The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, in a statement Friday, said Myra and Denny Lacoste are being allowed to apply for a permit so they can legally keep Neuty the Nutria in their New Orleans home, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Montoucet said details of the permit are being finalized.

The announcement came after more than 17,000 people signed an online petition demanding that the state leave Neuty and his family alone.

“I think this is a good conclusion for all sides,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet said.

The rodent has been living with the Lacostes for more than two years. The wildlife department initially said Thursday that it had arranged for the animal to be transported to the Baton Rouge Zoo, citing state law banning the ownership of a nutria, which is considered an invasive species. But after the response, the agency provided special conditions allowing the family to keep the nutria as a pet within the law, according to the newspaper.

“We’re beyond ecstatic,” Myra Lacoste said.

Denny Lacoste encountered the injured animal in 2020 when its siblings were killed in traffic. He and his wife hand-fed the animal until it was able to eat on its own. Then they reared it as a pet.

Now, the animal is a social media star, featured in TikTok videos and seen in a New Orleans Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate video being held lovingly by Denny Lacoste, scampering across a floor with a towel and chomping down on a raw crawfish. Lacoste told the newspaper that Neuty even likes to ride in the car with his head out the window.

Myra Lacoste said she and her husband conceded to several stipulations, including regular veterinary checkups and keeping it caged when at the family's seafood business, in order keep their pet.

Nutria were introduced into North America more than a century ago, and they are considered a nuisance invasive species in Louisiana. Their appetite for wetlands vegetation and their burrowing into levees hinder flood control, harm agriculture and contribute to coastal wetlands loss. At various times public officials have put bounties on them and encouraged hunting of them for their pelts and even for food.

They are sometimes derided as “nutria rats.” Yet they have also become such a familiar part of Louisiana landscape and lore that a New Orleans minor league baseball team once employed actors in costume as larger-than life caricatures of the creatures as mascots — Boudreaux and Clotilde.

Now that the ordeal is over, Myra Lacoste said, “We’re anxious to hold him and smooch on him.”

The mollusks, which can carry diseases that affect humans, were discovered and seized March 9 during an agriculture inspection at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday.

The man transporting the snails is a resident of Ghana and said they were to be eaten. He was released without further actions.

“It is not uncommon for travelers to bring food items from their native countries, which underscores the importance of the inspection process upon arrival to U.S. ports of entry,” Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steven Bansbach said. “This allows CBP officers and agriculture specialists the opportunity to determine whether these goods are permissible or not, while mitigating the potential for public health or environmental issues.”

Giant African land snails are prohibited in Michigan and the rest of the United States. They eat at least 500 different types of plants, along with plaster and stucco on buildings.

They grow as long as 8 inches (20 centimeters) and carry a parasite called the rat lungworm that can cause meningitis in humans. They also can produce up to 1,200 eggs a year.

“Our CBP officers and agriculture specialists work diligently to target, detect, and intercept potential threats before they have a chance to do harm to U.S. interests,” Port Director Robert Larkin said.

Denny and Myra Lacoste tell New Orleans news outlets they are devastated at the potential loss of “Neuty," a pet they say they raised from infancy when its siblings were killed in traffic. The move by state Wildlife and Fisheries officials, who say it's illegal to keep an orphaned or injured wild animal as a pet, has sparked a petition drive by those who want him to stay with the humans who raised him.

The state Wildlife Department says the plan is to house Neuty at the Baton Rouge Zoo. But it's unclear when that will happen. A statement from the department Friday said officials had gone to remove the pet from the Lacoste's New Orleans-area residence Thursday.

“The nutria was not at the residence when agents arrived,” the department said. “The matter is still ongoing.”

Nutria were introduced into North America more than a century ago, and they are considered a nuisance invasive species in Louisiana. Their appetite for wetlands vegetation and their burrowing into levees hinder flood control, harm agriculture and contribute to coastal wetlands loss. At various times public officials have put bounties on them and encouraged hunting of them for their pelts and even for food.

They are sometimes derided as “nutria rats.” Yet they have also become such a familiar part of Louisiana landscape and lore that a New Orleans minor league baseball team once employed actors in costume as larger-than life caricatures of the creatures as mascots — Boudreaux and Clotilde.

Neuty was tiny when Denny Lacoste, who runs a family seafood restaurant, rescued him from a road near a canal more than two years ago. Lacoste told New Orleans news outlets that the infant animal's siblings had been killed by traffic.

Now, the animal is a social media star, featured in TikTok videos and seen in a New Orleans Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate video being held lovingly by Denny Lacoste, scampering across a floor with a towel and chomping down on a raw crawfish. Lacoste told the newspaper that Neuty even likes to ride in the car with his head out the window.

The Baton Rouge Zoo said it was ready to give Neuty a home in an area with another male nutria. “In most cases the animal would have been placed back into the wild. However, LDWF biologists and Zoo officials said that since the animal has been habituated to humans, it would not be able to survive in the wild,” the wildlife department said.

Incidents in which thieves blow up ATMs and then make off with the cash, usually during the night, have become increasingly common in Germany in recent years. There were a record 496 cases last year, a 27% increase over 2021, according to the Interior Ministry.

Over the past three days, police in seven of Germany's 16 states conducted searches on more than 5,300 vehicles and 8,000 people, the ministry said in a statement. It said 42 people were detained, but didn't specify what they are accused of.

The aim was to raise the pressure on perpetrators active across regional and international borders, the ministry said.

“Anyone who blows up cash machines risks the life of people who aren't involved," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

She added that further incidents can be foiled only by effective and wide-ranging preventative measures, including increased video surveillance, systems that dye stolen banknotes and reducing cash stocks at individual sites.

In many cases, cash machines in bank foyers are now closed to customers overnight.

Exactly what that looks like remained under wraps. The company designing the next-generation spacesuits, Axiom Space, said Wednesday that it plans to have new versions for training purposes for NASA later this summer.

The moonsuits will be white like they were during NASA’s Apollo program more than a half-century ago, according to the company. That’s so they can reflect heat and keep future moonwalkers cool.

The suits will provide greater flexibility and more protection from the moon’s harsh environment, and will come in a wider range of sizes, according to the Houston-based company.

NASA awarded Axiom Space a $228.5 million contract to provide the outfits for the first moon landing in more than 50 years. The space agency is targeting late 2025 at the earliest to land two astronauts on the moon’s south pole.

At Wednesday's event in Houston, an Axiom employee modeled a dark spacesuit, doing squats and twisting at the waist to demonstrate its flexibility. The company said the final version will be different, including the color.

“I didn't want anybody to get that mixed up,” said Axiom’s Russell Ralston.

___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The 30-centimeter- (12-inch-) long cylinder containing the radioactive material Caesium-137 was discovered missing last Friday from a piece of machinery at a steam power plant in Prachinburi province, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Bangkok.

Ake Wongjinda, a public relations officer for the provincial government, said Wednesday that authorities have inspected locations such as junk shops, scrap metal yards and secondhand stores in Prachinburi and neighboring Chachoengsao province for the 25-kilogram- (55-pound-) cylinder.

Health officials cautioned the public that prolonged direct contact with radioactive material can cause skin rashes, hair loss, canker sores, fatigue, and vomiting. They said short-term contact with Caesium-137 may not show immediate symptoms but could lead to a higher risk of cancer.

Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn, director-general of the Department of Medical Services, said Caesium-137 has similar physical characteristics to salt and can disperse easily if its container opened. He said it is used in devices such as ones measuring humidity or the velocity of liquids.

The cylinder was connected to a 17-meter- (56-foot-) tall silo and used for measuring ash in the silo, said Permsuk Sutchaphiwat, secretary general of the Thailand’s Office of Atoms for Peace agency.

Kittiphan Chitpentham, a representative of the National Power Supply Public Co., Ltd., the power station's owner, said it is not clear whether the cylinder had gone missing by accident. He said that the company would provide a 50,000 baht ($1,445) cash reward for anyone who can provide information about it. The company said it may have disappeared several weeks ago,

In 2000, illegally disposed cannisters containing the radioactive substance Cobalt-60 were found in a junkyard in Samut Prakarn, a suburb of Bangkok. At least five people were hospitalized after being exposed to radiation when the cannisters were opened by the scrapyard workers, unaware of the hazard. The cylinders were belived to have come from a medical X-ray machine.

Italy's dugout at the World Baseball Classic comes outfitted with an espresso machine. And it's getting lots of attention.

“We are kind of shocked, actually, because this is something in Italian culture that’s sort of like water. I mean, coffee would be right after water,” Italy manager Mike Piazza said.

Piazza said he was content with the Nespresso machine in the dugout, but dissatisfied the coffee was being served in a paper cup and not a ceramic one.

“I don’t like espresso out of a paper cup. It’s kind of sacrilege,” Piazza said. “But when it’s the only option you have, you have to deal with it. Maybe next time we’ll bring the metallic machine with the copper eagle on the top and someone in there knocking espressos out. You have to make the most with the tools you have."

Andre Marcon, the president of the Italian Baseball Federation, said he was content with the exposure Italian baseball was getting — even for its coffee habits.

“Right now we are the most followed national team for a series of things which took place connected to our ‘good old Italian customs’,” Marcon said.

___

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No one was injured when the roof fell in at Miller Hill Mall about 9 a.m. Tuesday, when most of the mall's stores were still not open. Everyone in the building at the time has been accounted for, Duluth city spokeswoman Kelli Latuska said.

The building was evacuated and is closed.

Authorities did not say exactly what caused the collapse but it came after the Duluth area received about 12.5 inches of snow over the weekend. Duluth International Airport has recorded more than 116 inches of snow this season — more than 40 inches above normal.

Barnes & Noble manager Scott Skar said he heard a loud noise, “like something rolling across the roof" before another employee said the roof had collapsed, MPR Newsreported.

"And so I went to the mall gate and sure enough, it was very shocking to see — you could see open to the sky. The snow was as tall as the mall roof when it caved in,” Skar said.

Before the collapse, a crew was clearing off the roof but stopped and evacuated when they heard “popping sounds,” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.

Puerto Rico on Friday broke the Guinness World record for the most hair dyed, with 192 men going blond to support the U.S. territory’s team that is vying to win the World Baseball Classic after finishing twice as runner-up.

The team's players first dyed their hair blond ahead of the 2017 World Baseball Classic as a joke, unexpectedly unleashing a dyeing craze in Puerto Rico that left pharmacies and beauty supply stores bereft of hair dye.

The tournament is usually held every four years, but the pandemic delayed it by two years, so after six years of no dye jobs and no “Team Rubio!” cheers, many Puerto Ricans were eager to see if the trend would continue.

The players obliged and repeated the tradition this year, and people in the island of overwhelmingly dark hair once again responded via platinum blond, dirty blond and even burnt orange locks and beards to show their support.

“The more blond hair, the more united we’ll be as a people,” photographer Miguel Rodríguez Camilo said while waiting for his dark hair to change color.

He was one of more than 200 men who showed up for the mass bleaching event Friday. Some were disqualified for various reasons, including that they didn't take the obligatory “before” picture.

Guinness World record adjudicator Natalia Ramírez noted that a handful were disqualified because they already had white or graying hair.

“If you can’t really see a change, it doesn’t count,” she said.

Participants sat in an outdoor area for up to 45 minutes wearing plastic shower caps as they laughed at each other, took selfies and observed themselves in their smartphones as colorists came by and peeked under the shower caps.

“I wasn’t going to do it, but my colleagues pressured me into it,” said William Davidowski, a 51-year-old with naturally dark brown hair who works at the insurance company that helped organize the event.

The World Baseball Classic just started, but Davidowski wasn’t sure how long he will stay a blond.

“It depends on how it looks,” he said with a laugh.

He walked out nearly an hour later with a baseball cap on.

Organizers of the event had eight hours to beat the previous record, set in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in March 2013 when 160 people dyed their hair. More than five hours after Friday's event began, participant No. 161, the man responsible for breaking the record, walked in to the applause and yells of those gathered.

“Let’s always support our guys,” Tomás Nieves, a 22-year-old air conditioning technician, said in a low whisper, explaining that he was nervous about all the attention.

Team Rubio, as Puerto Rico’s team is known, almost adopted another hair color this year.

There was talk about players dyeing their hair blue, “but some boys got a little shy,” New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor said at a recent news conference.

Then Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez posted a picture on Instagram with newly dyed blond hair and, “that was that,” Lindor said.

This time, the team was prepared. It hired five barbers and colorists, compared with the lone barber and colorist from 2017. A local university that helped organize Friday's event bought 79 pounds of bleach.

“The people of Puerto Rico embraced it. It did them and us well as a team. So why not continue with this tradition?” Yadier Molina, former St. Louis Cardinals catcher and Team Puerto Rico’s manager, said earlier this week.

It remains to be seen whether all that blond power will translate into a win.

Puerto Rico’s first game is Saturday against Nicaragua, and then it faces Venezuela on Sunday.

The Tokyo High Court said Iwao Hakamada deserves a retrial because of a possibility that a key evidence that led to his conviction could have been fabricated by investigators, according to a statement from the Japan Bar Association.

Amnesty International says Hakamada is the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner.

He has been temporarily released since 2014, but still not cleared of charges, when the Shizuoka District Court in central Japan suspended his execution and ordered a retrial. That ruling was overturned by the Tokyo High Court until the Supreme Court in 2020 ordered the lower court to reconsider.

His defense lawyers rushed out of the courtroom and flashed banners saying “Retrial.”

“We won his retrial. I’m so glad, and that’s all I can say,” said his 90-year-old sister Hideko, who has devoted her life to prove her brother's innocence.

Hakamada was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of a company manager and three of his family members, and setting fire to their central Japan home, where he was a live-in employee. He was sentenced to death two years later. He initially denied the accusations then confessed, which he later said he was forced to because of violent interrogation by police.

Hakamada was not executed because of lengthy appeals and the retrial process. It took 27 years for the Supreme Court to deny his first appeal for a retrial. He filed a second appeal in 2008, and the court finally ruled in his favor on Thursday.

The point of contention was five pieces of blood-stained clothing that investigators said Hakamada allegedly wore during the crime and hid in a tank of fermented soybean paste, or miso, found more than a year after his arrest.

The Tokyo High Court decision on Monday acknowledged scientific experiments that clothing soaked in miso for more than a year turns too dark for blood stains to be spotted, saying there is a possibility of fabrication, most likely by investigators.

Defense lawyers and earlier retrial decisions said the blood samples did not match Hakamada's DNA, and trousers that prosecutors submitted as evidence were too small for Hakamada and did not fit when he tried them on.

Hakamada has been serving his sentence at home since his release in 2014 because his frail health and age made him a low risk for escape.

Japan and the United States are the only two countries in the Group of Seven advanced nations that retain capital punishment. A survey by the Japanese government showed an overwhelming majority of the public support executions.

Executions are carried out in secrecy in Japan and prisoners are not informed of their fate until the morning they are hanged. Since 2007, Japan has begun disclosing the names of those executed and some details of their crimes, but disclosures are still limited.

Supporters say Hakamada’s mental health has suffered because of his nearly half-century detention, mostly in solitary confinement, in fear of execution. He spent a total of 48 years in prison, more than 45 of them on death row.

Now, scientists have figured out how this fish — called the ghost catfish — creates its iridescent glow.

That glow comes from within, according to a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As light passes through the fish’s skin, it hits tiny structures in the muscle that turn the light into a colorful spectrum.

The ghost catfish — sometimes known as the glass catfish — is a small species native to rivers in Thailand, averaging just a few inches (centimeters) long. It's sold around the world as an aquarium fish.

Other creatures are also iridescent, creating the shimmering rainbow effect where colors shift as you move. Usually, they have shiny outer surfaces that reflect the light — like a hummingbird’s feathers or a butterfly’s wings, explained Arizona State University biologist Ron Rutowski, who was not involved with the research.

But the ghost catfish has no scales, said senior author Qibin Zhao, a physicist at China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who became fascinated by the fish after seeing it in an aquarium store.

Instead, it has tightly packed structures in the muscles that can bend light into rainbow hues, which researchers found after shining different lights and lasers onto its body in the lab. As the ghost catfish swims, those muscles relax and tighten, sending off a glinting range of colors.

And the very see-through skin, which lets in around 90% of outside light, is essential: “We wouldn’t be able to see the colors if the skin of the fish is not so transparent,” Zhao said in an email.

Some species use their iridescence to attract mates or give off warning signals, but it’s not clear whether the ghost catfish's colors serve a purpose, Rutowski said.

———

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Rep. Jeffrey Greeson, 51, of Wentworth was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal threatening and simple assault, according to police. He was released on personal recognizance and ordered back to Plymouth District Court on May 18.

Police said they made the arrest after receiving a report that a member of the Wentworth Highway Department had been obstructed in his efforts of snow removal by a citizen and had recorded part of the encounter on his cell phone.

Greeson didn't immediately respond to an email to his Statehouse office seeking comment Friday.

Paul Manson, the road agent in Wentworth, said he had already been plowing for about six hours Saturday when he encountered Greeson standing in the middle of the road around 8 a.m.

“He just started giving me hell, and I didn’t know what was going on,” he said Thursday. “When I got out of the truck, he started screaming in my face. So I got back in the truck and got my phone.”

The video, which Manson posted to Facebook, shows Greeson clamoring over a pile of snow up to his knees along the road. The storm dropped nearly a foot of snow before winding down later in the day.

“Here’s where my driveway ends, right here. Push it out of the road!” shouted Greeson, who also used a rude hand gesture and expletives. “Your job is to clear the road. Clear the road! Now, get in your truck and do your job!”

Greeson, a retired Navy officer and pastor serving his second term in the House, also did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday.

“He was upset because I wasn’t pushing the snow off the road far enough, and I was putting it all in his driveway, which I’m going to be honest with you, that’s what I do,” Manson said. “My job is to get the snow off the road. And I feel bad most of the time because I do put snow back in people’s driveway, and I really can’t help it.”

Manson said he realizes it’s no fun to shovel out after a snowplow passes. But he said public servants don’t deserve to be attacked.

“I get to go home when I’m done with my 15-, 16-, 18-hour shifts and do the same thing,” Manson said.

Car owners across the United States can pay an extra fee to customize license plates, sparking creativity and personality but causing headaches for state officials who have to decide what’s acceptable.

Maine had for several years allowed people to put just about any combination of letters and numbers on their vehicle plates, including words and phrases that other states would ban. But the state decided to change course and this year recalled 274 plates it deemed inappropriate.

Some people are fighting back.

So far the state has rejected all of the appeals, including one brought by the vegan whose license plate referenced tofu.

The state concluded the license plate “LUVTOFU” could’ve been seen as a reference to sex instead of admiration for bean curd. The motorist insisted there was no mistaking his intent because the back of his car had several tofu-related stickers.

“It’s my protest against eating meat and animal products,” Peter Starostecki, the disappointed motorist, said after a zoom session with a hearing examiner for the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Heather Libby and her best friend grudgingly gave up their matching license plates that contained a word for a female dog.

“People are so sensitive nowadays,” said Libby, of Jonesport, after a hearing examiner rejected her appeal. “I just think it’s foolish.”

When the state effectively ended the review process for so-called vanity license plates in 2015, some residents filled their plates with all manner of profanities, including F-bombs, either spelled out or abbreviated.

Residents in a state known for being laconic and even-tempered soon were sporting uncensored plates pairing the F-word with “snow,” “haters,” and “ALS,” — the incurable neurodegenerative disease.

After license plate freedoms spiraled out of control, the Maine Legislature directed the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to reestablish a system for vetting the state’s roughly 120,000 vanity license plates.

The new rules ban derogatory references to age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion or disability. Also banned is language that incites violence, or is considered obscene.

Restored as censors, Maine’s vehicular officials now walk a similar tightrope as their colleagues in other states.

In 2020, a federal judge ruled that California’s ban on plates that are “offensive to good taste and decency” was overly broad, and violated constitutional rights to free speech. Earlier this year, Texas officials rejected a license plate similar to Starostecki’s — “LVTOFU” — leading to rebukes from an animal rights group.

Maine’s rules were narrowly crafted to pass legal muster, officials said.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said motorists have the freedom to express themselves, but she said that they should do it on a bumper sticker, not a state-issued license plate.

“We have a public interest in keeping phrases and words that are profane or may incite violence off the roadways,” she said.

She said she’s happy that most motorists have relinquished their objectionable license plates without a fight. So far, there have been only 13 appeals, but there could be more.

If a motorist loses an appeal to a hearing examiner, then they can sue in Superior Court. So far, no one has taken that step.

As for Starostecki, he was offered another license plate that had become available, V3GAN. But he decided he was done with vanity plates. He’s awaiting a new license plate — a boring one randomly selected by the state.

Libby, who lost her B-word plate, got a custom plate celebrating her dog Zeus, named for the mythical god of thunder. “That could be offensive to someone because it’s a Greek god,” she quipped. “But I hope not.”

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Follow David Sharp on Twitter @David_Sharp_AP

The new bathing rules allowing everyone to go swimming without covering their torsos followed a discrimination complaint by a woman who was not allowed to go topless in a swimming pool in the capital.

The woman, whose identity was not revealed, had turned to the senate's ombudsperson's office for equal treatment to demand that women, like men, can swim topless, the Berlin senate for justice, diversity and anti-discrimination said in a written statement.

In reaction to the complaint and the ombudsman's involvement in the case, the Berliner Baederbetriebe, which runs the city's public pools, decided to change its clothing rules, the statement said.

“The ombudsperson’s office very much welcomes the decision of the Baederbetriebe, because it establishes equal rights for all Berliners, whether male, female or non-binary, and because it also creates legal certainty for the staff at the Baederbetriebe," said Doris Liebscher, the head of the ombudsperson's office.

In the past, women who bared their breasts at Berlin pools were asked to cover themselves or to leave the pool, and were sometimes banned from returning.

“Now it is important that the regulation is applied consistently and that no more expulsions or house bans are issued,” Liebscher said.

It was not immediately clear when exactly the new bathing rules would be applied.

Mayo Gilbert McNeil was arrested in Denver, where he lives, after a complaint was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

McNeil was accused of making numerous fraudulent deals beginning in 2015, including the 2019 sale of a counterfeit card to a victim in Manhasset, New York, for $4,500, and a 2017 deal in which he traded two counterfeit cards for two authentic Tom Brady football cards.

“Mr. McNeil defrauded sports memorabilia collectors of more than $800,000 by intentionally misrepresenting the authenticity of the trading cards he was peddling when, in fact, they were counterfeit,” Michael Driscoll, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a news release.

In a brief phone call, McNeil said he was released without bail after an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Colorado.

“I did nothing wrong,” he said, declining to comment at length.

Prosecutors said he will appear in a New York courtroom at a later date.

The Amtrak Downeaster takes passengers 145 miles (233 kilometers) from Brunswick, Maine, to Boston. The train includes a cafe car that serves alcohol.

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, a quasi-government agency that has a service agreement with Amtrak, said it was told by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission that the train can’t serve alcohol during the New Hampshire portion of the journey. There's a law that forbids serving alcohol that hasn't been purchased in the state.

The liquor commission “will initiate a simple change in statute to ensure there is no further confusion," to allow alcohol sales to continue, spokesperson E.J. Powers said Wednesday.

In a statement Tuesday, the commission said that the Massachusetts-based company that provides the train's food and beverage service “inadvertently acknowledged that it had been in violation” of New Hampshire's law as it was in the process of renewing its license to serve alcohol on the Downeaster.

The commission, which granted the renewal, said it is “exploring a creative solution, laying tracks for a unique partnership between New Hampshire and Maine.”

Meanwhile, alcohol sales will continue as usual.

“It’s our understanding that the liquor sales on board will not need to be suspended in New Hampshire, and we’re very grateful of that,” said Patricia Quinn, executive director of the rail authority.

The train brings hundreds of thousands of passengers to Boston every year, and its advertising sometimes plays up the ability to relax with a drink during the ride. It’s a popular travel alternative for sports and concerts because the line ends just steps from TD Garden, one of New England’s biggest performance venues.

Amtrak is aware that “customers on board the Downeaster are still able to continue purchasing alcoholic drinks from the cafe car when riding through New Hampshire,” said Jason Abrams, an Amtrak representative.

___

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

No one was injured in the Saturday crash, Houston police said.

Seconds before the Chevrolet Tahoe plowed into Tout Suite cafe, podcaster Nathan Reeves said: “It got so quiet in here.”

Video shows Reeves wiggling away after the impact slammed, breaking window panes against him and his guest.

“It was shock and a lot of adrenaline at first. But then after we made sure everybody seemed to be OK,” the 20-year-old Reeves told the Associated Press. “I was just freaking out that I got the whole thing on film.”

Reeves had been filming his interview with guest, Alexsey Reyes, a 22-year-old Houston photographer. It was Reeves' fifth episode for his YouTube Channel November Romeo.

A woman driving the Tahoe with two passengers had run a red light, and then struck a Ford Escape before crashing into the business where there were more than a dozen people inside, Houston police spokesperson John Cannon said.

The podcast episode showing the crash was uploaded to Reeves’ YouTube channel and has amassed tens of thousands of views.

Days later, Reyes said he is still processing the crash, and that he found glass shards in his hair and arms later in the day.

“The more days pass (the more) I am realizing how badly it could have ended,” he said.

In Mexican customs, for instance, throwing used toilet paper in the trashcan may be thought of as the proper method of disposal, but in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency encourages Americans to flush toilet paper.

When flushed, according to TinyCaravan, 95% of the toilet paper dissolves in water, leaving 5% to become sludge in sewage treatment plants, releasing carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas.

However, toilet paper that is thrown away in a trash can ends up in a landfill, which produces methane gas, which is more harmful than carbon dioxide. Additionally, toilet paper can take years to break down and decompose.

So, flushing is the more environmentally friendly option.

You could try an alternative solution, which may be using recycled toilet paper if you can find a brand that is BPA-free, chlorine-free, 100% recycled, and unbleached. Recycled toilet paper has a better chance of dissolving completely when flushed.

Conversely, you could use a Bidet, a device that fits onto the toilet and shoots a stream of water onto your sensitive areas. You can then dry the area with a single piece of toilet paper. Or, better yet, wipe the area with your hands, and then scrub them thoroughly with soap and water for 30 seconds before drying them with a reusable towel (this is considered proper hygiene for however you use the restroom).

However, using a Bidet is also fraught with peril, as gastroenterologist Dr. Christine Lee warns, “If bacteria or virus particles get into the water tank or on the nozzle, everyone who uses the bidet could be exposed to those germs."

The most environmentally friendly option is switching to cloth toilet paper. It's less wasteful, but germs and bacteria become a greater issue here, too, as Healthline warns that cloth toilet paper must be sanitized with high heat and bleach, otherwise you could become at risk for E. coli.

However, Kelly Reynolds, public health researcher at the University of Arizona, says, "This is just a risky practice, overall I think, and the potential for cross-contamination is just very high from your bathroom, where they’re stored, to your laundry room."

The unusual confection is available at Thomas Micolino's store in southern Germany's town of Rottenburg am Neckar, German news agency dpa reported Thursday.

Micolino has a habit of creating flavors that are far outside Germans' typical preferences for strawberry, chocolate, banana and vanilla ice cream.

In the past, he's offered liver sausage and Gorgonzola cheese ice cream as well gold-plated ice cream for 4 euros ($4.25) per scoop.

“I am a very curious person and want to try everything," Micolino told dpa. "I’ve eaten a lot of things, including a lot of strange things, and crickets were something I still wanted to try, also in the form of ice cream.”

That he can now produce the cricket flavor is due to a European Union regulation that allows the use of the insects in food.

Under the regulation, crickets may be frozen, dried or used as a powder. The EU already allowed migratory locusts and flour beetle larvae as a food additive, dpa reported.

Micolino's ice cream is made of cricket flour, heavy cream, vanilla extract and, honey, and he tops it with dried whole crickets. It has a “surprising yummy taste” — or at least that's what he wrote on Instagram.

The creative vendor says that while some people are disgusted and even upset that he is offering insect ice cream, curious customers have mostly liked the new flavor.

“Those who try it are very enthusiastic,” Micolino said. "I have customers who come here every day and buy a scoop.”

One of his customers, Konstantin Dick, gave the cricket-infused flavor a positive review, telling dpa: “Yes, it’s really very tasty and edible."

Another customer, Johann Peter Schwarze, also praised the ice cream's creamy consistency, but added that "you can still sense the cricket in the ice cream.”

Final results from the dust samples collected Friday in the state's Eastern Panhandle indicated the material is predominantly pollen, with trace amounts of mineral matter, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement Monday. The samples were analyzed by West Virginia University’s Department of Geology and Geography.

The agency began investigating after residents reported seeing the substance across multiple counties late Thursday night.

Social media users posted about seeing the powder in the air and on cars on Friday in West Virginia, northern Virginia and Maryland.

The West Virginia lab was testing the dust to determine if it was related to dust storms in the Midwest, the Department of Environmental Protection statement said.

Police are investigating where the drugs came from and how they ended up on the shores of the town of Reville on the Cotentin Peninsula on Sunday, according to France's maritime authority for the English Channel and North Sea.

The cocaine, weighing about 850 kilograms (1,875 pounds) in total, was found in two large packages linked by a rope, the administration said Tuesday.

While packages of drugs wash up once or twice a year on beaches in the region, the administration said they had never seen such a large quantity.

Police are trying to determine whether the drugs fell from a ship or were intentionally floated to the shore for traffickers to pick up.

A surge in cocaine and crack supplies has been hitting Europe hard, along with unprecedented drug violence in some areas. The North Sea port cities of Antwerp in Belgium and Rotterdam in the Netherlands have become the main gateway for Latin American cocaine cartels into Europe.

The sign spotted Sunday in Queens featured a picture of Robinson, Major League Baseball's first African American player in the modern era, over the words “Jakie Robinson Parkway.”

Department of Transportation spokesperson Scott Gastel said the botched sign was replaced Monday.

Robinson broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He is celebrated as a civil rights trailblazer and as a superstar athlete who made the All-Star Game six times and batted .313 over his 10-year MLB career.

The road formerly know as the Interboro Parkway was renamed for Robinson in 1997, the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking rookie season.

Aristocrat Constance Marten, 35, and her boyfriend Mark Gordon, 48, a convicted sex offender, had been on the run since the baby was born in early January. They have been spotted around the country, and police said they sought to avoid being detected by paying for everything in cash and covering their faces when on CCTV.

Marten and Gordon were arrested on suspicion of child neglect late Monday in Brighton in southern England after a tipoff from a member of the public. The baby was not with them, and police launched an “urgent” search operation in the area.

“It is a vast area and at present we are looking in the local vicinity to where the couple were arrested last night, seeking a shelter or location for where they may have been holed up and hopefully where the baby is present," Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford told the BBC.

Police searched for Marten and Gordon for weeks after a car they were travelling in was found on fire on the side of a highway on Jan. 5.

Police believe Marten had given birth either in or near the car just a day or two earlier, and officers said they were increasingly concerned for the family's welfare because neither Marten nor the baby had been seen by medical professionals.

Dozens of officers were involved in the search, and more than 600 hours of CCTV footage were reviewed.

Marten, who is from a wealthy, aristocratic British family, was reportedly a drama student when she met Gordon. He had served 20 years in prison in the United States after being convicted in Florida of kidnapping and sexual battery, according to U.S. law enforcement records. He was deported from the U.S. after his release.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously and sent it to the House of Delegates.

Those eligible for the tax credit had to live and work in West Virginia for at least 10 years or were born in the state. They had to live outside of the state for at least 10 consecutive years prior to 2023.

Unused portions of the credit could be applied to future tax years. The credit would expire in 2029.

State officials have tried other cash enticements in the past few years to try to beef up West Virginia’s sagging population. The Department of Tourism is offering $12,000 cash plus free passes for a host of outdoor adventures to remote workers to move to certain areas of the state.

West Virginia lost a greater percentage of its residents than any other state from 2010 to 2020, when the population dropped 3.2%, or about 59,000 people. It’s been such a problem due to long-term declines in the coal, steel and other industries that West Virginia is now the only state with fewer residents than it had in 1950.

The thefts started on Jan. 28 and have typically involved four people on two mopeds riding up to victims from behind, snatching their Apple AirPods Max headphones and then speeding off. The noise-canceling devices currently retail for $549 a piece.

The sonic swipers have struck all over Manhattan, including one incident in Central Park, with victims ranging in age from 18 to 41, police said. The bulk of the thefts happened in mid-to-late afternoon. Five headphones were stolen on Feb. 8 and eight were taken on Feb. 18.

The thieves remain at large, and no arrests have been made.

Police this week released a photo of suspects riding mopeds and a video showing one of them getting off a moped carrying two AirPod Max headphones and walking into Washington Square Park.

Unlike AirPods and AirPods Pro, which are small and fit inside the ear, AirPods Max headphones rest over the ears and have an adjustable headband connecting the right and left sides.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not seem to be joking when he posted the photo of an “Aluxe,” a mischievous woodland spirit in Mayan folklore.

López Obrador wrote the photo “was taken three days ago by an engineer, it appears to be an aluxe," adding “everything is mystical.”

The nighttime photo shows a tree with a branch forming what looks like a halo of hair, and what may be stars forming the figure’s eyes.

López Obrador has long expressed reverence for indigenous cultures and beliefs. Engineers and workers are in the Yucatan peninsula, constructing a tourist train that is the president's pet project.

According to traditional Mayan belief, “Aluxes” are small, mischievous creatures that inhabit forests and fields and are prone to playing tricks on people, like hiding things. Some people leave small offerings to appease them.

The ancient Mayan civilization reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D. on the Yucatan Peninsula and in adjacent parts of Central America, but the Mayas’ descendants continue to live on the peninsula.

Many continue speaking the Mayan language and wearing traditional clothing, while also conserving traditional foods, crops, religion and medicine practices, despite the conquest of the region by the Spanish between 1527 and 1546.

The bear was outside for less than an hour and was found only about 100 feet away from his habitat, zoo officials said in a statement. The 4-year-old bear, who weighs about 300 pounds, was tranquilized and returned to the enclosure.

Visitors and zoo staff were kept inside zoo buildings during Ben's escapade.

The bear escaped on Feb. 7 by tearing apart clips that were attached stainless steel mesh to the frame of the enclosure's door. He did not wander far and was outside for about 90 minutes before being returned.

In response, the zoo added stainless steel clips with 450 pounds of tensile strength to the mesh. But Ben managed to snap those clips Thursday.

Zoo officials said they are working on alternative ways to secure the enclosure and will seek advice from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Bear Taxon Advisory Group.

The nearly 5-foot-long (1.5-meter-long) female alligator was lethargic and suffering from exposure to the cold when it was found in Brooklyn's Prospect Park Lake on Sunday, according to a spokesperson for the Bronx Zoo, where the gator is recovering.

After being spotted by a park maintenance worker Sunday morning, the alligator was pulled from the lake and taken to Animal Care Centers of New York City before it was brought to the Bronx Zoo.

Zoo officials said in a news release that the rescued alligator is too weak to eat on its own and is being tube-fed. At 15 pounds (6.8 kilos), the alligator is extremely emaciated, as an alligator of its length should weigh 30 to 35 pounds (13.6 to 15.9 kilos), they said.

X-Rays show that the alligator, estimated to be 5 to 6 years old, had ingested a 4-inch (10-centimeter) bathtub stopper, zoo officials said, noting that the animal is too weak for veterinarians to try to remove it.

It is illegal to have an alligator in New York state, but it is not uncommon for people to buy young alligators and then abandon them. A baby alligator was found in a swimming pool in suburban Bayport in 2019.

Animal Care Centers spokesperson Katy Hansen said the organization has taken in six American alligators since 2018.

Bronx Zoo Director Jim Breheny called the alligator found Sunday a sad example of the exotic pet trade. “People need to think before they acquire exotic animals,” Breheny said. “Everyone needs to know and realize that wild animals don’t make good pets.”

Breheny said leaving the alligator in a lake in Brooklyn in the wintertime "was an irresponsible act and certainly not in the animal’s best interest.”

Nadeam Nahas, 39, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges of fraudulent use of electricity and vandalizing a school, but he did not show up and a judge issued a default warrant after rejecting a defense motion to reschedule, a spokesperson for the Norfolk district attorney's office said.

A listed number for Nahas was not accepting messages on Thursday.

Police responded to Cohasset Middle/High School in December 2021 after the town’s facilities director found electrical wires, temporary duct work, and numerous computers that seemed out of place while conducting a routine inspection of the school, Chief William Quigley of the Cohasset Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.

He contacted the town's IT director, who determined that it was a cryptocurrency mining operation unlawfully hooked up to the school's electrical system, Quigley said.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service and the Department of Homeland Security assisted with safely removing and examining the equipment.

Crypto mining, the process of validating cryptocurrency transactions and creating new cryptocurrency, consumes vast amounts of electricity.

Nahas, the town's assistant facilities director, was identified as a suspect after a three-month investigation. After a show-cause hearing, a criminal complaint was issued. Nahas subsequently resigned from his job with the town in early 2022, police said.

Merkel's office said Monday that the former German leader received a call Jan. 12 from someone claiming to be Poroshenko. The conversation was assisted by a German-Ukrainian interpreter from the German Foreign Ministry's language service.

In an emailed statement, the office said Merkel informed the ministry afterward about the “impression that she gained of the caller during the call,” but didn't elaborate on what that was.

Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus, posted on their Telegram channel what they said were excerpts from the call. The pair have previously embarrassed European politicians including French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish President Andrzej Duda and then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as Elton John and Prince Harry, with similar hoax calls.

The recording features Merkel saying — as she has done publicly before — that the much-criticized Minsk peace agreement had bought precious time for Ukraine. Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande had brokered the peace agreement with Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2015. She also criticizes repression in autocratic Belarus.

Poroshenko was Ukraine's president from 2014 until 2019. Merkel led Germany from 2005 until the end of 2021.