Sister Wives star Janelle Brown was overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers after fans paid tribute to her late son Garrison Brown.

She admitted in an Instagram post on Tuesday that she was “moved to tears” by donations to animal charities in her son’s name, as he was a famous “cat daddy.”

Janelle praised her and Garrison’s fans’ generosity in the wake of his tragic death at just 25 years old from an apparent suicide.

In her post, she shared a photo of her late son holding one of his beloved cats for a sweet mirror selfie, as well as a photo of him and two of the other cats he adopted.

‘I am moved to tears again. I’m told about everyone’s donations to @highcountryhumane @arkcatsancutary in Garrison’s name,” she wrote in the emotional post.

‘Thank you for all your generosity. It means so much,” she continued. ‘The cats he adopted from both agencies were so important to him. He loved being a cat dad.”

Janelle also included a screenshot of a webpage encouraging people to “purchase” the “gift of life” for a shelter pet that would otherwise be euthanized.

A final screenshot was of an animal rescue organization bragging about how it had taken in 796 cats from local shelters in Arizona “without public funding.”

Garrison was found dead in his home on March 5.

Flagstaff police said TMZ that Garrison “appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound” when they responded to his home after receiving reports that someone had died.

Garrison was found dead in his home by his brother Gabriel, authorities told the newspaper.

Police told the newspaper that there was no foul play in Garrison’s death and that an investigation has been launched.

It was not immediately clear whether Garrison had left a note or other communication.

Just five days before his tragic death, the Sister Wives character revealed on Instagram that he had adopted a third cat, saving her from certain death.

“Latest edition at my house, Mrs. Buttons,” Garrison said, proudly showing off the gray cat in a mirror selfie. ‘She is 9 years old and was on the line for euthanasia, but my savior complex was not enough. #crazycatlady.’

He had previously introduced fans to his humorous companions Catthew and Patches O’Houlihan, both of whom he adopted in 2022.

After Garrison’s death, a source said Janelle was “extremely broken and tortured” while speaking to her The sun.

‘I’ve never heard her so angry and numb. She has not been processed clearly,” the source added. “This family is extremely broken and tortured and it is very painful for many of them.”

A police report obtained by TMZ later revealed that Garrison appeared to have dropped hints about his plans in “ominous” text messages he sent to friends and family the day before his death.

“I want to hate you for sharing the good times. But I can not. I miss these days,” he allegedly wrote to a group of people he seemed to know from the movie Sister Wives.

After someone alerted Janelle to the messages in question, she struck up a brief conversation with her son, but he reportedly stopped responding after just a few minutes.

She then asked her other children if they could check on Garrison, and his younger brother Gabriel, 22, volunteered, only to discover his brother’s body.

The outlet also noted that some of Garrison’s roommates heard “a bang” the night of his death, but they “didn’t think it was a gunshot” and didn’t bother checking in on Garrison afterward.

Although the housemates claimed that the late reality star was ‘struggling'[d] with alcohol,” his brother Gabriel was shocked, believing Garrison was doing better after finding a new job at a medical facility.

The Sun then revealed that one of Garrison’s housemates said that as well as drinking every day, he also had ‘problems with his ex-girlfriend’.

On Saturday, Garrison’s cousin Emma Brown shared in an Instagram post that he was buried that day, just days after his tragic death.

Garrison’s mother Janelle appeared on the reality series Sister Wives, which follows a changing polygamous family, and she shared six children with her ex-husband Kody Brown.

He was first legally married to Meri Brown in 1990, followed by an unofficial ‘spiritual marriage’ to Janelle in 1993, as well as subsequent marriages to wives Christine – in 1994 – and Robyn – in 2010.

His three first relationships have all since dissolved: Christine ended things in 2021, Janelle went solo in 2022, and Meri ultimately divorced Cody last year.

He is still married to Robyn, who has since become his legal wife.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or chat with 988lifeline.org.

With the fake flower tips from ONE home decoration expert you can get started with your spring decoration.

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“If you’re looking for super plump faux flowers for spring and summer, these are for you,” says Kasey (@sbkliving).

She laid out her white flowers on the counter – and there was no gatekeeper here.

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Once everything was unfolded, the blossoms were ready to be brought to life.

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After bending each stem in half, she placed the flowers in another affordable Amazon find: a $28 fluted glass vase.

Her once sparsely arranged flowers seemed to live a lush life as they now had real volume.

In total, it took two packs and six stems to achieve her high-end look.

Now she just wanted to see the fruits of her flower arranging work.

“Let’s bring my dining area to life with these beautiful flowers,” she said.

The full floral effect came into view as soon as she placed the vase on a wicker tray on her dining table.

For those looking to achieve the same interior design style, Amazon’s $23.99 artificial cherry blossom flowers from Hawesome are described as being made of high quality silk.

The purchase also had many flowery reviews.

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“These flowers are very pretty and look realistic. I used my hairdryer on Cool to fluff them out. Worked great!” wrote one buyer.

“I bought this for a floor vase in my living room and it was absolutely beautiful,” said another buyer.

Kasey’s fans also loved the look.

“I bought these earlier this season and they are beautiful,” said one follower.

“Beautiful,” another viewer agreed.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The poet has been upstairs in his office, tapping at the keyboard on various projects. Most of his mornings begin this way … so much work to do. Some days he tends to his blog, and on other days he tidies up his memoir that is nearing publication. Or he may put the finishing touches on another of his mystery novels. And of course, his poetry. There is always his poetry.

Much of his poetry chronicles his remarkable life. He was born in Manchuria to Russian parents, and from ages 3 to 6 lived in a World War II internment camp in Tokyo. Just before he turned 7, he crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge. After moving to America, he later became an accomplished professional basketball player who did more than just start alongside Wilt Chamberlain. He was a 1963 NBA All-Star and the first player to have his number retired by the Golden State Warriors. He also was a failed bookstore owner, coached basketball everywhere from Portland, Ore., to Africa, and spent 24 years teaching high school English.

His eclectic path is made more fascinating in that at 85 he refuses to become idle and bask in the accomplishment of a life well lived. He says he is “obsessed” with being productive, which for him means writing. He has authored five books of poetry. Written two memoirs. Six novels. The majority of his literary work has come after he turned 70. He tries to explain the “why” behind his obsession but ultimately concedes that perhaps poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson put it best in Ulysses:

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life!

It’s that last line that particularly resonates with the poet, Tom Meschery. Just because you are breathing doesn’t mean you are living.

In 2005, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that has no cure. Doctors estimated he had five years to live. Now 19 years later, he is as prolific as ever, even as he sacrifices an afternoon to break from his computer and regale a visitor with stories. He credits medical science, and in particular the drug Revlimid, for keeping his cancer in remission. But he also feels something deeper, something more powerful has been behind his late-life renaissance: a love story. His love story.

He is not big on sentimentality, lest it come across as maudlin. However, he is a romantic and therefore acknowledges that his love story is more than just a poet falling for an artist. Like his poetry, which he says “seems to come out of nowhere,” she came from an online dating site and changed his life. Not only changed it but also played a role in saving it.

“I think love acted as a barrier to the cancer,” Meschery says. “It was like the door was closed. Maybe it wasn’t locked, but the love was holding onto the door and not letting the cancer in. And that kind of love changed my attitude toward living. I started spending all my time thinking about living, rather than dying.”

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When Tom Meschery received his cancer diagnosis in 2005, he was already in a bit of a spiral. He was newly divorced and had just retired from a teaching job he loved. Living in Truckee, Calif., a ski town on the outskirts of Lake Tahoe, he had become engulfed with loneliness. He was 68 and wrestling with his purpose in life. Now, faced with a diagnosis that sounded like a death sentence, he slipped into what he called a suicidal depression.

His spiral was palpable. After separate visits following their father’s diagnosis, his three children — Janai, Megan and Matthew — all left concerned.

“We were all really worried about him,” Matthew says. “Not just because of the cancer, but also the circumstances of him being alone up on the mountain, just going through that mostly by himself.”

The siblings remember comparing notes after visits. They all remarked how the house they grew up in — one filled with activity, laughter and lively discussion — had become so quiet.

“It was a house that was always filled with people, a very social place, and dad was always the one holding court,” Janai says. “And the contrast … was hard on all of us.”

By 2008, Meschery could no longer suppress his depression. With Matthew visiting, Meschery remembers halting the ironing of a shirt and blurting out to his son: I’m lonely.

Matthew made a suggestion.

Go online, Dad. Everybody does it.

So he put himself out there. The poet went on his first date.

“I wasn’t particularly impressed,” he sniffed.

His second foray on the dating site seemed improbable from the get-go. Her name was Melanie Marchant, and her profile picture was stunning. There is no way, he reasoned, that she is in her 60s; she looks 30. And it seemed too perfect that like he, she was creative, an accomplished painter located two hours away in Sacramento. For a month, they chatted online and on the phone. They talked about literature, cooking, her two children and his three.

On Valentine’s Day 2008, a first date was arranged at a Turkish restaurant in downtown Sacramento. As he hurried into the restaurant, late, she was waiting with the maitre d, toe-tapping in mock disgust. She playfully stuck her tongue out at him.

They exchanged cards. His card to her featured the poem Wild Geese by Mary Oliver. The poem represented his vulnerability, his willingness to be open.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.

Her card for him? A Valentine left over from one of her grandchildren, featuring Batman. Almost two decades later, it still humors him.

After dinner, they went to her place. She says she had a surprise for him. As they went up the stairs, he became enraptured. Lining the walls of the staircase were religious icons. He was taken back to his youth and his Russian Orthodox roots. Then, the surprise: she had rented “Ratatouille” — the animated movie about a rat who has a nose for cooking — which played off their frequent conversations about recipes and cuisine.

“And that was it, babe. I was in love,” he says, throwing his hands in the air. “As I drove back to the mountains that night, I knew this was going to be a lifetime relationship. I just knew that she and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives.”

One year after their first date, they were married.

She had been divorced for 30 years and says “if you go 30 years, you know when you find something.” They connected over their creative curiosities and their love of literature — she estimates in their first year of dating they spent between $2,000-$3,000 on books. And soon, she became his trusted editor. He figures she has edited 53,000 pages of his writing.

“I would go through his manuscripts and write “Booooooooring!” Melanie says chuckling. “But I think his writing is wonderful. I do worry when I ask him how he slept, and he says ‘Not well …’, because that means he has written another book in his head. He’s got three or four of them up there now.”

He says she has become his muse, but more accurately she has become somewhat of a life coach. She calls him Thomas and he calls her Mel, and they are constantly engaged in playful banter, trying to get the other to chuckle. One of her favorite pastimes is charting who she considers the most handsome players in the NBA (De’Aaron Fox, Steph Curry and Harrison Barnes top the current list).

However, she turns stern and blunt when it comes to his cancer. She is adamant that our bodies are not separate from our minds, and from the onset of their relationship, she has conditioned his mind to revel in the now rather than dread what could be ahead.

“When he told me he had cancer, I said, ‘Yeah? I know a lot of people who have cancer. When you are 70, people get cancer,’” Melanie says. “I don’t do drama. I don’t do sobbing. What I’m good at is, if there is a problem, it’s not a challenge. You just take it and solve it. And the man I met was so healthy and happy … he has cancer? Not today. That’s just how I felt.”

His mindset changed. He stopped thinking so much about the future and instead embraced what was in front of him. There was poetry to write, grandchildren to enjoy, dinners to be had and basketball games to watch.

“When I met Mel, I knew that I had found the love of my life,” Meschery says. “And from that point on, I became more positive about myself, about my cancer and about how long I would live. I just couldn’t whine about it with her, she wouldn’t stand it. She inspired me to just let it go, and trust my instincts.”

He is on a maintenance dose of Revlimid — 28 days on the drug, 10 days off — and every three months he has blood drawn to chart his cell count and presence of proteins. Every test since he has met Melanie has shown the cancer to be in remission.

“And we laugh about it: Another three months of putting up with me,” Meschery says. “It has become a much more casual conversation, almost like it’s not life-threatening anymore. And I think that was all her doing, which became my doing. It was like she passed on this belief system to me, and gave it to me as a gift.”

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NBA players from the 1960s would chuckle at the idea of Meschery as a poet, trumpeting the powers of love. To them, he was the Mad Manchurian, a 6-foot-7 bear of a man who was known for his intensity and physicality, which sometimes morphed into rage. He played power forward, and after 778 career games — six seasons with the Warriors, who moved from Philly to San Francisco in 1962, and four with the Seattle SuperSonics — Meschery averaged 12.7 points and 8.6 rebounds. But as his nickname suggests, he was as known for his temperament as he was for his skill.

He once grabbed a chair during a game and chased Lakers center Darrall Imhoff into the stands. And he remembers fighting Philadelphia’s Chet Walker, and after both were ejected, charging at him in the back hallway.

He has yet to reconcile with the dichotomy between how he played and how he views himself. He addressed his unease in his last book of poetry, “Clear Path,” with the poem Rumors.

He writes of his wife on an airplane, and a passenger remarking to her that Meschery “was the meanest son of a b—- I’d ever seen play basketball.”

…there was my epitaph being written
at ten thousand feet above the earth
by a stranger who might have seen me play
or maybe not at all, and just heard from someone
else that I was mean. How rumors start. How unjust
a life can be, viewed through someone else’s eyes.

“It always shocked me that I often reacted so violently on the court,” Meschery says today. “I know in my heart I was not a violent man. But if you experience violence once in yourself, I think you are forever going to second guess the possibility that it is a part of your personality. And it can hang there for a lifetime. I can’t look in the mirror and see myself as a mean son of a b—-. But I know there was a part of me … and that poem was part of that reflection that I sensed, and regrettably so, that there is something in me that would allow anger to enter. And it’s not a good feeling.”

He also never bridged the barrier between him and his father, whom he loved but with whom he struggled to connect. His father wanted him to go into the military and never watched him play basketball, deeming it unworthy as a profession. He opened Meschery’s eyes to poetry, as he would recite poems in Russian at the dinner table, unafraid to weep. Meschery says one of the great regrets in his life is not arriving in time to say goodbye to his father before he died. In his first collection of poetry, “Nothing We Lose Can Be Replaced,” his piece entitled Tom Meschery is essentially a letter to his father, who once asked, ‘What kind of work is this for a man?’

Old immigrant, I admit all this
too late. You died before I could explain
newspapers call me a journeyman.
They write I roll up my sleeves
and go to work. They use words
like hammer and muscle to describe me
…father, you would have been proud of me:
I labored in the company of large men.

Meschery also recounted the night Chamberlain scored 100 points against the Knicks in 1962. Meschery started beside Chamberlain and played 40 minutes, amassing 16 points and seven rebounds. In the poem Wilt, he captured a viewpoint from the team bus: the contrast between a historic night of work on the hardwood and the ordinary, everyday life in the Pennsylvania countryside.

As a rookie I watched
Wilt score a century in one game
in Hershey, Pa., with the smell
of chocolate floating through the arena
…but mostly, what I remember about that game
is this: …on the bus driving through the dark Amish countryside,
outside a farmer in a horse and buggy,
hurrying home in the all
too brief light of his lantern

He has more than 100 poems published about sports and quips that he is subconsciously trying to match the 2,841 personal fouls for which he was whistled during his career. When asked if he ever reflects on the breadth and depth of his life’s work, he pauses, then equates measuring his life accomplishments to evaluating his poetry.

“I think I’ve done the best I could,” Meschery says. “If I look at life like a whole series of poetry … I can only pick out 15 or 20 poems out of the entire collection that I think are truly inspired poetry. I am just a poet. But I recognize I’ve written some really, really good poems. But I also recognize that a lot of my poetry is … meh. Not bad. Not awful. And that’s okay. I’m not unhappy about it. That’s a little bit the way life is.

“Can you look at your life and honestly say that most of your life has been inspired? Probably not. But you do pick out those moments when you did really good. And I think I’ve been able to do that. But at the same time, I’m not so egotistical to believe that every moment of my life has been a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sky hook.”

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Another force helped pull Meschery out of his malaise following his cancer diagnosis. It was a friend from long ago, one with whom he hadn’t kept in touch: basketball.

In 2006, Matthew, concerned about his father’s well-being, bought him NBA League Pass, a subscription that provides coverage for every NBA game. By then, basketball had become an afterthought for Meschery. He had not been involved in the NBA since 1976 when he finished a two-year stint as an assistant under Lenny Wilkens in Portland. And he hadn’t been involved in basketball period since 1985, when he went to West Africa to coach teams in Mali, Ivory Coast, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.

When he tuned in, his interest in the NBA was rekindled. He was drawn to his former team, the Warriors, and that 2006-07 team — an uptempo, free-wheeling and stylistic squad coached by Don Nelson and led by Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson — stirred him. He was once again inspired by the game he once played.

“I hadn’t kept up with the NBA, but once I started watching this new version of basketball, I went crazy. I just loved it,” Meschery says. “The ball was moving … they were flying through the air … and I was just astounded these guys could do this stuff.”

Then, in 2010, under the new ownership of Joe Lacob, the Warriors reached out to Meschery. The organization wanted to reconnect with its past. Meschery, the first NBA All-Star not born in America, and the first Warriors player to have his number retired, was brought back into the fold. He was invited to games. Introduced to players. He rode in all four championship parades, including 2022, when Warriors star Klay Thompson spotted from the team bus Meschery riding on the parade route on Market Street. Thompson got off the bus, and while holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy, beelined for Meschery, wrapping him in a bear hug.

“There was a time when we were worried about my dad losing a sense of himself,” Matthew says. “Basketball was a big part of his life experience and who he is, and the Warriors helped bring that back.”

Before this season, the Warriors asked Meschery to write a poem to commemorate Golden State’s new City Edition uniforms, which paid homage to the San Francisco cable cars. Meschery recited Mason Street Line at the unveiling.

“When I think back on my cancer, love saved me and helped cure me,” Meschery says. “But I think the Warriors had a little something to do with it, too.”

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There is nothing poetic about how the poet handles the moments when the inevitable thoughts come, the thoughts of dying, of the cancer eventually winning.

“I’d be lying if I told you I don’t think about it from time to time,” Meschery says. “I think anybody who reaches the age of 85 knows they don’t have much time left. But I don’t dwell on it.”

When those moments arrive, he finds he is usually in bed. “Then I have a little mantra I say to myself: Tom, you are not going to die tomorrow. And Tom, you are not going to die in the next week. And probably not for the next six months. More likely, not for another year. So f— it, get on with your life.”

Then, he says, he goes back to sleep, intent on seeing his grandchildren, seeing his latest works published, including his memoir “The Mad Manchurian in August, and in October the publication of “The Case of the VW Hippie Bus,” the third installment in his Brovelli Brothers mystery novels.

In the meantime, he spends most of his nights watching the Warriors, or the Kings. Melanie, who turned 80 on Sunday is often nearby, flipping pages of the latest book she is reading, pausing briefly to make a quip or note the handsomeness of an opposing player.

“I call her my basketball buddy,” Meschery says. “And she says, ‘That’s exactly what every woman wants to hear.’”

The point is no longer how long he will live, he says, but rather doing what is enjoyable and productive. That he has found love with Melanie, and in turn found his muse and purpose, gives him a bittersweet vantage on his sunset.

“I think it makes you fear death more,” he says. “I’m really going to miss living. The idea of not seeing my grandchildren, the idea of not being able to write a poem, to enjoy a meal … that can be quite terrifying. But you can’t live your life worrying about death.”

And so he continues to appreciate living. And laughing. And loving. And ever the poet, he continues writing.

It was three years ago when Meschery wrote the poem 2,841 Personal Fouls. It has little to do with his basketball career, and more to do with his love story. In the poem, he laments that the “thought of dying still pisses me off” and he equates his anger to the unfairness he felt with many of the 2,841 fouls for which he was whistled. But he counters with the outlook Melanie has so ingrained in him.

This morning, didn’t I wake up to sunlight
and a warm breeze? Didn’t my wife
poke her head into the office
to tell me she loved me? I flavor
my coffee with honey that is sweet as life.
I should live a little longer.

(Top photo: Max Whittaker for The Athletic)

A pig whose lifetime paintings fetched $1 million after being rescued from the slaughterhouse has died in South Africa.

Owner Joanne Lefson, 52, announced the death of her beloved eight-year-old Pigcasso, who suffered from chronic rheumatoid arthritis.

Images show the animal beaming as she paints on a canvas at her home and even at the beach.

During her lifetime, Pigcasso sold her artwork worldwide to celebrities such as Ed Westwick, Rafael Nadal and animal expert Dr. Jane Goodall.

Lefson rescued her from a factory farm in South Africa in May 2016, just weeks before she was to be sent to the slaughterhouse.

Pigcasso was transferred to Farm Sanctuary SA, a non-profit foundation that provides a safe shelter environment for rescued farm animals in Franschhoek.

Lefson said: ‘There is great sadness that such an inspiring figure for animal welfare has passed away, but we also celebrate a life well lived and the profound difference she made.

‘Pigcasso would have become a piece of cake within six months. Instead, she was saved and rose to inspire millions of people to rethink what they eat thanks to her extraordinary talent. Her legacy continues through the sanctuary and our mission to inspire a kinder, more sustainable world for all.

‘Although Pigcasso had already shown complaints of arthritis in recent years, her physical condition deteriorated rapidly in September 2023.

‘By early October, both her hind legs had become lame due to the calcification of her lower back, aggravated by the arthritis; Both incurable conditions directly related to the manipulations and modifications to which farm animals are subjected in today’s industrialized factory farms.’

Pigcasso’s popularity grew and in 2018 she became the first animal artist to organize a solo art exhibition at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.

Since then she has organized exhibitions around the world, including in the Netherlands, Germany, France, China and the United Kingdom.

Lefson said, “From the moment the piglet arrived, she ate or destroyed everything except a paintbrush that was left in her stall.

‘I was intrigued by her interest in the brush and decided to see if she might like to paint. I adjusted the brush to fit her mouth and before long “Pigcasso” was creating art on a canvas I placed in her stall.”

She added: ‘In 2021, Pigcasso made international headlines when she sold ‘WILD AND FREE’ to a German buyer for £20,000, which was an official world record for the best-selling work of art ever painted by an animal.

“Pigcasso has raised more than $1 million from the sale of her artwork, making her the most successful non-human artist in world history.

‘Not only is this a testament to her extraordinary creativity and intelligence, but the proceeds will also benefit Farm Sanctuary SA, where she lived. The funds have also supported other charities that resonate with its mission.

‘Her last work of art was called ‘Standing Ovation’.’

The cowardly killer of Melbourne woman Celeste Manno could do nothing but stare at the glowing blue orb at the front of the courtroom.

It was the size of three footballs and shone brightly among a sea of ​​black in its dark and gloomy surroundings.

It contained the ashes of Luay Sako’s 23-year-old victim, whom he last saw alive when he repeatedly stabbed a knife into her chest on November 16, 2020.

The 39-year-old looked like a meek bookworm, with his dark glasses and neatly groomed hair, trying hard not to look at the blue glow standing next to the mother whose daughter he had so callously slaughtered in the middle of the night.

On Thursday, Sako was convicted by SSupreme Court of Victoria Justice Jane Dixon to 36 years in prison with a non-parole period of 30 years.

Ms Manno’s devastated family cannot help but believe that Sako deserved nothing less than a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Ms Manno’s mother, Aggie Di Mauro, could barely contain her anger, as she said outside court after Sako was taken away to begin his sentence.

On Friday, a clearly tired Ms Di Mauro told Daily Mail Australia she felt it was important that part of her daughter appeared in court when her killer learned his fate.

What Sako felt as he looked at the blue beacon at the front of courtroom four was none of her business.

‘I could not care less. I never looked at him,” Ms Di Mauro said.

The devastated mother said she had hoped her daughter would get justice and wanted to be part of it.

“Celeste was there for me because I felt she should be in a place that would serve her some form of justice.”

‘That’s why I brought her in. She wasn’t there for him. She was not there to appeal to the judge. She was there because I felt she belonged there, because this would be the day her justice would be served.”

‘Unfortunately that was not the outcome.’

Ms Di Mauro remains hopeful Victoria’s director of public prosecutions would appeal Sako’s sentence, but admitted her expectations were not high.

Members of Ms. Manno’s family plan to meet with prosecutors next week to discuss their thoughts.

“The fact that (Judge Dixon) got 36 years with a 30-year minimum — well, that’s not going to meet their test for manifestly inadequate, so I don’t feel safe about an appeal here, but I’ll do what I have to to enforce an appeal,” Ms Di Mauro said.

Sako killed Mrs. Manno just hours after learning she had a new boyfriend.

The simpleton was already furious about an intervention order that Mrs. Manno had issued against him a few months earlier.

How and what police did to protect Ms Manno in the months before she was murdered by Sako in her own bed could yet become the subject of a civil suit.

Ms Di Mauro declined to speculate on how she might continue the fight for justice for her daughter.

What was made abundantly clear in the shadows of Victoria’s Supreme Court on Thursday was that a fight was coming.

Surrounded by family members, Ms Di Mauro lashed out at former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and the police commissioner for paying her lip service over changes to the state’s stalking laws.

“Many promises were made, none of which were kept, all to look good… and then dishonor my daughter like this,” she said.

“These politicians are only interested in helping if they see numbers, nothing else.”

An investigation into stalking laws was sparked by Ms Manno’s death, when the Victorian Law Reform Commission report was tabled in Parliament in September 2022.

But none of the 46 recommendations from that study have been adopted.

The toll of the more than three years it took for Sako to be convicted has weighed heavily on Ms Di Mauro and her family.

Last month, Ms Di Mauro and her Sako family were finally able to appear in court by reading their statements victim impact statements.

But what they felt and what the court allowed them to say were very different.

Ms Di Mauro said she wanted to tackle Sako’s vile attempts to escape justice by taking advantage of his alleged mental health problems.

Ultimately, Judge Dixon’s acceptance of these issues resulted in Sako receiving a thirty-year non-parole period instead of life behind bars.

“I felt like I had the right to let (Judge Dixon) know how I feel about what (Sako’s attorney) would do, and it was redacted. I couldn’t do it,” Ms Di Mauro said.

Sako was assisted by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Rajan Darjee, who helped convince Judge Dixon Sako that he was suffering from a range of mental illnesses.

However, he also warned that Sako would most likely stalk and harm another woman if released from prison.

“He has a moderate to high risk of further stalking and if he does stalk again, there is a high risk of violence if he feels thwarted,” Dr. Darjee told Judge Dixon during Sako’s plea hearing in January.

Ms Di Mauro said that Dr. Darjee’s grim assessment of Sako’s prospects for rehabilitation and the continued threat to the community should have set off alarm bells for Judge Dixon.

“That report was so damning… their own psyche. How do you say that you believe this does not warrant a life sentence?’ she said.

THERE are many different types of games I like, but most of all I like to be shown, not told.

Video game stories are incredibly important to me, and I especially enjoy a story without words that I can interpret for myself.

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Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was originally made over a decade ago, but I overlooked it when it came out.

Although it was in my game library, thanks to its critical acclaim, I never opened it despite its short running time.

When the remake was announced, I knew it was the perfect time to dive in and see what I had been missing.

Brothers has one of the more unique control schemes, where you move both characters using half of the controller each.

The remake added a two-player mode, which is great for players of the original, although it reminds you that single-player is the intended experience.

A few puzzles have been changed, but the heart of the game has remained completely intact.

Cutscenes have been added throughout to give more context to the story, but the pacing has suffered.

Checkpoints haven’t been moved to adapt to the cutscenes and are unskippable, meaning if you die you’ll have to watch the cutscenes again.

While minimal changes have been made besides the obvious graphical upgrades, there were some quality of life features that we wished had been implemented.

The climbing mechanics are very precise and this can cause players to miss where they need to go.

A little more leniency would have made the game smoother and the adventure more accessible to players.

I’m not sure if this is the definitive version of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, but it’s a game that needs to be played.

It’s emotional, challenging and there are little stories hidden in every corner.

You should play Brothers, but whether you go for the original or the remake is up to you.

If you want to read more game reviews, check out our Skull & Bones review.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.

Motorists parking near Sandy Lane on Wolviston Road, Billingham, could be excused for thinking the strip of wide tarmac in front of 1930s houses is a service road. But if they tried to drive through this lane, they would quickly find themselves on a route to nowhere for motorists.

This 3 meter wide, one and a half kilometer long, protected 'service road' is in fact an 85 year old, Dutch-inspired cycle path.

It's one of more than a hundred such hidden cycle paths I discovered while traveling around Britain during a seven-year project to investigate and save these largely forgotten parts of government-funded infrastructure.

The cycle paths – known at the time as 'cycle paths' – paint a vivid picture of an era when cycling was as popular here as it is today in the Netherlands, as described in my project's new project. interactive website.

The best of these long-neglected cycle paths could be brought back to life.

One – in Leicester – is being revamped after my research helped the city council raise £1 million renovation financing.

Our current love for cars obscures the fact that we once loved bicycles just as much. In fact, cycling was an important part of the war effort, as British as blackout curtains and the Blitz spirit.

“Here come the workers, in hasty ranks – to build us our battleships, bombers and tanks,” the received pronunciation narrator boomed over images of commuter cyclists in a wartime instructional film released by the Ministry of Information.

Many of the bike paths of that era were built with the war effort in mind, quickly taking cyclists to munitions factories, military bases and more.

Countless post-war films portrayed rural wartime England, full of warm beer and winding country roads.

The warm beer may have been true, but in the real world many RAF stations and the like were reached via dual carriageways, often with cycle paths.

The Royal Navy Propellant Factory at Caerwent was located close to the A448 Caerwent bypass, which opened in 1932. The renovated cycle path – which was constructed at the same time as the factory in 1939 – was camouflaged.

According to the Admiralty's plans, marked 'Secret', a double-sided cycle path on the road next to the base would be painted to look like the surrounding fields.

ROF Chorley's Royal Ordnance Force factory in Lancashire was reached via cycle paths created on Euxton Lane in anticipation of the influx of thousands of workers.

At the outbreak of World War II, the new factory employed more than 1,000 production workers, rising to 40,000 at the height of the war.

Euxton Lane was widened – including pedestrian and cycle paths – in January 1937, at about the same time as the munitions factory was built.

ROF Chorley was used to fill the 'bouncing bombs' used in the famous series Dambusters attack of May 1943.

During the Second World War, almost all of the 400 or so factories at Manchester's Trafford Park – today's Trafford Center – were dedicated to the war effort.

In 1945, 75,000 workers commuted to the estate every day, many by bicycle, including on the cycle paths on the edge of the estate. Barton Dock Roadcompleted in 1942.

Rolls-Royce Merlin engines – used to power both the Spitfire fighter and the Lancaster bomber – were built under license by Ford at Trafford Park.

The 17,316 workers who worked at the Ford plant, which opened in 1941, had produced 34,000 engines by the end of the war.

Rolls-Royce also had a factory on Pyms Lane in Crewe, opened in 1938. At its peak in 1943, the factory employed 10,000 people. Many would have cycled to work and would therefore have been able to use the superlative cycle path that was quickly constructed Pyms Lane at the same time as the factory building.

The Chester Road cycle lanes come in Erdington, Birmingham, opened in 1936-37, is said to have been used by workers cycling to the Castle Bromwich aircraft factory. This was the largest purpose-built aircraft factory of the war.

A few of the historic cycle paths have long since disappeared and have been accommodated by later road widenings. Many still exist, covered in grass or, as with the Billingham example mentioned above, incorrectly regarded as service roads for motorists.

Most of the tracks are hidden in plain sight, and few people (or local authorities) realize that the infrastructure is so old or intended for use by cyclists.

From 1934 until shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) provided funding for the construction of these curb-protected tracks. Many of them were 10 feet wide, with an adjacent sidewalk 6 feet wide. They were modeled on the Dutch protected cycling infrastructure from the same period.

Britain's first protected cycle path was built quickly and sloppily in London in 1934. The two and a quarter mile stretch of uneven concrete from Hangar Lane to Greenford Road in Ealing was converted into the new arterial road. Western Avenue. Some of it is still there, but most of it has been demolished over the years.

Although the first cycle path was shoddy, most subsequent cycle paths built over the next six or seven years were of higher quality. One in Manchester is made of pink concrete; the cycle paths along the Formby bypass were covered with green asphalt.

Most cycle paths were two to four miles long, although the one from Romford to Southend was over 15 miles long.

The cycle paths from the 1930s were initially well used by cyclists, but from 1949 to 1972 the number of people cycling fell from the proverbial abyss.

And with the sharp decline in the number of cyclists, there was a reduced demand for the historic cycle paths.

Even the best of them began to ossify, and with the decline in use, maintenance deteriorated, a vicious cycle of neglect.

Some cycle paths were virtually abandoned just twenty years after their construction: dirt piled up, grass grew over the waste and some of the innovative cycle paths disappeared from sight and then from memory. Other songs were left in plain sight, unused, hidden in plain sight.

People preferred to drive a car rather than cycle. Cycling was seen as a telltale sign of poverty of ambition and resources.

Bicycles and cloth caps were literally and figuratively thrown on the scrap heap. In the 1960s, a Raleigh worker in Nottingham arrived at work not on a bicycle but in a car.

This is progress, many might say, but when everyone is in a car, the inevitable result is traffic jams if no one moves very quickly.

However, cyclists continue to cycle at the same constant speed as they have always been able to on average, so perhaps it is time we take another look at these innovative cycle paths at the time?

Carlton can be found on Twitter @carltonreid and his videos can be found at www.youtube.com/@cyclingnews.

Jason Kelce says his podcast with brother Travis Kelce has brought them closer together.

“It forces us – because we're brothers,” Jason, 36, said while speaking on his podcast “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce,” on an episode of “Green Light with Chris Long” which aired on Friday, February 9. “Before, we went ahead with our own deal for months without talking. We texted, you sent a funny video or something like that. But actually sit down and talk to him? It would take a long time. If we do this once a week, we'll sit down and talk, and we'll have very meaningful conversations, fun conversations, and really know where each of us is in our lives. That's the best part about it.”

The Philadelphia Eagles center added that he “hasn't been this connected to Travis in the last two years” since the two were in college.

According to Jason, the podcast's success can be attributed to several “factors,” including Travis' relationship with Taylor Swift. “It's reached the next level thanks to a lot of different factors, including my brother's love life, but I think it's nice to see people enjoying it,” he said. “It's fun to see where it is.”

On a previous episode of “New Heights,” Jason jokingly called out Taylor's fan base, known as Swifties, for rigging a Best NFL Team Name Bracket poll created for the podcast. During the episode, which aired on Thursday, February 8, Travis, 34, teasingly blamed his brother for encouraging fans to vote against both the Chiefs and Eagles.

“I just wanted voter turnout,” Jason said. He added that Swifties had an “unrealistic crush on the Chiefs and Travis Kelce” and would only vote out of their love for Travis, “not out of their love for the team name.” To his brother's laughter, he added: “They didn't vote with their heads and their hearts.”

Of course, “New Heights” also helped Travis get together with Taylor, 34. He visited her Eras tour stopped by Arrowhead Stadium in July 2023 and complained about not getting a chance to meet the singer and give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number. “This all started when Travis adorably confused me on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Taylor said in her TIME Profile Person of the Year in December 2023.

Taylor and Jason are both expected to be in Las Vegas to cheer on Travis and the Kansas City Chiefs as they play the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, February 11.