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Pilot error caused the fatal hot air balloon crash in New Mexico, NTSB finds. Drug use was a factor

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A mistake made by a hot air balloon pilot who had drugs including cocaine in his system caused a crash in 2021 in New Mexico that killed all five people on board, investigators have determined.The National Transportation Safety Board said in its final report released this week that pilot Nicholas Meleski did not maintain enough clearance from power lines while trying to land. He hit the power lines and crashed into a busy intersection. The report said investigators found no evidence of mechanical malfunctions or failures.The amounts of cocaine and marijuana found in his system suggested “recent use” that would have likely had “impairing effects” that contributed to the crash on June 26, 2021, the report said.Meleski’s family told Albuquerque station KOB-TV in a statement that their hearts go out to the families of the passengers: Mary Martinez, her husband Martin, and their friends Susan and John Montoya.“We cannot express the depth of our grief ...

Ohio State wrestler Sammy Sasso shot near campus, recovering in hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State two-time Big Ten wrestling champion Sammy Sasso was shot in Columbus and was in the hospital Saturday with non-life-threatening injuries, the university’s wrestling coach said in a statement.Police said a call came in around 8:30 p.m. Friday for a shooting near the University District, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Sasso was found in an alley near campus and taken to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in serious condition, the newspaper reported.Coach Tom Ryan said in the statement that Sasso was being monitored in the hospital on Saturday.“Our coaching staff, along with members of the wrestling program and Athletics administrators, are grateful for the caregivers at WMC, thankful Sasso’s injuries are not life-threatening, and are supporting Sasso and his family,” Ryan said in the statement.The Ohio State University Police Department is assisting Columbus police with the ongoing investigation, according to the statement. Few deta...

Worms that secrete a dangerous paralyzing toxin spreading in Montreal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

An invasive worm species from Asia that secretes a dangerous, paralyzing toxin has been spotted in the Montreal area.Lisa Osterland, a retired teacher, found some twenty hammerhead flatworms earlier this week while removing slugs that were eating flowers in her garden in Westmount, Que., a municipality on Montreal Island.She didn’t recognize the invertebrate until she came across a CNN report a few days later indicating that hammerhead flatworms were spreading across the state of New York.“The shape of the worm was the same as what I saw” in the garden, Osterland told The Canadian Press.The retiree said she collected the worms at night, when they seemed to be most active, and then handed them over to a team of entomologists at the Université de Montréal. Among them was Étienne Normandin, who said the team received about 20 specimens from Osterland.“There’s a rule among biologists that when you find a specimen of an invasive species, you can multiply it by 100...

Fish found on transformer after New Jersey power outage — officials suspect bird dropped it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

SAYREVILLE, N.J. (AP) — A power outage that cut electricity to a New Jersey community a week ago was due to an unlikely culprit — a fish that was apparently dropped by a bird and landed on a transformer, officials said.Sayreville police said Jersey Central Power and Light Company workers working on the Aug. 12 outage that cut power to a large area of Lower Sayreville found a fish on the transformer in the New Jersey community southwest of New York’s Staten Island.“We are guessing a bird dropped it as it flew over,” police said on their Facebook page. In a later post, they had a bit of fun, asking readers to remember the fish as “the victim in this senseless death,” dubbing him “Gilligan” and calling him “a hard working family man” and “a father to thousands.”The suspect, they said, “was last seen flying south” — and readers were urged not to try to apprehend him because “although he isn’t believed to be armed he may still be very dangerous.”Jersey Central Power and...

Partial evacuation order due to forest fires lifted in Quebec Cree community

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

MONTREAL — The Cree Nation of Wemindji in northwestern Quebec has lifted an evacuation order for medically vulnerable people after nearby forest fires led the community to declare a state of emergency earlier this week.The nation said in a notice posted to Facebook Friday evening that the first flight to bring evacuees home was expected to depart at 10 a.m. this morning from Chisasibi, the community further north on James Bay where more than 200 Wemindji residents fled during the evacuation.Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency says the blazes near Wemindji are no longer out of control thanks in part to long-awaited rainfall on Thursday and Friday.Concerns that fires could cut off roads or airports in the James Bay region also led utility company Hydro-Québec to evacuate about 100 workers from its La Grande-3 dam on Wednesday.But Hydro-Québec spokesperson Maxence Huard-Lefebvre says those employees were able to return as of 4 p.m. Friday.Wemindji’s Friday Facebook post ...

Crews fighting Kelowna-area wildfire see ‘cautious’ reprieve overnight: officials

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

BC Wildfire Service says they had success overnight fighting the McDougall Creek wildfire near Kelowna, after some of the most challenging days yet.Dense smoke from the fire — which now covers an estimated 10,500 hectares — actually helped firefighting crews by preventing the sun from drying out fuels on the ground, BC Wildfire Service Fire Information Officer Nicole Bonnett says.“That helped keep fire behavior to a rank two, rank three overnight,” Bonnett explained. “That’s more of a low vigor surface fire to moderate vigor surface fire where you’re starting to see like open flame and consumption of those larger fuel types.”Despite this, West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund says he’s hesitant to call Friday evening a reprieve.“We were still fighting multiple structure fires at the same time, across the community. So to [be able to] call that a reprieve, it boggles my mind.”The fire grew by more than six times betwee...

12-year-old boy drowns in lake in Rogers Park

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

CHICAGO — A child died after drowning in the lake in Rogers Park on Wednesday, according to Chicago police.Officers say it happened just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 16. 4 teenagers shot in North Lawndale late Friday night The Cook County Medical Examiner identified the boy as 12-year-old Fred Elouga.Police say Elouga entered Lake Michigan in the 1200 block of West Jarvis and went underwater for an extended period of time. After being pulled from the lake, police say Elouga was in critical condition and taken to the hospital. 1 hospitalized after fire breaks out at high-rise in Lake View The Cook County Medical Examiner says Elouga was pronounced dead just after 12:30 p.m. the following day.Police say an investigation into the drowning is underway.

Removal of Maui fire debris could take a year, cost $1 billion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

HONOLULU (KHON) – Crews across Maui continue to carefully search for victims amid the rubble of last week's wildfires, which claimed the lives of at least 114 people. But only approximately 60% of the disaster area had been covered by search and rescue teams as of Friday, according to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, meaning the process is far from over.Even after the job is done, clearing the ashes and debris from Lahaina and nearby communities will be a long, expensive and potentially dangerous process, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D) said."It could be up to a billion dollars and take up to a year," Schatz explained. "And so we have to brace ourselves for a really big enterprise of removing all of that debris." LATEST: Lahaina fire fatalities rise to 114 Schatz said the cleanup can begin once crews finish searching for missing family and friends."Once that process is done, FEMA goes in with the Environmental Protection Agency, and also the Army Corps of Engineers, and they start to determine ...

Can coffee or a nap make up for sleep deprivation?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

(The Conversation) - There is no denying the importance of sleep. Everyone feels better after a good night of sleep, and lack of sleep can have profoundly negative effects on both the body and the brain. So what can be done to substitute for a lack of sleep? Put another way, how can you get less sleep and still perform at your peak?As a psychologist who studies the ways in which sleep benefits memory, I’m also interested in how sleep deprivation harms memory and cognition. After some initial research on sleep deprivation and false confessions, my students at Michigan State University’s Sleep and Learning Lab and I wanted to see what interventions could reverse the negative effects of sleep deprivation.We found a simple answer: There is no substitute for sleep.Sleep deprivation impairs cognitionFor many years, scientists have known that sleep deprivation reduces the ability to maintain attention. When asked to monitor a computer screen and press a button whenever ...

Man sentenced in fatal central Austin shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:00:52 GMT

Editor's Note: The video above shows KXAN Live's top headlines for Aug. 19, 2023.AUSTIN (KXAN) — A man was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in state prison for manslaughter, according to Travis County court documents. The manslaughter charge was in connection to a central Austin shooting.Image of Antonio McCullen (Bell County Photo)According to documents, 35-year-old Antonio McCullen previously faced a murder charge, but he accepted a plea deal. RELATED: Man dies after being found shot inside central Austin business According to past KXAN coverage, Austin police began investigating a homicide on Jan. 8, 2022, where a man was found with gunshot wounds at a business in the 2300 block of Pasadena Drive. The man was identified as 35-year-old Zachary Townsend.Records showed McCullen had a jail credit of 548 days toward his sentence.