Free Republic

The owner of an exotic animal breeding business in Florida has been sentenced to five years' probation for illegally selling a capuchin monkey to singer Chris Brown. A federal indictment doesn't name Brown, only identifying the buyer as a celebrity in California, but key details match an Associated Press report that wildlife agents seized the singer's pet monkey after serving a search warrant on his Los Angeles home in early January 2018. Brown also was identified in court Wednesday at the sentencing hearing in Florida for the monkey breeder, Jimmy Hammonds. Wildlife agents moved in after Brown shared a picture...

I get it, with all the impeachment and war with Iran hysteria, why would anyone care to cover the ongoing war against Asian Carp. It’s more likely that most people have never heard of the Asian Carp, nor seen a news story about just how much havoc these invasive fish have wreaked over the years. On those sentiments alone you’re probably wondering why anyone should care about the problem or about millions of taxpayer dollars sent to turn the tides against the Asian Carp? It’s true, of all the things repeatedly and often moronically pile-driven into our heads by the...

Aurelia Skipwith may not be a household name, but she is an outstanding example of how many African-Americans have overcome the past. Her accomplishments are impressive and seemed unattainable to past generations of our parents and grandparents. Although many believe our whole race never goes outdoors, she is expected to be confirmed by the Senate as President Trump’s Director of Fish & Wildlife at the Interior Department. Ms. Skipwith’s family is from Columbus, Mississippi, where her mother picked cotton and her father joined the Navy at the height of the Vietnam War and moved the family moved to Indianapolis. This...

BROOKSVILLE — A last-minute lawsuit may put the brakes on the long-awaited extension of the Suncoast Parkway north into Citrus County. Construction was slated to begin early next year. At a Hernando-Citrus Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting last week, city and county officials talked about a push at the state level to move the project ahead even faster. A ground-breaking ceremony was in the works. But like other steps in the process of building the toll road extension known as Suncoast Parkway 2, within days of that discussion, another shoe dropped. On Dec. 15, the Friends of Etna Turpentine Camp, Inc.,...

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, an Obama appointee, ordered a new ammunition ban for certain federal lands on Thursday–his last full day in office. The ban, which took effect immediately, eliminates the use of lead-based ammunition on federal lands like national parks and wildlife refuges, as well as any other land administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The ban is expected to have a major impact on much of the hunting that takes place on federal lands across the United States as lead-based ammunition is widely legal and used throughout the country. Ashe said the order...

Every US state has a motto. Some are interesting, like “Live Free of Die,” in New Hampshire, and some are sadly truthful, like, “Our Government is Vampiric” in Massachusetts. Just kidding. It’s more along the lines of “We’ll Tax You to Death,” or something like that. Anyway, some, like the motto for the 49th state, Alaska, are very upbeat and offer a sense of adventure. In Alaska, politicians tell us to look, “North, to The Future.” But, a shocking move by the federal government might inspire Alaskans to change their motto to, “Our Land Is Being Stolen By The Feds!”...

The United States Coast Guard said two Fish and Wildlife wardens suffered second-degree burns after their boat exploded near Santa Cruz Saturday morning. A good Samaritan pulled the wardens out of the water. They were taken to a hospital for treatment.

There is growing evidence that birds flying in the vicinity of a solar thermal power project in California’s Mojave Desert are being injured and even killed either by the solar heat that’s focused with mirrors on its three energy-collecting towers, or by colliding with the mirrors themselves. Yet a task force set up to investigate the problem at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) has brushed aside several recommendations by the forensics laboratory of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), according to the minutes of a meeting on the subject obtained by the Los Angeles public television station...

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is questioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the agency’s decision to prosecute a tree-trimmer who accidentally knocked herons out of a tree. Ernest Pulido is expected to face charges from the U.S. Attorney’s Office within a week for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. He could face a maximum fine of $15,000 and six months in jail. Pulido was hired by the U.S. Postal Service to prune trees May 3 outside an Oakland, Calif., branch, where postal officials were upset with birds pooping on mail trucks. One branch...

She is being held without bond, CNN affiliate WFTS reported. "I think it is outrageous," said Karen Tedder. She and other former students of the retired gym teacher held a gathering Thursday outside Musselman's house in Sebring to pray for her. She must be released, they say, because her husband is dying of cancer and she's his only caregiver. A judge sent wildlife commission officers to arrest Musselman. They said she fought them and told them she'd kill them. Now she is charged not only with feeding wildlife but also with battery against a law officer and violating her probation.

NEW ORLEANS -- NEW ORLEANS (AP) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is designating nearly 6,500 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana as critical habitat for the endangered Mississippi gopher frog the only endangered or threatened frog in the Southeast. About 100 live in the wild, and nearly 900 in zoos. The land includes about 1,540 acres in St. Tammany Parish, La., and in Mississippi, about 3,500 acres of federal land, 264 acres owned by the state and the rest private. Edward Poitevent, whose family owns most of the Louisiana land, has been fighting the designation. He says he cannot comment...

KMJ's own Chris Daniel is stirring the national pot today. On his show last night, Chris interviewed Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO of the iconic Gibson Guitar Company. The federal government seized wood, guitars and electronic records from Gibson's Nashville warehouses in 2009, and, according to Juszkiewicz, made an unusual request from the American manufacturer. On KMJ airwaves, Juszkiewicz revealed that representatives of the US government told Gibson that their legal issues would disappear if they used Madagascar labor instead of American labor.

Federal agents with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service shut down the Gibson Guitar factory in Downtown Memphis today to serve search warrants in an ongoing investigation, officials said. Nicholas Chavez, special agent in charge for U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Region 2 in Albuquerque, N.M., said agents also served a search warrant on Gibson Guitar in Nashville. In November 2009, agents for the service searched the guitar maker's manufacturing plant in Nashville, reportedly during an investigation of use of woods banned from commercial use for environmental reasons.

Title and link only -- Gannett stationhttp://wusa9.com/news/article/161065/158/Woodpecker-Saving-Daughter-Costs-Mom-500

TAMPA — Setting out to do a job expected to take only a few days, a salvage crew spotted trouble last week when a bird swirled menacingly around its gear. Atop the crew's crane, ospreys had built a nest and had chicks. Marine contractor and crane owner Jani Salonen wanted to do the right thing. But in trying, he's had to continue paying his idled crew and renting a barge that can't move, while exposing a bureaucratic conundrum and involving Congress. On Monday, he estimated the week's delay had cost him $20,000. And the ospreys were still nesting on his...

Politics: The water spigots are back on, at least temporarily, in California's Central Valley. Turned off to protect a tiny fish, they happen to be in the districts of two congressmen "undecided" on health care reform. One could chalk it up to good fortune or just good constituent service. But in the middle of a contentious health care debate marked by Cornhusker Kickbacks and Louisiana Purchases, we may be forgiven if we find an announcement by the Department of the Interior regarding California's water supply a tad too coincidental. On Tuesday, the Department of the Interior announced it was increasing...

Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt. (snip) The Senate rejected the amendment by a largely party-line 61-36 margin, with Feinstein opposing the restoration of water deliveries to farmers. The California senator claimed she was blindsided by the amendment to the bill she was managing in the Senate, bizarrely comparing the move to a "Pearl Harbor." "No one from California has called, written or indicated they wanted this on the calendar," Feinstein protested.

Delta smelts: Preferred over humans. Environmentalism: Sen. Dianne Feinstein votes to deny water to California's drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley. Farmers, families and food are being held hostage to an endangered fish called the delta smelt.There was a time when the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive agricultural region in the world. It was a large part of what made the Golden State golden.Now it's a place where farmers no longer farm, but instead line up at food banks to feed the families of those who once fed the rest of the country and a good chunk of the...

Humane Society of the United States helps transport cats from the wild to a California sanctuary:Sheldon, an orange tabby born in the wild, is one of seven feral cats who have been rescued from San Nicolas Island, off the Southern California coast, where plans are in place to eradicate the feline population to preserve the native species. These seven island cats have been spayed/neutered, vaccinated and checked by a veterinarian and are now living at a sanctuary north of Los Angeles. Getting these cats off the Navy-owned island and taking them to an approved facility was part of a deal...

A new report has concluded that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) former boss, Julie A. MacDonald interfered in scores of Endangered Species Act decisions — including one related to the Gunnison's prairie dog found in parts of northern New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah. During her tenure, FWS reversed a finding by its scientists that the species may warrant protection. Last month's report by the Interior Department's inspector general raises questions about whether MacDonald single-handedly doomed the prairie dog's endangered status or if other people were involved. Either way, what's clear from the report is that MacDonald repeatedly stepped...