Free Republic

"Yesterday was another of my many cave adventures, but different than most. Instead of exploring and mapping newly discovered or out-of-the-way remote cave passages, I participated in a project of the Central Arizona Grotto (a chapter of the National Speleological Society and located in Phoenix) to remove years of graffiti from Peppersauce Cave. (Near Oracle, Arizona)Peppersauce has become what cavers call a “sacrificial cave.” It is open and ungated, relatively easy to traverse, and very well known throughout the state. Thus, many inexperienced people go there to see it, most of whom no little about caving, the ethics of protecting...

AVERY ISLAND, La. (AP) — On a salt dome that rises from the Cajun flatlands like an island from the sea, the plant which makes Tabasco sauce was safe from floods caused by Hurricane Rita. And it had enough stock on hand to ship out until the factory regained power. Many of its workers weren't as lucky. "We've got a lot of employees that live in Delcambre and Erath and Lydia and low-lying areas around Avery Island," Paul McIlhenny, chief executive of McIlhenny Co., said Wednesday. [snip] Power had been out since Friday night, when the storm was still offshore....