Texas businessman Jeff Hawn has pleaded guilty in one of the largest illegal slaughters of bison in decades. Hawn, who is the CEO of Seattle-based software company Attachmate, admitted that he allowed hunters on his land to shoot 32 bison belonging to his neighbor. He will be sentenced appropriately enough in Fairplay, Colorado.
Continue reading “The Lesson of Fairplay: Texas Businessman Pleads Guilty to Bison Massacre”
In this increasingly bizarre political season, this one is off the charts. An anti-immigration group has linked illegal immigration to global warming. The video explains that their carbon footprint would be lower if they remained in their original countries.
Continue reading “Carbon Politics: Save the Polar Bears, Eat an Illegal Alien?”
After years of de-regulation led to the current financial meltdown, the Bush Administration is now promising to re-regulate the industry. However, it is quietly moving to de-regulate environmental protection laws. These regulatory changes violate a core tradition in American politics. At the end of an Administration, sitting presidents have declined to make major changes or issue new policies that bind the incoming president. Here, Bush is seeking to rollback on environmental rules to cause years of delay before any new president can fully protect the environment.
Continue reading “Bush Seeking To De-Regulate Environmental Protection”
Gov. Sarah Palin lost another environmental fight this week — to the Bush Administration. The Interior Department has decided that the beautiful white Beluga whales are indeed endangered despite Palin’s efforts to block such protection. Earlier, Palin failed in her efforts to block protections for the polar bear.
David Grigorian really loves his marmoset monkey. In January, Grigorian was arrested for shouting criminal threats in front of a house — a practice common among marmoset monkeys but less tolerated in Van Nuys, California. They soon found that he had a monkey named Cheeta but no monkey permit (yes, there appears to be a “monkey permit”). When ordered to turn over the monkey, Grigorian took an idea for countless kidnap movies: he showed a picture of Cheeta holding a Mexican newspaper with Mexican decorations to prove that he was now in Mexico. The Court did not buy it and Grigorian, 43, admitted that Cheeta was hiding out in an undisclosed location in Los Angeles.
Continue reading “Monkey Business: California Man Stages Mexican Picture to Hide Marmoset”
In the appropriately named Bayonet Point, Florida, Joseph Prudente, 66, is in jail indefinitely for the failure to sod his grass. The good (and fully lawned) people of the Beacon Woods Civic Association secured the contempt order because Prudente is required to keep his lawn with a full and healthy display of grass. The problem is that Prudente is on a fixed income, recently had his car repossessed, and cannot afford it. The association lawyer, however, says that such jailing is merely the sign of a fair and serious legal system.
Continue reading “Putting the Prude Back Into Prudente: Florida Man Jailed for Failure to Sod Lawn”
For some environmentalists, there are few people as vile as Scottsdale-based developer George H. Johnson and his associates. Johnson was accused of bulldozing, filling and diverting a 5-mile stretch of the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. As Joe Biden would say, “let me repeat that” 5 MILES. While the government reached a settlement with a $1.25 million penalty, Johnson and his contractor will not have to admit guilt and will not face any possible criminal charge.
A New York judge has declared a hung jury at the trial of a former minor league baseball player and actor Joseph Petcka for his alleged beating, stomping and kicking his girlfriend’s cat to death during a drunken fury. The jury deliberated for five days on the charge of aggravated animal cruelty in the death of Norman.
Continue reading “Norman Evasion: Mistrial Declared in Baseball Player Joe Petcka’s Pet Problem”
China is again ordering a rash of arrests and resignations after the latest product scandal. In this case, diary producers sold milk containing the industrial chemical melamine, which killed four child and sickened nearly 53,000 others. This is not just another case of rampant Chinese pollution entering the food system. Melamine is sometimes put into milk to mimic high-protein additives.
Continue reading “Latest Chinese Product Scandal: Over 50,000 Children Poisoned by Tainted Milk”
Former Mets minor leaguer and sometime actor Joseph Petcka is on trial for killing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old tabby, Norman. It is a good example of such cases where both criminal and civil charges can be brought. His former girlfriend Sports Illustrated reporter Lisa Altobelli insists that it was intentional while Petcka insists that it was an accident.
Rebecca Nelson thought that she was helping the environment when she captured rainwater in a barrel and use it on her garden. Car dealer Mark Miller thought he was “greening” his facility with a cistern to use to wash vehicles. They were both violating the law in Utah where it is against the law to capture rain water. With California creating a “water bank,” one can imagine an expanded array of hydrocrimes, including bank robbery with intent to garden.
Continue reading “Inclement Crimes: Utah Cracks Down on People Capturing Rainwater”
Nanjing holds some of China’s oldest and most valuable relics dating back from the 11th to the 2nd century BC. Well, it used to. Despite demands for the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway company to redirect its construction route for a new high-speed train or take steps to protect the site, the company went ahead and destroyed much of the site.
Continue reading “Chinese Train Company Destroys Ancient Site”
Vladimir Putin seems ready to meet the challenge of Sarah Palin. Supporters of the Vice Presidential hopeful have released pictures and videos of her shooting high-powered rifles, skinned bears, and posing with dead animals that she has shot. Putin, technically the second in command of Russia, has released a series of macho pictures, including his shooting of a Siberian tiger with a tranquilizer gun. Next, Palin will have to actually eat the heart of a polar bear to meet the Putin challenge.
Continue reading “Palin v. Putin: Is the United States Falling Behind in a Hunting Arms Race?”
Tripp Isenhour may be popular with golfers but he is despised by environmentalists. The golfer is accused of intentionally killing a protected red-shouldered hawk (shown here) on at the Grand Cypress Golf Club because the bird’s chirping was interrupting his filming of an instructional video. Isenhour received a very light sentence of one year probation and 100 hours of community service. He will only have to do 40 hours of service in exchange for a small contribution to a wildlife preserve.
Continue reading “Pro-Golfer Tripp Isenhour Gets a Legal Mulligan on Killing Protected Hawk”
It appears that Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin are continuing their respective reigns of terror. Governments are planning a cull of so-called “Nazi Raccoons,” which were introduced by Hermann Goering to Germany in 1934 to “enrich the Reich’s fauna.” The raccoons are actually imports from America. In the meantime, England is also fretting over the movement of huge numbers of “Stalin crabs” toward its shores.
Continue reading “Blitzkrabs: Europe Threatened by “Nazi Raccoons” and “Stalin Crabs””