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Kunce talks about incident where reporter was hit during campaign stop at shooting range
by: Hannah King
Posted: Oct 23, 2024 / 06:42 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 23, 2024 / 06:42 PM CDT
SHARE https://fox4kc.com/news/kunce-talks-about-incident-where-reporter-was-hit-during-campaign-stop-at-shooting-range/
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lucas Kunce was on the campaign trail Wednesday, just a day after getting some new and national attention.
FOX4 caught up with him at the KC-area Pipefitters Training Facility where he toured the shop.
“I don’t take any money from corporate PACs. I don’t take any money from federal lobbyists. No big farm executives. For me, it’s all about helping working people. This is one of those facilities down here where we train folks up to have good union wages and a good job and benefits,” Kunce said, referring to the Pipefitters Training Center Wednesday.
Up Next – Young voters could be decisive in the election
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Wednesday’s event came on the heels of a visit to the backyard of a home in Holt, Missouri.
“Me and Adam Kinzinger were out there, and we were kind of taking turns on the range and it seems like a fragment off of either a target or a bullet ricocheted off and nicked a reporter in the arm,” Kunce described.
“When we saw it, we administered first aid, put a bandage on him. He’s great. He seems like he’s fine. I talked to him last night.”
The incident occurred in Clinton County, Missouri. Sheriff Larry Fish shared with FOX4: “On October 23, the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office was informed of a target shooting incident that occurred on October 22, 2024, in an unincorporated area of Holt, MO, on private property.”
According to Kunce’s campaign, “Lt. Col. Lucas Kunce (USMCR, 13 years active duty) was joined by Lt. Col. Adam Kinzinger (Air National Guard), a former Republican Congressman, at a gun range just outside of Kansas City, alongside about a dozen union members on the campaign trail. The range is owned by a UAW 249 retiree and is managed by a UAW member and NRA Training Counselor.”When, where does early voting start for Kansas City, Missouri metro voters?
Kunce called the incident a ‘total accident’. He gave aid to the injured TV reporter.
“I’m glad he’s fine. I’m glad we had the first aid kits handy. We were able to take care of him,” he said.
Kunce says local law enforcement was contacted. Sheriff Fish said the injured reporter was allegedly struck in the arm by flying shrapnel while covering the event.
“Thankfully, the reporter sustained only minor injuries and later sought medical attention at an area hospital,” Sheriff Fish said.
Sheriff Fish says Kunce, one of several people present at the private event, reported the incident to law enforcement.
“This incident is currently under investigation, and all indications at this time suggest that it was an unfortunate accident.”
World on track for catastrophic 3 degrees Celsius warming, UN warns
Current plans and policies will lead to global temperatures rising between 2.6C and 3.1C this century, a new report finds.Share
October 24, 2024 4:01 pm CET
By Zia Weise and Lucia Mackenzie
BRUSSELS — Intensify efforts to fight global warming or start planning a funeral for the Paris Agreement, the United Nations is telling governments ahead of this year’s international climate summit.
Current plans and policies will lead to 2.6 to 3.1 degrees Celsius of global warming this century, with zero chance of limiting the temperature increase to the totemic 1.5C target agreed in Paris in 2015, according to a new report out Thursday.
In fact, existing measures are falling so far short of what’s needed that the world even risks blowing past 2C, the Paris accord’s upper limit, the U.N. warned.
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The severity and frequency of dangerous heat waves, destructive storms and other disasters rises with every fraction of warming. At 3C, scientists say, the world could pass several points of no return that would dramatically alter the planet’s climate and increase sea levels, such as due to the collapse of polar ice caps.
“If nations do not implement current commitments then show a massive increase in ambition in the new pledges, followed by rapid delivery, the Paris Agreement target of holding global warming to 1.5C will be dead within a few years and 2C will take its place in the intensive care unit,” said Inger Andersen, the U.N. environment chief.
This year’s iteration of the U.N.’s so-called emissions gap report — assessing the yawning chasm between the policies required to avert climate catastrophe and what countries are actually doing — comes just weeks before world leaders gather in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku for the start of the COP29 climate summit.
There, countries face the task of hammering out a deal on how to finance climate action in the developing world. But the Baku summit is also widely seen as a stepping stone toward COP30 in Brazil next year, the deadline for governments to submit fresh plans on how they plan to meet their Paris Agreement obligations.
In light of the findings published Thursday, Andersen called for “dramatically stronger” plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs); more funding for measures to curb climate change; and leadership from the largest emitters.
Wrong direction
The world is already 1.3C hotter than before the Industrial Revolution, and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise, increasing by 1.3 percent last year compared with 2022.
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As a result, limiting warming to the relative safety of the Paris targets has become more difficult, requiring even steeper annual emissions cuts of 7.5 percent or 4 percent by 2030 for 1.5C or 2C, respectively.
With the policies currently in place across the globe, the world is heading for 3.1C of warming by the end of the century, the report says. Measures outlined in current NDCs, which haven’t been fully implemented, would bring that down to between 2.6C and 2.8C.
Even the best-case scenario of 2.6C, however, represents “catastrophic” warming with “debilitating impacts to people, planet and economies,” the U.N. warns.
Under all three scenarios, the world’s chances of limiting warming to 1.5C are “virtually zero,” the authors write, with global temperatures “well above” that level by 2050 and a “one-in-three chance that warming already exceeds 2C by then.”
To get on track toward 1.5C, global emissions ought to fall 42 percent by 2030, or 28 percent for a pathway to 2C — a message also included in last year’s report, aptly titled “Broken Record.”
The new NDCs — due in February 2025 — are meant to include measures and targets up to 2035. By then, global emissions should fall 57 percent for 1.5C and 37 percent for 2C, according to this year’s report, dubbed “No More Hot Air … Please!”
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Mo’ money, fewer problems
Andersen said that worldwide, measures to reduce emissions will require a “minimum six-fold increase” in investment, “backed by reform of the global financial architecture and strong private sector action.”
Developing countries excluding China require a massive surge in investment, the report says, as “these regions are already struggling with public health, human capital, food and energy security, rising debt and political tensions, all of which are exacerbated by climate change.”
Whether current NDCs limit the rise in global temperatures to 2.6C or 2.8C depends on funding. The lower figure would be reached under so-called conditional NDCs, meaning plans contingent on additional financial aid. Twelve percent of all NDCs are fully conditional, according to the report, with another 21 percent featuring conditional elements.
How to fund climate action in developing countries will dominate discussions in Baku. By the end of COP29, countries are meant to agree on a new long-term financial goal to replace the current $100 billion-a-year target, which was agreed in 2009 and only reached in 2022.
Countries classified as industrialized in the 1990s provide the funding. But given the enormous funding needs — some developing countries would like to see an annual target of more than $1 trillion — as well as dramatic changes in countries’ comparative wealth and emissions since then, rich countries would like emerging economies such as China to chip in.
G20 gotta take the lead
Case in point: The U.N. report shows that Beijing has drawn level with the European Union in terms of historical responsibility — both the bloc of 27 and China are responsible for 12 percent of all carbon dioxide emitted between 1850 and 2022. (The United States remains far ahead of both, accounting for 20 percent of historical emissions.)
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In general, the G20 — which comprises industrialized countries such as the EU and U.S. as well as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia — were responsible for 77 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2023.
In stark contrast, all 55 African Union countries accounted for just 6 percent.
“The largest-emitting members” of the G20 “will need to dramatically increase action and ambition now and in the new pledges,” the U.N. writes.
After all, while the entire G20 accounted for 77 percent of last year’s global emissions, the largest six polluters among them were responsible for more than 60 percent. The U.N. report doesn’t name and shame, but authors are referring to China (30 percent), the United States (11 percent), India (8 percent), the EU (6 percent), Russia (5 percent) and Brazil (2 percent).
Progress among the G20 is a mixed bag: China’s emissions grew 5.2 percent in 2023, while the EU’s fell 7.5 percent; and while China is much more populous, its per-capita emissions in 2023 were 11 tons to the EU’s 7.3 tons.
U.S. emissions fell by 1.4 percent, but American per-capita emissions remain the second-highest at 18 tons after Russia’s 19 tons. India’s are just 2.9 tons — even though its emissions rose by 6 percent last year.
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And while the EU, for example, is assessed as on track to reach its climate targets, many other G20 countries are not.
Show don’t tell
Most importantly, the U.N. says, world leaders need to deliver on their promises.
While current measures and NDCs all see the planet blowing past 1.5C, there is one path that gets closer to the goal: If countries deliver on all the promises they made on top of official NDCs in recent years, warming would be limited to 1.9C this century — making good on the Paris Agreement’s “below 2C” pledge, at least.
It’s also the only path among the four that would see warming plateau around 2100; under the other three scenarios, temperatures would continue to rise in the next century.
U.N. environment chief Andersen called on countries to turn rhetoric into action. Governments should enshrine their most ambitious pledges — and, ideally, more — in their upcoming NDCs, she said.
“I urge every nation: no more hot air, please,” she said, echoing the report’s title. “Use COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan to increase action now, set the stage for dramatically stronger NDCs, and then go all-out to get on the 1.5C pathway by 2030.”
Júlia Vadler and Giovanna Coi contributed to this report.
Undercooked bear meat at North Carolina barbecue leaves 10 sickened, says CDC report
[A total sport hunt] — Over 80k out-of-state hunters visiting South Dakota for pheasant hunting
Vote for Colorado wild cats
by Wayne Pacelle
In Colorado, we are working hard to educate voters about deeply ingrained, ruthless policies related to native wild cats and to urge voters there to sweep these archaic practices into the dustbin of history.
Shooting 500 mountain lions in Colorado during four-month season to start in late November — including hundreds of mother cats with dependent kittens — is disgraceful.
The hunts are rigged. Wealthy trophy hunters hire commercial guides with packs of dogs trained to attack and then drive the animal into a tree for an easy shot of a stationary animal. It’s a “guaranteed kill,” with the trophy hunter only paying the $8,000 fee after the kill.
It’s even worse for the bobcats. These native cats, just a step up in size from a house cat, are also attacked by packs of dogs — and also killed in baited traps. All to sell their fur to China.
That’s why it’s so important for voters to pass Prop 127 and halt these forms of commercial killing of our native cats.
We are telling our story to voters, especially through three powerful advertisements airing now throughout Colorado. I hope you’ll spend a minute and a half and watch each 30-second ad.
- Former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe, himself a sportsman, called trophy hunting “unsporting, cruel” in the ad he’s featured in. Watch it here.
- Colonel Tom Pool, DVM, PhD, and our senior veterinarian, tells Coloradans that “as a fair-chase hunter and veterinarian, I just can’t stomach shooting a treed cat at point blank range.” Watch it here.
Pool also says that Colorado needs every mountain lion in the state to do his or her work to arrest the spread of deadly and incurable Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk. But for lions he says, CWD would have spread across the mountain counties in western Colorado. - “Treed” shows Colorado voters what’s truly at stake — taking us to the front row of a guided trophy hunt of a lion. It’s tough to watch for anyone possessing empathy for animals, but it provides an essential understanding for anyone casting a ballot on this subject. Watch it here.
You and the supporters of Animal Wellness Action and Cats Aren’t Trophies have been extraordinarily generous and we’ve been able to raise more than $3 million to tell the story. But trophy hunting groups are spending millions, including one new front group that dumped in a half million dollars just days ago. We are running out of resources. We may have to pull back on the ads that you see above unless more generous supporters step up.
We have a winning message. But we need fuel to drive it forward.
Dr. Tom Pool and Dan Ashe are telling millions of Coloradans that lions and bobcats are crucial actors in the balance of nature. They check the spread of disease for the benefit of wildlife and all of the people of Colorado who enjoy these animals in many ways.
Maine Woman’s Dog Likely Saved Her After 4 Days Lost In Woods
By Renee Straker
3 days ago
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A walk in the woods with their dogs turned into a deadly tragedy for a family in Alexander, Maine.
Pamela Helmstadter, 72, was found alive and severely hypothermic after spending four days lost in the forest. Her 82-year-old husband John Helmstadter was found dead about 200 yards away, the Maine Warden Service said in a press release. They went for a walk in the woods behind their home on Oct. 13.
Searchers found Pamela with one of her dogs by her side on Oct. 17. Rescuers say her body temperature was 90.7 degrees and wardens believe the dog helped save her by laying on her to keep her warm in the rain and cold.
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Low temperatures in the region over those four days were in the 30s and highs only reached the 50s.
According to the Warden Service, the couple got lost after wandering off a trail, and then John fell and could not get back up. Neither had cellphones with them and Pamela got disoriented and lost when she tried to get help.
A neighbor contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 16 after one of the couple’s dogs returned to their home but there was no sign of the Helmstadters or their other dog.
Game wardens and K-9s located the couple over a mile from their home. Helmstadter told them she had given up hope of being found, but then she heard a search plane circling over her five different times and that gave her hope that she would be rescued.
Helmstadter was taken to Calais Community Hospital for observation. She later told WMUR-TV that she was feeling a lot of sadness and grief about the loss of her husband, saying, “He was loving. We were married for 31 years and we had a good life together.”
AI helps humans have a 20-minute ‘conversation’ with a humpback whale named Twain
10-24-2024
Earth.com staff writer
In a remarkable encounter off the coast of Alaska, human scientists had what they describe as a “conversation” with a humpback whale named Twain. Dr. Brenda McCowan from the University of California Davis was at the heart of this unexpected exchange.
Dr. McCowan and her team, known as Whale-SETI, have been studying how humpback whales communicate. They’re aiming to understand whale communication systems to help in the search for life beyond Earth.
Whale responds to a human greeting
Using an underwater speaker, the team played a recorded humpback “contact” call into the ocean. To their astonishment, Twain approached their boat and began responding.
For about 20 minutes, the whale circled them, matching the intervals between each call they played.
“We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language,’” said Dr. McCowan.
The researchers were thrilled to see such direct interaction using the whale’s own signals.
Science behind the encounter
The Whale-SETI team is working on developing filters to detect intelligent signals, which could be used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
By studying how whales communicate, they hope to find patterns that could apply to signals from outer space.
Dr. Fred Sharpe from the Alaska Whale Foundation emphasized just how intelligent humpback whales are. He pointed out their complex social systems and unique behaviors.
“They create tools such as nets made of bubbles to catch fish and extensively communicate through songs and social calls,” Dr. Sharpe explained.
Humans, whales and extraterrestrial life
The behavior they observed in Twain supports an important idea in the search for life beyond Earth.
“Because of current limitations on technology, an important assumption of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and so target human receivers,” noted Dr. Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute.
“This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales.”
By engaging with whales, the team believes they can learn how to detect and understand intelligent signals, whether they come from the depths of the ocean or the far reaches of space.
The details of this extraordinary encounter are published in the journal Peer J, in an article titled “Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: ‘Conversing’ with an Alaskan Humpback Whale.”
The researchers plan to use mathematics and various forms of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically information theory and machine learning, to measure how complex the whale’s communication is. They want to understand the rules and structures in the messages they receive.
Humans and whales talking — what’s next?
The Whale-SETI team isn’t stopping there. They’re preparing another paper focusing on the non-audio ways humpback whales might communicate, like the bubble rings they make around humans.
Co-authors Dr. Josie Hubbard, Lisa Walker, and Jodi Frediani bring expertise in animal intelligence, whale song analysis, and whale behavior to the project.
The team acknowledges the financial support from the Templeton Foundation Diverse Intelligences Program, which helped make their research possible.
What Is Whale-SETI?
Whale-SETI, short for Whale Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a unique project that combines marine biology with the quest to find life beyond Earth.
The researchers are trying to decode whale communication, working under the idea that these sounds might contain complex messages similar to human languages — or even those of extraterrestrial beings.
Using advanced technology like sophisticated underwater microphones and artificial intelligence, they record and analyze whale sounds.
The AI looks for patterns that might indicate language-like structures. This not only helps us understand whales better but also could improve how we search for intelligent life elsewhere.
Why humans should care about humpback whales
Humpback whales are fascinating creatures. They can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh as much as 40 tons.
Known scientifically as Megaptera novaeangliae, these whales are easily recognized by their long pectoral fins and knobbly heads.
They travel great distances, migrating up to 5,000 miles between feeding and breeding grounds.
Their songs are complex and melodious, playing a crucial role in how they interact socially, especially during breeding season.
Once hunted nearly to extinction, humpback whale populations have been recovering thanks to international protections.
However, they still face threats like getting caught in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and changes to their environment caused by climate change.
Understanding their communication and social structures can help in conservation efforts, ensuring these majestic creatures continue to thrive in our oceans.
SETI Institute’s role
The SETI Institute, founded in 1984, is dedicated to exploring life beyond Earth.
By studying signals from space and understanding how life might arise elsewhere, they aim to answer the profound question: Are we alone in the universe?
Their work with Whale-SETI is an exciting intersection of this quest and the study of intelligent life on our own planet.
What does it all mean?
To sum it all up, this encounter with Twain isn’t just a fascinating story about humans and a whale. It’s a step toward understanding intelligence in all its forms.
By learning how to communicate with humpback whales, scientists hope to develop tools that could one day help us recognize and understand messages from extraterrestrial beings.
What does this mean for us? It highlights the importance of looking closely at the intelligent life we share our planet with. Perhaps by understanding the minds of whales, we can better prepare ourselves for encounters with life beyond Earth.
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The group behind this research includes scientists from the SETI Institute, UC Davis, and the Alaska Whale Foundation.
Three Lions Found Shot and Mutilated in Ritual Poaching Kill at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe
Grand Teton grizzly bear No. 399 that delighted visitors for decades is killed by vehicle in Wyoming
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In this undated photo provided by Grand Teton National Park a grizzly bear known as No. 399 stands along side a cub. (C. Adams/Grand Teton National Park via AP)Read More
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FILE – Grizzly bear 399 and her four cubs feed on a deer carcass on Nov. 17, 2020, in southern Jackson Hole. (Ryan Dorgan/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP, File)Read More
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FILE – Grizzly bear No. 399 and her four cubs cross a road as Cindy Campbell stops traffic in Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Nov. 17, 2020. (Ryan Dorgan/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP, File)Read More
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In this undated photo provided by Grand Teton National Park a grizzly bear known as No. 399 walks along side a cub. (C. Adams/Grand Teton National Park via AP)Read More
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In this undated photo provided by Grand Teton National Park a grizzly bear known as No. 399 walks along side a cub. (C. Adams/Grand Teton National Park via AP)Read More
By MEAD GRUVERUpdated 6:09 PM PDT, October 23, 2024Share
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A famous grizzly bear beloved for decades by countless tourists, biologists and professional wildlife photographers in Grand Teton National Park is dead after being struck by a vehicle in western Wyoming.
Grizzly No. 399 died Tuesday night on a highway in Snake River Canyon south of Jackson, park officials said in a statement Wednesday, adding the driver was unhurt. A yearling cub was with the grizzly when she was struck and though not believed to have been hurt, its whereabouts were unknown, according to the statement.
The circumstances of the crash were unclear. Grand Teton and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they had no further information to release about it.
At 28 years old, No. 399 was the oldest known reproducing female grizzly in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Each spring, wildlife enthusiasts eagerly awaited her emergence from her den to see how many cubs she had birthed over the winter — then quickly shared the news online.
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Named for the identity tag affixed by researchers to her ear, the grizzly amazed watchers by continuing to reproduce into old age. Unlike many grizzly bears, she was often seen near roads in Grand Teton, drawing crowds and traffic jams.
Exposing the Big Game 