TMZ ‘tipped’ that Nancy Guthrie is dead after being seen in Mexico

Someone claiming to know Nancy Guthrie is dead, but was last seen alive in Mexico, is offering to deliver her kidnappers “on a silver platter.”

A tipster looking to collect a Bitcoin told TMZ the missing woman was spotted with a suspect or suspects identified as “them” in the Mexican state of Sonora. TMZ said it receive a pair of notes Monday offering to lead searchers to “an exact location” if that cryptocurrency demand equal to nearly $70,000 is met.

The person making that offer is said to be the same individual who contacted TMZ about being able to identify Guthrie’s abductors on other occasions since she was reported missing on Feb. 1.

Sonora is on the Mexican border roughly 60 miles south of Guthrie’s Tucson, Arizona, home. That’s where the 84-year-old mother of NBC host Samantha Guthrie was believed to have been abducted overnight after having dinner with her other daughter.

—New York Daily News

How a dog visitation dispute in San Diego turned into a warning to judges about AI

SAN DIEGO — It started as a legal dispute over dog custody and visitation after a San Diego County couple broke up. The judge’s order cited two similar cases and ultimately sided with the woman who had Kyra the dog for the last couple of years, giving her full rights and denying her ex’s requests.

It wasn’t until later, well into the appeal, that the opposing side discovered that the cases on which the ruling was based either didn’t exist or were wholly irrelevant to the case at hand. They appear to be hallucinations from artificial intelligence.

That discovery would turn the case into yet another sharp warning to attorneys and, notably this time, the judge, about the dangers of AI.

“As this case illustrates, it is equally important that judicial officers and court staff who are not themselves using generative AI verify the citations contained in proposed orders submitted to them by counsel,” the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 1, wrote in a footnote added a week later to the unanimous March 5 opinion.

—The San Diego Union-Tribune

After third year of calm, is Miami Beach spring break a thing of the past?

MIAMI — For three straight years, spring break in South Beach has come and gone without major incident.

Crowds were relatively small last month, especially compared to March weekends in the years after the COVID pandemic, when thousands of young people packed Ocean Drive and the party was sullied by shootings, stampedes and curfews.

This year, people still came to town for spring break. But it seemed that even more were there for other reasons, including fitness and wellness programming that Miami Beach officials had promoted. Spring break was more raucous elsewhere: Fort Lauderdale, Daytona Beach, even Houston.

Now, two years after Miami Beach released a viral marketing video that declared the city was “breaking up with spring break” — prompting many people to stay away — there may be no turning back.

—Miami Herald

3 dead, 15 injured as Moscow hits Ukraine's Odessa

Kyiv, Ukraine — At least three people were killed in the latest powerful Russian drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Monday.

Fifteen residents, including a pregnant woman and two children, were injured, military governor Oleh Kiper reported on Telegram, after a drone struck a multi-story residential building.

Those killed included a 30-year-old woman and her 2.5-year-old daughter, plus a 53-year-old woman. There were fires and significant destruction, Kiper said. “Residential buildings, critical infrastructure and administrative buildings were hit,” said Kiper. “Rescue operations are ongoing; there may still be people under the rubble.”

Dog handlers and psychologists were also at the scene, he said. “Law enforcement agencies are documenting the aggressor state’s latest war crimes against the civilian population."

—dpa