Antarctic penguin mysteriously turns up 1800 miles from home in New Zealand – National & International News – FRI 12Nov2021

Antarctic penguin mysteriously turns up 1800 miles from home in New Zealand. Defense attorney in Ahmaud Arbery case: “No more black pastors!”. Crack in Memphis bridge dated back to 1970s.

NATIONAL NEWS

Defense attorney in Ahmaud Arbery case: “No more black pastors!”

An attorney defending one of three white men on trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, is demanding that “no more black pastors” be admitted to the court. Attorney Kevin Gough represents William “Roddie” Bryan, who along with father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, accosted and fatally shot Arbery as Arbery was jogging through a white neighborhood in Brunswick, GA, last year.

Gough made his demand after civil rights campaigner Rev. Al Sharpton made a low-key appearance, sitting quietly in the back of the courtroom with Arbery’s family. Sharpton later led a prayer vigil outside the court in support of Arbery’s family. 

Gough addressed the judge stating, “Obviously there’s only so many pastors they can have. And if their pastor’s Al Sharpton right now that’s fine, but then that’s it. We don’t want any more black pastors coming in here … sitting with the victim’s family, trying to influence the jurors in this case”.

The Arbery trial recently attracted a lot of press attention for seating a nearly all-white jury. The attorneys for the other two defendants stated they’d not noticed any disruption or distraction in court due to Sharpton’s presence.

Gough himself admitted that he hadn’t noticed Sharpton’s presence until after court had adjourned for the day on Wednesday. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, who is presiding over the case seemed bemused by Gough’s objection. “You weren’t even aware of it until later? I’m not sure what we’re doing”.

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Crack in Memphis bridge dated back to 1970s

An outside firm commissioned by Arkansas’ Transportation Department has concluded that a crack in the I-40 bridge connecting Memphis, TN with West Memphis, AR, had likely started in the 1970s. The crack forced a 3-month closure of the bridge when it was first detected in May. The bridge fully reopened in August.

A report from the team’s forensic investigation theorizes that the crack resulted from improper welding when the span was fabricated in the 1970s. The report says that “In all likelihood the cracking in the weld occurred within hours of its completion but was not detected by any post-weld repair fabrication testing and remained unchanged for a number of years”. The initially minute crack later spread around almost the entire beam before it was detected.

Arkansas DOT Director Lorie Tudor said the department “will now move forward with confidence and make the changes necessary to improve our program so that the past will not be repeated”. The department has already made changes to its testing and inspection procedures.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Antarctic penguin mysteriously turns up 1800 miles from home in New Zealand

On Wednesday, Harry Singh and his wife were walking along a local beach south of Christchurch, NZ, when they spotted something unusual. A penguin was standing on the beach looking no less perplexed than the Singhs. Mr. Singh said, “First I thought it (was) a soft toy. Suddenly the penguin moved his head , so I realized it was real”.

Singh shot a video of the bird wandering the beach and its eventual rescue, which you can see here.

Fearing the penguin might fall prey to dogs or cats wandering the beach, Mr. Singh phoned a penguin rescue organization. He eventually got through to Thomas Stracke from Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation. Stracke was surprised to see that the visitor was an Adélie penguin, which is native to Antarctica. That put the penguin, affectionately dubbed “Pingu”, at least 1800 miles from home. Stracke arrived with a veterinarian to rescue Pingu that same evening.

Pingu was slightly underweight and dehydrated, so was treated to a fish smoothie and some fluids. The group eventually released the penguin to a dog-free beach that serves as a penguin refuge.

Pingu is only the third Adélie penguin to turn up on New Zealand’s shores since 1962. Philip Seddon, a zoologist from Otago University, said that while Adélie penguin sightings remain rare in New Zealand, if they become more frequent, it might point to troubling environmental changes.

“I think if we started getting annual arrivals of Adélie penguins, we’d go actually, something’s changed in the ocean that we need to understand”, Seddon said. “More studies will give us more understanding where penguins go, what they do, what the population trends are like. They’re going to tell us something about the health of that marine ecosystem in general”.

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