Hurricane Dorian creeps up US coast; near-record storm surge feared

CHARLESTON, S.C.  – Weakened but still deadly, Hurricane Dorian crept up the Southeastern coast of the United States on Wednesday and millions were ordered to evacuate as forecasters said near-record levels of seawater and rain could inundate Georgia and the Carolinas.

The storm, which ravaged the Bahamas with more than a full day of devastating wind and rain, had weakened substantially — from a Category 5 storm to a Category 2 — but still had dangerously high winds and threatened to swamp low-lying regions from Georgia to southeastern Virginia as it moved northward.

“We will experience hurricane-force winds, in at least gusts,” South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said at a news conference Wednesday. Even if the hurricane doesn’t end up hitting the state directly, he said, “there’s still going to be wind and water and if you’re in the coastal area, that water can be treacherous.”

Dorian appeared likely to get dangerously near Charleston, which is particularly vulnerable since it is located on a peninsula. A flood chart posted by the National Weather Service projected a combined high tide and storm surge around Charleston Harbor of 10.3 feet (3.1 meters); the record, 12.5 feet (4 meters), was set by Hugo in 1989.

Stores and restaurants were boarded up with wood and corrugated metal in the city’s historic downtown, and about 830,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders on the South Carolina coast. More than 400 people were in state-operated shelters statewide, and more were expected.

Mark Russell, a homeless U.S. Army veteran, said he had been in a shelter since Monday awaiting slow-moving Dorian.

“Once the rain comes and the wind hits, it’s going to blow left, right, in and out, and there’s not really a place that you can find” to avoid it, said Russell, 63.

In North Carolina, where authorities said an 85-year-old man died after falling from a ladder while getting ready for the storm, Gov. Roy Cooper warned about the threat of storm surge and flash flooding from heavy rains. The Outer Banks were particularly vulnerable.

Georgia’s coastal islands were also at risk, Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday.

“We are very worried, especially about the barrier islands getting cut off if we have these storm surges at the same time as … the high tides,” Kemp said.

Duke Energy said Dorian could cause more than 700,000 power outages in eastern regions of North Carolina and South Carolina, and Georgia Power said about 2,800 homes and businesses were already without electricity.


The Navy ordered ships at its huge base in Norfolk, Virginia, to head out to sea for safety, and warplanes at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia, were being moved inland to Ohio.

Weaker but bigger since it slammed the Bahamas with 185 mph (295 kph) winds earlier this week, Dorian was moving along Florida’s northeastern coast at 8 mph (13 kph) late Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters said it had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) and was centered about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Charleston.

A hurricane warning covered about 500 miles (805 kilometers) of coastline, and authorities warned about 3 million residents to get away before the water and wind rose with Dorian’s approach.

The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Peter Gaynor, said 4,000 federal responders; 6,000 National Guard members; and 40,000 utility workers were on standby for the hurricane.

“We are ready to go,” Gaynor said. “We’ll follow Dorian up the coast until it is not a threat to the U.S.”

In Florida, initially projected to take a direct hit from Dorian, there was widespread relief and gratitude on Wednesday after the storm passed the state from a relatively safe distance offshore.

“We’re lucky today,” said Ryan Haggett, kitchen manager at the Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill, at Flagler Beach on the state’s central coast. Haggett and others were removing storm shutters they had placed over the restaurant’s windows and planned to serve dinner Wednesday night.

“This storm was much less than what happened two years ago, three years ago with Irma and Matthew,” Haggett said, referring to the deadly storms that hit in 2017 and 2016. “They were the worst.”

With the threat to Florida easing and the danger shifting northward, Orlando, Florida’s international airport reopened, as did Walt Disney World and Universal. Dorian forced Disney Cruise Line to cancel one trip and delay the return of another ship to Port Canaveral, Florida.

One resident in the state died while preparing for the storm Monday evening, when Dorian’s path was still projected to include central Florida. Joseph Walden, 56, was sitting on a tree limb and using a chainsaw to trim other limbs in the Orlando suburb of Ocoee when one of the cut limbs broke free and struck him, pushing him to the ground, Ocoee police said in a news release. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Anxiety and impatience in long wait for Hurricane Dorian in coastal US

VERO BEACH, Fla.  – Two days after storm shutters started going up and people waited in long lines for gas and food in anticipation of Hurricane Dorian, the parking lot of a Home Depot a short drive from the beach in central Florida was nearly empty as the sun peeked out behind scattered clouds.

Mike Lafferty boarded up his house near Vero Beach days ago and was at the store to pick up a few more things. The waiting can be bothersome, but it beats being caught unprepared.

The National Hurricane Center has a 60% chance of the area getting hurricane force winds before early Wednesday.

“It’s not overkill. It’s necessity. You don’t know what is going to happen,” Lafferty said. “Electricity is going to go out sometime. You have to be ready for it.”

From Florida to North Carolina, residents and government officials have been preparing for possible impacts of Dorian for days, even as the official forecast has the center of the storm staying offshore.

They started taking action Sunday. South Carolina ordered about 830,000 people to evacuate the state’s coast beginning at noon EDT Monday.

The Category 5 hurricane’s nearly unprecedented strength — the 185 mph (295 kph) winds made it the second strongest storm in the Atlantic Ocean since 1950 — has people aware that even a tiny error in the forecast could be catastrophic.

“We have to be ready for it,” said Neil Baxley, commander of emergency services in coastal South Carolina’s Beaufort County. “We are deep in the error cone.”

The gas lines and people queued up with carts outside grocery stores weren’t seen Sunday along the southeast U.S. coast.

Instead, people were watching and waiting to see the destruction from the northern Bahamas, where Dorian made landfall on the Abaco Islands.

“I’m thanking God now that it has turned a little more to the east. But that’s a forecast. We never know,” said Kevin Browning, who was at the Vero Beach Home Depot looking for supplies after putting up his hurricane shutters Friday. “I feel for the Bahamas and I’m praying for them.”


Florida’s governor suspended tolls on roads to help those seeking to leave.

Farther up the coast, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said state troopers would start reversing lanes on major coastal roads so they all head inland Monday afternoon.

Many of South Carolina’s coastal residents are now evacuating for the fourth time in four years. Just one storm hit the state directly during that time — Matthew in 2016. McMaster addressed the storm weariness on Sunday evening as he announced the upcoming evacuations.

“We can’t make everybody happy. But we believe we can keep everyone alive,” the governor said.

Earlier in the day, McMaster said he understood the frustration with the waiting and uncertainty of Dorian’s path.

“We don’t have a solid prediction as to where it might turn, where it might not turn when it will get here. But we assure you we have the best minds and the most experienced and talented people working around the clock,” McMaster said.

In Florida, it was still the Labor Day holiday weekend, so folks headed to the beach. It wasn’t as crowded as usual at Jacksonville Beach, and members of the American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps were warning people not to go into the water.

“It looks like business as usual, which is a little strange, but a lot of people are here from out of town they don’t want the storm to ruin their Labor Day weekend,” said volunteer lifeguard Mikey Atkins.

Gerry Heister has lived in Florida for 35 years and seen a lot of storms come through Vero Beach. “Frances, Jeanne, Matthew and whatever the heck the others were,” she said Sunday, trying to recall them all.

She said she has learned it is better to be prepared and the worst not happen then to be surprised and not ready.


“You just prepare and then once it’s gone, you get on with the rest of your life,” Heister said. /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

74-year-old man illegally castrates another man, arrested

An elderly man was arrested for castrating another man despite him not having a medical license to perform the operation.

Gary Van Rysywk did the procedure in a house in Florida, United States last Sunday, Aug. 18 as per the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office post on Facebook, Tuesday, Aug. 20.

Police were notified of the incident when they received a 911 call from the house, moments after the procedure failed.

Upon the officer’s arrival at the site, he was met by the 74-year-old. He then told the police he had just performed a castration on another man.

Authorities found the man in a room set up like a surgical center, on a bed with a towel over his heavily-bleeding groin.

Two body parts that “had recently been much closer to the victim” were discovered in a pink container nearby. There was also a camera set up to record the procedure.

The victim was then brought to a hospital and later flown to a regional medical center. According to the police, he is in stable condition.

Rysywk told authorities he met the patient on a website for people with a castration fetish. He assured the man he had previous experience with castration on animals. He also added that he successfully removed one of his own testicles in 2012.


Authorities found out that this was not the first time Ryswyk had attempted to castrate a man. Ryswyk admitted to conducting a similar procedure on a man in a local motel before. The attempt was also unsuccessful, with the man ending up in a hospital as well. Law enforcement was not notified of the said incident at the time.

Rysywyk was arrested on Monday, Aug. 19 with a bond of $250,000 (around P13 million). He was charged with practicing medicine without a license, resulting in bodily injury. JB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Man arrested for ‘I eat ass’ sticker, fights for ‘freedom of speech’

A man in Florida, United States was recently arrested for putting an “I eat ass” sticker on his car. After fighting for his freedom of speech, the officials dropped the charges and might now be facing a lawsuit.

Dillon Shane Webb, 23, was pulled over by the police when they noticed the sticker on his car in Lake City on May 5, as per Lake City Reporter. The arrest can be seen in a dashcam footage from the sheriff’s office, uploaded by YouTube channel HonorYourOath Civil Rights Investigations on May 10.

In the video, the deputy explained that Webb’s sticker was “‘derogatory,” saying, “Some 10-year-old little kid sitting in the passenger seat of his momma’s vehicle looks over and sees ‘I eat ass’ and asks his mom what it means; how is she going to explain that?”

Webb then answered, “That is the parent’s job, not my job.”


The police still proceeded to give Webb a ticket and asked him to appear in court. When he was also asked to remove one letter off of the word “ass,” Webb refused, citing the First Amendment, which is the constitutional freedom of speech. The police then detained Webb and brought him to the police car.

Assistant State Attorney John Foster Durrett, however, sent a letter to the sheriff’s office on May 9, saying that the charges have been dropped and Webb’s sticker is indeed covered by freedom of speech.

Webb’s attorney, Andrew Bonderud, said that they are now planning to press charges against the sheriff’s office. According to Buzzfeed News on May 10, he explained that Webb put the sticker on his car because he and his friends found it funny.

“The bottom line is that he and his friends thought it would be funny and he [should not] end up in jail for making a joke like that,” Bonderud was quoted as saying.

Webb had since been suspended from his work and had to pay to get out of jail, according to The Bonderud Law Firm, P.A. on Facebook last May 9.

Bonderud added, “I think it was brave of him to refuse to take down what he thought was protected speech. I think it showed courage on his part.” Casey Eridio/JB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Man demanding straw attacks fast food employee, gets arrested

One man from St. Petersburg, Florida in the United States was recently captured assaulting a McDonald’s employee. The reason behind his outburst? A straw.

The video was recorded by Kinie Biandudi, a witness of the incident, and was shared all over social media by her brother TJ on Dec. 31. In the video, the man, identified by reports as Daniel Taylor, can be seen putting his hands on the employee, Yasmine James, who was standing behind the counter.


“My mom and sis Kinie Biandudi recorded this today… All started because he wanted a straw,” he wrote on Facebook.

In the video, Taylor forcefully grabs James by her shirt’s collar and pulls her towards him on the counter. James retaliates and defends herself by hitting him back before being pried away by fellow employees. In the end, Taylor can be heard demanding for a refund.

Taylor apparently walked to the counter to get a straw, but started screaming at the employees when he could not find any, as per ABC Action News on Jan. 2.

“He was yelling and walking toward the counter and the young lady behind the counter told him that it’s the law now that we’re not allowed to have straws in the lobby,” Biandudi was quoted as saying.

As per the report, the law took effect just last Jan. 1 and prohibits restaurants from having straws available in the open in the hopes of completely banning them by 2020. Customers must instead ask for straws should they want one.


Meanwhile, Biandudi also took to her Facebook on Jan. 2 to share that James was not fired by McDonald’s.

“The young girl said she used to box,” she wrote. “After this fight he came back and went behind the counter and tried to fight the manager. The guy left before the cops arrived.”

It was reported that Taylor also tried to kick another employee on the stomach while on his way out of the restaurant. He was eventually arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery. Cody Cepeda/JB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Woman who made 13-year-old girl walk naked in public arrested

A Florida woman on Thursday was arrested for making a 13-year-old girl walk naked in public as a punishment.

Deputies of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said 34-year-old Rosalie Contreras drove the girl, who was unidentified, to a nearby road. She told the girl to strip naked and walk along it.


When a car passed by, Contreras made the girl retreat into their car. The suspect then abused her by slapping her face and punching her back.

Contreras told deputies that she stripped the girl naked to discipline her, as she was “misbehaving.” The girl sustained bruises.

The suspect was booked into the Pasco county jail on Friday morning after being charged with child abuse. Bail was set at $5,000 (P262,875).  Katrina Hallare /ra

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Police search for motive in Florida yoga studio slayings

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Two people were shot to death and five others wounded at a yoga studio in Florida’s capital by a gunman who then killed himself, authorities said.

The two slain Friday included a student and faculty member at Florida State University, according to university officials.


Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo told reporters Friday night that the man shot six people and pistol-whipped another after walking into the studio, which is part of a small Tallahassee shopping center.

The suspect then fatally shot himself, DeLeo said.

Early Saturday morning, the Tallahassee Police Department identified the shooter as Scott Paul Beierle, 40.

The department identified the two slain as Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, and Maura Binkley, 21.

Van Vessem was an internist who served as chief medical director for Capital Health Plan, the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported.

The Democrat also reported that Florida State University President John Thrasher said Van Vessem and Binkley had ties to the university.

“To lose one of our students and one of our faculty members in this tragic and violent way is just devastating to the Florida State University family. We feel this loss profoundly and we send our deepest sympathies to Maura’s and Nancy’s loved ones while we pray for the recovery of those who were injured,” Thrasher said in a statement.

Capital Health Plan issued a statement praising Van Vessem.

“As CHP’s longtime chief medical director, Nancy has been a guiding, visionary force in our daily work to serve the wellness and health care needs of thousands of families in this community. Her dedication, caring, leadership, humanity, and experience made her one of the most respected, inspiring, and accomplished medical professionals in the state and country. Our hearts are filled with sorrow and prayers for her family. We all have been so blessed to have Nancy in our lives,” the company said.


DeLeo said the shooter acted alone and authorities are investigating possible motives. He declined to say what kind of gun the shooter had.

“We’re all very saddened and shocked by the events that occurred, but it’s important that people understand that there is no immediate threat outside of what has already occurred this evening,” DeLeo said.

Melissa Hutchinson said she helped treat a “profusely” bleeding man who rushed into a bar after the incident. She said three people from the studio ran in, and they were told there was an active shooter.

“It was a shocking moment something happened like this,” Hutchinson said.

The people who came in were injured, including the bleeding man who was pistol-whipped while trying to stop the shooter. They told her the shooter kept coming in and out of the studio. When he loaded his gun, people started pounding the studio’s windows to warn people.

City Commissioner Scott Maddox said on Facebook, “In my public service career I have had to be on some bad scenes. This is the worst. Please pray.”

Neighborhood resident Elle Welling said she saw at least three people loaded into ambulances as she was leaving a liquor store across the street.

“You don’t think about this in Tallahassee and now you have to,” said Welling, 26.

The plaza is home to popular restaurants, a jewelry store, a framing shop, a hair salon and other businesses.

Erskin Wesson, 64, said he was eating dinner with his family at a restaurant located below the yoga studio when they heard the gunshots above them.

“We just heard ’pow, pow, pow, pow,’” Wesson said. “It sounded like a limb falling on a tin roof and rolling.”

The restaurant’s owner came by a short time later, asking if anyone was a doctor, Wesson said. His step-daughter is an emergency room nurse and helped paramedics for about an hour, he said.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor, broke off the campaign trail to return to Tallahassee. He earlier appeared at a campaign event with former President Barack Obama.

Late Friday night, Gillum told reporters near the crime scene that he had made hospital visits to two people wounded at the yoga studio. The mayor said they were in good spirits despite their injuries.

Gillum asked residents to pray for the survivors and those who were killed.

“We all feel a sense of added vulnerability” because of the shooting, the mayor said.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, called DeLeo and the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get details of the shooting.

“I will remain in constant communication with law enforcement. We have offered state assistance,” Scott tweeted.

Tallahassee’s crime rate has been an issue in the governor’s race. Gillum’s opponent, Republican former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, has called the capital Florida’s most crime-ridden city — a claim that is incorrect. /atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

‘Numerous fatalities’ in US school shooting, suspect in custody

PARKLAND, United States — Authorities in Florida could offer no explanation Wednesday night as to why a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a high school earlier that day, killing at least 17 people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons,” but was currently enrolled in Broward County Public Schools.

Cruz, whose fellow students described him as “troubled,” was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine’s Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

“We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things… are very, very disturbing,” Israel said.

“If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people … there’s not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it.”

Israel said both students and adults had been killed, 12 of whom have now been identified.

He said at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had died there of their wounds. He added one of those killed was a football coach, and one student injured was a deputy sheriff’s son.

“This is a terrible day for Parkland,” Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

A teacher at the school said Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” math teacher Jim Gard said in a Miami Herald interview.

“There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

Cruz was also said to have been in the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program while at school.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Israel could not confirm that report.

‘Everyone started running’
The shooting, one of nearly 20 at a school since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States, where there are 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

But when questioned at a press conference late Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott — who described the massacre as “just pure evil” — declined to make a statement on gun control in the aftermath of the shooting.

“There’s a time to continue to have these conversations about how through law enforcement, how through mental illness funding that we make sure people are safe, and we’ll continue to do that,” said Scott, a Republican.

At the same briefing, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state will cover the costs of funerals and counseling for survivors.

“We will continue to work together as a team, as a family, and love and take care of all of these victims and their family members,” she said.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN she had spoken to a number of students after the shooting erupted shortly after 2:00 pm (1900 GMT).

“They were very scared,” she said. “And almost in shock when they came out.”

Students, some with their hands in the air, were led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armored vehicle filled with a SWAT team on the scene.

Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates evacuated calmly after hearing what they thought was a routine fire alarm.

“The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes,” she said. “Then we heard gunshots.

“I heard about six gunshots,” she said, “and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like ‘If it’s real, then just run.'”

Teacher Melissa Falkowski told US networks that she had helped 19 students squeeze into a closet with her.

“We were in there for probably 40 minutes. We were locked in the closet until SWAT came and got us,” she told CNN.

Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points around the sprawling school complex, which serves nearly 3,000 students.

“Just a horrible day for us,” said the superintendent of the county’s school district, Robert Runcie.

“This is very sad to me and our family too,” 61-year-old Joseph Panikulangara, whose 17-year-old niece Dhiya attends the school, told AFP.

The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.

When asked about security, Hunschofsky said a police officer is always stationed at the school and there is a “single point of entry.”

No child should ‘feel unsafe’

President Donald Trump offered his “prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.”

“No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,” he said on Twitter.

But since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of about one a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

“It is pretty clear that we’re failing our kids here,” said Falkowski, the teacher who helped shield her students from harm in a closet. /cbb

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Woman spends $10K to pump up butt like Kim Kardashian’s

An ultra-fan of Kim Kardashian tried to “keep up” with her beauty assets by spending $10,000 (P497,500)  for a surgery to make her booty plumper and look similar to that of her idol.

To re-create the reality star’s popular posterior, Marlene Chinea, 36, a nurse from Miami Beach, Florida, underwent a Brazilian Butt Lift, wherein surgeons extracted fat from other parts of her body and injected it to her butt to inflate it.

Chinea told Daily Mail that despite her excessive efforts to work out, she never obtained a larger rear end. In one instance, she attempted to perform 300 squats every day. “No matter how much exercise I did, I’d never get the results I wanted,” she explained. “I was okay with my bum before, but I thought a little more would accentuate my assets. I simply wanted more projection.”

“I modeled my butt from Kim Kardashian. Kim is simply beautiful and anything she wears looks fabulous on her.”

To achieve her dream booty, Chinea, who also enlarged her breasts years ago, approached Florida’s prominent plastic surgeon, Michael “Dr. Miami” Salzhauer. Before the surgery took place, she was advised to gain weight, and she did so by binging on junk food for weeks.

Today, Chinea is satisfied with the results of her procedure and wants to emulate her idol’s elite fashion wardrobe. “I was so excited with my new body that I was sure to buy outfits that Kim K would wear. I bought a couple of bodysuits and pencil skirts like she’s always wearing,” she said. “Many people in today’s society still ridicule plastic surgery, but I can attest that some results can never be achieved with diet and exercise alone.”  Gianna Francesca Catolico

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Toddler swallows battery; family sues hospital

MIAMI, United States — A Florida family sued a hospital for malpractice on Wednesday, saying their baby suffered severe burns because it took too long to remove a coin-sized battery that she swallowed.

Parents Cole Parsons and Courtney Thorne said in a lawsuit that Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville should have taken out the lithium battery within two hours, which is recommended by poison control centers. They also sued Dr. David Smith, who they say downplayed the dangers. The battery was removed about five hours after the parents arrived at the hospital, the complaint said.

Nineteen-month-old Ava-Kate Parsons has undergone 20 surgeries since she swallowed the battery March 10. Her mother was at home at the time and saw as her daughter swallowed the coin battery that popped out of a remote control. She rushed to get it out, but it had gone down her throat, and she called 911.

The National Capital Poison Center, a nonprofit call center, said more than 1,900 children swallowed button batteries last year and there were 20 fatal or major incidents in children younger than 6. Those batteries are found in remote controls, calculators and other small devices.

At the hospital, the parents wanted the battery taken out right away because they worried the girl would be exposed to dangerous chemicals. But the father said Smith told them the incident was “no different than a coin in her throat.”

“He seemed pretty relaxed about the whole situation,” Parsons said. “A little while later, we learned there is an electrical burn taking place in her esophagus, and she was rushed to emergency surgery.”

The hospital did not comment on the case, citing privacy laws.

Attorney Eric Ragatz said the amount the parents are suing for is yet to be determined. He said they have spent between $300,000 and $400,000 on medical bills, not counting what they spent traveling to Boston to take Ava-Kate for treatment every two weeks. The girl’s mother, a nursing assistant, also took a leave from work and only returned part time to care for her daughter.

Parsons said doctors have told him their daughter may need to continue treatment to stretch out the esophagus well up into her teens. While other toddlers her age experiment with foods of many textures, she can only eat pureed food, which Parsons says has slowed down her growth.

“They really don’t have a lot to say about what exactly her course is going to be,” Parsons said. “We are stressed out about the unknown.” CBB

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Adam Levine offers to pay funeral expense for Christina Grimmie

EVESHAM TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — Pop star Adam Levine has offered to pay the funeral expenses for singer Christina Grimmie gunned down after a Florida concert.

Levine mentored Grimmie when she finished third on NBC’s “The Voice” two years ago.

Spokeswoman Carleen Donovan confirmed Monday that Levine made the offer.

Grimmie’s New Jersey hometown will hold a candlelight vigil Monday night to honor the 22-year-old killed Friday night as she signed autographs after a show in Orlando.

The YouTube star lived in Evesham, a small community about 20 miles from Philadelphia, before moving to Los Angeles in 2012.

A motive for the shooting hasn’t been determined.

Authorities say she apparently had no personal connection to the man who shot her. The gunman fatally shot himself after being tackled by her brother.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Grimmie’s shooter traveled to Orlando carrying 2 guns, knife

ORLANDO, Florida, United States — A gunman who shot and killed a singer who rose to fame after appearing on “The Voice” traveled to Orlando from another Florida city specifically to attack her and then fatally shot himself, authorities said Saturday.

Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference that the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Kevin Loibl of St. Petersburg, Florida, didn’t appear to know Christina Grimmie personally. Grimmie was shot to death after giving a concert in Orlando on Friday night. She died early Saturday.

“She was doing a meet-and-greet, just signing autographs and selling merchandise. This white male approached her and opened fire, striking her,” Mina said. “We believe he came here to commit this crime.”

The 22-year-old singer from New Jersey finished third during season six of NBC’s “The Voice” in 2014, competing on the team of Maroon 5 star Adam Levine. She began amassing a following on YouTube as a teenager, gripping online viewers with her powerful renditions of hit songs. Her videos on YouTube have garnered millions of views.

In an earlier statement, police said Grimmie had performed with the band Before You Exit at The Plaza Live in Orlando. The concert ended around 10 p.m., and Grimmie was shot as she signed autographs for fans at a merchandise table in The Plaza Live concert venue.

Grimmie’s brother, Marcus, immediately tackled the gunman, who then shot and killed himself during the struggle, police said. They credited the singer’s brother with preventing the gunman from hurting others. Around 120 others were in The Plaza Live at the time.

“Very heroic actions by Marcus Grimmie to jump in and it definitely could have prevented further loss of life,” Mina said.

After the concert, 17-year-old Kaitlin Martin was standing with a group of other fans outside The Plaza Live, waiting for members of Before You Exit to come out, when she heard several loud “pops.”

“We thought at first they were balloons … but then security started running all over the place yelling at people to get out because someone has a gun and someone is shooting. Everyone is just running all over the place,” said Martin, who traveled to see to the concert from Brunswick, Georgia. “It was chaos.”

Martin said she was unsettled knowing the suspect had watched the concert in the same audience she was in.

“This person was in the crowd with us, and while we were singing, having a great time, he was there with different intentions,” she said.

Detectives were searching Loibl’s cellphone and social media accounts looking for clues as to a motive, Mina said, but they weren’t aware of any history of stalking of Grimmie by the suspect.

At Loibl’s home, in St. Petersburg, someone had left a note on the front door, expressing the “deepest sorrow” for the loss “to the family, friends & fans of the very talented, loving Christina Grimmie.” The note said there would be no other comment. No one answered the door to the one-story house that had a rusted, metal animal trap in the yard.

Loibl had on him two handguns, two loaded magazines and a hunting knife, Mina said.

There were unarmed security guards at The Plaza Live and they checked bags and purses for contraband, but there were no metal detectors or pat-downs of people as they entered The Plaza Live, he said.

A spokeswoman said all events at The Plaza Live had been suspended until further notice.

Loibl had made travel arrangements to come to Orlando alone, as well as travel arrangements to go back home, but he didn’t have a car, Mina said. The police chief wouldn’t elaborate further.

Grimmie had posted a video of herself shortly before the concert was scheduled to begin, encouraging fans to come see her perform.

Levine posted a photo of himself with Grimmie on Instagram, commenting before her death was confirmed: “I’m sad, shocked and confused. We love you so much Grimmie. We are all praying hard that you can pull through this … this just isn’t fair.”

“The Voice” paid tribute to Grimmie on its official Twitter page: “There are no words. We lost a beautiful soul with an amazing voice.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2014 that Grimmie moved to Los Angeles in 2012 after joining Selena Gomez on tour to focus on her singing career.

“I’m done being surprised by cool things she does. She’s very talented and she’s worked incredibly hard — it’s a dangerous combination,” her brother told the newspaper at the time.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Williams sisters head into last eight in Miami

Sisters Serena and Venus Williams marched into the quarter-finals of the Miami Open after straight-set wins at Key Biscayne on Monday (Tuesday, PHL time).

World number one Serena beat 24th seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-3 producing 29 winners and 20 unforced errors.

Kuzentsova, who owns two grand slam titles, had beaten Serena twice in their previous nine meetings but the outcome of this contest never looked in doubt.

"I know Svetlana is super tough and we always have super tough matches," said Serena.

"It seems like I'm cruising but don't think I'm cruising. I have my matches and I'm really focused in my matches because all these players I play are really good," she added.

Serena has now won 18 straight matches and she is looking to add to her seven titles in Miami with her third straight triumph after winning in 2013 and 2014.

Venus continued a winning streak of her own -- making it seven wins in seven against fellow former world number one Caroline Wozniacki with a 6-3 7-6(1) victory.

The win also made it seven wins in her last eight against top 10 opponents, highlighting Venus's return to form after her health problems.

The older Williams sister will face Carla Suarez Navarro in the last eight following the Spaniard's win over seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska 5-7 6-0 6-4.

Romanian third seed Simona Halep won through after beating Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-3 7-5. - Reuters

Art Basel Miami Beach grows as global attraction, cultural marketplace

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - From the untold millions in sales of contemporary art to luxury brand-sponsored parties and an invasion of street artists, Miami Art Week ended its 13th and largest annual fair on Sunday, cementing its reputation as one of south Florida's top tourist draws.

Anchored by the contemporary art show, Art Basel Miami Beach, wealthy art collectors mixed with penniless art enthusiasts to take in the smorgasbord of works on show.

“The driving force behind this show, behind the art market in general is it’s been more global this year,” said Mathias Rastorfer, co-CEO of Zurich-based Galerie Gmurzynska. “We’ve seen collectors from Asia, Latin America, some from Russia.”

The gallery sold a 1918 Picasso painting titled Venus and Amor to a private collector for about $1 million as well as a pair of black and gold circles by Robert Indiana works for $3 million.

New York City and Hong Kong-based Lehmann Maupin Gallery sold Adriana Varejão's Polvo Portraits IV for about $400,000 and Teresita Fernández's Golden for about $300,000.

Following record-setting auctions in New York City, galleries said contemporary art is securing its place as both an asset and a symbol of sophistication among the wealthy. Moreover it’s readily available, unlike works by Renaissance or modern masters.

“After someone has bought the mansion and the yacht and everything else they might to turn to art,” said Mary-Anne Martin, whose Latin American specializing gallery Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art had a $1 million Wifredo Lam painting on hold for a collector.

On Miami’s mainland, where nearly two dozen satellite fairs set up, crowds packed the sidewalks of the hip Wynwood district, to see massive street art murals by Shepard Fairey, Cleon Peterson, Ron English and Brazil’s Os Gêmeos.

At one of the fairs, Art Miami, Barcelona-based Galeria Mayoral sold Marc Chagall’s 1962 painting Esquisse Sur la Branche for $550,000 while New York City’s Dranoff Fine Art sold an Andy Warhol portrait for $460,000, director Nick Korniloff said.

Meanwhile exclusive, luxury brand-sponsored parties were commonplace as the first week in December in Miami has become a magnet for world’s rich, including real estate firms marketing $50 million apartments.

Developer Craig Robins welcomed crowds to the Design District, now home to dozens of luxury stores like Hublot, Bulgari and Christian Louboutin, while Buenos Aires-based developer Alan Faena hosted a Argentine barbecue for his forthcoming Miami Beach condominium and adjoining performance and exhibition space. — Reuters

Orlando Harry Potter attraction enchants despite glitches

ORLANDO Fla. - The signature ride of the new "Harry Potter" attraction at Universal Studios in Orlando, a roller coaster with passenger cars that pitch, heave and spin 360 degrees through a 3-D film adventure, was shut during a media preview on Thursday after minor glitches the previous night.

"Escape from Gringotts" is the centerpiece ride of the new Diagon Alley expansion to the "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley" attraction, opening to the public July 8, which recreates the London-based wizard shopping district imagined in J.K. Rowling's book series.

The ride ran into a technical snag and broke down late Wednesday during a red carpet debut, and was still not running on Thursday. Even so, the actors who attended the preview gasped and grinned as they walked though Diagon Alley, a fully realized four-story shopping district.

"It's absolutely brilliant. It totally takes you in," said Warwick Davis, who played Professor Filius Flitwick in the film series.

To enhance the feeling of authenticity, the designers collaborated with Rowling to create additional signage and graphics that remained true to the book, said senior vice president of Universal Creative Thierry Coup.

"If we had to make up the name of a print shop, the name or wording is somewhere in the book," Coup said.

Diagon Alley is connected to Hogsmeade, the original Potter attraction at Universal Orlando, by the Hogwarts Express, a four-minute themed train journey based on the magical locomotive in the book series.

The new additions will join the main "Harry Potter" ride, "The Forbidden Journey," which is based in Hogsmeade and is an amalgamation of scenes from the book.

"Escape from Gringotts," topped by a landmark fire-breathing dragon, closely follows a storyline in which the book's leading characters - Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley - escape from the goblin-run bank vaults on the back of a dragon.

Diagon Alley resembles an old English village with a hint of enclosed American mall. Large swaths of the shopping district are covered by glass with ceilings made to look like sky and a strategically located elevated train track, allowing comfortable shopping even during a Florida summer storm.

While theme parks in Europe and Asia feature enclosed areas, open air is the norm in Florida's sunny climate, and shopping is the main activity. Potter fans can purchase a $6.95 set of chattering teeth at Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, Hogwarts school robes for $109.95 at Madam Malkins, or Dumbledore's robes, the priciest item in the shop, for $700.

On the dining side, the Leaky Cauldron restaurant offers up traditional British dishes such as a Toad in the Hole (sausage in savory bread pudding), for $8.99, and fisherman's pie for $14.99.

Comcast Corp's Universal Studios will also bring the world of "Harry Potter" to its Hollywood theme park in 2016, as part of plans to drum up attendance with a revamp and five-year expansion plan for its film-themed attractions. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Justin Bieber police video may be released, minus genitalia —judge

MIAMI - A judge on Tuesday ruled that video images of a partially-clad Justin Bieber while the pop singer was in police custody in Florida can be released, but only after blocking out his genitals.

The video clips included Bieber providing a urine sample for a drug test following his arrest by police in Miami Beach in January on a charge of driving under the influence.

Lawyers for Bieber, who turned 20 on March 1, had argued that the police surveillance video showing him urinating was inappropriate and should be withheld to protect the Canadian singer's privacy.

"The Court finds that there exists a right to privacy as it relates to the exposure and dissemination of the Defendant's genitalia," Miami-Dade County Court Judge William Altfield said in a written ruling.

In a court hearing on the order, Altfield said that despite the public's right to full disclosure, "Bieber has not lost his expectation of dignity."

He said that while people in police custody have less expectation of privacy, they "are not like animals in a zoo to be filmed and photographed at will by the public or media."

The judge noted that what was at stake was the public access to evidence in court cases, not the media's First Amendment right to free speech under the US Constitution.

"We want to issue our thanks to the court for spending so much time analyzing this issue ... and finding that even Mr Bieber has a right to privacy," said the singer's Miami attorney, Roy Black.

Bieber was charged with driving under the influence, resisting arrest and using an expired license after Miami Beach police say they caught him drag racing on Jan. 23. Bieber pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Besides a small amount of alcohol, he had marijuana and prescription medication for anxiety in his system at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.

After Bieber's arrest, lawyers for the Miami Herald, CBS, the Associated Press and other media filed motions demanding all the video be released under Florida's broad public records law.

Reuters is not a party to the case.

Under Florida law, all evidence including photos and videos became public record once they are handed to the defense.

Three of the clips were to be released immediately without being altered while two others would be withheld until technicians can obscure Bieber's genitals, the judge ruled.

"Some type of technological technique will be used to shade or blacken out that area which would depict the objectionable images," he added.

Even though none of the clips clearly show Bieber urinating, in one clip the partition fails to fully block the camera view after he completed giving the sample, "thereby revealing an image of the Defendant's genitalia" according to the ruling. A second clip was also deemed "possibly revealing" of Bieber's private parts, the judge said.

Last week, prosecutors released to the media several hours of video surveillance footage of Bieber while he was in police custody, showing him being frisked, chatting with police, and doing push-ups in a holding cell. But clips of him giving the urine sample were withheld for review by the judge.

The pop star's private life has taken a seemingly tumultuous turn in the past year. Last month he was charged with assaulting a limousine driver in Toronto.

The case is State of Florida v Justin Drew Bieber, B14-2900. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com