Posted on 11/18/2017 4:59:26 PM PST by Kaslin
With all of the chaos going on in D.C. and around the country, it's easy for some stories to fall through the cracks. Here are three of this week's underreported stories we thought you should know about - some of which can at least give you a laugh. 
5. The government is paying the "Pioneer Woman" millions to use the Drummond family estate.
Ree Drummond, better known as the "Pioneer Woman" on Food Network, is a rancher's wife. In fact, Drummond and her husband own 433,000 acres of land in Oklahoma, making them one of the largest property owners in the country, Fox 23 reported.
The federal government pays the Drummonds a whopping $2 million a year to allow wild burro and horses to roam the property.
According to documents obtained by the Daily Mail, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has paid the Drummond's company, Drummond Land & Cattle Co. $23.9 million since 2006. The BLM says they need the land for "animal support and protection."
4. A transgender prisoner is suing over being placed in an all-male facility
A Massachusetts Correctional Institution-Norfolk prisoner is suing the state over her placement in an all-male facility. She wants to be moved to an all-female facility.
According to the 52-year-old transgender woman, she has been groped and taunted by male prisoners, the Boston Globe reported.
If the court rules in her favor, the prisoner would be the first transgender woman housed with all females in the state of Massachusetts.
3. Solve a crime, win Chick-fil-A for a year!
The Cartersville, Georgia Chick-fil-A is offering a major reward for anyone who can help identify a man who stole a catering van from the store's location, WSB-TV reported.
The franchise took to Facebook to share pictures of the suspect, as well as their reward.
The catering van was found in a nearby city. It was crashed into a parked car in someone's driveway.
Georgia residents, you better get on it! Chicken sandwiches and sweet tea are waitin' for you!
2. "Transformers" toy makers are being accused of backing Trump.
A toy car has sparked controversy because people believe they see the words "Make America Great Again" in a hidden language.
Uh, Is This Transformers Toy a Trump Supporter? [Update] https://t.co/YIapGlErt4 ?
Image: Hasbro.
Donald Trump’s presidency has seen the words “Make America Great Again”—a.k.a. MAGA—plastered all over the U.S., from placards to stickers to the infamous red hats. One of the l… pic.twitter.com/E5WjoK13DG— KotakuBot (@KotakuBot) November 17, 2017
People took to social media to decode the hidden message.
WHY
Why do you put Cybertronic text on here so small it can't even render clearly? The only letter I can clearly make out is A. pic.twitter.com/jzu4toOHIb— Chris (@chrisrtxv) November 17, 2017
I better be wrong about this pic.twitter.com/ePWyvumRQy— Gherkin ?? (@TheLastGherkin) November 17, 2017
Although the letters are fairly small, "Transformers" fans believe the letters on the side of the car are fairly close to letters in the Cybertronian alphabet.
Once Hasbro got word of the issue, they released the following statement:
It was brought to our attention that a graphic appears on one of our Transformers figures that, when translated from Cybertonian letters to English, spells out MAGA. We investigated the issue, and discovered that one of our vendors inserted this as part of the design without authorization. We are addressing this with the vendor.
We do not intend for our products to carry political messages, and apologize to anyone who was offended by this message.
Will they pull all of the cars that were produced? Only time will tell.
1. A Florida man may be evicted...for having an emotional support squirrel.
Yes, you read that right. A squirrel.
Ryan Boylan rescued his emotional support squirrel after Hurricane Matthew, when she was struck by someone's car.
According to Boylan, the squirrel helps him with his anxiety disorder which is the result of a car accident that took place years ago.
Last month Boylan's condo company threatened to evict him if he didn't get rid of the squirrel, something he says is not an option.
"She's just like an inside cat. She just walks around and hides pecans and hazelnuts which are her two favorites," Boylan told ABC Action News.
The condo company discovered the squirrel when Boylan took her outside.
Actually heard about all of these except the Transformer one. I’m addicted to local radio!
I stream Baltimore’s WCBM in the mornings. Sean Casey is fabulous and fun to listen to. Combo of first class info combined with light hearted fun.
http://www.wcbm.com/the-morning-show-with-sean-and-frank-audio/
Because BLM doesn't have enough land, it has to rent theirs?
So they round up wild horses from BLM lands and pay someone else to board them?
I'm sure the Drummonds are perfectly nice people, but this strikes me as odd.
This crap is going on all over. There are over 60,000 mustangs in holding facilities or ranches all over the country. All paid for by Uncle Sam.
And every wild horse means a couple less cows they can run.
Definitely noticed 3 of those stories here.
On the Chick-Fil-A story, my son sent me an item that indicated they’d solved it because of the reward. I’d seen the initial report of the crime, and the reward, here initially.
To me it seems absurd that one person can own 433,000 acres of land...Property taxes must be zero...
Top 4 largest ranches in Texas are bigger than 433,000 acres.
1. King Ranch, 911,215 acres
2. Briscoe Ranches, 560,000 acres
3. Waggoner Ranch, 535,000 acres
4. O’Connor Family Ranches, 500,000 acres
Impressive. I thought a couple of sections was a big ranch. LOL. I couldn’t even imagine 1,423 sections. I wonder if it is all contiguous.
We had a pet squirrel in the 1970s. She adopted us. We assume she was raised by humans and had zero fear of us. She spent many happy days in our yard and would eat right out of my hand. After about 3 or 4 years she vanished. I don’t know if she was run over by a car, or if she died. She was so tame!
RIP Zipper the squirrel
I used to have a neighbor who had made a sort of pet of a squirrel. He came when called, and she fed him peanuts. She called him Peanut. Then, late one fall, he stopped showing up. She was sad about it, but what could she do, but wonder what had happened to him? We never told her that the next spring, when we removed our pool cover, there was Peanut, dead, feet in the air, floating on top of the thawing water.
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