Free Republic

For the small six-person team tasked with combating California's nutria infestation, a typical day consists of working in 100-degree weather, wading through marshes and avoiding traps built to catch 20-pound rodents, targeting about 2 million acres. Nutria, a destructive rat-like mammal, is currently burrowing into central California's wetlands. In the spring, the Department of Fish and Wildlife began to warn the public about the dangers of the animal, which devastate agricultural infrastructure by burrowing into levees, roadbeds and canal beds. But in the past few months, only 200 nutria have been exterminated, 100 of which were found in a pond...

It's barely 6:00 am and Alfred is already busy milking cows. But when his chores on the farm are done, he won't be going home -- he'll be returning to his prison cell. In Sweden, which prioritises rehabilitation over long prison sentences, Alfred is one of 60 inmates preparing to reintegrate into society at a minimum security "open prison" functioning as a farm in the town of Mariestad, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) southwest of Stockholm. Imprisoned since April for illegally possessing a gun, Alfred, a grandfather in his 50s who is due to be released in November, can't hide...

O’NEILL, Neb. — Federal immigration enforcement officers surrounded a tomato greenhouse complex Wednesday morning in an apparent bust of undocumented immigrants. An ICE spokesman confirmed that it was an “ongoing law enforcement activity” and said that details would be coming later in the day. Shortly before 9 a.m. several ICE law enforcement vehicles arrived at the O’Neill Ventures plant on the northwest edge of O’Neill. Nebraska state troopers blocked the entrance.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Iowa State Fair is less than a week away and some areas are still under construction including the Grandstand. The renovated Grandstand will seat 14,500 people compared to the original 10,500. “I say we have four things, ease of getting in. You’re going to get in easier. You don’t have to have tickets for the food and beverage this year, so the lines should be shorter for that. We have new concessions and new restrooms and a bigger stage,” Iowa State Fair Manager and CEO Gary Slater said. The bigger stage and additional seats go...

New research and technologies may end up changing the way we think about early Arctic history, upending the assumption that the ancient ancestors of today's Inuit people learned how to spin yarn from Viking settlers. It has long been assumed that the ancient Dorset and Thule people learned how to spin yarn from Norse settlers who arrived in Newfoundland some 1,000 years ago, according to the Canadian press. “There’s a lot we don’t know,” said Michele Hayeur Smith of Brown University in Rhode Island and lead author of a recent paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Hayeur Smith and...

"Remember how...remember how Megyn Kelly was going to host that first Republican presidential debate on Fox News and take out Donald Trump? Then she failed spectacularly and like Donald Trump spent the next few weeks just like totally destroying her with tweets and stuff until like, the blood was coming out of her nose or whatever? Then she disappeared for a while and did some sort of housewife show for a while and then disappeared like forever? "That was awesome!"

RAPIDES PARISH, La. - An Arrest is made in a dog fighting operation. Rapides Parish Sheirff's office says they have arrested Sherman Lane Nash Jr., 38, of Pineville. He is charged with seven counts of Aggravated Cruelty to Animals and three counts dog fighting/possession of fighting dogs. Investigators were received a tip of animal cruelty and possible dog fighting in the Wardville community of Pineville. Sheriff’s Detectives had been conducting surveillance in the area and through information gathered, were able to establish sufficient probable cause to secure a search warrant for the property that the alleged abuse was taking place....

Live poultry in backyard flocks are linked to several multistate outbreaks of salmonella infections that have now sickened 212 people in 44 states, federal health officials warned Monday. The most recent illnesses began on June 21, with 88 of the cases reported in the last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, said in an advisory. The federal agency is working with multiple states in investigating several outbreaks of salmonella infections linked to contact with live poultry in backyard flocks, it said. A half-dozen strains of salmonella bacteria have sickened people starting in the middle of February,...

Rowan W. Dorin, assistant professor of history, with the miscataloged parchments whose mystery he is working to solve. Credit: L.A. Cicero __________________________________________________________________________ When historian Rowan Dorin first stepped onto the Stanford campus in early 2017, he made it a habit to visit Green Library every week to dig through its collection of medieval documents and objects. After a few months, Dorin, an assistant professor of history specializing in medieval Europe, discovered something out of the ordinary. Three leaves of ancient parchment were labeled as a Hebrew translation of text about grammar, but its margins had Latin words like fish, capers...

Health officials have added more than 100 illnesses to the cyclospora outbreak linked to McDonald’s salads, bringing the total number of cases to 163. Illnesses have been reported by 10 states, according to the latest update by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. The median illness onset date is June 28. The Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate which ingredient in the salads was the vehicle for the outbreak. McDonald’s is cooperating and on July 13 stopped selling salads at more than 3,000 locations until it could switch...

RANSOM, Kan.—The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone: Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase. Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s. The U.S. share of the global grain market is less than half what it was in...

The Wxrisk.com site is run by a local meteorologist in Virginia, Dave Tolleris, aka "DT". He does commercial forecasting for clients, with his 'products' being European Grain and Energy weather... Overseas (China Ukraine Russia India) Daily weather... Overseas weekly and 30 day reviews... US Grain forecasts... HDD and CDD forecasts...30 day forecasts... South America daily weather... 6-10 day and 11-15 energy forecasts... The Winter storm newsletter. DT contributes to the community with non-commercial forecasting for our local weather with his famous (because they're accurate!) snow forecasts and pointing out when it would be wise to pay attention to the weather...

Athletes who drink chocolate milk during exercise or after a hard workout may recover just as quickly as they would with sports drinks, a research review suggests. What people eat and drink during intense exercise and afterward can impact how well their muscles recover and how rapidly their body replaces fluids and electrolytes lost during the workout, previous research has found. Most studies assessing whether drinks with carbohydrates and electrolytes, or with protein, might aid recovery have been too small to draw firm conclusions about which beverages are the best option, the authors of the new review write in European...

A MUTANT cow has been born with two heads, baffling local farmers. Video footage shows the farm animal being bottle-fed by local workers as a second identical face emerges next to the first. The calf shares two pairs of eyes and heads between one skull and was found in Brazilian town Caiponia by the farm owner's wife. The woman, Zica Soares, said: "I never imagined something like that would be born here, we are surprised. "The vet says that we need to either put the calf down or look after him until the end. "He is very bad, really weak,...

JESUS used cannabis and was an early champion of its medicinal properties, a growing consensus of experts agree. And acceptance of this theory could help promote the controversial drug’s use in treating a range of illnesses. Cannabis historian, author and journalist David Bienenstock is one who believes cannabis oil even explains the “miracles” attributed to Jesus. Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, he said: “Historical records show that cannabis was widely available at the time – they would’ve known how to grow it and exploit its medicinal properties. “There is nothing different in the efficacious cannabis oil used today that...

The Senate today easily passed its version of the farm bill by a vote of 86-11,paving the way for a conference committee to reconcile differences with the House's version of the sweeping agriculture and nutrition legislation. The Senate farm bill attracted bipartisan support, as expected, but key differences with the House's partisan version, which passed last week, set up potentially contentious negotiations between the lawmakers who will be tasked with melding the two measures into one. The main differences relate to proposals for the food stamp program, farm subsidy caps and conservation initiatives. Congress has until Sept. 30 to get...

South Florida’s not quite Jurassic Park, but it’s getting close. Packs of green iguanas are swarming seawalls, roaming yards and parks, and leaving a path of destruction and filth in their wake. Like a shot of espresso, the hot summer sun has stoked activity in the cold-blooded creatures, which experts say may be at record numbers. “This year is the most iguanas I’ve seen and I’ve been in business for nine years,” says Thomas Portuallo, owner of Fort Lauderdale-based Iguana Control. He says the invasive lizards are out of control with “many hundreds of thousands” creeping around Broward, Miami-Dade and...

Parmigiano-Reggiano thieves are driving producers to drastic measures; “This is Fort Knox for cheese” SERRAMAZZONI, Italy—The thieves came in the thick of darkness. They used a blowtorch to pry open steel bars and sneaked through a narrow window before making off with their loot. Less than 24 hours later, they came back for more. In all, they made off with almost 25,000 pounds of Parmesan cheese. The target was Santa Rita Bio, a small producer of Italy’s famous Parmigiano-Reggiano. The thieves took 271 wheels of organic cheese, weighing 90 pounds each and with a total street value of $300,000. The...

James Hansen issued dire warnings in the summer of 1988. Today earth is only modestly warmer. James E. Hansen wiped sweat from his brow. Outside it was a record-high 98 degrees on June 23, 1988, as the NASA scientist testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during a prolonged heat wave, which he decided to cast as a climate event of cosmic significance. He expressed to the senators his “high degree of confidence” in “a cause-and-effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and observed warming.” With that testimony and an accompanying paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research,...

As drought kills Kenya’s livestock, some herders are fighting hunger by growing their own grass. At noon in Joseph Kwopin's dry and dusty homestead in Kenya's central Baringo County, a calf shelters from the sweltering sun under a shed made of sticks. The barren ground has no vegetation but for a few shrubs and the red-flowered Carraluma socotrana plant – a rare species whose appearance here could seem cruel given that it isn't edible, even to livestock... According to UNICEF, 2.6 million Kenyans have become food insecure as a result of the lack of rainfall. The Kenya Red Cross reported...