blog-heap o' links
Three homesick
crocodiles in Australia have shocked experts by returning hundreds of
kilometres back to their homes after being relocated... 
NORRISTOWN,
Pa... A pet store has bought a two-headed turtle from a collector and plans to
keep it on display... 2-month-old turtle... fits on a silver dollar... two
heads sticking out from opposite ends of its shell, along with a pair of front
feet on each side. But there is just one set of back feet and one tail...
apparently healthy... hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:08:55Oxygen,
key to life on Earth today, began to appear on the planet millions of years
earlier than scientists had thought... An analysis of a deep rock core from
Australia indicates the presence of at least some oxygen 50 million to 100
million years before the great change when the life-giving element began rising
to today's levels... Previously, the earliest indications of oxygen had been
from between 2.3 billion and 2.4 billion years ago when the "Great Oxidation
Event" occurred. The cause of the event is still not known, but before that the
atmosphere was dominated by methane and ammonia. Today oxygen makes up about 21
percent of the atmosphere... hosted.ap.org/ ...
10:08:07...mammoth hair seems to be an excellent source of
well-preserved DNA... The DNA collected from the hair is much cleaner and much
less damaged than that from other parts of the mammoths... keratin, the hard
covering of hair, could protect the DNA. Hair also can more easily be cleaned
of contaminants such as bacteria... Learning the DNA sequence does not mean
that the ancient animal can be cloned or somehow resurrected, Schuster said,
adding "this is science fiction..." [today...] 
Two Indianapolis brothers are facing charges
in connection with a marijuana-growing operation that Sheriff Bud Gray
described as perhaps the largest ever uncovered in Hancock County... [Agents
of PuriTalibaNazi religious taboo enforcement] seized 198 marijuana plants,
36 growing lights, a truck and other items... "This (bust) was just a great
opportunity for our agencies (Hancock County and IMPD) to work together..." the
two men could face a maximum of eight years in prison and $10,000 in fines...
drugpolicy.org/ ... 10:07:38According to recently released statistics
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), marijuana arrests reached an
all-time high last year. This news comes despite a rise in violent crime for
the second consecutive year... Eighty-nine percent of those charges were merely
for simple possession. This begs the question:
shouldn’t law enforcement
focus on the rising violent crime rate instead of wasting precious resources
and manpower going after people for marijuana?.. Close to 100 million
Americans—including more than half of those between the ages of 18 and
50—have tried marijuana at least once. Military and police recruiters
often have no choice but to ignore past marijuana use by job seekers. In fact,
the FBI recently announced it is changing its policy of not hiring people with
a history of marijuana or other illegal drug use because the policy
disqualifies so many people the agency cannot fill needed positions... ap.google.com/ ... 10:06:26PITTSBURG, Calif... Three
men have been charged with murdering... Rex Farrance, 59... a senior editor for
PC World magazine... on Jan. 9... in what police said was an attempt to steal
marijuana that the victim's son grew in their home for medical use... dailynexus.com/ ... 10:05:33The largest recorded marijuana bust in Santa
Barbara County history took place this past Tuesday, when the Sheriff’s
Dept. discovered over 100,000 plants on a private ranch near Lompoc...
40,000 plants were removed Tuesday and 45,000 plants were
removed yesterday. Today, officers will begin exhuming plants from the other
side of the highway... could add 50,000 plants to the total... All together,
the busted marijuana grove has an estimated value of close to $160 million...
The second largest marijuana bust in the county occurred earlier this
summer... 61,000 marijuana plants... A 3 1/2-foot
alligator has been captured walking along a Long Island roadway... hosted.ap.org/ ... 23:11:26The
main section of Malaysia's largest aquarium has been shut after about 600 fish
died mysteriously, possibly because of deliberate poisoning... 
Navy Petty Officer
Second Class Charles Luke Milam, 26, of Littleton, Colo., died September
25, while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Milam
was a hospital corpsman assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion,
Camp Lejeune, N.C. For further information related to this release, contact
Navy Public Affairs at (703) 697-5342. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:02:58Army Staff Sgt.
Zachary B. Tomczak, 24, of Huron, S.D., died Sept. 25, in Baghdad, Iraq,
of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He
was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat
Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:02:20Army Cpl. Anthony
K. Bento, 23, of San Diego, died Sept. 24, in Bayji, Iraq, of wounds
suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was
assigned to the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade
Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 23:01:46Army Staff Sgt.
Kevin R. Brown, 38, of Harrah, Okla., died Sept. 25 in
Muqdadiyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device
detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry
Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Chicken jerky products for dogs may be making some pets
ill... FDA... said it has not been able to identify any contaminant or a
definitive cause for the reported illnesses... hosted.ap.org/ ... 21:47:41The
coach of Oklahoma City's minor-league hockey team helped prevent a possible
stampede of Belgian horses at the Oklahoma State Fair by biting one of the
animals on its ear... "That's how you stymie a horse," he said. "You bite as
hard as you can, and it won't move..." 
A badly injured whale
which became trapped in a sea loch off Lewis has died... bottle-nosed whale
became beached in Loch Roag... was severely underweight... seven-tonne creature
appeared to have died of natural causes... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:54:59
A Californian man has
been charged with using his false leg to smuggle three endangered iguanas from
a nature reserve in Fiji to the United States... Army Sgt. 1st Class
Matthew D. Blaskowski, 27, of Levering, Mich., died Sept. 23 in
Asadabad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit
using small arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat
Team, Vicenza, Italy. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:50:13Army Spc. David
L. Watson, 29, of Newport, Ark., died Sept. 22 in Baqubah, Iraq, of
injuries suffered from a non-combat related accident. He was assigned to the
2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
(Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash. The circumstances surrounding
the incident are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:49:58Army Spc. Joshua
H. Reeves, 26, of Watkinsville, Ga., died Sept. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. A
neighbor who read an article in the newspaper about marijuana grow houses
tipped off the Sheriff's Office about a North Port home that fit the
description... salem-news.com/ ... 10:23:16Two men were arrested this
weekend, after members of the Lincoln Interagency Narcotics Team and the
Lincoln Interagency Special Weapons and Tactics Team found them cultivating
23 marijuana plants on private timber property
near Siletz, Oregon... the Lincoln Interagency Narcotics Team is continuing the
investigation... [What would these "officers" be doing if they had to be
dealing with genuine and valid police matters instead of religious taboo
enforcement?] eagletribune.com/ ... 10:21:58Police have charged two
Dracut men with growing marijuana plants in Deer Jump Reservation along the
Merrimack River... 21 plants... street value of $50,000
to $60,000... "It was labor intensive trying to find out where the grows
were..." [Another fine waste of taxpayer dollars and police hours...]
dailybulletin.com/ ... 10:20:55Mayor sees complexities of pot... He can go
back and forth like this for hours... "I don't think anyone would want a
society where the majority of people lead unproductive lives and don't
contribute to society ... smoking pot all day or smoking opium all day long,"
he said. "On the other hand, if people like having a drink at the end of the
day or socializing with friends, going on a wine-tasting tour in Northern
California - I don't think there's any harm in that. ... Is there a role for
marijuana in that? Maybe there is. There seems to be. There's a lot of people
who smoke on a recreational basis. I'm not so rigid that I think we need to
stop people from having fun..." alternet.org/ ... 10:19:17Automatic weapons. Check.
Helicopters. Check. Dogs. Check. Bulletproof vests. Check. You may not buy the
government's characterization of its campaign against medical marijuana
patients as a "war on drugs," but increasingly violent, militaristic tactics in
recent months offer a troubling glimpse into the federal law enforcement
community's mentality: To them,
this is war... By all accounts, Naulls ran his collectives with exemplary
scrupulousness. He maintained strict dress codes and professional standards for
all employees. He paid state taxes on the dispensaries -- amounting to several
hundred thousand dollars a year -- even when loose tax regulations allowed
other dispensary owners to slip through the cracks. Profits from the
dispensaries went to local and national cancer organizations. Nevertheless, at
5:50 a.m., July 17, Naulls' home and businesses were invaded by DEA agents
armed with shotguns, automatic rifles -- even helicopters. They seized
everything he owned: his businesses, his property, all of his accounts. But
that wasn't the worst of it. County child protective services came along on the
raid and took Naulls' three daughters, aged 1 to 5, and charged him and his
wife with child endangerment. They weren't even accused of breaking any state
laws... Instead of calling it a war, perhaps there's a more accurate phrase to
describe what we've witnessed from federal law enforcement this summer. How
does "pogrom on medical marijuana patients" sound?.. salem-news.com/ ... 00:48:36The largest marijuana
seizure in Benton County history is much larger than officials initially
thought... "After an exhaustive count that took three days, the Sheriff’s
Office says 7,951 total marijuana plants were seized in the September 20th
raid..." [AREN'T YOU GLAD YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND POLICE EFFORTS ARE GOING TO
THESE INCREDIBLY INSIPID EFFORTS?] billingsgazette.net/ ...
00:47:14California man... arrested at the Greyhound bus station in Billings
when a police dog alerted officers to more than 3 pounds of marijuana in his
luggage... five plastic bags... about 3.4 pounds... starbeacon.com/ ... 00:46:16Two
Geneva teenagers claim they don’t own the car they were driving early
Sunday morning, or the
marijuana cigarette
police found in the vehicle... stopthedrugwar.org/ ...
00:45:31A Marijuana User Gets Arrested Every
38 Seconds in America... Durham and Raleigh...
officers stopped a 30-foot box truck with Canadian plates... found 227 pounds
of "high-grade Canadian marijuana" with a street value of approximately $1.5
million. The pot was packaged in 63 boxes... [four arrested...]
Three
men were taken into custody after a traffic stop on Interstate 70 yielded 15
pounds of marijuana... 900chml.com/ ... 12:14:01Undercover officers
managed to determine that would-be drug buyers were giving $25 payments to a
man in the park, who would then direct them to the hotdog stand to pick up
their dope... kob.com/ ... 12:13:30U.S. Border Patrol agents have seized more
than 1,600 pounds of marijuana from a stolen pickup truck in southwestern New
Mexico... macleans.ca/ ... 12:12:57History
hasn't been kind to cannabis, a researcher at Dalhousie University lamented
last year. The drug is one of the most used worldwide, but misconceptions about
its therapeutic potential and safety continue. More research is on the way, but
marijuana's true rehabilitation could come from, of all things, a new diet drug
that works by deactivating the same therapeutic neural network in our bodies
that marijuana activates... you have your own cannabis infrastructure, a grid
of nerve receptors that changes your experience of pain, sleep and appetite. We
all make our own natural cannabinoids, marijuana-like chemical compounds...
researchers found the synthetic compound rimonabant, a cannabinoid blocker. (It
switches off the same neural network that our own cannabinoids and marijuana
turn on.) So long as you stay on it, the drug reduces appetite, blood sugar,
waist size and weight (by about five per cent), while it raises HDL ("good")
cholesterol... will limit prescribing it to fighting diabetes and
cardiovascular disease... bbsnews.net/ ... 12:11:3089% of Marijuana Arrests were
for Possession exceeding Arrests for All Vioelent Crimes
Combined... Collier deputies have
arrested a man and seized $240,000 worth of marijuana plants they found growing
in his house in Golden Gate Estates. This is the second grow-house bust in a
week... 240 marijuana plants... blog.wired.com/ ... 12:10:00The
Washington state legislature wants to know exactly what a 60-day supply of
medical marijuana is... [Once you get the gov't involved, the wheedling
never ends. REPEAL! REPEAL! COMPLETE AND UTTER REPEEEEAAALLLL!!!]
Army Capt. (Dr.)
Roselle M. Hoffmaster, 32, of Cleveland, Ohio, died Sept. 20 in Kirkuk,
Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. She was
assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team,
10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y. The circumstances surrounding the death
are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:55:03Army Spc. John J.
Young, 24, of Savannah, Ga., died Sept. 21 in Camp Stryker, Iraq, of
injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the
2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain
Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. The circumstances surrounding the
death are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:54:42Army Pfc. Luigi
Marciante Jr., 25, of Elizabeth, N.J., died Sept. 20 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq,
of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th
Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Lewis, Wash.
defenselink.mil/ ... 10:54:22Army Cpl. Graham
M. McMahon, 22, of Corvallis, Ore., died Sept. 19 in Balad, Iraq, from a
non-combat related illness. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry
Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort
Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:54:05Army Sgt. Edmund
J. Jeffers, 23, of Daleville, Ala., died Sept. 19 in Taqqadum, Iraq, of
injuries suffered from a non-combat related accident. He was assigned to the
1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry
Division, Fort Carson, Colo. The circumstances surrounding the death are under
investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:53:45Army Pfc.
Christian M. Neff, 19, of Lima, Ohio, died Sept. 19 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division,
Fort Stewart, Ga. 
Veterinarians at a
zoo in eastern India struggled Friday to save an orphaned... four-month-old...
baby elephant who was injured when a train killed his mother... chances of
surviving without his mother were estimated at 50 percent... "Baby elephants
below the age of one year tend to have a very strong physical bond with their
mothers. Therefore, the calf is feeling both mentally and physically weak after
losing its mother. However, we are trying our level best to keep the baby
alive..." hosted.ap.org/ ... 10:17:30HARARE,
Zimbabwe... Police stopped villagers from slaughtering and eating a giraffe
that strayed into the outskirts of the capital amid chronic food shortages
caused by an economic crisis... Wildlife authorities took the giraffe away
after police kept a crowd from killing it "for the pot..."
Zimbabwe is suffering shortages of meat and basic foods
in an economic meltdown that has left it with the world's highest official
inflation - nearly 7,000 percent. Independent estimates put real inflation
closer to 25,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund forecast it
reaching 100,000 percent by the end of the year... Army Spc. Aaron
J. Walker, 23, of Harker Heights, Texas, died Sept. 18 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire during
combat operations. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry
Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Vilseck, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:59:48Army Spc. Joseph
N. Landry III, 23, of Pensacola, Fla.Army Spc. Nicholas P. Olson, 22, of
Novato, Calif.Army Spc. Donald E. Valentine III, 21, of Orange Park,
Fla.Army Spc.
Matthew J. Emerson, 20, of Grandview, Wash., died Sept.
18 in Ninewah Province, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related
incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th
Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. The circumstances
surrounding the incident are under investigation. Vet extracts toy
lizard from real lizard... Army Spc. Brandon
T. Thorsen, 22, of Trenton, Fla., died Sept. 15 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident Sept. 14 in Baghdad. He
was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat
Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Bliss, Texas. The circumstances surrounding
the incident are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:22:53Army Staff Sgt.
Michael L. Townes, 29, of Las Vegas, died Sept. 16 in Balad, Iraq, from
a non-combat related illness. He was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 227th
Aviation Regiment, Aviation Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
defenselink.mil/ ... 12:22:32Army Staff Sgt.
Terry D. Wagoner, 28, of Piedmont, S.C.Army Cpl. Todd A. Motley, 23, of
Clare, Mich.Army Cpl. Jonathan Rivadeneira, 22, of Jackson Heights,
N.Y.Army
Pfc. Christopher M. McCloud, 24, of Malakoff, TexasMarine Cpl.
Terrence P. Allen, 21, of Pennsauken, N.J., died Sept. 15 from a
non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st
Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary
Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:21:02Army Sgt.
John Mele, 25, of Bunnell, Fla., died Sept. 14 in Arab
Jabour, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated
near his unit during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion,
30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort
Stewart, Ga. 
SAN FRANCISCO... A city
aquarium has announced what it has called the first-ever birth in captivity of
a Pacific angel shark, a sand-burrowing species resembling a ray or a skate
that lives along the West Coast... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:16:18
GRAND FORKS, N.D... Two
bacterial infections likely were the cause of a large catfish die-off in a
stretch of the Red River upstream from this city... More than 1,600 channel
catfish are believed to have died earlier this month... columnaris and
aeromonas bacteria... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:15:23JUNEAU, Alaska... An
evaluation of Pacific herring stocks in Lynn Canal could land the fish on the
endangered or threatened species list, blocking or slowing development in the
area... hosted.ap.org/ ... 12:14:46VANCOUVER, British
Columbia... sea lice from fish farms are lethal to wild salmon... the future of
juvenile wild salmon is at risk... The open letter called for immediate
installation of stronger barriers between wild and farmed salmon, closed
containment rather than the typical open pens at fish farms, as the only
safeguard... 
A lonely baboon in a private Lithuanian zoo has adopted a chicken
he saved from certain death last month and the two have formed a fast
friendship... "He plays with the chicken, cleans its feathers, sleeps with it,
and takes care as if it was his own baby child," the zoo director said. "But I
am not sure how long this affair would last, because baboon may finally realize
this is food..." reuters.com/ ... 11:49:35
Honeybees can smother their
enemies to death by swarming them... "Here, for the first time we detail an
amazing defense strategy, namely asphyxia-balling, by which Cyprian honeybees
mob the hornet and smother it to death..." Army
Pfc. Carl A. West, U.S. Marine Corps, of Amanda Park, Washington, will
be buried Oct. 4 in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. West was
a member of Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Regiment, of the 1st Marine
Division deployed near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. On Nov. 27, 1950,
three Communist Chinese divisions launched an attack on the Marine positions.
Over the next several days, U.S. forces staged a fighting withdrawal to the
south, first to Hagaru-ri, then Koto-ri, and eventually to defensive positions
at Hungnam. West died on Dec. 8, 1950, as a result of enemy action near
Koto-ri. He was buried by fellow Marines in a temporary U.N. military cemetery
in Hungnam, which fell to the North Koreans in December 1950. His identity was
later verified by the FBI from a fingerprint taken at the time of the burial.
During "Operation Glory" in 1954, the North Korean government repatriated the
remains of 2,944 U.S. soldiers and Marines. Included in this repatriation were
remains associated with West's burial. The staff at the U.S. Army mortuary in
Kokura, Japan, however, cited suspected discrepancies between the dental
remains and West's dental file as well as discrepancies between the biological
profile derived from the remains and West's physical characteristics. The
remains were among 416 subsequently buried as "unknowns" in the National
Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (The Punchbowl) in Hawaii. In May 2006, the
Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command exhumed remains from The Punchbowl believed to
be those of West. Although the remains did not yield usable DNA data, a
reevaluation of the skeletal and dental remains led to West's identification.
defenselink.mil/ ... 11:03:09Army Staff Sgt.
Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont.Army Staff Sgt. Gregory
Rivera-Santiago, 26, of St. Croix, Virgin IslandsArmy Sgt. Michael
C. Hardegree, 21, of Villa Rica, Ga.Army Sgt. Omar L. Mora, 28, of
Texas City, TexasArmy Sgt. Nicholas J. Patterson, 24, of
Rochester, Ind.Army Spc. Ari D. Brown-Weeks, 23, of Abingdon, Md.Army Spc. Steven
R. Elrod, 20, of Hope Mills, N.C. Army Pfc. Sammie
E. Phillips, 19, of Cecilia, Ky., died Sept. 10 in Rustamiyah, Iraq, of
injuries suffered from a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 138th Field Artillery, Kentucky Army National Guard, Carlisle, Ky.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:58:50Marine Lance Cpl.
Lance M. Clark, 21, of Cookeville, Tenn., died Sept. 7 from a
non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary
Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:58:28Army Staff Sgt.
Courtney Hollinsworth, 26, of Yonkers, N.Y., died Sept. 9 in Baghdad, Iraq,
of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised
explosive device and grenades. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry
Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
defenselink.mil/ ... 10:58:09Marine Cpl.
Carlos E. Gilorozco, 23, of San Jose, Calif.Marine Lance Cpl.
Jon T. Hicks Jr., 20, of Atco, N.J.Marine Cpl.
Travis M. Woods, 21, of Redding, Calif., died Sept. 9 from wounds
suffered while conducting combat operations in Northern Helmand province,
Afghanistan. He was assigned to3rd Battalion, 1stMarine Regiment, 1st Marine
Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. 
The San Diego Zoo's
newest panda cub is a girl... hosted.ap.org/ ... 09:59:03The most common type of
gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction...
The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it
might become impossible for them to recover. Commercial hunting, civil unrest
and habitat loss due to logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations
are compounding the problem... news.bbc.co.uk/ ... 09:57:17One of the UK's rarest bees
has established a stronghold in sandy dunes on the Western Isles... multiple
nest sites of northern colletes, or mining bees, on the Uists... Berneray, off
the tip of North Uist, has emerged as the most northerly site in the UK for the
threatened species... Pilfered fruit brazenly
plucked under the farmer's gaze may be the secret to stolen love, at least for
wild male chimpanzees and their consorts... Africanized honeybees, a
fierce hybrid strain sometimes referred to as "killer bees," appear to have
established themselves in the New Orleans area... Army Cpl. Javier
G. Paredes, 24, of San Antonio, died Sept. 5 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds
suffered from a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion,
69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort
Benning, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:57:13Army Pfc. Sammie
E. Phillips, 19, of Cecilia, Ky., died Sept. 10 in Rustamiyah, Iraq, of
injuries suffered from a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 138th Field Artillery, Kentucky Army National Guard, Carlisle, Ky.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation. 502)
607-1562. defenselink.mil/ ... 12:56:56Marine Lance Cpl.
Lance M. Clark, 21, of Cookeville, Tenn., died Sept. 7
from a non-hostile incident in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 1st
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary
Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif. The incident is under investigation. The market value of Pennsylvania's 2006
marijuana crop is estimated at $78 million. Once a small part of the nation's
farm economy, marijuana is now America's top money crop and, with an annual
market value of $35.8 billion, it ranks ahead of the market value of corn and
wheat crops, combined. As Pennsylvania's congressional delegation helps piece
together a new federal farm bill in Washington, they should consider how
marijuana, long an agricultural outcast, would better serve the folks back home
as a legal, regulated crop -- like tobacco... visaliatimesdelta.com/ ...
13:04:40[53yo]
Poplar woman was arrested Tuesday for suspicion of growing marijuana, but her
two companions escaped capture... value of the 38 marijuana plants in the car
was estimated at $152,000... investigators are checking the trio’s
connection to a pot garden found nearby earlier in the day. That garden
contained 183 marijuana plants worth about $732,000... nynews.com/ ... 13:03:38[27yo]
accused of driving while high on marijuana on the Bronx River Parkway near Oak
Street overnight... stopped at 2:30 a.m... for driving erratically... "When the
officer approached the car, he smelled what appeared to be marijuana.... He had
the operator step out of the car and the operator failed the field sobriety
test..." charged with driving while impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, and three
violations: unlawful possession of marijuana, failing to signal and making an
unsafe lane change... Army Sgt.
Alexander U. Gagalac, 28, of Wahiawa, Hawaii, died Sept. 9 in Hawijah,
Iraq, of wounds suffered from a rocket propelled grenade during combat
operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd
Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield, Barracks, Hawaii. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:17:11Army Capt. Drew
N. Jensen, 27, of Clackamas, Oregon, died Sept. 7 in Seattle of wounds
suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire during combat
operations May 7 in Ba'qubah, Iraq. He was assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th
Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat
Team), Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:17:02Army Spc. Marisol
Heredia, 19, of El Monte, Calif., died Sept. 7 at Brooke Army Medical
Center, San Antonio, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related injury July
18 in Baghdad, Iraq. She was assigned to the 15th Brigade Support Battalion,
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The
circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:15:55Army Cpl. Ryan A.
Woodward, 22, of Fort Wayne, Ind., died Sept. 8 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds
suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire during combat
operations near Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd
Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg,
N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 18:14:29Marine Cpl.
Christopher L. Poole Jr., 22, of Mount Dora, Fla.Marine Cpl. Bryan
J. Scripsick, 22, of Wayne, Okla.Marine Staff Sgt. John C. Stock,
26, of Longview, TexasMarine Sgt. Michael J. Yarbrough, 24, of Malvern,
Ark.
At least 20 tigers
have resurfaced in a tropical rainforest in western India, almost three decades
after it was thought that poaching had wiped them out there... hosted.ap.org/ ... 17:30:25One of the great success
stories of the ocean, the return of the Pacific gray whale, may have been based
on a miscalculation... What was assumed to be a thriving whale population
actually is at times starving from a dwindling food supply... The Somerset County
Prosecutor's Office and the Montgomery Township Police Department's
investigation of a Craigslist advertisement resulted in the recent arrest of a
Springfield Township resident for third degree distribution of marijuana and
hashish... latimes.com/ ... 18:24:56San Bernardino County
sheriff's deputies shot and killed a camouflage-clad gunman Monday during a
shootout with three people protecting a marijuana crop in mountains north of
Fontana... Medical marijuana users
say Rhode Island's law leaves gray areas, but they're content nonetheless...
302 patients enrolled in the program... Patients are subject to arrest under
federal law. Many patients also must buy marijuana from illegal dealers. But
they say the law is a good start... trinidadexpress.com/ ...
13:09:49A
TEENAGER was ordered to serve 150 hours of community service by a Port of Spain
magistrate on Friday, after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana... 0.5
grammes... looked at the police vehicle and dropped a cigarette butt he had in
his hand. Parris found the marijuana wrapped in the cigarette... KIDAPAWAN CITY -- About a hundred marijuana saplings, uprooted
separately here and in Carmen, North Cotabato. were burned before village
officials last week... [What? They burned village officials?? ;)] when
marketed, would fetch about a million pesos... news-tribune.net/ ... 11:40:51Indiana State
[PuriTalibaNazi religious taboo] Police officials on Friday announced
the seizure of a large indoor marijuana-growing operating in Washington near
Henryville... approximately 3,000 marijuana plants... a large freezer full of
processed marijuana... cbs4.com/ ... 11:39:54[PuriTalibaNazi agents
of repression and oppression] arrested a 30-year-old man in Palm Beach
after he apparently tried to pick up a box of marijuana that had been delivered
to the mail room of the swanky Breakers hotel in West Palm Beach... An employee
at The Breakers called police earlier in the week saying a heavily taped box
had arrived for someone who was neither a guest nor an employee... [bad
planning, dude!] weight of the drugs from all three boxes totaled just
under 50 pounds... caller.com/ ... 11:38:35Local law enforcement
agents confiscated more than 1,200 pounds of marijuana Saturday afternoon near
Mile Marker 51 on Padre Island National Seashore... 1,228 pounds of drugs
[DRUGS? There was something besides the vegetable matter??], bagged in
about 50 2-foot by 2-foot bundles... apparently had been dumped in the dunes
with no attempt to cover the white bags in the sand... have a street value of
about $1 million [thanks to the PuriTalibaNazi prohibitionist religious
repression generated black market....]... sltrib.com/ ... 11:36:12Police on Friday found 1,000 marijuana plants worth as much as $5 million
growing in a remote part of southwest Utah and the Dixie National Forest...
[That's 5,000 prohibition-supported dollars a plant, if you're
counting....] Army Sgt. Lee C.
Wilson, 30, of Chapel Hill, N.C. (died Sept. 6 in Mosul)Army Spc. Jason
J. Hernandez, 21, of Streetsboro, Ohio (died Sept. 7 in Mosul)Army Spc. Thomas
L. Hilbert, 20, of Venus, Texas (died Sept. 7 in Mosul)Army Pfc. Mykel
F. Miller, 19, of Phoenix, died Sept. 6 in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, of
wounds sustained during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment, Arizona Army National Guard Phoenix. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:55:33Army Sgt. Joel L.
Murray, 26, of Kansas CityArmy Spc. David J. Lane, 20, of Emporia,
Kan.Army
Pvt. Randol S. Shelton, 22, of Schiller, Park, Ill.Army Spc. Keith
A. Nurnberg, 26, of McHenry, Ill., died Sept. 5 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds
suffered when insurgents attacked his unit during combat operations. He was
assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team,
3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:54:49Army Sgt. 1st Class
David A. Cooper Jr., 36, of State College, Penn., died Sept. 5 in
Baghdad, Iraq, from a non-combat related injury. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort
Lewis, Wash. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under
investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 00:54:37Army Staff Sgt.
Delmar White, 37, of Wallins, Ky., died Sept. 2 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 138th Field Artillery, Kentucky Army National Guard, Carrollton, Ky.
defenselink.mil/ ... 00:54:26Army Cpl. William
T. Warford III, 24, of Temple, Texas, assigned to the 215th Brigade Support
Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood,
TexasArmy
Pfc. Dane R. Balcon, 19, of Colorado Springs, Colo., assigned to the 1st
Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division,
Fort Hood, TexasFederal health experts declared a small victory against a
fatal and untreatable virus on Friday, saying canine rabies has disappeared
from the United States. While dogs may still become infected from raccoons,
skunks or bats, they will not catch dog-specific rabies from another dog...
Scientific sleuths have a
new suspect for a mysterious affliction that has killed off honeybees by the
billions: a virus previously unknown in the United States... A West
Alabama man is behind bars after area police found more than 50 pounds of
marijuana in his possession... street value of about $60,000...
tip from an informant... myfoxaustin.com/ ... 00:34:21Sheriff’s deputy
observed a black 1996 Chevrolet Camaro that was driving faster than the flow of
traffic... observed evidence that lead him to believe the driver was involved
in other illegal activity... driver gave the deputy verbal consent to search
the vehicle... deputy discovered a duffel bag containing 72 pounds of
marijuana... [Which part of this story seems bogus to you?] ap.google.com/ ... 00:32:48SANTA CRUZ, Calif... A
marijuana dealer telephoned police after armed thieves stole his quarter-pound
stash of pot... wasn't arrested. "From our standpoint, it's more important to
address the fact there are individuals out there who are willing to use a
weapon to commit robberies..." ap.google.com/ ... 00:32:05A severe drought that has
parched corn and soybean fields across the Southeast has also scorched
marijuana crops... Kentucky, one of the nation's top producers of marijuana,
has seen a sharp decrease in production of the illegal crop this year. The
weather there and in neighboring states is cutting into the supply, and street
prices for the drug could rise... Army
2nd Lt. Harold E. Hoskin, U.S. Army Air Forces, of Houlton, Maine, will
be buried Friday in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.Army Spc.
Rodney J. Johnson, 20, of Houston, died Sept. 4 in
Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit. He was
assigned to the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat
Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:41:35Air Force Master
Sgt. Patrick D. Magnani, 38, of Martinez, Calif., died Sept. 4 near
Bagram, Afghanistan, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the
31st Medical Support Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy. The circumstances
surrounding his death are under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:41:21Army Spc.
Christopher G. Patton, 21, of Lawrenceville, Ga., died Sept. 1 in
Baghdad, Iraq, in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd
Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division,
Fort Hood, Texas. The circumstances surrounding the death are under
investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 10:41:10Army Sgt.
Kevin A. Gilbertson, 24, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died Aug.
31 in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit
during combat operations Aug. 29 in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division,
Schweinfurt, Germany. Brussels - Two teenage
British girls were arrested at Brussels Airport after arriving from Jamaica
with 31kg of marijuana... mercurynews.com/ ... 10:50:04SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Firefighters
battling the two-month Zaca wildfire stumbled onto an illegal 12,500-plant
marijuana garden in a remote area of the Los Padres National Forest... It's
been a record year for marijuana eradication in Santa Barbara County with
nearly 96,000 pot plants uprooted... honoluluadvertiser.com/ ...
10:49:34Hawaii... a Kaua'i family was arrested and charged with growing
nearly 6,000 marijuana plants worth more than $5 million on state land...
A lion escaped from its
cage at a Kazakh zoo over the weekend... sneaked out of his cage through a door
that had been accidentally left open... Just a month ago, three bears broke out
of their enclosure in the same zoo... A truck driver crossing
the Whitestone Bridge... 210 pounds of marijuana amid pallets of shredded
coconut... would have been worth about $300,000 on the street...
[Disinformation, propaganda, and PuriTaliban Prohibitionist religious
repressionist spin....] turkishpress.com/ ... 12:00:19A
huge cache of opium and other drugs worth roughly 1.7 million dollars (1.25
million euros) was seized in a major operation in six former Soviet bloc
countries last week... salem-news.com/ ... 12:00:03Dr. Barry Dworkin writes a
medical column for the Ottawa Citizen in Canada, and also has a radio program
580 CFRA on Wednesdays 4-5 pm. He starts out his article with a question from
patients who use marijuana for Cancer and chronic pain. He writes, “There
is new evidence that marijuana does help alleviate pain and combats nausea and
vomiting associated with chemotherapy, weight loss in Cancer and HIV patients,
hiccups(?), glaucoma, tremors and multiple sclerosis.” The next paragraph
is an example of medical sophistry at its worst. He says, “Intoxication
occurs after the first few minutes of smoking marijuana and lasts three or four
hours.”NEW YORK... A
5-foot-long shark scared hundreds of swimmers out of the water, but on Sunday
its lifeless body washed ashore... 
snakebite two weeks
ago... ...One
of the other rankings is called "reefer madness," on the prevalence of
marijuana smoking, and the University of Vermont is listed as No. 3 for that
behind Warren Wilson College (Asheville, N.C.), and Bard College
(Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.)... wivb.com/ ... 16:20:09...seized 89 plants, a
shotgun, and semi-automatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from a
home on Barrett Avenue. Police say they found the pot after responding to a
reported fight... arrested and charged 22 year-old... mineralwellsindex.com/ ...
16:19:27Mineral Wells TX... The City/County Narcotics Unit received
information that [40yo m] was growing marijuana in his backyard... a single
marijuana plant that was approximately 5 feet tall and "bushy..." Officials
reported there wasn’t any reason to believe Valley was growing the plant
for anything other than personal use... wtov9.com/ ... 16:17:44A routine patrol led police to four
pounds of marijuana and three arrests in Bridgeport early Monday
morning... Army Sgt. 1st Class
Daniel E. Scheibner, 40, of Muskegon, Mich., died Aug. 30 in Al Noor,
Iraq, of wounds sustained when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive
device. He was assigned to the 2d Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th
Striker Brigade Combat Team, 2d Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash. defenselink.mil/ ... 01:30:15Army Staff Sgt.
Andrew P. Nelson, 22, of Moorhead, Minn., died Aug. 29 in Muqdadiyah,
Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit. He was assigned to
the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne
Division, Fort Bragg, N.C. The circumstances surrounding the death are under
investigation. WARSAW, N.Y... State
police, along with other law enforcement agencies, seized 172 marijuana plants
from various locations in Wyoming County over an 8-day period last month...
estimated to be worth between $70,000 and $100,000... 10news.com/ ... 21:26:26EL CAJON, Calif. -- A man who was found dead
near a major indoor marijuana farm in a home near Jamul... from at least one
gunshot wound... [Really pretty potleaf pic] canadianpress.google.com/ ...
21:25:04South
Carolina on track for record year in marijuana busts... ktvz.com/ ... 21:24:50The amount of marijuana
confiscated by police so far this year in Josephine County forests already is
about twice that taken last year... And the harvest season is still young...
examiner-enterprise.com/ ...
17:08:10[20yo
Tulsan] faces charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute,
possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of drug proceeds and maintaining a
vehicle where drugs are kept... Bartlesville police had been looking for
D’s car on south U.S. Highway 75. Police believed the car was carrying
several pounds of marijuana... officers reportedly spotted D’s car and
stopped it in the area of Colonial Phillips 66 gas station... total weight of
marijuana seized was 13 pounds with a reported street value of $13,000...
kndo.com/ ... 12:05:07ELLENSBURG, Wash -
Kittitas County Sheriff's Office seized 4,263 mature marijuana plants in
Coleman Canyon... over $6,000,000 worth... alledged [sic] grower was
arrested... currentargus.com/ ... 12:04:25When Malaga resident and
paraplegic Leonard French, 44, received his medical marijuana permit from the
New Mexico Department of Health in July, he bought a marijuana growing kit to
grow a few plants, thinking he was obeying the law... When the Pecos Valley
Drug Task Force showed up at French's door last week to confiscate his
marijuana plants and growing lights, they had no knowledge that French even had
a permit... French's problems started in 1987, when he was in a motorcycle
accident that severed his spine and paralyzed him from the waist down... kndo.com/ ... 11:53:50BENTON COUNTY, Wash.- A
day long marijuana search nets around $1 million in unharvested plants...
growers are using new ways to hide their plants, including growing them under
the sage brush so they blend in. "They're planting the plants further apart, to
make them less noticable in the canyons. Try to keep them fairly low, tucked in
next to the sagebrush to help disguise..." Three people have been
released on strict conditions after being accused of trying to send a large
quantity of marijuana through the mail... Release conditions include that they
are not to contact each other and are to remain at their Regina residences
between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m... must report once a week to Regina
RCMP and allow police to search their persons, vehicles or residences for
drugs, even without reasonable grounds... not allowed to own or use pagers,
cellphones or any other mobile electronic device used for communication
purposes... have to surrender their passports and not use any name for
commercial transactions other than the one listed on their release documents...
not allowed to have more than $500 on their person at any time or to be in
possession of any illicit drugs, firearms or explosive substances... mlive.com/ ... 10:46:53[40yo] was sentenced in
July for dealing drugs, busted again for allegedly dealing marijuana on Aug.
14, and on Monday was arrested a third time on a drug offense while out on
bond... 34 pounds... stashed in a canoe hanging from the ceiling of...
garage... phillyburbs.com/ ... 10:45:48A marijuana supplier in
the Doylestown area was arrested this month after selling 2 1/2 pounds of pot
to an undercover officer... mywesttexas.com/ ... 10:45:32Effective today, law
enforcement agencies across the state of Texas have the discretion to decide if
people in possession of 4 ounces or less of marijuana will be cited or if they
will go to jail. But Midland officials say they have no plans to write a
citation for the offense... "If they're stupid enough to violate the law,
they're stupid enough to go to jail," said Midland County Sheriff [and
PuriTaliban Religious Taboo Inquisitor] Gary Painter... Officials of the
Marijuana Policy Project in Washington said Texas House Bill 2391 will not only
save taxpayers money, but will also make the streets of Texas safer if law
enforcement agencies decide to use it. "This law is good for Texas because each
marijuana arrest costs Texas taxpayers $2,000, takes a police officer off the
street for three to four hours and fills a space in jail that should instead be
used to house a violent criminal..." origin.insidebayarea.com/ ...
10:44:14San
Mateo... On Wednesday afternoon, DEA agents and local law enforcement stormed
the tiny storefront office and two other medical marijuana dispensaries in the
city's downtown and closed them. The operation, led by the DEA, was the largest
Bay Area raid on medical marijuana dispensaries in nearly a year... salem-news.com/ ... 10:43:02BAKER COUNTY, Ore...
eradication of a large outdoor marijuana grow in Baker County... more than
1,500 plants, some over 13 feet tall... Four people from Caldwell, Idaho have
been arrested... [grossly over-]estimated value... $3 million... alternet.org/ ... 10:41:21The Top Ten Reasons
Marijuana Should Be
Legal (High Times)... 
A
pet rabbit named Sugar Bunny was stolen from a preschool... fliers protesting
circus animal acts were left in its empty cage... The fliers bore the names of
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Northwest Animal Rights
Network... "Somebody stoled him... I'm sad..." 
A special effects technician
working on the new Batman film was killed when a vehicle he was in crashed
while on a stunt test run... The victim was on a camera truck which was
following a stunt vehicle, believed to have been the Batmobile... died when the
truck he was in struck a tree following a test run...
A cat in
Sydney's eastern suburbs was taken to a vet high on cocaine and
benzodiazepines... after being accidentally locked in a cupboard overnight...
The owner was adamant the cat had not been exposed to drugs, mouldy food or
toxic plants. But when the vet phoned the owner's wife, she admitted the cat
could have licked "plates of cocaine" which had been served at a dinner party
two days earlier...