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Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium announced that one of its beloved manatees, Hugh, died Saturday at age 38. [Snip] After showing a behavior change Saturday, animal care staff at Mote monitored him before he became unresponsive in his habitat late Saturday afternoon, Mote said in a Facebook post. [Snip] “Hugh’s indelible and lasting legacy will be one of an invaluable contribution to the scientific understanding of manatee behavior and contributions to the conservation of his species,” Mote Marine’s Facebook post read. “Our team is forever grateful for the time we had with Hugh and his contribution to manatee conservation,...

WHOSE FRANNIVERSARY IS IT??

The country would face an economic hellscape if the government shutdown lasts "months or even years," as the president has suggested it might, experts tell NBC News. The doomsday scenario might be unlikely — the longest the federal government has ever shut down is 21 days, a record that will fall if the current closure lasts until Saturday — but it is chilling. "We'll be in no man's land," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told NBC News. If the worst were to happen, experts say the devastating impact would be widespread: 38 million low-income Americans lose food stamps...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A partial U.S. government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border entered its 22nd day on Saturday, making it the longest shuttering of federal agencies in U.S. history, with no end in sight. Trump, holed up in the White House with Congress adjourned for the weekend, warned of a much lengthier impasse and blamed the Democrats. “We will be out for a long time unless the Democrats come back from their ‘vacations’ and get back to work,” he tweeted.

Are they no longer allowed? None since 2007??? http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/fridaysilliness/index?tab=articles

MANATEE A Wimauma woman was arrested last week for stealing several items from an Ellenton store, including Crest Whitestrips that she placed on her teeth, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said. Tami Lynn Stovall, 50, walked into the Kmart at 6126 U.S. 301 Blvd. N. on Feb. 18. She opened a package of Maybeline eye lashes and stuffed them in her purse. Stovall then took a package of Crest Whitestrips and placed the strips on her teeth, an incident report shows. She ended her shopping spree at the lawn and garden center, where she grabbed some torch oil. Stovall left...

BRADENTON — Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and you don’t have to look any further than local high schools for evidence of that. Lakewood Ranch, Saint Stephen’s and Cardinal Mooney have started lacrosse teams over the past few years. This week, local players have another opportunity to improve their skills at the IMG Lacrosse Academy’s Summer Camp. The featured guest is Team USA head coach Mike Pressler, and the timing couldn’t be better. Team USA just upset tournament favorite Canada on Saturday in the final of the 2010 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship....

Wallace: Coulter's speech likely to be lively in Manatee By Jeremy Wallace Published: Monday, February 15, 2010 There's no telling what conservative political analyst Ann Coulter will say when she speaks at the Manatee County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner on Saturday. But there's one thing local GOP leader Kathleen King is certain she won't hear: any apologies.Coulter has made a career out of getting under the skin of her adversaries. She has accused 9/11 widows of profiting from their husbands' deaths, declared that liberals don't really love America, and has called for the United States to invade other nations...

 10. Blog hawking (I know, I know, we're supposed to be nice.)  9. Run-on, single-paragraph posts 8. Pings to Jim Robinson with kiss ass complements 7. Posting "hugh and series", "stuned beeber" or "Bush's fault" 6. A post asking a noOb if they are sure they're logged in 5. Passive-aggressive keyword epithet war 4. Satire posts that fool you (the rest are hilarious) 3. Viking Kitties (just kidding... love ya'... really...  who'd poke fun at you...  rah roh.) 2. Vanities 1. ...

Wait..... The name of the storm is "Hurricane Obama". Discuss.

A manatee that traveled 720 miles up the Mississippi River to Memphis in October and eluded his would-be rescuers was found dead today on the banks of a lake. Police said the manatee was discovered around 1:30 p.m. at Lake McKellar, a slackwater lake off the Mississippi River south of Memphis. The manatee was first spotted in October in the Wolf River harbor just north of the densely populated downtown area. But the animal disappeared a few days later and wasn't seen again until its body was found today. Sea World officials say they have no plans to return to...

Back in 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ's unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot. Ever since then, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass. But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn't seem like a dimwit. When a buzzer sounds, the speed bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats. Hugh is no manatee...

Excerpt - MEMPHIS, Tenn. Memphis authorities are trying to figure out how a manatee believed to be from Florida got so far up the Mississippi River. The eight- to ten-foot manatee was spotted today splashing and surfacing in a tributary of the Mississippi called Wolf River, near downtown Memphis. ~ snip ~

Warwick, R.I. (AP) -- An endangered manatee made a rare appearance in Rhode Island waters during the weekend, a state Department of Environmental Management official said. The manatee was seen Sunday in Greenwich Bay off the coast of Warwick. The large marine mammals are usually found only in the warm waters of Florida and the Carolinas. DEM dispatcher Michael Mahoney said the manatee seen in Rhode Island appeared healthy.