By ANDREW DALTON, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said Monday.

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Dr. Salvador Plasencia has agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a statement. They said the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and Plasencia is expected to enter the plea in the coming weeks.

Plasencia and a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer had been the primary targets of the prosecution, after three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for their cooperation.

Plasencia had been scheduled to start trial in August. An email to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.

The “Friends” star Perry was found dead by his assistant on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression that has become increasingly common.

Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him. About a month before the actor’s death, he found Plasencia, a doctor who who in turn allegedly asked the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to obtain the drug for him, according to court filings in the Chavez case.

“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez, according to court filings from prosecutors. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Santa Monica, California, where Plasencia practiced and San Diego, where Chavez practiced, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine, the filings said.

After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to,” prosecutors said.

While Plasencia is accused of supplying the bulk of Perry’s ketamine in his final weeks, another defendant, Jasmine Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major ketamine dealer, is alleged to have provided the dose that killed the actor. She is also scheduled to go to trial in August. She has pleaded not guilty — making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry’s death who has not entered a plea agreement.

Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit.

Young Joni, one of the Twin Cities’ most prominent restaurants, is set to close this fall.

The last day for the creative pizza-focused spot in Northeast Minneapolis will be Sept. 14. The closure comes following a lease-renewal dispute with the building’s landlord that culminated in a lawsuit filed against the restaurant this month over nearly $150,000 in allegedly unpaid rent, per Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journals.

Ann Kim of Young Joni Restaurant in Minneapolis. (Eliesa Johnson of The Restaurant Project)

Owner Ann Kim opened Young Joni in 2016, and subsequently won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest in 2019 and was featured on an episode of the Netflix series “Chef’s Table: Pizza” in 2022. Kim had previously opened Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza, both of which remain open.

Kim could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

Following the success of Young Joni, Kim opened Mexican-inspired Sooki & Mimi in Uptown in 2021. In late 2023, she replaced the restaurant with Korean-American concept Kim’s, which lasted less than a year before closing last summer.

A couple of months before that namesake restaurant ultimately shuttered, a majority of staff there voted to unionize. The chef’s company, Vestalia Restaurant Group, declined to recognize the union and Kim herself spoke out against the effort. In a statement at the time, Kim cited “ongoing financial losses” as the reason for the restaurant’s closure.

Unlike at Young Joni, Kim owned the building that housed Sooki & Mimi and later Kim’s.

The area around Young Joni in Northeast Minneapolis has become a food and drink destination in recent years: Within a block or so of Kim’s restaurant, Gustavo Romero opened Oro by Nixta in 2023, and in 2024, Yia Vang opened the much-lauded Vinai and the folks behind Travail Kitchen and Meteor partnered to open Stargazer Bar.

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A finales de diciembre de 2024, el servicio de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP por sus siglas en inglés) reportaba el ingreso de 531.690 personas bajo el programa CHNV.

(Michael Appleton/Oficina de Fotografía de la Alcaldía)

El 12 de junio, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS por sus siglas en inglés) empezó a emitir notificaciones (enviadas por correo electrónico) sobre la finalización del programa de “parole”, conocido oficialmente como permiso de permanencia temporal para Cubanos, Haitianos, Nicaragüenses y Venezolanos (o CHNV por sus siglas en inglés).

La sentencia de la Corte Suprema puso fin a un bloqueo anterior para terminar el programa, pero un tribunal de distrito de Massachusetts, que supervisaba el caso, ordenó al DHS que no suspendieran las solicitudes de tarjetas de Documentos de Autorización de Empleo (EAD por sus siglas en inglés). 

Semanas antes, el 30 de mayo, la Corte Suprema aceptó —en una decisión de 7 a 2— la solicitud del gobierno federal de suspender la medida cautelar de un tribunal de distrito. Esto permitió al Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) proceder con la terminación del programa de parole.

En enero de 2023, la administración de Joe Biden anunció el programa CHNV, que permitía el ingreso legal a EE.UU. a 30.000 personas por mes de Cuba, Haití, Nicaragua y Venezuela, siempre que tuvieran un patrocinador financiero en el país.

El parole era un permiso de entrada condicional y temporal del DHS, y permitía a los beneficiarios vivir y trabajar legalmente en Estados Unidos. A finales de diciembre de 2024, el servicio de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de Estados Unidos (CBP por sus siglas en inglés) reportaba el ingreso de 531.690 personas bajo el programa. 

Poco después de que se anunciara el programa, varios estados liderados por republicanos demandaron el programa.

Así que para hablar de la decisión de la corte, el fin del programa y sus implicaciones, invitamos a Laura Flores-Perilla, abogada del grupo Justice Action Center, que presentó una demanda contra los planes de la administración de acabar con el programa.

Más detalles en nuestra conversación a continuación.

Ciudad Sin Límites, el proyecto en español de City Limits, y El Diario de Nueva York se han unido para crear el pódcast “El Diario Sin Límites” para hablar sobre latinos y política. Para no perderse ningún episodio de nuestro pódcast “El Diario Sin Límites” síguenos en Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Pódcast y Stitcher. Todos los episodios están allí. ¡Suscríbete!

The post PODCAST: ¿Qué significa el fin del ‘parole’ o permiso de permanencia temporal para cubanos, haitianos, nicaragüenses y venezolanos? appeared first on City Limits.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The banner commemorating the first Stanley Cup title in Florida Panthers history had not been raised to the rafters yet when a newcomer realized just what it was like to join the champions on a title defense.

It was their final exhibition game in Quebec City in early October after a high-intensity training camp, and the focus was already there.

“Last preseason game, usually guys are taking it a little easier, getting ready for the season, play some soccer, have a coffee, get on the ice,” A.J. Greer recalled Monday. “There were 22 guys working out — full workouts before the game. It’s like we didn’t even have a game. Guys were doing power lifting, guys were doing lower-body, upper-body, bike sprints before the game and I’m thinking to myself, ‘They’re dialed in here.’ ”

And that was before the real hockey started. Now, more than 250 days later, the Panthers are one win away from repeating as champions, and the Stanley Cup will be in the building with their chance to extend its stay in Florida if they defeat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the final on home ice Tuesday night.

“It’s business as usual,” top-line winger Sam Reinhart said. “We’re obviously excited about the position we’re in. You put in all the work to be playing at this time of year, so we’re excited.”

They also know what to expect this time around. Florida lost its first opportunity to close out Edmonton after going up 3-0 in the final last year, then let the next two slip away before finally getting the job done in Game 7.

Everything was new then, from handling the butterflies and the logistics of families getting to town to thinking about the order of passing the big silver chalice around on the ice.

“There’s a whole bunch of stuff you have to go through the first time and then there’s all these superstitions — you don’t want to talk about it, you want to talk about it — well, there are things you have to talk about,” coach Paul Maurice said. “All of that stuff got dealt with last year when we went through it for the first time. Now, just get ready for the hockey game. It’s a different set of emotions for us.”

This final has unfolded differently, with the teams being tied after two games and then again through four. The Panthers jumped all over the Oilers to win Game 5 in Edmonton on Saturday night to set the stage to clinch.

That was utter domination, and, unlike last year, their first chance to hoist the Cup comes in front of home fans in Sunrise.

“We’re just excited to be back home, and we’re excited to hopefully keep that going after last game,” winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “We think we’ve played pretty good hockey over this whole series, in the whole playoffs, but especially the last few, so we know this is the type of game we have to play.”

Florida is looking to become just the third team to go back to back since the NHL’s salary cap era began in 2005, joining the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and ‘21 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in ’16 and ’17. Just 18 have done it in league history.

The Panthers are favored on BetMGM Sportsbook to take Game 6. After laying an egg and getting pushed to the brink of elimination, the Oilers are hoping to drag the series back to Edmonton for Game 7 on Friday night.

“For whatever reason, our group doesn’t like to make it easy on ourselves,” Oilers captain and co-playoff leading scorer Connor McDavid said. “We’ve put ourselves in another difficult spot, and it’s our job to work our way out of it.”

Only eight of the 44 teams to fall behind 3-2 in the final have gone on to win. Boston was the last to do it in 2011 against Vancouver, extending Canada’s Cup drought that goes back to 1993.

The Panthers would love to make this the 31st consecutive season it is won by a team in the U.S. They have played a lot of games over the past three years and trips to the final, but the chance to lift the trophy is enough to push off that fatigue for at least one more game and two at most.

“You play all year to try to win a Stanley Cup,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “It’s in our grasp and, yeah, I’m sure we’re all going to be ready to go.”

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