Slippery Rock Gazette

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A California police department said it will need a new way to disguise the faces of suspects in photos posted to social media after Lego asked the department to stop using its intellectual property.

The Murrieta Police Department has been using various images -- including emoji faces and characters from The Grinch, Shrek and Barbie -- to cover the faces of suspects in mug shots and other photos posted to social media for a couple of years, and this year California adopted a statewide law prohibiting police from sharing photos of suspects in non-violent crimes.

“The Murrieta Police Department prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law; even suspects,” the department said in a social media post. “In order to share what is happening in Murrieta, we chose to cover the faces of suspects to protect their identity while still aligning with the new law.”

In recent weeks the department has made a practice of using images depicting the heads of Lego minifigs to block out of the faces of suspects in social media posts, but Lt. Jeremy Durrant said that particular practice has now come to an end.

“The Lego Group reached out to us and respectfully asked us to refrain from using their intellectual property in our social media content, which, of course, we understand and will comply with,” Durrant said in a statement provided to the Murrieta Patch. “We are currently exploring other methods of publishing our content in a way that is engaging and interesting to our followers.”

This year’s Cadbury Bunny is actually a raccoon named Louie, the first of his species to earn the title, a spokesperson for the candy company said.

The company announced Louie the Raccoon, a 2-year-old pet from Miami, Florida, was the winner of the sixth annual Cadbury Bunny Tryouts and will have a role in the 2025 Cadbury Bunny Tryouts commercial, which has become a promotional tradition for the brand.

Louie’s owner, Jaime, rescued him in 2021 when he was deemed unfit to live in the wild, Cadbury said.

The raccoon won the hearts of voters on Instagram with his friendly face and his special skill: creating paintings to be sold to benefit wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers.

“Each year, we look forward to crowning a new Cadbury Bunny, especially this year where we engaged fans in a new way through our bracket-style competition. It was incredible to see pet lovers getting in on the fun,” said Natalie Shuntich, senior associate marketing manager at Cadbury’s parent, The Hershey Co.

“Witnessing how fans participated in each wave of voting, and the loving support for our thirty finalists…  is a testament to the love for the Cadbury brand,” she said.

Louie follows in the footsteps of previous Cadbury “Bunnies” including Crash the Rescue Cat, Annie Rose the Therapy Dog, Betty the Frog, Lieutenant Dan the Treeing Walker Coonhound and Henri the English Bulldog.

Authorities in North Carolina have obtained arrest warrants for two people in a poaching case involving hundreds of Venus flytraps, which grow naturally in the eastern part of the state.

Officers with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission obtained arrest warrants for two people accused of stealing nearly 600 of the rare plants from conservation land in Boiling Spring Lakes, WECT-TV reported. It is not clear if the people have been arrested and authorities with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission have not returned messages left by the press.

Venus flytraps are native to southeastern North Carolina.

“They only grow naturally within a 100-mile radius of Wilmington,” Sgt. Matt Criscoe with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission told the news station. “This time of year they start to bud flowers,” making it easier to find them and prompting increased patrols for poachers, Criscoe said.

He said the plants are sold on the black market or locally. 

Wildlife officers responded to a complaint last month about two people digging for flytraps in Boiling Spring Lakes. They were stopped at a local gas station and officers searched their backpacks. They’re accused of harvesting more than 590 plants, Criscoe said.

The accused have not been publicly identified.

Digging up the plants and removing them from public land or land held privately by another person is a felony in North Carolina. 

A new search will place on the 90th anniversary of Sir Edward Mountain’s expedition, from 30 May to 2 June.

NASA has been asked to help in a new search for the Loch Ness monster.The Loch Ness Centre has urged the space agency to lend its expertise in a fresh hunt for the legendary creature.

Last year, one of the biggest searches of Loch Ness in the Highlands concluded with a hydrophone capturing loud underwater noises and several potential sightings.

The latest search will take place on the 90th anniversary of Sir Edward Mountain’s expedition from 30 May to 2 June.

Since that first expedition in 1934, the Watchers of the Monster, there have been over 1,156 sightings recorded on the official Loch Ness monster register.

Aimee Todd from the Loch Ness Centre said: “We are hoping that Nessie hunters around the world will help us reach the people at NASA.”We are hoping to reach them through the power of social media. We are just hoping for their expert guidance to help with our ongoing quest to get answers.

“We have gone to UK universities. We are hoping that experts from NASA might have some advanced imaging technology to scan the loch.”We would have to sit down and talk to them about how to get it here.”

Volunteers during the new search will be tasked to keep an eye on the surface, looking for breaks in the water. They will be briefed on what to look out for and how to record findings.

Those unable to make the search in person can get involved through the live cameras on the Visit Inverness Loch Ness website.

A screening of Loch Ness: They Created A Monster - a documentary exploring the monster-hunting frenzy in the 1970s and 1980s - will also take place, along with a special Q&A with the director John MacLaverty.

And there will be a live debate with researcher Alan McKenna from Loch Ness Exploration, along with a witness account.

Nessie hunters can also go out on a boat with Deepscan captain Alistair Matheson, the skipper for the Loch Ness Project, as well as Mr McKenna, using a 18m (60ft) hydrophone to listen for mysterious sounds echoing from the depths of the loch.

The Loch Ness Centre is located at the old Drumnadrochit Hotel, where it is said manageress Aldie Mackay reported seeing a “water beast” in Loch Ness 90 years ago.

General manager Paul Nixon said: “Last year, we captured the world’s attention with one of the biggest-ever searches for Nessie, with participants joining us from America, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and more.

“With unexplained noises heard, alongside possible sightings, this year we are determined to find out more about the elusive Loch Ness monster.

“As well as asking for the help of budding monster hunters to help us on our quest, we are asking for the help of experts.

“We’re excited to make this search the biggest ever, as we look for new equipment to help us uncover the loch’s biggest mysteries.”

Not only is Loch Ness perhaps the country’s most well-known loch, but it is also Scotland’s second deepest - after Loch Morar in the Highlands - and comes in at about 227m (745ft) at its deepest point.

Loch Ness is also Scotland’s biggest loch by volume and contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined.

It is about the same depth as the height of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.