But before he landed on the song, the native New Yorker was adrift in Los Angeles, “falling in with the wrong crowds” and becoming “a loser” — a term he defines, opaquely, as “the person my mom tells me not to become.”
He found the right collaborator, and now he has his first Grammy nod, for best new artist.
The New York Times
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A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights buildings that inspired authors, often to the point of including the structures in their novels. (Many of the buildings are still open to visitors.) To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the books if you’d like to do further reading.
J. D. Biersdorfer
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(Photo credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images)
Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos has dropped his petition for another year of eligibility and declared for the 2026 NFL Draft.
‘To my family, friends, coaches, and teammates and everyone who has supported me along this journey, thank you for believing in me and pushing me to become the man I am today,’ he posted Tuesday on X.
Castellanos started 12 games for the Seminoles in 2025 following two seasons at Boston College (2023-24) and one at UCF (2022).
He had appealed for an extra season based on only appearing in five games as a freshman reserve for the Knights in 2022, including as an injury replacement in the then-American Athletic Conference championship game.
Just Win Management Group, the agency that aided Castellanos during his legal battle with the NCAA, supported his decision to move on.
‘While the unique facts and circumstances surrounding the petition for an additional year of eligibility did create a path of viability, after careful review and consideration, we fully support Mr. Castellanos’ decision to forego that continued pursuit and focus his attention on preparing for the 2026 NFL draft,’ the agency said in a statement.
Castellanos started every game for the Seminoles (5-7) in 2025, connecting on 58.3% of passes for 2,760 yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also rushed for a team-high 557 yards and nine scores.
–Field Level Media
(Photo credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images)
The Minnesota Lynx are playing to save their season against the Phoenix Mercury in Game 4 of their contentious WNBA semifinal playoff series Sunday, and they will do so without star forward Napheesa Collier and coach Cheryl Reeve.
Collier was declared out because of a left ankle injury, and Reeve was suspended for her conduct after the play that caused it.
Collier rolled her left ankle when Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas swooped in to steal her dribble and turn it into an uncontested layup, the decisive basket with 21.8 seconds remaining in 84-76 win Friday that gave the host Mercury a 2-1 edge in the best-of-five series.
Reeve ran onto the court and confronted referees. She was restrained by members of her staff and unleashed an expletive-laced critique of the officiating in the postgame press conference.
The Lynx’s climb to their second straight appearance in the WNBA Finals has become exponentially steeper.
‘You leave it where it’s at, right?’ Lynx guard Courtney Williams said after Game 3, ‘and you stay locked in.
‘We’re still here, and we’re still a great team. Man, when it comes to the playoffs or any game, you can’t get too high. You can’t get too low. We still got a game we have to win.’
The Lynx, who won a franchise-record 34 games this season, played 11 games without Collier, who missed most of that time with a right ankle injury. They were 27-6 and averaged 88.2 points per game with Collier this season were 7-4 while averaging 79.5 without her.
Minnesota has lost the last two games of the series. It has not lost three in a row this season.
Collier, the runner-up in the MVP voting this season, was the first player in league history to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free-throw line while averaging 20 points per game.
She averaged 22.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the regular season and has 49 points and five threes in this series. She did not score in the fourth quarter of Game 3 when the Mercury outscored the Lynx 21-9.
Williams (19.0 points, 6.2 assists) and Kayla McBride (18.0 points) are the Lynx’s other double-digit scores in this series. Guard Natisha Hiedeman had 19 points off the bench in Game 3.
‘We just won one game,’ Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said after taking the series lead. ‘But the one thing that we are is … we are tough, and we’ll fight and compete.’
The Mercury are attempting to reach their first WNBA Finals since 2021, when they fell to Kahleah Copper and the Chicago Sky. Game 5 of this series would be in Minneapolis on Sunday.
Copper, now with the Mercury, has been one of the Mercury’s bright lights in this series, which included the Mercury’s record-breaking comeback from a 20-point deficit in an 89-83 overtime victory in Game 2. The Mercury scored the final nine points in Game 3.
Thomas neared her second playoff triple-double with 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists Friday. Satou Sabally had 23 points and Copper had 21, her second 20-point game in the series while working against a smaller Lynx backcourt.
The Mercury, re-made in the offseason when they added Thomas and Sabally, have rallied around an identity as a disrespected underdog. It began when they were not ranked highly in the preseason
‘ESPN, all of them, they ranked us really low,’ Sabally said. ‘To me, it’s a disrespect toward those two (Thomas and Copper). That just fuels us. We’re the underdogs. We have something to prove to ourselves more than to others, and I think this is really what bonds us.’
The Lynx, who led the league in field-goal percentage at 47.2 in the regular season, are shooting 43.9 against the Mercury and are 22 of 81 (27 percent) from distance.
–Field Level Media
(Photo credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images)
The Phoenix Mercury have turned seizing home-court advantage into their postseason identity.
The Mercury gained the upper hand in their WNBA semifinal series against the top-seed Minnesota Lynx with a Game 2 road victory Tuesday, and they will begin defense of their home floor in the third game of the best-of-five series Friday.
The Mercury overcame a 20-point deficit in the final 16 minutes of regulation and scored the first six points of overtime while evening the series with an 89-83 victory.
‘This is a battle-tested team,’ Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said of the Lynx. ‘We haven’t done anything yet. We needed to get one there (Minneapolis). We did our job.’The Lynx, who have won four league titles and lost in the finals last year, took Game 1 82-69 at home by outscoring the Mercury by 13 in the fourth quarter. Game 4 is in Phoenix on Sunday.
‘It’s a resilient team,’ Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of her group. ‘It’s a team that responds. There are problem-solvers. Nobody said this stuff was going to be easy. It’s all part of the journey.
‘Now we have to beat a really good team at their place. That’s a tall order. We’ll do all we can to do it.’
The Mercury took home court from defending champion New York in the second game of their first-round series and clinched it with a win in Game 3 at home.
Lynx point guard Courtney Williams has 43 points, 16 assists and 15 rebounds in this series. Napheesa Collier, the runner-up in league MVP voting, has 42 points and 15 rebounds.
Pressured by Alyssa Thomas, Collier missed a 16-footer at the buzzer after the Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining to send Tuesday’s game into overtime.
‘This is what it’s all about,’ Thomas said. ‘You play the whole season for the playoffs and moments like these. I’ve been chasing a championship for a long time. I think this is our time.’
Thomas, who spent her first 11 seasons with Connecticut, directs Tibbetts’ free-flowing offense from the foul-line extended. The Mercury went small in their comeback Tuesday.
Thomas, third in MVP voting, led the league with a career-high 9.2 assists per game in the regular season. Williams was second at 6.2. Thomas has eight triple-doubles and is averaging 18.5 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the series.
Phoenix’s Satou Sabally had 24 points, including five 3-pointers, and nine rebounds in Game 2.
After making 3 of 23 threes in Game 1, the Mercury were 13 of 32 in the second game.
When ‘Sa’ makes threes, she’s pretty good,’ Tibbetts said. ‘They have a decision to make, right? They are either going to take away the paint or take away threes. It’s really hard to do both.’
–Field Level Media
Christopher Thomas stalked and harassed Samantha Stites for more than a decade
He ultimately kidnapped and raped her in October 2022
The case is the subject of Hulu’s docuseries Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, which premiered on Aug. 19
Christopher Thomas relentlessly stalked Samantha Stites for more than 10 years before abducting her in October 2022.
After they first met in 2011, Thomas began sending frequent messages to Stites, even after she told him to leave her alone. Thomas then escalated to following Stites wherever she went, including showing up at her job when her grandmother died.
“It was the first real experience where someone knows what my wishes are very clearly and doesn’t care,” she recalled in the docuseries.
Thomas’ terrifying behavior culminated in kidnapping Stites from her home near Traverse City, Mich., and raping her in a soundproof bunker. The case is the subject of the new ABC News true crime docuseries Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror, which premiered on Aug. 19 on Hulu.
So, what happened to Christopher Thomas? Here’s everything to know about where he and Samantha Stites are now — plus, how her case may impact stalking victims going forward.
Samantha Stites/Instagram
Samantha Stites in August 2022.
Stites was born on Nov. 23, 1991, and grew up in Elk Rapids, Mich. Stites was raised by a single mom who worked in restaurants and bars to make ends meet.
Stites describes herself in the docuseries as a person who “[wants] to be welcoming and kind.” Stites’ friends added that she is an avid soccer player with a dark sense of humor who tries to make everyone around her feel included.
The Michigan native told PEOPLE in August 2025 that she loves biking, kayaking and hiking. Stites is also a fan of the Detroit Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs and the WNBA, she said.
Stites graduated from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich., with her bachelor’s degree in social work in 2014. She later earned her master’s degree in social work from the University of Kansas in 2019, per her LinkedIn.
Michigan Department of Corrections
Christopher Blaine Thomas’s mugshot.
Thomas was born Christopher Blaine Thomas on Aug. 15, 1984. According to The Huron Daily Tribune, Thomas was born and raised in Gladwin, Mich., where his family still resides.
Stites met Thomas in 2011 after he joined a campus Christian group, of which she was a member.
“I saw him at different events the Christian group was doing. He friended me on Facebook one day. At first I thought he was just lonely and for some reason saw me as an approachable person to talk to,” she recalled in Stalking Samantha: 13 Years of Terror.
In the docuseries, Stites’ roommate Charissa Hayden described Thomas as a “nobody that [Stites] met in college — like a sad, lonely guy.” Stites said her first impression of Thomas wasn’t that memorable beyond him being “six to eight years older” than her and seeming “very socially awkward.”
Stites and her friends didn’t know it at the time, but two years earlier in 2009, Thomas had stalked a college student named Kelli (whose last name is withheld in the docuseries). The two first met at a residential treatment facility where she worked.
Kelli said Thomas began asking her out on dates and following her on her school’s campus, even though he wasn’t a student there. After Kelli spotted him outside of her home, she got a personal protective order (PPO) against him, but he kept driving past her house.
Thomas was eventually convicted of one count of stalking and was sentenced to two years of probation, according to the docuseries.
Thomas stalked Stites for 13 years.
He began messaging Stites on Facebook within days of meeting her in 2011 and repeatedly asked her on dates. Each time, Stites politely but firmly declined his advances.
Thomas continued to message her and followed her at her job, at school, while she was out with friends and at frisbee practice. Stites recalled Thomas saying that he once “saw red and beat someone up,” causing her to fear his temper.
In 2014, Stites was accepted to a ministry internship in Kansas City, Mo. Thomas enrolled in the same program, causing Stites to realize that he had been stalking her for the past three years. On Sept. 18, 2014, Stites filed a petition for a restraining order against Thomas, per the docuseries.
“I was really concerned. I’ve never seen a stalking case as severe as this,” Norman Hayes, a retired Michigan judge, said in Stalking Samantha. “He was absolutely obsessed with her, he’s going to do something very severe — either rape, kill her, kidnap her. If you looked up ‘stalker’ in the dictionary, there’d be a picture of Christopher.”
Hayes granted Stites a protective order against Thomas for six years, and her life largely went back to normal: Thomas’ internship offer was revoked and he left her alone. She went to graduate school in Kansas, became a licensed social worker and bought a house in her hometown.
However, as soon as the PPO expired in September 2020, Thomas started following Stites again, even joining the same recreational soccer league.
Stites filed a petition for a new PPO in July 2022. Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer denied the PPO due to a “complicated relationship” between Thomas and Stites, she said in the docuseries.
ABC
Samantha Stites in ‘Stalking Samantha.’
In the early morning hours of Oct. 7, 2022, Thomas broke into Stites’ apartment. He jumped on top of her and choked her in her bed, then put her hands in cuffs, bound her feet and put a ballgag in her mouth, which he secured with duct tape around her head, she said in the docuseries.
Thomas then took Stites from her home and put her in her own car.
“Once we leave my house, the likelihood of me surviving this experience goes down drastically,” she recalled thinking in the docuseries. “This really becomes a fight for my life.”
Thomas blindfolded Stites and began driving, but because she was familiar with the neighborhood, she counted the turns he made in an effort to figure out their destination, Stites said. Thomas took her to a bunker he’d built inside of a storage unit that had a mattress on the floor and soundproof panels on the walls.
Thomas told Stites he planned to leave her paddleboard near Lake Michigan so anyone looking for her would assume she drowned, she said in Stalking Samantha. He then bragged about putting trackers on her car and the cars of several of her friends, adding that the Netflix series You inspired his bunker idea.
Stites said she knew her best chance to stay alive would be to remain as calm as possible. When Thomas told her he was terrified of going to prison, she told him that if he let her go, she wouldn’t call the police — and that as a social worker, she was good at keeping secrets.
Thomas refused to let Stites go unless he could rape her. After initially refusing, she agreed if he’d bring her home that evening, she said in the docuseries.
“I know enough about Christopher to know his integrity is important to him, and I was banking on that,” she said.
Thomas then raped Stites for several hours, she said.
After he raped her, Thomas took Stites back home.
Knowing he still had a tracker on her car, Stites called a neighbor to drive her to the hospital, where she underwent a rape kit. While hospitalized, she spoke to Detective Mike Matteucci of the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office about what she saw and remembered. When discharged, a friend picked Stites up and let her stay at her home.
“As social workers, we take courses on crisis intervention,” Stites told PEOPLE. “I happen to always have been one who can think and act very clearly — some people will freeze, others kind of panic. That’s something I had always had in the background, just my DNA. I’m usually somebody who you know can deal with a crisis in a calm manner, but I think definitely my training and education helped contribute to quick thinking and knowing what I should do.”
Stites added that she had previously read memoirs of sexual assault survivors — including Chessy Prout‘s I Have a Right To and Chanel Miller’s Know My Name — which assisted her in knowing how to proceed.
ABC News
Christopher Thomas’ arrest body cam video.
Stites’ attention to detail aided police in arresting Thomas at his apartment and finding his bunker that night.
Officers searched Thomas’ house the night of his arrest and found the ballgag, handcuffs, receipts and boxes from GPS trackers, which he claimed Stites put on her own car. They also found countless photos and videos of Stites on his devices going back more than a decade.
Thomas first told officers he was hunting in the woods at the time of the kidnapping, then said that the abduction was actually “role-playing gone too far.”
Thomas was arraigned on Oct. 10, 2022, on one count of kidnapping, first degree home invasion, torture and aggravated stalking and four counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, per the docuseries. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was denied bail.
In December 2023, Thomas agreed to plead guilty to his kidnapping, torture aggravated stalking and home invasion charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping the four counts of criminal sexual conduct, per the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Judge Elsenheimer — the same judge who denied Stites’ second PPO petition — sentenced Thomas to 40 to 60 years in prison in February 2024, per the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
During his sentencing, Elsenheimer told him, “If somehow you are released at some point in your future, then it is a requirement that you will have a lifetime GPS so that we will know where you are all the time for the rest of your days.”
Thomas is serving his sentence at Bellamy Correctional Facility in Ionia, Mich. His earliest possible release date is Oct. 7, 2062, per his Michigan Department of Corrections profile.
“Christopher’s in a place where the worst of the worst people are,” Matteucci said in the docuseries. “He needs to be there. To do something like that to another human being, I just don’t understand it.”
Thomas’ sentence came as a huge relief for Stites.
“It just felt like I was kind of holding my breath for a year and a half — you know, thinking, ‘If, for some reason, somehow this person escapes jail, they’re in the local community,’ ” she recalled to PEOPLE. “Since I felt like the system had let me down previously, was that going to happen again?”
She continued, “When all was said and done, I was pleased with the outcome. There’s an element of safety I have now knowing that this person isn’t going to harm others or myself now.”
Samantha Stites/Instagram
Samantha Stites with her dog in February 2023.
The trauma of her kidnapping and assault drove Stites to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and seek short- and long-term disability from her job as a social worker. She estimates she has lost $40,000 in wages, per her victim impact statement, which she posted on Instagram.
Stites has also moved out of her house and invested in extra security for her new home.
“There’s a huge financial and physical burden to stalking,” she told PEOPLE. “I clearly wasn’t able to stay in that house where I had been kidnapped, you know? I had to move, and was feeling like, ‘How do I protect myself? What if somebody stalks me again?’ “
Even though Thomas is in prison, Stites has continued to feel unsafe. “I think there’s an element with sharing my story too that makes you feel uneasy, because now there’s all this attention, people can be crazy online,” she said. “Is somebody going to attach to me again? How do I protect myself through the future?”
Since moving out, Stites since found and spruced up a new home, which she shares with her dog, Murphy, a cat and foster pets. She enjoys sports and has continued her career as a social worker, per her LinkedIn.
Stites is sharing her story in hopes of reducing the shame that survivors of sexual assault, stalking and abduction face.
“Talking to different survivors I’ve met, no matter what their story is, there’s always something that they feel like [they] could’ve or should have [done differently], and it’s tough,” she said. “I think about how much I benefited from hearing other stories and feeling less alone. [It’s part of] my attempt to try to make a change in the way the PPO process is done and help advocate for other survivors.”
Stites and her friend Robin Treiweiler have also launched Beekeepers Advocacy, a survivor-led organization to protect victims of stalking, domestic abuse and abduction.
As a result of her case, the Grand Traverse County Court changed their PPO policy to ensure that if the petitioner mentions a previous PPO in their filing, court staff overseeing the petition must find out details of the previous order, per UpNorthLive.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
Read the original article on People
President Joe Biden is advocating for significant reforms to the United States Supreme Court, following a series of landmark decisions and controversies involving several justices and their spouses.In remarks from the LBJ Presidential Library on Monday, Biden said the court is being used to weaponize an extreme agenda, and, in recent years, extreme opinions have undermined long-established civil rights protections. “In 2022, the court overruled Roe v. Wade, and the right to choose that had been the law of the land for 50 years,” Biden said, “The following year the same court eviscerated affirmative action, which had been upheld and reaffirmed for nearly 50 years as well.”Under Biden’s proposal, each justice would be limited to one 18-year active term, with the current president appointing a new justice every two years. Biden is also asking for an enforceable code of ethics that would require justices to disclose gifts and to recuse themselves when they or their spouses have a conflict of interest. Finally, Biden is asking Congress to start work on a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity, stating that no former president is above the law. “We need these reforms to restore trust in the courts. To preserve the system of checks and balances that are vital to our democracy,” Biden said.Biden’s call comes as trust in the high court is dropping among Americans. A June poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that seven in 10 Americans think justices are influenced by ideology. Four in 10 say they have hardly any confidence in the people running the Supreme Court. “I think we’ll have a problem if we don’t do something about Supreme Court ethics,” said Alan Morrison, an Associate Dean at the George Washington University Law School.”It would be constitutional to do it by statute, but I do not think that’s a good idea,” Morrison went on to say. “If it’s done by statute, it can be undone by statute.” Accomplishing any reforms will prove challenging, with Republicans already pushing back on the plan. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the proposal would “tilt the balance of power,” and is “dead on arrival.””Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the court’s recent decisions,” Johnson said.The party split in Congress is not the only reason Morrison believes the plan is unlikely to move forward anytime soon. “That has to go through not only two-thirds of both Houses but also three-quarters of the states. It’ll be a long time coming,” Morrison said. Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito would be the first three justices who could potentially be affected by term limits.
President Joe Biden is advocating for significant reforms to the United States Supreme Court, following a series of landmark decisions and controversies involving several justices and their spouses.
In remarks from the LBJ Presidential Library on Monday, Biden said the court is being used to weaponize an extreme agenda, and, in recent years, extreme opinions have undermined long-established civil rights protections.
“In 2022, the court overruled Roe v. Wade, and the right to choose that had been the law of the land for 50 years,” Biden said, “The following year the same court eviscerated affirmative action, which had been upheld and reaffirmed for nearly 50 years as well.”
Under Biden’s proposal, each justice would be limited to one 18-year active term, with the current president appointing a new justice every two years. Biden is also asking for an enforceable code of ethics that would require justices to disclose gifts and to recuse themselves when they or their spouses have a conflict of interest. Finally, Biden is asking Congress to start work on a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity, stating that no former president is above the law.
“We need these reforms to restore trust in the courts. To preserve the system of checks and balances that are vital to our democracy,” Biden said.
Biden’s call comes as trust in the high court is dropping among Americans. A June poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that seven in 10 Americans think justices are influenced by ideology. Four in 10 say they have hardly any confidence in the people running the Supreme Court.
“I think we’ll have a problem if we don’t do something about Supreme Court ethics,” said Alan Morrison, an Associate Dean at the George Washington University Law School.
“It would be constitutional to do it by statute, but I do not think that’s a good idea,” Morrison went on to say. “If it’s done by statute, it can be undone by statute.”
Accomplishing any reforms will prove challenging, with Republicans already pushing back on the plan. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the proposal would “tilt the balance of power,” and is “dead on arrival.”
“Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the court’s recent decisions,” Johnson said.
The party split in Congress is not the only reason Morrison believes the plan is unlikely to move forward anytime soon.
“That has to go through not only two-thirds of both Houses but also three-quarters of the states. It’ll be a long time coming,” Morrison said.
Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito would be the first three justices who could potentially be affected by term limits.
UCLA has moved swiftly to create a new chief safety officer position to oversee campus security operations, including the police department, in the wake of what have been called serious lapses in handling protests that culminated in a mob attack on a pro-Palestinian student encampment last week.
Chancellor Gene Block announced Sunday that Rick Braziel, a former Sacramento police chief who has reviewed law enforcement responses in high-profile cases across the country, will serve as associate vice chancellor of a new Office of Campus Safety. He will oversee the Police Department — including Police Chief John Thomas, who is facing calls to step aside — and the Office of Emergency Management.
Braziel previously was tapped to review police actions in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting; riots in Ferguson, Mo.; the shootout with police killer Christopher Dorner; and other cases. He will report directly to Block in a unit that will focus solely on campus safety — an arrangement that has proved effective at major universities across the country, the chancellor said. Previously, the campus police chief and the Office of Emergency Management reported to Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck.
Block also announced a new advisory group to partner with Braziel. Members include UC Davis Police Chief Joseph Farrow, the respected chair of the UC Council of Police Chiefs; Vickie Mays, UCLA professor of psychology and health policy and management; and Jody Stiger, UC systemwide director of community safety.
“Protecting the safety of our community underpins everything we do at UCLA. In the past week, our campus has been shaken by events that have disturbed this sense of safety and strained trust within our community,” Block said in a message to the campus community. “One thing is already clear: to best protect our community moving forward, urgent changes are needed in how we administer safety operations.
“The well-being of our students, faculty and staff is paramount.”
The move is intended to immediately address campus security shortfalls that left UCLA students and others involved in the protest encampment to fend for themselves against attackers for three hours before law enforcement moved in to quell the melee.
Three sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Times that Thomas failed to provide a repeatedly requested written security plan to campus leadership on how he planned to keep the campus safe in various scenarios, including rallies, skirmishes and violence. He failed to secure external law enforcement to assist UCLA police and private security in safeguarding the encampment area before the mob attack, despite authorization to do so with as much overtime payment as needed, the sources said.
Thomas also assured leadership that it would take just “minutes” to mobilize law enforcement to quell violence. It actually took three hours to assemble enough officers before they moved in to intervene.
Thomas, in an interview late Friday night, disputed that account as inaccurate and said he did “everything I could” to safeguard the community in a week of strife that left UCLA reeling.
A large group of counterprotesters, some dressed in black outfits with white masks, stormed the area Tuesday night through Wednesday morning and assaulted campers, tore down barricades, hurled wood and other objects into the camp and at those inside. Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, sought to defend themselves with pepper spray and other means. Several were injured, including four Daily Bruin student journalists.
University of California President Michael V. Drake has initiated an independent review into UCLA’s response, which Block has said he welcomes. The chancellor also has launched an internal review of the campus security processes. A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called for answers to explain “the limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA.”
Drake hailed the appointment of Braziel, saying he brings “a wealth of experience in community policing, emergency response operations, and institutional reviews.”
“I fully support this appointment and believe that it is an important step towards restoring confidence in our public safety systems and procedures,” Drake said in a statement Sunday.
The UC external investigation is expected to move quickly and focus more on lessons to be learned rather than individuals to be blamed, a UC source said.
But internal calls for Thomas to step aside are growing, the sources said. And the vice chancellor he reports to — Beck — is also being scrutinized.
Beck has not responded to requests for comment about his actions around the protests and encampment.
One UC source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, described Thomas as a “dedicated public servant” who had properly raised red flags about the encampment from the moment the first tents went up. But his warnings to take the encampment down went unheeded, the source said.
“To point a finger at the police chief is ridiculous,” the source said. “This completely falls in the lap of Michael Beck.”
The UC police union issued a statement Saturday reiterating that the external review should focus squarely on the failures of administrators, not law enforcement.
“UC administrators are solely responsible for the University’s response to campus protests, and they own all the fallout from those responses,” said Wade Stern, president of the Federated University Police Officers’ Assn., which represents the 250 officers of the 10 UC police departments. “UC’s written guidelines make clear that UC administrators decide what the response to campus protests will be, who will respond, and the role of campus police is only to implement that response.”
Several top LAPD leaders not authorized to discuss the incident told The Times that Thomas had tarnished the reputation of Los Angeles law enforcement with what they called his lack of planning and poor communication with other agencies. They said they had to scramble for officers and wait until enough could be assembled to safely intervene at about 1:40 a.m.
Critics said his attempts to justify his actions to The Times, while others were focused on addressing the crisis, showed selfishness and had fueled more calls for him to step aside.
Thomas said he was not ready to step aside. He asserted that he had provided daily briefings to campus leadership, the number of resources, the response protocol and assigned roles for those deployed.
He said he was restricted in planning because of a directive from campus leadership not to use police, in keeping with UC community guidelines to first rely on communication with protesters and use law enforcement as a last resort.
When campus leadership directed him to secure outside help and spare no cost for enough officers and private security to safeguard the community, Thomas said he attempted to secure it from the Los Angeles Police Department and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. But he said he was told by an LAPD lieutenant that problems with the payment system between the city and state prevented completion of the effort before the melee broke out.
Thomas acknowledged that he did tell leadership that it would take just minutes to deploy police forces, but he was referring to a general response — not a force large enough to handle the size of the crowds that clashed that night. But three sources confirmed he was directly asked how long it would take for outside law enforcement to quell any violence.
The Times reported Thursday that the UCLA Police Department had asked other campuses for additional police officers five days before the attack. The reporting was based on documents the paper reviewed and information from the head of the UC police officers union. Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment Tuesday night. Questions are being raised as to why he did not increase the number of UC police that night after being directed to use whatever resources were needed to keep the community safe.
“I did everything I could to increase the police presence that we couldn’t provide because of our small department,” he said.
On the night of the attack, Thomas said he was watching a Dodgers game at home and was alerted to the mob violence by Beck. Thomas said he immediately called the LAPD to ask for deployment to the campus and notified his UCLA watch commander to call for mutual aid from law enforcement with the cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City and Santa Monica, along with sheriff’s deputies.
When he arrived on scene, he said, 19 officers from UCLA, the LAPD and three of the mutual aid agencies had arrived but had not moved in to quell the violence. An LAPD lieutenant told him the force was too small; Thomas said he asked why they couldn’t go in with the forces they had, and the lieutenant told him he was directed to wait.
It took more than 90 minutes for sufficient forces to arrive and intervene. The next day, UCLA called in police who dismantled the encampment and arrested more than 200 protesters early Thursday morning in clashes that lasted hours.
The campus will resume normal operations Monday. Faculty are being encouraged to resume in-person instruction as soon as possible but may continue remote classes through Friday without departmental authorization. Law enforcement officers are stationed throughout the campus, according to a BruinAlert sent Sunday morning.
But sources said that tension over the protests and the fraught politics have continued to bitterly divide both campus members and the outside community, making it difficult to speak freely. They said they hoped Block’s actions would represent a turning point.
“The chancellor made it clear that Bruin community safety comes first and his swift, decisive actions are really welcomed,” a source said.
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Teresa Watanabe
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It’s now been five years since Disney bought 20th Century Fox, and we’re finally seeing that really pay off on the movie side. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is hitting theaters next week, Alien: Romulus and Deadpool & Wolverine are later this summer. What Fox movies are due next for a comeback? The Maze Runner series, naturally.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios is looking to reboot the YA sci-fi movies for a new generation. Heading up those efforts is writer Jack Paglen, best known for 2014’s si-fi thriller Transcendence starring Johnny Depp. Sources speaking to THR claim the reboot will look to continue the original story while also returning to the roots of that original film.
In case you’ve forgotten, the original Maze Runner—directed by Wes Ball, who’s helming Kingdom (and eventually Legend of Zelda), and will produce this new flick—released in 2014 and was based on the dystopian YA books written by James Dashner. Dylan O’Brien starred as an amnesiac kid named Thomas who woke up in up in a big grass area home to other boys that’s also surrounded by a massive maze. Deeply curious and unable to shake that something was going on, Thomas worked to uncover the maze’s secrets and find a way for him and the other Gladers to escape.
The Maze Runner franchise was one of many trying to chase after Hunger Games and Twilight money, and ended up succeeding. Its first movie made $348.3 million (against a $34 million budget), and its two sequels—2015’s Scorch Trials and 2018’s Death Cure—were equally big at $312.3 million and $288.2 million, respectively. (The latter film was infamously delayed after O’Brien was hospitalized for serious injuries and had to recover).
Not long after the merger completed, Disney confirmed it’d eventually spin up new Maze Runner movies. Instead of pulling a Hunger Games and doing a movie or two based on the previously released prequel books The Kill Order and Fever Code, it looks like Disney’s decided to start anew. Rebooting not-that-old YA fare appears to be the move nowadays, if Twilight and (arguably) Percy Jackson are any indication. The original Maze movies were pretty fun, solid films, so here’s hoping the same is true of this reboot whenever it runs into theaters.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Justin Carter
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On the morning before a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian student encampment at UCLA, campus Police Chief John Thomas assured university leadership that he could mobilize law enforcement “in minutes” — a miscalculation from the three hours it took to actually bring in enough officers to quell the violence, according to three sources.
Days earlier, campus leadership had directed Thomas to create a safety plan that would protect the UCLA community after the encampment was put up last week and began drawing agitators, the sources said. The chief was told to spare no expense to bring in other UC police officers, offer overtime and hire as many private security officers needed to keep the peace.
But Thomas did not provide a plan to senior UCLA leadership — even after he was again asked to provide one after skirmishes broke out between Israel supporters and pro-Palestinian advocates at dueling rallies Sunday.
The account of Thomas’ actions leading up to the attack was provided by three sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UCLA also declined to comment.
But internal calls are growing for the police chief to step aside as University of California President Michael V. Drake initiates an independent review of UCLA’s response, the sources said. The police chief reports to Vice Chancellor Michael Beck, who oversees the UCLA Police Department and the Office of Emergency Management. Beck did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called for answers to explain “the limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA.”
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block described the attack in a statement as a “a dark chapter in our campus’s history” and said the university was “carefully examining our own security processes in light of recent events.”
Key questions involve when officials decided to bring in help from other agencies and whether help could have arrived sooner. Outside police forces generally do not enter the campus without the university’s approval, since it functions as an independent municipal entity although it is on state land.
The Times reported Thursday that the UCLA Police Department had asked other campuses for additional police officers five days before the attack. The reporting was based on documents the paper reviewed and information from the head of the UC police officers union. Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment Tuesday night.
The mutual aid requests made Thursday and Friday, April 25-26 — which would have provided UCLA with more officers as they dealt with the camp and a dueling area erected by pro-Israel activists — were both canceled by Thomas because the protests were peaceful, the sources said.
The responsibility to call for mutual aid through the UC Systemwide Response Team — a group of about 80 officers across the 10 campuses — has to be made by the host university’s chief of police, according to the UC police procedures manual. Internal questions have been raised as to whether, following skirmishes Sunday, Thomas issued another request after being directed to maintain a peaceful environment.
The union issued a statement this week placing the responsibility for the UC police response in the hands of “campus leadership,” saying the strategic direction was controlled by administrators. The three sources said, however, that such direction to prepare a plan, with enough officers to ensure safety, was given to Thomas multiple times.
The attack began Tuesday about 10:30 p.m., when a large group of agitators — some wearing black outfits and white masks — arrived on campus and assaulted campers, ripped down barricades, hurled objects at the encampment and those inside and threw firecrackers into the area.
Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, rallied to defend the site’s perimeter. Some used pepper spray to defend themselves. Several were injured, including four Daily Bruin student journalists.
Only a few on-duty UCLA police officers were on hand to protect the encampment, one source told The Times. Thomas told the Daily Bruin his officers came under attack while helping an injured woman and had to leave.
Law enforcement sources said it took time for the LAPD, California Highway Patrol and other agencies to mobilize the large number of officers needed. A larger force began moving into the area after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday and fully contained the situation after 3 a.m.
UCLA declared the encampment unlawful Tuesday and asked participants to leave or face possible discipline. The next day, the campus called in police, who dismantled tents and arrested more than 200 protesters in clashes early Thursday that lasted for hours. Several protesters were injured.
The UC Board of Regents held a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the campus protests.
Teresa Watanabe
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When you think of the most important people in Star Trek history, in terms of actors at least you might look to the legacies of people like William Shatner or Patrick Stewart. But the real answer to that question is probably Jonathan Frakes, who has been a part of pretty much all televised Trek since the ‘70s—and when Discovery ends in a few months, it’ll break the trend of his influence, at least in front of the camera.
Since starring as William T. Riker in The Next Generation, Frakes has made a guest appearance in almost every Star Trek series since, either as Riker or a facsimile of him, or his villainous transporter clone brother Thomas (responsible for the greatest fake beard reveal in television history, thanks to Deep Space Nine). Just three series have gone without an on-screen Frakes appearance so far—Discovery, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds—and now we know at least one of them never will.
When asked by Den of Geek at a recent appearance during SXSW whether or not Frakes would make an on-screen appearance in Discovery’s final season, co-creator and producer Alex Kurtzman offered a very resoundingly flat “No.” It’s not surprising considering that, as Discovery is now so far into Star Trek’s future, Riker is extremely dead at this point. At least it will always have a special connection to Frakes through his role as a similarly consistent Trek director—Frakes has been regularly directing episodes of Discovery since its first season, and will direct the penultimate episode of the show in season five. But it does indeed mean the end to a decades-long trend of making Frakes one of the most consistent Trek actors in the franchise history, and there’s something oddly sad about that.
Prodigy and Strange New Worlds both still have time to have their own Frakes appearances—Prodigy is set in 2385, while Riker was still in active service even after the birth of his son Thaddeus, for whom he would step back from active duty to try and help treat when he was diagnosed with mendaxic neurosclerosis in the run-up to the events of Star Trek: Picard. Strange New Worlds (which like Discovery has a Frakes connection through directing; he shot the show’s fantastic crossover with Lower Decks, “Those Old Scientists”) being pre-original Trek would make a Riker appearance very difficult, but Frakes could still play some role, whether it’s an ancestor or an entirely new character.
We’ll have to wait and see—and behold what Frakes cooks up as his parting gift for Discovery—when season five begins streaming on April 4.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
James Whitbrook
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In a special weekend episode, Johnny is joined by his good friend and House of Villains Season 1 champion Tanisha Thomas to talk about her iconic reality television career, how their friendship grew on House of Villains, their experiences in the finale episode, and more.
Host: Johnny Bananas
Guest: Tanisha Thomas
Producer: Sasha Ashall
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Johnny Bananas
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The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released body camera footage Friday showing the moments leading up to a deputy fatally shooting a 27-year-old Black woman in Lancaster.
Niani Finlayson, who authorities said was armed with a kitchen knife, was shot in front of her 9-year-old daughter on Dec. 4. She had called the police for help during a domestic dispute with a man authorities described as her boyfriend.
The footage released Friday shows that the deputy who shot her was first handed a Taser, but he dropped it and fired a handgun instead.
Investigators are continuing to review the case, which is expected to be sent to the district attorney’s office to determine if any charges will be filed.
“Any time a life is lost, regardless of the circumstances, is a difficult time for everyone involved,” L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement. “The department released the body-worn camera footage ahead of the legal time frame to demonstrate our commitment to transparency and the visual representation of the facts in this case. As the comprehensive review process continues, the department will gain additional insight into the incident with the goal of improving public safety.”
Shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, Finlayson called 911 to report that her boyfriend wouldn’t leave her Lancaster apartment, authorities said. During a frantic call with a police dispatcher, audio of which was released along with the body camera footage, Finlayson said the man would not leave her house or “get his hands off of me.”
Three deputies heard screaming as they approached the apartment in the 2100 block of East Avenue J-8. Body camera video shows one of the deputies attempting to kick in the front door.
The door opens and Finlayson appears — holding what authorities say was an 8-inch kitchen knife.
“I’m going to stab him,” she can be heard telling the deputies before moving out of sight toward the living room.
The body camera video shows a deputy, identified by the department as Ty Shelton, entering the apartment closely behind another deputy. On his way in, Shelton asks the other deputy to give him a Taser.
After deputies moved into the apartment, Finlayson can be seen standing next to a man, with one hand on him and the other appearing to hold a knife. Shelton drops the Taser , raises his handgun and fires four shots at Finlayson.
The man then yells, “Why did you shoot?”
Finlayson was taken to a hospital where she later died. The man was arrested on suspicion of child abuse and assault on a peace officer but was later released, according to the sheriff’s department.
Shelton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Finlayson’s family filed a claim last week signaling they plan to sue the county and the department for $30 million.
“She was not engaging in any type of physically threatening behavior at all,” Bradley Gage, the family’s attorney, said at a news conference Dec. 21. “In fact, she was the victim.”
Shelton was involved in at least one other fatal shooting in Lancaster, according to county records. In 2020, Shelton killed 62-year-old Michael Thomas as he and another deputy tried to detain him during a domestic violence call.
The deputies said Thomas tried to grab one of their guns. His fiancee disputed that, telling a local TV station that Thomas had refused to let the deputies enter the house and was turning away from them when he was shot.
Prosecutors declined to file charges against Shelton in that case, county records show, though they acknowledged “there may have been other reasonable options available” to him instead of killing Thomas.
The union representing L.A. County sheriff’s deputies urged the public to allow for a thorough investigation before coming to any final conclusions.
“This was obviously a tragic outcome, an outcome attributable to a violent and highly volatile situation in that apartment that night,” Richard Pippin, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs said in an emailed statement Friday.
“Our deputy found himself faced with a woman who threatened to stab someone and was then poised, knife in hand, to carry out that threat. This video exemplifies the profound challenges and no-win situations our deputies frequently face. The true motives of groups or individuals who jumped out with outrageous assertions before even seeing the video should be apparent to everyone.”
Tony Briscoe
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BERLIN — The political maneuver shaking Germany’s postwar democratic order involves a piece of legislation that is about as mundane as it gets.
Center-right legislators in the eastern German state of Thuringia wanted to cut a local property tax by a small amount — and did so with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
The move broke with years of tradition in which mainstream parties have vowed to maintain a Brandmauer, or firewall, between themselves and the AfD, a party many in a country alert to the legacy of Nazism see as a dire threat to democracy. Even accepting the party’s support, the thinking goes, would legitimize far-right forces or make them salonfähig — socially acceptable.
And so, when parliamentarians from the conservative Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, passed the tax reduction on a late afternoon in September with AfD votes, it sent tremors across the country’s political landscape that still are reverberating.
“For me, a taboo has been broken,” Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a leader of the Greens who hails from Thuringia, said after the vote. “It shows me not only that the firewall is gone, but that there is open collaboration.”
For mainstream parties, and the CDU in particular, the question of how to handle the growing presence of far-right radicals in governing bodies from federal and state parliaments to local councils is likely to grow only more vexing.
That especially is the case in the states of the former East Germany, where the AfD now leads in polls at around 28 percent. Next year, the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg will all hold parliamentary elections. Polls show the party leading in all three states.
The AfD is likely to expand its presence in the parliaments of Bavaria and Hesse when those states vote on Sunday. In Hesse, the AfD is coming close to overtaking German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party, according to the latest polls.
The dilemma facing mainstream parties is clear. To work with the AfD means to normalize a party that many believe seeks to subvert the republic from within. But to ostracize the party only alienates its many voters.
The firewall also serves as an unintended political gift, allowing the AfD to depict itself — at a time of high dissatisfaction with mainstream parties — as the clear choice for those who want to send a burn-it-down message to the country’s political establishment.
At the same time, the controversy over the latest vote in Thuringia seems to have played into the AfD’s hands, allowing the party to depict itself as seeking to uphold rather than undermine democracy.
The “‘firewall’ is history — and Thuringia is just the beginning,” AfD party leader Alice Weidel posted on X, formerly Twitter, after the vote. “It’s time to respond to the democratic will of citizens everywhere in Germany.”
Germany’s political leaders are all too aware that the Nazi seizure of power began with democratic electoral success. In fact, it was in Thuringia where, in 1930, the Nazi party first took real governing power in coalition with conservative parties.
That fact was not lost on the CDU’s opponents.
“German conservatism has already been a stirrup holder of fascism,” Janine Wissler, a head of the Left party, told the German Press Agency after the vote. “Back then, too, it started in Thuringia,” she added. “Instead of having learned from that, the CDU is going down a path that’s as dangerous as fire.”
CDU leaders in Thuringia deny the vote on the tax reduction means the firewall is crumbling. They say there was no cooperation with the AfD ahead of the vote (though AfD members say there were discussions between lawmakers).
“I cannot make good, important decisions for the state that provide relief for families and the economy dependent on the fact that the wrong people might agree,” Mario Voigt, the head of the CDU in Thuringia said after the vote.
Friedrich Merz, the national leader of the CDU, has sent mixed signals on the firewall — or at least on what exactly the firewall means. Merz says the CDU will not form coalitions with the AfD but he’s been less clear on whether the CDU will work with the party in other ways.
In a television interview over the summer, he seemed to suggest working with the AfD on the local level was all but inevitable.
“We are of course obliged to accept democratic elections,” he said. “And if a district administrator, a mayor is elected there who belongs to the AfD, it’s natural that you look for ways to then continue to work in this city.”
After an uproar ensued, Merz walked back the comment. “There will be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD at the municipal level either,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
After the vote in Thuringia, Merz stood by the CDU leadership of the state. “We don’t go by who agrees, we go by what we think is right in the matter,” he said on German television.
Even some within his own party do not see things that way. Daniel Günther, the CDU premier of the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, sharply criticized his party colleagues in Thuringia. “As a conservative, I must be able to say plainly and simply the sentence, ‘I do not form majorities with extremists,’” Günther said.
It’s not the first time Thuringia has been at the center of a controversy over the firewall. In 2020, a little-known politician in the pro-business Free Democratic Party, Thomas Kemmerich, was elected state premier with the support of the CDU and AfD. Then-Chancellor Angela Merkel weighed in to call the vote “unforgivable.”
In the furor that followed, Kemmerich resigned as did the then-head of the CDU faction in the state. But given the AfD’s large presence in the local parliament, the issue was bound to resurface.
The problem is far from Germany’s alone. Mainstream parties are under growing pressure due to the rise of the radical right across Europe.
In France, parties from across the political spectrum have formed a cordon sanitaire, or sanitary cordon, to keep Marine Le Pen, a leader of the far-right National Rally, out of the presidency. But with Le Pen’s party now the biggest opposition group in the National Assembly, the cordon is getting harder to maintain.
In the European Parliament, where a similar cordon has been erected, the center-right European People’s Party has been openly courting the European Conservatives and Reformists, home to Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice party and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party.
In Thuringia, the stakes are even higher as the local branch of the AfD contains some of the party’s most extreme members. State-level intelligence authorities tasked with surveilling anti-constitutional groups have characterized the party’s local branch as extremist.
The leader of the AfD in Thuringia is Björn Höcke, who is set to face trial for using banned Nazi rhetoric. (In 2021, he closed a speech with the phrase “Alles für Deutschland!” or “Everything for Germany!” — a slogan used by Nazi stormtroopers.)
Höcke railed against Holocaust remembrance in Germany and warned of “Volkstod,” the death of the Volk, through “population replacement.” For such views, German courts have ruled that Höcke could justifiably be referred to as a fascist or Nazi.
For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls.
After the vote on the property tax in Thuringia, Höcke clearly was pleased, claiming the AfD had helped enact a pragmatic policy.
“It’s simply a good day for Thuringia,” he said.
Peter Wilke contributed reporting.
James Angelos
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Press Release
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updated: Sep 14, 2017
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, September 14, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Dr. Thomas Adams, Witte Museum Curator of Paleontology and Geology, has described and named a new species of fossil crocodile discovered in North Texas. Dr. Adams, the lead author of a paper outlining the find, describes Deltasuchus motherali as one of the “top predators in its ecosystem.”
As Curator of Paleontology and Geology, Dr. Adams developed the content for the Naylor Family Dinosaur Gallery at the Witte Museum which includes Deinocuchus riograndensis, another prehistoric crocodile that lived in what we now call Texas. The giant prehistoric crocodile is one of the most popular ancient animals in the dinosaur gallery.
Dr. Thomas Adams, Witte Museum Curator of Paleontology and Geology, has described and named a new species of fossil crocodile discovered in North Texas. Dr. Adams, the lead author of a paper outlining the find, describes Deltasuchus motherali as one of the ‘top predators in its ecosystem.’
Dr. Thomas Adams, Curator of Paleontology and Geology
Deltasuchus, a relative of modern crocodiles, lived around 95 million years ago, and ruled the coastlines and waterways of what would one day become north-central Texas. Adults of the newly discovered and described species Deltasuchus motherali grew up to 20 feet (6 meters) long, and left behind bite marks on the fossilized bones of prey animals, suggesting that it was an opportunistic animal, eating much of what was in its environment, from turtles to dinosaurs.
Dr. Adams, along with co-authors Drs. Chris Noto, at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and Stephanie Drumheller-Horton, at the University of Tennessee, published the description of the new croc species in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. A unique aspect of the find is that it was discovered in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a place that normally is not associated with ancient fossils.
The site that produced the new species was discovered in Arlington, Texas, in 2003 by amateur fossil hunters Art Sahlstein, Bill Walker and Phil Kirchoff. Dubbed the Arlington Archosaur Site (AAS), the area is undergoing rapid residential development, and paleontologists have been working with local volunteers and fossil enthusiasts to excavate the site over the last decade. Deltasuchus motherali is named for one of those volunteers, Austin Motheral, who first uncovered the fossils of this particular croc with a small tractor when he was 15 years old. Work on the site is supported by a grant from the National Geographic Society, which is funding continued excavations and study of this unique fossil locality. Fossils from the site, including the Deltasuchus motherali bones, are part of the collections of the nearby Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas.
Deltasuchus is the first of what may prove to be several new species described from this prolific fossil site. The locality preserves a surprisingly complete ancient ecosystem ranging from 95 million to 100 million years old, and its fossils are filling in an important gap in our understanding of ancient North American land and freshwater ecosystems. While most of Texas was covered by a shallow sea at this time, the Dallas-Fort Worth area was part of a large peninsula that jutted out into this sea from the northeast. This peninsula was a lush environment of river deltas and swamps that teemed with wildlife, including dinosaurs, crocodiles, turtles, mammals, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, as well as plants.
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About the Witte Museum:
Founded in 1926, the Witte Museum is where Science, Nature and Culture Meet, through the lens of Texas Deep Time, and the themes of Land, Water, Sky. Located on the banks of the San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park, the Witte Museum is San Antonio’s premier museum promoting lifelong learning through innovative exhibitions, programs and collections in natural history, science and South Texas heritage.
Source: Witte Museum