It isn’t always possible to chronicle every news item that comes across the digital transom in real time, and sometimes the stories, while intriguing, just don’t merit a full article. But that doesn’t mean they’re without merit, as I hope this grab bag of bypassed stories proves. From science to trivia, honors to passings, there’s something for every taste in this catchall article.
Hold onto your cosmic hats! We’re gonna do a down-and-dirty overview of three stories that made the news in recent days – the terrorist attack in Moscow on March 22nd that left more than 130 dead; the diminution of Donald Trump’s civil fraud bond on the 25th; and the catastrophic bridge collapse in Baltimore on the 26th. Each deserves a deeper dive, buy hey! I’m only human.
Avid avian admirers worldwide were saddened on February 23, 2024, by the news of the untimely passing of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle owl that had become a celebrity bird-about-town after escaping from New York’s Central Park Zoo a year prior. Concerns that Flaco, who was hatched at a bird park in North Carolina in 2010 and had spent his life in captivity, would not be able to survive in the wild, having never developed hunting skills, prompted various attempts at his recapture, all unsuccessful.
On 18 February 2024, three prisoners escaped from a holding cell at the South St. George Police Station on Grenada, hijacked the yacht of an American couple docked nearby, took them captive, and sailed the vessel to the island of St. Vincent, where the yacht, a catamaran, was found on the 21st, and the prisoners recaptured. The boat showed signs of violence, including what appeared to be bloodstains, but of Kathy Brandel and Ralph Hendry, its owners, there was no sign. Presumably the couple were somehow disposed of at sea by their attackers, and little hope of their recovery has been offered.
On 5 February 2024, Samantha Jo Petersen, 34, was indicted on 21 counts relating to an accident that occurred the previous September, when Petersen crashed her car into an Amish buggy in southeast Minnesota, killing two children and seriously wounding two others. Petersen, high on meth and texting at the time, tried to switch roles with her twin sister Sarah, fearing jail time. The charges include vehicular homicide and driving under the influence. Killed in the September 25th crash were Irma Miller, 11, and her sister Wilma, 7.
On 16 February 2024, the sudden death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was announced from the Polar Wolf prison in Kharp, Siberia, Russia, where he had been held since December, following a series of transfers after his incarceration in 2021. Navalny, who can be seen laughing and joking in a video just the day before, reportedly felt unwell after a morning walk, collapsed, and could not be revived.
Navalny had long been a thorn in the side of Russian President Vladimir Putin, organizing and leading the opposition to his despotic rule for over a decade. Putin had tried at least once before to have him killed, using poison, and astrologic factors point to his death being a repeat performance, successful this time. In August 2020 Navalny became violently ill during a flight, losing consciousness and lapsing into a coma; he was medically evacuated to Berlin, where the cause was determined to be Novichok poisoning, a Soviet era neurotoxin. Miraculously, Navalny survived, and despite the risk to his life returned to Russia in January 2021, where he was immediately arrested, and has been in detention ever since, under increasingly harsh conditions, serving a nineteen-year sentence for “extremism.”
