Tag Archives: destinations and attractions

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Dallas Zoo says tamarin monkeys that went missing for a day are healthy and uninjured

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CNN
 — 

The emperor tamarin monkeys that disappeared from the Dallas Zoo earlier this week but were recovered by police in an abandoned home on Tuesday are healthy and uninjured, the zoo said.

“Emperor tamarin monkeys, Bella and Finn, were so happy to snuggle into their nest sack here at the Zoo last night!” the zoo said on Facebook. “Our veterinary and animal care teams have said, beyond losing a bit of weight, they show no signs of injury and both started eating and drinking almost immediately once the team completed health exams on Tuesday night.”

The zoo said the monkeys will go through a quarantine period before being returned to their zoo habitat.

The zoo also noted that video from their surveillance cameras released on Tuesday “seems to have been critical in generating a tip that led to the recovery of the tamarins.” Further, there is a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the person responsible, the zoo said.

The health update comes two days after the zoo said that two tamarin monkeys were missing and that their habitat had been “intentionally compromised.” The Dallas Police said they had reason to believe the monkeys were taken, the zoo said.

The disappearance followed a series of suspicious incidents at the zoo in the last month involving a leopard, langur monkeys and a vulture, all of which have led to a hike in security.

After a tip, the missing tamarin monkeys were found Tuesday inside a closet in an abandoned home in Lancaster, about 15 miles away from the zoo. The police released a photo of one monkey in the closet, standing atop what looked like fencing.

“We are thrilled beyond belief to share that our two emperor tamarin monkeys have been found,” the Dallas Zoo said Tuesday evening. “They will be evaluated by our veterinarians this evening.”

Elsewhere, a Louisiana zoo reported the weekend theft of 12 squirrel monkeys.

The Dallas Zoo learned Monday the duo of emperor tamarin monkeys was missing from their enclosure, it said.

Dallas police concluded the monkeys’ habitat was intentionally cut open, and it was “believed the animals were intentionally taken from the enclosure,” they said.

The zoo was closed Monday due to inclement weather, it earlier had announced, with the closure extended through Wednesday due to an ice storm.

How the animals left the zoo and got the abandoned house in Lancaster is still a mystery.

Police on Tuesday released surveillance video and a photo of an unidentified man they said they were searching for and want to interview. Police have not said why they want to speak to him or when the footage was recorded, and they’ve asked the public to contact them at 214-671-4509 with any information.

The surveillance video shows a man walking slowly down a nearly empty zoo sidewalk, looking back and forth as he moves. Another person is seen in the background walking in the opposite direction.

The photo shows a man wearing a navy hooded sweatshirt and a navy and red beanie cap while eating a bag of Doritos.

Zoo officials said Wednesday that security is being tightened.

“Although our security program had worked in the past, it has become obvious that we need to make significant changes,” officials said in a written statement. “Words cannot express the frustration our team is feeling.”

Security upgrades include more cameras and more than doubling the number of security patrols as well as increasing the number of people working overnight, installing more fencing and adding other unspecified security technology, according to the news release.

A few other strange developments with animals have unfolded in recent weeks at the Dallas Zoo.

A clouded leopard named Nova disappeared January 13, and the zoo closed to search for the animal.

Police launched a criminal investigation after they found the fence around Nova’s enclosure had been “intentionally cut,” they said. Later that day, Nova was found near her habitat.

Meanwhile, zoo staff observed a similar cut to the enclosure of some langur monkeys, but none of them had escaped, the zoo said.

Police did not immediately determine whether the two incidents were related.

The incidents prompted the zoo to ramp up security, including installing more cameras and boosting overnight security personnel and staffing, its president and CEO Gregg Hudson said. Restrictions were also placed on animals’ ability to go outside overnight, he added.

Then, a lappet-faced vulture named Pin was found dead January 21 in his habitat. “Circumstances of the death are unusual, and the death does not appear to be from natural causes,” the zoo said in a statement.

The bird’s death was “suspicious” and it suffered “an unusual wound and injuries,” Hudson said.

The zoo is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect in the vulture’s death.

While the incidents at the Dallas Zoo and the monkey thefts at Zoosiana in Broussard, Louisiana, have raised general security concerns, at least one zoo in Florida is not stepping up security.

There are “several security measures already in place in Zoo Miami” and only so much that can be done, said Ron Magill, wildlife expert and Zoo Miami spokesperson.

“If someone wants to get in and is determined,” he told CNN, “they’re going to find a way.”



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US

Dallas Zoo says its missing tamarin monkeys have been found

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CNN
 — 

Two emperor tamarin monkeys missing from the Dallas Zoo were found Tuesday, the zoo said.

“We are thrilled beyond belief to share that our two emperor tamarin monkeys have been found,” the zoo said in a statement.

Dallas police located the animals early Tuesday evening, the zoo said, without immediately releasing details about how they were found. The zoo earlier said the animals were believed to have been stolen Monday.

Police “called our team to come secure and transport the tamarins back to the Zoo,” the zoo said. The monkeys will be evaluated by veterinarians Tuesday evening, according to the zoo.

Dallas police earlier said its preliminary investigation found the emperor tamarin monkeys’ habitat had been intentionally cut open and “it is believed the animals were intentionally taken from the enclosure.”

Police had also released surveillance video and a photo of an unidentified man they wanted to speak to in regard to the two missing tamarin monkeys. “Dallas police are looking for the public’s help in identifying the pictured individual,” they wrote.

In the surveillance video, the man can be seen walking slowly down a nearly empty zoo sidewalk, looking back and forth as he moves. A second person also can be seen in the background, but that person walks in the opposite direction.

In the still image, the man is wearing a navy blue hooded sweatshirt and a navy and red beanie cap and is eating a bag of Doritos.

The investigation comes after a series of suspicious animal incidents this month at the Dallas Zoo. The zoo said it believed two of its emperor tamarin monkeys were stolen after they were discovered missing from their enclosure Monday.

“Emperor tamarin monkeys would likely stay close to home – the Zoo searched near their habitat and across Zoo grounds and did not locate them,” the zoo said in a statement Monday.

Earlier Monday, the zoo said it would be closed for the day due to inclement weather. The closure was later extended through Wednesday due to an ice storm impacting the area, the zoo said.

This is the fourth time this month that the zoo has discovered its animals or their enclosures may have been tampered with, including the “unusual” circumstances surrounding the death of a vulture last week, according to the zoo.

The string of events began January 13 when a clouded leopard named Nova disappeared, prompting the zoo to close as they searched for the animal. Dallas police opened a criminal investigation after it was discovered that the fence around Nova’s enclosure had been “intentionally cut,” police said.

While the feline was found close to her habitat later that day, zoo personnel also found a similar cut had been made to the enclosure of some langur monkeys. Despite the new escape route, none of the monkeys left their habitat, the zoo said. Police said at the time that it was “unknown if the two incidents are related.”

Following the incidents, the zoo installed additional security cameras, more than doubled its overnight security personnel, increased its overnight staffing, and began limiting some animals’ ability to go outside overnight, President and CEO Gregg Hudson said.

But less than two weeks after the first discoveries, a vulture named Pin was found dead in his habitat. Hudson called the bird’s death “suspicious” and said “an unusual wound and injuries” indicated Pin did not die from natural causes.

The zoo is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of a suspect in the vulture’s death.

Dallas police are investigating all four incidents. A spokesperson said last week that the department is collaborating with US Fish and Wildlife on the investigations.



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US

A Florida woman is barricading herself inside a Daytona Beach hospital room after shooting her terminally ill husband

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CNN
 — 

A woman has confined herself to a room inside a Daytona Beach, Florida, hospital after shooting her terminally ill husband on Saturday, police say.

Officers arrived at the Advent Health Hospital after receiving a report of about a person being shot, Daytona Beach police said in a release obtained by CNN affiliate WESH.

“Officers have evacuated staff and patients around the room, and at this time the female is not seen as a threat to staff or patients. No one else has been injured,” the release said. “We are currently negotiating with the female to get her to surrender and come out of the hospital.”

Dr. Joshua Horenstein, a cardiologist at Advent Health Hospital, was working in the emergency department when he learned of the shooting incident.

“Someone came in screaming in the emergency department that this was not a drill and to shelter in place,” Horenstein told CNN while hiding in a supply room with a nurse.

Horenstein said he was finally able to leave the supply room after roughly 90 minutes.

Daytona Beach Police are expected to hold a press conference Saturday afternoon, according to a tweet on the department’s verified Twitter account.

Police are asking people to stay away from the area.

CNN has reached out to hospital staff, some who are currently on lockdown inside the hospital.

The status of the woman’s husband is unclear at this time.

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US

Biden is facing sharp questions after documents revelation

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CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden is facing sharp new questions about his handling of classified documents as he prepares for a summit with the leaders of the US’ neighboring nations.

The news that several classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were discovered last fall at his private office in Washington, DC, broke moments after the president’s motorcade had rolled into the National Palace in Mexico City, in a visit that marks a US president’s first visit to Mexico since 2014.

Biden’s lawyers say they found the government materials in November while closing out a Washington, DC-based office that Biden used as part of his relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an honorary professor from 2017 to 2019.

Fewer than a dozen classified documents were found at the office, another source told CNN. It is unclear what the documents pertain to or why they were taken to Biden’s private office. The classified materials included some top-secret files with the “sensitive compartmented information” designation, also known as SCI, which is used for highly sensitive information obtained from intelligence sources.

Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends.

As the news of the classified documents quickly consumed coverage back at home, Biden was busy kicking off a highly anticipated bilateral meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, where immigration was expected to be among the top issues discussed.

As the moment was unfolding, one senior administration official traveling with the president told CNN that Biden had been in meetings all afternoon ahead of the extended bilateral meeting with his counterpart.

“Nothing has changed in his schedule,” the official said. “He’s focused on the summit and meeting with our closest neighbors.”

On whether advisers have discussed the issue of the classified documents during Biden’s visit to Mexico so far, this official said that as far as they were aware, it had not come up.

Meanwhile, asked by reporters in the room before the bilateral meeting for a response to the classified documents, Biden stayed quiet and at one point appeared to smirk as shouting reporters were ushered out of the room. Seated to Biden’s left during his meeting with the Mexican president: Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has asked the US attorney in Chicago to review the matter, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, a process that is still in a preliminary stage.

The US attorney in Chicago, John Lausch Jr., was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2017.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Biden is still not aware of what is contained in the actual documents. White House officials, who have gone to great lengths to avoid any real or perceived effort to influence the Justice Department, are likely to maintain that posture with this specific review.

Biden wasn’t aware the classified documents were located in the office and didn’t become aware of them until his personal lawyers communicated their existence to the White House Counsel’s office, that source familiar told CNN.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to Biden, said in a statement that the White House is cooperating with the National Archives and Department of Justice.

“The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.,” Sauber said in a statement. “The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.”

“The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys,” Sauber added. “The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”

The episode has echoes of the scandal that enveloped Trump in late 2021 over scores of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida during a raid by the FBI. However, there are some key differences between the two scenarios in the Biden team’s telling.

Sauber said Biden’s personal attorneys quickly turned over a small number of classified documents once they were found in a locked space. With Trump, when the National Archives realized key records were missing it was forced to haggle with Trump for months over the return of government documents.

The documents discovered in Biden’s office had never been sought or requested by NARA or any other government entity.

Trump eventually gave 15 boxes of materials back to NARA. But federal investigators later came to correctly suspect that he was still holding onto dozens of additional classified files. So, DOJ prosecutors secured a grand jury subpoena and later got a judge’s permission to search Mar-a-Lago, to find the documents. He is now under investigation by special counsel Jack Smith for potentially mishandling classified documents.

Ever since the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August – a search that uncovered dozens of additional classified files – Trump has promoted wild and unfounded allegations about his predecessors’ supposed mishandling of government records. The news about classified records turning up at Biden’s private office is sure to provide new fodder to Trump, who has already announced his 2024 presidential bid.

It also quickly became a flashpoint on Capitol Hill for House Republicans eager to use their new oversight powers on the Biden administration.

Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, told CNN he plans to press the National Archives for information about the classified documents removed by Joe Biden during his time as VP. He said he would send a letter to the Archives — which his committee oversees — within the next 48 hours.

“President Biden has been very critical of President Trump mistakenly taking classified documents to the residence or wherever and now it seems he may have done the same,” Comer said. “How ironic.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy didn’t say whether he believes House Republican should investigate Biden’s retention of classified documents but said the reaction to Trump holding onto classified documents has been driven by politics.

“I just think it goes to prove what they tried to do to President Trump overplayed their hand on that,” McCarthy said.

“They’ve been around even longer,” McCarthy said of Biden’s team. “President Trump had never been in office before and had just left, came out. Here’s an individual spent his last 40 years in office.”

McCarthy added: “It just shows that they were trying to be political with President Trump.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight panel, pointed to what the Biden detailed as key differences between the two instances, noting Biden’s attorneys “appear to have taken immediate and proper action to notify the National Archives about their discovery of a small handful of classified documents found in a locked cabinet at the Penn Biden Center so they could be returned to federal government custody.”

Raskin, of Maryland, said he had confidence Garland had taken the appropriate steps to “make an impartial decision about any further action that may be needed.”

Still, some members of Biden’s own party also expressed concern at the idea of classified documents being found in an improper location.

Two senior Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee – Reps. Adam Schiff and Jim Himes – both told CNN that classified documents must be handled securely, offering their first reaction to news that President Biden may have mishandled classified documents from his time as vice president.

While both men said they hadn’t yet read the facts of the stories about the matter yet, Schiff said, “Obviously if there are classified documents anywhere they shouldn’t be that’s a problem and a deep concern.”

Asked if Congress should look into the matter, Schiff said: “I probably don’t want to say more time until I have a chance to read the article. But I think it ought to be concerning to anyone if classified information is not where it should be.”

Himes told CNN, “Look, classified information needs to stay in secure spaces. So, we’ll wait to see the facts, but, you know, classified information needs to be in secure spaces.”

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US

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is erupting once again

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CNN
 — 

Weeks after Hawaii’s Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in decades, neighboring volcano Kilauea is showing activity again after a brief pause, according to officials.

Kilauea – which had stopped erupting last month for the first time since September 2021 amid Mauna Loa’s own lava eruption and subsequent slowdown – had increased earthquake activity beneath its summit and recorded ground deformation on Thursday morning, officials said.

“Kilauea volcano is erupting,” the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and the US Geological Survey said on Thursday. A glow was detected in nearby webcam images, “indicating that the eruption has resumed within Halemaʻumaʻu crater in Kilauea’s summit caldera” at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the agencies said.

Officials have elevated Kilauea’s volcano alert level to a “warning” status as well as updated its aviation color code from orange to red, the agencies said.

The warning status and red color code are the highest levels of alert, indicating hazardous eruption with significant emission of volcanic ash.

The eruption is occurring within a closed portion of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

“Therefore, high levels of volcanic gas are the primary hazard of concern, as this hazard can have far-reaching effects down-wind,” according to a status report from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. It also warns residents to avoid exposure to volcanic particles that could waft some distance from the eruption.

The National Park Service has posted an air quality alert on its website, warning that unhealthy levels of volcanic pollutants can occur. It includes charts with regular air quality readings, particularly relevant for those with pre-existing respiratory conditions.

Visitors to the national park may encounter a “minor hazard,” the status report says.

“Visitors to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park should note that under southerly (non-trade) wind conditions, there is potential for a dusting of powdery to gritty ash composed of volcanic glass and rock fragments.”

The eruption is currently confined to the crater and poses “no threat to communities,” the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said on social media.

Kilauea’s eruption in 2018 was one of the most destructive in recent Hawaii history, forcing evacuations of surrounding neighborhoods and destroying hundreds of homes.



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US

Times Square New Year’s Eve attack: Suspect arrested and faces attempted murder charges

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CNN
 — 

The 19-year-old suspect accused of attacking New York police officers with a machete near Times Square on New Year’s Eve has been arrested and faces charges of attempted murder of a police officer.

Police are recommending the suspect, Trevor Bickford, be charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of attempted assault in the attack, the New York Police Department said.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has said that they do not yet have details of when Bickford will be arraigned. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney.

The formal arrest comes two days after Bickford allegedly attacked police officers at a security screening area outside Times Square, the center of the city’s famed New Year’s Eve celebrations.

A diary was found in the suspect’s backpack, which had been left on the street and placed in a pile with other backpacks that had been taken from people trying to enter security checkpoints around Times Square, multiple law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the case said.

The diary ends with a last will and testament, according to the source. The final entry, dated December 31, begins with, “This will likely be my last entry,” and goes on to leave instructions on how to divide the author’s belongings among his family and instructions for his burial.

The diary expressed a desire to join the Taliban and it criticized his brother for joining the US military, the sources said.

“There was a time when we were close but that time has since passed,” writings in the diary say, according to the sources. “You have joined the ranks of my enemy.”

The suspect also worried his mother would not repent to Allah, according to another writing in the diary, the sources said.

“And therefore I hold hope in my heart that a piece of you believes so that you may be taken out of the hellfire,” he wrote, according to the sources.

Just after 10 p.m. he went to the Times Square checkpoint at West 52nd Street and 8th Avenue where officers check bags for weapons or suspicious items, NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and police said.

At the security area, Bickford allegedly pulled out a machete, struck one officer with the blade and another officer in the head with the handle, and then swung the blade at a third officer, who shot Bickford in the shoulder, according to the sources and the NYPD. The officers have been treated and released.

For the past two days, Bickford had been in custody and under police guard at Bellevue Hospital, where he was being treated for the gunshot wound, sources said.

Even before the attack, Bickford was on the FBI’s radar.

Bickford was interviewed by FBI agents in Maine in mid-December after he said he wanted to travel overseas to help fellow Muslims and was willing to die for his religion, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

Bickford’s mother and grandmother became increasingly concerned about his desire to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and reported this to the Wells, Maine, police department out of concern for him on December 10, the sources said.

When the FBI opened its wider investigation they also placed him on a terrorist watch list, according to sources. Because the Taliban is not designated a foreign terrorist entity, planning to travel to Afghanistan to join the group does not constitute the federal crime of “attempted material support of a terrorist group.”

Multiple law enforcement sources told CNN that Bickford traveled to New York via Amtrak, so those travels would not have tripped any watch list databases.

His original destination was Miami, the sources said, but he stopped in New York and checked in at the Grand Hotel near the Bowery in Manhattan on December 29. He checked out on New Year’s Eve with all his luggage before allegedly conducting the Times Square machete attack, the sources said.

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World

Virginia zoo welcomes baby pygmy hippo just in time for Christmas

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CNN
 — 

Fifties’ child star Gayla Peevy’s plea for a “hippopotamus for Christmas” came true for one Virginia zoo.

The Metro Richmond Zoo welcomed the birth of a pygmy hippopotamus in time for Christmas, according to a December 22 news release from the zoo.

The adorable newborn was born on December 6, says the release. The yet-unnamed baby was born to parents Iris and Corwin after a 7-month pregnancy.

The baby is the second pygmy hippo born ever in Virginia, according to the zoo. And she’s growing rapidly. She weighed in at 16 pounds at birth, and a week later was already 24.2 pounds. As an adult, she might weigh up to 600 pounds.

The zoo described Iris as “an experienced mother and very caring of her baby.” Mother and baby are currently in a private “super cozy, hay-bedded enclosure.” But soon guests will be able to spot the new addition when the pair move into the indoor pool area, says the zoo.

Pygmy hippos are categorized as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are less than 2,500 adult pygmy hippos left in the wild in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

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US

P-22, Los Angeles’ famous mountain lion, has been euthanized

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CNN
 — 

P-22, a mountain lion who has spent years in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park, has been euthanized after likely suffering injuries in a “vehicle strike,” officials say.

The big cat made made headlines last month after he attacked and killed a resident’s leashed chihuahua. He was captured by authorities on Monday, who used GPS data from his tracking collar to locate and anesthetize him.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife made the decision to euthanize P-22 after a “comprehensive medical evaluation,” according to a news release Saturday.

The department said the “compassionate euthanasia” was unanimously recommended by the medical team at San Diego Zoo Safari Park and conducted under general anesthesia.

P-22 was given an “extensive evaluation” which “showed significant trauma to the mountain lion’s head, right eye and internal organs, confirming the suspicion of recent injury, such as a vehicle strike,” said the department. “The trauma to his internal organs would require invasive surgical repair.”

The 12-year old mountain lion also had “significant pre-existing illnesses, including irreversible kidney disease, chronic weight loss, extensive parasitic skin infection over his entire body and localized arthritis,” according to the release.

He was in poor health overall and “may also have had additional underlying conditions not yet fully characterized by diagnostics,” said the department.

Officials will not be seeking information on P-22’s possible run-in with a vehicle, they added.

“This situation is not the fault of P-22, nor of a driver who may have hit him,” wrote the department. “Rather, it is an eventuality that arises from habitat loss and fragmentation, and it underscores the need for thoughtful construction of wildlife crossings and well-planned spaces that provide wild animals room to roam.”

P-22 become a Los Angeles celebrity when he was photographed beneath the iconic Hollywood sign by a camera trap. The image was featured in the December 2013 issue of National Geographic.

The mountain lion even had his own Facebook and Instagram pages, where fans left heartfelt messages on Saturday.

P-22 also made headlines for breaching a 9-foot fence at the Los Angeles Zoo and mauling a koala in 2016.

Officials throughout California issued statements marking the mountain lion’s death, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“P-22’s survival on an island of wilderness in the heart of Los Angeles captivated people around the world and revitalized efforts to protect our diverse native species and ecosystems,” Newsom said in a news release.

Newsom’s father was a founder of the Mountain Lion Foundation and championed permanent protections for the species, according to the release.

“The iconic mountain lion’s incredible journey helped inspire a new era of conserving and reconnecting nature, including through the world’s largest wildlife overpass in Liberty Canyon,” Newsom added. “With innovative coalitions and strategies to restore vital habitat across the state, we’ll continue working to protect California’s precious natural heritage for generations to come.”

Earlier this year construction on a wildlife crossing spanning 10 lanes along Highway 101 began, with the hopes of creating a safer way for animals to roam in the region. In addition, Newsom promised $50 million for other similar projects throughout the state.

Beth Pratt, the California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, also remembered the mountain lion in an emotional news release. She said it is “hard to imagine I will be writing about P-22 in the past tense now,” and expressed hope that future California mountain lions would be able to roam safely.

“Thank you for the gift of knowing you, P-22. I’ll miss you forever,” Pratt said. “But I will never stop working to honor your legacy, and although we failed you, we can at least partly atone by making the world safer for your kind.”

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated when authorities captured P-22. He was captured on Monday.

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US

Trump hosted Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes alongside Ye a week after announcing 2024 run

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CNN
 — 

Former President Donald Trump hosted White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and rapper Kanye West at his Mar-a-Lago estate this week, demonstrating his continued willingness to associate with figures who have well-publicized antisemitic views as he embarks on another White House run.

West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, posted a video Thursday on Twitter in which he claimed that Trump “is really impressed with Fuentes,” who has repeatedly made antisemitic and racist comments as chronicled by the Anti-Defamation League.

Fuentes, West said in the Twitter video, “is actually a loyalist” to Trump, unlike others who he said abandoned the former president after the 2020 election.

In a text message conversation tweeted by West on Thursday, he and Fuentes said they both met with the former president. A source confirmed to CNN Trump’s dinner with Fuentes and West, who became engulfed in controversy after repeating antisemitic conspiracy theories and making other offensive claims during an appearance on a podcast in October.

A source familiar with the dinner said that Fuentes was a guest of Kanye’s and was not invited by the former president.

Trump acknowledged the dinner in a post on Truth Social Friday stating: “This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”

Trump repeated later Friday that he “didn’t know” Fuentes and had offered West business as well as political advice.

“I told him he should definitely not run for President, ‘any voters you may have should vote for TRUMP,’” the former president wrote on Truth Social. “Anyway, we got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’”

The White House on Friday condemned Fuentes’ appearance at Mar-a-Lago.

“Bigotry, hate, and antisemitism have absolutely no place in America – including at Mar-A-Lago. Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to CNN.

David Friedman, Trump’s former Ambassador to Israel, also condemned the former president’s association with West and Fuentes.

“To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this. Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable. I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong,” he said in a pair of tweets Friday afternoon. “Antisemites deserve no quarter among American leaders, right or left.”

Kanye West’s Hitler ‘obsession’ helped create hostile work environment, source says

West’s recent antisemitic remarks caused companies that he was affiliated with – including Adidas and Balenciaga – to sever their relationships with him. He has made numerous inflammatory statements over the years, including assertions that slavery was a “choice” and “racism is a dated concept.”

The Anti-Defamation League has identified Fuentes as a White supremacist and he has been banned from most major social media platforms for his White nationalist rhetoric. Fuentes was present on the grounds of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and he has promoted Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about fraud in the 2020 election. The House select committee investigating the events of January 6 issued a subpoena to Fuentes in January.

West tweeted late Tuesday night that he had kept Trump waiting during his first visit to Mar-a-Lago due to rain and traffic. And Right Wing Watch, a project of the left-leaning group People for the American Way, posted Tuesday footage of West and Fuentes walking through the Miami airport together. That footage was included in the video West posted on Twitter.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Dave Chappelle talks Kanye in ‘SNL’ monologue



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US

Mar-a-Lago documents: Appeals court hearing to determine future of special master for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents

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CNN
 — 

As former President Donald Trump faces the new reality of a special counsel leading Justice Department investigations on his conduct, a federal appeals court on Tuesday will hear arguments about whether it should remove what has been a notable hurdle in one of the probes.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals will scrutinize a lower court’s requirement that a special master review the materials FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort in August.

The move by a Florida-based judge to appoint a third party to help decide what of the roughly 22,000 pages of materials obtained in the search belongs in the hands of investigators – threw a significant wrench in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into whether records from Trump’s White House were mishandled.

Prosecutors are examining whether there was obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records, and violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits unauthorized storage of national defense information.

The Justice Department has already won a carveout from the 11th Circuit allowing it to continue its investigation into the documents marked as classified.

Now, the Justice Department is asking to throw out the entirety of the special master review, which is being led by Raymond Dearie.

An appeals court decision that got rid of the special master review of the Mar-a-Lago documents would supercharge the pace of government documents investigation, which is in some ways the simplest of the various probes encircling the former president and 2024 candidate.

Special counsel Jack Smith is now overseeing the Mar-a-Lago investigation and the probe into Trump’s efforts after the 2020 election to reverse his electoral defeat. Smith is not expected to attend Tuesday’s hearing.

The decision by US District Judge Aileen Cannon – who sits on the federal court in Ft. Pierce, Florida – to appoint a special master attracted criticism from a broad spectrum of legal experts.

When the 11th Circuit in September excluded the documents marked as classified from the review, the three-judge panel implied that the entire appointment of a special master was based on a legally flawed premise. However, it will be a new panel – picked at random – that hears DOJ’s appeal on Tuesday, creating the possibility that the former president will draw judges who are sympathetic to his claims.

Trump asked for the special master because he said that there was a risk that documents by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege were swept up in the search. In his arguments with the appeals court, however, he is focused on a theory that he had the ability to designate as personal the bulk of the documents from the White House. Therefore, Trump argues, the Justice Department has no right to carry on a criminal probe into how the materials have been handled.

“President Trump has an obvious interest in his own personal (and even Presidential) records and the District Court acted within its discretion in recognizing a neutral party was needed to facilitate adjudication of the legal status of the documents,” his lawyer said in a brief with the appeals court.

The Justice Department told the 11th Circuit that Trump’s new theory was “meritless,” “entirely irrelevant” and an argument that the appeals court should not even consider. Prosecutors argue that there was no justification for requiring the review and that the special master process, by holding up the ability of investigators to use the documents in their probe, is causing undue harm to the public’s interest in the speedy administration of criminal law.

Cannon appointed Dearie, a senior judge who sits on Brooklyn’s federal court, to manage the third-party review. Dearie has indicated he’d like to move quickly and has shown little patience for delay tactics from Trump’s team. However, Cannon has intervened at times to tweak his plans, including postponing the end date of the review until at least mid-December. At that point, Dearie will submit a report to Cannon with his recommendations for whom should prevail in the disputes between Trump and the prosecutors over whether certain documents can be used in the investigation, but Cannon will have the final call.

The Justice Department has already returned to Trump a selection of documents that were either legal in nature or were non-govermment records with sensitive personal information, like medical records. At stake now is the more than 2,800 documents obtained in the search that Trump is fighting to keep out of the investigators’ hands.

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