Hector Mendoza as the Underwoods’ Foil

Hector Mendoza was the senior senator from Arizona, and for the majority of the show served as the Republican Leader of the US Senate. Some small amount of backstory is given to Mendoza’s character, that he worked as a staffer during Ronald Reagan’s 1984 presidential campaign.

In the second season of House of Cards, Frank Underwood, then the Vice President under President Walker, tried to work with Mendoza to push a spending bill through the Republican-controlled Senate. However, pressure from within the Republican Party by Tea Party-aligned senators forced Mendoza to back out of the agreement. Mendoza ordered the Republican senators to leave the Senate chamber during the middle of a vote, so that Frank Underwood was unable to take a vote on his American Works spending bill, which was Underwood’s attempt to find a bipartisan approach to stabilizing America’s economy..

Underwood responded by getting the Senate Minority Leader to compel the attendance of absent senators, a motion which was passed nearly unanimously due to the absence of Republican senators which precipitated the motion. This led to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest any absent senators and escort them back to the chamber. Hector Mendoza and the rest of the Republicans were therefore put in handcuffs and led back into the chamber by Capitol Police. The action meant Underwood was able to pass his bill, but drew the ire of both the Republican Party and many moderates within the Democrats.

Hector Mendoza later antagonizes Frank Underwood’s partner and wife Claire Underwood during her bid for appointment to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. After saying he would not actively oppose her, he aggressively questions her, goading her into calling the U.S. military irrelevant. IN private, after her appointment fails, he clarifies that the questions were meant to test her ability to withstand pressure, so he was not opposing her, simply testing whether or not she was truly qualified for the role.

As the Underwoods prepared for the upcoming 2016 presidential campaign, Bob Birch, Minority Leader of the Democrats in the Senate, cautions Underwood that Mendoza was likely to be the Republican nominee. This was a strong motivation for Birch, and his fellow Democrats Terry Womack and Jackie Sharp, to try to push Frank Underwood from being the Democratic nominee in that same race.

Then, rather abruptly, it is revealed later into the third season that Mendoza has resigned. Hounded by scandal of accepting undeclared payments for speeches, he was replaced as Senate Majority Leader by Henry Mitchell. Mitchell works with Birch and the other Democrats to protect against some of the damages caused by Underwood’s aggressive politics, most notably restoring funding to FEMA that was drained by the America Works program.

Mendoza’s departure from the show was unexpected, considering the repeated allusions to the greater role he would play in the presidential election. This left audiences with two questions: who would replace Mendoza as the presumptive nominee, and why did he leave?

William Conway

After Mendoza’s resignation, the mantle of representing the Republicans in the presidential election fell to William Conway, who is serving as Governor of New York. A traditional liberal, which in today’s political climate means a conservative, Conway is charismatic and represented as an All-American. After 9/11, Conway immediately joined the United States Air Force, and from there launched a political career. In many ways, Conway is a much larger threat to Frank Underwood than Mendoza ever could have been. Young and married with two young children, Conway represents much of what the middle-aged Underwood, without kids and with an unstable marriage, isn’t.

Why Did Mendoza Resign?

His sudden disappearance from the series left many viewers puzzled. Mendoza was last seen in season three of the series. He was a crucial player in the political game, often clashing with Underwood on various political issues. However, his exit from the show was rather abrupt and unceremonious.

The reason behind Mendoza’s abrupt exit was revealed in a dialogue exchange between two other characters in the series. It was mentioned that Hector Mendoza had stepped down from his position as Senate Majority Leader due to an alleged scandal involving unreported payment for speeches. This scandalous revelation was significant enough to end Mendoza’s political career and thus his character’s role in House of Cards.

The departure of Hector Mendoza was not marked by a grand exit or dramatic finale — it simply came to light through a casual conversation, leaving fans puzzled and wanting more. Viewers were left wondering about the motives behind his actions and whether he would ever return.

The absence of Hector Mendoza from subsequent episodes led to a lot of speculations and theories among fans and critics alike. Some believed it was a deliberate move by the show makers to create suspense, while others felt it was due to external factors like scheduling conflicts or other off-screen issues with the actor. The exact reasons still remain unknown.

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When a statement from Avery’s nephew Brendan Dassey turned into a confession that he helped Steven Avery kill Halbach, Dassey’s public defender hired Michael O’Kelly to help him find out information about Brendan Dassey. Michael O’Kelly was a known expert on cellular technologies, being called in to help clarify technical points made by a defendant.

Michael O’Kelly was also known for taking his role as a cell phone expert further than just making statements about the technology in trials. In 2012, he was kicked out of a case for visiting the defendant, even after it had been found his testimony wouldn’t be needed.

So it’s easy to see how Michael O’Kelly, expert and unofficial investigator, might be helpful to helping Len Kachinsky, Brendan Dassey’s public defender, get a reliable statement from Brendan, without having to go through the normal channels. Since being brought up in Making a Murderer, a lot of people have been wondering who Michael O’Kelly is, and what he’s done since Dassey’s conviction.

Interviewing Brendan Dassey

In 2001, the Sacramento Daily Recorder ran an article about Michael O’Kelly. In short, the article explained how O’Kelly was one of “a dozen elite practioners” of a “truth detecting technique,” SCAN, which relied on exploiting linguistic deviations in statements. In the article, O’Kelly claims his technique is more dependable than a polygraph. An example of his technique is that if one were to say, “when I was a kid,” then that person was probably molested. Also, if you say the number 3, you’re probably lying.

Presumably, Michael O’Kelly continued offering his services as a human lie-detector to various defense firms, somehow ending up on the radar of Len Kachinsky, who hired him to help with his murder suspect, Brendan Dassey.

Brendan had become implicated in the murder of Teresa Halbach when his young cousin Kayla Dassey claimed he had confessed to her. At the time, Brendan was 16. Later, under oath, Kayla said she had been lying about the confession.

After Kayla spoke to investigators about Brendan’s possible involvement in Teresa Halbach’s murder, Mark Wiegart and Tom Fassbender got a second statement from Brendan. Mark Wiegart was a detective with Calumet County, neighbor to Manitowoc County. Calumet had taken over the investigation to avoid any appearance of conflict that might arise because Steven Avery had a civil suit against them. Tom Fassbender was a special agent with the federal Department of Justice.

This witness interview, conducted on March 1, 2006, quickly turned into a confession. According to statements made to the two investigators, Brendan came home from school, helped rape and murder Teresa Halbach, and helped his uncle dispose of the corpse. It’s important to note that Brendan Dassey was in special education classes at the time, and was interviewed without the presence of his parents or any school officials.

Len Kachinsky, Brendan’s public defender, was aware of this confession when he was appointed. Before ever meeting with Brendan, Kachinsky held a press conference, where he stated:

“We have a 16-year-old who, while morally and legally responsible, was heavily influenced by someone that can only be described as something close to evil incarnate.”

This made it clear that Kachinsky’s approach to Brendan’s defense was to admit guilt. While on the surface it seemed as though this may be a smart move for Brendan – if he admitted guilt and testified against Steven Avery, he would see a reduced sentence for his own crimes, especially considering his mental handicaps.

However, the O’Kelly’s conduct called that into question. In order to get a more clear idea of what has happened, Len Kachinsky had Michael O’Kelly interview Brendan Dassey, to help clear up the inconsistencies in Brendan’s statement to investigators.

Immediately prior to interviewing Brendan Dassey, O’Kelly arranged a selection of photographs on a table. Photos of Teresa Halbach, a picture of her church, a blue ribbon like the one memorializing her outside that church, and more gruesome pictures, such as her burnt bones, recovered in Steven Avery’s firepit.

With this display set up, O’Kelly brought Brendan Dassey into a room, and showed him a form. This form is brought up in Making a Murderer, but the legal implications of Brendan filling it out are glossed over.

The form asked Brendan if he was sorry or not, for what he did. Notable is that both options end in the phrase, “what I did,” which can be construed as an admission of guilt. So if Brendan Dassey filled out either option on this form, it could be viewed as contributing to a narrative of confession.

What is most interesting is that O’Kelly’s form asks Brendan if he is sorry. Apologizing for an action is not only enough to demonstrate guilt, but culpability. Not only would Brendan be saying he did it, he would know it was wrong.

This completely eliminated any ability for Len Kachinsky to argue his clients mental handicaps were enough to warrant exculpating him of his crimes, and meant that the one strong piece of leverage the defense could have had was taken away, by themselves.

Later in the interrogation, Brendan was shown the results of his earlier polygraph test. While this test was officially inconclusive (page 31,)  O’Kelly told Brendan that it demonstrated he was lying when he claimed innocence. That is, O’Kelly lied and said Brendan was caught lying, despite there being no evidence that Brendan’s statement of innocence was false.

It could be seen then that Michael O’Kelly’s interrogation of Brendan Dassey and this form are the most clear evidence that, as Brendan’s currently (as of January 2016) pending appeal alleges, Len Kachinsky offered ineffective counsel.

Michael O’Kelly After Making a Murderer

With the help of O’Kelly, Brendan Dassey was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. Since that case, Michael O’Kelly has continued to act as an expert witness. A lot of the press around him has been due to his high fees for services which are rarely used in the actual trials for which they are rendered.

In 2010, O’Kelly was listed as one of the defense’s expert witnesses in the now infamous Casey Anthony trial, although he never gave testimony.
In 2011, Michael O’Kelly, billing himself as a “forensic cell phone data consult,” was paid $24,304 by the State of Illinois as a defense expert in a their case against Christopher Coleman, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife and two sons. O’Kelly’s testimony was not used.

In 2012, Michael O’Kelly, now using the nickname “Cell Tower Mike,” was paid $102,994 by the State of Texas as a defense expert in a case against Rickey Cummings, sentenced to death. O’Kelly was never even called to testify in this case, and the state was unable to recoup their expenses paid to O’Kelly. Initially, O’Kelly had been hired to examine cell phone records, but billed the county for 14 visits to the Cummings, actions which eventually got him removed from the trial and contributed to Cummings seeking retrial.

Michael O’Kelly Now in 2026

Not only that but he has also been active in pushing for reforms within the criminal justice system. More specifically, he has been advocating for a more equitable system that ensures fair trials and effective representation for all, regardless of their background or financial status. His efforts have involved working closely with policymakers and other stakeholders to drive change from within.

As of 2026, he has also been involved in training the next generation of criminal defense investigators. His commitment to imparting knowledge and sharing his experiences has made him a respected mentor and teacher in the field.

For example, he has launched a series of training programs and workshops aimed at equipping young investigators with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in their roles.

As we move forward into the year, it will be interesting to keep an eye on O’Kelly’s work and the impact he continues to make in his field.

The post What Happened to Michael O’Kelly – After Making a Murderer 2026 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

In 1985, Avery was prosecuted by Denis Vogel on behalf of Manitowoc County for the assault and rape of Penny Beerntsen. After 18 years, he was exonerated, and went on to commit the murder of Teresa Halbach. Making a Murderer doesn’t focus much on the first trial, instead bringing attention to the one for which Avery is currently sentenced.

However there are a lot of interesting elements to the 1985 case, including Denis Vogel. Vogel was the district attorney at the time, and was the prosecutor who convinced a jury of Avery’s guilt. After Avery’s exoneration, information came out that made it clear Vogel may have been hiding information which would have given reasonable doubt to Avery’s guilt, or even exonerated him earlier into his false imprisonment.

After Avery’s exoneration, Vogel was one of the men against whom Avery brought a civil suit. While it’s unclear what Vogel’s financial responsibility would have been, if found responsible he would have almost certainly lost his license to practice law. However, that case was settled after charges were brought against Avery for murdering Halbach.

Denis Vogel Prosecutes Steven Avery

In 1940, U.S. Attorney General, speaking to an assembly of federal prosecutors, said, “The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.”

Denis Vogel proves this true with Steven Avery. Even after Avery is officially exonerated, Denis Vogel’s prosecution haunts him. Assuming Avery did murder Teresa Halbach, statements from Judge Willis during sentencing allude to Willis being influenced by Vogel’s overturned prosecution.

“Given the trend of your crimes, society has a legitimate right to be concerned that there is a serious risk you would reoffend,” Willis said, though Avery’s only convicted crime at that point had been the 1985 rape he was exonerated from. So how is it that Vogel was able to so thoroughly prove Avery’s guilt, that it stuck with him even after officially being renounced?

On July 29, 1985, Penny Beerntsen was raped. That has never been questioned, the only question is of who did it. When Manitowoc Sheriff’s deputy Judy Dvorak initially listened to Beerntsen’s description of her attacker, the deputy immediately thought of Steven Avery. Avery was known to the police department due to some troubling issues from his past. For example he’d poured motor oil on a cat and threw it into a fire, he’d rammed a woman off the road and pointed a shotgun in her face, only stopping after he saw she had a child in the backseat, and lastly he’d been accused of domestic violence against his fiancee.

Avery only roughly matched the physical description – he wasn’t tall enough, and his eyes weren’t the right color. But when shown an array of photographs, each a possible suspect, Beerntsen identified Avery. Based on this Steven Avery was then arrested and subsequently charged with attempted murder and 1st degree sexual assault.  

Denis Vogel, in his role as Manitowoc County D.A., filed a petition to have Avery “preventively detained.” While the crimes Avery were accused of were not enough to meet the statutory standard for such measures, Vogel and the intake judge agreed it was a necessary measure, and Avery was kept in jail until his trial, which began on December 9, 1985.

Vogel’s prosecution relied almost entirely on Beerntsen’s identification of Avery as the guilty party. Avery’s defense brought up questions as to the legitimacy of this identification, but their main defense was their 16 alibi witnesses.

16 people confirmed that Steven Avery could not have been the assailant, because they were with him in too close a timeframe to allow the crime. But Vogel kept emphasizing the bloody nature of the attack; that Penny Beerntsen needed justice. In many ways, his prosecution was not against Avery, but against the crime, with Avery being the unwilling example.

Going into deliberations, Jim Bolgert, Steven Avery’s defense attorney, was fairly confident in his client’s innocence. After all, the alibi was incredibly strong, and Beerntsen’s identification of Avery was not entirely solid.

On December 14, 1985, Steven Avery was found guilty of false imprisonment, first-degree sexual assault, and attempted murder in the first degree. It would be 18 years before this conviction would be overturned.

Appeals Reveal New Evidence

During the 2003 appeals process which exonerated Steven Avery, several facts about his 1985 trial were brought to light, beyond the DNA evidence which exonerated him. These, combined, pointed to the possible knowledge that Denis Vogel and others may have known that Avery was not the assailant.

Gregory Allen, the man inculpated by the DNA evidence, had attacked another woman on that same beach two years earlier. What is most interesting is that the criminal complaint charging Gregory Allen was found in Vogel’s case file for Steven Avery. This makes it clear Vogel at least knew of Gregory Allen’s earlier crime, and from there it seems improbable he would not have made any connection.

Denis Vogel Update – What He’s Doing Now in 2026

Denis Vogel is still actively practicing law, albeit outside the public eye. As of 2026, he is associated with the law firm of Casper & de Toledo LLC based in Stamford, Connecticut. His work primarily focuses on civil litigation, including personal injury and medical malpractice cases.

Despite the high-profile nature of the Avery case, Vogel appears to have opted for a quieter professional life away from criminal prosecution. As far as we can tell, his expertise continues to be sought after in complex legal cases, particularly those involving criminal law. His vast experience and profound understanding of the law have proven to be invaluable resources for his clients.

Despite the controversy surrounding him from the Steven Avery case, as depicted in the docu-series “Making a Murderer,” Vogel has managed to steer clear of public scandals or controversies in recent years. He has chosen to let his work speak for itself, demonstrating a dedication to the law and justice that has remained unchanged despite the passage of time.

He has also continued to contribute to the legal community through various means. For one thing, he frequently participates in legal forums and seminars, sharing his knowledge and experiences with budding lawyers. He is also known for his philanthropic efforts, particularly towards causes aimed at improving the justice system and providing legal aid to those who cannot afford it.

The post What Happened to Denis Vogel – After Making a Murderer 2026 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

But in 2013, during a lawsuit accusing Deen of sexual and racial discrimination, she admitted to having used a specific racial slur, though many years before the incident the lawsuit covered. The admission still led to criticism from the media, and Paula Deen released apology videos on social media. Food Network (and many other partners) canceled their contracts with her.

Since then, Paula Deen has slowly been working her way back into the spotlight. So what’s she doing these days?

Paula Deen’s Early Life

Paula Ann Hiers was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1947. She married Jimmy Deen when she was 18, and together they had two sons, Jamie and Bobby. When her children were young, Deen’s own parents passed away, and the combined stress led to Paula Deen developing agoraphobia and anxiety.

This led to her spending a lot of time in the kitchen since she could cook for her family without leaving the house. In the mid-80s the family relocated to Savannah, Georgia. A couple years later she left Jimmy Deen, taking their children with her. Paula worked past her anxieties, taking numerous small jobs to provide for her family.

In 1990 she decided to apply what she’d learned in her kitchen, and started a catering service, which she called The Bag Lady. She prepared meals and lunches, which her sons delivered.

Paula Deen’s cooking was popular enough that within a year, she opened her first restaurant, which she called The Lady. By 1996, she opened a second restaurant in downtown Savannah, The Lady & Sons. That restaurant moved to a bigger building within a couple years and began to gain national notoriety. Paula Deen released two cookbooks to take advantage of the attention her restaurant was receiving: The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking.

USA Today picked The Lady & Sons buffet as the “International Meal of the Year” in 1999, and later that year, Paula Deen made her first appearance on Food Network.

Paul Deen on Television

Paula Deen’s first appearance on Food Network was in Doorknock Dinners, where she was taken into the home of a busy family and tried to make the best meal she could out of what they had. Later that year she competed in Ready… Set… Cook!, an early cooking game show where chefs were paired with members of the audience.

In 2001, Paula Deen shot a pilot for the network, which they enjoyed. She began filming for Paula’s Home Cooking later that year. Fun bit of trivia, the first few seasons of the show were actually filmed in the executive producer’s home in upstate New York.

Paula’s Home Cooking was immensely popular, and one of the last formulaic meal prep shows Food Network produced. It led to Paula’s Party, in 2006, a show focused on preparing meals for large gatherings, and Paula’s Best Dishes, a reworking of Paula’s personal favorites from her restaurants and personal recipes. In 2008 and 2009, Paula Deen had three different shows airing on Food Network.

While working with Food Network, Paula Deen continued to release more cookbooks and even released a memoir in 2007. She also released her own lifestyle magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen, which continues to release new issues.

Paula Deen’s Controversy

In 2013, Paula Deen was accused of making inappropriate racial remarks while discussing plans for her brother’s wedding. A lawsuit was filed, but the judge dismissed it in August.

The deposition for the case led to Paula Deen admitting that she had used a specific racial slur in the past. One incident she remembered was when she was a bank teller in 1989 and her bank was robbed, and she said that at other points in the past she had also likely said the word.

The admission led to multiple partners canceling their contracts with Paula Deen. Walmart, Target, QVC, Sears, K-Mart, and her publisher all canceled their deals.

The controversy was lampooned in late-night television, and referenced in many pieces of pop culture. Earlier this year, Orange Is The New Black had a character who was a celebrity Southern chef and the cause of her own racist controversy.

Discussion of Paula Deen even led to former President Jimmy Carter urging the nation to forgive Deen, saying she had been punished “perhaps overly severely” for simply being honest about her past.

Regardless, the controversy has severely limited Paula Deen’s career. But not completely ended it.

What’s Paula Deen Doing Now In 2026 – Recent Updates

Paula Deen hosts several ongoing television series including Positively Paula, Paula Deen’s Sweet Home Savannah, and Love & Best Dishes with Paula Deen. In 2019, she also hosted the talk show Paula Deen Jewelry, which was available exclusively on JTV. And prior to that, she was featured on the syndicated talk show The Doctors, where it was revealed that she had dropped 40 pounds; she also shared with audience members her recipe for weight loss.

Fast forward to 2021 and it was announced that she would be joining the cast of MasterChef Legends as one of the guest judges. Alas, not everyone was happy with the decision. While the contestants and judges were thrilled to have her in the kitchen, fans weren’t too impressed given her racist history. In fact, many viewers slammed the showrunners for bringing her in as a judge.

Outside of television, she also has several other endeavors including a clothing line and a pet food line. In 2019, she also released a new cookbook titled “Paula Deen’s Southern Baking: 125 Favorite Recipes from MY Savannah Kitchen.”.

That’s not all, she has also opened several restaurants over the past few years. In 2015, she opened Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen, a family-style restaurant, in Pigeon Forge, Tenessee. Since then, it has expanded to locations in Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, a nd Alabma.

Two years later in 2017, she opened another restaurant called Paula Deen’s Creek House, which offers traditional Southern fare.

At one point, she even released a mobile video game, where players take on the role of chefs in a home kitchen and work their way up to owning their own restaurant. Not only are there puzzles to complete, but Deen’s popular dishes can also be downloaded as recipe cards. And despite being a mobile game, there is a chance for players to win real-life prizes such as a subscription to the Paula Deen Network.

She also has an active YouTube channel, which is updated every day with new recipes (it’s been active since 2007 but it wasn’t until the covid-19 lockdown that she really got into it) As of this writing, she has over 499,000 subscribers with more than 84 million combined views across her videos.

For more Paula Deen updates, you can follow her on Instagram. That way, you’ll know what she’s up to right away. You can find her at @pauladeen_official.

The post What Happened to Paula Deen- 2026 Updates appeared first on Gazette Review.

Stone Phillips’ Education and Work at ABC

Stone Stockton Phillips was born in Texas City, Texas, in 1954. His father was a chemical engineer and veteran of World War II, and his mother was a school teacher. They raised him in Ballwin, Missouri, where he was an acolyte at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, of which they were founding members. When Phillips was in high school, he was an honor student, and the starting quarterback on his football team. These early interests would stick with Phillips, shaping his career to this day.

Phillips continued to excel after enrolling at Yale University. In 1976 he was the starting quarterback for their Bulldogs, helping to win that year’s Ivy League Football Championship. He also won Yale’s F. Gordon Brown Award, for his academic and athletic leadership skills. A member of Yale’s Scroll and Key secret society, Phillips graduated with honors in 1977, having earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.

Initially after graduation, Phillips worked as a teacher at the Fulton County Juvenile Detention Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, in addition to moonlighting as a waiter. Eventually, he secured a position at WXIA-TV, the local NBC affiliate. In 1980, Phillips was hired by ABC News as an assignment editor in Washington, D.C. This was yet another impressive achievement, as Phillips had been working for WXIA-TV for less than two years. Starting in 1982, Phillips began working as an on-air correspondent for ABC. Among the most notable events he provided coverage for were the Vietnamese Exodus, Rajiv Gandhi’s campaign for Prime Minister of India, and the Lebanese War.

Phillips was promoted to a permanent position on the ABC news series 20/20, in addition to becoming a sports anchor for World News Sunday, and substitute host of Good Morning America. While there, he provided reports on a variety of topics, from football to international espionage, working with notable journalists Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs.

Phillips Moves to NBC, Works on Dateline

After 12 years with ABC, Phillips left to join NBC News to serve as co-anchor of their new show, Dateline NBC. Working with Jane Pauley, Phillips conducted a great number of significant interviews for the program. He interviewed Russian President Boris Yeltsin, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and conducted the first network interview with Lynndie England about her role in the now-famous Abu Ghraib prison scandal. His interview with Bernhard Goetz, who shot four teenagers in a New York City Subway train, earned Phillips an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Interview.”

For the premiere episode of The Colbert Report, in 2005, comedian Stephen Colbert brought Stone Phillips on as a guest, where Colbert credited the anchor’s “gravitas” as a inspiration for the iconic persona Colbert would develop for his show. This demonstrates how influential Stone Phillips was, not just on those who watched his show, but to other people who reported on current events.

What’s Stone Phillips Doing Now in 2026 – Recent Updates

Phillips hasn’t appeared on television since the early 2010s. In 2012, he appeared in the documentary Confessions of a Serial Killer, which revolved around serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The following year, he hosted Moving with Grace, which he also produced. A PBS documentary, it followed his efforts and those of his siblings to provide care for their aging parents. Not only that but it also discussed various issues faced by other baby boomers.

Since then, he hasn’t made any on-screen appearances. If anything, it looks like he’s been avoiding the spotlight altogether. While he does have a Twitter account, it hasn’t been updated since 2017 (his last actual tweet was in 2016).

His wife, Debra, however, seems to be a little more active on social media. Having said that, she hasn’t posted anything about Philips. From what we could find, she currently lives in the New York area. Seeing as how they’re still happily married, it’s likely that he lives there as well. The pair also have a son together named Streeter, who also lives and works in New York.

As for why he had left Dateline, many have speculated that he was let go from the job due to budget cuts at the network. Nevertheless, his legacy lives on. Nowadays, the weekly news magazine is hosted by Lester Holt.

The post What Happened to Stone Phillips After Dateline? 2026 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

Kari Byron on MythBusters

Before finding a place on television, Byron worked as an artist, specializing in sculpture. She was born on December 18, 1974, and went to high school in Los Gatos, California. From there she went to San Francisco State University, and graduated in 1998 with a degree in film and sculpture.

Around that time, Adam Savage and Jamey Hyneman were working together on BattleBots, a Comedy Central show about the sport of robot combat. After being interviewed by Discovery about another similar show, Robot Wars, Hyneman was asked to produce a casting video for the network.

Then in 2002, the Discovery Channel became interested in a show where they would test out urban myths, movie effects tropes, and other bits of colloquial knowledge that might not be true. Hyneman was picked to be the host, but asked Savage to co-host, since Hyneman doubted if he was interesting enough to host it by himself. The show was produced out of Hyneman’s special effects workshop, M5 Industries.

When Mythbusters started, Kari Byron worked behind the scenes to help build some of the equipment Savage and Hyneman would use in the episodes. As the first season went on, her and other members of M5 Industries began to be shown in episodes. By the second season, three of Hyneman’s crew were organized as the “Build Team”: Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Scottie Chapman.

While the show received some criticism for not being entirely scientific in its approach, they did have some consistent methods. First, they would try and recreate the circumstances of a myth, frequently with Jamey and Adam, or members of the Build Team competing to see who could more accurate recreate the scenario. If this didn’t verify the myth, they would keep making their tests more absurd, until eventually they got the result they wanted – usually an explosion.

Throughout the show there were a number of accidents. Notably, Kari Byron and the rest of the Build Team accidentally fired a cannonball into a house, after it went over the primary target, rolled up a hill behind the shooting range, and flew over half a kilometer away.

Despite some controversy, the show had wide-reaching cultural influence, with the main hosts appearing in other TV shows, and even worked with President Barack Obama to test out a myth about an ancient laser cannon.

Through the show’s run, Kari Byron continued to make art, specifically sculptures, though after the show became more popular, she stopped having public exhibits. In 2006, she married another artist, Paul Urich. In 2009, she took maternity leave from the show to have a daughter, whom they named Stella Ruby.

Kari Byron & Tory Belleci

After returning from maternity leave, Kari Byron briefly had her own show on the Science Channel,  Head Rush. The show was an hour of new material based loosely on what was shown on MythBusters, generally emphasizing the idea that science, and a scientific approach to the world, can be fun. Hosted by Byron, the show only ran for two seasons, but continues to show up on the Science Channel occasionally. Byron also hosted two seasons of Large, Dangerous Rocket Ships for the Science Channel.

In 2012, she and Tory Belleci were in an episode of Sons of Guns, the Discovery Channel show about custom firearms manufacturers. Their guest episode retested a myth that MythBusters had done, about whether shooting a propane tank could cause an explosion. She and Belleci also worked together on the Science Channel’s Pumpkin Chunkin, an annual show that covers the World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin contest, where people each fall build machines to throw pumpkins as far as possible, using only mechanical means. (The current record for longest pumpkin chunk is 4,694 feet.)

In 2014, it was announced that MythBusters was reformatting their show,  and meant that the Build Team wouldn’t be coming back for the 13th season. The show lasted two more seasons without Grant, Tory, and Kari, before finally being cancelled.

What’s Kari Byron Doing Now In 2026 – Recent Updates

Kari Byron has appeared on television several times since Myth Busters. In 2020, she made a small appearance in Creature Features, She was later featured in an episode of the mini-documentary series Physics Girl as a former Mythbuster.

That same year, she hosted the show Crash Test World. Premiered on January 8, 2021, it follows her as she discovers how culture, technology, people, and history come together to make the world a better place. Met with mostly positive reviews, the series consisted of six episodes, all of which were released on the Science Channel.

Since then, she has worked on another documentary—this time a 30-minute short titled, Forward! To the Moon. More specifically, she helped narrate the series.

Aside from all that, she’s also the co-founder of EXLPLR Media, an educational streaming service that hopes to inspire, empower, and educate young people to become agents of change. As of 2026, they offer two subscription-based video and curriculum services for grade 5 to grade 12 students.

Earlier this summer, she also auctioned off a Sandman book signed by Neil Gaiman with the proceeds going to Girl Rising, a New York-based nonprofit that uses storytelling as a means to change the way people value girls and their education (taken from their Twitter profile).

The former Mythbusters host is also available for appearances, panels, and events, according to her official website, which you can check out here. There’s also a page for her book, Crash Test Girl, which was released back in 2018.

For those who’d like to know what else she’s up to, you can follow Kari Bryon on social media. She’s active on Twitter (@KariBryon) where she has over 501K followers and on Instagram (@therealkaribryon) where she has more than 265K followers. She also has an official Facebook page that’s updated on a regular basis.

The post What Happened to Kari Byron – 2026 News and Updates appeared first on Gazette Review.

Early Life

Bachelor’s before and after Brad have come from some pretty impressive and diverse backgrounds. Andrew Firestone, heir to the Firestone Tire company, for example. Or Andrew Baldwin, the Navy surgeon, and triathlon star. Or other people, not named Andrew. So Season 11’s Brad Womack seemed sort of out of place.

He grew up with a twin brother and younger brother in Atlanta, Georgia. When he was 12, his family moved to Texas. He went to Texas State University’s San Marcos campus for a year, before leaving to work in the oil extraction industry. He did that for about eight years. While he was working, he was investing in bars and restaurants across Texas with his brothers.

By the time he was 30, Brad Womack was focusing full-time on managing the various bars he co-owned. Then, when he was 35, he auditioned for and was picked to be the man on the 11th season of The Bachelor.

The Bachelor

Brad Womack was one of the last bachelors before they all started being recruited from The Bachelorette. And in fact, he might be the reason why they started only taking men up from The Bachelorette. Until Juan Pablo came along in Season 18, Brad Womack was audience’s least favorite bachelor. While there was some upset through the season, there always is. What really turned audiences against him was how he ended Season 11.

Deanna Pappas and Jenni Croft were the two finalists. Brad took them to meet his family and two brothers. First, his family met Deanna, who they loved, and then Jenni, who they also loved. Eventually, Brad Womack decided not to go with either of them. It was a first for The Bachelor and hasn’t happened since. The Bachelor left the show as single as when he’d started. A lot of tabloids gave Brad flak for this, but considering how much negative attention those same tabloids directed at the women, it seems unfair. After all, if tabloids can find glaring flaws with the contestants, is it really surprising Brad didn’t want to propose to any of them?

The weak finale makes it surprising that The Bachelor chose Brad to be The Bachelor again in season 15, in 2011. His second season, the show’s cast 30 potential partners, up from the normal 25. Maybe it was to give Brad better odds since he’d struck out during his first season.

This season proved more fruitful, and during The Final Rose ceremony, Brad proposed to Emily Maynard. The two ended up breaking off their engagement before the finale even aired. Then they got back together, briefly, before ultimately breaking up in May 2011. Emily went on to star in Season 8 of The Bachelorette, where she ended up with Jef Holm.

What’s Brad Womack Doing Now In 2026? – Recent Updates

Womack was recently featured in The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever, which looks at some of the most dramatic moments ever from the franchise. Hosted by Chris Harrison, the show premiered on June 8, 2020, and continued for ten episodes (Womack was featured in the sixth episode, which aired on July 20, 2020).

Aside from that, he hasn’t made any recent television appearances. He last appeared in The Bachelor, the same show that had propelled him to fame, back in 2011.

During the early days of the pandemic, however, he did give a virtual interview, where he showed off his quarantine beard. When asked whether or not he would return to The Bachelor for a third time, he replied “there’s no way I’d say yes to that”—that “[he] will not do it a third time.” For those who are interested, you can check out a clip of the interview here. As of this post, it has already been viewed more than 48,000 times on YouTube.

Aside from that, he also confirmed during his Bachelor: GOAT episode that he and Jena Mays, whom he had started dating back in 2017, are still together (many fans had been wondering whether or not that was the case as he’d been MIA from her page).

In fact, he later introduced her to Chris and revealed that they had met while working out at the gym—that she had been in a relationship at the time but was later single, which led him to jump at the opportunity.

As for what he’s up to now, he spends a lot of his time working. Several years back, he founded Carmack Concepts, an Austin-based restaurant and bar group that he founded with his friend Jason Carrier and his twin brother, Chad (he and his brother had always wanted to own a bar). Nowadays, they operate several bars including the Dogwood, which has locations in Nashville, Rock Rose, and Austin.

Previously, they also owned the Dizzy Roosters and its sister bar, Chuggin’ Monkey in Austin. However, they were both sold for an undisclosed amount back in 2017. That year, the former had made over $78,000 in alcohol sales and the latter had made more than $91,000.

Womack had opened Chuggin’ Monkey back in 2002 after begging the landlord of his previous employer, Lucy’s, to let them open his first bar in the same location. He later opened the Dizzy Rooster a year later and over the years, they’ve become one of the best-known bar operators in the city.

The post What Happened to Brad Womack – 2026 News & Updates appeared first on Gazette Review.

Chumlee Before Pawn Stars

Austin Lee Russell was born on September 5, 1982, and grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. He earned his nickname, Chumlee, when he was 12 years old, due to his resemblance to Chumly, the walrus from the 60s cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. As a child, he became friends with Corey “Big Hoss” Harrison, whose father and grandfather ran the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.

World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop opened in 1989, and as children, Chumlee and Corey spent a lot of time there. Chumlee started working there in 2003, initially just as a clerk behind the counter, writing sales tickets and helping make sure potential purchases were functional.

In the late 2000s, Brent Montgomery and Colby Gaines of Leftfield Pictures were in Las Vegas, and noticed the strange and seedy pawn shops that were all over the city. They set off looking for a family-run store to base a TV series around, and eventually were made aware of the Harrison’s pawn shop. Gold & Silver Pawn Shop had been the subject of a documentary on PBS in 2001, and shortly before Chumlee started working there, was featured on Insomniac with Dave Attell, the Comedy Central show.

Montgomery and Gaines originally pitched the show, they were focused on the store being open 24/7, enabling people to pawn their possessions at any time. They pitched the show to HBO, who passed. Eventually, the format evolved, and the History Channel, who were looking to balance their heavily militaristic programming, took an interest. Initially, the show was going to be called Pawning History, but Leftfield suggested Pawn Stars would be more appealing and easy to remember.

Pawn Stars

Pawn Stars premiered on July 19, 2009, and quickly became one of History Channel’s highest rated shows, eventually becoming the highest rated show on the channel, in addition to the second highest rated reality show on TV, after Jersey Shore. Filmed on location at the Harrison’s store, each episode usually involves the purchase of about a half dozen items, focusing heavily on appraising each item. The show didn’t shy away from representing the interpersonal tensions that cropped up between the employees, though.

On Pawn Stars, Chumlee is often represented as a comedic foil to the Harrisons, and is frequently made fun of for his implied lack of intelligence, often being referred to as the village idiot. However, Chumlee has developed an in-depth knowledge of pinball machines, sneakers, and video games, helping him argue against his costars’ accusations of incompetency.

Regardless of his representation on the show, Chumlee quickly became a favorite among viewers of the show. Due to the show’s massive success, Chumlee started his own merchandise company, which sells novelty items and t-shirts that he designs himself. In 2010, he sold half of the company to the elder Harrison for just over $150,000. Chumlee is by far the most popular person on the show, with his merchandise selling more than the other three stars combined.

By the fourth season, Chumlee had changed much of his lifestyle, losing around 75 pounds, completely reforming his diet, and exercising frequently. He took up the hobby of modifying his luxury cars, of which he owns several, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom and Maserati GranTurismo. In 2013, he also began dating Tanya Hyjazi, a chef for a large casino in Las Vegas. He drew some criticism later that year when he paid for her to have a breast enlargement. Some tabloids reported it as though he pressured her into getting the elective surgery, but when questioned, he said that she had been planning on it before they started dating, and he simply wanted to do so because he earned a much higher income than her.

What is Chumlee Doing Now In 2026 – Recent Updates

In March 2016, he was arrested after police found marijuana, Xanax, crystal meth, and multiple firearms in his home. He was later released on bond the following day.

Several months later, he was charged with 20 felony counts, including weapons and drug charges. Chumlee ultimately pleaded guilty and avoided jail time. Instead, he was given three years of probation and counseling.

His legal troubles led many fans to wonder whether or not he would still be on Pawn Stars. In the end, they didn’t have to wonder for too long as he soon reappeared on the show in 2017. In fact, he has been a regular star ever since then. He also seems to have avoided further legal issues.

As of 2026, he is starring in the 21st season of Pawn Stars, which premiered in August 2022. He has also appeared in the spinoff series Pawn Stars Do America, where they travel to different popular cities in search of collectible objects and historical finds.

For those who’d like to know what else the reality star is up to, you can follow him on social media. He has over 632K followers on Instagram (@chumlee) and more than 208K followers on Twitter (@chumlee_). He also has an official Facebook page, which you can check out here.

The post What Happened to Chumlee – What’s He Doing Now In 2026 appeared first on Gazette Review.

It’s been a few years now since the last video, which has people wondering: What happened to Fred?

Fred Figglehorn – What Happened To Him?

Fred Figglehorn wasn’t the first character Cruikshank tried out. Through the summer of 2006, Lucas Cruikshank was working with his cousins Jon and Katie Smet on their YouTube channel, JKL Productions. They released several videos, though unfortunately none of them are available on that old channel.

On October 30, 2006, JKL Productions uploaded the first Fred video, called “Fred on Halloween.” The video established Fred Figglehorn as a character. Although Lucas was 13 in real life, his character was (and is, as the show uses a floating timeline) six years old. The character lives with his abusive mother and grandmother, though neither are shown on-screen for the first 3 seasons.

JKL Productions created several episodes over the next year, such as “Fred Goes to the Park” and “Fred Gets Babysat.” In later interviews, Cruikshank said that people either loved or hated Fred Figglehorn, but there was no in between. Most episodes consisted of Fred speaking directly to the camera about what is happening in his life, which Cruikshank has said is a parody of many early YouTubers who, in Cruikshank’s words, “think that everyone is so interested in them.”

After the eighth episode, the shows had gained enough viewers that Cruikshank migrated them onto their own channel. The channel was set up in 2008, and within a year had one million subscribers, making it the first YouTube channel to hit that landmark. Shortly before hitting that landmark, he appeared in an episode of Nickelodeon’s iCarly, “iMeet Fred.”

That September Nickelodeon helped him film Fred: the Movie, and he appeared in an episode of Hannah Montana a few months later. He was at both the 2009 and 2010 Kids Choice Awards as a presenter, as well. (Notably, Lucas Cruikshank has never won a YouTube Award, even though the Awards have been given since 2007.)

Two more Fred movies came out, Night of the Living Fred in 2011 and Camp Fred in 2012, and Cruikshank even had a show on Nickelodeon for one season that year, which marked the end of the main Fred series on YouTube. However, three “sequel” series have been produced. Figgle Chat had him interviewing Internet celebrities, It’s FRED! Was a short animated series, and the New Fred Saga, where Cruikshank’s YouTube channel was fictitiously taken over by a Korean chaebol.

Despite being out of production, the Fred channel on YouTube continues to rack up subscribers and views. However, in the modern era of YouTube stars, the videos and their production quality, have not aged well.

What Is Lucas Cruikshank Doing Now In 2026?

He and Jennifer Veal worked on a number of YouTube videos together between 2013 and 2014. The former eventually left the channel in 2014, which prompted him to change the channel name back to “lucas” ((they had renamed it to “Lucas and Jenny” previously for their videos).

Since then, he has continued to post YouTube videos on a regular basis (at least once a week). As of 2026, his channel has more than 3.31 million subscribers and over 223 million combined views.

Some of his most popular uploads from the recent years include Guy who was on Nickelodeon 10 years ago part 2 (3.6 million views), The Dark Side of Butt Injections (1.8 million views), Playing Apps Made Only For Straight Guys (1.7 million views), and Playing the most disturbing episode story (1.5 million views).

In June 2018, he was also featured on Brandon Roger’s Youtube video, Four Million Subscriber Freakout. That’s not all, he also hosts a podcast with his brother Jacob, which is available on Youtube under the name “Lucas & Jacob: The Bro Show.” Launched in September 2018, the podcast is currently updated every Tuesday.

Aside from that, he’s also released a few singles. In 2020, he came out with “Shargay Evans”, a parody revamp of the High School Musical character originally portrayed by Ashley Tisdale. The following year, he was featured in “All Night (with Zhone and Fraxoim)”, a track from the hyper pop mixtape, Mutants Vol. 6: Home.

And more recently, he was featured in the track, “The Climb (cover) (with Molly Cruikshank)”, a track from the 2022 album Best of Both Worldz.

In terms of his personal life, he’s been dating Matthew Fawcus, an Australian model, since March 2013 (he had previously come out as gay in a YouTube video in August 2013). They two were introduced by a fellow gay Youtuber after having met “from afar” at a local gay club.

For those who’d like to know what he’s up to, you can check out his social media accounts. He has an active Instagram account (@lucascruikshank) with over 488K followers as well as a Twitter (@LucasCruikshank), though the latter isn’t updated as frequently.

Not only that, but he’s also active on TikTok (@lucascruikshank) which isn’t surprising seeing as how he’s known for his videos. As of 2026, he has more than 598K followers on the platform. If anything, it’s even more active than his YouTube channel.

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