oddly enough

oddly enough

Nonnative venomous spider found living in Ore.

OREGON CITY, Ore.

The types of venomous spiders residing in Oregon have doubled.

State officials confirm that a brown widow spider – usually found in South Africa, Florida and Southern California – recently has been found living in Oregon City, in the northwestern part of the state.

It’s not clear how it arrived or if there are more.

Tom Valente of the Oregon Department of Agriculture told The Oregonian/OregonLive there’s no reason to panic, but residents should be cautious.

State officials want residents to search their homes and other areas for brown widows. The spiders are brown and have a distinctive orange hourglass on the underside of their abdomen.

Oregon already has black widow spiders. Bites from either spider can cause fever and muscle spasms.

Valente said brown widows are subtropical and that Oregon’s cold weather likely will kill them.

Walk on the wild side: Jogger runs into lion cub

THE HAGUE, Netherlands

A jogger’s run through the Dutch countryside turned into a walk on the wild side when he discovered a lion cub in a field.

Police said the young cub was found in a cage dumped in a field near Tienhoven between the central cities of Utrecht and Hilversum.

Police took to Twitter to appeal for help in tracing the animal’s owner, while the young cub, a male believed to be about 5 months old, is being cared for by a foundation that looks after big cats.

The foundation said on its Facebook page that the cub “is very tired from the hectic events” and is in quarantine. It added that the cub is drinking water and already feeling at ease in its new surroundings.

Woman dies in crash while leaving cemetery

PITTSFIELD, Vt.

Vermont State Police said an 84-year-old woman was killed in a car crash while leaving a cemetery.

Authorities said the crash happened at Pittsfield Village Cemetery.

Police said Lorraine Sulham was driving up a gravel hill at the cemetery about 9 a.m. when her car began to go off the road. Sulham put her vehicle in reverse to correct the issue, and her car ended up rolling down an embankment.

Sulham died at the scene. Police said she was not wearing a seat belt.

Associated Press