Husband vanishes during family’s vacation in popular southern coastal enclave
A Massachusetts man is missing after he vanished from a family vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) on Thursday said authorities are still looking for Stanley Kotowski, 60, of Methuen, Massachusetts, who was last seen leaving S. Sea Pines Drive around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 16.
“Over the last month, he has been struggling with severe insomnia and has become increasingly anxious,” his wife Jackie wrote on Facebook. “During the week of Aug. 19, Stan became paranoid, thinking that people, including authorities, were pursuing him.”
She said that Kotowski was anxious about the ocean due to “exposure to the sun, jellyfish and sharks.”
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Kotowski was wearing a Coors Light shirt, dark gray shorts and no shoes when he left the area, according to the sheriff’s office.
His family is asking Hilton Head-area residents who may have seen Kotowski to contact authorities and look through their security camera footage for any potential sightings of the missing man. They are also asking home and business owners to check sheds, pools or other secluded areas for any signs of Kotowski.
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“If you encounter someone you believe to be Stan, please immediately take a picture, contact BCSO and try to keep him in your sights,” his family wrote. “If you say anything, calmly let him know that he is safe, and that his wife (Jackie) is still here, his sons are here and looking for him.”
The family added that the sheriff’s office has been very supportive and “are doing everything in their power to bring Stan home,” including conducting both land and water searches.
MISSING CLIMBER SOUGHT IN GLACIER PARK DAYS AFTER LAST BEING SEEN
Locals apparently saw Kotowski at The Salty Dog on Aug. 16, and authorities have requested footage from the restaurant. Video footage from the business appears to show Kotowski just before 10 a.m., and while he does not appear to be in a rush, he “is rather sauntering,” according to his wife’s Facebook post.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard are involved in the search for Kotowski, his family said.
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Kotowski is described as 6 ft. tall, weighing about 200 lbs. He has a strong Boston accent and may have facial hair.
Anyone with information about his disappearance is asked to call Beaufort County dispatch at 843-524-2777.
Elon Musk reportedly starting foreclosure process on late movie star’s former mansion
Elon Musk has reportedly begun the foreclosure process on a late movie star’s former Bel Air, California, house that a couple acquired with the assistance of a loan from him.
The 2,750-square-foot house, which actor Gene Wilder called home from 1976 to 2007, was hit with a notice of default late last month, according to The Wall Street Journal. The tech billionaire reportedly used an entity to do so.
The Los Angeles County Consumer and Business Affairs Department explained on its website that foreclosures technically begin with a notice of default and that such a filing “tells you the total amount you owe including missed payments and foreclosure fees.”
The Journal reported the current owners, Wilder’s nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman and his wife, are no longer up-to-date on paying a $6.7 million loan that Musk gave them four years ago because of the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
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That loan helped the couple have the means to cover the $7 million they paid Musk to become the new owners of the property in 2020, according to the outlet. Musk had owned it since 2013.
Walker-Pearlman told The Journal that Musk wasn’t “adversarial or mean” in filing the notice of default, adding, “Elon gave us a magical opportunity. I have no complaints.”
Under the notice of default, Musk reportedly has the option to pursue a forced sale after a 90-day period. Musk affiliates indicated that isn’t in their plans, Wilder’s nephew told The Journal.
The couple recently put the home on the market. Its asking price is currently set at $12.95 million, according to its listing with Westside Estate Agency.
“This is likely the closing of a very unicorn and beautiful chapter of our lives,” Walker-Pearlman said to The Journal. “I’m not disgruntled at all.”
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FOX Business reached out to Tesla seeking Musk’s comment on the house.
The one-time Wilder home “represents a rare opportunity to own a piece of Hollywood history while enjoying the prestige and serenity of Bel Air living,” its listing said.
There are four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Its interior is replete with “original wood-beamed ceilings, cozy fireplaces, and an open layout that enhances the flow of natural light,” according to the listing. It also offers entertaining spaces like a circular bar inside.
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The overall property consists of 0.78-acres with multiple outdoor seating areas and a pool.
In Bel Air, the median asking price for a home in July was $7.9 million, according to Realtor.com. The median sale price was $4.2 million.
CNN host has message for naysayers shrugging off RFK Jr’s endorsement of Trump
CNN anchor Erin Burnett had a message for naysayers who are shrugging off former President Trump‘s “huge” endorsement from former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy rocked the political landscape on Friday by announcing he was suspending his campaign and backing the Republican nominee despite having been a lifelong Democrat.
“The latest swing state polls show Kennedy with five or six percent of the vote,” Burnett told viewers Friday evening.
“And so, when you think about it overall, and they say ‘Well, that’s not a big deal.’ Actually, if that is the case in swing states, it is huge. It is everything. It is more than the margin between Harris and Trump in some of those same states,” she added.
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Burnett cited a recent New York Times/Siena College poll showing Kennedy with 6% support in Arizona and Nevada and 5% in Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Kennedy joined Trump at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, where the former candidate received a hero’s welcome.
TRUMP THANKS RFK JR FOR ENDORSEMENT AFTER THIRD-PARTY CANDIDATE SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN: ‘THAT’S BIG’
Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, both of whom were assassinated, initially launched his presidential bid as a Democrat in a primary challenge to President Biden. But later he sought an independent run after being pushed out by the party.
His endorsement of Trump threw a wrench in the news cycle that was previously dominated by Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepting the Democratic nomination at the DNC convention in Chicago just one month after Biden withdrew from the race.
DNC ATTENDEES WEIGH IN: ARE KAMALA HARRIS’ AND JOE BIDEN’S RECORDS ONE AND THE SAME?
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During his withdrawal speech, Kennedy lit into liberal “media organs” of the Democratic Party, accusing them of essentially colluding with the party to stifle him and create a veneer of popularity for Harris.
“Over the course of more than a year … the DNC-aligned mainstream media networks maintained a near-perfect embargo on interviews with me,” he said. “During his 10-month presidential campaign in 1992, Ross Perot gave 34 interviews on mainstream networks. In contrast, during the 16 months since I declared, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN combined gave only two live interviews [with] me. Those networks instead ran a continuous deluge of hit pieces with inaccurate, often vile pejoratives and defamatory smears. Some of those same networks colluded with the DNC to keep me off the debate stage.”
Liberal Hollywood star calls out disconnect between Dems, rural voters
“The Hangover” series star Zach Galifianakis has some advice for the Democratic Party, and it involves it seeing a lot fewer famous Hollywood friends.
During a recent interview with Variety at the season four premiere of Hulu series, “Only Murders In the Building,” the comedian advised the Democratic Party to cool it on propping up its celebrity endorsements, saying it’s not going to help the party attract rural voters which it needs this election.
“I do wish the DNC would step back from the celebrities a little bit,” Galifianakis said.
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The Democratic National Convention this week featured a considerable number of Hollywood guests and speakers. Actresses Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington gave speeches, while other famous faces like Ben Stiller, Mindy Kaling were seen on the ground at the four-day event.
Entertainers including John Legend, Stevie Wonder, and The Chicks, also performed at the convention, though Galifianakis expressed that it all seems a bit much.
Describing himself a “small-town guy from North Carolina,” he told the entertainment outlet that trotting out famous faces “works to a point, but they have to win over rural America.”
He continued, “Hollywood thinks it’s so important and that’s a problem. Actors are people too, and they’re citizens too, but I’m more on the small-town side of that than I am on the Hollywood side of that. That’s just me.”
On the other hand, his co-star Kumail Nanjiani told Variety about the work he’s been trying to do for the Harris-Walz campaign. Nanjiani, a vocal Hollywood liberal, said, “I’m going to make videos to get people to register to vote. I might make some appearances later.”
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The actor, who also starred in Marvel’s “The Eternals,” noted how he has become more excited over the state of the Democratic presidential campaign in recent weeks.
“It’s really unbelievable how I was feeling a month and a half ago and how I’m feeling now. It’s really inspiring … This has given me faith in humanity. I just feel lighter and happier,” he said, seemingly alluding to the general enthusiasm bump the party received after replacing President Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
“I am going to say I am fighting to stay hopeful and not get too optimistic or confident. There’s still a lot of work to do,” Nanajiani added.
Variety caught up with legendary comedian Steve Martin, who stars in the Hulu series as well. He told the outlet he was “too nervous” to watch the DNC, adding, “I don’t want them to make a mistake.”
Other series stars Selena Gomez and Martin Short told the outlet that they would have preferred to skip their premiere and watch the DNC at home.
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Fauci recovering after being hospitalized for six days with rare virus
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic response, was hospitalized earlier this month with the West Nile virus (WNV), a spokesperson for Fauci tells Fox News.
Fauci, 83, was hospitalized before he returned home where he is now recovering, the spokesperson says.
The nation’s former top infectious-disease official is expected to make a full recovery from the virus, which is most commonly spread through the bite of an infected mosquito, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Fauci was in hospital for six days.
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The virus first entered the U.S. in 1999, and it has become the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the country, per the CDC.
Symptoms include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea or rash, although a vast majority — around 80% — of the people who contract WNV will not experience any symptoms. There are no vaccines or treatments for the virus.
In most cases, the virus is spread when Culex mosquitoes bite infected birds and then bite people and other animals, per the CDC’s website. More than 1,800 people were hospitalized with the virus last year in the U.S., leading to 182 deaths, per CDC data.
Fauci was the former director of the National Institution of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and was a leading figure on both former President Trump and President Biden’s coronavirus response teams. Before his retirement, he had worked for over 50 years in the American public health sector, advising every president since former President Reagan.
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Fauci was a regular guest on cable news, primetime television, late-night shows and podcasts, offering his medical advice throughout the pandemic. Over time, he became a politically divisive figure on the left and right regarding issues such as masks, lockdown policies and the origins of COVID-19.
Famously, he sparred with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in committee hearings over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether his department within the National Institute of Health funded gain-of-function research.
Paul has claimed that government officials from 15 federal agencies knew in 2018 that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was trying to create a coronavirus like COVID-19. These officials, Paul says, knew that the Chinese lab was proposing to create a COVID 19-like virus and not one of those officials revealed this scheme to the public.
In June, he denied attempting to suppress the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic began as a result of a lab leak in Wuhan, China, during his testimony before the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. The subcommittee reviewed classified State Department records that members say “credibly suggest” COVID-19 originated from a “lab-related accident in Wuhan, China” and that the Chinese Communist Party “attempted to cover up the lab leak.”
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Additionally, Fauci also said there wasn’t a controlled trial conducted justifying a six-foot social distancing rule and he defended vaccine mandates for students, employees and the military by stating, “Vaccines save lives. It is very, very clear that vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide.”
“In the beginning, it clearly prevented infection in a certain percentage of people but the durability of its ability to prevent infection was not long. It was measured in months,” he added.
Machete-wielding criminal met with surprise while trying to rob prepared homeowner
A concerned homeowner in Texas took up arms and fended off a machete-wielding man who attempted to enter his home.
Darryl Stevens’ home surveillance camera captured the moment a machete-wielding intruder approached the family’s Liberty Hill home just north of Austin.
“At that moment, I obviously freaked out. I have two young children here in the house and just went into complete fight or flight mode,” Stevens told FOX 7.
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Stevens’ gut reaction was to lock up his home and grab his 9mm handgun.
“I started running through the house. I locked every door as fast as possible, ran upstairs. Luckily, I had a firearm here, so I grabbed my 9mm, unlocked it, ran down as fast as possible,” Stevens said.
The suspect, later identified as 43-year-old Jerry Escamilla, managed to climb a fence and get to the upper deck of the family’s home.
He was greeted by Stevens’ handgun when he arrived.
“Told him he’s got to leave, or he’s going to lose his life, you know?” he said. “Luckily, after I did that, he dropped the machete.”
The video showed Escamilla retracing his steps and climbing back down as a gun is seen pointing at the intruder.
Stevens’ wife called 911 and local police arrested Escamilla. The 43-year-old was charged with criminal trespassing and failure to identify and is being held on a $10,000 bond.
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Stevens explained to the local outlet that they had recently moved farther away from Austin to “feel safe.”
“I just had to protect my family, and that’s what I did. Luckily, I didn’t have to discharge my firearm,” Stevens said. “It’s just not something you expect to happen in Liberty Hill in the country or way out in the country in the very back of this new, nice neighborhood… we moved out here, we moved further out of the city to feel safe.”
Stevens said that he plans on upping the security at their home, saying that they will turn their home into “Fort Knox.”
“We feel violated, as a family, we feel like our sense of safety in our safe place, which is our house, has been taken from us. I almost get a little emotional even saying that. It’s not fair,” he said. “We’re definitely upping security. We’re getting a few more firearms to have one upstairs, one downstairs. We are going to be installing more fences and more security features. Floodlights. I’m going to turn this place into Fort Knox at this point in time.
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Texas’s Stand Your Ground law established the right for gun owners to apply lethal force to defend themselves against threats, regardless of whether it was possible to retreat first. The law notes that the shooter cannot instigate the altercation.
Bill Maher says VP Harris avoiding press is ‘worse’ than Trump’s insults
“Real Time” host Bill Maher suggested Vice President Kamala Harris‘ cold shoulder to the press is “more insulting” than former President Trump’s years-long verbal attacks against news organizations.
“What do you think about the fact that Kamala doesn’t talk to the press?” Maher asked CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Friday.
“In a way, I feel like it’s more insulting than what Trump does,” Maher continued. “Trump says you’re ‘the enemy of the people,’ which is pretty bad. What she’s kind of saying is, ‘I don’t need you. I’m not talking to you. You don’t matter. You’re not relevant anymore to me.’ To me, that’s even worse than ‘I hate you.’ It’s like ‘I don’t think about you.'”
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“I don’t know if it’s worse than denigrating the press on a daily basis, which is what Donald Trump did,” Collins responded. “I covered him in the White House every day as a correspondent. And, you know, oftentimes to kind of, you know, shake you if you’re asking him a question, he would try to get into a personal argument with you, or just deny or lie about what you were asking about. And so I don’t know if I would compare the two.”
“I do think she should talk to the press. I think anyone who wants to have access to the nuclear codes should be willing to sit down and take questions. And we want to have her on the show,” Collins added.
“I’d love to too,” Maher responded. “But I’m not going to hold my breath.”
‘WHATEVER’: DEMOCRATS REACT TO KAMALA HARRIS’ LACK OF INTERVIEWS
It has been over a month since Harris emerged as the Democratic nominee, and she has yet to do any interviews or hold news conferences. Trump, meanwhile, has regularly made himself available to the press granting both interviews and news conferences.
Earlier this month, Harris suggested she would schedule an interview before the end of August. On Thursday, when asked by Fox News‘ Peter Doocy whether she was ready to grant an interview with Fox News, Harris jokingly replied “I’m working toward it.”
KAMALA HARRIS SUPPORTERS UNSURE WHEN ASKED ABOUT VP’S POLICY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
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Harris has faced little scrutiny during her meteoric rise to the top of the Democratic ticket. Among the top questions swirling around her include the litany of progressive positions she has shifted away from since her first candidacy in 2019, what concrete policy plans she intends to pursue as president as well as the cover-up of President Biden‘s mental decline.
Colorado takes extreme action against reporter critical of Deion Sanders
Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders had a tense exchange with a reporter during media day on Aug. 9. Sanders made it clear that he was not fond of some of Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler’s coverage of him and the Buffaloes football program in the past.
“You don’t like us, man. Why do you do this to yourself?” Sanders asked Keeler at one point during the press conference. “No, I’m serious. Why do you do this? Like you know you don’t. Like, why do you do this?”
Two weeks after the back and forth, Colorado announced that Keeler would no longer be permitted to direct questions at Sanders or anyone else involved with the football program. The university described some of Keeler’s past coverage as “personal attacks on the football program.”
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“After a series of sustained, personal attacks on the football program and specifically Coach Prime, the CU Athletic Department in conjunction with the football program, have decided not to take questions from Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler at football-related events,” the athletic department said in a statement obtained by ESPN.
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Colorado officials added that the reporter’s access to “football-related activities” remains intact, and his colleagues from the newspaper are free to direct questions to the Buffaloes’ head coach.
“Keeler is still permitted to attend football-related activities as a credentialed member of the media and other reporters from the Denver Post are welcome to ask questions of football program personnel made available to the media, including coaches, players and staff.”
A Colorado athletic department spokesperson told the outlet that some of Keeler’s previous references to Sanders were an issue, including instances when the coach was referred to as “Deposition Deion,” the “Bruce Lee of B.S.,” and a “false prophet.” Certain phrases such as “Planet Prime,” “the Deion Kool-Aid” and “circus” also created points of contention, the unnamed Colorado athletic department media relations staffer said, per The Denver Post.
The exchange between Sanders and Keeler earlier this month went on for around 90 seconds, with the Pro Football Hall of Famer pushing Keeler for an answer to his question. Keeler did ask Sanders multiple times if he could ask a “football question.”
“It would be hard for me to really engage in someone I don’t like or someone I don’t like. I’m just asking why? Like why? What did I do?” Sanders repeated.
The columnist responded by telling the coach that he “didn’t do anything.”
“You’ve gotta pay bills, man. You didn’t do anything. It’s not about that. This is a football question,” he said.
The columnist then again tried to ask a question, but Sanders continued his line of questioning.
“But why? I’m asking you why? … You want me to answer you, so why? … You’re always under attack. Like what did we do to you?” Sanders said.
Sanders eventually agreed to discuss the matter with Keeler in a private setting at a later date.
“No, we’ll talk about that when we talk about that. I’ll talk about that with you,” Sanders said.
Keeler published a column shortly after the exchange with Sanders, which said the coach was “a confident man who suddenly looked and acted and sounded … afraid.”
The Denver Post said that Sanders’ contract states that he only has to talk to “mutually agreed-upon media.”
Denver Post sports editor Matt Schubert responded to Colorado’s move to ban Keeler from questioning Sanders.
“It’s well within anyone’s right to not take questions from [Denver Post sports reporters and columnists]. The reasons listed here by CU, however, are entirely subjective. It would be more accurate to say, ‘We don’t like Sean Keeler’s critiques of our program,'” Schubert wrote in a post shared on social media.
Keeler is the latest reporter whom Sanders took issue with and ultimately banned. When he was the head coach at Jackson State in 2021, a reporter with the Mississippi Clarion Ledger was barred from covering the football program. The outlet posted a story that touched on a court filing about a top recruit who faced charges stemming from an alleged assault on a woman. The paper learned of the banning the day after the story was published.
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Colorado finished the 2023 campaign with a 4-8 record. Sanders hopes to improve on that record this year. The Buffaloes will host North Dakota State on Aug. 31 to open the 2024 season.
The game will also mark Colorado’s debut as a member of the Big 12 Conference.
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