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Matthew Perrys assistant gets more than 3 years in prison for central role in his ketamine death
“You were privy to his struggle with addiction,” said Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who handed down the sentence to the 60-year-old Kenneth Iwamasa in federal court in Los Angeles. “Your conduct was reckless, not just on the day of his death but in the days leading up to his death.”
Iwamasa was the last person sentenced of the five who pleaded guilty in the investigation and prosecution that followed Perry’s death at age 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. The group included corrupt doctors and a major street dealer, “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, whose 15-year sentence was the only one longer than Iwamasa’s.
The assistant was constantly at Perry’s side in his final days, acting as the actor’s enabler, drug messenger and de facto doctor. He was the last person to see Perry alive, and he was the one who found him dead in his Jacuzzi. He would eventually become prosecutors’ most important informant.
How much blame for an assistant to an addict?
Wednesday’s nearly three-hour hearing was largely a debate between lawyers for both sides, the judge and Perry’s loved ones over the level of responsibility that can be put on the employee of a powerful person when addiction is in the mix.
“His loyalty to Mr. Perry was paramount,” Iwamasa’s lawyer, Alan Eisner, told the judge. “He worshipped Mr. Perry, he looked up to Mr. Perry. All he did was please and accommodate Mr. Perry.”
Eisner argued for a six-month prison term with six months of home confinement.
“Mr. Perry was not blameless,” the lawyer said. “Nobody likes to hear that.”
When Eisner said Iwamasa was unable to act differently than he did, the judge cut him off and said: “Unwilling. Not unable. He could have said no.”
Perry’s mother and sisters made it clear in letters to the judge that there is no one, not even Perry himself, who they blame for his death more than Iwamasa — a longtime friend they thought would help the actor maintain sobriety.
Perry’s stepfather, longtime “Dateline” journalist Keith Morrison, spoke for the family at the sentencing.
“We really felt that he was part of the family,” Morrison said. “We trusted him implicitly.”
Morrison acknowledged the power imbalance, but said Iwamasa still had a choice.
“You did the injections. You could have made the phone call,” he said. “But you didn’t. Because you were living a dandy life.” He added, “You were in control of one of the most famous people in the world.”
‘The monster that killed him’
Lisa Ferguson, Perry’s business manager for most of his career and now his estate executor, painted a darker picture, saying Iwamasa deliberately drove out everyone else surrounding Perry, including sober-living companions and medical workers, to shore up his own power and influence. She angrily said he used Perry’s addiction to his own advantage.
“What you are is the monster that killed him,” Ferguson said. She said he had shown “not a shred of guilt or remorse” since Perry’s death, and that he ought to “rot in prison.”
“Matthew deserved to live,” she said. “You don’t.”
Iwamasa looked right at Morrison and Ferguson throughout their remarks, and made the unusual move of facing Perry’s family and friends in the audience when he spoke.
“I’m horribly, horribly sorry, and I offer my condolences to you,” he said. “I’m just so sorry to have done these illegal acts that I will forever regret.”
Iwamasa wore a charcoal-gray suit, with his long white hair combed back. He had no visible reaction to the sentence. His father and brother sat in the audience with other supporters.
Iwamasa comes clean to police, faces the spotlight
At first, Iwamasa lied to police and got rid of evidence of ketamine use. But after investigators served a search warrant on the house in January of 2024, he began coming clean. By that August he had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death.
That came quietly before any Perry-related indictments were announced, and Wednesday was Iwamasa’s first time under the intense public spotlight surrounding the case. He stood in front of dozens of cameras outside the courthouse as Eisner spoke for him, saying that the sentence was excessive and didn’t reflect the dynamic between the two men.
“One person had the power. One person had no power,” the lawyer said.
Morrison said outside court he was satisfied that the family could get the sentencing behind them.
But, he added, “It doesn’t change the fact that we’ve lost him, that he’s dead, and that my wife is broken.”
The sentence was exactly what prosecutors sought, though Garnett disagreed with them on the details. She found Iwamasa did not abuse a position of trust, which could’ve brought more prison time, saying that category was generally reserved for professionals and experts. She found that he had not benefited financially from the crime, though acknowledged he did from the relationship with Perry.
She also told Iwamasa, “there is no hard evidence that you acted with malicious intent, though some would disagree.”
His sentence also included a $10,000 fine and two years of probation. He was ordered to return to go to prison on July 17.
Business
Many National Spelling Bee contenders pursue mastery. For a few, its more about memorization
The 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California, works with three coaches. He pays for word lists and study guides. He tries to learn every Greek and Latin root, every language pattern, every spelling bee-worthy word he can find. And he competes throughout the year in online bees that pit him against the country’s other top spellers.
Shrey’s proach has proven effective for spellers seeking to hold the trophy, and on Wednesday he became one of nine spellers who got through the semifinals and will compete in the finals Thursday night.
But at least one other finalist has gone old-school, shunning outside help and using the dictionary as his guide.
“At the end of finals, most of the words aren’t going to have a really clean-cut language pattern or rule that you can pull from. So I think memorization is really important,” said Sam Evans, who coached each of the past two champions. “Sometimes it gets a bad reputation, but you have to do it.”
Every word is in the dictionary, if you can find it
Sarv Dharavane might be the next of that group.
Sarv finished third in 2025 as a relative unknown in the spelling community. There’s a reason for that. The 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Georgia, has no coach. He doesn’t participate in online bees. And his only study guide is the source for every word in the competition: Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary.
“The book is my coach,” Sarv said.
Given his past success, he saw no reason to change it up. And he’s back in the finals.
“I didn’t really change anything because my strategy got me far last year, but I did more of what I did before,” Sarv said.
“I used to read the dictionary and set aside difficult words to study later,” he explained. “I did it a lot, so I got a lot of words and it was really easy just to go through them. I’ve always been able to remember pretty well, and I can read through long lists without getting tired, so this strategy works pretty well for me.”
Simple, right?
Many spellers think there’s a better way.
Master the roots, and you don’t need to memorize as much
Shah accepted that he could never memorize the dictionary — “No one can,” he said — and he believed if he got a word he didn’t know, he could figure it out.
“The skill of guessing is everything,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed after his victory.
In an interview Wednesday, Shah said memorization was important, especially for quirky words with obscure origins. He said the best spellers, including Avant-garde, found a balance between memorization and mastery.
Having a conceptual understanding of how words are spelled can also help spellers perform under pressure when their memory fails them, said Shah, who admitted he finds it daunting to memorize a huge volume of words.
Former champion Sohum Sukhatankar, who coaches Shrey, said spellers need to fill their brains with the most useful information.
“When you’re at the highest level, you have to be prepared for hundreds of thousands of words,” he said. “You want to do as little memorization as possible to avoid the chance that you just forget it, so it’s all about efficiency.”
After a catastrophic school bee, one speller seeks every edge
Shrey knows he might have to guess when he’s at the microphone, but he wants to eliminate variables. That makes sense, given that a year ago, he wasn’t even the top speller at his school.
“I had a fever at my school bee last year, and I just blanked on the word ‘calipers’ … and I missed it,” he said. “I was really devastated.”
It took a few months before Shrey was motivated to start studying again. Once he did, he added Sukhatankar to his coaching team. He’s learned how to slow down when he’s at the microphone because of a bad experience in 2023, when he rushed through a word, didn’t enunciate it clearly and judges determined he got it wrong.
He’s also a believer in study guides. Shrey said an interactive, AI-assisted platform called Onyma that offers personalized learning and competition with other spellers — launched this month by Sukhatankar and Evans — has helped with his preparation.
Shrey won the annual SpellPundit bee, the South Asian Spelling Bee and several other online bees, which he doesn’t necessarily see as an advantage.
“I feel like it (creates) more pressure to perform,” he said.
Evans believes spellers who want to win should use their study time efficiently, but there’s no barrier to learning every possible word.
“There’s a common joke among spellers that says everything’s in the dictionary, so it’s all ‘on-list,’” he said. “The dictionary is the most basic thing that spellers need to know.”
___
Business
USA vs. Paraguay Watch Party with Global Music featuring International Artists comes to Redmond
SEATTLE, Wash., May 27, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Global Artists Collective and Flatstick Pub Redmond present “World Beat & Big Screen Soccer,” a free community celebration on Friday, June 12, 2026, featuring live international music and big-screen viewing of the USA vs. Paraguay world soccer match. The event is produced by Global Artists Collective in association with Flatstick Pub Redmond.
Image ction: Global Heat with special guest artists Deseo Carmin (Paraguay), Moye Kashimbi (Zambia), and Anil Prasad (India) perform at Flatstick Pub Redmond on June 12. Global Artists Collective.
At 6:00 PM, the USA vs. Paraguay world soccer match kicks off live on the venue’s big screens, with live music keeping energy high during halftime and breaks in the action. Halftime will also include an Open Mic segment when attendees can share commentary on the game and celebrate the cultures represented on the field and on stage.
The fun continues post-game through 10:00 PM with a live dance party including musical improvisation “games” where the audience’s prompts inspire the band’s creation of songs on the spot.
SPECIAL GUEST ARTISTS PEARING WITH GLOBAL HEAT:
- Deseo Carmin ( — Vocalist and songwriter from Paraguay
- Moye Kashimbi ( — Vocalist and dancer from Zambia
- Anil Prasad ( — Indian tabla master bringing mesmerizing rhythms from the subcontinent
WHEN: Friday, June 12, 2026, 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM (Venue open until 11 pm)
WHERE: Flatstick Pub Redmond, 7530 164th Ave NE Suite A108, Redmond, WA 98052
ADMISSION: Free; All-Ages (food and beverages available for purchase)
MORE INFO:
Redmond Event Calendar:
EventBrite Calendar:
ABOUT GLOBAL ARTISTS COLLECTIVE: Global Artists Collective is a Seattle-based performing arts nonprofit dedicated to creating cross-cultural programming that increases access for underrepresented artists and brings diverse communities together through shared artistic experiences. Learn more:
MULTIMEDIA — POSTER, ARTIST IMAGES AND LOGO: No celebrity endorsement claimed or implied. News To view the original post, visit:
This press release was issued by Send2Press® Newswire on behalf of the news source, who is solely responsible for its accuracy.
Business
ICE detainees are dying by suicide at an alarming rate, an AP investigation finds
His request for mental health treatment had been put off, records show, and staff had forbidden Rayo from making his nightly call to his mother as a precaution intended to prevent the spread of illness.
He pleaded with his jailers in handwritten notes to arrange a conversation with her. “I feel in my heart that she’s very worried about me,” he wrote in Spanish.
A guard collected the note and walked away. Within an hour, jail records show, he was found unconscious in his cell. An autopsy determined he killed himself.
This photo provided by the Missouri State Highway Patrol shows a note written in Spanish by Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee Brayan Rayo Garzon asking for a phone call with his mother, while he was in the Phelps County jail in Rolla, Mo., on ril 7, 2025, shortly before he died by suicide. (Missouri State Highway Patrol via )
“Something is going profoundly wrong from any kind of public health or mental health perspective,” said Dr. Sanjay Basu, a University of California-San Francisco epidemiologist who cowrote a study documenting the increase in mortality and suicide rates among ICE detainees. “This is one of those alarming, sudden increases.”
___
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
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The suicides account for nearly a fifth of the 51 deaths in ICE custody since January 2025. The majority of those deaths were from natural causes and experts say many of them would have been preventable with timely medical care.
Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary Lauren Bis said suicide deaths in ICE custody remain “extremely rare.”
Bis said detention staff follow protocols to protect detainees who show signs of self-harming and that ICE requires annual suicide prevention training. She said detainees receive comprehensive healthcare, including mental health services.
Reacting to ’s investigation, Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote Wednesday in a post on X that the country’s foreign ministry should issue a formal protest regarding Rayo’s death and that the U.S. government should “reflect on how its immigration policy is killing Americans and Latin Americans.”
Investigation finds violations of ICE detention standards
The reasons behind any suicide are complex, and each death often has multiple contributing factors, according to experts. ICE detainees report intense stress after being detained, fear of being returned to countries where their safety may be jeopardized, and frustration and loneliness over the inability to communicate due to language barriers.
Detainees can also feel helplessness because of the complexity surrounding immigration law. Unlike those in the criminal justice system, most detainees do not have lawyers and their detention on immigration violations is not meant to be punitive.
ICE becomes responsible for their well-being when they enter detention, and experts say well-run lockups should have few, if any, suicides. That’s because staff can take steps to mitigate the chances that detainees harm themselves by identifying those at risk, getting them care and monitoring them closely, the experts said.
’s investigation found that ICE detention centers have repeatedly fallen short in ways that violate ICE’s own standards.
An examination of the 10 suicide deaths found the men died across ICE’s detention network, including at centers long run by private contractors and county jails that recently became ICE partners. The found that staff in the facilities ignored signs of distress, delayed mental health treatment and failed to monitor detainees who were already deemed at risk. They also permitted detainees to have access to materials that could be used for self-harm, according to ’s review of ICE inspection reports and death records.
In some cases, they jailed distressed detainees in isolation, which can exacerbate feelings of humiliation and helplessness, according to experts.
ICE has repeatedly asserted that it screens detainees within 12 hours of arrival for medical, dental and mental health conditions.
At least three of the nine facilities where ICE detainees died by suicide have struggled to meet that standard, according to ICE inspection reports and jail records.
Dr. Homer Venters, former chief medical officer of New York City jails who previously consulted with ICE on preventing detainee deaths, called the rise in suicides terrifying.
The increase “reflects failures in how the system’s being operated, and particularly failures in how the first stages of coming into detention are hpening so that people aren’t being assessed adequately,” Venters said. “And then if that receiving screening picks up red flags, they’re not acted on in a way that reduces the risk of them having preventable death.”
From border crossing to detention
Rayo, who took his own life after pleading to talk to his mother, was a veteran of the Colombian military who had worked as a street vendor in his home country. A week after he turned 26 in 2023, his family crossed the U.S. border in California. He was detained for three months before being permitted to settle with family in St. Louis, records and interviews show.
His mother, Adriana Garzon, said Rayo caught on quickly to life in the U.S., making friends easily and working as a housepainter and food delivery driver. He wanted to save money to hire a lawyer to help him stay in the country after a judge in 2024 ordered that he be sent back to Colombia, she said.
He was arrested in March 2025 by St. Louis police after being caught using a stolen credit card, which he had obtained from a friend, at a ve shop, court records show. ICE then took him into custody. An ICE record obtained by classified Rayo as a laborer who was a low risk to public safety.
ICE placed Rayo in the Phelps County jail in Rolla, Missouri, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from St. Louis.
Suicides reveal shortcomings across ICE’s detention network
“We are deeply saddened by and take very seriously the passing of any individual in our care,” CoreCivic spokesperson Brian Todd said.
GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said the company trains staff on suicide prevention and seeks “to maintain a safe and secure environment in compliance with the standards and requirements set by the federal government.” Officials at the three jails either declined comment or didn’t return messages.
Leo Cruz Silva, a 34-year-old who had repeatedly illegally entered the country from Mexico, suffered an acute mental health crisis following his detention after an arrest for public intoxication last fall in a St. Louis suburb, records show.
For two nights in Missouri’s Ste. Genevieve County Jail, Cruz screamed, hid under his bed and reported hallucinations, according to an ICE report on his death. Yet he did not get help quickly.
A nurse ordered antipsychotic medications and planned to get him treatment the next week, the ICE report said.
On the third day, he was found dead in his cell.
Chaofeng Ge arrived in ICE custody last summer at a Pennsylvania facility run by the GEO Group in mental distress, having pleaded guilty to a minor gift card fraud and attempted suicide in state custody, said David Rankin, an attorney representing Ge’s family.
In five days at the facility, he did not get mental health treatment and was unable to communicate because no one spoke Mandarin, Rankin said. Ultimately, Ge went unmonitored before he was found hanged in a shower stall.
“It’s clear that ICE has taken very few steps to ensure the safety of these people,” Rankin said. “They pear to want to make this process as cruel and inhuman as possible. It’s completely unacceptable.”
At Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, 36-year-old Victor Diaz died by suicide in a medical holding room in January, according to an ICE report. He had been moved into isolation after reporting harassment by fellow detainees, the report said.
The report found that staff did not record “required checks to prevent significant self-harm and suicide” while inspectors found tools and equipment unsecured and unaccounted for throughout the facility that could be used for harm. Calls to 911 show several other detainees had attempted suicide there.
At the time of the deaths and inspections, Acquisition Logistics was the contractor running the facility. ICE has since replaced Acquisition Logistics with another contractor. Acquisition Logistics did not return messages seeking comment.
Detainee spent final days sick and isolated
The Phelps County Jail had started taking ICE detainees a month before Rayo’s arrival. Sheriff Michael Kirn, a Republican in a county where voters overwhelmingly supported Trump’s reelection, told commissioners his department’s budget was hurting and partnering with ICE could generate millions in revenue.
Records show Rayo’s trouble started immediately. It took the jail 35 hours to conduct the initial medical screening ICE promises within 12 hours, according to jail records obtained by the under the open records law.
Rayo exhibited labored breathing and told a nurse he was anxious and wanted mental health treatment.
A nurse who didn’t speak Spanish used a “handheld translator” to assess Rayo, concluding he denied thoughts of suicide and depression, according to the documents compiled by the Missouri State Highway Patrol during an investigation into Rayo’s death.
She recommended him for the general population, listing his physical and mental condition as stable, records show. And she referred him for a routine mental health pointment.
Two days later, he reported head pain and body aches. Staff learned he was positive for exposure to tuberculosis bacteria. He was sent to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He was returned to jail the following day.
The mental health pointment was scheduled but canceled due to “mental health clinic time and staff,” a jail record shows. Two days later, they again canceled his pointment, this time citing his coronavirus infection.
The delays violated an ICE standard requiring mental health treatment within a week of a referral.
Bis, the DHS spokesperson, said Rayo received “high-quality medical care during his time in ICE custody.”
To ease his anxiety, Rayo called his mother before bed to share a Catholic blessing. “I gave him strength,” said Garzon, whose first name, Adriana, was tattooed on her son’s arm.
As Rayo grew sicker with nausea, chills and aches, staff moved him into a cinderblock isolation cell with a surveillance camera overhead for closer monitoring and to prevent the spread of disease. He was not allowed to call his mother.
The English-speaking guard used a colleague’s phone to translate the notes and wrote in a report that he planned to follow up.
Within an hour, guards found Rayo unconscious on his bed with a sheet around his neck.
___
The spelling of the DHS spokesperson’s last name has been corrected to Bis instead of Bies.
Business
99 New Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Healthcare Projects Drive Major Facility Investments in April 2026
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., May 27, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Industrial manufacturing activity remained strong in ril 2026, led by sustained investment from the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, and healthcare sectors. Industrial SalesLeads research team identified 60 pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology projects, along with 39 healthcare-related projects, signaling continued demand for facility modernization, expansion, and operational upgrades across the U.S. and Canada.
Image ction: Industrial SalesLeads, Inc.
The following are selected highlights on new Life Science industry news:
LIFE SCIENCES – BY PROJECT TYPE
Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Biotechnology – 60
Healthcare – 39
LIFE SCIENCES – BY PROJECT LOCATION (TOP 5 STATES)
California – 12
Massachusetts – 11
Virginia – 10
Texas – 8
Michigan – 6
LIFE SCIENCES – BY PROJECT SCOPE/ACTIVITY
Renovation/Equipment Upgrade – 76
Relocation – 60
Expansion/Equipment Upgrade – 14
New Construction – 8
LIFE SCIENCES EQUIPMENT CATEGORIES IN DEMAND
In the month of ril, identified life sciences project managers are procuring the following equipment:
80–89%: Lighting (85.9%), Networking/Security Equipment (82.8%)
40–49%: Building Renovation (47.5%)
10–19%: Compressed Air Systems, HVAC Equipment, Mechanical Construction, Fire Protection Equipment, Material Handling/Storage Equipment, Building Construction, Loading Dock Equipment, Conveyors, Heat Exchangers, Control Systems & Instrumentation
9%: Floor Coatings
7%: Air Emissions Control Equipment, Packaging Equipment, Tanks/Vessels – Stainless, Equipment Relocation
TOP 10 TRACKED LIFE SCIENCES PROJECTS
FLORIDA:
Healthcare provider is planning to invest $55 million for new construction of a 14,500sf medical and office in FL. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
GEORGIA:
Healthcare service provider has recently started a 317,000 sf expansion and renovation of their hospital in Cumming, GA. Completion is slated for late 2028.
OHIO:
Biotechnology company is planning to invest $18 million for the expansion and renovation of their warehouse, office, and laboratory facility in OH. They are currently seeking proval for the project. Construction is expected to start in Summer 2026.
MASSACHUSETTS:
Medical device manufacturer is planning for an expansion of their manufacturing facility in MA. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
MINNESOTA:
Pharmaceutical company is planning for the expansion and equipment upgrades on their processing facility in MN. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
MISSOURI:
Pharmaceutical company is planning for the construction of a processing facility in MO. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Specialty healthcare service provider is planning to invest $2.7 million for the renovation of 10,000 sf of medical and office space in NC. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
NEW JERSEY:
Healthcare service provider is planning to invest $600 million for a 444,000 sf expansion of their hospital in NJ. They are currently seeking proval for the project.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA:
Healthcare service provider is planning to invest $8 million for the renovation of a recently leased 39,000 sf of medical and office space at CA. They have recently received proval for the project.
NEW YORK:
Healthcare service provider is investing $21 million for the expansion and renovation of their medical and office facilities in NY. Completion is slated for late 2026.
LARGEST PLANNED PROJECT
The largest project is owned by Shine Technologies. Medical isotope technology company is constructing a processing facility in Janesville, WI. Completion is slated for Summer 2027.
ABOUT INDUSTRIAL SALESLEADS, INC.
Since 1959, Industrial SalesLeads, based in Jacksonville, FL is a leader in delivering industrial cital project intelligence and prospecting services for sales and marketing teams to ensure a predictable and scalable pipeline. Our Industrial Market Intelligence, IMI identifies timely insights on companies planning significant cital investments such as new construction, expansion, relocation, equipment modernization and plant closings in industrial facilities. The Outsourced Prospecting Services, an extension to your sales team, is designed to drive growth with qualified meetings and pointments for your internal sales team. Visit us at
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Business
Cornyn went to great lengths to avoid Trumps wrath. The Texas senator lost his seat anyway
PLANO, Texas () — As it turned out, it would never be enough.
Cornyn, on the other hand, “was VERY disloyal to me,” Trump wrote on social media.
Cornyn’s attempt to avoid the same fate made even some of his supporters wince.
“You look at the positions he took to please the president and the groveling and whatever,” said former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a Republican and Trump critic who didn’t seek reelection during the president’s first midterm in 2018. “It was rather painful to watch.”
Cornyn started early with ad touting pro-Trump voting record
Cornyn’s loss wasn’t for a lack of political gymnastics and astronomical campaign spending.
On Cornyn’s campaign homepage, Trump and Cornyn stand side-by-side with thumbs pointed upward in an image aimed at projecting solidarity. Deeper in the website, the category titled “The Trump-Cornyn Record” notes the senator’s role securing votes for Trump’s signature 2017 tax cut bill.
Cornyn has also been championing provisions in Trump’s signature tax-and-spending legislation to finance work on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Cornyn’s 2023 dismissal of Trump’s return glares in background
Cornyn’s praise for his party’s leader and president were not unusual, but they clash with a statement Cornyn made in May 2023, when Trump was mounting his presidential comeback campaign.
“Trump’s time has passed him by,” he told reporters. “I don’t think President Trump understands that when you run in a general election, you have to peal to voters beyond your base.”
Trump would go on to easily win the nomination and carry every battleground state in the general election.
Cornyn would hew closely to the president for the first 16 months of his second administration, hoping at the outside chance of his endorsement or to keeping him from weighing in at all.
But Trump did not forget the past slights.
“John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough,” he wrote on social media while endorsing Paxton.
Smaller gestures, and one big one
Cornyn has playfully worked to promote Trump fandom, last year posting a picture on social media of himself thoughtfully peering into the pages of Trump’s 1987 memoir and business advice book, “The Art of the Deal.”
In a more obvious gesture, he proposed designating a section of a U.S. highway from the Texas Gulf Coast to Montana as “Interstate 47,” to honor a 47th president with a well-documented love of naming things after himself. In a news release about the proposal, filed just over two weeks before Tuesday’s runoff, Cornyn said it would be known as the “Trump Interstate.”
The more tectonic shift occurred in March, after Trump had teased a possible endorsement of either Cornyn or Paxton in the runoff.
Paxton swiftly said he would consider dropping his candidacy if the Republican-controlled Senate lifted the filibuster and passed the SAVE America Act, a series of voting restrictions that Trump has described as an essential part of his agenda.
The following week, Cornyn wrote an op-ed in the New York Post — Trump’s favorite hometown newsper — backing away from his previous support of the filibuster. He vowed to “support whatever changes to Senate rules that may prove necessary” to get the bill “through the Senate and on the president’s desk for his signature.”
Flake watched with unease.
“I know John and his long-held positions on the filibuster and the Senate’s institutions,” he said. “No office is worth that.”
___
Bedayn reported from San Antonio. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report.
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Max Healthcare plans to build 712-bed facility for Rs 1,400 cr in Lucknow. When announcing the company’s fourth-quarter, FY26 results, Max Healthcare said that “the board approved an expenditure of Rs 1,400 crore to construct a 712 bed greenfield hospital in Shaheed Path, Lucknow.” The facility is expected to be completed in FY30, and Max hopes to meet the increasing demand for healthcare in Uttar Pradesh. Max Healthcare, whose market capitalisation surpassed Rs 1 lakh crore last year, is expanding its operations into non-metro areas. As part of its growth strategy, the company will be focusing on both brownfield and greenfield projects to reach its target of 10,000 beds in FY2030.