NOTN- An Italian man is missing after falling into a rushing stream on Mendenhall Glacier and being swept into a narrow opening in the ice, authorities said.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers said they received a report around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday that the man had slipped into the water and disappeared into a roughly 2-foot-wide vertical hole. The two people traveling with him told officials they could no longer see him once he fell inside.
Juneau Mountain Rescue deployed a technical ice rescue team, which determined the hole was filled with fast-moving water and too dangerous to search.
Authorities said efforts are ongoing to notify the man’s next of kin in Italy.
Pictured above, the Asian Giant hornet, or Murder Hornet, and pictured below is the Native Yellow Horned Horntail.
NOTN- online speculation on Facebook about Murder hornets, also known as Asian giant hornets, in Juneau, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Officials are clearing things up.
While Asian giant hornets, often dubbed murder hornets, are a federal species of concern because of their threat to native pollinators, no positive reports have been confirmed in Alaska, said Tammy Davis, invasive species program coordinator for the state Department of Fish and Game.
“We would rather get 100 reports of something that ends up being native than miss one report of an invasive,” Davis said. “If you see something suspicious, report it.”
Davis says individuals may frequently confuse the invasive hornet with native insects such as the yellow-horned horntail. Though large and equipped with what looks like a stinger, the insect’s rear appendage is actually an ovipositor used to lay eggs in dead or dying trees.
“The commonly misidentified native species is a yellow-horned horntail, it has a long abdomen, they also have what is called an ovipositor, but it looks like it might be a stinger, and it’s used for laying eggs.” Said Davis “They don’t sting, and they’re a natural part of our forest ecology, and they’re really important for recycling in the forest environment. The female wasp uses that ovipositor, and she plunges that under the bark of dead and dying trees so that she can lay her eggs, so something that seems like a really scary Murder hornet turns into a really sweet Wasp that’s trying to help our forest.
Residents can report invasive species by calling the state hotline at 1-877-INVASIV or by filing a report online through the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Reports are shared with state, federal, and local partners through the Alaska Invasive Species Partnership.
In addition to insects, state biologists are monitoring threats such as European green crabs, recently detected in Ketchikan with the University of Alaska Southeast “It was on the last day during our last survey that one of the professors found a tiny, little green crab, and then one of the students found another one.” said Davis in the next couple weeks, everybody was looking for green crab and finding them, and the map drastically changed.”
according to NOAA, The green crab is considered one of the most invasive species in the marine environment. It has few predators, aggressively hunts and eats its prey, destroys seagrass, and outcompetes local species for food and habitat.
“Information is power, and good information is even more powerful,” Davis said.
The U.S. Supreme Court, on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
In 2012, Alaska State Troopers arrested Fairbanks pilot Ken Jouppi and seized his aircraft after charging him with bootlegging for shipping beer into the dry community of Beaver.
Now, after 13 years of legal disputes, the state’s decision to seize Jouppi’s airplane could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning nonprofit public interest law firm, last week asked the Supreme Court to consider overturning an Alaska Supreme Court ruling from April. That ruling declared that the state’s decision to seize Jouppi’s plane was not an excessive fine for bootlegging.
The “petition for a writ of certiorari” — a formal document asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue — was filed last week, an official with the Institute confirmed on Tuesday afternoon.
The odds are against Jouppi — the Supreme Court takes only about 1% of the cases it receives. If cases filed with a fee waiver are excluded — those usually come from prisoners representing themselves in a last-ditch appeal — the acceptance rate is 5% or less.
Now 85 and retired, Jouppi was a longtime air taxi pilot in Fairbanks when he planned to ferry a passenger and her groceries from that hub city to Beaver, a village in the Interior.
Before takeoff, an Alaska State Trooper noticed a six-pack of beer visible in the baggage. Beaver had outlawed the sale, consumption and importation of alcohol in 2004. Troopers searched the plane and found three cases of beer — two Budweiser, one Bud Light — intended for the passenger’s husband, the local postmaster.
Jouppi was indicted on bootlegging charges, convicted, and sentenced. His sentence included three days in jail and a fine. State prosecutors asked that he be required to forfeit his plane, but the trial judge declined.
The state appealed that decision, and the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled in 2017 in the state’s favor. The Appeals judges sent the case back to the trial court, which again refused to order the plane’s forfeiture, citing the U.S. Constitution’s excessive fines clause.
The appeals court ordered additional proceedings by the trial court, but both Jouppi’s attorneys and state prosecutors instead asked the Alaska Supreme Court to take up the issue, which it did last year before issuing a written opinion in April.
“We hold, as a matter of law, that the owner of the airplane failed to establish that forfeiture would be unconstitutionally excessive,” wrote Justice Jude Pate on behalf of the court, which ruled unanimously in the state’s favor.
Pate and the court said that Alaska legislative debates showed that state lawmakers placed a high priority on punishments for bootleggers, and thus the seizure of an airplane was not excessive, even though a relatively small amount of beer was involved.
“Alcohol abuse in rural Alaska leads to increased crime; disorders, such as alcoholism; conditions, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; and death, imposing substantial costs on public health and the administration of justice. Within this context, it is clear that the illegal importation of even a six-pack of beer causes grave societal harm,” the ruling states. “This factor strongly suggests that the forfeiture is not grossly disproportional.”
In their request for the U.S. Supreme Court to examine the case, Jouppi’s attorneys argue that the federal justices should decide whether courts should consider the seriousness of an offense in abstract, or if they should take into account a specific defendant’s circumstances.
The Alaska Supreme Court “examined the gravity of the defendant’s offense at a stratospheric level of abstraction,” they argue, when justices should have taken into account the circumstances.
The Alaska justices relied on a federal decision from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Jouppi’s attorneys note, but Alaska is within the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judges for the 9th Circuit have considered the Excessive Fines clause of the Constitution and concluded that it is critical to “review the specific actions of the violator rather than by taking an abstract view of the violation.”
Because of those two differing interpretations of the Constitution, Jouppi’s attorneys say, the case is ripe for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider.
No date has been set for a court conference to determine whether Jouppi’s case will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the court declines to consider his case, the Alaska Supreme Court decision will stand.
As a teen growing up in an abusive household, Morgan coped daily with physical and emotional harm from her mother. However, she felt safe and supported when she posted about her experiences on a fake Instagram account – widely referred to as a Finsta – which disguised her true identity.
Morgan (no relation to the co-author of this article) used her Finsta to tell peers what she was going through, and to send and receive encouraging words. Without that lifeline, she told us in an interview at age 21, “I probably would not have made it out.”
We are social work and public health researchers who study how people use digital technologies to seek help after they experience violence. We’ve found that social media has become a crucial outlet for young people to disclose abuse, connect with peers who’ve had similar experiences, and learn about safety strategies.
Every year in the United States, it’s estimated that more than 1 in 7 children face violence or neglect in their home. These experiences often go unreported. Some children don’t recognize their experiences as abuse. Others are ashamed. Many fear what will happen next if they speak out.
Child abuse and neglect can include acts of commission, such as physical violence, or omission, such as neglecting a child’s safety or health.
When young people reveal neglect or abuse, they are more likely to turn to informal support systems, such as friends, rather than authorities. In today’s digital world, those disclosures are increasingly happening online. In the midst of growing concerns about social media harming young people, its platforms offer important benefits for some vulnerable youth.
They wrote about people in their households withholding food from them, sexually abusing them or physically harming them, leaving them with bruises or dislocated limbs. Usually these harms were inflicted by a caregiver – a parent, stepparent, grandparent or other guardian. The young people who shared these experiences typically were venting their feelings, asking questions or seeking support.
We also analyzed over 1,000 responses to these posts. Peers were overwhelmingly sympathetic, offering emotional support and advice, or commiserating about their own abuse or neglect. Responses that joked about and minimized the posters’ experiences, or were unsupportive in other ways, were comparatively rare.
To understand these dynamics more deeply, we next surveyed 18– to 21-year-olds across the U.S. Among 641 respondents, about one-third reported experiencing abuse or neglect during their childhoods. Of this group, more than half – 56% – had talked about their maltreatment on social media.
We interviewed a subsample of these participants to learn what motivated them to share their experiences on social media, and how these interactions affected them. Eva, age 21, said:
“…(it’s) a place where other people like me, who wanted attention and wanted to feel validated and wanted to talk about it in sort of a low stake situation, they’d come to that place. So, all of us together, we’re sort of supporting each other and saying like, hey, what you feel is valid.”
Why seek help online?
Most young people use social media to interact, express themselves and learn new things. Some users are exposed to new information that helps them identify their experiences as abuse or neglect.
One 20-year-old participant who posted about their experiences in a Reddit forum dedicated to support for mental health issues said: “I was born into (the abuse), right? So this was my normal, this was my everyday … the more that I started to get older, the more that I started to hear other people’s experiences. I went ‘ohh, something about this that I grew up with, I don’t think that’s normal.’”
Maltreated young people also turn to social media because they lack other options. Minors don’t typically have the legal or financial power to move out of an abusive home or start seeing a therapist without parental involvement.
“When you’re a kid, you don’t really have a lot of agency over things in your life … if all you have access to is social media and people online to talk to, that’s really the only way you can vent and express that you’re fed up and that you need help,” Kara, age 20, told us.
Even when resources such as school counselors are available, many young people avoid them because those people or agencies are subject to mandatory reporting requirements. Posting on social media allows youth to talk about their experiences, often anonymously, without fearing that the situation will escalate out of their control.
“It’s a very dangerous position to ask children to put themselves in to report their abuse, especially knowing the flaws in our (child protective services) system,” Dos, age 21, told us.
Participants in our study described supportive online relationships between individual users, as well as within broader social media communities. Eva, age 21, found that when she posted about her experiences, people online were “more willing to discuss it and have empathy for you than you would see in the average person on the street.”
But turning to social media also can have serious downsides for young people struggling with abuse or neglect. Lacking offline support systems, these users are highly vulnerable to online harm. Social media can expose them to misinformation, traumatic content or predatory behavior disguised as support.
Without safe adults to help them navigate these spaces, young abuse victims face a paradox: The internet may be their only option for connection, but it is not always safe or reliable.
The role of adults
Drawing from our interviews, we see three key takeaways for educators, policymakers and technology platforms:
– Young people need better access to safe, reliable information and resources about dealing with abuse and neglect that offer anonymity and do not trigger mandatory reporting. While reporting laws are designed to protect children, they can discourage disclosure if young people fear that seeking help will trigger an immediate and unwanted intervention.
In our view, creating resources that balance safety with autonomy is critical. Confidential hotlines, like the National Child Abuse Hotline, are among the only places where children can talk with an adult anonymously.
– Policies that ban social media or require parental permission for minors may unintentionally increase risks for maltreated youth. Creating safer pathways for internet use is a more effective way to protect young people online.
– Since caregivers and other adults aren’t always available or willing to protect children online, we believe that platforms should be held accountable for design features, such as algorithms, privacy controls and moderation strategies, that can make sites unsafe for vulnerable youth seeking support.
Social media can’t replace offline resources for children who are being maltreated. But for many young people, these platforms have become a first step toward recognition, connection and survival. By learning how and why abused youth share their experiences digitally, adults can better understand their needs and build systems that meet them where they are.
Editor’s note: All names quoted in this article are pseudonyms that were chosen by the research participants.
Morgan E. PettyJohn receives funding from the Kalman & Ida Wolens Foundation. She is a member of the Society for Social Work and Research, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. She also serves on the editorial board for the American Psychological Association journal, Psychology of Men and Masculinities.
Laura Schwab Reese receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, North Central Health Services, Childhelp Inc, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is a member of the American Public Health Association, Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research, International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect, Association for Computing Machinery, Association of Internet Researchers, and American Communication Association. She serves as Associate Editor for Journal of Family Violence and Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, and on the editorial boards of Child Abuse & Neglect and the American Journal of Public Health.
But she would like everyone to know that she’s doing just fine at the moment.
Over this past weekend, the 1000-Lb. Sisters cast member shared a video of herself and fiancée Andrea Dalton singing along to Kenny Loggins’ Footloose in the car, but it wasn’t the couple’s vocals that got folks talking.
It was Tammy’s appearance.
(Instagram)
“Are you OK?” one user commented underneath the August 28 TikTok footage. “What happened to your chin?”
In response, the veteran reality star simply explained, “I had teeth pulled.”
Indeed, we previously reported on this being the case.
“They’re temporary still,” the 39-year old said on a recent podcast, referring to her teeth. “But they had to cement them in because the glue wasn’t holding — well, my body was rejecting it. But they had to pull teeth.”
Tammy Slaton has become a role model for all who are overweight. (TLC)
According to Tammy, the bridge — which is a false tooth that’s anchored to adjacent natural teeth to bridge the gap in an individual’s smile — has made a slight change in her voice.
“I have a lisp now,” she said on the August 19 episode of the Creative Chaos podcast. “It will go away eventually. The only way I think my voice might have changed is cause I’m happier.”
Slaton added during this interview that she has more work to get done, emphasizing that “it’s a process.”
Tammy is accustomed to having patience and going through processes, however, having shed hundreds of pounds over the last two years.
She truly looks like a different person at this point.
(Instagram)
On the outside, that is.
On the inside, Tammy still is unafraid to speak her mind.
“Haters make me famous,” said a couple weeks ago when it comes to her critics, following up on the criticism she received in the past over her teeth.
“With all due respect, I wish people like you would stop commenting crap like this,” Slaton said in a January 2024 TikTok video, addressing social media trolls.
“It’s not helping my confidence. I was trying to keep my confidence boosted and seeing comments about my chin or my teeth doesn’t help.”
She continued back then:
“I’m trying to better my life and better myself. We should be lifting up people. It doesn’t matter if I’m missing teeth.”
Tammy Slaton says she has lost over 500 pounds. (TLC)
Aside from her ongoing journey to achieve the ideal smile, Tammy’s latest video marks her first since the tragic passing of her and Amy Slaton’s cousin Katie Slaton — who appeared alongside her cousins on the TLC series on multiple occasions — following a battle with stage 4 cancer.
“It is with a completely crushed heart and spirit that I have to post this,” Tammy and Amy’s sister Amanda Halterman wrote on Instagram August 26.
“My little cousin went to sit at the feet of Jesus yesterday. She was a force to be reckoned with and showed love that was accepting and given freely. She was the life of the party and my best friend.
Just one week earlier, she and her husband, Chad Paine, had welcomed their seventh child.
For years, the Bringing Up Bates alum’s childbirths have been difficult and risky.
But she became pregnant again. She gave birth again. And now, her family is asking for prayers.
On ‘Bringing Up Bates,’ Erin Bates had a long and difficult delivery of her first child. Childbirth would grow even more challenging over time. (Image Credit: UpTV)
When Erin Bates gave birth to baby #7, it was not without ‘complications’
Erin Bates Paine is in the ICU and her family is taking to Instagram to ask fans to pray for her.
The Bringing Up Bates alum and her husband, Chad, welcomed their seventh child, Henry, on August 25.
Chad took to the couple’s shared account to explain that Erin remains under medical care due to “complications.”
Social media users have responded with astonishment that Erin would even attempt at another child, given her long history of difficulties.
Erin has a clotting disorder. In 2015, she welcomed her first son, Charles, but had suffered three miscarriages before that.
She went on to welcome Brooklyn, Everly, and Holland.
It seemed that they’d stop there, giving her many health issues.
On ‘Bringing Up Bates,’ Erin Bates tells fans that she’s about to tell her husband that he will once again be a father. This would become a familiar piece of news for the couple. (Image Credit UpTV)
Many fans did not expect her to risk a seventh child
In the process of treating cysts, doctors removed one of Erin Bates’ ovaries entirely.
They also partially removed another.
And yet they had William in 2022, Finley in 2023, and now Henry in 2025.
Fans expressing dismay at this should remember that the Bates family is part of a fertility cult just like the Duggars. In the family ideology, this is arguably Erin’s purpose. Even if it claims her life.
We earnestly hope that she makes a full recovery and that this health crisis never repeats itself.
For millions of Americans, Labor Day weekend is a time to bid the summer adieu with a few cold ones.
Unfortunately, some folks enjoy one cold one too many and then get behind the wheel.
That’s allegedly what happened (or something along those lines) with Succession star Nicholas Braun, who was arrested for DUI in New Hampshire over the weekend.
Nicholas Braun of ‘Zola’ attends the IMDb Studio at Acura Festival Village on location at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival â Day 2 on January 25, 2020 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
Cousin Greg’s awkward weekend
According to a report obtained by People magazine, Braun was pulled over and taken into custody on suspicion of “DUI-impairment” by police in Moultonborough.
Braun, who portrayed fan favorite Cousin Greg on the hit HBO drama, has yet to publicly comment on the situation.
He was released on his own recognizance and was not required to post bail.
Insiders say no mugshot was taken as the police department’s camera wasn’t functioning on the night of his arrest.
Nicholas Braun attends the Los Angeles Premiere of “Splitsville” at AMC The Grove 14 on August 19, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)
It’s a lucky break for the 37-year-old star who will likely find it that much easier to move on from this situation without a visual record following him around.
What’s next for Nicholas Braun?
Braun is due back in court later this year, but the lack of bail indicates that he’ll probably get off with a slap on the wrist if he’s convicted.
In addition to his role on Succession, Braun has appeared in such films as Sky High, Minutemen, and Princess Protection Program.
He recently portrayed both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson in the film Saturday Night, based on the early days of Saturday Night Live.
Nicholas Braun attends the 75th Primetime Emmy performer nominees celebration at JW Marriott LA Live on January 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
Braun also appears in the new comedy Splitsville, which just hit theaters last week.
Details of his arrest are scarce at the moment, but we’re guessing more will come to light when Braun returns to Moultonborough for his court date.
In the meantime, he’ll probably keep mum for legal reasons.
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
But she made an exception. And maybe a bit of a quiet social media comeback in the process.
A despondent-looking Anna Duggar during her time on TLC. (Image Credit: TLC)
Anna Duggar rarely shows her children these days
Over the Labor Day long weekend, Anna Duggar took to her company’s Instagram page to share a video of 15-year-old Mackynzie Duggar spending time with a 6-week-old puppy by the name of Ms. Gray.
It was, of course, an advertisement for Golden Grove Pups.
“We have a few pups left… ready to go home soon!” the caption teased. “DM for more info.”
Mackynzie is the eldest of the seven children that Anna shares with the disgraced former reality star.
Josh is currently serving his 151-month sentence on federal child sex-abuse materials (CSAM) charges.
He downloaded photos and video that evil men made of terrible things happening to young girls — and, fortunately, he put all of his effort into hiding his efforts from his wife and not from the United States government.
Josh and Anna Duggar on the now-defunct TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. (Image Credit: TLC)
Why suddenly let the kids resurface now?
This past winter, we reported that Anna Duggar is working a controversial new job. This is the job in question.
And yes, the breeding and selling of dogs is deeply polarizing.
But one supposes that Anna has no actual life skills or professional qualifications or education to speak of, and cannot possibly have more stigma than she does by remaining married to her evil husband.
To be blunt, she needs to have a job to avoid being as broke as Josh.
With this being Anna’s very own business, is it really surprising that she’s using her children to promote it?
Earlier in August, the cult member took to her business’ Instagram page to share another video. This one was of 5-year-old Maryella and 3-year-old Madyson.
The video was also to showcase puppies, but Anna had to know that her children will garner wider attention than puppies.
That’s not normally the case on the internet, but seldom-seen children of an infamous family are an exception.
There was a time when TLC’s cameras caught Josh Duggar pretending to be an upstanding man and a good husband to Anna Duggar. Those were lies. (Image Credit: TLC)
Hey, is this the house that Jim Bob bought?
This past April, we at THG reported that Jim Bob Duggar had purchased a new $1 million home with multiple bedrooms and a sprawling property.
At the time, there was widespread speculation that he had purchased the residence for Anna.
Anna and her seven children had previously occupied what was essentially a warehouse unit on the Duggar compound.
Anna did not exactly doxx herself when posting these videos.
But many fans infer that these glimpses at what appears to be the interior of a real house are of that very six-bedroom property.
Today, we offer a more encouraging update, as the iconic sketch show has announced the addition of five new stars!
Yes, the new class of featured players has been revealed, and fans will be pleased to see one very familiar face among its ranks.
Martin Herlihy, Ben Marshall and John Higgins attend SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall on February 14, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
‘Please Don’t Destroy’ alum one of five new featured players
Ben Marshall has been appearing on SNL for several years as a member of the comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy.
But now, the 30-year-old actor and comic will be appearing in sketches alongside the main cast.
It’s unclear why Marshall’s scene/writing partners weren’t promoted along with him (it’s possible that they’re both content with their current gigs), but interestingly, Marshall is the only member of PDD with no familial ties to the industry.
(John Higgins is the son of SNL producer and Jimmy Fallon sidekick Steve Higgins, while Martin Herlihy is the son of frequent Adam Sandler collaborator Tim Herlihy.)
Also joining the cast for season 51 are popular social media star Veronika Slowikowska (who has more than 1 million followers on Instagram), and comics Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson.
