The Associated Press is reporting on May 14, 2006, that the "bodies of two women, both apparently killed by alligators, were found Sunday less than a week after a similar death in a state that had seen just 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the previous 57 years."

The cases specifically are:

(1) A 23-year-old woman staying at a secluded cabin near Lake George was attacked while snorkling at a lakeside recreation area, said Marion County Fire-Rescue Captain Joe Amigliore. The lake is about 50 miles southeast of Gainesville.

and

(2) In Pinellas County, the death of [a 43-year-old Dunedin] woman whose body was found early Sunday in a canal 20 miles north of St. Petersburg also was blamed on an alligator, authorities said.

The entire article can be found here.

My prediction is that we will now see a literal media explosion of alligator articles, about attacks and about sightings of every out-of-place alligator seen anyplace in North America, or if the Austrian report is any indication, in Europe too. Be forewarned, as this happened this same way during the summer of 2001. The final fatal alligator attack that year happened on September 11, 2001, but it was buried in the events of that day outside of Florida. The forthcoming "alligator news" will have little to do with cryptozoology, seemingly, but it will impact what we do greatly. See "Why Cryptozoology Is Interested in Alligator Sightings".