West
Slain California fire captain's fugitive wife 'scared' ex mother-in-law
The former mother-in-law of a California woman, who is on the run for allegedly murdering her Cal Fire captain wife, said she was “scared” of her.
The mother of James Joseph Olejniczak Jr., who was fatally stabbed by Yolanda Marodi, shared her interaction with her former daughter-in-law before she killed her son in 2000.
“My son was a good man. He was, everybody wants to say that about their children, but my oldest boy was my good boy,” his mother, Nancy Hayworth, told KGTV.
Hayworth described Marodi as “scary,” noting Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, 49, a Cal Fire captain who was found stabbed to death inside her home on Feb. 17, and her son’s murder were eerily similar.
“Scary, very scary, she scares me,” Hayworth said. “She always has.”
FUGITIVE WIFE OF SLAIN CALIFORNIA FIRE CAPTAIN SERVED TIME FOR EX’S DEATH AS MANHUNT EXTENDS BEYOND US BORDERS
Authorities say the wife of California Fire Captain Rebecca Marodi has been identified has a suspect in her murder. (Yolanda Marodi Facebook)
Hayworth said that she only met Marodi once, but noted that she “was a little immature at times, and also, she would just be not happy, I think, unless all the attention was on her.”
She served more than 13 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter before her release in 2013, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Hayworth said that her 13 years in prison was not enough time for killing her son.
“I thought, how could someone take someone’s life and only be in a few years and then be let out and get to live your life, and my son will never have that,” Hayworth said.
Authorities have released new information on the killing of Cal Fire Captain Rebecca Marodi last week as they continue to search for her suspected killer, Yolanda Marodi. (San Diego Sheriff’s Office)
Yolanda Marodi’s murder of Olejniczak came nearly 25 years before Rebecca Marodi was stabbed to death in her home on Feb. 17.
An arrest warrant, obtained by KABC, details that Rebecca told Yolanda she was leaving her and ending their marriage nearly a week before she was murdered.
The deadly confrontation was caught on home surveillance video, the outlet reported.
Detectives said that a voice could be heard yelling out, “Yolanda, please, I don’t want to die.”
MANHUNT UNDERWAY AFTER WIFE NAMED AS SUSPECT IN SOCAL FIRE CAPTAIN’S BRUTAL STABBING DEATH
Detectives reported that Rebecca then reappears in the patio angle with what appears to be blood on her back.
The report read that Yolanda responded to Rebecca, saying, “You should have thought about that before,” while standing in front of Rebecca with what appeared to be a knife in her hand.
The couple then disappeared for nearly 10 minutes before Yolanda was seen gathering belongings, dressed in a different outfit and loading up the Chevrolet Equinox and fleeing the scene.
Authorities found Rebecca Marodi with multiple stab wounds. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department)
The San Diego Sheriff’s Office believes Yolanda Marodi is driving a silver 2013 Chevrolet Equinox with California license plate “8BQJ420.” Officials said she is also believed to be traveling with a small white dog.
Deputies said that Yolanda is approximately 5’2″ tall, weighs 166 pounds and has brown eyes and brown hair. She is described as having tattoos on both her upper right and left arms.
Authorities believe that she fled to Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security reported spotting her car as it crossed the border.
“At this time, Olejniczak’s whereabouts are not known. Out of an abundance of caution, the Sheriff’s Office has alerted authorities on both sides of the border about this suspect,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price contributed to this report.
Read the full article from Here
Continue Reading
More than 10,000 people have enrolled in Nevada’s new public option health plans, which debuted last fall with the expectation that they would bring lower prices to the health insurance market.
Those preliminary numbers from the open enrollment period that ended in January are less than a third of what state officials had projected. Nevada is the third state so far to launch a public option plan, along with Colorado and Washington state. The idea is to offer lower-cost plans to consumers to expand health care access.
But researchers said plans like these are unlikely to fill the gaps left by sweeping federal changes, including the expiration of enhanced subsidies for plans bought on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
The public option gained attention in the late 2000s when Congress considered but ultimately rejected creating a health plan funded and run by the government that would compete with private carriers in the market. The programs in Washington state, Colorado, and Nevada don’t go that far — they aren’t government-run but are private-public partnerships that compete with private insurance.
In recent years, states have considered creating public option plans to make health coverage more affordable and to reduce the number of uninsured people. Washington was the first state to launch a program, in 2021, and Colorado followed in 2023.
Washington and Colorado’s programs have run into challenges, including a lack of participation from clinicians, hospitals, and other care providers, as well as insurers’ inability to meet rate reduction benchmarks or lower premiums compared with other plans offered on the market.
Nevada law requires that the carriers of the public option plans — Battle Born State Plans, named after a state motto — lower premium costs compared with a benchmark “silver” plan in the marketplace by 15% over the next four years.
But that amount might not make much difference to consumers with rising premium payments from the loss of the ACA’s enhanced tax credits, said Keith Mueller, director of the Rural Policy Research Institute.
“That’s not a lot of money,” Mueller said.
Three of the eight insurers on the state’s exchange, Nevada Health Link, offered the state plans during the open enrollment period.
Insurance companies plan to meet the lower premium cost requirement in Nevada by cutting broker fees and commissions, which prompted opposition from insurance brokers in the state. In response, Nevada marketplace officials told state lawmakers in January that they will give a flat-fee reimbursement to brokers.
The public option has faced opposition among state leaders. In 2024, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit, brought by a Nevada state senator and a group that advocates for lower taxes, that challenged the public option law as unconstitutional. They have appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Federal Policy Impacts
Recent federal changes create more obstacles.
Nevada is consistently among the states with the largest populations of people who do not have health insurance coverage. Last year, nearly 95,000 people in the state received the enhanced ACA tax credits, averaging $465 in savings per month, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
But the enhanced tax credits expired at the end of the year, and it appears unlikely that lawmakers will bring them back. Nationwide ACA enrollment has decreased by more than 1 million people so far this year, down from record-high enrollment of 24 million last year.
About 4 million people are expected to lose health coverage from the expiration of the tax credits, according to the Congressional Budget Office. An additional 3 million are projected to lose coverage because of other policy changes affecting the marketplace.
Justin Giovannelli, an associate research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said the changes to the ACA in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last summer, will make it more difficult for people to keep their coverage. These changes include more frequent enrollment paperwork to verify income and other personal information, a shortened enrollment window, and an end to automatic reenrollment.
In Nevada, the changes would amount to an estimated 100,000 people losing coverage, according to KFF.
“All of that makes getting coverage on Nevada Health Link harder and more expensive than it would be otherwise,” Giovannelli said.
State officials projected ahead of open enrollment that about 35,000 people would purchase the public option plans. Of the 104,000 people who had purchased a plan on the state marketplace as of mid-January, 10,762 had enrolled in one of the public option plans, according to Nevada Health Link.
Katie Charleson, communications officer for the state health exchange, said the original enrollment estimate was based on market conditions before the recent increases in customers’ premium costs. She said that the public option plans gave people facing higher costs more choices.
“We expect enrollment in Battle Born State Plans to grow over time as awareness increases and as Nevadans continue seeking quality coverage options that help reduce costs,” Charleson said.
According to KFF, nationally the enhanced subsidies saved enrollees an average of $705 annually in 2024, and enrollees would save an estimated $1,016 in premium payments on average in 2026 if the subsidies were still in place. Without the subsidies, people enrolled in the ACA marketplace could be seeing their premium costs more than double.
Insights From Washington and Colorado
Washington and Colorado are not planning to alter their programs due to the expiration of the tax credits, according to government officials in those states.
Other states that had recently considered creating public options have backtracked. Minnesota officials put off approving a public option in 2024, citing funding concerns. Proposals to create public options in Maine and New Mexico also sputtered.
Washington initially saw meager enrollment in its Cascade Select public option plans; only 1% of state marketplace enrollees chose a public option plan in 2021. But that changed after lawmakers required hospitals to contract with at least one public option plan by 2023. Last year the state reported that 94,000 customers enrolled, accounting for 30% of all customers on the state marketplace. The public option plans were the lowest-premium silver plans in 31 of Washington’s 39 counties in 2024.
A 2025 study found that since Colorado implemented its public option, called the Colorado Option, coverage through the ACA marketplace has become more affordable for enrollees who received subsidies but more expensive for enrollees who did not.
Colorado requires all insurers offering coverage through its marketplace to include a public option that follows state guidelines. The state set premium reduction targets of 5% a year for three years beginning in 2023. Starting this year, premium costs are not allowed to outpace medical inflation.
Though the insurers offering the public option did not meet the premium reduction targets, enrollment in the Colorado Option has increased every year it has been available. Last year, the state saw record enrollment in its marketplace, with 47% of customers purchasing a public option plan.
Giovannelli said states are continuing to try to make health insurance more affordable and accessible, even if federal changes reduce the impact of those efforts.
“States are reacting and trying to continue to do right by their residents,” Giovannelli said, “but you can’t plug all those gaps.”
Are you struggling to afford your health insurance? Have you decided to forgo coverage? Click here to contact KFF Health News and share your story.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
New Mexico
New Mexico veteran cemetery coming to Carlsbad via $8M in federal funds – Carlsbad Current-Argus
Adrian Hedden Carlsbad Current-Argusachedden@currentargus.com Mack Dyer served for 21 years in the U.S. Army. He fought in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi…
Legislators are bypassing a straightforward solution that would help ski resorts and other recreational providers stave off lawsuits claiming minor negligence and instead are overcomplicating the picture, the editorial board writes. Lawmakers should follow the example of other states rather than create its own path.
Nebraska54 seconds ago
Huskers/OSU game three canceled
Nevada7 minutes ago
Nevada debuts public option amid federal health care shifts
New Hampshire13 minutes ago
Former president of NH-based charity sentenced after stealing $350K
New Jersey19 minutes ago
Natural Daylight Time: What is it, and why New Jersey should adapt this practice instead
New Mexico25 minutes ago
New Mexico veteran cemetery coming to Carlsbad via $8M in federal funds – Carlsbad Current-Argus
Florida1 year ago
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Connecticut2 years ago
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
Oregon2 years ago
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Virginia2 years ago
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana1 year ago
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
News3 hours ago
Video: What the Texas Primary Battle Means for the Midterms
Politics4 hours ago
Dems’ potential 2028 hopefuls come out against US strikes on Iran
World5 hours ago
At least nine killed after Iranian strike on Israel’s Beit Shemesh
News6 hours ago
Mass shooting at Austin, Texas bar leaves at least 3 dead, 14 wounded, authorities say
Politics16 hours ago
Mamdani’s response to Trump’s Iran strike sparks conservative backlash: ‘Rooting for the ayatollah’
-
World4 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts4 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Montana1 week ago2026 MHSA Montana Wrestling State Championship Brackets And Results – FloWrestling
-
Denver, CO4 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Louisiana7 days agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Technology1 week agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Technology1 week agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making
-
Politics1 week agoOpenAI didn’t contact police despite employees flagging mass shooter’s concerning chatbot interactions: REPORT