The two homemade shotguns seized by police. -Pic courtesy of police.
BAU: A man died from 43 shotgun pellet wounds in an accidental shooting by his brothers while they were hunting in the forest near Sungai Boyuh, Jugan village here, last night.
Bau District Police Chief, Deputy Superintendent Poge Nyaon said the police received a phone call from the Bau hospital informing them that a 49-year-old man had died after being shot while out hunting at 11.45pm.
“A total of 43 pellet wounds were found with most hitting the front of the victim’s body and a few on the victim’s hands and thighs.
“A police team from the Criminal Investigation Division, Bau District Police Headquarters, arrested two individuals aged 40 and 50, who are the victim’s brothers at 5pm yesterday,” he said today.
The eruption of the underwater Tonga volcano produced a mega-tsunami, scientists have found(Image credit: NASA)
The Tonga underwater volcanic eruption rivaled the strength of the largest U.S. nuclear bomb and produced a “mega-tsunami” nearly the height of a 30-story skyscraper,a recent study finds(opens in new tab).
On Jan. 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai submarine volcano — a large, cone-shaped mountain located near the islands of the Kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific — erupted with a violent explosion. The eruption generated thehighest-ever recorded volcanic plume, which reached 35 miles (57 kilometers) tall. The…
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane gun range and Olympic athlete filed a lawsuit against Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Patrol Chief John Batiste on Tuesday over a recently passed law to ban the sale and import of “assault weapons.”
Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop and Amanda Banta, a former member of the USA Shooting Team who competed in the 2012 Olympic Games, among others, are suing Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste over a newly passed law to ban the sale and import of assault weapons.
Sharp Shooting Indoor Range & Gun Shop, Olympian Amanda Banta and others argued in the lawsuit that the weapons included in the ban are “in common use,” and based on current case law cannot be banned.
According to the plaintiffs, the law “takes the radical step of banning nearly every modern semiautomatic rifle—the single most popular type of rifle in the country, possessed by Americans in the tens of millions.”
The plaintiffs sued Ferguson and Batiste to prevent their respective agencies from enforcing the law.
Proponents of the legislation, including First Spouse Trudi Inslee, argued throughout the session that it will help keep children safe by making it harder for would-be school shooters from obtaining their weapons of choice.
A RAND Corporation review of research found such a ban may decrease mass shooting deaths, but more research is needed.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday draws distinctions between fully-automatic weapons and semi-automatics, arguing bans against the former are reasonable, while the latter “have been in safe and effective use by civilians in this country—including in Washington—for more than a century.”
Only about 135 grizzly bears remained when the species was granted Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. iStock.com
174SHARES
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources voted in favor of six bills and resolutions that threaten to remove protections from grizzly bears and gray wolves and weaken the Endangered Species Act. This “grab bag” of danger includes:
The Trust the Science Act, H.R. 764, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for gray wolves in the lower 48 states.
The Grizzly Bear State Management Act, H.R. 1245, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population.
The Comprehensive Grizzly Bear Management Act, H.R. 1419, would remove Endangered Species Act protection for grizzly bears in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population.
House Joint Resolution 29 would nullify a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision last year to protect the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.
House Joint Resolution 46 would nullify last year’s joint decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service to expand the habitat that the Endangered Species Act can protect for the benefit of species facing extinction.
House Joint Resolution 49 would nullify last year’s tentative decision by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the northern long-eared bat under the Endangered Species Act.
House Joint Resolutions 29, 46, and 49 would significantly harm the Endangered Species Act by using the Congressional Review Act to overturn recent protections for imperiled animals. Using the Congressional Review Act in this way sets a dangerous precedent by essentially voiding previous rules issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service and by prohibiting the agencies from issuing any similar rule without a future act from Congress.
This kind of public policy doesn’t simply weaken our democratic processes; it puts these vulnerable species under terrible pressure. We’ve already seen the harm that comes when Congress removes a population from the Endangered Species Act’s list of threatened and endangered species: Since Congress directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist wolves in Montana and Idaho in 2011, thousands of wolves—including pups—have been slaughtered, and those states continue to pursue new and crueler ways to kill wolves. If H.R. 764 is passed, other states may move to adopt the same trophy hunting, trapping and population reduction schemes plaguing the wolves of the Northern Rockies.
Gray wolves face a new threat from the Trust the Science Act, which would remove Endangered Species Act protection for wolves in the lower 48 states. Alamy Stock Photo
Grizzly bears face peril once again if H.R. 1245 and H.R. 1419 go through. In the early 1800s this iconic species ranged from northern Mexico to Alaska and in the lower 48 states numbered as many as 50,000 individuals. But by the 1930s, grizzly bears had been nearly wiped out. Only about 135 bears remained when the species was granted Endangered Species Act protections in 1975. With these protections, grizzly bear numbers have slowly begun to recover, and they now live in small, isolated subpopulations. However, there are still fewer than 2,000 individuals in the lower 48 states, so it’s critical that grizzly bears retain their protections if they are to survive. Should those protections disappear, it’s likely that some states will rush to allow trophy hunting that targets them.
Not only would House Resolutions 764, 1245 and 1419 open the door to trophy hunting of imperiled species, but they would also bar these measures from judicial review, effectively removing the rights of citizens to challenge them in court, an essential feature of the checks-and-balances structure of our system of government.
We expect the House of Representatives to vote on these measures in the coming months, so there’s time to take action to protect wolves, grizzlies and the Endangered Species Act, one of the few laws that remains immensely popular with the American public. The Endangered Species Act has saved approximately 99% of its listed species from extinction, and it is thanks to this landmark law that iconic species such as the bald eagle, whose numbers had plummeted by the 1970s, still grace our national landscape.
ORLANDO, Fla. – A young black bear recently spotted in College Park was struck and killed by a car Thursday morning on Fairbanks Avenue, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
FWC bear biologists had been following the juvenile bear since Monday, the agency said in a statement. Orlando police warned at the time that “although the bear is cute, please do not approach,” with pictures of the bear emerging on social media showing it residing in a tree near Yale Street and Formosa Avenue.
Trending VideosUnmute
Duration 0:32
/
Current Time 0:04Advanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next
College Park bear struck, killed by car, Florida wildlife officials say
NOW PLAYING
1 dead, 6 hurt in crash after Orlando teen runs red light in stolen car
Brightline unveils new train station at Orlando International Airport
Brightline unveils new train station at Orlando International Airport
Brightline reveals new train station at Orlando airport
Orlando’s jobless rate holds at 2.6% amid statewide growth
The bear was still in College Park the next day, police said, as the FWC advised all non-residents of the area to stay away while it worked to retrieve the animal.
College Park bear struck, killed by car, Florida wildlife officials say (Copyright 2023 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)
According to FWC, what happened Thursday marks the first time that a “dispersing” bear has been run over by a car in Orlando. The term “dispersing” references when juvenile bears begin to leave their mother’s home range, the statement reads.
In this situation, attempts were made to try and trap the bear for relocation but the bear continued to be on the move. Each situation may be different, but generally it is best practice for bears to be given plenty of space so that they will move away on their own.Communications, Division of Habitat and Species Conservation | Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
More and more black bear sightings are reported in the Orlando area each year, FWC said.
People who feel threatened by a bear, observe a sick, injured, dead or orphaned bear or observe someone intentionally feeding bears or harming them are directed to contact FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).
NORFOLK, VA (AP) – The U.S. government is launching a new program to combat the scourge of abandoned crab and lobster traps, which can dilute harvests and kill other fish in coastal waters from Maine to Alaska.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has chosen William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science to anchor the program.
The university announced Friday that NOAA is providing an $8 million grant to the institute to implement the project.
Abandoned fishing gear is a worldwide problem that’s been referred to as anything from “ ghost nets ” to the “land mines of the sea.” The lost equipment is often dislodged by storms or passing boats, but it still will attract and kill marine life.
Industry experts and scientists estimate commercial fishermen lose about 10% of their traps per year to bad weather, strong currents and vessels that sever tie lines.
A 2001 study suggested that ghost fishing kills 4 million to 10 million blue crabs each year in Louisiana alone.
The NOAA’s new program will fund efforts to remove derelict traps used to harvest blue, Dungeness and stone crabs as well as the American and spiny species of lobsters.
The program will collect nationwide data on where the lost traps are found and the types of marine life that is impacted.
The information will be used to help inform efforts throughout U.S. coastal waters, said Kirk Havens, who directs the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
“Just removing 10% of the traps from a hotspot area, you can increase a harvest significantly,” he said.
Removal also helps preserve marine life. In the Chesapeake Bay alone, some 40 species have been caught in derelict blue crab traps, from rock fish and flounder to diving ducks, Havens said.
NOAA’s new effort is the Nationwide Fishing TRAP Program, with TRAP standing for Trap Removal, Assessment & Prevention. Havens said the institute will launch a national competition to fund removal endeavors across the U.S.
Coastal states have been battling the problem for decades.
For example, experts estimated in 2014 that more than 12,000 crab pots were being lost in Washington state’s Puget Sound every year, costing an estimated $700,000 in lost harvest revenue — as well as damaging the sea floor environment.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has worked with the state of Virginia and local watermen to remove tens of thousands of derelict crab pots. A 2016 study by the institute found that a 6-year removal program generated more than $20 million in harvest value.
Derelict equipment is also a concern in Texas, where volunteers have removed more than 40,000 abandoned traps in the last 20 years.
Last year, federal funding was approved in Connecticut to begin removing some of the hundreds of thousands of derelict lobster traps left on the floor of the Long Island Sound.
“The problem with lost gear is enormous,” Pascal van Erp, a Dutch diver who founded the charity Ghost Diving, told The Associated Press in 2016.
“It is found in all seas, oceans and inland waters at all depths, along the beach and under the sand,” he said.
The writer is the Northeast regional director for the Humane Society of the United States.
A new bill, H.191, gives Vermont legislators the opportunity to banish the cruel and widely despised practice of recreational trapping from our state.
Steel-jaw leghold traps cause gruesome injuries, prolonged agony, and death for an untold number of wild and domestic animals in Vermont.
Trapped animals may die of blood loss, dehydration, hypothermia, or predation, or may chew or twist off a limb, paw or digit to escape. Traps also drown animals, a particularly inhumane and horrifying death for river otters and beavers who can hold their breath for eight minutes or more.
Body-gripping traps are designed to kill quickly when two rotating jaws close on an animal’s neck or chest but often just slam onto the animal’s abdomen or other body part and cause unimaginable suffering.
Jurors in east-central Minnesota found guilty of murder a man who said the victim’s shooting death was from a hunting accident.
John T. Quitter, 37, of Chisago City, Minn., was convicted in Pine County District Court of second-degree murder and fleeing police in connection with the shooting on Sept. 6 near Hinckley that killed Colton J. Abbott, 33, of Sandstone, Minn.
Quitter remains jailed ahead of sentencing, which is scheduled for June 13.
According to the charges:
Essentia Health hospital in Sandstone called emergency dispatch after Abbott arrived there in his pickup truck driven by Quitter. Abbott “had numerous bullet holes to his chest that appeared to be caused…
Yesterday’s BBC Look East featured Rachel from Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteursrecalling the attack by Sam Jones of the Cottesmore Hunt, in which he rode over her with his horse.
While investors have poured billions of dollars into burgeoning lab-grown meat companies, The Wall Street Journal reports, the industry is running into a huge reality problem: scaling up and breaking into the mainstream market.
For years, we’ve heard from companies promising to turn the meat industry on its head with products that are cultivated in a lab using animal cells without the need of slaughtering methane-producing livestock on an industrial scale.
But so far, nobody’s managed to crack the fundamentals.
“We can make it on small scales successfully,” Josh Tetrick, CEO of lab-grown meat company Eat Just, told the WSJ. “What is uncertain is whether we and other companies will be able to produce this at the largest of scales, at the lowest of costs within the next decade.”
In other words, we’re still many years — and one plausible business model — away from being able to pick up a lab-grown meat burger patty at the local grocery store for a reasonable price.
Hybrid Theory
Analysts see a promising alternative approach that could stand a better chance: hybrid products that use animal cells as well as plant-based proteins.
Eat Just has made some concrete steps towards bringing its cultivated hybrid chicken product to the masses. It’s started selling the cutlet in Singapore, which is the only country in the world to actually permit the sale of lab-grown meat.
Even with hybrid products, scaling up is proving difficult, in part due to the complexities involved in maintaining a sterile environment.
“What we’re trying to do is not easy,” Uma Valeti, CEO of lab-grown meat company Upside, told the WSJ. “It’s like putting a man on the Moon. There’s no road map or blueprint.”
Former Upside employees told the newspaper that the company has struggled to produce meaningful quantities of its product and is still a long way from producing a target of 400,000 pounds at its pilot plant and hasn’t even reached its 2021 goal of just 50,000 pounds, according to the report.
Despite the shortcomings, others are steadfast in their belief that lab-grown meat is the answer to the world’s climate woes and growing population.
But getting to the point where lab-grown meat alternatives can make a meaningful dent in the global demand for meat will require companies to clear many more hurdles.
Top Storiesby Futurism
Exposing the Big Game 
