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(NEW YORK) — A nearly complete stegosaurus skeleton sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Wednesday for a record $44.6 million — the most ever paid for a fossil.
The dinosaur, nicknamed “Apex” — which lived between 146 and 161 million years ago in the Late Jurassic Period — was originally expected to sell for between $4 million and $6 million, according to the auction house.
Sotheby’s has said Apex is the “most complete and best-preserved Stegosaurus specimen of its size ever discovered.”
The skeleton was discovered on private land in Moffat County, Colorado — in northwestern Colorado and on the border with Utah and Wyoming — in May 2022 by commercial paleontologist Jason Cooper, with excavation completed in 2023, according to Sotheby’s. The county is an area where many other dinosaur fossils have been discovered and is home to the Dinosaur National Monument.
Apex measures 11 feet tall and 27 feet long from nose to tail. The skeleton consists of 319 bones — 254 of which are fossils and the remainder being either 3D printed or sculpted. It’s unclear if Apex was male or female.
“Judging from the overall size and degree of the bone development it can be determined that the skeleton belonged to a large, robust adult individual, and evidence of arthritis, particularly notable in the fusion of the 4 sacral vertebrae, would indicate that it lived to an advanced age,” Sotheby’s wrote on its website. “The specimen shows no signs of combat related injuries, or evidence of post-mortem scavenging, and exhibits a number of interesting pathologies.”
Apex is not the first dinosaur to sell for millions. One of the largest and best-preserved skeletons of a Tyrannosaurs rex ever discovered — nicknamed “Sue” — sold at auction in 1997 for $8.4 million and is now on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Sue was the most expensive fossil ever sold until another mostly complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, nicknamed “Stan”, was sold at auction in October 2020 for $31.8 million. Officials in Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism told National Geographic they have the dinosaur and that the skeleton will be displayed in a new natural history museum set to open in 2025.
Sotheby’s did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment on the sale of the fossil Wednesday.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — The Republican National Convention is bringing a hoard of die-hard Donald Trump supporters from across the country to Wisconsin, where some residents are echoing they’re support for the former president.
At Milwaukee Public Market, ABC News asked local voters who they plan to support in the 2024 election.
“Donald Trump, 100%. I’ve been voting for him since 2016, and I’ll keep doing it till he stays alive,” said Joseph Savaglio, who grew up in Milwaukee and has lived here for decades. “Because he hasn’t changed his stance one bit on anything he’s started with, and he’s going to stay the same way till he goes.”
Savaglio said the issues that matter to him most are the economy and border security.
Mary Jo McBurney, a born-and-raised Milwaukeean, also said she is all in for Trump.
“We need to balance our checkbook,” she said. “In Washington, they don’t care what they spend our money on. And it’s not their money. It’s the people’s money. And they just act like it’s theirs. It’s okay. Spend it however they want, and it’s not fair. And I think I’ve always thought a businessperson should run the country.”
But for other residents of the city, Election Day is still months away and they’re minds are not yet made up. These are the voters that both President Joe Biden and former President Trump will have to vye for in the critical swing state that was determined by just 20,000 votes in the 2020 election.
Wayne Beckes, said he has not decided who he will vote for in 2024, and believed both Biden and Trump were too old to be president and didn’t support Vice President Kamala Harris.
The lack of choices, he said, means he will either look to go “third party or have to knuckle down to figure out which one of the other guys is going to get it.”
What is he looking for in a leader?
“Somebody decisive. Somebody that wants to take control of situations that need to be taken control of and make quick decisions and get things done,” he said.
Beckes said his top concerns as a voter were funds being sent overseas, as he’d like to see that money spent helping Americans, as well abortion rights and gun control. He said he supports a woman’s right to choose and would like to see some form of gun control passed.
Atlas, a 23-year-old who just moved to the area, expressed similar frustration about Biden and Trump being the major candidates.
“It’s crazy,” she said. “I think it’s insane. I just think, I wish anything else was happening, any other presidential candidates were possible.”
As things stand right now, she said she was leaning more toward Biden.
“I don’t see a world in which I vote for Trump, ever,” she said. “Because he’s a felon, he is sexist, misogynistic, has said racist comments.”
But she said she believes both are too “old to be president.”
Endia Frazier, a young Black voter, said she was trying to do research on different candidates and wasn’t supportive of either Trump or Biden.
“The candidates we have is just not up to par to what the United States really needs honestly,” she said, adding that an ideal candidate is someone younger who can understand the current issues most Americans are facing and someone they want to celebrate.
“I don’t want to just not use my vote because my vote has been fought for through generations. So I know my vote is very important, but the candidates that are presented to me right now, they suck, honestly.”
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — As Donald Trump made his way into the Republican National Convention on Monday, his first public appearance since the attempted assassination attempt on him, the delegates greeted him with thunderous applause.
Then came booming chants of what’s become a steady rallying cry — complete with raised fists — for the thousands gathered in battleground Wisconsin this week: “Fight, fight, fight!”
They’re inspired, of course, by the iconic moment when Trump returned to his feet after the shooting and, with blood streaming down his face, pumped his own fist in the air to those at his Pennsylvania rally and mouthed those three now-famous words.
“He put himself aside and he told us, not knowing how badly he was hurt, to keep fighting. And I thought, could I love this man any more?” said Laurie Schaefer, an Illinois delegate who said she was a Democrat until Trump ran in 2016, as she sat outside waiting to enter the second day of the convention.
Trump called for unity in the wake of the shooting, a marked shift in tone from his usual blazing rhetoric against President Joe Biden and Democrats. The former president said he is rewriting his acceptance speech for Thursday to emphasize bringing the country together.
But there’s still plenty of criticism of Democrats this week from key speakers. Sen. Ron Johnson, who later said the wrong speech was loaded into the teleprompter, called Democrats’ policies “a clear and present danger to America.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, too, said conservative principles were being “trampled under foot by the radical left,” and Gov. Ron DeSantis took shots at President Joe Biden’s administration being a “Weekend at Bernies” presidency.
So, what then do the words “fight, fight, fight” mean to some of Trump’s most loyal supporters? Do they clash with Trump’s new call for unity?
“Take back our country the way we feel it should be run,” said Randy Garber, a state representative from Kansas who is an alternate delegate. Garber then added, “Without violence, though.”
Tom O’Connor, a delegate from California who is a union carpenter running for city council, said being a Republican in the blue state means “everything is a fight.”
“So, for the president to literally say now’s the time to fight, it’s more of a war cry and we need to push, we need to get more and more conservatives in office to fix the wrongs that have been done to the American people,” he said.
O’Connor, when asked about Trump’s unity appeal and how it would change his campaign rhetoric, argued it’s Democrats who are still stoking division and that he didn’t believe Trump’s messaging would ultimately change much as a result.
“Then how do we become more unified?” ABC News asked.
“That’s a good question. I don’t have the answers, but I’m looking for them,” he said.
Most attendees who spoke with ABC News insisted they didn’t view Trump’s words of “fight, fight, fight” as calling for violence.
“We can’t give up. That’s what it means,” said Anna Villa, a guest at the RNC who drove 13 hours from New York to be in Milwaukee. “So, you know that we can’t be discouraged, that we have to really keep going. You know, it’s an encouragement.”
“It doesn’t mean to me like I have to go and shoot someone,” she said. “It means that we have to like, probably try to encourage some people that want to stay in and not go vote to get them out and vote for it.”
“I think what that means to me is that go get out the vote, stay diligent to your precinct committee role to help your neighbors, make sure they vote the whole ballot, make sure they vote for good moral values, because with good morality, we have more liberty,” said Clayton Taylor, an alternate delegate from Florida. “I don’t think it should be taken out of context.”
Matt Heilman, a state representative and delegate from North Dakota, said: “What I think of when he says that it’s just to continue on and push forward no matter no matter what. The state of the environment that you’re in, just keep pushing forward and you fight on and hope for a better tomorrow.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is seriously considering proposing major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to a source briefed on the plans.
The president is also seriously considering calling for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, according to the source.
These changes would resonate with the president’s liberal base and comes after outrage in his party over the Supreme Court’s overruling landmark decisions and ethics scandals involving Justice Clarence Thomas.
The plans would need approval from Congress and a constitutional amendment would need to pass even more hurdles.
The details were first reported by the Washington Post.
On Tuesday, in an interview with BET, Biden warned about what he believes a future Trump presidency would bring.
“There’s gonna probably be two more appointments to the court,” he said.
“There’s probably two people gonna resign or resign, retire. Just imagine a court if he has two more appointments on that — what that means forever,” he continued.
(NEW YORK) — A dad has been arrested after his 8-week-old daughter died when she was left in a hot car in New Jersey, authorities said.
At about 1:45 p.m. Monday, authorities in Lakewood Township responded to a report of a baby in cardiac arrest, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said. The 8-week-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
The baby was left alone in her dad’s car “for an extended period of time,” which was determined to be the cause and manner of her death, prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to 107 degrees in Lakewood Township on Monday.
The baby’s father, 28-year-old Avraham Chaitovsky, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, prosecutors said.
The investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible, prosecutors said.
At least 11 children have died in hot cars across the U.S. so far this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
Since 1990, at least 1,095 children have died in hot cars — and about 88% of those kids were 3 years old or younger, according to KidsAndCars.org.
Click here for hot car safety tips to keep in mind this summer.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was released from federal prison Wednesday morning after completing his sentence on contempt of Congress charges.
Navarro was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He served four months in a low security facility in Miami.
Navarro was scheduled to speak Wednesday night at the Republic National Convention in Milwaukee, and on Wednesday morning was on his way from Miami to Milwaukee, according to sources.
In testimony during Navarro’s trial, former Jan. 6 committee staff director David Buckley said the House panel had been seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, “In Trump Time.”
Navarro unsuccessfully argued that former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege over his testimony and document production.
During his sentence, Navarro worked in the prison library and lived in the “elder dorm,” Navarro’s prison consultant, Sam Mangel, told ABC News.
Navarro experienced no issues with other inmates or staff, and was “well respected,” Mangel said.
The prison consultant told ABC News that Navarro got through his sentence with “surprising grace and fortitude.”
“At four o’clock in the afternoon and 10 o’clock at night, you have to stand by your bed and be counted,” said Mangel. “Everybody wears the same color clothes, eats the same food and sleeps in the same bunk.”
“It’s a very degrading, humiliating experience for anyone,” Mangel said. “I’m quite sure he’s happy it’s over and he’s now able to move on with his life.”
Navarro, who under Trump was the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was the first former Trump adviser to report to prison for actions related to the Jan. 6 attack. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon , who was also convicted of contempt of Congress, began his four-month prison term earlier this month.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Day 3 of the Republican National Convention features the prime-time debut of J.D. Vance introducing himself both to Republicans and Americans nationwide.
He’ll speak to the delegates as Donald Trump is again expected at the convention hall to watch his running mate make his national debut.
Tonight’s theme at the RNC is “Make America Strong Once Again.”
JD Vance to introduce himself to voters
Donald Trump’s running mate – the 39-year-old first-term senator from Ohio – gets his chance in the national spotlight when he makes a prime-time speech at the RNC.
J.D. Vance can be expected to tell his personal story of growing up in Middletown, Ohio, and the upbringing that inspired him to write his best-seller “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Even with that, he is largely an unfamiliar face to many Americans – even to Republicans – including those in the convention hall.
Trump can again be expected to be watching from his presidential box.
Vance will be introduced by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, after strong Vance- backer Donald Trump Jr. speaks right before.
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — It had been less than 48 hours since the attempted assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, and for four Wisconsin voters, it was yet another sign of how divided the nation has become.
Valori Schmidt, a Republican living in Milwaukee, described the shooting at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally as a “wake-up call.”
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise because the climate of hatred has escalated to such a high level,” Schmidt said. “The wake up call is we must take the temperature down. We must become more civil, and we must start being factual and not not name calling and just saying awful things about one another.”
Next to her, Gary Berns, a fellow Milwaukeean who votes Democrat, replied: “I can’t disagree with that.”
Berns and Schmidt, joined by other local residents Julie Buckholt and Charlene Abughrin, sat down with ABC News at Miss Katie’s Diner just as the Republican National Convention was kicking off in their hometown.
At times, their conversation showed clear divides between the parties — especially when it came to the two presidential candidates vying for their votes come November: President Joe Biden and former president Trump.
“As far as the loudness and the anger calling, I mean he brings that on himself,” Berns said of Trump. Schmidt later countered that Trump, “has been vilified as a Hitler, as an anti-American, as an extremist … it’s been nonstop from all aspects.”
Abughrin, a former Democrat who has supported Trump since 2016, jumped into say Americans should be able to express their views without it devolving into dangerous scenarios.
“We have freedom of speech. This is America, right? And so with that all of us being adults, we should be able to agree to disagree without it leading to violent acts like an adult,” she said.
Trump 2016 versus Trump 2024
Abughrin said Trump is “better” than he was eight years ago because he’s learned from his past experiences and will be able to be more effective.
“He’s going in it with eyes open this time,” she said. “And so I think he’ll just be definitely do that much more for the community.”
Schmidt, also a Republican, had a similar view.
“He wasn’t a politician when he got in, and certainly, there’s probably things he would say, ‘Oh, maybe I won’t do that again,'” she said. “But I tell you what, Saturday night did one thing that people should have taken note. He got up because he wanted the people to know. ‘I’m okay.’ We’re in this. … I thought it showed his leadership and his faculties, I mean it was unbelievable.”
Berns and Buckholt, meanwhile, expressed concern about a possible second Trump term.
“I think Donald Trump is a worst candidate,” Berns said, “because if he’s gonna be elected with a stack Supreme Court, he knows what you can get away with in the courts, what the back and forth. So I just think it’d be a terrible thing.”
Buckholt said she agreed with Berns, and explicitly expressed concern about Project 2025 — a sweeping plan to overhaul the federal government proposed by a closely aligned conservative group.
“I believe it’s going to be worse for all of us,” she said.
Biden’s age and the CNN debate
Both Berns and Buckholt, the two Democrats, conceded that they believe Biden is too old to run for office.
“Yes I believe that he is too old. But I also believe he’s still able to do the job,” said Buckholt. “I believe that Trump is also too old. And if we talk about mental capacity I believe that [Biden] still there mentally and can do the job.”
The group then engaged in back and forth over Biden’s age and whether it impacts his mental fitness.
“He had a bad debate,” Bukcholt said of Biden’s performance. “He wasn’t feeling well, we all have bad days … I think he’s an honest man, I really do. And we need an honest man in office.”
America’s divisiveness
“How could we become less divided? That’s a really tough question,” Berns said.
“I think it is turning down the temperature,” he continued. “I think it’s no more name calling. It’s no more telling if the other person is elected, the world’s gonna end. I think we need to go back to talking policies, and not nothing else. That’s what matters. I think that will help.”
Everyone appeared in agreement.
Abughrin said she “100%” agreed that Americnas should “stick to the policy, stick to the topics, no more the mudslinging.”
Buckholt said the country’s become so fraught that sometimes families can’t talk to each other.
“Families are divided,” she said. “You can’t even have family get-togethers because you have arguments and fights, people walking out. So I also think that this needs to start at home with families and they need to listen to each other.”
“We need to stop trying to absolutely portray people as someone that people — all people — would be afraid to meet on the sidewalk,” said Schmidt. “We just need to get to the issues and verify our sources research, do not be a puppet for what you’ve heard or someone’s said or even a segment ont he news.”
(BUTLER, P.A.) — Authorities said the man they allege tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump was able to access the roof near the rally by climbing over an air conditioning unit adjacent to the building, sources told ABC News.
Though law enforcement sources said Thomas Matthew Crooks is believed to have purchased a 5-foot ladder at a Home Depot before the shooting, it does not appear to have been used to climb on the roof and was not found at the scene.
As the FBI investigation continues, questions are swirling about how the 20-year-old was able to ascend undetected to the roof, gain a direct line of sight and fire several rounds at the former president. The alleged gunman’s motive was also still unclear as the investigation continue Wednesday. Crooks was killed at the scene, the Secret Service said.
Investigators said Tuesday they found a remote transmitter in the suspect’s pocket that may have been intended to set off two suspicious devices found in the suspect’s car and one in his home, according to law enforcement sources. Devices at both locations were similarly constructed in ammunition containers using components including receivers that appear to have been paired with the remote control found in the suspect’s pocket, sources said.
The receivers in each device were connected to a series of components that investigators say met the “eye test” — having parts present that could have made viable devices, although the functionality of the devices is still being determined. The purpose of the devices is also unknown. Whether they were intended to cause a significant blast effect and hurt people or if they were designed to create smoke, fire and a low-grade blast for a diversion is unclear.
Investigators also found a tactical vest in the suspect’s car, though it is unclear why he did not wear it during the assault on the former president’s rally. Some investigators are wondering whether he anticipated dying in the attack.
The shooter also asked his employer if he could take a day off on Saturday but said he would return to work perhaps as soon as Sunday, the day after this attack, according to law enforcement sources. But thus far, investigators have turned up nothing to suggest that he had any accomplices or other support to carry out his deadly objective.
An examination of his phone, which the FBI has now unlocked, has not turned up any significant information about the suspect’s motives — only what sources described as “routine” information for a 20-year-old male. Thus far, investigators have turned up nothing to suggest that he had any accomplices or other support to carry out his deadly objective.
The Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement that it provided “all resources” to the Secret Service — including 30 to 40 troopers to assist with securing the inside perimeter of the campaign rally venue in Butler Township, Pennsylvania — but “was not responsible for securing the building or property” outside the security perimeter where the would-be assassin opened fire.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle confirmed that local police were present inside the building at the same time the shooter was on the roof firing at Trump. Cheatle also said that local authorities were tasked with securing that building.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter.”
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris in a short video released early Wednesday said former President Donald Trump’s new running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, will act as a “rubber stamp” for Trump and his “extreme” agenda.
“Donald Trump has picked his new running mate: J.D. Vance. Trump looked for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda,” Harris said in the video. “Make no mistake: J.D. Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.”
Harris called out Vance for saying he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results, a comment he made in an interview with ABC News.
She compared him to former Vice President Mike Pence, saying that Vance “would have carried out Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election.”
She also called him out for supporting a national abortion ban and for voting against protections for IVF in the Senate.
“And if elected, he will help implement the extreme Project 2025 plan for a second Trump term, which would target critical programs like Head Start and Medicare,” Harris said.
She added, “But we are not going to let that happen.”
