Considering that dogs are already sleeping in their owners’ beds, shaping family vacations, and spending time in the workplace, it would seem their integration into human society is complete. But not quite. Like children before them, a growing number of dogs are being enrolled in enrichment programs — undergoing a formal education in a way once reserved for show dogs. [node:read-more:link]
Freight train derailments have been making national news in recent days, including in Washington D.C., in which 16 cars went off the tracks, some of them leaking sodium hydroxide or ethanol. Closer to home along the Upper Mississippi River, freight trains carrying ethanol have jumped their tracks on both the east and west sides of the river, leaking fuel into the river or its tributaries. The geography here is unglaciated bluff country, with thick timber leading to mostly undeveloped waterfront. [node:read-more:link]
Animal masseuses are hardly alone. Over the years, states across the country have added licensing requirements for a bewildering variety of jobs, requiring months or years of expensive education, along with assessing costly fees. [node:read-more:link]
Texas on Thursday lost its fight against the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state, ending a monthslong battle during which refugees from the war-torn country continued to arrive. Dealing the final blow to Gov. Abbott's effort to keep Syrian refugees out of the state, a federal judge dismissed Texas’ lawsuit against the federal government and a refugee resettlement agency over the resettlement of the refugees. In an order dated Wednesday and released Thursday, Dallas-based U.S. [node:read-more:link]
ll six New England governors attending the conference said fighting the social stigma associated with addiction is the key to battling the opioid crisis raging across the region, claiming thousands of lives. [node:read-more:link]
Governor Mark Dayton today made good on a promise to veto a major tax relief bill because it included a 101-million dollar error. The veto set off a flurry of fingerpointing, and new calls for a special session. The tax bill came out of a rushed and chaotic end to the legislative session. It included a one-word mistake that cut by $101 million a fund that pays for the new Vikings stadium. After the veto came a blunt rebuke from the governor. “My message to legislators today: Come back and finish your work,” Dayton said. [node:read-more:link]
The economic shocks of the housing-market crisis and Great Recession were associated with striking changes in net migration patterns in both rural and urban America, with rural farming communities experiencing different migration trends than other rural areas, according to new research funded by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station. Ken Johnson, a demographer and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, found: As the economic situation deteriorated, fewer Americans migrated. [node:read-more:link]
Delaware is plagued with numerous health care issues. There are shortages of psychiatrists and dentists, and the general health of the state's population is less than stellar, ranking 32nd in the nation, according to the United Health Foundation. But one of the most urgent problems, experts say, is the cost to the state for providing care. Doctors, hospital officials, insurance companies, patient advocates and policy analysts are now working to change Delaware's costly and very sickly path. [node:read-more:link]
Two years at sea have fostered a close relationship between the two fellow sailors as they cross the globe, through warm weather and cold. One is a 24-year-old male. The other is a hen. Guirec Soudee - the 24-year-old - is the one who does most of the hard work on board the boat. Monique is the hen, who spends most of her time admiring the view from the deck, and laying the occasional egg. Guirec had planned to bring along a pet for company, but a hen wasn't originally on the cards. "I thought about a cat, but decided it would be too much effort to look after it," he says. [node:read-more:link]
Health officials say there have been 10 cases of plague and 19 cases of tularemia in dogs and cats in New Mexico so far this year. Recent rabbit deaths from tularemia also have been confirmed in the Santa Fe and Eldorado areas of Santa Fe County. [node:read-more:link]
