Author: rpnadmin

An 11-year-old female clouded leopard managed to slip her restraints during a show Friday at a zoo in Washington state and climb into a tree.The leopard, named Orchid, was part of an 11:30 a.m. show at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, 30 miles south of Seattle.The tree she climbed is behind the zoo’s theater and near its perimeter fence.Zoo spokeswoman Tessa Miller told Tacoma’s News Tribune that Orchid was restrained with multiple leashes but got startled during the show and got one of the leashes wrapped around a log, loosening the leash’s metal ring from Orchid’s collar.Zoo staff…

The Pokemon Fossil Museum, an exhibition featuring real fossils as well as sculptures of fossil creatures found in the Pokemon games, opened at Chicago’s Field Museum Friday. Its display at the Field Museum, first announced in May 2025, is the first time the exhibition has been put on outside Japan. It will be at the Field Museum through April 11, 2027, per the Pokemon Company website. In addition to the Pokemon Company and the Field Museum, the exhibition also involves contributions from the Japan National Museum of Nature and Science. The exhibition first went on display in Japan in 2021…

A former executive at the Atlanta Housing Authority was sentenced this week for committing Section 8 and COVID-19 pandemic insurance fraud. On Wednesday, Tracy Jones, 61, was sentenced to nine months in prison and nine months of house arrest followed by 15 months of supervised release on charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government funds, wire fraud, and credit application fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a release Friday. In addition, Jones will have to pay $65,598.80 in restitution and a fine of $63,546. Jones was a senior vice president at the…

Republicans are rushing to redraw congressional districts to their advantage ahead of the midterm elections following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened minority protections under the federal Voting Rights Act. In a matter of just weeks, new U.S. House districts already have been enacted in Tennessee and Alabama and have cleared at least one legislative chamber in Louisiana and South Carolina. But hurdles remain in courthouses and capitols before the new maps can be used in the November elections. Voting districts typically are redrawn after a census at the start of a decade. But President Donald Trump has…

Democratic-controlled Maryland could be jumping into the national redistricting surge, state Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday.He said the Senate intends to pass a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for a Democratic-leaning map and present it to voters in November, meaning the General Assembly would have to pass it in a special session this summer to put it on the ballot.Mr. Ferguson said that following the primary election at the end of June, he plans to convene Senate Democrats to discuss the constitutional amendment.The Office of the Governor told Baltimore’s WYPR it does not believe a special session…

A man was found dead on Friday after he was electrocuted while trying to take wiring out of a power line, the Pennsylvania State Police said.Aaron Cottrell, 32, was discovered dead at 7:12 a.m. in Dunbar, 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, the police said in a release.The power had to be shut off to de-electrify and remove the wire on Mr. Cottrell’s body, according to Pittsburgh’s WPXI.The state troopers said they found a backpack and pole saw on Mr. Cottrell’s person and that “it appeared he had been attempting to obtain wire from active electrical lines when he was electrocuted.”The…

A person was hospitalized in Baltimore Friday night after a Maryland Transit Administration light rail train struck a car the person was in.The train hit the Nissan sedan at the intersection of Howard Street and Lexington Street at around 8:30 p.m., according to The Baltimore Sun. MTA officials said a person inside the car was taken to Baltimore’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, according to the city’s WJZ-TV, but did not provide a name or indicate whether the person was the driver or passenger.The exact nature and severity of the person’s injuries were not specified. Transit officials have not yet…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a spat with a major oil company over who is to blame for the state’s high gas prices, with the Democratic governor’s office urging drivers not to fill up at Chevron stations over Memorial Day weekend. “Pro tip: unbranded gas comes from the same refineries, storage tanks, and pipelines, and it meets the same state standards to keep your engine running clean,” Newsom’s office posted Thursday on X. “Big Oil is already making billions off Trump’s Iran War; don’t let them rip you off even more by overpaying for the brand…

OMAHA, Neb. — The 18 American passengers who were exposed to hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship are getting a taste of Nebraska hospitality as they wait to find out how much longer they will have to remain in quarantine at the hospital in Omaha. Elsewhere, a 12th illness linked to the ship was confirmed Friday in the Netherlands as health officials continue to monitor hundreds of people who were potentially exposed. The doctor who runs the National Quarantine Unit where the American passengers are being monitored said at a news conference Friday that none of them are showing…

NEW YORK — A judge on Friday threw out author Michael Wolff’s lawsuit against first lady Melania Trump, ruling that his “contorted” attempt to prevent her from suing him for $1 billion over his statements about her and Jeffrey Epstein “is not how the federal courts work.” Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in federal court in Manhattan chided both sides for an “inappropriate level of tactical gamesmanship” and said she “will not be conscripted to oversee an abusively presented spat.” Vyskocil, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, agreed that Wolff and the first lady “have a real dispute,” but said…