Free Republic

Wildlife experts are keeping their fingers crossed this morning. They are hoping new evidence proves a wolf is living in Northern California. The information, which is not yet conclusive, shows photos from four trail cameras in Lassen County. Wildlife experts aren't sure if it's a wolf, dog, or wolf-dog hybrid. Gray wolves are native to California but were driven extinction in the state by the mid-1920's.

Joanne Barnaby and her friend Tammy Caudron were searching for morel mushrooms in an area near Fort Smith when they were separated. Barnaby was accompanied by her trusty dog Joey. Barnaby recalls, "I heard this growl behind me. There was a long, tall, very, very skinny wolf. A black wolf. And his legs were spread and his hair was standing, and he was growling, and baring his teeth." This black wolf seemed to know what it was doing and was pushing them back further into the woods. Barnaby said, “He was trying to wear me down. He was trying to...

Joanne Barnaby was stalked by a wolf for 12 hours, eventually leading the animal into a trap What's the best way to fend off a wolf that's stalking you? Bait it with a bear cub, of course. It sounds incredible, but that's exactly what Joanne Barnaby did when she got into a terrifying situation while out picking morel mushrooms near Fort Smith, N.W.T., last Friday. Barnaby and her friend Tammy Caudron headed out to an area burned by wildfires to spend an hour or two searching for the elusive morels. They soon became separated, leaving Barnaby alone with her loyal...

Abortion activists in Pennsylvania are putting up a fight against a new bill to ban painful late-term abortions and gruesome dismemberment abortion procedures in the state. Pennsylvania House Bill 1948, sponsored by state Rep. Kathy Rapp, would ban brutal dismemberment abortions that tear unborn babies limb from limb and prohibit abortions after 20 weeks when unborn babies can feel pain. A state House committee passed the bill last week, but pro-abortion legislators have been trying to block the bill from a full vote in the House. On Monday, abortion activists even brought in some big names – Gov. Tom Wolf...

Scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester have used a new technique, "Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry," or ZooMS, to identify more than 2,000 bone fragments recovered from Russia's Denisova Cave. ZooMS analyzes the collagen peptide sequences in bone, which can then be used to identify its species. Among the remains of mammoths, woolly rhino, wolf, and reindeer, the researchers found one Neanderthal bone. "When the ZooMS results showed that there was a human fingerprint among the bones I was extremely excited. ...The bone itself is not exceptional in any way and would otherwise be missed by...

Trump 'fine' with waterboarding In an another interview, Trump also said he would be "fine" with waterboarding Salah Abdeslam, one of the leaders of the Paris attacks several months ago who was just captured in Brussels, in order to get more information on potential future attacks. "Well I'm not looking to break any news on your show, but frankly the waterboarding, if it was up to me, and if we changed the laws or have the laws, waterboarding would be fine," the Republican front-runner said on NBC's "Today" show. "I would say they should be able to do whatever they...

Republican Eric Nelson, in a landslide victory, won a special election Tuesday for the state House seat left open by the departure of Tim Krieger, keeping the seat under GOP control. With all 51 precincts reporting, Nelson received 66 percent of the vote. Democrat Linda Iezzi got 34 percent. Nelson, 50, a businessman and college instructor, is expected to take office once the results are verified by the county's election bureau. He will serve through Dec. 31 to complete the two-year term that was vacated when Krieger, a Delmont Republican, was elected a Westmoreland County judge. . . . Nelson,...

This is one of the most difficult posts I have ever had to write. I had naively hoped that this election cycle, I would be treated to a substantive contest between a spate of highly accomplished two-term conservative governors, and Senators of great rhetorical skill acting as the ideological conscience of the bunch. As the primary wore on through the summer of 2015, it became clear that the GOP electorate was not interested in governors of accomplishment, but I still had hope for a final contest between two of my favorite Senators: Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. I hoped to...

For a nature photographer, capturing a scene of epic predation is akin to winning the lottery. Yes, it isn't pretty. But it depicts the real and very much raw struggle to survive that takes place daily in the animal world. A professional photographer Christopher Martin was touring Banff National Park, when he happened to come across an elk uneasily moving back and forth across a railway overpass, he knew he was in for a scene that portrays real-world wild life struggle for survival. See the rest of the story here.

REPORT CARD First marking period Student: Thomas Westerman Wolf, governor Freshman, Class of 2018 Grading scale: 0.0-4.0 Overall effectiveness (weighted) Grade: 2.0 Comments: Thomas is an idealistic student and a hard worker. In the past, he has demonstrated skills that qualified him for this honors program. He has been successful in business and as a community leader, bringing together people with different viewpoints to cooperate and achieve common goals. So far, however, he has not successfully brought those skills to bear on his primary task: Passage of a state budget that reflects his governing philosophy. It would be unfair to...

This is not a post about being right. Politics is not just about being right and it never has been. The way things work in a representative democracy is that you not only have to BE right, you have to convince a critical mass of other people in this country that you are right, otherwise being right will do you no good. Is it right to shut down the federal Department of Education? Probably. (SNIP) Personally, I’m glad Eric Cantor lost. Personally, although I’m broadly in favor of immigration reform (depending on the particulars), I think it would be suicide...

Man's best friend came about after generations of wolves scavenged alongside humans more than 33,000 years ago in south east Asia, according to new research. Dogs became self-domesticated as they slowly evolved from wolves who joined humans in the hunt, according to the first study of dog genomes. And it shows that the first domesticated dogs came about 33,000 years ago and migrated to Europe, rather than descending from domesticated European wolves 10,000 years ago as had previously been thought.

Wolf attacks are extremely rare, less common than mountain lion or bear attacks in North America.   It is not hard to understand skepticism about a hunter’s account of a wolf attack where he used a .380 pistol to successfully defend himself, in central Wisconsin.   The pistol used was a Walther PK.The Department of Natural Resources investigated.  They believed the account, but did not list it as a wolf attack, because there was no injury to the defending human.From americanhunter.org: The first wolf came in from the right, mouth open, fangs ready to rip into Nellesen's leg. A swift kick...

Wild canine hybrids lurk in our midst. (Photo: WikiCommons/Public Domain)Have you heard any wolves howling in the northeast recently? Most likely not, since there aren’t any of them left. But if you heard one 150 years ago, this is probably the English translation of her cries: “I have literally no dating options left in my species … Any wolves out there? Anyone!” Nope.Wolves in eastern North America, whose populations steadily dwindled due to deforestation and hunting, had no choice but to settle for coyotes. Interspecies dating is a wonderful thing, but for a wolf, the larger and handsomer of the two canines, a...

By Paul Rincon 20 October 2015 Dogs may have become man's best friend in Central Asia, according to the study Today's dogs can trace their origins to Central Asia, according to one of the most comprehensive genetic surveys yet. Dogs are the most diverse animal on the planet - a legacy of thousands of years of selective breeding by humans. But they derive from wild wolves that were gradually tamed and inducted into human hunting groups - perhaps near Mongolia or Nepal. The findings come from an analysis of DNA from thousands of pooches, and are published in PNAS journal....

Leaked Audio: Hillary Clinton Calls at Private Fundraiser for Infrastructure Bank to Resemble Clinton Global Initiative Hillary Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser in New York last Thursday that she plans as president to create a “national infrastructure bank” modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative, according to a recording of her remarks obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. This was the first time that Clinton, who has long supported the formation of a government-controlled bank to invest in national infrastructure projects, cited the Clinton Global Initiative—the flagship arm of her family’s controversial foundation—as an investment model for her proposed...

On Sept. 23, Matthew Nellessen of Friendship, Wisc., an avid deer hunter and former U.S. Army sergeant who served with the 961st Engineers in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, was scouting a potential hunting area in the Colburn Wildlife Management Area of Adams County when he locked eyes with a wolf only 30 yards away. Acting on instinct he gained from military service, Nellessen immediately pulled his sidearm, a Walther PK .380, and chambered a round. That’s when things went from bad to worse. As he racked the slide, Nellessen noticed two more wolves approaching from the left. “It all...

A golden jackal (Canis anthus) from Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Based on genomic results, the researchers suggest this animal be referred to as the African golden wolf, which is distinct from the Eurasian golden jackal (Canis aureus). Credit: D. Gordon E. Robertson ======================================================================================================================= Despite their remarkably similar appearance, the "golden jackals" of East Africa and Eurasia are actually two entirely different species. The discovery, based on DNA evidence and reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 30, increases the overall biodiversity of the Canidae—the group including dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals—from 35 living species to 36. "This...

House Republicans called up Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's tax-shifting plan on Monday, and the House shot it down by a unanimous vote. Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, called the vote on an amendment that contained Wolf's tax plan “a political stunt.” “It does nothing to move this process forward,” Dermody said. “I would never ask (Democrats) to vote for a stunt.” Wolf denounced the vote as “gamesmanship” and said it was an effort to “‘see if we can embarrass the administration.'”

Gov. Tom Wolf made a visit to the Pocono Mountain West Junior High on Wednesday afternoon to talk about how the school spends its money. In a round-table discussion with Pocono Mountain school officials, as well as state representatives David Parker, Rosemary Brown and Jack Rader, and State Sen. Mario Scavello, Wolf learned how Pocono Mountain School District distributes it’s funding. (snip) Wolf said there is a need to understand the investment that is education. There is a choice, he said, of supporting public education, but it comes with the cost of the taxes and the possibility of losing a...