Sacred white buffalo killed in Texas; reward offered by ranch for killer

A North Texas ranch is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest in the killing of its sacred white buffalo.

The rare white buffalo, a male calf named Lightning Medicine Cloud, was found slaughtered and skinned on April 30 on Lakota Ranch near Greenville, Texas, just shy of its first birthday. Its mother died the next day.

The ranch's owner, Arby Little Soldier, said he thinks the mother was poisoned. Little Soldier, the great-great-great grandson of Sitting Bull, was away on a trip when the white buffalo was killed.

"Someone who probably knew we were out of town killed him and stripped the meat," Little Soldier told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I think it was a professional hit on the mom."

According to the paper, the ranch and its supporters are offering $45,000 for information leading to the killer. According to the ranch's website, Native Americans "see the white buffalo calf as the sign to begin life's sacred hoop."

And they are very rare. According to the National Bison Association, just one out of every 10 million buffalo born are white.

New Jersey tanning mom inspires action figure

The overly tan New Jersey mom accused of taking her young daughter tanning has inspired an action figure.

The $29.95 "Tanorexic" mom doll is available from HeroBuilders.com, the custom doll retailer behind the Michaele Salahi action figure, Anthony Weiner doll and other attention-grabbing toys.

Patricia Krentcil, the real "tanning mom," pleaded not guilty to child endangerment charges last week. She was arrested late last month in Nutley, N.J., after police were called to her 5-year-old daughter's school.

Krentcil claims she took her daughter with her to the salon but that her daughter never entered a tanning booth.

"I tan, she doesn't tan," the 44-year-old Krentcil said. "I'm in the booth, she's in the room. That's all there is to it."

New Jersey state law prohibits children under the age of 14 from tanning booths. Children between the ages of 14 and 17 must be accompanied by an adult.

Police were alerted by school officials, who say Krentcil's daughter showed up for school with what appeared to be a sunburn, then told classmates she "went tanning with Mommy."

Rich Krentcil, the girl's father, told NBC the teacher misinterpreted his daughter.

"This whole big thing happened, and everyone got involved," he said. "It was 85 degrees outside, she got sunburned. That's it. That's all that happened."

Cheetahs Mauls Woman on 60th Birthday Trip

The trip of a lifetime to celebrate a Scottish woman's 60th birthday turned brutal when two supposedly tame cheetahs attacked the woman at a game reserve in South Africa.

Violet D'Mello and her husband Archie were allowed to get up close and pet two brother cheetahs, Mark and Monty, at the Kragga Kamma Game Park in Port Elizabeth last weekend.


"They seemed to be pretty docile. They said they were hand reared from cubs and were extremely tame and one could you know stroke them and not only that lay on them and they'll do nothing to you," Archie D'Mello said.

The couple had just taken photos with the animals and were still in the petting area when one of the cats grabbed an 8-year-old girl by the leg.

Violet D'Mello tried to stop the attack. After the girl ran for safety, D'Mello said both cheetahs turned on her in a savage attack that lasted for more than three minutes.

Incredibly, Archie D'Mello kept taking pictures, documenting the horrific scene as the animals bit and scratched his wife's head, legs and stomach.

Violet D'Mello said her instinct took over while a guide tried to pull the cats off of her.

"Something inside me just said, 'Don't move. Don't move at all. Don't react, just play dead'," she told the Port Elizabeth Herald. Miraculously, Violet D'Mello walked away with no life-threatening wounds. The 60-year-old lost a lot of blood during the attack and has a lot of stitches on both her thighs and her scalp, her husband said. Park manager Mike Cantor told the newspaper the park had never had any problems with the previously beloved cheetahs. "It's not something we've ever really experienced. It's obviously very unfortunate, and we're looking into what may have startled or riled up the cheetahs," Cantor said. The petting facility is closed to the public while the park investigates the attack.

Bear that fell from tree dies after being hit by car

A young bear that became an Internet sensation after falling from a tree has died after being hit by a car. It was a whirlwind week for the bear, which shot to prominence last week when it climbed into a tree near the University of Colorado campus, then fell to safety after being tranquilized by local police.

The Denver Post reports that the 208-pound black bear had wandered into the Denver-bound lanes of U.S. highway 36 when a vehicle struck it at 5:40 Thursday morning.

"It's a bummer. It's so hard to go through this and not be able to give these bears a good place to live," said Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill. "The community sees relocating bears as a kind of perfect solution, and unfortunately it's a really difficult proposition."

Churchill said authorities were able to identify the bear by an ear tag that had been placed on him after the tree incident last week.

After it was safely removed from the tree near the CU campus, wildlife officials had relocated the bear to a wilderness area about 50 miles west of Boulder, according to the Post.

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Josh Lewis told the paper that two cars were involved in the accident, resulting in minor injuries to one of the drivers.

The accident happened when Kale Broeder, 22, hit the bear after switching lanes to avoid a vehicle that had put on its emergency lights and pulled over to avoid hitting the bear.

"He saw (the first car) move over to the right with flashers on, and he moved over to the left lane and that's when he hit the bear," the driver's father, Gary Broeder, said. "It was in the middle of the road."

Mysterious origin of Solomon Islands’ dark-skinned blonds revealed

Researchers have discovered a single gene that caused inhabitants of the Solomon Islands to have the unique combination of very dark skin and very blond hair.

On Thursday, the journal Science reported that a single gene mutation is responsible for the unique pairing. Perhaps most interesting, the findings debunk theories that residents of the Solomon Islands got their blond hair from intermarrying with European explorers.

"[T]he human characteristic of blond hair arose independently in equatorial Oceania," study researcher Eimear Kenny said in a statement. "That's quite unexpected and fascinating."

Kenny and fellow researcher Sean Myles gathered saliva samples from 43 blond-haired children and 42 dark-haired children on the island to compare their genes. Myles said the frequency of blond hair is comparable to the numbers found in Europe.

"They have this very dark skin and bright blond hair. It was mind-blowing," Myles said in a statement. "As a geneticist on the beach watching the kids playing, you count up the frequency of kids with blond hair, and say, 'Wow, it's 5 to 10 percent.'"

The findings are reportedly a bit of an anomaly, as it is rare for a single physical trait to be traced back to one gene change, according to Live Science.

Outside of the Solomon Islands, there was a brief fad in the 1990s, where already famous personalities like actor Wesley Snipes and former NBA star Dennis Rodman briefly dyed their hair blond.

‘Loch Ness Monster’ ordered to leave Wisconsin river

The Loch Ness Monster has finally surfaced—in Wisconsin's Chippewa River. And state officials want it to go.
To be clear, the object in question is actually a sculpture meant to resemble "Nessie," the mythological creature supposedly navigating a deep body of water in Scotland.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources spokesman Dan Baumann says the sculpture is illegally obstructing the Chippewa and needs to be removed. However, like the origins of the Loch Ness Monster itself, the identity of the sculpture's creator remains a mystery.

An anonymous reader did contact the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, saying the sculpture would be removed within 10 days. "As much as I would like to leave it there, I don't want the DNR finding out it was me and fining me for it," wrote the anonymous emailer.

In addition, the owner of a local home-improvement store says the sculpture would make a good fit in some water retention sites on the company's property.

"We have ponds and fountains on many of our properties, and seeing this piece of artwork in the Chippewa River spurred some conversation," said Menards spokesman Jeff Abbott.

Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug

Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on Wednesday it has only one remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners.

One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty.

Oklahoma has a single vial of pentobarbital left after the execution on Tuesday night of 57-year-old Michael B. Selsor, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said.

Oklahoma is the first state to publicly admit it has nearly exhausted supplies of the drug but other states may follow because of the EU clamp down, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre in Washington, D.C.

Pentobarbital is a sedative that is the first of a three-drug cocktail administered by Oklahoma. It is followed by vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

Oklahoma was the first state in the country to use pentobarbital in 2010 after a shortage of another aesthetic, sodium thiopental, caused penal officials in death penalty states to look for an alternative.

Eleven other states also use it. Arizona and Ohio use a single injection of pentobarbital for executions while nine states use the multi-drug protocol, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

Lundbeck Inc, the only manufacturer of pentobarbital, is located in Denmark and forbids its U.S.-based wholesalers from selling the drug for lethal injections, while the European Union forbids its member countries from exporting drugs for executions.

Oklahoma could resort to another aesthetic never used before in executions, Massie said, or it could try to tap existing supplies of pentobarbital.

A third option, he said, would entail going back to sodium thiopental.

"It's available but you run into the same kind of problem. Companies don't want to use it for executions," Massie said.

The only manufacturer of sodium thiopental in the United States, Hospira Inc, halted production last year.

Dieter said even if states have stockpiled a large supply of pentobarbital, expiration dates eventually will require new orders, he said.

Any change in death penalty procedures typically are met with legal challenges and sometimes lengthy administrative reviews, Dieter added, noting that California has not had an execution since 2006 because of exhaustive review procedures. A measure has qualified for the ballot in November in California calling for repeal of the death penalty.

Oklahoma has executed three men so far this year but has no more executions scheduled. There are 60 people on death row in the state, Massie said.

The state has the highest number of executions per capita since the death penalty was restored in the United States in 1976. Texas has executed more people but has a far larger population.