In the news
Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is catching heat from conservationists for reeling in a 154.5- pound thresher shark off Long Island after he posted a picture of the shark, considered a vulnerable species but still legal to catch, on social media.
Ronald Gantt, 55, of Prattville, Ala., was practicing with a crossbow in his front yard when an errant bolt flew into the cab of a delivery truck, striking the driver in the chest and resulting in Gantt being charged with assault, even though Autauga County sheriff’s deputies acknowledge the wounding was an accident.
Victor Ortiz, a New Jersey Transit police officer, risked his life to save a man who had knelt down in the path of an oncoming train by jumping onto the track and pulling the man out of the way just before the train pulled into the Secaucus Junction station.
David McShan was arrested by Memphis police on an aggravated arson charge after being accused by his ex- girlfriend of throwing Molotov cocktails into her house, setting it ablaze.
Renee Hogan was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence after the California Highway Patrol said she drove several miles on the right rear rim of her car in Calaveras County, emitting sparks that destroyed her vehicle and caused wildfires that burned at least 450 acres.
Kjartan Knutsen, spokesman for the Norwegian Environment Agency, said a group of 323 reindeer, likely huddled together because of bad weather, were killed by a lightning strike, leaving their carcasses scattered across a small area on a mountain plateau.
Tiffany Wienke of Vicksburg, Miss., and her party of six hunters spotted a big alligator near Port Gibson and, after a two- hour struggle, landed the state’s longest alligator on record taken in public waters at 13 feet, 7 7/ 8 inches and weighing 686 pounds.
Tamara Schmitz said her dwarf billy goat, Lancelot, butted open the stable gate at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., enabling her nearly 1- ton Clydesdale nicknamed Buddy to escape and elude searchers for nearly five days before he was found hiding in some bushes and returned to his pen.
Frank Dose, 49, from Schleswig- Holstein, Germany, used giant tires from an industrial fertilizer spreader and scrap steel to build a bicycle weighing 2,072 pounds that he plans to pedal into the record books as the world’s heaviest rideable bike.