By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — A murder trial is underway for a Utah mother of three who published a children’s book about grief after her husband’s death and was later accused of killing him.

Kouri Richins, 35, faces a slew of felony charges for allegedly killing her husband, Eric Richins, with fentanyl in March 2022 at their home just outside the ski town of Park City. The trial began Monday and is slated to run through March 26.

Prosecutors say she slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a Moscow mule cocktail that he drank.

She is also accused of trying to poison him a month earlier on Valentine’s Day with a fentanyl-laced sandwich that made him break out in hives and black out, according to court documents.

Prosecutors have argued that Richins killed her husband for financial gain while planning a future with another man she was seeing on the side. Richins has vehemently denied the allegations.

She faces nearly three dozen counts, including aggravated murder, attempted murder, forgery, mortgage fraud and insurance fraud. The murder charge alone carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

Her defense attorneys, Wendy Lewis, Kathy Nester and Alex Ramos, said they are confident the will allow Richins to return home to her children after hearing her side of the story.

“Kouri has waited nearly three years for this moment: the opportunity to have the facts of this case heard by a jury, free from the prosecution’s narrative that has dominated headlines since her arrest,” her legal team said in a statement, adding, “What the public has been told bears little resemblance to the truth.”

As the trial began Richins sat quietly with her defense team, wearing a black blazer and white blouse.

In the months before her arrest in May 2023, Richins self-published the children’s book “Are You with Me?” about a father with angel wings watching over his young son after passing away. The book, which she promoted on a local television station, could play a key role for prosecutors in framing Eric Richins’ death as a calculated killing with an elaborate cover-up attempt.

Years before her husband’s death, Richins opened numerous life insurance policies on Eric Richins without his knowledge, with benefits totaling nearly $2 million, prosecutors allege. Court documents also indicate she had a negative bank account balance, owed lenders more than $1.8 million and was being sued by a creditor.

Among the witnesses who could be called to testify throughout the trial are a housekeeper who claims to have sold fentanyl to Richins on three occasions and the man with whom Richins was allegedly having an affair.

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The state’s key witness, housekeeper Carmen Lauber, told a detective she had sold Richins up to 90 blue-green fentanyl pills that she acquired from a dealer. Lauber is not charged with any crimes in connection to the case, and detectives said at an earlier hearing that she had been granted immunity.

Defense attorneys are expected to argue that Lauber did not actually give Richins fentanyl and was motivated to lie for legal protection. None was ever found in her house, and the dealer has said he was in jail and detoxing from drug use when he told detectives in 2023 that he had sold fentanyl to Lauber. He later said in a sworn affidavit that he only sold her the opioid OxyContin.

Other witnesses could include relatives of the defendant and her late husband, and friends of Eric Richins who have recounted phone conversations from the day prosecutors say he was first poisoned by his wife of nine years.

One friend said in written testimony that they noticed fear in Eric Richins’ voice when he called on Valentine’s Day and said, “I think my wife tried to poison me.”

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said Monday that solid job gains in January could mean the central bank can skip a rate cut at its next meeting in March, a decision that would likely spur further attacks by President Donald Trump.

At the same time, Waller said last month’s pickup in hiring, when employers added a more-than-expected 130,000 jobs, could have been a one-time gain. He said he would need to see a similarly positive report next month to conclude the job market, which he noted was very weak in 2025, is improving.

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Waller’s hedging is a notable shift from January, when he was one of the two Fed governors to dissent against the central bank’s decision to hold its key rate steady after three rate cuts at the end of last year. The decision left the Fed’s short-term rate at about 3.6%.

When the Fed reduces its rate, over time it can lead to cheaper borrowing for mortgages, auto loans, and business loans, though those rates are also influenced by financial markets.

Waller also said that the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down many of Trump’s tariffs would likely have only a limited impact on the economy and inflation, and therefore wouldn’t affect his view on rates.

The ruling could have “a positive impact on spending and investment,” he said, but “how large the impact may be and how long it could last is unclear.”

Waller also noted that the White House is seeking to reimpose the tariffs using other laws, creating “considerable uncertainty over to what extent tariffs will continue.”

If February’s jobs report is similar to last month’s, “indicating that downside risks to the labor market have diminished, it may be appropriate” to keep the Fed’s short-term rate “at current levels and watch for continued progress on inflation and strength in the labor market,” Waller said in remarks to a conference held by the National Association for Business Economists.

“But if the good labor market news of January is revised away or evaporates in February,” he continued, “a cut should be made at the March meeting.”

“As things stand today, I rate these two possible outcomes as close to a coin flip,” Waller added.

The Fed governor also addressed a conundrum many economists have identified about the current economy: Growth is relatively solid, yet employers added few, if any, jobs last year. Waller said he thinks even the meager gains reported earlier this month for last year will be eventually revised to below zero.

“This would be the first time in my career, my life, that I saw an economy growing like this, and zero job growth,” Waller said. “I don’t even know quite how to think about this.” He added that hiring could pick up this year and largely resolve the contradiction.

Another explanation could be higher productivity, stemming from the pandemic, as companies learned to produce more with fewer workers.

Trump attacked the Fed on Friday after the government reported that the economy grew more slowly in the final three months of last year than in the summer and fall. Growth slowed to an annual rate of 1.4%, down from 4.4% in the fall.

“LOWER INTEREST RATES,” Trump posted. “’Two Late’ Powell is the WORST!!” he added, misspelling his usual nickname for Chair Jerome Powell, who he has referred to previously as “Too Late.”

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is an idiosyncratic statewide office—a result of the state constitution’s intentionally decentralized executive branch. It’s part budget analyst, part tax collector, part financial auditor, and, increasingly so, part administrator of a grab bag of conservative policies that Republicans have enacted in recent years—from an anti-ESG investing law to, most recently and consequentially, the state’s private school voucher program. 

The office has long been seen as a backwater and a waystation for ambitious politicians seeking higher office. But when wielded in the proper way—as an engine of good, clean, efficient government—as Bob Bullock did during his 16-year tenure in that office last century, it can be a powerful post. In the seemingly everlasting era of Republican one-party rule, however, it has devolved into a more overtly partisan executive subsidiary, one that’s highly deferential to the big boys of state government (governor, lite guv, and AG).

State Senator Sarah Eckhardt, an Austin Democrat and former Travis County judge, hopes to revive a more Bullockian comptrollership as she vies to become the latest Democratic nominee for the position, which is semi-vacant for the first time in 12 years. Glenn Hegar resigned from the office last year to take over the Texas A&M University system—and Governor Greg Abbott, in slippery legal fashion, replaced him with Republican state Senator Kelly Hancock as interim comptroller. Hancock is now running for election in a GOP primary field that also features Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and right-wing rabble-rouser Don Huffines. 

Eckhardt, whose senate seat isn’t up this cycle so she gets a free-ride bid, hails from a political family that features prominently in Texas progressive lore—her father, Bob Eckhardt, was a crusading liberal congressman from Houston (and before that, full disclosure, one of the founding supporters of the Texas Observer), and her mother Nadine was a longtime activist. 

The Observer spoke with Eckhardt about her family history, Bullock, and her vision for the “highest and best use” of the office she seeks.

Eckhardt (Courtesy/campaign)

TO: What lessons did you learn from your parents about politics while growing up?

They really did believe that politics was our ticket to creating prosperity for all. That without well-run governments establishing a level playing field, we would revert to a survival of the richest.

How has that squared with your lived experience in politics in Texas in this modern era, both in Travis County and now in the Texas Senate? 

I went to law school and went to public policy school so I could learn the actual skills necessary for building policy that will expand prosperity. Learning to apply those skills in Travis County was great because Travis County is such a fertile ground for innovation on expanding that prosperity. 

But the reason why I chose to run for state government … [was because] state government was stopping us from being innovative, was stopping local government from governing. And the state government seems to be, on whole, pretty comfortable with devolving into a survival of the richest. 

The comptroller’s office is kind of an odd statewide position. Quite a bit of power and responsibility have been added to the office in recent years while still flying under the radar. How do you see the power and politics of this position?

I would argue that it has not been given power, it’s been given assignments. 

The powers of the comptroller actually are not being used robustly. The true power in that office, and this is what it’s intended for, the power of that office is to say “This is how much revenue you have.”And here are the long-term investments of the State of Texas, and here’s who’s benefiting most, least, and not at all from those investments. And the comptroller has not done much of that in the last several years.

We’ve not heard analysis of what happens economically long-term if we fail to invest in universal public education. The comptroller’s office has not provided analysis of the economic cost to people and to the public of the largest uninsured population in the United States. It took Public Citizen going into the stacks at the comptroller’s office [and the Observer] to get the story that a billion dollars in no-bid contracts are being distributed out of the governor’s office. The comptroller never raised any question about it.

So I would argue that the comptroller’s office has not been using its full power for the benefit of the people of Texas, whether Republican or Democrat.

Governor Abbott went out of his way to bend the rules to install the current sitting comptroller, former state Senator Kelly Hancock, who was put into that position ahead of a competitive contest for the vacated post. What does that signal to you about Hancock’s commitment to any sort of independence? 

Well, it does indicate that Kelly cannot bite the hand that feeds him. He owes his position to the governor, and therefore he’s going to be working for the governor, not for the State of Texas. And I think that that is evident in what has happened since he assumed that role. 

Now that Kelly is in that position, I think that both he and the governor are concerned that he won’t make it out of the primary because he’s not MAGA enough. And that’s the reason why Kelly took the assignments from the governor’s office to do some questionably illegal things to appeal to a MAGA base. 

The Comptroller’s office does have a lot of power and authority to carry out oversight and transparency in government. What is your vision for using that office as a tool for those purposes? 

Bob Bullock went in as comptroller and modernized the hell out of the office so that we could use the computer age to track where we were being ineffective or inefficient and also find out where we were being unfair or even corrupt. His work in the comptroller’s office was serious public service. 

Next you get John Sharp who comes in on the shoulders of Bob Bullock. Sharp starts doing performance evaluations of state agencies’ productivity. And he was hugely successful at that. 

Then Carole Keeton came in and she continued that type of work and she found some pretty ugly stuff when she was looking at the foster care system. We had moved into a Republican era at that point and, frankly, the one-party rulers did not like being called on the carpet by one of their own for something that was really ugly and remains really ugly.

So the performance review expectation was taken out of the comptroller’s office,  but there’s no reason why, and there’s every reason why the Comptroller should step back into that robust role. 

Its highest and best use is actually a daily and cyclical review of: What are our goals as a state for the people of Texas—and are we achieving them?

What is your read on the electorate right now and your plan for generating attention to a downballot statewide race? 

I think that we are going to, as usual, get drawn into a lot of culture-war stuff. … [But] people are legitimately concerned that prosperity is not for them anymore. It’s for those who already are prosperous, and they’re going to keep it that way. 

They’re tired of a pay-to-play politics. They are tired of one-party rule. They’re tired of being told where to pee and how to pray. Where to pee and how to pray is not nearly as important to them as not being able to afford their health insurance. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The post Sarah Eckhardt Wants to Return the Texas Comptroller to the Bob Bullock Era  appeared first on The Texas Observer.

VAIL, Colo.— American skier Lindsey Vonn says she nearly lost her left leg following a frightening crash in the women’s downhill at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Vonn shared in an Instagram post on Monday that her injuries went far beyond the complex tibia fracture in the leg she initially revealed after clipping a gate and sailing off course just 13 seconds into her run on Feb. 8.

The 41-year-old Vonn said the trauma from the crash led to compartment syndrome in the leg. Compartment syndrome involves excessive pressure building up inside a muscle, either from bleeding or swelling. High pressure restricts blood flow and can lead to permanent injury if not treated quickly.

“When you have so much trauma to one area of your body so that there’s too much blood and it gets stuck and it basically crushes everything,” Vonn said.

Vonn credited Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon who works for Vonn and Team USA, for conducting a fasciotomy to salvage her leg.

“He filleted it open (and) let it breathe, and he saved me,” she said.

Vonn noted that Hackett was only in Cortina because she was competing after tearing the ACL in her left knee shortly before the Olympics.

“If I hadn’t had done that, Tom wouldn’t have been there (and he) wouldn’t have been able to save my leg,” she said.

Vonn, who said she has been discharged from the hospital, also broke her right ankle in the crash.

“It has been quite the journey and by far the most extreme and painful and challenging injury I’ve ever faced in my entire life times 100,” she said.

United States’ Lindsey Vonn crashes into a gate during an alpine ski women’s downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Vonn underwent multiple surgeries during a week-long stay at a hospital in Treviso, Italy, following the accident. She credited both Hackett and Italian doctors for their efforts to repair her leg, which she said was “in pieces” following the accident.

She says she struggled with pain and blood loss in the immediate aftermath and had to receive a transfusion to help raise her hemoglobin levels.

Vonn, who said she is “very much immobile,” is confined to a wheelchair at the moment, but has turned her attention to her rehab and is working her way toward being able to use crutches. She estimated it will take about a year for the bones in her left leg to heal. Only after that will doctors be able to go in and repair the torn ACL, which played no role in the crash.

“It’s going to be a long road,” she said. “I always fight and we keep going.”

Vonn stressed she had “no regrets” about her comeback following a six-year retirement or her decision to ski at the Olympics despite the knee injury.

“I wish it had ended differently, but I’d rather go down swinging than not try at all,” said Vonn, who was atop the World Cup series rankings in the downhill when she arrived in Cortina. “I think what I was able to achieve was more than anyone expected to begin with. … This year was incredible and so worth everything.”

She likened her injuries to “one blip on the radar.” She did not go into any sort of detail about her competitive career, though her father, Alan Kildow, told The Associated Press shortly after the accident he would like her to retire.

“Life is life and we have to take the punches that come,” Vonn said. “Going to do the best I can with this one. It really knocked me down. But I’m like Rocky. I’ll just keep getting back up.”

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