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– Scientists have made a long-sought—and controversial—breakthrough: They created stem cells from cloned human embryos for the first time, reports AP. In theory, the development by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University means that doctors might someday be able to grow tissue from an ailing patient's own DNA, thus reducing the chance of rejection in a transplant. Commonly cited examples are growing brain tissue to help a patient with Parkinson's disease, or pancreatic tissue to help diabetics. It's "one landmark step in a very long journey," says an expert at Children's Hospital Boston who wasn't involved with the work. The Oregon scientists say they don't think the embryos used in their process could develop into babies, reports NBC News, but the procedure is nonetheless controversial because it requires that the embryos be destroyed. Nature notes that competing technology in the last decade has made the push toward embryonic stem cells less intensive, but adds that the new paper in Cell is sure to reignite the debate. The scientists used eggs from donors, and it took six years to replicate the success they had with monkey embryos. They chalked it up to a series of small revisions over the years instead of a single aha! moment.

This undated image made available by the Oregon Health & Science University in May 2013 shows a stem cell colony developed from cloned human embryos. Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from... (Associated Press)

 Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

 A prominent expert called the work a landmark, but noted that a different, simpler technique now under development may prove more useful.

 Stem cells can turn into any cell of the body, so scientists are interested in using them to create tissue for treating disease. Transplanting brain tissue might treat Parkinson's disorder, for example, and pancreatic tissue might be used for diabetes.

 But transplants run the risk of rejection, so more than a decade ago, researchers proposed a way around that: Create tissue from stem cells that bear the patient's own DNA, obtained with a process called therapeutic cloning.

 If DNA from a patient is put into a human egg, which is then grown into an early embryo, the stem cells from that embryo would provide a virtual genetic match. So in theory, tissues created from them would not be rejected by the patient.

 That idea was met with some ethical objections because harvesting the stem cells involved destroying human embryos.

 Scientists have tried to get stem cells from cloned human embryos for about a decade, but they've failed. Generally, that's because the embryos stopped developing before producing the cells. In 2004, a South Korean scientist claimed to have gotten stem cells from cloned human embryos, but that turned out to be a fraud.

 In Wednesday's edition of the journal Cell, however, scientists in Oregon report harvesting stem cells from six embryos created from donated eggs. Two embryos had been given DNA from skin cells of a child with a genetic disorder, and the others had DNA from fetal skin cells.

 Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. He noted it had taken six years to reach the goal after doing it with monkey embryos.

 Mitalipov also said that based on monkey work, he believes human embryos made with the technique could not develop into cloned babies, and he has no interest in trying to do that. Scientists have cloned more than a dozen kinds of mammals, starting with Dolly the sheep.

 The new work was financed by the university and the Leducq Foundation in Paris.

 Dr. George Daley, a stem cell expert at Children's Hospital Boston who didn't participate in the work, called the new results "one landmark step in a very long journey" toward creating DNA-matched transplant tissue.

 Now, Daley said, scientists must compare the embryo-cloning approach with another technology that reprograms blood or skin cells directly into substitutes for embryonic stem cells. This reprogramming approach is technically simpler and doesn't involve embryos or require the donation of human eggs, and it was widely acclaimed when it was reported in 2007. Its Japanese developer shared a Nobel Prize last year.

 But these substitute cells show some molecular differences compared to embryonic ones, which has led to questions about whether they can safely be used for treating patients. So it's essential to compare the cells from the two methods, Daley said.

 The new results mean "we have another tool," he said. "We have to learn more about this tool."

 Daley said he believed scientists will prefer using the reprogramming approach unless it can be proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that embryo cloning produces better cells for treating patients.

 Mitalipov said he believed his technique would present a particular advantage for treating patients with a certain type of rare diseases. These are caused by mutations in genes of the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. He noted his technique, unlike the cell-reprogramming approach, would supply tissue with new mitochondrial genes that could replace defective ones. Those new genes would come from the egg.

 The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for National Catholic Bioethics Center, an independent think tank in Philadelphia, reiterated his opposition to embryo cloning, calling the approach unethical.

 "It involves the decision to utilize early human beings as repositories for obtaining desired cells," he said. "You're creating them only to destroy them."

 Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley, California, said she was glad that Mitalipov doubted the embryos could be used to clone babies. She said the report still provides a good opportunity for the federal government to ban the use of cloning for reproduction. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| OHSU Photos

 It was hailed some 15 years ago as the great hope for a biomedical revolution: the use of cloning techniques to create perfectly matched tissues that would someday cure ailments ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease. Since then, the approach has been enveloped in ethical debate, tainted by fraud and, in recent years, overshadowed by a competing technology. Most groups gave up long ago on the finicky core method — production of patient-specific embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from cloning. A quieter debate followed: do we still need ‘therapeutic’ cloning?

 A paper published this week1 by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, and his colleagues is sure to rekindle that debate. Mitalipov and his team have finally created patient-specific ESCs through cloning, and they are keen to prove that the technology is worth pursuing.

 Therapeutic cloning, or somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), begins with the same process used to create Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, in 1996. A donor cell from a body tissue such as skin is fused with an unfertilized egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The egg ‘reprograms’ the DNA in the donor cell to an embryonic state and divides until it has reached the early, blastocyst stage. The cells are then harvested and cultured to create a stable cell line that is genetically matched to the donor and that can become almost any cell type in the human body.

 Many scientists have tried to create human SCNT cell lines; none had succeeded until now. Most infamously, Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea used hundreds of human eggs to report two successes, in 2004 and 2005. Both turned out to be fabricated. Other researchers made some headway. Mitalipov created SCNT lines in monkeys2 in 2007. And Dieter Egli, a regenerative medicine specialist at the New York Stem Cell Foundation, successfully produced human SCNT lines3, but only when the egg’s nucleus was left in the cell. As a result, the cells had abnormal numbers of chromosomes, limiting their use.

 Monkeying around

 Mitalipov and his group began work on their new study last September, using eggs from young donors recruited through a university advertising campaign. In December, after some false starts, cells from four cloned embryos that Mitalipov had engineered began to grow. “It looks like colonies, it looks like colonies,” he kept thinking. Masahito Tachibana, a fertility specialist from Sendai, Japan, who is finishing a 5-year stint in Mitalipov’s laboratory, nervously sectioned the 1-millimetre-wide clumps of cells and transferred them to new culture plates, where they continued to grow — evidence of success. Mitalipov cancelled his holiday plans. “I was happy to spend Christmas culturing cells,” he says. “My family understood.”

 The success came through minor technical tweaks. The researchers used inactivated Sendai virus (known to induce fusion of cells) to unite the egg and body cells, and an electric jolt to activate embryo development. When their first attempts produced six blastocysts but no stable cell lines, they added caffeine, which protects the egg from premature activation.

 None of these techniques is new, but the researchers tested them in various combinations in more than 1,000 monkey eggs before moving on to human cells. “They made the right improvements to the protocol,” says Egli. “It’s big news. It’s convincing. I believe it.”

 The experiments took only a few months, Mitalipov says. “People say, you did it in monkeys in 2007. Why did it take six years in humans?” Most of the time, he says, was spent navigating US regulations on embryo research.

 The researchers carried out a battery of tests to prove that their SCNT cells could form various cell types, including heart cells that are able to contract spontaneously.

 Their first cell lines were created using fetal skin cells; others were derived using donor cells from an 8-month-old patient with a rare metabolic disorder called Leigh syndrome, to prove that ESCs could be made from more mature donor cells. The technique does not require prohibitive numbers of eggs: it took 15 from one donor to produce one cell line and 5 from a different donor to make another. “The efficiency was the most impressive thing,” says George Daley, a stem-cell expert at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts.

 Such improvements might be necessary to convince people that SCNT research is still worthwhile. Egg donors for the experiment received US$3,000–7,000 in compensation. This is expensive and, according to some bioethicists, risks creating an organ trade that preys on the poor. Because the technique requires the destruction of embryos, funds from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) cannot be used to make or study SCNT-derived cell lines, hampering further clinical research. (Mitalipov maintains a separate laboratory for NIH-funded research.)

 Public fears that the technology might be used to create human clones are another sticking point. The research might spark “cloning hysteria” that opponents of stem-cell research could capitalize on, says Bernard Siegel, executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute in Palm Beach, Florida. But Mitalipov has tried without success for more than a decade to produce a monkey by cloning. Tachibana says that an upcoming publication will explain why reproductive cloning of humans is not possible using their SCNT technique.

 Still, Daley and most other stem-cell researchers have shifted to another method for creating genetically matched, patient-specific cell lines: reprogramming adult cells to an embryonic state to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. First reported in 2006, the technique does not involve eggs, cloning or destruction of embryos4. “Honestly, the most surprising thing [about this paper] is that somebody is still doing human [SCNT] in the era of iPS cells,” says Miodrag Stojkovic, who studies iPS cells for regenerative medicine and runs a fertility clinic in Leskovac, Serbia.

 But Stojkovic, like others, awaits the results of head-to-head comparisons between iPS and SCNT cells. Some research has shown that iPS cells are not completely reprogrammed and that stem cells derived from SCNT are more like embryonic stem cells derived from in vitro fertilization. Mitalipov and Tachibana are now conducting a study to compare iPS cells and SCNT cells derived from the same donor cell. “These results,” says Daley, “will be fascinating.” |||||


Article:
BALTIMORE (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it's looking for a man who has cost the service about $500,000 after responding to nearly 30 of his fake distress calls.

 In a press release published Friday, the Coast Guard says the 28 calls have originated from around the area of Annapolis, Maryland.

 Each call involved the same male voice and used an emergency radio channel. He's been making the calls since July 2014. The two most recent calls were made on the night of July 21 and the early morning of July 22.

 The Coast Guard also says hoax calls distract rescuers from real emergencies, putting both the public and the responding crews at risk. ||||| A hoax caller in Maryland cost the Coast Guard about $500,000 in the past two years by making false distress alerts.

 The caller made 28 false distress alerts from Annapolis, Maryland, beginning in July 2014, according to the Coast Guard. The two most recent calls were received Thursday and Friday, the Coast Guard reported. They also said they determined the calls to have originated from Annapolis, between Loretta Heights and Admiral Drive.

 The estimated cost of the responses to these false alarms is $500,000.

 The Coast Guard provided an audio file of the caller, in which the caller repeats “mayday” -- a word used to indicate distress at sea.

 Making false distress calls is a felony, punishable by a maximum of six years in prison, a $10,000 civil fine, $250,000 criminal fine and a reimbursement to the Coast Guard for their efforts, the Coast Guard said.

 The Coast Guard also said such false distress alerts detract from their ability to respond to actual alerts.

 “A hoax call is a deadly and serious offense,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sara Wallace, who heads the response sector in Maryland. “Calls like these not only put our crews at risk, but they put the lives of the public at risk.”

 Anyone with information about the caller is asked to contact the Coast Guard's regional command center at 410-576-2525 or email investigators at CGIS-Baltimore@uscg.mil. |||||Summary:

– The US Coast Guard says it's looking for a man who has cost the service about $500,000 after responding to nearly 30 of his fake distress calls, reports the AP. In a press release published Friday, the Coast Guard says the 28 calls have originated from around the area of Annapolis, Maryland. Each call involved the same male voice and used an emergency radio channel. He's been making the calls since July 2014. The two most recent calls were made on the night of July 21 and the early morning of July 22. “A hoax call is a deadly and serious offense,” a Coast Guard rep tells NBC4, which notes that such calls are a felony that carry six years in prison, $10,000 civil fine, $250,000 criminal fine, and reimbursement to the Coast Guard. "Calls like these not only put our crews at risk, but they put the lives of the public at risk.”


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– An ICE "sensitive locations" directive says federal agents shouldn't try to enforce the law at such locations except under "exigent circumstances." But the family of Rosamaria Hernandez, a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who had gallbladder surgery at a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, says ICE agents stalked her at the hospital, then took her to a San Antonio detention center for migrant kids—all while her parents, also illegal immigrants, are at their home in Laredo 150 miles away. Arresting a minor already living in the US, especially one with a medical issue, is a move the New York Times is calling "rare, if not unheard-of." It's also one that's prompted Rep. Joaquin Castro to issue a challenge to President Trump and Elaine Duke, the acting secretary of Homeland Security. "Show that this enforcement operation is prioritizing a dangerous criminal," Castro says in a statement. This all started when Rosamaria—brought to the US from Mexico as an infant by her parents, who hoped to get better treatment for her cerebral palsy—was rushed by ambulance from a Laredo medical center to Driscoll Children's Hospital for the emergency procedure. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times notes Rosamaria was with her cousin, a US citizen. The trip Tuesday meant the ambulance passed a Border Patrol checkpoint, and while agents let the ambulance go, they followed it, her family says. ICE agents hovered outside Rosamaria's room until she was released, then took her to the San Antonio detention center, Leticia Hernandez, an attorney for the family, tells Newsweek. Now, while Rosamaria's family and lawyers vie for her release from the center, only US citizens can visit her, per Newsweek. "The only thing this child wants is her mom," Hernandez says.

Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE A Guatemalan migrant mother and son have called an Austin, Texas church home for more than a year. They have no intentions of leaving it, due to their fear of being deported. (Feb. 23) AP

 A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who had gall bladder surgery at Driscoll Children’s Hospital is under threat of deportation after crossing a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint to get to Corpus Christi for the surgery. (Photo: Contributed)

 A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who had gall bladder surgery at Driscoll Children’s Hospital is under threat of deportation after crossing a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint to get to Corpus Christi for the surgery.

 The girl’s mother, Felipa Delacruz, told the Caller-Times on Tuesday she received a call from the Mexican Consulate about her daughter, Rosamaria Hernandez. She was told her child faces deportation or could be sent to a detention center after she is released from Driscoll Children's Hospital.

 Delacruz, who also lacks legal immigration status, said Tuesday federal agents are waiting outside her daughter's hospital room. Delacruz is in Laredo.

 Delacruz's niece Aurora Cantu, who is a U.S. citizen, accompanied Rosamaria past the checkpoint. Delacruz said they were escorted by federal agents to Corpus Christi from there.

 A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who underwent surgery at Driscoll Children’s Hospital is under threat of deportation after crossing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint to get to Corpus Christi for the surgery. (Photo: Contributed)

 When asked Tuesday to confirm if a federal immigration agency was on the hospital’s premises awaiting the child’s release, Driscoll Children’s Hospital spokesman Ben Castle said “that’s not something we would confirm,” citing patient confidentiality.

 An Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy discourages enforcement actions at sensitive locations — including hospitals, schools, places of worship, public ceremonies or demonstrations.

 The policy states such enforcement should generally be avoided and requires either prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or exigent circumstances necessitating immediate action.

 Rosamaria was scheduled to have surgery after she had complications with kidney stones, Delacruz said.

 Rosamaria was first treated at Driscoll Children's Specialty Center in Laredo, where it was divulged to a nurse that the child is undocumented, Delacruz said.

 Rosamaria, who was brought to the U.S. illegally by her mother when she was about 3 months old, is a recipient of state’s Special Health Care Needs Services Program, Delacruz said. The Texas Health and Human Services program helps children with special health-care needs.

 This is a developing story. Check back to Caller.com for updates.

 Read or Share this story: http://callertim.es/2yIma38 ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Updated | Federal immigration agents detained an undocumented 10-year-old girl from Laredo, Texas, just out of emergency surgery on Wednesday.

 Rosa Maria Hernandez, brought illegally into the United States at three months of age by her mother, was taken to Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, by her cousin. En route to the hospital, they were stopped at a Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint. Immigration agents then proceeded to follow the two to the hospital and remained there throughout the night.

 Once she was discharged, Rosa Maria, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was escorted via ambulance to the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center in San Antonio, Texas, by officers with Customs and Border Protection.

 In a statement, the agency said it "is committed to enforcing the immigration laws of this nation," which include detaining undocumented immigrants.

 "Due to the juvenile’s medical condition, Border Patrol agents escorted her and her cousin to a Corpus Christi hospital where she could receive appropriate medical care," the statement continued.

 "Per the immigration laws of the United States, once medically cleared she will be processed accordingly," the statement concluded.

 That process was expected to begin Thursday with a hearing to ultimately determine what will happen to Rosa Maria, who has brought to the United States without proper authorization by her mother when she was three months old.

 Rosa Maria’s story highlights the newfound relentlessness in immigration arrests and detentions. Schools, churches, courthouses and hospitals—once “safe zones” from immigrant detention—are now open to arrests.

 “This wouldn’t have happened during the [Barack] Obama administration,” one of Rosa Maria’s lawyers, Alex Galvez, told Newsweek. “This current administration wants to send a clear message to all undocumented immigrants—that if you want to go to [a] hospital, you better think twice about it because you might be deported.”

 For years, Hernandez and her mother have lived in Laredo, Texas, a small city of 250,000 residents on the U.S.-Mexico border. Rosa Maria suffered from gallstones and was in need of emergency surgery. Doctors in Laredo informed her mother, Felipa De La Cruz, who is also undocumented, that the nearest children’s hospital capable of doing the operation was in Corpus Christi, a port city two and half hours away by car.

 That presented a problem for De La Cruz: She would have to drive through a Border Patrol checkpoint near Freer, Texas. Instead of taking the risk of being detained and delaying her daughter’s operation, De La Cruz asked one of Rosa Maria’s cousins, Aurora Cantu, to take her instead. Rosa Maria’s doctors in Laredo gave Cantu a notarized letter to present at the checkpoint notifying the officers that she was transporting an undocumented person to receive emergency medical services.

 When she arrived at the checkpoint, Border Patrol officers informed her that she was allowed to drive her cousin to the hospital, but they also told her that two agents would be driving right behind them straight to Corpus Christi.

 After the operation was complete, Rosa Maria was taken to a hospital room where the two Border Patrol officers who followed them there stood waiting. That same night, Leticia Gonzalez, an immigration attorney from San Antonio, was informed about Rosa Maria’s case and rushed over to Driscoll.

 By the time the lawyer arrived, there were five armed and fully uniformed Border Patrol agents waiting outside Rosa Maria's door, she said, adding that hospital staff did not allow her to go into Rosa Maria's room. She then threatened the agents and the hospital staff that she would go on one of the city’s popular Spanish radio stations and tell the public that she wasn’t allowed to see her client. The hospital and the agents obliged.

 Newsweek contacted Driscoll Children’s Hospital, but officials refused to discuss the hospital’s policy regarding immigration agents on the premises. They also did not confirm Hernandez’s account due to privacy laws with respect to their patients. The hospital was embroiled in controversy in September when NPR reported that the undocumented parents of a two-month-old infant receiving treatment were detained by immigration officials upon arrival in May.

 As her attorney, Gonzalez was informed by the agents that they were taking Rosa Maria to a detention center in Houston. Then, about an hour later, the agents told her that the 10-year-old would instead be taken by an ambulance to a detention center in San Antonio later Wednesday afternoon. Gonzalez petitioned the agents to allow Rosa Maria to be discharged from the custody of her grandfather, a U.S. permanent resident, who was on his way to the hospital from Laredo. They refused.

 As the time approached for Rosa Maria’s removal, Gonzalez was shocked to see that an immigration officer was preparing to ride in the back of the ambulance with Rosa Maria and her cousin. Gonzalez successfully petitioned that the officer instead ride in the front.

 “This 10-year-old child has cerebral palsy—she has the mental capacity closer to a 5- or 6-year old,” she said. “What good does it do to have an armed immigration officer riding with her in the back of an ambulance?”

 According to Galvez, who is based in Los Angeles, California, the Department of Homeland Security will now determine whether or not it's best to allow Rosa Maria to go back home to her mother. The process usually takes longer than two months, but Galvez has been assured by Homeland Security that they will expedite the process given the circumstances.

 "They told me we should expect to hear back in about two to three weeks," he said.

 In the meantime, Rosa Maria will live at the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center, where visitors are allowed to come and check up on her—only if said visitors are U.S. citizens.

 "As we were taking out of the hospital, [Rosa Maria] looked visibly shaken," Gonzalez said. "The only thing this child wants is her mom."

 For her part, De La Cruz is glad is doing well—Hernandez told Newsweek that Rosa Maria was released in stable condition—but worries about what awaits her at Bexar.

 "I've always been at her side, and now that she needs me I'm not," she told Telemundo on Wednesday. "I have no idea how they're going to treat her. I'm scared."

 Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified which Homeland Security agency was involved in the case. It was the Customs and Border Protection, not Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The story was also updated to include a comment from Customs and Border Protection on Thursday afternoon. Also, an earlier version misidentified the name of Rosa Maria's lawyer. Her name is Leticia Gonzalez. ||||| A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy has been detained by federal immigration authorities in Texas after she passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint on her way to a hospital to undergo emergency gall bladder surgery.

 The girl, Rosamaria Hernandez, who was brought over the border illegally to live in Laredo, Tex., when she was three months old, was being transferred from a medical center in Laredo to a hospital in Corpus Christi around 2 a.m. on Tuesday when Border Patrol agents stopped the ambulance she was riding in, her family said. The agents allowed her to continue to Driscoll Children’s Hospital, the family said, but followed the ambulance the rest of the way there, then waited outside her room until she was released from the hospital.

 By Wednesday evening, according to family members and advocates involved in her case, immigration agents had taken her to a facility in San Antonio where migrant children who arrive alone in the United States from Central America are usually held, even though her parents, who both lack legal status, live 150 miles away in Laredo.

 Her placement there highlighted the unusual circumstances of her case: The federal government maintains detention centers for adult immigrants it plans to deport, facilities for families who arrive at the border together and shelters for children who come by themselves, known as unaccompanied minors. But it is rare, if not unheard-of, for a child already living in the United States to be arrested — particularly one with a serious medical condition. |||||


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– Florida is facing a "running nightmare" with two people on a killing spree that has so far left three women dead and another in critical condition. William "Billy" Boyette and Mary Craig Rice are wanted in the Jan. 31 murders of 30-year-old Alicia Greer—who was in a relationship with Boyette—and 39-year-old Jacqueline Jeanette Moore at a hotel in Milton. Police believe the suspects then drove to Lillian, Ala., killed 52-year-old Peggy Broz in her front yard, and fled with her vehicle on Friday. In the latest incident, the pair are accused of shooting 28-year-old Kayla Crocker and stealing her vehicle in Pensacola on Monday. Crocker was taken to a hospital in critical condition but is expected to survive, reports the Pensacola News Journal. Authorities say Boyette, 44, and Rice, 38, have managed to elude capture by staying "very mobile." They're believed to have camped in wooded areas; two photos circulated by police show the pair walking in woods with supplies and an apparent handgun, reports WKRG. "What we are experiencing is a running nightmare, quite honestly," a police rep says, noting all victims apart from Greer appear to have been selected at random. Another adds Boyette—accused of stabbing and strangling a girlfriend in 2015—has told "many, many people that he will not be taken alive." Authorities "take those threats and those admonitions very seriously," the rep says. Police say the couple are armed and dangerous and should not be approached.

UPDATE:

 12:00 P.M. — A week after a man began his alleged killing spree, investigators say they have one message for him and his accomplice: “Surrender or end up in a cemetery.”

 Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson makes the statement from a Tuesday morning press conference to update the public on the search for suspected murderer Billy Boyette Jr. and the woman traveling with him Mary Rice.

 Investigators now say Rice has a capital murder warrant for her arrest after being named as a suspect Monday. Police originally feared she was Boyette’s hostage. Evidence collected since the first sighting of the two together makes it more likely she is an accomplice.

 A new picture of Rice was also released at the press briefing. Sheriff Johnson says it was taken at a Walmart two days after Boyette and Rice allegedly killed 30-year-old Alicia Greer and 49-year-old Jacqueline Moore at a hotel in Milton, but before allegedly killing 52-year-old Peggy Broz at her home in Lillian, Alabama.

 Police have said they believe Boyette may have shaved his head and goatee to avoid recognition and Rice likely dyed her hair orange.

 “His [Boyette’s] best choice of action if he wants to survive is to surrender, give yourself up we’ll treat you fairly and you will not be harmed, other than that it’s game on, our officers are not going to take a shot from this guy,” says Johnson.

 Boyette and Rice have been able to avoid detection by authorities for several days, essentially hiding out in the woods of northwest Florida.

 ———————

 (ORIGINAL STORY)

 BALDWIN COUNTY, AL (WKRG) — The urgent search continues for a man suspected in three women’s murders – two in Florida and one in Alabama.

 Investigators tell WRBL sister station WKRG the fugitive Billy Boyette Jr. also shot a fourth woman during a home invasion early Monday morning. Injured 28-year-old homeowner Kayla Crocker, whose 2-year-old son was home at the time but did not witness the shooting, was rushed to the hospital and is expected to survive.

 Police say Crocker was likely not connected to Boyette, but he shot her to use her car in his getaway.

 The 2006 white Chevy Cobalt, with a skull and crossbones sticker, damaged right rear passenger door, and Florida license plate 9613BJ, is believed to be carrying Boyette and his accomplice Mary Rice.

 Rice was identified as a suspect at a 4:00 press conference by Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan, who says enough evidence has been compiled against Rice to name her as a suspect.

 In a 1:30pm update from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, new images show Boyette and possible accomplice Mary Rice walking in the woods. Boyette appears to be armed with a handgun in the images.

 The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office will only say the images were taken “recently,” as in, since the pair have been wanted by authorities. Deputies will not say where the images came from or where they were taken.

 The 2006 Chevy Cobalt was rumored to have been seen on I-10 westbound in Baldwin County, though the exact location of the sighting is unknown. The vehicle could be in Baldwin County, Escambia County or even Mobile County if it continued traveling west.

 CRIME TIMELINE

 TUESDAY JAN. 31 — Boyette allegedly kills Alicia Greer, 30, and Jacqueline Moore, 49, at the Emerald Sands Inn in Milton, Florida

 FRIDAY FEB. 3 — Boyette allegedly kills Peggy Broz, 52, at her home in Lillian, Alabama

 MONDAY FEB. 6 — Boyette shoots Kayla Crocker, 28, in a home invasion in Beulah, Florida (Crocker expected to survive) and steals her car

 Boyette is believed to have changed his appearance by shaving his head and his goatee. His companion, Mary Rice, is also believed to have dyed her hair orange to prevent being identified. The two were spotted at a Hardee’s at a gas station early this morning, shortly after the alleged home invasion.

 Boyette is accused of three murders — two in Milton, Florida and one in Lillian, Alabama. He is considered armed and extremely dangerous. If you recognize him, do not approach — call police immediately. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share A pair of suspected killers are on the run after being accused of killing three women. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) has the story. Buzz60

 The tipster who notified law enforcement about Boyette and Rice has been awarded $10,000. (Photo: Escambia County Sheriff's Office)

 PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has doubled the number of deputies on the street as the department continues searching for suspected murderers William Boyette and Mary Craig Rice, who authorities say are on a multi-state killing spree.

 An attempted murder Monday morning marked the third attack over the last week in a spree that has crossed state lines and left three women dead and one critically injured.

 ECSO deputies responded to a Pensacola address around 6:30 a.m. CT Monday to reports of a home invasion and vehicle theft. The mother of Kayla Crocker went to Crocker's house to check on her after the young mother didn't show up for work and found Crocker with a gunshot wound. Her 2-year-old son was reportedly unharmed.

 Crocker, 28, was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and her vehicle, a white Chevrolet Cobalt, was stolen from the residence. Authorities confirmed via video surveillance that Boyette and Rice took the stolen vehicle to a Shell gas station only minutes later and ate at a nearby Hardee’s.

 Rice had previously been considered a person of interest in the attacks, but was upgraded to an official suspect Monday afternoon. Authorities believe Rice had multiple opportunities to flee or ask for help, and was seen entering stores on her own.

 The small communities along the Florida Panhandle have been on high alert for a week, when the pair’s alleged crime spree began. Two bodies were found at the Emerald Sands Inn in Milton on Jan. 31. One of the victims, 30-year-old Alicia Greer, was in a relationship with Boyette, but police have said all consequent victims have no known connection to the suspect. The second victim in that attack was identified as Jacqueline Jeanette Moore, 39.

 The pair then allegedly went to Lillian, Ala., where authorities say they killed Peggy Broz and stole her vehicle Friday morning. The pair is believed to have then returned to the Pensacola area.

 Monday’s shooting marked the third attack and law enforcement authorities don't believe it will be the last.

 William Boyette and Mary Rice wanted poster (Photo: Special to the News Journal)

 “What we are experiencing is a running nightmare, quite honestly,” ECSO Chief Deputy Chip Simmons said during a press conference Monday.

 Simmons said all minor property investigations have been put on hold to free up deputies to search for Boyette, 44, and Rice, 38.

 “In short we have a killer, he is in our midst … everyone, and I mean everyone, should be aware of this, should be aware of what they look like.”

 Boyette has a drug trafficking history, according to Morgan, including heavy use of the drug Spice. Users have been known to stay awake for several days at a time, Morgan said.

 Boyette, 44, had a lengthy history of violent crimes leading up to the homicides over the past week. A familiar thread is woven through each. Arrest records show a consistent violent pattern in which Boyette is accused of attacking girlfriends, threatening to kill them and on numerous occasions allegedly beating or stabbing them until they called for help.

 Boyette was accused in 2014 in Santa Rosa County of beating a girlfriend because she came home late from work and smelled of alcohol. He told her that if she reported his abuse he would "drag (a trial) out and make her life miserable," according to the arrest report.

 The Escambia County Sheriff's Office is investigating a home invasion and shooting on Beulah Road. The Monday morning incident is being linking to suspect fugitive William Boyette. (Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

 The victim was so in fear for her life that she initially lied to police, telling them Boyette hadn’t touched her despite the redness and swelling on her face. Eventually she told police Boyette had threatened to kill her a number of times, according to the arrest report, and that he was the offender in another violent case where she had told police she was attacked by a stranger. Charges in the case were dropped when the victim recanted once again.

 A Pensacola woman called 911 in June 2015 and whispered to dispatchers that her boyfriend was trying to kill her. She said he had stabbed her multiple times in the arms and legs. He had tried to strangle her and taken away her phone in an attempt to keep her from seeking help, she said. When Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived on scene, the victim was bleeding and crying as she directed police to a bedroom where her attacker had passed out with a large kitchen knife in his hand.

 In the bedroom, deputies found William Boyette.

 Boyette was booked into Escambia County Jail on a $260,000 bond facing charges of kidnapping, battery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and obstructing justice. He spent less than a year in custody before he was released June 17, 2016, when prosecutors were forced to drop the charges against him because his victim couldn't be found. She was wanted on her own criminal charges.

 Within 14 hours of his release, the U.S. Marshals arrested Boyette in Santa Rosa County on a probation violation. He served only three months in jail.

 It's a story that has played out over and over throughout Boyette's life.

 He was arrested at least three other times in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in as many years on battery, assault, kidnapping and weapons charges, but never served more than a year in jail for the offenses. Boyette's troubles go as far back as 2002 in Santa Rosa County, where he has faced charges of grand theft, drug trafficking, felony battery, possession of a firearm, armed robbery with a firearm, aggravated assault by threat, and resisting arrest. In many cases, charges were eventually dropped.

 Boyette had been out of local law enforcement custody only four months before he allegedly killed he first of the three recent victims.

 The same caliber of weapon has been used in each murder, but authorities haven't released any further details on the weapon.

 Deputies have been searching a wooded area near Nine Mile Road after footage showed Boyette and Rice in the area Monday. Morgan said police are searching for possible encampments, and dogs have been used to search those areas.

 “He has made this statement to many, many people that he will not be taken alive,” Morgan said.

 “So again, in law enforcement we take those threats and those admonitions very seriously.”

 Follow Emma Kennedy on Twitter: @Em_Ken_

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2kGALFe |||||


Here is a news article: Infamous 'Zebra killer’ found dead in San Quentin cell

 One of the four “Zebra killers,” whose string of racially motivated slayings terrorized San Francisco in the 1970s, was found dead in his cell at San Quentin State Prison, corrections officials said Friday.

 The body of J.C.X. Simon, who was accused nearly 40 years ago of killing 14 random victims and wounding seven others on San Francisco streets, died alone in his cell of unknown causes Thursday night, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was pronounced dead at 11:59 p.m. inside the prison.

 “The cause of death is pending an autopsy,” said Krissi Khokhobashvili, a spokeswoman for the corrections department. “All that can be released at this point is that he was unresponsive in his cell.”

 The 69-year-old Simon was convicted in San Francisco of two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and assault with a deadly weapon in 1976 after the killing spree, which prompted what authorities said was the biggest manhunt in the city’s history. He was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole when he died.

 Simon and three other black men — Larry Green, Manuel Moore and Jessie Lee Cooks — went on a six-month rampage from October 1973 to April 1974. They targeted white people, mostly at night along the Divisadero Street corridor.

 The 14 victims were mostly shot in the back or the back of the head execution-style. The slayings were called the “Zebra” murders because of the special radio band, the Z channel, that investigators used.

 The seven victims who survived the attacks were crucial in finding the culprits, detectives said.

 One of the survivors was future Mayor Art Agnos, who was then a 35-year-old social worker. He had left a meeting in Potrero Hill on Dec. 13, 1973, and was walking to his car when he said he heard a loud popping noise at Wisconsin and 23rd streets. Agnos at first tried to calm the people fleeing the gunshots when he realized he had been shot twice in the back.

 The intensive manhunt, overseen by Mayor Joseph Alioto, lasted several months and included a $30,000 reward for information about the killers. At one point the mayor authorized police to stop and question any black man who resembled witnesses’ descriptions. The practice, which resulted in the questioning of hundreds of innocent men, was eventually halted by a federal judge.

 Police, acting on a tip by an informant, eventually raided an apartment complex at 844 Grove St., in the old Fillmore district. Seven men were arrested, but only Cooks, Green, Moore and Simons were charged.

 The killings were among several horrific and bloody events in the late 1960s and 1970s by San Francisco radicals, including the Zodiac serial killer, the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Rev. Jim Jones, who forced his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch. Dan White also murdered Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk that decade.

 The four Zebra killers were convicted and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, which has been denied repeatedly.

 Green, 63, is serving his sentence at California State Prison-Solano in Vacaville; Moore, 70, is at Ironwood State Prison (Riverside County); and Cooks, 70, is at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego.

 The men have never been allowed to be in the same institution, corrections officials said. ||||| One of San Francisco's infamous "Zebra Killers," a gang of four convicted of a slew of racially motivated murders in the 1970s, has been found dead in his cell at San Quentin prison, officials said Friday.

 J.C.X. Simon, 69, was found unresponsive in his single cell and pronounced dead late on Thursday at the prison where he was serving a life sentence.

 "The cause of death is unknown pending the results of an autopsy," according to the prison statement.

 Simon and his accomplices were convicted of a string of racially motivated killings that took place in San Francisco. The four black men were convicted of targeting white victims during a six-month spree between October 1973 to April 1974 that left 14 people dead and wounded seven more.

 Simon was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The three other men convicted in the killings — Larry Green, Manuel Moore and Jessie Lee Cooks — are serving life sentences at separate California prisons.

 SOCIAL

 JUST IN: J.C.X. Simon, convicted of ‘Zebra Murders,’ in Bay Area during the early 70's dies in prison. pic.twitter.com/5NZMeOeM3t — John Zuchelli (@tvzuke) March 13, 2015

 — Jillian Sederholm ||||| The trial relied on testimony from Anthony C. Harris, who allegedly participated in the "hunts" for white victims and turned against the others. Harris testified that the men were an offshoot of the Fruit of Islam called the Death Angels. The Fruit of Islam was the security arm of the Nation of Islam. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A man who went on a murder rampage against white people in San Francisco 40 years ago has died at San Quentin. NBC News reports that JCX Simon, 69, one of four notorious "Zebra killers," was found unresponsive in his cell. An autopsy is pending. Simon and three others were convicted of killing 14 random white victims and wounding seven others from October 1973 to April 1974. Most were shot in the back or execution-style while walking down a street, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. They were dubbed the "Zebra" killings because investigators used the Z channel radio band to communicate, explains the newspaper. At one point, the manhunt was so intense that police stopped and questioned any black men who remotely resembled the suspects—until a federal judge ruled that the stops were unconstitutional. The LA Times reports that the men hoped to "run all the whites out of San Francisco" and make the city headquarters for a group known as the Death Angels, an offshoot of the Fruit of Islam, which provided security for the Nation of Islam. The other three killers are still serving life sentences without parole at separate prisons.


Article:

Photo: John Rasimus/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

 Today 50 Cent, who you last saw dancing with John Travolta, decided to mock a sexual assault victim because if you can’t think of anything good to post, why not be pointlessly cruel?

 Terry Crews testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier today about his sexual assault, to advocate for the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights. 50 Cent apparently had a big problem with this, even though no one asked him, and he decided to post a photo of Crews shirtless with the words, “I got raped / My wife just watched” and then another photo of Crews with a rose in his mouth that said “Gym time.” He then added a caption: “👀LOL,What the fuck is going on out here man? Terry: I froze in fear,😆they would have had to take me to jail. 🤨get the strap.”

 The cruelty of this is only outweighed by how not funny it is, and 50’s own comment section showed as much. It was filled with reactions like “disgusting” and “Garbage” and “This is why people hate you.” So, hopefully that was worth it.

 TMZ caught up with Crews himself, who decided to go high with his response saying, “I love 50 Cent, I listen to his music while I’m working out.” When pressed to address what 50 Cent wrote, Crews responded, “I prove that size doesn’t matter when it comes to sexual assault.” So, you can’t see it, but we’re starting a slow clap.

 Updated, June 27 1:43 a.m.: 50 Cent has deleted the post from his Instagram account. ||||| Fans of 50 Cent blasted the rapper Tuesday after he posted memes of actor Terry Crews, who testified about sexual assault on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

 50 Cent, in since-deleted Instagram pictures, posted a split meme with Crews flexing and holding a rose. The top of the photo said “I got raped … My wife just watched,” and the bottom said “Gym time.”

 The post received nearly 125,000 likes and received a crying-laugh emoji from Russell Simmons before it was deleted, according to The Daily Mail. Simmons has been accused of raping several women.

 MODEL SUES 50 CENT OVER LEAKED SEX TAPE

 The post generated a ton of backlash on social media.

 “Im not surprised at Curtis Jacksons trash a—but Russell commenting is a disappointment,” dancer Destiney Bleu said in a tweet referring to 50 Cent’s real name.

 One user said they were “disgusted” by the post.

 “As someone who was a fan of 50 cent since I was a kid, I’m disgusted at his ignorance and insensitive response to Terry Crew’s sexual assault story,” the Twitter user wrote. “To laugh and make jokes about such a serious matter is one of the main reasons why sexual assault victims are afraid to speak up.”

 Another described the post as “alarming.”

 “The reaction to Terry Crews and people laughing along with 50 Cent is alarming, this includes people like @UncleRush,” the user wrote. “There are countless Black Men and Boys who have been violated sexually who don't tell you their stories because of reactions like these. Likely people you know.”

 Crews was asked about 50 Cent’s comments by TMZ and took the high road.

 “I prove that size doesn’t matter when it comes to sexual assault,” Crews said.

 The actor told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier Tuesday that he declined a role in “Expendables 4” after being pressured by the film’s producer to drop a sexual assault lawsuit against his former agency.

 “It was a project I had to turn down,” Crews told a group of lawmakers. “Abusers protect abusers and this is one thing I had to decide whether I was going to draw the line.” ||||| Terry Crews 50 Cent's Ignoring One Big Fact About Sexual Assault

 Terry Crews Takes High Road After 50 Cent Mocks His Sexual Assault Claim

 EXCLUSIVE

 Terry Crews is refusing to fire back at 50 Cent with insults after the rapper trolled his sexual assault case against a Hollywood agent -- instead, he's dropping facts.

 We got Terry in D.C. Tuesday and asked him how he felt about 50 mocking him on Instagram. He took the high road, saying he loves 50 and listens to his music when he works out.

 As for the crude meme 50 posted -- which suggests it's not possible for Crews to be sexually assaulted because he's big and muscular -- Terry had a direct message for him, explaining why Fiddy's way off base.

 Crews was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify for the Senate Judiciary Committee about his experience with sexual assault. As we reported, he got emotional explaining why he didn't physically respond when WME talent agent Adam Venit allegedly groped his genitals.

 We broke the story ... the L.A. City Attorney's Office rejected the sexual assault case against Venit because Crews' allegation had fallen outside of the statute of limitations. Terry still has a pending civil suit against him though. ||||| This Tuesday, actor Terry Crews sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee to advocate for the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, retelling his own story in an impassioned and honest speech. Crews' testimony comes at a time when the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights is moving into its next steps of implementation, having originally been signed into law in 2016 under President Obama.

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 In his testimony, Crews offered a poignant perspective. While pointing out the problems society faces with toxic masculinity, he highlighted his own experience of watching his father abuse his mother, following up, "I swore I would never be like my father, and yet, I believed to my core, that as a man, I was more valuable in this world than women."

 His testimony shifted tremendously as he detailed his own experience. Recounting the alleged groping he endured at the hand of a WME agent, he said, "What he was effectively telling me, while he held my genitals in his hand, was that he held the power—that he was in control." Following the alleged assault, Crews detailed that he "was told over and over that [the groping] is not abuse. That this was just a joke. That this was just horseplay." The agent in question was eventually demoted, but not fired.

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 Crews told his story along with fellow survivor, Amanda Nguyen. Nguyen founded a not-for-profit organization for survivors, Rise, which championed the bill through passage.

 The overarching aim of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights is to remove the burden of sexual assault from the victims. In future stages, implementation would take place in all 50 states, with victims of sexual assault having right to a fully subsidized rape kit, access to police reports, rape kit results, and access to proper counseling services.

 Crews admitted that his six-minute testimony is just one in a long line of previous survivors; many of whom will benefit from the bill's benefits. Watch Crews' entire testimony on sexual assault, toxic masculinity, and the bill in question below. |||||
What is a summary?

– Terry Crews testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to advocate for the Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill of Rights, repeating claims he was sexually assaulted at a 2016 party. The outing drew praise from many corners—Esquire's Justin Kirkland described an "impassioned and honest speech"—just not the corner 50 Cent is in. In a clear dig, the rapper shared on Instagram a meme showing a shirtless Crews next to the words, "I got raped. My wife just watched," per Vulture. "What the f--- is going on out here man?" 50 Cent wrote. "Terry: I froze in fear," he added, following that up with a laughing emoji. While some referred to the post as "disgusting," it drew 125,000 likes—and a crying-laughing emoji from accused rapist Russell Simmons, per Fox News—before it was eventually deleted. "I prove that size doesn't matter when it comes to sexual assault," Crews later told TMZ. In his testimony, Crews had gotten emotional claiming he lost out on a film role because of his civil suit against Hollywood agent Adam Venit, whom he accuses of groping his genitals. Crews pursued charges, but the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office rejected the case because it fell outside of the statute of limitations, per TMZ.


Write a summary based on this article:

As the outrage continued to grow over the hunting death of one of Africa's most iconic lions, two Zimbabwean men who allegedly received $50,000 from the American tourist who killed Cecil the lion arrived in court to face poaching charges related to the illegal hunt, Reuters reported.

 Professional hunter Theo Bronchorst and land owner Honest Trymore Ndlovu allegedly tied a dead animal to a vehicle to lure the beloved lion outside a national park so that American Walter James Palmer could kill him, according to conservationists in Zimbabwe.

 The two Zimbabwean men appeared at the Hwange magistrate’s court on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. They were charged with poaching offenses and for not having the required hunting permit, according to the BBC, which reported that the men were granted bail of $1,000 each and ordered to appear in court again next week.

 1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The reaction to Cecil the lion’s killing by an American tourist View Photos Minnesota dentist Walter James Palmer is accused of killing Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion. Caption Minnesota dentist Walter James Palmer is accused of killing Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion. A photo of Walter James Palmer, the American dentist accused of killing Cecil the lion. Rex Features via AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow, injuring it, according to an account detailed by non-governmental group, Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. After tracking the 13-year-old lion for about 40 hours, Palmer is alleged to have killed the animal with a gun. Cecil was then beheaded and skinned.

 [The death of Cecil the lion and the big business of big game trophy hunting]

 Zimbabwean authorities said Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, could face charges as well; he has been accused by wildlife officials of killing Cecil without a permit, Reuters reported.

 “We'll see how it plays out,” Caroline Washaya-Moyo, a spokeswoman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, told The Post on Tuesday. She added that professional hunters and land owners typically first face charges in such cases.

 Palmer, who has reportedly left Zimbabwe, said Tuesday that "I deeply regret" having killed "a known, local favorite" and that he may have been misled by his hunting guides.

 “I hired several professional guides, and they secured all proper permits,” read a statement from Palmer to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.”

 He added: “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt. I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion."

 [OPINION: What justice for Cecil the Lion would actually look like]

 Palmer said he hasn't been contacted by American or Zimbabwean officials "but will assist them in any inquires they may have."

 A combination photo shows Theo Bronkhorst, left, and Honest Trymore Ndlovu before their court appearance in Zimbabwe. (Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters)

 Cecil, thought to have been killed July 1, was one of Africa's most famous lions and lived in the massive Hwange National Park.

 “It is alleged that the hunter connived with the Antoinette land owner, Mr. Honest Trymore Ndlovu to kill the lion,” read a joint statement from the parks service and the Safari Operators Association. “Ongoing investigations to date suggest that the killing of the lion was illegal since the land owner was not allocated a lion on his hunting quota for 2015. Therefore, all persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges.”

 The lion’s death on private land outside the park's boundary was condemned by the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association and set off a wave of international outrage that centered on Palmer after he was named in connection to the hunt.

 Angry commenters have inundated the Yelp and Google Review pages for Palmer's dental practice, and he has been vilified across social media, as #CecilTheLion became a top worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

 Local police are now monitoring Palmer's office, the Associated Press reported. Protesters have placed a small pile of stuffed animal toys at the dental practice's front door.

 [A vengeful Internet trashed the Yelp page of the Minnesota dentist who shot Cecil the lion]

 Lets have some social media shaming for an American dentist Walter Palmer paid $55,000 to SHOOT & KILL African lion #CecilTheLion. @peta — Rhonda Sherwood, CFP (@Rhonda_Sherwood) July 28, 2015

 the outrage over #CecilTheLion is so, so justified. how people hurt or kill animals with such thoughtlessness or even joy is mind-boggling. — frances koncan (@franceskoncan) July 28, 2015

 I’d love to go hunting for killer dentist Dr Walter Palmer, so I can stuff & mount him for MY office wall. My column: http://t.co/Xy2OWE8sU2 — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 28, 2015

 The voice-mail inbox at Palmer’s dental practice in Minnesota was full Tuesday, and an e-mail from The Post to the practice was not answered.

 Citing court records, Palmer pleaded guilty in 2008 to making a false statement to U.S. wildlife officials regarding the location of a black bear killing in Wisconsin during a guided hunt, the New York Times reported.

 According to the AP:

 Palmer had a permit to hunt but shot the animal outside the authorized zone in 2006, then tried to pass it off as being killed elsewhere, according to court documents. He was given one year probation and fined nearly $3,000.

 The Times chronicled Palmer going on a big game hunt in 2009, a year after he began probation.

 As the 2009 season approached, Walter J. Palmer, a dentist in his late 40s from Eden Prairie, Minn., paid $45,000 for a tag at an auction to finance preservation of the elk habitat. Palmer, said to be capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow, has cultivated a purist’s reputation for his disinclination to carry firearms as backup. Learning to shoot at age 5, he has slain all but one of the animals recognized by Pope and Young. “I don’t have a golf game,” Palmer said.

 [Rich American tourists kill hundreds of lions each year, and it’s all legal]

 According to park and safari officials in Zimbabwe, authorities were trying to interview another professional hunter — Zane Bronkhorst — who may have been involved in Cecil the lion's death.

 The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a nongovernmental organization, alleged that the hunters purposefully lured Cecil out of the park.

 "They went hunting at night with a spotlight and they spotted Cecil," the group said in a statement. "They tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park and they scented an area about half a kilometre from the park. Mr Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow but this shot didn't kill him.

 "They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun. They found that he was fitted with a GPS collar because he was being studied by the Hwange Lion Research, funded by Oxford University so they tried to destroy the collar but failed because it was found."

 Theo Bronkhorst owns Bushman Safaris, a company offering "top quality hunts with maximum results" and specializing in "leopards with dogs and other big game."

 The company's Facebook page includes statements proclaiming that hunters help conservation efforts through the fees they pay to hunt big game:

 Thanks to all who like our page.Understanding how we as hunters do far more for conservation of our wildlife than anti... Posted by Bushman Safaris Zimbabwe on Tuesday, July 1, 2014

 This post, originally published July 28, has been updated.

 MORE READING:

 Texas hunter who paid $350,000 to kill an endangered black rhino has bagged his prey

 A tragic death leaves just four northern white rhinos living and little hope for the species

 The real reason for the catastrophic collapse of Tanzania’s elephant population

 ‘I’m a huge target for them': Critics take aim at hunting show star Eva Shockey

 Why female big-game hunters become the hunted online, in a way men don’t

 Ricky Gervais fires back after getting slaughtered over hunting remarks ||||| Who shot Cecil? First it was thought that a mystery Spaniard had the blood of one of Africa’s most famous lions on his hands. Then came a fresh twist. The Cecil slayer, Zimbabwean conservations said on Tuesday, was in fact a dentist from Minnesota.

 American Walter Palmer was said to be “quite upset” as the hunter became hunted. Zimbabwean police warned that he faced poaching charges, while there was a furious backlash on social media, with Facebook users variously calling for him to be publicly shamed, have his teeth pulled out without anaesthetic or be hunted and killed.

 Killer of Cecil the lion was dentist from Minnesota, claim Zimbabwe officials Read more

 Cecil the lion, known for his black mane, was about 13 years old and a famous attraction for wildlife tourists in Zimbabwe until, earlier this month, he was tempted outside a national park using bait and shot with a bow and arrow. He is believed to have taken 40 hours to die.

 Walter Palmer (left) and one of his previous trophy kills Photograph: facebook

 In a statement to the Guardian, Palmer confirmed he had been in Zimbabwe in early July on a bow hunting trip. “I hired several professionals and they secured all proper permits,” said Palmer. “To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.

 “I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favourite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt,” he said. “I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”

 Palmer, who is from Eden Prairie, just outside of Minneapolis, said he had not been contacted by authorities – either in Zimbabwe or the US – about the situation, but was willing to answer any questions they might have for him.

 “I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity that I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion,” he said.

 The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force charity had initially suggested the culprit had been from Spain but on Tuesday named him as Palmer. This was later confirmed by police.

 The charity’s chairman, Johnny Rodrigues, alleged that Palmer and professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst had gone hunting at night and tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of Hwange national park.

 “Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow but this shot didn’t kill him,” he said. “They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun. The hunters then found that the dead lion was wearing a tracking collar, which they unsuccessfully tried to hide.”

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Conservationists call for better protection for wild animals

 Cecil was wearing a GPS collar as part of a research project that Oxford University has been running since 1999, making it possible to trace his last movements.

 Rodrigues added: “Cecil was skinned and beheaded … Walter Palmer apparently paid $50,000 for the kill and we assume Theo Bronkhorst received this money.”

 Initially his organisation had said the whereabouts of Cecil’s head was unknown, sparking concerns that it would be sent abroad as a trophy. But on Tuesday Rodrigues said the head of the lion had been located in Zimbabwe and impounded to be used as evidence in the investigation.

 “The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho, will most likely kill all Cecil’s cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females.”

 Palmer – married with two children and thought to be in his 50s – became a target as the Facebook page of his dental clinic was flooded with angry comments and threats. An online petition demanding justice for Cecil had gathered more than 12,000 signatures. An Associated Press reporter approached his clinic in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington but was told he was not seeing patients on Tuesday.

 A spokesman for Palmer said the hunter was “obviously quite upset over everything”, adding: “As far as I understand, Walter believes that he might have shot the lion that has been referred to as Cecil.

 Palmer’s love of hunting is well documented online. In 2009, he was interviewed by the New York Times about his slaying of an elk that was touted as a kill for the archery record books.

 Noting that Palmer had learned to shoot at age five and was “capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow,” the article said he had paid $45,000 at auction to take part in the hunt, with the proceeds being used to help fund the elk habitat.

 As the hunting season began, Palmer was on probation for lying to authorities over the exact location where he had killed a black bear in northern Wisconsin in 2006.

 A 2008 Flickr photo album by Trophy Hunt America and Porcupine Creek Outfitters, a company that leads hunting expeditions, shows Palmer posing next to a variety of slain animals, including a wood bison and a lion. In other online photos Palmer sits next to a slain rhino – the caption stating that the photo was taken in South Africa – or holds up a 175-pound leopard in Zimbabwe.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Patrick Barkham visits a lion-breeding farm in North Eastern Free State, South Africa, to investigate the ‘canned hunting’ industr.

 Emmanuel Fundira, president of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, called for Palmer to be prosecuted as a criminal. “Cecil was a collared lion, a protected species,” he said.

 “The rules are clear in Zimbabwe that no protected lions should be hunted. The American members of our association are encouraged to conduct themselves in a way that is beyond reproach. We are using hunting as a conservation tool, but when the tool is abused in this way, it destroys the whole principle.”

 He added: “The culprits should be brought to book and punished at the highest level. This is really reckless.”

 Cecil’s death is yet another blow to Zimbabwe’s economy, which is teetering under president Robert Mugabe. Fundira said: “We are extremely saddened. Cecil was a drawcard, well-known in the industry. Travellers came from all over the world for the experience and it’s been taken away.

 “If you imagine the amount being talked about as changing hands, $50,000, the country has been short-changed. An iconic animal like that is worth much more in the long term. It’s a huge loss and people are grieving.”

 The Zimbabwean Parks & Wildlife Authority said Bronkhorst and the local landowner, Honest Ndlovu, will appear in court in Victoria Falls on Wednesday to face poaching charges.

 “Both the professional hunter and land owner had no permit or quota to justify the offtake of the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt,” it added.

 If convicted, the men face up to 15 years in prison. Palmer also faces poaching charges, according to police spokeswoman Charity Charamba. “We arrested two people and now we are looking for Palmer in connection with the same case,” she said.

 A Texan hunter shot an elderly black rhino in Namibia in May after buying a government-issued licence for $350,000 (£224,000). ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hunter Theo Bronkhorst (left) and landowner Honest Ndlovu are facing poaching charges

 A hunter accused of helping a US tourist kill Zimbabwe's most famous lion has been released on bail.

 Theo Bronkhorst pleaded not guilty to a charge of "failing to prevent an unlawful hunt". He was granted bail of $1,000 (£638) and ordered to appear in court again on 5 August.

 His co-accused - farm owner Honest Ndlovu - will appear at a later date.

 Walter Palmer, the US dentist who shot the animal known as Cecil, has left Zimbabwe but could also face charges.

 Mr Palmer said he paid for the hunt, but was not aware of the lion's identity.

 He said he regretted shooting the animal, and believed he was on a legal hunt. He had relied on professional guides to find a lion and obtain the necessary permits, he added.

 Mr Bronkhorst and Mr Ndlovu could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.

 Image copyright Paula French/Facebook Image caption Walter Palmer, who killed Cecil, said he had no idea the lion was a "local favourite"

 Cecil is believed to have died on 1 July, but the carcass was not discovered until a few days later.

 Mr Palmer is said to have shot and injured the animal with a bow and arrow. The group did not find the wounded lion until 40 hours later, when he was shot dead with a gun.

 'An activity I love'

 Separately, court records have shown that Mr Palmer has a felony record in the US after killing a black bear in the state of Wisconsin in 2006.

 The dentist was given a one-year probation and fined $3,000, having shot the creature outside an authorised zone and then tried to pass it off as having been killed elsewhere.

 The American tourist is believed to have paid about $50,000 to go on the hunt in Zimbabwe.

 More than 400,000 people have signed an online "Justice for Cecil" petition, calling on Zimbabwe's government to stop issuing hunting permits for endangered animals.

 How the internet descended on Walter Palmer

 Image copyright Twitter Image caption Social media commentators condemned Mr Palmer

 Mr Palmer insists that he believed his guides had secured "all proper permits" for the hunt.

 "I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

 "I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion."

 He said he had not been contacted by authorities in Zimbabwe or the US but would "assist them in any inquiries they may have".

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Stuffed toys were left by protesters outside Mr Palmer's workplace

 The dentist is believed to be back in the US, although his exact whereabouts are unknown.

 His dental practice in Bloomington, Minnesota has been temporarily closed and a note placed on the door referring visitors to a public relations firm. A protest is due to be held outside the building later.

 The firm's social media accounts have also been disabled, after they were flooded with messages from angry members of the public.

 Cecil the lion

 Image copyright AP

 A major tourist attraction in Hwange National Park - Zimbabwe's largest game reserve

 The 13-year-old animal was renowned for being friendly towards visitors

 Recognisable because of his large size and distinctive black mane

 Led two prides containing six lionesses and 12 cubs along with another lion, Jericho

 Was being monitored as part of an Oxford University study into lion conservation

 When is hunting not poaching?

 Night-time pursuit

 Cecil the lion was skinned and beheaded, according to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), a local charity.

 The ZCTF said the hunters had used bait to lure him outside Hwange National Park during a night-time pursuit.

 Lions in Africa 35,000 Max estimated lion population 12,000 Max lion population in southern Africa 665 Approx number of 'trophy' lions killed for export from Africa per year

 49 Lion 'trophies' exported from Zimbabwe in 2013

 0.29% Contribution to GDP of Zimbabwe from trophy hunting

 17% Of Zimbabwe's land given to trophy hunting AFP

 The animal had a GPS collar fitted for a research project by UK-based Oxford University that allowed authorities to track its movements. The hunters had tried to destroy it but failed, according to the ZCTF.

 On Monday, the head of the ZCTF told the BBC that Cecil "never bothered anybody" and was "one of the most beautiful animals to look at". |||||

– It's the dawn of a new, uncomfortable day for Dr. Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who achieved infamy yesterday when it was revealed he was the hunter who felled the beloved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe. The New York Times and Washington Post today have more on how Palmer and his guides lured the 13-year-old lion out of his sanctuary in Hwange National Park: According to the chair of the non-governmental Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, Palmer's party sighted the lion at night using a spotlight, and affixed a dead animal to their car to lead Cecil from the reserve into unprotected territory. It claims the men scented an area about three-tenths of a mile from the park. Cecil was first injured by a shot from Palmer's crossbow, then killed nearly two days later by Palmer, via gun. Chair Johnny Rodrigues alleges that "the hunters then found that the dead lion was wearing a [GPS] tracking collar, which they unsuccessfully tried to hide." Cecil was skinned and beheaded, and his body "left to rot in the sun," as the Times puts it. Rodrigues yesterday said the head has been tracked down and impounded as evidence, reports the Guardian. The BBC adds that it's thought Cecil was killed July 1, though his corpse wasn't found until days later. Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Authority and the Safari Operators Association say "ongoing investigations to date suggest that the killing of the lion was illegal since the land owner was not allocated a lion on his hunting quota for 2015. Therefore, all persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges." Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and landowner Honest Ndlovu accompanied Palmer and are making that court appearance today; the poaching charges carry up to 15 years. A parks and wildlife rep told the Post professional hunters and landowners are usually the first to be charged in these instances. Palmer is reportedly being sought in connection with the case. Here's what Palmer has to say.


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– Court records say a Colorado inmate, mistakenly released from jail, enjoyed less than two hours of freedom before his wife made him turn himself in. James Rynerson was in custody late last month at the Mesa County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond while awaiting prosecution on menacing, disorderly conduct, and trespass charges, reports the AP. Rynerson, 38, was released after Mesa County sheriff's deputies at the jail mistook him for another inmate, Marvin March, who was awaiting release. Rynerson's wife was surprised to find him in her garage shortly after. "(Rynerson's wife) told Inmate Rynerson he needed to turn himself in after he informed her he had been released under another person's name," the court report said, per the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. She "convinced Inmate Rynerson to go back, and personally drove him back to the Mesa County Detention Facility." Mesa County Sheriff's Sgt. Henry Stoffel said Wednesday that jail employees broke procedure when they failed to check Rynerson's wristband and picture, and that an investigation is ongoing to determine whether jail policy needs to be updated. He credited Rynerson's wife for his return. "We appreciate that she recognized his error and recommended that he turn himself in before it became something more significant," he said. Rynerson, meanwhile, faces new charges for his efforts, including escape, forgery, criminal impersonation, and theft.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — Court records say a Colorado inmate, mistakenly released from jail, enjoyed less than two hours of freedom before his wife realized the error and made him turn himself in.

 The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports James Rynerson was in custody late last month at the Mesa County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond while awaiting prosecution on menacing, disorderly conduct and trespass charges.

 Rynerson, 38, was released after Mesa County sheriff's deputies at the Jail mistook him for another inmate, Marvin March.

 Mesa County Sheriff's Sgt. Henry Stoffel said Wednesday that jail employees broke procedure when they failed to check Rynerson's wristband and picture, and that an investigation is ongoing to determine whether jail policy around the housing list needs to be updated. He credited Rynerson's wife for returning her husband to custody.

 ___

 Information from: The Daily Sentinel, http://www.gjsentinel.com ||||| Sorry, this zipcode is not in our deliverable area for this subscription service.

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