February 19, 2019

103-year-old woman sworn in as junior ranger at Grand Canyon

Rose Torphy, who is three years older than the Grand Canyon National Park itself, has become a junior ranger at the spry age of 103. And she has the certificate to prove it.

How did this go down? Torphy was at the Grand Canyon for only the second time in her life when she happened to stop in to the park’s store. "I started talking to people about the junior ranger program because it teaches kids to protect the Canyon," she explained to Good Morning America in an interview. "My parents taught me to care for the land but not all kids have that."

The junior ranger program is a form of educational programming. Potential junior rangers complete an activity book about the national park and are taught new information by store staff. Junior rangers promise to protect the Grand Canyon before they officially become park stewards. (And receive their certificates!)

Speaking to Good Morning America, Alysa Ojeda, marketing and public relations manager for the Grand Canyon Conservancy, noted that they had to "get creative" with programming this January, due to Trump’s partial government shutdown. (The Grand Canyon Conservancy funds the junior ranger program.)

Torphy, who is a mom of three, grandmother of nine, great-grandmother of 18, and great-great grandmother of 10, said, “I'm so happy that someone is watching over it so that my great-great-grandchildren can visit it someday too.”

The world is in a shambles, but Torphy is certainly a bright light in the darkness.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/18/1835749/-103-year-old-woman-sworn-in-as-junior-ranger-at-Grand-Canyon-warms-everybody-s-heart?detail=emaildkre

February 18, 2019

Muscovey's

Love our 'scovey ducks. Very different from our other ducks, with quirky personalities. Lately they've been having 'scovey parties on our metal roof, which can be nerve-wracking. They really fly, and can do a perfect 3-point landing from the roof down to the pond. They don't quack either.... they have these weird little alien language conversations with each other. Very entertaining to have around, and hoping to get some baby 'scovey's in the spring (if the dogs don't find all the eggs). We have 15 of them. The males are twice as big as the females, with beautiful iridescent green feathers on their backs and tails.

February 16, 2019

Toon

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February 16, 2019

Federal judge dismisses butterfly sanctuary's restraining order--Trump's bulldozers roll on

The North American Butterfly Association’s (NABA) lawsuit against the Trump administration, to stop the encroachment and building of a border wall that would destroy a large swath of the National Butterfly Center sanctuary, has been dismissed by a federal judge. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled against NABA’s lawsuit, originally filed in 2017, “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.”

A Red-bordered Pixie butterfly at the National Butterfly Center on January 16, 2019 in Mission. Texas. - The protected habitat of butterflies along the Rio Grande is expected to be plowed over to clear the way for President Trump's border wall after the US Supreme Court rebuffed a challenge by environmental groups.
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The ruling effectively ends the center’s temporary restraining order, filed earlier this week. This came after center workers found bulldozers and federal agents on their private land, changing locks and pushing them off of their habitat. This is a blow, though not a surprise, to the conservationists at the center, as Trump and his DHS—and the Republican Party, have been very dogged in using big government to squash private citizens rights.

Sanctuary executive director Marianna Trevino-Wright told the Daily News that “We filed suit because they entered our property and started destroying it.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/15/1834958/-Federal-judge-dismisses-butterfly-sanctuary-s-restraining-order-Trump-s-bulldozers-roll-on?utm_campaign=trending?detail=emaildkre


No more at link.
I am sick about this. Is there a way to stop it?

February 13, 2019

NC substitute teacher resigns, saying MLK committed suicide

North Carolina’s ABC affiliate WTVD has a truly disturbing story about what can only be described as one of the worst substitute teachers ever. According to a Rand Road Elementary School parent, his 10-year-old son told him that a substitute music teacher called out the “athletic gear” outfit he was wearing, calling it “prison attire.” Yes, this is straight-up racist. No, this isn’t the end of the story. Not by a lot.

According to the parent, the substitute teacher also told the students that Martin Luther King Jr. was not actually assassinated by James Earl Ray on the evening of April 4, 1968 on the porch of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. No, according to this looney tune, James Earl Ray couldn’t have pulled the trigger that killed the civil rights leader because Martin Luther King Jr. committed suicide. This so-called educator told the students that the concept of MLK’s assassination was a “complete fabrication.” No, it’s not over. There’s more.

Finally, this woman—who may or may not be having some kind of emotional and mental crisis—told the children that if they did not believe that Donald Trump was a Christian, they were going to hell—even if they considered themselves Christian.

Reports said that the school “froze” the substitute’s employment pending an investigation but that investigation is effectively over, as the teacher has tendered her resignation.


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/12/1834239/-NC-teaching-sub-resigns-after-berating-black-10-year-old-students-and-saying-MLK-committed-suicide

February 6, 2019

Just be kind....

These men noticed a lady paying for her gas with pennies.

And:

Joc Koe Stoe, Marty and Freddy G. were picking up some snacks at a local gas station in Bronson, Florida, when they spotted an elderly couple in distress.
100 year old David Griest and his 89 year old wife Rose had just come from a medical appointment and they stopped to use the bathroom...and David couldn’t get his ailing wife back into their van.

February 1, 2019

Fake Walgreens pharmacist handled over 700,000 prescriptions, state officials say

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-fake-pharmacist-walgreens-bayarea-20190130-story.html

For more than a decade, Kim T. Le handled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions while she worked as a pharmacist at three Walgreens stores in the Bay Area. She administered vaccinations, ordered medications, counseled patients on their prescriptions and supervised pharmacy technicians, state officials said.

There was just one problem, officials said: Le wasn’t a licensed pharmacist.

State officials alleged that from November 2006 to September 2017, Le unlawfully signed off on or dispensed 745,355 prescriptions, many of which were verified electronically and remotely. More than 100,000 of those prescriptions were for controlled substances such as alprazolam, a sedative used to treat anxiety and panic disorder.

The state Board of Pharmacy will determine whether the three Walgreens stores in Fremont, San Jose and Milpitas should have their pharmacy licenses suspended or revoked.

January 31, 2019

Monarch butterfly population wintering in Mexico increases 144%

https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/30/mexico-monarch-butterflies-wintering-population-increase#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s

Monarch production will not be replicated next year, experts warn, as above average temperatures will cause problems.

The population of monarch butterflies wintering in central Mexico is up 144% over last year, according to new research.

'It's a sad reality': a troubling trend sees a 97% decline in monarch butterflies

The data was cheered but scientists quickly warned that it does not mean the butterflies that migrate from Canada and the United States are out of danger.

This winter, researchers found the butterflies occupying 14.95 acres (6.05 hectares) of pine and fir forests in the mountains of Michoacán and Mexico states – an increase from 6.12 acres a year ago.

This year’s is the biggest measurement since the 2006-2007 period, said Andrew Rhodes, Mexico’s national commissioner for protected natural areas. A historic low of just 1.66 acres (0.67 hectares) was recorded in 2013-2014.

January 31, 2019

Vent your anger about THE WALL to the White House

I don't know how I got on the White House mailing list, probably from some letter I sent. Received this email from them earlier. I hit reply and unloaded. I'm sure it won't be read, but certainly made me feel better. Go for it.

Walls Work
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West Wing Reads
Walls Work

“Of all the Democrats’ arguments against a southern border wall, the shadiest is that it would not work,” Deroy Murdock writes in National Review. The evidence says otherwise: “Love them or hate them, their effectiveness is indisputable.”

Murdock gives 8 examples. Here’s just one: “A barrier between the Tucson, Ariz., sector and Nogales, Mexico, was erected in 2000. That year’s 616,346 arrests plunged to 38,657 in FY 2017 — down 93.7 percent.” That doesn’t just mean less illegal immigration. It means fewer potentially fatal encounters with smugglers and traffickers for our law enforcement officers, too.

Click here to continue reading.

“In his inauguration speech, President Trump promised: ‘We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American,’ White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro writes in Fox News. Today, the President will sign an executive order—“Strengthening Buy American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects”—that will give another boost to these key pillars of his economic program.

In the Washington Examiner, Eddie Scarry writes that U.S. Border Patrol agents recently apprehended both an MS-13 member and an attempted murderer near the U.S.–Mexico border. “Both incidents happened in the southernmost part of Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley sector of the border, where illegal crossings are more than three times that of any other sector and where agents told me they are in dire need of a physical barrier wall.”

“President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with the man the U.S. government recognizes as the legitimate leader of Venezuela even as turmoil continues in the oil-rich socialist country. About 50 countries have joined the United States in recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as acting president of the South American nation while Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolas Maduro, tries to cling to power,” Fred Lucas writes in The Daily Signal.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, President Trump harshly criticized Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) and Democratic state Delegate Kathy Tran’s advocacy of late-term abortion. “I thought it was terrible,” the President said, adding that “this is going to lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it’s never been lifted up before.”


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January 30, 2019

This little girl would be welcome in my barn any time