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(AP) HUTCHINSON, Kan. - A tea party group in Kansas says its depiction of President Barack Obama as a skunk is satire, not racism as the leader of a civil rights group alleges. Hutchinson-based Patriot Freedom Alliance says on its website that like the president, the skunk is "half black, half white, and almost everything it does stinks." The Hutchinson News reports local NAACP president Darrell Pope sees no humor in the depiction, which he calls a blatant statement of racism. Local tea party supporter Chuck Sankey says former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been the target of worse...

SIERRA VISTA — The Army heath center on Fort Huachuca is looking to remind those with children to ensure they avoid unfamiliar or stray animals, wild or otherwise, after two young children were seen playing with a skunk that was later determined to be rabid last week. The Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center release advocating caution does not specify if either of the children, young boys between the ages of 6 and 9, were infected. Rabies spreads through the bite and saliva of infected animals, and can also be spread if there is contact with the animal’s saliva to...

You know, I’m beginning to think French leader Nicolas Zarkozy was right when he called Barack Obama “a dangerous[ly] aliéné” a “mad lunatic” or as the European Union Times translates: “dangerously insane.” What else could explain this bizarre statement that was picked up by Dan Riehl: Obama to American Taxpayers: “You would think they’d be saying thank you.” ...

When Gerald Harsen walks at night with a flashlight, his Elmhurst neighborhood "comes alive with eyes looking back at you," he said. Many of those eyes belong to skunks. Too many of them, he believes. "I grew up on a farm and I've always had the opinion there are certain critters I should not have to live with," he said. So, recently Harsen did something about it. He set a trap in his backyard, luring skunks with peanut butter and bread. On the morning of Sept. 30, Harsen caught one, grabbed his pellet gun and shot it dead. Then he...

THE Palestinian protesters massed at the fence expected tear gas and rubber bullets; what they got instead was a putrid yellow wind, Israel's newest weapon against West Bank demonstrators. The noxious mist, which Israeli police refer to as "skunk," was used for the first time earlier this month, when a truck-mounted cannon sprayed it over the heads of protesters, sending them racing down the hillside, retching and tearing off their shirts to try to escape the stench. Dozens of Palestinians from the village of Bilin, along with international and Israeli activists, had marched to a nearby segment of Israel's controversial...

Border Guard uses 'Skunk' as new crowd-dispersal means Out with rubber bullets, tear gas, shock grenades; in with new, stinky means to scatter violent rioters. After using new tool during Naalin riot, officers report Palestinians ran to shower, changed clothes Efrat Weiss YNET Published: 08.10.08, 15:45 / Israel News www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3580338,00.html The Border Guard has begun using a new means of contending with riots coined "Skunk". The police developed this new method for scattering violent demonstrations and tested its effectivity in the last demonstration which took place in the West Bank village of Naalin. Separation Fence Use of the "Skunk" is...

My father travels for work every now and again. He’s always complaining about the airlines and getting stuck sitting next to a big guy, that smells and loves to talk. I think he just likes to exaggerate. Then this morning I get up and read this story as I’m downing my cup a joe. Maybe air travel really does suck. (MIAMI - An uninvited passenger created a smelly situation on a plane in Miami. American Airlines Flight 915 from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, was delayed Wednesday night after a skunk was found in the back of the cargo hold, discharging...

Surprisingly, nothing smells about this story… (A woman turning heads by taking her pet skunk for a walk on a lead has been told by a council that it may have to go, BBC Scotland can reveal. Hannah Chapman, 23, takes de-scented Ichi for walks in Aberdeen. People have been stopping her to take pictures of the unusual sight in the Rosemount area of the city. An Aberdeen City Council spokeswoman said Hannah did not have permission to keep a skunk in her council flat but should get in touch.) I think it should be pretty easy for the council...

I live in the woods, not just the suburbs, LOL. Sitting here a few minutes ago, all Hell broke loose outside, followed by a plume of skunk fumes flowing from the AC unit. It is very quiet out there now, I assume the skunk won the fight. I might have to go next door and crash on my daughters couch, LOL.

Beer is a perishable product than can suffer from negligence at the brewery or abuse by distributors, retailers, and even beer drinkers. With the almost limitless choices of beers on store shelves afforded by the availability of American brews and the importation of beers from Algeria to Zaire, beer drinkers now experience more variety—but face more pitfalls—in their beer purchases today. Below are some common flavor problems in beer that every beer drinker should be aware of:

The only thing more painful than listening to Jimmy Carter lecture President Bush on how to conduct a successful presidency was living through his disastrous attempt to turn his advice into reality. As I noted earlier this week, Carter has channeled his hatred of non-leftists, secular and religious, into a glut of slanders in his new bestseller, Our Endangered Values. He charges his opponents with, among other things, countenancing female circumcision, defending the murder of federal judges, torturing innocent Islamofascists, and forcing North Korea to manufacture nuclear weapons. Jimmy once again offers himself as the nation’s savior-by-acclamation, leading his errant...

Commentary: CBS should shelve the cute stuff and stick to ... the news NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - "I am very happy to be with you tonight." With those un-momentous words Tuesday night, Katie Couric, 49, was off and running as the new anchor of "The CBS Evening News." At last the hype was over and the former star of NBC's "Today" show would have an opportunity to prove herself as a serious evening-newscaster. She dropped the ball. At its worst, the show reinforced all of the worries of grizzled veteran journalists. This wasn't all Couric's fault. She was, as billed,...

KENOSHA - Police encounter a potential stinky and sticky situation early Saturday morning. A skunk got a Styrofoam cup stuck on its head in the 6700 block of 34th Avenue. The officer at the scene refused to get of his car. The officer called animal control and a woman from that organization came out to scene. She eventually managed to pull the cup off the skunk's head with her bare hands. The skunk did not spray anyone and it quickly ran away cup free.

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Excerpt:"She did not leak any classified information, and she did not have access to the information apparently attributed to her by some government officials," said Washington lawyer Ty Cobb, who is representing veteran CIA analyst Mary McCarthy. Government officials have linked her to the Post's story about the CIA's covert sites in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, used to hold terror suspects. The disclosure of the facilities caused an international clamor last fall because of the legal and ethical issues they raised. McCarthy was fired on Thursday for knowingly disclosing classified information. But Cobb said she hopes to find a way...

NOVATO, Calif. - An 82-year-old animal lover was arrested this week on allegations he grabbed and brandished a trapper's revolver during a scuffle over the skunk. Lou Kessler was arrested Tuesday. He was released on his own recognizance Wednesday after being charged with misdemeanor counts of using a firearm in a fight and disturbing the peace. The victim, Ron Bailey, 52, told The Press Democrat in a phone interview that he simply was doing his job as a state-licensed trapper and he believes Kessler disobeyed the law and attacked him. The scuffle allegedly began when Kessler and his wife went...

Week of Dec. 3, 2005 Vol. 168, No. 23 , p. 362 A Skunk Walks into a Bar . . .Fighting beer's fouler flavors Aimee Cunningham Beer brewing is among the tastiest of chemical experiments. Problem is, the reactions that begin with the first manipulations of the barley grain don't stop once the beer is in the bottle. The dynamic molecular world in all stored brews continues to alter flavors, sometimes overshadowing the tastes that a beer drinker loves with other flavors so offensive that they're likened to skunk spray and cardboard. From the moment that brewing begins until the...

"Lt. Gov. Steele was extremely disturbed to learn about the alleged criminal identity theft of his personal finance records by (a staff member of U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,) at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

School Says Woman's Service Animal Not Safe UPDATED: 10:20 am PDT September 23, 2005 SAN ANTONIO -- A student at a San Antonio university has filed a complaint, alleging the school is violating her civil rights. The student asked the Justice Department to find Our Lady of the Lake University in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, reported KSAT-TV in San Antonio. The complaint centers on Sarah Sevick's service animal, which is a ferret. Sevick, 19, suffers from a variety of mental disorders and requires the animal to get through her day, much the same way a blind person...

When a skunk took a liking to Denver and Wanda Ward's backyard, digging holes under their fence and eating tomato plants, Denver decided to do something about it. He caught his culprit and thought he was doing the right thing by calling the city to come get it. He explains, "She wasn't interested in the skunk. She was interested in how I caught it. I told her I caught it with a steel trap and she asked did I know that's against the law and I said no m'aam I didn't." The Animal Services officer wrote Denver a $137 ticket...

Jeff Baxter played psychedelic music with Ultimate Spinach, jazz-rock with Steely Dan and funky pop with the Doobie Brothers. But in the last few years he has made an even bigger transition: Mr. Baxter, who goes by the nickname "Skunk," has become one of the national-security world's well-known counterterrorism experts. A wiry man who wears a beret to many of his meetings, Mr. Baxter, who is now 56 years old, has gone from a rock career that brought him eight platinum records to a spot in the small constellation of consultants paid to help both policy makers and defense contractors...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who lost this crucial swing state in November, sounded Friday as if he were still stumping for Florida's votes. The Massachusetts senator, at a National Head Start Association conference to tout his plan to provide health care for uninsured children, hammered on familiar themes of values and unity while repeatedly criticizing the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress. "I went back and reread the whole New Testament the other day. Nowhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ did I find a suggestion at all, ever, anywhere, in any way...

Now that he's not running for president - officially, anyway - many pols expected Sen. John F. Kerry [related, bio] would show up for a good-natured ribbing at this year's Southie St. Patrick's Day fete. Well, think again. Kerry's got plans, again, and won't make it to the breakfast, again, aides said yesterday. ``Unfortunately, John Kerry [related, bio] has a longstanding family commitment that will keep him out of state for this year's breakfast, which he's attended every year he can,'' Kerry spokesman David Wade said. While that may not be a huge surprise to some, breakfast host state Sen....

Does "skunk smell" bother other skunks? We once discussed cures for a skunk attack(See Below), but now we're down to the nitty-gritty. Does an all-out odor attack from one skunk cause another skunk to go running? Skunks themselves are very clean animals and have very little, if any, odor. It’s only when they feel threatened that they let fly with their scent-secreting glands and spray their attacker with nature’s equivalent of Mace. The versatile skunk has two "settings" under his tail; one shoots a forceful stream directed at the face of his victim, while the other sprays stink in a...

Some CBS critics would be satisfied with only this: From: Mapes To: Bigdan: OK, here's the deal. I got a guy who cooked up fake memos, another guy who will lie about their credibility, and a retired general who will back up the story. He's dead, but we have the seance on tape. (Morley did the voice. What a ham!) The Kerry campaign is ready to go with the "Fortunate Son" ad campaign to piggyback on the AWOL theme. You end the segment by saying, "And the story is, as they say in a one-hour Texas Photomat, developing." That'll be...

LAKELAND, FLA. - Urban legends are supposed to be legends and that's all. But if you ask Jennifer Ward about the Florida skunk ape, she will tell you it stepped out of the mists of myth and into reality. "I never thought anything like that was out there before," Ward, 30, said recently. "But I know there is now." Ward's encounter with the hairy creature came in August, about a week after Hurricane Charley, along a rural stretch of road as she was driving home from a friend's house. Her daughters were asleep in the back seat and it was...

Kerry is being revealed as unelectable. Even the liberal press covers the swift boat issue, instead of significant developments in Iraq, Iran, etc. The press is preparing Kerry for early exit, and will indirectly promote Hillary as the only remaining electable dem candidate - they know it is absolutely imperative for her to get through the "campaign" WITHOUT debate, questions, etc. She knows there will not be enough time for her to answer to the public or engage in debates if she achieves the nomination in late September. She needs to be elected in an unconventional manner, or she will...

A fumigation device intended to get rid of a skunk ignited a blaze that caused more than $100,000 in damage to an Upper Valley business on Wednesday, fire investigators said. The skunk was living under a building housing a plumbing supply company at 6460 Doniphan. The two-alarm fire was so hot that it melted copper pipes and made one of the building's metal walls glow white. No one was injured.

For anyone out there who thinks cops lack creativity when it comes to crime fighting, I offer you the Skunk Squad of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Lt. Shaun Mathers and his special assignment unit in Compton kept seeing the same old problems — prostitution, drug dealing, arson, etc. — in abandoned buildings and other gathering places. They'd round up the bad guys night after night, but the perps were back in no time, and citizens kept screaming for the cops to do something. In a brain-storming session, Lt. Mathers, Deputy Scott Gage and others got a wacky idea...

Marijuana advocates warned that Canada's plan to decriminalize marijuana could increase prices for the drug and attract criminals to the trade, the Edmonton Sun reported May 11. The federal government is poised to decriminalize simple possession of marijuana, with possession of less than 15 grams of marijuana considered a ticketing offense, rather than a criminal one. However, the proposal also calls for tougher penalties for trafficking and production of marijuana. "If the government is really serious about increasing penalties against people who are trafficking, they're contradicting themselves," said Munir Ahmad of the Edmonton Compassion Network. "Why would they allow consumption,...

<p>May 8, 2003 -- ANYONE who watched the dreary first 2004 Democratic debate Saturday can see why some Republicans are dreaming and plotting how President Bush can do what even Ronald Reagan couldn't do: win all 50 states in 2004.</p>

This is huge. It means that Scott's boat was NEVER LAUNCHED.

Family backs Missouri woman accused of killing son By Betsy Taylor ~ The Associated Press When members of the Shunk family heard the shotgun blast, they thought for certain Joe Shunk Jr. had finally killed his mother. But the shotgun was allegedly fired by 66-year-old Dixie Shunk. Her 41-year-old son, who family members say had a history of abusing his parents, wife and children, was mortally wounded. Now, Dixie Shunk faces charges of second-degree murder for allegedly killing her own son. Even as she sits in jail, Shunk, her family says, has two broken and two bruised ribs from a...

NASHUA – Two dogs are fine, their owners are recuperating and a neighborhood has been left, well, smelly, after a skunk terrorized its residents late Wednesday. Residents on Tufts Street, which is behind Greeley Park, said they began calling police around 3:30 p.m. about a crazed skunk that was attacking dogs and attempting to attack people.Police arrived at the home of Ann Kimball at 21 Tufts Drive around 6:30 p.m. and found an adult skunk with its jaws attached to the leg of her 14-year-old golden retriever, Rambo.Kimball said she had just let the dog out when the skunk jumped...

the jaws of a skunk Wednesday night was forced to kill the wild animal in the effort. Police began receiving phone calls concerning a “menacing skunk” in a neighborhood directly behind Greeley Park shortly after 6 p.m.After responding to the home of Ann Kimball at 21 Tufts Drive, police Sgt. Peter Bouchard said he found an adult-size skunk attached to the hind leg of an elderly golden retriever in the woman’s yard.“She said the skunk attacked the dog as soon as she let it out to go to the bathroom and she had been trying to beat the skunk off...

NASHUA – A police officer trying to rescue a dog from the jaws of a skunk Wednesday night was forced to kill the wild animal in the effort. Police began receiving phone calls concerning a “menacing skunk” in a neighborhood directly behind Greeley Park shortly after 6 p.m.After responding to the home of Ann Kimball at 21 Tufts Drive, police Sgt. Peter Bouchard said he found an adult-size skunk attached to the hind leg of an elderly golden retriever in the woman’s yard.“She said the skunk attacked the dog as soon as she let it out to go to the...

LEWISTON, Maine (April 12, 2002 9:34 a.m. EDT) - Police officers who were chasing a man after a traffic stop got an unlikely assist from a skunk, who sprayed the suspect in the face. Kenneth Rideout, 32, was nailed after he ran into the woods Tuesday night. He was wanted for violating release conditions stemming from a domestic assault. The skunk didn't stop Rideout but it slowed him down enough that police officers were able to catch up with him. "It was powerful enough to pretty much incapacitate him," said police Lt. Tom Avery. Officer Eric Syphers arrested the smelly...