Author: CNN Newsource

By Briauna Brown

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    DALLAS (KTVT) — A trial date has been set for Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty for kidnapping charges after he allegedly pulled a gun during a contract dispute with Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane’s record label in Dallas.

Pooh Shiesty, whose legal name is Lontrell Williams Jr., is one of nine defendants charged in the January confrontation, which happened at a recording studio on Dallas Parkway.

Pooh Shiesty is scheduled to stand trial in federal court in Dallas on July 6. The final pretrial conference is scheduled for July 1, according to court documents.

Affidavit details allegations Prosecutors said the Pooh Shiesty and the other suspects planned a violent ambush, luring the victims to Texas for a “business meeting.”

The victims, including Gucci Mane, whose real name is Radric Davis, flew to Dallas to meet with Pooh Shiesty. Investigators said the suspects, including Pooh Shiesty and Big30, another rapper, separated the victims when they entered the recording studio on Dallas Parkway.

Pooh Shiesty allegedly took Gucci Mane into a recording room while others remained in a control room. Inside the recording room, Pooh Shiesty allegedly pulled an AK-style pistol and forced Gucci Mane to sign paperwork releasing him from his contract with Gucci’s label, 1017 Records.

As that was happening, prosecutors said the remaining suspects drew firearms and began robbing others in the studio.

Evidence leads to arrests According to court documents, the evidence gathered in the case included surveillance video, cellphone data and social media posts made by the suspects.

All nine were taken into custody on April 1 and April 2.

On April 9, a federal judge in Dallas ordered Pooh Shiesty to remain in custody pending trial.

If convicted as charged, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of up to life in federal prison.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Matt Schooley

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    Massachusetts (WBZ) — Harvard University faculty members voted to cap the number of A’s awarded to students, a grading change aimed at making student marks more meaningful.

By a vote of 458 to 201, faculty approved a measure that caps the number of A grades at 20%, plus four additional per class, the university confirmed Wednesday. There is no limit to the number of A minuses or other grades that can be awarded. A separate measure that would have allowed courses to opt out of the cap was rejected, 364 to 292.

The new policy, which only applies to undergraduate students, goes into effect in the fall of 2027 and will be reassessed after three years.

Why the grading change at Harvard? In a statement, members of the Subcommittee on Grading said it was a critical policy for students because “[a] Harvard A grade will now tell them, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.”

Harvard began considering the change after the subcommittee found that too many students were getting A’s. They said employers and graduate school admissions offices said Harvard transcripts “no longer provide them useful information.”

“Today the Harvard faculty voted to make their grades mean what they say they mean. For decades, grade inflation has been a collective-action problem: everyone saw it, but no one faculty member could fix it alone. The faculty have now taken a major step to fix it together,” the subcommittee said.

Students react to Harvard grade cap Some students told WBZ-TV they were concerned it would create a more competitive environment. “It just seems like more of a competition and it’s like already a competition to be there,” said student Abidah Shaikh.

“I think it’s just really harmful for like a classroom environment,” said student Tallulah Paris.

Harvard Business School student Rachel Carp worries it may leave students applying for graduate programs at a disadvantage. “I wonder if the med schools and the law schools and other sort of rigorous grad school programs would also understand, and potentially have a lower GPA expectation,” Carp said.

According to a university report, A’s accounted for 60% of the grades awarded to undergraduate students in 2025. That was up from 40% in 2015 and 20% in 2005.

Amanda Claybaugh, dean of undergraduate education at Harvard, praised the change.

“This is a consequential vote. It will, I believe, strengthen the academic culture of Harvard; it will also, I hope, encourage other institutions to confront similar questions with the same level of rigor and courage,” Claybaugh said. “This vote is an important step toward ensuring that our grading system better serves its central purposes: giving students meaningful feedback, recognizing genuine distinction, and sustaining the academic mission of the College.”

Harvard University Association co-presidents Zach Berg and Daniel Zhao in a statement expressed disappointment that students were not consulted more during the process.

“Although we recognize the issue with the status quo, we are disappointed that student voices have not been centered throughout the decision-making process,” they said. “However, we will continue to fight for students’ academic interests over the coming year about how we can best prepare students before this comes into effect in the 2027 academic year.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Paula Wethington, Joseph Buczek

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    DETROIT (WWJ) — Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has decided to end his campaign for Michigan governor in the 2026 election cycle.

Duggan, a longtime Democrat, was running as an independent. He announced his decision on Thursday.

“We knew the Independent route was filled with challenge. Even against those odds, the excitement for real change carried this campaign upward for more than a year,” Duggan said in his statement. “It was a remarkable experience.”

By April, Duggan said, “the mood of the country had shifted suddenly and dramatically. Democrats (and many Independents) were unified in anger as Trump’s war in Iran dragged on and gas prices rose above $5 a gallon.”

Against the headwinds that Duggan claims were leaning toward the Democratic party, he said his campaign “worked twice as hard” in seeking key endorsements.

“But for the public in general, our internal polling showed the intense anger over gas prices and Iran was boosting Democrats in every office nationally. The Chamber poll last week showing we’d fallen 11 points behind the Democratic candidate reflects that reality.”

Duggan stepped down as mayor at the end of his last term. Mary Sheffield, who was council president during his last years in office, was elected the city’s first female mayor in November 2025.

“I will never be able to express the gratitude I feel for all your support and encouragement. I wish I could have done better for you,” Duggan said in his letter.

Duggan launched his independent bid in Michigan’s 2026 gubernatorial race in December 2024. Duggan served three four-year terms as Detroit’s mayor and was the second-longest-serving mayor, behind only Coleman Young.

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel issued the following statement, saying in part, “We’re grateful to Mayor Mike Duggan for his service to the city of Detroit and our entire state. While we’ve had disagreements, the Mayor brought crucial ideas to this race and we appreciate his commitment to bringing people together.”

When he announced his campaign, Duggan said, “The political fighting and the nonsense that once held back Detroit is too often what we’re seeing across Michigan today. The current system forces people to choose sides—not find solutions.”

Duggan first took office in January 2014, and Detroit emerged from its historic bankruptcy in December of that year.

The former mayor is expected to give remarks to the Detroit media Thursday afternoon.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Olivia Young

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — A groundbreaking bill is now waiting for the governor’s signature to become law. It will create a first-of-its-kind Ibogaine research pilot program, paving the way for Colorado to study the psychoactive compound that claims to treat PTSD, addiction, and mental health.

There are still a lot of details to be worked out, including where the funding for this research will come from.

Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound that comes from the iboga shrub, native to Central Africa. This bill requires a “benefit sharing plan” with Indigenous communities in the sourcing of Ibogaine.

“The pain adds up over a long time, and there were some pretty traumatic events that happened where I was not able to regulate my emotions,” said Nicholas McClellan, co-founder of Colorado for Ibogaine.

McClellan says he found Ibogaine at his lowest point.

“I had tried talk therapy, EMDR, neurofeedback, diet, exercise, and I was just kind of running out of treatment options,” said McClellan. “It was really just an act of desperation that led me to go down to Transcend Clinic in Mexico.”

At an Ibogaine clinic in Mexico, McClellan says he received the treatment under the oversight of a doctor and two nurses.

“Your heart rate is monitored the whole entire time, and you’re in a room with three other people, and you have like a night shade, and you take ten pills,” said McClellan. “I kind of just had an overall sense of well-being and love, and this presence showed up and said it’s going to be okay, and I got you.”

McClellan says the effect was immediate.

“Instant nervous system reset overnight. You know, it’s still helping me to this day,” said McClellan. “It made me think this needs to be researched.”

“We know there are risks of Ibogaine, and so that’s where we have to have caution here as we roll out an Ibogaine protocol here in Colorado,” said Andrew Monte, associate director of Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety at Denver Health.

Experts say that while early research suggests Ibogaine could be promising in the treatment of PTSD and addiction, they also suggest Ibogaine may cause potentially fatal cardiac complications.

“This drug must be taken in a medical facility with the appropriate training, because otherwise this can be quite dangerous and people may die,” said Monte.

Monte says more research is needed into the safety of Ibogaine.

“The initial observational studies are promising, but those are not clinical controlled trials like you would see that are necessary for pharmaceutical approval by the FDA. So we’re still very early on in this stage. In fact, there are no randomized control trials of it,” said Monte. “Ibogaine has tremendous potential, but it’s really understudied at this time.”

“Let’s let the data and science lead the way,” said McClellan.

As a co-founder of the nonprofit “Colorado for Ibogaine,” McClellan helped craft an Ibogaine research bill and testified at the Capitol. Last week, the state legislature passed the bill.

“It’s amazing, it feels great, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” said McClellan.

The bill creates an Ibogaine research program under the Behavioral Health Administration, which may approve up to five Ibogaine pilot sites.

It requires compliance with the FDA’s Investigational New Drug process and mandates medical oversight and safety protocols during research.

“They’re all required to have the utmost safety protocols and require data and do a scientific study,” said McClellan.

McClellan says the research may include three-phase clinical trials, as well as smaller studies.

The bill creates the Ibogaine research pilot program cash fund, to be funded largely by gifts, grants, and donations. The bill did not include a fiscal note, meaning no state dollars have been allocated to the program at this time.

Colorado could receive some federal grant dollars for this research, coming from the executive order on psychedelics that President Trump signed last month.

McClellan is hopeful that opiate settlement money could be used for the research. Right now, he’s working on fundraising as he awaits Governor Polis’s signature.

“My ultimate hope for Ibogaine in Colorado is to reduce suffering and trauma and addiction in Colorado,” said McClellan. “If you’re suffering an addiction or trauma, don’t give up, keep walking, there’s always hope, there’s always a way out. And we’re trying to upgrade these systems to help people.”

Once signed into law by Gov. Polis, rulemaking will take place on the specifics of how the pilot program will work. And eventually, the Department of Revenue would integrate Ibogaine into its regulatory framework.

Three state agencies will ultimately be involved: the Behavioral Health Administration, the Department of Revenue, and the Department of Regulatory Agencies.

A DOR spokesperson shared the following statement on the agency’s anticipated role:

“Once HB26-1325 is signed, the Department of Revenue will gain broader authority to integrate ibogaine into its regulatory framework; however, a definitive start date for implementation has not yet been set. The bill does not provide a specific funding allocation; therefore, implementation is dependent on the DOR obtaining resources for staffing and programming.

Ultimately, HB26-1325 signifies an incremental approach toward including ibogaine in the regulatory program; however, a definitive start date for implementation has not yet been set.

The DOR would be responsible for regulating the supply chain. This would involve issuing licenses to authorize ibogaine cultivation and product manufacturing. DOR would also license and regulate healing centers where ibogaine services would be provided. These services would be provided by DORA-licensed facilitators. The DOR’s vision for the inclusion of ibogaine would be to ensure that ibogaine is sourced ethically and sustainably, that participants are protected during ibogaine treatments, and that appropriate regulatory guardrails are in place, such as requiring healing centers to have certain equipment, like EKG machines, for all ibogaine treatments. In addition, the DOR would solicit input from stakeholders, including outreach to members of traditional and indigenous communities, to inform the regulatory framework for ibogaine. The DOR began consulting with the governor-appointed Natural Medicine Advisory Board on these subjects, and will continue to do so to inform the inclusion of ibogaine in the regulatory framework.

The pilot program assigned to BHA is separate from the regulatory program.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Luz Pena

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The California Department of Transportation is exploring the idea of a high-speed bus system that could travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles, offering an alternative form of transportation for travelers who frequently move between the two regions.

The concept, which remains in its early stages, envisions buses traveling at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour on state freeways. Caltrans officials describe the proposal as part of a broader effort to examine what it calls high-speed buses.

“I think it would be great. We need to build more infrastructure in the state of California,” said Jeff Fisher, a San Francisco resident.

In a recent presentation, Caltrans outlined potential routes and corridors that could support the system. Officials pointed to freeways such as the Harbor Freeway and the San Bernardino Freeway as possible starting points.

“Freeways with some infrastructure may be candidates to start such as the Harbor Freeway and the San Bernardino freeway. Or perhaps it would be best to start with the interregional service that can connect Los Angeles with San Diego and San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. That would favor I-5 and I-10 as the first freeways,” said Ryan Snyder, Caltrans feasibility studies manager.

The idea is already drawing interest from some travelers who regularly fly within the state.

“I think it would be a different form of transportation, and I think it might be more accessible,” said Katie Kim, a San Francisco resident who said she flies to Southern California three to four times a year.

“That would be a good idea maybe its faster,” said Arlette Contreras, a tourist.

However, transportation experts say the proposal would face some challenges, particularly in already congested corridors.

“Given the highly congested nature of that corridor on the interstate highways and really some of the secondary roadways, it would be critical that bus lanes would need to be additional lanes. They could not be in place of the existing lanes that people are already traveling on that are already highly congested,” said Rocky Moretti, director of policy and research with TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit.

The proposal also comes as California spent more than $14 billion on a high-speed rail project intended to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority, something residents say remains top of mind as new transportation ideas are considered.

“Would love not to have to go through the airport. I’m just sort of skeptical that it will be able to work,” said Bradley Powles, a Hercules resident.

Caltrans has not provided cost estimates for the high-speed bus concept. A preliminary report noted that if the 140-mile-per-hour target proves infeasible due to cost, infrastructure or safety limitations, a slower speed of 80 to 100 miles per hour could serve as a practical alternative.

“Something that would be quicker and easier would be wonderful I hope it can be achieved,” Powles said.

Caltrans issued a statement writing:

“At this time, the concept remains exploratory. Caltrans is currently exploring the feasibility of operating higherspeed buses on California freeways as a potential enhancement to the state’s public transportation network. This earlystage assessment is focused on understanding how fast a bus could be safely designed to travel on our freeways, what vehicle and safety design requirements would be necessary and whether any modifications to freeway facilities would support such operations. Vigorous project analysis and feasibility studies are part of Caltrans’ process to determine viability for many concepts and designs intended to improve the transportation network. Caltrans is evaluating what would be required before determining whether future testing or implementation of high-speed busses is appropriate. The Department’s long-term strategic vision accounts for cutting-edge innovation that will transform the transportation landscape and help our goal of improving quality of life for all Californians. With measured analysis, thorough exploration and thoughtful planning, many of these bold concepts will shape the future of a thriving, connected California. As part of the state’s ongoing effort to enhance connectivity and convenience for transit users in California, the state is planning express bus facilities in San Diego and Contra Costa counties, with additional locations expected. “

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.