CRESTVIEW — It's been 30 years since Deborah Vining Mattox got her first exotic animal: a spider monkey named Baby Sarah.She probably didn't know at the time that the acquisition of the tiny monkey would put her on a path to owning a zoo that, at its zenith, was home to more than 150 animals.The facility, then known as the Sasquatch Zoo, was sold to the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in 2013. It changed hands again last year when a South Florida family bought it with [...]

President Donald Trump has five days to object to the release of the memo, though he has signaled he wants it made public.

MARY ESTHER — A man being detained on drug charges, who initially denied knowing where the drugs and vaporizer in his car came from, told deputies, “I guess you shouldn’t buy a vaporizer from a guy outside a drug store” as he was being arrested.According to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office arrest report, on Jan. 22 authorities responded to a disturbance call at a home on Bryn Mawr Blvd. in Mary Esther and made contact with the 30-year-old man. [...]

Bay County sheriff’s deputies responding to a verbal disturbance find a mom who’s had just about enough of her 52-year-old live-at-home son. The woman reports she’s been arguing with her son and wants him out of the house. “She could not explain what she and her son were arguing about but advised he does not pay any bills and is constantly pestering her by playing his music too loudly,” the deputy wrote. “She advised he has lived at the [...]

Hawaii has been testing alert capabilities, and the employee for the state Emergency Management Agency mistook a drill for a real warning about a missile threat.

FORT WALTON BEACH — A 35-year-old Fort Walton Beach man was charged with three counts of felony child abuse after slapping and choking a child in his care.The man also allegedly threw the child on the bed when he was angry with him, according to his Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office arrest report.The child told officials at his school that the man "hits, grabs, throws and chokes him," the report said.The man was angered because the child nearly overflowed the [...]

The death of the 60-year-old man, whose body was found in a tent, is not considered suspisious according to authorities.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A team with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rescued a sick baby manatee near Port Everglades.Experts at the Miami Seaquarium on Key Biscayne are treating the manatee.Click Orlando reports that with help from the Broward Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol, FWC workers safely pulled the manatee — dubbed Mr. Bubble — from a channel located behind the port’s administration building.According to [...]

TAMPA — Carnival Cruise Line is dry-docking its Paradise ship in February on the heels of an introduction of a larger ship — the 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle — to serve the Tampa market.While in dry-dock, the 2,052-passenger Carnival Paradise will be upgraded to include more balconies, renovated cabins and additional attractions. It has been operating out of Tampa Bay since 2011.The Tampa Bay Times repored the Carnival Miracle will conduct seven-day and [...]