By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

(CNN) — In our roundup of travel stories this week: Trump’s face will appear on some new US passports, why a Chinese city is cracking down on dim sum, plus a surprise delivery on a Delta Air Lines flight.

Psilocybin therapy

Martha Stem, a retired paralegal and grandmother in her early 70s, had a lifetime of stored trauma. A sudden death in her family hit her with a new avalanche of anguish.

She tried therapy and medication, but says the drug that finally helped her was psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in “magic” mushrooms. Her story is available to CNN subscribers here.

Stem is among the early waves of people participating in legal retreats in the United States built around the drug. CNN put a call out to hear from psilocybin retreat participants and dozens of readers responded. Here’s what they told us about their experiences, with more here:

Up in the air

Southwest Airlines has unveiled a red, white and blue plane, dubbed “Independence One,” in honor of the United States’s 250th anniversary this year. Its first flight on Monday night was to Dallas and it now joins Southwest’s fleet crisscrossing the country.

That was not the only birthday celebrated this April. A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Portland gave birth mid-air to a healthy baby girl, who arrived two weeks ahead of schedule. Two paramedics who happened to be on board helped out, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord.

Finally, in Asia, the international airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka, this month handled its largest ever illegal narcotics bust — and from some very unlikely suspects.

Sri Lankan authorities say 22 Buddhist monks were arrested for possession of more than 110 kilograms of cannabis, with an estimated value of more than $3.45 million.

Delicacies and a Little Joy

The making of the Chinese bite-sized delicacies known as dim sum is all about craftsmanship: steady hands, nimble fingers and the finest attention to detail.

However, many teahouses in China have been turning to automated production lines to save money, meaning unsuspecting customers are getting what some say are inferior dumplings.

The southern city of Guangzhou, known as the birthplace of dim sum, is pushing back. As of May 1, its teahouses must now declare how their dim sum is made. Here’s CNN’s report on the food fight.

Over in Minnesota, a coffee shop called Little Joy has also been busy crafting gourmet delights, creating a smash-hit raspberry Danish latte with cream cheese foam.

It shared the recipe online for all the world to enjoy and more than 480 shops in 41 countries have picked it up and made their own version.

Italy’s ‘cheese bank’

In Emilia-Romagna, Italy, around 500,000 wheels of Parmesan cheese are stacked floor to ceiling in a high-security, climate-controlled vault. They’re used by cheese producers as collateral to secure bank loans. If we were ever to risk it all in a bank heist, this is the one that would tempt us.

By Dana O’Neil, CNN

Louisville, Kentucky (CNN) — Conveniently plopped just across the street from the backside stable gate of Churchill Downs, Wagner’s Pharmacy has served horsemen since 1922 – back when Leo Wagner let them buy their food and cigarettes on credit.

It is, to this day, exactly as it should be – serviceable and decidedly not fancy, with walls blanketed by horse pictures, TVs set to whatever live racing is showing somewhere or workouts on the track across the street. The only nod to present-day Kentucky Derby mayhem is the kitschy gift shop, filled with wares for out-of-towners who pop in because some influencer suggested it on TikTok.

At 6:30 on a Tuesday morning, Dale Romans is sitting in one of the mismatched chairs in the restaurant, behind a simple brown table. He is nearly as much a part of the fabric of the place as the pictures, a steady visitor who can practically use the Churchill backside as his own personal measuring stick. He made his first visit to the track as a five-month-old to see his daddy, Jerry, who trained horses out of Barn 4. He spent his childhood running around and playing in and out of the paddock and barns – becoming a licensed trainer by the time he was 18.

Romans eventually took over his dad’s barn and has since become the second-winningest trainer in Churchill history. People don’t so much know Romans around here as they assume him, as sure a thing at the track as the sun rising behind the famed twin spires.

Romans is at Wagner’s as a guest on Jerry Eaves’ radio show. Eaves is every bit the local legend as Romans, a member of the beloved 1980 University of Louisville national championship team who grew up in lockstep with Darrell “Dr. Dunkenstein” Griffith, first as high school rivals, then college and eventually NBA teammates. Blessed with the easy gift of gab, Eaves makes his radio show feel more like a kitchen confab, casually rotating guests in on the fly and even interviewing some who don’t have microphones.

It is Derby week, so naturally, everyone wants to talk horses and Eaves presses Romans for his picks. But Eaves is a basketball player, and this is Louisville. Invariably, the conversation turns to Pat Kelsey’s work in the transfer portal, what’s going on with Kentucky and the fact that the Cards went 2-0 (in football and hoops) against the ‘Cats this past year. Eaves throws up some Ls at that one.

Sitting off to the end of the table with his headphones on, Romans smiles. “I love ‘em both.’’

Eaves grins back at him: “Spoken like a true politician.’’

On May 19 of this year – Preakness week in horseman parlance – Democrats in Kentucky will cast their votes in their primary, choosing from among the seven candidates who will vie against the Republicans for Mitch McConnell’s vacated seat.

Dale Romans is on the ballot.

Aside from working as the president of the Kentucky Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association, which advocates on behalf of horsemen around the state, he has no political experience, unless you think shoveling horse manure for a living makes you ready to sling its figurative version around in the political coliseum. He is running as a moderate straight talker who believes his advantage is that he is decidedly not a lifelong politician.

Still, with Charles Booker and Amy McGrath – who both previously won the Democratic nomination – among the candidates, Romans is a long shot.

But now you’re speaking his language.

Romans saddled up his first horse on October 19, 1986, in a claiming race at River Downs. He waited 52 starts and 16 months to get his first winner. And 15 Preakness weeks ago, he sent a horse by the name of Shackleford to the starting gate for the second leg of the Triple Cr

By Kaanita Iyer, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — When tourists see a statue of Gustavus Cheyney Doane, a 19th-century explorer, at a Grand Teton National Park visitor center this spring, a marker beneath it that used to be there will now be missing.

It had asked visitors: “How do we acknowledge the good and bad of a figure?” pointing out that Doane’s expedition led to the designation of the first national park – but also that he helped lead a massacre of at least 173 members of the Piegan Blackfeet – an act he bragged about throughout his life.

Its removal was cited in a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior, which manages the country’s national parks, as one of many changes wrought by President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order directing the agency to “take action” against public content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

The Trump administration argues the order ensures that American history is portrayed in a positive light. But critics say it is erasing elements of the nation’s past.

“We are killing them all over again,” said Tom Rodgers, a member of the Blackfeet Nation who is known as One Who Rides His Horse East, referring to victims of the massacre, which he called one of the “most despicable historical experiences” for Native Americans.

“I think we’re at a point in our country where people think that if you tell half the truth, you’ve told all the truth, and that in itself, is a lie,” he said. “It’s Orwellian.”

As the country heads into peak tourist season, evidence of the administration’s unprecedented cultural overhaul will be on display at national parks around the country. The removal of the words at Grand Teton is one of at least 45 changes that were carried out under the executive order, according to Save Our Signs, an advocacy group that tracks changes to National Park Service displays.

For example, in California’s Muir Woods National Monument, signs on the contributions of Native Americans and women have been removed, including a note informing visitors that John Muir once referred to indigenous people using racist language in his diaries and ignored “the genocide they survived.”

“This contributes to an idea that indigenous people don’t belong in parks,” the sign once said.

The administration has also taken aim at warnings about climate change, a factor that impacts monuments placed in natural landscapes.

At South Carolina’s Fort Sumter National Monument, a sign that included details on the looming impacts of climate change, including information on how “rising seas could inundate most of the fort’s walls and flood the historic parade ground” has been removed in its entirety.

The Interior Department told CNN that at Fort Sumter, it “acted to replace materials that were not grounded in real science with information that is accurate, evidence-based, and aligned with how the world actually works.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, a display on George Mason, a founding father, has removed references to him “paradoxically” owning slaves despite being a champion of “individual rights.”

The removals come as America enters a moment replete with opportunity to reflect upon its history, with celebrations to commemorate its 250th birthday throughout this year.

The Trump administration’s efforts have drawn backlash from some lawmakers and advocacy groups, including the February lawsuit from a coalition of conservationists and advocates citing the Doane and other sign removals. It accused the administration of “mounting a sustained campaign to erase history and undermine science.” The case in Massachusetts is still pending.

The

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Days before two University of South Florida graduate students went missing last month, a roommate of one of the students allegedly asked the AI chatbot ChatGPT an unusual question.

“What happens if a human has a put (sic) in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,” Hisham Abugharbieh asked on April 13, according to an affidavit filed by Florida prosecutors.

ChatGPT responded it sounded dangerous, the document states, and Abugharbieh then asked another question: “How would they find out.”

Those alleged entries to ChatGPT, included in court documents charging Abugharbieh with two counts of first-degree murder, are just the latest instance of investigators using AI chat histories as evidence in criminal investigations. A ChatGPT conversation was similarly used in the Los Angeles wildfires arson case, and a Snapchat AI conversation was key evidence in a 2024 murder trial in Virginia.

For investigators, these chat logs can provide valuable insights into a suspect’s mindset and motive.

“I think any communications with AI chatbots is like a treasure trove for law enforcement agencies,” said Ilia Kolochenko, a cybersecurity expert and attorney in Washington, DC. “(Suspects) believe their interactions with AI will remain confidential or will at least remain undisclosed or undiscovered, so they frequently ask very straightforward, very direct questions.”

The criminal cases underscore the growing use of AI chatbots for personal advice and the lack of privacy protections for those conversations. While AI chatbots have rapidly become a go-to source for legal advice, medical diagnoses and therapy, those conversations are not legally protected the way they would be with a licensed lawyer, doctor or therapist.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said this lack of privacy is a “huge issue.”

“People talk about the most personal sh*t in their lives to ChatGPT,” Altman said last July on a podcast with the comedian Theo Von. “People use it, young people especially, like use it as a therapist, a life coach, having these relationship problems. ‘What should I do?’

“And right now, if you talk to a therapist or a lawyer or a doctor about those problems, there’s like legal privilege for it. There’s doctor-patient confidentiality, there’s legal confidentiality, whatever. And we haven’t figured that out yet for when you talk to ChatGPT. So if you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there’s like a lawsuit or whatever, we could be required to produce that.”

Several legal experts who spoke to CNN agreed with that analysis and said there was no expectation of privacy on AI chat apps.

“In my firm, we’re treating it as: Anything that somebody’s typing into ChatGPT is something that could be discoverable,” said Virginia Hammerle, an attorney based in Texas.

As investigators closely examine what users tell ChatGPT, they have also begun looking more closely at what ChatGPT tells users.

Last week, Florida’s attorney general launched a criminal investigation into OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT gave “significant advice” to the Florida State University mass shooting suspect. In Canada, the families of victims in a Read more

MONTECITO, Calif. — A fresh look is bringing renewed energy to a longtime community resource in Montecito.

At the Friendship Center, recent renovations are doing more than improving appearances — they’re helping seniors living with dementia feel more comfortable, engaged, and cared for.

“We give them love and care, but I want them to feel that from the chair they’re sitting in to what they see on the walls — that someone truly cared in designing this space,” said Executive Director Kathryn Westland. 

The updates include new flooring, furniture, lighting, painted walls, and renovated bathrooms. Inside, artwork now lines the walls — each piece reflecting the personality and spirit of the center’s members.

Board member Gerrie Shapiro says the center has always focused on dignity and connection.

“Inevitably somebody would ask if my father knew who I was,” Shapiro said. “But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is I know who he is.”

Beyond the interior upgrades, the center is also expanding how members interact with their environment. New rolling garden beds and an outdoor edible garden allow seniors to engage with plants, herbs, and vegetables in a hands-on way.

“It’s okay if they grab something and eat it,” Westland said. “It’s all part of the experience.”

The organization has also launched a door-to-door transportation service, helping seniors who may otherwise have difficulty attending programs stay active and connected.

Leaders say these improvements are designed not only for members, but also for their caregivers — easing stress while creating a welcoming, joyful environment.

“Even as memory changes, you never lose the ability to feel,” Westland said. “We want people to walk in and have that ‘whoa’ feeling — because they deserve that.”

The Friendship Center was recently named Nonprofit of the Year, a recognition leaders say reflects its impact despite being a smaller organization.

“Some people shy away from dementia because it’s scary,” Shapiro said. “But this place is joyful. When you come in, you will smile.”

The center continues to grow, with new programs and services currently in development. 

A new memory café in downtown Santa Barbara is also offering a free space for people with early memory loss and their families to connect and participate in activities.

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