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Frank Stella, artist renowned for blurring the lines between painting and sculpture, dies at 87

NEW YORK (AP) — Frank Stella, a painter, sculptor and printmaker whose constantly evolving works are hailed as landmarks of the minimalist and post-painterly abstraction art movements, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

Gallery owner Jeffrey Deitch, who spoke with Stella’s family, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Stella’s wife, Harriet McGurk, told the New York Times that he died of lymphoma.

Born May 12, 1936, in Malden, Massachusetts, Stella studied at Princeton University before moving to New York City in the late 1950s.

At that time many prominent American artists had embraced abstract expressionism, but Stella began exploring minimalism. By age 23 he had created a series of flat, black paintings with gridlike bands and stripes using house paint and exposed canvas that drew widespread critical acclaim.

Over the next decade, Stella’s works retained his rigorous structure but began incorporating curved lines and bright colors, such as in his influential Protractor series, named after the geometry tool he used to create the curved shapes of the large-scale paintings.

In the late 1970s, Stella began adding three-dimensionality to his visual art, using metals and other mixed media to blur the boundary between painting and sculpture.

Stella continued to be productive well into his 80s, and his new work is currently on display at the Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York City. The colorful sculptures are massive and yet almost seem to float, made up of shining polychromatic bands that twist and coil through space.

“The current work is astonishing,” Deitch told AP on Saturday. “He felt that the work that he showed was the culmination of a decades-long effort to create a new pictorial space and to fuse painting and sculpture.”


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Jury foreperson in New Hampshire youth center abuse trial ‘devastated’ that award could be slashed

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Attorneys for a New Hampshire man who prevailed in a landmark lawsuit over abuse at a state-run youth detention center are asking for a hearing after the jury foreperson expressed dismay that the $38 million award could be slashed to $475,000.

Jurors on Friday awarded $18 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in enhanced damages to David Meehan, who alleged that the state’s negligence allowed him to be repeatedly raped, beaten and held in solitary confinement as a teenager at the Youth Development Center in Manchester. But the attorney general’s office said the award would be reduced under a state law that allows claimants against the state to recover a maximum of $475,000 per incident.

“I’m so sorry. I’m absolutely devastated,” the jury foreperson wrote to attorney Rus Rilee on Friday evening, according to the hearing request filed Saturday.

Jurors were not told of the cap, but they were asked how many incidents it found Meehan had proven. They wrote “one,” but the completed form does not indicate whether they found a single instance of abuse or grouped all of Meehan’s allegations together.

“We had no idea,” the jury foreperson wrote. “Had we known that the settlement amount was to be on a per incident basis, I assure you, our outcome would have reflected it. I pray that Mr. Meehan realizes this and is made as whole as he can possibly be within a proper amount of time.”

After consulting with outside counsel with expertise in post-trial matters, Rilee and attorney David Vicinanzo requested that a hearing be held Monday. According to their request, Rilee did not see the email from the juror until Saturday and did not reply.

Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents of the Youth Development Center in Manchester have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse spanning six decades.

Meehan’s lawsuit was the first to be filed and the first to go to trial. After four weeks of testimony, jurors returned a verdict in under three hours.

Over the course of the trial, Meehan’s attorneys accused the state of encouraging a culture of abuse marked by pervasive brutality, corruption and a code of silence. They called more than a dozen witnesses to the stand, including former staffers who said they faced resistance and even threats when they raised or investigated concerns, a former resident who described being gang-raped in a stairwell, and a teacher who said she spotted suspicious bruises on Meehan and half a dozen other boys.

The state argued it was not liable for the conduct of rogue employees and that Meehan waited too long to sue. Its witnesses included Meehan’s father, who answered “yes” when asked whether his son had “a reputation for untruthfulness.” Others who testified included a longtime youth center principal who said she saw no signs of abuse over four decades and a psychiatrist who diagnosed Meehan with bipolar disorder, not the post-traumatic stress disorder claimed by his side.

In cross-examining Meehan, attorneys for the state portrayed him as a violent child who continued to cause trouble at the youth center — and a delusional adult who is exaggerates or lies to get money. The approach highlighted an unusual dynamic in which the attorney general’s office is both defending the state against the civil lawsuits and prosecuting suspected perpetrators in the criminal cases.


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Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies at 85

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died Friday evening at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with Burt and other loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died on his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen after suffering a severe lung infection.

“He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano,” said Burt Rutan of his brother, who was often described as has having a velvet arm because of his smooth flying style.

Burt Rutan said he had always loved designing airplanes and became fascinated with the idea of a craft that could go clear around the world. His brother was equally passionate about flying. The project took six years.

There was plenty to worry Burt during testing of the light graphite plane, Voyager. There were mechanical failures, any one of which would have been disastrous over a distant ocean. When fully laden, the plane couldn’t handle turbulence. And then there was the question of how the pilots could endure such a long flight on so little sleep. But Burt said his brother had an optimism about him that made them all believe.

“Dick never doubted whether my design would actually make it around, with still some gas in the tank,” Burt Rutan said.

Voyager left from Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986. Rutan said with all that fuel, the wings had only inches of clearance. Dick couldn’t see when they started dragging on the runway. But at the moment Burt called on the radio, copilot Yeager gave a speed report, drowning out the message.

“And then, the velvet arm really came in,” Burt Rutan said. “And he very slowly brought the stick back and the wings bent way up, some 30 feet at the wingtips, and it lifted off very smoothly.”

They arrived back to a hero’s welcome as thousands gathered to witness the landing. Both Rutan brothers and Yeager were each awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan, who described how a local official in Thailand at first “refused to believe some cockamamie story” about a plane flying around the world on a single tank of gas.

“We had the freedom to pursue a dream, and that’s important,” Dick Rutan said at the ceremony. “And we should never forget, and those that guard our freedoms, that we should hang on to them very tenaciously and be very careful about some do-gooder that thinks that our safety is more important than our freedom. Because freedom is awful difficult to obtain, and it’s even more difficult to regain it once it’s lost.”

Richard Glenn Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a teenager and flew more than 300 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

He was part of an elite group that would loiter over enemy anti-aircraft positions for hours at a time. The missions had the call sign “Misty,” and Dick was known as “Misty Four-Zero.” Among the many awards Dick received were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

He survived having to eject twice from planes, once when his F-100 Super Sabre was hit by enemy fire over Vietnam, and a second time when he was stationed in England and the same type of plane had a mechanical failure. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went on to work as a test pilot.

Burt Rutan said his brother was always having adventures, like the time he got stranded at the North Pole for a couple of days when the Russian biplane he was in landed and then sank through the ice.

Dick Rutan set another record in 2005 when he flew about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in a rocket-powered plane launched from the ground in Mojave, California. It was also the first time U.S. mail had been carried by such a plane.

Greg Morris, the president of Scaled Composites, a company founded by Burt Rutan, said he first met Dick was when he was about seven and over the years always found him generous and welcoming.

“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Morris said, listing off Rutan’s legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight. “Any one of those contributions would make a legend in aviation. All of them together, in one person, is just inconceivable.”

Whittle said Rutan had been courageous in his final hours at the hospital — sharp as a tack, calm and joking with them about what might come next after death.

“He’s the greatest pilot that’s ever lived,” Whittle said.

Dick Rutan is survived by his wife of 25 years Kris Rutan; daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman; and grandchildren Jack, Sean, Noelle and Haley.


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Trump, RNC raise over $76 million in April, half from small donors

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign and the Republican National Committee said on Saturday that they raised more than $76 million in April, over half of it from small donors.

The monthly fundraising haul exceeded the $65.6 million raised in March by Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and the RNC.

“With half of funds raised coming from small dollar donors, it is clear that our base is energized. The Republican Party is united, and voters nationwide are ready to FIRE Joe Biden and elect Donald J. Trump,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.

Democrat Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has routinely surpassed Trump’s in fundraising ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Saturday’s announcement came as Trump and the RNC hosted a retreat in Florida for donors and high-profile politicians including vice-presidential hopefuls.

The event was expected to help shore up Trump’s finances, which have been drained by legal fees, and to reassure donors about the state of the campaign with Trump currently spending the bulk of his time in a Manhattan courtroom at his criminal trial over a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Daniel Wallis)


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New York synagogues, museum got fake bomb threats, officials say

By David Shepardson and Maria Caspani

(Reuters) -At least three synagogues and a museum in New York received bomb threats on Saturday but none were deemed credible by the New York Police Department, a city official and police said.

Manhattan Borough President Mark D. Levine said on X the synagogue bomb threats were “a clear hate crime, and part of a growing trend of ‘swatting’ incidents targeting Jewish institutions.”

“This is a clear effort to sow fear in the Jewish community. Cannot be accepted,” he said.

Antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment in the U.S. more than doubled last year to a record high as anti-Jewish sentiment spiked after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, the Anti-Defamation League said in a report last month.

A police spokesperson said a number of threats were received on Saturday, including an emailed bomb threat to the Brooklyn Museum and one to a synagogue in Brooklyn Heights, with no evidence of any explosive device detected.

Two synagogues in Manhattan also received bomb threats, including a West Side synagogue that prompted police to evacuate about 250 people, police said, with nothing found.

New York state Governor Kathy Hochul said on X state officials were “actively monitoring a number of bomb threats at synagogues in New York. Threats have been determined not to be credible.”

Hochul added, “We will not tolerate individuals sowing fear & antisemitism. Those responsible must be held accountable for their despicable actions.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Maria Caspani; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)


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Warren Buffett’s company rejects proposals, but it faces lawsuit over how it handled one last year

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Shareholder proposals are usually uneventful at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting. But Warren Buffett and the company are now facing a lawsuit over the way one presenter was treated last year.

Peter Flaherty with the National Legal and Policy Center came back with another proposal this year on a different subject even after he was cut off in the middle of his presentation last year and arrested for trespassing. The charges were later dropped, but Flaherty decided to sue because of the way he was treated to stand up for any shareholder who wants to bring a proposal. He said he had never had trouble at dozens of meetings he has presented at since 2005, including Berkshire’s 2022 meeting.

“I’ve never been interrupted while making a shareholder presentation. I’ve never had my mic cut, and I’ve never been removed from a meeting room. And I’ve certainly never been arrested,” Flaherty said, “Those things were unprecedented for me.”

The issue last year was that Flaherty questioned the character of one of Buffett’s best friends and a former Berkshire board member, Bill Gates. Flaherty suggested that Buffett’s close association with Gates could hurt Berkshire’s reputation because of reports that Gates had been associated with Jeffrey Epstein before he was arrested for sex trafficking. So he was proposing that Berkshire give someone else Buffett’s chairman title while leaving him as CEO.

Buffett has donated billions to Gates’ foundation over the years and plans to give him the bulk of his fortune to distribute.

Berkshire didn’t immediately respond to the federal lawsuit that was filed Friday, and it wasn’t mentioned during Saturday’s meeting. Berkshire officials didn’t even address any of the proposals during the meeting — instead they relied on their statements of opposition that were filed in the official meeting proxy.

Buffett stayed silent during the business meeting after spending all day Saturday answering shareholder questions at the main part of the shareholder meeting. He let his eventual successor Vice Chairman Greg Abel take the lead. He only reminded the presenters of all six proposals to keep their comments related to the proposals.

Flaherty’s proposal was one of six rejected at Berkshire’s meeting this year. They were all opposed by the board, and Buffett still controls roughly one-third of the vote so anything he opposes is almost certain to fail. None of the proposals received more than 85,000 votes. Flaherty’s proposal only drew 6,150 votes while getting 443,544 votes against it.

Some of the other proposals rejected Saturday included ones to require Berkshire to create reports on climate change risks and diversity and inclusion efforts at the massive conglomerate. Another proposal would have required Berkshire to create a board committee focused on railroad safety.

The safety chief for the SMART-TD rail union that represents conductors and other rail workers, Jared Cassity, said that if BNSF wants to argue that safety is the railroad’s top priority, Berkshire’s board should focus on it and review staffing and operational practices to help prevent derailments like the disastrous one Norfolk Southern had last year in East Palestine, Ohio.

“Railroad safety requires effective board oversight,” Cassity said.

Berkshire argued that BNSF is already focused on improving safety and doesn’t need more oversight.

With regard to the other proposals, Berkshire officials argued that such reports would be cumbersome because of the decentralized way the company is run and unnecessary. Plus, some of its subsidiaries like its massive utility unit already produce reports on greenhouse gas emissions, Berkshire said.

This year, Flaherty was allowed to make his case that Berkshire should produce a report on the risks of doing business in China, before the proposal was summarily rejected.

“China poses unique risks for Berkshire Hathaway,” Flaherty said, arguing that the company’s existing disclosures about subsidiaries like Fruit of the Loom that have factories in China are inadequate.


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Japan and India reject Biden’s comments describing them as xenophobic countries

TOKYO (AP) — Japan and India on Saturday decried remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden describing them as “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, which the president said during a campaign fundraising event earlier in the week.

Japan said Biden’s judgment was not based on an accurate understanding of its policy, while India rebutted the comment, defending itself as the world’s most open society.

Biden grouped Japan and India as “xenophobic” countries, along with Russia and China as he tried to explain their struggling economies, contrasting the four with the strength of the U.S. as a nation of immigrants.

Japan is a key U.S. ally, and both Japan and India are part of the Quad, a U.S.-led informal partnership that also includes Australia in countering increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

Just weeks ago, Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on an official visit, as the two leaders restated their “unbreakable alliance” and agreed to reinforce their security ties in the face of China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific.

Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi also made a state visit to Washington last year, when he was welcomed by business and political leaders.

The White House said Biden meant no offense and was merely stressing that the U.S. was a nation of immigrants, saying he had no intention of undermining the relationship with Japan.

Japan is aware of Biden’s remark as well as the subsequent clarification, a Japanese government official said Saturday, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The official said it was unfortunate that part of Biden’s speech was not based on an accurate understanding of Japanese policies, and that Japan understands that Biden made the remark to emphasize the presence of immigrants as America’s strength.

Japan-U.S. relations are “stronger than ever” as Prime Minister Kishida showed during his visit to the U.S. in April, the official said.

In New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday also rebutted Biden’s comment, saying India was the most open society in the world.

“I haven’t seen such an open, pluralistic, and diverse society anywhere in the world. We are actually not just not xenophobic, we are the most open, most pluralistic and in many ways the most understanding society in the world,” Jaishankar said at a roundtable organized by the Economic Times newspaper.

Jaishankar also noted that India’s annual GDP growth is 7% and said, “You check some other countries’ growth rate, you will find an answer.” The U.S. economy grew by 2.5% in 2023, according to government figures.

At a hotel fundraiser Wednesday, where the donor audience was largely Asian American, Biden said the upcoming U.S. election was about “freedom, America and democracy” and that the nation’s economy was thriving “because of you and many others.”

“Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said. “Look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.”

Japan has been known for a strict stance on immigration. But in recent years, it has eased its policies to make it easier for foreign workers to come and stay in Japan as a way to mitigate its declining births and rapidly shrinking population. The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to a record low since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899.

India, which has the world’s largest population, enacted a new citizenship law earlier this year by setting religious criteria that allows fast-tracking naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while excluding Muslims.

___

AP writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.


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South Sudan removes newly imposed taxes that had triggered suspension of UN food airdrops

JUNA, South Sudan (AP) — Following an appeal from the United Nations, South Sudan removed recently imposed taxes and fees that had triggered suspension of U.N. food airdrops. Thousands of people in the country depend on aid from the outside.

The U.N. earlier this week urged South Sudanese authorities to remove the new taxes, introduced in February. The measures applied to charges for electronic cargo tracking, security escort fees and fuel.

In its announcement on Friday, the government said it was keeping charges on services rendered by firms contracted by the U.N peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

“These companies are profiting … (and) are subjected to applicable tax,” Finance Minister Awow Daniel Chuang said.

There was no immediate comment from the U.N. on when the airdrops could resume.

Earlier, the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs Agency said the pausing of airdrops had deprived 60,000 people who live in areas inaccessible by road of desperately needed food in March, and that their number is expected to rise to 135,000 by the end of May.

The U.N said the new measures would have increased the mission’s monthly operational costs to $339,000. The U.N. food air drops feed over 16,300 people every month.

At the United Nations in New York, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the taxes and charges would also impact the nearly 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, “which is reviewing all of its activities, including patrols, the construction of police stations, schools and health care centers, as well as educational support.”

An estimated 9 million people out of 12.5 million people in South Sudan need protection and humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N. The country has also seen an increase in the number of people fleeing the war in neighboring Sudan between the rival military and paramilitary forces, further complicating humanitarian assistance to those affected by the internal conflict.


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Dozens arrested in weekend of protests on US campuses

By Maria Caspani

(Reuters) -Police on Saturday arrested at least 25 pro-Palestinian protesters and cleared an encampment at the University of Virginia, the university said in a statement, as U.S. campuses braced for more turmoil during graduation celebrations.

Tensions flared at UVA’s campus in Charlottesville, where protests had been largely peaceful until Saturday morning, when police officers in riot gear were seen in a video moving on an encampment on the campus’ lawn, cuffing some demonstrators with zip-ties and using what appeared to be chemical spray.

Students across the U.S. have rallied or set up tents at dozens of universities to protest the months-long war in Gaza and call on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. They also demand their schools divest from companies that support Israel’s government, such as arms suppliers.

The University of Virginia said in a news release that protesters had violated several university policies including setting up tents on Friday night and using amplified sound.

Jim Ryan, UVA’s president, wrote in a message that officials had learned that “individuals unaffiliated with the university” who presented “some safety concerns” had joined protesters on campus.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of those arrested were UVA students.

A group called UVA Encampment for Gaza that said earlier this week it had set up the encampment condemned the university’s decision to call in police in a post on Instagram.

Dozens of people were arrested for criminal trespass outside the Art Institute of Chicago at a demonstration on Saturday after the institute called in police to remove protesters it said were illegally occupying its property, the Chicago Police Department said on X.

Elsewhere, confrontations did not escalate into arrests. In Ann Arbor, pro-Palestinian protesters briefly disrupted a commencement ceremony at the University of Michigan.

Videos shared on social media showed dozens of students wearing the traditional keffiyeh headdress and graduation caps and waving Palestinian flags as they walked down the center aisle of Michigan Stadium among cheers and boos from a crowd of thousands.

The ceremony continued and campus police escorted the protesters toward the back of the stadium, but no arrests were made, according to Colleen Mastony, a spokesperson for the university.

“Peaceful protests like this have taken place at U-M commencement ceremonies for decades,” Mastony said in a statement. “The university supports free speech and expression, and university leaders are pleased that today’s commencement was such a proud and triumphant moment.”

Contrasting views over Israel’s war in Gaza have erupted, sometimes violently, across U.S. campuses over the last couple of weeks.

Many of the schools, including Columbia University in New York City, have called in police to quell the protests.

Police have so far arrested over 2,000 protesters at colleges around the country.

The University of Michigan is one of the many universities which altered their security protocols for graduation ceremonies.

The anti-war protests have been staged in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which it launched after a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people. Israel has killed over 34,000 people in retaliation, according to Gaza health authorities, and flattened the Palestinian territory.

OUTRAGE AT OLE MISS

Campus protests have emerged as a new political flashpoint during a hotly contested and deeply divisive U.S. election year.

On Thursday, a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Mississippi was met by a larger crowd of counter-protesters singing the national anthem and carrying U.S. flags.

The events at Ole Miss, the state’s flagship university, drew widespread outrage and condemnation after a viral video showed a group of mostly white students taunting a Black female protester. Some shouted racist remarks and one individual can be heard making what sounded like monkey noises at the Black student.

While the university’s chancellor condemned the “racist overtones” of the incident and said an investigation was underway, Georgia Republican U.S. Representative Mike Collins shared the video on his X account on Friday, writing “Ole Miss taking care of business”.

A spokesperson for Collins said he was pointing to examples of “regular everyday students … pushing back against the very small group of leftist agitators who care only to disrupt and destroy.”

Another Republican, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, on Saturday said he was sending Chick-fil-A, a popular U.S. fast food chain, to the counter-protesters who “protected our flag and stood up for America” on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier this week.

“The actions of these young men make me hopeful for the next generation’s love for our country,” Graham’ X post read.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani; Editing by Josie Kao)


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Escaped zebra captured near Seattle after gallivanting around Cascade mountain foothills for days

SEATTLE (AP) — A zebra that has been hoofing through the foothills of western Washington for days was recaptured Friday evening, nearly a week after she escaped with three other zebras from a trailer near Seattle.

Local residents and animal control officers corralled the zebra named “Shug” in the community of Riverbend, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Seattle, the Regional Animal Services of King County wrote on its website.

“The zebra seemed to be in good condition despite her nearly week-long adventure in the woods,” the agency wrote.

Shug was one of four zebras that escaped as they were being transported from Washington to Montana last Sunday. The driver had taken the Interstate 90 exit for North Bend, in the Cascade mountain foothills about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Seattle, to secure the trailer, when the animals got loose — surprising residents and drivers as they galloped into a rural neighborhood.

Three were quickly captured after being corralled in a pasture. But the fourth — a mare who was initially dubbed “Z” — hopped a fence and disappeared. Shug’s adventure quickly captured public attention, spawning social media memes that placed the animal everywhere from riding a ferry across Puget Sound to rounding the bases at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.

But there were more credible sightings elsewhere: Some area residents spotted Shug on their trail cameras, and that sparked some concerns since the cameras also recently captured cougars in the area.

Earlier Friday, King County officials closed off trail access points along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail in the Boxley Creek Natural Area, where the zebra seemed to be frequenting. People trying to see the zebra there may have been spooking it, making it harder to recapture, they said. Feeding zones were set up to help coax the animal out for a rescue.

Owner Kristine Keltgen previously told The Seattle Times she bought the zebras in Lewis County, Washington, and was bringing them to a petting zoo she runs near Anaconda, in southwestern Montana. She had been on the road for about two hours when she noticed one of the trailer’s floor mats was flapping and dragging behind her. When she opened the door to adjust the mat, the zebras ran out. Several people stopped to help corral the animals, including a rodeo clown and horse trainers, but Shug had managed to elude those attempts.

Shug will now be transported to Montana to join the rest of the dazzle, or group, of zebras, Regional Animal Services of King County said.


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