A spokesman for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds now says a mass email praising rapper Tupac Shakur wasn't the reason Reynolds ousted an agency director.
Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett was asked last week whether the June 14 agency-wide email from Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven was tied to the governor's request that Foxhoven immediately resign the next work day.
Garrett said only that a "number of factors" prompted the governor's decision, and that she wanted to take the agency in a new direction.
In this Oct. 31, 2017 photo, Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven announces that AmeriHealth Caritas will pull out of Iowa Medicaid management in Des Moines, Iowa. Foxhoven had an obsession with the late rapper Tupac Shakur during the 2-year tenure before the governor requested his resignation in June 2019. (Zach Boyden-HolmesThe Des Moines Register via AP)
On Thursday, he told the Des Moines Register that "of course" Foxhoven's love for the rapper didn't factor into his dismissal.
Foxhoven's practice of listening to the rapper's music in his office on "Tupac Fridays," marking the artist's birthday and quoting lyrics had won him praise from some employees. But at least one also had previously complained to lawmakers.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Saturday claimed shooting down another of the U.S. military's MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft.
The Houthis said they shot down the Reaper with a surface-to-air missile, part of a renewed series of assaults this week by the rebels after a relative lull in their pressure campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.
The Houthis described the downing as happening Thursday over their stronghold in the country's Saada province.
Footage released by the Houthis included what they described as the missile launch targeting the drone, with a man off-camera reciting the Houthi's slogan after it was hit: “God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam.”
The footage included several close-ups on parts of the drone that included the logo of General Atomics, which manufactures the drone, and serial numbers corresponding with known parts made by the company.
Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has lost at least five drones to the rebels counting Thursday's shootdown — in 2017, 2019, 2023 and this year.
Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.
The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.
The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sank another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.
Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat. American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily in the last months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the last week.
A Houthi supporter raises a mock rocket during a rally against the U.S. and Israel and to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, April. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
