South Florida Local News

Today is Saturday, Feb. 14, the 45th day of 2026. There are 320 days left in the year. This is Valentine’s Day.

Today in history:

On Feb. 14, 1929, the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone’s gang were gunned down.

Also on this date:

In 1779, English explorer James Cook was killed on the island of Hawai’i during a confrontation after Cook’s attempt to kidnap Hawaiian monarch Kalaniʻōpuʻu as leverage to recover a boat stolen from one of Cook’s ships.

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In 1876, inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied separately for patents related to the telephone. (The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled Bell the rightful inventor.)

In 1984, 6-year-old Stormie Jones became the world’s first heart-liver transplant recipient when the surgery was performed at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The girl died in 1990 at age 13.

In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” a novel the ayatollah condemned as blasphemous against Islam.

In 2013, double-amputee Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, at his home in Pretoria, South Africa, saying he mistook her for an intruder; he was later convicted of murder and served nearly nine years of a sentence of 13 years and five months before being released from prison in January 2024.

In 2017, a former store clerk, Pedro Hernandez, was convicted in New York of murder in one of the nation’s most haunting missing-child cases, nearly 38 years after 6-year-old Etan Patz (AY’-tahn payts) disappeared while on the way to a school bus stop.

In 2018, a former student opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack in Newtown, Connecticut, more than five years earlier. (Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder in October 2021 and was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)

In 2023, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that more than 35,000 people died in Turkey as a result of an earthquake on Feb. 6, making it the deadliest such disaster since the country’s founding 100 years earlier. (The combined death toll in Turkey and neighboring Syria would surpass 50,000 people).

Today’s birthdays:

• Former New York City mayor and businessman Michael Bloomberg is 84.
• Saxophonist Maceo Parker is 83.
• Journalist Carl Bernstein is 82.
• Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 78.
• Opera singer Renée Fleming is 67.
• Actor Meg Tilly is 66.
• Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly is 66.
• Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio is 59.
• Actor Simon Pegg is 56.
• Rock singer Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) is 54.
• Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe is 54.
• Actor Danai Gurira is 48.
• Actor Freddie Highmore is 34.
• Actor Madison Iseman is 29.

BOYNTON BEACH — Somerset Canyons sophomore goalkeeper Jayden Rios didn’t play in Friday night’s 3A boys regional title game against defending state champion American Heritage-Delray until the final 1 minute, 45 seconds of the second overtime.

It was by design, as he and fellow sophomore goalie Massimo Valdepenas had split time for much of the season. Cougars soccer coach Eric De Sousa had committed to playing Rios in a penalty kick shootout to advance to the first final four appearance in school history.

“Massimo is a great keeper,” said Rios, who also had a penalty-kicks win last season. “Honestly, the save doesn’t compare to anything. Everybody was cheering the team and me on. This is the best.”

Rios, who didn’t touch the ball at all during overtime, got fingertips on three of the Stallions’ six penalty kicks in the shootout, but smothered the final shot by Oliver Pierro as Somerset Canyons stunned defending state champion American Heritage-Delray 3-2 (6-5 PKs) on Friday night.

“We knew Massimo was going to play this game,” De Sousa said. “We gave Rios the district championship final. We knew if it went to (penalty kicks), Rios was our guy.”

Mateo Kukcuoglu gave American Heritage-Delray (12-6) a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute, but Juan Casillas equalized for the Cougars on a penalty kick with a little less than four minutes remaining in regulation.

The Stallions’ Michael Harris blasted home a goal just three minutes into the first overtime before Kingston Alexis saw to it that the game went an additional 20 minutes of overtime when he scored off a brilliant left-footed cross from Emmanuel Colmenares with a little more than four minutes remaining for Somerset Canyons.

“Man, I just had to figure out my movement and get by two defenders,” Alexis said. “I don’t remember much. I just went crazy. Last year, we couldn’t go, so we wanted to do it right here on our field.

“We did this for the girls, too,” Alexis said after the defending state champion Cougars girls lost in PKs in a similar fashion to North Broward Prep just hours earlier.  “They gave us motivation because we didn’t want to lose out here, too. We did it for them because it is a whole family out here.”

The Cougars (15-2-2) face Santa Fe (14-4-3) in the 3A state semifinal at Lake Myrtle Sport Complex in Auburndale on Thursday at 4 p.m. Top-seeded Downtown Doral (17-1-3) plays Cocoa Beach (16-7-1) in the other semifinal at 7 p.m.

De Sousa said the team was committed to earning a higher seed this year than American Heritage-Delray after losing the regional final last year as the visitor.

“It was a roller-coaster ride,” De Sousa said. “We wanted to play them on our field, in front of our fans. It was the same way in the district final (a 2-1 loss): we were down, came back, tied it, and then they won in the last minute.

“We knew we had to be resilient today,” he added. “They are going to make a movie someday about American Heritage and us. It is a classic. We weren’t going to change tactics, and for a freshman (Angel Morales) to make his kick at the end was incredible.”

Morales said he just started taking more penalty kicks this season, his first in high school and for his club.

“I was just blurring everything out as I was walking up to take the penalty kick,” Morales said. “I just focused, picked a side, and made it. I am happy for my team, and I believe we can win (state).”

American Heritage-Delray coach Victor Sanchez credited Somerset Canyons with being a “resilient bunch of boys.”

“They were down, and they battled through,” Sanchez said. “It’s tough. Our boys were resilient as well. There were some definite lows in the game for us, but I think we did an amazing job.

“I felt pretty confident going into the PKs, but things just didn’t fall our way,” he added. “For these boys, it is about their journey, and my heart goes out to them. We battled injuries and adversity all year, and I am proud of them, but you have to give a lot of credit to Somerset.”

Regional finals

Friday

3A

1. Somerset Canyons def. 3. American Heritage-Delray 3-2 (PKs)

2A

1. Melbourne Holy Trinity def. 2. King’s Academy 3-2 (PKs)

1A

1. Miami BridgePrep def. 3. Highlands Christian 3-1

According to FHSAA.com

Tuesday at 7 p.m. unless noted

7A

3. Columbus at 1. Cypress Bay

6A

3. Monarch at 1. St. Thomas Aquinas

5A

7. Dr. Joaquin Garcia at 4. Pembroke Pines Charter

4A

4. Mater Lakes at 2. American Heritage

State semifinals

In Auburndale

3A

Somerset Canyons vs. Santa Fe, Thursday, 4 p.m.

 

BOYNTON BEACH — Ella Munoz has been a multisport star at North Broward Prep since she was in the sixth grade.

The senior defender’s star never shone brighter than Friday night as her goal with a little over a minute left in the second overtime tied the game, and her game-sealing penalty kick in the shootout lifted the visiting Eagles (19-1-3) to a come-from-behind victory over the defending state champion Somerset Canyons 2-1 (4-2 PKs) in the 3A regional championship.

“I normally play defense and don’t really get a chance to shoot,” said Munoz, a multi-time Sun Sentinel All-County first-team selection for both soccer and track and field. “I can’t believe I scored. It was crazy to have the girls celebrate with me twice. … We have unfinished business (at state).”

North Broward Prep senior Ella Munoz celebrates after scoring the game-tying goal in the closing minute to force overtime in the Class 3A girls soccer regional championship game on Friday night. Munoz also scored the game-sealing penalty kick in the shootout as the visiting Eagles took down defending state champion Somerset Canyons, 2-1 (4-2 PKs). (Gary Curreri/Contributor)

Munoz, whose only other trip to the state tournament came as an eighth grader when the team fell to Benjamin 4-2 in the state semifinal, will get another shot at a state championship as the No. 25-ranked Eagles face rival Cardinal Gibbons (20-0-2) at Lake Lytal Soccer Park in Auburndale on Thursday at 10 a.m.

The teams tied 1-1 on Nov. 6.

North Broward Prep has won 17 straight since a 2-1 loss to University School, including two wins over Somerset (14-3-1). The only other blemish on the Cardinal Gibbons’ record has been a 1-1 draw with Archbishop McCarthy in mid-November.

“They are an unbelievable team, unbelievably coached, and I wish them the best,” said Somerset Canyons coach Oscar Narvaez, whose only other loss was a 3-1 setback to Lourdes Academy. “It was a state championship atmosphere, and in the last minute, they stepped up. Ella Munoz is a helluva kid and a great player.”

Somerset Canyons, ranked 17th in the country by MaxPreps, had the Eagles on their heels most of the night, holding a 13-4 shot advantage.

North Broward Prep senior Lila Brown, right, battles Somerset Canyons senior Natalie Bruno in the Class 3A girls soccer regional championship game on Friday night. The visiting Eagles took down defending state champion Somerset Canyons, 2-1 (4-2 PKs). (Gary Curreri/Contributor)

The Cougars grabbed a 1-0 lead when senior midfielder and FAU signee Sephora Joachim found senior midfielder and Kennesaw State signee Natalie Bruno at the top of the penalty area, where she spun to her right and rifled a shot just past the outstretched arms of Eagles’ senior goalkeeper Zoie Brown.

As she did in the district championship win, Brown was called on to make several key saves. She turned away two shots by Bruno and Joachim in the first half and then made two saves in the penalty kick shootout. The Eagles converted all four of their penalty kicks in the shootout, by Lila Brown, Sienna Lopez, Kaiden O’Neill and Munoz.

Brown, who was teammates with Joachim in winning a national championship for Team Boca, said she tried to recall where Joachim favored in the shootout.

“Since the eighth grade, we wanted this to go full circle,” Brown said. “We worked so hard all season for this. I thought she would go right. I went with my gut. Winning a national title and going back to state in my senior year is about the same level.”

Trailing 1-0 with three minutes to go in the second overtime, North Broward Prep coach Tricia Amrhein pushed Munoz forward from her center back position. The decision was rewarded less than two minutes later on a 30-yard curling shot to the far post past Somerset Canyons senior goalkeeper Mia Castano.

Somerset Canyons senior Natalie Bruno brings the ball upfield as North Broward Prep senior Isabella Cancelier, left, and senior Sophia Souza defend in the Class 3A girls soccer regional championship game on Friday night. The visiting Eagles took down defending state champion Somerset Canyons, 2-1 (4-2 PKs). (Gary Curreri/Contributor)

“I told Ella to go up and play high and do what she can do,” Amrhein said. “And she put it in the back of the net. I know whenever Ella is involved in a play, something good is going to happen, and I knew once we went to PKs with Zoie that we would win it. If there was a group that I wanted it for, it was them.”

Somerset Canyons played without its leading scorer, Alexia Hansen, who was recently called in for the United States U17 National team training. Hansen was the co-Sun Sentinel 4A-1A player of the year last season and is an LSU commit.

Regional finals

Friday

3A

2. North Broward Prep def. 1. Somerset Canyons 2-1 (PKs)

1. Cardinal Gibbons def. 6. Immaculata-La Salle 3-1

2A

1. King’s Academy def. 3. Edgewood 1-0

1A

1. Berean Christian def. 2. South Florida HEAT 3-2

Tuesday at 7 p.m. unless noted

According to FHSAA.com

7A

2. Jupiter at 1. Lake Nona, 6 p.m.

2. Wellington at 1. Cypress Bay, 5 p.m.

6A

3. Cooper City at 1. St. Thomas Aquinas

5A

3. Pembroke Pines Charter at 1. Miami Lourdes Academy

4A

2. Somerset Academy at 1. American Heritage

State semifinals

In Auburndale

3A

North Broward Prep vs. Cardinal Gibbons, Thursday, 10 a.m.

2A

King’s Academy vs. Lakeland Christian, Tuesday, 10 a.m.

1A

Berean Christian vs. Canterbury, Friday, 10 a.m.

CORAL GABLES — A combination of newcomers and returning standouts led Miami to a 13-2 season-opening victory over Lehigh at Mark Light Field on Friday night.

“We’re still undefeated, right?” UM coach JD Arteaga said. “We’re 1 and 0, so that’s a good way to start the season.”

Sophomore starting pitcher AJ Ciscar tossed five innings of one-run ball in the victory, and Miami got big hits from new catcher Alex Sosa and returning designated hitter Max Galvin.

After working a pair of relatively clean innings, Ciscar found himself in trouble in the third inning. Two infield singles and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for Lehigh with two outs, and Lehigh then scored the game’s first run on an error by star third baseman Daniel Cuvet. Ciscar got the next batter to fly out to limit the damage.

Miami struck back immediately, though. After Lehigh starter Liam O’Hearen walked the first two batters of the third inning, the Mountain Hawks turned to reliever David Andolina, who promptly surrendered a two-run double to Galvin.

The Hurricanes kept pouring it on. Sosa, a transfer catcher from N.C. State, launched a three-run home run to right-center field to extend UM’s lead to 5-1. Fabio Peralta drove in a run with a single to push UM ahead 6-1.

“All preseason, all fall, the second I committed, I talked about, as a kid, coming to these games, watching Zack Collins hit him into the parking garage,” Sosa said. “And for me to get that away on the first one, that’s definitely super cool, and I’ll remember it forever.”

Although Ciscar got into trouble early in the game, he settled down in his last few frames. He finished his first start of the year with five hits allowed and seven strikeouts over five innings.

“He gave up a lot of soft-contact singles,” Arteaga said. ” … They might not be errors, but we’ve got to make plays, and we’ve got to get outs theres. So I think if one hit out into the outfield, however many hits he gave up. But he pitched well around the zone. Got a little cutter he’s been working on that that he got some outs on and some bad swings on, so we’re excited about that.”

After Ciscar came out of the game, Lehigh center fielder Dom Patrizi cut Miami’s lead to four runs with an RBI single against reliever Brixton Logren in the sixth inning.

Miami’s offense burst again in the bottom of the eighth inning. Shortstop Jake Ogden tacked on a run with an RBI triple, and Galvin picked up his third RBI with an infield single that scored Ogden. Sosa drove in his fourth run of the night to make it 9-2. Derek Williams added another RBI single to make it 10-2. Cian Copeland, making his Miami debut, drove in two more runs with a double in his first Hurricane at-bat. Jailen Watkins, making his freshman debut, drove in a run with a single, as well, to make it 13-2.

Miami faces Lehigh in the second game of the series at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

“Obviously, a win’s a win,” Sosa said. “Tomorrow, this win doesn’t matter. So to be able to bounce back and go right into it, that’s the most important thing. I guess the performance was cool up until the game ended, and then it really is a reset because any team can go out there the next day and get you. So we’ve got to prevent that from happening.”

 

Wellington junior Amelia Ciriaco placed second in the 3A Olympic category and fourth in the traditional competition in the 119-pound weight class to earn two medals at the FHSAA girls weightlifting state championship at RP Funding Center in Lakeland from Wednesday through Friday.

The Olympic category consisted of the combined total of the clean-and-jerk and snatch. The traditional competition included the total of the bench press and clean-and-jerk.

Ciriaco recorded a 175 in the clean-and-jerk and 135 in the snatch for a 310 total in the Olympic competition. She also finished with a 145 in the bench press for a 320 total in traditional.

“I felt very accomplished with my performance,” Ciriaco said. “It was very nerve-wracking knowing that I could’ve placed as the state runner-up. It was very important to me to stay calm and keep my focus. My performance at states was one of the best I’ve put out as an athlete.”

Ciriaco placed first in both the Olympic and traditional categories at the regional championship earlier in the season.

Wellington senior Danielle Newell (110 pounds) finished third in traditional with a 285 total and fifth in Olympic with a 265 total while teammate Audrey DellaVecchia (129) placed 10th in traditional.

Wellington placed eighth in both the traditional and Olympic competitions in the 3A state championship.

“I’m so proud of how hard Amelia worked throughout the year to finish strong in a stressful environment,” Wellington coach Peter Callovi said. “Amelia and Danielle both competed so well to earn their medals to cap a championship season for the team.”

Dwyer’s McClean earns 3A Olympic runner-up

Dwyer senior Ianna McClean (129) placed second in the 3A Olympic category with a 335 total. She registered a 190 in the clean-and-jerk and 145 in the snatch. McClean placed ninth in the traditional competition with a 295 total.

Palm Beach Central senior Kimberly Berg (199) earned fourth in Olympic with a 370 total and placed fifth in traditional with a 410 total.

Park Vista senior Jayda Bell (110) placed fifth in traditional while Seminole Ridge’s Carrie Didio (183) placed seventh in traditional.

Pace captured the 3A championship in both the traditional and Olympic events.

St. John Paul II’s Hardy shines in 1A

St. John Paul II junior Faith Hardy (199) placed sixth in both traditional and Olympic at the 1A championship.

Oxbridge Academy’s Sienna Burroughs (101) placed fifth in Olympic and 10th in traditional. Pine Crest’s Cat Farrell (101) placed sixth in Olympic while teammate Maddie Lemieux (101) placed seventh in traditional.

King’s Academy’s Sasha Cousins (154) placed fifth in traditional while teammates Ashlyn Martin (139) placed eighth and T’Nesha Rasmussen (183) finished 10th.

Wewahitchka placed first in both traditional and Olympic at the 1A championship.

Boynton Beach has top performers in 2A

Boynton Beach’s Taikha Jean-Claude (199) placed seventh in the Olympic event at the 2A championship while teammate Clairisha Charles (169) finished ninth in the Olympic category.

Dr. Joaquin Garcia’s Keira Fritz (129) placed 10th in traditional while Atlantic’s Keymaya Louis (183) finished 10th in the Olympic event.

River Ridge won the 2A championship in traditional while Braden River captured the Olympic title.

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

Federal immigration officials plan to spend $38.3 billion to boost detention capacity to 92,600 beds, a document released Friday shows, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly purchases warehouses to turn into detention and processing facilities.

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Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte posted the document online amid tension over ICE’s plans to convert a warehouse in Merrimack into a 500-bed processing center.

It said ICE plans 16 regional processing centers with a population of 1,000 to 1,500 detainees, whose stays would average three to seven days. Another eight large-scale detention centers would be capable of housing 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for periods averaging less than 60 days.

The document also refers to the acquisition of 10 existing “turnkey” facilities.

Plans call for all of them to be up and running by November as immigration officials roll out a massive $45 billion expansion of detention facilities financed by President Donald Trump’s recent tax-cutting law.

More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by ICE as of mid-January, up from 40,000 when Trump took office a year earlier, according to federal data released last week.

The newly released document refers to “non-traditional facilities” and comes as ICE has quietly bought at least seven warehouses — some larger than 1 million square feet — in the past few weeks in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Warehouse purchases in six cities were scuttled when buyers decided not to sell under pressure from activists. Several other deals in places like New York are imminent, however.

City officials are frequently unable to get details from ICE until a property sale is finalized.

Tensions boiled to the surface after interim ICE Director Todd Lyons testified Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security “has worked with Gov. Ayotte” and provided her with an economic impact summary.

Ayotte said that assertion was “simply not true” and the summary was sent hours after Lyons testified.

The document mistakenly refers to the “ripple effects to the Oklahoma economy” and revenue generated by state sales and income taxes, neither of which exist in New Hampshire.

“Director Lyons’ comments today are another example of the troubling pattern of issues with this process,” Ayotte said. “Officials from the Department of Homeland Security continue to provide zero details of their plans for Merrimack, never mind providing any reports or surveys.”

DHS did not respond to questions about Ayotte’s comments or the new document. But it previously confirmed that it was looking for more detention space, although it objected to calling the sites “warehouses,” saying in a statement that they would be “very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards.”

Associated Press writer Holly Ramer contributed.

By JAIMIE DING

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the arid, cracked desert ground in Southern California, a tiny bee pokes its head out of a hole no larger than the tip of a crayon.

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Krystle Hickman crouches over with her specialized camera fitted to capture the minute details of the bee’s antennae and fuzzy behind.

“Oh my gosh, you are so cute,” Hickman murmurs before the female sweat bee flies away.

Hickman is on a quest to document hundreds of species of native bees, which are under threat by climate change and habitat loss, some of it caused by the more recognizable and agriculturally valued honey bee — an invasive species. Of the roughly 4,000 types of bees native to North America, Hickman has photographed over 300. For about 20 of them, she’s the first to ever photograph them alive.

Through photography, she wants to raise awareness about the importance of native bees to the survival of the flora and fauna around them.

“Saving the bees means saving their entire ecosystems,” Hickman said.

Community scientists play important role in observing bees

On a Saturday in January, Hickman walked among the early wildflower bloom at Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, a few hundred miles southeast of Los Angeles, where clumps of purple verbena and patches of white primrose were blooming unusually early due to a wet winter.

Where there are flowers, there are bees.

Photographer Krystle Hickman photographs wild bees as desert sunflowers blanket the valley floor at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Hickman has no formal science education and dropped out of a business program that she hated. But her passion for bees and keen observation skills made her a good community scientist, she said. In October, she published a book documenting California’s native bees, partly supported by National Geographic. She’s conducted research supported by the University of California, Irvine, and hopes to publish research notes this year on some of her discoveries.

“We’re filling in a lot of gaps,” she said of the role community scientists play in contributing knowledge alongside academics.

On a given day, she might spend 16 hours waiting beside a plant, watching as bees wake up and go about their business. They pay her no attention.

Originally from Nebraska, Hickman moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She began photographing honey bees in 2018, but soon realized native bees were in greater danger.

Now, she’s a bee scientist full time.

“I really think anyone could do this,” Hickman said.

A different approach

Melittologists, or people who study bees, have traditionally used pan trapping to collect and examine dead bee specimens. To officially log a new species, scientists usually must submit several bees to labs, Hickman said.

There can be small anatomical differences between species that can’t be photographed, such as the underside of a bee, Hickman said.

This photo, provided by Krystle Hickman, shows a Perdita californica male bee on May, 1, 2025 at Orange Hills Regional Park in Orange, Calif. (Krystle Hickman via AP)

But Hickman is vehemently against capturing bees. She worries about harming already threatened species. Unofficially, she thinks she’s photographed at least four previously undescribed species.

Hickman said she’s angered “a few melittologists before because I won’t tell them where things are.”

Her approach has helped her forge a path as a bee behavior expert.

During her trip to Anza Borrego, Hickman noted that the bees won’t emerge from their hideouts until around 10 a.m., when the desert begins to heat up. They generally spend 20 minutes foraging and 10 minutes back in their burrows to offload pollen, she said.

“It’s really shockingly easy to make new behavioral discoveries just because no one’s looking at insects alive,” she said.

Hickman still works closely with other melittologists, often sending them photos for identification and discussing research ideas.

Photographer Krystle Hickman photographs wild bees as desert sunflowers blanket the valley floor at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Christine Wilkinson, assistant curator of community science at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, said Hickman was a perfect example of why it’s important to incorporate different perspectives in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.

“There are so many different ways of knowing and relating to the world,” Wilkinson said. “Getting engaged as a community scientist can also get people interested in and passionate about really making change.”

Declining native bees

There’s a critically endangered bee that Hickman is particularly determined to find — Bombus franklini, or Franklin’s bumblebee, last seen in 2006.

Since 2021, she’s traveled annually to the Oregon-California border to look for it.

Photographer Krystle Hickman walks in a field of wildflowers while photographing wild bees at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

“There’s quite a few people who think it’s extinct, but I’m being really optimistic about it,” she said.

Habitat loss, as well as competition from honey bees, have made it harder for native bees to survive. Many native bees will only drink the nectar or eat the pollen of a specific plant.

Because of her success in tracking down bees, she’s now working with various universities and community groups to help find lost species, which are bees that haven’t been documented in the wild for at least a decade.

Hickman often finds herself explaining to audiences why native bees are important. They don’t make honey, and the disappearance of a few bees might not have an apparent impact on humans.

“But things that live here, they deserve to live here. And that should be a good enough reason to protect them,” she said.

By DAVE COLLINS

A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022.

Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time.

Cox, 40, was left paralyzed from the chest down on June 19, 2022, when the police van, which had no seat belts, braked hard to avoid an accident, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. He had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.

FILE – This combo of photos provided by the Connecticut State Police, shows, from left, New Haven, Conn., police officers Oscar Diaz, Betsy Segui, Jocelyn Lavandier, Luis Rivera and Ronald Pressley. (Connecticut State Police via AP, File)

“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said in the van minutes after being injured, according to police video. He later was found to have broken his neck.

Diaz, who was driving the van, brought Cox to the police department, where officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox out of the van and around the police station before placing him in a holding cell before paramedics brought him to a hospital.

Before pulling him out of the van, Lavandier told Cox to move his leg and sit up, according to an internal affairs investigation report. Cox says “I can’t move” and Lavandier says “You’re not even trying.”

New Haven State’s Attorney John P. Doyle Jr.’s office said prosecutors and Cox did not object to the charges being dismissed.

Defense lawyers said that while the officers were sympathetic to what happened to Cox, they did not cause his injuries or make them worse. The three officers whose cases were dismissed were scheduled to go on trial next month.

“We don’t think that there was sufficient evidence to prove her guilt or any wrongdoing,” said Lavandier’s attorney, Dan Ford. “This is a negotiated settlement that avoids the risk of having go through the emotional toll of a trial.”

Rivera’s lawyer, Raymond Hassett, called the decision to charge the officers “unjust and misplaced.”

“The actions of the Police Chief and City Mayor in targeting the officers were a misguided effort to deflect attention from the police department shortcomings in managing the department and ensuring proper protocols were in place and followed,” Hassett said in a statement.

Attorneys for Cox and Diaz did not immediately return phone and email messages Friday. Cox’s lawyer, Louis Rubano, has said Cox and his family hoped the criminal cases would end quickly with plea bargains.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said city officials disagreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the charges.

“What happened to Randy was tragic and awful,” he said in a statement.

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The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates including the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a Baltimore police van.

The case also led to reforms at the New Haven police department as well as a statewide seat belt requirement for prisoners.

In 2023, the city of New Haven agreed to settle a lawsuit by Cox for $45 million.

New Haven police fired Segui, Diaz, Lavandier and Rivera for violating police conduct policies, while Pressley retired and avoided an internal investigation. Diaz appealed his firing and got his job back. Segui lost the appeal of her firing, while appeals by Lavandier and Rivera remain pending.

By JOHN HANNA and KENDRIA LAFLEUR

MALAKOFF, Texas (AP) — Some school districts in the U.S. dropped plans for class pictures after widespread social media posts linked a billionaire with ties to Jeffrey Epstein to the photography giant Lifetouch, which on Friday called the claims “completely false.”

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The disruption to school picture plans in Texas and elsewhere began after online posts linked Lifetouch, which photographs millions of students each year, to the investment fund manager Apollo Global Management. Apollo’s former CEO is billionaire investor Leon Black, who met regularly with Epstein and was advised by Epstein on financial matters.

Black led the company in 2019, when funds managed by Apollo bought Lifetouch’s parent company, Shutterfly. The $2.7 billion deal closed in September 2019 — a month after Epstein’s death by suicide behind bars as he awaited trial over allegations from federal prosecutors that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of girls.

Both Lifetouch and Apollo noted that timeline in statements Friday, two days after Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy said in an Instagram post that neither Black nor any of Apollo’s directors or investors ever had any access to Lifetouch photos.

“No Lifetouch executives have ever had any relationship or contact with Epstein and we have never shared student images with any third party, including Apollo,” Lifetouch said in its statement Friday. “Apollo and its funds also have no role in Lifetouch’s daily operations and have no access to student images.”

The canceled school pictures are another ripple effect over the release of millions of files from the Epstein investigation, including documents showing Epstein’s regular contacts with CEOs, journalists, scientists and prominent politicians long after a 2008 conviction on sex crimes charges.

In the small Texas town of Malakoff, the local school district canceled a student picture day after several parents told the district they weren’t comfortable with Lifetouch photographing their children, spokesperson Katherine Smith said in a statement e-mailed Friday. Several other schools and districts in Texas also canceled or changed plans, as well as a charter school in Arizona, according to Facebook announcements posted by the schools.

“We decided our students and families would be best served by keeping all of our pictures in-house for the rest of this year, and we are looking at all of our options for the 2026-2027 school year,” Smith said.

Parents concerned about Lifetouch included MaKallie Gann, whose children attend schools in Howe, about 60 miles north of Dallas. She said she was worried about how much information Lifetouch collects on students.

“Whenever you order the pictures, it has their name. It has the age, of course. It has their grade, their teacher, the school that they’re in,” she said.

No evidence of Epstein or anyone in his orbit seeing Lifetouch photos has emerged from news organizations’ review of thousands of documents released this month by the U.S. Department of Justice, though there are at least 1.7 million records.

The review shows Black’s name appeared 8,200 times, though that figure likely includes some duplicate records. Black stepped down as Apollo’s CEO in March 2021, saying he wanted to focus on his family, health, and “many other interests.”

That was two months after a committee of the company’s board issued a report concluding that Epstein had advised Black personally on estate planning, tax issues, charitable giving and running his “family office,” but provided no services to Apollo or invested in no Apollo funds.

The report also said the review — which Black requested — found “no evidence” that he was involved with Epstein’s alleged criminal activities “in any way” or “at any time.” ___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Also contributing was Associated Press writer Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota.

By CLAIRE RUSH

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Multiple residents of an affordable housing complex in Portland, Oregon, have bought gas masks to wear in their own homes, to protect themselves from tear gas fired by federal agents outside the immigration building across the street. Others have taped their windows or stuffed wet towels under their doors, while children have sought security by sleeping in closets.

Some are now telling their stories to a federal judge Friday, as they testify in a lawsuit seeking to limit federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building following months of repeated exposure.

The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside. They have asked the court to limit federal agents’ use of such munitions unless needed to respond to an imminent threat.

FILE – Law enforcement officers stand in the street to allow vehicles to leave a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility during a protest in Portland, Ore., Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

“They’re simply trying to live their lives in peace in their homes,” Daniel Jacobson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said during the hearing. “Yet our federal government is knowingly putting them through hell, and for no good reason at all.”

The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at the building, which has been the site of demonstrations for months.

”The conduct at issue, law enforcement’s use of crowd control tactics to disperse unlawful crowds, does not even come close to shocking the conscience,” Samuel Holt, an attorney for the federal government, said during the hearing.

The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.

FILE – A view of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, top left, in Portland, Ore., Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

In testimony, tenants of the Gray’s Landing apartment complex described experiencing difficulty breathing, coughing, dizziness and other symptoms following exposure to chemicals from tear gas, smoke grenades and pepper balls.

“I have a gas mask in my bedroom. I have one in my living room. And I have one in my backpack,” said a plaintiff using a pseudonym due to being a domestic violence survivor. “I’ve slept with it on.”

She described how the chemical munitions triggered her post-traumatic stress and entered into her apartment. ”I could feel it, I could see it, I could taste it, I could smell it,” she said of the gas.

Gas canisters have hit apartments and been found in the building’s courtyard and parking garage, according to the complaint.

Another plaintiff, Susan Dooley, a 72-year-old Air Force veteran with diabetes and high blood pressure, was sent by a doctor to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with shortness of breath and mild heart failure, the complaint said. Whitfield Taylor, who has placed wet towels around his window air conditioning unit in a bid to block the gas from entering his home, had to take his two daughters, 7 and 9, to urgent care for respiratory symptoms. The girls sometimes sleep in his closet to feel safe, according to the complaint.

Of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents, nearly a third are age 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of units are reserved for low-income veterans and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.

The plaintiffs filed an updated request for a preliminary injunction limiting federal officers’ use of tear gas late last month, after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.

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“As this brief is being filed, tear gas is once again inside the homes of Plaintiffs and other residents of Gray’s Landing,” the filing says, adding that it was launched by officers “despite facing no violence or imminent threats at all.”

The government said in court filings that federal officers have at times used crowd control devices in response to crowds that are “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or do not comply with dispersal orders.

It has also pushed back against the claims of tenants’ constitutional rights being violated, saying that under such an argument, “federal and state law enforcement officers would violate the Constitution whenever they deploy airborne crowd-control devices that inadvertently drift into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is otherwise entirely lawful.”

The hearing comes after a federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit temporarily restricted agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building. The temporary restraining order in that case, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, is set to expire next week.