August 13, 2026 - CIA Doubted Iran Threat to Trump

Watching the vaccine debate this week made me think of a tragedy I've often referenced on radio but needed to confirm with some research. My memory was pretty accurate.

Northeast Philadelphia, 2009. Two-year-old Kent Schaible got pneumonia. His parents, Herbert and Catherine, third-generation members of the First Century Gospel Church, prayed. Their church teaches that it is a definite sin to trust in medical help and pills. Kent died.

A jury convicted them of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. The judge gave them probation - no prison - on conditions. Chief among them: if another child gets sick, call a doctor.

Four years after Kent. April 2013. Eight-month-old Brandon developed diarrhea and trouble breathing. Again, they prayed. He died of dehydration and bacterial pneumonia. He was carried to a funeral home instead of a hospital.

This time they pleaded no contest to third-degree murder. Judge Benjamin Lerner told them: you have killed two of your children. Not God. Not your church. Not religious devotion. You. The surviving children went into foster care.

I've been thinking about the Schaibles this week after the President on Monday signed an executive order cutting the vaccines the federal government universally recommends for children from seventeen to eleven, and directing that the MMR be split into three separate shots.

His defenders are not making a scientific argument - the AAP says there's no new evidence, and the order itself promises “maximal parental choice.” They're making a rights argument. This is the parents' call.

And usually it is. But in 1944 the Supreme Court said it about as well as it can be said: parents may be free to become martyrs themselves, but it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children.

The Schaibles are the extreme. Extremes are where we find the line.

One more thing worth noticing. For a generation, 'this is the parents' call' was the anti-vaccine argument. Parents claiming the right to refuse what the government recommended. Monday flipped it. Now the government is the one recommending less, and it's pro-vaccine parents claiming the parents' call - the right to all seventeen shots, whatever this White House advises. The skeptics, for the first time, seem content to let Washington decide. Nobody changed their mind about vaccines this week. They changed their mind about who decides. The principle followed the outcome.

So before you answer today's poll question, ask yourself whether you'd have answered it the same way before Monday.

##

U.S. intelligence officials had “low confidence” in an alleged Iranian assassination threat against President Trump, questioning Israeli intelligence that nevertheless prompted extraordinary security measures, including secretly flying Trump out of Turkey aboard an alternate military aircraft while Air Force One served as a decoy.

The Washington Post

A Powerball ticket sold in Illinois won an estimated $1.04 billion jackpot Wednesday night, the largest of 2026 and eighth-largest in the game’s history, with the winner choosing between a 29-year annuity or a $450.5 million lump-sum payment before taxes.

ABC News

Doctors are warning that President Trump’s executive order encouraging childhood vaccines to be separated and spaced out could fuel confusion and vaccine hesitancy, arguing the recommendations lack scientific support and could leave children vulnerable as measles cases rise and vaccination rates decline.

Associated Press

Lindsay Clancy’s triple-murder trial is drawing attention to postpartum psychosis, a rare but treatable condition experts say is frequently misunderstood or misdiagnosed, highlighting gaps in physician training, research and specialized care for mothers experiencing severe psychiatric symptoms after childbirth.

WBUR

ICE plans to spend up to $20 million equipping officers with electric-shock gloves designed to incapacitate people during arrests, prompting concerns from immigrant advocates and policing experts about training, accountability and potential abuse as the agency expands its workforce and deportation operations.

NPR

President Trump again claimed the U.S. has “total control” of the Strait of Hormuz, even as traffic fell to just eight ships Tuesday compared with 130 to 140 before the war, while stalled peace negotiations and continued Iranian threats disrupt the critical waterway.

Al Jazeera

A federal court hearing for Luigi Mangione has been scheduled for Friday, fueling speculation about a possible plea deal after earlier negotiations with prosecutors, while he faces federal and state charges in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

NBC New York

Bruce Zanca argues that customer service is quietly declining as businesses replace employees with technology and shift more work to consumers, contrasting understaffed, impersonal experiences with Market Basket’s people-focused approach and warning that efficiency may come at the cost of loyalty, competence and human interaction.

Bruce J. Zanca

Josh Kushner and Bob Iger are reportedly buying the Los Angeles Lakers from majority owner Mark Walter for about $12.5 billion, just a year after Walter acquired control for $10 billion, while longtime team governor Jeanie Buss will remain a minority owner.

KTLA 5 News

Washington Post columnist Henry Olsen argues Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should consider running for president in 2028, saying progressive primary victories have created a unique opening for her and warning that waiting could allow another candidate to capture the Democratic Party’s progressive lane.

The Washington Post