By CHRISTOPHER WEBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Investigators on Monday were combing through the writings of a 25-year-old man believed responsible for an explosion that ripped through a Southern California fertility clinic over the weekend.

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The FBI identified Guy Edward Bartkus as the suspect in the apparent car bomb detonation Saturday that damaged the American Reproductive Centers building in Palm Springs, east of Los Angeles. Bartkus died in the explosion. None of the facility’s embryos were damaged.

Authorities called the attack terrorism and said Bartkus left behind nihilistic writings that indicated views against procreation, an idea known as anti-natalism.

Here’s what to know about the case.

Witnesses described a chaotic scene.

The blast gutted the clinic and shattered the windows of nearby buildings along a palm tree-lined street. Passersby described a loud boom, with people screaming in terror and glass strewn along sidewalks of the upscale desert city.

Bartkus’ body was found near a charred vehicle.

Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, called it possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”

There were no patients at the facility and all embryos were saved.

“This was a targeted attack against the IVF facility,” Davis said Sunday. “Make no mistake: we are treating this, as I said yesterday, as an intentional act of terrorism.”

The investigation is ongoing.

Authorities executed a search warrant in Bartkus’ hometown of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents northeast of Palm Springs with a large U.S. Marine Corps base.

Bartkus tried to livestream the explosion, but the attempt failed, the FBI said.

Authorities haven’t shared specifics about the explosives used to make the bomb and where Bartkus may have obtained them.

What were his views?

Authorities were working to learn more about Bartkus’ motives. They haven’t said if he intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility.

His writings communicated “nihilistic ideations” that were still being examined to determine his state of mind, said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the area. In general, nihilism suggests that life is meaningless.

This image released by the Federal Bureau of Investigations shows Guy Edward Bartkus. (FBI via AP)

He appeared to hold anti-natalist views, which include a belief that it is morally wrong for people to bring children into the world. The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.

Some people with extreme anti-procreation views have a lack of purpose and a bleak feeling about their own lives “and they diagnose society as suffering in a similar way that they are,” said Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama. “Essentially, they feel like we’re all doomed, that it’s all hopeless.”

That hopelessness is a way for attackers to rationalize their violent actions, Lankford said Monday.

By SARA CLINE and JACK BROOK

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Just days before 10 men broke out of a New Orleans jail, officials with the sheriff’s office asked for money to fix faulty locks and cell doors deemed a key factor in the escape.

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As the manhunt for the remaining seven fugitives stretches into a new week, officials continue to investigate who or what was to blame in a jailbreak that even the escapees labeled as “easy” — in a message scrawled on a wall above the narrow hole they squeezed through.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said she has long raised concerns about the jail’s ongoing “deficiencies,” adding that the breakout has “once again highlighted the critical need for repairs and upgrades” to the ailing infrastructure.

The men yanked open a cell door, slipped through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed wire fence and fled from the jail early Friday, recorded surveillance video showed.

Four days earlier, Jeworski “Jay” Mallet — the Chief of Corrections for the Orleans Justice Center — presented a need for a new lock system during the city’s Capital Improvement Plan hearing.

Mallet said the current system at the jail, which houses around 1,400 people, was built for a “minimum custody type of inmate.”

But he classified many at the jail as “high security” inmates who are awaiting trials for violent offenses, including charges such as murder, assault and rape. He said many require a “restrictive housing environment that did not exist” at the jail and, as a result, the sheriff’s office has transferred dozens in custody to more secure locations.

This combo from photos provided by Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office shows from left top: Dkenan Dennis, Gary C Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E Boyd. Bottom from left: Lenton Vanburen Jr, Jermaine Donald, Antonine T Massey, Derrick D. Groves, and Leo Tate Sr. (Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Mallet went on to say that some of the cell unit doors and locks have been “manipulated” to the point that not only are they not secure, but some can’t even be closed properly.

Hutson said the men “yanked” on a locked cell door “to pull it off its track.” They then squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, exited a loading dock door before climbing a barbed-wire fence using blankets and running across a nearby interstate in early morning darkness.

“These are the cells that we keep saying we need to replace at great cost in this facility,” Hutson said.

Since becoming sheriff in 2022, Hutson said she has complained about the locks at every turn and advocated for additional funding to make the facility more secure.

“I wrote a letter to the consent decree judge, to the city council, and everybody else who would listen, and every time I go to budget, I say the exact same thing,” Hutson said.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a news conference on Sunday that funding for the jail has been “a priority” and that funding has been allocated to the sheriff’s office for operating expenses and capital improvements. Bianka Brown, the chief financial officer for the sheriff’s office, said the current budget “doesn’t support what we need” to ensure critical fixes and upgrades.

“Things are being deprived,” Brown said of the jail, which for more than a decade has been subject to federal monitoring and a consent decree intended to improve conditions. The jail, which opened in 2015, replaced another facility that had its own history of escapes and violence.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson leaves a news conference in New Orleans on Friday, May 16, 2025, after inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center jail. (Brett Duke/The Advocate via AP)

While Hutson said the locks played a key role in the escape, there are other crucial elements that officials have outlined; Indications that the escape may have been an inside job, with three sheriff’s employees now on suspension; the hole that officials said may have been formed using power tools; a lack of monitoring of the cell pod, as the employee tasked with the job had stepped out to grab food; and law enforcement not being aware of the escape until a morning headcount seven hours after the men fled.

Other’s have pointed to Hutson being at fault. State Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, who represents much of uptown New Orleans, called for sheriff to step down on Monday.

“Rather than take accountability, she’s pointed fingers elsewhere,” Freeman wrote in a statement. “Blaming funding is a deflection–not an excuse.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently announced the state is launching an investigation into who is responsible in the escape. He also directed the state’s Department of Corrections to conduct an audit of the jail’s compliance with basic correctional standards.

“Now there is no excuse for the escape of these violent offenders,” said Landry, a tough-on-crime Republican.

The governor also requested an inventory of pre-trial detainees or those awaiting sentencing in violent cases at the facility, to consider moving them into state custody.

Three of the seven inmates still at large late Monday were convicted of or are facing second-degree murder charges, authorities said.

“I’ve not only shown dedication to residents of all backgrounds, but I know how to deliver on my promises and make this city better. Every other candidate has a housing plan but lacks the dedicated leadership to make it work.”

The author, former Assemblymember and current candidate for mayor Michael Blake, at City Limits’ Mayoral Forum on NYCHA & Family Homelessness last month. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

Editor’s Note: City Limits will offer similar op-ed space to the other candidates running for NYC mayor this year to share their housing plans. If you’re a candidate interested in submitting a piece, email editor@citylimits.org. Read Candidate Scott Stringer’s housing pitch here.

Every day, more New Yorkers make the tough choice of abandoning the city they call home because it has become a shell of itself, littered with empty buildings that only the rich can afford.

For years, our city officials have allowed rents to skyrocket, the number of affordable units to dwindle, and families to live in apartments the size of shoe boxes. More than 2 million New York residents are spending over half of their paychecks on rent alone, driving more working-class people to compromise on food, childcare and employment decisions. In our schools, approximately one in every eight students experienced homelessness last year.

These issues affect every single New Yorker, including me. As the child of Jamaican immigrants—whose mama overcame homelessness—and a son of the Bronx, I’ve witnessed families of color pushed out of the city in search of affordable housing. As a former White House aide to President Barack Obama, a reverend, husband and father, I’ve seen neighbors struggle to stay afloat, forced to sacrifice more each day to still pay more for their homes. 

While our current leadership has thrown in the towel, and as the only candidate in the race who was part of a team that defeated Donald Trump, we still have a chance to turn things around. Our housing crisis has a solution, and my comprehensive housing plan offers a path for New Yorkers to both find affordable housing and start bringing money back into this city and its neighborhoods.

Barring contractual prohibitions, my administration will—within its first 100 days—pay and reimburse all open city contracts to nonprofits on the front lines of childcare, housing support and job placement. These are the organizations that are fighting to keep working-class New Yorkers in the city. Our current City Hall has denied them the right to timely pay, and they deserve much better for their work.

I will also declare a cost of living emergency and utilize city reserves to provide urgent financial relief to residents struggling to make ends meet. This will help working-class families afford not only rent but groceries, childcare and transportation. To provide further aid to our most vulnerable neighbors, I will create a guaranteed income pilot program to help New Yorkers with housing and childcare expenses.

Right now, New York utilizes an outdated Area Median Income (AMI) formula to calculate the average income of residents within a neighborhood. The city’s sky-high rents skew this data, though, causing units labeled as “affordable” to be the opposite. My administration will replace the use of AMI with a Local Median Income (LMI), specific to neighborhoods and zip codes.

This will not only more accurately capture what local New Yorkers are making but ensure housing affordability is no longer affected by inflated regional averages. I also promise to raise income thresholds for housing eligibility, giving working- and middle-class families better odds of obtaining a home. 

We’ll eliminate credit score considerations from housing applications, which disproportionately prevent communities of color, immigrants and young adults from obtaining affordable units. By promoting alternative tenant evaluation methods, such as income verification and rental history, New York City residents will make housing decisions based on their actual ability to pay instead of their financial pasts.

My administration will also educate landlords and brokers through workshops and technical assistance, as well as monitor compliance with the help of the NYC Commission on Human Rights. This includes requiring landlords to accept the crucial resource of housing vouchers where applicable.

I will launch Mitchell-Lama 2.0, a new housing program focused on deeply affordable, middle-income housing for public sector workers and union members. Under this new plan, the city will build 600,000 new units across the five boroughs to match the number of residents pushed out due to rising costs and housing scarcity. Some of these units will be reserved for returning veterans, recent college graduates and native New Yorkers priced out of their home market. My Welcome Home plan will keep families together and ensure New York does not become a city where only the upper class can build a life.

To help New Yorkers access these resources, I plan to launch Technology for Good, a new public service platform that will connect people to city resources. Available on desktop and mobile devices, the app will allow New York City users to apply for benefits, track housing and repair statuses, check payment timelines, and request constituent services. Amending the convoluted current system that discourages our most vulnerable neighbors from getting the resources they need will provide New Yorkers greater accessibility, ease and transparency.

New Yorkers are constantly gaslit by claims that our city has no money. The reality is that our current administration severely mismanages money. Through my comprehensive economic justice plan, I have devised multiple ways to channel funds back into the city without raising taxes on working-class families.

In 2023 alone our City Hall failed to collect over $2 billion in fines that occurred over the past five years, including $150 million in uncollected property taxes and emergency housing repair bills. Multi-millionaire building owners are currently avoiding their property taxes, putting more pressure on rent-regulated apartments and further gentrifying vulnerable neighborhoods. My administration will work with civic tech partners like Promise Pay to recover these overdue fees and property taxes. My plan would also end the nearly 40-year tax exemption that has benefited Madison Square Garden properties, utilizing that money instead for goods and services benefiting actual working-class families. 

Thousands of luxury buildings sit vacant while the city faces a housing crisis. By amending the city tax code to define qualifying pied-à-terre units and implementing a vacant apartment tax, my administration will implement progressive tax rates based on a property’s value and its time unoccupied. Vacant commercial units are also going to be taxed under this new policy, bringing further money into the city and encouraging business owners to use the space they have purchased. We will enforce this through owner disclosures and cross-checking utility usage, while directing unused funds to housing programs, public housing repairs and rent subsidies.

The top 1 percent of New Yorkers are not contributing their fair share to the public. Under my leadership, city tax brackets for billionaires will be reformed and tax exemption loopholes for the rich will be closed, generating more than $3 billion in revenue. I also project collecting an additional $2 billion from fines and fee collections spawned by repealing tax abatements for luxury co-ops and condominiums priced over $300,000.

I’m aware of how ambitious my plan sounds, but unlike the rest of my mayoral challengers, I have the proven leadership to make these changes happen. As a New York Assembly member of six years and chair of the Mitchell-Lama subcommittee, I addressed people being skipped on waiting lists and provided funding for renovations. Moreover, I led a bipartisan “Prompt Pay” bill that helped local businesses get paid in 15 days instead of 30; spearheaded the creation of the only statewide My Brother’s Keeper program in America; and co-led the Diversity In Medicine scholarships.

I’ve not only shown dedication to residents of all backgrounds, but I know how to deliver on my promises and make this city better. Every other candidate has a housing plan but lacks the dedicated leadership to make it work. 

New York cannot survive under another spineless mayor. Our city needs people who have proven their devotion to all of its residents and have a track record of delivering on innovative policies that work. Without ambitious leadership with comprehensive solutions, we are only going to drive more families away. My plan does not merely offer a solution, it promises one.

New Yorkers deserve better than we’re getting. We deserve change and a new generation of leadership, and I’m ready to be your mayor. 

Michael Blake is a former member of the New York State Assembly and a former Obama administration staffer. He is currently running in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.

The post Opinion: New York Has A Housing Problem, But It Can Be Solved appeared first on City Limits.

A gunman has been sentenced to 33½ years in prison for fatally shooting a St. Paul man following a birthday party dinner at an Edina restaurant.

The sentence handed down Friday to Kayvon Julian-Breaun Madison in the December 2023 killing of 21-year-old Darien Jamal Roberson was an upward departure from state sentencing guidelines.

Kayvon Julian-Breaun Madison (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

Madison, 23, of Bloomington, had entered a straight plea to second-degree murder, meaning there was no agreement between the defense and the prosecution on the terms of his sentence. Hennepin County District Judge Juan Hoyos noted in a departure report the harsher sentence was justified because the killing was “more onerous” than a typical one.

Madison received credit for 531 days already served in custody.

Madison was one of several people who called 911 to report the shooting in the parking lot of a strip mall along 70th Street, across the street from the Galleria shopping mall, around 9 p.m. Dec. 2, 2023. Madison reported he’d just shot someone and said the person “came at me,” according to the criminal complaint.

Witnesses told police that the two men knew the person whose birthday they were celebrating, and that they were acquainted but weren’t close friends.

“According to witnesses, they may not have had any contact since 2021 when they had a disagreement related to a friend of (Roberson’s) who died from an overdose,” the complaint says.

Police obtained video of the parking lot, which “does not support (Madison’s) claim in the 911 call that (Roberson) came after him,” the complaint continues.

A witness told police Madison made a comment to Roberson that if his “friend had made better life choices he would still be alive.” A verbal dispute ensued. Madison then pulled out a gun and shot Roberson five times.

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