Authorities later discovered that the dog, named Tinsley, was the pet of one of the people injured in the crash. Tinsley appeared to be unharmed and deliberately led police to the owner.
Vermont State Police are investigating the crash.
Image source: NECN, New Hampshire State PoliceAuthor: Darby Jones
- Heroic Dog Leads Troopers to Site of Serious Car Crash to Help Save Owner
- New Hampshire State Police said troopers were initially responding to a report of a loose dog on a bridge near the Vermont border Monday night. When authorities arrived, they found a large German Shepherd in the northbound lanes of Interstate 89 in Lebanon, New Hampshire. When they approached the dog, it continued running north, guiding police to a damaged section of a guardrail. Police spotted a heavily damaged truck that appeared to have flipped over, and responders saw two people ejected from the vehicle. Both of the victims were suffering major injuries from the crash and hypothermia from the severely cold weather.
Authorities later discovered that the dog, named Tinsley, was the pet of one of the people injured in the crash. Tinsley appeared to be unharmed and deliberately led police to the owner.
Vermont State Police are investigating the crash.
Image source: NECN, New Hampshire State Police
- Māori Journalist Becomes First Person with Traditional Facial Markings to Present Primetime News
- On Christmas Day, Oriini Kaipara hosted her first 6 p.m. bulletin for Newshub on TV channel Three. "I was really elated. I was over the moon," Kaipara told CNN. "It's a huge honor. I don't know how to deal with the emotions." This was the first of six consecutive days covering for the primetime news show’s permanent anchors, and her stretch will continue into early January, and the 38-year-old may be called again in the future.
Kaipara is the permanent anchor of the 4:30 p.m. “Newshub Live” bulletin. In 2019, she made history as the first person with Māori facial markings to present a mainstream TV news program.
The Māori people are the indigenous people of what is now New Zealand. The traditional face markings are tattooed on the chin for women, known as moko kauae. For men. The markings cover most of the face and are known as mataora.
"When I doubt myself, and I see my reflection in the mirror, I'm not just looking at myself," said Kaipara. "I'm looking at my grandmother and my mother, and my daughters, and hers to come after me, as well as all the other women, Māori girls out there and it empowers me."
Kaipara says she was inspired by Māori TV news presenter, Tini Molyneux, when she was a young girl. "She was my idol," Kaipara said. "She had the same skin color as me... she sounded like me, she looked like me. And she comes from where I come from originally, my family, whakapapa (ancestors), where are ancestral ties are to our land."
Kaipara hopes to inspire young girls, just as Molyneux did for her. "For a long time our people, our ancestors, our tipuna, and us now, have done so much work to get to where we are," she said. "As a young woman, as a young Māori, what you do today influences and affects what happens tomorrow. So all I ask is that they see the beauty in being Māori and they embrace it and acknowledge that and do what they can with it for positive change."
Image source: CNN
- Two Oregon Teens Rescued After Coast Guard Spots “SOS” in Snow
- Two 19-year-old hikers who became trapped on the side of a mountain near Eugene, Oregon were rescued by the United States Coast Guard after their “SOS” signal was spotted in the snow. Christian Farnsworth and Parker Jasmer were on a winter camping trip near Swastika Mountain around Christmas day and failed to return as expected on Dec. 29. The men were reported missing on New Year’s Eve. Due to heavy snow in the area, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew assisted the Lane County Sheriff’s Department in locating Farnsworth and Jasmer. The crew found the pair on Saturday, Jan. 1, and they were evacuated via helicopter to the Eugene Airport. No injuries were reported. "These young men did a lot of things right to give themselves the best chance of being rescued," said Lt. Maggie Champin, MH-65 aircraft commander for Sector North Bend. "By writing 'SOS' in the snow, staying near their vehicle and staying near logging roads, we were able to find them relatively quickly. We recommend hikers carry personal locator beacons while out in the back country." During the rescue mission, the helicopter crew also identified two other hikers in distress and reported them to the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. Image source: KSLA 12
- Colorado Skiers Save Dog Buried in Avalanche
- Bobby White and Josh Trujillo were backcountry skiing the popular Berthoud pass area in Colorado when they spotted a cloud of snow erupting — a sure sign of an avalanche approaching — around 1,000 feet away. White rushed to put his split board back together while Trujillo immediately skied toward the avalanche debris, where he found another group of skiers. Every person from the group was accounted for, but they could not find their dog, a two-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever named Apollo. According to Apollo’s owner, Scott Shepherd, he ran away from the owner above a steep, rocky slope, triggered the avalanche and was swept over the cliff before disappearing into a sea of snow. "He started moving, and he just looked confused like, 'Why am I sliding down the hill?' And then he was just gone,"Shepherd told ABC News. The group used probe poles, typically around eight feet long, to poke through the snow in hopes of finding Apollo.
"Needle in a haystack," White is heard exclaiming in his helmet video recording the search, which was filmed with a GoPro he said he bought the day before. "I think we need to get out of here," White tells Trujillo in the helmet video. "That dog is dead. This is why I don't like dogs in avalanche terrain to begin with. We're all like probing underneath the worst avalanche terrain in Berthoud right now."
But, just two minutes later, Trujillo spots a nose sticking out of the snow. "I found him! I found him, I found him, I found him!" he shouts. "I can see him. He's still alive."
After about a minute of digging, the dog wiggles free and leaps out of the snow.
"There's no way I would have found him in time to get him out there because I was still way up the slope, making my way around," Shepherd told ABC News. "I think they saved his life, and I can never be grateful enough for that."
Image source: ABC News
- Map Drawn From Memory Helps Man Reunite with Family Decades After Kidnapping
- Li Jingwei was just four years old when he was kidnapped by a man he knew from his family’s village in southwestern Yunnan province in China. It was 1988, and he was taken to live with another family in central Henan province, where he grew up. Although he was a young child, Jingwei still understood he had been taken far from home. He did not remember his birth name, his parents’ names or the name of his village, but he did remember what his village looked like: growing trees, grazing cows, turning roads and flowing rivers. Jingwei also remembered rice paddies, ponds and bamboo shoots near his home. As a child, when he was homesick, he would draw pictures of his village. Eventually, he began drawing it once a day, according to a state-run news outlet The Paper.
Recently, thanks to the success of other kidnapped children in China, such as Guo Xinzhen, who was abducted in 1997 as a two-year-old and reunited with his parents last summer, Jingwei decided to have another go at finding his parents. His daily drawings paid off: his sketch displayed an extraordinary level of detail, including winding paths, houses and highways. There was even a label depicting where water buffalo lived.
"So many years have passed, I don't know if anyone in my family is looking for me," Jingwei said in a video posted to the Chinese video platform Douyin. "I want to be able to see my parents again while they are still here."
The photo of the hand drawn map went viral on social media, and it garnered the attention of the Ministry of Public Security, which got involved in the investigation. Soon, authorities were able to locate Jingwei’s birth mother in Zhaotong, Yunnan. DNA samples were taken to confirm their relation.
A video of the reunion, which was shared widely by state media and on social media, shows Jingwei falling to his mother's feet and the pair embracing in tears, surrounded by supporters and other members of his birth family. "I've finally found my baby," said Jingwei's mother.
Image source: BBC
- Iowa Cubs Owner Gifts Employees $2k Bonuses for Each Year They Have Been with Team, Totaling $600k
- For one of his final gestures as longtime chairman and principal owner of the Iowa Cubs, Michael Gartner, 83, gathered all of the organization's employees in the Betfred Sports Lounge at principal park for a surprise. Gartner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former president of NBC News, and his four partners recently finalized the sale of the team — while the exact sale price remains undisclosed, Forbes valued the team at an estimated $30 million. Some of the employees were brought to the suite while others, away on vacation, joined via Zoom call as Gartner thanked them for their work. He handed them a stack of envelopes, stating there were new business cards inside. “Everybody kind of laughed and at that point just with his tone, we knew there was going to be more than just business cards,” Iowa Cubs broadcaster Alex Cohen said. However, inside the envelopes were payroll checks. Gartner and his partners were sharing profits of the club's sale to all 23 full-time staff members of the team. Everyone, including the club's custodian, received a check according to the number of years they worked for the team. Every employee collected $2,000 for every year they had been working for the Iowa Cubs, even as interns. As the envelopes were opened, the employees became ecstatic and emotional. "It was pretty crazy," Cohen said. “People were crying and shaking.” A total of $600,000 — from the team’s sale — was given to the employees The longest tenured employee received a check for $70,000. "It's a fantastic gesture, no matter what business you're in, but to be in minor league baseball with a lot of long days, a lot of long hours and a lot of hard work, it was really nice and appreciated," said Scott Sailor, the team's former director of communications. When the COVID-19 pandemic halted the 2020 Minor League Baseball season, Gartner, unlike owners across the sport, refused to lay off or furlough his staff, keeping them employed to ensure they were able to get by. Image source: Des Moines Register
- Dog From Long Island Becomes First with Three Legs to Compete in American Kennel Club Agility Event
- Rascal, a Norwich Terrier from Long Island, New York, won the 100-yard dash in 2020. Now, the soon-to-be three-year-old is returning to the ring after losing one of his back legs to cancer. "Well there was a lump on his leg that was noticed in December of last year, everyone told us this would be way worse on my husband Don and me than it is on Rascal, and it is true, he has no clue he is missing a leg," said owner Lark Shlimbaum. Competing, though, was a different story for Rascal. Some agility events, including American Kennel Club events, did not permit dogs with just three legs until Shlimbaum inquired and received support. "I started a little campaign - talking to people, a little social media," she said. In November, the AKC responded to her requests regarding the eligibility of agility dogs, saying: "After careful deliberation, it has been determined that having three legs does not preclude a dog from having functional movement and being physically sound." Therefore, three-legged dogs are eligible for entry at AKC agility trials." Last month, Rascal became the first three-legged dog to compete in an AKC agility event. "First one in the world to do it, and the standing ovation at the end of his run...makes me cry," said Shlimbaum. Image source: Newsday
- ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Amy Schneider Becomes Show’s Top Female Earner
- “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider made history last week, becoming the highest-earning female contestant in the game show’s 57-year history. The engineering manager’s 18th-consecutive win brought her overall earnings to a whopping $706,800. She surpassed the previous record holder, Larissa Kelly, to become the show’s top-earning female player. Kelly’s record was $655,930. "Well, it was fun to hold a Jeopardy record for a few years...but it’s been even more fun to watch @Jeopardamy set new standards for excellence, on the show and off. Congratulations to Amy on becoming the woman with the highest overall earnings in the show’s history!" wrote Kelly on Twitter. Schneider responded, tweeting: "Thanks so much, I’m honored to be in your company, and I look forward to some day watching the woman who beats us both!" Schneider, from Oakland, California, first made game show history last month as the show’s first transgender contestant to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, an annual competition among 15 players who have earned the most money from their prior season. However Schneider does not want her gender identity to be her entire persona. “I didn’t want to make too much about being trans, at least in the context of the show,” she wrote in a Twitter thread last month. “I am a trans woman, and I’m proud of that fact, but I’m a lot of other things, too!” Image source: NBC News
- Detroit Cops Rescue Puppies Trapped in Abandoned Mattress Spring
- The day after Christmas, Detroit police noticed that something seemed off at an abandoned house. A malnourished new dog mom was scavenging for food outside of the house, with two young puppies inside — one of which had gotten his neck tied up in a mattress spring. Around 5 p.m., two officers with Detroit’s 11th Precinct were called to respond to a report of a “vicious dog” in the area. However, Officers H. Kourani and G. Rogers said that the dog they found was “nowhere near that.” The dog was friendly but noticeably underweight, and they could tell she had recently given birth. "Their stomachs and their mammary glands get very swollen and enlarged because they're filled with their milk for their puppies," Rogers told Fox News. "So it was something I immediately recognized." The officers worked to gain the mother’s trust by feeding her treats until she felt comfortable. "I generally always keep bags of dog treats in my car and our police car, so I kind of just worked my way up on the porch, getting closer and closer with the treats," Rogers said. "And she was obviously very hungry. So she was taking them from me, and she finally was taking them out of my hand after about 30 minutes of me trying to get through to her. And after that, she started to trust us a little bit more." Once the officers earned her trust, they went inside the house to look for the puppies. "As soon as we turned that first corner into the living room, we saw a tiny brown puppy laying on top of a beat-up mattress," Kourani said. The officers rescued the puppy that was caught in a spring with a coil around his neck. "I just used all my force to break it off his neck," she said. "He did whimper a little bit once I got it off, but I think that was a sense of relief." The officers said a veterinarian told them the puppies likely wouldn’t have survived the night if they hadn’t been rescued. "Whether it's animal life or human life, we’re always going to do our best to try to protect and preserve it as much as possible," Kourani said. Image source: Fox News
- After Noticing Lack of Asian-American Representation in U.S. Bookstores, 27-Year-Old Woman Opens Her Own
- Since she was a young girl, Lucy Yu always felt there was a lack of Asian-American representation in U.S. bookstores. So, on Dec. 11, the 27-year-old opened Yu and Me Books in NYC’s Chinatown neighborhood. Yu and Me Books is believed to be the first of its kind: Asian American woman owned and filled with stories of the experiences of minorities in America and second generation immigrants. Yu and Me Books has a selection of stories to represent you and me. "I really focus on diverse authors, writers of color, stories with people of color as their main character, especially immigrant stories," said Yu, who is a chemical engineer originally from Los Angeles. "I love math, I love science, but I think just being an engineer and having that background, that wasn't a path that was really bringing me a lot of fulfillment or joy.” When she moved to New York three years ago, it immediately felt like home. “I’ve just never felt like a city gave me a hug like New York did,” Yu said. The attacks on the Asian community brought on by the pandemic made representation even more critical for Yu. "Seeing someone that looked like my grandmother, my mother, myself, just walking through the streets and being attacked, it was, it was a very scary time," Yu said. "And it still is. And I think that really propelled me to open this up even sooner." Yu said that support “has been really amplified” in opening her bookstore: “I feel so grateful that all these writers and makers trust me to create this warm and welcoming space for them to work.” Image source: The Washington Post