Rams’ Puka Nacua set to play vs. Eagles, but Aaron Donald is out

• October 2, 2026

LOS ANGELES — Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (groin) is off the injury report and ready to play against the Eagles on Sunday in Philadelphia, head coach Sean McVay said.

Nacua, who missed the last two games with this injury, was a full participant in Friday’s practice after logging limited days the first two practices of the week.

“Physically, he’s getting in and out of his breaks. He looks strong, he looks sturdy, he looks explosive,” McVay said. “In terms of the snap count, that’s the thing that we have to be willing to navigate. But you got confidence in some other guys that have played meaningful snaps in his absence.”

McVay did rule out tight end Terrance Ferguson (ankle) and defensive tackle Aaron Donald (back), while listing tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) as questionable despite not practicing at all this week.

Donald felt some back soreness after Sunday’s game against the Broncos, McVay said, and the recovery did not progress as the team would have hoped.

“He’s as tough as it gets. Just not feeling good enough,” McVay said. “He could probably go be productive, but part of our job is to protect these tough dudes from themselves.”

Rams cut Xavier Smith

After a tumultuous performance against the Broncos on Sunday, the Rams released receiver and kick returner Xavier Smith on Friday, the team announced.

“We just need better production out of that position,” McVay said. “That’s exclusively what it was. There were some decisions last week that we got to make better decisions.”

Smith, a three-year veteran, retained the Rams’ returner role heading into the 2026 season despite a fumbled punt that cost the Rams dearly in the NFC championship game last season. Against the Broncos, he let one punt roll, costing the Rams at least five yards of field position, then fielded another punt at the 1-yard line despite it bouncing toward the end zone for a touchback.

While special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone was critical of Smith while talking with the media Thursday, he said the Rams weren’t considering a change at returner.

“I would say overall, he’s been inconsistent. We need to do a better job of tracking the ball, judging the ball, fielding the ball when necessary, not fielding it in other situations,” Ventrone said. “I think that he’ll do the necessary things to be able to sustain at that position for us.”

But McVay said the Rams ultimately made the decision to part ways with Smith after practice Thursday evening.

“We weren’t thinking about it when he talked to you guys yesterday,” McVay said. “As you get a chance to kind of take a step back and evaluate the totality of our group, what’s the best way to try to put together all three stages, did feel like that was in the best interest of the group.”

As the Rams (1-2) prepare to face the Eagles (2-1), the Rams expect to promote receiver Alex Bachman from the practice squad to return kicks Sunday. McVay also floated Kyren Williams as a possible alternate, but said he didn’t want to put that kind of responsibility on his starting running back if he doesn’t have to.

While McVay did not rule out potential tryouts with free agents, he wants to give Bachman a real opportunity to win the job this weekend.

“I think I’m interested to see how Alex does,” McVay said. “But we’re always looking at, if there’s ways of improving the caliber of our team those will be avenues that we’ll always explore within whatever parameters that we can do that within.”

​ Orange County Register 

Wu-Tang Clan bring da ruckus to Yaamava’ for final Southern California show

• October 2, 2026

Wu-Tang Clan may be nearing the end of the second leg of their Final Chamber farewell tour, but their performance at Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in Highland cemented why Wu-Tang is forever.

The iconic hip-hop group consisting of RZA, GZA, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, Cappadonna, along with the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s son, Young Dirty Bastard and DJ Mathematics, captivated the Yaamava’ Theater on Thursday, Oct. 1.

The show was the sole Southern California stop on the second leg of their tour. It preceded their final three shows during the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento and their weekend performances in Las Vegas and Phoenix.

“Yaamava’ is very special to us, and I want to give a big shoutout to the Native Americans,” RZA told the crowd. “Every time I’m in Los Angeles, I see the commercials with the announcer saying, ‘Coming to Yaamava’ and it’s always (someone) cool.”

The second-leg stop at the resort and casino let fans in California see and say goodbye to one of the most monumental acts in hip-hop history if they missed last year’s 27-show run, which included a stop at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The show featured Cleveland-based hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony as an opening act. The group’s 45-minute set was at times comedic, offering a reprieve from their rapid-fire delivery on songs such as “East 1999.” Other crowd-pleasers included Bone Thugs’ collaboration hit with Eazy-E, “Foe tha Love of $,” and a performance of “1st of tha Month,” on the first of October, which felt viscerally harmonious.

By 9 p.m., Wu-Tang Clan kicked off with a solo intro by RZA, offering a quick poetic summary of how the group was born and changed hip-hop with their landmark debut, “Enter the 36 Chambers.” Then came “Bring Da Ruckus,” showcasing their unique, trendsetting approach to a super team-based hip-hop that inspired generations.

Much like its first leg of the tour, the show was a mix structured into four acts: the full-group opening with multiple classic hits from their debut record, a “samurai” section spotlighted by GZA’s “Liquid Swords,” Raekwon’s solo track performance of “Ice Cream,” some Method Man solo tracks, and a Wu-Tang Forever finale with “Reunited” and “Triumph.”

Wu-Tang has also featured special guests in its past iterations of the Final Chamber tour, including Lil Kim, Big Daddy Kane, Redman, SWV, Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J and Freeway, and it wasn’t about to leave Southern California hanging on its last run.

The group welcomed Havoc, part of the Queens-based hip-hop duo Mobb Deep, who performed “Survival of the Fittest” and “Shook Ones, Part II” for a special moment that lit up the room with an electric bar-for-bar performance and served as a tribute to the late Prodigy, the other half of Mobb Deep.

West Coast fans dressed in black and yellow and rocking the iconic “W” welcomed the New York-based hip-hop beats, thudding bass lines and razor-sharp lyricism with open arms, and the group encouraged their cheers and rap-along attitude, reminding everyone why Wu-Tang belongs among the greatest acts of hip-hop of all time.

Each member had the opportunity to lead on the mic, with their own respective style and lyrical prowess, which beamed in classics like “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit,” “Method Man,” “C.R.E.A.M.,” and “Protect Ya Neck.”

As the set closed out, Young Dirty Bastard took center stage to honor his late father, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, with renditions of his father’s hits “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” and “Got Your Money.” The tribute on the setlist was one of the night’s most cohesive moments, with the crowd fervently rapping along and on their feet.

The final song of the night was “Triumph,” a masterpiece that defied standard radio rules with a six-minute run time, no chorus, and nine fierce back-to-back verses for a rap crew with an unwavering belief that they could change the game.

When the track was initially finalized, RZA refused to shorten it for radio or MTV, a booming cultural force at the time. He believed the uncommercial format could still dominate the mainstream and refused to compromise; over time, that theory and belief in his group’s approach have been vindicated, beyond a hit single.

RZA hatched The Final Chamber Tour as a five-year plan and pitched it to the rest of the group in 2018 to secure their cultural legacy in hip-hop and remind the world what they stood for. The full plan included film projects, such as the Emmy-nominated four-part Showtime documentary series “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men,” directed by the late Sacha Jenkins, and three seasons of “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” a biopic series on Hulu that ran until 2023.

Another major piece was the N.Y. State of Mind Tour, co-headlined with Nas, which became the first-ever hip-hop residency in Las Vegas. The last piece was what audiences around the world have witnessed: a final Wu-Tang Clan tour, Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber.

For anyone unfamiliar with the group, or for fans who needed a reminder, this action plan ensured the rap group remained enshrined in the hip-hop zeitgeist. In April, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its class of 2026, and Wu-Tang Clan was among the inductees, alongside Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade and Luther Vandross.

“Hip-hop has inspired many people over the years, and it’s because of you that Wu-Tang is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” RZA told the crowd.

When RZA, the Wu mastermind, ends the setlist of the legendary group’s final tour with “Triumph,” it is more than a word or a hit song. It is a victory lap of everything the group has achieved, and the fans at Yaamava’ roaring in praise as the set wrapped up is just another W.

​ Orange County Register 

A National Guard member deployed to Washington, DC, is arrested on firearms charge

• October 2, 2026

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON (AP) — A National Guard member deployed to Washington, D.C., as part of a mission launched by President Donald Trump has been arrested for carrying an unauthorized firearm after a traffic stop by U.S. Park Police.

Spec. Jakob Noonan, 22, of the Oklahoma Guard, was arrested Monday and charged with the gun-related offense. According to documents reviewed by The Associated Press, the soldier was riding with a fellow Guard member when a U.S. Park Police officer stopped the vehicle for an expired tag.

Noonan’s arrest marks the second time in two months that a member of the task force has been arrested.

The presence of National Guard members in Washington has been contentious since the deployment began in August 2025, when Trump issued an emergency order because of what he said was out-of-control crime. Many local officials and residents view the deployment as a waste of taxpayer money that has normalized a military presence in an American city.

The U.S. Park Police said in an emailed statement that the officer observed an empty holster in the rear of the vehicle and asked if there was a firearm inside and Noonan confirmed there was. Noonan was off duty, not in uniform and driving his personal vehicle at the time, the statement said.

The Joint Task Force that oversees the Guard deployment did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to law enforcement statements filed with the arrest, the Guard members were in a Honda SUV when it was stopped. Several of the officers who responded spotted the pistol, the court paper said.

One officer said the soldier told authorities he was temporarily living in D.C. as part of the National Guard operation and said Oklahoma was an open-carry state and that the firearm was registered to him there. He acknowledged he did not have a valid District of Columbia concealed-carry permit, the statement said, a point confirmed by a records check.

According to the complaint, Noonan was charged with carrying a pistol without a license.

Noonan had his first court appearance on Sept. 29 in D.C. Superior Court. A phone call left at the main number of the Superior Court public defender’s office to reach his court-appointed attorney was not returned. An email to the attorney was not immediately answered.

In August, Georgia National Guard member Zion Mitchell was arrested and later charged after he allegedly pulled a gun on a fellow Guard member in an apparent dispute over regulation haircuts.

Over the summer, more than 5,000 troops were in the nation’s capital during the celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary. The number has since been scaled down to around 3,000.

The Guard members have supported law enforcement in arrest operations and have also engaged in beautification projects and snow removal.

The deployment has been extended until January 2029.

​ Orange County Register 

Bottle Logic to merge with The Bruery and Offshoot in Orange County brewery deal

• October 2, 2026

The Bruery and Bottle Logic built their beer programs less than 1.6 miles apart in Orange County. Now the neighboring breweries will come together under one company.

Anaheim’s Bottle Logic Brewing will join Placentia’s The Bruery and its sister brand, Offshoot Beer Co., under the name The Bruery Group. The deal is expected to close later this year. Financial terms of the hoppy marriage were not disclosed.

While the beer brands will retain their own identities, the arrangement will put them under shared production, distribution, and sales and marketing operations, according to the companies’ written announcement. Barry Holmes, CEO of The Bruery and Offshoot, will lead the group.

Bottle Logic’s Anaheim tasting room will remain open, while its Stasis Project barrel-aging program will continue. Cofounder Brandon Buckner will stay on to lead the brand. “I’ll continue working alongside the people and community who have shaped it over the last 13 years,” said Buckner in the written release detailing the deal.

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For customers, one notable change will be access to Bottle Logic releases through The Bruery’s direct-to-consumer platform, which the company says ships to 43 states. Details about which beers will be available and how they might fit into The Bruery’s membership are expected before the first releases on the platform.

The companies also plan to announce a Weekend of Logic celebration inspired by Bottle Logic’s Week of Logic event.

Doug Veliky, who runs Beer Aficionado account on Instagram (@beeraficionado), suggested in a video about the announcement that the merger could give The Bruery’s sales team more beer to sell while giving Bottle Logic access to an existing sales operation.

“For Bottle Logic, despite their growth, it’s still a very scary proposition to be investing in sales infrastructure right now,” he said in his video.

Founded by Patrick Rue in 2008, The Bruery honed in on experimental, barrel-aged and sour beers. Most notably, for its 2009 Black Tuesday imperial stout release, it advertised bottles at $30 a piece with a three-bottle limit per customer.

Bottle Logic followed in 2013, soon opening its Anaheim tasting room in 2014. Its Stasis Project includes imperial stouts like Fundamental Observation and Darkstar November. The brewery also earned best-in-show honors at Chicago’s Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer in 2018 and 2019, according to the company’s website. Its suds roster also includes 714 Blonde and Recursion IPA.

“When we started Bottle Logic in Anaheim, the goal was simple: make beers worth waiting in line for,” said cofounder Wes Parker in the same release.

Offshoot arrived in 2017, giving The Bruery’s brewers a separate brand for IPAs after Rue had promised The Bruery would never make one. The new label specializes in IPAs and double IPAs packaged in cans.

The deal comes amid a downturn in the United States beer market: Both major beer and craft beer sales have slowed down in recent years. According to figures from The Brewers Association, overall U.S. beer production and imports dropped 5.7% in 2025, while craft beer volume sales fell 4%. For the first half of 2026, craft beer volume dipped an estimated 4% compared with the same period in 2025.

Issues like reduced alcohol consumption, an economic downturn, rising operation costs and increased competition have added pressures on brewers both big and small.

​ Orange County Register 

What we know and don’t know about how Iran uses asymmetric warfare

• October 2, 2026

By CARA ANNA and JILL LAWLESS

JERUSALEM (AP) — The leaders of Britain and the United States have suggested, without giving evidence, that Iran played a role in two major security incidents this week, the arrests near a U.S.-run military base in England used in the war against Tehran and the attack in the cockpit of an Israel-bound plane.

As of Friday, no confirmed connection to the Islamic Republic had emerged. Britain has not made public any evidence linking Iran to the air-base arrests on terrorism-related charges. And an official who was not authorized to speak to the media said there is currently no evidence of a link between Iran and the cockpit attack.

The investigations are in the early stages. If an Iranian link to the Britain arrests is confirmed, it would underline a strategy that Iran’s government has promoted for decades, using smaller, relatively low-cost attacks to needle and disrupt more powerful adversaries and their economies while causing friction among allies. That strategy is currently on display in the Strait of Hormuz.

If it is confirmed that Iran played a role in targeting the FlyDubai flight, that would represent a dangerous new level in that approach.

Iran denies any involvement

Iran has denied involvement in Sunday’s arrests close to the RAF Fairford air base, which has been used by U.S. bombers to strike Iran. Iranian leaders summoned Britain’s ambassador and called on the British government to provide an official explanation.

Police on Thursday arrested a 25-year-old dual U.K.-Iranian citizen on suspicion of plotting a terror attack, while five other suspects were released on bail. Detectives said they found a quantity of an accelerant — gasoline — in vans near the air base, but no explosives.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the U.K. sees “strong indications” that Iran played a part in the incident but did not provide details.

In the FlyDubai attack, Iran has not commented on U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the co-pilot might have links to Iran. Asked whether he had been briefed about any links, Trump said, “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is yes, but we’re working on it right now.” He did not elaborate.

But even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the world’s most vocal critics of Iran, has said it’s too soon to say.

With governments not sharing key details — such as suspects’ identities or possible motives, which are not made public during active police investigations in Britain — speculation risks filling the void.

“When you have this kind of gray area where evidence is lacking, there’s a tendency, especially (by) politicians, the media, etc., to attribute everything to Iran,” said Antonio Giustozzi, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense think tank. “And much of it is true, but not necessarily all of it is true.”

He said the Iranians do not deny that they have cells abroad.

Incidents such as the one at RAF Fairford appear to fit a pattern of attacks designed to apply pressure and signal to U.S. allies that “in this case we did not do anything too terrible, but it wouldn’t be difficult to do something terrible,” Giustozzi said.

He doubted, however, that Iran was involved in the FlyDubai incident: “In terms of strategy, dragging Israel in now brings zero benefit to Iran and only complicates the situation.”

Iran praised asymmetric warfare

As recently as the past week, Iranian officials have openly promoted asymmetric warfare as a central strategy.

“Asymmetric warfare means confronting the enemy’s expensive heavy weapons with lower costs and simpler, but more effective and practical defense equipment, and still achieving victory,” a senior Iranian military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, said in comments reported by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

Such tactics are based on “self-sacrifice, faith and spirituality,” he said, and called conventional warfare vulnerable to this approach.

Tehran turned to that approach after the Islamic Revolution there in 1979 cut off military and other support from previous allies, including the United States. Iran embraced asymmetric efforts, notably the use of drones, during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and again during the current war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.

Iran’s tactics have included a barrage of drone attacks against regional neighbors that host U.S. bases and assaults on ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. Small attack boats and mines have also menaced the strait. Armed proxies of Iran have launched attacks in southern Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and Iraq.

“Tehran understands that it cannot defeat Israel or the United States in a conventional, high-intensity war. Instead, the regime seems to be deploying an asymmetric and attritional response designed not for decisive battlefield victory, but rather endurance and survival,” the Soufan Center think tank wrote earlier this year.

Iran has denied alleged acts of sabotage

Iran has acknowledged some direct military or paramilitary attacks during the war, including against U.S. warships. But the kind of involvement authorities have suggested about the FlyDubai and England incidents is more indirect, making it difficult to confirm and easier to deny.

The allegations echo concerns about the acts of sabotage in Europe that Russia has been widely accused of backing since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow has denied them.

Tehran has faced similar allegations in the past. In an effort to “mitigate the risk of retaliatory attacks against Iran, Iranian agents have taken to hiring criminal proxies to carry out attacks at Tehran’s behest,” Matthew Levitt with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who maintains a database of incidents, wrote last year.

In one high-profile case, the U.S. Justice Department in November 2024 disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before that month’s election. Iran’s government rejected the report and called it a plot to complicate relations.

More recently, U.K. officials say proxies linked to Iran have been behind a string of arson and other attacks in Britain and other European countries, many of them targeting the Jewish community or opponents of Iran’s Islamic theocracy. In October 2025, the head of the MI5 domestic intelligence service said his agency had tracked more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots in the past year.

Several suspects as young as their teens have been charged in the U.K. over arson attacks targeting synagogues and Jewish ambulances. Officials say the crimes are often carried out for small sums of money, and that those arrested may have little or no knowledge of the link to Iran. That, too, has echoed alleged Russia-backed attacks in Europe.

In July, Britain banned the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, or IMCR, which it said is an Iran proxy group behind the attacks. The IMCR sprang up online earlier this year and has claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Lawless reported from London. Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

Police bodycam footage of Luigi Mangione’s arrest released

• October 2, 2026

By PHILIP MARCELO

NEW YORK (AP) — Police bodycam footage released Friday shows the moment officers located and arrested Luigi Mangione at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s in connection with the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan.

In one video, officers ask Mangione to lower the face mask he was wearing to hide his identity.

“That’s 100% him,” one officer says eagerly as they step outside to speak out of Mangione’s earshot.

“I told you, man,” another responds off camera.

Later, an officer searches Mangione’s belongings and smiles widely as she pulls out a gun cartridge, seemingly confirming they’d found their suspect.

The trove of videos comes from Mangione’s Dec. 9, 2024, arrest in Altoona, five days after Thompson, a 50-year-old Minnesota executive, was gunned down as he walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.

A Manhattan judge unsealed the recordings Friday after CNN petitioned for their release. Parts of the videos were shown during a December court hearing as Mangione’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to get key evidence thrown out, including his initial statements to police and items seized at the time of his arrest.

Mangione pleaded guilty in August to federal stalking charges and faces life in prison when he’s sentenced in December. He also faces murder charges in New York state court, though those proceedings have been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out.

The videos released Friday begin as officers descend on the McDonald’s in central Pennsylvania, nearly 300 miles (483 kilometers) from Manhattan.

They find Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, seated at a table wearing a ski hat, surgical face mask and winter coat. The officers say they’re responding to a call about a suspicious person and ask for his name and identification.

“You’re a little nervous right now. Why are you nervous?” an officer asks at one point.

They order him to put his hands on his head and ask him if he’s been in New York recently. They confront him about a phony New Jersey driver’s license he offers up bearing the name Mark Rosario.

“You’re under official police investigation right now,” one officer warns. “You give a false name to us again, you’re gonna be arrested for false ID.”

When Mangione finally comes clean, they ask why he had lied.

“I clearly shouldn’t have,” he responds as he’s asked to write his real name and spell it aloud.

Other videos show officers patting Mangione down, reading him his rights, placing him in cuffs and taking him to the police station.

As an officer searches him more thoroughly at the station, another officer goes through his backpack.

The officer finds the 9 mm handgun authorities would later confirm was used in the killing, as well as a silencer and another ammo magazine. They also recover the journal that prosecutors would later say revealed Mangione’s intent to “wack” a health insurance executive, as well as his other handwritten notes.

“He has a checklist for today,” another officer says, ticking off the seized items to someone on the phone. “Tomorrow he’s supposed to do an intel check-in and get a survival kit.”

​ Orange County Register 

Former GOP Rep. David Rivera sentenced to 10 years for secret Venezuela lobbying

• October 2, 2026

By JOSHUA GOODMAN

MIAMI (AP) — A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on Venezuela’s behalf during the first Trump administration.

Republican David Rivera has been jailed since jurors found him guilty in May on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of his work for former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ’s government.

Rivera, 61, appeared stone-faced as Judge Melissa Damian denounced him for betraying his life’s mission, saying he would surely have been judged as such by his many friends had the millions of dollars he received come from the Cuban regime instead of its allies in Caracas.

“Nobody would accept that’s ok and I don’t think this is different,” the judge said. “There’s no dispute this money came from the Maduro regime.”

The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami’s role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, highlighting the city’s reputation as a magnet for both anti-communist crusaders and corruption among its sizable exile population.

It included testimony from President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified they felt betrayed when learning of Rivera’s mammoth consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.

Attorneys for Rivera plan to appeal and in June applied for a presidential pardon. Rivera faces additional federal charges in Washington, D.C., in a related foreign lobbying case.

Prosecutors said betrayal featured coded figures — ‘Sombrero’ and ‘Miss Clairol’

In an indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard line and crippling sanctions on Venezuela.

As part of the charm offensive, Rivera and a co-defendant, political consultant Esther Nuhfer, sought to manipulate influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions. Their goal was to normalize relations with the new Trump administration even as the Maduro government faced sanctions over serious accusations of human rights violations.

But Rivera and Nuhfer didn’t disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera’s political career as an anti-communist stalwart, prosecutors argued at trial.

“The United States and the public were the true victims of this fraud,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Cruz said in urging a stiff sentence. “He used his position of trust — and betrayed it consistently and repeatedly.”

To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also set up an encrypted chat group called MIA — for Miami — with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who was subsequently charged in the U.S. with bribing top Venezuelan officials.

Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the “bus driver,” Sessions “Sombrero,” Rodríguez “The Lady in Red,” and their windfall payments “La Luz,” Spanish for “The Light,” according to copies of text messages presented to the jury. Rubio was known as “Miss Clairol,” because rubio means blond in Spanish.

Defense said only missing paperwork made the $50 million contract illegal

At Friday’s sentencing, attorneys for Rivera repeated their trial argument that the former congressman believed he was under no requirement to disclose the work. The three-month, $50 million contract with Rivera’s one-man consulting firm, they said, was focused on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“David Rivera does not deserve to die in prison because he failed to file a FARA registration,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said at Friday’s hearing. “If he had filed that paper, that form, everything he did, including the $50 million contract, which totally distorted this case, is perfectly legal.”

Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera’s meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which were focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the U.S. – not supporting Maduro in normalizing relations with the U.S.

“There’s not one word in any chat, not one document, not one thing he did to help Nicolás Maduro,” said Shohat.

Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with the affiliate, New York-based PDV USA, as cover for illegal lobbying.

“This is a classic money laundering case,” the judge said Friday in rejecting Rivera’s motion to lower the federal guidelines range.

Where did the money go? A luxury yacht, among other things

The partners tried to hide the work — backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements, like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorrín’s luxury yacht, prosecutors said.

The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodríguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, Rivera roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodríguez with the ExxonMobil executive who took over as CEO when Rex Tillerson became Trump’s first-term secretary of state. After a secret meeting in Caracas with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.

The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro and labeled him a “dictator,” launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat the president.

And now, nearly a decade later, Rodríguez has emerged as the second Trump administration’s trusted partner after the U.S. military’s ousting of Maduro.

Rubio’s former housemate faced scandal before, but Cuban Americans support him

Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator and shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became the Florida House speaker.

Rivera faced earlier controversy, including allegations that he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped that case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated — but never charged — for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida Legislature.

Despite all that, Rivera remains popular among Miami’s Cuban American establishment.

Friends of the former congressman, including the former president of Florida International University and Miami-Dade County’s supervisor of elections, packed the courtroom to show their support.

Sessions, in a letter seeking leniency that was read into the record by his chief of staff, said his former congressional colleague devoted decades to public service, much of it focused on defending liberty and democracy.

“I don’t think it’s productive for society by sending David away for a long, long time,” testified Liliana Ros, a longtime Miami GOP committee member.

​ Orange County Register 

Christa Pike was on a ventilator and unconscious after failed Tennessee execution, attorneys say

• October 2, 2026

NASHVILLE (AP) — Christa Pike remained in a hospital where she was on a ventilator and unconscious after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

Hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life and clear the pentobarbital she was administered from her system as of late Thursday, the attorney’s said.

Pike was given two doses of the drug in a failed attempt Wednesday to execute her.

In the court filing, Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body,” they wrote.

They wrote that instead of “remedying this failure” prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.

​ Orange County Register