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LAFAYETTE, La. — Like so many college football standouts, Jack Bech will be watching and waiting this weekend, hoping to hear his name called at the 2025 NFL draft.

The TCU wide receiver will be tuning in from his high school in Lafayette, Louisiana, surrounded by family and friends. But his biggest fan will be missing.

Follow along for live coverage of Round 1 of the NFL draft.

On New Year’s Day, a terrorist barreled down Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Jack’s big brother, Martin “Tiger” Bech, was one of 14 people killed in the attack.

“I always believe that God has a greater plan, no matter if you see it working or not,” Jack Bech told NBC News on Thursday ahead of the draft.

“I definitely know that he is in a better place, and that he’s going to be here 100% with us.”

Growing up, the Bech brothers shared a love of football.

“He scored a touchdown right here in the end zone,” Jack Bech recalled from the field at St. Thomas More High School.

Tiger Bech would go onto become a standout at Princeton before starting a career on Wall Street.

Despite the distance, last fall he flew from New York to Texas for every one of his little brother’s home games, according to Jack Bech.

“It was awesome. He was literally going broke. I mean, he was in debt for coming to all my games,” Jack Bech said.

They dreamed together about Jack going pro.

“They meant everything to each other,” according to their father, Martin Bech.

Weeks after the Bourbon Street attack, Jack Bech closed out his college career with a game-winning touchdown; he was named Senior Bowl MVP.

If that weren’t enough to draw interest from an NFL franchise, Jack Bech will tell you drafting him is a steal.

“Two-for-one special … You’re not only getting me, you’re getting Tiger too,” he said, adding: “I feel like I have another person in me pushing me and taking me to those levels.”

Their mother, Michelle Bech, said, “Tiger was always known for his fearlessness, and I believe that Jack has now fully embraced that idea of fearlessness.”

And so the Bech family, with the sports world watching, heads into the NFL draft weekend feeling “mixed emotions” that include “overriding joy,” according to Martin Bech.

With Jack expected to hear his name called in the second round on Day 2 of the draft, he believes his big brother will still be right there.

“And now he just has the best seat in the house. … He always wanted to be with me. So now he gets to be with me, just in a different way.”

If President Donald Trump’s 145% levy against imports from China holds, Hasbro estimates it could see as much as a $300 million hit to its bottom line.

The toy maker posted better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, but investors and analysts were more focused on the ongoing trade war Trump’s White House has waged against the toy industry’s biggest manufacturer.

Hasbro maintained the full-year guidance it issued last quarter, citing the uncertainty of the current tariff environment.

“Our forecast assumes various scenarios for China tariffs, ranging from 50% to the rate holding at 145% and 10% for the rest of world,” said Gina Goetter, chief financial officer and chief operating officer at Hasbro, during Thursday’s earnings call. “This translates to an estimated $100 million to $300 million gross impact across the enterprise in 2025. Before any mitigation.”

CEO Chris Cocks said during the company’s earnings call that “while no company is insulated, Hasbro is well positioned,” noting the company’s unchanged guidance is “supported by our robust games and licensing businesses and our strategic flexibility.”

“Prolonged tariff conditions create structural costs and heighten market unpredictability,” he said, adding, “ultimately tariffs translate into higher consumer prices.”

Cocks also warned of “potential job losses as we adjust to absorb increased costs and reduced profit for our shareholders.”

The company’s U.S. games business benefits from digital and domestic sourcing, as many of its board games are made in Massachusetts. Its Wizards of the Coast division, which includes Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, has a tariff exposure of less than $10 million, Cocks said, as much of the domestic product is made in North Carolina, Texas and Japan.

The company’s toy segment faces higher exposure, as a larger portion of those goods are made in China. Cocks said the company is exploring options for moving its supply chain to other countries.

“Some of that, though, comes with the cost,” he said. “When we manufacture board games in the U.S., it is significantly more expensive to manufacture here than it is in China.”

He added that the company can shift the sourcing of Play-Doh, for example, from China to its factory in Turkey. Under that scenario, Turkey manufacturers would redirect shipments from Europe to the U.S. and Chinese factories could fill in to supply the European market.

Other products are more difficult to triage, especially those that include electronics, high end deco and foam components, Cocks said.

“China will continue to be a major manufacturing hub for us globally, in large part due to specialized capabilities developed over decades,” he said.

Goetter said that much of the manufacturing changes would be seen in 2026 and are dependent on if those countries already have the capabilities and infrastructure in place to make certain products.

Hasbro is also accelerating its $1 billion cost savings plan in an effort to offset tariff pressures, but noted that price hikes are unavoidable.

“We are going to have to raise prices inside of 145% tariff regime with China,” Cocks said. “We’re just trying to do it as selectively as possible and minimize the burden to the fans and families that we serve.”

Both Goetter and Cocks admitted that Hasbro’s plans are flexible and will change as the tariff situation evolves. The company is hopeful for a “more predictable and favorable U.S. trade policy environment.”

“We’re trying to play both defense and offense at the same time,” Goetter said.

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuadorian soccer player Jackson Rodríguez’s wife and 5-year-old child were kidnapped early Wednesday, police reported, when men broke into their home in search of the Emelec defender, who told investigators he hid under a bed.

The kidnappings took place around 3 a.m. in the coastal city of Guayaquil, police chief Édison Rodríguez said.

In his testimony to police, the 26-year-old fullback said he hid under a bed when he heard the front door being broken down, according to the police chief.

The perpetrators took Rodriguez’s wife and child after asking the woman if Rodríguez was at the residence.

According to police, Rodríguez saw at a window “that the individuals were traveling in a gray-colored double-cab pickup truck.”

The incident occurred amid a state of emergency declared 10 days ago by the government in nine areas of the country, including the province of Guayas, to which Guayaquil belongs. The measure allows the mobilization of security forces in those territories to combat the operations of organized crime groups, which authorities blame for the wave of violence.

Insecurity and crime have plagued Ecuador for four years, with an increase in the first few months of the year, according to the government. Between January and March, 2,345 violent deaths were reported, 742 of which occurred in Guayaquil, located 270 kilometers (168 miles) southwest of the capital Quito.

The port city is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the country. From those ports, illegal drug shipments are sent to Europe, Central America, and the United States, according to authorities.

Other athletes have been targeted in the past. In December 2024, soccer player Pedro Perlaza, who played for Liga de Quito also was kidnapped in Esmeraldas, a city located 182 kilometers northwest of Quito, and rescued alive a few days later.

Jay Leno opened up on caring for his wife, Mavis Leno, following her advanced dementia diagnosis, saying it has been “challenging,” but he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

The 74-year-old comedian has been married to his wife, Mavis Leno since 1980. 

“I have never been particularly challenged. I was not in the army, I didn’t have to shoot anybody, I didn’t have to risk my life. When you get married, you take a vow — Will I live up to this? Or will I be like a sleazy guy, if something happens to my wife, I’m out banging the cashier at the mini mart?” he said on Wednesday’s episode of the “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” podcast. 

“No, I didn’t. I enjoy the time with my wife. I go home, I cook dinner for her, watch TV, it’s okay. It’s basically what we did before except now I have to feed her and do all the things. But, I like it. I like taking care of her,” he continued.

He described his wife as a “very independent person,” and with her diagnosis, “I like that I’m needed.”

“When you have to feed someone and change them, carry them to the bathroom and do that kind of stuff every day. It’s a challenge,” he explained. “And it’s not that I enjoy doing it, but I guess I enjoy doing it.”

Leno said it’s important to find the humor in every day things. He said a special moment for him is doing flashcards with pictures with his wife to refresh her memory.

“Remember this honey? It’s kind of funny. Honey, that’s President Obama, we had dinner,” he recalled telling her. She responded with “Oh, not me.” Leno replied: “Yeah honey, it was you… We went to the White House!”

Leno said that in his decades together with Mavis, he feels there’s more love now than ever before.

“We’ve been married 45 years. The first 40 — unbelievable. The last five have been challenging, put it that way. I think there’s more love now. Because, why am I doing this? You know? Well, this is why,” he said.

“At some point in my life I’m going to be called upon to defend myself, stand up, whatever it might be. I think that’s really what defines a marriage. That’s really what love is. That’s what you do. I’m glad I didn’t cut and run, I’m glad I didn’t run off with some woman half my age or any of that silly nonsense. I would rather be with her than doing something else.”

Reflecting on his marriage he said, “I married the person that had the ideals I wish I had.”

Lat year, the former late-night talk show host was granted conservatorship over his wife’s estate due to her dementia.

The petition for conservatorship said Mavis had “been progressively losing capacity and orientation to space and time for several years.” At the time a court-appointed lawyer recommended approving Leno’s request for conservatorship, saying his wife “sometimes does not know her husband, Jay, nor her date of birth.”

 

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce a ban on transgender service members in the military.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed an emergency application at the court seeking to block a nationwide injunction issued by a judge in Washington state.

Challengers say that, among other things, the ban violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires that people be treated equally under the law.

Sauer wrote in the court filing that the judge’s injunction “cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the department’s professional military judgements are owed.”

The ban is an expanded version of a policy Trump implemented in his first term, which the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect. President Joe Biden rolled back those restrictions when he was in office.

The policy “generally disqualifies from military service individuals who have gender dysphoria or have undergone medical interventions for gender dysphoria,” Sauer wrote.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle ruled on March 27 that “The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question.” He noted that the government had failed to provide any updated evidence on why the new policy was needed.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block Settle’s ruling.

The administration relies on a Pentagon decision made during the first Trump administration that said people with gender dysphoria are a threat to “military effectiveness and lethality.”

A separate case is ongoing in the District of Columbia, with the administration seeking to overturn a similar injunction. An appeals court heard oral arguments in that case on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court has asked the challengers to file a response to the administration’s request by May 1. In the meantime, the ban remains blocked.

A 19-year-old from Ocean Township, New Jersey, is accused of starting a massive wildfire that prompted thousands of evacuations, burned around 15,000 acres and destroyed a commercial building.

Joseph Kling was arrested and charged with aggravated arson and arson, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday. The fire, named the Jones Road Wildfire, erupted Tuesday in Waretown and has spread throughout the southern Ocean County area.

Prosecutors accused Kling of setting wooden pallets on fire and then leaving the area without ensuring that the fire was fully extinguished.

As of Thursday morning, it was 50% contained. There have been no reports of deaths or loss of homes.

The Cedar Bridge Fire Tower located a plume of smoke coming from the area of Jones Road and Bryant Road in Ocean Township just before 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Emergency personnel observed a fire within the Ocean County Natural Lands Trust’s Forked River Mountains Wilderness Area.

The cause of the fire was determined to be incendiary by an improperly extinguished bonfire, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.

Kling is being held at the Ocean County jail pending a detention hearing.

The inferno has burned about 15,000 acres in Ocean and Lacey Townships, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said Thursday morning in an update on Facebook. Eight structures have been threatened, and one commercial building was destroyed.

About 5,000 residents were evacuated, but evacuations have since been lifted.

On Wednesday, acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency. Fire officials and Shawn M. LaTourette, state commissioner of environmental protection, have said that the fire is expected to burn for a couple more days.

LaTourette said it could end up being the biggest wildfire in the state in 20 years.

“Thanks to the incredible, heroic work of the good men and women of our New Jersey Forest Fire Service, folks’ homes and lives have been saved and we’ve truly averted a major disaster,” he said Wednesday. “Now, this wildfire is not under full and complete control. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve complete containment of the wildfire.”

A seaside Massachusetts town appears to have fallen prey to an overzealous pileated woodpecker that damaged more than 20 vehicles, one resident said.

For weeks, Rockport locals have dealt with broken car windshields and side mirrors. Resident Janelle Favaloro was able to capture a photo of the culprit: a large, crow-sized bird whacking away at vehicles.

“We seem to have a vandal in our neighborhood. I’m describing him as 18 to 24 inches tall, wearing black and white with a red hat,” Favaloro said on NBC’s “TODAY” show.

She said the woodpecker is responsible for damaging at least 25 vehicles.

“The woodpecker showed up and landed on the windshield wipers of the RV in our yard and was looking at its reflection. And we were like, ‘You know what, I bet he was the one that damaged the mirrors as well.’”

The pileated woodpecker is nearly the size of a crow and has white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest, according to Allaboutbirds.org

Ron Magill, Zoo Miami’s communications director, said one reason for the woodpecker’s aggressive behavior could be the result of peak mating season.

“This time of year is breeding season, so all these male birds, not just pileated woodpeckers, but all birds are getting into a very aggressive territorial courtship display,” he said on NBC’s “TODAY” show.

“If they’re seeing their reflections of themselves, they don’t understand it’s a reflection,” he continued. “They think it’s a competitor.”

CHICAGO — And the race is officially on.

One day after longtime Sen. Dick Durbin announced he would retire and not seek reelection, Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, launched her bid for his seat.

She is the first contender to enter what Democrats here are expecting to be a jam-packed field for a senatorial seat that hasn’t been vacant in nearly 30 years.

Stratton has served at JB Pritzker’s side since the billionaire businessman launched his bid for governor in 2017. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to hold the position of lieutenant governor in the state.

Stratton for months signaled her interest in seeking Durbin’s seat, launching the Level Up PAC in January, specifically to support a future bid for the post.

Durbin, first elected to his position in 1996, said on Wednesday he would not seek reelection at the end of his term.

“I know it’s time to pass the torch,” Durbin, 80, said, noting he has “given over half of my life to House and Senate congressional service.”

In 2016, Stratton won a state legislative seat with the help of then- President Barack Obama, who himself had once served in the Illinois Legislature. In a rare instance, Obama filmed a TV ad in a state legislative race to boost her candidacy.

As lieutenant governor, Stratton can tout advancing key initiatives alongside Pritzker, from raising the minimum wage to eliminating the state’s tax on groceries to protecting reproductive rights, as red states surrounding Illinois shuttered abortion facilities.

In recent months, Stratton has served as an opposing voice to President Donald Trump’s administration, including in advocating for additional funding for education in the state amid announced federal cuts.

Trump says the U.S. and China are ‘actively’ discussing tariffs. Beijing says that’s false.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan duo in the House is leading a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi expressing “deep concern” that the Trump administration has put at risk funding grants for programs that help survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Young Kim, R-Calif., have been collecting signatures for the letter, which was first obtained by NBC News and is backed by more than 100 House members. The letter will be sent to Bondi on Thursday.

In February, the Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women removed all notices of grant opportunities for fiscal year 2025 from its website, sparking alarm from nonprofit groups that provide services to abuse victims, Politico reported.

“We write to express our deep concern about reports that the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) has withdrawn its Notice of 2025 Funding Opportunities. OVW administers critical grant programs that provide lifesaving support to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking,” the letter reads.

“The sudden withdrawal of these funding opportunities threatens to disrupt essential services, jeopardize the stability of victim assistance programs, and undermine the bipartisan commitment to combating these forms of violence,” it continues. “We respectfully urge the Department of Justice to clarify the status of these grants as soon as possible and take swift action to ensure funding remains available to support survivors and the organizations that serve them.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter is a rare bipartisan rebuke of the Trump administration’s handling of federal funding. Gottheimer is running for governor of New Jersey this year, while Kim is a moderate Republican from Southern California who faces a tough re-election fight next year.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, also signed on to the letter. The signers also include two Republican delegates to the House, Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Northern Mariana Islands and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa.

Other Democrats helping with the effort are Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, a member of the party’s leadership in the House, and Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin.

The Office on Violence Against Women was created through the Violence Against Women Act, a bipartisan law known as VAWA, which administers grant programs that provide services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

VAWA was signed into law in 1994 and reauthorized several times, most recently in 2022. Democrats have pointed out that at her Senate confirmation hearing, Bondi vowed to “faithfully implement these programs” and “ensure that all programs administered by the Department, including those at OVW, are administered effectively and in accordance with their missions as enacted by Congress.”  

The lawmakers wrote in their letter: “A delay or reduction in OVW funding will have devastating consequences for the countless individuals who rely on these resources for safety, legal protection, and recovery. This abrupt withdrawal of funding has created severe uncertainty that threatens the well-being of survivors who cannot afford these delays.

“We ask that the Department clarify its plans to rectify this situation and ensure that OVW grant funding is fully restored without further delay to continue providing care to survivors of domestic violence.”