By JESSICA HILL

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Elon Musk’s “Vegas Loop,” a network of underground tunnels to ferry passengers in Teslas, was under fresh scrutiny this week from Nevada lawmakers who raised concern about alleged workplace safety and environmental violations.

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Lawmakers spent hours grilling state safety officials over alleged violations by the Boring Company, the Musk-owned venture with tunneling projects also planned in Nashville and Dubai. Company officials declined to attend but provided written answers defending the project.

“I think they are a company that acts like they are kind of above the law and want to play by their own set of rules,” Democratic Assemblymember Howard Watts, whose district includes the tunnel project, told The Associated Press.

First opened in 2021, the Vegas Loop offers free rides around the Las Vegas Convention Center and charges between $4 and $12 for rides to some hotels, casinos and the airport. The Teslas can be hailed by website or accessed at stations. The Boring Company is approved to build 68 miles of tunnels and 104 stations over the next few years in Vegas, a city that lacks fast and robust public transit.

Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley praised the project in January after the city issued a permit for a new tunnel.

“The city is excited to bring an innovative transportation option to downtown Las Vegas and create another way for visitors to experience all that the city has to offer,” she said.

Fines levied against the company

The Boring Company has been accused of breaking multiple safety and environmental rules. Between 2020 and 2026, 17 complaints were filed with the Nevada State Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Last year ProPublica reported the company was accused of nearly 800 environmental violations for its Las Vegas project.

Construction is underway near the Vegas Loop on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Of those 17 complaints, one resulted in an inspection with eight proposed citations, including claims that 15 to 20 employees were injured after getting burned with accelerants and that there were no showers available for employees who got sprayed with the accelerants. Several other complaints are still open. The Boring Company has paid nearly $600,000 in fines, most of which went to the local water reclamation district for discharging untreated wastewater. The company is fighting around $355,000 in fines with Nevada’s OSHA and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

The company did not return emails seeking comment from The Associated Press. But in a letter to lawmakers, the company emphasized its safety procedures, including daily inspections and workplace safety training.

Watts on Tuesday also highlighted a September 2025 incident in which a worker suffered a crushing injury inside a tunnel after being pinned between two 4,000-foot pipes. Firefighters used a crane to extract him from the tunnel opening, Watts said.

In a September statement to local news outlets, the company said it was investigating the incident and that the safety and well-being of its employees are top priority. It added that the employee was in stable condition and doing well.

Watts said lawmakers may bring forward legislation when they return to session next year to speed up the process for assessing violations and shorten the timeline for contesting them.

A sign directs motorists into the Vegas Loop on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

The scrutiny in Nevada comes as Musk’s company has started construction in Nashville on the Music City Loop despite opposition from some Nashville officials concerned about safety, transparency and a lack of local input. The initial 13-mile stretch of tunnels will connect the city’s airport and downtown.

Fines withdrawn

Last year, the state withdrew over $425,000 of fines stemming from a May 2025 incident in which two firefighters received chemical burns while on the site for a training exercise.

The reports from OSHA had mistakes and anomalies, meaning they likely wouldn’t be able to meet the high burden of proof required to justify the fines, Salli Ortiz, the agency’s legal counsel, told lawmakers. The state learned the two firefighters had opted to not wear a second layer of protective clothing, and The Boring Company conducted six safety meetings with the fire department in advance of the drill, according to inspection reports.

Democratic lawmakers criticized Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and his administration for going soft on the company.

“The idea that there is external pressure that is swaying my decision making, or our division’s decision making, or that there’s any pressure that comes from me as a result of pressure from on high is incorrect,” Kris Sanchez, director of the state Department of Business and Industry, told lawmakers Tuesday.

A Tesla is driven into the Vegas Loop under the city on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Easy transport for conventiongoers

The tunnel system is already a hit with many visitors, especially during conventions like the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January. On a recent weekday, a stop at the Las Vegas Convention Center had a steady stream of Teslas picking up and dropping off people.

San Diego resident Devin Newcomb, a frequent visitor, said the Vegas Loop helps him get around the city, and it will only help more when it is extended to places like the Venetian.

Teslas are lined up inside the Vegas Loop Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

“It’s awesome. I love it,” he said.

Florida resident Samantha Mingola has been using Vegas Loop while attending an expo at the convention center. She said it is easier to set up than other rideshares, and it has been convenient because she is staying at a hotel with a loop station.

Still, she said she worries the tunnels could cave in and is unsure about a company run by Musk.

“It’s a good idea but it scares me,” Mingola said on her way to the station.

“Much of the city reports donor registration rates in the 30s, significantly below statewide levels, with the widest gaps in communities where Black and Brown New Yorkers are overrepresented on the waiting list.”

(Darren McGee/ Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

This past year underscored the importance of continually strengthening the organ donation and transplant system. In New York, our state and community leaders advanced meaningful reforms to save and heal lives, maintain public trust in the system, and honor donors and their families. As a result, more than 3,200 New Yorkers received life-changing organ transplants this year, and more than 400,000 New Yorkers newly registered their consent to give the gift of life.  

Thanks to these concerted efforts spearheaded by Donate Life NYS, New York crossed an important milestone: for the first time, a majority of age-eligible New Yorkers were registered donors. That progress reflects critical work from the governor and legislature, the Department of Health, the Department of Motor Vehicles, and community partners across the state. But 50 percent registrations statewide—still far behind the national average—is not a finish line. It’s a starting point for what comes next. 

Our state’s need is urgent. More than 8,000 New Yorkers remain on the waiting list, and roughly 400 die each year due to a shortage of donors. We have more work to do to bridge this gap and ensure every New Yorker who needs a transplant can access one. 

Data clearly points to New York City as a priority. Much of the city reports donor registration rates in the 30s, significantly below statewide levels, with the widest gaps in communities where Black and Brown New Yorkers are overrepresented on the waiting list. The Bronx and Queens sit at 32 percent, and Kings County at 38 percent, rates so low that closing the gap would meaningfully translate into lives saved.

Donate Life NYS’ plan is grounded in trust and access. We are bringing the conversation about organ and tissue donation to New Yorkers where they live, work, and gather, while ensuring opportunities to register are woven into everyday life. In a region with profound transplant needs, saving lives depends on reaching people beyond traditional systems, through trusted voices and realistic touchpoints. By expanding how and where New Yorkers can learn about and say “yes” to donation, we aim to close gaps in access, honor donors, and deliver hope to families waiting for a second chance at life.

That work starts with community: engaging faith leaders, local hospitals, healthcare organizations, and trusted community leaders. In-person and online, we need to continue to spread accurate, life-saving information. 

Policy is also part of the solution. This year, New York State enacted the HEART Act, sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples‑Stokes and Senator April Baskin, which allows New Yorkers on Medicaid to register at multiple transplant centers simultaneously. By providing the opportunity to register at a second transplant center, the HEART Act cuts wait times in half and reduces mortality rates by 20 percent. While not every legislative initiative will have the resounding, immediate impact of the HEART Act, any legislative lever that will save a New Yorker’s life is worth considering and enacting. 

Practical access to registration is also a proven strategy. Over the past decade, Donate Life NYS’s “Doorways to Donation” initiative has made it easier to enroll as an organ and tissue donor while handling routine tasks, including vehicle transactions, hunting and fishing licenses, and, uniquely in New York, when registering to vote. We’re grateful to the front-line staff, such as our state’s County Clerks, who have kept the conversation going at the counter in communities across the state. In the North Country and Western New York, steady education plus easy access has set the pace. Counties such as Hamilton, Jefferson, Ontario, Steuben, Schuyler, Tioga, and Chemung now lead the state in registration rates, creating an inspiring standard to replicate statewide. 

In New York City, this work demands a concentrated and intentional focus. Alongside city leaders, agencies, and community institutions, Donate Life NYS will open doorways to enrollment where they make sense for New York City residents. This is deliberate, long-term work: bringing the choice to register into familiar settings repeatedly, building trust, increasing comfort, and ultimately saving lives.

New York State reached 50 percent enrollment through a shared commitment: patient-centered policy, strong legislative and government support, deep community and statewide partnerships, and New Yorkers’ willingness to enroll when given the opportunity. That same collective effort will drive progress in New York City. As New Yorkers continue to learn that each registered donor can save eight lives and heal 75 others, they continue to choose to give the generous gift of life. 

We invite city leadership, agencies, and community-based organizations to continue and deepen their partnership with Donate Life NYS, working together to meet New Yorkers where they are, strengthen understanding of organ donation, and expand access so more lives can be saved and healed.

Aisha Tator is the executive director of Donate Life NYS.

The post On Organ Donation, New York City Can Make the Difference appeared first on City Limits.

Colin (Harry Melling) has an “aptitude for devotion.” It’s a quality that he discovers about himself, develops and ultimately embraces over the course of “Pillion,” Harry Lighton’s “dom-com,” an amusing, illuminating and daring romance about a dominant/submissive relationship that proves revelatory for our young protagonist.

“Pillion” isn’t quite a love story, but rather a coming-of-age tale, leather-clad. Based on the novella “Box Hill” by Adam Mars-Jones, the film follows a relationship between the sheltered Colin and stoic biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who meet in a pub one Christmas Eve. Ray immediately susses out Colin for his potential qualities — his “aptitude,” if you will — and Colin keeps coming around, curious about the impossibly handsome Ray and the possibilities he presents.

The word “pillion” refers to the backseat of a motorcycle (and often those who might ride it), and Lighton invites the viewer to hop on the back of his hog for a kink-positive exploratory journey into the gay motorcycle gang subculture that Ray inhabits, all seen through Colin’s uniquely expressive eyes. Lighton doesn’t hold the audience’s hand or overexplain, he simply presents this world and allows us to learn the dynamics and rituals through observation, as Colin enthusiastically fumbles his way through Submissive 101 with the taciturn Ray.

But the anthropological aspect of “Pillion” is merely the backdrop for what is a period of personal discovery for Colin. He’s extremely close with his caring parents, particularly his mother Peggy (the great Lesley Sharp), who is dying of cancer. As his tight-knit family unit is fading away in front of his eyes, he clings to both the discipline and queer family that he finds with Ray; relinquishing all control in his relationship serves as a relief from his day-to-day routine writing parking tickets and sometimes singing in a barbershop quartet. Ray offers him sex, and danger, and access to an exciting new world, but in his rigid dominance, he also offers Colin freedom — from expectations, from decision-making, from quotidian drudgery.

We know Colin thrills to it, based on his reactions to the boundaries that Ray pushes. And Ray himself refuses to be pushed around. When Peggy bristles at the dynamic she witnesses between her son and his lover at a family dinner, Ray calmly informs her that just because she feels uncomfortable doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with their relationship. It’s an important moment in the film because Lighton is lightly domming the viewer in the same way: check any squeamish inhibitions at the door, because no kink-shaming is welcome here.

Lighton presents it all with unvarnished honesty, allowing the tension and humor to bloom in the clash between Skarsgård’s forthright Scandinavian brusqueness, and Melling’s awkward British charm. Lighton and cinematographer Nick Morris favor natural light, particularly in Ray’s sparsely decorated apartment — the visual focus is always on the relationship itself. The film gets aesthetically expressive in slow-motion sequences when Colin is riding pillion on Ray’s bike, capturing the sensual excitement of it all, the wild ride that Colin has chosen to take.

Lighton favors music for setting the tone and locating the story within the emotional tenor of mid-century yearning classics. The soundtrack is studded with unique tracks like a cover of ’60s love ballad “I Will Follow Him,” retro disco rock anthem “Bad Feeling” by Cobra Man, and a poignant performance of the standard “Smile” by Colin’s barbershop quartet.

But it’s the delicately wrought performances that allow us to walk hand-in-hand with these characters. Melling’s face and eyes reveal the sheer joy of surrender as Colin dives into Ray’s way of life; later, when he flips the script on his partner, Skarsgård’s inscrutable expression shields Ray’s emotions as he visibly resists any connection that might take a different form than the one they’ve built, chain link by chain link.

The edgy and explicit “Pillion” might be set within the parameters of a relationship that many would consider “alternative,” but the heart of it is the same as any love story that becomes a lesson in self-love. Not every relationship lasts, but we are changed by every one, and hopefully for the better.

‘Pillion’

3 stars (out of 4)

No MPA rating (contains graphic sex scenes, nudity and discussion of sex)

Running time: 1:47

How to watch: In limited theatrical release Feb. 6, expands Feb. 20

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Charges filed in the fatal shooting of a St. Paul man on Monday night allege both he and the gunman fired several rounds during a marijuana deal that went awry.

Eithan Armani Green, 29, of Minneapolis, was charged Friday by warrant in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person in connection with the killing of David Lee Turner III, 23, in the West Seventh neighborhood of St. Paul.

Green was dropped off by a man at Regions Hospital shortly after the shooting with gunshot wounds to his abdomen and leg, the criminal complaint said. He remained hospitalized Friday in serious but stable condition.

A case against another man is under review for possible charges, a spokesman for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said Friday.

According to the complaint, police found Turner shot and slumped over in the driver’s seat of a Dodge Durango in the 100 block of Oneida Street just after 10 p.m. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing, and was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy showed eight gunshot wounds, including to his face, neck and chest.

Officers processed the Durango and recovered eight spent 9mm casings, three spent .40-caliber casings and nearly three pounds of marijuana.

Video surveillance from a nearby home showed the Durango and a Ford Escape pulled up on Oneida Street, between Superior and Michigan streets, at separate times.

A man, later identified as Green, got out of the Escape and into the Durango’s front passenger seat, the complaint said. Shots rang out a short time later, with windows on both sides of the Durango shattering.

A man wearing a dark-colored jacket ran from the Escape’s back passenger seat to the Durango and began rummaging through it. Green got out, “hopped around” and ran back to Escape’s front passenger seat. A driver of the SUV then drove away with Green, leaving the other man behind.

‘I shot him’

Officers were sent to Regions Hospital shortly after the shooting on a report of a man who’d been dropped off with gunshot wounds to his abdomen and leg. He didn’t have a wallet or a cellphone, but police identified him as Green.

Investigators found a phone number for Green, and records showed the phone was in the area at the time of Turner’s killing, then near Regions and Minneapolis, the complaint said.

Investigators discovered that Green’s phone was “pinging” in the area of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fourth Precinct on the city’s North Side. They learned a man was arrested Tuesday in Minneapolis after driving Green’s car, where officers found a .380-caliber handgun and two cellphones. The man said one of the phones belonged to a friend.

In an interview, the man told investigators that he and Green had previously bought marijuana from Turner, and that both he and Green had used his phone to text Turner about buying marijuana from him, the complaint said.

The man said he drove the Escape, which belonged to Green’s girlfriend, to the meet-up spot the night of the shooting. He gave Green $350 to buy the drug, and Green got out and into the Durango. He then heard two different guns fire. Green ran back to the Escape and said, “I shot him,” the man told police, according to the complaint.

“(The man) asked what Green did to make (Turner) shoot him, but Green just asked (the man) to take him to the hospital,” the complaint read.

The man said he drove Green to Regions in the Escape and that Green left a Taurus 9mm handgun and his phone in the SUV before walking into the hospital. Officers later recovered the gun at an apartment belonging to the man’s girlfriend, the complaint said.

Green denied knowing Turner

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In an interview with investigators, Green said he was drunk and high and couldn’t recall how he was shot and where, the complaint said.

He denied shooting anyone and said he didn’t own a gun. He denied knowing Turner.

According to the complaint, when investigators told him the shooting was on video, he said, “I’m shot” and “Who shot me?”

Court records show Green has several felony convictions, all out of St. Louis County, including for first-degree robbery and fifth-degree drug possession in 2014; felony domestic assault in 2017; and aiding and abetting first-degree robbery in 2019.