Animal rights group settles lawsuit with Ringling. By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press Posted: 12/28/2012 09:03:50 AM MST|Updated: about a year ago WASHINGTON—An animal rights group will pay Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus $9.3 million to settle a lawsuit the circus filed after courts found that activists paid a former circus worker for his help in claiming the circus abused elephants. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Friday it was not admitting any wrongdoing in settling the lawsuit.
The New York-based animal rights group was one of several involved in a lawsuit filed in 2000 against the circus' owner, Feld Entertainment Inc., claiming elephants were abused. Courts later found that the animal rights activists had paid a former Ringling barn helper involved in the lawsuit at least $190,000, making him "essentially a paid plaintiff" who lacked credibility. Two courts agreed the former barn helper, Tom Rider, wasn't credible and didn't have a right to sue. The Vienna, Va. Hard-Hit County May Release Inmates in Face of Fiscal Cliff Cuts.
Farmers plead to use their own wells. Text smaller Text bigger By Jack Minor GREELEY, Colo. – Lawmakers in Colorado say they want a study of groundwater issues in the northeastern part of the state where farmers have been banned from pumping from their wells for several years. But farmers and local officials there say this historic drought is an emergency and the governor should use his executive authority to bypass the judiciary. WND previously reported how farmers in Weld County are facing the possibility of losing their crops because the courts have refused them permission to use water right under their feet, groundwater that is rising and actually seeping into basements. Now an estimated 200 farmers have met in a show of solidarity, signing a statement to the government that if they are not allowed to turn on their wells and irrigate their crops they will not be able to pay taxes next year. This year’s snowpack is only 2 percent of average, tying a record low set during another historic drought in 2002.
Issues AAPL. {*style:<b>Over 50% or 101,000,000 acres of your public lands have already been closed to most uses. Over seven acres an hour of your public lands are proposed this year to be closed to most uses via Wilderness, or other restrictive designations, without public involvement. Access to your favorite places could be closed soon unless you take action to protect it. </b>*} In California 36 new inappropriate Wilderness areas containing over 1,100,000 acres, are proposed in Senator Boxer's S-493 bill.
Here is a link to websites listing each proposed Wilderness addition including maps. Here is a link to the complete S-493 Wilderness bill including the list of 36 areas proposed for closure. None if any of these areas have been recommended for Wilderness designation by the Forest Service, yet the drafters of the bill know better & are seeking to make backroom deals to close these lands to most uses without public involvement. {*style:<b> HOW THE WEST WAS LOST. Durbin Says We Must Buy Hybrid Cars Because Of Tornadoes: "It's Your Money Or Your Life" Michigan unleashes armed raids on small pig farmers, forces farmer to shoot all his pigs. Mike AdamsNaturalNews April 16, 2012 NaturalNews can now confirm that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has, in total violation of the Fourth Amendment, conducted two armed raids on pig farmers in that state, one in Kalkaska County at Fife Lake and another in Cheboygan County.
Staging raids involving six vehicles and ten armed men, DNA conducted unconstitutional, illegal and arguably criminal armed raids on these two farms with the intent of shooting all the farmers’ pigs under a bizarre new “Invasive Species Order” (ISO) that has suddenly declared traditional livestock to be an invasive species. See our previous report on this subject at: And hear my interview with Mark Baker, who runs one of the farms to be targeted by the Michigan government, at: A d v e r t i s e m e n t Farmer forced to shoot his own baby piglets in cold blood “It was very traumatic for him.
Print this page. U.S. The First Global Revolution Text. Summertime Blues. Planning a vacation this summer to Miami’s Biscayne Bay for a little fishing? Think again, because the National Park Service wants to set aside a large swath of the pristine area as a marine reserve zone, so you might have to leave the fishing poles at home. And the boat. Perhaps horseback riding is more your speed and the family plans to ride through California’s Sequoia or Kings Canyon National Parks? Sorry, but all of the permits were pulled for those activities this summer.
Or maybe you just want to lounge on the soft sands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks and read a novel, fly a kite with the kids, toss a Frisbee to the dog, and watch dad catch some fish? No, no, no and no. Beachcombers along specific stretches of those legendary shores are seeing signs telling them to leave their kites and pets at home, and to watch where they step. “Leave no footprints behind. Beaches that once welcomed fisherman to drive up to the water’s edge are also off-limits to the vehicles, and so is fishing. Tell Your Representatives to Cosponsor S. 2122, the Defense of Environment and Property Act of 2012. Ice-cream spot hits rocky road. By Chris Camire, ccamire@lowellsun.com Updated: 05/16/2012 09:56:03 AM EDT1141 Comments CARLISLE -- Looking to hit the spot with a savory ice cream at Great Brook Farm State Park this week? You may be out of luck. The park's popular ice-cream stand was unexpectedly shut down by state officials over the weekend, after the stand's operator made building improvements at the site without getting permission first.
Mark Duffy, who has operated the dairy farm at the state-owned park for 26 years and has a lease with the state to run the stand, said armed Environmental Police officers showed up at stand on Friday evening and stood guard throughout the weekend, turning away customers craving delectable sundaes and frappes. To make matters worse, said Duffy, the shutdown happened right before the sunny Mother's Day weekend. Lambert said he is trying to protect the public's health and safety while tests are conducted at the site. Lambert said it is not known when the stand will reopen.
EPA: Pinal County must lower dust level. By Lindsey Collom - May. 23, 2012 10:04 PM The Republic | azcentral.com After two years of warnings, Pinal County has been ordered to clean up its air. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared that portions of western Pinal County are violating its coarse-dust standard, which limits the amount of PM-10, particles 10 micrometers or less in diameter, present in the air. 2 years ago: Worst air puts Pinal County at center of dust storm Affected are the most populous areas of Pinal County, including the San Tan Valley area, Maricopa, Casa Grande and portions of Coolidge, Florence and Eloy.
State and county air-quality departments now have 18 months to identify where the particulates are coming from and outline what measures will be taken to ensure the levels meet federal standards. Dust levels must be tamped down by the end of 2018. Pinal County has some of the worst coarse-dust levels in the country, by EPA estimates. Shell -- you break it, you pay for it. The equivalent of two BP Deepwater Horizon oil spills. That’s how much oil Shell has spilled in the Niger Delta over the past 50 years, according to some estimates. Shell has never seriously attempted to clean up the mess, leaving local people and wildlife to deal with the catastrophic consequences while it pockets the massive profits. But right now the people of the Niger Delta have an unprecedented opportunity: Shell has started to admit that it has responsibility for some of the environmental damage caused — and the United Nations is pushing for a $1 billion clean-up fund for the Delta’s Ogoniland region.
The environmental and human rights catastrophe in the Niger Delta is getting worse. No longer able to scoop water from oil-covered streams, villagers now have to walk several hours to get water. This starter fund won’t solve every problem — and it certainly won’t make up for the decades of death and destruction that Shell has brought upon the Niger Delta. More information: Tracking Your Taxes: Americans Spend Millions for Environmental Groups to Sue the Government. The U.S. government hands out millions of dollars each year to various environmental organizations to help protect fish, wildlife and other aspects of the environment. And every year, those same groups spend millions suing the government over everything from forest policy and carbon emissions to water quality and wolf habitats. When the CIA failed to replace 30 percent of its fleet with hybrid cars, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity sued because "its members and staff are impacted by the health effects of oil production," according to the filing.
And when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to review the status of slick-stop pepper grass, the group ran up $200,000 in legal bills. Who paid the attorneys fees? In the lucrative world of environmental law, the biggest defendant is the federal government, and taxpayers foot the bill. In most legal cases, each side pays their own legal bills. "We step in when the government doesn't do its job. Rep. Another electric car bursts into flames. The Administration has been striving mightily to ignore all those Chevy Volts bursting into flames, but last week an electric Fisker Karma – another Obama “green jobs investment” – caught fire in Texas, and damn near took out the owner’s house, as reported by AutoWeek: According to Fort Bend County, Texas, chief fire investigator Robert Baker, the Fisker Karma started the fire that spread to the house.
“Yes, the Karma was the origin of the fire, but what exactly caused that we don’t know at this time,” he said. The car was a complete loss. According to Baker, the driver arrived home in the Fisker, pulled into the garage, and less than three minutes later the car was in flames. It reportedly was not plugged in at the time of the fire and the Karma’s battery remains intact. Right before the fire, the owner reported a smell of burning rubber.
That’s probably not what the owner had in mind when he dreamed of “burning rubber” in his $100,000 taxpayer-subsidized electric sports car.