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Officers ‘arrest’ alligator walking near Tampa Bay stadium

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa police officers were called to a commercial part of town because of a disturbance, but it wasn’t a public brawl or anyone behaving in a disorderly manner. It was a 9-foot (2.7-meter) alligator Wednesday night ambling down a street not far from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.The urban gator whipped its tail several times when an officer first approached it, poking with an outstretched baton. A half dozen officers along with a crowd of spectators watched as lights from squad cars flashed on the blocked off street, according to bodycam video released by the Tampa Police Department.The officer then fashioned a noose from a yellow rope and lassoed it around the top of the gator’s mouth.“Ready?” one of the officers said. “You want to jump on him?”And that’s what they did, as one officer went for the head with outstretched hands and another officer weighed down the rest of the alligator’s body. A third officer was re...

Mother of Florida overdose victim says over-the-counter Narcan may have saved her son

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

TAMPA, Florida (WFTS) — This year marks five years since Laura Sehres lost her son, Scott.“I miss — I miss the sound of his voice. I miss those big bear hugs he would give me,” Sehres said through tears. “I miss everything.”Scott, just 24 years old at the time of his death, suffered a drug overdose in Dec. 2018. According to Sehres, Scott’s shift at work was cut, triggering an emotional spiral.“He went looking for Percocet, but unable to find it, he dialed the number to a drug house in South Tampa that he knew,” Sehres said.Scott died there after taking heroin. The person who gave it to him waited three and a half hours after he died to call 911, Sehres said.“It is heartbreaking in a way that is unimaginable,” she said. “I remember I couldn’t breathe, and I didn’t know if I would even make it through losing my son.”According to Sehres, Scott had struggled with drugs for years and used them to self-medicate mental health afflictions. However, he had received treatment and had n...

MSPCA holds first-ever adoptathon for goats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

The MSPCA is holding its first-ever fee-waived adoptathon for goats on April 1 and 2. to try to find homes for forty-seven goats. The goal of the two-day event is to try to find homes for 47 goats, which is well more than are usually housed on the property. “In the winter of 2022, we seized close to 100 goats from a single property in Dighton—and some were pregnant,” said Mike Keiley, MSPCA-Angell director of adoption centers and programs. “So, we ended up with more than 100 goats, many of which still need homes.”“Prior to that, we generally never had more than a couple with us, and they were always adopted quickly,” he added. “We’ve never had a fee-waived adoptathon for goats, but they’ve been successful finding homes for small animals in the past, so we’re employing the same method here in order t...

Police: No students injured after collision between school bus and SUV in Wilmington, Mass.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

Police in Wilmington say no students were injured, but the driver of an SUV had minor injuries after their vehicle collided with a school bus Friday morning.The Wilmington Police Department said the accident happened in the area of Shawsheen Avenue and Moore Street close to 9 a.m.Authorities said the seven children onboard the bus as well as the bus driver were uninjured, while the driver of the Subaru Forester involved in the crash suffered minor injuries, but refused medical transport.In a press release, the police department said that based on an initial investigation, it appeared the SUV driver had been exiting Moore Street and “crashed into the side of the school bus that was traveling east on Shawsheen Avenue.”As a result, the Forester driver was cited for Failure to Yield at an Intersection.The department said the crash remains under investigation.

Carpenter plans to build home after winning $1 million lottery prize in Nantucket

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

A Nantucket man won big after scratching a million dollar prize off a ticket he bought on the island.Kevin Purcell became a winner after he bought a “$5,000,000 100X Cashword” game at one of Nantucket’s two Cumberland Farms locations, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.Officials said Purcell opted for the cash option when it came to his prize, and received a one-time payment of $650,000 (before taxes).A carpenter by trade, Purcell told lottery officials he hopes to put his winnings toward “building himself a house.”Meanwhile, the Cumberland Farms he bought the ticket from on Sparks Avenue will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the winner.According to the Massachusetts State Lottery, the odds of winning the $5,000,000 100X Cashword’s million dollar prize are 1 in 1,008,000.

Stampede at food distribution center kills 11 in Pakistan

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — At least 11 women and children were killed in a deadly stampede at a Ramadan food distribution center in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday, police and rescue officials said.The stampede happened when hundreds of women and children panicked and started pushing each other to collect food outside a factory. Some of them fell into a nearby drain, local police official Mughees Hashmi said. Residents said a wall also collapsed near the drain, injuring and killing people amid the stampede.Several people were also injured in the stampede. Hashmi said eight women and three children died.It is the deadliest stampede at a food distribution point since the start of the Islamic holy month of fasting, Ramadan. With the latest incident, the death toll from stampedes at free food centers across the country has risen to at least 21 since last week.Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is from the southern Sindh province of which...

Many electric vehicles to lose big tax credit with new rules

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer new electric vehicles will qualify for a full $7,500 federal tax credit later this year, and many will get only half that, under rules proposed Friday by the U.S. Treasury Department.The rules, required under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, are likely to slow consumer acceptance of electric vehicles and could delay President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal that half of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. run on electricity by 2030.The new rules take effect April 18 and are aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on China and other countries for battery supply chains for electric vehicles.Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the rules will help consumers save money on EVs “and hundreds of dollars per year on gas, while creating American manufacturing jobs and strengthening our energy and national security.”But Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who negotiated terms in the new law that require battery sourcing in North America, said the guid...

How a little-known agency holds power over TikTok’s future

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under pressure from the U.S. government, TikTok is now facing the music with the possibility of a nationwide ban if it defies a government order to sell to an American company — unless the popular social media app can convince a high-powered panel that its data security restructuring plan sufficiently guards against national security concerns. At the heart of this social media business and national security drama is the increasingly tense relations between the U.S. and China.The video-sharing platform with 150 million U.S. users is best known for quick snippets of viral dance routines and has been under scrutiny for years by federal authorities who say that its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could share sensitive user data with the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.Having already banned the shipment of certain technologies to China, and recently passing new legislation banning the app on government devices, lawmakers want t...

Oscar Pistorius denied parole, hasn’t served enough time

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Former Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was denied parole Friday and will have to stay in prison at least another year and four months after it was decided that he had not served the “minimum detention period” required to be released following his murder conviction for the 2013 killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.The parole board hearing Pistorius’ application ruled he would be able to apply again in August 2024, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said in a statement. The board cited a new clarification on Pistorius’ sentence that was issued by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal three days ago, according to the statement.The result was a surprise but there has been legal wrangling over when Pistorius should be eligible for parole because of the series of appeals in his case. He was initially convicted of culpable homicide, a charge comparable to manslaughter, in 2014 but the case went through a number of appeals before ...

Japan FM to visit China as Tokyo imposes new export controls

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:41 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday he will visit China this weekend for talks with his counterpart Qin Gang, becoming Japan’s first top diplomat to do so in more than three years amid growing friction between the two countries, including new Japanese export controls and the detention of a Japanese national in Beijing.Hayashi hopes to “engage in a candid and in-depth exchange of views toward establishing a constructive and stable relationship” in the talks with Qin and other officials during his April 1-2 visit, he told a news conference.His trip comes after Japan announced Friday that it will tighten export controls on 23 materials used for semiconductor manufacturing, seen as an effort to limit China’s access to advanced chipmaking technology, a step sought by the United States.Hayashi is expected to demand the release of the detained Japanese national, discuss security concerns in the region and ask China to act “responsibly” on global...