pileofcrapola

Whether it’s kittens, lizards, puppies or cockatoos, humans just love their pets. But often when one species has a spike in popularity, many pets are left without homes once the craze dies down, and folks realize it’s not always easy raising an animal. You know, because animals have a tendency to eat a lot, and grow, things many pig owners weren’t expecting when they bought their pets.

The teacup pig fad isn’t entirely new, points out the Associated Press, having first popped up a few decades ago, only to be revived now and then. The trouble is, breeders and online sellers employ a tricky tactic, telling would-be pet owners that if they feed their new porkers only a certain amount, they won’t get much bigger after they turn one, and will stay small.

Many times that just isn’t true, and the animals demand more and more food, growing larger and larger. If they don’t eat enough, and eat the proper food for, they’ll starve.

One former pet owner found that out the hard way when the mini pig she brought home started raiding her kitchen and digging through the trash. She’d been told by a breeder to only feed it a half-cup of food twice a day. When she took him to the veterinarian, the doctor said her piglet was acting up because he was starving.

She’d been told he would only grow 12 inches tall, but instead, he grew to 20 inches and 180 pounds. Her husband couldn’t handle it anymore she says, telling her, “Either the pig goes or I go.”

The pig ended up at a rescue home, something that’s been happening a lot these days. Shelters are becoming overcrowded, and some sanctuaries have had to put limits on how many pigs they can take.

“There are not enough homes out there anymore. These pigs are in big trouble,” the operator of Lil’ Orphan Hammies pig rescue told the AP.

She’s saved 1,000 pigs since the rescue started 23 years ago, and gets 20 calls a day from people trying to find a new home for their pigs.

It’s definitely not easy out there for a pet porker: Anna Key, vice president of the North American Potbellied Pig Association, estimated that 90% of pigs adopted in the U.S. end up at a rescue or a sanctuary.

Though breeders claim restricted diets can keep pigs tiny because they’re learning to eat less (which sounds awful), rescues say they’re just getting emaciated and losing muscle mass.

“I have never seen a full-grown, healthy, 35-pound pig live to maturity,” the owner of a Pennsylvania farm rescue told the AP.

Pet porkers pack rescues as trendy teacup pigs fatten up [Associated Press]

You know the feeling — you’ve only got a little time left on the parking meter but you’re stuck somewhere, forcing you to face either a parking ticket, or even worse, having your car towed. One woman who was unable to feed the meter after spending hours in the ER with her infant son reached out to her fellow mothers, and was rewarded with an outpouring of generosity from total strangers.

A Toronto woman had to rush her six-week-old son to the hospital recently, and didn’t think she’d be too long, so she put enough money in the parking meter to cover her car for four hours, The Canadian Press reports.

But when she had to wait three hours to even see a doctor, she realized the meter would soon expire. So she reached out to a Facebook group for local mothers, asking whether anyone knew if her car would be ticketed or towed.

Strangers answered her, and also showered her post with offers to stop by and fill up the parking meter for her.

“I’m not far. I can go put change in it for you in about an hour on my way back home if you are still there,” one wrote.

“I live not too far from the hospital. Will head over now and top up the meter for you!” another added.

Nine hours later, she picked up her car to find that there were still five hours left on the meter, and that her Facebook feed had exploded with messages from people she didn’t know, wishing her and her son well.

“I was completely overwhelmed. I was completely grateful,” she said. “It made a very tough and stressful situation a lot easier for me. It made me able to focus on my son’s needs rather than having to worry about my car being towed.”

She adds that hundreds of mothers have been asking for updates on her son’s condition, as well as offering parking passes for her to use on her next trip to the hospital. She says now she’s inspired to return the favor, and will be keeping in touch with those who reached out to her.

That feeling you’re having? It’s the warm fuzzies. Feels nice, doesn’t it?

Strangers stop woman’s car from being towed during infant son’s hospital visit [The Canadian Press]

Amid concerns of antibiotics overuse contributing to the development of drug-resistant superbugs, American consumers are increasingly demanding antibiotic-free meat and fish. That’s bad news for Chilean salmon farmers who are facing a bacterial outbreak and treating their fish with record levels of antibiotics — and losing the business of Costco and others.

Chile is the world’s second-largest producer of salmon, pumping out 895,000 metric tons of the fish in 2014. At the same time, Reuters reports that salmon farmers in the South American nation used 1.2 million pounds of antibiotics (up 13% from the previous year) in an effort to fight off the Piscirickettsiosis (or SRS) bacteria, which causes lesions, hemorrhaging, swollen kidneys and spleens, and ultimately death in infected fish.

While the farmers insist that the fish treated with the antibiotics are safe, U.S. retailers — especially Costco — are moving away from Chilean salmon.

Costco purchases some 600,000 pounds of salmon each week to fill its warehouse stores around the country, and until recently 90% of that came from Chile.

But in recent months, the company has moved to cut that by more than half to 40%. The majority (60%) of Costco’s salmon will be coming toward Norway, which produces more salmon (1.3 million metric tons in 2013) and uses virtually no antibiotics (2,142 lbs. total in 2013).

And Costco is just the latest to look for alternatives to Chile. Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s have already phased out antibiotic-treated Chilean salmon.

“The whole industry is starting to shift,” explains the Costco exec who oversees fresh foods to Reuters. “If I was to ask you your biggest concern on produce, you might say pesticides. When we ask people in protein, generally it’s going to be hormones or antibiotics.”

The situation in Chile is slightly different from the usual debate about antibiotics in farm animals. In most cases here in the U.S., cows, pigs, and chickens are provided continual, low-dose amounts of antibiotics, primarily for growth promotion.

Following recent guidance to drug-makers from the Food and Drug Administration, farmers now claim they use the drugs for “disease prevention,” even though this prophylactic, sub-therapeutic approach to antibiotics is exactly the kind of practice that physicians and scientists say engenders the development of drug-resistant pathogens.

But in Chile, the farmers claim that the antibiotics to prevent SRS infection are medically necessary.

“This is only something given to sick fish so they don’t die. It’s not something preventive,” the CEO of salmon producer Camanchacha tells Reuters.

And much like farm animals are weaned off antibiotics to minimize the chance of drug residues in meat products, the Chilean salmon go through a detox period before being harvested. And the FDA says its inspections since Oct. 2014 of these fish have not turned up any unapproved drug residues.

However, the issues of drug residues is different from the conversation about drug-resistant pathogens. Even though the fish may be cleansed of the antibiotics by the time they hit store shelves, the constant use of the drugs in salmon farms still can result — and has resulted — in the development of resistant bacteria.

In 2014, a Chilean government report noted antibiotic-resistant strains of SRS turning up in the country’s salmon farms. And they will likely continue to pop up so long as farmers keep using the same antibiotics.

Farmers say that without a vaccine to treat SRS, they have no choice but to continue with the antibiotics treatments.

Addicted to antibiotics, Chile’s salmon flops at Costco, grocers [Reuters]

That question your parents asked you at least once in your life is coming into play now at Yellowstone National Park: officials are warning visitors not to get too close to wild animals to get a good selfie, even if everyone else is doing it.

The thing about wild bison is, they’re wild, and as such, very unpredictable, park officials are now reminding visitors. The fifth person to be injured this year in the park after a confrontation with wild animals was trying to take a selfie with one of the huge beasts near a trail on Tuesday, reports CNN.

She and her daughter turned their backs on the bison, which was about six yards away, in order to grab a photo with it, the National Park Service said.

“They heard the bison’s footsteps moving toward them and started to run, but the bison caught the mother on the right side, lifted her up and tossed her with its head,” the park service said in a statement Wednesday. The woman had minor injuries.

Despite the fact that they’d read warnings about getting too close to wild animals, the family saw other people close to the bison so they decided that meant it was safe, a ranger said.

“The family said they read the warnings in both the park literature and the signage, but saw other people close to the bison, so they thought it would be OK,” the ranger said. “People need to recognize that Yellowstone wildlife is wild, even though they seem docile. This woman was lucky that her injuries were not more severe.”

Park authorities tell visitors to keep at least 25 yards between themselves and large animals like bison, and a full 100 yards away from bears and wolves.

“Bison can sprint three times faster than humans can run and are unpredictable and dangerous,” park officials warn.

Bison attacks woman who was trying to take selfie with it in Yellowstone Park [CNN]

Despite the plethora of services that are available these days at the touch of a button, there are still those who seem determined to stick with calling 9-1-1 — even when there’s no actual emergency. Police in Pennsylvania say a man who called complaining of chest pains was fit as a fiddle, and actually just needed help fixing his air conditioning.

During a conversation with a police dispatcher, the 27-year-old also said he was having difficulty breathing, according to a criminal complaint cited by the Smoking Gun. But when emergency medical personnel arrived at his apartment, he “related to them that he was fine and did not have any medical issues,” the complaint says. “However he was having issues with his air conditioning and asked if they could fix it.”

Paramedics didn’t stick around to tinker with his AC, and instead notified 9-1-1 that the call had been bogus, leaving for a “pending true medical emergency.”

The complaint says the man has made “false/misleading/non emergency calls” on more than 60 occasions over the last three years. He was arrested last December for prior 9-1-1 calls, though criminal charges were later withdrawn as part of a plea deal, wherein he wasn’t supposed to make such calls anymore

He’s been accused of obstructing emergency services and disorderly conduct, and is scheduled to appear in court in August on the two misdemeanor charges.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of people misusing the 9-1-1 system when they found something in their life was amiss: There was the man who called 9-1-1 a dozen times claiming he was overcharged for beer; people who called police because Facebook was down; a man who called 9-1-1 repeatedly because his wife threw his beer away and the Subway customer who called emergency services when he got the wrong sauce on his flatizza. And that’s just to mention a few.

Cops: Man Called 911 To Get Help Fixing His AC [The Smoking Gun]

Joining competitors in the packaged food market like General Mills, Nestlé USA, and Kraft and chain restaurants like Subway, Panera, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, Campbell Soup Company announced this week that it will stop using artificial colors and flavors in all of its products sold in North America in 2018.

Food companies have noticed where the public’s taste is headed, and that’s toward products that are all “natural.” As consumers learned when Starbucks briefly switched to a “natural” red food coloring made from red insects and switched back after the Frappuccino-drinking public collectively said “ew,” the sources of those natural colors aren’t always palatable to consumers.

The company recently reorganized itself, attempting to become relevant to consumers. You’re probably more familiar with brands like Pepperidge Farm and SpaghettiOs, but Campbell also owns a few brands in the natural and organic sector, like vegetable and juice company Bolthouse Farms and the baby food brand Plum Organics. They also recently acquired Garden Fresh Gourmet, a company out of Michigan that makes salsa and hummus.

The company is giving itself a few years to find alternatives to current ingredients that don’t meet the “natural” standard, and the deadline they’ve set is the end of the fiscal year in 2018. That’s almost exactly three years from now: be prepared for some of the familiar flavors of your childhood to change. Maybe.

Campbell to Cut Artificial Flavors, Colors by End of 2018 [Bloomberg]

WASHINGTON — Animal Control officers in Fairfax County are investigating whether a dog was injured by a bear this week in the Great Falls area.

According to the Fairfax County Police Department, a veterinarian treating the dog called the county on Tuesday to report the dog’s injury.

“Without a witness, it is hard to say exactly what happened to cause the dog’s injury, but in an abundance of caution, animal control and wildlife management personnel remind residents to keep their pets contained to their property and monitor their time outdoors,” Katherine Edwards, Ph.D., Certified Wildlife Biologist for Fairfax County, said in a news release.

Be Aware of Wildlife: Take Precautions https://t.co/qeJv1uzde9 pic.twitter.com/r8XXLH8p9S

— FairfaxCounty Police (@fairfaxpolice) July 22, 2015

Cameras will be set up Thursday in the wooded area near River Park Lane, and will be monitored for “unusual wildlife activity.”

The post Fairfax County dog’s injury investigated as possible bear attack appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON – Forget, “Don’t feed the animals.” Let them eat cake!

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo is celebrating a big birthday Wednesday.

Giant panda Mei Xiang just turned 17 years old.

The zoo delivered her a frozen cake to celebrate.

Don’t worry, the treat was “panda friendly.”

The zoo tweeted the announcement Wednesday afternoon:

It’s Mei Xiang’s 17th birthday! She got a panda-friendly frozen cake to celebrate. #WeSaveSpecies pic.twitter.com/EHxmJ1ErHi

— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) July 22, 2015

The post Giant panda Mei Xiang celebrates 17th birthday at National Zoo appeared first on WTOP.

Meet Gidget, this week’s Pet of the Week who needs a home.

Here is what her people at Lab Rescue of LRCP have to say about her:

 

Gidget is a 2-year-old spayed chocolate female. She is a very sweet girl that loves her older, smaller canine brother. She always wants to play. She just gives so much love.

She will let you know when she needs to go outside to potty by barking. She is crate trained and potty trained. Gidget is unknown around cats and is approved for kids 10 and up.

Gidget weighs 57 pounds and is up to date on shots. This dog is approved for homes with adults and/or kids ages 10 and up.

This dog is available for adoption from Lab Rescue LRCP. The rescue has about 50 dogs available for adoption at any given time.

If you are interested in adopting, please visit www.lab-rescue.org and complete an adoption application. Within a few days of submitting an application you will hear from an Adoption Coordinator who will guide you through the adoption process.

An adoption fee is charged to cover the cost of veterinary care and a house check is required.

Want your pet to be considered for the Reston Pet of the Week?

Email news@Restonnow.com with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet.

Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks.

Becky’s Pet Care, the winner of three Angie’s List Super Service Awards and the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year, provides professional dog walking and pet sitting services in Reston and Northern Virginia.

The post Reston Pet of the Week: Gidget appeared first on WTOP.

Fairfax County Animal Watch Washington Post No incidents were reported by the Animal Control Division of the Fairfax County Police Department. For information, call 703-246-2253. FAIRFAX CITY. The following incidents were reported by the animal control section of the Fairfax City Police Department. and more »

Today in issues we never thought a court would weigh in on: if you accidentally pocket dial someone, pulling the move we all know as “butt dialing,” don’t expect anything you say during the call you don’t know you’re making to stay private.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Kentucky ruled yesterday [PDF] that a person who butt dials another party during a conversation doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

This, because everyone knows about such accidental calls and there are a lot of ways to prevent such a thing from happening. That means anyone who happens to be listening in on the call that came in on their phone isn’t violating privacy laws by recording that conversation, the three-judge panel determined.

Why did this issue end up in court? Some quick background, via Courthouse News: James Huff, the former chairman of the Kenton County, Ky. Airport Board — which oversees the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport — had sued an executive assistant after she recorded a conversation about board matters.

While at a hotel in Bologna, Italy, he’d tried to call the executive assistant but had the wrong number. He put the phone into his suit pocket, and then accidentally called the right number. Unaware that she was on the line, he had a private conversation with the board’s vice chairman, Larry Savage, about possibly replacing then-CEO Candace McGraw.

Court documents say the assistant answered and could hear the two talking, but couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying. She said “hello” a few times, but no one heard her. At some point she realized what was going on, and said she “believed that she heard James Huff and Savage engaged in a discussion to discriminate unlawfully against McGraw and felt that it was her responsibility to record the conversation and report it through appropriate channels,” the ruling states.

She took notes and recorded a portion of the 91-minute conversation on her iPhone, which continued as Huff later spoke to his wife in their hotel room.

The assistant then took the audio and summary of the conversation to other members of the Airport Board. Huff and his wife sued the assistant in December 2013, charging that she had violated a federal wiretap act that makes it illegal to intercept electronic or oral communications intentionally.

A district court ruled in the assistant’s favor, finding that the Huffs lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy because Huff had placed the call himself. The Huffs then appealed.

In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Danny Boggs noted that butt dialing is akin to keeping your curtains wide open in your home — there’s no rule that says people can’t look inside.

“…[E]xposure need not be deliberate and instead can be the inadvertent product of neglect,” he wrote in the ruling. “Under the plain-view doctrine, if a homeowner neglects to cover a window with drapes, he would lose his reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to a viewer looking into the window from outside of his property…the doctrine applies to auditory as well as visual information.”

To rub salt in Huff’s wound, the judges cited his own testimony wherein he admitted that not only was he familiar with the idea of the butt dial, he’d done it in the past.

Boggs added that Huff could’ve locked his phone with a passcode or used “one of many downloadable applications that prevent pocket-dial calls,” and yet, he didn’t.

The panel reversed the part of the district court’s decision regarding the wife, finding that she did have a reasonable expectation of privacy while talking to her husband.

“The district court’s holding would logically result in the loss of a reasonable expectation of privacy in face-to-face conversations where one party is aware that a participant in the conversation may have a modern cellphone [sic],” Boggs wrote. “As nearly every participant in a conversation is a potential cellphone [sic] carrier, such a conclusion would dramatically undermine the protection that Title III grants to oral communication.”

Otherwise, the assistant and Huff could’ve conspired to have the phone on and send the conversation with his wife to the assistant. Neither one would’ve violated Title III wiretap act, because no “oral communication” was intercepted.

“But the law does not support this conclusion,” the judge wrote.

It’s worth noting that the phrase “butt dial” isn’t anywhere in the three-judge panel’s decision, except where it cites an article about how to prevent butt dials as an example of what Huff could’ve done:

“These include locking the phone, setting up a passcode, and using one of many downloadable applications that prevent pocket-dials calls, see, e.g., Will Verduzco, “Prevent Unwanted Butt Dialing with Smart Pocket Guard,” xdadevelopers, Apr. 15, 2014, available at http://www.xdadevelopers.com/android/prevent-unwanted-butt-dialing-with-smart-pocket-guard/ (reviewing a smartphone application designed to prevent pocket-dial calls from occurring) (last visited July 8, 2015)

6th Cir. Rules on Privacy of ‘Pocket-Dials’ [CourthouseNews]

In case you didn’t hear it from us the first time we mentioned it, petting armadillos could give you leprosy. Yes, seriously, you can get leprosy in the United States, and Florida health officials want to make sure you avoid it: experts in that state are warning residents to resist stroking the little armored creatures, due to a recent uptick in leprosy cases.

They might look cute in their armored suits, but being adorable doesn’t prevent armadillos from spreading the disease, Florida health and wildlife experts say, so curb that itch to caress the next one that crosses your path.

Just this year, nine cases of leprosy have been reported in Florida residents, says the state’s Department of Health, and all of the cases this year involved people who had direct contact with armadillos. Usually anywhere between two and 12 cases are reported each year. Those who develop clinical illness can experience a bunch of symptoms, including infections to their skin, nerves and mucus.

“Hansen’s disease, formerly known as leprosy, is caused by Mycobacterium leprae bacteria,” which has also been found in nine-banded armadillos, a department spokesperson told First Coast News (warning: link contains autoplay video).

It’s not always the armadillo’s fault, as the disease can be transmitted from person-to-person through sweat, after “extended close contact with an infected person, such as living in the same household,” the health department spokesperson explained.

However, there’s a low risk of contracting leprosy from armadillos, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: about 95% of people are resistant to infection. But it can happen, especially if you spend a lot of time with one.

“Teach your kids to stay away from them. Don’t try to pet them and don’t try to grab them,” a spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission advised.

Health experts: Steer clear of armadillos [First Coast News]

WASHINGTON — Two small horses left behind by a couple found dead in the Potomac River need new guardians. And the rescue that is trying to help has gotten an overwhelming response.

Karen Edens, with the Two Hearts Mini and Draft Rescue in Stafford, says friends of Charlie Zintner and Missy Smarr reached out to her to help find shelter for Josie and Justin.

“I picked them up on Sunday, and it’s been crazy ever since,” Edens says.

Also on Sunday, Edens posted on Facebook that she wanted to find a home for the horses. The story of how Zintner, 58, and Smarr, 55, left their beloved horses has sparked lots of interest.

“I’m not even sure how it happened, because I didn’t put names,” Edens says. “I just put Josie and Justin are in the rescue, [and] about their parents being in a terrible accident, and it just mushroomed from that.”

Authorities began searching for Zintner and Smarr on July 8 after a report that they had not returned to a Stafford marina. Their boat was found empty, and their bodies were found the next day. All signs say their deaths were accidental, according to Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police.

“There’s something tragic behind these horses, and that is what’s making people interested,” Edens says. “I get horses from New Holland, I get horses from the kill buyers, and they just don’t have the stories that these two have.”

Justin is a dark-hued Bay Quarter horse with a white nose. He’s about 13 hands high, or just over four feet. Josie is a tan-colored Palomino Tennessee walker who is closer to 14 hands, or four feet, eight inches.

Two Hearts is a small, private rescue in Stafford that only cares for about five horses at a time. Edens is reviewing the references of three people who have offered to adopt Josie and Justin together.

“We really try to get the best possible home for the [horses], but it’s not just these guys that need homes, it’s the other ones we have, too,” she says.

And if you have pets, include them in your will. “Because these guys had nowhere to go, and I know their owners loved them terribly,” Edens says. “But it would have been nice if [the horses] would have gone to a place they wanted them to go, and not where we think they want them to go.”

The rescue is accepting donations to help care for Justin and Josie and other horses.

The post Local horses left by dead couple need new home appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON – A new Virginia transportation study supports plans to widen a key north-south commuter route in the western D.C. suburbs to alleviate congestion.

A newly released Virginia Department of Transportation study finds that widening state Route 28 by adding northbound lanes from Bull Run to Interstate 66 will do the most to improve travel times between Liberia Avenue in Manassas and New Braddock Road in Centreville. The extra lanes would provide a 33 percent improvement at current traffic levels.

However, because of projected growth in and around Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties, the trip is still expected to take about 40 minutes in the morning in 2020, even if the project is completed. That is just a few minutes quicker than today’s pace. But without the project, VDOT projects traffic flow would become even worse.

“Clearly the biggest benefit will be in the a.m. peak, which is where the biggest part of the problem is,” VDOT Senior Project Development Specialist Robert Iosco says.

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation’s Todd Minnix, who leads the agency’s design division, says the county has only just received $5 million from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to pay for the start of the project. The goal is to at least begin construction by 2020.

“We’re just now getting started on it, so we’ve still got a long ways to go,” he says.

The total cost of widening this stretch of Route 28 is projected to be about $50 million.

Recommendations from the VDOT study include providing a more continuous route for walkers or cyclists, making it easier to take short trips on foot or by bike.

Two other recommended projects would add sidewalks to fill in missing links, and potentially help get cyclists out of the roadway. One new sidewalk or a shared-use path along the east side of Route 28 near Bull Run would cost about $1.1 million, and the other, on the west side between Spruce Street and Leland Road, would cost roughly $2.5 million.

A fourth project would rearrange the intersection of Ordway Road (Route 616) and Compton Road (Route 658) just west of Route 28. The study recommends moving the intersection farther away from Route 28 and adding a roundabout to smooth traffic flow on Ordway and Compton.

That would leave more room for drivers waiting at the light to cross Route 28.

The realignment and roundabout are the most expensive of fixes recommended fixes by a steering committee. Those changes would cost about $6.2 million and can be moved into the design phase right away.

The steering committee, made up of elected leaders from Fairfax County, Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park, narrowed down the projects from a list of 100 possibilities to five projects considered short-term fixes.

The fifth recommended project unveiled at a public information meeting Monday night would extend the left turn lane at Liberia Avenue to reduce backups and rear-end crashes. The $250,000 project would also likely change access for the Manassas Junction shopping center’s driveway and Kincheloe Drive.

A second public information meeting on the safety and operations study will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Manassas Park Community Center.

Iosco says the next step, after incorporating this round of public feedback, will be to look for funding to design the pedestrian improvements, roundabout and left turn lane extension.

Prince William County and Manassas are working on longer-term proposals for the stretch of Route 28, and VDOT continues to work on changing the timing of traffic signals in the area.

There are already plans to widen Route 28 in Loudoun and Fairfax north and south of the Dulles Toll Road, to widen parts of Route 28 in Prince William County along with a realignment of Vint Hill Road, and to widen a part of Route 28 in Manassas.

The post Study: Route 28 widening needed to ease traffic flow appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — The National Zoo announced Tuesday that a 12-year-old cheetah has died at one of its sister campuses.

The cheetah named Shombay died July 18 at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.

An X-ray in February showed Shombay had a tumor in his abdomen, and because of his advanced age, vets chose not to perform surgery. Instead, vets closely monitored the tumor’s growth.

The median life expectancy for a cheetah in human care is 8-12 years old. A cheetah’s life expectancy in the wild is 6-8 years, according to the National Zoo.

A final pathology report will provide more information about what caused Shombay’s death.

Shombay, who was never on display at the National Zoo in D.C., arrived at SCBI in 2011 from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas. Shombay was born at the Columbus Zoo in June 2003 and was the last living cheetah produced via artificial insemination.

Shombay came to SCBI with breeding potential, but never had any offspring.

“He served as an ambassador for his species, illustrating the biology and behavior of cheetahs to SCBI scientists and researchers,” the zoo said in a news release.

The post National Zoo says 12-year-old cheetah has died appeared first on WTOP.

It’s easy to compare Jet, an e-commerce site that held its virtual grand opening today, to Amazon. The startup wants to be compared to and compete with Amazon: its founder’s last venture, Quidsi, sold household goods through the sites diapers.com, soap.com, and wag.com, and ended up acquired by Amazon.

The expensive part of an e-commerce business is purchasing and storing the actual items that you plan to sell, and Jet is getting around that by using “partner” retailers all over the country for many items. Imagine if Amazon had started up with its Marketplace in place: it would have been able to expand its inventory without investing money in buildings or in inventory.

Comparisons to Amazon are inevitable, and even the site’s prices know this: all prices are benchmarked against the Everything Store’s price for the same item, with Jet’s price shown as a discounted version of Amazon’s.

One of Jet’s secrets is that they’ll be using a fancy version of drop shipping, which they’re calling “concierge” service. You might see something for sale on the site at a competitive price. The Wall Street Journal reports that’s because if you order certain items, Jet will actually be ordering them for you from other sites instead of shipping them out of their own inventory or their partners’.

Stranger still, the concierges at Jet may, when possible, use affiliate links that earn them a small percentage of the purchase price back. It’s as if they were using eBates while shopping for the entire country. Customers can also use these affiliate links themselves, shopping on other sites and earning “Jet cash” that can be used on the site.

Have you tried Jet yet? Membership in the site costs $50 per year, but the first three months are free. They apparently really, really want to take as much business as possible away from Amazon. If you want to share your experiences, whether they’re good, bad, or boring and ordinary, you know where to find us.

Jet.com Uses Clever Tactic to Save Money [Wall Street Journal]

A slice of Pizza Hut’s cheesy pie-filled history is set to devoured this weekend, as the company prepares to close its longest-operating restaurant in the U.S.

The location, which has been in operation for nearly 55 years in Manhattan, KS, will close its doors for the last time on Sunday, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

Pizza Hut began serving piping hot pies to customers in 1958 in Wichita, KS, just down the road a few hours from Manhattan – home of Kansas State University.

The owner of the restaurant, who operates several other Pizza Hut locations in the area, said closing was the “toughest decision I’ve had to make in my life,” but that he finally acknowledged that the financial side of the business outweighed its historical significance.

The man tells the Capital-Journal that the restaurant, built in Manhattan’s Aggieville entertainment district in 1960, simply wasn’t designed to handle the changing pizza habits of customers, who now favor delivery.

“If you had asked me in 1960, how long the Aggieville store would have lasted, I doubt I would’ve said almost 55 years,” the owner said. “No one here even knew what a pizza was! Imagine that! But I don’t think I would have guessed how big Pizza Hut – and Manhattan and Fort Riley and Kansas State – would get either.”

While the closure of the longest-running Pizza Hut is historically significant for the chain, it represents an incredibly small fraction of the company’s more than 11,000 restaurants.

Nation’s longest-running Pizza Hut in Manhattan to close Sunday [The Topeka Capital-Journal]

To all the burger buffs out there: When you’re cooking your favorite sandwich and someone asks for their burger to be cooked well-done, do you ostracize them and declare them unwelcome on your lands until they apologize, or do you have a go-to method for cooking a non-pink patty that you’re not ashamed of?

If so, we’d love to hear from you for an upcoming project on burgers and the many opinions surrounding them.

So whether you keep your burger moist by putting a frozen pat of butter in the middle, or you marinate the beef before cooking, or you’ve mastered some special broiler/oven combination, let us know at tips@consumerist.com with “WELL-DONE DONE WELL” in the subject line.

Try to be as specific and precise as possible. If you use a specific cut of beef, or grind your own at home, give us as many details as you can in case we want to replicate it. Even if you’re using someone else’s recipe, just point us to it. We’re not making a cookbook, just trying to get a sense of the different ways a well-done burger can be made more palatable.

Jill knew that her blog readers wouldn’t believe what she had seen, even if she presented them with a photo. At her local Walgreens store, there was a full display of Halloween treats, including candy corn and Snickers pumpkins. Halloween. On July 21. Please, retailers, we’re still uncomfortable at seeing Back-to-School displays in the big-box stores! Don’t do this to us!

“I asked my husband to grab a newspaper so I could photograph this, thinking no one would possibly believe these photos were taken today without date proof,” she wrote. Smart, since I almost didn’t believe it, and I’ve been writing about this stuff for six years now.

To a certain extent, this makes sense: not because people are stocking up on Halloween candy three months early, but because the sections that once held beach gear are now empty and need to be filled with some kind of seasonal merchandise. On the other hand, that’s why it’s harder to find a bathing suit in August or Christmas lights in December: seasonal merchandise is cleared out before the end of that season in order to keep shelves full.

October in July: Walgreens already stocking Halloween candy [Jill Cataldo]

It almost was, until it wasn’t: The first recreational marijuana TV ad ever got pulled from its slotted schedule last night amid legal concerns. The thing is, while marijuana is legal for recreational use in Colorado and some other states, it’s still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, putting it in a gray zone in matters of banking and advertising, among other things.

In Colorado, it’s legal to air marijuana TV ads when 70% of the audiences is 21 or older. The ad in question was slated for a late night slot around the time of Jimmy Kimmel Live, when 97% of the audience as at least 21, according to Nielsen figures.

The ad was for Neos, a company that makes cannabis oil and vaporizers, and it was supposed to air on an KMGH, an ABC affiliate in Denver, late on Monday night, reports CNNMoney.

The ad features young people doing fun things like dancing up on each other in clubs and scaling mountains, with a voiceover pointing out that this kind of person could be you. Marijuana itself is never mentioned nor shown.

“You lead an adventurous life, always finding new ways to relax,”the narrator says. “Now enjoy the best effects and control with Neos portable vape pen and recreate discreetly this summer.”

At the end, we see campers playing a guitar and hanging out, generally having a nice, relaxing time.

“A bold new way to unwind. Neos, recreate responsibly,” the voiceover says.

Because weed is still illegal according to the feds, the station decided to err on the side of caution and not air the ad.

“Scripps has decided not to accept marijuana advertising at this time,” a spokeswoman for the E.W. Scripps Company, which owns the station, told CNNMoney. “We are proud to be a company of free speech and open expression, but we have concerns about the lack of clarity around federal regulations that govern broadcast involving such ads.”

The ad agency that produced the Neos spot noted that the channel is officially putting all cannabis commercials on hold until further notice, citing an investigation into the legality of airing an ad for a “federally illegal” substance on federal airwaves.

Watch the pot ad that got yanked off TV [CNNMoney]

Earlier this month, the sheriff of Cook County, IL, persuaded both Visa and MasterCard to end their relationships with online classifieds site Backpage.com, alleging the site is known to “promote prostitution and facilitate online sex trafficking.” Today, the website fired back with a lawsuit against the sheriff.

Backpage has continued to offer adult-oriented classified ads for escorts and massages, even as competitors like Craigslist no longer include dedicated sections for these types of services. The site has been repeatedly accused of abetting sex trafficking, but has survived legal efforts to censor the user-generated ads.

However, the Wall Street Journal reports that Backpage believes Sheriff Thomas Dart’s efforts to eliminate Visa and MasterCard as payment options for advertisers on the site are tantamount to government censorship of protected free speech.

“Sheriff Dart’s actions to cripple Backpage.com and all speech through the site are an especially pernicious form of prior restraint,” reads the complaint, filed in a federal court in Chicago. “He has achieved his purpose through false accusations, innuendo, and coercion.”

Backpage seeks damages to make up for the revenue it’s losing by not being able to accept these cards.

“Our goal is to ensure that one elected official, particularly a county sheriff, cannot dictate what speech is or is not appropriate,” the site’s general counsel tells the Journal.

American Express, which has long avoided associations with adults-only merchants like strip clubs, had already ended its relationship with Backpage for advertising in the adult section of the site.

The sheriff’s office unsuccessfully sued Craigslist in 2009, claiming its adults-only ads were a public nuisance. This time, Dart says he isn’t trying to censor anyone; he just doesn’t want credit card companies to facilitate potentially illegal transactions.

“It is regrettable that Backpage has dedicated so many resources to lawyers and lobbyists when they could be partnering with law-enforcement to seek justice for sex trafficking victims,” a statement from the sheriff’s office to the Journal read.

While Backpage has received support from some in the media for its previous First Amendment fights, others are applauding the recent decisions by Visa and MasterCard.

“Other businesses should act just as boldly to stop their brands from being associated with a website that reportedly generates millions of dollars every month through online ads for adult entertainment,” reads a recent opinion piece from the Seattle Times editorial board. “[S]exual exploitation of anyone, especially children, should not be as easy to purchase as a book on Amazon.com or takeout from Jimmy John’s.”

Back in 2010, identity theft protection company LifeLock entered into an $11 million settlement with federal regulators and several states regarding its use of allegedly false claims regarding the effectiveness of its services. According to those same regulators, the company has violated that agreement by continuing to make claims that fail the truth test. 

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has taken action against LifeLock for violations of its settlement with the agency and 35 state attorneys general, but declined to provide specifics on what penalties the company could face, aside from asking a court to impose an order requiring full redress to all customers affected by the violations.

According to the FTC complaint [PDF] filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, from at least October 2012 until March 2014, LifeLock failed live up to is obligations under the 2010 settlement.

Under the previous deal, LifeLock was barred from making deceptive claims about services and was required to take more stringent measures to safeguard the personal information it collects from customers. The company also agreed to provide $11 million in refunds to customers.

At the time of the agreement, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that LifeLock had essentially promised not to misrepresent that its services offer “absolute protection against identity theft because there is, unfortunately, no foolproof way to avoid ID theft.”

The FTC alleges the company broke that promise by continuing to make claims that it protected consumers’ sensitive data with the same high-level safeguards as financial institutions.

The Commission assets that from January 2012 through December 2014, LifeLock falsely claimed it protected consumers’ identity 24/7/365 by providing alerts “as soon as” it received any indication there was a problem.

Additionally, the complaint states that LifeLock violated its previous order by failing to establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program to protect its users’ sensitive personal data, including credit card, social security, and bank account numbers.

FTC Takes Action Against LifeLock for Alleged Violations of 2010 Order [Federal Trade Commission]

Reader A. is a full-time eBay seller, who recently listed and sold a pricey item for a relative, splitting the proceeds. Relatively early in the auction, something happened that surprised and upset A: one of the bidders requested his contact information on file from eBay, which included his phone number and the city and state where he lives. eBay automatically sent it to the bidder without consulting him. Why?

Maybe this is well known to frequent eBay sellers, but A. does this full time and no customer had ever requested his information before. Here’s the e-mail that he received. The information that’s redacted is his city and phone number provided to eBay, as well as the bidder’s own contact info. This included his full name, too, but did not include either party’s street address.

While neither party necessarily knew that the information that the other had provided to eBay was up-to-date or even real, A. was still uncomfortable and worried. Like many eBay sellers, he runs his business out of his home. Especially if the seller lives in a small town or has an uncommon name, it’s very easy to find someone’s street address. It’s even easier if the seller is listed in the phone book and you have their home address.

It would be a safe assumption that the item up for auction was somewhere in his home, and he began to worry that someone might be on their way to steal the item–which was out of sight, but also highly portable.

The item was rare and valuable enough (the final bid had four figures) that someone breaking into his home was a reasonable fear. Putting it in a bank vault wouldn’t prevent someone from coming to visit while A. was or wasn’t home.

It’s awkward to discuss this situation without mentioning what the item was, or its approximate price, but A. is worried that eBay could shut down his account or otherwise punish him for complaining about this privacy issue publicly. Yet he wants to warn other eBay sellers that this could happen to them, too.

After A. brought this issue to us, we took it to eBay. We just wanted to know why this is an okay thing to do. Releasing the contact information for a winning bidder in an auction or the purchaser in a fixed-price listing is necessary, but why are they releasing sellers’ contact information to bidders when it’s early in the auction?

Typically the seller shouldn’t have anything to worry about, as we only allow members of eBay to request contact information. We allow any transaction partner (including a bidder) to request the buyer/seller’s contact information. This includes a phone number, and the address. This is for all members of the site, and something we’ve found be very helpful overall. There’s not a way to opt out of this as we expect it of everyone on the site, namely because we’re only a venue and don’t buy or sell the item directly.

eBay does acknowledge that users could misuse this information, especially phone numbers, and instructs members to…contact their phone company or the police if they have any issues.

Please be aware that we can’t take action on communications that happen outside the eBay system, so if you do have an issue with your trading partner’s phone call, we recommend you contact your phone company to report any harassment. If you receive calls that threaten your property or personal safety, you might also want to report the incident to your local law enforcement agency.

Well, okay, but is it possible to opt out and keep random bidders from getting your contact information? No. eBay won’t let you do that. You can use a service like Google Voice or Skype to mask your phone number, giving that number to eBay instead.

If you’re one of the 1,743 people who are still amused by the whole Sharknado phenomenon, then you should consider yourself warned that the latest entry into the self-consciously trashy TV franchise is apparently not much more than an extended commercial for numerous Comcast-owned brands.

AdWeek’s Jason Lynch has an extended rundown of the massive amount of Comcast/NBC Universal product placement in the upcoming Sharknado 3, which airs on Comcast-owned Syfy, but we’ve pulled out the most salient badvertising you’ll be exposed to while enjoying this third adventure with wind-blown predators.

• Universal Studios Florida serves as a prominent setting for much of the TV movie, with three different rides featured and a scene set inside the Universal globe at the park. That globe also gets conspicuous placement on the key art for the movie, alongside the White House and a bunch of sharks.

• You’ll get to be reminded that Comcast owns the exclamatory E! network, with appearances by multiple personalities from that entertainment-themed cable channel. There are also a number of E! reality show veterans in the movie, like Kendra Wilkinson and Holly Madison.

• Let’s not forget about NBC’s flagship morning show. The Today Show’s Matt Lauer and Al Roker reprise their cameos from the second Sharknado, and are joined by Savannah Guthrie, Natalie Morales, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford.

• Frequent mentions of the Xfinity brand, and the use of the Xfinity logo on a stock car and several billboards.

• Jerry Springer also shows up in Sharknado 3. While it’s not specifically mentioned in the AdWeek story, as we’ve previously noted, his show is distributed by NBC Universal.

And this is all in addition to all the product placement paid for by outside advertisers.

In a just world, cable subscribers would receive a discount for tuning in to watch two hours of advertising, but instead we live in a world where nearly every frame of a movie can be sponsored and our most celebrated magazine publishers now have entire divisions given over to creating ads that read like genuine editorial content.

So bring on the Sharknado. Maybe it’s the TV we deserve.

It sounds like a nightmare: You’re driving along, maybe whistling along to the radio, when suddenly the music changes and starts blasting, the car begins honking and won’t stop and the transmission cuts out. Nightmarish though that may sound, it could be a reality for hackers able to get control of a vehicle from miles away.

Wired.com’s Andy Greenberg has a great story today of his time working with Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, hackers who turned him into a “digital crash-test dummy” as they tested their car-hacking research. They developed a technique that can target Jeep Cherokees wirelessly and give the attacker control of any of thousands of vehicles via the Internet.

For the tests, Greenberg knew the car he was driving would be hacked, he just didn’t know when or how. The hackers — working from a laptop 10 miles away — promised not to do anything that could endanger him, however. He writes that he was going 70 mph on a highway when the team took control.

At first, they blasted him with cold air and hitched the radio’s volume up as high as it could go, and he couldn’t turn it off. The windshield wipers turned on and sent wiper fluid streaking across the glass. And then, things did get a bit scary: the transmission cut out.

Immediately my accelerator stopped working. As I frantically pressed the pedal and watched the RPMs climb, the Jeep lost half its speed, then slowed to a crawl. This occurred just as I reached a long overpass, with no shoulder to offer an escape. The experiment had ceased to be fun.

After the Jeep gets stuck on an upward slope, with a semi-truck approaching it from behind, he finally called the hackers and begged them to make it stop so he could get out of that tough spot.

Miller and Valasek are planning to publish some of their work on the Internet pegged to a talk they’re giving at the upcoming Black Hat security conference. Wired.com says their work on wireless hacking has inspired new legislation from senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal, who are planning to introduce an automotive security bill on Tuesday to set new digital security standards for cars and trucks.

This kind of work is proving useful in the automotive industry, with car manufacturers and industry groups working together to create cyber defenses for commercially available vehicles. Though no instances of car hacking are known publicly, security experts and car makers have been busy conducting tests like the above to show how easily it could become a reality.

“You’re stepping into a rolling computer now,” Valasek told AP last fall.

Check out the rest of Greenberg’s tale at Wired.com.

Sometimes having the same thing twice is nice: that sweater you love or an extra toothbrush, you know, just in case. But having two similarly named photo synching and sharing applications – Google+ Photos and Google Photos – that pretty much do the same thing is a bit, well, redundant. And so, Google announced yesterday that it plans to send Google+ Photos to pasture with all the other outdated and seldom used apps and programs that came before it.

Google announced in a post on its social network site, Google+, that staring on Aug. 1 it will begin winding down Google+ Photos.

According to the tech company, the Android version of Google+ Photos will be the first to shutter, with the web and iOS versions going dark shortly after.

The company says the decision to shut down the platform was made in an effort to “ensure everyone has the best photo experience we can deliver.”

The move isn’t exactly surprising considering the company recently launched a standalone cloud photo and video storage app, Google Photos, which offers many of the same options as Google+ Photos.

The biggest difference between the two platforms is that with Google+ users had to actually visit the network on the web to access photos, while Google Photos has its own dedicated web interface, 9to5 Google reports.

Individuals still using Google+ Photos can transfer their stored pictures to Google Photos via a link found on their Google+ account photo page.

Google assures users that if they aren’t quick enough in transferring their content, it won’t simply vanish. Instead, photos and video will still remain available for download through Google Takeout, a program that allows users to download a copy of their data stored within Google products.

Goodbye Google+ Photos, hello +Google Photos! [Google]
Google+ Photos being discontinued August 1st following standalone Photos service debut [9to5 Google]

Whenever the temperature rises, we unfortunately hear stories of children who are left behind in hot cars, whether intentionally or sometimes accidentally, when adults forget they’re there. One passerby wasn’t about to let a toddler stay locked inside a hot car in Kansas, however, grabbing whatever she could find to bust the window open and free the child.

Investigators say the windows were shut with no way out for the toddler who was left in the car by adults who were shopping at a cell phone store on Saturday, reports KCTV.com. The manager of a Famous Footwear nearby was ringing up a customer when one of her employees who’d already left work came running back into the store, screaming for help.

“The windows were totally rolled up, all the doors were locked. She was covered in sweat. When I looked in the back window, she was covered in sweat. She had pulled her hair back and sweat was just dripping,” the manager said of the child sitting in the car in the parking lot.

She opened her own car’s trunk to try to find something to bash the door open to get to the little girl, but nothing was working. Two men also attempted to break the window with a chair, which didn’t work either. The whole time, the shoe store manager was screaming for help. She also called 9-1-1.

She refused to give up, and finally cracked the window with a tire iron. Another woman assisted with a truck hitch, throwing it at the window.

After three minutes that she said felt like an eternity, with the child inside crying and drenched in sweat, the window finally broke and the two-year-old girl was pulled out.

A nurse on the scene gave her medical attention until an ambulance arrived, and the child was later picked up by her godmother. Her father, who was not involved in locking her in the car, said she’s doing fine now and he’s very grateful for the help of strangers.

The couple who’d brought the toddler to the parking lot later came back and claimed she was their niece, and asked the shoe store manager where she was.

“No emotion at all, whatsoever. The only question they had for police was if insurance was going to pay to cover the window that we broke,” the manager said.

Police ticketed the couple for child endangerment, while the county district attorney is considering more serious charges.

“We take these matters very seriously,” he said. “We know how hot it was in Kansas City this weekend. There really is no kind of excuse for that kind of conduct.”

Remember: Leaving a child in a hot car for even a few minutes is unsafe, so please, please do not do it.

Woman smashes window to rescue toddler locked in hot car [KCTV.com]

Less than a week after CVS took down its CVSphoto.com site while it investigates a possible credit card breach, at least four other retailers including Costco and Sam’s Club have suspended online photo services following notification by the company that manages or hosts photo services for the sites of a possible data breach.

Reuters reports that shortly after third-party vendor PNI Digital Media – which is owned by Staples – announced it may be the latest victim of a hack, several retailers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. temporarily shut down their photo sites.

The retailers – which also include Rite Aid and Tesco – say they either took action after being notified by Canadian-based PNI of the possible breach or after hearing reports from other retailers.

Costco and Rite Aid tell Reuters they made the decision to halt online photo operations out of an abundance of caution, as PNI has limited access to customer information since credit cards are not processed.

CVS and Walmart Canada – which took similar action two weeks ago – advised customers to monitor their credit card transactions for any unauthorized charges.

All of the retailers who have halted online photo services say their other websites aren’t affected by the possible hack.

Staples acknowledged on Monday afternoon that PNI was investigating a potential credit card data security issue, but declined to specify how many companies were affected.

“We take the protection of information very seriously. PNI is investigating a potential credit card data issue, and outside security experts are assisting in the investigation,” Kirk Saville, vice president, global communications at Staples Inc, tells Reuters.

Costco, Sam’s Club, others halt photo sites over possible breach [Reuters]

BLADENSBURG, Md. (AP) — Bladensburg police say a man who was shot by an officer after allegedly pinning the officer with a car has been charged in the incident.

Lt. Tracy Stone said Monday that 27-year-old Dimas Guevara of Lanham has been charged with numerous offenses, including assault, hit and run and fleeing and eluding. Stone says Guevara remains hospitalized with injuries that do not appear to be life-threatening.

Police say the incident occurred early Sunday when Officer Michael Luciotti, a two-year veteran, went to a home for a report of a domestic assault. Police say Guevara fled from the officer in a car, and pinned Luciotti against a parked car. Police say Luciotti fired his service weapon, hitting Guevara.

Luciotti was treated and released and has been placed on administrative leave.

The post Officer shoots man after being pinned by car appeared first on WTOP.

GW seeks volunteers to let parasitic worms burrow into their skin. Any takers? Washington Post Researchers at George Washington University hope to develop a vaccine to prevent an infection that is afflicting more than half a billion people around the world. “This is one of the neglected tropical diseases that has the highest impact on health ...