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2 sea turtles released to ocean in Naples after treatment for red tide exposure

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

NAPLES, Fla. (WSVN) – A couple of turtles were released back into the wild, thanks in part to Zoo Miami.Zoo Miami’s Animal Health Team, in collaboration with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, on Tuesday released two adult female loggerhead turtles off the beach at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park in Naples. Fanny and Gouda were undergoing treatment since March, when they were found suffering from red tide exposureThe marine reptiles were extremely lethargic and covered with barnacles. In addition, they were severely anemic and emaciated.Thanks to the supportive care they received, the turtles made a full recovery and were cleared for release.Fanny and Gouda were released on Florida’s Gulf coast between Naples and Tampa, where they were found.Once the turtles were placed down on the beach a few yards from the water, their security straps were undone from the boards...

‘It just stings a little bit’: Central Florida teen calls 911 after being bitten by gator near creek

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) – A Central Florida teen was able to alert authorities after he was bitten by an alligator.The 13-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after Tuesday’s attack in Winter Springs.The victim and his friends had just finished swimming in a creek when the reptile lunged at him.“I just got bit by a gator,” he’s heard saying in the 911 phone call audio. “He was coming outside the water. He stated that the alligator came out of the water and bit him on the hip,” said Winter Springs Police Capt. Doug Seely. The teen said he managed to grab a stick and wiggle his way out of the gator’s jaws until the reptile eventually let go and swam away.He then ran as fast as he could and went to a nearby home for help and called 911.“My right hip – I’m OK, though. I can walk, and I can stand,” he told the 911 dispatcher. “I’m fine; it just stings a little bit, but I’m good.”The boy was t...

Trapper removes gator found floating in Weston family’s swimming pool

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

A Weston family woke up to find a sneaky intruder in their swimming pool.Pictures showed an alligator, seemingly unbothered, floating in the water, Monday morning.Speaking with 7News on Thursday, the homeowner said he thinks the large reptile crawled into the pool area through a hole in the mesh screen enclosure.The homeowner said he didn’t know what to do, so he called 911.A professional trapper came and, after some resistance from the unwelcome guest, was able to remove the gator from the residence.

US Navy detected an implosion Sunday and relayed information to Titanic-bound submersible search efforts, official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

(CNN) — The US Navy detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion on Sunday in the general area where the Titanic-bound submersible was diving when it lost communication with its mother ship, a senior Navy official told CNN Thursday.The Navy then immediately relayed that information to the on-scene commanders leading the search effort, and it was used to narrow down the area of the search, the official said.But the sound of the implosion was determined to be “not definitive,” the official said, and the multinational efforts to find the submersible continued as a search and rescue effort. “Any chance of saving a life is worth continuing the mission,” the official said. The Wall Street Journal was first to report about the acoustic signature picked up by the Navy.That insight comes the same day the US Coast Guard announced the submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five people on board.The tail cone and other debri...

Live updates | US Navy acoustic system detected ‘anomaly’ that was likely implosion, official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

By The Associated PressFollow along for live updates on the submersible that vanished while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic.___US NAVY ACOUSTIC SYSTEM DETECTED ‘ANOMALY’ THAT WAS LIKELY IMPLOSION, OFFICIAL SAYSA U.S. Navy acoustic system detected an ‘anomaly’ Sunday that was likely the Titan’s fatal implosion, according to a senior military official.The Navy went back and analyzed its acoustic data after the Titan submersible was reported missing Sunday. Coast Guard officials on Thursday announced that the craft suffered a catastrophic implosion, killing all five aboard.That anomaly was “consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the TITAN submersible was operating when communications were lost,” according to a senior Navy official.The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.The Navy passed on the information to the Coast Guard, which contin...

Ticker: US safety agency to require automatic emergency braking on heavy trucks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

The government will require heavy trucks and buses to include automatic emergency braking equipment within five years, the federal traffic safety agency said Thursday, estimating it will prevent nearly 20,000 crashes and save at least 155 lives a year.The announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration follows a similar move last month for all new passenger cars and light trucks. The actions represent the traffic safety agency’s latest efforts to regulate electronic systems that take on certain tasks that drivers themselves have normally handled. NHTSA has been reluctant in the past to impose such regulations, saying the technology would change during the time it took to enact new rules.Sinema cites bill targeting leaders of failed banks after criticism of her Wall Street tieArizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic defector turned independent who’s been criticized as too closely aligned with Wall Street interests, took credit Thursday for helping broker l...

Judge blocks Wyoming’s 1st-in-the-nation abortion pill ban while court decides lawsuit

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

By MEAD GRUVER (Associated Press)CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Abortion pills will remain legal in Wyoming for now, after a judge ruled Thursday that the state’s first-in-the-nation law to ban them won’t take effect July 1 as planned while a lawsuit proceeds.Attorneys for Wyoming failed to show that the ban wouldn’t harm the plaintiffs before their lawsuit is resolved, Teton County Judge Melissa Owens ruled after hearing arguments from both sides. Meanwhile, those plaintiffs “have clearly showed probable success on the merits,” Owens said.While other states have instituted de facto bans on the medication by broadly prohibiting abortion, only Wyoming has specifically banned abortion pills. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April that access to one of the two pills, mifepristone, may continue while litigants seek to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of it.Wyoming’s pill ban is being challenged by four women, including two obstet...

Man without a driver’s license drove through crowd headed to Chicago White Sox game, prosecutors say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

Prosecutors on Thursday said that a 20-year-old man who was never issued a driver’s license and was once accused of fleeing police at a traffic stop plowed through a crowd of people crossing the street to head into Guaranteed Rate Field.Condelarious Garcia faces four counts of aggravated reckless driving, along with misdemeanor driving on a suspended license and three traffic citations for the Tuesday night collision steps from the stadium in the 300 block of West 35th Street.Authorities said Garcia was behind the wheel of the silver Acura sedan that severely injured four pedestrians crossing 35th Street to the park entrance around 6:30 p.m. A 64-year-old man, was tossed headfirst into the Acura’s sunroof, prosecutors said.“(Garcia) displays a wanton disregard for other individuals. The fact that his flight was more important than the safety of the individual lodged in his sunroof, or the safety of the people in the car with him,” said Judge Charles Beach II ...

Accused Cape Verdean killer tried to renew US passport while on the run, feds say

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

A Brockton man faces up to a decade in prison as feds say he applied for a new U.S. passport at an overseas embassy while he was on the run for murder charges in Cape Verde, but lying that he had lost it during Christmas dinner.Johnny Brandao, 40, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Cape Verde, was indicted on one count of passport fraud this week after having previously been charged with criminal complaint for the same offense on May 7, for which he was arrested two days later. He will appear in federal court in Boston on the charge at an unscheduled date.“It is alleged that on March 27, 2014, together with another defendant, Brandao shot an individual in the head using a .45 caliber revolver, took one million and five hundred thousand Cape Verdean Escudo, and then dumped the victim’s body on the side of the road,” Special Agent Daniel Starr of the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service wrote in a May 7 affidavit supporting the charges.“It is further alleged that on July 26, ...

Serial thief gets 7 years for robbing Hyde Park bank with BB gun

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:20:00 GMT

A Hyde Park man with a significant history of robbery will spend seven years in prison for robbing a neighborhood bank of about $13,600 with just a BB gun.Paul Whooten, 59, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to one count of armed bank robbery back in January and on Wednesday was sentenced to seven years in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.“Give me all your money,” Whooten allegedly told a Hyde Park Rockland Trust Bank four days before Christmas in 2019. He carried what appeared to be an assault-style rifle and was decked out in a distinctive outfit of a long, cark coat over a yellow and black reflective jacket with a bright yellow hood, as well as sunglasses, a black knit cap, a mask and gloves.Whooten walked out of the bank with $13,603 from the till. A Boston Police officer stationed inside the bank broadcasted Whooten’s description and the direction he fled, and he was soon — mere “minutes later” according to the defense’s sentencing memo — found b...