Omicron hasn't peaked nationwide, and 'the next few weeks will be ...

(CNN) Areas that were among the first to get hit hard by the Omicron variant are starting to see their Covid-19 numbers level off or even improve. But that's not the case for much of the country, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said.

"There are parts of the country -- New York, in particular, and other parts of the Northeast -- where we are starting to see a plateau, and in some cases, an early decline in cases," Murthy told CNN on Sunday.

"The challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace," he said. "The Omicron wave started later in other parts of the country, so we shouldn't expect a national peak in the next coming days. The next few weeks will be tough."

An average of more than 750,000 new Covid-19 infections were reported every day over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

That means Americans at work, school and elsewhere face a heightened risk of exposure that is unparalleled during the pandemic.

The number of Americans dying every day from Covid-19 has increased in recent days, with 1,796 Covid-19 deaths reported Sunday, according to JHU data.

And 156,000 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 as of Sunday, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The crush of Covid-19 patients means some hospitals are running out of space to treat other patients in intensive care units.

"I expect those numbers to get substantially higher," Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told Fox News on Sunday.

"The problem is we are running out of health care workforce, we don't have the staffing. So that is going to be a challenge for many weeks ahead."

A nurse tends to a patient in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on January 14.

Trying to keep schools open with more safety

As the US battles the most contagious strain of novel coronavirus yet, some school districts are struggling to keep classrooms open , while others have added more safety measures to prevent a return to remote learning.

Chicago Public Schools resumed in-person teaching last week after pledging to increase Covid-19 testing as well as provide higher-quality KN95 masks.

Health experts say Americans have more tools to help schools stay open now than at any other point in the pandemic.

One of those tools is face masks. In Virginia, at least two school districts will keep requiring masks despite the state's newly elected governor signing an executive order saying parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school.

Beware of Covid-19 testing scams, state officials warn

Starting Wednesday, Americans will be able to order free Covid-19 tests through a federal website -- covidtests.gov

Murthy said 50 million tests have been sent to community health centers. And people with private insurance can now get up to eight tests per person per month.

Yet the current lack of testing availability in some areas has led to scammers taking advantage of those in need.

Attorneys general in Oregon, New Mexico and Illinois warned consumers of "pop-up" Covid-19 testing sites that might give false results or skim personal information.

People should be "cautious about pop-up testing sites that charge out-of-pocket fees, do not display logos, do not disclose the laboratory performing the test, are not affiliated with a known organization, or that ask for sensitive information, like social security numbers, that is not necessary for insurance," Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said.

Researcher: 'Ending isolation at day 5 should include a negative rapid antigen test'

Current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people infected with Covid-19 can end isolation after five days if they don't have symptoms, and that they should wear a mask around others for at least five more days.

JUST WATCHED 'This is nonsense': Stelter blasts Fox and Glenn Beck for false Covid story Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH 'This is nonsense': Stelter blasts Fox and Glenn Beck for false Covid story 02:28

The CDC said the best approac h for someone with access to a test is to use it toward the end of their five-day isolation period. But the CDC did not say a negative test result was necessary to end isolation at five days.

But a new study on the infectiousness of the Omicron variant found that many people were still assumed to be contagious five days after their infections were initially detected -- suggesting a more cautious approach may be needed.

Researchers looked at 10,324 Covid-19 test results from 537 NBA players and others affiliated with the league, finding 97 confirmed and suspected Omicron cases.

Among 27 people who tested positive one or fewer days after a previous negative test, 52% were still assumed infectious five days after their infection was detected, the study found.

And among 70 people who tested positive two or more days after a previous negative test, 39% were still assumed infectious five days after their infection was detected.

CDC monitors 6 people in US for possible rare monkeypox, says ...

(CNN) Officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are closely tracking recent clusters of monkeypox infections around the world -- and possible cases in the United States.

Currently, the CDC is monitoring six people in the United States for possible monkeypox infections after they sat near an infected traveler who had symptoms while on a flight from Nigeria to the United Kingdom in early May.

Separately, CDC officials also are investigating a case of monkeypox confirmed in a man in Massachusetts who had recently traveled to Canada. And in New York City, one patient has tested positive for orthopoxvirus, the family of viruses to which monkeypox belongs, NYC health officials announced in a news release Friday.

The case is being treated as a "presumptive positive" case until confirmed pending CDC testing and the patient is currently isolating, the release states.

New York City health officials had also tested one other patient for monkeypox, but that case has been ruled out, health officials said. City officials have been working with state authorities from the New York State Department of Health in their investigation of the two cases, both of which were identified Thursday.

New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a statement Friday that "the current risk to the public is low."

"Reports of suspected cases of monkeypox in the United States and elsewhere are concerning. While a possible case in New York State awaits confirmatory testing by our local and federal partners, the Department has alerted health care providers in New York State so that they can consider this unusual diagnosis if their patients present with symptoms," Bassett said.

Meanwhile, recent monkeypox infections have been identified in several other regions around the world where the virus is not usually common, including Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Northern Ireland and Spain.

"We have a level of scientific concern about what we're seeing because this is a very unusual situation. Monkeypox is normally only reported in West Africa or Central Africa, and we don't see it in the United States or in Europe -- and the number of cases that are being reported is definitely outside the level of normal for what we would see," Jennifer McQuiston , deputy director of the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology within the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Thursday.

"At the same time, there really aren't that many cases that are being reported -- I think maybe a dozen, a couple dozen -- so, the general public should not be concerned that they are at immediate risk for monkeypox," she said. "We're working through the investigations."

Overall, "we have people who are being monitored for diseases all the time," CDC spokesperson Christine Pearson wrote in an email, Thursday. That means that if someone might have been exposed to a pathogen, their health is monitored, and they should see physicians if they develop symptoms.

As for the six people currently being monitored for potential monkeypox, they all "are healthy, with no symptoms and are considered at low risk for monkeypox," Pearson wrote, adding that none were seated next to the ill passenger and none had direct contact.

As the CDC's investigation continues, discussions have started to include the topic of vaccines.

CDC 'discussing and evaluating' smallpox vaccine

CDC officials are evaluating whether smallpox vaccine should be offered to healthcare workers treating monkeypox patients and other people who may be at "high risk" for exposure to monkeypox, McQuiston said.

"It's definitely something that we're discussing and evaluating, whether offering smallpox vaccine makes sense in the current setting," she said. "We'll be closer to making recommendations for that in the next day or so."

JUST WATCHED How vaccines stop the spread of viruses Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH How vaccines stop the spread of viruses 01:26

"We have vaccines that are stockpiled and available to be used, and if judged as a way to help manage this outbreak, we have the availability to use them," McQuiston said.

"I would say that we are in the early days of understanding what is causing this outbreak -- and the fact that we're seeing cases reported in multiple places around the globe suggests that maybe it's been going on for a couple of weeks," she said. "As we work to complete our investigations and get our arms around it then hopefully we'll have much stronger recommendations for folks."

Monkeypox, a viral disease, is rare in the United States and the virus does not occur naturally in the nation, according to the CDC . But cases have been identified that were associated with international travel or importing animals from areas where the disease is more common. After the virus jumps from an animal to a human, human-to-human transmission of monkeypox can occur when a person encounters the virus through direct contact to: large respiratory droplets, bodily fluids, or lesions on the skin.

Monkeypox symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. A characteristic of the disease is that it can cause lesions and a rash on the body , including the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

"This is not a disease that is going to sweep across the country," Dr. Daniel Bausch, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, told CNN on Thursday.

"From a public health angle, of course, we need to investigate and respond -- I think the general population should just be aware of this -- but there's certainly no reason to panic and I think it's highly, highly, highly unlikely that we will get any sort of large outbreak of this," he said. "And if you haven't had contact in Massachusetts and you're not related to the person who had disease or in that link at all -- until we have any other reason to expect or to understand how this disease got into the United States -- your risk of getting monkeypox is really low."

A monkeypox mystery

In Massachusetts, physicians donning the same personal protective equipment they wear for Covid-19 patients have been treating the US monkeypox patient at a special pathogens unit within Massachusetts General Hospital, where he originally was diagnosed.

"They were undergoing a workup related to symptoms and the infectious diseases physician seeing the patient, learning about some of the cases in the United Kingdom, decided that the patient could possibly have monkeypox," Dr. Erica Shenoy, medical director for the Regional Emerging Special Pathogens Treatment Center and associate chief of the infection control unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, told CNN on Thursday.

"Then we had discussions with our state public health officials. The decision was made that yes, they did meet criteria for testing," Shenoy said. The patient tested positive.

"I think to the public overall, there really is no clear risk at this point," Shenoy said. "This is an evolving situation that we're looking to understand better -- why these clusters that have been reported as well in the UK and in Portugal and Spain are happening, and to better understand the epidemiology."

Both in the United Kingdom and Canada, health authorities have noted that many of the monkeypox cases were identified in men who have sex with men -- but the virus is not typically described as a sexually transmitted infection and investigations into these recent cases continue.

Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like illness were seen in colonies of monkeys that were kept for research, leading to the name "monkeypox," according to the CDC. The first human case of monkeypox was reported years later in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a time when intense efforts were underway to eliminate smallpox.

In the United States, the last outbreak of monkeypox recorded was in 2003, when 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in six states: Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. "No instances of monkeypox infection were attributed exclusively to person-to-person contact," according to CDC.

All of the people infected with monkeypox during that outbreak became ill after having contact with pet prairie dogs, the CDC found. Those pets were housed at an animal vendor's facilities in Illinois where they may have been infected with the virus. The facilities housed other small mammals imported from Ghana that tested positive for monkeypox virus: two African giant pouched rats, nine dormice and three rope squirrels.

"The prairie dogs got monkeypox from the imported animals and then passed it on to the humans," Bausch said. "It's a bit of a misnomer calling it monkeypox. The reservoir for this virus, the natural reservoir in nature is probably certain types of rodents."

Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Thursday that people should not be worried about monkeypox at this point, but that they should be aware of symptoms and when to reach out for help.

Murthy explained on CNN's New Day that monkeypox is rare in humans, "but when it does come up, it's a serious one that we should investigate, and we've got to make sure that we understand if and how it is spreading from person to person."

Symptoms generally are similar to the flu, he told CNN's John Berman and Erica Hill.

"The good news is we have one confirmed case right now. But we should always be on the lookout for more cases," he said. "At this time, we don't want people to worry. At this point, again, these numbers are still small -- we want them to be aware of these symptoms and if they have any concerns to reach out to their doctor."

DeSantis vows Florida will allow people to carry firearms without ...

(CNN) Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed on Friday that he would make Florida a so-called constitutional carry state, which would allow people to publicly carry firearms without permits.

"The legislature will get it done," DeSantis said during a news conference in north Florida. "I can't tell you if it's going to be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that."

In Florida, people must obtain concealed weapon permits in order to carry hidden guns in public. About 2.5 million people have permits, more than any other state where they are required. The permit can be obtained by taking a gun training course and submitting proof of competency. In most cases, gun owners in Florida cannot openly carry firearms without permits, either, except in certain circumstances, like while hunting.

For DeSantis, successfully ushering a constitutional carry measure into law would be another conservative victory as he builds a resume that could appeal to Republican primary voters if he decides to run for president. He has already taken on several other issues of importance to his base, including a 15-week abortion ban and championing several measures the LGBTQ community has called anti-transgender, such as a prohibition on transgender girls and women competing in female scholastic sports.

"We used to be a leader on the Second Amendment," said DeSantis, who is up for reelection in November.

Read More

Uvalde Texas school shooting: What we know about the Texas ...

(CNN) We may never know why a shooter gunned down 19 children and two teachers in a massacre Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, two days before summer break.

But as the nation mourns 21 lives lost , disturbing details have emerged about the shooter's behavior in the weeks leading up to the shooting as well as unsettling questions about police officers' delayed response to America's deadliest school shooting since 2012.

Perhaps the most pressing questions are how and why the shooter managed to remain inside the school for more than an hour before law enforcement shot him dead.

Armed with a rifle, the 18-year-old barricaded himself inside adjoining classrooms, where he shot and killed children and their teachers who tried to protect their them.

One 11-year-old student survivor, Miah Cerrillo, told CNN on Friday that she smeared her classmate's blood on her face and played dead to avoid being targeted by the shooter.

Interactive: How law enforcement's narrative of the Uvalde massacre has changed

Outside the bloody crime scene, up to 19 officers were in the hallway but did not storm the classrooms because the commanding officer mistakenly believed the "active shooter" portion of the attack had ended, Col. Steven McCraw, who heads the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday during a news conference. Most of the shots were heard in the initial minutes of the siege, with later outbursts seemingly directed at the door.

"Of course it was not the right decision," McCraw said. "It was the wrong decision, period. There's no excuse for that."

A school resource officer was not on campus when the violence started, and he then drove past the suspect to meet with a teacher he mistook for the shooter, officials said Friday, contradicting earlier information that the shooter was met by officers upon entering the school.

Also revealed Friday: A teacher had propped open the door the shooter used to enter the school, where he fired more than 100 bullets.

Here's what we know and what we don't know:

Gunman shot his grandmother, texted his plans and crashed his car

Salvador Ramos , an 18-year-old from Uvalde, was the gunman, authorities have said. Officials said the gunman purchased his rifles, one of which was used in the attack, with a debit card.

Minutes before the horrific attack, Ramos allegedly sent a series of text messages to a teenage girl in Europe whom he had met online, describing how he had just shot his grandmother and would "shoot up a(n) elementary school."

Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The area around the Robb Elementary School signs has become a memorial dedicated to the victims of the May 24 mass shooting. Hide Caption 1 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Celia Correa Sauceda, right, hugs her friend Stacey Mazuca after they and other mariachi musicians from San Antonio performed during a memorial in Uvalde on Wednesday, June 1. Sauceda, who plays violin, is an elementary teacher in San Antonio. She said she was in Uvalde to be a voice. "We cannot forget what happened, and it needs to stop," Sauceda said. Hide Caption 2 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Mateo López sings during a mariachi performance at a Uvalde memorial on June 1. Hide Caption 3 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Pallbearers carry Amerie Jo Garza's casket into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde on Tuesday, May 31. Hide Caption 4 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Jose Mata, brother of shooting victim Xavier Lopez, carries a wooden cross decorated with a baseball bat to place it at Xavier's memorial outside his home in Uvalde on May 31. Hide Caption 5 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school President Joe Biden looks back at the crowd gathered outside of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church after attending Mass in Uvalde on Sunday, May 29. People in the crowd shouted, "Do something!" And as Biden looked back at them he said, "We will." Hide Caption 6 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A cutout photograph of one of the victims is taken onto school grounds Saturday, May 28, in preparation for Biden's visit the next day. Hide Caption 7 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Mourners gather in the main plaza in Uvalde on May 28. Hide Caption 8 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A choir from The Light of the World Church sings songs in Uvalde on Friday, May 27, to support families who lost loved ones in the shooting. Hide Caption 9 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The Light of the World Church offers prayers for the families impacted by the shooting. Hide Caption 10 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Vanessa Palacios, left, and Melissa García write the victims' names on their storefront, Cut Loose Hair Emporium, on May 27. Hide Caption 11 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, points to a map of the shooter's movements during a news conference on May 27. In all, 80 minutes passed between when officers were first called to the school at 11:30 a.m. to when a tactical team entered locked classrooms and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m., McCraw said. Hide Caption 12 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school The friends and family of Maranda Mathis, one of the young victims of the school shooting, grieve her loss in front of a cross bearing her name on May 26. "These children should be remembered for all the right reasons," a family member said. Hide Caption 13 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Tyler Garcia raises up a sign that says "#UvaldeStrong" during a car wash and food sale that was raising money for the families of those who lost loved ones in the shooting. Hide Caption 14 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Congregants at St. Philip's Episcopal Church light candles in Uvalde to remember the shooting victims on May 26. Hide Caption 15 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Copies of the Uvalde Leader-News sit on stands at a market on May 26. Hide Caption 16 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Crosses bear the names of shooting victims on May 26. Hide Caption 17 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People in Uvalde light candles during a memorial for the shooting victims on May 25. Hide Caption 18 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A prayer vigil is held in Uvalde on May 25. Hide Caption 19 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school An officer with the Texas Highway Patrol prays with a community member before taking his flowers to the growing memorial in front of Robb Elementary School. Hide Caption 20 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school From left, Michael Cavasos, Brenda Perez and Eduardo Galindo are seen in the foreground as they wait in line to donate blood in Uvalde on May 25. Galindo, who lives in Uvalde, said: "When it hits you in your hometown, you wake up and say, 'Wow.' ... We have to be here and show support for these families right now." Approximately 200 people donated blood to South Texas Blood and Tissue, who would be delivering the units to surrounding area hospitals. Hide Caption 21 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People attend Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde on May 25. Hide Caption 22 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Flowers are seen at the memorial in front of the school. Hide Caption 23 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Texas gubernatorial nominee Beto O'Rourke, bottom right, confronted Gov. Greg Abbott and other officials during a news conference about the shooting on May 25. "The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing," O'Rourke told Abbott. The two will face off in November's election. Hide Caption 24 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement vehicles are lined up outside the school on May 25. Hide Caption 25 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People pray outside the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center in Uvalde on May 24. The civic center is where students were transported after the shooting. Hide Caption 26 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Kladys Castellón prays during a vigil that was held in Uvalde on May 24. Hide Caption 27 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials work the scene after the shooting on May 24. Hide Caption 28 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People comfort each other outside the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 29 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Students run to safety after law enforcement officers helped them escape from a window at the school. Hide Caption 30 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement personnel run near the scene of the shooting on May 24. US Customs and Border Protection, which is the largest law enforcement agency in the area, assisted with the response. Hide Caption 31 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People react outside the Uvalde civic center on May 24. Hide Caption 32 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A Texas state trooper walks outside the school on May 24. Hide Caption 33 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman reacts outside of the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 34 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A child gets on a school bus under the watch of law enforcement on May 24. Robb Elementary teaches second through fourth grades and had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, according to state data. About 90% of students are Hispanic and about 81% are economically disadvantaged, the data shows. Hide Caption 35 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People react outside the civic center in Uvalde. This marks at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. Hide Caption 36 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials and other first responders gather outside the school following the shooting. Hide Caption 37 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman cries and hugs a young girl while on the phone outside the civic center in Uvalde. Hide Caption 38 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Another child gets on a bus to leave the school. Hide Caption 39 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman cries as she leaves the civic center. Hide Caption 40 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Law enforcement officials stand outside the school following the shooting. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been assisting local police with the investigation. Hide Caption 41 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school People sit on the curb outside of the school as state troopers guard the area on May 24. Hide Caption 42 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school Police walk near the school following the shooting. Hide Caption 43 of 44 Photos: Mass shooting at Texas elementary school A woman and a child leave the Uvalde civic center on May 24. Hide Caption 44 of 44

Ramos complained about his grandmother being "on the phone with AT&T abojt (sic) my phone," according to screenshots reviewed by CNN and an interview with the girl, whose mother gave permission for her to be interviewed.

"It's annoying," he texted.

Six minutes later, he texted: "I just shot my grandma in her head."

Seconds later, he said, "Ima go shoot up a(n) elementary school rn (right now)."

It's not clear why Ramos then targeted Robb Elementary, a school of 535 students in grades 2 through 4 as of last school year.

The 15-year-old girl, who lives in Frankfurt, Germany, had begun chatting with Ramos on May 9 on a social media app, she said later.

Ramos told her Monday he got a package of ammunition and the bullets would expand when they struck somebody, she said.

At some point, the girl asked what he planned to do. He told her it was a surprise and to "just wait for it," she said.

On Tuesday, at 11:01 a.m. CT, Ramos called and told her he loved her, she said.

When the horrific school attack unfolded

Although authorities have released conflicting information on law enforcement's response to the shooting, here's what we know about the timeline of Tuesday's shooting (all times Central) -- as of Friday night.

• 11:21 a.m.: The shooter allegedly engaged in a text message exchange with the girl in Germany, telling her he shot his grandmother. The 66-year-old was in serious condition Wednesday at a San Antonio hospital, officials said.

• 11:27: Video shows a teacher propping open a school door to the outside, McCraw said Friday. The door is "typically locked," said Ross McGlothlin, a former principal for the school. "It's an exterior door that you don't need to go to unless you're leaving to go home on a school bus," McGlothlin said.

• 11:28 a.m.:The shooter crashed his grandmother's pickup in a ditch near the school, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said during a news conference Thursday. Ramos got out of the truck, carrying a rifle and bag, Escalon added. The cause of the crash was not clear, officials have said.

The shooter saw two people at a funeral home across the street and fired at them before continuing to walk toward the school, Escalon said. He climbed a fence into a parking lot and began shooting at the school.

At that point, no officers were at the school, Escalon said, walking back earlier information released by his agency that the gunman first encountered an armed school resource officer.

A school resource officer "was not on campus," McCraw said. The officer heard a 911 call, went to school and saw a teacher he mistook for the shooter, McCraw said. "In doing so, he drove right by the suspect who was hunkered down behind the vehicle where he began shooting at the school."

• 11:30 a.m.: US Marshals receive a call for help from an Uvalde police officer, the US Marshals Service said in a statement Friday. On Wednesday, US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said his team received a call around this time.

• 11:31 a.m.: The teacher who kept the door open called 911 to report the crash and a man with a gun, McCraw said.

• 11:33 a.m.: The shooter walked into the west side of the school through the door propped open by the teacher, McCraw said. The shooter fired more than 100 rounds into classroom 111 or 112, which are adjoined, McCraw said.

• 11:37 a.m.: More shots are heard from inside the classrooms. Officers gather in the hallway, McCraw said.

"Officers are there, the initial officers, they received gunfire, they don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they're receiving. But we have officers that are calling for additional resources," Escalon said, describing requests for equipment and personnel, including negotiators.

• 12:03 p.m.: A student makes a 911 call from room 112 lasting 1 minute, 23 seconds. She calls back at 12:10 to report multiple deaths. She calls back at 12:13 and at 12:16 to say "eight or nine students" were alive, McCraw said.

• 12:15 p.m.: Members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit begin to arrive, according to McCraw. Some agents came from the field, and some who were off duty also sped in to respond, according to a source familiar with the situation.

• 12:36 p.m.: Shots are heard on another 911 call.

• 12:50 p.m.: The tactical team opens the door with a key from the janitor and shots can be heard on a 911 call, according to McCraw.

A truck authorities believe belonged to the Robb Elementary School shooter sits crashed in a ditch.

Shooter was in the school for an hour

Authorities faced backlash over the conflicting nature of information that has been released about the timeline of the shooting spree, particularly over the length of time the gunman was in the school before he was fatally shot.

Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, the Uvalde School District police chief, was acting as commander during law enforcement's response to the mass shooting, McCraw said.

When special agents with the US Border Patrol finally arrived at the school to offer backup, the chief made the call for the officers not to breach the classrooms the shooter had locked from the inside, McCraw said.

The officers waited for about 40 minutes before entering the classrooms. Some children called 911 and pleaded for help as the officers stood outside, McCraw said. The officers took no action while waiting for room keys and tactical equipment, a state official said at a news conference.

In all, 80 minutes had passed between when officers were first called to the school at 11:30 a.m. to when a tactical team entered locked classrooms and killed the gunman at 12:50 p.m., McCraw said.

CNN attempted to reach Arredondo at his home on Friday, but there was no response.

The district had created a safety plan with its own police force, social media monitoring, and a threat-reporting system to "provide a safe and secure environment" for students, its website states. It's not clear to what degree the plan was developed with active shooters in mind.

What we know so far about the shooter ...

Three days before the shooting, a photo of two AR-15-style rifles appeared on an Instagram account tied to Ramos.

Ramos recently sent a former classmate a photo showing an AR-platform rifle, a backpack with rounds of ammunition, and several ammo magazines, said the peer, who didn't want to be identified.

"I was like, 'Bro, why do you have this?' and he was like, 'Don't worry about it,'" the friend told CNN. "He proceeded to text me, 'I look very different now. You wouldn't recognize me.'"

Ramos had stopped attending school regularly, the friend said. He worked at a local Wendy's, the restaurant's manager told CNN.

Ramos "kept to himself mostly" and "didn't really socialize with the other employees," evening manager Adrian Mendes said. "He just worked, got paid, and came in to get his check."

The teen in Germany who said she and Ramos had communicated for weeks said Ramos told her he spent a lot of time alone at home.

"Every time I talked to him," she said. "He never had plans with his friends."

Using the social media app Yubo, Ramos threatened girls he would rape them, showed off a rifle he bought and threatened to shoot up schools in livestreams.

Amanda Robbins, 19, said Ramos verbally threatened to break down her door and rape and murder her after she rebuffed his sexual advances during a livestream.

During another livestream, an 18-year-old Yubo user Hannah from Ontario, Canada, said she reported Ramos to Yubo in early April after he threatened to shoot up her school, rape, kill her and her mother.

In a statement to CNN, a Yubo spokesperson said, "We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation," adding that an account has been banned and under investigation.

... and the victims whose lives were stolen

By Wednesday morning, after hours filled with agony, several of the victims' families confirmed they had received devastating news.

Just hours before he was killed, 10-year-old Xavier Lopez was celebrated at Robb Elementary's honor roll ceremony, his mother Felicha Martinez told The Washington Post

"He really couldn't wait to go to middle school," she said.

Angel Garza spent seven hours searching for his 10-year-old daughter before learning Amerie Jo Garza was among the children killed , he said.

"Please don't take a second for granted," Garza posted on Facebook. "Hug your family. Tell them you love them."

Ten-year-old Eliahana "Elijah" Cruz Torres was also a victim, her aunt Leandra Vera told CNN. "Our baby gained her wings," she said.

Tess Marie Mata, also 10, was killed in the shooting, too, her sister Faith Mata, 21, confirmed to the Washington Post . Tess was a fourth-grader who loved TikTok dances, Ariana Grande and the Houston Astros, Mata told the Post. She had been saving money for a family trip to Disney World.

"My precious angel you are loved so deeply. In my eyes you are not a victim but a survivor. I love you always and past forever baby sister, may your wings soar higher than you could ever dream," Mata wrote on Twitter.

People gather outside a civic center after the shooting at nearby Robb Elementary School.

As of Thursday, six victims remained hospitalized, four of whom -- including the gunman's grandmother, who is in serious condition -- are at University Hospital in San Antonio, according to the hospital.

Two 10-year-old girls are among those in the hospital -- one in serious condition and the other in good condition. A 9-year-old child is in good condition, the hospital said Thursday.

Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio was treating two adult patients from the shooting, both in serious condition, a spokesperson said.

The remains of 19 victims had been taken to funeral homes by midday Thursday, with the final two due to be released that afternoon, Judge Lalo Diaz said.

NCAA Tournament updates Saturday: Duke, Villanova reach Final ...

USA TODAY Sports

One half of the men's Final Four is now set.

Duke made sure Coach K's final season will end in New Orleans after the second-seeded Blue Devils smothered No. 4 seed Arkansas in the West Regional final to secure a record 13th trip to the Final Four for coach Mike Krzyzewski

No. 2 seed Villanova clinched the first spot in the Big Easy next weekend with a tight win over No. 5 Houston in the South Regional final that sends the Wildcats back to the Final Four for the third time since 2016.

But, it was the women that took center stage early as four more Sweet 16 games commenced in the women's tournament. The Bridgeport Region's No. 1 seed North Carolina State overcame a second half deficit to dispatch No. 5 Notre Dame and advance to the Elite Eight.

The region's second game featured No. 2 seed Connecticut, which used a decided home court advantage and a 16-0 second half run to topple No. 3 Indiana 75-58.

The Wichita Region saw No. 1 seed Louisville knock out tournament mainstay and No. 4 seed Tennessee, 76-64. No. 3 seed Michigan ended No. 10 seed South Dakota's Cinderella run 52-49 to wrap up the Sweet 16.

DUKE: Coach K's young Blue Devils growing up fast

NOT MIDNIGHT YET: 10 most surprising Cinderellas of NCAA Tournament include Saint Peter's

JERSEY CITY RISE UP: Saint Peter's embodies wackiness and uncertainty of this NCAA Tournament

—

Villanova wins but may have lost a star player

Villanova junior guard Justin Moore was in tears and on crutches after injuring his lower right leg at the end of Villanova's win over Houston that sent the Wildcats to next weekend's Final Four.

Something in Moore's leg appeared to pop on a play with 35 seconds left, but the Wildcats had built up a tiny cushion on the Cougars to withstand the loss of the star guard.

Following the win, Villanova coach Jay Wright revealed than an X-ray showed no broken bones, but the situation is "probably not good for Justin." Wright also said Moore will have an MRI when the team returns to Philadelphia.

Moore has averaged 15 points for the Wildcats and assuming he misses the Final Four, that'll be a huge loss for Villanova.

— Scott Gleeson

Charles Barkley follows Tara VanDerveer's lead to help Ukraine

On Saturday night, following Duke's win over Arkansas in the second of two men's Elite Eight games broadcast on TBS, Charles Barkley, Hall of Famer and basketball studio analyst, pledged $25,000 to humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

The idea to use the NCAA Tournament to raise money for Ukraine sprung from the mind of another Hall of Famer — Tara VanDerveer, head coach of the reigning women's national champion Stanford Cardinal.

At the onset of this year's tournaments, VanDerveer pledged to donate $10 for every made 3 in the women’s NCAA Tournament. Then she challenged other coaches, from both the men’s and women’s tournaments, to join her.

“Pony up,” she said after Stanford dispatched 16-seed Montana State, 78-37, in the first round.

(Read more about what inspired VanDerveer's effort and the coaches that have pledged support here.)

— Ellen J. Horrow and Lindsay Schnell

Duke demolishes Arkansas to send Coack K back to Final Four

SAN FRANCISCO — The final farewell will come at the Final Four.

Mike Krzyzewski’s coaching career and farewell tour survived again as his second-seeded Duke Blue Devils beat the fourth-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks, 78-69, Saturday in the Elite Eight of the men’s NCAA Tournament.

Duke’s victory at the Chase Center secured a record 13th trip to the Final Four for Krzyzewski, the legendary basketball coach who will retire after the end of the season, his 42nd at Duke.

With two more victories, the Blue Devils can send off Coach K with his sixth national title.

In the national semifinals, the Blue Devils will face the winner of the Saint Peter’s-North Carolina game, to be played Sunday.

Regardless of the final outcome, Krzyzewski, 75, made it clear he will relish being in New Orleans, site of the Final Four, which on Friday he called the “Mecca’’ for coaches and players.

Duke denied Arkansas its first trip to the Final Four since 1995. But the Razorbacks have flourished under head coach Eric Musselman while reaching the Elite Eight in consecutive years.

— Josh Peter

Cheerleaders come to the rescue ... again

For the second time in the men's NCAA Tournament, cheerleaders came to the rescue.

When the ball got stuck on the top of the backboard early in the second half during Duke's Elite Eight game against Arkansas, the officials didn't bother with the broom. Instead, the Arkansas cheerleaders, who were stationed under the basket, immediately took charge, executing a perfect lift to grab the basketball.

The Arkansas cheerleaders seemed to have learned a lesson from Indiana's cheerleading squad.

Earlier in the tournament, when the Hoosiers played Saint Mary's in a first-round game, many minutes were spent trying to figure out how to dislodge the ball wedged between the back of the backboard and the shot-clock rigging behind it.

A near 7-footer failed first. Standing on a chair, the referee, on a chair and using a mop, failed next. So Saint Mary’s forward Matthias Tass, who had failed to get the ball the first time, motioned to the Indiana cheerleaders.

Sunday night, no one bothered with chairs or mops. They didn't need to. The cheerleaders were ready.

— Ellen J. Horrow

Duke leads Arkansas at half with trip to Final Four on the line

Duke is doing everything it can to make sure coach Mike Krzyzewski ends his final season with the Blue Devils in New Orleans.

No. 2 seed Duke scored the final eight points of the first half and took a 45-33 lead over No. 4 seed Arkansas into halftime at the West Regional final.

The Blue Devils shot 54.8% in the first half, making 17 of 31 shots and going 9-for-10 from the free throw line. Duke's defense also came up big, out-rebounding the Razorbacks 22 to 12 and holding Arkansas to 40.6% shooting.

Center Mark Williams led the way for Duke, going a perfect 5-for-5 from the field for 10 points, while adding eight rebounds and two blocks. Guard Trevor Keels hit a three seconds before the half ended to give the Blue Devils their biggest lead of the game.

— Ellen J. Horrow

Michigan women’s basketball is headed to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight for the first time in program history.

It wasn't pretty, though, as the third-seeded Wolverines grinded out baskets in the second half to take down 10-seed South Dakota, 52-49, on Saturday in Wichita, Kansas.

Freshman Laila Phelia hit a running layup with 23.5 seconds left to snap a 48-all tie, delivering her first basket of the second half in a clutch moment. Naz Hillmon led the Wolverines with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Phelia added 14 points, her most since scoring 19 in U-M’s loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament. But now the Wolverines have a rematch set with another former foe.

Michigan will face No. 1 seed Louisville in the regional final on Monday. The winner heads to the Final Four in Minneapolis, which begins Friday. The Wolverines and Cardinals played on Dec. 2, with Louisville dominating Michigan, 70-48.

– Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press

No. 2 Villanova tops No. 5 Houston and reach Final Four

Villanova earned coach Jay Wright’s fourth trip to the Final Four with a 50-44 victory over Houston, withstanding the Cougars’ ultra-physical style and their massive crowd advantage to earn a trip to New Orleans next week.

The Wildcats, who were seeded No. 2 in the region, won despite shooting just 29 percent from the field and making 5-of-21 from the 3-point line. But they were able to lead start-to-finish, then fend off a late Cougars push, because they made all 15 foul shots, turned the ball over just nine times and held their own on the boards against a team that has made rebounding its specialty all season.

Leading by just four points late, Villanova senior Jermaine Samuels (16 points, 10 rebounds) found his way to the rim for a layup with 1:06 remaining — one of many massive plays by the Wildcats down the stretch when Houston needed a stop to give itself a chance.

Houston, of course, didn't shoot well at any point in the game either, making just 1-of-20 from the 3-point line and 30 percent overall.

– Dan Wolken

Houston cold from three point line, trailing Villanova at halftime

No. 2 seed Villanova leads No. 5 Houston 27-20.

The Wildcats are up by seven points despite shooting 28% from the field and 3-12 from three. Jermaine Samuels has 7 points for the Wildcats and Caleb Daniels added 7 from the bench.

The Houston Cougars aren’t shooting much better. They are 32.0% from the field and 0-8 from three. Taze Moore leads the team with 6 points. Jamal Shead added 4 points.

Houston’s 20 points tied for the fewest first half points in a NCAA Tournament game in school history, according to TBS.

– Cydney Henderson

Louisville women headed to Elite Eight for fourth consecutive time

WICHITA, Kan. — The Louisville women's basketball team is going back to the Elite Eight for the fourth straight season.

The No. 1 seed Cardinals, who defeated No. 4 seed Tennessee 76-64 in Saturday's Sweet 16 matchup, were led by a stellar outing from Emily Engstler (20 points and 10 rebounds). Hailey Van Lith had 23 points and a career-high six assists, and Kianna Smith had 12 points despite sitting the entire second quarter.

Louisville's defense gave Tennessee problems throughout the game. Still, Tennessee cut the Louisville lead to two points in the fourth quarter, 55-53, but four straight turnovers allowed the Cardinals to take control again. Louisville forced 18 turnovers in the game and had 21 points off those turnovers.

The Cardinals have become one of the nation’s dominant women’s programs under coach Jeff Walz — much like the Lady Vols were for so many years under Pat Summitt — but are still chasing their first national championship.

Louisville will play the winner of No. 3 Michigan and No. 10 South Dakota on Monday night.

– Cameron Teague Robinson, Louisville Courier Journal; The Associated Press

Hall of Fame coach thinks Arkansas will beat Duke

SAN FRANCISCO – Nolan Richardson, the Hall of Fame basketball coach who led the Arkansas Razorbacks to the 1994 national title, has a prediction about Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell tour.

It’s going to end of Saturday, at the Chase Center in the Elite Eight.

That’s when the fourth-seeded Arkansas plays the second-seeded Duke Blue Devils.

“When you look at it with the eye test, when they both (teams) play to their potentials, I think the Razorbacks are three, four, five points better at this point, hopefully because of maturity,’’ Richardson said Friday.

In 1994, his Razorbacks beat Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils, 76-72, in the national championship game.

— Josh Peter

UConn uses strong second half to rout Indiana

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Paige Bueckers and Christyn Williams each scored 15 points to lead a balanced UConn offense in a 75-58 win over Indiana on Saturday to advance the Huskies into their 16th consecutive regional final.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds for Connecticut (28-5), which outscored the Hoosiers 46-32 in the paint.

Azzi Fudd added 13 points for the Huskies, who face top-seeded North Carolina State on Monday night in an attempt to earn a 14th straight trip to the Final Four.

Ali Patberg, in her seventh year of college basketball thanks to transfer and COVID-19 rules, had 16 points for the third-seeded Hoosiers, who finish their season at 24-9. Grace Berger had 13 points and Mackenzie Holmes added 12 for Indiana.

UConn led 37-33 at the half, but opened the second half with a 16-0 run to take control of the game.

— Associated Press

Late steal propels NC State over Notre Dame

Raina Perez picked the pocket of Notre Dame guard Dara Mabrey near midcourt with 16 seconds left and hit the go-ahead breakaway layup as North Carolina State advanced to the Elite Eight with a 66-63 victory over Notre Dame.

The Wolfpack, the No. 1 seed in the Bridgeport Region, advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1998.

Perez's layup capped a 13-4 run as North Carolina State erased a 10-point second half deficit and got back into the game by forcing seven turnovers in the fourth quarter by Notre Dame.

Notre Dame freshman guard Olivia Miles scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the first half. Miles also had six assists and six rebounds.

Elissa Cunane led the Wolfpack with 16 points and 10 rebounds and Kai Crutchfield added 14 points.

NC State, who shot only 40 percent, advances to play Connecticut, with a trip to the Final Four in Minneapolis on the line.

— Scooby Axson

ACC is no good, huh? Miami gives league three Elite Eight teams

CHICAGO — In a battle between two double-digit seeds not expected to be here in the Sweet 16, a veteran-laden Miami (Fla.) team made enough plays down the stretch to put away a relentless Iowa State 70-56 on Friday to reach the Elite Eight in the men’s NCAA Tournament.

It’s coach Jim Larrañaga’s first advancement past the Sweet 16 with Miami in 11 seasons. The Hurricanes (26-10) are now one win away from getting the seasoned coach back to the Final Four — where he memorably guided mid-major George Mason in 2006. With Miami’s hot shooting, alley-oop dunking and experienced roster thanks to the extra COVID year of eligibility, they’re seriously dangerous and have become the biggest surprise of this March Madness not named the Saint Peter’s Peacocks.

Due to a down year in the ACC regular season, Miami was a bubble team at the start of the month but did enough to comfortably hear its name called on Selection Sunday as a No. 10 seed. Now, with North Carolina upsetting UCLA on Friday and Duke advancing Thursday, the ACC has three teams still standing.

- Scott Gleeson

Stanford women heading to third Elite Eight in a row after win over Maryland

SPOKANE, Wash. — Stanford rolled to a (mostly) easy 72-66 win over Maryland in the Sweet 16 Friday, advancing to its third Elite 8 in a row. The defending champion Cardinal will meet Texas on Sunday evening with a ticket to the Final Four on the line.

The two teams met (much) earlier this season in Maples Pavilion, with then-No. 25 Texas upsetting the Cardinal 61-56.

Friday night, three Stanford players scored 15 or more. Lexie Hull, playing in her hometown with her twin sister Lacie, also grabbed nine rebounds. Every player who logged minutes for the Cardinal scored except Ashten Prechtel, who played just three minutes.

Stanford led for more than 38 minutes, and dominated the boards, 50-32, which surely helped make up for its 18 turnovers. The Cardinal held Maryland to 34% from the field and just 16% from 3. Stanford blitzed the Terrapins early, using precise backdoor cuts for easy scores to take a 39-23 lead into the locker room.

– Lindsay Schnell

Gavin Newsom goes on the air against Ron DeSantis as political ...

(CNN) Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis aren't just avatars for the different futures of their parties, but also for the separate realities blue and red Americans are living in -- two people of opposing viewpoints looking at the exact same set of facts and coming to vastly different conclusions.

They're both governors, rising stars and speculated soon-to-be presidential candidates, building out micro-ideological models in their sunny capitals.

In ever-blue California, Newsom, the son of a state appellate judge, has rebooted from his start as a flashy progressive hero around quieter legislative pushes. Meanwhile, in reddening Florida, there's DeSantis, the son of a Nielsen box salesman, who in public cleaves less to his two Ivy League degrees than to the anti-elitist, reactionary politics that have consumed the GOP.

Newsom now is going on the air against DeSantis in Florida -- with what he says is not the first ad of the 2024, or even the 2028, presidential race -- with the goal of trying to get Democrats to reclaim a sense of collective identity that could enable them to beat Trumpism in the long term.

With $105,000 on Fox News, Newsom's new ad , first provided to CNN and set to air on July 4, is a mashup of a classic campaign spot, business investment pitch and one of those California tourism commercials full of celebrities saying how much better it is there, wrapped in the existential terror that's wracking progressives these days.

"It's Independence Day -- so let's talk about what's going on in America," Newsom says in the ad, standing in the California sun, tieless, as "America the Beautiful" fingerpicks in the background. "Freedom is under attack in your state."

Those last words flash across the screen in red, followed by a photo of DeSantis shaking hands with former President Donald Trump , and then another of the Florida governor as Newsom ticks through Florida laws to ban books and restrict voting, speech and access to abortion.

"I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight -- or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love," Newsom says as the images proceed from an aerial shot of the Santa Monica Pier to a rainbow flag waving in the hands of two women with arms around each other. "Don't let them take your freedom."

The ad is paid for by Newsom's reelection campaign, though this clearly isn't about racking up potential absentee voters who have retired to the Sunshine State for what's expected to be an easy win for California governor in November.

"He's running for president," Newsom told CNN last week. "I care about people. I don't like people being treated as less of them. I don't like people being told they're not worthy. I don't like people being used as political pawns. This is not just about him, but he is the poster child of it."

"We're as different," Newsom said of both the governors and their states, "as daylight and darkness."

Over the course of a 20-minute phone interview, Newsom called DeSantis a bully, a fraud, an authoritarian, a fake conservative, a betrayer of Ronald Reagan's legacy and, several times, "DeSantos."

"Everybody's got portions of the playbook," Newsom said, comparing DeSantis to other Republicans. "He's writing it."

DeSantis declined a request for an interview, but those around him say he's happy to have this fight.

"Gavin Newsom might as well light a pile of cash on fire," DeSantis campaign spokesman Dave Abrams said. "Pass the popcorn for his desperate attempt to win back the California refugees who fled the hellhole he created in his state to come to Florida."

The enmity between the two governors has been building for months. DeSantis has said California was letting a "coercive biomedical apparatus" guide its closure-heavy Covid-19 approach, and he called San Francisco -- a city Newsom once led -- a "dumpster fire." Newsom has said that DeSantis' approach to the pandemic would have killed an extra 40,000 Californians and that he does "not look for inspiration to that particular governor."

in November 2020, he sheepishly apologized. When DeSantis was spotted maskless at the Super Bowl months later in February 2021, he sniped, "How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?" His campaign put the quote on a koozie and sold it online. It's also a question of style. When Newsom was caught having gone maskless to a birthday party at an exclusive Napa Valley restaurantin November 2020, he sheepishly apologized. When DeSantis was spotted maskless at the Super Bowl months later in February 2021, he sniped, "How the hell am I going to be able to drink a beer with a mask on?" His campaign put the quote on a koozie and sold it online.

DeSantis on the rise

DeSantis' popularity among Republicans soared during the pandemic, when he bucked medical experts and pushed Florida toward normalcy months before the rest of the country. DeSantis welcomed comparisons between Florida's laissez-faire approach and California, where leaders implemented mask mandates and lockdowns dictated by public health metrics such as case rates.

Look no further than how each state handled its House of Mouse. Disney World, outside Orlando, reopened in July 2020 , just as Florida became the epicenter of the country's deadly Covid-19 summer. Disneyland, in Anaheim, California, cautiously welcomed back visitors about 10 months later in April 2021.

JUST WATCHED Pollster says Republicans are moving away from Trump after poll in key state Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Pollster says Republicans are moving away from Trump after poll in key state 01:09

The stark differences in approach became fodder for both governors.

In a recent sit-down with conservative political commentator Dave Rubin, DeSantis recalled a fundraising trip to California in June 2021 (he's received more donations from residents of the Golden State than from any other state besides Florida, and most of them $100 or less). He'd made a point of telling staff he wouldn't abide by any Covid-19 restrictions while in the state and recalled an incident that he said showed how much he was resonating there.

"These two guys in masks come scurrying over to me," DeSantis said. "I'm like, 'Oh, God. Here we go.' One guy gets right in front of me, pulls down his mask, looks me right in the eye and says, 'I wish you were our governor.'"

If DeSantis versus Newsom ever moves beyond a cross-country shouting match and into a real campaign, Republicans in Florida believe they have the ultimate winning argument: Florida is a growing state and California's population is on the decline, though there's a long way to go before the two approach each other; Florida has more than 21 million residents and California has about 40 million.

"We have a working product in Florida," said Christian Ziegler, vice chairman of the Florida GOP. "The No. 1 way you can measure success of states is economy, job performance and people moving to or moving from states. And the state of Florida is winning that battle. They're losing people. People are fleeing California. And a heckuva lot of them are coming to Florida."

But unlike Texas leaders, who revel whenever a Silicon Valley company sets up shop in the Lone Star State, DeSantis lately has urged California CEOs to stay away from Florida for fear a progressive wave of tech workers would offset the GOP sanctuary he is building. When other Republican leaders in Florida publicly courted Elon Musk to move Twitter to the Sunshine State, DeSantis pushed back, saying, "They enjoy our lower taxes, but you know, what are they really providing?"

Newsom pushes back

For the California governor, this goes deeper than a personal grudge match, or political angling as he pushes legislation and lawsuits that spin away from the rightward trend of recent US Supreme Court decisions and further embrace the "California Republic" on the state flag.

DeSantis isn't Newsom's only GOP target. The California governor joined Trump's social media site purely for the sake of trolling the former President and his supporters. He knocked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott repeatedly and tweeted a retort targeting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who signaled last month he would be comfortable defending the state's defunct anti-sodomy law if the US Supreme Court reverses its 2003 decision to strike down the statute.

"Hell of a thing. Not to mention during pride month," Newsom wrote. "Hey, corporate America -- where are your values? Stand up to these hateful states and come to California."

Newsom insists he's not taking digs at President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he says he's trying to prod his party into getting angrier and more activated. He called the hearings held by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol a "master class" but said Democrats need to be looking past Trump and toward how Trumpism is evolving. After spending much of the pandemic watching and reading right-wing media, Newsom said he's grown more and more alarmed to see how much is taking root.

"My expression is one of frustration, watching now for many years, in many ways predating the current climate and the current administration," Newsom said in the interview. "The success of the right to define the terms of the debate, the success of the right to dominate the narrative ... they're winning in ways that are alarming to me."

The ad, he promised, will be the start of much more to come.

"Things have changed, rules of engagement have to change," Newsom said. "You've got to take the fight to them."

Profitable restaurants: Highest grossing eateries in America

Colman Andrews

24/7 Wall Street

The restaurant business is a tough one. The average lifespan of a restaurant is five years and by some estimates, up to 90 percent of new ones fail within the first year. There are, however, some very successful exceptions that manage to rake in millions of dollars a year.

24/7 Wall Street reviewed food service trade publication Restaurant Business’s latest annual ranking of the top 100 independent restaurants in America, which is based on their reported or estimated gross food and beverage sales for the year. They define independents, for the survey’s purposes, as restaurants with no more than five locations. Fewer than a dozen of the places on this list are single-operator restaurants.

The most recent Restaurant Business rankings, sponsored by Campbell’s, were published late last year, based on figures from 2016. The shuttering in late July of one of their top 50 establishments, Carnevino (No. 23), due to sexual misconduct allegations, inspired us to take a new look at the list. In the course of doing that, we discovered that two other restaurants in the top 50 have also closed since the list was published. There’s no indication that these two went out of business for financial reasons, but the fact that even restaurants that are phenomenally successful can close might serve as a reminder that sales and profits are not the same thing.

Perusal of this list reveals a few interesting facts. First, American diners are obviously carnivorous, as 16 of the top 50 are steakhouses or focus strongly on meat. Second, though Los Angeles has been getting much publicity lately as the country’s new food capital, it shows poorly on the list of top grossing restaurants, with only one restaurant making the cut. New York City, on the other hand, accounts for 20 of the 50. Next in line are Las Vegas, Chicago and vicinity, and Washington, D.C. Finally, celebrity chefdom apparently doesn’t mean very much when it comes to serious financial success. Only half a dozen of these highly grossing restaurants have or had famed culinary personalities attached. Two of those are among the places that have since closed, and two more are no longer associated with the noted names.

Some of the restaurants on this list serve breakfast (and brunch), lunch, and dinner, while others are open only in the evenings; many are open seven days a week, while others might close for a day or two. These factors obviously influence the number of meals served annually. The restaurant industry usually computes “average check” (or “check average”) by dividing total sales by number of those meals. In some instances in this list, the math doesn’t work out, but that’s most likely because the restaurants in question (especially those with nightclubs and/or large bars or lounges) racked up substantial sales from alcohol unaccompanied by meals.

More: Employment trends: 20 jobs that have become dominated by women

50. Beauty & Essex

Location: New York City, N.Y.

New York City, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,308,810

$16,308,810 Avg. check: $85

$85 Meals served annually: 191,505

This quirky place on Manhattan's trendy Lower East Side is a functioning pawn shop up front, filled with merchandise for sale — some of it genuinely pawned, some of it chosen second-hand by curator Lauren Kaminsky. Through a door at the back of the shop, though, is a bustling restaurant, complete with four dining rooms, two bars, and a lounge.

The imaginative menu includes such mashups as tuna poke wonton tacos, Caesar toast with crispy chicken skin, and chile relleno empanadas. The restaurant — owned by Madison Square Garden Co.'s Tao Group, which is well-represented on this list (see No. 14, No. 7, No. 3, and No.1) — has siblings in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

49. Le Diplomate

Location: Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Annual sales: $16,377,232

$16,377,232 Avg. check: $58

$58 Meals served annually: 306,708

A skillfully recreated Parisian-style brasserie with a skylit terrace, this popular D.C. restaurant is part of the Philadelphia-based Starr Group, which operates 37 restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Paris, as well as in the nation's capital and its hometown. The fare is mostly old-style French — oysters, pâté, salade niçoise, beef bourguignon, etc. — and there is an outdoor cart selling homemade ice creams and sorbets in nice weather.

48. Grand Central Oyster Bar

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,400,000 (est.)

$16,400,000 (est.) Avg. check: $54 (est.)

$54 (est.) Meals served annually: 310,000

A New York classic for more than a century, the Oyster Bar on the lower level of iconic Grand Central Station is a major destination for seafood-lovers. Oysters, of course, are the big draw. Every day there are 20 or more choices; the ever-changing master list contains more than 250 different kinds, from the East and West coasts of both the U.S. and Canada, as well as Mexico and Chile. Stews and pan-roasts, cold seafood salads, and 15 or 20 kinds of fresh-caught fish are among the other offerings. The vaulted tile arches and ceilings by famed Valencian architect Rafael Guastavino provide a stunning setting.

47. Quality Italian

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $16,529,915

$16,529,915 Avg. check: $90

$90 Meals served annually: 171,713

Part of the Quality Branded group -- which has eight restaurants in New York City, one in Miami Beach, and a second Quality Italian in Denver -- Quality Italian serves modern Italian-American food. That translates to several varieties of crudo, homemade pastas (including agnolotti with dry-aged porterhouse), sausage and pepper garlic toast, and assorted steaks and chops, among other specialties. Quality Branded's principals are veteran restaurateur Alan Stillman (see No. 8) and his son Michael.

More: US cities where incomes are growing at the fastest pace

46. Taste of Texas

Location: Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas Annual sales: $16,720,966

$16,720,966 Avg. check: $55

$55 Meals served annually: 363,715

Opened in 1977, Taste of Texas is a landmark Houston steakhouse with a menu that includes eight cuts of steak -- all Certified Angus Beef -- seafood, and other steakhouse staples, as well as a range of appetizers, such as Texas quail bites and jalapeño stuffed shrimp. The restaurant also hosts a collection of museum-quality Texas historical artifacts, from Sam Houston's calling card to a Victorian-era gun rack to an assortment of pre-statehood Texas flags.

45. Prime Steakhouse

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)

$16,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $158 (est.)

$158 (est.) Meals served annually: 112,675

Located in the Bellagio Hotel, this is one of two Las Vegas steakhouses run by Alsatian-born celebrity chef-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In all, he is responsible for 23 establishments around the U.S. and 16 overseas. The menu, of course, is steak-heavy (certified A5 Japanese Kobe beef is one of the choices), but includes peekytoe crab cakes, pan-roasted Dover sole, and other seafood choices as well. Several years ago, the bar was remodeled at a cost of $1.1 million into a luxurious 2,723-square-foot lounge with an enclosed patio.

44. Aria Cafe

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)

$16,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $24 (est.)

$24 (est.) Meals served annually: 700,000

Open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., this casual café in the Aria Resort & Casino, with its terrazzo floors and sloping glass walls, offers diners everything from huevos rancheros to fish and chips, from a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato dipping sauce to a "secret sushi" menu.

43. Parc

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Annual sales: $16,921,459

$16,921,459 Avg. check: $56

$56 Meals served annually: 423,619

One of 37 Starr Group restaurants around the country (and in Paris), Parc is a French-style bistro/brasserie transported to Philadelphia. The menu covers all the bases for such places — oysters, onion soup, escargots, trout amandine, duck à l'orange, profiteroles, and the like — and there are daily specials, such as lobster risotto and bouillabaisse.

42. Guy's American Kitchen & Bar

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,000,000 (est.)

$17,000,000 (est.) Avg. check: $43 (est.)

$43 (est.) Meals served annually: 406,000

Guy's — the guy in question being TV star and chef-restaurateur Guy Fieri — opened in late 2012 and was greeted with a now-legendary review by New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. "Guy Fieri, have you eaten at your new restaurant…?" Wells asked. He went on to describe a cocktail that tasted like radiator fluid and formaldehyde, "deeply unlovable" nachos, and Awesome Pretzel Chicken Tenders that were "very far from awesome." That didn't stop a couple of million Fieri fans from lining up outside to sample his "off-the-hook" cooking over the next five years. They're not lining up anymore. Notwithstanding the restaurant's healthy annual sales, Fieri and his backers closed the place on Dec. 31, 2017 for reasons that were never explained.

More: US cities where incomes are shrinking at the fastest pace

41. Shaw's Crab House

Location: Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL Annual sales: $17,100,000 (est.)

$17,100,000 (est.) Avg. check: $65 (est.)

$65 (est.) Meals served annually: 265,000

Inspired by old-school seafood houses in Maryland and Detroit, Shaw's was opened in 1984 by the massive Lettuce Entertain You food service empire, which runs 120+ restaurants in nine states and counting.

In a 1940s-style atmosphere, Shaw's offers oysters, crab (of course) in several forms, sushi and sashimi, steamed Maine lobster, and a selection of fish in season that might include Santa Barbara stone crab claws, Panama swordfish, and Lake Erie yellow perch. There is a newer Shaw's in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.

40. Tavern on the Green

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)

$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $70 (est.)

$70 (est.) Meals served annually: 260,000

This beautifully located Central Park landmark started life in the 1880s as a sheep barn, designed by the celebrated English architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux. Controversial city planner Robert Moses turned it into a restaurant in 1934. Over the years, the fortunes of the place ebbed and flowed, and the management changed frequently. Restaurant impresario Warner LeRoy ran it from 1976 to 1988; famed chef Jeremiah Tower took over the kitchen for a scant five months in 2014 and '15. Today, under Philadelphia restaurateurs Jim Caiola and David Salama, it seems to have found its groove with solid cooking and a something-for-everyone menu that includes kale and quinoa salad, grilled baby octopus, and roasted organic chicken.

39. Mon Ami Gabi

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)

$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $66 (est.)

$66 (est.) Meals served annually: 300,000

The Sin City outpost of this friendly French bistro, with locations also in the Chicago and Washington D.C. areas, is part of the Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You group. The classic French fare focuses on variations on steak frites, though many other choices are available. Breakfast and weekend brunch are also served, and there is an ample gluten-free menu.

38. Chicago Cut Steakhouse

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)

$17,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $85 (est.)

$85 (est.) Meals served annually: 210,000

Steakhouse veterans David Flom and Matthew Moore opened this busy steakhouse in 2010. It has proven popular with a wide range of sports stars as well as celebrities like actors Colin Farrell and John Cusack, who were presumably tempted by its bone-in prime rib, prime steaks, and fresh seafood -- and maybe even by its foot-long Kobe beef hot dog.

37. Founding Farmers

Location: Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Annual sales: $17,243,194

$17,243,194 Avg. check: $35

$35 Meals served annually: 571,078

This unique LEED Gold Certified establishment, which opened in 2008, is one of five restaurants -- four in the D.C. area, one in Pennsylvania -- owned primarily by more than 47,000 family farmers belonging to the North Dakota Farmers Union. Hundreds of farms involved supply raw materials to the restaurants. The fare is mostly home-style — skillet cornbread, fried green tomatoes, chicken pot pie, Yankee pot roast, pork chops — and there are numerous sandwiches and homemades pastas. Founding Farmers also serves proprietary "farm-to-still" rye whisky, gin, and Peruvian pisco brandy.

More: SNAP benefits: Which cities have the most people on food stamps?

36. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse

Location: Rosemont, Illinios

Rosemont, Illinios Annual sales: $17,442,193

$17,442,193 Avg. check: $71

$71 Meals served annually: 258,249

This is one of two suburban locations of the popular downtown Chicago steakhouse of the same name. The no-nonsense menu is centered around prime corn-fed Black Angus beef, aged for 40 days. There's also plenty of seafood, including a spicy lobster cocktail, as well as spit-roasted chicken, baby back ribs, and a charbroiled burger. Owned by the Gibsons Restaurant Group, this Gibsons is across from Rosemont's Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.

35. The Smith (Midtown)

Location: New York, N.Y. f/c

New York, N.Y. f/c Annual sales: $17,450,000

$17,450,000 Avg. check: $44

$44 Meals served annually: 395,911

Two locations of this "jack-of-all-trades" restaurant (as their website calls it) — out of four Smiths in New York City and two in Washington, D.C. — made this list (see No. 27). It's easy to see the appeal. The kitchen seems more concerned with satisfying cravings than breaking new ground. Thus: a raw bar, tomato soup, Caesar salad, ricotta gnocchi, lobster roll, two burgers, five steaks (with fries or field greens), spaghetti and meatballs as a Sunday special…. You get the idea.

34. Abe & Louie's

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Boston, Massachusetts Annual sales: $17,463,196

$17,463,196 Avg. check: $85

$85 Meals served annually: 222,599

Abe & Louie's is an "add lobster tail to any entrée for $25" kind of place, as specified on the menu, heavy on corn-fed Midwestern prime steaks, chops, and seafood. Its parent company, the Tavistock Restaurant Collection, runs 18 restaurants in eight states, including a second Abe & Louie's in Boca Raton, Florida.

33. Blue Fin

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,500,000 (est.)

$17,500,000 (est.) Avg. check: $72 (est.)

$72 (est.) Meals served annually: 243,000

The recently remodeled Blue Fin in the Times Square W Hotel proposes an extensive menu of sushi and other seafood, plus a couple of steaks and a New York State of Mind burger, made with all New York State ingredients. A raw bar and an artisanal cheese selection round out the menu, and breakfast and brunch are served. The restaurant's corporate parent, BR Guest Hospitality, which runs 17 restaurants in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Las Vegas, was acquired in late 2016 by the massive Landry's, Inc., which itself oversees more than 600 restaurants, hotels, casinos, and sports teams across the country.

32. Del Posto

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $17,800,000 (est.)

$17,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $162 (est.)

$162 (est.) Meals served annually: 110,000

This elegant, justifiably pricey Italian restaurant is described on its website as a "creation of Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich and Executive Chef Melissa Rodriguez." That's true as far as it goes, but the missing name on that list is the now-disgraced Mario Batali, whose vision was essential to the place for more than a decade. Opened in 2005, Del Posto got a three-star review in the New York Times the following year, and then a four-star ranking — the paper's highest restaurant accolade — in 2010. No other Italian place had reached that level since 1974. Chef Rodriguez -- who joined the staff in 2011, was promoted to chef de cuisine in 2015, and became executive chef last year -- prepares refined but full-flavored versions of many Italian classics, including vitello tonnato, orecchiette with rabbit sausage and turnips, and the seafood stew called cacciucco livornese.

31. Acme Feed & Seed

Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee Avg. check: $16

$16 Meals served annually: 611,454

Built in 1890, the building now occupied by Acme Feed & Seed has housed a grocery store, a flour company, and a wholesale drug firm, among other tenants, and from 1943 to 1999 it was home to the business that became known as Acme Farm Supply. After that closed, the structure was occupied only occasionally until 2014, when Nashville chef-restaurateur and caterer Tom Morales took it over. In the space, he created a four-level complex with a "funkytonk" on the ground floor, serving such fare as hot chicken sandwich, gorgonzola meatloaf, and "redneck lo mein;" a lounge and bar with sushi bar and bar food on the second level; an event and music venue on the third floor; and an open-air bar on the roof.

More: US population boom: Fastest growing county in every state

30. Bob Chinn's Crab House

Location: Wheeling, Illinois

Wheeling, Illinois Annual sales: $17,990,990

$17,990,990 Avg. check: $37

$37 Meals served annually: 483,111

Opened by veteran Chinese-American restaurateur Bob Chinn in 1982, this seafood house about 30 miles northwest of Chicago takes pride in its quick service, noting that almost every item can be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

Crab, of course, features prominently on the lengthy menu — Louisiana blue crab, Alaskan snow crab and king crab, Maryland softshells, Massachusetts Jonah crab, Australian kona crab. There's a salad bar, a selection of fresh fish, and some meat dishes marked on the menu as "for the landlubber." Some 13 variations on surf & turf are also offered.

29. Quality Meats

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $18,003,504

$18,003,504 Avg. check: $100

$100 Meals served annually: 178,297

The second Quality Branded restaurant on this list (see No. 47), Quality Meats is a clubby-looking steakhouse with a raw bar, a charcuterie selection, and what is provocatively called a "smoking section." This isn't the place for cigarettes and cigars, but rather a menu of smoked cocktails such as the BBQ old-fashioned, liquors such as the rimfire mesquite-smoked Texas single malt, and snacks such as devils on horseback sliders, with bacon jam, dates, Maytag Blue cheese, and caramelized onions. The restaurant's winning customer-suggested dessert is cheesecake ice cream with Key lime pie ribbons, graham cracker crunch, and toasted marshmallow swirl. T.G.I. Fridays and Smith & Wollensky founder Alan Stillman and his son Michael run Quality Branded.

28. Sparks Steak House

Location: New York, NY

New York, NY Annual sales: $18,150,000 (est.)

$18,150,000 (est.) Avg. check: $90 (est.)

$90 (est.) Meals served annually: 210,000

"Little but the prices has changed at Sparks since it opened in 1966, and patrons like it that way," according to Restaurant Business. The menu is steakhouse-standard: shrimp cocktail, baked clams, spinach salad, extra-thick veal and lamb chops, lobster, swordfish, and of course steak. The wine list is immense and justly famous, and there are private rooms that can seat up to 250 people.

27. The Smith (Lincoln Square)

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $18,950,000

$18,950,000 Avg. check: $43

$43 Meals served annually: 530,802

Situated for success across the street from Lincoln Center, this branch of The Smith offers a menu that is almost identical to that at the Midtown version (see No. 5). That means straightforward fare, varied and, according to many reviews both professional and crowd-sourced, generally very good.

More: Cities where Americans are struggling to afford their homes

26. Primehouse

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois Annual sales: $19,200,000 (est.)

$19,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $98 (est.)

$98 (est.) Meals served annually: 200,000

From the time it was founded in 2006 until last year, this Chicago steakhouse — famous for its dry-aged beef in a city where wet-aging is more prevalent — was called David Burke's Primehouse. Burke, the celebrity chef who has opened and closed a number of restaurants in New York and elsewhere, actually left the place in 2014 but didn't take his name off it until last year. Despite its success, the restaurant, which is located in the James Hotel, closed on Dec. 9 and is scheduled to be reinvented soon as The James Kitchen + Bar.

25. SW Steakhouse

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $19,900,000 (est.)

$19,900,000 (est.) Avg. check: $130 (est.)

$130 (est.) Meals served annually: 151,000

This waterside meat emporium, which offers views of the nightly Wynn Hotel's Lake of Dreams shows — featuring music, lights, holographics, and puppetry — is the preserve of chef David Walzog, a veteran of several New York City steakhouses.

In addition to a caviar service, several salads, and a good choice of aged steaks and other entrees, the menu lists seven varieties of high-quality wagyu beef, six of them from Japan, topping out at $220 for a 4-ounce portion of Hyogo Prefecture Kobe tenderloin, New York strip, ribeye, or rib cap.

24. Bazaar Meat by José Andrés

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $20,200,000 (est.)

$20,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $105 (est.)

$105 (est.) Meals served annually: 192,000

José Andrés is a phenomenon, a tireless champion of Spanish food, both traditional and avant-garde, and a globe-trotting food activist who has spearheaded hunger relief efforts in places like Haiti and Puerto Rico and was named one of Time magazine's most influential people for 2018. He is also a showman, well-suited to Las Vegas, where this carnivore's paradise offers an array of tartares, carpaccios, and cured meats; steaks galore, including Japanese Kobe; roast suckling pig (by special order); and, just for variety, caviar tasting flights and what the menu calls "meats from the sea" like whole turbot and grilled Maine lobster.

23. Carnevino Italian Steakhouse

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $20,400,000 (est.)

$20,400,000 (est.) Avg. check: $182 (est.)

$182 (est.) Meals served annually: 112,000

Carnevino was part of the mostly-Italian restaurant group founded by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. It was known for its wide range of pastas and its veal, beef, lamb, and pork dishes. Following allegations of sexual misconduct against Batali earlier this year, Batali separated from the organization, and the group announced that it was closing its three Las Vegas restaurants this month, including this one. Carnevino shut down on July 23.

22. Angus Barn

Location: Raleigh, N.C.

Raleigh, N.C. Annual sales: $20,402,068

$20,402,068 Avg. check: $68

$68 Meals served annually: 298,960

This family-owned meat mecca in a huge barn-like building near the Raleigh-Durham airport opened in 1960. The structure burned in 1964 but was rebuilt and reopened the following year. Aged steaks, in various cuts and sizes, are a specialty — the restaurant claims to serve an average of 22,000 of them a month — but seafood, seafood-and-meat combinations, and even a char-grilled vegetable plate are also available.

21. Buddakan

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $20,555,460

$20,555,460 Avg. check: $84

$84 Meals served annually: 250,416

Another establishment owned by Philadelphia’s Starr Group, which has 36 eating places around America as well as one in Paris, Buddakan has been hailed as one of the most beautifully designed restaurants in New York City. The main dining room is illuminated with chandeliers that one critic described as being “as big as Volkswagens” hung from a ceiling and another called “as high as the Himalayas.”

The menu is Asian-inspired, with a selection of dumplings and other dim sum, a Peking duck salad with sherry vinaigrette, Mongolian lamb chops, kung pao monkfish, and Dungeness crab sticky rice with Chinese broccoli among the choices.

More: Budweiser, Coors Light, Bud Light top list of best-selling beers in America

20. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois Annual sales: $21,200,000 (est.)

$21,200,000 (est.) Avg. check: $80 (est.)

$80 (est.) Meals served annually: 265,000

The owners of Joe's Stone Crab, a Miami Beach institution dating from 1913, entered into a partnership with Richard Melman, founder of Chicago's Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, in 2000 to open this popular Chicago extension of the original concept. Two more were subsequently launched, in Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., and all three are among

the highest-grossing restaurants in the country (see No. 15 and No.17).

Florida stone crab remains a staple of the menu, along with other fish and shellfish choices such as oysters Rockefeller, crispy fried shrimp, and grilled Alaskan halibut. Steaks include a rarely seen bone-in filet mignon.

19. St. Elmo Steak House

Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis, Indiana Annual sales: $21,308,565

$21,308,565 Avg. check: $90

$90 Meals served annually: 239,725

The oldest Indianapolis steakhouse still in its original location, St. Elmo — named for the patron saint of sailors — opened as a tavern in 1902. Nine different steaks are served, and prices for these and other entrees include navy bean soup or tomato juice plus a choice of potatoes or green beans. Chops, chicken, seafood, and salads fill out the bill of fare. For sports fans, there are also special Colts football and Pacers basketball pre-game menus.

18. Bottega Louie

Location: Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California Annual sales: $21,720,463

$21,720,463 Avg. check: $35

$35 Meals served annually: 729,612

This 255-seat restaurant in downtown Los Angeles has a gourmet market, patisserie, and café attached. Breakfast, weekend brunch, lunch, and dinner are served. Pizzas, pastas, small plates, such as gazpacho, Sicilian tuna crudo, meatballs marinara, etc., and a selection of main dishes are offered day and night. Yelp named Bottega Louie as one of the 30 L.A. restaurants worth a wait (reservations aren't accepted). A West Hollywood location is planned for 2019.

17. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $21,800,000 (est.)

$21,800,000 (est.) Avg. check: $85 (est.)

$85 (est.) Meals served annually: 260,000

This spinoff has a menu that's almost identical to that at the Chicago original, but with prices slightly higher. The daily market card differs somewhat, especially in the choice of oysters. Restaurant Business notes that, while its name specifies prime steak, Joe's created a sriracha bacon burger for National Burger Month in May.

16. The Hamilton

Location: Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Annual sales: $21,978,322

$21,978,322 Avg. check: $34

$34 Meals served annually: 759,970

The Hamilton (not to be confused with the Hamilton Hotel) is owned and operated by the Clyde's Restaurant Group, whose holdings include more than a dozen restaurants and music venues in the D.C. area, including the historic Old Ebbitt Grill (see No. 5). The club at The Hamilton is host to the annual White House Correspondents Jam, held the night before the famous political-themed dinner itself (Billy Bob Thornton, Kevin Bacon, and newsman/rock bassist Lester Holt have been among the performers).

The restaurant? It has something for everyone: mezze platter, wings, charcuterie and cheese, salads, sushi, fish and chips, Nashville-style hot chicken, house-made pastas, steaks and chops, burgers and sandwiches … and a selection of milkshakes and malts, plain or with booze added.

More: Wage potential: Highest paying jobs you can get without a college degree

15. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab

Location: Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Annual sales: $23,000,000 (est.)

$23,000,000 (est.) Avg. check: $80 (est.)

$80 (est.) Meals served annually: 288,000

Prices at this outpost of Joe's in the nation's capital are slightly lower in many cases than at the parent restaurant in Chicago, but the menu is otherwise identical. There's a long "Cocktail Hour" daily, running from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and featuring signature drinks and half-price oysters on the half shell.

14. Tao Uptown

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,089,638

$23,089,638 Avg. check: $85

$85 Meals served annually: 282,827

One of two Taos in New York City (Tao Downtown is listed at No. 3) — others are in L.A., Chicago, and Las Vegas (see No. 1) — this Asian-themed mega-restaurant occupies a building that was a Vanderbilt family stable in the 19th century and later a movie theatre. The design of this three-level, 300-seat place is appropriately theatrical, with a dining room dominated by a 16-foot-tall seated Buddha above a virtual reflecting pool.

Dim sum and other small plates such as rock shrimp lettuce cups, and chicken satay, as well as Chinese-style spareribs, tempura vegetables, sushi and sashimi, seafood in various guises, kung pao chicken, and a grilled Kobe ribeye with yuzu cilantro butter are among the menu choices. The Madison Square Garden Co. bought a 62.5% stake in Tao Group for $181 million in early 2017.

13. Prime 112

Location: Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach, Florida Annual sales: $23,100,000

$23,100,000 Avg. check: $120

$120 Meals served annually: 193,000

Miami Beach-based Myles Restaurant Group operates four restaurants and a boutique hotel within a one-block radius in trendy South Beach. The group launched this place — which it describes as "the first modern steakhouse in the United States" — in 2004.

The extensive menu includes a raw bar selection, more than 20 appetizers and salads -- including such unusual choices as truffle provolone fondue and pan-seared diver scallops with slow-braised wagyu short rib -- 15 different cuts and sizes of steak with 17 accompanying sauces and compound butters, 10 kinds of regular and sweet potatoes, 22 vegetable preparations, and a raft of "chef's compositions," from blackened local swordfish to chicken and waffles.

12. Vandal

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,680,917

$23,680,917 Avg. check: $80

$80 Meals served annually: 215,483

Another oversized restaurant complex from the Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 7, No. 3, and No. 1), which has been majority-owned by the Madison Square Garden Co. since last year, Vandal eschews the Asian ambiance of the Tao restaurants themselves to feature what its website styles as "the art, architecture, and food of global culture." Graphics, multimedia works, and photographs by an international group of urban artists line the walls. It can be debated whether yellowtail crudo with blueberry and ginger, avocado toast with peas and radishes, or a 50-day-dry-aged 36-ounce tomahawk ribeye steak were "[i]nspired by street food from around the world," as the website puts it, but there is certainly a multi-cultural flavor to such dishes as roasted squash tostadas, shawarma salad, tortilla soup dumplings, and wild mushroom "street pizza."

11. Junior's (Times Square)

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $23,972,978

$23,972,978 Avg. check: $24

$24 Meals served annually: 950,000

Since the original was opened in 1950 in Brooklyn, Junior's has been famous for its New York-style cheesecake. The menu goes far beyond that, though, with a full deli-style selection of blintzes and potato pancakes, deli sandwiches (including four Reuben variations), burgers, and entrees, including brisket of beef and Hungarian beef goulash. Less in the deli mode are such appetizers as Thai ginger BBQ wings, disco fries, and seven barbecue shrimp, chicken, and ribs choices. When this first Junior's in Manhattan's Times Square neighborhood opened in 2006, according to the restaurant website, its "Brooklyn NY" sign confused would-be customers who thought they'd come out of the subway at the wrong stop. There's a newer Junior's four blocks north, as well as outposts at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and in Boca Raton, Florida.

More: Are these the worst cities to live in? Study looks at quality of life across the U.S.

10. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois Annual sales: $24,700,825

$24,700,825 Avg. check: $75

$75 Meals served annually: 363,301

The suburban Rosemount extension of this old-style steakhouse made this list at No. 36, but this is the Near North Side Chicago original. It opened its doors in 1989 in the space that once housed the legendary club Mister Kelly's, where the likes of Bette Midler, Sarah Vaughan, and Muddy Waters once appeared. Gibsons was the first restaurant group in the country to be granted its own USDA Prime certification, and it serves only Midwestern grass-fed Black Angus beef plus a couple of 75-day-aged Australian grass-fed cuts. The menu is similar to that at the Rosemount restaurant, and prices are basically the same.

9. Bryant Park Grill & Cafe

Location: New York, NY

New York, NY Annual sales: $25,400,000

$25,400,000 Avg. check: $50 (est.)

$50 (est.) Meals served annually: 420,000

In the early 1980s, Manhattan's centrally located Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library's main branch, was an unkempt no-go landscape where dope dealers and other disreputable types plied their trades. Today, it is a major destination, hosting over a thousand free activities, classes, and events each year as well as a popular Winter Village of shops — and this beautifully situated restaurant, opened in 1995 in a latticed pavilion and environs.

Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and all-day café service are available here. The menu is international in flavor, ranging from Moroccan lamb kebab and sashimi tuna taco appetizers to such main dishes as sweet and spicy monkfish and grilled chicken fricassée. Ark Restaurants, which operates 22 establishments in six states and Washington, D.C., runs the place.

8. Smith & Wollensky

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $25,961,337

$25,961,337 Avg. check: $100

$100 Meals served annually: 296,723

Born in 1977, this classic steakhouse was named totally at random, with "Smith" and "Wollensky" chosen from a New York City phone book. The man behind it was Alan Stillman, who a dozen years earlier had created T.G.I. Fridays. He described the steakhouse originally as "the American version of the French restaurants I loved in France." Since its founding, Smith & Wollensky grew into a small chain, which today has nine venues around the country and one in London. In 2007, however, Stillman sold the company to the Patina Restaurant Group, keeping the Manhattan original for himself.

Prime dry-aged steaks form the heart of the relatively restrained menu, but there are also such traditional dishes as Caesar salad, New England clam chowder, lemon pepper chicken, and Dover sole meunière. Wine lovers appreciate the thrice-yearly Wine Week promotion, which offers samples of 10 different wines with lunch or dinner for $20.

7. Lavo New York

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $26,822,655

$26,822,655 Avg. check: $85

$85 Meals served annually: 200,000

The Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 3, and No. 1) turns to Italy for inspiration for this restaurant and nightclub. Antique mirrors, reclaimed subway tiles, and old factory bricks frame the dining room.

The menu offers a few surprises, but covers such basics as baked clams oreganato, Maine lobster cocktail, "The Meatball," an assortment of pizzas and pastas, chicken Marsala, and grilled red snapper with panzanella salad. The subterranean herringbone-tiled nightclub boasts a sunken dancefloor, raised VIP sections, and a multitude of LED screens.

6. The Boathouse Orlando

Location: Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida Annual sales: $30,814,369

$30,814,369 Avg. check: $43

$43 Meals served annually: 643,829

Appropriately for the theme-park capital of Orlando, The Boathouse at Walt Disney World Resort at Disney Springs offers rides of a sort itself: 25-minute tours of Disney Springs landmarks in vintage Amphicars and a cruise across Lake Buena Vista, and a scenic river-way in a 40-foot-long Venetian water taxi.

If being out on open water works up customers' appetites, they can feast in the waterfront dining room on the likes of firecracker shrimp, hoisin chili calamari, New England lobster roll, panko-fried fish of the day, or filet mignon Oscar style, with lump crab, asparagus, and béanaise. Chicago's Gibsons Restaurant Group (see No. 36 and No. 10) is in charge here.

More: Who is getting paid more? 16 states where personal incomes are booming

5. Old Ebbitt Grill

Location: Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. Annual sales: $32,662,051

$32,662,051 Avg. check: $39

$39 Meals served annually: 1,072,293

This historic Washington establishment was founded as a boarding house in 1856. It evolved into a saloon and then an eating place, occupying numerous locations over the decades. The owners of Georgetown restaurant Clyde's bought it at a federal tax auction in 1970 -- this was the beginning of what is today the Clyde's Restaurant Group (see No. 16) -- and it moved a final time in 1983.

The clubby dining room, with its Old Bar behind carved glass panels, serves mostly all-American fare with an occasional Southern accent, including fried green tomatoes, oyster gumbo, cornmeal-crusted fried catfish, along with a couple of steaks, a few pastas, and a choice of sandwiches and burgers.

4. Carmine's (New York)

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $33,147,017

$33,147,017 Avg. check: $33

$33 Meals served annually: 396,871

A 1990 uptown evocation of an old-school New York Italian-American family restaurant, Carmine's — which subsequently spawned branches in Times Square and in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and the Bahamas — is famous for its gargantuan family-style portions and generously poured cocktails.

All the crowd-pleasers are here: stuffed mushrooms, fried zucchini, hot or cold antipasto plates, roasted peppers with anchovies, pasta with white or red clam sauce, manicotti, penne alla vodka, chicken scarpiello, veal parmigiana, shrimp scampi, tiramisù, and on and on. A special allergy menu caters to those with dairy and egg, wheat/gluten, and garlic allergies as well as to vegetarians and vegans.

3. Tao Downtown

Location: New York, N.Y.

New York, N.Y. Annual sales: $33,401,819

$33,401,819 Avg. check: $95

$95 Meals served annually: 311,945

The dramatic decor in this downtown sibling of Tao Uptown (see No. 14) includes a gigantic reclining Buddha, a 24-armed standing Quan Yin Buddha, 3D animated projections of flowing waterfalls and growing moss, and mixed-media murals by British urban artist HUSH. The restaurant's website says that the place "is intended to look and feel as if it has been there for decades and only unearthed recently …"

The pan-Asian menu includes dim sum, yakitori, tempura, a number of noodle and rice selections, sushi and sashimi, and numerous seafood, poultry, and meat dishes. The majority owner of the Tao group is now the Madison Square Garden Co., which owns sports teams and various entertainment venues around the country in addition to its iconic namesake.

More: Broad appeal: McDonald's, Walmart top list of 25 most popular stores in America

2. Joe's Stone Crab

Location: Miami Beach, Florida

Miami Beach, Florida Annual sales: $37,243,159

$37,243,159 Avg. check: $80

$80 Meals served annually: 316,000

Joe's founder Joe Weiss "discovered" stone crabs. He and his wife had opened a lunch stand in Miami Beach in 1913. In 1921, a visiting ichthyologist from Harvard brought him a sack of these crustaceans. At first, Joe thought nobody would eat them, but he tried boiling and then chilling them, and they were a hit. In 2000, Chicago's Let Us Entertain You restaurant group went into partnership with Weiss's descendents to open a hybrid called Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab (see No. 20 and No. 17), but the original remains a one-of-a-kind operation.

Besides the signature claws -- fresh stone crabs are in season from October 15 to May 15 -- the large menu offers plenty of other seafood, including oysters, snapper and shrimp ceviche, crab cannelloni, potato-crusted mahi mahi, and even skirt steak tacos and steak frites. If you can't get to Joe's in person, the restaurant ships "Claws for Celebration" packages, featuring stone crab claws, the house mustard sauce, a cracking board, a mallet, cocktail forks, and bibs. Prices range from $138.95 for medium claws for two to $1,251.95 for jumbo claws for 10.

1. Tao Las Vegas

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada Annual sales: $42,470,345

$42,470,345 Avg. check: $90

$90 Meals served annually: 226,146

Installed in the Venetian Hotel, Tao Las Vegas encompasses a restaurant -- self-described as an "Asian bistro," but bigger than any bistro should be -- a 10,000-square-foot Thursday-through-Saturday nightclub, and a weekend poolside "beach club." The menu is similar to that at other Taos (see No. 3 and No. 14), with dim sum, sushi and sashimi, rice and noodle dishes, and various entrees.

It's possible, however, that between its glamorous lounge, its beach club, and its nightclub — where celebrity sightings have included Madonna, Jay Z, Drake, Kim Kardashian, and Jamie Foxx — dinner here is almost beside the point. The Madison Square Garden Co., which bought a majority stake in the Tao Group in 2017, owns various entertainment venues in addition to sports teams and the Garden itself.

24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

Photos: People we've lost in 2022

Pramod Thakur/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Indian singer and composer Bappi Lahiri, who lent his talent to Indian cinema for nearly 50 years, died February 15 at the age of 69, according to a statement from his doctor. Lahiri, who was fondly referred to as "India's Disco King," was known for his love of 1970s-inspired dance beats. His signature hits, including the 1982 smash "Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood movie of the same name, helped to infuse Indian cinema with a lively, more contemporary sound.

Fake Covid-19 testing sites put consumers at risk, officials say as ...

New York (CNN) In recent months, mobile Covid-19 testing tents and vans have sprouted on urban sidewalks and street curbs as demand has skyrocketed in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

Some of the sites run by private companies offer legitimate, timely and reliable results, but others are more like weeds.

High demand and scarce supply opened the door to bad actors, and officials in some states are having a hard time keeping up their oversight amid the proliferation. And they are sounding the alarm that by visiting the pop-up industry's sometimes makeshift tents, desperate patients could be putting their health, wallets and personal data at risk.

"These conditions change so rapidly," said Gigi Gronvall , a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security who leads the COVID-19 Testing Toolkit , which provides guidance to employers and others. "It's not a surprise that these conditions were totally ripe for consumers to be gouged and to get fraudulent tests."

Consumers seeking testing — either a rapid antigen test that provides results in under an hour or a polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test that generally takes longer but is more accurate — may think all testing sites are created equal, but they're not. Unfortunately, telling the good from the bad is not always easy.

Consumers at testing sites in the Chicago area have encountered employees who aren't wearing masks or gloves or have been asked to provide a Social Security or credit card number before a test is provided, said Dr. Eve Bloomgarden , who co-founded the Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team, an advocacy group.

Fake testing sites put consumers at risk for identity theft, inaccurate or missing test results, and financial losses if they're charged for the tests, which are typically free to consumers.

"I don't think we can put this on the public to know" which sites are legitimate, Bloomgarden said. "Guidance needs to be coming from the state and regulated at the public health level."

Melaney Arnold, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, said state officials "are aware of complaints for various testing locations across the state" and are investigating. She said consumers should contact Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office if they are concerned about fraud or criminal activity at testing sites.

In Philadelphia, workers at a sidewalk Covid-19 testing tent falsely claimed to be working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said James Garrow, communications director for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, in an emailed response to questions. But FEMA told the department it wasn't funding any testing centers in the city at the time.

"Currently, there are no quick markers to help folks know if a site is legitimate or not ," Garrow said. "That's why we're investigating if it is possible to provide a placard to demonstrate that a site is legitimate."

It's hard to walk down a street in some parts of Manhattan without running into at least one or two of the pop-up sites. Leading up to the holidays, people stood in long lines in the cold waiting to be swabbed. Some vans and tents are clearly marked with company names, while others are operating out of what appear to be rental vans.

A Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard in December.

The sites were also ubiquitous in Los Angeles. In some places, testing sites run by the same company were clustered within easy walking distance of one another. In the pre-holiday rush, the operator at a Crestview Clinical Laboratory site on Wilshire Boulevard, who wouldn't give her name to a reporter, said she also provided a VIP service from another testing company for people willing to pay extra for rapid PCR tests.

Public health experts say they hope that concerns about a mobile test site's legitimacy won't deter people from getting tested.

Testing outdoors has advantages, too.

"If I had the choice between two options while there was a surge happening, one being completely outdoors and one indoors, I would choose the outdoor testing site," said Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York. "And I would choose affordable home testing over both of those."

In general, more testing is better than less.

"I tend not to care why people are testing," Nash said. "If they are doing it to be safer at a party, great. But I do care if access is inequitable."

People stand in line at a LabQ testing van near Columbia University in New York in December.

Some testing operators are more prominent in neighborhoods where large shares of residents likely have health insurance rather than those where people are more likely to be without. For example, a map of testing locations for LabQ, a company that offers mobile Covid-19 testing in the New York City area, shows dozens of spots in Manhattan but only a handful in the Bronx.

One weak spot in the system is that although city and state health departments keep close regulatory tabs on the labs that process Covid-19 tests, they typically don't regulate the site operators that administer the tests.

In Philadelphia, Garrow said, the only licensing requirement for Covid-19 testing sites is that the lab they use have a license from the state health department showing that it meets federal standards under the law known as Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments . CLIA sets lab testing standards for accuracy, reliability and timeliness.

In Maryland, Covid-19 testing sites must have a CLIA "waiver" from the federal government allowing them to perform the tests, said Andy Owen, deputy media relations director for the Maryland Department of Health.

In general, labs in the U.S. must have CLIA licenses, and requiring waivers for point-of-care testing is also standard.

In December 2020, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh issued a news release warning consumers about unauthorized Covid-19 testing operations that could collect people's personal identifying information and use it to steal their identity.

Since then, the department hasn't received any complaints about pop-up testing sites, according to Aleithea Warmack, deputy director of communications in the consumer protection division of the attorney general's office.

In general, a test site operator seeking payment from a health plan for administering a Covid-19 test must have a national provider identifier, which comes from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Kristine Grow , a spokesperson for AHIP, a trade group for health plans.

Although test operators routinely ask consumers for health insurance information, asking for credit card numbers is not routine. Individual consumers typically don't have to pay out-of-pocket for a Covid-19 test because it is covered by insurance or by the federal government for people who are uninsured. However, some people are charged if the test isn't ordered by their doctor, is a rush service or is performed by an out-of-network provider, where "we do continue to see price gouging through the course of the public health emergency," Grow said.

One way to identify a legitimate testing operator is to check lists maintained by states and cities of the testing operators they work with or fund. But many legitimate testing operators are not in the official databases, Bloomgarden said.

Some independent test site operators are "highly qualified," said Scott Becker , CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Becker went to a drive-through testing site in his neighborhood in Montgomery County, Maryland. The test operator told him which lab they used, and he received results with the name of the lab on them.

"They're not all bad," Becker said. "It's just hard for Joe Consumer to figure it out."

As demand for Covid-19 testing grows, even legitimate test operators may not meet their commitments.

Theo Servedio stood in line with a handful of other people at the sliding door of a LabQ mobile testing van near Columbia University in New York in December. The 19-year-old sophomore planned to attend a fraternity party, but with the uptick in Covid cases, he wanted to get tested first. A sign at the registration table promised a 24-hour turnaround on its PCR tests.

Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team.

"They're both free, but turnaround for testing at the school has been 48 to 72 hours in the past," Servedio said.

He got his results in 24 hours. But others weren't so lucky. According to a warning letter sent to LabQ in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James , some consumers had waited more than 96 hours for their Covid-19 test results despite the company's promise of a 48-hour turnaround. LabQ was one of several Covid-19 test companies that received the warnings in late December and early January.

LabQ didn't respond to a request for comment.

Moriah Wilson came from a family of athletes. The 25-year-old elite ...

(CNN) Fresh off a series of racing wins in the spring, elite cyclist Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson was set to compete in a 157-mile race in Texas on May 14. But days before the contest, the 25-year-old was shot and killed at a friend's home in Austin.

US Marshals are now on the hunt for a 34-year-old woman suspected of her murder, and police investigators are digging into Wilson's past relationship with the suspect's boyfriend.

Wilson's family is mourning the loss of their "beautiful daughter and sister," who excelled as a biker and skier. "Moriah was a talented, kind, and caring young woman. Her life was taken from her before she had the opportunity to achieve everything she dreamed of," the family said.

Here's what we know so far about Wilson, why police believe she may have been targeted and her short-lived success in the burgeoning sport of gravel racing.

A star skier turned cyclist from a family of athletes

Wilson was a star skier in her younger years but recently became a high-level cyclist. She particularly excelled at "gravel racing," a relatively new category of cycling that sits in a hybrid middle ground between road cycling and mountain biking.

profile in VeloNews published the day she died referred to her as "the winningest woman in the American off-road scene." Wilson had won nearly 10 races this year, including the Shasta Gravel Hugger and Rock Cobbler in California, according to the article. Last month, she won the 137-mile Belgian Waffle Ride by 25 minutes over the second-place finisher.

Wilson wrote about her racing experiences on her Instagram and in a Substack newsletter . In March, she reflected on her second place finish at The Mid South race and reflected briefly on her rise to the top of the field.

"This race was the first time in my career (I can call it a career at this point) that I truly felt like I had a target on my back," she wrote. "Was I nervous? Heck yeah! But more than anything I was excited."

At the time of her death, Wilson was just days from participating in the Gravel Locos bike race. The day after the race, an event organizer remembered her on Facebook as a "role model, a shy compassionate person, a spirited tactical racer and a competitor that genuinely cared about those competing against you."

Mo Wilson spent her Vermont childhood skiing in the winter and biking in the summer.

Wilson had recently moved back to her home state of Vermont. While growing up, she was a consummate athlete, skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. Her father Eric Wilson skied for the US National Ski team, and her aunt Laura was a Nordic skier and competed at the Olympics, she told VeloNews.

She, too, picked up the sport competitively. "In alpine skiing, Moriah rose to the level of a nationally ranked junior skier, placing 3rd in the 2013 U.S. Junior National Championship Downhill event," her obituary states . While attending Dartmouth University, she was a member of the Alpine Ski Team, "fulfilling a childhood dream," the obituary says.

Wilson also was the captain of her high school soccer team, according to her Dartmouth athletic profile

After college, she moved away from skiing toward competitive biking.

"Growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, she spent many hours on the Kingdom Trails developing her skills and strength as a biker," the obituary states. "After graduating from Dartmouth, Moriah shifted gears and continued to pursue her athletic dreams as an elite bike racer."

Outside of sports, she enjoyed "cooking, writing, and traveling," it says, adding, "she especially loved Italy, Taco Tuesdays, maple creemees and playing Catan with her friends."

How the shooting unfolded

On May 11, Wilson was shot multiple times while staying at a friend's home in Austin ahead of the Gravel Locos race in Hico, according to an arrest affidavit filed in Travis County District Court.

Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, a 34-year-old Austin resident, is wanted for homicide in the killing and is now a fugitive, the US Marshals said

Both women had recently been in romantic relationships with the same man -- 35-year-old professional cyclist Colin Strickland -- and messages and interviews with tipsters suggest jealousy could be a potential motive, according to the affidavit.

On the day of the killing, Wilson told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Strickland, the affidavit says -- a detail Strickland confirmed in an interview with police. They had dinner together afterward and he then dropped her off at her friend's home, Strickland said. He did not go inside.

Austin Police responded to the home later that evening, shortly before 10 p.m. CT, and found Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooting did not appear to be "a random act," police said in a May 14 news release

Police issued a homicide warrant on May 17 for Armstrong. The affidavit for her arrest points in part to video surveillance obtained by investigators that shows a vehicle similar to hers near the home shortly before Wilson's body was found.

In addition, investigators compared ballistics from the scene with those of bullets test-fired from a firearm Strickland had recently purchased for Armstrong, and the "potential that the same firearm was involved is significant," the document says.

Per the affidavit, Strickland told police he has not had contact with Armstrong since May 13.

Within 24 hours of Wilson's death, officers from the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force apprehended Armstrong in connection with an unrelated arrest warrant and spoke to her. However, Austin Police said they then learned Armstrong's arrest warrant was not valid and told her she was free to leave.

Armstrong requested to end the interview and left after detectives began confronting her about the security camera video that placed her car near the crime scene, the affidavit states.

Wilson had past relationship with suspect's boyfriend

In a statement to the Austin American-Statesman , Strickland said he had a "brief romantic relationship" with Wilson from late October to early November 2021, while he was separated from Armstrong.

Strickland and Armstrong reconciled and resumed their relationship about a month later, he told the paper . His relationship with Wilson then became "platonic and professional" and he considered her a "close friend," he said.

"There is no way to adequately express the regret and torture I feel about my proximity to this horrible crime," Strickland said, per the newspaper. "I am sorry, and I simply cannot make sense of this unfathomable situation."

The affidavit cites a tipster who alleged Armstrong came to believe Strickland and Wilson's romantic relationship was ongoing as of January 2022. Strickland admitted to trying to hide his communications with Wilson from Armstrong by changing Wilson's name in his phone and deleting texts, the affidavit says.

Armstrong had contacted Wilson several times and in one instance told her to "stay away" from Strickland, one of Wilson's friends told investigators, according to the affidavit.

Wilson was not in any romantic relationship at the time of her death, her family said in a statement.

"While we will not elaborate about the ongoing investigation, we do feel it's important to clarify that at the time of her death, those closest to her clearly understood, directly from Moriah, that she was not in a romantic relationship with anyone," the family said.

Eric Levenson
Hannah Sarisohn
Dakin Andone