|
Post by Joanna on Mar 19, 2019 1:54:18 GMT -5
Author Seeks Ghost Stories from Sumner County, TennesseeAn upcoming haunted history book series will include a Gallatin woman’s work detailing some of the county’s history through its ghost stories. Donna Hartley Lucas is a history buff, so she and her husband, a Civil War historian, were drawn to Gallatin because, she said, they were “fascinated and captivated by the history of the area.” She explained that while researching the region’s history, they came across many supernatural stories and started the Gallatin Ghost Walk, an annual tradition of 15 years, in order to “tell the history of Sumner County through its ghost stories,” an “entertaining and informative way” to learn about the county’s history.
Though she hadn’t considered writing a book, she was experienced at relating the region’s history through paranormal sightings and this landed her a contract with The History Press and Arcadia Publishing to chronicle the haunted tales of Sumner County’s history. She quickly agreed to submit a proposal to the publishers to “expand awareness of our area’s diverse and colorful history beyond the limits of our own geographical parameters,” she said in a news release.
The series will include stories from other parts of the country, including Savannah, Georgia, and Long Island, New York. Hartley Lucas’ book, Haunted Sumner County, is slated for release in mid-2020.
‘Rich and full’ of hauntings and history. Hartley Lucas has started writing what is essentially an expansion of the Gallatin Ghost Walk’s stories, along with others; however, she admitted there are “things I don’t know about out there.” Accordingly, she is asking anyone with any ghost stories or information about a historic home or other location in the county to contact her. She is particularly interested in paranormal experiences from northern Sumner County.
“There’s just so much, we can’t tell it all on the Ghost Walk,” she said, “but maybe we can in this book. Sumner County is one of the most haunted and mysterious places in the South and I look forward to being able to share that with a wider audience.”
Goal to ‘emphasize our unique history.’ In excess of 3,500 people have taken the Gallatin Ghost Walk tour – replete with costumes appropriate to the time period – over the past 15 years. “Our main goal is to be authentic and tell the history,” she explained, referencing experiences in which people have encountered the supernatural.
She also highlighted Cragfont (above)* in Castalian Springs, which she described as “one of the most astonishing” historic sites in the county. The local paranormal team, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, investigated the mansion – built in 1802 by Gen. James Winchester – for the first time in late September, live on the Travel Channel. The ghost-hunters have also held non-televised investigations during which they investigated The Palace Theater in Downtown Gallatin and Historic Rose Mont.
“Our focus in the Ghost Walk has always been to emphasize our unique history here,” Hartley Lucas added. “I don’t know of an area that has more paranormal activity per square mile than Sumner County. ... It’s rich and its unique and its diverse.”
If you have a Sumner County ghost story to share, you may contact Donna Hartley Lucas at (615) 512-5299 or donnahartleylucas@icloud.comSource: Kelly Fisher, The Tennessean, March 12, 2019.*Mystery Location No. 60: July 16, 2017
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 18, 2019 17:53:21 GMT -5
Super Worm Moon: March 20, 2019 Skygazers are in for a treat this week when the third and final supermoon of the year occurs. The celestial event follows February’s “Super Snow Moon” and January’s stunning “Super Blood Moon” eclipse.
This week’s celestial event is also a supermoon, an event that occurs when the Moon’s orbit brings it closest to Earth during its full phase. The Moon will reach this point on March 19, when it will be 223,308 miles away. “When a full moon appears at perigee [its closest point to Earth] it is slightly brighter and larger than a regular full moon – and that’s where we get a ‘supermoon’,” NASA explains on its website, noting the phrase was coined in 1979. However, the Moon was closer to Earth during the Supermoons of January 21 and February 19, when it was 222,043 and 221, 681 miles from Earth, respectively. The average distance between the Earth and Moon is 238,855 miles. The Moon will appear particularly large because of what is known as “the moon illusion,” an optical illusion. “This ‘Moon illusion’ happens when the Moon is close to the horizon and there are objects within our line of sight such as trees or buildings,” according to NASA. “Because these relatively close objects are in front of the Moon, our brain is tricked into thinking the Moon is much closer to the objects that are in our line of sight. At Moonrise or set, it only appears larger than when it is directly overhead because there are no nearby objects with which to compare it.”
The Moon will reach it’s full phase at 9:43 p.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, March 20, four hours after the Vernal equinox, which marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Full Moon of March is called the “Full Worm Moon,” a name bestowed upon the satellite by some American Indian tribes because it occurs when the ground is softening and earthworms become active.Sources: James Rogers, Fox News, March 18, 2019, and The Old Farmer's Almanac.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 17, 2019 18:46:11 GMT -5
Woman Who Sank into Parents' Grave Sues CemeteryA woman visiting her parents’ Long Island burial plot descended into more than despair – she sank hip-deep into their grave, a lawsuit claims. Joanne Cullen bent down at the headstone to fix a bow on a wreath and suddenly found herself being swallowed by a sinkhole.
“It caused her to fall forward and smash her head on the tombstone,” cracking a tooth, her lawyer, Joseph Perrini, told The Post. She attempted to “bounce back and she started sinking into the ground and grabbed the sides of the tombstone,” he added. Terrified, Cullen yelled for help, but only the dead heard her cries. The creepy calamity occurred at dusk on December 19, 2016. “Getting sucked into your parents’ grave when you go to visit them on a cool December afternoon with the sun going down ... it’s terrifying and traumatizing,” the lawyer continued.
After being hit by Cullen’s $5 million lawsuit, now it’s the St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery administrators’ turn to shiver in fear.
The 64-year-old resident of North Bellmore, Long Island, claimed the chilling incident in the Farmingdale graveyard – where her mother, Evelyn (a bookkeeper), and father, John (a roofer) are buried – has left her an emotional wreck. “I will never go back there again,” she declared through her attorney, who claimed she now fears walking in open fields and “has nightmares” and headaches. The lawsuit alleges she also is in need of counseling.
Perrini contends the grave diggers who backfilled an adjacent grave to that of Cullen’s parents left an underground void that caused his client to sink into the netherworld.Source: Dean Balsamini, The New York Post, March 16, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 17, 2019 1:00:44 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 14, 2019 8:26:14 GMT -5
Netflix Documentary Claims Madeleine McCann Is Still Alive
A top child protection officer insists the 12-year mystery of missing Madeleine McCann will be solved and he will explain his position in a bombshell new Netflix documentary, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, to be released Friday. The film will feature 40 experts and key figures in the case, some of whom argue the 3-year-old was abducted by a people-trafficking gang and taken from Portugal to another foreign country.
Jim Gamble, the top child protection officer in the UK’s first Maddie investigation, says: “I absolutely believe that in my lifetime, we will find out what has happened to Madeleine McCann. There’s huge hope to be had with the advances in technology. Year on year DNA is getting better. Year on year other techniques, including facial recognition, are getting better,” he continues. “And as we use that technology to revisit and review that which we captured in the past, there’s every likelihood that something we already know will slip into position.”
The documentary also claims Madeleine is likely to have been kept alive by child traffickers because, as a middle-class British girl, she would be more financially valuable. Julian Peribanez, the private investigator hired by the McCanns, explains: “They usually go for lower-class kids from third world countries – that’s the main supplier of these gangs. The value that Madeleine had was really high because if they took her, it’s because they were going to get a lot of money.”
On the evening of May 3, 2007, the 3-year-old child was left sleeping with her 2-year-old twin siblings as Gerry and Kate McCann dined in a restaurant at the Ocean Club Resort in Lagos, Portugal, where they were staying. But the abduction line of enquiry wasn’t a priority for bungling Portuguese cops, who instead devoted their time to attempting to pin the blame on the parents. This detracted from the fact the internet was increasingly normalizing pedophilia, expanding the networks of pedophiles and fueling the demand for child-snatching. “There is no doubt that human trafficking is a massive problem,” Gamble says in the show. “On the internet, you can go into those dark places and say, ‘This is who I am and this is what I do.’ And you’re made to feel better about who you are because there’s so many others.” The documentary explains how Portugal is also the perfect location for child traffickers because it’s a well-placed gateway allowing abducted children to be instantly transported overseas by boat or driven across Europe.
But there is also fresh optimism from child abduction experts, including Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States.
Cop’s Pledge. Allen helped the McCanns in their search by creating an aged-image of Maddie, who would now be 15-years-old, and tells how he has assisted in returning many other abducted youngsters to their families in similar circumstances. “There are many, many cases we can point to in which children have been found, have come home alive, after months, after years,” he says during the documentary. “There have been cases in the United States in which witnesses, people who have information, haven’t come forward for decades, and then one day provide information that helps lead to the resolution of the case.”
The documentary, which will be available in full to Netflix’s 159 million subscribers around the globe, has a reach which could provide a crucial witness or piece of evidence – and will also raise awareness of the case to a new generation. “We’re trying to lay out as much detail as we can about the case,” Emma Cooper, executive producer, explains, “and if it could jog someone’s memory in some way, then that would be amazing. Keeping any search for what happened to Madeleine in the consciousness – particularly globally – is something that’s so important. As we show in the documentary, other children are found – so you have to hope.”
Parents Absolved. Gerry and Kate McCann suddenly found themselves vilified in 2007 when the Portuguese police formally named them as suspects. It was claimed dogs detected the presence of a body and there was blood on Madeleine’s toy in their apartment and in their rented car. It led to accusations the McCanns had given her too much of a sedative to get her to sleep. However, the documentary demonstrates how experts view the claims as unreliable and that naming the McCanns as suspects was a desperate act by police. “The police were clutching at straws,” Gamble claims.
Found Alive. The documentary suggests Madeleine could still come home alive, pointing to the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted at age 9 in California and found 18 years later. The series also cites Carlina White, who was snatched as a baby from a New York hospital in 1987 and didn’t learn the truth until age 23. The father of Elizabeth Smart – kidnapped from her Utah home at age 14, was rescued nine months later – even contacted Kate McCann to offer words of support. “I told her to keep the faith, keep hope alive,” Ed Smart says.
Botched Probe. From the moment Madeleine disappeared, police were slow to respond and secretive about what they were doing. But under pressure, they soon began to leak information and act rashly. The film features Robert Murat, a British citizen living in Praia da Luz and the first named suspect, who says he felt like he was “being set up.” Private investigator Julian Peribanzes also insists police officers just wanted to blame the parents. The officer leading the probe, Inspector Gonçalo Amaral, was fired in October 2007.
Sick Gangs. The secretive world of online child-abusers can now be revealed. Julian Peribanez worked at Metodo3, a Barcelona-based private investigation agency once engaged by the McCanns. In the documentary, he tells how he infiltrated a pedophile ring sharing obscene videos and passed the details to police. According to the former head of Cybercrime, Juan Carlos Ruiloba, “In the end, 23 people were questioned and 13 arrested,” he says. “Some of these investigations may lead to these minors being found and rescued from their captors.”
Sources: Rod McPhee, The Sun, March 14, 2019, and Fox News.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 12, 2019 22:15:08 GMT -5
Scientists Try to Bring Back Woolly MammothsCells from a woolly mammoth that died 28,000 years ago, implanted in mouse cells, have begun to show “signs of biological [activity].” However, researchers caution it’s unlikely the extinct creatures will walk the Earth again anytime soon. The research, published in Scientific Reports, details how a well-preserved woolly mammoth, found in 2011 in the Siberian permafrost, has begun to show some activity. “This suggests that, despite the years that have passed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,” Kei Miyamoto, a member of the team that conducted the work, said in an interview with AFP. “Until now, many studies have focused on analyzing fossil DNA and not whether they still function,” he added.
The study’s abstract reveals “in the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone incorporation and partial nuclear formation; however, the full activation of nuclei for cleavage was not confirmed.” Unfortunately, there were varying levels of DNA damage, which the researchers said “were comparable to those of frozen-thawed mouse sperm and were reduced in some reconstructed oocytes.”
While some evidence of biological processes were seen, the damage the elements had on the cells are not enough for bringing the mammoth back to life, eschewing any kind of “Jurassic Park-style resurrection” that many have hoped for, Miyamoto explained. “We have also learned that damage to cells was very profound. We are yet to see even cell divisions. I have to say we are very far from recreating a mammoth.”
Woolly mammoths became extinct more than 4,000 years ago, with some scientists believing they died off from a combination of the changing climate and human hunters. The hairy creatures were part of the elephant family, sharing a common ancestor with Asian and African elephants – the only two species that exist today – that lived about 4 million years ago. There were approximately 20 species of mammoths, of which the woolly mammoth is just one. Mammoth remains are found in most parts of the northern hemisphere, where they once thrived. Frozen remains have been found in Siberia and Alaska.
Despite Miyamoto’s comments, some researchers are attempting to bring back the mammoth with the use of gene editing, including the controversial CRISPR gene editing tool. George Church, a Harvard and MIT geneticist and co-founder of CRISPR, is the head of the Harvard Woolly Mammoth Revival team, a project that is attempting to introduce mammoth genes into the Asian elephant for conservation purposes. “The elephants that lived in the past – and elephants possibly in the future – knocked down trees and allowed the cold air to hit the ground and keep the cold in the winter, and they helped the grass grow and reflect the sunlight in the summer,” Church told Live Science in May 2018. “Those two [factors] combined could result in a huge cooling of the soil and a rich ecosystem.”
Mammoth remains have been found all over the globe in recent months. In June, a mysterious mammoth bone was discovered on a beach in Loch Ryan in southwestern Scotland. In August, a frozen woolly mammoth was found in Siberia, with researchers theorizing that because of its small stature, it may be a new type species. It has been dubbed a “Golden mammoth” and could be as much as 50,000 years old. In September, a mammoth kill site was discovered in Austria, where Stone Age people slaughtered the might animals.
The ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Problem. Breathing life into the extinct woolly mammoth is a different, possibly impossible, operation. During life, the damage to fragile DNA is repaired naturally. After death, the genetic code quickly breaks down. Robert DeSalle, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, calls this the “Humpty Dumpty” problem. These genetic fragments would likely be 10,000 to 100,000 times smaller than the DNA pieces the researchers in the human genome project are working with, DeSalle said. According to the curator, with the exception of a simple flu virus, “no organisms have been manipulated this way.” Then there are the ethical issues, even if a cloned herd could survive in places like Canada or the Dakotas. “In principle,” Greenwood argues, “they don’t belong here anymore.” Sources: Chris Ciaccia and James Rogers, Fox News, March 12, 2019, and Willow Lawson, ABC News.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 10, 2019 23:47:55 GMT -5
Winged Humanoid Creature Videotaped in NicaraguaA few days ago, a video showing a strange creature, shot somewhere in Nicaragua, was uploaded on YouTube channel Ovnis vs Ufos.
The creature is sitting on a tree limb next to the road in an unspecified city. It has a large humanoid head, four limbs growing from its torso and huge wings similar to those of a bat. This creature, unlike any known animal, moves like a spider, then spreads its wings and flies somewhere to the right as a frightened woman cries out. In appearance, the creature looks like a gargoyle or some species of flying humanoid.Source: Anomalien, March 9, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 9, 2019 11:53:01 GMT -5
Leaving Neverland: Portrait of a Pedophile or Character Assassination?There’s been no end to public outcry since HBO’s Leaving Neverland premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The painful two-part documentary alleging Jackson sexually-abused two young boys has resulted in diverse responses. Many have condemned Jackson’s actions and taken steps to disassociate themselves from the King of Pop, while others have chosen not to believe the singer’s accusers and denounced the film.
In the two-part, 236-minute-long film, Wade Robson (above), 36, and James Safechuck, 42, – along with their “grief-stricken” families – detail how they individually befriended Michael Jackson around the “Bad” period of his career in the mid-to-late 1980s. Before long, they allege, Jackson sexually abused them during separate sleepovers at his palatial Neverland Ranch. They claim the abuse continued for several years and they were sworn to secrecy. And though Jackson was accused in 1993 and stood trial a decade later for assaulting a minor, he convinced both men to testify on his behalf. Jackson settled the first case in 1994 and was found not guilty in the 2005 trial.
Robson, a famed choreographer who once worked with the likes of Britney Spears and ‘NSync; and Safechuck, a former musician, were greeted with a standing ovation at the end of the premiere. “I understand why it’s so hard for [fans] to believe it,” a soft-spoken Robson said during the post-screening Q&A. “We can only accept and understand something when we’re ready.”
Among the revelations in Leaving Neverland, following are five of the most shocking:
1. Abuse began at an early age. Robson was a child dancer and Michael Jackson impersonator in his native Australia when he and his family met the singer backstage at a concert in Brisbane. In 1990, the Robson family reconnected with the King of Pop during a Los Angeles vacation. He and Robson, then just 7, formed an instant bond and he convinced Robson’s mother to allow the boy to stay with him at Neverland while the rest of the family visited the Grand Canyon. That night, according to Robson, Jackson performed oral sex on him and put his tongue into his mouth. “He said ‘This is how we show our love,’” Robson recalled.
Safechuck met Jackson when he filmed a Pepsi commercial with him in 1986. An enamored Jackson soon took Safechuck and his family on tour with him. Sleepovers at Neverland allegedly turned into graphic sexual encounters. Safechuck, then 10, said Jackson initially showed him how to masturbate and the abuse escalated thereafter.
2. Jackson gave Safechuck a wedding ring and said they were married. Speaking matter-of-factly, Safechuck claimed he and Jackson once had a mock wedding ceremony in which they exchanged vows and Jackson even gave him a ring with a row of encrusted diamonds. During this segment of Leaving Neverland, Safechuck’s hands shake as he removed the ring from a jewelry box and related how the star often rewarded him with jewelry in exchange for sexual acts. “It’s still hard for me to not blame myself,” he admitted. Safechuck also alleged that after Jackson settled the 1993 case, he told his friend he was going to be involved in public relationships with women but “they wouldn’t mean anything.” He married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 and Debbie Rowe in 1996.
3. Macaulay Culkin came between Jackson and Robson. Wade Robson and his family said Jackson persuaded them to move from Australia to Los Angeles in 1991 and offered to pay their expenses, but as soon as they uprooted, he [Jackson] began to give them the cold shoulder. When Robson arrived on the set of the video Black and White, he realized why: Macaulay Culkin – then hot from the success of Home Alone – had captured MJ’s attention. “Now I was on the sidelines,” Robson recalled. “It was very confusing.” But when Jackson was mired in the lawsuit in 1993, he refocused on Robson to ensure the boy would testify on his behalf and deny all charges. Robson complied. Following the settlement, Robson claimed Jackson anally penetrated him for the first time. He was 14 at that time and it would be their last sexual encounter.
4. Jackson coerced them into lying. Even as a 10-year-old, Safechuck said Jackson had them do “emergency drills” and get dressed in case someone approached the bedroom while they were in a compromising position. At Neverland, they allegedly had sex in closed-off areas such as a toy-strewn attic, tee-pees on the lawn and a game room. If he told anyone of the acts, Jackson allegedly told him “his life would be over and my life would over.” Safechuck would go on to deny any wrongdoing for more than a decade, until he opened up to his wife and mother. Jackson allegedly used the same threats with Robson, telling him if he revealed anything defamatory, he would go to jail for the rest of his life. Robson cited this as one of the reasons why he testified in Jackson’s defense, noting he never repressed his sexual activities with the star.
5. Jackson’s behavior changed dramatically before his death. Despite the allegations of abuse, Robson said he and Jackson remained good friends until the singer’s death in 2009. But at their last get-together in late 2008 in Las Vegas – where Robson was working as a choreographer – he realized Jackson was in decline. According to Robson, Jackson stopped by his house with his three children, Prince Michael, Paris and “Blanket,” and MJ immediately filled a red plastic cup to the brim with red wine. This was odd because he had never seen Jackson, a Jehovah’s Witness, drink alcohol, but on this occasion, he drank the wine and refilled the cup. Then he [Jackson] announced he was going upstairs for a bit and didn’t come down the remainder of the night. This was perplexing because the star’s three kids seemed nonplused by their father’s actions. Robson never saw him again. Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication June 25, 2009. As for Safechuck (shown above with Jackson), he refused to testify for the singer in the 2005 trial. Still, he admitted Jackson called and promised to assist in getting his budding career as a director off the ground. Safechuck rejected the offer and the two never spoke again.
These and other details unearthed in Leaving Neverland have permanently tainted the powerful Pop King’s legacy: Radio stations have commenced removing Jackson’s music from their sets and the one-time earning power of the Jackson estate is now in limbo. Following is a list of some of what has transpired, thus far, since release of the widely-discussed film:
Michael Jackson’s music sales and streaming declines. In the shadow of the Neverland premiere, Jackson’s music, including his work with the Jackson 5 and The Jacksons, has dipped noticeably in popularity. From March 3-5 – the documentary premiered March 3 – the singer’s album sales declined by 39 percent and his combined song and album sales faced a drop of 8,000, according to Billboard.
The Simpsons removes episode. The 1991 episode “Stark Raving Dad” featured Michael Jackson’s voice, which was initially uncredited, but confirmed by the singer several years later, has been removed. The Simpsons producers pulled the episode from rotation this week. Jackson voiced Leon Kompowsky, a large white man who claimed to be the singer, who met Homer in a mental institution.
Even Corey Feldman changed his mind. After watching the film, one of Jackson’s longtime defenders, former child star Corey Feldman, said, “I can no longer defend him.”
Radio stations are pulling Michael Jackson’s music. Radio stations in New Zealand and Canada have announced they will cease playing Michael Jackson’s music in what is assumed to be a response to Leaving Neverland. Leon Wratt, the group content director for MediaWorks, a radio station in New Zealand, said in an interview that “…with something as controversial as what this Leaving Neverland was going to be, we’re certainly going to err on the side of caution here.” Other DJs also are talking about dropping his music from their rotation.
London buses run ‘MJ Innocent’ ads. An organization of Michael Jackson defenders ran two separate ads on the sides of buses in London. One ad features a photo of Jackson with the word “Innocent” superimposed over his mouth and includes the text, “Facts Don’t Lie. People Do.” The other shows a photo of the top half of the pop star’s face with the text, “#MJINNOCENT.”
Estate releases concert film on YouTube. Twenty minutes after the first part of Leaving Neverland premiered on HBO, Jackson’s estate released a concert video on YouTube that was the same exact length as the documentary. Live in Bucharest (The Dangerous Tour) appears to be an attempt to distract and confuse those who watch the scathing HBO documentary.
A Michael Jackson musical canceled its test run. Jukebox musical “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” canceled its Chicago trial run, but claimed the reason was scheduling issues, not the documentary.
The Jackson estate sued HBO to block the airing of the documentary. Citing a 1992 non-disparagement agreement, the Jackson estate threatened HBO if it aired Leaving Neverland, but HBO quickly countered, indicating it had no plans to back down.
Leaving Neverland IMDb page hacked. The film’s IMDb page was hacked for several hours with details proclaiming the singer’s innocence. The hack appeared to be tied to an organized campaign to discredit the film.
Sources: Anna Tingley, Daniel Nissen and Jordan Moreau, Variety, March 8, 2019; Mara Reinstein, US Weekly, March 3, 2019; and Jen Chaney, The Washington Post, June 14, 2016.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 5, 2019 16:14:35 GMT -5
Czech Man Killed by Pet LionMichal Prasek’s father found his son’s mangled body in the lion’s cage which had been locked from the inside. Prasek, 34, was attempting to breed lions and had a lioness in a separate cage. He bought the lion in 2016 and purchased the female last year.
When authorities arrived on the scene, both lions were shot and killed. A police officer told local media the shootings were “absolutely necessary” in order “to get to the man.”
Local residents were concerned about Prasek’s animals and had complained to officials. Mayor Tomas Kocourek said the incident “will perhaps finally help to resolve this long-term problem.”
In the past, Prasek had been fined for illegal breeding and lacked planning permits for the pens. However, he refused to allow officials to enter his property and an impasse ensued over the animals. Authorities were unable to forcibly remove the lions because they did not have a safe place to keep them, nor was there any evidence of animal cruelty, which would have allowed removal of the animals.
Last year, Prasek made headlines after a cyclist collided with a lioness Prasek had taken out for a walk on a leash. The incident was eventually labeled as a traffic accident.Sources: Barnini Chakraborty, Fox News, March 5, 2019, and The BBC, March 5, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 4, 2019 16:43:16 GMT -5
Defendant Requests Change of Venue to County with Higher Minority Population
Attorneys for Christian Bahena-Rivera filed a change of venue motion Friday arguing that existing tensions and opinions in Poweshiek County – where the crime occurred, Tibbetts grew up and the accused killer lived and worked at a dairy farm – will make it difficult for him to have a “fair and impartial trial,” the Des Moines Register reported. The attorneys requested the court select a county with more of a minority representation for the jury pool. “Without venue where a minority population is substantially represented, [the defendant] cannot be fairly tried and any jury pool chosen will have to be stricken,” the motion reads. The trial is scheduled to begin September 3.
The racial makeup of Poweshiek County is approximately 95% white, 1.5% black and 3.5% Latino, with the remaining 2% comprised of Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, etc. The illegal Mexican, 24, pled not guilty to murder charges in September, approximately a month after Tibbetts’ body was located in a cornfield around 12 miles southeast of Brooklyn, Iowa. The 20-year-old college student vanished on July 18 while jogging in her hometown.
Sources: Katherine Lam, Fox News, March 4, 2019, and the U.S. Census Bureau.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 3, 2019 2:44:26 GMT -5
This wonderful old house is still for sale and the price has been lowered to $450,000!
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Mar 3, 2019 2:35:04 GMT -5
The 'Momo Challenge' PanicLast week, NBC’s Today show and other media outlets aired reports of a purported character called “Momo” that would supposedly be edited into children’s online content or contact them through messenger apps and encourage them to swallow pills, stab others or even commit suicide. As a consequence, parents, schools, local TV/radio stations and newspapers, and even some law enforcement agencies commenced spreading rumors that children were in imminent danger.
Parents in Manchester, N.H., and other school systems around the country received emails on the topic. “While we know of no cases where local students have been involved, I want to encourage parents and guardians to talk to your children about safe practices while using social media and to be vigilant as you monitor your child’s social media activity,” Manchester Superintendent Matt Geary wrote in an email to parents.
Of course, there were no verified sightings of the Momo Challenge memes and, in fact, “Momo” is actually nothing more than a sculpture called “Mother Bird” created by Keisuke Aisawa for the Japanese SFX studio Link Factory.
Nevertheless, YouTube and other online platforms sought to dispel the viral panic. “We’ve seen no recent evidence of videos promoting the Momo Challenge on YouTube,” the company wrote on Twitter Wednesday, February 27. “Videos encouraging harmful and dangerous challenges are against our policies.”
Writing in The Atlantic, Taylor Lorenz explained the Momo Challenge is part of a genre of hoaxes that rely on parental anxiety about their children’s use of technology to spread incomprehensible cultural ideas, from the Satanic Panic over backmasked secret messages in heavy metal lyrics to the “eating Tide Pods” hoax to the fictional deaths linked to the “Cinnamon Challenge.”
According to those who claim to know about such things, internet hoaxes focused on kids tap into parents’ fears that children must be protected online and elsewhere. In addition to anxiety about “screen time” in general, there are certainly a great deal of problematic videos and it’s difficult for parents to police everything children do online. “All moral panics feed on some degree of reality, but then they get blown out of proportion,” said Steve Jones, a professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago. These hoaxes echo panics from decades past, such as the false belief in the 1980s that teenagers were hearing Satanic messages in song lyrics. “Once the internet is involved in the mix, things get speeded up and they get more widespread,” he asserted.
The Momo Challenge appears to have been overblown, but University of Connecticut communications professor Kirstie Farrar, who teaches courses on mass media and children, said parents need to understand that it’s impossible for any digital platform to vet all content delivered to children online. “Anything that encourages parents to be more mindful over what their children are watching on social media, YouTube, etc. is not necessarily bad,” she explained. YouTube encourages viewers to flag any content that’s inappropriate or potentially harmful, but the company has previously faced criticism for bits of such content that has slipped through the cracks, she continued. “This is why it’s so important for parents to be mindful of what their kids are watching and doing in these environments.”Sources: Christopher McDermott, The Manchester (N.H.) Journal-Inquirer, March 2, 2019; Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, March 1, 2019; and The Associated Press.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Feb 28, 2019 22:33:00 GMT -5
Texas Executes 70-Year-Old Killer with 'Heart Full of Scorpions'A Texas death row inmate once described by a prosecutor as having “a heart full of scorpions” was executed Thursday evening for killing his estranged wife’s parents and brother. Billie Wayne Coble was condemned to death for the August 1989 shooting deaths of his in-laws, Robert and Zelda Vicha, and their son, Bobby Vicha, who was a police officer, at their homes in Axtell, northeast of Waco.
Asked to make a final statement, Coble commented: “That’ll be $5.” He told the five witnesses he selected to be in attendance that he loved them, then again said: “That’ll be $5.” Coble nodded to the witnesses and added, “Take care.” He then gasped several times and commenced snoring.
As Coble was finishing his statement, his son, a friend and a daughter-in-law became emotional and violent, yelling obscenities, hitting and kicking at others in the death chamber witness area. Officers stepped in and the witnesses, who continued to resist, were eventually moved to a courtyard and the two men were handcuffed. “Why are you doing this?” the woman asked. “They just killed his daddy.”
While the witnesses were being subdued outside, the single dose of pentobarbital was being administered to Coble. He was pronounced dead 11 minutes later at 6:24 p.m.
Coble, 70, was the third killer put to death this year in the United States and the second in Texas, which is the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. His attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay the execution, arguing Coble’s original trial lawyers were negligent for conceding his guilt and failing to present an insanity defense before a jury convicted him of capital murder. But the court rejected the last-day appeal, clearing the way for execution.
At age 70, Coble is the oldest inmate put to death by the state of Texas since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982.
A state appeals court also rejected Coble’s request to delay the execution and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down his request for a commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment. Coble “does not deny that he bears responsibility for the victims’ loss of life, but he nonetheless wanted his lawyers to present a defense on his behalf,” his lawyer, A. Richard Ellis, said in his appeal to the Supreme Court.
In Coble’s clemency petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ellis claimed his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his time in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War and was convicted, in part, due to misleading testimony from two prosecution expert witnesses on whether he would present a danger in the future.
J.R. Vicha, Bobby Vicha’s son, said it will be a relief knowing the execution has finally taken place after years of delays. “Still, the way they do it is more humane than what he did to my family. It’s not what he deserves, but it will be good to know we got as much justice as allowed by the law,” he added. Vicha was 11 when he was tied up and threatened by Coble during the murders.
Prosecutors said Coble, upset over his pending divorce, kidnapped his wife, Karen Vicha, after which he was arrested, but freed on bond. Nine days later, he went to his wife’s home, where he handcuffed and tied up her three daughters and son, J.R. Vicha. He then went to the homes of Robert and Zelda Vicha, 64 and 60, respectively, and Bobby Vicha, 39, who lived nearby, and fatally shot them all. After Karen Vicha returned home, Coble abducted her and drove off, assaulting her and threatening to rape and kill her. He was arrested after wrecking his vehicle in neighboring Bosque County following a police chase.
Coble was convicted of capital murder in 1990. In 2007, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial on punishment. On retrial in 2008, a second jury sentenced him to death. “He had no remorse at all,” Crawford Long, who assisted in the retrial, said.
J.R. Vicha, 40, still lives in the Waco area. He eventually became a prosecutor, a career choice inspired in part by his father, who was a police sergeant in Waco when he was killed. His grandfather was a retired plumber and his grandmother worked in the office of a podiatrist. Now in private practice, Vicha is working to have a portion of a highway near his home renamed in honor of his father. “Every time I run into somebody that knew [his father and grandparents], it’s a good feeling,” he explained. “And when I hear stories about them, it still makes it feel like they’re kinda still here.”Sources: KTVT and KTXA, February 28, 2019.
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Feb 28, 2019 18:26:21 GMT -5
Huge Spider Captures, Drags OpossumA dinner plate-sized tarantula with a big appetite captured a young opossum during a recent hunt in the Amazon rainforest – and the horrifying encounter was caught on tape.
Biologists at the University of Michigan (UofM) studied rare predator-prey interactions, particularly between arthropods and small vertebrates, over the course of a few years in the lowland rainforest located near the Andes foothills. They detailed 15 different predation events in a paper published in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation on Thursday. “This is an underappreciated source of mortality among vertebrates,” Daniel Rabosky, an evolutionary biologist at UofM who leads a team of researchers to the Amazon rainforest about once or twice a year, said in an online statement. “A surprising amount of death of small vertebrates in the Amazon is likely due to arthropods such as big spiders and centipedes.”
The Michigan researchers captured footage and still images of battles between spiders, snakes, scorpions, ants, beetles, water bugs, among others. Many predators relied on paralyzing venom to trap their meal, while others used their large jaws to their advantage. Every interaction was brutal, but none was perhaps as vicious as the late-night slaughter of a mouse opossum by a tarantula (theraphosid spider). “The spider was on the ground in the leaf litter holding the opossum by the neck region,” the researchers described in their paper, noting that the opossum – roughly the size of a softball – was still alive when they spotted the pair. After about five minutes, the creature became motionless and the spider dragged it behind a tree root, disappearing into the darkness.
Upon reviewing footage of the rare occurrence, Robert Voss, a mammologist at the American Museum of Natural History, confirmed it appeared to be the first-ever documentation of “a large mygalomorph spider [tarantula] preying upon opossums,” National Geographic reports.
“Tarantula predation on vertebrates is not a common thing, but it does happen. They are opportunistic feeders and they’ll take whatever they can subdue,” arachnologist Rick West, who was not a part of the research group, told the magazine, adding they typically feed on frogs.
The news came as a happy surprise to the researchers. “We were pretty ecstatic and shocked and we couldn’t really believe what we were seeing,” Michael Grundler, a Ph.D. student at UofM and contributing author, said in a statement. “We knew we were witnessing something pretty special, but we weren’t aware that it was the first observation until after the fact.”
During their expedition, the authors of the study had one goal in mind: To better understand the food web and the “pressures” impacting populations of small animals. “Predation of small vertebrates by arthropods has been documented in several lowland rainforest sites, yet our knowledge of these interactions remains limited, especially given the diversity of vertebrate prey and potential arthropod predators in species-rich tropical communities,” the researchers explained in their paper. “[...] Documenting predation by spiders and other arthropods in these ecosystems is essential even if many predaceous arthropods remain undescribed and are mostly classified as morphospecies, because they provide insights into an important source of vertebrate mortality that appears to be less common in extra-tropical communities.”
Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvnbiQJOUws
Source: Jennifer Earl, Fox News, February 28, 2019. See also “Massive Spider Drags Mouse Up Refrigerator.”
|
|
|
Post by Joanna on Feb 27, 2019 23:02:17 GMT -5
Emotional Support Pit Bull Attacks Child at Airport, Lawsuit FiledThe mother of a 5-year-old girl mauled in the face by a pit bull at Portland International Airport has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against the Port of Portland for allowing a dangerous “emotional support animal” into the airport without a carrier. The lawsuit lists two other defendants: the dog’s owner, Michelle Brannan, and Alaska Airlines. According to the suit, Brannan should have known that her dog had “vicious propensities”; and the airline is at fault for allowing Brannan to bring a dangerous dog into the gate waiting area, where the attack happened, when the dog wasn’t a trained service animal or properly confined.
Mirna Gonzalez is suing on behalf of her daughter, Gabriella, who was 5 at the time of the attack on Dec. 18, 2017, and is now age 7.
According to Chad Stavley, the family’s Portland attorney, Gabriella and her family were waiting at gate C7 to board a flight to Texas for the Christmas holiday. The girl’s mother and older sister went to get coffee nearby as Gabriella and her 13-year-old brother waited at the gate. With Brannan’s consent, Gabriella began petting the dog, which bit the girl, puncturing her eyelid, severing a tear duct, lacerating her face and tearing her lip. The child underwent surgery and still has visible scars, he said.
“The traveler need only answer those questions, and we’re required to accept the answer,” Kama Simonds, a spokeswoman for the Port of Portland, advised in an email. She added that officials do not ask for documentation of the animal’s training. She said the port distinguishes between trained service animals and emotional support animals, requiring that the latter be placed in carriers while passing through the airport. If the animal is too large for a carrier, the animal must be on a leash within 3 feet of its owner.
Port officials apparently thought Brannan’s dog could have fit into some sort of carrier because port police cited her for failing to crate her dog. Stavley said that at this time, he doesn’t know if officials at the airport questioned Brannan about her dog before she got to the gate, or what Brannan might have said when asked if her dog was a trained service animal or an emotional support animal. He added that Brannan was carrying what looked like a form letter from her therapist, saying her animal was an emotional support animal. “It didn’t say what kind of animal,” he confirmed. “It was just a generic ‘animal.’” Brannan, who lived in Portland at the time, was allowed to catch a later flight without her dog, Stavley revealed.
According to Alaska Airlines’ policy on its website, trained service animals as well as emotional support animals fly free of charge. “We welcome trained service animals and emotional support animals,” the website states. The airline doesn’t require owners to place emotional service animals travel in a carrier. Rather, the website indicates that a leash is also acceptable.
The suit seeks $100,000 for past and future medical costs, including the costs of surgery, and $1 million for the child’s pain and suffering. The girl and her family live in Pasco, Wash., and were traveling through Portland.
The lawsuit was filed Monday, February 25, in Multnomah County Circuit Court.Sources: Aimee Green, OregonLive, February 27, 2019, and Alexander Deabler, Fox News, February 27, 2019.
|
|