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President Donald Trump downplayed acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez's recentcomment to NBC Newsthat Nicolás Maduro is still the legitimate leader of Venezuela, telling reporters Monday that the response was one of political necessity.

"I think she probably has to say that. I think politically, maybe she has to say that," Trump said during a conversation with reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from Florida.

"The relationship with Venezuela, she's doing a very good job, and I fully understand that statement."

Rodríguez made the comments in an exclusive interview with NBC News last week with "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker in Caracas.

"I can tell you President Nicolás Maduro is the legitimate president. I will tell you this as a lawyer, that I am. Both President Maduro and Cilia Flores, the first lady, are both innocent," Rodríguez said.

TheU.S. captured the pairin a stunning surprise raid early last month. Maduro and his wife were indicted on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges andpleaded not guiltyin federal court in New York just days later.

Since Maduro's capture, Trump has praised Rodríguez's leadership and touted the potential benefits ofVenezuela's oil resourcesfor both countries.

In her interview with NBC News, Rodríguez also said she had been invited to come to America, while Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who had traveled to Venezuela to meet with the new leader,told reporters before his departurefrom the country that he and other Cabinet secretaries, and possibly Trump, would return.

Judge Tana Lin of the Western District of Washington wrote that the man, Greggy Sorio, saw his health decline while in the facility, eventually suffering two partial foot amputation surgeries, ulcerative colitis, blood loss, a kidney injury, a deficiency in vitamin D and "dramatic unintended weight loss."

Lin wrote the "unreasonable treatment" of Sorio violated the Constitution and that Sorio be released.

Sorio entered the U.S. as a "lawful permanent resident" in 2007, according to the judge's order, and was detained by ICE in March after he was released from prison. He was being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

In July, Sorio complained of blood in his stool, severe abdominal pain and yellowing of his skin and was denied requests to be sent to the hospital.

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By October, Sorio said he was "in extreme pain and could barely walk" and was sent to the hospital after several hours of waiting, the judge's order recounted. Although Sorio was prescribed an antibiotic at the hospital, the ICE facility staff did not fill the prescription and seemed to believe he had been diagnosed with "inflammatory bowel syndromes," an apparent reference to irritable bowel syndrome, the order noted.

A few days later, Sorio reported pain and swelling in his foot and said he was initially denied a hospital visit. When he went to the hospital on Oct. 22, he was determined to have a bone infection and went through two amputation surgeries.

Soriotold NBC's Seattle affiliateafter he was released on Friday, "If they had sent me to the hospital in July when I was begging them, I wouldn't lose my foot. It's preventable. They could have prevented this."

Sorio's criminal record, according to the affiliate station, includes "convictions for domestic violence, assault, theft, forgery and burglary."

Sorio told the outlet, "I did my time on it and I'm a better person now. Everybody has a past."

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Board of Education for the Los Angeles Unified School District could authorize district officials to issue potential layoff notices and move to eliminate certain positions as part of wider efforts to shore up savings in the coming fiscal years amid "dangerously high deficit levels" that total over $1 billion.

The board is expected to discuss the extreme measures Tuesday, Feb. 17.

LAUSD employs more than 83,000 people, including teachers, administrators, certificated support personnel and substitutes, according to June 2025 data. The prospect of layoffs isn't the only moving part in the overall picture: Labor unions have been in negotiations with the district related to wage increases to class sizes, and members of the United Teachers Los Angeles authorized the union to strike in late January.

The board had previously rescheduled Tuesday's meeting, a move that came off the heels of several unions, including UTLA, calling for the board not to vote on such a key matter in a meeting bloated by other agenda items. The unions instead suggested the board hold a meeting in early March so that officials would have a "more complete picture of Prop 98 funding" and so that people could have more time to understand the proposed cuts — cuts that labor unions said they hadn't been consulted about. Prop 98 guarantees a minimum level of funding for K-12 in the state.

Here's what to know about the job cuts for a district that serves hundreds of thousands of students in Southern California.

How many people could LAUSD lay off?

A board of education report reveals that "approximately 2,600 contract management employees and certificated administrators" could get a notice in mid-March. California requires that school districts alert such workers by March 15 that they may be laid off in the following school year, according to theCalifornia School Boards Association.

Also, 657 "central office and centrally-funded" positions have been identified for elimination, according to the report. That includes positions like 25 assistant area bus supervisors, 23 gardeners, over 200 IT-related positions, nearly 100 office technicians and more. In addition, several dozen positions are poised to see reduced hours.

However, just because an employee receives a notice doesn't mean they'll be laid off, and the report said these numbers aren't "representative of the final number of employees who will be laid off" in part due to changes in finances and staffing, including because of retirements, resignations and more.

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The district must issue notices to a greater number of employees than the 657 positions identified to comply with education code requirements, the report said.

"In total this represents less than 1% of the total Los Angeles Unified workforce," according to the report.

LAUSD says job cuts need to be done at some point

LAUSD is up against a projected deficit of $877 million for fiscal year 2026-27 and $443 million for 2027-28, according to a December 2025 report. The board of education report said that, for a public education institution, it faces "dangerously high deficit levels" which suggest a "significant structural imbalance" as opposed to a "temporary dip."

A fiscal stabilization plan for LAUSD revealed in 2025 had included "central operations, non-school-based reductions" as part of multiple efforts intended to address its sizable deficit. Among the district's challenges: How it has previously offset deficit spending and revenue challenges in part due to declining enrollment and the loss of COVID-19 area funding, according to the report. Also in play is Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed budget, which won't be finalized until later this year, that shapes school districts' funding and in which several billions in funds could be unlocked, according to officials at a January board meeting.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at the January meeting that a reduction in force is often about cutting positions, "not necessarily people." But he acknowledged that it wasn't certain that could be avoided entirely in this instance.

The district spends 90% of its revenue on staff, according to officials in January.

Saman Bravo-Karimi, chief financial officer, said in January that delaying the reduction in force in the present means it'll only increase the number of reductions later.

"The reduction in force — given the size of our financial outlook, given what most districts are facing in the state and given the vast majority of our resources are, as they should be, spend on staff — it will need to be done at some point," Bravo-Karimi said.

Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her atpbarraza@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Is LAUSD laying off staff? Breaking down proposed cuts

Abbey Murphy,Kendall Coyne Schofieldand Hayley Scamurra scored on consecutive shots over a 2:47 late in the second period to blow the game open and put the Americans up 5-0. Cayla Barnes opened the scoring and Taylor Heise also scored.

The Americans continued their roll through the tournament by improving to 6-0, and outscoring their opponents by a combined 31-1. The U.S. has yet to trail or be tied after 0-0, and is in a position to become the third women's team to do so over the entire tournament, joining Canada in 2006 and 2010.

The U.S. also extended its shutout streak to 331 minutes, 23 seconds, going back to Czechia's Barbora Jurickova beating Frankel on a breakaway in the second period of a tournament-opening 5-1 win.

Monday's match showed the U.S. dominance but also the team's physicality, with several scuffles breaking out on the ice.

The win over Sweden sets up what could well be a seventh gold-medal showdown against Canada on Thursday. The defending Olympic champion Canadians play Switzerland in the day's other semifinal game.

The U.S. already beatCanada 5-0 in a preliminary round gamelast week. The Americans won Olympic gold in 1998 and 2018, with Canada winning the other five tournaments.

Every Olympic gold medal match in women's hockey, except one, has been U.S. versus Canada.

This is Coyne Schofield's fourth trip to the Olympics. She previously took home a gold and two silvers. This is Captain Hilary Knight's fifth trip to the Olympics. She's medaled four times, taking home a gold and three silvers.

Knight, during a preliminary round game against Canada on Feb. 10, tied the all-time U.S. women's hockey record for most Olympic points. The 5-0 game was the largest margin of victory ever in the U.S.-Canada Olympic hockey rivalry, according to Team USA.

Sweden will play for bronze on Thursday in an effort to medal for the third time in team history, and first since winning silver at the 2006 Turin Games after upsetting the U.S. in the semifinals.

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Ebba Svensson Traff stopped 19 of 23 shots before she was pulled after Coyne Schofield tipped in Laila Edwards' shot from the blue line with 3:50 left in the second period.

Emma Soderberg took over in goal and was beaten by Scamurra, who tapped in Britta Curl-Salemme's centering pass 1:49 later. Soderberg finished with 10 saves.

Among those in attendance was former NFL center Jason Kelce, who was shown on the scoreboard applauding the goal initially credited to Edwards. Kelce is from Edwards' hometown of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and he and his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce,contributed to a GoFundMe driveto help pay for Edwards' family to attend the Milan Cortina Games.

Sweden enjoyed a break-through this year with a young, talented group that features seven players competing in the U.S. college ranks. Sweden went 4-0 to win Group B, and then upset Czechia 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the game close through 35 minutes, the Americans eventually wore them down.

And the U.S certainly didn't resemble a team that didn't want to play Sweden,as coach Ulf Lundberg suggestedafter the Swedes beat Czechia in the quarterfinals.

Though the Swedes kept the U.S. mostly to the perimeter in the opening period, they were still outshot 13-2.

Barnes scored with a snap shot from the top of the right circle and beat Svensson Traff high on the short side. Barnes' goal was her first point of the tournament, leaving seventh defender Rory Guilday as the lone American skater to not yet register a point through six games.

Heise made it 2-0 at the 9:08 mark of the second period by one-timing in Hannah Bilka's backhand pass through the middle. Svensson Traff got her glove on the shot, but the puck deflected across her body and into the net off the inside of her stick.

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The gold medalist in freeski big air, Canada's Megan Oldham, had long since left the scene.

As always at the Winter Olympics, the American-born Gu who now represents China was the center of attention Monday night, which is usually right where she likes to be.

"I think I'm the first freeskier to five [Olympic medals]," she said, though it was technically moguls specialist Mikael Kingsbury one day earlier. "Five-time Olympic medalist kind of has a ring to it."

It sure does. But on this particular night, even if it doesn't generate as many clicks or social-media comments or requests for selfies, the story of how Oldham won her second seemed far more compelling.

It's a story that goes back to Parry Sound, a couple hours north of Toronto, when Oldham's adrenaline junkie brothers convinced her they should start skiing off the roof of their garage. Her father Howard, of course, was livid — mostly about the roof.

"The dad is a crazy dad and she has two really, really crazy brothers, and they grew up together doing obviously crazy stuff," her coach, J.F. Cusson said. "And this produces Megan. I call her 'Mighty Meg.'"

Mighty enough to overcome a November concussion that lingered for weeks and took her out of training during a key period of preparation for the Milan Cortina Olympics. Mighty enough to push through a bruised quad that she suffered one week ago during a heavy fall in slopestyle on her way to the bronze medal in that event. Mighty enough to take down the great Eileen Gu in big air, the event Gu won four years ago in Beijing for her second gold medal of those Olympics.

"Honestly, this has been an Olympics that has totally surpassed my dreams," Oldham said. "I wanted to come home with one medal and to come home with gold is something I never thought was possible. I'm so proud of myself."

In terms of sheer toughness, you cannot deny Oldham's performance Monday ranks among the most impressive of these Winter Olympics.

Her job as a freestyle skier is to perform outrageous, dangerous tricks, and big air is an event where only the most daring win.

But it was one of those tricks — one she worked on specifically for this event, the one Cusson said would have made her "unbeatable"  — that almost cost her a chance to be here at all. It was the forward double cork 1440 mute — four full rotations in the air while performing two off-axis spins while also grabbing outside of her ski with the opposite hand — that caused a crash so bad Oldham can't remember anything about that day.

"I hadn't dealt with something like that before," she said. "I really wasn't sure how long the recovery would be and definitely felt a lot of pressure with the Games coming so close."

And still, even after she started to come back in December, the mental trauma was so acute she couldn't bring herself to try that trick again.

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"She had the yips, so that was a no-go," Cusson said. "It was pretty dramatic."

The plan changed. She was going to do a double cork 1260 both forward and switch — the switch meaning a backward launch — with the potential to try that big 1440 on the third run if she really, really needed it.

She did not.

On a night where the competition was delayed by 75 minutes due to snow blowing sideways in 18-mph winds but heated up instantly with massive tricks — including a couple stomped 1620s — Oldham's first two runs were so pure that she had clinched the gold before even needing a third since this event is scored by combining the best two attempts.

When Great Britian's Kirsty Muir — one of the 1620 landers — crashed on her third and final attempt, Oldham stood at the top of the ramp having fulfilled a desire that began to burn four years ago when she finished just off the podium in Beijing and didn't qualify for the finals in slopestyle.

"That was a bit of a heartbreak," she said. "I knew I was up there with the top girls. Being just off was really hard to process. I was really hungry to change that."

Gu did not come to these Games with that same hunger, which is why after landing a flawless double cork 1260 on third run, she celebrated like she won the gold when the 89.00 score flashed on the scoreboard, putting her in second place. Combined with the 1440 she landed on her first run, she felt it was a wild success in an event she hasn't even contested since the Beijing Olympics.

"I'm a competitor, so I'd be lying if I said I came into this contest and didn't think I had a chance at the podium, but I will say I definitely didn't expect it," she said. "I think I really showcased my best skiing. I've never done that trick in a contest before. I did it for the first time in four years three days ago in training. So talk about peaking at the right time. I was sitting at the top and thinking, if not now, then when? Right? When am I going to show the world what I've been working on? When am I going to show the world this level of women's skiing? When am I going to show the world how I handle pressure? This is it. Time is now. That's what I love about the Olympics."

The wind-up to that moment, of course, was pure Gu. Headed back to Stanford after these Olympics, there is no big moment in her life or athletic career without an interesting backstory.

And this one came when, after winning the silver in slopestyle last week, her mother Yan called a breakfast meeting and implored her to skip big air to focus exclusively on halfpipe — her best event — which will be contested here Saturday night.

"I was like, 'Let's just do the training and see how I do,'" Gu said. "It's most important for my body to feel good going into halfpipe, but if I can compete, why not? Like, I don't want to be afraid to try. And especially as young women, it's so important to, like, don't stop yourself before you have the opportunity to show the world how great you are. Don't be your own barrier."

That isn't likely to be a problem for Gu, whose ambition and composure is yet to meet a threshold it cannot demolish. Now a five-time Olympic medalist with an excellent chance to make it six, her story will never leave center stage.

But sometimes you have to make room for another A-list star — even if they're not getting mugged for selfies.

That seemed to be the sports sphere's consensus after the U.S.-against-the-world,round-robin tournamentSunday produced three thrilling mini-games and several impressive individual performances. Something about the setup compelled these stars to play their exhibition at a level much closer to real competition than usual.

"I think every team honestly wanted to win," said Phoenix's Devin Booker, a member of the victorious Stars team.

That's no small statement about an event that had become sports shorthand for pointless midseason pseudo-competition — a charade that wasted fans' time and produced unwatchable TV while players simply tried to get it over with.

That's precisely why the NBA implementedits fourth format in four years, creating a World team and two teams of Americans to play 12-minute games.

To the surprise of those who assumed this event was irredeemable, it actually worked for most people.

"I've been asking for it, fans have been asking for it, media have been asking for it, (and) I feel that after today, I think you all can see the competition is there," Karl-Anthony Towns said. "I think that we all brought it today, brought a sense of effort. I hope that the fans and all of you appreciate it."

An Americans-versus-everybody finale didn't materialize, however. Instead, the team of slightly younger Americans routed the team of slightly older Americans in an anticlimactic finale.

Even that finish had its entertaining points, though: "We're definitely one-up on the uncs right now," said a grinning Tyrese Maxey, who scored nine points in the final.

The NBA hasn't declared a format for next year's All-Star Game in Phoenix, and the World component has potential problems depending on how many international players are having All-Star-worthy seasons.

Several players, includingLeBron Jamesand Kawhi Leonard, said they still want a return to the classic East vs. West format — you know, the one that produced enough bad games to force the NBA to try something different in the first place.

It's tough to imagine basketball in its current state producing an All-Star Game significantly better than this one, but not everything about the All-Star weekend at Intuit Dome was savory.

The highs and lows of an eventful weekend in Inglewood:

Dismal dunks

Just when the NBA might have its All-Star Game fixed, the Slam Dunk Contest was underwhelming enough to prompt fan discussion on how to save a venerable competition that's running out of steam.

The event immortalized by the likes of Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant was mostly compelling for bad reasons this year, although Miami's Keshad Johnson did well enough to join 3-Point Contest champion Damian Lillard in an all-Oakland sweep of the two marquee events atAll-Star Saturday.

In the early round, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes gave an effort that drew online criticism from his own fans. Orlando's Jase Richardson took a horrifying fall onto his back and head when his arm hit the backboard on a 360-degree spin attempt. Richardson was OK, but the frightening moment underscored the dangers of this event.

Johnson won anticlimactically when San Antonio's Carter Bryant couldn't complete an impressive second dunk after scoring a perfect 50 on his first.

Can the NBA persuade star players to return to the contest? Can the dunkers rediscover the creativity that compelled Blake Griffin to jump over a car, Gerald Green to blow out a cupcake candle on the rim, Dwight Howard to put on a cape and Vince Carter to stick his whole arm in the hoop?

That's no slam dunk.

Kawhi's barrage

Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points in 12 minutes while leading his team to victory in Sunday's third mini-game. The seven-time All-Star went 11 of 13 with six 3-pointers, dazzling his fellow All-Stars and even prompting 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama to attempt to guard him out of desperation.

"That's probably one of the most special quarters of basketball we've witnessed," Booker said.

If Leonard's team had put up more of a fight in the finale, he probably would have been the MVP instead of Anthony Edwards. Leonard scored only one point, looking gassed along with his teammates in their third straight game.

"That's what the home crowd wanted to see," Leonard said. "I'm glad I was able to do something in that game."

Dame's dominance

During his year away from the game due to injury, Lillard reminded the world why he's one of the greatest shooters of his generation with a stellar performance to win the 3-Point Contest for the third time. He joins Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as the only players to do it.

The 35-year-old Portland guard held off Booker in the tremendously exciting final, winning 29-27 when Booker missed his final three shots.

Lillard tore his Achilles tendon last April, and hisinclusion in this contestinitially began as a joke he had with an NBA official — but the native Californian got the call, and he was healthy enough to shoot the lights out in Inglewood.

His performance was another example of an impressive comeback from that serious injury. Jayson Tatum, who also tore his Achilles tendon in last spring's playoffs, is back in practice with Boston's G League team.

After watching Lillard's performance, Stephen Curry announced he's going to compete in 2027, and he's hoping to be joined by his Splash Brother, Klay Thompson.

Afternoon hoops

The All-Star events Saturday and Sunday began at 2 p.m. Pacific time because NBC is showing the Winter Olympics in prime time every night.

That led to empty seats in Intuit Dome at the start of both events, although they eventually filled in. The early starts also muted the big-event feeling for fans and viewers who might have missed the show entirely if they didn't check the TV listings.

AP NBA:https://apnews.com/NBA

The Routt County Coroner's Office identified the victims as Aaron Stokes, 47, his son Jakson Stokes, 21, and nephew Colin Stokes, 21, and Austin Huskey, 37, all from Middle Tennessee.

TheFederal Aviation Administration(FAA) reported the plane crashed during the early morning hours of Feb. 13 near Steamboat Springs, a ski town in the state's northern region about 155 miles northwest of Denver.

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Cleanup continued at the industrial site near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport where a UPS plane crashed into in November on Jan. 13, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. In a February 2011 letter to airlines, Boeing noted failures with parts of the pylon, a structural component that connects the engine, during four incidents on three MD-11 airplanes, which is the same model of the UPS plane that crashed Nov. 4. After takeoff, the pylon and left engine UPS Flight 2976 detached from the wing, resulting in a catastrophic crash that killed 15 people, including the three crew members aboard the plane.

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Cleanup continues at site of deadly UPS Flight 2976 crash in Louisville

Cleanup continued at the industrial site near the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airportwhere a UPS plane crashed into in Novemberon Jan. 13, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. In a February 2011 letter to airlines,Boeingnoted failures with parts of the pylon, a structural component that connects the engine, during four incidents on three MD-11 airplanes, which is the same model of the UPS plane that crashed Nov. 4. After takeoff,the pylon and left engine UPS Flight 2976 detached from the wing, resulting in acatastrophic crash that killed 15 people, including the three crew members aboard the plane.

According to a preliminary FAA report, the single-engine Epic Aircraft E1000 crashed under unknown circumstances near Emerald Mountain. Online flight tracking shows the plane took off from the Kansas City Downtown Airport just after 10 p.m., for Bob Adams Airport before it crashed southeast of the city-owned airport.

The plane, manufactured in 2024, was registered to ALS Aviation LCC in Franklin, Tenn.

Plane crash Steamboat Springs

Aaron Stokeslived in Franklin according to information from his obituary,The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.

Franklin is city in Williamson County, about 20 miles south of downtown Nashville.

According to hisLinkedIn page, he founded Shop Fix Academy, owned and operated five auto repair shops and hosted a radio show "Fixin' Cars with Aaron Stokes" on 99.7 WTN.

In a post on Facebook, Annie Stokes called her brother "a great leader and coach and businessman."

"The loss has deeply impacted his family, the Shop Fix Academy team, and the broader automotive community," the company released in a statement onFacebook. "Stokes helped thousands of auto repair shop owners, and countless other business leaders, achieve meaningful growth in their businesses and leadership... His legacy extends far beyond financial performance."

USA TODAY has reached out to the victims' families.

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A post shared by Huskey Building Supply (@huskeybuildingsupply)

Husky, his company, confirmed was the CEO of Husky Building Supply, also located in Franklin.

In a separate post onInstagram, Huskey Building Supply released this statement: "With heavy hearts, we grieve the unexpected passing of our CEO, Austin Huskey. Austin was a fearless leader, a gracious man, a devoted father and husband, and a faithful follower of Christ."

The National Transportation Safety Boardposted on Xit was investigating the cause of the crash.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:4 killed in Colorado plane crash in Steamboat Springs