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Hawaiian officials block beach to protect adorable endangered monk seal pup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

(CNN) — There’s an adorable new monk seal pup on Hawaii’s Kaimana Beach — and authorities are taking every step to make sure mother and baby are both unbothered by humans.Authorities have erected a “temporary fence” around the beach to protect the mother and pup, according to a Facebook post from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.The fence is intended to “promote public safety and seal protection during the nursing period,” the department said. “People are encouraged to use other areas for beach and ocean recreation.”The department added the pup will most likely stay with its mother while it is nursing for the next five to seven weeks.They noted mother seals in particular can be “very protective of their pups” and have seriously injured swimmers in the past, making it “unsafe to swim” in the Kaimana Beach area, the department added in a news conference about the birth.There will be ...

Viewing the Lyrids meteor shower could be a fun weekend activity

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

(CNN) — After no major annual meteor showers for months, the Lyrids are here to end the drought.Known as one of the oldest-recorded meteor showers, the Lyrids are expected to produce 10 to 15 meteors per hour for three nights centered around its peak of 9:06 p.m. ET on Saturday, according to EarthSky.The Lyrids have been making their appearance in the sky since April 15 and will hang around until April 29, but their peak is relatively narrow compared with the famous summer Perseids and other showers.The best time to view the Lyrids — with a chance at seeing the most meteors — will start late evening on Saturday through the early morning hours on Sunday.The good news is that a near new moon will leave perfect viewing conditions, with no bright light interference from what a full moon would cause.“The moon will obscure all but the brightest meteors, so when there’s no lunar interference, you can see bright, faint, all meteors that show up,” said Robert Lunsford...

Mets Notebook: Pete Alonso dominating, pitching plans without Max Scherzer

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Pete Alonso has been garnering plenty of attention through the first 20 games of the 2023 season for what he’s been doing with the bat, but Mets manager Buck Showalter would like for his first baseman to get a little more attention for what he’s been doing defensively.“The thing that’s caught my eye is how good he’s moving at first base,” Showalter said Saturday morning at Oracle Park. “I think he physically kind of wore on him a little bit last year. And he really went into the offseason trying to gain another advantage.”Analytics show that Alonso has improved his lateral movement and Showalter said that matches up with the eye test. Part of that might be a result of the shift limitations but part of it might be the offseason “deep dive” that Alonso did into his own game.But it’s tough to ignore the offensive numbers that Alonso continues to put up: He came into Saturday’s game leading the...

Boston expanding its food waste curbside collection program due to high demand

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

Boston residents are going crazy over a food waste curbside collection program, which the city launched last year to reduce its reliance on landfills and incinerators.Officials are expanding the initiative to reach 30,000 households as it heads into its second year, an increase from the current servicing capacity of 10,000, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Friday.“The strong interest in our pilot program gave us a clear sign that residents are eager to participate in curbside food waste collection if the resources are available,” the mayor said in a release. “This expansion will make it easier for more residents to help our city fight the effects of climate change.”After participating residents fill what the city describes as compost bin “starter kits,” the food waste is then recycled to make clean energy and nutrient-rich compost.Residents in June will start receiving the starter kits which include an onboarding manual, a roll of liners, kitchen and collection bins, and a magnet highlig...

Cruise line let passenger’s body decompose, lawsuit says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A widow and her family are suing Celebrity Cruises for allegedly mishandling her husband’s body after he died while they were on a ship last year, saying it was left to decompose and they suffered extreme emotional trauma. After Marilyn Jones’ husband of 55 years, Robert Jones, died of a heart attack Aug. 15 onboard the Celebrity Equinox, his body was stored for nearly a week inside a walk-in cooler normally used for beverages instead of a properly chilled morgue as she was promised, according to the federal lawsuit filed in Florida. That left the body bloated and green, and the family was unable to have an open-coffin funeral “which was a long standing family custom and was what his family had desired,” the lawsuit says. Marilyn Jones, her two daughters and three grandchildren are seeking $1 million in damages. Celebrity Cruises declined to comment, citing the case’s sensitivity and “out of respect for the family.” The Celebrity ...

NAACP sues Mississippi over ‘separate and unequal policing’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The NAACP warns that “separate and unequal policing” will return to Mississippi’s majority-Black capital under a state-run police department, and the civil rights organization is suing the governor and other officials over it.Republican Gov. Tate Reeves says violent crime in Jackson has made it necessary to expand where the Capitol Police can patrol and to authorize some appointed rather than elected judges. But the NAACP said in its lawsuit filed late Friday that these are serious violations of the principle of self-government because they take control of the police and some courts out of the hands of residents.“In certain areas of Jackson, a citizen can be arrested by a police department led by a State-appointed official, be charged by a State-appointed prosecutor, be tried before a State-appointed judge, and be sentenced to imprisonment in a State penitentiary regardless of the severity of the act,” the lawsuit says.Derrick Johnson, the national president of...

Mexico seizes 10 tigers, 5 lions in cartel-dominated area

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Prosecutors in Mexico said Saturday they have seized a huge collection of exotic animals including 10 tigers, six jaguars, five lions and other species in a cartel-dominated town. The announcement came just a week after U.S. prosecutors revealed that a boss of the Sinaloa cartel fed his enemies, alive and dead, to tigers he kept. The discovery announced Saturday came in the western state of Jalisco, the turf of a cartel of the same name. Authorities did not identify the owner of the land where the vast menagerie was found. But the township of La Barca, Jalisco has been the scene of mass graves and cartel executions in the past. Agents also found antelopes, a llama, deer and birds at the property.The animals appear to have been kept in pens, stalls and cages over a wide area.It is not clear why they were being kept, but the animals were seized and were presumed to have been held illegally.In 2013, at least 65 bodies were unearthed from clandestine burial pits aroun...

Drug suspect takes off with sheriff’s meth after sting fails

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A suspected drug trafficker is on the run with nearly 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of methamphetamine belonging to a California sheriff’s department after an undercover sting went wrong, authorities said.The Press-Enterprise reported Friday that the Sheriff’s Department in Riverside County, southeast of Los Angeles, is now trying to get its drugs back.Authorities set up the sting Wednesday in an attempt to identify drug traffickers. Undercover deputies met with the suspect for the drug sale, and the suspect later drove away, the newspaper reported. Deputies from the gang task force then attempted to pull over the suspect, who refused to yield and sped off, the department said in a statement.“Due to the high speeds and suspect’s disregard for public safety, deputies lost sight of the vehicle,” the statement said.In response to an emailed request for comment sent by The Associated Press, the sheriff’s department declined to release additional details.T...

Group calls on Canada to create sponsor program for family fleeing war-torn Sudan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

The head of a Sudanese community organization says his group is calling on the federal government to create a program for community members seeking to sponsor family who are either stuck in Sudan or have fled to nearby bordering countries.Ashraf alTahir, president of the Sudanese Canadian Communities Association, says the umbrella organization of groups based across the country has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.He says the diaspora are prepared to pay any associated costs, but need the government to put a program in place.AlTahir says he fears the situation in Sudan could turn into another genocide like the one in Rwanda and says western governments must not abandon the people of that country.Late Friday, the federal government said it deployed members of its Global Affairs Standing Rapid Deployment Team to Djibouti due to the volatile and rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan.Joly said Canada’s embassy in Sudan’s c...

‘It gave me power’: Two-Spirit Canadian singer Shawnee Kish on finding her identity through music

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:25:10 GMT

A Canadian Two-Spirit singer-songwriter is sharing her journey on how music helped her find her identity.Shawnee Kish, a 2022 Juno Award nominee for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year, says her path with music started at a young age.“I really struggled with my identity,” she said. “I didn’t understand what it meant to be Indigenous, or what it meant to be Two-Spirit. I was struggling with my home life, I was struggling with my school life, and I just didn’t feel like I fit within the confines of what the world expected of me – and [then] I found music.”She says music helped her find her place in the world.“I rediscovered music and the power that it has, and the power that it gave me, that I fit in the world in my own way. I just discovered that there’s this purpose for me in this life,” she said.“It gave me power, and hope, and a sense of belonging that allowed me to live — not only that, to dedicate the rest ...