A former reality television contestant finds himself behind bars after an altercation with his elderly landlord. This clash over unpaid rent in Oklahoma tragically resulted in the landlord suffering from “severe, debilitating, and permanent” injuries.

Ethan Treadwell, known for his stint on “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown,” was sentenced on Wednesday to serve 25 years—though 15 of those years are suspended. This penalty comes as a consequence of his January 2024 assault on 74-year-old William “Junior” Hicks, as reported by People.

The root of their confrontation was an eviction notice issued by Hicks in December 2023. Having leased land in Kiowa County, Oklahoma to Treadwell for seven years, Hicks sought legal recourse after Treadwell fell behind on rent payments.

According to Hicks, Treadwell had agreed to vacate the property and ceased paying rent, yet continued to graze his cattle on the land in southwest Oklahoma.

On January 30, 2024, Hicks recounted that while driving home, he noticed Treadwell moving livestock off the land. Hoping to resolve the issue, Hicks confronted Treadwell, insisting he halt the relocation until the overdue rent was settled.

But Hicks said Treadwell, “without provocation,” attacked him and beat him into an “unconscious state.”

Treadwell’s ex-wife, who was at the scene, told authorities that Treadwell knocked Hicks to the ground and repeatedly kicked him, according to KBTX.

Hicks suffered traumatic brain injuries and a broken nose and was placed on a ventilator for a period of time.

In his lawsuit, he described his injuries as “severe, debilitating and permanent,” People reported.

Treadwell originally faced aggravated assault and battery charges but entered a blind guilty plea to a reduced maiming charge.

The civil case was dismissed in 2025 while the criminal proceedings against Treadwell were pending, court records show.

Treadwell apologized to Hicks in court Tuesday, saying he wished the events had never happened, according to KBTX.

Hicks’ daughter told the court about her father’s injuries and recovery, while former Tillman County Undersheriff Gary Sanders spoke on Treadwell’s behalf and the judge received several character statements supporting him.

Treadwell appeared on the first season of “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown,” the reality competition hosted by country star Trace Adkins.

Contestants competed in cowboy skills, including cattle herding, lassoing and horsemanship for a chance to win a herd of cattle worth $50,000.

Treadwell made it to the final three in the first season before being eliminated after a “grueling” three-mile herding challenge.

He later returned for the show’s fourth season as an all-star.

One judge described Treadwell as “a little abrasive at times.”

Treadwell has a restitution hearing scheduled for October and has 10 days to appeal his sentence.

In his continuous effort to champion the cause of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Donald Trump remains adamant that it fell victim to vandalism. This stance persists despite conclusions from the US Attorney’s Office indicating that the supposed damage was actually the result of a renovation mishap.

Trump initially celebrated the ambitious $16 million endeavor aimed at revitalizing the algae-laden Reflecting Pool. However, his triumph was short-lived as the site started deteriorating, a decline he attributed to acts of vandalism.

David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete, faced arrest in June under allegations of defacing the pool. Yet, in a twist, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro recently dropped the charges, citing a federal investigation’s findings that the deterioration was more likely linked to the renovation.

Despite this, Trump continues to assert vandalism as the root cause. He shared images on Truth Social, taken by photographer Andrew Leyden, which purportedly depict graffiti and scarring along the pool’s side.

Trump emphatically stated, ‘The material was cut precisely where the video evidence showed—a stretch extending 300 feet or more. Observers were seen kneeling with their hands in the water exactly at the site where the “slashes” appeared,’ reflecting his unwavering stance.

‘Additionally, there were witnesses to the VANDALISM, and the flexible areas of the material were cut with a knife. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision.’

Pirro has been a longtime ally of Trump’s and has been in lockstep with the president since he appointed her as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. 

However, the Reflecting Pool case has divided the two, and Trump has publicly said he believes Pirro ‘choked’ and ‘folded like an umbrella’ by dismissing the charges against Hearn. 

When asked by reporters on Tuesday night if Pirro’s job was safe, he replied: ‘I haven’t made a determination. I told her I was not happy.’

‘I just think she was totally wrong. They did a beautiful job, there were a couple of little things but that was not a big deal and everybody saw the vandalism, all you have to do is look at the tape,’ he said.

‘Plus, we have a witness or two witnesses that saw the vandalism, so certainly there was vandalism. In my opinion, it was major vandalism.’

A day earlier, Trump echoed a similar sentiment, telling reporters in the Oval Office, ‘I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro.’ 

‘Frankly, I think she choked,’ Trump said, adding: ‘I don’t know what the hell happened.’

Trump also slammed Hearn and his attorney, Norm Eisen, in his recent Truth Social post, saying that the two have liberal affiliations and a political vendetta against him. 

The president claimed that Eisen was a ‘Trump deranged sleazebag’ and a ‘political hack lawyer,’ adding that he believed the attorney used charity for partisan goals. 

‘I have been beating Eisen, a complete LUNATIC, in Court for 10 years, or more. He just keeps coming, but I always WIN!’ Trump concluded.

Eisen previously served in former President Barack Obama’s administration and was an ambassador to the Czech Republic. He has been critical of Trump and is a cofounder of Democracy Defenders Action.

Eisen and Hearn have maintained that the charges against the former Olympian were politically motivated by the Trump administration.

‘A case gets brought because someone powerful wanted it brought, & it falls apart the moment a court looks at it. Davey Hearn walked away, but the machinery that came for him is still running,’ Eisen wrote on X. 

Hearn told CNN that the case against him was ‘surreal and absurd,’ warning others that he believes anyone can be targeted by the federal government. 

The former Olympian pleaded not guilty last month to one felony count of property destruction and had a trial scheduled to start September 28  before the case was dismissed. He was facing a maximum prison sentence of 10 years if convicted. 

A federal investigation later revealed that evidence uncovered ‘undermines the evidentiary basis for the indictment,’ the dismissal of Hearn’s indictment read. 

The filing revealed that new documents indicated that the damage to the pool ‘was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented’ by the Interior Department.

‘Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,’ the filing stated.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Eisen and Pirro’s office for comment. 

Two men have been taken into custody after allegedly duping an 85-year-old man from Washington, D.C., into surrendering over $200,000 in gold bars. Authorities revealed this during a Friday announcement.

Identified as Chu Lin, 50, from Fresh Meadows, New York, and Xiean Cheng, 42, from Cornelius, North Carolina, the suspects were apprehended when they reportedly arrived at the elderly man’s residence to retrieve the gold, said the Metropolitan Police Department.

The pair are facing charges of second-degree financial fraud.

The fraudulent activity commenced on July 8 when the scammers first reached out to the victim through email, followed by phone calls, all while masquerading as officials from a federal agency, the police detailed.

The scammers allegedly told the victim that funds in his bank account were “in jeopardy of being lost” unless he secured the money by purchasing gold bars and turning them over.

Believing the scheme was legitimate, the victim attempted to purchase more than $200,000 worth of gold bars before the gold dealer recognized the apparent scam and alerted him, police said.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI ADDS ALLEGED COVID FRAUDSTER ACCUSED OF TAKING $5M FROM KIDS’ MEAL PROGRAM TO MOST WANTED LIST

“Thinking that the scam was legitimate, the victim attempted to purchase over $200,000 worth of gold bars and was alerted by the gold dealer that he was being scammed,” police said.

The gold dealer then alerted MPD’s Financial and Cyber Crimes Unit and the FBI, according to authorities.

When the alleged scammers later arrived at the victim’s home to retrieve the gold bars, officers with MPD’s Violent Crime Suppression Division arrested Lin and Cheng, police said.

In a candid revelation, a food critic from Tennessee disclosed that she recently endured a grueling battle with cyclosporiasis. This intestinal illness plagued her for nearly a month, tying her to the bathroom out of sheer necessity.

Christina Hart, 29, well-known as the host of “The Locally Owned Series” on TikTok, shared her troubling experience with her sizable audience of almost 160,000. Initially, Hart thought she was dealing with a typical case of food poisoning or perhaps a stomach virus, only to discover that she was indeed infected by the parasite notorious for causing “explosive diarrhea.”

“If I had to describe the experience in one word, it would be ‘miserable’,” Hart confessed in an interview with USA Today.

Enduring a week filled with unsettling stomach issues, Hart finally sought medical attention to identify the root cause.

“I went for tests,” she explained. “I had seen reports about cyclosporiasis, and recognized my symptoms. It made me insist on being tested for it. Sure enough, the results came back positive,” she recounted.

“I was sick for three weeks with it. And then around the three-and-a-half-week mark, I started feeling better.”

Despite seeing the headlines about the “diarrhea parasite” exploding across the US, sickening over 22,000 people, Hart was unaware of how severe the illness could be.

“The timestamps in between having to go (to the bathroom) was just a little extreme for me,” she said.

“That kind of stopped me from just living my everyday life because I was scared to go out in public.”

Hart explained that during her bout of the parasitic illness, she was “scared to go out in public,” because “you lose complete control” over your bodily functions.

“It’s not a fun experience…you will need to be near a restroom if you have it,” she quipped.

After battling with cyclosporiasis for almost a month, Hart now feels “fantastic” and “completely normal,” but stressed that the food-borne illness that is believed to have stemmed from tainted iceberg lettuce is “very uncomfortable.”

She explained that despite not eating much throughout the ordeal, she dealt with severe bloating and lost 17 pounds.

The TikTok food critic initially thought her “explosive diarrhea” diagnosis would impact her social-media career as she had to put her social media show on pause, which was “kind of depressing.”

However, the cyclosporiasis battle ended up launching her toward more “success,” she said.

The “whole parasite thing flipped everything upside down and then launched it into even more success,” the influencer said, adding that a lot of her viewers initially reached out wondering where she went when she stopped posting.

“It’s not the most pleasant thing to be like, ‘Well, I’m stuck in the bathroom,” she told the outlet.

But “a lot of doors kind of opened unexpectedly through this miserable experience, so I’m grateful for it,” Hart added.

“I hated the whole experience, but now I’m finding the blessing in (it).”

The Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed more than 10,000 lab-tested cases of cyclosporiasis across the US, which has claimed the lives of two Michigan residents.

The total number of cases throughout the US, however, is much higher — with many states, including the hardest-hit Wolverine State, using different testing protocols that have indicated much higher figures of the foodborne illness.

Leftist Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed finds himself under fire after comments resurfaced hinting at his disdain for Mackinac Island, a treasured vacation destination in Michigan.

Following his victory over moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens in Tuesday’s primary, El-Sayed has become a rising star in liberal circles, amassing over $2.3 million in just 48 hours post-win.

Yet, the candidate, who enjoys backing from Bernie Sanders, is engulfed in controversy over a 2018 video that recently went viral, where he expresses dislike for the picturesque island, nestled nearly 300 miles north of Detroit, close to the Canadian frontier.

The video, dating back to his gubernatorial campaign, features El-Sayed lamenting the prospect of spending time on Mackinac Island, where the state governor traditionally gets a seasonal residence.

‘It’s funny,’ he remarked, ‘because, like, if we win, this will be, like, the summer home. I’m just standing here thinking, every time I’ve ever come here, I’ve hated it. Why am I here?’

El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, has pounced on the resurfaced gaffe, posting multiple photos of himself and his wife enjoying time on the island. 

‘There’s no place like Mackinac,’ wrote Rogers, captioning a photo of himself and his wife enjoying ice cream on the island. 

El-Sayed, who Donald Trump has already referred to as a ‘communist loser’ – has clumsily doubled down on the statement, having responded to a social media account that referred to Mackinac as ‘the most American place in Michigan.’

‘Not sure about “End Wokeness,” but I don’t think the most “American place in MI” can be a place that…bans cars,’ he said in an apparent reference to Michigan’s history as an auto production powerhouse. 

Cars have been banned from the island since the 1890s, with the only option for travel by foot, bicycle or horse-drawn carriage.  

El-Sayed lost Mackinac County in the primary to Stevens by four points, though only around 1,400 people voted. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the El-Sayed campaign for comment.

Conservative strategists have long wanted El-Sayed as the opponent for Rogers, who ran unopposed after an early Trump endorsement cleared the GOP field.

El-Sayed is wasting no time, challenging Rogers to five debates.

‘We took on a machine,’ he told supporters in Detroit. ‘The power of our many is greater than the power of their money.’

Stevens telephoned him on Wednesday morning to concede and pledged her support.

Vice President JD Vance also jabbed at El-Sayed while giving remarks at the White House on Wednesday, saying that you never know what a future administration could look like, adding: ‘God forbid you’re gonna have President El-Sayed in three years.’

Michigan’s Senate seat, open because two-term Democrat Gary Peters is retiring, could decide control of the Senate. Republicans have not won a Michigan Senate race since 1994, though Rogers came within a whisker of beating Elissa Slotkin in 2024.

Jessica Anderson, president of the Sentinel Action Fund, which is backing Rogers, said the result ‘should make the choice easy in November,’ pitting ‘a far-Left socialist’ against ‘an America First leader.’

‘This election is no longer just Democrat versus Republican. It is socialism versus solutions,’ she added. Sentinel and its sister group Right Vote have committed a combined $15million to Michigan.

What polling forecasted to be a double-digit thumping turned out to be a squeaker of a result that left nail-biting Democrats anxious and angry. The New York Times estimated El-Sayed would ultimately win by 1.5 percentage points, based on more than 90 percent of the vote that’s been counted. 

Even before the primary night call, Republicans signaled they were savoring a fight with El-Sayed, a 41-year-old doctor, born and raised in Michigan. 

Rogers was caught on tape saying he would be ‘in good shape’ in a general election against El-Sayed. 

And even Democrats impressed with El-Sayed’s raw talent are raising concerns he can pull together a broad enough coalition to win in November.

‘He enters the general election trailing his Republican opponent in the gold standard MI poll, in a state Biden won in 2020 while other Democrats are posting leads over Republicans in states Trump won by double digits,’ wrote Adam Jentleson, a Democratic strategist, forecasting what soon awaits El-Sayed. 

‘I believe Abdul can win because he is so talented. But it is also not irrational to worry,’ he added.

El-Sayed’s lead had shriveled through the night as votes crawled in from Wayne County, home to Detroit and the state’s biggest prize.

Rogers is not a novelty opponent. He came within 19,000 votes of Elissa Slotkin in 2024, losing 48.6 to 48.3 – just three-tenths of a point – in the same cycle Trump carried Michigan.

Ashley Garibay

Dale Schultz

Christopher Claunch

What we know about the shooting

According to emerging insights from U.S. intelligence, Russian President Vladimir Putin may contemplate an offensive against a NATO ally in the foreseeable future. This potential move is seen as an attempt to dismantle the alliance’s structure formed after World War II and to challenge the core of its collective defense principle, Article 5.

In previous analyses, U.S. intelligence believed Putin would refrain from targeting a NATO member while engaged in the Ukraine conflict. However, with Ukraine gaining ground, indications are emerging from the U.S. and Europe that the Russian leader is looking to test NATO’s resolve. This shift in strategy was highlighted in a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Recent incidents adding to these concerns include a drone striking an apartment building in Romania and cruise missiles landing in Polish territory, both of which are NATO countries.

NATO’s Article 5 is foundational, declaring that an attack against one ally is considered an assault on all member nations.

The assessment said it would likely be a limited attack that could range anywhere from a cyberattack to a small-scale land incursion and would likely be focused on the Baltics or Poland.

The attack could happen any time between this fall and 2029, the assessment said.

“The question mark is how the United States would respond in that case,” Heather Conley, senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, told the Journal. “It has always been a goal [of Russia’s] to challenge the credibility of NATO and to separate the United States from its allies.”

The assessment also comes amid claims the United States’ munitions stockpile has been depleted by arms sent to support Ukraine and due to the war in Iran.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, however, called those claims false.

“We have everything required to strike at the time and place of the president’s choosing,” Parnell told the Journal. “Across multiple combatant commands, we have already executed successful operations while maintaining a deep, ready arsenal to defend our people and our interests. Any adversary who confuses media noise with American weakness will discover the truth the hard way.”

A land incursion was deemed the least likely because it would trigger Article 5, but it’s unclear what the response would be to something like a cyberattack.

“This has always been NATO’s challenge to respond to a sub-Article 5 attack, and it’s been very true that to this point, NATO allies have preferred not to escalate,” Conley told the Journal.

News Media has reached out to NATO for comment.

Col. Martin O’Donnell, a NATO spokesman, told the Journal, “We are always thinking through and preparing for any number of scenarios. NATO is watching, and we are ready to deter and defend as necessary, which we continue to demonstrate.”