The Brief

The U.S. has confirmed its first human case of the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite whose northward creep from South America has put the country's cattle industry on high alert in recent months.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in coordination with the Maryland Department of Health, confirmed the case on Aug. 4 in a patient who had returned from travel to El Salvador, Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon told NPR on Monday.

"This is the first human case of travel-associated New World screwworm myiasis (parasitic infestation of fly larvae) from an outbreak-affected country identified in the United States," Nixon said. "Currently, the risk to public health in the United States from this introduction is very low."

David McAllister, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health, confirmed to NPR that the individual — a resident of Maryland — has recovered from the infection."The investigation confirmed there is no indication of transmission to any other individuals or animals," he wrote, calling the detection a "timely reminder for health care providers, livestock owners and others to maintain vigilance through routine monitoring."

The New World screwworm is a species of parasitic flies typically found in South America and the Caribbean, according to the CDC. Infestation occurs when fly larvae feed on the tissue or flesh of warm-blooded animals, primarily livestock and, rarely, humans.

"It's a fly, and it's the larvae that does the damage," says Max Scott, a professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State University.

He says infestation in humans can be "quite painful," with high mortality rates if left untreated.

"Because once an infestation starts, that often attracts more flies that lay more eggs," he explains. "And depending where the wound is, the maggots can make their way into vulnerable tissue like the brain, or the wound can get quite big and then you get sepsis."

But, Scott says, screwworm is an insect, not a virus — so it's not contagious.

The pest poses a much bigger risk to livestock, and in the past year has been detected in cattle farms in Mexico. As the New World screwworm gets closer to the U.S. border, federal authorities have taken a series of steps to eliminate the threat — which they did successfully in the mid-20th century.

What exactly is New World screwworm?

An adult New World screwworm fly. They are commonly found in South America and the Caribbean.

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Denise Bonilla

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U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Screwworms are a type of blue-gray blowfly that look very similar to black flies found in the U.S.

The difference is that screwworms — specifically females — lay their eggs in live animals, usually in a wound or another entry point like a nasal cavity.

"The females can lay up to, like, 200 eggs at a time," Scott says. "And then when the eggs eat, they eat the animal alive."

After feeding, the larvae fall into the ground, burrow into the soil and emerge as adult screwworm flies, continuing the cycle.

The parasites are named after the screw-like way they burrow into tissue using their sharp mouth hooks. Their Latin name, Cochliomyia hominivorax, "literally means maneater," Scott says.

"It was named after a sort of unfortunate number of cases in the French penal colony of Devil's Island back in the 19th century," he explains.

Human cases are relatively rare these days, though counts are growing in some parts of South America.

The U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua said in July that it had confirmed 124 cases in the past year. In June, the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica confirmed its seventh case since 2023 — and first human death "since at least the 1990s."

How was screwworm eradicated — and why is it spreading now? 

Screwworm used to be in the U.S., mainly in Florida, Texas and, during the summer, sometimes as far north as the Dakotas, Scott says.

In the 1950s, scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pioneered a method of combating them known as the sterile insect technique, which Scott calls "one of the great success stories of the USDA of the 20th century."

Instead of using broad-spectrum insecticides, they decided to use the pest itself as a control agent. That involves mass-rearing insects inside factories, sterilizing them with radiation and then releasing them — either from the ground or, as is the case today, by "planes that fly very precise routes."

"If the females on the ground mate with a sterile male, at least with a screwworm, that's all they'll mate with … so that female won't produce any offspring," Scott says.

Through this technique, the U.S. managed to eradicate New World screwworm in 1966. Mexico followed suit in the 1970s, and Central America in the early 2000s. The U.S. also used this method to eliminate what the CDC calls a "small outbreak" in the Florida Keys in 2017.

"Over a 50-year period, screwworm was pushed back from the United States through Mexico, through Central America, to the Panama-Columbia border. That was about 20 years ago," Scott says. "It was stopped at the border and then was held for a long time until the barrier broke and screwworm came back."

Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras have documented new cases in recent years, fueling concerns of a northward spread.

Scott says there are probably multiple explanations, including the movement of infested cattle and the possibility that the current strain of sterilized flies is less effective than in the past. The hope, he says, is that a bigger crop of sterilized insects will be able to contain the screwworm threat to southern Mexico, before it can reach the U.S.

The corrals were empty at the Union Ganadera Chihuahua cattle import facility in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in June, after the U.S. reinstated its pause on cattle imports across the Southern border.

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Paul Ratje

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Bloomberg via Getty Images

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What is the U.S. doing about screwworm?

The U.S. briefly halted live cattle imports from Mexico in November, after a positive case was detected there.

It lifted the ban in February but reinstated it on a month-by-month basis in May, with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins citing "the continued and rapid northward spread of New World Screwworm (NWS) in Mexico." She said it had been detected in farms as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, some 700 miles from the U.S. border.

In the months since, the federal government has faced mounting pressure from agricultural groups worried about the threat of screwworm and its potential impact on the supply chain. In an early August letter to Rollins, they used USDA estimates to calculate that a contemporary outbreak could cause a total economic loss of more than $10.6 billion.

The USDA appears to have heard those concerns. Earlier this month, it announced sweeping plans to combat the spread of screwworm, including building the U.S.' only sterile fly production facility at an air force base in Edinburg, Texas. It says it will produce up to 300 million sterile flies per week.

Scott says at its peak, the half-century eradication campaign was run from a facility in Mexico that could produce at least 500 million sterile flies per week. It was shut down for economic reasons in 2012. There is currently only one such facility in operation, in Panama, with a maximum capacity of some 100 million flies per week.

Announcing the new initiative in Texas, Rollins did not specify when the plant will be operational, but has previously said it will take two to three years to build, Reuters reports. The USDA is also supporting a separate facility in Mexico that is slated to open in 2026.

Other steps the USDA says it will take include ramping up the hiring of USDA-employed mounted patrol officers, called "Tick Riders," to focus on border surveillance; training dogs to detect screwworm infestations in livestock at the border and investing $100 million in technologies to combat screwworm.

Agricultural groups welcomed the announcement. Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement that the introduction of New World screwworm in the U.S. would only exacerbate an already-volatile cattle market.

"It took decades to eradicate this parasite from within and adjacent to our borders more than a generation ago, and this is a proactive first step," he added.
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A federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration is not entitled to personal information belonging to California’s 23 million voters. Judge David O. Carter made the ruling.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued California, along with 22 other states and Washington, D.C., for access to their full, unredacted voter files. That includes driver’s license, social security numbers and other sensitive data.

DOJ officials said they needed the data to assess whether states were properly maintaining their voter rolls and ensuring "only American citizens are voting, only one time," as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a social media post in December.

California refused, citing state and federal privacy law. Only a handful of states have complied with the government’s request for their full voter files, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which has been tracking the issue nationwide.

What did the judge say?

In Judge Carter’s ruling, he wrote that amassing sensitive information at the federal level would have a chilling effect on voter registration, which would lead to decreased turnout “as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose.”

He added, “This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy."

LAist emailed a request for comment to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice but has not yet received a response.

Reaction to the ruling

Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California, applauded the decision. The group had joined California in opposing the government’s data request.

“ We think that voters should never have to choose between their privacy interests and the right to participate in our democracy,” she said.

Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor and former Department of Justice employee said, “The court did what we thought the court should do.”

Levitt and a group of other former DOJ employees had filed an amicus brief in the case, siding with California.

In a news release, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote: “I will continue to uphold my promise to Californians to protect our democracy, and I will continue to challenge this administration's disregard for the rule of law and our right to vote.”

What's next?

The DOJ's lawsuits against other states are still making their way through the courts.

During a hearing in the case in December, Judge Carter said he anticipated his eventual ruling — whichever way it went — would be appealed, and that a final decision on the issue could rest with the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Superior Court judge has found that the city of Los Angeles violated public open records laws nearly two years ago by taking action on matters related to its homelessness response and failing to report it.

That decision could be a factor in an ongoing hearing in federal court where a different judge is considering whether to hold the city in contempt of court.

In a ruling last week, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin found that the city violated the Brown Act on two occasions in January and May 2024 when it took action in closed session on the following:

— approving an encampment reduction plan;

— approving a memorandum of understanding with the county for support on interim housing beds and other issues.

Afterward, the city did not report those approvals in open session.

The city argued its actions were allowed under the Brown Act because they stemmed from the ongoing settlement between the city and the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of business owners and residents who sued the city over its response to the homelessness crisis.

But Kin disagreed with that argument, saying what the city had done in closed session did not fall within the Brown Act exemptions because they were policy decisions, not litigation decisions concerning the L.A. Alliance settlement.

In federal court, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has been overseeing the city’s compliance with the settlement. Carter has said he’s concerned “the city has demonstrated a continuous pattern of delay” in meeting its obligations.

Carter has been hearing testimony since November from city officials and others in an ongoing contempt-of-court hearing. This week, the judge said in court documents that he would consider Kin’s ruling as the contempt hearing proceeds.

The parties were last in federal court earlier this week. It’s not yet clear when that hearing will resume.

Sidewalk vendors can now apply to receive a free, health-code-compliant food vending cart through a new program launched in a partnership between the county and the city of Los Angeles.

Who can apply

To receive a cart, applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in LA County, be self-employed as a sidewalk vendor, and earn less than $75,000 annually from vending, according to a news release. Applicants must operate within unincorporated LA County or the city of LA, and commit to full compliance with public health and safety regulations.

You can find the application here.

Permits to secure

Vendors who are awarded carts will have to secure required permits in order to begin operating as fully permitted businesses. This includes obtaining the Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO) certificate from the LA County Department of Public Health and any Sidewalk Vending Registration Certifications or permits required to comply with the county and city sidewalk vending programs.

Applications will be selected by lottery, will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and will be prioritized based on “compliance readiness.” Priority will also be given to those who are based in the county’s “highest-need areas,” as according to the county equity explorer map.

Eligible applicants will be connected to partner organizations like Inclusive Action for the City to help navigate the permitting process and to provide business business support and language assistance.

What kind of carts?

Carts offered through the program include:

• Integrated grill carts for precooked meat for tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers that are assembled on a cart
• Hot-holding carts for pre-portioned cooked tamales, corn, quesadillas, gyros, pupusas
• Cut fruit carts for fruits, bionicos, and acai bowls
• Cold-hold ice cream carts that store prepackaged ice cream items

Currently, the county and city have 50 hot-holding and 30 cold-holding carts for the first round of awards with 40 integrated grill carts underway.

More about the program

The launch of the Sidewalk Vending Cart Program – which invests $2.8 million in more than 280 carts – follows the passage of state legislation that decriminalized street vendors and that streamlined the permitting process.

“The program aims to help vendors meet new legal requirements, overcome financial barriers to formalization, and operate safely and legally in their communities,” according to the news release.

Los Angeles County Board Chair Hilda Solis said the program can help ensure a “permitted pathway” toward entrepreneurship.
“Many vendors are navigating increasingly difficult and uncertain times due to cruel federal immigration actions, and we know vendors play an essential role in the economic and cultural vitality of Los Angeles County,” Solis said in a statement. “This is more than a program — this is a chance to support small business growth, economic stability, and even generational wealth.”

The biggest mobile network in the United States, Verizon, experienced a huge outage on Wednesday, leaving at least tens of thousands of customers without cell service for much of the day.

An update on Verizon's website today said the outage had been resolved. "We are sorry for what you experienced and will continue to work hard day and night to provide the outstanding network and service that people expect from Verizon," it said.

What happened?

It's still unclear. Verizon has not posted details nor an explanation of the cause of the outage on its website. In an email to NPR, a company spokesperson wrote that the problem stemmed from "a software issue" and that Verizon is conducting a full review.And while Verizon hasn't released a figure for how many customers were affected, the staff at the Downdetector website — where users go to report service outages — posted on Facebook that they received 2.3 million outage reports for Verizon throughout the day. (That doesn't necessarily translate to 2.3 million affected customers.)

Cell networks experience small outages fairly regularly, though, and sizable ones are not uncommon. Verizon had a disruption across several major cities in September 2024, and competitor AT&T was hit by a large outage in February 2024, affecting more than 125 million registered devices and customers in all 50 states.

Sanjoy Paul, a wireless network expert at Rice University, says telecommunications systems have become more complex over the past decade and a half as they've moved from physical infrastructure — wires and cables — and into the cloud.

"What used to be a completely hardware-dependent network transformed into a complete software-dependent network," he said. That shift has given operators more flexibility to add services or tweak products but, he said, it has come at the expense of reliability.

With a cloud and software-based networks, there are more opportunities for glitches and attacks, he said. Small issues with computer code buried inside these systems can have big consequences.

What have been some consequences of the outage?

Users had no connectivity for much of the day and were only able to access "SOS" mode during the outage.

Verizon, which has styled itself as America's best and most reliable network, has been in damage control mode. The company has issued instructions for customers to restart their devices to reconnect to the network if they are still having problems. It also pledged $20 credits as "a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us," according to their website.

The Federal Communications Commission said in a statement it was "continuing to actively investigate and monitor the situation to determine next steps."

Could it happen again?

Yep — to Verizon or any of its competitors.

Since the cause of this latest outage remains unclear, it's too early to say whether or not this exact thing could happen again. But Lee McKnight, an associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, told NPR's Morning Edition outages are "a fact of life these days for major telecommunications firms."

"Modern telecom networks are cloud networks. 5G networks are mainly, like, hundreds of different cloud services," he said. "The telecom companies haven't yet adjusted their training to that reality, that their staff have to be expert not just in cell towers and wireless, like we think about, but about cloud services, like AWS, or Microsoft, or Google."

At the end of the day, experts say, consumers should consider having a "Plan B" for connectivity. That may mean a land line for your house or getting a second phone on a different cell network.
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