Huge 400-pound alligator captured in North Carolina on 'suspicion of being a dinosaur'

Huge 400-pound alligator captured in North Carolina on 'suspicion of being a dinosaur'

A massive offender with "scaly intentions" was nabbed by authorities after he was spotted loitering "near the double yellow line" on a roadway in North Carolina. "Pepe the Gator," weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring 10 feet in length was caught loitering off the pavement in Jacksonville, around 120 miles south of Raleigh, with witnesses saying, "he was just chilling and snapping (and) clearly ignoring the 'no loitering or lounging on roadways' sign," Onslow County Sheriff's Office said in apost on Facebook. The prehistoric perp "has been cited for Suspicion of Being a Dinosaur without Proper Papers, Public Loitering with Intent to Sunbathe, and Obstructing Traffic," the sheriff's office said. Pepe was eventually captured and taken to a boat ramp on Camp Geiger, a few miles away, and released back into the wild the same day, sheriff's office spokesperson Trevor Dunnell told USA TODAY. No injuries were reported, except for Pepe's pride when he "refused to be cuffed," authorities said. American alligators occur naturally in North Carolina, according toNorth Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and can be found inhabiting bay lakes, rivers, creeks, marshes, swamps and ponds. The state is the "northern extent of the alligator's range and they generally become less common as you move from south to north along the NC coast," says the wildlife commission. Adult male alligators can weigh up to 500 pounds and can reach 13 feet in length, the wildlife commission said, while females generally grow to less than 9 feet and weigh up to 200 pounds. These wild animals are shy and secretive in nature, according to the commission. Feeding, touching, harming, harassing or poaching an alligator is illegal in North Carolina, according to theNorth Carolina Wildlife Federation. The department recommends being vigilant in areas where alligators have been spotted and maintaining a safe distance of at least 50 feet in case of an encounter. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'Pepe the Gator': 400-pound alligator captured in Onslow County, NC

byAlex Perish

in

June 03, 2025

Huge 400-pound alligator captured in North Carolina on 'suspicion of being a dinosaur'

Huge 400-pound alligator captured in North Carolina on 'suspicion of being a dinosaur' A massive offender with "scaly intention...

Read More

Florida city begins formal process to remove fluoride from water supply

Florida city begins formal process to remove fluoride from water supply

A city in Florida began the formal process of removing fluoride from its water supply on Tuesday to be in compliance with a new state law. Ocala -- 75 miles northwest of Orlando -- currently has a city ordinance requiring fluoride to be added to the water supply. Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantissigned a billbanning local governments from adding fluoride to public water systems. Gregory Davis, public information officer for the city of Ocala, told ABC News the city's council will be voting on Tuesday to amend the ordinance. MORE: Utah becomes 1st state to ban fluoride in public drinking water Ocala had been adding fluoride to the water supply since 1961 and had spent about $50,000 a year doing so, according to Davis. Davis said it's unclear how long it will take Ocala to remove fluoride from its water supply but added that the city's water resource team said it will be in compliance by July 1, which is when the state law goes into effect. Local communities in Florida had moved to stop adding fluoride to the public water supply prior to the statewide bill, with Miami-Dade County commissioners voting in favor 8-2last month to ban fluoride. Additionally, the city of Stuart -- about 80 miles north of Fort Lauderdale --removed fluoride from its water supplyin November 2024 after state surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo announcedguidancerecommending against water fluoridation. Fluoride is a mineral that naturally occurs in water sources such as lakes and rivers and is even naturally present in some foods and beverages, according to theAmerican Dental Association. It is added to some dental products, such as toothpaste, to help prevent cavities. High-quality studies show fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damage to teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride makes tooth enamel stronger and rebuilds weakened tooth enamel, the ADA says. Fluoride also replaces minerals lost from teeth due to acid breakdown, according to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. MORE: Too much toothpaste may hurt your child's smile Influential skeptics such as Ladapo and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., however, have long raised doubts about the benefits of fluoride. In an interview withNPRin November 2024, Kennedy doubled down on his promise of persuading local governments to remove fluoride from their water supplies. Earlier this year, Kennedy said heplanned to assemble a task forceand ultimately change the CDC's guidance to stop recommending fluoride. The comments came during a press conference in Utah after the state became the first in the nation to ban fluoride from water drinking systems. Alarge review paperpublished in January 2025 suggested a link between fluoride and lower IQ in children, but the study only pointed to a possible link -- not proven cause and effect. Meanwhile, much of the underlying data was pulled from other countries, where fluoride exposure is far higher than levels used in drinking water in the U.S. Some health professionals have also expressed concerns about excessive fluoride intake and potential toxicity. Many doctors and dental associations, however, argue that fluoride in water is still a crucial, low-risk/high-reward public health tool, especially for disadvantaged children and adults who may not be able to practice regular dental hygiene. ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.

byAlex Perish

in

June 03, 2025

Florida city begins formal process to remove fluoride from water supply

Florida city begins formal process to remove fluoride from water supply A city in Florida began the formal process of removing fluoride from...

Read More

COVID-related agreement continues to shield some on Georgia's death row from execution

COVID-related agreement continues to shield some on Georgia's death row from execution

ATLANTA (AP) — The fact that the COVID-19 vaccine is not available for newborn babies is shielding a group of prisoners on Georgia's death row from execution. Executions in Georgia were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the state attorney general's officeentered into an agreementwith lawyers for people on death row to set the terms under which they could resume for a specific group of prisoners. At least one of those conditions, having to do with the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, has not been met, and seeking an execution date for a prisoner covered by the agreement would breach the agreement, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram ruled. The agreement includes three conditions that had to be met before executions could be set for the affected prisoners: the expiration of the state's COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine "to all members of the public." Once those conditions were met, the state agreed to give three months' notice before pursuing an execution warrant for one of the prisoners covered by the agreement and six months' notice for the rest. Thestate has arguedthat the agreement should no longer apply, contending the conditions have been met. But defense attorneys say it's still valid because the vaccine isn't yet available to infants under 6 months old, and visitation at state prisons has not returned to normal. Ingram's ruling, issued Friday, addressed only the vaccination question. She plans to handle the visitation issue separately. Ingram wrote that the state's arguments "all boil down to an attempt to rewrite the Agreement." The state is "(u)nhappy with the language it drafted" and wants to change it so that the condition would be satisfied once vaccines are available to "most members of the public." "But courts cannot rewrite contracts to relieve a party of their regrets," she wrote. She ruled that the agreement is "binding and enforceable," that the vaccination condition hasn't been met and that seeking an execution warrant before the requirements have been met would breach the agreement. The state attorney general's office plans to appeal, a spokesperson said Tuesday. Ingram noted that the Food and Drug Administration has approved clinical trials for infants under 6 months old, and newborns receive other vaccines. That shows it is possible for the COVID-19 vaccine to ultimately be available for that age group, and the state should have foreseen that that could take years, she wrote. Experts for both sides had testified that it was probable that the COVID-19 vaccine would eventually become available to babies under the age of 6 months, Ingram wrote. That was beforeRobert F. Kennedy Jr.was appointed U.S. health secretary. Kennedylast week announcedthat COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. Afew days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, which had said those groups should get the shots, was revised to say the vaccinations "may" be given to those groups. The agreement covers fewer than 10 of the 34 people currently on Georgia's death row. While Georgia stopped carrying out executions during the pandemic, death penalty cases continued to wind their way through the court system, and as people exhausted their appeals, they became eligible for execution. A committee of a judicial task force on COVID-19 in early 2021 instructed lawyers for people on death row and the state attorney general's office to come up with terms under which executions could safely resume. The two sides reached the agreement in April 2021. The agreement only applied to people on death row whose requests to have their appeals reheard were denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while the judicial emergency was in place. The agreement was to remain in effect through Aug. 1, 2022, or one year from the date on which the conditions were met — whichever was later. The legal fight arose from a lawsuit filed when officials set a May 2022 execution date for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. The Federal Defender Program, which represents Presnell, said the state had violated the agreement because the conditions hadn't all been met. Based on that argument, a Fulton County Superior Court judgehalted the executionless than 24 hours before it was to take place, and the Georgia Supreme Courtruled in December 2022that the agreement was a binding contract. People on death row who are not covered by the agreement have since become eligible for execution. One of them, Willie James Pye, wasput to death in March 2024.

byAlex Perish

in

June 03, 2025

COVID-related agreement continues to shield some on Georgia's death row from execution

COVID-related agreement continues to shield some on Georgia's death row from execution ATLANTA (AP) — The fact that the COVID-19 vaccine...

Read More

George Clooney Says He Looks Like He's Going Through 'Some Horrible Midlife Crisis' After Dyeing His Hair for Broadway

George Clooney Says He Looks Like He's Going Through 'Some Horrible Midlife Crisis' After Dyeing His Hair for Broadway

Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty; Jamie McCarthy/Getty George Clooney said onLate Night with Seth Meyersthat his hair — which he dyed a shade of brunette for his Broadway playGood Night, and Good Luck— looks "bad" The production closes with a matinee on Sunday, June 8, ahead of the Tonys that night Clooney said that he would change his hair between his final bow and the red carpet for the ceremony, and that he was prepared to shave his head if necessary George Clooneyis ready to ditch his dark hair! The 64-year-old screen legend is renowned for his signature silver locks. However, he had tocolor his hair a rich shade of brunettefor his Broadway playGood Night, and Good Luck. With theTony-nominated show wrapping its run at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City on Sunday, June 8, Clooney revealed during a Monday, June 2, appearance onLate Night with Seth Meyersthat one of the first things he'll do after his final performance is fix his "bad" hair. Clooney appeared on the show wearing a hat to cover his head, and the first thing he said upon being greeted by hostSeth Meyerswas that the hat was necessary to "hide" his hair as it grew out. "It's bad. It's still dark on top, but it's gray at the bottom," he explained, telling Meyers, 51, that he hadn't dyed it for about two months. "So you get that really nice-looking grow-out of gray." Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic How soon will Clooney be undergoing a transformation to revert back to his traditional look? "The last show is Sunday. We do a matinee, and then by the time we go to the Tonys that night, it'll be gone," he vowed. Meyers assured the actor that his hair looked "great on stage" — but his guest didn't seem to buy it, sarcastically replying, "Sure." Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. He did agree when the late-night host said that it "looks like you are trying to get away with something" when you see him out in public. "It really looks bad," Clooney replied. "It looks like [I'm] going through some horrible midlife crisis. I'm 64 — midlife is a little stretch." The actor said that his wife,Amal Clooney, found his hair transformation to be "funny," but added that she'll "be glad when it's gone." Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Of course, reversing the effects of coloring your hair can be challenging. But Clooney is ready and willing to take dramatic steps to change up his appearance. "I may have a shaved head. I may look likeYul Brynner," he said, referencing the late actor who shaved his head for years. (Brynner won a Tony in 1952 for his performance inThe King and I.) Meyers pointed out that comparisons to Brynner might be a good thing going into the 2025 Tony Awards, whereClooney snagged a nominationfor Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. However, he made it clear that he isn't necessarily prepared to take home an award during the ceremony this Sunday: "I'm not thinking very positively about winning a Tony." The PEOPLE Appis now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! Bruce Glikas/WireImage; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Good Night, and Good Luckdid pick upseveral additional nominations. The production is up for Best Sound Design of a Play, Best Scenic Design of a Play, Best Costume Design of a Play and Best Lighting Design of a Play. Clooney stars as Edward R. Murrow in the production — an adaptation of the 2005 film of the same name, which the actor directed and co-wrote. The story follows Murrow, the journalist behind the 1954 exposé on Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The actor competes withCole Escola(Oh, Mary!),Jon Michael Hill(Purpose),Daniel Dae Kim(Yellow Face),Harry Lennix(Purpose) andLouis McCartney(Stranger Things: The First Shadow) for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. Good Night, and Good Luckmarked Clooney's first time on a Broadway stage, andopened to a star-studded audienceon April 3. It will alsobe broadcast livethis Saturday, June 7, on CNN. Read the original article onPeople

byAlex Perish

in

June 03, 2025

George Clooney Says He Looks Like He's Going Through 'Some Horrible Midlife Crisis' After Dyeing His Hair for Broadway

George Clooney Says He Looks Like He's Going Through 'Some Horrible Midlife Crisis' After Dyeing His Hair for Broadway Lloyd Bis...

Read More

Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama

Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama

A bitter dispute between former costarsBlake LivelyandJustin Baldoniis continuing to escalate. In a flurry of filings over the last several days,Baldoni's lawyerssought access toLively'smedical records, andLively's teamwithdrew a claim of emotional distress first included in her suit, then accused his team of orchestrating the entire thing as a "public relations stunt." Lively and Baldoni,who co-headlined the2024 summer blockbuster "It Ends with Us,"have since been locked in a court battle over claims of a toxic work environment, rife with sexual misconduct.Livelyhas alleged rampant harassment by Baldoni, followed by an online smear campaign aimed at keeping her silent, while Baldoni has allegedLivelyused her star power to shut him out of the successof a moviethat was rightfully his. 'It Ends with Us' was supposed tobe a BookTok Hollywood success story. What went wrong? In her original lawsuit against Baldoni,Livelyclaimed he and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, had caused "intentional infliction of emotional distress." On Monday, June 2,lawyers for Wayferer and Baldonifiled a motion to compel the actress to share her medical records to prove that distress. IfLivelyhad in fact suffered severe emotional damages as the result of"It Ends with Us"filming and theensuing public relations disaster,they argued, she should need to prove it through medical records – or withdraw the claim and promise not to bring it back up in court. Lively's team,on the other hand, argues that she had agreed to drop the claim as a run of the mill legal proceeding in order to streamline the lawsuit, and that Baldoni's lawyers were attempting to take the move out of context, and blow it out of propotion to create a media narrative. Baldoni's "motion was filed for a single audience: the media," lawyers for Lively wrote in a response filed June 2, accusing Baldoni's team of "desperately searching for an angle to make a show out of Ms. Lively's decision to streamline her case." The filing also alleges that Baldoni's team met with Lively's lawyers and did not raise concerns, only to pull a bait and switch, filing their motion to compel minutes after meeting and alerting the "tabloid" media. "This is a routine part of the litigation process that is being used as a press stunt. We are doing what trial lawyers do: preparing our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it; they are doing what they do: desperately seeking another tired round of tabloid coverage," Lively's lawyers, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, wrote in a statement to USA TODAY June 2. USA TODAY has reached out to Baldoni's lawyers for comment. Blake Lively's 'It Ends With Us' allegat'astroturfing' and when fans feel manipulated "The Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under California law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively's original claims no longer necessary," the statement continued. "Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims." This legal tit for tat is the latest in an ongoing battle between Lively and Baldoni, who were once poised to bethe faces of a filmaimed at redefining how audiences view domestic abuse. Swapping lawsuits and increasingly hostile claims,the pairhave now found themselves at oddsin both the courts and the press. Baldoni and Lively are headed to trial next year. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni legal teams argue over medical records

byAlex Perish

in

June 03, 2025

Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama

Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni lawsuit gets messier with legal drama A bitter dispute between former costarsBlake LivelyandJustin Baldoniis co...

Read More