The results of a new scientific study indicate that extreme land use combined with warming temperatures are pushing insect ecosystems toward collapse in some parts of the world. The study demonstrated a clear and alarming link between the climate crisis and high-intensity agriculture* and showed that in places where those impacts are particularly high, insect abundance has already dropped by nearly 50%, while the number of species has been slashed by 27%. Why should you care? Well, given the important role of insects in local ecosystems, pollination and food production, losing insects threatens human health and food security.
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“Three quarters of our crops depend on insect pollinators. Crops will begin to fail. We won’t have things like strawberries. We can’t feed 7.5 billion people without insects.”-Dr. Dave Goulson, professor of biology, University of Sussex in the UK
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Sarah Rumpf
The first solar eclipse of 2022 is coming on Saturday, April 30. While the spectacular event will not be visible from North America, there are options ot watch the event online.
It will be visible from the southeastern Pacific Ocean, the Antarctic and some South America countries such as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru.
This handout picture released by Imagen Chile shows Chilean and US scientists looking at a solar eclipse from the Union Glacier in Antarctica on December 4, 2021. (FELIPE TRUEBA/Imagen Chile/AFP via Getty Images)
A partial solar eclipse is seen on June 10, 2021 in Korla, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. (Xue Bing/VCG via Getty Images)
Unfortunately, this partial solar eclipse will not be visible in North America or Europe. However, the next partial solar eclipse on October 25, 2022, will be visible from Europe, Northeast Africa, the Middle East and West Asia, according to NASA.
ASTRONAUT CHARLIE DUKE IS ONE OF FOUR LIVING ASTRONAUTS TO WALK ON THE MOON
According to NASA’s website, “A solar eclipse happens when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth, fully or partially blocking the Sun’s light in some areas. During a partial eclipse, the Moon and Sun are not perfectly aligned, so the Moon does not completely cover the Sun. This gives the Sun a crescent shape, or makes it appear as if a “bite” has been taken out of the Sun, depending on how much of the Sun is covered by the Moon.’
In this case, close to 64% of the Sun’s disk will be blotted out at most, according to NASA.
Robert Burgess, Presedint of Southern Maine Astronomers, sets up a telescope with solar filters to watch a partial eclipse from the Eastern Prom in Portland Thursday, June 10, 2021. (Staff Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
The next total solar eclipse to cross the North American continent will be on April 8, 2024.
APOLLO 16 50 YEARS LATER: REMARKABLE IMAGES SHOW HISTORIC MISSION
NASA is planning on live-streaming the event on their YouTube channel and on their website.
The India-based space YouTube channel Gyaan ki gareebi Live will begin live-streaming when the eclipse begins.
Also, Timeanddate.com will have a live stream of the partial eclipse next weekend here.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/how-watch-april-2022-solar-eclipse-online
King Cove, Alaska. Photo Center for American Progress
George Wuerthner
Recently Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland visited the isolated Aleut community of King Cove on the Alaskan Peninsula southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, to see and hear firsthand whether to approve the construction of a road across the Izembek Wilderness and National Wildlife Refuge. Recently, a federal court approved a Trump Administration land exchange proposal to facilitate the road right of way through the refuge.
The Izembek Refuge is one of the blue areas is on the Alaskan Peninsula which connects the Aleutian Islands to the main part of Alaska.
The debate about a road pits Alaskan Aleuts against the legal mandate of the Wilderness Act to preserve wildlands and protect wildlife. The 315,000-acre Izembek Wildlife Refuge is a critical stopping ground for migratory waterfowl. Its eel grass lagoons are considered of International Importance.
The road would connect the King Cove community to an all-weather airstrip (built during WW11) 37 miles away in Cold Bay, Alaska. The airport was initially operated as a military base before being transferred to the state of Alaska.
The 10,000 foot airstrip in Cold Bay was built by the Army and can easily service jets. Photo American Airlines
Currently, access to the Cold Bay airport is either by air from a strip in King Cove or by boat.
Roads are prohibited in wilderness areas. The Izembek Refuge Wilderness was designated in 1980 as part of the expansive Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).
Henry Mack, the major of King Cove, Stanley Mack, the mayor of Aleutian East Borough, and Della Trumble, a member of the King Cove Corporation and Agdaagux Tribal Council, suggests in an editorial Anchorage Times, opponents put wildlife ahead of humans.
As they wrote in a commentary about opposition to the road by former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt and former Fish and Wildlife Service Director Jamie Clark, “It’s easy for highly paid former federal officials like Bruce Babbitt and Jamie Clark to pretend that the lives of nearly 1,000 indigenous Aleuts in King Cove, Alaska don’t really matter.”
Some 98 percent of all black brant spend part of the year feeding among the eelgrass lagoons of the Izembek NWR.
Izembek is particularly important for Pacific Black Brant; 98 percent of those small geese spend part of the year there, slurping up the world’s most extensive eelgrass beds, their dietary staple. The area also supports about half the world’s Emperor Geese and a substantial percentage of the threatened Steller’s Eider population. The refuge supports one of the denset population of grizzly bears on the Alaskan Peninsula, as well as wolves, foxes, caribou, and even walruses.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that allowing a road through the refuge would “degrade irreplaceable ecological resources.” It also would jeopardize the global survival of a migratory sea goose, called the Pacific black brant, and the emperor goose and other waterfowl.
Eel grass at Izembek NWR.
Izembek is recognized as a Wetland of International Importance, and Izembek lagoons are also considered an Important Bird Area (IBA) of global significance.
A 2013 Record of Decision on a Final EIS that reviewed the potential impact of the road concluded: ” Construction of a road through the Izembek NWR wouild lead to significant degradation of irreplaceable ecological resources.”
The document went on to note that the proposed land trade between the Aleuts and federal government would compromise the ecological integrity of the refuge. “The Service has determined that increased acreage would not compensate for the overall values of the existing Izemeck REfuge lands and Wilderness that would be removed. Nor would the offered lands compenstate for the anticipated impacts that the proposed road would have on wildlife and the habitat that surround the road corridor.”
Therefore, in 2013 Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell decided to preclude road construction from protecting the wildlife and wilderness values of the area. But the Trump administration, under the Secretary of Interior, approved a land exchange between the Aleut natives of King Cove and the Department of Interior that would permit the road construction to proceed.
Jewell found ” Increased human traffic and noise, changed hydrology of the wetlands, pollution runoff, and introduced contaminants and invasive species would despoil the isthmus.” She further concluded there were other modes of transportation available to address emergency medical transportation and pledged to work to implement them.
The King Cove villagers contend they need the proposed road for “medical emergencies.” Although King Cove has an airport, planes and helicopters cannot operate in extreme weather, which frequently closes the King Cove facilities. The Cold Bay airport can operate in more inclement weather. A road connecting the two communities would also permit villagers to fly more frequently to Anchorage and other destinations for shopping and other purposes.
The mountains along the Alaskan Peninsula in an unusually good weather day. Photo George Wuerthner
I have some sympathy for the situation of the villagers. I have experienced the horrific weather typical to the Aleutian Islands and Alaskan Peninsula. I was once trapped for days without food other than the fish I caught while camped at Ugashik Lake because aircraft could not fly to pick me up. Other times I was delayed for days by bad weather while trying to fly out of the villages of Port Moller and Meshik. I’ve been out numerous times on trips to the Alaskan Peninsula in the rain with 50 mile per hour winds, so I know how difficult the weather can be at times.
Villagers have latched on to the idea that a road would provide safe passage between King Cove and Cold Bay. However, a doctor who oversaw medical evacuations in King Cove for 15 years said traveling almost 40 miles on the gravel road during 60 mph winds and blinding snowstorms would be “suicidal” for patients and rescue teams.
“Should the road happen, I foresee all sorts of calamity,” said Dr. Peter Mjos, who was the Eastern Aleutian Tribes’ medical director until 2002. He retired from practicing medicine in 2015.
The original justification for the road was more pecuniary. “In 1994, King Cove passed a resolution saying the road would “link together two communities having one of the State’s premier fishing ports/harbors (including North America’s largest salmon cannery) in King Cove with one of the State’s premier airports at Cold Bay.”
But twenty years later, the justification was changed to the medical emergency rationale.
Izembek NWR. Photo Audubon.
To find an alternative to the road, the federal government contributed $37 million (a taxpayer subsidy of over $56,000 per King Cove resident) for an improved medical clinic in King Cove and the purchase of a hovercraft and improved dock facilities that could link both communities by water. The hovercraft only operated for three years before the Borough shut it down, arguing it was too expensive to operate and failed to work in high winds. However, during the three years it operated, the hovercraft successfully transported 22 medical evacuations.
In addition, of the original $37 million allotted by Congress for the hovercraft purchase and operation, villagers chose to spend $26 million to construct part of the road they hope will eventually link the two communities. In other words, they spent $26 million on a road to nowhere which could have paid hovercraft and other alternative transportation like Coast Guard transport for many years.
Community leaders admitted they used part of the federal grant to construct a partial road because they believed it would make it harder for the federal government to deny its completion.
However, some suggest the real purpose of the road is related to money. The Peter Pan Processing plant in King Cove is Alaska’s biggest salmon and seafood processing operation. The route would make getting workers in and out of King Cove easier. But it would also reduces costs for shipping fish. Currently, Peter Pan must load fish on a boat, transport it by sea to Cold Bay, where it is loaded on another truck to be transported to the airstrip.
The transport of fresh fish to markets is another justification for the road. However, the land exchange approved by the Trump Administration has specific language that precludes large companies like Peter Pan from using the road to transport fish.
The agreement says explicitly: “The road shall be used primarily for health, safety and quality of life purposes (including access to and from the Cod Bay Airport) and generally for non-commercial purposes. The commercial transport of fish and seafood products, except by an individual or small business on any portion of the road shall be prohibited.”
The term “generally”and “small business” opens a big loophole. Not surprisingly, the local Aleut leaders of King Cove all support road construction. Since they own fishing boats, including in 2019, the mayor of King Cove and five out of six city council members, all considered small business owners, would not be prohibited from using the road to transport fish.
It is important to note that the US Small Business Administration defines a firm engaged in “seafood product preparation and packaging” to be a small business if it has no more than 750 employees. Though Peter Pan is owned by a fortunte 500 Maruha Nichiro Corporation in Japan. The Peter Pan currently operates with 500 employees. So all Maruha would have to do is spin off as a separate company, and it would qualify as a “small business.”
Another important issue is that such an exemption to Wilderness Act prohibition against roads could easily become a precedent for new roads in other parts of Alaska where many villages are not part of any road network. In this instance, apparently, the Izembek Refuge is not part of the traditional “sacred” lands of the Aleut.
Many villages in Alaska have no road access to year-round air service. People choose to live in these places. While I might support the road if I thought there were no other viable alternatives, as former Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell concluded, viable (if not expensive) alternatives do exist including emergency transport from the U.S. Coast Guard. It seems to me that “medical emergencies” is a red herring. While there may indeed be a few times when alternative means of transport are not available, I do not believe this is the real reason for the road. The main motive is to create economically viable alternatives for seafood transport. This is about advancing economic desires rather than satisfying the “needs” of King Cove residents.
Many Alaskan communities face the same limitations on transportation due to weather, terrain and other constraints. People choose to live in these places. While the Indigneous Aleuts living at King Cove have other alternatives, the Indigenious wildlife that depends on the Izembek Refuge lands do not.
Secretary of Interior Haaland has stated she wants to represent the interests of Indigenous people. It will be interesting to see whether she agrees with the conclusion of former Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell that other options exist to meet the desires of King Cove residents while protecting globally significant wildlife and wilderness values.
https://www.thewildlifenews.com/2022/04/28/izembek-refuge-and-wilderness-threatened-by-road/#respond
Lily Tredwell
After any big night out on the town, it is imperative to grab some grub on the way home. But which are the most frequented establishments to go to late at night in order to quench this craving?
This all depends on where we find ourselves. As great as some late-night hashbrowns and fries could be, few things are better than a nice greasy spoon breakfast, like the one we would find down in the South.
From icy Alaska down to sunny California, one reason for not living on the West Coast of the States could be the very healthy fear of being caught in an earthquake. In reality, no matter where in America you live you run the risk of getting caught in an earthquake.
That being said, there is a dramatic difference between a massive 9.2 magnitude quake and a smaller 4.7 one. Frequency also plays a role, so keep that in mind when picking where to live!
A nice glass of freshly-squeezed OJ is always nice with breakfast. It might be surprising to learn which is the only state increasing its annual orange production.
Even the orange production is bigger in Texas. Out of the three main states that produce oranges each year only Texas has shown an increase in production.
Depression is a real problem amongst people of all ages and from all walks of life. Let’s have a look at which parts of America are affected the most.
It may be the lack of a winning sports team or maybe it’s the weather, but for some reason, the North-West and the Mid-West seem to have the largest issues with depression.
It’s not just the diversity of its people that makes America so unique. Whether it’s for building a tree fort or for getting maple syrup there is a tree for everyone.
With over a hundred different species of trees in some parts, the eastern coast of the States sports the most diverse tree population. However, with more than one thousand species of trees scattered across the country there is something for tree enthusiasts everywhere.
To answer the age-old question…yes it still makes a noise. All because no one is around to hear the tree fall that doesn’t mean no one is listening. If Orwell taught us anything, someone is always listening.
Natural loudness is measured in decibels by the noises of the wild. This could be the sound of the wind, the water, the birds, and yes, even the sound of a tree falling in the forest with no one around.
We have just seen that mother nature on the east coast has caused more natural noise pollution than elsewhere in the country. It is now time to see where the majority of all noise pollution in America comes from (not just the natural kind).
It does not come as any surprise that the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas produce a lot of noise, however, they don’t call New York ‘The City That Never Sleeps’ for nothing.
Graduating from college is meant to be a celebratory occasion for a new graduate. After all, even though ‘the future is now’ it often starts with crippling debt.
Upon graduating, most graduates owe more in college debts than the average American earns in one year.
It is crazy to think that the average annual salary needed to buy a house in New York City is almost double that of being a homeowner in sunny Tampa Bay. But that’s nothing compared to the prices out west.
For all those who are eventually looking at retiring out west think again. An average annual salary of over $100K is needed in almost every major western city. And don’t even think about the move to San Jose unless the family is bringing in at least a quarter of million dollars annually.
Over the past few decades, coffee culture is something that has taken the world by storm. For any Canucks heading down the east coast on a road trip, feel free to dunk those donuts but don’t expect to find too many Tim Horton’s around.
Starbucks has not only put itself at almost every major street corner and petrol station across the United States, it has also created its own coffee language. According to the map the majority of Americans do prefer their tall, non-fat, extra hot, no foam, one pump vanilla lattes.
It is a privilege to be able to go home at the end of a long hard day but not everyone is so lucky. This is one of those maps that helps to remind us just how fortunate we all are.
Over 150,000 homeless people live in California and almost 100,000 in New York alone. That is almost a quarter of a million homeless individuals in just two states.
Presidents are constantly attempting to leave their marks and cement their legacies. Some of them are just better at the ‘Art of the Deal’ than others.
Andrew Johnson purchased Alaska for only 7.2 million dollars in the year the first Canada Day was celebrated in 1867, and the Louisiana Purchase cost Thomas Jefferson a whopping 15 million dollars in 1803.
The great American railroad system has been moving supplies across the country for almost two hundred years, but these days it does not deliver the goods quite like it used to.
Out east, the waterways and highways take the majority of the loads down the coast. Out west one can always see a large number of cargo trucks hauling supplies along the national highway. It simply reaches more places these days than the railway does.
The American landscape is vast and beautiful. No matter where one goes in the country there are spectacular sites to be seen.
Planning an Appalachian trail walk or cross country skiing through the Rockies? Fear not, this map has it all. Just steer clear of Yetis and keep away from those picnic baskets.
Driving along an empty highway road with music blaring and the wind blowing through our hair can be quite a freeing experience, as long as it is done within the confines of the laws of course.
Most states do have a similar maximum speed limit but it is always better to check first before going on a road trip. Being pulled over by a state trooper is a great way to ruin a vacation.
Now that we know where the national parks are and how fast we can go, let us have a look how to get to them.
Connecting Americans with each other far and wide, the National Highway Services helps to unite all parts of America, with over 164,000 miles of roads that stretch all across the country.
Over the past few decades, we have seen an increase in alternative eating habits and soybeans have been the base of a lot of these products.
Thanks to the American prairies’ production of soybeans for her soy latte, ‘Starbucks Karen’ will have one less thing to complain about.
Continuing along the lines of healthy eating, a lot of people seem to have grown tired of eating foods covered in pesticides and other chemicals for some reason.
Organic foods could cost an arm and a leg but it sure is nice to know that there’s nothing toxic being sprayed onto our food.
We all have that one vice that is just so hard to ignore sometimes. Let’s take a look at which states are the most angelic as well as the most sinful.
If the movie ‘Seven’ taught us anything, it’s that giving in to temptation could get us into a lot of trouble. The bottom corners of the country sure do look like a lot of fun though.
We have already seen that McDonald’s is the most popular place for people to go for some late-night drunk food, but we all have our own favorite burger place to go to if given the opportunity.
Here we see that McDonald’s may be everywhere but it is not the only option. Burger King and the Queen of Dairy remain towards the top of the charts and Texans have made Sonic burger their choice.
It is absolutely no surprise that the highest-paid public employees in America are connected to sports. The success of a college or high school sports team is paramount to a town’s happiness and it shows in how much they are willing to pay their coaches.
A high school football coach makes an average of around $45K a year which is not too bad at all, but it’s no wonder the end game is to coach college. The average salary for a college football coach is 2.7 million dollars a year. Talk about scoring.
The map that is used in Alaskan schools has Alaska in the center and North America to the East. This is just a fun one for a bit of a different perspective.
With how secluded it is from the rest of the country it’s no wonder Alaska sees the rest of America as ‘that place down there’.
As long as people are eating breakfast there will be a demand for eggs. More than fifty billion eggs are laid in America each year and Iowa unexpectedly leads the way in production.
Fun uneggspected fact: brown eggs come from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes while white eggs come from hens with white feathers and white ear lobes.
It is Christmas tradition for many families to pack themselves into the family car and head out looking for the perfect tree. Even the desert states have at least a couple of Christmas tree farms
Considering the enormous fines one would get for cutting a tree down off the side of the highway for Christmas, it’s probably for the best to know where the local farm is for the holidays.
Some people call them chips and others call them crisps. Some call them cookies while others call them biscuits. But what happens when the chips and biscuits make us thirsty. What do we ask for?
Depending on where we find ourselves on this cross country road trip of ours, the answer may vary. Just don’t walk into a place on either coast and ask for some pop or the locals will be able to spot the tourists.
New York and California maybe two of the more desirable places to live in America but that may change once learning the cost of any apartment bigger than a shoebox.
Better start looking for a roommate. With an hourly wage of under $25 an hour don’t even bother looking for a place with more than one room.
When immigrating to a new country an individual knows that they may need to work a job that they are not too fond of. It is a sacrifice that is made with the ‘American Dream’ in mind.
It is no big surprise to see here that most immigrants start off in a more subservient occupation, as these are the less desired jobs. A job is a job though.
It is amazing to see the percentage of Americans who have decided to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
For all those who are against guns, maybe just steer clear of the entire center of the country.
Here’s a fun one for the horror buffs out there. From the Texas Chainsaw Masacre’ to ’30 Days of Night’, horror films have taken place in every state right across the country.
It’s time to use that map of the interstate highways to get us the heck away from the midwest. And no summer camps either!
Because of the fears that they would defect, it was very difficult in the times of the Soviet Union for Russians to gain permission to leave their own country. Even when they were able to leave there were limits on where they would be allowed to go once in the other countries.
From the late 50s until the end of the cold war the places in red on this map were actually the places where Soviets were not allowed to go. Kind of takes the fun out of an American vacation doesn’t it.
About a month before Christmas every year Americans all over the country tell their loved ones about all the things they are thankful for. Without these next farms a lot of people would be a lot less thankful every November.
Turkey farmers right across the middle eastern part of the United States work hard every year to ensure that every little pilgrim out there has the thanksgiving they deserve.
Almost every state in the country has at least one federal prison. Whatever happened to those maximum security prisons in the middle of the mountains that we see in the movies?
After seeing how many federal prisons there are in America just imagine if the funding for even a third of those prisons would go into rehabilitation instead of imprisonment.
Sometimes where we come from defines who we are, alternatively, it sometimes defines who we don’t want to be. One either has pride for their own state or they do not.
That pride runs in their veins otherwise they usually have an escape plan. Maybe it’s because of all the noise pollution out East that’s causing the lack of state pride and desire to pack up.
As we know, hundreds of years ago the United States of America was built by the hard work of immigrants from all over the world who were trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.
In the hundred years between 1820 and 1930 more than 6 million germans and 4.5 million Irish made the long journey by boat from Europe to the New World. That makes up almost 10% of the entire population of America in 1930.
Now that we know where the majority of Americans’ ancestry lies let’s have a look at where the individual states’ names originated.
It is no big shock to see that the majority of the States’ names are derived from Native words. What is a little amazing to learn however, is that the number of states with names of English origin is less than a dozen.
This map is another of those which gives a bit of a different perspective on the country.
Much like the numerous tall buildings that reside there, New York’s population density also towers over that of the other states.
We are very lucky to be living in such a scientific age. As science and medicine progress, life expectancy has been on the rise.
With all the nice weather and oranges around for vitamins, it is no wonder why California and Florida are sporting two of the higher life expectancies in America.
We’ve now seen where in the States the soybeans are grown and even where the majority of eggs and turkeys come from, but ever wonder how much of America is protected federal wilderness or used to make maple syrup? Well, it’s definitely not as much there should be.
Believe it or not, there is more land dedicated to cow farming and their pastures than any other industry in the United States.
Some presidents have been put to rest in the Arlington National Cemetary while others have been laid to rest in their own hometowns. Let’s take a brief look at the distribution of the burial plots for the Commander in Chiefs who are no longer with us.
Scattered across eighteen different states in addition to the District of Columbia, the deceased former presidents of the United States may be gone but they are surely not forgotten.
We have now seen where all the highways and national parks are across the country and we know how fast we are allowed to drive in each state. We even know where most people go for food after a big night out. Now let’s have a look at whose family road trip will have the most cramped car.
As we can see by this map even the family sizes are bigger in Texas. Families right across the southern part of America will have to jam pack themselves into the family car with not much leg room to spare.
Dillon Burroughs
The Biden administration said on Tuesday that it intends to comply with a Louisiana judge’s expected order to block the end of Trump-era Title 42 border policy.
The Biden administration had scheduled the policy, which allows stopping migrants at the southern border to help stop the spread of COVID-19, to end on May 23.
“If and when the court issues the TRO [temporary restraining order] the department is planning to comply with that order,” a senior administration official said on Tuesday, according to Politico.
“It really makes no sense to us that the plaintiffs would demand, and the court would order, that [Department of Homeland Security] be stopped in its use in expedited removal, which is going to prevent us from adequately preparing for the aggressive applications for immigration law when public health expires,” the official added.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a plan to address the expected surge of migrant crossings following the end of Title 42 on Tuesday.
“When the Title 42 public health order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memo regarding the agency’s plan.
Mayorkas also noted, however, that the increase in migrant crossing attempts is placing added stress on Border Patrol efforts.
“Despite the efforts of our dedicated DHS workforce and our partners executing this comprehensive plan, a significant increase in migrant encounters will substantially strain our system even further,” he said in the memo.
The actions come in response to concerns that up to 18,000 migrants per day could attempt to cross the border if Title 42 ends, a number that could push illegal border crossing numbers to more than a half-million people per month.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its decision to end the public health order.
“The Defendants now seek to eliminate their Title 42 border-control measures, which are the only rules holding back a devastating flood of illegal immigration,” the complaint states.
“But they failed to follow the Administrative Procedure Act in attempting this destructive rescission of Title 42. Without justification or concern for Texans, the Defendants unlawfully disregarded the APA’s notice-and-comment requirements, refused to consider numerous factors of crucial importance to their rulemaking, and laid bare the incoherence of their decision-making,” the lawsuit added.
At least 10 Democrats in Congress have joined with Republican lawmakers to oppose President Joe Biden’s plan to end Title 42. Among them is Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
“Right now, we have a crisis on our southern border. Right now, this administration does not have a plan. I warned them about this months ago,” Kelly said, according to Fox News.
“It’s going to be, to be honest, it’s going to be a crisis on top of a crisis,” he added.
Kelly also visited the border recently, taking to Twitter to address his concerns about ending Title 42.
“I heard directly from Border Patrol leadership about operational challenges and discussed with them my concerns about the administration’s intent to lift Title 42 without a comprehensive plan in place. My focus is on ensuring an orderly, humane, and secure border process,” he wrote.
I returned to Douglas today to visit Arizona’s southern border. The local port of entry is receiving major upgrades from our bipartisan infrastructure law, which will help Port Officers ensure more efficient trade and tourism while also stopping illegal cargo and smuggling. pic.twitter.com/h2jX3VaDLF
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) April 14, 2022
Fox News Staff
Dana Loesch says Biden must provide transparency to a reported $5.2 million in unexplained income Tuesday on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
DANA LOESCH: This is cash that they need to be completely transparent about. Even though there was that window where he [Biden] wasn’t in D.C., there was the leveraging of the vice presidential office. If you remember, there were a number of times that Hunter Biden’s business associates were on the White House visitors logs visiting Obama-Biden and meeting with Biden and meeting with the vice president’s office. He was leveraging those relationships. He’s pretending to be a nice, forgetful papa. Everyone remembers how mean he [Biden] was during the Reagan years. Everyone remembers how mean he was when he was questioning Clarence Thomas. They know how he made this money. He’s playing dumb about it, and they are trying to leverage Hunter Biden’s inappropriate activity. You wanted this office. You get the transparency that comes with it.
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-playing-dumb-about-millions-dollars-dana-loesch
Katie Pavlich
Del Rio, TX – Troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety and members of the Texas National Guard completed a successful mission Sunday night after arresting five illegal immigrants from Honduras.
The men arrested — most in their 20s — were in possession of Honduran passports and identification cards from Mexico. They were walking across a private ranch when they were spotted with a DPS drone.
Illegal immigrants trespassing on private ranches in south Texas were spotted tonight by Texas DPS troopers using a drone ?@townhallcom? pic.twitter.com/Swmbrsr5Ts— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 25, 2022
As Townhall witnessed while embedded with Operation Lone Star along the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday night, the men were pursued on foot by soldiers and troopers after being spotted.
After being seen on live footage from the drone, Texas DPS troopers and Texas National Guard soldiers pursued five men. They will be charged with criminal trespassing under state law. @townhallcom pic.twitter.com/qgAQW3fQPy— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 25, 2022
They were apprehended, handcuffed and walked to the road before being thoroughly searched for weapons and illicit items. Their backpacks were full of food, additional clothing and toiletry products. One man was carrying a box cutter.
Townhall Media/Katie Pavlich
Townhall Media/Katie Pavlich
When Townhall asked in Spanish why they came to the U.S., one young man said, “To work.” When asked if they were afraid to be deported, the oldest man in the group spoke up and said he was fearful of being sent back to Honduras, parroting a line often coached by human smugglers to meet the federal government’s low bar of credible fear to make an asylum claim.
After being searched and briefly un-handcuffed, the men were walked to a transportation van. They were handcuffed again and seated inside. They will be charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor, and fingerprinted at the Del Rio processing center.
After being searched and questioned, they’re off for processing in Del Rio. @townhallcom pic.twitter.com/rfPoRvh56X— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 25, 2022
While DPS cannot charge or pursue federal crimes, prosecuting Texas crimes perpetrated by illegal immigrants has been a main priority for state law enforcement.
The arrests are a result of Operation Lone Star, the partnership between Texas DPS and the National Guard to secure the border with Mexico and cut down on illegal immigration. Since Operation Lone Star was launched in July 2021, after the Biden administration made open border policies and lack of enforcement the federal standard, Texas DPS has made 3,800 arrests on private ranches. Patrols and missions are conducted nightly.
WildChoices identifies the captive wildlife facilities* in South Africa that offer tourist attractions and activities including interactions and volunteer programs, and assesses them by applying the publicly available SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Decision Tool published in 2019, to publicly available online information about the facilities and their activities.
The Tool is in the form of a decision tree (see below) that guides the user through the rapid assessment of a facility against a series of qualifying and disqualifying criteria to help decide which captive wildlife tourism facilities to support and which to avoid.
The assessment process results in one of three possible outcomes: Support, Support with Caution, or Avoid.
Neither the list nor the assessment results are static and are updated with any new information to keep the list and assessment result current. No online information prior to 2018 has been considered in the assessment process.
For the full SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines click here.
For the full SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Decision Tool click here.
**Captive wildlife facilities are defined as facilities that keep wild animals in a human-made enclosure that is of insufficient size for the management of self-sustaining populations of the species and designed to hold the animals in a manner that prevents them from escaping and facilitates intensive human intervention or manipulation in the provision of food and/or water, artificial housing and/or healthcare.
The Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA) is a non-profit, member-driven association representing the Southern Africa region’s tourism private sector. It has over 1,000 members including accommodation establishments, airlines, attractions, transport operators, conference organisers, marketing organisations, tour operators and destination management companies.
At SATSA’s annual conference in August 2017, members raised concerns about the proliferation of captive wildlife attractions and activities in South Africa, and the negative impact that unethical facilities might have on tourism and brand South Africa.
In 2018 SATSA established a Board Committee on Animal Interactions and commissioned BDO South Africa, an independent consulting firm, to:
In November 2019 SATSA published their Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines and Decision Tool.
In 2021 Brett Mitchell and Gavin Reynolds, both members of the 2018 SATSA Board Committee, founded WildChoices.
WildChoices launched in March 2022 with a list of 219 assessed facilities.
More than 772,000 air fryers and air fryer ovens are being recalled due a serious safety risk.
According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Insignia Air Fryers and Air Fryer Ovens can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.
This recall involves the Insignia Digital Air Fryers, Insignia Analog Air Fryers, and Insignia Digital Air Fryer Ovens, model numbers NS-AF32DBK9, NS-AF32MBK9, NS-AF50MBK9, NS-AF53DSS0, NS-AF53MSS0, NS-AF55DBK9, NS-AFO6DBK1 and NS-AFO6DSS1 sold by Best Buy. The brand name INSIGNIA is on the top or front of each unit. A rating label on the underside of each unit identifies the brand INSIGNIA and the model number.
The air fryers and air fryer ovens have cooking chamber capacities ranging from approximately 3.4 to 10 quarts, and plastic or plastic and stainless-steel bodies in black and stainless-steel finishes.
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled air fryers and air fryer ovens and return the product to Best Buy for a refund in the form of a credit for use at Best Buy stores or Bestbuy.com. Best Buy is contacting all known purchasers directly to arrange returns and providing pre-paid shipping boxes and labels and return instructions. Consumers will receive a credit of $50 or the amount on the purchase receipt if higher. Consumers do not need a purchase receipt to get the $50 credit.
Best Buy has received 68 reports from U.S. consumers and 36 reports from Canadian consumers of the air fryer or air fryer ovens catching fire, burning or melting. These include seven reports of minor property damage and two reports of injuries, including an injury to a child’s leg.
Best Buy stores nationwide and online at http://www.bestbuy.com, http://www.eBay.com and http://www.google.com from November 2018 through February 2022 for between $30 and $150.
The product was manufactured in China.
Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Jill Biden listen as President Biden delivers an address at the 153rd National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Arlington, Va., May 31, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Kyle Morris
First lady Jill Biden expressed frustration that Kamala Harris was the top choice for vice president, according to an upcoming book from two New York Times reporters.
An excerpt provided to Fox News from Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns’ forthcoming book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” describes the vice presidential nomination process during Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
ALL THE TIMES KAMALA HARRIS CRITICIZED JOE BIDEN DURING THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
“‘There are millions of people in the United States,’ she began. ‘Why,’ she asked, ‘do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe,'” the authors wrote of a conversation Jill Biden had after she learned Harris became a leading candidate to serve as Biden’s running mate.
Several from Biden’s inner circle, however, supported Harris on the ticket. Ron Klain, now the White House chief of staff, had been tasked with vetting vice presidential candidates and, according to the book, told Biden early on that Harris was most qualified for the job as she had sought the presidency herself.
“Yes, Harris had attacked Biden more harshly than any other major candidate in the Democratic primaries. Yes, the Biden family had seen it as a smear and a betrayal. In Klain’s assessment, that would work to Biden’s advantage,” the book states. “Choosing Harris will show people that you are magnanimous and forgiving, Klain told Biden. It will show the country just what a unifying leader you can be.”
The book also highlights Biden’s own reservations to select Harris as a running mate. Noting her “past romantic relationship with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor who had appointed Harris to a pair of minor political positions,” the book said Biden described the behavior “as the kind of thing that should be off limits.”
President Biden speaks with Vice President Kamala Harris after signing H.R. 55, the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act,” during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House March 29, 2022. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Others considered as a Biden running mate, as discussed in the book, included New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, as well as activists and members of Congress from across the country.
Another candidate who pushed hard for the role was Stacey Abrams, who, according to the book, did “not pass the test” and was seen by Biden’s advisers as a lost cause after she failed to win the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018.
“Abrams fought hard to win real consideration but never overcame the experience issue” that Biden’s advisers warned him about, the book claims.
Grisham, whom the book billed as a “no-nonsense former state health secretary buried in managing the pandemic on the ground,” told the authors of the book that the vetting process from Biden’s team was “insane.”
“He asked me to sell him on vice president: ‘Why should you be the vice president?’” Lujan Grisham said, according to the book.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)
“I didn’t ask to be vice president,” she told Biden. “You asked for me to be vetted — you tell me why you think I would make a good vice president. This was not my idea.”
Other candidates discussed in the book, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.; Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.; and Rep. Val Demmings, D-Fla., were all seen by Biden’s campaign as “compromised or risky” selections. Those candidates also reached a similar conclusion: Harris was going to be the nominee.
Biden’s advisers considered Harris to be the safest choice for winning the White House, even with her history of targeting Biden.
“You know, white women are incredibly racist, as are white men,” a close adviser to Biden said in the book. “None of it was safe. It was a risky thing to do. But it was the safest of choices that we had.”
The book is slated to be released on May 3.
PETITION: Stop the senseless killing of pets in China
www-mesopinions-com.translate.goog
What is happening there at this very moment is inconceivable , all domestic animals in Shanghai (cats, dogs, etc.) are taken from their owners by the Chinese army and killed in cold blood , witnesses have filmed the facts.
Being very sensitive, sensible and committed, I can’t endorse this and I know I’m not alone! So no, I won’t just fall asleep with these horrible images in my head and you shouldn’t knowingly do the same.
Dogs killed, cats locked on top of each other in bags, it’s a sight from hell! And I weigh my words
, so yes, I am mobilizing with the little that I have, help me in this enterprise, perhaps we can prevent this massacre from continuing, think of these people who see their beloved animals being kidnapped and sentenced to death sure , it’s INHUMAN! I refuse to let this pass, join me, let ‘s try on our scale to move and change things , you who are undoubtedly committed to the cause and animal protection.
Thanks for reading me
Melanie
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In a move that echoes the collaboration of activist organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with Netflix that brought us Sir David Attenborough’s walrus deception in ‘Our Planet’ that I chronicled in my latest book, ‘Fallen Icon’, streaming service DisneyNature has joined with activist organization Polar Bears International (PBI) to create a polar bear ‘documentary’ (called ‘Polar Bear’) that we can tell is propaganda because they’ve chosen to release the “cute and worrying” film on Earth Day (Friday 22 April 2022). In fact, the two films have a producer in common: Alastair Fothergill.
In the case of ‘Our Planet’, WWF bankrolled the film series for Netflix to ensure the content they desired; in ‘Polar Bear’, the tables are turned: DisneyNature is paying PBI for their assistance getting the polar bear film shots and providing their biased content, via money they are calling a research grant. I…
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A new survey of North American veterinarians revealed cases of marijuana poisoning among pets are on the rise and have “increased significantly” since October, 2018. More specifically, the trend in pets OD-ing on pot correlates with the movement to legalize the herb for recreational and medical use across the U.S.
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Survey results overview
Reports compiled by drug researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario showed that dogs were the most common victim of THC poisoning among pets, though cats were also victims. But their list also noted more unusual animal allies to have overdosed, including iguanas, ferrets, cockatoos and horses.
More than 200 veterinarians were polled in 2021 for the survey, which asked them to recall such patients prior to 2018 — the year cannabis was fully legalized in Canada — and after. Around one-third of vets noted an increase in instances of THC toxicosis since 2018, with…
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The Sonoran desert tortoise is found south and east of the Colorado River, in the central and western parts of Arizona, and into northwestern Mexico. The habitat of this rare reptile is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increased fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, and increased predation facilitated by human activities.
In 2015, WildEarth Guardians and allies challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ (USFWS) decision not to protect the Sonoran desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As a result of that lawsuit, in August 2020 USFWS agreed to reconsider the tortoise for ESA protection.
USFWS must now go back and take a new look at the imperiled animal’s status in Arizona and has 18 months to make a new determination about the status of the species. Sonoran desert tortoise are known for moving slowly, but without full federal ESA protections, they will continue racing toward extinction. Please raise your voice today!
Photo Credit: E.K. Schahauser
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There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "...truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity--it is simply true and that is the end of it" - Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” - Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
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