Obamas’ Personal Chef Found Dead In Tragic Accident Near Their Martha’s Vineyard Home

The body of a former sous-chef at the White House, who went missing while paddleboarding in the waters of Edgartown Great Pond in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, has been recovered Monday, according to authorities.

The Massachusetts State Police have not released the identity of the paddleboarder, but The Associated Press and Chicago Sun Times reported that the victim was Tafari Campbell.

Both AP and the Sun Times report that Campbell was 45, though MSP says the body recovered was that of a 43-year-old male.

Campbell went to work for the Obamas when they left the White House. In a statement, Barack and Michelle Obama called Campbell a “beloved” part of their family.

“Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House — creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”

“That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone,” said the pair, who purchased their 29-acre Edgartown property in December 2019.

MSP retrieved the male victim’s body around 10am just one day after he went missing. His body was found approximately 100 feet away from shore, by “deploying side-scan sonars” from a boat. Authorities said the “president and Mrs Obama were not present at the residence at the time of the accident”.

The search for Campbell initially began around 7.46pm on Sunday when Martha’s Vineyard police and fire agencies responded to a call about a male paddleboarder who was unable to stay above water.

Authorities say another paddleboarder was also with him on the pond at the time and witnessed him go under the water.

Multiple agencies were involved in the search, including the Coast Guard, Dukes County Sheriff’s Department, local police, Edgartown fire personnel and other island fire departments.

The State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands District and Edgartown police are investigating the incident.

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What We Know About The Cerberus Heatwave Sweeping Southern Europe

A deadly heatwave is sweeping southern Europe, with a warning of higher temperatures to come and fears of wildfires and threats to agriculture.

What’s happening and where?

The high-pressure system, which crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa, has been named by Italy’s Meteorological Society as Cerberus – the three-headed dog in ancient Greek mythology who guarded the gates to the underworld.

Emergency measures were put in place in several countries as temperatures in parts of Mediterranean Europe were set to reach 45C on Friday and into the weekend.

Weather alerts were in place across Spain’s Canary Islands, Italy, Cyprus and Greece, with the Greek authorities expecting temperatures to reach as high as 43C on Friday or Saturday.

Health authorities issued a top, red alert warning for 10 Italian cities for the next two days, including Rome, Florence, Bologna and Perugia.

Meanwhile, in the Arctic, a record high temperature of 28.8C was measured at Slettness Fyr on the northern tip of the Norway, Norwegian meteorologists said on Thursday. This tops a previous record from July 1964 when the thermometer reached 27.6C.

Cerberus is being tracked by the European Space Agency, which warned that the heatwave will also be felt in parts of northern Europe.

It said: “Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland are all facing a major heatwave with temperatures expected to climb to 48 Celsius on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe.”

What about the UK?

The Met Office has said there is no sign of Cerberus arriving in the UK, with temperatures expected to be close to average or slightly below for July.

As a result of the high pressure being pushed across Europe, low pressure systems have been directed towards the UK. As the UK gets prolonged showers, the weather bureau predicts unsettled conditions to continue for the next few days.

What’s the impact in Europe been?

Tourists in central Athens huddled under mist machines, and zoo animals in Madrid were fed fruit popsicles and chunks of frozen food as measures including staffing changes, cellphone alerts and intensified forest fire patrols were put in place.

In Athens and other Greek cities, working hours were changed for the public sector and many businesses to avoid the midday heat, while air-conditioned areas were opened to the public.

Authorities put an ambulance on standby near the archaeological site of the Acropolis in Athens, ready to provide first aid to tourists wilting in the heatwave.

A man walks past misting fans of a shop in Athens, on July 13, 2023. Greece's national weather service EMY on July 10, 2023, said a six-day heatwave would grip Greece starting July 12. (Photo by SPYROS BAKALIS / AFP) (Photo by SPYROS BAKALIS/AFP via Getty Images)
A man walks past misting fans of a shop in Athens, on July 13, 2023. Greece’s national weather service EMY on July 10, 2023, said a six-day heatwave would grip Greece starting July 12. (Photo by SPYROS BAKALIS / AFP) (Photo by SPYROS BAKALIS/AFP via Getty Images)

SPYROS BAKALIS via Getty Images

In the Balkans, beachgoers in the Croatian town of Nin smeared themselves in its medicinal local mud to protect themselves from the sun while 56 firefighters with 20 vehicles and three aircraft struggled to contain a brush fire near the Adriatic town of Sibenik.

There are concerns about the impact on those working outdoors in Italy after a 44-year-old man who was painting road markings in the northern town of Lodi collapsed and died this week.

As Spain’s politicians fret about how the high temperatures might affect turnout in a general election this month, animals in Madrid’s Zoo were this week being treated to frozen food to cool off amid the sweltering.

Italian farmers’ lobby group Coldiretti said milk production was down by around 10% because cows eat less in the heat, drink huge quantities of water and make less milk.

An orangutan licks a treat on a hot and sunny day at the Madrid Zoo, Spain, Thursday, July 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
An orangutan licks a treat on a hot and sunny day at the Madrid Zoo, Spain, Thursday, July 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

via Associated Press

What’s causing it? Is climate change a factor?

Professor Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist at Reading University, said that the current heatwave was caused by hot air coming up from the Sahara, with the air mass then becoming lodged across parts of Europe.

She said: “Heat is a silent killer. So this is the main concern that people’s lives are at risk.”

“Certainly, we should immediately stop pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” Cloke added, warning that some changes to the climate were already locked in.

The impact of extreme summer heat has been brought into focus by research this week that said as many as 61,000 people may have died in Europe’s sweltering heatwaves last summer.

Is there more to come?

The record European temperature of 48.8C was registered in Sicily in August 2021 and that figure could be exceeded.

Luca Lombroso, meteorologist from the AMPRO group in Italy, said: “Next week there will be an even stronger heatwave than this one, some values in the central south will be really freaky.”

“Between Tuesday and Wednesday in Rome and Florence we will probably exceed 40C, which will also be approached in the north,” he added.

With reporting from the AP and Reuters newswires.

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Theranos Founder Elizabeth Homes Has Sentence Reduced By Two Years

Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, has already had around two years knocked off her prison sentence, according to federal records.

Holmes reported to federal prison in Bryan, Texas, back in May to begin serving an original sentence of 11 years and three months for defrauding investors.

But the Bureau of Prisons now has her release date listed as Decemeber 29, 2032, which would be a total of nine years and seven months.

The bureau confirmed the release date to HuffPost, noting that all inmates can reduce their time through good behaviour. Some can also do so by completing certain programmes like treatment for substance abuse, vocational training or mentoring.

A spokesperson declined to offer more details on Holmes’ reduction, citing inmate privacy and security concerns.

Almost a decade ago, Holmes made a splash with Theranos by claiming she had crafted a small machine capable of running a wide array of medical tests using just one drop of a patient’s blood, while standard testing usually required vials to be taken and analysed by different machines. Forbes put her on its cover, painting her as yet another Silicon Valley wunderkind.

She raised money — nearly $1 billion overall — from billionaires including Rupert Murdoch, Betsy DeVos and the Walton family.

In reality, the Theranos machine was wildly inaccurate, and prosecutors successfully argued that Holmes knew it. After an 18-week trial, jurors returned a guilty verdict on four out of 11 counts, convinced that Holmes purposefully misled investors with doctored financial reports.

Holmes was also ordered to pay back $452 million to her investors, starting with payments of $250 per month after her prison term — a sum she claims that she cannot afford.

Her case had been delayed by the pandemic and her pregnancies. Holmes shares two children under the age of three with her husband, Billy Evans, a hotel heir.

NPR reported in May that Holmes has not exhausted all of her options for appealing her case.

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Elon Musk Aims Below The Belt With Latest Mark Zuckerberg Attack

The swell of enthusiasm around the new app Threads seems to be too much for Elon Musk.

The CEO of Twitter has been lashing out at fellow tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg since the release of Meta’s micro-blogging app last Tuesday, but he truly aimed below the belt when he challenged his rival to “a literal dick-measuring contest” on Sunday night.

Musk’s proposition followed a crass jab he tweeted hours earlier, “Zuck is a cuck” ― short for “cuckold”, which has become a go-to insult for the right-wing set.

Twitter owner Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 16.
Twitter owner Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 16.

Chesnot via Getty Images

The embattled tech CEO has already threatened to sue Meta over Threads, which TechCrunch reports hit 100 million users by Monday morning, just five days after its launch.

Twitter currently has around 250 million active users, but data from internet services company Cloudflare seems to show traffic has been steadily declining since the start of 2023, following Musk’s purchase of the app for $44 billion last fall.

Musk’s feud with Zuckerberg took a decidedly personal turn last month after he challenged the Facebook founder to a cage match. In a surprising twist, the usually mild Zuckerberg tweeted back at Musk, writing, “Send me location.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York on Oct. 25, 2019.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York on Oct. 25, 2019.

via Associated Press

Zuckerberg has pitched Threads as a more welcoming alternative to Twitter and its quarrelsome culture.

“The goal is to keep it friendly as it expands,” he wrote on Threads last week. “I think it’s possible and will ultimately be the key to its success. That’s one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have, and we want to do it differently.”

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Everything We Know About The Allegations Against A BBC Presenter

The BBC on Sunday suspended a member of staff following an allegation in The Sun newspaper that one of its star presenters paid a teenager to pose for sexually explicit photos. Neither the star, nor the youth, was identified.

The Metropolitan Police said on Monday there is “no investigation at this time” into the claims.

Later on Monday, the BBC reported on a letter from a lawyer acting for the young person claiming that The Sun’s allegations are “rubbish” and that “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality”.

The crisis deepened on Tuesday when the BBC’s news division reported that the male presenter had sent abusive messages to a second person, aged in their early 20s.

What are the initial allegations?

The Sun newspaper on Friday reported allegations that the male presenter allegedly gave the teenager £35,000 starting in 2020 when they were 17.

Though the age of sexual consent in the UK is 16, it’s a crime to make or possess indecent images of anyone under 18.

According to the newspaper, the family complained to the broadcaster on May 19, but the presenter was not immediately taken off air.

The mother told the newspaper that the teenager had used the cash to fund a crack cocaine habit.

The family had not requested payment for their story, The Sun reported.

What has the BBC said?

The BBC said in a statement on Sunday that it “first became aware of a complaint in May”, but that “new allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature” – a day before The Sun published its story.

The broadcaster said “the BBC takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations”. It said the corporation had also been in touch with “external authorities,” but did not specify whether that was the police.

“This is a complex and fast-moving set of circumstances and the BBC is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps,” the BBC said.

“We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended.”

According to a timeline published by the broadcaster, a member of the young person’s family walked into a BBC building on May 18 to make a complaint. The family member contacted BBC Audience Services the next day.

The BBC said it made two unsuccessful attempts – one email and one phone call – to respond to the complainant.

The Sun contacted the BBC seven weeks later on July 6 with different allegations, the broadcaster said on Tuesday, and senior management were informed for the first time.

“The events of recent days have shown how complex and challenging these kinds of cases can be and how vital it is that they are handled with the utmost diligence and care,” BBC Director General Tim Davie told reporters after the corporation published its annual report.

Davie, who said he had not personally spoken to the presenter, said the new information provided by the Sun on July 6 “clearly related to potential criminal activity”.

What has the police said?

The Metropolitan Police said on Monday the force had met BBC bosses earlier in the day and that officers were making further enquiries about the allegations.

The Met said in a statement: “Detectives from the Met’s specialist crime command met with representatives from the BBC on the morning of Monday, July 10. The meeting took place virtually.

“They are assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.

“There is no investigation at this time.”

On Tuesday, it asked the BBC to pause its inquiries while specialist officers decide if there is any justification for a criminal investigation.

What did the young person’s lawyer say?

The BBC reported it had received a letter from a lawyer representing the young person involved in the story.

It wrote: “For the avoidance of doubt, nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations reported in the Sun newspaper are rubbish.”

The BBC also reported “the young person sent a denial to the Sun on Friday evening saying there was ‘no truth to it’. However, the “inappropriate article” was still published, the lawyer said.

The Sun responded to this claim by stating: “We have reported a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child.

“Their complaint was not acted upon by the BBC.

“We have seen evidence that supports their concerns. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate.”

What is the second claim?

BBC News said on Tuesday it had been contacted by a second young person – unconnected to the first – who said they had been approached by the presenter on a dating app.

When the person, who never met the presenter, hinted online that they would reveal his identity, they were sent abusive, expletive-filled messages, the BBC said.

BBC News said it had verified that the messages were sent from a phone belonging to the presenter. It said it had received no response to the latest allegations from either the presenter or his lawyer.

Late on Tuesday, The Sun claimed the presenter allegedly broke lockdown rules to meet a young stranger from a dating site.

Why has the presenter not been named?

The male presenter has not been named by the Sun or any other outlets who know their identity, with the media having to balance the public’s right to know with the legal risks.

Unless there are any criminal charges, there will be two aspects of the law weighing heavily on newsrooms – defamation and privacy.

Defamation

The law of defamation protects an individual’s reputation from the harm caused by lies. Identifying an individual and making false allegations against them that would lower them in the eyes of right-thinking members of society exposes the publisher to being sued if the claims are false.

The principle defence against defamation is that the allegation is true. But the burden of proof is on the publisher, and the bar is particularly high in sexual offence cases.

Two relatively recent cases have had a big impact on editorial decision-making when it comes to an individual’s right to privacy.

In 2018, Cliff Richard won a privacy case against the BBC over the broadcaster’s coverage of a police raid on his home following a false child sexual assault allegation, which has since tipped the balance in favour of privacy over a right to know.

Added to this, the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest court, ruled in 2022 that a person being investigated for a crime generally has “a reasonable expectation of privacy” until charged – turning what was an accepted principle into legal precedent.

In an email to staff on Monday, Davie said the BBC was taking the allegations “incredibly seriously”.

He added: “By law, individuals are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is making this situation more complex.

“I want to assure you that we are working rapidly to establish the facts.”

What are BBC presenters saying?

Amid speculation on social media about the identity of the presenter, several of the BBC’s best-known stars spoke up to say it wasn’t them, including Gary Lineker, Rylan Clark, Nicky Campbell and Jeremy Vine.

The laws of defamation apply to social media as much as they do the media, but that hasn’t stopped some people accusing presenters without any foundation.

Campbell addressed the online speculation on the radio. On BBC Radio 5 Live, he opened his programme on Monday saying: “Thoughts with the alleged victim and family.”

He added: “It was a distressing weekend, I can’t deny it, for me and others falsely named.

“Today I’m having further conversations with the police in terms of malicious communication and with lawyers in terms of defamation.”

On his Radio 2 show, Vine did the same, saying: “I’m in that shortlist of BBC presenters who ended up being smacked around on Twitter yesterday and the day before. But what can you do? Are you going to tell me to take out 85 different lawsuits?”

On Tuesday, Vine suggested the star at the centre of the allegations reveal themself publicly.

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Wimbledon Blighted By Queues As Security Beefed-Up To Counter Just Stop Oil

Beefed-up security to prevent protesters disrupting Wimbledon have led to long, frustrating queues on the opening day of the tennis championships.

Just Stop Oil activists have recently interrupted the Ashes cricket test at Lord’s, with one activist carried off the field by England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

Protesters have also disrupted other sporting events in Britain this year, as well as other events including the Chelsea Flower Show.

Airport-style security was in place in SW19 as staff looked out for chalk dust and powders which have been banned at the prestigious tournament for the first time ever.

Specialist undercover police spotters have also been deployed, The Telegraph reported.

Glue, cable-ties and chains and padlocks are all on the prohibited list as they can be used to disrupt events by protesters attaching themselves to property.

Sky News reported the wait at Wimbledon was as long as eight hours as organisers advised people not to travel to join the queue just before noon.

Wimbledon tweeted: “Our grounds are set to be at capacity today, which means those already in the queue will be waiting several hours for admission. We advise people intending to queue today not to travel to Wimbledon.”

Multiple media outlets in the UK have been reporting that Wimbledon is a prime target for activists with some seeing it as an unrivalled opportunity for publicity.

But the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which hosts the grasscourt grand slam tournament, was confident it had matters under control.

HANNAH MCKAY via Reuters

ADRIAN DENNIS via Getty Images

The club said it had been liaising with organisers of other sporting events, including the English Cricket Board, to refine best practices.

Michelle Dite, Wimbledon operations director, told reporters: “We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur the appropriate specialist teams will respond.

“The safety and security of all our players, colleagues and visitors is paramount.”

But many were expressing frustration on Twitter.

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Elon Musk’s Twitter Sued Over Unpaid Office Services

Elon Musk’s Twitter is facing yet another lawsuit over unpaid bills, this time from an Australian company specialising in project management and delivery.

Facilitate alleges in a lawsuit filed last week in US District Court for the Northern District of California that the social media firm owes over $700,000 for work in four Twitter offices outside the U.S. since last year. Twitter, owned by the world’s richest person, owes $40,777 for decommissioning and storing the contents of Twitter’s Sydney office, $257,444 for installing sensors in the London and Dublin offices, and $404,224 for outfitting the Singapore offices, according to the suit, first reported by NCA Newswire.

Facilitate alleges it signed a master services agreement with Twitter in March 2021 after Twitter had used the Sydney-based company since 2015 without issue. The agreement, according to Facilitate, mandates that Twitter must pay within 60 days of receiving an invoice.

“Following the acquisition, Facilitate corresponded about its outstanding invoices with its remaining contacts at the company,” the lawsuit says. “They gave no indication that Twitter disputed it owed the amounts on the invoices and offered no justification for not paying.”

Bloomberg reported in May that at least 10 other vendors, including small businesses, have sued Twitter over unpaid bills since December.

Facilitate also detailed Musk’s chaotic tenure at the social media network, pointing out that the company’s content moderation decisions under his leadership, including the reinstatement of former President Donald Trump’s account, damaged its relationship with advertisers, thus prompting a financial crisis for the company.

“On information and belief, Twitter responded with a campaign of extreme belt-tightening that amounted to requiring nearly everyone to whom it owes money to sue,” the complaint alleges.

HuffPost reached out to Twitter for comment on the lawsuit. Twitter, as is now customary, responded with a poop emoji.

Musk announced over the weekend that Twitter was placing a limit on the posts users can see based on their account status. Those who exceed those “temporary limits” could have their accounts locked for the day, The Associated Press reported.

Twitter in recent weeks started repaying Google Cloud for its services, following a period when Musk reportedly refused to pay. The companies mended their relationship after new Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino intervened, according to Bloomberg.

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Ben Stokes Has The Best Response To Australian Media’s ‘Crybabies’ Taunt

England men’s cricket captain Ben Stokes has refused to rise to the Australian media’s bait in the aftermath of the controversial Ashes stumping.

The sportsmanship of the Aussie team has been questioned following the dismissal of England batsman Jonny Bairstow on Sunday’s final day of the second test at Lord’s.

With England on 193-5 and chasing a mammoth target of 371, Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey underarmed the ball at the stumps after Bairstow left his crease at the end of an over.

While the dismissal was valid by the letter of the sport’s laws, many have questioned whether it undermined the much-cherished “spirit of the game” – as witnessed by the long and loud booing from the Lord’s crowd and Australian players being verbally abused by MCC members in the stadium’s usually staid Long Room.

England eventually lost by 43 runs to trail 2-0 in the five-test series.

The Australian media has responded to the furore by suggesting England just sucks it up.

Andrew Webster, writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, said: “The first rule of MCC Fight Club is know the rules of cricket…I would have thought membership to the most famous club in cricket meant you understood the laws of the game.”

Meanwhile, Gideon Haigh in The Australian similarly suggested that “puce-faced MCC snobs should learn their own rules”.

They went further on the front page of The West Australian, which stunted Stokes up as nappy-wearing, dummy-sucking baby and boomed: “Poms take whingeing to new level with ‘cheating’ drivel.”

“Crybabies,” the splash thundered.

But Stokes took to Twitter in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation.

“That’s definitely not me, since when did I bowl with the new ball,” he said while quote-tweeting the front page, and referencing the depiction of the shiny new cricket ball and the fact he is not an opening bowler.

Stokes had said on Sunday he was keen to move on from the incident but added he would not want to win in such a fashion at the end of an over.

“The first thing that needs to be said is, it is out,” he said.

“If I was the fielding captain I would have put a lot more pressure on the umpires to ask them what their decision was around the over and around the spirit of the game and would I want to potentially win a game with something like that happening – and it would be no.”

Australia captain Pat Cummins has defended his team over Bairstow’s dismissal, and insisted there was no “sneakiness”.

“I thought it was fair. You see Jonny (Bairstow) do it all the time, he did it on day one to David Warner, he did it in 2019 to Steve (Smith),” Cummins told reporters.

“It’s a really common thing for keepers to do if they see a batter keep leaving their crease. Cares (Carey), full credit to him, he saw the opportunity, rolled it at the stumps, Jonny left his crease. You leave the rest to the umpires.

“It was all one motion, there was no pause or sneakiness about it.”

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Photo Of Freeway Exit Goes Viral For Unsavoury Reason

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Chew on this: A photo of a freeway exit is going viral because of its apparent connection to cannibalism.

On Wednesday, the Placerville office of the California Highway Patrol posted a photo on Facebook of the Donner Lake exit on Interstate 80.

The lake just happens to be named after the Donner Party, a group of Midwestern pioneers who were forced to spend the winter of 1846–47 in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Legend has it that some of the members survived by eating others in their party, though a more recent archeological study turned up no physical evidence of cannibalism.

CalTrans public information officer Steve Nelson told HuffPost that there are 38 restaurants off of that exit, “so the sign is appropriate to notify motorists, but [we] also understand the irony and that it may be considered insensitive.” He said the department is looking into the post.

Still, for some Facebook commenters, the cannibal connection was enough to provide food for thought.

One person commented, “I heard there is a party going on up there,” to which the Placerville CHP’s social media page replied cheekily, “Slowly dwindling, but yes.”

Others chimed in with their own tasteless comments: “For a fine dining experience, visit beautiful Donner Lake,” to which another person replied, “bring the family.”

One person joked that the food around the lake “was finger-licking good,” while another said that “the ribs and shoulder are amazing [there] but I wasn’t a fan of the liver and onions.”

After one person praised the post, the Placerville CHP account replied, “just trying to be humerus.”

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