Latest news with #NicoleJohnson
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Something was not right': Oregon Coast safari park received complaints for nearly a decade
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An at an Oregon Coast safari park earlier this month uncovered drugs, guns, and millions in cash — plus , Matthew Tenney, is out of jail, but advocates have been pushing for change for years. 'It's frustrating that it has to come to that level,' said animal advocate Nicole Johnson. When Johnson started digging into while researching circus laws, she came across an inspection of the safari park that described a dead tiger stuffed in a freezer next to frozen turkeys. 'Upon reading those inspection reports, it was very clear that something was not right there,' Johnson said. Johnson joins many who've raised concerns — going back years. In 2016, PETA demanded the Coos County Sheriff's Office investigate neglected animals at the park. The sheriff previously said limited resources made handling complaints impossible. Frustrated by delays, Johnson's pushing to make enforcement easier for local authorities: 'Changing that law to make it so that it's easier for local authorities to come in and enforce state laws at those facilities,' she said. Johnson says she's teaming up with Humane World of Animals to draft Oregon state legislation next session to allow more oversight to prevent mistreatment in the future. Meanwhile, she's urging everyone to visit only parks accredited by the American Zoological Association or the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. 'They have very strict rules to be accredited with them, so I would look for any accredited facility and focus on going to those,' she said. The Coos County District Attorney is still reviewing the case and hasn't decided on further action. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Eyewitness News
24-05-2025
- Eyewitness News
Stanfield, Johnson supporters accuse State of unfairly prosecuting them
CAPE TOWN - Supporters of alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield and his wife, Nicole Johnson, have accused the State of unfairly prosecuting the pair. The couple is embroiled in a complex gang case with a long list of charges, including four murders. ALSO READ: The pair also faced several commercial crimes charges relating to an alleged tender fraud case of R1 billion within the City of Cape Town's human settlements directorate. Those charges against them and former Human Settlements MMC Malusi Booi and others have been provisionally withdrawn. A small group of protestors held a peaceful picket outside the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Friday, calling for the release of Stanfield and Johnson from prison.
News24
23-05-2025
- Politics
- News24
R1bn fraud charges withdrawn against former Cape Town councillor Malusi Booi and others
Charges relating to the R1 billion City of Cape Town tender fraud case against former mayoral committee member Malusi Booi, alleged 28s gang leader Ralph Stanfield, his wife, Nicole Johnson, and more than 20 others have provisionally been withdrawn by the State. The accused appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, where the State prosecutor formally announced the withdrawal. Stanfield and Johnson will, however, remain behind bars as they face separate charges unrelated to the tender fraud case. The matter has been plagued by ongoing delays, with the defence preparing to bring an application to have the case struck from the roll. They argued that the State had prematurely arrested the suspects before finalising its investigation.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What is gentle parenting? And is it making the next generations too soft?
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. 'Back in my day,' some grandparents say to their adult children, 'we didn't let our kids speak without being spoken to or talk back to without a spanking or question every parental decision without a consequence.' What did happen to time-outs? Or 'I'll give you something to cry about?' There's a certain segment of parents who reject that form of parenting for something they say may work better, called 'gentle parenting.' If you hear the term and roll your eyes, and we know that's likely — pause for a second. Gentle parenting is often misunderstood and taken to mean coddling, said Dr. Brian Razzino, a licensed clinical psychologist in Falls Church, Virginia. That's not the case. Gentle parenting –– or what many people mean when they talk about it –– is often about teaching skills for adulthood and enforcing boundaries, and it has a lot to offer families, he said. This strategy is becoming popular as nearly half of parents say they are trying to raise their children differently than how they grew up, according to a 2023 report from the Pew Research Center. Those parents said they were looking to give their children more love and affection, having open, honest conversations and yelling less and listening more. The problem is that many people, even those who call themselves gentle parents, differ on the specifics. Here is what you need to know about the latest parenting trend. Psychological researchers have identified four main parenting styles: neglectful, authoritarian, permissive and authoritative. Neglectful parenting has neither high levels of warmth toward the child nor rules on a child's behavior, said Nicole Johnson, a licensed professional counselor in Boise, Idaho. A kid may act out and break a toy and not get much response from their neglectful parent, who might not have attended much to how they were playing anyway. Authoritarian refers to parenting that focuses on obedience and punitive response –– think 'because I said so,' Johnson said. The child who broke the toy would likely be yelled at and sent to time-out by the authoritarian parent without much conversation beyond that. Permissive parenting focuses on warmth toward children, but without much structure or boundaries, she added. That parent would acknowledge that the child probably broke the toy out of frustration but wouldn't follow up on consequences. Authoritative parenting seeks to strike a balance between structure and warmth. 'It's more focused on the idea of improving their ability to understand what's going on with themselves, their own feelings,' Razzino said. 'The parents are really focused on having that empathy for the child and respect when they when they talk with them, and that their feelings are valid.' Still, they are 'maintaining some very firm, clear limits.' Gentle parenting is not listed among the main parenting styles. While it is popular on social media, it is a relatively new term that hasn't been described much in the scientific literature. Researchers Annie Pezalla and Alice Davidson sought to investigate what parenting influencers on social media meant when they talked about gentle parenting in a 2024 study. 'Those who identified as gentle really prioritized emotion regulation. These are parents that are wanting to maintain calm at all costs, if at all possible, (including) their energy and emotions,' said Pezalla, visiting assistant professor of psychology at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. 'They do look like authoritative parents, for the most part, to us, like they're trying to hold boundaries and practice consequences with their kids,' she said, 'even though they showed the kind of no-holds-barred affection to their kids that typically permissive parents show.' Gentle parenting, like authoritative parenting, emphasizes the importance of boundaries while maintaining warmth and empathy, she said. However, the concept plays out differently in different families. In her research, Pezalla asked parents who identified as gentle parents about their practices. While some resembled authoritative parents, others acted in ways that fell more in line with a permissive style, she said. Ultimately, much of what people refer to as gentle parenting on social media is just another term for authoritative parenting: maintaining connection with the child, teaching them to regulate their emotions and behavior, and enforcing boundaries as a caring authority figure, said Razzino, who is also the author of 'Awakening the Five Champions: Keys to Success for Every Teen.' Imagine a child is throwing their food off their plate and onto the floor. A permissive parent might say, 'please don't do that,' and then do nothing else to enforce a boundary. An authoritarian might glare sternly and immediately move to a time-out or spanking or to send their child to bed hungry. An authoritative parent, which is what many people mean when they identify as a gentle parent, might say, 'I can see you're feeling playful, but food stays on the plate. I can give you something else to do with your hands while we have dinner, but if you throw it again, I am going to have to take the plate away,' Razzino said. Some people critique this way of parenting as being too soft on kids, saying that the world is harsh and kids will need to learn to deal with that, Johnson added. But the goal of this parenting style isn't to shield your child from accountability; rather it is to get to a calmer place for the parent and child, give kids tools for making good choices, and then enforcing a boundary with logical consequences, she said. Logical consequences are ones that relate directly to a behavior: If you smack your friend with a truck, the playdate will be over, Razzino added. For the people who understand gentle parenting as a form of authoritative parenting, there are two parts: validating that you understand the feelings they are experiencing and teaching that not every way of expressing those feelings is acceptable or productive, Johnson said. It is important to neither skip the validation step nor get too bogged down in it, Razzino added. At some point, it is important to move from talking about the feelings to making plans on how to regulate the difficult emotions and what consequences will happen if the unacceptable behavior continues. And this approach has been shown in research to be effective in raising more healthy, resilient, successful adults, Razzino said. One 2022 study found that children raised with an authoritative parenting style were more likely to achieve academically. Another study in 2020 found that a lack of this parenting style was the most important factor in low life satisfaction. There is a downside to authoritative or gentle parenting. Staying calm, validating your child's feelings, explaining a boundary and the consequences of breaking it, and then following through with a rational consequence is a lot of work, Pezalla said. It's even more work if you weren't parented with a lot of warmth and empathy, Johnson added. With so much pressure to parent perfectly, many parents feel burnt-out trying to adhere too strictly to gentle parenting practices, according to Pezalla's research. Gentle parents 'are working so hard to be emotionally regulated 24/7 that they are burning out,' she said. 'That's what we found in the article that we published … they're stressed out of their minds.' Some online parenting influencers will say that you can't use the word no, that you have to say no, that you should pause in a grocery store meltdown to give a hug, or that you need to scoop your child up from the store floor and not allow them to continue the tantrum there, Pezalla said. Instead of worrying too much about following the one right philosophy, Pezalla recommends prioritizing the four things she has found to be what every kid needs growing up. Those include structure, warmth, acknowledgement as an individual who may need something different from their siblings, and an approach that prepares for parenting as a long game, she said. 'Everything else is like static noise to me,' Pezalla said. 'It's like the same general authoritative parenting styles, just, we're calling it something different.' And don't worry if you mess up, lose your temper or change your mind on your parenting approach, Johnson said. Kids don't need a model of a perfect human, they need to see an adult who is trying their best to be a positive authority figure, striving for empathy, practicing regulating themselves, and taking accountability when they get it wrong, she added. Hopefully, that model will be a roadmap so they can grow up doing those things, too.
CBS News
12-05-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Frates family helps North Andover woman navigate husband's ALS diagnosis
Nicole Johnson plays "Ring Around the Rosie" with her three kids, ages 5, 3, and under 1 on her North Andover lawn. On the outside, she is calm and smiling, unable to tumble under pressure. On the inside, Johnson says her head is brimming with loose ends needing to be tied and grief she has no time to feel. On Valentine's Day 2024, Nicole's husband Chuck was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS, a fatal neurological disease, while Nicole was expecting their youngest. A few months after baby Jenna's birth, via C-section, Chuck was already confined to a wheelchair and Nicole took over his care, helping him into the car and watching him overnight. "I started doing that probably like a month postpartum out of necessity," she said. In the face of endless uncertainty, she reached out to Nancy Frates, an ALS patient advocate and mom of Pete Frates, who founded the viral Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014, spreading awareness of the disease globally. Nicole Johnson and Nancy Frates CBS Boston Nicole says Frates told her to focus not only Chuck's treatment but also his care within their home, which for ALS patients can cost up to $250,000 a year or more. "She was like you need to create a team behind you, support, and you need to raise money for you," Nicole said. "Make Way for Chucklings" Nicole formed "Make Way for Chucklings", a non-profit organization supporting their family and spreading awareness of ALS. She began to share their journey, from dances and story times to new wheelchairs and fundraisers, on her Instagram. In a blur, Chuck's journey ended. He passed away in April, less than two years after his ALS battle began. "We were about to go to bed one night and you can just see it in his eyes, something happened, and within a minute his eyes were closed," Nicole said, "They were like, oh no, he has time, like, you can enter a clinical trial up to two years post diagnosis. Well, he's gone 14 months post diagnosis so, never enough time." Now, Nicole can confide in Nancy. Both women are all too familiar with their hard path. While ALS awareness has surged and there are several drugs approved to slow the progression of the disease in some patients, both Nicole and Nancy say there are gaps in care for these patients. "I was told once that if I wanted coverage for Pete's care that we could put him in a nursing home and that would be covered and he was 30 years old," Frates said, "I thought to myself what is wrong with us. What is wrong with us as a society?" Helping other ALS patients To this day, most of the financial burden of at home care for ALS patients falls on their loved ones. Nicole says there are also long wait times for much needed equipment like wheelchairs. "In my way to give back I'd also like to come up with some sort of guidelines or one page cheat sheet on what to do when you get a diagnosis or what to do at this stage of progression," Nicole said, "Chatting with people who have already been through this journey and understand it has been incredibly helpful and I'd like to be that resource." To learn more about Nicole and Chuck's journey and ALS, visit and
