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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man got a big surprise on a commercial flight from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska, when he was stung by a scorpion while sitting in his plane seat. Jeff Ellis of West Linn said he was trying to sleep on a red-eye Alaska Airlines flight June 17 when he felt something in his sleeve and tried to brush it away. He said he felt the crawling again, looked down and saw the culprit. "I picked my hand up and said, 'Oh, my God. That's a scorpion,'" Ellis told KPTV. He said he grabbed the scorpion...

Ambulances were called to La Jolla Wednesday afternoon after at least 30 people were stung by sting rays. The attacks happened at both La Jolla Shores and Blacks Beach up the coast to the north. Lifeguards said that at one point, they were treating 11 or 12 people at the same time. Paramedics were called in to assist with triage because of the abundance of victims. Most of the victims are treated by immersing the stung spot in hot water right away. However, they monitor the victims' vital signs. A lifeguard said that if you are allergic to bees, it's...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2006 -- The irony stung worse than the scorpion. Army Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting 3rd Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, was stung by a deadly scorpion. U.S. Army photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A soldier dedicated to studying dangerous wildlife recently got attacked by one of the aggressive fat-tailed scorpions he spent months warning other soldiers to avoid. Army Capt. Stephen Garvin, an entomologist with the 981st Medical Detachment supporting 3rd Army/U.S. Army Central in Kuwait, made a routine visit to a portable toilet at Camp Buehring...

Stung Lung: Volatile chemical may cut respiratory capacity Ben Harder A chemical in some air fresheners and pest-control products may slightly impair lung function in millions of people, a nationwide study suggests. The compound, para-dichlorobenzene, is used to make mothballs, urinal deodorizers, and air-freshening blocks for household use. At room temperature, the strong-smelling chemical gradually changes from a solid to a gas. Para-dichlorobenzene was previously detected in the blood of more than 95 percent of the participants tested in a U.S. study called NHANES III. Scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C., looked...

The White House today slammed Senator John Kerry for staging a 'political stunt' at the presidents ranch and for a double standard on attack ads.White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Kerry's dispatch of former US Senator Max Cleland and Vietnam Vet Jim Rassman to Crawford was an attempt to divert attention from Kerry's 'out of the mainstream political record and out of the mainstream views.''Senator Kerry says he wants to talk about the issues. Today's political stunt is an interesting way of showing it, McClellan said.'If Senator Kerry was interested in focusing on the issues, he would join the president...

Fox news alert.

When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defied state law by allowing same-sex marriage licenses, a New York Times profile reported him sporting "a wide grin," "describing his motives as pure and principled," and cited his "business acumen, money, good looks and friends in the right places." But when Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore also defied the law -- by installing a Ten Commandments display in his public building -- a Times profile said that "civil liberties groups accused Justice Moore of turning a courthouse into a church," while allowing that he had also become "an Alabama folk hero." On the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's attorney general predicted on Monday that the courts would bar same-sex marriages in San Francisco within weeks and invalidate the thousands of gay marriages the city has sanctioned over the past two weeks. "I think it will be weeks and my best prediction is that the marriages will be invalidated, the courts will direct people that wish to change the law to the legislative process," Bill Lockyer, the Democratic attorney general, told Reuters in a telephone interview. Over the past 10 days, San Francisco has issued marriage licenses to 3,175 homosexual couples, prompting euphoria in...