Free Republic

EDMONTON, Alberta -- This play went way beyond a shovel pass. Steamed over a practice brawl, a Canadian Football League lineman stomped off the field, then stormed back moments later brandishing a real shovel. As Edmonton Eskimos defensive tackle Xzavie Jackson marched toward teammate Aaron Fiacconi on Thursday, general manager Danny Maciocia stepped into his path. The GM gently put his hand on Jackson's chest and gestured toward the shovel. "I just said, 'What are you planning on doing with that? Do you realize the repercussions?"' Maciocia said Friday. "I'm almost sure he had already come to that conclusion." "I...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

A Dunn County family has taken issue with the Department of Natural Resources' handling of a large black bear found dead on their farm north of Menomonie. Neil and Phyllis Schlough say, contrary to DNR statements, that the bear was killed by a combine while Neil Schlough was harvesting corn. They also want the DNR to return the bear, which was confiscated. The DNR says the bear, 7 feet long and estimated at 700 pounds or more, died from rifle shots. A North Dakota man has admitted shooting the bear on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 25, while deer hunting...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., right, fills sandbags surrounded by the media at a sandbag station in Quincy, Ill. Saturday, June 14, 2008

The dispute between dominant species over shared habitat in the West is escalating. The proposal emphasizes continued protections for endangered species, and it states that such measures "shall be directed at the offending animal" while not jeopardizing the "viability of predator populations." The "offending animal" is the one perceived as a threat to people and livestock. There now are more than 1,000 wolves in the Northern Rockies region. In Idaho alone, the offspring of 35 Canadian wolves now number more than 500. Their main prey are...deer and elk. But they have attacked domestic animals as well...through 2005...( at least )...

Some ranchers say the wolves in the Madison Valley have grown increasingly brazen and are apparently unafraid of people. State wildlife officials say such behavior is to be expected, given the federal protection the predators have had in the decade since being reintroduced in the Yellowstone National Park. Jack Atcheson Jr. said he was spooked on a recent hunting trip, when three men and three mules got within 47 yards of a wolf that was staring right at them. The Butte hunting outfitter, who books international trips, said he had never seen wolves in Alaska, Asia or other places act...

Residents Warned To Watch Their Pets Coyotes have been spotted in and around the Fallsgrove community in Rockville, Md... Adcock said despite its docile appearance, it's part of a pack made up of some of the largest and most aggressive such animals he's every dealt with. "The pack is too big," Adcock said. "I mean any place else in Maryland you get two or three animals from a job and its pretty much over with." So far he's trapped 12 animals and his job is not yet finished. The trapper told News4 he took a picture of a large male...

Dee Garbowski of Wanaque hears them at night -- eerie howls and high-pitched yips echoing across the Ramapo mountain range like the soundtrack of a cheesy horror movie. A seasoned animal handler, she knows the howls and yips aren't coming from monsters, wolves, or Bigfoot. They belong to one of the nature's most adaptable predators -- the coyote. "There are several coyote dens over there," Garbowski said of the mountain range in her neighborhood. Cast in cartoons as mangy but lovable scavengers and once associated with the mountains, deserts and prairies of the Great West, coyotes have found a home...

The grisly circumstances surrounding the death of a 22-year-old man in northern Saskatchewan are likely to influence the debate over wolf policy in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's Wolf Policy 425 to 455: Number of wolves estimated to be in Wisconsin during the 2004-'05 winter - up from 373 to 410 wolves for the previous winter On Nov. 8, student Kenton Joel Carnegie was walking alone near a remote camp owned by a mining exploration company when it is believed that he was killed by wolves. Though an investigation is continuing, some wolves in the area had been attracted to a garbage dump...

I am tired of getting plowed in...I need your help.

LOS ANGELES -- A peace gathering over the weekend in the Modoc National Forest was anything but when a man ran amok, attacking others with a shovel. Harry "Hugs" O'Neill, of Whitehorn, was arrested Sunday after he used a shovel to smash the windshield of a pickup truck and then strike the vehicle's two occupants. O'Neill was jailed in Modoc County on two charges each of felony assault, felony battery with serious bodily injury, and personal infliction of serious bodily injury. One victim was taken to the Mercy Medical Center in Redding. He suffered a punctured lung, ruptured spleen and...

RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) - Lifelong rancher Charlie Jaure has seen cattle lose parts of their tails to the cold on occasion. He'd never seen them bitten off by wolves. That is, until shortly after Christmas, when Jaure lost two of his cattle to wolves north of Wamsutter. Another two were hurt badly and up to a dozen lost their tails, he said. ''I thought maybe they froze their tails,'' Jaure said. ''I got to looking, and it was all at the top of the tail.'' His wife, Kathleen, said the bones were left crushed and mangled. ''We're messing with a...