Melissa Gilbert Urges Stage Parents to 'Be Sure' It's What Child Wants in Wake of Daveigh Chase Death
Melissa Gilbert said she is “truly heartbroken” by the death of Daveigh Chase and as a former child star herself, is urging parents to think carefully about what their children want when it comes to acting.
Chase died on June 16 at age 35, with the Los Angeles Medical Examiner ruling that she died of AIDS. Chronic polysubstance use, or the repeated use of more than one drug or substance at the during over a period of time, was listed under “other significant conditions.”
Gilbert, who was a child actress herself — famously starring as Laura Ingalls Wilder on Little House on the Prairie — said she worked with a young Chase for “a couple of days” some 20-plus years ago on a pilot.
“This is the Daveigh Chase I knew,” Gilbert wrote in a caption to a photo of Chase as a child in braided pigtails. “I only worked with Daveigh a couple of days but I could see she was bright both in countenance and in mind. She was bubbly, sweet and professional. But there was something else there, a push or need to perform …for her parents.”
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Gilbert said that given her professional background, she has been around many child actors. “As a consequence, I’ve also been around a lot of stage parents. Many child actors grow up just fine, whether they stay in ‘the business’ or not. That is 100% due to really solid, wise parenting. Child stardom, in itself, is not a guarantee of dysfunction,” She said. “However, when a parent or parents lose sight of who THEY are, of what their true responsibility is, and their lives revolve solely around their little star child, well, that’s where the trouble begins.
“It takes strong parenting to handle all that comes with it. The terrible part is, that so few child actors continue on to have careers as actors,” she added. “For most, it goes away, and when that happens it not only devastates the child but it turns the whole family upside down.”
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In light of the tragic cricumstances surrounding Chase’s death, Gilbert cautioned stage parents to be certain that acting is what their child wants. “Today, reading the circumstances of Daveigh’s death, I’m truly heartbroken,” she said. “I certainly understand substance addiction disorder but this sweet girl’s death is so much more. If I had the chance to speak to any parents who were thinking about getting their children in the industry I would tell them to please, please make sure that they are doing it for the right reasons. That they will take the child to an accountant regularly so that he or she knows exactly what he or she is making, and where it is going.
“To be sure it’s something the child really wants. To be sure that that child has a life outside of the industry that is thriving and full of friends and responsibilities and ‘normal’ things,” she concluded. “I would also ask that these parents memorize this sweet girl’s face and her story so that it never happens again.”
Soccer fans sent a message to Washington on Iran — deal or no deal
FIFA World Cup fans sent a message to Washington on Iran- US News
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Skip to main content OpinionSoccer fans sent a message to Washington on Iran — deal or no deal
By Lisa Daftari Published June 30, 2026, 6:33 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The California Post on GoogleTwo games were being played at Los Angeles Stadium on June 15. The first was the Islamic Republic’s World Cup match against New Zealand, its first of the tournament. The second was being played outside, where the Iranian American community organized a large anti-regime demonstration.
Many in the diaspora were not there to watch soccer. They had come to confront the regime on the only piece of American soil where they could, and to send a message to Washington.
The Memorandum of Understanding may have been signed with Iran, but the Iranian people have not signed onto it.
The protesters carried signs that said “42,000.” That is the number of Iranians reportedly killed by the Islamic Republic in January, documented by human rights organizations. They passed out T-shirts with the faces of the young men and women rounded up during the January uprisings, tried in revolutionary courts behind closed doors and executed.
I have covered this community for more than two decades. This was not protest theater. They were there to make a policy statement the only way the diaspora can.
The crowd chanted for King Reza Pahlavi. They chanted death to the Islamic Republic. They chanted “terrorist” at the regime’s representatives walking into the stadium. They flew the pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flag the regime calls illegitimate. FIFA, at the regime’s request, had tried to ban it inside the stadium.
Iranian American advocacy organizations appealed through FIFA’s own process and lost. They went to federal court seeking a restraining order and lost again. The diaspora was told, in effect, that on US soil during an American-hosted tournament, the symbolic preferences of the Islamic Republic outweighed the First Amendment rights of Iranian Americans.
They came anyway. They brought the flags anyway. Tehran was watching. So was Washington.
Every previous US administration has negotiated with the regime while ignoring the needs, human rights and security of the Iranian people. The diaspora was telling the Trump administration not to make the same mistake.
The Iranian people are not a challenge or an afterthought. They are a constituency. And they have been a reliable anti-regime force and American ally against a terrorist government for 47 years.
The MOU is a framework, not a final deal. There is still time. The Iranian American community is asking President Donald Trump to remember who built his political leverage going into Operation Epic Fury and beyond. The policy of “maximum pressure” worked because the Iranian people made it work from the inside. The protests of 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022 and January 2026 are the reason why this regime came to the table at all.
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Yet every time the regime came close to collapse, an outside power threw it a lifeline. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was one such lifeline. The diaspora outside the stadium is telling the administration not to make the MOU the next lifeline.
President Trump may be willing to look past the transgressions of the regime in pursuit of a deal. The Iranian people are not. They are not going to forgive a system that executed their children. And they are not going to accept a peace negotiated in their name but signed without their consent.
A few things should follow from what Washington heard outside LA’s stadium.
President Trump has an opportunity here that no recent president has had. The regime is weaker than it has been since 1979. The Iranian American community is the most informed, pro-democracy advocacy bloc on this question in the country. They are asking for a policy that does not reward the regime they fled.
The Iranian people have lived under this regime for 47 years. They have buried its victims. They have watched every Western government that ever tried to negotiate with it repeat the same mistakes, convinced the next round would be different, and they have watched the regime pocket every concession and come back for more.
The diaspora outside the stadium was telling the world what it has been telling Washington for a generation. This regime was not built to compromise. It was not built to play nice. It does not deserve the deal it is being offered.
Washington should listen to the Iranian people, because they have earned the right to be heard.
Lisa Daftari is a foreign policy analyst and media commentator based in Los Angeles.
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Republicans to hold their first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, Trump announces
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Republicans will hold a party convention in Dallas in September, noting in a Truth Social post that the event will be the first of its kind for the GOP in a midterm election year.
Trump described the convention, scheduled for Sept. 9-10, as a “truly Historic Event.”
“Dallas will take center stage on September 9th and 10th as we celebrate our Nation, our achievements, and our bright future. THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN!” Trump said in his post.
The party gathering comes as Republicans are defending narrow majorities in the House and Senate, and as the president’s sinking approval rating has put those majorities at risk.
Texas will be at the center of this year’s fight for control of Congress, with multiple House battlegrounds and competitive races for Senate, and potentially for governor. A New York Times/Siena poll released Tuesday found a tied Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and his Republican opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, while Gov. Greg Abbott holds a six-point lead over Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa in the governor’s race.
Trump on Tuesday offered a preview of the potential programming, writing on Truth Social: “At the Event, we will have hardworking Americans, our Great Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Manufacturers, First Responders, and Job Creators who are powering our Nation’s Golden Age, and proving that America’s best days are still ahead of us. We will also have lots of Great Entertainment — It will be a RALLY like none other!”
Trump announced plans for a midterm convention late last year. Democrats are not planning to hold a similar event.
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Bridget BowmanBridget Bowman is a national political reporter for NBC News.
Tara Prindiville contributed.Heartbreaking photos show Florida hiker, 31, who was killed, dismembered by alligator as boyfriend desperately tried saving her
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Heartbreaking photos show Florida hiker, 31, who was killed, dismembered by alligator as boyfriend desperately tried saving her
By Daniel Cody Published June 30, 2026 Updated June 30, 2026, 6:43 p.m. ETWarning: Graphic content
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Add The New York Post on GoogleHeartbreaking photos emerged Tuesday of the Florida woman fatally mauled by an alligator while hiking with her boyfriend over the weekend.
Brittany Clark, 31, was seen smiling in a sleek red slip dress just months before Sunday’s trip turned tragic when the couple went for a swim in the Econlockhatchee River at Little Big Econ State Forest.
A giant, 12-foot gator lunged from water and clenched its jaws onto Clark as she was in just three feet of water, ripping one arm “completely off.” according to officials.
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“They were hiking and they just stopped to swim,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson Chad Weber told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
“She was bitten on both of her arms. The boyfriend was the one that made the phone call. He was trying to get her from the alligator’s mouth, and on the way to the hospital she did pass away from her injuries.”
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Her boyfriend, identified by the Daily Mail as Chance Allison, desperately tried to fight off the beast.
Allison heroically freed her arm, but the alligator instantly clamped onto her other arm.
Frantic 911 audio captured Allison trying to stem catastrophic blood loss on the shore, her boyfriend screaming that both her arms had been severed.
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A woman described Clark’s injuries as “horrible,” adding that “one of her arms is completely off and the other one is like attached barely.”
“Bad, real bad please, hurry… she’s losing a lot of blood… we need to stop the blood,” said a distressed man on the 911 call.
Wildlife officials have since euthanized and decapitated the alligator, keeping its head as evidence.
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Clark appeared to love the outdoors as her social media profiles were full of photos showing one adventure after another.
The country girl with a creative fashion taste apparently worked as a dozer operator for years, and enjoyed going to raves outside of her professional life.
“Physically I’m at work headbanging in my dozer, but mentally I never left tinker field,” Clark wrote in an Instagram post, which shows her adorned in vibrant clothing.
Clark was passionate about her pets and was also an avid firearm enthusiast and motorcyclist, frequently showing photos of rifles, pistols and her motorcycle on her Instagram.
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