trying to run powershell script silently failing - powershell

Question

I've never seen this one, and a search didn't find this issue. A script that ran last week this way with output is silently failing this week. I checked the file has read/wright/run checked in windows explorer. I tried set-executionpolicy remotesigned at the PS prompt.
This script is run at the windows command prompt like this:
powershell "powershell.exe {c:\temp\crashAfter.ps1}"
(no results)
The other ways I've tried are:
powershell
set-executionpolicy remotesigned
.\crashAfter.ps1
(no results)
I've also tried:
PowerShell -File c:\temp\crashAfter.ps1
(no results both at powershell prompt and at just regular windows command line)
What could cause powershell to fail silently like this? It works to go to the powershell prompt at the command line.
This is the script, which hasn't changed since last time I ran it:
$today=[system.datetime](Get-Date)
$startTime=$today.AddHours(-4)
$events = Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable #{LogName='Application';ProviderName='Application Error';Data='SearchUI.exe';StartTime=$($startTime);EndTime=$($today);} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
foreach ($event in $events)
{
$crashOccurredTime=$event.TimeCreated
$lookForInitStart = $event.TimeCreated.AddMinutes(-2)
$eventInit = {Get-WinEvent -FilterHashtable #{LogName='Application';ProviderName='Application Error';StartTime=$lookForInitStart;EndTime=$crashOccurredTime;} -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object -PipelineVariable Message -Match 'SearchUI'
}
if($eventInit -ne $null)
{
Write-Host "Found SearchUI.exe after SearchUI TimeCreated $($event.TimeCreated) ProviderName $($event.ProviderName) Message $($event.Message)"
}
else
{
Write-Host "none"
}
}
Last Friday when I ran this script, it was using our application that we can use to run scripts, and my results looked like this (not sure what CLIXML is):
#< CLIXML
Found SearchUI.exe after SearchUI TimeCreated 08/08/2022 13:46:45 ProviderName Application Error Message
...