News Update for 10/17/18

After years away, it appears there may be light at the end of the tunnel in the quest to re-open the Children’s Museum of the Highlands in downtown Sebring.
Volunteers from the Highlands County Sheriff’s office yesterday lent a hand at getting remaining large items out of the Ridgewood Drive location to prepare for rebuilding of the site.
The downtown location was shuttered in January of 2016, when major problems in the roof structure made the building to be declared as unsafe.
For the past year, the Children’s Museum has been operating out of the Lakeshore Mall.

An animal preserve near Chipley is offering an $800 reward for the return of a wolf named Tahané that escaped as Hurricane Michael ripped through the area. In a video posted on Facebook, Seacrest Wolf Preserve co-owner Cynthia Watkins pleaded for the public’s help in finding the 16-year-old gray wolf. Watkins says the preserve north of Panama City, took a hard hit from the Category 4 hurricane that hit Oct. 10.

A baby born near the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Michael spent his first night outside a hospital in a Walmart parking lot because no better shelter was available. Wilmer Capps says he and wife Lorrainda Smith of Panama City had no choice but to camp out because their home was badly damaged by the storm. They’ve since stayed in a hotel room provided by donors. Capps was upset at first by his family’s plight, but he now says he’s thankful for the assistance they’ve received. Mother and baby Luke are doing fine.

Authorities say they’ve recovered a child near Orlando who they say was abducted by his mother in Massachusetts two years ago. 40-year-old Christina Hale was arrested Tuesday at an Orange County home.

An Ocala man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for planning to place bombs on the shelves of Target stores in an attempt to drive the company’s stock price down. A federal judge in Ocala sentenced 50-year-old Mark Barnett yesterday.