TrumpRx isn’t doing much for drug prices. What would it take to change that?

Americans are furious about drug prices. The Trump administration's answer? A new website.

Butmore than a month after its launch, the site, TrumpRx.gov, remains small — offering discounts on just 54 prescription drugs. Many of those drugs already have cheaper generic versions or savings programs available elsewhere, and the discounts can't be used with insurance or count toward a deductible. Awareness of the site remains limited.

Whether TrumpRx actually lowers drug prices matters in ways that go beyond the success of the website itself. For President Donald Trump, it's tied toa broader push on health care costsas the midterms approach. But for many Americans,the issue taps into something deeper— years of frustration with a system they say feels stacked against them, where prices are hard to track and it's not always clear if they're getting a fair deal.

Health policy experts say that what the administration does next will determine whetherTrumpRx remains just another optionor evolves into something that actually helps make prescription drug costs easier to navigate.

"The idea isn't exactly new, but it does have sort of that Trump branding," said Audrey Kearney, a senior survey analyst at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. "It's another option for consumers, and we'll kind of have to stay tuned to see if it'll make a real difference."

Kearneyco-authored a surveypublished last week by KFF that found that about a third of people who take prescription drugs said they had heard at least something about TrumpRx. Just 7% said they had visited the site to compare prices, rising to about 16% among people who take GLP-1 medications.

Even the White House acknowledges the website is still in its early days. A White House official declined to say how many people have visited the site or how many drugs will be added this month.

The official said IVF treatments andGLP-1 weight loss drugshave been among the most searched medications so far. The administration plans to add "a larger batch" of drugs to the platform soon, the official said, and hopes to work with Congress to codify some of the drug pricing deals into law as part of a broader health care plan.

"We don't see this as the end product," the official said. "The goal here is to pass the president's Great Healthcare Plan to codify these [Most Favored Nation] deals, so if people use insurance to buy these drugs, they can also access the savings."

There are no indications that Congress is taking up the legislation.

What could TrumpRx do differently?

In practice, TrumpRx works like existing discount sites such as GoodRx orMark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., letting people compare cash prices for medications, but with fewer tools and less flexibility — and no way to buy directly through the site.

"The fascinating thing about TrumpRx is that it's being touted as this new, innovative thing, when in fact, it's kind of coalescing things that already existed," said Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn, a nonprofit group that tracks prescription drug prices.

The site relies on GoodRx's pricing data and technology to power many of its listings, Ciaccia said: The coupon cards are processed through GoodRx's network, using the same BIN and PCN numbers — the codes pharmacies use to process drug discounts at the pharmacy counter.

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What TrumpRx needs most is scale, said Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

Of the initial batch of drugs on the site, roughly half have generic versions that are often much cheaper, Joyce said. Those generics are also widely available through other discount sites or at local pharmacies.

"In its current form, it's of limited use to uninsured consumers," Joyce said. "If they got rid of all the ones that had generic equivalents, you're looking at a site with 22 drugs. And it's basically a roundup of the usual suspects. It's some IVF, some GLP-1s. It's not a broad scope."

"Fifty-four drugs out of thousands, just proportionally speaking, it's a very small segment of the population," Ciaccia said.

Still, both Joyce and Ciaccia said TrumpRx has the potential — with the right investments — to go beyond existing discount sites.

Ciaccia said the platform could play a bigger role for people with private or job-based insurance, where patients don't always have access to the lowest-cost drug.

Pharmacy benefit managers, who decide which drugs go on insurers' formularies, often favor higher priced brand name drugs to secure larger rebates, sometimes excluding lower cost generics — a practice that can drive up costs for patients.

In those cases, patients could turn to a platform like TrumpRx to find a lower price brand name drug, even if their insurance favors that same medication at a higher cost.

"I think TrumpRx could be not a cure for the problems that exist today, but maybe it could supplant the system that we have," Ciaccia said. "If the discounts start to improve, there could be an option for employers who are already getting the short end of the stick on their benefit designs from PBMs."

Joyce also said the platform could become more useful by offering more transparency around drug prices, a focus of the Trump administration's health care agenda.

He pointed to Cost Plus Drug Co. as a starting point, where users can see a breakdown of a drug's price, including the ingredient cost, markup and shipping.

Currently, TrumpRx shows what people would pay compared with the drugmaker's list price. That comparison can be misleading, however, because insurance rarely pays that price and even people without insurance typically get discounts.

Improving transparency could include showing how prices vary by pharmacy or region, how discounts are negotiated and how insurance compares with cash prices.

"It's been the uninsured who have been getting screwed the most," Joyce said. "There are lower prices out there, and from an educational and informational perspective, I think that's valuable."

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TrumpRx isn’t doing much for drug prices. What would it take to change that?

Americans are furious about drug prices. The Trump administration's answer? A new website. Butmore than a ...

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Israel says it killed another Iranian leader, but that doesn't mean it's winning the war

Israel has again shown its unrivaled ability to assassinate high-level enemies,announcing the killing Tuesdayof the man widely seen as running Iran.

Ali Larijani's death, which was confirmed by Iranian authorities, dealsa significant psychological and logistical blowto the Islamic Republic, already reeling from the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,whose successor son has yet to appear in public. But, analysts told NBC News, it may also cause the regime to harden rather than weaken as its opponents may hope.

Ultimately, the apparent killing of Larijani, along with that ofBasij militiachief Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, may be little comfort to the rest of the world in the short term as it facesan oil crisisand a global economic shock in the wake of this war waged alongside the United States.

Nevertheless, Israel says it won't stop at Larijani, Soleimani, Khamenei and other senior officials before them.

Announcing the dual killings after overnight strikes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said his military would "continue pursuing" Iran's leaders and "repeatedly cut off the head of the octopus and prevent it from regrowing."

Larijani is "a big scalp," said Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank based in London. "It's impressive what Israel is able to do. They promised they'd hit the regime, and they're doing it very successfully."

But from a global perspective, "you have to ask: So what?" he added.

Tuesday's dramatic developments lay bare the tension between Israel's apparent war goals and what the rest of the world might want to happen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is pursuing his decades-long aim of toppling the Iranian theocracy, declaring that his country was weakening the regime to give people a chance to oust it.

But Israel and the U.S. are not just hitting Iran's leadership and military, they are bombarding Tehran and other cities.

At least 1,200 Iranians have been killed, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said on March 3. Many more are likely to have died since then. And dozens more have died in Iran's retaliatory strikes against the Gulf states and Israel.

Iran has now taken the conflict to another level by effectively blocking the Strait of Hormuz. With ships unable to cross this vital choke point for oil and other key goods, fearing attack by Iranian missiles and drones, global prices have soared.

"Iran has successfully moved this conflict onto the global level," Stephens said. "All Iran has to do now is survive, and keep upping the cost." Ultimately, Israel "can kill as many Iranian officials as it likes, but it won't change the quagmire we're now in," he added.

Though plenty of experts warned that Iran could and would likely close the strait if attacked, this crisis seems to have come as a surprise to those prosecuting the war.

President Donald Trump had tried to cajole allies into sending ships to help reopen the strait, something most of them declined to do. In an angry post on Truth Social and later speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump said the U.S. did not need NATO "but they should have been there."

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Rouzbeh Parsi, an adjunct lecturer at Sweden's Lund University, agreed that the assassinations "will most likely not affect the operational side of the war."

But the targeted killings will likely hamper the effectiveness of Iran's internal operations, according to Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst.

"They can scramble command, slow decision-making, force successors into hiding, and demoralize both leadership and foot soldiers alike," he said.

He described Larijani as "an important piece of that puzzle, as someone who acted as a coordinator between different actors within the Islamic Republic." His death "could increase internal tensions in the short term, even if it ends up reinforcing the IRGC in the longer term."

That point is key, and one that has been made throughout this conflict since the killing of Khamenei. Many Western observers fear that, by taking out Iran's current leaders, it will only create a vacuum to be filled by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's feared paramilitary, political and economic behemoth.

"If you look at how the assassination of Ali Khamenei empowered the most hard-line and security elements within the Islamic Republic of Iran, then Larijani's death could act as an accelerator to that path," said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

One of the many hats worn by the pragmatist Larijani was his role as a leading negotiator tasked with finding common ground with Washington.

"Israel seems to be turning its attention to targeting those that could push for a political solution to overcome Iran's troubles at home and abroad," Geranmayeh said.

The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this allegation.

Israel's war was launched from a place of international fragility after its deadly assault on the Gaza Strip.

A new NBC News poll showedmore registered American voters view Israel negatively than positively, a change from a few years ago. And Iran's retaliatory attacks on surrounding Arab Gulf states may not win Tehran any new regional friends, but could also further harden dismay at Israel's actions.

It also remains to be seen what internal strife and machinations are triggered by the U.S.-Israeli campaign.

Israel has deployed its assassination strategy with dramatic but mixed results in Lebanon and Gaza, killing Hassan Nasrallah and Yahya Sinwar, the leaders of Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas.

"Losing Nasrallah was a major blow to the group's ability to maneuver a far more complicated landscape in Lebanon in the long term," Horowitz said.

But, he said, "the group is still fighting."

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Israel says it killed another Iranian leader, but that doesn't mean it's winning the war

Israel has again shown its unrivaled ability to assassinate high-level enemies,announcing the killing Tuesdayof the man w...

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Can desalinization plants solve the west’s water problem? | The Excerpt

On the Wednesday, March 18, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast:A critically important source of water for seven western states,the Colorado River is now running out of water. What's the solution?USA TODAY National Reporter Trevor Hughes joins The Excerpt to break down the issues and what's at stake.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Podcasts:True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Dana Taylor:

Antelope Point Marina once sat near the shore of Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest reservoir. Instead, the sparkling Colorado River now sits more than 180 feet below, completely invisible from a dock that once floated on top of the water. A critically important source of water for seven Western states, the Colorado River is running out of water. The solution, a public lands access group has proposed an ambitious plan to build eight massive desalination plants off the California coastline, turning ocean water into freshwater for farming and reducing demand on the ailing Colorado River. Will it work?

Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, March 18th, 2026. Joining me now to break down the issues and what's at stake is USA TODAY National Reporter Trevor Hughes. It's great to have you here, Trevor.

Trevor Hughes:

Yeah, good to be here.

Dana Taylor:

Trevor, let's start by laying out, if you could, the issue for us. The Colorado River has been a plentiful source of water for the Western U.S. for over a century. Why is this happening, and why now?

Trevor Hughes:

So the Colorado River supports the economies of seven Western states as it flows downstream, with Lake Mead and Lake Powell providing hydropower but then also water for irrigation, for farming, for growing alfalfa, for growing all the food that we eat, and for drinking water. And the river is what powers, in part, the Western economy. But as climate change makes the area warmer, it's making the area drier, and that means less and less water falling out of the sky as snow, which means less water in the Colorado River all year long. And that means Lake Powell and Lake Mead have been dropping for quite a long time at this point.

Dana Taylor:

So which seven states are dependent on the river now, and what do they primarily use the water for?

Trevor Hughes:

I'm going to have to count this on my fingers, because I always forget one of them. We've got Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and California. This is a hugely important source of water. I mean, in Denver where I live, the Colorado River water isn't as important because it's on the other side of the Continental Divide. But for those people in the West, in the western half of the United States, it's a hugely important part of what makes their economy work. In California, it's used to grow everything from alfalfa to feed cows to the cows themselves, to almonds. Arizona's Central Valley has huge croplands where they grow lots of fruit. Same kind of thing. This also is an important part of the drinking water supply for millions and millions and millions of Americans. And so when there's less water in the Colorado River, it starts to raise questions about how our economy works and how people can live in the West.

Dana Taylor:

So I know that water issues are complicated in the West because of an agreement between all the states that access the water. Tell me about that.

Trevor Hughes:

So there was an agreement in 1922 between those seven basin states, and they basically divided up the water in the Colorado River and said, "This is the water that exists, and this is how we'll all use it." The problem was those estimates were optimistic, to say the least, back then, and so there has never been as much water in the Colorado River as that agreement thought there was going to be. And so as a result, you have this need for conservation, this need for using less water than people are legally entitled to, because there just isn't that much water.

Dana Taylor:

Let's pivot to the proposed solution here. What is it?

Trevor Hughes:

When I first heard about this, it's one of those things where you think, "Wow, that is just audacious," and the idea is to build eight desalinization plants. These are huge facilities that use technology to take salt out of ocean water and make it freshwater. It's widely used as a technology, used all over the world. In fact, Israel depends very, very heavily on it. It uses a ton of energy. And so in order to power these desalinization plants, you would have to add a massive amount of solar, a massive amount of wind, or maybe a bunch of new nuclear power plants, which has been a push by the Trump administration.

Dana Taylor:

And then how much will these desalinization plants cost, and who's going to pay for them?

Trevor Hughes:

The one estimate that I've heard is $40 billion, which is a lot of money. That may not necessarily be grounded in reality, because it takes a very long time to build these things. But you also have to remember, because there's not enough water in the Colorado River, federal taxpayers, we, have been paying farmers, particularly in California and Arizona, to not farm. We have been paying them to just not. And so the backers of this plan, who are a public lands advocacy group that's called the Blue Ribbon Coalition, their idea is, what if we take this money that we're paying farmers to not farm and make it so that they can farm? And so the idea would be create massive amounts of freshwater, use that water in California, maybe in Arizona, and then that would sort of free up the rest of the Colorado River for the other states.

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Dana Taylor:

Let's talk about their location, the location of these desalinization plants. Where do they want to put them, and what are the issues there?

Trevor Hughes:

You need salt water to make freshwater with a desalinization plant, which means off the Pacific Coast. Now, that could mean California. That could also mean Baja California and Mexico. When I was reporting out this story, the first question I had was there's no way that California would ever allow a nuclear-powered desalinization plant to sit off their coastline, and there's a couple things that are interesting about that. First, they could be off the coast of Mexico. Second, they could be off federal enclaves, which would be exempt from California's environmental regulations. But what's really interesting is that Governor Gavin Newsom of California recently sent a letter to the other governors of the basin states saying desalinization was something that needed to be considered as part of a greater look at how to have more water in the system.

Dana Taylor:

Trevor, I mean, this is an interesting potential solution, but are these desalinization plants even realistic?

Trevor Hughes:

I mean, it all comes down to money and will. And what's been really interesting is thatPresident Trumphas repeatedly talked about how we used to be a country that built things. This story is based out of Page, Arizona, where I went. That's what Lake Powell is. There's a lake in the middle of the desert. That lake shouldn't be there. There's a giant dam that impounds the Colorado River. It's the same thing with the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Those were vastly expensive, vastly complicated projects, but we as a nation decided that we would build those things. We would assume those costs because we felt that it would make our economy stronger, make our country better.

And so it's an interesting conversation about the cost and the time and the magnitude of this, because the Colorado River isn't getting more water. And so conservation advocates would say, "We need to be better at conserving. We need to think about how we're farming. We need to think about how we're using this water that does exist." But advocates like Blue Ribbon Coalition would say, "Why don't we just make some more?"

Dana Taylor:

Well, have any alternative solutions been proposed here?

Trevor Hughes:

This is an issue that there is no easy answer. There is no cheap answer. As the climate warms, there will be less water in the Colorado River. We've seen that trend. It is accelerating. This year has been unusually dry, and we're expecting to see Lake Powell in particular drop to very, very low levels this year. Conservation has often been the first thing that people come to. We've been paying farmers not to farm. We've been telling people to, out here in the West, don't plant turf. Instead, maybe use gravel, maybe use xeriscaping, which is the term for using native plants and grasses instead of that turf. And so you see these very strong conservation measures come in, but when the crisis passes each year or every couple of years, they sort of ease back off again. But at the end of the day, this is a problem we have known has been coming for decades, and the states just can't agree on a solution.

Dana Taylor:

How much time do these seven states have, though? What's the timeline here?

Trevor Hughes:

I mean, depending on predictions, very, very little. The federal water scientists last week just predicted that Lake Powell may see one of its lowest inflow years in history, which mean the level will just drop and drop and drop. There comes a point in which the water level drops so low, the dam can no longer generate hydroelectricity, which is critically important for all the people who live there, and that's how they get their power. If it drops even further, it will actually drop below the level at which the water can flow through the dam and down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. That's called deadpool. We're not expecting deadpool this year, but there are fears it is coming.

Dana Taylor:

So what happens if the timeline isn't met? Is it deadpool?

Trevor Hughes:

The federal government has some levers it can still pull. There are reservoirs scattered all over the Western United States upstream of the Colorado River, upstream of Lake Powell in particular, and so the federal government can pull water from those reservoirs. It did this a couple of years ago and those reservoirs have been slowly refilling ever since, but that's more like going to the bank, taking money out from the ATM. At some point the bank account will be empty, and we'll be left with a crisis in which there isn't enough to go around. There have actually been books written about this idea that eventually in the West we will start having wars over water, because it is so important. And there's a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain, which is, "Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting."

Dana Taylor:

Trevor Hughes is a national reporter for USA TODAY. Trevor, it's always good to speak with you.

Trevor Hughes:

Good to be here.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:The audacious western water solution to fix the Colorado River | The Excerpt

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March 18, 2026

Can desalinization plants solve the west’s water problem? | The Excerpt

On the Wednesday, March 18, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast:A critically important source of water for seven western...

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Afghans search for loved ones at Kabul rehab centre bombed by Pakistan

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

Aftermath of an air strike in Kabul

KABUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Families and friends of people who were under treatment at a rehab centre in the Afghan capital Kabul searched for their loved ones on Wednesday, two days after it was bombed by Pakistan in the deadliest incident in the months ‌long conflict between the neighbours.

The Afghan Taliban government has said that more than 400 people were killed and 265 wounded in the air strike ‌that took place on Monday night, just as people and staff at the centre were praying, days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Pakistan rejected the claim, saying it had "precisely targeted military ​installations and terrorist support infrastructure" - a sharp escalation that has further worsened relations between the Islamic neighbours at a time when the neighbourhood has also become unstable due to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.

On Wednesday, relatives of people who were at the drug rehabilitation centre gathered at the site looking for their loved ones who were among the hundreds recovering there.

Many said they did not know whether their relatives were alive or dead, or if they had been moved elsewhere.

"We came here looking for our patient, he is missing," said ‌Mazar, 50, who gave only one name. "We came to find ⁠out whether he is well, alive, or what has happened to him."

The relative, Mazar said, had been admitted at the centre for the second time and there was no information about him. "We checked the lists, but his name was not in the list of ⁠the living. Maybe he is injured or has been killed," he said.

MOST BODIES YET TO BE HANDED OVER

Another man who did not want to be named said he had come in search of his relative on Tuesday but was not allowed to enter the centre.

"We did not find his body, nor was he among the wounded, and his name is not ​on ​the list of survivors," he said. "We have come again today for more information."

A Reuters witness at ​the scene saw smoke still smouldering from parts of the compound ‌as firefighters continued to douse small fires, about 36 hours after the bombing. Pieces of furniture, mattresses and clothing lay scattered among the debris.

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The Afghan interior ministry said funerals of some those killed at the centre would take place later on Wednesday.

"Some of the bodies were not identifiable and are currently at the forensic department. Some bodies were intact and were handed over to their families," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qanie said. "Others were completely destroyed, collected almost like pieces of flesh."

Najibullah Farooqi, head of Afghanistan's legal medicine directorate, said bodies were being pulled out of the debris as late as Tuesday night and were being handed over to families.

"Some bodies have been handed over ‌after their identities were confirmed. However, a large number of bodies still remain with us," he ​said.

DISPUTE OVER TARGET OF AIR STRIKE

Afghanistan and Pakistan have fiercely contested and disputed the target of ​the air strike.

Afghan authorities said the attack had clearly targeted a well-known rehabilitation ​centre, a former NATO military base named Camp Phoenix that had been converted into a civilian facility about a decade ago.

Pakistan has ‌said it hit Camp Phoenix, a "military terrorist ammunition and equipment storage ​site" and that secondary detonations that were ​visible after the strikes clearly indicated the presence of large ammunition depots there.

The EU, UN agencies and international aid groups have said civilian and medical facilities should not be targeted during a conflict and called for immediate de-escalation.

The conflict between the allies turned foes began last year after Pakistan accused Afghanistan ​of sheltering and backing militants carrying out attacks across Pakistan, ‌a charge denied by the Afghan Taliban government.

The conflict had ebbed amid efforts by friendly countries including China to mediate, but flared again with ​Pakistan directly targeting the Afghan Taliban last month and not just locations of Pakistani Taliban militants Islamabad says are across the border.

(Reporting by ​Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Writing by Tanvi Mehta and YP Rajesh; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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March 18, 2026

Afghans search for loved ones at Kabul rehab centre bombed by Pakistan

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar Aftermath of an air strike in Kabul KABUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Families and frie...

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Jessie Holmes wins Iditarod, surviving brutal cold for back-to-back titles

Jessie Holmes refers to the Alaskan Huskies that pull his sled across ice and snow and through howling winds as "Team Can't Stop.''

It's hard to argue with the nickname.

Holmes and his sled dogs won the Iditarod on Tuesday, March 17 for the second year in a row, Holmes becoming only the sixth dog musher to achieve the feat in the 54-year history of the grueling race in Alaska. He is the first to win back-to-back titles since 2016, when Dallas Seavey won his third straight Iditarod.

The mushers competed for a purse of $650,000, with Holmes earning $80,000.

With Holmes at the helm of the sled, "Team Can't Stop'' completed the 1,000-mile Iditarod trail in 9 days, 7 hours, 32 minutes and 51 seconds, with 12 dogs in harness, according to Iditarod.com.

It was challenging conditions. Temperatures plunged as low as 40 degrees below zero and winds gusted as high as 50 mph during portions of a race that started in Willow and ended in Nome, according to Iditarod.com, the official website of the race, and other published reports.

More:Iditarod dog, 4-year-old Charley, dies during 2026 race, officials say

"We've been enduring wind this whole race,'' Holmes said in an interview with KTUU Channel 2 TV as his sled dogs rested before the final run of the race. "We thrive in it. So if there's a challenge, come the weather, we're just going to push through it, seal the deal.''

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Seal it, they did — with attrition.

Heading into the final run, Holmes said his team of 16 dogs (the maximum) was down to 12 dogs in harness. Each year, dozens of dogs are dropped from the race for exhaustion, injury or illness.

Though not as treacherous as the annual sled dog race, Holmes, 43, navigated an unusual path to Iditarod glory.

He was raised in Alabama and left home at 18. He spent three years as a carpenter in Montana, then he headed for Alaska and eventually discovered sled dog racing.

In 2018, Holmes was Iditarod Rookie of the Year when he finished seventh. He became a fixture among the annual mushers and climbed the ranks. In 2022, he finished third, followed up by a fifth-place finish in 2023 and a third-place finish in 2024.

He and "Team Can't Stop'' prevailed in 2025, finishing the race in 10 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes, about three hours ahead of runner-up Matt Hall.

This story has been updated with new information.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Iditarod results: Jessie Holmes wins 54th event, back-to-back titles

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Jessie Holmes wins Iditarod, surviving brutal cold for back-to-back titles

Jessie Holmes refers to the Alaskan Huskies that pull his sled across ice and snow and through howling winds as "Tea...

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Thunder's Alex Caruso receives technical foul for using shoe to block shot in win over Magic

After going undrafted out of Texas A&M in 2016, Alex Caruso spent the early part of his pro career doing everything he could to carve out a role for himself in the NBA.

Eventually, he became one of the league's most tenacious defenders. Now a two-time NBA All-Defensive Team honoree, Caruso has proven he'll do whatever it takes on that end of the floor.

The 32-year-old wing took that sentence to another level Tuesday, and it humorously cost him.

When Caruso's left sneaker came off in the second quarter of a113-108 road winover the Orlando Magic, he picked it up and got creative on defense.

[Enter Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem now for your shot at $50K]

Playing help defense in the paint, Caruso swiped his lost shoe at the left hand of Magic forward Tristan da Silva, who was going up for a layup.

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Caruso made contact with the ball, and it came loose, ricocheting off da Silva's arm and flying out of bounds.

Except, rather than resulting in an Orlando turnover, the play wound up with Caruso receiving a technical foul and the Magic being awarded the two points da Silva could have scored otherwise, plus the subsequent free throw due to Caruso being T'd up.

That sequence assisted Orlando's comeback effort. The Magic drew within one point of the Thunder by halftime. Then they pulled in front early in the third quarter.

But the Thunder stormed back andsecured their spot in this year's playoffs. Oklahoma City is the first team during the 2025-26 campaign to punch its ticket to the postseason.

Mark Daigneault's team has won nine games in a row and is now 54-15. The Thunder are gunning for their second straight NBA title.

Reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander paced the Thunder with 40 points Tuesday. As for Caruso, he finished with just two points but also eight rebounds and two steals — and one innovative technical foul that raised eyebrows in Orlando and everywhere online.

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March 17, 2026

Thunder's Alex Caruso receives technical foul for using shoe to block shot in win over Magic

After going undrafted out of Texas A&M in 2016, Alex Caruso spent the early part of his pro career doing everything h...

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Aden Holloway, Alabama's No. 2 scorer, had 2.1 pounds of marijuana when arrested, authorities say

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Authorities found 2.1 pounds of marijuana in Alabama basketball star Aden Holloway's apartment when they arrested him Monday, according to court records released Tuesday — just below the 2.2-pound threshold for a drug trafficking charge.

Holloway, the No. 2 scorer for the fourth-seeded Crimson Tide, has been suspended indefinitely and is away from the team as it prepares to play Hofstra on Friday in the NCAA Tournament. Among the charges is a count of first-degree marijuana possession, not for personal use, which is a Class C felony and carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000.

Holloway's attorney, Jason Neff, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. But he told ESPN that there is no proof his client was selling the drugs.

Neff told the outlet that it could take 18 months for the case to make its way through the Alabama courts, a process that would jeopardize Holloway's college and possible NBA career.

"He has no criminal history," Neff said. "If he were to plead out or even go to trial, the judge could give him probation. It is a felony. For a 21-year-old man trying to get through college and get to the NBA, a felony issue could be a major issue long term."

Agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force said they knocked on the door of an apartment in Tuscaloosa and were met by Holloway, according to a statement by the arresting officer. After entering the residence, they found "loose marijuana" and a vacuum-sealed bag of the drug in the living room, the statement said.

In Holloway's bedroom, agents say they found more marijuana in a backpack in the closet and also in a suitcase, and a rolling tray with marijuana on it under in the bed. In a spare bedroom, they found a box of marijuana in the closet, according to the court records.

"Holloway stated that he wanted to remain silent, but then stated that he only smokes," according to the officer's statement.

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The total weight of marijuana found in the apartment was 964 grams, "which is approximately 2.1 pounds," it states. More than 2.2 pounds can result in a drug trafficking charge under Alabama law.

Holloway was also charged with failure to affix a tax stamp and was released from jail on a $5,000 bond shortly after his arrest. The university said in a statement that he was "removed from campus pending further investigation by the UA Office of Student Conduct."

Coach Nate Oats said Monday during his weekly radio show that the Crimson Tide were preparing to play without Holloway in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Tampa, Florida. Alabama is the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region.

"We've got standards in our program and ways we've held our guys accountable," Oats said.

"We're certainly disappointed in his behavior," the coach added "That being said, we still love him. He's still our guy and we're helping him get the help that he needs and we're going to help him in any way that we can."

Holloway is in his second season at Alabama. He is averaging 16.8 points per game and leads the Crimson Tide in 3-point shooting, hitting 43.1% from behind the arc. Holloway has started 27 of 28 games that he's played this season. Without him, Alabama (23-9) will be down to nine scholarship players in the NCAA Tournament, where it is a No. 4 seed.

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March 17, 2026

Aden Holloway, Alabama's No. 2 scorer, had 2.1 pounds of marijuana when arrested, authorities say

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Authorities found 2.1 pounds of marijuana in Alabama basketball star Aden Holloway's apartmen...

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