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☆ He Stole Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers. He Thought They Had Real Rubies.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly two decades after he broke into the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn., and stole a pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers used in “The Wizard of Oz,” the man who committed the theft has revealed why: He believed the slippers were adorned with real rubies. Instead, Mr. Martin believed that the slippers must have been made with “real rubies” to justify their $1 million insured value, prosecutors said. He believed he would be able to peel off the gems and sell them on the black market — a plan that backfired when a man who traded in stolen jewels informed him that the gems were made of glass. On Monday, Mr. Martin was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Duluth, Minn., to time served and a year of probation for stealing the slippers after he pleaded guilty in October to one count of theft of a major artwork, Mr. DeKrey said. He was also ordered to pay about $23,000 in restitution to the museum, Mr. DeKrey said.

Persons: Judy Garland, Oz, Terry Martin, Oz ”, Dane DeKrey, Mr, Martin, DeKrey Organizations: Judy Garland Museum Locations: Grand Rapids, Minn, U.S, Court, Duluth

The Israeli military said it had “currently ruled out” that its aerial or artillery fire had been responsible for the strike on the shelter in Khan Younis, where the U.N. was housing about 800 people. In addition to the nine dead, 75 other people were injured, according to Thomas White, who helps oversee U.N. aid operations in Gaza. U.N. officials did not directly blame Israel, but said the shelter, in a vocational training center, had been hit by two tank rounds. “Once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war,” Mr. Lazzarini wrote on social media. The Israeli military said that it was conducting a review of its operations in the area of the shelter.

Persons: “, Khan Younis, Thomas White, Israel, Philippe Lazzarini, Mr, Lazzarini, Vedant Patel, ” Organizations: United, State Department Locations: Gaza’s, United Nations, Khan, Gaza, U.N, Israel, Washington

European foreign ministers pressed their Israeli counterpart on Monday to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state, in a meeting that left European diplomats bewildered about postwar Israeli plans for the Gaza Strip and reinforced the deep disconnect between Israel and much of the world. The two sides appeared to be having two different conversations. Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s top diplomat, said after the meeting in Brussels that European nations were resolute that “sustainable, lasting peace” must include Palestinian statehood, an option that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has doubled down on opposing in recent days. Israel’s foreign minister, Yisrael Katz, presented to the Europeans a plan involving an artificial island off Gaza’s coast — a plan that did not address the future governance of the territory, according to officials in the meeting. While the diplomats talked past each other, heavy fighting intensified in southern Gaza on Monday, with medical personnel reporting major exchanges of gunfire and a surge of Israeli tanks and troops into areas around hospitals.

Persons: Josep Borrell Fontelles, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Yisrael Katz Organizations: Gaza Locations: Palestinian, Israel, Brussels, Gaza

Now, her children are fighting over who should inherit her money, pointing to conflicting wills that Ms. Williams left, including one she signed shortly before her death. It is the latest legal dispute spawned by Sue, a crown jewel of paleontology regarded as the most complete T. rex fossil ever found. Before her death in 2020, Ms. Williams had written two wills. In a 2017 will, she appointed one of her daughters, Sandra Williams Luther, as the personal representative of her estate. In another will, written in 2020, she designated that same daughter to be her sole heir and the sole executor of her estate.

Persons: Darlene Williams, Sue, Williams, Sandra Williams Luther Locations: South Dakota

☆ Popular Science Shuts Online Magazine in Another Sign of Decline
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In yet another sign of its decline, Popular Science has stopped publishing its online magazine, three years after it shut its storied print edition, which began in 1872. Popular Science will continue to publish articles and videos on its website, and will still produce its podcast, “The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week.”But its digital magazine, which was published quarterly since it began in 2021, has ceased publication and will no longer charge for subscriptions, according to Recurrent Ventures, the magazine’s parent company. Its last online issue, titled “Fake,” was published in September and featured articles about taxidermy, artificial intelligence and fake crystals.

Persons: ” Organizations: Science

☆ Colombia to Sterilize Pablo Escobar’s ‘Cocaine Hippos’
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993, most of the animals he had imported as pets — zebras, giraffes, kangaroos and rhinoceroses — died or were transferred to zoos. Officials estimate that about 170 hippos, descended from Mr. Escobar’s original herd, now roam Colombia, and the population could grow to 1,000 by 2035, posing a serious threat to the country’s ecosystem. This month, after years of debate about what to do with the voracious herbivores, Colombian officials announced a plan to sterilize some, possibly euthanize others and relocate some to sanctuaries in other countries. On Friday, one official said that four hippos — two adult females and two juvenile males — had already been surgically sterilized. “We are in a race against time in terms of permanent environmental and ecosystem impacts,” Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environmental minister, said in a statement.

Persons: Pablo Escobar, rhinoceroses —, —, Susana Muhamad Locations: Colombian, Colombia

☆ Army Overturns Convictions of 110 Black Soldiers Charged in 1917 Riot
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Thomas C. Hawkins and 12 other Black soldiers who had been convicted of mutiny and other crimes during a riot in Houston earlier that year were hanged. On Monday, more than a century later, the Army said it had formally overturned their convictions and those of 97 other Black soldiers who were found guilty of crimes associated with the riot. The Army acknowledged that the 110 soldiers, 19 of whom were executed, had been convicted in military trials that were tainted by racial discrimination. The soldiers were members of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, an all-Black unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The Army said their records would be corrected, to the extent possible, to characterize their military service as “honorable.” They will be given proper gravestones acknowledging their Army service, and their descendants will be made eligible for benefits, officials said.

Persons: Thomas C, Hawkins, ”, Hawkins’s, Jason Holt, Holt, Private Hawkins, “ It’s Organizations: Army, 3rd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, Buffalo Soldiers Locations: Houston

☆ Former State Department Aide Sentenced to Nearly Six Years in Jan. 6 Attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A former U.S. Marine who served in the Trump administration as a low-level State Department aide was sentenced on Friday to nearly six years in prison for his role in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The former aide, Federico G. Klein, of Falls Church, Va., was a State Department employee when he used a stolen riot shield to repeatedly assault officers during several violent clashes in a tunnel below the Capitol, prosecutors said. He was arrested in March 2021 and indicted later that year. After a non-jury trial in July, Mr. Klein was convicted of eight felony charges, including six counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers; obstruction of an official proceeding; and civil disorder, as well as several misdemeanors, prosecutors said. He did not testify at his trial, and declined to address the court before Judge Trevor N. McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced him to 70 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release, The Associated Press reported.

Persons: Trump, Federico G, Klein, Trevor N, McFadden Organizations: U.S . Marine, Department, Capitol, State Department, U.S, District of Columbia, Associated Press Locations: Falls Church, Va

☆ Why Pharmacy Workers at CVS and Walgreens Are Protesting
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Some pharmacy workers are calling in sick or walking off the job this week to protest what they call inadequate staffing and increasing work requirements, according to protest organizers, and say it’s harder to do their jobs safely. The protests by nonunion workers, called Pharmageddon on social media, are affecting some CVS and Walgreens locations, according to organizers and workers. They are happening during a period of increasing labor activism by workers in other sectors, including the auto industry and Hollywood. Bled Tanoe, a pharmacist in Oklahoma City who used to work for Walgreens and now works for a hospital, said she was helping to spread the word about the walkouts because she was concerned that pharmacy chains had been telling workers for years to “work faster and work with less help.”“Pharmacies are not OK,” Ms. Tanoe said. “Your local Walgreens and CVS and Rite Aid is not OK. It’s a soup of danger, with ingredients from companies who have lost the core belief of what we do, which is patient care and patient focus.”

Persons: Ms, Tanoe, ” Organizations: Walgreens, Hollywood, CVS Locations: Bled, Oklahoma City

If he drowned, it would be important to know why, she said. Test results can take weeks because of a lack of qualified toxicologists, funding and equipment, Dr. Melinek said. If the water was hot but not scalding, she said, it could lead to heat exhaustion and dehydration, which can cause a person to drown. “It’s appropriate for it to take long,” Dr. Melinek said in an interview on Monday. Those tests, he said, can take weeks to complete.

Persons: Melinek, ” Dr, James Gill, ”

The man suspected of killing 18 people and injuring 13 others at a bar and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday, officials said, ending a sweeping manhunt that had forced thousands of residents throughout the region to remain in their homes. The body of the man, Robert R. Card II, 40, was found at a recycling center where he used to work, according to authorities briefed on the matter. The owner of Maine Recycling, Leo Madden, confirmed in an interview that the suspect had worked at the company, which is in Lisbon Falls, a little more than 10 miles southeast of Lewiston. Commissioner Michael J. Sauschuck of the Maine Department of Public Safety said the body was found at 7:45 p.m. but did not specify when officials think the suspect died. The hunt for Mr. Card had extended across much of a largely rural state with many potential hiding places, producing an atmosphere of high anxiety as helicopters whirred over farms and forests, police cruisers roared along rural roads and divers plunged into the chilly waters of the Androscoggin River.

Persons: Robert R, Leo Madden, Michael J, Card Organizations: Maine Recycling, Maine Department of Public Safety Locations: Lewiston , Maine, Maine, Lisbon Falls, Lewiston, Androscoggin

After spending the night indoors, afraid to even open the curtains, Traelynn Smith, 19, and Serenity Moczara, 18, ventured out around lunchtime Thursday to get something to eat. “I’ve never seen my state like this.”Colonel Ross said on Thursday that a vehicle found at a boat landing in Lisbon, Maine, about eight miles from Lewiston, had been connected to Mr. Card. He had no combat deployments and served as a petroleum supply specialist, shipping and storing vehicle and aircraft fuel. The official said that Mr. Card was later evaluated at a mental health facility. The first 911 call reporting gunfire at the bowling alley on Wednesday came in at 6:56 p.m., Colonel Ross said.

Persons: Traelynn Smith, Moczara, Smith, ”, “ I’ve, Colonel Ross, Card, Camp Smith Organizations: Mr, Military, Army Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Regiment, National Guard Locations: Lisbon , Maine, Lewiston, Saco , Maine, West, New York

☆ Carnival Was Negligent in Covid Outbreak on Cruise Ship, Court Rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was March 8, 2020. About a week earlier, a passenger on another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, had become the first Australian to die of Covid-19. A few days after the Ruby Princess left Sydney, Australia, Mr. Karpik began to feel tired, weak and achy, court records show. By the time the ship returned to Sydney, on March 19, 2020, Ms. Karpik saw that her husband was shaking and barely able to walk or carry his luggage, according to court documents. Mr. Karpik, who was 72 at the time, spent nearly two months in the hospital, was placed on a ventilator, put into an induced coma and, at one point, given only a few days to live, court records show.

Persons: Henry Karpik, Susan Karpik, Karpik Locations: Figtree, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia

☆ Pilot Who Disrupted Flight Said He Had Taken Psychedelic Mushrooms, Complaint Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was not immediately clear if Mr. Emerson had a lawyer. Mr. Emerson, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., has been a first officer and then a captain for more than two decades. Multnomah County court records indicate he does not have a criminal record. On Sunday, Mr. Emerson was riding in a jump seat in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines jet, an Embraer 175, the authorities said. Professional pilots say it is common for them to ride in the cockpit jump seat while shuttling to and from work.

Persons: Emerson, “ Organizations: U.S, Attorney’s, District of, Federal Aviation Administration, Alaska Airlines, Embraer, Horizon Air, Professional Locations: District of Oregon, Multnomah County, Portland ,, Pleasant Hill, Calif, Everett, Wash, San Francisco, Astoria, Ore, Portland

An off-duty pilot who was in a jump seat in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday has been charged with more than 80 counts of attempted murder after he tried to disrupt the engines, prompting the plane to divert to Portland, Ore., the authorities said. Flight 2059, operated by Horizon Airlines, an Alaska Airlines regional subsidiary, left Everett, Wash., around 5:23 p.m. and was headed to San Francisco when it reported “a credible security threat related to an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who was traveling in the flight deck jump seat,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement on Monday. “The jump seat occupant unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines,” Alaska Airlines said in the statement, adding that the captain and first officer “quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.”A pilot told an air traffic controller that the man had tried to cut the plane’s engines, according to an audio recording posted on LiveATC.net, which shares live and archived recordings of air-traffic-control radio transmissions.

Persons: “ Organizations: Alaska Airlines, Horizon Airlines, Alaska Airlines regional Locations: Portland, Everett, Wash, San Francisco

☆ Holloway’s Mother Talks About Finding ‘Justice for Natalee’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It was May 31, 2005, at 4 a.m., when Beth Holloway first confronted Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch student who was one of three people who had been seen, just hours earlier, leaving a nightclub in Aruba with her daughter, Natalee Holloway. Standing outside the Holiday Inn where Natalee, 18, had been staying with other recent graduates of her Alabama high school on a class trip, Mr. van der Sloot repeatedly slammed his hands against his chest, saying, “What do you want me to do?”Ms. Holloway recalled holding her daughter’s senior class portrait and telling him, “I want my daughter back.”“He had such power over me,” Ms. Holloway, 63, said in an interview on Friday, “and I knew he had the answers, and I knew that he was well aware of what had happened to her.”

Persons: Beth Holloway, Joran van der, Natalee Holloway, van der Sloot, Ms, Holloway, “, ”, ” Ms Organizations: Alabama Locations: Dutch, Aruba, Natalee

☆ Videos Show Georgia Deputy Fatally Shooting Man Who Had Been Wrongfully Imprisoned
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dash-camera and body-camera videos released on Wednesday show how a traffic stop in Georgia turned violent and then deadly in less than three minutes when a sheriff’s deputy shot a Black man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for more than 16 years. The man, Leonard Cure, 53, was stopped on Monday morning on Interstate 95 in Camden County, Ga., not far from the Florida state line. The Camden County Sheriff’s Office said he had been driving more than 100 miles per hour in a 70 m.p.h. Footage released on Wednesday by the sheriff’s office shows a deputy, whose name has not been released, stopping Mr. Cure’s pickup truck on the side of the highway. The deputy orders Mr.

Persons: Leonard Cure Organizations: Sheriff’s, Cure Locations: Georgia, Camden County ,, Florida, Camden

☆ ‘Holy Cow, We Found an X-Wing.’ Bidding Starts at $400,000.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Greg Jein, an Oscar-nominated visual effects artist, died last year at age 76, he left behind thousands of props, miniatures, costumes and other possessions in two houses, two garages and two storage units in Los Angeles. Among his many belongings, he had a lace hairpiece worn by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the original “Star Trek” television series; a nearly 7-foot-long Martian rocket ship from the 1952 movie serial “Zombies of the Stratosphere,” featuring a young Leonard Nimoy; and Batman’s yellow utility belt from the 1960s television show, starring Adam West. Going through the collection after Mr. Jein died in May 2022 “was like a treasure hunt because Greg knew where things were, but it was not organized,” his cousin, Jerry Chang, said. “As you moved a stack of books away, you’d go, ‘Oh my god, I recognize that!’”But there was one particular item that no one knew he had until one Saturday last November, when four of Mr. Jein’s friends decided to help his family empty one of his garages.

Persons: Greg Jein, Oscar, William Shatner, Kirk, Leonard Nimoy, Adam West, Jein, “, Greg, ”, Jerry Chang, you’d, Jein’s Locations: Los Angeles

☆ How a Company That Makes Gun Safes Angered Gun Owners
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Liberty Safe, which calls itself “America’s #1 heavy-duty home and gun safe manufacturer,” came under intense criticism from gun owners and conservative commentators this week after it acknowledged that it had voluntarily given the F.B.I. the access code to one of its safes to help in an investigation. Until now, it had cooperated when investigators had a search warrant for a customer’s property. among many conservatives, who sharply questioned Liberty Safe’s commitment to protect their firearms from federal agents. Here’s what we know about the search, part of a Jan. 6 case.

Persons: ”, Liberty, Nathan Earl Hughes Organizations: Capitol Locations: Fayetteville, Ark

☆ Video Released of Officer Fatally Shooting Pregnant Black Woman
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The police in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, released body-camera footage on Friday of an officer fatally shooting a pregnant Black woman through the windshield of her car in the parking lot of a supermarket last week. The shooting of the woman, Ta’Kiya Young, 21, led to protests and an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation into the use of deadly force by the police in Blendon Township, a town of approximately 10,000 northeast of Columbus. The Columbus branch of the N.A.A.C.P. has called for the officer, who, video shows, opened fire as Mr. Young drove forward, to be fired. Ms. Young’s family said in a statement on Friday that the body-camera footage shows that her death was “not only avoidable, but also a gross misuse of power and authority.”

Persons: Ta’Kiya Young, Young, Young’s, “, ” Organizations: Ohio, Criminal Locations: Columbus , Ohio, Blendon Township, Columbus

☆ This Steer Rides Shotgun
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Let this be a warning to those of you who long to hit the open road with a 2,200-pound steer riding shotgun: Observe all traffic laws, especially when passing through Norfolk, Neb. Lee Meyer, 63, a retired machinist, learned that lesson on Wednesday. For seven years, Mr. Meyer has been chauffeuring his 2,200-pound Watusi-longhorn mix named Howdy Doody with its horns and head exposed to the open air in a customized Ford Crown Victoria with the license plate “Boy Dog.”But he had never been stopped by the police, he said, until Wednesday morning as he drove Howdy Doody into Norfolk from his 15-acre ranch south of Neligh, about 35 miles away. Mr. Meyer had just turned off the highway on what was supposed to be a test run in preparation for Howdy Doody’s appearance at Norfolk’s Oktoberfest when he noticed a police car behind him had turned on its flashing lights.

Persons: Lee Meyer, Meyer, Howdy Doody, Howdy Doody’s Organizations: Ford Crown Victoria Locations: Norfolk, Neb, Neligh

A graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been charged in the fatal shooting of one of his professors on Monday, a killing that spread fear across the campus and forced an hourslong lockdown, according to court documents. The student, Tailei Qi, 34, was charged with first-degree murder and possession of a firearm on educational property in the killing of Zijie Yan, an associate professor in the applied physical sciences department, inside a campus lab, according to court documents filed in Orange County Court in Hillsborough, N.C.Mr. Qi made a brief appearance in court on Tuesday afternoon and was ordered held without bond until his next court appearance on Sept. 18. He did not enter a plea. The public defender who represented him did not immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. Court documents did not describe a motive for the shooting, and Jeffrey L. Nieman, the Orange County district attorney, declined to comment on what might have led to it.

Persons: Tailei Qi, Zijie Yan, Qi, Jeffrey L, Nieman Organizations: University of North, Chapel, Orange County Court, Mr Locations: University of North Carolina, Orange County, Hillsborough, N.C

☆ Alexandra Paul, Olympic Figure Skater From Canada, Is Killed in Car Crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Alexandra Paul, a figure skater from Canada who competed in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, was killed in a car crash last week in which her infant son was injured, officials said. Ms. Paul, 31, was traveling with her son on a county road in Melancthon Township in rural Ontario on Tuesday, when a tractor-trailer crashed into a line of cars that had stopped in a construction zone, according to the police and a statement from the Olympic Games. The Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement that officers responded at 3:10 p.m. to a report of a serious crash involving seven vehicles in Melancthon, about 65 miles northwest of Toronto. Several passenger vehicles had stopped in a construction zone when a tractor-trailer entered the zone and crashed into the rear of the line of vehicles, the police said.

Persons: Alexandra Paul, Paul Organizations: Olympic Games, Ontario Provincial Police Locations: Canada, Sochi, Russia, Melancthon Township, Ontario, Melancthon, Toronto

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was under a shelter-in-place order on Monday afternoon after the school warned that an “armed, dangerous person” was on campus. The university sent an alert just after 1 p.m. that advised people in the area to go inside and stay away from windows. All classes & events canceled for today.”Students returned to class on Aug. 21 after summer break. The university did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not clear whether there were injuries.

Organizations: University of North, Chapel, ” Locations: University of North Carolina

☆ Driverless Car Gets Stuck in Wet Concrete in San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Michael Levenson | More About Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Driverless vehicles promise a future with less congestion and pollution, fewer accidents resulting from human error and better mobility for people with disabilities, supporters say. But every now and then, one of the cars runs into trouble in a way that casts a bit of doubt on that bold vision. So it was on Tuesday in San Francisco, where a driverless car somehow drove into a city paving project and got stuck in wet concrete. Paul Harvey, 74, a retired contractor who lives in the city’s Western Addition neighborhood, took a photo of the car with roof-mounted sensors, tipped slightly forward, its front wheels mired in the freshly poured concrete.

Persons: Paul Harvey Locations: San Francisco

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