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News News Blog News Feature

‘Young Folks Rally’ Set to Oppose xAI for Environmental Justice

Young people are set to rally Saturday against Elon Musk’s xAI project in the name of environmental justice.

Two groups — Young Minds United and Tigers Versus Musk — are hosting a Young Folks Rally at the Kukutana Museum Ballroom located at 1036 Firestone Avenue on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“While many city leaders, including Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, believe that xAI is ‘not a threat’ and ‘monetarily good for Memphis,’ as citizens and the people who have to live with the consequences of these short-term decisions, we beg to differ,” Young Minds United said in a statement. 

Historically, young people have been at the heart of social justice and resistance  movements. A survey of 1,000 Americans from the United Way of the National Capital Area found that a third of Gen Zers are involved in activism work.

While the numbers are there, Jasmine Bernard, co-founder of Young Minds United, feels like history books intentionally don’t reflect this.

“Systems like adultism make it seem like youth don’t have as much say, when in reality we’re one of the strongest bodies in our country,” Bernard said. “As youth, we know the power that we have and we know how much people try to limit that.”

Bernard has always been interested in climate change, which prompted her to get involved in social justice. However, as someone living in South Memphis for a majority of her life she’s personally experienced how these injustices have plagued marginalized communities.

The rising high school junior noted that groups like Tigers Versus Musk are filled with college-aged people. While Bernard became involved in the group, she realized that she could engage youth and young people by starting Young Minds United.

“I was able to connect with other youth who felt just as passionately about these areas and share expertise,” she said. 

Bernard’s first time being able to publicly engage in conversation about xAI was during a fireside chat hosted by Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) with Memphis Mayor Paul Young. 

In a video that went viral, Bernard can be seen telling Young and the crowd, “All money is not good money.”

A major criticism of the xAI project has been the lack of transparency about the project. Public officials have touted these chats and other public forums as moves towards transparency around xAI.

“It’s hard to see the people who are supposed to protect you not do that, especially when it’s not just the police,” Bernard said. “Your Black mayor, your Black county mayor, you see them as people who are supposed to care about their constituents. So, when you see them talk — like Mayor Lee Harris — [saying] xAI isn’t a threat, but it’s physically causing health side effects to the people in South Memphis, it’s kind of disappointing.”

Bernard said she’s still grappling with how to work with officials, but notes it can be hard to, specifically for those coming from oppressed and disadvantaged backgrounds. While she said some of these systems weren’t made for groups like women, Black people, and youth, strides can be made from the outside.

“If we come together as a force, that makes people intimidated,” Bernard said. “Youth decisions are so important, and you can’t make decisions for youth without youth. Nothing about us can be without us.”

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CannaBeat Film/TV News News Feature Opinion Politics

Memphis Flyer Podcast May 22, 2025: Anna Traverse

In this week’s Memphis Flyer Podcast, Contemporary Media CEO Anna Traverse talks about AI in the newsroom, the challenges of keeping the press free, and our cover story on MPD traffic stops and marijuana.

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Art Art Feature Theater

National Opera Conference Kicks Off in Memphis

Opera America’s annual Opera Conference kicked off in Memphis on Tuesday, May 20th, welcoming hundreds of opera professionals from across the nation to the city for discussions, networking, and performances. Opera Memphis is serving as the host company, making it the smallest company ever to host. 

Yet the company’s size is just why Ned Canty, Opera Memphis’ general director, has been advocating for the conference to be held in Memphis for years, he says. “Historically, the conferences have been in larger cities with larger companies, but larger companies can learn something from smaller companies. There’s a benefit to everyone in seeing how we do things in different parts of the country.” 

And being in Memphis, Canty says, has its added benefits. “With our history as a city in terms of music and influence on American music and our city as a hub for civil rights, I just think there were a lot of reasons why it made sense for the conference to be here.” 

The conference’s agenda is packed through Friday, May 23rd, and Opera Memphis will have the chance to showcase its community-focused approach to opera. “We have been part of a movement over the past decade where companies have been looking at what their value to their cities is,” Canty says. “It’s termed civic practice. [It’s] the idea that what we do needs to go beyond just putting on shows, just what we do in the opera house.”

As an example, Canty points to the company’s 14-year-old 30 Days of Opera program, which brings free opera performances throughout the city. “It’s been something that fits in very well with Memphis and fits in with the Memphis mentality and with the conference,” Canty says.

Thirty Days also stemmed from conferences from years ago. “There was lots of inspiration from other companies,” Canty admits. “But we took it, we made it very Memphis, we made it very grit and grind, and we really put it at the heart of our mission and our activities, and what we learned from that, we’ve been able to share at other conferences.”  

Now, Canty hopes to share even more from what Opera Memphis has learned — and what other Memphians in the arts have learned. Indeed, Memphis-based speakers will sit on various panels: Mayor Paul Young, Ekundayo Bandele of Hattiloo Theatre, Samson Mobashar of the Soulsville Foundation, Darel Snodgrass of WKNO-FM, Christopher Reyes of BVO, Director of Creative and Cultural Economy DeMarcus Suggs, Rachel Knox of the Hyde Family Foundation, Anasa Troutman of the Big We, and panelists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Scheidt School of Music, and the University of Memphis. 

Photo: Courtesy Opera America | Jc Olivera

Many of the panelists represent organizations, with which Opera Memphis collaborates. “One of the great things about Memphis is that it is a Goldilocks-sized city. It’s not too big and it’s not too small,” Canty says. “And while there are challenges to that size, it does mean that it’s big enough to have resources and audiences and lots of different arts organizations, and we support each other. … I think this is hopefully going to inspire some folks to seek out new partners and collaborators in their cities.”

“And you know that is, for me, the most important part of it: The conference is a place to share things,” Canty says. “My hope is that some of the stuff that Memphis has to teach folks can be taught during the conference this time around, and then next year, we’ll be in another city, and the folks there will have their special things that they’ve learned, and they can inspire us and other opera companies in return — especially at a time like this, when there’s a pretty concerted effort to zero out the National Endowment for the Arts. This is more important than ever that we’re all talking to each other about how we can ensure that this does not that this does not bring us to our knees. How can we work together to ensure that we still fulfill our missions, that we still tell stories, that we still make music together?”

In the name of making music, Opera Memphis will put on La Calisto on Wednesday and Friday, with both performances open to the public, not just those attending the conference. Described as a “great Baroque opera,” La Calisto blends several Roman myths, traversing themes of love, lust, responsibility, and desire. The opera will feature local singers, company artists, and a few traveling artists. “We purposefully looked for a show where the creativity and the talent, the human talent, was the most important part of it,” Canty says.

Capturing the human talent, Canty says, is one of the things an Opera Memphis show does best. “People always think of operas as this very big art form, an excessive art form. And that is sometimes true, but if you look back to the roots of it, a lot of pieces that were written in the earliest years of opera were written for very, very small theaters, theaters that are much closer in size to Playhouse on the Square than a 4,000-seat theater like you might find in a bigger city. And so by doing it this way, we’re able to really just kind of hone in on doing the show as well as it can be done.”

Opera Memphis performs La Calisto at Playhouse on the Square last year. The production’s return will be one of the conference’s capstone events. (Photo: Ziggy Mack)

Opera Memphis’ production of La Calisto will also take on a bit of a Memphis flavor, Canty says. In one scene, the troupe has replaced a battle outfitted with spears and swords with a dance battle bringing in multiple styles of dance, including, of course, Memphis jookin’. 

In addition, to La Calisto, Opera Memphis will perform arias of select commissioned works, some a few years old, some still in progress, some yet to be debuted. These performances will only be accessible to conference attendees, but the hope is that another company may want to co-produce a piece in progress or do their own production of one that’s already shown. And don’t worry, Canty says, Memphis will one day see these in-progress and yet-to-be-debuted works. 

To find out more about or to register for the Opera Conference, visit operaamerica.org. To purchase tickets to La Calisto on Friday, May 23rd, 7:30 p.m., visit operamemphis.org. Tickets cost $10 to $75. The production will include heavy haze and some strobe light effects. Tickets for Wednesday night’s performance have sold out. 

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Stand for Children Tennessee Joins ACLU in Request for MPD Records

National and statewide organizations are prompting the Memphis Police Department (MPD) to be transparent and accountable on documented practices.

Stand for Children Tennessee (Stand TN) joins the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other agencies across the nation to launch the Seven States Safety Campaign. Stand TN is leading the charge in Memphis, as the ACLU has submitted a public records request to MPD regarding “misconduct and civil rights violations.”

“As the federal government pulls back on police oversight, local communities are stepping up and calling for transparency and real reform,” the organizations said in a statement.

The ACLU submitted a request to MPD’s records office today asking for copies of records “concerning MPD’s use of force and stops.” They cited 50 separate incidents closest to April 30th regarding “uses of force by any specialized unit.”

Other requests included Blue Team incident and weapon reports, field investigation memos, and reports on juveniles injured by officer force.

Should the MPD deny any of these requests, they are required by Tennessee law to provide written notice as to why they declined to provide their response within seven business days.

This news comes as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the closure of its investigation of MPD. In December, the agency found that MPD uses excessive force; conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests; unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law; and unlawfully discriminated in their response to people with behavioral disabilities.

At the time the investigation opened, former President Joe Biden controlled the DOJ. Today, the department announced they would be retracting “the Biden Administration’s findings of constitutional violations on the part of” the MPD and other police departments.

The campaign is demanding that similar changes be filed in Massachusetts, New York, Mississippi, and more, where similar federal civil rights investigations had been reported.

A statement from Stand TN condemned the local government for not taking “meaningful action” in the aftermath of the DOJ’s findings. The group also criticized Mayor Paul Young’s “integrity” regarding the city’s policing task force citing lack of clarity, transparency, and community accountability.

Several organizations urged Young to enter a consent decree with the DOJ after the findings were released. Organizations such as the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH), and Just City suggested “independent monitoring,” despite the mayor’s concern for the financial risks a consent decree would impose.

“The DOJ’s findings confirmed what Memphis communities have said for years: MPD’s abuse, excessive force, and lack of accountability are systemic, not isolated,” Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand TN, said. “While city leaders chase an arbitrary ‘magic number’ of police, they’ve failed to invest in what truly keeps us safe: youth programs, mental healthcare, housing, transit, and more. This request for records will give us and other partners more power to push for the bold changes Memphis needs.”

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News News Blog News Feature

DOJ Ends MPD Investigation

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will close its investigation of the Memphis Police Department (MPD). 

In December, the DOJ found that the MPD uses excessive force, conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, unlawfully discriminates against Black people when enforcing the law, and unlawfully discriminates in their response to people with behavioral health disabilities.

The DOJ was then controlled by President Joe Biden, and the announcement came after the election of President Donald Trump. Speculation at the time figured Trump would likely drop the investigation.

The DOJ said Wednesday it will also retract ”the Biden Administration’s findings of constitutional violations on the part of” the MPD and other police departments across the country. 

”The department is confident that the vast majority of police officers across the nation will continue to vigorously enforce the law and protect the public in full compliance with the Constitution and all applicable federal laws,” reads a statement from a news release issued Wednesday morning. “When bad actors in uniform fail to do so, the department stands ready to take all necessary action to address any resulting constitutional or civil-rights violations, including via criminal prosecution.”

Ben Crump, attorney for the family of Tyre Nichols, said the move is “attempting to erase truth and contradicting the very principles for which justice stands.”

“This decision is a slap in the face to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tyre Nichols, and to every community that has endured the trauma of police violence and the false promises of accountability,” Crump said in a statement. “These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy.

“These moves will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect and serve. Trust is built with transparency and accountability, not with denial and retreat.”

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We Recommend We Saw You

WE SAW YOU: Memphis Greek Festival

If you felt like dancing at, say, around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, you were in good company at the Memphis Greek Festival. Groups of dancers performed at designated times each day at the festival, which was held May 9th and 10th at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. Guests were invited to jump in after they finished and try their hand — or feet — in a dance.

More than 10,000 attended this year’s event, estimated Kathy Zambelis, who co-chaired the event with Maria Moore. Admission was only $3 or three cans of nonperishable food.

Traditional dance, shopping, and a kids zone were featured. Food included made-in-house spanakopita and Greek pastries. “We start months in advance to get everything out there,” Zambelis says. “We’re pretty much a well-oiled machine.”

“Biftekia,” a tantalizing concoction, was advertised in front of the booth as “Deliciously Seasoned Meat Sticks Made With Ancient Recipe.” It was served with pita bread and tzatziki sauce.

Reverend Simon Thomas, the parish priest, led church tours. His son, Demetri Thomas, who wore a traditional Greek fisherman’s cap, was one of the dancers. 

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Homicide Capital?, Owls on HBO?, and ’Cue Town 

Memphis on the internet.

Homicide Capital?

Screenshots of FBI Director Kash Patel calling Memphis the “homicide capital of America” flew all over the MEMernet early this week. The remark came on Fox News Sunday, with Patel promising a task force to handle the situation.

The Trump administration isn’t known for accuracy. So we’re going to dig into the crime numbers. Watch memphisflyer.com this week for what we find.

Owls on HBO?

Posted to Reddit by u/theunnamedban 

An eagle-eyed (or owl-eyed?) Redditor, u/unnamedban, spotted Delaney Buffett sporting a Memphis University School Owls T-shirt in a trailer for a new film, Adult Best Friends. Why? No one on Reddit was exactly sure. 

’Cue Town

Posted to Facebook by Memphis In May international Festival/SmokeSlam

One town. Two barbecue festivals. Blue smoke rolled all over Memphis last weekend with the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest (left) and SmokeSlam (right). 

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At Large Opinion

The Ring of Truth

“Revised National Parks Web Page Describes Harriet Tubman as Human Trafficker.”

That was the headline of an email I got a few days ago. I opened it immediately, thinking surely it was a joke. And I was right. The email was from The Onion, a satirical publication that’s been around since 1988 and that is somehow still alive and kicking and sending out funny material in 2025.

You have to admire their spunk. Satire can’t be easy these days. Just last month, for example, in a story about the hundreds of changes and cuts the Trump administration had made to federal government websites, the Washington Post reported that the National Park Service had revised a web page about the Underground Railroad to remove a quote and image of Harriet Tubman, and to remove the word “slavery” from the opening paragraph.

See, it’s just one small step from satire to reality. Or vice versa. And it’s often hard to tell the difference. Here’s another example: “RFK Jr. Says He Swam with Grandkids in a Creek Known for Raw Sewage.” Oh, those crazy kids at The Onion, I tell ya. Oh wait, that’s a real headline from MSNBC.com. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, actually did swim in sewage-infested Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., with his grandkids last week. No word on whether they also spotted a dead bear cub.

Here’s another tough one: “Trump Announces SEAL Team Six Kills U.S. Protester in Daring Overnight Raid.” Not quite true. At least, not yet. He is, however, having people abducted off the street and shipping them to prison without arresting them or giving them legal due process, which is horrifying enough.

How about this headline? “Trump Renames Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America.” Yes, of course, it’s real, but by any rational measure that should have been an Onion headline, don’t you think? Since it was already taken, The Onion came up with “Trump Renames Eric ‘Eric of America.’” See, satire is hard. 

“Immigrants Criticize Swimsuit Competition Portion of U.S. Citizenship Test.” Okay, yes, that’s The Onion. But just barely. The reality is almost as bizarre. It was announced last week that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, headed by cosplaying Border Barbie, Kristi Noem, is reportedly considering a reality TV show in which immigrants would compete in American-themed challenges for a chance to win U.S. citizenship. 

The show, pitched by Rob Worsoff, the producer behind Duck Dynasty, would be called The American, and would feature immigrants competing in challenges such as gold mining, balancing on logs, and assembling cars, to win a fast track to citizenship and potentially be sworn in as citizens on the steps of the Capitol. No, it’s really not from The Onion. I swear. You can google it.

So, how about this one? Real or fake? “Trump Orders Government to Stop Enforcing Rules He Doesn’t Like.” Sorry, that’s a real headline from the Washington Post. From the story: “Trump recently ordered Energy Department staff to stop enforcing water conservation standards for showerheads and other household appliances. And at one Labor Department division, his appointees have instructed employees to halt work related to anti-discrimination laws.” The story adds that at the Environmental Protection Agency, “Trump has ordered officials to scale back enforcement of rules intended to curb air and water pollution from power plants, oil refineries, hazardous waste sites, and other industrial facilities.” Argh.

So, here’s an easy one … I think: “Sean Combs Asks for Quick Trial So He Can Get to Part Where Trump Pardons Him.” A quote from Diddy: “With all due respect, your honor, can we skip some of the preamble and jump to when Trump gets all these sex trafficking and racketeering charges thrown out?” Yeah, it’s satire, unlike Trump’s pardon of 1,500 people convicted of various charges in the January 6th insurrection, but does anyone doubt Trump would actually pardon Combs? I don’t.

Okay, I’ll stop now, but here’s one last headline that has the bitter ring of truth to it. “Pope Leo XIV: ‘There Couldn’t Be a Better Time to Get the Fuck Out of America Forever.’” Real or fake? Hard to tell, and it hurts to laugh. 

Categories
Food & Drink

Magnolia & May: Five and Alive

Magnolia & May restaurant opened on May 26, 2020. Smack dab during the pandemic lockdown. No vaccine. People were sheltering in place.

She and her husband, executive chef Chip Dunham, got customers, but general manager Amanda Dunham says, “There were times Chip and I would sit on the patio and we would be pretty empty: ‘Why are we doing this?’”

When they opened their restaurant at 718 Mt. Moriah Road, Chip and Amanda did curbside and to-go orders until they were allowed to do 50 percent capacity dine-in service.

Five years later, Magnolia & May, unlike other restaurants that bit the dust, is still open. To honor the occasion, Chip and Amanda are holding a five-day anniversary celebration at the restaurant.

“It’s just kind of something fun to do,” Amanda says, adding, “Five years isn’t super long, but it feels long to us sometimes.”

During those lockdown days, their Magnolia Farms Box was a hot item. It included the recipes for a meal and a cocktail as well as the ingredients, so people could whip up a Magnolia & May meal and drink at home.

The cocktail was a Magnolia & May Manhattan, which included bourbon, dark vermouth, and amaro.

It wasn’t easy operating a new restaurant in those days. “We joke we never got to what we call the ‘romance phase’ when everybody flocks to see what’s going on on,” Amanda says. “By the time we got back to normal, we were already around about a year.”

Chip began his culinary career as a pantry cook, making cold salads and appetizers at The Grove Grill, which was owned by his dad, chef Jeffrey Dunham. He met Amanda while he was going to school at The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York. He worked at Slightly North of Broad Restaurant, Butcher & Bee, and The Glass Onion in Charleston, South Carolina, before he moved back to Memphis with Amanda.

His father and mother, Tracey Dunham, were thinking about adding a second location of The Grove Grill, so they decided to convert his grandfather’s insurance company into a restaurant, which became Magnolia & May. The Grove Grill closed in March 2020, and Chip and Amanda along with Chip’s parents, opened Magnolia & May about two months later.

Explaining why they opened when they did, Chip said in a 2022 Memphis Flyer interview, “We were ready to go and our employees were ready to go. There was no sense in waiting anymore.”

They began planning their Five Days of Magnolia & May about two months ago, Chip says. 

Wednesday, May 21st, will feature a $5 cocktail. Children can eat off the kid’s menu for $5. The cocktail will be the Barely Making It, a play on the Magnolia & May Manhattan. “We are partnering with Old Dominick to create a fifth-anniversary bottle of Tennessee whisky,” Chip says. Children can get burgers, chicken tenders, and hot dogs along with an ice pop. Today, that would cost $12.

On Thursday, May 22nd, Chip says, “We’ll take a trip down memory lane by bringing back our 2020 menu prices.” Instead of today’s price of $17, people will be able to get a hamburger for $13. They can get the restaurant’s popular shrimp and grits for $23 instead of $28.

Friday, May 23rd will feature live music on the patio. And, Chip says, “On Saturday, we’ll host a brunch featuring Crosstown Brewing [Company], which will be bringing some of its THC seltzers for our guests to sample during the meal.”

The fifth night, May 24th, was going to be a trivia night, but they’re hosting a wedding reception at the restaurant that night, so they’re moving the trivia event to Sunday, June 1st. “It’s just general trivia,” Chip says. “It’s always been something we wanted to do, but we just finally decided to pull the trigger on it. I think we’re going to do it once a month going forward.”

Customers also will be able to get limited edition fifth-anniversary Magnolia & May T-shirts and stickers.

Food wise, over the past five years, they’ve “kind of stayed the same,” Chip says. They describe their concept as “a country brasserie.” As Chip said in the 2022 interview, “We present ourselves in a rustic way, but while we’re a restaurant based in the American South, we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves as that.”

Influences include Asian and Middle Eastern, but everything is “rooted in that classic French technique.” And now, Chip says, “We actually made more connections with local farms.”

They get chicken and duck from Riley Family Farms in Holly Springs, Mississippi; local beef and pork from Home Place Pastures in Como, Mississippi; mushrooms from Bluff City Fungi in Memphis; and fruit and vegetables from Jones Orchard in Millington, Tennessee.

“When we opened, we wanted to be able to do this,” Amanda says. “We wanted to be using more local farms, more neighborhood purveyors, but we weren’t really able to. Everyone was operating at such an odd time.”

Magnolia & May still offers the same friendly hospitality, Chip says. Amanda visits tables and chats with customers. “The closeness of the community is what we always wanted,” he says.

In short, Chip says, “You can get a very well executed, nutritious chef-driven dish in a casual and approachable environment.”

They achieved one of their goals last year, Amanda adds. “We bought Jeff and Tracey out of the business. Chip and I are the owners.”

A second location of Magnolia & May isn’t on their radar, but they “always joke around” that they might open a coffee shop. “You never know with us,” Amanda says. “It will be where the wind takes us. We’ve always talked about doing a coffee shop.”

That’s on their “bucket list for another five years down the road.”

So, why do they call their restaurant, Magnolia & May? “We have a tradition in my family of, before a baby is born, giving them a nickname,” Chip says. Amanda was pregnant with their daughter, Maddison, whose nickname is Baby Magnolia, and his sister was pregnant with their niece, Marilyn Lamey, who is called Baby May.

“So, now we have to open a restaurant after our son,” Chip says. Their son, Hudson, was born during the past five years. His nickname is Monkey Grass. Which, actually, sounds like a good name for a coffee shop. 

Categories
Astrology Fun Stuff

News of the Weird: Week of 05/22/25

Surprise!

When a babysitter in Great Bend, Kansas, helpfully looked under the bed to check for “monsters” on March 24, she actually found one, NBC News reported. The Barton County Sheriff’s Office was called to the home, where the babysitter had come face-to-face with a man hiding under the child’s bed, around 10:30 p.m. After a short altercation with the babysitter, the man fled the home. The suspect, who was captured the next morning, was Martin Villalobos Jr., 27, who once lived in the house. Villalobos was under a protection order and had been warned to stay away from the home. He was arrested on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, child endangerment and other offenses and held on $500,000 bond.

Alarming Headline

Felipe Hoyos-Foronda, 38, of Queens, New York, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport on March 28 after a medical procedure at his home went south, CBS News reported. According to police, a 31-year-old woman went to Hoyos-Foronda’s home to have her butt implants removed. When the woman suffered complications, he called EMS and then took off, intending to flee to Colombia. First responders found the woman unresponsive. The criminal complaint said Hoyos-Foronda admitted to performing the procedure without a license and administering lidocaine, “causing her to go into cardiac arrest.” Officials said the victim was hospitalized with no brain activity, and she showed signs of lidocaine toxicity.

Animal Antics

Mail carrier Wayne White was on his route in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on March 28 when he ran into a flock of troublemakers, WHDH-TV reported. As he got in and out of his truck and delivered mail, three wild turkeys followed and harassed him while he tried to fend them off with a box. “Every time I moved the truck, the turkeys followed,” White said. One encounter with the birds was caught on a home’s surveillance video and showed White trying to do his job as they gobbled at him. “I do a lot of stuff on Nantucket, so I see deer all the time, but this is my first time with turkey,” he said.

A Cautionary Tale

Minot, North Dakota, mayor Tom Ross resigned on April 1, which some might find a fitting date for his ignominious downfall. KMOT-TV reported that Ross was the subject of a complaint made in late January by the city attorney, Stefanie Stalheim, who said she had received a sexually explicit text from Ross. Ross admitted he had made a video of himself masturbating during his lunch
break, intending to send it to his romantic partner. “I do take responsibility for this mistake,”
Ross said. “I tried to immediately correct it and was unable.”

Least Competent Criminal

Crush Comics in California’s Castro Valley was burglarized on March 22, CBS News reported. The thief took a display of the store’s most valuable comic books, said owner Josh Hunter. He figured they were gone for good, but then, just 12 hours later, one of his employees stumbled upon an eBay listing for a very specific comic book from the store. “I’m just going to buy that and see what happens,” Hunter said. When he got the seller’s name and address, he searched on Instagram and saw the burglar’s offer to buy, sell, or trade Lego sets. Next, Hunter called another comic shop and a toy store that had also been broken into and shared his findings. When the sleuths turned their results over to police, Alameda County Sheriff’s officers served a search warrant at the home of Noorullah Amiri, 29, of Livermore, where they found tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of comic books, collectibles, and Lego sets. Amiri was taken into custody on March 27.

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NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
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