They going crazy over here on Reno deal. The announcement. ***, you gonna go down. Hey. Don’t drive out of here. Try to 100. Buddy, you want something to get this tree. Damn. This guy Jackie You know what I’m ain’t playing with him. That’s good. That’s good. Ethan and Yeah.
WATCH: Stolen car victim confronts thief in middle of street, police say
A chaotic scene unfolded at a Wisconsin intersection Tuesday as police say a car theft victim confronted the alleged thief in the middle of the street.According to Milwaukee police, the car theft victim found their “freshly stolen” car and confronted the suspect, leading to a violent altercation. During the fight, the car collided with a bus. Police said the suspect ran off, and no injuries were reported. Police have not made any arrests.Video above, obtained by sister station WISN, showed the chaos as it unfolded. There are more than two people shown in the video. It’s not clear how the other people in the video are involved.
MILWAUKEE —
A chaotic scene unfolded at a Wisconsin intersection Tuesday as police say a car theft victim confronted the alleged thief in the middle of the street.
According to Milwaukee police, the car theft victim found their “freshly stolen” car and confronted the suspect, leading to a violent altercation. During the fight, the car collided with a bus. Police said the suspect ran off, and no injuries were reported.
Police have not made any arrests.
Video above, obtained by sister station WISN, showed the chaos as it unfolded. There are more than two people shown in the video. It’s not clear how the other people in the video are involved.
Joey Feek, one-half of husband and wife duo Joey and Rory, died on March 4, 2016. She was just 40 years old.
She was survived by her husband and duo partner, Rory Feek, her then 2-year-old daughter Indiana, two step-daughters and a large and loving cohort of extended family and friends. To those who were closest to the singer, and to Joey and Rory’s passionate fan base, her absence still looms large today.
To mark the 10th anniversary of her death, some of those family members, friends and musical collaborators shared their favorite memories of Joey with Taste of Country. Keep reading for a look back at her remarkable life in music, from the perspective of people who knew her best.
Who Was Joey Feek?
Joey Feek, née Joey Marie Martin, was born on Sept. 9, 1975, in Indiana. She had three older sisters — Jody, Julie and Jessie — and a younger brother named Justin, who died in a car accident when they were teens.
Her sister Julie remembers Joey as a kid with a passion for horses and country music, who grew up dreaming of pursuing music in Nashville. Julie says the family listened to country music “all the time,” and that their mother sang and their dad played guitar.
Joey moved to Nashville in 2002. She didn’t find much success as a solo artist at first, signing a major label deal but never releasing an album as part of that contract. In the meantime, she worked for an equestrian veterinarian. There, she met songwriter Sandy Lawrence, who would later go on to write the Joey + Rory song “When I’m Gone.”
“She was so smart, funny and hardworking, with a down-to-earth beauty inside and out,” Lawrence tells Taste of Country. “She had a black Dodge truck, a knife in her pocket, and always her dog Rufus by her side.”
Joey met her future husband, Rory Feek, at a songwriters night.
Rick Diamond, Getty Images
Rick Diamond, Getty Images
The couple had their first date in June 2002 and married four months later, and she put her music career on the back burner to help him raise his daughters, Heidi and Hopie. But she returned to the spotlight as part of a duo with Rory in 2008, when they competed and eventually placed third on the televised singing competition Can You Duet.
How Did Joey + Rory End Up On Can You Duet?
John Bohlinger, who was the musical director of Nashville Star in the mid-2000s, helped place the couple on Can You Duet after Rory asked him to help Joey get an audition on Nashville Star.
“We met out at [Marcy Jo’s, a restaurant Joey co-owned with Rory’s sister Marcy Gary], and I suggested that Joey going on Nashville Star solo would be a tough fight,” Bohlinger tells Taste of Country. “She’d be lumped in with all these other girls, and just the nature of reality TV, people would not get to see the real her.”
But he did think that the Feek’s personalities and dynamic together had potential on the then-new duo-based show.
“I set up a private audition, and I told Joey to come with a basket of biscuits for the producers, which she did. And the two of them charmed everybody in the room, and then the rest of America,” he continues.
Joey’s family traveled to see her on the show all the way from Indiana. Julie Martin recalls packing her three small children, plus her sister Jessie’s two kids, into a car to come watch her performances.
On the heels of the show, Joey and Rory released their debut album The Life of a Song, which included the Top 40 hit “Cheater, Cheater.” They put out multiple albums over the following years, including both country and faith-based projects. Their final album, Hymns That Are Important to Us, arrived in 2016 and placed at No. 1 on the Billboard US Country Albums chart.
What Were Joey Feek’s Favorite Joey and Rory Songs to Sing?
Zamboldi says it’s tough to pick Joey’s favorite out of Joey and Rory’s large catalog of songs, but that she loved to sing hymns, and the song “That’s Important To Me” held a special place in Joey’s heart. Its lyrics tell the story of her life.
Another special song is “When I’m Gone,” which Sandy Lawrence wrote as she grieved the death of her mother. Rory learned about the song first, and eventually, Joey and Rory decided to cut it together.
“I remember Joey expressing that while she loved the song, she didn’t think she had the vocal range. Rory and I were both quick to tell her she did,” Lawrence recounts. They wound up filming the music video from the perspective of Rory as a grieving widower, and Joey as his late wife. At the time, she hadn’t yet been diagnosed with cancer.
“God works in mysterious ways, as they say,” Lawrence adds.
Food + Eating Well Was Important to Joey Feek
When Taste of Country asked friends and family members to share personal memories of Joey Feek, many of them returned anecdotes that had to do with food.
“That was a big thing to her, was to feed her family well,” Zamboldi says.
McCauley remembers how Feek showed her how to shake pears from the trees, then can them or cook them into sauce — all while holding her baby daughter, Indiana.
Bill Anderson recalled the day they wrote their duet “Whisper” at the Feek home. He and Rory went upstairs to start writing, while Joey said she was heading out to the garden to pick tomatoes for soup.
“I thought she was gonna can it or put it away for a later time,” Anderson recounts. “About one o’clock she came up in the writing room and said, ‘Lunch is ready.’ Lo and behold, she had made soup with those tomatoes from that morning…I never had soup that fresh in my life.”
After lunch, he says, Joey came upstairs to see what they had been working on. She started adding her own ideas, and pretty soon, they’d expanded their song with a part for her to sing, too.
Joey Feek Shared Her Authentic Self With the World
Though they never saw major country radio chart success, Joey + Rory amassed a devoted fan base thanks in part to their open, welcoming style of interacting with fans at shows.
“They held those concerts out there at the farm and opened up their whole world to the fans,” remembers Bill Anderson, a longtime friend of the Feeks who collaborated with them on a song called “Whisper.” “Not everybody’s able to do that, and they did a wonderful job of it.”
They also shared large parts of their life with the world via Rory Feek’s blog This Life I Live, which he began in 2014 as the couple prepared to welcome a baby and decided to take a break from the spotlight and focus on their family.
The family’s commitment to documenting their life meant that fans felt especially close to the Feeks. Julie Zamboldi, who was one of Joey’s best friends, says that it was her authenticity that captured so many people’s hearts. “I really think that people had a good essence of who she was,” she explains.
“She didn’t watch TV. She just made the most of her day,” Zamboldi continues. “She quilted. She sang. She canned. She did stuff in the kitchen. She touched a lot of people…I think because she did so many things, she was able to touch more lives.”
Julie Zamboldi and Joey Feek/Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Julie Zamboldi and Joey Feek/Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Zamboldi started out as a fan of Joey and Rory, before she and Joey became friends. The first time they met, they had an instant bond, and Zamboldi says they both cried during that conversation.
She says that Joey lived life with intention, and she used that word a lot when talking about how she wanted to structure her days. Another musical friend, singer-songwriter Mandy McCauley, says that her authenticity made Feek a rare breed in the music business.
“She was incredibly authentic and real. In the midst of an industry with a bunch of fake people…she was genuinely who she was and she never shied away from that,” McCauley remembers.
Motherhood Meant Everything to Joey Feek
Joey had a motherhood experience with Rory’s stepdaughters Heidi and Hopie, but she chose to wait until a little later in life to welcome baby Indiana: She was 38 when Indiana was born.
Julie Zamboldi, Joey Feek and Indiana Feek / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Julie Zamboldi, Joey Feek and Indiana Feek / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
“She embraced it like she did everything,” Zomboldi remembers. “Indiana was never more loved than by Joey. And Indiana would watch her just the way fans would. Indiana was intrigued with her as well. Their bond was really strong.”
“I wish she had more time being a mom,” she continues. “But I’m glad she had that. And she had it with Heidi and Hopie as well.”
Joey Feek’s Later Years + Cancer Battle
In their blog — plus many video posts uploaded to YouTube, and Rory’s book This Life I Live — the couple shared much of their life. Rory wrote about Indiana’s Down Syndrome diagnosis, and publicly revealed his wife’s diagnosis of cervical cancer just four months after their daughter was born.
The couple continued to share their cancer journey with fans every step of the way, including a year of remission followed by an aggressive recurrence of the disease. In October 2015, they told fans that Feek’s cancer was terminal, and that they were stopping treatment in order to focus on quality of life for the time she had left.
Early on in their friendship, Zomboldi says Joey was a pillar of strength while Zomboldi watched two other friends battle and, eventually, die from cancer. When Joey was diagnosed, Zomboldi felt like it was her turn to be there for her friend.
When Joey decided to shave her head while undergoing chemotherapy, Zomboldi — along with Joey’s sisters, father and niece — also shaved theirs in solidarity.
Joey Feek and Julie Zamboldi / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Joey Feek and Julie Zamboldi / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
“Her hair meant a lot to her,” Zomboldi recalls, “so when she wanted to shave it, I think that night or the next night, I thought, ‘This would be so easy for me to do.’ I was ready for her to kind of push back a little bit, but she didn’t at all.”
Joey Feek and Julie Zamboldi / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Joey Feek and Julie Zamboldi / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Feek entered hospice care and was able to celebrate Indiana’s second birthday on Feb. 17, 2016. She died weeks later, on March 4, and was buried in the Feek family cemetery on their farm in Tennessee.
Joey Feek Lives On In The Hearts Of Those Who Loved Her
For those closest to Joey, her memory lives on — and the pain of her absence will never fade away. Without exception, everyone Taste of Country spoke to for this story emphasized how blessed they felt to have known Joey during her life.
In a full-circle moment, as the 10th anniversary of Joey’s death approaches, her sister Julie told Taste of Country that her family was preparing to bring Joey’s horse Ria home to their farm for her daughter to ride.
“She’ll be able to show Ria at our local little county fair, which is something that Joey would just be so excited about,” Julie tells Taste of Country. “And when Indy can visit, we’ll put her on Ria because she’ll be well-trained by then.”
Sandy Lawrence says that in “When I’m Gone” — the song she wrote about her mother’s death, which Joey and Rory wound up recording — there’s a lyric about “morning glorious blue skies.”
“Joey knew I wasn’t religious, but we talked about ‘the God things,'” Lawrence says. “…I love morning glories, and I meant to plant some, but never got around to it. The year after Joey’s death they showed up in my garden, right around her birthday. I gave some seeds from them to a mutual friend of Joey’s and mine — same thing, the first bloom came on Sept. 9, Joey’s birthday.”
Julie Zamboldi and Joey Feek / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
Julie Zamboldi and Joey Feek / Courtesy of Julie Zamboldi
“The thing I miss most about Joey…is just having that best friend that you talk about dumb things with,” Julie Zamboldi says, emotion in her voice. “The mundane conversations. The things that maybe you don’t tell your husband, you don’t tell your sisters, you don’t tell your family…I miss that with her.”
Mandy McCauley has a physical item in her house to remind her of her late friend.
“I have a pair of boots that she gave me before she died, that she wanted me to wear, but they don’t fit very well,” she recounts. “I put ’em on my mantle in our living room and I’m thinking about putting a plaque on it that says, ‘No one can ever fill these boots.'”
R.I.P.: 40 Country Singers and Songwriters Who Died Too Soon
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Ask and you shall receive. Ideally, that’s how things go for players and agents in free agency. Things usually aren’t that easy. There’s always a risk of pricing a client out of the market with exorbitant demands. The easiest way to get an asking or target price is with multiple NFL teams vying for a player’s services. If a player’s market is soft, lowering the asking price will likely become a necessity.
Agents and NFL teams may have already gotten a sense of the 2026 free agent market. Meetings between agents of impending free agents and teams routinely occur at the NFL Scouting Combine, which ended on March 2. These types of discussions technically aren’t permitted by NFL rules. Teams are rarely penalized for tampering with players from other teams when those players are scheduled to become free agents.
The exclusive negotiating rights teams have had with their impending free agents ends on March 9. That’s when NFL teams are allowed to negotiate with the agents of prospective unrestricted free agents during a two-day period beginning March 9 at noon ET and ending at 4 p.m. ET on March 11. Prospective UFAs who don’t have an agent can also negotiate with front office executives of teams. Players can’t sign deals with new clubs until the 2026 league year and free agency officially begin at 4 p.m. ET. A player’s ability to re-sign with his current club is allowed during the period.
It was my responsibility while working on the agent side to create target or asking prices for the firm’s clients headed toward free agency regardless of whether I was the lead agent. Along those lines, I have set target prices with total contract value, overall guarantees and amount fully guaranteed at signing for 10 intriguing offensive players who will be unrestricted free agents or were designated as franchise players.
Players don’t necessarily sign for their target prices since free agency is a fluid process where adaptations must be made to changing market conditions. Some players are disappointed in free agency’s outcome because their market never develops for a variety of reasons (age, unrealistic contract demands, supply and demand at playing position, etc.).
Remember the target or asking prices for these players may be on the high side and aren’t necessarily what their actual deals will be.
Kenneth Walker III, Travis Etienne Jr. lead strong class of NFL free agent running backs, ranked
Zachary Pereles
QB Daniel Jones
($37.833 million transition tag)
Contract package: $180 million/4 years ($45 million per year worth up to $190 million with incentives)
Overall guarantees: $100 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $90 million
Jones received the seldom used transition tag to ensure that he remains with the Indianapolis Colts for at least the 2026 season. The transition tag gives the Colts matching rights if Jones signs an offer sheet with another team.
Jones, who signed a one-year, $14 million deal worth up to $17.7 million in 2025 free agency, was having a surprising career resurrection before tearing his right Achilles during a Week 14 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last season. He was an early-season MVP candidate when the Colts were averaging a league-leading 33.8 points per game and were off to a league-best 7-1 start.
The average salary for starting quarterbacks in 2025, excluding those on rookie contracts which are strictly determined by draft position, was $44,067,508 per year, according to NFLPA data. Jones was much better than average when healthy last season.
It remains to be seen when Jones will be recovered from his injury. Jones being ready for the start of the 2026 regular season isn’t out of the question.
WR George Pickens
($27.298 million franchise tag)
Contract package: $150 million/4 years ($37.5 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $105 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $85 million
The calculated risk the Dallas Cowboys took by trading a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick last May paid big dividends. Pickens had 93 receptions, 1,429 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns, all career highs, while averaging 15.4 yards per catch in 2025. He ranked in the NFL’s top 10 in each of these categories last season. Pickens was named to the Pro Bowl and earned second-team All-Pro honors both for the first time in his career because of his efforts.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones indicated during the 2025 season that having two high-priced wide receivers isn’t going to be an issue. Pickens and CeeDee Lamb are arguably the NFL’s best wide receiver duo. Lamb is currently the NFL’s third-highest-paid wide receiver with the four-year, $136 million contract extension, averaging $34 million per year, he signed in August 2024. The deal has $100 million in guarantees, of which $67 million was fully guaranteed at signing. At the time, both marks were the second-most ever in a wide receiver contract. The $67 million fully guaranteed at signing included a wide receiver-record $38 million signing bonus.
Being patient could work in Pickens’ favor. His best deal might come from letting the wide receiver market further develop.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba, 2025’s NFL Offensive Player of the Year, recently said he believes he should be the league’s highest-paid wide receiver. Ja’Marr Chase sets the wide receiver market with the four-year, $161 million extension, averaging $40.25 million per year, he received from the Cincinnati Bengals last March. The Seattle Seahawks intend on extending Smith-Njigba’s contract this offseason. Nico Collins and Puka Nacua, who are in contract years, are also in line for new deals from the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams. These deals getting done before the July 15 deadline for franchise players to sign long term would be ideal for Pickens.
TE Kyle Pitts
($15.045 million franchise tag)
Contract package: $70 million/4 years ($17.5 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $45 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $37.5 million
Pitts was the highest drafted tight end in NFL history when the Atlanta Falcons made him 2021’s fourth overall pick. He was thought to be the future of the tight end position after a Pro Bowl rookie season with 68 receptions and 1,026 receiving yards. Pitts didn’t come close to that type of production again until last season. He was second in the NFL among tight ends with a career-high 88 receptions and 928 receiving yards in 2025. Pitts was selected to his second Pro Bowl and was named a second-team All-Pro in 2025.
C Tyler Linderbaum
Contract package: $95 million/4 years ($23.75 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $60 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $52.5 million
The price of Linderbaum’s fifth-year option salary is the reason why he isn’t under contract for the 2026 season. The $23.402 million cost, which was the 2025 franchise tag for offensive linemen because he was named to the Pro Bowl on the original ballot in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, doesn’t reflect the center market. Since there aren’t specific option-year salaries for center, guard and tackle, the amount is the same regardless of position. The NFL’s highest-paid center is Creed Humphrey with the four-year, $72 million extension, averaging $18 million per year, he received from the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2024 preseason.
Baltimore Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta revealed during his media session at the NFL combine last week that he has offered Linderbaum a market-setting deal to prevent him from becoming a free agent. He also referred to Linderbaum as the league’s best center. Linderbaum should become the NFL’s first $20 million-per-year center. The real question is how much above that mark.
RB Breece Hall
($14.293 million franchise tag)
Contract package: $62 million/4 years ($15.5 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $37.5 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $32.5 million
Hall had a career-best 1,065 rushing yards in 2025. It was the first time a New York Jets running back hit the 1,000-yard rushing mark since Chris Ivory in 2015. Hall has dual-threat capabilities. He caught a career-high 76 passes in 2023.
Preventing Hall from hitting the open market with a franchise tag made sense for the Jets financially. The Jets have an abundance of 2026 salary cap space. There’s approximately $74 million of cap room after Hall’s franchise tag.
The franchise tag could pave the way for Hall to justify more money and/or better structure than if he hadn’t gotten the designation. A second franchise tag for Hall in 2027 at an NFL collective bargaining agreement mandated 20% increase over his 2026 number will be $17,151,600. Hall would make nearly $31.5 million from two straight franchise tags for an average of just under $15.75 million per year.
Getting the richest running back contract in Jets history might be an important benchmark to Hall. That distinction belongs to Le’Veon Bell. He signed a four-year, $52.5 million deal, averaging $13.125 million per year with $35 million of guarantees where $27 million was fully guaranteed at signing, in 2019 free agency. Incentives and salary escalators made Bell’s deal worth as much as $60.15 million.
QB Malik Willis
Contract package: $50 million/2 years ($25 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $35 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $35 million
Willis played well in limited action after the Green Bay Packers acquired him from the Tennessee Titans in a 2024 preseason trade. He completed 78.7% of his passes (70 of 89 attempts) for 972 yards with six touchdowns and zero interceptions to post a 134.6 passer rating in 11 games, which included three starts, during his two seasons with the Packers. The contractual blueprint for Willis is the two-year, $40 million deal with $30 million fully guaranteed that Justin Fields received from the New York Jets in free agency last year.
WR Alec Pierce
Contract package: $30 million/3 years ($30 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $62.5 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $62.5 million
Pierce has become one of the NFL’s top deep threats. He has led the NFL in yards per catch in each of the last two seasons with 22.3 in 2024 and 21.3 in 2025. Pierce had career highs in 2025 with 47 receptions and 1,003 receiving yards. The Indianapolis Colts are trying to keep Pierce from hitting the open market by re-signing him before the two-day negotiating period begins.
RB Kenneth Walker III
Contract package: $39 million/3 years ($13 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $27.5 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $27.5 million
Walker should be the beneficiary of the New York Jets designating Breece Hall as a franchise player. He is clearly the top running back available in free agency. Walker had 1,027 rushing yards for the Seattle Seahawks while splitting carries with Zach Charbonnet last season. He capitalized on Charbonnet tearing the ACL in his left knee during a divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers. Walker rushed for 313 yards on 65 carries with four touchdowns in three postseason games. He earned Super Bowl LX MVP honors with 135 yards on 27 carries.
OT Rasheed Walker
Contract package: $90 million/4 years ($22.5 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $55 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $47.5 million
Walker is the best young left tackle available on the open market. According ESPN Analytics, Walker had a 93.8% pass-block win rate to rank 11th among offensive tackles last season. Walker should be encouraged by Dan Moore Jr., who is an inferior player, signing a four-year, $82 million contract, averaging $20.5 million per year, with the Tennessee Titans in free agency last year. Moore’s deal has $50 million in guarantees, of which $42.51 million was fully guaranteed at signing.
G Alijah Vera-Tucker
Contract package: $45 million/3 years ($15 million per year)
Overall guarantees: $31 million
Fully guaranteed at signing: $24 million
Vera-Tucker could be a “let the buyer beware” proposition. Ability isn’t the issue with Vera-Tucker. It’s availability. Vera-Tucker missed the 2025 season with torn left triceps. Durability concerns didn’t stop the New York Jets from picking up Vera-Tucker’s fully guaranteed $15.313 million fifth-year option for 2025. Vera-Tucker has only played 43 of a possible 85 regular-season games in his five NFL seasons. It wouldn’t be surprising for NFL teams to err on the side of caution with Vera-Tucker where he ultimately signs a one-year “prove-it” deal in the $8 million to $10 million range.
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — Police in Puerto Rico said Wednesday that an armed suspect flung open the door of an ambulance and fatally shot a man who was being treated by medics for bullet wounds he received during a shooting earlier in the U.S. territory’s capital.
It was an unusually violent incident that has shocked the island.
Police told reporters that the target was a 62-year-old man who was freed from prison in January after serving 25 years on rape convictions.
Police said in a statement that the man was shot at near his residence earlier Wednesday and returned home with a bullet wound, prompting his mother to call 911.
Shortly after the ambulance arrived at their home in Santurce, the man was fatally shot, police said. Authorities said the medics were not injured but were treated for shock.
It is the second violent incident in the neighborhood of Santurce this week.
Police said one person was killed and five others injured early Tuesday in front of a club following a fight between security guards and armed men who wanted to enter the establishment.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The official artwork for the 39th annual Run for the Zoo has been revealed. This year’s artwork pays homage to the Centennial of Route 66. The official art features neon lights, a New Mexico sunrise and Route 66. Run for the Zoo will be held May 3, 2026. Registration for the event is […]
Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares has opened up about the band’s forthcoming studio album, which is tentatively scheduled for release later this year via Nuclear Blast. The record will mark the band’s first full-length with vocalist Milo Silvestro and drummer Pete Webber, who have toured with the group for over three years.
In a recent interview with New Breed TV, Cazares explained that each track on the album will come with an in-depth explanation of its lyrical intent. “Each song will have its own detailed synopsis of what each song’s about – lyrically,” he said, referencing Fear Factory‘s 1998 concept album Obsolete.
“This is more of a description of each song, the intention behind it, what the lyrics mean, and it’s gonna be intense. You’re gonna be able to get more details… through our website or through Facebook or all through social medias. You’re gonna be able to get all the information of what [each song] is about. So it’s gonna be killer.”
Cazares also outlined the overarching themes of the LP, which revolve around the classic Fear Factory narrative of the battle between the organic and the digital. “It’s always the battle between organic and digital… we are 35 years later where we are now, and that’s what we’re talking about,” he said.
“Humanity is only left in fragments, and there’s very little hope… when it does come back, it’s gonna be a new living organism that we haven’t even discovered yet.”
Fans of the previously released instrumental “Roboticist” can expect it on the album, with tweaks to its arrangement. “The ending part of the song is now the middle part of the song. And it sounds amazing,” Cazares teased.
The record also highlights the collaborative efforts of the new lineup. “Milo wrote a good portion of lyrics… Ricky Bonazza, our bass player… helps a lot with the lyrics as well,” Cazares said. “Milo definitely – three years definitely helped him understand Fear Factory even more and where he fits in the band.”
Cazares stressed that the band has taken their time with the new material to ensure quality, especially given the high expectations for Fear Factory‘s first release without original singer Burton C. Bell. “We want it to be the shit, because this record, when it comes out, it’s gonna be forever,” he said.
Silvestro also contributed musically, penning the closing track, described by Cazares as a cinematic, post-human epic in the vein of “Expiration Date” from 2015’s Genexus. “It’s kind of like how they rediscovered the dinosaur… and bring it back. That’s kind of where we are at the end of the record… Milo pretty much did it all himself,” he explained.
Regarding vocals, Cazares noted Silvestro blends homage with innovation. “There are elements where it’s, like, okay, he sounds very similar to Burt, but there are other parts where he just sounds like it’s a whole new thing, which adds a whole new freshness to the songs… You’re gonna notice that through the whole record.”
Cazares concluded by praising Silvestro‘s understanding of Fear Factory‘s legacy. “He respects the past… and loves all that, so it’s only natural for him to have a lot of those elements in him, because that’s what he learned from.”
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The Italian distiller set out cautiously positive guidance for a year in which it expects sales and earnings growth to be tempered by trade tariffs and currency effects.
The trade deadline for the 2025-26 NHL season is Friday, and the deals continue to roll in as contenders look to bolster their rosters ahead of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
You’ll find information on every trade made since the start of the regular season here, including grades on all of the major ones. Follow along all the way through the deadline for the latest moves.
Trades are listed here, with the most recent ones first on the list.
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are in discussion with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq and northwestern Iran about potentially arming groups opposed to the Iranian regime, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions and an Iraqi Kurdish official.
The discussions are taking place as Washington explores ways to increase pressure on Tehran following U.S. strikes on Iranian targets that began over the weekend. They are aimed at testing the possibility of the U.S. using Kurdish opposition groups to help topple the Iranian regime, which has so far held on despite the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday by Israel and the U.S., the people with knowledge of the discussions said.
President Donald Trump called Kurdish leaders in Iraq on Sunday to discuss the matter, according to a U.S. official, just one day after the U.S. began its military campaign in Iran.
Asked about Trump’s conversations with the Kurds and discussions by U.S. officials, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump has been in contact with many allies and partners in the region throughout the past several days.”
Leavitt told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday that Trump’s discussions with Kurdish leaders were “with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq” and that he had not yet agreed to a plan.
Trump administration officials have yet to outline a strategy for how military air power alone could cause the Iranian regime to collapse.
Trump, who has not ruled out sending U.S. ground troops into Iran, has said several of the individuals the U.S. viewed as potential options for replacing Khamenei have been killed. He also said Tuesday that the worst outcome would be for a leader to take over who is equally as hardline as Khamenei.
“I guess the worst case would be, we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right?” Trump told reporters. “That could happen. We don’t want that to happen.”
“So, we’d like to see somebody in there that’s going to bring it back for the people,” he added.
No action has yet been taken on a possible plan to ship weapons to Iranian opposition groups, and the idea still remains under consideration, the people with knowledge of the discussions said. It was not clear if the U.S. was considering providing air power to back up opposition groups if they staged attacks on the regime.
U.S. and Western governments for years have assessed that while the Iranian regime has become increasingly unpopular inside of Iran, a coherent, organized political opposition has yet to emerge. No viable armed opposition group has formed that could pose a serious threat to the government.
Former intelligence officers say the CIA over the years has provided small arms to groups opposed to the regime in ethnic areas where there is deep resentment of the central government in Tehran, including Kurdish region in the north and predominantly Arab provinces in the south.
The CIA declined to comment.
Bilal Saab, a defense official in the first Trump administration and now a senior managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm TRENDS US, said that arming the Kurds aligns with the president and his advisers’ objective of toppling the regime. Saab said toppling the regime would be required to achieve that goal, and if the U.S. is not going to deploy ground troops into Iran to achieve that, “this is the alternative.”
Before the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran, the CIA concluded that if Khamenei was killed in the assault, he could be replaced by equally hardline officials from within the regime, including from the country’s Revolutionary Guard corps, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The assessment, which was conducted in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s attack on Iran, laid out various scenarios — including the possibility that opposition figures outside the regime could rise to power, these people said. They said it did not forecast which scenario was more likely.
Trump has said publicly, speaking directly to the Iranian people, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”
