200 million — is spent in two zip codes, you’ve got something going on in those two zip codes that is not happening throughout the rest of the state with a huge over-utilization of these programs.” Rosiak’s report, published on Monday, detailed dozens of “home health” companies operating out of a single, small building in Columbus. While there are legitimate uses for home health — to lower costs by helping patients avoid nursing homes — the services offered by such companies open the door for family members to receive a federal paycheck for providing simple home services or even just companionship to an older relative. Fraud, as Rosiak noted, is nearly impossible to prove because the services — if provided at all — are provided in private residences. Vance responded to the report immediately, saying in an X post that he planned to have his Fraud Task Force review the findings and begin prosecuting anyone found to have defrauded the government. “These shocking allegations, if true, show why the Fraud Task Force’s work is so important. I’m directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate,” he said. LISTEN @7:15:

Vivek Ramaswamy said he would “aggressively” prosecute the kind of fraud uncovered by The Daily Wire if elected governor of Ohio, saying lawmakers had too long “turned a blind eye” to government waste. Ramaswamy told Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro on Tuesday that he would crack down on rampant fraud in Ohio subsidized by taxpayer dollars. His comments came after Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak published a story revealing that Ohio was paying people under the guise of “home healthcare” to do “chores” like cooking and cleaning for their own families, paid for by Medicaid.  “Daily Wire’s reporting was really intriguing to me. I wish I could say that it was a shock compared to what I hear on the ground,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was not a shock, but I appreciate you putting a national spotlight on it in my own home state.” “When I am in power, hopefully if we’re elected, we’re not going to sweep it under the rug. We’ve got to prosecute aggressively,” Ramaswamy added. Ramaswamy made the comments as Republicans head to the polls Tuesday to choose their gubernatorial nominee. He is widely expected to win the Republican nomination, with most polls showing him with a commanding lead.  Rosiak reported Monday that Ohio spent a billion dollars on home health care in 2024, the last year for which data is available. What these funds went toward was difficult to verify because they often went toward “home health care” performed in private residences by family members of those getting the care.  To address the apparent widespread fraud, Ramaswamy said he would start by enforcing the laws already on the books.  “I think that the reality is all states, including Ohio, have turned a blind eye to this level of rampant fraud, of the welfare system broadly, including Medicaid,” he told Shapiro. “And it starts, Ben, with enforcing the laws that are already on the books.” He said that the prosecutions would help create deterrence for people to stop bilking taxpayers.  “It’s not really even bilking the government so much as bilking the taxpayer, the ordinary law-abiding American, the ordinary law-abiding Ohioan. 
That’s not OK. And we have to send that deterrent signal,” he said.  Part of the problem is that the federal government currently reimburses the states for welfare expenses, which Ramaswamy said creates a flawed incentive structure for local state politicians to keep doling out benefits while the federal government handles the burden. Ramaswamy said he would work with the Trump administration to correct this incentive structure.  “This is doable,” he said. “But it does require a leader at the top who’s willing to act with a spine decisively.”