HOUSTON — A Houston woman known for bringing the community joy was overwhelmed with happiness Saturday after going on a surprise, all-expenses paid shopping trip with one of her favorite celebrities.

Shantel Nelson — known as Southpark_Shawty on Instagram — was put on this Earth to bring people delight, friends and family members said.

Shawty works six days a week at Ralston Discount Liquors on Martin Luther King Boulevard near Southwind Street where she also shoots videos featuring her dancing, singing and performing other antics.

“She was put on this Earth to make people smile,” employee Andrea Simmons said.

Although Shawty has had issues with substance abuse, she is a beloved figure in the Southpark community and that love has spread like wildfire on social media. She has earned more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.

“Everybody likes pulling phones out, but they would never do anything to benefit from the situation or to help Shawty,” resident Lou Parish said. “I just took it upon myself to get a little clip of her and throw her a little something and give her a little change.”

Parish and Jamil Davis started the account to help Shawty on her road to recovery and that support has gained national attention — to a point where even celebrities are jumping on the “We love Shawty” bandwagon.

Enter, the Dogg Father.

After watching her numerous videos, Snoop rolled through Houston’s South Park to meet Shawty in person.

Shawty said the encounter changed her life.

When the D-O-Double-G stepped off the bus, she gripped him tightly and wouldn’t let go.

Snoop Dogg brought Shawty out for a full makeover — buying her new clothes and make-up. She also had an opportunity to hang out on the tour bus with him for a couple hours.

Neighbors described Shawty as one of the most generous people you could ever meet — willing to give you the shirt off her back if necessary.

Have no doubt about it, she feels their love and support. She said she’s making changes.

“God came in my life,” She said. “He made me change my life around. I prayed for it, so I’m doing good. I got a job, and people love me.”

LOS ANGELES — A Nevada woman who had just moved to California ended up falling off a notorious cliff on her first full day in the state, CBS News reports.

The woman, identified by NBC Los Angeles as 21-year-old Lorena Barrera, was found dead at the base of the seaside cliff in Point Fermin Park in San Pedro on Friday.

Her friends told investigators that she tripped over her flip-flops and fell around 100 feet onto the rocks below after climbing over a 3-foot wall to take photos.

Family members and friends are mourning Lorena Barrera, seen her in a photo from a GoFundMe account created to raise money for her burial. (GoFundMe)

She had moved to Southern California from Nevada the previous day. “Her friends, they said she just wanted to look at the view and she ended up tripping on her flip-flops,” Los Angeles fire chief Albert Valle tells ABC7 LA.

“The two people she was with made an effort but they lost her grip and she fell.” The stretch of cliffs where Barrera died has claimed many lives over the years, according to KTLA — including from Sunken City, the site of a 1929 landslide, farther east.

On Aug. 7, two people in their 20s were found dead at the base of the cliff, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"It happens all the time over here, left and right, a lot of young people," an area resident tells NBC.

"You see the railing here—tells you don't go over and try to take pictures. A lot of people take chances." (A similar accident just claimed a life at Machu Picchu.)

Family and friends are mourning Barrera's death, and have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her burial.

This article originally appeared on Newser: Woman Falls Off Cliff Day After She Moved to California

More From Newser:

• Teacher Sentenced Over Sex With Student 22 Years Ago

• Cops: Longtime Penn State Prof Murdered by Friends

• Teen Who Impregnated Teacher Gets $6M From District

WASHINGTON – The Instagram filter you choose may reveal more than you realize about your mental health.

Researchers from Harvard and the University of Vermont have found that Instagram photos can be analyzed to screen for depression. The scientists used the photos’ attributes, including brightness and color, to correctly identify which participants suffered from depression at a better rate than the typical physician.

Photos with decreased brightness, decreased saturation and increased hue indicated depression. The computer correctly identified 70% instances of depression.

Valencia was the most popular filter with users who were not depressed, whereas depressed users were most likely to use Inkwell. Valencia lightens photos whereas Inkwell converts images to black and white.

The findings point to an unobtrusive, inexpensive way to use social media to detect health issues.

“It’s all a good thing,” said Michael Thase, the director of the Mood and Anxiety Program at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s only not a good thing when the information would be sold to somebody who might make a buck from interfacing with depressed people.”

Thase suggested that in the future we may opt in to receive screening feedback from social media. A user who gave consent would have their photos scanned for signs of potential illnesses.

“Did you know your choice of hues and colors go along with people who are prone to depression. Would you like to know more?” Thase suggested as a possible private message that could be sent to users who appeared depressed.

To reach their conclusions, the researchers analyzed roughly 13,000 photos from 166 Instagram users, some of whom were clinically depressed.

A computer system was trained by looking at the photos’ brightness, vividness, hue and whether an Instagram filter was used. The computer learned to make predictions of depression after comparing the photos of depressed individuals, and those who are not depressed.

The research is the latest example of how useful insights can be gleaned from the digital footprints we leave online. Tech companies will increasingly have opportunities to assist patients and their health care providers, according to Thase.

So how would such a program appear in the real world? It would likely start with a tech company inviting users to participate, and encouraging the traditional medical community to endorse it. Information could potentially be automatically shared with a patient’s physician, provided the patient opts in.

Earlier this year, Microsoft researchers showed that a person’s Web search history could sometimes predict an upcoming diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

TRENT HILLS, Ontario — A Canadian teen desperate to get out of a late summer trip with her parents called 911 last Tuesday, police said.

The girl, 15, of Mississauga, apparently called authorities from a rented cottage in Trent Hills, east of Toronto, and told them her parents “forced her” to go with them.

“This appeared to be a case of a teenager being a teenager,” Ontario Provincial Police Const. Steve Bates told CBC News. “Although she perceived this as a real issue, it was not an appropriate use of 911.”

Just to be sure nothing else was going on, OPP officers drove to the cottage, where they found the teen with “her face buried in her hands” saying she didn’t want to be there, according to the Canadian Press.

Police say she was warned not to misuse the emergency system in the future, but officers left the question of punishment up to the girl’s parents.

OAKLAND, Penn. - A Pennsylvania man is learning that being a super hero is not as easy as it looks.

Unfortunately, he chose to learn this lesson the hard way when he decided to pull a super-human feat to impress his date.

Investigators said the college student tried to take a lover's leap from the rooftop of Bruegger's Bagels onto the roof of Qdoba Mexican Grill next door when something went terribly wrong — he missed.

The man fell three stories down and was wedged between the two buildings, where he stayed for more than four hours.

It took a super-hero effort from firefighters to free him.

Public Works crews were brought in and had to break through the brick wall of the Mexican restaurant to get him out.

He was taken to the hospital with no word on his condition, or whether he got a second date.

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Ever been on a diet? It's hard work.

In one of his stand-up routines, comedian Jim Gaffigan jokes, “You always hear swimming's the best exercise. But, have you seen how fat whales are?”

The fact is, being overweight is no laughing matter.

Pasquale Brocco is 6-foot-8 and 278 pounds. He hits the gym every single day. You'd never guess he used to weigh 605 pounds.

"Basically I was told I was on my death bed, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol,” he said.

He wanted gastric bypass surgery but his doctor said he needed to lose weight first.

“I just threw everything out in my house, and I said every time I want to eat, I'll walk to the store and get each and every meal, " Brocco said. "I used to walk a mile to Walmart, and a mile home. Cook my food. And when my next meal came, I would do it again.”

To and from Walmart on foot, three or four times a day and within a couple years he lost more than half is body weight.

No surgery. Just discipline, and plenty of support from his family.

His obesity made him perspire, but now his story makes him inspire!

HOUSTON — Houston knows how to welcome home Olympians: wake up before dawn, get lots of balloons, head to the airport and, by all means, strike up the band!

“It's a bit overwhelming but it's super welcoming,” table tennis player Timothy Wang said. He’s one of five athletes who arrived home early Tuesday morning from Rio.

“I had a great time over in Rio and it was an experience of a lifetime,” diver Kassidy Cook of The Woodlands said. “But, being back home feels amazing.”

The weary travelers represent four sports and also include two sets of siblings. Steven Lopez is a Taekwondo Olympian, coached by his older brother Jean. Steven Lopez says, “It's just a huge honor to represent my country for a fifth Olympic games.”

Courtney Hurley and big sis Kelley didn't let sibling rivalry get in the way of their Olympic experience.

“Fencing's a very individual sport and it gets a little lonely,” Kelley  said. “So, it's nice to have that support with me all the time.”

No medals among this bunch. But no regrets, either.

“It was a really great experience and I didn't feel like any of the hard work was put to waste,” Cook said.

Wang added, “It's the best of the best and being with so many different athletes from so many different sports. It's a huge honor to be one of them.”

According to Jean Lopez, coming back home to a hero's welcome isn`t bad either!

“When we feel supported like this from the city it really goes a long way,” Jean Lopez said.

So, what's next for this group? Sleep. Eat. Chill. And think about the year 2020.

“I'm gonna definitely stick around for Tokyo,” Cook said.

“I just feel like Tokyo's calling my name,” adds Hurley. “I feel like there's more out there.”

HOUSTON —  We told you parents spend about $1,600 on school supplies each year.  You think that’s bad? Throw in a life-saving EpiPen and the cost skyrockets!

An EpiPen is a tiny device packed with the drug epinephrine, for all those folks with severe allergies — usually to nuts or fish.

This drug packs a big punch, but so does its price, which has shot up nearly 500 percent over the last seven years.

“Originally, the doctor wanted us to have 6 Epi-Pens,  four for us and two for the school," Abby Boyd said. "The pharmacy called me and said that’s going to be $2,000 — that was after insurance.  I was just blown away how expensive that was for medicine that could save her life."

Boyd, like any other parent, wants to know how these little life-saving pens got so expensive and if there’s an alternative?

“One of its competitors had a major recall so EpiPen has the sole market and can do what it wants with the price ,” Pharmacy Director David Koon of Village Family Practice.

But there is some good news. There is an alternative to the pricey pen.

“If they write the generic epinephrine injection — just have them write 'epinephrine injection pen' — that’s all they need to do, and if they bring that to a pharmacy, then it’s up to the pharmacist. They can decide to give the generic or the brand name. Nine times out of 10 because generic is cheaper and probably covered more on insurance.  Most pharmacist and patients will want the generic one.”

Cuz, hey! Cheap is good, free is better, but lives are priceless.

HOUSTON — What kind of birthday gift should you get someone (or something) that already offers us the world at our finger tips?

It's the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Since 1991, life has never been the same.

Back in the early 90s, computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, developed a computer network where information could be stored. Originally used as an internal database, the world wide web was first opened to the public on August 23, 1991 and the rest is history.

The Telegraph

You can still visit the very first web page ever created, which conveniently explains what the world wide web actually is. But if you asks most folks today, it's not what they first saw online. Instead, they remember what they first heard: the buzz of the classic dial-up. That was then and this is now. Today it's hard to imagine a world without the web.

So, happy birthday internet. You've had an awesome 25 years so far, even though you're now mostly a huge collection of cat videos.

Giphy.com

ROANOKE, Va - Wasil Farooqui, 20, has been on the FBI’s radar for months.  Now federal agents are trying to figure out whether the Virginia resident accused of stabbing two people in Roanoke was inspired by ISIS.

So far, the terror group has not claimed responsibility.

Witnesses said Farooqui shouted “Allah Akbar!” Arabic for “God is great,” moments before attacking the couple.

Terror attack or not, Farooqui is charged with two counts of aggravated malicious wounding for the double-stabbing.

The two victims — one male, one female —  told police they were attacked as they returned to their apartment complex. The male was able to fight off the suspect who quickly ran off.

While the victims were being questioned by police in the emergency room, a man matching the suspect's description showed up with injuries of his own. Both victims are still hospitalized but expected to survive.

Farooqui appeared in court Monday and  was ordered to be held without bond.

The Feds have had their eye on Farooqui ever since he tried to go to Syria several months ago.

It'll be a lot easier to keep tabs on him now while he's in jail.

SAN DIEGO - A man laid down in front of a friend's car and was killed as the woman drove away from his birthday party just after midnight Sunday, police said.

Jonathan Carlyle Merkley, of Garden Grove, was celebrating his 34th birthday at the Staybridge Suites hotel in San Diego when he was struck at about 12:30 a.m., according to KSWB-TV.

Merkley and his friends had been drinking alcohol at the hotel when the unidentified woman tried to get behind the wheel, according to San Diego police.

Merkley walked into the path of the woman's BMW and laid down in front of the moving car, according to San Diego Police Sgt. Tom Sullivan.

The woman drove over him and kept going, police said. The victim suffered major trauma to his chest and died later at a hospital, Sullivan said.

Police know the identity of the BMW driver, but she had not been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Sullivan.

San Diego police issued this update Tuesday:

“We have interviewed the female friend and have a vehicle in custody pending examination to determine if it is the vehicle in question. We are still evaluating the other parties culpability, if any, in this collision. There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing."

PHELAN, Calif. — A California family is not giving up on an adorable dog with an unusual condition.

The 9-month-old golden retriever doesn’t have use of her front legs. Her name is Rexi, like a T-Rex.

“She can stand up and use her back legs fully, and then she scoots around on her chest kind of like a snail,” her owner James Cassidy told ABC News.

(Via GoFundMe)

But after several doctors visits, Cassidy and his wife, Rachel Woertink, still don’t have any answers as to why the dog’s legs are backwards.

“They all did X-rays and whatnot, and the results always showed her bones were fine,” Cassidy said. “A lot of the veterinarians said it could be neurological. And some of them just recommended that we amputate her front legs or put her down.”

About a month ago the couple started a GoFundMe account for Rexi. So far, they’ve raised more than $15,500 for her medical care.

Cassidy and Woertink are now working with Kolman Prosthetics to create a cart and body suit so the happy pooch can run with comfort.

FORT HALL, Idaho, — Shocking video posted on Facebook shows four adults smoking marijuana in front of a toddler, East Idaho News reports. 

One woman blows smoke into the child’s face and, at one point, appears to stick the joint in his mouth.

The video was shot inside a home on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and posted on a Facebook page over the weekend.

Two women are laughing and teasing the child, who appears to be 3 or 4 years old, as they pass the marijuana joint to other adults in the room.

One of the women repeatedly blows smoke in the toddler’s face and another says, with a laugh, “No more getting high? He’s all blazing it.”

Fort Hall police said two women have been arrested for child endangerment, but authorities aren’t releasing their names or mugshots.

Authorities say they are close to obtaining arrest warrants on the other two adults who were in the room while the video was being shot.

After the video was posted on Facebook on Saturday, dozens of angry comments were posted and the video had been removed by Monday evening.

EastIdahoNews.com has reached out to the Fort Hall Police Department for further information on this case. We will post updates when we receive them.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Sebastian DeLeon, 16, has survived a rare brain-eating amoeba, doctors at Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando said Tuesday.

“He’s done tremendously well. He’s walking, he’s speaking, he went outside for the first time to get some fresh air — he’s ready to go home,” Dr. Humberto Antonio Liriano, a critical care physician, told reporters.

It’s remarkable because he is only the fourth person in the United States to survive an infection from this parasite, called Naegleria fowleri.

On vacation with his family in Orlando, DeLeon had a severe headache while they were at a theme park on August 7. The pain became so bad, Liriano explained, the teen “couldn’t tolerate people touching him.”

A search for local hospitals ensued and they fortuitously discovered Florida Hospital for Children, where they brought the teen. Later, they learned doctors there were uniquely knowledgeable about this amoeba — they’d attended special seminars on the topic earlier this year.

When DeLeon arrived at the hospital, Dr. Dennis Hernandez, the ER doctor working at the time, immediately identified symptoms of meningitis and took a sample of the teen’s cerebral spinal fluid. The samples were positive for the brain-eating amoeba.

Explaining the amoeba

Three other people are known to have been infected with primary amebic meningoencephalitis, the infection caused by the amoeba, this year. DeLeon is the only one who has survived.

The brain-eating amoeba cannot infect you if you drink contaminated water, explained Dr. Rajan Wadhawan, chief medical officer at Florida Hospital for Children. The parasite becomes a danger “only when it goes up the nose forcibly,” Wadhawan said. Most patients survive only 12 to 13 days.

The Florida Department of Health said DeLeon was infected earlier this month while swimming on private property in Broward County.

Hearing DeLeon’s test results, the entire hospital worked together, sparing no effort to save DeLeon’s life, Liriano recounted. Calls were placed to Profounda Inc., the Orlando-based drug company that makes an anti-parasitic called miltefosine (sold as Impavido), that was FDA approved in March for another use. Within 12 minutes, the drug was delivered to the hospital.

Liriano and a team of pediatric infectious disease doctors, with assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, worked together with one goal in mind: to save his life. They placed the teen on a breathing tube and in a drug-induced coma. They administered miltesfosine and other antimicrobials and ran tests daily to check for the amoeba in hopes of getting a negative result.

That came 72 hours after treatment began, indicating the amoeba was gone. “We decided to take the breathing tube out and within hours, he spoke,” said Liriano, who began to cry as he described his patient’s recovery. He said he has been doing “tremendously well.”

DeLeon will need rehab, but is ready to return home to South Florida with his family.

Brunilda Gonzalez, DeLeon’s mother, expressed her appreciation at the news conference. “First to God and all his power for everything he has done in saving our kid’s life,” she said. “We are so thankful for this gift of life… God has given us a miracle through this hospital staff.”

Gonzalez acknowledged how hard the staff worked to get the medication to her son just in time to save his life, and also noted that her son’s experience might be helpful to others.

Beating the odds

According to the CDC, between 1962 and 2015, there were 138 known cases of primary amebic meningoencephalitis.

In 2013, then 12-year-old Kali Hardig was infected with the parasite while swimming at a water park. After nearly seven weeks in the hospital, the Arkansas pre-teen was able to return home. Hardig recovered and went back to school that fall.

The same summer, an 8-year-old boy in Texas also survived, although he suffered brain damage. According to the CDC, that outcome was believed to be due to a delay of “several days after his symptoms began” before treatment started.

The only other known survivor in the United States, who was not treated with miltefosine, was a patient in California in 1978.

Having worked with amoeba cases in the past, Liriano appeared to savor the rare outcome for his patient.

“This is a story we need to tell about Sebastian DeLeon,” Liriano said.

HOUSTON — Educators fear recent sexual abuse cases involving Texas teachers may be a part of a new trend.

According to the Texas Education Agency, there were 188 teacher-student sex cases filed during the 2015-2016 school year. Even worse, the numbers from the new report, which is set to come out August 31,  are projected to be even higher. And that's a record, we don't want to break.

A few esteemed educators are doing their part to increase the volume of incidents already — and school just started.

Former Lamar Consolidated ISD Teacher's Aide Joe Ross was arrested earlier this week on charges of child pornography. Detectives also believe Ross may have had inappropriate contact with three Pink Elementary students when he was working there as a substitute teacher.

Cy-Fair ISD teacher Nicole Jakubiak was also charged this month with having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old foreign exchange student living in her house. Even though they're both adults, it's illegal to have teacher-student relations in the same school district.

Oscar Pérez, a former Teacher of the Year at a Clear Creek ISD Elementary, has been charged with the sexual abuse of a third grader.

math was never our strong suit, but even we can see the numbers are going in the wrong direction.

HOUSTON, TX -- Recently Craig Hlavaty visited the TEXXXAS Expo, a convention featuring adult actors and actresses set at an area strip club. Kids, cover your eyes. 

Be warned, this web version is a bit more ... exposed... than what aired on TV.

WATERBURY, Conn. — Four teens have been arrested in connection with the murder of a Chinese food delivery driver in Waterbury, Connecticut, Tuesday night.

Helena Vargas, 59, of Waterbury, was found shot outside 70 Linden St. about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. She was taken from the scene and died at the hospital.

Police said another delivery driver, a 60-year-old man, was found assaulted and robbed of his money in the car outside the home on Linden Street. Both people worked for the Golden Wok restaurant on East Main Street, police said.

Wednesday, police arrested four teenagers in connection with the shooting.

Anthony Wright, 19, of New York, a male juvenile and two female juveniles are all facing murder charges. Wright, who is being held on $2.5 million bond, is a member of the Crips street gang and has a rap sheet that includes robbery in the first degree, according to officials. He also has a pending probation violation, and prosecutors argued that he should be considered a flight risk during a Wednesday court appearance.

Police believe the people were targeted in the incident and that at least one of the four arrested had called the restaurant to make the delivery order. Investigators said all four of the suspects blamed each other when they were interviewed about what happened.

Police said Vargas was very well known in the community and her son-in-law used to work for the Waterbury Police Department.

CAMDEN, N.J. – A New Jersey man has been charged with murder after he punched a toddler to death during a fight with the child’s mother over groceries, according to prosecutors.

Zachary Tricoche, of Pennsauken, New Jersey, was arraigned on murder charges Tuesday.

Tricoche, 24, allegedly delivered the crushing blow after getting into a fight with his girlfriend about the food she brought back from the grocery store.

His girlfriend’s son, 2-year-old Jamil Baskerville Jr., was sitting on a bed nearby and began crying. Tricoche then punched him so hard the boy flew off the bed and hit his head against the wall, prosecutors said.

When the child stood up, Tricoche ordered him to put his fists up like a boxer before knocking him unconscious, according to Philly.com.

The boy’s mother called 911 and took Jamil to Cooper University Hospital where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

Jamil, who weighed less than 30 pounds, suffered an injury to his liver and had signs of bruising on his chest, doctors said.

“Essentially, JB (Jamil) bled to death internally,” said Camden County Assistant Prosecutor Christine Shah.

Tricoche, who has multiple drug-related convictions, looked at the floor for much of the arraignment hearing. Multiple guards stood between Tricoche and Jamil’s relatives at the hearing.

“He should be put to sleep, because he killed my grandson,” Jamil’s grandfather Gerome DeShields told Philly.com.

Tricoche is being held on $1 million bail.

SAN ANTONIO – A waiter at a San Antonio steakhouse pulled out a gun during a dispute with two diners and fired multiple shots before running from the restaurant, according to police.

A patron took cellphone video of the altercation Wednesday afternoon at the Little Red Barn Steakhouse, located on the city’s historic Southeast Side.

The argument apparently started after the unidentified server brought out the wrong order. Witnesses told police the two customers verbally berated the steakhouse employee, then one of the customers put him in a headlock, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

After the headlock, the server pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and fired three shots into the ceiling, the paper reported. No one was struck by the bullets, police said.

The restaurant, which has been in operation for more than 50 years, closed its doors during the investigation but has since reopened.

San Antonio police are looking for the waiter and one of the customers.

No arrests have been made, but authorities may charge the customer with assault and the waiter with unlawful carry of a weapon, police said.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, PHILIPPINES - Check out this $100 million pearl!

According to Puerto Princesa  City officials, this pearl's been chilling under a bed for years. A local Filipino fisherman kept this big white rock under his crib for good luck. The precious stone is two feet long, one foot wide and weighs 75 pounds. Talk about a clam jam!

Imagine locals disbelief when the man dropped the pearl off at the tourism office.

Now, the Filipino city is trying to figure out if the rock is an authentic, natural, clam-made pearl. If it is, it is going to blow the official "Guinness World Record" holder out of the water.

The "Pearl of Lao Tzu", which also came from the Philippines, is only 14 pounds and nine inches long. So step aside, Lao Tzu, there's a new pearl in town.