Surrogate bonds with baby gorilla rejected by mother
A 30-year-old gorilla at a Florida zoo has become a surrogate mother to a baby gorilla whose mother hasn’t shown sufficient interest in her baby. Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens spokeswoman JJ Vitale tells the Florida Times-Union that Bulera began holding five-month-old Gandai as soon as they were introduced on February 27. She says that within minutes Bulera was “comforting her with soft vocal rumbles.” The gorilla’s mother, Kumbuka, had already lost two infants at the zoo. Officials believe that because she is deaf she didn’t hear their distress cries. They intervened when they observed Kumbuka incorrectly holding the baby. Zookeepers took turns providing round-the-clock care until a surrogate was found.
Man receives congratulatory telegram 50 years later
A man who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1969 has finally received a congratulatory telegram from family friends that was sent more than 50 years ago.
Robert Fink received the Western Union telegram this year.
Western Union ended its telegram business in 2006. The Washington Post first reported on the telegram finally being delivered to Fink. The telegram originally arrived in 1969 at an Ann Arbor apartment Fink shared with three classmates a day after he had left to attend graduate school in New York.
Christina Zaske rediscovered the telegram in December after removing the bottom drawer of an old filing cabinet now owned by Ann Arbor-based digital marketing agency ICON Interactive to retrieve a piece of paper that had fallen inside. “I looked inside, mostly because I was curious to see an actual telegram,” Zaske told The Ann Arbor News.
Zaske saw Fink’s name on the paper and used the internet to find him and return the note. Fink is now a professor at Oakland University in Rochester, a Detroit suburb that’s about 45 miles northeast of Ann Arbor. “I was surprised to learn that he had never received the telegram and was glad that I could reunite it with its intended recipient all of these years later,” Zaske said. Fink said the letter has brought back memories and made him reflect on his old connections.
“The theme for me has been that the long arm of the past is reaching out and grabbing me, and I should take it seriously,” he said. Fink said he’s regretful he never had the chance to thank Ben and Lillian Fischman for sending the telegram, noting that they’ve both died. “It also left me with a funny sense of guilt that they had thought about me that way,” Fink said. “It took some effort to send a telegram — it’s not like texting someone. It touched me they had thought about me and made the effort to do so.”
orange jumpsuit betrays Detainee
A detainee briefly escaped after a court hearing and ran through a North Carolina town, but his orange jumpsuit gave him away. The Shelby Star reports that Joseph Lee Short had just appeared in court Wednesday and was waiting with others to be taken back to jail when he removed a leg restraint and ran out of a parking garage.
Sheriff’s Office Maj. Durwin Briscoe says Short ran through several parking lots as deputies tracked him down after about five minutes. Briscoe says the “orange jumpsuit helped him stand out.”
He has been in jail since May after being charged with robbing a Kings Mountain bank. Officials at the sheriff’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if Short has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.
Judge: Jail time for man who attacked McDonald’s worker
A Florida man who grabbed a McDonald’s worker by the collar because he couldn’t find a straw was sentenced to 60 days in jail. A Pinellas County judge also ordered 40-year-old Daniel Willis Taylor to stay away from the restaurant and the workers he attacked in an incident caught on video. Taylor was credited with the 58 days in jail he already served. He also must pay a $1,000 fine.
Authorities say Taylor became irate when he couldn’t find a straw on New Years’ Eve. The video shows him standing at the counter, screaming at 20-year-old Yasmine James before grabbing and holding onto her shirt collar. She responded by hitting him several times. The Tampa Bay Times reports Taylor kicked another worker while being escorted out.
Most expensive new car: Bugatti sells for $19 m
The most expensive new car ever sold is a one-off Bugatti luxury sports car that has gone for 16.7 million euros ($18.9 million). “La Voiture Noire” — French for “The Black Car” — is a low-slung sports car with a huge 16-cylinder engine and Bugatti’s trademark front grille.
The manufacturer unveiled it at the Geneva auto show this week, and said Thursday that it had been sold at what it and industry experts said was a record price for a new car. The identity of the buyer was not revealed, though the buzz surrounding the move will have burnished Bugatti’s image as a maker of luxury trophy cars. Stephan Winkelmann, the president of Volkswagen-owned Bugatti, said: “The true form of luxury is individuality.”