MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former Olympic wrestler and MMA star Ben Askren, who has been hospitalized in Wisconsin after a severe case of pneumonia, said in a post on social media Wednesday that he had undergone a double lung transplant and is in recovery.
Askren said during the Instagram video that he recalls very little of what happened over a monthlong stretch from late May through the first two days of July. His wife, Amy, had said in a series of social media posts that Askren was put on a ventilator in June and placed on the donor list for a lung transplant on June 24.
“No recollection, zero idea, no idea what happened,” Askren said of most of the past six weeks. “I just read through my wife’s journal. It’s like a movie. It’s ridiculous. I only died four times, where the ticker stopped for about 20 seconds.”
Askren said he lost about 50 pounds during the 45-day stretch.
“The thing that was most impeccable to me was all the love I felt,” Askren said. “It was almost like I got to have my own funeral.”
The 40-year-old Askren was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but has lived primarily in Wisconsin, where he runs a youth wrestling academy. He won back-to-back NCAA titles at Missouri and competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics for the U.S. before moving into MMA, where he fought for Bellator and ONE Championship before moving into the UFC.
Askren retired from MMA after a loss to Demian Maia in October 2019. He had a record of 19-2 with one no contest.
Askren made a brief return to combat sports in April 2021, when he fought social media star Jake Paul in a boxing match. Paul won by technical knockout in the first round of a fight that sold about 500,000 on pay-per-view.
JOLANDA DI SAVOIA, Italy (AP) — An unusual pest is ravaging crops and irking farmers in northeastern Italy: the flamingo.
Flocks of these relatively recent immigrants have set their hungry sights on the flooded fields that produce rice for risotto in Ferrara province, between Venice and Ravenna. The long-legged birds aren’t interested in the seedlings; rather, flamingos use their webbed feet to stir up the soil and snatch mollusks, algae or insects from the shallow water.
Rice is collateral damage.
Farmers have started patroling day and night in a bid to scare the birds away. They honk their trucks’ horns, bang barrels and even fire small gas cannons that make thunderous booms. Mostly, the noise just sends them flying to another nearby rice paddy to be trampled underfoot.
Enrico Fabbri, a local grower, said he is discouraged after seeing production losses of as much as 90% in some of his planted areas.
“These are new things that have never happened before. You invest so much time and care into preparing everything,” Fabbri, 63, said beside one of his paddies on the outskirts of Jolanda di Savoia. “Then, just as the crop begins to grow, it’s like having a newborn child taken away. That’s what it feels like.”
The flamingos appear to have come from their prior nesting grounds in the nearby Comacchio Valleys within a reserve on the coast, just south of where the Po River, Italy’s longest, flows into the Adriatic Sea.
The birds have been there since 2000, after drought in southern Spain sent them searching for nesting grounds further east, according to Roberto Tinarelli, ornithologist and president of the Emilia-Romagna Ornithologists Association.
Previously, they had been confined to lakes in North Africa, parts of Spain and a bit of France’s Camargue region, Tinarelli, 61, said beside a pond in Bentivolgio, a town near Bologna.
There have been no studies yet to determine why these flamingos started seeking food further inland, where farmers flood their fields from late spring to early summer as a means of germinating newly planted rice seeds. Until the paddies are drained after a few weeks, the flamingos are a threat.
“Obviously, we are looking for answers from those who have to deal with the problem. From an environmental point of view, all this is beautiful, but we must keep in mind that rice cultivation is among the most expensive, extensive crops,” said Massimo Piva, a 57-year-old rice grower and vice-president of the local farmers’ confederation.
“They are beautiful animals, it’s their way of moving and behaving, but the problem is trying to limit their presence as much as possible,” Piva said.
Tinarelli, the ornithologist, suggested several solutions to fend off flamingos that are more humane and effective than the clamorous efforts currently employed: surrounding paddies with tall trees or hedges and, even better, reducing water levels of freshly planted paddies to between 2 and 4 inches (5 and 10 centimeters), instead of 12 inches (30 centimeters).
“This is sufficient for the rice to grow, but decidedly less attractive to flamingos, which must splash around in the water,” he said.
By DEE-ANN DURBIN and MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writers
Italian confectioner Ferrero, known for brands like Nutella and Kinder, is buying the century-old U.S. cereal company WK Kellogg in a deal valued at approximately $3.1 billion.
The Ferrero Group said Thursday it will pay $23 for each Kellogg share. The transaction includes the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of WK Kellogg Co.’s portfolio of breakfast cereals across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
WK Kellogg’s shares were up 30% in premarket trading Thursday.
Kellogg, which was founded in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1906, makes Fruit Loops, Special K, Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies.
The current company was formed in 2023, when Kellogg’s snack brands like Cheez-Its and Pringles were spun into a separate company called Kellanova. M&M’s maker Mars Inc. announced last year that it planned to buy Kellanova in a deal worth nearly $30 billion.
Ferrero Group, which was founded in Italy in 1946, has been trying to expand its U.S. footprint. In 2018 it bought Nestle’s U.S. candy brands, including Butterfinger, Nerds and SweeTarts. And in 2022 it bought Wells Enterprises, the maker of ice cream brands like Blue Bunny and Halo Top.
The deal, which still needs approval from Kellogg shareholders, is expected to close in the second half of the year. Once the transaction is complete, Kellogg’s stock will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the company will become a Ferrero subsidiary.
This creamy spread is a Southern classic that comes together in moments. Think sharp cheddar’s tang, creamy richness, and sweet pimentos all mixed into perfection. Great on crackers, veggies, or sandwiches and always a favorite at gatherings.
Ingredients
2 cups shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz cream cheese, softened
½ cup mayonnaise
4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Mix everything together In a large bowl, combine the cheddar, cream cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne if you’re adding a little heat. Stir until well blended .
Taste and season Give it a taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. If you want a looser, creamier texture, add a little more mayo.
Chill before serving Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour. Chilling helps the flavors come together and firms up the spread.
Serve it up Scoop it onto crackers, spread it on sandwiches, or pile it on celery sticks. It’s great at parties, picnics, or just for a weekend snack.
By SEAN MURPHY, NADIA LATHAN and JOHN SEEWER Associated Press
HUNT, Texas (AP) — In the frantic hours after a wall of water engulfed camps and homes in Texas, a police officer who was trapped himself spotted dozens of people stranded on roofs and waded out to bring them to safety, a fellow officer said Wednesday.
Another off-duty officer tied a garden hose around his waist so he could reach two people clinging to a tree above swirling floodwaters, Kerrville officer Jonathan Lamb said, describing another harrowing rescue.
The search is continuing on the grounds of Camp Mystic as more than 160 people are believed to be missing in Texas days after a destructive wall of water killed over 100 people. (AP Video)
“This tragedy, as horrific as it is, could have been so much worse,” Lamb told a news conference, crediting first responders and volunteers with saving lives and knocking on doors to evacuate residents during the flash floods on the July Fourth holiday.
More than 160 people still are believed to be missing, and at least 118 have died in the floods that laid waste to the Hill Country region of Texas. The large number of missing people suggests that the full extent of the catastrophe is still unclear five days after the disaster.
The floods are now the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since 1976, when Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flooded, killing 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections.
Crews used backhoes and their bare hands Wednesday to dig through piles of debris that stretched for miles along the Guadalupe River in the search of missing people.
“We will not stop until every missing person is accounted for,” Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday. “Know this also: There very likely could be more added to that list.”
Officials face backlash for lack of preparations and warnings
Public officials in the area have come under repeated criticism amid questions about the timeline of what happened and why widespread warnings were not sounded and more preparations were not made.
“Those questions are going to be answered,” Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. “I believe those questions need to be answered, to the families of the loved ones, to the public.”
But he said the priority for now is recovering victims. “We’re not running. We’re not going to hide from anything,” the sheriff said.
The governor called on state lawmakers to approve new flood warning systems and strengthen emergency communications in flood prone areas throughout the state when the Legislature meets in a special session that Abbott had already called to address other issues starting July 21. Abbott also called on lawmakers to provide financial relief for response and recovery efforts from the storms.
“We must ensure better preparation for such events in the future,” Abbott said in a statement.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a flood warning system, but concerns about costs and noise led to missed opportunities to put up sirens.
Raymond Howard, a city council member in Ingram, said it was “unfathomable” that county officials did not act.
“This is lives. This is families,” he said. “This is heartbreaking.”
Number of missing has soared
A day earlier, the governor announced that about 160 people have been reported missing in Kerr County, where searchers already have found more than 90 bodies.
Officials have been seeking more information about those who were in the Hill Country, a popular tourist destination, during the holiday weekend but did not register at a camp or a hotel and may have been in the area without many people knowing, Abbott said.
The riverbanks and hills of Kerr County are filled with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said five campers and one counselor have still not been found.
Just two days before the flooding, Texas inspectors signed off on the camp’s emergency planning. But five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press did not provide any details about how campers would be evacuated.
Challenging search for the dead
With almost no hope of finding anyone alive, search crews and volunteers say they are focused on bringing the families of the missing some closure.
Crews fanned out in air boats, helicopters and on horseback. They used excavators and their hands, going through layer by layer, with search dogs sniffing for any sign of buried bodies.
They looked in trees and in the mounds below their feet. They searched inside crumpled pickup trucks and cars, painting them with a large X, much like those marked on homes after a hurricane.
More than 2,000 volunteers have offered to lend a hand in Kerr County alone, the sheriff said.
How long the search will continue was impossible to predict given the number of people unaccounted for and the miles to cover.
Shannon Ament wore knee-high rubber boots and black gloves as she rummaged through debris in front of her rental property in Kerr County. A high school soccer coach is one of the many people she knows who are still missing.
“We need support. I’m not going to say thoughts and prayers because I’m sick of that,” she said. “We don’t need to be blamed for who voted for who. This was a freak of nature — a freak event.”
Trump plans to survey damage Friday
President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover. He plans to visit the state Friday.
Polls taken before the floods show Americans largely believe the federal government should play a major role in preparing for and responding to natural disasters.
Catastrophic flooding is a growing worry. On Tuesday, a deluge in New Mexico triggered flash floods that killed three people.
Lathan reported from Ingram, and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Josh Stein cleared his desk Wednesday of the deluge of bills passed to him from the North Carolina General Assembly last month, three of which he vetoed.
Stein topped off his veto total at 14 for this year’s legislative session. One of the vetoes prolongs the extensive battle between the governor’s office and GOP-controlled legislature over gun laws — an issue Republican lawmakers prioritized when they came to Raleigh.
Now that all of Stein’s vetoes have been returned to the Legislative Building, possible veto override attempts could occur starting later this month. House Speaker Destin Hall reaffirmed that possibility in a post on the social platform X.
“We’re keeping score. Overrides coming soon,” Hall said.
With Republicans one House seat short of a veto-proof supermajority, GOP leaders may have to pick and choose which measures to take action on. A few bills with some Democratic support may be able to skirt by.
The first vetoed bill would allow certain people to carry firearms onto private school property with permission from the school’s board of trustees or administrative director. The person — either an employee or a volunteer — would be required to have a concealed handgun permit and complete a training class. Republican proponents of the bill said it would keep private schools safe in rural areas where police response time is longer.
Stein argued in his veto statement that school employees and volunteers “cannot substitute” law enforcement officers, who receive hundreds of hours of safety education, when crises occur. The governor did voice support for another provision in the bill that would heighten penalties for threatening or assaulting an elected official. He urged the legislature to “send me a clean bill with those protections so I can sign it.”
“Just as we should not allow guns in the General Assembly, we should keep them out of our schools unless they are in the possession of law enforcement,” Stein said in the statement.
Some Democrats in the House and Senate voted for the bill originally, meaning a veto override is on the table.
The fight over guns was the focus of a previous bill Stein vetoed a few weeks ago that would allow adults to carry concealed weapons without a permit. That bill faces an uphill battle to becoming law after a handful of Republicans voted against the measure, making the chances of a veto override fairly slim.
GOP state legislators have continued to carve out further gun access over the past few years. In 2023, Republican lawmakers overrode former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and put into law the elimination of the pistol purchase permit system that mandated character evaluations and criminal history checks for applicants.
The other two bills Stein vetoed Wednesday also received some Democratic votes and thus could be overridden if such support holds.
One of the bills would create an expedited removal process for homeowners and landlords to remove people unauthorized to live on their property. Stein said he was unhappy with a last-minute addition that would prevent local governments from enforcing their own prohibitions on pet shop animal sales and additional licensing beyond statewide rules. The other bill would bar public agencies from collecting or releasing certain personal information about donors to 501(c) nonprofits.
The governor signed nine bills into law Wednesday. Two were omnibus criminal justice and public safety measures, raising penalties on many crimes or creating new criminal counts. Another was designed to help active-duty military and veterans with reduced government fees and improved access to higher education.
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Associated Press writer Gary D. Robertson contributed to this report.
A rally in big tech stocks led the broader market to a higher close Wednesday, lifting the Nasdaq to an all-time high and helping Wall Street claw back most of its losses from earlier in the week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% for its first gain this week. The benchmark index remains near the record it set last week after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, closed 0.9% higher. The gain was good enough to nudge the index past the record high it set last Thursday.
Nvidia rose 1.8% and became the first public company to exceed $4 trillion in value after its share price briefly topped $164 each in the early going. Shares in the AI boom poster child were going for around $14 per share at the start of 2023.
The tech rally came as Wall Street continued to weigh the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s renewed push this week to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe.
Wednesday was initially set as a deadline by Trump for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been extended to Aug. 1.
This latest phase in the White House’s trade war heightens the threat of potentially more severe tariffs that’s been hanging over the global economy. Higher taxes on imported goods could hinder economic growth, if not increase recession risks.
On Tuesday, Trump said he would be announcing tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at a “very, very high rate, like 200%.” He also said he would sign an executive order placing a 50% tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.
Copper prices eased Wednesday after spiking a day earlier. Shares in mining company Freeport-McMoRan fell 1.5%.
Financial markets swooned from day-to-day for weeks after the White House rolled out its proposed tariff hikes in the spring. With the new batch of U.S. taxes on imports not set to kick in until next month, that gives Wall Street a breather just as the next corporate earnings season is set to begin.
“I think most people are tired of tariff news and they’re starting to realize it just doesn’t matter much,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors. “We’re pretty bullish about earnings. I think the rest of the market is too.”
Wall Street analysts predict that companies in the S&P 500 will deliver a combined 5% annual growth in second-quarter earnings, according to FactSet. That would mark the lowest growth rate for the index since the fourth quarter of 2023.
Delta Air Lines kicks off earnings season on Thursday, with most analysts expecting the airline’s second-quarter profit to decline from a year ago. Delta and other major U.S. carriers have trimmed their flight schedules and pulled their forecasts this year as consumers pull back on travel and other nonessential spending due to uncertainty about how Trump’s tariffs will affect their budgets.
Gains in technology and communication services stocks outweighed declines in energy and other sectors Wednesday.
Microsoft rose 1.4%, Meta gained 1.7% and Google parent Alphabet added 1.3%.
Amazon rose 1.4% a day after the online retail giant kicked off Prime Day, extending it for the first time to four days.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 37.74 to 6,263.26. The Dow added 217.54 to 44,458.30, and the Nasdaq gained 192.87 to close at 20,611.34.
In bond market trading, the yield on the 10-year Treasury slid to 4.34% from 4.40% late Tuesday.
In overseas markets, stock indexes closed broadly higher in Europe after a mixed finish in Asia.
Outside of trade talks, some corporate news surfaced Wednesday after a typically quiet early summer stretch.
Pharmaceutical giant Merck is buying Verona Pharma, a U.K. company that focuses on respiratory diseases, in an approximately $10 billion deal. If approved by Verona shareholders and U.K. officials, Merck will get access to Verona’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication Ohtuvayre. Verona shares jumped 20.6% on the news, while Merck shares rose 2.9%.
By MATT BROWN and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s former White House physician refused on Wednesday to answer questions as part of the House Republican investigation into Biden’s health in office.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor invoked doctor-patient privilege and his rights under the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, his attorney and lawmakers said.
Republicans on the Oversight Committee subpoenaed O’Connor last month as part of a their sweeping investigation into Biden’s health and his mental fitness as president. They claim some policies carried out during Biden’s term through the use of the White House autopen may be illegitimate if it’s proven the Democrat was mentally incapacitated for some of his term.
Biden has strongly denied that he was not in a right state of mind at any point while in office, calling the claims “ridiculous and false.”
David Schertler, one of O’Connor’s lawyers, said the doctor had “no choice” but to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in testimony before the committee. Schertler cited both O’Connor’s responsibilities to protect patient privacy as a doctor and the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into Biden’s use of the autopen.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Oversight chair, said O’Connor’s refusal to testify made it “clear there was a conspiracy.”
“The American people demand transparency, but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth,” Comer said in a statement.
Witnesses routinely invoke their Fifth Amendment rights in testimony to Congress. Allies of President Donald Trump, for example, invoked their rights when refusing to testify to the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Comer has has sought testimony from nearly a dozen former Biden aides as he conducts his investigation, including former White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients; former senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams.
He has also issued a subpoena for Anthony Bernal, the former chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden.
Trump’s White House has waived executive privilege, a right that protects many communications between the president and staff from Congress and the courts, for almost all of those senior staffers. That clears the way for those staffers to discuss their conversations with Biden while he was president.
Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, dismissed the Republican investigation as a waste of time.
“Oversight Republicans could be working to lower costs for American families and conducting oversight of President Trump’s corruption, but instead are obsessed with the past,” he said.
Comer has said his committee will release a report of all its findings after the probe is complete.
HUNT, Texas (AP) — More than 160 people are still believed to be missing in Texas days after flash floods killed over 100 people during the July Fourth weekend, the state’s governor said Tuesday.
The huge jump in the number unaccounted for — roughly three times higher than previously said — came after authorities set up a hotline for families to call.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says more than 160 people are believed to be still missing days after the flash floods that killed more than 100 people across central Texas. (AP Video)
Those reported missing are in Kerr County, where most of the victims have been recovered so far, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Many were likely visiting or staying in the state’s Hill Country during the holiday but did not register at a camp or hotel, he said during a news conference.
The county’s lowlands along the Guadalupe River are filled with youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.
Search-and-rescue teams are using heavy equipment to untangle and peel away layers of trees, unearth large rocks in riverbanks and move massive piles of debris that stretch for miles in the search for the missing people. Crews in airboats, helicopters and on horseback along with hundreds of volunteers are part of one of the largest search operations in Texas history.
The flash flood is the deadliest from inland flooding in the U.S. since Colorado’s Big Thompson Canyon flood on July 31, 1976, killed 144 people, said Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections. That flood surged through a narrow canyon packed with people on a holiday weekend, Colorado’s centennial celebration.
Public officials in charge of locating the victims are facing intensifying questions about who was in charge of monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.
The Republican governor, who took a helicopter tour of the disaster zone, dismissed a question about who was to blame for the deaths, saying, “That’s the word choice of losers.”
“Every football team makes mistakes,” he said. “The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who’s to blame. The championship teams are the ones who say, ’Don’t worry about it, man, we got this. We’re going to make sure that we go score again and we’re going to win this game.’ The way winners talk is not to point fingers.”
Abbott promised that the search for victims will not stop until everyone is found. He also said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover. Trump plans to visit the state Friday.
Scenes of devastation at Camp Mystic
Outside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered on a grassy hill that slopes toward the river. Also in the debris were pink, purple and blue luggage decorated with stickers.
Among those who died at the camp were a second grader who loved pink sparkles and bows, a 19-year-old counselor who enjoyed mentoring young girls and the camp’s 75-year-old director.
The flash floods erupted before daybreak Friday after massive rains sent water speeding down hills into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour. The wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river’s edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Some campers had to swim out of cabin windows to safety while others held onto a rope as they made their way to higher ground. Time-lapse videos showed how floodwaters covered roads in a matter of minutes.
Questions mounted about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as “flash flood alley.”
Leaders in Kerr county, where searchers have found about 90 bodies, said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what happened in the hours before the flash floods.
“Right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home,” Lt. Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens, said during a sometimes tense news conference.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said in the hours after the devastation that the county does not have a warning system.
Generations of families in the Hill Country have known the dangers. A 1987 flood forced the evacuation of a youth camp in the town of Comfort and swamped buses and vans. Ten teenagers were killed.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a warning system. Kerr County sought a nearly $1 million grant eight years ago for such a system, but the request was turned down by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local residents balked at footing the bill themselves, Kelly said.
Recovery and cleanup goes on
Four days have passed since anyone was found alive in the aftermath of the floods in Kerr County, officials said Tuesday.
The bodies of 30 children were among those that have been recovered in the county, which is home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, the sheriff said.
The devastation spread across several hundred miles in central Texas all the way to just outside the capital of Austin.
Aidan Duncan escaped just in time after hearing the muffled blare of a megaphone urging residents to evacuate Riverside RV Park in the Hill Country town of Ingram.
All his belongings — a mattress, sports cards, his pet parakeet’s bird cage — now sit caked in mud in front of his home.
“What’s going on right now, it hurts,” the 17-year-old said. “I literally cried so hard.”
Along the banks of the Guadalupe, 91-year-old Charles Hanson, a resident at a senior living center, was sweeping up wood and piling pieces of concrete and stone, remnants from a playground structure.
He wanted to help clean up on behalf of his neighbors who can’t get out. “We’ll make do with the best we got,” he said.
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Joshua A. Bickel in Kerrville, Texas; Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — “Tiger King” star Bhagavan “Doc” Antle is going to prison — but not for as long as prosecutors wanted — after admitting he broke federal law buying endangered animals to keep at his zoo in South Carolina.
Antle, 65, was sentenced to one year and one day behind bars and fined $55,000 on Tuesday, nearly two years after he pleaded guilty to trafficking in exotic animals and money laundering. He entered his plea in November 2023.
It was likely the end to the legal dramas that surrounded “Tiger King,” the Netflix true crime documentary that captivated a country shut down by COVID-19.
The star, Joe Exotic, is serving a 21-year federal prison sentence for trying to hire two different men to kill the other star, Carole Baskin. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was a collector and private zookeeper from Oklahoma and Baskin, runs Big Cat Rescue in Florida.
Antle appeared in the first season with Exotic and Baskin and was the star of the show’s third season.
Prosecutors say Antle bought animals on the black market
Antle’s crimes were unrelated. He laundered money used in a human smuggling scheme because he needed large amounts of cash quickly to buy animals like chimpanzees, lions, tigers, cheetahs and other creatures, Prosecutor Patrick Duggan said. These animals are illegal to sell because they are endangered, and their high prices could encourage poachers to steal them from the wild, Duggan explained.
“He was knowingly and illegally trading them as part of a black market that drives another black market of poaching and smuggling,” Duggan said in court Tuesday.
Antle’s lawyers requested a sentence of just probation or home confinement, saying their client needed to care for the 150 exotic animals that consume 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of meat a day at his Myrtle Beach Safari. They said many of the animals only respond to Antle.
Friends and family ask for mercy for Antle
About 25 friends and family packed a federal courtroom in Charleston. Several told Judge Joseph Dawson III that Antle was generous and caring. They said he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight poaching and preserve wild habitats for tigers, lions and chimpanzees.
The judge was swayed. Federal guidelines called for about two years in prison, to which prosecutors agreed. But Dawson said, although Antle broke federal law, all the evidence pointed to him caring for animals.
Antle apologized at the end of his sentencing hearing for causing problems for his life’s work.
“I made a mistake, I did stupid things,” Antle said, adding, “I hope I’ll be able to pull it back together for everybody.”
Antle needed animals so Myrtle Beach Safari could offer experiences
Antle’s Myrtle Beach Safari was known for charging hundreds or thousands of dollars to let people pet and hold baby animals like lions, tigers and monkeys that were so young they were still being bottle-fed. Customers would pay $200 for five minutes and photos with a baby chimp or $7,000 for a sleepover. Antle would sometimes ride into tours on an elephant.
The zoo remains open by reservation only.
Prosecutors said Antle sold or bought cheetahs, lions, tigers and a chimpanzee without the proper paperwork for a decade. They said he also laundered more than $500,000 so he could quickly get cash to buy more animals.
Antle knows federal law well and was able to avoid prosecution for years, prosecutors said. He would accept a large “donation” for an animal to his conservation foundation. He would claim to keep the animal in the same state he bought it, but then move it to his Myrtle Beach zoo, prosecutors said.
FBI tapped phone calls led to several prosecutions
The FBI was listening to Antle’s phone calls with an informant as he explained a baby chimpanzee could easily cost $200,000. Private zookeepers can charge hundreds of dollars for photos with docile young primates or other animals, but the profit window is only open for a few years before the growing animals can no longer be safely handled.
“I had to get a monkey, but the people won’t take a check. They only take cash. So what do you do?” Antle said according to a transcript of the phone call in court papers.
Antle will have to give up three chimpanzees he bought as part of his plea deal.
Two of Antle’s employees have already been sentenced for their roles in his schemes.
Meredith Bybee was given a year of probation for selling a chimpanzee while Andrew “Omar” Sawyer, who prosecutors said helped Antle launder money, was given two years of probation.
Jason Clay, a Texas private zoo owner, pleaded guilty to illegally selling a primate and was sentenced to four months in prison, while charges were dropped against California ranch owner Charles Sammut.
