WASHINGTON — Although May was the height of snake season, nobody is out of the woods yet.

With the warm weather, more people are spending more time outdoors. But snakes also are out enjoying the warmer weather and basking in the sun.

Kory Steele, a snake expert and past president of the Virginia Herpetological Society, says snakes will really come out in the morning to bask. Steele says there are roughly 32 snake species that are native to Virginia but only three of those are venomous.

Northern Copperheads are found statewide. He says they are the least venomous of venomous snakes in the world.

“There’s no way that a copperhead will ever kill you,” he said. That is unless you are really young or old, have an autoimmune disease or don’t get medical attention. 

But if they do bite you, it will hurt. Steele says they could bite your finger off.

His advice: If you’re out walking your dog and come across a snake, back up a couple of steps and find another way around the snake. It’s a myth that snakes will chase you.

Steele also says it’s frustrating because when a person sees a snake, he always thinks it’s a copperhead, even if they don’t look like a copperhead and is only a snake.

But the Northern Water Snake does look a lot more like a copperhead than other snakes, says Steele, but they are not venomous.

He says the Northern Water Snake is a very common snake that’s found statewide in Virginia.

“They are a water snake that likes to be around ponds and lakes and streams. They vaguely have a pattern that resembles a copperhead.”

But they will strike repeatedly if bothered.

He says the Eastern Ratsnake doesn’t seem to mind being around people. It’s nonvenomous and eats rodents. Although this snake is a gentle giant — growing larger than 6 feet, Steele says sometimes you can handle it and it won’t bite you.

Steele feels that snakes just get a bad rap.

When he talks to people about their fear of snakes, it turns out that, they don’t have a basis for their fear, other than they’ve been told they should be afraid of snakes.

Tips to reduce the chances of snake bites from the Fairfax County Police Department

• Don’t try to handle a snake; it will bite if provoked.
• When walking or hiking, stay on trails, sidewalks or cleared pathways.
• Wear boots or closed-toe shoes and long pants when walking in wooded areas or working outdoors.
• Wear leather gloves when handling brush and debris
• Keep dogs on a leash and cats indoors to cut down on the chances of them meeting up with a snake.
• Use a flashlight at night if you are walking in areas where snakes could be.
• Call Fairfax County police on the nonemergency number 703-691-2131 if you find a sick or injured snake.
• You can also contact the Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline toll-free 855-571-9003 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Learn more about the different types of snakes and see photos on the Virginia Herpetological Society’s website.

The post What to know about snakes in Virginia appeared first on WTOP.

There’s no substitute for real Parmigiano-Reggiano, but it can be a tad on the pricey side, so Cook’s Illustrated conducted a number of testings to see which, if any, domestic imitators come close.

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In your career, soft skills are just as important as more obvious ones, like knowing how to use certain software or tools. What soft skills do you think everyone should learn when they’re growing their careers in their 20s?

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TEST TIME: ANSWER THESE VERY DIFFICULT MATHS AND SCIENCE QUESTIONS

1) An aardvark is startled and leaps 5 feet in the air. If the aardvark is 10 inches tall, estimate its trajectory from the ground to the moon, assuming the moon is made of mashed potatoes.

2) Joe buys a dozen doughnuts to share with his coworkers. If 12 people work in the same office, which one of those a-holes ate my doughnut?

3) Identify the four elements I am thinking of right now.

4) A train leaves for Atlanta at midnight and is traveling 75 mph. A second train leaves the same station at 2:00 traveling 60 mph. Which one was Gladys talking about?

5) Is the entire Golden State team from another planet?

6) A bear throws a shark 25 ft at 50 mph. Estimate the 3 ways there are to die in this situation.

7) How many rocks are there?

We can tell you about the growing problem of medical debt and how hospitals are suing thousands of patients for having the gall to be both sick and poor, or how debt collectors screw-up and use illegal tactics to get paid for debts they often can’t even prove that anyone owes. But that’s nothing compared to the sight of a goofy English guy forgiving $15 million in medical debt he bought for pennies on the dollar.

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took a long, multifaceted look at the messy, shady world of debt collection and debt buying.

If you’re a regular reader of Consumerist, much of what Oliver talks about is nothing news: Debt buyers purchase debt from creditors and other debt buyers. Sometimes that debt isn’t even owed, as the relevant statute of limitations has expired. If the alleged debtor begins making payments on those bills, it may resurrect the debt as so-called “zombie” debt.

Oliver says the zombie metaphor is “quite apt, because just like on The Walking Dead, zombie debt comes back from the grave, is incredibly hard to deal with, and seems to disproportionately impact minorities.”

Sometimes the debt buyers are buying nothing more than a name and a dollar figure, with little to no proof that the amount is correct or other evidence that the debt is still owed. However, because debt buyers pay so little for these lists of debtors, they only need to convince a small number of people to pay up in order to make their money back.

In more than half the states, you can legally buy debt without a license. In 17 states, you don’t even need a license to collect debts.

“There are places in this country where you need to fill out less paperwork to start collecting money from peoples’ pockets than you do to collect fish from a f*cking lake,” explains Oliver.

He continued: “It is pretty clear by now that debt-buying is a grimy business and badly needs more oversight. As it stands, any idiot can get into it, and I can prove that to you, because I’m an idiot and we started a debt-buying company… And it was disturbingly easy.”

For a $50 fee, Oliver and his team registered their new debt-acquisition firm, Central Asset Recovery Professionals — CARP, named after the bottom-feeding fish — in Mississippi, complete with a website that was nothing more than the logo you see here.

“With little more to go on than that website,” says Oliver, “we were soon offered a portfolio of nearly $15 million of out-of-statute medical debt from Texas.”

The asking price was less than $60,000 for $14,922,261.76 in this zombie debt — or around $.004 for every dollar of debt owed. Purchasing the debt would give CARP the names, current addresses, Social Security numbers, and amount owed (or previously owed, as the statute of limitations had expired) for nearly 9,000 individuals.

“So, we bought it, which is absolutely terrifying,” admits Oliver. “Because it means if I wanted to, I could legally have CARP take possession of that list and have employees start calling people, turning their lives upside down over medical debt they no longer had to pay. There would be absolutely nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that absolutely everything is wrong with that.”

Thus, rather than try to collect on the debt, Oliver decided to stage the “largest one-time giveaway in television history,” nearly doubling the estimated value of that time Oprah gave everyone in her audience a new Pontiac G6, a moment that has been a gift for meme-makers, but didn’t do much to save the Pontiac brand.

Thus, rather than take possession of the debt, CARP had it sent to RIP Medical Debt, an organization that specializes in forgiving medical debt without leaving the former debtor without any tax consequences.

In a blog post on the RIP website, the organization says that because of Sunday’s show, “there are a lot more of us now privy to this collection industry practice and the debt treadmill it creates. In a painfully hilarious (debt as funny? Somehow, yes) piece, John Oliver triumphantly Out-Oprah’s Oprah in giving away valuable gifts.”

Now that the weather is heating up and you’re ready to head outdoors for a cookout or dine al fresco at sidewalk cafe, you might want to bring your canine companion with you. But although it might be tempting to let Rover snap up any errant scraps you drop or feed Fido your leftover barbecue, you should make sure your pet stays away from some very common kinds of people food.

We know — many pet owners are already aware of the dangers of some of the below items, and there are definitely others out there, but where are some of the everyday things you should keep an eye out for.

1. Anything using the sweetener Xylitol

Xylitol is an artificial sweetener often found in sugar-free candy and gum, but it’s also in some nut butters (like peanut butter, your dog’s favorite). Xylitol causes a sudden release of insulin in dogs, which causes low blood sugar and could lead to seizures, brain damage, and liver failure.

2. Chocolate, Coffee, and Caffeine

Though chocolate is undoubtedly the no-no dog owners know the best, the ASPCA says coffee, tea, and any caffeine also contain substances called methylxanthines.

When ingested by pets, methylxanthines can cause vomiting and diarrhea, panting, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, abnormal heart rhythm, tremors, seizures and even death.

Note: darker chocolate is more dangerous than milk chocolate, while white chocolate has the lowest level of methylxanthines,and baking chocolate contains the highest.

3. Onions and Garlic

Anything in the onions/garlic family is bad for your pooch, in all forms: powdered, raw, cooked, or dehydrated. They can cause gastrointestinal irritation and could lead to red blood cell damage.

4. Grapes and Raisins

Watch that glob of fruit salad you dropped on the ground, and keep the oatmeal and raisin cookies from Rover. Although experts haven’t nailed down exactly what the toxic substance is residing in grapes and raisins, they say it’s best to avoid giving them to dogs, as they can cause kidney failure.

5. Leftover Bones, Raw/Undercooked Meat, and Eggs

As natural as it might seem to give your dog a bone, don’t toss one from your chicken wings feast. Dogs can easily choke on the bones, and when they’re cooked, they can splinter and wreak havoc to your pup’s insides.

Raw meat and raw eggs could contain bacteria like Salmonella or E. coli that can be harmful to pets and humans. Raw eggs have an enzyme called avidin that decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin), which can lead to skin and coat problems, the ASPCA notes.

6. Fatty and Fried Foods

So you dropped fried chicken on the ground. Dogs love chicken! But don’t let Fido snarf it up — foods that have high amounts of oils and fats can cause vomiting and diarrhea, and potentially pancreatitis in pets.

7. Nuts

Macadamias are especially bad for canine companions, and can cause weakness, depression, vomiting, tremors, and hyperthermia. Signs usually appear within 12 hours of ingestion, the ASPCA says, and can last anywhere from 12 to 48 hours.

Nuts also count as fatty foods — so keep Fido away from almonds, pecans, and walnuts as well .

8. Booze

This should be a no-brainer, and yet everyone thinks it’s hilarious when your dog steals your beer. However, the AVMA says to keep booze away from your furry friends. It has the same effect on a dog’s liver and brain as it does on a human’s, but it takes a lot less to do damage. Even a little can cause vomiting, diarrhea, central nervous system depression, problems with coordination, difficulty breathing, coma, and even death.

“Under no circumstances should your pet be given any alcohol,” the ASPCA warns. If you think Fido got into the home brew, contact your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center immediately.

In Addition…
As a reminder, it’s not just human food that needs to be kept from pets. There are many common medications that, if ingested by animals, can wreak havoc. Among them: ibuprofen, acetaminophen, Xanax, and more.

For the complete list of poison pills to avoid, check out the American Veterinary Medical Association’s post on the topic.

What To Do
If you believe your pet has been poisoned or eaten something it shouldn’t have, call your veterinarian or local veterinary emergency clinic immediately. You can also call the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline: 888-426-4435.

For years, he was the face of Verizon Wireless, popping up in TV and print ads with his “Can you hear me now?” catchphrase. Then, like all commercial fads, this pitchman’s familiar face faded from public view… only to be dusted off and trotted out as a shill for Sprint.

Sprint kicked off a new campaign over the weekend featuring Paul Marcarelli, the guy who appeared in just about every Verizon ad for nearly a decade until 2011, asking viewers if they could hear him now.

But is bringing Marcarelli, who Sprint claims is now a customer of the provider, over to the yellow-side just Sprint picking up Verizon’s sloppy-seconds?

Not according to the fourth-place wireless company, which says that by scoring Marcarelli’s endorsement they have “demonstrated that its fastest and most reliable network ever can lure away even the most iconic people in wireless.”

By using the actor Sprint is attempting to call attention to its “vastly improved network and to highlight the savings” the provider offers.

Marcarelli’s appearance in the new commercials look strikingly similar to that of his old home: dark-rimmed classes, blue jacket. The only real difference is he’s swapped out his red shirt for a yellow one.

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure says in a statement that the company has made “tremendous” advancements in its network, burning its reliability within 1% of Verizon’s.

However, that stat isn’t what the new pitchman is selling. Instead, his spots – and Claure’s sentiments — focus on the company’s claim it can save users up to 50% off their bills from other national carriers.

Of course, it’s these 50% off claims that recently landed Sprint in tepid water with an ad industry watchdog for not exactly being 100% transparent about exactly how much people would save.

Not one to sit on the sidelines, Verizon doesn’t appear to be too worried about its old pitchman’s move.

“They’re using our 2002 pitchman because they’re finally catching up to our 2002 network,” said a Verizon spokesman told CNET.

The DAVID helmet: basically Microsoft HoloLens for the underwater set. (credit: US Navy)

Augmented reality displays have been used by the military for decades. Their usage has traditionally been confined mostly to aircraft, first in the form of "heads up" displays in the cockpit and more recently (as with the F-35) integrated directly into helmets, giving pilots the ability to essentially look through the aircraft and see the skies around them and ground below them. But now, augmented reality is going underwater. Engineers at the US Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) are developing a diver's helmet with a built-in "heads up" display that can guide divers to where they need to be, locate the objects they're looking for, and even "see" in near-zero visibility.

The Divers Augmented Vision Display (DAVID) helmet can display high-resolution sonar imagery overlaid on the environment around the diver, as well as other data transmitted from a boat above. The project, led by Underwater Systems Development Project Engineer Dennis Gallagher (no relation to this author) is preparing for its first underwater tests in October.

DAVID is similar in its approach to the sorts of augmented reality displays being explored in the industrial world—in fields like aircraft manufacturing and maintenance, for example, where augmented reality headsets can show workers precisely where to put a rivet, or locate a system problem based on diagnostic data. DAVID's display can be turned on and off by the diver and repositioned within the mask by the support team on the surface at the diver's request, and it can display a huge variety of helpful visuals: text messages from above, diagrams and photos of objects the diver is looking for or working with, even floating virtual instructions on how to operate or fix equipment in the diver's field of vision.

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CiCi’s Pizza, an American fast food business based in Coppell, Texas with more than 500 stores in 35 states, appears to be the latest restaurant chain to struggle with a credit card breach. The data available so far suggests that hackers obtained access to card data at affected restaurants by posing as technical support specialists for the company’s point-of-sale provider, and that multiple other retailers have been targeted by this same cybercrime gang.

Over the past two months, KrebsOnSecurity has received inquiries from fraud fighters at more than a half-dozen financial institutions in the United States — all asking if I had any information about a possible credit card breach at CiCi’s. Every one of these banking industry sources said the same thing: They’d detected a pattern of fraud on cards that all had all been used in the last few months at various CiCi’s Pizza locations.

Earlier today, I finally got around to reaching out to the CiCi’s headquarters in Texas and was referred to a third-party restaurant management firm called Champion Management. When I called Champion and told them why I was inquiring, they said “the issue” was being handled by an outside public relations firm called SPM Communications.

I never did get a substantive response from SPM, which according to their email and phone messages closes at 1 pm on Fridays during the summer. So I decided to follow up on a tip I’d received from a fraud fighter at one affected bank who said they’d heard from the U.S. Secret Service that the fraud was related to a breach or security weakness at Datapoint (CiCi’s point-of-sale provider).

Incredibly, I went to look up the contact information for datapoint[dot]com, and found that Google was trying to prevent me from visiting this site: According to the search engine giant, Datapoint’s Web site appears to be compromised! It appears Google has listed the site as hacked and that it was once abused by spammers to promote knockoff male enhancement pills. 

Google thinks Datapoint’s Web site is trying to foist malicious software.

A quick look at Datapoint’s site via a virtual machine-protected Linux browser indicates that CiCi’s Pizza is indeed one of the company’s largest clients. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Undeterred, I phoned and emailed Datapoint, and heard back via email from Stephen P. Warne, vice president of service and support for the company. Warne said I was jumping to conclusions and that my “sources” must have had a beef with the company. Here’s his email to me, verbatim:

If you did indeed talk to the Secret Service you would know that the breaches they have investigated involved multiple POS vendors in one particular franchise, including Harbortouch and Granbury Restaurant Systems.

You would also know that not one Agent we spoke and cooperated with came to any conclusion of wrong doing on our part after scans months ago. The SS actually helped point out that these hackers used among Team Viewer, Screen Connect and some others they installed.

All of these attacks have been traced to social engineering/Team Viewer breaches because stores from SEVERAL POS vendors let supposed techs in to conduct ‘support’. Nothing to do with any of our support mechanisms which are highly restricted and well within PCI Compliance.

I won’t say much else on this as this is not a Datapoint breach. We just happened to have by far the most systems in that particular franchise overwhelmingly.

Interestingly, this apparent breach comes to light amid a great deal of speculation on Reddit and other places online about a possible data breach at Teamviewer. The idea that countless credit card terminals or cash registers at CiCi’s Pizza establishments and other businesses could have been compromised by cybercriminals who simply phoned up the establishments posing as tech support technicians for various point-of-sale vendors is remarkable (and frankly pretty ingenious).

I’ll no doubt have updates to this story as the weekend progresses. Stay tuned.

Update, June 4, 5:01 p.m. ET: Edited the sentence about Google’s listing the site as hacked.

I’ll be honest, when it comes to brownies, I tend to favor the box mixes, mainly because I haven’t found a homemade recipe that gives you that gorgeous, crackly, shiny crust. King Arthur Flour has cracked the shiny code however, and the secret is chocolate chips.

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If you’re using a personal lubricant, either for sexy times or for something mundane like inserting a menstrual cup, you probably aren’t thinking about whether it’s potentially unhealthy for you. But some lubes on the market are best left untouched—and not, as Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP suggested, because they’re “toxic.”

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In the spring of 2014, I paid a woman $200 for permission to let my eight-month-old son cry himself to sleep. Technically, what she did was (1) spend an hour drawing up a “sleep evaluation” based on a “walk-through audit” of my apartment and (2) have a brief chat with my husband and me. Those were nice touches, and they reassured us that she was giving us sound and thoughtful advice based on our particular flavor of dysfunctional exhaustion. But a few days later, as we began sleep training our son, and as the cloud of exhaustion began lifting from my eyes, I realized what had really happened. Her advice had been elaborate and carefully worded, but it boiled down to this: Leave the room. Go get some sleep. Let him cry. It will be fine. I wasn’t mad at her about this, but grateful. I respected her hustle. It was one of the better two hundreds I’ve ever spent.

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There are few ways to make a decent DIY fruit fly trap , but this one also adds a fresh lemon scent to your kitchen. All you need is a small plastic container and a lemon.

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If you’re a stickler for a quality cup of tea you might want to obsess over more than just your brewing method. How you store your tea can affect its flavor and shelf life, and different teas have different shelf lives.

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You have one page to prove to a potential employer that you’re worth hiring. Don’t waste time transcribing every task you ever carried out. Highlight how much impact those tasks had for the company.

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Some front-loading washers have had issues with mold and mildew, and that means nasty smells that get into your clothes. Here are some easy ways to keep that from happening.

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While health officials continue looking for a cure for the Zika virus, scientists are considering the possibility that the mosquito-borne illness could also be sexually transmitted from human to human.

Citing a case in France, scientists raised concerns in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday that the virus could be transmitted via oral sex.

While it’s widely understood that the virus is spread primarily though mosquitos, the presence of the infection in 10 countries where no infected mosquitos have been found suggests there’s more to the transmission.

In the letter, scientists present the case of a previously healthy 24-year-old woman who was living in Paris and who became sick with the Zika virus in February.

“She was not receiving any medication, had not received any blood transfusions, and had never traveled to a region where Zika was epidemic or to tropical or subtropical areas,” the letter states.

The patient, who was sick for seven days, reported that she had recently had sexual contact with a man who had been in Brazil for several months before returning in February.

The sexual contact involved seven episodes of both vaginal sexual intercourse, without ejaculation, and oral sex with ejaculation.

According to the man, he had reported feeling ill with fever, chills, and a rash prior to returning to France.

Both patients were tested after the woman became ill. The man had high levels of the virus in his semen and urine, but none in his blood or saliva. The woman had the virus in her urine and saliva, and antibodies to the virus in her blood. But a vaginal swab was negative for the infection.

Scientists suggest that the data supports the hypothesis that Zika can be sexually transmitted.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that transmission occurred not through semen but through other biologic fluids, such as pre-ejaculate secretions or saliva exchanged through deep kissing,” the report states, noting that the saliva of the man tested negative 10 days after the onset of his symptoms. “Zika has been detected in saliva, but, to our knowledge, no cases of transmission through saliva have been documented.”

The scientists contend that the new data showed that health officials need to better define recommendations to prevent transmission of the virus, including creating guidelines regarding how long men who are returning from an area where active Zika transmission is occurring should continue to use condoms during sexual contact with pregnant women and those of child-bearing age are lacking.

Still, some health professionals believe the report doesn’t change much about the Zika virus.

“It shows you how elaborate the number of avenues of possible transmission can be,” Dr. William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, tells the New York Times.

Additionally, Dr. John T. Brooks, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studying sexual transmission of the Zika virus, tells the Times he was “not particularly surprised” by the reports findings.

[via The New York Times]

Have you noticed that your local Subaru dealer probably doesn’t offer deep price cuts and entertaining promotions to get customers in the door. like the sellers of other automboile brands? That’s because Subaru has a problem that most businesses would love to have: people are buying their cars as quickly as they can make them. It means that dealers have to hope that customers won’t walk away and buy another brand when the model they want is out of stock.

According to the Wall Street Journal, part of the shortage issue is that while Subaru exports most of the vehicles it sells from Japan, it has a manufacturing facility in Indiana. Only one, though: other Japanese automakers have multiples.

Arguably, Subaru doesn’t even have a whole plant, since they do some assembly in their U.S. factory for Toyota. Fortunately, that agreement will end this year, boosting Subaru’s U.S. plant capacity.

This is different from most of the auto industry, where dealers use discounts, incentives, and advertising to get customers in the door and sell to them. Americans happen to be into Subaru’s specialty right now: SUVs and crossover vehicles that are fuel-efficient for their size.

Luckily for the company, most people who want one of their vehicles are willing to wait. Up to a point. Customers generally won’t wait ten weeks to get the vehicle they want, the company’s head of U.S. operations explained to the WSJ, but they will wait.

“They will wait four to six weeks [because] our customers like us [and] have a little more patience,” he said. On a corporate level, this means a higher profit margin because the brand doesn’t have to pay for sales incentives to dealerships.

Why Finding a New Subaru May Take Some Time [Wall Street Journal]

About two weeks ago, several former contestants on NBC weight-loss competition The Biggest Loser spoke to the NY Post, publicly accusing trainers, show staff, and the show’s resident physician, Dr. Robert Huizenga of a variety of questionable behaviors. Now “Dr. H” is firing back with a lawsuit against both the Post and one of the former “losers.”

In the complaint [PDF], filed Thursday in a federal court in Michigan, Dr. H. claims that his lawyers warned the Post reporter when she sought pre-publication comment on the story — which described “secret and brutal tactics, which include providing illicit drugs to contestants and submitting them to questionable medical exams” — that if published, these statement “would be defamatory and cause substantial harm” to the doctor.

Among the statements that the reporter sought comment on:

• That “contestants have passed out in Dr. H’s office right before the finale weigh-in and Dr. H would give them Gatorade.”

• That “contestants were starving themselves and using illegal drugs to lose weight rapidly,” and that Dr. H “knew exactly what we are doing and never tried to stop it.”

• “In [season two], at least five people were rushed to the hospital.”

Former contest Joelle Gwynn — a Michigan resident, which explains the filing of the lawsuit in that district — is quoted in the Post stories as claiming that an assistant for trainer Bob Harper gave her a yellow and black pill, and that afterward she “felt jittery and hyper.”

Said Gywnn in the Post — and quoted again in the complaint — “I went and told the sports medicine guy. The next day, Dr. H gave us some lame explanation of why they got added to our regimen and that it was up to us to take them.”

She then goes on to compare the scenario to Bill Cosby’s alleged use of drugs to facilitate the sexual assault of women, adding “I feel like we got raped, too.”

In the complaint, Huizenga claims that the Post reporter has also contacted former contestants — and possibly other third parties — “about the revocation of Dr. H’s medical license.”

On May 31, Dr. H’s attorneys sent letters to the defendants demanding retractions, corrections, and an apology. Since none of those have been forthcoming, he filed this complaint, alleging libel and interference with business relationships.

UPDATE: When reached for comment, a rep for the New York Post tells Consumerist, “We stand by our reporting.”

Upgrade your wireless audio on all fronts, try not to set your backyard on fire, and lots more in today’s best deals.

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There are going to be times, no matter if you are raising beef or dairy cattle, that you will have an orphaned calf to raise and care for. You have to take up the duties as Mother Cow when the calf's biological mother refuses to have anything to do with the calf. When all else fails of you trying to get the cow to accept her calf, you must be the one to care for that orphan.

EditSteps

1. Place the calf in a warm, safe and secure area. Any place that provides shelter for the calf away from inclement weather or other animals will be sufficient. A barn with a small pen inside is sufficient. A calf hutch, be it bought or made, is also good for the calf. The fence should be enough so the calf cannot escape should he decide to wonder away for a little bit.
   
   • Make sure you pack the ground with straw for the calf to sleep on (applicable to those who calve in the winter or early spring). Do not simply put a calf in a barn without any sort of bedding. Calves are much more susceptible to cold than cows are, and a thick bed of straw will keep the calf nice and warm.
   • For those calves born in the summer, he should have an area where he will be shaded from the sun for most of the day. However, calves also need their Vitamin D, so don't devoid him completely of any access to any sunny areas the calf might like to sleep in.
2. Buy proper nursing and feeding supplies as soon as possible. Colostrum should be priority and should be on-hand before you get any other supplies. Powdered colostrum can be obtained at a local feed store or your local large animal veterinarian.
   
   • You must feed the calf colostrum within 24 to 72 hours after birth. Any time after and the calf is more subject to illnesses and diseases that could easily kill it.
     • Colostrum needs to be fed once every 2 to 3 hours. Depending on the weight of the calf, you need to feed one or two quarts per feeding. If the calf will not take the bottle right away, then you will have to use an esophageal feeder to feed the calf, especially if it is weak from the cold or from a difficult birth.
       • If the young calf is hungry, it will accept the bottle right away, especially if you give it a taste of milk by rubbing milk formula over its nose and in its mouth. Young calves that haven't been suckling at their dams are the quickest learners. Older calves are much harder to get to accept the bottle because they have become accustomed to suckling from their mothers.
3. Bottle or bucket-feed the calf every two to three hours until it is a few days old. Between that time you can slowly change the milk formula from colostrum to normal calf-milk formula. After that you can start feeding the calf three times a day: morning, noon and night. Make sure you give the calf 10% of his body weight in milk per day.
   
   • As the calf gets older, the number of feedings per day can start to decrease. Decrease to twice a day when the calf reaches a month old, then once a day when the calf reaches a little over 2 months old. Bottle calves are typically weaned from the bottle by the time they are 3 to 4 months old.
4. Offer clean fresh water to the calf at all times. Keep a bucket available that the calf cannot turn over. Calves are always curious, and they soon figure out that that clear liquid stuff in the pail is good to drink.
   
5. Feed the calf a ration of high-quality calf feeds. Special formulated calf-starter diets can be purchased at your local feed store, and are good to get a calf started on to help him grow. These feeds are high in protein, calcium, phosphorus, energy and other important nutrients that he needs for growth.
   
   • Also let the calf have access to high-quality hay. Make sure you feed-test the hay to ensure it is the high quality that it looks, because quite often hay that looks like is good is mere gut-filler, even if it is green. The hay should be 60% legume (alfalfa or clover) and 40% grass.
6. Talk to a vet about what sort of vaccinations and vitamin/mineral injections are needed for the calf. Depending on the health and age of the calf and where you are located, certain injections that a newborn needs include Vitamin A, D and E, Selenium (only for Selenium-deficient areas!), etc.
   
   • More vaccinations will be needed if you did not vaccinate your cows for illnesses such as scours, or if you did not feed the calf the colostrum from his mother. Certain vaccinations need to be done when the calf is 2 to 3 months of age, which also often require boosters.
7. Keep the area where the calf is clean. Replace soiled straw every day with fresh straw, and use a fork and shovel (or one of those forks specially designed for mucking out horse's stables) to remove any feces or soiled straw. Also check to see if any "accidents" were made in the calf's feed area, and remove any soiled feed if you see any.
   
8. Watch the calf closely for any signs of illness. If your calf develops scours (calf diarrhea), infection (i.e., joint ill or navel ill), respiratory problems, or anything that seems out of the ordinary, call a vet.
   
   • It's easy to over-react when you hear your calf cough for some reason or other. Sometimes coughing or sneezing comes from a little bit of feed it got caught in its throat or he inhaled too much dust or feed by accident. If the coughing or sneezing is not regular, then it is nothing to worry about. If he's coughing all the time and develops other symptoms, then it's time to call the vet.
   • Not keeping regular scheduled feedings will cause a calf's stomach to get upset and make him get scours. Keeping a routine will prevent this.
   • Check the calf for ticks, fleas, lice and other bugs that can spread disease. Spray to alleviate flies and mosquitoes as well.
9. Keep up with feeding, nursing and caring for the calf, and soon it will be time to wean him and watch him grow into a healthy bovine!
   

EditTips

• Keep a schedule for feeding, nursing and health records. This ensures you keep everything in routine so as not to upset the calf's fragile digestive system.
• Raising a calf outdoors (early spring, summer, early fall) is one of the best and easiest ways to go. Best is to provide it with a companion animal (goat especially) to show the calf the salt lick, water, feeding area, and shelter.
• Always keep colostrum on hand, no matter what. You never know when you are going to need it.
• If possible, let the calf have an area where he can start to graze. Calves can begin to eat grass when they are around a few days old.
• Feed 10% of the calf's body weight in milk every day. Split up this amount to two to three feedings per day.
• Page wire is good enough to keep a calf confined to his area.
• Keep it in an open and safe place.

EditWarnings

• Dairy calves are the most susceptible to dying from illness than beef calves are. Extra care must be taken when bottle-raising a dairy calf.
• Do not make bull calves pets. Pet bulls can be made into very dangerous bulls that have no respect for humans. To prevent this, either don't make friends with the bull calf or castrate it as soon as possible.
• Calves are strong creatures, so make sure you handle the calf to minimize your chance of getting head-butted or kicked.

EditRelated wikiHows

• Help a Cow Give Birth
• Tell the Sex of a Newborn Calf
• Wean Cattle
• Raise Bucket Calves

WASHINGTON — Okay, so it’s not terribly healthy, but it’s just once a year.

We eat doughnuts often in the Glass Enclosed Nerve Center, but on National Doughnut Day, we’ll go to where the doughnuts are.

Itinerary? Check.

Gas? Check.

Coffee? Check.

Here we go.

The post In search of the best on #doughnutday appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — The sweeping order handed down by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe that restored voting rights to 206,000 felons is coming under new scrutiny following revelations that the order included felons who should have been left off the list.

Under the governor’s order, felons can have their voting rights restored if they served their sentence and finished parole or probation.

However, a Washington Post investigation has revealed that several felons who are still in prison or on probation were included in the order by mistake.

“It’s clear that there are some folks who have been placed on the list erroneously,” McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy told WTOP, describing the rights restoration order as a work in progress.

Although those felons could theoretically cast a ballot, Coy said they would be committing a crime if they did so because they don’t qualify for a restoration of their rights under the order.

“We’re obviously working as hard as we can to get it as right as we can. And when we see problems, we fix them.”

Republicans lawmakers who have been critical of the clemency order held a conference call Friday morning, blasting the governor’s administration in the wake of The Washington Post report.

“They’ve made some pretty big mistakes,” said House Speaker Bill Howell. “The governor was so eager, it seems to get this done, it appears he didn’t even do due diligence.”

“It’s incredibly reckless,” he added.

Republicans filed a lawsuit with the Virginia Supreme Court last month claiming the governor does not have the constitutional authority to restore the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of people with one order.

Past governors have restored the civil rights of felons on a case-by-case basis. Rights restoration allow these past offenders to also serve a jury or be a notary public. It does not restore their right to own a gun.

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the legal challenge.

The post Some Va. felons’ voting rights ‘erroneously’ restored appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — Montgomery County police say a “ghost bike,” which sat as a memorial for a U.S. Navy SEAL who was struck and killed while riding his bicycle last year, has been stolen.

On Friday, Montgomery County police say the bike, located in the 6100 block of Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda, was taken sometime between May 26 and May 30.

The all-white bike draped with The American flag sat as a memorial for Timothy Aloysius Holden, who was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on Massachusetts Avenue on August 28, 2015.

Holden, 64, was a highly decorated Navy SEAL who worked as a counterterrorism expert for the military.

Detectives are asking that anyone with information about this theft to call police at 240-773-6710. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 240-773-TIPS (8477) or text-a-tip to CRIMES (274637), text MCPD and your crime tip. Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $10,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this crime.

The post ‘Ghost bike’ honoring Navy SEAL stolen from memorial in Bethesda appeared first on WTOP.

DERWOOD, Md. – A local animal shelter came up with a novel idea to draw attention to the annual population boom known as “kitten season” by holding a “Kitten Shower.”

Shelter officials say that shelters tend to be inundated with litters of kittens around this time of year — some so young, their eyes aren’t even open yet.

Just like a baby shower, guests are welcome to bring presents. And at the Montgomery County Animal Services and Adoption Center in Derwood, they’re accepting gifts of fleece blankets, kitten bottle kits and all the supplies that are needed to take care of the tiniest kittens that are often brought to the center.

Miranda Hitchcock, program administrator at MCASAC, explains that the event is a way to draw attention to the need for foster parents to help the kittens get off to a good start.

“We can’t adopt out kittens until they’re a certain age because they have to be big enough to be spayed and neutered before being adopted,” she said.

That’s where the foster parents come in.

They care for and nurture the kittens until they reach the appropriate size to be safely spayed or neutered. But Hitchcock said fostering also allows for the kittens to explore their world in a setting where they can be socialized ahead of being adopted.

Another reason for having kittens in foster homes in advance of finding a permanent home is that it safeguards them against communicable diseases.

“Obviously when you have a ton of animals in a small space, it’s easy for things like viruses to get passed around,” Hitchcock said. “So we want to keep them out of the shelter environment as long as we can to make sure that they’re safe and healthy until they get their first and second round of vaccinations.”

And by that time, they’re ready to be adopted.

The Kitten Shower is taking place on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. If you can’t make it to the shower, you can still help out by donating items needed to take care of the kittens.

The post Md. animal shelter holds ‘kitten shower,’ hopes to attract more foster families appeared first on WTOP.

GreenWorks lawn tools, Pebble Time watches, and a convertible Anker vacuum lead off Friday’s best deals.

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