Free Republic

A New Mexico man has died of complications from the bubonic plague as state health officials scramble to assess the ongoing risk in the region. The unidentified Lincoln Country resident had been hospitalized recently with the bacterial affliction, although the details surrounding how he contracted it and how his health deteriorated remain unclear, the state Department of Health (NMDOH) announced Friday. Despite medics’ best efforts, the patient succumbed to his symptoms, marking New Mexico’s first recorded case of bubonic plague since 2021. This was also the state’s first BP-related fatality since 2020; the state recorded four cases of the disease...

The leaks coming from the White House are now crossing into the animal kingdom ... because a mouse fell out of a ceiling, sending reporters into a frenzy!!! The wild scene went down Tuesday morning at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a mouse plunged through the ceiling in the press booth and landed in a journo's lap. Members of the media were obviously shocked by the rodent's rude entrance, with reporters scurrying out of their seats. A mouse hunt ensued ... and video shows the furry critter darting behind tables and equipment, eluding capture. One reporter even busted out a broom,...

Valerie Jarrett reportedly writes in her new book that she confronted former President Obama over a "macho atmosphere" in the White House, where she served as senior adviser, adding that female staff members initially felt intimidated during his time in office. Axios, which obtained a copy of "Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward," reported Tuesday that Jarrett writes that she told Obama that women "rarely talk" in meetings, adding that "when you aren't there to ask their opinion, they are becoming increasingly mute." Jarrett also writes that the former president met for several...

Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser to former President Barack Obama, writes in her new book that she still hasn’t accepted President Trump won the 2016 election. "Since the night Donald Trump became president of the United States, I’ve been going through the five stages of grief, sometimes all five in the same day,” Jarrett writes in Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward. "In the beginning, denial and anger were high on the list; I still haven't embraced acceptance,” she writes. Jarrett, a longtime adviser to Obama and his wife Michelle, said...

A video showing a rodent trapped in the change dispenser of an MTA MetroCard vending machine is just the latest indignity for Big Apple straphangers. The roughly 10-second clip posted to Instagram by user subwaycreatures shows the pest struggling to lift a clear plastic cover that kept it trapped inside the change return slot of a ticket machine at an unknown subway station.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- Teddy's Bigger Burgers has closed its Mapunapuna location for cleaning and fired an employee after a video posted on social media shows what appears to be a rat being cooked on the eatery's grill. The video was posted on Snapchat several days ago, and subsequently shared with the company. "We are horrified that a former teenage employee would conduct themselves in that way and make such a video of which we are investigating its authenticity," said Teddy's President Richard Stula, in a statement to Hawaii News Now. He said in addition to terminating the employee, Teddy's has...

As Italy struggles to deal with burgeoning populations of an introduced giant rodent, a mayor has come up with a novel solution – eat them. Coypu were introduced to Italy a century ago from their native South America to be farmed for their fur. But many escaped or were deliberately released after wearing fur fell out of fashion and the species is now thriving. They have fared particularly well in the flatlands of the Po valley in northern Italy, where farmers complain that they devour crops and destroy levees and embankments by digging burrows. Michele Marchi, the mayor of the...

SYDNEY, Australia - Australian researchers say rising sea levels have wiped out a rodent that lived on a tiny outcrop in the Great Barrier Reef, in what they say is the first documented extinction of a mammal species due to human-caused climate change. The rodent was known to have lived only on Bramble Cay, a minuscule atoll in the northeast Torres Strait, between the Cape York Peninsula in the Australian state of Queensland and the southern shores of Papua New Guinea. The long-tailed, whiskered creature, called the Bramble Cay melomys, was considered the only mammal endemic to the Great Barrier...

A rare and elusive rabbit has been found, held and photographed by a researcher from the University of East Anglia (UEA). The Annamite Striped rabbit, found in the forests of Laos and Vietnam, was first documented by rabbit expert Dr Diana Bell and colleagues from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences in the journal Nature in 1999. It has rarely been seen since. Researcher Sarah Woodfin, who is studying for a Masters in Applied Ecology and Conservation at UEA, set out on a three-month expedition to track the recently-discovered rabbit and study its habitat. But she didn’t expect to see one...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs. And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know," Paul McCartney sings in his 1976 song "Silly Love Songs." Mice might agree. It turns out male mice actually use ultrasonic "love songs" to woo females, using different tunes when they smell but do not see a female and when they lay eyes on their potential lady love, scientists said on Wednesday. "I do think there is more going on with animal communication than we humans have been attuned to," Duke University neurobiology professor Erich Jarvis said....

Boring old dogs or cats won't cut it for this Texas couple. Melanie Typaldos and her husband, Richard Loveman, of Buda, Texas, share their home with a gigantic 112-pound rodent: Gary the capybara. The couple got Gary from a breeder in Arkansas after falling in love with his kind (the biggest rodent in the world!)

Ice Age warmth wiped out lemmings, study findsBy Michelle Warwicker BBC Nature 26 November 2012 Last updated at 22:07 Lemmings became "regionally extinct" five times due to rapid climate change during the last Ice Age, scientists have found. **SNIP** Instead the tests revealed that genetically distinct populations of lemmings were "present at different points in time" during the Late Pleistocene, 11,700 to around 126,000 years ago, meaning that the lemming population had been wiped out multiple times and then re-colonised some time after, possibly from populations in eastern Europe or Russia. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the...

As Heifer Ghana got its start in 1999, staff swiftly tackled the challenge of affordably domesticating grasscutters, a wild rodent prized in West Africa for its sweet and lean meat. Since then, Heifer developed an accessible and hugely successful method to raise the rodents to improve nutrition and income among its project participants. Today, demand in West Africa and beyond drives exponential growth in the production and sale of the animals.ANANG CHARLES, Ghana—She was clearly nervous. Strange people were milling about in front of her house asking questions about her. When she saw the camera, she froze. Her mouth full,...

Remains of Earth's largest rat discovered in cave The remains of the largest rat to ever roam the Earth have been discovered in a remote cave in East Timor. Bonnie Malkin in Sydney Published: 12:35PM BST 26 Jul 2010 The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog. Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than...

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- A rodent -- type and origin unknown -- eluded capture after invading U.S. President Barack Obama's speaking space in the Rose Garden. Obama was commenting on the Senate's passage of financial reform legislation Thursday when the varmint burst through the shrubbery, scurried in front of the presidential podium, then disappeared in some bushes, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Witnesses said the rodent began its run from the right and exited on the left. The critter's political views were not known.

Rodent Scurries By as Obama Lauds Wall Street Vote May 20, 2010 WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the midst of his battle with the titans of Wall Street, President Barack Obama was nearly upstaged by a rodent. Obama had just begun a Rose Garden statement lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul when some kind of rodent dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office. As photographers snapped away in the sun-drenched garden, the critter scurried straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal and made a bee-line for another set...

Obama had just begun an afternoon statement to reporters lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul plan when some kind of rodent - opinions differ on which - dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office. As photographers snapped away, the critter trundled straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal and made a bee-line for another set of bushes to Obama's left. It's not clear if the president could even see the streaker, but he didn't show any reaction. And he concluded his statement minutes later, returning to his...

This mouse diced with death when it tucked into the lunch of a hungry leopard. Seemingly unaware of the beast towering over it, the mischievous rodent grabbed at scraps of meat thrown into the African Leopard's enclosure. But instead of pouncing on the the tiny intruder the 12-year-old leopard, called Sheena, appeared to be afraid of the daring mouse and kept her distance. At one stage she tried to nudge the mouse away with her nose, but the determined little chap carried on chewing away until he was full. The extraordinary scene was captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge at...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man who was dressed in a squirrel costume was escorted from the Ohio Statehouse steps on Monday morning while Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Mayor Michael Coleman were discussing negative campaigning by Republicans. The squirrel held up a sign that said, "Don't Let Obama + ACORN Steal Ohio." Strickland, Brown and Coleman stood on the Statehouse steps to call for an end to what they called "lying, deceitful ads" by Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, 10TV's Patrick Bell reported. McCain's campaign accuses ACORN, a community activist group that operates nationwide, of perpetrating...

What a Rodent Can Do With a Rake in Its Paw By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Degus are highly social, intelligent rodents native to the highlands of Chile. They adorn the openings of their burrows with piles of sticks and stones, have bubbly personalities and like to play games. But in a laboratory setting, degus can do much more than play hide-and-seek, according to a study in the online journal Plos One (www.plosone.org). They can learn to use tools. Specifically, degus have been trained to reach through a fence, grab hold of a tiny rake and pull their favorite food, half a...