For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been having trouble with the like button staying on after I click it. The text below it shows that I and the others liked the post, but my picture doesn’t add to the line and show. Also, if I return to the post, it doesn’t show I liked it. It’s becoming so frustrating, as I don’t know if bloggers are getting my likes or not.
Is anyone else having trouble with like buttons or know a remedy? I wrote my question to the community, as I want it to work correctly for me. Believe me folks, I’m out there liking as often as I’m able. It’s been 6 and a half weeks now since the tragedy of my son’s sudden death. Kyle was my only child and its agony missing him so much. He was my best friend and my rock. There is…
Wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have stirred passionate debate between supporters and those who would like to see the animals removed from the landscape.
This past year Montana’s governor and the Legislature, led by representative and trapper Paul Fielder from Thompson Falls, passed a series of reckless bills aimed at decimating the wolf population in our state, despite the fact we have record numbers of deer and elk requiring extra-long hunting seasons.
Testimony at the Legislature warned legislators that if they passed wolf slaughter bills, the federal government would intervene. Now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is undertaking a 12-month review of the wolves’ status to determine relisting the wolves as endangered. Currently the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks — in desperate need of reform — has decided to allow anyone with a license to kill 20 wolves, 10 by shooting and 10 by trapping. Our state is sanctioning the torture and eradication of animals of tremendous intelligence and beauty. Destroying packs, which will lead to more livestock depredation, is designed to make wolves the cultural enemy.
But it’s not just Republicans who can hang their hat on this slaughter. If you examine the process, you can’t avoid seeing the handiwork of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. It is Sen. Tester who moved to delist wolves and return them to state control in 2011, an effort that has proven to be a disaster. But Tester has long seen his tough reelections dependent on killing wolves, not thriving wildlife. His actions against wolves are a disgrace and deserve more sunshine and less double talk.
Many people I have spoken with believe wolf protection flows through the Interior Department. That is true to a certain extent, but it seems clear that the Interior Secretary would like to reinstate protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho. The problem seems to be coming from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency that will soon have as its director a person shepherded by Jon Tester — Martha Williams, former director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Williams’ reign at FWP showed little support for wolves and more talk than action about moving the agency out of the stone age and into the real world of allowing species to be self-regulating. There was no action to curb the rampant power of the NRA and trophy hunting and trapping organizations that control the agency and directly fund its narrow mission.
Now, thanks to Tester, Williams will be appointed director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after only a few years in wildlife management. The reason is simple; Tester does not want wolves placed back in protection. Tester’s refusal to meet with constituents on this seems based on the mistaken belief that he understands the will of people across Montana on the issue of wolves.
Tester does not understand the love for, emotion and passion that people bring to the table in their support of wolves. His written responses to constituents are tone deaf to concerns. He ignores the financial power wolves generate for Montana.
It’s not easy to be hard on a senator who has done so much for Montana. His votes on infrastructure, health care and many important issues have been bold and important, but his efforts to stop the protection of wolves need to be challenged.
Wildlife is the real treasure of the Treasure State, and wolves are valuable not only economically and environmentally, but also for disease control. Chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis are on the rise. Can we really afford to destroy wolves, the only known defense?
Most Montanans, including ranchers, find the wolf slaughter repugnant. The time has come for leadership that allows wolves to coexist.
Senator Tester, this is your chance to get right with wolves.
Stephen Capra is executive director of Footloose Montana.
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Fourth Student Dies in Michigan High School Shooting
Dillon Burroughs 3 – 4 minutes
A fourth victim in the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan died Wednesday, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
Justin Shilling, 17, passed away at approximately 10:00 a.m. local time at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac just one day after the shooting tragedy that took the lives of three students.
Three students died the day of the incident. They included Tate Myre, a 16-year-old football player, who died in a sheriff’s deputy’s car while traveling to the hospital; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Madisyn Baldwin, 17.
Six additional people remain wounded, including one unnamed 47-year-old teacher grazed by a bullet.
Other students noted in the press conference and reported by a local FOX 2 affiliate included:
A 14-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head and jaw is in serious condition.
A 17-year-old girl was listed as stable after being shot in the neck.
A 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg and is stable.
A 14-year-old girl with chest and neck wounds is currently on a ventilator after surgery, according to the sheriff.
A 17-year-old girl was shot in the chest and is in critical condition.
The suspect is currently being held at a local juvenile detention facility and has declined to speak to law enforcement regarding motives. The suspect has not been publicly named, and, due to The Daily Wire’s policy on not naming perpetrators of mass casualty incidents, the suspect’s name will not be used in future Daily Wire reports.
The Daily Wire previously reported that the shooting involved a handgun likely purchased by his father on Black Friday, according to what Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said on Tuesday.
The student was taken into custody along with a 9mm Sig Sauer SP 2022 handgun, according to a report by the Detroit Free Press. The suspect had at least two 15-round magazines, with seven remaining rounds when he was apprehended, according to Bouchard’s press conference.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that the weapon used in the shooting was purchased on November 26th, four days ago by the boy’s father. The gun had 15 round magazines. We found two of them. There allegedly was three… more than likely that third magazine will be found there,” Bouchard noted.
At least 12 shots were fired, based on shell casings found at the school. Earlier reports noted 15 to 20 rounds had been fired during the shooting.
Information regarding the location of the handgun purchased was not made known to the public. Images of the alleged gun have been seen online.
“It’s my understanding, again, that this was a recent weapon purchase, that he had been shooting with it, and they posted pictures,” Bouchard noted.
Buyer Beware: We have previously published reports indicating honey may be contaminated with pesticides like RoundUp Weedkiller (Glyphosate). But now there is news of another type of issue concerning honey: If you choose to throw that low-cost honey into your cart beware that it may have been intentionally adulterated (diluted with sugar) by food fraudsters.
Low-cost “Chinese honey dominates the global market but is controversial because beekeepers in other countries say laboratory tests suggest some of the global supply is targeted by fraudsters who dilute it with cheaper sugar syrup.
In China, the authorities have been warned of the threat. The Institute of Apicultural Research in Beijing stated in a research paper in March last year: “In order to seek higher profits, high-quality honey is subjected to sugar adulteration through the addition of cheaper sweeteners.”
Factories in China advertise sugar syrup for sale to be mixed…
House Democrats last month passed legislation that would offer protection from deportation for millions of immigrants for the first time in more than 35 years.
The immigration provisions — part of a $1.85-trillion social spending bill — probably represent Democrats’ last chance to achieve reforms to the nation’s immigration system before the 2022 midterm election. After that, if Republicans gain the majority in Congress, the possibility of winning any protections for immigrants would probably drop exponentially.
The measures now face an uphill battle in the Senate, which is expected to take up the legislation this month, and they could be stripped by the Senate parliamentarian well before that. Adding to the challenges there, immigrant advocates are at odds over provisions that would provide work permits to nearly 7 million immigrants living in the country without authorization. The protections would provide temporary respite from deportation but not a path to citizenship.
Some immigrants and their allies say the provisions are a desperately needed start, while others call them unacceptable, a divide that echoes a long debate over whether immigrants should conform to some immediate protection from deportation or hold out for permanent legal status.
The bill, which Democrats call “Build Back Better,” would also help immigrants living in the country legally but who are stuck in a years-long green card backlog, and it would beef up the cash-strapped federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.
Gabriel Valladolid, 47, said essential workers like him deserved a pathway to citizenship. But Valladolid, who works tomato fields in San Joaquin, Calif., longs to visit the two adult children in Mexico he hasn’t seen in 17 years.
He recalled when California lawmakers extended driver’s licenses to undocumented residents and some people complained because they couldn’t be used for air travel and were marked differently than regular licenses. Valladolid said the licenses were better than nothing — immigrants were used to having their cars impounded with every traffic stop. He feels the same way now.
“Whatever they want to give us,” Valladolid said. “The BBB is a good start. Adelante, pero ya.” We want it now.
The centerpiece of the bill’s immigration provisions givesqualified immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since January 2011 the chance to apply for temporary work permits and protection from deportation under a process called “parole.”
Nearly 60% of immigrants in the country without authorization would be eligible for the protections — some 6.5 million people, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis. The work permits would last five years and could be renewed once, extending protections into 2031. Those eligible could also access federal benefits including Medicare and Medicaid, and receive permission to travel outside the country.
An estimated 3 million of those immigrants, according to the CBO, are the immediate relatives of adult U.S. citizens and could eventually apply for green cards once granted parole.
The legislation also seeks to modernize the system to better reflect current immigration trends. It would expand processing capacity by adding $2.8 billion to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And it would enable the agency to “recapture” hundreds of thousands of visas that have gone unused each year since 1992 because of administrative complications, helping more than 5 million immigrants — mostly from India — who are stuck in the green card backlog.
The parliamentarian’s position
The nonpartisan CBO said the bill overall would add $160 billion to the deficit over a decade. The White House estimates that the bill would reduce the deficit.
To get the legislation through the Senate, Democrats are using a procedure called reconciliation that allows them to pass the bill with 50 votes plus the tiebreaking vote of the vice president. But the process requires all measures be directly related to the federal budget.
Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough determines whether policies pass muster. Senate Democratic aides met with MacDonough on Nov. 23 to discuss the plan for work permits, and she did not immediately rule it out, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
Next MacDonough will formally assess whether the plan complies with the so-called Byrd rule, which requires that the legislation’s impact on government spending or revenue outweigh any “extraneous” policy changes. That assessment could come this week.
This is the third attempt by Senate Democrats to add protections for immigrants to the bill. MacDonough rejected the previous two.
The first offered a path to citizenship for certain immigrants without lawful status, including those who were brought to the country as children, temporary protected status holders, farmworkers and other essential workers.
The second sought to allow immigrants who entered the country before 2010 to obtain residency if they were currently without lawful status.
“Changing the law to clear the way to [lawful permanent resident] status is tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact,” MacDonough wrote of the first proposal.
‘A permanent underclass’
Democratic Reps. Lou Correa of Santa Ana, Adriano Espaillat of New York and Jesús “Chuy” Garcia of Illinois all staked their votes for the broader bill on the immigration provisions and had advocated for the inclusion of a pathway to citizenship. Those lawmakers signed a letter, along with dozens of others, calling on Senate leaders to disregard MacDonough’s opinion, but the effort lacks wide support.
If Democrats are hoping the failed attempts will mollify advocates, they may be disappointed. Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, or the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said anything less than a path to citizenship is unacceptable.
Salas said offering work permits would put millions more people on the same roller coaster that those with temporary protected status and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protection have faced. Both programs, administrated by the executive branch, were rolled back under the Trump administration, but legal battles kept the protections in place.
“This is just about the Democrats,” she said. “If they can’t fight for citizenship in Build Back Better, tell me how they’re going to fight for our folks afterward and try to say that we’ll get it through another process that is dependent on Republicans? They can’t defraud our community again. I don’t want to be satisfied with such low expectations.”
But Giev Kashkooli, political and legislative director at United Farm Workers, called the current immigration package substantial. The chance for millions of immigrants to work legally, visit family members they’ve been separated from for decades, and for some to access a pathway to citizenship through immediate U.S. citizen family members — all represent a significant step forward, he said.
“It’s the least that the women and men who feed us deserve. But they are significant — people do not have them now,” he said.
Kashkooli said that immigration wins have always been challenging. He pointed to 2012 when President Obama announced the creation of DACA, and the following year the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with 15 Republican votes that ultimately failed in the Republican-controlled House.
“Winning a breakthrough, even when you fall short on what you’ve won before, doesn’t mean you can’t build on that breakthrough,” he said.
But Patrice Lawrence, co-director of UndocuBlack, argued that accepting the current plan and advocating for a more permanent solution later is unrealistic.
“What worries me the most is that we will be creating a permanent underclass of undocumented people and they will be locked into that underclass for a long time,” Lawrence said. “The window for Congress to act is very slim. The reconciliation package is it because next year is an election year and other things become more pressing.”
Times staff writer Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.
Following in the spirit of Britain's Queen Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. A boudica.us site. I am an opinionator, do your own research, verification. Reposts, reblogs do not neccessarily reflect our views.
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