Latest news with #Puckett
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Miami Herald
Wild horse dies of broken neck during violent ritual on Outer Banks, expert says
One of North Carolina's beloved wild horses was discovered with a broken neck, and evidence indicates it was the result of a violent ritual on the Outer Banks. Two-year-old Donner was likely killed by a larger stallion in a battle over turf, according to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. A tourist reported the horse's limp body Wednesday, June 4, in the yard of a rental home near the North Swan Beach area, officials said. The community is about a 230-mile drive northeast from Raleigh. 'He sustained injuries consistent with fighting with another stallion, including a broken neck,' Herd Manager Meg Puckett wrote in a Facebook post. 'While it is devastating to lose a healthy, young horse from the herd, this is what it means to be wild and free. This kind of behavior may seem brutal to us, but it is a natural part of healthy herd dynamics.' Outer Banks stallions engage in no-holds barred combat during disputes over mates or territory, experts say. Tactics include kicking, butting and biting out chunks of flesh from each other. Donner likely came under attack when he strayed into the territory of a larger stallion, Puckett said. Wounds on the ears indicate Donner was grabbed and slung, and the force was enough to snap his neck, Puckett told McClatchy News in a phone interview. He died instantly. While brutal, 'survival of the fittest is a very real and important thing' among the horses, Puckett says. 'Interfering with the natural order of things can have consequences that impact the overall health and stability of the herd,' she wrote on Facebook. 'This colt's death should serve as a reminder of just how fragile life can be for these horses. They face so many natural challenges to their survival; there is no guarantee that every foal will make it to adulthood, even under the best circumstances. We can't control nature (and we wouldn't want to).' Donner was buried late Wednesday by the fund, which uses donations for medical emergencies and to tend the habitat of the 110 horses that roam Corolla. The fund does not receive state or federal funding. It will likely never be known which stallion killed Donner, who was too young to have learned how to defend himself, Puckett said. 'Every death like this is hard. They are wild animals, but we know them very, very well as individuals. So you can't help but get attached to them,' she said. 'Anyone who does this work and doesn't get attached is in the wrong line of work. You have to care and love them.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Commissioners commit $100K to renovate Mercer County Day Report Center
princeton — In the past, farmers would get together and help a neighbor erect a new barn, but a new take on this tradition is scheduled to take place today when the community gets together for a 'community shred.' The Mercer County Day Report Center's attic is filled with old and outdated records and documents that can't be thrown into the trash, so volunteers are getting together and shredding them. Day Report Center Director Michelle Stewart said clearing out the attic is a step toward renovating a building that could be some 100 years old. Located at 1422 E Main St. near the Mercer County Courthouse, the building stands near the site of Princeton's old hospital. 'As best we can understand, this building was here when the old hospital was present here on the corner,' Stewart said. 'It could be 100 years old. That's what I'm thinking, but I'm not 100% sure. Everyone has speculated this building was here at that time based on the fixtures. It has old galvanized pipes that have burst and damaged the walls. We've had two major flooding events.' The building looks modern, but the exterior does not match the interior. 'The engineer that came through the building said it's like a decorative shell around a very old building,' Stewart said. 'We need enhanced [Americans with Disabilities Act] accessibility, new bathrooms, updated security and advanced entry control to provide security for the growing business that we have.' The Center is an alternative sentencing program the courts can use for nonviolent individuals who need less institutional custody or jail. When including the people undergoing drug testing for other agencies, the Center works with around 300 people, Stewart said. 'We need to expand our treatment and supervision space to meet the needs of our large classes and improve our technology,' she said. 'We're a little behind.' The Mercer County Commission voted on May 27 to provide $100,000 for the renovation project. Stewart said the hope is to find matching grants from local foundations. County Commissioner Greg Puckett said members of the Mercer County Opportunity Workshop would help today with cleaning out and shredding the old files so renovations can get underway. 'The day report center is essential in managing our incarcerations,' he said. 'We really don't want to incarcerate people for a number of reasons.' Having the center helps Mercer County reduce its monthly bill from the state's regional jail system, Puckett said. People in the day report system can provide labor for clearing trash from roadsides and doing other tasks for the community. 'It's a win-win for everybody,' he said. The day report center's former facility, located on South Walker Street near the Mercer County Courthouse, once housed local offices for Appalachian Power. Puckett said some of its interior has been demolished to see if it can be used for other purposes. Creating offices for the county's dilapidated structures program, emergency services and litter control are among the possibilities. Stewart said after the old documents have been cleared out, the hope is to get ventilation into the attic, then start demolishing parts of the building and renovating it. The plan is to keep space for the day report center while the work is underway. 'I have been here 18 years in both day report centers, so I'm excited to see this happen,' she said. 'I've been waiting for this a long time.' Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@
Los Angeles Times
24-05-2025
- Los Angeles Times
DOJ civil rights gets Trump makeover. Will it change L.A. racial profiling lawsuits?
Keith Puckett says he was heading to the gym to help prepare his son for basketball tryouts at El Segundo High School when a police officer passing in the opposite direction flipped a U-turn and stopped him. Puckett, 47, a senior security program manager at Microsoft, was driving a weathered pickup truck he'd borrowed from a friend, according to a civil rights complaint he filed last August in L.A. County Superior Court that described the March 2021 encounter. The officer, according to the complaint, claimed the truck's rear license plate light was out. Puckett maintains he made a point of checking that all the lights worked before hitting the road. A photo included in court filings, which he said was taken the day of the stop, showed the rear of the vehicle with the license plate and a frame that said, 'I'd rather be fishing' clearly illuminated. The real reason he was stopped, his complaint claims, is the officer 'saw a colored person in the car.' It wasn't the first time Puckett, who is Black, alleges he was racially profiled in El Segundo. Puckett said in court filings that he contacted the police department and local officials to 'see if an agreement could be reached about policy changes to improve the treatment of Black people in El Segundo,' but disagreement led to the ongoing lawsuit. The city has denied wrongdoing in court filings and disputed Puckett's claims. 'The City of El Segundo is committed to treating everybody fairly, no matter their race, national origin, sexual orientation, sexual identity or alleged involvement in criminal activity,' a statement issued last August said. 'Our police chief is committed to upholding our high standards, and we do not tolerate bias or discrimination of any kind.' But in April, a judge refused a request to strike down the complaint, permitting the case to move forward. Maurice Suh, Puckett's lawyer, told The Times 'it is apparent that change won't occur without this court proceeding.' Attorneys say the remaking of the federal Department of Justice under President Trump has left lawsuits like Puckett's as one of the last lines of defense against alleged civil rights violations. Under Trump and the new leadership of Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon, roughly 70% of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division has been dissolved. What remains has been issued a new set of priorities. Instead of its traditional functions of protecting the constitutional rights of minority communities and marginalized people, the administration plans to use the department as an enforcement arm against state and local officials, college administrators and student protesters. Dhillon has said her office is done spreading 'woke ideology.' The department plans to refocus its efforts toward voter fraud and limiting the rights of transgender people. This week, the DOJ also announced it would no longer enforce consent decrees against police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., ending federal oversight that stemmed from the 2020 killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The DOJ has typically enforced laws that prohibit discrimination, prosecuted police misconduct and conducted investigations into constitutional violations entrenched in some institutions. But even with enforcement from the federal government, police departments can be slow to embrace change. State data shows racial profiling remains pervasive, with Black and Latino individuals still stopped by police at rates disproportionate to their percentage of California's population. 'The Department of Justice only gets involved with the worst of the worst, and without its oversight, systemic abuse is more likely to run rampant in our nation's law enforcement agencies,' said James DeSimone, an attorney whose firm specializes in civil rights law. Puckett's claim against El Segundo is one of several to be filed against L.A. County municipalities in recent years. The Beverly Hills Police Department has been sued repeatedly, including by several Black LAPD officers who allege they were pulled over without justification. The officers are included in a $500-million class-action lawsuit against Beverly Hills, along with over 1,000 Black people who allege they were unjustly targeted, handcuffed and arrested. Attorneys Brad Gage and Ben Crump filed the suit in 2021, and followed up with another last year, which argues racial profiling by the department continued unabated. 'The City of Beverly Hills continues to vigorously defend this case. The role of the Beverly Hills Police Department is to enforce the law, regardless of race,' wrote Keith Sterling, the deputy city manager, in a statement. Gage said that in his 40 years of practicing law, this era is the 'worst [he's] ever seen' when it comes to discrimination litigation. Gage doesn't foresee his cases being affected by the federal civil rights changes, but he is worried about what will happen to accountability for alleged 'repeat offenders' like Beverly Hills under this refashioned DOJ civil rights arm. 'We definitely want to see them have a consent decree. I don't know if that's going to be possible,' said Gage. 'It's going to be more on lawyers to try to do things through the courts.' Cuts under the Trump administration, Gage said, are expected to delay any cases involving the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission due to staffing issues as 'there just won't be enough people to handle the files.' Another Los Angeles lawyer, Will Reed, who deals with employment law and workplace discrimination, said an executive order from Trump to 'eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability' could also have major consequences. Disparate impact law comes into play in cases where bias can be subtle and may not even be intended. Its purpose is to hold employers, housing providers and others liable for practices that disproportionately harm vulnerable groups. 'If I lose the ability to use disparate impact, that's going to take away a tool that we use to try and work to make society a more equitable place,' said Reed. On the state level, a spokesperson for the California Civil Rights Department said the agency is monitoring federal actions, but its focus 'remains the same: To safeguard the civil rights of all Californians.' Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said he will continue to investigate law enforcement agencies for compliance with civil rights laws and will also keep supporting the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board. Created in 2015, the board requires law enforcement agencies to collect and report demographic data in an effort to eliminate discrimination. 'California is not backing down. My office will continue to vigorously investigate and enforce state and federal civil rights laws,' Bonta said in a statement to The Times. 'California has always prioritized this work, and we will continue to do so.' But without additional oversight from federal authorities, there's only so much the state can do. Jin Hee Lee, strategic initiatives director at the Legal Defense Fund, is concerned not only about the surge in cases private law firms and nonprofits like hers will face but also about budget cuts that have left resources scarce to fight prolonged court battles. Even though the civil rights division is shrinking, she still hasn't lost faith in local government entities. 'People shouldn't feel powerless,' said Lee. 'They still have the ability to pressure their local elected officials to make sure that the type of public safety they receive is what they want.' El Segundo officials said in a statement last August issued in response to Puckett's lawsuit that they had treated his claims seriously and hired an outside firm to conduct an independent investigation. Puckett, the statement said, had proposed a dozen policy changes, but the city found it was 'already in substantial compliance with all but one of his demands.' 'The only issue that Mr. Puckett and the City had any real disagreement over was his request that certain Vehicle Code violations be deprioritized for stops,' the El Segundo statement said. In his lawsuit, Puckett said he 'plans to continue living in El Segundo, a city he has called home for many years.' But despite his efforts to bring change, he claimed, police officers continue to follow him and he lives in fear of future encounters. Puckett called the case his 'final effort to vindicate his constitutional rights, hold the City accountable for its unlawful conduct, and compel it to stop racially profiling Black people.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Fort Gibson begins cleanup after Monday's storms
FORT GIBSON — Downed power lines and trees affected business and residential buildings as cleanup began following a possible tornado Monday night. Muskogee County Commissioner Ken Doke said damage could be seen in a straight line from near downtown toward Cherokee County. "Two Mile road is closed," Doke said. "County Line Road and along Three Mile Road, at the 1/2-mile mark, there's significant damage. And out to Six Mile Road there are trees down." Officials at the National Weather Service in Tulsa could not confirm Tuesday morning if the damage was caused by a tornado. They said crews were working from Pittsburg County up to Muskogee County and east to the Arkansas State line to evaluate damage. Several downtown businesses suffered damage inside and outside. Emergency management officials said no deaths or injuries have been reported. Granny's Porch on South Lee Street had its roof blown off and water filled some of the building. Erin Corley, whose grandmother Carol is the owner, has started a GoFundMe site to help her grandmother rebuild and recover. "We've got significant floor and water damage," Corley said. "The bottom of the shop is concrete and (Carol) lined it with different vintage rugs and all those rugs are soaked. Most of the antiques themselves are filled with water. "Nothing was broken that we can see, but it's just about getting everything back and cleaning up." City of Muskogee Emergency Management Director Tyler Evans said most of the damage he's seen, or that has been reported, has been trees and limbs. Muskogee Fire Department spokesman Scott Puckett said there were two house fires around the 2300 block of Monta Street. "We had some power lines down and they fell on a house and caused the house to catch fire,' Puckett said. "The house next to it caught fire.' He said firefighters had to be careful around electrical lines inside the house. There were no injuries. Puckett said both houses were occupied at the time but nobody was injured — one house had considerable fire and water damage. 'We had to do some ventilation on the roof and cut a hole,' he said. Puckett said Muskogee Fire Department responded to 35 emergency calls Monday. They included motor vehicle accidents, downed power lines and one water rescue. The city of Muskogee will collect storm debris at Hatbox Field, according to a social media post. "The brush and limb site at Hatbox will be open exclusively for storm debris from May 20 to May 23, operating daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.," the post stated. "It will not be open this weekend, due to the holiday, but It will reopen for our regular collection event on June 7."
Miami Herald
19-05-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Terrified newborn wild foal found trapped in Outer Banks canal, NC rescuers say
A newborn wild foal was left in a terrifying predicament when she became stuck in one of the canals that crisscross North Carolina's Outer Banks near Carova, rescuers say. The discovery was made around 8 a.m. Sunday, May 18, when a passerby spotted the tiny horse standing alone in neck-deep water along a canal bulkhead. It appeared to be cowering under a ladder, photos show. 'She either fell in or she was crossing with her family and just got accidentally left behind and then didn't know how to get out,' according to Meg Puckett, herd manager for the nonprofit Corolla Wild Horse Fund. 'They can swim just a few hours after birth so that's not an issue even if the water is deep but the bulkheads are definitely dangerous in cases like this. Luckily, she was in a spot where she could stand and keep her head above water.' There are about 100 horses in the wild herd and the older ones have learned where to easily exit the canals, but the newborn had no idea what to do, Puckett said. That made the situation potentially deadly. 'If no one had seen her, she would have become dehydrated and even more exhausted and probably would have eventually died,' Puckett said. 'I doubt she would have found her way out without help. So it was definitely an emergency and time was of the essence. I'm not sure how long she'd been in the water when she was spotted.' Finding the foal's mother proved easy, as someone else reported seeing 'a very distressed mare' standing in the same area, Puckett said. A rescue team was quickly mobilized and entered the canal to guide the foal out. She was then taken by truck to her mother's location, Puckett said. 'She is nursing and behaving normally (though understandably exhausted) and we will of course keep a very close eye on her over the next couple of days. Hopefully all's well that ends well,' Puckett said. The foal was born sometime between May 14 and May 17, and appeared to be in good health before the incident, officials said. It's common for wild mares to disappear into the maritime forest to give birth, then emerge days later with their foal, experts say. The Corolla Wild Horse Fund uses donations to tend the wild herd, including protection, medical needs and occasional rescues. Carova is about a 240-mile drive northeast from Raleigh at the northern end of the Outer Banks. It is home to one of several wild mustang herds that came to the Outer Banks aboard Spanish ships in the 1500s, historians say. Among the herds is one farther south on an isolated island within Cape Lookout National Seashore.
