We covered a now-discredited medical examiner for two decades. These are the botched cases that still haunt us.
Nearly 20 years ago, I stepped into the downtown Baltimore office of an obscure state official named Dr. David Fowler. He was lanky, affable, with an Afrikaner accent that alluded to his South African roots. He was also the state’s chief medical examiner, the man who determined the fate of all cases of suspicious deaths across the state.
I had no idea at the time, but roughly two decades later, he would become one of the most infamous pathologists in the world, his work and reputation fodder for national headlines after his stunning testimony on behalf of Derek Chauvin, the cop accused and eventually convicted of murdering George Floyd on camera in May of 2020.
Perhaps I should have expected it based on what transpired that day in Fowler’s office.
I had no idea at the time, but roughly two decades later, he would become one of the most infamous pathologists in the world, his work and reputation fodder for national headlines after his stunning testimony on behalf of Derek Chauvin, the cop accused and eventually convicted of murdering George Floyd on camera in May of 2020.
I was visiting to question him about the death of a man in police custody that occurred after he was struck with a Taser. Fowler had ruled the cause of death the result of a condition called “excited delirium.” I had never heard of it, so I wanted an explanation.
The autopsy had listed cardiac arrhythmia as a key contributor to the victim’s death, so I was curious why the Taser wasn’t identified as the primary cause. It seemed logical that the shock of thousands of volts of
US commanders want to make war with Iran as ‘bloody’ as possible to bring about biblical end times, officers report
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 03, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
In less than a week, the US and Israel’s war has rendered unfathomable suffering upon the people of Iran. Over 180 schoolgirls and staffers were killed in a massacre this weekend, and several hospitals have reportedly been struck, amid numerous other attacks on civilians.
But some US troops are being told the bloodletting is all a part of God’s plan.
At a briefing on Monday, as President Donald Trump unleashed what has been called a “carpet bombing” of Tehran, a combat-unit commander reportedly told noncommissioned officers (NCOs) that the commander-in-chief was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”
The complaint, sent by one of those noncommissioned officers, was just one of at least 110 similar reports received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) since Trump first launched strikes on Saturday.
In compliance with the First Amendment, the Department of Defense has long adopted rules against proselytizing within the armed forces. But under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an evangelical Christian who has said the West must wage a “crusade” against Islam, Christian nationalist invocations in the military have become commonplace.
The death toll from this air strike on an elementary school on Saturday is now nearly 180, and 95 injured. Most of those killed were girls aged between 7-12 years old. @UNESCO calling it “a grave violation of international law.” https://t.co/MEsJugD4eA— Leila Molana-Allen (@Leila_MA) March 2, 2026
Mikey Weinstein, the president and founder of MRFF and an Air Force veteran who served in the White House of former President Ronald Reagan, told independent journalist Jonathan Larsen that the group has been “inundated” with
US, Israel ‘going Gaza on Iran’ as death toll tops 500 amid new massacres
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 02, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
US and Israeli forces were accused Monday of “seemingly indiscriminate” bombing of Iran as the country’s Red Crescent said that at least 555 people have been killed amid reports of fresh mass casualty attacks across the country.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said at least 555 people have been killed so far during three days of a US and Israeli war of choice aimed at toppling Iran’s long-ruling Islamist government. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday continued to insist that the war is not about regime change, but rather enduring yet bogus claims that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons.
Those killed include many civilians as well as former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei and dozens of senior government and military officials. Iranian counterattacks have killed half a dozen US troops, 9 Israelis, and a handful of people in Gulf nations allied with the United States.
An attack on the Abbasabad Police Station—where anti-government protesters were allegedly tortured during the recent deadly crackdown—in Niloofar Square in central Tehran killed at least 20 people, local media reported.
“This is carpet-bombing, which has struck everything from playgrounds, to an emergency services HQ, schools, media buildings, and medical facilities,” documentary filmmaker Robert Inlakesh said in a social media post showing the aftermath of the strike.
Local residents said that the site was attacked for the second time in three days. This was part of broader US-Israeli strikes on Tehran, including attacks on the Revolutionary Court, Defense Ministry, other government sites, and civilian infrastructure including at least eight medical facilities and state media outlets.
Carpet bombing in Iran is stark reminder of how air superiority shapes modern
‘Cuba’s next,’ says Lindsey Graham as illegal Trump-Israel war on Iran kills hundreds
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 02, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
As American and Israeli bombs kill hundreds of Iranians—reportedly including at least 180 students and others at a girl’s school in Minab—Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that President Donald Trump is “on a roll” and that Cuba is the next nation in the US regime change crosshairs.
In an interview on Fox News, Graham (R-SC) said prematurely that “Trump finished the job” that former President Ronald Reagan “failed to do,” namely, destroy Iran’s Islamist government after the overthrow of a brutal US-backed monarchy in 1979. “I am a big admirer of Ronald Reagan but I’m here to tell you that Donald Trump, in my opinion, is the gold standard for Republicans, maybe any president, when it comes to foreign policy.”
“Maduro—everybody talked about him, well, Donald Trump’s got him in jail,” Graham said of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was abducted along with his wife two months by invading US forces.
“Cuba’s next. They’re gonna fall,” Graham said of the revolutionary government in Havana that’s outlasted a dozen American presidents, despite decades of US-led assassination attempts, sabotage, and subversion. “This communist dictatorship in Cuba, their days are numbered.”
Lindsey Graham: Cuba is next. They are going to fall. Their days are numbered. pic.twitter.com/XZd1PyIqDP— Acyn (@Acyn) March 2, 2026
The remarks by Graham—who previously berated Trump as a “jackass,” “nut job,” and “loser” unfit to be commander-in-chief—come amid reporting that Trump is feeling buoyed by what he views as successful attacks on Iran and Venezuela.
“The president is feeling like, ‘I’m on a roll,’ like, ‘This is working,’” one unnamed Trump administration official told the Atlantic‘s Vivian Salama over the weekend.
This, from a president who said he deplored regime
Buried without answers: The hidden toll on Kenyan women in the Gulf
At 18, Boniface Murigi never imagined he would be recounting his mother’s life and death to the world.
Yet he sits on a couch in his family’s living room in Gilgil, a small town about two hours northwest of Nairobi, struggling to describe who Sylvia Waithera Karuri was to him. “She was a great mother and a hard worker,” he says.
A Sunday school teacher and mother of four, 38-year-old Sylvia owned a hardware store and was building rental houses to support her family. “I remember her carrying big bags of cement on a motorbike to the construction site herself,” Boniface recalls, a faint smile crossing his solemn face. Her church and mission work earned her the local nickname “The Preacher.”
After a divorce made it harder to provide for her children, Sylvia accepted a domestic work job in Saudi Arabia in 2021, hoping to invest the earnings into expanding her businesses. Her mother, 68-year-old Masengena, opposed the idea.
“I heard so many stories of young women ending up dead there or unspeakable things happening,” she tells TRNN. Sylvia eventually persuaded her it was necessary for the family.
For about a year, the plan seemed to work. Sylvia called home regularly and sent money to renovate her mother’s house and support the rental business. The family started to believe their fears about Saudi Arabia may have been exaggerated.
But in 2023, after a few months with a new employer, everything changed. The family received a frantic message: her employer accused her of stealing a gold chain on the way to a wedding—and he was carrying a pistol. Sylvia said she feared for her life. Then