Category: Opinion

Edward Whalen and his family say they’ll never forget the terror they experienced while driving down I-75 on Friday evening.

The family was leaving St. Petersburg and headed back to their hotel when something shocking happened.

“She [Whalen’s daughter] yelled daddy what happened and I said we got hit by lightning,” Edward Whalen said.

His wife Michaelle took the video while riding in a car behind the truck Whalen and their children were riding in.

“She thought the storm was really neat looking and so she wanted to get a picture of it and she kept trying to snap pictures, but she couldn’t catch it,” Whalen said. “So my son-in-law recommended she use that slow motion video.”

That’s when she captured the big moment.

“You could feel a slight buzz in the car when it hit us, and then my oldest daughter was sitting next to me and she jumped halfway in my lap and screamed,” Whalen said.

No one was injured, however, the truck was “completely fried” according to the family.

“I had to jump out of the truck and run back to her and hold her and let her know we were all fine. We were really confused. We had real bad headaches,” Whalen said. “That was always my dream truck, and I finally got it. I had just made my third payment on it and then boom. Hopefully, it’ll work out though.”

Whalen said he’s just glad they’re alive.

“It was pretty wild. After everything was done, my son said we needed to check ourselves in a couple days for super powers,” he said.

Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty will be serving time for failing to register as a sex offender in California, but it shouldn’t be too uncomfortable as he’ll be doing that time in the mansion where he and Nicki live.

A federal judge sentenced the 44-year-old on Wednesday, to 1 year of home detention, 3 years probation, and a $55,000 fine. Petty entered a guilty plea back in September 2021.

 

Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office had argued home detention wouldn’t actually be punishment, because Nicki and Kenneth live in a luxurious multi-bedroom mansion in a gated Calabasas community.

They had recommended Petty get 15 months in prison and 5 years of probation, but the judge obviously disagreed with him getting that harsh of a sentence.

Petty was convicted of a 1994 rape in NYC where he served over 4 years in prison. When he moved to Cali with Nicki, he didn’t register on the sex offenders list and that’s when the feds busted him.

Nicki won’t have to worry about where her husband will be for the next year. No need for a babysitter now.

A woman who previously lived in Tulsa captured a video of an unwanted passenger that had slithered into her car.

Vicki Ruhl lives in Missouri but still has family and friends in the Tulsa area. She was visiting some friends on a rural farm, and when she left to go home, a snake stowed away.

Vicki says she first saw the snake on her windshield while she was driving. “And I saw the snake, and it was my worst nightmare come true in that moment. It was so surreal.”

She says she was reluctant to pull over because she was worried about being stuck on the side of the highway in the heat, not knowing what to do. She said she focused on not crashing the car. She was so terrified that she even missed her exit at one point.

“I was just frightened; just terrified,” She says. “Where am I going to go. To have to experience that while driving, I’ll never forget it.”

Vicki called 911, but police advised her to call a reptile rescue. Ultimately, when she got off the highway and parked, the snake slithered off to safety.

Jonathan Gibson from the Tulsa Reptile Rescue says looking at the video of the snake, he thinks this was a bullsnake, which is not poisonous.

He suggests if people see a snake in their home or car, “first of all don’t panic. Snakes are usually just trying to find a place to hide, rest or keep warm. Don’t freak out or start your car on fire. Just relax.”

He says, “If you’re brave enough, open all the doors and get a long stick, like a broom, to push the snake into the right direction.”

Or you can call a local reptile rescue. Gibson adds, “We don’t even charge to come and help. We just want to make sure snakes are taken care of, not harmed, and put in a safe place. We don’t want them to scare anyone. We don’t want them to harm the public and we don’t want the public to harm them.”

Chinese search and rescue officials pulled 12 bodies Monday from waters southwest of Hong Kong Monday after an engineering vessel snapped in two as tropical storm Chaba tore through.

Maritime authorities of the southern province of Guangdong were ramping up efforts to identify the bodies that were retrieved about 50 nautical miles from where the ship sank.

Four of its crew were rescued by Monday, but rescue officials warn there are “very slim” chances of finding others alive.

Seven planes and hundreds of boats and fishing vessels have joined the search effort.

The sunken vessel, ‘Fujing 001’, with a crew of 30, was at an anti-typhoon anchorage in waters near Yangjiang in Guangdong when its anchor chain snapped.

China’s first typhoon of the year, Chaba skirted Hong Kong but brought heavy rain and wind to southern provinces already water-logged from weeks of torrential rain and thunderstorms over the weekend.

A tourist at a Thailand zoo got a little ‘extra’ attention when an orangutan fondled her breast and kissed her in a moment captured on video.

The woman was visiting Safari World in Bangkok in late June when the casanova chimp got a little handsy.

The primate can be seen in the video grabbing her breasts and kissing her on the cheek when she was posing for a photo.

The woman was sitting down on a swing at the zoo ready to have her picture taken when the frisky ape comes up behind her and makes his move, cupping her breasts and giving her several kisses on her cheek.

The ape grins wildly as people take photos and film the interaction.

https://youtu.be/jYW_Edzxi34

The woman — although surprised — giggles as the orangutan continues to kiss her cheek.

Orangutans are closely related to humans, having 97% of DNA in common, according to the Orangutan Project. They’re great apes, as opposed to monkeys.

Orangutans are found only in the rainforests of the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Kaitlin Armstrong, the woman accused of the murder of cyclist Moriah Wilson, is back in Texas, days after being captured in Costa Rica.

Armstrong was booked in the Harris County Jail on Saturday and will remain there until she is transferred to Austin, according to U.S. Marshalls.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Filla said Armstrong was found with an altered appearance. Armstrong had shoulder-length hair that had been dyed dark brown, along with bandaging on her nose and bruising under her eyes from a reported surfboarding incident.

Armstrong was arrested Wednesday in Costa Rica and arrived Saturday afternoon in Texas. U.S. Marshals said they had worked with Homeland Security and authorities in Costa Rica to track her to a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach.

Investigators discovered Armstrong used a passport belonging to someone else on May 18 to board a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Jose, Costa Rica, according to U.S. Marshals. Saturday at the airport headed to Houston. (Photo/Carrie Patterson)

Armstrong faces charges related to the murder of world-class cyclist Moriah Wilson and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Travis County court records show Armstrong’s bond will be set at $3.5 million.

Wilson was murdered on May 11. According to reports from Austin Police, Wilson was shot and killed at a home off Maple Avenue in east Austin. The world-class cyclist was in Texas preparing to compete in a race.

A Florida man had his hand blown off by fireworks early Saturday morning.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies answered a call Saturday regarding an incident involving fireworks just after 1 a.m. in Lauderdale Lakes.

When Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue responded to the incident, the man, as well as his hand, was transported to an area hospital.

The man was later transferred to another hospital by an ambulance.

A witness described the incident as happening very suddenly.

“It wasn’t even like five minutes, ’cause as soon as he lights it, it exploded,” said the person.

The man was taken to the hospital by a private vehicle, but the hand was taken to the hospital by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue officials, according to the report.

Sadly, his hand was not able to be reattached at the hospital, according to the witness.

“They couldn’t do nothing,” the witness said.

A judge has denied the appeal of a former University of Pittsburgh medical researcher convicted for the cyanide poisoning death of his wife almost a decade ago.

Seventy-three-year-old Robert Ferrante is serving a life term without the possibility of parole following his murder conviction in the 2013 death of 41-year-old Dr. Autumn Klein.

Authorities said blood tests confirmed that Klein died due to ingestion of cyanide, which prosecutors said Ferrante put in her energy drink.

The judge on Thursday rejected his argument that his former attorneys erred in withdrawing a request to a jury chosen in another county.

A woman was held in police custody for 36 hours after enduring a stillbirth due to suspicions that she had an abortion after the legal cut-off point.

UK abortion providers, who supported the woman, denied she had circumvented the legal deadline and warned the treatment she endured “should be unthinkable in a civilized society”, with “no conceivable” public interest in holding her.

They added that the woman has been under investigation for a year and a half, but she still has not been charged with any crime.

Jonathan Lord, medical director of MSI Reproductive Choices, one of the UK’s leading abortion providers said the woman unexpectedly delivered a stillborn fetus at home which was around 24 weeks old.

The woman, who was in her early 40s, had a stillbirth last year after getting in touch with MSI Reproductive Choices to inquire about an unwanted pregnancy and abortion.

Dr. Lord, the co-chair of the British Society of Abortion Care Providers, who shared the woman’s story, said: “She was shocked to give birth due to not knowing how far along pregnant she was. She was admitted to the hospital.

“Because healthcare colleagues were suspicious, and knew she had been in touch with us, an abortion provider, as she told them, they suspected her of having an illegal abortion and called the police. But she wasn’t over the limit for a legal abortion.

“The police arrested her in hospital. She stayed the night in the hospital and then was discharged the following morning straight into police custody. It took them 36 hours to process her.”

Dr. Lord said the experience of having an “extraordinarily unexpected” stillbirth before being taken into police custody during lockdown was “traumatic” and “distressing” for the woman.

Abortions can legally be carried out within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Dr. Lord, a consultant gynecologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, said the patient had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the police investigation remains active.

“She has still got PTSD,” he added. “Not from the event of the delivery, but from being labeled as a criminal and held in custody. She knows she is under investigation but does not know what for. The police confiscated her phone and laptop”.

Dr. Lord, who contributed to drawing up the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) abortion care guideline and quality standards committees, added that he has access to the birth weight and measurements of the stillborn child and is confident it is under 24 weeks.

He also cited a teenage girl who was investigated after she gave birth to a stillborn at 28 weeks of pregnancy last year.

Dr. Lord added: “There is no conceivable public interest in subjecting these women to the immense stress and trauma of knowing they could face long prison sentences for having lost their pregnancy unexpectedly.

“At a time they most need access to their friends, healthcare professionals, and advocates, they are isolated as their phones and computers are impounded. Any innocuous internet search or message with friends – such as ‘how do I get an abortion?’ – can be used as evidence against them.

“That a woman can spend 36 hours in a police cell whilst recovering from surgery following pregnancy loss, resulting in PTSD, or a young teenager can be driven to self-harm and have her confidentiality destroyed, should be unthinkable in a civilized society.”

“Staff wrongly assume they must inform the police to investigate, even though to breach confidentiality may be against their professional regulatory codes. Police and prosecution services seem unwilling to apply compassion or a public interest test.”

Kevin Ford, 54, of Las Vegas, Nevada has been humbly working as a cook and a cashier at the Burger King in the city’s McCarran International Airport for 27 years. In all those years he has never missed a day of work.

When Ford went to work last week it was the 27th anniversary of his employment, but he didn’t make a big deal about it and his bosses were not aware of the commemoration. When Ford made a joke about his time with the company, management scrambled to get him a thank-you gift which consisted of a movie ticket, a Starbucks cup, some candy, chocolate, and a backpack to put it in.

Ford posted a video of him thanking his team and showing gratitude for the items, but he never imagined it would go viral.

The video has garnered tens of thousands of views and likes. Many users on social media expressed shock and agreed that, for Ford’s loyalty, he should have been honored with something more substantial.

But being the grateful person he is, Ford said he was simply honored to have received the gift and the nod.

“I was honored, it was nice and I loved it,” Ford said. “One lady’s been there for 35 years, they didn’t get anything that I know of so I was happy.”

Ford said that he had given some of his gifts to his coworkers in thanks for their gratitude.

But Ford’s daughter thought more should be done to show appreciation for his inspirational work ethic.

Unbeknownst to Ford, she set up a GoFundMe to help raise money as an extra way to celebrate her father’s career milestone.

Ford said the fund was originally aiming to raise $200, but as of June 30, it has more than $270,000.

“He originally began working at this job as a single father when he gain custody of me and my older sister 27 years ago. Then as our family grew and he remarried, he continue to work here because of the amazing health insurance that was provided through this employer because it was unionized,” Ford’s daughter Seryna wrote on the fundraiser’s page. “Which got all four of his daughters through high school and college with full healthcare coverage.”

“My dad continues to work here because though he does look young, he is coming up on retirement age, and leaving would cost him his retirement,” she continued. “In no way are we asking for money or is he expecting any money but if anyone feels like blessing him he would love to visit his grandchildren.”

Actor David Spade gave $5,000 and even messaged Ford on Instagram wishing him the best of luck.

When asked what his daughter’s motivation was Ford said “I guess she just did it because she loves me.”

Thinking only of others, Ford said the reality finally set in when he was flown out to New York to share his story on NBC’s “The Today Show,” where he was reunited with his grandchildren which he says was a greater gift than money can buy.

“I haven’t seen my grandkids in over four years, until the other day when ‘The Today Show flew me out to New York and I got to see them live on TV. I’ve been crying for all these days as it is and of course, I’m crying live on TV again seeing my grandbabies.”

Even with all the money he has received, Ford says he has no plans to retire or take a day off, even for a vacation.

“You never know, it’s day to day but I haven’t thought of anything to do with that money except to visit my grandkids for a while and maybe put some up for their college, but I’m not even thinking about that,” he added. “I’m just working.”