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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A late-night encounter with four bears trying to snack from backyard birdfeeders gave Vermont's governor a lesson in what not to do in bear country. One of the bears chased Peter Shumlin and nearly caught the governor while he was trying to shoo the animals away, he said Friday.

The debate about climate change and its impact on polar bears has intensified with the release of a survey that shows the bear population in a key part of northern Canada is far larger than many scientists thought, and might be growing. The number of bears along the western shore of Hudson Bay, believed to be among the most threatened bear subpopulations, stands at 1,013 and could be even higher, according to the results of an aerial survey released Wednesday by the Government of Nunavut. That’s 66 per cent higher than estimates by other researchers who forecasted the numbers would...

A Paradise man says he is lucky to be alive after an attack by a mountain lion Monday morning. Robert Biggs, 69, often hikes in the Bean Soup Flat area, which is about a mile and a half above Whisky Flats. He came across a mother bear, a yearling and a newborn, which were about 40 feet from where he was standing. After watching the bear family for a few minutes he decided to leave them be and turned to walk back up the trail. As he turned, a mountain lion pounced on him grabbing hold of his backpack with...

Peyton Manning's 14-year career with the Indianapolis Colts is coming to an end after owner Jim Irsay informed the four-time NFL MVP on Monday night that the team will release him, according to team sources.

Everything proves global warming to the true believers. If it floods, that proves global warming. If it doesn’t rain, that proves global warming. If it is warm, that proves global warming. If it is cold, that proves global warming. And if everything proves it — nothing does really. Now we have this nonsense from the Telegraph: Climate change means autumn levels of sea ice have dropped by almost 30 percent since 1979 – but this is likely to trigger more frequent cold snaps such as those that brought blizzards to the UK earlier this month. And Arctic sea ice could...

Bears kept in tiny cages by the Chinese who harvest their bile are starving themselves to death as their only way of escaping the misery of their captivity. Bile bears - also known as battery bears - are kept in captivity in China and Vietnam to harvest bile, a digestive juice produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder, for sale as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered Asiatic black bears are generally used on bile farms and are now listed as vulnerable on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Animals.

An Extremely Bullish Sign Courtesy Of Wall Street Analysts Joe WeisenthalFeburary 2, 2012 If you're looking for a nice, fresh batch of charts, head on over to Stone Street Advisors, where @dutch_book has posted a whole bunch of good ones on the economy, markets, and so on. This one is pretty great. It's from BofA, and it's an index showing levels of bearishness and bullishness among sell side analysts. Not surprisingly, periods of extreme sell-side bullishness are near market tops, and the opposite is true as well. At the moment, sellsides are as bearish as all get out, and so......

And win the Baylor Bears most assuredly did by a score of 67-56 in the Valero Alamo Bowl from San Antonio.

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through Green Bay The Packer fans prepped for another game day. Our jerseys were hung in the closet with care, Our snow pants and coats were ready to wear. The children were nestled all snug in their beds As they drifted off wearing their little cheese-heads. Mom with her foam finger, and I wearing the belt Had just settled down, how tired we felt! Before we all knew it, our alarm clocks rang wild And we sprang from our beds, Lambeau Leap style. On went our jerseys, face paint, and snow suits, We...

(Demand for tickets down for Bears game Sunday...) With the Green Bay Packers coming off a woeful loss to Baltimore and about to play their first-ever Christmas Day game at Lambeau Field, some fans and brokers report declining demand for tickets - even though Sunday's opponent is the archrival Chicago Bears. Longtime season ticket-holder William Swetlik of Green Bay has two tickets for sale - at face value - for a Bears game he hates to miss. "Christmas Day is for Christ, not for football, and for my family," he said. "I want to be home with the kids. We...

THOUSAND OAKS (CBS) — A toxicology report found that the 18-year-old son of a former NFL quarterback died from a heroin overdose, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said. Thousand Oaks High School backup quarterback Griffen Kramer was found dead in his Agoura Hills home on Oct. 30. Friends told investigators that Kramer began foaming at the mouth while doing heroin with them. Authorities say one of his friends took him home and hoped he would sleep it off. Police have arrested five people in connection with Kramer’s death. Griffen Kramer’s father, Erik, played in the NFL for 12 years.

HOPATCONG, N.J. (AP) — A cable TV repairman got quite a surprise when he walked into the basement of a New Jersey home. There was a 500-pound bear sound asleep on the floor.

The Great Repression: The Impending Economic Collapse Of 2012-2022 By John F. Carlucci December 8, 2011 Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Part 1 of this series, Is This The Best Stock Market Indicator Ever?, I examined the technical indicator known as $OEXA200R, that is, the percentage of S&P 100 stocks above their 200 day moving average, found on StockCharts.com. The $OEXA200R can be thought of as a valuable early yellow light flashing 'bears ahead' or a confirmatory green light that we're really back in a bull...

[It's] that time when hanging tough can be such a bear. A big black mama bear. And that’s the time to think about that bear. Because if you want to learn something about tenacity and the will to keep on keeping on in spite of everything, you need to hear the story of Bear No. 56. In reality, she is more brown than black in color, probably 14 years old. She’s called Bear No. 56 because that’s the number on the ear tag she’s worn since 2002 when the state Game and Fish Department relocated her for the second of...

ZANESVILLE, Ohio - Several schools announced that they will not have school on Wednesday after exotic animals escaped a Muskingum County animal farm. The schools are: Maysville Local Schools, Zanesville City Schools, Foxfire Community Schools and West Muskingum Local Schools. Police said they had shot at least 25 of at least 48 escaped exotic animals on Tuesday night. Terry Thompson, the owner of the farm, was found dead outside of his home on the animal farm property. Police said the fences had been left unsecured. According to police, the animals escaped at about 6 p.m. from an animal farm near...

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Deutsche Boerse's downtown Frankfurt trading floor was evacuated Wednesday after a bomb threat, news reports said. The stock exchange received the threat by phone around 4:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. Eastern) and the building was evacuated by 5 p.m., Reuters reported, citing local police. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Boerse was unable to provide immediate comment.

Former Chicago Bears defensive tackle Dan Hampton says he will not be joining his fellow teammates when they visit the White House next month. Hampton, a member of the Bears 1985 Super Bowl championship team, made the comments on Chicago's Mully and Hanley radio show Monday. "It's my personal choice," the four-time Pro Bowler said. "I don't choose to go." Hampton said he was bothered that the invitation did not include players' wives and children and added, "Secondly, I’m not a fan of the guy in the White House, and third, it was 25 years ago. Let it go.” Obama,...

The Chicago Bears team that won the 1986 Super Bowl never had an official visit to the White House because of the Challenger explosion, so President Obama — a big Bears fan — has invited the squad for a visit on Friday. It may be a nice gesture, but one player is saying no thanks. Dan Hampton, who played for the Bears for more than a decade, said on Chicago’s Mully and Hanley radio show on Monday, “It's my own personal choice, and I don’t choose to go.” Hampton explained that he won't go, first of all, because his family...

His hometown pro football team may not have won the Super Bowl for more than a quarter century, but that won’t stop President Obama from hosting them at the White House. The president is inviting members of the Chicago Bears 1985 Super Bowl championship team to the White House on Oct. 7, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Super Bowl champions are traditionally honored with a visit to the White House. But plans for the 1985 Bears to come to Washington were scrapped when the space shuttle Challenger exploded just days after their victory in January 1986, according to the AP....

<p>Pandas. Zoos want them, other bears want to be them (maybe?). But are they really worth all the trouble? Let's fight about it: Point: Pandas Are Awesome!</p> <p>Counterpoint: Pandas Are Terrible!</p> <p>I just want to get this straight right off the bat: I really don't hate pandas.* I just love nature. And nature has made it clear in no uncertain terms that pandas need to die. Now.</p>

....One last point before we bullet point the complete idea behind the Holy and Rightful judgement from the Judge of all mankind. there were 42 persons killed by two bears. Obviously this would require many more than 42 people. Why? What happens when you have a group of ten people and a bear comes crashing out of the bushes in preparation to attack? Every one will immediately scatter! In the debate I pointed out that freezing 42 people and allowing the bears time to go down the line to kill each one would be even more of a miracle than...

John Chalstrom peered into the bed of Don Bloom's pickup Thursday evening to look at the bear. Bloom, a Duluth bow hunter, had taken it just a couple of hours earlier. It was a warm, muggy evening at Chalstrom's Bait & Tackle north of Duluth. Bloom had brought his bear to be registered — and weighed. "I'd guess 270," Chalstrom offered, guessing the bear's field-dressed weight.

On Thursday, former Louisiana governor and long-shot Republican presidential contender Buddy Roemer warned about the economic threat to America from China — while standing in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. “China is the bear in the room eating jobs and no one pays attention,” Roemer claimed during a nearly hour-long address attended by just over a dozen members of the press and no other spectators. “I will get the bear out of the room,” he promised. “Why am I the only presidential candidate to see the bear?” Roemer pondered later in the speech, after giving a history...

I'm ready for my claws-up: Photographer's incredible portraits of models who bear all Jill Greenberg, like every other professional photographer, knows that models can be hard to handle - with their diva-like demands and hissy fits. And, with the models she works with especially, getting them at the wrong time of day is literally like dealing with a bear with a sore head. Greenberg's studio portraits feature animal celebrities, including many who have appeared in Hollywood films and commercials, at their most cute - and frightening.

This is from an actual listing (Devin Hester autographed card). Some people are lowering prices on junk that won't hold value -but- those who are not happy with the fiat dollar are not so anxious to swap it for something of value: "Due to treacherous monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, a prodigal Senate & reprobate US President colluding in the debasement of the US Dollar's purchasing power - The price has gone up $5.00 since the last time I listed this card and it WILL go UP at least ANOTHER $5.00 each time I relist it (unless you are...

Regardless of your political persuasion, most of us have a sense of pride knowing that President Barack Obama hails from Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, just a stone’s throw from Northwest Indiana. Yet, there are times when we would prefer that the president watch what he says when talking about Chicago — specifically the city’s professional sports teams. (Snip) Then, Obama did the unthinkable by saying, “Well, if I’m a part owner, I think ... we should initiate a trade to send (Packers quarterback Aaron) Rodgers down to the Bears.”

CLEVELAND, OHIO -- Police say man well known for his collection of exotic animals has died after choking on a sex toy. Sam Mazzola, 49, was found dead in his Columbia Station home on Sunday. Last year, Mazzola came under scrutiny when a black bear, named Cherokee, killed an employee of the sanctuary. According to Lorain County Chief Deputy Coroner Dr. Frank Miller, Mazzola was found face down on his water bed, restrained with handcuffs, chains and padlocks. An autopsy determined the preliminary cause of death was asphyxia due to airway obstruction by foreign body. Mazzola had a sex toy...

An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of the last ice age -- 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Beth Shapiro, the Shaffer Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State University and one of the team's leaders, explained that climate changes affecting the North Atlantic ice sheet probably gave rise to periodic overlaps in bear habitats. These overlaps then led to hybridization, or interbreeding -- an event that caused maternal DNA from brown...

A husband and wife's backcountry hike along a popular trail turned tragic when they stumbled upon a grizzly bear and her cubs and the 57-year-old man was mauled to death, Yellowstone National Park officials said. The couple was hiking along the Wapiti Lake Trail in the Grand Canyon area of the park, park officials told ABC News. They had walked about a mile and a half from the trail head when they saw the grizzly sow and her cubs. "The bear attacked the man and killed him," said Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash. The woman screamed out for help as the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is upholding a decision by government scientists that global warming is threatening the polar bear's survival. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on Thursday ruled that a May 2008 decision to place the bear on the endangered species list as threatened because of melting sea ice was rational based on science.

I've heard of guys crying real tears because of the NFL lockout. Debating a fall without football can take down even the toughest of the tough guys. But the people who are crying over Chicago Bears' rookie J.T. Thomas' latest adventure actually have the lockout to thank for the heartwarming, tissue-soaking tale. Yup, it was the very fact that Thomas had no pressing football-related engagements that allowed him to escort a little girl named Joslyn Levell with spina bifida to her eighth grade formal dance. Go ahead, get the tissues. You're going to need 'em after this one's done! It...

This is a photo taken this morning of a black swamp bear on the move in Mississippi in the Delta up between Panther Burn and Delta National Forest about 8 miles west/southwest of Yazoo City off Satarita road area. We all knew bears were there but you rarely see them. It's funny, we were just talking about this here last week. Nice size bear too btw.

Bear Memories The youngest baby was about three, a carbon copy of him in me, When Dad took us all to Yosemite. Not expecting it to become a calamity. The chubby baby smelled of food. He wouldn't share, which the bears thought rude, so when Donnie bopped the bear's brown nose. The bear's unpredictable anger rose. Donnie took off in high gear, wailing. The bear growled, his patience failing. The bear chased the babe. The baby ran. Dad heard him yell near the garbage can. The bear looked around and saw Dad coming But followed the child who kept on...

BERLIN – Berlin's beloved polar bear Knut, who rose to stardom when he was hand-raised by zoo keepers after being rejected by his mother rejected at birth, died on Saturday, a zoo official said.

Former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune. His death has been ruled a suicide, but the Miami-Dade police department has yet to make the information public. Foul play was ruled out, in part because no one but Duerson was seen entering his condominium for two days before the shooting.

How pathetic! The president of the United States, the ex-state senator from Chicago's South Side, the man who vowed to fly Air Force One to Dallas this weekend at a cost of only $181,000 an hour if his beloved Bears made the NFL's Super Bowl. Which they, uh, didn't... (snip) A real fan of Da Bears might not even watch the not-so-Super Bowl this Sunday afternoon. A real Chicago Bears fan might well switch the channel to well, not the Irish figurine sale, but maybe the Fishing Channel. Or attempted bull-riding.

Following the Packers' 21-14 victory in the NFC Championship game, cornerback Charles Woodson addressed the team in the locker room and delivered a message to the White House.

CHICAGO -- Quarterback Jay Cutler left Sunday's NFC championship game in the third quarter with a knee injury.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is promising he'll be at the Super Bowl if his beloved hometown Chicago Bears make it in. (snip) Obama was asked about his plans Wednesday by reporters being ushered out of his Oval Office meeting with the president of China. Obama said laughingly: "Oh, if the Bears are in the Super Bowl, we're going."

After the pool spray with President Hu Jintao in the Oval Office, a cameraman asked President Obama “If the Bears win, are you going to the Super Bowl?” “Oh we're going,” responded the President, “no doubt.” On Sunday, the Chicago Bears will play the Green Bay Packers at Chicago’s Soldier Field for the NFC Championship. As a freshman senator in December 2006, with the political world wondering about his plans for 2008, Mr. Obama appeared in a mock-commercial during Monday Night Football in which he said, “I'm here tonight to answer some questions about a very important contest that's been...

Meanwhile, when a journalist asked President Barack Obama -- a Chicagoan -- if he would go to the Super Bowl, he responded, "If the Bears win, I'm going; no doubt." Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said his NFC Championship game bet with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn involves team colors and some volunteer time. Walker said the losing governor of the bet on Sunday's Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game will volunteer in a food pantry in the winner's state wearing a shirt from the opposing team. "I look forward to hosting Gov. Quinn in Wisconsin after a 28-24 Packer victory," Walker said....

PORTLAND, Ore. December 21, 2010. "When I first picked up the cub, she was biting my hand," explains wildlife biologist Bruce Marcot. He was trying to calm the squirming cub while its sedated mother slept nearby. In the snowy spring of 2009, Portland-based Marcot traveled with several colleagues onto the frozen Arctic Ocean north of Alaska to study and survey polar bear populations. From their base of operations at the settlements of Deadhorse, next to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, they ventured by small plane and helicopter over a wide area of the Beaufort Sea in a study to determine the bears'...

Old-time football players like to say they would’ve played for free in the parking lot, such was their love for the game. It might be the hyperbole of men who watched too many grainy Knute Rockne clips, but you want to believe that they believe it. You want to believe that they were so tough and so committed to the game that they would’ve sacrificed the skin on their elbows to make a tackle near the third parking stall on the left. You want to believe in someone who loved the raw violence of a sport so much that he...

Chris Kluwe often likes to have fun on his Twitter page but after Vikings players got a look at the field conditions at TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday during their walk-through the punter turned very serious in a series of posts. Kluwe termed the field that is scheduled to play host to Monday night's game against the Bears as "unplayable." Here are Kluwe's tweets regarding a field that has no heating coils in it: "Serious time - All respect to the people that cleared the field and got it ready, you did an amazing job. That being said, it's unplayable....

...With a record of 2-11, the silver-and-Honolulu blue are firmly entrenched at No. 32 on any power poll in this spiral arm of the galaxy. Entrenched, that is, until another loss drops them behind Ohio State, Florida and the Hamburg Sea Devils. Think it can't get worse? Hey, this is the Lions. NFL schedule makers saw fit to arrange the endgame Kitty Cats' so, so long season likewise: at the Green Bay Packers where the Lions haven't won since a guy named Brett Favre took over there (that's right, 1992); against the Chicago Bears in a game which figures to...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is setting aside 187,000 square miles in Alaska as a "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas. The total, which includes large areas of sea ice off the Alaska coast, is about 13,000 square miles, or 8.3 million acres, less than in a preliminary plan released last year. Tom Strickland, Interior assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, said the designation would help polar bears stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate...

The family of a Utah boy killed by a black bear can move forward with its lawsuit that contends the state didn't do enough to warn them to steer clear of the area where the bear had been seen earlier, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The court's ruling held that the state isn't immune from a lawsuit in the death of 11-year-old Samuel Ives, who was pulled from his tent and mauled by bear in American Fork Canyon on Father's Day in 2007. A state judge last year dismissed a negligence suit against the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources,...

This is a must see. A black bear approaches a man in a tree stand. The bear even starts climbing the tree stand and is within, like one or two ladder rungs of the guy. Why the idiot isn't shooting the bear with something besides a camera is beyond me. If it were me, the moment the bear started climbing the ladder I would have made a rug out of him for my living room floor. The man does eventually speak up and it startles the bear who obviously did not realize that this particular tree was occupied. I guess...

Bullish Sentiment Near 2-1/2 Year High by: AAII October 28, 2010 Optimism among individual investors reached its highest level in nearly two and one-half years, according to the latest AAII Sentiment Survey. Bullish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will rise over the next six months, rose 1.6 percentage points to 51.2%. The historical average is 39%. Neutral sentiment, expectations that stock prices will stay essentially flat over the next six months, rose 2.0 percentage points to 27.2%. This is the highest neutral sentiment has been in five weeks. The historical average is 31%. Bearish sentiment, expectations that stock prices will...

MOSCOW -Famished bears in northern Russia have resorted to digging up graves in cemeteries - and reportedly eating at least one body - after a scorching summer destroyed their natural food sources of forest berries and mushrooms, officials said Thursday. The brown bears' grisly habit is forcing locals in the Arctic Circle region of Komi to mount 24-hour patrols, protecting their families and livestock with the concern that the bears might get a taste for fresher human flesh, said Pyotr Lobanov, a regional spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry. Last summer was Russia's hottest on record, with raging forest fires and...