By Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times

Meow Wolf likes to say that its upcoming Los Angeles exhibition is focused on the art of storytelling — why it matters, what it means and how stories transform.

“This exhibition is about the inevitability of change,” says creative director Elizabeth Jarrett, “and how the stories that we tell ourselves and others have the ability to affect the way we perceive change and the way we experience it.”

That also means that Meow Wolf, known for its large-scale, explorable installations in Las Vegas, Denver, Houston, the Dallas suburbs and its home base of Santa Fe, New Mexico, will double down on its experiments with other media. Throughout the Los Angeles show, guests will encounter mixes of live action and animation, shadow boxes, games and even a mini escape room, only here guests have to break into rather than out of a secret room.

The Times spent two days in Santa Fe late last year to preview Meow Wolf’s Los Angeles exhibition, set to take over part of the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A. near the end of this year. Here are five fast things to know about the experience.

The Meow Wolf tourist attraction, which has been described as an “immersive, multimedia experiences,” at its location in an old bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 31, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)

1. The exhibition pays homage to the multiplex

In Las Vegas, guests enter a trippy grocery store complete with parodies of household items before finding their way to the main exhibition space. In Santa Fe, it’s a house with otherworldly goings-on. And in Los Angeles, attendees will first find themselves in a movie theater.

Co-founder and executive vice president Sean Di Ianni says the team is aiming for “sticky floor, popcorn vibes.” “It’s a ’90s multiplex cinema, and we’re going to lean into that, to design the space to feel like that era of multiplex cinema,” Di Ianni says.

The Meow Wolf tourist attraction, which has been described as an “immersive, multimedia experiences,” at its location in an old bowling alley in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 31, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)

2. There will be a sentient candy — and an actual cafe

As guests traverse the cinema at the start of the show, they will encounter a concession stand where candy has sprung to life. In fact, one of the first art pieces in the space will be a multicolored installation in aquarium-like boxes of forgotten gummies and discarded pizza slices that appear to have a soul of their own.

There will be a cafe in the theater, and the lounge itself will be filled with art. Large-scale neon sculptures — a bunny, a martini glass — will grace the upper walls. And behind the bar will be a projection wall with original video designed to look decades old. “One of our inspirations was very early experimental video art, stuff people made with a Sandin Image Processor, stuff that was only possible because people in the ’60s and ’70s decided they were going to engineer circuits to make visual images,” says video designer Sue Slagle.

3. You can sit on a space bike

All of Meow Wolf’s exhibitions have a sci-fi bent, and Los Angeles will be no different, with many a nod to films of science fiction and fantasy. One part of the show will house a pair of space bikes. They will be rideable, situated in front of a giant screen to simulate movement. The engine will spin like the innards of a kaleidoscope and embedded in the bike will be a small mini-game.

There will be two space bikes, including one that’s ADA compliant. “The tires are pretty complicated,” says space bike designer Chris Hilson. “Why are they so complicated? We needed to put monitors in there. We’re going to have monitors in there showing some really insane spatial imagery. It gives them a really bold effect.”

4. There will be a spaceship — or is it a fish?

A major part of the exhibition space will house a spaceship. But it’s not just any spaceship. The so-called Dream Freighter is also a living being.

“The Dream Freighter is a living time-, space-traversing vessel that’s sort of shaped like a fish, but not a normal fish,” says Hilson.

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The centerpiece room of the ship will house a giant interactive screen, in which guests can twist knobs and panels to skip across different intergalactic worlds — or perhaps they’re just dreams. It isn’t quite clear. But the goal is something that feels both mechanical and biological.

“We’re going for a real kind of interesting organic appeal to this,” says Hilson. “I’ve been calling it bio nouveau.”

5. It’s L.A. so of course there’ll be a meditative space

Meow Wolf focuses on maximalist, sensory overloaded art, but at least one key space in Los Angeles will be dedicated to deep contemplation. And mushrooms.

“We’re going to make a sustainable room,” says Shakti Howeth, creative director. “It’s a decompression room where people can dip out of the main anchor to have a quiet meditative moment and recaliberate. It’s going to be all-natural treatments with a mycelia ceiling.”

The fungal feeling will extend to other parts of the exhibition as well. Meow Wolf is also working on a 30-foot tall explorable “mushroom tower,” which will have hidden interactions and secret hideaways. The latter will serve as one of the spiritual tentpoles of the space. It was important, says Howeth, for the Los Angeles exhibit to celebrate the organic.

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A new year is often challenging. Despite knowing we should throw out old, bad habits along with the New Year’s Eve party favors, change is hard.

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Many of us eat more than we should. Yet nothing changes for the better — especially in terms of health — when we keep eating those bad-for-us-but-tasty processed junk foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat and low in nutrients.

In terms of home cooking, modifying the way you eat to improve nutrition and health is easier one dish at a time, as opposed to suddenly deciding to quit cold turkey on the likes of meat, carbs or sugar.

As someone probably told you time and again: Slow and steady often wins the race.

The food catchphrase of late is “mindful eating” — that is, paying attention with all of your senses (not just taste) to experience, enjoy and improve our relationship with food. But that’s just a start.

To help you on your 2026 food journey, here are five more practical tips that cover the basics of healthy eating and can lead to healthier choices at the grocery store. They’re paired with easy, good-for-you recipes that can be added to the weekly rotation.

This year’s tips include eating a wide variety of colorful vegetables, to provide the body with a good source of vitamins and nutrients, improve digestion and encourage healthy aging; occasionally trading meat for plant-based proteins, to lower risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses; cutting down on sugar and saturated fats; eating more fiber, to feed beneficial bacteria in the gut and promote regular bowel movements; and, finally, staying hydrated to keep your body functioning properly.

All the accompanying recipes are easy to make with everyday ingredients. So no excuses!

Eat more fiber

Chickpea Masala

Making masala with chickpeas instead of chicken is an easy way to get more fiber in your diet. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

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Fiber-rich foods include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They’re often low in fat and fill you up, as many high-fiber foods are starchy.

You won’t miss the chicken in this creamy vegetarian dish featuring a spiced sauce made with tomato paste, chile and ginger. The main ingredient — chickpeas — is a nutritional powerhouse that provides protein along with both soluble and insoluble fibers, making a serving (or two) excellent for gut health.

I served this dish with both steamed rice and warm naan for scooping up the flavorful gravy. If you like less spice, substitute a jalapeño for the serrano chile.

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon (or more) kosher salt, divided
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 serrano chile, seeded, finely chopped
1 tablespoon grated or finely chopped peeled ginger
2 (14.5-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained, rinsed
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder or 3/4 teaspoon paprika plus 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup water
1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves or kasoori methi, optional
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves, torn or coarsely chopped
Cooked jasmine rice or naan, for serving

In a large, high-sided skillet over medium heat, melt butter.

Add onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes.

Add tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until darkened, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add chile and ginger and cook, stirring until fragrant and tomato paste is starting to stick to bottom of pan, about 1 minute more.

Add chickpeas and baking soda and stir to combine, then add garam masala, cumin and chili powder and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Stir in cream, 1 cup water, fenugreek (if using), and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is reduced, 10 to 15 minutes; season with more salt, if needed. Top with cilantro.

Divide rice among bowls or plates. Spoon chickpea mixture over rice and serve.

Serves 6.

— delish.com

Eat more vegetables

Crunchy Kale Salad

This easy winter salad includes five different fruits and vegetables. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

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According to U.S. guidelines, adults should aim for at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. That explains why our mothers and grandmothers have been urging — maybe even pleading — with us to eat more veggies for as long as anyone can remember, and always tucked a piece of fruit in our lunchboxes.

This kale salad makes it easy to make mom happy. Tossed in a zesty cilantro-lime dressing, it lives up to its name with an abundance of crunchy vegetables that taste great, don’t cost a fortune and are easy to find in any grocery store.

I added a handful of dried cherries, but Craisins would also add a touch of sweetness. If you don’t care for feta, substitute another crumbly cheese like cotija or use goat cheese (or no cheese) instead. For those with nut allergies, add pumpkin or sunflower seeds in lieu of peanuts.

For dressing

1 large bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Pinch of cumin, optional
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

For the salad

1 (10- to 12-ounce) bunch curly kale, chopped or torn into small pieces
1/4 small green cabbage, chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
1/2 seedless cucumber, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup honey roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dried cherries or Craisins, optional
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
Kosher salt

Make the dressing: Add cilantro, garlic, lime juice and honey to a food processor or blender. Blend until the cilantro has been chopped, then slowly stream in the olive oil until you’ve reached your desired consistency. Season to taste with cumin, if using, and salt and pepper.

Make the salad: Add kale to a large bowl along with a pinch of salt. Massage kale for 1-2 minutes until all the leaves are slightly darkened and have softened a bit.

Add chopped green cabbage, apple, cucumber, celery, scallions, peanuts, cherries or Craisins (if using), and crumbled feta. Season to taste with salt.

Pour over desired amount of dressing, and toss gently to combine.

Serves 4-6.

— adapted from delish.com

Eat more plant-based protein

Caramelized Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Fried tofu is topped with chopped peanuts and cilantro inside a lettuce leaf wrap. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

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Derived from non-animal sources, plant-based proteins include legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains like quinoa and oats, and soy products like tofu (made from pressed soy curds) and tempeh (made from fermented whole soybeans).

Tofu can get a bad rap, not because of a myth that it can cause men to grow breasts (my husband’s hair-brained, unscientific theory), but because of its off-putting texture — sometimes silky, other times spongy.

But if you crumble a block of the protein-rich bean curd into pea-sized pieces, fry it until it’s golden and then toss the crispy bits in a savory-sweet sauce, it’s a fine substitute for ground beef or chicken in a lettuce wrap. That’s especially the case if you add a sprinkle of chopped peanuts on top for a lovely, nutty crunch.

Tofu comes in two varieties: Silken and firm/extra firm. Be sure to use firm tofu, which is pressed to remove more water — and press it again in a clean dish towel weighed down with a skillet to keep it from falling apart in the pan when you cook it.

How good is this dish? Even my husband had to agree he’s been missing out with his boycott.

14-ounce block firm tofu, drained
1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce (optional)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-inch fresh ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Butterhead or romaine lettuce, leaves separated, for serving
Cilantro leaves, for serving
Chopped roasted peanuts, for serving
Lime wedges, for serving

Wrap tofu in a clean kitchen towel or paper towels and place on a cutting board. Place a heavy, flat object on top of tofu (like a skillet or baking sheet) and weigh it down with cans or another skillet. Let tofu drain for at least 15 minutes, and up to 45 minutes.

Crumble tofu into a medium bowl using your fingers. The biggest pieces should be about the size of a pea.

In another medium bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, red pepper flakes and fish sauce, if using. (It’s OK if the sugar doesn’t dissolve completely; it will once added to the pan.)

In a large cast-iron skillet or nonstick pan over medium-high heat, heat vegetable oil until shimmering. Add tofu, shake into an even layer, and let cook undisturbed until deeply golden on the bottom, about 5 minutes.

Stir the tofu and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the tofu is crispy and golden throughout, about 4 minutes more. Add ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add soy mixture to pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until no liquid remains, about 3 minutes more.

Add heaping spoonfuls of tofu mixture to the center of each lettuce leaf. Top with cilantro leaves, peanuts and a squeeze of lime before serving.

Serves 2-4

— delish.com

Cut down on saturated fat, salt and sugar

Healthy Apple Crisp

This healthful apple crisp has minimal sugar and fat. (GRETCHEN MCKAY/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

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Healthy adults should limit themselves to about 1 teaspoon of salt a day, according to the Mayo Clinic, and keep their intake of saturated fats to 13 grams per day.

Sugar is fine in small amounts in a balanced diet, but it’s really easy to go overboard when you spy a box of cookies on the counter, isn’t it?

Regularly consuming foods and drinks that are high in sugar increases the risk of obesity and tooth decay.

Try this super-easy, old-fashioned apple dessert the next time you get the urge for something sweet. Rolled oats provide fiber (and crunch), while the apple comes packed with Vitamin C, antioxidants and minimal fat.

5 cups sliced, peeled baking apples
6 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon apple pie spice or allspice, divided
1/4 teaspoon plus a pinch of salt, divided
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine apples, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Transfer to a 2-quart square baking dish.

Combine 1/2 cup oats and the remaining 4 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, 1/4 teaspoon apple pie spice and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl.

Cut in 4 tablespoons butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the filling.

Bake until the apples are tender and the topping is golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Serve warm.

Serves 4.

— eatingwell.com

Stay hydrated

Orange-Cucumber Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

Eating a salad comprised of fruits with high water content is an easy way to stay hydrated. (Gretchen McKay/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS)

PG tested

Are you one of those people who always has an insulated water bottle nearby? Good for you. But just as many of us walk around each day under-hydrated. (Most people need about four to six cups of plain water each day.)

One simple way to get the fluids you need if you’re not a sipper is to eat fruit with high water content. An added benefit: Water-rich fruits like strawberries, cucumbers and oranges also provide essential vitamins, electrolytes and fiber.

This colorful winter salad pairs five fruits with a bright honey-lime dressing. Close your eyes while eating it and you’ll swear it’s summer.

For salad

1 Granny Smith apple
1/2 seedless cucumber
1 naval orange
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries

For dressing

1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon fresh lime zest
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Roughly chop apple and place in a bowl. Slice the cucumbers into half-moons and toss with the apples.

Slice the whole orange into wedges, removing the peel and allowing any orange juice to coat the apple and cucumber pieces. Add berries and stir gently to combine.

Prepare dressing: In small bowl whisk together honey, lime zest and lime juice until well combined.

Plate fruit and drizzle with dressing. Enjoy!

Serves 4-6.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

© 2026 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Visit www.post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ©2026 PG Publishing Co. Visit at post-gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By DAMIAN J. TROISE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wavered in morning trading on Wall Street Friday as the first week of corporate earnings season closes out with markets trading near record levels.

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The S&P 500 rose 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 83 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:07 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%.

Technology stocks were doing the heavy lifting for the broader market. Most stocks within the S&P 500 were losing ground, but several big technology stocks made strong gains and countered losses elsewhere.

Nvidia rose 1.3% and Broadcom rose 1.8%. They are among several Big Tech companies with outsized valuations that often push the market higher or lower.

A handful of regional U.S. banks reported their earnings following mixed reports from their larger peers. Pittsburgh’s PNC jumped 3.8% after it beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter targets, but Regions Financial fell 2.9% after reporting results that missed forecasts.

Outside of the banking sector, transport company J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 1.5% after reporting mixed quarterly financial results.

Crude oil prices rose after dropping sharply on Thursday. The price of U.S. crude oil rose 1% to $59.76 and the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1% to $64.39.

Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.19% from 4.17% late Thursday.

European markets fell, and markets in Asia were mixed. Taiwan’s benchmark index rose 1.9% after its government signed a trade deal with the U.S. China, which claims the self-governed island as its own territory, protested the agreement.

By Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News

NEW ORLEANS — Elyse Stevens had a reputation for taking on complex medical cases. People who’d been battling addiction for decades. Chronic-pain patients on high doses of opioids. Sex workers and people living on the street.

“Many of my patients are messy, the ones that don’t know if they want to stop using drugs or not,” said Stevens, a primary care and addiction medicine doctor.

While other doctors avoided these patients, Stevens — who was familiar with the city from her time in medical school at Tulane University — sought them out. She regularly attended 6 a.m. breakfasts for homeless people, volunteered at a homeless shelter clinic on Saturdays, and, on Monday evenings, visited an abandoned Family Dollar store where advocates distributed supplies to people who use drugs.

Elyse Stevens, a primary care and addiction medicine doctor, and her husband, Aquil Bey, a paramedic, discuss patient cases at a community breakfast for homeless people in New Orleans. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News/KFF Health News/TNS)

One such evening about four years ago, Charmyra Harrell arrived there limping, her right leg swollen and covered in sores. Emergency room doctors had repeatedly dismissed her, so she eased the pain with street drugs, Harrell said.

Stevens cleaned her sores on Mondays for months until finally persuading Harrell to visit the clinic at University Medical Center New Orleans. There, Stevens discovered Harrell had diabetes and cancer.

She agreed to prescribe Harrell pain medication — an option many doctors would automatically dismiss for fear that a patient with a history of addiction would misuse it.

But Stevens was confident Harrell could hold up her end of the deal.

“She told me, ‘You cannot do drugs and do your pain meds,’” Harrell recounted on a Monday evening in October. So, “I’m no longer on cocaine.”

Stevens’ approach to patient care has won her awards and nominations in medicine, community service, and humanism. Instead of seeing patients in binaries — addicted or sober, with a positive or negative drug test — she measures progress on a spectrum. Are they showering daily, cooking with their families, using less fentanyl than the day before?

But not everyone agrees with this flexible approach that prioritizes working with patients on their goals, even if abstinence isn’t one of them. And it came to a head in the summer of 2024.

“The same things I was high-fived for thousands of times — suddenly that was bad,” Stevens said.

Flexible Care or Slippery Slope?

More than 80% of Americans who need substance use treatment don’t receive it, national data shows. Barriers abound: high costs, lack of transportation, clinic hours that are incompatible with jobs, fear of being mistreated.

Some doctors had been trying to ease the process for years. Covid-19 accelerated that trend. Telehealth appointments, fewer urine drug tests, and medication refills that last longer became the norm.

The result?

“Patients did OK and we actually reached more people,” said Brian Hurley, immediate past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The organization supports continuing flexible practices, such as helping patients avoid withdrawal symptoms by prescribing higher-than-traditional doses of addiction medication and focusing on recovery goals other than abstinence.

But some doctors prefer traditional approaches that range from zero tolerance for patients using illegal drugs to setting stiff consequences for those who don’t meet their doctors’ expectations. For example, a patient who tests positive for street drugs while getting outpatient care would be discharged and told to go to residential rehab. Proponents of this method fear loosening restrictions could be a slippery slope that ultimately harms patients. They say continuing to prescribe painkillers, for example, to people using illicit substances long-term could normalize drug use and hamper the goal of getting people off illegal drugs.

Progress should be more than keeping patients in care, said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford psychologist, who has treated and researched addiction for decades and supports involuntary treatment.

“If you give addicted people lots of drugs, they like it, and they may come back,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that that is promoting their health over time.”

Flexible practices also tend to align with harm reduction, a divisive approach that proponents say keeps people who use drugs safe and that critics — including the Trump administration — say enables illegal drug use.

The debate is not just philosophical. For Stevens and her patients, it came to bear on the streets of New Orleans.

‘Unconventional’ Prescribing

In the summer of 2024, supervisors started questioning Stevens’ approach.

In emails reviewed by KFF Health News, they expressed concerns about her prescribing too many pain pills, a mix of opioids and other controlled substances to the same patients, and high doses of buprenorphine, a medication considered the gold standard to treat opioid addiction.

Supervisors worried Stevens wasn’t doing enough urine drug tests and kept treating patients who used illicit drugs instead of referring them to higher levels of care.

“Her prescribing pattern appears unconventional compared to the local standard of care,” the hospital’s chief medical officer at the time wrote to Stevens’ supervisor, Benjamin Springgate. “Note that this is the only standard of care which would likely be considered should a legal concern arise.”

Springgate forwarded that email to Stevens and encouraged her to refer more patients to methadone clinics, intensive outpatient care, and inpatient rehab.

Stevens understood the general practice but couldn’t reconcile it with the reality her patients faced. How would someone living in a tent, fearful of losing their possessions, trek to a methadone clinic daily?

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Stevens sent her supervisors dozens of research studies and national treatment guidelines backing her flexible approach. She explained that if she stopped prescribing the medications of concern, patients might leave the health system, but they wouldn’t disappear.

“They just wouldn’t be getting care and perhaps they’d be dead,” she said in an interview with KFF Health News.

Both University Medical Center and LSU Health New Orleans, which employs physicians at the hospital, declined repeated requests for interviews. They did not respond to detailed questions about addiction treatment or Stevens’ practices.

Instead, they provided a joint statement from Richard DiCarlo, dean of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, and Jeffrey Elder, chief medical officer of University Medical Center New Orleans.

“We are not at liberty to comment publicly on internal personnel issues,” they wrote.

“We recognize that addiction is a serious public health problem, and that addiction treatment is a challenge for the healthcare industry,” they said. “We remain dedicated to expanding access to treatment, while upholding the highest standard of care and safety for all patients.”

Not Black-and-White

KFF Health News shared the complaints against Stevens and the responses she’d written for supervisors with two addiction medicine doctors outside of Louisiana, who had no affiliation with Stevens. Both found her practices to be within the bounds of normal addiction care, especially for complex patients.

Stephen Loyd, an addiction medicine doctor and the president of Tennessee’s medical licensing board, said doctors running pill mills typically have sparse patient notes that list a chief complaint of pain. But Stevens’ notes detailed patients’ life circumstances and the intricate decisions she was making with them.

“To me, that’s the big difference,” Loyd said.

Some people think the “only good answer is no opioids,” such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, for any patients, said Cara Poland, an addiction medicine doctor and associate professor at Michigan State University. But patients may need them — sometimes for things like cancer pain — or require months to lower their doses safely, she said. “It’s not as black-and-white as people outside our field want it to be.”

Humphreys, the Stanford psychologist, had a different take. He did not review Stevens’ case but said, as a general practice, there are risks to prescribing painkillers long-term, especially for patients using today’s lethal street drugs too.

Overprescribing fueled the opioid crisis, he said. “It’s not going to go away if we do that again.”

Luka Bair holds a film of buprenorphine, a daily medication considered the gold standard to treat opioid addiction. Bair had been a patient at University Medical Center New Orleans for years, receiving regular prescriptions for buprenorphine. But when Bair’ s doctor was pushed out of the health system, that care was jeopardized. (Aneri Pattani/KFF Health News/KFF Health News/TNS)

‘The Thing That Kills People’

After months of tension, Stevens’ supervisors told her on March 10 to stop coming to work. The hospital was conducting a review of her practices, they said in an email viewed by KFF Health News.

Overnight, hundreds of her patients were moved to other providers.

Luka Bair had been seeing Stevens for three years and was stable on daily buprenorphine.

After Stevens’ departure, Bair was left without medication for three days. The withdrawal symptoms were severe — headache, nausea, muscle cramps.

“I was just in physical hell,” said Bair, who works for the National Harm Reduction Coalition and uses they/them pronouns.

Although Bair eventually got a refill, Springgate, Stevens’ supervisor, didn’t want to continue the regimen long-term. Instead, Springgate referred Bair to more intensive and residential programs, citing Bair’s intermittent use of other drugs, including benzodiazepines and cocaine, as markers of high risk. Bair “requires a higher level of care than our clinic reasonably can offer,” Springgate wrote in patient portal notes reviewed by KFF Health News.

But Bair said daily attendance at those programs was incompatible with their full-time job. They left the clinic, with 30 days to find a new doctor or run out of medication again.

“This is the thing that kills people,” said Bair, who eventually found another doctor willing to prescribe.

Springgate did not respond to repeated calls and emails requesting comment.

University Medical Center and LSU Health New Orleans did not answer questions about discharging Stevens’ patients.

‘Reckless Behavior’

About a month after Stevens was told to stay home, Haley Beavers Khoury, a medical student who worked with her, had collected nearly 100 letters from other students, doctors, patients, and homelessness service providers calling for Stevens’ return.

One student wrote, “Make no mistake — some of her patients will die without her.” A nun from the Daughters of Charity, which ran the hospital’s previous incarnation, called Stevens a “lifeline” for vulnerable patients.

Beavers Khoury said she sent the letters to about 10 people in hospital and medical school leadership. Most did not respond.

In May, the hospital’s review committee determined Stevens’ practices fell “outside of the acceptable community standards” and constituted “reckless behavior,” according to a letter sent to Stevens.

The hospital did not answer KFF Health News’ questions about how it reached this conclusion or if it identified any patient harm.

Meanwhile, Stevens had secured a job at another New Orleans hospital. But because her resignation came amid the ongoing investigation, University Medical Center said it was required to inform the state’s medical licensing board.

The medical board began its own investigation — a development that eventually cost Stevens the other job offer.

In presenting her side to the medical board, Stevens repeated many arguments she’d made before. Yes, she was prescribing powerful medications. No, she wasn’t making clinical decisions based on urine drug tests. But national addiction organizations supported such practices and promoted tailoring care to patients’ circumstances, she said. Her response included a 10-page bibliography with 98 citations.

Liability

The board’s investigation into Stevens is ongoing. Its website shows no action taken against her license as of late December.

The board declined to comment on both Stevens’ case and its definition of appropriate addiction treatment.

In October, Stevens moved to the Virgin Islands to work in internal medicine at a local hospital. She said she’s grateful for the welcoming locals and the financial stability to support herself and her parents.

But it hurts to think of her former patients in New Orleans.

Before leaving, Stevens packed away handwritten letters from several of them — one was 15 pages long, written in alternating green and purple marker — in which they shared childhood traumas and small successes they had while in treatment with her.

Stevens doesn’t know what happened to those patients after she left.

She believes the scrutiny of her practices centers on liability more than patient safety.

But, she said, “liability is in abandoning people too.”

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