The National Rifle Association said Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy and is moving to Texas, where the organization says it has 400,000 members. The NRA is currently based out of New York, where stateAttorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuitalleging financial crimes by its top officials and is seeking to disband the organization.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection stops all court and legal proceedings regarding debt or collection, while an organization restructures its debts. In May 2020, the NRA, which says it has 5 million members,laid off dozens of employeesand shut down fundraising and its national convention amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The fundraising pause and the lack of a national convention in a presidential election year was a huge financial setback for the organization, althoughAmericans bought a record number of guns
DONEGAL, Pa. — Daniel Bogey said if he hadn’t shown up, two dogs would likely be dead.
“Heard this awful howling and yelping, and I thought it was a pack of coyotes,” he said.
He said he made a last-minute decision to check one of his properties in Donegal when he came across two dogs stuck in animal traps in the middle of a frigid, fast-moving stream.Content Continues Below
“That water was freezing cold. You wouldn’t even want to stand in it. That dog was probably in that water for well over an hour,” Bogey said.
He immediately called state police troopers.
“We were able to get the dog out of the trap and at least get him on the other side of the creek,” Bogey said. “The state trooper actually was able to pick him up. He went in with his uniform. He didn’t care.”
It took nearly three hours to get the dogs to safety. They were able to put blankets over them to help them start warming up.
Bogey said he found multiple traps that weren’t supposed to be there because it is private property. He confronted the person who put them there.
“He’s doing good now. He had his first meal. So he will get better,” Bogey said of one of the dogs.
A friend is caring for one of the dogs. The other one walked off after being rescued.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Compulsory flu vaccination for poultry has protected China for now but the virus has still killed wild swans in the country.
Bird flu cases are growing at an alarming rate in Asia. The continent’s poultry farmers are facing an unprecedented situation. Birds are being culled and people are staying away from poultry meat.
It is the worst such outbreak in the region’s history. From Japan to India, the deadly virus is affecting birds across farms. Millions of chickens, ducks and turkeys have been culled. Poultry prices have dropped to an all-time low.
And Asia’s farmers are staring at an unprecedented crisis. While bird flu is common in Asia during this time mostly due to migratory patterns. New strains of the virus have become more lethal. This makes countries on the flight path especially vulnerable.
In India, at least 10 states have reported cases of bird flu. Over 850 cases of bird deaths have been reported in the national capital. In Rajasthan– over 4,000 birds died because of the flu. The Uttar Pradesh government has banned poultry from other states till January 24.
In Kerala, tens of thousands of birds were culled last week. Maharashtra has detected avian influenza in crows as well. Chicken prices in India fell almost a third last week. Wary customers have steered clear of meat.
Not just India, Japan too is dealing with its worst outbreak. A quarter of all prefectures are affected. More than 3 million birds have been culled so far. South Korea also dealt with an outbreak at a duck farm. With the virus strain being similar to the one in Japan.
Compulsory flu vaccination for poultry has protected China for now but the virus has still killed wild swans in the country.
Countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have been spared for now. But continue to face risks due to the movement of goods. What makes the virus even more dangerous is its contagious nature. Infected birds have to be culled to contain the spread. But amid all this- the biggest question is can we consume poultry meat?
According to governments, there is nothing to be worried about. The World Health Organisation says it is safe. That you will be safe if you eat well-cooked meat. However, health experts are not convinced. They are concerned about a species jump. This is when a virus strain moves from one species to another. In this instance — it could be from birds to human beings.
It has happened once in 1997. While human to human transmission has not been detected yet it cannot be ruled out.
The last time, a virus jumped species tt led to the coronavirus pandemic.
Just last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said the Northern Spotted Owl needed to be reclassified from threatened to endangered, reflecting continued loss of the old-growth forests it needs to live — particularly on private and state lands — and the on-going spread of the invasive Barred Owl, which competes with the Spotted Owl.
The Trump administration declined to uplist the bird, and this week, it pounded another metaphorical nail in the owl’s coffin. On Wednesday, FWS published a final revised critical habitat designation for the Northern Spotted Owl that excludes nearly 3.5 million acres, mostly in Oregon, from federal protections. This is a massive increase from the 204,653 acres in Oregon the FWS proposed to exclude in August.
“Even in its final week, the Trump administration is continuing its cruel, reckless attacks on wildlife at a breakneck pace,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This revision guts protected habitat for the Northern Spotted Owl by more than a third. It’s Trump’s latest parting gift to the timber industry and another blow to a species that needs all the protections it can get to fully recover.”
Section 4(b)(2) of the Endangered Species Act requires the Service to balance the benefits and costs of designating areas as critical habitat and consider excluding areas if the costs are too high. The Service did not conduct a new economic analysis but rather relied on a 2012 analysis that found some incremental costs of designating in terms of lost timber harvest. The agency reversed its own previous conclusion that the benefits outweighed the costs.
This is consistent with a recent rule put out by the Trump administration that emphasized giving additional weight to economic costs raised by industries in making critical habitat designations and which the Center for Biological Diversity, along with partners, will challenge.
Based on this analysis, the new critical habitat revision excludes approximately 3,472,064 acres, cutting acres of protected critical habitat originally designated in 2012 by more than a third.
“Excluding millions of acres of federal land will do little to help rural communities in Oregon, but it’ll be another nail in the coffin for the Spotted Owl,” said Greenwald. “Instead of trying to prop up a declining timber industry, we should be doing more to restore forests to save our climate and avoid the extinction crisis. There’s so much work to do in the woods, and much of it is a lot better for the environment than logging.”
2020 tied with 2016 for the hottest year on record, signaling a dangerous trend in the ongoing climate crisis, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) announced on Thursday.
The year’s global temperature average very narrowly exceeded that of 2016, but not by a statistically significant amount,according to NASA. The average temperature was 1.02 degrees Celsius above the baseline mean and represents an alarming amount of warming,according to experts.
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Other organizations have also reported similar results for 2020’s average temperature.The
Trump’s outgoing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith just signed an agreement to work with the NRA to recruit and train more Americans to shoot wild animals.
Tell the Service this agreement is unacceptable and must be broken immediately.
This partnership will allow more animals to be shot — paid for by the agency tasked with protecting wildlife while funneling taxpayer dollars to a far-right gun-industry mouthpiece.
Throughout its anti-wildlife term, the Trump administration has moved to expand trophy hunting. It created an illegal wildlife council rigged with trophy hunters and issued permits to import body parts of threatened leopards and lions.
The administration moved to increase hunting of bobcats, mountain lions and foxes in more national wildlife refuges across the country and now wants to arm and train more people to gun down animals.
With wolves across the lower 48 no longer federally protected, more states could hold wolf trophy hunts this year.
This last attack runs directly counter to the purpose of the Service. In no way should it use its position as wildlife’s protector to enlist more Americans to hunt and kill wildlife.
The agreement between the Department of Interior and the NRA should be torn up and cancelled immediately.
Tell the Service to end this partnership with the NRA right away.
Lancaster County Sheriff’s deputies were called to an area at 176th and Havelock around 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 14th to investigate a hunting accident.
Deputies learned that an 18 year old man was hunting with a 41 year old man. The 41 year old was putting a high powered deer rifle away in the vehicle when it went off. The bullet went through the seat and struck the 18 year old in the leg. The teen was rushed to a hospital in critical condition. He is now listed as stable but further treatment is needed. Officials say there is a possibility he could lose part of the leg.
President-elect Joe Biden at the Delaware Human Society on Nov. 17, 2018, the day he officially adopted his dog, Major.Stephanie Gomez Carter/Delaware Humane Association
President-elect Joe Biden is set to restore a bipartisan norm upon moving into the White House: presidential dogs. The Bidens have two German shepherds, Champ and Major.
Major, in particular, has a “wags to riches” tail.
He’ll soon be the first dog to go from a shelter to the White House. That shelter, the Delaware Humane Association, plans to “indogurate” Major on Sunday in a virtual ceremony. (People and pets alike are invited to attend.)
In early 2018, the shelter received a litter of six German shepherd puppies, including the future first dog. The puppies were in a medical crisis.
“They were very sick,” said Patrick Carroll, executive director of the Delaware Humane Association. “They had gotten into a toxic substance. We’re not sure what.
“The dogs were lethargic, vomiting and hospitalized for a few days,” Carroll says.
President-elect Joe Biden began fostering Major, top, shortly after the dog arrived at the Delaware Humane Association in March 2018.Stephanie Gomez Carter/Delaware Humane Association
The pups bounced back. They recovered with fluids and medication. The shelter posted to Facebook in March 2018 in search of foster homes. According to Carroll, Ashley Biden sent the post to her father, knowing he was looking for a companion for the aging Champ.
Joe Biden showed up.
“He just dropped in on Easter Sunday of all days,” Carroll said, “and wanted to meet the puppies.”
Soon, Major was in foster with the Bidens. Within months, the news broke that he had found his forever (fur-ever?) home. Biden returned to the shelter with a grown Major to officially adopt him in November 2018.Article continues after sponsor message
Sunday’s “indoguration,” co-hosted by Pumpkin Pet Insurance, touts Jill Martin of NBC’s Today show along with “notable rescue dogs and their parents.” Proceeds support the Delaware Humane Association.
“This is a monumental moment for shelter dogs,” said Cory Topel, the shelter’s marketing manager.
Yuki, President Lyndon Johnson’s dog, is held out the window of the car driven by LBJ as the first family starts a ride around the Texas ranch in Stonewall, Texas, in September 1967.AP
Though Major is digging up new ground as the first shelter pup in the White House, he follows in the pawprints of Yuki, another rescue to reside with the first family.
“He is the friendliest, and the smartest, and the most constant in his attentions of all the dogs that I’ve known,” said Yuki’s owner (and President) Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Trump is the first president in more than a century not to have a dog. William McKinley had only cats and birds, including a parrot named Washington Post.
Biden even targeted dog lovers with a campaign message shortly before Election Day.
“Let’s put dogs back in the White House!” he tweeted.
Carroll, executive director of the Delaware shelter, says Major’s story does more than encourage pet adoption.
“This is shining a light on all of the resources animal shelters bring to a community,” he said. “If you need pet food because you’re struggling, or you need low cost vaccinations to keep your pet healthy, all the things people need, they should see their shelter as a resource.”
© Max Whittaker for The New York TimesCalifornia Highway Patrol officers walk outside the California State Capitol Friday in Sacramento ahead of potential weekend protests.
