Fetterman blasts Musk over DOGE, IRS
It’s good to hear something even marginally helpful from Fetterman.
From The Hill:
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) went after tech billionaire Elon Musk over a report that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been trying to access an IRS system.
“I want to save billions of your money and make our government more efficient. Rummaging through your personal s‑‑‑ is *not* that. A party of chaos loses—always,” Fetterman said Monday in a post on the social platform X.
and in the same article
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday wrote to acting IRS Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, requesting information on access to the IDRS by DOGE and stating worries about possible privacy violations.
“No executive order requiring agency heads to provide DOGE personnel access to IRS records or information technology systems supersedes the federal tax code,” the Massachusetts and Oregon Democrats said.
Two Oklahoma Dems oust conservative mayors
Let’s keep winning special elections!!
Speaking of which, are you writing postcards for Susan Crawford to win a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat and keep a Dem majority? Now that Mush is pouring money into the race, it’s even more important!!
[Dem] Stephen Tyler Holman defeats [conservative incumbent] Larry Heikkila, Riley Mulinix for Norman mayor
Jessica Craven commented on this story “Democratic endorsed candidate Steven Tyler ousted the conservative incumbent in the mayoral race of Norman, Oklahoma, defeating the Republican incumbent by a whopping *26 POINTS*!”
From OUDaily:
Ward 7 Councilmember Stephen Tyler Holman won the election for mayor of Norman Tuesday night, defeating incumbent Mayor Larry Heikkila and attorney Riley Mulinix.
As of 8:02 p.m., Holman received 61.09% of 18,452 total votes cast, according to unofficial results from the Oklahoma State Election Board’s website.
Heikkila received 35.05% and Mulinix received 3.86%.
And
Newly elected Bethany mayor making history as [Oklahoma’s] first Latina Mayor
Amanda Sandoval now holds the title of mayor of Bethany, but that’s not the only milestone for Sandoval. She’s also the first elected Latina mayor in Oklahoma history. ✂️
“I take pride, I wear my culture on my sleeve, I'm a proud Latina,” she said. “I have this opportunity to enact the most change here in my hometown, here in the city that saw me grow up and now is seeing my child grow up, it's a very beautiful and humbling feeling.”
And while this is a humbling first, Sandoval said it’s not the reason she ran for mayor.
“For me it wasn't trying to run to try to be the first Latina elected mayor, it was me trying to run to make sure I'm listening to our residents and paving the way for accountability and transparency in local government,” Sandoval said. “I just want to encourage more of the youth to run for office, more people of color to run for office, because we are part of this community, and we have every right to be in these spaces and be in these offices.”
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The media messing up
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A resistance song for today
I wasn’t aware of this beautiful song until I heard it on Portland’s jazz station (which you can stream from their website KMHD.org — I highly recommend it!).
And I think I'll call it morning from now on
Why should I survive on sadness?
And tell myself I've got to be alone?
Why should I subscribe to
This world's madness?
Knowing that I've got to live on
Knowing that I've got to live on
Knowing that I've got to live on
Yeah, I think I'll call it
Morning from now on
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Good news from my corner of the world
Oregonians come out for 50501 protests
These were just the biggest protests in Oregon. The nationwide protests are covered in the national section below.
Anti-Trump crowd marches across downtown Portland bridges to City Hall
No, I wasn’t there. I wish I could have been.
From The Oregonian:
A Presidents Day protest drew more than 1,000 people to downtown Portland, in one of the city’s largest demonstrations to date of the second Trump era, leaving police briefly scrambling to contain the crowd as it grew during a march across the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges. ✂️
Many in the crowd, which was mainly a mix of older residents and young families, held signs recycled from previous anti-Trump protests. Kim Osgood, a co-owner of Paloma Clothing in the Hillsdale neighborhood, had hand-painted yard debris bags for herself, her husband and two of their friends, cutting out holes for their heads and arms so it could be worn as a poncho of sorts. Hers read: Love/Unity/Resist/Tyranny. “We are happy to be able to gather together and have a sense of community,” Osgood said. “We didn’t want to feel powerless in our house. We want to amplify positive feelings in the moment of this bleak political situation.”
Demonstrators gather [in Salem OR] on President’s Day to protest Trump, Musk
From Salem Reporter:
About a thousand demonstrators gathered outside the Oregon State Capitol Monday to protest against President Trump’s administration and Elon Musk’s involvement in the federal government in what many denounced as a coup. ✂️
Most protesters stood on both sidewalks of Northeast Center Street from Northeast Winter to Capitol streets. Others were on Capitol Mall and adjacent streets waving American, transgender pride and peace flags. Many vehicles driving by on Center Street honked in support of demonstrators. Those protesting included people from Salem as well as other Willamette Valley communities. ✂️
Salem police estimated the crowd at 1,000 people as of 1 p.m. ✂️
James Bush, 64, drove from Lafayette to Salem to attend the protest.“Our government is being gutted like a fish real fast, and if we don’t wake up, there will be nothing left very soon,” he said. “We’re trying to wake people up before it’s too late.”
Hundreds rally in Eugene [OR] as part of nationwide Presidents Day protests
From The [Eugene] Register-Guard:
Under a sea of American flags, at least 500 people crowded all four corners of the Mill Street and 8th Avenue intersection in front of the Wayne L. Morse Federal Courthouse in Eugene on Monday, joining a nationwide wave of Presidents Day protests.
Resounding honks from passing cars and cheers erupted as protesters chanted, “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Elon Musk has got to go,” “This is what democracy looks like,” and “We the people.” Many carried signs decrying President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, while others expressed frustration with the influence of Musk, a key Trump ally.
Don’t you love that sign?!?
“We’ve got to do something about what’s going on in Washington,” said Eugene protester Jim Caughlin, who held a sign reading, “Crazy Don’s President Sale: Everything Must Go!” He described the current state of the federal government as “frightening.”
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Good news from around the nation
Anti-Trump 50501 Protests Break Out Across the Country
These protests were lit!!
From The New Republic:
Thousands of protesters gathered at different cities across the country Monday to declare President’s Day as “No Kings Day,” in protest of the unlawful actions of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to upend the federal government.
The swath of protests were organized by the 50501 Movement, a name which refers to 50 protests in 50 states on one day. The group, which originated on social media, previously planned a series of demonstrations that took place earlier this month in response to Musk and Trump’s early efforts to overhaul the federal government. Since then, the fascist duo have only continued their plot to cut popular federal programs and launch mass firings of federal employees.
In Washington, D.C., thousands of people gathered around the reflecting pool beside the U.S. Capitol building. “Hey Congress, grow a spine!” they shouted, according to independent journalist Alejandro Alvarez.
Other protests took place across the country, from Augusta, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, to Sante Fe, New Mexico, to Orlando, Florida.
In New York City, a video from Freedom News TV showed thousands of protesters marching through lower Manhattan, cheering to “Stop the Coup!” In Boston, Massachusetts, nearly 1,000 people marched through the below freezing temperatures shouting, “No Kings on President’s Day!”
Here are some photos:
NYC:
Hartford, CT:
Oklahoma City:
Little Rock, AR:
Denver:
NAACP lists companies that dump DEI in its tactical spending guide for Black Americans
Here’s a link to The Black Consumer Advisory. We can all use it!
From AP:
The NAACP wants Black Americans to steer their buying power toward companies that haven’t pulled back from diversity, equity and inclusion programs under conservative pressure, and the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is listing which brands have stood by — or reversed — past commitments to DEI.
The NAACP says the spending guide it published Saturday is needed because DEI initiatives promote the social and economic advancement of Black Americans, who are projected to consume nearly $2 trillion in goods and services in nominal dollars by 2030, according to the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility. ✂️
Keisha Bross, an economic strategist at the NAACP, says they are not calling for a “boycott” of companies but instead encourage consumers to “buy-in” on companies that back their values. People of all backgrounds are encouraged to use the Black Consumer Advisory.
The NAACP is speaking with executives at companies named in the advisory for reversing their DEI policies — including Lowe’s, Target Walmart, Amazon, Meta, McDonald’s, and Tractor Supply — and will update its guidance as companies roll back or reaffirm commitments to DEI.
The advisory praises Costco for standing by previous commitments, as well as Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Delta Airlines, e.l.f. Cosmetics and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
And:
x
If just 402,000+ people stop shopping Target for 90 days, sales will decline 5-7% and drop the stock price by nearly 20%. Target would lose $12.2 billion in valuation. There are 41.5M Black people in the US. #BoycottTarget #BlackCashflowRevolt
target-boycott-tracker.vercel.app
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— BlackSun (@blacksun.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Sheryl Crow Sells Tesla, Donates Proceeds To NPR In Protest Against Elon Musk
From HuffPost:
Sheryl Crow said she’s sold her Tesla and will donate the proceeds to the National Public Radio in a defiant gesture against billionaire Elon Musk.
The Grammy-winning musician, with hit songs like “Strong Enough” and “If It Makes You Happy,” posted a video to Instagram Friday of her Tesla loaded on the back of a flatbed truck.
As the truck pulls away, Crow can be seen waving goodbye.
“My parents always said… you are who you hang out with,” Crow wrote in the post’s caption. “There comes a time when you have to decide who you are willing to align with. So long Tesla.” ✂️
Crow said she’ll be donating the proceeds from the Tesla to National Public Radio.
“Money donated to @npr, which is under threat by President Musk, in hopes that the truth will continue to find its way to those willing to know the truth,” Crow posted.
Furious at Musk? Don’t Buy a Tesla.
It turns out that boycotting Tesla has the potential to actually bring Musk down!
From Slate:
It might feel as if Musk is untouchable. But he’s not. And this growing discontent can be channeled into concrete action. If you want Musk to feel your rage, don’t buy a Tesla. And if you already own one, consider selling it.
Musk’s stake in Tesla comprises the lion’s share of his wealth. He can laugh off a few protesters, but if consumers launch a sustained boycott, both Musk and his car company could find themselves in dire straits. Tesla was already in a precarious position before Musk’s flirtation with the far right turned into an all-out embrace. Nosediving sales would be an incapacitating blow. ✂️
...for a combination of reasons, consumer rejection could be uniquely devastating to Tesla right now. The company’s vulnerability stems from its eye-popping market valuation, which was $1.15 trillion as of Friday. To put that figure in perspective, it is five times as high as Toyota’s, 25 times as high as General Motors’, and 31 times as high as Ford’s. (Each of these companies builds vastly more vehicles.) Equally stunning is Tesla’s astronomical price-to-earnings ratio of 181, which assumes mind-boggling profit growth. ✂️
Given the expectations of searing growth baked into Tesla’s sky-high valuation, even a modest consumer revolt could cause it to plummet. Consider: If Tesla’s price-to-earnings ratio fell from 181 to 50—a figure still at least eight times as high as Toyota’s or Ford’s—its stock price would tumble 70 percent.
A nationwide class action suit in the making?
Keep an eye on this!
And now a couple of encouraging non-political items:
Bison, not prison: Activists buy a prison site to rewild the land
From Yale Climate Connections:
On a freezing cold Wednesday afternoon in eastern Kentucky, Taysha DeVaughan joined a small gathering at the foot of a reclaimed strip mine to celebrate a homecoming. “It’s a return of an ancestor,” DeVaughan said. “It’s a return of a relative.”
That relative was the land they stood on, part of a tract slated for a federal penitentiary that many in the crowd consider another injustice in a region riddled with them. The mine shut down years ago, but the site, near the town of Roxana, still bears the scars of extraction. DeVaughan, an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, joined some two dozen people on January 22 to celebrate the Appalachian Rekindling Project buying 63 acres within the prison’s footprint.
“What we’re here to do is to protect her and to give her a voice,” DeVaughan said. “She’s been through mountaintop removal. She’s been blown up, she’s been scraped up, she’s been hurt.”
The Appalachian Rekindling Project, which she helped found last year, wants to rewild the site with bison and native flora and fauna, open it to intertribal gatherings, and, it hopes, stop the prison. The environmental justice organization worked with a coalition of local nonprofits, including Build Community Not Prisons and the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, to raise $160,000 to buy the plot from a family who owned the land generationally. Retired truck driver Wayne Whitaker, who owns neighboring land and had considered purchasing it as a hunting ground, told Grist he was supportive. “There’s nothing positive we’ll get out of this prison,” he said.
Autumn Lockwood Makes History As The First Black Woman Coach To Win A Super Bowl
From Essence:
Autumn Lockwood just etched her name in history—again.
Back in 2023, she became the first Black woman to coach in a Super Bowl, breaking barriers on the sidelines as an assistant sports performance coach for the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. Fast forward to today, and she’s taken it a step further: making history as the first Black woman coach to ever win a Super Bowl.
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Good news from around the world
Europe unites against Trump and Putin
x
BREAKING: France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain & UK sign a joint statement vowing to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty & demanding a role in the peace talks.
This is leadership.
It’s also unprecedented.
A western alliance is having to form against a new, twin & united threat: Trump & Putin.
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— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
x
UPDATE, FRIDAY: The Nordic & Baltic countries have just issued their own joint statement, in steadfast support of Ukraine.
Signed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway & Sweden.
🇩🇰🇪🇪🇫🇮🇱🇻🇱🇹🇳🇴🇸🇪
The twin threat of Trump & Putin has united an entire Continent.
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— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 8:38 AM
3 Baltic states disconnect from the Soviet-era grid to merge with the European energy system
From AP:
The flow of electricity between the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and Russia was officially severed [on the] morning [of Feb. 8] after officials switched off the Soviet-era grid’s transmission lines and prepared to join the rest of Europe on Sunday.
This came more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ending the Baltics’ final ties to oil- and gas-rich Russia. For the three countries, as well as the rest of Europe, the move was steeped in geopolitical and symbolic significance. “The Baltic energy system is finally in our hands, we are in full control,” Lithuania Energy minister Žygimantas Vaičiūnas told reporters.
On [Feb. 8], all remaining transmission lines between them and Russia, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between EU members Poland and Lithuania and the sea, were switched off one by one. Lithuania first — where a specially-made 9-meter (about 29-foot) tall clock in downtown Vilnius counted down the final seconds — then Latvia a few minutes later, followed by Estonia.
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My favorite recent quotes, memes, and cartoons
From Rebecca Solnit’s newsletter, Meditations in an Emergency:
Trump just tweeted a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte, "He who saves his country violates no law," which is maybe supposed to justify the attacks on the Constitution and the outrageously illegal actions we've seen since the January 27th attempt to seize Congress's power of the purse.
But Napoleon didn't end his career as an emperor. He ended it as a prisoner of the British on a small volcanic island more than a thousand miles off the coast of southern Africa. I don't know where Trump, Musk, and Vance's story ends, but I know it doesn't end with them in power...
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Good news in medicine
OHSU Researchers Develop Test for Earlier Detection of Pancreatic Cancer
Of course, this ground-breaking medical research, like similar projects around the nation, has been partially funded by the NIH, so its completion will depend on whether or not NIH funding will be allowed to continue.
From Willamette Week:
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University say they’ve come up with a way to expose [pancreatic cancer] earlier, using just a small sample of blood. Existing blood tests either aren’t specific to pancreatic cancer or are inaccurate, according to the American Cancer Society. That leaves expensive imaging and invasive biopsies.
The OHSU researchers call their test “PAC-MANN,” which stands for “protease activity-based assay using a magnetic nanosensor.“ In alt-weekly terms, that means they figured out how to find evidence of pancreatic cancer by making proteins present in the blood of people with tumors light up when exposed to another protein. ✂️
“The problem with pancreatic cancer is that we often catch it too late,” said Jared Fischer, Ph.D., a scientist at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute’s Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center. “Our goal with PAC-MANN is to give clinicians a tool that can detect the disease much earlier, when more treatment options are available and there is a better chance of survival.” ✂️
The PAC-MANN test correctly distinguished patients with pancreatic cancer from those without 98% of the time, the researchers said. It also helped spot early-stage cancer with 85% accuracy when used along with an existing blood test.
And, it’s economical.
“The big difference with this test is the cost,” said [Jose L.] Montoya [Mira, Ph.D., the study’s lead author]. “It takes only 8 microliters of blood and 45 minutes to run the test at a cost of less than a penny per sample. This could easily be used in rural and underserved settings, where traditional tests are not or cannot be used.”
Early dementia blood test trial begins
From Positive News:
A simple blood test to detect signs of dementia decades before it develops is being rolled out across the UK as part of an “exciting” new study.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge, England, will use the test to identify brain changes in people with dementia, instead of using more costly brain scans, which require specialist equipment that’s not available everywhere.
Initial research – led by Dr Maura Malpetti, senior research associate at the university – found that molecular changes associated with brain inflammation and dementia can be detected in the blood.
“We’re focusing on changes to the brain which can manifest 10-20 years before symptoms, with the hope that in the future we can treat them early enough to stop the disease before symptoms occur,” said Dr Malpetti.
The study will initially focus on frontotemporal dementia and is currently recruiting people from across the UK. Prof Fiona Carragher from the charity Alzheimer’s Society said: “Blood testing offers the potential to revolutionise dementia diagnosis in the future, so it’s incredibly exciting to see this project coming to life.”
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Good news in science
A bacteria-based Band-Aid helps plants heal their wounds
This is pretty amazing.
From ScienceNews:
A pure form of cellulose produced by bacteria can act as a plant bandage, researchers report, significantly boosting healing and regeneration in plants. The finding, described February 12 in Science Advances, has potential implications for agriculture and plant research.
A plant cutting in a petri dish flourished when treated with a bacterial cellulose patch (bottom). The cutting developed roots faster than one with a plant-derived cellulose patch (top right) and one left untreated (left).
Unlike animals, plants cannot escape danger and instead rely on remarkable regenerative abilities. Bacterial cellulose — already used in human medicine for treating wounds and burns due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability and high water retention — has now been found to enhance plant healing as well.
Plant biologist Núria Sánchez Coll and colleagues were testing bacterial cellulose patches embedded with silver nanoparticles to prevent infections in wounded plants. They soon noticed wounds treated with the patches healed better and faster. “This made us interested in finding the molecular cause of this process,” says Sánchez Coll, of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona.
To test the effectiveness of the patches as healing devices, the scientists made small cuts in the leaves of two common lab plants, Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis thaliana, applying the “Band-Aids” to half the wounds. After one week, more than 80 percent of the treated wounds had healed completely, compared with less than 20 percent of the untreated ones. Microscopic analysis showed that tissues in the treated wounds appeared healthy, while untreated wounds showed signs of distress and dehydration.
The team also discovered that the patches significantly enhance plant regeneration, particularly in cloning experiments. ...✂️
While still in early stages, the findings do suggest potential applications in agriculture, ...such as facilitating grafting, preserving cut plant material or serving as a growth medium in laboratories. Other research groups are already looking at these findings at the molecular level, trying to determine if they apply to other regeneration processes that aren’t yet fully understood.
Chinese Scientists Discover Oldest Bird Fossils, Rewrite History of Avian Evolution
From Good News Network:
A photograph and interpretive line drawing show the Baminornis zhenghensis fossil
According to a truly field-altering fossilized bird found in China, birds already existed in the Late Jurassic period, approximately 160 million years ago. The new discovery suggests that rather than a linear evolutionary path from dinosaur to bird, these two orders evolved somewhat simultaneously.
Baminornis zhenghensis is the world’s oldest species of avid. A holotype fossil was recently found in East China’s Fujian Province and described in the journal Nature. The pelvis, trunk, forelimbs, and part of the hindlimb are all intact. ✂️
“This is a groundbreaking discovery. It overturns the previous situation that Archaeopteryx was the only bird found in the Jurassic Period,” Zhonghe Zhou, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, tells the Chinese news agency Xinhua. ✂️
An artistic representation of the newly discovered species, Baminornis zhenghensis, with the preserved bones highlighted
Baminornis displays a number of characteristic bird features, the most important among them being a short tail—a critical innovation in bird flight.
“Previously, the oldest record of short-tailed birds is from the Early Cretaceous,” Wang Min, a paleontologist author of the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explains in a statement. Baminornis is now the “oldest short-tailed bird yet discovered, pushing back the appearance of this derived bird feature by nearly 20 million years.”
The short tail shifted the center of gravity forward, allowing for greater aerodynamism. This stands in direct contrast to Archaeopteryx which had a long feathered tail. … Wang believes that to have two different animals that were developing avian features, living in a relatively close period, but with such different physical shapes, suggests that millions of years of avid evolution had already taken place before Baminornis walked the Earth.
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Good news for the environment
Lack of action on pollution violates right to life, Europe’s top human rights court rules
The comment at the end of the piece — “The ruling should have ramifications for existing and prospective cases all over Europe” — strikes me as an understatement.
From ClientEarth:
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has handed down a seismic ruling, holding for the first time that failure to adequately address environmental pollution violates the human right to life. This includes the obligation to inform individuals living in areas affected by pollution so that they be able to assess the risks to their lives and health.
The decision comes in a case brought by Italian citizens in response to hazardous fumes and other pollution from widespread illegal waste dumping and burning in the Campania region that was having devastating impacts on their health. The court has clarified that the government’s failure to appropriately address this issue, even though it was caused by private parties, has put the State in breach of human rights law.
The ruling should have ramifications for existing and prospective cases all over Europe.
The world got 31 new ‘wetland cities’
From Positive News:
Hangzhou
From Chile to China, efforts to conserve urban wetlands have been recognised after 31 metropolises were accredited as ‘wetland cities’.
The accreditation scheme – introduced by the Convention on Wetlands in 2015 – encourages cities to recognise the importance of their wetlands and commit to their protection.
Among those to have been accredited this year are Valdivia in Chile, where a decades-long citizen movement to protect black-necked swans...led to the restoration of the Cruces River. The Chinese city Hangzhou (main picture) and Geneva, Switzerland, which incorporates wetland protection into urban policy, were among the other additions.
Urban wetlands face many challenges, from population growth to pollution, but bring myriad benefits, such as flood mitigation, water purification, and enhanced biodiversity.
“Wetland city accreditation demonstrates how cities worldwide are taking concrete steps in favour of their urban wetlands,” said Dr Musonda Mumba, secretary general of the Convention on Wetlands. “By protecting, restoring and wisely using their wetlands, these cities are enhancing their resilience to climate change and improving quality of life for their residents.”
Solar continues to break records
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Good news for and about animals
Brought to you by Rascal and Margot, and the beautiful spirits of Rosy and Nora.
World’s Oldest Bird Gives Birth to Yet Another Chick–at Nearly 74 Years Old
Rascal has a massive crush on Wisdom — just look at how beautiful she is!
From Good News Network:
Wisdom with her chick
The world’s oldest known bird has returned to her home island to hatch yet another chick, at nearly 74 years old. Named Wisdom, the Laysan albatross has been spotted this month caring for her youngster on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean.
Like others of her species, Wisdom returns to the same nesting site each year to reunite with her mate and if able, lay one egg.
For decades, park officials in the Hawaiian Archipelago observed Wisdom doing this with the same partner (named Akeakamai), but that bird has not been seen for several years, which caused Wisdom to begin courtship dances with other males last year.
The spry septuagenarian is estimated to have produced 50-60 eggs in her lifetime, successfully fledging as many as 30 chicks, according to the expert staff at the refuge 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu.
Albatross parents share the responsibility of feeding their young by taking turns hunting while the other stays at the nest to watch over the chick. “So when Wisdom returns to the nest (it’s) her partner’s turn to go hunt for squid, fish and crustaceans,” said a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service–Pacific Region.
Biologists first identified and banded Wisdom in 1956 after she laid an egg. They determined her estimated age from that event 69 years ago, because the large seabirds aren’t known to breed before age five.
No matter the size of the cat…
Margot stretches like this, of course, but she wouldn’t do one for the camera ☹️
Girl With Cleft Lip Adopts Dog Born With the Same Feature
Rosy would have loved this sweet story. She had a distinct underbite that I thought was adorable.
From Good News Network:
Kynlee Rogers, 10, with her dog Tennee
[Kynlee] Rogers used to ask her mom Kimberly why she was different from other kids, a challenging thing for any parent to have to answer. She doesn’t ask anymore though, because she’s not different; just look at her dog!
[Kynlee and Tennee were brought together by] a nonprofit that works to connect dogs born with craniofacial defects with the ‘craniofacial’ community, to strengthen both through common cause and love. “Our mission is to combine the two different cleft communities: the human community and the canine community,” [said] Lindsay Weisman, who started Cleft Rescue Unit in May 2023... “We get puppies from across the country.” ✂️
In humans, cleft palates and lips develop in utero from a variety of environmental and genetic factors. Difficulties lay ahead for these children, without a doubt, but puppies born with the same conditions might have it even harder as they tend very strongly towards dying in infancy. Cleft lip or palate, says Weisman, prevents a puppy from nursing properly, leading to malnutrition and death if they are not recognized and taken into veterinary care for tube feeding. Cleft Rescue Unit works to raise awareness of the dangers to these pups and take them off the hands of breeders or owners who aren’t capable of taking care of them. Once they can eat solid food, the unit seeks to pair dogs with a human owner with the same craniofacial feature.
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