MON SIX

A UPS cargo plane had to abort its landing in Louisville earlier this week when a small plane crossed the runway just as it approached.

The air traffic controller yelled “Skylab 25, stop!” at the small plane before quickly ordering the UPS plane to pull up and perform a maneuver called a go-around to avert another tragedy at Louisville's Muhammad Ali International Airport, which is a major hub for UPS. The audio was posted online bywww.LiveATC.net.

Just last November, aUPS plane crashedafter anengine fell offas it was rolling down the runway to take off. The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday that it plans to hold two days of investigative hearings starting May 19 to learn more about why the crash thatkilled 14 peoplehappened.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in this latest incident, which happened about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday.

Right after the cargo plane safely pulled up, the controller asked “Skylab 25, what are you doing?”

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The pilot responded “Skylab 25, yeah, sorry about that.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

UPS said in a statement that its pilot followed standard procedures to perform a go-around and there was no impact on the package delivery giant's operations.

Close calls like this happen somewhere frequently. Just last week, a Frontier Airlines jetnearly collidedwith two trucks that crossed in front of it as it was taxiing at slow speeds at Los Angeles International Airport. In a separate incident earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, an American Airlines pilot told the tower he had to slam on the brakes when a truck crossed in front of him on a taxiway.

Last month, an Air Canada plane landing at LaGuardia Airport in New Yorksmashed into a fire truckthat had been cleared to cross the runway less than 20 seconds earlier. Both pilots were killed and dozens were injured in that crash.

BLACKSBURG, VA – We’ll get into the money ordeal, just not the way you’d think. Not through the fascinating lens of who in their right mindwalks away from $40 million?

James Franklin does, and before we examine the why and what he was thinking, we need to attack this money thing from a different angle. Not the money of losing, and getting paidtens of millions to not coach.

But the money of winning, and what it now costs to field a championship roster in the NIL-driven era of college football.

“I’ll give Penn State credit, they went all-in last year,” Franklin told USA TODAY Sports in a wide-ranging interview. “But they went all in for one year.”

That’s where this money trail begins. Not with Franklin letting Penn State off the hook for $40 million byaccepting the Virginia Tech jobin December and allowing the mitigation clause in his $49 million buyout from Penn State to kick in.

Penn State fires football coach James Franklin after 3 straight losses

But with Penn State, a college football blue blood for decades — a blue blood in dire straits when Franklin arrived in 2014 — not acting like one until it was forced to see the ugly truth in 2024.

You remember the 2024 season, right? Penn State lost a gut-punch of a game at home to Ohio State —yet another lossin a big game for Franklin — and lost in the Big Ten championship game to Oregon. The Lions played that season, Franklin told USA TODAY Sports, with an NIL budget of $7 million.Seven million.

There were Group of Five schools with larger budgets.

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Ohio State, the eventual national champion, played with a budget in excess of $20 million. So did Notre Dame, the national runner-up. So did many other blue blood, Power conference programs chasing the biggest prize of all. Or at least a ticket to the College Football Playoff ride.

“We were still competing against schools that had been all-in every year of the NIL market,” Franklin said. “Schools that did whatever it took.”

Like Ohio State going out and buying the best young defensive player in college football (Caleb Downs), the best running back in the SEC (Quinshon Judkins), the best high school player (Jeremiah Smith) and a Power conference championship-winning quarterback (Will Howard) heading into 2024. Or Notre Dame throwing big money at quarterback Riley Leonard and wide receiver Beaux Collins.

You remember 2024, right? Franklin and his staff convinced players to play for less at Penn State, and the Lions reached the CFP and beat SMU and Boise State — and were a game away from playing in a national title game rematch against Ohio State.

Wait, not a game away. A play away.

One lousy play in a 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the national semifinal, an interception from quarterback Drew Allar at Penn State’s 28 to set up the Irish game-winning field goal. The score was tied at 24, there were 38 seconds remaining in regulation, the Lions got 13 from running back Nick Singleton on first down, and there were 33 seconds to play, and it’s the CFP, and it’s now or never, and it’s time to end this thing. Forget overtime.

And then it happened.

“Can’t even begin to explain the disappointment,” Allar said.

Franklin, sitting right next to Allar in the postgame aftermath, did what he always does. Protect players, shoulder the blame, and then declared, “There's going to be a ton of guys coming back next year that are going to be hungry and are going to be motivated for more.”

Which brings us all the way back to the $7 million.

Penn State finally realized after a punch to the gut to end 2024, it had to spend to win. So after not completing a pass to a wide receiver in the national semifinal (that’s not a misprint), Penn State went out and spent millions in the transfer portal on wide receivers Trebor Pena, Devonte Ross and Kyron Hudson. The school also spent a truckload to keep critical pieces from the 2024 roster from heading to the NFL ― or to other college programs.

A year after Ohio State went all-in, Penn State did, too. The first time in the NIL era both teams were on the same financial level.

Then Allar threw another galling interception in Week 4 — this time at home in overtime against Oregon, ending the most anticipated regular season game in decades — and the 2025 season was gutted for all to see, like a prized buck in the rich hunting grounds of Central Pennsylvania.

Right there in Happy Valley, where Penn State’s all-in hand busted despite a full house.

A week after that, the Lions lost by five at UCLA, and then lost by one at home to Northwestern. And that was it. Franklin’s career at Penn State — which before the 2025 season included 34 wins over the previous three seasons, six double-digit win seasons in 10 non-COVID years, and a 4-21 record vs. the Top 10 — was over.

One play in January, and three losses before the calendar escaped October. And the whole damn thing was blown up.

Suddenly, firing a coach just six games removed from leading your program within a whiff of playing for it all came quickly into focus. The panic move from president Neeli Bendapudi and athletic director Pat Kraft fell in line with the rest of reactionary NIL world.

It’s not personal, it’s just now or never.

“Football is our backbone,” Kraft said. “We have invested at the highest level. With that comes high expectations.”

It’s here where we reintroduce the concept of what numbskull would willingly walk away from $40 million? The same guy who had his heart ripped out with a six-game prove-it season.

The same guy who 12 years earlier followed Bill O’Brien’s gem of a job breathing life into Penn State after the horrific Jerry Sandusky scandal cost the program its soul, and then won the Big Ten in Year 3. The same guy who couldn’t beat Ohio State enough (who has?), and couldn’t get out of the East Division while battling the Buckeyes and Michigan year after year. The same guy who, for some reason, had a woefully substandard NIL budget every season but one at Penn State.

Then got fired six games into the first time Penn State went all-in.

So yeah, now it’s time for the answer, time for Franklin to explain what in the world he was thinking when he walked away from $40 million — and gave Penn State a financial lifeboat in the process? By agreeing to coach at Virginia Tech, Franklin’s buyout from Penn State was mitigated from $49 million to $9 million. So the Lions, pinching NIL pennies until 2025, saved 40-large after firing the second-winningest coach in school history.

“You go through that deal, and you’re thinking, I don’t want to let them off the hook financially. That’s something you’re struggling with,” Franklin said. “But it wasn’t about me penalizing Penn State. At that point, it was about what do I need to do for my family and for myself to be happy and move on?”

He taps his index fingers on his desk inside the Merryman Athletic Center, a few Michael Vick deep balls from Lane Stadium. The house Frank Beamer built, where all of those hard-working, overachievingHokiesof the past carried that beat-up lunch pail winning season after winning season. And the explanation is just beginning.

“It’s unusual to stay at a place now for 12 years.” Franklin said. “You pour your heart and soul into something. There were 12-15 times where I could’ve left for another job, but I was committed to that place, and I was committed to those people.”

He trails off again because he's been avoiding this answer for months, mainly because he doesn’t want to make excuses for a Penn State run he’s intensely proud of, and he really doesn’t want to rehash it. What’s done is done.

Do you really want to know why a man walks away from a $49 million vacation?

“This place, Virginia Tech,” Franklin continues, “This placewanted us. You know what that feels like? Theywanted us. That’s powerful. Money can’t replace that.”

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Getting the band back together

We’re not done with the money theme just yet. It's time to add a few actors to the Shakespearean drama.

When Franklin finally made the decision he wanted to coach again, he wanted to do everything he could to replicate what he built at Penn State. In other words, the structural pieces in place to build and grow and win.

The first person he reached out to wasBrent Pry, his longtime defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt and Penn State. The one assistant who knew Franklin better than any other, who knew the program and the process and exactly how to piece it all together.

And the man who had just been fired as head coach of Virginia Tech.

“How about that for a plot twist?” Pry says.

Virginia Tech fired Pry after an 0-3 start to begin 2025, and zeroed in on Franklin not long after he was fired by Penn State. But that’s massively underselling it.

Hokies athletic director Whit Babcock met Franklin at the Atlanta airport, and had an entire plan in place for how the university would strengthen its financial commitment to football, and how the long, cold winter of Virginia Tech football — the golden years of Beamer Ball ended in 2011, four years before he retired in 2015 — were over. Babcock's plan, Franklin says, had every answer for every question.

“I don't think we ever talked about my contract,” Franklin said. “They had a number they were comfortable with, and I don't think we ever talked about it again. It was all just about, what do we need to do to put Virginia Tech back on the map?”

But before that reality unfolded, Franklin and Pry talked at length about coaching together again if Franklin found the right job. Once Babcock full-court pressed Franklin with the right job, the 800-pound you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me had to be addressed.

Franklin wanted the guy Babcock just fired — the coach he just agreed to pay $6 million to not coach in Blacksburg after a 16-24 record over three seasons and three games — as his defensive coordinator.

More than any other piece of the band Franklin was stitching back together — including former Penn State assistants Ty Howle (offensive coordinator), Danny O’Brien (quarterbacks), Sean Spencer (defensive line), Chuck Losey (strength coach), Andy Frank (general manager), Kevin Threlkel (chief of staff) — Pry was critical.

It wasn’t just Babcock who had to be convinced of the strange move, Pry had to buy it, too — and agree to let Virginia Tech off the hook for a majority of the $6 million because of his mitigation clause.

Somehow, the financial dysfunction all fit perfectly together.

“I do think there's an aspect of talking about it, and then the reality of actually doing it and what walking back in this building is going to be like for Brent,” Franklin said. “You know, the humility that you have to have to do that, and to walk past this office. It takes a special guy who has a lot of love for this place.”

Pry, maybe the most unassuming coach in a fraternity of peacocks, made the deal and moved a couple offices down from Franklin ― and from his old office.

“Now looking back, I should’ve demanded access to the head coach’s bathroom,” Pry deadpanned.

Franklin’s rationale, his pitch to Babcock, was simple: If Pry is good enough to be hired by an SEC school as defensive coordinator, he’s good enough to do the same job at Virginia Tech.

“I think once everybody took the emotion out of it and stepped back, it was like, yeah, this could make a lot of sense,” Franklin said.

The parallel world

When Franklin left Vanderbilt after the 2013 season to accept the Penn State job, five high school recruits that were committed to the Commodores followed him to Happy Valley. One was quarterback Trace McSorley, who would become one of the greatest players in school history, and the most valuable player of the 2016 Big Ten championship game.

By the time national signing day had come and gone last December, 11 high school recruits had flipped from Penn State to Virginia Tech, and not long after the transfer portal opened a month later, 12 Penn State players transferred to the Hokies ― including rising sophomore quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer.

The very player Franklin will structure this buildout ― which looks a whole lot like the beginning of the Penn State buildout in 2014 ― around.

"What I came here for," Grunkemeyer said. "To help (Franklin) turn this around."

That first Penn State recruiting class was the most important in Franklin’s 12 seasons. Not just for how it set the foundation for the first Big Ten championship since 2008, but how it proved the staff could develop players and place them in the NFL — the No.1 priority for players prior to the advent of NIL and free player movement.

Ten of 25 players from the NCAA sanction-saddled 2014 recurring class played in the NFL, despite 18 of the 25 not ranked nationally by the 247Sports composite. It should come as no surprise then, that the 11 Penn State recruits flipped to Virginia Tech when Franklin accepted the job.

Or that 12 more players on the Penn State roster — including Grunkemeyer, starters TE Luke Reynolds and LB Keon Wylie, and 2026 projected starters S Kenny Woseley Jr. and DE Mylachi Williams — followed Franklin to Virginia Tech.

Grunkemeyer, like all quarterbacks, is the key. He got his chance when Allar sustained a season-ending injury, and completed nearly 70% of his passes for 1,339 yards and eight touchdowns. So if you’re going to dream at Virginia Tech, dream big.

It’s not so much Grunkemeyer’s numbers in his first season as a starter, as it is what happened in early November against eventual national champion Indiana. A moment where Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza’s remarkable, last-minute, game-winning touchdown pass in Happy Valley kept the Hoosier’s unbeaten season alive.

Grunkemeyer outplayed Mendoza that day, then won his last four starts of the season — including a bowl win over Clemson. Grunkemeyer didn’t throw an interception over the final four games of the season.

But what would’ve been the biggest upset of the season was simply another side note to the untethering of the program in an all-in season. From everything that could go right prior to the beginning of the season, to everything that could go wrong once the heavy lifting began in late September.

“The upgrade in NIL needed to be done, considering how NIL was being used before (2025),” Grunkemeyer said. “But then that comes with expectations, and as players, we have to do our part. Players should be getting paid, and the one thing (Franklin) does a really good job of is you wouldn’t know who is getting paid by the standard he sets and the culture we have.”

Not long ago, Franklin and his wife, Fumi, vacationed in The Bahamas to decompress from yet another grind of a football season. As he was walking through the lobby at the resort, Franklin ran into Amani Oruwariye, an overlooked cornerback recruit from his first recruiting class at Penn State.

It was Vanderbilt, Boston College and Cincinnati showing interest in Oruwariye more than a decade ago, and that’s about it. So when Franklin left Vanderbilt for Penn State, he took Oruwariye — an unranked national recruit in the 247Sports composite, and 33rd best at his position — to Happy Valley and turned him into an All-Big Ten player.

Oruwariye has played six seasons in the NFL, and is currently a backup for the Baltimore Ravens. He’s the story Franklin has sold to every player on the Virginia Tech roster. To the high school recruits who decommitted from Penn State and signed with Virginia Tech, to the Penn State players who followed Franklin to Blacksburg, to critical Hokies players who were kept in the fold from Babcock’s commitment to financial support.

You want to play football and get to the NFL? We want you here, and we’ll get you there. There's a track record.

Besides, everybody loves to be wanted. And paid.

“It’s kind of an interesting parallel,” Franklin says. “The business model has changed, and you better be bold and aggressive under the new model. You better embrace it, and you better go after it. You can’t sit and hope for the best.”

Even when you have $49 million reasons to do just that.

Matt Hayesis the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at@MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Why James Franklin gave up $49 million buyout to rebuild Virginia Tech

Health officials and law enforcement agencies across the country are raising alarms about an emerging synthetic opioid that is believed to be up to 10 times stronger thanfentanyl.

The drug is known as cychlorphine, but is scientifically referred to as N-propionitrile chlorphine.

Because of its extreme potency, even very small doses of cychlorphine are potentially lethal. Officials said it has been linked to a growing number of overdose deaths and is being found in other illicit drugs.

Another major concern is that it requires multiple doses of naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, to try and reverse an overdose.

RELATED STORY |US overdose deaths fell 27% last year, the largest one-year decline ever seen

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The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) San Francisco Field Division has identified the drug in cases around Northern California, according to a local ABC-affiliate.

In eastern Tennessee, the Knox County Regional Forensic Center noted that cychlorphine had been detected in 41 deaths across its 23-county service area as of early April.

ICYMI |Walgreens launches a cheaper, generic version of over-the-counter Narcan

Citing "reports," the Knox County Regional Forensic Center claimed that officials believe cychlorphine originated in China in 2024 and quickly moved to Europe before hitting the United States in late 2024 where it possibly first appeared in Florida.

TheCenter for Forensic Science Research and Educationsaid it was first detected in mid-2024 and has been showing up in toxicology reports from at least eight states and several Canadian provinces.

Five months after he was fired as a U.S. immigration judge, Jeremiah Johnson found himself rumbling into the highlands of Guatemala on a crowded bus, a bouquet of flowers in hand.

His unusual, if poetic, mission: to visit relatives of an indigenous family who fled their village for the United States and won asylum in his courtroom.

Johnson, 52, served nearly a decade as an immigration judge in San Francisco, in a famously liberal circuit, hearing hundreds of asylum cases. Day in, day out, he heard stories of political and religious persecution, torture, violence, rape. He granted asylum89% of the time.

That statistic, he believes, is likely one of the reasons the Trump administration targeted him and the San Francisco court in an effort to rid the system of alleged bias in favor of immigrants, and against the Department of Homeland Security.

The Department of Justice, which oversees immigration judges, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

While PresidentDonald Trump's mass deportation effort has played out in dramatic U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps of major American cities and the expansion of immigration detention, the White House has also been quietly working to reshape the nation's immigration courts, where immigrants can be ordered deported or granted the right to stay.

Since Trump took office in January 2025, the DOJ has fired at least 107 immigration judges, including roughly two dozen in San Francisco alone, according to the National Association of Immigration Judges, a union for the judges. Nationwide, another 50 or so have left or been dismissed.

"Under President Trump, asylum is now granted in just 7% of cases," the White House said inan April 9 news release, citing an investigation by theNew York Times. The release touted: "The era of amnesty is over."

That statistic likely includes not only judges' decisions but abandoned cases in which the applicant failed to appear, according to the right-leaningCenter for Immigration Studies. In PresidentJoe Biden's last year, the comparable asylum grant rate including abandoned cases was 36%.

The San Francisco court has the third-highest number of asylum cases in the nation after New York and Miami, according to theTransactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which compiles government data. The administration has ordered the court to close by May 1; the majority of the court's cases are shifting to judges 30 miles away in a smaller, suburban court in Concord, California.

"The fact that these judges are being aggressively removed and bullied by the administration – they don't have the protections that a regular judge has and I don't think people realize that," said U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-California).

On the bus in Guatemala in mid-April, Johnson had no phone number and no address as he rode into the green mountains southeast of Todos Santos, not far from the Mexican border. He had only the family's name in a notebook and a local guide, a veterinarian, who spoke the indigenous Mam language of the region. He wore a bucket hat.

The asylum-seeking family's head of household "was a refugee," a married man and father of two boys, Johnson said. The family belonged to an indigenous Mam-speaking Mayan community that was at odds with the Spanish-speaking Ladinos in the area. A conflict over water turned deadly.

In 2017, the man and his brother went to pull water from a well originally built by their grandfather. A group of eight Ladino men confronted them, then violently attacked, according to the family's I-589 Application for Asylum, shared with USA TODAY. The man escaped to get help. "When I returned with my wife and mother, we found my brother's body. He had been beaten to death," he said in the asylum petition.

Their identities are redacted from the asylum application and the family's immigration attorney, Alicia Chen, asked for their names to be withheld to protect the family.

The water conflict had deep roots in the country's civil war, which pitted the military and Ladino elites against Mayan indigenous groups. Though the war ended in the 1990s, vestiges remained of the racial and ethnic conflict. The family relied on other water sources for awhile, but they dried up. When they attempted to draw water from their grandfather's well again, Ladinos again violently confronted them. He, his wife and young son were left "bleeding and severely injured," according to his statement. The family walked two hours to the nearest police station to file a report; they were mocked instead, he said.

Johnson heard all this in court. Theirs was the last case he decided.

"My last words on that bench were through the Mam interpreter," he recalled. "'You've been granted asylum in the United States. That decision is final.'"

"Their persecution goes back to the civil war," he said by phone from Guatemala. "These villages were all burned."

In the village, he sketched a church that during the war, he learned, served as a jail where indigenous Mam people were imprisoned.

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'To ever keep in mind the needs of others'

Johnson was appointed to the bench during the first Trump administration by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Originally from New Jersey, he attended the University of San Francisco School of Law. He interned at the International Rescue Committee, and was inspired by lawyers who deftly navigated complex immigration laws.

He held fast to his own father's words of wisdom, "to ever keep in mind the needs of others." He became an asylum officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services before applying to join the court.

If he or the San Francisco court had a higher-than-most asylum grant rate, he said, that was driven by the mix of cases on the docket; the case law of the liberal 9th Circuit and the high level of attorney representation in his court.

Nationwide, judges might see only the asylum cases of Chinese nationals; or Cubans; or, in Johnson's case, a large number of Sikhs from the Punjab region of India, where many faced religious or political persecution, he said.

But the closure of the San Francisco court is a symbolic win for the Trump administration: Immigration judges hold the power to deport immigrants, or let them stay, and San Francisco judges more often let them stay.

The DOJ put immigration judges on notice ina June 2025 memothat said some judges "appear to believe... that exhibiting bias is justifiable in certain situations, as long as that bias is in favor of an alien and against the Department of Homeland Security."

That belief is deep-seated in the White House. Trump Homeland Security adviser and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is a critic of asylum.

"Everyone involved in the asylum system knows and understands the claims are all fake: the aliens who make them, the free NGO lawyers who file them, the judges who hear them, the federal officers who process them," he wrote on X on April 1.

Johnson's termination letter landed in his inbox on the Friday before Thanksgiving in 2025; his email was locked so fast he didn't have time to print it.

Finding the family

Last year, nationwide, senior managing judges were let go first, Johnson said. In San Francisco, the new judges, still on their two-year probation, were the first fired. The remaining judges saw their caseloads balloon. Beginning in July, Johnson started seeing six cases a day, including three "detained" cases of people in ICE detention.

There are nearly3.8 millioncases in the nation's immigration court backlog. Roughly two-thirds, or2.4 million, are asylum applications, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which runs the immigration courts within the DOJ.

A bill to establishan independent immigration court system‒ first introduced in 2022 under the Biden administration ‒ has been reintroduced this year by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-California). The bill, which is supported by the immigration judges' union, would create a system that better reflects other U.S. courts and protects them from being hired or fired by the executive branch.

On that Friday in November, Johnson's docket was empty except for one case, the family of four from Guatemala.

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Tossed from the bench, Johnson packed a backpack and set off heading in the reverse direction of what is now a mostly empty migrant trail.

He had beers with humanitarians at the Arizona border in January. He spoke with border ranchers who voted for Trump. He had coffee with a retired Border Patrol agent, then was invited to his house for strawberry crepes. He took notes.

In Guatemala, the veterinarian asked around for the parents of the man who survived the water well attack and found them. "They're home," he told Johnson. "They'll see you." After pleasantries and explanations and the gift of flowers, Johnson asked about their murdered son, the refugee's brother.

"There were tears on the señora's face," he said. The father "started rubbing his chest."

He and his wife wanted to show him the grave.

Lauren Villagran covers immigration for USA TODAY and can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com and on Signal at laurenvillagran.57.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Federal immigration court judge embarks on odyssey to Central America

GENEVA, April 17 (Reuters) - Nearly 900 Rohingya refugees ‌were reported missing ‌or dead in the ​Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2025, making it the ‌deadliest year ⁠on record for the route, the ⁠United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

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More ​than one ​in ​seven of ‌the estimated 6,500 Rohingya refugees who attempted the sea crossing last year were reported missing ‌or dead, ​marking the highest ​mortality ​rate worldwide ‌for refugee and migrant ​sea ​journeys, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch told reporters ​in ‌Geneva.

(Reporting by Olivia Le ​Poidevin, Editing by ​Friederike Heine)

Dakota Mortensen, the ex-boyfriend of “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” starTaylor Frankie Paul, will not be charged in relation to an allegation of domestic violence this year, the Utah city of Draper said.

In a statement, the city announced the city prosecutor's decision two days after the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Officedeclined to file charges against Paul.

"The Draper City Prosecutor reviewed the DA’s findings and, upon further review of the Draper Police case, has declined to file any charges against Taylor Frankie Paul or Dakota Mortensen related to an investigation of domestic assault claims," the city said.

Mortensen filed a complaint of domestic violence against Paul on Feb. 23, and Paul counter-claimed an assault by him.

“After a thorough investigation by Draper Police, the City Prosecutor has determined that there is insufficient corroborating evidence to support filing criminal charges against either party,” the city said in the statement.

The police department said it "would only pursue the investigation further if additional information is provided that supports the prosecution of either party.”

NBC News has reached out to representatives for Paul for comment.

Mortensen declined to comment when he was reached by phone.

In the incident in February, a friend reported that Paul assaulted Mortensen, according to police records obtained through a Utah public records request.

Mortensen told police that Paul attacked him, grabbed his throat, scratched him and threw objects at him, according to Draper police records. Paul told police that she told Mortensen to leave her home and he refused and that at one point Mortensen grabbed her and hit her head against the dashboard of his vehicle, according to the police documents.

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Police said in the documents about the investigation that the city prosecutor “advised that neither Taylor or Dakota are credible witnesses, with both their statements being fraught with inconsistencies.”

The documents reviewed include accounts from both Mortensen and Paul. They describe in detail at least one domestic violence incident with allegations hurled against each other. Both parties refer toadditional incidentsbut those are not described at length.

NBC News has also reviewed photos and videos included in the police documents. The photos show injuries Paul and Mortensen said they suffered during the alleged domestic violence incidents, including bruises, scratches and other abrasions on both of their bodies, including their arms, legs, necks and faces.

Videos reviewed and included in the documents capture interviews between each of the parties and police officers, bodycam footage and audio of 911 calls placed.

Also included in the documents is audio of a 911 call made by Mortensen's roommate, who identifies himself as Cru Eaton. Eatoninitially reported the incidentthat took place at the end of February.

Police referred the case to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, because the couple’s child was home at the time, the city said in Thursday’s statement.

Allegations of domestic violence between the couple made headlines last month when a leaked video from a 2023 incident went viral. The video, posted online byTMZ,appeared to show Paulhurling a chair at Mortensen as he protested.

The couple’s on-and-off relationship was depicted in “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” which premiered in 2024.Filming for season fivewaspaused last month,sources have told NBC News.

Paul was to be the centerpiece of season 22 of ABC's “The Bachelorette,” but after the 2023 video was leaked, the networkpulled the upcoming season.

Mortensen will beedited out of the upcoming seasonof "Vanderpump Villa," a source familiar with the show confirmed to NBC News.

Draper is a city of around 50,000 in Salt Lake and Utah counties, south of Salt Lake City and in the metropolitan area.

NEW YORK (AP) —Mike Trouthit his fifth homer of the series and the Los Angeles Angels overcame a homer by Aaron Judge in their 11-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday afternoon for a four-game split.

Trout, who recently made a mechanical adjustment, went 6 for 16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. Trout hit his latest homer with one out in the seventh inning when he sent a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left field bleachers for a 7-4 lead.

Trout homered in his fifth straight game at Yankee Stadium and became the fourth to hit five homers in a series against the Yankees. The others were Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990), according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.

Trout’s latest homer contributed to a rare loss for the Yankees when Judge and Giancarlo Stanton homer in the same game. Including the postseason, New York is 53-8 when the duo both connect.

Jo Adell added a grand slam in the eighth for the Angels, who lead the AL with 32 homers.

Judge hit his 89th career first-inning homer and Stanton hit a two-run shot to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the fourth before the Angels scored four runs in the sixth off Max Fried (2-1) and Fernando Cruz. Ben Rice also homered in the sixth.

Trout walked three times and scored the tying run in a four-run sixth on a double by former Yankee Oswald Peraza, who also hit a two-run homer in the first.

GIANTS 3, REDS 0

CINCINNATI (AP) — Landen Roupp allowed one hit in six innings and Matt Chapman had an RBI double to spark a three-run rally in the seventh and help San Francisco beat Cincinnati.

Roupp (3-1) didn’t allow a hit until No. 9 batter P.J. Higgins led off the sixth with a single. That ended up being the Reds only hit of the day.

Roupp hit TJ Friedl with a pitch, but Matt McLain struck out and Elly De La Cruz grounded into a double play to end the threat. Roupp walked two, struck out six and left after 87 pitches.

Ryan Walker pitched the seventh and Keaton Winn struck out two in the eighth. Erik Miller struck out the side in the ninth for his first career save.

The Giants rallied when Luis Arraez reached on an error by De La Cruz at short leading off the seventh against reliever Brock Burke (1-1). Arraez scored from first on Chapman’s two-out double off the wall in left-center field. Jung Hoo Lee followed with an RBI single. Connor Phillips entered and walked Heliot Ramos before Casey Schmitt singled in a third unearned run.

Reds rookie Chase Burns allowed two hits and a walk, but still faced the minimum through six scoreless innings. He struck out four and left after throwing 87 pitches.

BREWERS 2, BLUE JAYS 1

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Garrett Mitchell scored the go-ahead run as Milwaukee bunted three straight times in the seventh inning to break a tie and beat Toronto.

Aaron Ashby (5-0) faced only two batters and got the final out in the seventh to take over the major league lead in wins.

Toronto stranded the potential tying run at third when Kazuma Okamoto grounded out against Angel Zerpa, who earned his second save. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had hit a leadoff single and reached third on a pair of grounders to the right side.

Milwaukee snapped a six-game skidWednesday by scoring twice in the eighth inning while hitting just one ball out of the infield. The Brewers didn’t hit any balls out of the infield during their seventh-inning rally Thursday.

Mitchell drew a leadoff walk from Tommy Nance (0-1) and Greg Jones bunted him over to second. David Hamilton beat out a bunt hit to put runners on the corners. Joey Ortiz delivered a safety squeeze that brought home Mitchell.

NATIONALS 8, PIRATES 7, 10 INNINGS

PITTSBURGH (AP) — James Wood singled to score automatic runner Jorbit Vivas in the 10th inning and Washington beat Pittsburgh.

Reliever Clayton Beeter (1-0) got his first career win despite giving up the ninth-inning run that sent the game to an extra inning. Brandon Lowe hit an infield single to score Jake Mangum, who Beeter walked.

Dennis Santana (2-1) pitched the top of the 10th for the Pirates.

Orlando Ribalta earned his first career save.

The Nationals scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning. Rookieshortstop Konnor Griffinhad a throwing error that scored the first three. Luis García Jr. grounded into a fielder’s choice and Griffin was unable to tag second in time before he threw wildly to first base. Drew Millas, Vivas and Nasim Nuñez all scored.

The Pirates challenged Nuñez’s slide to second for any illegal contact, but the call was upheld.

RAYS 5, WHITE SOX 3

CHICAGO (AP) — Junior Caminero homered and Tampa scored twice on bases-loaded walks in the ninth inning, rallying for a win over Chicago.

The Rays (11-7) trailed by one run three times before pulling ahead against White Sox (6-13) relievers Seranthony Dominguez and Lucas Sims, extending their winning streak to six games.

Dominguez entered with a one-run lead after Everson Pereira homered in the eighth inning, his second long ball in seven at-bats since returning from a sprained ankle. But Dominguez exited to boos with the bases loaded and one out after allowing Caminero’s leadoff home run, a single, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch.

Sims struck out Jake Fraley before walking Hunter Feduccia and Taylor Walls. The White Sox have lost six straight home games after starting 3-0.

TIGERS 10, ROYALS 9

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DETROIT (AP) — Riley Greene doubled home two runs to tie the score with two outs in the ninth inning, and Colt Keith followed with the winning single as streaking Detroit rallied past Kansas City in a wild game delayed twice by rain.

Dillon Dingler launched a two-run homer and Greene finished with three hits for the Tigers, who squandered a five-run lead but recovered to win their sixth straight.

Salvador Perez drove in four for the Royals, including a three-run homer to cap a six-run seventh that gave them an 8-6 lead. Vinnie Pasquantino also went deep, his first homer this season, and Bobby Witt Jr. had three hits and scored three times.

RANGERS 9, ATHLETICS 6

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Joc Pederson hit a go-ahead single in a four-run ninth inning and Texas rallied last in a victory over the Athletics to earn a split of its four-game series.

Nick Kurtz blooped a three-run double that Wyatt Langford couldn’t chase down in left field to give the Athletics a 6-5 lead with two outs in the eighth.

Jake Burger and Josh Jung singled to start the ninth against Justin Sterner (0-2). Kyle Higashioka was safe when Sterner fielded his bunt and threw it over the head of Darell Hernaiz at third for an error, allowing Burger to score the tying run. Pederson gave the Rangers the lead, and Ezequiel Duran added to it with a two-run single.

Brandon Nimmo had an RBI single in the third off Jacob Lopez, and Burger added a sacrifice fly in the fifth to put Texas up 2-0.

Jacob Wilson had a two-run single off Jack Leiter in the A’s fifth and Carlos Cortes followed with an RBI single to give them a 3-2 lead.

Luis Medina followed Lopez in the sixth, and Pederson worked a pinch-hit walk with one out after winning an ABS challenge on an 0-2 pitch. Josh Smith’s two-out RBI double tied it 3-all.

Jung hit his first home run of the season — a two-run shot off Scott Barlow in the seventh for a 5-3 Rangers lead.

Leiter allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. Jakob Junis was charged with three runs in 1 1/3 innings after Jacob Latz entered with the bases loaded and gave up Kurtz’s double.

GUARDIANS 4, ORIOLES 2

CLEVELAND (AP) — Parker Messick took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, José Ramírez homered for the third time in four games and Cleveland opened a seven-game homestand with a victory over Baltimore.

Making his 11th major league start, Messick (3-0) faced one batter more than the minimum through eight innings before Leody Taveras led off the ninth with a grounder that just eluded diving second baseman Juan Brito and went into right field for a single.

Blaze Alexander followed with a line-drive single to center before the rookie left-hander was removed to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,748.

Taylor Ward’s single off closer Cade Smith loaded the bases, and Gunnar Henderson’s sacrifice fly drove in Taveras. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double that put runners at second and third with one out.

Smith then retired pinch-hitter Colton Cowser on a fly to center and Samuel Basallo on a grounder for his fourth save.

The 25-year-old Messick walked two and equaled a career best with nine strikeouts. He was charged with two runs in eight-plus innings, his longest outing in the majors. He threw 112 pitches, 78 for strikes.

PADRES 5, MARINERS 2

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Fernando Tatis Jr.’s two-run single capped a four-run rally in the second inning, Walker Buehler earned his first win with San Diego and the Padres beat Seattle for their eighth straight win and 11th in 12 games.

Mason Miller struck out the side on 14 pitches in the ninth for his sixth save and to extend his scoreless innings streak to 30 2/3 innings, the longest active streak in the majors. He passed Randy Jones (30 innings in May 1980) for second-longest in Padres history and trails only Cla Meredith (33 2/3 innings, July-September 2006).

San Diego beat Seattle for just the fourth time in 12 games at Petco Park since 2022. Seattle won the season series 5-1 last year and claimed the inaugural Vedder Cup, named after Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who has ties to both cities. The trophy is a Fender Telecaster guitar signed by Vedder. The teams play again May 15-17 in Seattle.

Buehler (1-1) took a two-hit shutout into the sixth before allowing three straight singles. He was chased by Cal Raleigh’s RBI single, and Julio Rodríguez greeted reliever Bradgley Rodriguez with another run-scoring base hit. The Mariners had the bases loaded with one out before Adrian Morejon came on and retired the side.

Buehler threw his glove against a dugout wall after being pulled. He allowed two runs and five hits, struck out seven and walked one.

ROCKIES 3, ASTROS 2

HOUSTON (AP) — Hunter Goodman homered and doubled to help Colorado snap a six-game skid with a victory over Houston.

Goodman’s solo shot tied it in the fourth inning and Colorado took the lead in the fifth on an RBI single by Tyler Freeman, who had three hits.

Chase Dollander (2-1) took over with two outs in the first and pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings for the win. He struck out nine and allowed only one hit.

Victor Vodnik walked one in a scoreless ninth for his second save.

Jose Altuve had two hits for the Astros, who have dropped nine of 11.

Altuve hit a leadoff single in the first and moved to second on a wild pitch by opener Juan Mejia. Houston took a 1-0 lead when Altuve scored on a single by Yordan Alvarez.

With two outs, Mejia plunked Christian Walker on the arm with a pitch before a single by Joey Loperfido scored Alvarez to make it 2-0. But the offense stalled after that, and the Astros finished with five hits.