ORLANDO, Fla. — Fifty-two bears were killed during Florida’s first black bear hunt in a decade, state wildlife officials said Tuesday.

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The bear hunt, which started Dec. 6 and ended on Sunday, had been restricted to 172 permit holders who had won their vouchers through a random lottery involving more than 160,000 applicants.

At least four dozen of the permits went to opponents of the hunt who never intended to use them, according to the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, which encouraged critics to apply in the hopes of saving bears. Each permit holder was allowed to kill one bear as part of the state’s wildlife management strategy.

The Florida black bear population is considered one of the state’s conservation success stories, having grown from just several hundred bears in the 1970s to an estimate over 4,000. Opponents had questioned whether the hunt was necessary, but they were unable to convince the courts to halt it.

“The 2025 black bear hunt, rooted in sound scientific data, was a success,” Roger Young, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said in a statement.

The kill count may have been lower than expected for a range of reasons, including the possibilities that the state overestimated the population or conservationists managed to take up enough permits to make a difference, said Susannah Randolph, director of the Sierra Club’s Florida chapter.

The lack of transparency by state officials about the number raised questions about whether it was accurate since there were no check-in stations for hunters like in 2015, and hunters self-reported their kills via the commission’s hunting app, Randolph said.

Until Tuesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had refused to divulge any details on the number of bears killed, despite multiple media requests.

“They have designed it so that they don’t actually know the numbers, and they have been dodging the media,” Randolph said. “So that is super fishy right off the bat.”

This year’s hunting plan had more stringent rules than the 2015 hunt, in which permits were provided to anyone who could pay for them, resulting in more than 3,700 permits issued. That led to a chaotic event that was shut down days early. Of the 304 bears killed, at least 38 were females with cubs, meaning the young bears may have died too.

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A woman who authorities say had passed out when a fire broke out in her Vadnais Heights home, injuring her three young children, was charged Monday with three felony counts of child endangerment.

Four Maplewood firefighters were honored for saving the two younger children’s lives: A Maplewood firefighter crew that was first to arrive found heavy black smoke coming out the front door and while some worked to put out the fire others went inside to find and carry out the children.

Capt. Brad McGee headed for the second floor despite “zero visibility” and found a 3-year-old boy at the top of the stairs. He passed the boy to Firefighter/Paramedic Emma Johnson, who carried the child to Firefighter/Paramedic Nick Cook at the front door. Cook immediately began lifesaving aid. Firefighter/Paramedic Wendy Mainka rescued a 14-month-old girl from a second-floor bedroom and carried the child to safety.

The two youngest “required lengthy hospital stays, but they were ultimately discharged … without long term effects from the incident.”

Girl woke mother

The criminal complaint said about 5:45 p.m. Nov. 2, 2024,  911 dispatchers received calls about a fire at a Vadnais Heights townhome. When they arrived a distressed 8-year-old girl covered in soot was sitting outside. A 28-year-old woman said she’d fallen asleep and the 8-year-old, her daughter, had woken her saying there was a fire.

Because the front door was blocked, she and her daughter had jumped out of the home from a second-story window. She said her other two children were still inside the home.

Firefighters found the unconscious 3-year-old boy in a hallway covered in soot and smoke and only wearing a diaper. The 14-month-old girl, also covered in soot, was found in the corner of a bedroom with black residue in her nose. She was alert but having trouble breathing. Firefighters suctioned a large amount of soot from her airways, according to the complaint.

All three children were taken to the hospital, where the two youngest were intubated in critical condition.

Alcohol in system

At the hospital the mother told people there that she had been preparing grease for cooking and either lay down or passed out.

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Police obtained a search warrant for a blood alcohol test and, four hours after the fire, the woman’s blood alcohol content was more than .10%. She also tested positive for THC in her system.

Prosecutors say that two years before the fire, the woman was convicted of a misdemeanor DWI after driving her car into a ditch with a toddler inside the vehicle who was not in a car seat. She registered a blood alcohol level of .17%. The legal limit to drive is .08%.

Eight months before the fire, she was convicted of a misdemeanor DWI after being pulled over for speeding in Vadnais Heights and registering a blood alcohol level of .10%.

By HOLLY RAMER

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Imagine the buffet.

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Forty-thousand oysters, lobster worth $400,000 and a cache of crabmeat all were stolen in separate incidents within weeks of each other in New England.

The first seafood vanished on Nov. 22 in Falmouth, Maine, where authorities suspect someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from an aquaculture site in Casco Bay. Many of the oysters were full-grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages were worth $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol.

“This is a devastating situation for a small businessman,” said Marine Patrol Sgt. Matthew Sinclair.

The other two thefts happened in Taunton, Massachusetts, about 160 miles away. First, a load of crab disappeared after leaving the Lineage Logistics warehouse on Dec. 2. Then, on Dec. 12, lobster meat destined for Costco stores in Illinois and Minnesota was stolen by a fraudulent trucking company, according to the broker who arranged the pickup.

“The carrier we hired impersonated a real carrier,” Dylan Rexing, CEO of Rexing Companies, said Tuesday. “They had a spoofed email address. They changed the name on the side of the truck. The made a fake certified driver’s license. It’s a very sophisticated crime.”

Lineage Logistics, Costco and Taunton Police did not respond to requests for comment, but Rexing said police told him about the crab theft from the same warehouse.

That kind of cargo theft has been a problem for over a decade, he said, but has gotten worse in recent years.

“It happens every day, multiple times a day,” he said.

Freight theft generally falls into two categories, said Chris Burroughs, president and CEO of Transportation Intermediaries Association, a trade organization for the freight brokerage industry. The lobster heist fits in the first type, which involves someone impersonating a legitimate trucking company. The second type, known as strategic theft, often involves using phishing emails to gain access to computer systems and get paid without actually stealing the product.

“This is a massive growing problem that needs to get addressed,” he said.

Given its short shelf life, the stolen lobster likely ended up restaurants, both said. And while he’s seen plenty of quips about stealing butter to go with the lobster, Rexing said such thefts ultimately harm consumers.

“Whether you eat seafood or not, they’re stealing other items. They’re stealing items to build your cars. They’re stealing items that go into computers,” he said. “Ultimately, that cost gets thrown to the consumer.”

The Gophers football program will not retain special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky for the 2026 season, a source told the Pioneer Press on Tuesday.

This is the second dismissal of a Gophers assistant since the end of the regular season. Defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter also was let go and replaced by rush ends coach C.J. Robbins and Bobby April III, the Stanford defensive coordinator and outside linebackers coach, who is expected to come to the U as rush ends coach.

In his second season at Minnesota, Ligashesky’s units had a couple of bright spots — punter Tom Weston and returner Koi Perich — but lagged in multiple categories. Minnesota was 110th in field goal percentage (66.7%); 104th in punt return average (6.0 yards); 102nd in opponent punt returns (10.6); and 107th in opponent kickoff returns (22.8).

The Gophers were in control of the Rate Bowl on Friday with a 14-6 lead in the fourth quarter before New Mexico returner Damon Bankston returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to help set up overtime. Minnesota won 20-17 in the extra session in Phoenix.

Last year, transfer kicker Brady Denaburg was 14 for 21 on field goals, including 2 of 7 from 40 yards or longer.

Weston, a transfer from Division II Ouachita Baptist, was all-Big Ten last year, with 65 punts for a 42.5-yard average that registered 72nd in the nation.

Perich’s six kickoff returns of more than 25 yards, including a 93-yarder in the 38-35 Northwestern loss on Nov. 22, helped put the U at 33rd in the nation in average return (22.8 yards).

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