Blog

Susan Dominus joins „CBS Mornings“ to explain how her new book, „The Family Dynamic,“ explores families that raise multiple high achievers.

After Maine police announced an arrest in the cold case murder of a teenage girl in 1984, a former reporter who saw the victim shortly before she died is speaking out. 

Linda Maxwell, 18, was last seen on August 23, 1984, the Maine State Police said in a statement. She had spent the evening with friends. Two days later, her body was found on the shoreline of Maine’s St. Croix River in Robbinston, Washington County. The case was investigated but remained unsolved for decades, police said. 

On May 1, the Maine State Police announced that they had arrested Raymond Brown, 65. He was indicted by a grand jury and arrested after a traffic stop in Bangor, Maine. He has been charged with murder and will be held without bail in the Washington County Jail, police said. 

Police said an „intensive and expanded investigation“ led to Brown’s arrest, but did not offer any details. 

Former reporter Heather Henry-Tenan, one of the last people to see and speak with Maxwell, said the case „made an impression“ on her. Henry-Tenan was among the group Maxwell had spent time before her disappearance, CBS affiiate WGME reported in 2015, during their own investigation into the cold case. 

Henry-Tenan previously told WGME about how she learned the teen was missing. 

„I woke up the next morning and a friend of mine had called and said ‚Linda’s missing.‘ I said ‚Wow, what happened?‘ They said ‚We don’t know,’“ Maxwell said in 2015.

Every August for 21 years, she wrote a news story about Maxwell. 

„The whole town was on the edge waiting for it to be solved, so I wrote the story for 21 years. She made an impression on me, and we were almost the same age, so that really hit home, right. That could have been me,“ Henry-Tenan told WGME on Tuesday. 

President Trump has been pushing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, writing on social media last month that the central bank has been „TOO LATE AND WRONG“ in holding off on further reductions. Now, the Fed is set to meet on Wednesday to make its next rate decision — but Mr. Trump may need to wait longer to get his cuts. 

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold its benchmark rate steady at its May 7 meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch. The group pegs the likelihood at 99% that the Fed will maintain the federal funds rate at its current range of 4.25% to 4.5%, the same level that it’s been at since December, when the central bank made its most recent reduction.

The Fed’s meeting comes at a time when the U.S. economy is sending mixed signals, with GDP unexpectedly falling into negative territory in the first quarter, while job growth topped forecasts in April. At the same time, Wall Street economists are hiking their recession risk for the U.S. economy due to the impact of Mr. Trump’s tariffs, which have hit imports from China with a 145% import duty — costs that are largely passed onto American consumers in the form of higher prices. 

The Fed has signaled it will take a wait-and-see approach, with Powell saying at a speech last month that the central bank can stay patient while tariffs and other Trump administration economic policies play out.

„The Fed and investors find themselves in a no man’s land waiting to see whether economic policies drive prices higher and growth lower,“ noted Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X, in an email. 

He added, „The reality is that corporate earnings have been pretty strong, the U.S. economy barreling along and the biggest cause for concern is sentiment. There isn’t a good reason to change rates at this point, and the Fed is likely to reiterate the need for more data with three rate cuts priced in for 2025, at this point starting in the summer.“

Here’s what to know about the Fed’s next meeting.

What date is the Fed’s next meeting?

The Federal Open Market Committee, the 12-member group that sets rate decisions, will meet on May 6-7, with the Fed announcing the FOMC’s decision on May 7. 

What time is the Fed rate announcement?

The Fed will announce the rate decision at 2 p.m. EST on May 7, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell scheduled to discuss the committee’s decision at a press conference at 2:30 p.m. EST that day. 

What are the odds of a Fed rate cut?

Very slim, with economists projecting t99% odds that the Fed will maintain its benchmark rate at its current range of 4.25% to 4.5%. 

„Criticism from President Trump will not trigger a Fed policy response — neither an early cut without evidence of labor market deterioration, nor a stubborn refusal to cut once the labor market does soften, provided long-term inflation expectations remain anchored,“ noted Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius in a May 6 research note.

When is the Fed expected to cut rates? 

Consumers eager for relief on borrowing costs are likely going to face a wait, according to economists. 

Following the May 7 meeting, the Fed will next meet on June 18, with economists currently expecting the central bank to also hold steady then, according to CME FedWatch. Its polling finds a 70% likelihood that the Fed will maintain its benchmark rate at 4.25% to 4.5% at that meeting. 

However, it’s more likely the Fed could slash rates at its July 30 meeting, with the probability of a rate cut sitting currently at 80%, FedWatch notes. 

But some economists expect the central bank to hold off even longer. 

„We think the Federal Reserve will aggressively cut interest rates next year, as tariff-induced inflation begins to fade and the labor market shows more troubling signs,“ noted Oxford Economics Chief U.S. Economist Ryan Sweet, who says he believes the first cut will occur in December. 

Why does Trump want a rate cut now?

Mr. Trump argues that inflation has steadily cooled and high borrowing costs are no longer needed to restrain price increases. The Fed sharply ramped up its short-term rate in 2022 and 2023 as pandemic-era inflation spiked.

On Friday, Mr. Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that there is „NO INFLATION“ and claimed that grocery and egg prices have fallen, and that gas has dropped to $1.98 a gallon.

But those claims are not entirely true: Grocery prices have jumped 0.5% in two of the past three months and are up 2.4% from a year ago. Gas and oil prices have declined — gas costs are down 10% from a year ago — continuing a longer-running trend that has continued in part because of fears the economy will weaken. Still, AAA says gas prices nationwide average $3.18 a gallon.

What does the Fed’s decision mean for your money?

Borrowers who are looking for relief on loan and credit card rates will have a wait ahead of them, experts say. 

„There’s just so much uncertainty in the economy now,“ said Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst for LendingTree, in an email. „No one quite knows what the next few months will look like, but what does seem clear is that Americans are going to have wait at least a little longer for the Fed to cut rates.“

Schulz predicts that credit card rates could tick higher in the next few months, as well as auto loan rates.

„Banks are nervous about all of the uncertainty in the economy and what it means for consumers,“ he noted. „When that happens, banks try to minimize risk as much as possible, and one of the ways they do that is to raise interest rates on credit cards.“

Because of that, consumers should focus on shopping around for the best rates they can find, as well as considering transferring existing high-interest credit card debt to 0% balance transfer cards, Schulz added.

Louisiana authorities on Monday charged a second suspect with murder in the death of a television reporter who had traveled to New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl.

Adan Manzano, a 27-year-old reporter and anchor for Telemundo based in Kansas City, Missouri, was found dead Feb. 5 in his hotel room in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner. A woman seen on security video leaving Manzano’s room was later charged with second-degree murder and with stealing his credit cards and cellphone.

Kenner police announced Monday that an accomplice, 34-year-old Rickey White, has also been charged with second-degree murder. White was arrested in Florida in March on robbery and fraud charges related to Manzano’s death, then extradited to Louisiana.

Kenner police said in a news release that the murder charge against White resulted from „continued investigative efforts,“ but officials gave no further details.

„Investigators have worked tirelessly to uncover the details surrounding the events that led to Mr. Manzano’s tragic death,“ Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley said in a statement, the New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported.

Conley had said at a news conference March 18 that investigators had linked White to Danette Colbert, 49, the first suspect charged in the case, based on „correspondence and information where they were going back and forth. So we think they were working hand-in-hand in concert with each other.“

An attorney for White, Kevin Boshea, said he hadn’t been informed of the murder charge before an Associated Press reporter called him Monday.

„I don’t think he’s guilty of the other crimes,“ Boshea said, „so how can he be guilty of murder?“

Boshea said he pressed police during a preliminary hearing on the robbery and fraud charges last month to show evidence that White was in the New Orleans area when Manzano died, but they presented none.

An attorney for Colbert had said that police were making „assumptions and guesses“ to link her to Manzano’s death.

Under Louisiana law, a defendant can be charged with second-degree murder for distributing drugs that cause a death or for committing certain crimes, including robbery, that result in someone dying.

An autopsy found Manzano died lying facedown on a pillow and unable to breathe after ingesting a combination of alcohol and the depressant Xanax, Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich told reporters in March.

Police said security video from Manzano’s hotel showed him and Colbert entering his room together the day of his death. Footage showed Colbert leaving without him about an hour later. Authorities have said Colbert later used Manzano’s credit card to make a purchase at a New Orleans gas station and at several stores in the area.

Police have also said Manzano’s medical records showed no prescriptions for Xanax or other depressants, and that they recovered the drug from Colbert’s home. She was found guilty of theft and fraud charges in an unrelated case last year, and, in 2022, was arrested twice in Las Vegas on felony charges for grad larceny and administering a drug to aid in a felony crime according to court records. 

In the Las Vegas cases, Colbert was accused of drugging men in their hotel rooms and stealing from them. However, the charges were ultimately dismissed because the victims did not want to testify in court, Colbert’s attorney in those cases, Daniel Lippmann, told the Associated Press earlier this year.

Detectives believe Colbert and Manzano met during a night out, and, later, she later allegedly gave him a drug in his hotel room to incapacitate him before stealing his phone and credit card, WWL-TV reported. Authorities have accused White of helping to facilitate the thefts, including by providing transportation, the station reported. 

They also say White and Colbert communicated multiple times on the day Manzano died, with some of their text messages containing discussions about obtaining victims‘ PIN numbers and using „knock outs“ to incapacitate them, WWL-TV reported, citing court records.

Kenner Police are coordinating with the Louisiana State Police, the state Attorney General’s Office and the Jefferson Parish District Attorney’s Office as they continue to investigate Manzano’s death.

Two vehicles collided head-on and burst into flames on a two-lane highway in rural eastern Kansas, killing eight people, including two high school students, a former teacher-coach and a school employee from Oklahoma, authorities said Monday.

The crash occurred at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday on U.S. 169 outside of the small town of Greeley, about 60 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri, the Kansas Highway Patrol said. One person escaped from a wrecked vehicle and was hospitalized.

Three of those killed were connected with Tulsa Public Schools, the school district confirmed Monday. Booker T. Washington High School student Donald „DJ“ Laster died in the crash, along with former Carver Middle School coach and teacher Wayne Walls and Ja’mon Gilstrap, a member of Tulsa Public Schools‘ transportation team.

Laster, Gilstrap and Walls were part of a competitive travel basketball team called the Oklahoma Chaos, KSHB reported.

Kyrin Schumpert, a 9th grade student from Union High School Freshman Academy in Tulsa, also died in the crash, according to a Union Public Schools spokesperson.

„I am heartbroken for those who lost loved ones, and committed to honoring the immense collective impact each of these people had in Tulsa and in the lives of our young people,“ Dr. Ebony Johnson, superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, said in a statement obtained by CBS affiliate KOTV. „I am praying for their families and everyone involved, and hope others will continue to come alongside our students, team members, and families who are hurting.“

TPS confirms a Booker T. Washington student and staff member died in a Kansas crash over the weekend. Details are still limited.

This is a developing story, we will provide updates below ⬇️https://t.co/2r9Zieos1I pic.twitter.com/Lr1Cipl2Lf

— News On 6 (@NewsOn6) May 5, 2025

Ron Horton, a teacher at Booker T. Washington, said in a video sent by Tulsa Public Schools that he has seen a lot of kids come and go in his 17 years of teaching and that DJ Laster was „something special.“ He said Laster was a quintessential student-athlete who worked as hard at academics as he did at sport during the busy varsity basketball season.

„He stood out for his friendliness and just the way he made kids feel at ease. They just felt so comfortable around DJ. He was always smiling,“ Horton said. „No one had a beef with that guy. He was just a good guy.“

Horton said Laster was one of only two freshmen to make the varsity basketball team and that Laster worked hard to keep up.

„It’s just a shock, it is, that he’s gone,“ Horton said.

Union Public Schools Superintendent John Federline said in a statement that the district has activated a crisis response team and is offering counselors, school psychologists, and support staff for anyone who may need the support.

The crash closed a section of the highway for four hours, and Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Jodi Clary said authorities were still working at the crash site Monday evening. The cause of the crash remained under investigation.

„Both cars burned up,“ Clary said.

The crash happened just days after a pickup truck and tour van collision in Idaho near Yellowstone National Park killed seven people and injured eight others.

Washington — A federal appellate panel on Tuesday is set to consider high-profile cases involving two international students who were detained by federal immigration officials and now face removal from the U.S. after they made statements that were critical of Israel.

The panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit will hear arguments in emergency appeals from the Trump administration after two federal judges issued separate decisions in favor of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral candidate at Tufts University, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University, last month. 

Administration officials are asking the 2nd Circuit to pause the lower court orders issued in Ozturk and Mahdawi’s cases while their challenges to their respective detentions move forward. In Ozturk’s case, U.S. District Judge William Sessions issued an order for Ozturk, who is being detained at a facility in Louisiana, to be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Vermont and set a bail hearing for her to attend in person on May 9. 

U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered Mahdawi’s release from immigration custody while the challenge to his detention proceeds.

Appeals court Judges Barrington Parker, Susan Carney and Alison Nathan will consider the administration’s request for a stay of the two orders.

The cases are still in their early stages, and the lower court judges, Sessions and Crawford, are still weighing Ozturk and Mahdawi’s respective habeas corpus challenges to their confinement. 

Ozturk, a Ph.D. student at Tufts, was arrested by federal immigration officials near her Somerville, Massachusetts, apartment on March 25, after the Trump administration revoked her student visa. She was not notified of the revocation before her arrest, according to court records. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that at least 300 students studying at American universities have had their visas rescinded after they were accused of expressing support for Palestinians or participating in campus protests.

Ozturk co-authored an editorial in the Tufts‘ student newspaper that criticized the school for its dismissal of several resolutions adopted by the undergraduate student senate as a „sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law.“ The editorial did not mention Hamas. 

According to court filings, a memorandum from a senior official with the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs said Ozturk’s visa was revoked based on a request from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which determined that she „had been involved in associations that ‚may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.’“

After she was arrested, Ozturk was transported to Methuen, Massachusetts, and transported to Lebanon, New Hampshire, followed by St. Albans, Vermont, where she was kept overnight. On the morning of March 26, in Burlington, Vermont, Ozturk was put on a plane and flown to Louisiana, where she is currently in custody at an immigration facility in Basile.

Ozturk’s lawyers filed a petition challenging her arrest and detention as a violation of the First and Fifth Amendments in federal district court in Massachusetts. But the case was transferred to Sessions‘ court in Vermont after it was determined that Ozturk was detained in that state at the time the petition was filed.

The Justice Department sought to dismiss Ozturk’s petition while her lawyers asked Sessions to order her to be released or transferred to Vermont while her claims are adjudicated.

Sessions last month ruled that Ozturk’s arrest and detention raised „significant constitutional concerns“ and said she must be transferred to ICE custody in Vermont by May 1. He also set a bail hearing for May 9, with Ozturk appearing in person, and will consider the merits of her habeas petition on May 22.

The 2nd Circuit temporarily paused Sessions‘ order late last month while it considers the Trump administration’s request for emergency relief.

Mahdawi, who is to graduate from Columbia this month with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, was detained by immigration agents in Vermont last month during what he was told was his citizenship interview. 

He was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and he has held a green card for the last 10 years and co-founded his university’s Palestinian Student Union, alongside Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist, Columbia Ph.D. student and U.S. resident detained by the government. Mahdawi’s attorneys said he took a „step back“ from the high-profile protests at the school before students began occupying university buildings. 

Khalil, a Palestinian born in Syria, was a vocal member of last year’s protests at Columbia. He was arrested by ICE in March. He is also challenging his removal and detention, though an immigration judge allowed the government to proceed with its effort to deport Khalil.

In an interview with CBS News the day before his arrest, Mahdawi called the interview a „honey trap“ that allowed federal immigration officials to detain him while he went in to pursue U.S. citizenship.

Mahdawi’s attorneys secured a court order that blocked the Trump administration from deporting him or moving him outside of Vermont. Then, last week, Crawford released Mahdawi from federal detention as his immigration proceedings continue and again barred the government from removing him from the state or country. 

A U.S. attorney arguing against Mahdawai’s release said that keeping him in detention would be a „constitutionally valid aspect of the deportation process“ and argued in court filings that Mahdawi’s „presence and activities“ in the U.S. „have serious adverse foreign policy consequences“ if he remains here.

The Trump administration has been cracking down on U.S. universities and their students who were involved in pro-Palestinian protests waged after Hamas‘ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

President Trump signed an executive order in January that ordered his administration to use „all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.“ The White House said that these efforts would include deporting alleged „Hamas sympathizers“ and revoking student visas.

Brenham, Texas — Rescue crews in Texas were searching for a 10-year-old girl swept away by rapidly rising floodwaters as forecasters warned that Tuesday could bring more heavy rains and flooding to the Houston area and the state’s coast.

Teams of people scoured the city of Brenham on Monday night, using drones with thermal imaging and dogs to try to find the girl. But as heavy thunderstorms moved through the area, the Brenham Fire Department was forced to scale back the water rescue operation. It was expected to resume in the morning, the department said.

The department was working with around a dozen supporting agencies to find the girl, who was last seen at about 4 p.m. Monday.

Several bystanders tried to rescue the girl before emergency crews arrived, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reported.

A Brenham police officer who also tried to rescue her became caught in the current, KHOU added, but was rescued downstream and was being treated by Washington County EMS.

„There is bad weather on its way so we ask for prayers for the family and all the first responders involved in the search and rescue,“ the Brenham Fire Department department said in a social media post.

The next round of severe storms could bring as much as 6 inches of rain Tuesday to parts of southeastern Texas, according to the National Weather Service in Houston.

The weather service also warned of a series of strong rip currents and flooding along Gulf-facing beaches, especially during high tides.

A large swath of the state, along with parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi were under a National Weather Service flood watch early Tuesday.

Just last week, storms drenched much of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, flooding and washing out roads and causing hundreds of flights to be canceled or delayed at major airports.

Brenham ia about an hour and 15-minute drive northwest from downtown Houston, KHOU points out.

At least three people were killed and four others injured when a small boat capsized Monday morning off the coast of San Diego, officials said. At least seven others were missing. Elise Preston reports.

An AI-generated image of President Trump dressed as the pope sparked backlash. But the real question isn’t about clothing — it’s about commitment. „CBS Evening News“ co-anchor John Dickerson gives his take.